The Pulse 13.28 » July 14, 2016

CHATTANOOGA'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVEJULY 14, 2016

The Cars Of The FutureGOING BOLDY INTO THE GREAT BIG GREEN BEYOND...AND BEHIND THE WHEEL

By David Traver Adolphus

2 • THE PULSE • JULY 14, 2016 • CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM

Call Mike Hicks For Your “Credit Fix”

423-875-2023

MarshalMizeFord.com

GET A FRESH START TODAY FROM THE DEALER WITH A HEART!

MARSHALL MIZE FORD

Marshall Mize Ford where we finance your future, not your past. If you’ve experienced • bad credit • late payments • foreclosure

• divorce • repossessions or bankruptcy, “WE CAN HELP!” It’s that easy. Many quality vehicles to choose from.

BUY HERE PAY HERESelected Pre-Owned Division

5348 HWY 153, CHATTANOOGA, TN 37343

Reeeeee-

gardless!

5348 Highway 153 at Hixson PikeMarshalMizeFord.com

423-875-2023

Call Mike Hicks For Your Credit Fix!

Call Mike Hicks For Your “Credit Fix”

423-875-2023

MarshalMizeFord.com


MARSHALL MIZE FORD





Reeeeee-

gardless! Call Mike Hicks For Your “Credit Fix”

423-875-2023

MarshalMizeFord.com


MARSHALL MIZE FORD





Reeeeee-

gardless!

Marshal Mize Ford is where we finance your future, not your past. If you’ve experienced • bad credit • late payments • foreclosure

• divorce • reposessions or bankruptcy

“WE CAN HELP!” It’s that easy. Many quality vehicles to choose from.

CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM • JULY 14, 2016 • THE PULSE • 3

THE FINE PRINT: The Pulse is published weekly by Brewer Media and is distributed throughout the city of Chattanooga and surrounding communities. The Pulse covers a broad range of topics concentrating on music, the arts, entertainment, culture and local news. The Pulse is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. No person without written permission from the publisher may take more than one copy per weekly issue. The Pulse may be distributed only by authorized distributors. Contents Copyright © 2016 by Brewer Media. All rights reserved.

Features4 BEGINNINGS: Chattanooga’s mayor talks about inspiration and challenges.

5 THE LIST: Ranking the foods we like to buy the most.

7 SUSHI & BISCUITS: Chef Mike delights the tastebuds with sweet yakitori.

12 ARTS CALENDAR

16 MUSIC CALENDAR

18 REVIEWS: Cellular Chaos brings real thrills to the speakers, Venezuela 70 finds their synthesizer roots.

19 DIVERSIONS

20 SCREEN: The Shallows takes a fresh look at familiar film territory.

22 SHADES OF GREEN: Mocs Bend Nature & Art Festival comes together.

23 FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

23 JONESIN’ CROSSWORD

EDITORIALManaging Editor Gary Poole

Editorial Assistant Brooke Dorn

Music Editor Marc T. Michael

Film Editor John DeVore

ContributorsDavid Traver Adolphus • Rob Brezsny

Matt Jones • Sandra KurtzMike McJunkin • Tony Mraz

Ernie Paik • Rick Pimental-Habib

Editorial InternHillary Eames

CartoonistsMax Cannon • Rob Rogers

Jen Sorenson • Tom Tomorrow

FOUNDED 2003 BY ZACHARY COOPER & MICHAEL KULL

ADVERTISINGDirector of Sales Mike Baskin

Account Executives Chee Chee Brown • Linda Hisey

Rick Leavell • John Rodriguez Logan Vandergriff • Joseph Yang

CONTACT Offices

1305 Carter St. Chattanooga, TN 37402

Phone423.265.9494

Fax423.266.2335

Website chattanoogapulse.com

Email [email protected]

BREWER MEDIA GROUPPublisher & President Jim Brewer II

July 14, 2016Volume 13, Issue 28

8 Into the Great Green BeyondNothing was settled in the early days of the car: Three wheels or

four? How would you—a ship’s tiller? Which side would you drive on? Would you sit side by side, or facing each other, like a carriage? All of those answers then are not the ones we in our four-wheeled, left-hand drive, forward-facing, be-steeringwheeled cars have today.

10 The World of Cirque du SoleilNext week Cirque du Soliel is coming to UTC’s McKenzie Arena, bringing with it a show that is guaranteed to delight

audiences of all ages. The “Circus of the Sun” is the biggest circus organization on earth, with over 4000 employees from 40

countries coming together to create 19 different productions.

14 The Boys Are Back In TownIt was good news when I first heard that Mark “Porkchop”

Holder was coming back to town to stay. He was an exciting musician almost twenty years ago both as a member of the

Black Diamond Heavies and as a solo act.

ContentsCHATTANOOGA'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE


As part of new semi-regular se-ries here at The Pulse, we will be reaching out to a wide vari-ety of people in and around Chattanooga to find out what makes them tick and why they do what they do.

For our first “Five Questions” feature, we reached out to Chat-tanooga Mayor Andy Berke, who took some time out of his busy schedule to share his thoughts with us.

The Pulse: What’s the best part of your job?

Mayor Berke: To see progress in real time. When someone calls City Hall with a problem that impacts their day to day life, and we are able to fix

that problem, it’s rewarding to see how our work can impact some-one’s life immediately. Whether it’s making sure a mother gets an emergency food voucher to help feed her family for the next week

NEWS • VIEWS • RANTS • RAVESUPDATES » CHATTANOOGAPULSE.COM FACEBOOK/CHATTANOOGAPULSE

EMAIL LOVE LETTERS, ADVICE & TRASH TALK TO [email protected]

Five Questions With Mayor Andy BerkeChattanooga’s mayor talks about inspiration, challenges and movies

or closing down event halls where young people are the victims of violence, seeing the product of our work and how it makes peoples’ lives better in real-time is hands down the best part of my job.

TP: What’s your biggest challenge?AB: Trying to find a way to make a dif-

ference in gun violence is both incredibly challenging and frustrating. I get a text from the Chief [of Police] every time there is a shooting in our city and, far too many times, I’ll need to call the victim’s family the next day to offer prayers and consolation for the loved one they lost. This is unfortunately a challenge I wake up to everyday and what I spend the most hours in my day working to solve.

TP: Who has most inspired you?AB: I grew up watching my dad go to

work every day singularly devoted to solv-ing problems for other people. This taught me the value of helping others while giving back to my community. While an essential part of my father’s job and life was to help

other people, he was incredibly focused on family. When I was young, he always came to the activities my sister and I were a part of and attended things that were important to us. I never un-derstood how difficult that was.

TP: What was the best advice you’ve ever been given?

AB: Focus on the things that matter and let go of everything else.

TP: And for our final ques-tion, what’s the last movie you saw (and did you like it)?

AB: Now You See Me 2…and it was TERRIBLE!

We'd like to thank Mayor Ber-ke for taking time to be part of our new feature. If you have any suggestions of who you'd like to see questioned in future issues, send your suggestions to [email protected]

INSIGHTS

GARY POOLE

BEG

INN

ING

S

“Trying to find a way to make a difference in gun violence is both incredibly

challenging and frustrating”


Jack Skowronnek grew up a reader, but in 2009, a trip to his school library changed his life and inspired a com-munity movement. At ten years old, Jack read Drum Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Son-neblick, in which a middle school boy shaves his head to show solidarity to his leu-kemia-battling little brother. Jack was inspired to shave his own head, in the same sign of solidarity, and Jack’s Chattanog-gins was born.

More children are lost every year to childhood cancer than any other disease,

and Jack’s Chattanoggins is an oppor-tunity to raise awareness, solidarity, and

financial support to children battling cancer. By teaming up with the

Children’s Hospital Founda-tion, Jack’s Chattanoggins gives participants the op-portunity to fund local pro-grams and show solidarity for kids who lose their hair

during cancer treatments. Each “shavee” will have re-

ceived donations in their name from friends and family. Traditionally

Jack’s head would also be shaved at Chat-tanoggins, but this year, the honor will

instead go to his younger sister, Faith, in-spiring a movement of her own: this year, 70 percent of all shavees are women.

Jack’s Chattanoggins has been an in-credible success, raising over $150,000 to date. This year, it’s expected that another $40,000+ will be raised and donated to the Children’s Hospital Foundation at Erlanger.

Whether you want to shave your head in front of a crowd or pay to see some-body else do it, head over to jackshaves.org. General donations can also be made. Come show your solidarity, both to the shavees and the kids they’re shaving for.

— Hillary Eames

IN T

HIS

ISSU

E

EdiToonby Rob Rogers

Shaving Heads For A Very Good Cause

David Traver Adolphus is our resident car geek, covering all things

automotive for us on a month-ly basis. David is a freelance automotive researcher who recently quit his full-time job writing about old cars to pursue his lifelong dream of writing about old AND

new cars. David occasionally contributes to Road & Track magazine and often to road-andtrack.com and elsewhere. He is also the founder of The Road Home, a nonprofit benefitting post-9/11 veter-ans. Learn more about it on Facebook @theroadhomeusa. As far as his automotive writ-ing, he welcomes the in-evitable and probably richly deserved kvetching about Airbag and anything else on Twitter as @proscriptus.

David Traver AdolphusAlbum reviewer and mu-sic writer Ernie Paik has written about

music and film for various publications for over 20 years and has contributed regularly to The Pulse since 2005. He has contributed to the books “The Magnetic Fields’ 69 Love Songs: A Field Guide”

and “Lunacy: The Best of the Cornell Lunatic”, and he is the current president of the Chattanooga-based nonprofit arts education organization The Shaking Ray Levi So-ciety (one of our favorites). As a recording artist, he has created original music for film, radio, television and theater, and his video artwork has been shown at the Museum of Contem-porary Art Detroit and the 2010 Big Ears Festival.

Ernie Paik

The List

Everyone eats. Granted, some eat too much and others not enough, but it's the one thing we all have in common.

But what food items do we spend the most money on?

Our friends at the Statistic Brain Research Institute went out and dug through the annual spending numbers:

• Chicken Eggs: $12,200,000,000

• Milk (all percentages): $11,200,000,000

• Bread (all types): $10,000,000,000

• Soda (the sweet stuff): $9,000,000,000

• Packed Meats: $8,300,000,000

• Salty Snacks: $8,000,000,000

• Frozen Dinners: $6,130,000,000

• Breakfast Cereal: $6,000,000,000

• Peanut Butter and Jelly: $3,400,000,000

We're not really sure what this list says about us as a culture, but it does make putting together The Pulse office grocery list a whole lot easier. Source: www.statisticbrain.com/food-purchase-statistics/

The Foods We Like To Buy The Most



There is something visceral and primordial that happens in the homo sapiens brain when animal flesh meets hot coals. Odor molecules find their way to our noses on an evangeli-cal mission to beat at the door of our brain’s limbic system and trigger atavistic impulses strong enough to tempt even the daintiest flower of our species.

This complex assault on our senses is of-tentimes accompanied by the corresponding disposition towards a hoppy beverage and social congress with other humans you find tolerable. In short, we humans really love grilled meat and adult beverages.

When the grilling arts are being consid-ered, American, Australian, and Argentinean carnivores most likely come to mind. But the Japanese should take a prominent place in any discussion of grilled meats because of their meticulous devotion to grilled meat perfection in the form of yakitori.

Yakitori can literally be translated to “grilled chicken,” a translation so simple it both betrays the dish’s complexity while cel-ebrating its modest purity. Bite sized chunks of thigh, skin, liver or any other part that at one time helped form a complete chicken are threaded onto bamboo skewers and grilled over hot coals. This may sound as impressive as a grilled cheese sandwich, but centuries of crafting Binchõ-tan charcoal from ubame oak, precisely trimming out the best cuts of chicken, and perfecting the balance of sweet and salty flavors within tare sauce have el-evated yakitori to heights alongside the lon-gissimus dorsi of a Piedmontese bull.

To make proper yakitori at home, start with chicken thighs. Thighs are indisputably juicier and more flavorful than the dubiously popular chicken breast and will produce far better yakitori. Japanese chefs separate muscle groups and trim out bits of fat and sinew from the thigh meat, but if you’re less patient, a simple 1—1 1/2” cube will be fine. Sprinkle with salt and white pepper and thread them onto skewers, alternating the chicken with segments of scallion.

Be sure to push everything together tight-ly. This creates less surface area which means less moisture loss and juicier yakitori.

You don’t have to make your own tare sauce, but it’s so much better tasting than

store-bought that it borders on a punishable offense to brush proper yakitori skewers with a watery salt bomb like Kikkoman or Tabasco teriyaki sauce.

Tare is very similar to teriyaki sauce, but balances the sweet and savory aspects of the sauce better while imparting a glimmer-ing sheen to your finished skewers. Cook it down until it becomes a syrupy, spoon-coat-ing sauce and apply once when the chicken is almost done and again just before serving.

If there is a “secret” to great yakitori, it would be in the charcoal. Japan’s Kansai region is known for producing the world’s finest cooking charcoal, Kishu Binchotan or white charcoal. Binchotan charcoal burns longer and at a lower temperature than ordi-nary charcoal and doesn’t produce any un-pleasant odors that would interfere with the flavor of the food, making it indispensable for proper yakitori.

Although it’s expensive (about $20 lb) and hard to find (Amazon’s your best bet or get the folks at Asian Food & Gifts to order you a bag). It’s worth the added money and effort.

Life’s too short to eat bad food. So go the extra mile and reap the sweet yakitori re-wards.

Chicken and leek negima yakitori Ingredients: 8-10 skewers• 1 lb boneless chicken thighs, skin on,

cut into 1”—1½” cubes• White sections of 3 to 4 scallions or

naganegi onion cut into 3/4” pieces• Salt• Vegetable oil• Sansho pepper (optional)

Sauce:• 2 oz dark soy sauce• 2 oz mirin rice wine• 1 oz sake• 1 tbsp sugar• 1 tbsp honey• 1 tsp vinegar

Directions:Combine the sauce ingredients in a pan

and stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the liquid becomes syrupy enough to coat a spoon.

Thread the chicken onto the skewers from the meat side, alternating pieces of scallion, pushing everything tightly together as you go. Lightly salt each skewer.

Cook the skewers over medium-hot coals. Brush the grill lightly with oil to prevent sticking then place your skewers over the hot portion of the grill, turning frequently until the chicken is well browned and the scallions are tender.

When chicken is about 75 percent cooked, brush both sides of the skewer with tare sauce and continue cooking, being careful not to al-low the sauce to burn. Remove chicken from grill and allow to rest for 1 to 2 minutes.

Brush with additional glaze, sprinkle with sansho pepper or shichimi togarashi (seven-flavor chili pepper) and serve immediately.

Life’s Too Short to Eat Bad FoodChef Mike delights the tastebuds with sweet yakitori rewards.

COLUMNSUSHI & BISCUITS

Yakitori can literally be translated to ‘grilled chicken’, a translation so simple it both betrays the dish’s complexity while celebrating its modest purity.”

Longtime food writer and professional chef Mike McJunkin is a native Chattanoogan cur-rently living abroad who has trained chefs, owned and operated restaurants. Join him on Facebook at facebook.com/SushiAndBiscuits

MIKE MCJUNKIN

“


N

Into the Great Green BeyondThe present and future of alternative automotive choicesBy David Traver Adolphus Pulse automotive columnist

CO

VE

R S

TO

RY

By 1895, there was enough of a motoring scene that the first American car magazine was launched, The Horseless Age (France, a hotbed of automotive innovation, had one in ‘84). Page one was a full-page ad from Daimler (which was soon joined by Karl Benz and a car named after his daughter Mercedes), which had a large fac-tory in Queens on Long Island. They advertised natural gas, gasoline and kerosene-powered cars, which wasn’t even scratching the surface of late-19th Century roadgoing propulsion.

The following pages of the magazine de-scribed engines, which may or may not have worked or even existed, running on springs, compressed air, kerosene, oil, natural gas, gaso-line, electricity, acetylene, steam, ether, springs and steam, air-gas, hot air via stirling cycle, hot air expansion and carbonic acid (which I guess was compressed carbon dioxide). Engines were singles, twins, rotaries, horizontal and they

didn’t even always power the tires, because there were a few oddballs who thought a giant whirling propeller of death was the answer. Within another 10 or 15 years, there were even what we know as hybrids today, gasoline engines that ran generator and battery systems.

Steam power had an early lead, but the real competition was between electric and gas, es-pecially in urban environments. Eventually, the inherent advantages of gasoline itself won out (Airbag, September 2014): you need 33.7 kWh of battery to equal one gallon of gas. Tesla’s new $7,340 (installed, not including solar panels) Powerwall residential battery is rated at 6.4 kWh and weighs 214 pounds. That’s about the same hourly output as you’ll get from half-a-gallon of gas in a $750 portable generator. If gas costs $1.90 downtown, the difference pays for 3,468 gallons, which will take a moderately efficient car 100,000 miles.

othing was settled in the early days of the car: Three wheels or four? How would you—a ship’s tiller? Which side would you drive on? Would you sit side by side, or facing each other, like

a carriage? All of those answers then are not the ones we in our four-wheeled, left-hand drive, forward-facing, be-steeringwheeled cars have today. And if you think that was a mess, what with all the people driving backwards on the wrong side of the road, it’s nothing compared to what we went through trying to find the right fuel.

So electric power for cars was not a mature field before World War I; nor was it after World War II, as inventors with surplus technology tried to up-end what they saw as a sort of cabal by the major automakers. Geniuses and crackpots alike, they never really got anywhere. Major manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz also kept alternative power programs ticking over.

The second major flowering of hybrids came with the 1973 oil embargo. Insurance rates and the Clean Air Act had already started to kill the big engine cars of the Sixties over the previous two or three years, so it was a logical progression into electrics. The cars themselves, however, were generally anything but, like the horribly doorstop-shaped 1,300-pound, 25mph CitiCar and its 40mph successor, the Commuta-Car; the AMC Hornet-based Electroport; a car from Sears, Roe-buck; one from Braun (the electric shaver people); and many others. Largely intolerable monstrosi-ties, assorted fruitcakes bought thousands of them through the Seventies.

But in 1989, General Motors brought EVs into the 21st Century, with their prototype EV-1. In-troduced to the public in 1990 as the Impact, what was eventually known as the EV-1 didn’t actu-ally become available until 1996, and then solely as a three-year lease with no option to buy, and only in certain states. But the thing was, it was a good, useable car, and they sold 1,117 of them. In 2003 they took all but a handful back and


crushed them (about which there’s an entire movie, Who Killed the Electric Car). As the first practical modern hybrid, however, it was a success, and the gas-electric Honda Insight was offered in America in late 1999, followed by the Toyota Prius seven months later.

In August of 2008, the national aver-age price for a gallon of gas hit $4.10 and the hybrid car industry as we know it was born. Thanks to the years it takes to develop new technologies and our disdain for fuel economy prior to that, Toyota largely had the market to themselves, as Honda had discontinued the Insight in 2006 (it was back in 2010, victim of that long product development cycle again). By that time, there were 18 other gas-electric hybrids on the market, including the Prius and the all-electric Tesla Roadster.

The 2016 model year has about 65 assorted elec-trics and hybrids from 21 makes, and there are a dozen already announced for 2017. Every segment of the market is covered, from the $20,000 you-rather-walk all-electric Mitsubishi i-MiEV; to Porsche’s big $95,000 Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid and $850,000 918 Spyder supercar, and Ferrari’s $1 million, 945hp LaFerrari. Most manufacturers offer an affordable ev-eryday hybrid under $30,000 like Chevy’s Malibu or Toyota Camry, and while there’s a lot of competition in that segment, there isn’t much room for growth.

Where growth will come in the next few years is upmarket from that, in the aspirational luxury and near-luxury area, which as a segment as a whole is just beginning to catch on in America. Maybe the first hybrid among those is the Audi A3 Sportback e-tron, a premium five-door hatchback almost identi-cal in size to the VW Golf—unsurprising, as it’s on the same MQB Modular Transverse Matrix platform.

Where they differ is the $40,000-plus A3 e-tron is competing with the 2016 Mercedes-Benz C350e and upcoming 2017 BMW 330e iPerformance, as well

as things like the Lincoln MKZ, Infiniti Q50 and Acura RLX. Audi’s price point is really nice, com-ing in well-equipped around the Mercedes’ base MSRP, and way under the $51,000 Mercedes. Many more cars between $50,000 and $100,000 are already

using small, highly turbocharged engines, like Cadil-lac’s CT6 (available as a plug-in hybrid next year), BMW’s 5-series, the Jaguar XF, Lexus GF and on up into Maserati territory, so it’s a natural place to use (still very expensive) batteries and electric motors.

Is electricity really going to be the future this time? There are some other alternative fuel ideas moseying along out there—a number of manu-facturers are playing around with hydrogen fuel cells, where the hydrogen isn’t burned, but used to generate electricity directly by combining it with atmospheric oxygen through a proton exchange membrane. It’s exactly as complicated and difficult as it sounds, and how’s your neighborhood’s retail hydrogen distribution infrastructure? Good?

Batteries have problems looming in their future, too. We may run out of oil someday, but there are billions of tons more of it in the ground than the as-sorted rare earth elements we use in fancy batteries; and almost all of those come from China. Electricity is generated in plants that primarily burn coal, oil and natural gas—only 7 percent comes from renew-able energy. There’s about 50 pounds of copper in a regular gas automobile; hybrids and electrics have additional motors. A 4,600-pound Tesla Model S is

about 10 percent copper by weight. Copper is largely mined in the southern hemi-

sphere and is one of the environmentally ugliest industries in the world. China, again, is the world’s biggest producer of the lightweight aluminum in

modern cars’ bodies and frames. Oh, and solar panels and wind turbines and everything else is full of exactly the same elements.

If that sounds like “no easy answers,” that doesn’t even begin to describe the problem. Over 74 million cars will be sold this year, and it’ll probably hit 100 million by 2020 which, if you haven’t been paying attention, is about 41 months away. That’s five billion tons of

copper a year at a bare minimum, just for cars. The need for an alternative is dire and nothing will do away with the 1.5 billion cars already on the road, nor their trillions of gallons of annual gas consump-tion.

The bright spot is that we humans have yet to meet a problem we couldn’t overcome. This big ball of crap that includes climate change and all the hu-man factors powering it could be the one we don’t; or it could be that the solution involves having more or less no cars at all. But the smart money is on the smart monkeys figuring it out.

We have an unbroken track record of getting the things we want, and right on the top of our wish list for the next 100 years is a planet we can live on and cars to drive on it. The rising middle classes in China and Southeast Asia, in Africa and in South America want the same thing and are not going to be interested in wealthy Americans and Europeans telling them they can’t have it.

That just makes it something for all of us to work out, not just some of us. “What to drive” has the po-tential to be the issue that forces us to make progress as a species, to get over this hump and into whatever the next epoch of humankind is.

“Where growth will come in the next few years is upmarket from that, in the

aspirational luxury and near-luxury area, which as a segment as a whole is just beginning to catch on in America.”


AR

TS

SCE

NE

Learning The Art of “Wet Felting”Textile artist Danielle Shelton is back at WorkSpace

If you’ve taken a shine to the tex-tile arts, if you’re looking for a way to create unique and inexpensive gifts, or if you’re simply interested in learning an ancient creative prac-tice, Danielle Shelton’s wet felting seminar has you covered.

“Wet felting is a technique that has been around for thousands of years,” Shelton says. “In nomadic cultures that herded sheep, such as the Mongols, where weaving fabric on a loom was very difficult due to frequently being on the move, felt was the alternative to woven fabric.”

“If you look at sheep wool under a microscope,” Shelton continues, “You will see that the individual hairs are covered in little scales. These scales help the individual strands of wool stick together.” By applying soap and hot water to layers of wool, these scales open up, while agitation

causes them to interlock together. This creates a non-woven piece of fabric ready for dyeing. “Since wool comes from an animal, it’s a protein-based fiber,” Shelton explains, “and, like silk, it can easily be dyed a wide range of colors.”

After creating and dyeing their fabrics, participants will create felt beads and flat felt panels, but the techniques learned in Shelton’s class can be used to create, well, al-most anything. “The technique the students learn for the panels can be used to make scarves, wraps, wall hangings, and even entire gar-ments,” Shelton says, adding, “The felt beads can be strung together to make beautiful and inexpensive jew-elry.”

Join Shelton at Chattanooga Work-Space this Wednesday.

— Hillary Eames

NEXT WEEK CIRQUE DU SOLIEL IS COMING TO UTC’S McKenzie Arena, bringing with it a show that is guaranteed to

delight audiences of all ages. The “Circus of the Sun” is the biggest circus organization on earth, with over 4000 employees from 40 coun-tries coming together to create 19 different productions. The shows all combine elements of theater with acrobatics, making distinctive experiences that are visually stunning and exhilarating.

Inside The Wonderful World of Cirque du SoleilInnovative international performance group brings OVO to McKenzie Arena

If you’ve never seen it before, this is a great first show to see—it’s colorful, very energetic, and you will leave feeling inspired.”

“

ArtsTONY MRAZ

The production that they are bringing to Chattanooga is called OVO—telling the story of a group of insects, the circus employs a wide variety of international acrobatic and dance styles. These one-of-a-kind acts include hand balancing, foot juggling, the Spanish web, a flying act, contortions, acrosports, the slack wire, and an innovative trampoline/climbing wall.

“This is our first time coming to Chattanooga,” the show’s production manager, Mike Naumann, tells us. “We are bringing a lot of new technology. If you’ve never seen it before, this is a great first show to see—it’s colorful, very energetic, and you will leave feeling in-spired.”

Though Mike has been working with the cirque for eight years, this is the first time that OVO can be seen in an arena setting—the show has been going since 2012, but it was only performed previous-ly in a big top circus tent. The arena set-ting allows for more of everything—the group of 55 performers and 25 touring technicians travels with 19 semi-trucks full of equipment. For the show they will hang over 100 motors, 115 moving lights, and six projectors. This herculean effort

FRI7.15BRAVE SIR ROBIN

Monty Python’s SpamalotA farciful re-imagining of the King Arthur legend. 8 p.m.Chattanooga Theatre Centre400 River St.(423) 267-8534theatrecentre.com

THU7.14LITERARY VISIT

Brian Keene Book SigningAward-winning horror/SF writer visits Chattanooga. 3 p.m.Star Line Books1467 Market St.(423) 777-5629starlinebooks.com

SAT7.16WHAT A CAR

Chitty Chitty Bang BangThe car we all want to own. 8 p.m.Signal Mountain PlayhouseCorner of Rolling Way & James Blvd(423) 886-5243smph.org


takes 80 people over 12 hours, with over 100,000lbs of equipment being installed.

“It’s always great to go to a new place, to see people’s enthusiasm; it’s great to expose people to the show who have never seen it,” Naumann explains. “It definitely has a wow factor; there are things that you see in the show that are amazing. I kind of take them for granted, but it still wows me whenever I watch the show—it’s amazing what they can accomplish with the human body.”

The performers possess a wide range of skills, and everybody has a different background. They are specialty artists, each with their own acts. Such is the case with Missouri’s James Johnson, one of the acrobats who specializes in trampoline (in this production, he plays the role of a cricket). He started working at a gym when he was 15, competed for four years, then started doing part time shows. He got involved with the cirque by sending in videos of his trampoline act—they called him in to audition, and he has been perform-ing with them since 2014.

During their down time, the per-formers rehearse their individual acts a few days a week, work out, and learn new skills. “For competition, you have

to have the best possible form—but for this, you’re not judged by form, but by what you’re doing,” Johnson says. “This allows us a little bit more cre-ativity, but since you do a part of the show with somebody else you have to be consistent.” Since they travel a lot, one of their favorite things to do is check out local hot spots.

“The show has lots of color, action, and comedy—it is a well-rounded per-formance,” Johnson adds. “I enjoy watching people get lost in the whole world of it. They forget that they’re sitting there watching a show, and end up feeling like a part of it. They laugh, and maybe even get scared or excit-ed—there are lots of emotions associ-ated with the stunts. This is a show for the whole family: kids five and up will enjoy it as much as their grandparents. It’s just a fun show, you’re going to be guaranteed to have a good time, you’re not going to be let down. It’s a really good time, everybody I’ve ever heard of has enjoyed it—it is good for the whole family, or for a date night.”

This incredible assembly of highly talented athletes will be doing seven shows at UTC's McKenzie Arena from Wednesday, July 20 through Sunday, July 24. Tickets are available online or at the box office.


AR

TS

CA

LEN

DA

RTHURSDAY7.14

Ooltewah Farmers Market 3 p.m. Ooltewah Nursery 5829 Main St. ooltewahnursery.com Brian Keene Book Signing3 p.m.Star Line Books1467 Market St.(423) 777-5629starlinebooks.comSignal Mountain Farmers Market4 p.m.Pruett’s Market1210 Taft Hwy.(423) 902-8023signalmountainfarmersmarket.comSt. Elmo Farmers Market4 p.m.Incline Railway3917 St. Elmo Ave.(423) 838-9804lookoutfarmersmarket.comCity Sweat: Soak Up the Run6 p.m.Waterhouse Pavilion850 Market St.(423) 265-3700rivercitycompany.comChattanooga Lookouts vs Mobile Bay Bears7:15 p.m.AT&T Field201 Power Alley(423) 267-2208lookouts.com Shaun Jones7:30 p.m.The Comedy Catch1400 Market St.

(423) 629-2233thecomedycatch.com

FRIDAY7.15

Honoring the Sacrifice—American Heroes Dinner7 p.m.Chattanooga Convention Center1 Carter Plaza(423) 756-0001honoringthesacrifice.comChattanooga Lookouts vs Mobile Bay Bears7:15 p.m.AT&T Field201 Power Alley(423) 267-2208lookouts.comShaun Jones7:30, 9:45 p.m.The Comedy Catch1400 Market St.

(423) 629-2233thecomedycatch.comLeaving Iowa8 p.m.The Mars Theater117 N. Chattanooga St.,LaFayette, GA(706) 996-8350backalleyproductions.org Monty Python’s Spamalot8 p.m.Chattanooga Theatre Centre400 River St.(423) 267-8534theatrecentre.comChitty Chitty Bang Bang8 p.m.Signal Mountain PlayhouseCorner of Rolling Way & James Blvd(423) 886-5243smph.org"Tickled"8:30 p.m.

Cine-Rama100 W. Main St.(423) 521-1716thecinerama.org

SATURDAY7.16 Chattanooga Heroes Run8 a.m.U.S. Naval Reserve Center4051 Amnicola Hwy.(423) 629-4302chattanoogaheroesrun.comNoogaStrong Memorial Ride9:30 p.m.Sportsman’s Warehouse6241 Perimeter Dr.(423) 892-6300squareup.com/store/NoogaStrongRideBrainerd Farmers Market10 a.m.Grace Episcopal Church20 Belvoir Ave.(404) 245-3682facebook.com/BrainerdFarmersMarketChattanooga River Market 10 a.m. Tennessee Aquarium 1 Broad St. (423) 265-0695chattanoogarivermarket.comNorthside Farmers Market 10 am.Northside Presbyterian Church923 Mississippi Ave.(423) 266-7497St. Alban’s Hixson Market10 a.m.St. Alban’s Episcopal Church7514 Hixson Pike(423) 842-6303

PULSE PICK: SHAUN JONESOne of the hottest comics on the comedy scene right now, Shaun has traveled the world making people laugh with a style all of his own.

Shaun JonesThe Comedy Catch 1400 Market St.(423) 629-2233thecomedycatch.com

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang


AR

TS

CA

LEN

DA

R

facebook.com/StAlbansFarmersMarketDrives for Lives11 a.m.Bear Trace Golf Course8919 Harrison Bay Rd(423) 326-0885tngolftrail.netDavid Levithan Author Event4 p.m.Star Line Books1467 Market St. (423) 777-5629starlinebooks.comQ n’ Brew At The Zoo5 p.m.Chattanooga Zoo301 N. Holtzclaw Ave.(423) 697-1319chattzoo.orgChattanooga Lookouts vs Mobile Bay Bears7:15 p.m.AT&T Field201 Power Alley(423) 267-2208lookouts.comShaun Jones7:30, 9:45 p.m.The Comedy Catch1400 Market St.(423) 629-2233thecomedycatch.comLeaving Iowa8 p.m.The Mars Theater117 N. Chattanooga St.,LaFayette, GA(706) 996-8350backalleyproductions.orgMonty Python’s Spamalot8 p.m.Chattanooga Theatre Centre400 River St.

(423) 267-8534theatrecentre.comChitty Chitty Bang Bang8 p.m.Signal Mountain PlayhouseCorner of Rolling Way & James Blvd(423) 886-5243smph.org"Tickled"8:30 p.m.Cine-Rama100 W. Main St.(423) 521-1716thecinerama.orgMovies in the Park: Zootopia9 p.m.Coolidge Park150 River St.(423) 643-5956

SUNDAY7.17 Chattanooga Market11 a.m. Chattanooga Market1829 Carter St.(423) 402-9957 chattanoogamarket.comChattanooga PINK Bridal Show11 a.m.Chattanooga Convention Center1 Carter Plaza(423) 756-0001thepinkbride.com/shows/chattanoogaChattanooga Lookouts vs Mobile Bay Bears2:15 p.m.AT&T Field201 Power Alley

(423) 267-2208lookouts.comLeaving Iowa2:30 p.m.The Mars Theater117 N. Chattanooga St.,LaFayette, GA(706) 996-8350backalleyproductions.orgShaun Jones7:30 p.m.The Comedy Catch1400 Market St.(423) 629-2233thecomedycatch.comComedyFight10 p.mThe Honest Pint35 Patten Pkwy.(423) 468-4192thehonestpint.com

MONDAY7.18 Red Bank Farmers Market4 p.m.Red Bank United Methodist Church3800 Dayton Blvd.(423) 838-9804lookoutfarmersmarket.comChattanooga Roller Girls Meet & Greet6 p.m.Chattanooga Brewing Company1804 Chestnut St.(423) 702-9958chattabrew.comChattanooga Lookouts vs Mobile Bay Bears7:15 p.m.AT&T Field201 Power Alley

(423) 267-2208lookouts.com

TUESDAY7.19 East Brainerd Farmers Market4 p.m.Audubon Acres900 N. Sanctuary Rd.(423) 838-9804lookoutfarmersmarket.com

WEDNESDAY7.20 Middle Eastern Dance10:30 a.m.Jewish Cultural Center 5461 North Terrace(423) 493-0270 jewishchattanooga.comFelting 101: Wet Felting Your Own Fabric1 p.m.Chattanooga WorkSpace302 W. 6th St.(423) 822-5750chattanoogaworkspace.comMain Street Market4 p.m. 325 E. Main St. mainstfarmersmarket.com Cirque du Soleil's OVO 7:30 p.m. McKenzie Arena 720 E. 4th St. (423) 266-6627 utc.edu/mckenzie-arena

Leaving Iowa

Map these locations on chatta-noogapulse.com. Send event list-ings at least 10 days in advance to: [email protected]


MU

SIC

SC

EN

E

What The Heck Is That Thing?Guit-Steel inventor Junior Brown comes to Barking Legs

Barking Legs is offering an oppor-tunity you won’t want to miss: this Thursday, inventor of the guit-steel Junior Brown will grace the stage with an exciting hybrid of country, soul, and rock and roll.

But hang on, you might say. What the heck is a guit-steel?

They say necessity is the mother of invention, and Junior Brown is living proof. After sharpening his musical skills through the ‘60s and ‘70s, Brown got tired of switching between his six-string guitar and its steel counterpart. He had a dream of easy playing, literally: one night, Brown dreamt of his two guitars melting together to form one unique instrument.

With the help of Michael Stevens, Brown’s dream became a reality, re-sulting in a double-necked standard/steel guitar hybrid, allowing Brown

to switch seamlessly between (and during!) songs. There are some oth-er guit-steel players, but anything that comes after is a shadow of the original Junior Brown.

Add that to his grassroots success at the Continental Club in Austin, a signing with Curb Records, features in movies, TV shows, and ad cam-paigns, appearances on Letterman, Conan, and Saturday Night Live, and a SpongeBob SquarePants cameo, and you’ve got the impressive re-sume of Junior Brown.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience drum-mer Mitch Mitchell says of Brown, “Junior once told me he was very impressed by the way [Hendrix] was wild, and yet...very controlled. He knew where everything was going in a solo, and [Junior] tries for the same effect, and I think he hits it virtually every time.” — Hillary Eames

The Boys Are Back In TownMark “Porkchop” Holder and MPH boogie down and dirty

IT WAS GOOD NEWS WHEN I FIRST HEARD THAT MARK “Porkchop” Holder was coming back to town to stay. He was an

exciting musician almost twenty years ago both as a member of the Black Diamond Heavies and as a solo act. As a matter of fact, in the formative years of my own group, we played a regular weekly gig at the Lizard Lounge on the same bill as Holder and Dave Brown (an-other iconic Chattanooga singer/songwriter) and Mark’s musician-ship was already second to none.

Dirty roadhouse music. Juke Joint jamming. Swamp rock. Too rock for blues, too blues for rock, the music is hungry, hard and mean.”

“

MusicMARC T MICHAEL

With a decade or two of living, travel-ling and playing between the last time I heard him and now, I expected great things. I expected the man’s work to have aged like wine, finer, smoother and more potent than ever. In truth, Holder is more akin to your granddaddy’s private reserve of moonshine, but the simile stands and I was not disappointed.

Holder had barely hit town before he started gigging again and soon after as-sembled an all new power trio featuring himself, Doug Bales (another pillar of Chattanooga music) and Travis Kilgore who, despite being the “young fella” in the bunch, is nonetheless a well-loved, respected and seasoned pro. Power trio indeed.

After months of enduring my Bart and Lisa Simpsonesque refrain of, “Have you recorded something yet? Have you re-corded something yet? Have you record-ed something yet?” it seems that they have indeed recorded something and it is outstanding on every level.

The new group is called Mark “Pork-chop” Holder and MPH and the debut LP is Let It Slide. That’s right, I said LP. The plan is for this album to be released on vinyl and as of right now there is a long waiting list due to a dearth of facili-

FRI7.15PSYCHEDELIC

Danimal PlanetElectronic Rock geared towards face melting psychedelia. 9:30 p.m.Revelry Room41 E. 14th St.revelryroom.co

THU7.14RHYTHM & BLUES

KindoraAll American Summer welcomes R&B sensation Kindora with Rock Floyd.6 p.m.The Hunter Museum of Art10 Bluff Viewhuntermuseum.org

SAT7.16BLUEGRASS FUN

MipsoChapel Hill, NC based stringband mixes folk, Americana and fun.7 p.m.The Camp House149 E. MLK Blvd.thecamphouse.com


ties and resurgence in the popularity of the medium. You’re going to have to wait to own a copy (but you can cer-tainly catch a live performance in the meantime.)

I was all set for Let It Slide to be a blistering blues album, that being how I best remembered my old friend, and while blues is certainly at the heart of it, that isn’t quite right as a designation. In their own words the boys describe their music as, “boogie, sans bullshit,” and that not only accurately reflects the nature of the album, it captures in three glorious words the essence of the whole band.

Boogie, sans bullshit. Dirty road-house music. Juke Joint jamming. Swamp rock. Too rock for blues, too blues for rock, the music is hungry, hard and mean. Much of Holder’s gui-tar work reminds me of Billy Gibbons, a man Jimi Hendrix once described as “one of the best guitarists in America.”

One wonders whether Mark “plays” the guitar so much as he wrings its neck until it pours forth scorching riffs (to be clear, Mark Holder flat plays the hell out of a guitar, but it isn’t hard to imagine that he gets the tone he wants from his amp by scowling at it.)

Doug Bales demonstrates for the nth time why he is one of the area’s most respected drummers and Travis Kilgore…there are a lot of very hard-working musicians in this town, but I don’t know any who work as hard or grin as big as this loveable sasquatch of a bass player. I don’t need to point out his skill and versatility, his reputation speaks for itself.

The album is just sweat and guts and

soul. “My Black Name” is a driving, rock/blues hybrid that demonstrates Holder’s vocal skills as the perfect match for his guitar playing while “Let it Slide” is some very slippery, satisfy-ing, old school blues that highlights his superb harp blowing skills. The al-bum’s version of “Stagger Lee” is my favorite since Nick Cave’s cover back in the mid-nineties.

“Stranger” is a sort of rockabilly-noir piece in which Mark’s voice takes on some Johnny Cash characteristics and “Baby Please Don’t Go” is a white-hot ball of energy, a wall of blues-infused mayhem that goes to eleven and then some. All in all there are nine tracks on the album, each one a testament to the undeniable credentials of the band and its leader, an old rocker and bluesman who walks the walk, talks the talk, and sure as hell has lived the life.

Stay tuned to this channel for up-dates on when the album will be avail-able and in the meantime stop by and check out the powerhouse in person this Saturday, July 16th at the 30th an-niversary block party thrown by Las Margaritas on Hixson Pike (next to Tremont Tavern) from 7 to 11 p.m.

It would be entirely remiss to sing the praises of the band on this album without a nod to the folks who helped make it possible. The collection was recorded at Tiny Buzz studios, where it was produced and engineered by Mike Pack. The album was mixed by Dave Barbe at Chase Park Transduc-tion Studios in Athens, GA. Guest art-ists include Matt Bohannon on pedal steel and Heather Kilgore on backing vocals.

Every Thursdaythrough August 11 | 6 pmKindora & Rock Floyd..7/14I Can Japan...............7/21Soul Mechanic........7/28

www.huntermuseum.org

The All American Summer Concert Series is sponsored by Chattanooga Coca-Cola Bottling Company and Tennessee American Water with media support by Brewer Media Group.

Start the weekend on

Thursdays withlive outdoor

concerts at theHunter Museum!

Magic Birds.................8/4The Communicators...8/11

Photo courtesy Mark "Porkchop" Holder & MPH


MU

SIC

CA

LEN

DA

RTHURSDAY7.14

Kindora with Rock Floyd6 p.m.The Hunter Museum of Art10 Bluff Viewhuntermuseum.org James Crumble Trio 6 p.m.St. John’s Meeting Place1278 Market St.stjohnsrestaurant.comRick Rushing Blues Jazz N’ Friends6 p.m.Bluewater Grille224 Broad St.bluewaterchattanooga.comLive Bluegrass6:30 p.m.Whole Foods Market301 Manufacturers Rd.wholefoodsmarket.comJimmy Harris7 p.m.The Coconut Room6925 Shallowford Rd.thepalmsathamilton.comJunior Brown7:30 p.m.Barking Legs Theater 1307 Dodds Ave.barkinglegs.orgBluegrass Thursdays7:30 p.m.Feed Co. Table & Tavern201 W. Main St.feedtableandtavern.comJesse James & Tim Neal7:30 p.m.Mexi-Wing VII5773 Brainerd Rd.mexi-wingchattanooga.com

Keepin’ It Local8 p.m.The Social1110 Market St.publichousechattanooga.comOpen Mic with Hap Henninger9 p.m.The Office @ City Cafe901 Carter St.citycafemenu.com

FRIDAY7.15

The Old Time Traveler, Ben Durham10 a.m.Rock City1400 Patten Rd. seerockcity.com Rye Baby 5:30 p.m.

Cambridge Square 9453 Bradmore Lane chattanoogamarket.comEddie Pontiac6 p.m.El Meson2204 Hamilton Place Blvd.elmesonrestaurant.comBinji Varsossa6 p.m.Cancun Mexican Restaurant & Lounge1809 Broad St.(423) 266-1461Tim Lewis7 p.m.El Meson248 Northgate Parkelmesonchattanooga.comLos Colognes, Operation Song7 p.m. Nightfall Concert Series Miller Plaza

800 Market St. nightfallchattanooga.comPriscilla and Lil’ Rickee8:30 p.m.The Foundry 1201 Broad St. chattanooganhotel.comFro & Friends9 p.m.The Office @ City Cafe901 Carter St.citycafemenu.comThe Ham Family9 p.m. Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant 2 W. Aquarium Way puckettsgro.com/chattanoogaDanimal Planet9:30 p.m.Revelry Room41 E. 14th St.revelryroom.co Dead Soldiers10 p.m. Clyde’s On Main 122 W. Main St. clydesonmain.comThe Sullivan Band10 p.m.Bud’s Sports Bar 5751 Brainerd Rd.budssportsbar.com

SATURDAY7.16 The Old Time Traveler, AM Radio10 a.m.Rock City1400 Patten Rd. seerockcity.com Brian Ashley Jones

OUR PICK: BRIAN ASHLEY JONESBrian Ashley Jones is a soulful singer, acclaimed guitarist, and versatile touring songwriter with a love for guitar-driven Bluesy Americana tunes.

Brian Ashley JonesSunday,12:30 p.m.First Tennessee Pavilion 1829 Carter St.chattanoogamarket.com

Danimal Planet


MU

SIC

CA

LEN

DA

R

12:30 p.m. Tennessee Aquarium Plaza 1 Broad St. chattanoogarivermarket.com Gaither Vocal Band6 p.m.Memorial Auditorium399 McCallie Ave.chattanoogaonstage.comBinji Varsossa6 p.m.Cancun Mexican Restaurant & Lounge1809 Broad St.(423) 266-1461Mipso7 p.m.The Camp House149 E. MLK Blvd.thecamphouse.comParachute, Brynn Elliott7 p.m.Revelry Room41 E. 14th St.revelryroom.coTim Lewis7 p.m.El Meson248 Northgate Parkelmesonchattanooga.comLefty Williams, Tim & Reece8 p.m.Ross's LandingRiverfront Parkwayriverfrontnights.comPriscilla and Lil’ Rickee8:30 p.m.The Foundry 1201 Broad St. chattanooganhotel.comStar and Micey, Sunsap 9 p.m.JJ’s Bohemia231 E. MLK Blvd.

jjsbohemia.comLee Gibson9 p.m. Puckett’s Grocery and Restaurant 2 W. Aquarium Way puckettsgro.com/chattanooga8TRK10 p.m. Clyde’s On Main 122 W. Main St. clydesonmain.comAndy Liechty10 p.m.The Office @ City Cafe901 Carter St.citycafemenu.comThe Sullivan Band10 p.m.Bud’s Sports Bar 5751 Brainerd Rd.budssportsbar.com

SUNDAY7.17 The Old Time Traveler, Highbeams10 a.m.Rock City1400 Patten Rd. seerockcity.com Henry River Honey11 a.m. Flying Squirrel Bar 55 Johnson St.flyingsquirrelbar.com Brian Ashley Jones12:30 p.m.First Tennessee Pavilion 1829 Carter St. chattanoogamarket.com Kathy Veazey & John Rawlston

1 p.m. Flying Squirrel Bar 55 Johnson St.flyingsquirrelbar.comDavid Elliott2 p.m.First Tennessee Pavilion 1829 Carter St.chattanoogamarket.com Open Mic with Jeff Daniels 6 p.m.Long Haul Saloon2536 Cummings Hwy.(423) 822-9775

MONDAY7.18 Monday Nite Big Band7 p.m.The Coconut Room6925 Shallowford Rd.thepalmsathamilton.comVery Open Mic 8 p.m.The Well1800 Rossville Blvd. #8wellonthesouthside.comOpen Mic Night6 p.m.Puckett’s Grocery2 W. Aquarium Waypuckettsgro.comOpen Air with Jessica Nunn7:30 p.m.The Granfalloon400 E. Main St.granfalloonchattanooga.com

TUESDAY7.19 Open Mic with Mike McDade 8 p.m.

Tremont Tavern1203 Hixson Piketremonttavern.com

WEDNESDAY7.20 Noon Tunes with Smooth DialectsNoon Miller Plaza850 Market St.rivercitycompany.com Eddie Pontiac5:30 p.m.El Meson248 Northgate Parkelmesonrestaurant.comThe Other Guys6 p.m.SpringHill Suites495 Riverfront Pkwy.(423) 834-9300Open Jam8 p.m.Raw Dance Club409 Market St.rawbarandgrillchatt.comDexter Bell Quartet8 p.m.Barking Legs Theater1307 Dodds Ave.barkinglegs.orgWednesday Blues Jam8 p.m.The Office @ City Café901 Carter St.citycafemenu.com

Parachute

Map these locations on chatta-noogapulse.com. Send event list-ings at least 10 days in advance to: [email protected]


This writer’s anecdotal and entirely unscientific

theory about the concert-going experience posits a gradual increase of politeness and de-crease of bodily movement over the last 25 years or so, recalling a time when it was nearly a certainty of seeing a pit form at any underground punk or rock show.

People want the thrill of dan-ger but without the danger, like watching a horror film in-stead of walking down a dark alley.

With news of a chaotic Kenny Chesney concert in Pennsylva-nia earlier this month, where a number of people were hospi-talized or arrested, have things turned upside-down so that mainstream country is now more dangerous than punk?

With these thoughts in mind, one of the few bands that this writer truly considers to be

thrilling in this day and age is Cellular Chaos from NYC, with a live show that literally bounc-es off the walls; while its per-formances have a dimension no recording can have, its record-ings are no slouch, including the band’s new second album, Diamond Teeth Clenched.

Cellular Chaos has a boatload of talent with a diverse lineup including singer Admiral Grey (The Simple Pleasure, Ecstat-ics), guitarist Weasel Walter (The Flying Luttenbachers, Lake of Dracula), drummer Marc Edwards (known for his free jazz work with Cecil Tay-lor and David S. Ware) and bassist Shayna Dulberger, ac-tive in the downtown avant-jazz scene.

From the start, on the open-ing “Burn Option,” Admiral Grey unleashes her unique vocal style that’s simultane-ously fierce and with a girly

sing-songy quality, while her bandmates plow through a pounding punk-metal grind that’s concentrated and tar-geted yet primitive. “Newport Lights” offers lightning-fast transitions and wild glissan-dos with brief moments of palate-cleansing with minimal drums in-between eruptions, and the title track snarls, with Dulberger’s insanely distorted bass and Walter’s demented guitar work, among meter and tempo changes, keeping the listener off-balance.

Edwards can do fast metal drumming when necessary in the more structured and com-posed environment of Cellular Chaos, but he gets a chance to let loose during the free-form beginning of “Bones.”

The album never lets up, and some of its most intense tracks come toward the end, including the disturbingly vio-lent and passionate “Joyride,” on which Admiral Grey sings, “Punch me, kiss me, scream me poetry” and spouts a little fake operatic vocalizing.

Diamond Teeth Clenched has the band moving slightly away from the outward no-wave dissonance of its first album toward a more punk and metal-focused style, but it is as un-hinged as ever.

The subtitle of the new compilation Venezuela 70

on Soul Jazz Records is “Cos-mic Visions of a Latin American Earth: Venezuelan Experimen-tal Rock in the 1970s”—while phrases like “cosmic visions” and “experimental rock” may bring to mind high-tech musi-cal adventures and bold sonic exploration, the collection’s offerings aren’t exactly as ground-breaking as one might have been promised.

A more honest subtitle might be, “Venezuelan Popu-lar Music of the ‘70s Discovers Synths.”

By this time, the listening public had been exposed to synths in popular music, used either as a novelty or as an in-strument as valid as any other.

On these selections, there’s a playful attitude with synth parts sprinkled atop various genres, borrowing from rock to funk to Latin rhythms, but only a few hint at the revolu-tionary potential of synthesiz-ers or studio wizardry.

Pablo Schneider’s “Amor En Llamas” (Love in Flames) is a killer track with an eccentric funk groove, exotic percussion, violin/piano/flute counter-point, and even a little raptur-ous wordless vocalizing toward the end; the 9-minute “Polvo Lunar” (Moon Dust) from Miguel Angel Fuster froths up an exciting street-funk number with synthetic enhancements including a sound like a sci-fi

gun in the hands of a trigger-happy individual.

The most distinctive and genre-pushing numbers on Venezuela 70 come from Angel Rada; his “Basheeba” sounds more like something from early Kraftwerk or the BBC Radio-phonic Workshop than any-thing in South America with artificial percussion and effer-vescent electronic tones.

Psychedelic flourishes find their way into tracks like the soft-rock “Barcos De Papel” from Fernando Yvosky, in the form of seriously fuzzed-out guitar when the song ramps up, or the wah-guitar in “Dame De Comer” which borrows a tune from Bach and has a sort of cinematic score quality, like others such as the driving, or-chestral “La Quema De Judas” that could be used for a crime film soundtrack.

As with other Soul Jazz com-pilations, Venezuela 70 can either serve as a jumping-off point for further exploration or as a strong stand-alone docu-ment.

Those expecting some kind of mind-blowing discovery of a pocket of radical, lost musi-cal gold may be let down, but with expectations in check, Venezuela 70 is a consistently pleasant and fun listen with a glimpse at a country’s zeitgeist infrequently examined in the western world.

Various ArtistsVenezuela 70(Soul Jazz)

RECORD REVIEWSERNIE PAIK

Getting Your Thrills With Clenched Teeth, Experience A Synth-tastic Latin SoundCellular Chaos brings real thrills to the speakers, Venezuela 70 finds their synthesizer roots

Cellular ChaosDiamond Teeth Clenched(Skin Graft)


Consider Thiswith Dr. Rick

“Be mindful of your self-talk. It’s a conversation with the uni-verse.” — David James Lees

Our thoughts have energy; our words have energy; our actions have energy. And this is how we’re all connecting all the time…with the vibes we send out to each other, whether we are tuning in to them and feeling the connection, or not.

We all walk the same ground as our ancestors did. We breathe the same oxygen produced by the same ancient forests. A look can pass between lovers and each knows the other’s thoughts. You can be thinking about your best friend, and then the phone rings—it’s her. You can feel the energy at a party filled with friends, or in a room full of strangers, from the second you enter.

Consider this: Sometimes we call it prayer, sometimes meditation. Your thoughts communicate with an energy not only within yourself, but outward, to that which is bigger than you, and all around you.

by Rick Pimental-Habib, Ph.D.

Diversions


EVER THE HELPFUL WEBSITE, WIKIPEDIA HAS A CON-venient list of all shark attack movies since 1975, along with the

type of terrorizing shark. It is a quick, entertaining read that can lead you into a rabbit hole of weird plots and ideas that really put into context just how cartoony sharks have become as natural antagonists in horror film.

SCR

EE

N S

CE

NE

✴ ✴ ✴ ✴ NEW IN THEATERS ✴ ✴ ✴ ✴

Ghostbusters 30 years after Ghostbusters took the world by storm, the beloved franchise makes its long-awaited return. Director Paul Feig brings his fresh take to the su-pernatural comedy, joined by some of the funniest actors working today. Director: Paul Feig Stars: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig

The InfiltratorA U.S. Customs official uncovers a money laundering scheme involving Co-lombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. This true-to-life film delivers with a powerful performance by Bryan Cranston.Director: Brad Furman Stars: Bryan Cranston, John Leguizamo, Diane Kruger, Amy Ryan

Granting A Welcome AudienceNational Theatre Live presents Helen Mirren in fine form

National Theatre Live presents a special encore of The Audience, featuring Tony Award and Academy Award winner Helen Mirren, when it returns for an extraordinary one-night event on Tuesday, July 19 at Carmike's East Ridge 18.

For sixty years, Queen Elizabeth II has met with each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a private weekly meeting. This meeting is known as The Audience. No one knows what they discuss, not even their spous-es.

The Audience won two 2015 Tony Awards and was nominated for

awards by the Outer Critics Circle, the Drama League and the Drama Desk.

Recorded live during the original run of the production in London’s West End in 2013 and features the original West End cast under the direction of two-time Tony Award winning director Stephen Daldry.

"The Audience"Tuesday, 7 p.m.Carmike East Ridge 185080 South Terrace(423) 855-9652carmike.com/events

Heading Into Dangerous WatersThe Shallows takes a fresh look at familiar shark-infested film territory

Simplicity is always preferable when building suspense and The Shallows succeeds much more than it fails.”

“

ScreenJOHN DEVORE

Great white sharks are the most pop-ular man eater in these films, but truly innovative directors have branched out to include mutated humanoid sharks (1981’s Creature), prehistoric sharks swimming in snow (2011’s Avalanche Sharks), great white sharks in supermar-kets (2012’s Bait 3D) and the ever popu-lar waterspouts full of sharks from the Sharknado quadrilogy.

Horror movie directors are sometimes derided for occupying a dark space in filmmaking, but in reality they are noth-ing if not downright silly. 1975’s Jaws re-mains essential viewing for anyone who loves movies, featuring the first truly ter-rifying look into the lifeless, black eyes of the marine apex predator. It’s hard to improve upon perfection.

However, this summer’s shark film The Shallows might be the first film to come close. It does this by not at-tempting to recreate or borrow from what made Jaws so good. Instead, it tells its own story, treading closer to reality than fantasy. Simplicity is always preferable when building suspense and The Shal-lows succeeds much more than it fails.

Blake Lively plays Nancy, a med stu-dent from Texas who recently lost her mother to cancer. To deal with her grief, Nancy leaves her father and sister and future career behind to find a secret, se-cluded beach in Mexico her mother once visited when she was younger. She aims to surf the waves and honor the memory


of her mother before deciding wheth-er to pursue her chosen path in life or abandon it for something less futile.

The film wastes little time getting Nancy into the water—the backstory is woven into the narrative well enough without becoming exposition heavy. While her character arc isn’t neces-sarily the most compelling (plenty of people go to Mexico to surf without needing to exorcise their demons), it would have been easy for the filmmak-ers to sacrifice any attempt at charac-ter development for massive amounts of bloody carnage, so these small de-tails allow the audience to connect to the character, thus amplifying the suspense. That Nancy has a medical background is certainly a plot contriv-ance, but ultimately a forgivable one.

The first few water scenes play like an extreme sports music video, but as Nancy’s surf companions head in for the day and Nancy heads out one more time to catch a final wave, something happens that sets The Shallows apart from other films of its type.

One of the biggest criticisms of Jaws is its complete misreading of shark be-havior. Hooper, the marine biologist played by Richard Dreyfuss, describes the killer shark as “a perfect engine, an eating machine.” Peter Benchly, author of the book the film is based on, regrets how he depicted the great white because it led to such negative attitudes towards the creatures, pos-

sible aiding in the depletion of their population worldwide.

Great white sharks in general have no interest in humans as food—attacks are always accidental by the shark mis-taking humans for prey. The Shallows deals with this new mentality by hav-ing our victim encounter the shark in the middle of a feeding frenzy due to a dying whale around 200 meters off-shore.

Of course, it all but abandons the idea later in the film by having the shark stalk Nancy for hours despite having unlimited meat just a few yards away. The film tries to explain this away by showing the shark as having a history of violent encounters with humans, and as we learned from Jaws: The Revenge, sharks hold grudges (shark movie idea: Jaws—The Grudge. Ghost shark meets Japanese horror film).

Still, the film stays away from many of the clichés that riddle this particular genre, focusing more on the survival aspect than the shark itself. At times it reminded me of 2003’s Open Water, a film that was unique but ultimately dull.

The Shallows took a premise that had said farewell and adieu long ago and breathed life back into it by telling a somewhat plausible story and dialing down the silliness. It’s not Jaws but nothing ever will be. This film, how-ever, is likely the best shark film since.


Do you remember the first pic-ture you ever drew not counting wall scribbles? Chances are it was an out-door scene with a stick figure, a square house and gable roof. The green grass bottom supported several “stems” and colorful U-shaped tulip flowers under zigzag points. Above a lumpy “cloud” floated with several m-shaped flying “birds”. In an upper corner there was a big yellow sun shining. Was there a tree, a pond, a cat or dog, or more fam-ily sticks? This nature scene common to most young children shows our af-filiation with nature and the under-standing that we can connect to our world through art.

Now you might be thinking that na-ture art is only about drawing pretty nature scenes for us to enjoy, but there is much more to it. Art gives us a sense of who we have been and a view into what might be. It urges us to react and sense our connection to reality or al-ternative visions of life.

Some artists experiment with new technology making us think about ap-plications for the future. Be its sculp-ture, paintings, crafts from natural materials, photography, video or film making, drama, dance choreography, music, writing, even food or fashion

presentations, and innovative creations as yet unknown, art starts with nature and how we connect it to life’s strug-gles and resiliency.

The weekend of July 30-31, the Mocs Bend Nature & Art Festival (at 504 West Manning St.) will strengthen connections between nature and art. Since it’s the centennial of the Na-tional Park Service celebrating what Ken Burns titled “Our Best Idea”, the Friends of Moccasin Bend want to in-vite you to find your park, hike, bike, paddle and play. Tour with park rang-ers. Learn Native American and Civil War history and archaeology of Mocca-sin Bend or just enjoy nature’s beauty. View art, seek your own creativity, or dance to artistic sounds of musicians. The UTC Theatre Partnership will bring to the festival an outdoor play “Robin! Coming to a Forest Near You”. Dress as an animal and try play-acting in this participatory drama.

“Art communicates through the senses the same way our environment does,” Jeannie Hacker-Cerulean, playwright for the eco-drama said. “If we fail to notice impacts on the natu-ral world, we will fail to alter our re-lationship with that world. Art opens eyes and ears and hearts and minds.

Eco-drama reveals our connections to nature, and place-based art connects us to the nature of a specific place like Moccasin Bend.”

Additionally, this year Cool Down Chatt Town joins forces bringing na-ture awareness and urging beneficial Earth engagement. Find out about sustainable actions you can do for the environment and slow climate change. To delve more deeply into a particular subject, there are exhibits, speakers and talking circles. There’s something for all ages and admission is free. This festival is a local grassroots effort so crowd funding helps. Go to mocsbend.launchutc.com to donate.

Many national parks have an artist-in-residence program. These artists give us a sense of nature and our ways of connecting throughout history. Those animal paintings on the caves in France or the just discovered draw-ings on the old Cherry Street build-ing walls give us hints of what people thought about in the past and indicate ways of living that instruct our lives.

Come to the festival! Engage with nature, art and fun. Hang a ribbon on the climate tree. Participate in the play. Find Chattanooga’s own Moc-casin Bend National Park and join Friends of Moccasin Bend. Inspect an electric car and solar panels. Talk with local artists. Relax as you watch a frac-tal projection on trees from Tree Di-mensional created by Merrill Val Love. Celebrate!

Nature Brings Art To LifeMocs Bend Nature & Art Festival comes together

COLUMNSHADES OF GREEN

Art gives us a sense of who we have been and a view into what might be. It urges us to react and sense our connection to reality or alternative visions of life.”

Sandra Kurtz is an environmental communi-ty activist and is presently working through the Urban Century Institute. You can visit her website to learn more at enviroedu.net

SANDRA KURTZ

“


ACROSS1 Napoleon Dynamite’s pal6 “___ Degree” (Morningwood song)9 ___ in “apple”12 Crop circle creator, supposedly13 Browning’s “before”14 Deliver ___ to (send reeling)16 Armbones17 Darkish apparel option19 “I want every non-war symbol you got” request?21 Hot roofing material22 “Slammin’ Sammy” of baseball23 Pointer24 Fireplace residue27 Authorize29 “The Plough and the Stars” playwright Sean31 Method of accentuating poker hands?35 Baymax’s friend, in a Disney movie36 “___ little rusty ...”

37 Cotton-pickin’40 All-poultry production of a Steinbeck novel?45 Rhythmically keep time with, maybe47 “Schnookie-wookums”48 .org relative49 Dashed off50 Fashion designer Gernreich53 Pot-bellied pet55 Ability to tell one conjunction from another?60 Movie buff61 Drive forward63 Door openers64 Dissenting votes65 Rhode Island-based insurance company66 “Isn’t that cute?” sounds67 Understood68 Potato soup ingredientsDOWN1 Spanish-born NBA star ___ Gasol2 “Cosmo” competitor

3 “Saw” actress Meyer4 Lose one’s poker face5 Symbol that looks like January 2nd?6 Soft ball maker7 Horses’ paces8 Chant in the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop”9 Xavier Cugat’s ex-wife Lane10 With everything on the line11 Voice actress Kath of “Dexter’s Laboratory,” “Rugrats,” and “Animaniacs”14 Silky wool source15 Teary-eyed18 “The Tortoise and the Hare” author20 Sandwich after a sandwich?24 “That hits the spot”25 Poli ___ (college major)26 Right this second28 Small combo30 “For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)” band

32 Lava, for one33 Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s former org.34 Austrian physicist Ernst38 Ludd from whom Luddites got their name39 African antelope41 Causes of some infections42 Move emotionally43 Pueblo Revolt tribe44 Monogram character45 Sidewalk issue46 Pacific Ocean phenomenon of lower water temperatures51 “That’s the cost of ___ business”52 Water-based abode54 “I want!”56 Some “Gods and Generals” extras57 Home that gets lined58 TV kid who said, “Pa, just what can you do with a grown woman?”59 Scarf target62 Word with Palmas or Vegas

Jonesin’ Crossword MATT JONES

“Brexit”—but we were just getting started...

Copyright © 2016 Jonesin’ Crosswords. For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per-3minute. Must be 18+ to call. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-655-6548. Reference puzzle No. 788

Free Will Astrology ROB BREZSNY

CANCER (June 21-July 22): If you are smoothly attuned with the cosmic rhythms and finely aligned with your unconscious wisdom, you could wake up one morning and find that a mental block has miraculously crumbled, instantly raising your intelligence. If you can find it in your proud heart to surrender to “God,” your weirdest dilemma will get at least partially solved during a magical three-hour interlude. And if you are able to forgive 50 percent of the wrongs that have been done to you in the last six years, you will no longer feel like you’re running into a strong wind, but rather you’ll feel like the beneficiary of a strong wind blow-ing in the same direction you’re headed.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): How often have you visited hell or the suburbs of hell during the last few weeks? According to my guesstimates, the time you spent there was ex-actly the right amount. You got the teachings you needed most, including a few tricks about how to steer clear of hell in the future. With this valuable information, you will forevermore be smarter about how to avoid unnecessary pain and irrelevant hindrances. So congratulations! I suggest you cel-ebrate. And please use your new-found wisdom as you decline one last invitation to visit the heart of a big, hot mess.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): My friend Athena works as a mas-seuse. She says that the highest praise she can receive is drool. When her clients feel so sublimely serene that threads of spit droop out of their mouths, she knows she’s in top form. You might trig-ger responses akin to drool in the coming weeks, Virgo. Even if you don’t work as a massage therapist, I think it’s possible you’ll provoke rather extreme expressions of ap-proval, longing, and curiosity. You will be at the height of your power to inspire potent feelings in those you encounter. In light of this situ-ation, you might want to wear a small sign or button that reads, “You have my permission to drool freely.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): The lat-est Free Will Astrology poll shows that thirty-three percent of your friends, loved ones, and acquain-tances approve of your grab for glory. Thirty-eight percent disap-prove, eighteen percent remain undecided, and eleven percent wish you would grab for even greater glory. As for me, I’m aligned with the eleven-percent minority. Here’s what I say: Don’t allow your quest for shiny breakthroughs and brilliant accomplishments to be overly influenced by what people think of you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You are at the pinnacle of your powers to both hurt and heal. Your turbulent

yearnings could disrupt the integ-rity of those whose self-knowl-edge is shaky, even as your smol-dering radiance can illuminate the darkness for those who are lost or weak. As strong and confident as I am, even I would be cautious about engaging your tricky intel-ligence. Your piercing perceptions and wild understandings might ei-ther undo me or vitalize me. Given these volatile conditions, I advise everyone to approach you as if you were a love bomb or a truth fire or a beauty tornado.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Here’s the deal: I will confess a dark secret from my past if you confess an equivalent secret from yours. Shall I go first? When I first got started in the business of writ-ing horoscope columns, I contrib-uted a sexed-up monthly edition to a porn magazine published by smut magnate Larry Flynt. What’s even more scandalous is that I en-joyed doing it. OK. It’s your turn. Locate a compassionate listener who won’t judge you harshly, and unveil one of your subterranean mysteries. You may be surprised at how much psychic energy this will liberate. (For extra credit and emancipation, spill two or even three secrets.)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): What do you want to be when you grow up, Capricorn? What? You say you are already all grown up, and my question is irrelevant? If that’s your firm belief, I will ask you to set it aside for now. I’ll invite you to entertain the possibility that maybe some parts of you are not in fact fully mature; that no mat-ter how ripe you imagine yourself to be, you could become even riper—an even more gorgeous version of your best self. I will also encourage you to immerse your-self in a mood of playful fun as you respond to the following question: “How can I activate and embody an even more complete version of my soul’s code?”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): On a summer day 20 years ago, I took my five-year-old daughter Zoe and her friend Max to the merry-go-round in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Zoe jumped on the el-egant golden-maned lion and Max mounted the wild blue horse. Me? I climbed aboard the humble pig. Its squat pink body didn’t seem designed for rapid movement. Its timid gaze was fixed on the floor in front of it. As the man who oper-ated the ride came around to see if everyone was in place, he congrat-ulated me on my bold choice. Very few riders preferred the porker, he said. Not glamorous enough. “But I’m sure I will arrive at our destina-tion as quickly and efficiently as everyone else,” I replied. Your im-mediate future, Aquarius, has sym-bolic resemblances to this scene.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Early

on in our work together, my psy-chotherapist confessed that she only works with clients whose problems are interesting to her. In part, her motivations are selfish: Her goal is to enjoy her work. But her motivations are also altruistic. She feels she’s not likely to be of service to anyone with whom she can’t be deeply engaged. I under-stand this perspective, and am inclined to make it more universal. Isn’t it smart to pick all our allies ac-cording to this principle? Every one of us is a mess in one way or anoth-er, so why not choose to blend our fates with those whose messiness entertains us and teaches us the most? I suggest you experiment with this view in the coming weeks and months, Pisces.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Upcom-ing adventures might make you more manly if you are a woman. If you are a man, the coming esca-pades could make you more wom-anly. How about if you’re trans? Odds are that you’ll become even more gender fluid. I am exaggerat-ing a bit, of course. The transforma-tions I’m referring to may not be visible to casual observers. They will mostly unfold in the depths of your psyche. But they won’t be merely symbolic, either. There’ll be mutations in your biochemis-try that will expand your sense of your own gender. If you respond enthusiastically to these shifts, you will begin a process that could turn you into an even more complete and attractive human being than you already are. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I’ll name five heroic tasks you will have more than enough power to accomplish in the next eight months. 1. Turning an adversary into an ally. 2. Converting a debili-tating obsession into an empow-ering passion. 3. Transforming an obstacle into a motivator. 4. Discovering small treasures in the midst of junk and decay. 5. Using the unsolved riddles of childhood to create a living shrine to eternal youth. 6. Gathering a slew of new freedom songs, learning them by heart, and singing them regular-ly—especially when habitual fears rise up in you.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Your life has resemblances to a jigsaw puzzle that lies unassembled on a kitchen table. Unbeknownst to you, but revealed to you by me, a few of the pieces are missing. Maybe your cat knocked them un-der the refrigerator, or they fell out of their storage box somewhere along the way. But this doesn’t have to be a problem. I believe you can mostly put together the puzzle without the missing fragments. At the end, when you’re finished, you may be tempted to feel frustration that the picture’s not complete. But that would be illogical perfection-ism. Ninety-seven-percent success will be just fine.

Documents

The Pulse 13.28 » July 14, 2016