Very sad news. Kenny Edwards, an unsung giant of the California country-rock genre, died Wednesday. I got to meet him in 1996 when he was playing with Bryndle, a band he, Andrew Gold, Wendy Waldman and Karla Bonoff started out of high school. It didn't happen for Bryndle then, but they resurrected the band in 1995, made an album and toured to critical praise.

Check out what Linda Ronstadt had to say about Kenny. A big loss to music fans.

209 markets in this country now broadcast their local news in high definition format. But not one station in Knoxville. Considering that I bought a nice quality HD video camera a year and a half ago, I'd like to know why.

Jazz Time Capsule: Bill Savory's legendary transcriptions of 1930s jazz radio broadcasts have finally gotten into the hands of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. They're cleaning up the sometimes badly deteriorated aluminum and acetate discs. What's neat about this is that these jazz artists couldn't stretch out when recording for a 78 RPM record; they had to fit their performance on one side of the record. On the radio, however, they could play as long as they wanted, for all practical purposes. And because Savory had larger discs and was sometimes recording at 33 RPM, he could fit in these longer performances.

Take a listen to some excerpts, which have been digitally cleaned up by the renowned Doug Pomeroy, who comments, “As fate would have it, a couple of the most interesting Count Basie things are so badly corroded that it took me two afternoons and 47 splices just to put one of them back together again.” Here are more excerpts.

I love stuff like this!

Nazis march in Knoxville, outnumbered by anti-protesters 5 to 1. Two of the nazis were arrested for carrying weapons with intent to go armed. I sure hope the NRA doesn't try to defend these bozos. This photo kind of says it all.

Members of the Coup Clutz Clowns provided an appropriate counter-point to this unsavory event. CCC member Jake Weinstein, by the way, is not related to me.

Uh, keep it in your pants?

Pole-dancing Memphis Councilwoman says she was sober: On a booze cruise? There's a good explanation, though -- she was just trying to "do the Soul Train."

We need more council people like that around here. . . .

Knox County School Superintendent Jim McIntyre makes over $7,300 per week, and my 5th grader doesn't have school books. What's wrong with this picture?

I've been saying for years that canned green beans are bad for you.

1970 musical redux.

CBS's Dennis Dodd on the current state of Tennessee football: "It's one that can be cleaned up in time, but let's be straight about this: Maybe the best thing the Vols' new coach has going for him right now is his surname. Dooley is son of one of the most respected men in the sport. Not being Lane Kiffin is a huge plus too. In Knoxville, those two things will get Vince Dooley's son through a season or two as Tennessee tries to cap its current oil spill."

Dodd is basically on target. It is certainly true that, to UT fans, the BP Gulf oil spill looks like a minor spill on the kitchen floor compared to the mess in the Tennessee football program these days.

For what it's worth -- and I'm a Tennessee fan -- my prediction is the Vols will go a dismal 4-8, with wins over UT-Martin, UAB, Memphis and Vanderbilt. I also anticipate that anything over a 3-9 season will be hailed by the program and the pundits as a successful campaign. That's three wins. Nine losses. And for this team, the athletic department wants a $2,500 mandatory "donation" plus the ticket prices for two decent seats in the stadium. For the math-challenged out there, that's something like $188 per seat, per game. No wonder so many long time fans like me are peeved to the point of apathy with the program. Love the team; hate the program.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Pigeon Forge welcomes the USS Enterprise Association reunion this week.

Social Media Monopoly: Have we gone too far down the Facebook road? "The premise of the game is that social media masters like Mashable founder Pete Cashmore, Digg founder Kevin Rose, Tom from MySpace, Web Nation host Amber MacArthur, and Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington are competing for total control of the social media scene on the board, and must gain capital and power while avoiding fees and jail (which is, perhaps appropriately, MySpace.)"

My Space is Jail? Funny.