Nashville Scene 6-4-20

JUNE 4–10, 2020 I VOLUME 39 I NUMBER 18

CITY LIMITS: SCENES OF CIVIL UNREST IN DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE PAGE 6

NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

FOOD & DRINK: TONY AND CATHY MANTUANO TO HELM FOOD AND WINE AT THE JOSEPH PAGE 16

Nashville at work Nashville at Work Talking to workers — in health care, child care, food service and more — whose jobs didn’t stop when the pandemic hit

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MUSIC IS FAITH

Watch and Listen This week, we're spotlighting artists, songs, and moments that embody the many forms and facets of faith. Visit the Watch & Listen page on our website to explore videos and podcast episodes that touch on seeking, finding, keeping, and expressing it.

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above:

Mahalia Jackson 1962 photo:

Carl Van Vechten

from the carl van vechten photograph collection, library of congress

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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CONTENTS

JUNE 4, 2020

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For Justice, for Peace .................................6

Beyond Catharsis

CITY LIMITS

BOOKS

Last weekend in Nashville was marked by civil unrest, and demonstrations both peaceful and chaotic

Stephanie Danler’s memoir disrupts the usual narrative structures found in stories of addiction

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS AND STEPHEN ELLIOTT

BY LEE CONELL AND CHAPTER16.ORG

Data Suggests That COVID-19 Is Especially Affecting LGBTQ Nashvillians ...................7 Looking at the coronavirus’s health, economic and social effects in the queer community

MUSIC

Settling Up ............................................... 22

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Gretchen Peters repays a debt to Mickey Newbury on The Night You Wrote That Song

Nashville at Work

RudeTech’s Jesse Rhew talks building effects pedals in Music City

BY GEOFFREY HIMES

Gearing Up: How Rude............................ 23

Talking to workers — in health care, child care, food service and more — whose jobs didn’t stop when the pandemic hit

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

The Spin ................................................... 24

BY STEVE CAVENDISH, ERICA CICCARONE, STEPHEN ELLIOTT, STEVEN HALE, LAURA HUTSON HUNTER, J.R. LIND, ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ, D. PATRICK RODGERS, STEPHEN TRAGESER

The Scene’s live-review column checks out livestreams by L.G. Gilbert, Luke Schneider

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BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

Check out the International Black Film Festival, support independent artists on Bandcamp Friday, eat a doughnut on National Doughnut Day, explore COVID-19 stock photos, get into professional wrestling, visit NASA museums virtually and more

FILM

CRITICS’ PICKS

Record Store Day Announces ‘RSD Drops’ Release List Police Arrest Man Accused of Starting Fire at Metro Courthouse

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BY HANNAH HERNER

COVER STORY

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB:

Shalimar Launches a GoFundMe Campaign in a Bid to Reopen Get Your Cinema Fix With the We Are One Global Film Festival

and more

25 Primal Stream: Eleventing ..................... 25 Monstrous romance, a killer whodunit and all of the Final Destination films, now available to stream

BY JASON SHAWHAN

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Shirley You Can’t Be Serious .................. 26

Go Go Joseph

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Elisabeth Moss sinks her teeth into yet another complicated role with Shirley

FOOD AND DRINK

BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY

Award-winning duo Tony and Cathy Mantuano to helm food and wine at The Joseph

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

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NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

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ART

MARKETPLACE

Crawl Space: June 2020 June’s First Saturday events underline the new intimacy of the virtual

BY JOE NOLAN

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CULTURE

Home on the Gay-nge Nashville Pride kicks off monthlong Pride at Home celebration

BY ERICA CICCARONE

Call for take-out!

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615-865-2646 TacosyMariscosLindoMexico

917A Gallatin Pike S, Madison, TN nashvillescene.com | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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PET OF THE WEEK!

MEET MOOSE! This 1 1/2 year old Shepherd Mix would love a home with a fenced backyard to romp around in with you (and a squeaky toy!) He looks like fun, right? Spoiler Alert: He Is! If you think Moose and his award winning smile might be the one for you... please email nashvillehumaneassociation213@gmail. com with the subject line “Interested In Meeting Moose” for more information about the dog who is guaranteed to be the life of the party wherever he goes! To learn more about our curbside adoptions and how to meet Moose and ALL the pets we have looking for a forever home - Please visit nashvillehumane.org/adopt.

THANK YOU! Call 615.352.1010 or visit nashvillehumane.org Located at 213 Oceola Ave., Nashville, TN 37209

Adopt. Bark. Meow.

Microchip. Neuter. Spay.

Walk With feet ona

Mile

with the street, J.R. Lind we discover Nashville’s own unique beat – one mile at a time

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FROM BILL FREEMAN VOTING BY MAIL SAVES TIME, INCREASES VOTER TURNOUT According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, vote-by-mail is in place in some form in all 50 states, with five states — Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington and Utah — conducting all of their elections by mail. There are several advantages to voting by mail: convenience, additional time to study the issues, financial savings from not having to equip and staff polling stations, and increased voter turnout.

Convenience is nice, and financially, the government could save money if it didn’t have to set up and staff the polls. But the reported benefit of higher voter turnout is what has many in turmoil. A higher turnout should be seen by all as a good thing, but President Donald J. Trump — along with many of his fellow Republicans — disagrees with the idea of increased enfranchisement.

In March, Trump stated on Fox & Friends that voting by mail could be “ruinous” to Republicans. But in past years, Republicans have benefited from mail-in voting. A recent NPR story noted that mail-in ballots have been beneficial to Republicans in Florida and other Republican-friendly states such as Arizona and Utah.

According to FiveThirtyEight, numerous studies have concluded that voting by mail doesn’t provide any clear partisan advantage — but both parties have enjoyed a small but equal increase in turnout thanks to its use. Additionally, it’s been found that non-voters aren’t inactive due to inconvenience, but rather because they are not in the habit of voting. The article states, “These voters’ decision to vote depends more on whether somebody around them can motivate them to vote, not whether they are able to vote by mail or in person.”

There is no partisan advantage to voteby-mail, but what about the risk of fraud?

In April, Trump tweeted: “Absentee Ballots are a great way to vote for the many senior citizens, military, and others who can’t get to the polls on Election Day. These ballots are very different from 100% Mail-In Voting, which is ‘ripe for fraud,’ and shouldn’t be allowed!”

What is so “different” about them? Any absentee ballot is still accepted by mail.

Task & Purpose reports, “About 75% of the 1.3 million active-duty service members are eligible to vote absentee under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act because they are stationed away from their voting residence.” The same article mentions former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, noting that he has “never seen evidence of fraud in the military’s voting system when he served in the Army or later when he became a senator.”

The dichotomy of President Trump’s remark is that both he and his new press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, readily admit to voting by mail. McEnany, according to the Tampa Bay Times, has voted by mail 11 times in the past 10 years.

And in addition to our military, many U.S. citizens living abroad also vote by mail. So why is it now being branded as corrupt?

This “corruption” has not been proven.

As a matter of fact, Matthew Harwood at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice, quoted in The Week, says, “There is no evidence that voting by mail results in significant fraud,” and that the threat of such is “infinitesimally small.” Harwood also argued that voting by mail should be allowed, especially during a pandemic — keeping voting safe and simple.

What do the American people want?

According to USA Today, a poll by the newspaper and Suffolk University shows that “65% of Americans support voteby-mail as an alternative, a greater than 2-to-1 margin over the 32% of Americans who oppose the option.” David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, was quoted in the article as saying, “I think it shows that people are open to alternative methods of voting, provided that they’re safe, and they don’t want to see democracy jeopardized in any way by the virus.”

COVID-19 has completely impacted how we are doing things today. From wearing masks in public to social distancing, everything in recent months has changed.

But the changes we have implemented are for our own safety and that of our families, friends, neighbors and community. The Centers for Disease Control website continues to ask that we exercise social distancing or avoid large groups altogether.

Though we hope to see a steady decline in coronavirus cases, CNET reports that the fall and winter months may bring a resurgence of the disease. We simply don’t know what to expect. If the virus continues to pose a threat, come November we may be wishing we had a secondary option already in place.

As multiple studies demonstrate that mail-in voting does not favor one political party over another, and as additional studies show the risk of fraud is miniscule, shouldn’t we at least consider vote-by-mail?

Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editors Jack Silverman, Abby White Staff Writers Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Chris Parton, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Cy Winstanley, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Circulation Manager Casey Sanders Events and Marketing Director Olivia Moye Events Manager Ali Foley Publisher Mike Smith Advertising Director Daniel Williams Senior Account Executives Maggie Bond, Debbie Deboer, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Stevan Steinhart, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Account Executive William Shutes Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Account Managers Emma Benjamin, Gary Minnis Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Creative Director Heather Pierce IT Director John Schaeffer For advertising info please contact: Daniel Williams at 615-744-3397 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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nashvillescene.com | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CITY LIMITS

FOR JUSTICE, FOR PEACE

Last weekend in Nashville was marked by civil unrest, and demonstrations both peaceful and chaotic

BY D. PATRICK RODGERS AND STEPHEN ELLIOTT | PHOTOS BY MATT MASTERS

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t was a deeply fraught weekend in Nashville — one that saw a peaceful march and rally on Saturday afternoon followed by a night of chaos, destruction, arrests and Mayor John Cooper’s implementation of a citywide curfew.

Many of the images from this weekend will no doubt stay with us for years to come. Photos of peaceful protesters gathered at Legislative Plaza stand in stark contrast to images of the chaos that followed later. There are photographs of the historic Metro Courthouse with flames in its windows, of a heavily armored police force standing amid clouds of tear gas they’d deployed. There are also photos of Nashvillians of all races marching side by side, unified against the tyranny of white supremacy and determined to stand up to the racial injustice we’ve seen so often for decades in

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cities across the country.

Hundreds of protesters gathered on and near Legislative Plaza around 3 p.m. Saturday for the “I Will Breathe” rally. Wearing masks and holding signs, attendees issued chants of “Justice for George Floyd,” “black lives matter” and “no justice, no peace” as speakers addressed the crowd. The gathering, which was organized by a loose affiliation of activists, came in conjunction with demonstrations around the country inspired by the death of George Floyd, who was killed on May 25 when Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

Speakers at the “I Will Breathe” rally included members of Metro and state government, among them Mayor John Cooper, Rep. Vincent Dixie, Rep. Mike Stewart, Rep. Harold Love and Sen. Brenda Gilmore.

Nashville NAACP president Keith Caldwell

addressed the crowd, telling those gathered that it was the biggest group he’d seen at the plaza in his many years of activism. Others, including activist Justin Jones, called for deep systemic change, referencing the killings of black men — including Daniel Hambrick and Jocques Clemmons, both of whom were shot and killed by members of the Metro Nashville Police Department.

“We cannot change hearts,” said Rep. Dixie at one point. “We cannot change minds.

But what we can do is change laws. Make sure you register to vote. I’m angry. I’m mad as hell, but I can’t let it consume me.”

After roughly two hours of speakers and peaceful demonstration, the protesters dispersed to march east on Martin Luther King Boulevard. At one point, those marching headed down Lower Broadway, with people in Honky Tonk Central looking down at the crowds from the bar’s windows. Not long after, crowds gathered near MNPD’s Central Precinct on Korean Veterans Boulevard, where the scene quickly became chaotic. With officers lined up in front of the precinct, crowds smashed out the windows of one police cruiser, with others throwing rocks at the building. At least half a dozen people in the crowd were detained

by MNPD, with some officers wearing riot gear dispersed to protect the building.

After the events at the Central Precinct,

PEACEFUL PROTESTERS MARCH AS PART OF SATURDAY’S ‘I WILL BREATHE’ RALLY

PEACEFUL PROTESTERS MARCH AS PART OF SATURDAY’S ‘I WILL BREATHE’ RALLY

LATER, DISORDER BREAKS OUT IN FRONT OF MNPD’S CENTRAL PRECINCT

THE MAN PICTURED HERE WAS LATER IDENTIFIED AS WESLEY SOMERS AND ARRESTED BY MNPD

crowds moved toward City Hall. Some destruction continued to unfold, with the statue of Edward W. Carmack at the state Capitol pulled down by protesters, and messages including “Fuck Trump” and “BLM” spray-painted on the walls of the Metro Courthouse. One member of the crowd told the Scene he was pepper-sprayed by police.

As the night wore on, crowds lit fires at the courthouse, tossing flaming pieces of paper in through the broken windows of the building. Metro police employed tear gas to disperse the crowd, with Mayor Cooper declaring a state of emergency and setting a 10 p.m. curfew. Following Cooper’s emergency declaration, Gov. Bill Lee announced that he’d mobilized the National Guard. The following night would see an 8 p.m. curfew in Nashville; on Monday night, a 10 p.m. curfew once more.

One of the many memorable images that emerged was that of a white man setting a fire inside the Metro Courthouse as a small crowd looked on. On Sunday, the MNPD announced the arrest of 25-year-old Wesley Somers at a home in Madison and charged him with felony arson, vandalism and disorderly conduct. They said “assistance from the community helped lead to his identification.” Somers is one of 29 people who were arrested over the weekend in conjunction with Saturday’s events.

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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CITY LIMITS

POLICE IN RIOT GEAR NEAR MNPD’S CENTRAL PRECINCT

The Equity Alliance, one of the city’s most prominent black advocacy organizations, addressed the escalating situation in a statement on Twitter. “Today’s protest was peaceful and unified,” they wrote on Saturday evening. “We witnessed white people defacing public property while marching and told them to stop.

DATA SUGGESTS THAT COVID-19 IS ESPECIALLY AFFECTING LGBTQ NASHVILLIANS Looking at the coronavirus’s health, economic and social effects in the queer community

BY HANNAH HERNER

T

LEFT MAP: METRO PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT RIGHT MAP: 2019 NASHVILLE COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELL-BEING SURVEY

he effects of COVID-19 are hitting the LGBTQ population particularly hard.

More than 50 percent of LGBTQ Nashvillians live in COVID-19 hotspots, according to data from Metro’s Nashville Community Health and Well-Being Survey. A recent national study performed in partnership with Vanderbilt University researchers found that LGBTQ Americans are experiencing high rates of job loss and wage reduction — a few percentage points higher than the general population.

What’s more, certain vulnerabilities are more prevalent within the LGBTQ population in the wake of COVID-19. According to the Nashville Community Health and Well-Being Survey, about 70 percent of gay, lesbian and bisexual adults in Nashville have health insurance as compared to 92.5 percent of their heterosexual peers. And a brief put out by national LGBTQ advocacy organization the Human Rights Campaign says people who are LGBTQ are more likely to smoke and have asthma — a statistic that raises concerns given the respiratory nature of the virus.

The Human Rights Campaign also shares that LGBTQ people are more likely to work in jobs highly affected by COVID-19. Two million work in restaurants and food service, 1 million work in hospitals, nearly 1 million each work in K-12 education and universities, and half a million work in retail. Forty percent of the LGBTQ population works in these fields, as compared

to 22 percent of the non-LGBTQ population.

As time goes on, it will be nearly impossible to know the full extent of the diagnoses and mortality rates among this population in Nashville, because there isn’t data being collected on it. At the city’s COVID-19 community assessment centers, a form asks for a patient’s gender and race — but nothing about sexual orientation.

“Around COVID in particular, we’ve seen what the impact of releasing data on the basis of race and ethnicity has revealed in terms of these disparities of deaths and cases,” says Tara McKay, assistant professor of medicine, health and society at Vanderbilt. “And while I don’t expect necessarily the same magnitude, and I don’t want to equate those two kinds of outcomes, I do think that we would see those disparities if we actually collected data around sexual orientation and gender identity in a comprehensive way.”

Knowing that COVID-19 especially affects people with compromised immune systems, Nashville CARES, an organization that serves people living with HIV and AIDS, has been encouraging its clients to stay home. Nashville CARES’ Jasper Hendricks says the organization fielded 692 hours of behavioral health calls from March 5 to May 22. He says this uptick in calls for counseling is a reflection of the anxiety the community is feeling.

“Even though there hasn’t been any evidence that people with HIV are more disproportionately

>50% OF LGBTQ NASHVILLIANS LIVE IN COVID-19 HOT SPOTS

The people now attempting to set fire to the Metro Courthouse right now are NOT associated with today’s peaceful protest rally. It ain’t us.”

On Sunday, another round of demonstrations took place in Murfreesboro — demonstrations that would once more see the deployment of special response teams, of tear gas and flash-bangs, though the arrests and destruction there were much less severe.

Matt Masters and Steven Hale contributed to this story.

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

impacted, we do know that with compromised immune systems, we could see that,” Hendricks says.

“We’re just not taking any chances.”

Aside from economic and health effects, there’s also the social impact that isolation brings. Mac Huffington is involved with Nashville Pride, Nashville Black Pride, the Nashville LGBT Chamber and more, and she owns two pageant systems. Describing herself as “social butterfly number one,” she says that pre-coronavirus she stayed busy going to meetings, mixers, fundraisers and shows.

“Wherever the organization needs somebody to smile and grin and host and represent the organization, I am the person that’s there,” Huffington says.

Huffington is in a particular group that another Vanderbilt study is surveying — LGBTQ adults 55 and older in the South. The Vanderbilt University Social Networks, Aging and Policy Study is now looking to gather COVID-related data as it pertains to this group. Huffington is enjoying her extra time at home, spending it with her partner of 21 years, and she stays in touch with her surrogate “drag children.” But VUSNAPS is finding that a lot of older LGBTQ adults don’t have the family support their non-LGBTQ peers do when they need help with things like medical appointments and emergency contacts.

“If we’re talking about people who are over 50 today, most of their life same-sex marriage wasn’t legal, most of their life they weren’t able to adopt kids,” says McKay, who is the primary investigator for the VUSNAPS study. “Especially on the older spectrum of the folks we’re interviewing — they’ve lived very different lives in relation to younger people today and the opportunities they have to build families.”

Huffington says she’s thankful to see people using more open language than they were five years ago — in her case, for instance, saying “spouse” instead of the presumptuous “husband.” Gilbert Gonzales, co-investigator for VUSNAPS, is looking into how those kind of assumptions, as well as outright discrimination, can wear on a person over the years.

In comparing the VUSNAPS data collected with that of a similar study in San Francisco, he expects to see disparities between the two groups not only in mental health, but in physical health too.

“What we think is going on is what we call minority stress,” Gonzales says. “Exposure to discrimination and stigma can really be a driving factor in the health outcomes and health disparities.”

A big loss for the LGBTQ population is certainly the cancellation of the Nashville Pride Festival’s in-person activities — though there will still be online offerings later this month (read more about those on p. 20).

Huffington is working on an online pageant to distract herself.

“I’ve never missed a festival,” Huffington says. “This is heartbreaking. I’m used to being at the festival, part of the activities, and putting on a show, and having a booth. That whole weekend is embedded in my heart and soul.”

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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Nashville at Work Talking to workers — in health care, child care, food service and more — whose jobs didn’t stop when the pandemic hit

BY STEVE CAVENDISH, ERICA CICCARONE, STEPHEN ELLIOTT, STEVEN HALE, LAURA HUTSON HUNTER, J.R. LIND, ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ, D. PATRICK RODGERS, STEPHEN TRAGESER

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n the days since the COVID-19 pandemic first struck, little has felt normal. Seemingly everything has changed, from how we get our food to how we communicate with one another. But throughout the weeks of social distancing and sheltering in place — with many of us working from home and others without jobs entirely — some Nashvillians have continued to head in to their places of work. Others returned to their workplaces as Nashville’s phased reopening began.

In this issue, we talk to a number of Nashvillians about their experiences of working during the COVID-19 pandemic — from health care and child care providers to a bus operator, a bartender, a grocery store worker and more.

DR. STEPHEN PATRICK PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

NEONATOLOGIST Dr. Stephen Patrick

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Stephen Patrick would spend a typical day at the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital working with his colleagues to care for critically ill infants. Patrick is a neonatologist and the director of the hospital’s Center for Child Health Policy, and at any given time, his intensive care unit would typically house somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 very sick babies.

So what has changed since the pandemic began?

“I would say everyone in health care — everything has been somewhat impacted,” says Patrick. “For us, we saw what felt like a decrease initially in the number of infants that we were caring for, and that quickly went back to our baseline. So it has stayed pretty busy throughout the pandemic. What has changed is our efforts to protect infants in the unit and policies and procedures related to pregnant women who may have COVID-19, and how we care for their infants as well.”

Patrick explains that those efforts include changing the process of infant intubation, as well as limiting visitation

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STANLEY CUNNINGHAM PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

to just one parent per 24-hour period. “Having an infant in a neonatal intensive care unit is incredibly stressful for families,” he says. “And having some support structure when you’re there with your sick infant — including your partner — is really important, and I think that’s been harder for families.”

One source of frustration Patrick notes is the skepticism he sees from certain members of the general public — people who don’t wear masks, or don’t seem to trust public health experts. He even points to a recent incident at a grocery store when his wife and child were judged harshly because they were wearing masks. “That’s frustrating, because they’re my family, and I go to the hospital, so that means my family is probably at an increased risk compared to that individual,” he says. “And my family is wearing masks to protect them.” Even so, Patrick cites a sense of unity — a “we’re all in this together” spirit, and the importance of being “led by the data” — as being central to things one day returning to normal.

“For us, the job didn’t stop,” he says. “You balance your day job with protecting your family.” D. PATRICK RODGERS

BUS OPERATOR Stanley Cunningham

Before Stanley Cunningham started driving a bus in Nashville eight years ago, he spent more than two decades as a tractor-trailer operator. He says he prefers his current job because he’s a people person.

Chitchatting with WeGo riders hopping on and off his bus helps the day go by quicker. But now that he wears a mask while driving and riders are encouraged to abide by social distancing guidelines, there’s less opportunity for chitchat — and the day “creeps along,” he says.

In addition to making it harder to talk with riders, his mask has presented a new challenge: To prevent glasses from fogging up, Cunningham suggests alcohol treatment and wearing the mask high on the nose, with the glasses on top.

“I don’t really like wearing a mask, but I’m not stupid,” Cunningham says. “I’m going to protect myself.”

The 58-year-old is also seeking to protect his wife,

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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who has underlying medical conditions that could put her at greater risk if she contracts COVID-19.

Cunningham is an extra board operator, meaning he drives different bus routes every day — sometimes the No. 25 through Midtown, sometimes the 56 up Gallatin Pike.

The role lets him see the whole city and the gamut of Nashville’s transit users — too many of whom, he says, do not wear masks or take other precautions.

But Cunningham is an optimist, and he’s looking beyond the current situation. What Cunningham misses most about his precoronavirus life is traveling with his family.

He’s originally from New York City and has been unable to visit his brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews there. He also likes going down to Florida with his family. But he has grander plans for a post-coronavirus vacation: Jamaica, where, he notes, there have been relatively few COVID-19 cases.

“I’m going to go to the islands,” he says.

STEPHEN ELLIOTT

up,” says Angelico. “That comes from the leadership down.”

Fanny’s has been dealt a tough hand, with damage from the deadly March 3 tornado followed swiftly by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though the staff has been temporarily laid off, Angelico comes in for the limited amount of work she can do to help the store survive. She’ll spend a few hours making the detailed listings of new stock that go on Fanny’s profile on gear-centric sales platform Reverb. She’ll also tend to the new no-contact delivery service that Fanny’s has devised for customers in their delivery area (see fannyshouseofmusic.com for details). After an email exchange, Angelico organizes payment, grabs a mask, gloves and disinfectant wipes, and drives the item to the dropoff location.

The system has offered a reminder of how local retailers can serve their communities in ways that online giants can’t.

Stores like Fanny’s also offer peace of mind by shortening the supply chain. Angelico recalls an immunocompromised customer who sent a heartfelt thank-you letter after he watched her carefully deliver his microphone stand. “We cried about that later,” she says. STEPHEN TRAGESER

common for musicians to get in the middle of shit — politically and otherwise. If you ever watch old gangster movies, just look at how many musicians get shot! Just playing music! And now once again we’re caught in the middle. We need to work, we want to work, we want to support our home bars that have been so great to us. And we’re also risking our health and could potentially die from this honor that we have. So it’s really a Catch-22.

“The fact that we already have tourists is a really good sign,” she continues. “And the tourists have been really generous — somebody dropped a 50 in the bucket last night, just for playing a couple songs they wanted to hear. I had somebody come up to me in tears, crying and thanking me for my service. ‘Music is essential,’ they said.

You might not think it’s essential, but when it stops, there’s such a huge loss. It’s very emotional.

“I even heard another musician say, ‘I can’t wait to be playing “Wagon Wheel” again,’ ” she says, laughing. “And you know what? I feel the same way.” LAURA

HUTSON HUNTER

I’ve never been in a bar that there’s not something on.”

What do you show on a bar TV when there are no sports? Sometimes movies.

Sometimes classic games. Sometimes old Wrestlemania bouts.

“I put that on just as fun and a joke,” he says. “A lot of people would walk by and look up at it and point and laugh and then keep walking. So I was like: ‘Well, that worked. I guess. People are laughing.’ ” The new dress code, complete with gloves and mask, isn’t a problem for him. The bigger question will be what the tenor of bar conversations will take as people return to his stools. In the 58 days he was out, he’s watched election-year politics infect the pandemic, and that will eventually make its way to his bar. He realizes his profession may require a little more diplomacy.

“I’ll definitely be the mediator,” Howell says. “My astrological sign is a Libra, which is a judge or a medium. I guess that’s going to be my job for the next several months to a year, trying to keep people even-keel.” STEVE CAVENDISH

“We got to be a part of the first wave of musicians bringing the music back to Music City. It’s kind of a big deal.”

—LOWER BROADWAY MUSICIAN TOURING AND SESSION MUSICIAN Ellen Angelico

Everyone’s welcome at Fanny’s House of Music, Pamela Cole and Leigh Maples’ music gear shop and vintage clothing store in East Nashville. Ellen Angelico, whose tremendous skills and contagious positive energy make her a sought-after touring and session guitarist, moved to Music City a decade ago, and Fanny’s energy drew her in. She’s since become a fixture at the store, working behind the counter — whenever she’s not on the road, that is — and hosting a series of gear demos for the shop on YouTube.

“The more places that I work in, the more bands I’m in, the more I’m convinced that that type of vibe — that type of welcomingness and that kind of support — doesn’t just arise from the bottom and work its way

RYAN BERNHARDT PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

LOWER BROADWAY MUSICIAN

BARTENDER

CHEF

The first thing she noticed was puke on the sidewalk.

“That’s always a good sign!” says the musician, completely serious. On Lower Broadway, intoxication is good for business.

And with the district having been shuttered since mid-March, lots of the regular musicians didn’t know what to expect when they returned.

“I was talking to another musician last night, and I told them that this is really historic,” she says. “We’re going to be talking about this for a long time — that we got to be a part of the first wave of musicians bringing the music back to Music City. It’s kind of a big deal.”

Still, she sees that musicians are worried about their health. “They have concerns,” she says. “They have families. It’s really

The coronavirus messed up Tyler Howell’s clock.

As a longtime bartender at M.L. Rose, Howell’s gig has many parts: beer slinger, cocktail maker, life coach, distributor of dad jokes, sports programmer. To perform these various tasks, Howell has an internal meter that he’s honed over the past eight years — it tells him when to check in on the next customer, pour the next drink or help out a server. When M.L. Rose reopened, the health guidelines stipulated that no one could sit at his bar — only at tables.

“That first day I came back, I would talk to my co-workers, but I would be slowly stepping away and then I’d be like, ‘There’s nothing for me to do,’ ” Howell says. “Not having bar guests, it’s weird. Then not having really any active sports to watch.

Over the past two months, while other restaurants have been deciding whether they can keep the lights on, Ryan Bernhardt has been faced with a different question: Would it be more cost effective for TKO to buy takeout containers by the warehouse pallet?

Indeed, April was the best month in the four-year history of Bernhardt’s Chinesemeets-Southern-food restaurant.

“That’s the heart of the whole plan of the restaurant — to be a small, takeout-inspired spot that had a cool little bar and seating for people to come and do that if they want to,” Bernhardt says. He’s an overnight success, years in the making.

On a typical night before the shutdown, TKO — which is actually short for “takeout” — would do about half of its business for

Anonymous

Tyler Howell

Ryan Bernhardt

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people eating elsewhere. Maybe on a Friday night, the dining room of 70 or so would be roughly 70 percent of his receipts. But ever since the shutdown, TKO has run “throttle up and wide open.”

“So, like, we sort of had the best of both worlds in that I always wanted to be a neighborhood spot,” says Bernhardt. “I wasn’t really, ‘I don’t care about tourists.’

They come and they go, and it is fine. But there are people that live down the street that come twice a month. Those are people that have historically kept me in business.”

And when they got tired of their own cooking, they and a lot of other neighbors called TKO for bok choy stir-fry and Szechuan mustard greens, sweet-and-sour chicken and pork mapo tofu. While many restaurants that have never offered takeout — including Margot Café and Bar, where Bernhardt was the chef de cuisine under Margot McCormick — struggled to convert their menus into family-style offerings and sign up with delivery services, TKO was actually built for this occasion.

“We are not necessarily the restaurant that you make reservations to go to,” he says. “Where you’re like, ‘Where do you want to go?’ ” Now on a typical night, the only people coming to his bar are Postmates delivery drivers and customers picking up takeout.

It’s a good thing he buys his boxes by the thousands. STEVE CAVENDISH

department had the coronavirus. He was out sick for several days, but management hasn’t said anything, and everyone’s afraid to ask.

“I’m tired,” she says. “I feel like I have to keep going through the uncertainty. My anxiety is through the roof.”

Toward the end of her overnight shift, the store opens to customers. “You have to make sure that you’re masked up. You know people are going to come in here in pandemonium, even at 6 o’clock. It’s a neverending freak-out. And you’re so mentally and physically drained.”

Back home, she takes a nap for a couple of hours before her son wakes up. She’s with him until her husband comes home in the evening, and then she can go to sleep.

But other days, she goes to her second job with TNG, a merchandising company via which she visits Kroger, Walmart and Walgreens stores, stocking magazines and books and other items. She circles the cash registers, waiting until she can replace magazines without crossing the invisible line that marks six feet away from each person in the store.

When she’s done, she goes back to Kroger.

Someone takes her temperature. She gathers her stacks of tags. She puts on Stevie Wonder. She thinks about germs. ERICA

CICCARONE

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

RADIO HOST Rachel Iacavone

“You’re worried about getting sick yourself or getting your family sick.”

—ALEJANDRA MANCILLA scene that was,” says Iacavone. “Life hasn’t been the same since then.”

At 5:30 a.m., she goes on air, broadcasting segments on unemployment, the jump in drug overdoses, the city’s reopening status.

It’s not unusual for her to be alone in the station — or one of a select few — in the

RACHEL IACAVONE PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

GROCERY STORE WORKER

HOUSEKEEPER

Her shift at Kroger begins at midnight, when she has her temperature checked.

The store is closed, but its workers are busy cleaning, stocking the shelves and preparing orders for the following day. Her job is to hang tags — those little laminated rectangles that appear on shelves and in freezers by the thousand. She listens to Stevie Wonder on her phone. And she thinks about germs.

“I’m everywhere that everyone else has been,” she says. “I have to touch everything.” There’s a rumor going around that someone working in the dairy

Alejandra Mancilla begins her shift at midnight. She arrives at the hotel where she works as a housekeeper in time to see workers from the previous shift leaving — some are wearing masks, some aren’t.

When the COVID-19 pandemic started, the hotel didn’t provide masks at all, but now they have set up a big box of them.

Mancilla initially had to get masks from Workers’ Dignity, a labor rights advocacy group. Management hasn’t really imposed many changes since the pandemic started, she says — really, the only difference is that housekeepers no longer put the blanket on

10

ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

Every weekday, Rachel Iacavone wakes up at 3:30 a.m., drives 10 minutes to

ALEJANDRA MANCILLA

Anonymous

the bed, and instead fold it and place it to the side. The rest of her routine is the same. She cleans bathrooms and furniture, vacuums the carpet, cleans the windows, removes the trash and clocks out at 5 a.m.

But now she’s scared and nervous every night she goes into work.

“You’re just full of worry and fear,” Mancilla says in Spanish. “You’re worried about getting sick yourself or getting your family sick.”

Mancilla is an essential worker, and many guests of the hotel are other essential workers. They’re like any other guest, really. When the hotel was short on toilet paper — likely due to supply shortages in the early days of the crisis — they got frustrated and complained to her and other housekeepers.

There isn’t a lot of staff at the hotel — which was true even before the pandemic — so Mancilla would need a very “serious reason” to miss work. Even then, she doubts she would get paid for any sick days she would need to take off.

So she’ll work her shift like it’s business as usual, despite these most unusual times.

Alejandra Mancilla

Nashville Public Radio’s headquarters and unlocks the door. Alarms blare until she punches in the code to shut them off. “All right,” she thinks. “I’m awake, I’m awake.”

Iacavone wipes down everything with Clorox, makes coffee and prints the scripts from the afternoon newscast the day before.

She updates these, checks other news outlets, rewrites some of the copy and cues up stories filed overnight. Since the March 3 tornado, she says WPLN has had twice the number of stories the station typically used to air. On the Tuesday morning following that deadly storm, she drove through the wreckage to get to the station. “I just remember my headlights hitting it and how horrifying of a

early morning hours. But it is unusual for it to remain that way as the day wears on, and for Iacavone not to interact face to face with the station’s tightly knit crew.

On Thursdays, after her last segment wraps around 10:30 a.m., she does the numbers, counting the cases of COVID-19 county by county across the state.

“When you get really into it like that,” Iacavone says, “it’s hard to separate it from everything else. It feels like everyone’s dying.” She knows that each number is a person — who is infected, who is ill, who has died. But she also knows that she can’t dwell on the human toll. She has to get the job done. ERICA CICCARONE

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MUSEUM CURATOR

CHILD CARE PROVIDER

Annabeth Hayes misses the people.

The Tennessee State Museum’s curator of decorative arts would, under normal circumstances, be giving tours, or crisscrossing the state doing research, or determining if that item someone found in Grandma’s garage was appropriate for the museum’s collection. And of course, she’d be behind the scenes cataloging items as well.

But these days, like most everyone else, Hayes is working from home. Nevertheless, she’s still serving the public and its thirst for stories of the past.

The museum launched a public-facing version of its collections catalog early this year, but with only a fraction of the 150,000 items in the collection. Curators like Hayes have spent their time away from the office beefing up that online presence.

“There’s a ton of objects we can put up,” Hayes says. “Now that we have time to focus on that, it’ll be a big benefit to Tennesseans and people across the country.”

The mission of educating and enlightening the Volunteer State’s past continues. The museum’s Lunch With a Curator series hasn’t stopped. Hayes’ recent presentation about Elizabeth Roulstone — elected as state printer in 1806 — prompted emails from back home in West Tennessee, as folks who normally wouldn’t be able to travel to Nashville for the

The children begin arriving at Old Hickory day care Village Learning Center early — at 6 a.m. sharp. There used to be a morning rush, but these days attendance is much lower. It’s helpful to have fewer kids coming through the doors all at once, because Samantha Heggie has to take each child’s temperature before she lets them in.

“And as soon as they come in, we wash their hands and sanitize,” Heggie says.

“They wash the germs off from the outside world before they come in here with us.”

The day care facility has remained open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with the exception of one week after a parent tested positive for COVID-19.

“It wasn’t even the parent who drops their child off at the day care,” says Heggie, who has worked at Village Learning Center since 2002. “But they could still, theoretically, be the one getting them ready in the morning.”

Heggie and her colleagues spent that week deep-cleaning the facility before reopening, and they instituted several changes in their daily routine. The children no longer use the day care’s water fountain.

Instead, each child receives individual bottles of water throughout the day. They also use only disposable utensils — paper cups, paper plates and plastic spoons.

The kids are talking about the pandemic,

Annabeth Hayes

Samantha Heggie

SAMANTHA HEGGIE PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

event were able to log on and learn about the state’s first female elected official.

The museum is also getting ready for when the pandemic will be history. There’s a committee already discussing what an exhibit might look like when buses of future school kids come to the corner of Jefferson and Rosa Parks to learn about 2020. After all, the decorations people are making to brighten their neighbors’ days are really just folk art in its 21st-century form. And our reality is the future’s history.

“People down the line are going to want to know about the pandemic and what it was like and what Tennesseans went through,” Hayes says. J.R. LIND

MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE PROFESSOR Dr. Donald Alcendor

Dr. Donald Alcendor, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Meharry Medical College, begins his morning by catching up on new reports and research about COVID-19. There aren’t any classes to teach at the historically black medical school at the moment, so he heads into his office and begins mining data on the virus. (Helpfully, researchers from Wuhan, China, have made the genomic sequence of the virus available, allowing researchers like Alcendor to look for vulnerabilities — ways to keep it from replicating in a cell.)

From there, he may head into the lab to begin his research on the virus.

These efforts are already seeing results: Alcendor and his staff developed an antiviral drug for COVID-19 within two weeks, and they’re now in the early testing phase, conducting experiments with mice.

If effective and safe, the drug could help the 1.6 million people who are already infected.

Alcendor has previously researched the Zika virus, and he now has a patent pending on a drug for that illness.

If he’s not in the lab, Alcendor might be working on a paper investigating the racial disparities in COVID-19 cases and deaths — an in-depth look at underlying conditions that result in a higher mortality

leagues around the world and say that COVID-19 is not bigger than us, and that we’re ready to meet the challenge.” ALEJANDRO

RAMIREZ

MEDICAL COURIER Dylan Hudson

Dylan Hudson drives up to 1,000 miles a week in his 2006 Jeep Liberty, which just crossed 285,000 miles. He’s often on the road for 12 or 14 hours a day, picking up surgical tissue, blood tests, the occasional limb and a variety of other medical samples, running them from doctors’ offices and hospitals to labs for testing. Not much turns his stomach — though he admits to jumping the time he inadvertently grabbed a frozen toe.

Needless to say, Hudson and his colleagues are, in the parlance of the times, essential workers. It’s likely, in fact, that Hudson was among the first people to see the now-infamous swab used for COVID-19 testing.

“It’s really gnarly-looking,” Hudson says.

Hudson’s employer has 30 routes across Tennessee and Kentucky, and he’s run them all. He knows every medical facility from Milan to McMinnville, and every back way from Dyersburg to Decherd. He says his work volume hasn’t changed too much recently, but early on in the pandemic, he was working more — simply because some of his fellow workers are older and didn’t feel comfortable going in and out of

DR. DONALD ALCENDOR PHOTO: KEN MORRIS, MEHARRY MEDICAL COLLEGE

but their concern mainly revolves around masks and hand-washing. “Some of the kids have started putting masks over their baby doll’s faces,” Heggie says. “Or they’ll play like they’re washing hands.”

“We’ve also noticed that the kids aren’t going up and hugging everybody like they normally do, they’re kind of standing back a little,” she says. “It’s a little sad, because they don’t know what it means — they’re just doing what they’ve noticed outside.”

“The children come first,” she says when asked about the day care’s decision to remain open. “And the parents need us — otherwise they wouldn’t use us.” LAURA

HUTSON HUNTER

rate among African Americans nationwide, beyond simply attributing it to factors like hypertension.

“What is the reason that having hypertension puts you at a greater risk for infection and a more severe clinical disease?” asks Alcendor. “That is unclear. I want to make that crystal clear in my paper.”

In addition to Meharry staff and students, Alcendor also works with collaborators at other facilities, gaining new perspectives on what could work in the fight against the novel coronavirus. And he’s confident the scientific community can rise to the occasion.

“We stand hand in hand with our col-

hospitals every day. What he’s hauling has changed. Far fewer blood tests, far more vials of swabs.

“The biggest change has been getting in and out of hospitals,” he says.

It used to be in-and-out, and often he’d never see another person.

“Now someone takes my temperature 10 times a day.”

There’s been one other huge change over the past 70-some-odd days — one he doesn’t mind too much.

“Where it would take me 45 minutes to get across town, I can do it in 20.” J.R. LIND EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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Get ready to laugh, fume, argue and debate the winners as we ask you to complete the magic words....

YOU ARE SO NASHVILLE IF...

All you need to do is finish the sentence. Then our staff will hold our annual daylong YASNI meeting, during which we read over every submission to determine who is funny and who is canceled.

We’ll run our favorite submissions in July’s 32nd annual YASNI issue.

Can you beat last year’s winner?

NOW NOW ACCEPTING ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS SUBMISSIONS THROUGH THROUGH JUNE JUNE 25 25

12

Your idea of “light rail” means doing just a little bit of coke.

— Katie Wesolek

VISIT NASHVILLESCENE.COM/YASNI20 NASHVILLESCENE.COM/YASNI20 VISIT TO SUBMIT SUBMIT YOUR ANSWER! TO ANSWER!

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

CRITICS’ PICKS S O C I A L

D I S T A N C I N G

E D I T I O N

[BLACK POWER]

CHECK OUT THE INTERNATIONAL BLACK FILM FESTIVAL

MUSIC

Here we are, nearly three months into The International Black Film Festival our weekly build-your-own-streaming-fest of Nashville is celebrating its 15th annirecommendations, and I’ve yet to mention versary this year, continuing its mission to the prolific catalog of Atlanta native and spotlight worthy black independent films, New York Knicks superfan Spike Lee. Let’s filmmakers and actors. This year, the IBFF right that egregious wrong now, beginning will launch a virtual series of live interwith Lee’s 1986 feature-length debut She’s views with key people in the film, television Gotta Have It, which is available to stream via and music industries. The participants Netflix. While that one isn’t necessarily will range from executives to actors, crew Lee’s best film, the sexually charged blackmembers, writers, directors and producers, and-white comedy-drama established Lee and the opening event will be moderated — then not even 30 years old — as a force to by writer, director and producer Carolyn be reckoned with. The filmmaker’s OscarMcDonald. Her extensive list of credits innominated 1989 ensemble feature Do the Right cludes being executive producer of HBO’s Thing (available on Amazon Prime, YouTube America’s Dream (for which she won the and iTunes for $4), however, is considered NAACP Image Award) and TNT’s Buffalo by many to be his masterpiece, and its Soldiers and Freedom Song. McDonald also themes of police brutality and racial has a long and distinguished record of conflict are as relevant today involvement with film in Music as they were upon the film’s City, having been a featured EDITOR’S NOTE: AS release. While you can’t panelist and lecturer at the A RESPONSE TO METRO’S STAY-AT-HOME ORDER TO HELP really go wrong with most Nashville Film Festival SLOW THE SPREAD OF COVID-19, of Lee’s early-’90s work and IBFF. She’ll be interWE’VE CHANGED THE FOCUS OF OUR (including Mo’ Better viewing Emmy-winning CRITICS’ PICKS SECTION. RATHER THAN Blues, Jungle Fever and actor Keith David, whose POINTING YOU IN THE DIRECTION OF EVENTS HAPPENING THIS WEEK IN Crooklyn), a great way to equally impressive list of NASHVILLE, HERE ARE SOME ACTIVITIES follow Do the Right Thing credits includes his curYOU CAN PARTAKE IN WHILE YOU’RE is with 1992’s Malcolm X (also rent starring role in the AT HOME PRACTICING SOCIAL $4 on the aforementioned OWN series Greenleaf, as DISTANCING. streaming platforms), the well as 1986’s Platoon, 1989’s powerful biopic featuring an They Live, last year’s 21 Bridges Oscar-nominated performance from and much more. He’ll next appear in Denzel Washington as the titular civil rights Black as Night, a Blumhouse anthology leader. I’ve got a soft spot for 1999’s Summer series produced by Amazon. McDonald and of Sam ($3 on all those streaming services) David will discuss an array of issues and — Lee’s most Scorsese-esque work, which also talk about their personal journeys and is set against the backdrop of the 1977 career evolution in this special event. You Son of Sam killings and received mixed can follow their conversation on the IBFF reviews upon its release. Lee has directed a Facebook page — it begins at 5 p.m. on June couple dozen films, so there’s plenty more 4. RON WYNN to choose from, but I recommend bringing it home with this double feature: 2006’s [ANOTHER TIME, AT BANDCAMP] Washington-starring heist flick Inside Man SUPPORT INDEPENDENT ARTISTS ON ($4 on all the services), followed by 2018’s BANDCAMP FRIDAY BlacKkKlansman (which stars Washington’s son Bandcamp came on the scene in the late John David Washington, and is available to Aughts, and it almost instantly changed the stream via HBO Now). Both are excellent game. Through the company, musicians and extraordinarily executed in completely have access to a streamlined, ad-free site different ways, and somehow, the latter is where they can post and sell music, and the first film to secure Lee an Oscar (for music lovers can sample and download the Best Adapted Screenplay). D. PATRICK RODGERS music, typically on a pay-what-you-can basis. Think of it as a virtual merch table

EAT A DOUGHNUT: EAST PARK DOUGHNUTS

— or a musician-friendly, algorithm-free antidote to Spotify and other streaming giants, which can require thousands of streams to generate any real revenue.

Bandcamp typically takes a 15 percent cut of downloads and 10 percent from physical sales. But in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on musicians’ livelihoods, on Friday, March 20, Bandcamp waived those fees for a day, allowing the artists to collect 100 percent of the revenue.

The site ended up doing 15 times its usual business that day, and announced Bandcamp Fridays would become a monthly tradition, at least through July. It’s comforting to know that your cash is going straight into the hands of those who make the music, and buying a grip of records and tapes in one go makes the daily mail delivery for the next few weeks more exciting than just about anything else lately. As a megalibrary of music, Bandcamp offers more rabbit holes to go down than there are hours in the day, so fill up that shopping cart — and this Friday, June 5, hit “check out.”

CHARLIE ZAILLIAN [MMMM, DOUGHNUT]

EAT A DOUGHNUT ON NATIONAL DOUGHNUT DAY

Our future is gone. There is nothing to look forward to. No parties, no concerts, no weddings, no sporting events.

Time is standing still, our days are just an endless blur of sameness. We need something, anything to look forward to.

Now more than ever, we need to embrace arbitrary food holidays. For example, did you know National Doughnut Day is June 5? In March, we at the Scene held our first Doughnut Bracket (you know, March Madness for carb fans), and Nashvillians voted East Park Doughnuts the best in the city.

They’re currently serving peach fritters!

But honestly? There isn’t a bad doughnut in town. (Yes, I’ve tried them all. For research purposes, of course.) The Donut + Dog, Fox’s Donut Den, McGaugh’s Donuts, Donut Distillery, Status Dough, Five Daughters and Conny & Jonny are all serving up doughnuts for pickup and/or

delivery, giving all of us something to look forward to. And for future reference: June 22 is National Onion Rings Day, July 10 is National Piña Colada Day, and Aug. 10 is National S’mores Day. Put ’em on your calendar. Enjoy. MEGAN SELING ART

BUILD YOUR OWN STREAMING SPIKE LEE FILM FEST

FOOD & DRINK

[TWO SLICES!]

FILM

FILM

BLACKKKLANSMAN

[TAKING STOCK]

EXPLORE COVID-19 STOCK PHOTOS

This week, we bring you some mediainsider information: COVID-19 stock photos are bonkers. Here at the Scene, the majority of our photos are taken by staff photographers, but occasionally, a quick blog post warrants a visit to iStock.com, where browsing is free — and delightful.

(There are lots more sites out there, like Shutterstock and Pexels, and while it costs money to download images from most of the sites, browsing typically doesn’t cost a thing.) In the beginning of the pandemic, we had a variety of virus illustrations to choose from — spiky red balls suspended in space, blue globes with suction cups, magenta objects issuing from the mouth of a coughing woman. But as the pandemic wore on, we noticed more creative stock art paired with unintentionally hilarious captions. A search for “telehealth therapy” returned images of a middle-aged man in various stages of depression, talking with a cheerful-looking woman who holds a large notebook inscribed with encouraging statements. “Depressed man is exceedingly despondent at first encounter with virtual psychotherapist,” one caption reads.

Searching under the “social distancing” tab reveals a photo of a bespectacled, whitehaired woman nonchalantly drinking wine from a straw through a PPE mask. She appears again in a mask, this time lighting a cigar. In a third photo, the woman holds an extremely old toy rifle, and the look on her face says, “Are you fucking serious?”

Also filed under “elderly” is a masked woman wearing heart-shaped shades and an enormous pink bow in her hair, a birthday cake on her lap. “Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic confinement mask 100 years old birthday cake old woman humor,” reads the

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CRITICS’ PICKS NICOLE ATKINS

EXPLORE COVID-19 STOCK PHOTOS

14

SPORTS

The Last Dance, ESPN’s spare-noexpense 10-part documentary miniseries on Michael Jordan and the 1990s Chicago Bulls, brought a litany of new information and insight — and not just on His Airness, but also on the vital supporting players of the Phil Jackson-coached red-and-blackattack’s six-title run between 1991 and 1998.

But those left wanting more when the series wrapped up in mid-May need not despair: ESPN’s 30 for 30 series is chock-full of related b-ball biopics that are nothing but net. Released last fall, Rodman: For Better or Worse chronicles the life and times of Dennis Rodman, the punk-as-fuck Hall of Fame rebounder nicknamed “The Worm.” Before joining the Jordan-Jackson Bulls, Rodman terrorized them as a member of the ultraaggro ’80s Detroit Pistons; Bad Boys tells that team’s story. Once Brothers, starring former Bull Toni “The Croatian Sensation” Kukoc, explains the Balkan conflict of the ’90s more cogently than anything I’ve ever watched or read; Jordan Rides the Bus relives MJ’s curious one-year walkabout with Minor League Baseball’s Birmingham Barons; Winning Time highlights one of his greatest basketball adversaries, the Indiana Pacers’ sharpshooting, trash-talking Reggie Miller; and Going Big answers the question of whatever happened to Sam Bowie, the gifted but oftinjured Kentucky Wildcats center drafted one pick before Jordan in 1984. To put it in Bulls huddle-speak: What time is it? Movie time. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN [GET IN THE RING]

GET INTO PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

I’ve spent a lot of time in my life trying to convince people to start following professional wrestling. Despite my own love for the much-maligned “sports entertainment,” it’s an incredibly daunting subculture to find your way into, with tens of thousands of hours of mythology and melodramatics. For the bicep-curious, might

PHOTO: BARBARA FG

You know those image macros that are going around social media in which you’re presented with several groupings of, say, characters from Star Trek or bands signed to Dischord Records, and you have to pick the group you’d stay with if you couldn’t leave for an extended period? So far, I haven’t seen one that has Nicole Atkins among the residents, but that would be the one I’d pick. Many musicians have made the shift to livestreaming performances from home while we’re not able to safely gather in person, but few seem to be thriving in this format quite like the New Jersey-born singer, songwriter and bandleader. Atkins and her husband have turned the attic of their East Nashville home into a homespun psychedelic disco. For her weekly show, called Alone We’re All Together and streamed Saturdays at 6 p.m., she’s the emcee as well as the primary talent, singing tunes while accompanying herself on electric guitar or over backing tracks.

Atkins is an outstanding vocalist and writer of stylistically expansive rock ’n’ soul songs with a natural theatrical flair — whether the tunes are from her just-released LP Italian Ice or further back in her extensive catalog, they’re written and performed like complete miniature plays. That’d be entertaining enough, but Atkins also brings in friends from around town and across the country via prerecorded performances.

Previous guests include experimental folk master Marissa Nadler, power-pop ace Aaron Lee Tasjan, guitar wizard Dean Ween, and Sabrina Ellis of rock champs A Giant Dog and Sweet Spirit. The show is streamed free (and archived) on YouTube and Facebook, but Atkins is collecting money for

HAVE A POST-LAST DANCE FILM FEST OF BULLS AND JORDAN-RELATED SPORTS DOCS

I suggest a legendary wrestling event that’s sure to get you hooked on America’s gaudiest export: Wrestlemania X-Seven, available to stream on WWE Network with a one-month free trial. Held in Houston’s Astrodome just five months before 9/11, X-Seven is truly the zenith of the so-called attitude era, when the company formerly known as WWF was at its brashest, bloodiest and absolute best. It’s a masterwork of soap-opera storytelling and bladed poetics, with the most famous names in the business at their peak: father and son Shane and Vince McMahon in an epic familial struggle, Triple H and the Undertaker dueling to put one another in the ground, and true titans The Rock and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin in a furious headlining match.

It’s high time you cracked open a cold one and smelled what the world of wrestling is cooking. NATHAN SMITH [IF YOU BUILD IT]

DIY A THING

Ever find yourself fidgety, bored, yearning to do something, anything, but with everything locked down you’ve got, well, nothing to do and nowhere to go? I get it — especially in those moments when I just need to get off the couch and away from a screen. When that fidgety yearning for activity strikes, I often find relief by tackling some small-scale and relatively idiot-proof project. Got some old wooden furniture that needs a new look? Sand it down and stain it, and enjoy the confidence

boost that comes from a simple refurbishing job. Frame and hang some old posters you’ve got laying around, and finally cover up that blank space on the wall that taunts you with its boring bareness. Find an old cigar box and paint that shit, maybe go wild and line the inside with some felt or some other fabric — now you got a fancy-ass box for your fancy-ass knicknacks. You could even try sewing a mask out of some old clothes. There are plenty of ways to keep your hands busy and your mind focused, and guides are just a Google search away.

And when you’re finally ready to settle back down, you can watch the extremely wholesome crafting contest Making It, and dream of a day when you too are good enough at making construction-paper dioramas to hang out with Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ SPACE

WATCH NICOLE ATKINS’ ALONE WE’RE ALL TOGETHER SERIES

[THE LAST DANCE: OVERTIME]

CRAFTS

[A LIGHT IN THE ATTIC]

her band via Venmo and a cool subscription program called Natkins Funhouse on Patreon. Check out Atkins’ Facebook page for updates on the guests for each week’s stream. STEPHEN TRAGESER

SPORTS

MUSIC

caption. Go down the “old woman humor” rabbit hole, and you will not be sorry. A white PPE mask is splattered with red dye in an imitation of blood. But wait! It’s actually the seven continents! Lacking context, these photos appear random to the point of absurdity. As with many things in life, you have to sort through the banal to find the gold, but it’s worth the effort. And if you’re feeling creative, why not pose for your own stock photos? I promise you could not do worse. ERICA CICCARONE

[GO, BOLDLY]

VISIT NASA MUSEUMS VIRTUALLY

With the launch of the SpaceX rocket taking two astronauts to the International Space Station May 30, the United States is back in the manned spaceflight business for the first time in nearly a decade — and NASA remains optimistic that the planned return to the moon with the Artemis program will hit its 2024 target. Human spaceflight is a massive achievement. Those of us who are A Certain Age remember space shuttle missions being a regular occurrence — in the first

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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CRITICS’ PICKS A Division of The Heritage Foundation of Williamson County

(615) 538-2076 • WWW.FRANKLINTHEATRE.COM •419 MAIN STREET, FRANKLIN, TN 37064

OPENING JUNE 12TH WITH MOVIES!

MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL (PG)

THE GOONIES (PG)

SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (PG)

Opening June 12

Opening June 13

Wednesday, June 17

FILM

[FILM CHAT]

PARTICIPATE IN THE BELCOURT’S GEORGE CUKOR AND GENDER IN THE PHILADELPHIA STORY

Brainy film buffs will want to attend a virtual seminar hosted by the Belcourt at 7 P.M. TUESDAY, JUNE 9: GEORGE CUKOR AND GENDER IN The Philadelphia Story will feature Elyce Helford, professor at Middle Tennessee State University, who authored the forthcoming book What Price Hollywood? Gender and Sex in the Films of George Cukor.

The pioneering director of My Fair Lady, Gaslight and — of course — The Philadelphia Story explored gender and sexuality in an era when this simply wasn’t done. He summoned the best performances

Opening June 13

FIELD OF DREAMS (PG) Opening June 20

For Complete Live Music & Movie Calendar Visit FranklinTheatre.com

THE PHILADELIPHIA STORY from the greatest actresses of the day — and the ones who were labeled “difficult” in the industry. But from these achievements, he was deemed a “woman’s director,” and thus marginalized. By focusing on The Philadelphia Story, Helford is sure to bring plenty of A-plus Katharine Hepburn content to your computer screen in this virtual seminar. Register at belcourt.org for the Zoom invite. ERICA CICCARONE NOSTALGIA

half of the 1990s, NASA launched a shuttle an average of once every six-and-a-half weeks. It almost became boring, and the shine wore off of the sheer awe we all have for what it takes to let slip the surly bonds of Earth. Arguably, sending people into space and bringing them back home is the peak of human accomplishment. Just think: The Wright brothers first flew in 1903. Sixty-six years later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. There are millions of steps from conception to launch with untold thousands of tests (and failures) along the way. The men and women at NASA’s Glenn Research Center outside of Cleveland, Ohio, do a lot of that difficult and imaginative work, testing engines and spacecraft design and learning how equipment will function in zero-gravity. Glenn’s website offers interactive tours of its various laboratories, fully clickable for the future astronauts and longtime dreamers to learn what happens before we have liftoff. In preparation for Artemis, there’s the Simulated Lunar Operations Laboratory, where rovers and excavators are being tested for when the first woman and next man take us back to the moon. It’s a far cry from the Apollo days, when such testing was done in some windswept Western desert. Poke around and see the future of space flight. If nothing else, you’ll have plenty of information to annoy and inform your friends and family with when we all gather together for the next giant leap. J.R. LIND

Opening June 19

LABYRINTH (PG)

[DON’T LOOK BACK]

mmm...

So

Refreshing!!

Refreshing Refreshing!

EXPLORE CHILDHOOD MEMORIES VIRTUALLY

Certain terrains exist eternally in the minds of those who experienced them as children. The bike paths you took to get to a friend’s house, the imaginary worlds you created out of circles of trees and unkempt hedgerows. And from your teenage years, the dead end where you huffed nitrous and drove with one eye closed to keep the road from doubling. A hometown is a powerful nostalgia conductor, and one that you shouldn’t treat lightly. I’ve recently spent some time remembering why I hated and loved my hometown with help from Google Street View and Zillow. Here’s my advice: Google your childhood address and take a virtual walk around the old neighborhood.

See if things have changed, admire how small they look now, how familiar and how strange. As an added bonus, if you pass an address you recognize — maybe your old house, maybe the house of a friend whose parents let you drink beer and stay up late — plug it into Zillow and see if it’s gone on the market recently. Sure, you can be a real creep about it and look into its value, but that’s not the important part. What’s important is the virtual tour option, which is available for at least one of my favorite teenhood haunts. I highly recommend it.

When else can you spy on the living room where you watched your first R-rated movie, then take a stroll around the corner to the shop that sold you cigarettes when you were barely old enough to drive? It’s like getting to time-travel. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

A women’s column featuring a rotating cast of contributors

Vodka Yonic nashvillescene.com nashvillescene.com | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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FOOD AND DRINK

GO GO JOSEPH

Award-winning duo Tony and Cathy Mantuano to helm food and wine at The Joseph

come along that often. They want [to be] the best Italian restaurant in the country.”

The Columbus, Ohio-based Pizzuti Companies, which owns The Joseph, has spared no expense to make that happen. That includes 27 dies for a pasta extruder imported from Italy to make Tony’s signature dishes as well as hand-blown wine glasses from Verona. And in what is sure to be the showstopper, a see-through cheese cave will connect the dining room to the kitchen and will house eight wheels of imported ParmigianoReggiano, each of which will weigh up to 80 pounds. The walls will be lined with more than 600 bottles of wine.

In their new positions, the Mantuanos will be at the helm of Yolan, a fine Italian dining restaurant; Denim, the more casual rooftop restaurant and bar; Four Walls, a cocktail bar; the hotel’s banquet and event dining; plus hotel room service and even touches like picking hotel products for the in-room mini-fridges (where visitors can expect to find local products like Poppy & Peep chocolates and Bloomy Rind cheeses).

While there won’t be Spiaggia dishes on the menu, there will be connective threads to the Mantuanos’ past professional lives.

“We are who we are,” Tony says. “We are not going to change because we moved to Nashville. We are known for high-end luxury Italian cuisine, so that is what we are bringing here. Denim is going to be more casual, but Yolan is fine dining.”

Pizzuti Companies president Joel Piz-

TONY AND CATHY MANTUANO AT THE JOSEPH

HOUSE MADE TORTELLI

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PHOTO: HAAS AND HAAS PHOTOGRAPHY

E

arly this year, when Tony Galzin realized that chef Tony Mantuano and his wife Cathy Mantuano were eating at Nicky’s Coal Fired — the restaurant Galzin co-owns in The Nations — he kind of freaked out.

“Holy shit,” says Galzin. “I could not believe they were sitting in my restaurant. I didn’t want to embarrass them, but I had to say something. I am such a big fan. When their cookbook, Spiaggia, came out, I was just a line cook, and after work I would read through it until I fell asleep and come up with fake menus I would serve from it.”

The rest of Nashville is about to get as excited as Galzin. Tony was the longtime chef at the Michelin-starred Spiaggia, one of Chicago’s most beloved restaurants, while Cathy ran its lauded wine program.

Tony ran the restaurant for nearly 35 years — an uncommonly long stretch in the restaurant world — before they moved to Milan in October 2019 to eat, drink and think about their next act. At the beginning of this year they moved to Nashville, where they are now announcing — you read it first in the Scene — that they are the food and beverage partners at The Joseph, a luxury hotel opening downtown at the corner of Korean Veterans Boulevard and Fourth Avenue South in early August.

“We could have stayed in Italy another year, but this became too enticing,” Tony says. “These kinds of projects don’t really

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

BY MARGARET LITTMAN

zuti attended Vanderbilt University, as did his two sisters. He has a strong affinity for Nashville, and thought it made sense to open the second Joseph hotel here. Pizzuti knew he wanted a fine-dining Italian restaurant in the hotel. He runs the family business with his father, and he named the hotel after his grandfather and a restaurant after his grandmother, so having a spot that reflects the family’s Italian heritage made emotional sense. And he figured bringing a high-end Italian restaurant to Nashville made business sense.

Pizzuti began meeting some of the country’s best Italian chefs, and he had dined at Spiaggia. “Within the first five minutes of meeting Tony, I liked him,” Pizzuti says.

The two bonded quickly over shared beliefs, among them that a bad espresso is not worth drinking. (Suffice to say, any espresso served at The Joseph will be done right.) The good vibes continued when he met Cathy, witnessed her breadth of wine expertise, and saw the way Tony and Cathy worked together.

Tony has received 12 nominations from the James Beard Foundation, and won Best Chef: Midwest in 2005. He has received a Michelin star every year since 2011, he’s appeared on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters, and Chicago’s most famous former resident — that would be President Barack Obama — names Tony as his favorite chef. Cathy

NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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PHOTO: HAAS AND HAAS PHOTOGRAPHY

FOOD AND DRINK

CAVIAR SERVICE was one of the first people to compile an allItalian wine list in the U.S. It’s not hyperbole to say that Italian cuisine wouldn’t have the acceptance it does in the U.S. if it were not for Tony and Cathy.

And like the espresso, they feel strongly about those dishes.

“There is so much bastardization nowadays of classic dishes from Italy, and that is one thing that irks us,” Cathy says. It’s great to have creativity, but don’t call it carbonara if it has an egg floating on top or peas mixed in, they say.

“Call it ‘Todd’s Pasta Whatever,’ ” Tony quips.

With almost four decades of work experience, much of that together, the Mantuanos know they are not as young as many of the best-known chefs in Nashville. “We’re the O.G.,” Cathy laughs. But they’re ready at this point in their careers to take on new challenges — multiple food and beverage outlets in a luxury hotel opening during a global pandemic definitely counts as a challenge.

What’s more, they’ll continue to train others.

The Mantuanos are already known for their mentoring. Acclaimed chefs Missy Robbins (Lilia in New York) and Sarah Grueneberg (Monteverde Restaurant & Pastificio in Chicago) worked under Tony at Spiaggia.

“If you want to learn, if you come hungry, we’ll feed you,” Tony says.

“Standards are not optional,” Cathy adds. “Forget anything else you have ever learned.”

While Tony is in the kitchen and Cathy is in the front of the house, they are open to each other’s ideas, and think they can lead by example.

“You don’t have to work six days a week,” says Tony. “Find a way to build your team, so you can take two days off. If you want to have a relationship, you need to spend time with it. I hope that’s one thing we show people, is that you can have a relationship, you can work together. You can have a life outside of the restaurant.”

“If Tony and Cathy can’t inspire you, then you can’t be inspired,” Pizzuti says.

Of course, the hotel — with its 297 rooms and check-in desk wrapped in custom-tooled Lucchese leather — is designed for guests.

But Pizzuti hopes the property is also a draw for locals.

“Our clear goal is to create a local, regional and national destination that will be important to those who are attracted to world-class food and service,” Pizzuti says. His family is known for its impressive art collection; it is their name on the Pizzuti Collection at the Columbus Museum of Art, and art is an important part of The Joseph. Works by Tennessee artists will line the walls and outdoor spaces, and locals will be encouraged to interact with them. Cathy plans to lead wine workshops and other events for locals. Afternoon tea will be a draw.

While the Mantuanos are still consulting on the Terzo Piano restaurant at the Art Institute of Chicago, they now live within walking distance of The Joseph (as they did with Spiaggia in Chicago), which Cathy says makes them feel connected to the community. They even recently volunteered to assist Tandy Wilson in his efforts to help longtime Nashville institution Silver Sands reopen.

Galzin has helped connect the couple to local farmers — they’ve spent lots of Saturdays at Bells Bend.

“I am so excited to have a chef like that in Nashville,” Galzin says. “We have Sean [Brock], and this is really, really special to have a chef of this caliber in Nashville. ...

This is the highest echelon. This is insane.”

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WHOLE FISH

Support Local.

Save the dishwashing for later.

Visit nashvillescene.com for our daily takeout picks.

$2.50 LB

CRAWFISH

BY THE BAG STRAIGHT FROM LOUISIANA

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RESERVE YOUR BAG!

BY THURSDAY BY NOON FOR THE WEEKEND

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In celebration of #PRIDEATHOME and in partnership with Batch Nashville, Nashville LGBT Chamber and Nashville Pride, the Nashville Scene presents our special edition PRIDE BOX. By purchasing one of our three boxes specially created to celebrate PRIDE, you’ll be supporting local makers and LGBT Chamber members with 10% of proceeds going to Nashville Pride!

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

ART

CRAWL SPACE: JUNE 2020 June’s First Saturday events underline the new intimacy of the virtual

T

“RETURN TO BENDER,” RYAN MICHAEL NOBLE

he Nashville Gallery Association organized the first Virtual Art Crawl in May, and it will re-create the art-crawl experience again this month via a YouTube video. But here’s the thing: Digital platforms are not great at translating the experience of browsing a gallery exhibition. That said, video tours of art shows are much better than simple slideshows or Instagram posts viewed on a phone.

The first Virtual Art Crawl was followed by a Zoom hang that included many of the FOLLOW THE NASHVILLE GALLERY ASSOCIATION participating gallery ON YOUTUBE FOR THIS owners and curators.

MONTH’S VIRTUAL ART It was a positive chat CRAWL that generated new ideas about how to maximize the potential of video presenting. My wish for June is that curators remember that these videos should be treated as the exhibition, not as trailers or teasers. These should be long and lingering affairs that viewers can fast-forward through or pause as they wish. I enjoyed the first iteration of the Virtual Art Crawl, and I’m anxious to see how the galleries up their games for June.

RYAN MICHAEL NOBLE AT MODFELLOWS

Tactile Response at David Lusk Gallery is a group exhibition that’s all about materials and the sense of touch. Of course, these qualities of materiality and tactility — along with the contextualizing sense of overall gallery space — are the qualities of visual art that are most difficult to translate to zeros and ones. I’m looking forward to seeing how Lusk will approach its video programming to convey the weighty presence and textured surfaces of these works by Maysey Craddock, Tim Crowder, Brandon Donahue, Greely Myatt, Mary K VanGieson and Tad Lauritzen Wright.

If you follow local multimedia artist Marlos E’van on social media, you’re probably already excited about the hand-painted T-shirts he’s been creating this spring. The shirts will debut at Julia Martin Gallery, where they will be hanging in the gallery’s front window for in-person viewing. I predict E’van’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles top will be the big hit of this series. Half of the proceeds from the shirts will go to the youth music education projects of YEAH! Rocks.

Modfellows will present a suite of minimalist doodles by Ryan Michael Noble. Noble works with paint, ink and found scraps of material to create chromatic designs punc-

“MENAGE A TROIS,” CARLA CIUFFO

BY JOE NOLAN

CARLA CIUFFO AT TINNEY CONTEMPORARY tuated by playful gestures and buoyant geometric forms. These compositions sparkle with movement and energy, and I’m hopeful that Modfellows’ video segment will match the vibe of these works.

The Red Arrow Gallery will showcase its Online in Home exhibition from last month, along with a selection of new works on paper from Brian Edmonds, Jodi Hays, Paul Collins, John Paul Kesling, Alex McClurg, Mandy Brown, Lindsy Davis and the aforementioned Marlos E’van.

Davis has spent several years exploring the psychology of perception and using strictly monochrome palettes, but the recent reintroduction of color into her work — including dashes of dramatic red — is one of the most notable surprises in Nashville’s spring art season.

Tinney Contemporary will display work by photographer Carla Ciuffo. Ciuffo’s at her best when she’s deconstructing her images of the natural world before using collage techniques to create abstracted narratives that seem almost painterly. Tinney has also promised it will include a musical element in its presentation, and watching these video displays evolve is as interesting as the creativity they spotlight.

Unrequited Leisure’s emphasis on digital programming makes its shift to YouTube presentations an organic one. Looking at paintings or sculptures on screens is a best-we-can-do-right-now pivot, but digital videos and images are made for all screens — whether they’re hanging in museums and galleries or in our own living rooms. Some people might think digital art and music are cold and disembodied, but in the UpsideDown of quarantine life, pixelated palettes

and virtual works have been recontextualized with a new intimacy. Virtual Art Crawl video viewers will have an option to become even more fully immersed in Unrequited Leisure’s newest show by sharing their own digital images in JPEGS (Joint Photographic Experts Group Show). The exhibition namechecks the organization that created the specification standards for the ubiquitous image file format back in 1992. The show’s curation is also appropriately anarchic: Artists are invited to upload one JPEG at unrequitedleisure.com during the month of June.

All the uploaded images will become part of the exhibition, which will be sorted by an algorithm that reshapes the display every time it’s viewed.

In addition to the Nashville Gallery Association’s Virtual Art Crawl, Gallery Luperca will be hosting a virtual exhibition at its website, along with a digital shindig of its own via Instagram Live. Face Value is a display of pandemic-inspired facemask art, including works from Iceland, Turkey, France and the U.S. The exhibit was designed by Pittsburgh-based actress and performance artist Lindsay Goranson and Gallery Luperca’s Sara Lederach. The display features both images and videos, and 100 percent of the sales will go directly to artists whose 2020 gallery exhibition plans have been trashed by stayat-home orders.

Check out the Virtual Art Crawl when the video goes live on the Nashville Gallery Association’s YouTube Channel at 6 p.m. on Saturday night. Follow Gallery Luperca on Instagram at @galleryluperca, and explore Face Value at galleryluperca.com.

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nashvillescene.com | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CULTURE

HOME ON THE GAY-NGE

Nashville Pride kicks off monthlong Pride at Home celebration

BY ERICA CICCARONE 2019 PRIDE PARADE

W

www.nashvillescene.com/pickup Visit our website for an updated list of outdoor pickup locations. Other locations are shown on our pickup map, but check with businesses first to make sure they’re open.

You can also have the Scene delivered to your house!

NASHVILLESCENESHOP.COM

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hen Pride celebrations were postponed around the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the general attitude seemed to be, “Well, that makes sense.”

NASHVILLEPRIDE.ORG Case in point: Conservative talking head, national scourge and newfound Nashvillian Tomi Lahren tweeted at “pro-eternal shutdown cheerleaders” — apparently all of whom celebrate Pride — “when your favorite government pals start canceling pride parades, we better not hear a peep out of you!!!” One user sensibly replied: “We know QUITE A BIT about horrible plague-like pandemics that kill everybody around us and [we] generally take steps AGAINST exacerbating the problem by being irresponsible.” Touché, @HugoThePinkCat. Anyway, we’ve got good news. Although Nashville Pride’s usual events and parade have been postponed until the fall, the nonprofit has announced that it will host a bevy of online activities with which to celebrate in June.

It was set to kick off June 3 with the first installment of the performance series Sing Me a Song, featuring country songwriter Brandon Stansell on Pride’s Facebook page and YouTube and Twitch channels. Sing Me a Song will happen every Wednesday in the month of June with performances from Shelly Fairchild (June 10), pop singer Brody Ray of America’s Got Talent fame (June 17) and Scene favorite Katie Pruitt (June 24).

PHOTO: SOLAR CABIN STUDIOS / NASHVILLE PRIDE

Wondering where to find the Nashville Scene while staying safe?

Thursdays at 5 p.m., you can unwind with a happy hour when Pride will broadcast Absolut-ely Fabulous Cocktails, in which local queer bartenders will teach you how to make a “simple yet stunning” cocktail to enjoy together, remotely. Be sure to don your rainbow mask and hit the liquor store first.

Celebrate the end of the week with Pride Live, a weekly variety hour that will happen on Fridays at 9 p.m on Facebook, YouTube and Twitch. You can put in an application to show your talents, or you can sit back, relax and enjoy your community.

“I hope that people will tune in and join us on these events to celebrate our community and see the talent that entertains our community,” says Phil Cobucci, community affairs director at Nashville Pride. “But also know that Pride is not just a big festival in a park once a year, but can be something that lives in our hearts and in our actions, whether we can be with people in person or are connecting with people on social media or digital channels.”

There’s more. This week, Pride launched an online marketplace where you can support local LGBTQ retailers and makers by buying their goods. Check out nashvillepride.org for some kid-friendly activities, a coloring book and plans for a shoebox “float” to parade around your home or neighborhood. Let your flags fly. Make some fabulous Pride yard art. Decorate your house in rainbows. Snap some pics and send ’em to Nashville Pride, and they’ll share with one and all.

We deserve this.

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | nashvillescene.com

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BOOKS

BEYOND CATHARSIS

Stephanie Danler’s memoir disrupts the usual narrative structures found in stories of addiction

BY LEE CONELL

O

ne of my favorite scenes in Stephanie Danler’s memoir, Stray, occurs when Danler is sitting in a writing workshop, sharing the early pages of what would become her bestselling novel, Sweetbitter. A man in her workshop tells her the pages are good but that he hopes the novel won’t be “just a love story.” Danler quickly reassures him the novel is also about Big Ideas, but later she wonders: “Wait. What is just a love story?”

In the same way a love story is never just a love story, Stray — which largely focuses on the effects of growing up in a family destroyed by addiction and abuse — is not just a book about trauma.

It’s also a book about family. Which is to say that Stray, in its way, is also a love story.

STRAY

BY STEPHANIE DANLER KNOPF 256 PAGES, $25.95 Love for family and friends suffuses Stray, wending its way even through the most difficult pages.

But that doesn’t mean readers should expect, or want, a sentimental sense of release.

“There is nothing falser to me than a story that ends with catharsis,” Danler writes. Stray makes efforts to disrupt and interrogate a narrative structure — perhaps one particularly prevalent in memoirs dealing with the course of addiction — that ends with any kind of clear solution or release. In part, this interrogation occurs through Danler’s frequent observations around the nature of talking and writing about being a child who has grown up around parental substance abuse.

“No one wants to look directly at the trauma itself,” she notes, “only the shapes it makes.”

Stray may eschew a linear shape in its storytelling, but it certainly is never shapeless. It’s broken into three sections: one focused primarily on Danler’s mother, one on her father and one on the married man with whom she is carrying on an affair. (The sections are titled, respectively, “Mother,” “Father” and “Monster.”) In addition, different scenes are labeled with and anchored by the geographical setting in which they mostly take place. Danler visits the hospital after her mother suffers a brain aneurysm, gives a reading during her book tour for Sweetbitter, sits in the back of a cab with the Monster and hikes with the man who is, for much of the memoir, labeled “the Love Interest.” The geographical location

of the action is always clear — a grounding mechanism that feels especially poignant during scenes when Danler clearly felt, in the moment, utterly groundless.

Danler’s account spans a fair amount of geographical space, and her descriptions of geological features in California are among the book’s loveliest moments, in part due to the way these moments often coincide with a slowly growing romance between Danler and the Love Interest. The Love Interest’s knowledge about the environment around them seems to grant Danler a new lens for noticing and describing, for being present in the state of her birth in a different way. The map of Los Angelesarea freeways at the book’s opening takes on new meaning as Stray continues.

Despite the memoir’s many markers of place, however, I sometimes was briefly disoriented as to where I was in its kaleidoscopic and occasionally blurry timeline. Still, part of Danler’s project here seems to be blurring boundaries. “It’s through boundaries that we construct ourselves, say, Here is where you end and I begin,” she writes. “However, while boundaries are powerful, they’re unfortunately not solid. They are made in the imagination, and there are inherent flaws in arming oneself for battle in our fantasies.

What is shocking isn’t that we have lived through the traumas of our lives. The miracle is that we are still remotely permeable.”

And what to do once you do allow for those moments of permeability, for vulnerability and connection? It’s not exactly some kind of crescendo of catharsis, but Danler does advocate for the power of presence and care for what’s before us in the present moment: “We don’t receive the things we want because we deserve them. Most of the time we get them because we are blind and lucky.

It’s in the act of having, the daily tending, that we have an opportunity to be deserving.

It’s not a place to be reached. It is a constant betwixt and between.”

Stray’s moments of greatest power are achieved in the instances where Danler unflinchingly describes and details those in-between borderless spaces, the places where there are opportunities for tending, for care — and maybe, for love stories.

For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee.

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nashvillescene.com | JUNE 4 – JUNE 10, 2020 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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MUSIC

SETTLING UP

Gretchen Peters repays a debt to Mickey Newbury on The Night You Wrote That Song

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hen Gretchen Peters went to visit Cinderella Sound in 2018, she met with Wayne Moss, the guitarist who created the legendary guitar licks on Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” and Bob Dylan’s “I Want You.” Moss had built the recording studio in his two-car garage in 1961 and still runs it today. It’s only 15 minutes north of downtown Nashville in a residential neighborhood near the horseshoe bend in the Cumberland River in Madison, but it’s a whole different world than the recording palaces on THE NIGHT YOU WROTE Music Row. THAT SONG: THE SONGS The place still OF MICKEY NEWBURY shows signs of its OUT NOW VIA SCARLET garage origins, yet LETTER RECORDS it’s filled with vintage equipment and a remarkable history.

Steve Miller, Tony Joe White, Chet Atkins and Memphis Slim all recorded there. But Peters came because it was the room where the late Mickey Newbury cut his three greatest albums between 1969 and 1973: Looks Like Rain, ’Frisco Mabel Joy and Heaven Help the Child. She would eventually cut her own new album The Night You Wrote That Song: The Songs of Mickey Newbury there as well.

“I’m a big believer that places matter,” Peters says on a recent call with the Scene, “that places absorb energy from people, good and bad. We went in, and it hadn’t changed much since 1961. I was especially taken by the story about how Linda Ronstadt, making her first solo album there, recorded her vocals in the bathroom. I ended up doing the same thing. It was a cocoon, removed from Music Row. You didn’t run into people when you went out to lunch. Psychologically, that gives you a little freedom.

But none of that would have mattered if it wasn’t such a good-sounding room.”

Peters had fallen in love with Newbury’s Cinderella Sound albums when she was a teenager in Boulder, Colo., using her meager earnings as a folk singer in local coffeehouses to shop at the local used-record store.

At a time when folk music seemed to be withering away in the late ’70s, Newbury proved you could still make a living with acoustic storytelling music if you called it country.

He paid his bills writing hits for other singers. Don Gibson and Tom Jones both had major success with “Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings,” as did Eddy Arnold with “Here Comes the Rain Again, Baby,” Ray Charles with “Sunshine,” Kenny Rogers and the First Edition with “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” and Jerry Lee Lewis with “She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye.” That financial security enabled Newbury to make his own idiosyncratic records. His literary descriptions of down-and-out characters were up front with his acoustic guitar and sterling tenor, subtly backed by a rhythm section, strings and sound effects. Those records were adored

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by critics and other songwriters, even if they barely registered with the public.

Newbury’s example convinced Peters to move to Nashville in 1987 and try the same trick. Improbably enough, it worked. She wrote hits for other artists: “You Don’t Even Know Who I Am” for Patty Loveless, “Let That Pony Run” for Pam Tillis and “On a Bus to St. Cloud” for Trisha Yearwood. She made her own albums that were widely admired by critics but seldom purchased except in England. She owed Newbury a debt, and she decided to repay it by recording The Night You Wrote That Song, a tribute album released May 15.

Peters wasn’t interested in copying Newbury’s original arrangements. Those versions are still out there for anyone who wants to find them. Just by bringing a female voice to songs that were mostly recorded by men, she alters them. She further refines them by applying the stripped-down arrangements and lucid enunciation of her own records. She even swaps some verses around, relieved to learn from Newbury’s longtime guitarist Jack Williams that Newbury did the same thing all the time — even after the song had been recorded.

Newbury was a relentless tinkerer, so Peters would be too.

“I just found a 2011 email from my mom with a list of Mickey songs, so I was thinking about it even then,” Peters says. “I knew I didn’t want to make a record of just his hits — there were a lot of his songs I loved from his later career — but neither did I want to avoid a song just because it was a hit. I experimented a lot, sitting with my guitar and playing his songs. Some of my favorites — ‘Poison Red Berries,’ ‘Sweet Memories’ and ‘Bless Us All ’ — I just couldn’t feel as a performer. Sometimes you love a song so much that you can’t see around the version you fell in love with.”

The dozen songs that made the final cut included a few of Newbury’s classic early songs, like the hits for Rogers and Lewis, as well as such obscure late-career gems as “Saint Cecelia” and “Three Bells for Stephen.” On the latter song, the arrangement and vocal work together to illuminate the last words of a dying man: “On those lonely nights when I could find no sleep / I’d unlock my heart and soul on strings and ivory keys.” Tastefully backing Peters on the record are her husband Barry Walsh on keyboards, Will Kimbrough on guitar, The Greencards’ Eamon McLoughlin on strings, and Moss’ longtime buddy Charlie McCoy on harmonica.

In 1965, Newbury moved from his native Houston to Nashville and quickly started getting cuts for his songs. In 1968, he had top-five singles on four charts: Pop, Easy Listening, R&B and Country. Buoyed by his own success, he encouraged some obscure Texas songwriters to follow his path and move to Tennessee.

Soon Kris Kristofferson, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark were in town as well, followed a few years later by younger writers such as Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell.

PHOTO: GINA BINKLEY

BY GEOFFREY HIMES

These youngsters were mentored by Clark and Van Zandt, but it was Newbury who triggered the chain reaction of all these Dylanesque singer-songwriters from Texas relocating to Nashville. When Guy and Susanna Clark were married on Jan. 14, 1972, they did so on Newbury’s houseboat on Old Hickory Lake with Van Zandt as the best man.

“That nucleus of Mickey, Townes and Guy was the songwriter version of the outlaw movement,” says Peters. “A lot of us who moved to Nashville as singer-songwriters in the ’80s needed our own heroes, and those guys fit the bill. I was a huge Rodney fan; he married my husband and me in 2010 in Germantown as our preacher. My first publishing deal was with the same company as Steve. Emmylou [Harris] was the great conduit for all that.

“But if you dig back just a little bit deeper, you’re going to find Mickey at the center of all this,” she continues. “He should be as well-known as those guys and Kris. I wonder if there was something in Mickey that didn’t want to be part of a gang. He’s so often left out. That’s another reason I wanted to make this record.”

When Peters first arrived in Nashville, she got conflicting advice. Half the people she spoke with told her she should concentrate on writing for other artists. The other half told her she should pursue her own record deal. Newbury’s example suggested she might be able to do both. Peters’ hits for other people came first: Suzy Bogguss’ “Souvenirs” and Shania Twain’s “Dance With the One That Brought You” charted but didn’t break the top 40 of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs, while George Strait’s “The Chill of an Early Fall” went to No. 3.

But Peters’ big breakthrough was Martina McBride’s “Independence Day,” which

brought Peters the 1995 Song of the Year Award from the Country Music Association.

The stark tale of an abused wife who burns down the family home was an unlikely candidate for the award — many radio stations refused to play it — but it would not be denied.

“I had no idea it would ever get cut,” Peters recalls. “But all those women who had had a similar experience felt they were finally seen when that song came out. Both Martina and I heard from a lot of those women. It helped that the song sounds like an anthem. One of the hardest things you can do is write dark and intricate lyrics and make them sound like an anthem. That’s why Bruce Springsteen is such a master.”

At that point, Peters could have just stayed home, collecting royalty checks and writing more songs for country radio. Many people advised her to do just that — just as they had once advised Newbury.

“That’s offensive, because it’s not just about the money,” she says. “With a voice like Mickey’s, how could you not sing?”

Newbury did try to retire. He moved to Oregon in the 1970s, and recorded very rarely between 1981 and 1994. But from 1996 until his death in 2002, he felt compelled to return to the studio and record a wealth of new songs. Beginning in 1996, Peters has released eight studio albums of her own original songs, among collaborative LPs and live recordings.

“My favorite line on this new record,” she says, “is in the opening track, ‘The Sailor.’

It just breaks my heart when Mickey sings, ‘My daddy was a sailor / Salt is in his blood / And here I am in Nashville / Stuck in the mud.’ I understand that emotion — singing and songwriting get in your blood. I think he was frustrated at times with the machine.

He had that same stubbornness that I have.”

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MUSIC

GEARING UP: HOW RUDE RudeTech’s Jesse Rhew talks building effects pedals in Music City

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER Editor’s note: While venues and music stores remain closed in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, we’re profiling some of the people around town who make or repair the instruments and other equipment that musicians use. It’s an occasional series we’re calling Gearing Up.

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his time of year, Jesse Rhew would ordinarily be deep in preparations for the summertime edition of the biannual National Association of Music Merchants show, aka Summer NAMM. The event VISIT RUDETECH.COM TO typically fills the LEARN MORE Music City Center for a full week each July with twanging, bleeping, chugging demonstrations of new musical instruments, recording equipment and related gear.

Rhew, who grew up in Music City, designs and builds guitar effects pedals by hand under the name RudeTech, and Summer NAMM has been a major part of building his business over the past decade. It’s where potential customers get to try out his devices for the first time, and it’s an important networking opportunity. To get on the show floor, Rhew teams up with other pedal builders, with help from fellow Nashvillian Grant Wilson of Big Ear Pedals. “[Wilson will host] a bunch of companies that are really small and don’t typically have enough money to run a whole booth by themselves — or just don’t have the money to fly out for the trade show,” Rhew tells the Scene via phone. “All the guitar players know, ‘OK, if I want to see the weird pedals [made by companies that don’t] have the budget of Line 6 or Boss or whatever, I want to see the underground stuff, I go to this booth. … My ticket to the trade show has got me the opportunity to be one of the first hundreds of people who get to see this on this day.’ That’s the appeal for them.”

With Summer NAMM canceled for 2020 because of COVID-19, Rhew is instead busy getting into the weeds of digital marketing. He’s connecting with podcasters and YouTubers who can review his 3MuF-14 fuzz pedal. Launched at Summer NAMM in 2019, the device includes three variations on the popular Big Muff Pi in one unit, whose case design is inspired by an F-14 fighter jet. As the sole employee of his company, Rhew is spending a lot more time thinking about how best to communicate with his customers to get feedback, and when to run sales or other promotions through his social media or on his website. Before the coronavirus, he expected to spend much more time on the twothirds of his business that aren’t marketing: design and manufacturing.

As a grade-schooler, Rhew loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — especially Donatello, who could build whatever gadgets the Heroes in a Half-Shell needed to fight the evil

Shredder and his minions. Rhew took many of his toys apart, trying to learn how they worked, but their electronic brains mystified him. Then, at age 12, he found instructions for building a fuzz pedal, complete with a circuit that had to be transferred onto

a copper sheet using an iron, in an issue of Popular Mechanics.

“I was just curious, I wanted to figure stuff out,” Rhew says. “And as soon as you start to figure out a little bit, you realize how much more complicated it is than you even thought in the first place, and I guess I was hooked. I thought it was cool, and was like, ‘I’m going to go to college for that.’ ” He played in punk and ska bands throughout high school, and earned a degree in electrical engineering from Tennessee Tech. He started RudeTech in 2011, and the next year, he took a job managing tests of prototype engines for commercial jets at an Air Force base in Tullahoma. He left a few years later when sales of the Proto-Chorus, his first commercially available effect, began to take off. Over the past several years, he’s created a handful of other designs, but he’s very careful about thoroughly testing his work before he goes to market.

Nashville, he’s found, is a perfect place to do that.

“I think one thing

that you take for granted growing up in Nashville is, pretty much everyone plays an instrument,” Rhew says. “I just give a product to somebody, and they know their stuff when it comes to gear, they know their stuff when it comes to setting up their own recording system in their house. So I don’t have to worry about them not testing all the features of a piece of equipment. … Everybody really knows their stuff, and there are a bunch of gear companies around, so we all become friends and help each other out.”

Rhew had planned to launch two new pedals of his own design and a third developed in collaboration with others at Summer NAMM. He expects to launch them as soon as they’re totally ready, hoping that smart online marketing can make up for the lack of trade-show buzz. Meanwhile, he’s also experimenting with ways to expand on volunteer work he’s done in the past. A few years ago, he developed a class for students at the Southern Girls’ Rock Camp, in which campers build a simple but high-quality fuzz pedal. He repurposed the design as the Ain’t Afraid Fuzz, sales of which benefit Jessi Zazu Inc., the nonprofit organized in memory of Those Darlins frontwoman and SGRC alum Jessi Zazu.

Currently, Rhew is looking at developing a series of video-based online classes in pedal-building for adults, which could be used as part of a benefit for YEAH!, the nonprofit that operates SGRC. One of the challenges he sees is adapting his teaching method for grown-ups. “[Kids seem to be] used to just kicking back and understanding, ‘Hey I’ve got to learn a new skill,’ ” he says. “And then you teach the same class to adults, and they’re used to knowing things. They assume that they either get it, or they don’t.”

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THE SPIN

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hat do you do when a global pandemic makes it unsafe to play shows in person and your home internet connection isn’t reliable enough to stream a show from your house? If you’re Lauren “L.G.” Gilbert, leader of Music City rock institution Thelma and the Sleaze, you throw your acoustic guitar into your 15-passenger tour van (that you bought just before the COVID-19 shit hit the fan, with money from selling a slew of T-shirts) and drive to the parking lot of your nearest McDonald’s. Once you tap into the free Wi-Fi, you then put on one of the best damned shows anyone can play until there’s a vaccine for the coronavirus.

Gilbert’s May 26 performance was part of the Scene’s No-Contact Shows series. Her resourcefulness and determination to make it happen felt familiar to longtime fans — if you haven’t, check out Kandyland, the documentary about the group’s 2016 intracity tour of DIY spaces, sidewalks, restaurants, laundromats and more — and helped make this very weird time feel a little more normal. Even without the current incarnation of her band of ringers to back her up, Gilbert’s contagious passion for performing exploded forth like lava from a volcano, as she whipped her guitar around for emphasis and told side-splitting, extremely relatable stories between songs.

She opened her half-hour set with “Dance Hall Baby,” a tune whose delightfully greasy groove helps convey the story in the lyrics, about someone you can’t help but love in spite of how hard they can be to get along with. The tune was one of several that Gilbert played from the band’s excellent 2019 LP Fuck, Marry, Kill. There were also old favorites (the churning guitar riff of the lascivious and swaggering “Cum” felt like biting into a juicy burger), and she shared a handful of very new tunes, too.

One as-yet-unfinished standout was a Springsteenian work in progress centered on trying to cope with circumstances beyond your control. As Gilbert pointed out: “I really like playing that song because I get to yell, ‘Times are rough,’ and boy, are they ever. It’s really therapy for me.” There’s no telling exactly how long it will be before it’s

safe to have loud, sweaty rock shows in person again, but Gilbert’s set was a reminder of just how important they are.

Over the past two decades, Ohio-born longtime Nashvillian Luke Schneider has mastered the pedal steel, an instrument best known for adding an expressive lilt to country music. He’s done an exceptional job of playing it in that context with artists like Margo Price, Caitlin Rose, Orville Peck and Teddy and the Rough Riders. As discussed last year with contributor Edd Hurt in a conversation ahead of Schneider’s live solo debut, there’s a long tradition of innovating in the world of pedal steel. Schneider has carried that legacy into work with more experimental ensembles, like the post-rock-ish outfit Character and William Tyler’s expansive folk-rooted band.

Schneider’s debut solo album Altar of Harmony, released May 15 via Third Man Records, is something else altogether, drawing on the influence of ambient and New Age musicians like Harold Budd, Don Robertson, Brian Eno and Susan Alcorn.

(Alcorn is an experimental steel guitarist who’s played Nashville several times in recent years thanks to local arts nonprofit FMRL.) Those artists’ work helped Schneider center himself in turbulent times, as he told journalist Grayson Haver Currin in an interview for Bandcamp. On May 28, in another installment of our No-Contact Shows series, Schneider gave a live performance streamed from Third Man’s Blue Room that requires some different vocabulary to discuss as opposed to most of his other music.

For about 20 minutes, he improvised on his 1967 Emmons push-pull pedal steel, flanked by two banks of effects processors and backed by a triptych of LED light panels designed with multimedia artist Rhendi Greenwell. Washed in rippling light, Schneider used gentle plucks, bends and slides to conjure a gently pulsing stream of sound.

It had rhythms, melodies and harmonies, and evoked an emotional response. But it’s not the kind of music you can break down into things like choruses and verses or even movements in a piece of classical music.

The sound was generated with electronics, but it shifted like some natural phenomenon — the rotation of stars in the sky, the sliding of tectonic plates, the wind through the trees, the shadow of clouds passing over a field. In a time when it’s easy to feel isolation and uncertainty, the reminder of our connection to bigger and more secure things was comforting and rejuvenating.

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GOT A LIGHT?: LUKE SCHNEIDER

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6/1/20 6:08 PM

FILM

PRIMAL STREAM: ELEVENTING

Monstrous romance, a killer whodunit and all of the Final Destination films, now available to stream

BY JASON SHAWHAN

CLUE name anyone looking to cast unconventional rom-coms seeks out when the pandemic is a thing of the past.

CLUE ON AMAZON PRIME

FINAL DESTINATION 2

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motionally tumultuous times demand a wide span of visual art. There’s also more concentrated hope in some of these films than you’ll find on the news, and I honestly can’t decide if that’s because of some irrational optimism tucked away in my cerebral cortex, or just because I don’t want to be a continual buzzkill. Your opinion may vary. As always, dip into past issues of the Scene for more recommendations of what to stream.

FINAL DESTINATION 1, 2 AND 4 ON HULU, 3 ON NETFLIX AND 5 ON CINEMAX The news footage of people thronging public spaces without masks and abandoning any pretext of social distancing is maddening and grotesque, so of course it puts one’s mind in the space of the Final Destination quintet. No dialectic better sums up the Aughts than Final Destination versus Saw, and here we are living out just that scenario. The Saw films are arcane conspiracies, in which individuals willing to hurt themselves and others are rewarded with moral and physical power over “lesser” or “flawed” folk. Gross and intricate, these films articulate fascist ideologies as us-versus-them procedurals.

The Final Destination films are egalitarian nightmares that trace the if/then paths that connect tragic mass gatherings to the end that awaits everyone, regardless of identity, moral alignment, star status or personal history. Moreso, the films are gleeful Rube Goldberg instruments of death, built around perfectly conceived inciting events that stick in the subconscious long after the film ends; if you’ve ever seen the second film, its interstate cataclysm involving a logging truck occupies space in your hippocampus and will do so forever. You can’t not think of it whenever you see one of those trucks.

Everyone who refuses to wear masks and gathers en masse thinks they’re in a Saw film; this is not the case.

AFTER MIDNIGHT ON VIDEO ON DEMAND A deeply romantic epic for the 21st century, After Midnight — from the team of Jeremy Gardner and Christian Stella, who made the not-played-out and still resonant The Battery and 2015’s Tex Montana Will Survive — manages to span a continuum with the teleological romance of Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy on one side and the relentless monster siege/pressure cooker of Aliens on the other. It’s rare that a film with such a good creature is also such a dizzyingly romantic experience, and Gardner (who also stars) and Stella have crafted something distinct and quite unlike anything else. The fact that this wasn’t showing in theaters back around Valentine’s Day is simply a crime, because few films have ever attempted a genre fusion quite like this, much less stuck the landing. In the fog-shrouded wasteland that is films released in 2020, this one has the best musical number and supporting performance (thanks to The Last Podcast on the Left’s Henry Zebrowski, who brings it to every line). A stalwart of modern horror and genre filmmaking, Gardner should be the

Despite being something of a flop on initial release at the end of 1985, this razorsharp farce has proven to be one of the most enduring of mid-’80s comedies. If anything, it’s the anchor for ensemble whodunits during that bleak decade, bridging the prestige ’70s ultraluxe Agatha Christie adaptations (Death on the Nile, Murder on the Orient Express) as well as the beloved but deeply problematic Murder by Death and the unexpected simultaneous ’90s resurrection of the whodunit and the slasher in the same film with Scream. Society was shocked at the time that a film would be made from something so base as a board game, and yet now — when such a concept feels nearly played-out — it’s amazing how fresh and vibrant Clue feels, with every member of the cast knocking it out of the park. Tim “I Know Because I Was There” Curry, Madeline “Flames on the Side of My Face, Breathing, Heaving Breaths” Kahn, and Eileen “No, Just Death — Isn’t That Enough” Brennan make the biggest impressions. But there are no weak links in this oddly comforting murder mystery, thankfully presented on Prime with all three of its theatrical endings.

LIBERTÉ ON VIDEO ON DEMAND Albert Serra makes unique films.

Rigorous and formalist, his work specializes in temporally specific and immersive tableaux that blend actual history with mutable, sometimes magical realist elements. The Death of Louis XIV depicted precisely that, while his 2008 international breakthrough Birdsong remains the most beautiful and reverent telling of the story

of the Magi in Christian liturgy. Liberté, a scandalous triumph at 2019’s Cannes and New York film festivals drenched in all the fluids, is of a piece with his Draculaversus-Casanova epic History of My Death and adapted from Serra’s infamous opera, also called Liberté. Various and sundry members of the aristocracy gather deep in the woods with their servants, attachés, lovers and doms to unknowingly explore the path of the Vajryana, whereby the means to conquer temptation is to yield to and overwhelm it. Lots of folks have compared this to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salò, which is accurate in terms of exposing the secret fantasies of rich people with too much power and depicting all sorts of things you don’t normally see at the movies — but it’s not quite fair. Liberté is rooted in the act of consent, and how degradation and liberation can be tied together. If you ever believed that Nurse Forsythe in Shivers was right on when she proclaimed all flesh to be erotic flesh, then this is the one for you. Available via the Cinema Guild and their virtual arthouse program.

‘ONE CUT OF THE DEAD MISSION: REMOTE’ VIA

YOUTUBE

After bowling over the world last year with their meta-zombie “let’s put on a show” epic, Shinichiro Ueda and pretty much the entire cast of One Cut of the Dead are back with a 26-minute short made during COVID-19 quarantine about the process of making a docuseries about a mad tickler on the loose. The end result is a deeply sweet, creative, strange and ultimately quite moving testament to what it means to make something in challenging times. If you dug One Cut of the Dead, this is absolutely worth a half-hour of your time.

THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH (1964) VIA FLIXFLING Nobody threw a party like Vincent Price.

Here, in this Roger Corman adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” we get serious modern pandemic resonance, exquisite colorscapes, an LSD-adjacent tone of reality-deranging paranoia and fear, satanic panic, expressionist architecture and the wildest of parties as the hand of Death takes yours and pulls you in for one hell of a dip.

This one works on a lot of levels.

AFTER MIDNIGHT

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SHIRLEY YOU CAN’T BE SERIOUS Elisabeth Moss sinks her teeth into yet another complicated role with Shirley

BY CRAIG D. LINDSEY

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’m thoroughly convinced that Elisabeth Moss is the queen of patriarchal pain. Judging from the roles she’s played on prestige TV shows Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale and Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake and in movies like The Invisible SHIRLEY NR, 107 MINUTES Man (one of the last AVAILABLE TO STREAM blockbuster multiTHIS WEEKEND VIA plex hits before the BELCOURT.ORG pandemic shut all that shit down), it appears Moss’ mission is to show the figurative (and sometimes literal) stranglehold men have had on women throughout history. No matter what she’s in, there is a strong possibility that at some point she’ll be crying, miserable and utterly fed the fuck up by all the abuse she’s had to take from men.

All three of those things happen in her latest film, Shirley, which made the Sundance Film Festival rounds earlier this year, where it won the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Auteur Filmmaking.

In the film, which is available to stream via the Belcourt’s site this weekend, Moss plays a real-life figure: horror author Shirley Jackson, the woman behind The Haunting of Hill House and other creepy, sinister pulp. The whole thing is set in the 1950s, with Jackson living in Vermont with her husband, critic and professor Stanley Edgar Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg), who teaches at Bennington College.

They both welcome two new people in their abode: Fred Nemser (Logan Lerman) and his wife Rose (Odessa Young), who has been known to get hot-and-bothered by Jackson’s prose. While Fred joins Stanley in teaching the young women of Bennington about folklore and Shakespeare and what not, Rose stays at the house, cleaning up and basically babysitting the introverted and unpredictable Jackson. Rose soon becomes Jackson’s partner in crime, getting documents for her and practically serving as her assistant as Jackson works on a new novel, based on the disappearance of a real Bennington coed — a project that would ulti-

mately become her 1951 novel Hangsaman.

I hate to say this movie reminds me of a certain unnamed Edward Albee play (later adapted into a film starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor) in which an older couple puts a younger couple through so much drama — especially since so many people said so when Shirley played Sundance. But, yeah, it does. Moss and Stuhlbarg are the world-weary marrieds who wrap Lerman and Young’s newlyweds in their twisted, passive-aggressive web of whatever-thefuck. As Stuhlbarg’s pedantic professor shows Lerman’s willing pupil the perks of teaching female students, it’s hinted that Moss’ Jackson may have gotten her Portrait of a Lady on Fire on and seduced Young’s pregnant stay-at-home wife.

I should tell you that none of this shit really happened — the whole thing is based on Susan Scarf Merrell’s 2014 what-if novel, also named Shirley. But this movie is really a chance for Madeline’s Madeline director Josephine Decker to once again craft a story centering on a brilliant, creative and undoubtedly disturbed woman. Working from a script by Sarah Gubbins, Decker — ever the experimental filmmaker — curlicues around the action, as she and cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen film everything like a Gothic dream bathed in kitschy, sepia tones. This also makes the central characters look like they’re mired in the sticky, complicated past — it’s like they’re drowning in molasses.

Decker definitely found a sister-in-arms in Moss, who has never had a problem playing complicated, sometimes insufferable artists. (See practically everything Moss has done with director Alex Ross Perry for further reference.) Shirley is really another chance for Moss to sink her teeth into a role with the same snarling, fuck-the-patriarchy gusto she’s brought to nearly everything she’s done. As Jackson, Moss once again plays a character who seeks to create her own destiny and implores other women around her to do the same — including all the women in the audience.

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In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon CYNARRA M. BLAKE. It is ordered that said Defendant enter Her appearance herein with thirty (30) days after June 18, 2020 same being the date of the last publication of this notice to be held at the Metropolitan Circuit Court located at 1 Public Square, Room 302 Nashville, Tennessee, and defend or default will be taken on July 20, 2020. It is therefore ordered that a copy of this Order be published for four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

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Richard R. Rooker, Clerk Deputy Clerk By: W. North Date: May 19, 2020 Jessica R. Simpson Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 5/28/2020, 6/4/2020, 6/11/2020 & 6/18/2020

PUZZLE BY CAITLIN REID

59 60 61 62

Easiest rating for a ski slope Type of short haircut Picks up Bunker need

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Free to attack

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“Go ahead, shoot!”

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Role for Vin Diesel in the “Fast & Furious” movies

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Place for un béret

“Don’t make me laugh!”

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One of the Cyclades

Easy-to-park car

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Student ___

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20 Questions category

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NO. 0430

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Role for John Cho in the “Star Trek” movies

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Troubles

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DOWN Rigorous training courses “I’m not listening to you!”

Whichever Hurdle for an M.A. pursuer Breed Athleisure, e.g.

Liking Cannon ammo in scifi Challenger Vales “Sssss” makers Video game series since 1989 Deceptive basketball moves Target for clippers Burns up in film?

Stopgap, maybe In which nothing is everything “Should ___ shouldn’t …”

Affectionate noserubbing Knockoff of a Greek sculpture?

Something to shoot for

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University of Oregon logo Default for many airport TVs Daydream Doesn’t land, as a joke It’s chewed by the chatty Ripen, maybe Made good Common seafood garnish “Put your big boy pants on!”

Immature retort

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Hill worker Items carried in spoons in an outdoor race Time, e.g., in brief Singer/songwriter Rita

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ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE E T T A B E A N B A K I L E M S E S A L O I T A N G E B I N M A S I A C O M P T I L S I R A N E T G E E

W A G N E R

N O M E R C A Y B O A R I T R E D

A N D B O U T B R E A D Y C U I N T H M O I P I L E T E R E D A D G L E D E E D O O A M U L O C A T E L H I E D E N

S C O E R R E O D S C I L M O P S L E I O E N S E

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Y E G O D S

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Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/ crosswords ($39.95 a year).

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Sr. Administrators, IT Database.

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THE SPIN

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