Back at the Hi-Tone, tonight’s show is by the Ohio-based, folk-influenced The Dreadful Yawns, along with Rana and Sam Champion. And The Grizzlies take on Portland at FedExForum.
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Month: March 2005
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sunday, 13
Ballet Memphis’ “Connections: Faces” at the Gibson Lounge tonight fuses dance, poetry, and the visual arts. Memphis music veteran Eddie Harrison is at the Cockeyed Camel. And Uprisin’ is at Huey’s Downtown this afternoon, followed tonight by Edi Okri & Afrocentrix. — Tim Sampson
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BARNSTORMING EXCLUSIVE!
SIGNING ON
“The man who called was very polite and nice,” says John Gasquet, owner of Empire coffee at 2 N. Main in Downtown Memphis. “He said he was special agent Something-or-other. He said that due to the fact that in some states the President had been to, there were issues of security regarding area businesses, he was calling businesses to tell them not to put up any negative signs in their windows that were negative toward President Bush. He said there were designated areas of protest and this would cut down on the possibility of problems.”
Gasquet didn’t have any negative signs in his window, and he hadn’t been planning on posting any signs at all. As a businessman–about to pass his business off to new owners–it didn’t seem logical to post material that might antagonize half his clientele.
“I thought sure, okay. Fine. But then it started to irritate me. I’m a veteran. I’ve served my country. I was happy to do it and I would do it again. And it bugged me that someone from the Federal Government would try to tell me not to do this.”
As Gasquet understood it, his job as a soldier had been to defend the Constitution, not a pet policy of this or any administration. By his estimation the first amendment under attack. He wanted to make and post a sign that showed respect for the office of President, but still got the message across.
The sign Gasquet posted notified customers that Empire had been contacted by a federal agent and told not to display any anti-Bush signage. In smaller letters it said, “We would like to remind the agent of our first amendment rights.” No action was taken against Empire coffee for displaying the sign, and the authenticity of the caller is still in question.
Customers who saw Gasquet’s sign started telling him that other businesses in the area had been contacted and given similar instructions. No other local incidents have been confirmed at this time. After information concerning the call broke on the Internet on Saturday morning Empire received a call from another business owner in Alabama who had been contacted by “the feds.”
“This was one of four things,” Gasquet says. “It was either a federal agent acting in an official capacity. It could have been an agent acting in an unofficial capacity–a cowboy. It might have been an enthusiastic Bush supporter or somebody from the right side of the political spectrum who really thought he was trying to make things better for the President. Or it could have even been someone on the Left trying to agitate.”
Gasquet and others who have received similar calls will be discussing their polite, but unnerving calls with Sam Seder (sitting in for Randi Rhodes) on Monday afternoon. Gasquet has also been interviewed by NPR, and Salon.
TIGER TEARS
Heartbreak hurts. But it can be that much more painful to witness.
With time having expired at the 2005 Conference USA championship Saturday at FedExForum, University of Memphis freshman Darius Washington missed a pair of free throws that would not only have won his team a tournament trophy, but would have — more poignantly for this all too emotional season in Tiger Nation — earned Memphis a berth in the NCAA tournament. Of course, the made shots would have beaten hated Louisville, perhaps the finest reward of all. When Washington’s third attempt — he had been fouled attempting a buzzer-beating three-pointer — fell to floor, so did Washington. The all-tournament C-USA Freshman of the Year, having made nine of 15 shots from the field for 23 points, was reduced to a prostrate, tear-stained victim of lost destiny. And it took several teammates to lift him to his feet. (You want to know what kind of pressure Washington faced with those shots? Teammate Duane Erwin — a senior — was kneeling in front of me at the opposite end of the floor, back to Washington, unable to so much as watch.)
The tragedy of the 75-74 loss is that Washington’s collapse ended forty minutes of near-perfect basketball, the finest game (college or professional) FedExForum has seen in its inaugural season. Here was a struggle between the sixth-ranked team in the country, a club with Final Four aspirations, and their underachieving hometown rivals, attempting a fourth must-win in four days for the dance ticket that makes or breaks a season.
There was a one-minute stretch, late in the first half, that was basketball at its most brilliantly sublime. Tiger senior Anthony Rice — with Washington, named to the all-tournament team — drained a three pointer to give Memphis a 36-35 lead. Louisville’s Taquan Dean — later named the tournament’s MVP — answered with a trey of his own, followed by a rainmaker from the Tigers’ Rodney Carney, only to have Cardinal freshman Juan Palacios drill a three-pointer to regain the lead for Louisville, 41-39. Sixty seconds, four treys, twelve points. Rice’s free throws evened the score at 41 before halftime. Right on script.
Louisville scored the first five points of the second half, and continued to hit from long range (they made a remarkable 15 three-pointers in the contest). But Memphis, the tournament’s seventh seed remember, simply would not go away. Rice hit another three-pointer to give Memphis a 57-54 lead with just over 10 minutes to play, only to see Cardinal star Francisco Garcia sandwich an Erwin layup with two threes for a 60-59 Louisville lead. Back and forth the storied programs went, down to the final minute.
Jeremy Hunt made the first of two free throws to tie the score at 71 with 49 seconds left. Erwin stripped Dean of the ball after the missed foul shot, and Washington was there to pounce. His driving layup gave Memphis a 73-71 lead, only to see it lost when Larry O’Bannon hit, yes, a three-pointer in front of Arthur Barclay with 27 ticks left on the clock. After an offensive foul was called on Hunt, the Cards’ Brad Gianiny made a free throw to set up the dramatic, game-ending free throw sequence.
If hearts were indeed broken all over the Mid-South, the healing has to start in the Tiger locker room. And don’t tell any of Washington’s teammates his missed opportunity cost Memphis a championship. “You should be blaming me,” softly spoke Barclay after the tears had been dried. “I lost the game for us . . . I was late getting [to O’Bannon]. It wasn’t Darius’ fault.”
“I’ve been in this situation for four years,” noted Rice, his voice still quivering. “And we’ve managed to lose all of them. I told Darius to keep his head up. That was a lot of weight on him. [Just watching], your mind goes blank. Your heart stops. He had made all the plays down the stretch. We wouldn’t have even been in the game without him.”
Washington will heal. He’s not only a tough point guard, but a tough young man, his force of personality being part of what drove enigmatic star Sean Banks to the sidelines and eventually off campus. He demanded — with his coach’s public backing — that these Tigers follow him, that the beat of his dribble become the pulse of Tiger Nation. And, particularly over four unforgettable days at FedExForum, Washington’s team responded.
Memphis coach John Calipari — the often volcanic tempest of screams, stomps, and punches during a game — was composed and forthright during his postgame remarks. “My team couldn’t have played better,” he said. “We lost to a great team, and my hat’s off to them. They’re a one seed . . . and they escaped.
“[My team] is one of the top 20 in the country. But we’re where we are. I screwed up with that early schedule, and hopefully I’ll learn from it. I should have scheduled three tough games, beaten up on everyone else, and we wouldn’t be talking about [being on the NCAA bubble]. I screwed up.”
When asked about playing in the NIT, the likely scenario considering no 15-loss team has ever received an at-large bid to the NCAAs, Calipari didn’t so much as hesitate. “If we have the chance to extend our season,” he replied, “we’re going to play. I have young players who need to play, need the minutes.” Leaving FedEx Forum for the fourth time in four days, you got the distinct impression that no one needed those next minutes on the basketball court more than one Darius Washington.
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POLITICS (WEEKEND EDITION)
A SOCIAL SECURITY F.D.I.C?
Say this about Harold Ford and pressures to conform: The 9th District congressman and prospective U.S. Senate candidate, a Democrat, is disinclined to toe the party line or to behave stereotypically.
Ford proved that as long ago as 2000 when, assigned by presidential nominee Al Gore to give the keynote address at that yearÕs Democratic convention, he declined to lip-sync the grateful Person-of-Color litany provided for him by the Gore camp. Instead he delivered a paean to centrist, yuppie values that was written in part by well-known Republican consultant Frank Luntz Ðthe same Frank Luntz who is famous (or infamous) just now as the author of the Bush administrationÕs playbook on the Social Security issue.
The congressman, a proud member of the conservative Blue Dog caucus, has based his congressional career on conspicuous triangulations of issues ranging from Iraq to tax cuts to, most recently, bankruptcy legislation Ð on all of which he has appeared to his critics to be splitting the difference with the GOP administration.
Nowhere was this more obvious than in what he has had to say over the years about Social Security. FordÕs prolonged flirtation with the idea of investment add-ons drew fire from his partyÕs traditionalists Ð so much of it that he was finally compelled to condemn privatization per se, or at least the version of it, advocated by President Bush, that would draw upon the Social Security tax.
Ford has continued to dabble with innovative formulas, however, and he elaborated on one Friday morning in the lobby of the Cannon Center after Bush, currently on an extended road show, had pitched his privatization scheme to a Memphis audience.
The congressman, who has introduced a bill Ð the ASPIRE Act — that would confer a government-funded birth grant to newborns to be used for investment purposes, suggested that the president should think about something similar if he wants to alter the structure of Social Security.
That is, any investment add-on should not only be funded from sources other than the Social Security tax but should have a progressive component, like that contained in ASPIRE, whereby citizens below a defined poverty line could expect proportionately greater investment fodder.
Ford then made an even more striking suggestion concerning investment accounts. ÒWhat happens if people lose? Will some kind of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation be created?Ó he asked Ð making the case for a governmental machinery that would cushion against losses occurring through bad investments in sour lemons like Enron and WorldCom. For a Fail-Safe mechanism that would allow profit but prevent unreasonable loss
Ford and Senator Joe Lieberman and a relatively few other Democrats have made their party-mates and other defenders of Social Security nervous through their professed willingness to avoid Just Saying No. The Bush administration has, after all, consistently pursued a strategy in every controversy so far of Divide and Conquer through ÒbipartisanÓ negotiations that, many Democrats believe, were more apparent than real.
It is not impossible, however, that some of the innovative notions that Ford and a few others insist on putting forth could reverse that momentum. If Wall Street saw that its stake did not depend on dismantling the New Deal, after all, maybe BushÕs coalition, not the DemocratsÕ, is the one that would weaken.
Maybe so, maybe no. But, to give Ford the benefit of the doubt, maybe itÕs worth thinking about.
Corker Not the Man? Van or Ed Instead?
Not only is Rep. Ford an office-holder whose views are heeded in Washington and elsewhere, he is also a likely Democratic candidate in the high-profile U.S. Senate race to be run in Tennessee in 2006.
That seat, which will be vacated by Majority Leader Bill Frist, has attracted several other aspirants — State Senator Rosalind Kurita, among Democrats; and, so far among Republicans, former U.S. Reps. Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant; state Representative Beth Harwell of Nashville; and Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker.
Corker, who ran for the Senate in 1994 but has maintained a relatively low statewide profile since, is rumored to have the support of the state’s Republican establishment. He is said to be getting some stroking in Washington and has raised upwards of $ 2 million so far, easily tops in the field..
Ford discounts his chances, however. “I don’t think he’ll get the nomination,” the congressman said Saturday. “I think Bryant or Van Hilleary will. It doesn’t matter how much money you have if people don’t know you.”
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saturday, 12
If you like good ol’ New Orleans jazz, check out the Preservation Hall Jazz Band tonight at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre. Those wild and wacky Jumpin Chi-Chi’s are at the Blue Monkey Midtown. The Dan Montgomery Band is at the Buccaneer. Bryan Hayes & Friends are at the P&H. And soul/R&B greats The Hollywood All-Stars are, as always, at Wild Bill’s. — Tim Sampson
Since Mayor Herenton made his rueful budget shortfall announcement on February 18th that led to cutting jobs and city services, numerous people have come out of the woodwork with recommendations for closing the $6.4 million budget deficit. There’s been talk of rescinding pay increases to city employees, of ending tuition-reimbursement programs, and even of canceling a proposed efficiency study. While these suggestions are admirable, they are all too little, too late.
Long before the city found itself in such dire financial straits, there should have been in place some form of spending accountability. Since there wasn’t, the city was obliged to have provided better — both more considerate and more efficient — management of the layoff process. And surely it was possible to avoid the competitive muddles by which both mayor and council first proposed, then acted to take away employee pay raises. These were issues that Mayor Herenton dismissed as “nickel and diming” in discussions of the budget emergency, but the last we looked, nickels and dimes added up to dollars.
City financial officers have repeatedly blamed the failing economy and depleted revenue streams for the city’s budget woes. Maybe so, but such analysis overlooks the key budgeting tenet: You can’t spend more than you make. Unfortunately, those elected officials in charge of determining spending priorities seem never to have learned this rule.
As of this week, the city of Memphis was overdrawn by 2,100 lives. That’s the number of municipal employees affected with loss of livelihood, most of them involved in pursuits previously considered vital to the community’s well-being.
That’s what we call out of balance.
Having just succeeded in passing legislation imposing restrictions on class-action lawsuits, the Republican-controlled Congress is fast about seeing to the rest of President Bush’s real agenda — one that would impose severe constraints on the rights of Americans to seek legal redress.
We refer to the president’s “real” agenda, because in the judgment of many, Bush won reelection last November based on the voters’ sense that he saw things their way on a whole host of moral and social issues — none of which, as it turns out, were prominently featured in the president’s State of the Union address, and none of which ended up on the congressional calendar for immediate action.
It is difficult to disagree with those who see Bush as having played bait-and-switch with the so-called Red States. What is obvious, in any case, is that the issues that are on the calendar at the president’s behest have never commanded much public support, in the heartland or anywhere else. Besides several misnamed “tort reform” measures, these include: “tax reform” of the sort we have already seen several times over, creating new loopholes for the wealthy; Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security; and, on the docket as of this week, his intent to strike away those provisions in the bankruptcy laws that protect ordinary Americans.
The bankruptcy measure would even take away those provisions of existing law which give a modicum of protection to citizens whose debt has become uncontrollable because of medical emergency or loss of job. Democrats in Congress also proposed an exception for those on active duty in the military, but the Republicans would have none of it. But the bill does reinforce and expand those loopholes which shelter corporate bankruptcies. It’s “compassionate conservatism” at its finest.
It has been observed more than once in recent months that the aim of the Bush administration and its allies in Congress is to reap the New Deal. They’re on the way, not only to that but to the creation of something else to take its place: a Raw Deal.
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F-stop
Chicken livers, anyway. So said Annette Bursey about the snails she ate last week at Hollywood Elementary school. Bursey and other school administrators ate snails and dog food while students cheered from cafeteria tables.
About 250 kids spent four weeks selling $1 candy bars for the school’s annual fund-raiser. The goal was to raise $12,000 for an outdoor marquee, a new PA system, and library books. When students exceeded the goal by $1,000, teachers had to deliver their end of the bargain: a reality-show-inspired scenario in which Bursey and Principal Carla Franklin promised to eat snails, and building engineer Charles Childress said he would eat a can of Alpo.
A professional chef served up the eclectic menu on fine china with linen napkins.
Whatever happened to celebrating fund-raiser achievements with pizza parties? “We thought the Fear Factor challenge would be a great incentive for the kids. We didn’t expect them to sell this many,” said Bursey. Oh, but they did. Mmmm-mmm! n — Janel Davis