There are rows of Dell laptops for browsing the Web and updating Facebook profiles, stacks of the latest Japanese manga and a big-screen TV equipped with a trio of video game consoles and dozens of titles.

According to the Chinese zodiac, 2012 was the Year of the Dragon, but after a slew of high-profile digital incursions in the last 12 months, a more apt title might be Year of the Hacker.

For generations, the Chattanooga area has been a hotbed for old-time string bands, but back in the 1930s, the city was the genre's equivalent of Motown or Nashville.

If you really want to see The Infamous Stringdusters shine, catch them after they've had a few days to fly-fish, hike or ski.

The longer you listen to music and the more widely you explore its many corners, the more you realize the form is so vast that coming up with categories to describe it is almost an art unto itself.

Even "Sesame Street" had to start somewhere.

Usually, unveiling a new generation of video game consoles is cause for celebration among gamers, who get a glimpse at the hardware that will drive evolution in the medium for years.

To the bands who enter the McKay's Road to Nightfall battle of the bands, the $1,000 prize and chance to headline the summer concert series is a pretty appealing carrot to chase.

When I was younger, my family rented a house on Pawleys Island, S.C., almost every summer, and with the exception of a few bad sunburns, I have nothing but fond memories of our visits.

A lifelong dog owner, Sandra Weigle decided about 20 years ago that she wanted to show dogs and began looking for a breed that appealed to her.

Since her birth, Veta Harris has spent about half her life in a hospital.

Growing up, Eddie Piper wasn't an avid actor. He took part in the occasional high school play, but theater was something he thought he left behind after graduation.

To many people, simply thinking about trudging up multiple flights of steps is enough to make them break out in a sweat and look for the nearest elevator.

Like the unstoppable momentum of the locomotives he so frequently wrote about, Johnny Cash's musical legacy stretches across the decades like a never-ending string of train cars.

Given that I saw snow flurries last Saturday, spring may seem a long way off, but the prelude to the Nightfall weekly concert series is right around the corner.

This morning, Track 29 announced that it will host Grammy Award-winning alt-rock/dream-pop legends The Flaming Lips on May 4. Tickets, which will cost $40 each, will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

There's something about the interactivity and just plain coolness of smartphones and tablets that draws children to the devices like zombies to a plate of fresh brains.

All Valerie Duke wants is a guy who will treat her right and hasn’t completely abandoned chivalry.

As the decade that marked the heyday of grunge rock and the emergence of emo, it might be hard to see the romance in '90s music. As a local tribute collective hopes to point out Saturday, Feb. 16, however, being in love, esp

While wandering exhibits in the Tennessee Aquarium, animals sometimes engage in, um, compromising activities, but generally speaking, the facility's staff isn't at liberty to explain what's going on.

Today is Feb. 14, so you know what that means. That's right, today marks the release of "A Good Day To Die Hard," the fifth entry in the series that launched Bruce Willis' career as an action superstar.

To its critics, running is the blandest kind of exercise, a monotonous plod from one location to another or, even more damningly, in place on a treadmill.

Thanks to the explosion of social media services and ubiquitous smartphone ownership, the global village is more crowded and communicative than ever.

For his high school graduation, Zachary Klingenberg received a gift he had been dreaming of since kindergarten.

After a recent epiphany, I can come to only one conclusion about myself, and it's a doozy: I'm a dirty, rotten hypocrite.

When people see Mike Bradshaw's 3-D printer in action for the first time, there's usually a rush of in-drawn breath followed by an astonished silence.

I'm calling this one right now: If I ever get married, I probably never will be victim to the stereotypical husband pitfall of forgetting my anniversary.

Talking to The Black Cadillacs' John Phillips, it's easy to get a sense of the band's blue-collar work ethic.

Despite being one of the most prominent performers of flamenco rumba guitar music in the world, Jesse Cook spends a surprising amount of time defining the style to others.

Since the dawn of video games, the point almost always has been to stay alive. However, with his upcoming title, "End of Line," local game developer Shaun Inman is turning convention on its head.

Reaching into a wooden birdhouse in the 30-foot, latticework-enclosed aviary behind her Signal Mountain home, Alix Parks jerks her hand back, narrowly avoiding a nip from Al, a screech owl huddled inside.

Wires. Like an infestation of rubber-skinned snakes, they're everywhere in the modern home, from the no man's land behind the entertainment center to the tangled mess under the computer.

Hi. My name is Casey, and I'm addicted to headphones.

When it comes to sickness being passed around the office, the offending party may be in a pocket, not a neighboring cubicle.

What would a game of basketball be like if the teams were intentionally lopsided? How about if two balls were used instead of just one? What if i

Since November 2011, Black Jacket Symphony has taken Chattanoogans to the dark side of the moon, escorted them up the stairway to heaven, introduced them to Sgt. Pepper and checked them into Hotel California.

If you're not one to obsess over new technologies, you may not realize companies gave a sneak peek of the future during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week.

From HAL and Skynet to the Borg and GLaDOS, science fiction long has predicted that mankind and machines will develop a tempestuous relationship in the future.

As they move into 2013, local indie rockers Behold the Brave are keeping their eyes forward but their ears trained on the past.

If those in the audience at a Cherub show ever question how demanding the music is, they need look no further than the sweat on Jordan Kelley's and Jason Huber's brows.

Halfway through watching "Les Miserables" last Saturday, I couldn't decide what bothered me more: Russell Crowe's flat delivery or my fruitless quest to make sitting in the front row feel less like visiting a sadistic masseuse.

Tara Harris doesn't like your family — at least not the stick-figure version of them affixed to the back of your van.

When Miss Tennessee 1997 Lanna Keck visited a second-grade class in Tullahoma, Tenn., and placed her crown on Chandler Lawson's head, she did more than make a little girl's day. She inspired a dream.

If Afro were a holiday instead of a band, it would probably involve a combination of Yule logs, a dreidel, feats of strength and sparklers.

Welcome to the winter lull, folks.

Keyboards? Mice? Disc drives? It may be time to pull the plugs, experts say.

The only time that Mark Swafford powers up his desktop PC is when he wants to play games.

With the wrapping paper freshly removed from the holiday season's biggest releases, many gamers are probably hoping for a lull in the new year so they can dive into their recent acquisitions.

If you've wondered if your social media posting will ever amount to more than shouting into the digital ether, there's no better time to put it to use than as the year comes to a close.

In the seemingly never-ending train of music released by folk-rock legend Neil Young, Mike McDade hopped on in the early days, just behind the locomotive.