Month: February 2004

Categories
News The Fly-By

Riverfront Revamp

The Riverfront Development Corporation (RDC) and the Friends for Our Riverfront (FfOR) met February 23rd over common ground — specifically, the area downtown from Adams south to Union between the harbor and Front Street.

Members from the two groups discussed the final draft of the RDC-commissioned Memphis Promenade Land Use Plan. In recent months, FfOR has expressed concern about the RDC’s plan and the chance of turning over public land — created by the city’s founders and an easement in 1828 — to private interests.

“We don’t think it’s a good idea to abandon the easement,” said John Gary, the group’s vice president. “The only reason there is still a 10-acre tract of land available downtown is because of the easement.”

The promenade plan, which was developed by architects Cooper, Robertson & Partners, consists of an upper and lower promenade. The upper promenade on the Front Street level would include shops and restaurants; the lower would be at Riverside Drive, giving direct access to the river. The two would be connected by “grand civic stairs” with parking tucked under the upper promenade.

“Everybody is totally in agreement that what’s there now is atrocious,” said RDC president Benny Lendermon. “We’re in agreement that the post office building has to stay, but there ought to be a better use for the building. We’re in agreement that we should save the old remnant of the Cossitt Library; we’re in agreement that there ought to be some type of public promenade.”

But the two groups differ over how much of the land should remain as park land. The RDC plan would develop 40 percent of the property into commercial and residential uses, and the money from that would go towards other public improvements.

Lendermon said that when the easement was created, there were not as many opportunities to view the river as there are today. “Tom Lee Park didn’t exist,” he said. “Mud Island didn’t exist. … Since then we’ve moved the green space closer to the water where people want to be.”

Lendermon said the plan is to put appropriate developments on the land, bring the city closer to the river, and at the same time keep the views and connections open. Gary is not so sure.

“Instead of having a one-and-a-half-story building at the corner of Jefferson and Union, the presented concept has a 40-story building there,” said Gary. “They say they aren’t going to interfere with sight lines, but I believe that’s impossible.”

His group’s main focus, though, said Gary, is to bring attention to the easement and the chance of abandoning it. “We’re trying to keep the ‘public’ in public promenade,” he said. “If we’re going to abandon the easement, we should do so in a public forum. It should be up to the citizens.”

FfOR is working with local architects to develop an alternative land-use plan, but Gary said they are not out to compete with the RDC.

“If we create a better understanding, everybody will win,” said Gary. “Best-case scenario: We all end up with an enhanced riverfront.”

E-mail: cashiola@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Music Music Features

Reelin’ in the years

Reading through 15 years of Memphis Flyer music coverage offers a vision of a city torn between past and future, a landscape where undeniable historical figures such as Johnny Ace, Mississippi John Hurt, and Phineas Newborn are as likely to get cover treatment as up-and-comers like Lois Lane, Lucero, and Garrison Starr — a city where surviving remnants of a music industry obsess over major-label contracts while underground scenes evolve seemingly oblivious to such concerns.

Unsurprisingly, the Memphis-connected musician who appeared on the cover of the Flyer the most over the past 15 years is Elvis Presley, who, after all, does have his own local holiday. The King has graced the cover four times, with more to come, surely. Four other local artists have been two-time cover subjects: Stax icon Isaac Hayes, subterranean godfather Jim Dickinson, and underground rock flag bearers Tav Falco & Panther Burns and the Grifters.

Other local musicians who have appeared on Flyer covers: Phineas Newborn, Linda Gail Lewis, Joyce Cobb, Phoebe Lewis, Charlie Feathers, Ann Peebles, Bill Hurd, James Carr, Ollie Nightingale, the Hombres, Jeffrey Evans, Junior Kimbrough, Garrison Starr, Rufus Thomas, Mississippi John Hurt, Johnny Ace, Lois Lane, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Lucero, the North Mississippi Allstars, Cory Branan, Richard Johnston, the Reigning Sound, Al Green and Willie Mitchell, and the Porch Ghouls.

But good writing, particularly in the arts, isn’t just about information –a historical record of who’s hot and who’s not, who got signed and who got dropped. It’s also about language and ideas, about capturing the passion, the sound, shape, and meaning of a subject Memphians are quite passionate about. In that spirit, here’s a look back at what Flyer music writers have had to say about some of the city’s most compelling artists over the past 15 years:

On Panther Burns:

“They’ve been with us so long — through mayhem and tranquility East Coast rockabilly revivals, West Coast rockabilly revivals –that they are constantly revising and recreating their own folklore while still remaining the same. And enduring it all, Tav Falco has proved himself to be a man who can stick with his rockabilly-lives-forever vision, not to mention his beatnik politics, his oratory, and his hairdo.”

— Belinda Killough (March 2, 1989)

On Jim Dickinson:

“The Mississippi River flowed behind the keyboard, and when he stepped up to play, James Luther Dickinson looked like the Swamp Monster from the barge channel. With bedraggled hair, unkempt clothes, and eyeglasses made from a crash between a Harley-Davidson and a human fly, this man did not represent the South of lemonade and porch swings.” — Robert Gordon (November 14, 1991)

On The Grifters:

“At their best, the Grifters shatter all preconceptions about what rock-and-roll should do and how it should be done. The way they corral the rage and aggression of their guitars just as they threaten to explode off the record grooves; the way they play with rhythmic tension, allowing it to ebb and flow with unpredictable grace; the way David Shouse’s vocals pull you into the songs even when you can’t figure out what he’s saying — it defies all explanation and all expectation. Surprises like those usually make for great rock-and-roll, and “Corolla Hoist” is a great rock-and-roll single. I don’t know what it’s about, and I really don’t care. Until I get tired of the buried but emotionally clear vocal, the mathematically arranged guitar riff in the right channel, and the two abrupt rhythm shifts during the noisy parts, I’ll keep playing it.” — John Floyd (November 26, 1992)

On Big Ass Truck:

“By and large, white funk makes me puke, and with ’70s disco making inroads into trend bars and dance halls, the future looks grim. Luckily, the guys in Big Ass Truck don’t fall into the Chili Peppers’ pseudo-minstrelsy puke pit; their four-song EP on Sugar Ditch trades the pump-bass hysterics of most white funksters for the careening, pummeling style of early-’70s Miles Davis — equal parts funk explosion and jazz improv. Think Agharta and On the Corner, mixed with Trouble Man-era Marvin Gaye and hip-hop scratches. Wake up, kids. You don’t need the Chili Peppers. Big Ass Truck is the real deal.”

— John Floyd (August 19, 1993)

On R.L. Burnside:

“R.L. Burnside exists so far from the blues mainstream he almost deserves his own category. It’s not that he’s doing anything new with the music; there’s a direct lineage in Burnside’s guitar playing and singing that goes back to such blues progenitors as Lightnin’ Hopkins, Fred McDowell, John Lee Hooker, and Son House. But in a field that’s become dominated by rock-derived guitar pyrotechnics, banal songwriting, and hackneyed vocal histrionics, you can’t help but hear Burnside as the real deal — a progeny of the music in its purest form, standing outside current trends while revealing the lifelessness of those trends.”

–John Floyd (January 27, 1994)

On Junior Kimbrough:

“There, in one of the ground-floor apartments, stirring himself up into a sitting position on the couch as we walk in, is the man who stares out at you from those album covers, his shirt off, wearing blue slacks and one shoe, the right one. His exposed foot is swollen with a round scar on the top of it. ‘I dropped some hot oil on my foot,’ Junior explains as he settles himself on the couch. I take a seat in a metal folding chair across from Junior and next to the television, which is showing America’s Funniest Home Videos, a program that apparently interests Junior a lot more than I do.” –Mark Jordan (June 19, 1997)

On The Oblivians:

“9 Songs shows admirable restraint, perfectly balancing the band’s tendencies toward sonic assault with crazed and swooning come-to-Jesus vocals and clean, deep guitar furrows. From the reworking of the traditional “Live the Life” to the soul-bursting “Final Stretch” to the Pentecostal proclamations of “What’s the Matter Now,” this record reeks of the tension between religion and the devil’s music while pointing once again to the identity of the two as spontaneous flashes of ecstasy. With its distinctly Southern hybrid of gospel, blues, rockabilly, punk, and soul, it just might be [a record] Memphis music-heads will be searching for in old record bins 40 years from now.” — Jim Hanas (September 11, 1997)

On The Clears:

“Less than a year ago, the Clears seemed to come, fully formed, out of nowhere. Whether that’s because they really were fully formed or simply because they had no precedent on the local music scene is tough to say. And there really are no precedents for the Clears. Not in Memphis, and certainly not in this decade. With their synthesizer-driven sound and terse, mechanistic phrasing, new wave is, of course, the handy term for what the Clears are about, but new wave of a particular sort, one at the same time older and newer than the Eighties. Imagine early Wire filtered through the smarty-pants aloofness of ever-less-inventive irony-rock, and you find some yet-to-be-named category for this trio.”

— Jim Hanas (October 16, 1997)

On Lois Lane:

“If you haven’t heard Lois Lane’s ‘Chinese Checkers’ either you don’t get out much, you don’t own a radio, or both. The song has been a staple on K-97 for close to a year now, but you’re just as likely to hear it on the tape deck in an aerobics class, an office building, or a hair salon. Lane’s ability to juggle currency with familiarity is probably her strongest asset, and in terms of pre-millennial trendspotting, it’s fashionable to the nines. In a city that tends to view its music in the past tense, revisionism is proving to be one of the few sure bets left. ‘Chinese Checkers’ is the perfect elixir for a pop landscape straddled between a rich past and an uncertain future.”

— Matt Hanks (August 13, 1998)

On The Neckbones:

“Though the comparisons are not readily evident, the Neckbones are kindred spirits with Fat Possum’s stable of old black bluesmen. They share a love of grimy guitar and, occasionally, even dirtier lyrical content, the main difference being that the Neckbones do things a little faster and a little louder. Blues for the white, suburban set.”

–Mark Jordan (August 12, 1999)

On The North Mississippi Allstars:

“Memphis music lovers have had not so much the pleasure as the privilege of watching the North Mississippi Allstars’ Luther and Cody Dickinson grow up on stage. Their first band, D.D.T., became a fixture at the Antenna years before either of the D-boys were old enough to even be there. Their skronky jug band Gut Bucket proved they could bust out the world-boogie using nothing but the bare essentials, and the subsequent D.D.T. Big Band demonstrated their skills at living large and loud. The Allstars released ‘Shake Hands With Shorty,‘ their long-overdue first CD, last week. On it, the primitive moaning drone and the marching rhythms of Mississippi hill-country blues meet hot Hendrix-inspired licks and tight Allman-style jams. ‘Shorty’ is getting a great deal of national attention, and it’s absolutely worthy.”

–Chris Davis (May 11, 2000)

On Lucero:

“Lucero’s music is raw but tuneful in the finest rock-and-roll tradition. [Ben] Nichols’ and [Brian] Venable’s guitars — Nichols banging out power chords and Venable filling the spaces in the music with sharp, tasteful leads — signify honky-tonk even at their most punkish, while [drummer Roy] Berry and [bassist John] Stubblefield brew a quiet storm below. The songs are simple, direct, and emotional, yet remarkably memorable and well-crafted. They convey a lovesick/lovelorn attitude that’s closer in its youthful spirit to great punk bands like Jawbreaker and the Replacements than it is to tear-in-your-beer weepiness of classic country.” — Chris Herrington (December 14, 2000)

On Three-6 Mafia:

“Three-6 Mafia arrived in the mid-’90s with raw, wild albums such as Mystic Stylez and Live By Yo Rep –a vaguely satanic, wildly sensational horror-core hip-hop crew that was as threatening as it was silly. They were an underground, regional phenomenon, almost as ignored by the hip-hop press and radio nationally as they were by the larger pop culture. But for a few weeks this summer that all changed. You couldn’t turn on the television or open a music magazine without seeing Three-6 Mafia. The woozy ‘Sippin’ on Some Syrup’ video, a parade of local big-ballers sippin’ doctored hot-pink cough syrup out of baby bottles, was in heavy rotation on the video channel the Box. A few channels down, on BET, the group was busy scaring the bejeezus out of the bourgie hosts on one of the station’s talk shows, who wanted to know um why one member was called ‘Crunchy Black’? Meanwhile, ‘Sippin’ on Some Syrup’ was wreaking havoc, as the fad of sippin’ this ‘liquid heroin’ was reemerging around the country. The ever-quotable DJ Paul tried to convince a Commercial Appeal reporter that the song was cautionary and informational: ‘We just want the kids to know that what’s in those bottles ain’t Enfamil.'”

–Chris Herrington (January 4, 2001)

On Saliva:

“This music isn’t cosmopolitan and is proudly anti-elitist, speaking directly to middle- and working-class suburbanites who couldn’t find a home in the college-radio-bred world of alt-rock. Alt-associated bands as diverse as Rage Against the Machine, the Beastie Boys, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Nine Inch Nails have blown kisses to this sizable audience, but they were all too arty and removed to hit these kids where they live. Saliva aims to score a direct hit.”

— Chris Herrington (February 1, 2001)

On Shelby Bryant:

“With giddy-verging-on-goofy synth rhythms and gently psychedelic keyboard arrangements informed by everything from Bach to gospel, Cloud Wow Music is a real treat for the headphones-only set. It’s bright, sometimes tongue-twisting lyrics, Ö la Syd Barrett, and its rhymes as sweet and sincere as a Jonathan Richman couplet sneak up on you and induce perma-smile. It is mathematically precise music for very sophisticated children who never want to grow up. It is genius.”

–Chris Davis (June 14, 2001)

On The Reigning Sound:

“The Premier Player Awards are a source of constant frustration to those of us who actually listen to virtually every local release. The fact that the Reigning Sound was not nominated for best band is a shame, and the fact that Greg Cartwright has yet to receive a nod as best songwriter is a borderline crime. Not that he would even care. Perhaps Cartwright’s work with the Compulsive Gamblers was too raw to meet certain standards, and there can be little doubt that while the Oblivians were big enough to merit a spread in Variety, lyrics like ‘I’m not a sicko, there’s a plate in my head’ were punk enough to insulate them (and thereby him) from a typically Bealecentric clique of voters. But by the mid-’90s, [Cartwright’s] softer side had begun to show. The punk facade dropped away and what remained was nothing short of astounding. Here is an artist able to merge garage rock, pure country, gospel, folk, blues, and soul and imbue this hybrid with the finest qualities of mid-century pop. Here is also a songwriter confident enough to step out from the camouflage of noise-rock to embrace complexity and polish without fear of being labeled a sellout.” –Chris Davis (May 2, 2002)

Categories
News The Fly-By

New Owner for Oakville?

Shelby County government put its long-term health-care facility on the market Friday, seeking to find a new owner for residents at 3391 Old Getwell Road.

Selling the Oakville Health Care Center is one option being considered by the county, said spokesperson Susan Adler Thorp. “Keep in mind that the main driving force behind the decision is the quality of care for the patient,” she said. “[The county] is still a distance away from a decision, and … the final decision rests with the County Commission.”

Proposals are being taken for the facility until March 17th. So what’s the going rate for a 237-bed, skilled-nursing facility? “There is no going rate,” said Thorp. “We’re just taking offers.” No offers had been made as of press time.

Options include finding a private group to manage the facility, transferring some or all its beds to the Medical Center, closing the facility, or continuing its current operation by the county. Oakville’s operating budget is $12 million per year, with $9 million of generated revenue, leaving the county to pay the $3 million deficit.

In addition to rising health-care costs, Oakville has also received negative publicity for its ongoing legal battles with patients and its most recent state evaluation citing 10 deficiencies. That number was two above the average of other Tennessee facilities and three above the country average. Officials at the state’s Department of Health Care Facilities said the hospital has since rectified those deficiencies and has remained in good standing since a surprise visit to the facility in January.

Relocating some of the facility’s beds would include moving the patients to the former UT-Bowld Hospital, said Thorp, which would provide that university with a skilled nursing facility for its students. The county has also been meeting with administrators of the Regional Medical Center (The Med) to streamline senior services in the community. While many patients from Oakville are treated at that hospital, and vice versa, relocating the patients to The Med is not an option.

“The Med itself has no unit that would be appropriate for long-term care,” said hospital spokesperson Sandy Snell. “Also, The Med doesn’t have a license to operate a skilled nursing facility like Oakville.”

Two years ago, Oakville nurses picketed when talks arose about closing the facility. “In these times of tightened budgets, that $3 million is tough for the county to pay,” said Thorp.

Oakville negotiations are just part of a countywide efficiency study expected to be completed in a few months.

E-mail: jdavis@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Cover Feature News

15th Anniversary Issue

Creationism

Four who were there when the Flyer spread its wings.

As best I can recall, the rain was pouring down in buckets during the early a.m. of Thursday, February 16, 1989. But, hey, maybe it was just sprinkling. The mind plays tricks on you sometimes, when you get a little bit older. What’s left of mine should be on the carnival circuit.

One thing’s certain, though. Four of us were on the streets wearing ponchos that pre-dawn, and there were puddles everywhere. We were out delivering some 50 clunky green newspaper boxes all over town, chaining them to posts at traffic intersections and storefronts. People couldn’t yell at us and tell us to go away, for the excellent reason that they weren’t up yet. We were young, but we weren’t completely stupid, you see.

Today, remarkably, many of those boxes are still standing at exactly the same spot where they were placed in 1989. We’ve repainted most of them, but every now and then I see a graying old soldier, a little the worse for wear but still functional.

That’s just about the best that can be said about those of us who were “present at the Creation,” so to speak. Maudlin is nobody’s favorite color around here, but there are four survivors who deserve special mention this week. Whether they like it or not.

There’s the legendary Tim Sampson, whom most regular readers know as the gonzo genius behind the We Recommend column. Those under 30 may not be aware that Tim was actually the first editor of this newspaper, from 1989 until 1992, when the rigors of that job drove him stark-raving, er, sensible, and he moved on to bigger and better things. But like a bad dream that never ends, We Recommend has proven to be his undoing. Tim can’t shake it, and it can’t shake him. Thank God.

Then there’s Jerry Swift, senior advertising exec extraordinaire, who showed up here one cold day that winter of 1989, after just getting his marketing degree from Memphis State. Jerry was no rookie, though; he was a veteran of the Memphis club scene, having booked major performers at clubs like Lafayette’s Music Room, the Ritz, and P.O.E.T.’s, before deciding he wanted a day job. Ours was a match made in heaven. We needed his years of after-hours experience to make payroll, and Jerry came through, in spades. Somehow he convinced his old music-business buds that the Flyer was a good advertising buy. Don’t ask us how he did it, because it certainly wasn’t, at least not in 1989. But Jerry kept the wolf from our door, and with the support of our many longtime friends in the Memphis music biz, we’ve never looked back.

Then there’s Cheryl Bader, since the beginning the Flyer’s production director and jack-of-all-trades. As I recall, Cheryl was driving the second of our two U-Hauls on that famous first night (kudos to Steve Haley and Joe Afuso, as well, for riding shotgun with us). I do remember Cheryl and I getting into a big fight. We’ve only had, oh, a couple of thousand more since, but believe me, if anyone ever tells you the Flyer could have gotten from A to B without her, they’re lying. Trust me.

And then there’s Dovye Perriguey, our comptroller then, our comptroller now. Bean-counters don’t usually get any respect, but let me tell you: when you can count all the beans you have on the fingers of two hands, you need all the help you can get. Dovye, you’re still the best.

Above is a copy of the cover of that very first issue, the one that filled those green boxes a few hours after we put them out. The first cover story was on Velsicol, one of Memphis’ many polluters back then, in the good old days; it’s still an excellent article, written by David Lyons, a man who still plays a mean game of poker. The inside pages are filled with more than a few other names you probably know: Tom Prestigiacomo of FM-100 fame — still the easiest byline to misspell; Dave Woloshin, voice of the U of M football/basketball Tigers; Roy Haithcock, founder and publisher of RSVP, the society monthly; and the late, great Lydel Sims, longtime Commercial Appeal columnist.

I love the ads in that first issue — all 22 of them. In fact, I love the ads in this issue. Never forget, folks, that without this kind of community-wide business support, none of us here would have jobs, and you wouldn’t be reading this newspaper. Exactly half of our “charter advertisers” — 11 hardy perennials — have survived these 15 years right alongside us: Breakaway Athletics, Doug Carpenter Advertising (now Carpenter-Sullivan), Cottland Bedding (now Otherlands), Flashback, Huey’s, Memphis Drum Shop, 1910 Frameworks, David Palvado Cleaners, Henry Turley Company, and Zinnie’s. Thanks, guys. We literally could not have done it without you.

— by Kenneth Neill, Publisher

Be Here Now

Yesterday was great, but today shines even brighter.

Two men go into a bar …

A lot of jokes start out that way. This isn’t one of them. Or maybe it is. Depends on your point of view.

The bar in question was in Miami. It was 1991. I was the editor of a magazine published in Pittsburgh. Kenneth Neill was a publisher from Memphis. We were both attending a convention — a magazine convention, believe it or not. Late of a Saturday night, we found ourselves seated next to each other in a blues joint located just south of South Beach. Not a pretty neighborhood. And the blues sucked too. We’d been dragged there by a fellow conventioneer who claimed it was the only “real” blues joint in Miami. (Why any of us thought going to a blues joint in Miami was a good idea is lost in the mists of time.)

Like I said, the blues sucked, so we talked magazines and music and baseball and whatever the hell else comes up between two strangers in a bar in a strange town. Three hours later, we closed the place down and walked outside.

The night was hot, steamy, like a Turkish bath. It was late and there were no taxis to be found in south South Beach. Our hotel was, oh, six miles away. But it was good night for a walk, so walk we did. And we talked some more. By the time we reached the hotel, Ken had convinced himself that I needed to move to Memphis and work for him. He almost even convinced me.

A few weeks later, in April, I came to visit Ken in Memphis. Back in Pittsburgh, the snow was only starting to melt. We hadn’t seen the sun since October. In Memphis, I sat on Ken’s Cooper-Young porch and watched a mockingbird build a nest in an azalea bush. I sipped a beer and stared up at the immense leafy oak branches painted in evening light. This, I thought, isn’t bad.

Within a year, I had managed to move to Memphis. I’ve been performing various editorial duties around here ever since. It’s been a fulfilling run and the time has flown by faster than seems possible.

You’ll read a lot in the following pages about the history and legend of the Flyer. What else would you expect from an issue we’ve themed “It’s All About Us”? This, of course, in brilliant ironic contrast to the CA‘s new “Appeal” sections mantra: “It’s All About You!” (A more accurate slogan might be: “It’s all about verbatim press releases about potential advertisers and mislabeled photographs!” But that’s just me.)

Yes, history is important, and the old days at the Flyer were wild and woolly. (There used to be a joke that the Flyer drug-tested all its reporters. If they weren’t on drugs, they were fired. Bada-bump.) On page 44, former reporter Paul Gerald writes about his experiences back in the day, including getting an assignment to write about the Grateful Dead for six weeks.

It’s different now, to say the least.

History aside, the current staff, without question, is the finest ever assembled under this leaky roof. We’ve two veteran pros — Jackson Baker and John Branston — whose multitude of sources and contacts and dead-on reporting instincts are irreplaceable. Staff writers Mary Cashiola and Janel Davis demonstrate their talent and versatility each week. They can cover literally any subject — school board, City Council, crime, day-care, fashion, you name it — and do it without missing a beat. They are the heart of the editorial staff. Chris Davis is the hardest-working man in show business, putting his unique and entertaining spin on theater, art, music, and media. And he’s gained a cult following for his Fly on the Wall column. Chris Herrington came to the Flyer as a music editor and in short order transformed our music coverage into a section that is second to none. In his spare time, he covers the Grizzlies, a subject also dear to his heart. (Who else do you know who can name the 12-man rosters for every NBA team?) Bianca Phillips (better known as our “perma-tern”) has carved an irreplaceable niche on the staff by finding stories in places where no one thought to go before.

Managing editor Susan Ellis deserves special mention. Without her steady and tireless direction, the Flyer would never get to press. And Susan has created a Steppin’ Out section that is the envy of alternative weeklies nationwide. Senior editor Michael Finger, another long-time staffer, shepherds the potpourri we call City Reporter, shaping and cutting each story to fit, even when they won’t.

I would also be remiss in not mentioning our intrepid copyeditors, Leonard Gill and Pamela Denney, whose skills make this copy readable and whose patience is the envy of all.

Special kudos also go to art director Carrie Beasley, assistant art director Amy Mathews, and advertising art director Tara McKenzie, who create something out of nothing more often than they would like to admit — and do it with no time left on the clock.

We’ve worked hard on the issue. We hope you like it. And we hope you’ll stick around with us for another 15 years.

Picture This

Two local artists have illustrated the Flyer since its inception.

Jeanne Seagle got her foot in the door the classic way: She knew someone. That someone was Cheryl Bader, now an associate publisher, who got her an assignment illustrating the second issue’s cover. Seagle has continued to do covers and other stories through the years, but her steady Flyer gig has been illustrating News of the Weird.

Seagle also illustrates children’s books and paints murals, landscapes, and portraits. In addition, she is currently involved in the UrbanArts Commission’s Trolley Stop Project, helping to create mosaic murals at two stops on Madison Avenue.

Mike Niblock began cartooning while attending Murray State University. He approached the Flyer‘s first art director, Risâ Ramsey, and showed her his work shortly after the paper’s first issue. He’s been doing our editorial cartoon ever since.

The 43-year-old cartoonist has been married for 14 years to his wife, Judy. They have two sons: Kevin and Patrick.

15 People and things

we miss

1. Denny Crum and Bob Huggins home and away

2. Anfernee Hardaway in his prime

3. Arts in the Park at Overton Park

4. Movies that make Memphis look good

5. Harold Ford Sr. working a close election

6. Michael Wilson dunking

7. Topless-bar raids

8. Cheap beer specials at minor- league baseball games

9. A new John Grisham book set in Memphis

10. Dennis Freeland on our staff

11. Lee Baker on guitar

12. Burton Callicott on canvas

13. Hernando’s Hideaway on the weekend

14. Sam Phillips on the origin of rock-and-roll

15. John Daly on his game for good

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

A Simple Plan

The team isn’t playing together. The fans are restless or apathetic. The coach has been there too long. The players aren’t listening. Most of them want another coach. Some of them think they should be coach.

If politics were sports, we would all know the next step in the brawl at City Hall. Mayor Willie ‘Coach’ Herenton would be fired or players would be traded.

But it isn’t, so that’s not an option. Still, something had to be done. So in the end, Herenton yielded to the cries of his constituents begging for peace and said that, for all practical purposes, he is calling off the war.

If the mayor didn’t hit all the right notes Tuesday, he hit a lot of them. He mentioned the Bible, his own stubbornness, the virtue of listening, and the importance of looking ahead and working harmoniously with Nashville and the Memphis business community.

There is still, however, some unfinished business and some possible stumbling blocks that could turn good mayor into bad mayor in the remaining three years and ten months of his fourth term.

There are three things the mayor and the council must do to permanently defuse the situation. Returning to the sports metaphor, they may not be able to do them without shaking up the coaching staff.

The mayor’s chief administrative officer, Keith McGee, must gain the respect of the council. The council’s attorney, Allan Wade, must regain the respect of the mayor. And the mayor and council must replace the entire board of Memphis Light Gas & Water and empower a new one to find a new MLGW president.

First, the chief administrative officer. The CAO is the link between the mayor and council. He — and it has always been a he — is the mayor’s man. The current CAO, McGee, is the mayor’s man. He didn’t come up through the ranks or head a division of city government like his predecessor Rick Masson did. For reasons not entirely his fault, McGee doesn’t have the ear of the council, largely because he is seen as Herenton’s man.

Second, Wade must get on the same page as the mayor, or vice versa. Despite or maybe because of his 12 years of government experience, Wade has become a stumbling block. He helped the city win some big, big cases, but lately he has been viewed by the mayor as a partisan player loyal to the council, not the city attorney.

The mayor said there is room for disagreement on how the City Charter is viewed. That is apt to be a continuing sore spot.

Third, the mayor should formally dismiss the current five-member board of MLGW. All of their terms have expired anyway. Thanks and goodbye, and a hearty handshake for one and all. But it’s time for a new board and a new kind of board member.

Nobody’s going to get a building named after them, ala James Netters. Nobody’s going to do consulting or apply for a job with TVA on the side, ala Franketta Guinn. And nobody’s going to have this job because of their political connections to the mayor. One four-year term on the board and you’re out. Let past MLGW presidents Larry Papasan, David Hansen, Bill Crawford, and Herman Morris suggest nominees. They’re all civic-minded enough to know now is not the time for cronyism. Let Herenton make the formal nominations, and let the council formally approve them. This time they’re both taking one for the team. The board’s first order of business is to work with a search firm to find a new MLGW president within 60 days.

Resolve these three issues and the peace could last. Tempers will cool. Easy targets are gone. The media will have to find something else. Hard feelings will remain, but it’s a start. The alternative is more of the same.

Categories
News News Feature

15 years of looking at the news a little differently.

No Bandwagons, No Sacred Cows

15 years of looking at the news a little differently.

by John Branston

Here’s the point of alternative newspapers. Call us underground papers, hippie papers, liberal rags, whatever you like. But at our best, we’re alternative sources of news and views. It’s as simple as that.

If there is a bandwagon, then there is no need for one more passenger. If all heads are nodding in agreement and pointing north, there must be something to be said for turning away and looking south. If someone or something is a sacred cow, who needs one more reporter paying their cheesy respects? If everyone loves the mayor or the home team or the new thing this year, you can bet that won’t be true next year. If nobody will touch a story, then maybe somebody should.

These stories were Flyer firsts and pretty good (whether or not anyone else in the media followed up on them).

* Jackson Baker’s weekly column, “Politics.” The first, best, and now the only.

* Our reports on the first sure signs of the broken Herenton/Ford alliance in 1993, just two years after the landmark election.

* Gerry House and her deal with ServiceMaster. The national Superintendent of the Year as corporate huckster.

* “A License To Print Money,” a 1992 look at profit margins and financials at The Commercial Appeal. Would you believe a profit of 36 percent?

* Medical Examiner O.C. Smith’s story doesn’t add up. For a year, only the Flyer said so.

* The corporate culture and energy futures buying at MLGW in 2001. Set the tone for what all media began reporting in 2004.

* “The Bucks Stop Here,” our first of three salary surveys of local nonprofits in 1995.

* “The Liberation of Harold Ford”: team coverage of the Ford trial in 1993.

* Our 1998 stories on special prosecutor Larry Parrish’s privately financed role in raids on local topless clubs. Two years later, the Tennessee Supreme Court threw out the indictments and disqualified Parrish and the entire staff of this district attorney’s office from pursuing the cases.

* The controversy around the Memphis Arts Council’s Education in the Schools program in 2003. Who knew art bureaucrats could stonewall so well?

* Our late-1990s coverage on continuing problems inside the Shelby County Jail.

* Tim Sampson and We Recommend. Can he say those things?

* “Fortunate Sons”: Richard Smith and Kerr Tigrett and their clash with the hallowed traditions of the University of Virginia.

* The Memphis Grizzlies. Repeat after us: The media are not supposed to be an extension of the Grizzlies marketing department.

* Willie Herenton tells us to “Go To Hell” and provides the Flyer with a cover story and headline. Hey City Council, school board, and MLGW: We feel your pain.

* Was President Bush AWOL in Alabama? We found the local angle that became national news.

Big Scoops, Cherries on Top

Yes, we’re different; but we’re also pretty damn good at being the same old thing.

by Jackson Baker

In his “Bandwagon” notes, John Branston offers a list of stories for which the Flyer has provided illumination in areas that would otherwise have remained dark or but dimly lit. He has in a way preempted much of my previously chosen subject area — that of scoops — exclusives on subjects of the day or freshly unearthed material or timely disclosures so detailed and provocative that they redefined the way in which significant things had to be viewed.

The fact is, the Flyer — in a field of local news gatherers that includes a well-endowed daily paper and several enterprising broadcast stations — has more than held its own in the simple, traditional act of breaking news. Branston does not mention some of his own scoops, many of them concerning the courts or the boardrooms of the Mid-South.

He does indicate, without expressly acknowledging his own vital contribution, the tag-team coverage he and I did at the second trial, in 1993, of former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Sr. for bank fraud. This is one that resulted in the longtime congressman’s final exculpation — or “liberation,” as we put it in a definitive concluding article, replete with analysis of evidence and interviews with jurors. (Bet you can’t tell which one of us wrote which part of that 3,500-word opus; at this remove, we can barely tell ourselves.)

There are some omissions from the above list, notably examples of the peerless coverage of local sports by our late editor Dennis Freeland, one of those rare journalistic types who could remain hard of nose and still be generally beloved. Not a coaching change occurred in local college ranks without its having been prefigured and explained in advance in a Freeland column. His intuition was utterly reliable, whether concerning the strategic weaknesses of good-guy University of Memphis football coach Rip Scherer or the bad-guy aspects (and strategic weaknesses) of Tiger basketball coach Tic Price.

Most of our scoops, and most of our solid coverage over the years has come from simply working the beat, doing the day-to-day, hour-to-hour grunt coverage that might result in, say, Mary Cashiola’s memorable member-by-member profile some months ago of the chaotically imploding Memphis school board. (Try merely attending one of those marathon school board sessions to see how hard a nose she has!)

The name Phil Campbell needs to be dragged in here; it was Campbell’s dogged and richly documented pursuit of mutual backscratching arrangements between Mayor Willie Herenton and consultant Robert L. Green in mid-1997 that still remains a template for such investigations.

As different as we are — and Branston has made a case for that — we are also no slouches at the same old thing that journalism has always been: getting the news, getting it right, and getting it first. We have been inconvenienced in this regard by being a weekly and having to wait days sometimes to tell what we know — but even that handicap has been whittled down somewhat in recent years by our ability to go 24/7 on the Flyer Web site: MemphisFlyer.com.

Surely somewhere else in this issue the numerous awards we’ve received over the years for newsgathering are touted up. If not, then count modesty as among our virtues. There are many things that we are — and many ways of defining us: The Second Coming of the Second Daily; the Time and Newsweek of our circulation area; and, as Branston suggests, the indispensable Alternate Take.

I would just add to that that we are, uncommonly often, the first — and best — take.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Big Floods at Big Creek

Millington resident Trudy Hering wasn’t around for the Big Creek flood of 1987, but after living in the area for the past six years, she’s heard plenty of stories. She recalls one man’s tale of how the living room of his townhouse flooded with two feet of water, and the outside of the house was surrounded by three feet.

“Without thinking, he opened the door. Naturally, the water rushed in and knocked him down,” she says. “After he got to his feet, he swam over to the fence where he stayed until someone came by with a boat.”

The 1987 flood was the worst in recent years, and the Army Corps of Engineers is hoping it will be the last. They’ve recently enacted a study of the Big Creek area to analyze flooding and erosion problems, water quality, and recreational uses.

“We built a levee in 1989 after that big flood in 1987, but there’s still a problem with flash flooding,” said Carol Jones, senior project manager of the Millington and Vicinity Feasibility Study. “The rivers get up pretty good in that area, and we have to close the roads down every now and then. We’re studying existing flooding and potential flooding that could cause problems for growing development in northern Shelby County and southern Tipton County.”

At a public meeting last week, residents voiced concerns about their land being taken up by the dams that would be used to stop flooding. Others expressed worry that the proposed interstate highway I-69, which may go through the area, would cause erosion in Big Creek leading to eventual flooding. Jones said all public input will be taken into account.

Besides solving flooding problems, the Army Corps of Engineers would like to create hiking and biking trails along Big Creek leading toward the Loosahatchie River. At past public meetings, some residents asked for recreation along the creek to deter additional development in the area. Others, such as 14-year resident Jay Timbs said they would just like to have some sort of natural recreation nearby.

“I’m not sure that hiking trails are necessarily needed, but it would be something different,” said Timbs. “People could hike closer to their homes as opposed to having to go out to Shelby Forest.”

Jones said the study may take up to three years and will reflect input from periodic public meetings.

E-mail: bphillips@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Editorial

Bredesen Does It Again

The trend of recent Tennessee government is curious — and in its own way encouraging. Consider the political courses taken by the last two Tennessee chief executives — former governor Don Sundquist and current governor Phil Bredesen.

In his efforts (ultimately abortive) to alter the state’s reliance on consumption taxes and to shore up and even expand state-run programs like TennCare, Republican Sundquist behaved like a stereotypical Democrat. In his enforcement of strict across-the-board spending cuts and his disinclination to consider new taxation, Democrat Bredesen has been functioning like a card-carrying Republican.

Without attempting to judge the rights and wrongs of either man’s conduct, we are bemused and — again — encouraged by the fact that both proved able to think outside the box of their party’s official doctrinaire positions.

Bredesen is at it again. Having commissioned an independent study of the feasibility of TennCare — one which found the state’s health-care program for the uninsured and uninsurable to be a drain on the budget as currently constituted — the governor got out his swift sword and cut the knot connecting state policy to the unproductive past. In a nutshell, he proposed stiffening penalties for fraud and abuse, limiting and means-testing certain essential benefits, and giving priority to children, pregnant women, and the disabled.

One thing Bredesen did not do is suggest paring the rolls — except for reasons of patient ineligibility. That is good news, especially for the families of uninsurables, who often turn up on various hit lists prepared by those who have more Draconian cuts in mind.

The governor resolves to cut program costs by as much as $1 billion a year at the end of a five-year period. If he can do that, and thereby salvage what could still be a model health-care program for other states to follow, Bredesen will have fully justified praise bestowed on him by former governor Ned Ray McWherter, who originated TennCare a decade ago and who predicted two weeks ago that Bredesen will go down as “the greatest governor in Tennessee history.”

The Marriage Quagmire

In his speech this week proposing a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between a man and a woman, President Bush may have caused more problems than his action will resolve.

Though we understand the benefits that raising the issue might provide for the incumbent president in this election year (especially since he’ll probably be opposed by a Democrat from the gay-marriage-friendly state of Massachusetts), we’ll give Mr. Bush the benefit of the doubt for sincerity.

Unquestionably, the plethora of marriage licenses issued to gay couples of late in California creates a precedent that needs — and will shortly receive — legal adjudication. It may turn out that the Constitution’s silence on the particulars of the case is an impediment to resolving the issue state by state. At stake are such conundra as whether, say, a marriage recognized as legal in California must be so regarded in Tennessee as well. Another problem: Are civil-union statutes sufficient to provide equal protection for gay and lesbian couples, or must these rights be further buttressed constitutionally?

As those two instances suggest, we are likely to see not one but many constitutional amendments proposed, once we get started along that path.

Far better that the issue be subjected to scrutiny, however extended, by the courts. President Bush should certainly be willing. The man elevated to his high office by an action of the U.S. Supreme Court is certainly aware that the nation’s ruling tribunal is by no means a haven these days for liberal activists.

Categories
Book Features Books

True to Type

I’m a worrywart big-time all the time, a nervous type, hard-wired to expect the worst. I can’t help it. So I couldn’t help thinking it made sense: me, without a shred of newspaper experience or production know-how, joining the Flyer staff on the part-time low end when that staff was a handful. This was early on in the paper’s 15-year history, which makes it — what — 1991? I don’t know. It’s kind of a blur.

Editorial at the time was in the hands of Tim Sampson and two to three more staff writers, tops. The art department, no question about it, was a full-time grand total of one: Cory Dugan, who was the paper’s art department (and its art critic, now the CA‘s), along with a sideman, me, who worked part-time doing paste-up when I wasn’t proofreading and/or copyediting and/or ruining my eyesight and taxing my nervous system. (Forget the niceties: Those jobs and medical conditions can be and in this case are interchangeable, par for the course, part and parcel, etc.)

Or I was proofreading at the same time I was doing paste-up. Or I was sizing black-and-white glossies that I was then running off to have turned into something called PMTs. Or checking corrections to the “hard copy” against what the paper’s two typesetters had turned into “film.” Or, with an Exacto knife, slicing that “film” and not my fingertips into what looked like newspaper columns, classified listings, ads, what have you, whatever. (A Band-Aid when that Exacto took a turn for the worse? Grab some masking tape.)

These Dark Age duties of mine were all performed with an afternoon deadline in mind, my worried mind. The paper’s printing company, somewhere in Mississippi, ruled. The Flyer was 40-something pages, give or take a good or bad week in ad sales, small potatoes measured against its size and scope today. There were no computers except to serve as word processors. But you could smoke at your desk, which helped to keep you pinned to your desk. Lunch on press day every Tuesday? Forget it. Light up to kill your appetite. Coffee: a constant companion. And never mind that pain in the neck. Missed typos in the finished product? Live with it. Big boo-boos un-fact-checked for the city to see? Ditto. It’s Tuesday night. The paper’s “gone.” Have a beer. No, make that a Jack straight, can the Coke. Tomorrow’s another day …

… at the bookstore, where I was also working part-time. So it maybe seemed like a good idea for Tim to ask if I wanted to handle a book column for the Flyer. He said it made sense: me with a ready access to the latest titles, me with a liberal-arts background, and me with maybe a brain to give it a shot. Plus, he said I’d get paid to do it.

There’s been an upside over the years: good to great books, hardly ever all-out trash; a chance to talk in person or by phone to writers I would have never otherwise met; a chance to put words to a test — an author’s, my own. There’s been this downside too: time — the time it takes to read, write.

And there’s been this one FAQ from friends and strangers alike: How do you choose the books to write about? My answer in the form of further FAQs: Is it an author doing a booksigning in town? Is it a title of local concern? Is it a name author or a newsworthy topic? Is it doable by deadline? Is it not being done by anybody else? And, on a subjective note, is it of any interest to me and maybe other readers out there? (Leave aside the added question for the ages: Is any of this book coverage worth your reading it, or is it more fit for the bottom of a birdcage?)

And so, on the subject of books, authors, and current events, what’s worth your attention now is The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with Arundhati Roy, new this month and newsworthy. Roy’s bones to pick: globalization, privatization, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, which makes these interviews with David Barsamian not only down my alley but this week “doable,” if only to give the book a brief positive mention. Kudos to South End Press for making it available in paperback for 16 bucks.

And on the subject of proofing and copyediting, production snafus and deadlines unmet, the Flyer and 15 years, this update: I’ve now got a search engine that can misspell names too. I’ve got more typos to go with more pages. But I can live with it. I can take comfort in that song by the band the Fall. At 50, finally, I’m “totally wired.”

E-mail: gill@memphisflyer.com

Categories
News News Feature

How Well Do You Know Your Flyer?

Some people only pick up the Flyer when they’re sitting alone in a bar and have grown tired of people-watching. (Drunk people are only interesting for so long.) Others pick it up, glance at the calendar to see what’s going on around town, and quickly deposit it in the nearest trash bin. And we’re cool with that.

But we know there are some devoted readers who have picked up a copy every week for years, and not having the heart to throw them away, have allowed them to pile up into a paper tower in the corner of their living rooms. Okay, we really don’t know this, but we can hope, can’t we?

So if you’re wondering just how steadfast your Flyer allegiance is, take this quiz and then tally up your answers to find out just what kind of Flyer fan you really are.

1. Which current columnist was managing editor when the Flyer took off in 1989?

a. John Branston (“City Beat”) c. Jackson Baker (“Politics”)

b. Tim Sampson (“We Recommend”) d. Andria Lisle (“Local Beat”)

2. Who was the first local politician to grace a Flyer cover?

a. Willie Herenton c. Rickey Peete

b. Marion Berry d. Steve Cohen

3. In the Flyer’s first contest, a lucky reader could win a cruise for two on the Nile and 10 days in Egypt if he/she did what?

a. found a magic flute buried somewhere in the city

b. penned a winning piece of fiction for our sister publication, Memphis magazine

c. was chosen by judges after baring all in the Flyer‘s Hottest Ass Contest

d. did the best Elvis impersonation

4. What was the Flyer’s first cover story?

a. “Model Moms” — a story about child beauty queens and the moms who push them

b. “The Lost Elvis Diaries” — a story of how one reporter obtained Elvis’ journal

c. “Up In Smoke” — a story about the millions of dollars worth of pot eradicated yearly

d. “Poison For Profit” — a story about Velsicol selling U.S.-banned chemicals in the Third World

5. What was the name of the nightclub/bar column by David Lyons that ran in early editions of the Flyer?

a. “Nighthawk” c. “In Beer We Trust”

b. “King of Clubs” d. “The Nightclub Naysayer”

6. Which current radio personality once penned a weekly birthdays column in the Flyer?

a. Twitch from 93X c. Chris Jarman from Rock 103

b. Boogaloo from Hot 107.1 d. Tom Prestigiacomo from FM100

7. What was “Backfire”?

a. the former name of the Letters to the Editors page, now titled “Postscript”

b. the former name for the Flyer‘s classified ad section

c. the name of a “call us with your comments” hotline

d. an early ’90s Memphis band we covered the hell out of

8. What local publication ran “The Fly Swatter,” a spoof of the Flyer‘s “Fly On the Wall” column after we slammed them several times for poor copy editing (among other things)?

a. 901/Elite Memphis c. R.S.V.P.

b. The Commercial Appeal d. Gamut

9. When did the Flyer launch its Web site?

a. 2001 c. 1997

b. 1999 d. 1996

10. Who was the winner of the Flyer‘s first two annual Local Music Polls? (Hint: 2001 and 2002)

a. Cory Branan c. The North Mississippi All-Stars

b. Lucero d. Saliva

11. Which popular Memphis magazine feature got its start in the Flyer?

a. “Ask Vance” c. “Enough Said”

b. “Fabulous Finds” d. “City Lights”

12. What’s the name of the Flyer‘s travel columnist?

a. Walter Jowers c. Ed Weathers

b. Andrew Wilkins d. Paul Gerald

13. In April 1998, the Flyer (and several other alternative newsweeklies in other cities) ran a “This Modern World” political cartoon by Tom Tomorrow that caused an outpouring of letters to the editor and cancellations by some advertisers. What made that strip so darn controversial?

a. It depicted Clinton and Monica Lewinsky “doing their thing” in the Oval Office

b. It contained the work “fuck”

c. It was about gay rights and depicted two men kissing

d. It depicted a big ol’ orgy

14. What was “Stand By Your Band”?

a. the original name for the After Dark music listings

b. a contest where readers voted on what local band might go to Austin’s SXSW

c. the headline for the Flyer‘s first music issue in 2001

d. a Flyer-sponsored concert at Tom Lee Park

15. The Flyer has produced one paper a week since 1989 with one exception. When did we miss an issue and why?

a. 1994 — because of the big ice storm

b. 1990 — because Tim Sampson overslept

c. 2000 — because of an office-wide computer virus

d. 2003 — because of the big wind storm

The Flyer

by the Numbers

2/16/89 date of the Flyer‘s first issue

20 number of pages in that first issue

783 total number of issues, including this one

15 number of staffers at the Flyer at the time of the first issue

45 number of staffers at the Flyer today

3 number of editors the Flyer has had in its history

144 number of pages in the largest issue

99 number of distribution boxes in the area

9, 24 number of delivery people and total hours it takes to deliver the Flyer

619 number of distribution points in the city

250 number of distribution points when the Flyer began

$100 amount of a paid subscription to the Flyer

15 number of paid subscriptions

$1.75 average amount it costs to mail an issue of the Flyer

55,000-58,875 number of papers distributed per week

97 percentage of papers picked up by readers each week

224,900 average number of readers each week

10,000 approximate number of papers distributed in Midtown

75,800 approximate number of readers who own three or more cars

9 average number of letters about Tim Sampson each week

Answers:

1. b; 2. c; 3. a; 4. d; 5. a; 6. d; 7. b; 8. a; 9. d; 10. c; 11. a; 12. d; 13. d; 14. b; 15. d

The Score

Give yourself one point for each correct answer and no points for the incorrect answers. Tally up your score and see where you fit into the Flyer fan club.

11-15 points: Want a Job?

If you scored this high, you know your Memphis Flyer and you know it well. In fact, we’re wondering if you have a life at all. What have you been doing these past 15 years? Either you’ve spent way too much time alone at local bars or you’re just a huge nerd — or both.

6-10 points: Flyer Fan Club President

If you got this many right, you’ve obviously been reading the Flyer for a while, and somehow you’ve managed to absorb some information over the years. We’re glad to have readers like you — you know, not too smart but not too dumb. Kinda like us.

1-5 points: Brain Cells? What Are Those?

Either you’re a new reader or one of those I-just-read-the-Flyer-for-the-music-listings types. Or maybe you just smoked too much ganja back in the day and destroyed all your brain cells. That’s okay. We still love you.

No points:

Okay, we hate to break it to you, but you’re a total loser!