Despite his resemblance to a Simpsons character, the man plays guitar like a god.

Jimmy Logston and Jen. Both pics from the Knoxville Blues Society’s 10th annual birthday party for the late Sara Jordan.

Here’s some video.

Courtesy of Les Jones. More here and here.

WHILE OTHERS CAMP OUT IN TENTS, the more enterprising youth of America tackle the economic slump creatively. And successfully, to judge from all the cash.

Knoxville, Tennessee, at the downtown Farmer’s Market.

UPDATE: Reader Kenneth Lawton writes: “Saw the young buskers with their case full o’ cash – right out there in the open… While I greatly admire their enterprising – and entertaining – spirit, these kids need to be more careful some other less-enterprising youth doesn’t grab their stash and run. Every busker has this happen. Once.”

Ah, that’s just a compositional issue. My fault. Just outside the frame is a spike, holding the head of the only guy to try that. Don’t mess with this crowd.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Pizza Palace on Magnolia. This place should be familiar both to Knoxville expats and to fans of Guy Fieri.

Knoxville, Tennessee. I dropped by Sam and Andy’s the other day for lunch. It was just as good as always, which was very good.

KNOXVILLE SKYLINE: I went to a reception last night at Club LeConte in the top of the First Tennessee bank building. Here’s the view down the Tennessee river. Note the under-repair Henley Street bridge again.

FOR SAM HUNG AND OTHER HOMESICK KNOXVILLE EXPATS:

This is the under-repair Henley Street bridge — notice the absence of anything above the arches — seen from the deck at Calhoun’s On The River last night.

AT LONG’S DRUG STORE, in Knoxville, Tennessee. Some of my Utah friends may find this particularly amusing.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

THEY TOLD ME IF WE ELECTED BARACK OBAMA. . . .

Actual background here.

UPDATE: Reader Steve Eimers sends this link. He writes: “Were you at the parade today? Unfortunately we didn’t see Congressman Duncan I was hoping to tell him not to raise the debt ceiling. I’m attaching a picture of the parade. Just above the yellow light in the distance you can see a little red dot. That dot is the flag box.”

No, I took that picture a couple of years back. I don’t live in Lenoir City. But if I did, here’s what I would have seen today. Thanks, Steve!

KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE. Market Square.

FOLLOWING UP ON READER SAM HUNG’S REQUEST, another Knoxville picture. This one of the Petro’s food truck.

ANOTHER KNOXVILLE PHOTO, in response to reader Sam Hung’s request. This is from the Farmer’s Market on Market Square.

READER AND KNOXVILLE-EXPAT SAM HUNG wrote the other day asking for more Knoxville pictures, which made me realize that I haven’t posted any in a while. So here are a couple from the Farmer’s Market downtown. This is the Cruze Dairy ice cream truck. The Cruze Dairy folks have a blog, too.

SO LAST NIGHT my brother Brad’s band Copper, which has been on hiatus for a while, put on a new show at the Valarium as they gear up again. My other brother Jonathan came down, and we went — along with my sister Katy — for a family musical reunion. (All pics taken with the Lumix –the old one, not the new one. I took the old one because a rock club is a high-threat environment for cameras. . . .)

A rare appearance by all three Reynolds Brothers at once:

Brad hasn’t lost his rock & roll moves:

And a good time was had by all.

For those unfortunates who weren’t there, here’s a song. It’s one of my favorites, and not just because of the cool bass-solo intro by my brother.

UPDATE: Reader Light Maleski emails: “I just bought their latest album. The kicker was the youtube video you posted. Perhaps you could post their MySpace page which has more music to listen to, after which I went to their website and bought the CD. I’ve been reading you for a decade, but this is the first I’ve bought or even really listened to music from Copper. They have a great sound.” Yes, they do. Here’s the MySpace link.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Market Square. Taken with the shirtpocket Sony.

Durham, North Carolina.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Dead End Barbecue, on Sutherland. Despite the slogan, their prices are quite reasonable.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Taken with the Sony that I just happened to have in my pocket.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Taken with my new pocket Sony. I don’t think it’s quite as good as the Lumix, but it’s less than half the size, which is worth something . . . .

Knoxville, Tennessee.

SOME PICS FROM SARAH PALIN’S SPEECH. I had some idle time backstage, and my Lumix.

UPDATE: Here’s what it looked like backstage, with the PJTV video crew.

A TEA PARTY CONVENTION TEA PARTY PROTEST: This is Antonio Hinton, one of the organizers of the Knoxville Tea Party, one of three folks from the Tennessee Tea Party Coalition who showed up to remind people that there’s more to the Tea Party movement than this convention. The press tried to get him to say something bad about Sarah Palin, but he called her a “breath of fresh air,” instead. It’ll be interesting to see how the story gets played.

UPDATE: More here.

Taken with the Nikon D300, with the 10.5mm fisheye lens. From the Popular Mechanics assignment mentioned below.

UPDATE: Okay, I thought the uncropped version, where you could see my feet at the bottom, gave a cool you-are-there effect, but enough people made fun of me that I’ve posted the cropped one instead.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Brian Biesenkamp writes: “Put the picture back up with your feet in it (or at least include a link). Half of the fun of shooting with a 10.5 is that it is so wide you need to know where your feet are at all times. Aside from that, it would give it more of a Lee Friedlander aesthetic that I already see in many of your shots of reflective surfaces. Don’t cave in to pressure from people who don’t know the difference between a fisheye and a fish’s eye.”

It’s funny you say that, because I do like Lee Friedlander — one of my friends even dated his daughter — and William Eggleston, as well as the father of all such, Walker Evans.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Crown & Goose, in the Old City.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Upstairs at the newly reopened (after nearly 30 years of closure) S&W. And here’s a landmark many old Knoxvillians will recognize.

And the old S&W didn’t have a bar, but the new one has two. Progress!

Plus, a friendly, upbeat staff!

Quincy, Illinois. Taken with the Panasonic Lumix LX-3.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

SO I WOKE UP EARLY to find the Insta-wife already surfing, her face gently lit by the Asus-glow. I snapped a picture — and then went back to sleep.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Getting ready for Sundown In The City.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Another picture of the deflated credit ape. Poor guy; it’s kind of sad.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Gay Street, at lunchtime.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Krutch Park, downtown.

THE CREDIT BUBBLE: Before:

And after:

GRAND CAYMAN, BWI. For when only an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent stylist will do . . . .

GRAND CAYMAN, BWI. The blonde blur in the foreground is a waitress named Fiona from New Zealand; after seven years her Cayman work visa is about to run out (more on that topic later) and she’ll be moving to Sydney to be a personal trainer.

Grand Cayman, BWI. Morgan’s Harbor.

Grand Cayman, BWI. On the North End.

THE VIEW FROM MY WINDOW, 6:20 a.m. this morning.

Knoxville, Tennessee. On Market Square, taken yesterday when the Insta-Daughter and I were downtown for the Rossini Festival.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Downtown Grill & Brewery.

Asheville, North Carolina. Looking like a better choice every day. . . .

Knoxville, Tennessee. In the era of hope and change!

Knoxville, Tennessee.

Farragut, Tennessee.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Naples Italian Restaurant.

Farragut, Tennessee.

Grand Cayman, BWI.

Grand Cayman, BWI. This is Lauren, a dive guide, who’s from New Zealand. When she posed, I asked her to “look intrepid.”

Grand Cayman, BWI. This is Georgetown Harbor, and as I mentioned earlier I did a couple of dives — Eden Rock and Cheeseburger Reef — within one or two hundred yards from this site and the reefs looked good.

Grand Cayman, BWI.

Grand Cayman, BWI. Bob McManus wrote asking for a picture of an “offshore tax haven.” That would be the whole island, I think, but most of that kind of thing goes on in these fairly unremarkable buildings in downtown Georgetown.

UPDATE: Dan Mitchell on why tax havens are good for the global economy. More here and here. (Via, er, Dan Mitchell, who also has a book on tax competition and why it’s good.)

Grand Cayman, BWI.

Grand Cayman, BWI.

Grand Cayman, BWI.

My Bar, Grand Cayman. Shot handheld with the Panasonic LX3.

Grand Cayman, BWI. Fidel Murphy’s Irish Pub.

Grand Cayman, BWI.

Asheville, North Carolina. Some Althouse-style cafe-photoblogging. No, I haven’t been back there — this is from the weekend trip last month.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Near the UT Student Center, on the site of the Ernest & Ellis Drug Store, which provided a memorable hangout for generations of students long before my time.

Asheville, North Carolina.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The bar at the Northshore Brasserie, where we had an excellent faculty happy hour last week. Taken with the Lumix LX-3 that I was talking about yesterday.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Tree in front of Sophronia Strong Hall on the U.T. campus. Taken with the Panasonic Lumix LX3, advertised as the pocket camera for digital SLR owners. It’s a very nice camera with a very nice lens.

Asheville, North Carolina.

Knoxville, Tennessee. At the Student Center (that’s the law school building in the background), where there was no visible mob voting. There was a TV truck, too, but things looked pretty sedate.

Ashevile, North Carolina. The Grove Arcade.

Asheville, North Carolina. The Insta-Wife, in a photo taken by the Insta-Daughter.

Asheville, North Carolina. Electric cars are very popular here. Detail below.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Medical Arts Building, downtown.

Maryville, Tennessee. Lemon Grass restaurant.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Spanish-American War Memorial, at the Old County Courthouse.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Detail from the statue of Justice at the federal courthouse.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Some people wondered if I was making up the Reasonable Ron’s motto. As you can see, I was not.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The solution to the credit crisis, courtesy of Reasonable Ron’s Used Tires. (Motto: “The Best Place in Town to Take a Leak.”) Well, it’s better than putting giant subhuman apes in charge, anyway . . . .

THE CREDIT CRISIS EXPLAINED: We’ve put giant subhuman apes in charge.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Farmer’s Market.

Knoxville, Tennessee. At the Farmer’s Market.

Knoxville, Tennessee. She says she’s Tennessee’s only licensed raw-milk cheesemaker. I bought some sheep’s-milk Cumberland. It was excellent. Blessed are the cheesemakers! Er, and all dairy workers, of course. . . .

Knoxville, Tennessee. Across the street from the Rescue Mission.

Knoxville, Tennessee. At the Farmer’s Market.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

UPDATE: Reader Sean Malloy emails: “After watching your photo posts for the past couple of months, I now have to get one of these lenses. Damn you!” It’s the Nikon fisheye.

That’s Commerce Clause god Brannon Denning on the left. For fun, I dummied this picture up on Photoshop like a double-page profile spread in Vanity Fair, with the caption “Brannon Denning Wants You To Care About the Commerce Clause. And He’s right.” Followed by a discussion of beer and the Commerce Clause, a surprisingly important subject, actually. Yes, I am a geek. But you knew that.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Heirloom veggies — lumpy but yummy. At the Farmer’s Market.

Knoxville, Tennessee. I was afraid to walk past it for fear that I’d trip . . . .

Asheville, North Carolina. Best alternative caption for yesterday’s photo: “We can’t drill our way out of this problem!”

Knoxville, Tennessee. The view from the dentist’s chair. Not my most artistic work, but it captures the feeling of the moment . . . .

Knoxville, Tennessee. Central Ave.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Behind the Dougherty Engineering Building at UT.

Knoxville, Tennessee. WNOX studios, with George Korda. That’s Michael Silence on the right, and, barely visible in the background, Jack Lail.

Knoxville, Tennessee. By request from reader Patrick Clemens, who’s worried about an influx of settlers and writes: “I was wondering when you were going to post a picture of that Godawful ‘Nation’s Best Motel’ sign on I-40 looking over to Kingston Pike, man talk about ugly. You need to post it so people will think twice about moving there.” Done. This should fix that problem!

Dixie Lee Junction, Tennessee. By request, another photo from Ott’s Barbecue. Not only is the barbecue good, but the staff is very friendly and efficient. And note the big-screen TV’s. It’s not your father’s barbecue joint.

Dixie Lee Junction, Tennessee. Ott’s Barbecue, and my version of Althousian cafe-photoblogging. The papers on the left are page proofs for the new John Birmingham novel, which rocks.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Shadow of a bike rack on The Hill, near Ayres Hall.

Knoxville, Tennessee. Near the World’s Fair site. The glass-ball lamps with “Police” written on them make it seem like Commissioner Gordon should be working inside.

Knoxville, Tennessee.

Alcoa, Tennessee. It’s not much of a palace, really — it’s a Chinese buffet in a former Western Sizzlin’. Of course, all you can eat in a comfortable dry place makes it pretty palatial by the standards of, well, all previous human history . . . .

Knoxville, Tennessee. They do good work.

Knoxville, Tennessee. The Tomato Head, downtown.

Knoxville, Tennessee. They told me that if George W. Bush were re-elected, the palace of Liberty would be shuttered. And they were right!

Knoxville, Tennessee. Yes, it’s a flag theme this weekend.

Farragut, Tennessee.