Month: May 2003

Categories
Music Music Features

Blues You Can Use

Larger-than-life soul legend Solomon Burke’s comeback coronation continues this week as he performs at the 24th Annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards Thursday, May 22nd, at The Orpheum. Sponsored by the Memphis-based Blues Foundation, these “blues Grammys” have become the genre’s signature contemporary honor and are looking to gain more stature during this year’s congressionally mandated “Year of the Blues.” And Burke is the draw. One of the few contemporary performers under the blues umbrella with a wide audience outside that of genre aficionados, Burke’s comeback is one of the music industry’s biggest stories of the past year.

Though at least a few dissenting critics (this one included) found Burke’s all-star-songwriter-driven Don’t Give Up On Me a little on the dull side, it was nevertheless one of 2002’s great adult-crossover records, its widespread critical, industry, and listener appeal overshadowed only by Grammy darling Norah Jones’ even wider acclaim. And if Jones was the Grammy’s golden child this year, Burke could be a similar big winner at the Handys. He’s nominated for four awards — Blues Album of the Year, Blues Entertainer of the Year, Soul Blues Album of the Year, and Blues Song of the Year (a Bob Dylan nomination, actually, for “Stepchild”).

This year’s ceremony will be hosted by three of the genre’s most popular veterans — regional roots fave Delbert McClinton, entertainer extraordinaire Bobby Rush, and Contemporary Female Artist of the Year nominee Marcia Ball. But the rest of the show could well be a showcase of the music’s future. Three Best New Artist nominees are slated to perform — European guitar-slinger Ana Popovic, steel-guitar maestro Robert Randolph, and Memphis’ own Richard Johnston. Recent International Blues Challenge winners Delta Moon and Fiona Boyes are also scheduled to play. Adding to the infusion of new blood will be a performance by one of the genre’s young giants, twice-nominated Corey Harris (whose Downhome Sophisticate was this critic’s favorite blues album of 2002).

In addition to Johnston, Memphis will be well-represented. The late fife master Othar Turner is nominated for Best Instrumentalist Other, while upstart local label Memphis International Records follows their recent Grammy recognition with two nominations, Acoustic Blues Album of the Year for Alvin Youngblood Hart’s Down In the Alley (Hart is also up for Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year) and Comeback Blues Album of the Year for Carla Thomas’ Live In Memphis.

And the sounds will spill over onto Beale Street Friday night for the Handy Festival, where a $10 wristband will allow fans to hear a number of this year’s nominees up close. The biggest bill of the Handy Festival likely takes place at Rum Boogie CafÇ, where quadruple nominee Magic Slim will pair with one-time Muddy Waters sideman Bob Margolin. Fresh off the release of his latest album, All-Star Blues Jam, Margolin has evolved from young gun on the Chicago scene to one of the genre’s most respected veterans. His band on the new record boasts such blues luminaries as Carey Bell (harmonica), Pinetop Perkins (piano), Willie Smith (drums), and Hubert Sumlin (guitar). Fans can only hope his band Friday night contains a few of those stars.

Over at Blues Hall, this year’s International Blues Challenge winners, Atlanta’s Delta Moon, will play. Boasting an eclectic yet traditional sound, Delta Moon bested the competition at IBC with their unlikely mix of taste, skill, and enthusiasm. Another IBC winner, solo performer and Australian Fiona Boyes, will demonstrate how the blues translates down under with her performance at The Pig on Beale.

Best New Artist nominees will also be on hand Friday night: Ana Popovic, whose Hush was recorded locally at Ardent with an all-star lineup of session musicians, will be at Blues City CafÇ, and Nick Moss & the Flip Tops will be at Elvis Presley’s Memphis, along with Albert Castiglia.

But those who’d rather hear more established acts won’t be disappointed, either. Soul Female Artist of the Year nominee Toni Lynn Washington will celebrate the release of her brand new record, Been So Long, at King’s Palace Cafe. Meanwhile, Contemporary Male Artist of the Year nominee Larry Garner will show off his bayou blues at Silky Sullivan’s.

For those who don’t quite want to brave Beale but still want to get a blues fix Friday night, the Oxford, Mississippi, scene will be well-represented elsewhere. Just down the street at the Lounge, the Kenny Brown Band are set to perform. And in Midtown, at the Full Moon Club, the Burnside Exploration are scheduled to perform.

In all, from award nominees to performers, the Handys will bring together a coalition of contemporary blues performers who range from living legends to young upstarts, artists who are confined by genre to artists who transcend and expand the very idea of “the blues.” There should be at least something for any music fan in the mix. As to whether the “Year of the Blues” amounts to more than just hype and wishfulness, fans will have to decide for themselves.

The 24th Annual W.C. Handy Blues Awards

The Orpheum

Thursday, May 22nd

The Handy Festival

Beale Street

Friday, May 23rd

Categories
News The Fly-By

Artrageous?

Last week the Flyer reported that Amelia Barton, the program director who brought national recognition to the Greater Memphis Arts Council’s Center for Arts Education, had resigned, and that Anne Davey and Kay Ross, the CAE’s remaining staff members, resigned shortly thereafter. The CAE provides educational programs to Memphis and Shelby County school students and trains area teachers in arts education, creating numerous employment opportunities for local artists. It has been the victim of extensive cutbacks over the past year. The resignations were no coincidence.

The Flyer first learned of potential friction between the CAE staff and GMAC president Susan Schadt late in 2002. In pursuing the story, we were not allowed to conduct individual interviews with members of the CAE without Schadt, GMAC board president Tommy Farnsworth III, and media coordinator Marci Woodmansee present. At the time, Schadt and Farnsworth maintained that no friction existed. They said that the CAE was a high priority and cuts were due only to fiscal concerns, stressing that there was no plan, official or otherwise, to eliminate the program. They said that the Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts had not been cut, but rather placed in a state of suspended animation.

Mimi Flaherty, senior director of education for the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, an international organization noted for its inventive approach to early arts education, confirmed the story, explaining that Memphis and Wolf Trap had entered into a partnership and had been awarded a highly competitive $90,000 federal grant through the Department of Commerce and the National Endowment for the Arts — triple the size of the average grant awarded.

But as of last Friday, nobody from the Memphis Arts Council had contacted Flaherty concerning the resignations and the fate of the CAE. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to make contact, Wolf Trap sent the Arts Council a fax requesting that they remove the Wolf Trap name and logo from all promotional material.

“I don’t think the program is salvageable with the current leadership [in Memphis],” Flaherty says now, noting that the Wolf Trap program had brought Memphis artists both national and international acclaim. “Somebody should be held responsible,” she says. “If it happens I am reneging on a federal grant, I’m not going down by myself.”

Flaherty has been communicating with Barton about taking the program to the Crittenden Arts Council in West Memphis. This would not be the first time that the Crittenden Arts Council, which was recently awarded the Arkansas Governor’s Award for Education, has taken over a notable program that Memphis dropped. Last year, the CAC took over Start Smart, an NEA-funded program for early childhood dance education. Memphis was singled out to develop this national education program because of the CAE’s reputation and the strength of its dance community. In spite of the honor and the opportunities it created, Memphis dropped the program due to budget concerns.

“It’s such a critically important program,” says Sheri Bancroft, artistic director of the CAC. “We thought that maybe if we kept it on life support over here the Memphis Arts Council would realize what an important program it is, the funding situation would be figured out, and it would kick back in. But we didn’t want for there not to be a program.”

The obvious question is: How can a small suburban arts council fund programs that a supposedly metropolitan arts organization like GMAC deems a fiscal risk?

“Funding is hard,” says Janine Earney, executive director of the CAC, “but last year our funding was at an all-time high. The reason is because we are meeting the needs of our community. We’re bringing in quality programs and we are having the opportunity to tell our story. There are organizations and groups and businesses that want to fund quality programs, that want to know that the money they give is going to quality programs. And education programs, particularly arts education programs, are eminently fundable. That’s what companies want to fund — something that’s worthwhile, that’s making a difference, and that’s having an impact on children. It all depends on what your focus is. Are you there for education or are you there just to fund other [not-for-profit arts] organizations?”

“It’s unconscionable,” says Flaherty of GMAC’s behavior. “They are reneging on all obligations. They have no honor left. They don’t care about the city schools, the Head Start program, or the area’s youngest children.” According to Flaherty, Memphis had been “a jewel” and a “national model” for arts education. “Now,” she says, bemoaning the fact that she is going to have to go before two federal agencies and ask them to rethink their generous grant, “their name is mud in a lot of arts circles.”

Categories
Music Music Features

Sound Advice

Believe it or not, even if you’re not a blues fan there are still plenty of solid live-music options around town this week.

Start with neo-soul duo Floetry, who canceled a local gig last month due to a family emergency but return this week — Thursday, May 22nd, at Isaac Hayes’ Peabody Place restaurant –to make it up. The duo of Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie Stewart first formed in London as a songwriting team but are now based out of the neo-soul capital of Philadelphia. In recent years they’ve been at the forefront of the burgeoning genre, penning hits for Jill Scott, Glenn Lewis, Bilal, and even Michael Jackson. The duo stepped out as performers with last year’s Floetic. Balancing the sung vocals of Ambrosius with the raplike spoken word of Stewart, the result is smooth neo-soul with a hip-hop tinge. Stephanie Bolton and A-440 open.

For something completely different, you might check out Robbie Fulks, one of the best and most distinct songwriters to emerge from the ’90s alt-country scene. Whether attacking his subculture in punk-rock fashion on “Roots Rock Weirdos,” writing ace straight-country songs (“Parallel Bars,” “I Just Want to Meet the Man” ), paying tribute to pop-culture heroes (“Jean Arthur,” “That Bangle Girl”), or twisting the knife (the atheist’s hymn “God Isn’t Real”), Fulks is a sharp, memorable voice sure to outlive most of his contemporaries. He’ll be at the Hi-Tone CafÇ Friday, May 23rd, with Joy Lynn White.

Oldies fans can catch popular late-’70s R&B group The Brothers Johnson, who perform at Handy Park Saturday, May 24th, with comedian Shun Paul hosting and Bolton and A-440 opening.

And those wanting a taste of local music have a couple of compelling but quite different events to choose from Friday, May 23rd. At Shangri-La Records, rapper Chopper Girl will perform, along with some special guests. And, over at the Stax Music Academy, the kids will show off their developing skills at the SNAP! After School Spring Recital. Both performances are scheduled for 6 p.m.

— Chris Herrington

Many people come to me and say, “Hey, how can you call yourself a Memphis music writer if you hate the blues?” To which I respond, I don’t hate the blues, only contemporary blues which: A) originates from the West coast; B) originates from above the Mason-Dixon line; or C) originates from below the Mason-Dixon line but substitutes an excess of soul-food references where actual lyrics should be. Other than that, I’m quite cool with the blues and reasonably excited about the lineup at this year’s Handy Awards. But I’m especially excited about Baton Rouge bluesman Larry Garner, who will be playing Silky Sullivan’s on Friday, May 23rd, and Saturday, May 24th. Garner is at once a singer and a storyteller. The music is almost secondary to the experience of watching Garner perform. On a good night he can be hypnotic.

On the country end of the spectrum, Jerry Jeff Walker, a patron saint of Austin’s outlaw country scene, will be at the great Southern Food Festival on Saturday, May 24th. — Chris Davis

Categories
News The Fly-By

City Reporter

Collected Call

City council members pay back phone bills.

By Mary Cashiola

Since the beginning of April, city council members have reimbursed the city more than $1,500 in cell phone charges, including several large payments near the end of the month. March records from the city treasurer show almost $700 in cell phone reimbursements from council members.

City Council Chairperson Brent Taylor disconnected the city council cell phones at the beginning of May, citing fiscal responsibility as his reason. Other council members heard the phones were cut off because of media requests for the billing records. For the Flyer‘s “Wrong Numbers?” cover story (May 8th issue), we requested council cell phone bills on April 7th and reimbursement records for those bills on April 15th. Our first reimbursement request was overlooked and a second request was submitted April 30th.

Based on records released by city council attorney Allan Wade last week, the reimbursement record was spotty at best. In the past four months, council members Ed Ford, Janet Hooks, Jack Sammons, Barbara Swearengen Holt, Tajuan Stout-Mitchell, Taylor, Myron Lowery, Rickey Peete, E C Jones, and Joe Brown have all, at one time, exceeded their minute plans. The city paid just over $100 a month for each of the 13 phones — 11 for council members, one for the sergeant-at-arms, and one for the council’s attorney — with any additional charges picked up by the phone’s user.

For the city council’s cell-phone bill dated January 26th, however, the council racked up $2269.58 in charges, or about $900 over what the city pays. All reimbursement records for January predate the billing date and there are no city treasurer records of reimbursements in the month of February. The February bill was about $800 over what the city pays, and in March, $653.44 was collected for city cell-phone reimbursement.

None of the reimbursements were itemized by the treasurer’s office to show which month they were for, and city council administrator Lisa Geater said there was no policy governing the reimbursements. Additionally, she says, there was not any timetable by which a councilman had to reimburse the city.

“Councilman Jack Sammons pays an advance of $100 at the beginning of the year and says, ‘If I go over that, let me know,'” said Geater. She said no other council members had made such an arrangement. Council chairperson Taylor could not be reached for further comment.

Catching Heat for Seats

School board wants better chairs.

By Mary Cashiola

You could say the chair wanted a new chair. But he wasn’t the only one.

The Memphis City School board voted unanimously to approve a measure to purchase 12 new ergonomically correct chairs for members to use at board meetings, but amended the original motion to find a less expensive alternative for the chairs the administration originally recommended, which would have cost a total of $7,000.

The original request came from board President Carl Johnson and was questioned by Commissioner Deni Hirsh. “I’m not sure we need new chairs. I think they may need to be cleaned,” Hirsh said.

In the purchasing recommendation, the staff said that it would be more economical to replace the high-backed executive chairs than to repair them.

“We need new chairs,” Johnson said. “I’m not sure how much they should cost, but we need better back support. Sometimes we sit here from 5:30 to 10, 10:30 p.m.”

With that, Hirsh retorted, “If we don’t have comfortable chairs, maybe we won’t sit here so long.” Johnson, in particular, is known for his extraordinarily long meetings as chairperson.

The chair motion originally failed but was reconsidered after Commissioner Patrice Robinson told her colleagues that she was seeing a doctor for her back. “I need an ergonomically correct chair,” she said. “I feel like I’m sitting on the ground.”

Other commissioners agreed with the quality and comfort of the chairs but took issue with the cost. “They are uncomfortable and cruddy,” said Commissioner Lee Brown. “My concern is that we’re talking about the budget and cutting the budget and I don’t know if it’s good for us to be talking about getting new chairs.” The statement was met with applause from the audience.

Robinson added she was in extreme pain and that she didn’t think the citizens of Memphis would mind buying her an ergonomically correct chair.

Power Outage

Two MLGW employees are injured in transformer accident.

By Bianca Phillips

Two Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) employees were rushed to The Med Tuesday morning after a transformer failed inside a substation where they were working near the corner of G.E. Patterson and Third streets downtown. The nature of their injuries was not known at press time.

“They were alert in answering questions from the paramedics, but we probably won’t know the extent of their injuries until later,” said MLGW spokesman Mark Heuberger.

South downtown was without power from 8:30 a.m. to 9:35 a.m. as MLGW workers temporarily re-routed power around the damaged transformer. The cause of the transformer’s failure is being investigated.

“It didn’t blow up, but we’re not sure what caused the failure at this time,” he said.

Heuberger said employees will be working at the substation for several days. He said the transformer in question is the size of a small car, and will have to be hauled out with special equipment.

The areas affected were bounded by the river on the west, Monroe Avenue on the north, Danny Thomas Blvd. on the east, and E.H. Crump Blvd. on the south.

Trolley Folly

Collision shuts down Main Street loop on Monday.

By Mary Cashiola

Memphis had a bit of a runaway problem Monday afternoon, but it didn’t go unnoticed for long.

According to witnesses, a runaway trolley sped unmanned at least a block up North Main before colliding with a second trolley. The accident was still being investigated and Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) spokesperson Alison Burton said that could take several days, even weeks.

“The power was off. The operators take a 10/7, which is what we call a break, at Main and Auction, and the vehicle was secured properly,” said Burton. There were no injuries reported with the accident, and the runaway trolley was empty. Burton didn’t know if the trolley that was struck was carrying passengers or not.

The catenary wire which powers the trolley was turned off, said Burton, due to work being done on the wire.

MATA switched to rubber-tired trolleys to service the Main Street stops after the accident shut the line down for several hours.

Under the Gun

City council questions police investigation policies.

By Janel Davis

Tuesday morning, the Memphis City Council’s Public Safety Committee discussed the Memphis Police Department’s deadly-force policy. Committee chairman Tajuan Stout-Mitchell questioned police director James Bolden about the department’s policy and internal investigations.

Although Mitchell initially clarified that the meeting was not a forum to delve into any specific investigation, she said her concern about recent police actions prompted the discussion.

Two men were killed last week in separate incidents after interaction with police: Dr. Anthony Bowman, a local cardiologist, was killed outside his apartment May 14th after refusing orders to lower a gun pointed at police. Earlier that same day, Keith Harris, whose death was ruled a suicide, was pursued into a wooded area and shot by police after they responded to a domestic disturbance call. On April 19th, Denvey Buckley died after wrestling with police during a suicide attempt. His death was ruled a heart attack. The following day 18-year-old Denario Bush was beaten by police after fleeing from an allegedly stolen car. Internal investigations into the Buckley and Bush cases resulted in administrative charges for the officers involved. Investigations are ongoing in the Bowman and Harris cases.

Bolden explained that an internal review is conducted any time deadly force is used by police officers. “There’s always a chance that policies aren’t carried out; that’s what a review is about,” he said. Bolden outlined the steps of an internal review, beginning with a “shoot” team that comes to the scene of the incident to ensure the integrity of the crime scene. Witness statements are taken, weapons and baton are secured, officer statements are taken, and an investigation is conducted. Once complete, the investigation is submitted to the police director for review and approval, which can be denied for lack of information. Bolden also said that police do not engage in pursuits in misdemeanor or non-violent felony cases unless someone’s life is at stake.

“We called the [Tennessee Bureau of Investigation], the FBI, and have spoken with [the attorney general’s] office,” Bolden said about the above cases. “We should collectively take a deep breath and allow the system to work. I assure you there will be a thorough investigation, review, and if there are charges [against officers] that need to be addressed, they will be filed.”

While Bolden’s explanation included further review by other policing entities, some council members pushed for an impartial investigation. “I’m not a detective, but we need to have unbiased investigations, not that we want the police to be soft on crime … but we want investigations to be moved expeditiously and fairly,” said council member Rickey Peete.

“A second and third review is important because people don’t trust police,” said Mitchell. “I know we’ve made strides [in this area] but we have a long way to go.”

Monday night, Denario Bush graduated with his class of about 150 Melrose High School seniors at the Mid-South Coliseum. While his body continues to heal from the April incident, his mother, Gale Bush, is not satisfied. “I understand that the police use force, but one more blow and I believe they would have killed him” she said. “The [administrative charges] that they got are not enough. I want their badges.”

Categories
Opinion

Strange Bedfellows

I’ve prayed for Israel since 1936,” testified 91-year-old Olga Simmons of Myrtle, Mississippi, as a group of about 65 people burst into applause with the enthusiasm of a Southern tent revival.

But this was no revival. It was a luncheon last week at an East Memphis hotel for a mixed group of evangelical Christians and Jews who have found common cause in their hard-line defense of Israel and opposition to compromise with the Palestinians.

The group included three Memphis rabbis, two members of the Israeli Knesset, and several ministers representing Crichton College, Southern Baptists, the Assembly of God, and others. It was organized by Ed McAteer, founder of the Religious Roundtable.

With Southern Baptists alone claiming over 100,000 members in Shelby County and Baron Hirsch Congregation being the largest Orthodox Jewish synagogue in the country, even a tentative, single-issue alliance is potentially a political force. All the qualifiers are necessary, however, because 65 people don’t represent two large and diverse communities, and McAteer is no slouch when it comes to self-promotion.

But let’s at least grant that something interesting is going on when Jews and evangelicals embrace in the manner of ambassadors and shouts of “amen” and “bless you” mingle with the singing of the Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem.

“These people have proven themselves to be friends and we appreciate their support,” said Lawrence Zierler, senior rabbi at Baron Hirsch. Zierler moved to Memphis eight months ago from Cleveland. He said he has been doing interfaith work for 12 years.

“We are all better for the friends that we have in other faith communities than for the friends that we need in a moment of crisis,” he said. “It is better to relate and debate than to wait and equivocate.”

Don Johnson, head of the Apostolic Coalition, got a standing ovation when he said, “I’m glad to be here with our Jewish friends because when the United States quits backin’ them then we’ve backed out.”

Others in both the Christian and Jewish camps seemed more reserved. Rabbi Micah Greenstein of Temple Israel, the largest Reform congregation in Memphis (1,800 families), left before the program began, citing another commitment. “You leave your theology at the door when it comes to the survival of Israel,” Greenstein said.

The groups find common ground in their reading of parts of the Old Testament regarding Israel, but there are sharp political differences. In the 2000 presidential election, American Jews generally supported the Gore-Lieberman ticket, while evangelicals went for Bush-Cheney. The Belz family, represented at the luncheon by Andy Groveman, senior vice-president of Belz Enterprises, has been a strong financial supporter of several local and statewide Democratic candidates. McAteer was an ally of the first President Bush.

There seem to also be differences of opinion about the current President Bush. Groveman said Bush has been “exactly on course” in the war on terrorism since 9/11. But McAteer was passing out flyers in which he was quoted as saying, “Bush is absolutely, 100 percent wrong on supporting and even talking about an idea called the road map” with regard to Israelis and Palestinians.

“We pray that our President will understand that God gave the land to the Jew,” said the relentlessly upbeat former Colgate salesman. “We do not believe the land should be divided.”

The guests of honor were Knesset members Joseph Paritzky and Ilan Leibovitch, who were in Nashville and Memphis as part of a goodwill tour. The luncheon group was mostly middle-aged or older. There were two black preachers and one black politician, City Councilman Rickey Peete. Evangelicals outnumbered Jews about two-to-one. They sat around six round tables and ate pasta and sandwiches while McAteer made introductions and called for “a prayuh,” imitating the accent of Billy Graham. Tom Lindberg, pastor of 2,800-member First Assembly of God Memphis, did the honors in ecumenical fashion. That was followed by enthusiastic renditions of the Pledge of Allegiance, the national anthem, and the Hatikva.

Paritzky seemed particularly touched. “We felt, in a way, embarrassed,” he said. “We in Israel have forgot what it means to be simply happy.” He sat down to a standing ovation and a chorus of “amen” and “bless you.”

McAteer claimed there are “millions of Bible-believing Christians in this country who believe as we do” and put the ranks of evangelical Christians in the United States at 70-80 million. Outside the dining room, he had set up a table with flyers urging people to call the White House with the message that “President Bush Honors God’s Covenant with Israel.”

Other than Peete, the only elected official in attendance was Shelby County Commissioner Marilyn Loeffel, who called Israel “my home country because every Christian thinks of Israel as their home country.”

Is Memphis in the vanguard of a hot trend here? The Wall Street Journal, which did a front-page story on this general subject a while ago, seems to think so. But journalists, mimicking economists, have spotted 10 of the last three hot trends.

David Kustoff, a Jewish Republican activist featured in that article, sees some erosion of the Democrats’ four-to-one margin among Jewish voters in the last three presidential elections — and more to come if Joe Lieberman is not the candidate in 2004.

“One Memphis rabbi told me Bush was the best president for Jews in America since Harry Truman,” he said.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

thursday, 22

Transvestites. Murder. Silicone Pumping Parties. Forget that I just a few minutes ago had a conversation during which a friend told me how to saw a goat in half for a barbecue. Forget that I just found an old note I left for a friend who was house sitting for me and told her that I was going to let everyone in New York City know that her breasts were fake and to not change her adult diaper in front of my cat and that I could remember when the clothes she wears were actually in style and that, while there was beer in the refrigerator, to please not touch it and instead drink the wombat urine I left for her. Forget that incredibly frightening photo in The Commercial Appeal the other day of the woman who thinks she was born to be a Playboy bunny, even though she was also born to be a wrestler. Forget about the most fabulous new website in the world, www.moderndrunkard.com, which currently has a very, very informative article titled How to Ace an Intervention. Forget about all of that. I am now officially obsessed with the Florida murder trial involving a man, a man who dresses like a woman and has enlarged breasts, and a grandmother who died from having too much silicone injected into her buttocks at one of the aforementioned pumping parties. Is anyone else on this train with me? It s fascinating. And it could happen only in Florida, home of Lobster Boy and my pal Noelle Bush (note to all Bush girls: read the How to Ace an Intervention article). The case has been going on for some time but has just recently gone to trial, a trial before which the courts warned people that it would be bizarre, flamboyant, and unusual, and before which the judge told jurors to be prepared to hear testimony from witnesses who are not just drag queens, but are also drama queens. There s a difference? At least that s what the second jury was told. The first jury was dismissed for talking with the media, which garnered a newspaper headline that read, and I am not making this up, Jury Dismissed in Silicone Injection Murder Trial After Leaks. All of the witnesses, apparently, are men wearing women s clothing in court. It seems that they had been going around the country with some $8-a-gallon industrial silicone, and charging people thousands of dollars for body sculpting with the stuff. One of the men/women/whatever on trial (the newspaper calls the men she and her ) is named Donnie Hendricks, but prefers again, in court to be called Viva. Their defense attorney is trying to say that it was the grandmother s own fault, because it was her desire to have insane amounts of silicone injected into her body over the course of five years that over time caused her to essentially take her own life. Insane amounts? Make up your own mind. She had the transvestites pump some 50 pounds of silicone into her buttocks. Which raises the most important question in the entire trial: Who the hell wants a 50-pound ass? There is so much wrong with this picture that it must, must end up as a made-for-television-movie Buttocks to Die For or something like that. If there s any resemblance of justice in this world, that will be on next week. In the meantime, here s a little look at some of what s going on around town this week. Tonight s big event is the 24th Annual Handy Blues Awards at The Orpheum, presented by the Blues Foundation and co-hosted by Delbert McClinton, Bobby Rush, and Marcia Ball. Performers include Grammy-winner Solomon Burke, Magic Slim & The Teardrops, Corey Harris, Sam Carr, Robert Randolph, Richard Johnston, Ana Popovic, Delta Moon, Fiona Boyes, and others. There s also the Blues Hall of Fame awards ceremony, in which this year s picks will inducted, including Fats Domino, Pinetop Perkins, Dinah Washington, Sippie Wallace, and others. The Joyce Cobb Trio is playing at tonight s Sunset Atop the Madison party on the roof of the Madison Hotel. And Melange is celebrating its third anniversary tonight with a big party that includes $3 drink and food specials along with live music by the Chicago-based J. Davis Trio (who will also be at Young Avenue Deli Friday night).

Categories
Theater Theater Feature

Sexploitation

The tornado sirens were blaring, and the noise, bouncing off buildings, asphalt, and concrete, sounded like it was coming from everywhere all at once. Car alarms were screaming like cats on fire, and the sky was blacker than the devil’s darkest fantasy. On the radio and television announcers were claiming, “If there was ever a tornado that could hit downtown Memphis, this is it.” Officials even closed down the barbecue contest and sent everybody home en masse. Needless to say, things weren’t exactly hopping in the Edge, the ever-expanding artists’ haven on the outskirts of downtown where Marshall and Madison converge. And that spelled bad news for the actors at Sleeping Cat Studio who performed their twisted one-act play Tell Me You Love Me for an audience of two. To their good credit, neither the terrible storm blowing outside nor the miniature audience seemed to affect the cast in the least. The show went on, and what a show it was.

When I first reviewed this play by local producer and playwright Jim Esposito back in 1999, I wrote, “If John Waters and Jean-Luc Godard got rip-snortin’ drunk one night and decided to rewrite Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf before sunrise, the result might very well resemble Jim Esposito’s Tell Me You Love Me . B-movie fans will love it, gentle souls will loathe it, and hipsters will get off on hanging out in Esposito’s way cool warehouse apartment/theater, where they can eat, drink, smoke, and laugh at jokes about aneurysms. It is no insult to say that the cast has the kind of commitment, energy, and amateurish appeal appropriate only to that desolate place where the French New Wave pours its load into the mouth of the great Waters.”

Four years, a brand-new (if equally cool) theater, and a couple of rewrites later, virtually none of this commentary applies. While the play still has some very funny moments, the jokes no longer generate the wave on which the story rides. Now it plays more like something David Lynch might have created in a moment of pure whimsy. And the cast (Amy Van Doren, Michael B. Conway, and Richard Crowe) are (for both better and worse) far too experienced to create the improvisational feel that made the original production so attractive. But none of this is to say that this production of Tell Me You Love Me is in any way inferior to the original. It’s just different. Very different. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Esposito has, in the last few years, matured as a playwright. The first act of his family drama Night Blooming Cereus is virtually flawless, and his wartime drama The Ribbon Mill proved that he could create characters so unforgettable they could make you forget that the story was repetitive and full of holes. Tell Me You Love Me, a one-act that runs exactly one hour, is a throwback to the days when seeing an Esposito play was a real crapshoot. You might see something fun and thought-provoking. You might see a sophomoric staging of a dirty joke. You might just see something dirty for the sake of being dirty. Tell Me You Love Me is all three, and taken as a whole, it is possibly Esposito’s most satisfying play to date. With more twists than Chubby Checker, it tells the story of a middle-aged couple who, through the conduit of a third party, express their love in a rather unconventional way. And while this production gives a little too much away too early on, the last-minute surprise is still reasonably surprising and appropriately perverse.

To even begin explaining the plot of Tell Me You Love Me would give too much away. Though this sick little sex-play is no mystery, it uses a decidedly Hitchcockian brand of suspense that should be experienced sans spoilers.

Sleeping Cat has announced plans to extend the run of Tell Me You Love Me into June, though they have not officially announced the new run dates. The extension is not the result of popular demand. In fact, the opposite is true. The show has taken a beating in terms of attendance. Between the activities surrounding Memphis in May and the spate of bad weather, audiences have been small, even by Sleeping Cat standards. And that’s too bad. While I’ve had more than my share of negative things to say about many of Esposito’s plays, this is one I can largely recommend front to back. The simple (if less than subtle) performances by Crowe, Conway, and Van Doren tend to hide the piece’s weaker moments. Tell Me You Love Me is the kind of theater that could make moralizers like John Ashcroft and Rick Santorum want to move to Canada. So I say, Bring it on.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Taking Note

(Editor’s note: Last week’s Flyer editorial, alluded to here by Rep. Harold Ford, expressed our view that the Congressman — like much of his party’s leadership — is too assiduous about following the lead of President Bush in matters of both domestic and foreign policy, especially in regard to the war in Iraq and a proposed new round of tax cuts. That editorial can be reviewed on the Flyer Web site at MemphisFlyer.com. As the response below indicates, we complimented Congressman Ford for the attention he paid to area-wide tornado damage but recommended he express a like measure of concern for his constituents’ interests in the indicated policy areas.)

Your editorial of May 15th advises me to “Take Note, Congressman.” I am taking note and listening to my constituents, and I would like to address some mischaracterizations in your piece.

You write that I am basing my political hopes on “the dubious principle of splitting the difference with the President.” But my positions on issues aren’t determined by an inclination to go along with the President — or by an inclination to oppose him. I worked hard for Al Gore in 2000 and have endorsed John Kerry to replace President Bush in 2004. Sometimes I agree with this President and most times I don’t, and I have been equally outspoken on both scores.

For example, I supported the congressional resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq — not the original “blank check” that the President asked for, but the narrowly tailored resolution that I worked with Republicans and Democrats to craft.

My position on Iraq was based on the available intelligence that Iraq was developing chemical and biological weapons and possibly nuclear weapons. It was the same intelligence that President Clinton had, which informed that Democratic administration’s similar policy toward disarming Iraq. If it turns out that our intelligence overestimated the threat, we need to take a serious look at revamping the way we gather it. Regardless, I continue to believe the world is safer now that Saddam Hussein is out of power.

As for domestic issues, I have forcefully opposed the President’s failed economic agenda, and have made no bones about it. I voted against the President’s tax cuts in 2001, and last week voted against this new round of tax cuts.

It is true that I support tax cuts — but tax cuts of a radically different nature. In contrast to the President’s elimination of taxation on dividends, I would grant every worker and employer a two-month holiday from the payroll tax.This tax cut is faster, broader, cheaper, and more stimulative than President Bush’s.Under my plan, everybody would get a tax cut, from chief executives to the janitors who clean their offices.I also support $100 billion in federal aid to states like Tennessee that are facing budget shortfalls that threaten funding for schools, hospitals, and law enforcement. The President’s plan doesn’t include a dime for the states. Families in the 9th District looking for work or without health care hardly believe these differences are “modest.”

This is America, and we are free to disagree on issues. I accept and welcome criticism with hopes of learning from it. But I want to take a strident, personal objection to your newspaper’s insinuation that my concern for the tornado victims in Jackson was motivated by political calculations.

Our neighbors in Tennessee suffered tragedy and devastation. I extended my prayers and support without hesitation and certainly without calculation. That’s what we do when families are in need. We don’t calculate — we unite, and we act. I was proud to join Congressman Tanner in supporting Governor Bredesen’s request for federal disaster assistance, a request that was answered quickly by the White House. Your cynical insinuations about politics insult the families who have lost loved ones, homes, and businesses.

Harold Ford, a Memphis Democrat, represents the 9th District of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Categories
News News Feature

CITY BEAT

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

“I’ve prayed for Israel since 1936,” testified 91-year-old Olga Simmons of Myrtle, Mississippi, as a group of about 65 people burst into applause with the enthusiasm of a southern tent revival.

But this was no revival. It was a luncheon last week at an East Memphis hotel for a mixed group of evangelical Christians and Jews who have found common cause in their hard-line defense of Israel and opposition to compromise with the Palestinians.

The group included three Memphis rabbis, two members of the Israeli Knesset, and several ministers representing Crichton College, Southern Baptists, the Assembly of God and others. It was organized by Ed McAteer, founder of the Religious Roundtable.

With Southern Baptists alone claiming over 100,000 members in Shelby County and Baron Hirsch Congregation being the largest Orthodox Jewish synagogue in the country, even a tentative, single-issue alliance is potentially a political force. All the qualifiers are necessary, however, because 65 people don’t represent two large and diverse communities, and McAteer is no slouch when it comes to self-promotion.

But let’s at least grant that something interesting is going on when Jews and evangelicals embrace in the manner of ambassadors and shouts of “amen” and “bless you” mingle with the singing of the Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem.

“These people have proven themselves to be friends and we appreciate their support,” said Lawrence Zierler, senior rabbi at Baron Hirsch. Zierler moved to Memphis eight months ago from Cleveland. He said he has been doing interfaith work for 12 years.

“We are all better for the friends that we have in other faith communities than for the friends that we need in a moment of crisis,” he said. “It is better to relate and debate than to wait and equivocate.”

Don Johnson, head of the Apostolic Coalition, got a standing ovation when he said, “I’m glad to be here with our Jewish friends because when the United States quits backin’ them then we’ve backed out.”

Others in both the Christian and Jewish camps seemed more reserved. Rabbi Micah Greenstein of Temple Israel, the largest Reform congregation in Memphis (1,800 families), left before the program began, citing another commitment. “You leave your theology at the door when it comes to the survival of Israel,” Greenstein said.

The groups find common ground in their reading of parts of the Old Testament regarding Israel, but there are sharp political differences. In the 2000 presidential election, American Jews generally supported the Gore-Lieberman ticket, while evangelicals went for Bush-Cheney. The Belz family, represented at the luncheon by Andy Groveman, senior vice-president of Belz Enterprises, has been a strong financial supporter of several local and statewide Democratic candidates. McAteer was an ally of the first President Bush.

There seem to also be differences of opinion about the current President Bush. Groveman said Bush has been “exactly on course” in the war on terrorism since 9/11. But McAteer was passing out flyers in which he was quoted as saying “Bush is absolutely, 100 percent wrong on supporting and even talking about an idea called the road map” with regard to Israelis and Palestinians.

“We pray that our President will understand that God gave the land to the Jew,” said the relentlessly upbeat former Colgate salesman. “We do not believe the land should be divided.”

The guests of honor were Knesset members Joseph Paritzky and Ilan Leibovitch, who were in Nashville and Memphis as part of a goodwill tour. The luncheon group was mostly middle-aged or older. There were two black preachers and one black politician, City Councilman Rickey Peete. Evangelicals outnumbered Jews about two-to-one. They sat around six round tables and ate pasta and sandwiches while McAteer made introductions and called for “a prayuh,” imitating the accent of Billy Graham. Tom Lindberg, pastor of 2,800-member First Assembly of God Memphis, did the honors in ecumenical fashion. That was followed by enthusiastic renditions of the Pledge of Allegiance, the National Anthem, and the Hatikva.

Paritzky seemed particularly touched. “We felt, in a way, embarrassed,” he said. “We in Israel have forgot what it means to be simply happy.” He sat down to a standing ovation and a chorus of “amen” and “bless you.”

McAteer claimed there are “millions of Bible-believing Christians in this country who believe as we do” and put the ranks of Evangelical Christians in the United States at 70-80 million. Outside the dining room, he had set up a table with flyers urging people to call the White House with the message that “President Bush Honors God’s Covenant with Israel.”

Other than Peete, the only elected official in attendance was Shelby County Commissioner Marilyn Loefel, who called Israel “my home country because every Christian thinks of Israel as their home country.”

Is Memphis in the vanguard of a hot trend here? The Wall Street Journal, which did a front-page story on this general subject a while ago, seems to think so. But journalists, mimicking economists, have spotted ten of the last three hot trends.

David Kustoff, a Jewish Republican activist featured in that article, sees some erosion of the Democrats’ four-to-one margin among Jewish voters in the last three presidential elections — and more to come if Joe Lieberman is not the candidate in 2004.

“One Memphis rabbi told me Bush was the best president for Jews in America since Harry Truman,” he said.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Politics

It’s Time — Again

So who’s surprised? There’s another Joe Cooper candidacy to kick around this year.

It was perhaps inevitable: This is an election year, is it not? And what is an election year without the name Joe Cooper on a local ballot? Cooper candidacies and rumors of Cooper candidacies are part of the very fabric of local politics — its warp and woof, as it were (and you can make your own puns involving those terms, thank you; it’s not brain surgery).

Cooper picked up a petition at the election commission Monday to run for the District 5 city council seat about to be vacated by two-termer John Vergos, who has announced that at some point he will endorse one of his would-be successors, specifying so far only that the endorsee would not be last year’s Republican nominee for county mayor, George Flinn. Lawyer Jim Strickland and community activist Mary Wilder, Democrats like Vergos, are real possibilities.

Cooper has run as a Democrat in recent years, but he isn’t holding his breath in anticipation of getting the nod from Vergos, an environmentalist who was probably scandalized, as so many were, by Cooper’s proposal to commercialize a hunk of Shelby Farms during his race for the county commission last year.

“Nah, all I’m looking to John for is some more of those world-famous ribs that he and his family [at the Rendezvous restaurant] are so noted for,” Cooper says modestly.

As for his ill-fated Shelby Farms proposal, Cooper says, “I’ve learned my lesson. The people in this district made their opinions known loud and clear. They want Shelby Farms to remain like it is.” That’s actually a plank in his newest platform (or is it a message tied to his finger by a string?): Leave Shelby Farms Alone.

Another plank may cancel out the effect of that one for some voters, however. Cooper wants to fire the top administrators at the Office of Planning and Development and “reform” the structure of that agency generally. That typifies the point of view of several disgruntled members of the development community with whom Cooper has been close in recent years.

As usual in one of Cooper’s races, he proposes a 24-hour action line for seniors, and this year he adds to that a call for a new police precinct to focus on the area covered by District 5, whose center of balance is Midtown.

“I’m the most experienced candidate in this race. That’s the bottom line,” says Cooper, who is without doubt the most experienced at being a candidate, as well.

Cooper’s slogan is the same as it has been since 1995 when he coined it for a race for city court clerk (which he almost won): “It’s Time — Now.” That has been preceded by his name and, sometimes, by the office he seeks. “What I think I’ll do is take last year’s yard signs and paste “city council” over the words “county commission,” he muses. Under the circumstances, not a bad idea.

n Shelby County Republicans last week did the expected by endorsing the 5th District city-council hopes of Flinn, the radiologist/broadcast mogul whose mayoral candidacy was tarnished by acrimony but who promises a positive approach in his council race this year.

About his well-funded but ultimately unsuccessful political experience last year, Flinn joked, “I’m older, wiser, and poorer. This will be a grassroots campaign.” Flinn, who later confided that out-of-state consultants may have done him a disservice in last year’s race — his first — by advocating “slash-and-burn” tactics, promised that he would work only with local consultants this year and would keep his expenditures more or less in line with what is customary for a city council race.

A press release put out last week by consultant Lane Provine indicates that Flinn will focus on the twin issues of improving education and holding the tax line.

Next, the GOP steering committee, which gave its unanimous nod to Flinn at a meeting at the home of activist Annabel Woodall, is likely also to endorse county school board member Wyatt Bunker for the District 1 council race against longtime incumbent EC Jones.

“We think Jones is vulnerable, and we think Bunker has good support against him,” said party chairman Kemp Conrad. Cordova resident Bunker, arguably the county board’s most conservative member, filed his petition for the seat last week.

The party will withhold any official action on the race pending formal interviews of the sort held with District 5 candidates, but Bunker’s entry was actively sought by the party’s candidate-recruitment committee — a fact which makes him almost certain to be endorsed.

Bunker is a resident of Countrywood, a portion of Cordova annexed by the city of Memphis since he was last elected to the county school board. Ineligible to run for reelection to the board next year, he is in a unique position as a county officeholder running for citywide office this year.

Another race in which the party may endorse, said Conrad, is the race for the Super-District 9, Position 1 council seat now held by long-term incumbent Pat Vander Schaaf. Numerous candidates — Republican, Democratic, and independent — are expected to try their luck in that one — with local businessmen Scott McCormick and Lester Lit running most actively at the moment.

Newly elected Democratic chair Kathryn Bowers has gone on record against official party endorsements in this year’s city election — a decision counter to that which the former chairperson, Gale Jones Carson, indicated she would have advised. Carson, press secretary to Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, was narrowly defeated for the chairmanship by state Rep. Bowers in an extended and hotly contested election process.

A C ‘s Purgatory

The county’s mellow chief executive struggles to get the bad news down to 25 cents.

One of the sights to be had on Friday night, whose torrential rains and persistent tornado threats curtailed a session of the barbecue festival, was that of A C Wharton, dressed to the nines and paying a ceremonial visit to the tent of which he and 9th District U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. were the titular impresarios.

Even in that environment, shortly to become pandemonium, the Shelby County mayor looked immaculate and unflappable as he bestowed some gracious banter on a group of visiting German tourists, who became instant admirers. And on the evening before, at a big-ticket East Memphis fund-raiser for his governmental counterpart, Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton, Wharton had pulled off an equally impressive trick.

Asked what the current state of his budget was, Wharton looked upward reflectively and became an instant abacus. “Let’s see, there was a debt trade-off here .” He calculated it as worth $4 million. “And reductions worth such-and-such here .” He gave the actual number. “And applying a 5-percent spending cut here .” He paused and toted. “All that puts the deficit at $29 million, down from $44 million, which means …” He paused and toted again. “… as of right now we’re looking at a 25-cent property-tax increase.”

Only a day or two before, the morning newspaper had put the number at 41 cents, but that was before the county mayor and his team went back to what these days is the constant task of number crunching. The 25-cent figure, Wharton indicated, was hot off his own interior press, and the result of a good deal of jawboning and other effort.

One is tempted to say “arm-twisting,” except that the dapper, almost dainty Shelby County mayor is clearly no bully boy and works almost exclusively through charm and good manners and gentle persuasion. Not to omit the aura of good faith he communicates.

It was clear he was disappointed that a predictably well-orchestrated pressure campaign by local homebuilders and developers had forced him — and the Shelby County Commission — to put off for a year any real consideration of his proposed “Adequate Facilities Tax,” a de facto impact fee. “But we’re not going to lose any potential revenue as a result of that,” Wharton said philosophically. “And it’s important to set up something recurrent that we can depend on that everybody can agree on.”

His own use of the word “recurrent” made him wince a bit as he recalled the deluge of complaints that he, like the several previous Shelby County mayors, had received about the notorious “wheel tax,” first passed during the Bill Morris administration to cover the costs of upgrading public education — then as now the squeaky wheel of county government.

“I never stop hearing about that damn thing!” Wharton exclaimed, his game smile hardly masking the genuine pain of recollection.

The task now, especially since the Adequate Facilities Tax has been put on hold, is to find another “damn thing” that will pass muster with enough of the contentious pressure groups in Shelby County to get by a perpetually divided and squeamish commission.

One possibility is a payroll tax, and, after the homebuilders and developers pumped for it as an alternative to the AFT, he carefully began to drop it into his public discourse and to seed the idea with friendly members of the commission — like Deidre Malone, a newly elected Democrat (like Wharton) who brings it up every chance she gets.

Participants in the public weal as diverse as megadeveloper Ron Belz and Commissioner John Willingham, an unorthodox Republican also elected just last year, are talking the idea up in tandem with the idea of a proportionately discounted property tax — a sop which they hope will appeal to big employers like FedEx’s Fred Smith, widely credited with killing the payroll tax the last time it reared itself.

Wharton is optimistic that a solution will be found. Like Governor Phil Bredesen, another moderate Democrat and yet another reigning public official birthed in the fiscal desert of 2002, he is skilled enough to sell the idea of across-the-board cuts. His 5-percent variety is close kin to the governor’s 9-percent version, and, like it, may be subject to a modicum of negotiation before it or something like it gets into the law books.

“We gotta find something,” says Wharton, looking both determined and patient, knowing that anybody less trusted or less mellow would have hell to pay. And so may he, if the current purgatory which, for better or worse, constitutes his moment extends too long and too far.

• State Representative Carol Chumney of Memphis, selected by the centrist Democratic Leadership Council as one of 110 up-and-coming national Democrats, attended a DLC conference last week in Washington, where her activities included conference time with a former leading light of the DLC, one William Jefferson Clinton.