Nashville Scene 7-21-22

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CITY LIMITS: SO WHAT EXACTLY DOES ORACLE DO?

JULY 21–27, 2022 I VOLUME 41 I NUMBER 25 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

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ART: THE ENDLESS SUMMER OF THE FRIST’S LACMA EXHIBIT PAGE 42

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CONTENTS

JULY 21, 2022

7

45

Walk a Mile: Goodlettsville........................7

Tracking a Killer

CITY LIMITS

BOOKS

In the 30th installment of his column, J.R. Lind ventures north to the old stomping grounds of Kasper Mansker

Journalist Kathryn Miles trails a 1996 cold case

BY J.R. LIND

47

What Exactly Does Oracle Do? .................8 Meet Nashville’s new neighbor, a backend tech giant owned by an eccentric billionaire BY ELI MOTYCKA

Pith in the Wind .........................................9 This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

BY JANE MARCELLUS AND CHAPTER 16

MUSIC

Pleased to Meet Me ................................ 47 Angel Olsen made her latest LP Big Time just for herself BY MEGAN SELING

11

The Change You Want to See ................. 49

34th Annual ‘You Are So Nashville If ...’

Going Up .................................................. 49

See all the winners, ‘weirdies’ and honorable mentions in our annual YASNI contest

Adrian Belew wants to give you a lift on Elevator

COVER STORY

East Nashville’s Queerfest celebrates and cultivates community for LGBTQ musicians BY RACHEL CHOLST

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB: Buick Audra Takes Charge in ‘The Melody’ Let’s Take a Look at Gov. Lee’s Education Savings Account Program Proper Saké Co. Opens Rice Vice in East Nashville Recaps of ‘The Bachelorette’Are Back on Tuesdays

ON THE COVER:

Illustration by Lauren Cierzan

BY DARYL SANDERS

23

CRITICS’ PICKS

Good for the Soul .................................... 51 Jefferson Street Jazz and Blues Festival returns with blues king Bobby Rush BY RON WYNN

Circle Jerks, The Blue Room Bar’s OneYear Anniversary, Live at the Wall, Spirited Away, Waxed Album Release, Steve Earle and the Dukes, Hamilton, James Austin Johnson and more

The Spin ................................................... 51

37

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Sugar Shock: The Sweet Escape

The Malady Haunts My Reverie

FOOD AND DRINK

The Scene’s live-review column checks out Daisha McBride, Domani and Melo Roze at Analog BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

FILM

Four internationally inspired desserts that will take you far, far away from here

A discussion about Tropical Malady with Dave White

BY MEGAN SELING

BY JASON SHAWHAN

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53

VODKA YONIC Unladylike

Shedding gendered labels has given me peace in experimentation and uncertainty BY FIONA BROADIE

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

54

MARKETPLACE

42 ART

Playing It Cool Light and Space, ‘finish fetish’ and the endless summer of the Frist’s LACMA exhibit BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

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Reports of a recent conversation between Gov. Bill Lee and Dr. Larry Arnn — president of Michigan’s Hillsdale College — have been flooding our market. Arnn’s statements that teachers come from “the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country,” and that diversity officers get a degree in education because it is “easy” and they “don’t have to know anything,” have angered and disappointed many. Arnn even said, “You don’t have to be an expert to educate a child because basically anybody can do it.” None of these condescending comments are true — they are flat-out insults. But as executive director and CEO of the Professional Educators of Tennessee J.C. Bowman recently told NewsChannel 5: “The problem is not so much that Larry Arnn would say this; he’s got an agenda. But what really is the problem here is that our governor stood there and let this be said about the people that are educating.” I grew up with educators in my family. My mom taught private school, but others were educators in the public school system. There are roughly 80,000 public schoolteachers across Tennessee who, with the governor’s silence, went undefended. Adding insult to injury, since footage of the duo’s conversation was released, the governor has had multiple opportunities to rebut or rebuke what Arnn said. Even without being ungracious, he could say he likes Arnn but disagrees with his view of educators. But in fact, the governor is defending Arnn’s “vision” and his own lack of response, saying merely that he disagrees with “activism from the left” (something Arnn did not mention in the video) and that he’s “been clear” about how he feels about public schools. When reminded that Arnn said “anybody can teach” and asked directly about Hillsdale’s involvement in teaching Tennessee children, the governor reiterated that his comments have been “very clear,” and that “other people’s comments are for others to interpret.” He would not criticize Arnn for saying teachers come from the “dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges.” Bowman voices what many are thinking: “It’s an insult to the students that go through colleges of education. It’s an insult to the professors and the people who teach our educators.” He adds: “Does the governor think [just] anybody can be a teacher? He needs to answer that question.” Bowman also disagrees with the governor that Hillsdale’s “vision for educating children … is a vision that Tennesseans will embrace.” If the governor thought his silence or lack of pushback would at least impress members of his own party, he’s now found that is not the case. Originally the governor received a standing ovation from the state legislature’s Republican supermajority when announcing the Hillsdale collaboration back in January. But that ecstatic attitude has changed since Arnn made his denigrating comments about educators and Lee made no defense.

GOV. BILL LEE Republican chair of Tennessee’s House Education Committee, Rep. Mark White, has said “any hope” that Hillsdale College will be operating charter schools here with state funding has “been shattered.” And though the charter approval process lies outside the legislature, White says if any bill comes before the state House dealing with Hillsdale, it will be rejected. The backlash hasn’t stopped there. As Lt. Gov. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) has accurately said: “Teaching is a calling. Those called to teach deserve our appreciation and respect. The president of Hillsdale has no role in shaping education policy in Tennessee, nor should he.” State House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Clarksville) tweeted: “Having parents and grandparents as teachers, I know firsthand the dedication, the passion, and the abilities needed in the classroom. I will never agree with or support Mr. Arnn’s comments.” Skillern Elementary School terminated its agreement with Hillsdale College after Arnn’s remarks about teachers. And many others have been vocal about this proverbial train wreck. The thing that gets to me? Despite all this outrage from both sides of the aisle, Gov. Lee still seems to be pretending he doesn’t get it. Arnn said, verbatim, that “teachers are trained in the dumbest parts of the dumbest colleges in the country.” Yet Lee defends instead of denying these remarks. I’d be very concerned if Hillsdale still gets to have a hand in Tennessee curricula. Frankly, I find it concerning that the college plays a role in operating them anywhere. For the sake of Tennessee teachers, students and parents, I hope that Rep. White’s words prove true — that “any hope” Hillsdale College had of operating charter schools here with state funding has “been shattered.”

Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Managing Editor Alejandro Ramirez Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editor Jack Silverman Staff Writers Kelsey Beyeler, Stephen Elliott, Hannah Herner, J.R. Lind, Eli Motycka, William Williams, KateLynn White Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Steve Erickson, Nancy Floyd, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Kashif Andrew Graham, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steven Hale, Steve Haruch, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Craig D. Lindsey, Margaret Littman, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, Betsy Phillips, John Pitcher, Margaret Renkl, Daryl Sanders, Megan Seling, Jason Shawhan, Michael Sicinski, Nadine Smith, Ashley Spurgeon, Amy Stumpfl, Kay West, Abby White, Andrea Williams, Ron Wynn, Charlie Zaillian Editorial Intern Claudia Villeda Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Matt Masters, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Festival Director Olivia Britton Marketing and Promotions Manager Robin Fomusa Publisher Mike Smith Senior Advertising Solutions Managers Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Advertising Solutions Managers Richard Jacques, Deborah Laufer, Niki Tyree Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Advertising Solutions Associates Jada Goggins, Audry Houle, Alissa Wetzel Special Projects Coordinator Susan Torregrossa President Frank Daniels III Chief Financial Officer Todd Patton Corporate Production Director Elizabeth Jones Vice President of Marketing Mike Smith IT Director John Schaeffer Circulation and Distribution Director Gary Minnis For advertising information please contact: Mike Smith, msmith@nashvillescene.com or 615-844-9238 FW PUBLISHING LLC Owner Bill Freeman VOICE MEDIA GROUP National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

©2022, Nashville Scene. 210 12th Ave. S., Ste. 100, Nashville, TN 37203. Phone: 615-244-7989. The Nashville Scene is published weekly by FW Publishing LLC. The publication is free, one per reader. Removal of more than one paper from any distribution point constitutes theft, and violators are subject to prosecution. Back issues are available at our office. Email: All email addresses consist of the employee’s first initial and last name (no space between) followed by @nashvillescene.com; to reach contributing writers, email editor@nashvillescene.com. Editorial Policy: The Nashville Scene covers news, art and entertainment. In our pages appear divergent views from across the community. Those views do not necessarily represent those of the publishers. Subscriptions: Subscriptions are available at $150 per year for 52 issues. Subscriptions will be posted every Thursday and delivered by third-class mail in usually five to seven days. Please note: Due to the nature of third-class mail and postal regulations, any issue(s) could be delayed by as much as two or three weeks. There will be no refunds issued. Please allow four to six weeks for processing new subscriptions and address changes. Send your check or Visa/MC/AmEx number with expiration date to the above address.

In memory of Jim Ridley, editor 2009-2016

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.

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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JULY 24

NOVEMBER 4

ANDREW BIRD AND IRON & WINE

THE LONE BELLOW

JULY 28

NOVEMBER 18

AUGUST 17

SPRINGER MOUNTAIN FARMS BLUEGRASS NIGHTS AT THE RYMAN

TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE

CHRIS ISAAK AND LYLE LOVETT AND HIS LARGE BAND

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com


CITY LIMITS

GOODLETTSVILLE In the 30th installment of his column, J.R. Lind ventures north to the old stomping grounds of Kasper Mansker

Walk a

BY J.R. LIND | PHOTOS BY ERIC ENGLAND

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Depot Str

with J.R. Lind ch Chur

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Dickerson Pike

THE ROUTE: North from the intersection of Long Hollow Pike and Main Street/Dickerson Pike, east on Cedar, then left on Church, left on Depot and left on Main to the beginning. CRANES: 0 ABANDONED SCOOTERS: 0 HORSE-COLLAR MIRRORS: 1

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Once a month, reporter and resident historian J.R. Lind will pick an area in the city to examine while accompanied by a photographer. With his column Walk a Mile, he’ll walk a one-mile stretch of that area, exploring the neighborhood’s history and character, its developments, its current homes and businesses, and what makes it a unique part of Nashville. If you have a suggestion for a future Walk a Mile, email editor@nashvillescene.com.

K

asper Mansker needed something a little more adventurous and a little more spacious. Mansker — born on a ship somewhere in the mid-Atlantic in 1750 as his parents immigrated to Philadelphia from the Saarland — had already had plenty of adventure in his first 30 years, so he could be forgiven if he just wanted to take it easy. After all, he’d joined one of the first longhunter parties when he was 20, crossing the Appalachians and seeking the big game in what would become Kentucky and Middle Tennessee, even on down to Mississippi. On his second trip a year later, he found a nice little area near a creek with two salt licks close by. It was a perfect spot for a hunter and fur trader, as the then-abundant bison and deer were frequent visitors. Springs and salt licks were what ultimately brought James Robertson, John Donelson and the rest to the area to found Nashville. Fort Nashborough was positioned for access to McNairy’s Spring in what is now Bicentennial Mall, to the salt licks at what is now Sulphur Dell and to the Cumberland River. Mansker already knew all this due to his frequent adventuring. It was only a few weeks after James Robertson and his fellow pioneers drove their cattle across the frozen Cumberland on Christmas Day 1779 that Mansker and his handful of co-adventurists

arrived. (They beat the river-borne and ultimately more well-remembered Donelson Party by about two months.) Mansker hung around what would become Fort Nashborough, but he could never quite shake his desire to go back to that prime spot northeast, along the creek with the two salt licks. Late in 1780, he moved himself 12 miles to the banks of the creek that now bears his name (and serves as part of the Sumner-Davidson county line) and set up shop at Mansker’s Station. (Or Mansco’s or Gaspar’s; he had the ill fortune of setting up shop in the time before standardized spelling.) Mansker was a critical cog in the early Cumberland settlement, as Mansker’s Station served as a safe haven and waystation on the Avery Trace, one of the roads connecting Nashborough to Knoxville and points east. This is just a gloss of a remarkable, almost tall-tale life. Mansker was renowned for his big feet, his rifle named “Nancy” and for fighting at the Battle of New Orleans when he was in his 60s. Andrew Jackson met his beloved Rachel (who was still married to her first husband at the time) at Mansker’s Station. In any case, Mansker’s wanderlust and pre-Chicks desire for wide open spaces is how Goodlettsville came to be. These days, it’s one of Davidson County’s five satellite cities (six, if you count the teeny slivers of a few Ridgetop backyards that cross the Robertson County line) and the only one that has a portion in two counties (if you don’t count Ridgetop). That oddity is also a Mansker legacy — he never could decide which side of his creek he wanted to live on, leading to decades-long annexation battles between Goodlettsville and Hendersonville that weren’t settled until the 1990s. On a shockingly temperate July morning, a driver at the corner of Main Street and Long Hollow Pike has lost his wheel. Not his tire. His wheel. It’s slowing northbound traffic —

which, blessedly, there isn’t much of, given that commuters are heading south. Cedar Street, just north of the Walgreens catty-corner to our unlucky driver, parallels Long Hollow Pike. While the coming of Interstate 65 brought all the attendant cookie-cutter businesses to Long Hollow, Cedar remains quite charming. Sidewalk-less, but charming.

Hundred-year-old brick and clapboard homes sit on slightly elevated yards, separated from the street by stone walls damming back the earth and old-growth shade trees casting short summer shadows. Some of the homes have been converted into professional-services offices (lawyers, mortgage brokers, accountants, insur-

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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CITY LIMITS ance agents and so on), but some remain residential. A large Regions Bank building interrupts the small-scale commerce of the street, but that’s explainable. The Regions was once the Bank of Goodlettsville, and before Walgreens cut it off, it sat at a major triple intersection between Long Hollow, Dickerson Pike (which Goodlettsvillians call Main Street) and Two Mile Pike. Walgreens’ arrival forced the rerouting of a few hundred feet of Two Mile Pike (which is now the Regions driveway, more or less) and left the bank building to appear as if it simply fronts a neighborhood. Coincidentally, all this road moving didn’t technically change the name of the roads, so the first 150 feet or so of Cedar Street are still Two Mile Pike, which then disappears for a while and comes back to life by the bank. Church Street climbs steeply north from Cedar, bound by hedges evoking The Secret Garden, the crest of the hill topped by Connell United Methodist. It was built here in 1905, a sturdy brick building with exceptional stained glass and a nice view. The church, like most everything else around here, can also trace its roots to Mansker. The congregation first met at Walton’s Campground on the Mansker property in the early 19th century. There’s a stark transition as Church Street goes back downhill. But for one almost-Spanish Revival home, it’s longrunning light industrial property: sheetmetal works, commercial truck repair and the like. Plus one huge vacant lot that is now begging to be a baseball field. Even during rush hour, with the highway to the west and the interstate to the east, the

WHAT EXACTLY DOES ORACLE DO?

traffic noise is but a mere rumble, unable to overwhelm the songbirds earning their title in the abundant trees. A left on Depot Street marks the return of homes, smaller but of similar vintage to those on Church. At the corner of Depot and Main is Goodlettsville Barber Shop. In gold lettering, the shop promises “Vacuum Clippers” and, even more anachronistically, “Flat Tops.” It’s worth a jaunt north a bit on Main to see the neon signs at 31-W Liquor Store, built in 1968. More modern (read: boring) commercial architecture dominates the few blocks south of Depot: auto parts stores, an AT&T exchange, a Dollar General (the corporate headquarters is nearby). There’s also a mailbox for sale, for some reason. After all that mundanity (and the mailbox), an old-town feel returns. Goodlettsville, to the degree that it is known for anything beyond successful Little Leaguers, is known for antiques. Both sides of Main here feature antique stores. A selection of goods available outside the Antique Corner Mall at Main and Moncrief: • Hub caps (5) • Andirons • Bowflex • Double sink • Pedestal sink • 24 empty bottles, Wiedeman’s beer, and box • One of those horse-collar mirrors available at every respectable antique store The strip of old shops between Moncrief and West Cedar were, at various times,

owned by the Myerses (of B.F. Myers) and the Old Hickory Coal and Ice Company. Lick Street, its name echoing Goodlettsville’s raison d’etre, runs behind. It is, on some modern-day property records, written as “Link Street,” but don’t trust the bowdlerizers. It’s “Lick” on the oldest documents. The original limestone (locally quarried) Bank of Goodlettsville is opposite at the East Cedar (technically, of course, Two Mile Pike) intersection and is now Artists on Main Painting Society, which sounds delightfully Victorian. Between the Mansker Era and the Antiques/Little League Era, Goodlettsville was known for its sheep. No, seriously. In fact, a plaque at a gazebo in front of Goodlettsville

City Hall memorializes the Goodlettsville Lamb Club (later the Lamb & Wool Club and even later, as mutton fell out of fashion, the Wool Club), organized in 1877. At the time, it was the practice of buyers to guess the weight of spring lambs and pay the farmers accordingly. Shocking no one, it was also the practice for the buyers to intentionally underestimate the weight, so 19 Goodlettsville farmers got together and agreed to only sell their lambs through the club. It was America’s first farming cooperative. Back at the Long Hollow intersection, the man with the lost wheel has, apparently, moved on. Like Kasper Mansker, he had places to go. EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

do-it-all services. “They do everything enterprise: cloud computing, cloud storage, on-premise systems, software as a service,” he tells the Scene. “They are known for establishing deep dependencies on their software among Fortune 500 companies, then gouging for maintenance costs when their software doesn’t perform as well as advertised.” This engineer’s team was

based out of Guadalajara, Mexico, which he says was a cost-cutting move by Oracle. He has since moved to Google. Java, a widely used programming language, is one of Oracle’s crown jewels. The company acquired Java when it bought Sun Microsystems in 2010 and polices its intellectual property. Oracle sued Google for $8.8 billion for using Java in its Android operating

RENDERING OF ORACLE’S NASHVILLE CAMPUS

Meet Nashville’s new neighbor, a backend tech giant owned by an eccentric billionaire BY ELI MOTYCKA

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RENDERING: MRP REALTY

L

ast summer, tech company Oracle paid $253 million for almost 70 acres on the East Bank of the Cumberland River in Nashville. So what exactly will the corporation be doing there? Oracle stores, manages and manipulates large amounts of digital information. It also deals in software as a service (or SaaS, as it’s typically known), licensing digital infrastructure to clients who integrate Oracle into their business operations. Government clients, including the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies, also need Oracle, which promises them secure and efficient ways to keep track of all the data governments are interested in keeping track of. If you ask people about Oracle’s business, another term you might hear is “enterprise software.” This is another way of referring to computer systems and applications used by a group of people — perhaps an entire corporation, agency or office, and perhaps simultaneously or remotely. Oracle sells and licenses these systems, crucial for big groups working together but prohibitively expensive for a single organization to build from scratch. Oracle employs 48,000 people in the U.S. and

95,000 abroad, a workforce roughly the same size as Apple or Alphabet (Google’s parent company). The company utilizes a constellation of data centers, temperature-controlled Costco-size facilities full of the machines that respond to our computers’ requests for information. According to one former Oracle software engineer who preferred to remain anonymous, Oracle’s business success relies on its

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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CITY LIMITS system, launching an 11-year legal battle decided by the Supreme Court in April 2021. (Google won.) A bona fide tech origin story helps give the company an air of authority to outsiders, like a mandate from the cloud. Young entrepreneurial founder Larry Ellison became obsessed with computers before they were cool (1966) and dropped out of an elite school (the University of Chicago) to strike out on his own in the Bay Area. He started the company that would become Oracle with two partners and $2,000, eventually growing it into the central data pillar of America’s 21st-century economy and accumulating, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, north of $85 billion (much of it equity). Ellison owns a Hawaiian island and spends freely on things he likes: sailing, via his 288-foot megayacht Musashi and the internationally competitive yachtracing syndicate Oracle Team USA, and tennis — he bought famed Southern California court complex Indian Wells in 2009. Close friend Steve Jobs photographed his fourth wedding, which was officiated by California’s U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos. Ellison is on the global short list of tech-company billionaires, alongside Zuckerberg, Musk, Gates and Bezos — although slightly lesser known to the average person, because to most people it’s not exactly clear what Oracle does. The company has tried to distance itself from being perceived as profiteers in a world dependent on big data. Last year, Oracle executive vice president Ken Glueck lashed out with an in-depth repudiation of a story by The Intercept’s Mara Hvistendahl, who had written about the company’s ties to Chinese surveillance and policing systems. (Glueck was suspended from Twitter for publicizing the reporter’s email and Signal phone number.) Currently, Oracle is under scrutiny for hosting TikTok data. The corporation did not answer the Scene’s requests for comment in time for publication. Nashville lured the tech giant with a favorable deal on a new campus, hoping to reap the benefits of 8,500 jobs promised in the next decade. The state paid too — $65 million cash — though actual contracts haven’t been signed yet and aren’t available to the public, according to Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development. Mayor John Cooper allowed Oracle to borrow $175 million from future property taxes to pay for related campus infrastructure, like a pedestrian bridge into Germantown and a reworked transportation grid. City leaders routinely promise tomorrow’s tax revenue for today’s expenses. As a candidate, Cooper railed against this type of fiscal management and pledged to use tax incentives to address affordable housing and food deserts. The deal was cast as a community benefits agreement by The Tennessean, though Oracle will reap the lion’s share of the benefits of the new infrastructure. Oracle will bring thousands of commuters to the currently largely desolate East Bank, leaving the city to figure out an infrastructure response. The new campus has been a primary justification for dedicating billions more to East Bank redevelopment. “Because of Oracle,” Cooper told a joint meeting of Metro’s Budget and Finance and Planning and Zoning committees on June 8, “you are given the opportunity. This council and this body recognizing this is the opportunity to go forward — that’s an exciting movement.” Even before contracts have been signed, the mayor has leaned on Oracle to advance an overhaul of the East Bank. “I worry about I-40 and I-24 being broken,” Cooper told the joint committee. “I worry about people from Donelson not being able to work at Oracle without having to go downtown. If the occasion of Oracle is giving us another tunnel under I-24 to connect it to neighborhoods, it seems like an opportunity.” EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THIS WEEK ON OUR NEWS AND POLITICS BLOG: A three-judge panel lifted the injunction that had been holding up the state’s Education Savings Account program, a signature initiative of Gov. Bill Lee. The program will allow certain students in Nashville and Memphis to use public education funds to attend private schools. Lee says eligible families will be able to utilize ESAs for the coming school year. The controversial legislation narrowly passed in 2019, but has not yet been implemented after being held up in court. Shelby and Davidson counties sued the state over the ESA program, arguing it’s unconstitutional because it targets Memphis and Nashville. … With the program’s website still pending at press time, our own Betsy Phillips took a look at the old site to see exactly what’s going on with ESAs. Notably, students who take the money (more correctly, students who use the program, which then pays the private school directly) also agree to give up their rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which guarantees individualized education plans and free appropriate public education to students with disabilities. (In Tennessee, this includes gifted students; Tennessee has been remarkably progressive with special education.) Since its implementation, IDEA has applied only to public school students, but with ESA blurring that distinction, Phillips worries some families may be caught unaware. … L’affair Hillsdale continues to haunt Lee, putting in jeopardy another prong of his education platform. The partnership between Hillsdale College and Tennessee for the former to operate charters in the state is in serious trouble after the college’s president, Larry Arnn, made numerous remarks disparaging teachers. Legislators from both sides of the aisle have decried the comments, and the chairman of the House Education Committee said there’s no way any partnership will be approved. … Mayor John Cooper will reinstate three members of the Metro Human Relations Commission’s executive committee for another term after earlier announcing that he’d appoint an entirely new slate. It was a move that led to pushback from, among others, the Metro Council. … Matt Wiltshire, a longtime Metro official, has made his run for mayor official. Wiltshire stepped down from his position as chief strategy officer at the Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency earlier this year as he discussed a possible bid for mayor in 2023. Previously, he was director of the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Community Development for eight years under then-Mayors Karl Dean, Megan Barry and David Briley. … WKRN took some grief from the internet after running an extremely flimsy report suggesting that a woman overdosed after merely touching a dollar bill laced with fentanyl. Parallel reporting from other local stations — and a hasty, scientific-based update from WKRN — couldn’t cool the roasting. This from the station — and indeed, the very same reporter — that once claimed a single Nashville hardware store sold thousands of sleds during a snowstorm.

600 9th 9th Ave Ave SS #100, #100, Nashville, Nashville, TN TN 37203 37203 600

DOWNTOWN

Saturday, July 23

Saturday, August 6

SONGWRITER SESSION

SONGWRITER SESSION

Kimberly Kelly, Brett Tyler, and Bobby Tomberlin

Ronnie Bowman

NOON · FORD THEATER

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Sunday, July 24

Justin Moses

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

NOON · FORD THEATER Sunday, August 7

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Jason Coleman

Saturday, August 13

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

SONGWRITER SESSION

Saturday, July 30

Wade Bowen

SONGWRITER SESSION

NOON · FORD THEATER

Gavin DeGraw

Sunday, August 14

NOON · FORD THEATER

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Sunday, July 31

Megan Lynch Chowning

MUSICIAN SPOTLIGHT

Wanda Vick

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

1:00 pm · FORD THEATER

Saturday, August 20 SONGWRITER SESSION

Kent Blazy and Cory Batten NOON · FORD THEATER

Check our calendar for a full schedule of upcoming programs and events.

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nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com


See all the winners, ‘weirdies’ and honorable mentions in our annual YASNI contest Nashvillians, by and large, are on the same page this year. Submissions in the Scene’s annual “You Are So Nashville If …” contest — in which we ask our readers to complete that iconic if elusive sentiment — always run the gamut. But a handful of topics have popped up frequently in recent years. Bachelorettes. Transpotainment. Tall-and-skinny new builds. Bird scooters. Kid Rock sucking. And that’s not to mention the evergreen topics that have appeared every year for decades — Dolly Parton, cowboy boots, megachurches and the like. Judging by the 2022 YASNI entries, Nashville has a few issues on its mind more than any of the above this year — namely, a proposed new Titans stadium, affordable housing, Californians moving to town, and trash. Of this year’s 1,200-plus submissions, roughly three dozen were about new stadiums (both Nashville SC’s Geodis Park and the divisive plan for a new home for the Tennessee Titans). Trailing just behind stadium talk in popularity were submissions about skyrocketing housing costs, Californian transplants and the city’s recycling and trash pickup

woes. After that, grumbling about tourists, congressional redistricting, Airbnbs and, yes, Kid Rock. As ever, your friends here at the Nashville Scene combed through all the submissions, and after a punishing daylong meeting fighting it out, narrowed the list down to about 150 entries that are funny, original, incisive or, ideally, some combination of the three. Below, find our firstplace winner and our honorable mentions, along with everything else that made the cut. Also below, our list of particularly earnest entries — that is, the ones that weren’t exactly funny but were just too damn wholesome to do away with altogether — and everyone’s favorites, the Weirdies. More unites us than separates us, it would seem. And what unites Nashville? Residents who care about our past, are concerned about our future, and are willing to laugh about our present. So join us in having a laugh, and see what made the cut for the 34th annual “You Are So Nashville If …” issue. —D. PATRICK RODGERS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

FIRST PLACE You’ve been on the darkweb trying to solicit trash pickup. —Logan Elliott

ILLUSTRATION: LAUREN CIERZAN

ABOUT THE WINNER In October, Metro’s longtime trash-collection contractor Red River Waste Solutions filed for bankruptcy. The company had long struggled to keep up with its assigned routes in some areas of town. But in late 2021, the trouble became widespread. Overflowing cans toppled. Neighborhoods were besieged by flies. Untold pounds of kitty litter baked in the sun. Creatures of the night feasted on our excess. We shuffled hopefully to the curb each morning, only to meet the grim face of our city’s failure. OK, maybe we’re being hyperbolic. But the situation was bad enough that Metro diverted recycling trucks to haul trash. Metro Water Services stepped up to take over some of Red River’s routes, and the city hired an emergency vendor to make up the difference. Things have more or less evened out. By February, curbside recycling resumed, and we’re back to the occasional late pickup, rather than the clusterfuck of last year. Currently, Red River and Waste Management continue to collect our refuse, and Red River is being courted by some buyers. We received 12 entries about trash pickup in this year’s YASNI contest, and Logan Elliott’s submission carried the day. Elliott is a Nashville native. He went to college at MTSU and has lived in Middle Tennessee his whole life. Like many longtime Nashvillians, he has concerns about the city’s growth and the people it is leaving behind. “You don’t need the government to look out for the people with the power,” he says. “You need the government to look out for the people who are going to get trampled by it.” We may have our differences. But for one brief window of time, the people of Nashville’s General Services District were united. From Green Hills to Bordeaux, Antioch, Inglewood and beyond, we listened for the groans and clamors of garbage trucks, and prayed for relief. ERICA CICCARONE

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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YOU’RE SO NASHVILLE IF...

YOU ATTEND WAY LATE PLAY DATES AT ADVENTURE SCIENCE CENTER

WAY LATE PL Y DATE: Friday, August 12, 2022 12

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com


You can’t wait for the second season of Crazy Parents of Williamson County School Board Meetings. —C. Gabriel Ryan Tannehill isn’t even in the top 20 men representing your state who let you down in 2021. —Daniel Ryan

Soccer Moses is your small-group leader. —Susan Houston Your bassist is also your barber is also your soccer mascot. —Jess Y You held a Nextdoor watch party for your Ring camera. —Chris Lewis You immediately had a list of places overlooked when the Scene released their RIP Old Nashville shirt. —Sean Jewett

It’s year three of COVID and your government still refers to a testing site as “the former K-Mart.” —Allison Lott

You can name more closed music venues than open ones. —Jeff Loudon

CMA Fest should be renamed January Sixth: The Musical. —Ashley Haskins

Your buses serve beer and your ren faire doesn’t. —JJ Wright

You wonder if Mick Jagger needed a tetanus shot after visiting the scrap yard. —Leslie Hales

You wish the Puritans running the now alcohol-free ren faire would leave for the New World already. —JJ Wright

It’s easier to move a stadium 100 yards than a football. —Allison Lund

Your congressional district and your reproductive rights got gerrymandered and all you got was a Whataburger. —Andy Gasparini

You’re excited for the newest Sean Brock restaurant concept, where he comes to your house on a fixed-gear bicycle and charges you $400 a person for a bag of his grandmother’s sawdust. —Andy Gasparini You got your hip replaced at the old Belle Meade Harris Teeter. —Trent Hanner You thought Robby Starbuck was the coffee shop next to the sketchy Walmart. —Jim Flautt You thought you were in line for Ryman tickets, but it turned out it was for a spot at a day care slated to open in 2027. —Daniel Ryan

ILLUSTRATION: LAUREN CIERZAN

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Your next-door neighbor is in a different congressional district. —Charlie High You got gerrymandered out of entering this contest. —Drew Maynard You just moved to town to run for Congress. —Nate Griffin Your likely congressman-to-be has already blocked you on Twitter. —Paul McCoy You can’t remember if your new congressional district bans books or burns books. —David Fox

HONORABLE MENTION Your church has the best cult documentary. —Allison Lund

On Friday you went to Kid Rock’s Vape Room and G-String Review, and on Saturday you went to Mt. Juliet to burn books. —Nate Griffin

While everyone is lining up for the Wings mural, you’re looking to get good shots of all the “Moist” tags. —Andy Gasparini

Your dog is a perfectly healthy weight at your Mt. Juliet vet, but needs to lose a few pounds at the 12South vet. —Leslie Hales

You can remember when the only coyotes within the city limits were at Y107. —Julio LaPeppercorn

Your bumper sticker says “Buy Local” but your porch says “Amazon.” —Bob Ward

You went to the Nashville subreddit looking for restaurant recommendations, and they sent you to a Chili’s. —Andy Gasparini

You’ve gone to Cook Out more than actual cookouts. —Patrick Voltz

You go to your allergist more than your therapist. —Leslie Hales

You were conceived, born, married and buried at the West End Chili’s. —C. Gabriel

You check your Zillow estimate every day to see if you can afford to move to a blue state yet. —JJ Wright

You called Codes on the elderly Black couple next door because their uncut grass is obscuring your Black Lives Matter sign. —Radley Balko

AND THE REST You have Marsha Blackburn’s Senate office number stored in your phone and you call her way more than your mom. —Stephanie Burset

You could barely afford it when you got here, and now you can’t afford to leave. —Allison Everett You can’t afford to buy your own house. —Jesse Newkirk You can’t complete this prompt anymore because your city no longer has an identity or distinctive characteristics. —Charlie Harris You aren’t religious, but still try to act a little less drunk around Soccer Moses. —David Madeira

You don’t go to restaurant openings, you go to restaurant closings. —Megan Minarich You lament the closing of a restaurant that you visited twice in its 30 years of operation. —Daniel Ryan You know what? Just give Isbell the Ryman. The whole goddamn thing. He lives there now. —Andy Gasparini You’ve asked @NashSevereWx if it will rain in a very specific location. —Russell Ries

Your rent went up 15 percent since you submitted your YASNI entry. —Clifton Kaiser

You know there’s no way the World Cup is going to pick a host city where the stadium’s most identifying feature is a Logan’s Roadhouse. —Andy Gasparini You really hope there aren’t any cherry trees on the site of the new Titans stadium. —Jamie Yost Your football stadium has to be “first class” while the rest of your city is in coach. —Todd Faulkner You still dodge snowballs from the polar bears. —Daniel Smith

You own a Tye Dye Mary. —Coral Kanies You thought Garth Brooks already had a bar on Broadway. Hell, who can keep up? —Daniel Ryan

You make a map for Hot Chicken Week every year like you’re navigating Bonnaroo. —Matthew Rewinski

You appreciate the irony of dodging potholes on your way to Bridgestone Arena. —Andy Gasparini

You keep a note on your phone of your preferred heat level at each of your favorite hot chicken joints around town. —Julie Davenport

You were happy to see “pothole aversion tips” on the revised TN drivers handbook. —Ray Shelide

You wonder who thought it was a good idea to put Nashville hot chicken joints in the airport. —Bob Ward

Dual potholes corrected your car’s alignment. —Ashley Haskins

You know it’s just a matter of time until you can buy a Nashville Hot Chicken Goo Goo Cluster. —Allison Everett

You’re so deep in the pothole you can’t get a signal. —Mindy Winningham

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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ILLUSTRATION: LAUREN CIERZAN

HONORABLE MENTION You got crapped on by purple martins and still went to enjoy Bach’s Concerto. —Rick Guiden

Your favorite public art is still the East Bank scrap metal yard. —Charlie Harris You only listen to country stars who don’t have their own downtown bar. —Thomas Still You think Geodis isn’t as good a band since Phil Collins left. —Ken Lass Hi, Homeowner! We are contacting you to see if you are interested in selling your property located at … —Allison Everett You get songwriting inspiration from Wordle. —Ken Lass

You aspire to have the confidence and calm of those who cross Gallatin Avenue like it’s a desolate country backroad. —Charlie Harris You watched The Way Down to see how much Phil Williams was in it. —Sean Jewett You spent an entire Zoom therapy session discussing The Way Down. —Ashley Haskins You desperately need to know if Gwen Shamblin and Marsha Blackburn shared a hairstylist. —Ashley Haskins

You literally fell off the wagon on Broadway. —Allison Lund

You’ve added Marsha Blackburn tweets to your deck of Cards Against Humanity. —Ashley Haskins

You never got your dog muzzle from Amazon. —Nate Griffin

Your senator can’t define woman. —Allison Lund

You paid $1.5M for your 1,800-square-foot house and there are three other houses on your eighth-acre lot! —Mary DiVittorio

You’ve survived floods, bombs, guns, tornadoes and a literal plague but not this housing market. —Mike Dorr

You’re still not over being jilted by IKEA. —Stephen Yeargin

You hold the door for all the single moms you evict. —Brett Rosenberg

You’re actually low-key impressed Tre Hargett was even at Bonnaroo. —Jesse Newkirk

All this hate for tall-skinnies makes you wonder if Nashville has a real estate problem or body dysmorphia. —Katie Wesolek

I’ll say it. Mike Vrabel is a little snack. —Jamie Yost

Yelling at Preds games is part of your mental health routine. —Abby Comm

Percy shines your shoes. —Ned Benz You’re a junior software developer with two Grammys. —Holly Murphy

You had to take a mental health day after Pekka Rinne retired. —Justin Bradford You went to a Predators game just to get Rotiers. —Nate Griffin

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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1993

Your church congregation is referred to as “the studio audience”.

2022

You’ve been on the darkweb trying to solicit trash pickup.

Now available nashvillesceneshop.com featuring the 1989-2022 YASNI winners

2012

You think Bart Durham should direct The Real Housewives of Nashville.

16

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com


You went shopping at Bass Pro Shops and they didn’t even have any regular guitars in stock. —Kenneth Anchor Your favorite pizza place closes because all the staff is on tour. —Katie Miller

You remember riding “Kick Booty” at the Italian Street Fair.

Your realtor subbed on drums in your band. —Blaise Gratton

you use the front page of old Nashville Scenes to cut up and roll colorful paper beads in order to make necklaces out of to sell to unsuspecting tourists at your “pop-up” sidewalk shop on lower Broadway or at one of the Artisan Festivals in Centennial Park, or at one of those weird storefronts in Hillsboro village on a commission.

You divine that “no cover” at the door means “all covers” on the stage. —Patrick Voltz You want the full tea about the girl who found out her boyfriend was cheating on her with a girl he adopted a dog with from the Nashville Humane Association. —Leslie Hales You don’t know exactly how, but you’re convinced the Exit/In is still getting screwed. —Allison Lund You’ve wondered if the VERN graffiti is a grassroots tribute to Ernest P. Worrell. —Clifton Kaiser

You think that they should put a Thai place in between Winners and Losers. —Patrick Voltz

ILLUSTRATION: LAUREN CIERZAN

Every time there’s a huge rainstorm you worry about the Schemerhorn piano. —Jeff Shearer You’ve heard saxophonist Ayy Willé perform with every hip-hop artist in the city. —Marissa Campbell The turn signal is in your mind. —Jason Marsden

You have told more than one Californian that Baked on 8th isn’t a dispensary. —Ashley Haskins

Your neighborhood’s gonna get those sidewalks real soon, we promise, this time we mean it, we just have to build one more new stadium first, we swear. —JJ Wright You’ve told your friends that “Madison is basically East Nashville.” —Daniel Ryan

You sent your YASNI submission while waiting on a freight train to move. —Stephen Yeargin “Willie Nelson” is an accepted unit of measurement when referring to Gas, Housing Market, Inflation and Bill Lee. —Ashley Haskins Your rooftop bar has a rooftop bar. —Allison Lund

You tithe your 10 percent nowadays at drag brunches. —Heather Burwell Your team regularly disappoints, but the national anthem never does. —Allison Everett You got your Roze Pony cocktail to go so you could beat the pickup line at Julia Green. —Hudson Byrd

You’ve given up all hopes of a Ric Flair sighting brought about by atmospheric “woo-ing.” —Patrick Voltz

When you bought your house near the fairgrounds, you never imagined that renting your driveway would be a lucrative side hustle. —Andy Gasparini

You sat in line on Buchanan Street for two-plus hours to get a $5 fish sandwich at Ed’s. —Daniel Ryan

Most of your time at a concert is discussing the mix with your fellow audio snobs. —Daniel Ryan

You keep guns on the streets via unlocked cars! —Rose Poland

You showed up for a pro-choice rally and ended up at a Sara Beth Myers stump speech. —Daniel Ryan

Your church has a merchandise stand. —Tim Hall

You think it is Christmas because you hear Bing Crosby singing What do you with a genneral after he is done being a general? You have had dinner at Jimmy kelly,, resturant . 88 years in business. You say “Sir” and “Ma’am”, more than “Please” and “Thank you”. Lived in Nashville for two years (2016-18). Otherwise, West and Midwest. Born in Knoxville, TN.

“Hey Vern!” —Jason Marsden

HONORABLE MENTION

WEIRDIES

You’re still trying to figure out why $50 Cent was hanging upside down during the Super Bowl halftime show? no joke were simply cutting the grass and checked your email mid-beer and saw you were on Carrie Underwood’s marketing team email by accident. So then you just sat there like a ghost for probably over several days and watched all these people from Ticketmaster and her label talk. Then, one night, randomly....you just replied “this is awesome!”. And you never heard back again. This is a true story. You somehow think that refried beans ARE NOT a form of musical friut your late parrot’s final words were “Damn, my parrot is dying.”

The only thing reliably collecting trash in this town are the pedal taverns. —Stephen Yeargin You’ve learned so much more than you ever wanted to know about how trash pickup works. —Matthew Rewinski You can sell your house faster than you can get your curbside trash picked up. —Julie Davenport

I ask for a martini with onions (a Gibson) and receive a martini with sliced onions in my glass! You really wish they’d go back to listing authors on the Weirdies. You’re proud of those.

Your trash and recycling just got picked up from December 2021. —Ben Gatlin You go to the Hendersonville Walmart just to listen to Creed without judgment. —Ashley Haskins You ever told your hair stylist to “give me the Vicki Yates.” —Mark Anundson Your DA won’t prosecute marijuana cases or police officers. —Daniel Ryan

You’re a Republican who won’t vote for Mayor Cooper because of how he handled the epidemic or a Democrat who won’t vote for Mayor Cooper because of how he handled the epidemic. —Gregory Delzer You’ve gotten Chick-Fil-A on the way to a Pride event. —Matthew Rewinski You know the Grand Ole Opry is a show and not a building. —Kevin Kenworthy

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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You just found your saved last issue of the Banner. —Hershell Warren You are nice and considerate of all people. —Russell Collins You’ve participated in all 34 “You Are So Nashville If …” contests. —Bill Dixon Your family has a hot chicken recipe it has passed down for generations. —Kaleb Waller You never meet a stranger. You know that sweet tea is not the only thing sweet you find in Nashville. If you know Nashville is not only a place for finding good food and great times, it’s also a great place to meet people that have a kind sweet heart. Just like the glass of sweet tea you get served while you enjoy the people you meet just walking down the street, or sitting at the table next to you. —Lisa Taylor You read a hard-copy version of the Scene at Arnold’s. —Jim Flautt You know you’re still a Wall of Weiners champion at Cori’s Dog House in your heart, and no one can take that away from you. —Matthew Rewinski You just be yourself! Enjoy the Southern food, Southern hospitality, have fun and relax. —Lisa Christian

You’ve almost finished your existential tragicomic play, Waiting for Google Fiber. —JJ Wright You’ve written your Cash App account on your car just to see if it works. —Russell Ries You had an investor make a cash offer on your pile of empty Amazon boxes. —Ashley Haskins You’ve ever wondered where the heck you were in the city because you were somewhere on Old Hickory Boulevard. —Murphy Gill You remember when the most exotic restaurant to eat at on the East Side was Calypso Cafe. —Amy Smith You will fondly remember the nervous terror of waiting in line to order at Joey’s House of Pizza. —Andy Gasparini You’re at least a little bit in love with the sound of Marquis Munson’s voice. —Becca Andrews You’re suddenly nostalgic about the view of downtown from where I-65N merges with I-40W. —Mark E The name of your business is a bunch of consonants and no vowels. —Wando Weaver You have a tally of how many times John Oliver mentions Nashville or Tennessee during each week of Last Week Tonight. —Leslie Hales

Ernest Tubb Record Shop closing ruined your day. —Ben Bartley

You’re nominating West End fast food eateries to be on the next Nashville Nine. —Trent Hanner

You swiped five copies of the Scene’s recent Ernest issue. —Charlie Harris

You regularly petition City Hall for the construction of a Joker Building. —Patrick Voltz You’re still really, really trying to like Moon Taxi. —Jesse Newkirk

You know that when they demolish the James K. Polk Theater, TPAC will be homeless and subsequently arrested by order of our governor. —Andy Gasparini You’ve followed a Metro Council meeting on Twitter just to see what shade @startleseasily will throw. —Daniel Ryan You are super excited about the comeback of South Street, and you … wait … Steve Smith … um, yeah never mind. —Allison Lund You tried to ban students from reading this issue. —Jamie Yost Your local daily paper has abdicated its journalistic responsibilities, so now the local alt-weekly is Nashville’s paper of record. —Nate Griffin

Your neighborhood Kroger has a bachelorette section next to the seasonal items. —Lightning de La Flame You go to Scottsdale for your bachelorette party. —Jan Bell You’ve run out of jokes about bachelorettes, tall-and-skinnies, scooters, traffic, Broadway and Kid Rock, but are still sitting on a few about Antioch. —Jeremy Estes Your idea of foreplay is a Duke’s sandwich at 1 a.m. —Rie Schaffer You’re more popular for being racist than for your music. —Allison Lund You can’t drive around town without pointing out where every Krystal used to be. —Charlie Harris

You feel like you’re cheating on Christie when you eat Crumbl. —Trent Hanner

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ILLUSTRATION: LAUREN CIERZAN

THE EARNEST ONES

Or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Transpotainment.” —Daniel Ryan

HONORABLE MENTION You’ve mistakenly pulled over for a transportainment fire truck. Twice. —Ashley Haskins

You take the WeGo to WeHo to avoid the sh!t show on SoBro. —Daniel Smith You have finally conceded that “North Gulch” actually exists. —Daniel Ryan You love the fact that there’s still a Claire’s at the Mall at Green Hills, and that it’s directly underneath Gucci. —Trent Hanner You see the new license plates as “Incognito Mode” for driving through Belle Meade. —Andy Gasparini Your new neighbors all have surfboards. —Rick Guiden You bought a Dodgers hat just to fit in. —Will Adams

How many fucking Deltas do we need before we can just decriminalize weed once and for all? —Andy Gasparini Your state legislature thinks it’s your city’s HOA. —C. Gabriel Every member of your party ended up at the same Taco Bell after dropping $600 at Audrey. —Ashley Haskins You ask your college kid to give their old bedroom a five-star rating on Airbnb. —Debbie Emory-Utzig You list your home in Columbia as “Downtown Nashville Adjacent.” —Thomas Still You sold without the intel. —Zack Bennett

Argh argh the Californians argh argh. —Jesse Newkirk You love people that come here from other countries, but hate people that come here from other states. —David Madeira You want to umpire Clay Travis’ kid’s next game. —Robert Vogt You stopped by the new fast-casual restaurant built in your neighborhood to find out it was actually someone’s new house. —Whitney Beard

You’d join a dating app that matches based on your Waffle House order. —Ashley Haskins You have been hired by, and subsequently quit, the mayor’s office in the last 12 months. —Daniel Ryan You exit Broadway faster than SpiderMan: Turn Off the Dark. —Patrick Voltz You wonder where in the Sam Hill Miss Cheap is when we need her the most. —Del Tinsley

It’s always “What is your music career doing?” and never “How is bartending going?” —Ashley Haskins

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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PAST WINNERS: 1989:

1990:

1991:

1992:

1993:

You think our Parthenon is better because the other one fell apart. —Susan Fenton

2007:

Your mayor is married and engaged at the same time. —Maralee Self

2008:

You say to the person behind the counter at the Hot Stop, “We really kicked y’all’s ass in that Desert Storm.” —Willie D. Sweet Jr. You go to a Hank Williams Jr. concert at Starwood and pass out before Hank does. —Ted W. Davis III Your church congregation is referred to as “the studio audience.” —Sharon Kasserman

2009:

2011:

Gay gay gay, gay gay; gay gay gay gay gay. —Dana Delworth

2012:

You think Bart Durham should direct The Real Housewives of Nashville. —Holly Matthews

2013:

You think the TV show should have been called Mount Juliette. —Bill Hench

2014:

Your amp goes to 11, but not to Belle Meade. —Zack Bennett

2015:

You’re afraid Bob Mueller’s mustache will be torn down to build a high-rise apartment building. —Zack Bennett

1995:

No winner

1996:

You never meant to stay here this long. —Robert Jetton

1997:

You’ve checked your flower bed for Janet March. —Terry Robertson

1998:

You’re the only one who doesn’t know you’re gay. —Diana Hecht

2016:

1999:

You dig up your mom. —Rick Hagey

2017:

2000:

You want to vote Brad Schmitt off the island. —Chad Tribble

2002:

Towns you’ve never heard of are going to be hit by a tornado at 6:51, 6:53 and 7:01 p.m. —Rick Hagey

2003:

You returned a friendly Southern wave to Adam Dread as he veered across Franklin Pike. —Cindy Parrish

2004:

You need a war to sell records. —Joe Scutella

2005:

Your governor gives TennCare beneficiaries McDonald’s instead of health care coverage. —Ken Lass

2006:

You were a gay cowboy before being a gay cowboy was cool. —Michael Williams

Your local GOP makes the KKK look like the ACLU. —Jonathan Belcher Your city flooded and all you got was a lousy T-shirt. —David Anthony

You think that the H.O.V. lane is for people with AIDS. —Paul Allen

Your minister follows the Nine Commandments. —Ken Lass

Your DUI arrest gets a five-star rating on YouTube. —Roy Moore

2010:

1994:

2001:

You saw Kenny Chesney in a Kroger reading Out & About. —Michael Williams

2018:

2019:

2020:

2021:

Your therapist doesn’t know you’re gay. —Russell Ries Jr.

7/21 7/22

9pm Shaky Barbers 9pm William James, Start Ahead, Kris Jackson, & Shrieking Violet 5pm Mac Loyd & His Deadhorse Rider Roundup

7/23

9pm Drifters In Vellichor, Below 7, The Wistful Larks, & Citizen Kane

7/24

9pm Tiger County Regulators, Pepperwood, TB & The Fuzz

7/27

3pm Springwater Sit In Jam

5pm Writers @ the Water Open Mic

9pm Johnny Cantini & Guests

L&L Market | 3820 Charlotte Ave thisisthefinale.com

an independent bookstore

for independent people

NEAL JOHNSTON

STEVE AUSTIN

UPCOMING EVENTS

PARNASSUSBOOKS.NET/EVENT FOR TICKETS & UPDATES

In June, you were citing Rule No. 48.24-B that states a goal can be reviewed if an inadvertent whistle caused a stoppage in play. In January, you thought hockey was played with a ball. —Brian Bates

LACIE WALDON

Nashville is canceled. Also, the TV show was not renewed. —Charlie Harris

10:30AM

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

6:30PM

at PARNASSUS From the Jump

FRIDAY, JULY 22

7:00PM

DANIEL SILVA

with JAMIE GANGEL on ZOOM Portrait of an Unknown Woman SATURDAY, JULY 23

STORYTIME with HEATHER & MARLEE at PARNASSUS

MONDAY, JULY 25

CHARLES MARSH

with DAVID DARK at PARNASSUS Evangelical Anxiety

Your idea of contact tracing is checking for hand stamps from Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock ’N’ Roll Steakhouse. —Megan Minarich

With over two decades experience working in Nashville we’d love to be part of your next addition, renovation, or custom build!

You think Derrick Henry offseason workout vids should be flagged as erotica. —Chase Stejskal

QUA LITY TO S IN G ABOUT!

EMAIL EDITOR@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THURSDAY, JULY 21

6:30PM

BIRDIECONSTRUCTION.COM

6:30PM

WEDNESDAY, JULY 27

HELENE DUNBAR

with NANCY WERLIN at PARNASSUS The Promise of Lost Things 9:30AM

SATURDAY, JULY 30

STORYTIME with DANICA MCKELLAR at PARNASSUS Double Puppy Trouble

3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 | Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243 Shop online at parnassusbooks.net @parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks1

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nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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Giancarlo Guerrero, Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero, Music Director

buy early for the best prices & seats 615.687.6400 | NashvilleSymphony.org/Tickets

buy early for the best prices & seats 615.687.6400 | NashvilleSymphony.org/Tickets SERIES PARTNERS:

SERIES PARTNERS:

20

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com


There’s never been a better time to see YOUR GRAMMY®-winning There’s never been a better time

Nashville Symphony Nashville Symphony

to see YOUR GRAMMY®-winning

HOLST’S THE PLANETS HOLST’S THE PLANETS September 29 29 to October 2 2 September to October

GHOSTBUSTERS™ IN CONCERT GHOSTBUSTERS™ IN CONCERT October 14 to 16 14 to 16 October

LEDISI: NINA AND ME November 6

CELEBRATING DAVID BOWIE: LIVE IN CONCERT FEATURING TODD RUNDGREN, CELEBRATING DAVID BOWIE: LIVE IN ADRIANCONCERT BELEW, ANGELO MOORE FEATURING TODD RUNDGREN, NovemberADRIAN 7 CHRIS BOTTI BELEW, ANGELO MOORE Presented without the Nashville Symphony. November 29 & 30

LEDISI: NINA AND ME November 6

THE MUSIC OF STAR WARS January 12 to 15

THE MUSIC OF STAR WARS January 12 to 15

November 7

Presented without the Nashville Symphony.

THE JONAH PEOPLE: A LEGACY OF STRUGGLE AND TRIUMPH April 13 to 16

THE JONAH PEOPLE: A LEGACY OF STRUGGLE AND TRIUMPH April 13 to 16

VANESSA WILLIAMS VANESSA WILLIAMS October 20 to 22 October 20 to 22

CHRIS BOTTI November 29 & 30

THE BEACH BOYS May 25 to 27

Classical Series Tickets Classical Series from $29 Tickets from $29

WANDA SYKES October 23

WANDA SYKES October 23

Presented without the Nashville Symphony. Presented without the Nashville Symphony.

HOME ALONE IN CONCERT December 2 to 4 © 1990 Twentieth Century Fox

HOME ALONE IN CONCERT December 2 to 4 © 1990 Twentieth Century Fox

GUERRERO CONDUCTS MOZART’S REQUIEM June 1 to 4

THE BEACH BOYS May 25 to 27

Live at Schermerhorn Symphony Center

GUERRERO CONDUCTS MOZART’S REQUIEM June 1 to 4

Live at Schermerhorn Symphony Center

100+ CONCERTS

– World Premieres, Groundbreaking Commissions, Iconic Masterpieces, Blockbuster Movies, World-Class Entertainers and More!

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nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

21


NASHVILLE FAIRGROUNDS NASHVILLE, TN Business & Innovation Conference Farm & Soil Science Symposium Experience Hemp Expo Hall

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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CRITICS’ PICKS W E E K L Y

R O U N D U P

O F

T H I N G S

T O

D O

BOOKS

THURSDAY / 7.21

DIATOM DELI

[WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR]

BOOKS & BEER: A BOOK FAIR FOR GROWNUPS

FRIDAY, JULY 22 Drkmttr

MUSIC

The Scholastic Book Fair was the highlight of my elementary school career. I recall the feeling of boarding the school bus, my hand sweatily clutching a change purse that held a few tattered dollars — mine, all mine, to spend as I pleased on the latest in the Bunnicula series, or some other treasure. East Side outpost The Bookshop looks to rekindle that joy with an event that merges book-buying and beer, on site at East Nashville Brew Works. It’s a great way to support two local businesses while finding something special, just for you. 6 p.m. at East Nashville Brew Works, 320 E. Trinity Lane ERICA CICCARONE [ALL THE LOVE THEY LENT TO ME]

JACK WHITE ENTERING HEAVEN ALIVE LISTENING PARTY

PHOTO: COREY KING

During the pandemic lockdown, former White Stripe and current Third Man Records chief Jack White finished two very different albums. The first and more raucous of the two, Fear of the Dawn, came out in April ahead of the Supply Chain Issues world tour that’s got him on the

road for much of this year. The second is called Entering Heaven Alive, and it’s out on Friday, July 22. Its foundation is acoustic instruments, and while it’s not sleepy by any means, it’s more contemplative. Both albums feature sonic experimentation; Fear has a hard-rock edge and plays with samples and dub techniques, while Heaven includes tinges of jazz and jammy moments as well as a lyrical bent that reminds me a bit of Ray Davies’ character sketches. Both records also address human connections and long-term relationships, but Entering Heaven Alive strikes me as more cohesive and better balanced. “At the end of the day, people are going to come away liking Entering Heaven Alive three times as much,” White told Spin before the release of Fear of the Dawn, “and it won’t get received that well and won’t be as big of a deal because [it’s the] second of two.” You can

[BUNCHA JERKS]

CIRCLE JERKS W/7 SECONDS & NEGATIVE APPROACH

Third time’s a charm. This summer Circle Jerks, the forefathers of SoCal hardcore punk, have been touring for the first time in more than 15 years to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their 1980 groundbreaking debut Group Sex. The original run of 2020 tour dates was postponed. Then several of the makeup shows, including April’s original Nashville date, were postponed again when singer Keith Morris tested positive for COVID. Recently, a new strain has popped up (BA.5), and it’s the most contagious COVID subvariant yet. We can’t let COVID take the Circle Jerks down! We must wear masks! On this tour, Morris is joined by fellow founding member and guitarist Greg Hetson. On bass is the legendary Zander Schloss — who’s been in the band off and on since the ’80s and has also collaborated with some of punk’s biggest names, including Joe Strummer and Mike Watt. On drums

MEGAN SELING

FRIDAY / 7.22

the human condition who have an incredible knack for songs that tell you as much as some novels; if you haven’t picked up Riley’s Not Too Precious and Nikrant’s Tall Ladders yet, that’s all the more reason to make sure you’ve got cash for the merch table. Rounding out the lineup is Emma Swift, who released her fantastically distinctive and personal Bob Dylan tribute Blonde on the Tracks back in 2020 and is finally getting to perform the songs for a live audience in her adopted hometown. 9 p.m. at The 5 Spot, 1006 Forrest Ave. STEPHEN TRAGESER MUSIC

MUSIC

STEPHEN TRAGESER

is the Jerks’ new addition, Joey Castillo of Queens of the Stone Age, The Bronx, The Hives, Danzig and Eagles of Death Metal fame. These guys are punk rock royalty! Of course Group Sex dominates the set list, but the band has also been performing favorites from Golden Shower of Hits and Wild in the Streets, including “Stars and Stripes,” “Question Authority” and “Parade of the Horribles,” three songs that are as relevant now as they were when they were written. 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl, 925 Third Ave. N.

MUSIC

decide for yourself Thursday night when The Blue Room — the venue space at Third Man Records, which on Friday celebrates the one-year anniversary of its opening up on non-show nights as The Blue Room Bar (see our Critics’ Pick below) — hosts a listening party. Grab a drink, sit back and open up your ears. 7 p.m. at The Blue Room at Third Man Records, 623 Seventh Ave. S.

[CONTAINING MULTITUDES]

RICKI W/ZIONA RILEY, TREVOR NIKRANT & EMMA SWIFT

This show was originally booked as a release party for the exquisitely bittersweet On This Bend by An Army of Jasons, a hitherto long-dormant project from Quichenight’s Brett Rosenberg and his old friend Geoff Hayton. Sadly, the band of the hour had to bow out, but the bill assembled is far too good to let it go to waste, featuring some of the finest singers, songwriters and song interpreters in a city overflowing with them. Ricki is a project of Central Ohio transplant and superlative rock songsmith Erica Blinn, who’s stopping in on a brief break from playing guitar on tour with the great Aaron Lee Tasjan. Ziona Riley and Trevor Nikrant are two keen observers of

[DIATOMICALLY CORRECT]

DIATOM DELI, LUKE SCHNEIDER & MICHAEL HIX

On Friday night, singer-songwriterproducer and sound artist Deli Paloma-Sisk (alias Diatom Deli) — an ex-Nashvillian now based in scenic Taos, N.M. — headlines an all-ages triple bill that speaks to the boundlessness of thought currently emanating from Music City’s avant-garde underground. The recent release of DD’s long-awaited Time~Lapse Nature fulllength via NYC experimental-electronic tastemakers RVNG Intl. makes this a run-don’t-walk affair. Third Man-endorsed pedal-steel marvel Luke Schneider will open, along with Michael Hix, lead visionary behind Nashville Ambient Ensemble and its sweeping 2021 debut Cerulean. 8 p.m. at Drkmttr, 1111 Dickerson Pike CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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photo: amiee stubbs

“ T H I S M U S E U M — T H I S M E M B E R S H I P — C E L E B R AT E S A L L O F O U R L I V E S T O G E T H E R , O U R H I S T O R Y, A N D THE JOY AND POWER OF MUSIC.” —TRISHA YEARWOOD

BECOME A MUSEUM MEMBER TODAY CountryMusicHallofFame.org/Membership 24

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com


CRITICS’ PICKS

MUSIC

If you’re looking for a vibey and lowkey hang Friday night with plenty of solid entertainment and tasty drinks, get your ass to Third Man Records in Nashville’s unfortunately nicknamed Pie Town district. On July 22, Jack White’s records-and-more spot will celebrate the first anniversary of its Blue Room Bar. While The Blue Room has been open for shows much longer than a year — and has established itself as one of the best-sounding small venues in a city full of great-sounding rooms — just last summer TMR opened the space for drinking and hanging on non-concert nights. Entertainment will include Josh Halper’s Bossa Nova Band. Halper is a world-class guitarist who’s played with a diverse array of Nashville artists including Loney Hutchins, Heaven Honey and Lilly Hiatt, among many others. Expect Halper and his lineup of equally talented collaborators to issue some impeccably smooth bossa nova — that coolest of jazz-influenced South American musical idioms. The band will play from 8 to 10 p.m., with DJs set to follow. The bar makes some lovely cocktails, and also has an assortment of tasty nonalcoholic beverages. Enjoy yourself. 7 p.m. at The Blue Room at Third Man Records, 623 Seventh Ave. S. D. PATRICK RODGERS [ROUSE ROCKET]

JOSH ROUSE

At this point in his career, to call Josh Rouse, who is 50, a “cult act” or “musician’s musician” is a bit of a slight. Rouse was active in Nashville throughout the ’90s, a Nebraska-born, Austin Peayschooled songsmith with a perfectly worn-in, sepia-toned tenor and knack for writing low-key tunes that pack an emotional wallop (if you aren’t careful). He returns to Nashville Friday to play City Winery’s small room — that’s Rouse, underrated as ever. He’ll showcase Going Places, an all-new set with an all-new band, penned and arranged during quarantine

in Valencia, Spain (where Rouse and wife Paz Suay have lived since 2013). Rouse’s smashing, peak-alt-country 1998 debut Dressed Up Like Nebraska and 2015’s Crazy Horse-inspired Embers of Time, meanwhile, are essentials for anyone looking to play catchup ahead of the gig. 7 p.m. at City Winery, 609 Lafayette St. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

SATURDAY / 7.23

SUMMER AT THE MOVIES: SPIRITED AWAY

In Studio Ghibli’s 2001 film Spirited Away, 10-year-old Chihiro is pulled into a world of evil spirits and gods when exploring an abandoned amusement park in her new hometown. She finds work at a local bathhouse, where she meets a boy named Haku — voiced in the English-language dub by current Nashvillian and accomplished performer Jason Marsden. In order to save her parents and to return to the human world, Chihiro and Haku work together to defeat an evil witch. Spirited Away won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and remains a masterpiece now, two decades

MUSIC

[SINS OF THE FATHER]

WAYLON PAYNE

Waylon Payne is one of country music’s finest vocalists. On his 2020 album Blue Eyes, the Harlot, the Queer, the Pusher, & Me — the Scene’s Writers’ Choice for Best Country Album that same year — Payne showcases his agile tenor with grit and grace. That’s not to mention his dynamic and skillful songwriting, which, as on Blue Eyes standout track “Sins of the Father,” trades in hard-earned pathos and even harder-earned humor. To catch Payne live in any setting is a treat, but in one as intimate as The Basement — where he’ll set up shop Saturday night — is a privilege that shouldn’t be missed. 9 p.m. at The Basement, 1604 Eighth Ave. S. BRITTNEY McKENNA [STUDENT WHIZ]

THE TYLER BULLOCK QUINTET

Pianist Tyler Bullock represents

WAYLON PAYNE

[FOR US, BY US]

LIVE AT THE WALL

Last year, North Nashville artists Woke3 and Angel Adams worked with community members to design and create a mural that captures the vitality of their neighborhood’s history. The Legacy Mural sits at Jefferson Street and 27th Avenue South, and it depicts one hand passing a baton to another, with the surrounding space covered with portraits of folks from the neighborhood spanning generations. Civil rights luminaries like Diane Nash, John Lewis and Kwame Lillard are beside neighbors living in North Nashville today. The city celebrated the mural’s progress at last year’s Norf Wall Fest. Now, Woke, Adams and their “dream team” have planned a reconvening they’re calling Live at the Wall — “an immersive experience” that aims to harness the power of art to build community. Working with a host of artists and community leaders — including The Equity Alliance’s Terrica Arnold, Brassville’s Adrian Pollard and Terrance Simpson, dancer and choreographer Kyrstin Young and many others — Live at the Wall will host live music, spoken word, performing arts and visual art that attendees can enjoy. They also plan a kids’ zone with activities and art making. 6-9 p.m. at 2701 Jefferson St. ERICA CICCARONE [JUST SAY NOE]

IAN NOE W/KIMBERLY KELLY

PHOTO: POONEH GHANA

THE BLUE ROOM BAR’S ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

COMMUNITY

[EACH ONE SHE PASSES GOES ‘AH’]

MUSIC

MUSIC

JOSH ROUSE

[BATHHOUSE BLUES]

after its release. Director Hayao Miyazaki’s film is for everyone — it’s rare to meet someone who doesn’t enjoy either the exciting plot or the beautiful hand-drawn animation. Seriously, any screenshot in the film could be the perfect laptop wallpaper. It’s playing as part of the Belcourt’s ongoing Summer at the Movies series, so you have three days to experience an escape into traditional Japanese folklore and Miyazaki’s fantastical settings. Just don’t forget your name. July 23, 25 & 27 at the Belcourt, 2101 Belcourt Ave. CLAUDIA VILLEDA

MUSIC

PHOTO: JIM HERRINGTON

FILM

collection that earned the Kentucky-based singer-songwriter comparisons to heavy hitters like John Prine and Steve Goodman. As its title indicates, the LP is woven through with naturalistic influences. Some songs, like the delightfully narrative “River Fool,” celebrate a symbiotic relationship between man and nature. But others, like “Strip Job Blues 1984,” lament the destruction of the only home we have. Look for Noe to also pull from his 2019 debut Between the Country, another fine collection of Appalachian country music. Texas country mainstay Kimberly Kelly, whose excellent new album I’ll Tell You What’s Gonna Happen is out now, opens. 8 p.m. at The Basement East, 917 Woodland St. BRITTNEY McKENNA

In March, Ian Noe released his sophomore album River Fools & Mountain Saints, a critically acclaimed

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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7/18/22 12:20 PM


NASHVILLE'S LARGEST AT ASSEMBLY FOOD HALL ROOFTOP Explore the full lineup at SKYDECKONBROADWAY.COM

August 6

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SAM WILLIAMS

DIAMOND RIO SUNSET MOVIE SERIES

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THURSDAY BOOTS ABOVE BROADWAY

Line Dancing presented by Ariat

FRIDAY AFTERNOON LIVE

with Lightning 100

August 26

MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD

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July in... 7/21 – thursday

New Album from Jack W hite

21 +

ENTERING HEAVEN ALIVE LISTENING PARTY

7/22 – friday

Josh Halper's

21 +

BOSSA NOVA BAND & THIRD MAN DJs

BRB’S ONE YEAR BIRTHDAY PARTY

7/25 – monday

7/28 – thursday

BODEGA

AMANDA SHIRES

with SUPER CITY & TOTAL WIFE

ALBUM RELEASE SHOW

7/29 – friday

7/30 – saturday

LOCKELAND STRINGS

MATMOS

with JEFF CAREY & EVE MARET

OPEN WEEKLY Thursday through Saturday 623 7TH AVE S. NASHVILLE, TENN. 26

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com


CRITICS’ PICKS

LIVE MUSIC | URBAN WINERY | RESTAURANT | BAR | PRIVATE EVENTS

7.24

7.17

The Aristocrats

‘50s Brunch featuring

Good Rockin’ Tonight

The Defrost Tour

WAXED

MUSIC

SUNDAY / 7.24 [THERE’S THAT WORD AGAIN, ‘HEAVY’]

WAXED ALBUM RELEASE

Waxed’s set during Nameless Fest at Drkmttr a few years ago was some of the most fun I’ve had at a hardcore punk show. The snare-tight band leans toward the thrashy, proto-speed-metal end of the OG hardcore spectrum, and frontman Luc Richards’ magnetic stage presence channels Keith Morris with an extra dash of

ANDREW BIRD

showman swagger. The group has crammed all this energy into its debut album Give Up, and to celebrate the achievement, Waxed is taking over Donelson-area Compound Skate Shop with a whole bunch of friends. Country-rock champs Teddy and the Rough Riders will be there, as will rappers Walt Flames, Jdoughblay and Ronin Black — and immensely heavy rockers Soot (whom you might remember in their previous incarnation as Lacquer). The party kicks off in the early afternoon, so get ready to settle in and make a day of it. 2 p.m. at Compound Skate Shop, 212 McGavock Pike

7.29

7.30

Syleena Johnson

The Box Tops

with Sean Black

STEPHEN TRAGESER

MUSIC

the latest example of the Nashville Jazz Workshop’s impact on both the local scene and the next generation of jazz artists. A Nashville native who got his start at the NJW, Bullock is now a student at Julliard, where he’s studying alongside such artists as Geoffery Keezer and Bruce Williams under the watchful eye of no less than Wynton Marsalis. Bullock’s already headlined at such prestigious events as the Newport Jazz Festival, and was among the headliners at Jazzmania 2021. He makes his debut at the Jazz Workshop’s Jazz Cave Saturday night heading a quintet featuring fellow emerging East Coast jazz musicians — Ryoma Takenaga (bass), Koleby Royston (drums), Ace Williams (trumpet) and Ephraim Dorsey (sax). 7:30 p.m. at the Jazz Cave, 1012 Buchanan St. RON WYNN

7.31

[GENTLE GIANTS]

ANDREW BIRD AND IRON & WINE W/ MESHELL NDEGEOCELLO

Here’s a trio of talented performers poised to fill the Mother Church of Country Music with an array of gorgeous, gentle songs. Co-headliner, multi-instrumentalist and accomplished whistler Andrew Bird has had a prolific decade. In addition to releasing eight studio albums in as many years, the top-tier violinist also appeared in the fourth season of FX’s Fargo as a character that was written specifically for him. (He wasn’t bad!) Bird’s latest, June’s Inside Problems, leans into what the Illinois native has long done best — meshing folk, indie-rock and pop aesthetics to execute

8.03

Duane Betts featuring Johnny Stachela & Berry Duane Oakley

An Evening with

Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater

with Charlie Overbey - Dog Daze Acoustic Tour 2022

7.22 7.22 7.23 7.26 7.28 7.30 7.31

TIM FOUST & FRIENDS FEATURING TEXAS HILL 6TH QUASI-ANNUAL BIRTHDAY BASH WMOT PRESENTS: JOSH ROUSE IN THE LOUNGE NASHVILLE IMPROV COMPANY: A COMEDIC & MUSICAL SHOW MADE UP ON THE SPOT AN EVENING WITH ADRIAN BELEW WMOT PRESENTS: AMY SPEACE “TUCSON” ALBUM RELEASE SHOW WITH SPECIAL GUEST ROBBY HECHT CHALLENGE MANIA PODCAST’S SUMMER SPECTACULAR HOSTED BY DERRICK KOSINSKI & SCOTT YAGER NASHVILLE BEATLES BRUNCH FT. FOREVER ABBEY ROAD

7.31

THE CLAUDETTES IN THE LOUNGE

8.4

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nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com


CRITICS’ PICKS

MUSIC

D. PATRICK RODGERS [ALL ABOUT STEVE]

STEVE EARLE AND THE DUKES

If the average cat lives nine lives, Steve Earle (67 in human years) is well into double digits. He’s had a wildly uneven but fascinatingly eclectic four-decade career spanning solo and full-band records, dyedin-the-wool country and solo rock ’n’ roll, substance abuse and steps to recovery — there are few hats the “Copperhead Road” songsmith, activist, sometime novelist and featured cast member in David Simon’s The Wire and Treme hasn’t tried on at least once. These experiences might be the only way Earle was able to bear down and survive his biggest-ever challenge to date: the 2020 overdose death of his beloved son (and fellow roots-rock force) Justin Townes Earle. Papa Earle chose to pay his respects in the form of a tribute album, last year’s J.T. On it, Steve and his longtime Dukes ensemble bash out faithful takes of 10 choice JTE cuts before seeing themselves out with a heart-wrenching new original, “Last Words.” Selections from a second recent covers album — Jerry Jeff, the Dukes’ tribute to late singer-songwriter and icon Jerry Jeff Walker — should bring some levity. Denton, Texas, sibling duo Whitmore Sisters will open up the seated show. 7 p.m. at The Caverns, 555 Charlie Roberts Road, Pelham CHARLES ZAILLIAN

FILM

MONDAY / 7.25 [AN EVENING WITH ORNETTE]

MUSIC CITY MONDAYS: ORNETTE: MADE IN AMERICA

While the title of this 1985 documentary implies that jazz great Ornette Coleman (who passed away in 2015) is a product of good ol’ American ingenuity, the film itself suggests that this dude may be from another part of the friggin’ universe. For those who think Sun Ra was the wackiest mofo to ever do avant-garde and free jazz, let this doc introduce you to the Texas-born man who practically invented the form. The final feature of boho filmmaker Shirley Clarke — no stranger to capturing outcasts and outsiders on film (Portrait of Jason is a favorite of mine) — chronicles Coleman’s life and career by taking live performances, archival footage, interviews and TV clips, and chopping it all together. The result is a multimedia tribute that’s just as offbeat and

BOOKS

experimental as Coleman’s music. Watch the creative madness unfold — in glorious 35 mm! 8 p.m. at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY [IF YOU CAN’T DUCT IT]

AUTHOR EVENT WITH CHARLES MARSH IN CONVERSATION WITH DAVID DARK

I used to be part of an evangelical church, and I overheard many conversations around mental health that included being told that if God couldn’t fix, nobody could. (As a sweatshirt my grandad once gave me said, “Jesus: The Original Duct Tape.”) That idea might be freeing to some folks who say it, but if you live with mental illness, that sort of sentiment can make everything feel that much worse. Writer Charles Marsh suffered in the church for years with anxiety and panic attacks without treatment before deciding to get help through therapy. His book Evangelical Anxiety: A Memoir explores issues regarding the stigma

PROVIDING NEW SHOES FOR KIDS IN MIDDLE TENNESSEE WHO EXPERIENCE HOMELESSNESS

surrounding mental health treatment in the church. He’ll be chatting with Nashvillian and Christian intellectual David Dark at Parnassus Books this week. Dark is known for his writing, but also for using platforms like Twitter to ask insightful, unexpected questions that poke holes in Christian ideology and tradition. Come for the chat, leave with some new ways to love God. 6:30 p.m. at Parnassus Books, 3900 Hillsboro Pike, Suite 14 AMANDA HAGGARD COMMUNITY

his harmony-rich and lyrically dense songs. While co-headliner Iron & Wine, the longtime project of North Carolina’s Sam Beam, isn’t quite as prolific as Bird, he nevertheless has a rich catalog of beautiful, gentle folk music to pull from — from his 2004 sophomore breakthrough album Our Endless Numbered Days to his collaborations with artists like Calexico and Jessica Hoop and his Archives Series, a five-part collection of previously unreleased home recordings and other rarities. Opener Meshell Ndegeocello is well-established in her own right, and will kick things off with a set of her smooth, funk- and jazzinfluenced neo-soul. Bonus: A dollar from every ticket sold will go to the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit advocacy group working to slow climate change. 8 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way

[KITCHEN TABLE SERIES]

POINTS SOUTH LIVE FEAT. MARGO PRICE & JODI HAYS IN CONVERSATION WITH ALICE RANDALL

Oxford American’s Points South podcast has produced episodes about Southern issues featuring everyone from Brittney Howard and Adia Victoria to Ken Burns. On Monday, Points South will host a live recording of a new Nashville-centric episode at the 21c Museum Hotel downtown. The 75-minute event will be hosted by novelist and culinary educator Alice Randall, who will be joined in conversation by Nashville’s Grammy-nominated country singer-songwriter Margo Price and artist

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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7/18/22 12:20 PM


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STAY TUNED FOR

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

RETURNING DECEMBER 5-11

NASHVILLE

NASHVILLE

NASHVILLE

NASHVILLE


HAMILTON seasons in series history. The Trevecca alum had an immense amount of screen time as SNL’s resident Trump and Biden impressionist, and also popped up in an assortment of other sketches and digital shorts all season long. On July 27 and 28, Johnson will return to his hometown for a two-night stand at Nashville’s longtime comedy club, where the top-tier mimic will no doubt bust out some of his greatest hits — and show off the chops he’s been honing as a stand-up since he first took the stage as a wee Nashvillian. 7 p.m. July 27-28 at Zanies, 2025 Eighth Ave. S. D. PATRICK RODGERS

Jodi Hays. The goal is to celebrate the work of all three of these women, but also to see how deeply interwoven all of their creative explorations are. As Hays says in the press materials: “I come from the American South, a place where the kitchen and the pharmacy are the same room.” Pull up a seat at this table — admission is free, but advance registration is recommended. 7 p.m. at 21c Museum Hotel, 221 Second Ave. N. LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

[THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENS]

HAMILTON

Hamilton was absolutely the hottest ticket in town when it first made its Nashville premiere at the end of 2019. Now this groundbreaking musical is back at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, setting the stage for a huge Broadway season that celebrates both classic and contemporary titles. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony- and Pulitzer-winning hit offers a bold reimagining of the nation’s founding, along with a unique blend of hip-hop, jazz, R&B and more. It returns on Tuesday, kicking off the much-anticipated 2022-23 Broadway at TPAC season. There are actually three Hamilton tours currently criss-crossing the nation, ensuring that theater lovers everywhere will get their chance to be “in the room where it happens.” Still, no matter how many times you’ve seen it, this blockbuster is well worth revisiting. July 26-Aug. 7 at TPAC’s Jackson Hall, 505 Deaderick St. AMY STUMPFL

WEDNESDAY / 7.27 [BUT SCOOBY DOESN’T ‘DO’ ANYTHING]

JAMES AUSTIN JOHNSON

During the four long years of the Trump

administration, it seemed like everyone on the planet developed an impression of the then-POTUS. Some were pretty good; most were absolutely dreadful. But one impersonation surpassed them all. Nashville-raised comic James Austin Johnson went viral with his videos in character as Trump, issuing rambling asides about everything from Scooby Doo (“one of the worst deals we’ve ever had”) to Weird Al Yankovic (“Weird Al was very mean to Mr. Coolio!”). Johnson aces the big man’s bizarre mannerisms and speech patterns, but even more impressive is his ability to improvise the sort of unhinged, free-style stream-of-consciousness rambling Trump tends to meander into whenever he finds himself propped up at a microphone. Lorne Michaels took notice, as Johnson joined the cast of Saturday Night Live last year, going on to have one of the most impressive debut

[A RAPPER’S RAPPER]

SCARFACE FAREWELL TOUR

The original King of the South is hanging up his microphone. Scarface has worked with heralded names like Jay-Z, Nas, Lil Wayne and more in his 30-plus-year career, though he hasn’t received quite the same level of spotlight as his peers, and that’s a damn shame. The farewell tour feels like a bigger deal than just a retirement party for an old-school staple — the legendary Houston rapper had a brutal COVID-19 infection last year and needed a kidney transplant from his son to survive. He’s recovered and ready for one last ride as a rapper, and the goodbye show gives us all a chance to give flowers to a rapper who changed the game with his crew the Geto Boys and continued to turn in top-notch bars as a solo act. The avid guitar collector will be leading a live band, the Formaldehyde Funkmen. Scarface has expressed interest in pursuing blues or rock after his rap career — so who knows, you might also be getting a preview of his retirement plans. 8 p.m. at Brooklyn Bowl Nashville, 925 Third Ave. N. ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ

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nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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JULY 28-30, 2022

Thursday, July 28 MAIN STAGE 3:00 pm Demetri Moon 3:45 pm High Road 4:30 pm Peder & Allison Eide 5:30 pm I Am They 7:00 pm Sidewalk Prophets 8:15 pm Bob Lenz, Keynote Speaker

MUSIC CITY

9:15 pm Casting Crowns

The July 28 – 30, 2022 festival will be hosted at Hideaway Farm, the former home of country music legend, Johnny Cash, in Bon Aqua, TN. Only a short drive from Nashville, this scenic farm was the center of Johnny’s universe for over 30 years. With open fields, rolling hills, serene wood and bubbling brooks, this scenic landscape has made this the perfect location for Lifest Music City. What is Lifest? It is the nation’s largest family-friendly music festival originating in 1999 from Oshkosh, WI, and founded by Life Promotions Chief Visionary Officer, Bob Lenz. Lifest’ s mission is to deepen the faith of all who attend and unite the body of Christ. Lifest achieves this by providing nationally known artists and speakers, camping, activities for the family, seminars and so much more. For over two decades, Lifest, also known as “A Party with a Purpose”, has become a destination event for thousands of families across the US and surrounding countries. Proceeds from the festival go to support Life Promotions’ programs, such as Dignity Revolution, Quake Events and more to bring hope to our nation’s youth.

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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Friday, July 29 MAIN STAGE

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For more info and seminar titles, visit Lifest.com/Music-City/Lineup

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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7/18/2022 12:23:19 PM


Saturday, July 30 MAIN STAGE 3:00 pm Awaken 3:45 pm Jordan St. Cyr 4:30 pm Katy Nichole 5:30 pm Riley Clemmons 7:00 pm Steven Curtis Chapman 8:15 pm Reggie Dabbs, Keynote Speaker 9:15 pm Zach Williams

NBBY

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10:00 am Steven Curtis 12:00 pm Chapman, Heart of 1:00 pm the Artist 2:00 pm 11:00 am Riley Clemmons 3:00 pm 12:15 pm John Martin Keith 4:00 pm 1:15 pm Ben Fuller 5:00 pm 2:00 pm Riley Clemmons, Katy Nichole, Jillian Edwards, & Jordan St. Cyr, Redbird Common Writer Round 4:15 pm The Caltons 5:15 pm Jillian Edwards 6:15 pm Katy Nichole 7:15 pm Disciple 11:00 pm Ben Fuller

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12:00 pm Jason Heath, Seminar 1:00 pm Michael Vanlaningham, Seminar 2:00 pm Travis Deans, Seminar 3:00 pm Dave Gunnlaugsson, Seminar 4:00 pm Zach Williams, Heart of the Artist 5:00 pm Mark Shaner, Travis Deans & Kevin Miles, Seminar 6:00 pm God, Games, & Geekery, Gaming Ministry

Scan the QR code for more info!

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com


A Party With a Purpose: The youth of today are growing up with more obstacles than ever. Learning to navigate the world is difficult enough, but with added challenges, it can be even more discouraging. Whether it be a global pandemic, learning to navigate online learning, or mental health struggles; our youth need support. This is where Dignity Revolution comes in. Dignity Revolution is a K-12 comprehensive, educational program providing a cultural change in schools and communities. The program addresses serious issues, one of which is the mental health and wellness of our youth. The goal of Dignity Revolution is to Educate and Empower Youth to Stand Up for the Value of Every Person. With their curriculum (Dignity Revolution Challenge), the Dignity Pledge, and teacher training, this program offers more than one way to get involved. Lifest Music City is A Party With a Purpose: support the Dignity Revolution program. Through music, speakers, and activities, we can come together to celebrate community, comfort, and togetherness. Even with a vast diversity of artists and festival attendees, we can all agree on one thing; everyone has value. Dignity Revolution has a mission to Educate and Empower Youth to Stand Up for the Value of Every Person and we believe Lifest Music City has the power to create even more impact in achieving this goal. No matter where you come from, your age, or your story, you have the power to team up with Dignity Revolution and inspire change in your local schools and community.

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We want our youth to come together, to feel important, and to feel heard.

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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7/18/2022 12:23:23 PM


YOU’RE SO NASHVILLE IF…

you’ve eaten a burger while dancing to live music.

Burger Week may be over, but living your best #BeefLife never ends. VISIT @Beefitarian 36

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com


FOOD AND DRINK

THE SWEET ESCAPE Four internationally inspired desserts that will take you far, far away from here BY MEGAN SELING

SWEET DREAMS BAKERY & BUBBLE TEA

PANECITO

T

he new COVID-19 BA.5 variant, rising travel costs and unpredictable flight cancellations — I can think of a hundred reasons not to take a vacation anytime soon. Still, I’m starting to feel a little claustrophobic just staying here in Nashville. I want to be free! I want to see the world! If you too want to get away, here are four fantastic sweets that’ll help you make a sweet escape without having to sit next to a maskless mouth-breather for hours on end. Plus, no jet lag!

PANECITO

Every Tuesday at the East Nashville Farmers’ Market and every third Thursday at the Wedgewood-Houston Farmers’ Market instagram.com/panecitokale There’s a steady line in front of the Panecito booth every Tuesday evening at the East Nashville Farmers’ Market, with kids and adults alike waiting their turn to order Dora Martinez’s Mexican sweets. There are big buckets of blueberry and watermelon and lime agua fresca, light-as-a-cloud conchas and fresh fruit — whole mangoes and fat wedges of watermelon — smothered with tart chamoy sauce and Tajín. The moment one person happily walks away

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

SUGAR SHOCK

with their order, a passerby, enticed by the sight of a colorful concha sitting atop an icy cup of horchata, jumps in to take their place. “People are beginning to love Panecito, especially children,” says Martinez. “I love doing things for children. Most people focus more on adults, and we forget about children. I have two daughters, and almost wherever we go the children’s menu is very small. I try to make Panecito kid-friendly, delicious and healthy.” Martinez grew up in Oaxaca, Mexico, and moved to Nashville with her family in 2002 when she was a teenager. She first started baking conchas and tres leches cakes for homesick friends and family, and a few years ago she began selling those goods at Alebrije, her husband’s popular pop-up taco shop in Honeytree Meadery. Martinez’s conchas, made with a combination of butter and vegetable shortening, are exquisite — light and tender, similar to brioche dough. Some are finished with the traditional vanilla-flavored sugar coating stamped on top in a seashell design, and others are decorated with Oreo crumbs, sprinkles and seasonal designs like sugar skulls, Pride rainbows and, for Halloween, those freaky twins from The Shining. Shudder. No matter how they’re decorated, to eat

one is simple. Just take a bite. The sugary topping will stick to your lips and crumble all over your hands — it’s messy and it’s wonderful. As you chew, take a sip of horchata. Then repeat. Bite, sip, bite, sip, bite, sip, until the last delectable crumb. Your body won’t be in Mexico, but your tastebuds will be.

SWEET DREAMS BAKERY & BUBBLE TEA 443 Cool Springs Blvd., #115, Franklin dreamsbakery.com

With my first bite of a Portuguese egg tart from Franklin’s Sweet Dreams Bakery & Bubble Tea, I felt like I was tasting the sun. The pale-yellow custard — gleaming with deep-golden specks of caramelization — was warm and luscious. The crust — the edges of which were also kissed with a beautiful burnt-sugar brown — was flaky and crisp, seasoned with just enough salt to complement the sweet eggy filling. It was the best egg tart I’ve ever tasted, and while I’ve never been to China, egg tarts are my go-to when visiting any major city with a Chinese bakery — New York, San Francisco, Chicago. I’ve sampled my share. Sweet Dreams’ owner and baker Wilson Shan had his first egg tart years ago while

growing up in Shanghai. The mini custard pies became popular all throughout China after a British couple living in Macao made them in an effort to appeal to local Portuguese immigrants. Shan, who moved to the Nashville area about 12 years ago, perfected his version when he opened Sweet Dreams in 2018. Also on Shan’s menu are mooncakes (small Chinese pastries filled with red bean or taro paste), a variety of pies in flavors like cherry crumble, key lime and coconut meringue, and Japanese-style cheesecake, which you’ve probably seen on Instagram. It’s the fluffy, spongy cheesecake that wobbles like Jell-O when it’s fresh out of the oven. There’s also bubble tea, milk tea and smoothies, plus a few savory dishes — including wonton soup and Szechuan Mouthwatering Chicken. But honestly, I rarely make it past the egg tarts. My heart belongs to those egg tarts.

LITTLE GOURMAND

2209 Bandywood Drive, Suite D; 717 Craighead St. littlegourmand.us France doesn’t feel so far away when you step into Little Gourmand in Green Hills. The store — one part cafe, one

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

FOOD AND DRINK

LITTLE GOURMAND

part market — is well stocked with an enticing array of French delights. But as beautiful as the jars of imported mustard and boxes of Parisian tea are, don’t get so distracted that you forget to treat yourself to something from the pastry case. That’s where it really gets good. So good, in fact, that Little Gourmand’s owners opened a second location, a more traditional French patisserie, in Berry Hill in 2020. Little Gourmand’s pastry chef Denis Savouray has been baking for more than 30 years and has trained with two Meilleur Ouvrier de France craftsmen. MOF, if you aren’t familiar, is a prestigious culinary competition held every four years. It’s basically the food Olympics. Savouray’s well-practiced pastry precision is on full display in both of the shops’ dessert cases — there are uniform rows of macarons, tartlets, entremets and more, all making good use of seasonal ingredients and delicate details. My favorite is the eclair, available in a kaleidoscope of flavors, from pistachio and raspberry with mousseline to coffee and classic chocolate. Savouray’s pâte à choux doesn’t get soggy or strange despite the moisture from the pastry cream, and each bite melts in your mouth like a sugar symphony, with every expertly crafted component elevating the next. Utter perfection, and French AF.

EDESSA RESTAURANT 3802 Nolensville Pike edessarestauranttn.net

PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

I’m a sucker for any dessert involving cheese. Cheesecake, cannoli stuffed with sweetened ricotta, Jeni’s Goat Cheese With Red Cherries ice cream — I love it all. It wasn’t until a recent trip to Edessa for dinner — their Kurdish Delight with savory bright-purple beet hummus is vegetarian excellence — that I finally got to try Turkish kunefe. Salty cheese is tucked into the center of a thin disc of shredded wheat, and it’s baked until crispy before being soaked with sweet syrup. A sprinkle of finely chopped pistachios finishes it off, and the kunefe is served warm with a small cup of vanilla ice cream. The cheese is tangy, soft and stretchy, the pistachios introduce a subtle nuttiness, and the wheat maintains a toothsome crunchy texture in the sweet syrup. It is the champion of cheese desserts. The kunefe at Edessa is thin — though not skimpy — so the cheese inside isn’t thick enough to re-create the dramatic cheese-pull photos I’ve seen all over the internet. But on my visit, that didn’t stop me from gobbling it up before hustling home to price out flights to Istanbul. Coming in at around $1,000-plus, that dream trip is out of my budget for now. But why take a 14-hour flight to Turkey when it takes just 15 minutes for me to get to Edessa?

EDESSA RESTAURANT

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Subscribe to Scene contributor Megan Seling’s newsletter — where she writes about feelings, music and snacks — at snackanddestroy.com. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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GUITAR LESSONS

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Shedding gendered labels has given me peace in experimentation and uncertainty

Vodka Yonic

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Vodka Yonic features a rotating cast of women and nonbinary writers from around the world sharing stories that are alternately humorous, sobering, intellectual, erotic, religious or painfully personal. You never know what you’ll find in this column, but we hope this potent mix of stories encourages conversation.

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ecently I was waiting in a local taco shop, when a mustachioed cashier spotted me and said, “I can take your order, sir, whenever you’re ready.” A moment later the mustachioed cashier was called away to deal with some tortilla-based problem, and a new cashier took over. They smiled at me while ringing up my regular bean-and-cheese order, and then said, “Will that be all for you, ma’am?” I allowed myself a small smile, as I always do in situations like this. Baristas, teachers, corner-store employees — none of them knows how to address me, though it usually goes in the order of “sir,” then “oh, sorry, ma’am,” paired with an embarrassed grimace. I want to tell them that being called “sir” is a highlight of my week, that I will likely text a friend or two saying, “Guess what! It happened again!” In fact, the person’s obligatory correction is exactly what I don’t want. It makes things awkward for both of us — and besides, I like looking like a boy. Looking boyish gives me confidence, because looking like a girl often puts a target on my back. From being sexualized as I developed to being mocked for weakness, obvious physical signs of my sex have always been a hall pass for others to treat me as weaker, inferior, stupider or less qualified — anything less than what I am. There’s always been something uncomfortable and stiff about womanhood. I wore femininity like an itchy glove, one size too small. In late high school and into my early 20s, I have found that bending the rules of gender expression has allowed me to feel better about myself. I don’t want to look like a woman, or a man. I look how I look — a small, short-haired person with curves and hairy arms and legs. In my exploration of gender identity, I have found that language can cage you into expectation — but in a new and exciting way, it can also free you. This is where the term “nonbinary” emerges for me. While a relatively new term when it comes to gender, “nonbinary” has quickly entered the mainstream lexicon. It is a term that allows for the dissolution of gender expectations. When someone uses it as a label, they are declaring to the world that they are not to be held up to the stereotype of a man or a woman; they are only themselves. I despise showing my curves, so I dress

I WORE FEMININITY LIKE AN ITCHY GLOVE, ONE SIZE TOO SMALL. in non-fitted T-shirts and loose pants, paired with dirty sneakers. I have thick eyebrows, a light mustache (as many genetically female people do), and a few stray beard hairs that I pluck out. I wear red checkered boxers and cherry-red nail polish. I shave my face with shaving cream and I use a sugar scrub on the tougher parts of my skin. I wear heeled boots and suit jackets. I do not stray from the gender binary. I run from it. It is astounding how my life has changed since I started presenting in a more androgynous fashion. I feel more confident and safe than before. I also feel more like myself, less like someone who is pretending. For me, being nonbinary has little to do with my biological sex or my body, and much to do with the expectations of others and how they treat me. However, gender expectation remains — and it’s everywhere. I find it at dress-coded events, at swimming pools, doctor’s offices, family reunions, parties, sorority hangouts and shopping malls. Trying not to stand out while being androgynous can be exhausting. What if we don’t want to break any more glass ceilings? Is it really that difficult to see each other as we are, to exist without expectation? Shedding a female label has allowed me to feel uninhibited in character expression. I dress how I want, act how I like — all without worrying if I am living up to the part of “woman.” This is the power of the nonbinary label: If others do not expect me to be a woman, I feel no pressure to be one. It is not all peaceful. I use the nonbinary label only among certain groups of people in my life, with the knowledge that sharing it with some would do more harm than good to my psyche. I get nervous when I reintroduce myself to my parents’ friends and faraway family members, fully understanding that the way I look now is quite different from just a year prior. I stumble through correcting old friends in their references to my identity. But shedding gendered labels has given me confidence in experimentation and uncertainty. When I fall, I fall back upon myself instead of a pinup version of someone’s girlfriend or daughter or the girl next door. It is all worth it. Each day, I am more myself than I’ve ever been. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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ART

PLAYING IT COOL

Light and Space, ‘finish fetish’ and the endless summer of the Frist’s LACMA exhibit BY LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

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“TOM,” BILLY AL BENGSTON. LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART, GIFT OF B. GERALD CANTOR, © BILLY AL BENGSTON. PHOTO © MUSEUM ASSOCIATES/LACMA.

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ertain things will always be associated with summertime. The combination of salt water and Hawaiian Tropic, The Beach Boys, the glossy finish of a surfboard. Just as potent are the works LIGHT, SPACE, SURFACE: in Light, Space, WORKS FROM THE Surface, a Frist Art LOS ANGELES COUNTY Museum exhibition MUSEUM OF ART of works from THROUGH SEPT. 4 AT THE FRIST ART MUSEUM the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which highlights the surface-oriented movement of “finish fetish” and the Light and Space movement that developed in parallel. A massive Norman Zammitt painting, “Untitled” from 1984, is an ideal gateway to the exhibition — at once monumental and Zen, it calms and overwhelms at the same time. The gradient work includes 48 shades based on five colors, which you can try to decipher when you get up close. The darker shades toward the bottom almost read like stripes, but the hazy blues and greens at the top of the canvas wash seamlessly into the buttery-yellow middle. Zammitt organized the colors based on a computer-generated logarithm, which might explain why the execution is so unexpectedly minimal, like stained-glass windows featuring an airbrushed T-shirt design. Immediately following the Zammitt painting is a gallery of works by various artists who experiment with the aesthetics and culture of cars. “Pastel Domes #1,” a mirrored pedestal with three pastel domes from Judy Chicago, is among the exhibition’s first highlights. Chicago is famous for her feminist masterpiece “The Dinner Party,” which has been on display in its own wing at The Brooklyn Museum since 2007. The magnitude of that piece cannot be overstated, but its tendency to overshadow the rest of Chicago’s work makes the inclusion of these pastel domes especially exciting. Immediately after finishing art school in the early 1960s, Chicago enrolled in auto-body school as a way to establish her presence as a serious artist in the male-dominated art world. She was the only woman in a class of 250 men. There she discovered the idea of merging color and surface — an important addition, as well as a bit of an undoing, of her art school education. The three domes are pearlescent seafoam and lavender, and they lie face-up on the table like anatomical specimens — like if Lisa Frank designed breast implants. Additional works by Larry Bell and Billy Al Bengston underscore the car-culture aesthetics of the exhibit. Bengston’s “Tom,” from 1968, goes a step further and nods to the rich symbolism of biker culture as well. The warped aluminum surface is like a macho dismissal of perfection, even

as its shining surface denotes polish. I’m reminded of tattooed chests, Easy Rider and the Altamont Free Concert. Larry Bell’s “Cube” from 1966 exemplifies the convergence of auto-body methods and fine art application. In 1962, Bell began experimenting with vacuumcoating glass, a process that deposits a thin metallic film onto the glass, which modifies how it absorbs and reflects light. In a 2006 interview, Bell described his process: “My media isn’t glass, it’s the light that hits that glass.” The idea of borrowing methods from industrial design was so counter to the prevalent ideas of New York-centric Abstract Expressionist ideals of the time that preference for shiny, pristine surfaces was considered an obsession rather than an organic movement. Around that time, the term “finish fetish” began to trickle into art criticism. Los Angeles Times art critic William Wilson first published the term in 1966 to describe “California’s industrially oriented ‘finish

fetish’ school of cool sculptors [who] work in geometrically reduced forms that are metaphorically expressive of contemporary emotional attitudes.” That assessment wasn’t universally well-received by the artists themselves — the emphasis on the surface material made it all too easy for the movement’s deeper substance to be overlooked. Robert Irwin’s “Untitled” from 196667 is the first hint that this exhibition is shifting its focus away from the artwork’s surfaces and into the viewer’s perceptions of them. That may sound more esoteric than it is — the Light and Space works are extraordinary in their ability to merge craft and populist appeal. Curator Melinda Wortz first used the term “Light and Space” in print in 1979 to refer to works that present “visual phenomena which cannot be recorded, measured, or experienced by touch.” And Irwin’s deceptively simple design — a convex disc painted a flat white and light from four different angles at once

— is a powerful perceptual experience. Viewed straight on, it looks almost like an unfurling lotus flower. But as you move around the work, the play between light and shadow makes the work appear to float in midair. An even deeper examination of perception is a room dedicated to Doug Wheeler’s “Untitled (Light Encasement)” from 1968, which is granted additional importance because no shoes are allowed inside it. Viewing the piece is a physical experience — the air feels heavy, the sound muffled. It’s like a sensory-deprivation chamber, with curved walls that have no discernable corners, and the box of light at its center is diffused so that no shadows are cast. The work is unnerving, and exiting it feels like you’ve just escaped from the spacecraft in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The artist most closely associated with the Light and Space movement is James Turrell, whose “Blue Pesher” at Cheekwood is one of Nashville’s contemporary art

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ART

“UNTITLED (LIGHT ENCASEMENT),” DOUG WHEELER. LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART, PURCHASED WITH FUNDS PROVIDED BY THE MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY ART COUNCIL IN HONOR OF THE MUSEUM’S 40TH ANNIVERSARY, © DOUG WHEELER. PHOTO © MUSEUM ASSOCIATES/LACMA.

treasures. There are several walls dedicated to his works in the Frist exhibit, but his 1966 piece “Afrum (White)” distills Turrell’s aesthetic down to a small thing, which sounds as dull as it is extraordinary to experience — light is projected into a corner of a room. A dark room filled with holographic works from Bruce Nauman announces itself as singular right away with walls that are painted pitch-black. The holographic works inside are examples of Nauman’s insistence that any type of play done in his studio must also be a form of art. The combination of playfulness and deep aesthetic curiosity is evident. Two holographic images on glass from 1968 show the artist’s face contorted to be purposely silly. It’s uncanny, with a hyperrealistically sharp focus and unnatural lime-green tint. One of the most recently created elements of the exhibition stands on its own in the small gallery nestled in the back of the exhibition. Gisela Colon’s “Untitled (Monolith Silver)” from 2016 is made from an internal steel structure, engineered carbon fiber and prismatic surface particles. It uses reflection, surface elements and shifting perception, but incorporates organic concepts — as she says, “the energy of the earth, of the planet.” The monolith is equal parts Space Age rocket, surfboard and architectural column, and it functions like a sexually charged exclamation point — a marker for the Light and Space movement’s continued significance into the 21st century. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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BOOKS

TRACKING A KILLER Journalist Kathryn Miles trails a 1996 cold case BY JANE MARCELLUS

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ear the end of Kathryn Miles’ Trailed: One Woman’s Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders, the author recalls the day someone asked her why she was so determined to help discover who killed Julie Williams and Lollie Winans in Shenandoah National Park in May 1996. The two women, trained backcountry leaders in their 20s who were in love with one another, beloved in their respective communities, had been found dead — bound, gagged, throats slit — at their campsite near a stretch of the Appalachian Trail that runs through the park. No one has been convicted of their murder. TRAILED: ONE WOMAN’S QUEST TO SOLVE THE SHENANDOAH MURDERS BY KATHRYN MILES ALGONQUIN BOOKS 320 PAGES, $28.95 Miles didn’t respond to the question immediately. At first, the longtime journalist, professor and author of five books had simply wanted to find out what happened to Williams and Winans, whose case had gone cold partly because authorities lacked sufficient evidence to convict their prime suspect. But the more she learned about the investigation, the more incredulous she became — not only about the way evidence was originally handled, but also because “missteps and omissions” pointed to “a larger systemic problem in our justice system.” The problem is particularly acute when it comes to violence against women and others marginalized in the highly masculinized culture of outdoor pursuits. A hiker herself, Miles knew the murders robbed many women of their right to feel safe in the wilderness, including national parks. Finally, Miles answered, she was just tired of feeling scared. Miles first became interested in the Williams-Winans murders after joining the faculty of Unity College in Maine, where Winans had been a student. Many of Miles’ new colleagues remembered Winans, whose dry wit, generosity and determination impressed them. They knew she’d had a challenging home life, despite family wealth. She was also gay in the “don’t ask, don’t tell” 1990s. During her four-year investigation, Miles approached her quest from multiple perspectives, interviewing the victims’ families, friends and professors, as well as investigators with the National Park Service and the FBI. She gained access to a multitude of documents, not only about the Williams-Winans case but the murders of other women. She asked questions others hadn’t, pursuing details such as the nonstandard width of duct tape used to bind the

women, and she obtained a 1990s catalog from a manufacturer of “adult” products to compare crime-scene evidence. She even found and interviewed other hikers who’d been in the park when the pair was murdered, including a group of women who were rebuffed when they tried to report an encounter with a man who knew about the killings before they were made public. Far from true-crime sensationalism, Trailed paints a heartbreaking portrait of two promising young women’s lives cut short and a sobering picture of how murderers slip through cracks in the justice system. Williams, a Carleton College graduate, majored in geology and spent so much time helping women in Mexico that her friends called her a “one woman Peace Corps.” Drawn to the wilderness, she joined Woodswomen, an organization founded to “buck the longstanding masculine model for getting women outside.” That’s where she met Winans, an environmental studies major, and the two fell in love. Miles suggests the women may have been killed because they were flouting patriarchal norms, not only as lesbians but as women camping without male companionship. Such norms muddy the investigative process, as well as restrict women’s serenity outdoors — a problem worth addressing in its own right, Miles argues. What went wrong with the investigation comes across as less the fault of individual investigators than a problem with unsound procedures and assumptions. Early in the book we learn that accepted methods of gathering evidence are focused on crimes committed inside buildings, with little guidance for outdoor environments. Moreover, investigators spent valuable time pursuing a heterosexual narrative largely irrelevant to a gay couple’s lives. One early suspect was Winans’ former fiancé, with whom she maintained an amicable relationship. Another was Williams’ male roommate, who investigators assumed was jealous because Williams took up with a woman, though the roommate had only been a platonic friend. Miles faults confirmation bias — the tendency to look for evidence that supports investigators’ theories. Because the women were gay, former Attorney General John Ashcroft did finally declare the murders a hate crime, but the man indicted turned out not to be a match for DNA evidence taken from the scene. Comparing patterns from other crimes, Miles presents compelling evidence for a different suspect. Trailed is a page-turner, but it is deeply disturbing — a point Miles acknowledges. She herself felt triggered at times, admitting that she had to force herself to look at photos of the women’s corpses, which felt invasive. Looking at what happened with a clear eye, though, may lead to solving this cold case and others. For more local book coverage, please visit Chapter16.org, an online publication of Humanities Tennessee. EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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MUSIC

PLEASED TO MEET ME Angel Olsen made her latest LP Big Time just for herself BY MEGAN SELING

PHOTO: ANGELA RICCIARDI

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he world has met a lot of different versions of Angel Olsen over the course of the singer’s career. Many first heard her as one of Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s backup singers when she PLAYING SATURDAY, was part of The JULY 23, AT THE RYMAN Cairo Gang in the late Aughts. In 2010, she released a solo acoustic EP called Strange Cacti, which she followed in 2012 with the folksy and assured full-length Half Way Home. Having put her arresting, chameleonic voice and nuanced songs in the spotlight, she signed with widely loved indie Jagjaguwar and in 2014 released Burn Your Fire for No Witness, her first album to feature a full-on rock band. Olsen was embraced as indie rock’s anti-ingenue with 2016’s My Woman, a whipsmart patchwork of genres and musings about love. Three years later, All Mirrors introduced us to Olsen’s most vulnerable presentation of herself yet, surrounded by electronic and orchestral elements. Then, ever committed to unending artistic evolution, she teamed up with engineer Michael Harris (Haim, Lana Del Rey, Brittany Howard) and took many of those songs down to the studs for 2020’s Whole New Mess. Still, Olsen was just getting started. After facing some of her most challenging years yet — she went through an especially difficult breakup, and her parents died within months of each other in 2021 — she introduces us to her most unvarnished self on her latest LP, Big Time. “After losing my parents I was like, ‘Oh, mortality is a real thing,’ ” Olsen tells me, on a call from her North Carolina home. “ ‘It’s not just something I think about or read about or see in movies. It’s right next to me. It’s in my fucking face, and nothing compares to that. Because we’re all gonna die. We’re all gonna leave this earth.’ And meditating on that thought — not to be weird — but I came to a point where I needed to make something for me. This record is for me. I’m so glad people can enjoy it, but it really was just for me.” The most stunning result of Olsen’s new approach is “Go Home,” an ethereal anthem in which she at first seems to be calling out to be rescued. The more I listen, the more it sounds like she is summoning the strength to rescue herself from the dark, isolating days of the pandemic. A dizzying rush of lush orchestration — piano, strings, horns and more — elevates her voice as she forcefully declares: “I wanna go home / Go back to small things / I don’t belong here / Nobody knows me.” She says the song was inspired by all the ways her outlook changed during the pandemic — her search for truth amid the noise, her commitment to small pleasures

to get through the day and learning to listen to herself and listen for meaning in things around her, however fleeting they may be. As much as Big Time is rooted in loss, grief and navigating the unknown, the record is also full of love. Olsen wrote the starryeyed, classic-country-tinged title track with her partner Beau Thibodeaux, whom she introduced to fans when she came out as queer via Instagram last year. The record ends with another blissfully romantic number, “Chasing the Sun.” In the relaxed and dreamy piano ballad, Olsen sings: “Write a postcard to you / When you’re in the other room / Just writing to say that I can’t find my clothes / If you’re lookin’ for something to do.” “People are totally going to make out while listening to Big Time,” I tell her. “I hope so,” she says. “I hope people do

make out to my music sometimes instead of just sit at home and cry.” For her Saturday night performance at the Ryman, the third date on the Wild Hearts co-headlining tour she’s on with Sharon Van Etten and Julien Baker, Olsen says she’ll be performing first — “so come early and hang with me.” Fans can expect some collaboration between all the women, which no doubt will include “Like I Used To,” Olsen’s majestic duet with Van Etten released last year. Olsen’s attitude shifts as soon as I ask about Van Etten. She gets excited and begins shuffling through her tourmate’s catalog in her head to remember the name of her favorite song. It’s “Come Back,” from this year’s stellar release We’ve Been Going About This All Wrong. “I wish that song was a fucking single,”

Olsen says, starting to gently sing the chorus. “ ‘Come back, come baaaack’ — it’s so good! I want to be like, ‘Hey, do you have any songs you don’t want to sing? I’ll sing ’em! You have to sing ‘Shut Up Kiss Me,’ because I’m done with that one.’ ” With Big Time Olsen marks not just a notable shift in her songwriting, but also celebrates 10 years since her breakthrough release. She’s been making music long enough to listen back to earlier material with a more critical, less personal ear. For better or for worse. “When I rehearse [‘Shut Up Kiss Me’], sometimes I start it and I have to stop because I just start laughing. Because it’s just fucking ridiculous! … But you have to do it. It’s good to laugh at yourself. It’s part of life. It’s important to keep laughing.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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MUSIC

THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE

East Nashville’s Queerfest celebrates and cultivates community for LGBTQ musicians

MERCY BELL

MARY BRAGG

tinued to grow!” Gougeon set down roots in Nashville in the fall of 2020, a difficult time to make friends. While she waited for her classmates to join her in the city per their plan, Gougeon got busy networking at Nashville’s regular LGBTQ offerings. “I’m grateful for the other LGBTQ+ spaces in town like RNBW and QDP, and now there’s a queer book club,” she notes. “It’s amazing to watch new things pop up every couple of months. Now I have this incredible network, not just of the friends I went to school with, but of so many queer friends I met because they came to my events or other LGBTQ+ events in town.” Queerfest’s initial concerts were backyard house shows, with Gougeon carting houseplants and P.A. systems all over town in 2021. The event moved indoors at Vinyl Tap as cooler weather set in, and Gougeon notes that the monthly showcase consistently fills the venue. Concertgoers and artists alike have formed a new network of LGBTQ musicians

— and deeper relationships. “I’ve witnessed strangers become friends, collaborations, artists get rebooked for new gigs, and moments of acceptance for folks who never thought they’d know that feeling,” says Gougeon. “I’m constantly blown away by how magical it is.” For this next step in Queerfest’s evolution, Gougeon is enjoying the demands of staging a three-venue festival all by herself, even amid difficult choices. “There are so many more incredibly talented LGBTQ+ artists,” she says. “I wish I could have featured more than 14. There were a lot of difficult decisions on who gets to play and who gets sets at bigger venues and with a full band.” Queerfest has proven such a success that Gougeon has hired an intern to help her manage the workload. “Sometimes I pause and realize I’m doing about five jobs running this thing on my own.” Gougeon already has her sights set on next year’s festival with hopes to expand

it into a two-day event with nationally touring acts. “I love that booking is a big puzzle,” she says. “It’s a lot of rearranging, toying with things, seeing how everything fits together. That process is fun because I’m extremely creative and organized — a rare combination. I love that booking mixes the two! It’s like writing a song, in the sense that I am creating something that didn’t exist before. These ideas that were once in my head now exist out in the world. I find that so cool!” While Gougeon was intentional about featuring BIPOC artists and a diversity of musical genres, she also left a small bonus in the lineup for herself. “I genuinely love all the artists on the lineup. I’m really excited for Mary Bragg. That set is going to be so special. Her music is stunning, and she’s the final set. I can’t wait to watch her play, take a breath, and enjoy what I’ve been working towards for this past year.” EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

he served as frontman of King Crimson for three decades, building on early work as a sought-after sideman for Frank Zappa, David Bowie and Talking Heads. Somehow, he found time to collaborate and perform with Laurie Anderson, Paul Simon and many others as well. Through it all, Belew has firmly established himself as one of the most innovative figures in rock history. “That’s always what I’m trying to do, just be more and more creative and move forward,” he says of his musical explorations. “The one thing I think a lot of the people I worked with had is they were people pushing the boundaries. “But you can’t take it so far that it doesn’t sound right, you know? I mean, I can experiment and make

interesting sounds, but they have to ultimately fit together in a way that sonically is pleasing. … I’m a songwriter — of course I look out for the song first. The experimental stuff fits in if it’s needed or can fit.” Like the best of Belew’s work, the songs on Elevator are built upon memorable musical and lyrical hooks presented within a traditional pop-rock song structure. The arrangements, which are intricate and in places beautiful, balance the familiar and the otherworldly. As he has on most of his solo recordings, Belew wrote, arranged, played and sang every part on the album. The only other person involved was engineer Miles Fuqua. “I basically used three different guitars,” he says. “Either my Parker Fly, or a Stratocaster, or an Epiphone that has three pickups with a five-way switch, so you’re able to get 15 completely different sounds out of it. So I could get really oddball tones out of that guitar. All the keyboard stuff is played from a Yamaha Motif that I have. And with that, of course, you can play strings, you can play everything else — you know, cellos or whatever. Piano, of course. Great piano sounds.” Belew kicks off the record with a ringing guitar chord reminiscent of the iconic one that opens The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.” There, he begins a journey out of his COVID hibernation and back into the world where he finds things are “Backwards and Upside Down.” In that song, he reminds the listener that “One thing for sure is that / Violence is never the cure / Never has been.” Belew drops simple but sage advice throughout

the album — like in “Attitude,” when he sings, “Time, don’t burn it up being hateful.” But he also shares his whimsically twisted sense of humor. As he explains: “For the past half a dozen solo records, I’ve tried to include something that’s a bit off-the-wall and more based on wordplay and humorous takes on things.” “Taking My Shoes Out for a Walk” is a prime example. In that song, Belew takes a strange stroll, at one point noting: “I myself spotted an ocelot / Not sure if it was lost or not / But I thought, ‘I bet they cost a lot.’ ” His humor is also on display in “A Car I Can Talk To.” He wants an intelligent car that can do more than just give you directions and warn you that someone’s in your blind spot — one he can tell his troubles to, that’s never argumentative, that can think fast and maybe beat him in a chess match. “It’s humorous, yes, but it’s also indicative of something,” he says. “I feel like that’s where our society is headed, where we’re all talking to machines.” Belew embarked on a 26-date U.S. tour in support of Elevator on July 13 with the current version of his power trio, which includes longtime bassist Julie Slick and new drummer Johnnie Luca. The tour makes a hometown stop at City Winery on Tuesday. The show will open with a song-oriented set by the trio, followed by a solo acoustic set by Belew. Then the power trio will return in full force for a final set, of which Belew says: “As my fans probably know, the power trio is going to come bursting out and going crazy, playing King Crimson stuff and the heavy stuff.”

GOING UP

Adrian Belew wants to give you a lift on Elevator BY DARYL SANDERS

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hen Adrian Belew released his 25th solo album Elevator a few weeks ago, the rock legend hoped it would give listeners a boost. “It’s basically a COVID record — not that it’s all about COVID, but it basically happened during that really horrible time,” Belew explains, speaking by phone from his home in Mt. Juliet, where he has lived for nearly three decades. “And the one thing I said to myself was, ‘Wow, I want this record to be something that lifts you up, makes you feel better. Because I know when we come through this dark period of time, that’s what people are PLAYING TUESDAY, going to need.’ JULY 26, AT CITY WINERY “That’s, of course, the reason it’s called Elevator — I wanted to uplift people,” he continues. “So I tried to do things with a light, humorous edge. But also at the same time you do want to say something meaningful as often as you can.” The album’s 12 tracks accomplish those goals and more, serving up both humor and wisdom on top of the kind of jaw-dropping, joy-evoking, cutting-edge music that has been Belew’s trademark throughout his career. In addition to his extensive solo catalog,

PHOTO: SHERVIN LAINEZ

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hen Sara Gougeon moved to Nashville, she came with a mission. The Berklee College of Music graduate is an accomplished singer-songwriter and a 2018 finalist in the John Lennon SUNDAY, JULY 24, AT THE 5 SPOT, THE GROOVE AND Songwriting Contest. THE BASEMENT EAST In addition to making music, Gougeon is the organizer of Queerfest (formerly Queerfolk Fest), a monthly music festival in the heart of East Nashville featuring LGBTQ musicians. In just one year, Gougeon has expanded the monthly showcase from backyard shows to a one-day festival spreading across multiple venues. Queerfest’s anniversary event is Sunday, July 24, with sets from 1 to 10 p.m. at The Basement East, The 5 Spot and The Groove. The lineup features artists whose work orbits around the intersection of folk, country and rock, like Mercy Bell, Jett Holden (who you’ve seen with the Black Opry Revue) and Mary Bragg, among many others. “It’s been a whirlwind,” Gougeon says. “I had the idea years ago. Queerfest came from a deep longing I had to meet other queer folks, find community and celebrate LGBTQ+ music. I always wanted a space like this. I couldn’t find it anywhere, so I decided to create it. Ever since then, it’s con-

PHOTO: EMILY ALLEN

BY RACHEL CHOLST

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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JIM COLLINS, STEPHONY SMITH, RAY STEPHENSON & ABBY ANDERSON SHINYRIBS WITH BRANDY ZDAN RED CLAY STRAYS WITH STONE SENATE

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COLE RITTER & THE NIGHT OWLS WITH ABIGAYLE KOMPST RACHEL LOY’S SH*T LIST FEAT.

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EMILY WEST, SAM HUNTER, JEDD HUGHES, MELISSA FULLER, BRIAN KEANE, ANNA VAUS & DANNY MYRICK & MORE!

FAB: BEATLES REVUE PABLO CRUISE WITH JAIME KYLE

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jul 22 SoMo w/ MoonLander jul 23 Ian Noe w/ Kimberly Kelly jul 24 Queerfest ft. Liv Greene, Purser, Carmen Dianne,

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Mercy Bell, Mary Bragg, and more! Grayscale and Guardin w/ Bearings and The Ivy Icon For Hire w/ Sumo Cyco Corey Kent w/ faren rachels Cobra Man w/ Snooper and Worbl Film Screening Memphis May Fire w/ From Ashes to New, Rain City Drive, & Wolves At The Gate

jul 25 jul 27 jul 29 jul 31 aug 3

aug 4 Stephen Sanchez aug 5 Be Our Guest Spinning 90s/00s Disney

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KORY CAUDILL + WORDSMITH

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aug 6 Jerry Garcia 80th b-day Tribute ft. members of Los Colognes, Futurebirds, and more!

aug 8 Black Pistol Fire w/ Lillie Mae and Shooks aug 9 The Dear Hunter w/ The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, & Tanner Merritt of O’Brother

aug 10 Municipal Waste w/ Midnight & Savage Master & Intoxicated

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10/5

aug 12 dehd

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KIM RICHEY WITH JEFF BLACK

A CELEBRATION OF MAC GAYDEN MUSIC

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City Morgue w/ SSGKobe sold out! Wavves w/ BOYO & Smut Brass Against Erra w/ Alpha Wolf, Thornhill, and Invent Animate Devin the Dude w/ J Dolla On Da Track Sicard Hollow & Dogs In A Pile the emo night tour Duke Deuce Richie Kotzen w/ John Corabi Glass Cannon Live! The Josephines doobie Crowbar w/ second spirit Ethel Cain w/ Colyer Vista Kicks Sarah Jarosz w/ Ric Robertson Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown Bear's Den Julia Jacklin w/ Kara Jackson secret walls syla tour the king khan & bbq show w/ miranda & the beat

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NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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Courtney Jaye (7pm) jul 28 SZLACHETKA (7pm) Dead Runes, Silent Monolith, & Electric Python (9pm) jul 28 Pony Bradshaw (9pm) Justin Kaleb Driggers w/ Borrowed Sparks (7pm) Jackson Bruck & The Dukes Of Hume w/ Jake Burman & Company (9pm)

William Matheny (7PM) Waylon Payne (9PM) Reina del Cid Adam Wakefield, Jack Ruch, William Loney, Greggory Garner jul 26 Skyelor Anderson (7pm) jul 27 Carl Anderson, Elliott Blaufuss, & Ryan Connors

jul 29 jul 30 jul 30 jul 31 aug 1 aug 2 aug 3 aug 4 aug 4 aug 6

Friday Night Funk Band Cody Hibbard (7pm) The Garden Of Eden w/ Lone Tree (9pm) Izaak Opatz w/ The Deltaz Juanaroo & Mollapalooza Juanaroo & Mollapalooza Kyle Clark, Joey Hendricks, Zach Kale Paige Rose w/ Callie Prince (7pm) White hall (9pm) Rett Madison w/ Liv Greene (7pm)


MUSIC

THE SPIN SHOWING OUT BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

SATURDAY, JULY 23, ON THE CAMPUS OF FISK UNIVERSITY BOBBY RUSH

GOOD FOR THE SOUL

Jefferson Street Jazz and Blues Festival returns with blues king Bobby Rush BY RON WYNN

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or more than 20 years, the Jefferson Street Jazz and Blues Festival has been a much-anticipated highlight of the summer and a North Nashville community staple. Even the 2020 pandemic couldn’t stop it: That year, the festival went virtual. The celebration returned in full glory last year, with lauded R&B ensemble After 7 headlining the daylong event. It was held on Fisk University’s campus, which was even more appropriate as all ticket proceeds went to the Fisk Jubilee Singers and their 150th anniversary fundraising campaign. This year, the fest returns to Fisk University and gets underway Saturday evening at 5 — and it will be no less of a gala spectacle. This time, the beneficiary of proceeds will be the Jefferson Street United Merchants Partnership, aka JUMP. The longstanding community nonprofit, whose many projects include organizing the festival, is focused on driving economic development and strengthening public programs in North Nashville. This year’s lineup includes storied R&B vocal group The Manhattans, which was founded in the mid-1960s in Jersey City. The Recording Industry Association of America introduced its platinum certification, marking 1 million sales of a given title, in 1976 — and The Manhattans were given the second one awarded for their soulful hit single “Kiss and Say Goodbye.” In the 2000s, two different iterations of the group began touring. The one featuring Gerald Alston — who joined The Manhattans in 1970 and is the last surviving member of the ensemble at its commercial peak — appears Saturday. Also on the bill are popular Nashville R&B dance band Higher Ground and renowned saxophonist Mike Phillips, who’s played with such stars as Prince, Jill Scott and Stevie Wonder, and who just released a new self-titled album. The fest’s headliner is 88-year-old Bobby Rush — a Chicago blues legend, on par with Buddy Guy as one of the genre’s greatest

survivors. Rush grew up in Louisiana and Arkansas during the height of the Jim Crow era, and learned to make music on a singlestring diddley bow and a harmonica. In his teens, the young man born Emmett Ellis Jr. began performing under the name Bobby Rush in juke joints and dirt-floor clubs. He made friends with such fellow future immortals as Elmore James, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King and Rufus Thomas. Rush embraced the blues wholeheartedly, and through relentless touring that led him to settle in Chicago for an extended period, he developed a stage presence and show that have remained enormously popular among the core blues faithful. As a bandleader, his ranks once included both legendary guitarists Luther Allison and Freddie King; Rush became an excellent harmonica soloist and exuberant vocalist. He is a master storyteller, regaling audiences with tales that range from bawdy to poignant and humorous to insightful — sometimes all at once. Depending on the venue, his stage show ranges from family-friendly to X-rated. “It’s about what I’m singing,” Rush recently told the Lincoln Journal-Star. “It’s not about what I’m playing. … It’s a gift God gave me. It’s like Martin Luther King, he was a great preacher. But there were lots of guys like him. He was just a guy who delivered. I try to make sure I deliver.” He has led an extremely colorful life, if frequently a difficult one, summarized in his engaging autobiography I Ain’t Studdin’ Ya: My American Blues Story. Despite the entertaining skill Rush developed from a young age, his career evolved slowly. He didn’t cut his first single “Someday” until 1964. It took until 1971 to have a national hit, “Chicken Heads” — of which he recently recorded four distinctive new versions for a 50th anniversary release — and until 1979 to release his first full album, Rush Hour. “Sue,” the title track from his second album, became his signature hit circa 1983, and helped solidify his reputation as “King of the Chitlin’ Circuit.” After several nominations, he finally took home a Grammy for his 2016 electric blues record Porcupine Meat, and another for his 2020 acoustic album Rawer Than Raw. It took immense perseverance, but people beyond the most clued-in of blues and soul aficionados have finally recognized the contributions Rush has been making for seven decades. EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

BESTIES WITH MY JEWELER: DAISHA McBRIDE

Next up to the stage was East Tennessee-born and MTSU-educated rap champion Daisha McBride. She’s shown off a phenomenal stage presence since she first started playing around Nashville regularly circa 2018, and it was awesome to see her absolutely owning the room. McBride stopped in on a brief break from a tour that’s taken her around the Southeast and to Washington, D.C., and will soon take her to New York. That’s exciting for several reasons, not the least of which is that rappers from Nashville, much less queer woman rappers, haven’t often had the opportunity to build their fan bases and earn money from touring like their local counterparts in other genres. Another very cool piece of news McBride shared: She’s the subject of a forthcoming documentary from Queen Latifah’s production company called In Her Element. Not unlike McBride’s February show at Acme Feed and Seed, which was filmed for the doc, her set on Saturday was built around songs from her fantastic second LP Let Me Get This Off My Chest, with a few older tunes for the longtime fans. She wrapped up with the superbly swaggering “Bounce Back,” after which Walker-Reese asked if she’d stay onstage while he performed his next poem. He noted that he wanted to be able to tell his baby daughter that he shared a stage with McBride. Atlanta’s Domani, who finished out the night, had a few things working against him. Some technical difficulties delayed the start of his set — cue comedian Josh Black, who helped pass the time with a few japes and jibes — and the drowsiness that comes after pizza and booze had started to settle over the crowd. Though Domani acknowledged that the vibe had gotten a little weird, he and his band didn’t let the circumstances faze them. They focused instead on attentive and excited fans who gathered close to the stage. Domani showed how he’s deeply invested in his work; he’s only 21, but he commands the stage like a seasoned pro, and spoke about songs he wrote when he was 15 in the way someone twice his age might. He happens to be the son of Atlanta trap pioneer T.I., but he’s clearly determined to forge his own path. He blended cues from R&B and spoken-word poetry in a way that reminded me a bit of peak Jay-Z, especially in his standout examination of commitment “I’m Not Ready,” and — ironically enough — in the song he introduced himself with, “Not a Rapper.” The show was about good food and music and hanging out. But it also celebrated something that’s been developing for a long time: Black entrepreneurs, in Nashville’s food and music scenes and elsewhere, are building power and equity for themselves that the city has a history of denying to them. In a time when there are plenty of changes that make Music City feel less welcoming, this is one positive development worth holding onto. EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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PHOTO: CLAIRE STEELE

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he Midtown stretch of West End Avenue that’s home to the Hutton Hotel is not one of the first places you think of when it comes to Nashville music history. Music Row is a few streets to the southeast of the hotel, which opened in 2009 in what since 1961 had been an office building. A little further away to the southwest is the Rock Block on Elliston Place, where Exit/In and The End are. A couple of spots closer to the Hutton have significance that’s been obscured over time, like St. Mary’s Bookstore, one block up West End. In the late 1970s, the building’s basement was a bar known as Phrank ’n’ Steins, which hosted songwriters and some of the city’s first punk bands. A block away at 19th Avenue South and Broadway is a Chuy’s; in the early 1980s, part of the building was a club called Cantrell’s, which also played a key role in the underground rock scene that laid the foundation for the array of independent music scenes the city enjoys today. In 2017, the Hutton opened a music venue called Analog with a capacity of around 300 on its second floor, which has since hosted songwriter nights, rock bands and more. In June, excellent and ever-expanding pizza purveyors Slim & Husky’s moved their Unplugged concert series — a showcase for outstanding Black music talent with a strong focus on Nashville hip-hop — to Analog. Saturday’s packedout Unplugged show was the fifth overall and second at this venue, and it was another essential reminder of just how much Black excellence means to the commerce and culture of Music City. A sizable crowd bustled and mingled in the small lobby outside Analog, and streamed through the doors when they opened at 8 p.m. The beautifully appointed space, with its plush couches and stools and premium P.A. and lighting, is carved out of two of the building’s floors. Balconies flank the main room, helping counteract the obstructed sight lines created by two giant structural columns near the corners of the stage. Members of a camera crew, set up to stream the show live on YouTube, weaved and dodged among the patrons and the staff as Slim & Husky’s founders and TSU alumni Clint Gray, Derrick Moore and E.J. Reed took the stage. Gray gave a brief benediction honoring the trio’s mentor — businessman and philanthropist Darrell Freeman, who died in June — and emphasized that one important part of the event was networking and building business relationships, a message he reiterated throughout the night. However, it was also a show to be enjoyed, and to that end, Gray & Co. brought up author, speaker and poet Patrick Walker-Reese, who served as emcee, performing a couple of his poems as he introduced each set. He led off with pieces titled “This Morning” and “Numb,” about recognizing your self-worth, to welcome up-and-comer Melo Roze. Roze grew up in Atlanta and graduated from MTSU, and she brought mellifluous R&B with a strong ’90s throwback vibe; she also had dancers for one song, as well as a phenomenal full band, a trend that would continue through the night. Despite a chatty crowd — who pushed one fan to the limit, leading to an impassioned admonishment between songs — Roze held her own with grooving and purposeful songs like “Made It” from her forthcoming project Melomania. She pointed out how many of her songs focus on the hard work of pursuing her creative career, something she feels is missing from contemporary pop music.

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7/18/22 4:06 PM


FILM

THE MALADY HAUNTS MY REVERIE A discussion about Tropical Malady with Dave White BY JASON SHAWHAN

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here was a time when Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady seemed to be a statement about how the passage of time changes all relationships — using its bifurcate narrative to get at all the different possible experiences to be had, making like the great philosopher Kate Bush and exchanging the experience. But now, almost 20 years after its release, it feels like a film populated by countless aspects of the same self. Everyone in the film taps into the empathic instinct, and that includes the animals and ghosts. There’s a truth about the relationship between affection, infatuation and obsession that Tropical Malady radiates but never TROPICAL MALADY NR, 118 MINUTES makes a point of emSCREENING WEDNESDAY, phasizing. And to try JULY 27, AS PART OF and get at some of THE BELCOURT’S QUEER the special majesties QLASSICS SERIES of this film, I had to snag some time with friend/colleague/mentor/chef Dave White (of the Linoleum Knife podcast empire), an Apichatpong enthusiast and one of my favorite critics when it comes to discussing unconventional narratives — or, again like Kate Bush, when films step off the page and into the sensual world. A 35 mm print of Tropical Malady will screen at 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 27, as the final film in the Belcourt’s Queer Qlassics series.

Jason Shawhan: This was my first Apichatpong film, and I find myself returning to it again and again. I’ve loved all of his films that I’ve seen (his trans-secret-agent musical epic The Adventures of Iron Pussy, co-directed with Michael Shaowanasai, remains an unchecked box on that list), but there’s something about this film that has never fully left my subconscious. Dave White: Mine as well, and it felt like being tossed into deep water. I knew after watching it I had to see it again. It was, I think, my first Thai film. And not even taking into account his personal brand of mystery and formal approach, I knew I had a lot to learn after the fact. JS: Is there something to the fact that this is a film, unlike the majority of his other work, in which he explicitly addresses queerness? DW: I am certainly very wrong about this, but I like to think that he made a queer romance early in his career so he could say, “OK, cool, did that. Now I’m going to make movies about hospitals, reincarnations, weird sounds and sleeping.” JS: It’s insane to me how much time can shift perspectives. When I first saw this film, I very much felt like Tong (Sakda Kaewbuadee), flush with the possibilities of new romance, seeing the world through new

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eyes. And now, almost 20 years later, I am straight-up a tiger ghost, forest daddy, symbol of the passage of time and avatar of uncertain choices made in protean territories. DW: When we watch the same film over the course of decades, the meaning will always change, and I think anyone who revisits specific films would agree. The older I get and the more times I go back to this specific film, I’d lean toward that darker, more rueful perspective, too. Of course, since then I’ve also seen Apichatpong’s other films and have grown more accustomed to his recurring themes of duality (one person in two or more physical forms like here, and also in Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a person who is asleep but also “awake” and in communication with others like in Cemetery of Splendor) and his recurring use of bifurcate narratives (one physical space from two perspectives, like in Syndromes and a Century) — which I think are meant to simultaneously cleave and unite seemingly opposing ideas. He has been quoted as saying that the two “halves” of this film cannot exist without the other. So, are we different now, have we left the past behind, or do we just have more information and ability to let all that life stuff live in the same place? I lean toward the idea that we are the same, but consciously expanded, over time. JS: It’s wild to me that of all the films that have come along in the intervening years since this film first came out, I can feel its influence in unexpected places. Firmly, I believe that Guerrilla (part two of Steven Soderbergh’s Che project) has a very strong Tropical Malady influence on it, but I also see its paw prints in a lot of found-footage horror films. There’s a great example of this in a new film called The Outwaters, where the approach to Tropical Malady’s second half meshes with the desert horror of Dumont’s Twentynine Palms and full-on chthonic Elder Gods cosmic mayhem, and it’s wild. DW: Let’s just go ahead and say that the Venom movies are nods to this. JS: I really like the way that Keng and Tong’s relationship unfolds. They hang out,

they go to the movies, they get to support chirping a happy tune or helping you do a local diva and even sing along during a housework. Honestly, I think most other meaningful performance, they bask in the animals hate us. But because we cannot benevolent horny jealousy of some of the truly know, let’s assume for entertainment’s village aunties, they go to a magical cave. sake that they’re all serving us Bette Davis/ This is a good road map for building a life Parker Posey disdain. with someone. JS: I remember one of my first visits to Los Angeles, some friends took me DW: I think they are getting it right. to the Chandelier Tree House in I think most long-lasting relationSilverlake, and after some dinships — and no spoilers, but this ner wine it looked just like the film’s relationship, from my VISIT lightning-bug tree in this film perspective, seems to be eterNASHVILLESCENE.COM and I started tearing up. No nal — hinge on the ability to TO READ OUR REVIEW OF NOPE, OPENING WIDE context, no overwhelming bolt hang out. THIS WEEK. from the blue, just this instanJS: It’s a testament to what taneous realization that this is Apichatpong does, but the entire a movie that I’m always carrying forest pursuit sequence manaround with me. ages to be both unbearably tense and deeply soothing, and that’s an incredDW: I think as queer people, we’re always ibly difficult balancing act. Now, it is in my on the lookout for cultural moments that nature to do so, but every time I take a walk resonate inside us and that we can carry through the woods or find myself in the along for our own well-being. For some bounty of nature, I can’t help but imagine people it’s But I’m a Cheerleader. For me it’s that the animals are talking shit about me. this. I like a mystery, and I like to wonder That’s not the philosophy that this film is about how I’m connected to it, or if I am at putting forth, but given the responses we all. And not enough films with queer themes get from the assorted fauna that part-two play with mystery or the metaphysical, so Keng encounters, I’m sure even Apichatwhen one like this comes along and turns pong believes that some animals are by my head and keeps me guessing and keeps nature shady. me wanting to learn more about it from as many angles as I can, I stick with it. DW: Well, the animals in the second half EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM aren’t exactly perching on your finger and

NASHVILLE SCENE | JULY 21 – JULY 27, 2022 | nashvillescene.com

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Provides a hideout for, maybe

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One performing a palm print analysis

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Essence of a good roast

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Sonny and Cher, for example

One of the pounds of a pound cake

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Clergy, metaphorically

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Setting of 2019’s “Parasite”

Three fighters at the O.K. Corral

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Thin, unhealthylooking sort

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Treats usually served in miniature cups

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Pizzeria supplies

Together

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High number?

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Lunch orders often served hot

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Wedding speech opener

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CRYSTAL THOMPSON vs. PERRY THOMPSON

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In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon PERRY THOMPSON. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after August 11, 2022 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 September 12, 2022. 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.

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a nonresident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon PERRY THOMPSON. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein with thirty (30) days after August 11, 2022 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 September 12, 2022. 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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