The Pulse 13.28 » July 14, 2016

JULY 14, 2016

CHATTANOOGA'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE

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CHATTANOOGA'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE

EDITORIAL

Managing Editor Gary Poole Editorial Assistant Brooke Dorn

Contents

July 14, 2016 Volume 13, Issue 28

Music Editor Marc T. Michael Film Editor John DeVore Contributors David Traver Adolphus • Rob Brezsny Matt Jones • Sandra Kurtz Mike McJunkin • Tony Mraz Ernie Paik • Rick Pimental-Habib Editorial Intern Hillary Eames

Features

Cartoonists Max Cannon • Rob Rogers Jen Sorenson • Tom Tomorrow

4 BEGINNINGS: Chattanooga’s mayor talks about inspiration and challenges.

FOUNDED 2003 BY ZACHARY COOPER & MICHAEL KULL

ADVERTISING

Director of Sales Mike Baskin Account Executives Chee Chee Brown • Linda Hisey Rick Leavell • John Rodriguez Logan Vandergriff • Joseph Yang

CONTACT

Offices 1305 Carter St. Chattanooga, TN 37402 Phone 423.265.9494 Fax 423.266.2335 Website chattanoogapulse.com Email info@chattanoogapulse.com BREWER MEDIA GROUP Publisher & President Jim Brewer II THE FINE PRINT: The Pulse is published weekly by Brewer Media and is distributed throughout the city of Chattanooga and surrounding communities. The Pulse covers a broad range of topics concentrating on music, the arts, entertainment, culture and local news. The Pulse is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. No person without written permission from the publisher may take more than one copy per weekly issue.

The Pulse may be distributed only by authorized distributors.

Contents Copyright © 2016 by Brewer Media. All rights reserved.

8

Into the Great Green Beyond

Nothing was settled in the early days of the car: Three wheels or four? How would you—a ship’s tiller? Which side would you drive on? Would you sit side by side, or facing each other, like a carriage?

All of those answers then are not the ones we in our four-wheeled, left-hand drive, forward-facing, be-steeringwheeled cars have today.

10

The World of Cirque du Soleil

Next week Cirque du Soliel is coming to UTC’s McKenzie Arena, bringing with it a show that is guaranteed to delight audiences of all ages. The “Circus of the Sun” is the biggest circus organization on earth, with over 4000 employees from 40 countries coming together to create 19 different productions.

14

The Boys Are Back In Town

It was good news when I first heard that Mark “Porkchop” Holder was coming back to town to stay. He was an exciting musician almost twenty years ago both as a member of the Black Diamond Heavies and as a solo act.

5 THE LIST: Ranking the foods we like to buy the most.

7 SUSHI & BISCUITS: Chef Mike delights the tastebuds with sweet yakitori.

12 ARTS CALENDAR 16 MUSIC CALENDAR 18 REVIEWS: Cellular Chaos brings real thrills to the speakers, Venezuela 70 finds their synthesizer roots.

19 DIVERSIONS 20 SCREEN: The Shallows takes a fresh look at familiar film territory.

22 SHADES OF GREEN: Mocs Bend Nature & Art Festival comes together.

23 FREE WILL ASTROLOGY 23 JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM • JULY 14, 2016 • THE PULSE • 3

BEGINNINGS

NEWS • VIEWS • RANTS • RAVES

UPDATES » CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM FACEBOOK/CHATTANOOGAPULSE EMAIL LOVE LETTERS, ADVICE & TRASH TALK TO INFO@CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM

Five Questions With Mayor Andy Berke Chattanooga’s mayor talks about inspiration, challenges and movies As part of new semi-regular series here at The Pulse, we will be reaching out to a wide variety of people in and around Chattanooga to find out what makes them tick and why they do what GARY they do.

For our first “Five Questions” feature, we reached out to Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, who took some time out of his busy schedule to share his thoughts with us.

The Pulse: What’s the best part of your job?

Mayor Berke: To see progress in real time. When someone calls City Hall with a problem that impacts their day to day life, and POOLE we are able to fix that problem, it’s rewarding to see how our work can impact someone’s life immediately. Whether it’s making sure a mother gets an emergency food voucher to help feed her family for the next week

INSIGHTS

“Trying to find a way to make a difference in gun violence is both incredibly challenging and frustrating” or closing down event halls where young people are the victims of violence, seeing the product of our work and how it makes peoples’ lives better in real-time is hands down the best part of my job.

TP: What’s your biggest challenge?

AB: Trying to find a way to make a difference in gun violence is both incredibly challenging and frustrating. I get a text from the Chief [of Police] every time there is a shooting in our city and, far too many times, I’ll need to call the victim’s family the next day to offer prayers and consolation for the loved one they lost. This is unfortunately a challenge I wake up to everyday and what I spend the most hours in my day working to solve.

TP: Who has most inspired you?

AB: I grew up watching my dad go to work every day singularly devoted to solving problems for other people. This taught me the value of helping others while giving back to my community. While an essential part of my father’s job and life was to help

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other people, he was incredibly focused on family. When I was young, he always came to the activities my sister and I were a part of and attended things that were important to us. I never understood how difficult that was.

TP: What was the best advice you’ve ever been given?

AB: Focus on the things that matter and let go of everything else.

TP: And for our final question, what’s the last movie you saw (and did you like it)?

AB: Now You See Me 2…and it was TERRIBLE! We'd like to thank Mayor Berke for taking time to be part of our new feature. If you have any suggestions of who you'd like to see questioned in future issues, send your suggestions to info@ chattanoogapulse.com

The List

EdiToon

The Foods We Like To Buy The Most

by Rob Rogers

Everyone eats. Granted, some eat too much and others not enough, but it's the one thing we all have in common.

Shaving Heads For A Very Good Cause

IN THIS ISSUE

Jack Skowronnek grew up a reader, but in 2009, a trip to his school library changed his life and inspired a community movement. At ten years old, Jack read Drum Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonneblick, in which a middle school boy shaves his head to show solidarity to his leukemia-battling little brother.

Jack was inspired to shave his own head, in the same sign of solidarity, and Jack’s Chattanoggins was born.

More children are lost every year to childhood cancer than any other disease,

and Jack’s Chattanoggins is an opportunity to raise awareness, solidarity, and financial support to children battling cancer. By teaming up with the Children’s Hospital Foundation, Jack’s Chattanoggins gives participants the opportunity to fund local programs and show solidarity for kids who lose their hair during cancer treatments.

Each “shavee” will have received donations in their name from friends and family. Traditionally Jack’s head would also be shaved at Chattanoggins, but this year, the honor will

instead go to his younger sister, Faith, inspiring a movement of her own: this year, 70 percent of all shavees are women.

Jack’s Chattanoggins has been an incredible success, raising over $150,000 to date. This year, it’s expected that another $40,000+ will be raised and donated to the Children’s Hospital Foundation at Erlanger.

Whether you want to shave your head in front of a crowd or pay to see somebody else do it, head over to jackshaves. org. General donations can also be made.

Come show your solidarity, both to the shavees and the kids they’re shaving for.

— Hillar y Eames

David Traver Adolphus

Ernie Paik

David Traver Adolphus is our resident car geek, covering all things automotive for us on a monthly basis. David is a freelance automotive researcher who recently quit his full-time job writing about old cars to pursue his lifelong dream of writing about old AND

Album reviewer and music writer Ernie Paik has written about music and film for various publications for over 20 years and has contributed regularly to The Pulse since 2005. He has contributed to the books “The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs: A Field Guide”

new cars. David occasionally contributes to Road & Track magazine and often to roadandtrack.com and elsewhere.

He is also the founder of The Road Home, a nonprofit benefitting post-9/11 veterans. Learn more about it on Facebook @theroadhomeusa.

As far as his automotive writing, he welcomes the inevitable and probably richly deserved kvetching about Airbag and anything else on Twitter as @proscriptus.

and “Lunacy: The Best of the Cornell Lunatic”, and he is the current president of the Chattanooga-based nonprofit arts education organization The Shaking Ray Levi Society (one of our favorites).

As a recording artist, he has created original music for film, radio, television and theater, and his video artwork has been shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and the 2010 Big Ears Festival.

But what food items do we spend the most money on?

Our friends at the Statistic Brain Research Institute went out and dug through the annual spending numbers: • Chicken Eggs: $12,200,000,000 • Milk (all percentages): $11,200,000,000 • Bread (all types): $10,000,000,000 • Soda (the sweet stuff): $9,000,000,000 • Packed Meats: $8,300,000,000 • Salty Snacks: $8,000,000,000 • Frozen Dinners: $6,130,000,000 • Breakfast Cereal: $6,000,000,000 • Peanut Butter and Jelly: $3,400,000,000 We're not really sure what this list says about us as a culture, but it does make putting together The Pulse office grocery list a whole lot easier.

Source: www.statisticbrain.com/foodpurchase-statistics/

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COLUMN SUSHI & BISCUITS

Life’s Too Short to Eat Bad Food Chef Mike delights the tastebuds with sweet yakitori rewards.

MIKE MCJUNKIN

“

Yakitori can literally be translated to ‘grilled chicken’, a translation so simple it both betrays the dish’s complexity while celebrating its modest purity.”

Longtime food writer and professional chef Mike McJunkin is a native Chattanoogan currently living abroad who has trained chefs, owned and operated restaurants. Join him on Facebook at facebook.com/SushiAndBiscuits

There is something visceral and primordial that happens in the homo sapiens brain when animal flesh meets hot coals. Odor molecules find their way to our noses on an evangelical mission to beat at the door of our brain’s limbic system and trigger atavistic impulses strong enough to tempt even the daintiest flower of our species.

This complex assault on our senses is oftentimes accompanied by the corresponding disposition towards a hoppy beverage and social congress with other humans you find tolerable. In short, we humans really love grilled meat and adult beverages.

When the grilling arts are being considered, American, Australian, and Argentinean carnivores most likely come to mind. But the Japanese should take a prominent place in any discussion of grilled meats because of their meticulous devotion to grilled meat perfection in the form of yakitori.

Yakitori can literally be translated to “grilled chicken,” a translation so simple it both betrays the dish’s complexity while celebrating its modest purity. Bite sized chunks of thigh, skin, liver or any other part that at one time helped form a complete chicken are threaded onto bamboo skewers and grilled over hot coals. This may sound as impressive as a grilled cheese sandwich, but centuries of crafting Binchõ-tan charcoal from ubame oak, precisely trimming out the best cuts of chicken, and perfecting the balance of sweet and salty flavors within tare sauce have elevated yakitori to heights alongside the longissimus dorsi of a Piedmontese bull.

To make proper yakitori at home, start with chicken thighs. Thighs are indisputably juicier and more flavorful than the dubiously popular chicken breast and will produce far better yakitori. Japanese chefs separate muscle groups and trim out bits of fat and sinew from the thigh meat, but if you’re less patient, a simple 1—1 1/2” cube will be fine.

Sprinkle with salt and white pepper and thread them onto skewers, alternating the chicken with segments of scallion.

Be sure to push everything together tightly. This creates less surface area which means less moisture loss and juicier yakitori.

You don’t have to make your own tare sauce, but it’s so much better tasting than

store-bought that it borders on a punishable offense to brush proper yakitori skewers with a watery salt bomb like Kikkoman or Tabasco teriyaki sauce.

Tare is very similar to teriyaki sauce, but balances the sweet and savory aspects of the sauce better while imparting a glimmering sheen to your finished skewers. Cook it down until it becomes a syrupy, spoon-coating sauce and apply once when the chicken is almost done and again just before serving.

If there is a “secret” to great yakitori, it would be in the charcoal. Japan’s Kansai region is known for producing the world’s finest cooking charcoal, Kishu Binchotan or white charcoal. Binchotan charcoal burns longer and at a lower temperature than ordinary charcoal and doesn’t produce any unpleasant odors that would interfere with the flavor of the food, making it indispensable for proper yakitori.

Although it’s expensive (about $20 lb) and hard to find (Amazon’s your best bet or get the folks at Asian Food & Gifts to order you a bag). It’s worth the added money and effort.

Life’s too short to eat bad food. So go the extra mile and reap the sweet yakitori rewards.

Chicken and leek negima yakitori Ingredients: 8-10 skewers • 1 lb boneless chicken thighs, skin on, cut into 1”—1½” cubes • White sections of 3 to 4 scallions or

naganegi onion cut into 3/4” pieces • Salt • Vegetable oil • Sansho pepper (optional) Sauce: • 2 oz dark soy sauce • 2 oz mirin rice wine • 1 oz sake • 1 tbsp sugar • 1 tbsp honey • 1 tsp vinegar Directions: Combine the sauce ingredients in a pan and stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the liquid becomes syrupy enough to coat a spoon.

Thread the chicken onto the skewers from the meat side, alternating pieces of scallion, pushing everything tightly together as you go. Lightly salt each skewer.

Cook the skewers over medium-hot coals.

Brush the grill lightly with oil to prevent sticking then place your skewers over the hot portion of the grill, turning frequently until the chicken is well browned and the scallions are tender.

When chicken is about 75 percent cooked, brush both sides of the skewer with tare sauce and continue cooking, being careful not to allow the sauce to burn. Remove chicken from grill and allow to rest for 1 to 2 minutes.

Brush with additional glaze, sprinkle with sansho pepper or shichimi togarashi (sevenflavor chili pepper) and serve immediately.

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COVER STORY

Into the Great Green Beyond The present and future of alternative automotive choices

By David Traver Adolphus Pulse automotive columnist

N

othing was settled in the early days of the car: Three wheels or four? How would you—a ship’s tiller? Which side would you drive on? Would you sit side by side, or facing each other, like a carriage? All of those answers then are not the ones we in our fourwheeled, left-hand drive, forward-facing, be-steeringwheeled cars have today. And if you think that was a mess, what with all the people driving backwards on the wrong side of the road, it’s nothing compared to what we went through trying to find the right fuel.

By 1895, there was enough of a motoring scene that the first American car magazine was launched, The Horseless Age (France, a hotbed of automotive innovation, had one in ‘84). Page one was a full-page ad from Daimler (which was soon joined by Karl Benz and a car named after his daughter Mercedes), which had a large factory in Queens on Long Island. They advertised natural gas, gasoline and kerosene-powered cars, which wasn’t even scratching the surface of late19th Century roadgoing propulsion.

The following pages of the magazine described engines, which may or may not have worked or even existed, running on springs, compressed air, kerosene, oil, natural gas, gasoline, electricity, acetylene, steam, ether, springs and steam, air-gas, hot air via stirling cycle, hot air expansion and carbonic acid (which I guess was compressed carbon dioxide). Engines were singles, twins, rotaries, horizontal and they 8 • THE PULSE • JULY 14, 2016 • CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM

didn’t even always power the tires, because there were a few oddballs who thought a giant whirling propeller of death was the answer.

Within another 10 or 15 years, there were even what we know as hybrids today, gasoline engines that ran generator and battery systems.

Steam power had an early lead, but the real competition was between electric and gas, especially in urban environments. Eventually, the inherent advantages of gasoline itself won out (Airbag, September 2014): you need 33.7 kWh of battery to equal one gallon of gas. Tesla’s new $7,340 (installed, not including solar panels) Powerwall residential battery is rated at 6.4 kWh and weighs 214 pounds. That’s about the same hourly output as you’ll get from half-a-gallon of gas in a $750 portable generator. If gas costs $1.90 downtown, the difference pays for 3,468 gallons, which will take a moderately efficient car 100,000 miles.

So electric power for cars was not a mature field before World War I; nor was it after World War II, as inventors with surplus technology tried to upend what they saw as a sort of cabal by the major automakers. Geniuses and crackpots alike, they never really got anywhere. Major manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz also kept alternative power programs ticking over.

The second major flowering of hybrids came with the 1973 oil embargo. Insurance rates and the Clean Air Act had already started to kill the big engine cars of the Sixties over the previous two or three years, so it was a logical progression into electrics. The cars themselves, however, were generally anything but, like the horribly doorstop-shaped 1,300-pound, 25mph CitiCar and its 40mph successor, the Commuta-Car; the AMC Hornet-based Electroport; a car from Sears, Roebuck; one from Braun (the electric shaver people); and many others. Largely intolerable monstrosities, assorted fruitcakes bought thousands of them through the Seventies.

But in 1989, General Motors brought EVs into the 21st Century, with their prototype EV-1. Introduced to the public in 1990 as the Impact, what was eventually known as the EV-1 didn’t actually become available until 1996, and then solely as a three-year lease with no option to buy, and only in certain states. But the thing was, it was a good, useable car, and they sold 1,117 of them.

In 2003 they took all but a handful back and

crushed them (about which there’s an entire movie, Who Killed the Electric Car). As the first practical modern hybrid, however, it was a success, and the gas-electric Honda Insight was offered in America in late 1999, followed by the Toyota Prius seven months later.

In August of 2008, the national average price for a gallon of gas hit $4.10 and the hybrid car industry as we know it was born. Thanks to the years it takes to develop new technologies and our disdain for fuel economy prior to that, Toyota largely had the market to themselves, as Honda had discontinued the Insight in 2006 (it was back in 2010, victim of that long product development cycle again). By that time, there were 18 other gaselectric hybrids on the market, including the Prius and the all-electric Tesla Roadster.

The 2016 model year has about 65 assorted electrics and hybrids from 21 makes, and there are a dozen already announced for 2017. Every segment of the market is covered, from the $20,000 you-ratherwalk all-electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV; to Porsche’s big $95,000 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid and $850,000 918 Spyder supercar, and Ferrari’s $1 million, 945hp LaFerrari. Most manufacturers offer an affordable everyday hybrid under $30,000 like Chevy’s Malibu or Toyota Camry, and while there’s a lot of competition in that segment, there isn’t much room for growth.

Where growth will come in the next few years is upmarket from that, in the aspirational luxury and near-luxury area, which as a segment as a whole is just beginning to catch on in America. Maybe the first hybrid among those is the Audi A3 Sportback etron, a premium five-door hatchback almost identical in size to the VW Golf—unsurprising, as it’s on the same MQB Modular Transverse Matrix platform.

Where they differ is the $40,000-plus A3 e-tron is competing with the 2016 Mercedes-Benz C350e and upcoming 2017 BMW 330e iPerformance, as well

as things like the Lincoln MKZ, Infiniti Q50 and Acura RLX. Audi’s price point is really nice, coming in well-equipped around the Mercedes’ base MSRP, and way under the $51,000 Mercedes. Many more cars between $50,000 and $100,000 are already

about 10 percent copper by weight.

Copper is largely mined in the southern hemisphere and is one of the environmentally ugliest industries in the world. China, again, is the world’s biggest producer of the lightweight aluminum in modern cars’ bodies and frames. Oh, and solar panels and wind turbines and everything else is full of exactly the same elements.

If that sounds like “no easy answers,” that doesn’t even begin to describe the problem. Over 74 million cars will be sold this year, and it’ll probably hit 100 million by 2020 which, if you haven’t been paying attention, is about 41 months away. That’s five billion tons of copper a year at a bare minimum, just for cars. The need for an alternative is dire and nothing will do away with the 1.5 billion cars already on the road, nor their trillions of gallons of annual gas consumption.

The bright spot is that we humans have yet to meet a problem we couldn’t overcome. This big ball of crap that includes climate change and all the human factors powering it could be the one we don’t; or it could be that the solution involves having more or less no cars at all. But the smart money is on the smart monkeys figuring it out.

We have an unbroken track record of getting the things we want, and right on the top of our wish list for the next 100 years is a planet we can live on and cars to drive on it. The rising middle classes in China and Southeast Asia, in Africa and in South America want the same thing and are not going to be interested in wealthy Americans and Europeans telling them they can’t have it.

That just makes it something for all of us to work out, not just some of us. “What to drive” has the potential to be the issue that forces us to make progress as a species, to get over this hump and into whatever the next epoch of humankind is.

“Where growth will come in the next few years is upmarket from that, in the aspirational luxury and near-luxury area, which as a segment as a whole is just beginning to catch on in America.” using small, highly turbocharged engines, like Cadillac’s CT6 (available as a plug-in hybrid next year), BMW’s 5-series, the Jaguar XF, Lexus GF and on up into Maserati territory, so it’s a natural place to use (still very expensive) batteries and electric motors.

Is electricity really going to be the future this time? There are some other alternative fuel ideas moseying along out there—a number of manufacturers are playing around with hydrogen fuel cells, where the hydrogen isn’t burned, but used to generate electricity directly by combining it with atmospheric oxygen through a proton exchange membrane. It’s exactly as complicated and difficult as it sounds, and how’s your neighborhood’s retail hydrogen distribution infrastructure? Good?

Batteries have problems looming in their future, too. We may run out of oil someday, but there are billions of tons more of it in the ground than the assorted rare earth elements we use in fancy batteries; and almost all of those come from China. Electricity is generated in plants that primarily burn coal, oil and natural gas—only 7 percent comes from renewable energy. There’s about 50 pounds of copper in a regular gas automobile; hybrids and electrics have additional motors. A 4,600-pound Tesla Model S is

CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM • JULY 14, 2016 • THE PULSE • 9

ARTS SCENE

Inside The Wonderful World of Cirque du Soleil

Learning The Art of “Wet Felting” Textile artist Danielle Shelton is back at WorkSpace If you’ve taken a shine to the textile arts, if you’re looking for a way to create unique and inexpensive gifts, or if you’re simply interested in learning an ancient creative practice, Danielle Shelton’s wet felting seminar has you covered.

“Wet felting is a technique that has been around for thousands of years,” Shelton says. “In nomadic cultures that herded sheep, such as the Mongols, where weaving fabric on a loom was very difficult due to frequently being on the move, felt was the alternative to woven fabric.”

“If you look at sheep wool under a microscope,” Shelton continues, “You will see that the individual hairs are covered in little scales. These scales help the individual strands of wool stick together.” By applying soap and hot water to layers of wool, these scales open up, while agitation

causes them to interlock together.

This creates a non-woven piece of fabric ready for dyeing. “Since wool comes from an animal, it’s a proteinbased fiber,” Shelton explains, “and, like silk, it can easily be dyed a wide range of colors.”

After creating and dyeing their fabrics, participants will create felt beads and flat felt panels, but the techniques learned in Shelton’s class can be used to create, well, almost anything. “The technique the students learn for the panels can be used to make scarves, wraps, wall hangings, and even entire garments,” Shelton says, adding, “The felt beads can be strung together to make beautiful and inexpensive jewelry.”

Join Shelton at Chattanooga WorkSpace this Wednesday.

— Hillary Eames

THU7.14

FRI7.15

SAT7.16

LITERARY VISIT

BRAVE SIR ROBIN

WHAT A CAR

Brian Keene Book Signing

Monty Python’s Spamalot

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Award-winning horror/SF writer visits Chattanooga.

3 p.m.

Star Line Books 1467 Market St. (423) 777-5629 starlinebooks.com

A farciful re-imagining of the King Arthur legend.

8 p.m.

Chattanooga Theatre Centre 400 River St. (423) 267-8534 theatrecentre.com

The car we all want to own.

8 p.m.

Signal Mountain Playhouse Corner of Rolling Way & James Blvd (423) 886-5243 smph.org

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Innovative international performance group brings OVO to McKenzie Arena

N

EXT WEEK CIRQUE DU SOLIEL IS COMING TO UTC’S McKenzie Arena, bringing with it a show that is guaranteed to delight audiences of all ages. The “Circus of the Sun” is the biggest circus organization on earth, with over 4000 employees from 40 countries coming together to create 19 different productions. The shows all combine elements of theater with acrobatics, making distinctive experiences that are visually stunning and exhilarating.

Arts TONY MRAZ

“

If you’ve never seen it before, this is a great first show to see—it’s colorful, very energetic, and you will leave feeling inspired.”

The production that they are bringing to Chattanooga is called OVO—telling the story of a group of insects, the circus employs a wide variety of international acrobatic and dance styles. These oneof-a-kind acts include hand balancing, foot juggling, the Spanish web, a flying act, contortions, acrosports, the slack wire, and an innovative trampoline/ climbing wall.

“This is our first time coming to Chattanooga,” the show’s production manager, Mike Naumann, tells us. “We are bringing a lot of new technology.

If you’ve never seen it before, this is a great first show to see—it’s colorful, very energetic, and you will leave feeling inspired.”

Though Mike has been working with the cirque for eight years, this is the first time that OVO can be seen in an arena setting—the show has been going since 2012, but it was only performed previously in a big top circus tent. The arena setting allows for more of everything—the group of 55 performers and 25 touring technicians travels with 19 semi-trucks full of equipment. For the show they will hang over 100 motors, 115 moving lights, and six projectors. This herculean effort

takes 80 people over 12 hours, with over 100,000lbs of equipment being installed.

“It’s always great to go to a new place, to see people’s enthusiasm; it’s great to expose people to the show who have never seen it,” Naumann explains. “It definitely has a wow factor; there are things that you see in the show that are amazing. I kind of take them for granted, but it still wows me whenever I watch the show—it’s amazing what they can accomplish with the human body.”

The performers possess a wide range of skills, and everybody has a different background. They are specialty artists, each with their own acts. Such is the case with Missouri’s James Johnson, one of the acrobats who specializes in trampoline (in this production, he plays the role of a cricket). He started working at a gym when he was 15, competed for four years, then started doing part time shows. He got involved with the cirque by sending in videos of his trampoline act—they called him in to audition, and he has been performing with them since 2014.

During their down time, the performers rehearse their individual acts a few days a week, work out, and learn new skills. “For competition, you have

to have the best possible form—but for this, you’re not judged by form, but by what you’re doing,” Johnson says.

“This allows us a little bit more creativity, but since you do a part of the show with somebody else you have to be consistent.” Since they travel a lot, one of their favorite things to do is check out local hot spots.

“The show has lots of color, action, and comedy—it is a well-rounded performance,” Johnson adds. “I enjoy watching people get lost in the whole world of it. They forget that they’re sitting there watching a show, and end up feeling like a part of it. They laugh, and maybe even get scared or excited—there are lots of emotions associated with the stunts. This is a show for the whole family: kids five and up will enjoy it as much as their grandparents.

It’s just a fun show, you’re going to be guaranteed to have a good time, you’re not going to be let down. It’s a really good time, everybody I’ve ever heard of has enjoyed it—it is good for the whole family, or for a date night.”

This incredible assembly of highly talented athletes will be doing seven shows at UTC's McKenzie Arena from Wednesday, July 20 through Sunday, July 24. Tickets are available online or at the box office.

CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM • JULY 14, 2016 • THE PULSE • 11

ARTS CALENDAR

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

THURSDAY7.14 Ooltewah Farmers Market 3 p.m.

Ooltewah Nursery 5829 Main St. ooltewahnursery.com Brian Keene Book Signing 3 p.m.

Star Line Books 1467 Market St. (423) 777-5629 starlinebooks.com Signal Mountain Farmers Market 4 p.m.

Pruett’s Market 1210 Taft Hwy. (423) 902-8023 signalmountainfarmersmarket.com St. Elmo Farmers Market 4 p.m.

Incline Railway 3917 St. Elmo Ave. (423) 838-9804 lookoutfarmersmarket.com City Sweat: Soak Up the Run 6 p.m.

Waterhouse Pavilion 850 Market St. (423) 265-3700 rivercitycompany.com Chattanooga Lookouts vs Mobile Bay Bears 7:15 p.m.

AT&T Field 201 Power Alley (423) 267-2208 lookouts.com Shaun Jones 7:30 p.m.

The Comedy Catch 1400 Market St.

12 • THE PULSE • JULY 14, 2016 • CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM

(423) 629-2233 thecomedycatch.com

FRIDAY7.15 Honoring the Sacrifice— American Heroes Dinner 7 p.m.

Chattanooga Convention Center 1 Carter Plaza (423) 756-0001 honoringthesacrifice.com Chattanooga Lookouts vs Mobile Bay Bears 7:15 p.m.

AT&T Field 201 Power Alley (423) 267-2208 lookouts.com Shaun Jones 7:30, 9:45 p.m.

The Comedy Catch 1400 Market St.

PULSE PICK: SHAUN JONES One of the hottest comics on the comedy scene right now, Shaun has traveled the world making people laugh with a style all of his own.

Shaun Jones The Comedy Catch 1400 Market St. (423) 629-2233 thecomedycatch.com

(423) 629-2233 thecomedycatch.com Leaving Iowa 8 p.m.

The Mars Theater 117 N. Chattanooga St., LaFayette, GA (706) 996-8350 backalleyproductions.org Monty Python’s Spamalot 8 p.m.

Chattanooga Theatre Centre 400 River St. (423) 267-8534 theatrecentre.com Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 8 p.m.

Signal Mountain Playhouse Corner of Rolling Way & James Blvd (423) 886-5243 smph.org "Tickled" 8:30 p.m.

Cine-Rama 100 W. Main St. (423) 521-1716 thecinerama.org

SATURDAY7.16 Chattanooga Heroes Run 8 a.m.

U.S. Naval Reserve Center 4051 Amnicola Hwy. (423) 629-4302 chattanoogaheroesrun.com NoogaStrong Memorial Ride 9:30 p.m.

Sportsman’s Warehouse 6241 Perimeter Dr. (423) 892-6300 squareup.com/store/ NoogaStrongRide Brainerd Farmers Market 10 a.m.

Grace Episcopal Church 20 Belvoir Ave. (404) 245-3682 facebook.com/ BrainerdFarmersMarket Chattanooga River Market 10 a.m.

Tennessee Aquarium 1 Broad St. (423) 265-0695 chattanoogarivermarket.com Northside Farmers Market 10 am.

Northside Presbyterian Church 923 Mississippi Ave. (423) 266-7497 St. Alban’s Hixson Market 10 a.m.

St. Alban’s Episcopal Church 7514 Hixson Pike (423) 842-6303

ARTS CALENDAR

Leaving Iowa

facebook.com/ StAlbansFarmersMarket Drives for Lives 11 a.m.

Bear Trace Golf Course 8919 Harrison Bay Rd (423) 326-0885 tngolftrail.net David Levithan Author Event 4 p.m.

Star Line Books 1467 Market St. (423) 777-5629 starlinebooks.com Q n’ Brew At The Zoo 5 p.m.

Chattanooga Zoo 301 N. Holtzclaw Ave. (423) 697-1319 chattzoo.org Chattanooga Lookouts vs Mobile Bay Bears 7:15 p.m.

AT&T Field 201 Power Alley (423) 267-2208 lookouts.com Shaun Jones 7:30, 9:45 p.m.

The Comedy Catch 1400 Market St. (423) 629-2233 thecomedycatch.com Leaving Iowa 8 p.m.

The Mars Theater 117 N. Chattanooga St., LaFayette, GA (706) 996-8350 backalleyproductions.org Monty Python’s Spamalot 8 p.m.

Chattanooga Theatre Centre 400 River St.

(423) 267-8534 theatrecentre.com Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 8 p.m.

Signal Mountain Playhouse Corner of Rolling Way & James Blvd (423) 886-5243 smph.org "Tickled" 8:30 p.m.

Cine-Rama 100 W. Main St. (423) 521-1716 thecinerama.org Movies in the Park: Zootopia 9 p.m.

Coolidge Park 150 River St. (423) 643-5956

SUNDAY7.17 Chattanooga Market 11 a.m.

Chattanooga Market 1829 Carter St. (423) 402-9957 chattanoogamarket.com Chattanooga PINK Bridal Show 11 a.m.

Chattanooga Convention Center 1 Carter Plaza (423) 756-0001 thepinkbride.com/ shows/chattanooga Chattanooga Lookouts vs Mobile Bay Bears 2:15 p.m.

AT&T Field 201 Power Alley

(423) 267-2208 lookouts.com Leaving Iowa 2:30 p.m.

The Mars Theater 117 N. Chattanooga St., LaFayette, GA (706) 996-8350 backalleyproductions.org Shaun Jones 7:30 p.m.

The Comedy Catch 1400 Market St. (423) 629-2233 thecomedycatch.com ComedyFight 10 p.m The Honest Pint 35 Patten Pkwy.

(423) 468-4192 thehonestpint.com

MONDAY7.18 Red Bank Farmers Market 4 p.m.

Red Bank United Methodist Church 3800 Dayton Blvd.

(423) 838-9804 lookoutfarmersmarket.com Chattanooga Roller Girls Meet & Greet 6 p.m.

Chattanooga Brewing Company 1804 Chestnut St. (423) 702-9958 chattabrew.com Chattanooga Lookouts vs Mobile Bay Bears 7:15 p.m.

AT&T Field 201 Power Alley

(423) 267-2208 lookouts.com

TUESDAY7.19 East Brainerd Farmers Market 4 p.m.

Audubon Acres 900 N. Sanctuary Rd. (423) 838-9804 lookoutfarmersmarket.com

WEDNESDAY7.20 Middle Eastern Dance 10:30 a.m.

Jewish Cultural Center 5461 North Terrace (423) 493-0270 jewishchattanooga.com Felting 101: Wet Felting Your Own Fabric 1 p.m.

Chattanooga WorkSpace 302 W. 6th St. (423) 822-5750 chattanoogaworkspace.com Main Street Market 4 p.m.

325 E. Main St. mainstfarmersmarket.com Cirque du Soleil's OVO 7:30 p.m.

McKenzie Arena 720 E. 4th St. (423) 266-6627 utc.edu/mckenzie-arena Map these locations on chattanoogapulse.com. Send event listings at least 10 days in advance to: calendar@chattanoogapulse.com CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM • JULY 14, 2016 • THE PULSE • 13

MUSIC SCENE

The Boys Are Back In Town

Mark “Porkchop” Holder and MPH boogie down and dirty

I

What The Heck Is That Thing?

Guit-Steel inventor Junior Brown comes to Barking Legs Barking Legs is offering an opportunity you won’t want to miss: this Thursday, inventor of the guit-steel Junior Brown will grace the stage with an exciting hybrid of country, soul, and rock and roll.

But hang on, you might say. What the heck is a guit-steel?

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and Junior Brown is living proof. After sharpening his musical skills through the ‘60s and ‘70s, Brown got tired of switching between his six-string guitar and its steel counterpart. He had a dream of easy playing, literally: one night, Brown dreamt of his two guitars melting together to form one unique instrument.

With the help of Michael Stevens, Brown’s dream became a reality, resulting in a double-necked standard/ steel guitar hybrid, allowing Brown

to switch seamlessly between (and during!) songs. There are some other guit-steel players, but anything that comes after is a shadow of the original Junior Brown.

Add that to his grassroots success at the Continental Club in Austin, a signing with Curb Records, features in movies, TV shows, and ad campaigns, appearances on Letterman, Conan, and Saturday Night Live, and a SpongeBob SquarePants cameo, and you’ve got the impressive resume of Junior Brown.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell says of Brown, “Junior once told me he was very impressed by the way [Hendrix] was wild, and yet...very controlled. He knew where everything was going in a solo, and [Junior] tries for the same effect, and I think he hits it virtually every time.” — Hillary Eames

THU7.14

FRI7.15

SAT7.16

RHYTHM & BLUES

PSYCHEDELIC

BLUEGRASS FUN

Kindora

Danimal Planet

Mipso

All American Summer welcomes R&B sensation Kindora with Rock Floyd.

6 p.m.

The Hunter Museum of Art 10 Bluff View huntermuseum.org

Electronic Rock geared towards face melting psychedelia.

9:30 p.m.

Revelry Room 41 E. 14th St. revelryroom.co

14 • THE PULSE • JULY 14, 2016 • CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM

Chapel Hill, NC based stringband mixes folk, Americana and fun.

7 p.m.

The Camp House 149 E. MLK Blvd. thecamphouse.com

T WAS GOOD NEWS WHEN I FIRST HEARD THAT MARK “Porkchop” Holder was coming back to town to stay. He was an exciting musician almost twenty years ago both as a member of the Black Diamond Heavies and as a solo act. As a matter of fact, in the formative years of my own group, we played a regular weekly gig at the Lizard Lounge on the same bill as Holder and Dave Brown (another iconic Chattanooga singer/songwriter) and Mark’s musicianship was already second to none.

Music MARC T MICHAEL

“

Dirty roadhouse music. Juke Joint jamming.

Swamp rock.

Too rock for blues, too blues for rock, the music is hungry, hard and mean.”

With a decade or two of living, travelling and playing between the last time I heard him and now, I expected great things. I expected the man’s work to have aged like wine, finer, smoother and more potent than ever. In truth, Holder is more akin to your granddaddy’s private reserve of moonshine, but the simile stands and I was not disappointed.

Holder had barely hit town before he started gigging again and soon after assembled an all new power trio featuring himself, Doug Bales (another pillar of Chattanooga music) and Travis Kilgore who, despite being the “young fella” in the bunch, is nonetheless a well-loved, respected and seasoned pro. Power trio indeed.

After months of enduring my Bart and Lisa Simpsonesque refrain of, “Have you recorded something yet? Have you recorded something yet? Have you recorded something yet?” it seems that they have indeed recorded something and it is outstanding on every level.

The new group is called Mark “Porkchop” Holder and MPH and the debut LP is Let It Slide. That’s right, I said LP. The plan is for this album to be released on vinyl and as of right now there is a long waiting list due to a dearth of facili-

Start the weekend on Thursdays with live outdoor concerts at the Hunter Museum!

Photo courtesy Mark "Porkchop" Holder & MPH

ties and resurgence in the popularity of the medium. You’re going to have to wait to own a copy (but you can certainly catch a live performance in the meantime.)

I was all set for Let It Slide to be a blistering blues album, that being how I best remembered my old friend, and while blues is certainly at the heart of it, that isn’t quite right as a designation.

In their own words the boys describe their music as, “boogie, sans bullshit,” and that not only accurately reflects the nature of the album, it captures in three glorious words the essence of the whole band.

Boogie, sans bullshit. Dirty roadhouse music. Juke Joint jamming.

Swamp rock. Too rock for blues, too blues for rock, the music is hungry, hard and mean. Much of Holder’s guitar work reminds me of Billy Gibbons, a man Jimi Hendrix once described as “one of the best guitarists in America.”

One wonders whether Mark “plays” the guitar so much as he wrings its neck until it pours forth scorching riffs (to be clear, Mark Holder flat plays the hell out of a guitar, but it isn’t hard to imagine that he gets the tone he wants from his amp by scowling at it.)

Doug Bales demonstrates for the nth time why he is one of the area’s most respected drummers and Travis Kilgore…there are a lot of very hardworking musicians in this town, but I don’t know any who work as hard or grin as big as this loveable sasquatch of a bass player. I don’t need to point out his skill and versatility, his reputation speaks for itself.

The album is just sweat and guts and

soul. “My Black Name” is a driving, rock/blues hybrid that demonstrates Holder’s vocal skills as the perfect match for his guitar playing while “Let it Slide” is some very slippery, satisfying, old school blues that highlights his superb harp blowing skills. The album’s version of “Stagger Lee” is my favorite since Nick Cave’s cover back in the mid-nineties.

“Stranger” is a sort of rockabilly-noir piece in which Mark’s voice takes on some Johnny Cash characteristics and “Baby Please Don’t Go” is a white-hot ball of energy, a wall of blues-infused mayhem that goes to eleven and then some. All in all there are nine tracks on the album, each one a testament to the undeniable credentials of the band and its leader, an old rocker and bluesman who walks the walk, talks the talk, and sure as hell has lived the life.

Stay tuned to this channel for updates on when the album will be available and in the meantime stop by and check out the powerhouse in person this Saturday, July 16th at the 30th anniversary block party thrown by Las Margaritas on Hixson Pike (next to Tremont Tavern) from 7 to 11 p.m.

It would be entirely remiss to sing the praises of the band on this album without a nod to the folks who helped make it possible. The collection was recorded at Tiny Buzz studios, where it was produced and engineered by Mike Pack. The album was mixed by Dave Barbe at Chase Park Transduction Studios in Athens, GA. Guest artists include Matt Bohannon on pedal steel and Heather Kilgore on backing vocals.

Every Thursday

through August 11 | 6 pm Kindora & Rock Floyd..7/14 Magic Birds.................8/4 I Can Japan...............7/21 The Communicators...8/11 Soul Mechanic........7/28 www.huntermuseum.org

The All American Summer Concert Series is sponsored by Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling Company and Tennessee American Water with media support by Brewer Media Group.

CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM • JULY 14, 2016 • THE PULSE • 15

MUSIC CALENDAR

Danimal Planet

THURSDAY7.14 Kindora with Rock Floyd 6 p.m.

The Hunter Museum of Art 10 Bluff View huntermuseum.org James Crumble Trio 6 p.m.

St. John’s Meeting Place 1278 Market St. stjohnsrestaurant.com Rick Rushing Blues Jazz N’ Friends 6 p.m.

Bluewater Grille 224 Broad St. bluewaterchattanooga.com Live Bluegrass 6:30 p.m.

Whole Foods Market 301 Manufacturers Rd. wholefoodsmarket.com Jimmy Harris 7 p.m.

The Coconut Room 6925 Shallowford Rd. thepalmsathamilton.com Junior Brown 7:30 p.m.

Barking Legs Theater 1307 Dodds Ave. barkinglegs.org Bluegrass Thursdays 7:30 p.m.

Feed Co. Table & Tavern 201 W. Main St. feedtableandtavern.com Jesse James & Tim Neal 7:30 p.m.

Mexi-Wing VII 5773 Brainerd Rd. mexi-wingchattanooga.com

16 • THE PULSE • JULY 14, 2016 • CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM

Keepin’ It Local 8 p.m.

The Social 1110 Market St. publichousechattanooga.com Open Mic with Hap Henninger 9 p.m.

The Office @ City Cafe 901 Carter St. citycafemenu.com

FRIDAY7.15 The Old Time Traveler, Ben Durham 10 a.m.

Rock City 1400 Patten Rd. seerockcity.com Rye Baby 5:30 p.m.

OUR PICK: BRIAN ASHLEY JONES Brian Ashley Jones is a soulful singer, acclaimed guitarist, and versatile touring songwriter with a love for guitar-driven Bluesy Americana tunes.

Brian Ashley Jones Sunday,12:30 p.m.

First Tennessee Pavilion 1829 Carter St. chattanoogamarket.com

Cambridge Square 9453 Bradmore Lane chattanoogamarket.com Eddie Pontiac 6 p.m.

El Meson 2204 Hamilton Place Blvd. elmesonrestaurant.com Binji Varsossa 6 p.m.

Cancun Mexican Restaurant & Lounge 1809 Broad St. (423) 266-1461 Tim Lewis 7 p.m.

El Meson 248 Northgate Park elmesonchattanooga.com Los Colognes, Operation Song 7 p.m.

Nightfall Concert Series Miller Plaza

800 Market St. nightfallchattanooga.com Priscilla and Lil’ Rickee 8:30 p.m.

The Foundry 1201 Broad St. chattanooganhotel.com Fro & Friends 9 p.m.

The Office @ City Cafe 901 Carter St. citycafemenu.com The Ham Family 9 p.m.

Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant 2 W. Aquarium Way puckettsgro.com/chattanooga Danimal Planet 9:30 p.m.

Revelry Room 41 E. 14th St. revelryroom.co Dead Soldiers 10 p.m.

Clyde’s On Main 122 W. Main St. clydesonmain.com The Sullivan Band 10 p.m.

Bud’s Sports Bar 5751 Brainerd Rd. budssportsbar.com

SATURDAY7.16 The Old Time Traveler, AM Radio 10 a.m.

Rock City 1400 Patten Rd. seerockcity.com Brian Ashley Jones

MUSIC CALENDAR

Parachute 12:30 p.m.

Tennessee Aquarium Plaza 1 Broad St. chattanoogarivermarket.com Gaither Vocal Band 6 p.m.

Memorial Auditorium 399 McCallie Ave. chattanoogaonstage.com Binji Varsossa 6 p.m.

Cancun Mexican Restaurant & Lounge 1809 Broad St. (423) 266-1461 Mipso 7 p.m.

The Camp House 149 E. MLK Blvd. thecamphouse.com Parachute, Brynn Elliott 7 p.m.

Revelry Room 41 E. 14th St. revelryroom.co Tim Lewis 7 p.m.

El Meson 248 Northgate Park elmesonchattanooga.com Lefty Williams, Tim & Reece 8 p.m.

Ross's Landing Riverfront Parkway riverfrontnights.com Priscilla and Lil’ Rickee 8:30 p.m.

The Foundry 1201 Broad St. chattanooganhotel.com Star and Micey, Sunsap 9 p.m.

JJ’s Bohemia 231 E. MLK Blvd.

jjsbohemia.com Lee Gibson 9 p.m.

Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant 2 W. Aquarium Way puckettsgro.com/chattanooga 8TRK 10 p.m.

Clyde’s On Main 122 W. Main St. clydesonmain.com Andy Liechty 10 p.m.

The Office @ City Cafe 901 Carter St. citycafemenu.com The Sullivan Band 10 p.m.

Bud’s Sports Bar 5751 Brainerd Rd. budssportsbar.com

SUNDAY7.17 The Old Time Traveler, Highbeams 10 a.m.

Rock City 1400 Patten Rd. seerockcity.com Henry River Honey 11 a.m.

Flying Squirrel Bar 55 Johnson St. flyingsquirrelbar.com Brian Ashley Jones 12:30 p.m.

First Tennessee Pavilion 1829 Carter St. chattanoogamarket.com Kathy Veazey & John Rawlston

1 p.m.

Flying Squirrel Bar 55 Johnson St. flyingsquirrelbar.com David Elliott 2 p.m.

First Tennessee Pavilion 1829 Carter St. chattanoogamarket.com Open Mic with Jeff Daniels 6 p.m.

Long Haul Saloon 2536 Cummings Hwy. (423) 822-9775

MONDAY7.18 Monday Nite Big Band 7 p.m.

The Coconut Room 6925 Shallowford Rd. thepalmsathamilton.com Very Open Mic 8 p.m.

The Well 1800 Rossville Blvd. #8 wellonthesouthside.com Open Mic Night 6 p.m.

Puckett’s Grocery 2 W. Aquarium Way puckettsgro.com Open Air with Jessica Nunn 7:30 p.m.

The Granfalloon 400 E. Main St. granfalloonchattanooga.com

TUESDAY7.19 Open Mic with Mike McDade 8 p.m.

Tremont Tavern 1203 Hixson Pike tremonttavern.com

WEDNESDAY7.20 Noon Tunes with Smooth Dialects Noon Miller Plaza 850 Market St. rivercitycompany.com Eddie Pontiac 5:30 p.m.

El Meson 248 Northgate Park elmesonrestaurant.com The Other Guys 6 p.m.

SpringHill Suites 495 Riverfront Pkwy.

(423) 834-9300 Open Jam 8 p.m.

Raw Dance Club 409 Market St. rawbarandgrillchatt.com Dexter Bell Quartet 8 p.m.

Barking Legs Theater 1307 Dodds Ave. barkinglegs.org Wednesday Blues Jam 8 p.m.

The Office @ City Café 901 Carter St. citycafemenu.com

Map these locations on chattanoogapulse.com. Send event listings at least 10 days in advance to: calendar@chattanoogapulse.com CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM • JULY 14, 2016 • THE PULSE • 17

RECORD REVIEWS ERNIE PAIK

Getting Your Thrills With Clenched Teeth, Experience A Synth-tastic Latin Sound Cellular Chaos brings real thrills to the speakers, Venezuela 70 finds their synthesizer roots

Cellular Chaos Diamond Teeth Clenched (Skin Graft)

Various Artists Venezuela 70 (Soul Jazz)

T

thrilling in this day and age is Cellular Chaos from NYC, with a live show that literally bounces off the walls; while its performances have a dimension no recording can have, its recordings are no slouch, including the band’s new second album, Diamond Teeth Clenched.

Cellular Chaos has a boatload of talent with a diverse lineup including singer Admiral Grey (The Simple Pleasure, Ecstatics), guitarist Weasel Walter (The Flying Luttenbachers, Lake of Dracula), drummer Marc Edwards (known for his free jazz work with Cecil Taylor and David S. Ware) and bassist Shayna Dulberger, active in the downtown avantjazz scene.

From the start, on the opening “Burn Option,” Admiral Grey unleashes her unique vocal style that’s simultaneously fierce and with a girly

his writer’s anecdotal and entirely unscientific theory about the concert-going experience posits a gradual increase of politeness and decrease of bodily movement over the last 25 years or so, recalling a time when it was nearly a certainty of seeing a pit form at any underground punk or rock show.

People want the thrill of danger but without the danger, like watching a horror film instead of walking down a dark alley.

With news of a chaotic Kenny Chesney concert in Pennsylvania earlier this month, where a number of people were hospitalized or arrested, have things turned upside-down so that mainstream country is now more dangerous than punk?

With these thoughts in mind, one of the few bands that this writer truly considers to be

18 • THE PULSE • JULY 14, 2016 • CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM

sing-songy quality, while her bandmates plow through a pounding punk-metal grind that’s concentrated and targeted yet primitive. “Newport Lights” offers lightning-fast transitions and wild glissandos with brief moments of palate-cleansing with minimal drums in-between eruptions, and the title track snarls, with Dulberger’s insanely distorted bass and Walter’s demented guitar work, among meter and tempo changes, keeping the listener off-balance.

Edwards can do fast metal drumming when necessary in the more structured and composed environment of Cellular Chaos, but he gets a chance to let loose during the free-form beginning of “Bones.”

The album never lets up, and some of its most intense tracks come toward the end, including the disturbingly violent and passionate “Joyride,” on which Admiral Grey sings, “Punch me, kiss me, scream me poetry” and spouts a little fake operatic vocalizing.

Diamond Teeth Clenched has the band moving slightly away from the outward no-wave dissonance of its first album toward a more punk and metalfocused style, but it is as unhinged as ever.

T

he subtitle of the new compilation Venezuela 70

on Soul Jazz Records is “Cosmic Visions of a Latin American Earth: Venezuelan Experimental Rock in the 1970s”—while phrases like “cosmic visions” and “experimental rock” may bring to mind high-tech musical adventures and bold sonic exploration, the collection’s offerings aren’t exactly as ground-breaking as one might have been promised.

A more honest subtitle might be, “Venezuelan Popular Music of the ‘70s Discovers Synths.”

By this time, the listening public had been exposed to synths in popular music, used either as a novelty or as an instrument as valid as any other.

On these selections, there’s a playful attitude with synth parts sprinkled atop various genres, borrowing from rock to funk to Latin rhythms, but only a few hint at the revolutionary potential of synthesizers or studio wizardry.

Pablo Schneider’s “Amor En Llamas” (Love in Flames) is a killer track with an eccentric funk groove, exotic percussion, violin/piano/flute counterpoint, and even a little rapturous wordless vocalizing toward the end; the 9-minute “Polvo Lunar” (Moon Dust) from Miguel Angel Fuster froths up an exciting street-funk number with synthetic enhancements including a sound like a sci-fi

gun in the hands of a triggerhappy individual.

The most distinctive and genre-pushing numbers on Venezuela 70 come from Angel Rada; his “Basheeba” sounds more like something from early Kraftwerk or the BBC Radiophonic Workshop than anything in South America with artificial percussion and effervescent electronic tones.

Psychedelic flourishes find their way into tracks like the soft-rock “Barcos De Papel” from Fernando Yvosky, in the form of seriously fuzzed-out guitar when the song ramps up, or the wah-guitar in “Dame De Comer” which borrows a tune from Bach and has a sort of cinematic score quality, like others such as the driving, orchestral “La Quema De Judas” that could be used for a crime film soundtrack.

As with other Soul Jazz compilations, Venezuela 70 can either serve as a jumping-off point for further exploration or as a strong stand-alone document.

Those expecting some kind of mind-blowing discovery of a pocket of radical, lost musical gold may be let down, but with expectations in check, Venezuela 70 is a consistently pleasant and fun listen with a glimpse at a country’s zeitgeist infrequently examined in the western world.

Diversions

Consider This with Dr. Rick

by Rick Pimental-Habib, Ph.D.

“Be mindful of your self-talk. It’s a conversation with the universe.” — David James Lees Our thoughts have energy; our words have energy; our actions have energy. And this is how we’re all connecting all the time…with the vibes we send out to each other, whether we are tuning in to them and feeling the connection, or not.

We all walk the same ground as our ancestors did. We breathe the same oxygen produced by the same ancient forests. A look can pass between lovers and each knows the other’s thoughts. You can be thinking about your best friend, and then the phone rings—it’s her.

You can feel the energy at a party filled with friends, or in a room full of strangers, from the second you enter.

Consider this: Sometimes we call it prayer, sometimes meditation.

Your thoughts communicate with an energy not only within yourself, but outward, to that which is bigger than you, and all around you.

CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM • JULY 14, 2016 • THE PULSE • 19

SCREEN SCENE

Heading Into Dangerous Waters The Shallows takes a fresh look at familiar shark-infested film territory

Granting A Welcome Audience National Theatre Live presents Helen Mirren in fine form National Theatre Live presents a special encore of The Audience, featuring Tony Award and Academy Award winner Helen Mirren, when it returns for an extraordinary onenight event on Tuesday, July 19 at Carmike's East Ridge 18.

For sixty years, Queen Elizabeth II has met with each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a private weekly meeting. This meeting is known as The Audience. No one knows what they discuss, not even their spouses.

The Audience won two 2015 Tony Awards and was nominated for

✴✴✴✴

awards by the Outer Critics Circle, the Drama League and the Drama Desk.

Recorded live during the original run of the production in London’s West End in 2013 and features the original West End cast under the direction of two-time Tony Award winning director Stephen Daldry.

"The Audience" Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Carmike East Ridge 18 5080 South Terrace (423) 855-9652 carmike.com/events

NEW IN THEATERS

Ghostbusters 30 years after Ghostbusters took the world by storm, the beloved franchise makes its long-awaited return. Director Paul Feig brings his fresh take to the supernatural comedy, joined by some of the funniest actors working today.

Director: Paul Feig Stars: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig

✴✴✴✴

The Infiltrator A U.S. Customs official uncovers a money laundering scheme involving Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. This true-to-life film delivers with a powerful performance by Bryan Cranston.

Director: Brad Furman Stars: Bryan Cranston, John Leguizamo, Diane Kruger, Amy Ryan

20 • THE PULSE • JULY 14, 2016 • CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM

E

VER THE HELPFUL WEBSITE, WIKIPEDIA HAS A CONvenient list of all shark attack movies since 1975, along with the type of terrorizing shark. It is a quick, entertaining read that can lead you into a rabbit hole of weird plots and ideas that really put into context just how cartoony sharks have become as natural antagonists in horror film.

Screen JOHN DEVORE

“

Simplicity is always preferable when building suspense and The Shallows succeeds much more than it fails.”

Great white sharks are the most popular man eater in these films, but truly innovative directors have branched out to include mutated humanoid sharks (1981’s Creature), prehistoric sharks swimming in snow (2011’s Avalanche Sharks), great white sharks in supermarkets (2012’s Bait 3D) and the ever popular waterspouts full of sharks from the Sharknado quadrilogy.

Horror movie directors are sometimes derided for occupying a dark space in filmmaking, but in reality they are nothing if not downright silly. 1975’s Jaws remains essential viewing for anyone who loves movies, featuring the first truly terrifying look into the lifeless, black eyes of the marine apex predator. It’s hard to improve upon perfection.

However, this summer’s shark film The Shallows might be the first film to come close. It does this by not attempting to recreate or borrow from what made Jaws so good. Instead, it tells its own story, treading closer to reality than fantasy. Simplicity is always preferable when building suspense and The Shallows succeeds much more than it fails.

Blake Lively plays Nancy, a med student from Texas who recently lost her mother to cancer. To deal with her grief, Nancy leaves her father and sister and future career behind to find a secret, secluded beach in Mexico her mother once visited when she was younger. She aims to surf the waves and honor the memory

of her mother before deciding whether to pursue her chosen path in life or abandon it for something less futile.

The film wastes little time getting Nancy into the water—the backstory is woven into the narrative well enough without becoming exposition heavy.

While her character arc isn’t necessarily the most compelling (plenty of people go to Mexico to surf without needing to exorcise their demons), it would have been easy for the filmmakers to sacrifice any attempt at character development for massive amounts of bloody carnage, so these small details allow the audience to connect to the character, thus amplifying the suspense. That Nancy has a medical background is certainly a plot contrivance, but ultimately a forgivable one.

The first few water scenes play like an extreme sports music video, but as Nancy’s surf companions head in for the day and Nancy heads out one more time to catch a final wave, something happens that sets The Shallows apart from other films of its type.

One of the biggest criticisms of Jaws is its complete misreading of shark behavior. Hooper, the marine biologist played by Richard Dreyfuss, describes the killer shark as “a perfect engine, an eating machine.” Peter Benchly, author of the book the film is based on, regrets how he depicted the great white because it led to such negative attitudes towards the creatures, pos-

sible aiding in the depletion of their population worldwide.

Great white sharks in general have no interest in humans as food—attacks are always accidental by the shark mistaking humans for prey. The Shallows deals with this new mentality by having our victim encounter the shark in the middle of a feeding frenzy due to a dying whale around 200 meters offshore.

Of course, it all but abandons the idea later in the film by having the shark stalk Nancy for hours despite having unlimited meat just a few yards away. The film tries to explain this away by showing the shark as having a history of violent encounters with humans, and as we learned from Jaws: The Revenge, sharks hold grudges (shark movie idea: Jaws—The Grudge.

Ghost shark meets Japanese horror film).

Still, the film stays away from many of the clichés that riddle this particular genre, focusing more on the survival aspect than the shark itself. At times it reminded me of 2003’s Open Water, a film that was unique but ultimately dull.

The Shallows took a premise that had said farewell and adieu long ago and breathed life back into it by telling a somewhat plausible story and dialing down the silliness. It’s not Jaws but nothing ever will be. This film, however, is likely the best shark film since.

CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM • JULY 14, 2016 • THE PULSE • 21

COLUMN SHADES OF GREEN

Nature Brings Art To Life Mocs Bend Nature & Art Festival comes together

SANDRA KURTZ

“

Art gives us a sense of who we have been and a view into what might be. It urges us to react and sense our connection to reality or alternative visions of life.”

Sandra Kurtz is an environmental community activist and is presently working through the Urban Century Institute. You can visit her website to learn more at enviroedu.net

Do you remember the first picture you ever drew not counting wall scribbles? Chances are it was an outdoor scene with a stick figure, a square house and gable roof. The green grass bottom supported several “stems” and colorful U-shaped tulip flowers under zigzag points. Above a lumpy “cloud” floated with several m-shaped flying “birds”. In an upper corner there was a big yellow sun shining. Was there a tree, a pond, a cat or dog, or more family sticks? This nature scene common to most young children shows our affiliation with nature and the understanding that we can connect to our world through art.

Now you might be thinking that nature art is only about drawing pretty nature scenes for us to enjoy, but there is much more to it. Art gives us a sense of who we have been and a view into what might be. It urges us to react and sense our connection to reality or alternative visions of life.

Some artists experiment with new technology making us think about applications for the future. Be its sculpture, paintings, crafts from natural materials, photography, video or film making, drama, dance choreography, music, writing, even food or fashion

22 • THE PULSE • JULY 14, 2016 • CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM

presentations, and innovative creations as yet unknown, art starts with nature and how we connect it to life’s struggles and resiliency.

The weekend of July 30-31, the Mocs Bend Nature & Art Festival (at 504 West Manning St.) will strengthen connections between nature and art.

Since it’s the centennial of the National Park Service celebrating what Ken Burns titled “Our Best Idea”, the Friends of Moccasin Bend want to invite you to find your park, hike, bike, paddle and play. Tour with park rangers. Learn Native American and Civil War history and archaeology of Moccasin Bend or just enjoy nature’s beauty.

View art, seek your own creativity, or dance to artistic sounds of musicians.

The UTC Theatre Partnership will bring to the festival an outdoor play “Robin! Coming to a Forest Near You”. Dress as an animal and try playacting in this participatory drama.

“Art communicates through the senses the same way our environment does,” Jeannie Hacker-Cerulean, playwright for the eco-drama said. “If we fail to notice impacts on the natural world, we will fail to alter our relationship with that world. Art opens eyes and ears and hearts and minds.

Eco-drama reveals our connections to nature, and place-based art connects us to the nature of a specific place like Moccasin Bend.”

Additionally, this year Cool Down Chatt Town joins forces bringing nature awareness and urging beneficial Earth engagement. Find out about sustainable actions you can do for the environment and slow climate change.

To delve more deeply into a particular subject, there are exhibits, speakers and talking circles. There’s something for all ages and admission is free. This festival is a local grassroots effort so crowd funding helps. Go to mocsbend. launchutc.com to donate.

Many national parks have an artistin-residence program. These artists give us a sense of nature and our ways of connecting throughout history.

Those animal paintings on the caves in France or the just discovered drawings on the old Cherry Street building walls give us hints of what people thought about in the past and indicate ways of living that instruct our lives.

Come to the festival! Engage with nature, art and fun. Hang a ribbon on the climate tree. Participate in the play. Find Chattanooga’s own Moccasin Bend National Park and join Friends of Moccasin Bend. Inspect an electric car and solar panels. Talk with local artists. Relax as you watch a fractal projection on trees from Tree Dimensional created by Merrill Val Love.

Celebrate!

Free Will Astrology CANCER (June 21-July 22): If you are smoothly attuned with the cosmic rhythms and finely aligned with your unconscious wisdom, you could wake up one morning and find that a mental block has miraculously crumbled, instantly raising your intelligence. If you can find it in your proud heart to surrender to “God,” your weirdest dilemma will get at least partially solved during a magical threehour interlude. And if you are able to forgive 50 percent of the wrongs that have been done to you in the last six years, you will no longer feel like you’re running into a strong wind, but rather you’ll feel like the beneficiary of a strong wind blowing in the same direction you’re headed.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): How often have you visited hell or the suburbs of hell during the last few weeks?

According to my guesstimates, the time you spent there was exactly the right amount. You got the teachings you needed most, including a few tricks about how to steer clear of hell in the future.

With this valuable information, you will forevermore be smarter about how to avoid unnecessary pain and irrelevant hindrances. So congratulations! I suggest you celebrate. And please use your newfound wisdom as you decline one last invitation to visit the heart of a big, hot mess.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): My friend Athena works as a masseuse. She says that the highest praise she can receive is drool.

When her clients feel so sublimely serene that threads of spit droop out of their mouths, she knows she’s in top form. You might trigger responses akin to drool in the coming weeks, Virgo. Even if you don’t work as a massage therapist, I think it’s possible you’ll provoke rather extreme expressions of approval, longing, and curiosity. You will be at the height of your power to inspire potent feelings in those you encounter. In light of this situation, you might want to wear a small sign or button that reads, “You have my permission to drool freely.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The latest Free Will Astrology poll shows that thirty-three percent of your friends, loved ones, and acquaintances approve of your grab for glory. Thirty-eight percent disapprove, eighteen percent remain undecided, and eleven percent wish you would grab for even greater glory. As for me, I’m aligned with the eleven-percent minority.

Here’s what I say: Don’t allow your quest for shiny breakthroughs and brilliant accomplishments to be overly influenced by what people think of you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You are at the pinnacle of your powers to both hurt and heal. Your turbulent

ROB BREZSNY

yearnings could disrupt the integrity of those whose self-knowledge is shaky, even as your smoldering radiance can illuminate the darkness for those who are lost or weak. As strong and confident as I am, even I would be cautious about engaging your tricky intelligence. Your piercing perceptions and wild understandings might either undo me or vitalize me. Given these volatile conditions, I advise everyone to approach you as if you were a love bomb or a truth fire or a beauty tornado.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Here’s the deal: I will confess a dark secret from my past if you confess an equivalent secret from yours. Shall I go first? When I first got started in the business of writing horoscope columns, I contributed a sexed-up monthly edition to a porn magazine published by smut magnate Larry Flynt. What’s even more scandalous is that I enjoyed doing it. OK. It’s your turn.

Locate a compassionate listener who won’t judge you harshly, and unveil one of your subterranean mysteries. You may be surprised at how much psychic energy this will liberate. (For extra credit and emancipation, spill two or even three secrets.)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): What do you want to be when you grow up, Capricorn? What? You say you are already all grown up, and my question is irrelevant? If that’s your firm belief, I will ask you to set it aside for now. I’ll invite you to entertain the possibility that maybe some parts of you are not in fact fully mature; that no matter how ripe you imagine yourself to be, you could become even riper—an even more gorgeous version of your best self. I will also encourage you to immerse yourself in a mood of playful fun as you respond to the following question: “How can I activate and embody an even more complete version of my soul’s code?”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): On a summer day 20 years ago, I took my five-year-old daughter Zoe and her friend Max to the merry-goround in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Zoe jumped on the elegant golden-maned lion and Max mounted the wild blue horse. Me? I climbed aboard the humble pig.

Its squat pink body didn’t seem designed for rapid movement. Its timid gaze was fixed on the floor in front of it. As the man who operated the ride came around to see if everyone was in place, he congratulated me on my bold choice. Very few riders preferred the porker, he said. Not glamorous enough. “But I’m sure I will arrive at our destination as quickly and efficiently as everyone else,” I replied. Your immediate future, Aquarius, has symbolic resemblances to this scene.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Early

Jonesin’ Crossword

MATT JONES

on in our work together, my psychotherapist confessed that she only works with clients whose problems are interesting to her. In part, her motivations are selfish: Her goal is to enjoy her work. But her motivations are also altruistic.

She feels she’s not likely to be of service to anyone with whom she can’t be deeply engaged. I understand this perspective, and am inclined to make it more universal.

Isn’t it smart to pick all our allies according to this principle? Every one of us is a mess in one way or another, so why not choose to blend our fates with those whose messiness entertains us and teaches us the most? I suggest you experiment with this view in the coming weeks and months, Pisces.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Upcoming adventures might make you more manly if you are a woman.

If you are a man, the coming escapades could make you more womanly. How about if you’re trans?

Odds are that you’ll become even more gender fluid. I am exaggerating a bit, of course. The transformations I’m referring to may not be visible to casual observers. They will mostly unfold in the depths of your psyche. But they won’t be merely symbolic, either. There’ll be mutations in your biochemistry that will expand your sense of your own gender. If you respond enthusiastically to these shifts, you will begin a process that could turn you into an even more complete and attractive human being than you already are.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I’ll name five heroic tasks you will have more than enough power to accomplish in the next eight months. 1. Turning an adversary into an ally. 2. Converting a debilitating obsession into an empowering passion. 3. Transforming an obstacle into a motivator. 4.

Discovering small treasures in the midst of junk and decay. 5. Using the unsolved riddles of childhood to create a living shrine to eternal youth. 6. Gathering a slew of new freedom songs, learning them by heart, and singing them regularly—especially when habitual fears rise up in you.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Your life has resemblances to a jigsaw puzzle that lies unassembled on a kitchen table. Unbeknownst to you, but revealed to you by me, a few of the pieces are missing.

Maybe your cat knocked them under the refrigerator, or they fell out of their storage box somewhere along the way. But this doesn’t have to be a problem. I believe you can mostly put together the puzzle without the missing fragments. At the end, when you’re finished, you may be tempted to feel frustration that the picture’s not complete. But that would be illogical perfectionism. Ninety-seven-percent success will be just fine.

“Brexit”—but we were just getting started...

ACROSS 1 Napoleon Dynamite’s pal 6 “___ Degree” (Morningwood song) 9 ___ in “apple” 12 Crop circle creator, supposedly 13 Browning’s “before” 14 Deliver ___ to (send reeling) 16 Armbones 17 Darkish apparel option 19 “I want every non-war symbol you got” request?

21 Hot roofing material 22 “Slammin’ Sammy” of baseball 23 Pointer 24 Fireplace residue 27 Authorize 29 “The Plough and the Stars” playwright Sean 31 Method of accentuating poker hands?

35 Baymax’s friend, in a Disney movie 36 “___ little rusty ...”

37 Cotton-pickin’ 40 All-poultry production of a Steinbeck novel?

45 Rhythmically keep time with, maybe 47 “Schnookiewookums” 48 .org relative 49 Dashed off 50 Fashion designer Gernreich 53 Pot-bellied pet 55 Ability to tell one conjunction from another?

60 Movie buff 61 Drive forward 63 Door openers 64 Dissenting votes 65 Rhode Island-based insurance company 66 “Isn’t that cute?” sounds 67 Understood 68 Potato soup ingredients DOWN 1 Spanish-born NBA star ___ Gasol 2 “Cosmo” competitor

3 “Saw” actress Meyer 4 Lose one’s poker face 5 Symbol that looks like January 2nd?

6 Soft ball maker 7 Horses’ paces 8 Chant in the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop” 9 Xavier Cugat’s ex-wife Lane 10 With everything on the line 11 Voice actress Kath of “Dexter’s Laboratory,” “Rugrats,” and “Animaniacs” 14 Silky wool source 15 Teary-eyed 18 “The Tortoise and the Hare” author 20 Sandwich after a sandwich?

24 “That hits the spot” 25 Poli ___ (college major) 26 Right this second 28 Small combo 30 “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” band

32 Lava, for one 33 Dominique StraussKahn’s former org.

34 Austrian physicist Ernst 38 Ludd from whom Luddites got their name 39 African antelope 41 Causes of some infections 42 Move emotionally 43 Pueblo Revolt tribe 44 Monogram character 45 Sidewalk issue 46 Pacific Ocean phenomenon of lower water temperatures 51 “That’s the cost of ___ business” 52 Water-based abode 54 “I want!”

56 Some “Gods and Generals” extras 57 Home that gets lined 58 TV kid who said, “Pa, just what can you do with a grown woman?”

59 Scarf target 62 Word with Palmas or Vegas

Copyright © 2016 Jonesin’ Crosswords. For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per3minute. Must be 18+ to call. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle No. 788 CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM • JULY 14, 2016 • THE PULSE • 23