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Seven Days

Wednesday, October 30
A Knox County grand jury report describes the county jail as "disgusting." What did the grand jurors expect? The place is full of criminals.
The Kappa Sig chapter at UT is suspended by its national fraternity and the university because some members went to a party in blackface as the Jackson 5. Black students had complained that the Jacksons were never that dark.

Thursday, October 31
City officials defend their condemnation of the Fifth Avenue Motel, saying there were life safety issues involved. If that were so, how has the place stayed open so long?

Friday, November 1
It's disclosed that UT has cloned 15 calves to "fight illness." Who has sick calves? Do they mean shinsplints?

Saturday, November 2
The Vols beat South Carolina 18-10, playing poorly enough to fall out of the top 25. To have heard the Gamecocks' coach, Lou Holtz, talk about the Vols' superiority before the game, they shouldn't have even had to play at all.

Monday, November 4
The News-Sentinel reports that Knox County led the state in early voting. Is that because our committed and knowledgeable voters are in a hurry to get this election over with?

Tuesday, November 5
The election's biggest surprise is the ease with which the constitutional amendment passed to enable the Legislature to create a state lottery for education purposes. It does not, however, require the lawmakers to educate the public on the odds against winning a big lottery windfall.

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
As several readers guessed, last week's Halloween photo was of the old Receiving Vault in Old Gray Cemetery. We thought it kind of spookily appropriate for the date, even though the vault is no longer used as a temporary resting-place for the deceased awaiting burial. We aren't sure whether the vault is original to the cemetery; our resident expert surmises that it may be a Victorian addition. In any event, it now sometimes has trash cans and lawnmowers parked outside.

Happily, someone other than Rob Frost was first to correctly identify the vault. In his winning response, Michael Thomas of Knoxville explained that he works near Old Gray and sometimes walks its grounds during lunch hour. "It's really quite beautiful this time of year," he claims. We won't argue with you, Michael. In keeping with the spirit of the season, Michael's prize is Witches' Brew, a collection of short stories about witches by authors as diverse as Erica Jong, H. P. Lovecraft, Anton Chekhov, and Harlan Ellison, edited by Yvonne Jocks. To capture the appropriate atmosphere, we suggest reading it on a late-night amble through Old Gray.

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

MARKET SQUARE RENOVATIONS GROUND-BREAKING
Thursday, Nov. 7
10 a.m.
Market Square
Downtown Knoxville
Mayor Ashe will lead the ceremony to symbolize the beginning of the Square's redevelopment project.

TIME CAPSULE CEREMONY
Tuesday, Nov. 12
6 p.m.
Knoxville Convention Center
Corner of Henley and Clinch
A time capsule will be buried at the convention center to mark its completion.

METROPOLITAN PLANNING COMMISSION
Tuesday, Nov. 12
6:30 p.m.
Gibbs High School Auditorium
7628 Tazewell Pk.
A meeting will be held to review information on the Northeast County Sector Plan.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Tuesday, Nov. 12
7 p.m.
Knoxville Convention Center
Ballroom C—Henley Concourse
Corner of Henley and Clinch
Final reading to provide a grant of $500,000 for facade improvements on the downtown post office.

It's Over.
Reviewing what's next in Tennessee politics

The long, the loud, the ugly, the expensive, the nonsensical political campaign of 2002 is over. The postman will no longer be required to stuff the mailbox with political junk mail. The phone will no longer ring with a pre-recorded message. Television commercials will no longer carry deceptive ads about whether Bob Clement served on Jake Butcher's board; whether Van Hilleary is for or against the minimum wage; and whether Phil Bredesen's HMO company hurt children. Tennessee residents will no longer be made to feel as if they don't belong here if they don't carry a gun, don't march against the income tax, and don't hate their government.

There were a few surprises on Tuesday, and several things that the daily newspapers and television anchors missed. Among them:

The lottery

Perhaps the most important election follow-up news concerns the voters' decision to change what the state Constitution says about a lottery. Contrary to popular belief, Tuesday's vote does not mean that Tennessee gets a lottery that funds HOPE scholarships. All it means is that the Legislature is authorized to pass a lottery that has to fund some type of scholarship program. Money left over may be used to fund capital projects for K through 12 education and/or pre-K education.

Two important points. First of all, there's no guarantee that, given the authorization to fund a lottery, that the Legislature will actually pass one. The House probably will; but the Senate is another matter. Several of the state senators who voted to let Tennessee's citizens vote on a lottery have actually said that they are against a lottery themselves and might vote against an actual proposal program if given the chance. (One of those is Lt. Gov. Wilder, who voted to send the lottery to a referendum but has told this reporter that he has a hard time voting for a lottery because his wife is opposed to one.)

Secondly, despite the frequent references to Georgia's HOPE scholarships during the lottery debate, there is nothing that says that Tennessee's scholarship program has to in any way resemble Georgia's program, which funds tuition scholarships for students who graduate from high school with at least a B average. In fact, the amendment voters just passed doesn't say anything about the scholarship program, except that the lottery has to fund one. The Legislature could choose to reward scholarships to just "A" students, or poor students, or even students with red hair. It can make the program as big as it wants or as small as it wants. It can set up the lottery to fund $300 million in scholarships (assuming that is how much the lottery nets in Tennessee), or it can set up the lottery to fund $50 million in scholarships, $100 million in K through 12 school buildings, and $150 million in pre-K. And if you don't think that the Legislature can spend a lot of time arguing about this sort of thing, then you don't know much about the Tennessee General Assembly.

Congressman, stay put!

A few months ago, Tennessee had nine U.S. House members, all of whom had almost unlimited job security. Three of them stepped out and ran for another political office. U.S. Rep. Ed Bryant ran in the senatorial primary against Lamar Alexander and lost. U.S. Rep. Bob Clement ran against Alexander and also lost. Hilleary lost to Bredesen. Today, Bryant, Clement, and Hilleary must be wondering what they were thinking.

East Tennessee's democratic enclave

There was a time when Democrats who ran for statewide office knew that they would do very poorly in East Tennessee and well in Middle and West Tennessee. Those days are now over. Bredesen won the governor's seat because he won in Knox, Anderson, and Roane Counties Meanwhile, Bredesen nearly lost the governor's race because he lost suburban Middle Tennessee counties such as Wilson, Rutherford, Sumner, and especially Williamson.

Cabinet names

So who will become a member of Bredesen's administration? A few names seem obvious. One is Matt Kisber, a former state representative from Jackson who was chairman of the House Finance Committee. Kisber knows as much about Tennessee's state government as anyone, is highly regarded by both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and might be Bredesen's choice for finance commissioner. Another name is Andy Womack, the former chairman of the Senate Education Committee. A third is Gerald Nicely, the former head of Nashville's Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, who could end up as Bredesen's chief of staff. Two other names that have surfaced are former state House member Ronnie Cole of Dyersburg and former Davidson County Sheriff Gayle Ray.

Legislative upsets

Despite the conventional wisdom that this might be the year that Tennessee residents threw out incumbents, the rule of thumb this year was that most everyone got reelected regardless of their vote on the income tax and the sales tax. In the Senate, the only incumbent who lost was Republican Bobby Carter, who voted against the income tax. In the House, the GOP had been hoping to defeat Tommy Head and Kim McMillan of Clarksville, Stratton Bone of Lebanon, and Mike Kernell of Memphis, but failed in all four cases. Two incumbent income-tax supporters who were defeated were Paul Phelan (D-Trenton) and Butch Lewis (D-Manchester).

—Bill Carey

Terry Hill
A godfather of Knoxville's music scene dies

Knoxville's music community was saddened at the death last week of innovative musician and scene godfather, Terry Hill. The 48-year-old Hill died of liver failure, the result of an extended battle with hepatitis C. He was unmarried, but is survived by his long-time partner, Jenny Arthur.

A leading figure in Knoxville's first wave of the punk/alternative scene (though he didn't like niche labeling), Hill changed the face of local music and inspired a few musicians who would go onto national renown.

Hill first picked up the guitar as a sophomore in high school. Schoolmate David Keith (the actor of Officer & A Gentleman fame) showed Hill his first chords which he mastered immediately.

"Around that time he started taking lessons," says mother Joanne Hill. "He was taking lessons from a Mr. Burns from Homer & Jethro.... But after six weeks of lessons he told Terry not to come back because there wasn't anything else he could teach him."

Hill first gained local attention in the band Courageous Dong, which was formed in 1970 while he was still in high school. By the time Hill was 17, he and the band had relocated to New York. Courageous Dong fizzled, and Hill came home to Knoxville.

Around 1973 Hill returned to the Big Apple, this time playing with a group called Godspeed. The band made waves in New York's burgeoning art/glitter/ proto-punk scene, opening shows for the influential New York Dolls.

After Godspeed's demise, Hill came back to Knoxville and, by 1978, had put together Balboa, the group that would cement his status as a legendary Knoxville player.

Balboa melded art rock sensibilities and dazzling musical chops with a garage rock aesthetic. Sounding something like a mixture of King Crimson, Television, surf rock, and the Ramones with a southern accent, the band's popularity signaled a shift in local music: Cover bands were discarded in favor of original music. Touted as a punk band, Balboa denied the tag and preferred to call the sound "new music."

"What Balboa did around 1980 was a whole new thing," says musician RB Morris, a collaborator and friend of Hill's. "It was like the dark ages before that."

Rebellious from the start, Balboa formed its own record label, Single Sound, and released its debut, Live Like This, in 1980. Soon thereafter the band departed for New York, playing a series of high-profile shows before falling apart in 1981. Hill resumed his work here as a guitar instructor and jack-of-all-trades musical mentor for many fledgling musicians.

In late 1984, Hill reemerged with a new band, Wh-Wh. Hill's trademark space rock guitar sound laid groundwork for the band, while lead singer Brian Waldschlager added a cocksure, rock 'n' roll element. The band was popular through 1988.

"Terry was my brother and a great friend," says Waldschlager, who is now in two Nashville bands. "I'm really in shock right now, and it's hard for me to put it into words."

After the demise of Wh-Wh, Hill drifted in and out of the limelight. He had experienced sporadic periods of addiction through his life, and these habits took their toll. But Hill continued creating challenging music, leading bands Plynth and The Semiconductors and collaborating with RB Morris, Hector Qirko, and others.

"I think Terry is—and I use 'is' deliberately—one of the most talented and original voices in popular music: always uncompromisingly creative, always ahead of his time," says Qirko, prominent area bluesman and Balboa cohort. "I know he has influenced me greatly—in his sheer ability, of course, but also in his openness to all styles of music, his determination to always do the best possible work, and in his willingness and ability to put himself honestly in his music."

Morris says that Hill also had what he called "the genius quality. He had a great understanding of the world's religions, of writers, of world history.... He was just one of those guys who had seen and done everything and who knew everything. It seems like Terry was always there before anybody else. He was a pioneer all the way for this city."

—John Sewell

For more on Terry Hill, see Eye on the Scene.