Month: February 2005

Categories
Music Music Features

Ramble On

The Tarbox Ramblers, Boston’s greatest roots-rock band, is finally making it to Memphis. “It’s insane that we haven’t played there before now,” bandleader Michael Tarbox says. “We haven’t been working enough, getting to these towns we should be playing in.”

Memphis is somewhat of a cultural mecca for Tarbox, who’s parlayed his love of blues and roots music into a fulltime gig fronting the Ramblers. Last year, the band traveled here to record their second album, A Fix Back East, at Sounds Unreel with producer Jim Dickinson at the helm, but, Tarbox laments, he hardly ventured outside the studio.

“I got to poke around a little bit when I came down to meet Dickinson, but when we came to record, I wanted to focus on the job at hand,” he says, “so I hardly left the studio. Working with Dickinson really made sense. He knows a lot about the blues. He’s seen a lot of those old guys work, and he knows about the spirit. He has this philosophy about capturing the moment, cutting a song while you’re playing it for the very first time. It was very off-the-cuff.”

This stood in contrast to the recording style Tarbox and his bandmates experienced on the album’s non-Memphis sessions, cut in Boston with Paul Kolderie and Sean Slade. “They’re a real team — two bodies and one brain, very intuitive,” Tarbox says. “Dickinson is such a one-man operation.”

Listening to A Fix Back East, the two sessions sound seamless. Whether performing traditional tunes such as the toe-tapping “No Night There,” foot-stomping originals such as “Already Gone,” the moody title track, or jaunty gospel songs such as “Last Night of the Year,” the Tarbox Ramblers carve a timeless, eerie niche within the contemporary music scene, connecting the dots between such transgenerational gloom-and-doom avatars as Dock Boggs, Johnny Cash, and Nick Cave.

On songs “The Shining Sun” and “Ashes to Ashes,” the trio — Tarbox on vocals and guitar, Johnny Sciascia on string bass, and Daniel Kellar on guitar, augmented by various session drummers — sounds equal parts Morphine and the Flat Duo Jets, with a dose of Jimmie Rodgers thrown in for good measure. Tarbox’s gruff voice easily slides into a malevolent Southern drawl as he channels Rodgers’ wandering spirit, then moans convincingly on a gospel number before hollerin’ in a juke-joint growl.

Most of the Tarbox Ramblers’ material sounds as if it could be culled from The Anthology of American Folk Music, archived by famed eccentric musicologist Harry Smith in 1952. Smith’s 84-track box set, released on CD in 1997, has become a Rosetta Stone for roots-music fans. More than a handful of songs in the Ramblers’ repertoire, including American folk classics “The Cuckoo” and “St. James Infirmary” and Dock Boggs’ “Country Blues,” are included in this mammoth collection, while Tarbox originals such as the spooky, gospel-based “Were You There?” and the slow blues grinder “Honey Babe” riff on similarly time-honored themes.

“I like outsider music — everything from old blues, bluegrass, and folk to free jazz and rock-and-roll,” Tarbox maintains. “Musically, it all seems so immediate, but being from Boston, it was actually really distant. There are a lot of musicians out there whose music I could understand, but I couldn’t conceive of their world. It’s just so foreign to me.”

For a boy raised in tiny Maynard, Massachusetts, a mill town located just outside of Boston, musical wellsprings like Memphis might well have been on another planet.

“Luckily, I grew up hearing the blues. My mother had some Robert Johnson and Leadbelly records and other folky stuff, and I had a really cool babysitter who would bring over records,” Tarbox says.

“It seems like I always played music. I had all kinds of little bands — true garage bands in the sense that we never left the garage,” he adds with a chuckle. “The Tarbox Ramblers are the only musicians I’ve toured with and really tried to break through.”

While Tarbox formed the group more than a decade ago, he’s only been performing with the current lineup for the last six months. And, until now, the Ramblers had never embarked on a lengthy tour.

“We used to play regular gigs around Boston, but I felt like we needed to change our focus and get out of town on a more regular basis,” Tarbox says. “I’m calling it the Red Roof Inn Tour. We ought to get an endorsement from them,” he jokes. “We’re gonna make you look good by staying in your place.

“When you’re traveling, everything becomes one big blur,” Tarbox says. Especially when you’re droning down a big highway like I-95. Just walking into a club and hearing some good music and meeting some cool people can really change your head.”

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

postscript

Air America

To the Editor:

Finally, the airwaves over Memphis will be hosting talk radio that is not full of right-wing hate speech. Memphis ditto-heads, you are now on notice — liberal radio has arrived. (See page 7.)

AM 680, the new home of Air America radio, offers a whole host of liberal voices. Kemp Conrad, the chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, stated that the station will not have a big impact here. Keep telling yourself that, Mr. Conrad.

Air America is not even a year old, but already it has secured 46 stations across the country plus both satellite radio companies and a devoted Webcast following. Al Franken, Air America’s showcase host, has already beaten King Rush in some markets.

Everything they say is backed up with facts from other sources that listeners can check out. No “faith-based” listening allowed. Liberals of Memphis, your prayers have been answered.

Aaron Prather

Cordova

Home of the Free

To the Editor:

If we believed some sources, we would get the impression that America has never done anything good and is to blame for everything bad that happens around the world. If we believed what these factions want us to believe, we might as well hang it up now.

Yes, I am talking about Iraq and the election. I am also talking about those who would like Americans to believe that we are just wasting our time in Iraq, that we are to blame for every grenade that is fired, and that the whole situation is hopeless.

The clerk at my grocery store served in Iraq but could not go back because he lost his leg. We all told him how much we respected him for what he did and that we were sorry about his leg. He proudly proclaimed that he was not sorry but proud to have served, because he saw how much good we have done there. The Iraqis he met were very happy about the American presence. He said that they realized that we are their only hope for freedom and democracy. He said the only thing he regretted was the fact that he could not go to Iraq again and finish the job. This proud veteran said it wasn’t as bad as the media make it sound.

Having traveled many countries, it is clear to me that America is still the greatest country in the world. In light of Iraq’s first election, and in honor of our countrymen and women who so bravely serve, and in support of the American spirit of supporting freedom around the world, let’s give America a pat on the back for all the good we have accomplished.

God bless America — the home of the free!

Marina Best

Arlington

Charlie Peete

To the Editor:

Thank you for “Charlie Peete,” a meaningful, beautifully written editorial (January 27th issue). You pointed out that “he was … the one who insisted on rules of civility from the almost exclusively conservative audience.”

That caused me to recall these words from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address: “So let us begin anew — remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness and sincerity is always subject to proof.”

“Both sides” would mean liberals too.

Arthur Prince

Memphis

Merkur Memories

To the Editor:

The article “Peace in the Parts Yard,” written by Paul Gerald (January 20th issue), took me down memory lane. I was one of the youths that used to use Paul’s old Merkur as a backstop for baseball games. True, the car wasn’t very pretty or expensive, but it was certainly unique. Perhaps the nicest thing about it was that Paul didn’t worry about us climbing on it or just sitting on the hood. To all the boys in Clanlo (our old neighborhood) that car was something we really had lots of fun with, and it is sorely missed. Thanks to Paul for allowing us neighborhood kids to enjoy that Merkur — and for all the good times.

Patrick Sala

Germantown

W is for Women?

To the Editor:

Back in the 2000 presidential campaign, before people knew George W. Bush’s true colors, he used the slogan “W is for Women.” Four years later and the reelected Bush is praising anti-abortion demonstrators as they rally against Roe v. Wade, walking hand-in-hand with those who want to criminalize women for having abortions. Are women going to let a group of religious extremists take away their right to freedom of choice? Religious right-wingers in the White House, Congress, and Supreme Court will criminalize abortion if given a chance. Only a united women’s front and its sincere supporters can stop them.

Ron Lowe

Nevada City, California

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

Categories
News The Fly-By

Too Many Mouths To Feed

Memphis has dealt with urban pests before — rats, pigeons, blight. Now it seems our problem is storks.

At the city’s strategic community and economic development planning session last week, a group of the area’s movers and shakers discussed what the current and future Memphis does, and should, look like.

In something of

a repeat performance, Marlin Mosby of Public Financial Management

explained the area’s current fiscal situation: Expenses are outgrowing revenues, and the city has a huge dependence on property taxes.

But the number that really surprised him was the age distribution of the city’s population. School-aged children account for almost 23 percent of Memphis’ population. In Knoxville, children are 19 percent of the population; in Nashville, is 18 percent. Statewide, children average about 20 percent of the population.

So, what does that have to do with the city’s financial future? Well, it means fewer working-age people to cover our expenses. It also means more money for services, especially in terms of public education. Mosby ran the numbers: If Memphis’ population looked more like the rest of the state, we’d have 27,000 fewer students, and education would cost us $105 million less a year.

He continued his cost/savings analysis, reasoning that with fewer students, we’d need 42 fewer schools, give or take a couple. And at roughly $25 million a school, that adds up to about a billion dollars in capital costs.

Mosby cautions he can’t tell us why our population is so young. It could be that lots of 19- to 35-year-olds are getting the heck out of Dodge. Or, it could be high birth-rates.

Just consider two of the notable news items of last week: Both state senator John Ford and Memphis mayor Willie Herenton made headlines for, essentially, making babies. While in court contesting child-support payments for a child he fathered with a former employee, Ford reminded everyone about his three children with ex-wife Tamara Mitchell-Ford and his two children with girlfriend Connie Mathews. Oh, and Mitchell-Ford says the fresh bun in her oven is Ford’s.

Herenton threw his own baby shower Thursday, calling local media to his lawyer’s office for an afternoon feeding. The 64-year-old mayor announced that he recently learned he has a 4-month-old son.

Perhaps now would be a good time for a pregnant pause.

At that strategic planning meeting, Gayle Epp of Abt Associates told the area’s Who’s Who that Memphis needs to pay attention to its competition.

“It reminds me of going camping in the woods,” she said. “You don’t necessarily have to run faster than the bear; you just have to run faster than the other campers.”

Maybe some of our fearless leaders on this little camping trip would do well to remember the Boy Scout motto: “Be Prepared.”

Or do they think someone is giving out merit badges for mating?

These are grown men. Neither is married. It could be argued that their extracurricular activities are none of our business. Sure, they’re public officials, but doing the do isn’t against the law. Ford may be a virtual bigamist, but if his women don’t mind (and I’d bet a Jaguar, they do), why should we?

But forget morals for a minute and get back to the money.

“If the population just mirrored the rest of the state, the tax rate today would be $1.41 less,” Mosby told the planning session. “The demographics must be changed. Or if not, they must be recognized and dealt with.”

Maybe the answer is in leading by example. If our problem is due to the pitter-patter of too many little feet, our politicians shouldn’t be indiscriminately creating more. If, on the other hand, the problem is young adults leaving town in droves, there’s still no need to teach our youngsters that having a mamacita on the side is okay.

To thrive in the long term, Memphis needs to control its expenses, deal with its demographics, and identify revenue streams that will grow with expenditures. There are no easy answers, although, given Ford and Herenton’s antics, the city might want to consider buying stock in Viagra.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Hustle & Bustle

Poor, poor, poor Craig Brewer. And, yes, I mean that sincerely. Oh sure, the Memphis-made film Hustle & Flow won the Sundance Audience Award and was picked up by Paramount and MTV in a package worth $16 million. But now Brewer’s sophomore film has some serious hype to live up to. Sure, $16 million is chump change by Hollywood standards (made even chumpier when you consider that $7 million is dedicated funding for a pair of John Singleton projects), but, according to the media, that figure is also proof that Sundance, the original indie film festival, has sold its soul to the Hollywood hit machine.

Brewer has already started to feel the backlash. “It’s like nobody can see my film,” he says. “All they can see is the money. I’ll be somewhere where nobody recognizes me, and I’ll hear somebody say, ‘Yeah, Hustle & Flow‘s good — but not nine-million-dollars good.'”

When Brewer’s first film, The Poor & Hungry, was nominated as both best feature film and best digital film at the Hollywood Film Festival in 2002, the young writer and director got his first lesson in how a film’s price tag distorts reality like a fish-eye lens. The Poor & Hungry — a good film by anyone’s estimation –cost $20,000. It was in direct competition with $35 million Hollywood blockbusters, and its pricetag — a certifiable miracle by L.A. standards — lent Brewer’s solid first endeavor an air of true genius. Now, as the wildly mixed notices for Hustle & Flow are coming in on the tail of “the big deal,” Brewer’s genius is being alternately affirmed and reconsidered. Here’s some of what the national press is saying:

According to Newsday, “Hustle & Flow blasts with wicked-good music and bursts at the seams with humanity. Brewer is meticulous and uncompromising in his vision of Memphis’ lower depths.” The Hollywood Reporter compares the film to Rocky and On the Waterfront and credits the cast with “magic.” In spite of wall-to-wall coverage by the international media, unqualified accolades have been few and far between.

The Fort Worth Star Telegram, compares Hustle & Flow to other Sundance films and deems it “considerably less accomplished.” The Chicago Tribune‘s commentary is mealy-mouthed: “Like so many films at this year’s fest, Hustle & Flow, featuring a hoodlum with a heart of gold, feels derivative — even with [star Terrence] Howard’s tour de force performance.”

The Boston Globe weighs in on Brewer’s film in the context of a compromised festival: “This is a land where ladies really do wear UGG boots with miniskirts; where some moviegoers turn off their cellphones but type on their Blackberries with abandon; where certain Oscar-winning stars insist their publicists run out and get them free jeans, televisions, and iPods; and where a studio really will pay top dollar for a laughable movie about a pimp’s struggle to become a rap star. (This would be the John Singleton-produced Hustle & Flow, for which Paramount and its MTV division inexplicably paid $9 million.)”

“Rarely is the tension between art and industry more naked than it is at the Sundance Film Festival,” Manohla Dargis writes in The New York Times. “Hustle & Flow is rubbish. But it is precisely the kind of rubbish movie executives seek at Sundance, hoping that the film’s beats, pimp hero, and putative exoticism will attract young audiences.”

MTV News — clearly pimping the most marketable aspect of the parent company’s hot new property — refers to Hustle & Flow as Ludacris’ Hustle & Flow, boosting a supporting player to above-the-title star. Conversely, Web sites and news sources focusing on the business of Hollywood have treated Brewer as a bit player, claiming that Hustle & Flow is a triumph for producer John Singleton and for Paramount.

So what’s the true skinny on Hustle & Flow? Even when all the critics have said their bit, the world may never know. Until Brewer finally makes a film for what the average film buff thinks a film should cost and releases it to little fanfare, his films will suffer from the condition ascribed to Old Flat Top in the Beatles song “Come Together.” They’ve got to be good-looking because they’re so hard to see. Perhaps the Defamer, a snarky entertainment webzine, said it best in a photo caption:

“Golden boys Terrence Howard (star) and Craig Brewer (director) are interviewed by Alan Cumming. We’re a little saddened to think that in two years or so, Brewer will likely direct Rush Hour 4.” n

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

In the Ring

Though he’s gaining the stature as one of America’s great living filmmakers (witness the comparisons with Martin Scorsese in this year’s Oscar race), Clint Eastwood’s tendency has been to mix generally uncelebrated genre flicks (Absolute Power, True Crime) with his prestige pictures (Unforgiven, The Bridges of Madison County, Mystic River). This year’s Oscar nominations, which find Eastwood and his cast nominated in pretty much every relevant category, tell you all you need to know about where Million Dollar Baby fits. But more so than Mystic River (or even Sideways), it’s a film that’s divided critics this year, who feel even more strapped by a reluctance to reveal Baby‘s considerable narrative twists. Some critics say that Eastwood’s films are an oasis of classic craftsmanship in a desert of effects and test-marketing. Others find his films impossibly bloated.

It’s easy to see why Eastwood’s biggest detractors find his films solemn and dull. And it’s equally easy to see why his champions describe the same elements as elegant, stately, measured, patient. For me, there’s a bit of both there. After one viewing, I don’t think Million Dollar Baby is a masterpiece or a fraud. I think it’s a handsome, affecting film with great moments and performances surrounding a few wrong notes.

Million Dollar Baby is a pretty simple setup revolving around three characters. Eastwood is boxing lifer Frankie Dunn, once “the best cut man in the business,” who went on to become a trainer, manager, and gym owner. Because Frankie is so protective of his fighters, he’s never taken one to a title. He keeps waiting until they’re ready, but, in his eyes, that time never comes.

As the film opens, Frankie is on the verge of losing his most promising fighter, who’s tired of waiting for a title shot. Frankie is warned of this impending loss by Eddie “Scrap-Iron” Dupris (Morgan Freeman), a washed-up, worn-out former contender who helps Frankie around the gym and whose own missed opportunities inform Frankie’s timidity.

These two grandfatherly types are joined by Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), a 31-year-old waitress and southwestern Missourah trailer-park escapee who wants to box. Maggie spies Frankie punching the air along with his fighter, living and dying on every punch, and she falls in love the romance of someone as obsessed with their craft as she’d like to be.

Maggie approaches Frankie in the dark halls of the arena after her fight and asks him to be her trainer. He tells her he doesn’t train girls. She shows up at his gym and pays six months worth of dues. He explains that she’s too old to learn to be a boxer. She smiles, nods, and keeps on training. If you’ve seen enough Hollywood movies you can guess the rest most of it, anyway.

Million Dollar Baby is excellent as a boxing movie, making rich use of its primary setting, the Hit Pit, Frankie’s dank outskirts-L.A. gym where second-tier fighters and pretenders train and where Frankie watches over the action from his upstairs office. (Telling motto on the wall: “Tough ain’t enough.”) The film gets into the details of the so-called sweet science footwork, balance, protecting yourself but it doesn’t romanticize the sport. Boxing is savage, its Darwinian simplicity summed up by Scrap: “Boxing is about respect. Getting it for yourself and taking it from the other guy.” The film’s fight scenes are swift. In this movie, when people are hit hard they fall fast and they get hurt.

With a hungry heart and a swift, lethal right hook, a trained Maggie plows through women’s boxing like Mike Tyson in the 1985 heavyweight division. She’s not interested in hurting her opponents but also not overly concerned when she does. She’s been waitressing for 18 years, collecting other people’s leftovers in a scrap of tinfoil she keeps in her pocket. Boxing isn’t all she’s got; it’s what she’s got.

It’s Swank who really carries the film. Her open, guileless performance may not be as revelatory as her Oscar-winning turn in Boys Don’t Cry, but it’s every bit as fine. And she likely seals her second little statue with a matter-of-fact speech she gives when Frankie asks her to give up and go home.

I was less convinced by Eastwood’s wincing, whispering performance, where he seems to be coasting a bit on his own built-in gravitas. And Morgan Freeman? Well, he’s always a pleasure to watch. As narrator, sidekick, and witness to a white buddy’s redemption, his Scrap evokes The Shawshank Redemption a little too strongly, but that comparison might actually be a path to appreciating Million Dollar Baby.

If Eastwood’s best films are reminiscent of an earlier time in American movies, it’s not any of the elements of classic Hollywood I personally admire most: His relatively humorless films contain none of the screwball glee of Preston Sturges and Leo McCarey or the deceptively light laughs of Ernst Lubitsch, and little of the relaxed comic grace of Howard Hawks. (Though one lovely little throwaway scene where Frankie and Scrap discuss Scrap’s raggedy socks “I’m airing out my feet” is pretty Hawksian.)

Million Dollar Baby has elements of melodrama, but Eastwood doesn’t push it to the radical, rapturous extremes of a

Douglas Sirk or Nicholas Ray. Eastwood’s best films are certainly manly, traditional, and, arguably, conservative, like those of John Ford, but without that director’s intense interest in common, communal rituals. And Eastwood’s hard-boiled economy might evoke Fritz Lang, but I don’t sense the same degree of unsparing inevitability.

Rather, what Eastwood evokes is the macho, dependable, yarn-spinning movie-movieness of such mid-century filmmakers as John Huston, Robert Aldrich, and Eastwood’s Dirty Harry director Don Siegel. This is why even Eastwood’s prestige films are still genre movies at the core and why he’s far less self-conscious about those distinctions than a younger, hipper director might be. Much like Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby is a movie that simultaneously honors and upends the conventions of its genre. And unlike The Shawshank Redemption (or other Oscar bait Ö la Ray or A Beautiful Mind), it never strains to be loved. Million Dollar Baby doesn’t care what you think about it.

This is apparent in its darkness, where the photographic palette of dingy, underlit grays and greens is only occasionally broken up by little rays of visual or emotional light: the shiny Celtic green of Maggie’s ring attire or the fire-engine red of an Everlast corner stool that signifies the big-time; Maggie’s heartbreaking smile at the little girl with a puppy one car over; and Frankie’s simple satisfaction over a homemade lemon meringue pie.

And yet I don’t think upright old-timers Huston, Aldrich, or Siegel ever made a film quite so emotional or affecting as Million Dollar Baby.

Eastwood’s film is drowning in foreshadowing as much as it’s drowning in darkness, so the film’s much whispered-about final-stretch twist shouldn’t come as that much of a shock. But it does take established character elements and rockets them into a more intense emotional realm. It transforms Million Dollar Baby from a film about boxing, career redemption, and second chances into a hymn to busted, broken families and the lonely, lost people they leave behind. But what’s so striking even then is how dark and unrelenting the movie is, even as it strives for a final bit of grace. In the simultaneously gritty and stylized world of Million Dollar Baby, solace doesn’t come from family or church, work or society. It comes from the makeshift connections you create and cling to with other wayward free agents. That doesn’t sound like a worldview Oscar would endorse, but we’ll soon find out.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Coming Out Again

With the Memphis-bred Forty Shades of Blue and Hustle & Flow taking home the big prizes and big bucks, respectively, from the Sundance Film Festival, it’s a heady time for local filmmaking. But Hustle‘s Craig Brewer and Blue‘s Ira Sachs aren’t the only Memphis-connected filmmakers making waves right now.

After winning the Hometowner Award for best local feature at the 2003 IndieMemphis Film Festival, Morgan Jon Fox’s coming-out drama Blue Citrus Hearts has been perhaps the most unlikely recent success story in local film. The no-budget, homemade movie has appeared at more than 25 (and counting) film festivals across the U.S. and overseas. Recently, Ariztical Entertainment purchased the video rights to the film, a transaction that Fox says puts the movie in roughly 3,000 Blockbuster Video stores across the country (but not, as far as Fox knows, at Blockbusters in Memphis).

This week, Fox follows up Blue Citrus Hearts with a new feature, away (a)wake.1, which premieres Friday, February 4th, at Studio on the Square for a week-long run.

Created in full collaboration with writing and directing partner Suzie Crashcourse (dubbed Suzie Cyanide in the Blue Citrus Hearts credits), away (a)wake.1 marks a significant departure for Fox and his crew in terms of production style.

“Blue Citrus Hearts was something we spent about a year shooting,” Fox says. “We never had a shooting schedule or anything planned out more than a week in advance for one or two shoots. And every set was me and Suzie and the actors. That was it. We never had rehearsals. We’d just show up and shoot it.”

By contrast, initial shooting on away (a)wake.1 was done on a tight 16-day schedule with a crew sometimes four times the size of the bare-bones squad that shot Hearts. Preproduction included two months in acting workshops where participants worked through some of the general themes and situations that would be depicted in the film.

If you’re wondering about the “.1” part of the title, it is indeed an indicator that the film is the first part of a two-part film, which wasn’t the original intent.

“Originally, the film was about 12 characters,” Fox says. “We cut something together with all 12 characters and all their stories. It was about a two-hour rough cut that we screened for 15 people just to get some general feedback, and we realized that it was way too busy. We decided to break it in half. The kinds of stories we tell already have a looseness to them, rather than being tightly plotted, so that allows us to make changes like that.”

What emerged as part one of the now two-part film follows four characters, two adults dealing with loss and two younger characters dealing with family tension and questions about their sexuality.

Using generation-spanning pairs of protagonists wasn’t entirely intentional, but Fox admits he is attempting to stretch beyond Hearts‘ high school milieu.

“The original script was fashioned in a way that would cover pretty much every age group, just to create that diversity of experiences,” Fox says. “It’s perceived that people find themselves in their youth and that once you age, you’re set. We were trying to show people discovering things and liberating themselves [throughout life].”

But even the young characters in away (a)wake.1 are a departure from those in Blue Citrus Hearts. Much like the protagonist of Hearts, away (a)wake.1‘s Larsen (played by then-White Station junior Saki Nosurname) is a high school kid confronting his sexuality. But where Hearts was a relatively tortured look at the coming-out process, Larsen is positively defiant about it.

“Blue Citrus Hearts was dealing with the struggle of coming out,” Fox says. “Here I wanted to show characters more confident with themselves. I like the idea of having Larsen’s character be superficially ‘normal’ but also be active and conscious — putting up flyers, protesting.”

Whether away (a)wake.1 can match the unexpected success of Blue Citrus Hearts remains to be seen. (Fox says he hopes to premiere the second, wilder, installment this summer.) It’s a more polished film visually, but due in part to its wider canvas, less immediately gripping. Hearts had a piercing tenderness that cut through its rough patches; away (a)wake.1 might take longer to settle in.

But Fox is hopeful that the success of Hearts will help his new film get seen. “I’ll be able to use contacts I already have,” he says of away (a)wake.1‘s future. “Basically, you get in one big festival and then all the other festivals start contacting you. So, hopefully, I won’t have to spend a $1,000 on entry fees the way I did on Blue Citrus Hearts.”

away (a)wake.1 is showing Friday, February 4th, through Thursday, February 10th, at Studio on the Square.

Categories
News The Fly-By

F-stop

Memphis lost one of its “big empties” last week with the demolition of a former service building at the old Baptist Memorial Hospital. The four-story building went out with a bang — well, a press conference, at least, and is the first in a series of demolitions planned at the site. The main hospital complex on Union Avenue will come down in November. A 6.5-acre research park that will be operated by the Memphis Bioworks Foundation will go up in its place.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

EDITORIAL

This is no longer the vacation season for most people, but even if it were, a traveler would have to get pretty far away from Memphis to avoid hearing jibes about the conduct of our local officials. To Mars, maybe — but what with the advances made in the technology of various sky probes, even that kind of distance probably wouldn’t serve.

Even before the brief and surprising announcement last week from Mayor Willie Herenton that he was the father of a 4-month-old child, sans wedlock, we were in the way of jibes from the likes of Jay Leno and Rush Limbaugh, both of whom saw fit to wax witty at the expense of state senator John Ford, whose multiple child-support cases in multiple households were the subject of a well-publicized court hearing.

Now, after the Herenton bombshell, the wags are bound to be asking what it is that we put in the water in these parts. (Answer: not saltpeter, that’s for sure.)

There is an obvious difference in the two cases: Members of the state legislature have, as it were, out-of-town jobs. Like it or not, the distance from home of their official pursuits, added to the fact that they represent only a portion of the whole, has tended, historically, to diminish their accountability. Indeed, John Ford seems to relish his bad-boy role, finding in it an acceptable form of macho. And, like it or not, his constituents tend to shrug it off. (They also shrug off the fact that Ford makes his residence — er, residences — outside the district he purportedly represents.)

To his credit, Mayor Herenton has never been such a scofflaw. This is not to say that his hands are altogether clean. Herenton’s departure from his job as schools superintendent was hastened in 1991 by negative publicity stemming from a previous liaison, as well as from the conflict-of-interest concerns that came with it. But, by and large, Herenton has been a useful role model while serving as mayor, both for the inner-city population he sprang from and for the community at large. His natural air of authority (which occasionally drifts toward arrogance) and inherent dignity have been viable parts of an image which he has frequently projected on behalf of the city’s needs and concerns.

We try not to be overly judgmental about the private life of public officials (although the record will show that we did not shy away from several public chastisements of former President Clinton during the fallout from l’affaire Lewinsky). We do not normally point the finger at offenders per se. Hey, like the Book says, we’re all sinners. Peccadilloes are a dime a dozen, and we’ve got our own.

But precisely because the office of mayor is such a high-profile position, with the image of its holder so closely bound up with that of the community he represents, Mayor Herenton has created real difficulties both for himself and for his constituents, those whose public face he is to the world. He already is accused, in some quarters, of being one whose frequent policy broadsides — advocating city/county consolidation, for example — generally peter out for lack of follow-through. That problem is now almost certainly compounded.

Under the onslaught of various prior events, the mayor has already indicated both that he had given a thought to discontinuing his present term and that he might reconsider the idea of running again for a fifth term in 2007. We would advise him to think again, quite seriously, about which course would best serve this city.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

In the Raw

Tanya Zavasta and her family moved here from Russia for two reasons: to fulfill their American dream and to have Zavasta’s leg surgically repaired. Due to a severe hip problem, one leg was shorter than the other. After she learned she would need extensive surgery to correct the problem, she began eating a diet of raw vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds in hopes that it would help her recover faster.

Little did she know her diet would not only improve her health, it would dramatically modify her appearance. In a “before” picture at age 35, Zavasta has puffy cheeks, no visible cheekbones, and the beginnings of a double chin. Now, at age 47, she looks like she’s gone back in time with defined cheekbones and a clear, wrinkle-free complexion. She says she feels like she’s in her 20s.

Eventually, Zavasta put her experiences on the benefits of raw eating into a book called Your Right to Be Beautiful. Another book, Beautiful on Raw: Uncooked Creations, is due out in April.

A raw-food diet has been shown to reduce the risk of some cancers and degenerative diseases such as arthritis. Proponents of the diet also claim they have increased energy, and — due to the fact that they eat a minuscule amount of fat and carbs — substantial weight loss.

“The severe migraines that I suffered at a young age are gone completely, my sinus problems cleared up, and I stopped having colds,” says Zavasta. “I lost weight and I gained energy, but the change in my appearance was the most startling [aspect].”

Zavasta claims a bulging varicose vein on her left calf has vanished, and all pimples and blackheads have disappeared. Her waist is three inches smaller than it was on her wedding day 25 years ago. Actors Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson and supermodel Carol Alt also swear by the diet. Raw-food restaurants are popping up on both coasts.

Proponents claim that all of the vitamins and minerals found naturally in foods are retained in raw foods. Zavasta says that up to 90 percent of the vitamins in broccoli are lost through microwaving, and up to 50 percent are lost when the vegetable is boiled. Most of her protein comes from nuts and seeds, and Zavasta maintains that the diet provides all the nutrients a person needs without taking supplements.

“If we have an apple pie and an apple, where would you get the most nutrients?” Zavasta asks rhetorically. “When other people eat something cooked, like a stir-fry, I eat a raw vegetable salad. As a result, I get a hundred times more vitamins and nutrients.”

Raw-food advocates are generally vegans, meaning they don’t eat meat, dairy, or eggs, although some do eat sushi. Beans and nuts are often soaked until soft and then used in pâtés or spreads. Many commonly cooked dishes have raw counterparts. For example, raw-foodists often make spaghetti noodles from zucchini or spaghetti squash.

The diet is slowly gaining popularity in Memphis. The Memphis Living Foods Support Group meets on the second Thursday of each month at Wild Oats for a potluck supper and discussion or guest speaker. Zavasta says there are 400 people who have signed onto the group’s e-mail newsletter.

“Even with the spectacular results of my diet, I felt alone, so I decided to found a support group,” she says. “The goal of the group is to help its members and interested visitors develop good, healthy eating habits and ease the lure of bad food choices.”

Zavasta says she’s on a mission to turn Memphis — which has been named among the fattest cities in the country on more than one list — on to her “rawsome diet” one person at a time.

Besides her local support group, she’s also targeting the Christian community.

“My heart aches when I think that at every Bible class, they have coffee and donuts. I dream of a day when they will have a juicer,” says Zavasta.

She also hosts lectures, gives raw-foods preparation classes, and does a little motivational speaking on the side.

“The raw-foods diet is not too popular in Memphis, and that’s where I come in,” she says. “I’m trying to change how we eat in the South.”

Categories
Cover Feature News

Earthquake

Did you feel that? Probably not, but deep beneath your feet the ground is shaking. In fact, due to Memphis’ proximity to the New Madrid fault, all of us are standing on shaky ground almost every day.

In recent months, earthquakes have spawned tsunamis and volcanic eruptions around the globe. But what will happen if a big one hits the Mid-South? No one can predict with certainty the effects of a major quake, but local experts have a pretty good idea, and it’s not pretty.

The New Madrid seismic zone extends 150 miles south from Cairo, Illinois, through New Madrid, Missouri, to Marked Tree, Arkansas. It reaches into Kentucky and Tennessee and crosses the Mississippi River in three places. The zone averages almost a quake a day, and scientists say it poses the greatest earthquake risk east of the Rocky Mountains.

Three of the largest earthquakes in North American recorded history occurred in the New Madrid zone during the winter of 1811-1812. During a three-month period, a series of more than 100 earthquakes, the most severe estimated at magnitudes of at least 8.0 on the Richter scale, rocked the central United States and changed the landscape of the area. Although no actual seismic measurements were made, the resulting destruction has given scientists a good indication of the earthquakes’ strength and duration.

Since then, two other damaging earthquakes have occurred in the New Madrid zone: a magnitude 6.4 near Marked Tree in 1843 and a magnitude 6.8 near Charleston, Missouri, in 1895. In March 1976, a magnitude 5.0 occurred, followed by a 4.8 in September 1990. Because scientists cannot predict or prevent earthquakes, they rely on history and earthquake cycles to determine future quake possibilities. Quakes up to a magnitude of 6.5 have a reoccurrence rate of 75 to 100 years. Those 7.5 and above occur approximately every 500 years. Scientists estimate that the probability of a magnitude 6.0 or larger quake occurring in the next 50 years is between 25 and 40 percent.

Making Forecasts

When the magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred in Southeast Asia on December 26th, it set off a tsunami that killed more than 286,000 people and displaced millions more. Media reports focused on the tsunami and for the most part ignored the seismic activity responsible for the killer wave. Here in the New Madrid zone, a tsunami is not possible, of course, but damage from a major earthquake could still be devastating.

Jim Wilkinson coordinates the Central United States Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC), headquartered on Holmes Road. The organization’s purpose is to protect and prepare the eight-state area comprising the New Madrid seismic zone. CUSEC partners with several federal and local emergency management agencies. “We don’t have to worry about a tsunami here, but earthquakes are a very real situation,” says Wilkinson. “We know, based on historical evidence and science, that we’re due for a damaging earthquake. But the reality is that because we haven’t had one in so long, it’s not a priority in people’s view. It doesn’t get a lot of press, but we are facing a situation in which the clock is ticking.”

Earthquakes can be felt when they reach a magnitude of 3.0. Minor damage, such as dishes rattling off kitchen shelves, occurs at 4.0 to 5.0 magnitude. Chimneys and eaves and overhangs can fall during a magnitude 6.0. And quakes reaching a magnitude of 8.0 or larger are considered “great earthquakes” and can cause large splits in the ground, burst utility lines, flooding, and other severe damage. Although the New Madrid zone produces a quake a day, most are too small to be felt. CUSEC scientists monitor this minor seismic activity for signs of possible larger eruptions. The New Madrid zone is not as active as the California fault zones, which can produce several quakes a day, but because of its composition and location, it can be equally dangerous.

The Center for Earthquake Research and Information (CERI) at the University of Memphis is an organization of seismologists and geologists that also monitors and records activity of the New Madrid fault system. “Unlike the fault along the California coast, which is visible to the naked eye, we can’t see the [New Madrid] fault because it is buried deep below layers of sediment,” says geologist Eugene Schweig. “Quakes are occurring along the Mississippi Valley and the river is constantly overflowing and dumping more and more layers of sediment on top of the [seismic zone]. [In California] scientists study the zone and pick up rocks from the fault and make pretty accurate determinations. Here, all we have telling us that there is an earthquake threat is the earthquakes themselves [after the fact.]”

The old, hard rock and sediment of the New Madrid fault carries seismic waves farther than in California quakes, which travel through softer, more newly formed rocks. Quakes of similar magnitude would probably produce greater damage in the New Madrid area than in California. “Quakes in California can be compared to hitting the side of a sandbox,” says Schweig. “The waves just don’t travel very far through that sand. But in the New Madrid zone, it’s like hitting the end of a metal pipe. The waves shoot to the other end.”

A geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), housed at CERI, Schweig works with engineers, scientists, and emergency managers to provide information on seismic activity. Schweig says scientists estimate the frequency of earthquakes by examining artifacts or geology and charting small quakes. “We can’t predict earthquakes, so we focus on earthquake forecasting,” he says. “There is a relationship between large and small earthquakes everywhere in the world. If you had a good idea of the number of small ones, you could predict the number of larger ones. But what we’ve done is examine the effects of past earthquakes from things buried out in fields.” CERI and the USGS have determined that quakes similar to those in 1811-1812 also occurred in 900 A.D. and 1,500 A.D., confirming the average reoccurrence rate of 500 years.

CUSEC studies estimate that potential losses from future earthquakes of 5.5 or greater would be significant in the central United States because of the high population density of cities such as St. Louis and Memphis. There are a large number of structures in the zone that are not designed to withstand earthquakes. The presence of thick sediments will amplify the quakes, leading to destruction that would impact an area 10 times larger than an equivalent California quake.

In the New Madrid zone, quakes are most often felt by people in rural areas, where automobiles and machinery and pavement are less likely to impede or resemble vibrations. The latest notable earthquake in the area occurred last Friday in Enola, Arkansas. It measured 2.7 on the Richter scale. “With each increase of one magnitude, the amount the ground moves increases 10 times,” says Schweig. “And the amount of energy released, or the strength of the quake, increases about 32 times.”

The size of an earthquake also depends on the type of soil in the zone. The soft soil of the Memphis bluffs, for example, offers advantages and disadvantages, says Schweig. For short seismic waves, which affect single-story dwellings such as houses, soft soil is better because it reduces the damaging vibrations. Longer waves, which affect multi-story buildings and bridges, cause more damage when traveling through soft soil. (The USGS and CERI are currently completing surface maps based on soil composition in Shelby County.)

“We don’t need to be afraid of an earthquake, but we need to be prepared,” says Schweig. “A devastating quake is quite unlikely during your lifetime, but as we found out with the tsunami — which was an event which may have been more unlikely than a New Madrid quake — we see it can happen. Earthquakes are low probability and high consequences.”

Reducing the Risk

Seismologists say earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings kill people. In the New Madrid seismic zone, scientists are well aware of this mantra and are taking measures to reduce the risk of damage from a high-magnitude earthquake.

In California, where earthquakes are more frequent than in in the New Madrid area, city governments began instituting seismic building codes as early as the 1950s.

Memphis and Shelby County governments have been slow to catch up. According to Wilkinson, local codes did not include seismic requirements until the early 1990s. The CUSEC sees seismic codes as the most important step local governments can take to minimize damage and casualties.

“Under the old building code, the costs to modify buildings to meet seismic regulations was about 2 or 3 percent, in addition to normal building costs,” says Wilkinson. “A lot had to do with whether the building was designed correctly on the front end, instead of retrofitting the building, which can get expensive.”

A new, universal (and international) code is expected to be completed soon. For West Tennessee builders that has been a point of contention. “Costs to comply with the new code have been estimated by builders to be as high as 40 percent [in addition to building costs],” says Wilkinson. “But until we have a tangible study that gives specific costs, we’ll just be throwing numbers around.”

Some companies, such as AutoZone, have already built to higher earthquake-resistant standards. The company’s downtown office building rests on shock absorbers. The building’s base is constructed to allow for sway.

The National Civil Rights Museum has retrofitted its original structure to comply with seismic codes and constructed its expansion building to even more stringent codes.

CUSEC is working with city governments to upgrade bridges, including the I-40 bridge over the Mississippi River. They have also created a team of engineers and architects to inspect buildings after a catastrophe. CUSEC representatives also work with builders and contractors on cost-effective approaches to reduce damage.

“In my opinion, the public sector is aware of the potential for disaster, but a lot of individuals in the area do not have it on their radar,” says Red Cross spokesman Rick Roberts. The Mid-South chapter of the Red Cross has long offered disaster training as well as first aid and CPR. In March, the organization will launch its “Get Ready, Mid-South” initiative, designed to prepare residents for disasters such as terrorism, tornadoes, and earthquakes. “The same items that we were sending to tsunami victims would be the same things that we would need,” says Roberts. “You have to ask yourself, ‘What would happen if?’ And, ‘Will I be prepared?'”

According to Wilkinson, the worst-case scenario for a large earthquake in this area would be for it to occur during the day in mid- to late-winter, when melting snow would have begun to flood the Mississippi River.

CUSEC hosts educational seminars with school children, teaching earthquake preparedness using Seismo, a seismic-wave character. Memphis City Schools does not have a specific earthquake emergency plan, but it is covered in the district’s overall Response Procedures and Guidelines manual.

MLGW Preparedness

Perhaps the most notable advances in the public sector have been made by the company that would be most affected in the event of a major earthquake. CUSEC says Memphis Light, Gas, & Water is exemplary in its earthquake preparedness. According to utility spokesman Mark Heuberger, MLGW has retrofitted all electrical substations and the 14 water-pumping stations within the Memphis/Shelby County area. The company has placed generators at all stations, replaced old metal water pipes with flexible duct pipes, and secured equipment inside stations to prevent falls.

“We didn’t just do this for earthquakes. We did it because it was practical,” says Heuberger. “If an earthquake were to occur, we would need to get our services on-line as soon as possible, and these are some of the ways to do that.” Because the utility’s corporate building in downtown Memphis doesn’t meet some of the code provisions to handle seismic and other major disasters, some operations have been moved to more secure facilities. The utility conducts impromptu crisis scenarios three times a year, including at least one earthquake situation.

Even with these advances, scientists say that much more needs to be done to prepare for a quake. “What we end up with is a large inventory of structures that weren’t designed for earthquakes, and that’s worrisome,” says Wilkinson. “Our ultimate goal is to protect people and property. That is a challenge with all of the other budget priorities out there. We want to get to a point where it’s safe, but we have to look at real-world issues. It’s a balancing act.”