Month: July 2003

W Strikes Out

Post author By Kenneth Neill
Post date July 10, 2003

I was blessed to celebrate the Fourth of July this year in the Napa Valley, the most American of places, a splendid locale where fine wines, fine weather, and fine friends combined to make this, for me at least, a perfect holiday. In these crowded political and economic times, even a newspaper publisher needs downtime.

But while reading the baseball box scores in the San Francisco Chronicle one morning last week, a thought came to me about the larger “game” being played in Iraq by the Bush administration while we celebrate this great national holiday.

As far back as the summer of 2001, the Bush administration was clearly spoiling for a fight in Iraq. And in March, the President went to the plate ready to swing for the fences. When the American team took the field, there was no question that Bush was trotting out the varsity.

But alas, George W. Bush has struck out. Mightily.

™ Strike One was his use deliberate or otherwise of clearly tainted evidence as his rationale for that war. No weapons of mass destruction have been found, nor at this point appear likely to be discovered. Either President Bush has surrounded himself with incompetents (called strike) incapable of giving him accurate intelligence information, or he himself played a role in misrepresenting that information (swinging strike) to the American people and the world.

™ Strike Two was the President’s decision to go it alone in Iraq against the wishes of a majority of the members of the U.N. Security Council. Yes, he put together a “coalition of the willing,” including Britain, Australia, and Spain, and whatever other minor countries’ support could be bought. But for the first time since the U.N.’s founding in 1945, the U. S. has taken military action a preemptive strike, at that in clear defiance of the wishes of the majority of the U.N.’s members.

Had we had the “show of hands” on the Security Council which Mr. Bush promised would be taken (in his March 10th press conference) but never was, the U.S. would have found itself on the outside looking in, for the first time ever facing the vetoes of at least two of the council’s permanent members. FDR had to be turning in his grave, with generations of American foreign-policy makers both Republican and Democrat shaking their heads in shame.

™ Strike Three has come in the aftermath of this misguided war, after it was “won,” as the President declared in May. Since that declaration, dozens of Americans have perished, and Iraq is fast descending into chaos. “Quagmire” is the word used increasingly to describe the situation on the ground in that troubled country, where 24 million people are at best uneasy about the occupation of their homeland by 150,000 foreign “liberators” who know next to nothing about Iraqi languages, cultures, and values. This is a recipe for disaster that any reasonably competent American political and military leadership should have foreseen and prevented.

Strike Three and you’re out, Mr. Bush! This should be the mantra chanted by the Democratic Party leadership, and shouted from the treetops. This is the clarion call that the party, if it had any gumption at all, should be making to the American people. Indeed, the “outing” of a President who is, at best, utterly incompetent should be a first priority of the Democratic congressional leadership.

Senator Robert Byrd speaks out eloquently on this subject in the Senate almost daily. Think of the national impact if each and every House and Senate Democrat also did so. It wouldn’t hurt, either, if responsible, patriotic Republicans in the Congress did the same. On this of all weekends, every American who cares about and loves his country should have been thinking about how we might restore our nation’s integrity, honor, and good name in the world.

Kenneth Neill is publisher of the Flyer and other publications of Contemporary Media, Inc.

News News Feature

CITY BEAT

Post author By John Branston
Post date July 10, 2003

NO WAY OUT?

This week’s property tax hike is too much, and property owners will flee to neighboring counties. Or it’s not enough, and services will suffer. Nobody’s happy.

For starters, the rhetoric is overheated. The sky isn’t falling. The proposed 25-cent hike in the tax rate amounts to a few Grizzlies tickets or an evening at the casinos to most homeowners. In May, Fitch Ratings assigned a AA rating to Shelby County’s $153 million general obligation debt and affirmed its AA rating on $1.22 billion in outstanding bonds. Fitch Ratings spokesman Mitch Burkhard said AA means the county has very high credit quality and strong capacity for payment of debt.

“Shelby County’s AA general obligation bond rating is based on a deep, diverse, expanding economy, manageable debt burden, and sound historical finances,” says the May report. “Concerns about fiscal stability, which abated in the last few years, have been renewed. These concerns are somewhat offset by the county’s past track record of raising revenues and controlling expenditures to meet challenges of similar magnitude, but maintenance of the county’s strong long-term rating will rely on the resumption of stable financial operations.”

The trend is bad. Memphis property taxes are 60 percent higher than Nashville’s. With the proposed increase, homeowners will pay a combined city and county property tax rate of $7.27. The rate in Nashville is $4.58. Property taxes on a $200,000 Nashville home: $2,290. A $200,000 Memphis home: $3,635.

Comparisons between Memphis and Nashville are old hat, but lately the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce, not exactly a bunch of naysayers, has noted a couple of unflattering ones. In 1980, Memphis was the largest metropolitan area in Tennessee, but now Nashville is. The Chamber says Nashville has a better image to outsiders and gets more new residents than Memphis, where growth is mostly due to births.

The tax base is shrinking in Memphis and growing in Nashville. Memphis has more people on TennCare, more people in jail, more failing schools. Nashville is catching the high-profile companies. In June, Nissan North America announced that it is moving production of its Pathfinder SUVs from Japan to just outside of Nashville, bringing an estimated 1,500 new permanent jobs to the area.

Shelby County has done the easy things, like refinancing its long-term debt wherever it can to take advantage of low interest rates.

“The county’s overall cost of borrowing is just under five percent,” says Jim Huntzicker, director of finance and administration. “For the most part, older higher cost bond issues have been refunded and cannot be refunded again.”

The county plans to refinance two issues that carry an interest rate over five percent, saving about one percent on $150 million and less than a penny on the tax rate.

The administration says a 16.5 percent cut from every division of county government would make a tax increase unnecessary. The commission scuttled that.

Commissioners John Willingham and Diedre Malone suggest a payroll tax, but the last time it was proposed (by the City Council) FedEx launched an all-out assault against it.

At least four suggestions have been made to cash in on unusual public assets.

The city could sell Memphis Light Gas & Water, raising an estimated $800 million and triggering a cut in city property taxes. Mayor Herenton proposed this in 1999 and was roundly criticized, but if city taxes went down, the city could take over some county expenses, just as it geographically takes over parts of the county by annexation.

A Pyramid casino, taxed at the 12 percent rate that Mississippi and Tunica tax their casinos, would raise at least $25 million a year. But the state legislature and possibly the Tennessee Supreme Court would have to take favorable action first. The Detroit News reports that Detroit gets $170 million, or 10 percent of its general fund budget, from taxes and fees on three casinos opened since 1999 to compete with one in Canada.

Selling or leasing 10 percent of Shelby Farms (450 acres) could result in a one-time windfall or annual lease payments of $1 million or more, say suburban developers. No other urban county has such a big piece of undeveloped land at its center.

The county has one more “asset” it could put in play: the jail. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is the largest private prison company in America. Its headquarters are in Nashville. Its chief executive, John Ferguson, is a former Shelby County resident and former Tennessee commissioner of finance under Gov. Don Sundquist. CCA operates several municipal correctional facilities, including the Metro Detention Facility in Nashville and the jail in Tulsa, Okla., which used to be run by the sheriff. With 1,400 inmates, the Tulsa jail is the largest private city jail in the country.

Tulsa pays CCA $45.81 per inmate per day. The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office budget, which includes law enforcement as well as the jail, is $134 million.

All of these ideas are dismissed as wacky or politically unrealistic or both. But the reality is, other cities are doing them while Shelby County continues to raise property taxes on a shrinking tax base.

Opinion

No Way Out?

Post author By John Branston
Post date July 10, 2003

This week’s property tax hike is too much and property owners will flee to neighboring counties. Or it’s not enough and services will suffer. Nobody’s happy.

For starters, the rhetoric is overheated. The sky isn’t falling. The proposed 25-cent hike in the tax rate amounts to a few Grizzlies tickets or an evening at the casinos for most homeowners. In May, Fitch Ratings assigned a “AA” rating to Shelby County’s $153 million general obligation debt and affirmed its AA rating on $1.22 billion in outstanding bonds. Fitch Ratings spokesman Mitch Burkhard said AA means the county has very high credit quality and strong capacity for payment of debt.

The trend is bad. Memphis’ property taxes are 60 percent higher than Nashville’s. With the proposed increase, homeowners will pay a combined city and county property tax rate of $7.27. The rate in Nashville is $4.58. Property taxes on a $200,000 Nashville home: $2,290. A $200,000 Memphis home: $3,635.

Comparisons between Memphis and Nashville are old hat, but lately the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce, not exactly a bunch of naysayers, has noted a couple of unflattering ones. In 1980, Memphis was the largest metropolitan area in Tennessee, but now Nashville is. The Chamber says Nashville projects a better image to outsiders and gets more new residents than Memphis, where growth is mostly due to births.

The tax base is shrinking in Memphis and growing in Nashville. Memphis has more people on TennCare, more people in jail, more failing schools. Nashville is catching the high-profile companies. In June, Nissan North America announced that it is moving production of its Pathfinder SUVs from Japan to just outside Nashville, bringing an estimated 1,500 new permanent jobs to the area.

Shelby County has done the easy things, like refinancing its long-term debt whenever it can to take advantage of low interest rates.

“The county’s overall cost of borrowing is just under 5 percent,” says Jim Huntzicker, director of finance and administration. “For the most part, older higher-cost bond issues have been refunded and cannot be refunded again.”

The administration says a 16.5 percent cut from every division of county government would make a tax increase unnecessary. The commission scuttled that.

Commissioners John Willingham and Diedre Malone suggest a payroll tax, but the last time it was proposed (by the City Council) FedEx launched an all-out assault against it.

At least four suggestions have been made to cash in on unusual public assets.

™ The city could sell Memphis Light, Gas and Water, raising an estimated $800 million and triggering a cut in city property taxes. Mayor Herenton proposed this in 1999 and was roundly criticized, but if city taxes went down, the city could take over some county expenses, just as it geographically takes over parts of the county by annexation.

™ A Pyramid casino, taxed at the 12 percent rate that Mississippi and Tunica tax their casinos, would raise at least $25 million a year. But the state legislature and possibly the Tennessee Supreme Court would have to take favorable action first.

™ Selling or leasing 10 percent of Shelby Farms (450 acres) could result in a one-time windfall or annual lease payments of $1 million or more, say suburban developers. No other urban county has such a big piece of undeveloped land at its center.

™ The county has one more “asset” it could put in play: the jail. Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is the largest private prison company in America. Its headquarters are in Nashville. Its chief executive, John Ferguson, is a former Shelby County resident and former Tennessee commissioner of finance under Gov. Don Sundquist. CCA operates several municipal correctional facilities, including the Metro Detention Facility in Nashville and the jail in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which used to be run by the sheriff. With 1,400 inmates, the Tulsa jail is the largest private city jail in the country.

Tulsa pays CCA $45.81 per inmate per day. The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office budget, which includes law enforcement as well as the jail, is $134 million.

Politics Politics Beat Blog

BUNKER CAMP CLAIMS FAVORABLE POLL

Post author By
Post date July 10, 2003

At this early stage of the city election process, candidates and their helpers are doing mucho reconnaissance. I.E., they’re polling for name-recognition, relative weaknesses and strengths, issues, and whatever else might be helpful in determining their strategies vis-ˆ-vis opponents.

Another use of polls, of course, is to publicly boast advantages where they exist or to try to create advantages if publicizing such-and-such information elicited by a poll might do so. (In the latter case, opponents are likely to cry foul or, in the language of the day, “Push Poll!”)

In any case, Lane Provine, consultant to several candidates this year, has results concernng the race for City Council District 1 (Frayer/Raleigh/Cordova), in which his client, Republican Wyatt Bunker, is challenging incumbent E.C. Jones. (Jones is a Democrat, but his party, unlike the G.O.P., has decided not to endorse candidates this year.)

Provine finds — “and it’s a surprise to me, too, at this stage,” he says — that Bunker, currently a member of the Shelby County school board from a Cordova area recently annexed to Memphis, actually leads Jones, who has served District 1 for several terms.

The figures are:

Bunker, 33 percent

Jones, 30 percent

Undecided, 37 percent

According to Provine, the poll was conducted by Conquest Communications Group of Virginia on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Some 400 “likely” voters were contacted in a ratio corresponding to the ethnic distribution of the registered voting population: 50 percent white; 34 percent black; and 16 percent “other.” Margin of error is plus or minus 5 percent.

Provine said voters seemed to give equal weight to the issues of crime, taxes, and education, “depending on how the question was phrased.”

Another candidate represented by Provine is George Flinn, the former candidate for county mayor who is running for the council in District 5 (Midtown, East Memphis). “We’ve done some polling in that district, but not candidate-vs.-candiate polling yet,” says Provine.

Letters To The Editor Opinion

Postscript

Post author By Flyer Readers
Post date July 10, 2003

Thanks for the Mammaries

To the Editor:

As one of the owners of Lost In Paradise, I feel that it is necessary to assure our public and all code officials that our store does not sell “outits” (Fly on the Wall, June 26th issue). Regardless of Elite Memphis‘ obviously extensive knowlege of such things, I’m not sure that such an item even exists. Furthermore, I will make it a store policy never to sell such things should they become a fashion in the future. Any outit-type apparel that leaves our store will have been made so strictly by the customer’s own creative interpretation of how an otherwise-intended garment can be worn.

All nonsense aside, please allow me to clarify to your readers that we have a golden reputation in Memphis for carrying a variety of fine clothing for women of all ages and most sizes.

Tom Walton

Co-Owner, Lost In Paradise

Memphis

Dean’s Got Game

To the Editor:

I’d like to thank Jackson Baker for visiting our fund-raising party for Howard Dean, and for mentioning our event (Politics, July 3rd issue). However, I urge him to rethink his conclusion that our “spottily attended” neighborhood meeting in honor of Dr. Dean’s candidacy means that his outlook in Tennessee is “marginal.”

How many other candidates for president have inspired people — ordinary, non-politico types — to begin meeting monthly this far in advance of the primary season? How many other candidates have grassroots representatives showing up at local Democrat meetings wearing buttons, shaking hands, and talking up their candidate? How many other candidates have devoted followers who are taking the initiative to generate interest locally, without a paid staff and without direct supervision from the national organization? None but Dr. Howard Dean.

Dean’s message has stirred us to get involved. Finally, we have a candidate who isn’t afraid to speak his mind, who doesn’t sugarcoat his message for easy digestibility, and who stands by his convictions clearly and unequivocally.

The number of Dean supporters has grown steadily since the first group of six diehards met back in February. Our July meeting boasted more than 50 people. Fifty people won’t change the world, but 50 people who each talk to three or four other people can suddenly turn into a vibrant movement. And that’s exactly what’s happening. We are talking to our friends, writing to the papers, calling the talk shows, passing out flyers at local events, raising funds, reaching out to others who are fed up with the lies of the Bush cabal, and spreading the good news of Howard Dean to everyone who will listen. That is grassroots activity at its finest, and that’s far more than any other candidate has going on. Including the incumbent.

The doctor is in. Watch out.

Brian Mott

Memphis

Fire Hazards

To the Editor:

Although I do not particularly care for fireworks (Buzz Poll, July 3rd issue), I think there is a place for them. I live in Cooper-Young, where most of the houses are old and basically tinder boxes. There was a jerk down the street setting off bottle rockets and aiming them in my direction.

If one of these rockets had hit in the wrong area, the entire block could have gone up in flames.

I do not feel that people have the right to endanger lives and homes. If they want to go out in the country and shoot them, fine. But to shoot them in a tightly packed area such as Cooper-Young is extremely dangerous and should be illegal. I am not a prude or a bitch, but I don’t want my car — or my flowers — burned.

Sandra Zepik

Memphis

Dang

To the Editor:

Never again will I read your biased publication!!!!

Ran W. Foster

Memphis

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

Music Record Reviews

Short Cuts

Post author By Chris Herrington
Post date July 10, 2003

Tzomvorgha

Ruins

(Ipecac/Magaibutsu)

Progressive rock has reached a weird critical apex when the Mars Volta grace hip fashion spreads. That band, an admittedly strange mix of Radiohead, Fugazi, Yes, and Fates Warning, enjoys attention based on looks and connections first (it’s fronted by the former afros in At The Drive-In) and sound second. The Ruins, I can almost assure you, are not very good-looking.

The Ruins have been plying an unclassifiable form of prog rock, mainly in their homeland of Japan, since 1985. They are a bass/drums duo that often manages to sound like 10 players instead, and that, combined with schizo time changes and shiny production, sets the Ruins apart from younger apprentices like Lightning Bolt.

Tzomvorgha is the Ruins’ 17th (that’s right, count ’em again, 17th) full-length release. No matter what flavor of bombast you prefer, you can take comfort in the assurance that the Ruins will get to it in a matter of seconds. If you hear an influence more than once, it might be Yes (albeit a confrontationally loud reading of Yes), the Minutemen, crossover thrash-metal, or likeminded buddies the Boredoms. The vocals, when they bother to have vocals, jump from operatic screams to the voice of a hyper, talking small animal or dwarf variety or in the case of “Wanzhemvergg,” a curious (and male) interpretation of a diva.

This album sounds like it’s smiling, and its playful genre-hopping frees Tzomvorgha from the confines of its poker-faced avant-garde noise community. After all, the Japanese have never taken their musical experimentation so seriously as to take the fun out of it. To prove this point, Tzomvorgha closes with both a reverse Black Sabbath medley and a two-minute Mahavishnu Orchestra medley. — Andrew Earles

Grade: B+

The Ruins will perform at the Hi-Tone CafÇ Tuesday, July 15th, with Adios Gringos and the Uninvited. This will be one of only six U.S. dates on their current tour.

Liz Phair

Liz Phair

(Capitol)

Okay, first things first: Despite all the furor that would have you believe that Liz Phair is a disaster on a par with, oh, Lauryn Hill Unplugged, Phair has already had her gargantuan disappointment. It was called Whip-Smart, and her fans gave her a pass for it because, like her debut masterpiece, Exile in Guyville, that sophomore slump was recorded for indie Matador and fit into the same aesthetic template.

So the outrage over Phair’s first record in five years isn’t just over its quality but over the fact that it’s a “sellout,” a major-label record that intentionally and purposefully rejects the strictures of indiedom and that has Phair palling around with professional song doctors (most notably, Avril Lavigne production team the Matrix).

I was pretty put off at first myself, mostly because Liz Phair sounds so different from Phair’s other records, with more conventional song structures, more generalized lyrics, and a less personal sound.

But it seems odd that anyone should take particular exception to this direction. Exile in Guyville itself was a love/hate letter to indie rock, and there was no reason to expect that Phair would still be trying to please that crowd in her mid-30s. She seems more comfortable in the role Liz Phair places her: as Sheryl Crow’s gal-pal and Avril Lavigne’s cool aunt.

So once I got past the sonic differences, my biggest disappoint wasn’t that Liz Phair isn’t more like Exile in Guyville, that it isn’t confessional/confrontational, but that it isn’t more like 1998’s Whitechocolatespaceegg.

The outrageously underrated Whitechocolatespaceegg (its title a reference to Phair’s then new-born son) boasts crystalline songwriting with a healthy focus on the lives of others, and I miss that record’s artistic ambitions, the richness of its cast of characters. But if that record was a product of a life change –Liz Phair as married mom –then Liz Phair is an artistic reintroduction determined by yet another life change: It’s a return to single life presaged by Whitechocolatespaceegg‘s brutal divorce song “Go On Ahead.”

Liz Phair‘s best song, and most atypical, is an acknowledgement that grounds the sex-positive dating songs that surround it: On “Little Digger,” Phair’s son finds her in bed with a man who isn’t daddy, setting up a tough, questioning chorus. This crucial fact of life established, the rest of Liz Phair, the best of it anyway, goes on to claim a life for its author, and whaddya know, Phair has plenty of wisdom to impart to Avril and more than a few tricks that Sheryl could learn from too.

“Extraordinary” and “Love/Hate Transmission” are audience songs, rejecting expectations, paradoxically embracing the freedom Phair gets from her chart-pop bid. But the sex songs, unsurprisingly, are the best. The faux-generic should-be single “Rock Me” (over the actually generic real lead single “Why Can’t I”) has had more than a few shots taken at it, its tale of a fuck-and-run relationship with a sweet, dumb, video-game-playing twentysomething a metaphor for Phair’s musical courtship of the mall-pop crowd, except that it’s such a knowing metaphor (“Your record collection don’t exist/You don’t even know who ‘Liz Phair’ is,” she enthuses). “Favorite” is a silly/astute metaphor — lover as comfy undergarment — that works so well Shakira’s probably already mapping out her cover version. “My Bionic Eyes” could make Phair the smartest, toughest sex goddess in Clear Channel heavy-rotation. And the “H.W.C.” (“hot white cum”) isn’t “dirrty” so much as real, a sexed-up goof (the title refrain chanted over girl-group handclaps and a harmonica hook) more Sex and the City than Xtina and Britney. — Chris Herrington

Grade: B+

Run to Ruin

Nina Nastasia

(Touch and Go)

Nina Nastasia has a great voice — strong, evocative, dusky, and sultry. So what? There’s an army of gifted female singers with tremendous voices and little to no songwriting skills — from Edith Frost to Neko Case to Norah Jones — and some of them are becoming increasingly difficult to tell apart.

If her physical voice is typically atypical, Nastasia’s writing sets her apart. On her dirgelike third album, Run to Ruin, she displays a unique gift for evoking specific situations in few words. On “You, Her & Me,” Nastasia describes a drug-hazed road trip to the beach, during which a friend — the “her” in the title — overdoses: “Stay in the conversation while she’s in the rear seat/Maybe she’s not listening to us/The thoughts in her hands are distracting enough.” Then, begrudgingly, “I walk to a pay phone, call for an ambulance, hate her like nobody knows.”

When story is less emphasized, the songs suffer. In “On Teasing,” a woman drowns, but Nastasia’s pretentious approach pushes toward melodrama even as it robs the event of meaning: “‘Be you coddled or cocky, I’ll have you for eats!’ cries the great sea, and drags her below by her feet.”

In all of these songs, something gets lost as Nastasia translates the words into music. Perhaps her particular poetry is better suited to a chapbook than an album. —Stephen Deusner

Grade: B-

Music Music Features

Justified Comparison

Post author By Chris Herrington
Post date July 10, 2003

Grizzlies season-ticket-holder Justin Timberlake claims Memphis in the opening moments of Justified, his late-2002-released solo debut, so does that mean the city can claim him right back? Of course, as much as civic boosters might want to add Timberlake to the portfolio, doing so would be a bit disingenuous. He may call Millington home, but Timberlake’s career has a lot more to do with Orlando, and, more importantly, his music is purely mass-media, chart-pop progeny in which geography is totally irrelevant.

Besides, as Justified makes clear, the musical King that Timberlake is interested in emulating isn’t a product of Graceland but Neverland. Justified is a blue-eyed answer to Michael Jackson’s 1979 coming-out party Off the Wall, its intended homage telegraphed by admittedly silly liner photos that show Timberlake sartorially outfitted and posed to evoke vintage Jacko images. The good news — as a week of comparison listening has convinced this critic at least — is that Justified is the rare wannabe to match its model.

The comparison of the two records is unavoidable: Young, coltish male pop-star breaks from Svengali-driven teen-pop group that had been dominated by his presence (Jackson actually released several solo albums between his Jackson 5 stint and Off the Wall, but that album was both his first as an adult and his first outside of Motown) and teams up with super-producer(s) of the day (for Jackson, Quincy Jones; for Timberlake, Timbaland and the Neptunes, who produced 11 of 13 tracks) for a disco-fied bid for adulthood that happily turns into both a commercial sensation and a great album.

You might argue that Timberlake’s vocal precocity is the result of his background as a showbiz kid (a product of Star Search, The Mickey Mouse Club, and the Orlando teen-pop factory) rather than a result of any actual life experience, but how does that make him any different from Jackson? Timberlake is no match for the young Jackson as a pure singer, his vocal instrument lacking the same ear-popping quality. But, if anything, Timberlake delivers the cagier and more personable vocal performance when it comes to selling a song or a persona, deftly deploying a deep vocabulary of tricks and affectations: asides, chuckles, falsetto sighs, cracked-voice ache, spoken-word over a beat, dynamic flourishes.

Some of Justified‘s finer vocal moments are borderline cutesy and probably certain to turn off listeners predisposed to dismiss him: the way he dips into falsetto to sing the girls’ part of the male/female call-and-response on “Senorita” and the little chuckle after “Gentleman, good night. Ladies good mornin'” on the same song, the shout of “drums!” near the fade on “Like I Love You,” and the soft-spoken-word that ends “Take It from Here.” But these are moments more in line with the Jackson of “I’ll Be There” than Off the Wall, a more erotic update of Jackson’s preternaturally skilled vocal gravitas.

Though Justified scores big all over — Timberlake delivering a credible Missy Elliott impersonation on “Right for Me,” negotiating Timbaland’s Eastern rhythms on “(Oh No) What You Got,” asserting his vocal personality amid a Neptunes production that would bury a lesser artist on “Like I Love You” — it stakes its claim as an honest-to-goodness great album with a three-song suite in the middle.

This section begins with the lovely ballad “Take It from Here” (a change of pace Ö la Off the Wall‘s “She’s Out of My Life”), a confection so airy that it might be more worthy of DeBarge than Jackson. This is the track that most gives the lie to the somewhat popular theory that Justified is Timberlake as marionette, merely a product of Timbaland and the Neptunes’ creative genius. In this case, Timberlake’s relatively gentle persona seems to have driven the production, a swooning bed of strings and acoustic guitars that is more romantic than the Neptunes have ever sounded before, indeed more shameless in its elevation of beauty over attitude than seemed conceivable. (And put across with such aplomb that the song survives some of the record’s clunkiest lyrics: “Let’s fly away to Sweden/Through the Garden of Eden.”)

The sequence is capped with another Neptunes track, the pure disco bliss of “Rock Your Body,” which might be a knowing reference to the Off the Wall standout “Rock with You,” the feverish rhythm-guitar that drives the Neptunes’ track seemingly the sonic cousin of the same feature on Jones’ original, with Timberlake riding the undeniable groove as effortlessly as Jackson.

But it’s the middle song in this sequence that might set Justified apart. “Cry Me a River” (yep, the Britney Spears kiss-off single from last fall) is one of those dense, extraordinary Timbaland productions, a bittersweet symphony composed of rain sound effects, grave and ethereal sampled intro vocals, electro-classical melodic riffs, beat-box-like vocal snippets, skittery drums, and chantlike backup vocals, all adding up to a sonic maelstrom similar to but even more dramatic than Timbaland’s Aaliyah masterpiece “Are You That Somebody?” This is “teen-pop” turned avant garde, in which Timberlake plays an aggrieved lover turned bitter and menacing, with Timbaland as the devil perched on his shoulder. If Justified were modeled on Prince rather than Jackson, “Cry Me a River” would be its “When Doves Cry,” because there’s no precedent for it on Off the Wall, and it’s sure a lot weirder and scarier than Thriller‘s “Billie Jean.”

Timberlake closes the record with an unbearably schmaltzy Brian McKnight ballad, as bad as anything *NSYNC ever recorded, as if to leave the listener with a little bit of doubt. But if any more evidence were needed to confirm the outrageous success of his transition from teen-pop pin-up to adult artist, Timberlake chose wisely in a tourmate. By sharing a bill with Christina Aguilera

for his homecoming concert this week at The Pyramid, the

effortlessness of Timberlake’s emergence will only be underscored by the desperate awkwardness of Aguilera’s similar attempt at career transformation.

Those looking for an embodiment of teen-pop growing pains or rooting for a pop tart to fall flat will have to settle for Aguilera, because, unlikely as it may seem, Timberlake has already leapt past such questions.

News The Fly-By

Seventy Years Down the Drain

Post author By Michael Finger
Post date July 10, 2003

More than 50 members of the Maywood Homeowners Association applauded as Hugh Armistead described his plans to convert Maywood Beach into a planned subdivision and gated retirement community.

During the one-hour meeting held Tuesday night, June 30th, at Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Olive Branch, Mississippi, not a single person objected to the closing of the pool, which has been a popular swimming and picnic spot for Mid-Southerners for more than 70 years.

Armistead, an attorney who has owned Maywood since 1987, explained, “Previous owners told me that the more people you have, the more money you make. Well, I discovered that the more people you have, the more risk you take, and the more problems you encounter.”

A developer named Maurice Woodson opened Maywood on July 4, 1931, naming the beach after his wife, Mae. The sand for the beaches was trucked in from Destin, Florida, and the pool, with its slides and waterspouts, was promoted as “the beach within reach.” Times have changed. Armistead mentioned “a huge amount of crime coming in” and alluded to the previous Sunday when a young man broke into a car in the parking lot. Police were called to quell the fight that broke out when the thief tried to escape by running across the beach. That incident, he said, convinced him to close the facility one day earlier than originally planned.

The other factor was the increasing liability. “We’ve had a remarkable safety record,” he said. “In the past 15 years, we’ve never had a loss of life or a major claim. But that pool is more difficult to [life]guard than the beaches on the coast. The sand gets stirred up and it’s hard to see into the water.”

Most places like Maywood are no longer privately owned because of limits on liability insurance, he explained. “If the city or state owned it, there would be a $250,000 cap on any lawsuit. That’s the law. But I could be hit with a $6 million suit.”

Armistead outlined his plans to convert the parking area into lots for nine homes. The pool will be filled in and converted into a retirement community with as many as 30 residences.

“My intent is to capture the feeling of Harbor Town,” he said. “I’ll have an architecture committee come up with design guidelines. But I’m going to do this right. I’m not going to do anything bad and then run off,” pointing out that he has lived in the area for 52 years.

“I think I’m speaking for everyone here when I say I’m glad to see this,” one homeowner responded, and his comments were met with applause. “It’s a real credit to our community. Every year, I’ve seen more and more people just driving around out here — not the kind of people who would be visiting, either. We’re lucky we haven’t had a crime spree.”

Residents asked questions about keeping the trees, extending water and sewer lines, and adding fire hydrants. One concern was Mirror Lake, which is replenished by runoff from the pool. Armistead said he wasn’t sure how the lake would be affected by his project.

Even so, everyone seemed pleased with the news. “I’d rather see a real community here than that pool any day,” said another resident.

That sentiment wasn’t echoed by visitors who came to Maywood the day before, expecting to splash in the pool one last time. Instead, they were greeted by a scrawled sign reading “WE ARE CLOSED” tied to the locked gate.

“Oh, the Woodsons must be turning over in their graves,” said one white-haired woman, peering over the wrought-iron fence. Workers dismantling a trampoline said that people had come by all day long, taking pictures of the Maywood sign and the pool, which had already been drained. “There were two women who drove here from Virginia,” said one fellow. “Some people even took off from work to be here on the last day.”

At the Tuesday meeting, Armistead said that selling Maywood wasn’t an option, nor was keeping it open. “It’s not that I just got sick of it and decided to close it,” he said. “That’s what I want y’all to understand.”

After the meeting ended, one young woman walking to her car said she didn’t understand. “He didn’t even try to advertise it,” she said, shaking her head. “He just wanted to close it. I’ve been swimming here for 17 years, and now I’ve got nowhere to go.”

Politics Politics Beat Blog

Changing Course?

Post author By Jackson Baker
Post date July 10, 2003

U.S. Rep. Harold Ford, a member of his party’s congressional Blue Dog caucus and of the equally moderate-to-conservative Democratic Leadership Council, continues to try to find a middle way on Iraq and other national controversies. But, like Massachusetts senator John Kerry, whom he supports for president, Ford may be edging toward a position of sharper opposition to President Bush on some key issues.

In a statement released Tuesday, Ford stayed well clear of the accusations of dishonesty that some Democrats have levied at Bush concerning the simmering WMD issue, but he called upon the president to publicly address the issue of “whether intelligence was twisted or exaggerated.”

As Ford noted, “In January, the president came before the Congress and delivered a compelling case for immediate military action to be taken against Iraq. The case was predicated on Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction that could be used against our interests at home and abroad.”

Ford subsequently voted with a congressional majority to authorize Bush’s use of appropriate force to quell such a threat. A successful military campaign in Iraq targeting its then leader, Saddam Hussein, ensued. But unrest and guerilla action have continued, and American troops seem consigned to an indefinite presence. Ford’s statement expresses misgivings about both his vote for the war resolution and the prospect of a quagmire in Iraq:

“As much as I wanted a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, I believed that the president had sound intelligence to justify an invasion and a comprehensive plan in place to stabilize Iraq after a successful military campaign.”

But, says the Ford statement, “Since President Bush declared the military effort successful and over in May, assertions about exaggerated claims of weapons of mass destruction and poor postwar planning abound. As a matter of fact, it is obvious from daily news reports that the administration is struggling with bringing stability to Iraq. Moreover, a group of senators returning from the region last week report that our soldiers are growing restless and that Iraqis are less supportive of the U.S. presence.

“Over the weekend, another disturbing claim was made by a respected foreign service officer — that he had informed the administration that the reports of Iraq attempting to purchase uranium from Niger were false.In spite of this, President Bush repeated these reports publicly and prominently in his State of the Union Address.”

Ford’s statement concludes by “urging” Bush “with all the specificity the president can spare — and without compromising the safety of the 146,000 troops” to “address the nation and the Congress in order to answer questions about whether intelligence was twisted or exaggerated and to discuss plans to rebuild Iraq.”

Ford, who acknowledges having designs on the U.S. Senate seat which incumbent Republican Bill Frist is expected to vacate in 2006, has made an effort of late to stake out a centrist position on prescription-drug legislation — expressing preference for a Senate version that, he says, would not lead seniors to leave Medicare for private health-care coverage.

A House bill largely eschewed by Democrats would do just that, he said, though granting that one of its provisions — welcomed last week by Shelby County mayor AC Wharton — would confer instant financial grants upon beleaguered medical institutions like The Med in Memphis. Ford said he remained hopeful that a bill that both safeguarded Medicare and retained the grants would emerge from a joint House-Senate conference committee.

™ “Big Tent” Politics: Saturday’s annual picnic at St. Peter Village drew the normal quotient of ambitious politicians, with the most prominent display being made by Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, whose reelection effort was boosted by a large tent which teemed with helpers and hot dog griddles.

Other, smaller tents were maintained by City Council candidates Jim Strickland and Carol Chumney, both seeking the District 5 (Midtown, East Memphis) seat. George Flinn, another candidate for that seat, was also in evidence, as were Lester Lit and Scott McCormick, candidates for the “superdistrict” 9, position 1 seat. Making a late appearance was former Commercial Appeal political reporter Terry Keeter, who also seeks that seat.

™ Would you buy a used pacemaker from this man? Shelby County Commissioner John Willingham, who underwent an operation last month to replace a defective pacemaker, emerged in apparent sturdy condition and promptly confirmed a report that he intends to auction off the discarded pacemaker.

It will be offered on eBay.com, said Willingham, with proceeds to go to charity — St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital being one prospect. Veteran pol Joe Cooper, a another candidate for the District 5 council seat and a Willingham friend, answered the obvious question by saying, “John’s a legend in the barbecue world. That’s why people will bid on it.”

News The Fly-By

City Reporter

Post author By Flyer Staff
Post date July 10, 2003

In Hot Water

City council to examine outdoor vendor ordinance.

By Mary Cashiola

“Everybody knows me over there,” 71-year-old Cassie Cannon says of the Lamar- Airways Shopping Center. “Even babies who are just starting to walk. They know me. I’m the snow cone man.”

For six years, Cannon set up shop every weekend at the Lamar-Airways Shopping Center, selling everything from candy to snow cones to corn dogs out of his truck. He says he had more customers than Kentucky Fried Chicken and never had a complaint once in all that time. But now the truck sits in his driveway.

Early last fall, the city decided to turn up the heat on street vendors and began to enforce a 1992 ordinance. Almost ever since, Cannon’s truck has been grounded. In November, after being cited by the health department, Cannon went in front of Environmental Court Judge Larry Potter and was told to cease operations until the city changed the ordinance.

City councilman Myron Lowery isn’t necessarily trying to do that, but he does think the council should have a discussion about the ordinance. Earlier in the year, Lowery proposed several changes to the ordinance, but they were met with objections from both code enforcement and the health department. Lowery says he can see the issue from both points of view, as well as that of the street vendor’s.

“It’s a difficult question. Store owners who pay rent and utilities are opposed to having vendors outside their doors,” he said at a recent council meeting. “I think it’s something we need to look at.”

Cannon, a retired city sanitation department worker, says he needs to sell concessions to make ends meet and that he’s open to inspection from anybody, anytime. “All we want is a year-round permit. … The shotgun they used was they don’t want you cooking in public, but they’re doing the same thing at the fair. They’re doing the same thing at Memphis in May. What’s wrong with mine?”

Shirley Shack wants the same thing: a vendor’s permit. Last week, Shack went to the Essence Festival in New Orleans. Shack, who bought an $800 permit from the city to sell turkey legs and corn dogs, had been to the festival twice before and called it “very lucrative.”

“You make five to 10 times the money you put in. At least five,” she said.

Shack, who has been a vendor for 10 years, sees it as a win-win situation for both the vendors and the city. “In Atlanta, for the Olympics, the city charged vendors $1,000. There were 5,000 vendors, so the city made $5 million for that one event in Atlanta. The Essence Festival in New Orleans is a huge event,” she said. “They have 2,000 vendors coming, so they’re making $1.6 million. You get the picture. If Memphis says it’s okay, we would pay the money.”

For the Lewis/Tyson fight June in 2002, Shack rented a space from the owner of a parking lot near The Pyramid to sell her products. She says that is the sort of thing the vendors want to see allowed.

“We’re not asking to set up on the street corner,” Shack said. “We want to set up on private property. That’s what they’re forgetting.”

The council is expected to discuss the matter in committee on July 15th.

Beat It!

Pervert on the prowl in Evergreen?

By Mary Cashiola

Since January, the owner of a house on Avalon has been scared to leave her house in the morning. When she did in early May, for instance, she found the top of her 1993 Nissan dented and a used condom lying on the windshield.

She is one of several women in the Evergreen area who have been victims of harassment and exhibitionism in the past year. Although one suspect was identified in May, victims say another younger man has apparently taken his place.

“He knocks on the door or rings the bell and then he masturbates on the porch,” says B.J. Massengale, an Evergreen resident. “He’s not afraid of anything. He’s not afraid of people or the dog. Last night he was here around midnight.”

Massengale says the original late-night visits began two years ago and happen maybe once or twice a week.

“The little old ladies over here are all petrified. There’s a 78-year-old woman who opened one of her doors while he was doing his thing,” said Massengale. The man then made several obscene statements to the homeowner.

According to police incident reports, an exhibitionist has been spotted on both Avalon and Tutwiler in the past few months, and Massengale says residents on Evergreen, Jackson, and Willett have also been hit.

“We’ve called the police each time and they always come and search the neighborhood. They’ve told us to try to get a picture,” said Massengale. “The last two times they haven’t written down our names or anything because they know us.”

The resident on Avalon said she’s been targeted for eight months, usually on holidays, and it’s enough to make her want to move. “He doesn’t hit the men [who live] on the street or the couples. It’s just the women, so we know he’s watching us.”

She says he usually bangs on her doors and windows in the middle of the night and she’ll usually yell at him to go away.

“The time he dented my car and left the condom full of semen, I heard him but I was tired. I just thought, ‘Oh, it’s the pervert again,'” she said. “[The police] said I could have him arrested for denting the top of my car, but that was it.”

Memphis police are investigating this situation. They advise residents not to open their door to strangers.

Getting Wild

E! party show to feature Memphis.

By Bianca Phillips

Locals know Memphis can be a hot place to party, but E! Entertainment plans to let others in on the secret when they air an edition of a party travel show featuring the Bluff City.

Wild On!, a television travel guide for party-goers, features clips of people romping around popular nightspots. The show usually focuses on the obvious hotspots, such as Costa Rica or Miami, but producers are currently working with Budweiser on a special “Bud Rocks” series that will highlight four rock bands and their hometowns. The Memphis segment will feature a performance by Saliva, as well as a tour around town with frontman Josey Scott.

After filming the Saliva footage, the show’s producer brought in host Cindy Taylor (left) to showcase the local nightlife scene. Footage was shot at Club 152, Raiford’s Hollywood Disco, Alfred’s, and Pat O’Brien’s.

“I’d never been to Memphis, and I actually only had two days to set this up,” said producer Jeremy Berman. “It helped going around with Josey Scott. He suggested Raiford’s. But I asked everyone, from cabbies to people just hanging around.”

The Memphis segment will fill half of a one-hour episode that will air later this year.

Satellite Launched

New community court opens in Orange Mound.

By Janel Davis

Beginning Thursday, residents of Orange Mound will get their own community court to handle environmental problems. The newest environmental court satellite location is the fourth of its kind begun by presiding judge Larry Potter.

“I always wanted to go to this area because there is so much community involvement,” said Potter. “These types of courts are only successful in areas where residents are willing to do something about the problems.”

The court will be housed in the Senior Citizen Center on Douglass Avenue and will be in session the second and fourth Thursday of each month from 1:30 p.m. until the docket is cleared. More than 15 cases are already set for Thursday’s docket. Potter will hear code violations brought by various agencies including the police department, fire department, and zoning and building code departments.

Thursday’s opening session completes a three-year effort by Potter, community residents, and city councilwoman Janet Hooks to establish the court. Potter said the process was delayed due to his health issues and difficulty finding a suitable location.

In addition to the satellite locations, Potter hears environmental and traffic cases in the main courtroom at 201 Poplar. The Orange Mound court joins those in Frayser and Whitehaven which meet twice a month, and the Millington court which meets the first Thursday of every month. If caseload is an indication, these satellite locations have been successful. Potter will hear a record 76 cases during the next Whitehaven session, which averages 30-40 cases. The Frayser location averages 20-30 cases each session.