Dually, from Knoxville, had a major role in the movie

While everyone else was getting ready for the Super Bowl Sunday, about a dozen folks were having a very unique Knoxville experience.

Members of the Upper Left Book Club (more on them later) and a few hangers-on gathered in a West Knoxville restaurant following a matinee showing of “That Evening Sun” for a Q & A session with one of the film’s executive producers, Larson Jay. They also got to meet one of the film’s stars: a smart and sweet terrier named Dually.

You’ve probably read about the film, which stars veteran actor Hal Holbrook and was filmed in Knoxville, Blount, Loudon and Roane counties. It’s playing for the third week at Regal Downtown West Cinema 8.

The low-budget (less than $5 million, Jay says) independent film is about an elderly farmer (Holbrook) who runs away from a nursing home and returns to his farm only to find his son has leased it to what he considers a no-good, white trash family.

The movie is beautiful and sensitive. The characters are complex and yet familiar. And the settings are places we see every day: the downtown post office, Shannondale nursing home, farmland in rural Knox County, a cafe in Lenoir City, a portion of downtown Rockwood. (read more)

Filed under: Art, Knoxville, Theater | No Comments »

Christopher Ford, owner of Sweet P's Barbecue

Suddenly, everybody is drinking the beer that my dad used to drink in the ’70s. And they aren’t people even remotely resembling my dad.

The hip beer these days is, of all things, Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Our great client, Cherokee Distributing Company, distributes Pabst in this area. While Pabst sales were up nationwide by 18 percent last year, they were up 24.7 percent here in East Tennessee - the highest increase in the state.

Why?

“It’s kind of a retro beer,” explained Christopher Ford, the proprietor of the super cool Sweet P’s Barbecue at Willow Point Marina. Ford said he started drinking the brand over 15 years ago when he was the front man for the trendy rock band Gran Torino. “PBR was one of our beers of choice,” Ford said.”We didn’t have any money and it was extremely economical. And it is good. We drank in a lot of dives — and they always had PBR.” Sweet P’s is a PBR restaurant, of course.

Mary Ellen Brewington, of Cherokee Distributing, said her company acquired the brand in 2002 when it purchased Dinwiddie Distributing Company.  She has seen the brand’s popularity surge, particularly in the past two years. “Bottom line: PBR is hip and (read more)

Filed under: Knoxville, Uncategorized | 10 Comments »

Man, this is a good idea!

Some women friends donate $200 a piece through their women’s giving circle. Once a year they select a cause to support with those funds. In this case, it’s the SMART Girls program at the Boys and Girls Clubs. Then they celebrate by getting together to shop at a friendly upscale store that agrees to donate 15 percent of the day’s proceeds to the cause. And they drink wine.

Kay Clayton, center, ponders a jewelry purchase

Pretty sweet plan, huh?

I joined this convivial group at Gift, Gourmet & Interiors last week. I also joined the women’s giving circle. We looked at beautiful jewelry and home decor items, drank a glass or two of wine or champagne, had some laughs and were home in time for dinner.

Members of the group call themselves Purses with Purpose. (They have one honorary male member: Juvenile Court Judge Tim Irwin.) They are only a year old and have 40 members. With last week’s gathering, they hoped to add another 30. Do the math. This money adds up quickly.

The program they are supporting, SMART Girls, stands for Skills Mastery and Resistance Training. It teaches girls aged 8 to 17 about the physical and emotional developments they can expect to experience during adolescence and how to make smart decisions. It also teaches them how to take care of themselves with basic cooking skills and physcial fitness habits.

On their own, the girls in this year’s program, which meets once a week, have decided to start a book club. They are reading the book, “Push” by Sapphire, on which the movie “Precious” is based. (read more)

Filed under: Art, Events, Knoxville | No Comments »

A year and a half ago, the Coq Chante orphanage in Haiti got its first light bulb. To celebrate, the some 18 children there stayed up until midnight playing board games.

WBIR's Russell Biven in the crowd at TAC Air Saturday

The bulb was powered by solar panels on the roof. The children also had filtered water to drink. And someone made sure their education continued.

Who was responsible for that? A church in Knoxville, Tennessee, called the White Stone Church. And, in a large part, a television station that sponsored an annual golf tournament to fund the orphanage and, in the process, fell in love with it.

WBIR-TV, Channel 10, has sponsored the Barefootin’ for Haiti Golf Classic at Three Ridges Golf Course for the last four years. In that time, it has raised about $200,000 for the orphanage. But, perhaps even more importantly, during that time the people of WBIR have come to know the people of the church and the tiny inhabitants of the orphanage. WBIR’s Russell Biven, the “voice” of the golf tournament, has been particularly involved. (read more)

Filed under: Journalism, Knoxville, Media | 6 Comments »

After closing for renovations for a week after New Year’s and limping along without bar service for a couple more weeks, the Bistro at the Bijou is back in full swing and better than ever.

Martha Boggs, chef-owner of Bistro at the Bijou

Martha Boggs, who has been general manager of the Bistro for 17 years, purchased the restaurant from absentee owners who have held it for the past 10 years. The new menus proudly now proclaim it “a chef-owned restaurant,” a reference to Boggs herself who designs the dishes served and is personally in charge of kitchen operations.

Yesterday she got the great news that her liquor license finally was approved and she served the first mixed drinks and wine in almost a month. (State law requires a business to get a new liquor license when it changes hands.)

“They made me bring in the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West,” Boggs joked, referring to the long and cumbersome process of acquiring the license.

The Bistro, one of my favorite restaurants for lunch, happy hour, dinner and music, is an institution. Housed in the fourth oldest building in Knoxville, the Bistro is quaint and charming, featuring exposed brick walls and a giant painting of a nude woman known (read more)

Filed under: Art, Downtown, Historic preservation, Knoxville, Music | 10 Comments »

If your child shows musical promise, you might at first think it would be less expensive to start him or her out on a violin rather than a piano because pianos are so expensive.

Rachel Barton Pine speaks prior to lunch performance

You would be wrong.

According to violin star Rachel Barton Pine, “the best piano you can find costs less than just the bow of a violin.” Of course we are talking virtuoso level here.

Barton Pine will perform tonight and Friday (Jan. 14 and15) with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra at the Tennessee Theatre. Yesterday the 35-year-old Chicago native charmed 18 guests over lunch at the Kingston Pike home of Betsey Bush. It was part of the Knoxville Symphony League’s Elegant Dining Series.

Here are some other insights from the flame-haired firebrand:

• Financial investment in a great violin has not decreased in value in over 100 years.
• Never leave your violin in a hotel room. Too many people have pass keys. You must take it with you at all times. When eating in a restaurant, if you have to use the restroom, take your violin with you.
• When flying, do not check your violin. Take it as carry-on. The good news: unlike a cello, it will fit in the overhead compartment so you don’t have to buy an extra seat for it. (read more)
  

  Filed under: Events, Knoxville, Music | 4 Comments »

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• “Convertibles are swell but they sure do call attention to your comings and goings.” — Nancy Drew in “The Haunted Showboat”
• “Don’t force your date to go to a ballet or another activity that may not be to his liking if he was knocked unconscious earlier in the day.” — Nancy Drew in “The Double Jinx Mystery”
• “The perfect man? Tall, handsome, good company, and lots of fun but serious and practical when help is needed.” — Nancy Drew in “The Invisible Intruder”

"Nancy Drew's Guide to Life"

These insights are from “Nancy Drew’s Guide to Life,” a tiny little tome that was a party favor given to members who attended the meeting of the The Ubiquitous Chicks Book Club last night at Melinda Meador’s Sequoyah Hills home. I am not a member of the club, but they invited me to drop by. I was, many years ago, a Nancy Drew fan.

Don’t get me wrong. The Ubiquitous Chicks normally read somewhat weightier fare. Recent selections have included “Dubliners” by James Joyce and “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner.

But the Nancy Drew night was a romp. (read more)

Filed under: Journalism, Knoxville, Media | 17 Comments »

Someone who wakes up every day thinking about how to get more retail businesses to locate in downtown Knoxville. That’s what some folks think we need.

CBID board member Jennifer Holder, left, chair Patrick Hunt, and Chamber staffer Randy Vineyard at recent meeting

The other school of thought, though, is more like, “If we build it, they will come.” Don’t spend money on a dedicated recruiter, but rather spend money making downtown even better - by adding public restrooms, more trash cans, improved sidewalks - and retail businesses will relocate downtown on their own. “Give downtown a ‘wow’ factor,” is how banker Matt Synowiez put it earlier this month

The board of directors of the Central Business Improvement District (CBID), of which Synowiez is treasurer, met earlier this month in an all-afternoon facilitated session to try to hash out this major issue. They basically decided not to recommend hiring a recruiter at the moment, but rather to put the issue in the “parking lot” as something to perhaps be considered later.

This is an attitude that frustrates some ardent downtown boosters. Developer David Dewhirst points to a number of studies funded over the past 10 years (read more)

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Strollstice participants, from left, Mickey Mallonee, Hannah Parker, Gay and Bill Lyons

That was the instruction from Robert Loest, a nationally known investment adviser and downtown Knoxville resident, who was one of the organizers of the first annual “Strollstice” last night.

More than 50 people gathered at the Market House bell on Market Square to pick up candles and parade through Market Square, down Gay Street and other parts of downtown singing Christmas carols.

Loest said the walk was meant (read more)

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More than150 folks donned “Rosy’s Diner” baseball caps and filed into the ballroom of the Crowne Plaza hotel Friday night for a laugh-filled celebration of News Sentinel editorial cartoonist Charlie Daniel’s 80th birthday.

Daniel and "Rosy," aka Donna Colburn

Rosy’s Diner is a staple location for much of the action that takes place in Daniel’s cartoons. Good sport Donna Colburn of the News Sentinel put on a vibrant red wig and played the part of “Rosy” for the evening. She looked exactly like the cartoon. “Wow,” said Daniel. “I’ve never really seen Rosy before!”

One of the evening’s highlights had to be the choice of food. It was exactly what you would expect to be served at Rosy’s Diner: fried chicken AND meatloaf accompanied by mashed potatoes with gravy and country style green beans (meaning they had bacon in them!).

“We could have had this party at Wright’s Cafeteria and then we could have just gone through the line,” quipped Bob Griffitts of Congressman Jimmy Duncan’s office.

The evening’s master of ceremonies was News Sentinel columnist Sam Venable who introduced a variety of speakers close to Daniel. (read more)

Filed under: Downtown, Events, Journalism, Knoxville, Media, Politics | 4 Comments »