Month: July 2006

We Recommend

Post author By
Post date July 5, 2006

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.

News News Feature

On the Fly

Post author By Andrew Earles
Post date July 5, 2006

Fly fishing remains an underdog in the South. We favor skill-negating gadgetry, obscenely powerful boats with ridiculous metal-flake paint jobs and names like (I’m guessing) The Bassassinator, and flashy tournaments that are essentially NASCAR for the angler world. But this could quietly change with the efforts of Mid-South Fly Fishers, a Memphis-based organization of 700 members (incorporated in 1977) that holds a little-known distinction: It is the largest fly-fishing club in America.

Numbered are the days of the sport as a long-reputed insular society of obsessives turning down their noses at any other form of fishing. With the hosting of the Home Waters Expo (along with Germantown Parks and Recreation) at the Germantown Performing Arts Centre this weekend, MSFF hopes to broaden awareness of fly fishing as an increasingly accessible sport, open to those of all incomes. “People have often thought of fly fishing as a gentleman’s sport that required a lot of money,” says Mike Isom, vice president of MSFF. “Now you can get into fly fishing for around $200. Ten years ago, it would have been $1,000.”

Casual observers almost always associate fly fishing with cold, moving water and target fish being trout or salmon. Actually, you can fly fish for just about anything. “A five pound bass on a fly is just as exciting as a five pound trout. With sinking lines and other advances, we can fish the bottom just like everyone else,” Isom explains.

“You could take a full month and still not fish all of the ponds, lakes, and watersheds in the Memphis area,” Isom says. “Shelby Farms in particular is a great place to fish.” In fact, MSFF is “sponsoring” Beaver Lake, one of the park’s larger ponds, by clearing out the brush that runs along the eastern shore.

The Home Waters Expo ’06 has dual focuses: introducing fly fishing to newcomers and promoting fishing in the warm waters of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and the Gulf Coast. Rod and reel manufacturers, fly-tying experts, casting experts, fishing guides, regional and national vendors, additional conservation organizations such as the Wolf River Conservancy, regional fly shops, and fishing lodges will be among the attractions. Highlighting all of this will be the appearance of two legends within the world of fly fishing: Lefty Kreh and Cindy Garrison.

It’s possible that every outdoor magazine in existence has at some point carried Kreh’s byline during his 45 years of writing. He was the outdoor editor of The Baltimore Sun, has penned several books, and is an accomplished nature photographer. With a place in the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame and with several prestigious awards under his belt (Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sportfishing Association, to name one), Kreh has fished wherever there are fish.

Garrison belies her age (34) with an outdoor resume that seems the stuff of grizzled elders. After a stint of ski instructing and guiding fly-fishing trips in Alaska in her early 20s, Garrison settled in Africa for several years where she founded Safari Anglers, a guide company for anglers seeking one of fly fishing’s holy grails, the African Tiger Fish. When ESPN2 was looking for new locations for its series In Search of Fly Water in 2002, Garrison was hired as a guide when the show filmed in Botswana. She was subsequently asked to host the renewed 2004-2005 season of the show and, beginning this month, will be hosting her own outdoor adventure program, Get Wild With Cindy Garrison!.

Garrison illustrates another attraction of fly fishing that other forms of angling most certainly lack: gender balance.

“It seems that at least 50 percent of our members, and fly fishers in general, are women, and if you take any fly-fishing situation with men and women, the women will out-fish the men,” Isom says. He goes on to relate an anecdote in which a close friend is always stretching the truth with regard to the number of his catches. The wife doesn’t bother, Isom says, “and you can bet that she caught 20 more fish than her husband.”

Music Music Features

A Real Go(o)d Time

Post author By Andrew Earles
Post date July 5, 2006

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

Music Record Reviews

Record Reviews

Post author By
Post date July 5, 2006

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-

Music Music Features

Sideman Goes Solo

Post author By Andria Lisle
Post date July 5, 2006

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.

News News Feature

It Takes a Village

Post author By Shea O'Rourke
Post date July 5, 2006

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.”

Food & Wine Food & Drink

Time for a Change

Post author By Simone Wilson
Post date July 5, 2006

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)

Film Features Film/TV

Nerd Paradise

Post author By Chris Herrington
Post date July 5, 2006

In the best scene in Wordplay, crossword-puzzle constructor Merl Reagle sits alone at his dining-room table with a pencil and a piece of graph paper. Many of us try to solve crossword puzzles, those enticing but frustrating blocks of blackened squares and open spaces yearning to be filled. But most of us have probably never thought much about how they’re created. So Reagle, a regular contributor to The New York Times crossword, gives us a lesson.

First he shades in a few boxes, giving his puzzle some shape and symmetry. Then he writes in a few key words he wants to build the puzzle around. Then he goes about filling in the rest, negotiating tricky letter combinations, trying not to work himself into an irresolvable corner, coming up with combinations of letters that he thinks are words but needs to consult a dictionary to be sure about. As much fun as trying to solve a puzzle may be, Reagle makes us want to try to make one. Especially when we later see the delight of celebrity crossword addicts like Daily Show host Jon Stewart and former President Bill Clinton when they try to solve Reagle’s puzzle.

And that’s one of the great things about Wordplay, a charming, modest documentary about people who make crossword puzzles and the “solvers” who are their audience: It makes thinking itself fun, exciting, and suspenseful.

Wordplay, confidently and affectionately directed by first-timer Patrick Creadon, begins as a bio-doc of New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz, who took over editing duties in 1993, adding pop-culture answers and a looser framework to the venerable puzzle. But before he was at the paper of record, Shortz founded the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which is held every year in Stamford, Connecticut.

Wordplay‘s real subject, it turns out, is the 2005 tournament (the 28th) and some of its key competitors. Despite the presence so many celebrity puzzle fans (Clinton compares solving a crossword to grappling with global problems as president — you start with what you know and use that to figure out the rest), none of these notables is quite as interesting as the ordinary citizens who compete in Shortz’ tournament.

Wordplay‘s format is similar to the recent spelling-bee documentary Spellbound. We meet a few contestants in their home environments and learn about them, then follow as they all come together at the competition.

In this case, memorable competitors include Ellen Ripstein, a self-described “little nerd girl” who won the tournament in 2001 after many near misses. (Creadon includes archival footage of Ellen’s win, her frowning at the judges — “Are you sure? Are you sure?” — as applause erupts around her.) Ellen’s a mousy, nervous thing who likes to go baton twirling in the park and who remembers fighting back against an unkind ex-boyfriend who mocked her crossword obsession by asking, “What are you the best in the world at?” And then there’s Tyler Hinman, an astoundingly normal 20-year-old college student who constructs puzzles at his fraternity house and is trying to become the youngest winner ever.

Wordplay isn’t as emotionally engrossing as Spellbound. You don’t worry over these adults the way you do the kids. But it’s more inspiring. The tension and competition in Spellbound could be a little uncomfortable, and that movie never made you want to spell. In Wordplay, the solvers want to win, but the journey of solving the puzzle is more important. As is the fellowship with their crossword-addicted friends.

There’s something almost utopian about Wordplay‘s climactic gathering: In an increasingly dumbed-down and coarsened culture, here are dozens of smart, kind people enjoying each other and the literate, engaging puzzles they solve. Who knew nerd paradise was a hotel conference room in Connecticut?

Tags film, Review, Wordplay