I don't know that I ever heard of Tennessee State Rep. Andy Holt prior to his being fined for a.) operating without a permit while b.) illegally dumping nearly a million gallons of pig poop into public waterways from his pig farm operations. Fined $177,000 by the EPA which he refuses to pay a few months later, now Rep. Holt is taking his fight against the federal government into high gear. On Monday, he tweeted a question to the armed militants who have taken control of a federal bird sanctuary in Oregon "#bundymilitia Where can I send support to your effort?" And today he sent a letter to President Obama, saying "take your gun control and shove it" and concluding with another hashtag "#MolonLabe" which is Latin for "come and take it", apparently he feels the President wants to send Federal agents to take away any guns he might have. It wasn't long after reading about the above events, I recalled I had heard of Rep. Holt before - back when somehow he convinced the state legislature of pass a resolution inviting Right Wing talk show firebrand Sean Hannity to come to Tennessee to live. I found among my bookmarked pages this gem from the Nashville Scene from last February: "And last month, when throngs of women chanted in the Capitol hallways over women's reproductive rights, the adamant anti-abortion Republican scribbled and carried around a sign that read, "I love women ... and their babies."
2016 is bringing back one of my favorite people to Knoxville, artist Laurie Anderson, part of another impressive lineup at the Big Ears music festival March 31st to April 2nd. She and Phillip Glass will perform their most recent collaboration. Anderson has the most unique, wide-eyed wonder and wisdom in her words and music and now film. Tonight in Times Square as part of a public arts series Midnight Moment, a 3-minute shortened version of her highly acclaimed new documentary "Heart of A Dog" will be spread all across the towering Times Square screens. And just prior to this screening, Anderson will perform a concert for dogs - I love this sentence from this NYTimes piece: "Dogs and their owners are invited to sit on the red steps of Duffy Square while she performs music that, to passers-by in Times Square, may not sound like much because of the low frequency." Yes, dogs are invited. Such a show (her 2nd actually) has such whimsy, and stands so far out away from what others do. I prefer to also imagine the dogs will likely be very pleased, unlike cats who would probably go online and start a twitter backlash about it. Her movie features her dog of course, and also the dog's death, and that of her husband Lou Reed, and essentially deals with how we deal and do not deal with death and grief, and also life and love. A fascinating interview with her in studio q is here and is well worth the listen. Here's a trailer for her film.
