The Pulse - Vol. 7, Issue 9

ALL HAIL COWPUNK • FROM RUSSIA WITH THRILLS

Ani DiFranco

The Original Righteous Babe “Hearing music with such powerful lyrics, encouraging young women to rise up and be whatever it was they wanted to be was completely new to me— and I liked it.”

FREE • News, Views, Music, Film, Dining, Arts & Entertainment • March 4, 2010 • Vol. 7 - Issue 9 • www.chattanoogapulse.com

President Jim Brewer, II

2010

Publisher Zachary Cooper Contributing Editor Janis Hashe News Editor Gary Poole Calendar Editor Kathryn Dunn Advertising Manager Rhonda Rollins Advertising Sales Rick Leavell, Leif Sawyer, Townes Webb Art Director Kelly Lockhart Graphic Design Jennifer Grelier Staff Photographer Louis Lee Contributing Writers Gustavo Arellano, Rob Brezsny Chuck Crowder, Michael Crumb Hellcat, Joshua Hurley Stuart James, Matt Jones Phillip Johnston, Ernie Paik Rick Pimental-Habib, Ph.D. Stephanie Smith, Alex Teach Colleen Wade Editorial Cartoonist Rick Baldwin Editorial Intern Jonathan Selby Copy Assistant Bryanna Burns Has A Cool New Hat Josh Lang Contact Info: Phone (423) 648-7857 Fax (423) 648-7860 info@chattanoogapulse.com Calendar Submissions calendar@chattanoogapulse.com Advertising advertising@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 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

cover story

C

ontents

e AN t we x ne

4

AL AL M e NU IC IS uls AN TOR ON he P S R T HI ACH k in

MARCH

11 THE ORIGINAL RIGHTEOUS BABE

By Hellcat Ani DiFranco was one of the first musicians that truly spoke to me through her lyrics and inspired me with her bold political and artistic statements. I remember working at Media Play when I was 16 and special ordering all of her CDs through the store’s account, so that we could stock them.

feature stories 6 HEALTH CARE SUMMIT POSTURING

By Stuart James The Health Care Summit produced nothing. The Health Care Summit will not make health insurance more affordable.

16 ALL HAIL COWPUNK

By Hellcat If you are a Tennessean who might pride yourself on being in the know about what our fine state has to offer musically, then surely you already know about Lucero.

20 A LODESTONE IN A SHINING CAREER

By Phillip Johnston With a tumultuous past firmly in view, writers such as William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Connor penned brooding tales of warring clans and familial dysfunction, often punctuated with some of the most mind-boggling climaxes in literature.

24 FROM RUSSIA WITH THRILLS

By Phillip Johnston Though the selected music calls only calls for a few players, this small concert offers the opportunity to sit with Maestro Robert Bernhardt and some of the CSO’s talented musicians and listen to music both 20th century and romantic, experimental and traditional.

news & views 4 5 9 14 22 30

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR PULSE BEATS SHRINK RAP LIFE IN THE NOOG ON THE BEAT ASK A MEXICAN

everything else 4 4 7 17 19 21 25 26 28 28 29

EDITOON THE LIST POLICE BLOTTER MUSIC CALENDAR NEW MUSIC REVIEWS NEW IN THEATERS A&E CALENDAR DINING OUT SPOTLIGHT SPIRITS WITHIN FREE WILL ASTROLOGY JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

Editoon

by Rick Baldwin

The Top 14 Most Influential Jazz Artists 1. Louis Armstrong 2. Duke Ellington 3. Charlie Parker 4. Miles Davis 5. Benny Goodman 6. Coleman Hawkins 7. Count Basie 8. John Coltrane 9. Billie Holiday

Letters to the Editor

10. Max Roach lift up out voices and sing along with the children of Haiti as they keep hope against all odds.

Melissa Kellar

11. Dizzy Gillespie 12. Art Blakey

chattanooga pulse.com This week on our website:

13. Charles Mingus 14. Thelonius Monk As one of the most well respected American art forms, jazz has shaped the music industry, spawning both the careers of various musical geniuses and an abundance of elemental new music genres.

The artists behind this evergrowing phenomenon are recognized as some of the best musicians of all time.

Pick any (or all) from the above list and you’ll be well on your way to discovering how powerful music can be in your life and for your soul.

Soures: ListVerse.com

Hope For Haiti While the national news media has all but forgotten about Haiti, it is so refreshing to see a local newspaper like The Pulse keep the attention on one of the worst natural disasters in modern history. Rebecca Cruz should be commended for volunteering her time and energy to do what so few other are willing to do, and write so beautifully about it afterwards. I am sure that her life has been changed forever by what she has experienced, and that is no small thing. Even in the darkest of hours, the spark of hope always shines brightest. So let us all

Where Were The Police?

After a tractor trailer turned over this past Sunday on I-24, many motorists were delayed for two hours or more due not to the accident itself but to the ineptitude of the local police. There was no coordination among law enforcement to help the people that were made to exit the Interstate. What were they thinking?

How about some police to direct traffic for a few hours to get people through downtown Chattanooga until the Interstate was reopened? Our taxes at work!

J Nesbitt Sugar Instead Of Milk Please explain to me why the Hamilton County School cafeterias provide “Snow Cream” as a milk alternative in our elementary schools?

Snow Cream (with the happy snowman on the bright white carton) is High Fructose Corn Syrup disguised as milk. The sad answer is because it is more profitable than milk.

Tom Carrin

• Serve Humanity. Serve Haiti.

Take a look back with Rebecca Cruz on her recent trip to Haiti. A special video production of what she saw, audio and video podcasts of her call-ins to News Talk 95.3 WPLZ and WCRB Channel 3, and ways you can help the people of Haiti.

• American Idol Insider It’s America’s favorite guilty pleasure, the ratings behemoth that is American Idol. Gary Poole has been covering the competition since 2004 and brings his unique insights and predictions to each performance show.

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.

4

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

Pulse Beats Chattanooga Loses Championship To Dallas Suburb In Baffling Decision By The NCAA Quote Of The Week:

“Behind the scenes, there are lots of things going on, but there’s not much to see out on the site. That’s something that frustrates probably all of us.”

A rundown of the newsy, the notable, and the notorious...

The NCAA announced this past Friday afternoon that it will move its Division I Football Championship to Frisco, Texas, this year, marking the end of a 13year relationship with Chattanooga. Local officials expressed disappointment and dismay at the decision.

“It is hard to believe the NCAA would walk away from thirteen years of solid game experience to start over, regardless of the site. Having been involved in running this event since the beginning, I am sick over this decision,” said Chattanooga Sports and Events Committee President Scott Smith.

On Thursday, Smith had led a delegation of Chattanoogans to present the local bid to the FCS committee at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis. In addition to Smith, the group included County Mayor Claude Ramsey, UTC Athletic Director Rick Hart, Finley Stadium Director Merrill Eckstein, Sports Committee Chairman Jim Kennedy, Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO Bob Doak, and Sports Committee Director of Operations Ben Austin.

Southern Conference Commissioner John Iamarino also attended and was part of the presentation.

Chattanooga’s bid included a significant increase in the guaranteed payment to the NCAA, doubling the previous amount of $150,000. “It has been a long time since I have been this stunned. I don’t think we left anything on the table, including the financial part,” said Mayor Ramsey.

Sports Committee Jim Kennedy added, ““I’ve participated in a lot of presentations in my life, and I thought this one was one of the most complete and polished from virtually every perspective. The data was strong, the images were compelling, all of the presenters were on message, and we had concise answers for their questions. I’m really not sure what else we reasonably could have done.”

During the pitch, the local delegation cited Chattanooga’s convenient location with a map showing that 74 percent of FCS schools are located east of the Mississippi River and Chattanooga in the midst of them.

In concluding the presentation, Kennedy reminded

www.chattanoogapulse.com

—Sam Weddle, speaking about the relatively unseen progress on the longawaited Moccasin Bend National Park.

the committee, “Chattanooga is an FCS town. This is your national championship; it deserves to be held in a city that will treat it that way.”

With the championship game scheduled for January 7, 2011, Kennedy told the committee that it would be the only football game held in Chattanooga on that day, an indirect reference to the fact that Dallas is scheduled to host the FBS Cotton Bowl the same day as the FCS game. Smith noted that Dallas is also hosting the Super Bowl a few weeks later. “I hope they give these FCS teams the attention they deserve in the midst of all that,” he said.

The Chattanoogans also cited the increase in community support for the game, pointing out that locals purchased more than 10,000 tickets for the 2009 game, and then came out on a cold and rainy night while the two schools, Villanova and Montana, purchased 3,700 between them. Ramsey applauded the community spirit behind those numbers. “The citizens of Chattanooga and Hamilton County and the area businesses have really stepped up and supported this event over the years, and we were proud to point that out to the committee,” the mayor said.

Although he was disappointed at the NCAA’s decision, Eckstein sounded an optimistic note, saying, “We’ll have FCS playoff football back in Finley Stadium pretty soon. The difference is we’ll all be cheering the Mocs.

Group Fights Hate Crimes On February 23, the first meeting was held at the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department office of the Southeastern Tennessee Civil Rights Working Group.

Representatives of Tennessee Valley Pride, the Tennessee Equality Project, the FBI, the TBI, the Chattanooga Police Department, the NAACP, the US Attorney’s Office and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department all attended the meeting of the new group, which has announced these goals: • To increase awareness of hate crimes and civil right protection through education outreach programs.

• To provide a forum for sharing information and the exchange of ideas between Southeast Tennessee’s diverse communities and the law enforcement agencies serving them.

• To foster greater fellowship, dialogue, understanding and interaction among our communities.

Membership is free and open to any person, agency or organization. Meetings will be held quarterly.

For more information, contact Vann Hinton at the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office at (423) 322-8490.

March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

5

Beyond The Headlines

Health Care Summit: Posturing With No Solutions

By Stuart James

“We need to question why our elected representatives are locked into partisan positions without the ability to reach common ground.”

6

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

“P

eople aren’t concerned with the debate, they’re concerned with what we are going to produce.” — Charles Rangel, Health Care Summit February 2010 “You know the reason people don’t have health care in this country—they cannot afford it.” — John Dingell, quoting Harry Truman, Health Care Summit February 2010 The Health Care Summit produced nothing. The Health Care Summit will not make health insurance more affordable. The Health Care Summit shows us Congress is out of touch.

The summit went on for more than six hours and in the end, with nothing to show for it. We saw a lot of debate, disagreement, and partisan posturing—

with no results.

One of the bright spots of the summit came from Representative Rangel. He is right on point: People are not concerned with the debate, but they are concerned with what Congress is going to do. After the summit, no one can tell us what Congress is going to do. The Health Care Summit was an exercise in arrogance, a debate that showed us our elected representatives are out of touch.

The members of Congress yielded this and yielded that. They were more concerned with the formality of the process than they were about finding a bipartisan solution. They quoted polls, dissected the plan, and fought from beginning to end. As the war of words went on, it became painfully obvious that the summit was a photo opportunity, a chance to deliver talking points, stories, and philosophies without reaching any agreement on specifics. The partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats prevented anyone from reaching an agreement on solutions.

We did, however, learn a few good things from this summit: • America needs a new direction. We need to examine why Washington is so partisan. We need to question why our elected representatives are locked into partisan positions without the ability to reach common ground to solve the issues facing our country. The Health Care Summit gave us a snapshot into a broken political system ruled by partisanship politics—a system with leaders who need to re-examine why they are in Congress.

• We can take another good thing

away from the summit; we saw firsthand how Republicans and Democrats are dealing with health care. We saw firsthand the political posturing, we saw firsthand an unfortunate trend in American politics—partisanship and power grabs are more important than dealing with the business of the people. Unfortunately, we saw a divided Congress that appears more concerned with its interests than with ours.

• We got a snapshot into the dysfunctional partisan leadership in Congress from both parties. As the summit dragged on, it became painfully obvious that the poll-driven opinions of Republicans and Democrats rule the day, that both parties cite polls that are more favorable to the party line. Each side is entrenched in its position, driven by a desire to win. The health care summit showed more concern with how business is done in Washington then how the realworld business of life is conducted on the streets.

Overall, the health care summit was an exercise in futility, with no results, no plan, and no hope. There are no winners after this summit. We are not seeing change we can believe in. Perhaps the change we can believe in will come from the ballot box, by making change in the leadership in the House of Representatives, and the United States Senate...both Republican and Democrat.

Now that would be change we can believe in.

Stuart James is host of The Stuart James Show and publishes The Truth Factor. The Stuart James Show airs weekly at truthfactor. org and on News Talk 95.3 WPLZ.

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

for the amateur chemists who resided in the apartment. Chances are high they’ll be joining the eviction parade.

• What’s worse than getting caught with a BB gun at school? Getting caught with drugs and stolen credit cards during the school search. A school lockdown was initiated last week at both Orchard Knob and Dalewood middle schools when authorities received information of a possible weapon on school property. The search not only turned up a BB gun and an airsoft gun in the possession of two students, but four other students were discovered with marijuana. Additionally, another student was caught with four stolen credit cards.

All of the students, ranging in age from 11 to 14, now face a variety of charges.

• How does a tenant facing eviction get even with an annoying, soon-to-be-former neighbor? By ratting out their apartment meth lab. Which is exactly what happened to a tenant at the College Hill Court apartments when an angry tenant facing eviction led law enforcement officers to a “Red P” lab in one of the other apartments. A “Red P” lab is rare, because using red phosphorous isn’t normal in making methamphetamine. Officers cordoned off the apartment, since meth labs are considered to be hazmat scenes, and are actively searching

www.chattanoogapulse.com

• A Hamilton County man is probably wishing he hadn’t panicked when he saw a deputy driving toward him. When the man noticed the sheriff’s cruiser, he stepped off the road and started walking toward some woods. The deputy stopped the man and asked for ID, at which point the man bolted into the nearby woods, leaping into a creek and swimming to the far side. With the help of a K-9 unit, deputies found the 41-year-old man hiding in some bushes on the far side of the creek bank. He admitted to deputies that he has outstanding warrants both in the City of Red Bank and Hamilton County, which is why he tried to run when he saw the patrol car.

• If you are a burglar, selling your illgotten goods on eBay is not considered the brightest of ideas. An Ooltewah burglary victim noticed what appeared to be several pieces of property stolen from them listed for sale on the auction web site. They notified the Sheriff’s Office, who contacted the seller and set up a meeting at a local restaurant. After the meeting, an 18 year old was taken into custody and charged with aggravated burglary, theft over $1,000, and auto burglary. A search of the teenager’s home found stolen property, including a .38 caliber pistol, digital cameras, GPS devices and numerous other items that had all been reported stolen in the Ooltewah area in recent weeks.

March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

7

8

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

Shrink Rap

By Rick Pimental-Habib, Ph.D

Doing the Right Thing I

always bristle a bit at this kind of phrase: Do the right thing. It is totally subjective and inevitably laced with judgment.

Who is the one to say if this or that is the “right thing” to do?

The “right thing” for whom, and under what condition? Is what’s right for me also right for you and vice-versa? Where are such teachings learned and, if learned in childhood, do the same things qualify as “right” in adulthood?

Many find their moral blueprint in the Bible or Torah, or in teachings from the Buddha or Allah serving as guides for the right thing to do. Some use guidance from their Higher Power through other sources; AA and similar recovery programs come to mind.

Others rely simply on what their parents or guardians, teachers, preachers, and other elders taught them during the wonder years, amended as needed by personal life lessons and experience, from significant others, friends, and sought-out mentors.

Some of the more literal rights and wrongs are clearly delineated by society.

It’s wrong to run a red light. It’s right to avoid knocking over pedestrians with our vehicles. Most moral rights and wrongs are pretty clear, too, although follow-through is sometimes an iffy thing. If someone is hurt, help out. If someone drops their bag of groceries, help out. If a friend is in crisis, help out.

Of course there are those—especially here in the Bible Belt—who will say, “Just follow the Bible, that’s all the right and wrong you need to know.” OK, that may work for you. But when it comes to a personal moral code, people have to use what works for them, what has meaning and significance to

www.chattanoogapulse.com

them. Otherwise, it’s just lip service.

We’ll follow the moral road map that intrinsically rings true.

H’mm…perhaps what we’re really talking about here is “personal responsibility.” Maturity requires it.

So does sound mental health, as not living up to one’s responsibility breeds a guilty conscience, self-denial, and a trail of unnecessary baggage. A good friend recently took personal global responsibility by traveling to Haiti to help the earthquake survivors. Another friend donated most of his life savings to myriad charities. Someone else I know has taken a public stand against intolerance and oppression.

I came across an interesting talk by author and motivational speaker, Kimberly Alyn. It’s called “Up Time,” and offers some solid, helpful reminders about personal responsibility. I want to share with you an excerpt from her talk, and no matter what your inspirational source of morality might be, I think you’ll find the following includes useful wisdom and plenty of common sense.

1. If you see injustice, stand up.

2. If something needs to be said, speak up.

3. If you make an appointment, show up.

4. If you make a mistake, fess up.

5. If you’re overstepping, back up.

6. If you get behind, catch up.

7. If they knock you down, get up.

8. If you’re out of line, straighten up.

9. When your elders speak, listen up.

10. When the fight is over, make up.

11. If your heart is closed, open up.

12. If you make a mess, clean it up.

13. If you drop trash, pick it up.

14. If people fall down, help them up.

15. If your words are vulgar, clam it up.

16. If your words encourage, keep it up.

17. If you made a promise, back it up.

18. When life’s boring, shake it up.

19. When life’s good, soak it up.

20. When life’s unfair, suck it up.

22. When life’s funny, yuck it up.

Until next time, from Thich Nhat Hanh’s The Energy of Prayer, “Everything inside and around us wants to reflect itself in us. We don’t have to go anywhere to obtain the truth. We only need to be still and things will reveal themselves in the still water of our heart.”

“When it comes to a personal moral code, people have to use what works for them, what has meaning and significance to them.”

Dr. Rick Pimental-Habib, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist, minister, and educator, in private practice in Chattanooga, and the author of “Empowering the Tribe” and “The Power of a Partner.” Visit his new wellness center, Well Nest, at www.

WellNestChattanooga.com, and his website at www.DrRPH.com.

March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

9

10

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

Cover Story

Ani DiFranco

Original Righteous Babe

By Hellcat

“I’ve aired selfloathing and insecurities.

I show my own flaws and express my own experiences in art, in hopes that it inspires.” www.chattanoogapulse.com

working at Media Play when I was 16 and hen I heard that Chattanooga was special ordering all of her CDs through expecting its first visit from Ani DiFranco, the store’s account, so that we could stock I couldn’t believe it. Could it be true? them and I could immediately “rat-hole” Finally, I don’t have to drive two hours them until my next paycheck. I own 17 or more to see her? Amazing. Not to of her 20 albums, not to mention her two mention the opportunity to interview one Utah Phillips albums and a few soundof my first musical role models was now tracks. Favorite albums include: Not A obtainable. Thank you, Universe, for an Pretty Girl, Ani DiFranco (self-titled first amazing start to March. album), Dilate, Out of Range, Living in Ani DiFranco was one of the first musi- Clip, Little Plastic Castles, and Revelling/ cians that truly spoke to me through her Reckoning. I have been a fan for well lyrics and inspired me with her bold poover a decade, and there is a damn good litical and artistic statements. I remember reason for it.

W

March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

11

Cover Story Ani DiFranco is not only a rule breaker, but a rule maker. She gave the big corporate label boys club the finger when she created her own label, Righteous Babe Records, and made her music, her way. Originally, the label was called Righteous Records, but that name was taken by a gospel label, so “Babe” was added. The label is located in an old, historic church, built in 1876, that RBR saved from being torn down by the city of Buffalo.

It is now fully renovated and holds not only the label’s home office, but a 1,200-seat concert hall.

Righteous Babe Records boasts artists such as Andrew Bird, Drums & Tuba, and That 1 Guy, to name a few.

Ani started the label started in 1989, when she was 19, but the one-woman army that is Ani DiFranco started playing guitar in local bars at the tender age of 9. Even if you have never heard the music, these accomplishments alone are pretty impressive.

Now, to the music. First, let me say, Ani is very gifted on many instruments. However, when it comes to acoustic guitar, she is stellar. She is so masterful on the instrument that often I haven’t been able to recognize it as just an acoustic. There are songs on which I would swear she’s playing an electric guitar or perhaps used dueling guitars for effect, only to find out that it is just Ani, strumming away, as only she can.

Lyrically, for me, growing up and hearing, “I am not a pretty girl, that is not what I do/ I ain’t no damsel in distress, and I don’t need to be rescued/ So put me down punk/ Wouldn’t you prefer a maiden fair?/ Isn’t there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?” (Not A Pretty Girl) really reinforced my ideas of being an independent and self-sufficient female. At the time, hearing music with such powerful lyrics, encouraging young women to rise up and be whatever it was they wanted to be was completely new to me—and I liked it. Each song seemed to reassure the listener that it was OK to break away from the cookie-cutter molds offered to us by society, and be a little (or a lot) different than the so-called “norm” and our traditional gender roles.

Now, I have often heard shortsighted people accuse her music of being “man-hating,” or that if you listen to it you are a “femi-nazi” and you probably don’t shave your armpits. Well, that is simply ignorant, and while it does irk me, I’m not going to validate it by jumping up and down over it. I choose to look at it as a built-in weeding-out process. If you’re threatened by it, then it’s because you choose to be, and I hate it for you.

Let me give you a few lyrical examples, so you

might see just what I mean when I say her words are very empowering. “Talk to Me Now” (selftitled first album): “I played the powerless, in too many dark scenes, and I was blessed with a birth and a death and I guess I just want some say in between” almost urges you to stand up for yourself and what you want out of life. “32 Flavors” (Not a Pretty Girl) describes the judgment a strong, in-

The ultimate break-up song, which flexes verbal muscle and reminds you that you can leave a bad relationship at anytime, “Dilate” (Dilate): “So, I’ll walk the plank, and I’ll jump with a smile, if I’m going to go down, I’m going to do it with style.

And you won’t see me surrender, you won’t hear me confess, ’cause you’ve left me with nothing, but I’ve worked with less.” I could quite literally go on for days—but instead, why don’t you go to her web site and find your own favorite battle cries.

Among the hot-button topics Ani DiFranco is known for confronting head-on is sexuality. She is bisexual.

Bisexuals have had a tough go of it, as far as being taken seriously by either the gay or straight communities. This is probably due to the media, and what I like to call the “MTV bisexuals,” where reality shows and garbage like College Girls Gone Wild make it seem that every girl is bisexual for enough free drinks. You can see where it might be difficult for your sexual identity to be accepted if these are the only examples force-fed to us on TV. Regardless of controversy, DiFranco has written love songs and breakup songs, dealing with both genders.

One song, in particular, “In or Out,” deals with society’s need to break us all down into categories. Gay or straight? Both? Wait…that wasn’t an option. “Their eyes are all asking, are you in or are you out, and I think, oh man, what is this about? Tonight you can’t put me, up on any shelf, because I came here alone, and I’m going to leave by myself.” I applaud the way DiFranco fearlessly puts herself out there and is unapologetic about who she is, which is a practice we could all brush up on. Being yourself, regardless of what people might think, isn’t always easy. But, then if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. OK, so I’ll take a step off my soapbox, and let you know what our fierce folksinger has been up to.

Hellcat: I have to ask, considering your music is so intense and so storydriven, if you ever consider yourself a role model of strength to little girls or women everywhere?

Ani DiFranco: I don’t try to be, but I find myself in that place. Mainly because of what I do, I guess, talking about what we aren’t supposed to. But I am not trying to say, “Do as I do.” Do as you know you should do, and find yourself that way. Trust yourself, and follow your heart. Find your own answers. Ask your own questions.

HC: Most of your songs are so vulnerable and raw. They seem so personal. I know you incorporate a lot of your experiences into your songs. Do you ever feel exposed due to so much self-disclo-

“There are songs on which I would swear she’s playing an electric guitar or perhaps used dueling guitars for effect, only to find out that it is just Ani, strumming away, as only she can.”

12

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

dependent woman might face by just being herself: “Squint your eyes and look closer, I’m not between you and your ambition, I’m a poster girl with no poster, I am thirty-two flavors and then some. And I’m beyond your peripheral vision, so you might want to turn your head. ’Cause someday you are going to get hungry and eat most of the words you just said.”

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

Cover Story way. I have been doing this for 20 years now. I have a 3 year old, [Petah] who wants to go home. I mean, she’s been to Europe twice already, and she’s a great little traveler, but she may need other things in life, which she doesn’t have out on tour. You know, kids her own age, some down time, and stability. I have been touring nonstop for so long, I have to think about what is best for my family. I am probably going to take a break from the road a while. I haven’t made any official statement or anything, but it’s leaning that way.

HC: Your most recent album, Red Letter Year, came out over a year ago, so this tour isn’t really to support an album.

Is it just to tour?

AD: That’s what I do. I’m coming from a folk world, ya know? Giving music to people in real time, in real places, as art, not the commercial aspect of supporting an album. I am working on a new album that may be done by the fall.

HC: Righteous Babe Records started out as a one-woman show, and now you have a lot of artists under your umbrella. How does that make you feel?

AD: It feels really great to support other artists. It is what a lot of us would do if they were as lucky as I have been.

You get to reinvest in the world and what you believe in, which for me, is political activism and art.

I have been able to help some artists get out there, and it is satisfying. Although the music industry is declining rapidly, and we’ve felt the strain, like a lot of other labels. But, hey, we are still open for business.

HC: I saw a special on PBS, called River of Song that follows music along the Mississippi River. I realized you were narrating it—how did that come about?

AD: I feel connected to all types of musical roots and sub-corporate art. Singers, songwriters, blues, gospel, they are all connected. I was happy to narrate it. I thought it was neat that they were showing the way different musical genres related to each other by using the river as a baseline.

HC: At the risk of asking a question you probably get all of the time, and are tired of...I have to ask to satisfy my own curiosity. Do you have a favorite song or album?

AD: Nope. I think “nope” is the best answer. I have been asked a lot over the years, and I have no sense for that kind of thinking. I think that is more of a masculine school of thought. I think of it all as contextual and inter-related. They are all one thing. Different verses of one big song. I guess, a more feminine way of thought. It’s not one or the other, but all.

HC: One thing, I’ve always really liked about your music, which I guess is why I asked the last question, is how you’ve put out so many albums, and each one sounds so different. If you compare Imperfectly to Little Plastic Castles, it almost sounds like a different artist. How do you do that?

AD: Each record is a different me. That’s how I stay alive. (Laughs) I mean, it helps that I’ve been able to be at the head or helm of my team of record making. It gives me freedom in the process; we don’t have to follow some corporate formula to making music. So, consistency isn’t there and it doesn’t have to be. Those are the sounds of someone experimenting.

HC: After 20 years of touring you finally come into Chattanooga.

Any particular thing that put our little city in the game?

AD: I don’t really deal with that part of it…my booking agent does all the tour planning. I guess it just worked out.

There are very few tickets remaining for Ani’s show at Rhythm & Brews, so I would encourage everyone to buy the tickets in advance. Her opening act will be Erin McKeown, another RBR artist, who is so diversely talented one really can’t put her in one genre or another, but rather, she offers a little something for everyone. For those of you who have never seen, or possibly never heard of, Ani DiFranco, I urge you to come out and see for yourself that she is a force to be reckoned with.

“Each record is a different me.

That’s how I stay alive.”

sure?

AD: Sure, but I don’t regret anything I’ve put out there. It’s hard. I’ve aired self-loathing and insecurities. I show my own flaws and express my own experiences in art, in hopes that it inspires. At least, it lets people know that they are less alone in their struggles. Although it can be very claustrophobic, being so exposed. Let’s just say it’s a very strenuous songwriting style.

HC: I would imagine, considering it’s like singing out of your diary and putting it out there to be pulled apart. I see that you are on tour again.

How has that been going?

AD: Well, we’ve both been sick, my daughter and I. We seem to be getting over it now, finally.

It’s just so cold! We’ve been up through Canada and all over the place, in the snow. Other than that, I have been a bit tired. Tired in a very deep

Ani DiFranco with Erin McKeown $35 8 p.m.

Saturday, March 6 Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market Street (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com.

Discography - Ani DiFranco Over The Years Studio Albums • • • • • • • • www.chattanoogapulse.com

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1994 1995 1996

- Ani DiFranco - Not So Soft - Imperfectly - Puddle Dive - Like I Said: Songs 1990-91 - Out of Range - Not a Pretty Girl - Dilate

• • • • • • • • • •

1998 1999 1999 2001 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

- Little Plastic Castle - Up Up Up Up Up Up - To the Teeth - Revelling/Reckoning - Evolve - Educated Guess - Knuckle Down - Reprieve - Canon (compilation) - Red Letter Year

Live Recordings • 1994 - An Acoustic Evening With • 1994 - Women in (E)motion (German Import) • 1997 - Living in Clip • 2002 - So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter • 2006 - Carnegie Hall - 4.6.02 (Official Bootleg - available in stores) March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

13

Life in the Noog

By Chuck Crowder

Random Thoughts A

s I painstakingly clicked past about eight songs on my car iPod in order to find a good driving tune, I realized that there is such a thing as having too many songs on random shuffle.

I have my entire collection—close to 26,000 songs—on my iPod. In case you are wondering, that means (according to Apple’s calculations) it would take me a couple hundred days, 14 hours, 8 minutes and 16 seconds to listen to them all before I’d have to hit the “play” button again. Now, given the fact that I am a music snob, simply EVERY one of those songs is worthy of listening to of course. But sometimes I don’t wanna hear Frank Sinatra right after the Beastie Boys, who were preceded by AC/DC, just after the Velvet Underground. And I certainly don’t want to hear a Christmas song in the middle of July.

That’s the problem with the random setting. It’s great when the shuffle gods deliver a string of jewels that I haven’t heard in a long time—each following the last with the precision of a great mix tape. But more often than not I find that I have to remind myself that it’s just a computer algorithm and not some little DJ on a hamster wheel spinning those great tunes. I guess that’s what playlists are for.

Some random things we unwittingly embrace as if we were zombies without minds of our own. Take the television.

For most people, an agenda for nightly viewing is placed squarely upon shoulders of the programming wizards of the hundred or so channels at our remote controlled disposal. It doesn’t matter how many times you’ve seen this particular Seinfeld episode, it’s on right now and you must direct your attention

14

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

to the Soup Nazi one more time. Or televised movies. I’ll stop and watch Talladega Nights each and every time I pass it on the channel rotation—even though the uncut, uncensored version I could watch anytime I want is on a DVD right behind my head. Why is that?

I think it’s because we’re constantly being tugged to make a decision about something. In our “you can have anything you want anytime you want all you have to do is ask” society, you have instantaneous access to anything you could possibly fathom to help kill your time. And that can be a little much for people who just wanna relax with some mindless entertainment.

When I was a kid, regularly scheduled television programming was made up of mainly first-run shows (unless it was summer) on just three television networks (ABC, NBC, CBS). Coming home from school, the afternoon lineup of (first-run-as-far-aswe-were-concerned) classics included Leave It To Beaver, Andy Griffith, The Brady Bunch and possibly a Three Stooges episode or two. That was it.

There wasn’t anything else to choose from. And in a way, that made life a little less complicated.

I’ve just recently discovered the wonderment of the DVR. Now I can record all of my favorite shows that are on when I’m not home so that I won’t watch them later because Talladega Nights is on again.

Screw TBS! But it is fun to see what shows I have access to when I get the notification that its memory is dangerously close to full. And the fact that I could watch any one of them at my leisure is a good kind of random.

In fact there are all kinds of good random. Take parties or social events. Walking in the room of a fundraiser disguised as a party and seeing a bunch of people that I always intend to make plans with but never get around to it and now they are here to hang out with is great. In fact, that’s the best kind of venue to meet up with all kinds of random pals (especially if they happen to be potential girlfriends, cross-towners and/or those never-goout-anymore married folks).

One of my favorite watering holes holds a weekly random beer night.

That’s when you give them $3 and the bartender blindly dips into the cooler and randomly grabs some fancy high-gravity beer named after an animal, bicycle or Grateful Dead song.

Somehow my friends always score with a 12-ounce treat they would’ve ordered by name anyway at full price.

But I always seem to end up with some blueberry wheat or pomegranate stout. At least there’s always some girl with an “I’m 21 tonite!” or “Bride 2 B” tiara on to hand it over as a congratulatory gesture. And hey, that’s the beauty of “random” —you never know what you’re gonna get.

“I’ve just recently discovered the wonderment of the DVR. Now I can record all of my favorite shows that are on when I’m not home so that I won’t watch them later because Talladega Nights is on again.”

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 popular website www.thenoog.com

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

www.chattanoogapulse.com

March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

15

Music Feature

By Hellcat

All Hail Cowpunk I f you are a Tennessean who might pride yourself on being in the know about what our fine state has to offer musically, then surely you already know about Lucero. Based out of Memphis, Lucero has been one of those independent phenomena that have grown in popularity, more by word of mouth and touring than any sort of mainstream marketing structure. Playing around 250 shows or more a year puts you in front of a lot of people, and if they like what they see, you’ve got the makings of a hardcore following.

Such is Lucero. They are Southern punk rock, they are country alt-rock, they are cowpunk. That word really exists on the Internet.

I saw it and I laughed, so I had to use it. Regardless, they are Lucero.

They have had a lot going on lately.

They released a brand new album, called 1372 Overton Park, not on their independent label, Liberty and Lament, which released Ben Nichols’ solo album, The Last Pale Light in the West, last year, but rather the band has signed a four-album deal with the Universal Music Group.

1372 Overton Park is the first of these four albums.

What this means to me? I am guaranteed three more Lucero albums in my future, which could not ever be a bad thing. In fact, it gives me something to look forward to, and many more shows to attend. The name of the new album comes from the address of a Memphis loft that all of the band members have lived, practiced, or recorded in. An interesting and random fact is that same loft was a karate dojo in the ’70s where Elvis Presley took lessons. Ah-ya!

Last year was their first time in Chattanooga, and I was stoked.

Now, they are coming back again, and I couldn’t be happier. With a little bit of Irish luck, and all of our Chatty powers combined, perhaps we can make our little city a regular stop on their calendar! I could see

why they might want to come back, as the show last year was packed out. It was a blast, complete with an encore, and the guys were really well received. Congrats on welcoming a band, Chattanooga, you did good!

These alt-country punk rockers know a thing or two about a good time, heartbreak, girls, and beer. If you like any or all of those things, then you would probably like this band.

It feels like a new, edgy type of music, with just enough of its roots planted in the familiar sounds of Southern rock to crossover to the country fans, and just enough rock and punk rock undertones to appeal to the bad-asses in the crowd.

would get an idea of what Lucero sounds like.

Ben Nichols, the lead singer, has the gruff kind of voice that one can only obtain by a constant diet of cigarettes, whiskey, and PBR. Sounds like my kind of career. Unfortunately, for me, when girls sound like that, their options for work are pretty much limited to the Waffle House, or doing voice work for the Squidbillies. I have not listened to the new album yet, as I haven’t gotten my hands on a copy, but I do plan to rectify that at the show.

The last album Rebels, Rogues, & Sworn Brothers, took the place of an earlier album, Tennessee, at the top of my favorite Lucero albums, so I am interested to see if 1372 Overton Park will put up a good fight for the number-one slot.

I will be sure and let you know, or you could just come on out next Thursday at Rhythm & Brews, and we could figure it out together, over a beer...or seven. They have seven other albums available, and possibly the coolest band merchandise to buy. The Bohannons will be opening up for them again this year, and if you haven’t seen those guys in a minute, they have a bit of fresh material to offer up to the music masses, and by offer up, I mean, rock your face, possibly without your permission. Bring a thirst and meet me there!

“If Bruce Springsteen met up with Rumbleseat and Against Me! to do create a genetic hybrid music baby that Skynrd was named godfather over…”

16

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

I am very careful not to say this often, but you would be hardpressed not to like some form of Lucero. I think the band should be a staple in your music collections, particularly since they are from our Volunteer State...the least you could do would be volunteer your ears. If you are disappointed, don’t forget to question and potentially change your tastes. The best way I could describe it would be if Bruce Springsteen met up with Rumbleseat and Against Me! to do create a genetic hybrid music baby that Skynrd was named godfather over—then perhaps you

Lucero with The Bohannons $15 9 p.m.

Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market Street (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

Music Calendar Highlights Friday

Thursday

T-Model Ford, Black Diamond Heavies, Mark Holder, Husky Burnette Consummate bluesman meets local Heavies. Result: magic. $7 10 p.m.

JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd.

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

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

War of Ages, The Great Commission, Strengthen What Remains, Gideon, In This Hour 7 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge. www.myspace.com/warehousetn 2-n-Fro 9 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202.

(423) 499-5055.

Open Mic 9 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (423) 634-0260. www.marketstreettavern.com Channing Wilson 9 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com Casey Adams Band, Matt Chambers Band 9:30 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com

Ryan Oyer, Noah Collins, Charles Allison Three Americana stars, one big night. $5 8 p.m.

Lindsay Street Hall, 901 Lindsay Street. (423) 755-9111. www.lindsaystreethall.com

Saturday

Deep Vibration, Taxicab Racers, Crystal Thomas, Soul Mama Looking for your soul? It’ll be at JJ’s on Saturday night. $7 10 p.m.

JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd.

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

The Rest of The Week Monday Old Tyme Players 6 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (423) 634-0260. www.marketstreettavern.com Paul Longhorn’s 18 Piece Big Band 7:30 p.m. Lindsay Street Hall, 901 Lindsay St. (423) 755-9111 www.lindsaystreethall.com Karaoke 9:30 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com The Palms at Hamilton 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202.

(423) 499-5055.

Tuesday Troy Underwood 6:30 p.m. Mudpie Restaurant, 12 Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9043.

www.chattanoogapulse.com

Ryan Oyer, Noah Collins, Charles Allison 11:30 a.m. Mudpie Restaurant, 12 Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9043. www.mudpierestaurant.com Lionheart, The World We Knew, Gideon, Histeria 7 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge. www.myspace.com/warehousetn New Orleans Jazz Trio 7:30 p.m. The Original Blue Orleans Restaurant, 3208 Amnicola Hwy. (423) 629-6538.

Emancipator, Heyoka, Jamwerks 8 p.m. 412 Market Street, 412 Market Street. (423) 757-0019.

Baybee Invincible, Black Betty, Foxfire 8 p.m. Ziggy’s Hideaway, 607 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 634-1074. myspace.com/ziggyshideaway

Hans York 8 p.m. Charles and Myrtle’s Coffeehouse, 105 McBrien Rd. (423) 892-4960. www.christunity.org Mellow Down Easy 9 p.m. T-Roy’s Roadhouse, 724 Ashland Terrace Live Music 9 p.m. Market Street Tavern, 850 Market St. (423) 634-0260.

Black Cat Moon 10 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com Zoso, The Cadillac Saints 10 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644.

The Bohannons, Orange Opera, Dirty Streets 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia

Sunday Stained By Grace 1 p.m. Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home, 6623 Lee Hwy. A Lower Deep, Covered in Scars, Angels Diversion 8 p.m. Ziggy’s Hideaway, 607 Cherokee Blvd. (423) 634-1074. myspace.com/ziggyshideaway Ani DiFranco, Erin McKeown 8 p.m. Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St. (423) 267-4644. www.rhythm-brews.com Open Mic 9 p.m. Mudpie Restaurant, 12 Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9043. www.mudpierestaurant.com Mac Comer 10 p.m. T-Bones Café, 1419 Chestnut Ave. (423) 266-4240. www.tboneschattanooga.com Live Music 10 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike. (423) 266-1996.

Black Cat Moon 10 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com Deep Vibration, Taxicab Racers, Crystal Thomas, Soul Mama 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia Tim Grimm 8 p.m. Charles and Myrtle’s Coffeehouse, 105 McBrien Rd. (423) 892-4960. www.christunity.org DJ Spicolli Raw Sushi Bar Restaurant & Nightclub, 409 Market Street, (423) 756-1919.

DJ GOP The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202.

(423) 499-5055. www.thepalmsathamilton.com

Irish Sessions Music Who’s always waiting for you with a pint of beer?

No cover.

7 p.m.

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

Open Mic w/Jeff Daniels 4 p.m. Ms. Debbie’s Nightlife Lounge 4762 Highway 58, (423) 485-0966. myspace.com/debbieslounge Rick Rushing and the Blue Strangers 6:30 p.m. Mudpie Restaurant, 12 Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9043.

Jen Foster 7 p.m. Magoo’s, 3658 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge. (423) 867-1351.

Open Mic 8 p.m. Gene’s Bar & Grill, 724 Ashland Terrace. (423) 870-0880.

Machines are People 2, Deep Machine, Arpetrio, DJ PC3 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

DJ GOP The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202.

(423) 499-5055.

Editor’s Pick: Featured Event Of The Week Children 18:3, Anchors, The Overseer, Cutting through Clouds, The Victory Lap Kids 7 p.m. The Warehouse, 5716 Ringgold Rd., East Ridge.

The Ben Friberg Trio 7 p.m. Table 2, 232 E. 11th Street, (423) 756-8253.

Spoken Word/Poetry Night 8 p.m. The Riverhouse, 224 Frazier Ave. (423) 752-0066.

Open Mic 9 p.m. Tremont Tavern, 1203 Hixson Pike. (423) 266-1996.

Karaoke 9:30 p.m. Bud’s Sports Bar, 5751 Brainerd Rd. (423) 499-9878. www.budssportsbar.com Miss Tess and the Bon Ton Parade, all you can eat comedy buffet 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400.

DJ ScubaSteve Fox and Hound Pub & Grille, 2040 Hamilton Place Blvd, #150.

(423) 490-1200.

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

Mike Willis 7 p.m. Mudpie Restaurant, 12 Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9043. www.mudpierestaurant.com The Regular Guys 10 p.m. The Palms at Hamilton, 6925 Shallowford Rd., #202.

(423) 499-5055.

Leatherface, The Riot Before, Godaweful Heros, What If 10 p.m. JJ’s Bohemia, 231 E. MLK Blvd. (423) 266-1400. www.myspace.com/jjsbohemia

Hans York Singer/ songwriter multiinstrumentalist York works his “low-key charisma” and a three-octave range in the service of music combining folk, jazz and pop. A sophisticated evening out for those longing for a big-city vibe.

Friday, March 5 $10 8 p.m.

Charles & Myrtle’s Coffeehouse, 105 McBrien Road.

(423) 892-4960. www.christunity.org

March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

17

18

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

New Music Reviews Jack Rose Luck in the Valley (Thrill Jockey)

“The timing of Rose’s death only raises people’s expectations for the album, as it must serve as some final artist’s statement.”

Various Artists Pomegranates (Finders Keepers/B-Music) When you hear about entertainers from the nonWestern world attempting to take on Western cultural idioms, let’s face it—the bad ones are the ones that often get our attention: those cheesy, off-kilter or hilariously awful results. Example A: Turkish Star Wars. Example B: search on YouTube for “Korean karaoke fail.”

Pomegranates is a new compilation featuring funk and pop hits and obscurities from Iran in the ’60s and ’70s, before the revolution in 1979 and ban on female singers. This is a

www.chattanoogapulse.com

Fingerstyle guitarist Jack Rose died of a heart attack at the maddeningly young age of 38 last December; his newest album, Luck in the Valley, had been completed at the time and now must serve as his first posthumous release.

Rose was in the mindexpanding drone-folk band Pelt, which alternated between being wearisome and fascinating (mostly the latter, thankfully), and Rose’s solo work drifted away from Pelt’s adventurous abandon, focusing more on pre-war blues and ragtime. His approach was similar to that of inspirational guitar mavericks John Fahey and Robbie Basho, who both understood folk and felt no qualms about infusing eclectic flavors from other continents. For example, the excellent opening track of Luck in the Valley, “Blues for Percy Danforth,” is between Appalachian folk and an Indian raga, with drone notes meshing with mouth-harp twangs and slide guitar flourishes; it’s not a fast song, but there’s a compelling, disciplined insistency to it.

The rest of the album covers more familiar territory, from the fiddleenhanced mountain music of “Lick Mountain Ramble” to the country blues of “When Tailgate Drops, the Bullshit Stops,” fortified with a forceful-yet-quivering piano. There are a few covers, including a Blind Blake song and a take on the W. C.

Handy standard “Saint Louis Blues”; it eschews the haunting atmosphere of Bessie Smith’s immortal version for a barroom blues swagger, with an impish harmonica and a mid-song boost of energy. Folk and the blues are about structure, not variation; however, this reviewer wouldn’t have minded a few more diversions, or another raga number or two, and the low oom-pah notes of the fingerstyle method act as a not-quite-stern but certainly rigorous pulse for the album.

The timing of Rose’s death only raises people’s expectations for the album, as it must serve as some final artist’s statement, although, of course, it wasn’t recorded with that intention.

The good news is that it stands up well—it’s a solid release from a guitarist who was in control, carried a few torches, and last but not least, displayed ample chops.

— Ernie Paik

collection that deserves attention, and not out of any sense of irony or kitsch.

The immediate standouts are the deep funk grooves found throughout the disc. These are the kinds of vamps that you can’t ignore; they’re impossible to hear without at least nodding your head along. Sima Bina’s “Naz Kardanet Vaveyla” starts off sounding like an early ’70s blaxploitation film soundtrack, wah-guitar and all, before it breaks out the strings playing Middle Eastern scales while Bina sings her notes with a matching passionate release.

The album opener, “Helelyos” by Zia, begins with some odd, unhinged human beatboxing before sliding into a 6/8time Afrobeat jam, horns a-blazing and playing call-and-response with each other. Indian influences reveal themselves on Soli’s “Negar,” with fluid tabla rhythms, and on the powerhouse groove of “Soul Raga” by sitar player Mehrpouya, with a killer organ/horn vamp (borrowed from Santana’s “Hope

You’re Feeling Better”) and a fierce (yes, fierce) flute solo.

One of the more successful singers here is Googoosh, represented by three tracks; her voice is full and ardent, yet nimble and nuanced. Noosh Afarin’s contribution is a dramatic whirlwind dance-funk number, and she has an adept control of her voice, alternating between ending her notes with vibrato or a sultry delivery. The pop and folk moments are, quite honestly, overshadowed by the funk tunes, but notably, the track from Ramesh (whose face is on the collection’s cover) is a nice highlight with a psychedelic pop undercurrent.

Describing a song from Pomegranates might sound like a joke—say, for example, “Iranian sitar-funk”—but this is seriously good music. These singers and musicians could hold their own and even teach the rest of the world a thing or two, with inventive blends and soulful performances. — Ernie Paik

March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

19

Film Feature

A Lodestone in a Shining Career

By Phillip Johnston

“Though he

took home a statuette for Into the Wild two years ago, Abner Meecham is a role that Holbrook sinks into with body and soul.”

20

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

I

n the wake of the Civil War and the subsequent turn into the 20th century, the South became home to a sprawling literary tradition. With a tumultuous past firmly in view, writers such as William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O’Connor penned brooding tales of warring clans and familial dysfunction, often punctuated with some of the most mind-boggling climaxes in literature. It is a tradition that continues to this day and one that has recently found its way off the page and onto the screen.

This week’s selection in the Arts and Education Council’s Independent Film Series is That Evening Sun, an unvarnished piece of Southern grit shot in the summer of 2008 in Knoxville and starring the great Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild) in a career-defining performance.

Based on William Gay’s short story “I

Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down”, That Evening Sun is the tale of Abner Meecham, an aging Tennessee farmer spending his latter years in a desolate nursing facility. His dissatisfaction is written unmistakably in the furrow of his brow and it comes as no surprise when he picks up his bags and starts a trek to a destination only he knows.

The path ends at his old farm, where he suspects he can live the rest of his days in relative peace, but he soon discovers that his lawyer son has leased the land to Lonzo Choat (Ray McKinnon), one of the family’s oldest rivals. Choat tells the old man to get off the property, but Meecham is quite clear about his newfound intentions: “If you think you can buy a farm this size with food stamps, you’re mighty mistaken,” he says before defiantly moving into the tenant shack next to the main house, thereby pouring gas on the fire of family tensions.

That Evening Sun is populated by characters the director, Scott Teems, has the utmost affection for. The gruff, beerguzzling Lonzo Choat is introduced as a shiftless loafer who controls his family (Carrie Preston and Alice in Wonderland’s Mia Wasikowska) with a rod of iron. His hatred for Abner is unmitigated, but he has his reasons (not that they’re good ones). Meecham has his reasons, too; his enmity with the Choat clan is old and lasting, but he’s also grasping vigorously for the past and the memory of his wife whose loving touch he cannot forget.

Revenge is in the cards for Meecham and Choat, and many stories like this end in tragedy by means of a fell swoop of violence and rage. That Evening Sun has violence (although most of it happens offscreen) and there’s a due share of rage, but Scott Teems’ film offers something more redemptive in its final act.

No, That Evening Sun is not a buoyant, rags-to riches, wink-and-a-smile sentimental tale ending with a music montage of smiling faces and playful children. This redemption relies on what

Flannery O’Connor once called “the almost imperceptible intrusion of grace”, the likes of which so often hinges on a single momentary action or a solitary hopeful image rising from a cesspool of darkness.

One of the unfortunate aspects of That Evening Sun’s limited distribution is that Hal Holbrook was not recognized in this year’s Oscar nominations. Though he took home a statuette for Into the Wild two years ago, Abner Meecham is a role that Holbrook sinks into with body and soul. Because That Evening Sun is a distinctly Southern film, The Association for Film and Television of Greater Chattanooga (AFFT) will be hosting a question-and-answer session with the film’s Executive Producer Larsen Jay immediately following the 7 p.m. showing this Friday evening.

Jay is president of Double Jay Creative (Knoxville) and Dogwood Entertainment (Los Angeles) and hopes to see Tennesseans contribute to the AFFT, the state’s first and only political action committee for those who work in film, television, or music. Jay is challenging the community to contribute to this cause and he will match all contributions up to $500.

That Evening Sun is stunning drama, but it also shows that notable Southern filmmaking is on the upswing. It is a valiant and graceful leap in the right direction for independent filmmaking in Tennessee and demands to be seen not only by lovers of Southern drama, but by anyone interested in furthering the arts in our region.

That Evening Sun (part of the Arts & Education Council’s Independent Film Series) Directed by Scott Teems Starring Hal Holbrook, Ray McKinnon, Mia Wasikowska, Barry Corbin Rated PG-13 Running time: 110 minutes

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

New in Theaters Alice in Wonderland One of the disadvantages of previewing movies is that if you don’t have a home 3-D film projector (and unless your name is James Cameron, Tim Burton or George Lucas, chances are excellent that you don’t), it’s the equivalent of seeing a musical with the sound off. Which presents a problem that will become more and more common for all film reviewers as we face a paradigm shift in theatrical filmmaking. The advent of modern 3-D, which was launched fully into the film-going mainstream with Cameron’s Avatar, takes its next major step with Tim Burton’s eagerly anticipated Alice in Wonderland. Teaming up with his longtime acting muse Johnny Depp, and his own real-life love interest Helena Bonham Carter, Burton’s Wonderland is a visual delight even in 2-D that easily rivals any previous version of Wonderland ever committed to celluloid. The characters are brilliant mesmerizing, the colors a riot of delight and near hyperactive confusion, and some of the supporting roles engage in scene-stealing such as hasn’t been seen since the glory days of ’70s all-star disaster films. For Alice in Wonderland actually owes a debt to those films, filling the screen with well-known faces (albeit costumed and makeup-ed within an inch of their lives) that seem more concerned with being seen than in actually advancing a coherent story.

The story itself is new: taking elements from both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-

Glass, and What Alice Found There, Burton has crafted a tale of a 19-yearold Alice who returns to the magical world of her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen’s reign of terror. Will you want to see it? Yes. Should you see it?

Of course. Will it make any sense after you leave the theater? Well…that may entirely depend on how close you are to the imaginative world of Tim Burton.

Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Wasikowska, Anne Hathaway Director: Tim Burton Rating: PG

Also in Theaters Finest (New) Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke are NYPD cops caught up in the violence and corruption of the gritty 65th Precinct.

The Secret of Kells (Limited) An animated retelling of the provenance of one of Ireland’s most cherished artifacts, the ancient and magical “Book of Kells.”

Cop Out Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan are NYPD partners who find themselves up against a merciless, memorabiliaobsessed gangster.

The Crazies A picture-perfect American town is infected with a mysterious toxin that transforms the population into bloodthirsty killers.

Shutter Island Leonardo DiCaprio is a

www.chattanoogapulse.com

U.S. marshall investigating a murderer’s mysterious disappearance from a hospital for the criminally insane.

The Good Guy An ambitious young New Yorker wants it all: a good job, good friends and— often the trickiest of all—a good guy.

The Ghost Writer A writer agrees to complete the memoirs of the former prime minister, only to uncover some dark, dangerous secrets.

Celine: Through the Eyes of the World Celine Dion travels to five continents and 25 countries, putting on showstopping performances of some of her biggest hits.

The Wolfman Benicio Del Toro stars in the terrifying tale of an ancient, evil curse that turns the afflicted into

werewolves when the moon is full.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief The god Poseidon’s halfhuman son embarks on a fantastical quest to unravel a mystery more powerful than the gods themselves.

Dear John A soldier home on leave falls for a conservative college girl, but when he re-enlists, time and distance take a toll on the young lovers.

From Paris With Love John Travolta stars as a wisecracking, fastshooting, high-ranking U.S. agent who’s sent to France to stop a terrorist. attack.

Edge of Darkness Mel Gibson is a homicide detective who embarks on a dangerous mission to get behind the truth of his daughter’s murder.

March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

21

On The Beat

By Alex Teach

A Week in the Obvious A

lthough I still refer to hip-hop as “rap”, CDs as “albums”, and misspeaking as “lies” (a personal favorite and literary gift from the Clinton era), I am still caught off guard on occasion as to just how dumb the news makes me.

(More on this later.)

Locally, on February 25, a collaboration of law enforcement agencies made 16 arrests at two separate locations of members of the Outlaws motorcycle club. While fully half of the press release was dedicated to seven law enforcement agency representatives breaking their arms to give each other hand-jobs over due credit for the fact that it took all seven of them to use four federal initiatives to take two years to make 16 whole arrests…it was the subject itself that fascinated me.

Think: A group of men referred to themselves as “Outlaws” and got arrested. Not just arrested, but taken into custody at a location called an “Outlaw Clubhouse”. That’s not what it was known as; that is literally what is posted in professional lettering on the top of their damn mailbox. Don’t you think they would have seen it coming?

And if so, couldn’t they have been a little more clever about it?

God hell, folks: While I myself take pride in my work, if you’re going to be a shitbag criminal, don’t be so obvious about it. Our fighting men and women of the Armed Forces are certainly proud of their respective professions, but you don’t see them rushing across the battlefield in hunter orange, do you?

Hell no.

Nationally: The same week, a headline reads: “Sea World Trainer Killed by Killer Whale.” Let me break

22

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

that down from seven to four words: “Killed by Killer Whale.” Why exactly is it that this has rocked the public consciousness? “Holy crap!” people collectively gasped with their index fingers reaching to touch their lower lips. “I can’t believe it!”

It was a killer whale, folks. A creature so highly recognized as an apex predator, humankind actually threw the word “killer” into its name. Seriously.

Not since Steve Irwin was stung by a stingray (again, how would you see it coming with a name like that?) have I observed such foolishness on a global scale. I won’t even begin to baffle you with the fact that they’re not even whales: They’re dolphins…but as I start down that path I can just imagine the headache starting behind a few of your right eyes, yeah?

I know what some of you are thinking, and no, I’m not heartless. I am merely as objective an observer as you would want me to be as a professional enforcer of laws.

To illustrate: I think it is a tragedy that what was by all accounts a nice lady was killed in front of 2,200 somewhat startled onlookers who unwittingly paid $75 bucks apiece to witness something heretofore reserved to the rugged and otherwise bored Inuit people of the Northern Hemisphere

and few Antarctic scientists.

Conversely, I also believe that a lady who professionally trains killer-somethings should have put more thought into growing what would universally be recognized by yippy retriever dogs and mammals in general as a pull-toy rope from the back of her head.

I even believe that people with nicknames like “Snake”, “Smiley”, “Doodah” & “Dozer” require the kind of social interaction and fulfillment that comes with local club activities.

Heck, I’m even big enough to admit exceptions to my rule; Lou Gehrig’s being the greatest even though he of all people shouldn’t have been surprised to die from his own disease. But I digress.

I simply write this article to show that I draw the line when startlingly obvious labels yield results that cause people to transcend common sense.

It’s a common theme of mine here that I honestly hope some of you see in emerging patterns.

As to the earlier ominous warning in the opening paragraph? Make a careful note that I didn’t refer to the news itself as being stupid or to the public it caters to as being dumb… but specifically how the media, in my opinion, simply assumes we’re stupid as a people and addresses us as such. Fight this stereotyping, people. Don’t be that stupid demographic. Do as I literally encourage my co-workers: “Think.”

Things should get less complicated by the second if this is done in careful moderation.

Until then, don’t play with shit that can eat you on a whim, or call yourself a stamp—then act all surprised when you get stuck to an envelope.

“Think.”

“I know what some of you are thinking, and no, I’m not heartless. I am merely as objective an observer as you would want me to be as a professional enforcer of laws.”

When officer Alexander D. Teach is not patrolling our fair city on the heels of the criminal element, he is an occasional student at UTC, an up and coming carpenter, auto mechanic, prominent boating enthusiast, and spends his spare time volunteering for the Boehm Birth Defects Center.

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

www.chattanoogapulse.com

March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

23

Arts & Entertainment

From Russia, With Thrills

By Phillip Johnston

“It is chamber

music in its truest sense; very clever, humorous, and something that people can get close to both musically and physically.”

24

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

T

his weekend’s Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra concert at the Read House Silver Ballroom showcases three thrilling masterpieces of Russian music. Though the selected music calls only calls for a few players, this small concert offers the opportunity to sit with Maestro Robert Bernhardt and some of the CSO’s talented musicians and listen to music both 20th century and romantic, experimental and traditional.

For their Masterworks concerts and opera events, the Chattanooga Symphony is no stranger to the Tivoli Theater, but the Chamber Series is a different animal. Instead of watching the conductor and his musicians raised on a stage far out of reach, the Read House Silver Ballroom offers music lovers the chance to see and hear important music in a comfortable and relaxed setting. This weekend’s concert features three works for small orchestra by two of Russia’s most lauded composers: Igor Stravinsky and Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.

Sunday’s program opens with Stravinsky’s “Octet” for eight wind instruments, a work that Maestro Bernhardt is especially excited about performing.

“The ‘Octet’ of Stravinsky is an absolute masterpiece,” Bernhardt said in an interview.

“It’s what happens when you restrict a genius. The eight instruments build an absolutely extraordinary creation in three movements.”

The “Octet”, composed in 1922, has a distinctly 20th-century sound, but it is not a work solely concerned with groundbreaking musical innovation. “This is Stravinsky as a neo-classicist,” Bernhardt said, “using his own language combined with musical techniques of the past, such as fugue and counterpoint. The result is an incredible, extremely clever combination of looking forward…and a real challenge for the eight musicians.”

When asked how many rehearsals the orchestra normally puts in for a chamber music concert, Bernhardt said that three is the usual number, but that for music as complex as Stravinsky they might need to sneak in one or two more. Polishing the “Octet” is one of the orchestra’s priorities as it is a piece they have been looking forward to performing for a long time.

The second Stravinsky work on the program was composed after World War I at a time when Stravinsky was attempting to pick up the loose threads of a career that had been torn asunder by the conflict. Before the war, Stravinsky had composed two of his most famous works, “The Firebird” and “The Rite of Spring” for the Russian ballet stage, and choreographers were looking desperately for a way to entice him back into the fold.

One of these choreographers suggested he adapt the music of an 18th-century composer named Pergolesi; Stravinsky balked until he finally glanced at the music.

The result was a ballet called Pulcinella that shows a distinctly different side of Stravinsky’s personality than the “Octet”.

The CSO is performing the orchestral suite from Pulcinella on Sunday and Bernhardt said that to hear both of these aspects of Stravinsky is one program is extraordinary and quite unusual. “Stravinsky took the music of Pergolesi and created an effervescent tour de force,” he said. “It is a wonderful

orchestral suite in which all the winds and brass have their solo turns. It’s very challenging and just beautiful.”

The two Stravinsky pieces serve as 20thcentury bookends for a work that will be familiar to even the most casual classical music lover: Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade for Strings”, a piece that captivates from the first measure with its lush, often heartbreaking melodies.

Tchaikovsky composed his famous “Serenade” at the same time as his immortal “1812 Overture”. He wasn’t pleased with the “Overture”—an irony that says much about how composers view their own work—and wrote the “Serenade” not only so he could have a respite from the “1812 Overture”, but as an homage to Mozart, whom he once referred to as “the Christ of music.” Tchaikovsky’s “Serenade” is as pure an export of Russian romanticism that you could ever hope to find.

It has been said that Stravinsky began what would become his “Octet” without knowing what would finally become of it and that he found more complete guidance for the work in a dream. “I saw myself in a small room surrounded by a small group of instrumentalists playing some attractive music,” he said. “I awoke from this little concert in a state of great delight and anticipation and the next morning began to compose the ‘Octet’.”

The CSO’s Russian Masterpieces concert this Sunday is a chance to have an encounter much like Stravinsky had in his dream—to place yourself in an intimate setting and experience chamber music the way it was meant to be heard.

“The spirit of the event is intentionally informal,” Bernhardt said. “You’re sitting in a beautiful space and it’s just as though you might be listening to the music in the 19th and early 20th century. It is chamber music in its truest sense; very clever, humorous, and something that people can get close to both musically and physically.”

“Russian Masterpieces” $15, 3 p.m., Sunday, March 7 Silver Ballroom, Sheraton Read House, 827 Broad Street, (423) 267-8583. www.chattanoogasymphony.org

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

A&E Calendar Highlights Friday

Thursday

“Eye of the Beholder” opening reception Show of work by mixed media artist Paul Fontana.

Free 5:30 - 8 p.m.

Asher Love Gallery, 3914 St. Elmo Avenue. (423) 822-0289. asherlovegallery.blogspot.com

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

“A Conversation with Dennis Oppenheim” 6 p.m. Hunter Museum of Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944. www.huntermuseum.org Daniel Liam Gill and Sandra Shannon Exhibition opening reception 7 p.m. My Color Image Boutique and Art Gallery, 330 Frazier St. (423) 598-6202.

Drew Thomas 8 p.m. The Comedy Catch, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com Sculpture by John McLeod Covenant College, 14049 Scenic Hwy. Lookout Mtn., GA. (706) 419-1119.

“Talk Portraiture” Shuptrine Fine Art Group, 2646 Broad St. 423-266-4453. www.shuptrinefineartgroup.com

Genghis Blues Documentary about a blind bluesman who travels to Tuva.

Free 7 p.m.

Mountain Music Folk School, 250 Forest Avenue, (423) 827-8906. www.mmfolk.com

Saturday

Antigone Youth Theatre production of classic Greek tale. $7 - $9 2:30 p.m.

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

Monday “Speak Easy” Spoken word and poetry 8 p.m. Mudpie Restaurant, 12 Frazier Ave. (423) 267-9040. www.mudpierestaurant.com Eric Foster Comedy Night 8 p.m. The Comedy Catch, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233.

“Icebergs and Moonwalks” Cress Gallery, UTC, 752 Vine St. (423) 304-9789.

All Members Exhibit Studio 2/Gallery 2, 27 W. Main St. (423) 266-2222.

“Still Lifes from the Permanent Collection” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944. www.huntermuseum.org “More than Words” River Gallery, 400 E. Second St. (423) 265-5033. www.river-gallery.com

www.chattanoogapulse.com

“A Conversation with Bonnie Morris” 11 a.m. Hunter Museum of Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944. www.huntermuseum.org “Sister City” by Elizabeth Turbergen opening reception 5 p.m. Association for Visual Arts, 30 Frazier Ave. (423) 265-4282. www.avarts.org Metal Sculpture by Julie Clark opening reception 5 p.m. In-Town Gallery, 26A Frazier Ave. (423)267-9214. www.intowngallery.com Game Night 6 p.m. Pasha Coffeehouse, 3914 St. Elmo Ave. (423) 475-5482. www.pashacoffeehouse.com Booksigning of Synthetic Soul

by Melissa Levi 6 p.m. Teriyaki of Japan, 4142 Ringgold Rd. (888) 361-9473.

“More than Words” reception 6:30 p.m. River Gallery, 400 E. Second St. (423) 265-5033. www.river-gallery.com AEC Spring Independent Film Series: That Evening Sun 7 p.m. Majestic 12 Theater, 311 Broad St. (423) 826-2370.

The Glass Menagerie 7:30 p.m. Lee University, 1120 N. Ocoee St. (423) 614-8343.

Antigone 7:30 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, Circle Stage, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com Drew Thomas 7:30, 10 p.m. The Comedy Catch & Giggles Grille, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233.

The Wizard of Oz 7:30 p.m. Colonnade Center, 264 Catoosa Cir. (706) 935-9000.

Sunday The C-Play 10:30 a.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, Circle Stage, 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com The Biscuit Brothers 11 a.m. Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St. (423) 757-5050. www.chattanoogaonstage.com Mosaic Market 11 a.m. 412 Market St. (corner of 4th/Market) (423) 624-3915.

Wild Ocean in 3D Noon, 1, 3, 4 p.m. IMAX Theater at the Tennessee Aquarium, 1 Broad St. (800) 265-0695.

Mystery of the Nightmare High School Reunion 6 p.m. Vaudeville Café, 138 Market St. (423) 517-1839.

“Carnegie Hall or Bust” 6 p.m. Soddy Daisy Elementary, 260 School St. (423) 280-4860.

Amuse’um 7 p.m. Creative Discover Museum, 321 Chesnut St. (423) 649-6054. www.cdmfun.org The Wizard of Oz 7:30 p.m. Colonnade Center, 264 Catoosa Cir. (706) 935-9000.

Drew Thomas 7:30, 10 p.m. The Comedy Catch & Giggles Grille, 3224 Brainerd Rd. (423) 629-2233. www.thecomedycatch.com The Glass Menagerie 7:30 p.m. Lee University, 1120 N. Ocoee St. (423) 614-8343.

Mystery of the Red Neck Italian Wedding 6 p.m. Vaudeville Café, 138 Market St. (423) 517-1839. www.funnydinner.com Educational History Exhibit The Bethelem Center, 200 W. 38th St. (423) 619-0379.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Soprano Jessica Underwood 7:30 p.m. Lee University, 1120 N. Ocoee St. (423) 614-8343.

“Themes of Identity” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944.

Daniel Liam Gill and Sandra Shannon Exhibition My Color Image Art Gallery, 330 Frazier St. (423) 598-6202.

“Sister City” by Elizabeth Turbergen Association for Visual Arts, 30 Frazier Ave. (423) 265-4282. www.avarts.org “Eye of the Beholder” Asher Love Gallery, 3914 St. Elmo Ave. (423) 822-0289. asherlovegallery.blogspot.com “Landscape: A Southern Perspective” Gallery 1401, 1401 Williams St. (423) 265-0015.

Styleworks Artworks and Silent Auction 5 p.m. Chattanooga Convention Center, 1150 Carter St. (423) 648-1709.

Multicultural Book Club, Stone into Schools 6 p.m. Rock Point Books, 401 Broad St. (423) 504-0638. www.rockpointbooks.com “Twenty American Etchings” Hunter Museum of American Art, 10 Bluff View. (423) 266-0944. www.huntermuseum.org “Millennial Classicism: Recent Modern Monumental Oils” by Daniel Swanger Mosaic Gallery, 412 Market St. (423) 320-6738. www.mosaicchattnooga.com “Horsing Around” Artful Eye Gallery, 5646 Brainerd Rd. (423) 855-7424.

First Sunday at the Hunter Always a great day to get out and see the fabulous Hunter.

Free Noon to 5 p.m.

Hunter Museum, 10 Bluff View (423) 267-0968. www.huntermuseum.org

The Glass Menagerie 2 p.m. Lee University, 1120 N. Ocoee St. (423) 614-8343. www.leeuniversity.edu Antigone 2:30 p.m. Chattanooga Theatre Centre, Circle Stage. 400 River St. (423) 267-8534. www.theatrecentre.com CSO Chamber Series: “Russian Masterpieces” 3 p.m. Sheraton Read House, 827 Broad St. (423) 267-8583. www.chattanoogasymphony.org Living Room Concert with Shannon McNalley and Hot Sauce 6 p.m. Rock Point Books, 401 Broad St. (423) 504-0638. www.rockpointbooks.com “Carnegie Hall or Bust” 6 p.m. Soddy Daisy Elementary, 260 School St. (423) 280-4860.

Editor’s Pick: Featured Event Of The Week

An Evening at That Evening Sun Shot entirely in the Knoxville area and based on a short story by Tennessee writer William Gay, That Evening Sun stars Hal Holbrook as an elderly farmer who flees a nursing home, only to find that his farm has been leased to an old enemy. Executive producer Larsen Jay will be on hand to discuss the film between the 7 and 10 p.m. showings.

Discussion free with admission to a film showing.

Friday, March 5 Majestic Theatre, 215 Broad Street.

(423) 265-5220. www.carmike.com

March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

25

The Pulse • Dining Out Spotlight

A Day in the Life of Bread at Niedlov’s

by Colleen Wade

It’s three o’clock in the afternoon as I’m sitting down to write this piece, and a day in the life of Niedlov’s Breadworks is just beginning.

But before we examine a day in the life of Niedlov’s, let’s get some background. Niedlov’s Breadworks, located on East Main Street in downtown Chattanooga has been baking bread for Chattanoogans since late 2002.

Owner John Sweet explains how the concept of Niedlov’s Breadworks came about: “It was a dream that I had starting in maybe 1995 or 1996 when I was an exchange student in Germany. There was a seed planted there from, well, I just really enjoyed the bakeries living there in Europe. It was something that seemed really accessible, even to a student, at the time. It was a place you could go for something kinda special—a nice little pastry, or even a good loaf of bread over there has a status in Germany, different from anything I knew growing up here in the States. So, eventually, I was in college at Covenant College and I started thinking about this.”

The summer after Sweet’s sophomore year at Covenant, he went back home to Michigan and landed a job as a baker in a bakery in Ann Arbor, MI. Lucky for Chattanoogans, since Sweet worked making artisan breads—hand-shaping loaves, standing on a concrete floor, next to a wood workbench just hand-shaping bread 40 hours a week. Sweet was in love. He was working with real bakers who were excited about the product they were making. “It’s kind of contagious,” says Sweet. “So that summer I just decided this is what I want to

26

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

do with my life.” For Sweet’s senior project at Covenant College he wrote a business plan for a bread bakery using demographic information for Chattanooga. A couple of years later, he used a large part of this senior project to approach a bank to fund his dream.

Back to a day in the life at Niedlov’s.

“The longer you can make the [breadmaking] process take the more unique, full flavors you’re gonna get in bread,” explains Sweet. “Whereas in a commercial bakery, it’s a three- to four-hour process from start to finish, it’s an 18- to 20-hours for most of our breads.”

3 p.m.: Orders from wholesale customers, including Greenlife Grocery and a number of fine dining restaurants here in Chattanooga, are closed out.

4 p.m.: Recipes for tomorrow are printed up and the “scaler” comes in. A scaler is a person who sets everything up for the morning. From 4 until 6:30 p.m., the scaler

measures everything out for the next day’s orders. The scaler will also mix the starters. There are five different starters used at Niedlov’s Breadworks. Three of these are sourdoughs and are naturally leavened, while the other two contain some form of commercial yeast.

2:45 a.m.: The mixer comes in and mixing begins 15 minutes later. From 3 a.m. until 5:30 a.m., most of the mixes for the day will be made.

5:30 a.m.: Shapers and the pastrymaker begin coming in.

From 5:30 until 11:30 a.m. or noon, the shapers are steadily shaping bread.

7 a.m.: The baker arrives and begins the baking process. The mixer goes back and mixes more dough for later in the day, and the pastries are all out in the counter ready for opening. The pastry maker begins prepping everything for the next morning’s pastries.

9 a.m.: Delivery drivers come in and begin loading and delivering the day’s breads to retail outlets and restaurants.

The baker finishes by 1 p.m. The breads come out and are placed out for sale, and two hours later the process starts all over again.

The processes that Niedlov’s uses assure that they continue to bring Chattanoogans the artisan breads we’ve come to know and love. Don’t just take my word for it. Stop by and get some!

Niedlov’s Breadworks, 215 E. Main Street. Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. – 6 p.m., Saturday, 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. For more information, call (423) 756-0303 or visit them on the web at www.niedlovs.com.

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

www.chattanoogapulse.com

March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

27

Spirits Within

By Joshua Hurley

Sensuous Argentine Red

There are two wine varietals, one red and one white that have seen an increase in sales during these last few months. The white, moscato, was covered three weeks ago for Riley’s Valentine’s Day “Great Buy”.

If you’re just now joining us, Great Buys is where Riley’s Wine and Spirits on Hixson Pike in Hixson picks a favorite item from our large selection of wine and spirits from around the world and shares it with the readership of The Pulse. This week’s pick is the red varietal— Antigal “Uno” Malbec 2007—a wine whose very name speaks for itself.

Malbec is a red grape that originated in France’s northern Burgundy growing region. It has always been one of the six grapes allowed into the components of French “Bordeaux blends”. Today malbec, which is called côt noir in Cahors, France and pressac in other parts of the country, is found mainly in the southwest region of France.

Although a key French winemaking grape, malbec’s role is still and has always been secondary—usually blended with cabernet sauvignon or cabernet franc. Not so in Argentina, where it’s considered their national grape.

Malbec first came to Argentina in the mid-1900s. Although close to French malbec, the Argentine variety differs slightly in that the berries and clusters are somewhat smaller.

It is believed that this is in fact the original French malbec, which became extinct due to the frost and phylloxera epidemics that ravage the

28

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

Burgundy region from time to time.

The malbec grape’s thin skin does better in friendly, warm climates like those of Chile and Argentina.

Argentina’s Mendoza growing region, located in the foothills of the Andes Mountains, is the best area to grow great malbec. Malbec also grows well in other Argentine areas such as La Rioja, San Juan and Catamarca.

The Antigal Winery was founded by brothers Heracio and Alex Peiro.

The land that makes up Antigal is part of historic acreage in Russell Maipu, 15 miles outside Mendoza.

This fertile vineyard holds over a century of winemaking tradition.

Antigal operates out of a completely restored, state-of-the-art winery that utilizes high levels of quality control. Antigal Uno Malbec 2007 really does deserve to have a metallic “Number One” plastered on the bottle as its label. It’s won first place at two local wine-tasting competitions in the last month.

This wine accurately displays what the growing conditions on the Andes foothills have always promised but seldom deliver—a topflight wine with a low-end price.

“Uno Malbec” contains flavors of blackberries, red fruit and ripe tannins. Eight months of barrel aging in French and American oak give it a cedar and vanilla spice finish that’s unforgettable. Easily the best malbec tasted in three years for less than $29, Uno Malbec 2007 is available at Riley’s Wine & Spirits for $16.36 plus tax.

Cheers!

Free Will Astrology

By Rob Brezsny

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): One of the best new bands of 2009 was the Girls. Spin magazine selected their debut CD album as the fifth-best album of the year. After touring for months and selling scads of records, the band came back home to San Francisco in February to do a sold-out show at the Great American Music Hall. For his onstage apparel, lead singer Christopher Owens wore baggy orange flannel pajama bottoms and a rumpled green flannel shirt, proving that his newfound fame had not rendered him selfimportant or excessively dignified. I nominate Owens as your role model this week, Pisces. I’d like to see you move on up toward the next level in your chosen field of endeavor, even as you remain perfectly comfortable, full of casual grace, and at home in your excellence.

green button. Go ahead. Don’t be…Gaaaahhhhh!

Unnhhh! Wha?! I mean WOW! That was very interesting. Try it again!

ARIES (March 21-April 19): To place yourself in smooth alignment with planetary rhythms, do conscientious work on the foundations of your life. Take extra care of the people who take care of you. Make sure you have a good supply of the various resources that keep you strong and steady.

Check to see if maybe you need to rev up your emotional connection with the traditions you hold dear. But that’s only half your horoscope, Aries.

Here’s the rest: Invite your most rambunctious playmates over for a raucous home-blessing ceremony.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Temple Grandin is a successful autistic person. Diagnosed at an early age, she nevertheless went on to earn a PhD in Animal Science and became a bestselling author whose work has led to notable improvements in the humane treatment of livestock. Although she acknowledges that her autism has caused her problems, she also believes it gives her abilities that non-autistic people don’t have. For example, her extreme sensitivity and extraordinary visual memory are at the root of her unique insights into the needs of animals. If there were an instant cure for her autism, she says, she wouldn’t take it. She’s an advocate of neurodiversity. Now here’s my question for you, Libra: Do you have a supposed weakness or disability that’s actually an inherent part of one of your special talents? Celebrate and cultivate it this week.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Two-thirds of people surveyed said they would rather look good than feel good. I hope you’re not one of them. The ironic fact of the matter is that if you put the emphasis on looking good in the coming week— creating favorable impressions, acting dishonest in order to curry favor, wearing uncomfortable but attractive clothes—you will end up feeling sub-par and looking mediocre. On the other hand, if you put the priority on feeling good—treating your body like a beloved pet, seeking out encounters that nurture your secret self, and hanging out in environments that encourage you to relax—you will look good and feel good.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): If you’re bogged down in the trance of the humdrum routine, astrology can open your mind and illuminate fascinating patterns that have been invisible to you. It can reveal the big picture of your life story, sweeping away the narrow ideas and shrunken expectations you have about yourself. And it can purge your imagination of its endless tape loops, awakening you to the power you have to create your own destiny. But reliance on horoscopes can also have downsides. If you’re superstitious, it might make you even more so. If you’re prone to be passive, believing that life is something that happens to you, it might further diminish your willpower. That’s why, as much as I love astrology, I’m wary of its potential to deceive and lead astray. Is there anything comparable in your world, Gemini? Something that feeds and inspires you, but only if you’re discerning about it? This is a good time to ratchet up your discernment.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I don’t care whether you call it uncanny intuition or plain old telepathy: In the next three weeks, you will have unusually abundant access to that way of knowing. So please use it. Please call on it. It could steer you away from twisty wastes of time that don’t serve your highest good. It might also allow you to ferret out disguised or hiding opportunities.

There’s one catch: If you don’t believe in them, your psychic powers won’t work as well as they can. So I suggest you set aside any dogmatic skepticism you might have about them and proceed on the hypothesis that they are very real.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Let’s poke around to see if we can stir up some good trouble, Leo. The time is right. You’re in need of a friendly disruption or two. Fortunately, I’m sensing there’s a forbidden temptation that isn’t so forbidden any longer…as well as a strange attractor you might find inspiring and a volatile teaching that would turn you insideout in a good way. Are you willing to wander into a previously off-limits area? Hey, look. There’s one of those mystery spots I was hinting about. I wonder what would happen if you pressed that

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): You may be prone to overreaction. You could be on the verge of uncorking an excessive response to a modest prompt. On a regular basis, you should ask yourself: “Are the feelings rising up in me truly appropriate for what’s happening now? Or are they mostly the eruption of material that I repressed in the past?” I also encourage you to consider Hoare’s Law of Large Problems, which says that inside every large problem is a small problem scrambling to get out. Be alert for the possibility that minor adjustments will work better than epic struggles.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Self-help author Barbara De Angelis wrote a book that offers to help us learn “how to make love all the time.”

Maybe I’ll read it someday, but right now I’m more interested in your take on the subject. How would you make love—not have sex, but make love—with your sandwich, with the music you listen to, with a vase of flowers, with the familiar strangers sitting in the cafe, with everything? Your expertise in this art is now at a peak.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): It’s not a good time to treat yourself like a beast of burden or to swamp yourself with dark, heavy thoughts.

You’re extra sensitive, Sagittarius—as delicate and impressionable as a young poet in love with a dream of paradise. You need heaping doses of sweetness and unreasonable amounts of fluidic peace, smart listening, and radical empathy. If you can’t get people to buoy your spirits and slip you delightful presents, do those things for yourself.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In some of the newspapers that publish my horoscope column, my carefully wrought text is buried in the back pages amidst a jabbering hubbub of obscene advertisements for quasi-legal sexual services. For readers with refined sensibilities, that’s a problem.

They do their best to avert their eyes, narrowing their focus down to a tight window. I think you’ll be wise to adopt a similar approach in the coming week, Capricorn. Only a small percentage of information coming your way will be truly useful to you, and it may often be embedded in a sparkly mess of distracting noise. Concentrate hard on getting just the essentials that you want so you won’t be misinformed and worn out by the rest.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Do your own stunts, Aquarius. Don’t commandeer a stunt double to do them for you. Accept blame and claim credit that rightfully belong to you. Don’t scare up scapegoats or tolerate plagiarists. It will also be a good idea to deliver your own messages and sing your ownasongs and kick your own butt.

No surrogates or stand-ins, please. There’s just no way, you see, for you to get to where you need to go by having a substitute do the traveling for you.

Your only hope of claiming the reward that will be crucial for the next chapter of your life story will be to do the work yourself.

Homework: Consider the possibility of getting married to yourself. Here’s a set of vows I wrote for you to use: http://bit.ly/IMeWed

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative

JONESIN’

By Matt Jones

“The Future Is Now!” –and they got it wrong.

Across 1 What writer Malcolm Peltu predicted could “cross a busy highway without being hit” by 2010 6 Heavy falling sound 10 Green living prefix 13 Verdugo of “Marcus Welby, M.D.” 14 Bar mitzvah dance 15 Fetal position?

17 Guilty pleasures 18 Phil of poker 19 Daredevil Knievel 20 Acronym used a lot by Rachael Ray 21 Malaria-carrying fly 23 Peyton Manning’s brother 24 2016 Olympics site 25 With “The,” country that’s already a U.S. state by 2010, in the 1968 novel “Stand on Zanzibar” 27 Panama currency named for an explorer 29 Impressionist painter Mary 30 Classical architecture style 32 Chips to play 33 Manned space mission that gets carried out in the 1984 movie “2010” 39 Actress Turner 40 “I won’t ___ guy who doesn’t own a toolbox” (Kristy Swanson quote)

41 Electronic device 45 Villain’s evil laugh 49 Online world where people live and pay taxes in 2010, according to Tom Clancy’s “Net Force” series 51 On the ___ (fleeing) 52 Silent ___ (presidential nickname) 53 Visually finds 54 Sitcom with a famous Turkey Drop episode 55 Director Reitman 57 “___ be easy” 58 Ex-UN SecretaryGeneral Boutros Boutros-___ 59 Drowsy 60 Fox comedy with Jane Lynch 61 Sedan named for an Italian city 62 Badminton divider 63 The “Big Board,” on Wall Street 64 Its cause is what rocket scientist Robert Truax predicted would be found and corrected by 2010 Down 1 Studio feedback 2 Singer Newton-John 3 “Just chill, OK?” 4 “___’Clock Jump” (Count Basie song) 5 Prof’s helpers 6 Aptly-titled 2009 Michael Jackson

documentary 7 Run-down abode 8 Pertaining to pee 9 Place for a manicure and seaweed wrap 10 Lamb’s mom 11 Written agreement 12 Brunch dish 16 Sore from walking 21 Ex-UN SecretaryGeneral U ___ 22 They’re shorter than LPs 25 Eeyore’s pal 26 Biblical prophet 28 Clumsy oaf 31 Fish and chips fish 33 Limp 34 Winston Churchill’s niece (and no, she never went door-to-door) 35 On fire 36 Curtis of “A Fish Called Wanda” 37 Spy planes of the ‘60s 38 Euro follower?

42 Three in Torino 43 Naval officer 44 In a wholly absorbed way 46 Blue litmus indicator 47 “Spider Kiss” author Ellison 48 Energizing, with “up” 50 Mah-jongg pieces 54 Old party 56 Crossword editor Will Shortz’s paper, for short 58 Chris Cuomo’s former show, for short

©2010 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 #0457.

www.chattanoogapulse.com

Solution To Last Week’s Puzzle

Never Worry About Losing A Copy Of The Pulse Keep Up Online at www.chattanoogapulse.com March 4, 2010 | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | The Pulse

29

Ask A Mexican!

By Gustavo Arellano

Names of the Saints Dear Mexican, I’m a pan blanco and my wife is puertorriqueña. Our son looks basically white, while a casual observer might admit that there is some Latin going on there. I’m not sure how this pertains to my question—it may or may not be worth mentioning. Our son is a high-functioning autistic 12-year old. The way he looks and behaves makes him a target for bullies.

He is sweet and innocent. He doesn’t understand sarcasm or how to be cool. He studies hard and gets good grades. He is a classic four-eyed Harry Potter dork. He doesn’t bother anyone, but he gets teased and bullied by cruel classmates. It breaks my heart and makes me furious.

Today a bigger kid came up and twisted his arm behind him, causing him pain. After he told me about it and as I fought back tears of rage (and yes, I tell the authorities and they do what they can, but they can’t be everywhere at once), he asked me “Daddy, why is it that every time I’m bullied, it’s by a Mexican?”

I’m wondering the same thing. Every time, and I mean every single time, that he’s been bullied and tormented since we moved to California three years ago, it’s been a Mexican kid. Oh, and the Mexican students are in the minority in his school. A large minority, but a minority nonetheless. It’s not like he’s the only white kid in the yard. I’m truly at a loss as to why this seems to be so. Are all of these kids beaten by their fathers so they have to take it out on what they might perceive to be a pampered gringo? I’m guessing.

Other than teach my kid how to defend himself, I don’t see what can be done about it.

Is it cultural? I wonder if you could suggest what I might say to my son to prevent him from hating Mexicans by the time he reaches adulthood, if not before.

Or what I might say to myself, for that matter. Why is it always a Mexican kid tormenting my son? Every f****n’ time.

Why? I don’t like the dark place my mind is going to. Can you help me?

— A Good Papi

30

The Pulse | Vol. 7, Issue 9 | March 4, 2010

Dear Readers, The more I think about this question, the more it saddens me—about the bullied kid, of course, but also about the father’s thought process. The dad’s not a racist pig—just an understandably upset papi.

But pendejos exist in every ethnicity, and there’s no reason to use those f**k-ups to smear a group as a whole. It’s a natural inclination to do so, but a wrong one. To the dad: My best advice is to get on the school administration’s ass to protect your beautiful son. And trust me: at some point in his life, there’ll be a good Mexican kid who’ll kick the asses of those bullies like any good person would.

Dear Mexican, Whenever I read something of Mexican history, I’m always amazed at the variety of first names that apparently have no English equivalent. I’m only 40 pages into a book about Pancho Villa, and already I’ve seen such beauties as Indalecio, Fidencio, Maclovio, Nemesio and Belisario. I’ve tried Google but can’t

seem to find a place where the origins of these names and their meanings can be found. Any suggestions?

— Flummoxed in Flagstaff Dear Gabacho, Try Google again. All the names you mentioned are the Hispanicized nombres of Catholic saints (respectively, Indalecio, Fidelis, Maclou, and Nemesius) with the exception of Belisario, which refers to the great Roman general Belisarius. Mexicans traditionally pulled their names from the Bible and the Papist calendar. This resulted in two separate celebrations for someone’s birth—the cumpleaños (the actual birthday) and the día de santo, the feast day of the saint corresponding to the person’s name; sometimes the twain did meet and knocked back Herradura.

Those traditions and esoteric names are unfortunately disappearing, because American culture devours all. But you know what’s the weirdest male name I’ve heard? Susano. Etymology? From Susanna, obviously, but pinche clue how it became accepted for hombres…

“All the names you mentioned are the Hispanicized nombres of Catholic saints (respectively, Indalecio, Fidelis, Maclou, and Nemesius) with the exception of Belisario, which refers to the great Roman general Belisarius.”

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

Chattanooga's Weekly Alternative