Metro Pulse/Cover/Year in Review 2001

Photo by Ed Richardson

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Introduction

Government and Politics

Arts & Entertainment

Our Sundance Kid

Young UT film teacher (and Knoxville native) Paul Harrill almost left the Sundance Film Festival before he unexpectedly won the prestigious festival's short-feature honor. Harrill's film, Gina, An Actress, Age 29, a 22-minute film, deals with the dilemma of a hungry young thespian hired to be a dishonest union-buster. Shot in Knoxville with an all-local cast starring Actors Co-op co-founder Amy Hubbard, and directed by Harrill, who's not quite as old as his character, Gina also drew praise at other festivals in Holland, France, and Brazil. Harrill says it's only the first of five Knoxville-based shorts which he means to form into a whole feature-length film.

Hello Darkness

Those little film-makers who could over at Euphoric Pictures once again succeeded in bringing a little slice of filmic thrills to this part of the U.S. of A. While it ain't Sundance (yet), the Valleyfest held in mid-March did screen Paul Harrill's winner from the Utah fete (see above). While Gina was a treat, the rest of the fest held remarkable gems as well, from Larsen Jay's Pin Monkeys to Jayne Morgan's The Sleep Seeker to Hyatt Bass' Seventy-Five Degrees in July and Lee Barlin's The Pig Farm. The parties weren't bad, either, but our memories of them are, ahem, rather cloudy.

Next year's Valleyfest will be held March 13-17. The deadline for filmmakers is Dec. 31, 2001 and more information can be found at www.valleyfest.com.

China, Quilts and Dinos, Oh My.

A bumper-crop of visual art feasts made their way to Knoxville in 2001—and not all of them were hung on the hallowed walls of the KMA. While that big white monolith held some of the most spectacular shows, which included a popped-out Andy Warhol exhibit and a blissed-out Tibetan art mandala-fest, some of the city's smaller galleries wowed as well. Like the Ewing Gallery on the UT campus, who introduced us to Chinese hair artist Wenda Gu, culture-jammers like Cindy Sherman, Carrie May Weems and Enrique Chagoya, and feminist interpreter Mary Beth Edelson. Also on campus, the McClung Museum installed the treasures of a Chinese scholar, the fossils of the dinosaur epoch, and the textiles of regional, 19th century women, an exhibit that also spills over to the East Tennessee Historical Society. Add all of those shows to the return of the now-mobile A-1, and this was a fine year for filling the eyes and the spirit.

Boobs on the Tube

Something about Knoxvillians seems to make them perfect for reality TV. Perhaps it's our rowdy love of competition or our good-natured friendliness. Maybe the Hollywood folk just believe that we're too hick-y to be media-savvy. Whatever the reasons, no matter where you flicked the channel changer, odds are you bumped into a Knox-patcher.

Like, say, Johnny Knoxville, a.k.a. P.J. Clapp, whose bone-headed antics made Jackass such a hit for MTV. While the show may now be gone, Johnny K. has landed quite a few bona fide acting gigs, where, presumably, no one will shoot him with a Taser. Also making it big on the cult TV (albeit fictional) front was Dale Dickey, who landed a plum role on Fox's The X-Files. Dickey has also made a name for herself with such folk as Sean Penn. And I bet no one shot her with a Taser, either.

CBS' Survivor was chock full of locals. In the Outback, some Fountain City chick did quite well for herself (Tina...Wonton? Wassail? Help us out here....). And, in the current Africa season, UTK finance grad Silas Gaither, despite his hunky physique and cheesy grin, PO'd his tribe enough that they gave him the boot.

On a smaller scale, local guy Alan Frye took second in Murder in a Small Town X while Kent Blackwelder moved into the Big Brother II house.

Bound Material

East Tennessee writers have been busy, as usual. Scads of local books were published last year—but some of our favorites were:

Paddling the Tennessee River: A Voyage on Easy Water by Kim Trevathan. The title pretty much says it all. Trevathan took to the water with his dog in an effort to tap back into who he really is.

Knoxville: Smoky Mountain Majesty (Towery Publishing, Inc.) which, despite its cliche title, captures the city's colorful variety and eccentricity better than any photographic survey we've seen.

Richard Marius's posthumous novel, An Affair of Honor (Knopf). Almost finished before the often-controversial author's 1999 death, the thick novel of murder, family, and loss of faith, is fourth and last in his series about Bourbonville, which bears some resemblance to Lenoir City, but also has some interesting insight into the entrepreneurial logic behind the early development of West Knoxville.

Swimming in the Sky, the first published book by Knoxville-raised Inman Majors, surprised us with its uncanny knack of capturing both this city and its characters, especially the protagonist, the drifting Jason Sayer. Set on a backdrop of strip malls and Strip bars, Sky is a uniquely engaging coming of age story. And we still have a soft spot for the poodle.

The most startling Knoxville-based book of 2001 has to be Jack Mauro's Spite Hall. It's safe to say there hasn't been a novel much like it published anywhere in the last 75 years. Though it has a contemporary setting—most of it takes place downtown in the 1990s, in and around a fictional restaurant called Garamond's, located in the non-fictional Plaza Tower—the novella is written in a Victorian, almost Dickensian style, with dense description and omniscient narration. It begins with a minor automobile accident at the corner of Clinch and Gay, but it turns out the pedestrian injured is one to be reckoned with: the simple incident has complex consequences. The title refers to an odd little dead-end house in Fourth and Gill, but carries a metaphorical meaning that applies to most of the flawed but lovingly drawn characters in the book. It's not always a flattering view of the city, but does make otherwise mundane people and places seem as interesting as they may really be. It has a plain cover and an unconventional publisher, but deserves a wide reception.

News Flash: People Love Downtown!

Ashley Capp's AC Entertainment showed us once again what a lively place downtown Knoxville can be, as the Sundown in the City concert series went weekly this year. Held every Thursday night for 18 weeks (aside from a short break during the traditionally muggy, rainy weeks in July and early August), the free shows drew thousands to Market Square. Talented and diverse groups like Old 97's, Amy Rigby, Southern Culture on the Skids, Gran Torino, Nickel Creek, Olu Dara, Marcia Ball, Leftover Salmon and Burning Spear all jammed underneath the stars. And local heroes like Scott Miller, Robinella and CC String Band, Superdrag, R.B. Morris, Jodi Manross and Left Foot Down got to treat the hometown crowds too. The city gave $100,000 to make the shows possible, and Eagle Distributing and Coca Cola also pitched in money. If you somehow didn't hear about these shows, don't fret—the series is returning next summer. Capps says they hope to have 24 to 25 weeks of shows, with no break. The city has not yet committed money, but most likely will. Capps is also looking for other corporate sponsors. "Nobody's signed on the dotted line," Capps says. "But everyone I've talked to wants to see them happen again." Add us to that list.

Knoxville A Go-Go

Although Knoxville lost some clubs downtown, overall, there are more and better places to see shows than there were a year ago. The most welcome addition is Blue Cats on Jackson Avenue in the Old City. Not since Ella Gurus has Knoxville had a venue to host acts of moderate popularity. Finally, there was a decent place to hear Superdrag, Will Oldham, Superchunk, Jim White, Jonatha Brooke, Yellowman, Cowboy Junkies, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, Fred Eaglesmith, Femi Kuti, Freedy Johnston, the Pernice Brothers....(Well, you get the picture). Although it opened in 2000, the Pilot Light solidified its status as the place to catch the best underground acts and local groups. On Gay Street, three-nineteen tried to complement that niche. But unable to get a beer license and faced with tougher brownbag laws, it folded after only a few months. Meanwhile, the city's downtown gay club, the Rainbow Club, gave up on the Old City, where'd they'd found themselves cheek-to-jowl with a new evangelical organization, and moved to the suburbs. Moose's Music Hall on the Cumberland Avenue Strip closed—that building is now being renovated for a BW3.

Other Knoxvillians On Stage and Screen

Not since Patricia Neal's heyday have Knoxvillians been so prominent on the silver screen. Brad Renfro, demonic heartthrob and our enfant terrible de cine, has appeared in more movies than mug shots. Not yet 20 years old, Renfro appeared in several films in 2001—as Marty Puccio in Bully; in a somewhat smaller role in Ghost World; with fellow tetched Knoxvillian Johnny Knoxville himself in Deuces Wild, a Martin Scorcese production delayed but due for release in early 2002—and gave several rather startling interviews in which he offers no apologies for the fact that he lives with his grandmother in East Knoxville.

Knoxville-raised Clarence Brown alum Dale Dickey appeared in an important supporting role opposite Jack Nicholson in the grim police drama, The Pledge.

And her recent Clarence Brown Theatre co-star, our perennial supporting actor in uniform, David Keith, made another appearance as an officer (if not a gentleman) in Behind Enemy Lines, one of several war-related movies whose release was delayed by the September 11 attacks. When he's not wearing a uniform of some sort, he's wearing Vol orange at the sidelines.

And on the Broadway stage: John Cullum, the Tony-winning actor raised in the same South Knoxville that produced Johnny Knoxville, began his singing and dancing career in Knoxville over 50 years ago and went on to star as Holling on TV's Northern Exposure. Well, this year the septuagenarian became the star of the unexpected Broadway hit musical, Urinetown—a title Cullum recently admitted to NPR's Scott Simon he could not say with a straight face. He stars as Caldwell B. Cladwell, the evil CEO of Urine Good Co.

Herd Them Cats

In local music, the year 2001 saw 'em come—popular new bands such as See Through Human, Copper, Skinny Little White Girl, the Westside Daredevils and the Bitter Pills—and it saw 'em go—long-running funk-rockers A Band Called L.I.F.E. broke up, and 20-year Knoxville music scenester/frequent Metro Pulse contributor John Sewell moved on to the greener pastures of Chicago (he was last spotted opening for Weezer in Wisconsin). The year had its failures, such as the noble but unsuccessful attempt to start a local hip-hop coalition by Jakira Kaos, Noah Gross and others. And it had successes, most notably the rise of Blue Cats (see above). One local headliner was former V-roy Scott Miller, who had a banner year in releasing an acoustic set Are You With Me independently, and then a well-received album of new mostly-electric material with his band the Commonwealth. The band's Thus Always to Tyrants CD was released on Sugar Hill Records, to warm critical response.

And local power-pop heroes Superdrag remained busy, recording tracks for an album due in early '02, and taking on a new member—a familiar face, this one: Mic Harrison, former singer/guitarist for the late, much-lamented V-roys.

A Drinking Club with a Literary Problem

In June, a motley band of literateurs christened the first biennial Suttree Stagger, a seven-hour pub crawl in which a dozen participants read large portions of the novel by Cormac McCarthy. It drew some 70 participants, several from out of state, and one of whom was the inspiration for a character in the novel. During the seven-hour event, they followed the novel's meandering scenes from beneath the Henley and Gay Street Bridges to Market Square and the Old City, rounding it out with a hearty catfish supper at Macleod's.

Knoxville Music & Heritage Festival

It was a modest beginning, but it was still a beginning. During the first week of October, a patchwork crew of volunteers (including several Metro Pulse staffers, along with the East Tennessee Historical Society and assorted friends and compatriots) put together a week's worth of activities celebrating Knoxville's music and heritage, under the moniker of, um, the Knoxville Music and Heritage Festival. Highlights included a James Agee-themed concert of jazz and works by Samuel Barber at the Bijou Theater, a local blues all-star jam on Market Square, a neighborhood giant-rubber-ball-rolling tournament (won by the 4th and Gill neighborhood) and yet another literary pub crawl. Plans are already underway for the second year's festivities.