The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 70

MUSIC OCAL NEWS News roundup yy Deaths Weather 2B 5B 6B No sponsor, no CountryFest Page 6B 2 I TUESDAY, APRIL 27, 1999 adl Dim sOwSfiira Tim Chavez 1 i 4 1 it? ill il i Street Nic planner tied to after-party But receipts show Street Nic co-organizer Heather Allen paid $5,300 to rent Player's for the night And it was in the Player's office where club owners say Allen tried to calm enraged performers who wanted a refund after they were not allowed a chance to get on stage. At times, groups are willing to pay for the exposure to Nashville crowds, Smith said. Allen could not be reached for comment yesterday. Player's co-owner Chris Hoeppner said he was in the office when Allen tried to tell the men she had no cash to pay them. They became enraged, he said, and later, several broke bottles on the floor, cursing Street Nic organizers I 1irn to PAGE 2B, Column 1 tival, citing concerns over traffic and safety.

Organizers had accused them of racism before the two sides worked out differences. Because of traffic and crowd control problems at last year's Street Nic, police officers' vacation days were canceled this year to beef up patrols. Anticipating problems, police set up command posts Saturday night near Street Nic after-parties, where attendees were encouraged to go after leaving Riverfront Park. Smith has tried to distance Street Nic from the Player's nightclub party, saying the two weren't related. By MONICA WHfTAKER and BETH WARREN Stuff Writers Though a Street Nic organizer said his festival had nothing to do with an Antioch after-parry where seven people were shot early Sunday, paperwork and the club's owners tie festival organizers to the event at the Player's Draft House.

Investigators still are trying to determine who shot into the crowd, said Metro police spokesman Don Aaron, adding that the department "would dispute the assertion that the Player's club event had nothing to do with Street Nic. "The evidence we've seen is to the contrary," Aaron said. Fliers billed the site as "The Offical (sic) Street Nic Afterparty." It was one of several after-parties using the Street Nic name to attract crowds, said festival founder John Smith. Street Nic, an event geared toward African-Americans, was held Saturday at Riverfront Park despite conflict between its organizers and city officials. Police Chief Emmett Turner and Mayor Phil Bredesen refused for weeks to endorse the fes Metro set Kids get their hands on brainpower Commentary Faithful can keep church from falling Sunday morning, another Tennessee congregation sang the familiar hymns of hope to counter the all-too-familiar feelings of despair.

"We are going to try our best this morning to be happy, to be optimistic. It is uncharacteristic of a Christian not to be," preached the Rev. Rosemary Brown to her congregation of about 40 people. They gathered outside the twin red-brick towers of historic Monroe Street United Methodist Church, a reassuring sentinel in Nashville's Germantown neighborhood. Their unusual assembly outside instead of in affirmed that the tornadoes of April 16, 1998, had claimed another victim.

Last Thursday, an engineer determined that structural damage delivered by the tornado to the church accelerated the decline of the beam supporting the roof. "We're in danger of collapsing," Brown said. "The walls have been pushed away from the church." That makes this building built in 1906 uninhabitable. It could take at least $100,000 to repair the building with columns sup- porting both ends of the beam. For this small congregation of to free public TV Taxpayers, WDCN fans should reap the benefits By JOHN SHIFTMAN and PAUL PONSKY Stuff Writers After decades of government control, Cookie Monster, Mister Rogers and their other public television friends expect to receive their freedom tonight The Metro school board, which has owned and operated Nashville's pub 1 l.

I f. i Jl 'SI s. I lic television station since 1962, will vote tonight on transferring it to a nonprofit community corporation. Though the vote may be a mere formality school and TV -opr. 1 'Gross' lesson teaches, delights blind children By CARRIE FERGUSON Staff Writer Johnny McCloud held a real brain in his hands yesterday, the mysterious mass of matter and nerves that controls the functions of our bodies.

He was not completely impressed by this complex and baffling organ. "It was nasty," McCloud said, wrinkling his nose. "It stunk real bad." McCloud was one of seven children from the Tennessee School for the Blind who visited Vanderbilt University to get a lesson on the role the brain serves in vision. To help the students better understand, each one was assigned a cadaver's brain. The children, who are legally blind, traced their gloved fingers along nerves, felt the lobes and poked the depth of the tissue.

They heard the words cerebral cortex, optic nerve, temporal lobe, cranial nerve and found the corresponding sites. "Vision is a very active process," said Dr. Jeff Schall, director of the Vision Research Center, as he pointed out all the parts of the brain that help people perceive the world. As he directed the children to feel the frontal lobe of the brain, he told them it is the thinking, planning and behavior portion of the brain. "If your parents want you to stop doing something, they want your frontal lobe to take over," Schall said.

The children offered words of their own to describe the frontal lobe: Gooey, yuck, gross. "Seeing where the eye was connected was kind of gross," said 12-year-old Bryan Gilley. The program was coordinated by Vanderbilt's Center for Molecular Neuroscience as part of its education outreach. "We took them through a tactile tour of vision," said assistant director Marcie Pospichal. "There are so many dramatic structures in the brain you can feel, without cutting into the brain." The lesson yesterday was a con- BASS officials met last week to hammer out final details the move represents a watershed for both taxpayers and fans of public television.

r'tSvv The new president of the TV station says independence will allow it to produce better programming. School board members say it save them more than $2 million each year, plus another $5 million to cor vert to digital. "It's public TV, not educational TV. I think it'll do better apart from us," school board member George Blue said. "Coming up with $5 million to go digital we're scratching for every penny this year.

If they can raise it privately, more power to them." WDCN president Steve Bass has said the transfer will allow WDCN to create new locally based programs that tap into the city's cultural institutions, including music. "The vote means we will be able to go off and pursue a new future for public television in Nashville, to grow and to develop, versus a status quo situation," Bass said yesterday. Eventually, the deal will save taxpayers money. The school board will reduce its annual payments to WDCN over five years, from the current $2.3 million to $1 million in 2003, the last year Metro will help fund WDCN. Metro also will not have to fund WDCN's federally mandated conversion to the digital TV format which will cost the station another $4.8 mil-lioa Turn to PAGE 2B, Column 3 meager means, that cost may well make the church unsavable.

In a flip-flop of faith, members realize that to save God's house, it's going to take a miracle of human hands reaching into wallets. And in this age of school shootings and family breakdown, we as a community need to build more churches -and places of worship not close them down. The Nashville District for the Methodist Church does not provide money to save historic buildings. "Churches have to maintain their own structures," said Garie Taylor, district superintendent. "I don't think they've faced that yet, whether they will have to move on." It's not in this church's heritage to cut and run.

When this area shifted to mostly black residents about a half century ago, all but two churches closed their doors and moved, said the Rev. R. Clay Hall of the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Church. Today, Assumption Catholic Church and Monroe Street Methodist stand guard on opposite corners of Seventh and Monroe streets. The Methodist church helped put on the Oktoberfest celebration, participated in the "Room in the Inn" program to house the homeless, ran the "Golden Agers" program to feed 50 predominantly older neighborhood residents and put on summer Bible school for children from the nearby Cheatham Place project For now, that's over.

Sunday morning, the congregation walked across the street to a restored home owned by Nancy Hardaway, a church member. Before entering the home for worship, the six-member choir sang The Church's One Foundation. Inside, the Rev. Brown, with arms waving, led a rousing version of the hymn refrained by the words, "I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together." Yes, people make up a church. But a structure gives roots.

"We have baptized our babies, been married and mourned our dead in this building," Hardaway said. Added John Connley, historian for Nashville-Davidson County: "It's frustrating. I spend my time trying to save other buildings and now I'm afraid that we may be losing this very special one, my church." As a society we cannot afford to lose one church, one place in our neighborhoods that signifies "If God is for us, who can be against?" Make a statement of faith in this age of uncertainty. Call the Rev Brown at 383-2686. LISA NIPP STAFF Jeremy Wortham, 12, giggles as he touches a brain during Vanderbilt University's Neuroscience Outreach program.

Jeremy was one of seven sixth-graders from the School for the Blind to get hands-on experience with a brain. The lesson was aimed at teaching the children more about vision. wonder what we're going to do next. SARA BROOKS, School for the Blind student tinuation of a previous lesson on vision the students dissected a calfs eye at school. "I wonder what we're going to do next," Sara Brooks said, laughing.

Black minister looks forward to leading mostly white church zzzn trict superintendent for the Murfreesboro area. His wife is Rose Hayden King. If his appointment makes anyone nervous, King said, he has faith in the Dowerof spiritual rela- America, which still faces stark racial segregation at the weekly worship hour. "Having a pastor of a different ethnicity stretches a congregation to break down stereotypes and realize God's gifts are not limited to any one group," Carder said. Nevertheless, Carder said King's name emerged for the Brentwood position not for cross-racial purposes but because his experience made him the person for the job.

Carder appoints after consulting with leaders of a church. King, 51, an Alabama native, was minister at Clark Memorial United Methodist Church here for 10 years and has held various positions in the Tennessee Conference, most recently dis- By RAY WADDLE Religion Editor Members at one of the biggest, richest churches in Methodism got the news in black and white on Sunday morning. Brentwood United Methodist Church will have a new minister The Rev. James King will be the overwhelmingly white church's first black pastor. "I've sought to please God in every appointment I've had, and I hope to build on Brentwood's vision of making disciples for Jesus Christ," King said yesterday.

The Brentwood church, with more than 5,000 members, is the largest in the Tennessee Conference. The hiring was made by Bishop Kenneth Carder, who annually reappoints leaders, or chooses new ones, for the 624 United Methodist churches in the Midstate area. "Cross-racial" appointments are fairly common in United Methodism, a reflection of the church body's official commitment to ethnic diversity at the bureaucratic level and in local churches. King's appointment makes Brentwood one of the biggest Methodist churches in the nation to have an African-American leader. Officials said they look forward to a day when such hirings are no longer news in religious L4.

tionships with people to I improve relations. "If wf find Jesus Christ KING and Christ alone, in every situation, then barriers will come down," he said. "We have to be patient with those who are coming into that relation at a slower pace." Bradley helped NashvCJe sound soar Recording industry pioneer Owen Bradley (1915-1998) built Nashville's Music Row, producing the records of more Country Music Hall of Famers than anyone in history, six in all. His production of Patsy Cline's hits helped invent the Nashville Sound. Bradley led the session that revolutionized female country music Kitty Wells' 1 952 hit It Wasnl God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.

He produced all of Loretta Lynn's hits and took a chance on rocker Conway Twitty, leading to a hit-packed 25-year career. Sourer TmnmwH irehlm. NightWeekend Editors: Dwight Lewis, 726-5928 George Zepp, 259-8091 To reach our newsroom: E-mail: newstipstennessean.com City Edttor Gail Kerr, 259-8085 Regional Editors: Frank Gibson, 726-5907 Laird MacGregor, 259-8095 Ellen MargUies, 726-5977 Robert Srerbome, 259-8080 Mike Sherman, 259-8899 Margaret Sizemore, 726-5941 Wendi C. Thomas, 664-2194 Teen board plans post-prom party The Hendersonville Mayor's Teen Board is sponsoring After Prom Breakfasts, 1-3 am, following Friday's prom for Hendersonville High and the May 15 prom for Beech High School, with a DJ and dancing starting at midnight Tickets are $10. Call 822-1000.

Hear all about it at newspaper talk Maury County historian Bob Duncan will speak on "Politics as Usual: The Partisan Newspapers of Maury County," a discussion on the power of the press in the mid-1800s. The free talk begins at 7 p.m. today at St Peter's Episcopal Church, 311 W. 7th St, Columbia. www.tennessean.com 1 1 i.