City Lights
Friday, December 2, 2011
City Lights Help Oasis Center Make Christmas a Little Merrier for Struggling Nashvillians
Posted by Jack Silverman on Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 8:16 AM
It's no secret that we are big fans of the Oasis Center, which offers a variety of different programs "to help young people overcome serious challenges that prevent them from transitioning into a healthy adulthood." In fact, we like it so much that we selected Oasis Center co-founders Hal Cato and Roger Dinwiddie as our 2009 Nashvillians of the Year.
The Oasis Center is currently running its "Adopt-a-Family" campaign to help put groceries, clothes and gifts on the tables of struggling Nashvillians this holiday season. There are a few ways that you can help:
• You can simply go to the Oasis Center's website and click the DONATE NOW link. In the "Comments" section, simply type "Adopt-a-Family" and make your donation;
• Write a check — or buy gift cards to Kroger, Walmart or Target — and mail or deliver them to:
Attn: Andrew Suitter/Adopt-a-Family
1704 Charlotte Ave Suite 200
Nashville, Tennessee 37203
• If you'd like to be matched with a family or individual at Oasis Center's residential program, and to shop for gifts for them, contact Andrew at (615) 327-4455 or asuitter@oasiscenter.org.
Donate! You'll be glad you did.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
City Lights Hope for the Riverfront! MDHA Selects Local Development Team for Bridge Building
Posted by Jack Silverman on Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 2:08 PM
Well, my dream isn't exactly coming true, but this looks like a sign of life for riverfront development. The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency has picked a local development team lead by Baron+Dowdle Construction, LLC to develop the renovated Bridge Building, on the east bank of the Cumberland adjacent to the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge. The plans for the former NABRICO (Nashville Bridge Co.) building include restaurants and event spaces.
This could be a major step toward Nashville having the thriving riverfront I've always imagined it could. (And I know I'm not alone in that wish.) Fingers crossed ...
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
City Lights Help Oasis Center Make Christmas a Little Merrier for Struggling Nashville Families
Posted by Jack Silverman on Tue, Dec 14, 2010 at 10:27 AM
The Oasis Center is currently running an "Adopt a Family" campaign to help put groceries, clothes and gifts on the tables of struggling Nashville families this holiday season. It can be as easy as writing a check or buying a couple of Kroger, Wal-Mart or Target gift cards.
Below is the request from Andrew Suitter, Oasis Center's coordinator of volunteer services. If you'd like to help out, his contact info as at the end:
Friday, November 5, 2010
Film / City Lights Two Chaplin Classics This Weekend at Belcourt
Posted by Jim Ridley on Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 9:16 AM
With almost any other filmmaker, the one-two punch of 1925's The Gold Rush and 1931's City Lights would be impossible to top. But The Belcourt's Charlie Chaplin retrospective is only in its second weekend, and there are still several of the greatest comedies ever made coming up. Bilge Ebiri provides a Chaplin 101 in this week's Scene:
The Chaplin narrative formula was famously simple and effective, and it speaks to part of his talent for connecting with his audience: A down-on-his-luck tramp stumbles into a situation that appears to be well beyond his talents or his station, and chaos (not to mention a healthy dose of pathos) ensues. In The Circus (which kicked off the series on Oct. 30-31), he's mistaken for a thief and winds up inside a circus where he becomes part of the act; in City Lights (which screens Nov. 5-6), he helps out a drunken, suicidal millionaire and winds up becoming the man's partying companion, only to be rebuffed every time the guy sobers up. In The Gold Rush (Nov. 5-7), he's somehow made his way to the Klondike as an inept prospector. Occasionally, the situation is one of the Tramp's own making: In The Kid (Nov. 15-16), he actually plays a con man (albeit a lovable one) who works in tandem with Jackie Coogan's titular tyke.But despite that simplicity of conception, the actor-director's domineering perfectionism was unmatched. It wasn't until after his death that outtake footage emerged showing how Chaplin would painstakingly work his scenes out on film, sometimes doing more than 100 takes to get everything right, driving his cast and crew crazy in the process. That the work didn't "show" may have contributed to his reputation for artlessness; that the work was there, however, certainly had a hand in his mind-bending success.
"Success" doesn't quite do it justice. Charlie Chaplin was not just the most famous entertainer but the most famous person in the world from the 1910s through the 1930s. Through two depressions, at least two cataclysmic wars, and all the ups and downs in between, he was there. Clearly, there was something more going on.
Monday, August 16, 2010
City Lights Tonight on Dateline: The Kelley Cannon Story
Posted by Tracy Moore on Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 3:49 PM
She told police the call came late one night — her husband saying he was terrified of someone or something, and needed help. By the next morning, he was dead. Suddenly she was the one who needed help ... from a lawyer. Keith Morrison has the story of two lives lost in "A Gathering Storm."
Morrison was spotted eating at Arnold's a few weeks ago, and a Scene colleague inquired what the personality was doing in town. "Just a little murrrder story," the boomy baritone replied.
Monday, June 14, 2010
Media / City Lights Behold: NY Mag Writes Up Nashville, We Kinda Like It
Posted by Tracy Moore on Mon, Jun 14, 2010 at 5:07 AM
- Hutton Hotel
- Hutton Hotel
Sure, we've long lamented the kind of boilerplate out-of-town coverage we so often get, which so often begins with the old refrain: Gee whillikers, folks, Nashville's got more than tears and beers, yuk-yuk-yuk, dontcha know? And then proceeds to direct folks to Loveless, the honky tonks and nary a mention of any other strains. And for that non-country music? Bluegrass. Yes, those things are no doubt Nashville and always will be, but every once in a while we like to feel like someone gets the always transitioning part of us — you know, the part trying out new cuisine, fancy cocktails and non-standard tunings.
Things we like about this roundup? It mentions the now LEED-certified and ultra-chic Hutton Hotel for lodging, among others, Germantown's City House for fresh fare and midtown's speakeasy Patterson House for those aforementioned cocktails. And — get this — it actually references an alternative music culture and a few rock clubs. Sure thing — Grimey's must and should be namechecked, but so should Third Man Records, and Exit/In and Mercy Lounge, and they are.
OK, so the "Oddball Day" outing can't really avoid the obvious pitfalls by suggesting Loveless and Natchez Trace instead of something more offbeat for Nashville — like, say, hot chicken, the Roller Derby and a show at the Springwater. We'll still take this inching-closer-to-progressive picture any day.
Friday, May 7, 2010
City Lights Anderson Cooper: He Too Is Nashville
Posted by Jim Ridley on Fri, May 7, 2010 at 9:48 AM
- Coop de 'Ville
Hat tips: Rob Williams (who designed the shirt), Steve Haruch and John Spragens.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
City Lights TED Ahead: Big Kenny Joins 'Nashville's Greatest Thinkers and Doers' at TEDxNashville
Posted by Jim Ridley on Wed, Mar 3, 2010 at 11:10 AM
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
City Lights / Woods Tossing Spare Change at the Homeless
Posted by Jeff Woods on Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 5:39 PM
Sunday, September 27, 2009
City Lights Jeff Obafemi Carr Enters Day Six on the Rooftop
Posted by Jim Ridley on Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 4:22 AM
