AltWeeklies Wire
Shoney's Takes Aim at a Comeback With New Look and Menunew
If Shoney's of days gone by was a trailblazer, setting a standard for casual family restaurants, Shoney's of 2009 is playing catch-up, modernizing its look, feel and food in a 21st century marketplace crowded with contempo-casual-stucco-coated establishments serving grilled salmon and strawberry lemonade.
Nashville Scene |
Carrington Fox |
08-28-2009 |
Food+Drink
Three Hot Nashville Acts Present a New Breed of Female Songwriternew
Those Darlins, Caitlin Rose and Tristen are songwriters who draw on decades-old traditional folk, country and pop to tell provocative tales from an unabashedly female perspective.
Nashville Scene |
Tracy Moore |
08-21-2009 |
Music
Tennessee Rep. Jim Cooper Defends His Work on Health Care Reformnew
Cooper's touting the legislation known as Wyden-Bennett after Senate sponsors Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Bob Bennett, R-Utah. Among its co-sponsors is Lamar Alexander. Cooper describes it as "a beacon of hope out there." He sees it as a Third Way harnessing both the Democrats' dream of universal coverage and Republican love of market forces.
Nashville Scene |
Jeff Woods |
08-14-2009 |
Politics
Is Phil Lee the Best Songwriter in Nashville? If Not, You Tell Himnew
Long before he ever threw his first knife, Phil Lee was no stranger to sharp points and edges. He writes songs full of them: character studies that sidle up to folks we'd normally shy away from, pretty ballads that turn staggeringly bleak, ambiguous odes to rough living too laugh-out-loud funny to be considered cautionary tales.
Nashville Scene |
Jim Ridley |
07-31-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
The Female Discount for Sexual Predatorsnew
The evidence seems mounted against Sandy Binkley as she heads for a trial on seven counts of statutory rape and two counts of sexual battery by an authority figure. But if the past offers any prediction, she's almost sure to get the female discount if she's convicted.
Nashville Scene |
Tracy Moore |
07-10-2009 |
Crime & Justice
Tags: Sandy Binkley, rape
Used MP3s: Hawking 'Old' Digital Music Files Through New Websitenew
A new crop of consumer-facing music stores is focused on helping fans resell "used" digital music the way they do CDs. But the big conundrum with digital music is that there's no way to prove sellers legally own the songs on their computers.
Nashville Scene |
Eliot Van Buskirk |
06-19-2009 |
Music
A Grieving Son Finds No Justice on Rev. Maury Davis' Path to Redemptionnew
Ron Liles wants to tell Davis that he's a liar for bending the greatest truth in his life. To remind the mega-church pastor that the price of his spiritual rebirth, his professed salvation, was the blood of Liles' 54-year-old mother, Jo Ella.
Nashville Scene |
Brantley Hargrove |
06-19-2009 |
Crime & Justice
A Dumpster Diver Loses His Right to Rummage at Vanderbilt Universitynew
Vanderbilt officials say their concern isn't theft—it's lawsuits. Dumpster diving isn't a big problem for the university -- they've never arrested anyone for Dumpster diving, and they continue to issue warnings of trespass charges for repeat offenders.
Nashville Scene |
Tracy Moore |
06-12-2009 |
Culture
'Pelham' Remake Makes It Out of the Station Only to Jump the Tracksnew
Director Tony Scott turns a presciently post-9/11 movie into an explicitly post-9/11 movie. Make that post-post-9/11: The chief bad guy only looks like a terrorist, when in fact he's an even scarier, more au courant foe -- a commodities trader!
Nashville Scene |
Jim Ridley |
06-12-2009 |
Reviews
Three Bachelor-Party Bozos Loose in Sin City Wake Up with the Very Funny 'Hangover'new
This messy, raunchy farce about three groomsmen on a lost-weekend bender in Sin City continues director Todd Phillips' fascination with the alpha male's default setting, childhood reversion.
Nashville Scene |
Jim Ridley |
06-05-2009 |
Reviews
Tennessee Governor Plays the Martyr Instead of Fighting the Good Fightnew
By equivocating on Tennessee's guns-in-bars bill when his opposition would have made a difference, Gov. Phil Bredesen missed his opportunity to stop its passage.
Nashville Scene |
Jeff Woods |
06-05-2009 |
Politics
What Happens When a Label Deal Goes Right and the Band Breaks Up Anyway?new
Sometimes for bands, the stars align just right. Labels clamor for the artist. The terms of the deal are more than fair. Offers for maximum-exposure tours abound, and press is eerily pitch-perfect. And the whole thing goes to hell anyway.
Nashville Scene |
Tracy Moore |
06-05-2009 |
Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Be Your Own Pet, record labels
Hey, Young Nashville Band—Want a Major-Label Deal? Read This Firstnew
If the Nashville curse used to be that no local rock band could snag a record deal, then perhaps now the curse is that they can. It's staying afloat afterward that has proved most elusive.
Nashville Scene |
Tracy Moore |
06-05-2009 |
Music
Tags: Nashville, record labels
A Food Critic Gets a Taste of Urban Agriculturenew
This year, for several reasons—including a feeling of helplessness during last fall's gas crisis—I traded the trowel for shovel and pitchfork and set about transforming my less-than-a-quarter-acre property into a farmlet. The goal: Grow as much food as possible on my urban property.
Nashville Scene |
Carrington Fox |
05-22-2009 |
Food+Drink
Tennessee's Religious Right Draws a Bead on Doctor-Patient Confidentiality for Teensnew
Conservative Christians have found a new cause celebre in the state legislature: Denying teens the right to doctor-patient confidentiality.
Nashville Scene |
Jeff Woods |
05-22-2009 |
Civil Liberties
