Chattarati, Chattanooga news and opinion

Hopefuls Have At House Healthcare Bill

Joe Lance — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:25:03 +0000

Several of the Republicans running to replace current U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp in Congress made their feelings known after Saturday’s narrowly affirmative vote on HR 3962.

Tommy Crangle:

HR 3962 just passed the House. I cannot believe that 220 House member3 are so out of touch with the people. We will have to show them

Chuck Fleischmann:

Once again the liberal leadership in Washington has proved how out of touch they are with the American people and how out of touch they are with common sense ideas in general. They just don’t get it.

Prior to passing this bill, during the debate on the House floor, Speaker Pelosi said that the 3,000 town halls attended by members of Congress this past summer helped to make this a better bill. Excuse me?

Tim Gobble:

A health bill that increases the national debt and includes jail time, fines, and fees for non-compliance is not the reform needed. There is hope the Senate will pass a health bill with legitimate reforms without the extreme costs and other problems of the House version.

Robin Smith:

It speaks to the dishonesty of the House leadership that Speaker Pelosi broke her promise to place the text of the bill online for 72 hours before a vote. Her actions demonstrate without question that the liberal agenda in Washington is not about reform, it is about expanding government control of our lives. I commend the members of the Tennessee delegation, Republican and Democrat, who voted against this bill.

The remaining candidates have been contacted to request comment. Democratic Party candidate Paula Flowers is on a mission trip to Nicaragua, according to status updates on social networking Web sites.

Mix Master Mike to Headline Mainx24

David Morton — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:30:32 +0000

Mix Master Mike during a 2007 London performance. Photo by Fabio Venni. Licensed by Creative Commons.

Jaw-dropping, turntable skills will be on display during the biggest dance party Chattanooga has ever seen.

At the stroke of midnight on Dec. 6, Mix Master Mike (Michael Schwartz) will take the stage at the Hill’s Floral Warehouse to deejay a two-hour set of dance music and hip hop. The Main Event party is being produced by Quiddity Entertainment, and concludes a weekend of activities during the Mainx24 festival.

Mix Master Mike first came to prominence as one half of Invisibl Skratch Picklz with DJ Q-bert. He is best known, though, for his work with the Beastie Boys, which he joined in 1998 as the group’s unofficial fourth member. Since then, Mix Master Mike has contributed backing tracks to the Beastie Boys’ two most recent LP’s, Hello Nasty and To The 5 Boroughs. He has also released several solo singles, EP’s and mixtapes.

“Our goal is to give Chattanooga a party that they have not experienced before, and we believe Mix Master Mike will deliver that,” said Tiffanie Robinson, spokeswoman for Quiddity Entertainment. “He’s respected and known for his ability to put on an amazing show.”

Main Event (formerly Inhabit) has become one of the biggest holiday parties in Chattanooga since it began three years ago. The 2009 party—held at Loose Canon in years past—is moving to the corner of Main and Cowart streets to accommodate high turnout.

While Mix Master Mike will be the night’s biggest draw, Quiddity Entertainment is planning a neighborhood-oriented theme for the party too. “We want to make this event about the community,” Robinson said. The warehouse will have an industrial decor representing the revitalized, Main Street area. Samples from several local eateries will be available. And the following week, many of the plants, trees and canned goods used in the decor will be donated to a neighborhood in the Southside.

The party also provides an opportunity for the company, which relocated to Chattanooga in 2009, to showcase its national brand in the new hometown. ”We like to say this is our coming out and showcase party to show Chattanooga what we can do as a company,” she said.

Main Event’s musical lineup begins with The Distribution earlier in the evening. The Chattanooga-based band will perform an hour-long set of covers along with original funk and soul.

Tickets for the party go on sale Monday, Nov. 9 at 8 a.m. Visit themaineventchatt.com for details. Mainx24 is the weekend of Saturday, Dec. 5. For a complete listing of events, visit mainx24.com.

Weekendist: Head of the Hooch and Normal-Palooza

John Hawbaker — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:30:11 +0000

The John Ross Bridge by fdtate, licensed by Creative Commons

This weekend, get a front row seat for the Head of the Hooch. It’s the largest head race in the southeast, and organizers are expecting more than 1400 registered boats from over 140 national and international teams. While you’re there, enjoy a riverfront edition of the Chattanooga Market as arts, crafts and home-grown food vendors line up at Ross’s Landing.

Read on for more of this weekend’s highlights.

Only 49 shopping days left: Get handmade gifts from local artisans at the Handcrafter’s Gift Gala, from 10:00 am. – 7:30 p.m. today at the Chattanooga Business Development Center.

20 slides x 20 seconds: Pecha Kucha is back, this time at CreateHere. 1o speakers, including photographer Cameron Adams, locavore Rick Wright and the Chattanooga Roller Girls will share their passions in brief, engaging multimedia presentations.

AVA x 3: The Association for Visual Arts is opening three new exhibits this weekend:

Surface Tension — Opening reception Friday from 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at the gallery on Frazier.
Weak, Big-Headed Baby — Opening at the Landis Gallery today. Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Awkward: A New Media Exhibition — In AVA’s Media Lab, opening Friday from 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Abnormally fun: Normal-Palooza is back Saturday from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at Normal Upper School. The festival features more than 25 arts and crafts vendors including World Next Door, Ivey Handcrafted, and local artist Matthew Dutton. There will be live music all day, including New Binkley Brothers, Forest Magic and Heypenny along with food from Whipped, Lupi’s, Greenlife, Mercatino, Champy’s and more.

Hardly the dregs: Carl Cadwell’s musical project, Summer Dregs, is hosting a release party at CreateHere. $7 gets you in for musical performances by Charles Allison, Reeve Hunter and Summer Dregs, along with an art installation and a copy of the CD.

Go Mad at the Library: The annual Club Lib fundraiser takes on a 60’s theme Saturday night, from 7:30 p.m. – 11:00 p.m. at the downtown library. General admission tickets are $60, VIP tickets are $85.

First Friday Five: Tennessee Bloggers for Education

John Hawbaker — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:50:45 +0000

First Friday Five is an ongoing project to organize one-day online fundraisers for local charitable projects. Read on to learn about this month’s goal and how your $5 donation can help.

This month, we’re doing a little something different for First Friday Five. Instead of choosing one particular project, we’re turning the choice over to you by partnering with Tennessee Bloggers for Education on DonorsChoose.org. It’s an initiative that allows teachers in high-poverty schools to request funding for classroom projects. Then, donors can choose which ones to support and how much to give.

With the help of Christian Grantham, the organizer of Tennessee Bloggers for Education, we found four projects for schools in Hamilton County:

Here’s how you can help:

Donate $5 to fund a classroom project on DonorsChoose.org
Encourage others to donate by spreading the word on Twitter, Facebook or your own blog

Around the World, From Gold to Green

Aaron Collier — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:15:31 +0000

Summer Dregs rehearsing at The Warehouse.

7,000 miles separate Chattanooga from Seoul, South Korea. But that didn’t stop Carl Cadwell from joining forces with long-time collaborator Ryan Dixon to produce songs for his latest project, Summer Dregs. In fact, much of the group’s “delicious, dark, semi-sweet electro-pop” was conceived as it traveled cyberspace between musicians scattered across the globe, from London to New York to Seattle to Rhode Island. The result is From Gold to Green, and a whole lot of miles—not to mention history—are behind the album’s success.

According to Cadwell, Summer Dregs was born just as another of his musical endeavors ended. He describes the group’s origins on their Facebook Page:

In 2007 Infradig—my previous band—was done.

Within a couple weeks of our last show I began working on tracks with no other desire than to fulfill my need to create. As I began to get lost in a noisy cloud of beats and melodies, I asked some friends to help me shape these masses into songs…. What we shaped, with the help of CreateHere’s MakeWork grant, is an album called From Gold to Green.

A Personality-Driven Collaboration

The band’s MySpace page describes the group this way: “Summer Dregs is the result of Carl Cadwell collaborating with musicians of greater talent to make better music than any of us could alone.” Cadwell further explains that Summer Dregs was an exercise in bringing together the musicians that inspired him during his time as keyboardist for the popular electro-funk-groove-hop band, Infradig. He was drawn to the album’s diverse lineup of musicians because of how their personalities played out in their songs and performances. And for the past two years, he has used Summer Dregs as an opportunity to let those personalities shape his ideas, his songs, and his album.

When Stephen Nichols first contributed vocals and instrumentation to one of Cadwell’s partial songs in 2007, things gelled immediately. So Cadwell started crafting song structures for specific musicians. He sent collaborators half-songs and asked them to write lyrics and contribute instrumental parts.

Cadwell called in Ryan Dixon and John Totten, who had previously performed together as The Quiet Ones, a power pop outfit that experienced a successful stint in Chattanooga before Dixon moved to Seoul and the rest of the band relocated to Seattle. Summer Dregs also combines stylistically dissimilar musicians like Jairus’s frontman Chris Ammons and The Distribution’s percussionist-extraordinaire Joshua Caleb Green. The two are masterfully paired on the album’s third track, “To Convince Whom.” The album’s title track features the folksy songwriter Robert Heiskell’s rustic musings against a backdrop of intergalactic ambiance and hypersonic rhythms.

Cadwell maintains that the album is deceptively simple. At the root of each song is one basic concept, as evidenced in “From Gold to Green,” where Heiskell’s acoustic guitar cuts through layers of synthesizers and glitch rhythms to close the song.

Each musician recorded their own vocals and instrumentation from their own homes. Ideas traveled back and forth across cyberspace as songs took shape, eventually forming themselves. Cadwell assembled song-parts, axed some ideas, and salvaged plenty more. The process gave each musician time, space and creative freedom. As a result, the songs became about the musicians’ personalities, just as Cadwell hoped.

The Maturing Artist

Carl Cadwell on the keys.

The album’s title is influenced by Frost’s poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” and “signifies a maturing into contentment. It is a movement towards a focus on the subtle joy and struggles in where we are everyday now.” Cadwell explains that he’s come to realize that “there’s nothing wrong with that contentment.”

For Cadwell, this album is not so much a coming of age; rather it is an homage to the influences and process of “maturing into contentment.” And though he’s busy writing songs for The Distribution, another Summer Dregs project may stem from the success of From Gold to Green.

Surprisingly Cohesive, Remarkably Accessible

A (f/Stephen Nichols) by SummerDregs

Bones (f/Ryan Dixon) by SummerDregs

Cadwell is doing more than learning contentment. He’s producing really good music, and Summer Dregs highlights his growth into a musical architect. The album unveils not only his reach into electro-pop; he’s artfully crafted an album that places a variety of personalities against the backdrop of his own glitch-influenced back beats, kick-back keyboard chops, synthetic ambiance and distinct piano licks. For those whose musical experiences cross paths with the many collaborators of Summer Dregs, From Gold to Green is a surprisingly cohesive and complete record. And for those who simply like to support and consume good music, the album delivers a remarkably accessible collection of songs worth more than the asking price.

This intriguing mix of styles is on display in two notable tracks:

“Bones” — The album’s opening track is led by Dixon’s vocal lines rising and falling against atmospheric ambiance before they are picked up and driven forward by rich electric keyboard chops, shifty back-beats and swirling keyboard lines. The song concludes with dense layers of texture, glitch-spirited rhythms and signature Cadwell piano licks.
“To Convince Whom” — Chris Ammons delivers his Jairus-oriented less-is-more trademark appeal to the backdrop of an eery synth melody, Josh Green’s auxiliary genius and an echoing voice-over by Cadwell’s mother.

From Gold to Green Release Party

To celebrate the album’s release, Summer Dregs is performing live at CreateHere on Saturday night.

What: Live performances by Charles Allison, Reeve Hunter and Summer Dregs
Where: CreateHere, 55 East Main Street, Chattanooga, TN
When: Saturday, November 7 from 8:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m.
Admission: $7, includes a copy of From Gold to Green

Candidates React to New Jersey, Virginia Elections

Joe Lance — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:37:09 +0000

Here is a statement sent by the Chuck Fleischmann campaign:

Last night Americans went to the polls, in states that were heavily carried by President Obama in 2008, and said, “Enough is enough.”

While “hope” and “change” sound good in theory, liberal fiscal policies are a disaster for this country in reality. President Obama and his liberal counterparts in Congress talked a good game last year, but they have not performed thus far, and the American people expressed their dissatisfaction last night by electing governors who ran on fiscal responsibility and conservative principals.

It is high time that Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Congress listen to the American people, and quit spending money we don’t have. It’s time for the government to stop trying to put itself in the business of health care. It’s time for the government to get out of the car business. It’s time for the government to stop bailing out failed private businesses. And it’s time for the government to stop leveraging away our children’s and grandchildren’s futures.

Many of our elected leaders in Washington just don’t get it. True change started last night with conservative leaders being elected in Virginia and New Jersey. Next November, when I am elected to Congress, I will make sure those same conservative principals have a voice in Washington.

Robin Smith had a pretty similar message (via Post Politics):

In a clear voice, Americans looked to Washington and said, “hold up.”

For ten months we’ve watched Washington throw our hard earned money around like confetti. We watched the government take control of GM because it was “too big to fail” and it still failed.

[...]

Today, Americans had their first chance to give a reply to Washington, and from places as diverse as the Jersey shore to Southwest Virginia, the message was clear: Stop. Stop wasting our money. Stop driving us further into to debt. Stop selling our children’s future in the name of liberal social experiments.

As the health care debate unfolds over the next few days we will find out if President Obama and Speaker Pelosi were listening. But for tonight, we can say it was a good day for our country.

City to Issue $20 Million in Bonds for Enterprise South Infrastructure

David Morton — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:00:49 +0000

Infrastructure and development around Enterprise South will significantly raise city debt, but officials say long-term growth and future revenue from a nearby annexation will pay for itself.

The Chattanooga City Council authorized the issuance and sale of municipal bonds Tuesday evening for substantial infrastructure improvements at the Enterprise South site. The resolution, approved unanimously, states that the $20 million price tag is for “the purpose of paying all or a portion of the costs” associated with the Volkswagen auto manufacturing plant.

The infrastructure project includes streets, a helipad, welcome center, fire building, and electric transformer station, along with water and stormwater drainage, the resolution says.

City Finance Officer Daisy Madison said the resolution “sets a marker in the sand as to which projects the city is willing to finance with these municipal bonds.” Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, municipal bonds for private sector projects are tax-exempt, she said.

Prior to the vote, Councilwoman Carol Berz said the measure is peremptory while the Budget, Finance and Personnel Committee continues work on the 2010 fiscal year capital budget. “This allows us to go forward should the capital budget be passed, and begin the bonding process—so that when it is passed, we’re ready to go the next step,” she added.

During the afternoon agenda session, Madison told council members that the city will retire 33.9% of its debt in five years and 86.7% of its debt within 15 years, the Times Free Press reports.

The Budget, Finance and Personnel committee reconvenes Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. to work on the capital budget.

Tuesday evening, the City Council voted 6-3 in favor of annexing 230 acres near Exit 9 on I-75. Area 9B consists largely of residential and undeveloped property across the interstate from Enterprise South. Council members Peter Murphy, Deborah Scott and Russell Gilbert voted against the ordinance on first reading.

The city will spend $2.85 million to annex the area, Scott said, but will only generate $46,000 in tax revenue.

Mayor Ron Littlefield acknowledged the disparity between the expense of sewer installation and current tax revenue from the area, saying, “I think there’s no clearer piece where what you’re looking at is the lowest amount of taxes that you could anticipate, and the worst case scenario on sewers.”

But, he told council members, “This area is going to change, and change very dramatically.” He also said that he would feel more comfortable if city engineers and planners managed the growth and development there instead of the county.

Public Works administrator Steve Leach pointed to recent, commercial development in Ooltewah as an example of where the area is heading. The area will connect Chattanooga and Collegedale, he told council members.

“If we were annexing nothing else, this is the area we need to be annexing,” the mayor said. “This is a site that I’m sure will pay for itself.”

Councilwoman Sally Robinson echoed the mayor’s remarks, saying that the area is “ground zero for the first wave of commercial development that we’re going to see” as a result of the Volkswagen facility.

Video: Jordan Thomas, CNN Top Ten Hero of 2009

John Hawbaker — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:00:53 +0000

In 2005, Chattanooga teenager Jordan Thomas lost both his legs in a boating accident in Florida. Since that time, he launched the Jordan Thomas Foundation which has raised more than $400,000 to help purchase prosthetic limbs for young people who couldn’t otherwise afford them.

CNN selected Thomas as one of its top ten heroes of 2009, and the public is invited to vote between now and 6:00 a.m. on November 19 to select the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year.

A celebratory rally is being held for Thomas at the Hunter Museum on Friday at 11:30 a.m.

Mainx24 Aims for Promising Third Act

David Morton — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:00:05 +0000

On a brisk Saturday in December 2007, a handful of business owners and residents organized a grassroots festival to promote their struggling neighborhood in the Southside. The 24-hour festival, dubbed Mainx24, coalesced around a simple theme: “We Believe in Main Street.”

The message was displayed on billboards and signs in empty storefronts from Cowart to Jefferson streets. A brief parade, the daytime highlight of the festival, passed in the blink of an eye. And the soundtrack from an impromptu, bluegrass session petered out in an empty parking lot where a few residents enjoyed samples from a lone eatery.

Three years later, the message continues to resonate. But now, many of the once empty storefronts are occupied and open for business. A resurgent nightlife is taking hold, and Main St. is on an upward trajectory as a thriving arts community in Chattanooga. Likewise, the packed schedule for the 2009 Mainx24 festival, released Wednesday on mainx24.com, is but one more indication of how far the area has come.

“The Main St. neighborhoods are a great example of a renaissance,” said David Hudson, one of two organizers for Mainx24: “This area has become one of the neatest places to live, work and play in Chattanooga. It is an outstanding example of what a true neighborhood can be.”

With over 50 events planned throughout the weekend of Saturday, Dec. 5, “Mainx24 offers something for everyone,” organizer Ken Hays said. Festival-goers can stroll the neighborhood, visit new shops and galleries, or “see the older ones which have only gotten better.”

Mainstay events like the morning pancake breakfast at Fire Hall No. 1, the Main St. parade and the evening Christmas party are returning in 2009, while new events like the OCI chili cook-off have headliner potential as well, Hays said.

The Christmas party—one of the biggest holiday events in the city—is being produced by Quiddity Entertainment, a national event management company based in Chattanooga. This year, the party is moving to the Hill’s Florist Warehouse on the corner of Main and Cowart streets. Tiffanie Robinson of Quiddity Entertainment said the new location offers more space, and the location on Main St. helps personify the Mainx24 experience.

“The warehouse will literally be transformed into a unique, modern venue using industrialized decor,” Robinson said: “We have many surprises in store for everyone, but our big surprise is our headlining act. We expect this event to be very different than any other event Chattanoogans have seen.”

The party’s musical lineup will be announced next week, she said.

Numerous musical performances scattered throughout Mainx24 are one of the big draws in this year’s calendar, Hudson said: “There will be music at several different events, as well as some venues that will be nothing but music. This is a great opportunity to see how great and diverse Chattanooga’s local music scene is.”

Building on the momentum of the Southside’s recent, real estate renaissance, Paper Street Associates will unveil plans for a new development called Mission on Main prior to the festival’s parade. “The development includes the corner lot (Main and Market), the old Union Gospel Mission and the larger empty lot across from Alleia,” developer Gavin Thomas said in an email Tuesday. The building’s facade will stretch 300 feet along Main St., he said.

CreateHere is partnering with EPB Fiber Optics for an SEC football championship party with catering provided by Big River Grille. A busking competition at The Church on Main St. will offer a $500 prize for the best street performer(s). And an 8-hour showcase of dance and music begins in the afternoon at the SoHo Building.

Though the 2009 schedule is much larger than its predecessors, Mainx24 still has a neighborhood-oriented focus, Hays said. “CreateHere and Josiah [Roe] created Mainx24 three years ago, and I think the neighborhood has taken what was a spectacular idea and first year event, and only made it better.”

“This is an incredible example of what a community can do,” Hudson added. “To my knowledge, there is no other event in Chattanooga that can rival this.”

Mainx24 begins the weekend of Saturday, Dec. 5. For a complete listing of events, visit mainx24.com.

Editor’s Note: Chattarati will be webcasting the festival from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The liveblog will feature video, photographs and interviews with area residents and business leaders.

Hunter Museum Launches Inaugural Concert Series

Michael Kendall — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:41:51 +0000

The Hunter Museum of American Art recently launched a new chamber concert series. Founded by pianist Gloria Chen, String Theory at the Hunter is a chamber music series that brings classical music to Chattanoogans in a more intimate, personal setting. Hosting concert series in museum lobbies is an old tradition, and now the Hunter Museum joins the ranks of museums like the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

The first concert of this series took place on October 29, and featured works by Prokofiev, Debussy, and Brahms. Local composer and musician Tim Hinck responded to the concert on his blog:

I was so excited and impressed by the quality of the performances and for the chance that local audiences have to hear high-quality music-making and some alternative programming. There was a good crowd and I can’t say enough positive things about Gloria’s playing and her vision to create this series.

String Theory at the Hunter’s next programmed concert will take place on December 10, and will feature Arnaud Sussman on Violin and Gloria Chen on Piano, playing a program featuring chamber works by Dvorak, Debussy, and Brahms. Visit the Hunter Museum’s website for more information.

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