Nashville Scene 8-26-21

AUGUST 26–SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 I VOLUME 40 I NUMBER 30 I NASHVILLESCENE.COM I FREE

FOOD & DRINK: RESTAURATEURS ON HOW THE COVID ERA IS IMPACTING STAFFING AND COSTS PAGE 23

MUSIC: CHECKING IN WITH NASHVILLE VENUES THAT HAVE IMPLEMENTED VACCINE PROTOCOLS PAGE 30

WITH RECENT COACHING AND PLAYER SHAKEUPS, CAN THE TENNESSEE TITANS GO FROM GOOD TO GREAT?

BACK IN BLUE

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8/23/21 4:44 PM

The Frist Art Museum presents Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick, from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, an exhibition of more than 80 works that offer a broad overview of the artist’s career and explore racial and gender exploitation, abuse, and inequity.

A leading artist of her generation, Kara Walker (b. 1969) works in a diverse range of media, including prints, drawings, paintings, sculpture, film, and the largescale silhouette cutouts for which she is perhaps most recognized. Her powerful and provocative images employ contradictions to both consider and critique the painful legacies of slavery, sexism, violence, imperialism, and other power structures, including those in history and contemporary culture.

This exhibition contains mature content, including depictions of physical and sexual violence.

919 Broadway · Downtown Nashville #FristWalker · FristArtMuseum.org

Through October 10 Co-curated by Frist Art Museum Executive Director and CEO Dr. Susan H. Edwards and Nashville-based poet Ciona Rouse

Silver Supporter

Supported in part by

The Sandra Schatten Foundation 2

Kara Walker (American, b. 1969). Boo-hoo (for Parkett no. 59), edition PP 5/6, 2000. Linocut, 40 x 20 1/2 in.

Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, 2003.13. © Kara Walker

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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CONTENTS

AUGUST 26, 2021

6

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Tit-for-Tat Over Mask Mandates Continues ..................................6

On the Chopping Block

CITY LIMITS

Biden says he will ‘use all available tools’ to push back on governors like Lee

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT

Middle Tennessee Health Care Leaders Issue Plea for Vaccination .........................6 The heads of 10 hospitals and health care systems have released an open letter about the latest wave of COVID-19

BY J.R. LIND

Pith in the Wind .........................................7

This week on the Scene’s news and politics blog

8

CULTURE

For sneaker designer Joshua Blevins, ‘art doesn’t have to be flat anymore’

BY D’LLISHA DAVIS

27

BOOKS

We Write Our Way Out

Poet C.I. Aki’s debut collection is a picture of Black persistence and future

BY KASHIF ANDREW GRAHAM

29

MUSIC

COVER STORY Back in Blue

The Game Plan...........................................8 After shakeups on the coaching staff, will the Titans improve this season?

BY J.R. LIND

The Players Club ..................................... 10 A look at some under-the-radar Titans players to keep an eye on this season

BY MICHAEL GALLAGHER

Your Quick-Reference Guide to Bonnaroo 2021 .................................. 29 Check out our recommendations for can’t-miss sets as the fest returns to Manchester, Tenn.

THIS WEEK ON THE WEB: Kacey Musgraves Details Star-Crossed Album and Film Colleges Are Coming Back — Here’s What Their COVID Protocols Look Like Tailor Prepares for a Big Move Belcourt Announces Upcoming Heist! Series ON THE COVER:

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

That’s the Ticket ...................................... 30

Bud Dupree and Jeffery Simmons Photo: Donald Page

Checking in with Nashville venues that have implemented vaccine protocols

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

The Spin ................................................... 31 The Scene’s live-review column checks out Friendship Commanders at Exit/In

15

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

CRITICS’ PICKS

Nashville Shakespeare Festival’s Twelfth Night, Darrin Bradbury album release, No Ordinary Man, The Mavericks w/Sweet Lizzy Project, Car Culture, Steve Earle & Los Lobos, A Song Can Change a Life, 2021 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour and more

32 FILM

Revelations .............................................. 32 Like its subject, Ailey is Black and universal

BY JOE NOLAN

23

Days Like These ...................................... 32

Labor Days

Primal Stream 65 ................................... 33

Tsai Ming-liang’s Days is subtle, slow, quiet and vulnerable

FOOD AND DRINK

BY NADINE SMITH

The pandemic’s long-term effects on restaurant staffing and costs are beginning to show

An old dark house, a polyglot shocker and a megalodon, now available to stream

BY STEVE CAVENDISH

BY JASON SHAWHAN

24

33 34

VODKA YONIC

NEW YORK TIMES CROSSWORD

COVID Killed My Marriage

Quarantine revealed a lot about my relationship, including my husband’s abuse

BY ELIZABETH ULRICH

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THEATER Sparks Fly

Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva’s Seven to premiere Saturday at Kindling Arts Festival

BY ERICA CICCARONE

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FROM BILL FREEMAN ARE OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN PAYING THE PRICE FOR OUR GOVERNOR’S POLITICAL AGENDA? Recently, following the news as it relates to COVID-19 is a bit like watching a tennis match.

Except, of course, this is no game. Lives are at stake, especially those of our children and grandchildren, who are the ones who will pay the price when it comes to mask-wearing in schools. With some Tennessee counties issuing a mask mandate to students and teachers as our children return to school, we’ve seen average citizens threaten health care workers and educators who recommended the mandate. We’ve seen our state government working to strip power from local school systems and health departments, and we’ve seen Tennessee’s governor getting pushback from the president.

All this for what? Politics?

Gov. Bill Lee knows the COVID-19 numbers and how the virus is impacting our young people. Tennessee’s health commissioner, Dr. Lisa Piercey, said the Delta variant is spreading quickly among children. The week of Aug. 1, there were 5,054 cases in Tennessee’s children — about 21.4 percent of all cases. That number jumped up to 27 percent by the week of Aug. 8.

Last week, WPLN reported that within the first 15 days of August, Tennessee had 1,023 new COVID-related hospitalizations, and that nearly 60 of those were children.

Despite these numbers, when several counties in Tennessee issued mask mandates to return children as safely as possible to the classroom, Gov. Lee issued an executive order to override the mandates. Davidson and Shelby counties will require masks anyway, but in doing so will likely meet with more trouble. Lt. Gov. Randy McNally said the state will “exercise remedial options” if local school systems don’t comply.

The governor even disagrees with a letter he and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn received from U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, which read: “Tennessee’s actions to block school districts from voluntarily adopting science-based strategies for preventing the spread of COVID-19 … may infringe upon a school district’s authority to adopt policies to protect students and educators as they develop their safe return to in-person instruction plans required by Federal law.”

I can’t help but wonder if the governor’s recent endorsement from former President Donald Trump is playing into all this. I wonder if he and the other candidates running for reelection in 2022 will pay a price for their position on COVID-19. What we do know is that not advocating for vaccines or safety protocols can cost lives.

It’s the unvaccinated who are getting the sickest, and even if some argue that mask-wearing doesn’t protect 100 percent, it can at least offer some deterrent. Think of how flu cases have gone down this year, even during the pandemic.

Masks and social distancing help slow the spread of viruses.

In an open letter dated Aug. 17, nearly 6,000 doctors and health care professionals asked Lee to rethink his stand. The letter states: “As trained healthcare providers, we strongly oppose Governor Lee’s Executive Order. Scientific evidence demonstrates that masks can decrease the spread of COVID-19. Scientific evidence demonstrates that children can be infected with COVID-19 and that children can spread the infection to adults. … The Delta variant is significantly more contagious than the original COVID-19 virus, resulting in more children becoming infected.”

On Aug. 20, another open letter from the heads of 10 different Middle Tennessee hospitals and health care systems implored unvaccinated people to protect themselves from COVID-19.

Nashville’s own WTN talk radio host Phil Valentine, who frequently spread skepticism over the vaccine, ultimately died from COVID-19 after realizing too late it could have saved his life. My heart goes out to his family. His brother Mark Valentine warns: “Look at the dadgum data. I know if [Phil] were able to tell you this, he would tell you, ‘Go get vaccinated. Quit worrying about the politics. Quit worrying about all the conspiracy theories.’ ” Cases have reached such an elevated level that Dr. Piercey has asked Tennesseans not to visit an emergency room unless the emergency is absolutely dire.

Lee, upon seeing this vast increase in COVID cases, should be concerning himself with saving the lives of Tennesseans — our children and our grandchildren. Will the open letter from health care professionals change his mind? If a letter from President Biden’s administration hasn’t done so, I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

Last week, Biden tweeted: “We will not sit by as Governors try to block or intimidate educators protecting kids against COVID-19. This isn’t about politics. This is about keeping our kids safe and taking on this virus together.”

My continued prayers to Phil Valentine’s family.

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.

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Editor-in-Chief D. Patrick Rodgers Senior Editor Dana Kopp Franklin Associate Editor Alejandro Ramirez Arts Editor Laura Hutson Hunter Culture Editor Erica Ciccarone Music and Listings Editor Stephen Trageser Contributing Editor Jack Silverman Staff Writers Kelsey Beyeler, Stephen Elliott, Nancy Floyd, Steven Hale, Kara Hartnett, J.R. Lind, Kathryn Rickmeyer, William Williams Contributing Writers Sadaf Ahsan, Radley Balko, Ashley Brantley, Maria Browning, Steve Cavendish, Chris Chamberlain, Lance Conzett, Marcus K. Dowling, Steve Erickson, Randy Fox, Adam Gold, Seth Graves, Kim Green, Steve Haruch, Geoffrey Himes, Edd Hurt, Jennifer Justus, Christine Kreyling, Katy Lindenmuth, Craig D. Lindsey, Brittney McKenna, Marissa R. Moss, Noel Murray, Joe Nolan, 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 Kahwit Tela Art Director Elizabeth Jones Photographers Eric England, Matt Masters, Daniel Meigs Graphic Designers Mary Louise Meadors, Tracey Starck Production Coordinator Christie Passarello Events and Marketing Director Olivia Britton Marketing and Promotions Manager Robin Fomusa Publisher Mike Smith Senior Advertising Solutions Managers Maggie Bond, Sue Falls, Michael Jezewski, Carla Mathis, Heather Cantrell Mullins, Jennifer Trsinar, Keith Wright Advertising Solutions Managers William Shutes, Niki Tyree Sales Operations Manager Chelon Hill Hasty Advertising Solutions Associates Caroline Poole, Aya Robinson, 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

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CITY LIMITS

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TIT-FOR-TAT OVER MASK MANDATES CONTINUES Biden says he will ‘use all available tools’ to

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dispute between local school districts implementing masking requirements and Tennessee government officials escalated this month as President Joe Biden said he would “use all available tools” to help districts facing pushback from conservative state governments.

GOP Gov. Bill Lee last week signed an executive order giving parents the right to have their K-12 students opt out of local school mask rules, though some of those school districts and legal experts are questioning whether he has the power to do that.

After Lee signed the order, Metro Nashville and Shelby County school leaders both

MIDDLE TENNESSEE HEALTH CARE LEADERS ISSUE PLEA FOR VACCINATION The heads of 10 hospitals and health care systems have released an open letter about the latest wave of COVID-19

BY J.R. LIND

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PHOTO: NASHVILLE.GOV

B E ST N E W BA R B E ST N E W R E STA U RA N T

said they would continue to require masking.

The defiance left Republican Lt. Gov. Randy McNally “extremely appalled and alarmed.”

“This order was a compromise that still allows school boards to ensure the health and safety of their students while recognizing the rights of parents to decide what is best for their children,” McNally said. “The governor and the General Assembly cannot and will not allow lawful orders to be defied. If these systems persist in resisting the order, we will have no choice but to exercise other remedial options.”

But Biden is now jumping in the fray.

“We’re not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting

F

rustrated and saddened, the heads of 10 Middle Tennessee hospitals and health care systems released an open letter Friday begging the unvaccinated to get protected against COVID-19.

Hospitalization and infection rates are rising precipitously due to the Delta variant, filling beds across the region. The more contagious, faster-acting variant is ravaging the unvaccinated. More than 90 percent of those hospitalized with COVID are unvaccinated, the executives write.

“We are all ready to put the pandemic behind us,” reads the letter. “But, unfortunately, we are unable to move forward. Rather than COVID-19 rates falling as the vaccine became more readily available, we are moving in the opposite direction.”

The letter, signed by the heads of Ascension St. Thomas, TriStar Health, Vanderbilt Health and seven independent hospitals, says COVID hospitalizations are “escalating at a rate that threatens to overwhelm the health care system.”

“We are banding together in one unified voice ...

our children,” he said last week.

In a letter to Lee and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn, Biden education secretary Miguel Cardona warned that the executive order could violate federal law.

“The safe return to in-person instruction requires that school districts be able to protect the health and safety of students and educators, and that families have confidence that their schools are doing everything possible to keep students healthy,” Cardona wrote. “Tennessee’s actions to block school districts from voluntarily adopting science-based strategies for preventing the spread of COVID-19 that are aligned with the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts these goals at risk and may infringe upon a school district’s authority to adopt policies to protect students and educators as they develop their safe return to in-person instruction plans required by federal law.”

Lee’s response to the White House was succinct: “Parents know better than the government what’s best for their children,” he tweeted.

Thousands of Tennessee students and teachers around the state have contracted COVID-19 or have been forced to quarantine due to possible exposure in the early weeks of the new school year. The numbers of hospitalizations among minors also spiked to record levels as students returned to classrooms this month. A Williamson County middle school was forced to close last week after about one-third of its students and dozens of faculty and staff members were forced to stay home due to illness.

Metro Nashville Schools officials continue to weigh their response to Lee’s order.

Some legal experts question the governor’s call, since his emergency powers only give him the ability to suspend laws that hinder pandemic response.

“Local control is an important option and our school board is elected by parents, so if the state says, ‘We want to take over,’ they’re affirmatively disenfranchising our parents ... on some sort of elitist principle that they know better, when they have never proven that they’re actually better at running a school system,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper told The Tennessean.

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to beg you to get vaccinated against COVID-19. …

We have seen, firsthand, the unnecessary suffering this horrible disease wreaks on the human body,” they wrote.

At press time, according to the state department of health, hospitals are at 88 percent capacity, and roughly 41 percent of eligible Tennesseans are fully vaccinated.

See the full text of the letter below.

Dear Middle Tennessee Residents, The past 18 months have been difficult on all of us. There has been a great deal of sacrifice, loss, anguish, and broken hearts surrounding COVID-19.

We are all ready to put the pandemic behind us, but unfortunately, we are unable to move forward. Rather than COVID-19 rates dropping as the vaccine became more readily available, we are moving in the opposite direction. A year ago, we didn’t have a solution to end the pandemic. Now the key is readily available, within

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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CITY LIMITS

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NASHVILLESCENE.COM/PITHINTHEWIND EMAIL: PITH@NASHVILLESCENE.COM TWEET: @PITHINTHEWIND

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Tim P. Adams President and CEO, Ascension Saint Thomas Paul Korth CEO, Cookeville Regional Medical Center Lisa Casteel CEO, Henry County Medical Center Alan Watson CEO, Maury Regional Health Dr. James E.K. Hildreth President & CEO, Meharry Medical College Randy Davis President & CEO, NorthCrest Medical Center Susan Peach CEO, Sumner Regional Medical Center Mitch Edgeworth President, TriStar Health Phillip J. Mazzuca CEO, Williamson Medical Center Dr. C. Wright Pinson Deputy Chief Executive Officer & Chief Health System Officer, Vanderbilt Health

Contributor Betsy Phillips says unvaccinated people are dangers to society.

She writes: “You must know that being unvaccinated at this point means you are incredibly susceptible to COVID-19. You must know that you can easily pass it to others.

You also must know how terrified the rest of us are, not only of your unhinged behavior, but also of finding ourselves needing health care but unable to receive it because you have caused the near collapse of health care providers. At this point, with all we know, if you can be vaccinated but aren’t, you are a villain.” … Longtime Nashville-area conservative talk show host Phil Valentine died after a lengthy hospitalization with COVID-19. In the weeks before his diagnosis, Valentine mocked the importance of COVID-19 vaccines on his show and spread doubt as to whether they are safe. Shortly after his hospitalization, Valentine’s brother, who acted as a family spokesperson, said: “Phil would like for his listeners to know that while he has never been an ‘anti-vaxer,’ he regrets not being more vehemently ‘Pro-Vaccine.’ ” Phil Valentine was 61. … The Metro Nashville Police Department isn’t completely sure how many of its employees are vaccinated. MNPD spokesman Don Aaron told Pith that 950 employees were vaccinated at clinics offered by the department, but the department has no statistics on how many others got the shot from a personal physician, at a pharmacy or from the health department. … Pith’s Steven Hale urged Tennessee’s Bill Lee to join the governors — Democrats and Republicans alike — who said they will welcome Afghan refugees after the United States’ bungled withdrawal and the subsequent rise of the Taliban. “He should come out and say, as Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said, that our state ‘stands ready to welcome refugees from this war-torn country.’ If our culture is so infected by partisan politics that he can only do this by framing it as a response to President Joe Biden’s failure to execute a more orderly withdrawal, then fine. Do that. It will make no difference to the men, women and children trying desperately to fit into the inside, or hang onto the outside, of airplanes departing Kabul.” … Physician Jason Martin and pastor Casey Nicholson officially announced their intention to seek the Democratic nomination for governor in 2022 … Extremely Online people recently noticed that a series of tweets from Sen. Marsha Blackburn formed an acrostic spelling out “FREE BRITNEY,” referring to pop icon Britney Spears’ efforts to get out from underneath a draconian conservatorship.

Blackburn’s office didn’t confirm or deny that it was intentional — but it’s worth noting that Aug 13, the date of the tweets, was the last day of the Senate’s summer intern cycle. … COVID-19 cases are increasing in Nashville jails, but not surging in state prisons. We took a look at vaccination and illness stats among the incarcerated.

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The Middle Tennessee Hospital Systems

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our hands, but we need everyone’s help to resolve this. The answer is through vaccines.

As the healthcare systems of Middle Tennessee, we are banding together in one unified voice to ask you, to beg you, to get vaccinated against COVID-19. We have seen, firsthand, the unnecessary suffering this horrible disease wreaks on the human body. We have had many patients in our ICUs, with machines keeping them alive, who wished they had gotten the vaccine but at that point it’s just too late. They, along with their families, are living with regret. Our caregivers are growing more and more saddened and frustrated that simple steps that could greatly reduce the loss of life are not being embraced.

Our clinical leaders strongly support the vaccine. They have studied the science behind it, and it is safe and effective. The likelihood of getting seriously ill, becoming hospitalized or even dying as a result of COVID-19 is greatly diminished if you are fully vaccinated. The large majority of those hospitalized with COVID-19 are not vaccinated.

If you are hesitant about receiving the vaccine, we encourage you to seek guidance and discuss your concerns with the medical community. Please consult your physician’s office to talk through your questions. This will allow you to make an educated decision based on the information you receive. It is important to consult the experts to cut through the myths that surround the COVID-19 vaccine.

As healthcare systems, our goal is to be here when you need us regardless of the type of care you need. Unfortunately, COVID-19 hospitalizations in Middle Tennessee are escalating at a rate that threatens to overwhelm the healthcare system and compromise our ability to do just that. We all need to do our part to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Across our health systems, more than 90% of people who are hospitalized due to COVID-19 are unvaccinated. Nearly all those patients could be safely at home with their friends and family right now if they had chosen to get the vaccine.

The most important thing we can do to prevent COVID-19, and eventually end this pandemic, is to get vaccinated. If you are fully vaccinated, thank you for protecting yourself, your loved ones and the community. If you are not, we strongly encourage you to get the vaccine. We need your help to save lives and to finally put this pandemic behind us.

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nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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BACK IN BLUE THE GAME PLAN

After shakeups on the coaching staff, will the Titans improve this season?

BY J.R. LIND IT WAS BOUND to happen eventually.

For the better part of two years, Tennessee Titans fans watched the annual National Football League coaching carousel through their fingers. Young, innovative and successful coordinators don’t stay coordinators forever — not anymore. Gone are the days of, say, Dick LeBeau calling zone blitzes for the Pittsburgh Steelers for a decade. If a coordinator shows promise, his lifespan as an assistant is three, four years tops. Someone is going to give him a shot at a head-coaching job. It’s a “when,” not an “if” proposition.

After scheming the Titans to their highest-scoring season in 16 years in 2019 — capped with widely lauded game plans leading to road upset wins in the playoffs over the New England Patriots, putting paid to the 21st century’s most enduring pro sports

8

dynasty, and the AFC’s top-seeded Baltimore Ravens — the “when” seemed even more imminent for offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

With only one season as Titans coach Mike Vrabel’s offensive guru under his belt, Smith came back to the Two-Toners in 2020.

And as an encore to the shock of 2019, all he did was build an offense that produced a 2,000-yard rusher in Derrick Henry. That’s remarkable enough on its own, but it’s even more impressive given the fact that quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw for more than 3,800 yards and 33 touchdowns on top of Henry’s epic performance on the ground.

If the writing was on the wall for Smith and the Titans after 2019, a giant neon sign and those flailing inflatable tube men were there after 2020.

Sure enough, five days after the Ravens knocked the Titans out of the playoffs, the Atlanta Falcons made Smith their 14th coach in team history.

It was a tough but expected loss. Nevertheless, fans hoped Vrabel would seize the opportunity to bring in a flashy name — perhaps someone with a reputation for implementing a more dynamic, more vertical passing game to take advantage of the flashy potential of receiver A.J. Brown as a

PHOTO: ALISON P. McNABB

complement to the generational combination of speed, size and toughness Henry brings. Instead, Vrabel followed his usual playbook: He promoted from within, elevating tight ends coach Todd Downing to offensive coordinator. Interestingly enough, that’s the same promotion — tight ends coach to coordinator — Vrabel gave Smith in 2019.

No one can expect Downing to replicate the first-year jump the offense made in Smith’s debut season. After all, the Titans ranked at or near the top of nearly every offensive category in 2020. (That is, except for pass attempts and yardage, coming in 30th and 23rd, respectively; nevertheless, the team ranked eighth in passing touchdowns.) There’s generally little room for improvement.

If Downing does have first-year jitters, surely they were calmed slightly when general manager Jon Robinson traded a secondround pick to the Falcons for wide receiver Julio Jones, a man on any reputable list of the best pass-catchers of all time.

If defenses had trouble scheming against the Titans last year (Sell out to stop Henry and risk opening up things downfield for Brown and company? Or drop back to stop the pass and give Henry fewer bodies to

crash through on his way to 90-yard touchdown?), they may be in therapy by the time this season starts. Not only will opposing defensive coordinators have to choose between stopping the run or defending the pass, now they have to decide if they doubleteam Brown or the future Hall of Famer lined up on the other side of the formation.

Oh, and let’s not forget Tannehill is one of the most effective quarterbacks in the league with the play-action pass and running the bootleg.

Downing’s offense should also get a boost with the return of All-Pro left tackle Taylor Lewan, who missed the bulk of 2020 after tearing his ACL in Week 6. Stability on the offensive line will be critical, both for Henry’s quest for a third straight NFL rushing title and if the Titans intend to stretch the field vertically.

Two Titans parlayed career years into big contracts elsewhere. Receiver Corey Davis finally showed the promise that made him the fifth overall pick in 2015 and signed a three-year, $37.5 million deal with the New York Jets. Julio Jones is, to put it mildly, a more than capable replacement there.

More concerning for Downing is the loss of tight end Jonnu Smith, whose career year earned him a four-year, $50 million contract

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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8/23/21 2:58 PM

HEAD COACH MIKE VRABEL PHOTO: CALEB JONES

with New England. After a few years as Delanie Walker’s understudy, Smith turned himself into a premier tight end with the right mix of size, blocking ability, passcatching prowess and speed. (Indeed, he actually holds the NFL record for longest rush by a tight end, a record that feels extremely Titan-y.)

Short of an addition made under the wire before the regular season starts on Sept. 12, Smith’s place in the lineup will be filled by Anthony Firkser (the media is legally obligated to mention that Firsker went to Harvard), a sure-handed pass catcher with a knack for first downs. He lacks the upfield speed of Smith, which may limit Downing from using some of the more exotic route trees his predecessor employed. But then, his predecessor didn’t have Julio Jones.

ARTHUR SMITH’S DEPARTURE actually left Vrabel with two empty spots at the top of the coaching chart.

Defensive sage Dean Pees retired after the 2019 season (he found retirement boring and will be Smith’s defensive coordinator in Atlanta this season) and Vrabel — who was the defensive coordinator in Houston before taking the Titans’ top job — opted not to replace him. He brought in veteran NFL

coach Jim Haslett to coach inside linebackers, though that seemed like an obvious sinecure from the beginning, given Haslett’s extensive experience as a DC and indeed a head coach. The conventional wisdom was that Haslett would call the defensive plays, a de facto coordinator. And of course, Vrabel could call plays, as he did for the Texans.

Who among the defensive staff would be ultimately responsible for making those decisions remained an open question throughout the 2020 preseason before Vrabel said the duty would fall on outside linebackers coach Shane Bowen.

After the abysmal performance by the Titans defense in 2020, Vrabel (and Bowen) may have wished they’d kept it a secret all year.

Conversely from what the offense was able to accomplish, the Titans defense ranked near the bottom in nearly every category. (The team was in the top 10 in takeaways.) Fans learned that getting excited about forcing opposing offenses into third downs was a lost cause.

The Titans defense was without a coordinator and completely uncoordinated in football’s most crucial down. Offenses converted nearly 52 percent of third downs

against Tennessee in 2020.

Winning covers up a lot of mistakes, and despite their atrocious play on third down, the Titans did plenty of winning — but being able to get teams to punt was going to be a top priority heading into the offseason.

Robinson did his part, using his firstround draft pick on cornerback Caleb Farley and adding corner Janoris Jenkins and edge pass rusher Bud Dupree in free agency, among others. In the first preseason game against Atlanta, though, it was fourth-round pick Rashad Weaver, an outside linebacker out of Pittsburgh, who starred. Though the team was playing against backups, the overall performance from the Titans defense in the exhibition game does give reason for hope that they can take a big step forward in 2021 (because there’s not much room to go backward).

And this year, it’ll all be on Bowen, who Vrabel promoted to defensive coordinator despite his unit’s historically bad season last year. It was a head-scratcher of a decision, even if it did come from the intensely loyal Vrabel, who has repeatedly shown he’ll promote from within if at all possible.

The problem, of course, was that Vrabel had an easy out: He didn’t need to fire Bowen. He didn’t even have to demote him.

He could have just said his job — outside linebackers coach — is his only job. Instead, he officially gave him the job he had in all but name last season. And gave him the title.

And there were options. Notably, there was Pees, who made it clear before the 2020 season was over that his retirement would be a short-lived one. Fans and media alike clamored for the Titans to bring the wizard back. Alas.

Play-calling stability with a few new toys to mess around with is a positive for the offense. For the defense, though, staying the course seemed to be the last thing the Titans should do after a year with a blasé blitz, formulaic coverages and unremarkable outcomes.

Early returns were positive, of course, against the Falcons and the Bucs (backups).

But for Vrabel — and Bowen — to be vindicated, the Titans defense will have to show the one thing they never showed last season: improvement. The problems that were evident in Week 1 were the same ones they had in the playoffs.

Can a unit that’s improved on paper do enough to take the Titans from good to great? Or will Tennessee have to hope their great offense gets greater?★

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THE PLAYERS CLUB A look at some under-theradar Titans players to keep an eye on this season

BY MICHAEL GALLAGHER IN A TYPICAL YEAR, boasting the No. 2-ranked offense in the NFL, an 11-5 record and winning their first AFC South division title since 2008 would be reason for rejoicing for the Tennessee Titans.

But 2020 was anything but a typical year.

This season, the Titans carry over most of the pieces from their record-breaking offense a year ago. New offensive coordinator Todd Downing was promptly handed the keys to a shiny new car in the form of a passing offense that added seven-time Pro Bowl receiver Julio Jones. With a fistful of playmakers that also includes Ryan Tannehill, Derrick Henry, A.J. Brown and Josh Reynolds, good luck to opposing defenses trying to keep the Titans under 30 points per game.

As good as the offense is, the defense very much remains a question mark. The 2020 Titans had the worst third-down defense in NFL history and the 30th-ranked red-zone defense in the league. Simply put: The Titans defense couldn’t stop teams from moving the ball or scoring inside the 20.

Defensive linemen Jack Crawford and DaQuan Jones, linebackers Vic Beasley and Jadeveon Clowney, cornerbacks Malcolm Butler, Adoree’ Jackson and Desmond King, and safety Kenny Vaccaro are all gone. Staring at the existential proof that the defense was his team’s largest liability, Titans general manager Jon Robinson cleaned house.

While the Titans still have some questions that need to be answered, the team is the projected favorite to win the AFC South and potentially make a deep playoff run. Tennessee’s success in 2021 will be contingent on many things, including how well the overhauled team gels.

Below are some under-the-radar Titans players to keep an eye on in 2021.

Perhaps nothing has divided Titans media more during training camp than the debate of whether Anthony Firkser is a legitimate starting NFL tight end. The 26-year-old has never started more than a single game or had more than 39 receptions in his threeyear career. However, Firkser is arguably the Titans’ best possession tight end over the past two decades. He didn’t drop a single catchable target in 2020, according to Pro Football Focus, and since 1998, only Jonnu Smith in 2018 had 35 or more receptions with a higher catch percentage than Firkser’s 73.6 percent last season. He should fill in nicely as Ryan Tannehill’s security blanket.

Is Firkser really a TE1? At this point in his career, no. Is he highly underestimated?

Absolutely.

NATE DAVIS (OG)

The left side is the unquestioned strength of the Titans’ offensive line. But at the rate Nate Davis is developing, that may no longer be true.

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PHOTO: DONALD PAGE / TENNESSEE TITANS

ANTHONY FIRKSER (TE)

JEFFERY SIMMONS In just his second NFL season, Davis was the 13th-best run-blocking guard in the league, according to Pro Football Focus, and he even earned a first-team All-Pro vote.

Of the 1,074 snaps he played, Davis allowed just one sack. If he keeps on his current trajectory, he could be a Pro Bowler by the end of his third season. The next step for him is to develop his pass-blocking skills. If he improves there, he could be talked about as one of the elite guards in the NFL. “He’s taken really big strides,” says Titans offensive line coach Keith Carter.

“Every year in the NFL, he’s become a bet-

ter pro. I’m talking preparation, offseason routine — he’s figuring things out. The next step comes down to consistency. The best pros are able to be good on a consistent basis.”

JEFFERY SIMMONS (DT)

OK, so maybe Jeffery Simmons isn’t under the radar, but a lot of eyes will be on him this year. It’s difficult to find a Titans player whose stock rose more during the offseason than his. First, NFL.com named the 23-year-old defensive tackle to its AllUnder-25 Team. Then an anonymous general

manager told ESPN that Simmons was “the closest thing to Aaron Donald,” and another league executive told ESPN that Simmons is one of the top three defensive tackles in the NFL right now. And all of this was before the third-year player dropped another 10 pounds to help boost his burst off the line of scrimmage.

It’s crazy to think a year removed from leading the NFL in run-stop win rate as a defensive tackle and registering 21 quarterback pressures, 14 QB hits, 11 QB knockdowns, five pass breakups, three sacks, three fumble recoveries and a forced

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POWERED BY

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RASHAD WEAVER (OLB)

Rashad Weaver had his coming-out party in Tennessee’s Week 1 preseason win over the Atlanta Falcons. He showcased speed, athleticism, strength and sheer dominance, finding his way into the backfield with ease, albeit against Atlanta’s backups.

Pending the outcome of an assault charge Weaver will go to court for Oct. 5 in Pittsburgh, the 23-year-old could be on the fast track to being Tennessee’s No. 3 outside linebacker behind Dupree and Harold Landry. Given the Titans’ 19 sacks in 2020, a player with the pass-rush potential of Weaver could become a permanent fixture in the Titans’ front seven.

KRISTIAN FULTON (CB)

If there’s one player from last year’s rookie class that will benefit more than any other from having a normal training camp and preseason this year, it’s Kristian Fulton. The 22-year-old corner has been a pass-breakup machine in practice and during the Titans’ preseason opener against the Atlanta Falcons. Fulton appears to have tightened up his manto-man coverage skills, and the Titans have the luxury of moving him inside or outside.

Injuries and COVID limited him to just six games during his rookie year, where he totaled 16 tackles, an interception and a pass breakup. However, having a clearly defined role — the Titans expect Fulton to be a starting cornerback — has cut out the white noise and clearly defined his expectations.

Says Fulton: “That’s the main thing for me heading into Year 2, being able to find a role in the defense. … I am preparing to be a starter, at whatever role that may be — at corner, nickel or special teams.

I just want to show them that I have been working for that and trying to get healthy and show them that I know what I am doing out there.”

PHOTO: DONALD PAGE / TENNESSEE TITANS

AMANI HOOKER (S)

BUD DUPREE

fumble, that Simmons is only scratching the surface of his potential. It could be argued that the 2021 Titans defense can go as far as Simmons takes them.

BUD DUPREE (OLB)

Bud Dupree was brought to Tennessee for one reason: to fix the pass rush. While it

12

may be unfair to place that kind of pressure on just one player, he’s getting paid $82.5 million to do so, so I’ll direct my sympathies elsewhere.

While he’s been limited during training camp with his ACL recovery, eventually Dupree will take the field in a live-action game, and he won’t get a free pass if he puts up

Jadeveon Clowney-esque numbers.

“You never want to be on the sideline,” says Dupree. “But with a situation like I’m in, it’s just something that takes time. … So now it’s just a waiting game. I’m going to be ready whenever they call me. If they tell me to go out tomorrow, I can go do it.”

Cutting a veteran the caliber of Kenny Vaccaro is no easy pill to swallow, but it’s a move that’s completely justified if you have a younger, faster and perhaps a higher-ceiling player waiting in the wings like Tennessee does. Amani Hooker showed glimpses throughout the 2020 season that he’s more than capable of filling Vaccaro’s shoes. He led the Titans with four interceptions in 2020, and at times looked to be the team’s best safety. Quarterbacks had a lower passer rating when targeting Hooker than Vaccaro (83.2 to 115.7), and Hooker allowed fewer yards after the catch than Vaccaro did (114 to 188) as well.

Robinson told reporters after drafting Hooker in 2019 that he did so based solely on his versatility in base defense and sub packages. As the unquestioned starter at free safety, that versatility may be fully unlocked in 2021.

“Hooker showed up in a few different coverages making some plays,” says defensive coordinator Shane Bowen.

“He has been savvy back there. He has always been a smart football player. I think he is starting to learn the ins and outs of playing the game.”

EMAIL EDITOR@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

[SKIPPING STONES]

NASHVILLE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL’S TWELFTH NIGHT

PHOTO: MICHAEL GOMEZ PHOTOGRAPHY

Nashville Shakespeare Festival is back at OneC1ty this weekend with the Bard’s beloved comedy Twelfth Night. For those who may not remember this raucous tale

THURSDAY, AUG. 26 The Ryman

from their high school reading, it opens with a shipwreck that separates twins Viola and Sebastian, and leaves both thinking that the other has perished in the storm. Determined to make her own way, Viola naturally disguises herself as a man — kicking off a maelstrom of mistaken identity, unrequited love and general revelry. Jim Warren (the founding artistic director of the American Shakespeare Center) directs a terrific cast, with a diverse mix of talent from Nashville, New York and beyond. Of particular note is Nashville composer-actor Tom Mason, who provides original music and plays the witty role of Feste. The festival is free, but a $10 donation is encouraged. Noble seating and VIP Royal Packages are also available.

To learn more, visit nashvilleshakes.org.

Aug. 26-Sept. 12 at OneC1ty, 8 City Blvd.

AMY STUMPFL

TWELFTH NIGHT

FRIDAY / 8. 27 [TAKE IT EASY]

SLOW PASS W/DOWN BOY & EVAN DOAN JENKINS

You may have seen Ben Sparaco playing with top-notch Grateful Dead tribute group The Stolen Faces, subbing in for Scene contributing editor Jack Silverman. If you’re guessing that Sparaco’s original work is also fluid and somewhat psychedelic — well, you wouldn’t be totally wrong, but it doesn’t sound at all like the Dead. Sparaco’s duo with Adam Discipio is called Slow Pass, and it comes on the heels of a now-dissolved project called Ben Sparaco and the New Effect. The new outfit will make its live debut Friday at Exit/In, celebrating the release of a single called “White Knuckles.”

The tune is a look at a complicated relationship in which communication has

PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS

ASHLEY McBRYDE

[PASS AS WHAT?]

NO ORDINARY MAN

Though some might have you believe that the existence of trans people is somehow a new phenomenon, gendernonconforming individuals are as old as time — it’s just that the world wasn’t often ready to see them yet. One such case is Billy Tipton, who established a somewhat successful career as a jazz bandleader during the midcentury before being outed as trans upon his death. Though Tipton may have wanted to live an unassuming life, it’s hard not to see why trans people of earlier eras kept their identity a closely protected secret — Tipton’s life and gender became a horrible tabloid spectacle. The new documentary No Ordinary Man seeks to rewrite the history — and give Tipton his much-deserved time in the spotlight — by taking a layered approach to a layered life.

What begins as a conventional biographical documentary soon unveils itself as a metatextual, multifaceted reflection on identity, as filmmakers Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt hold casting sessions for trans-masculine actors to play the part of Tipton. Through Aug. 29 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. NADINE SMITH MUSIC

[PLAY ON!]

FILM

ASHLEY McBRYDE

On her 2018 major-label debut album Girl Going Nowhere, country singer Ashley McBryde made hay in a socialrealist mode all her own. That record’s “Styrofoam” — a kind of simplified funkreggae-pop song — found McBryde singing about the joys of using the synthetic material namechecked in the song’s title.

As with a lot of modern country, it’s hard to tell exactly what politics McBryde might have, since “Styrofoam” is partly about how much fun it is to live in a society full of disposable products. Another song from Girl Going Nowhere, “Livin’ Next to Leroy,” brilliantly describes how a disposable society can produce people who steal cable while cooking meth. Still, you come away from the song with a certain sympathy for Leroy, which is a testament to McBryde’s songwriting chops. McBryde’s 2020 fulllength Never Will puts the Arkansas-born singer into pop-rock-country settings that can seem fulsome — you could argue that the album is slightly overproduced.

Maybe that’s true, but “Stone” is a moving song about life choices that manages to work its conceit without tipping over into sentimentality. She’s a major writer whose class-conscious approach doesn’t preclude, well, fun. Also appearing Thursday night at the Ryman will be country singer Caylee Hammack, whose 2020 debut album If It Wasn’t for You is a piece of candy with a gooey pop center. 8 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Rep. John Lewis Way N. EDD HURT THEATER

pretty much broken down, and it rides atop clouds of synth chords and shimmering guitars, propelled by a driving post-disco beat. It’s the band’s third single, previewing High Pass, an EP set for release this fall on a date to be announced. Down Boy, a funk-infused group that is much more jaminclined, will open, along with purveyor of grooving piano-focused songs Evan Doan Jenkins. 8 p.m. at Exit/In, 2208 Elliston Place STEPHEN TRAGESER

MUSIC

MUSIC

THURSDAY / 8.26

[MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN]

DARRIN BRADBURY ALBUM RELEASE FEAT. CORALEE

Many musicians have used the unsettling suspended animation of the

DARRIN BRADBURY

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CRITICS’ PICKS

saturday august 28 ~AND~

Wolfpack

STEPHEN TRAGESER

MUSIC

Tommy Howell (C. Thomas Howell)

[5 ON IT]

NELLEN DRYDEN, SMOKING FLOWERS & STEPHIE JAMES

Few Nashville venues held it down as tightly last year, with as much integrity or panache, as East Nashville’s The 5 Spot, which co-owner Todd Sherwood cleverly transformed into a soundstage for localband concert films for the many months

NELLEN DRYDEN

the real deal couldn’t happen. Now that the venue is back to being a nightly proving ground for local artists of all stripes, don’t lose sight of what could’ve been lost — take a chance on a show, even if you don’t recognize the names. Here’s the book on those sharing the stage on Friday evening: Upstate New York transplant and headliner Nellen Dryden’s style is something along the lines of Bonnie Raitt-gone-Motown, while the duo Smoking Flowers delivered a raucous John Prine cover at The Groove during an abbreviated set for June’s Record Store Day festivities. It was a much more ferocious live performance than their recordings available on Spotify suggest.

Native Detroiter Stephie James fills out the three-band bill. 9 p.m. at The 5 Spot, 1006 Forrest Ave. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

SATURDAY / 8.28 CARS

pandemic to gain new perspective on their work. Darrin Bradbury had an even more profound experience. The New Jersey-born longtime Nashvillian and singer-songwriter spent two months last summer in residential treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder and PTSD. As he writes in press materials accompanying his new album Artvertisement, he underwent intensive therapy as part of his “work to become a functional human.” That underscores one of the important things that really excellent songwriting like Bradbury’s does: It isn’t a replacement for therapy, but it tells you important things about living with yourself and other humans in this strange and often bewildering world. Artvertisement features some of Bradbury’s most rocking tracks yet. It was written before he went into treatment and recorded in the week between the deadly March 2020 tornado in Nashville and widespread pandemic-related shutdowns. The Camper Van Beethoven-y titular tune uses a meeting Bradbury had with a music-biz person who was painfully unaware of how his words might come across as a jumping-off point to address the absurdity that the business of selling art can lead to. The song is just the tip of the iceberg, the rest of which you can experience for yourself at Friday’s release party. Bradbury’s fellow shapeshifting songsmith Coralee opens the show. 9 p.m. at The Basement, 1604 Eighth Ave. S.

[I FEEL SAFEST OF ALL]

CAR CULTURE

Cars are pretty important to many kids. They mean access to stuff you want to do — and once you get old enough, the freedom to do it on your own. Even the most basic vehicles involve a massive amount of math, physics and chemistry, which presents a perfect opportunity for the Adventure Science Center to shine. The center’s new Car Culture exhibit, opening Saturday, includes lots of hands-on activities to explore concepts that are important to transportation. But as the name of the exhibit implies, cars have a big cultural impact too. As part of the installation, Bowling Green, Ky.’s National Corvette Museum is providing a fleet of seven Chevrolet Corvettes — without a doubt one of the most recognizable American sports cars of all time — ranging in model year from 1954 to 2019. Saturday is your first chance to check it all out, but the exhibit is open until Nov. 28. Grown folks will get a chance to peruse the installation after hours during Sept. 2’s Prince-themed Way Late Play Date, subtitled Little Red Corvette. A slate of separately ticketed community car shows is set to run through the fall as well, beginning with one called Performance on Sept. 18 featuring cutting-edge vehicles from the past two model years. On Oct. 16, the Modification show will offer cars that have been tricked out into mobile works of art, and on Nov. 16, the Classic show spotlights vehicles built before 1970. Email marketing@adventuresci.org for details on participating in the shows, and visit adventuresci.org for ticketing information.

Aug. 28-Nov. 28 at the Adventure Science Center, 800 Fort Negley Blvd.

STEPHEN TRAGESER

CAR CULTURE

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[TRANSFORMATIVE TALE]

PREMIERE OF A SONG CAN CHANGE A LIFE

Over the past few years, the impact of Black people in country music has finally started to get the attention it deserves. That includes the extensive information about African American origins and pioneers that was woven throughout Ken Burns’ impressive documentary series Country Music, as well as the historic Grammy nomination for Mickey Guyton’s single “Black Like Me,” and the widespread praise for Rissi Palmer’s informative Color Me Country podcast. But there remain plenty of underpublicized and valuable stories to tell. None are more compelling than that of Sarge and Shirley West. The well-traveled Wests were one of the first well-known Black country duos, and they performed in an era when opposition and hostility to their music was open and unbridled.

Yet they persevered, and their love and determination influenced their son, singersongwriter Joe West. Two years ago he teamed with Milwaukee filmmaker Warren Matson to create a documentary that tells his parents’ inspiring story. West will perform songs and present the film, titled A Song Can Change A Life, on Saturday night.

It’s an event that should be poignant and memorable. 6 p.m. at The Local, 110 28th Ave. RON WYNN

SUNDAY / 8.29 [ALL THIS JAZZ]

JAZZ ON THE CUMBERLAND

For 10 years now, Nashville’s Jazz on the Cumberland series has provided locals an amazing setting to experience jazz and familyfriendly activities. Every month between May and October, the free series features local and touring jazz acts playing against the backdrop of the Cumberland River and the Nashville skyline. The August installment, taking place on Sunday, will feature a performance from the Jazz on the Cumberland All Star Band — expect some top-notch longtime players from Nashville’s rich and talented jazz scene. As

always, you can expect food trucks, vendors and a play area for kids — pets are welcome too. Even though the event is free, you might have to pay for parking (or walk a while), so plan accordingly. The event website suggests the $5 parking option in Nissan Stadium’s R and T lots. 5:30 p.m. at Cumberland Park, 592 S. First St. KELSEY BEYELER MUSIC

WEEKEND CLASSICS: FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH

[COUNTRY SYNTHESIS]

THE MAVERICKS W/SWEET LIZZY PROJECT

In a universe that contains a lot of synthetic country music, The Mavericks turn synthesis to their own purposes. Their music isn’t deep — songs like 1998’s “Dance the Night Away” mix rockabilly and country with a Latin tinge, but the lyrics amount to pretty standard-issue pop sentiments. Still, Mavericks singer Raul Malo comes across as a hip, post-New Wave Roy Orbison, which means he’s emotive but not florid. As he told Essentially Pop writer Steve Holley in 2020, “I personally think of us as a rock ’n’ roll band. That’s what I think we are, but not in the traditional sense, like Led Zeppelin or The Beatles.” That makes sense, since The Mavericks represent a side of Nashville country-esque music that doesn’t traffic in any rebel-rousing tactics. They make high-grade party music that does rock more than you might expect, and you occasionally catch a whiff of something a bit more nuanced on their albums. Also appearing at their show Sunday will be Sweet Lizzy Project, which formed in Cuba before moving to Nashville in late 2017. The band’s singer, Lisset Diaz, shows off her smarts on the group’s 2020 full-length Technicolor.

Their music ranges across rock, with hints of prog and math rock. Technicolor is both lush and pointed — sometimes synthetic music is the best. 6 p.m. at The Caverns, 555 Charlie Roberts Road, Pelham EDD HURT

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Like American Graffiti in the ’70s and Dazed and Confused in the ’90s, Fast Times at Ridgemont High was the ’80s high school ensemble film that launched many careers: Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Phoebe Cates, Forest Whitaker, Nicolas Cage, Eric Stoltz. It also made Hollywood take notice of rock-journalist-turned-screenwriter Cameron Crowe, who adapted the script from his 1981 book. But what’s unfortunate is that it didn’t make an instant star out of director Amy Heckerling. Sure, she’s had a nice career helming low to middlebrow comedies, including National Lampoon’s European Vacation and the first two Look Who’s Talking movies. But between this film, which was a comical but authentic look at teenage life (released in the same year as that other horny teen romp The Last American Virgin), and her satirical 1995 teen flick Clueless, it’s a damn shame she didn’t rake in fame and fortune as the female John Hughes. Aug. 28-30 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave. CRAIG D. LINDSEY

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CRITICS’ PICKS

[THE COOL DUDES]

STEVE EARLE & LOS LOBOS

Well-traveled songsmith Steve Earle and bilingual Los Angeles rockers Los Lobos are icons of longevity — and pillars of resilience. They’re also no strangers to heartbreak. Lobos guitarist Cesar Rosas’ wife was brutally murdered in 2000; Earle’s son, singer Justin Townes Earle, was lost to an overdose just last year. They’ll both roll into the Mother Church supporting quality covers collections on Monday: Earle’s J.T. — a carefully chosen set list of 10 Justin-penned songs including the brooding “Saint of Lost Causes” and the dark-yet-cathartic “Harlem River Blues,” plus a new Steve tune, the heart-wrenching closing eulogy “Last Words.” Lobos’ Native Sons, a mellower affair, includes solid renditions of Buffalo Springfield and Beach Boys songs. More exciting, however, are Spanish-sung deep cuts like “Los Chucos Suaves” (translation: “The Cool Dudes”), originally written by Lalo Guerrero. Here’s hoping the group also saves room in the set list for some tunes from Colossal Head, the oddball mid-’90s collection that ushered in a new period of sonic experimentalism for the chronically underrated East Los boys. 8 p.m. at the Ryman, 116 Fifth Ave. N. CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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@parnassusbooks @parnassusbooks1 @parnassusbooks 3900 Hillsboro Pike Suite 14 Nashville, TN 37215 (615) 953-2243 Shop online at parnassusbooks.net nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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KASHENA SAMPSON // SEP 8

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THE FOXIES // SEP 10

NIKKI LANE // SEP 11

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VALLEY MAKER // SEP 1

DARRIN BRADBURY // AUG 27

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w/ coralee

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dk the drummer featuring brassville Fozzy w/ Through Fire, Royal Bliss & Black Satellite Jukebox the Ghost Perpetual Groove the nude party w/ twen freddie gibbs The Emo Night Tour Mae & The Juliana Theory celebrating the life and songs of John Prine SOLD OUT! K CAMP natalie hemby okey dokey w/ nordista freeze & Gatlin Parker Millsap w/ molly parden Noga Erez w/ McKinley Dixon Madison Cunningham w/ S.G. Goodman gus dapperton w/ Spill tab how long gone podcast The Backseat Lovers w/ branson anderson SOLD OUT! Pecos & the Rooftops SOLD OUT! Tennis w/ molly burch

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Sep 10 Sep 12 Sep 15 Sep 17 Sep 18

Sep 19 Sep 30 oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 21

Rock Eupora w/ Sad Baxter & Gentle Organisms Quiet Hollers w/ She Returns From War and Katy Guillen & The Drive

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EVERGREEN: STUFF YOU CAN DO ANY TIME GAMING

BLAKE HENDERSON & WHELAN STONE // SEP 2 w/ forrest finn

Every year, Utah’s long-running Sundance Film Festival showcases dozens of short films made by independent directors — and later in the year, the Sundance Institute packages a number of the standouts to tour indie theaters around the country. This year’s Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour features seven selections clocking in at a brisk 92 minutes in total, and will visit Nashville’s own Belcourt Theatre Sept. 1 through 5.

Among the most promising titles in the bunch are Turkish writer-director Serhat Karaaslan’s “THE CRIMINALS,” which earned the Special Jury Prize for Writing and follows a young couple stuck in a difficult and escalating situation, and South Korean

[THE GARDEN OF MADNESS]

PLAY NO MORE HEROES 3 ON NINTENDO SWITCH

Goichi Suda, better known as Suda51, is like the punk-rock Quentin Tarantino of video games. The Japanese director’s games are often laden with a gratuitous amount of violence, expletives, innuendo, plus a fusion of Japanese culture and Western influences, all in one stylized package. Add to the mix musical influences like The Smiths, The Stranglers and Sex Pistols — just to name a few — and you’ve got No More Heroes.

Set 11 years after the second game in the series, No More Heroes 3 involves foul-mouthed otaku-turned-elite-assassin Travis Touchdown taking on his greatest foes yet: a legion of superpowered aliens hell-bent on taking over the world. Players must help Touchdown once again wield Blood Berry, the iconic beam katana won through an online auction, as he embarks on a journey drenched in extraterrestrial bloodshed. With the HD remasters of the first two NMH games available for the latest consoles and the long-awaited third entry on its way, there has never been a better time for fans of the series and newcomers alike to enter the garden of madness. No More Heroes 3 slashes its way exclusively for Nintendo Switch on Friday, Aug. 27. KAHWIT TELA BOOKS

W/ GABRIEL KELLEY & DREW SMITHERS

2021 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL SHORT FILM TOUR

[PRIMITIVE RADIO GODS]

READ BARNEY HOSKYNS’ GOD IS IN THE RADIO

Much like film criticism, music criticism can sometimes seem like a decaying field swarming with jaded, sarcastic scribes whose opinions reek of egocentric narrowmindedness. Just like music listeners themselves, they like what they like — and that’s it. The glory days of people picking up Creem or Rolling Stone just to read the rants and raves of now-deceased hellraisers Lester Bangs, Paul Nelson or Nick Tosches are just that — a distant memory. But there are those who still write about music with an experienced, entertaining passion, like British critic-author Barney Hoskyns. He has rounded up four decades’ worth of ardently written pieces (subtitled Unbridled Enthusiasms: 1980-2020) for this collection. The book is cut into two parts, starting off with short-but-sweet takes on pop music’s most familiar names, from legendary icons to contemporary visionaries (like Nashville resident Gillian Welch). The second section is the most fascinating, as Hoskyns does lengthy deep-dives on weirdos, outcasts, hellions and other talented outliers (like Nashville resident Jack White). If you believe in music — and music criticism — as much as Hoskyns does, this is one good book worth preaching about. CRAIG D. LINDSEY TV

Brandon "Taz" Niederauer // SEP 1

[SALUTE THESE SHORTS]

animated short “KKUM.” Also in the bunch is the recipient of the Special Jury Prize for Acting, “WIGGLE ROOM,” which was co-written and co-directed by Americans Sam Guest and Julia Baylis and depicts a young woman trying to rescue her wheelchair ramp from repossession. Fans of Succession will want to keep an eye out for J. Smith-Cameron (she plays Waystar Royco general counsel Gerri in the hit HBO series), who is featured in “WHITE WEDDING” — wherein “a biracial bride has the chance to confront her estranged Black father after accidentally hiring his wedding band to perform.” No telling which of these filmmakers will go on to win hearts and awards with their feature-length fare, so get your eyes on their early work on the big screen while you can. Check out belcourt.org for tickets and showtimes.

Sept. 1-5 at the Belcourt, 2102 Belcourt Ave.

[MOVIE MAGIC]

WATCH BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOR ON NETFLIX

Not since Russian Doll has there been a show that feels as tailor-made for me as Netflix’s Brand New Cherry Flavor. The neo-noir horror series is set in the early 1990s, which seems to be as much of an aesthetic choice as a plot-related one. But that’s fine with me — it means subversive jewelry and plenty of Pixies and Phil Collins. The show, which is based on a novel of the same name by Todd Grimson, follows Lisa, an aspiring filmmaker who is cool and tormented, and reminds me a little of Samantha Mathis’ character in 1990’s Pump Up the Volume. She’s befriended by a spooky Catherine Keener, doing her best post-Get Out menacing sweetheart, who performs cat-involved magic that is … let’s just say it’s Cronenbergian — I’ll leave it at that. Recommended if you liked Mulholland Drive, Shirkers or the aforementioned stylishly thrilling Russian Doll.

LAURA HUTSON HUNTER

1604 8th Ave S Nashville, TN 37203 thebasementnash 20

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NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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9.11

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ELLISTON PLACE SODA SHOP

The pandemic’s long-term effects on restaurant staffing and costs are beginning to show

BY STEVE CAVENDISH

the restaurants in Nashville. The labor pool was — while nowhere near as bad as it is now — it wasn’t like we were flooded daily with hundreds of résumés of talented folks that wanted to work.”

And when COVID hit, the dynamic changed. Many experienced hands left altogether, whether because of working conditions or the shakiness of a market so exposed to the effects of the pandemic.

Goldberg says some households with two breadwinners in the hospitality industry reevaluated. He also says an established manager’s salary has gone up “pretty significantly,” as have those of almost all kitchen positions.

That makes for a tough dynamic for finedining establishments needing skilled help, says Matt Bolus, the chef at The 404 Kitchen and Gertie’s.

“I think it would be two-fold, right?” says Bolus. “So take experience. Since the pandemic began, a lot of lifers, a lot of longtermers, have left for whatever reason.

Either it’s passion projects, or just, ‘I’m done with this shit, I don’t want to work for the assholes anymore,’ or whatever. So we’re lacking in the ranks. People that were dishwashers pre-pandemic are now lead line cooks, right? And those folks that we were starting out in the $14- to $15-[per-hour] range, now we have to start in the $19, $20 range, sometimes higher. We’re paying one guy 22 bucks an hour, and he’s literally talking to another line cook about how Hattie B’s is paying $24 an hour to start. He’s like, ‘Man, 24 bucks an hour just to fry chicken.’ ” Prasad says line cooks formerly making $15 per hour are now easily making $18. Her solution has been to build an environment where staff enjoys coming to work every day. A big part of Miel’s attraction for line cooks, she says, has been safety.

Says Prasad: “People just email me randomly and say, ‘Hey, I hear that you guys wear masks in the restaurant and that no one’s had COVID on the team, and we just would really want to work in an environment like that. Sounds like you’ve been really safe, and I love the industry. I just don’t want to work in a place that feels like a free-for-all.’ ” Jim Myers, a manager at Elliston Place Soda Shop, says staffing has been a real challenge for his place, which closed for 18 months to remodel and expand. When they came back in May, Elliston Place was forced to pay more than they had expected for staff.

“It’s been very hard for all the reasons people suspect,” Myers says. “People are quick to blame the unemployment benefits for a reason why people aren’t coming back.

And I think you’re naive if you think that’s not part of it. But also I think a lot of people left the hospitality industry during the pandemic and ended up in other sectors. So you start with an already shallow labor pool and you make it even more shallow. And then you have the challenge of everyone reopening at about the same time, and it was just a perfect storm of scrambling to find people to work.”

Most restaurants have been able to cope with higher costs so far because of the increased business, but eventually, in a low-margin business like dining, it will get passed on to consumers on the menu.

“We’ve taken some modest price increases, and I think pretty much every restaurant I’ve been to has taken price increases, even if it’s fast food,” says Hogrefe. “But I also think that menu prices in Nashville — in comparison to other cities of Nashville’s size and growth status — probably had some room to grow. And particu-

GERTIE’S larly [with] some of the rents that are being charged in some of the new developments, the pricing is going to start reflecting more what you see in — maybe not New York or San Francisco prices, but it’s going to start leaning in that direction pretty soon. Especially if the economy continues to be so tourist-focused.”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

food_8-26-21.indd 23

PHOTOS: ERIC ENGLAND

I

f you were to order takeout from Amerigo — the stalwart West End Italian place — five nights in a row and keep the disposable containers (just stick with me here), it’s likely you’d notice something: The brands of the containers might be different every night.

This is due to the state of the supply chain in Nashville restaurants as the city’s dining scene has pushed into overdrive after a year-and-a-half of pandemic operations. Vaccinations have pushed confident customers back into the marketplace, and many restaurants the Scene surveyed for this piece are well ahead of their yearly projections. But restaurants are also experiencing increased takeout demand, meaning suppliers are scrambling to provide everything from to-go containers to ground beef to plates.

Also in high demand? Labor. What was a tough situation before COVID-19 has gotten much, much worse.

“Yeah, it’s a buyer’s market for labor,” says Doug Hogrefe, an operating partner at 4Top Hospitality, which owns Amerigo’s. “But when you couple that with the huge increase in cost of goods, whether it’s food, to plates — we have one restaurant that’s using three different types of forks right now — it’s just all, you know the cliché, a perfect storm. That being said, sales are increasing, at least for our company, to about 2019 levels. And that’s at least keeping us above water.”

Miel owner Seema Prasad concurs, noting that the supply chain has forced her chef to get creative with some menu items. “Now we can have some scraps of something that’s still this great quality product, and we can make it into four servings of something and put it on happy hour, or put it on the menu on a Wednesday night when we know we’ll only sell four of them and get our money out of that product.”

But the biggest problem is people. Lack of staff has forced restaurants to trim hours and services. Butcher & Bee has yet to bring back its lunch, for example, while many places have quietly reduced their late dinner hours to give frazzled staff a breather.

Elliston Place Soda Shop reopened in May but has yet to open on Sundays because there simply aren’t enough folks to make food and serve tables.

Hogrefe says Amerigo’s held onto staff throughout the pandemic, and that has helped now that in-person dining has ramped back up. But startups and restaurants that scaled way back are feeling the pressure to find people and are often paying higher wages than before the pandemic.

“I tell people all the time that, pre-COVID, it was not like Nashville had this massive influx of hiring,” says Ben Goldberg, a partner at Strategic Hospitality, which operates 11 different restaurants and bars.

“Everyone was still looking to hire up in all

23

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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.

I

n the brief time my husband and I quarantined together during the pandemic, our marriage unraveled.

After 12 years together, all it took was a few months holed up in our dream home to show me that my marriage had become, as my attorney put it, insupportable.

When my husband started working remotely, I stopped sleeping. I read news stories about pandemic divorce rates and about how victims of domestic violence were more isolated than ever. When I saw myself in them, I felt silly for entertaining the thought that my husband was abusive — or that he’d let me leave.

He hates me, but it’s not like he’s hitting me.

My freelance work disappeared. I applied for unemployment and found ways to get away without getting infected. As an early summer heatwave set in, I floated in the hammock until the sun made me dizzy and rode my bike until my legs cramped. I relied on time apart from my husband to shore up my reserves. If we spent every waking hour together, there would be nowhere left to hide from my marriage.

We lived in that bubble for months, pretending I hadn’t stopped eating and sleeping. My clothes no longer fit. Black pools formed under my eyes. My hair started falling out. I think he liked me best that way. It made me pliable.

Once I realized the pandemic had no expiration date, I’d lay awake and envision slitting my wrists in our pink vintage bathtub. I needed help, but I only had him. I learned to never show him my soft underbelly. When I disclosed secrets I’d only told a therapist, he used them against me — or worse, divulged them without my consent. So I didn’t tell him I wanted to die, just that I was miserable.

“I feel like you hate me,” I said. “Did you ever love me? Or at some point, did I do something to make you stop?”

He sighed and said that from the start, he knew he wanted me in his life forever.

“I still see that girl when I look at you, but I no longer recognize myself when I look in the mirror.”

I would’ve said I didn’t recognize him either, but deep down, I knew who he was.

He was the guy who said he’d never hurt me. And he was the guy who heaved a piece of furniture onto my foot, breaking

several bones the day before we’d planned to meet my ex for drinks. Who prized his mother’s Nancy Drew collection, and who dropped a bookshelf on my head when he got frustrated with the assembly process.

Who gave our dogs silly nicknames, and who wrapped a leash around our Chihuahua’s neck, choking him as I screamed in terror.

He’s the guy who gaslit me and denied those acts for years, all while fessing up to them in his journals.

That’s just the highlight reel. Day-to-day emotional abuse is more subtle, a string of acts marked not with a bang or a bruise, but with a series of tiny quiet deaths that weather you so slowly. When inspected in isolation, individual events can look benign, so you explain them away.

But quarantine dropped the full weight of it upon me. I started recoiling from him reflexively. When he was near, my breath quickened, my hands trembled and my skin glistened with sweat. Emotional flashbacks paralyzed me. When I confided in my therapist, she appeared relieved, as if I’d pulled the missing puzzle piece from my pocket and pressed it into her palm. She diagnosed me with complex PTSD, a form of post-traumatic stress common in prisoners of war and those who endure long-term chronic abuse.

The diagnosis left me dizzy and untethered. If my husband was abusive, I had nothing to show for it — no fistshaped holes in the drywall, no police reports to prove I was anything other than as content as I pretended to be. It wasn’t until I researched emotional abuse that I found a checklist of behaviors I’d begged him to address. Gaslighting.

Manipulation. Humiliation. Isolation.

Withholding affection. Invalidation of pain.

Financial control.

When we finally named the abuse, my husband didn’t seem surprised. “I’ve been miserable since before I met you,” he said.

“When I see you happy, it makes me upset.”

He hadn’t seemed happy all those years because he wasn’t, but maybe I could be. In the middle of a global pandemic, I realized my husband was the most credible threat to my health. So I left.

Here’s the thing no one tells you about resilience: You can survive anything, and that’s the scary part. Your body is designed to suppress the rising waters of trauma until you reach dry land. Once there, your body opens the floodgates, inundating you with the immeasurable grief and anguish you couldn’t process while fighting to survive. You dive into the pain without knowing what’s on the other side. Is it a better life or just a different one? I’m not sure. But for the first time in years, I’m glad this life is mine.

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NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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THEATER

SPARKS FLY Jennifer Whitcomb-Oliva’s Seven to premiere Saturday at Kindling Arts Festival

BY ERICA CICCARONE

PHOTO: REBECCA NELSON

M

ultidisciplinary artist Jennifer WhitcombOliva loves playing roles that are as comedic as they are dramatic. She recently appeared in Nashville ChilSEVEN WILL SCREEN 8 P.M. dren’s Theatre’s SATURDAY, AUG. 28, AT OZ ARTS production of KINDLING ARTS FESTIVAL IS Charlotte’s Web as THROUGH AUG. 28 AT VARIOUS the goose. Over the LOCATIONS. LEARN MORE AT past four years, KINDLINGARTS.COM. she’s been doing a lot of character work.

“I enjoy it because I can say that in my early career, especially as a Black actress, that’s not something that was ever really an option for me,” Whitcomb-Oliva tells the Scene. “Now, all of a sudden, I’m playing animals and really awesome, goofy parts that I never thought I would play. I’m enjoying every second of it.”

A graduate of the Austin Peay State University theater department and a native Nashvillian, Whitcomb-Oliva balances lightness and darkness. We may see her cutting up in comedic roles, but her solo work is anything but light. She’s not afraid to take on serious subject matter with challenging work, and her newest project is no exception. Seven is her first film, and it will screen as part of Kindling Arts Festival, an annual fest that includes everything from aerial dance performances to experimental films and original plays. Whitcomb-Oliva’s solo effort Darkness and Other Black Things was easily the most provocative and strongest act of the 2019 festival. Seven, which was supported by a THRIVE award from the Metro Arts Commission, explores the seven deadly sins through the lenses of Blackness and fatness.

“I’m not afraid of confrontation,” Whitcomb-Oliva tells the Scene. “I’ve never been afraid of it. For me, it’s more effective to take the issue head on — to not sugarcoat it, because that is confusing to people.

How can we learn about Black culture and learn about Blackness as a whole? We really need to sit down and talk about it, the good with the bad. I don’t know how to be anything other than myself. And I am a fat Black woman.”

We should note that Whitcomb-Oliva and the Scene do not use the word “fat” pejoratively. Much like other derogatory words that have been reclaimed by the people meant to be harmed by their use, we use “fat” as a neutral adjective no different in function from “tall” or “pale.”

In seven vignettes, Whitcomb-Olivia turns each of the seven deadly sins on its head. Pride is embodied by an African queen, wielding a scepter and striking regal poses. “I reclaim my title forthwith,” Whitcomb-Oliva narrates. “Queen. Descendant of greatness. Born into excellence. Brown skin is the resplendent example of sublime blessings. Bow down in the presence of tri-

umph.” In the vignette titled “Gluttony,” she merrily ices a cake in a kitchen, only to turn somber when it is time to eat it. In a choreographed dance, she goes back and forth, trying to decide if she will deny herself the pleasure of her own creation.

Because of the pandemic, WhitcombOliva turned to a new medium in film. She relied on her mother, documentarian Valerie Whitcomb, to work behind the camera and help bring her project to fruition. She also prepared to write the script by engaging in conversation with other women who identify as fat or plus-size. Whitcomb-Oliva hosted “story circles” with women from the groups Fashion Is for Every Body and Women of Color Collaborative. By talking with other women, she was able to explore what the experience of moving through the world in a larger body is like for others, and her film explores not only fatness and Blackness, but also sexuality and mental health.

Whitcomb-Oliva tells the Scene that the fun of performing Darkness and Other Black Things was in watching the audience react. It was “exhilarating and mindblowing,” she says. “It’s funny that you guys are coming to see a show, and for me, it’s the exact opposite. … I’m not the show. It’s everyone else.”

But Seven feels “so risky,” she says. “I’ve always been comfortable in my own skin.

I’ve always been comfortable in my body that is ever-changing, ever-moving and resilient. But letting people see it for what it actually is, is scary.”

Whitcomb-Oliva plans to enter Seven into film festivals, and Kindling seems the perfect venue for its premiere. The festival rewards artists who are willing to take risks and produce new work. This year’s festival will take place around town — at OZ Arts, The Barbershop Theater, Nashville School for the Aerial Arts and Centennial Park.

Our other picks for the festival include Nate Eppler and Jonathan Alexandratos’ The Small Parts Playset (7:30 p.m. Friday and 3 p.m. Saturday at The Barbershop); Alicia Haymer and Cameron L. Mitchell’s Blackbird (8 p.m. Thursday and 4 p.m. Saturday at The Barbershop); and Shabaz Ujima’s Soul/ Sky Moving Spirit (7 p.m. Thursday and Friday at Centennial Park, near Cockrill Spring and Musicians Corner).

With the rise of the Delta variant, Kindling has announced new protocols. Seating capacities will be reduced by 20 percent at all venues, and masks will be required at all times inside venues when guests are not actively drinking. All artists, staff members, technicians and volunteers will be vaccinated and masked, except when they are performing onstage. Due to The Barbershop Theater’s small size, proof of vaccination will be required for all audience members.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK

For sneaker designer Joshua Blevins, ‘art doesn’t have to be flat anymore’

BY D’LLISHA DAVIS

N

ashville native Joshua Blevins has stamped his name on many projects across the city. From building the DJ tables for DJ Rate’s Boom Bap to painting a cassette tape mural on the side of Vine LEARN MORE AT IDIOTSAVANTCS.COM Hill’s Wedgewood AND ON INSTAGRAM Market, Blevins has @IDIOTSAVANT.CS taken ideas and elevated each with his creativity. Far beyond the city, he has landed projects with Coca-Cola, Jordan Brand and Bud Lite, and is currently in the process of a project for Roc Nation.

With goals of exploring many more projects, including a book, Blevins is refocusing his creativity back into a passion he has held onto for years: sneakers. He has a background in architecture and has employed his craftsmanship in many ways far beyond where his education steered him. Now, as he launches his newest passion project Idiot Savant Chopped & Stitched, he hopes to create an avenue for art and design through chopped and stitched goods.

Blevins admits that he isn’t a master of all trades, but he is multifaceted creatively.

While he loves the arts, his passion for sneakers has always been at the forefront.

He’s long believed that your most expressive articles of clothing are your shoes, and

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he wants to dive deeper into sneaker culture. “Sneakers are celebrated by [people of] all races and ethnic backgrounds,” says Blevins. “They have become a tool behind the passion I have in creating authentic pieces. A good amount of the things I have created pay homage to something.”

Both a designer and an artist, Blevins seeks to live in his purpose and inspire others to step outside of their comfort zones in their craft. Meshing immersive art with his sneaker releases, Blevins seeks to make everything relate to the senses. Idiot Savant designs mix fabrics, colors and textures that wouldn’t typically go together — such as suede, nubuck and burlap — to create timeless pieces. The Idiot Savant team literally cuts apart shoes like Nike Air Force Ones, Yeezys and Jordans and stitches them back together to create one-of-a-kind pieces.

Blevins credits his creative partner Neil Caro, who comes up with various concepts for the Idiot Savant brand and hands them over to Blevins for the design work. “He’s the savant,” says Blevins, laughing. “He likes clean colorways and he isn’t very flashy. Meanwhile, I’m the opposite. I like real bright colors and styles, and we mesh so well together.”

The Jams & Jellies design was one of their first. Purple suede complements lilac tumbled leather and lavender rough suede — a true mesh of threads and design. Blevins wants to use brands that no one would think to use. “We want to dive into Reeboks, New Balances [to make] our own versions of sneakers that are specific to the Idiot Savant brand,” he says.

“We recraft shoes and take our time with them all the way down to the insoles.”

As fashion moves forward, Blevins reflects on past designers and streetwear brands that influenced him when he was younger. He compares the classiness of 1992-created streetwear brand Phat Farm with many brands of today that miss the

PHOTOS: DANIEL MEIGS

CULTURE

mark on timelessness. He wants his brand to be a blend of designers like Dapper Dan and Ralph Lauren. Both designers are very classy, but you can still wear their clothes casually every day. Blevins also credits his daughter for the evolution of his style and his brand’s mission.

“My style isn’t the same as it was 10 years ago because I am not the same,” says Blevins. “Having a daughter has changed what I do and how I show up because I have to remember that I am the first man she meets. I want to cater to the more mature style but also stay true to my love for fashion and sneakers.”

Blevins’ futuristic and tech-inspired approach to design extends to Idiot Savant’s branding, and he’s already selling a small selection of Apple Watch bands, bags and clothing. “We’re looking to tap into the non-fungible token, crypto-art world,” says Blevins. “The upside of this is if I sell you any type of art, if it is resold, I still get a cut. I really feel like canvas is dead and the future of the art and design world is going digital. We’re going into a generation of the youth where [digital] interaction can no longer be substituted. Art doesn’t have to be flat anymore.”

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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BOOKS

WE WRITE OUR WAY OUT

Poet C.I. Aki’s debut collection is a picture of Black persistence and future

BY KASHIF ANDREW GRAHAM

C

.I. Aki’s volume of poetry, The World Black, Beautiful, and Beast, is a collection entirely of this moment. Through verse that yearns for justice in a seemingly white world, Aki depicts scenes of Black resilience THE WORLD BLACK, and Black joy. This is BEAUTIFUL, AND BEAST

BY C.I. AKI accomplished via a APRIL GLOAMING certain poetic pointil99 PAGES, $11.99 lism, in which each poem captures a particular aspect of Black experience. When we stand back and view the collection as a whole, our vision adjusts to a larger picture of Black persistence and future. The Nashvillian’s debut collection is available now from the local small press April Gloaming.

The book opens with “Will They Feed Their Eyes?,” a poem that after a second Black Lives Matter movement, seems addressed to the newly “woke” masses. Aki’s lines stand in that vacuum — the kind that is created following any revolution: “now awakened, will they / feed their eyes to see.”

Now that our eyes have been opened to ageold atrocities, will we go further than mere observation — to truly seeing? The way forward, Aki asserts, is by paying attention to the stories written on the lives around us: “will they follow the stories the skin keeps?”

This is a prescient metaphor in a touchless, contactless hour. The pandemic has robbed us of physical touch, and we rely on digital financial transactions that render touch obsolete. Our bodies are living archives, as was evidenced by enslaved Africans whose backs, whipping after whipping, became topographical road maps.

Aki’s poems possess a filmic quality, which is particularly evident in “Only a Poem (Ars Poetica)”: “The chrysanthemums on the casket spray covered paw-paw’s / Resting face.” We are immediately spirited to the scene, tasting and touching the present tension. Perhaps this should not come as a surprise to the reader, as Aki is also a filmmaker, essayist and educator. Even with highly aesthetic imagery, the language throughout the book remains accessible. Aki relies on syntax and repetition rather than obscure vocabulary. This ensures that both the oppressed individuals he writes about and their oppressors will be able to locate themselves within the poetic narratives.

The poems in this collection embody several styles, including shaped poems, such as “Black Not Allowed Genius,” whose sharp edges conjure a lightning bolt or a pane of broken glass. The poem “I” describes the narrow strictures of life, and the words on the page form the shape of a slender pen.

Other poems take the form of brief, anxious takes such as “Colors and Light,” which is

AN UNABASHED, also reminiscent of Harlem Renaissance poet Countee Cullen’s book Color. Aki ponders: “is life every chance / for light / and color / to find the other truth of life?” He sustains this metaphoric interplay for the length of the work. Color and light break the surface as symbols for race and verity.

Through a lyrical investigation of these themes, Aki rebuts assumptions of whiteness as truth.

In “The Problem of Pain (When It Doesn’t Kill You)” Aki writes in contrast to the adage “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

He debunks this myth, carving out for us the image of a life lived in this gray place — when the blows keep coming, but relief of death never arrives. When pain doesn’t kill us, it does not fortify us, or boil over like a dream deferred, but rather it awakens us to ourselves. And we investigate the business of truly living, he asserts, in the face of everything that could eliminate us. In essence, we continue.

Aki’s verse seems to anticipate those who would offer unsolicited editorial suggestions to his lines, and to our lives. In “The Right Fight to Be,” he declares: “It’s my god-giving—yes, giving—right to fight.” Aki knows that the grammarians or well-intentioned white folks will soon come to correct him — It’s God-given — so he makes them aware from the outset that he is in control of the pen. In like manner, he establishes his sphere

FINGER-ONTHE-PULSE, LIVE-LIKE-YOU-

CAN’T-GET-

ENOUGH SUPPORTER OF THE ARTS

C.I. AKI of resistance, preempting further inquiry: “To stay right here—yes, here—and now.”

The World Black, Beautiful, and Beast is both a salve and a probe in a world hostile to Blackness, which, Aki might argue, “Continues to consume the limits / Of its hunters.”

It is a balm in Gilead for Black pilgrims who are well acquainted with grief. We take refuge in the elegiac shelter of words woven here. Yet, this book is a probe for those same individuals that it comforts. It both acknowledges our grief and pushes us to make something of it — even if that’s a song of lament.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

FOR 30 YEARS.

NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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Pride Issue September 16 For information on advertising to the Scene’s audience of more than 400,000 people, email Mike Smith at msmsith@nashvillescene.com

MUSIC

YOUR QUICK-REFERENCE GUIDE TO BONNAROO 2021 Check out our recommendations for can’t-miss sets as the fest returns to Manchester, Tenn.

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

A

fter being canceled in 2020 due to this infernal pandemic, Bonnaroo returns to Manchester, Tenn., Sept. 2 through 5, with one of its strongest lineups in years — something you probably already VISIT BONNAROO. know, as the fest sold COM FOR COMPLETE out with a quickSCHEDULE AND UPDATES ness. Held at the site where it’s been since 2002, which was renamed The Bonnaroo Farm earlier this year, Bonnaroo 2021 is the unofficial kickoff of an abbreviated festival season squeezed into the last few weeks of summer.

As announced a few weeks back, the festival implemented a vaccination protocol, meaning that you’ll have to show proof that you’ve completed a full course of a COVID-19 vaccine 14 days before the festival or that you’ve gotten a negative result on a test administered by a health care professional no earlier than 72 hours before you arrive. The good news there is that a similar policy was put into place ahead of Lollapalooza in late July, and it seems to have kept the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus from spreading widely; Chicago’s health department confirmed only 203 cases out of an estimated 385,000 attendees. (Read a lot more about that in our story about Nashville venues’ vaccine protocols THURSDAY: LIZ COOPER

on p. 30.)

There are lots of activities to check out in the campground plazas and the Where in the Woods stage, but below you’ll find our recommendations for can’t-miss sets around Centeroo. As you pack those masks and hand sanitizer in with your sun protection and water bottle, you can slide in this handy quick-reference guide.

THURSDAY

On the first day of the fest, you could easily build your schedule around top-notch players from Nashville. Sure, there’s the live broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry (That Tent, 6 p.m.), which includes Nashvillians like the soulful Maggie Rose and bluegrass heroes The Travelin’ McCourys, as well as those hailing from elsewhere, like roots-folkrocker Amythyst Kiah. But you’ve also got superb folk-pop songsmith Joy Oladokun (This Tent, 6:15 p.m.), rocker Briston Maroney (That Tent, 3 p.m.) and rising country ace Hailey Whitters (Who Stage, 7:45 p.m.). Electric blues champs Larkin Poe (This Tent, 8 p.m.), soul maestro Devon Gilfillian (That Tent, 8:45 p.m.) and rock bandleader Liz Cooper (This Tent, 9:45 p.m.), whose new LP Hot Sass drops Sept. 3, also represent Music City well. But why limit yourself by geography?

It’s also the day for gentle-voiced California pop songsmith Scarypoolparty (That Tent, 4:30 THURSDAY: JOY OLADOKUN

FRIDAY: FOO FIGHTERS p.m.), NYC “brasshouse” outfit Too Many Zooz (This Tent, 1:15 a.m) and electronic dance artists like Philadelphia’s Zía (The Other Stage, 9 p.m.) and Antwerp’s Taska Black (The Other Stage, 11:30 p.m.).

FRIDAY

You can party till 6 a.m. if you want to, but the first act in Centeroo on Friday — Nigerien desert blues wizard Mdou Moctar (This Tent, 1 p.m.), hot on the heels of his great new LP Afrique Victime — provides a good excuse for pacing yourself. Some masterful guitar work is also in store from Nashville Southern rockers Marcus King Band (What Stage 2:15 p.m.), while Music City’s own Bren Joy brings masterful R&B (Who Stage, 4 p.m.). Other afternoon highlights include outstanding songsmith Katie Crutchfield’s

project Waxahatchee (That Tent, 3:15 p.m.), funk band Turkuaz playing Talking Heads’ Remain in Light with guitar wiz Adrian Belew and the Heads’ own multi-instrumentalist Jerry Harrison (Which Stage, 3:15 p.m.) and queer country crooner extraordinaire Orville Peck (This Tent, 4:30 p.m.).

Emo heroes Dashboard Confessional (This Tent, 6:15 p.m.) and dance-pop singersongwriter Kim Petras (That Tent, 6:45 p.m.) are among your dinnertime choices, but don’t linger too long if you want to get a good spot for rap heroine Megan Thee Stallion (What Stage, 8 p.m.). Groovy Thai-inspired funk ensemble Khruangbin (Which Stage, 8:45 p.m.) and Atlanta heavy-rock legends Mastodon (That Tent, 8:45 p.m.) could lure you away, but your first headliner isn’t too far off: rock stalwarts (and apparent disco heads) Foo Fighters (What Stage, 10 p.m.). You’ve got several flavors of hip-hop to carry you through the night — Run the Jewels (Which Stage, 12:45 a.m.), Nelly (That Tent, 12:15 a.m.) and Young Thug (This Tent, 2:15 a.m.) — as well as funk-metal veterans Primus (This Tent, midnight). But if an electronic dance party is more your speed, you’ve got that over at The Other Stage, courtesy of folks like U.K. producers Troyboi (11:30 p.m.) and Tipper (12:45 a.m.), as well as Austin, Texas, piano-house champion LP Giobbi (5:15 a.m.).

SATURDAY

When you’ve been walking around outside for a few days in a row, combos that don’t require you to move from stage to stage start to look really good. The back-toback-to-back lineup at That Tent of blues flamekeeper Christone “Kingfish” Ingram (1:15 p.m.), electro-pop ace Remi Wolf (2:45 p.m.) and singer-rapper Ashnikko (4:30 p.m.) is a strong start for Saturday. Then mosey over to Which Stage for two phenomenal songsmiths in a row: Phoebe Bridgers (5:30 p.m.) followed by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (7:30 p.m.). This Tent offers Korean American singer-producer Yaeji (5 p.m.) followed by introspective songsters Pinegrove (7 p.m.). And in the realm of Nashville talent, keep an eye on the Who Stage for Frances Cone (2:45 p.m.) and Early James (4 p.m.), with Bre Kennedy coming on a bit later (6:30 p.m.).

Perhaps the ultimate combo is on the

nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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MUSIC SATURDAY: PHEOBE BRIDGERS

main What Stage, with widely loved Aussie psych group Tame Impala (8:45 p.m.) followed by singer, rapper and queen of pretty much everything Lizzo (11 p.m.). You may wish to dance away your late night at The Other Stage, and if so you’ve got dubsteppers like Subtronics (12:30 a.m.), Seven Lions (1:45 a.m.) and Wooli (4:15 a.m.). Alternatively, Kentucky’s champions of expansive rock My Morning Jacket have a Grateful Dead-like three-hour set planned for Which Stage (12:30 a.m.).

Still, there’s an array of sets that don’t neatly fit into a run that you’ll want to post up for at one stage. Topflight rapper J.I.D (That Tent, 8 p.m.), the Sylvan Esso Superjam (This Tent 9:30 p.m.) and psych-rockers Garcia Peoples (Who Stage, 7:45 p.m.) are prime examples.

SUNDAY

SATURDAY: LIZZO

SUNDAY: TYLER, THE CREATOR

As Bonnaroo heads into the home stretch, you’ve got Atlanta country rapper Breland warming things up (Which Stage, 1 p.m.).

Other early-afternoon highlights include purveyor of agile Southern raps Flo Milli (Which Stage, 2:30 p.m.), experimental jazz luminary Bill Frisell performing pieces from his 2019 LP Harmony (That Tent, 1:15 p.m.) and two innovative Chicagoans, drummer and self-styled “beat scientist” Makaya McCraven (This Tent, 2:15 p.m.) as well as singersongwriter-poet Jamila Woods (That Tent, 3 p.m.). You can also look forward to some Nashville-residing songwriters who do a phenomenal job of navigating complex emotional territory: Michaela Anne (Who Stage, 3:30 p.m.), Brittany Howard (Which Stage, 4:15 p.m.) and Julien Baker (That Tent, 4:45 p.m.).

There was a long-standing tradition of a legacy act closing out Bonnaroo with a headline set. While we don’t really have that this year, you could argue that Celtic punks Flogging Molly (This Tent, 7:45 p.m.) approximate that role; or perhaps U.K. rockers The Struts (8:30 p.m., That Tent). Over on the main What Stage, a set from shapeshifting, soulful singer Leon Bridges (5:30 p.m.) tees up platinum-selling rap star Lil Baby (7:30 p.m.), who in turn gets the crowd ready for your final headliner, stellar hip-hop storyteller Tyler, the Creator (9:30 p.m.). The final set of the fest, however, is slated to be from dance producer (and 2015 Bonnaroo headliner) Deadmau5 (The Other Stage, 9:30 p.m.).

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

SUNDAY: JULIEN BAKER

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THAT’S THE TICKET Checking in with Nashville venues that have implemented vaccine protocols

BY STEPHEN TRAGESER

B

y early July, it seemed like the artistic and economic engine that is the livemusic industry — which had spent more than a year in an uneasy state of suspended animaBE SURE TO VISIT VENUE tion — was running at full WEBSITES FOR THE steam in Nashville. Eager MOST CURRENT POLICY audiences filled concert INFORMATION venues of all shapes and sizes across the city. Then the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus began to spread, and COVID-19 case numbers began to increase sharply. In this new phase of the pandemic, unvaccinated individuals make up the vast majority of people suffering serious illness, but it is still possible for fully vaccinated people to get sick or spread the virus. Across Tennessee, hospital facilities for treating COVID patients are at capacity. At press time, the Tennessee Department of Health reports that only about 41 percent of adults are fully vaccinated statewide.

Over the first two weeks of August, a broad swath of Music City’s independent music venues responded to the changing conditions by announcing vaccination protocols. To get into more than a dozen of the city’s clubs, musicians, venue staff and fans now need to show proof of a full course of a COVID vaccination or a recent negative COVID test administered by a health care professional. It’s always a good idea to check with venues for the most up-to-date policies, but most will not accept an over-thecounter test that you perform yourself.

“Most of the people being angry about it have been online,” says Sam Polonsky, marketing manager at City Winery Nashville. The combination venue, restaurant and winery, which has eight locations around the U.S., instituted a companywide policy that went into effect Aug. 2, requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test timestamped no more than 72 hours prior to entry. City Winery’s Nashville location was the first venue in the city to take this step. “I think a lot of the people who were the most vocal were not actually our customers, and we’ve had a better time than we expected in the building with people coming in and being really receptive to the policy — being willing to take a rapid test if they need to. I think that the other venues following suit shortly after we did this was really helpful as well.”

By Aug. 13, a total of 15 local venues — from intimate rooms like all-ages club Drkmttr and legendary songwriter showcase The Bluebird Cafe to the three-venue Cannery Row complex — had announced similar policies. Though policies vary slightly from venue to venue and may change on a show-by-show basis, the standards put into place by City Winery and the other clubs generally resemble the ones used at Chicago’s Lollapalooza. The festival, promoted by ticketing and touring giant Live Nation, took place July 29 through Aug. 1 and required proof of vaccination or a negative test less than 72 hours old. It’s worth noting that rapid tests don’t tend to be as accurate as the tests that have to be sent to a lab. But as of press time, Chicago’s health

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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department has confirmed only 203 cases of COVID-19 among Lollapalooza attendees; an estimated 385,000 people went to the festival. Bonnaroo and Pilgrimage, two of the many festivals set to take place in our area in September (which are both also produced by Live Nation), have announced similar vaccination protocols.

On Aug. 12, concert promoter AEG, second in size only to Live Nation, announced that proof of vaccination — no negative test allowed — will be required for entry into its venues and events beginning Oct. 1. On Aug. 15, Live Nation announced a policy that would apply to all of its events and the venues it owns or books exclusively, such as Nashville’s Ascend Amphitheater and Bridgestone Arena. Beginning Oct. 4, all patrons must show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test to enter, and all employees must be fully vaccinated to come to events or work in the company’s offices.

The Scene reached out to representatives of three local venues for this story, and all report that the vast majority of fans have been arriving to their shows with proof of vaccination rather than a negative test result. Exit/In co-owner Chris Cobb, who’s also president of the trade group Music Venue Alliance Nashville, explains that the variety of formats that negative test results come in can slow down the process to get into the venue.

“I’m already seeing artists, promoters and venues around the country moving to proof of vaccination only, and removing the negative test options from their policies,” Cobb says. “I can tell you that’s certainly the most challenging part of the policy to implement. I understand why people are moving away from it. We like that option for people who are unable [to get vaccinated], so that they can come to shows.”

Cobb notes that about 10 percent of fans who lined up outside Exit/In on the weekend of Aug. 13 through 15, when the venue’s policy had just gone into effect, brought neither proof of vaccination nor a negative test. City Winery is currently offering rapid COVID tests — for $15, which Polonsky says is basically at cost — to guests who arrive at their doors without either credential. Cobb and his fellow MVAN members are investigating options to make on-site testing more widely available.

Erin Gameson is an MVAN board member and

PHOTO: STEVE CROSS

MUSIC

BULLY PLAYS TO A MOSTLY MASKED CROWD AT MERCY LOUNGE ON AUG. 14

general manager of the Cannery Row venues Cannery Ballroom, Mercy Lounge and The High Watt. She notes that a future rapid-testing option at venues might have to be made available throughout the week, rather than right before shows on weekends. When she spoke to the Scene, there hadn’t yet been a show in the complex’s biggest venue, the 1,500-capacity Cannery Ballroom. But during a handful of shows in 250-capacity room The High Watt and two sold-out concerts with much-loved rock band Bully in the 500-cap Mercy Lounge, Gameson estimates her staff

“We do recommend still that people wear masks,” she continues. “That’s not something that we’re mandating for our customers, but we do have artists that request it. Bully was a perfect example. [Bandleader Alicia Bognanno] requested that their guests wear masks. So we sent that out in the email, and had signs posted, and I would say 90 percent of the room Friday and Saturday had masks on. That wasn’t a mandate, that was just a request from the artist — and because they’re her loyal fans, they did it, which was awesome.”

served fewer than 10 guests who brought negative test results instead of vaccination cards. Still, she wants to keep the negative-test option open for fans, and doesn’t expect the Cannery venues to eliminate it anytime soon.

“We’re doing what we consider to be the best possible thing to keep the music playing, keep the artists to where they feel safe and comfortable playing, keeping our staff safe — and then trying to cover all of our fans and patrons as well,” says Gameson. “Is it a foolproof thing? Absolutely not. But what is these days?

EMAIL MUSIC@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

THE SPIN BLOW IT OUT

“E

motions are high for me as show day hits,” Jerry Roe, drummer of Friendship Commanders, tweeted Thursday morning. “It’s been 18 months. This band, and this music, are my primary purpose in life. Putting this on hold for so long has been truly terrible. …

To say I need this is an understatement.”

If you want to get technical about it, Roe and singer-guitarist Buick Audra graced Exit/ In’s stage in December for a livestreamed set, but as fellow Scene contributor Megan Seling wrote in her review of that show, this is music “best experienced live … from the front row.” The long gap between in-person shows for the pavement-pounding pair — Audra is also a solo singer-songwriter, while Roe is one of the busiest session drummers in town — finally ended Thursday at Exit/ In. The gig was an unofficial celebration of Friendship Commanders’ two 2020 releases,

PHOTO: BRANDON DE LA CRUZ

BY CHARLIE ZAILLIAN

FROM A BUICK 6-STRING: FRIENDSHIP COMMANDERS an EP called Hold on to Yourself and a pair of digital singles, “Stonechild” and “Your Reign Is Over.”

After brief but powerful opening sets from Birmingham, Ala., doom-psych combo Null and local metal luminaries Yautja — the latter of whom will formally celebrate the release of their face-melting Relapse Records debut The Lurch on Dec. 6 at Drkmttr — Roe and Audra got situated onstage. The house music was perfectly appropriate: the gleefully chaotic strains of Wonderful Rainbow by Lightning Bolt, another no-bass, no-problem two-piece. The lights dimmed, Audra turned her rig off standby — the

snarling hum a clarion call that something heavy was about to go down — and before the opening tune was even over, the room had gone from virtually empty to half-full.

What followed was an hourlong primal scream of a performance. Delivered in quick succession, the songs galloped and soared. The force of Audra’s sustain-heavy riffs, in tandem with Roe’s drumming — carefully attuned to each chord change and punctuated by shotgun-blast fills — shook the walls of the 50-year-old club.

Particularly impressive was the ease with which Friendship Commanders mixed speeds. The revved-up “Charade,” from

2018’s Steve Albini-recorded Bill, recalled Vancouver, B.C.’s late, great White Lung with its agile, breakneck riffing. The negative space on slower songs allowed for their words, harmonies and messages to resonate — crucial on inspired, passionate material like “Stonechild,” explained by Audra as a call-to-arms in the wake of the 2019 killing of Stonechild Chiefstick, a Chippewa Cree man and father of six, by police in Washington state.

Between the first count-off at the top of the hour and the final chords of the set’s penultimate song — Hold on to Yourself’s heavy-duty opener “The Enemy I Know” — ringing out, Roe and Audra paused only a handful of times to catch a breath and talk to the crowd. The drummer finally took a load off for the last tune, “July’s Revelations.”

Audra performed it solo, dedicating it to “the survivors.”

Through most of the set, Friendship Commanders took the angst and frustration of the past year and thrashed it out. The electrified, alt-rock- and ’90s-country-tinged closer reflected weariness in the wake of the toll taken by the pandemic, as well as hope for better times ahead — a message of self-reliance in the face of whatever comes next.

EMAIL THESPIN@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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FILM

REVELATIONS

Like its subject, Ailey is Black and universal

BY JOE NOLAN

J

amila Wignot’s new documentary about the life and career of modern dance pioneer Alvin Ailey opens at the choreographer’s Kennedy Center Honors celebration in 1988, just a year before his death. Actress and model Cicely AILEY Tyson pays tribute to PG-13, 82 MINUTES Ailey’s contributions OPENING FRIDAY, AUG. 27, to dance culture AT THE BELCOURT and beyond, saying, “Alvin Ailey is Black, and he is universal.”

Wignot opening her film with this quote gives viewers an early indication of the kind of balanced and broad-reaching approach she brings to her subject: a man, a message and a myth, all competing for camera time.

A biographical documentary has to travel backward to tell the tale of a person’s life and work, but Wignot grounds her story in the present — at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where artistic director Robert Battle and choreographer Rennie Harris are developing a selection of dance performances to celebrate the theater’s 60th birthday in 2018. It’s a smart device that puts Ailey’s decades-long career in a contemporary context while also giving viewers a peek at the grueling, repetitive work that dancers dedicate their bodies and souls to.

Ailey moved to New York City in 1954, while in his early 20s. He dove head-first into the New York dance community and soon found himself side by side with star

dancers and learning the latest steps from legends like choreographer Martha Graham. Ailey also discovered his rebellious streak — the more he learned about the New York dance scene, the more he began to develop his own ideas about “searching for truth in movement,” as Ailey describes his philosopher’s journey in a vintage interview clip featured in the film.

Ailey was born at the height of the Great Depression in 1931. He and his mother were abandoned by his father, and the pair survived by picking cotton and doing domestic work — the only two options available to a young Black single mother and her little boy in Rogers, Texas. As he clarified his vision of modern dance, Ailey yearned to express his “blood memories” of the stories told by his mother, grandparents, uncles and aunts.

Ailey never forgot the music and dancing he saw at church, nor did he forget the blues tunes that poured out of old guitars passed from hand to hand in his community. Wignot and editor Annukka Lilja offer viewers an impressionistic smattering of flickering, faded, black-and-white frames while Ailey waxes about “people moving in the twilight,” “sloshing through the terrain,” “my mother in the fields.”

Ailey started the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1958, and his masterpiece, Revelations, debuted in 1960 when he was just 29 years old. Revelations married spirituals, blues and gospel music to an avant-garde mix of modern dance and

ballet choreography. The costumes and the sets drew from the church clothes, baptism gowns, parasols and bleak landscape of the “blood memories” of his Texas childhood.

The result was a fusion of Black American cultural identity with exquisitely expressive, cutting-edge technical dance. Revelations brought Ailey and his dancers global renown, and the work is emblematic of the choreographer’s philosophy of expressing Black experience, culture and beauty through universal themes. Ailey includes vintage footage from a televised performance of Revelations, and the work is still overflowing with energy and emotion 60 years after its debut.

In today’s cultural atmosphere, one might expect Ailey to serve as a political message dressed up as an arts doc. But Wignot stays true to her subject, who once said: “I am trying to show the world we are all human beings, that color is not important, that what is important is the quality of our work, of a culture in which the young are not afraid to take chances

DAYS LIKE THESE

Tsai Ming-liang’s Days is subtle, slow, quiet and vulnerable

BY NADINE SMITH

“S

low cinema” is a loose, not-quitegenre descriptor that refers to a certain kind of arthouse-oriented film from Eastern Europe to Southeast Asia that moves at DAYS a deliberate pace and NR, 127 MINUTES usually favors extended SHOWING AUG. 29-31 AT takes, minimal cutting THE BELCOURT and quite often immersive sound design. The phrase often conjures an image of cinema that’s daunting and inaccessible.

When a film prioritizes slowness, or makes you as a viewer aware of time’s passage, it can be easy to write off as dull or dour. Though legitimately boring slow cinema certainly exists, the films of Taiwanese tone poet Tsai Ming-liang are a powerful rebuttal to the idea that slowness implies self-seriousness or tedium. With subtle suggestion and little more than a gaze, his work can encompass absurdity, intense alienation and even a little bit of horny intimacy all in one.

Tsai’s latest film Days encapsulates not just a range of sensory experiences, but an entire spectrum of emotion, turning on a dime from a kind of blissful solace to profound loneliness in the space of the

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same frame. Since his debut, 1994’s unassuming coming-of-age film Rebels of the Neon God, Tsai has collaborated extensively with actor Lee Kang-sheng, whose face is the filmmaker’s ultimate subject — part of the pleasure in keeping up with Tsai’s films, but also part of the profound sadness bubbling at the core of his work, is seeing Lee age and change over time, his unsettlingly boyish looks turning slowly to a stone-like visage.

Even if this is your introduction to Tsai’s filmmaking, it is clear from the opening image — an extended take of Kang (Lee) watching the rain out his window — that this is a man worn down by the heavy weight of time.

This is someone whose life is defined by his painful physical suffering and the pursuit of relief — he at times wears a neck brace, his movements sometimes slow and cautious, his general demeanor distant and withdrawn. One gets the sense that life is less passing him by and more slipping out of his grasp, slowly fading

into a reflective pool. An opening title card informs you that the film is intentionally unsubtitled, which might intimidate some viewers, but the few words uttered here are ultimately like any other kind of background sound, from the chirping of insects to the subtle buzzing of a lightbulb, dissolving into a simmering level of noise that envelops you like a warm bath.

Because of their regular play with duration, Tsai’s films frequently capture their subjects performing methodical, ritualistic tasks: the shuffling patrons of a movie theater in Goodbye, Dragon Inn; the aimless drifting of teens in Rebels of the Neon God; a monk’s long walk in Journey to the West. Most of the time we spend with Kang he’s passively engaged in various tasks. His daily life is informed by the pain he suffers, not just in the hours at home with his mind somewhere else, but in the intensive acupuncture and extended massages we see him undergo.

Due to the nature of Tsai’s practice, Lee Kang-

and can hold onto their values and self-esteem, especially in the arts and in dance. That’s what it’s all about to me.” Ailey isn’t ultimately a film about cultural and political identity.

Instead it’s a surprisingly refreshing look at the singular life of an exceptional individual artist who was also a Black gay dance pioneer in the late 20th century. And — along with all the incredible dancing — Ailey is at its best as a document of obsessive genius and relentless creative production.

Alvin Ailey remained dedicated to his mother his whole life, and he never developed a long-term romantic partnership. His ceaseless work ethic manifested mental illness and the drug and alcohol abuse that often accompany it. Ailey’s life was consumed by an art form that empowered him to bring Black imagery, stories, music and bodies to stages across the world. It also allowed him to create a unique personal aesthetic and a legacy that speaks to all people everywhere.

Ailey is Black, and it is universal.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

sheng is asked to do a considerable amount as a performer, even if he seems to be very still: Not only does he frequently perform intimate, vulnerable acts for the camera, but just as often he does little at all. Cameras have an incredible talent for throwing people off, but Lee never betrays any kind of awareness that other people are actually in the room with him. What we experience feels less like the voyeuristic gaze of surveillance, and more like being a fly on the wall during those stray lonesome moments in which a person inevitably loses themselves to deep thought and day-dreaming.

But what’s perhaps most remarkable about Days is that — despite it being a film so much about a person forced to live inside their own mind due to the limits of the physical body — it’s not one-sided or lost in its own head. The film spends quiet, personal time with a sex worker, Non (Anong Houngheuangsy), who gives Kang a deep-body massage in a sequence that makes up a significant portion of the film. Their interaction is embodied and sensuous, but not completely eroticized, as Tsai’s camera remains confident but still a little reserved. Though it’s not a point that the film belabors, this duality of perspective — as we observe both the worker who needs the job and the client who needs their body attended to — reminds us that every emotional exchange is two-sided. Just as sexual and emotional labor are vulnerable and complicated for both parties, so is filmmaking — a close-quarters, often compromising exchange between the on-screen subject pressured to act natural, the filmmaker who wants to be both impartial and impassioned, and the audience who observes it all.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

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CROSSWORD

FILM

PRIMAL STREAM 65

EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ ACROSS

An old dark house, a polyglot shocker and a megalodon, now available to stream

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BY JASON SHAWHAN

A

n early deadline means a good deal of this column gets written with some attempt at lowkey precognition — of getting a clue for what’s going to be happening nine days hence.

This is becoming more and more impossible to do, because it seems as though Gov. Bill Lee is actually trying to spread COVID to Tennessee’s children. This can’t possibly be the case, right? Surely there’s some reason that he (and Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott and the others) are actively putting children at risk beyond Republican fealty? Is this still about the private-school voucher shit? I ask this because everyone I know with children is terrified on a daily basis by all this bullshit, and every day seems to get more chaotic and terrifying than the last. Know that if this keeps up, next week’s column intro will be a couple of recipes.

As always, here are some recommendations for streaming titles to check out. Look back at past issues of the Scene for more.

THE PHANTOM OF THE CONVENT VIA THE CRITERION CHANNEL The “Old Dark House” archetype has been part of cinema since the very beginning, probably best known — or at least most ingrained in our cultural DNA — thanks to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Some regular folks find their way to a sprawling space of anomalous supernatural/ sexual/temporal energy, where they are trapped by the weather or the fall of night, and what they find there tests the strength of the social contract in all of them. Some of them (sometimes all of them, but not always) will find their way back into the light and confront the absolute truth of themselves. Even back in the 1930s, this was a strong spine to build a film on (see James Whale’s masterful 1932 film The Old Dark House for the defining text on the subject), and 1934’s Mexican film The Phantom of the Convent is a marvel of high-contrast monochrome photography and deep-seated psychosexual nightmares. Respect is due any movie this deft in its portrayal of a shitty, regrettable marriage, especially in the ’30s, and director Fernando de Fuentes brings the atmosphere and emotional unease in a way that feels more modern than many films of that era. Also, Marta Ruel has iconic hair and makeup in every scene — legendary goth lewks that hold up to this day.

THE OLD WAYS ON NETFLIX One of the big surprises at this summer’s Chattanooga Film Festival was The Old Ways, a visceral hostage shocker involving shunned places, witchcraft, possession and some deeply disturbing moments. Cristina (Brigitte Kali Canales) is an investigative journalist, and she’s prepared for all sorts of possibilities as she returns to Veracruz,

THE OLD WAYS Mexico, where her family hails from. But there’s not really formal preparation for being abducted by folks who think you’re possessed. And honestly, the less you know going into this polyglot shocker, the better.

Just know that things get intense, family bonds get stretched, and ancient magicks are going to ancient magick. My friend Jen — who isn’t typically a horror fan but who loves a good and inventive story — was transfixed and unsettled. And in honor of the patron saint of investigative-journalism cinema, Laura Gemser, The Old Ways will teach you good courses of action for awful situations.

SHARK ATTACK 3: MEGALODON ON TUBI It’s very rare that films become famous for one line anymore. Thanks to YouTube and the average strong meme game of the internet’s most devoted, it’s less and less likely that one sentence can bring enough clicks, eyes and synapses to bear on any specific film to become A Thing in enough estimation. Know, then, that Shark Attack 3: Megalodon has the exact right blend of elements for a trashy When Animals Attack scenario — a combination of moderately committed and genially indifferent cast members, with one person who knows exactly the tonal balance to strike in spite of everything insane happening around them; the Gina Gershon in Showgirls, if you will.

The effects are hysterical, the sets ramshackle, and once you’ve seen it, you too will bear witness to the special charms of this Bulgaria-shot tax-shelter vehicle for questionable choices, elevating Shark Attack 3 to the level of other films made legendary by one line. (See also: Phat Beach, House Party 3 and Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise).

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UZUMAKI ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO Whether you want to re-experience the J-horror boom of the late ’90s and early Aughts, get to know the work of Japanese artist/madman Junji Ito, or are just looking for the perfect film to pair with 1985’s Anguish, Uzumaki may well be the movie for you. Supposedly there’s a new anime series based on the Ito manga coming to Adult Swim in October of next year, so this is a good entrance point if you want to take a dip in a surreal nightmare rooted in horrific geometry and infectious paranoia. The spiral is always turning, you know, growing outward even as it pulls you in, first by sight, then by thought, and by then far too late. Director Akihiro Higuchi finds the exact right way to take Ito’s nightmare visions and bring them to life, happy to blend the hyperrealistic, the surreal, the ultra-fake and the imagery that seems so wrong that you’re left questioning all your certainties.

A special kind of fun.

EMAIL ARTS@NASHVILLESCENE.COM

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Start (with) Thingy “I kissed thee ___ I kill’d thee”: “Othello” T, as in tests Cause to boil Ones sporting man buns and ironic T-shirts, say Early 1900s kitchen appliance Closest living relatives of whales Land of plenty?

Strikebreakers It may get pushed back on the weekend Aggressive campaign Pelvic joints Finely ground quartz They enforce discipline among legislators Gusto “Where’d you get that ___?”

Locations of some dives Like park ranger’s pants, often ___ Ziff, Marge’s ex-boyfriend on “The Simpsons” Kind of gland Three sheets to the wind Bob of “Full House” Common bit of golf attire Inseparable … or like three pairs of answers in this puzzle?

Quiet Little dipper?

Can’t stand Maker of Brownie Brick Road ice cream 4x4 Meetings for two Muscle targeted by military presses, in brief ___ school DOWN Get back into shape Come up Lukewarm

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___ the Autopilot, inflatable balloon character in “Airplane!”

Dicing onions, mincing garlic, etc.

Symbol that Mac users get by pressing Option + Shift + 2 Contents of birdhouses Home to Planck, Einstein and Heisenberg when they won their Nobel Prizes Nightmare personified Petite, for one TV journalist Pressman with a Peabody and 11 Emmys Freudian topics State since 1845: Abbr.

Dust-up Admits Noticeably unfriendly Does a groundskeeper’s job Exhibited relief, in a way Smart ___ Dorm room feature Tel. number add-ons It can be heavier in the summer

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Rodentlike relative of a rabbit Condition that fidget tools can help with, for short Bring up Not stay neutral Compete in a Summer Olympics event Stephen of “The Crying Game” Most asinine Deal sealers Particular, for short

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Run-of-the-mill Upper echelon Took performanceenhancing drugs Caught on audio Taunt Like some high-fiber cereal Changing fortune, metaphorically Texter’s farewell Biblical verb with “thou” E.P.A.-banned pesticide

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE YU C C A

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

Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords.

nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 26 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

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8/23/21 3:14 6:25 PM PM 8/23/21

Marketplace

Rocky McElhaney Law Firm InjuRy Auto ACCIdEnts

Richard R. Rooker, Clerk L. Chappell Deputy Clerk Date: August 5, 2021

WRongFul dEAth

Katelyn E. Marshall Attorney for Plaintiff

dAngERous And dEFECtIvE dRugs

Voted Best Attorney in Nashville Call 615-425-2500 for FREE Consultation

www.rockylawfirm.com LEGALS Non-Resident Notice Third Circuit Docket No. 21D1022

SHANTA GREEN HANCOCK vs.

JADONTE JAMAL HANCOCK

Rental Scene

In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon JADONTE JAMAL HANCOCK. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein within thirty (30) days after September 2, 2021 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 October 4, 2021. 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 non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon JADONTE JAMAL HANCOCK. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HIS appearance herein within thirty (30) days after September 2, 2021 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 October 4, 2021. 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.

NSC 812, 8/19, 8/26, 9/2/2021 Non-Resident Notice Third Circuit Docket No. 21D150 BILLY HERNANDEZ vs.

ALONDRA VALUENZUELA CARRILLO In this cause it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that the defendant is a non-resident of the State of Tennessee, therefore the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon ALONDRA VALENZUELA CARRILLO. It is ordered that said Defendant enter HER appearance herein within thirty (30) days after September 2, 2021 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 October 4, 2021. 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.

Richard R. Rooker, Clerk L. Chappell Deputy Clerk Date: August 4, 2021 Jane Ellen Cassell Attorney for Plaintiff

four (4) weeks succession in the Nashville Scene, a newspaper published in Nashville.

Richard R. Rooker, Clerk L. Chappell Deputy Clerk Date: August 4, 2021 Jane Ellen Cassell Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 812, 8/19, 8/26, 9/2/2021

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EMPLOYMENT Change Healthcare seeks a Staff Software Engineer in Nashville, TN to serve as technical programming resource in design and implementation of software applications. Reqs BS & 7 yrs or MS + 5 yrs. Add’l specific exp. req’d.

Can work remotely. To apply mail resume to Change Healthcare, Attn: Dale Lineberry, REQ#R21403, 5995 Windward Parkway, Alpharetta, GA 30005.

Change Healthcare seeks a Sr. Oracle ERP Developer in Nashville, TN to work with team members to ensure enterprise technical standards are maintained.

Reqs BS & 5 yrs. Add’l specific exp. req’d. Can work remotely. To apply mail resume to Change Healthcare, Attn: Dale Lineberry, REQ#R21408, 5995 Windward Parkway, Alpharetta, GA 30005.

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Amazon.com Services LLC seeks candidates for the following (multiple positions available) in Nashville, TN: Software Development Front-End Engineer II (Job Code 150.9302.4). Develop systems and applications used by Amazon worldwide, and will regularly interact with engineering and business leadership. Mail CV to: Amazon, PO Box 81226, Seattle, Washington 98108, referencing job code.

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Integration Specialist.

Manage all aspects of the software configuration process, including code compilation, packaging, deployment, release methodology, and application configurations for a software development services provider. Employer: Kanini Software Solutions, Inc. Location: Nashville, TN. Send resumé (no calls/emails) to B. Krishna, 25 Century Blvd., Suite 602, Nashville, TN 37214.

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Welcome to Cumberland Retreat NSC 812, 8/19, 8/26, 9/2/2021

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FEATURED APARTMENT LIVING

Richard R. Rooker, Clerk L. Chappell Deputy Clerk Date: August 5, 2021 Katelyn E. Marshall Attorney for Plaintiff NSC 812, 8/19, 8/26, 9/2/2021

Your Neighborhood Local attractions: · Nashville West Shopping Center · Hillwood Country Club · Cumberland River

Neighborhood dining and drinks: · Tequila’s Mexican Restaurant · Hillwood Pub · Buffalo Wild Wings Enjoy the outdoors: · Elmington Park · Centennial Park · Belle Meade Historic Site & Winery Best place near by to see a show: · Belcourt Theatre

Favorite local neighborhood bar: · Hillwood Pub Best local family outing: · Centennial Park Your new home amenities: · Cumberland River views · Vaulted Ceilings · Washer/Dryer connections · Playground · Sparkling Pool · On-Site Laundry · Renovations coming soon

Call the Rental Scene property you’re interested in and mention this ad to find out about a special promotion for Scene Readers

411 Annex Ave Nashville, TN 37209 | cumberlandretreatapartments.com | 615.356.0257 34

NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 26 - SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

Cumberland Retreat 411 Annex Ave Nashville, TN 37209

2 floor plans

cumberlandretreatapartments.com | 615.356.0257

British Woods 264 British Woods Drive Nashville, TN 37217 1 bed / 1 bath 725 sq ft $1084+ per month

2 bed 1.5 / 2 bath

3 bed / 2.5 bath

1025 to 1150 sq ft $1227+ per month

1650 sq ft $1670+

Rental Scene

2 Bed /1 Bath 1008 sq ft $1329

1 Bed / 1 Bath 675 sq ft $1049

5 floor plans

www.britishwoodsapartments.com | 615.205.1862

Gazebo Apartments 141 Neese Drive Nashville TN 37211 1 Bed / 1 Bath 756 sq ft $1,119 +

2 Bed / 1.5 Bath - 2 Bath 1,047 – 1,098 sq ft $1,299 +

3 Bed / 2 Bath 1201 sq ft $1,399 +

5 floor plans

gazeboapts.com | 615.551.3832 Sunrise Apartments 189 Wallace Rd Nashville, TN 37211 1 Bed / 1 bath 600 sq feet $950 - $1150

1 Bed / 1 bath 630 sq feet $999 - $1200

3 floor plans

sunrisenashville.com | 615.333.7733 Chase Cove Apartments 2999 Smith Springs Road, Nashville, TN 37217 1 Bed / 1 Bath 730 sq ft $930 +

2 Bed / 1 Bath 1050 – 1184 sq ft $959+ call for details 5 floor plans

3 Bed / 2 Bath 1225-1315 sq ft $1482 + call for details

chasecoveapartments.com | 615.813.6279 Brighton Valley 500 BrooksBoro Terrace, Nashville, TN 37217 1 Bedroom/1 bath 800 sq feet $1360

2 Bedrooms/ 2 baths 1100 sq feet $1490

3 Bedrooms/ 2 baths 1350 sq feet $1900

To advertise your property available for lease, contact Keith Wright at 615-557-4788 or kwright@fwpublishing.com

Studio 330 sq feet $900 - $1000

3 floor plans

brightonvalley.net | 615.366.5552 nashvillescene.com | AUGUST 26 - SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | NASHVILLE SCENE

35

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NASHVILLE SCENE | AUGUST 26 - SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 | nashvillescene.com

Flat.

Studio.

Apartment.

Home.

Whatever you call it, find yours in the Rental Scene.

Nashville Scene’s Marketplace on pages 34 - 35.