Month: October 2002

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News The Fly-By

THIS LITTLE PIGGY

Former governor and senatorial hopeful Lamar Alexander has been sounding like a broken record lately responding to opponent Bob Clement s barrage of attacks, Alexander repeats the phrase Never wrestle with a pig in the mud. You both get dirty, and the pig likes it as if the tired old saw formed the basis of the formerly plaid-clad candidate s folksy platform. While in Memphis, Alexander tooted his own horn for the temporary appointment of Tennessee s first African-American Supreme Court justice, George H Brown Jr., blasting Clement for not supporting the minority candidate in his subsequent, unsuccessful campaign for the full-time judgeship. Clement, who had no clever rural proverb with which to defend himself, might have replied, Never marry a pig wearing sexy makeup. When the makeup washes off, you re stuck kissing an ordinary pig, and the pig likes it. But, unfortunately, he didn t.

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News The Fly-By

City Reporter

Child Care-less

Former Cherokee customer tries to break free of the system.

By Mary Cashiola

In 1998, while Cherokee Children and Family Services executive director WillieAnn Madison was jaunting off to Europe, Ms. A. Chapman was living on $184 a month from Tennessee’s Families First program. She had gone through a divorce, and as she puts it, sometimes, people just aren’t hiring. Through Families First, she developed a Personal Responsibility Plan, went to continuing-education classes, and got free child care for her three children through Cherokee.

Since April 2001, Chapman — who asked that her first name not be used — has been working as a secretary for the fire department. Her job pays about $8 an hour, and from that, she pays about $110 a month for “transitional” child care, meaning her child care is subsidized by the state. But when she went back in August to renew, she was told she would have to pay for care starting in November.

“I’m trying to get off the system. I’m trying to be a responsible parent. But once I started working, they never sat down and told me that my child care would be cut off. The first I heard about it was when I went to be recertified,” said Chapman.

Through the state department of human services, people on Families First can get 18 months transitional child care. Department spokesperson Dana Keeton said that the agency is very careful to tell people up front that transitional child care only lasts 18 months. “We can’t be there for the rest of their lives,” said Keeton. “They need to be making plans for what they’ll do after that time period.”

“The transitional programs are there to give people a chance to get their feet on the ground,” said Keeton. “It’s been very successful. When a state doesn’t have a transitional program, people get a job and, all of a sudden, have a lot of responsibilities to meet. Transitional programs get them ready for complete independence.”

But for some, it might not be enough time. Without the state aid, single mother Chapman said she will have to pay $88 a week for her 2-year-old, $38 a week for her 10-year-old, and $88 a month for her 12-year-old — $592 a month.

“With utilities, rent, and transportation, I don’t have the money to pay child care,” said Chapman. “When I told him this, the interviewer [at the local office] said, ‘Can’t you quit your job and go back on AFDC? If you quit, we can get your child care back.'”

It’s not exactly true — recipients have to be off aid for three months before getting back on the rolls — nor is Chapman willing to seriously consider it. And Keeton said that it is not what the department advises or would hope any of its employees would advise.

“That’s like going backward,” Chapman said. “I know women who are constantly getting back on the system. If you quit, you can’t get any more help. So they just won’t show up for their job, and then, they’ll get fired. If you get fired, you can go back on the system. But I’m tired of going back on the system.”

Chapman said she’s not sure what she is going to do.

Social Studies

MCS board addresses downtown school’s options.

By Mary Cashiola

Memphis City Schools superintendent Johnnie Watson wants to make the new downtown elementary school an optional school with a focus on social studies. The school won’t open until August 2003, but the social-studies lesson begins now.

“I’m tired of hearing that optional schools are better. I am tired of those schools getting all the credit. Optional schools started as a way to stop white flight. Now, it’s institutional racism,” said Commissioner Hubon “Dutch” Sandridge at Monday night’s meeting. Sandridge’s comments began a long debate.

With a number of downtown residents — many of them white — addressing the board in support of an optional program downtown, many of the board’s black commissioners spoke out about inequalities in the city and the system.

“We recently opened 15 new schools, but this is the first time the superintendent has brought a program to us for an optional school,” said Commissioner Sara Lewis. “This sends the sinister message that some schools ain’t equal.”

In the past, the district’s optional schools have been targets of blame for other failing schools. The argument is that without optional schools, higher-performing students would be dispersed throughout the district instead of concentrated at certain schools.

Board president Michael Hooks Jr. said he was for optional schools but not for an exclusive school for downtown residents. “I hate to keep using racism as even an issue, but let’s face it: The more money you earn, the more likely your children are to be higher achievers,” he said. “And in Memphis, the more money you earn, the less likely you are to be black.”

There were also questions concerning whether all parents working downtown would have the opportunity to enroll their children and how many students are currently eligible to attend the school, which has a capacity of 745. But despite that, most of the board commissioners professed to be in favor of an optional-school program, if not an exclusive optional school, because they’ve seen it work.

Board members voted to wait on an optional-schools study before making a final decision on the downtown school.

Gibbons Requests Investigation

Jones’ and County Clerk’s Office’s credit-card abuse may be looked into by TBI.

By Mary Cashiola

The pressure continues to mount on some Shelby County officials regarding possible misuse of county funds.

On Tuesday, Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons released a statement through his office announcing his request for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to investigate activities by certain employees of the Juvenile Court Clerk’s Office under Shep Wilbun and former county mayor assistant Tom Jones, all of whom have been linked to county credit-card abuses. “The purpose of the investigation is to determine whether any state criminal law violations have occurred,” read the statement. It did not go into detail about what activities — whether credit-card-related or not — the TBI is investigating.

Jennifer Zunk, special assistant to the district attorney, said the office had no additional statement it could make as of press time. Gibbons is out of town until next week.

There is no estimated completion date for the investigations at this time.

Signs of the Times

City council approves Walnut Grove stop signs, despite recommendations to the contrary.

By Mary Cashiola

In a world of speed Bumps, road-width restricters, and roundabouts, the city council decided to go with old-fashioned stop signs for a cut-through to Walnut Grove.

In an effort to retrain motorists and appease the surrounding neighborhood, the city council voted last week to put in a four-way stop sign at the intersection of Walnut Bend and Walnut Creek. But in doing so, they went against the advice of the city engineer and traffic guidelines adopted by the state of Tennessee.

“I’ve been getting calls about that intersection for the last five years or so,” Councilman Brent Taylor said earlier this week. “I had been trying to get relief for the neighbors by working through the administration, but it had been to no avail. The problem continued to fester. I realized I needed to involve the council.”

When the intersection was part of the county, there was a four-way stop sign there. But after annexation, the city took out two of the signs. According to guidelines set out in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (the national traffic-control bible) and traffic volume on the streets, the intersection did not warrant a four-way stop.

“Our major concern is if we put in a four-way stop that is unwarranted, it will simply breed contempt for the device,” city engineer Wain Gaskins told the council. Gaskins, who had to be called into the meeting specifically to discuss the intersection, explained that under the manual’s guidelines, the street’s volume simply did not warrant a four-way stop. Instead, the city engineer recommended a two-phase $150,000 project that would first reduce the width of the road from 40 to 20 feet to the tune of $40,000. The second $110,000 phase would be to construct a traffic circle there.

“We decided in committee we wanted stop signs,” said Councilman Barbara Swearengen Holt. “Stop signs should suffice. I can’t in clear conscience approve $40,000.”

In the end, it seemed to come down to simple economics.

“It’s unusual that the council will do what it did and take a different action than that recommended by the city engineer,” said Taylor. “That’s why there was so much discussion about it. It’s not a function of the council to decide where to put traffic lights or stop signs. We didn’t want to set a precedent, but everybody recognized it was an area that needed relief. And relief could be gotten for less than $150,000.”

Lingerie to Go

Betty’s takes to the road.

By Bianca Phillips

Betty’s Red Carpet Fashions ON Cooper has closed its doors, but the controversial local retailer is still in business. Only this time, it’s on wheels. Owner Betty Lamarr has decided to get out of the resale business and hit the road with Amsterdam Mobile Fashions, a lingerie/intimate-apparel delivery service.

Customers can call and set up an appointment at a temporary showroom located inside Master Needles II at 655 Riverside Drive or request faxed print sheets from her catalogs. She’ll then deliver several pieces for her customers to try on in the privacy of their own homes.

“We’ll be doing an out-call fashion boutique. Back in the older days, they called it trunk shows, and really wealthy women were the only ones who were able to afford it. But I want to offer this personalized service to all women — and men too,” said Lamarr. n

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News The Fly-By

Shopping Spree

What’s a county to do when its annual budget goes from $3 million to $92 million in a decade and its population essentially stays flat?

Go shopping.

With casinos generating approximately $4 million a month in local tax revenue, Tunica County can easily afford to go first-class and buy a few luxuries.

Having eliminated city property taxes, built miles of new four-lane roads, and raised per-pupil spending at its public schools to a state-highest $10,000, Tunica is using its casino tax windfall to build a $38 million airport, a $23 million river park and marina, a $25 million arena with 14 skyboxes, a $15 million golf-and-tennis center with indoor clay courts, a youth sports complex, and a historical museum.

The whole town was invited to a free fish fry at the arena last week to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the casinos. Mayor Bobby Williams and volunteers fried up over 500 pounds of catfish and served beer, wine, and soft drinks while casino chefs whipped up appetizers and desserts.

The golf course –the third one built in Tunica County in the last five years but the first public course — is being built on land near Robinsonville donated by local landowners Penn Owen and Bert Robinson along with Horseshoe Casino owner Jack Binion. They hope to build new upscale homes around the golf course and boost Tunica’s population, which has been stuck under 10,000 despite all the new jobs and development.

To the south of town, there is talk of reviving Mhoon Landing, site of the original Splash Casino, with three new casinos called Splashback, Lotsa Slots, and Solid Gold.

Then there’s Sally, the pride of the historical museum. Other cities have airports, arenas, golf courses, and casinos. But Tunica has the only stuffed mule east of the Rockies.

When it came time to furnish the museum, Tunica wanted an eye-catching and appropriate tribute to the important role played by mules in logging and farming operations in the county’s swampy land. The coarse-coated beasts are legendary for their surefootedness and, it is said, willingness to work for a man for years for the chance to kick him once. So Dick Taylor, a Tunica farmer and program director of the museum, started looking around for either a ready-to-install model or a taxidermist who would stuff one.

It didn’t sound like such a tough job at first. Any number of hunters have slain and mounted all sorts of bears, moose, and elk that are bigger than a mule, which generally goes about 200 pounds. It isn’t especially hard to stuff a mule, but it apparently hardly ever occurs to anyone to do it.

At any rate, there was none to be had in the Mississippi Delta. Rumor had it that there was a stuffed mule in Chattanooga, but that turned out to be untrue. So Taylor expanded his search. He contacted the makers of 20 Mule Team Borax in California. Sure enough, they had 20 stuffed mules, but they were not willing to part with any of them. A museum in Branson, Missouri, reportedly had one, but it turned out to be plastic. Taylor even contacted the Roy Rogers Museum, where the famous cowboy’s horse Trigger is stuffed and on display. But no mules.

In all, he estimates that he contacted 100 taxidermists. Some of them laughed. But after 25 years of farming, Taylor does not give up easily. Finally, he found taxidermist Grady Wilson in Monterey, Tennessee, who said he could do the job.

The problem was finding a candidate. Wilson does not deal in live animals. And he advised Taylor that if he bought a mule and killed it, he would incur the wrath of animal-protection advocates. The best solution, he suggested, was to find an aged or sick mule through a farmer or veterinarian, wait for it to die in its own sweet time, then promptly get it to Wilson’s taxidermy shop.

Under normal circumstances, that would have been fine, but Taylor had a deadline to meet. The museum was scheduled to open June 30th, and the mule display area, signs, and buckboard wagon were already installed.

“If I don’t have a mule by that Sunday,” Taylor warned, “I’m gonna have to step over that rail and harness myself to that wagon.”

Finally, Wilson located a suitable mule in Middle Tennessee that had expired at age 19. To create a little suspense, he wouldn’t tell Taylor the gender. True to the gambling spirit of Tunica County, Taylor and his friends placed bets on which sex the mule would be.

With no taxidermy forms for mules available, Wilson created one for Sally by sawing her into four pieces, casting each piece in plastic, then fitting them back together.

The weekend before the museum was scheduled to open, Sally was ready. Taylor loaded a bale of cotton into a horse trailer, hitched it to a pickup, and drove to Monterey. Sally was wrapped in blankets and packed in cotton for the return trip. The tab: $7,500.

By the grand opening Sunday morning, Sally, still wet with glue, was in the harness, a monument to thousands of her noble sisters and brothers who plowed the cotton fields.

There are many fine exhibits in the museum, from illegal slot machines to a display honoring a local barber who never charged more than $1 for a haircut in more than 50 years. But, clearly, Sally is the apple of Taylor’s eye. If you stand in the right place and gaze at her big brown eyes, Sally seems to smile coyly at you.

“She looks a little like the Mona Lisa,” says Taylor. “Don’t you think?”

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We Recommend We Recommend

thursday, 24

I love it. If you re one of those who got your undies in a wad when Clinton pardoned all those people upon leaving office, I m sure you re losing your mind over Saddam Hussein letting every Iraqi prisoner go free and granting amnesty to thousands of Iraqi exiles around the world all as a way of thanking to his fellow citizens for reelecting him as president with a 100-percent vote. What a fantastic public relations move. Not to mention a great way to save money. No prison system? No moolah needed to run it. It s almost as good as it would be if American politicians and political wannabes didn t have any campaign funding and couldn t run television commercials. Every time I see that inexplicable television ad with Van Hilleary standing next to a racecar, I want to push him in front of one while it s moving. But back to Hussein freeing all of Iraq s prisoners. Maybe we should think about some version of that. Take the recent robber, who may and may not have been caught yet, who held up a woman at gunpoint at a nail salon out on Winchester. It seems the man wore a reddish blond bob-cut wig with bangs and a leopard print pantsuit, and pulled his gun from a green purse with beige trim. Now, I know robbery is not a nice thing, but you have to hand it to the guy for creativity. Should this dastardly drag queen be locked up in prison for life for this? I guess if he d been a Catholic priest he could have gotten off scott free since they don t seem to have to abide by laws like the rest of us. I tell you who ought to be locked up is that Dr. Gott, the syndicated health columnist who appears on a regular basis in The Commercial Appeal. Just the other day he published a letter from a woman in her 70s who had undergone some kind of bladder re-suspension surgery to improve her sex life with her husband. This is the paper most people read early in the morning, and we have to read about some woman in her 70s wanting to have her bladder moved around so she can have better sex? In her letter, she laments, Now, a year later, the cystocele has returned, relations are uncomfortable, I suffer anal pressure and low back pain, and my vagina is completely filled by a bulge. Am I missing something or is being filled with a bulge not the point of all this? Then it goes on to explain how this kind of surgery can make your rectum fall down into your vagina and some other lovely stuff that NO ONE needs to be reading about while trying to get down that first cup of coffee and pack of cigarettes in the morning. And to top it all off, after the woman maintains that the messed-up vagina/rectum was the fault of the surgeon, to which Dr. Gott advised, I don t blame anybody for this; as they say on Nantucket: Fog happens. Fog happens? The woman s rectum is in her vagina (I m not doing anything that remotely resembles trying to concoct a mental image of this) and you want her shrug and say, Fog happens? I say, until we free all of the prisoners, lock up Dr. Gott with the cross-dressing crime spree person and let them talk it all out. In the meantime, here s a brief look at some of what s going on around town this week. Tonight, and I m not sure what all this involves, but Rap & Wrestling at the New Daisy sounds mightily promising. As does Cuban Motion in the M Bar at Melange, with live entertainment by internationally known percussionist Luis Stefanall and a few other surprises.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

More, Please

Bhan Thai is located about half a block west of the intersection of Peabody and Cleveland, near Crump Stadium. The main entrance to this converted home brings its patrons into a quaint bar area. A hostess greeted us immediately and seated us in the main dining area. The room accommodates about 25 guests. Smaller dining rooms surround the main area and create very intimate gathering spaces. The interior of the restaurant is filled with color, from the bright red and yellow fabric on the chairs to the paintings that adorn the walls. Behind the restaurant is a deck with an outdoor fireplace and a cozy dining area featuring a pianist.

But enough about the ambience. Let’s move on to the food.

For starters, we chose the crab Rangoon and the featured appetizer, green-lipped mussels. The mussels were drizzled in a curry cream sauce and decorated with large slices of white onion and red peppers. This vibrant dish paled only when compared to its taste. The plump mussels had been steamed perfectly, and I was pleased that the mussels’ delicate flavor could be heightened by the sweetness of onions and peppers without the sauce drowning them. Unfortunately, the crab Rangoon did not live up to our expectations. The wontons came minus the crab but with a lot of sweet cream cheese. A sweet-and-sour sauce accompanied the dish but wasn’t needed.

We bypassed the soups and ordered the signature Bhan Thai salad, which was generous and plenty for two. A pile of fresh mixed greens topped with sliced boiled eggs, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, and fried tofu came drizzled with a creamy peanut dressing. Crispy fried noodles capped this salad and gave it a saltiness and definite crunch.

While we zeroed in on appetizers and the salad with ease, choosing our entrées proved more difficult. So many options — diners can have chicken, beef, pork, shrimp, or tofu added to each entrée, curry, noodle, or fried-rice dish, excepting the house specials.

Our first selection was the cashew nuts with beef: cashews with chopped red peppers, broccoli, onions, carrots, and thinly sliced, tender steak served with a spicy chili sauce. This dish had great curb appeal, and the sauce gave a nice burst of flavor to the vegetables. The “Eight Angels,” a house specialty, was not so special. The menu description — “sautéed shrimp, chicken, pork, and beef with asparagus, carrots, shitake mushrooms and baby corn in a delightful mild brown sauce” — sounded wonderful. I believe the sauce contained a fish or oyster sauce. Either way, it was just too bland. This dish had everything going for it, from presentation to ingredients. It just fell short in its delivery.

For my entrée, I ordered the sliced boneless roasted duck in a spicy red-curry cream sauce. The anticipation almost got the best of me. The sauce cradled not only the most tender duck I have had in a long time but also chunks of fresh pineapple, green and purple grapes, tomatoes, bell peppers, and basil. I admit to being disappointed that the dish came on a plate rather than in the pineapple shell described on the menu, but don’t get me wrong: I cannot complain about this entrée.

Finally, we had the “Three Companions,” another large-portion pleaser with its three good-sized lambchops smothered in chopped red and green bell peppers and onions, Bhan Thai’s signature spicy basil sauce, and freshly chopped sweet basil used as a garnish. The lamb was prepared perfectly, tender with a slightly pink center. The only recommendation I can make is for the chef to select a leaner cut of meat. As with all of the dishes, the jasmine rice was a flavorful addition to this house specialty.

As if we had not had enough, we inquired about dessert. Our waiter explained that Thai cuisine is not big on desserts, and the only item on the menu that evening was a chilled mango. We declined, and, stuffed though we were, we left Bhan Thai hoping for more.

Bhan Thai is located at 1324 Peabody. Lunch: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday. Dinner: 5 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday and 5 to 10:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Currently, Bhan Thai offers wine and beer. Reservations are not accepted. Take-outs are welcome. 272-1538.

Categories
Hot Properties Real Estate

Dorothy’s Dream Home

This house, built along North Parkway in 1939, began as a very traditional Colonial Revival. The primary roof runs parallel to the street, and a gabled porch sits at the center of the main mass, supported on one end by a single, large Tuscan column. But in the 1950s, a wholesale renovation swept through like a tornado, and when it was over, this Colonial cutie became one of Midtown’s outstanding mid-century mods.

The first hint of this is that the other front-porch column has been replaced with a rectangular brick pier with a planter at its base. Once on the porch, the asymmetrical grid of the west side trellis appears — a classic ’50s decorative divider. The windows in the public rooms have been replaced and gridded to resemble a Japanese shoji screen. (Ray and Charles Eames also played with this same grid design in some of their famous ’50s wall units.) Even the brick walks and porch floor are laid in this same pattern. You quickly figure out that this isn’t Kansas anymore.

The living and dining rooms are united by white-oak floors and nine-foot ceilings. A sun room to the east was obviously once an open porch but has now been enclosed with two walls of glass, the far end filled with bookcases and media cabinetry. These three public rooms have the sweep of a loft and provide the perfect setting for a growing collection of mid-century modern furniture.

The bedroom wing is to the rear. The first bedroom could easily do double-duty as an office and a guest room. There’s a wall-long built-in desk with storage to both sides. This room is paneled and might just benefit from a coat of paint. But all that the cork-tile floor needs is a colorful area rug to set it off. Midway down the back hall, the bedroom wing can be closed off with a folding shoji-screen door. This handy placement allows additional privacy in the sleeping areas when folks are still active in the front rooms.

During the same ’50s renovation, a large master suite was added off the rear. It’s got a spacious bedroom with lots of built-in storage and a long cedar-planked closet. The adjoining, private bath is comfortably scaled and done simply in white ceramic with black accents. The current owner (only the second in the house’s history) finished the attic to create a fourth, also very large bedroom and yet another private bath.

The big production here was saved for the kitchen. All the cabinetry was replaced in the ’50s and has its original stained finish and sliding doors like miniature shoji screens. Even the backsplash above the countertops is wood. Adjustable shelf units can be moved about as needed. This is a novel detail I’ve never seen before (and that certainly doesn’t happen too often). Both the cooktop and the wall oven are by Chambers, one of the hottest names in the kitchen-appliance market. If I changed anything, I would spice up the countertops with a more colorful plastic laminate or a cool selection of stone — but only if that backsplash could be safely preserved!

The yard is filled with a nice selection of plants and places from which to enjoy them. A double garage out back is well-screened, and the laundry room has a sink, countertop, and storage to make it a potting shed as well. The front walk runs past a local tupelo tree just starting to show its glorious fall reds. Mature azaleas abound, as do huge old crape myrtles. And a couple of Japanese maples are carefully sited. Even a sea of poppies wouldn’t prevent me from clicking my heels twice and whisking right over if I were looking for a special place to call home.

1578 North Parkway

2,400 square feet

4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths; $189,000

Realtor: Crye-Leike, 766-9004

Agent: Virginia Kyle, 484-6080

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Opinion

Half-pregnant

Tennessee is taking considerable pains to become half-pregnant.

This is what will happen if the lottery amendment passes on November 5th and the General Assembly subsequently approves a state lottery for college scholarships. The state will officially be in the business of promoting, administering, and profiting from gambling. At the same time, it will more adamantly than ever oppose the form of gambling that has had a much greater impact on Tennesseans, especially Memphians — casinos.

The main reason the proposed lottery amendment takes up so much space on the ballot, right below the governor’s race in the left-hand column, is to erect legal blockades in front of anyone with ideas about a lottery being a gateway to casinos, particularly Native American casinos like the ones run by the Choctaws in Neshoba County, Mississippi.

Gamblers being forward-looking sorts, there was a little buzz during Tunica’s 10th-anniversary celebration last week about the chances of a tribal casino in Memphis if the lottery amendment passes.

The reasoning went something like this: Casinos quietly entered Mississippi through the back door while the governor and everyone else were diverted by a lottery issue that never went anywhere. Once established, riverboat or dockside gambling soon evolved into something high and dry and many times larger than anyone envisioned.

Memphis will, in a couple of years, likely be looking for a major tenant for The Pyramid after the Grizzlies and, possibly, the U of M Tigers leave for the new downtown arena. Pyramid debt service looks more and more like a $3 million-a-year albatross. The Pinch District, always an underperformer, will be more forlorn than ever.

The Pyramid’s neighbor, Mud Island River Park, is also underused and would be an interesting site for a casino.

Memphis and Shelby County residents spend $300 million to $400 million a year in Tunica, which even at the low end is more than the estimated $243 million that all Tennesseans together spend on lottery tickets in other states like Georgia and Kentucky. If lotteries in neighboring states are a leak, casinos are a flood.

Deed Mud Island or The Pyramid to the Chickasaw Indians and set them up under provisions of the Federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, just like their brethren the Choctaws in Mississippi or the Pequot in Connecticut. Suddenly, casinos are 30 minutes closer to Memphis.

What’s wrong with that scenario?

“No way” it can happen, says lottery proponent Sen. Steve Cohen. “No Indians and no Tigers, Bears, or Orioles, either.”

But the question is hardly off the wall. The Tennessee attorney general’s office addressed the state lottery and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) in two opinions in early 2001.

“Because Senate Joint Resolution 01 expressly states that it does not authorize games of chance associated with casinos, it would not be a gateway to Indian casino gambling in Tennessee,” the opinion read. “The state would not be required to negotiate with an Indian tribe about casino gambling, nor could the tribe sue the state without its consent to force the negotiation.”

End of story? Probably but perhaps not. One of the interesting things about the proposed constitutional amendment is how it breaks down one gambling barrier while erecting another.

Quoting from the attorney general’s opinion, “Currently, the Tennessee Constitution, Article XI, section 5, flatly prohibits the General Assembly from authorizing lotteries. The constitutional provision does not, however, prohibit all types of gambling. Except for lotteries, there is nothing in the state constitution prohibiting gambling, and the regulation of all types of gambling, other than lotteries, is a matter for determination by the General Assembly.”

As the opinion notes, Tennessee law already provides for pari-mutuel betting. In fact, 15 years ago, Memphians approved a horse-racing referendum for a pari-mutuel track that was never built.

The legal rule of thumb is that bona fide tribes can engage, on their sovereign lands, in whatever forms of gambling are allowed in the rest of a state. But in addition to the ban on casinos in the amendment, there are strong doubts whether the IGRA applies to Tennessee.

“To this office’s knowledge, there is no Indian tribe which holds Indian land in Tennessee,” the attorney general’s opinion read. “Thus, at this point, IGRA does not apply.”

In other states, however, tribal claims have suddenly been made when casinos are on the horizon. An incomplete Internet roster of “Native American Associations” in Tennessee has 89 listings, with a caveat that some are probably defunct or fake. For several years, Native Americans have held an annual powwow at Halle Stadium in Memphis.

Lottery proponents, who don’t wish to complicate their long-sought amendment with any more controversy than necessary, are taking no chances. So the word “casino” is added to the amendment and, voters willing, to the state constitution but in a negative sense. And in a year or two, the state of Tennessee could be promoting instant scratch-for-cash tickets while busting the criminals who operate gas-station pinball machines or video poker.

Mississippi casino interests profess to be somewhat bored by the whole thing.

“We don’t have an official position,” said John Osborne, president of the Mississippi Gaming Association and general manager of Hollywood Casino in Tunica. “Most people believe the residents of Tennessee need to make that determination.”

Casinos and a lottery coexist in New Jersey, he noted. One school of thought holds that lotteries take players from casinos, but Osborne views Tunica as a destination resort offering amenities and gambling experiences “you really can’t get at a gas station.”

The association, he said, is not lobbying or contributing to either side in the Tennessee referendum.

Categories
Cover Feature News

The Second Time Around

p>PHOTOS BY LARRY KUZNIEWSKI

Jason Williams takes Chicago Bulls rookies Jay Williams and Lonny Baxter to school during a brilliant preseason performance.

By all accounts, the biggest move of the off-season wasn’t the Houston Rockets drafting Yao Ming, the Atlanta Hawks trading for all-star sharpshooter Glen Robinson, or even the Washington Wizards getting Michael Jordan to lace ’em up for another year. It was Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley convincing the legendary Jerry West –by acclamation, the greatest mind in the game — to leave his retirement in sunny L.A. to take over the reins of the least successful franchise in the NBA.

West’s rapturous local response makes the Calipari coronation of years past look tame, and the pressure’s on. West won big in Lakerland, but he’s really put his reputation on the line taking over a team that tied a franchise record with only 23 wins last season. West vowed to improve the talent level and turned over half the roster (for the second year in a row) in an attempt to do so. Will all the new faces make the Grizzlies better? Almost certainly. How much better? Read on.

Five Reasons the Grizzlies Can Make the Playoffs

1. Pau Gasol

In basketball, more than any other team sport, the best individual players win. This is why Michael Jordan and Shaquille O’Neal have multiple championship rings and the closest thing to an active superstar left home watching last year’s playoffs was Milwaukee guard Ray Allen. No team in the NBA can make the playoffs without a legitimate all-star-caliber player. Last year, the Memphis Grizzlies didn’t have one. This year, they will.

No one knew what to expect from Pau Gasol last year. He was a rail-thin Euro with limited playing experience and a presumably steep learning curve. Maybe, we thought (hoped), he can work his way into the rotation as the season progresses. But Gasol served notice by game four, when, in a road loss to Phoenix, he scored 27 points in 40 minutes, seizing the starting power-forward slot from Stromile Swift and the go-to-guy role from no one in particular and riding the opportunity to the Rookie of the Year award.

Gasol led all rookies in points (17.6) and rebounds (8.9) per game, finishing top 10 in the league in field-goal percentage (.52) and blocks per game (2.1), but those numbers don’t really do justice to Gasol’s season-long improvement. Rather than hit the proverbial rookie wall, Gasol just got better. In his first 10 games, he averaged 14.8 points, 6.3 boards, and 1.9 assists. In his final 10 games, those numbers were up to 19.2, 9.3, and 4.5, respectively. That’s almost a Kevin Garnett stat line, the elusive 20-10-5 that only a handful of players in NBA history have been able to achieve with any regularity.

Early on, Gasol suffered comparisons to other big Euro stars, most commonly Toni Kukoc and Dirk Nowitski. But Gasol isn’t that type of player — not a point-forward like Kukoc or a long-range marksman like Nowitski. His style is more in line with American big men (on the offensive end, anyway): With his inside/outside game and the sheer aggressiveness with which he goes to the rack (Gasol trailed only Shaquille O’Neal in dunks during his rookie campaign), Gasol indeed resembles Garnett. And his surprising penchant for mixing it up down low and his smooth assortment of post moves bring to mind the greatest post scorers of the last 20 years: Tim Duncan, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Kevin McHale. Gasol doesn’t belong in that company quite yet, but his freakish length, soft touch, unexpected tenacity, and innate scoring knack indicate that he someday might.

But the thing that makes Gasol the complete package offensively is his passing ability. This was the element of Gasol’s game that bloomed most impressively as last season wore on. In his first 20 games, Gasol registered more than three assists only once. In his last 20 games, he racked up more than three assists 12 times. It’s this ability, in concert with his other post skills (the ability to command the double team and the skill to find the open man), which separates Gasol not only from the Grizzlies’ other frontcourt players but also from the league’s other top young big men. It’s what has Gasol on the fast track to joining Duncan, Garnett, and Chris Webber on the first tier of NBA power forwards.

This season, Gasol returns as the Grizzlies’ unquestioned first option, secure, along with Jason Williams, in his role as battles for playing time erupt around him. He’s noticeably bulkier after an off-season of conditioning and is coming off a strong all-tournament-team showing at the World Championships. He sat out the first five preseason games as a precaution, nursing a sprained left wrist suffered at the Worlds, but it’s probably no coincidence that the team’s offensive execution improved dramatically with Gasol back in the lineup for back-to-back preseason games, both wins, against the Orlando Magic and Chicago Bulls.

The Jerry West regime has brought a dramatic infusion of new talent to the team but no one who is going to challenge Gasol as the team’s top player. Next question: Can he play center?

2. Perimeter Shooting

Pau Gasol drives to the hoop against the Bulls.

Perhaps no one aspect of the team required as much help — or received it — as perimeter shooting. Acquiring veteran sharpshooter Wesley Person from the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for deadweight Nick Anderson may have added to the team’s salary cap for next season, but it also gives the Grizzlies a reliable bench scorer for the price of, almost literally, nothing.

One of the league’s elite outside threats, Person is coming off his finest season, one in which he averaged 15 points per game while shooting 49 percent from the floor and a red-hot 44 percent from the three-point line, all career highs. It probably isn’t realistic to expect a repeat of those numbers (just as Grizzlies fans shouldn’t be too concerned about Person’s preseason shooting slump), but the team should be content if Person — who has never played a full season and not connected on at least 100 three-pointers — hits his career averages of 46 percent from the floor and 42 percent from beyond the arc.

A less celebrated but perhaps shrewder move by the West regime was the trade of a future second-round pick for the rights to Croatian guard Gordon Giricek. The 6’6″ Giricek has been the surprise of the preseason, averaging 15 points in 35 minutes a night through the first seven games. At 25 years old and with several years of overseas professional experience under his belt, Giricek is more seasoned than most rookies, something he’s shown with his heady play thus far, despite still adjusting to NBA rules. Giricek brings with him a marksman’s reputation and, though he’s struggled slightly with the longer NBA three-point line (33 percent shooting through seven games), he’s demonstrated a smooth stroke and the composure to take the big shot.

Another addition of sorts to the team’s perimeter attack is Michael Dickerson, the Vancouver holdover who was expected to lead the team in scoring last season but instead went down with a season-ending injury after just four games. Dickerson averaged 16 points per game and over 40 percent shooting on three-pointers through his first three seasons. Still struggling to get back in game shape (and noticeably heavier), Dickerson has played only limited minutes this preseason, though he has shot the ball well from downtown. Coach Lowe says he expects Dickerson to be ready come opening night, but the presence of Person and Giricek lessens the pressure of coming back too soon.

But as much as this trio adds on their own terms, the effect their presence could have on the play of point guard Jason Williams may be just as important. Williams simply must shoot the ball better than he did last season, when he hit only 38 percent from the floor and a dismal 30 percent from beyond the arc. Williams, despite his low success rate, was among the league leaders in three-pointers taken, launching 6.6 long-range bombs per game, and many of those were ill-advised attempts early in the shot clock.

In Williams’ defense, his seemingly poor shot selection last season can be partially attributed to a severe lack of alternatives on the perimeter, with rookie Shane Battier as the only other viable three-point threat on the floor most of the time. Williams’ penchant for heaving up threes early and often last year may well have resulted from feeling like too much of the perimeter-scoring burden was on his shoulders. In other words, pretend you’re J-Will: You’re bringing the ball up court, trying to come back from a double-digit deficit. Grant Long is to your right. Rodney Buford to your left. Wouldn’t you be tempted to jack one up?

This year, both Williams and Lowe say that the additions of Person, Giricek, and Dickerson will allow Williams to be more judicious about dialing his own number. The key for Williams is fewer but better shots. From his numbers, you’d think Williams just isn’t a good shooter, but watching him play on a daily basis indicates otherwise. At times last season, Williams demonstrated that he can be a deadly mid-range shooter, a facet of his game that probably warrants further exploration.

Another player likely to benefit from the fewer-but-better shooting philosophy is Battier. Battier shot 43 percent from the floor last year and a respectable 37 percent from three-point range. And he had a lot working against him. Battier had to make a series of adjustments that presumably hindered his shooting: the length of the pro season, the increased distance of the NBA three-point line, the quality of competition. His shot was erratic last season — better from downtown in the first half of the season than the second — and his mid-range game was apparently priority number one this off-season. Battier has struggled with his shot in the preseason, hitting only 41 percent from the floor through seven games and an atrocious 20 percent from downtown. With the influx of talent on the wings, no one’s minutes are likely to be as affected as Battier’s and to a degree, that’s desirable. (Battier averaged 39.7 minutes per game last year, an obscene number for a rookie not named Jordan or Duncan.) But Battier is still this team’s finest defender. The Grizzlies need him on the floor, but he’ll need to be able to sink open shots to warrant staying out there.

3. Depth

At this point, even Jerry West himself is probably a little tired of those “basketball savior” and “genius talent evaluator” stories, but he’s off to an awfully good start. West said from day one that this team needed a significant talent upgrade, and it’s gotten it. There are no transcendent new players like West’s L.A. duo of Shaq and Kobe, but in one off-season, West’s regime has transformed the Grizzlies bench from what was possibly the worst in the league last season into what should be one of the best. Every significant roster change of the off-season — returning-to-health Dickerson for journeyman Rodney Buford, dynamic rookie Drew Gooden for perpetual role-player Grant Long, reliable Person for out-to-pasture Anderson, seasoned Euro Giricek for raw Euro Antonis Fotsis, and intense defender Earl Watson for shoot-first Will Solomon — is a major upgrade.

During his post-game press conference following the Grizzlies’ 123-99 preseason shellacking of the Chicago Bulls, Lowe announced that he was planning to use a nine-man rotation for the regular season. Then, he stopped himself: “Well, sometimes 10. It’s hard to play 10, but we’ve got 10 guys who can play.” (Actually, Coach, you’ve got at least 11, and finding enough minutes to keep everyone happy won’t be easy, but it’s a good problem to have.)

This newfound depth will have a positive effect on the team in a number of ways. Most obvious is just the sheer increase in talent: No longer will the Grizzlies be one of those NBA teams (see the Denver Nuggets this season) that provokes fans to look up from their game programs and say something like “Wait a minute — they’re starting Rodney Buford?”

The depth will also help cushion the injuries that are unavoidable over the grind of an NBA regular season. The Grizzlies lost more man-games to injury last season than any team except the Atlanta Hawks, and the assumption that the team’s luck can’t possibly be that bad again is yet another reason for optimism. But injuries happen (Dickerson and center Lorenzen Wright, among others, have already missed time in the preseason due to health issues). The difference is that this year, the team won’t be forced to throw not-ready-for-prime-time second-rounders into the fire or tap into the developmental league (anyone remember Isaac Fontaine?) to shore things up. Dickerson’s slow coming back? Bump up minutes for Giricek and Person. Wright’s out? Move Gasol to center and open up more time for Stromile Swift and Gooden. Backup point Brevin Knight hasn’t played a full season since his rookie year, but now the team is prepared for those annual disabled-list stints with free agent Earl Watson on board.

The depth will also allow Lowe to deploy different lineups to alter the style of play or exploit matchups. Watson may see a lot of time on the pine, but he’s the team’s best on-ball defender and could be particularly valuable against quicker, scoring point guards such as Houston’s Steve Francis or Phoenix’s Stephon Marbury. All of the wing players give Lowe different looks: Person’s the best shooter, Giricek the best playmaker, Battier the best defender, a healthy Dickerson likely the best slasher. The team can go “big” with Wright at center or go with a more athletic, offensive-oriented team with Gasol at center and either Swift or Gooden at the four. Lowe has been feeling out combinations during the preseason (a lineup of Williams-Giricek-Battier-Gooden-Gasol looked great offensively, especially moving the ball, against the Bulls), and the tinkering will likely continue.

4. The Overrated West

Of course, the Grizzlies don’t play in a vacuum. The team’s success this season is contingent upon the performance of the teams around it. One pipe dream circulating among Grizzlies fans is a potential move to the Eastern Conference (not likely after the league awards Charlotte an expansion franchise), where, presumably, the path to the playoffs would be much easier. But Griz fans shouldn’t psych themselves out too much about competing in the rough Western Conference. Sure, the West’s four best teams — defending champion Lakers, nearly defending champion Sacramento Kings, the Tim Duncan-led San Antonio Spurs, and the fun-and-gun Dallas Mavericks — are potentially the league’s four best, but eight teams make the playoffs, and there are plenty of question marks after that fab four. The Portland Trailblazers have the depth of talent and playoff experience to be odds-on favorites for the fifth slot, though there are ever-present chemistry issues there. After that, it could be an intense battle for the final three spots.

With all their blossoming talent, the Los Angeles Clippers should be a playoff shoo-in, but they’re young, and most of their best players are in the last year of their respective contracts, a situation that traditionally has a negative impact on team chemistry. Plus, right, they’re the Clippers. The Seattle Sonics may be a safer bet, with loads of young talent who have already tasted the post-season and a superstar in Gary Payton to lead the way, but Payton is also in a contract year and has already been disruptive in training camp. The other Pacific Division contenders are the Phoenix Suns, who have done an admirable job of rebuilding without ever getting really bad, and the rudderless Golden State Warriors. The Suns should be decent, but it’s hard to see a sixth-place team in the Pacific getting to the post-season, and the Warriors have no shot.

In the Midwest, San Antonio and Dallas will lead the way, with the awful Denver Nuggets a sure thing for the division cellar. What happens in the middle of the division will determine the Grizzlies’ fate. Most prognostications have the Griz finishing sixth in the seven-team division, but the wheels appear ready to come off an aging Utah Jazz team, whose talent pool has gotten worse over the off-season. If the Grizzlies can sneak into the top four in the division, they should be in the playoff hunt. That’ll mean passing either the Minnesota Timberwolves or Houston Rockets. Both teams have more established talent than the Griz — the Wolves with superstar Kevin Garnett and the Rockets with dominant guard Steve Francis — but also plenty of question marks: The Wolves have had a horrible off-season, and veteran point Terrell Brandon’s career could be over. In Houston, will number-one pick Yao Ming be ready? And if so, will Francis and shot-happy backcourt mate Cuttino Mobley get him the ball?

5. Intangibles

The Memphis Grizzlies tied a franchise record last year with a putrid record of 23-59 — as Williams said on media day, “Nothing to brag about.” The addition of the Logo and confident rookies Gooden and Giricek seems to have altered the attitude. For the first time in franchise history, this is a team that feels headed in the right direction. Injury problems have been relatively minimal and controversies — will Stro’ be traded? will J-Will “mature?” — have been minor and predictable. Meanwhile, most other teams on the Western Conference playoff bubble seem less certain of their direction. They may not have much experience in the matter, but one can’t escape the feeling that this may be a team that’s ready to start winning.

Why It Won’t Happen This Year

Okay, time for a reality check. The Grizzlies aren’t actually going to make the playoffs this year: For every proposition above, there’s an equally compelling inverse.

Gasol may be ready to be an all-star, a necessary ingredient to compete for a playoff spot, but history has shown that for a team to really make noise in the post-season, it must be led by a transcendent star who controls the ball (see Jason Kidd’s New Jersey Nets or Allen Iverson’s Philadelphia 76ers the last two post-seasons) or by multiple all-stars (see the Boston Celtics last year, with Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker).

It remains to be seen if that second all-star is on this roster, though there are three possibilities. The least likely of these is Stromile Swift, a former number-two overall pick (though in one of the weakest drafts in league history) and an electric athlete even by the exalted standards of the NBA. Swift is still young and, by all accounts, has had a promising preseason, but his all-star potential is pretty clearly just a tease at this point. Up next is rookie-of-the-year contender Drew Gooden, who has had a monster preseason, averaging 19 points and a gaudy 12.7 rebounds a game in 38 minutes while shooting an impressive 48 percent from the floor. There are still lots of little things for Gooden to work on, but his scoring and rebounding acumen is more advanced than anticipated, and he may yet live up to the James Worthy comparison floating around during the summer leagues. Finally, there’s Jason Williams, a major talent viewed as no less a disappointment than Swift in some circles, though he had a better season last year than a lot of the national media will allow. Williams averaged 18 points and 10 assists last year in Grizzlies wins. No one else was as clear a barometer of team success. This year, Williams will turn 27, a five-year vet with decent talent around him. It’s a make-or-break year. Williams gave fans a taste of his “A” game with 24 minutes of brilliant basketball last weekend in the blowout of the Bulls. There’s no reason he can’t be as good a player as Mavericks all-star point guard Steve Nash.

While West may have dramatically improved the team’s backcourt offense this off-season, a much-needed upgrade in frontcourt defense went unfulfilled. This is a small team. Probable starting center Lorenzen Wright is a top rebounder and a willing banger but is undersized for the position and not much of a shot-blocker. Behind him, the cupboard is pretty bare: Journeyman Tony Massenburg is a bruiser but only saw game time in one of the first seven preseason games and is likely to only see spot minutes this year. Promising rookie Cezary Trybanski is an intriguing prospect and further along on the defensive end than on offense (where he’s made Dikembe Mutombo look fluid) but is raw as sushi. Second-rounder Robert Archibald has yet to see game time in the preseason and could be an injured-list regular throughout the season. This means lots of small lineups, with Gasol or Swift in the middle, which makes the team more potent offensively but may give up even more on the defensive end. This problem has been evident in the preseason. Chicago’s mammoth center Eddy Curry had his way with Gasol in the paint, hitting 11 of 15 shots, virtually all dunks and lay-ups. Playing Gasol in the middle against the league’s wide-bodies may be a problem. And Gooden and Swift exhibited numerous defensive deficiencies in the preseason, not the least of which was a reluctance to defend out on the perimeter, letting a cast of no-name opposing forwards (Terrance Morris, Malik Allen, Pat Burke) go on scoring spurts. What happens when sweet-shooting Dallas forwards Dirk Nowitski and Raef LaFrentz take The Pyramid floor opening night?

For all the depth this team has, it’s still prohibitively young to be making playoff plans. Williams, Person, Wright, and a still-banged-up Dickerson are veterans in their prime, but all but Williams are role players. The rest of the team’s core — Gasol, Gooden, Battier, possibly Swift and Giricek — is still at least a year away from making a run at the post-season.

And though there’s more room for upward mobility in the Western Conference than conventional wisdom suggests, the schedule-makers did the Grizzlies no favors. The team’s first seven games are rough: There are home games against three of the West’s big four (Dallas, Sacramento, and San Antonio), a road game against defending Central Division champs Detroit, and a three-game West Coast trip starting with perennial playoff team Portland and finishing with back-to-backs against Sacramento (again) and Denver. Denver is woeful, but the last game of a road trip and second night of back-to-backs is not when this team wants the most winnable games to be (it just makes a rare probable win that much more difficult to come by). If the Grizzlies start out 0-7 or even 1-6 (which is a real possibility), what will the reaction be? In the clubhouse? In the front office? Among the fan base? A tough start could do real damage to the team’s psyche. How Lowe and his players cope with that potential adversity will be pivotal.

Finally, though the team intangibles may be pointed in the right direction, these are still the Grizzlies. West’s magic wand won’t immediately eliminate a culture of losing. Jason Williams and Wesley Person are the only players on the roster with significant playoff experience, and most of the team’s young players have never sniffed a winning season, despite the college pedigrees of Battier and Gooden. Sidney Lowe, saddled with a slow-developing expansion team in Minnesota and again with the Grizzlies, has never won a lick as a coach. Lowe is in the final year of his contract, and his future will be a question mark that hangs over the team all season.

In the end, this team is too young, too inexperienced, and has too many new faces to expect a post-season birth this year. But they’re vastly improved. If they can get past that rough early schedule without too much damage to their confidence, look for this team to surprise the national press (most of whom are predicting another of those “20-something”-win seasons West says he won’t tolerate) by hanging around a while.

Prediction: 36-46, fifth place in the Midwest Division.

Five questions with Sidney Lowe

Sidney Lowe

Flyer: 1) What have you been most pleased by in the preseason, and what has been most troubling?

Lowe: I’ve been pleased with our effort, for the most part. I think we’ve played hard. I’ve been pleased with the progress of some of our young players, just knowing that I can feel comfortable putting them in the ball game. I haven’t been happy with our execution offensively, but that may be a result of spending so much time working on defense. But, obviously, our offensive play has not been what we want it to be or what it’s going to be.

Has the execution problem been a result of so many new players?

Yeah, new in terms of being together. It’s a matter of understanding and reading situations. When you’re playing a team that’s switching [on defense], you have to be able to read your second and third options, because a lot of times, that first option isn’t there. But we’ve been working on some things the last couple of days, and it’s getting better.

2) Given what seems to be a lack of quality depth at center, is it inevitable that we’ll be seeing a lot of smaller lineups with Pau Gasol or Stromile Swift in the middle?

That’s a possibility. Yeah, that’s a possibility. Pau is obviously one of our top players, and he can give us so much [in the middle] with his scoring and passing and his understanding of the game. And Stro’ has really been playing well lately, so certainly [playing those two at center] is something that you could see.

3) A writer I spoke with from the Twin Cities, who covered you as a player and a coach, says that Jason Williams is 180 degrees from what you were as a player. Do you think that’s accurate?

[Laughs] Oh, yeah. Absolutely.

Then, as a former point guard, how does that affect the coach/player relationship?

Well, I think it depends on a mutual respect that has to be there. As a coach, I try to use the way I played the game to help Jason execute better. That’s what I did. I executed. I didn’t have the abilities he’s got. He can break you down, go by you, all those things. I could handle the ball, but that wasn’t my game. We’re trying to get him to combine what he can do with the ball with the way I played the game in terms of running the show and being the leader out there: knowing who to go to, picking guys up, always staying positive, those kinds of things. He’s played a certain way his entire … his life. And he’s been successful at it because he’s here in the NBA, but when you’re in that position, with the ball in your hands all the time, you have to be able to control the tempo of the game — when you want to run, when you don’t want to run. You have to be an extension of the coach out on the floor.

Do you think that having so many more perimeter shooters on the team — with Dickerson back, Person, Giricek — will impact Williams’ decision-making in terms of his own shot selection?

I think it should. And not just because of those guys. No matter who you have on the floor, you still have to take good shots. But I think by having those guys on the floor, he may not feel as much pressure to score the ball himself and to get it done so fast.

4) Top to bottom, is this the most talented team you’ve ever coached?

Um … Top to bottom? Yes, it is.

5) There has been a lot of speculation, including in a recent ESPN magazine story, that with West coming in, it’s only a matter of time until he’ll want to bring in his own guy. How does that possibility affect the way you’re approaching the season?

It doesn’t affect me at all. That’s part of the business. If that were to happen, it wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened to a coach. I can’t be concerned about that. If we go out and play hard and do what we’re supposed to do and win ball games, then I’ll let the chips fall where they may. I’ve talked to Jerry, and he’s told me what he expects, and I’ll have to live with that.

Categories
Music Music Features

Ready, Wilco

Given how their respective careers have evolved, it’s odd now to think about the initial relationship between singer-songwriters Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy. As punk-rock kids from Belleville, Illinois, Farrar and Tweedy came together to form Uncle Tupelo. Like contemporaries Nirvana, they drew their inspiration from the great American indie scene of the ’80s: Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, the Minutemen, the Meat Puppets. But whereas Nirvana combined this inherited post-punk aesthetic with heavy metal to help forge grunge (for which they have been forgiven), Farrar and Tweedy brought a more rural perspective to the music, combining it with elements of folk and country (though the influence was more conceptual than musical as far as the latter is concerned) to accidentally create something called “alternative country” (for which they have been forgiven as well).

At the time, Tweedy seemed like the sidekick, the more juvenile right-hand man to Farrar’s auteur. What a difference a decade makes. In the nine years since the band’s breakup, Tweedy’s following has grown substantially, while Farrar clings to an ever-shrinking circle of Midwestern and Southern devotees who find cultural comfort in his conservative Americana mythology. We should have seen it coming: Going back to the four albums Uncle Tupelo released between 1990 and 1993, the more unassuming Tweedy has it all over the occasionally blowhardish Farrar.

Tweedy never quite became a full partner in Uncle Tupelo, a situation that surely hastened the now-seminal band’s demise, but you can hear him clearer now on those records, adding much-needed lightness and real-life perspective to Farrar’s grandiose playacting –some concrete prose to counteract Farrar’s cumbersome poetry.

A bass player then, Tweedy only got to contribute three songs to the band’s genre-creating 1990 debut No Depression, but that was enough to separate himself from the romanticized working-class-hero ethos Farrar was already spouting. For the Gulf War-era album, the young Tweedy contributed “Train,” in which he sings of sitting in his car at a railroad crossing, watching car after car loaded down with military equipment sail by, and muses, “I’m 21, and I’m scared as hell.” In retrospect, it seems a lot more real than Farrar’s second-hand landscape of graveyard shifts, factory belts, and “On liquor, I spend my last dime.” Tweedy also contributes the friendly front-porch knownothingism of “Screen Door,” which tweaks the band’s self-conscious ruralism just as it offers an honestly seductive slice of regionalism (“Sometimes, it snows, but when it does, it doesn’t last long”).

Tweedy broke out on the next year’s Still Feel Gone, copping the lead cut with the anthemic lost-love song “Gun” and delivering a nice tribute to the Minutemen’s late lead singer on “D. Boon.” Next up was the all-acoustic March 16-20, 1992, which still feels like a Farrar project. He (quite skillfully) offers a slate of originals that replicate the feel and sentiment of the Depression-era protest songs the band covers. Tweedy darts around the edges with the sweet “Wait Up” and the more mysterious “Black Eye” and “Fatal Wound.”

Then came Tupelo’s bow, the doubtlessly Farrar-titled Anodyne, a record so musically accomplished that it perfects the notion of “alternative country.” Here the division between Farrar and Tweedy was too vast to ignore: Farrar’s songs aped wisdom with all the foreboding of an Old Testament prophet (and with a voice so magnificently commanding that it compelled belief); Tweedy’s batch of songs (still, to my mind, his best) were just wise –funny, playful, full of insight and the realization that the relationship couldn’t last. “Acuff-Rose” was a roots-music tribute devoid of undue reverence. The earthquake-scare meditation “New Madrid” was sardonically in the moment. Best of all was “No Sense in Lovin'” –and if Tweedy’s acknowledged romantic life had always rendered Farrar asexual by comparison, this song had to be about Farrar (“I can’t stand it when you get so intense”).

With the band’s breakup, Farrar seemed to have the edge, his new band Son Volt’s 1995 debut Trace a more impressive affair than Tweedy’s initial Wilco release, the modest A.M., from the same year. But after that, Tweedy left him in the dust: Wilco became a real band, a forum for the classic-rock fun and post-punk experimentation Tweedy could never really explore in Uncle Tupelo. Wilco united two subcultural streams that had gained currency with arty white folks turned off by hip hop: the rootsy alt-country aesthetic Tweedy had helped create and the atmospheric art-rock being popularized by Brits like Radiohead and American psychedelics like the Flaming Lips. Being There followed A.M., but the druggy yet accessible Summer Teeth was the synthesis that made Wilco a star in both camps. Then came Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

An odds-on favorite to top year-end critics’ polls, the lavishly praised album might just be the prettiest art-rock record ever made, its busy soundscapes all sweetness and melody, with the anonymous noise and gee-whiz sonic gadgetry inviting instead of distancing, and it’s all tied together by Tweedy’s genial puppy-dog yelp of a voice. I like the record a lot, until I actually listen to it. And then, trying to figure out just what Tweedy is mumbling about, the effect slips away. Tweedy has followed Farrar in at least one respect: the embrace of evocative gibberish. Not all lyrics have to be direct and concrete, of course (the ever-cryptic Pavement was my favorite band after getting over Uncle Tupelo), but I can’t ignore the nagging feeling that this great music merely props up these barely-there songs and that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot‘s genius back story (rejected by Warner/Reprise and sold back to the band only to be bought for thrice the price by Warner/Nonesuch) is a key part of its reputation.

Tweedy’s a likable figure who fronts a great band, but what does it say that the best record he’ll ever be a part of is Mermaid Avenue Vol. I, in which all the songs are penned by someone else? Maybe not much. After all, Mermaid Avenue is a work of genius that bests anything any of the other contributors (Woody Guthrie included) have ever done on their own.

Anyway, chances are that Tweedy’s downbeat poetry will sound a lot better coming from the stage, when his band (even without Jay Bennett) proves what an exciting and accomplished outfit they are. That’s the way it worked on the Summer Teeth tour.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

A Dangerous Misnomer

Perhaps the most mislabeled of all legislation is that which goes by the name of “tort reform.” Indeed, the term itself is almost Orwellian in its capacity to signify the exact opposite of what it appears to suggest. The word “tort” basically means “wrongdoing.” To reform a tort, then, would be to control, discourage, confine, punish, or eliminate it. But the kind of tort reform that continues to be advocated — and, from time to time, enacted in Washington or in a state legislature — is basically designed to control, discourage, confine, punish, or eliminate legal efforts to combat torts. In other words, to make them illegal.

The special interests and right-of-center types who advocate tort reform would have us believe that holding those who deal with the public accountable for their actions — specifically, for their misdeeds — is somehow an expensive luxury the public cannot afford. Hence the periodic move to place caps on the damages that can be realized by a plaintiff claiming injury from a product or a professional service. In Mississippi a couple of weeks ago, a presumably well-meaning Governor Ronnie Musgrove was induced to sign into law a measure placing a cap of $500,000 on noneconomic, or “quality-of-life,” damages to an individual resulting from medical malpractice. The rationale, as always, was to control “spiraling” insurance costs and to stabilize medical care in an area in which doctors were presumably ready to saddle up and emigrate otherwise.

Similar rhetoric is forthcoming when other types of tort reform are urged — in product-liability cases, for example. Always cited as an object lesson is the famous case of some years ago in which an elderly woman in New Mexico was scalded by an overheated cup of coffee from McDonald’s. She received, in addition to an award compensating her for her injuries (which included third-degree burns), a “punitive” judgment of millions of dollars against the fast-food chain.

Those who ridicule that award for its presumed folly seem not to have read the testimony of the jurors in the case, virtually all of whom said later that they too had been opposed to such an apparently extreme award but came to realize from the evidence presented that McDonald’s executives had known full well the hazards of their coffee-making techniques — mandatory in all their locations — but insisted on them because their overheated assembly-line coffee kept longer and made sense in economic, if not safety-minded, terms. The only way to force McDonald’s into changing its procedures — presumably dangerous to employees as well as customers — was to raise the ante beyond the limits that the chains’ executives, in their cynicism, had already calculated as likely to come from damage suits. The famously mocked multimillion-dollar coffee-cup judgment was, in fact, a case of bona fide tort reform. The kind now being argued in this or that election campaign is anything but.

At a recent meeting of the Memphis downtown Kiwanis Club, Governor Musgrove was hectored by a lawyer in the audience who went on to ask the governor and the rest of the attendees, rhetorically, how many of them would accept $500,000 as sufficient lifetime compensation for, say, having their spines severed during a faulty operation. There were no takers.