two homes

i just wrote a post and then it didn't show up!

basically, i said that i am leaving this one home ann arbor tomorrow, and, after a brief stopover in cincinnati, am heading back to the other home, oh knoxville. i've missed you!

merry christmas...

... and a happy new year!
Just to keep things rolling in the ol' wigshop, I thought I'd post something here. I hope all our writers and fans had a great Christmas and are enjoying the holidays.
QUESTION: who's gonna be in Knox Vegas ringing in 2008?
ck & co. will be there... if you're in town on the 31st, lets all get together and make it a memorable New Year's.

marie's olde towne tavern

Last night several of us got together at our new favorite honky tonk place- Marie's Olde Towne Tavern. It definitely qualifies for a "Weird Knoxville" post, if only for the crazy patrons. The centerpiece of the place is what I like to call the "Wall 'O Elvis"- a shrine to the life of the the King, complete with his wedding photos. Johnny Cash plays on the jukebox and there's always a darts game going on. And look at the photo below: that's dedication!



I read in Metro Pulse that there used to be over 100 saloons and taverns in downtown Knoxville. I could only come up with 21 places in downtown that might qualify nowadays- and Marie's is certainly one of the most authentic.

old city warlock, plus: christmas bonus!

as i prepared to make my first 'weird knoxville' post, one great figure of knoxville came to mind. no doubt many of you have seen him numerous times. his typical garb includes a ruby studded chalice and wizard's staff (or shepherd's cane?). i don't know his name, but i prefer to think of him as the old city's resident warlock. the attached picture of our wizard friend was captured in the urban bar a few weeks ago. i apologize for the quality of the image, i had to snap the picture on the fly and without a flash (its rude to take a picture of someone without their knowing, but apparently, its not rude to blog about them). i've never talked to the mage himself, but i do have an anecdote. a friend once saw him in the downtown vicinity and, quite naturally, asked to hold his chalice. he refused her this simple act of community and joy because my friend "did not really believe." now, that's what i'm talking about! i can think of no better candidate for 'weird knoxville.' my hat's off to you, warlock of the old city.

also, i'm reposting my favorite picture from the christmas parade. the only thing that might put me more in the spirit of the season is a few ghouls on christams eve!

knoxology

okay so i have this great friend lewis who used to live here, in south knoxville. lew now lives in mississippi, and i miss him greatly.

anyway, lew devised a list of terms for knoxville regions. i use them frequently and unabashedly. so, here are brief "definitions" of the knoxville regions. though, really, the terms are quite obvious.

so-kno = south knoxville
no-kno = north knoxville
do-kno = downtown
we-kno = west knoxville

east knoxville, well you just get the shaft.

2 months

It's been two months today since stan thought this all up and got this blog rolling. I think we've got good thing going here. It certainly stimulates conversations when we get together. I figure that nobody is going to post this next week during the holidays, so we'll get started with the "Weird Knoxville" documenting when we all get back after New Year's.
Merry Christmas!

In 2007 | Funny Jokes at JibJab

added 12/20: I think this sums up 2007 very well.

gentlemen (& em), start your documenting

Esteemed Writers and Readers: Our site tracking has started showing that we're popping up on people's searches for all kinds of things in Knoxville. Even someone who just typed in "weird knoxville" and we came up on the top of the list. Em's post the other day got me interested in posting a picture of the Pilot Light, and I found out that there is not a single image of it on the internet. The same goes for many of our haunts. Since this blog is supposed to show people who are far away (read: Will) life in Knoxville, we need to document these places (and people).
I, for one, will not rest until the Wall O' Elvis at Marie's is posted here for everyone in the world to see.
So, the new challenge this year is to find the good stuff, the bad stuff, and the outrageously funky stuff of Knoxville. We need to lift every rock and search for every dive and comb through the underbelly of this city. I think we should establish ourselves in 2008 as THE repository for Weird Knoxville.

construction

anyone who's been here here in the past 24 hours probably noticed that the site was getting an overhaul. well, i started writing html and basically screwed everything up. but i'm finally happy with the look of the blog now and hopefully everyone likes it too. i promise i won't mess with it anymore (this year).

Some Local Talent

I'm so proud.

This is a guy named Brad isbell. He's in our youth group and has a flair for the hazardous. The other night we played coal toss around a campfire... Ahhh takes me back.

There are some pretty cool flips around minute 1:30.

fun fun fun

last night, i went with my very good friend jz to see woman at the pilot light. it was such a great time! i hadnt been to the pilot light since it became a non-smoking place, and i was curious to see how the culture handled the knox-induced ban on smoking. i have to say that i didnt notice a difference (then again, i dont smoke), and i was so happy not to smell like ass after i left. dont get me wrong, i loved the pilot light with smoke, but smelling good is a bonus, as is the alleviated fear of a someone's cigarette ramming into my eye or flesh (it's a crowded place). anyway, i dont go to the pilot light as often as i'd like, mostly because i can never get anyone other than jz to go with me and apparently he has other friends and a life and shit. who knew? isn't everyone a loser like me? i guess not. anyway, i digress. the pilot light is such a good place to see a show. tons of GREAT bands, local and not, nice people who are happy to be there dancing, drinking, talking and maybe even beating the shit out of each other. and woman is not only a great knoxville band, but a great band in general. so yeah, happy me bouncing up and down at the pilot light. good times.

award

As Illustrious Blog Administrator CK, I, along with my esteemed colleague Imperator Administrator-for-life STAN and our Most Honorable Writers, accept the Blog of the Day Award. December 13 will be a day we will remember for the rest of our lives: a day when we proved that we weren't just wasting time at the office but enriching the experience of mankind.
UPDATE: if you Google "weird knoxville" our blog is the first on the list.

Also, we're shooting for the stars here, ladies and gentlemen. I nominated us for the 2008 Blogger's Choice Awards
To all our readers- please take a minute and go vote for us.

Addition (from Stan) in honor our special day:

"It's a major award!"

lights, camera, knoxville?

The other morning on my way into work I saw a professional film crew set up on Market Square. I didn't get to take a picture because someone has my camera (ahem). They had all the light reflectors and even one of those railroad tracks with a cart for the cameraman. I don't know what they were filming for but I got the feeling it was for a cable channel show.
What a lot of people don't realize is that Knoxville has a growing television industry. Why? I don't know. But a lot of cable channels and their shows are coming out of East Tennessee. I've been meeting more and more people associated with it around town- producers, crew, editors, ect. This leads me to two cool aspects of the strange convergence of TV and our city:
1. Lots of the creative class are being drawn to Knoxville for the jobs offered here. They're the kind of people that will buy lofts and shop downtown, and so on. In essence the fuel for our urban revival.
2. Knoxville will be getting a higher profile on TV. Many of these shows need footage and don't have huge budgets- so they'll shoot locally when they can. Case in point: the film crew on Market Square. Knoxville will probably pop up in these shows more often. Even if it's just generic footage.
Something to think about when you consider the positives of Knoxville. As the new cable TV market grows, the traditional centers (LA and NY) of industry are shifting, new places will emerge as the new cool places to be. Why not here?

Burger Time Downtown?!?!

WooHoo it looks like we could get a beer and burger joint. Its called gridiron burgers and it may go in the space next to the theatre. look at this, Proprty scope is the DT knoxville business and property update by the news sentinel. Anyways we could get a cool restaurant. ROck on K-town, Rock on.

Stan now aren't you getting mad that you kept pressuring me to post, now I can't stop.

For Stan

OK so I know I've Already posted one video but hey, this one is for the big guy.

Besides I'm the Pol and should live up to my name.
This is really happening, actually its launching wednesday.

Now I really want to watch some George Lucas.

Later

pictures, video, etc.

on our way to the emporium. 1st stop on first friday.

look! christmas flags.

please notice the two dancers on the first float. i realize they kind of look like little white squares on this video, but they kept doing the same two second routine over and over again--and gay street is long!

as promised, here are some more good images of the parade:

actually, just one, the best one--a pontoon boat with christmas lights. if there's anything that says it's that time of year better than two aluminum floats and a platform adorned with christmas lights, i don't know what it is.

Well here it is. The much talked about Eddie Murphy social Commentary, "White Like Me". It caused much internal reflection for me. Please share your feeling as well.

I also agree, this past weekend was quite wonderful. What was not mentioned was the wonderful cigars enjoyed by myself ems and ck at the Knoxville Cigar co. (Which incidentally has a new shop now) And good eats a DaVincis also on friday.

Lets do again next weekend Knoxville. Much Love.

a very knoxy weekend

the little knoxvillians had a very knoxy weekend indeed. we're like a little band or something. or a bunch of nerds. i'm not quite sure.

we started the weekend by gathering at stan's place on the 100 block and drinking some jinro (will corrected my ignorance. what we were drinking was soju. jinro is the brand) that our favorite little korean sent us. soju is a korean beverage, apparently a cross between vodka and gin, perhaps like my favorite beverage of all time, vodkagin. i find it to be thoroughly disgusting (sorry will), but stan, the pol, ck and lucas seemed to enjoy it mixed with gingerale.

next it was off to first friday. oh, how i love first friday! for all those non-knoxvillians, first friday is a downtown event that occurs on the first friday of every month (smartly named, huh?). it's like a little mobile art and culture event, and it's a true testament to the strength of the community here. lots of people walking about, lots and lots of smiles. usually the emporium (112 s. gay) has meatballs.

so we checked out some galleries, and then it was time for the santa parade to begin. the parade had a great turn out. i must say that it brings its own element of knoxville weirdness. it's not really like any (good) parade i've ever seen. kind of a half-assed silly little thing, which, really, is probably a very accurate description of our town in general. dont get me wrong; i love everything about this half-assed silly little thing. but i'm just saying. i think stan has some parade pics that he can post later.

next stan and lucas and their lovely wife and girlfriend were off to a dinner at the bistro by the tracks (not jealous at all...); and the pol, ck and i headed to the cigar shop (118 s. central) for some cigars and conversation. first we stopped in at lox (my salon) where ck talked to a new pal about on the road and the pol and i checked out the art. later, the pol was hungry so he stopped in a davinci's (113 s. central) for a delicious slice. we went to manhattan's for a bit, and i had some french fries. i think manhattan's fries must be laced with crack. they are soooo delicious.

now for the good part...stan and megan returned from dinner; and, at ck's prompting, we ventured to a new-to-us locale: marie's olde towne tavern on magnolia (having a hard time finding the address; it's basically at the corner of magnolia and central). sweet, sweet marie's. this place is a gem. we love the framed pictures of elvis in the various stages of his career. the jukebox has a lot of country music but also has my favorite lady patsy cline and some other greats. and for the ladies...1.50 high lifes. hooray! we talked with marie and her son, had a couple beers and then headed back down central to urban bar (109 n. central). urban bar is my favorite knoxville bar. i love this place. the atmosphere is, um, perhaps non-existent but the patrons are eclectic and friendly and the staff is also very friendly. urban remained a smoking bar when the october switch went down, so it's true that you smell particularly like ass when you leave, but i think it's worth it. man i love pbr-s and tequila shots at urban.

whew, that was friday! well, i think ck and the pol weren't quite finished with their evening, and i hear some krystals and chicks were enjoyed...

saturday evening, the gang minus me went to davinci's for calzones (3 for 15 bucks!). then i joined up and we took a nice little stroll through downtown and stopped in at the new store on union, a cute little cafe called coffee and chocolate (327 union). i hope this place does well; it's a welcome addition to downtown. then we walked through the square, laughed at the ice skaters and stopped in at downtown wine and spirits (407 s. gay) before heading back to my place on the 100 block. we all agreed that it was nice to stay in, have some great (funny) conversations and save money. plus my christmas tree is awesome.

today i am running late, as usual. by running late, i guess i mean "being lazy." i watched my sunday morning usual, degrassi high and am now debating a shower (aka, washing off last night's eyeliner and making myself appropriate to be in public) and heading to pat sullivan's for brunch (i probably wont make it in time, though) or to old city java for some coffee and reading.

thanks for the good weekend, knoxville!

the church as a drive-thru coffee shop?

last night megan and i made the mistake of shopping for christmas presents at west town mall. for me, shopping at any mall usually follows this routine:

1. 0-5minutes: eagerly look around, searching for something of interest in (fact: guys like to purchase stuff, maybe even more than girls--example: star wars poker chips and atomic clocks)
2. 5-10: realize that there is nothing here, beside a hand-crank weatherband radio that is even remotely interesting
3. 10-11.5: feign interest in what megan is shopping for
4. 11.5-eternity: complain about how much i hate the mall, exhale and glance around impatiently, force megan to rush from store to store

yesterday was no different except that at end of the evening, we found ourselves at the bargain christian bookstore. you've probably been to this store before. every three months or so, it changes locations inside the mall for unknown reasons. the shop itself isn't bad. there were a few decent book for extremely good prices. unfortunately, there was also the gospel according to starbucks.
here's a few line from the jacket:
"You don’t stand in line at Starbucks® just to buy a cup of coffee. You stop for the experience...[With this book] You can learn to pay attention like never before, to identify where God is already in business right in your neighborhood. The doors are open and the coffee is brewing. God is serving the refreshing antidote to the unsatisfying, arms-length spiritual life–and he won’t even make you stand in line. "
at what point do you say to yourself, "hm. i need to write a christian self-help book based on my experience at the global coffee chain that i frequent. why can't religion be like having good coffee in a place that looks exactly like 5 million other artificially unique coffee shops?"
no doubt this author has good intentions, and understanding that i haven't read the book, this seems like a pretty poor illustration for the gospel.
starbucks is good at having good coffee and at adamantly managing the perception of their brand (we go to "starbucks for the experience"). in the context of religion, this will only bring a sense of the manufactured rather than true.
without reading a word its probably safe to say the book is full of cheesy, trite comparisons between the success of starbucks and success in your own life. of course i'm judging the book by its cover, but then again, its a pretty horrible title.

in slightly related news, i went to food city today and saw a strangely bearded man with a rosary. i think he might be from the greek orthodox church. you don't see a lot of religious people willing to don their full regalia anymore (all out purchasing their barista aprons no doubt). i snuck a few shots of him on my way out of the parking lot.

Round One Fight

ok so here I am.

The Pol makes his debut. I'd like to start by saying I have pansies on my balcony and they do make me happy.

As my name suggests i will be the guy who posts uninteresting rants and raves. So get ready.

the pansies, cont.

compelled by curiosity, at 6pm last night i went to see the 'blessing of the pansies'. obliterating the built up mystery, the gathering turned out to be exactly what it purported.

as i was looking in from the street, i saw a group of 15 or so middle-aged men and women (but mostly women) in the lobby of 120 s. gay. one of them, wearing a pink cowboy hat waved me inside.

when i asked what they were doing, she told me that they were about to go outside and bless the pansies. apparently a friend of hers was going to come to the second story balcony (holding pansies?--this part was kind of hazy) and the rest of them would go to the street and literally bless them. while we waited, she offered me white or red wine from either of two boxes perched on top of the mail drop in the lobby.

sadly, i did not have the true adventuring spirit last night. so i left them to their pansy blessing. but the group was very nice and i wish i had taken their picture. as far as i can tell, pansies generally make people happy, so i guess its a pretty good idea to bless them every once in a while.

also, megan and i went to sunspot last night to enjoy half priced wine. the wine was pretty good, but it has been a few months since i've been there, i nearly forgot that i really like drinking at the sunspot.

blessing of the pansies?

we saw this vague and mysterious sign on the way home yesterday. the 'blessing of the pansies'? what is it? why is it happening on gay st? and at 6pm?

my expectations range from a pansy-clad goddess throwing pedals onto the sidewalk below to a strange gathering of earthen people dancing in circles on the street.

we'll find out...soon.

this is a stick up

At 11:00 on Saturday, the First Tennessee Bank on Broadway in North Knoxville was robbed. That's MY BANK. It's right down the street from our apartment. That lady in the surveillance photo is one of MY TELLERS. I make small talk with them every week.

I often go in there on a Saturday morning to deposit my paycheck. I could have been in a bank heist. Did he make everyone get on the ground?Did he rob everybody, or just the tellers? Did he have a getaway car with an accomplice? What kind of gun did he have?

Ahh, life in the city... it could have been me. I could've been questioned by the police about his height and weight, asked what his voice sounded like. Later in court I might've pointed at him from the witness stand, "That's the man that robbed the bank, your honor!"

So close... you never know what crazy things might happen around you in this city.

pacman

this has nothing to do with knoxville, but everything to do with awesome.

the only thing better than life-size pacman is life-size pacman with sticks.

i like christmas too!

emulating em's christmas post, here are some pictures from the our household. enjoy.














and because this is ostensibly a blog about knoxville, here are some overly dark shots of downtown...from our window, of course. would you expect me to venture out into the world?

i hope you enjoy the faux panorama.

happy holidays, 100 block

it's a christmas tree, but i chose hanukkah colors. as always, the lawn jockey reigns over all.

friends of mine live across the street. apparently last night they looked from their window into mine and caught me snapping pics of my tree (gotta send home to mom...). slightly embarrassing. i need to remember things like these: don't take lame pictures for mom while the blinds are open; don't watch embarrassing tv shows while the blinds are open; wear clothes at all times...

you're so indie!

Sadly, I think I fall into the red circle with most of our WIGSHOP crew. They drop obscure music references left and right, always keeping ahead of the bourgeois tastes of our third-tier city. This diagram is dedicated to Reginold, who always knows how to make my musical knowledge look pitiful and out of date.

Go Vols?

So, being a blog about Knoxville, one of us has to address this. There are other "cut me and my blood runs orange" blogs out there, but let's look at this objectively.
Admit it: we squeaked in. Kentucky had us sweating. We could win tomorrow if LSU is so despondent over their fall from No. 1 that they commit suicide and play horribly in the SEC Championship. My feeling is that they'll really want to come out of a great season with something, anything.
I would like UT to win. They could do it. Don't get me wrong, I'll be cheering for them at The Pol's party. But these guys who are swaggering about with a "we've got this in the bag" attitude really get to me. Let's call a spade a spade: we're just glad to be going to Atlanta, no matter what happens tomorrow.





This is for The Pol, I thought he might like it. And to entice him to actually participate here. Comment, I dare you!
El Presidente!






Welcome new readers to the WIGSHOP. Our hits have topped 80 today-more than our first month combined- yeah baby!

'tis the season

our knoxville blog

Well, our readership may be increasing according to our hit counter so I was curious to see if the WIGSHOP came up in Google under "Knoxville blog." And... we didn't even come close. Even "sunsphere" didn't do it. I changed our web title slightly so that we will start showing up if someone is looking for a good off-kilter blog about Knoxville. Once Google remaps this week it should start coming up on their search.
I did come across another Knoxville blog- "The Scruffy City Blog." I put a link in the sidebar to it. It's good to see someone else thinks Knoxville is worth blogging about.
In an effort to make the blog more accessible to people who might not be our friends, I have included our contributers likenesses to the right. The Pol and Lucas, send me a picture that you'd like to see here.

knoxville : food, folks, and pianos?

Well, here's another funky tidbit from your correspondent's growing expertise on all things North Knoxville. Biking to work has definitely helped me see new things.
This might be one of the stranger places to buy a piano in Knoxville. It says "Gene Ammans of Clark Bros. Piano Co." on the trailer/sign parked by the street. I know that there's a Clark Bros. Piano Co. over on Magnolia Ave. I get the feeling that this is a splinter faction from the original shop. Preaching the one TRUE word, I'm sure. Perhaps the piano retail world has its many doctrinal differences too.
The shop itself is situated in the rear of an old 40's shopping center across from Greystone Mansion- back where almost no one notices it. A sideways glance and you see Ronald McDonald holding a keyboard sitting on the parapet. This is the same kind of creepy statue statue that used to sit all across the country on benches by McDonald's that gave off a vibe like- "Hey! Come sit by this weird clown statue and let him put his arm around you. Maybe he'll give you a back rub too!" After freaking kids out for most of the 80's they phased ol' Ronald out. Culture changed and a grown man dressed like a clown hanging out with kids didn't seem like a good basis for marketing anymore. Now he works for Gene, hawking pianos on Broadway.

somebody needs to post something new

but i got nothin'.

jason and i are in denver. i dont have my camera, or i would take some pictures. right now i am looking out a window at a pond (most likely human-made) and a bunch of canada geese. there is also a water tower off in the distance.

and somewhere, from heaven maybe, john denver sings his blessing.

thanks...

in honor of tomorrow, here is a list of some little knoxvillians that are very dear to me and that i am very, very thankful for:

the lindsay young downtown ymca
the loop on the cherokee boulevard
sunday brunch at pat sullivans (homestyle breakfast, yum!)
a good cup of coffee and a place to sit and read at old city java
dusk-time runs through downtown, up gay street, through market square and along neyland
the 100 block of gay street
delicious mexican food at senor taco or soccer taco
chilled tequila shots and draft pbr-s at urban bar
the reuben sandwich at cosmo's deli at gourmet's market
cormac mccarthy and all those places suttree hit up
immaculate conception on vine street
the university club swim team
the disc exchange in south knox
easy access to the mountains and my little river home
lazy saturday afternoons bumming around downtown
walks to my choice of wonderful restaurants and bars
the kepner melt on wheat (minus mustard) at tomato head
candy pumpkins from mast general
feeling home
my knoxville friends, those near to me now and those very far away

songza!

www.songza.com

a no-hassle music streaming search engine that lets you listen to songs immediately. it is pretty extensive, although i don't know if it encompasses the whole indie rock genre. definitely worth checking out.

cigar shop, lucas speaks!

last night entailed a trip to the cigar shop--a great place to relax and enjoy good friends. that you smell like an ashtray for the next two days is inconsequential. chris called for a 'meeting of the minds,' but only a few answered the call. i suppose the wiser of us figured that anything so superficially titled could only end in disappointment, but megan, lucas and i went anyway. so, enjoy the pictures.








they think they're so cool...too bad they're not!















of greater importance, lucas gave his first talk at ruf. if you so desire, you can listen here. all there agreed it was relevant and honest. give it a tumble.

and for some general knox pictures...
downtown knoxville was possibly in a cloud two night ago. of course, the camera cannot capture the beauty of it at all, but i tried anyway. it gives you an idea of how dense the fog was. it seemed as if the world shrunk to the size a few small blocks.

because fall is amazing, here are a few shots from my walk to work this morning. i'm beginning to think that this walk is my favorite part of my day.

seeing the difference in the vibrant colors on the trees in real life and dull, fuzzy images this p.o.s. camera captures, i think i know what the jung's next great expenditure will be.

knoxville blog goes to the 1982 world's fair

This was way too good not to post.
The space shuttle has been cleared to land in Knoxville!!
I'll be there!
I'm not sure, but this thing might have possibly hit every ridiculous stereotype. Definitely look for the retarded kid at the end watching the Sunsphere get hit by a meteorite.

And another one...
This commercial demonstrates the cutting edge of special effects of 1982- no expense was spared to show how tech savvy Knoxville was. Be bedazzled!
I'm pretty sure making this burned out the Commodore 64 they were using.

Ladies- you may want to wear a thick sweater when eating here.

[found on Merchant's Drive, Knoxville]

parade

On the southern end of the parade, your correspondent walked through the aftermath and spotted huge flag strung from what appeared to be a fire ladder truck parked on Union Ave. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was BIG.
For more on the actual parade, see my colleague's post below.

party and march

last week, the final two days of the working week were jam packed with adventure!

there were also two fun extracurricular activities. on thursday night, megan and i made our way to an open house hosted by the firm (unnamed) of one of this blogs very own, talented contributors. there, we engaged in pseudo intellectual discussion concerning the elements of style and design while we enjoyed a very nice mixture of sushi, beer, and baklava.









i'm positive that everyone in the picture on the right will hate me for putting it up. sorry, it is just too good to pass up.

flashback: monday evening. megan and i stepped into the elevator at sterchi to notice a notice a note typed in times new roman 12pt on 8.5 by 11. that roughly read: "on friday november 9, please do not park on gay st. from hill to depot. there will be a parade in honor of veterans day. we will tow on friday morning at 8am. the parade begins at 11. i hope to see you there." signed, no one.

on friday, i was more than a little excited both by the prospect of a parade that required an entirely empty gay street and by this mysterious leaver of unsigned notes. perhaps, i hoped, i might catch a glimpse of he or she who had warned the entire sterchi building at the parade.

sadly, the parade was disappointing in both respects. it consisted mostly of high school marching bands and old, decommissioned-looking hummers. though there were a couple flybys from a wing of p-51 mustang (not pictured, unfortunately) stunt planes. also, there was no sign of the placard placer (masked, i assume). no doubt he or she was out warning other uninformed citizens about the upcoming mr. knoxville contest, which is sure to halt traffic from summit hill to the river.

knoxville : magnolia

Continuing to find the stranger places in Knoxville, your intrepid correspondent has brought you his latest post-lunch walk. Magnolia Ave. has many faces, going from old suburbia to downright ghetto, but when it collides with Interstate 40 and the northern section of downtown, it gets funky.
The recent interstate expansion has literally cantilevered itself over the old boulevard, giving this block a Chicago "L" kind of feel. Despite the fact of facing a no man's land under the overpass, several businesses thrive on the other side of the street. An auto repair shop, a print shop, one of Knoxville's oldest and "classiest" restaurants- Regas, and an indie art gallery anchor one end of the block.
But my favorite two places are right in the middle.
Tennessee Valley Bicycles is where all the cool downtown commuting crowd goes to get repairs.
These guys are honest and won't make you feel inferior if you aren't a biking god clocking in 50 miles a day. They just like like riding and actively promote it in Knoxville, as evidenced by the "Booze and Cruise" every Wednesday. It's basically a pub crawl with bikes involved. The cruise usually ends up at my next favorite place on the block- Marie's Olde Towne Tavern. I first noticed this place a few years ago when I was walking down Central. I thought it was just an old sign with no business inside. But sure enough, it's there and thriving. Marie's was a downtown bar long before it was cool to be a downtown bar. It'll probably be there long after all the trendy bars shut down. It reminds me of a place Suttree would go, on the fringes of town, where if you're going there they probably know your name when you walk in.
So here, for yr consideration, is the 300 and 400 blocks of Magnolia Ave. If you pride yourself as an urban Knoxvillian, or are a visitor looking the "real" Knoxtown, you owe it to yourself to explore and support this scruffy edge of downtown.

music part duex

this is the genius who figured out who to make the play list:

music!

just in case you didn't notice, i added a playlist function to the blog. now you can listen to music and read about knoxville. i got the player from a really smart website called finetune. i recommend it to everyone. you can make tracklists for blogs, myspace pages, or just to access online. the only catch is that you can only have a maximum of three songs from one artist. if you would some other artists on here, please let me know--i'll update the tracklist.

enjoy!

busy day at the office

as many of you may already know, this past weekend was the mooney wedding. several o0f the more adventurous knoxvillians, who also happened to be friends of mooney's, braved a cabin in pigeon forge this past thursday evening to indulge in bachelor party festivities. here are a couple shots from that evening. cullin's apron says: "have you hugged a presbyterian today?"in this next shot cullin is having an altercation with one of the nashville boys (jason griffin, i believe) over one of the following things:
1. the meaningless of his 'kicker' in a hand of six cards
2. the proper application of the psalms in a presbyterian worship service
3. whether social security is a pyramid scheme
i love bachelor parties!

our own elvis

One of the more charming features of a Market Square afternoon. You should check out his 1:00 American Flag Finale.

halloween

i was olive from little miss sunshine for halloween. my friend lisa was red from fraggle rock. we went to urban bar in the old city and then to sassy ann's. urban bar is my favorite knoxville bar at the moment. friendly staff. nice, large patio (good for people watching), cheap beers. lots of fun. i love halloween.