The road we call Kingston Pike has been many things over the years, but it was never more distinctive or significant than in the middle decades of the 20th century. Before the interstate came, the four-lane road was a major national thoroughfare lined with motor courts and beer joints and other amenities of the dawning automotive age. Jack Neely takes a drive and finds remnants and memories of the pre-sprawl era.

Betty Bean goes behind the scenes of Knoxville City Council's decision to shun Melissa Mayfield's application to serve out her late husband's term.
Plus: Seven Days, Meet your City, and Knoxville Found.

Joe Sullivan tries to keep track of the elusive Renaissance Knoxville plan in Insights, Scott McNutt adds headache to heartache in Snarls, and Jack Neely reports on plans for a long-awaited James Agee memorial in Secret History.

We're not really sure what Matthew T. Everett was thinking when he volunteered to try out for the Tennessee ThunderCats, Knoxville's new Indoor Football team. All we can tell you is it wasn't pretty. He recounts the groggy and almost-gory details.

John Sewell gets down with the sax-driven squawk 'n' roll of Sweep the Leg Johnny in the Music Feature, while Eye on the Scene experiments with dangerous hallucinogens. Paige M. Travis finds old age both shaken and stirred in Theatre Central's The Gin Game in Backstage. Adrienne Martini is taken by the indefinable prose of British novelist Edward Carey and Knoxville's own Inman Majors in Pulp.

©1996-2001 Ian Blackburn
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