Los Cantedores are playing at lunchtime today the Center for Southern Folklore in Peabody Place. And it s Acoustic Showcase Night at the Flying Saucer.
Categories
Month: July 2003
Former Shelby County Commissioner Morris Fair and local industrialist Marvell Mitchell have been named as two of seven members of the newly created Lottery Board for the state of Tennessee. The announcements were made in Nashville Monday afternoon by Governor Phil Bredesen.
The board will set policy and otherwise maintain oversight in conformity with legislation passed in this year’s General Assembly.
Here are the descriptions of Fair and Mitchell included in Bredesen’s official announcement:
“Fair is currently employed as a public finance consultant by Duncan Williams, Inc., an investment banking company based in Memphis. He is a founding member of the investment firm UMIC, Inc., Memphis. He served as chairman and CEO of the firm when it was sold to Union Planters Bank in 1988, where he worked until 1996. The company served as financial advisers to the City of Memphis, as well as a host of cities and jurisdictions surrounding Memphis. He is currently serving as chairman of the Memphis Cook Convention Center. Fair served on the Shelby County Board of Commissioners from 1996 to 2002, including a term as chairman from 2001 to 2002. Fair, 73, is a native of Tyronza, Ark., who has lived in Memphis for more than 40 years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. . .
“Mitchell is the managing partner of Mitchell Technology Group LLC, a Memphis firm that installs computer networks for businesses and distributes computer hardware and software. Before establishing Mitchell Technology Group, he served as district sales manager for Digital Equipment Corporation in Memphis from 1986 to 1995. Prior to that time, Mitchell worked at IBM Corporation, where his most recent position was marketing manager. Mitchell is chairman of the Black Business Association of Memphis, and a board member of the Memphis Chamber of Commerce, where he chairs the Minority Business Development Committee. He also serves on the board of the Southwest Tennessee Community College Foundation. Mitchell, 48, is a Memphis native. He holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Memphis State University.”
Fair, a former chairman of the Shelby County Commission, was defeated in the Republican primary last year by current Commissioner John Willingham — a circumstance noted as an “irony” by State Senator Steve Cohen, the longtime lottery backer who did most to secure passage of a lottery referendum last year and was a majro player in developing the lottery establishment package in this year’s General Assembly.
As Cohen noted, Willingham has made a major cause of another gaming concept — that of a casino for the The Pyramid, an idea which he hopes to get political and legal clearance for. The senator said he was pleased with the appointments of both Fair and Mitchell, as well was with that of Nashvillian Denny Bottorf, another board member with whom Cohen said he was well acquainted.
Fair said he was “surprised” to be considered for the lottery and had been sounded out about his willingness to serve by House Republican Leader Tre Hargett of Bartlett, who evidently passed Fair’s name on to the governor as a recommendee.
Though there were some speculation from the camp of Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton that the rival Ford political clan had pushed for Mitchell’s appointment, another possible sponsor was Democratic state representative Larry Miller, who has always been politically equidistant from the two main local Democratic factions.
And, of course, it is just possible that Bredesen did what he said he was going to do — make decisions based totally on credentials.
Categories
FROM MY SEAT
HALFWAY HOME
We’ve reached the midpoint of the 2003 baseball season and, as our Redbirds continue to fight back toward respectability, the parent St. Louis Cardinals have a battle of their own in the months ahead. A few observations after three months of baseball at Busch:
the season with five .300 hitters, five players with more than 20 home runs, and four with 100 RBIs. Even if you discount Pujols’ Triple Crown chase (and his 40-point lead in the National League batting race), Scott Rolen, Jim Edmonds, Edgar Renteria, a healthier J.D. Drew, and a revived Tino Martinez give this club the kind of offensive numbers rarely seen outside slowpitch softball leagues. This formidable collection makes it all the more imperative that LaRussa and Jocketty find that missing piece to their pitching puzzle. (A whispered note: Ankiel pitched seven shutout innings last week at Double-A Tennessee. He struck out 12 and — hush! — walked only three.)
Somehow it never occurred to me that the word “cakewalk” was anything other than a figure of speech.
It’s odd how words can do that sometimes. Though every phrase obviously has an origin, it never passed my mind to delve into the meaning of this one in particular.
Part of it is, perhaps, geographic.
If I were asked, growing up, to wager a guess as to the meaning of “cakewalk,” my mind would inevitably have wandered toward something involving chocolate cake, icing, and my naked toes.
Until about two weeks ago, I’ll admit, my deductive reasoning would have led much in the same direction. But then, unsuspectingly, I found myself attending one.
My first thought: Oh God, I hate my feet.
My second: Do I have to?
From what I have gleaned after doing a bit of research, my first cakewalk was a somewhat amended version of the traditional.
As I learned, the cakewalk plays a part in American history as being one of the first dancing traditions passed from Black society into the American cultural landscape. It is said to have originated with the slave population in Florida, who developed the dance as a mockery of the more staid white dancing style of the mid to late 1800’s.
To exacerbate my reluctance, which I somehow managed to overcome, I’m not very schooled in the art of the dance. Perhaps running through a pile of sheet cakes didn’t sound so bad.
Go ahead, laugh. You’d laugh more if you saw me.
Let me explain. When I took ballet lessons in Kindergarten, my attendance was blatantly connected more to the penny toys we were rewarded with at the end of each session than to the acquisition of skill or grace on the dance floor. That acquisition, perhaps for the above-stated reason, never happened.
So what of these two left feet? The stress…
We began our cakewalk, part of a symbolic morale-boosting effort for Artbrew, with some warm-ups. Oh, and a few glasses of wine, necessary to alleviate my anxiety at the prospect of coming out as a challenged dancer.
A few “oms,” some stretches, and then on to the dancing, which was a cakewalk, I’ll admit–all nervousness aside.
Plus, there were prizes! Duh, you’re thinking, but remember I’m new to this. To make things more fair, or less competitive as I’ve read the original cakewalks could be, the allocation of prizes was left to chance. Meaning that I wasn’t eliminated for lack of coordination.
As I struggled to groove my way around in a circle, loose enough from the wine to be able to ignore my embarrassment, I watched the numbers that had been placed on the floor, one through twelve.
With each round, I grew nervous, half hoping that my number wouldn’t be called, as the winner of a given round was given the duty of leading the dance in the next one.
Though I didn’t take the cake, as it were, I did manage to make off with some killer bath soaps when my number was called, which I promptly used to wash the imagined confection off of my toes. In case you were wondering, which I’m certain you were…
Nobody eliminated me when my leadership skills in the circle were less than stellar, either.
And so, my understanding of a phrase or two, namely “cakewalk” and “that takes the cake,” has had the veil of linguistic ignorance lifted. They somehow, now, sound so much sweeter to the ear
Yes, I know, I’m cheesy. Oh well.