Stuck Inside of Knoxville w/ the Urban Blues Ag'n

Stacey Campfield: Public Nuisance or Public Danger?

2012-02-10T00:01:00.000-05:00

Stacey Campfield It's been a week since I tackled a political topic, so it seems like a a good time to wade into the events on the far end of Gay Street. Last week I talked about G-L-O-R-I-A and since then her retirement has been accepted pending negotiations and she has been placed on administrative leave with pay. As I said last Friday, the end seems to be a matter of details. The

Morelock Music Feels Like Home

2012-02-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

Matt waits on a customer at Morelock Music while his dog smells her feet We each probably have a few places which aren't our home, but which give us a good feeling every time we walk inside. Downtown has quite a few spots that residents obviously feel that home away from home feeling. Most evenings if you walk down Gay Street you'll see the same crowd at Downtown Grill. Some people have made

Waynestock 2012: For the Love of Phil, Night Three

2012-02-08T00:01:00.000-05:00

Wayne Bledsoe, Waynestock 2012, Relix Theater, Knoxville The third and final night of Waynestock promised to be the craziest of the bunch and it delivered. The bands were all high-energy and seemed genuinely excited to be there. Wayne Bledsoe spoke and, in the context of his namesake festival, that always seems emotional. As he said, perhaps we can hold this event next year without

A New Wrinkle in My Blogging World: Athenaeum

2012-02-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

Hopefully, today finds a host of new readers finding their way to Stuck Inside of Knoxville. If you are joining us from the online edition of The Athenaeum, or you saw the link in the print edition, welcome. I hope you find reason to linger and become part of the Urban Nation. This blog covers everything downtown from the political to the panhandler, from music and arts to business and general

Waynestock 2012: For the Love of Phil, Night Two

2012-02-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

The Lonetones, Relix Theater, Knoxville, February 2012 The second night picked up the energy from the first night and cranked it up a notch. I got there a bit late and only caught a portion of Sarah Schwabe's set and my camera still had issues, so I got no pictures of her performance, which I regret because it was really good and it was obvious she enjoyed being reunited with her Jass Band.

Waynestock 2012: For the Love of Phil, Day One, Special Weekend Edition

2012-02-05T00:01:00.000-05:00

Relix Theater, Knoxville, February 2012 Those of you who read my blog daily know that I don't usually publish on Saturday and Sunday. This time I need to make an exception. There is so much to talk about and cover that waiting until next week to jump into Waynestock seems untimely. I'll start with night one. There are so many pictures to work through that I'll have to break it up that

G-L-O-R-I-A, Gloria!

2012-02-03T00:01:00.000-05:00

Plaque outside of the offices of the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation Well, I don't really feel like I have a choice but to acknowledge that one of the biggest news stories of the new year in the city is happening downtown. We've actually had the two biggest stories, but I'll leave the one at the other end of Gay Street for another day. It started as a pretty big story and then

Fred Eaglesmith Amazes the Blue Plate Audience - Plus, Waynestock starts tonight!

2012-02-02T00:01:00.000-05:00

Fred Eaglesmith, Blue Plate Special, Knoxville, January 2012 I'm publishing blog posts as fast as I'm able, but I seem to keep falling behind on writing about some of the great shows I've seen lately. One of the reasons is that so much great music has blown through in a very short time. I wrote a couple of days ago about seeing Jenna and Her Cool Friends' phenomenal show at KMA and that same

Parking News in the City

2012-02-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

Empty Lot at Locust and Summer Place (Kimberly Clark in the back), Knoxville It's hardly news at this point, but since I haven't discussed it on this blog, it seems as if I should mention some of the recent chatter about parking. Even though it has been a topic for years downtown, it hasn't really been a problem in a long time. That has changed. The garages are often full and two businesses

Jenna and Her Cool Friends: From KMA to Memphis

2012-01-31T00:01:00.000-05:00

Jenna and Her Cool Friends, Knoxville Museum of Arts, January 2012 You don't have to take my word for how good Jenna and Her Cool Friends are. Of course, if you've heard them, you know. If you haven't, consider this: the won the Smoky Mountain Blues Challenge and have the honor of representing Knoxville in Memphis starting today at the International Blues Challenge. It is set up like a battle

Market Square Still Evolving: Is it getting better?

2012-01-30T00:01:00.000-05:00

Preservation Pub: New Solar Panels and Roof Garden It seemed the news from Market Square had run its course for the month, from the footnote to the splashy: Bernadette West got approval for some of the solar panels she wants on top of Preservation Pub and Tupelo Honey is coming to 1 Market Square. Just when it seemed the month would end without more changes, the latest change was announced

Organized Play: Has Gaming Come to Knoxville?

2012-01-27T00:01:00.000-05:00

Organized Play 131 S. Central, Old City, Knoxville, 2012 I've not been big on games since the days of the distant past when I would convince my younger brother he should sell me all his property when we played Monopoly. In the years since I've mostly played the occasional late-night domino game with my father and a pretty steady stream of chess online and, in recent years, with Urban

A Memorial Walk, a Candlelight Gathering and Labor Unions

2012-01-26T00:01:00.000-05:00

Knoxville, January 2012 A march was held Tuesday night beginning at Church Street United Methodist Church. Two groups walked throughout downtown holding banners and signs remembering John Womac who died while working on the Henley Street Bridge one year ago and Solin Estrada-Jimenez who died in May of last year on the same site. Worker safety and the value of human life held in contrast to

Tupelo Honey Commits to Knoxville (And More Coming Attractions)

2012-01-25T00:01:00.000-05:00

CBID Board: Rich Ray, Alan Carmichael, Rick Emmet, Robyn Askew, Melissa Everett and Patrick Hunt I wrote a post two days ago encouraging everyone to come to the evening meeting of CBID. I knew in advance it would be very lightly read. I guess organizations that do detailed work aren't that sexy. The meeting was very interesting, as my nerdy self would have expected - and you can ask Andrea,

Tim Lee with Surprise Guests Kevin Abernathy and Greg Horne at the Pilot Light

2012-01-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

Tim Lee 3 at Pilot Light, Knoxville, January 2012 This post has been slow in coming, but the night was so good, I can't let it pass without a post and a glimpse at some of the pictures. It goes all the way back to First Friday this month. Urban Woman and I had delicious appetizers and beverages at 31 Bistro for a nice low price and then walked to the 100 block where my friend Mustapha was

Central Business Improvement District: An Organization You Should Know

2012-01-23T00:01:00.000-05:00

Michele Hummel leads CBID sponsored resident meeting November 2011 I've mentioned them before. It's the kind of name for an organization that makes people momentarily scratch their heads before moving onto the next channel. As a concept, the CBID is pretty simple: It's an organization funded by an extra tax on downtown residents and businesses whose purpose is to improve downtown. The devil is

Streamliners, RB Morris, Jenna and her Cool Friends, Blue Mother Tupelo and Fred Eaglesmith

2012-01-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

Jazzman RB Morris with the Streamliners, Knoxville Museum of Art KMA swinging to the Streamliners I'll start with a few pictures of the KMA from a couple of weeks ago and then I'll launch into what promises to be an amazing weekend for music in the city. Today's post begins with Alive After Five two weeks ago. The show is hosted at KMA by Michael Gill and features superb music, beverages

Alleys, Courtyards and . . . Mews?

2012-01-19T00:01:00.000-05:00

The Elliot, Church and State, Knoxville 2011 I came into this post in a very round about way. A reader asked if I knew anything about the beautiful building at the corner of Church and State Street. He further wondered how many jokes there were around town about the intersection of Church and State. I don't remember hearing anybody say a word about it, do you? I took a walk toward said

Getting Business Done Downtown: The Downtown Design Review Board

2012-01-18T00:01:00.000-05:00

Downtown Design Review Board, City County Building, Knoxville Those of you who read this blog regularly will remember that I planned to attend the November meeting of the Downtown Design Review Board. The issue that generated the blog was the proposed demolition of buildings at 710 and 712 Walnut. I attended the meeting and since it was widely reported that the demolition had been deferred. It

Is there development potential under our feet?

2012-01-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

Entryway beneath Jackson Avenue, Knoxville Regular readers of this blog know that I recently spent some time walking Depot Avenue and considering the possibilities for development. As a part of that post I took pictures from Depot toward the main portion of downtown across the tracks. These shots reminded me that I've wanted to explore the underside of Jackson Avenue. It's been pretty

Remembering Dr. King, Honoring Dr. King

2012-01-16T00:01:00.000-05:00

I have very little direct memory of Dr. King. I remember when he was killed and, living in Alabama at the time, I remember the fear and uncertainty that followed. I also remember the hateful things that were said about him and his followers both before and after his death. It would have been very difficult to imagine there would eventually be a national holiday on his birthday. I was just a

Blog Thoughts at the End of a Good Week

2012-01-13T00:01:00.000-05:00

It's been a fun week on the blog. I really appreciate each of you who read and especially all of you commenting this week. It's an interesting time to live in downtown Knoxville. On that front, Jack Neely wrote an excellent article, "A Sense of Moment," discussing the current state of downtown that I read several times. I'd strongly urge you to check it out. I'm going to end the week

2011 Business Review, Part Four: Final Thoughts

2012-01-12T00:01:00.000-05:00

Knoxville Skyline So we've looked at all the businesses that left, the ones that re-invested and the ones that took the plunge and opened their doors for the first time this year. What does it all mean? When you put it all together and shake it up, what kind of cocktail do you get? If you look at the numbers in straight terms, I get fourteen closures, thirteen re-investing and eighteen

2011 Business Review, Part 3: Welcome to the City!

2012-01-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

A History of Reading: The first book ever sold at Union Avenue Books For those of you who read Monday's post about closed businesses and contemplated moving out of the city, I hope Tuesday's post about all the downtown businesses that have increased their stake in downtown by renovating, moving and expanding their businesses cheered you up a bit. If not, I think I may have just the antidote

2011 Business Review, Part Two: Changing and Rearranging

2012-01-10T00:01:00.000-05:00

Nama moved to the 500 Block of Gay Street Judging from the responses to yesterday's blog post, I think I've caused a great depression to settle over everyone who loves, laments and cheers for our little city. I'll agree it was depressing to see such a list of lost businesses. Of course, there were many reasons for the departures and not all of them were for a lack of business, but that's the