Month: July 2007

Governor Phil Bredesen and Tennessee Department of Revenue officials are reminding Tennesseans that the second annual Sales Tax Holiday begins this Friday, August 3, at 12:01 a.m.and ends Sunday, August 5, at 11:59 p.m.

This holiday provides statewide sales tax exemption for school and art
supplies and clothing priced $100 or less per item and computers priced
$1,500 or less.

This is the first holiday that art supplies will be
exempt, which includes clay and glazes; tempera and oil paints;
paintbrushes for artwork; sketch and drawing pads; and watercolors.

Visit the dedicated Sales Tax Holiday website to learn more
about what items are exempt from sales taxes.

The foul words on TV’s Jerry Springer won’t be bleeped out when the show comes to Memphis. In fact, they’ll be sung.

Jerry Springer: The Opera will premiere August 10 at Playhouse on the Square, located at 51 South Cooper.

The theater’s website describes the musical’s plot: “As people confess to an assortment of infidelities and guilty secrets, the television host eventually finds himself in a hell of his own making and is called upon to effect a reconciliation between the two ultimate adversaries — Satan and Jesus.”

The show, which will run through September 9th, is the winner of the 2004 Olivier Award for Best Musical. For reservations and ticket information, call 726-4656.

The pictures are pretty bleak, but it’s the way South Main was back in the mid-’80s. It’s also the way Robert McGowan, former art critic for the Flyer, founder of the art journal Number:, founder of the late (and lamented) Memphis Center for Contemporary Art, and an artist (and writer) himself, saw it.

See for yourself in McGowan’s photo essay documenting South Main in the latest issue of Culture Grits: A Mouthful of Memphis, a biweekly online magazine, featuring essays, fiction, business news, food news, and a “soul series” on Memphis music.

It’s been touted as the most important vote of the year. It’s the Flyer‘s Best of Memphis Readers Poll, and, of course, we’re the ones doing the touting.

Vote now.

Fan of the toy ponies of many colors and the silky, brushable manes will be gathering today at the Cook Convention Center for the My Little Pony Fair.

Most girls discover My Little Pony in preschool, but my daughter was a latecomer, eschewing the trend until her early teens when, in a DIY frenzy, she started customizing the pastel prancers. Her passion for the craft was unstoppable, sending her to thrift shops to rescue discarded ponies, to crafts stores for Sculptey and beads, and to online forums for detailed instructions on how to reroot pony manes one strand at a time. To this day, my most treasured gift is a custom garden pony with messenger bag, flower tattoo, and jaunty straw hat. I call her Miss Bloomer.

If you don’t know that every MLP has a name, then the My Little Pony Fair Collectors Convention isn’t for you. But if your love for the little ponies is, well, a little obsessive, head straight for the Memphis Cook Convention Center for a national gathering this weekend of like-minded enthusiasts. Now in its fourth year, the convention is finally endorsed by Hasbro, which introduced the first generation of ponies (now there are three) in 1982.

The convention includes a custom pony swap, pony “Jeopardy,” and lots of cool pony merch. But perhaps the thing that’s got MLPers chomping at the bit the most? Hasbro will unveil a new pony at the show.

For more information, go here.

–Pamela Denney

“His hair is slicked back, vest plastered on, microphone tilted toward his lips and flared pants draped to the floor.”

On Thursday, a bronze statue of Elvis was unveiled in Honolulu. The statue was commissioned by TV Land to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Elvis’ death. The statue shows Elvis as he was during the 1973 concert “Aloha from Hawaii,” the first to be broadcast in satellite.

“It’s about time. Elvis gave so much to Hawaii,” said impersonator Jonathon Vonbrana, who had carefully sculpted black hair and wore dark sunglasses. “It’s excellent. A lot of the statues don’t even look like him.”

Read the rest of the AP account here.

Cover bands are often overlooked. Members can change from one day to the next, and people tend not to notice so long as they keep on cranking out familiar hits.

But thanks to mile-high bouffant wigs, flashy sequin gowns, and lots of makeup, Memphis’ Bouffants aren’t the average party band. Their presentation is nearly as important as the Motown and Stax soul covers they perform at special events around town.

Get to know the ladies behind all that hair in “The Bouffants Undressed” at Theatre Memphis Friday and Saturday night. They’ll be leaving their clothes on, but the wigs will stay backstage as the four-piece female outfit performs in a relaxed cabaret-style setting.

For more on the Bouffants, go here.

Get the details in the Flyer’s searchable listings.