Month: May 2002

Categories
Music Music Features

Let Them Sing If They Want To

The boho/alt/neo/whatever soul movement has arguably provoked and provided more compelling pop music over the last half decade than any other genre, but it’s hard to pin down exactly when it began. Was it D’Angelo’s 1995 debut Brown Sugar, which provided the style and attitude? Was it Tony Toni Toné’s 1996 swan song, the deservingly titled House of Music, a breathtakingly accomplished modern embrace of organic soul music? Or was it the Fugees’ 1996 sophomore masterpiece The Score, which established the philosophy of freedom at the (sub)genre’s core?

I actually vote none of the above and instead point to an interview that took place a couple of years before those releases with R&B überproducer Dallas Austin. In the waning days of new-jack soul, with its shiny suits, sound-alike beats, and some admittedly fine records, Austin expressed admiration for Nirvana — the way they took the stage in their street clothes and played music as an extension of who they were, devoid of any commercial calculation. Austin wished that the artists he worked with could be so free.

And it’s precisely that interview that I’ve been thinking of lately while trying to listen to ex-Fugee Lauryn Hill’s new record, MTV Unplugged 2.0. Hill opens the two-hour, two-disc, solo acoustic set with a spoken introduction that affirms the honesty Austin once pleaded for: “I used to get dressed for y’all,” Hill says to the studio audience. “I don’t do that now. It’s a new day.” “I used to be a performer,” she continues, “and I don’t really consider myself a performer anymore. I’m [just] sharing.”

Of course, Hill’s declaration of independence might be more meaningful if the record were better. I’d like to tell you about the music — all brand-new songs, outside of a couple of covers — but I’m not sure I remember it. I mean, I’ve tried to listen to it. But with Hill’s unaccompanied and monotonously rudimentary acoustic guitar and hyperserious lyrics devoid of wit or the rhythm of good hip hop, it’s been a chore. Invariably, though I try to pay attention, my mind drifts off at about the one-and-a-half-minute mark of epic tunes that sometimes run past eight minutes. Preelectric Dylan, this acoustic troubadour is not (though the Diallo-inspired “I Find It Hard To Say” almost registers as a powerful protest song in the folk-revival mode). Without the benefit of the compelling visuals of the television special (Hill breaking down in tears on “I Gotta Find a Piece of Mind”), it’s nearly impossible to follow.

Hill’s unplugged set reminds us that the greatness of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill wasn’t in Hill’s lyrics or (God knows, heh heh) her persona (Hill tends toward self-righteousness, pretentiousness, judgmentalism, and quasi-religious martyr complexes when unfettered) but in its music: her beautifully organic production and ingenious rap/soul arrangements (especially the vocal arrangements, where Hill’s gifts may be unrivaled).

If we consider this an “official” album (and since it’s almost all new, original music, I can’t see how anyone could consider it otherwise), then it has to mark one of the most precipitous album-to-album dropoffs ever for a major artist — more of a letdown even than Prince following up Purple Rain with Around the World In a Day. “I’m a mess,” Hill says, and there’s no arguing with that.

The between-song monologues, which are frequent and lengthy (one goes on for more than 12 minutes!), are more interesting than the music, but Hill’s failure is symbolic of a new (or, rather, reborn) freedom for R&B performers — it’s deeply flawed but still a breakthrough of sorts. Her voice cracks, lyrics are flubbed, and there’s no radio single in sight. In a mainstream, relatively conservative genre heretofore intent on putting on a show and projecting an image, Hill sits onstage alone and weeps. “I’m emotionally unstable,” she confesses. “I’m tired of frontin’,” she complains. “Fantasy is what people want, but reality is what they need, and I’ve just retired from the fantasy part,” she explains.

Outside of a rock-associated wacko like Prince, a major black pop-music artist hasn’t had the freedom to foist something this perverse on the buying public since Stevie Wonder’s Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants. But there are other current artists who take boho soul’s sense of freedom to more musically fruitful places, especially a couple of previously marginal culture heroes (well, they’ve been that for me over the last few years) striking out on their own for the first time.

The key figure in Tony Toni Toné, Raphael Saadiq’s mission to preserve the best of ’70s soul (Al Green, the Spinners, etc.) was apparent from the group’s knowingly titled early records (The Revival, Sons of Soul), but after perfecting this goal with House of Music, he’s been pretty low-profile, appearing a couple of years ago as part of the fine R&B supergroup Lucy Pearl, who managed to go gold without leaving much of a lasting cultural impression. But now Saadiq, the most unjustly underrecognized soul man in America, is finally going solo with his forthcoming debut, Instant Vintage.

In an era dominated by the sexual pathology and conspicuous consumption of an R. Kelly and the up-front sexuality of pec-baring D’Angelo, it’s no wonder Saadiq hasn’t become a major star. Saadiq may pose on the cover in a flower-print dashiki with one eye circled in black paint, meaninglessly label his music “gospeldelic soul,” and even propose a little light bondage on track two, but he still seems almost too decent, too normal, to really blow up. But with his supple, beautiful tenor and light, sure musical touch, he remains the music’s greatest groove man. Instant Vintage is so subtle that you may love it while listening to it but not really remember a single song afterward.

Similarly, Thomas “Cee-Lo” Callaway has been one of pop’s singular voices over the last few years without really being a star. A hip-hop Reverend Ike, Cee-Lo’s whiny, gritty, sing-songy pulpit-style delivery stood out among the three sound-alike MCs he traded verses with in Atlanta’s Goodie Mob. With that group unable to break out of the shadow of comrades OutKast and unable to make the move from gold to platinum, Cee-Lo has gone solo with Cee-Lo Green & His Perfect Imperfections. Plenty of music on the album repeats earlier charms without others getting in the way: He gets electroboogie on the ecstatic single “Closet Freak”; he drops science with a down-home delivery on “Big Ole Words (Damn)”; and he confirms his unlikely love for acid-rock on the anthemic “Live (Right Now).” But the real bravery on the record is found in the way he explores his previous penchant to break into song — the comical title of one song intro is “Let Him Sing if He Wants To.” “Country Love,” despite the heavy bass line and hip-hop drum lick (which are pretty understated anyway), actually sounds like something Charley Pride might cover. And on “Young Man,” he croons a loving warning to younger rappers more intent on “keeping it real” than just being honest with themselves. Cee-Lo’s obviously no Saadiq in the vocal department, but it turns out that he’s a much better singer than Biz Markie.

But it also turns out that the best of the recent boho soul releases comes from an even more obscure artist connected to both Saadiq and Cee-Lo. Freak-funk diva Joi is married to Big Gipp, Cee-Lo’s partner in Goodie Mob, and is part of the same Dungeon Family crew. She toured with Lucy Pearl and counts Saadiq as a frequent collaborator on her new album, Star Kitty’s Revenge. And that record just happens to be the closest anyone has ever come to a female Prince, and the little Purple One hasn’t made a record this good in nearly a decade.

Whether quoting Sly Stone on the bridge of “It’s Your Life” or going rock on the epic revenge song “Get On,” Joi seems in total control here. The subtly sinister, pulsing “Crave” and the slow, sticky “Lick” may be the year’s best sex songs, though neither is quite as sexy as the Saadiq-produced winner “What If I Kissed You Right Now?” Freakier than Macy Gray (or at least freaky in a compelling way rather than a “get that crazy bitch away from me” way) and with a sharper song sense than Erykah Badu, Joi deserves to be a star but will settle for just being herself.

Showbiz isn’t always a bad thing, of course. After all, there may not be a single piece of music on any of the albums discussed in this piece as pleasurable or as durable as Ja Rule and Ashanti’s formulaic “Always on Time.” But the personal and artistic freedom — the disregard for self-censorship and commercial calculation — that Hill strives for and Saadiq, Cee-Lo, and Joi have fun with is the core of this great new era in R&B, and it’s why the pop future looks so good right now.

local beat

by CHRIS HERRINGTON

It took almost four hours to get there, but the finale of the 23rd Annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards, held Thursday, May 23rd, at The Orpheum, was worth every minute of waiting. In a tribute to Sun Records (founder Sam Phillips is receiving the Blues Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award this year) and its underrecognized blues heritage, the Handys brought together the four most prominent living alumni of Sun’s blues years — Roscoe Gordon, Little Milton, Ike Turner, and, of course, B.B. King — for a relaxed, engaging 20-minute jam session. King was in powerful voice, presiding over his cohorts with palpable chemistry, and he also delivered the night’s most touching moment, saying, “Mr. Handy is looking down on us. And my good friend Rufus Thomas. I can’t kiss him on the top of his head tonight.” The whole thing felt too magical and too right to be just a one-off — quick, somebody put these guys on tour together.

But despite entertaining sets from Marcia Ball and Chef Chris & His Nairobi Trio, the other live performances this year were a little less engaging than last year. The highlights, rather, were the small moments of personality or visual incongruity that occurred between musical sets. There was grandson Cedric Burnside and bandmate Kenny Brown adding some needed earthiness to the proceedings when accepting awards on behalf of R.L. Burnside. There was a rambling, funny, and moving tribute to Rufus Thomas from Clarence Moore. There was the bizarre sight of blues mama Tracy Nelson presenting an award alongside action-movie tough guy Steven Segal, who has an album (?!) coming out. There was the glorious sight of Ruth Brown and Sam Phillips making a charming mockery of the artificiality of the medium (television, not blues). And there was the mind-boggling thrill of David Johansen and Ike Turner standing together to present an award. But did Turner have any idea who he was standing next to? Did he “get” the New York Dolls joke scriptwriter Robert Gordon wrote for him? And oddest of all was the presence of some Burger King executive talking about how people were introduced to John Lee Hooker through commercials, then showing a video tribute that seemed to have about as much to do with Carlos Santana (did he die too?) as Hooker.

“The Blues: Did It Die and You Didn’t Notice?” was the title of one Handy event last week. But, judging from this night, “the biggest night in blues” according to the Blues Foundation, it seems to be doing just fine. Sure, it’s a niche genre now, but one that still seems to have plenty of life left.

The 23rd Annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards winners: Entertainer of the Year: B.B. King; Band of the Year: Rod Piazza & the Mighty Flyers; Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year: Buddy Guy; Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year: Shemekia Copeland; Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year: Little Milton Campbell; Soul Blues Female Artist of the Year: Etta James; Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year: R.L. Burnside; Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year: Koko Taylor; Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year: Keb’ Mo’; Best New Artist Debut: Otis Taylor —White African; Instrumentalist/Guitar: Buddy Guy; Instrumentalist/Harmonica: Charlie Musselwhite; Instrumentalist/Keyboards: Pinetop Perkins; Instrumentalist/Bass: Willie Kent; Instrumentalist/Drums: Willie “Big Eyes” Smith; Instrumentalist/Horns: Roomful of Blues Horn Section; Instrumentalist/Other: Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown (fiddle); Acoustic Blues Album of the Year: John Hammond — Wicked Grin; Comeback Blues Album of the Year: Ike Turner —Here and Now; Contemporary Blues Album of the Year: Buddy Guy — Sweet Tea; Soul Blues Album of the Year: Little Milton — Feel It; Traditional Blues Album of the Year: R.L. Burnside — Burnside on Burnside; Blues Album of the Year: Marcia Ball — Presumed Innocent; Historical Album of the Year: Muddy Waters —Fathers and Sons; Blues Song of the Year: Charlie Musselwhite — “Charlie’s Old Highway 51 Blues.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Food Fight!

Is this a great food fight or what? Now all the cynics — or maybe it’s just all the realists — in Washington claim the government is running around issuing warnings about terrorist attacks in order to take everybody’s mind off the really bad news. The really bad news seems to be that our government is seriously incompetent at dealing with terrorist threats.

Actually, we already knew that and have since September 11th. Remember the wonderful day the Immigration and Naturalization Service approved student visas for two of the dead hijackers, six months after the guys had noticeably incinerated themselves?

While you’re trying to figure out which one to worry about more — an imminent terrorist attack or the fact that, even if the government knew about the attack, the CIA wouldn’t have enough sense to tell the FBI, which would naturally not share the information with the FAA, which in turn would fail to notify the airlines, which would then be found hiring a bunch of narcoleptics and felons to confiscate our toenail clippers while the terrorists went after a nuclear plant — here’s a little something light to take your mind off this anxiety bonanza.

If we don’t all die, we’ll probably go broke. Actually, I exaggerate. But the continuing follies in the financial industry remind us that screwing up is not something limited to the government. Neither, for that matter, is criminal irresponsibility. Merrill Lynch has just agreed to pay $100 million, which — I am pleased to find — is widely reported to be “a slap on the wrist,” to avoid the possibility of criminal charges threatened by New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer’s investigation, you may recall, unearthed those endearingly honest e-mails by Merrill Lynch research analysts describing the stocks they were recommending to customers as “dogs,” “junk,” “crap,” and having no merit “except the banking fees” to be had from selling them.

Both Spitzer and Merrill Lynch have claimed victory in the settlement, but if you want to know who came out ahead, parse this “apology” issued by Merrill Lynch as part of the settlement (this is really good): Merrill Lynch “regrets that there were instances in which certain of our Internet sector research analysts expressed views which at certain points may have appeared inconsistent with Merrill Lynch’s published recommendations.”

In other words, they’re apologizing for the honest opinions expressed by the brokers, not the dishonest recommendations. As a statement of contrition, it’s a real G-string. But I’m sure everyone who lost money in the high-tech bubble appreciates it — fully.

Barbara Roper, director of investor protection at the Consumer Federation of America, says Spitzer came up way short of his avowed intention to “force fundamental change” on stock analysts. “The firms will probably do covertly what they have been doing overtly because the incentive to use research for profiting in their investment banking is too great,” said Roper. But she does think the settlement applies pressure on the Securities and Exchange Commission to put some pep into its enforcement efforts. She attributes part of the problem to the “glamour cults” and “rock star status” of analysts such as Henry Blodgett, formerly of Merrill Lynch, who are on television as much as any rock star — just different channels.

One of the strange distortions of television journalism in recent years is the proliferation of programs about business, particularly how-to-make-money-in-the-stock-market shows. The other two legs in our economic tripod are labor and consumers, neither of which has ever had a single program in which to hold forth, much less entire cable channels devoted to their concerns. Wouldn’t you think CNBC could spare just a half hour a week?

Perhaps you have noticed that many of our “public affairs programs,” not to mention the news, are sponsored by these very financial firms who entreat us to trust them with our dreams and our savings. Happy retirees living on boundless ranches or paddling canoes on gorgeous lakes invite us to share in their infinite faith in some firm that should be named WASP, Greed, Conflict, and Cynicism. Do you think there’s any connection between those sponsors and the shortage of labor and consumer reporting on television?

I’m especially fond of the new Republican hue and cry about how investigations are destroying “faith in financial markets.” Boy, is that ever blaming the cops for the crime wave. Rep. Michael Oxley (R-Ohio) is especially entertaining on this subject: In an unctuous speech to the World Economic Forum at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, he attacked Spitzer for “grandstanding by ambitious and publicity-hungry political officials.” Oxley is, of course, a stranger to political ambition and publicity-seeking.

Molly Ivins writes for Creators Syndicate and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

Postscript

Final Defense

To the Editor:

Regarding Tony Jones’ article on the Tri-State Defender (“Last Defense?” May 16th issue): I am a professional, award-winning journalist with over 30 years’ experience in print media. In addition to my formal education, some of my expertise has been garnered from some of the most brilliant minds in the business. This knowledge and expertise includes reporting and writing special features for daily and weekly newspapers around the country and incorporates stints as managing editor, associate editor for a national magazine, and almost 10 years as a copy editor for one of the leading daily newspapers in California. As a Christian who diligently tries to exhibit daily the fruits of God’s spirit, I also proudly wear his honesty, integrity, and character, especially as a professional.

Thus I am giving an account of my conversation with Tony Jones sometime in late September or early October concerning the abrupt layoff from the Tri-State Defender of Judy Seals, former ad/marketing director; Kimberly Ware, former classified ad makeup/layout artist; and me, former managing editor. We first discussed the possible whys, with me concluding that management (Audrey McGhee, editor/publisher; and Tom Picou, the Defender‘s chief editor) did not like the fact that Kim and I questioned keeping Michael Vargas, then production manager, on the payroll even after his transfer to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was a move we felt would throw us back into all-night press nights, since a 20-page paper would be put together from three states, when what Vargas and Picou were doing from their respective states could have been done from Memphis.

In our conversation, I told Tony, in reference to the layoffs, that I didn’t think that it would set well with the black community that McGhee laid off three black women (older company employees) to maintain Michael, a young white man, simply because we questioned her actions at a time when we were not being paid in a timely fashion. That money could be left here, especially since Michael was making more than all of us. Moreover, being white, Michael can get a job anywhere. Later (in October), I pointed out to him that the anniversary of the Tri-State Defender was hardly being observed by the community or advertisers, so I know that neither paid attention to our layoffs.

Tony had said that he was going to do a story in the Flyer and that he would like statements from me. I agreed to talk with him (on tape) when he was ready. We never had the taped talk, though we talked almost daily by phone. I would never publicly hurl what could be seen as a racial slur toward any person. And I would never paint myself up to be a public whiner.

Virginia L. Porter

Memphis

Disappointed In Tim

To the Editor:

I enjoy reading The Memphis Flyer, particularly the articles on local politics, Rob Brezsny’s weekly horoscope, and the wonderfully sarcastic tone of Tim Sampson’s We Recommend. However, I was disappointed to read Sampson’s commentary on the Overton Square Arts and Jazz Festival (May 23rd issue). He wrote, “The crowd was equally black and white. Racism in Memphis is alive only in the minds of those who dwell on it while the rest of us are having fun.”

Obviously, Sampson is writing from a place of racial privilege. There are people of color in this city who “dwell on it” because racism is a part of their everyday experience. Racism is what puts the police into racial profiling. It’s what causes store clerks to look suspiciously at two black women shopping in a mall. It’s what keeps white upper-class and middle-class Memphians moving east, away from working- and middle-class blacks and Latinos.

Lastly, racism is what makes Tim Sampson write that it doesn’t exist. I am not implying that he is racist but that everyone is not having “fun” and there are political, cultural, and structural reasons why.

Ama Codjoe

Memphis

Hostile Takeover?

To the Editor:

As we figured, it happened. Memphis performed another hostile takeover (in Cordova), promising the moon and giving nothing in return. Memphis continues to slap the face of annexed residents. They are making plans to absorb the new area(s) into the current Memphis school system now, but this should’ve been done prior to any annexation effort. Memphis is perfectly content to take whatever tax money it can while passing on the associated costs of annexation to any other entity it can for as long as it can.

When Memphis annexed Hickory Hill in 1998, it promised a wealth of services but only built a school as part of an out-of-court settlement. Does anybody out there still have a spine to stop the junk promises that Memphis throws out prior to annexing or the gross mismanagement by Mayor Herenton and his cronies? Something smells, and it ain’t the horse-drawn carriages on Beale Street.

David E. Ray

Memphis

The Memphis Flyer encourages reader response. Send mail to: Letters to the Editor, POB 1738, Memphis, TN 38101. Or call Back Talk at 575-9405. Or send us e-mail at letters@memphisflyer.com. All responses must include name, address, and daytime phone number. Letters should be no longer than 250 words.

Categories
News The Fly-By

City Reporter

Unlocking the Castle

Prince Mongo plans to reopen his notorious nightclub.

By Rebekah Gleaves

For those of you who never had the chance to traipse the sand dunes, swim naked in the pool, or dance in the basement until 4 a.m, now’s your chance. Robert Hodges — better known as Prince Mongo — may soon be reopening the Castle at Lamar and Central. Only, this time, the club will have decidedly less debauchery — at least at first. For those of you who reveled in the revelry before the club closed two years ago and are now older, wiser, and maybe a bit more ashamed of your naked flesh, the toned-down version of Mongo’s notorious nightclub might be just your thing for summer fun.

Last week, District Attorney Bill Gibbons announced the settlement of the case against the Castle by entering a consent order abating a nuisance and lifting the temporary injunction. The nuisance action was filed against the Castle in October 2000. The club has been closed since October 11, 2000.

Gibbons’ entry of the consent order means the Castle can reopen, but in order to sell alcohol, the club’s owners still must receive an alcohol license from the city of Memphis. Also, the D.A. says he has encouraged the police, fire, and health departments as well as codes-enforcement officials to regularly monitor the club to ensure that its owners do not engage in the same activities that got the Castle in trouble in the first place.

Specifically, Gibbons has said that the club’s premises are to remain free of junk and debris and it must adhere to all environmental-code provisions. The order also requires that Hodges monitor the patrons and adopt procedures to prevent quarreling, drunkenness, and fighting. Hodges is also required to take steps to prevent underage individuals from being admitted or purchasing alcohol and to prevent acts of “lewdness, prostitution, exhibitions or possession of obscene or pornographic material with the intent to sell or distribute, unlawful gambling, and preventing any illegal drug sales from occurring at the Castle.”

Lil Lowry, who lives in the neighborhood, is none too pleased with the latest developments. As the unofficial leader of the group of neighbors who encouraged Gibbons to bring the nuisance action in the first place, Lowry feels like she’s back to square one.

“I’m hoping for the best and looking for the worst,” says Lowry. “Someone like him doesn’t change his spots overnight.”

The Flyer was unable to reach Prince Mongo for comment, but his attorney, Leslie Ballin, says that the club will open soon.

Understanding the Law

New tapes will reduce language problems in courtrooms.

By Janel Davis

No longer will language be a hINDRANCE to adequate legal advice. A grant from the Office of Criminal Justice Programs will pay for a new tool to help eliminate language barriers in Tennessee courtrooms.

Professionally produced videos in English and six foreign languages — Spanish, Arabic, Kurdish, Laotian, Russian, and Vietnamese — have been issued to every courthouse in the state. The tapes cover the most common topics in the judicial system, including basic rights of defendants, obtaining orders of protection for victims of domestic violence, and the rights of parents in child abuse and neglect cases. The videos also discuss courtroom protocol.

“Because the state has become rapidly culturally diverse, there was a need to reach people who come to the courthouse for various reasons,” says Sue Allison of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. “[The tapes] are meant to allay the fears of foreigners. We’re leaving it up to each judge to find creative ways to use them.”

The $100,000 grant allowed for 200 sets of the tapes to be produced with the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute and distributed to the presiding judge in each judicial district.

Judge James Beasley of the judicial district covering Shelby County says several agencies have requested copies of the tapes.

“I’ve talked with Legal Services and they want copies for their clients, and the public defenders also want some,” says Beasley. He also wants to implement the tapes in a mandatory preliminary-information session which would be held for non-English-speakers upon their first contact with the court system.

Gold and Bronze

Memphis magazine wins two awards in national competition.

Memphis magazine brought home two major awards from the City and Regional Magazine Association’s annual journalism competition, held May 20th in San Diego, California.

Judges presented a first-place Gold Medal in Feature Design to art director Murry Keith for “Those Who Would Be the King,” the magazine’s July/August 2001 cover story (left). This photo essay, featuring images by Los Angeles free-lance photographer Vern Evans, paid respectful tribute to a diverse group of Elvis impersonators. “Who are these people?” the story asked. “The ones who idolize someone so much that they turn to impersonating their hero.” Subjects included El Vez, billed as “the Mexican Elvis”; Toni Rae, one of the few female Elvis impersonators in the world; and Imran Rana, a blind Elvis impersonator from India.

Second- and third-place awards in this category went to, respectively, Indianapolis Monthly and Los Angeles magazine.

The magazine also won a Bronze Medal for General Excellence in the under-30,000 circulation category — the second year in a row Memphis has received this honor.

This year’s competition drew more than 800 entries from the U.S. and Canada. The annual contest is coordinated by the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the City and Regional Magazine Association.

Trying To Get His Ear

Activist hopes to set Mike Tyson straight.

By Mary Cashiola

In one corner is heavyweight Mike Tyson. In the other is not Lennox Lewis but featherweight Brit Peter Tatchell.

Tatchell, a human-rights activist who once attempted a citizen’s arrest of Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe (and got beaten up by Mugabe’s security guards for his trouble), is in Memphis wanting to talk with Tyson.

“I’d like to have a dialogue with Mike Tyson to discuss the concerns of the gay community about his frequent use of homophobic taunts and insults,” says Tatchell. He’s hoping, first, that Tyson will agree to meet with him and, second, that Tyson will stop making homophobic remarks.

During the January pre-fight press conference for Tyson and Lewis, Tyson used the words “faggot” and “coward” in response to a journalist who said Tyson should be in a straitjacket.

“I’m being reasonable,” says Tatchell. “My motive is to set up a dialogue and get Mike to realize that homophobic outbursts reinforce prejudice.”

When asked whether it was reasonable to expect a convicted rapist and an ear-biter to stop making prejudicial remarks, Tatchell paused.

“No one is beyond redemption, not even Mike Tyson. Maybe he doesn’t realize the offense and hurt that his comments have caused the gay community worldwide …We can’t sit back and allow prominent sports stars like Mike Tyson to vilify gay people without impunity,” says Tatchell.

In the event the fighter doesn’t want to meet him, Tatchell says there will probably be protests, but he’s not focusing on them right now. His first order of business is to contact Tyson’s training camp in Tunica. Tatchell also wants to meet with the International Boxing Federation (IBF) to discuss a new policy.

“The IBF comes down very hard on racism. I want it to adopt the same tough stance against homophobic abuse,” he says. He would like to see the IBF introduce guidelines condemning future instances of any type of bigotry, as well as fines and other penalties in those cases.

As for a repeat of the Mugabe incident, Tatchell says that he doesn’t think Tyson or his security people will harm him.

“I’m under 130 pounds,” he says. “That would be most unsporting.”

By the Numbers

U of M receives grant to study crime.

By Simone Barden

The Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Memphis has been awarded a grant of more than half a million dollars for a three-year research project. The Mid-South Social Survey Program will be based on a study similar to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS). The money will be officially awarded to the department on July 1st.

The NCVS tries to identify how many people in the U.S. have been victims of crime. The information is gathered by conducting telephone interviews with a sampling of 1,000 people every six months for a period of three years. The NCVS is different from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, which only measure reported crime. This method doesn’t provide an accurate picture, because many crimes are not reported to police.

The program’s goal is to document the extent of victimization in Memphis, the use of Memphis’ criminal justice system, people’s perception of their neighborhoods, and other neighborhood issues. The program will work in conjunction with the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, and each survey will be directly comparable to the NCVS.

“Important for the study is that we have a representative sample and not only people who use the criminal justice system,” says David Forde, director of the program and former director of the Winnipeg Area Study, a similar project that took place in Canada.

Local crime research projects such as the Mid-South Social Survey Program are rare.

“The Detroit Area Study and the Illinois Survey are two of the very few similar studies in this country,” Forde says.

The first survey will start in September. Forde expects to have the first data available in November.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

City Sports

The Ultimate Job Interview

Grizzlies’ prospects look to make the grade in the big leagues.

By James P. Hill

You’re a basketball star who’s achieved excellence on the playgrounds, in high school, and in college. Now you are a month away from possibly living your childhood dream: being drafted by the NBA. You find yourself shooting the jumper, running cuts, slam-dunking, and playing defense inside a closed gym in Memphis while being critiqued by the Grizzlies president of basketball operations Jerry West. Also along the sidelines are head coach Sidney Lowe, Chuck Daly, Dick Versace, and a staff of scouts.

Why is this workout so intense, so nerve-wracking? Simple. This time it’s about showcasing your game to the NBA, and your fate is bouncing with the basketball. If the Grizzlies are impressed, you could be on your way to The Pyramid as the number four pick in the NBA lottery.

“This is exactly how I envisioned it — just getting up a lot of shots, going through a series of drills, to show different abilities and all you can do,” said Lonnie Baxter, a 6’8″, 250-pound forward from Maryland.

For players like Baxter, Jared Jeffries (Indiana), Jason Jennings (Arkansas State), and Dajuan Wagner, these workouts are the ultimate job interviews. For Mid-South native Jason Jennings (7′, 250 pounds), landing a spot on the Grizzlies’ roster would be an ideal situation. “Being just an hour from my hometown, if I were able to play here, it would draw a lot of fan support from Arkansas, Jonesboro, and the area,” Jennings said. “I think it would be beneficial for the whole community around here, but you never know. You have to see how things go.”

Another aspect of these workouts includes the mental challenge of staying focused — playing solid basketball with a possible career at stake. “You just have to come out here with a good mindset and really be focused on what you’re doing,” said Baxter.

Grizzlies director of player personnel, Tony Barone, is conducting the workouts, and he’s excited about how players are responding. “I’ve been really impressed with the intensity level of the guys who have come in,” he said. “This is a taxing deal for these guys because they’re in a foreign environment. They really don’t know what to expect, and there is a lot of pressure on them.”

The Grizzlies have their eye on several underclassmen. Jared Jeffries, the 6’10”, 240-pound sophomore forward from Indiana, appeared stronger than his stature would indicate. Jeffries averaged 15 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.1 steals per contest in the challenging Big Ten Conference. Many believe Jeffries improved his chances of being a higher draft pick by leading the Hoosiers to the NCAA Final Four. Jeffries appeared competitive, confident, and motivated. “I see myself just playing,” he said. “If they have me come in and want me to play this position, I’ll play that. It just depends on what they want me to do.”

Finally, freshman phenom Dajuan Wagner, the 6’3″ guard from Memphis, was also very impressive, according to Grizzlies head coach Sidney Lowe. “He had a very nice workout,” Lowe said. “And he showed some of the skills that we thought he had. Once he got loose, he stroked it. You can see the athleticism, the talent there. He’s going to be a very good player in this league.”

For Wagner, playing for the Grizzlies would be a perfect fit. “I will be excited about any team,” he said. “But you know I would love to play in Memphis.”

Too Big

It’s time for a change in Conference USA.

By Ron Martin

The time is at hand for Conference USA to think outside the box. The king is naked. His subjects have to come to the realization that change is in order. Big change.

Conference USA needs to show the door to non-football-playing members St. Louis, Charlotte, Marquette, and DePaul. It needs to decide what its philosophy is and present it to its members and the sporting world at large.

Soon after returning from the recent C-USA meetings in Destin, Florida, University of Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson listened to my ideas without laughing. Regarding the deletion of the non-football schools, he said, “It’s something we’ve got to look at, because we’re too big. That’s what the Mountain West did when they broke away from the WAC. It makes it cleaner, gives us a better image, and is easier to manage. We’re a mixture of urban and rural schools. We need to know what we want to be.”

Johnson agreed that there is a perception that the conference doesn’t have a philosophy — and that the perception may be true. “We need to decide what we want to be,” he said. “We’ve grown so fast, it’s hard to keep up.”

The potential realignment of basketball divisions brings other issues to the forefront. There are too many teams (15) and too many institutions putting their own interest above the league’s. “We need to think of what is best for the league, and I think we’re coming to that, but we’re not there yet,” Johnson said.

Basketball realignment is not the only situation facing C-USA. Eleven schools participate in football, creating much the same problem as in basketball. The numbers just don’t work if a championship playoff is in the future. ABC television has already allotted a time slot for the C-USA championship but not under its current format.

One glamour name was bandied around as a possible new member in Destin: Notre Dame. “[The athletic directors] put together a wish list, so why not wish for the best,” Johnson said. “It’s worth pursuing and there have been informal talks, but realistically, there’s probably not much chance of it happening.”

Bringing Notre Dame into the fold would be a plus, but not a panacea. Conference USA needs strong leadership. Commissioner Mike Slive’s ability to lead the league from its birth to a viable association is commendable. But, unfortunately, it’s becoming more of an association than a league. His power seems to be that of a negotiator more than a leader. While that may be the fault of the members, it’s a situation that has to change. Collegiate athletics is a dog-eat-dog world. Consider the SEC as a reference point.

Can Slive take the conference to the next level? When the presidents of the member schools meet next month, it’s an issue that must be addressed before other issues can even be considered.

Flyers As you read this, the Southeastern Conference is concluding its meetings in Destin. Questions that need to be answered: Will the power struggle end soon and the search for a replacement for retiring commissioner Roy Kramer begin? Will the reason for Ole Miss chancellor Robert Khayat’s apparent rush for power be revealed?

Commitments from Nick Price and David Toms make this year’s FedEx St. Jude Classic field one of the best in the tourney’s history.

Ramblings Rashaad Carruth decided not to pay his way onto the U of M basketball team, thank you … Just thought I’d ask: Will the downtown homeless be forced to find new homes during fight week for appearance’s sake? … If collegiate soccer players can play for professional teams and keep their eligibility if they aren’t paid, then why can’t other student-athletes? … The irony of the week: Run Ole Miss chancellor Robert Khayat’s name in a computer spell-check and the word “cheat” pops up. Yet it’s Khayat who is aggressively trying to stem the cheating tide with his proposal for an SEC police force. He’s swimming upstream.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Turnaround Time

Memphis City Schools superintendent Johnnie Watson is on the right track in pledging to reconstitute those schools still on the state’s low-performing list in 2004. Under an approach based on high standards and accountability, reconstituting schools should be viewed as the final sanction for schools that are not achieving.

The first step is regular assessments, required by the state and now by the federal government under the “No Child Left Behind Act.” Whether we like it or not, annual testing is a fact of life. If tests are aligned with curricula, they can be an important tool to identify schools and students that are not measuring up.

Our community is now faced with the second and perhaps most crucial step in turning around our failing schools: giving them the resources they need to achieve.

School districts like Memphis face myriad challenges, such as a shortage of qualified teachers, high concentrations of poverty, and inadequate facilities and resources. They cannot be expected to shoulder the burden alone. The No Child Left Behind Act was tied to a 15 percent increase in federal education funding for this very purpose.

Although the Bush administration’s 2003 budget only provided a 2.8 percent increase in education dollars, I am working with my colleagues in Congress to make good on the promise to help states and school districts like Memphis meet this new federal mandate.

At the local level, the school board, administrators, and elected officials have offered a number of proposals to improve student performance, including school uniforms, extending the school year, tutoring, and after-school programs. I am encouraged by these proposals.

The next step should be to leverage the expertise, resources, and time of our leading corporate citizens and employers to get the schools off the state’s list. In major cities throughout the nation, school systems have partnered with civic-minded business leaders to promote and maintain high standards. If there was ever a time to initiate such a partnership in Memphis, it is now.

Since December, I have worked with various corporate leaders, students, principals, and teachers to formulate a turnaround plan to encourage companies to become directly involved with the 64 schools on the state’s poor-performing list. Under the proposal, participating businesses would work with principals and teachers in low-performing schools. They would identify specific needs and then provide the schools with assistance in exchange for a federal tax credit for the amount of committed resources. Companies would be expected to look within their own organizations for volunteers to provide tutoring, mentoring, or other expertise.

Participating businesses should look to the efforts at Snowden and Carnes elementary schools, among others, where principals are using performance data to raise test scores, identify under-performing students, and hold teachers accountable. This approach not only helps students perform better on tests, it serves as an “early warning system” to identify where they are falling short and need help.

Business leaders should not be expected to meet the challenge of improving our schools just because it is the right thing to do. They should also partner with schools because it is in their self-interest. It puts a premium on knowledge in a global marketplace in which employers are increasingly having difficulty recruiting skilled workers.

The Business Roundtable estimates that the percentage of U.S. companies reporting a lack of skilled employees as a barrier to growth has increased from 27 percent to 69 percent over the last 10 years. Maintaining high standards will pay dividends in the form of an educated workforce, and the entire community will benefit.

A “turnaround team” is not a silver bullet that will solve all of our education problems, but it is a vital element of a broader community effort to give students the knowledge and skills to succeed in today’s marketplace.

Harold Ford Jr. is congressman for Tennessee’s 7th District and is a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Categories
News The Fly-By

CHURCH VS. STATE

MPD director Walter Crews has enlisted a group of Christian missionaries to help with security on the night of the Tyson-Lewis fight. We all know how often muggings have been thwarted by divine intervention. Spider-Man, it seems, was not available.

Categories
Cover Feature News

The $20 Million Question

Cover story by John Branston and Mary Cashiola

Additional reporting by Simone Barden and Bianca Phillips

At the Ducks Unlimited Great Outdoors Festival this weekend, an estimated 100,000 people will jam a noisy corner of Shelby Farms to shoot firearms and bows and arrows, roar around on four-wheelers and SUVs, scramble up climbing walls, paddle canoes, cook chili and duck gumbo, watch lumberjacks make wood chips fly, and poke around in tents and camping equipment.

And after three days, the festival will shut down and the crowds will disappear along with most of the activities. Then Shelby Farms will go back to being a place where people stroll around a lake, walk their dogs, hang out in parking lots, pick strawberries, and gaze at a herd of bison. And, of course, sit in traffic jams on their way to or from work.

Somewhere between these two extremes lies the future of Shelby Farms when it becomes Shelby Park.

If the Shelby County Commission follows through on its initial approval, all 4,450 acres of Shelby Farms will be turned over in July to an independent conservancy that will use a privately funded $20 million endowment to make improvements over several years. A master plan will be commissioned to fulfill the vision of a quiet, free park protected by a conservation easement and forever off-limits to developers.

The resulting park will truly be one-of-a-kind — 13 times the size of Overton Park, five times the size of Central Park in New York City, bigger even than Gettysburg or Shiloh military parks.

The Memphis Flyer and other local media have previously reported the views of park visionary Ron Terry, former chairman and CEO of First Tennessee National Corporation, as well as the dissenting opinions of Shelby County commissioners concerned that “affluence buys influence” and that public officials are giving up too much control of too many projects. In this story, the Flyer takes a look at Shelby Farms from the perspective of the people who use it every day. We interviewed more than 60 park-users of all ages as well as staff and volunteers in virtually every corner of the park, from the riding stables to the strawberry fields to Patriot Lake to the shooting range.

Most people were at least vaguely aware that changes are in the works for Shelby Farms, but few of them grasped the magnitude of the plan or the size of the park itself. Asked how large they thought Shelby Farms is, people guessed anywhere from 100 acres to 1,500 acres.

“I like it just the way it is, and I wish the people who want to develop this place would just leave it alone,” said Wes Wolfe. “It’s just like a great big backyard.”

The majority of concerns we found were fairly mundane — goose and duck poop around Patriot Lake, a general lack of bathrooms, not enough parking or playground equipment, and shoestring maintenance. Park officials, strapped for funds and personnel, did not disagree.

“Cleaning up goose poop is a full-time job,” said Steve Satterfield, interim superintendent of Shelby Farms.

The staff has its hands full just cutting 600 to 700 acres of grass every week. The Shelby Farms operating deficit is expected to exceed $500,000 this fiscal year, which is one of the reasons for turning it over to a conservancy.

Some users would like to see big-ticket improvements that are impossible under the current budget.

“I think it would be nice to have a public swimming pool,” said Ruth Rike, who has been coming to Shelby Farms for 32 years to walk and pick strawberries.

“They need something other than just a park, like a little golf course,” suggested Wendy Lopez. “They need something more for kids than just a play area.”

Over at the public shooting range, Bill Gregory was glad to have a chance to vent to a reporter about the plan to close the range this year and relocate it to an unspecified place.

“We pay to come out here,” he said. “It’s $7 to shoot. Nobody else pays. No one pays to fly a kite, ride a bike, or walk the dog. We pay. I don’t know where we’ll go when this place closes.”

Those ideas are likely to be unpopular with the conservancy, which will be oriented toward passive recreation and public health, based on its vision statement and proposed bylaws. But if our interviews made anything clear, it is that just about any idea, no matter how seemingly innocent, has fierce proponents and detractors.

Take shade trees.

“I think more trees around Patriot Lake would really improve Shelby Farms,” said Rhonda Clark.

Don’t tell that to the Tornado Alley Sailing Club.

“Last year, they started planting trees at this lake, which is the only open lake around here,” said Lee Shackelford, sailing on the lake with friends. “But they don’t realize that every tree hinders the wind we need to sail.”

And it may take the wisdom of Solomon to decide what to do about the ducks and geese. Little children love to feed them; others, tired of stepping in goose poop, would like to feed them a load of 12-gauge shot.

“We have hundreds of newly hatched goslings,” said Satterfield. “We’ve been talking to wildlife resource to get rid of them. If they learn to fly here, they’ll probably learn to stick around. They migrate back here and nest here.”

Then there is the issue of roads.

“Everyone’s scared of parking lots and I’ll probably make some people mad by saying this,” said Satterfield, “but on Saturday morning, all the lots are filled. People don’t have any alternative but to park on the grass.”

That means the grass won’t grow, and the compacted soil contributes to the erosion of the park. There are similar issues with roads into the park’s interior. By minimizing roads in the past to preserve the park’s pastoral nature, officials unwittingly encouraged people to drive off-road to get to the out-of-the-way places of the park.

“From a conservation point of view,” said Satterfield, “I think everybody could live with a solution where we provided them with some more roads [inside the park]. Right now, [off-road driving] is uncontrollable.”

History: A $200 Million Asset

Keeping all of this in perspective, Shelby Farms is the sort of “problem” any city would love to have. No other major urban area has so much undeveloped land located so close to the geographic and population center of the county. The people backing the conservancy — Terry, the Hyde Family Foundation, Mike McDonnell, the Plough Foundation, Lee Winchester — are lifelong Memphians with decades of involvement in conservation and civic causes. A $20 million endowment would fund both short-term and long-term improvements that would bring thousands of new visitors to a cleaner, prettier, and more interesting park.

But by focusing single-mindedly on passive parkland and conservation, county residents are oversimplifying the history of Shelby Farms and leaving millions of dollars of potential revenue on the table.

Shelby Farms was never intended to be a 4,450-acre park — urban, suburban, or otherwise. Its origins predate the term suburbia. In 1928, Shelby County bought 1,600 acres to relocate the Penal Farm, miles away from the outskirts of Memphis (Shelby Farms today is inside the city limits of Memphis but is run by the county.) By 1946, the farm had grown to 4,450 acres. In the late 1960s, development was lapping at its edges and a prison farm was an anachronism. The county considered selling all or part of it. Boyle Development and the Maryland-based Rouse Company proposed a huge planned development that would have accommodated 40,000 residents and 12,000 housing units. Over several years in the 1970s, the plan was defeated by a coalition of environmentalists and developers. By 1976, county officials were so weary of the haggling that they offered to transfer Shelby Farms to the city of Memphis. But then-county mayor Roy Nixon vetoed the plan.

There has been sporadic development of Shelby Farms since then, notably Patriot Lake and the welcome center, Agricenter International, Shelby Showplace Arena, and a couple of restaurants. The closest thing to a commercial development is the headquarters of Ducks Unlimited, completed in 1992, mainly through the efforts of former county mayor Bill Morris and businessman Billy Dunavant, an avid hunter. The one- and two-story headquarters building houses 160 employees.

Ducks Unlimited, a nonprofit organization dedicated to wetlands conservation and waterfowl hunting, has a sweetheart lease. It pays no rent for 40 years.

“We give the county up to 500 hours of free consultation on wetlands and other conservation issues every year,” said chief financial officer Randy Graves, who is talking to the Agricenter about extending its lease for another 40 years.

The offices and parking lots of Ducks Unlimited are so unobtrusive and heavily landscaped that many people speeding by on Walnut Grove Road don’t even realize they’re there — except during the annual Great Outdoors Festival. The event jams the park with sports enthusiasts, shuttle buses, exhibitors and shoppers, and kids getting a taste of activities that either are not allowed or soon will be banned inside Shelby Park, such as skeet shooting, archery, and four-wheeling. Other less testosterone-charged recreations like dog training, canoeing, biking, and hiking would be enhanced under the conservancy plan.

“We’re pretty excited about it,” said Graves. “At first, we were a little nervous, but I have personally been attending some of the meetings with the county and Ron Terry. The Outdoors Festival would be exempt from some of the restrictions, and there would be no abatements on us as a tenant except for a new entrance if Walnut Grove Road goes away.”

In general, Shelby County government has made little effort to attract commercial sponsorships in Shelby Farms, and most members of the county commission and the proposed conservancy are opposed to them in principle. Ducks Unlimited, however, has no such qualms. The Great Outdoors Festival has 15 sponsors (technically, it’s the Ducks Unlimited Great Outdoors Festival presented by Suzuki). Like Memphis in May, it also charges an entrance fee which brings in over $1 million. The attendance suggests that people don’t mind paying $10 to come to a park if you give them something to see and do.

Other special events at Shelby Farms over the years have included the Starry Nights driving tour at Christmas, a Christian concert and festival, a Civil War reenactment, the Tour de Wolf bicycle race, and a farmers’ market. County officials have shunned efforts to build a golf course or a zoo. Even a golf driving range, which could bring in enough income to pay the annual operating expenses with little impact on the park, was rejected. A contract for a paddle-boat concession was signed but has not been fulfilled.

Projected revenue for the year ending June 30, 2002, is $2.1 million, mostly from Agricenter International and Shelby Showplace Arena. Excluding those, the park was projected to bring in only $391,000, including a Christian rock concert which was canceled, costing the park $150,000 in revenue. With expenditures of $775,000, the operating deficit exceeds $500,000.

What is Shelby Farms worth if parts of it were sold or leased for commercial development? A conservative estimate is at least $200 million.

Waymon “Jackie” Welch of Welch Realty, a leading suburban developer, has over the past decade sold several tracts adjoining the park to businesses and restaurants. Based on sales he made in the last four years, Welch said land along Germantown Parkway is worth at least $500,000 an acre, which is what he got this year for a site for a Chuck E. Cheese’s near Dexter Road. The abandoned soccer fields and nearby property south of Walnut Grove on the west side of the park could be worth $200,000 an acre. And hundreds of other acres are worth, conservatively, $60,000 to $100,000 per acre.

“It is, without question, a premier site that would attract national attention,” Welch said. Alternately, the county could keep the land itself and lease it.

“This could generate millions and millions of dollars a year in ground leases and taxes,” he said. “In three years, you’d have $2 million to $3 million a month plus taxes coming in to the county.”

Welch added that he has no expectation that this will happen in light of political realities, despite the county’s mounting $1.3 billion debt.

Park Or Park Place?

Shelby Farms defies slogans and clichés. Two popular bumper stickers, “Don’t Split Shelby Farms” and “Shelby Farms: Keep It Green,” ignore the fact that the park is already split and interior roads and parking lots keep people from driving off-road to get to their favorite spots. Often described as “an urban jewel,” even its ardent backers, including Terry, admit that it is lightly used and that many Memphians are oblivious to it.

If part of the park’s new mission is to contribute to a healthier community by providing a place to hike, bike, skate, and go horseback riding, does the park need new management and private funding to provide activities already available?

Ranger Rick Richardson is at Shelby Farms at least five days a week, both as an employee and as a volunteer. As a volunteer, Richardson picks up trash and does maintenance and repairs in addition to his shift on the mounted patrol.

Richardson has heard his share of skepticism:

“If you have to give $250,000 to be on the conservancy board and have a say as to what happens there, is the general public going to be able to have any input? It’ll be run by wealthy people. I hear concerns from visitors. They say, ‘Why change the name to Shelby Park? They should change the name to Shelby Country Club. That’s what it’s going to be.'”

Satterfield, the interim superintendent of the park since last year, points to the county’s mounting debt. In the grand scheme of things, the park is competing in a race for funds alongside county schools, roads, and jails. And it’s losing.

In fact, the parts of the park that are most often utilized by the public were not funded by Shelby County in the first place. Satterfield said the park’s greatest assets are its gathering places: the Patriot Lake and Chickasaw trails.

“Those trails were funded with grant funds,” said Satterfield.

The grants were from a federal program for highway, trail, and road improvements. The county mayor’s office was involved in securing the funds, but the trails were not paid for with county money. Likewise, bathrooms and playground areas have been donated by private businesses.

Satterfield doesn’t know what will happen to county employees at the park, but he believes that the conservancy is probably the only way to utilize the park to its fullest potential.

“Part of the beauty, in my mind, of the park is that there’s nothing there,” he said. “In the fields, there aren’t any obstructions. You don’t see any buildings. The beauty is in the pastoral nature. I hope they can retain that. It’s nice to be able to come across the Wolf River and boom! Wide open spaces.”

Central Park — Size: 843 acres. Population served: 20 million. Conservancy lease: 8 years, 60-member board. Private funds: $270 million. History: Frederick Law Olmsted’s masterpiece.

Shelby Park — Size: 4,450 acres. Population served: 1 million. Conservancy lease: 100 years, 11-member board. Private funds: $20 million. History: Shelby County Penal Farm in 1929.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Shots Across the Bow

State troopers ringing the Capitol grounds last week.

NASHVILLE — In case anybody thought Phil Bredesen‘s “repeal-an-income-tax” pledge of three weeks ago was incidental, accidental, or a sign of political foot-in-mouth disease, they should certainly know better after last week.

Even as Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, surprise loser in a historic House flat-tax vote, was licking his wounds in a public press conference on Wednesday of last week, the ex-Nashville mayor and current Democratic gubernatorial hopeful was having copies of his latest income-tax bashing circulated in Legislative Plaza.

Although the statement contained a grace note about the “good people” who disagreed with him, Bredesen concluded by saying, “The income tax came to a vote today, and it clearly failed. Now it’s time to move on. We need to focus on better managing state government, fixing the problems in TennCare, and growing the economy to address our long term budget problems.” GOP candidate Van Hilleary, who had made exhortatory phone calls to anti-tax legislators and called the income-tax protest an example of “Americana,” had issued a similar statement somewhat earlier.

Inasmuch as Naifeh even then was suggesting he might try and try again to get his 4.5 percent package enacted this week, Bredesen’s newest statement was a clear shot across the bow, an even greater challenge to the Speaker than Bredesen’s previous seconding of Hilleary’s promise to repeal any such income-tax package that got passed in this session.

In the wake of that one-two punch, which had come as Naifeh first set out to build his 50-vote coalition, the Speaker had privately expressed his fury and let it be known publicly that he was not going to be taking Bredesen’s phone calls.

In such a context, Bredesen’s newest statement has to be read not only as a further repudiation of the income-tax concept but as a purposeful distancing of himself from Naifeh and, for that matter, from the current legislative leadership of his party.

There is already speculation that the ultimate failure of the income-tax bill in this session might mean curtains for Naifeh as House leader (as it almost certainly does for Steve McDaniel of Parker’s Crossroad in West Tennessee, the Republicans’ leader and a flat-tax supporter); Bredesen’s posture can be interpreted as an attitude of “so be it” — if not something stronger.

During the fallout from his “repeal” statement, Bredesen had explained himself by saying he did not intend to let Hilleary, his likely fall opponent, make the income tax a focal issue in the governor’s race. He seems to be saying something stronger now — that he does not intend to let the party which he hopes to lead into the future be tied to the carcass of a dead issue.

Three weeks ago, some high-ranking Democrats launched an anonymously attributed trial balloon, telling Bredesen, in effect, that he was weakening his credibility by seeming to be in a Pete-RePete relationship with Hilleary on the income tax and that there was a ceiling on how many times he could safely repeat that kind of misadventure.

Bredesen’s statement last week can be taken as his answer to that message, as an affirmation that he knows what he’s doing and the consequences be damned.

Those who have talked to Bredesen in the wake of the income-tax vote and his response to it suggest that he is indeed aware that he might be, directly or indirectly, accelerating a shakeup in the legislative hierarchy, and, although the initial reaction to his most recent statement among Democrats — especially those in the General Assembly — was unfavorable, already some have begun to embrace — or at least consider — a newer thought: Maybe, just maybe, Bredesen is right. On the political scale, anyhow.

n Nobody could have been more surprised than state House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh when the vote on his carefully shepherded 4.5 percent income-tax package was taken on Wednesday of last week.

Even as others were puzzling out the pattern of green (for aye) and red (for nay) votes on the House chamber tote board, Naifeh had gotten his answer from the special counter mounted in his Speaker’s rostrum. What it said was: 45 Aye, 53 Nay. (There was no dot by the name of Nashville Democrat — and income-tax opponent — Sherry Jones, injured in a recent auto accident and therefore absent.)

Naifeh then said, “Does any member want to change their vote?” Most members were still counting, but the Speaker’s uncharacteristically soft and lamb-like, even hurt, tone was a giveaway. And the eyes of knowledgeable legislators, media types, and gallery spectators sooner or later fell on the names of the apostates — Buck, Windle, Fraley, Pruitt, Phillips, and one or two others — who had promised or otherwise indicated they were on board with Naifeh, who had let it be known two weeks ago that he wouldn’t bring the bill up unless he had the 50-plus votes needed for passage.

In the general milling-about that followed (which turned into a two-hour wait while the board stayed open and Naifeh and other members of the House leadership desperately pleaded and arm-twisted and looked for other ways to get some votes changed), some of the bill’s supporters made it clear what they thought had happened.

One was Kathryn Bowers, the diminutive Memphis Democrat and influential Black Caucus member whose conversion to the bill’s temporary-sales-tax provision on Monday had been interpreted as a sign that the votes were at hand. “Seven folks told a real big [pause] you-know-what!” she said.

Others were not so dainty. Said Carol Chumney, another Memphis Democrat, “Some people lied and left others out on a limb to get beat!” That was a thought. One such had been Zane Whitson, the soft-spoken representative from the far Republican east, who had pleaded with his colleagues to vote yes so as not to let the state’s educational systems fall further into disrepair. There were others.

Democratic Rep. George Fraley, the Korean vet and Winchester farmer whose name had been on everybody’s list, happened to pass by Chumney, who asked him, in so many words, whereof he tucked tail. Fraley replied sternly, “I told you this morning I wasn’t going to vote for it!”

Naifeh went to his Legislative Plaza office, to which he summoned the recalcitrants one by one, while Speaker Pro Tem Lois DeBerry, Democratic Caucus chair Randy Rinks, and others were doggedly beseeching the membership.

Viewing the scene from afar were Shelby County Republicans Tre Hargett and Paul Stanley, two nay votes from the get-go. “They’re working Buck and Windle and Newton pretty good,” observed Stanley of the leadership’s unyielding ministrations with Democrats Frank Buck (Dowellton) and John Mark Windle (Livingston) and Republican Chris Newton (Cleveland).

Hargett and Stanley joked about guarding their vote buttons to keep somebody from changing them to ayes while their backs were turned.

It never came to that, of course. As the word was passed from somewhere that Missouri’s legislature had once kept a vote open for three days before certifying it, everybody settled in for a long siege of sorts, an internal one corresponding to the external one being kept by noisy anti-tax demonstrators outside the Capitol.

It never came to that either. Ultimately, Naifeh et al. persuaded Reps. Buck, Fraley, Mary Pruitt (D-Nashville), and John Tidwell (D-New Johnsonville) to “blue-light” their votes (change from nay to “present and not voting”) so as to hold the negative votes under 50 and keep somebody from moving to certify the nay vote as final, making it impossible to revive the bill during the current session.

State Senator Marsha Blackburn of Williamson County, a candidate for the 7th District congressional seat, talks the East Shelby Republican Club as four local opponents listen. Left to right: Sonny Carlota, Brent Taylor, David Kustoff, and state Senator Mark Norris.

“The sun is still shining,” said Rep. Don Ridgeway (D-Paris), a partisan of the bill, afterward, but there was little of that sunshine left for the bill’s prospects.

“It’s over” was the reported sentiment from Sen. Larry Trail, a Murfreesboro Democrat who had been counted on by some as a last-ditch prospect to become aye vote number 17 if it should reach the Senate, where 16 votes, one short, had supposedly been gathered to second a favorable House vote.

Several of the senators had lined the back wall of the House chamber before and during the voting, waiting to see if the burden of decision would come their way or not.

“There’s number 17!” somebody had jokingly said to Sen. Lincoln Davis (D-Pall Mall). “No, I’m Number 235,” responded Davis, a candidate for Congress from the 4th District and one who had long made it crystal-clear that he would not be found on the incriminating side of a Senate tally.

The bottom line was that, while Speaker Naifeh would probably try again, the kind of opposition that had been mounted to this bill from outside the Capitol made it likely that, for it to pass, somebody in both legislative chambers — several somebodies, in fact — would have to be persuaded to write a new — and self-dooming — chapter or two into Profiles In Courage.

It wasn’t just that radio talk-show hosts Phil Valentine and Steve Gill were outside exhorting their multitudes against the “cockroaches” (Gill) and “scum” and “commies” (Valentine) inside. As free-lance broadcaster Sherman Noboson, a Capitol veteran, pointed out, running back Eddie George and other millionaire members of the Tennessee Titans had been lobbying hard against the income-tax measure too. And that’s what you call resistance!

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We Recommend We Recommend

Fe-Maulers

It is a perfect spring day, fading into a perfect spring night. The sun has just crested over the football field at Oakhaven High School, and even the stubbly grass has taken on a golden hue.

“RIP SOMEONE’S HEAD OFF!!” comes barreling over the lawn. It is guttural, angry, an obvious battle cry meant to inspire action in one team and fear in the other. The two teams take their places on the 50-yard line, seething fire and brimstone between them.

But wait … is that a ponytail slick with sweat hanging out of that helmet? It is. This is a game between two teams in the Independent Women’s Football League, a version of tackle football that is every bit as violent, angry, and intense as anything played by a man. Even on these benches, players who wear their hair long do so at their own risk — the easiest way to get a woman down is to pull on that ponytail.

“Tackle football is tackle football,” says Memphis Maulers general manager Tiffany Ross. “We hit and we hit hard.”

This professional football league was started in 2000 by some women in Austin, Texas, who wanted to play real football, not the powder-puff version. Now the league, whose season runs from April through July, has 13 teams across the country and Canada.

“A lot of people think, Oh, I’m going to get hurt, but that’s what the pads are for,” says Ross. “Don’t get me wrong. You do get some stingers, but it doesn’t really hurt.”

Ross, a lineman (linewoman?) on the team, never really wanted to be a GM, but her desire to play football was so great that she took on the responsibility.

“I watched football when I was a kid. I always wanted to play full contact,” she says. She learned about the league and thought it would be a good fit in Memphis. “I put an ad in the paper and got about 60 calls from women wanting to play. Only one of them actually showed up.” Ross eventually tapped into a supply of wannabe football players at the University of Memphis, but last season the team only had 13 people on it. Whether they were playing offense or defense, almost everyone was on the field at any given time.

For whatever reason, football is one of the last bastions in sports where women haven’t taken to the court or the field en masse. Even among the women on the team, none has played tackle extensively. (There’s a rumor that a few of them barely knew what a first down was when they joined.)

Ross says that many of the women are natural athletes, having played other sports. Now that there’s an opportunity for it, they play this one too.

As for the game, it’s as rough-and-tumble as they come. The coaches scream, and you can hear them clearly, every F-word. The women — or ladies, as they are always called — yell at each other, grab face masks, pull ponytails, and pinch during the pile-ups. And then there are the fights.

“The intensity level gets so high,” says Ross, “that you just want to hit somebody. There are quite a few fights. It’s hard sometimes to walk away.” If you think they take it easy just because they’re female, you’ve got another think coming. This is not your kinder, gentler football.

Unfortunately, there aren’t that many people here to see it. There are no cheerleaders, no band, no half-time entertainment. Though there are some guys dotting the stands, the fans are mostly women. Perhaps that’s not a surprise. Cast a female protagonist in a movie, it’s labeled a “chick flick.” Even the WNBA, now in its sixth season and with a host of women superstars, has a core female fan base. The level of play in the WNBA is the stuff of dreams; those women have been taking it to the hoop since elementary and middle school, if not before. They’ve benefited from the words and wisdom of years of coaching.

That’s something the women on the Maulers lack.

“We haven’t been playing since we were 3 years old. It’s going to take a little bit of ground-building to get younger women serious about playing football,” says Ross. The team’s coach, Devin Ragland, tellingly, is a peewee-league coach. “Once you start playing and then you watch a game on TV, it really gives you a whole new perspective.”

One of the hardest things for the team is not learning plays or taking hits but marketing themselves to the public. Most of them work 9-to-5 jobs before spending about two hours every night in practice. It doesn’t leave much time for fund-raising, and they don’t have money to advertise the league.

Asked why she plays football despite all the difficulties, Ross’ answer is no different from any man’s: “It’s an adrenaline rush. It’s fun.”

“The men I’ve talked to outside my workplace are very leery of women playing football. It’s almost like a joke to them,” says Ross. “For me, it’s all about a time line. It’s hard to get used to change. It’s hard for me too. But whether the league grows or doesn’t grow at all, I can say I played football. And so can every member on that team.”

The next Memphis Maulers home game is on Saturday, June 8th, at Oakhaven High School, against the Tulsa Tornadoes. For more information, call 219-4470.