Knoxville520.com

Strange how Strapping Young Lad and I are on the same page at the same time, check out his latest if you haven’t yet? It’s a bit of a rant on distractions in this world we live in and how one copes with them. I was also struck with distractions and how we deal with them today after watching this really cool 2 min video clip on youtube showcasing the Light Criticism Project . This project reminds me of why I moved to K-town. Not the only reason, mind you, but a big one, reason #8 or so probably, to get away from excessive distractions, specifically all things homogenous, cookie-cutter, mass produced, and often times corporate. I came to these here hills known as Knoxville to get a breath of fresh air, and to be in a space where there was room to breathe.

One of my favorite things about K-town is the lack of ‘the man’ A.K.A. Corporate America. Granted he’s here, and granted he’s here more and more each year but compared to where I’m from, he’s a tiny whisper at best. We don’t have to do things like the Light Criticism Project in Knoxville because we JUST got our 2 way billboards, and real time highway notification systems. Plus we haven’t come close to the technology they are using in most major cities, nor the amount of advertising, and I love it. More importantly in K-town we have spaces like that wall by Pres. Pub in Market Square where people have just begun creating art, little by little, and it’s OK. Not that graffiti is legal here, I would assume it isn’t, but when most buildings aren’t tagged, and gang signs aren’t spread everywhere the police can be more lax about it I guess? Plus its unfinished ply wood, so it rather begs to be drawn on. Like the walls at my Dad’s house, when I was growing up. My Dad was refinishing the house, and painting the walls was going to be one of the last things, so we were allowed to write on them growing up, and write we did! ‘I love John Taylor’, ‘Duran Duran’, ‘and U2 Rocks’…

I often describe K-town as the Wild West, if you can dream it, you can do it. It’s big enough to provide the resources one needs and yet small enough to not yet have been run over by all things monopolistic and corporate, especially in the music business. Think Ashley Capps with AC Entertainment. He went from digging music and booking bands at a bar to bringing us Sundown booking for most every major venue in the Southeast region, and all things . Then think Scott and Bernadette West; a local couple that has recently hit headlines, true. But, with out their vision and risk taking would we have World Grotto, Fiction, Tonic, and my favorite-- Blue Cats. And of course, last but not least, what of humble knoxville520.com itself, if that isn’t homegrown, I don’t know what is! And that’s really what I’m getting at here – seeing the beauty in things that are homegrown, original, unique, the things you can only get here. Sure Knoxville may not have a Hard Rock Café (Gatlinburg does), and we only have two malls, (although apparently no one south, I mean West, of 275 has ever heard of Knox Center Mall), we don’t have TicketMaster and we don’t have Clear Channel running every media outlet in the city, but what we do have is unique. You can’t go to Tomato Head anywhere but here, or Disc Exchange , or Bijou Theatre. By the way did you go see Umphree’s McGee On Friday March 2nd there? No where else can you see Ben Harper with the Sunsphere thing in the distance on the Lawn at World’s Fair Park

I hear people gripping and moaning often enough, about there being no one here and nothing to do, and I think, huh? Sure there is a vacuum in K-town compared to Atlanta or NYC, but it’s a beautiful one! The vacuum means there is room for those here to breathe, to create, and to put into place the things we want. In many major cities people spend their time fighting what is there, (see video clip above if you haven’t yet watched it). But here in Knoxville we have the opportunity to create and build from the ground up! Think of the difference between painting a deep cranberry wall with several coats of white primer so you can then change the color versus painting the wall the color you want in the first place? Doesn’t option two, just feel good to your soul, soo much less effort goes into creating and building when you don’t have to tear down BEFORE you can even start.

So, people, be inspired! If there is something you feel K-town lacks then I encourage you to get off your heine and make it happen! John Mayer may be speaking for the rest of the rest of America when he says he is ‘waiting for the world to change’ but I’m not waiting. (Did you notice the graffiti connection again? Maybe I really need to finish designing the mural for the garage?) But Knoxville is full of people that think for themselves, people who don’t want to be just like everyone and everywhere else, which I love! Like Todd Steed describes my neighborhood,
"Thank God for North Knoxville
Where this town still looks like itself,
It's the last place in America
Ain't trying to be somewhere else"
—"North Knoxville," Todd Steed & Apelife

If you want to see change than you need to make it happen, and the only thing holding you back is you. There is an entire city for us to leave better than when we came and to enjoy while we’re here. And luckily we have so many brave souls to emulate that have already blazed the trail for us. All I’m saying is I love being here. And this living breathing city and those in it have captured my heart and mind and made me a better person for it.