The Pulse, Vol. 6, Issue 25

FUEL CELL POWER • END OF ELECTION DAY? • EPIC FAILURE

Losing The War On Drugs Is it time to seriously look at legalization?

By Gary Poole

News, Views, Arts & Entertainment • June 18-24, 2009 • Volume 6, Issue 25 • www.chattanoogapulse.com • pulse news 95.3 WPLZ

CONTENTS T H E P U L S E • C H AT TA N O O G A , T E N N E S S E E • J U N E 1 8 , 2 0 0 9 • V O L U M E 6 , I S S U E 2 5

COVER STORY

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NEWS & VIEWS 5 PULSE BEATS

21 LIFE IN THE ‘NOOG

The newsy, notable and notorious.

Doing the 'Roo.

14 SHRINK RAP

22 SHADES OF GREEN

Setting yourself up... to succeed.

Much more than tree hugging.

19 ON THE BEAT

29 ASK A MEXICAN

Epic fail: Not cool enough for handcuffs.

Useless in Tijuana.

ARTS & FEATURES 9 NEWS FEATURE

By Louis Lee EPB’s Chattanooga headquarters will be a test site for a new type of fuel cell electric generator designed by Bloom Energy.

16 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT By Stephanie Smith “12 Angry Jurors is about a murder trial in which a 19-year-old boy is accused of murdering his father,” explains director Steve Ray.

20 FILM FEATURE

By Phillip Johnston Director Tony Scott’s previous two films have both starred Denzel Washington and, to put it crassly, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 could be referred to as the third installment in Scott’s “Denzel Faced with Moral Uncertainty” trilogy.

24 MUSIC FEATURE

By Hellcat I’ve spent a long time trying to push people in the direction of singer/songwriters, locally, by way of Leticia Wolf, Matt Bohannon, Matt Urmy and Channing Wilson, several very talented and very different styles of writers.

Cover layout by Kelly Lockhart

INSIDE THE FRONT LINES OF A NEW CULTURAL WAR

By Gary Poole When President Nixon announced the beginning of the “War on Drugs” in 1971, the stated goal was to reduce illegal drug trade and to diminish demand for substances deemed immoral, harmful, dangerous, or undesirable. During the Nixon era, the goal was not to incarcerate and punish drug users, but to stop the drug trade and begin programs to help Americans reduce their dependence.

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EDITOON LETTERS TO THE EDITOR CITY COUNCILSCOPE THE LIST POLICE BLOTTER CHATTANOOGA STREET SCENES

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A&E CALENDAR MUSIC CALENDAR NEW MUSIC REVIEWS FREE WILL ASTROLOGY JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

The entire contents of this publication are copyrighted and property of Brewer Media Group.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publishers. The Pulse utilizes freelance writers and the views expressed within this publication are not necessarily the views of the publishers or editors. The Pulse takes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, artwork or other materials.

The

Editoon

by Rick Baldwin

Publisher Zachary Cooper zcooper@chattanoogapulse.com Contributing Editor Janis Hashe jhashe@chattanoogapulse.com News Editor/Art Director Gary Poole gpoole@chattanoogapulse.com Calendar Editor Stephanie Smith ssmith@chattanoogapulse.com Advertising Sales Rick Leavell rleavell@chattanoogapulse.com Editorial Intern Erica Tuggle etuggle@chattanoogapulse.com Contributing Writers Gustavo Arellano, Blythe Bailey Misty Brandon, Rob Brezsny Aaron Collier, Elizabeth Crenshaw Chuck Crowder, Michael Crumb Rebecca Cruz, Hellcat Phillip Johnston, Matt Jones Rachael Kraemer, Jeremy Lawrence Louis Lee, Ernie Paik Rick Pimental-Habib, Ph.D. Damien Power, Stephanie Smith Alex Teach, Tara Williams Art Department Sharon Chambers Kathryn Dunn Kelly Lockhart Damien Power

Letters to the Editor

Editorial Cartoonist Rick Baldwin Staff Photographer Damien Power Contributing Photographers Bob Edens Joshua Lang Ray Soldano Contact Info: Phone (423) 648-7857 Fax (423) 648-7860 E-mail info@chattanoogapulse.com Advertising advertising@chattanoogapulse.com Calendar Listings calendar@chattanoogapulse.com The Pulse is published weekly and is distributed throughout the city of Chattanooga and surrounding communities. The Pulse is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. No person without written permission from the publishers may take more than one copy per weekly issue. The Pulse may be distributed only by authorized distributors.

The Pulse is published by

1305 Carter Street Chattanooga, Tennessee 37402 phone (423) 648-7857 fax (423) 648-7860 Letters to the editor must include name, address and daytime phone number for verification. The Pulse reserves the right to edit letters for space and clarity. Please keep letters within 500 words in length.

The Pulse covers a broad range of topics concentrating on culture, the arts, entertainment and local news.

Member

Grandmotherly Pride Keri Bryan is my granddaughter and I am very proud of her passion for the plight of others so far away from her personal world [“Students Walking For Uganda”]. I pray for the group’s safety and effectiveness.

Evelyn Bryan Chattanooga Riverbend Sensitivity I think it’s interesting and rather sad that Michael Mallen, a board member of Friends of the Festival,

would be so thin-skinned that he couldn’t handle Chuck Crowder expressing an opinion about the Riverbend Festival [“Letters To The Editor”]. One would think a board member would be more professional in dealing with a ºcolumnist expressing an opinion. The fact is, I agree with Crowder: Riverbend this year was not nearly as entertaining as in years past. There were fewer acts, and far too many of the local acts were ones we’ve either seen many times before or were barely better than a garage band. And let’s not even get into the substandard performances by several of the main acts. The fact is, Riverbend obviously needs some new blood and some new ideas, yet as long as people like Mallen are unwilling to accept a difference of opinion, nothing positive will happen.

Candace Whitaker Chattanooga NRA In Charge?

When did the Tennessee Legislature get bought by the National Rifle Association? That is the only explanation I can come

up with for their recent decisions to allow guns in bars [“Welcome To The Rootinest, Tootinest Saloons East Of The Pecos”]. Not to be outdone, it appears we’ll soon be able to pack heat in state parks to protect us from vicious squirrel attacks, among other such obvious dangers. Let’s hear it for Sen. Andy Berke for standing up against the NRA lobbyists and trying to protect us.

Roger Simpson Chattanooga Make The Kids Work Have these brilliant legal minds ever thought of making the kids pick up the trash or go on some other work detail away [“Truancy, Parents and Trash”]? Why take the parent’s limited time with the children?

What do they think these kids will be doing while the parents are on the chain gang? At least if the little truants are on a work detail they will be supervised rather than left alone while the parents pay for the child’s offence. Just a thought…

James Hawkins Chattanooga

Send all letters to the editor and questions to info@chattanoogapulse.com We reserve the right to edit letters for content and space. Please include your full name, city and contact information.

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Pulse Beats

Quote Of The Week: A rundown of the newsy, the notable, and the notorious...

“The library is extremely important to UTC and to this community.

We need to let the legislators know how important this is.”

— County Mayor Claude Ramsey, after learning that funding for the UTC Library had been cut by the state legislature.

Could Election Day Become A Thing Of The Past?

For generations, Election Day was a special day where citizens went to their local precinct polling place and cast their ballot for their favorite candidates. Like vinyl records, analog TV and rotary telephones, the entire concept of Election Day might soon be a thing of the past.

The Hamilton County Election Commission is considering a new idea, one that has been discussed across the state by a number of other county election commissions, of having a limited number of “voting centers” throughout the county that would be open for 20 days prior to the official election day.

This would replace the current system, in which there are three to four early-voting centers and then on Election Day, 125 small precinct polling locations open in churches, schools, community centers and other places. Under the proposed system, all of those would be replaced with one voting site for each of the nine county districts.

“A voter could cast a ballot at any of the nine voting centers on any of the voting days,” explains assistant administrator Charlotte MullisMorgan. “There would be a sizable savings over the current system of staffing the precincts on the day of the election.”

Election Administrator “Bud” Knowles is said to like the idea a lot, and notes that it would go a long way to solve a growing problem of finding and training enough poll workers to staff the precincts, not to mention a potential cost savings in payroll.

It would also make collection and counting of ballots easier, eliminating the coordination of secure transportation from a multitude of county sites.

But even if the idea is seen to be a good one, it will not be easy to make it a reality. Election Commission Attorney Chris Clem points out that it would take action by the state legislature to enact such a plan— and that it would have to be done statewide.

While the obvious cost savings make sense, along with other benefits,

Here is one of the more interesting agenda items set to be discussed at the June 23 meeting of the Chattanooga City Council.

9. Departmental Reports:

there are a number of issues that work against the idea. The primary one: transportation. Many voters would view it as a decided inconvenience to have to travel much further to vote than the neighborhood precinct.

There is also the decision of where to place each of the nine centers.

Consider the recent controversy about where to open early-voting centers in the recent city council runoffs. As with anything related to politics, such decisions can be (and usually are) seen

as potentially benefiting one candidate over another, even if there is no proof of such allegations.

It is good to see the Election Commission open to new ideas, especially those that have the potential of saving taxpayer money. For many, Election Day is a sacred day and to even consider changing how it operates is to be commended as open minded. Whether the new plan will come to pass, or work as planned if it does pass, remains to be seen.

Georgia Drought Relief, UTC Tuition Hike, Cleveland Iraq Deployment • Because of heavy rainfall this spring, for the first time in nearly three years Georgia residents won’t have to deal with severe water restrictions. Governor Sonny Perdue has issued a “non-drought” schedule for outdoor water use. Outdoor water use is allowed three days a week on assigned days using oddand even-numbered addresses. Oddnumbered addresses can water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

Even-numbered and unnumbered addresses are allowed to water on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

• An increase is coming at the University of Tennessee: a tuition hike amounting to hundreds of dollars this fall. This tuition hike will include UTC students. That, along with cuts in staffing and a salary freeze, will, according to some

among the trustees, rein in spending at the university. The upcoming budget of $1.8 billion will anticipate declining state spending and other factors, while continuing the university’s mission of education.

• More Tennesseans will be heading to the Persian Gulf soon.

Nearly 170 members of the 252nd Military Police Company of the Tennessee National Guard, based out of Cleveland, will be deployed to Iraq after completion of a six-week training program at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Maj. Gen. Gus Hargett, Jr. said, “Forty percent of this unit has been to Iraq before. I just talked to one man back there for his third time since 2004. So there’s a lot of experience in this unit.” The unit will leave for training on July 29, and then be sent to Iraq in September for a one-year deployment.

a) Department of Human Services b) Department of Parks and Recreation c) Department of Public Work d) Department of Neighborhood Services e) Department of Education, Arts & Culture f) Fire Department g) Police Department h) Department of Personnel i) Department of Finance and Administration j) City Attorney A recent edition of City Councilscope explained a bit how the committee system works and how any citizen of Chattanooga can address the council on any matter.

The above portion of the weekly agenda is where each department within city government reports directly to the council. It not only gives the various department heads the opportunity to get approval for various projects and procedures, but it also is a forum for the council members to ask questions and make requests (both formal and informal) of the departments.

In addition, the heads of each department—or a senior representative of the department—are present every week and all are readily available to answer any questions, either during the portion of the meeting open to citizens, or more informally after the meeting. If you ever have a question about any aspect of city government, here is your open forum to get the answers.

The Chattanooga City Council meets each Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the City Council Building at 1000 Lindsay St. For more information on the agendas, visit www.Chattanooga.gov/City_ Council/110_Agenda.asp

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A weekly roundup of the newsworthy, notable and often head-scratching stories gleaned from police reports from the Chattanooga Police Department, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, the Bradley County Sheriff’s Department and the Dalton Police Department.

The Eight Scariest Movie Animals Of All Time 1. Great White Shark - Jaws, 1975 Well, duh. Also led to one of the best movie lines of all time: “We’re going to need a bigger boat.”

2. Velociraptor - Jurassic Park, 1993 Steven Spielberg does have a way with scary creatures, and while the T. Rex was scary, the ’raptors were a lot smarter and relentless.

3. Birds - The Birds, 1963 Leave it to the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, to make an entire generation think twice about messing around with a flock of birds.

4. Saint Bernard Dog - Cujo, 1983 One of the rare times when a Stephen King movie ends up scarier than the book, largely due to the fact that Saint Bernards are normally so damn cute.

• In the 1697 play The Mourning Bride, playwright William Congreve penned his most famous line: “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned / Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.” Which goes a long to explain why a Chattanooga man was not surprised to discover that the person who spray-painted both his car and a car belonging to his girlfriend was none other than his ex-wife. The angry ex-wife has been charged with vandalism after allegedly painting both sides of his 1988 BMW and his female friend’s 2002 Toyota Camry.

• There are ways to deal with a neighbor you feel is not a responsible pet owner. Poisoning their dogs is not acceptable, however, under any circumstances. Yet that is exactly what happened to a Brynewood Terrace resident who, after taking her two beagles to the vet, was informed that they had antifreeze in their systems.

She told police that a neighbor had

• Another group of “working girls” were rounded up by undercover police officers in Highland Park and East Lake.

Plainclothes officers posing as “Johns” were able to arrest nine women, ages 32 to 44, on charges of prostitution within one-and-a-half miles of a school, obstructing a roadway and resisting arrest. It should be noted that, as far as officers know, there isn’t any portion of Chattanooga where prostitutes can ply their trade that is not within one-and-a-half miles of a school, but the law is the law.

• One simple reason why the vast majority who commit a crime are caught: Criminals are just not all that bright. It’s really that simple. Take

Chattanooga Street Scenes

5. Spiders - Arachnophobia, 1990 If you weren’t scared of spiders before seeing this movie, you were by the time you left the theater.

6. Crocodile - Lake Placid, 1999 What’s scarier than a 30-foot crocodile? A foul-mouthed Betty White who feeds the huge croc with cows from her own herd.

7. Ants - Them! 1954 Ants are okay when they are normal size. But when they mutate into radioactive giants with a taste for human flesh, it’s a completely different story.

8. Giant Squid - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954 Who says Disney is all wholesome entertainment?

Their first live-action film caused an entire generation of kids to have nightmares.

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complained to her about her letting the dogs roam freely around the neighborhood, and believes that they were poisoned intentionally.

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for example a recent Einstein who robbed a couple in the Brainerd area, taking their cash, cell phones and their vehicle. This same genius, three hours later, was spotted just blocks away with the stolen vehicle at a Brainerd Road gas station. The carjacker was apparently unaware that Brainerd Road is one of the most heavily traveled roads by law enforcement. The rocket scientist was arrested, and the victims’ cash and cell phones were found, still in the vehicle.

Photo by Staff Photographer Damien Power

A colorful resident of North Chattanooga.

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NewsFeature

by Louis Lee

EPB Fueling New Expectations E

PB’s Chattanooga headquarters will be a test site for a new type of fuel cell electric generator designed by Bloom Energy.

Chattanooga was chosen because all the stars aligned. This alignment was the result of the friendship of Bloom Energy’s founder, a former colleague of his (now at the University of Tennessee) and two Tennessee legislators with ties to the Scenic City.

K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, announced his company would install the latest version of their fuel cell generator in Chattanooga this year. The 100-kilowatt system will be capable of generating electricity using a variety of fuels, from natural gas to biomass, creating little or no emissions.

Sridhar says the breakthrough technology could “democratize” the electric grid. These smaller, more efficient generators could produce enough energy for the installation location, with excess sold back to the power company. Installations could be as small as a home generator, or large businesses could generate their own electricity and profit from selling off the excess.

Congressman Zach Wamp announced at the Tennessee Valley Corridor Summit that the project would be getting an infusion of federal funds. Wamp has been friends with Sridhar since the early days of the Summit, which began meeting more than 10 years ago.

Joe Ferguson, head of Special Projects for Chattanooga’s Enterprise Center, says that Wamp and Senator Bob Corker were instrumental in bringing this technology to the Tennessee Valley. “[They] were the ones that smelled it out,” he said. He also gives credit to Henry McDonald, who holds a chair of excellence at the University of Tennessee–Chattanooga’s National Center for Computational Engineering, better known as the SimCenter. McDonald was also a scientist with NASA, and a former colleague of Sridhar’s.

“Not only is Chattanooga the site for the test, but local officials hope that a manufacturing plant can be located here once the system is tested.”

Two years ago a 5-kilowatt system was installed by Bloom Energy at the SimCenter, and it’s through the SimCenter federal funding will flow.

The SimCenter will conduct the necessary analysis of the system once it’s installed.

EPB will contribute up to $100,000 to cover installation costs and operational costs. The test unit is scheduled for operation for one year, but might stay five years, depending on results.

Not only is Chattanooga the site for the test, but local officials hope that a manufacturing plant can be located here once the system is tested and proven marketable.

There are still technological hurdles to overcome before making such extended plans, but Bloom appears to be on the path.

In the past, reliability has been an issue with fuel cell technology.

In order to be used in a commercial installation, the generation of power must be dependable. The other concern is cost of raw fuels.

Currently, the price of natural gas is

still volatile. Whatever fuel is used, the supply must be abundant and affordable.

The EPB installation will run on natural gas, but should serve as a stable test platform.

The Tennessee Valley Authority also appears interested in the project. Although the technology could be seen as competition to the largest power generator in the country, TVA is interested in seeing it in action and analyzing the data collected from the tests.

TVA has recently announced plans to utilize a new, smaller nuclear plant designed by Virginia-based Babcock and Wilcox. The utility is considering the 12-megawatt units for use in the still-unfinished Bellfonte plant in North Alabama and at the abandoned Clinch River site in Oak Ridge.

If successful, the next installation of the fuel cell technology could be the one that’s marketed to the public—maybe even before the end of this year.

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local news and views

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Cover Story

Inside The Front Lines Of A New Cultural War

by Gary Poole

It was a typical sunny day in Acapulco,

Beltrán Leyva drug cartel, resulting in the Mexico. The type of day that draws millions death of 13 drug traffickers, two soldiers, and of tourists every year to one of Mexico’s most an innocent father and son caught up in the famed vacation destinations. The beaches, the crossfire. clubs, the fantastic resorts have for years been Welcome to the War on Drugs, 2009 edition. a major draw for those looking to get away As the violence in Mexico escalates to frightening levels, fueled mainly by what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the stress of modern life. terms America’s “insatiable” appetite for illicit drugs, many What these visitors did not expect was a in government, law enforcement, academia and the business four-hour gun battle between the Mexican world have renewed the call for a long hard look at military and heavily armed members of the alternatives to what has become one of government policy’s 95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 6.18.09 The Pulse

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Cover Story cover story continued from page 11

largest failures since Prohibition ended in 1933.

When President Nixon announced the beginning of the “War on Drugs” in 1971, the stated goal was to reduce illegal drug trade and to diminish demand for substances deemed immoral, harmful, dangerous, or undesirable. During the Nixon era, the goal was not to incarcerate and punish drug users, but to stop the drug trade and begin programs to help Americans reduce their dependence on narcotics. It was the only time that more funding went towards treatment than law enforcement.

But like many government programs that start with the best of intentions, the war became distorted by those seeking political gain through appearing “tough on crime”, and the anti-drug warriors turned their attention inwards. The end result has been the highest percentage of incarcerated Americans of any time in our history.

Over 2.2 million people are behind bars, a quadrupling of our prison population, with over 37 million arrests since 1971 on non-violent drug charges. Worse yet, in the past three decades, the number of deaths related to drug overdoses has risen more than 540 percent.

The Federal Government’s Household Survey on Drug Abuse, conducted annually, is the most commonly cited set of statistics on the prevalence of drug use.

According to the latest surveys, about 12.7 million people have used some illegal drug in the last month, and perhaps 30 to 40 million have used some illegal drug within the last year. Of the 12.7 million who used illegal drugs in the last month, about 10 million are presumed to be casual drug users, and about 2.7 million are addicts.

“The stated goals of current U.S. drug policy—reducing crime, drug addiction, and juvenile drug use— have not been achieved, even after nearly four decades,” claims Jack A. Cole, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). “Despite all the lives we have destroyed and all the money so ill spent, today illicit drugs are cheaper, more potent, and far easier to get than they were at the beginning of the war on drugs. We believe that to save lives and lower the rates of disease, crime and addiction as well as to conserve tax dollars, we must end drug prohibition.”

The members of LEAP are far from the only voices asking for a fresh look at current drug laws and alternatives. Others include California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s recent calls

to open the debate on legalizing marijuana (not to mention California’s long-running battle with federal drug agencies over medical marijuana), to longtime anti-marijuana advocate Donald Tashkin, whose three decades of research were funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

“Early on, when our research appeared as if there would be a negative impact on lung health, I was opposed to legalization because I thought it would lead to increased use and that would lead to increased health effects,”

poll, released just two weeks ago, found that 52 percent of respondents want the government to lift strict punishments for the drug and nationalize its production, using tax revenues to support a wounded economy. In fact, it is becoming ever harder to find mainstream advocates who support the continued draconian drug laws as applied to marijuana.

But what about illicit drugs other than marijuana?

Of the most commonly used drugs in the United States, the top five are pharmaceuticals, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin. Regionally, use of each drug is quite different. Here in the Southeast, for example, cocaine is by far the illicit drug of choice, with slightly more than 50 percent of drug users imbibing some form of the narcotic. Meth is second in popularity, followed by pharmaceuticals and marijuana, with heroin a distant fifth.

The growth of methamphetamine use, which is at epidemic levels out West, has been making steady inroads in the South over the past decade. It is seen by medical professionals as one of the most dangerous drugs ever developed. It is nearly instantly addictive and requires higher doses with each subsequent use in order to match the initial high. It also has been proven to destroy brain cells and irreparably impair the central nervous system, among many other harmful side effects.

Unlike marijuana, which has never been conclusively shown to be physically addictive, the other four drugs produce strong physical dependence. The grip of drug addiction leads directly to criminal acts, such as robbery and prostitution, in order to purchase more drugs. This is in addition to well-known criminal enterprises surrounding the production, transport and sale of the drugs by organized crime, foreign cartels, and local street gangs. Would legalizing, or even de-criminalizing such harmful substances be in the best interest of the public welfare?

It’s a question that has long perplexed proponents of ending the War on Drugs. Many of the more extreme in the legalization movement point to the physical harms and addictions related to alcohol as an argument in favor of legalizing all drugs, noting that strong government regulation and control of alcohol have been able to combat the more egregious negative effects of drinking. For many, though, that argument rings hollow, as they view the thousands of deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and lost productivity caused by alcohol abuse each year.

Yet even some in the medical profession challenge the conventional wisdom that the

“Despite all the lives we have destroyed and all the money so ill spent, today illicit drugs are cheaper, more potent, and far easier to get than they were at the beginning of the war on drugs.”

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Tashkin says. “But at this point, I’d be in favor of legalization. I wouldn’t encourage anybody to smoke any substances. But I don’t think it should be stigmatized as an illegal substance. Tobacco smoking causes far more harm. And in terms of an intoxicant, alcohol causes far more harm.”

And for the first time since the War on Drugs began, the majority of Americans also support the legalization of marijuana. A national Zogby

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Cover Story “harder” drugs are as dangerous and addictive as is widely believed. Dr. Benson Roe, Professor Emeritus and former Chair of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of California at San Francisco, has directly called into question such beliefs. “The widespread propaganda that illegal drugs are ‘deadly poisons’ is a hoax,” he claims. “There is little or no medical evidence of long term ill effects from sustained, moderate consumption of uncontaminated marijuana, cocaine or heroin. If these substances—most of them have been consumed in large quantities for centuries—were responsible for any chronic, progressive or disabling diseases, they certainly would have shown up in clinical practice and/or on the autopsy table.”

He goes on to call out the media for our portrayal of drug users. “Media focus on the ‘junkie’ has generated a mistaken impression that all users of illegal drugs are devastated by their habit. Simple arithmetic demonstrates that the small population of visible addicts must constitute only a fraction of the $150 billion per year illegal drug market. This industry is so huge that it necessarily encompasses a very large portion of the ordinary population, who are typically employed, productive, responsible and not significantly impaired from leading conventional lives. These drug users are not addicts, just as the vast majority of alcohol users are not alcoholics.”

Another argument in favor of complete legalization of all drugs, including meth, comes from Marc Victor, a practicing criminal defense attorney in Chandler, Arizona. He does not dispute the effects of meth use and has firsthand experience representing users of the drug in the courts. “Few drugs are more addictive or dangerous than meth,” he says. “Many of those who oppose legalization of meth identify the horrors of meth use. I entirely agree with their assessment of meth’s dangers. However, asking whether meth is dangerous or unhealthy or addictive is not the right question.”

His argument in favor of legalization is based on the concept of a truly free society, about who gets to decide what you can and cannot do as a free person. “The question of who gets to make decisions about the disposition of certain property is central to understanding freedom,” he explains. “Who gets to decide what activities are too dangerous for you? Should I get to decide what activities are too dangerous for you? What about your neighbor? Or the majority? Or the president? Or Congress? Or some judge? In a free society, the owner of the property gets to decide how the property is used.

Because you own your body, I assert that you

should decide how your body is used or abused.”

The final piece of the legalization puzzle is purely economic. At a time when the country is struggling to recover from one of the worst economic recessions since the end of the Great Depression, many lawmakers and tax-weary citizens are swayed by the promise of the large tax revenue legalization might generate, as well as ever-increasing price tags associated with the War on Drugs. Countless billions of dollars have been spent since Nixon launched the war, money that a growing number of people from all walks of life

Professor Jeffrey A. Miron, stating that marijuana legalization would save $7.7 billion per year in state and federal expenditures on prohibition enforcement—and produce tax revenues of at least $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like most consumer goods. If, however, marijuana were taxed similarly to alcohol or tobacco, it could generate as much as $6.2 billion annually.

“We therefore urge the country to commence an open and honest debate about marijuana prohibition,” Friedman wrote in his open letter to Obama. “We believe such a debate will favor a regime in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods. At a minimum, this debate will force advocates of current policy to show that prohibition has benefits sufficient to justify the cost to taxpayers, foregone tax revenues, and numerous ancillary consequences that result from marijuana prohibition.”

Obama, though, is so far unswayed by the arguments of Friedman and others. At a recent town hall meeting, he was asked why the federal government was not looking at turning a failed War on Drugs into a “money-making, money-saving boost to the economy”. His response was simple and direct: “The answer is no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.”

However, the debate is far from over and is in fact growing stronger at every level.

Norm Stamper, the former chief of police of Seattle, speaks passionately about what he feels are the “real casualties” of the War on Drugs. “Tens of thousands of otherwise innocent Americans are incarcerated, many for 20 years, some for life; families are ripped apart; drug traffickers and blameless bystanders are shot dead on city streets; narcotics officers are assassinated here and abroad,” Stamper says.

The War on Drugs has obviously been lost. Now is the time when everyone, from regular citizens on up to our highest elected leaders, need to take a long, hard look at what price we are willing to pay to continue this fruitless and destructive war. The answers are not obvious; there are still many questions to be asked and debated, but there is no longer any excuse for us as nation to keep our heads in the sand.

“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced,” said no less a thinker than esteemed physicist Albert Einstein, looking back at the failure of Prohibition, a lesson that seems not yet learned by those who continue to support the War on Drugs.

“Who gets to decide what activities are too dangerous for you? Should I get to decide what activities are too dangerous for you? What about your neighbor? Or the majority? Or the president?” feel has been almost or completely wasted.

Milton Friedman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, was joined by Nobel Laureate George Akerlof and other notable economists, including Daron Acemoglu of MIT, Howard Margolis of the University of Chicago, and Walter Williams of George Mason University, in urging President Obama to seriously consider legalizing marijuana.

The basis for the argument was a report by

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ShrinkRap

by Dr. Rick

Setting Yourself Up…To Succeed R

egular readers of this column have seen numerous references here to what I call the “Big Bag O’ Tools.” This refers to the collection of internal resources and coping mechanisms that get developed through those, let’s say, “character-building” experiences we all have, should we choose to learn from them.

Your own Bag O’ Tools might include knowing several ways to quell your anxieties or lift a depression; how to calmly and maturely address problems with co-workers or a lover; ways to shift a temporary bad mood toward a positive perspective; and endless other techniques for living your best self. This coping collection is unique to everyone and is developed over time, by thoughtfully navigating through life and learning the abundant lessons that are always present, with both positive experiences and challenging ones alike. Therapy is often a lot about creating new tools to put in your bag.

The great news is that with practice and time, you’ll find more and more of your coping tools being used naturally and easily. At first, when you’re going through a stressful time or experiencing a challenging moment in life, you’ll need to take a breath and quite consciously go rummaging in your bag for the best way(s) you know to handle the situation. But eventually, you’ll experience the happy realization that, “Hey, I used my tools and coped with that problem better than I ever have… and it came naturally!”

Well, your Big Bag O’ Tools is there for precisely this reason: to help you lead a happier, more successful life.

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As you develop and strengthen more and more internal resources, and find successful ways to use your tools for both the small, everyday situations as well as the larger, sometimes lifealtering decisions, you’ll feel ever more empowered to be living the life you desire. You’ll find yourself designing your own universe, your own path.

Maybe you’re trying for a promotion at your job, or you’re thinking about building your own business, or doing better in school. Perhaps you’re wanting to improve your relationships with friends, or to start dating people that are healthier for you. Maybe you’re ready for an attitude adjustment.

Or you need a new, bigger romance. A new, bigger circle of friends. A new, bigger sense of joy in your life.

Here’s how to utilize your tools as part of a 5-step process that really puts you in the driver’s seat: 1. The first step is to state your intention clearly. For example, “I am ready to meet someone wonderful.” Or, “I welcome all new experiences that will help my business to grow.” Or, “I am becoming a more reliable, responsible person.” You can see how these sound a bit like mantras, or affirmations.

2. Next, think about it, talk about it, write about it, meditate on it, and do whatever keeps your goal upfront and center. Thoughts and words have energy and manifest results, so keep them clear and ever-present.

3. Now search your own Big Bag O’ Tools to see if you possess the internal resources you need for you to reach this goal, or if you need to develop some new ones. Sometimes you might find yourself needing more “practical” skills, such as greater business knowledge or a friend to mentor you. So not all your tools will be internal, but nonetheless your

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awareness of what you already possess and what you need to acquire—both internally and externally—is the goal of this step.

4. This is the “action” step.

Collect the data, skills, and experiences that are all around you, to be used to help you strengthen your abilities. If, for example, you’re ready for dating, then as you walk around take note of the people who seem happy, the ones who catch your eye, who seem to possess the qualities you want in your life. If your goal is about business, what skills do you admire about other businesspeople? Are they especially good listeners? Good leaders? Good at attracting talented folks around them?

What do you notice…and admire?

5. Finally, let yourself be someone who is receptive to any and all lessons, messages, and experiences that relate to your goal, and can go into your Big Bag. Listen to the universe on the level of what I call, “quiet receptivity.” By this I mean that you can find invaluable guidance and inspired thought from, literally, anywhere. IF you are listening.

A great conversation, a passage in a book, a song on your iPod, sitting on your back porch—these are all fertile grounds for inspiration. Observe.

Listen. Take it in.

When you start to appreciate the tremendous value of consciously increasing your own Big Bag O’ Tools, you start to see that your abilities can lead to success in any and every part of your life—relationships, work, friendships, caring for others, childrearing, developing your spirituality, and in general becoming the best you you can be.

Dr. Rick Pimental-Habib, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist, minister, and educator, in private practice in Chattanooga. Visit his web site at www.DrRPH.com

“When you start to appreciate the tremendous value of consciously increasing your own Big Bag O’ Tools, you start to see that your abilities can lead to success in any and every part of your life.”

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 6.18.09 The Pulse

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Arts&Entertainment

by Stephanie Smith

The (Angry) Jury Is In “12

Angry Jurors is about a murder trial in which a 19-year-old boy is accused of murdering his father,” explains director Steve Ray. “The original teleplay by Reginald Rose, 12 Angry Men, was released in 1954, and it was one of the first times [that] performing arts people began struggling with reasonable doubt, and learning that lawyers are not always out for the best for their clients.

Twelve people who have never done this [sat on a jury] have to decide what it means to search for truth. [Further] what does it mean to have reasonable doubt?”

The 12 jurors spend an hour and a half in real time debating whether or not the boy is guilty. None of the jurors are named, and, in this production, the cast is multicultural, with African American, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic male and female actors. In order to keep the material timely, Ray chose to move the play forward from 1954 to 1966, a time, he says, when different marginalized groups were beginning to find a voice. Ray believes the multiracial cast will allow the audience to figure out whether or not the boy is “guilty.”

The original production featured Henry Fonda as the protagonist, the lone juror who thinks the boy is “not guilty.” The role raised questions for actor Dylan Kussman. He told us, “For me, the fundamental questions that the play asks of an audience are these, in no particular order: “Is the American jury process still (or was it ever) the best way to determine the guilt or innocence of a defendant? After all, jurors are not required to be criminal or constitutional ‘experts’, and yet they hold the legal fate of a defendant in their collective hands—an immense amount of power to be wielded by a dozen ordinary citizens.

“Does the sheer number of jurors, in theory, mitigate their individual shortcomings as legal thinkers? In other words, do the principles of ‘groupthink’ reduce the chances of the jury rendering an inaccurate verdict?

Rehearsing this play has really made

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“Is the American jury process still (or was it ever) the best way to determine the guilt or innocence of a defendant?” me aware of the collective conscience of 12 people in a room discussing a criminal case—it truly has a life of its own. It has also made clear the perils of a ‘deadlocked’ jury—a 6 to 6 vote on procedural matters—that would be rendered obsolete with the addition or subtraction of a single juror. Why 12?

Why not 11, or 13?

“Does it make sense to require a unanimous verdict from a jury?

Why can even one dissenting vote result in a ‘hung jury’? Why can’t a simple majority account for a valid final decision? Getting 12 people, 12 strangers really, to agree on anything is an extremely difficult, heartwrenching proposition; and in this play, when the case is a murder case and where a guilty verdict will most assuredly result in the death sentence for the defendant, the stakes are so high that achieving concurrence seems nearly impossible.

“Is it realistic to assume that an individual juror, or a jury as a whole, can ever truly render a completely objective verdict? Isn’t it impossible to ask jury members to set aside their own personal sets of values/histories, ideas about right and wrong, and beliefs about people from different socio-economic backgrounds? From rehearsing the play, I think it is possible, but it takes a tremendous amount of effort and close attention to the given evidence. Otherwise,

personalities muddy the waters, and logic can become completely obscured.”

Actress Ikeko Bass plays the antagonist. “It’s a very complex and controlling character. It was a little difficult for me getting into the script because I’ve never been on a jury before. Aside from Law & Order, I didn’t know anything about it. I always wanted to be on a jury, but after doing this play, I hope I never have to be on one. It’s difficult determining someone else’s fate.

“Basically Dylan’s [character] is against me,” she explains. “He’s totally ‘not guilty’ on the boy from day one. My vote is ‘guilty’ based on my family situation. My son has gotten into a gang and has hit me. I get back at him by way of the trial.

[Ultimately] it’s how everyone thinks that matters; even though everyone heard the same thing in court, based on their background they all heard different things.”

12 Angry Jurors $17 / $14 in advance, $20 day of show (Saturday, June 27 matinee performance $12) 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 4 p.m.

Sundays June 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 28 Destiny Theatre Company Ripple Theater, 3264 Brainerd Road For tickets, contact the Memorial Auditorium box office, (423) 642-TIXS or visit www.destinyentertainment.org

A&ECalendar Friday

Thursday

Book Signing with Eric Barnes Author and publisher of The Daily News and The Memphis News will be signing his latest novel Shimmer. A great way to get out of the heat and into a good book.

Free 7 p.m.

Rock Point Books, 401 Broad Street. (423) 756-2855. www.rockpointbooks.com

Send your calendar events to us at calendar@chattanoogapulse.com

Southern Connections 7 p.m. Circle Theatre, Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534.

Summer Salon Show by Steve Forster and Katherine Tate Hanover Gallery, 111 Frazier Ave. (423) 648-0533.

Poetry Open Mic Night 7:30 p.m. Barnes & Noble, 2100 Hamilton Place Blvd.

(423) 893-0186.

“New Work by Lisa Norris” Gannon Art Gallery, 3250 Brainerd Rd. (423) 622-8236.

Reception for “A Modern Twist” 6:30 p.m. River Gallery, 400 E. Second St. (423) 265-5033. www.river-gallery.com

Delta Queen: A Musical Journey dinner & show 8 p.m. Delta Queen, Coolidge Park. (423) 468-4500.

James Gregory 7:30 p.m. The Comedy Catch & Gigglesd Grille, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com

12 Angry Jurors 8 p.m. Ripple Theater, 3264 Brainerd R. (423) 544-1597.

“Fine Art Bird Photography” by Dan Williams Bill Shores Frames & Gallery, 307 Manufacturers Rd., Suite 117.

(423) 756-6746.

UTC Master Chorale Concert

Art by Terry West Studio 2/Gallery 2, 27 W. Main St. (423) 266-2222.

This summer concert will feature folk- and Northern European-influenced material for toe-tapping fun.

“A Barage of Butterflies” Houston Museum of Arts, 201 High St. (423) 267-7176. www.thehoustonmuseum.com

Free 7:30 p.m.

Second Presbyterian Church, 700 Pine Street. (423) 425-4601. www.utc.edu/music

Saturday

America’s addiction to oil and possible solutions are examined in this well-informed documentary with a panel discussion to follow. Not to be missed. $10 per person ($5 for members) 6 p.m. green/spaces, 63 E. Main Street.

(423) 267-1218. www.artsedcouncil.org

Monday “Spring into Summer” In-Town Gallery, 26A Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9214.

“Rotation” Tanner Hill Gallery, 3069 S. Broad St., Suite 3. (423) 280-7182.

“Tying the Knot: Jewish Wedding Traditions” Jewish Cultural Center, 5461 North Terrace. (423) 493-0270.

ensembletheatreofchattanooga.com

Southern Connections 8 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, Circle Theatre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534.

Sunday Mosaic Market 11 a.m. 412 Market St. (corner of 4th/Market) (423) 624-3915.

AEC Back Row Film Series: Fuel

ETC’s Short Attention Span Theatre: 10-Minute Play Festival 7:30 p.m. St. Andrews Center Theatre, 1918 Union Ave. (423) 987-5141.

Ring Around the Moon 8 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, MainStage, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534.

Art til Dark: featured artist, Tangerinas, owned by Nicole Thurman and Deb Prater Noon. WinderBinder Gallery, 40 Frazier Ave. (423) 413-8999. www.winderbinder.com Southern Connections 2:30 & 8 p.m. Circle Theatre, Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534.

Chattanooga Market: Ragin’ Cajun Dad’s Day 11 a.m. First Tennessee Pavillion, 1826 Carter St. www.chattanoogamarket.com

Sundown in St. Elmo 6 p.m. Incline Railway, Lower Station, St. Elmo Ave. (423) 821-4902.

New Voices Poetry Reading 7 p.m. Pasha, 3914 St. Elmo Ave. (423) 475-5482 www.pashacoffeehouse.com James Gregory 7:30 & 10 p.m. The Comedy Catch & Giggles Grille, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233.

12 Angry Jurors 4 p.m. Ripple Theater, 3264 Brainerd R. (423) 544-1597. www.destinyentertainment.org

Short Attention Span Theatre Ten Minute Play Festival

“Jellies: Living Art” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944.

12 Angry Jurors 8 p.m. Ripple Theater, 3264 Brainerd R. (423) 544-1597.

Plays for those who hate sitting through plays. Rapidfire format ensures something for everyone.

“Windows on the West: Views From the American Frontier” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944.

ensembletheatreofchattanooga.com

Ring Around the Moon 8 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534.

$8 3 p.m.

St. Andrews Center, 1918 Union Avenue. (423) 987-5141.

“A Modern Twist” River Gallery, 400 E. Second St. (423) 265-5033.

Tuesday

Wednesday

ETC’s Short Attention Span Theatre: 10-Minute Play Festival 3 p.m. St. Andrews Center Theatre, 1918 Union Ave. (423) 987-5141.

Bob Dombrowski’s sculpture Linda Woodall Fine Arts, 7836 Ooltewah-Georgetown Rd. (423) 238-9985.

Poetry Night 7 p.m. CreateHere, 33 E. Main St., Suite 105. (423) 648-2195. www.createhere.org

Southeast Veterans Museum Chattanooga Ducks building, 201 W. 5th St. (423) 756-3825.

“Sweet Dreams” - a onewoman show by Kimberly Dawn Clayton WinderBinder Gallery of Folk Art, 40 Frazier Ave. (423) 413-8999. www.winderbinder.com

Pet portraits by Lora Miller Wolftever Creek Gallery, 5417 Ooltewah Ringgold Rd. (423) 910-0770.

“The Untold Story of the Great Black Jockeys” Chattanooga African-American Museum, 200 E. MLK Blvd.

(423) 266-8658.

“The Salty Side of Sweet: Works by Kirsten Stingle” AVA Gallery, 30 Frazier Ave. (423) 265-4282.

Works by Stephen Scott Young and “Keyed Up!” Shuptrine Fine Art & Framing, 2646 Broad St. (423) 266-4453.

“Impressions: art by Emily Pietrantone” AVA Gallery, 30 Frazier Ave. (423) 265-4282.

“Zero Sum: Experiments in Game Theory” CreateHere, 33 E. Main St., Suite 105. (423) 648-2195. www.createhere.org “Coal Miner Health in Appalachia” photo exhibit Downtown Public Library, 1001 Broad St. (423) 757-1310. www.lib.chattanooga.gov

Editor’s Pick: Featured Event Of The Week Southern Connections This weekend is the last chance to see the original comedy by local playwright Katherine Grosvenor (Katie Hutchison). Just like the ad says: If you’re from a Southern family, you will recognize the characters of the Langsford clan. $15 Thursday, June 18, 7 p.m., Friday, June 19, 8 p.m., Saturday, June 20, 2:30 and 8 p.m.

Chattanooga Theatre Centre, Circle Stage, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 6.18.09 The Pulse

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OnTheBeat

by Alex Teach

Epic Fail: Not Cool Enough for Cuffs I

t was close to shift change, and with temperatures being relatively cool and the night having been slow, we were all in a good mood, despite being in the final 30 minutes of our watch.

We were starting to blend in with the midnight shift guys that had just come in, and both groups seeing new faces gave additional life to what is an otherwise irritable time during an irritable job.

At 20 minutes to midnight, someone reported prowlers outside on the corner of Oak and Kilmer Streets, and the two shifts of officers met in the area. They weren’t all sent, of course; only two had gotten dispatched, but midnight officers appeared to relieve them, preventing a dreaded “Late Call”, and the relief this provided made us all the happier.

“Camaraderie” is something you feel sitting around a campfire, but “True Bro-mance” is what you use to describe the affection towards the Brother (or Sister) keeping you from having to work overtime.

Anyway, a halfhearted search was underway. Eventually an errant flashlight illuminated a crouched form in a hedgerow beside a house on Vine Street, and the figure broke and ran upon discovery. The wouldbe Invisible Man ran west toward Derby Street, rounded the corner to the north to continue his flight, and skidded to a stop just before he collided with a wall of four officers who were already braced for impact.

Had he struck them, this would have likely been a different kind of story… but alas, he gave up, was afforded the courtesy of having done so, promptly cuffed and searched for weapons.

Our professionalism was rewarded when we discovered he was 14 years old, which makes him as eligible as anyone else to be a criminal, but more complicated to fight with after the fact.

The resident who’d called only heard noises and never saw anything; there was no damage to the home or signs of attempted entry, so the situation was now deescalating into a “trespassing” situation at most. We questioned our young Lex Luthor

about what he was doing outside the nice lady’s window, and he responded by defiantly locking his jaw, sucking in a chest full of air, then turning his chin up and away from us. He was, in the parlance of street work, acting hard.

The kid could have been a stand-in for Emmanuel Lewis, and the officers present had to fight laughter. “Hey there, Mighty Mouse,” I said, “is it your throat or ears that are broken?

C’mon, kid. Quit screwing around.

What were you doing there?” Silence.

“What’s your name?” Silence. “OK, where do you live? Or do you want your mom to come pick you up from JDU?” At this, he slowly turned his head toward me, and said, “That’s the way it’s gonna have to be,” as he curled one corner of his mouth into a smile. The Grinch himself couldn’t have done better.

I was on the cusp of getting annoyed, but not with him; I was bothered by the prospect of dealing with the juvenile system in any form.

How can I describe this? Being a physician is a proud profession, but I bet doctors enjoy cramming their fingers inside a gassy sphincter about as much as cops enjoy dealing with the Juvenile Court System. They both have to do so from time to time, but it’s definitely not a highlight.

“OK, kid. Seriously…tell me your name. Now.” He paused, looked slowly about, then said “Quantrell Green.” A small victory. “OK, Quantrell. What do you go by?

What’s your street name?” He let the grin slip and now lowered the corners of his mouth to appear more predatory. He looked around slowly again, and mentally stepped onto the street-lit stage of his formal criminal debut by proudly announcing: “They call me Paul.”

This time, it was us that met him with silence. That is, until the laughter erupted. “Really? Paul?

They call you ‘PAUL’?! That’s it?

Wow!” I raised my hands, palms out. “OK, boys…uncuff him. We’re outta here.” I turned my back and left, and so did everyone else as they collected their equipment and continued to laugh. “Paul”, however, was horrified. “What? You ain’t arrestin’ me? Whatchoo mean you ain’t arrestin’ me?”

I got to my car and opened the

door as I looked back at him. “Sorry, man. We’re police,” pronouncing it “PO-lease”, of course. “We only take ‘criminals’ to jail; we don’t have time for you right now. Maybe one day. See you.” Paul stood there on the street corner growing smaller in my rearview mirror, both mortified and furious at the same time. I went home smiling.

I am aware that the perfect world scenario would have had me sit down and discuss the error of his ways, and perhaps illuminate a more positive path for “Paul” to follow, one in which he would ascend to great heights, all of which would be attributed to the caring beat cop who spoke to him kindly one dark, lawless night, a story he would recite from a podium with a tear of gratitude running down his cheek. But this isn’t an Elijah Wood movie and that shit doesn’t really happen.

You see…arrest was actually his goal. The above movie script was just that; a work of fiction, like government accountability. A kid, proud of his street name, trying to commit a crime a few houses down from his own (of course we didn’t strand a 14 year old, we knew where he lived), and hoping to get the street cred of actually having gone to jail, of being a card-carrying “criminal” to establish himself amongst his peers. As it turns out, not arresting him was the worst thing we could have done, from his point of view.

Imprisoning the body is one thing, but emasculating the psyche does far more good…and quite cost-effective, when you think about it.

“Activists” (racial, environmental, ad nauseum), street preachers, and kids like these have the same thing in common: A desperate craving for credibility from any source other than earning it in a decent or at least honest fashion. Some want it to build a resume as a victim, others for a resume for criminality, but it all means the same to me: They are dolts, and I’ll have no part of their path into stupidity.

On to the next lesson.

“We questioned our young Lex Luthor about what he was doing outside the nice lady’s window, and he responded by defiantly locking his jaw, sucking in a chest full of air, then turning his chin up and away from us.

He was, in the parlance of street work, acting hard.”

Alexander D. Teach is an occasional student of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a graduate of Central High. In his spare time he enjoys carpentry, auto mechanic work, boating, and working for the Boehm Birth Defects Center.

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 6.18.09 The Pulse

19

Film Feature

by Phillip Johnston

Travolta on a Train D

irector Tony Scott’s previous two films have both starred Denzel Washington and, to put it crassly, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 could be referred to as the third installment in Scott’s “Denzel Faced with Moral Uncertainty” trilogy.

In 2004’s Man on Fire, Washington played an alcoholic former CIA assassin hired to protect a prominent industrialist’s young daughter. Déjà Vu, released in 2006, had Denzel attempting to manipulate the spacetime continuum and prevent needless deaths. In The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (in theaters now), a remake of a ’70s cult hit starring Walter Matthau, Washington plays Walter Garber, a portly civil service employee at the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City.

On this particular day, Garber finds himself dealing with a man who calls himself Ryder—an armed criminal who has blocked a transit tunnel by stopping a subway car inside.

Over the radio, he communicates to Garber his philosophy of “people as commodities” and explains if he doesn’t get $10,000,000 delivered to him on the hour, the hostage commodities in the train car will start disappearing and innocent lives will be lost.

Garber firmly stands his ground until the government hostagenegotiation crew (led by a one-note John Turturro) rushes in and takes over the conversation with Ryder.

Garber is asked to leave, but when Ryder finds out that his favorite civil employee is gone, he is infuriated and kills the driver of the hijacked subway car. Garber is forced to return and continue the conversation with a criminal who is reaching higher levels of insanity by the minute.

Walter Garber is an affable fellow, liked by his co-workers but not his superiors. His current job as a traffic controller is the result of a demotion when he was suspected of taking a bribe while in Japan looking at new subway cars for the city transit system. Garber denies that he ever took the bribe, but Ryder uses this piece of information to his advantage, forcing Garber to confess to the bribe.

Walter continues to deny taking the

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“The film’s screenplay hits the right notes when it focuses on Garber, an exceptionally empathetic character thrown without warning into a refining crucible.” bribe until Ryder points a gun at a young hostage and demands the truth.

Through his confession—an act of bravery that transpires in front of all his superiors, plus numerous government agents—Walter comes to grips with the truth about himself and his own actions while simultaneously preventing the needless death of an innocent person. It’s a profound trade-off, and one that figures in to the film’s thrilling conclusion when Ryder and Garber come face-to-face.

Working from a nimble screenplay

by Man on Fire scribe Brian Helgeland, Tony Scott’s directorial work is so-so at best. His approach to “Pelham” consists of two overused techniques: the fast dolly to the left and jerky slow motion. He just can’t get enough of either one and, although the story is fully understood, the modus operandi seems more fitted to a made-for-television potboiler than a big-screen spectacle. Although the stakes are high, lives are on the line, and heroes are on the move, “Pelham” is as generic as a filler episode of Fox’s 24—at least until it reaches a thrilling final act.

Though his demands and philosophy are sobering, Ryder, including guns and looming henchmen whose vocabulary skill peaks at “Shit! What the fuck!”, is less than terrifying. The script gives him

plenty of threatening ultimatums to howl at Garber, but it’s easy to tell that Travolta isn’t comfortable in his aging skin. Heck, he seemed even more comfortable debasing himself in the skin of Edna Turnblad in 2007’s Hairspray—a career low one would hope he never reaches again. Here he sports a goatee in lieu of a fat suit, but the added facial hair doesn’t take away 20 years and transform him back into the lithe, charismatic movie star of yesteryear.

Despite Travolta’s meandering villain, the film’s screenplay hits the right notes when it focuses on Garber, an exceptionally empathetic character thrown without warning into a refining crucible, out of which he emerges a better man. Although the villain stays boring, the movie clips along briskly and the final third hurtles to a sobering, redemptive conclusion void of any highminded pedantic mumbo-jumbo or sermonizing. We’re simply left with a likable Everyman transformed, at least for a moment, into a hero—a rarity we probably won’t see again this summer.

The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 Directed by Tony Scott Starring Denzel Washington, John Travolta Rated R Running time: 106 minutes

LifeInTheNoog

by Chuck Crowder

Doin’ the ’Roo W

ell, I just got back from the closest “hippie” activity you’ll ever catch me entertaining: Bonnaroo. And let me tell you, attending reportedly THE largest music festival in the country is an experience to say the least.

When you first enter the festival grounds, there’s not a stage in sight.

It’s tents, RVs, flags and freaks as far as the eye can see in every direction. And carved into the fields that corral cattle the other 361 days of the year are makeshift “streets”, complete with road signs. I parked on the corner of (no kidding) 7th Avenue and 5th Street or, as it’s more commonly known, “over yonder.”

From there, the closest festival entrance was on the corner of 5th and Broadway (wherever that is).

Just follow the flip-flops.

This was actually my second trip to Bonnaroo. Some buddies and I went back in 2007 for our fortieth birthdays just to prove we weren’t too old to do it. Plus, we wanted to see The Police, Flaming Lips, White Stripes and Wilco all in one place. When we got there however, we discovered that our age group represented the median, not the top of the scale. So I didn’t feel so old going back a second time. And I can see why people of all ages keep coming back.

Once you wade through the corn dogs, funnel cakes, frozen lemonades and six-dollar beers (which, ironically enough, aren’t any colder or more refreshing than the two-dollar variety back here at home) you begin to see what this four-day freak-out is all about.

It’s the freedom to do, see, hear and experience anything and everything other than what your normal work-a-day life presents. If you wanna walk around in sequined thong shorts and butterfly wings, do it. If you want to exchange your clothes for body paint, have at it. If you want to take a cat nap in a mud puddle, be their guest. And if you want to take a handful of “molly” and wash it down with a Jell-O

shooter just to see what happens, make yourself right at home.

You’d think that if you cram 80,000 people into 110 Middle Tennessee acres with virtually no (visible) police presence that there’d be a lot of people taking advantage of other people, but there’s not.

You don’t see security manhandling people or arrests being made at all. Not that there’s not any illegal activity going on. I mean, the whole place smells like the set of a Cheech & Chong movie. And “indecent exposure” laws are waived right along with the pot smoke. But, overall, Bonnaroo is a completely safe place to be. You can feel it.

Like most folks my age, I go for the music. And in two short days, I witnessed the following: Galactic with Trombone Shorty (awesome), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (dancy but not my thing), Grizzly Bear (not dancy and not my thing), Al Green (truly a religious experience), TV on the Radio (pretty good), Lucinda Williams (fantastic), David Byrne (did tons of Heads tunes), Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 (exactly as awesome as I expected), Booker T & The DBTs (interesting combo that works), Bon Iver (not my cup), Of Montreal (pretty good), Wilco (getting a little introverted and freaky these days), Elvis Costello (with a band and a bunch of special guests—so it rawked), and three hours of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (like Al Green, a religious experience and now in my top five shows ever witnessed).

I could’ve seen a lot of other bands, like Phish, Beastie Boys, Snoop Dog, Public Enemy, Ben Harper, Merle Haggard, Nine Inch Nails, moe, and many, many more.

In fact, there’s music happening every day from noon til 4 a.m. on five different stages (the What, Which, This, That, and the Other).

But the best thing about Bonnaroo is that you have options upon options of things to do.

If you don’t like music, there’s a marketplace with booth after booth of clothes, jewelry, posters, toys, instruments, camping equipment and more. There’s a Whole Foods tent and a hair salon. There’s a

“You’d think that if you cram 80,000 people into 110 Middle Tennessee acres with virtually no (visible) police presence that there’d be a lot of people taking advantage of other people, but there’s not.” comedy tent (this year featuring Jimmy Fallon). And there’s even an air-conditioned movie theater tent (I saw Anvil: The Story of Anvil and The Big Lebowski while taking breaks from the heat). There’s so much to do and see that every single person has a completely different Bonnaroo experience.

That being said, there’s not much a festivalgoer can complain about.

In fact, I only have one suggestion for making the festival any better (and I feel guilty about even bringing it up). But seriously, the “Which” stage needs video screens. Am I right? Let’s make it happen…for next year.

Chuck Crowder is a local writer and general man about town. His opinions are just that. Everything expressed is loosely based on fact, and crap he hears people talking about. Take what you just read with a grain of salt, but pepper it in your thoughts. And be sure to check out his wildly popular website www.thenoog.com

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 6.18.09 The Pulse

21

ShadesOfGreen

by Elizabeth Crenshaw

Much More Than Tree Hugging “E

nvironmentalist” evokes a certain perception among some demographics. But this view is not just superficial—at its core is the idea that people who care deeply about environmental issues just don’t get it. According to this opinion, hot-topic issues like healthcare, job loss, and national security are out of an environmentalist’s realm of understanding.

This perception asks a question: Why care about certain plants or obscure endangered animals when there are real, important issues affecting real people?

The first time environmental degradation showed up on my radar, I was five years old. A chemical company in my hometown called Columbia Organic Chemicals had operated a facility in a residential area for decades. By the time people discovered the extent of the company’s lack of environmental oversight, they had long since relocated.

COC was known as a “specialty batch” chemical company, meaning they manufactured special madeto-order chemicals. They’d also run a chemical recycling business, but instead of recycling the toxic substances sent to them by other chemical manufacturers, COC had just dumped the waste on site. There is no evidence that in the years they operated this business they ever disposed of this waste properly. It was not until the early 1990’s that people began to take action.

However, there was pushback from not only the company, as one would expect, but also from some residents.

22

These residents, though they were being affected, chose not to see the issue as being important. But most of the neighborhood did, and, ultimately, two COC executives were sent to jail.

Who were their crimes committed against? Certainly the local plant life was affected, as were the salamanders and frogs that lived along the contaminated stream. But it was the people made ill, some irreversibly, that demanded attention. I lived in this neighborhood, which made the issue very real and very important to me.

The story of Love Canal is another example of how environmental issues directly affect people, a particularly moving case because so many of the victims were children. Love Canal is a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, where in the 1970’s, a school and surrounding neighborhood were located directly on top of 21,000 pounds of toxic chemical waste.

These families suffered unexplained illnesses and miscarriages. Between the years 1974-1978, 56 percent of children born to parents living in Love Canal had birth defects. Blood tests showed that a “disturbingly high” amount of people in the area showed signs of developing leukemia and had chromosome damage—meaning that their children’s children’s children could be affected.

The homes in this neighborhood were demolished. New laws were created to keep degradation on this scale from happening again. But the damage was done, and thousands of people’s lives were changed. The impact to healthcare in this area was undeniable.

When people think of the massive Exxon Valdez spill, images of oilsoaked animals being combed with

The Pulse 6.18.09 www.chattanoogapulse.com 95.3 Pulse News

toothbrushes come to mind. But what some people don’t remember is that entire industries in Prince William’s Sound dependent on the water were wiped out. This one incident created economic devastation that has yet to be cleaned up. The economy is tied to the environment in more ways than most of us ever truly understand. But when an event alters our environment, the connection between it and our livelihoods becomes apparent.

There are so many examples of environmental degradation affecting people, governments, and markets, it would be impossible to list them all.

From the 1984 gas leak in India that killed 4,000 people instantly, to the 2000 Baia Mare spill in which over 55 tons of cyanide were dumped, to the current Gulf of Mexico’s Dead Zone, fighting for environmental issues is bigger than tree hugging.

Environmental degradation hurts people, cripples economies, and threatens our security.

Environmental issues aren’t “soft green-washing opportunities” when they affect you and your community.

And the truth is that these issues do affect you—the air you breathe, the ground beneath your feet, the food you eat: It’s all fair game for pollution.

It’s about more than the polar bears and the rain forests. The issues they face are the same issues we face. Caring for the environment is synonymous with caring for each other.

Elizabeth Crenshaw is LEED accredited and works for EPB in Strategic Planning, but her views are her own. Originally from South Carolina, Elizabeth moved to Chattanooga after graduating from Warren Wilson College in 2007.

“Environmental issues aren’t ‘soft greenwashing opportunities’ when they affect you and your community.

And the truth is that these issues do affect you.”

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 6.18.09 The Pulse

23

MusicFeature

by Hellcat

Exception to the Rule W

hen I was contacted by a mysterious person via my e-mail address with the request to do a story on a singer/songwriter coming to Chattanooga, I took in a quick breath.

Let me explain how excited I was—and by excited I mean very reluctant and already bored. I say that not because I am a hater of singer/ songwriters. I actually love them, as, when it comes to music, I am a lyricist before melody. I say it because it is generally difficult to sell singer/ songwriters to an audience or readers.

I’ve spent a long time trying to push people in the direction of singer/ songwriters, locally, by way of Leticia Wolf, Matt Bohannon, Matt Urmy and Channing Wilson, several very talented and very different styles of writers.

However, it’s been generally hit-ormiss with pulling a crowd as a standalone artist. The Rounders pulled plenty, The Bohannons have a draw, and so did many of Tish’s endeavors with a full band. I don’t get it. They are great as openers in this city, but we just turn up our noses at them as headliners. I am sure there are some exceptions, but for the most part, this has been a general rule.

Begrudgingly, I’ve gotten to the point of thinking that no one is going to care about this genre, which is disheartening because I happen to believe it is a true art form and the most raw form of music, without all the smoke and mirrors. Then I started to realize that maybe it’s all in the packaging. Because really, Bright Eyes was just Connor Oberst with a fancy name and studio musicians, but people ate that up. Maybe if all of our talented solo artists gave themselves some spiffy new wrapping paper, people would buy into it.

The point of this specific rant is to say that I went along with the request to find out more information on this singer/songwriter guy, and was actually surprised and impressed.

His name is Cory Branan, and he is not your average singer/songwriter.

He’s a gruff Memphis rocker who is doing it solo because he likes to do it his own way. He’s not at all what you would consider a typical, boring, white guy with an acoustic

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The Pulse 6.18.09 www.chattanoogapulse.com 95.3 Pulse News

“He sounds like a mixture of Conner Oberst and Lucero’s Ben Nichols, with intelligent lyrics, but a gruff tone that suggests he might have learned it all the hard way.” guitar; which, I am sad to say, causes even music lovers to sigh when that stereotype takes the stage.

Cory is a well-seasoned traveler, having lived all over the United States, but now teeter-totters between Memphis, and Austin. His influences are Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen, among other greats, but he sounds like a mixture of Conner Oberst and Lucero’s Ben Nichols, with intelligent lyrics, but a gruff tone that suggests he might have learned it all the hard way.

The next thing I noticed about this guy’s music is that the tempos aren’t boring. He has slow and somber tunes, like “Tall Green Grass”, followed immediately by some hopped-up rockabilly love song called “A Girl Named Go”, about a girl who was similar to cocaine. When I talked to him, he mentioned how hard it was to record albums when people just wanted you to choose one style, and he adamantly refuses to do so. This is probably what makes me like him the most. He has been songwriting for ten years now, and making music since he was 14. So he’ll be damned if someone is going to tell him what to do or how to do it. Hell,

yeah. We also discovered that Lucero is the Kevin Bacon of Memphis and Southern musicians, as they are the connector piece to everyone knowing everyone. Cory tours almost as much as they do, but does occasionally take a break. This Chattanooga show is the last show he’ll be performing by himself before he meets up with Joey Cape (of Lagwagon and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes) and Jon Snodgrass (of Drag the River) to complete his tour.

He is finishing a new album that should be out in the winter, and apparently, judging by his press kit, he’s loved by Rolling Stone, Playboy, Billboard, and Blender. Judging by his pictures, he’s definitely been to the Playboy mansion and met Hef, so if that doesn’t tell you he’s not your average singer/songwriter, then you’re just stubborn.

Cory Branan with Gurle Haggard and Packway Handle $7 10 p.m., Saturday, June 20.

JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd.

(423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia

MusicCalendar

Send your calendar events to us at calendar@chattanoogapulse.com

Friday

Thursday

Rhythm & Noon: Sweet Georgia Sound Noon. Miller Plaza, 850 Market St. (423) 265-0771.

Running Riot, At Cliffs End, Wreckage Before March, Set It Off, You Vandal, Roll With It 7 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge.

Mark Merriman 7 p.m. Blue Orleans Creole Restaurant, 3208 Amnicola Hwy. (423) 629-6538.

RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles 7:30 p.m. Memorial Auditorium, 399 McCallie Ave. (423) 642-TIXS.

Do Ya Hear We! Fest with Future Virgins, Death Statistic, Captain Black, This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb, Al Scorch, ADD/C, and The Hidden Spots It’s a punk rock, headbanging extravaganza!

Bring donations to help support the touring bands.

8 p.m.

Anarchtica, 621 Bell Avenue

Billy Hopkins 8:30 p.m. Mudpie Restaurant, 12 Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9043.

Throttle Bottom 9 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd #202.

(423) 499-5055.

Taxicab Racers, Sunset Soundtrack, Evervigilent 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Keg Party with Opposite Box and RaBiDeArS Get ready for some screaming crowd participation. $10 all-you-can-drink or $5 cover 9 p.m.

The Riverhouse, 224 Frazier Avenue. (423) 752-0066. www.myspace.com/ theriverhousechattanooga

Saturday

World Music Summer featuring Kofi Mawuko of Ogya World Music Band, Devidasa World Music Band, and many more 11 a.m. Incline Railway, Lower Station, St. Elmo Ave. (706) 820-2531.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Monday Night Big Band 7 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com

Ben Friberg Trio 7 p.m. Table 2, 232 E. 11th St. (423) 756-8253. www.table2restaurant.com

Ben Friberg Trio 6:30 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market Street, (423) 634-0260.

The Palms at Hamilton 6925 Shallowford Road, Suite #202, (423) 499-5055. www.thepalmsathamilton.com

My Amaranth, The Radar Inside Me, This is Jacob, Never Like Home, A Voice of Reason 7 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge.

Johnston-Brown 8 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd #202.

(423) 499-5055.

Fireside Lounge 4021 Hixson Pike, (423) 870-7078.

Two Man Gentleman Band, Pokey Lefarge, The Afterparty 9 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Tremont Tavern 1203 Hixson Pike, (423) 266-1996. www.tremonttavern.com

True Stereo, Rock Biter, Nasty Ponies, Scum of the Earth 9 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Nightfall: Carolyn Wonderland 8 p.m. Miller Plaza, 850 Market St. (423) 265-0771.

The Pool 9 p.m. The Tin Can, 618 Georgia Ave. (423) 648-4360.

The Morons, Hello Shitty People, Dos Tornados, Gravebound, Horrible Odds, Really Wrong, Cortez The Killer 6 p.m. The LowDown, 306 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 265-2171.

Bruteforce, Dead Heroes, XLiberationX, Roaming Cloud, Downsided 6 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge.

Treva Blomquist

Black Moon 10 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com

Lucky’s 2536 Cummings Highway, (423) 825-5145.

Sunset Concert: Ed Huey Blues 7 p.m. North River Civic Center, 1009 Executive Dr., Suite 102.

(423) 870-8924.

Downstroke 10 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644.

The Micks in the raw 6 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd #202.

(423) 499-5055.

Monday

Brantley Gilbert 9 p.m. Midtown Music Hall, 820 Georgia Ave. (423) 752-1977.

Phillipe Bertaud 8 p.m. Charles & Myrtle’s Coffeehouse, 105 McBrien Rd. (423) 892-4960.

Packway Handle, Cory Branan, Gurle Haggard 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

8 p.m.

The LowDown, 306 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 265-2171. myspace.com/thelowdownchatt

Sons of Cynics, Stand Your Ground, HeartCakeParty 7 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge.

Hopegivers Benefit Show with Pandoras Nightmare & others 7:30 p.m. Club Fathom, 412 Market St. (423) 757-0019.

Summer Music Weekends: The New Binkley Brothers Noon. Rock City Gardens, Lookout Mtn., Ga. (706) 820-2531.

Brooklyn-based Shellshag leads the punk rock charge.

The Soul Brothers: A Tribute to James Brown 9 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644.

Sunday Los Canadians, Crackrock, Spaceweed, Whatif, Night of the Wolf, Savage Weekend 1 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Rice Harvester, The Fixins, False Sense of Hope, We Are Not Men, Robot Pope, Kreamy ‘Lectric Santa, Jack Palance Band, and Shellshag

Milquelizard, 476, Standing Behind You With Knives, Friday Night Butane 8 p.m. Ziggy’s Hideaway, 607 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 634-1074.

Open Mic Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike, (423) 266-1996.

Spoken Word/Poetry Night The Riverhouse, 224 Frazier Avenue, (423) 752-0066.

Nathan Farrow 9 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878.

DJ GOP The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd #202, (423) 499-5055.

Ms. Debbie’s Nightlife Lounge 4762 Highway 58, (423) 485-0966. www.myspace.com/debbieslounge

The uplifting music Treva delivers can't simply be pegged "folk," "Americana," "chick rock," "soul," or even "jazz," though it contains elements of all of them.

11 a.m. Chattanooga Market, First Tennessee Pavillion, 1826 Carter St. www.chattanoogamarket.com

Running Riot, The Seas Aflame, HeartCakeParty, My Amaranth 7:30 p.m. Club Fathom, 412 Market St. (423) 757-0019.

Cutthroat Shamrock, Sadistic Scenic Sideshow, Molly Maguires 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

Editor’s Pick: Featured Event Of The Week Beppe Gambetta Gambetta seamlessly blends his Mediterranean musical traditions with his love of American roots music. One of the true innovators of the acoustic guitar, this native Italian only comes to North America three times a year – don’t miss him!

Saturday, June 20 $10.50 advance/$12 door 8 p.m.

Barking Legs Theater, 1307 Dodds Avenue.

(423) 624-5347. www.barkinglegs.org

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 6.18.09 The Pulse

25

New Music Reviews

26

The Pulse 6.18.09 www.chattanoogapulse.com 95.3 Pulse News

By Ernie Paik

Sun City Girls

NOMO

Napoleon & Josephine: Singles Volume 2 (Abduction)

Invisible Cities (Ubiquity)

The trio Sun City Girls, which had an impossibly prolific 25year run that ended in 2007 with the death of drummer Charles Gocher, never strayed away from pushing people’s buttons—and that includes their fans. Gocher and brothers Alan and Richard Bishop have plundered countless genres and cultures for their off-center material and had a philosophy to keep moving, keep expanding (no matter how uncomfortable it may be), put the music out there, and have no regrets, knowing that they wouldn’t please everyone all of the time. The initiated know that there are plenty of treasures in the Sun City Girls catalog, as well as plenty of trash—there’s some agreement regarding which is which, but it’s not absolute.

The new collection brings together several out-of-print single tracks (some presented in expanded versions) and compilation appearances. Fans of their ethnic wanderings (North African, Middle Eastern, Indian, Southeast Asian, Spanish, etc.) won’t find much of that here, and Napoleon & Josephine: Singles Volume 2 is dominated by spoken-word pieces with freeform musical accompaniment, some of which were recorded on street corners, complete with traffic sounds.

These tracks are frankly pretty hard to swallow; “Eyeball in a Quart Jar of Snot” reveals Gocher practically foaming at the mouth with his disquieting story, atop noodling guitars, and the best of these is the manic “A Wake,” which fervently does its business and gets out of the way in a minute’s time.

Half of the album is comprised of the final two lengthy tracks, the first of which is the title track, featuring stream-of-consciousness paranoid musings over improvised percussion, ending with sinister keyboard chords.

By far, the best track on this disc is the appropriately mind-bendingly named “Reflection of a Young Boy Eating from a Can of Dog Food on a Shiny Red X-Mas Ball,” which is a sprawling, reverb-drenched track that is completely indulgent and completely bonkers.

With a roomful of instruments—flutes, drums, glockenspiel, harmonica, to name a few—peculiar vocalizations, and a reckless abandon, it represents the unpredictable nature of Sun City Girls that keeps the fans coming back to sift through the dirt.

Ever since NOMO’s sonically arresting second album, New Tones, it’s been inadequate to simply call the Michigan ensemble an Afrobeat band, since they’ve revealed expansive influences beyond Fela Kuti—elements from envelope-pushing jazz artists such as Miles Davis, Alice Coltrane, and Sun Ra can be heard, along with similarities to the Krautrock band Can. The solid new fourth album, Invisible Cities, is largely in the same vein as the previous album, Ghost Rock; however, it further demonstrates the outfit’s eclecticism while discerning an undercurrent running through their sources, particularly through two covers, which are some of the most memorable tunes on the album.

The first is a great cover of “Bumbo,” a composition from the iconoclastic composer and percussionist Moondog; it’s heard here with a brassy soul-funk treatment with a sturdy rhythm section, beginning and ending with horns and saxes in unison that fall into glorious disarray in the middle section. The other cover is “Ma” by the relatively overlooked Brazilian musician Tom Zé, which is fascinating since it piles on seemingly disparate melodic lines, including an off-kilter guitar part, that work together surprisingly well.

A pattern played on an electric thumb piano—now firmly rooted as an indispensable part of the band’s sound— begins “Crescent,” with a controlled kinetic energy and flute soloing, and it could double as a funk soundtrack for an early ’70s crime flick. “Elijah” is an oddball track, eschewing tight rhythms for a more foggy approach, using metallic jangles, irregular drum hits, and sauntering horns that casually trace out a melody.

Although there’s an egalitarian attitude on the album, with nobody hogging the spotlight, I kind of wish that there actually was a bit more aplomb with regards to the soloing; apart from “Bumbo,” there could stand to be some extra fervor and a freer, wilder manner. Still, on numbers like “Waiting” and the title track, Invisible Cities has plenty to offer in the way of killer vamps, polyrhythms, and call-andresponse sequences.

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 6.18.09 The Pulse

27

Free Will Astrology GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The books of psychologist Carl Jung provide crucial insights into the nature of the unconscious mind. To the degree that I have any skill in deciphering the part of human intelligence that works in mysterious, secretive ways, I owe a great debt to him. I want to tell you an anecdote about him that may be useful. Once, as an adult, Jung took a break from work to go strolling on a beach.

While meandering, he was overcome with a spontaneous impulse to build things as he did when he was a kid. He gathered some stones and sticks and used them to construct a miniature scene, including a church. As he finished, he was visited by a flood of novel intuitions about his life. He concluded that his childlike play had called forth these revelations from his unconscious mind. I suggest you try a similar tack, Gemini: To access important information that your deep mind has been sequestering, go play a while.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): We ask that you not divulge the climax of the epic story to anyone —at least until you’ve let it sink in for a while and felt all the reverberations it has unleashed.

After that, you’ll be wise to speak about it only with skilled listeners and empathetic allies who can help you harvest the meaning of all the clues that were packed inside your adventures. One further counsel: Before you reach the absolute, final denouement of the drama, there may be a tricky turn that looks a lot like the ending.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): You have cosmic permission (even encouragement) to live on the edge for the next 28 days as long as you follow these guidelines: 1. Don’t live on the edge to impress anyone; do it because you love it, or else don’t do it. 2. Don’t complain and worry about it. Enjoy it completely. 3. Don’t expect anyone else to join you on the edge. If they choose to do so with enthusiasm, fine. But don’t manipulate them. 4. Don’t imitate the way other people live on the edge. Establish your own unique style. 5.

Don’t live on the edge for more than 28 days.

Much longer than that and you’ll start sabotaging the benefits.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): In 1968, psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly released its landmark 17-minute song, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” Cable TV network VH1 later named it as the 24th greatest hard rock tune in history. There are different stories about the origins of the title, but all agree on one point: It was originally “In the Garden of Eden.” It became “In-A-Gadda-DaVita” through some fluke, probably caused by the lead singer getting intoxicated and garbling the words as he performed it in the recording studio. This would be an excellent week for you to induce and capitalize on creative mistakes like that, Virgo. I hope you do, because it’ll help you get into the right frame of mind to stir up a mix of excellence and improvisation everywhere you go —and that formula practically guarantees success.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Do you apologize to chairs when you bump into them? Often end up being the only one at a party who’ll talk to the most boring person? Ever find yourself starting your sentences with “I hope I’m not bothering you but I was wondering if you would mind if I . . . “? If so, this is a good time to make a shift.

That’s why I suggest you add some bite to your demeanor. Do what feels interesting at least as often as what’s polite. Look for what advances the plot as much as what fosters harmony. The point is not to go overboard, of course. You don’t want to fling insults or arouse friction. Add fire to your presentation, but don’t start conflagrations.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Evaluating Adam Lambert after one of his exotic, virtuoso performances back in April, American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi praised him as being “confusing, shocking, sleazy, and superb.” That’s a standard you could soon achieve in your own sphere, Scorpio. But do you want to? You’ll have to care less about maintaining your dignity than usual, and be especially forthright in expressing yourself. Let me leave no doubt about what I’m

28

By Rob Brezsny

JONESIN’

By Matt Jones

“They Were in That?”

–you gotta start somewhere.

saying: To be as superb as you potentially can be, you’ll have to be at least a little confusing and shocking and maybe even sleazy.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Metaphorically speaking, Sagittarius, you have unearthed or are about to unearth a rare fossil.

I think it’s a pretty sensational discovery. It’s a missing link that could help you make sense out of episodes in your past that have always mystified or frustrated you. I urge you to learn all you can about this fossil. Follow every lead it points to. And ask your intuition to run wild and free as it dreams up possible interpretations to its multiple meanings.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Maybe it’s time you did something in return for all the free advice I give you. From a karmic perspective it might not be healthy for you to continue to take, take, take while never giving back. So this week, for a change, how about if you compose an oracle for me? Or send me a nice present—nothing big or expensive, just a thoughtful token. JUST KIDDING! The truth is, I don’t care if you ever express your appreciation. You give me a momentous gift simply by caring enough to read my words. Being able to speak with you so intimately has made me a better and smarter person. Now I suggest you do what I just did: Acknowledge how much the receivers of your gifts do for you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “I guess I just prefer to see the dark side of things,” says actress and comedian Janeane Garofalo. “The glass is always half empty. And cracked. And I just cut my lip on it. And chipped a tooth.” As witty as that thought may be, I don’t recommend you make it your approach in the coming days. My analysis of the omens suggests that reality will be especially malleable. Even more than usual, it will tend to take the shape of your expectations.

So please, Aquarius, try hard to see the lovely, graceful, unbroken glass as half-full of a delicious, healthy drink.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I feel an expansive, permissive mood coming on —in the cosmos, that is, not me. To be honest, I’m in a more conservative mood than the cosmos. But the planetary powers-that-be have decided to float you poetic licenses, blank checks, special dispensations, and wild cards. I just hope this free stuff won’t make you forget about the finely-crafted containers and boundaries you’ve been working on lately. Maybe I’d feel better if you promised me to keep on doing the careful, conscientious things that seem to have earned you all the good fortune that’s on its way.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Are you secretly afraid of feeling secure? Do you equate stability with being bored and lazy? Do you suspect that your restless pioneer spirit makes you unfit for the slow, meticulous work of building sturdy foundations? If so, there’s hope for you to change —especially if you make a big effort in the coming weeks. The moment is ripe for you to learn more about the arts of energizing comfort and stimulating calm and exciting peace.

To jumpstart the process, go get a massage.

As you’re being stroked by nurturing hands, brainstorm about the additions and adjustments you’d like to make in your five-year master plan.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Your education is about to take a curious and interesting turn.

During the coming weeks, I expect that you’ll upgrade your street smarts and explore a whole new meaning for the term “hands-on experience.”

You’ll find out about an area of ignorance that was so deep and dark you didn’t even know about it, and you’ll take aggressive steps to get it the teaching it needs. Congratulations in advance for being brave enough to open your mind so wide, Taurus. I’m glad you’ll be hunting for a fresh set of questions.

Homework: Imagine it’s three months in the future, and write a brief essay on “What I Did This Summer to Improve My World” and send it to www.FreeWillAstrology.com

The Pulse 6.18.09 www.chattanoogapulse.com 95.3 Pulse News

Across 1 ___ nova 6 “What’s Happening!!” character 9 Mister Rogers 13 Reversed 14 Space opener 15 Reside 16 “How to ___ Book” (1940 book of literary guidelines) 17 His film debut was a bit part in “Donnie Darko” (2001) 19 His film debut was as Billy Crystal’s son in “City Slickers” (1991) 21 “___ Yuppie Scum” (T-shirt slogan) 22 “The ___-Weed Factor” (John Barth novel) 23 California State Route 1 along the shore, for short 26 Ready to serve 30 Knuckleheaded 34 Fire in the blood 35 His film debut was in “Curly Sue” (1991) as a sort of villain out to get the title girl 37 Half-moon tide 39 Acid in proteins 40 “M*A*S*H” actress 41 His film debut was as a subway thief in “Heartburn” (1986), with Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson 44 Prefix before friendly

45 “La Boheme,” e.g.

46 Start of el calendario 47 Toon dog of the 1990s 48 Racecar driver Foyt and CNN host Hammer 50 Prompt 52 His film debut was as the Dog-Faced Boy in “Big Top Pee-wee” (1988) 60 His film debut was as Woody Allen’s collegeaged son in “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993) 61 “What am I gonna do this time?”

62 Early Peruvian 63 45-across selection 64 Composer Camille Saint-___ 65 New Mexico art colony 66 Bumped into 67 Spaghetti western composer Morricone Down 1 ___ Dubai (world’s tallest skyscraper, as of 2009) 2 ___ Day vitamins 3 Mt. Rushmore’s loc.

4 Agreed (with) 5 Slow compositions 6 Film geek’s spool 7 Johnson of “Laugh-In” 8 Prostitute’s clients 9 Squiggles in one’s vision 10 Capital on the Baltic 11 First name in motorcycle stunts

12 Rec room 14 Where J is represented with a moving pinkie: abbr.

18 “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” spinoff 20 Gossipy sorts 23 Liberal, epithetically 24 Radiohead hit of 1992 25 Lose it?

27 Home of ASU’s main campus 28 Bird-related 29 British coins 31 Less shopworn 32 7UP competitor 33 He sang about Bennie 36 Force through intimidation 38 Amazonian chompers 42 Malaysia’s current prime minister ___ Tun Razak 43 Part of a jokey coin flip proposition 49 “Get outta here!”

51 Actor Hawke 52 Eric of 2009’s “Star Trek” 53 ___ Domani 54 “The Way ___” (Timbaland song) 55 “Think nothing ___” 56 Deg. for a grad student in film studies 57 Spooky sign 58 Rajah’s wife 59 “This touches me ___ many levels” 60 Bump on the forehead, perhaps?

©2009 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle #0419.

AskAMexican

by Gustavo Arellano

Useless in Tijuana Dear Mexican, I write to you with a doubt similar to the one that Incensed in Chicago felt a couple of weeks ago, when her friend couldn’t believe that Mexicans worked in professional, white-collar jobs. I live in Tijuana, and of the gabachos that put roots here, you can’t find a single professional. Just starving people and retirees. People who no longer have money to rent a house in San Diego. Those who aren’t swindling recovering drug addicts are arrogant drunks who always miss a piece of cheese from the other side named Rush Limburger and boast because they can count up to 187 without using their fingers.

This is why I’m urged to ask you: Does Gringolandia lack professional people or is it exporting solely its own undesirables? And how is it that none of them are even able to work in the fields? Please accept this hug from where (as we in Tijuana say) the motherland begins.

— Xolotl de Tijuas Dear Wab, Sure, gabachos who live in Mexico occupy white-collar jobs: they’re professional colonizers who do a terrible job of it. What else can you call groups of people who settle in a foreign land, stick to their own kind, proudly don’t bother to assimilate, stay in constant contact with their homelands, yet never bother to ingratiate themselves into the fabric of their new lands? Sí, the Mexican government makes it muy difficult for Americans to

migrate and live in la suave patria, but at least Mexicans in the United States gamed the system enough so that they became indispensable to the Republic; Mexico can expel its gabachos and survive (see Pershing’s Punitive Campaign, the 1936 nationalization of Mexico’s oil, Mexicans booing Miss America in the 2007 Miss Universe Pageant).

Dear Mexican, Recently, there was a death in the Mexican family that lives near me. Another neighbor and I debated about taking food, flowers and other tokens of comfort as our tradition dictates. She consulted with a Latino friend who told us to stay away—it was a private affair. The men just stood outside, drinking beer with their hats pulled down, barely speaking to one another. The women stayed inside. Few brought food, just the occasional twelve-pack of Pepsi.

My neighbor and I grew up with the tradition that you dress up and take food to the family. We wanted to do something for them but took the advice of her friend. For the next few weeks, the neighbors looked away from us; normally, they are very friendly. I just didn’t understand why we couldn’t offer our condolences and help feed their family and friends. We respected their privacy and stayed away. Can you please explain? Is the tradition of grief so different?

— Resquiat In Pacem Dear Gabacho, Not really, so get a new Latino

friend. You didn’t specify what religion your Mexican neighbors follow, a crucial fact because the bereavement process varies from faith to faith. Only the most esoteric ones prohibit outsiders, though, so I’m sure you could’ve stopped in with food and express your condolences without offending anyone.

But let’s assume the Mexican family was Catholic, since every Mexican believes in the Virgen de Guadalupe. The neighbors looked away from ustedes because they suffered a loss in the family; it’s called “being sad.” The men stood outside while the women remained in the house because the ladies were praying the Rosary to guide the departed’s spirit out of Purgatory and toward heaven, and Catholic men are required by doctrine to help the journey along by waiting outside and getting borracho. No one brought food because the family’s relatives cooked fresh meals every day during the days of mourning.

Your Latino friend should've explained this to you; how sad that you had to write to a columnist about such a personal matter!

Nevertheless, you did the right thing then by being respectful, Resquiat, so do the right thing now: with everyone having left, go to your Mexican neighbors and offer any moral support they might need.

“Sí, the Mexican government makes it muy difficult for Americans to migrate and live in la suave patria, but at least Mexicans in the United States gamed the system enough so that they became indispensable to the Republic.”

Ask the Mexican at themexican@ askamexican.net, myspace.com/ocwab, find him on Facebook, Twitter, or write via snail mail at: Gustavo Arellano, P.O. Box 1433, Anaheim, CA 92815-1433!

95.3 Pulse News www.chattanoogapulse.com 6.18.09 The Pulse

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