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The Big Terrifying Dance
I was a pretty big geek in high school. I was terrified of girls and had few friends. But when the end of my senior year rolled around, there was something I felt compelled to do: go to the senior prom. The prom is one of those things you’re supposed to go to in life, and I didn’t want to look back on my high school years with any more shame than necessary. I asked three different girls, and they all said “no.” I stayed home and got up early to work the morning shift at McDonald’s the next day.
Turns out, I have no regrets about not going. It would have been—like so much of my romantic life—a self-actualized debacle. My theory now (or maybe how I justify my social awkwardness) is that the popular kids in high school rarely amount to much in their post-high school lives, so they can have their prom nostalgia. The geeks, freaks, weirdoes, artists, non-conformists, oddballs, rejects and quiet dorks are almost always more interesting than the cool kids.
But that’s hardly a comfort when you’re surrounded by the tyranny of the majority that is high school social life.
Imagine, if you will, what it would be like to be a gay senior struggling to find a comfort zone in the straight world and have the prom careening toward you.
Thankfully, there are a couple of proms this year for students who feel unwelcome at their school’s traditional dance. Spectrum Café—at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church on Kingston Pike—is holding “Diversity Prom” for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered high school students and their straight friends Saturday, May 8, from 8 p.m. to midnight. Tickets are a $10 donation or $15 at the door. Kids are welcome to dress in togas, formal, semi-formal, costumes, drag or “whatever makes you feel like you’re you.” You must be a high school student or a student’s parent to attend. Call 523-4176 for more information.
On the same night, Knox Rejects and Knox Gothic are sponsoring “The Anti Prom,” which starts at 7 p.m. at the Thunderplex, 737 Lovell Road. This all-ages event will feature The American Plague, The Chelsea Horror, Psychotic Behavior, DJ Arkady and DJ Bone. Admission is $10 a person or $15 a couple. “We’re trying to get the word out to all the kids out there who weren’t invited to their prom, or who don’t want to attend, and also for the older crowd who didn’t go to theirs and would like an awesome one to relive the good old days,” says Raven, of Knox Rejects. Call 805-0002 for more information or check out www.knoxrejects.com or www.knoxgothic.com.
One Thursday, Two Sundowns
If you haven’t heard, librarians are on the rise as one of the hippest icons in modern pop culture. So it’s no surprise they’re behind a new outdoor music series that will make Thursdays in downtown Knoxville even more eventful.
Sundown at the Library brings live music to the unlikely venue of the outdoor plaza between Lawson McGhee Library and the John J. Duncan Federal Building. The current line-up is Dishwater Blonde on May 27; Groove Therapy on June 3; Blue Drag on June 10; and, on June 17, a reading from Jack Rentfro, editor of Cumberland Avenue Revisited: Four Decades of Music in Knoxville, Tennessee, with musical accompaniment by former bandmate Jim Myers.
The newly announced series is an outdoor incarnation of the ongoing schedule of readings and performances inside the library’s Rothrock Café. Sundown at the Library performers will play for an hour starting at 6 p.m., giving live music gluttons a chance to hear every last note of Sundown in the City in Market Square which runs from 7 to 10 p.m.
Go.
• Thursday: Go watch Jodie Manross mesmerize the crowd with her powerful voice as she opens for Steve Winwood at Sundown.
• Friday: Two great Knoxville bands—Leslie Woods & Dark Mountain Orchid and the Rockwells—open for a damn good Memphis band, Lucero, at Blue Cats. And it’s only 8 bucks.
• Saturday: Discover Vestal at the Vestival and catch local faves The Ghosts and The New Randall Brown Quartet.
• Sunday: What could be better than the smoking Josh Marcum Trio and a cold beer at the Downtown Brewery on a Sunday afternoon? I can’t think of much.
• Monday: Forgive those who have hurt you.
• Tuesday: Prove to me that you’re better than the rabbits we ate last night.
• Wednesday: With the Corner Lounge out of commission (temporarily, we hope) what’s a Knoxville hipster to do? One alternative might be the Giant Panda. Tonight, hear Jimmy Thackery & the Drivers.
—Joe Tarr, Paige M. Travis
May 6, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 19
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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