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Insights
Joe Sullivan reflects on Metro Pulse's 10th Anniversary
Snarls
Scott McNutt listens to Metro Pulse's readers
Secret History
Jack Neely unlocks the mysteries of Metro Pulse mage Ian Blackburn
How Old Are You Now?
We asked some people what they thought about Metro Pulse turning ten
Through a Glass, Drunkly
A lot of people have worked at Metro Pulse over the past 10 years. Here's what some of them have to say about it.
Which Way Did They Go?
Metro Pulse alumni are scattered far and wide. And they never write us.
A Brief History of Metro Pulse
The 10-year timeline
Out of Context
Random bits of wheat and chaff from Metro Pulse, 1991-2001
Faces and Names
The Metro Pulse staff, 2001 edition (or the ones we could round up for photos, anyway)
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How we got here from there.
Knoxville journalism, circa 1991, is in primal chaos, spewing random "alternative" publications across local sidewalks: The Lame Monkey Manifesto, The Addict, The Brass Check, The Watch, Township Jive, Skin Flute, The Warm Jet, Cabin Fever, 14 Days. Amid this swirl of media excess comes a new addition, one that somehow manages to outlive its peers...
January, 1991
Rand Pearson, a cocky 22-year-old University of Georgia graduate who'd recently worked as an underling with Athens Magazine, returns to his home town with few clues. The aspiring writer works as a cook and lands a walk-on role as a grief-stricken father in a Heartland Series special. Failing to find work at Whittle Communications and humiliated by a public poetry reading at the Torch, he mulls the prospect of starting a lifestyle magazine in Knoxville.
April, 1991
Ian Blackburn, one of the former publishers of the subversive journal Lame Monkey Manifesto, meets at the Falafel Hut in Fort Sanders with sometime associate Ashley Capps, the cutthroat music promoter, jazz DJ, and brains behind ill-fated nightclub Ella Guru's. The two discuss an alternative newspaper project. Capps would handle advertising and editorial. Blackburn, an eccentric longhaired computer wizard and known juggler, would design and produce.
July, 1991
Over a pizza of pesto and sun-dried tomatoes at the Flying Tomato, Capps introduces Blackburn to Pearson and his friend Margaret Weston. Over conversations at the Tomato, Pearson, Weston, and Blackburn refine an entertainment calendar project that would only later become something like a magazine.
August 18-19, 1991
In Blackburn's cluttered Fort Sanders apartment, Pearson, Weston, and Blackburn assemble the first issue of a new magazine. One promising title is Hot Stuff. Unable to come up with anything better, the near-editors call the magazine Metro Pulse. Blackburn recalls it as "an all-night affair that made plain what kind of hell we had gotten into." Local authorities seize Pearson's car from the private-apartment parking lot, delaying delivery of the first issue. The project seems cursed.
August 19, 1991
Days before Whittle Communications moves into its shimmering new headquarters, the first issue of Metro Pulse appears in downtown Knoxville in a small format, about the size of a real-estate sales tabloid.
Fall, 1991
A pool of writing contributors largely composed of UT students and Whittle refugees, with a median age of perhaps 21, produces the first issues of Metro Pulse. The staff witnesses several dawns in Blackburn's chaotic chambers.
Coury Turczyn, a Detroit native of Eastern European extraction who'd left a perfectly good job as a magazine editor at Whittle Communications to seek his fortunes as a screenwriter in Hollywood, returns to Knoxville, older, wiser, and desperate. After months of lurking around the corridors of the Whittle Building looking for scraps, he begins writing a Metro Pulse column called Bar Spy. It is rumored that people are actually reading the entire column.
December, 1991
Jared Coffin, who'd created some artsy ads for Java, draws a Metro Pulse cover and later joins as art director. The paper follows Blackburn's move to a Sutherland Avenue apartment after he was evicted for having a cat.
December 31, 1991
The Knoxville Journal ceases publication just as people had begun to pay attention to it. Out-of-work Journal-ists cast around town for hack work.
January, 1992
Metro Pulse moves into its new headquarters on the third floor of Bijou Theater, sharing quarters with Ashley Capps's AC Entertainment. That month, the bi-weekly publishes its first full-size tabloid issue and experiments with actual reporting.
February, 1992
Pat Hinds, former publisher of a successful student publication called The Watch, joins Metro Pulse as ad manager. There's brief discussion of combining the two ventures as a new journalistic monster called Metro Watch.
March, 1992
Unable to sell a single movie script in Hollywood, Coury Turczyn returns to Knoxville and replaces the retiring Margaret Weston as managing editor of Metro Pulse. He introduces the innovative concept of having actual "cover stories."
April, 1992
Bonnie Appetit, rumored to be a libidinous editor of medical trade books, introduces her singular style of restaurant reviewing with a critique of Hooters. She suggests the owners open a version for female diners named "Peckers." Optional motto: "Sportin' a Woodie."
May, 1992
Jack Neely, disgruntled Associate Hack for a magazine distributed in doctors' offices, writes 600 words blaspheming Andrew Jackson. Turczyn proposes it become a regular feature of Metro Pulse to be called "Knoxville Babylon." Neely, who'd been reading a creepy murder book called The Secret History, has another idea. Turczyn offers $15 for each column. Astonished, Neely accepts.
June, 1992
Latin bombshell and Journal investigative firebrand Betty Bean begins writing occasional pieces.
Bean conveys intelligence that County Executive Dwight Kessel and friends were plotting to start their own weekly paper in the wake of the Journal fallout—only after they realized it would cost too much to restart the daily. Pearson alertly presents Metro Pulse to the so-called Phoenix investment group, but later scuttles an offer to make Metro Pulse the entertainment section of this new venture. Nonetheless, the stir brings Metro Pulse to the attention of one Joe Sullivan.
July, 1992
Metro Pulse launches its newer, hipper look, enhanced by the appealingly disturbing icons of Timothy Winkler, a moody local artist about whom very little is known for certain. Soon afterward, he starts charging real money for his illustrations.
August, 1992
Former intern Shelly Ridenour becomes calendar editor; soon, her Spotlights and band descriptions are among the shortest and most memorable paragraphs ever printed in Metro Pulse.
Joining the paper is willowy production manager Laura Atkinson, who vows to make sense of the madness.
November, 1992
Financially embarrassed by a year of Metro Pulse, Pearson's group and Ashley Capps sell the white elephant to Joe Sullivan. An Ivy-League financial czar allegedly linked to old Knoxville families, Sullivan is a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and longtime boss of a Chicago securities-exchange mob. Convinced that Metro Pulse could give Knoxville's remaining daily a run for it, Sullivan re-establishes his roots to realize a cub-reporter's dream.
Metro Pulse moves to larger quarters on the mezzanine of the Burwell building—again, above the box office of an ancient Gay Street theater.
December 1992
In response to a single letter written by a member of a Baptist church, Kroger boots Metro Pulse from the racks in all of its stores. At question is a handful of gay personal ads, deemed inappropriate for sensitive grocery shoppers. After managing to get back on the racks, Metro Pulse is booted again for a story on Knoxville's gay club scene (though the back-breaking straw is claimed to be a single quote from the story by a drag queen who says, "They love me because I'm so f—-ing gorgeous.")
January, 1993
Lee Gardner leaves his relatively new job as a Whittle editor to join Metro Pulse as staff writer. His Whittle colleagues tell him he's crazy. "Metro Pulse? Are you serious? It can't last. Lee, think of your future."
June, 1993
Peppery promotions coordinator Charlotte Klasson joins the paper's front lines, later to become advertising manager.
July, 1993
In its annual convention in Austin, Texas, the ordinarily discerning Association of Alternative Newspapers, which had denied Metro Pulse official sanction one year earlier, unanimously votes to admit Metro Pulse to its ranks.
August 1, 1993
Barry Henderson, another hard-boiled veteran of the Journal, returns home after an extended sojourn in Communist China. An angst-ridden caffeine addict and known associate of Jim Dykes, Henderson joins Metro Pulse as editor to combat the widespread prejudice that Metro Pulse is staffed entirely by spoiled, fruity brats.
Betty Bean quits to seek more challenging work at the Halls Shopper.
September, 1993
A 23-year-old reporter from upstate New York with a bad haircut and the unlikely last name of Mayshark wanders into the office looking for work. He is shortly thereafter given the rewarding freelance assignment of writing video reviews. When his first check for $15 arrives in the mail, he is genuinely excited.
January, 1994
Smarting from a reader letter ridiculing his writing style as "hyper, yet flaccid," Lee Gardner quits Metro Pulse to write promotional copy for Ardent, a Memphis record company. To replace him, the paper hires one Chris Barrett, an obscure nuclear submariner from Kentucky discovered openly writing for a paper in Dandridge.
March, 1994
Metro Pulse conducts its first annual Best of Knoxville survey. Entrepreneurs voted "Best" finally take Metro Pulse seriously.
May, 1994
Metro Pulse shocks the journalistic establishment by winning several regional awards at the annual Society of Professional Journalists banquet, beating out several well-known local celebrities. Staffers were especially astonished. None of them are even members of the Society of Professional Journalists. This becomes an annual occurrence.
On the condition she not be expected to appear physically in the Metro Pulse office, Betty Bean returns as staff writer, vague about her experiences with the Halls Shopper. Likewise, Lee Gardner returns as staff writer, vague about his experiences with Ardent Records.
August, 1994
Jack Neely and a few friends buy some pints of beer one Wednesday after work at the new brewpub on Gay Street. Memories of the evening are hazy the next morning, but most agree it was rather pleasant. They decide to go back the next week. And so a tradition is born.
December, 1994
Metro Pulse moves a third time, to the third floor of the Arnstein Building, the longtime headquarters of the now defunct Whittle Communications.
February, 1995
Envious editors of big-city alternative magazines offer big money to lure Metro Pulse staffers away from Knoxville. Lee Gardner leaves to become music editor for City Paper, Baltimore's alternative weekly, becoming the first—and to date only—Metro Pulse staffer to quit twice. Meanwhile, Jared Coffin quits to take the artistic helm of the massive Dallas alternative weekly, the Dallas Observer.
Lisa Horstman, longtime Whittle vet and national award-winning author/illustrator of a children's book called Fast Friends, takes over as art director. Tranquillity reigns.
June 1, 1995
After more than a year of threats, Metro Pulse doubles its frequency, becoming Knoxville's most exciting weekly since Parson Brownlow's Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator.
June 29, 1995
Metro Pulse publishes its 100th issue, approximately 96 more than most people predicted back in 1991.
December, 1995
Rand Pearson's Scruffy City Publishing inexplicably publishes a collection of Jack Neely's Metro Pulse columns, entitled Knoxville's Secret History. After several book signings, Neely begins endorsing his paychecks Who loves ya, baby? Jacko.
Grizzled editor Barry Henderson, the last of a generation of hard-living newspapermen, stuns the local publishing establishment when he accepts a job as editor of the Prague Post. He chose the Czech Republic as his new home because its layer of carbon monoxide reminds him of the Arnstein Building stairwell.
January, 1996
Ponderous News-Sentinel editorial page editor Bill Dockery leaves his lucrative post to take Henderson's place at the helm of Metro Pulse, explaining his action to the stunned publishing establishment by paraphrasing John Milton: "I would rather reign in Hell than serve in Hell."
February, 1996
Clean-shaven bachelor Mike Gibson, formerly of the Mountain Press, joins as staff writer, specializing in the more dangerous assignments that spouses and parents are reluctant to accept.
April, 1996
After the Best of Knoxville results are made public, oft-maligned Mayor Victor Ashe and desert-isle fantasy Kristin Hoke make unexpected but brief appearances at the Metro Pulse party at the Lord Lindsey. Editors regret not showing up. This, too, becomes an annual occurrence.
April, 1996
Metro Pulse founder and karaoke star Rand Pearsonstuns the local publishing establishment when he accepts a position as general manager of the Reno News and Review. He breaks a long-baffling murder case when he overhears the confession of a darkly garbed male Caucasian: "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die�..."
The daring Dogwood Arts Festival parody is noticed by no one but the Dogwood Arts Festival, which quickly blackballs Metro Pulse from all its functions in retaliation.
August, 1996
Five years of hard work pays off when Metro Pulse is mentioned in the "Thanks to" paragraph on the credits of the V-roys' debut CD, Just Add Ice.
Real live web monkey Ian Blackburn introduces the world to www.metropulse.com. Internet venture capitalists mysteriously fail to materialize.
December, 1996
Citing a failure to reach "consensus" with publisher Joe Sullivan, editor Bill Dockery departs and is last seen ensconced somewhere within the UT hierarchy. Coury Turczyn, after having effectively run much of the paper for the past five years, assumes the title of executive editor.
January, 1997
Despite contributor Brooks Clark's warning that "only serial killers have three names," Metro Pulse hires misplaced Yankee Jesse Fox Mayshark away from the News-Sentinel. Mayshark spurns N-S editor Harry Moskos' last-minute offer to let him cover the fiercely competitive trolley beat.
February, 1997
After surviving 5 years of deadline hell, production manager Laura Atkinson leaves MP for the greener pastures of Gannett, where they pay in actual American currency and rarely ask employees not to cash their checks "for two or three days." She is replaced by the improbably leggy and terrifyingly organized Whittle refugee Martha James.
August, 1997
Scrambling to fill a suddenly gaping hole in the story schedule, Metro Pulse writers throw together a "football issue." The sales staff is stunned—"You mean something we can actually sell?" one of them asks. "Not a cover story on TennCare or homeless people or transvestites?" And so a tradition is born.
October, 1997
After the top candidate for a job opening bows out, a long-haired, knit-capped writer named Joe Tarr appears on the MP doorstep one morning. He brings his own notebook and is hired on the spot. Subsequent revelations that he might have attended the same college as Jesse Fox Mayshark, at more or less the same time, are seen as coincidental to his hiring.
November, 1997
City Council candidate Danny Mayfield upsets incumbent Bill Powell in the 6th District. Metro Pulse publisher Joe Sullivan is widely credited and/or blamed for having organized a powerful political machine run from the MP office. Components of said machine: three people on telephones after hours, multiple boxes of pizza.
February, 1998
Deciding that the Metro Pulse calendar section is as good as it's ever going to get, black-clad entertainment editor Shelly Ridenour joins a tribe of migrant indie rockers and designers riding the rails to Chicago. She is last seen working in the Manhattan offices of a major women's magazine.
April, 1998
Pittsburgh native and Texas transplant Adrienne Martini appears as the new arts and entertainment editor. No, she was not hired because of her name. Well, not only because of her name.
September, 1998
Metro Pulse hosts a forum on the future of downtown Knoxville. Among the panel members is a taciturn developer named Ron Watkins, who says he would very much like to see "something" happen downtown.
October, 1998
Former daily newspaper operative and lifelong California girl Nora Jones signs on as general manager, initiating what will come to be known as the "Margarita Era." Within months, for reasons that remain murky, she has earned the nickname "Mrs. Robinson."
March, 1999
Ian Blackburn adds a new feature to metropulse.com: Metroblab. And so are launched a thousand inane discussions.
October, 1999
Metro Pulse helps A.C. Entertainment organize the second free concert on Market Square, featuring R.B. Morris. City officials attend and are shocked to find nobody breaking windows, having sex in public or stomping on flowers. Metro Pulse staffers share their disappointment.
November, 1999
At another Metro Pulse forum on downtown Knoxville, local architect Buzz Goss hands out business cards with the address of a new Internet group called K2K. Knoxville's political power structure twitches slightly in its sleep, as if stirred by something unnameable in the air. Then it rolls back over and dreams of justice centers and domed squares.
April, 2000
Continuing the tradition of very tall women in the production office, Jill Knight steps in to replace the departed Martha James. Staff writers are terrified to learn Knight's husband has published an actual novel and short stories.
May, 2000
Under Nora Jones' and Coury Turczyn's guidance, the company publishes the first issue of Dish, a biannual glossy dining and lifestyle magazine. The launch party is at Gettysvue, prompting nervous residents to double-bolt their French doors.
The Great Southern Brewing Company on Gay Street closes, causing mass hysteria on staff. In the following weeks, Jack Neely boldly leads the Wednesday night crowd on a pilgrimage through other downtown drinkeries.
July, 2000
Macleod's opens on the ground floor of the Arnstein Building, two floors below the Metro Pulse office. The Wednesday night nomads settle down and the office blood-alcohol content, already at a level that worries doctors and insurance companies alike, climbs substantially.
August, 2000
After many years at the helm, Coury Turczyn departs for Birmingham and the freedom of the freelance life. He accompanies his longtime companion (and MP food critic and writer) Hillari Dowdle, who becomes managing editor of Cooking Light magazine. Jesse Fox Mayshark, against everyone's better judgment including his own, accepts the editor position.
September, 2000
Barry Henderson returns from Rockford, by way of Prague, to become managing editor. Mayor Victor Ashe, who has in the interim hired Barry's wife Leslie, briefly entertains the notion that this will mean a better relationship with Metro Pulse. It doesn't quite work out that way.
August, 2001
Metro Pulse turns 10. Just wait for our adolescence!
August 2, 2001 * Vol. 11, No. 31
© 2001 Metro Pulse
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