STUDENT RECITAL. Middle Eastern dance performances by students of Desert Rose Dance and special guest Shahna. Theatre Works, 2085 Monroe. 7 p.m.
Month: January 2004
Anybody looking for evidence of grandiosity on Mayor Willie Herentons part need have done no more than to attend the two events featuring His Honor on New Years Day.
In the first of these, a prayer brunch at the Convention Center, the mayor: (a) proclaimed himself a chosen of God; (b)suggested that the city charter authorized awesome mayoral powers that he hadnt yet begun to employ; (c) sternly insisted that enemies were plotting against him , promising to answer mess with mess; and (d) was the recipient of straight-armed salutations from the ministers in his audience.
In fairness, that last piece of imagery — though it prompted a stunned television newsman to liken it to sieg heils — was based on an accepted Christian form of testimony and was in response, not to any command from Herenton himself, but to a request from the dais by the Rev. Frank Ray, who had asked the ministers present to rise and to extend their blessings to the mayor by the aforesaid method of outstretched arms.
“The God we serve does not give everybody a vision. Everybody cannot see what I see,” the Mayor said. Acknowledging that he had been called arrogant by some (including members of the city council, quite recently), Herenton allowed as how, Im not arrogant. Im a little confident! I’m confident. But if you’re a leader, you must have some ego.”
The confidence and the ego expanded even more in remarks made to members of the media following the noon swearing-in ceremony for the mayor and other city officials.
At the brunch, a video had been shown featuring highlights of the mayors first four electoral campaigns, beginning with the watershed year of 1991, when Herenton became the first elected African-American mayor in Memphis history. Herenton had observed wistfully how much hed aged in the preceding twelve years and wondered out loud how hed look after being elected four more times.
Asked to elaborate on that after the swearing-in, Herenon affirmed that, in fact, he was quite likely to run again. There are no other public officials capable of doing this job, he averred. Did that include county officials as well as city officials? he was asked. The mayor merely repeated, There are no other public officials capable of doing this job.
It was an extraordinary performance, even for a chief executive who has traditionally used a New Years Day forum to launch bombshells. Indeed, this years performance involved a change of venue that was itself something of a shock. Since 1992, Herenton has been content to be the featured guest at the annual New Years Day Prayer Breakfast of councilman Myron Lowery, who has used the affairs for fund-raising purposes.
This year, Lowery had to go without his star attraction, for reasons that remained mysterious but which begat much speculation about a feud between the two long-time political allies. In any case, Lowerys breakfast at the Peabody, which started an hour earlier than the mayoral brunch, received minimal media attention and was attended by some 170 people rather than the normal 300. (That was the thrust of an estimate by Gale Jones Carson, Herentons public affairs assistant, who said later that in supplying the number, based on the number of early tables sold by Lowery, she had only meant to suggest that she was impressed by the councilman’s efforts and results.)
Whatever the situation with Lowery, it was clear that Herenton had his problems with several other council members, two of whom — Jack Sammons and Brent Taylor — stayed away from the swearing-in ceremony because, suggested a colleague, they didnt want to have to hear any of that stuff from the mayor.
Councilman E.C. Jones, who did attend the ceremony, had been targeted — though not directly named — by Herenton at the prayer brunch, where the mayor angrily denounced the dropout who had dared criticize Herentons designation of longtime aide Joseph Lee to succeed the fired Herman Morris as CEO of Memphis Light Gas & Water.
(Jones said later he intended to keep on challenging Herenton’s actions when he thought a challenge was in order and to “return attack for attack.” The councilman said, “We have to respect balance of powers. We can’t let a chief executive run roughshod over us. Nobody is irreplaceable — not Clinton, not Bush, not Reagan, and not Herenton.”)
Without naming anybody in particular, Herenton had suggested that members of both the council and the Shelby County Commission were involved in behind-the-scenes activities aimed at himself. “They plot. They want to challenge the mayor in his prerogatives,” he said.
(And, in fact, an attendee at the swearing-in who is well-acquainted with anti-Herenton dissidents acknowledged that the city chareter is being carefully perused in search of a means to curtail, control, or even oust the mayor under certain unspecified circumstances.)
Almost overlooked in the fireworks at the prayer brunch were two policy statements of interest: In one, Herenton conceded he had been antagonistic toward mayors of Shelby Countys suburban municipalities and promised to extend the olive branch, announcing that he would ask Millington Mayor George Harvell to convene the mayors for a summit, including Herenton, that would discuss matters of common interest. (Primary among these matters was that of the city and county schools, the mayor later confided.)
The other statement was to the effect that the University of Memphis Tigers should be induced (actually, his tone suggested a firmer verb) to remain in The Pyramid following the completion this year of the FedEx Forum. And to that end he proposed a joint public/private commission to raise funds allowing the total renovation of the facility, specifically including the installation of improved seating.
TWENTY QUESTIONS
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES
Syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer used her regular op-ed column this week (http://www.uexpress.com/georgieannegeyer/) to look back upon the remarkable international events of the past twelve months. In that column, Geyer calls 2003 a “watershed year,” suggesting it will come in time to be regarded as a turning point in our nation’s history, although not necessarily a good one.
Check out her thoughts on the subject, and then try to remember what you were doing and thinking last New Year’s Day. Then ask yourself the following questions:
1) Last New Year’s Day, we all knew that a presidential decision to embark upon a preemptive war against Saddam Hussein and Iraq was very much in the cards. But could any of us have anticipated the Bush Administration’s launching an invasion of that country with such minimal international support, against the clear opposition of several long-time American allies, and without anything remotely resembling a United Nations’ consensus?
2) This time last year, we all could have expected that President George W. Bush would tell Americans at some point that he was going to war because he was certain that Iraq possessed “weapons of mass destruction.” But could we have ever imagined that, nine months later, the U.S. government would fail to produce a single piece of evidence that those weapons actually existed?
3) Could we have possibly comprehended last New Year’s Day that the administration’s planning for war in Iraq would be so simplistic and so inept as to not anticipate the guerrilla uprising that followed the military “victory” celebrated by President Bush on an aircraft-carrier deck in San Diego Harbor last May?
4) Could we actually have imagined last January 1st, not only the Bush Administration’s failure to anticipate this guerilla-warfare scenario, but also the failure of its key players to understand how their own actions and inactions helped create an ideal environment for chaos, disorder and rebellion?
5) Could we have believed that our senior military leadership — experienced generals most of whom had witnessed, as young officers in Vietnam, what happens when powerful armies fight far away from home in hostile and unfamiliar environments — would go along with a decision to invade Iraq, without first insisting upon a coherent plan for that country’s post-war stabilization, along with a viable American exit strategy?
6) Could we have imagined, just 365 days ago, that President Bush would embark upon this country’s most ambitious military endeavor in four decades — an undertaking with costs spiraling into the hundreds of billions of dollars — while continuing his previous policy of drastic tax cuts?
7) Could we have imagined a Republican Party congressional leadership ignoring altogether the balanced-budget concept that has been a traditional cornerstone of its economic policy, rubber-stamping Administration tax cuts and collaborating with the White House in its continued redistribution of American wealth in favor of our country’s richest citizens?
8) Could we imagine ourselves lending any support to a President whose “war on terrorism” policies would allow Osama Bin Laden to remain at large, the Taliban to regain its strength in Afghanistan, and American military and economic resources to be consumed by the invasion and occupation of a country whose link with 9/11 has yet to be established?
9) Could any of us have imagined that President Bush’s response to critics who raised some of these very questions would be to continue wrapping himself ever more tightly with the American flag, and to keep repeating the mantra: “You’re either with us, or with the terrorists”?
10) Could we possibly have imagined that this President would play the patriot card so stridently that his actions would hinder and obstruct the efforts of an independent commission, chaired by a former Republican governor, trying to get to the bottom of 9/11 tragedy?
11) Last New Year’s Day, could we have comprehended this President, his nation at war, continuing to polarize the country on myriad domestic issues ranging from gay rights to the environment, so much so that this polarization of American politics would appear to be a deliberate part of his 2004 re-election strategy?
12) We could certainly have believed on the first day of 2003 that any invasion and occupation of Iraq would cost the lives of several hundred GIs. But could we have imagined, after that invasion was launched and American soldiers started dying, that the President of the United States would not attend a single one of their funerals?
13) Could we have believed that one of the best-selling toys of the 2003 holiday season would turn out to be an “action figure” of George W. Bush as “U.S. President and Naval Commander,” commemorating his May carrier-deck landing and his declaration there of “victory” in an Iraq war we have not yet and may never win?
14) Could we have possibly believed that the national media would devote countless broadcast hours and thousands of newspaper line-inches to celebration of this San Diego Harbor event, without hardly mentioning the fact that “Naval Commander” Bush was AWOL from his Reserve unit for over a year in the early 1970s?
15) Could we have imagined that, in April, a top New York Times reporter (Judith Miller) would write and be allowed to publish on Page One of that newspaper a banner-headlined story reporting the “discovery” of weapons of mass destruction, deriving her report entirely from an “unnamed source” in the U.S. military?
16) Could we have been able to comprehend that, once that story was shown to be completely fraudulent, that on this New Year’s Day 2004 Judith Miller — unlike Jayson Blair — would still have a job with the Times?
17) Could we have believed that, as part of its endless summer gushing about our Iraq “victory,” the media would celebrate the “heroic” rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch ad nauseum, until Private Lynch herself — a true American hero — demonstrated courage and integrity by saying “enough!” to the military spinners and their media co-conspirators?
18) Could we have imagined, last New Year’s Day, that George W. Bush would have been delusional enough to do many of the things mentioned above, all the while creating a domestic political environment built around fear, and an international one in which America has become more loathed in more corners of the globe than ever before in its history?
19) Now here comes the hard part: Could you or any other sentient being actually have stretched your imagination widely enough to comprehend that, after all this, George W. Bush would be marching merrily into 2004 with a swagger in his step, as an odds-on favorite for re-election next fall?
20) And last but not least: Could you have this time last year imagined that, instead of rising up en masse against the incompetence and wrong-headed policies of this administration, America would have so lost its ethical and political bearings that a majority of the electorate now appears ready, willing, and able to vote for more of the same in November 2004?
The President may be delusional, but a significant portion of the American populace, clearly, has simply lost its collective mind.
Kenneth Neill is the publisher/CEO of Contemporary Media, Inc., the parent company of The Memphis Flyer.
friday, 2
OPENING RECEPTION for “You Are…,” a photographic mixed-media exhibit by Morgan Jon Fox, Susie Cyanide, and Anastasia Laurenzi. Java Cabana, 2170 oung. 6-9 p.m.
Let’s Review
What sort of year was 2003 in Memphis? A memorable one. They all are, of course.
There were some notable passings. Sun Records founder Sam Phillips died. And not long after that, so did Johnny Cash, who recorded at Sun early in his career.
Kemmons Wilson died at the age of 90. The hard-working, down-to-earth founder of Holiday Inns titled his autobiography Half Luck and Half Brains.
News media from around the world took note of those three passings, but it was the deaths of ordinary people that had more disturbing implications for Memphis.
On a hot day in June, 2-year-old Amber Cox-Cody was forgotten and left in a car seat in a day-care van for eight hours. It was the fourth such death in Memphis in recent years, and it spawned a newspaper-led campaign of public outrage and concern. Three day-care workers were charged with first-degree murder in the Amber case.
Another death two weeks later highlighted a different kind of system failure. On July 9th, 68-year-old Jim Wagner collapsed while playing pool at an establishment called the Billiard Club. It took 30 minutes to get an ambulance to him, although the club is near a major intersection on the border of Bartlett and Memphis.
Club patrons made at least seven emergency calls, mostly to the Memphis Fire Department. While Wagner fought for his life and patrons administered CPR, emergency personnel struggled to find the location of the club and debated whether it was the responsibility of Memphis, Bartlett, or Shelby County. “This dude’s fixin’ to die!” said one caller.
A few minutes later, he did just that.
There were 140 homicides in Memphis, give or take a few for year-end adjustments. Not the most, not the least, as recent years go.
In the media-milestones department, The Commercial Appeal got a new editor, Chris Peck, who redefined news and is introducing Memphis to something called community journalism. A sample of it was on display when a pair of pandas arrived at the Memphis Zoo from China and were greeted with thousands of words of coverage.
The Tri-State Defender set a new standard for plagiarism by stealing scores of stories from other weekly newspapers around the country, changing the names and datelines, and running them as their own front-page copy. The newspaper shrugged it off as the unscrupulous work of a pair of mysterious free-lance writers who have not been heard from since.
The FedExForum got built, or most of the way anyway, despite the nagging protests of Shelby County commissioner John Willingham.
The building’s future tenant, the Memphis Grizzlies, got better, winning 14 games by the middle of December.
University of Alabama football booster Logan Young got indicted by the federal government, nearly three years after he was unofficially indicted in the daily paper. His trial is likely to start next June.
Shelby County medical examiner Dr. O.C. Smith got a dose of skepticism from Shelby County government and federal investigators looking into a mysterious case in which Smith was tied with barbed wire and had a bomb strapped to his chest. No attacker has been found yet, and a grand-jury investigation is reviewing the case.
The Memphis Police Department got embarrassed by the news that cash and drugs worth millions of dollars in its property and evidence room were being systematically looted by a gang of thieves working as employees and supervisors. So far, five of them have been indicted.
Bill Clinton came to the National Civil Rights Museum to get honored and, of course, paid.
Carol Johnson, formerly of Minneapolis, got the dubious honor of leading the Memphis City Schools system as its superintendent.
The far-eastern Shelby County city of Arlington got the okay to build a new high school after years of haggling over the impact of suburban sprawl. Shelby County taxpayers got a property-tax increase and the promise of another one next year.
The Mall of Memphis closed. FedEx trimmed 3,500 employees from its express division via a buyout offer. Willie Herenton got reelected for the third time and called for abolishing the boards of the school system and MLGW. The lottery scholarship program got down to details. Horseshoe Casino got sold for $1.45 billion. And a wind storm in July knocked out power to much of the city for as much as two weeks and is still having ramifactions on MLGW.
Like I said, a memorable year.
E-mail: branston@memphisflyer.com
Making Faces
New York native Matt Singer found his calling at the tender age of 9 while watching bad adventure movies.
“I went to see Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger,” Singer says with all the excitement of a 9-year-old watching a Sinbad movie. “All the special effects were done by Ray Harryhausen, the father of stop-motion animation. And it was all great stuff, like the Cyclops on the beach and things like that.”
Singer was so taken with the idea of stop-motion animation that he began making his own films a year later. “I did animation until I was in my teens,” he says. “Then I went to a special camp for gifted kids at the Institute of Technology on Long Island. I met this kid there who did special-effects makeup for horror movies, and we sort of switched. He started doing animation, and I started doing makeup.”
Singer attended NYU film school to study special effects and special-effects makeup. After graduation, he moved to Los Angeles and went to work in the film industry. After 14 years in the business, Singer left L.A. to teach sculpture at the Memphis College of Art, and he has recently fulfilled a long-standing desire to open his own school to teach the art of prosthetic makeup. Located on South Front Street in the Paperworks building, Matt Singer’s Prosthetic Makeup Academy begins its first schedule of classes in January.
“I developed my own process [for making silicone prosthetics], and I sold that process to a company in New York,” Singer says, adding, “Whenever you see a prosthetic used on Saturday Night Live, for example, that’s [my process].” This sale provided Singer with enough money to open his school.
“I’m currently working on a special silicon-based wrinkle cream to sell on QVC that will be my retirement money,” he says, laughing. “I really am working on that. It’s almost finished.”
Singer, who has developed a reputation for working with exotic materials, hopes to offer students a chance to learn the most cutting-edge techniques in makeup technology.
“They will learn skills that put them head and shoulders above everyone else in the field,” Singer says. “I’m only going to teach skills that are currently being used and that will be used in the future, nothing old-school. Students will also get a real handle on life-casting, which is the most important part [of the process]. If you don’t get the life-cast right, nothing will fit.”
Singer has worked on films ranging from big-budget blockbusters like Bicentennial Man, Monkeybone, and Star Trek: Nemesis to Matthew Barney’s critically acclaimed anthology of art films, The Cremaster Cycle. He claims his students at MCA couldn’t care less about his mainstream work. “But when they found out I’d done The Cremaster Cycle,” he says, “they absolutely lost their minds.”
The most fulfilling aspect of Singer’s work comes from working on medical prosthetics. Over the years, he has constructed everything from noses to breasts.
“[The medical work] is always a compromise,” Singer says. “There’s not going to be movement under the skin like there is in the movies, because in the movies there are muscles under the skin. Here we are usually replacing something that is gone.” There is also the problem of making the margins of a prosthetic match the real skin.
“That’s why I try to disguise the margins in a wrinkle or a fold,” Singer says. “The best-case scenario [if you are working on a facial feature] is if the person wears glasses. This is where the makeup artist has to become an illusionist. You highlight a shortcoming rather than hide it.”
“[The medical work] can be hard,” Singer says, “but it’s my way of giving back. You can’t actually replace the things that are gone, but you can give someone at least a sense of being whole again.” n
Prosthetics Makeup Academy workshops begin on January 3rd. Call 458-3370 for additional information.
E-mail: davis@memphisflyer.com
The Year That Was
In his January State of the Union address, President Bush says that America can’t take the chance that Saddam Hussein is hiding weapons of mass destruction. Saddam, he says, has missed “his final chance” and has recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. War, the president says, is the only way to keep America safe.
In North Korea, dictator Kim Jong Il kicks U.N. weapons inspectors out of his country and announces plans to begin manufacturing weapons-grade plutonium. Diplomacy, the president says, is all that’s necessary to keep America safe.
Meanwhile, in Florida, the Raelian cult announces that they have created a human clone. Though evidence of such was not forthcoming, the Raelians soon prove their ability to clone massive amounts of spam e-mail.
In February, Secretary of State Colin Powell tells the U.N. that there is “irrefutable and undeniable” evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. In 600 cities around the world, six million people protest the now-inevitable war.
Later that month, 27 million people watch a television film about Michael Jackson.
In March, the U.S. launches its “shock and awe” bombing campaign against Iraq. France, Germany, and Russia refuse to support the U.S. war effort. Congress invents “freedom fries” in retaliation.
Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart is found, thereby launching 1,000 hours of cable programming.
In April, U.S. and British troops invade Baghdad and help topple a 40-foot statue of Saddam. Looting is rampant. “Freedom’s untidy,” says Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
Private Jessica Lynch is rescued in a “daring raid,” thereby launching an untidy race to win movie rights to her story.
On May 1st, the president lands on an aircraft carrier in San Diego and declares “major combat operations” have ended in Iraq.
SARS, the disease that sparked a worldwide panic, subsides, having killed 400 people — worldwide. Professional moralist William Bennett confesses that he has lost $8 million in slot machines.
In June, the president signs a $350 billion tax cut and says Americans will have “more of their money to spend.”
Hillary Clinton’s autobiography makes back its $8 million advance in one week. William Bennett could not be reached for comment. Strom Thurmond dies at age 100.
Uday and Qusay Hussein are killed by U.S. troops in July. Saddam releases an audiotape calling for a jihad. The president responds diplomatically by saying, “Bring ’em on.” More than 100 Americans have been killed in combat.
Kobe Bryant is charged with rape, thereby launching 1,000 hours of cable programming. Strom Thurmond’s staff notices he is dead.
In August, Arnold Schwarzenegger anounces his candidacy for governor of California on The Tonight Show, thereby launching the political careers of 200 other nutballs, including Larry Flynt, Gallagher, Gary Coleman, and a porn star with giant breasts. Schwarzenegger is accused of being a “serial groper.” His porn-star opponent says she is a “serial gropee.”
In September, the president requests and receives $87 billion from Congress to pay for the continued occupation of Iraq. Suicide bombs plague the country. The American death toll rises to 200.
In the U.S., Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez release a career-suicide bomb called Gigli. After seeing the film, magician David Blaine locks himself in a plastic box in London for 44 days.
In October, Schwarzenegger “handily” wins the California governorship. Rush Limbaugh checks into a rehab center to shake an addiction to pain-killers. Magician Roy Horn checks into a hospital to shake his addiction to white tigers.
November is the deadliest month of the Iraq war. More than 300 American soldiers have died so far. A memo from Rumsfeld saying the country faces a “long, hard slog” is leaked to the press.
Britain’s Prince Charles denies rumors that he has had his own long, hard slog with a male servant.
The president delivers a fake turkey to selected troops in Iraq in a clandestine, two-hour Thanksgiving visit.
In December, Bush signs a $400 billion drug-benefit law. Stocks rise precipitously, especially pharmaceuticals. Limbaugh applauds a “recovering” economy.
Strom Thurmond’s black daughter announces her existence. Staff turns Thurmond over in his grave.
Saddam Hussein is captured hiding in a hole in the ground. The good news is that he’s able to make his dental appointment.
Top that, 2004.
It Ain’t Beanbag
Believe it or not, local politics may be morphing into something less partisan — if no less bitter.
Take the Shelby County Commission, for example: The commission that came in on the heels of the 2002 countywide election differed substantially from its several immediate predecessors — characterized as they were by 7-6 majorities, with white Republicans outvoting black democrats on key issues.
This latest version proved more diverse from the start. Of the five new commissioners, the most conventional was suburban Republican Joyce Avery, but even she could break ranks with her GOP lodge members on health-related issues, voting with the Democrats on keeping Oakville Sanatorium up and running and on providing birth control programs for high-schoolers.
Two of the new Republicans — David Lillard and Bruce Thompson — were cut-to-the-bone types, desirous of new rules and a zero-based budget protocol. Go-along-to-get-along? Fahgidaboutit! They got off-and-on support from fledgling Democrat Deidre Malone, especially on votes relating to new development. That was an issue at which by-the-ledger-book conservatism intersected with environmentalism, and the three newcomers mounted several they-shall-not-pass stands — a number of which were subsequently bypassed when less steadfast allies defected on votes to reconsider.
Then there was John Willingham, a versatile if eccentric presence whose persona was somewhat crazy quilt. The restaurateur/inventor/watchdog/muckraker was difficult to classify politically. He made terms like “liberal” and “conservative” seem beside the point, since he could be alternately, or even simultaneously, both, and there was always something Quixotic about his crusades, which included a race for city mayor which he lost by some 50,000 votes to incumbent Willie Herenton. In typical Willingham fashion, he promptly filed a lawsuit claiming vote fraud and brought a voting-machine expert to town to challenge the touch-screen machines used in local elections.
If previous experience is any guide, Willingham’s suit will generate A) a wholesale exasperation and rolling of the eyes on the part of his governmental peers, followed, at some prolonged interval, by B) necessary reforms. That was the case with his carping about the Arlington high school to be built with rural school bonds and his harping on the question of what to do with the Great White Elephant er, The Pyramid, the would-be epochal edifice built a decade ago that Shelby Countians are still paying for and which seems likely to be forsaken by the University of Memphis Tigers for the soon-to-be FedExForum.
A funny thing happened on the way to dealing with that latter matter: Late in the year the commission — and, thereby, the rest of us — discovered that Shelby County didn’t have the final say on disposal of The Pyramid. A codicil of The Agreement between HOOPS (the entity representing the National Basketball Association Grizzlies) and our two local governments seemed to give Griz owner Michael Heisley absolute authority over the attractions that could go into that venue. Eyes stopped rolling and started focusing on the dilemma — and nags like Willingham and Walter Bailey — whose skepticism concerning the new FedExForum antedated even Willingham’s — seemed vindicated after all.
Memphians and most Shelby Countians can expect reasonably important elections three years out of every four. (The next “off year” is 2005.) The past year saw the ritual reelection of Memphis mayor Herenton over the pro forma protest vote embodied in the Willingham candidacy, as well as the advent of two new City Council members.
One was Scott McCormick, who succeeded in his third try for public office with a dignified low-key challenge to long-term incumbent Pat Vander Schaaf. (Interesting discovery: The defeated council member confides that she joins the two halves of her last name when running for election, separates them with a space for all other times and occasions. As was the case with Clair Vander Schaaf, the ex-husband whose long tenure on the county commission was discontinued by the voters in 2002 and who, like her, still maintains many public friendships, Pat Vander Schaaf (note the space) may now keep to a single typographical standard.
The other new member was Carol Chumney, who claimed the Midtown/East Memphis seat vacated by the famously independent-minded John Vergos. Chumney, who resigned her District 89 state representative’s seat in mid-campaign, had several public opponents for the council seat — notably lawyer Jim Strickland and physician/businessman George Flinn — and a few quasi-public ones. The latter included council colleagues-to-be Myron Lowery and Rickey Peete and, most prominently, Mayor Herenton, who did his behind-the-scenes best on Flinn’s behalf during a runoff between the good doctor, who had the local Republican endorsement, and Democrat Chumney.
One explanation commonly advanced for this unusual behavior was that it was a quid pro quo to the local GOP leadership for its neutrality in the mayor’s race. Another theory posited the notion that Chumney’s diligence and determination might potentially escalate into the kind of iron-willed behavior that would be a caveat for other city government figures.
A case in point was the retiring state representative’s fervent lobbying of the county commission on behalf of her campaign manager, Jay Sparks, as a potential replacement for her, pending the formal electon of a successor on February 10th.
Ultimately, the commission took what seemed the commonsensical course of appointing Beverly Marrero, the victor over Jeff Sullivan in the December 16th Democratic primary held as part of the special election to replace Chumney. There was no Republican candidate, making Marrero’s formal election on February 10th a certitude.
If that Marrero-Sullivan race was any kind of guide to the kind of intensity that we can expect in 2004’s other legislative races — in which Republicans and Democrats will be competing on more or less equal terms for domination of the General assembly, then, folks, we are in for it.
The tone of the District 89 special election was dictated — and its outcome assured — by state Senator Steve Cohen, who represents much of the same territory and is a power broker to be reckoned with. As in 1990, when he threw his full weight and ingenuity behind Chumney, Cohen was a veritable pit-bull presence — accusing Sullivan of living outside the district and of feloniously casting an early vote for himself and thereby shifting the entire dialectic of the campaign onto the residency issue.
As has been said, politics ain’t beanbag; it’s power, and the pursuit of it, as well as the exercise of it, can be unpretty indeed. The coming year promises more electoral fireworks — some of them right away.
In the hope that the volunteer state might have more impact than usual in the 2004 presidential election, the legislature acted last year to move Tennessee’s preferential primary up to February 10th. Coming along with it will be local races. Two burgeoning local countywide races could turn out to be spirited — or worse.
One is for Shelby County assessor, and there are contests in both the Democratic and the Republican primaries on February 10th. Democratic incumbent Rita Clark will attempt to hold the fort against multiple challenges, from fellow Democrat Michael Hooks, a former assessor, as well as a Republican field that includes yet another former assessor, Harold Sterling. (Hooks once lost to Sterling, who subsequently lost to Clark; so there are several potential grudge-match combinations.)
Then there’s a race for General Sessions court clerk, with Republican incumbent Chris Turner preparing for a Democratic challenge from either state Senator Roscoe Dixon, who lost to Turner in 2000, or former assistant clerk Becky Clark.
Local political folks will also be looking beyond the off-year of 2005 to the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate elections of 2006. Several worthies in both parties, including Democratic 9th District congressman Harold Ford Jr., as well as current 7th District congressman Marsha Blackburn and her GOP partymate Ed Bryant, who preceded her in Congress and ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2002, are looking at the latter.
Not much interest has so far been generated in either party for the honor of taking on incumbent Governor Phil Bredesen, who barely squeaked into office in 2002 but has gratified fellow Democrats with his efficiency and placated the opposition Republicans with his hard-nosed budget-cutting.
But politics abhors a vacuum even more than nature does, and partisanship will continue. Count on it.
Hear This
It was a year of loss and celebration for Memphis music in 2003. Memphis lost one of its true musical titans in Sun Records founder Sam Phillips and later lost one of his most important charges, Johnny Cash. Meanwhile, the “Year of the Blues” brought newfound attention to the city’s formative musical genre, most notably with Martin Scorsese’s PBS documentary series.
In terms of new music, the year’s biggest local stories were the comeback and emergence of two very different locally connected soul men. One was Al Green, who hooked up with old cohort Willie Mitchell for his finest secular album in decades. The other is Millington scion and Rolling Stone cover boy Justin Timberlake, whose increasingly ubiquitous celebrity doesn’t detract a bit from the career transformation he accomplished on Justified –a pop-and-soul coup of a solo debut that, if it really counted as a “local” release, would be a guilt-free chart-topper on the list below.
But as the 14 records (yep, I cheated) in the following local Top 10 attest, there was plenty of action across the genre board in local music this year. —Chris Herrington
1. I Can’t Stop –Al Green (Blue Note): When word came out that Al Green was reuniting with producer Willie Mitchell for the pair’s first secular soul record since 1976, it was hard to know what to expect –these kinds of “comeback” records have a mixed history, to be charitable. What we got was a record that could well have been recorded in 1977, which, given that Green’s uniquely personal style never sounds like rote nostalgia, is a triumph. Returning to Royal Studio with many of the same musicians he worked with in the ’70s, the still-golden-voiced Green recaptures as much of the old magic as anyone could have reasonably expected.
2. Express Rising –Express Rising (Memphix); Chains + Black Exhaust –Various Artists (Jones Records): The debut full-length from Memphix, Express Rising is the local label’s Chicago-based member Dante Carfagna’s answer to the sample-based beauty of friend and colleague DJ Shadow. The album is a beat symphony composed from record-shop refuse — anonymous found sounds sampled, sequenced, and plumbed for hidden grace to create wholly original music, resulting in a wistful, moody sound-cycle made up largely of hip-hop-heartbeat drum breaks and understated organ loops.
Chains + Black Exhaust, a bootleg sampler of obscure black rock and funk singles compiled by Carfagna and Memphix Memphian Chad Weekley, is as in-your-face as Express Rising is restrained. Slipped into the musical ether in late 2002, the subterranean comp continued to make waves and blow minds in 2003, conjuring a sort of musical bizarro world where scuzzy guitars get busy over hard funk beats and every singer has chitlin-circuit credentials.
3. That Much Further West –Lucero (Tiger Style): Lucero’s debut for New York’s Tiger Style records is in some ways less dynamic and less distinct than the two locally released records it follows, but it is no less bruising, consistent, or soulful. That Much Further West sets a tough, deliberate mood before breaking loose with standouts like the hard-rocking “Hate and Jealousy,” the rollicking “Tonight Ain’t Gonna Be Good,” and local rock’s Song of the Year, the open-hearted anthem “Tears Don’t Matter Much.”
4. Makeshift #3 –Various Artists (Makeshift): The third sampler from local record label/artists’ collective Makeshift is a sprawling testament to the creativity, diversity, and generous vibe of the city’s rock underground, uniting recognizable scene stars such as the Reigning Sound, Cory Branan, and Snowglobe with newer or lesser-known notables such as the Audacity, the Final Solutions, and Blair Combest.
5. A History of Memphis Garage Rock: The ’90s — Various Artists (Shangri-La Projects); Jetty Webb — Jetty Webb (Lamar): A couple of blasts from the city’s recent rock past. Shangri-La’s garage-rock comp is an ace document of what may be the most artistically fertile Memphis music scene of the past decade, a soulful blast of raw guitar music centered around the work of Jeffrey Evans and the Oblivians that will give latecomers a taste of where bands like the Hives and White Stripes came from. Jetty Webb’s late-breaking debut captures the low-key, high-minded indie-rock of a real good band that got away.
6. 5 Piece Kit — Vending Machine (self-released): Ex-Big Ass Trucker Robby Grant comes into his own with this collection of head-spinningly off-kilter anti-folk and left-of-center pop. From the full-band (Big Ass Truck, that is) finale “Shoulder Tap” to the aggressive “Sorry I Bit U” to the understated anthem “Road Out West,” it’s all good, but Grant outdoes himself with “I Know, We’ll Last,” perhaps the loveliest little love song heard this year in Memphis or anywhere else.
7. Life — Yo Gotti (TVT); Empty Shelves — Kavious (Nuclear): North Memphis rapper Yo Gotti retains the metronomic flow and limited subject matter that typify Memphis rap, while Westwood’s Kavious’ attempt at aping the organic, thoughtful style of Atlanta acts such as Outkast and Goodie Mob is still more concept than artistic fact. Nonetheless, these two promising MCs pushed the boundaries of local rap in welcome new directions on their 2003 releases.
Gotti lives up to his moniker with Life‘s tales of drug sells and gang-banging, but with its vintage Def Jam-style production, facility with R&B hooks, and the should-be novelty hit “Look at Old Girl” (Memphis’ answer to “Right Thurr”), Life reveals a wider range of musical and emotional options than is usually heard on Memphis rap records.
Kavious’ quick-spitting flow and down-home vibe are perhaps more distinct, and if he doesn’t quite manage to make the most of a sound that’s more compelling and a worldview that’s more grounded than that of his local hip-hop peers, it doesn’t mean he won’t get there one day or that the effort itself isn’t heroic.
8. Prettier Than Ugly –Blair Combest (Makeshift): This underdog of a local release just gets better with every listen. Combest’s precocious, gravelly voice is the kind of sound that might be an arty affectation but instead emits a warm glow. As his backing band, labelmates Snowglobe lend the proceedings a communal musical quality that gives the record a liveliness it might not have as a solo-acoustic exercise. And Combest’s songwriting establishes him as a major emerging talent on the local scene.
9. Back to the Bottom –Gamble Brothers Band (Archer); Polaris –North Mississippi Allstars (Tone-Cool/ATO): Here are two examples of bands putting their considerable chops to the service of celebrating the city’s wide-ranging musical roots. For the Gambles, this means soul and jazz, uniting the feel of the former and the virtuosity of the latter with a flair for pop songwriting that makes Back to the Bottom sometimes sound like a forgotten platinum seller from the ’70s.
For the Allstars, it means a hill-country-blues base that makes room for Big Star-style pop-rock on Polaris, the band’s self-produced bid for independence, which shows these local faves growing from bluesy jam band to ambitious blues-based rock band.
10. Another Vivid Scene –Crash Into June (Craven Hill): With help from producer Neilson Hubbard, veteran local rockers Crash Into June may have hit a new peak with the hook-laden, crystalline power-pop of Another Vivid Scene, a record that has the band pushing their core sound (think Teenage Fanclub) in different directions –from the hard-charging “Breakthrough” to the downbeat romantic lament “Read Me Wrong” to the straight-up romantic pop of “Smitten” to the vaguely alt-countryish “Looking for an Out” –and flashing a sharp lyrical wit (especially on “Adorable” and “Fairmountebank”).
Honorable Mention: Pushin’ My Luck –Robert Belfour (Fat Possum); The Royal Sessions –The Bo-Keys (Yellow Dog); Bluff City Ruckus –Porch Ghouls (Roman/Columbia); Welcome to the Occupation –Brad Postlethwaite (Makeshift); Wild Emotions — Preacher’s Kids (Get Hip); Demos II –Lost Sounds (On/On Switch); Eclipse –Los Cantadores (self-released); Raindance –Kelley Hurt (Archer); A Little Bit of Rain –Sid Selvidge (Archer); Stingray — Kenny Brown (Fat Possum).
Everything came in pairs in 2003: Two great releases from “Poppa” Willie Mitchell’s Royal Recording Studio, two Memphix full-lengths guaranteed to knock the international DJ world on its collective ass, two folk/country blues albums that represent the yin and yang of the genre, and two offerings from local bands that seem determined to bring Memphis blues to an arena-sized stage. But, most importantly, 2003 was the year that Memphis got crunk, for real, as the Dirty South sound took the rest of the country by storm. This Top 10 list covers it all, from first albums to career-making releases, major-label CDs and 180-gram vinyl records. So, without further ado, here’s a list of must-haves for any self-respecting Memphis music fan. —Andria Lisle
1. I Can’t Stop — Al Green (Blue Note): When I first found out that Al Green and producer Willie Mitchell were working together again, I was as excited as a rabbit in a lettuce patch. Other pop fans have Lennon & McCartney or King & Goffin, but I’ll take Green & Mitchell any day. I Can’t Stop, their first collaboration in two-odd decades, knocks me out every time I play it. Don’t believe me? Cue up track 3, “Rainin’ In My Heart,” and let Green’s mellifluous voice pour over you, as Mitchell’s orchestrations ebb and flow behind him.
2. The Royal Sessions — The Bo-Keys (Yellow Dog): More sublime Southern soul from Mitchell’s Royal Studio. This is largely an instrumental album — à la Booker T. & the MGs or Packy Axton’s party band — but guitarist Skip Pitts manages to steal the show when he steps up to the microphone for the froggy-throated “Deuce and a Quarter.” If I blast this one when I’m stuck in downtown traffic, cruisers are apt to get friendly and wave me right on by.
3. Chains + Black Exhaust — Various Artists (Jones Records): DJs of both persuasions — old-fashioned radio hosts at stations like the legendary WFMU in suburban New York and hipper-than-thou turntable freaks — scratched their heads and said, ‘Huh?’ when Memphix dropped this unidentified CD comp last year. A sampling of black rock bands from the ’70s, Chains + Black Exhaust escorts listeners through the seamy underbelly of bikers, bitches, and burnouts. It’s an impressive selection of scratchy 45s that you’ve never heard of: Listen, take notes, then join the online discussions about where these tracks actually came from.
4. Express Rising — Express Rising (Memphix): The long-awaited debut album from Memphix’s Chicago-based DJ Dante Carfagna was finally released in September, and it was worth the wait. Carfagna — aka Express Rising — creates a moody soundscape from thousands of samples, hip-hop beats, and rumbling organ riffs. The vinyl pressing is long gone, but thankfully for all you latecomers, the CD is still in print.
5. Life — Yo Gotti (TVT): Straight from the North (North Memphis, that is) to the top of the charts, it’s Yo Gotti, commander in chief of the “Dirty South Soldiers.” Yep, that’s Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz you hear backing him up. Gotti also gives props to local producers Drumma Boy and DJ Squeeky on this, his mind-numbingly good fourth release. It’s thuggish, it’s harsh, and, for a disproportionate part of the local population, it’s what hangin’ out in M-Town is all about.
6. Enquiring Minds Vol. 2: The Soap Opera — Gangsta Boo (Yorktown Music): Boo’s third solo album is a combination of heavy synthesized chords and catchy hip-shaking beats. Cuts like “Sippin’ and Spinnin'” and “Where They Hang” bridge the gap between the hardcore style Boo popularized on When the Smoke Clears, Three 6’s classic Y2K release, and the more modern approach favored by the hip-hop community in her new hometown, Atlanta, Georgia.
7. Stingray — Kenny Brown (Fat Possum): This north Mississippi blues guitarist covers a fair amount of hill-country material on his second full-length, including R.L. Burnside’s “Miss Maybelle” and “Goin’ Down South” and an electrifying version of Fred McDowell’s “Shake ‘Em On Down.” “If Down Was Up” infuses the sound of the hill country with a heavy dose of deep-grooved funk, before Brown slips back into the hypnotic, haphazardly fluid drone he’s honed backing the Burnsides for the past 20 or so years.
8. A Little Bit of Rain — Sid Selvidge (Archer): Worth its weight in gold for the title track, Selvidge’s latest serves as the sophisticated counterpart to Brown’s ragged-but-rough entry above. His cover of a seldom-heard Fred Neil number as the album’s title track provides a stark, stunning introduction to the album, and, in the liner notes, Selvidge calls it “the ultimate goodbye song.” He doesn’t name his old musical partner, Lee Baker, per se, but the underlying reference is obvious.
9. Polaris — North Mississippi Allstars (ATO): Recorded at Ardent Studios in Midtown, the Allstars’ third album takes these blues boys — popular on the jam-band circuit — to an entirely new musical level. The addition of guitarist Duwayne Burnside rounded out the group to a quartet, his presence allowing the Allstars to solidify their easy-rockin’ hill-country-blues rhythms, particularly on cuts like “Be So Glad” and “Meet Me in the City.” With Burnside and bassist Chris Chew to anchor the bluesy core, drummer Cody Dickinson and his big bro, guitarist Luther, have incorporated more pop elements into the mix. Don’t miss “Kids These Daze” or “Otay.”
10. Bluff City Ruckus — Porch Ghouls (Roman/Columbia): Only someone like Porch Ghouls’ frontman Eldorado Del Rey could parlay a job at Sun Studios into the ultimate rock-and-roll gig of all time, opening an American tour for Kiss and Aerosmith. On this album, the Ghouls’ first full-length since signing to Joe Perry’s Roman Records, El-dorado and his fellow roof-raisers (Slim Elec-tro, Lord Baltimore, and Randy Valentine) shake their money makers all the way to the bank. It’s money, baby! Now roll up the carpet, kick your shoes off, and throw a lil’ ruckus of your own.
Honorable Mention: Empty Shelves — Kavious (Nuclear); That Much Further West — Lucero (Tiger Style); Another Vivid Scene — Crash Into June (Craven Hill); Da Unbreakables — Three 6 Mafia (Sony); Makeshift #3 — Various Artists (Makeshift); Songs From the Floor — Tennessee Boltsmokers (MADJACK); Water for the Withered Root — Justice Naczycz (self-released). n
Plenty
Compared to the wonders of recent years, 2003 could well be remembered as the year of no great films. But while there were no easy chart-toppers on a par with Mulholland Drive, Y Tu Mamá También, Ghost World, In the Mood for Love, or Topsy-Turvy, there was plenty of good stuff to go around.
Oddly, in a year that seemed a bit lacking in cinematic marvels, there were perhaps more audacious local screenings than ever before. Topping the list would have to be the week-long Indie Memphis-sponsored Muvico screening of The Cremaster Cycle, artist Matthew Barney’s epic art-world allegory. But there was also the highly unlikely appearance of Jean-Luc Godard’s defiantly anti-American In Praise of Love, which also screened at Muvico before appearing at the MeDiA Co-op’s First Congo screening space. And Malco got into the act with French director Gaspar Noë’s controversial, misanthropic shock-porn feature Irreversible, which lingered for 10 minutes on a brutal rape scene on its backward journey to confirming the axiom “Everything falls apart.”
And it was also a year of great performances in unexpected films, highlighted by a couple of over-the-top men and chameleonic women. Never mind Sean Penn’s overhyped turns in Mystic River and the Memphis-filmed 21 Grams, Johnny Depp was the actor of the year for performances in two films that weren’t even very good — the overrated Pirates of the Caribbean and the borderline unwatchable Once Upon a Time in Mexico. In both cases, Depp seemed to have wandered onto the set from a different film, his flamboyantly indulgent performances so entrancing that viewers could safely ignore the movie happening around him. And he was joined by Will Ferrell, whose gonzo commitment to whatever scenario he found himself in brought huge laughs to the otherwise underachieving Old School and the surprising Elf. (And let’s not forget George Clooney’s glorious scenery-chewing in Intolerable Cruelty.)
On the flip side, indie-identified actresses Patricia Clarkson and Hope Davis held coming-out parties with a variety of roles. With sharp turns in The Station Agent, Pieces of April, and the unscreened-in-Memphis All the Real Girls, Clarkson established herself as the spiritual den mother of indie film. And Davis was simply a wonder –in American Splendor, The Secret Lives of Dentists, and the January-screened About Schmidt (where she stole the film right out from under Jack Nicholson). Davis created unforgettable performances based on three dramatically different characters. She was the actress of the year.
And though 2003 didn’t peak as high as years past, it didn’t sink as low either. Sure, there was the usual assortment of dully pointless sequels — Terminator 3, Legally Blonde: Red, White, and Blonde, and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle –but X-Men 2 rocked! And this year’s Oscar bait was surprisingly decent. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (enough with the cumbersome titles, already) were fine examples of large-scale cinematic craftsmanship with little to offend. Mystic River and Cold Mountain were movingly personal films that reverberated with real-world concerns and didn’t strain too hard for effect. And the worst of the bunch, Seabiscuit, was merely stodgy, not at all an outrage.
But what about the good stuff? Well, here’s one critic’s opinion:
1. The 25th Hour: Spike Lee’s finest feature since 1989’s Do the Right Thing got lost amid a flurry of late-2002 releases that showed up on Memphis screens last January. But a year later it’s the one that feels most alive. Starring Edward Norton as a convicted drug dealer confronting his last day of freedom, The 25th Hour forces its audience to confront, like perhaps no film ever has, just what it means to send someone –anyone –to prison. That considerable achievement is but a small part of what makes this underdog of a film so powerful. Shot in Lee’s beloved New York City in the days after 9/11, it also feels like the definitive cinematic document of a terrible time in American life. And when — in a final, grandiose flourish — Lee’s camera takes off for a continent-spanning travelogue and hymn to “all the lives that almost never happened,” it simply overwhelms.
2. Spider: This intensely controlled minimasterpiece didn’t last long in Memphis (or anywhere else, for that matter), but it stands as one of director David Cronenberg’s greatest films –an unintentional answer to Ron Howard’s overblown Oscar winner A Beautiful Mind, featuring a daringly understated (nearly wordless) performance from Ralph Fiennes. Unlike Howard’s more celebrated glimpse at schizophrenia, Cronenberg doesn’t provide any dubious platitudes to put his audience at ease. What he offers instead is an intensely poetic, fairy-tale film suffused with existential dread and dream logic — like Kafka as told by the Brothers Grimm.
3. Adaptation: Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s selfish, anxiety-ridden attempt to adapt Susan Orlean’s nonfiction bestseller The Orchid Thief for the big screen becomes, in the hands of director Spike Jonze and lead Nicolas Cage, perhaps the most chaotically entertaining cinematic tribute to failure ever made. A film that unfurls as it’s written (until it starts to devour itself), this comic, postmodern puzzler also provides far more insight into the writing process than any literary biopic I’ve ever seen.
4. Lost in Translation: Sofia Coppola’s second feature is short on plot but rich with incident; nothing much happens, yet every frame is crammed with activity and nuance and emotion. Following two generationally divided Americans who strike up a brief friendship in Tokyo (including Bill Murray:a walking sight gag as alienation effect), Lost in Translation tracks the ineffable, finding its poetry in the city’s peculiar clash of the solemnly ancient and breathlessly modern and subsuming its sexual tension in late nights of sake and television and conversation and karaoke. (Murray’s “More Than This” is a heart-stopping moment.) The result is an ode to human connection that is bigger than (or perhaps just apart from) sex and romance.
5. Finding Nemo: This Pixar animation blockbuster was simply the smartest, funniest, and most elegant mainstream entertainment of the year, with an epic-journey narrative more consistently inventive and exciting than those provided by The Return of the King, Kill Bill Vol. 1, or Cold Mountain.
6. American Splendor: One might legitimately wonder whether file clerk, comic-book author, and professional misanthrope Harvey Pekar is worthy of a biopic in his own time, much less whether he’s a likable figure. But what makes American Splendor special is that it isn’t merely a biopic; nor is it merely an adaptation of the comic-book series that provides the film’s title. Rather, the heretofore unknown directing team of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini triumph through their virtuoso juggling of different levels of representation and different types of visual content. And as deliriously acted by Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis, the film they end up with may well be the liveliest and most purely entertaining of the year.
7. The Pianist: One of the great disappointments in movies this year was the way the Oscars got our hopes up with a Best Director award for Roman Polanski and Best Actor award for Adrien Brody and then ended up giving Chicago the Best Picture anyway (with that smarmy presentation by Michael and Kirk Douglas). Oh well, here’s betting that Polanski’s knowing remembrance of life in Warsaw during the Holocaust — where Brody’s title character is less a protagonist than a witness — holds up better over time.
8. Capturing the Friedmans: The best of a year full of fine documentaries (see also Spellbound, The Trials of Henry Kissinger, and Winged Migration), Capturing the Friedmans begins with a certainty –Arnold Friedman and his teen-age son Jesse having pled guilty to several counts of child molestation in the ’80s — but, by the end, very little of its subjects seem established or even knowable. It’s a Rashomon scenario, with different voices giving achingly different accounts of the very same acts. The awful reality may be that everyone in the film is telling the truth.
9. City of God: This sensationalistic tale of Brazilian street violence was, in some ways, disconcertingly amoral, but as an act of pure film style it’s impossible to deny. The mise-en-scène is neorealist, but the cinematography, editing, and effects are hyperstylized, as if The Bicycle Thief had been reimagined through the post-CGI lens of Fight Club or The Matrix.
10. Mystic River: Clint Eastwood’s measured adaptation of Dennis Lehane’s literary thriller is a reminder of old-style Hollywood values –patient storytelling, elegant direction, tight plotting. A mournful meditation on revenge and guilt, violence and scapegoating, Mystic River deserves to be screened in a double-feature with the movie at the top of this list. Both films examine personal losses (and reactions to them) that echo national ones. And juxtaposing The 25th Hour‘s empathetic finale with Mystic River‘s bravely cold one — in which an Independence Day parade is portrayed as a cauldron of menace and isolation — is as damning a consideration as one can imagine of what’s happened in (and to) this country over the past year.
Honorable Mention: Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Raising Victor Vargas, The Man Without a Past, Spellbound, Kill Bill Vol. 1, The Quiet American, Cold Mountain, The Magdalene Sisters, School of Rock, In America, The Secret Lives of Dentists. n
E-mail: herrington@memphisflyer.com