I Think I got It Right This Time

At times, like these, I imagine an escape.
Escape, grab your hand, and fly.
Fly, not fall, soft into the present.

For at present moment I am in bliss.
Bliss as a well-kept house cat.
'Tis true, I await your return.
To purr and nestle against your side--
Patiently, 'tis true, I await your return.
To undulate under your firm pet.

Perhaps I am your canary?
Happily I'll wait in my cage
Till you lift my cover sheet and I can sing in praise
Of thee--

Let's fly to the present.
Yes, be here in the present.
Presently for me, ne'er would I believe, at present, I could wax whimsical words about you--
All the while, all the better.

I know why the caged bird sings.
I know why some burn effigies.
Because all this Damn distance is oh-so real.

End Notes

And now we resort to name-calling.
And how I've turned from brat to bitch—
And how you've turned from daddy to ditched—
I suppose I've finally grown up.

Private Message

Tell me all in a single kiss.
Do you love me?
Do you need me?
Do you lust me?
Do you see me?
Tell me all in a single kiss, or forever hold your peace.

Viscera

What do you look like inside yourself?
Where are the scars you bare?
What are the things you try to hide?
When you look inside, do you cry?
What do you look like inside yourself?
What is it that you fear?
What do you look like inside yourself?
I think you know your fears.
--
Bare yourself, bare your soul--
Naked, exposed to the unknown.
Look at yourself from the inside, baby--
Look to see who cares.
--
I want to see inside of you,
Feel inside of me.
I want to feel inside of you,
Learn what makes you real.
--
The sight of you, inside of me
What makes you real?
What makes me feel?

Believe It or Not, But Nashville IS Vegetarian Friendly

            The days of restaurants serving a baked potato and steamed veggies to vegetarians are over in Nashville, and local restaurateurs are keeping up with vegetarians’ demand for more meatless choices.

The Wild Hare's "Girl" Salad

            Although Nashville has too many barbecue pits and chop houses to shake a stick at, many local restaurant owners are savvy to the fact that non meat-eaters want more variety in their dining options. Nashville even has two—Woodlands Indian Cuisine and the Wild Cow— 100 percent vegetarian restaurants. Even though Nashville’s a far cry from the South’s vegetarian Meccas like Asheville or Atlanta, local restaurateurs are wising up to it.

            As a vegetarian, I’ve come to be a discriminating diner—the type that does research on a restaurant before going to eat there. I don’t like sitting down, looking at a menu and having to leave because there’s nothing for me to eat. But, local restaurants like Jamaica Way, the Wild Hare, Sloco, Tayst, mÄmbu, the Wild Cow, Porta Via, Gojo Ethiopian Cafe, PM, Rosepepper Cantina, Woodlands or Anatolia are ready and able to accommodate me, my vegetarian fiancé, my vegetarian mother and my vegetarian friends.

            Chef Jeremy Barlow, owner of Tayst and Sloco, said he has embraced the growing demand for vegetarian cuisine in Nashville.

            “[We] saw the increased need and desire for vegetarian and vegan food at Tayst over the last eight years, and we just kind of embraced it,” Barlow said. “You can make some awesome vegan food. We always kind of prided ourselves on the fact that we knew that vegetarians could come in and eat just as well as everybody else.”

            According to Barlow, who has lived in Nashville since 1997, Tayst offers a variety of vegetarian options: The menu offers at least one vegetarian item for each dinning course, chefs will prepare special orders and they offer  3, 5 and 7-course vegetarian tastings.

            Barlow’s a meat-eater, but his wife is vegan, so he has a heightened awareness of the need for vegetarian—and vegan—friendly fare.

            Barlow took what he has learned from Tayst and applied it to his latest culinary endeavor: Sloco, a lunchtime sandwich shop with meat and meatless options like the shaved seitan or the vegan meatball sub.

            “It’s hitting a good segment of the population that doesn’t always have a great amount of options,” Barlow said. “To eat vegetarian every once in a while is good for your body, it’s good for your health, it’s good for the environment; it’s good all around.”

            Barlow’s sentiments are shared. Elizabeth Bills, who opened the Wild Hare with her husband, Brian Bills, this summer, said they quickly realized that they need to have more vegetarian items on their menu.

            “Questions about vegetarian and even vegan menu items are the most requests we get,”. Elizabeth said. “It became pretty clear—quickly—that that’s what people wanted, and we try to really tailor the restaurant not just to what we want and think people want, but what they tell us they want.”

            The Bills are Nashville natives. Before opening the Wild Hare, Brian formerly owned the original Blue Moon Café, and Elizabeth was a math teacher.

            “There definitely seems to be a strong presence of people who are pretty vocal about it,” Elizabeth said. “The main place I see it is in communication with people online.”

            Elizabeth said there are a number of vegetarians on staff at the Wild Hare who help create vegetarian menu items, like line cook Jennifer “Girl” Sanchez’s “Girl” salad. It features deep-fried avocado, quinoa, goat cheese, capers, aparagus, grilled carrots, garlic and a citrus vinaigrette. It’s not on the menu yet, but guests can request it.

            Jamaica Way’s Kamal Kalokoh, manager of his family’s Jamaican eatery in the Nashville Farmer’s Market, said that majority of the restaurant’s sales is its vegetarian items.

            “That’s the bulk of our business,” Kalokoh said. “It’s like more than 50 percent of our sales.”

Jamaica Way's BBQ Soy

            Kalokoh, who has lived in Nashville for 10 years, comes from a Seventh-day Adventist background, which influenced their decision to have vegetarian counterparts, like curry tofu or jerk gluten, of traditional Jamaican dishes.

            For Kalokoh, the spreading awareness of vegetarian food’s health benefits—and satisfying flavors—is a part of what’s moving Nashville in a more vegetarian-friendly direction.

            “The reason why our sales are so high in vegetarian [meals] is because of people who are not vegetarian,” Kalokoh said. “They taste it, and they enjoy it. They feel like they can eat this meal and enjoy it.”

            In addition to restaurants where omnivores and herbivores can dine in harmony, Nashville also has two vegetarian restaurants. The benefit for us vegetarians is that we don’t have to worry about meat accidentally finding its way in our food.

            Wild Cow owners Melanie and John Cochran vegan. When they opened the restaurant two years ago, they decided to make the Wild Cow’s menu “by default” vegan, with the exception of the gluten-free bread and an option to add dairy cheese to a meal.

            “That’s the reason we opened it, because we really didn’t have anywhere to eat,” Mrs. Cochran said. “It was more of a selfish motivation than anything else. [Nashville is] pretty vegetarian friendly, but [being] vegan, it’s pretty difficult”

            Melanie has lived in Nashville since 1995. She said that when she and her husband were still vegetarians—that is, still eating food made with either eggs, dairy or both—there were plenty of dining option available to them in Nashville, however, being vegan is still a challenge.

            “My husband and I were vegetarians for a long time, and we had plenty of places to eat,” Mrs. Cochran said. “But once we made the steps to become vegan, there was nothing. But, I think [Nashville] has gotten better as far as vegetarians, definitely.”

            The Wild Cow’s menu includes appetizers, salads, sandwiches like the Wild Reuben and entrée items like Quinoa Tacos.

            Other Nashville restaurateurs like Barlow and Bills are aware of vegan diners’ stricter dietary habits than egg-and/or-cheese-eating vegetarians. According to Bills, the Wild Hare is trying to come up with not only more vegetarian meals, but more vegan meals, too.

            “We want to come up with more options, including at least one vegan thing,” Mrs. Bills said. “It’s the most restrictive [diet]… so it’s trickier. But, we’re up to it.

            As Nashville continues to grow in vegetarian awareness, perhaps vegan awareness will come along with this naturally.

            Overall, Nashville’s vegetarians can dine out with ease and variety—from ethnic cuisines like Ethiopian, Indian, Jamaican or Turkish, to fine dining, to casual American fare—knowing that local restaurateurs are paying attention to our dietary needs in creative palette-pleasing ways.

"O" for Occupy! Meet Nashville's 99 Percent

                The 99 percent hit the streets Oct. 6 in solidarity with Occupy Nashville , and they’re mad at corporations, politicians, the Federal Reserve, Supreme Court decisions, and anything else frustrating working-class Americans.

                The all-day demonstration started at noon in downtown Nashville’s Legislative Plaza and ended uptown in front of Centennial Park around 6:00 p.m. Official numbers aren’t available yet, but participants and on-lookers estimated about 200 people in the ranks of protesters.

                 Occupy Nashville, like many other “Occupy” protests springing up in cities all over the country, has taken its cue from the original Manhattan  sit-in protest, Occupy Wall Street, which is now in its third week.

           “We’re opposing Wall Street,” said Jase Short, a senior of philosophy at Middle Tennessee State University. “We’re opposing this regime… where people are in crisis and they get no support from the government… but the very very wealthy and the very powerful banks get bail-out after bail-out of our money. They get all kinds of support and then we’re left with nothing.”

                The fact that the these protesters—or the “99ers,” as rally-criers called themselves—are mad at the “1 percent” of Americans who control majority of the wealth in this country is obvious. What’s not as obvious is what the mission or the goals of the Occupy movement is. Local protesters all had their individual bones to pick, and Occupy Nashville organizers are trying to achieving commonality through the founding of the Nashville General Assembly.

                “[A general Assembly] is what democracy really should look like, where every single person votes,” said Seth Limbaugh, 21, a Art Institute graduate and Occupy Nashville organizer. “Its… a way to discuss ideas, organize [Occupy Nashville] and be sure everyone has an equal share and an equal say in what’s going on. There is no one collective leader.”

                According to Limbaugh, Nashville’s General Assembly is working on a list of demands that correlate to Occupy Wall Street and the rest of the national Occupy movements. Yet despite the need for a singular and collective message, individual ideologies between fellow protesters and organizers are vastly different.

                One  Occupy Nashville organizer, Andy Woloszyn, 23, a senior of English and Philosophy at MTSU and a self-proclaimed democratic socialist, believes that the real problem is capitalism.

            “What I really came out here to support is in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street,” Woloszyn said, “which is basically an anti-capitalist movement.”

 

         Protesters varied in age from small children holding signs with their parents to senior citizens. One protester proudly proclaimed that at 79 years old it was her first time protesting. Protester Janice Dorris, 62, said she thinks people are tired of what’s going on in the federal and state governments. Dorris is unemployed and lost her home because of it.

                “I was evicted from my home when I became unemployed,” Dorris said, “I’m living on my sister’s couch until I can get into a retirement center.”

                One protester, George Menzies, a senior of computer information systems at MTSU, said he thinks people across party lines are sick of being “beat out of their money” by corporations and D.C.

                “There are a whole bunch of Americans… who are just fed up with the system,” Menzies said.

                Even with the somewhat disjointed message from constituents, organizers say this trial-by-fire is what’s going to develop a cohesive demand.  Keith Caldwell, 44, an Occupy Nashville organizer and a community organizer for Urban Epicenter said the lack of focus this early in the movement is to be expected, but that as goals develop they need to push for new legislation.

                “People are reaching a level of frustration that we’re going into the streets non-violently and exercising our Constitutional rights to have a voice,” Caldwell said. “We see this as people becoming submerged in a [social movement], and what it means to the human spirit to stand up to the corporation and to withdraw consent from oppressive structures.”

 

 

 

 

 

Music Video, You Say? The Grayces' "Just Another Thing"

    The Grayces are a Nashville 3-piece that are fighting for the life and love of Rock 'n' Roll. This is their latest video for the song "Just Another Thing." 

    The song itself is a fun and bouncy post-punk number with squeaky vocals from Iz Stone - so squeaky and bouncy you just want to poke, squeeze and tickle her, and then feed her bon-bons. Stone's voice kind of reminds me of Nikko from Velvet Underground, but - to be honest - better.

    On top of being the vocal vixen of the trio, Stone also holds down a sleazy and slinky guitar riff that keeps the song punk-rocking. Patrick Ward's bass line is punchy and to the point, and it has that "My Sharona" bounce to it. Pair Ward's driving bass with Gaelen Mitchells's fist-pumping drums and you have one solid song. 

    Midway through the tune, Stone pulls out a simple but effective guitar hook that's drizzled with what sounds like a backwards tape effect (maybe just a wah-pedal though?) while a fun little bridge sings "I'm on the tele/ Peeping through the P-hole." The end of the song finishes up with a great sing-a-long chant of "It's just a O-O-O/ Another thing/ It's just a O-O-O-O-O,o-O"

    The song clocks in at a few seconds shy of three minutes, so you don't need to concentrate on anything - just straight-forward, get-your-rocks-off rock 'n' roll. That being said, click on the video below and enjoy the music video!

Rock Camp benefit shows are so cool! Where were YOU last night? (Part 1)

   So April 8 was "Night of the Living Cover Band" at the 5 Spot and it was one of the best cover shows I've been to in a while. But what made it even better? It was a benefit show for YEAH's Tennessee Teens Rock'n'Roll Camp! Nothing like throwing down on a bad-ass benefit to help show kids the art of Rock-n-fucking-roll! A YEAH assemblage of some of their volunteer musicians made up the band Team Awesome who covered Blondie, A Secret Policemans Ball kicked out some Hall & Oates, Hanzelle torn it up on Outkast, and The Protomen paid some serious homage to Queen.
   More on the way about what YOU missed (if you were there, you know what THEY missed!). I just wanted to brag about a great moment in Nashville-indie-scene-Rock'n'Roll-history I was able to experience!

XOXOXO

Honey Bee