Chattanooga Pulse

The Head of the Hooch Rowing Regatta, the 5,000-meter downriver head race returning to Chattanooga for the fifth year this weekend, has now surpassed the Head of the Charles in Boston as the largest single-day rowing regatta in county.

The event will bring more than 7,000 competitors to Ross’s Landing this Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and again on Sunday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The entire regatta is free and open to the public. The best viewing areas are along Ross’s Landing, at the Walnut St. Bridge, across the river at Coolidge Park, and along the Tennessee Riverpark between the Bluff View and the Boathouse Restaurant.

For those unfamiliar with the Head of the Hooch, rowing teams will stage upstream along the north shore and race downstream against the clock along the south shore. At Ross’s Landing, race officials will launch and recover a racing shell every 15 to 20 seconds at the height of competition.

If this sounds like something you’d like to get involved in, this year the organizers are hosting a “Learn to Row” experience for those who wish to learn more about the sport. The hands-on class is scheduled for this Friday from noon to 4 p.m. at Ross’s Landing, at a cost of $10 per person, with proceeds benefitting Row for the Cure.

Sign-up times are every 30 minutes starting at noon.  Participants will have a half an hour of on-shore instruction and then a half an hour of actual rowing on the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga. If you do come down, be dressed for a light workout; tight clothes are better than loose outfits. Pre-registration is required online at www.headofthehooch.org.

Also new this year: The Chattanooga Market will set up a special arts and crafts market along Riverfront Parkway and Row for the Cure will offer tethered hot air balloon rides for better views of the action.

Sponsored by the Atlanta Rowing Club and the Lookout Rowing Club, the Head of the Hooch is named for the Chattahoochee River in Atlanta, where the race originated in 1981. A head race is so named because it runs from the “head” of a river. Three-mile-long head races are known for challenging rowing teams to navigate turns and river currents, as well as testing their speed. Come out this weekend and enjoy the fun.

Chance to Follow Your Bliss

The late Joseph Campbell was arguably one of the most influential Americans of the 20th—and now the 21st—century. His seminal book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, presents his view that all the religions of the world are various, culturally influenced “masks” of the same fundamental, transcendent truths. According to Campbell, all religions can bring one to an elevated awareness above and beyond a dualistic conception of reality, or idea of “pairs of opposites,” such as being and non-being, or right and wrong.

Campbell became known to many people through the PBS series The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, which still airs from time to time and is used in classrooms across the country. In it, Campbell uses his now-famous phrase, “Follow your bliss.”

Chattanooga now has an active Joseph Campbell Roundtable, which meets on the third Monday of each month at Grace Episcopal Church in Brainerd, at 7 p.m. in Room 120.  According to member Diana Peterson, the group began last fall through the presentation of “Mythos” by Chris Campbell and has now developed into an ongoing program.  “We are part of the international listing on the Joseph Campbell Foundation web site, www.jcf.org,” Peterson says.

The speaker for November 16 is Jas Milam on “Art and Archetype”. On December 21, Dr. Lilan Laishley will speak on  “Myth and Symbol in the Astrology of the Winter Solstice.” On January 18, Ellen Hitchcock speaks on “The Inner Warrior/Creative Leader”, and on February 15, Ann Law will talk about “Dance, Metaphor and Myth.”

For more information, contact Peterson at LEP82@juno.com