Month: May 2005

Categories
Music Music Features

New Math

When Lucero guitarist Brian Venable daydreams, it isn’t of his own episode of MTV Cribs. Instead, he dreams of owning his own coin-op laundry. Check that — a punk coin-op laundry, with a space in the back for bands to play.

After seven years of toiling –three in local clubs and four of nonstop national club touring — Venable and his bandmates are now spending corporate cash after signing a distribution and pressing (and, more subtly, development) deal with EastWest Records, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. And if you’re looking for a reason why Lucero’s interaction with a big, bad major label is likely to turn out better than most bands, think about the laundromat.

“A lot of it is the attitude,” Venable says. “We can take it or leave it. If the deal wasn’t right, we’d just keep on doing what we do.”

“If Brian and I had started Lucero with the goal of getting on a major label and being a ‘real band,’ whatever that means, in 1998, then I don’t think we would have lasted,” lead singer Ben Nichols says. “There was no pressure except what we put on ourselves. We were doing shows for three years before we ever went on tour. Making [getting signed] your immediate goal would, I think, put a lot of stress on a band.”

But even if Lucero, which also includes drummer Roy Berry and bassist John Stubblefield, never went looking for a major label, one eventually found them. Left label-less after the dissolution of indie Tiger Style, which released Lucero’s last album, That Much Further West, the band recorded last fall alongside famed local producer Jim Dickinson with no idea how their music would get released.

While mastering an album that would become the new Nobody’s Darlings, the band negotiated with a host of respected indie labels, including Jade Tree, Yep Roc, and Polyvinyl, with EastWest entering the picture relatively late in the game. What sealed the deal for the band was that the major-label deal actually gave them more freedom, allowing them to retain ownership of the record.

“The way it works is you start an imprint [in Lucero’s case, Liberty & Lament], and they loan you the money to put the record out and work the record,” Nichols says. “They manufacture it and distribute it. As records sell, you pay them back. But since you’re functioning as a label, you retain ownership of the masters, and that’s something that no indie deal lets you do. We’ve always kept the publishing, but usually with indie deals, they own the recordings. This way, we own both outright.”

What Warner Bros. gets out of the deal is a chance to try out the band on a two-record deal without worrying about another major coming in to sign them.

“Warner Bros. sends their money through EastWest to these little imprint labels. Then they keep an eye on how the bands do, and they have first dibs on them,” Nichols says.

The deal seems to be part of a new trend, with indie-bred bands using major labels to get more exposure while retaining a degree of independence. (Rilo Kiley has a similar arrangement with Atlantic.) If a band isn’t desperate to “get signed,” they can deal with majors from a position of greater strength. And the majors can make smaller, more calculated gambles on new bands.

Venable likens the situation to baseball’s minor leagues.

What it means immediately for the band is better distribution (“Each record is getting easier to find,” Nichols says) and more and smarter promotion. Stubblefield says that the arrangement will help sync promotion to the band’s touring schedule more professionally than in the past. (They’ll be doing record-store appearances on almost every tour stop.) Nichols estimates that Nobody’s Darlings could have four times the promotional budget of That Much Further West.

Of course, it helps that the band is making this leap with a really strong record.

“It was a pretty easy process,” Nichols says of recording with Dickinson at his Mississippi home studio. Lucero’s first two albums were recorded there as well, but not with Dickinson as producer.

“I think we’d all gone into it thinking it was more of a rock-and-roll record,” Nichols says. “We wanted to make a record that was representative of what those songs sounded like live, without a lot of overdubs or keyboards or added stuff. This is definitely the most straightforward record we’ve ever made. Mainly Jim’s job was to make sure we stuck to the ideal of making a very simple, straightforward rock-and-roll record. His job was to keep us from messing it up.”

After building That Much Further West track by track, Nobody’s Darlings was recorded largely live. It’s the only Lucero record where every sound is created by the band’s four members.

The record also marks the return of Venable, who left the band before the recording of That Much Further West only to return when his replacement, Todd Gill, later called it quits. The title track of Nobody’s Darlings is the last song Nichols and Venable wrote together before Venable’s departure.

“Brian being back in the band definitely affected this record,” Nichols says. “Brian’s guitar playing makes us sound more like Lucero. That Much Further West is a good record by a good band, but there’s not as much Lucero on it.”

Nobody’s Darlings also marks a slight thematic departure for the band’s songs.

“The first two records, I was in a different place emotionally,” Nichols says. “Those songs were easy to write. I had no choice but to write those songs. And then with the last two records, there wasn’t the same amount of turmoil, personally. So it’s become more about the songwriting and less about me. Which is much more difficult. Someone like Cory Branan is really good at that — hearing a story and nailing it in a song. I’m not as good at that, but it’s something I’ve been trying to get better at.”

“Bikeriders” is Nichols’ first step into the different writing process. The song, inspired by a 1968 book by Danny Lyon of photographs and interviews with people in the motorcycle counterculture, is the first time Nichols has built a song around outside source material. It also inspired the album’s cover, an homage to a photograph in Bikeriders retaken with Nichols as the subject.

“I stumbled across the book one day, and I bought it because a lot of the people in it look like people I’ve lived with and friends I’ve had and people I’ve known. It’s the late ’60s, but they look like us,” Nichols says.

Another somewhat atypical song is the album-closing “The War,” a relative epic inspired by Nichols’ late grandfather, a World War II veteran. The song is a sequel of sorts to the early Lucero song “The Blue and the Gray,” built on new information Nichols learned about his grandfather.

Lucero will celebrate the release of Nobody’s Darlings with a CD-release show Tuesday, May 24th, at Young Avenue Deli. Afterward, they’ll head out for a couple of month-long tours, one with local singer-songwriter Cory Branan and one with local band the Glass.

How working under a major-label umbrella will impact the band remains to be seen, but there have already been some changes. The day before our interview, Venable signed up for his first bank account since 1990.

“We one day hope to make as much money in a year as a public school teacher does,” Venable says to sum up his professional goal for the band.

“Once you sign to a major label you’re either huge or you disappear,” Nichols says, acknowledging the conventional wisdom. “But that’s not the deal we made. Ownership of the masters makes it more possible for us to be a functioning small business. And, no, you’re not in it for the $2 million advance. You’re in it to establish a well-run small business that can support five or six people — the band and a couple of crew members.” n

Lucero

Nobody’s Darlings CD-Release Party

Young Avenue Deli

Tuesday, May 24th

with Cory Branan and

The Honorary Title

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Rebuilding the Pyramid

Nutrition used to be so simple. Or at least we thought it was. Using the old United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) food pyramid, balancing meals simply required a glance at the chart on the back of a cereal box. Lots of carbs and grains, a few servings of fruit and vegetables, a little meat and dairy, and a minuscule amount of fat made for a healthy diet.

But last month, the USDA turned the old food pyramid on its side with the release of MyPyramid, a personalized approach to nutrition that requires Internet access. Critics have said it’s confusing, but local nutritionist Brenda Speight is prepared to simplify it in her free “New Food Pyramid” workshop at Wild Oats on Wednesday, May 25th.

“The old pyramid was developed in the early 1990s to help people eat healthier across the board, but through research, we’ve found that people really need a more individualized approach to healthier eating,” says Speight of the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Nutrition.

At the MyPyramid Web site (MyPyramid.gov), you’re asked to enter your age, gender, and activity level in order to receive one of 12 plans. For example, a 24-year-old female who engages in 30 minutes or less of physical activity a day is prescribed six ounces of grains, two-and-a-half cups of veggies, two cups of fruit, three cups of milk, and 5.5 ounces of meat and/or beans per day.

Visually, there’s no one way to represent these plans, so the government’s drawn up a generic pyramid. Rather than show each food group stacked on top of another in order of importance, the new pyramid’s food groups run from the tip to the base. On one side of the pyramid a cartoon figure climbs a flight of stairs to represent daily exercise. The old pyramid made no visual attempt at instructing people to work out daily.

“Some of the concepts from the original pyramid have stayed, like balance, variety, and moderation,” says Speight. “But a new addition is the whole concept of color. Color has a lot to do with the intensity of the concentration of certain vitamins found in fruits and vegetables.”

The individual plans contain a breakdown of color in the veggies category. For example, the 24-year-old female’s chart recommends she eat three cups of dark green veggies per week and two cups a week of orange vegetables.

MyPyramid is more focused on vegetables and plant proteins than the old one, which recommended more servings of meat.

“We know there’s a relationship in the U.S. with an overconsumption of animal protein and heart disease,” says Speight. “That’s because saturated fat accompanies animal protein.”

MyPyramid also makes a distinction between good fat and bad fat as well as good carbs and bad carbs. The pyramid recommends a daily amount of plant oils, which are low in saturated fat. It also instructs people to consume whole grains for at least half of their daily grain intake.

“Whole grains have an effect on the blood sugar level. They metabolize in the body much slower, which means the rise in blood sugar will be much lower,” explains Speight. “And that means you won’t recognize hunger as frequently.”

Not everyone is pleased with the government’s new food plan. Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health designed his own pyramid, claiming the USDA approach still draws on outdated health concepts. Designed in a style similar to the old USDA pyramid, Harvard’s “Healthy Eating Pyramid” has gained popularity for its accessibility. It’s not personalized, which means foods and proportions can be charted as in the old pyramid.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid places daily exercise and weight control at the very base. Whole grains and plant oils are next, with veggies and fruits right above them. Next are nuts and legumes and then fish, poultry, and eggs. Above that is dairy or a calcium supplement, and at the pyramid’s tip in the “use sparingly” category are red meats, butter, white rice and white bread, potatoes, pasta, and sweets.

Regardless of which pyramid people choose to use as a guide, throwing out the old one is a major shake-up in the nutrition world. Speight says many health-conscious people are eating properly anyway, but those with nutritional challenges may have some problems adapting to the new plan.

“It’s taken us almost 15 years to get the general population to understand and accept the old pyramid,” says Speight. “Our culture is quick and wants to eat a meal right now, but leafy green vegetables mean you’ve got to cook. Some people may find this will take a little more work.” n

Brenda Speight will teach the “New Food Pyramid” workshop at Wild Oats (5022 Poplar) on Wednesday, May 25th at 7 p.m. For more information, call 685-2293.

Categories
Opinion

Official Misconduct

The potential jurors, 150 of them, had been summoned to the Mid-South Coliseum to hear their orders. Most of them had made arrangements, at some hardship, to miss a week or more of work. A block of hotel rooms had been booked for the jurors and alternates who would be chosen from the jury pool and sequestered while they heard the case. The judge, Criminal Court judge Paula Skahan, had cleared her busy court calendar for trial. Defendants Shep Wilbun, Calvin Williams, and James Fellows and their attorneys were prepared to fight the charges of official misconduct.

And on the second day of jury selection last week, the case suddenly and unexpectedly collapsed. You can all go home, jurors. You too, defendants. But don’t say anything, because you’re under a gag order until November.

No trial. No dismissal. No comment.

It was the latest in a series of cases involving allegations of corruption in Memphis, Shelby County, and state government that have raised more questions than answers.

The list includes Senator John Ford, under fire from state and federal investigators for business dealings and campaign contributions; former Shelby County medical examiner O.C. Smith, accused of staging an attack on himself but freed after a mistrial in federal court; former high school football coach Lynn Lang, who got no jail time after pleading guilty to selling a star player; former Juvenile Court employee Darrell Catron, who still has not been sentenced more than two years after pleading guilty to federal charges; the late Chancellor Floyd Peete, accused post-mortem of fixing a case; and day-care brokers WillieAnn and John Madison, whose 21-month sentence in March was deemed so light by U.S. attorney Terry Harris that the prosecutor made a rare public objection.

Wilbun, a former Memphis city councilman, Shelby County commissioner, and candidate for Memphis mayor, set the tone for his aborted trial when he held a brief mini-press conference outside the courtroom on the morning that jury selection began.

“Shep Wilbun is about doing the right thing,” he said.

The problem is that no one — including the media, prosecutors, and politicians and government employees themselves — seems to know exactly what that is. Enforcement of laws against public corruption has, in several cases, been inconsistent, indecisive, and interminable. Overlapping state and federal investigations, recusals by Harris and Shelby County district attorney Bill Gibbons in some cases, and the media’s thirst to get to the bottom of things have added to the confusion. Here’s a closer look at the cases mentioned above and where they stand today.

· Despite the gag order, the Flyer was able to cobble together a reliable account of what happened in the Wilbun-Williams-Fellows case from interviews with various parties.

The accusation involved a $1,500 payment to the family of a female employee of the Juvenile Court clerk’s office to hush up a sexual-assault complaint. Wilbun was clerk from 2000 until 2002, when he was defeated, 49 percent to 48 percent, by Steve Stamson following a mud-slinging campaign.

The accusation was investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Gibbons was briefed on the case and promptly recused himself because of a close friendship with Williams, the former chief administrator for the Shelby County Commission. Gibbons is a former commissioner and, like Williams, a Republican Party activist. Special prosecutor John Overton took the case and presented it to a Shelby County grand jury, which indicted Wilbun, Williams, and Fellows.

The defendants declined an offer of diversion, which would have amounted to dismissal of the charges if they stayed out of trouble. Almost a year later, the case came to trial. Meanwhile, the judge to whom it was assigned, Bernie Weinman, retired and was replaced by Skahan. The trial was first set for February 14th, which was the day Skahan was sworn in, so it was reset for May 9th.

Jury selection progressed slowly, with attorneys for the three defendants challenging several potential jurors and making the sort of arguments usually heard at trial. It became apparent, as one participant said, that “we could have been there forever” because each of the attorneys had multiple challenges, or opportunities, to strike jurors.

In the middle of the second day, Overton and defense attorneys made a deal similar to the diversion offer that had been on the table earlier: The case is officially continued for six months. The defendants will pay court costs and must obey the gag order. There will be no criminal charge on their record if the deal holds until November.

“It’s unusual but it happens,” said Overton, when asked about the timing. For his part, Gibbons said, “nobody in this office to my knowledge has had any contact with the special prosecutor.”

Williams plans to write a book about his government adventures and settle some old scores. He and friends say he has a contract with Simon and Schuster to publish it. Gibbons said, “I guess I’ll be in his book.”

Burning question: Why didn’t prosecutors ditch this case before taking it to the grand jury or bail out of it before starting jury selection?

· Darrell Catron pleaded guilty to federal charges of embezzlement while he was working for Wilbun in the Juvenile Court clerk’s office. He made his plea in January 2003 and was a likely witness against Wilbun had he gone on trial.

Catron’s sentencing has been set and reset four times and is now set again for July 26th.

Burning question: If there’s a right to a speedy trial, how about a speedy sentence?

· Senator John Ford has taken the heat off Mayor Willie Herenton as the public’s favorite whipping boy. The year’s most popular wedding video shows Ford’s wedding reception for his daughter at The Peabody, which was paid for in part with $15,000 of campaign funds. For this, the state Registry of Election Finance fined Ford $10,000 last month.

The line doesn’t get much thinner than the one between proper and improper use of campaign funds. Three years ago, then Shelby County mayor Jim Rout’s family used campaign funds for a Father’s Day surprise party, but the registry and the local state prosecutor did nothing.

Burning question: Can Rout continue to dodge bullets?

· The last chapter of the Lynn Lang and Logan Young football recruiting epic is scheduled to be written June 9th, when Young is sentenced in federal court. However, Young’s health (kidney dialysis) makes that date uncertain. Lang, the government’s star witness against Young, got a no-prison sentence from U.S. district judge Bernice Donald, based on erroneous information in his probation report, which said he had a job at a school in Michigan where he had actually been fired. Young will be sentenced by U.S. district judge Daniel Breen, who presided at his trial.

Burning question: Could Young mis-state his job/financial status or his much-reported drinking habits in his probation report and get away with it?

· Judge Donald handed out another light sentence in the day-care case against WillieAnn and John Madison, but this time federal prosecutors sent out a press release noting that “the court imposed sentences below the guideline ranges over the objection of the United States.” The guideline sentencing range was 41-51 months incarceration. WillieAnn Madison got 21 months in prison and restitution of $751,832, while John Madison got 10 months in prison and $564,833 in restitution. Because of a change of federal policy, judges can override sentencing guidelines.

Burning question: Why is Donald such a light sentencer? And why do prosecutors selectively object to her sentences?

· O.C. Smith will not be retried on charges of staging his own bizarre attack with a bomb and barbed wire, despite the protests of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. A federal court jury was unable to reach a verdict in his case. Smith says the attacker is still out there.

Burning question: Why isn’t anyone taking Smith seriously or, alternately, demanding that he be retried and, if convicted, forced to repay the substantial cost of investigating a bogus case, as in the “runaway bride” from Georgia, Jennifer Wilbanks?

· Floyd Peete is charged by association with conspiring with businessman William B. Tanner to fix a case in which Tanner was involved. Tanner’s next report date is June 3rd, but his health — he is battling cancer — makes the trial date hard to peg. A key witness is Peete’s former son-in-law. Peete died in Florida in 2002, and the investigation began after that.

Burning question: If a judge is the type who fixes cases, does he fix just one? ·

Categories
News The Fly-By

Neighborhood Watched

Germantown is starting to show its age. Gutters are beginning to sag. Many driveways are etched with fine lines. And, like any former pretty young thing, the suburb is thinking about having a little work done.

The city of Germantown held a public hearing last week on controversial changes to the ordinance that deals with property maintenance and neighborhood preservation.

“Many of the homes are beginning to hit the 25- to 30-year mark where they can benefit from additional maintenance,” said Germantown mayor Sharon Goldsworthy. “If there’s not support for reinvestment into the homes, neighborhoods can go into decline, and it’s difficult to reverse that.”

She said the ordinance — which includes regulations on fences, grass height, trash, and holiday decorations, among other things — is meant to give the city staff a tool to deal with “problem properties.”

“We’re trying to head off distressing developments in neighborhoods so that they retain their value,” she said.

But some residents called the new ordinance “draconian,” “an Orwellian work of fiction,” and “a step too far.”

Before the meeting, the standing-room-only crowd bitch-chatted about the proposed new ordinance: They could be considered nuisances by leaving their lights on to keep raccoons away. Or the city could hypothetically not pick up their trash and then hold them responsible for it.

As the hearing started, it became apparent that many of the residents there thought the ordinance was, at best, confusing, and at worst, completely absurd. Rules about trash, garage doors, and house numbers topped the citizens’ complaints.

The ordinance says that trash cans must not be visible from the street “except when placed for collection.”

But the ordinance also says “garbage and refuse containers shall not be placed in their collection location before 6 p.m. of the day prior to the regularly scheduled collection day and shall be returned to their storage location no later than 8 a.m. the day following the collection.”

That might not be so onerous with regular household refuse, but in a city where the universal hobby is yardwork, the issue gets a little thorny.

Rodney Strop, chair of Germantown’s Senior Citizens Advisory Commission, said he had gotten several calls from citizens complaining about the proposed trash regulations. One woman told him she had a lawn service on the weekends, but her garbage pickup was on Thursday. She had no way of getting heavy bags of grass or leaves to the curb, short of calling the service to come out Wednesday night.

One resident, Larry Austin, suggested that the suburb grow old gracefully. Austin has lived in his Germantown home for 32 years. “I may be more wrinkled and I have less hair than I did when I moved in, but I don’t think I’m worth less. I think I’ve matured,” he said. “I watched the prices of homes in my neighborhood … and I don’t think our property values are in any jeopardy right now. With this ordinance, you don’t want to show any signs of life. You can’t open your garage door; you have to sneak your trash out at night; you can have a carport, but you can’t put anything in it.”

The mayor and board of alderman will discuss the proposed ordinance in a scheduled work session on June 6th. The ordinance has passed a second reading, but the date for its third, and final, reading has not yet been set. Until then, the city’s makeover will have to wait.

Categories
News News Feature

The Smoking Gun

Since I believe one of our greatest strengths as Americans is shrewd practicality, I thought it was time we moved past the now unhelpful “How did we get into this mess?” to the more utilitarian “What do we do now?”

However, I cannot let the astounding Downing Street memo go unmentioned.

On May 1st, The Sunday Times of London printed a secret British government memo that went to that country’s defense secretary, foreign secretary, attorney general, and other high officials. It is the minutes of their meeting on Iraq with Tony Blair. The memo was written by Matthew Rycroft, a Downing Street foreign policy aide. It has been confirmed as legitimate and is dated July 23, 2002. I suppose the correct cliche is “smoking gun.” Note the fourth sentence:

“C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC [National Security Council] had no patience with the U.N. route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.”

After some paragraphs on tactical considerations, Rycroft reports: “No decisions had been taken, but he [the British defense secretary] thought the most likely timing in U.S. minds for military action to begin was January, with the timeline beginning 30 days before the U.S. congressional elections.

“The foreign secretary said he would discuss this with Colin Powell this week. It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbors, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the U.N. weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.”

There is much more in the memo, which can be found easily online. Most of us who opposed the war concluded some time ago that this was the way it went down. There was plenty of evidence, though nothing this direct and cold. Think of the difference it would have made if we had known all this three years ago. Now? The memo was a huge story in Britain but is almost unreported here. The memo finally settles this ridiculous debate about how Dear Leader Bush just wanted to bring democracy all along, and we did it all for George Washington.

Enough said. What to do, now that we’re there?

Unfortunately, our very support for the good guys is making it much harder for them. A tactical Catch-22. I was impressed by the premise of Reza Aslan’s new book, No God but God, which is that all of Islam is undergoing a struggle between the modernists and the traditionalists, between reformers and reactionaries.

But in Iraq, which already had a secular state, we have the additional complication of sectarian/ethnic divisions — Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds — not to mention the tribalism within those divisions. (Am I bitter enough to point out again that Paul Wolfowitz said under oath, “There is no history of ethnic strife in Iraq”? You bet I am.)

Our most basic problem in-country is that having the U.S. of A. on your side automatically makes you about as popular as a socialist in the Texas legislature. We are working against the guys we want to win by supporting them. This requires some serious skulling but is not, in politics, all that unusual a pickle.

There is a political solution. Like all politics, it requires a deal. What about letting the interim government make a deal with the Sunnis for us to withdraw — as in “You cooperate with us, and we’ll get the Americans out of here for you”?

We can’t make that deal, but the Iraqis can.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

In Knots

Jane Fonda has meant a number of things to each decade in which she’s lived in the public eye. In her early years, she was Henry Fonda’s daughter. In the 1960s, she was Hollywood’s talented sex kitten (see Barbarella). In the ’70s, she was “Hanoi Jane,” chatting up the Viet Cong and generally pissing off a lot of Americans. In the ’80s, reinvented again, she was the fitness guru, and in the ’90s, she was Mrs. Ted Turner. During most of that time, she was more than all of those things. She was an actress and quite a brilliant one at that: The China Syndrome, Klute, Coming Home, Julia, even 9 to 5. But then, just before marrying Ted in 1991, Fonda just stopped making movies, leading to an unfortunate 15-year absence.

Now, it is 2005, a decade not yet stamped with any particular Fonda notoriety, and she is back. In treacle. In Monster-in-Law.

Fonda plays Viola Fields, a Barbara Walters-style television interviewer who suffers a nervous breakdown on the set of her show, a show from which she has just been canned in favor of a fresh, young face. Her last interview is with a Britney Spears-esque twit who doesn’t read the newspaper and thinks that Roe v. Wade refers to boxing. The breakdown (which I contend is psychotic rather than nervous) ends with Viola lunging for the songstress’ throat on-camera. If you have seen the Spears interview with Michael Moore in Fahrenheit 9/11, you too will understand the throat-lunging impulse.

Meanwhile, a perky young woman, Charlie (Jennifer Lopez), just can’t seem to find love, even though she is smart, beautiful, creative, and fun. When fate has her meet a successful doctor (Alias star Michael Vartan), she falls quickly in love despite some insecurities about her lowly profession as an odd-job maven.

Counting Monster-in-Law, I have now seen three of Lopez’s movies, and they all share that distinction. In Maid in Manhattan, Lopez was a humble maid trying to make ends meet while scoring with a promising politico. In Enough, she was a humble waitress who marries into a wealthy (and nuts-o) family and must overcome the class thing in order to feel good about herself and kill her abusive husband. In all three films, she considers herself undateable and an ugly duckling. I sense a pattern here. What is most certainly common in these films is that they are fantasies — not the least of which is that women like Lopez cannot get dates.

Anyway, Mr. Right, er, Kevin, has a catch. It’s his mom. Viola. She’s spent months in the funny farm and is ready to meet the new girlfriend. Mom and Charlie hit it off so well that Kevin proposes marriage right there at their first meeting. Viola is sent into a psychotic rage so entire that it begins with casual sabotage of Charlie’s happiness and ends with what could be attempted murder.

Monster-in-Law is, essentially, about a mother and a girlfriend duking it out over the affections of their wiener of a son/boyfriend. (Who proposes in front of their mother?) So, it’s J-Lo and J-Fo. Who, oh, who will win? TV’s Wanda Sykes appears as Viola’s assistant and offers much needed comic relief, as does Broadway’s Elaine Stritch, as the film’s unfunny deus ex machina.

This film is, I think, a shrewd move for Fonda. The movie’s no good (there — that’s my review), but it will make money, and Lopez will have a hit after a brief run of flops and media uninterest. But Fonda, whose autobiography just came out along with her fitness workouts on DVD, gets to make her Big Return in the low-stakes safety of this piffle while drawing attraction to those other projects. Monster-in-Law is like rebound sex — inconsequential, forgettable, and it gets it out of the system. Without the nervous anticipation (does she still have it? how does she look?), her next film can be more appreciated.

Good for Jane. Good for us.

Categories
News The Fly-By

A Quickie with

Last week, Newsweek released its annual list of America’s best high schools. The ranking is based on the number of college preparatory Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) tests taken last year by all students at each public school, then divided by the number of graduating seniors at those schools. Exams scores are not a factor in the rankings, and the list does not include private schools or schools requiring academic prerequisites for entrance.

Topping the list was Jefferson County High School in the small town of Irondale, Alabama. No school in Tennessee appeared on the list until the mid-300s. (Numbers one to 100 were included in the magazine’s printed May 16th edition. Numbers 101-1,000 were featured in an extended online story.) Locally, White Station High School was ranked 621 (falling from 353 last year) and was the only Memphis or Shelby County school to make this year’s list.

Flyer: White Station made Newsweek‘s list again this year. What do you think about that?

Winnette: Anytime you receive positive recognition, it’s a good thing, but the ranking is definitely not the whole picture of a school. I would really like to see a ranking based on results of the tests and not just the number of students who took them. I think we would fare higher on that type ranking than a lot of the schools on the list.

White Station was the only Memphis school to make the list. What sets this school apart from other public high schools?

Our students are self-motivated and have lofty goals. They know that the AP tests and honors classes are important. We offer 18 AP classes. Two hundred sixty-two students took at least one AP test last year and our success rate was 83 percent. We also have a good mix of parents, teachers, and students who don’t settle for doing or accepting less than they can.

These kids compete against each other in class and on the tests, and that makes a big difference. A teacher can do so much more when students already understand the importance of education than when he/she has to continually motivate her students. At my previous school, kids hid their smarts; here smarts are “in.”

This ranking is based on only one criterion. What other criteria would better represent your school?

The amount of scholarships earned by our students — more than $14 million last school year — where the students were accepted [to college], and our National Merit Scholars. Things like that provide a more complete picture.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Cheat Sheet

1. The new pope, Benedict XVI, announces he will put his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, on the “fast track” (il ferrari testarosa) to sainthood. Meanwhile, it’s been — what? — almost 30 years, and we’re still waiting on a decision about Elvis. It hardly seems fair.

2. Charges of official misconduct against Shep Wilbun are postponed until November and will likely be dropped. The former Juvenile Court clerk and two other defendants had been accused of using county funds to bribe a woman who had allegedly been assaulted by one of Wilbun’s associates, and — oh, it’s just too complicated. No wonder they’re putting it off.

3. After an investigation, police announce there is no proof that the “Sam Cooper Sniper” ever existed. And what about all those motorists who reported their cars had been hit by gunfire in that area? Apparently just the random, aimless shootings that take place all over town every day in Memphis. Hmmm, maybe it’s time to “up-armor” (as they say in Iraq) the old Honda Accord.

4. The University of Memphis law school may lose its accreditation because the building is a leaky, cramped dump. Oh, and it’s ugly too. Options include renovating the existing structure or moving into the old Custom House downtown at Front and Madison. We favor the latter, mainly because it’s such a cool building.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Bright Ideas

WWYD? Nine thinkers discuss their visions for Memphis.

If you were given carte blanche to make whatever changes in Memphis you thought were needed, what would you do? Would you overhaul MATA? Would you rename Union Avenue Rufus Thomas Boulevard? Or would you just run away, screaming?

Memphis and Shelby County have their share of problems: poverty, urban sprawl, troubled schools — the list seems to go on and on. We wondered how people would solve these problems, what changes they might make. So we asked a variety of Memphis residents — activists, developers, politicians, and artists — to describe their visions for Memphis if “money was no object and politics were no problem.”

The intention behind omitting money and politics was to make sure that no idea was dismissed. But more than one of our thinkers said the more useful question is: What do you do if politics and money are problems?

We don’t disagree. But we hoped our open-ended approach would encourage more interesting and creative suggestions. After all, if you have a great concept, no matter how off-the-wall, you can find the money for it. Or the political support. Just look at AutoZone Park or the luring to town of the Grizzlies.

We heard a lot of ideas — some silly, some pie-in-the-sky, some just pet peeves, and some very serious. But all of them were intended to make Memphis a better place.

Ephraim Urevbu

IT TAKES A VILLAGE

Ephraim Urevbu, artist and owner of Art Village Gallery

All the issues that affect Memphis have to do with race relations. That’s a core issue in this city. I would try to address the situation.

In 2003, I came up with a project that I called “Diversity Through Art, Music, Food, and Dance.” I recognized that the government cannot make people love each other. You have to create an atmosphere where people can enjoy each other. They’ll get to know each other, and then maybe they can work together.

Memphis is a tale of two cities: black and white and also rich and poor. I would try to merge neighborhoods. If you concentrate a group of poor people in one neighborhood, you sentence them to poverty for the rest of their lives, because they don’t have any role models. But if you can find a way to disperse people … You take a single mother with three or four kids from the projects and build a moderate house for them in Germantown. Then you talk the neighborhood into adopting this single mother and assimilating them into the neighborhood. They’ll see role models. When they see their neighbors taking care of their property, they’ll be inspired to do that too.

Most third-world countries do not have poor neighborhoods and rich neighborhoods. You might have a beautiful mansion next to shantytowns. I grew up very poor, but I played with the children from the mansion. That was inspiring to me. I knew education was the key. For that to happen, you couldn’t have put me with people who were poor like me.

If we can do that in key neighborhoods in the city, suddenly we’ve created an atmosphere for hope and possibilities. It’s in every one of us to reach our potential if we’re given the opportunity. It’s been proven over and over again: If you take people from the projects and put them in different conditions, they excel.

The churches are supposedly moral leaders. I would hold them to that standard. What is the color of God? Nobody knows, so why should there be black churches and white churches? On Sunday, the city is so segregated — that’s why I say religious leaders need to be held to a higher standard. They have to break from what they’re most comfortable with.

I would also create an Office of Visionaries, where people who have great ideas can put their heads together and come up with projects the city can undertake. Memphis has people like that, but there’s no place where they can express those ideas.

What we did in South Main, it took creative people, but it stalled because it hasn’t been embraced by the city. Many organizations in Memphis are chaired by the same group of people. They have not opened the door to let in fresh thinkers, outsiders who can press the button a little bit.

ccoletta.jpg

BUILD ON OUR STRENGTHS

Carol Coletta, producer and host of public radio’s Smart City and executive director of the Mayor’s Institute on City Design

If I were in charge, here’s where I would focus: Develop a new story for Memphis. Today, Memphis is defined increasingly by its deficits. We need to define Memphis and its future in terms of its potential.

Pay attention to details. Make Memphis clean, green, and well-maintained. Toughen up and speed up code enforcement. Institute a 411 system and use it as an “early warning system” so that you know where problems are developing. Then respond, and report results.

Create reasons for people with choices to stay in Memphis. Consider where Memphis can develop strategic advantages and with what kinds of people. Figure out what they want and then deliver. For instance, Memphis is likely the most logical choice for people without children in their households, immigrants, people who go out frequently, people who want a more maintenance-free lifestyle. If so, let’s develop a deep understanding of their needs and serve them.

Re-imagine the commercial corridors and aging neighborhood commercial centers. Many of our best neighborhoods are masked by horrible-looking major streets. Poplar is the new Summer. And because of the super-sizing of retail and entertainment, neighborhood commercial centers have lost their vitality. Bring together the best minds in the country to develop a new strategy for redevelopment.

Hit the streets. The mayor and senior staff should be forced out onto the streets and into the neighborhoods monthly to get an up-close look at what they govern. If you want to know what’s really going on in our city, knock on doors and ask. And when you find someone who is adding value to their neighborhood by keeping their home particularly well-maintained and planted, issue a Mayor’s Award on the spot.

Make it easier to invest in the city. Developers — good ones who want to do the right thing — say it is almost impossible to get a new project through City Hall and MLGW in a timely way. That’s ridiculous. Break the logjam so we can rebuild the city and reap the benefits of new taxes.

Elevate design and planning. As architect Andres Duany said in a recent Smart City interview, 1.5 million new homes are built in America every year, and the vast majority degrade the landscape. That is certainly true of much of the new development in Shelby County, especially the design of new roads and commercial centers. It doesn’t have to be that way. An excellent new planning code is being developed for Memphis and Shelby County. Let’s get it finished and passed.

Make the tax premium count. Memphians pay more to live in Memphis than citizens pay to live in surrounding communities or in unincorporated Shelby County. That’s fine when the taxes are being invested in real gains for Memphis. But why should Memphians be expected to invest in schools when the people of Germantown do not? Why should Memphians pay for fire stations in Lakeland when the people of Lakeland will not tax themselves to do so? Why should Memphians be expected to pay twice for the Health Department, once as Memphians and once as Shelby Countians? Why should Memphians subsidize the move of Memphis businesses to the county? That’s the dumbest move of all. Why should Memphians pay for emergency services for unincorporated Shelby Countians who won’t pay for the service themselves? It’s unfair, and it needs to end. Let’s pay more only when it benefits Memphis.

jflowers.jpgLET’S GET OUR PRIORITIES IN ORDER

Jacob Flowers, director of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center

We need to give people a living wage so they only have to do one job. We’ve been trying to get a living wage passed in Memphis for two years, but business interests have been fighting it. People don’t see the connection between citizens adequately being able to provide for their familes and boosting the economy and boosting Memphis as a whole. We don’t all need to make the same amount, but we should take care of each other.

People are being paid poverty wages all over the city. They work 40 hours a week and they’re still poor. Their families are still hungry. What do they do? They go out and get a second job. Who suffers then? The family suffers. Maybe we should stop pouring money into arenas and riverfront development and start funding people’s needs. When you’re working 80 hours a week, it’s hard to justify a $50 ticket to the Forum. The things we’re pouring money into, they aren’t for the people in the 38103 zip code who live just south of FedExForum.

Our resources need to go to the right places. There shouldn’t be tax abatement for companies that are paying poverty wages. They should have to pay living wages so the people of Memphis get taken care of, not just the bigwigs from out of town.

What we neeed is wide-reaching reform. We’ve got to start providing for people’s needs: health care, housing, proper education.

The Peace and Justice Center has had a community garden in Orange Mound since 2001. It’s a great way to take an abandoned lot that is a blight on the community and turn it into a thriving center of community where people can come together and put their hands in the ground. What we feel it’s doing, besides giving people access to whole foods and better nutrition, is empowering the community, improving property values, and pushing an entrepreneurial spirit.

We try to come to it without preconceptions and let it be what the community wants it to be. In two or three years, it should run itself. We could have community gardens throughout low-income communities, but only if they would like one. It’s a community-driven effort. We’re not tearing down houses; we’re just taking pieces of land that are doing nothing and cleaning up the trash and making it a place where the community can be together.

hturley

BUILD WELL

Henry Turley, real estate developer and part owner of Contemporary Media, Inc., the Flyer‘s parent company

Since I’m a real estate developer and that’s all I know, I’d make everyone’s neighborhood as good as mine. My life is better, and I am a better citizen becauseI live in an environment that supports and sustains me. I suspect that others would benefit from the same advantages that I enjoy.

jwillingham.jpg

SCALING THE PYRAMID

John Willingham, county commissioner, barbecue maestro

The city of Memphis and Shelby County are so deep in debt and the only available source of additional revenue is to raise the property tax. I suggest a 2.5 percent Shelby County privilege tax, related to and based on the individual’s paycheck income as a common denominator, which can be deducted from the individual’s federal income tax return. This tax would be for 10 years and would be revenue-neutral to the people who live in Shelby County. I propose we concurrently enact a 10-year comprehensive tax reform by abolishing the wheel tax, reducing property taxes 25 percent and lowering our sales tax from 9.25 percent to 7 percent. This 2.5 percent paycheck tax, based on a $20 billion gross annual payroll in Shelby County, would generate $500 million gross and $3,390,000 net each year.

Establish a public school building authority (PSBA), which would float a $2.5 billion revenue bond issue. The PSBA then purchases all of the schools by paying down $500 million of city of Memphis bond debt and $1 billion of Shelby County’s debt, leaving the PSBA with $1 billion with which it would establish a new standard design for elementary, middle, and high schools. Then build new schools, maintain the new and existing schools, and lease these schools back to the cities of Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Memphis, Millington, and Shelby County. This would reduce Shelby County’s debt by $1 billion and lower debt service from $2 million per week to $750,000 per week.

I would suggest floating a $500 million revenue bond issue and seeking matching funds from local business sources: e.g., FedEx, Nike, AutoZone, the hotel/motel industry, Mike Heisley, Hoops, Grizzlies, etc., for the purpose of rebuilding and expanding the existing fairgrounds properties and facilities into a Mini Olympic Village that would host the “National High School Championships” in every sport, plus animal husbandry, home economics, computer science, auto mechanics, academics, etc. This would generate an estimated $2 billion in tourist dollars to Memphis and Shelby County.

I would survey all of the taxpayers of Shelby County and determine if they would or would not support the following efforts in The Pyramid: continuation of the Wonders series, establishing a national BBQ Hall of Fame, a “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” museum (including the Memphis Belle and other World War II aircraft via electronically projected holographs), along with a casino.

This could be accomplished within three years, earning $130 million per year for the city of Memphis, county of Shelby, and state of Tennessee. And it would draw another $2 billion in tourism revenue, which would undoubtedly generate major business for downtown Memphis and all of Shelby County.

Why, maybe we could even take over the risk on the FedExForum, including its management. Certainly we should be able to retain a major portion of the $400 million per year that presently goes to Tunica casinos.

MFJonesJRERGE!

Fred Jones Jr., president of SMC entertainment, founder and producer of the Southern Heritage Classic, and owner/limited partner of the Memphis Grizzlies

One government. That’s what we need in Memphis and Shelby County.

We’re not only wasting our current tax dollars, we’re wasting our future as well. This is bad for business and nearly lethal for future economic growth.

Everybody suffers from our current setup. More important is that everybody’s children are going to suffer even worse unless we fix it. Now.

It’s going to take vision — a cultural vision the whole community can gather around. It’s going to take business and political leadership — leaders who can reach out to all people, city and county, and explain clearly why this step is crucial to their future.

When are the people going to put aside racism, socioeconomic differences, whatever and realize we’re all in this lifeboat together?

It’s not just the other guy’s end of the lifeboat that sinks, you know. And everybody in Memphis and Shelby County is in the same boat.

erobertsonREEVALUATE “DISTRIBUTION CENTER”

Eric Robertson, development manager of LeMoyne-Owen College CDC, founder of Tha Movement, and co-founder of New Path

Memphis needs to be known for more than just “America’s Distribution Center.” Right now, we flaunt the distribution stuff. We can be that, and we need to acknowledge it, but when you think of distribution, you think of warehouses. You don’t think of technologically savvy individuals. What is your labor pool if you’re the distribution center? You have people pulling orders, putting it on the dock. [Prospective companies] look at our education statistics and say, “See, this is what I thought.”

The thing to do would be to leverage the resources of our location and bring those jobs that would bring higher incomes. I know people are going to say, “Well, biotech,” but how can we do more things of that nature? If we get more companies like that, a child can say, “Wow, I can work and have a salary of $52,000 a year.” That’s something to aspire to versus children growing up saying, “I want a warehouse job making $10 an hour.”

We need to look at the things that made us attractive to distribution companies and then reapply those things to other companies and fields, such as biotech or film or music.

I was reading that Mississippi has one of the few plants where CDs are pressed. What if we were to look at something like that? If we could use our position — the fact that we’re centrally located — could we lure manufacturers of music CDs because they could be pressed and shipped anywhere around the world? The more highly skilled jobs we get, the more income, the less poverty, we have. Then education levels would increase because people aspire to higher things when they see and experience more things. It’s not that far of a stretch with Memphis and our musical history. Why don’t we use the musical connections that we have to lure that industry here?

PMWorley

A NEVER-ENDING LIST?

Pat Mitchell Worley, host of Beale Street Caravan and Mpact Memphis member

Our arts organizations should have the funding they need, but they also need more than just money: They need people who say, “I’m going to have original art in my house,” instead of going to Target and getting the same piece of art everybody has. I would create more art festivals like the Cooper-Young Festival, so we have more opportunities to buy from local artists, to get the Memphis flavor.

We should increase the minimum wage in Shelby County. We should have a standard living wage, so someone is able to live comfortably instead of squeezing out every dollar to feed their families. When our parents were our age, they could buy a house and a car and live decently working at a gas station. Now you have to have several jobs to have that lifestyle.

I would have mandatory counseling for people filing bankruptcy. It’s too easy to file bankruptcy. There has to be education to explain to people how not to get into those situations.

I think we need new city planners. I have been in other cities that have huge events, but they don’t shut down the city. Here, you dread certain events because you don’t want to deal with the traffic.

I would also demand that local news cover news. They get caught up in frivolous stories that don’t do anything to make Memphis a better place or to make their viewers any smarter. They make their viewers dumb. A lot of stories they choose to do are not news stories. I’m not saying I want a feel-good station. I would like to see this story: Here’s a problem in Memphis. Let’s see how this problem is being handled nationally. We don’t need 15 stories about who has House [license] plates. I don’t need to see someone running out into traffic. I’m more concerned about the little kid down the street who can’t eat.

There’s a never-ending list of things you could change. We’ve done a lot, but we still have a lot to do. n

jmalmoOVERHAUL CITY GOVERNMENT

John Malmo, co-founder of archer>malmo

In 1967, Memphis voters threw out the commission form of government in favor of a new strong mayor and council government. Little by little, each succeeding council has assumed more authority, and since Mayor Willie Herenton abdicated his role as a strong mayor, the council runs roughshod. Most current council members are in over their heads. This council simply is not competent to run a half-billion-dollar city government.

Memphis needs a new City Council of educated individuals with substantial business experience and a sense of noblese oblige who will make decisions in the best interest of the entire city, not merely to benefit one district or an individual councilperson. It should recognize and fulfill its true role of budget oversight and let a competent new mayor run city operations with a few new, talented directors.

The average City Council member has been in office for more than nine years. Eight of the 13 members have served an average of more than 12 years. The mayor is in his 14th year and has announced intentions to run for a fifth term. Memphis needs term limits.

Never has Memphis City Government had so little talent in key positions. To begin with, a competent, experienced CAO should be appointed by the mayor as soon as possible.

Financially, each new annual city budget is the result of a process that begins with the current year’s budget and builds [from there]. Each division director should be required every two years to begin from scratch and build the new year’s budget from a zero base, questioning each individual line item. Only this way can budget inflation be controlled.

City employee numbers, salaries, and benefits are out of control. Eight members of the city’s human-resources department make more than $75,000 a year. Holiday and sick pay policies are too lenient. Each division and department has grown topsy, and mayoral job appointments are 300 percent over the authorized limit. Each department should be examined and a new, more efficient table of organization created for each with more specific job descriptions than exist today.

All city pensions should be restudied to be consistent with what’s going on in the private sector, such as a move away from defined benefit plans.

Each city division should examine each program and facility for cost-efficiency, usage, and obsolescence. Many programs and facilities were created in a different time with different neighborhood environments and requirements. There are parks and golf courses, for instance, that should be closed and the land sold. There are new neighborhoods that need facilities that could be provided with that money.

As for infrastructure, much of the city’s is in disrepair. Inadequate regular maintenance of all kinds of city-owned property leads to more costly, periodic, major maintenance that must be paid with General Obligation bond money and the interest thereon. When a leaky roof is not repaired for several years, the roof must be replaced, as well as interior damage caused to the building.

The city needs someone with a new definition of “clean” and “maintenance.”

The city should get tougher on private-property owners, requiring better maintenance, and should be more aggressive with its power to condemn and raze derelict structures.

What Would YOU Do?

We’d like this week’s cover story to serve as a stimulant to Flyer readers. You’ve read what some of your fellow citizens would do to make Memphis a better place. We want to hear your concrete ideas about how to improve the city and county. Platitudes, such as “Fix the schools,” are useless. Everybody knows we need to improve our schools. What we want are ideas about how to do it. And even though it might feel good, a general bashing of public officials doesn’t accomplish much. You might think the problem is the mayor or the City Council, but the question is, How do we fix the problem? Is there a way to change our political system so that we get more enlightened city and county officials?

So, imagine if you will, that you are in charge of Memphis. You are the boss of, well, us. What would you change and how would you do it? You can e-mail your ideas to brucev@memphisflyer.com.

I look forward to hearing from you.

— Bruce VanWyngarden, editor
Categories
Music Music Features

Sound Advice

Rock-and-roll guitar heroes are supposed to be confident showmen, larger-than-life figures. Their bravado makes plain why the guitar is so often taken as a phallic symbol. But Built To Spill‘s Doug Martsch is a different kind of guitar hero: a guitar hero for people who don’t trust traditional guitar heroes. His obsessive playing, sometimes elegantly epic, sometimes spastic and unhinged, feels more feminine, more exploratory than assertive. His winsome voice (which contrasts with his Pacific Northwest lumberjack looks) and wonder-filled songwriting add to the package. If you want a visual equivalent for the typical Built To Spill song, think of the opening shot of the Jodie Foster/Carl Sagan sci-fi flick Contact, where the entire universe is revealed to be a gleam in a little girl’s eye. Like that shot, Martsch’s music threatens maudlin but usually finds magic.

The band’s first album (Martsch essentially is Built To Spill), 1993’s Ultimate Alternative Wavers, was a lovably disjointed slab of post-punk prog, with Velvet Underground homages and a theme song (“Built To Spill,” natch) that set a tone simultaneously sad-sack and chin-up (“This is how you’ll always feel/It’s no big deal”).

Next was 1994’s distinct pure-pop gem, There’s Nothing Wrong With Love, an anomaly in the band’s catalog in that the guitar work was overshadowed by the songcraft, but it was perhaps the most underrecognized rock record of the decade. Mixing his sugar-rush guitars with some of the finest cello work to ever grace a pop record, Martsch produced an unforgettable batch of songs, touching on such topics as elementary school eroticism (“Seven-up, I touched her thumb, and she knew it was me”), stargazing (“Big Dipper”), wistful childhood memories (“My mom’s good/She got me out of Twin Falls, Idaho/Before I got too old/You know how that goes”), knowing slacker humor (“Jack thought it twice and thought that that had made it true/Some brains just work that way/That’s what chemicals can do”), and the perspective of his own unborn son (“Ain’t it strange that I can dream when there’s nothing I have ever seen?”).

But Built To Spill’s third album, 1997’s Perfect From Now On (which also marked the beginning of one of the longest and oddest indie-band/major-label partnerships ever), set the pattern the band has locked into since. The lyrics, though still lovely, were somewhat less essential, but the music was anything but. It’s a guitar-rock album of epic grandeur, like an indie-rock answer to Neil Young’s Ragged Glory or a shy kid’s alternative to Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation or My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless. Since then, the band has been playing with that formula: Keep It Like a Secret a little harder-edged, Ancient Melodies of the Future more modest. Live captured the arena-rock-for-small-clubs dynamic, with a take on Young’s “Cortez the Killer.”

It’s somewhat surprising that the band is still around, but they have a new album due out later this fall, and Martsch is one of those singular talents worth a special trip. The first time I saw him was at a tiny Minneapolis dive bar in 1994, and it still ranks as an all-time personal concert highlight. Check out Built To Spill at Young Avenue Deli Monday, May 23rd.

Local indie-rockers Snowglobe play the Hi-Tone Café Saturday, May 21st, which ordinarily might not be so notable, but this particular show will mark the final performance with co-founder Brad Postlethwaite, who recently quit the band. Postlethwaite is apparently focusing on graduate school aspirations but says he’ll continue recording solo and working with Makeshift, the local indie label he helped found and which has become a major force on the local rock scene. Snowglobe will be joined by Glossary and May Gray for this farewell gig.

Though I doubt Congress has approved it, this week is apparently Hip-Hop Appreciation Week, and the city’s underground hip-hop scene isn’t letting the week pass without proper observance. There will be a panel discussion — “Memphis Hip-Hop: Originality or Conformity?” — at Precious Cargo coffee house Thursday, May 19th, a “Hopped Out” happy-hour event at the Center for Southern Folklore Friday, May 20th, and then some serious music Saturday, May 21st: first, an MC and DJ battle at Tower Records at noon and then a group hip-hop show being dubbed “Revenge of the Lyrisith” that night at Precious Cargo featuring the Iron Mic Coalition, Poisonous Dialect, and others.

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