The Official Insider's Guide to Knoxville, Vol. 2
Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010
Knoxville: It’s a tough town. And if you don’t learn the ropes fast, you’re liable to get bruised. But don’t worry—we’re going to make life easier for you. All you have to do is read our second volume of tips, pointers, and words to the wise on getting by in this burg, and you’ll be on easy street. (Results may vary.) Full story »
Frank Deford: ‘It’s Indefensible’
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
Frank Deford has been writing for Sports Illustrated since 1962, and is a regular commentator for National Public Radio. He is a member of the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. For years, he has campaigned for some form of compensation for big-sport college athletes. He talked about it in a phone interview with Jesse Fox Mayshark. Full story »
Exploiting U.: The Issue of Paying College Players Grows Along With Coaches' Rising Salaries
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
Even as coaches’ salaries and TV broadcast contracts have scaled ever more gilded heights, the decades-old question of whether to pay the athletes themselves has shown little sign of movement. The National Collegiate Athletic Association remains wedded to a 19th-century notion of “amateurism” that even the Olympics has essentially abandoned. But if that ideal ever made sense as a way to shield scholastic sports from the crudities of capitalism, it is hard to defend with a straight face in an era of millionaire coaches and Tostitos Fiesta Bowls. Full story »
Derek Dooley: Can He Make the Vols Win Big by Thinking Small?
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
Derek Dooley is focusing on the details of how to win football games, details that he learned in seven years as sorcerer Nick Saban’s apprentice. He is working to establish a disciplined culture. And he hired former Vol and Redskin Andre Lott to run a character-building program called Vol for Life. But faced with a troubling array of issues—a program in chaos after Lane Kiffin’s departure, the aftermath of a July bar brawl involving several of his players, and the usual high expectations of Vol fans—will attention to character and detail be enough? Full story »
Everett vs. Einstein the Knoxville Zoo Parrot: Vol Season Predictions
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
Can the predictions of an African grey parrot best the prognostications from a lifelong Vol fan and occasional (and award-winning!) sports journalist? The zoo’s Einstein, with 85 words she can say on command, and Metro Pulse’s Matthew Everett, with a heap more vocabulary at his disposal, make their picks.
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A Personal View of the Vols’ Most Legendary Coach, Robert Neyland
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
Jo Markelonis is a gracious woman in her middle 80s. She’s in a comfortable assisted-living home in Farragut, and doesn’t get around much, but her brown eyes are bright and her memories are vivid. She’s well remembered by Webb School alumni of a certain age, because for many years she worked as secretary with Robert Webb at the school he founded. This morning she’s remembering a job she had even back before that, back when she was in her 20s, and she was secretary to Gen. Robert Neyland. Full story »
The Derek Dooley Quote Quiz
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010
We’re already kind of attached to Derek Dooley’s Ward Cleaver meets Andy Griffith style of speaking. But is he really all that different than your typical Vol coach? See if you can match his four quotes in this list to him, and the others to one of his various predecessors. Hint: they may have said this at any time in their coaching careers, or even in post-Vol years. Full story »
Rocky Wynder: The People's Player
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010
Ordinarily, people tend to call active gentlemen of Rocky Wynder’s vintage “spry,” but he’s much more than that. At times, the 82-year-old saxophone player is positively electric; his long, lanky frame perambulates across the floor in a series of quick, almost bird-like movements, and his raspy voice is loud but bright. Longtime friend and fellow sax player Bill Scarlett describes him as “a live wire… always full of energy and talk." Full story »
Jazz Luminary Donald Brown Looks Back on His 30-Year Recording Career
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010
From his early days playing R&B on the chitlin circuit to his stint as a sideman for the late, great drummer and bandleader Art Blakey, to his solo work and his time as a jazz professor at the University of Tennessee, Donald Brown has forged a career as one of the most distinguished pianist-composers and educators in the jazz world today. Metro Pulse sits down with the city’s foremost jazzman—also a festival organizer—and listens to tracks from select albums across the spectrum of his discography. Full story »
Drummer Jimmy Cobb Brings the Landmark Miles Davis Album 'Kind of Blue' to Life
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010
When Miles Davis assembled six other musicians in New York City in 1959 to record Kind of Blue, he was hundreds of miles and a couple of decades removed from his grandfather’s farm in Arkansas, which was his inspiration. And he didn’t end up satisfied that the mystery of his childhood nights survived the translation of the two recording sessions in March and April of that year. Now, drummer Jimmy Cobb, the sole surviving member of the lineup that played on Kind of Blue, is bringing his So What Band to town, continuing a tour that kicked off last year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the album. Full story »
Knoxville’s Jazz Venues
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010
The Knoxville Jazz Festival comes just once a year, but you can hear the music all over town every week. Full story »
Jazz in Knoxville: The Documentary
Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010
Things don’t always work out like they were supposed to. The anticipated premiere of the documentary A Place for Me: Jazz in a Small Southern City won’t actually be taking place as originally scheduled during this weekend’s Knoxville Jazz Festival. The local movie still hasn’t been finished, and may not be ready until next summer. Full story »
A Look Inside Marble City Brewing Co.
Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010
Things are slowly but surely coming together for Marble City Brewing Company. This past April, word broke that a new brewery and bottling operation was coming to town. Since then, the start-up’s founders, Johnathan Borsodi and Adam Palmer, have been working to bring their facility up to the point where substantial renovations could begin. Marble City’s building, located on the outskirts of the Old City beside the railroad tracks on East Depot Avenue, is the former home of the New Knoxville Brewing Company, whose doors closed in 2007. Full story »
Drinking Games for Knoxvillians
Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010
Maybe I should be humbled and silenced by the knowledge that in the time I’ve been in Knoxville, my alma mater, the University of Virginia, has taken a nose dive among wild inebriation institutions, while the University of Tennessee has barged its way up to 18 in the most recent U.S. News and World Report “party school” standings. Nah, I still gotta say it: Be that as it may, you people stink at drinking games. Full story »
Cocktail Recipes From Knoxville Bartenders
Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2010
Wine pairing, beer pairing... what about Happy Hour? What goes with appetizers and snacks? Done—here’s how to shake up three signature cocktail recipes from local restaurants, and the appetizer that goes best with each. Full story »