Posted on March 7th, 2010 by Cynthia Moxley
OK. Here’s the deal.
You pay $50.
First, you select a bowl out of hundreds created by area artisans
You go to the beautiful-in-any-season Hunter Valley Farm. You select a bowl out of hundreds created by generous East Tennessee artisans. You eat cheese and drink wine while bidding on a better-than-usual silent auction (mostly one-of-the-kind products also donated by local artisans).
You fill your beautiful new bowl with one of four soups. Maybe have a delicious donated dessert. And then you take your bowl and go home.
This is a great, great fundraiser! We were home by 8:30. Since this was last Thursday, I got home in time to see “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Private Practice.” Love!
Event benefitted Second Harvest Food Bank.
Sponsors were Comcast, Clayton Homes and Clayton Bank and Trust, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Tennessee, B&W Y12, and Phillips & Jordan, Inc. The soups were donated by Copper Cellar Corp. (read more)
Filed under: Events, Knoxville | 3 Comments »
Posted on March 2nd, 2010 by Cynthia Moxley
From left: cellist D. Scot Williams, Maestro Lucas Richman, violinist Sean Claire and cellist Bruce Wilhite perform as a barbershop quartet. My favorite piece: "Wait for the Beep," which Richman composed as his answering machine message!
There are all kinds of fancy fundraisers for the Knoxville Symphony: the elegant Crystal Ball, dinners and lunches in fine homes, and special private performances by visiting guest artists.
But my favorite one of all is a simple pot luck supper held in a church meeting hall early on a Sunday night. Florescent lights, paper napkins and all. (read more)
Filed under: Downtown, Events, Knoxville, Music | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 28th, 2010 by Cynthia Moxley
Jennifer welcomed guests with ouzo and Greek appetizers
It is a real thrill to have a progressive dinner when everyone lives within walking distance. What better place for that than downtown?
At the end of this post, we’ll share some tips we’ve learned about how to have a great progressive dinner. But first, come along to a downtown version a bunch of us had just last Thursday. Cheers!
Our theme was Greek food. We started at Ryan’s Row, across the street from Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, at the home of Jennifer Holder. We met there at 5 p.m. for ouzo (or wine, if you couldn’t handle ouzo) and Greek appetizers. (read more)
Filed under: Downtown, Events, Knoxville | 7 Comments »
Posted on February 22nd, 2010 by Cynthia Moxley
Moll Anderson and Phil Fulmer: she bid $3,900 for a football signed by him and five other coaches
The Evergreen Ball, a fundraiser for Friends of the Smokies, was held at Cherokee Country Club Feb. 12th after being postponed from its original date by inclement weather.
Of course there was the usual silent auction, dinner, live auction, dancing routine. But my favorite thing about it each year is that the Chillbillies are usually the performers. Yes, that means Juvenile Justice Tim Irwin fronting on guitar and vocals with businessman Teddy Phillips on drums.
Although this is a blog post that clearly calls out for photos of the beautiful people in attendance, I did want to share a few of the highlights:
- One of the most sought-after items in the live auction was a football signed by six past and current UT football coaches: Doug Dickey (1964-1969), Bill Battle (1970-1976), John Majors (1977-1992), Phillip Fulmer (1993-2008), Lane Kiffin (2009-2010), and newly named Coach Derek Dooley. Moll Anderson bid $3,900 for it but let it go to someone she thought wanted it more. (She was sitting beside Fulmer at Jim Haslam’s table.)
- Justice Gary R. Wade was honored with the first ever Friends of the Smokies Legacy Award for his 17 years of service on the group’s board, during which (read more)
Filed under: Art, Events, Knoxville, Music, UT sports | No Comments »
Posted on February 15th, 2010 by Cynthia Moxley
Cute corgi
From Great Danes to chihuahuas, the dogs definitely had their day in downtown Knoxville on Saturday. The third annual Mardi Growl parade and festival - a fund-raiser for Young-Williams Animal Center - attracted more than 300 canines and their humans. And one cat.
Although one wag described the event as “The Watch Where You Step Festival,” to me this year’s pet owners appeared to show a lot more responsibility for picking up after their charges than those have in years past.
The parade started at PetSafe Downtown Dog Park, proceeded south on Gay Street in front of a viewing stand and ended up at Market Square where vendors selling all things dog-related were set up. The Old City Buskers performed on the stage for tips as the parade participants and hangers on (like me!) milled around.
Fittingly, (read more)
Filed under: Downtown, Events, Knoxville | 7 Comments »
Posted on February 11th, 2010 by Cynthia Moxley
"Mercury" welcomes Natalie and Jim Haslam to the 2010 Moxley Carmichael client party
We were a little nervous when former Sheriff Tim Hutchison and state Sen. Tim Burchett arrived at the Moxley Carmichael party at about the same time last Friday. The two men are locked in a not-all-that-friendly race to be the next Knox County mayor. But all was well. Soon the room filled with many other movers and shakers and “the Tims” could easily avoid each other, kind of circling the room like sharks in a tank.
It was a very full tank. (read more)
Filed under: Downtown, Events, Knoxville, Media, Politics, Public Relations | 6 Comments »
Posted on February 8th, 2010 by Cynthia Moxley
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 | 5 Comments »
Posted on February 4th, 2010 by Cynthia Moxley
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 | 12 Comments »
Posted on January 27th, 2010 by Cynthia Moxley
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 »
Posted on January 26th, 2010 by Cynthia Moxley
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 »
or