BARRY COURTER: Lisa, it’s a cruel coincidence that this particular holiday is called Labor Day. I plan to be knee deep in a bathroom project that has disrupted the entire household. ‘Cause, you know, nothing is more relaxing than a holiday or vacation spent on a ladder, tearing out walls and breathing 100-year-old funk.
LISA DENTON: As a rule, 100-year-old funk is only acceptable if it’s coming from Here Come the Mummies – and then you’d be hearing it, not breathing it. But the band won’t be back in Chattanooga until late October, so this funk can’t be good funk. Sounds like the kind of project that makes you glad you can leave it and come back to work the next day.
Lisa Denton and Barry Courter
BARRY: Yeah, I need the rest.
LISA: You need to be down off your ladder by the weekend anyway because there’s a lot going on. Reflection Riding and Crabtree Farms are having big plant sales. Chattanooga Theatre Centre opens its new season with “Fiddler on the Roof.” Two dozen local galleries and artist studios are doing Gallery Hop. Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum is having Railfest. And there are polo matches at Bendabout Farm.
BARRY: Did I ever tell you about the last time I rode a horse? Poor thing volunteered for plow duty after carrying me around all day.
LISA: The last time I rode a horse, the Walmart people came out and unplugged it.
BARRY: This year’s Gallery Hop has expanded to include not only pop-up galleries and events but also areas of town beyond the Southside and North Shore districts.
The businesses inside the Arts Building on 11th Street – SoundCorps, Southern Lit Alliance and ArtsBuild – are working together on a pop-up gallery, as is Jazzanooga on Martin Luther King Boulevard. Marian Heintz Pottery Studio & Gallery on Brainerd Road also is involved. The whole idea is to show off all the cool art being done all over town.
LISA: Oh, and the Tennessee Tow Show is going on this week. It starts Tuesday, but most of the big events – an exhibition, beauty contest and parade – are Saturday. Yes, it’s a beauty contest for tow trucks. This year is the 100th anniversary of the first tow truck, which was invented in Chattanooga in 1916 by Ernest Holmes Sr.
BARRY: I think you missed the news item in the Tow Show. The event is also all about inducting the Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame Class of 2016. People from Canada, England, North Carolina, New Jersey, Texas, Oregon and Wisconsin are going in.
Today also marks the start of the reopening of the Regal Hamilton Place 8 movie theater. They’ve added recliners. Now if they’ll show golf, I could get a great nap.
Get event details every Thursday in Chattanooga Now or online anytime at www.ChattanoogaNow.com.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354. Contact Lisa Denton at ldenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6281.