"Heading west from the Cumberland Gap, to Johnson City, Tennessee"

Heading to East Tennessee State University next week, in Johnson City, on Wednesday, October 6 at 7pm.  That's EASTERN time, Lee.  Last screening in this time zone (at the Secret City Film Festival in Oak Ridge last fall) I didn't account for that, and showed up late for my time zone, let alone theirs.  Barely made the curtain call. 

Want more info?  I'll be soliciting some local press outlets today, but until then, you can check out everything I have at our official site event page here.

I've decided that, to get as much out of this tour as I can, personally, it would be a good experience to research the history of the towns/schools the flick's screening in/at, to better my understanding of the South's history, and to give me something genuinely informative to blog about.  I won't retroactively cover the previous schools (aside from Auburn), so here's the first one Imma gonna do.

East Tennessee State celebrates its Centennial next year, and is home of the Buccaneers.  Johnson City, located in the Northeastern part of the state (yet Southeast from the Cumberland Gap, despite what the trucker says in Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel") and is historically known for its musical roots and its strategic importance as a rail town.  Apparently it was a hotbed for bootlegging during Prohibition, and got the moniker of "Little Chicago" (similar to Alabama's own "Phenix City" in the 1950's).  Not only that, but apparently the city had direct ties to Al Capone's Southern distribution apparatus, and the fiend even was, for a time, a resident.

Another great thing about Johnson City-- they don't trust a Carney.  Apparently the town is known for some rather quirky ordinances, including one that taxes carnivals, circuses, and other traveling gypsy-esque entertainments to deter them from setting up shop in the jurisdiction.  Since this little tour of ours is a post-nuclear, domesticated, part-time, sissified off shoot of that tradition, I'll get a kick outta snubbing the tax when we screen-- unless of course the students at ETSU are forced to implement another strange law that enables local police to impress citizens into temporary deputy service.  Citizens Arrest son!

A scene you won't find in Johnson City

Here's hoping for a fun experience evading a pitch-fork carrying mob outta town while blaring some Flat & Scruggs down I-81.