Angels in the City

Knoxville is filled with all kinds of people. Some are a little strange (who you are dictates who is strange :-) ), some are funny, some are sad, some are a little scary, many are interesting and most of us are some of all of the above depending on the day you spot us.

Some people downtown are angels. I think maybe who you are and what you need dictates who your angel may be. Sometimes your angel might give you a flower if you need to be picked up - or your angel may spread rose petals on the sidewalk where you pass. Sometimes a dollar, a drink of water, a treat for your dog or a simple smile on the street marks your special angel.

One of the angels I ran into recently did a simple thing that made our whole table laugh, smile and have a better night. It was a Wednesday night we sat around a table in Coffee and Chocolate, talking about getting a new Metropulse before walking home. For the people who read from outside Knoxville, Metropulse is a free, weekly newspaper that often features information and articles about downtown. I think everyone who lives downtown reads it. It officially hits the street on Thursday, but everyone downtown knows it is placed in the rack on Wednesday evening. Leftovers, by the way, are dutifully recycled. I've seen them in the recycle bin on State Street.

Miss Metropulse/AKA Part Time Angel

So, we'd just mentioned getting it on the way home, when into view came a beautiful lady making deliveries. I pointed and said, "There it is, now." I didn't consider that she could see me point. She entered the coffee shop where she was to fill the racks. Before doing so she walked to our table and handed us each a fresh copy! Where else could you get your Metropulse delivered directly but downtown? It was a simple thing, but it added the cherry to the top of a very nice evening. She came and went so quickly I only had time to snap a picture and I didn't get her name. I'll call her Miss Metropulse and count her as one of my angels.

Who might your angel be? And to whom should you be an angel? Don't miss your chance!

Brian and Briana



Brian on Union Street in Knoxville



I walked right past the guy with nothing more than a nod in his direction. I noticed his dog and my quick assessment was this was not a dog I wanted to pet. He looked a bit lean and, if not mangy, just not very attractive and, if it wasn't a pit bull, it gave a close-enough impersonation for me. It was only when the woman pictured below motioned toward him, that I realized the man had a bird on his shoulder. His name was Brian and the bird was Briana. Brian was very generous to share his bird.

Brian places Briana on Urban Woman

Brian doesn't live downtown, but likes to come to the city with one or more of his various animals. He is unusually talented in training them to do precisely as he asks. His dog fell at his feet as he commanded and didn't budge until he was told to do so. His bird would do a variety of tricks, hopping from one finger to another, traveling up onto a shoulder as instructed and giving Brian a kiss when asked. He said the bird says, "Daddy's home," when Brian arrives home from his job as a pipe-fitter for TVA. He's worked for them for twenty years and currently works at the Bull Run Steam Plant. This followed six years in the service.

A very gentle man, Brian said that he would never clip Briana's wings because that is where she gets her beauty. Asked how he keeps her from flying away, he replied simply, "Love."

Saturday in the Park (Square)

If you haven't been to Market Square on a Saturday, recently, you owe it to yourself to drag out of bed and get down there. If you are interested in buying produce or even catching the best part of the vibe, I'd encourage you to be there no later than 10:00. The Farmer's Market forms the centerpiece of activity, and the largest part of the vegetables are now coming in.

If you want fresh lettuce, tomatoes, squash, flowers, black berries, blue berries, locally cultivated honey or fresh baked bread of any type of your choosing, this is your place. But there is so much more. Hand-crafted items from toys to clothes, used musical instruments and coffee from Java for those of you who just can't make it all the way down the hill to the old city. I'm pretty sure this is Josh Sidman who has a recently opened vintage instrument shop in North Knoxville and who may be the only person ever to leave San Francisco for Knoxville because of the music scene.

Live music threatens to break out in every direction at any time. This particular Saturday the band that played at WDVX the previous night was front and center in the middle of Union Street. A better blogger would remember their name. Do you know? Drop me a line.

Also visible that morning was the new bicycle advertising effort in the city. It's pretty eye-catching the first time you see it. Whatever your interest, any given Saturday from now through November the Square is a great place to relax and watch the parade of humanity, if not to pick up a fresh piece of produce and enjoy.

"Someone Showed Me a Picture and I Just Laughed"

I've probably taken close to 1000 pictures in the month of June. Many of them were so terrible I deleted them. Some were good enough I included them in the posts. I didn't have room for some others that I thought were really good - particularly of the Dirty Guv'nahs and Blues Traveler. Yet others are fun or interesting, but there wasn't really a story they seemed to fit. I'm including them here for fun. Click to enlarge and see them better.

Talking Trash, Talking People

Trash in cities has a long and interesting, if smelly history. For hundreds of years after the advent of cities people had to be careful walking down a street, ever watchful for falling garbage thrown from living quarters above. We've moved a bit past that, thankfully.
So what do you do with garbage in downtown Knoxville in 2010? I would not have known or thought about it until we moved here. It turns out there is a pretty conventional answer to that question: You take it outside to a plastic dumpster just like folks in the suburbs. There are some differences: Our taxes pay for the dumpsters to be available and to be emptied, unlike in the county where you have to pay directly for garbage service. Our bins are larger and they are communal (That means we share them. The bins are not communists!)

The largest difference is more poignant. Given recent opposition to transitional housing in Knoxville, I'm guessing it isn't a difference most people outside of downtown want to experience. While jokes about dumpster diving may be common, it is a reality in a city. It is possible to live in a suburb and know homeless people and know garbage scavenging only in a theoretical sense. You never really have to see the reality. A city keeps us more honest. There are people who are not as different as you might like to think from me or you who have to resort to going through garbage to survive.

It gets even more personal when it is your garbage. When you have to think, "What did I throw away tonight, that I considered completely worthless, that would be important enough for a fellow human being to dig through a garbage can to get? I hear someone going through my garbage can most nights. It's hard to not see these invisible people when it is your garbage they look to for hope.

Interestingly, given the chance to share our communities and in the form of Housing First, helping people who are chronically homeless, Knoxvillians are choosing to fight it at every turn. The one thing that we might be able to do to help these people have a home and not have to go through our garbage, we resist because we don't want them close to our homes. We prefer they stay invisible, theoretical, not flesh and blood like us. Life in a city forces us to face the truth in all its beauty and ugliness. That's a reason many people should never move into a city and it's a reason I love it. It keeps me honest.

This man pictured going through the garbage at the corner of Wall and Gay Street agreed to have his photograph taken. The pictures are not pleasant, but they are real and they are a part of this city.

A Prophet and a Genie

"And I'll call down thunder and speak the same
And my word fills the sky with flame
And might and glory gonna be my name
And men gonna light my way."

Words by John Perry Barlow; music by Bob Weir
Recorded by the Grateful Dead

If you spend very much time downtown and you keep your eyes open, you'll notice this man standing quietly, generally on the edge of what is happening, overlooking the scene with a calm exterior that seems to reflect an understanding or a knowingness beyond words. Approach him, and you will find a very friendly person with strong ideas and convictions about the world, and who has as many words as you'd like.

This is Zeus. He lives in east Knoxville, but is often seen walking the streets of downtown or standing silently in the doorways of abandoned buildings. He introduces himself as a prophet and a genie. In the Koran, he tells me, that would be "jin." Not "djin." Those are evil and he exists only for the good. He says he has always known he was a genie, which he defined as a sort of powerful prophet. He is here to spread good and to show people the right way.

I met him on the occasion of a memorial for Michelle Rivera (see below). He insisted that the Bible is clear: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. A man who kills should be killed. Just as fluidly he moved from Old Testament theology to Revelation and pronounced we are in the last days when men will be blessed who have died to this world. Death is like a vacation. One rests.

He says that Jesus is the way. He likens him to a car wash. If you want your car clean, you have to go through. If you want your soul clean, you have to go through Jesus. Still, he insists God is no Christian. All religions are like branches that lead to the tree of God. They must all be taken together to make a whole. He sees judgement coming. When we feel the heat in the city this time of year, that is a warning of the heat that is to come. He is here to help us avoid that fate. What we send into the universe is what we will receive in return. Everything is the Yen and Yang. Christianity is like the light, while Islam is the dark. You cannot have one without the other. God will bless both because each comes from a son of Abraham.

He's certainly not your typical downtown preacher, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone nicer, more soft spoken and fascinating than Zeus. He gives handmade gifts to those to whom he feels inclined. He accepts donations, but he never asks for money. People give if they wish and God provides. He lives on faith, which is what he must do in his calling as a Genie. Whether he succeeds in making it better may be up for debate, but he certainly makes downtown Knoxville a more interesting place.

One More Cup of Coffee Before I Go (to the city below)

Evenings downtown have been downright pleasant lately if you've gotten out a little earlier to appreciate what heat and humidity really feel like. By around 7:00 a light breeze glides between the buildings, which also offer shade from the setting sun. At that point, it's finally possible to breathe, again. On one of these evenings recently that I decided to go out for coffee. I'm big on coffee and soon I'll give my review of local coffee establishments, but on this particular evening my goals were to go light on the budget by only buying a cup of coffee and nothing more and specifically, to try Remedy on Jackson Street in the Old City.

I didn't make it past Market Square before the plans started to change. First I saw what could have easily been a musical mirage: a string trio playing in the middle of the square. It turns out to be a quartet (minus one, sometimes) named Norwegian Wood. It is the brainchild of Alexia Pantanizopoulos who told me that she started it because she loves the Beatles. You might guess that their repertoire consists entirely of Bob Dylan songs . . . but you'd be wrong. They play all Beatles, all the time, though Alexia is classically trained. I dropped a dollar in the case and thanked them for letting me take a picture.

Then I saw Taylor, AKA the Rose Guy. I had to buy a rose, so of course, there went three more dollars, but money well spent. I heard later that he is leaving town and I really hate that. I've seen him around for years, but only recently started to get to know him. Certainly a gentle soul.

After leaving the square I walked through the 100 block of Gay Street to see how the construction is going and caught the light of the setting sun on the side of the Sterchi Bullding. I'm not photographer, but I think the picture is good enough to show why it caught my eye. Remember, you can click any picture on the site to enlarge it for a better look.


Once I entered Remedy, I realized that not only would I have coffee (which they brewed fresh for me), but I would have live entertainment - on a Tuesday night, no less. A keyboard player moved seamlessly from one song to another for the next two hours while I drank coffee and edited a chapter for a friend at a table only a few feet away. Like everyone else I ask, he agreed to have his picture taken - and, of course, I tipped him and the nice barrista. Remember this was supposed to be inexpensive? Oh well.

He played great music that could have been delivered from my Ipod: Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, Have I Told You Lately that I Love You by Van Morrison, Just Another Day by Paul McCartney, New York State of Mind by Billy Joel and on it went. By the end of the evening, after realizing how large a musical vocabulary he had, I guessed who it might be just by reputation and the barrista confired it was, indeed, Wendel Werner. What a delight. For the price of a cup of coffee.



Around 10:00 I started the walk home, but detoured down Central to check on the progress of Aisle Nine, our inchoate grocery store. I spoke to a nice lady inside who assured me there would be vegetables next week. Color me skeptical at this point. I see large amounts of beer and candy. I'll still hope.

As I crossed the street and neared Java Old City, I looked inside to see if anyone was there I had met at the poetry slam. I had such a good time, I thought I might thank them for hosting it. I didn't see anyone familiar, but as I turned to walk away, something - or more specifically, someone - caught my attention. I stopped and thought, "Was that a bride in full bridal regalia sitting at a table in a coffee shop?" I walked inside.

Much like the blackberry car that I thought might be a harbinger of a juicy (sorry) revenge story about an angry ex-lover, but turned out to be simply a mulberry car, after all, this wasn't quite what I expected, either. I imagined the jilted bride walking from the church, ultimately to take haven in the warmth of a quiet, comfortably shabby coffee shop: "I'll have an espresso. No. Make that a double." Fantasy turned to reality when I met a very gracious young woman named Sara Bowles who wears these clothes for performances and who was set to perform later in the evening at the Pilot Light in the Old City.

So, finally, I walked home. That was quite a cup of coffee. I still think she made a pretty bride.