2022 03 Spring Break, Round Two

 Thursday, March 24

When I go to New Orleans one of my favorite places to eat is The Ruby Slipper. I was surprised to discover that Knoxville has a sister restaurant called Ruby Sunshine so that is where I went to eat today. When I pulled out my wallet to pay for breakfast I was one credit card short of a full deck.

Where did I use it last? Was it to buy all the crap at the Bargain Center; the T-shirt at Festival Registration; the clothing store where I bought a dress shirt because I failed to pack one; or the restaurant I ate at last night? If you guessed, Koyo Restaurant you win. As soon as the manager saw me he said, “Oh, yeah, I got it.”

Despite the cold, this artist was out finishing his work under the overpass

I decided today to spend some quality time at the Knoxville Museum of Art. They have “Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation” on display and I found a number of pieces that intrigued me not only as art but as something I can learn (copy, appropriate, steal) from to make my own art.

After a short walkabout, it was time to head over to the Tennessee Amphitheater om the World’s Fair Grounds for the first show of Big Ears. Please note: Big Ears did not let cameras into their events so all of these photos of the musical acts are festival photographers' work and I am grateful for their skill in capturing the musicians. 

From 4:00PM to 4:30 PM I heard Kronos Quartet made up of David Harrington (violin), John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola), and Sunny Yang (cello). After an outstanding set (my favorite number was Death Is the Road to Awe), for the next hour, the quartet was joined by So Percussion, composer/singer Caroline Shaw, breath artist Shodeke and the Percussion Department from the University of Tennessee for nine numbers that merged everyone’s talents into a sound symphony. 

I know it is tiny but if you look just to the left of Sunny Yang's elbow (cello-red outfit) in Kronos Quartet, you will see me shivering in the second row because it was really cold for this outdoor concert

I stayed in my seat there (after getting some food from a food truck) because from 6:00PM - 7:00PM was Dos Santos, a Latino group out of Chicago who blend various styles including some heavy guitar solos to make a unique danceable sound.

Next up was St. John's Cathedral from 7:00PM - 8:00PM to hear James McVinnie on the church organ playing the piece of modern music (including sampling) by Tristan Perich. I love when those big pipes get cranked and this was minimalism with a kick so it all worked out.

My next church was First Baptist where I caught the last two songs of a performance by pianist and singer Areni Agbabian who celebrates her Armenian heritage in her music. 

From 10:00PM - 11:00PM I heard John Medeski (Medeski Martin & Wood) do solo piano improvisations that were intense. 

All in all, a pretty good first day.

Friday, March 25

Today began with two surprises: I wrench my knee rolling out of bed—yes, no dramatic wear and tear from all the driving and walking I have been doing, rather just to quick out of bed in the morning. The second surprise was finding Pete’s for breakfast, a great diner where someone should have called me baby or honey.

The music today began from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM at First Baptist Church where I saw the world premiere of False We Hope with Ellis Ludwig-Leone, Attacca Quartet and Eliza Bagg. The choral work based on the poetry of two woman writers was balanced with chamber music by the Quarter who proved to be as entertained as Kronos. 

From 3:15 PM to 4:15 PM I was at the Bijou Theater to hear Dafnis Prieto’s Sí o Sí Quartet. To say that the Cuban born Prieto is a drummer does not due his talent justice. Wowzer.

Next up, from 4:30PM - 5:45PM, was one of the top things I wanted to see here: Caroline Shaw & Sō Percussion in the Tennessee Theatre. Having been denied the opportunity to play this in 2020 or 2021 by the Covid pandemic, today they did the album release party for Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part. Pretty good stuff. 

After a quick dinner of chicken soup and tacos at Soccer Tacos (only the finest restaurants for me), I had to stand in the longest line ever at the Tennessee Theater because tonight was Patti Smith and Her Band. I have never seen Patti Smith in person until tonight but I have to say from where I was sitting she looked and acted like a 30 year old rather than the 76 years young she is. Still delivering the punk style (and slightly embarrassing her son who is in the band), she rocked. Here are my favorite quotes from the evening:

While the band was trying to get organized starting a tune mid-set, she strolled up to the mike and said, “Hey, it’s been three years since we did this. Its not like fucking or riding a bike, we have to figure out a few things.”

During a quiet lull, when a man yelled out “I love you Patti!” she gave the man a withering stare. Then she said, “Three years quarantined in my apartment and you show up now, you pathetic second rate Shakespearean character!” 

I did not expect the power, the magnetism or the quality of rock that was going to be delivered but it was actually appreciated in a weekend of rather challenging and different music styles. 

The last thing I did tonight was to walk to the Tennessee Amphitheater (an outdoor facility) to stand on the bridge above it and listen to Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Having had multiple times I have seen the house band at Preservation Hall, I was expecting to bit more traditional NOLA music but these guys were more like Kool and the Gang with a light show, fake fog and a lot of up tempo stuff. All of this despite the fact that it is freezing cold here at night with a stiff wind—I have no idea how they can even play out there.

Saturday, March 26

After breakfast in the hotel this morning, I hiked over to the Old Town area where Big Ears was presenting a Mardis Gras style parade called Krewe du Cattywampus led by Preservation Hall Jazz Band and an assembly of musicians from New Orleans plus musicians from Haiti performing the Haitian rara kanaval tradition. The Cattywampus Puppet Council built marmotas, or giant moveable parade puppets, and multiple schools and organizations build papier mache heads to march under. 

My first stage of the day from 3:00PM - 4:00PM was St John’s Cathedral where Attacca Quartet played the music of Caroline Shaw who joined the group to sing three songs. This was pretty magical.

Not so much the next experience from 4:00PM - 5:30PM at the Tennessee Theatre where I went to see Meredith Monk and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Monk was one of the highlights of my experience here in 2019 where she performed vocal wonderments with two other singers. Today with a full band I found it hard to engage with her vocal works and left disappointed.

Even more disappointing was the performance at St. John’s Cathedral by keyboardist Sarah Davachi which was a drone piece that only used the notes A and D. Man, I was thinking when I left early it could have used a few more vowels or consonants. 

Dinner was two slices of pizza tonight as I wanted to make sure I was early in line for what proved to be my last event at Big Ears this year: Kronos Quartet at the First Baptist Church from 9:00 PM to 10:00 PM. I got in there one hour before the concert as I wanted to make sure I got in and had a nice discussion with two guys from L.A. about art, music and life in general. 

In a continuing attempt to boost my ego and require you to use a magnifying glass, if you look in the second row, first seat, on the left side you can see my shiny bald head glowing from my cool spot

What a magnificent way to end my Big Ears experience. From the 5 pieces Kronos Quartet played from their 50 For the Future collection, the 1983 piece Cadenza on the Night Plain by Terry Riley and finishing with God Shall Wipe All Tears Away by Mahalia Jackson, it was spectacular. 

Sunday, March 27

Two thing made a change in my plans for this day. I need to get home today because by Tuesday I have to deliver a different piece of art to a gallery in Kansas City for a show there. The other problem is the medical convention being held in the has scheduled a marathon in front of our hotel that will limit the access to our vehicles in the morning. I am sorry to leave Big Ears before the last day but honestly there was just one performer I had scheduled myself to see, Bill Frisell, but I am blowing him off for an easy return home.

So to beat all the excitement, I decide to leave at 6:30 AM (ET) to drive back to Milwaukee. I did have to drive the Federal Highways home in order to make it today but I did manage to make one pretty cool stop. A sign on the highway indicated that in Taylorsville, IN, there was a place called Vic’s Antiques and Uniques. That sounded promising and it proved true. Inside I only found a carved vintage hot rod to purchase but outside I spent awhile photographing the awesome antiques vehicles in the parking lot.

I finally got home 13 hours after leaving Knoxville. 

Total miles for the day: 683.

Total miles for the trip: 1835.

Go to the next blog to see how after one day off I go to Kansas City and then Make What Ya Brung in Mineral Point, WI--or maybe not.

2022 03 Spring Break, Round One

Monday, March 21, 2022

This week I am heading to Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. This is a four day music festival running Thursday through Sunday but…this trip did not begin as planned.

I had a piece of art, "The Things You Made, Discarded, Are Now Art,” was accepted into the "Rustbelt: REDUX" exhibition at the Vestige Concept Gallery in Pittsburg (PA). The show runs from March 26 to April 24, 2022. I could have shipped the art to Pittsburgh but since I had plans to travel anyway I decided I would alter my travel plans for the Big Ears Festival and head to Pennsylvania.

To complicate matters even further, my Dodge Grand Caravan had a transmission leak so it was in the shop until 8:00 am (for the sake of clarity all times here are going to be in ET). Denice was nice enough to get up and have me at the dealer so that by 8:30 am I was on the road to Pittsburgh.

Usually I like to travel even long distances off the Federal Highway system but not this trip. 571 miles later (6:00 pm) I was in Pittsburgh. Because the gallery people were not actually at the gallery I was instructed to drop it off at one of the gallery people’s house. This made me very aware that Pittsburgh is hilly and none of the streets run in a straight line. I won’t bore with my GPS crisis, the two almost accidents, driving at night without my lights on and other weird adventures I had but the good news is I did manage to deliver my art.

P. S.: This piece sold the opening night of the exhibition at the reception. How cool is that?

This night I stayed in Pittsburgh. Total miles for the day: 639.

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

My plan today was to wander around West Virginia, a state that I have not visited before. I began with breakfast at a national chain (we have them in Milwaukee) called First Watch. My driving plan was to take Hwy. 119 through the state to see what I could see.

After leaving Pittsburgh, I went down a Blue Highway to find my turnoff. Attracted by a road attraction sign, I made a detour to visit Red Rooster Antiques and Salvage in Jane Lew, West Virginia. This small but packed business had great stuff and it was priced that way. As my first stop of the trip I was reluctant to buy anything, perhaps distracted by the shop cat who followed my everywhere. Whenever I would stop the cat would scratch at my pant leg to get me to pet her. With the recent loss of my buddy Mr. B I spent most of my time scratching her behind her ears.

The turnoff for 119 was at a town called Weston, WV. In this town is a huge old asylum that can be toured…but not till April. I did check it out and a few other cool sites in town. I did also tour Roshell’s Antiques on the main drag and came away with a small wood child’s sled that I think is pretty cool.

Here is where the day all fell apart. Getting onto 119 just out of Weston, I got caught in a construction mess that had me sitting in a line on 119 for so long I finally turned around and went back to Weston to catch 19 South. While this seemed like a good idea at the time, 19 kept dumping me back onto Blue Highways before I could slide off again. 19 was pretty boring for the things that I was looking for so I decided to just make today a travel day.

Of course, this meant I was going to arrive in Knoxville a day before my booked arrival time. I tried calling the hotel to see if I could stay there but between very aggravating computer drones and getting cut off after a ½ hour wait to talk to a human, I decided to just risk it.

My pre-books festival home is the Marriott Knoxville Downtown on Henley Street. For some reason my GPS would not take that address so I just used the general search of Marriott Knoxville. This allowed my GPS to lead me to an abandoned Marriott which must have been their old location. Finally I just put in Henley and drove around until I found the magnificent new location right by the old World’s Fair site and the Knoxville Museum of Art. This is going to be a great location for me for the rest of the event.

Luckily for me the hotel was able to put me in my room a day early, at the festival rate, as long as I was willing to check in tonight, check out tomorrow and immediately check back in. Whatever.

So today I took no photos, ate dinner at Burger King, and only bought one thing. But, I did see a lot of acceptable road views from the Blue Highways, listened to a lot a music and got to my ultimate destination which I guess is what it is really all about.

Total miles for the day: 513.

Total miles for the trip: 1152.

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Today it was breakfast in the Market Exchange which is part of the Marriott. Then I retrieved my car and headed a few miles south of my hotel to the Bargain Hunters Antique and Flea Market Mall. This place is huge, roughly the size of a K Mart or Target. The bad news is that many of the items in the store are reproductions. That being said, I found a small ladder, an ironing board, a tambourine, a pipe holder and a four part mirror all of which are for collaging.

North of the city I went to Cottage Door Antiques and Gifts but I could have skipped the trip—very home decoration orientation meant I found nothing to buy.

When I got back to the car I valet parked the van and that is the last I should see of it until I leave on Sunday. After a run up to my room to get my camera, I was off to the Big Ears Festival area in downtown Knoxville.

Did you know the World's Fair was in Knoxville (this viewing structure is still there)

The Festival Headquarters are on the far north end of the downtown area at the Jackson Terminal. I got my Covid status verified, showed my ID, got my wristband for the weekend, got my program and map, bought a festival T-shirt and am now ready for tomorrow.

The coolest thing I found to photograph was Strong Alley, between Union and Wall Avenues, off Market Square. 

Tonight I treated myself to the Chef’s Surprise at Koyo. $151 later, after six course and some wine, it was time to call it a day.

See the next blog in this series for the cool musical acts that played at Big Ears Festival 2022.