The Elusive Knoxville Panda (UH)

And now for something completely different!

For years, there's been a local graffiti artist who has been leaving his tag all throughout town, sometimes in the craziest of places. I have no idea who this graffiti artist is, however, his tag, which is always a stylized "PANDA" (and an "UH" whatever that means) continues to fascinate me: you never know when you're going to see a new one, or where you'll end up finding it, but this is one of the reasons I continue to be fascinated - it's like a great, big, calligraphic Easter egg hunt. And one of the intriguing things about these PANDA tags is that they're a lot like snowflakes: each one is different from the other, which makes looking for and finding them an even bigger treat - the way I see it, the more detailed and elaborate they are, the better!

Anyway, my fascination with PANDA has grown as the years have passed, so I decided to produce this fake, pseudo-nature documentary of the various different PANDA tags we have throughout town:

The End of Boomsday

To explain this to non-locals, Boomsday is a holiday we have in Knoxville that's also something of a tourist attraction as well: every year on the Sunday before Labor Day, we bid a much-needed farewell to summer with a big celebration that consists of several festivities including live music, family activities, and of course the coup de grace: fireworks. Think of it as an encore of the Fourth of July, but in the beginning of September. It's always a fun holiday to experience - providing the weather is cooperative - and because it's a local/regional holiday, that makes it all the more special for us.

However, yesterday, the city announced that 2015 will be the last year for Boomsday. Why is that? Well, Charlie Brown may not like to hear this, but as it turns out, it costs a lot of money to organize Boomsday every year (last year, the fireworks alone cost $250,000) . . . and at the same time, the city loses a lot of money from the holiday as well. There's been a number of different factors at play, ranging from a lack of corporate sponsors due to the recession, to local restaurants and hotels not receiving enough business from out-of-town tourists; in short, because there's no more money to be made off the holiday, the city has decided to end it after this year.

Boomsday holiday artwork c. 2010

Steve has expressed his love of Boomsday before, but after hearing about its demise, he is less than happy about it, as seen in yet another live meltdown while reporting the news:

My apologies for copying Ken Levine, but this is a repost from last year.

Happy Boomsday, Knoxvillians!