Arts & Culture

See What's Really Behind Kubrick's 'The Shining' in New Documentary

Garrett Crowe — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 20:47:31 +0000

If you're a fan of Stanley Kubrick, you might be interested in a documentary that's screening at the Barking Legs Theater this Friday. It's called Room 237.

Sculpting with Untraditional Concrete

Garrett Crowe — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 16:47:48 +0000

When you think of concrete, you may think about the material needed for sidewalks and cinder-blocks. But for Justin Burd, the material is used for sculptural and artistic purposes.

Svenonius’s ‘Supernatural Strategies’ Involve Spaghetti-Slinging Specters & Marxist Music Musings

Michael Edward Miller — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 18:58:18 +0000

Ian Svenonius is a singer who fronted Weird War, The Make-Up, The Nation of Ulysses and other Washington, D.C. hardcore and indie groups. Yet he claims his book Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group doesn't draw on his own personal knowledge. Instead, the book contains advice from the Great Beyond. Ghosts communicate with him in bizarre ways, such as tossing spaghetti against a wall, and share unconventional, Marxist interpretations of popular music's evolution. In this interview, Svenonius and WUTC's Michael Edward Miller talk about the book (and play and discuss several of his songs.)

3rd Annual New Dischord Features Noted Composer Malcolm Goldstein

Staff — Mon, 03 Jun 2013 17:44:02 +0000

The third annual New Dischord Festival will take place June 6^th – 9^th, 2013 in various Chattanooga locations. Originally, the festival focused primarily on experimental and improvised music. Now it includes art collaborations, with local and national poets, musicians, dancers and other artists working together. Malcolm Goldstein, a violinist/composer active in experimental music since the 1960s, will perform on Thursday and Saturday.

‘Into The Woods’ Cast Members Join WUTC For A Preview

Staff — Tue, 28 May 2013 18:47:43 +0000

Closed Door Entertainment is performing the fractured fairy-tale musical Into The Woods on May 31^st, June 1^st and June 2^nd at the Memorial Auditorium’s Community Theatre in Chattanooga. Cast members sing and talk about the show in this segment.

‘I Go Deeper and Deeper into the Holler’: Photojournalist Don Dudenbostel’s Appalachian Adventures

Michael Edward Miller — Fri, 17 May 2013 20:58:49 +0000

Don Dudenbostel’s photographs are featured this May in the River Gallery's exhibition Defining Roots. Dudenbostel's photos document disappearing, hidden and infamous aspects of Appalachian culture. Throughout the past few decades, he has photographed snake handlers, moonshiners (particularly legendary moonshiner Popcorn Sutton), cockfighters, Ku Klux Klan members and neo-Nazis. “I try never to influence my images with personal feelings,” he says in this interview.

Documentary on VHS Culture Screening in Chattanooga

Garrett Crowe — Thu, 16 May 2013 13:43:35 +0000

A new documentary called Rewind This! explores the rise and fall of VHS and the nostalgia of the format in the 21^st century. The film will be screened at Barking Legs Theater Friday night.

Chattanooga Podcast ‘Another Story’ Delivers Compelling, True Tales

Michael Edward Miller — Wed, 15 May 2013 16:13:06 +0000

Ben Schnell, creator and host of Another Story, joins WUTC for an interview. Schnell’s podcast features local people telling true, personal stories. Schnell culls some of the stories from a monthly storytelling competition at The Camp House. Other stories come from interviews Schnell conducts. The free podcast is available through iTunes, and Schnell has also created a Soundcloud page.

Rambles With Roy: One Of NPR’s Funniest Southern Voices Cuts Loose

Michael Edward Miller — Fri, 10 May 2013 19:41:09 +0000

Roy Blount, Jr. is a prolific Southern author and a panelist on NPR’s Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! Often funny, occasionally cantankerous, he joins WUTC’s Michael Edward Miller for a loose, meandering chat. Blount discusses his books, being a Southern expat and participating in the Celebration Of Southern Literature.

Punk Musician/Author Ian Svenonius Visits Chattanooga May 10

Michael Edward Miller — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:07:41 +0000

Ian Svenonius is coming to the Winder Binder Gallery & Bookstore in downtown Chattanooga on Friday, May 10^th, to promote his book Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock ‘n’ Roll Group. The book is a music-industry satire. The publisher says, “Pretending to be a ‘how-to" guide for aspiring rock stars, this book fuses a meticulously researched sociopolitical examination of the history of rock and roll music with the author's trademark humor and cutting wit.”

Pulitzer Prize-Nominated Ecological Author Speaking At UTC May 3rd

Michael Edward Miller — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:30:27 +0000

David George Haskell, a University of the South biology professor and author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated ecological memoir The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch In Nature, will speak at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Friday, May 3^rd at 7:30 p.m. in the Benwood auditorium. WUTC's Michael Edward Miller interviewed Haskell last year about his book:

Around and About Wants to Hear from Storytellers

Garrett Crowe — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 18:01:05 +0000

Around and About is gearing up for an upcoming storyteller project. Do you have a story to tell? Or a knack for storytelling in general? We're searching for those interesting and authentic stories from people in our region.

What's a story? It has a beginning, middle, and end (not necessarily in that order). It has character, plot, tension, and climax. If you have a nonfiction story with these components, we want to put it on the radio.

‘She Who’: Dorothy Allison On Writing, Teaching & Her Next Novel

Michael Edward Miller — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:52:49 +0000

In this interview, celebrated Southern author Dorothy Allison looks back on her novel Bastard Out Of Carolina, which was published more than twenty years ago (and was nominated for a National Book Award). Readers discover (or re-discover) it every year--it’s both wildly humorous and shockingly brutal. In this interview, Allison talks about using her own family legends as source material. Allison also talks about leaving the South, teaching young writers, and discusses her long-in-progress new novel She Who.

Maurice Manning’s Poetry Explores Changing Southern Landscapes

Michael Edward Miller — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:22:55 +0000

Kentucky native Maurice Manning is in Chattanooga for the Celebration of Southern Literature (April 17 – 20), where he was inducted into the prestigious Fellowship of Southern Authors. In this segment, Manning reads a selection from his new yet-to-be published book, talks about working Southern characters and narratives into his poems, and explains why he never met another living poet until he was in college.

A Conversation With Playwright Katori Hall

Michael Edward Miller — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:42:11 +0000

Memphis native Katori Hall is an actress, writer and playwright. She's won numerous awards, and her play The Mountaintop ran on Broadway, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett. Katori Hall is in Chattanooga for the Celebration of Southern Literature, which takes place April 17th, 18th and 19th. In this interview, Hall discusses how The Mountaintop humanizes Martin Luther King, Jr., how she joined the Fellowship of Southern Writers, and what she'll be doing at the Celebration.