East TN Drive-In Goes Digital to Survive

The State Line Drive-In in Elizabethton is offering a free night tonight to celebrate the installation of a new $80,000 digital projection system, thanks to the many, many votes it received in a contest via Honda's Project Drive-In. For a moment it seemed all was lost.

I have mourned and still rue the loss of 35mm film projection as all theatre owners must either go digital or lose the ability to show new movies. Revival houses will, for now, still be able to run, but non-digital films will soon be available only from private archives. It's either digital or darkness.

I've had many fine hours at the Stateline - like that double bill one summer night for "Logan's Run" and "Demon Seed". I'm very happy this location will continue to run - most won't, like the Midtown Drive-In in Harriman.

Morristown Ranks As Least Expensive City In U.S.

The Wall Street Cheat Sheet gathered the info and reports that life here in little old Morristown, TN makes it one of the "8 Least Expensive Cities" in the nation.

I've lived here longer than I ever imagined or planned. It's in a pretty gorgeous spot of the Tennessee Valley, too. And though, again, not planned, my years as a semi-starving (but working) artist person have been allowed by the low cost of living (and wide-open opportunities in the arts).

I have learned too, though unmeasured by statistical metrics, the true treasure of living here has been the friends I've made. My thanks for them is likewise beyond measuring.

Check out the full list of cities here.