Month: July 2006

Categories
News The Fly-By

Out of Time

Fifteen-year-old Brittany Neal says “there’s no possible way” a 9 p.m. city-imposed curfew would work for her.

The Harding Academy student plays on her school’s basketball team, and games frequently let out past 9 p.m. And when she gets her driver’s license, she won’t always have a parent with her after the game.

But if some City Council members have their way, the city curfew will be changed to 9 p.m. for all minors. Currently, children under 17 have to be inside by 10 p.m.; 17-year-olds have to be home by 11 p.m.

At an emergency City Council meeting last week — called in response to a recent spate of violent child fatalities — council member Tom Marshall announced the curfew proposal. The council is expected to vote on it at the July 11th meeting.

Under the proposal, five or six school gymnasiums would be used as holding centers for curfew violators. Offenders would be held there until their parents came to get them.

Marshall said that although most of the recent child violence has occurred during the daytime, a tougher curfew law could still help.

But council member E.C. Jones questioned whether the new curfew would be enforceable, claiming that the city doesn’t have officers to enforce the current curfew laws.

“We have people who have to wait two to three hours for a police officer to come to an accident,” said Jones.

Memphis Police director Larry Godwin later said that the department would be ready for a tightened curfew.

“Our department is manned by competent professionals,” said Godwin. “We would answer the council’s call to service.”

He said youth are routinely detained under the city’s curfew ordinance, often resulting in a juvenile summons or physical arrest. Shanika Batts, who was in the car with her sister, 19-year-old Antionette Horton, when Horton shot 13-year-old Melissa Robinson in the head last week, received a curfew violation in 2002 when she was 15.

Nineteen-year-old Ezra Wheeler, a graduate of White Station High School, attended Wednesday’s council meeting.

“Call me crazy, but I doubt that anyone who would shoot someone in broad daylight would seriously fear the repercussions of being caught outside too late,” said Wheeler.

He said it comes down to better parenting, “a solution neither the City Council nor any outside organization can implement.”

Others at the meeting echoed similar concerns. When Horton shot Robinson, her mother was in the car wielding a baseball bat.

“How do you tell a parent to do something different with their child when they’re off doing drugs themselves?” asked Jones.

Since the city and county governments cannot regulate parenting, they’ve turned to another “solution”: prayer. Mayors A C Wharton and Willie Herenton co-sponsored a prayer rally last Friday and declared it a Day of Prayer.

About 300 citizens packed the Civic Center Plaza on the Main Street Mall to listen to area religious leaders speak. Wharton said he hopes to see the city “return to the City of Good Abode.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Q&A: Laura Kaplan and Katie Camille Friedman

Each year, the Presidential Scholars program honors one male and one female high school senior from each state and U.S. territory for academic achievement, along with 15 at-large honorees. In an exception to the rule, this year’s three scholars from Tennessee included two students from St. Mary’s Episcopal School.

But Katie Camille Friedman and Laura Kaplan are very different. While Friedman — heading to Princeton this fall — plays several musical instruments and hopes to be a chemical engineer, the Harvard-bound Kaplan enjoys writing and aspires to address inequality in global health care.

Last week, Friedman and Kaplan flew to Washington, D.C., with teachers Rhendle Millen and Joan Traffas. There, they attended a four-day series of ceremonies, speakers, and tours. The Flyer got the details of their trip. — By Shea O’Rourke

Flyer: Did you see President Bush?

Kaplan: We got to go to the White House, and he came to speak with us for a few minutes. We were late because of flooding, so there wasn’t a lot of time. He didn’t seem to want to shake any of our hands.

Friedman: He shook a couple of people’s hands, and everybody started to swarm around him, and he was like, “I gotta go, I gotta go.”

What did he talk about?

Kaplan: He said he supported all religions, immigration. (Turning to Friedman) Did he have any point, really?

Friedman: It was pretty generic.

Kaplan: But it was exciting. It was a big deal to get to go to the White House with the cool, special entrance.

Friedman: Especially since tours are really difficult to get now.

What were the other Presidential Scholars like?

Friedman: The people we met were very outgoing and a lot of fun to be around. They just happened to be really intelligent people who are going to go off and do exciting things.

Kaplan: A lot of them were people that we will be going to college with, so it’ll be nice to have a few familiar faces.

How did you choose whom to bring as your most inspiring mentors?

Kaplan: That was easy! Ms. Traffas is a phenomenal educator. She forces her students to become critical thinkers, to evaluate their positions, to expand the way they look at the world.

Friedman: It was really easy for me too. I’ve had Doc [Millen] for music classes, humanities, music theory, and band outside of school. He’s the one who supported my music activities the most.

Categories
Music Music Features

When Amy LaVere Met John Entwhistle

CREDIT: photo by Larry Kuzniewski

The current issue of Bass Player magazine has a nice full-page profile of Memphis’ own Amy LaVere. In addition to offering a quick look at the remarkable career of this singer and stand-up-bass artist — which includes stints with the Gabe and Amy Show, her just-released solo album This World Is Not My Home, and even a small role in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line — the article recounts the time that LaVere met John Entwistle, famed bass player for The Who, when he was paying a visit toMemphis several years ago.

According to LaVere, she was playing a gig here with her big standup bass, when Entwistle — widely regarded as one of the best bassists in rock-and-roll — came up to her after the show. “He told me that my slap technique was brilliant,” she says, “but that I was wasting all my energy on ‘that giant piece of shit’. He said I needed to get myself a Fender Precision [electric bass guitar] and then I’d have something.”

Want to know what LaVere thought of Entwistle’s sage advice? You’ll have to check out the Bass Player article.

And while you’re at it, don’t miss some of the Flyer’s own coverage of LeVere.

Categories
News The Fly-By

The Cheat Sheet

1. Escorted by George W. Bush, the prime minister of Japan, Junichiro Koizumi, paid a visit to Graceland last week. The VIPs also dined at The Rendezvous and dropped by the National Civil Rights Museum. Just like a group of typical tourists — except for the couple hundred Secret Service agents and the fact that our visitors came and went aboard a little plane called Air Force One. Memphis hasn’t seen such important visitors since — well, since longer than we can remember.

2. Community leaders held meetings and vigils to ponder why so many children have been shot or killed in our city in recent weeks. One rap artist told reporters, “These kids are just cowards. They get a gun and don’t shoot someone up close. They just start shooting from 10 yards away.” Uh, with all due respect, we don’t care if it’s 10 inches, 10 feet, 10 yards, or 10 blocks. Stop shooting our kids.

3. A large asteroid — called by scientists “2004 XP14” — flew within 250,000 miles of the Earth Monday night. This is the closest an object from space has come to our planet in more than 80 years. Although in astronomical terms this was a mighty close call, gosh, we didn’t feel a thing.

4. Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey was assaulted while waiting in line at a downtown restaurant. This is really getting depressing. Is no place — and nobody — safe in Memphis anymore?

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

We Recommend

thursday July 6

Booksigning by Gina Cordell and Patrick O’Daniel

Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library,

6:30 p.m.

Librarians Gina Cordell and Patrick O’Daniel sign their new book of historic Memphis photographs — some culled from the Memphis Public Library’s archives, others from First Tennessee Bank and Memphis Light Gas & Water.

Country on Beale

W.C. Handy Park, 8 p.m.

Weekly free concert sponsored by

KIX 106. This week’s performance is by Sammy Kershaw.

friday July 7

Roseanna Vitro

Memphis Drum Shop, 7 p.m.

Bluesy, improvisational jazz vocalist Roseanna Vitro performs selections from her new CD, Live at the Kennedy Center.

The Story

TheatreWorks, 8 p.m., $25

A POTS@TheWorks presentation. Drama about a young African-American reporter, new to the job, who investigates the very shady circumstances of a man’s death.

Opening Reception for “Recent Paintings & Drawings” by Pinkney Herbert

David Lusk Gallery, 6-8 p.m.

Pinkney Herbert, known for his exuberantstyle, reveals a new approach in this exhibit. His dark, brash lines have been softened and energy rechanneled into something like deep thought.

Also having an opening reception tonight at David Lusk is Mary Bennett, a Santa Fe-based artist who reworks the ordinary — an old book, for instance — into the extraordinary.

saturday July 8

Memphis Farmers Market

Central Station, 7 a.m.-1 p.m.

Today’s focus at downtown’s Memphis Farmers Market: watermelon. The Farmers Market at the Agricenter International is also open today from 7 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.

American Lotus Festival

Lichterman Nature Center, 2-4 p.m.

Celebrating the blooming of this season’s American lotus, the large aquatic flower. Participants will learn how lotus flowers are used as food, and they can paint a T-shirt to commemorate the event.

sunday July 9

Frozen

Circuit Playhouse, 2 p.m., $20

Last day to catch the bone-chilling drama Frozen, about a missing girl, her grief-mad mother, and a creepy-as-hell serial killer. Memphis stage vet Jonathon Lamer, who plays the killer, gives his last performance before moving to the West Coast.

Pat Donohue

Church of the Holy Communion, 7 p.m., $15 advance, $20 at the door

Pat Donohue is a national fingerpicking guitar champ and a member of Guys All-Star Shoe Band of Minnesota Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion.

monday July 10

Booksigning by Ronlyn Domingue

Burke’s Book Store, 5-6:30 p.m.

Ronlyn Domingue signs copies of her debut novel, The Mercy of Thin Air, about a woman who drowns in the 1920s and remains for the next several decades “between life and whatever comes next.”

wednesday July 12

Stax Music Academy Snap! Summer Music Camp Grand Finale

The Orpheum, 7:30 p.m., $5-$12

Participants in this year’s Stax Summer Music Camp salute Soulsville, USA, the neighborhood that was the stomping grounds of artists such as Al Green, Memphis Minnie, Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire, Aretha Franklin, and many others. The kids will dance, sing, play instruments, and more.

Categories
Music Music Features

A Real Go(o)d Time

Fourth of July, 1998. It was on this evening that I witnessed the Danielson Famile play to around five people at the now-defunct downtown venue, the Map Room. It must be said to those unaware of the collective’s affiliation that I was knocked off of my feet by what was, in their unique and isolated way, a Christian-rock band. I did not abandon my secular ways, but the band’s exuberance and lack of cynicism had a lasting impact. Every avid show-goer keeps a mental list of his or her all-time top five performances, and this one makes my list.

So that’s the name that they started out with, “Danielson Famile,” way back in 1995. The idea was that of Daniel Smith, who turned in the first proper Danielson Famile album, A Prayer For Every Hour, as his thesis when finishing up at Rutgers University. To help with the album and touring, Daniel assembled a group (the youngest was 12 at the time) from his hometown of Clarksboro, New Jersey. Acting as a sibling unit (it remains unclear who is actually blood-related), the band went on to record their second album, 1997’s Tell Another Joke at the Ol’ Choppin’ Block, with noted producer and then-head of Shimmy Disc, Kramer — a change that demonstrated the indie-level attention the band was beginning to attract.

Danielson Famile songs are short, shambling, acoustic-based, and marked by a jarring vocal approach. While the girls harmonize like a children’s choir or a very strange ’60s girl group, Smith’s lead is characterized by his clipped, infantile falsetto, sounding like the absolute highest-pitch moments of the Pixies’ Black Francis/Frank Black. Smith manages to make his unorthodox pipes endearing and incredibly catchy. Live, the band wears doctor and nurse outfits and deploys loosely choreographed dance moves. The band’s Christian element, which is more a message of “good” than one simply of “God,” is a vague, complex vision that is meant to offer a positive experience as opposed to preaching at an audience. Though they’ve done the circuit, achieving standing ovations at the Cornerstone Festival (the Christian Lollapalooza), they’re far too weird for some Christian-rock audiences, especially Christian radio.

Unsurprisingly, the band has a nonreligious underground following. There are touches of Neutral Milk Hotel, Captain Beefheart, Dr. John’s 1969 album Gris Gris, and outsider Christian artists. In 1998, Danielson released Tri-Danielson, a picture of things to come that was split into solo, “rock”-oriented songs and songs similar to previous recordings with the family. A sensible move from the Christian label Tooth and Nail to Secretly Canadian resulted in 2001’s Fetch the Compass Kids, a more straightforward album recorded by Steve Albini.

Some of the group splintered, and Smith went on as more of a solo act (often wearing a massive tree suit of his own creation), releasing Brother Is to Son in 2004 under the Br. Danielson moniker. It was at some point prior to this that Smith discovered and mentored an unknown singer-songwriter named Sufjan Stevens, who made appearances on Danielson records from the early-’00s. As an effort to bring together all previous members of the family and like-minded musicians whom Smith admires or has collaborated with, this year’s Ships is a success.

Released under the Danielson name, the album is as dense and varied as you’d expect from at least 20 guest musicians, not the least of whom is Stevens and practically every member of Deerhoof — a band that was clearly a sonic influence on Ships. The documentary Danielson: A Family Movie — four years in the making — was released earlier this year and is currently making the indie circuit.

If the live pairing of Danielson and Neil Hamburger, the self-proclaimed “worst comedian on earth,” makes little sense, at least take a look at the two things they have in common: Within their respective fields, both are anomalies, and both have released religious albums, though I’m not so sure Hamburger’s Laugh Out Lord falls into sync with any release in the Danielson discography. Hamburger, the performing alias (and character) of Gregg Turkington, has progressed from being a parody of sad-sack borscht-belt comedians into a provocateur of Andy Kaufman proportions.

Armed with a bottomless well of “What did … ” and “What do you call … ” jokes, Hamburger assaults the audience with a topical, absurdist version of the voluminous Truly Tasteless Jokes books that some of us sneaked as children. Two of my personal favorites: “Why did God create Alan Alda? So he would have a way to get Golden Globe awards into hell.” And “Why does Britney Spears sell so many millions of albums? Because the public is horny and depressed.” His multiple appearances on The Jimmy Kimmel Show make for TV viewing that surpasses the discomfort and/or hilarity of any reality show. The best are available on the addictive YouTube.com and are worth seeking out for the less-than-amused look on Yoko Ono’s face. Last year, Hamburger released Great Moments at Di Presa’s Pizza House, and the concert film, That’s Not Gold, It’s Dung, is forthcoming. Does all of this make for an interesting, bizarre evening of entertainment, the kind that comes around, at the most, once a year? I don’t know, you tell me.

Danielson and Neil Hamburger

Hi-Tone Café

Tuesday, July 11th

Doors open at 9 p.m.; admission $8

Categories
Music Record Reviews

Record Reviews

Back 2 Da Basics

Yo Gotti

(TVT)

Yo Gotti uses ace producers and first-rate guests to become a hip-hop contender.

As arguably now the second biggest rap act in Memphis, Yo Gotti is something like Bill Dundee to Three 6 Mafia’s Jerry Lawler (during one of their feuding periods): He’s a worthy competitor locally, but he doesn’t translate outside the market.

The single “Gangsta Party” is a highlight of Gotti’s second album for national hip-hop-heavyweight indie TVT (home of Lil’ Jon and the Ying-Yang Twins), but it’s also unintentionally revealing. Though the presence of old(er)-school stars Bun B and 8 Ball provokes Gotti to step up his game — it’s his most dexterous vocal performance on the album — the strain of the effort shows. In their utter ease, the guest stars rap rings around the headliner.

But another revelation from the song is Carlos Broady’s track, which slices up a Marvin Gaye sample with aplomb. Unlike Three 6, Gotti’s more of a one-trick-pony; he doesn’t have a sound to call his own. But the primary reason Back 2 Da Basics sounds so much more confident, more assured than 2003’s Life, is the presence of so much high-level production. The Memphis-bred, nationally known Broady is all over the record, providing standouts like the slow-swagger, deep-soul groove of “25 To Life” and the dawn-of-gangsta-referencing “Spend It Cuz U Got It.” Name producer Scott Storch also makes an appearance (“That’s What They Made It Foe”). And, in this context, local producer Slisce Tee rises to the occasion, especially with the New Orleans undercurrent he laces into “Where I’m At.”

Lyrically and vocally, Back 2 Da Basics is less compelling. Gotti’s marble-mouthed drawl isn’t nimble or articulate enough for my tastes. (I don’t think he’d fair well on one of those Kool Moe Dee MC scoresheets.) And that doesn’t help enliven the content. The tough-guy routine here (sample title: “I’m a Thug,” which is funny when Trick Daddy says it) minus gripping detail, interesting language, or sharp flow is just boring, regardless of how real the image is. — Chris Herrington

Grade: B

A Generation of Pleasure Seekers

Chess Club

(Young Avenue Records)

This local four-piece rock band with guests (Free Sol, Susan Marshall, Planet Swan) has a sound that’s hard to pin down. Sometimes they sound like radio rock from an earlier era; sometimes like an indie buzz-band from another city; sometimes like an art band from another country. Clearer and cleaner than the Memphis indie-rock norm, they always sound like themselves and never lose an inherent hookiness. A find. (“Apes,” “Hey,” “Your Best Work”) — CH

Grade: B+

The Faithless

Nights Like These

(Victory)

Like many of the albums on Victory Records, The Faithless confidently asserts itself as another addition to the new breed of metal that has been spawned by the hardcore punk scene. The Faithless has moments of thick, epic heaviness that bring to mind Atlanta’s Mastodon but also retains a punk aesthetic that leans in the direction of Boston’s Converge. Vocally, lead singer Billy Bottom emotes a deep growl throughout the album (excluding the black metal-esque opening to “Scavenger’s Daughter”), which, along with the occasional double-bass-pedal breakdown, secures a menacing, dark mood for the majority of the record. The highlight of The Faithless is the technical metal guitar of Darren Saucer and Matt Qualls. (“Storming Valhalla,” “Scavenger’s Daughter”) — Matthew Cole

Grade: A-

Categories
Music Music Features

Sideman Goes Solo

Picture musician Paul Taylor onstage, and you’ll probably imagine him behind a drum kit or plucking the strings of a bass, roles he’s filled with groups as diverse as Gutbucket (the precursor to The North Mississippi Allstars), The Bloodthirsty Lovers, The Gamble Brothers, and Big Ass Truck.

But Taylor debuts as a solo artist with Open, which bridges the gap between Alex Chilton‘s ’70s-era output and the pop territory Shelby Bryant mined for his 2001 masterpiece Cloud Wow Music.

It’s a natural step for this homegrown talent, the son of a onetime Ardent Studios engineer and of the former secretary at Steve Cropper‘s TransMaximus recording studio.

“I cut two solo records that I didn’t believe in,” says Taylor, “before [former Memphian] Kirt Gunn approached me last year and asked if I wanted to record my demos for a crazy interactive Web site he was working on.”

With Kevin Houston as engineer, the two collaborated on Open at the home studio inside the house that Taylor shares with girlfriend Amy LaVere.

“I am singularly obsessed with music, but I have a tendency to toy with it and become easily dissatisfied,” Taylor says. “To my eternal detriment, I’m an agoraphobic freak. On this project, we had just five days to record. I was under pressure, but it was good.

“Of course, if it was up to me, I’d still be tweaking the record,” he adds with a laugh.

Despite the rush, Open sounds unhurried and lush. Taylor’s compositions are easygoing, organic ditties that employ strings, background vocalists, and full instrumentation. His guitar playing is a revelation, as is his weedy, earnest voice, which alternately channels Chilton (“Make You Feel Good” sounds like an upbeat outtake from Big Star’s Third, right down to the lyrical pun on “What’s Goin’ Ahn”), Cory Branan, John Lennon, and Beck.

“Songwriting,” says Taylor, “is close to my heart. I grew up on the Beatles, Big Star, Todd Rundgren, and Joni Mitchell. I could ultimately hide forever as a sideman and not push myself as a songwriter, but I think I have something to offer.”

Taylor’s record will be released on the local Makeshift label and will be available digitally via Ioda (Iodalliance.com), though Taylor greets the imminent availability of his work with a bit of fear.

“I feel apprehensive yet relieved that it’s finally coming out,” Taylor says. “It’s almost like streaking. I’m wondering how I’m gonna support the album. Am I a player/producer who makes the rare solo record, or do I go out and tour? Maybe I’m putting the cart before the horse, maybe I’m being too presumptuous. It’s good for me to just get the album off my back.

“It’s hard to promote myself. I just don’t want to push it,” Taylor says. “I want to let people make up their own minds. There’s a side to being an artist that’s so unnerving to me. If all else fails, I can fall back on playing washtub bass on a street corner.”

The chances of that happening are incredibly slim — and besides, Taylor’s stacking the odds by holding onto at least one of his band gigs, playing drums behind LaVere in her group Amy & the Tramps.

“Amy’s career has totally taken off,” he says. “It’s been pretty awesome to get to ride her wave. I think that I can focus on Open as much as I need to and remain 100 percent committed to her music as well. It will be a little bit of a juggling act, but I don’t see why I can’t be part of both projects.”

Of course, Taylor is too modest to mention that he produced LaVere’s debut album, This World Is Not My Home, released earlier this year on local imprint Archer Records.

After some prodding, he antes up a list of recordings he’s played on in the last 12 months. The roster is long: He cut his first soundtrack, for an independent film called Usually Around Noon, and contributed to recent projects by Brad Postlethwaite, Tim Regan, David Brookings, Jim Dickinson, William Lee Ellis, Shelby Bryant, Lynn Drury, Richard Sims, and more.

“My foot has been in every fire,” Taylor explains. “I’ve known studio musicians my entire life. I’ve always asked, ‘Can I get my foot in the door and get some session work?’ Now I’m finally getting the chance to do it, which has been a total dream for me.”

Paul Taylor plays a CD-release show for Open Thursday, July 6th, at the Hi-Tone Café, with the Pirates and Pat & Caleb Taylor. Doors open at 9 p.m., admission is $5.

Categories
News News Feature

It Takes a Village

Baderinwa Ain lived in New Orleans and spent her days dancing professionally and directing a children’s dance-theater group. Then Hurricane Katrina hit. After evacuating to Memphis, Ain realized something: “I was hearing all this about New Orleans musicians who were changing Memphis’ music scene, but nobody has been covering the dance part.”

So when she heard about the local Bantaba Dance Company, she was intrigued. Could she have an impact? She attended a few rehearsals, joined, and eventually became artistic director, exerting her influence on an already-gifted group.

This Friday and Saturday, the Bantaba Dance Company will perform its second annual Village Heritage Concert.

This year’s concert will tell a story Ain created to embody West African life. The elders of two feuding villages decide to hold a stick-fighting competition, and the winning male will choose a female of the opposing village to marry, thus bringing the villages together.

“I came up with this particular story to show how we have to go back to the old ways — specifically how we must go to the elders who have more knowledge and wisdom about how to correct or solve problems,” Ain says. “[The dance is] aimed at certain communities and youth, because there’s just so much going on right now with violence and crime.”

The story comes alive with vibrant costumes designed by Ain. “Some of the costumes were based on the traditional costuming that’s worn in the professional ballets that came out of Africa, and some are strictly my design,” Ain says. “They’re very colorful, with lots of movement, because in African dance, the costumes dance as well.”

The music includes African drums and flutes. “The music is traditional African rhythms primarily from the West coast, in the Guinea-Mali region,” Ain says. “There are always live musicians in African dance because the dance and the drum go hand-in-hand.”

The result, according to Ain, will be electrifying. “You’re going to have people sitting in seats, but they won’t be sitting for long,” she says. “It’s very high-energy in terms of the dance as well as the music. Once the drums start playing, they get you ready to move. Your heart begins to beat faster.”

“You feed off the audience’s energy and that makes you a better performer,” says dancer Sah Ankh Sa Maat, who co-founded Bantaba in 2003 with Corey Davis.

To Maat and her troupe, interplay with the audience is key in making Bantaba dancers powerful teachers of African heritage. It’s this philosophy that shaped the company’s decision to make the Village Heritage Concert an annual event.

“It’s a continual learning process. We can’t go over everything that goes on in an African village in just one year,” Maat says. “We’re teachers, so we have to keep on teaching.”

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Time for a Change

Where were you 27 years ago? Not yet born, about to graduate from college, about to get married, have your first child, first house, first meal at Benihana? Yes, it’s been 27 years since Benihana opened its doors in East Memphis, and, since then, generations of Memphians have eaten at this popular restaurant.

But now it’s time for a change. Last week, the restaurant chain unveiled “The Next Benihana.” While the restaurant’s pagoda-like exterior remains the same, the inside of Benihana has undergone an extreme makeover.

The first impression of the new interior is that Benihana has gone Starbucks, which is really no surprise since the design firm WD Partners was consulted. WD’s clients include Abercrombie & Fitch, PF Chang’s China Bistro, Marble Slab, and, of course, Starbucks.

Blond wood, bamboo green, stained glass, and stainless steel are dominant, which gives individual cooking/dining stations an almost outdoorsy feel. The former waiting area and karaoke stage have been transformed into a modern bar and lounge with slate floors, wood, and stainless-steel accents. The sushi bar is in the lounge, and there’s now an expanded sushi menu with express lunch and early-bird dinner specials.

Another change: no more karaoke. The food, the hibachi, the knife-juggling, and the shrimp-tossing are as you remember them.

Benihana is open daily for lunch and dinner.

Benihana, 912 Ridge Lake (683-7390)

For a rare treat, pay a visit to Wally Joe restaurant this weekend.

Wally Joe has gotten its hands on Yukon River King salmon, some of the finest and fattiest salmon in the world.

Yukon River salmon has been absent in the U.S. market for pretty much the past 30 years, when all of the harvest went to the Japanese market. Three years ago, however, the Yukon River King became available in the United States. Of the five species of Pacific salmon, Kings are the largest, with some weighing as much as 100 pounds and with fat reserves that can reach up to 34 percent, making it the richest-tasting salmon available. The season for this salmon is barely two weeks long, and this year it ends on July 10th.

Wally Joe prepares the King Salmon tartare with apple-wood smoked bacon, crispy potatoes, and cucumber tomato sauce or simply grilled with lemon and olive oil and served with Yukon Gold potatoes, asparagus, and truffle corn jus.

Wally Joe, 5040 Sanderlin (818-0821)

The Avenue Carriage Crossing goes to the Rocky Mountains with the newest addition to the shopping center’s dining choices: Firebirds Rocky Mountain Grill.

This is the second Memphis-area Firebirds Grill for the Colorado-based franchise. Firebirds has set out to offer diners the flavors of the American West, where the “wood fire of the cattle ranch meets the bold flavor of the Desert Southwest.”

That translates into wood-grilled salmon, Aspen sirloin (a center-cut, aged Black Angus sirloin lightly seasoned and fired over a wood-burning grill), a slow-cooked rotisserie pork loin that’s been marinated for 48 hours with honey, sage, rosemary, and juniper berries, and surf-and-turf combinations including filet, sirloin, baby-back ribs, lobster, shrimp, and salmon.

The look is reminiscent of a Colorado ski lodge — an open-air kitchen, exposed wood beams, and a stone fireplace in the bar and on the patio.

Firebirds is open Sunday to Thursday 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Happy-hour bar bites and drink specials are available Monday through Friday from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the bar and on the patio.

Firebirds Rocky Mountain Grill, 4600 Merchants Circle, Suite 101 (850-1603)