Rain can’t dampen this happening New Year’s Eve!
New Year’s Eve 2018 in downtown Knoxville was unseasonably warm, in addition to being windy and rainy. It was the last night, in fact, of the rainiest year Knoxville has seen in decades. But no one’s...
View ArticleFrivolity at the Fire and Ice Ball
The Knoxville Opera called its annual fundraising ball “Fire & Ice.” Held last month at the Knoxville Museum of Art, it was a blast. But attendance was down, causing the Opera to do what the...
View ArticleNext KSO season: Beethoven, romance and surprises
The folks from the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra held a little reception downtown earlier this week to unveil some of the highlights from the upcoming 2019-2020 season. Let me urge you to get your...
View ArticleAn enchanted evening: music, chocolate and wine
How’s this for a clever idea? The Marble City Opera will be performing a Valentine’s show at Holly’s Gourmet’s Market on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of next week. But on Tuesday of this week, the...
View ArticleTesterman for Council: Make the best better!
It seemed like a good excuse for a party. Our friend Janet Testerman is running for an at-large seat on Knoxville City Council and needed a fun fundraiser. We have our new condo downtown that we...
View ArticleChopin and champagne: as elegant as it gets
For a few idyllic hours on this past rainy Sunday, a couple dozen music lovers were transported from West Knoxville to a lovely salon in mid-19th century Paris by virtue of music, dainty nibbles and...
View ArticleCharlie Daniel’s reluctant retirement party
Former News Sentinel editorial cartoonist Charlie Daniel has so many friends that his retirement party on Sunday had to be divided into two shifts! We were in the early shift: 1:30 to 3:30. Another...
View ArticleSusan Packard’s lessons we need to heed
I went to a party last week that was two years in the making. Not because it was so fancy or ornate. Quite the contrary. It was warm and cozy. But, two years ago, when Mary Ellen Brewington heard that...
View ArticleL’Amour du Vin 2019: It was love, all right!
L’Amour du Vin, in its 16th year and held this past weekend at the Knoxville Museum of Art (KMA), is among our community’s most successful fundraisers. Benefiting the museum and aided in a big way by...
View ArticleKMA’s Artist’s Luncheon: a Friday of fabulousness
While L’Amour du Vin would seem to be about wine, the whole long weekend really is about art. L’Amour du Vin, a wine dinner with a visiting chef, a visiting vintner and a visiting artist, is the single...
View ArticleIt’s Big Ears time in Tennessee!
The Big Ears Festival opened on Thursday and thousands of folks flooded into downtown Knoxville. They came from 48 states — including Alaska and Hawaii — and 21 foreign countries. (The only states not...
View ArticleI miss Big Ears! Do you? Maybe this recap will help.
The streets of downtown Knoxville seemed unusually quiet this Monday after the Big Ears Festival closed Sunday night. The truth is that they weren’t any less crowded than on any other Monday. It’s just...
View ArticleNext Clarence Brown season: varied and “plain fun!”
“Going back to Greek times, theater has been trying to do the same thing,” Cal MacLean, producing artistic director of the Clarence Brown Theatre, said on Saturday morning. “Be interesting and...
View ArticleDining on pinto beans at Blackberry Farm. No kidding.
Blackberry Farm, of course, is the elegantly rustic Relais & Chateaux property located on 4,200 acres in Walland adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A 45-minute drive from downtown...
View ArticleArthur Seymour, Jr.: A friend, a statesman, a gentleman
The sanctuary of the strikingly beautiful St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral was standing room only last Friday afternoon — even with folding chairs set up in the main aisle and along the walls to...
View ArticleSoiree: a delicious downtown development
If you are looking for something really different and fun to do with a group of friends, I’ve got you covered! Have you been to Soiree yet? It’s a combination of a cooking class/private dinner in a...
View ArticleCúrate: Because Asheville’s closer than Spain!
We didn’t have time to go to Spain last weekend, so we went to Asheville. Specifically, to Cúrate, an authentic Spanish restaurant serving tapas and other Spanish dishes — and exclusively Spanish wines...
View ArticleNew Dave & Buster’s means food, fun and games
The ribbon cutting was today at the newest Dave & Buster’s location, which is in Sevierville at Millers Landing shopping center just across the Parkway from Tanger Outlets. Moxley Carmichael helped...
View ArticleOompa Loompas, cats and blue men! What a season!
The Tennessee Theatre unveiled next year’s season of Broadway musical offerings on Monday with a preview and reception on the stage of the historic venue. More than 200 people attended to nosh on...
View ArticleTable for 200, please!
Credit where credit is due: That headline actually is a comment that someone named Amber Crouse posted to Facebook on a picture from the Long Table Dinner, which is what this blog post is about. But it...
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