Lemons to Lemonaide

Diane Michel Canada is a fascinating case study in faith. Like many, she had to reach what she calls “rock bottom” before fully igniting it—but the result has been rock solid. The culmination of this is Lady Up America, a business she founded dedicated to self-improvement for Christian women.

Canada's business is based on her own life experience, which hasn't been easy. However, the struggles she's overcome—and continues to manage—are what made her find what she feels is her ultimate purpose. We spoke about the long road to where she is now, and how she transformed her negative experiences through her faith.

Raised in a “traditional pastor's family,” Canada grew up in Florida with a very structured life until the age of eight. That's when things began to change for her, as her pastor father abandoned the family for another woman. Her mother lost her faith, and home became a much more chaotic space.

Suicidal at the age of seventeen, Canada married a man seven years her senior and soon had a little boy. She had been desperate to find an escape from home, but her troubles only became more complex. Her husband was a recovering alcoholic, and there were serious problems now in the new life she'd built. Canada explained how she felt trapped, saying, “When you're in that situation, you don't realize you have a lot of options.”

🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.

🗳️ Jacobs Endorses Blackburn…Kinda It looks like Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs may not be running for Tennessee Governor in 2026, but that could mean he has his eye on a different prize. Shortly after word spread that Senator Marsha Blackburn might throw her hat in the ring to become Governor Bill Lee’s replacement, Jacobs took to X to post what sounded like an endorsement. “Great to see [Marsha Blackburn] at tonight’s TN Chamber event,” he wrote on Tuesday. “Senator Blackburn has done an outstanding job as a state senator, U.S. congresswoman, and U.S. Senator. She would do an equally outstanding job as Governor and would have my full support if that’s what she decides.” 

Even though it’s still an “if,” his early support could be a sign that he may have his heart set on Blackburn’s Senate seat. Up until now, the Knox County Mayor has been heavily hinting at his own bid for governor, but the number of comments on Jacob’s post encouraging him to make a move for the Senate shows that nothing’s getting by those who are already monitoring the race to replace Lee—though we wouldn’t count him out just yet. Maybe the overwhelming amount of messages expressing disappointment will influence him to reconsider. “Nah, you would be the better choice,” wrote one commentator. “But we want YOU to run, sir,” wrote another.

🏛️ Senate Committee Appointments This morning, Lt. Governor Randy McNally announced committee appointments for the 114th General Assembly. There are a few noticeable changes, but perhaps the most glaring is in the Senate’s Energy, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Committee.

During last year’s General Assembly, a source turned us onto a bit of GOP in-fighting regarding the governor’s farmland easement bill. Sponsored by Senator Jack Johnson (R-Franklin), the legislation was bumped off the agenda during the Ag committee’s final meeting—effectively killing the bill. A month later, the Tennessee Farm Bureau sent out a controversial action alert email informing their subscribers that the committee would reopen to discuss the bill. Despite his earlier decision to close the Ag committee in March, Chair Steve Southerland (R-Morristown) walked back his resolve and reopened the committee on April 10th to accommodate the governor’s cornerstone bill (which ultimately didn’t end up having the votes to pass)—but not before finding himself in some hot water. 

According to our source, Southerland was warned that he may be stripped of his chairmanship if the bill died in his committee—and it looks like the chickens have come home to roost. Southerland was stripped of his chairmanship for this year’s General Assembly and has been replaced by Senator Shane Reeves (R-Murfreesboro). “Senator Reeves is an outstanding member of the Senate,” wrote McNally in today’s press release. “He works hard, listens and is always looking to to help others. Having served on the committee he understands the subject matter and will provide excellent leadership for the committee and staff.”

See the rest of the appointments here.

🦦 Trouble On The East Bank On Monday, the Tennessee Performing Arts Center decided to walk away from its plans to relocate to some prime, waterfront real estate outlined in the new East Bank development plan. According to Nashville Business Journal, board members are exploring alternative options after hitting a wall during negotiations with Metro leadership.

But it sounds like the Mayor O’Connell is keeping the door open. “TPAC has long-sought a lot on the East Bank that is the most expensive to develop, because of its proximity to the pedestrian bridge,” the mayor’s spokesperson, Alex Apple, told NBJ. “In order to advance discussions and offer more options, Metro has—in the months since—offered other lots and continued to negotiate on the original lot. Our hope is that we can strike an agreement that works for Metro taxpayers and provides a long-term home for the performing arts center.”

DEVELOPMENT-ish

• Wine, food, retail development signals future of Gallatin Pike (NBJ)
• One Hundred Oaks-area office building slated for pickleball facility (Post)
• Perfectly Fine opens in The Nations (Post)

✹ REVIEW: THE ROOM NEXT DOOR (2024)

Five decades into his career, Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar seems to be thinking about the end more than usual. But, like the characters in his first English-language film, The Room Next Door, he’s resolved to make the most of the time he has left. 

Julianne Moore plays Ingrid, a novelist who has chosen to confront her debilitating fear of death in her latest literary sensation. When she learns at a book signing that her former best friend and lauded war correspondent, Martha (Tilda Swinton) is on the cusp of succumbing to a brutal bout with Stage 4 cancer, she drops everything for a hospital visit. As Ingrid rekindles a friendship grown stale after their heyday as the gadflys of the NYC magazine world, Martha makes an offer: accompany her on a month-long country vacation, stay in the room next door, and alert the authorities when she feels the moment is right to take a black-market suicide pill so she can die on her own terms. 

From such a seemingly nihilistic premise, Almodóvar fashions a vibrant celebration of life without ever descending into the saccharine. Though he rivals Wes Anderson in his knack for lusciously over-the-top set design, Almodóvar is also a savvy enough filmmaker to lean into the type of nuance only performers of Moore and Swinton’s caliber could achieve. 

Both Ingrid and Martha are saddled with guilt over the insular urban worlds they have built for themselves. But they rebuff succumbing to the catastrophizing around them—an air of doom and gloom Almodóvar excoriates with an assist from John Turturro’s turn as a sexagenarian celebrity climate scientist who can’t quite get over his romantic pasts with Ingrid and Martha. As the film reaches its quietly hopeful conclusion, The Room Next Door proves itself the rare arthouse movie  that fervently believe there’s still some goodness left in the way we live now. 

The Room Next Door opens in theaters Friday.

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.

TONIGHT

🪕 Tim Graves & The Farm Hands @ Station Inn, 9p, $20, Info

🎻 The War and Treaty with the Nashville Symphony @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $36+, Info

🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info

🎸 Kelly’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info

🎸 Open Mic @ Fox & Locke, 6:30p, Free, Info
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