Knoxville in the past can seem like this city does in dreams. It’s recognizably the same place, but with familiar landmarks slightly twisted and lots of unsettling differences, erupting with …
About 75 years ago, author James Agee witnessed the arrival of cinema as an art form
The Works of James Agee, Vol 5 Complete Film Criticism: Reviews, Essays, and Manuscripts edited by Charles Maland Last summer, a few weeks before the Mercury closed as a weekly …
Hattie Love: the woman we elected to local government, and then forgot
On the City Council ballot, for the first time I can remember, there are six women on the regular ballot, plus one certified write-in candidate. This election presents the prospect …
Bump Easy: On North Central, the ideal of Charlie’s Delicious Pies
North Central is Knoxville’s coolest street. It’s changing rapidly, but with a crazy variety of far upscale and far downscale. The high-end tailors of John H. Daniel are hollering distance …
Knoxville’s Greatest Disaster: The Freshet of 1867
Knoxville, thanks to some geographical and political good luck, doesn’t encounter many natural disasters. It wasn’t always like that. If anybody ever asks you about the worst natural disaster Knoxville …