Month: September 2007

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

A Memphis Wolverine’s Lament

Taking defeat like a man …

What do you do when your alma mater goes from national championship contender to national joke the first week of the football season by losing 34-32 to Appalachian State?

Withhold your $100 annual contribution to the University of Michigan alumni fund? Yeah, that’ll hurt a lot.

Take the maize-and-blue sticker off your car? That will show them.

Stop making a once-a-decade trip to Ann Arbor to catch a game at The Big House? Ditto.

Quit going to Gill’s Bar and Grill on Highland Avenue to watch Michigan games on the big screen with other alumni and fans? Spiteful and misdirected. Nice place, nice group, and it was fun, or at least it was until last November when Ohio State fans took over the place and their team beat us on the field for the 25th time in a row or whatever.

Cheer for Appalachian State? An interesting possibility. A good team, and Boone, North Carolina, is a beautiful place in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But lifetime allegiances are not easily altered. And it’s 600 miles away and probably a tough ticket now since their stadium has about 90,000 fewer seats than Michigan’s.

Cheer for your kid’s alma mater, the University of Tennessee? They lost by two touchdowns to Cal last week and appear to be on a parallel track to mediocrity with Michigan.

Cheer for your in-laws’ alma mater, Mississippi State? Slaughtered by LSU in the opener and unlikely to win a game in the tough Southeastern Conference this year.

Cheer for the hometown team, the University of Memphis? Lost to Ole Miss at home last week and play a no-name schedule.

Suck it up, take it like a man, and continue to cheer for the Wolverines and embattled head coach Lloyd Carr to make a comeback against cupcakes like Oregon, Notre Dame, and Penn State in the coming weeks? Much too mature, not to mention risky.

No, the answer is to take refuge in the glorious past. A Memphis friend and fellow Michigan alumnus who shall remain nameless has a collection of Michigan football videotapes dating back to the mid-1970s. Needless to say, there are no tapes of Michigan defeats to the likes of Texas, USC, and Ohio State. At least, not in this collection.

In our little world, the boys in maize and blue, come rain or snow or sunshine, always prevail. Michigan State, Ohio State, Nebraska, Notre Dame, and Wisconsin always get crushed. Appalachian State does not exist.

So on crisp autumn afternoons, I’ll go over to my buddy’s house and crack open a beer and sit down in front of the television and watch a little football. We’re adults. We’re grown men. We have real lives. We know how to keep sports in perspective.

We’re not going to let one loss get in the way of an undefeated season and another national championship.

Categories
News

Timberlake/Timbaland Free Concert

No, not in Memphis. Sorry for the tease, but we couldn’t help ourselves. JT and Timbaland surprised Vegas partygoers at the Jet nightclub, showing up at about 1 a.m. and rocking the DJ booth until roughly 4:30.

Not only that, JT’s parents were there, partying on till the wee hours as well. (When was the last time your partied with your mom till dawn?)

With no sign of current fling Jessica Biel, JT made some time with the sexy cocktail waitresses at the club. Read more about the late night Vegas action at Perez Hilton.com.

And remember, when you’re a celeb, what you do in Vegas doesn’t stay there. It ends up here.

Categories
News

Two Tiger Players Plead Not Guilty in Beale Street Incident

(AP) -Two University of Memphis basketball players pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of disorderly conduct and inciting a riot related to a nightclub scuffle over the weekend.

Shawn Taggart and Jeff Robinson appeared briefly in Shelby County General Sessions Criminal Court. Their

The two were arrested after police responded to a disturbance outside the Plush Club on Beale Street early Sunday. Club security accused Taggart of starting a fight, though police said they later refuted that.

While being detained by officers, Taggart was accused of yelling obscenities and agitating a crowd that had gathered outside the club. Robinson also was charged with assault because he approached a police officer aggressively and used verbal threats, said police spokeswoman Monique Martin.

The incident prompted coach John Calipari to impose a curfew and bar them from visiting any nightclub.

Robinson, 19, is a freshman shooting guard from Columbus, N.J. Taggart, 22, is a 6-11 forward from Richmond, Va., who transferred last season from Iowa State. Neither has played a game for the Tigers.

Categories
News

Stellaaaaaa!!!! (Stevens, That Is)

List all the true celebrities from Memphis — living ones, we mean — and these days only a few names come to mind: Justin Timberlake, Cybill Shepherd, Kathy Bates, and … uh, did we mention Justin Timberlake?

But it’s a shame that a pinup girl from Memphis by the name of Estelle Eggleston has sort of dropped beneath the radar, because she was a very hot commodity in the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and — to many of her fans — even today.

We are referring to the TV and movie actress known (after changing her name a bit) as Stella Stevens, who starred in movies with Jerry Lewis, Elvis Presley, and other stars of the day, and is perhaps best known as the prostitute with the heart of gold who wandered all over the sunken ship in a shirt and panties in The Poseidon Adventure.

Well, we’re happy to report that Stella is alive and well, living in California. She recently introduced her own line of perfume, called simply “Sexy,” published a novel (Razzle Dazzle), and also sells autographed publicity photos of herself, among other ventures. We recommend a look at ALL the photos, and are especially intrigued by the group of recent shots that she describes as “a fantasy of lingerie and handguns.”

Check them out, along with a whole lot of other Stella Stevens news, on her official website.

stellastevens.biz/index
Categories
Sports Sports Feature

FROM MY SEAT: Early Lessons

When God
(or Bear Bryant, I’m not sure which) invented football, the first commandment
handed down was the following: “Thou shalt not turn the ball over inside the
opponent’s 10-yard-line.” When the Memphis Tigers committed this sin not once,
but twice in their 2007 season opener Saturday against Ole Miss, their penalty
was a 20-0 halftime deficit that proved too much to overcome, even with a
spirited second-half comeback fueled by a record-setting passing attack and a
Tiger defense that stood toe-to-toe with an SEC offensive line and came away
with a notch in its belt.

“I had
no idea that our football team would play like it did in the first 40 minutes of
this game,” said coach Tommy West after the contest. “I never saw it coming.
That’s as bad as I’ve ever had a team play since I’ve been here. It was
embarrassing. It’s my responsibility. We can’t play any worse than that, I know.

Had
Miguel Barnes not fumbled at the Rebel 8-yard-line late in the first quarter and
had Tiger quarterback Martin Hankins not been intercepted at the Rebel
1-yard-line (a pass that was returned 99 yards for a touchdown by Ole Miss
cornerback Dustin Mouzon, the final score of 23-21 may well have been reversed,
if not padded in the home team’s favor. (Add a blocked-punt also returned for
six points by the Rebs and Memphis really had three game-turning plays in a
single afternoon.)

As a
result of the early deficit, Memphis was forced to take flight with its offense,
which led to quarterback Martin Hankins establishing new school records for
attempts (60, tying Danny Wimprine’s mark) and completions (41, shattering
Wimprine’s standard of 32) in a game. Among the most obvious silver linings to
the loss was the performance of the much-ballyhooed Tiger receiving corps.
Maurice Jones averaged almost nine yards for his five catches. Skyscraping
Carlos Singleton (he’s 6’8″) hauled in eight passes for 91 yards, including a
pair of jumpballs Hankins must have thrown 10 feet in the air. And sophomore
Duke Calhoun — the prince of this bunch — pulled down 10 passes for 87 yards,
scoring twice (once for a touchdown, once for a two-point conversion) on
well-executed cut-back screens. Were it not for the four extra completions
Hankins had — to Ole Miss defenders — the Tigers’ Davey O’Brien Award candidate
would have earned top billing for the opener.

Considering only nine of the Rebels’ 23 points were scored against the U of M’s
defensive unit, that top billing actually goes to the run stoppers and pass
defenders who held Ole Miss to 275 total yards (a fraction of the Tigers’ 467).
It’s unlikely Memphis will face an offensive line as massive as the Ole Miss
unit (average weight: 321 pounds), combined with a tailback as talented as
BenJarvus Green-Ellis (1,000 rushing yards a season ago, including 127 in the
opener against Memphis). With linebacker Winston Bowens and end Greg Terrell
leading the way, the Tigers held Ole Miss to a total of 74 rushing yards. A pair
of early drive-extending penalties were the most damaging marks against new
defensive coordinator Rick Kravitz’s crew.

“I’m
extremely proud of our defense,” noted West, who actually came as close to
ebullience during his postgame comments as you’ll see from a coach on the wrong
end of the final score. “They played their tails off, the whole game.”

It was
the other side of the line of scrimmage where West sees the most room for
improvement. “I’m not pleased with the play of our offensive line,” he noted.
“The difference in the game was we couldn’t block their defensive line on the
pass rush. That’s not gonna be us.”

With all
that went wrong Saturday afternoon, and yet still almost made right by the
steady defensive play and offensive resolve, Tiger fans have every reason to
believe nine-game losing streaks are a distant memory. “This could be a pretty
good football team,” stressed West. “That game was fixing to get out of hand,
and our kids wouldn’t let it. I’m never happy when we lose. But we looked like
what I thought we could look like over the last 20 minutes of the game. With six
turnovers? We shouldn’t have a chance to win the game with six turnovers.”

One game
down and 11 to go for the 2007 Memphis Tigers. Which brings us back to that
football scripture, and our second commandment: “Thou shalt not dwell on last
week’s defeat.”

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

UM-Ole Miss: Early Blunders and a Late Comeback Were the Story

“Thou shalt not turn the ball over inside the opponent’s 10-yard-line.” When the Memphis Tigers flouted this commandment twice in their Saturday opener against Ole Miss, their penalty was a 20-0 halftime deficit that proved too much to overcome, even with a spirited second-half comeback.

For the rest of Frank Murtaugh’s take, go to “Sports Beat”.

Categories
News

Guy Sebastian’s Memphis Diary: Week Five

It’s Wednesday morning and I’m a little tired.

I finished tracking the album last night and afterwards my manager, Titus, and I did the “car listening test”: we drove all over Memphis singing along to all these great Memphis songs in disbelief that this had all come together.

I expressed what my dream way of recording this album would be and left it up in the air as just that — a dream, with the realisation that, of course, I couldn’t pull off getting the highly sought-after soul musicians that played on the actual track. Let alone to be in Memphis where the music was born. Or record in studios where these songs were recorded. And in the same style – cut live with the whole band straight to analogue tape.

We drove around for hours,past the famous Beale St, listening to the tracks thinking, how did we pull this off!

Read Week Five of Guy’s Memphis Diary.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

MAD AS HELL: I’m Back!

About a year ago, I decided it was time to chill. Time to
take a change. When it came to discussing or writing things political, it was
time to simply throw in the proverbial towel, and stop being mad as hell.

With all of the amusements and distractions on
television, not to mention the ever inept MSM (mainstream media), it would be
easy to tune out. With places to travel, plans to make, and life to live,
doing all of that in a constant state of pissiness was becoming a drag. From
now on, I told myself, when the subject of politics, the war, and Dubya came
up, I would declare myself to be SO over it. My garage door was officially
down. I would now simply be Resigned As Hell.

Last week, as I faithfully read the latest copy of The
Flyer, I scanned Chris Herrington’s review of the movie No End
in Sight. The movie, a documentary on the invasion and occupation of Iraq,
sounded interesting, but like something that would appeal to those who are
still venting and irked about the state of affairs. Superbad or The
Simpson’s Movie would be a better choice for someone who is calm, cool,
and over with politics. After all, when you are Resigned As Hell, the last
thing you want to do is to get all hot and bothered about Bush, the war, etc.,
etc.

Labor Day, fall’s official entry, is marked by Americans
with a last swim, some school shopping, and a chance to see that blockbuster
you’ve missed all summer. Like many, I decided it was time to catch a flick.
Call it a change of season, or something in the air, but when I got to the
cinema, for some reason, my resignation started to crumble. I bought a ticket
to No End in Sight.

One critic of the movie said, “Even well-informed
audiences will find their jaws dropping.”

He was right. Comments made by former Bush political
advisors, strategists, and planners were so alarming, my jaws were dropping.
The many remarks made by the U.S. soldiers made my head jangle.

Hearing former Army Major General Paul Eaton, responsible
for training the New Iraqi Army, recount that George W. Bush, Commander in
Chief, had been, after the invasion of Baghdad, totally unaware that his
hand-picked official, L. Paul “Jerry” Bremer, was disbanding the Iraqi Army,
was infuriating.

Listening to the former official in charge of the
Baghdad occupation, Barbara Bodine, describe the office she was given at the
Pentagon and its lack of a computer, or even a telephone, brought back
memories of the unbelievable incompetence demonstrated by this administration
after Hurricane Katrina.

The comments regarding the inability of our officials to
communicate with the Iraqis because no one spoke Arabic was outrageous.
Finally, when discussing the occupation and the ensuing chaos that took place,
former Marine Lieutenant Seth Moulton, a Harvard graduate who led his infantry
platoon during a 2004 deadly attack by militias in Najaf, asks, “Are you
telling me that’s the best America can do? Don’t tell me that. That makes me
angry.”

Well, Seth, I’m feelin’ ya. I’m incensed! I’m livid!
I’m MAD AS HELL!!! And for the next 505 days, there’s no end in sight! Watch
this space!

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

She’s Baaaack! Cheri DelBrocco is Mad as Hell Again!

Sez Cheri: “About a year ago, I decided it was time to chill, time to simply throw in the proverbial towel, and stop being mad as hell about politics. Then I saw the Iraq War documentary, No End in Sight. I’m livid! I’m MAD AS –HELL!!! And for the next 505 days, there’s no end in sight! Watch
this space!”

In fact, go there now, to “Political Beat”.

Categories
Music Music Features

Isaac Does Europe

Isaac Hayes is back in town after a successful European summer tour that covered France, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Even steady rain didn’t dampen the enthusasm of fans in Wiltshire, located in southwest England, at the 25-year-old WOMAD Festival founded by Peter Gabriel. Even with a severe weather warning, Memphis’ own Oscar-winner gave the crowd of thousands an “electric” show. As one fan said, “To see someone like Isaac Hayes perform live is awsome, [especially when] he sang ‘Soul Man’ and then ‘Shaft.’ He was superb.'”
To read more go here.