tennessee

Chris Knight's avatar

Oy vey…

During the next-to-last performance of Theatre Guild of Rockingham County‘s production of Gypsy this past weekend, I happened to spot this curious visual oddity.

It was just before the show, during “lockdown”: when all the actors and actresses are supposed to be sequestered in the makeshift dressing rooms across the hallway from the auditorium we use at Rockingham Community College, so that nobody in the audience spots us in costume before the play or musical starts. Another actor, Michael Olivo (he played Yonkers), had picked up a quick bite to eat at Taco Bell, including a large-sized Mountain Dew.

Okay, this is a seriously stylized Mountain Dew logo. I doubt that whoever designed it, meant for it to have any hidden meaning… which makes this all the more funny!

Because when you look at the cup from this angle…

…it looks like it says “Tn Jew”. The ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Nashville, Tennessee is currently the biggest disaster area in the entire country: never mind the oil spill in the Gulf and the attempted car bombing in Times Square. But somehow, most people in America other than those in the immediate area seem completely oblivious about it.

Nashville native Patten Fuqua addresses the unawareness to his city’s plight – along with bold optimism – in a great piece at Section 303…

If you live outside of Nashville, you may not be aware, but our city was hit by a 500-year flood over the last few days. The national news coverage gave us 15 minutes, but went back to focusing on a failed car bomb and an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. While both are clearly important stories, was that any reason to ignore our story? It may not be as terror-sexy as a failed car bomb or as eco-sexy

...
Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

And just think: these are the same people who might soon be in charge of our health care!

“I’m not dead yet! I don’t want to go on the cart!”

Terri Thompson of Maynardville, Tennessee has been classified as “dead” by the government, because she has successfully fought off a disease for most of her life in defiance of every prognosis by her physicians. Thompson had been told years ago that she wouldn’t live to see age 25… and she’s about to celebrate her 49th birthday.

According to the United States Government however, she should be dead…

An East Tennessee woman has spent her entire life fighting a disease, living more than 20 years longer than doctors told her she would.

But on Christmas Eve, she found out the government classified her as dead, cutting off all her coverage.

Leaving Terri Thompson to face one of her toughest battles.

...
Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Yesterday this blog conveyed the news about famed moonshiner Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton (shown at right along with public defender Tim Moore) getting sentenced to 18 months in prison during a federal court hearing in Greeneville, Tennessee.

In the past 24 hours I have seen some positively unbridled fury from supporters of Popcorn Sutton, including on sites like Facebook (home to no less than three groups for people who believe the government should have left him alone to ply his trade in peace). The general consensus is that Popcorn wasn’t harming anyone, and that the federal government has set out to “make an example” out of him, lest anyone else think that they should assert some liberty on their own. There are even some individuals who are publicly suggesting that perhaps a “storming the Bastille” is in order. I’m not gonna endorse or condemn such thoughts… but I am gonna pass ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton, the legendary moonshiner and genuinely unique American character, was sentenced today in federal court in Tennessee to a prison term of 18 months, after earlier pleading guilty to the charges stemming from the raid on his still last year.

And adding insult to injury, Sutton “agreed to allow his moonshining photos and videos and criminal history to be used to further the education and deterrence goals of Project Safe Neighborhoods.”

In other words, rather than praising Popcorn Sutton as the living cultural resource that he is, the sons of bastitches from the government are going to force Popcorn to go fully against his unique sense of identity. The lesson here could not be more obvious: “Conform to the state or we will hurt you.”

No, I don’t have any sympathy for those assholes. If you want to see what is destroying America, look at the ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Moonshine legend and American original character Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton has had his sentencing delayed for the fourth time. He and his many fans (of whom I am proud to consider myself one) will have to wait until January 26th 2009 to find out what’s going to happen to Popcorn stemming from the raid by them “evil revenuers” on his ‘shine operation in Tennessee back in March. For those who are just tuning in, Popcorn Sutton – who has achieved the status of mythic hero in the world far beyond his home in Maggie Valley, North Carolina – was the target of a bust when he started an operation across the state line in Tennessee. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BOOOO!!!) caught Popcorn running three 1,000-gallon moonshine stills and immediately set out to portray him as a diabolical fiend. Nothing could be further from the ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Dear Johnny Robertson, James Oldfield, and Norm Fields:

I can’t recall a single time that any of you have been live on the air on your various “Church of Christ” television programs that broadcast on WGSR, when you have not vehemently stated that in order to be saved and go to Heaven that one must be baptized in water and join the Church of Christ. All three of you claim that without water baptism, there is no salvation possible at all.

(I’ll take time out here to state again – as I did the first time and then again not long afterward that in no way do I consider Robertson, Oldfield, Fields and their bunch to be the real Church of Christ that most people know and respect. The “Church of Christ In Name Only” that broadcasts on WGSR is something that can only be described as ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

World-renowned moonshiner Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton (shown here with an “outlaw” of another sort, country legend Willie Nelson) is facing a possible 15-year prison sentence and a fine of a half-million dollars after pleading guilty in federal court in Tennessee today for practicing the fine art of “makin’ likker”.

A few weeks ago the revenuers busted Popcorn’s “white lightning” operation in Tennessee’s Cooke County. The Feds and Tennessee “citizen harassment authorities” (that’s what I’m going to call ’em) captured three 1,000-gallon stills, almost a thousand gallons of finished moonshine and several hundreds of gallons of corn mash in the raid on Popcorn’s premises. They also found some firearms, which Popcorn wasn’t supposed to have since he’s already a convicted felon from previous moonshining charges.

Which if you ask me, the government should have just left him alone back then, too. What Popcorn is doing is not an act of evil. ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

Marvin Sutton, known far and wide throughout the country (and the world?) as Popcorn Sutton, has been released from jail after posting $20,000 bond, two weeks after a raid by federal revenuers on his moonshine operation in east Tennessee.

I’m assuming that Popcorn has a second home or some other accommodations in Tennessee, because in addition to the bond he also cannot leave the state until at least a hearing next month … that could send him to jail once more. He also must wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, submit to drug testing (and cannot imbibe of his or anyone else’s “likker”), and agree to have his property searched at any time by federal agents.

I’ll say again: Popcorn made a bad move by running a still across state lines in Tennessee, when if he had stayed home in Maggie Valley he could have remained in business. The ...

Read more

Chris Knight's avatar

As was reported here a few days ago, the Rockingham County Board of Education voted to rescind its vote in April to implement mandatory school uniforms at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools beginning this coming year. Members of P.O.T.S.M.O.D. (People Opposed To Standard Mode Of Dress) fought hard and with heart to get the board to overturn its decision ever since the April vote that initially required it.

I got something in my e-mail and I’m gonna post it here, because I think this is one of the bigger reasons why school uniforms in Rockingham County is a bad idea. This is from Nashville, Tennessee, from an organization called Safe Haven Family Shelter…

Safe Haven and Metro Nashville Public School Children Need Our Help

We need school uniform clothing donations to help our kids!
As many of you know, Metro Nashville Public Schools have implemented a school

...
Read more