The Monday After: MyShame
Welcome to the penitent 520 blog, The Monday After. This is our attempt to blast through our Monday morning hangovers to offer you some quickie reviews of all the things we’re pretty sure we got into this past week, including gigs, concerts, movies, plays, and restaurants. Pop a couple of ibuprofens and enjoy.
Last week at Cedar Bluff Middle School, an 8th grader had a morning he won't soon forget. This particular kid, like most students nowadays, had listed a couple of his extracurricular activities on MySpace. This young man, unlike most MySpace users, was blissfully unaware that if you don't set your profile to private, then just about anyone can read all about your favorite music, or look at your pictures, or, in his case, discover that you abuse pot and OxyContin. Whoops! It looks like Dad got online and was none too pleased with what he found.
So how shall I punish this incredibly naive little addict? wondered the father. Why, I know! Public shame and humiliation! Yes indeed, this little dude's punishment was to wear a sandwich board declaring "I abused and sold drugs" while standing on the sidewalk in front of school as his friends arrived for first period.
Perhaps this incident will turn the young boy's life around. More importantly, perhaps this incident will make him a less idiotic MySpace user. We here at 520 wonder what would happen if every MySpace offender had to publicly atone for his/her abuse of MySpace. Those hypothetical sandwich boards would probably include phrases like "I don't notice for at least a week when my hijacked account is flooding your bulletin board with spam," or "I routinely post inane astrological shit," or "I cyberstalk high school girls," or "I add people I don't like but delete them later so they don't notice," or especially "I have the grammar skills of a retarded monkey but still pester you to read my blog."
Fun note: The Cedar-Bluff-sandwich-board-sin-atonement story has made it around the globe.
And now for our weekly rankings!
This week's key:
= Spam.
= Another friggin' band add request.
= 1 new message, but no new comments.
= Your blog is the talk of the town.
= Your crush sent you an Event Invite to the party in his pants.
EarthFest2007
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World's Fair Park was packed on Saturday with fans of both music and the environment for EarthFest 2007. The waste-free event kicked off at 11am with live music from Adlin & Appleford, followed by performances from Nug Jug, Mac Comer, Llama Train, and the always-terrific-live Dishwater Blonde. Information tents were set up by KUB, a lot of green-power / recycling / clean-Earth-promoting folks, clothing, food, and other souvenirs. I spent most of my time helping out at the WUTK booth (where "helping out" translates to "sitting in the sun enjoying some awesome live music and chatting with a lot of interesting people"), and when the party wound down at 7pm, I strolled back to my car, which I'd had to park over by The Foundry. Walking along, I enjoyed the smell of the grass, seeing the blue sky overhead and flowers all around, and I felt a real sense of appreciation for all of it. I'd say it was the perfect end to a day of celebrating our beloved planet. For photos and other info about EarthFest 2007, check out knox-earthfest.org. -B.T.
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Downtown was bustling with activity on Saturday morning. The MDA fun run, the ugly dog contest and Earth Day brought man, woman, child and beast to the area. The Earth Day festival inspired with its messages of alternative transportation and fuel, clean air and water, and kindness to animals. The many nice free vendor gifts were also inspiring. Surprisingly, there weren't many dreadlocked heads in attendance and I never once caught a whiff of patchouli, but there was plenty of tie-dye available. Live music, which included Nug Jug and Dishwater Blonde, was excellent. The food and drink vending was underwhelming. The best happening of the day was spotting two beautiful Borzoi Russian wolfhounds in the crowd. -D.D.
Carrie Rodriguez at the Tennessee Theatre ()
What a weekend! It was hard to pick just one thing to report on for this edition of The Monday After. However, I finally settled on the performance of the gracious and gifted Carrie Rodriguez at the Tennessee Theatre. Rodriguez was the opener for Lucinda Williams and I daresay that her days as pre-show entertainment are numbered. Her powerful voice portrayed, all at once, the innocence of a little girl and the lust of a woman who knows what she wants. Her impressive control of the stage made for an excellent concert in itself - and we still had Lucinda to look forward to! -S.S.
Entropy at World Grotto ()
This impressive five-piece funk band from Atlanta is on a mission "to remedy the depletion of pure funk on the plant," and they accomplished their mission Saturday night at World Grotto. After hearing their mix of old school funk, hip-hop and rap, plus the powerful old-school gospel style vocals from singer Alvetta Newby-Jones, it's easy to understand why the band won a readers' choice poll for Best R&B/Soul/Funk Act of Atlanta. Mixing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" with an expletive and passionate filled rap was fascinating. I hope they return to Knoxville soon. When they do, you must let the funk be with you. -D.D.
Hot Fuzz ()
I think I've made it abundantly clear on this blog just how much I love Shaun of the Dead. It's easily in my top ten list, nestled comfortably alongside the likes of Clue and The Goonies. Imagine my pure joy, then, at finally getting to see Hot Fuzz, the latest offering from writers Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, the geniuses behind SOTD.
The film was very different than I expected, but once I accepted the tone it was going for, I was taken hook, line, and sinker. Hot Fuzz is more than just a comedy, and it's more than an action/slasher film. It's a brilliant action/slasher parody of the typical American buddy cop movie, and it's twice as bad-ass as any Bad Boys film ever aspired to be.
By the power of Greyskull, go see this film. Hell, see it twice and soak in as much Simon Pegg goodness as you can. He unfortunately won't be back in theaters until 2008, which gives me a whole year to look forward to Run, Fatboy, Run. -J.B.
See you next week!