YMCA Offers Fun Fitness for Kids

By Kyle James

            MURFREESBORO, Tenn.—The Rutherford County YMCA at 205 N. Thompson Lane offers a fitness dance program called “Zumbatomic”, which teaches children different dance techniques and the history of dancing. 

            YMCA Dance Instructor Heidi Dummermuth teaches the program to kids ages 6 to 12 from 6-7 p.m. Tuesdays and 10-11 a.m. Saturdays. The class provides different dance techniques and also reviews previous dance moves from the week before. The class includes Freeze Dance and other fun, exciting games so kids can interact and be taught a healthier lifestyle.

            “Anybody is welcome to come and join us as long as they are a YMCA members,” said Dummermuth. “We have a lot of great fun!”

            The classes are growing in popularity with kids expressing their approval.  At the end of each lesson, small prizes are given to those who come in with a positive attitude and are ready to work out.

          “All age groups are welcome to come in and be with one another,” said Dummermuth. “At the end of the lesson, we have prizes, which definitely gets the kids excited after a good workout!”

         For more information about the classes, contact the Rutherford County YMCA in Murfreesboro at (615) 895-5995. 

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“Dragon’s Maze” Pre-release a Smashing Success

By Timothy Caldwell

            MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Roll the Dice, a local, independently owned hobby gaming store, hosted pre-release events for the new set of “Magic: the Gathering” trading cards on April 27 and 28.

            “Dragon’s Maze,” Magic’s newest set of 166 collectible trading cards, will officially be released on May 3, 2013, but the pre-release allowed players across the nation to experience these new cards before they were available for consumer purchase. Hobby stores, such as Roll the Dice, located at 215 Robert Rose Drive in Murfreesboro, Tenn., hosted the event for anyone willing to pay an entry fee. However, this did not mean that those who do not pay couldn’t attend the event. They did not receive any of the new products, but they were more than welcome to watch or perhaps trade with players who did receive new cards.

            The pre-release event began at midnight on April 27 at which point the participants who paid the $25 entry fee and selected their guild affiliation were given special guild pre-release packs. These contained four booster packs of the new “Dragon’s Maze” set and a special edition promotional card known as “Maze’s End.” Players also received one guild pack, which only contained cards from their specific guild, as well as one ally guild pack, which only contained cards from another semi-randomly selected guild.

From there, players were given 45 minutes to open their packs of cards and construct decks of at least 40 cards that they played with as the night progressed. The special edition Maze’s End card could not be used. Players were then randomly paired up to play a best-two-out-of-three match in a Swiss-style tournament.

“It’s the standard tournament scenario,” said David Siebert, owner of Roll the Dice. “It’s a tournament style that’s designed to draw people into the store. It’s more player friendly.”

            Throughout the night, players strove to advance their guild through the “Implicit Maze”, a poster that represented an in-game maze. The poster was proudly displayed in front of the register. As players won their games, they reported to Seibert who recorded their score and awarded their guild one point. He then moved their guild icon through the “Implicit Maze”. The members of the first guild to successfully traverse the maze by receiving a total of 12 points earned a special prize: a card with a unique code that granted each player a new title on the official “Magic: the Gathering” website. Members of guilds that completed the guild after that also received a card that granted them a lesser title.  

            The event ended after all matches had been played and the prizes had been distributed. Roll the Dice also held a similar pre-release event at noon on April 27 and a two-player event at 1 p.m. on April 28.

            After everything was said and done, the players left nearly seven hours later, tired but smiling. Many considered it a good night. Gary Valentine, a player at the event said simply, “This was a good pre-release.”

            Seibert later said that the “Dragon’s Maze” pre-release brought some good things to the game of Magic. “We got a lot of new cards that add a lot of power to the guilds. Each one got some new toys.”

However, Seibert also expressed his interest in the future of “Magic: the Gathering.” “I wonder if this set really added enough to change the meta-game. Is it going to take certain deck types away?  I’m excited to see what’ll happen.”

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Rooster Beane Brings Texas BBQ to Murfreesboro

By Morgan Mosley

            MURFREESBORO, Tenn.  – Entrepreneur Rooster Beane opened the second location for his restaurant Rooster's Lone Star Barbeque and Steakhouse on Feb. 27 in the previous location of 3 Brothers Deli and Brew house, right off the Square.

            Beane is originally from Smyrna, Tenn., but he moved to Texas in the late 1970s where he later signed with the Dallas Cowboys to play kicker and offensive guard.  His experience with Texas-style barbeque started while cooking for parties that he hosted. The food was so popular amongst his friends that he decided to try out his own restaurant, which he has been doing for the last nine years.  He opened his first “Roosters” location in 2010 in downtown Nashville.

            Rooster's goal is to provide his customers with the best service in town. His restaurant is a family-oriented business that is “kid friendly,” but the doors are open to anyone. 

             “They are going to have the best food,” he said. “There is never any trouble here and there won't be. I promise you that.”

            The menu offers a wide selection of Texas-style dishes, including chicken, sausage, ribs and steaks, but their specialty is their tender, flavorful smoked brisket.    

            “The main difference in Texas Barbeque and Tennessee Barbeque is the beef brisket, where in Tennessee, the most common type is pork,” he said.

             They bring it in raw, put on their own special dry rub, and smoke it for 24 to 26 hours, or “low and slow.” They also have brisket wraps and brisket tacos. Their signature “Texas Sushi” features a  jalapeno pepper stuffed with pepper-jack cheese and smoked all-beef sausage, which is immediately wrapped in brisket before being served.  Another popular dish is their Shrimp Diablo, which is a jalapeno stuffed with shrimp and cheese, all wrapped in bacon.  All of the food is smoked, except for the fried foods like okra and french fries. They even have a veggie-quesadilla and other grilled vegetables for those who do not eat meat.  They have 10 draft beers, including the Texas favorite, Shiner Bock.  Their full menu can be viewed at www.roostersbbqnashville.com.

            Covering the walls is Texas-style décor, for a Texas-style restaurant.   They say that everything is bigger in Texas, which is something that Beane wanted to incorporate into his food.

             “Our portions are bigger,” said Beane.  “Our prices are reasonable for the portions that you get.”

            There are some nightly specials which are meant to cater to larger crowds, including $5 half-pound Texas Burger Monday, $2 Taco Tuesday (chicken, catfish or brisket), 50-cent Wing Wednesday, and 2-for-1 Thirsty Thursday. On Friday they do their “Great Balls of Fire”, which includes shots of Fireball whiskey, homemade meatballs, and “calf-fries”, which are actually, for lack of a better term, bull balls.

            “We are selling about 40 to 50 pounds of bull balls a week right now,” said Beane.  “In Texas and Oklahoma, they are real big. I do have a couple of places that I do go back to when I am there, and the reasoning is for the calf-fries. People, if they could just get the vision out of their mind of what they are, they would be better off because, I mean, the taste of them. They are some of the best things that we have on our menu.”

             “I've never tried one before this job, but they really are not as bad as I thought they would be,” said Jason Hardin, a server at the restaurant.

            Rooster's location in downtown Nashville has been featured on the Travel Channel's “Man vs. Food” show with guests the Low Cash Cowboys and Vince Gill (one of Beane's good friends) for his 72-ounce steak challenge.  The challenge involves eating a 72-ounce sirloin with a baked potato, salad and Texas toast.  If you eat it all within an hour, you get the meal for free, and if you do not finish, it costs a whopping $72.

             “We have had eight winners and 136 losers so far, but we do sell it a lot of times to a table of four, five or six to split it up,” said Beane. “We haven't brought in our steaks yet (to this location), because I have to build out the kitchen a little bit.  Once we get that done, we can start the challenge in Murfreesboro.”

            Beane has big plans for the future of his new restaurant.  He is currently building a Cantina Beer Garden in the long-time empty space besides the building that should be open to guests around the middle of May. This, Beane says, will allow the restaurant to seat 200-250 people inside and outside.   He plans to have live music in the garden, including a live festival scheduled for May 18. Eric Stewart, an artist who played with Peter Frampton for five or six years, is supposed to headline the event.  The music will range from country to rock n' roll.  He plans to have more local artists during the week, and some bigger headliners for the weekend.

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Murfreesboro Detectives Arrest Negligent Mother, Advocate Child Safety

By Liz Butram

          MURFREESBORO, Tenn.—Murfreesboro Police responded to a call made by a Central-Murfreesboro resident who witnessed two unsupervised children in diapers playing in a puddle at approximately 10:30 a.m. on April 19.

            Detectives Tannas Knox and Tommy Roberts were contacted to help with the case after patrol officers had no luck finding the parents of the small children. The mother, 21-year-old Amber Warnack, was eventually located after detectives Knox and Roberts went door to door asking neighbors for information.

            Roberts said that Warnack appeared to be “out of it” and believed the mother was exchanging sexual favors for drugs. The use of cocaine, prescription pills, and barbiturates was apparent after further investigation and a drug screen, according to Knox.

           Throughout the incident, Warnack repeatedly insisted to investigators and the media that she is not a bad mother despite losing track of her children in the cold.

           “I truly think she is a good mom and simply made a mistake,” Knox said.

            “I think this really was an accident, and all we can really hope for is that she learned her lesson from this and will get her life on track,” Roberts said.

           Warnack was charged with child endangerment and booked in the county jail. The Department of Children’s Services placed the children in the care of family members, reported Knox.

Knox and Roberts are part of Murfreesboro Police Department’s Special Victims Unit and have been partners for years. They specialize in cases involving the mistreatment of children. Negligent mothers account for a significant portion of the cases they see on a yearly basis. The Warnack case is one of the milder ones they’ve seen in a while, according to Roberts.

           “Murfreesboro is home to a large amount of young mothers, and many are single and need help,” explained Knox.

          From her observations, Knox believes young, single mothers are more likely to leave their children with someone untrustworthy due to the fact that they need help and do not have many options. Children who are left with these acquaintances are more susceptible to becoming victims of rape or other crimes, according to Knox.

          “If a 25-year-old male is volunteering to watch your child, a red flag should be going up in your head,” said Knox.

          Knox and Roberts both advise mothers to be aware of the people they allow around their kids, and say that simply because someone is a teacher, preacher, or police officer, they shouldn’t be disregarded as a potential threat.

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Murfreesboro bike event excites local community

By Avery Baker

MUFREESBORO, Tenn.— The first Annual “Boro Fondo” bicycle tour showcased local music and the arts from April 19-20 throughout town as cyclists stopped at various block parties to enjoy the spring weather and socialize.

“Boro Fondo”, formerly known as “Tour de Fun”, attracted more than a thousand Middle Tennessee State University students and local residents to various locations such as the Rutherford County Courthouse and Harrison Avenue for a two-day-shindig packed with good spirits. A pre-ride party took place Friday night in the Square across several locations, including Aura Lounge, 3 Brothers Brew-house and Deli, Main Street Live, and the recently opened Little Shop Of Records.

The ride began at 10 a.m. Saturday at Smoopy’s Vintage Bicycles and finished in the Square at 9 p.m. Saturday’s events included cycling to block parties with sets by 21 local bands, stand-up-comedy, poetry, and give-away raffles at each of the four rendezvous points on the bike route. The excitement was palpable as friends new and old rode across town enjoying the sights and sounds of the local community.

Smoopy’s, a sponsor of “Boro Fondo”, donated a colorful $700 fixed-gear-bike for the raffle along with several tee shirts and original artwork.

 “We were excited to donate the fixie bike for the Fondo,” said Smoopy’s bike tech Patrick Lee. “It’s always cool to be involved with the biking events here in town, especially when they support the arts. We’re just grateful that there is such a great community for cycling here and that we get to help them out.”'

“I’m really happy with what we did this weekend," said Fondo founder Eric Detorres. “The city was really cooperative in helping us out whether it was providing police to block an intersection or just getting the word out about Fondo, which was invaluable. To me, as long as no one got hurt and nothing was stolen, then it was a success. This was the first year doing a two-day festival, and I think it was a great way to showcase the talent of our local artists. Expect to see something similar later this year.”

Detorres and some friends created “Boro Fondo” to serve as a unique bicycle festival for the community, while providing an outlet for musicians and artists alike. Dates for the next festival are pending. Bands and artists interested in showcasing their work can visit http://www.borofondo.com for more information.

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