Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Obituary RIP Wade Belak
Posted by J.R. Lind on Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 5:48 PM
Recently retired Nashville Predators tough guy Wade Belak was found dead in a Toronto condo this afternoon.
Belak, 35, retired mid-season last year and transitioned smoothly into the Preds radio booth. He was the perfect ambassador for the team, as lovable and friendly off the ice as he was pugilistic on it.
He was a fun-loving guy, always with a smile on his face. He was a father of two. And a volunteer firefighter. And a tattoo enthusiast.
Media Steve Cavendish Named New City Paper Editor
Posted by Jim Ridley on Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 3:46 PM
Steve Cavendish, a newspaper and online media veteran whose local ties include an early stint at the late, lamented Nashville Banner, has been announced as the new editor of The City Paper. From NashvillePost.com:
Cavendish is returning home to Nashville, where he began his career at the Nashville Banner, after stints at the St. Petersburg Times, Washington Post, and most recently, the Chicago Tribune. Cavendish will begin work at The City Paper Sept. 19. He replaces Stephen George, who is now serving as press secretary for Rep. Jim Cooper.“I am excited Steve is coming home to Nashville to take the helm of The City Paper. Steve brings years of experience at some of the best newspapers in the country,” said SouthComm CEO Chris Ferrell. “I am looking forward to working with him to continue to make The City Paper the best source of local news coverage in Nashville.”
A 1993 Belmont University graduate, Cavendish had been at the Tribune since 2004 where he served in various editorial and writing capacities. In addition, he has served as an adjunct instructor at the University of Maryland and a guest lecturer at Stanford University.
“Nashville is home for me. To be able to join a talented staff like The City Paper’s is a thrill,” Cavendish said. “Nashville needs strong newspapers to hold our leaders accountable, to inform our citizens and to help them understand the world around them. And if we need to explain how a Cover Two defense works, we'll do that, too.”
By the Way / Arts and Entertainment Adam Dread's Mystery Client Wants Kim Kardashian Sex Tape
Posted by Ashley Spurgeon on Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 1:16 PM
You may not remember, but noted Armenian Kim Kardashian first became famous by doing sex with Moesha’s li'l brother and showing it to folks on the Internet. Ever the smart cookie, she managed to parlay getting pounded into a multimillion-dollar family empire of banality and whining. Good for her! We should all be so lucky to come from money and then continue to make money for no discernible reason.
But someone out there feels very sorry for Kardashian, and has offered to buy the rights to her sex tape and remove it from the Internet (good luck), thus sparing her any residual shame and regret.
I know what we’re all thinking: cue Adam Dread!
Nashville attorney Adam Dread confirmed to CNN he sent a letter to Vivid Entertainment on Monday asking to start negotiations for the sex tape's sale."Recently, I was approached by a private party who asked us to look into the possibility of acquiring all rights (and copies) of the Vivid 'Kim Kardashian Sex Tape,'" Dread wrote in the letter obtained by CNN.
Dread would not disclose the name of his client to CNN, saying "Unless I'm told otherwise, this is all confidential."
Ooh, a Nashville connection! I have zero evidence that the anonymous party in question is a local, but I’ve already narrowed it down to two (highly improbable) suspects: It’s either John Rich, for obvious and terrible reasons, or Martha Rivers Ingram.
My money’s on Ingram. Coughing up a few mil for a sex tape is chump change for that dynamo, and what is she if not a respected patron of the performing arts? And what is the existence of Kim Kardashian if not an extended performance art piece? Good on you, sisters!
Phillips Spoiler Alert: Nashville on 30 Rock?
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 10:19 AM
Over at Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood site, they've got an interview with the 30 Rock creative team. Deadline Hollywood asks the 30 Rock folks if they think Tracy Morgan's little Nashville incident will cost the TV show any chance at an Emmy, and whether the incident will be fictionalized for the show:
DEADLINE: Do you think that Tracy Morgan’s seemingly anti-gay jokes in his standup routine [“I’ll kill my son if he acts gay”] will hurt the show’s Emmy chances or its reputation in general?
TINA FEY: Because of my real-life pregnancy, we don’t go back on the air until January. I’m hoping that Tracy will have, and the world will have, forgotten about that by then. He from the first has gone around very sincerely and done his best to try to make up for the foolishness.
CARLOCK: He’s horrified and embarrassed. … Certainly if we come home [from the Emmys] empty-handed, I’m not going to blame Tracy.DEADLINE: Will you write the controversy into the show?
FEY: It’s the kind of story that even if it happened to someone else, we would probably turn it into a Tracy story. So we may use it.
I don't know about you guys, but I hope this does pan out. It'd be nice for once to be part of a national joke without being the butt of it.
Media Correcting Gail Kerr's Distortion of Legal History
Posted by Bruce Barry on Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 7:58 AM
Democrats and Republicans can disagree over the merits of Gail Kerr's argument in today's Tennessean about possible dismantling of Nashville's 5th District Congressional seat through redistricting. But we can all agree that Kerr's take on the legal history of voting rights needs factual repair.
Kerr writes:
"A landmark 1962 U.S. Supreme Court case, Baker v. Carr, dictates that congressional districts must have the same number of voters. That’s where the phrase 'one man, one vote' came from."
Factually wrong on both counts.
Arts and Entertainment Pick of the Day: Figure 1: Scientists and Artists Picture the Intangible and Panel Discussion Tomorrow at gallery F.
Posted by Laura Hutson on Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 5:01 AM
Figure 1: Scientists and Artists Picture the Intangible
Where: gallery F. at Scarritt-Bennett Center
When: Panel discussion 7 p.m. tomorrow. Exhibit through Nov. 14
The relationship between science and art is a fascinating subject to broach, and Figure 1 is a great place to begin. Tomorrow, gallery F. will host a talk in conjunction with the exhibit, and will feature the opinions and perspectives of the artists and scientists whose contributions make up the show. The gallery generally hosts artist talks with each of its exhibitions, but since this one's firmly planted at the intersection of art and science, the multidisciplinary aspect of tomorrow's talk will be unique. Moderated by Jeffrey Williams and Adrienne Outlaw — who has been making work that blurs the boundaries between science and art for years — the discussion is free and open to the public. It's a great opportunity to be part of a conversation that has been on a lot of artists' minds since critics first compared painting to alchemy.
Here's the pick:
Although it might seem counterintuitive, art and science have a lot in common. Both seek to illuminate dark places, whether in our universe or in our souls, so that we might know our world, our selves and our relationships to one another with greater clarity, empathy and awareness.Figure 1: Scientists and Artists Picture the Intangible is a new exhibition of work that brings these two communities together in mutual exploration. It features work by Kelly Bonadies, Ryan Hogan, Jaime Raybin, Terry Thacker, James Perrin, Rhendi Greenwell, Laura Stevens, Anita Mahadevan-Jansen, Emily Reinke and Piotr Kaszynski. —Joe Nolan
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Media Mark Silverman Leaving Tennessean
Posted by Jack Silverman on Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 12:52 PM
Mark Silverman, The Tennessean's executive editor, announced in a late morning staff meeting he will be leaving 1100 Broadway for a spot in Gannett's corporate office.Silverman, who joined The Tennessean in 2006, will move to the parent company's Community Publishing Division's corporate news staff in mid-September. It will be Silverman's third stint in the corporate office. He has also served as editor in Detroit, Louisville and Rockford, Ill.
Silverman has been at the helm of The Tennessean in an era marked by unprecedented job cuts at the daily, with more than 150 layoffs since late 2008.
During his tenure, The Tennessean was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting for its flood coverage and Silverman was named the nation's Editor of the Year in 2010 by the National Press Foundation.
Sports Catfish Hunter: The Mayor Was Just Joking About MLB's Rays Coming to Nashville [Updated]
Posted by Steve Haruch on Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 9:51 AM
Yeah, so Mayor Dean was just kicking up a little dirt with his bring-the-Rays-to-Nashville-and-rename-them-the-Catfish comment on 102.5-FM. But ESPN's Buster Olney — Vandy grad and former Sounds beat reporter — still thinks we're "a sleeper for an MLB team." (He said as much to me when I interviewed him about baseball's winter meetings back in 2007.)
The fact that the Preds seem to have finally caught on is certainly a positive indicator, but just because the wind is blowing out doesn't mean you're going yard. It seems to me that most serious baseball fans in Nashville have either grown up following the Braves, inexplicably hitched their wagons to the cavalcade of futility that is the Cubs or brought their team loyalties with them from back home (like me).
So even though (as Olney notes in a later tweet) Nashville "occupies an interesting part of the Southern real estate — a map gap neatly in between Reds, Cards, Braves," I just don't see Nashville as a Major League city. I'd gladly be wrong, though.
UPDATE: J.R. Lind sent along this helpful breakdown of the whole kerfuffle.
Arts and Entertainment Pick of the Day: Call It Anything w/Quiet Entertainer, Get Got and Remsteele at Exit/In
Posted by Sean L. Maloney on Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 7:10 AM
Call It Anything, Quiet Entertainer, Get Got and Remsteele
When: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 30
Where: Exit/In
Sometimes you just need a soundtrack to your life that’s as weird as the universe around you, as nebulous and beautiful as some far-flung galaxy, something as raw and organic as the ground you walk on. Sometimes you need to get away from the stale formalism and constant careerism that defines so much of the music in this town and dive deep into the outer limits of aural possibilities. Sometimes you gotta Call It Anything.
The local psychedelic-dub-jazz ensemble doesn’t get a lot of attention in these parts — who knew that the Country Music Capital of the World wouldn’t have a huge psychedelic-dub-jazz scene? — but we’re fixing to change that. With gorgeous atmospherics, downright burly percussion, and the sort of deep grooves that can catapult you to the other end of the solar system, Call It Anything is blazing a bold new trail for Music City. Quiet Entertainer, Get Got and Remsteele also appear.
Phillips A Public Service Announcement About Snoring
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Tue, Aug 30, 2011 at 5:59 AM
If you don't want to read the thing, it's basically about how some married couples are opting to build a little room off their bedroom where the spouse woken up by the snoring of the other spouse can go to sleep or watch TV or play on the computer in relative peace.
Here's the public service announcement: If your spouse snores so loudly and regularly that you often can't sleep with him or her, if you're reading a story about setting up a separate quasi-bedroom and wishing you could afford to do so, get your spouse checked for sleep apnea.
Loud, persistent snoring? Sometimes they seem to stop breathing? Waking up multiple times in the night? Falling asleep during the day? All signs of sleep apnea. And sleep apnea can kill you — via the whole stop-breathing part or heart attacks.
Sure, maybe you have an insanely rich spouse you'd like to see die of natural causes sooner rather than later. In that case, go ahead and splurge on a "snore room." But if you care about your spouse, don't overlook a very common condition, chalking it up to "just" snoring.
