Three Awesome Things to Choose From in the City

I don't always give advance notice on events, preferring in most cases to talk about how they were after the fact. There are other sites which cover upcoming events and I generally leave it to them. You'll find a number of them listed to the right of this post.

There are three things happening today and tomorrow with the potential to be so awesome I can't resist giving today's space to the topic. Two of the three are at Union Avenue Books and one is at Preservation Pub. Two of them happen tonight and conflict with each other, so you may have to choose - or do like me and run between the two like a crazy person.

Union Avenue Books is hosting a roundtable discussion about Davy Crockett, an east Tennessean, who is celebrating his 225th birthday. If you like history, this one's for you. If you like beer, they have you covered. The monthly "Book and a Beer Night" is hosted by Charlie Thomas and his friends at the table tonight will include "Jack Neely, Michael Lofaro, Dan Feller, director of UT's Jackson Center, Melinda Meador, and maybe -- just maybe -- a fiddle player!" It all gets underway at 7:00.

That just so happens to be the precise time "members of the Dirty Guv'nahs" will be featured on homegrown on 105.3 doing a special broadcast from the Speakeasy (second floor, smoke-mostly-free) of the Preservation Pub. Homegrown usually lasts an hour, I think, so there is an irreconcilable conflict between the two.

Thursday night is BIG, BIG, BIG, if you love fine literature. Bobbie Ann Mason will read from her new book The Girl in the Blue Beret and sign copies afterward. Bobbie Ann is a national (and southern) treasure. I've seen her a number of times an d I think the first was at Davis-Kidd bookstore, the grandparent of Union Avenue Books. My favorite Bobbie sighting was at a Bob Dylan concert in Cincinnati years ago. She is best known for her beloved and much studied and read In Country as well as numerous other books. This is as good as it gets!

So there you are. I'll definitely be at the book reading but I'm not sure what I'll do about the other two. You might find me throwing up on the sidewalk somewhere in between the two from the angst of it all. To get you fired up, I'll leave you with a great vintage video. I'll also mention the great video from yesterday. If you missed it, you really should treat yourself.