Month: October 2007

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

LaSimba Gray to Congressional Black Caucus: “Stay Out” of 9th District Race

CREDIT: jb

According to
Roll Call, a Washington, D.C. publication for political insiders, the
Rev. LaSimba Gray is asking members of the Congressional Black Caucus to “stay
out” of the 2008 Democratic primary race pitting incumbent 9th
District congressman Steve Cohen against repeat challenger Nikki Tinker.

Noting an appearance in Memphis last weekend on Cohen’s behalf by U.S. Rep.
Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, who is black, Gray said, according to the
newspaper, “”Steve
Cohen has been quoting many of them heavily and bringing them into the district
and we are simply asking them to stay out of this race.”

Gray strove unsuccessfully during the 2006 congressional race to winnow down a
large field of African-American candidates to a consensus black
candidate to oppose Cohen, who, as the minister noted, is both white and Jewish.

Roll Call quoted Gray as contending that the second-place finish in last
year’s primary of Tinker, a corporate attorney, meant that “she has won … the
primary of African-American candidates.” Gray said further, “The road has been
cleared for Nikki and we are busy meeting with candidates who ran last time to
show them the reality — the fact that with all of them in the race they can’t
win.”

Gray’s concept of a black-versus-white showdown was frowned on by Cleaver
spokesman Danny Rotert, who remarked that Cohen seemed to stand high in the
estimate of his constituents and observed, “If somebody here [Kansas City] said
Congressman Cleaver can’t represent his district because it’s a [majority] white
district, that would not go very far. So it’s too bad that that’s the rhetoric
that’s being used in Memphis.”

As of the last Federal Election Commission filing, Roll Call noted,
Tinker had $172,000 in cash on hand compared to Cohen’s $374,000. As the
periodical also observed, the feminist organization Emily’s List, which supported Tinker
strongly in 2006, has so far been non-committal about 2008.

A number of Tinker’s former Memphis supporters have also indicated they will not
be backing her in next year’s race. One such, lawyer Laura Hine, said she had
committed to Tinker in 2006 before Cohen made his candidacy known. Affirming her
support for Cohen in next year’s race, Hine said recently, “The fact is, he’s
been a very effective congressman, speaking to all the issues I care about.”

One such issue, according to Hine, was pending federal Hate Crimes legislation,
which Cohen has backed and Tinker has been silent about. Rev. Gray recently made
an effort to organize opposition to Cohen’s stand among black ministers, on the
ground that the bill would muzzle their opposition to homosexuality.

Other
local African-American ministers, like the Rev. Ralph White and the Rev. O.C.
Collins Jr., have refuted that allegation, citing specific sections of the bill,
and made a point of supporting Cohen. The Memphis chapter of the NAACP also
recently affirmed its support of the bill and Cohen’s activities on its behalf.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from the Editor: “Monetizing Content” at the CA

In his “City Beat” column last week, John Branston reported on a new policy at The Commercial Appeal regarding advertiser sponsorship of news and features. Editor Chris Peck calls it “monetizing content.” Journalists around the country — and in the CA newsroom — are calling it a bad idea.

Posted online with John’s column at MemphisFlyer.com is an internal memo from CA management outlining the new policy. Here’s a sample: “Newspapers are looking for new ways to attach ads in print and online to specific stories, features, and sections. This represents a marked change from past practices. No longer are there thick, inpenetrable walls between newsroom, advertising, and circulation departments. Today … [we] understand that our content is what makes us valuable and we want to ‘put a meter’ on that value.”

The sound you hear is that of editors spinning in their grave.

I’m not going to pretend that editors never have to deal with helping to generate revenue. At the Flyer, we run lots of “special sections” — dining guides, gift guides, etc. — in the hopes that advertisers will buy ads because the content is relevant to their business. But that’s quite different than putting a logo from, say, Malco Theatres, in the middle of Chris Herrington’s film column. Such a move would call into question Chris’ ability to impartially review a movie.

The CA now puts a logo from Boyle Investments and a “sponsored by” line in Amos Maki’s “Done Deals” column in the Sunday paper. Does the logo alter Maki’s ability to write the column objectively? Probably not. But it gives the appearance that journalism is for sale, and it devalues his work.

The issue drew national attention from journalism trade websites such as Editor & Publisher and others last week. Peck responded at length to E&P, saying future sponsorships are probable, but they would not likely be attached to what he termed “high-end pieces of journalism.” (I bet that makes Maki feel good.)

But why hasn’t Peck come clean with his own readers about this policy? What’s “high end” journalism? What’s “low end”? And how can the reader tell the difference? He’s got a weekly column, after all.

Maybe he’s waiting to find a sponsor for it.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Kickin’ Around the Cobblestones — in Downtown Memphis

On a day when most Memphians concerned themselves with such mundane matters as rain, work, school, crime, foreclosures, and the fights and shootings that broke out at four city schools, 40 of us met at City Hall Wednesday to hear a two-hour discussion of rocks.

The rest of you can be excused for wondering if we have rocks in our heads.

The rocks in question are the cobblestones at the foot of downtown. The rock hounds included two reporters, representatives of the Tennessee Department of Transportation and various state and local historic preservation groups, and supporters and foes of the proposed Beale Street Landing.

The rocks are next to the landing. To a handful of people, the rocks are a historic treasure comparable to Beale Street or the Mississippi River itself. The $29 million landing might have “an adverse impact” on the rocks, which are slated for additional millions. Hence Wednesday’s meeting.

“The current design reflects a primarily recreational use of boarding and disembarking pleasure boat and cruise ship passengers,” says the state report. “In doing so, the design overwhelms any sense of the historic commercial use of the riverfront.”

This is the problem with projects like Beale Street Landing and the proposed new stadium at the Fairgrounds. They absurdly inflate the importance of something that matters little if at all to most people and prevent progress on smaller and easier projects with potentially far greater benefits.

For decades, the cobblestones were so treasured that downtown workers and visitors used them as a bumpy and treacherous parking lot. Now they might be “adversely impacted” by the “verticality” of Beale Street Landing.
As Benny Lendermon, the head of the Riverfront Development Corporation, noted, the elevation of the river fluctuates 57 feet. In high water, most of the cobblestones are submerged. In low water, big touring riverboats can’t get in the harbor.

Hence the proposed landing at the north end of Tom Lee Park. It will be used by recreational boats, small day-tour boats, and big, fancy, cruising boats like the Delta Queen. That is, if the Delta Queen doesn’t go out of business in 2008 because the government has deemed it a fire hazard, as The New York Times reported Thursday.

The design of the docking part of the landing is unique. After some sharp discussion Wednesday, it was determined that “unique” means nothing like it has ever been built before. RDC engineer John Conroy said its structural soundness has been certified.

The people from state government who hosted Wednesday’s meeting are not “big-picture” deciders. They are, as one of them explained, a “pass-through” agency. They will go back to Nashville and weigh the historic considerations and announce, sooner or later, if and how the project can proceed.

Beale Street Landing, whose cost may now fluctuate like the river elevation, is to be funded by a combination of local, state, and federal funds. Some of the federal funds come from the Department of Homeland Security, because there are ferry-boats involved.

And you thought Homeland Security was just to protect us from terrorism.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

The Man Who Shot Brad Pitt

When Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) first appears onscreen in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, he looks the part of the cold-blooded killer. With his stovepipe hat, silent-film villain’s whey-faced complexion, and seamlessly mortared, predatory row of top teeth, Ford evokes the angel of death so strongly that you half-expect the film to end before anyone has finished a plate of beans or saddled a horse. But soon it’s apparent that Ford would have trouble killing a fly; he’s actually the meek, overenthusiastic specter of celebrity worship — just a drooling, dream-addled fan of the outlaw Jesse James (Brad Pitt) who has come not to bury the gunslinger but to join him in one last midnight ride.

Eventually, Ford joins the James gang, and after following James around much of Missouri, he ultimately fulfills the duty implicit in the film’s title. To his credit, though, writer/director Andrew Dominik takes his slow, sweet time getting there, and that’s one of his film’s many triumphs. The Assassination of Jesse James is both a meditative, haunting Western and a smashing example of inspired genre work.

Dominik’s wordy screenplay, which achieves a kind of mock-Cormac McCarthy eloquence, enhances the humdrum story’s pulpy, mythical qualities. Dick Liddle (a superb Paul Schneider), one of James’ hoodlums, avers that “You can hide things in vocabulary,” and unusual words such as “vouchsafe,” “palaver,” “auguries,” and “personage” tumble from Hugh Ross’ narration. This imaginative diction spills over into the characters too. When Liddle is shot in the leg, he describes his wound to Ford as “full of torment, Bob. Thanks for askin’.”

This ornate vocabulary does indeed hide the basic emotion that unifies all these characters: fear. Worn to the stumps by bad weather and paranoia, these men feel exposed everywhere. As Pitt plays him, Jesse James is little different from his bumbling cohorts. He’s scared and hunted. However, he’s a much more experienced and merciless killer and that is a significant asset.

Jesse James‘ photography is also a significant asset for the film. Camera man Roger Deakins, who shot several of the Coen Brothers’ films, achieves some magnificent pictorial effects by shooting many scenes with the most meager light sources — lanterns, candles, sunlight, stars, reflected snow. In one ironic lighting decision, a single outhouse candle dwindles to blackness as Liddle prepares to dip his wick in a willing adulteress (Kailin See).

The last 20 minutes of the film explore the much larger irony of Ford’s own fate after he shoots James in the back (an act played out in the film like a staged ritual even when it happens the first time.) As the years go by, Jesse James, bandit and murderer, is fondly recalled as an American hero, while Ford grows more reclusive and insecure as his hate mail piles up. Ford’s cruel destiny is thus to live out a genre axiom. The success of the film is the failure of Ford’s own life: the how is much more important than the what.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Opening Friday, October 26th

Multiple locations

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Indie Memphis Thursday Picks

The Indie Memphis Film Festival concludes at Malco’s Studio on the Square today. Our daily pick for the night’s best screening:

Manufacturing Dissent

The winner of the best documentary prize at this year’s festival, Manufacturing Dissent is a surprising profile of nonfiction filmmaker and progressive rabble-rouser Michael Moore, directed by two fans — filmmakers Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk — whose view of Moore changed considerably in the process. Read Greg Akers’ story about Manufacturing Dissent and its filmmakers.

Screens at 7:15

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

“I Need You to Help Me,” a Restrained Herenton Tells Chamber Audience

CREDIT: jb

In a conspicuously low-key but resolute appearance before a
Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce audience at the Memphis Marriot East
Thursday morning, a newly reelected Mayor Willie Herenton proclaimed a broad
agenda for his fifth term and declared, “The next four years I’m hitting the
ground. I’m hitting it hard. I’m going to let it all hang out.”

Appearing subdued and almost somber at times, the mayor
laid before the packed audience at the Chamber’s “Breakfast Forum 280907” a wish
list of key objectives — prominently including city/county consolidation;
Fairgrounds and riverfront development; and resolution of issues involving Beale
Street and the National Civil Rights Museum.

“We need to consolidate. We’ve been singing that song, and
we’re going to open that hymnbook again,” Herenton vowed. He went on to note
wryly, “I’m not without bold ideas. I just don’t have the support.”

Acquiring such support on this and other issues would be a
major objective, he said, clearly striving to avoid a confrontational tone, “I
can’t do it by myself. I need you to help me,” he acknowledged, going so far as
to strike an accustomed note of modesty. “I’m just an average person,” declared
the man who on other occasions has seemed to profess divine sanction for his
actions.

Continuing in the conciliatory vein, he mayor said somewhat
pointedly, “I don’t want to be accused of bashing the media.” Nor did he, though
he ran through a laundry list of public concerns vented by the media (among them
Iraq, global warming, demographic shifts locally) and lamented, “We function on
negatives rather than positives.”

Though his remarks were largely cast in generalities, the
mayor seemed to take sides in the currently percolating controversy over
community-versus-corporate control of the Civil Rights Museum. “Without private
philanthropy and support, there is no museum,” he said emphatically.
That, he said without elaboration, was “more important” than feuds or the wishes
of individuals.

In introducing Herenton, Chamber president and CEO John
Moore had been at pains to credit the mayor with numerous positive achievements,
mostly in the sphere of economic development. This was a seeming response to
campaign rhetoric in which Herenton had frequently challenged the Chamber to own
up to his accomplishments.

In his own summing up Thursday, the mayor ticked off some
of the city’s blessings. Memphis possessed affordable housing and an inviting
tax base. It was “the largest air-cargo destination center in the world…the
largest mail-processing center in the United States… the second-largest
manufacturer of orthopedic-device medical devices in the United States.”

And, he said, Memphis was the smallest city to have both a
major airline hub (Northwest) and a National Basketball Association franchise.

“This city’s best days are ahead of us,” Herenton
concluded. “Let us embrace change and diversity. Let us be one city. I want to
be a part of that.”

In a brief
Q-and-A session with reporters afterward, the mayor attempted to minimize the
brewing argument between himself and the city council over who gets to appoint
council staff. “I never have selected anybody,” he said, stressing that his
mayoral prerogative to make such appointments was largely a formality – but one
he was prepared to litigate in order to preserve.

Categories
Music Record Reviews

The Wolf

There is a carefree — almost lackadaisical — attitude informing the music of Shooter Jennings that is also refreshingly anti-Nashville. The fan base who embraces Shooter, the son of Waylon Jennings and recording-artist-in-her-own-right Jessi Colter, are predisposed to reject Music Row’s buffed and airbrushed product coming from the likes of Rascal Flatts and Keith Urban.

The Wolf harkens back to days when Shooter’s daddy was making hits. Back then, the best prize a country star could receive was a radio hit and, with an army of songwriters supplying songs, the norm was to release two or more albums a year in hopes that one of them would have the golden single.

Having released three albums in as many years, Shooter embraces that kind of fast pace. He’s only had one modest hit, “4th of July,” off his debut Put the O Back in Country, and clearly stardom isn’t a destination on the man’s MapQuest. He understands that he’s too wild and wooly for Nashville and too Nashville to make a splash in whatever is left of the rock audience.

He pretty much lays out his predicament on the infectious fiddle-driven opening track “This Ol’ Wheel,” with “We picked a dark horse, and we’re gonna ride it to the end.” His cover of the Dire Straits’ “Walk of Life” is faithful to the original, except with fuzzy guitars and Shooter’s honky-tony croak giving it less sheen and more life.

The ballads “Slow Train” and “Tangled Up Roses” are a nod to old-fashioned country. “Slow Train” even has some “Ring of Fire”-like horns. But Shooter can’t find a way into the songs and, as a result, they come across like material he puts on the record to keep his outlaw-country credentials in check.

“She Lives in Color” brings the horns back for better effect, especially as Shooter cuts back his croak and rides a sweet melody that comes across like a lost ’70s classic. It’s a strange and beautiful song, and you can’t imagine any other artist alive pulling it off. That’s Shooter’s gift and curse. The best thing is that he seems to be at peace with it. — Werner Trieschmann

Grade: B+

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Indie Memphis Award Winners

Congratulations to the award winners at this year’s Indie Memphis Film Festival, announced last weekend at Studio on the Square.

Kentucker Audley’s debut feature Team Picture, in which the filmmaker stars as a young man negotiating the conflicting identies of his family life and his newfound adulthood, won what has become the festival’s signature prize, the Hometowner award for best local feature ($600). Other Hometowner winners included Angel Ortiz’s disturbing torture-themed four-minute First Amendment: Cancelled in the narrative short category ($400) and Joann Self’s 12-minute Voices of Jericho for best documentary ($400).

In the non-local Soul of Southern Film category, Broke Sky won best narrative feature ($750); the

Michael-Moore-tracking Manufacturing Dissent won best documentary ($750); The End of Magic won best narrative short ($500); and She Sank on a Shallow Bank won best animated or experimental film ($500).

The festival committee’s Ron Tibbett Excellence in Filmmaking Award ($500) went to the New Orleans-set, post-Katrina short film Help is Coming.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

Letters to the Editor

Monetizing Content at the CA

John Branston’s City Beat column was a revelation to me (October 18th issue). I live on the East Coast, but I am originally from Memphis and keep up with the city through reading various websites. I remember The Commercial Appeal in its feisty days under former editor Angus McEachran. The CA was by no means a perfect newspaper when I last lived in Memphis (in the early 1990s), but I can’t imagine McEachran taking the “sale” of his reporters’ work lying down.

I realize that newspapers all over the country — especially corporate-owned ones that have to meet Wall Street’s ever-growing profit demands — are struggling mightily to survive, but do the bean-counters who run the CA (and their apparent ally, editor Chris Peck) really think readers won’t notice when advertiser logos start appearing in news articles? I fear dark days are ahead for this bunch, and also, sadly, for those who work in the CA newsroom.

Steve Morris

Boston, Massachusetts

Across the Universe

After watching the brilliant, powerful, moving film, Across the Universe, I came home and read Addison Engelking’s abbreviated, terrible review of the movie (October 18th issue). I could not believe he watched the same movie I did. Of course, he is entitled to his opinion, but he obviously could not relate to the idealistic characters or the 1960s milieu.

One of the more powerful sequences in Across the Universe occurs when one of the characters is drafted into the Army and sent to Vietnam. These unforgettable (not cheap) images capture the power of the government and the demonization of an individual as outside forces take over his life. The film is full of such haunting images, hooked together with extraordinary renditions of classic Beatles songs that bring to life one of the most eventful eras in American history.

Randy Norwood

Memphis

Selling Artifacts

We felt compelled to comment on Mary Cashiola’s recent interview with June West of Memphis Heritage (In the Bluff, October 18th issue) detailing the “yard sale” approach to Memphis’ historic artifacts.

If not for the efforts of the local park preservation group Save Libertyland!, Memphis’ grand carousel would have been auctioned off as well. Thankfully, this National Historic Register landmark, worth $6 million, was preserved.

Next September, the National Carousel Association will bring its annual convention to Memphis to celebrate the successful rescue of this unique example of Americana. The Zippin Pippin is also slated for listing on the National Historic Register as well. Both landmark structures are the subject of a feasibility study to determine their value as tourist attractions.

Should Memphis’s authenticity continue to be sold to the highest bidder? Rather than selling out, Memphis should be promoting (and profiting from) the uniqueness that makes this city a destination for the world.

Nick Davis, Tom Foster, Jessica Buttermore, Misty White, Denise Parkinson,

Chris Lucchesi, Jasper Williams

Memphis

Halloween Bone

I can’t tell you how relieved I was to read Chris Davis’ article (Fly on the Wall, October 18th issue) about the Halloween “bone” being given away with kids’ meals at Sonic.

When my son pulled that phallic thing out of its plastic wrapper, I almost choked, trying not to laugh. Then I thought, maybe I just have a dirty mind. After reading Davis’ story, however, I took comfort in knowing that there is at least one other person in Memphis who’s just as pervy as I am. Thanks for that.

Robert Russell

Memphis

No SCHIP

How do Bush and red-state Republicans keep thwarting the democratic process and the will of the American people? The latest example is the president’s veto of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and House Republicans voting to uphold the Bush veto.

Seventy percent or more of the population may support a policy, but if Republican representatives representing a disproportionate minority of red-state population decide to deny the American public’s wishes, so it will be.

SCHIP has been shown to be a successful and valuable children’s health-care program, but a Republican party, out of touch with mainstream America, was able to cast its “no” votes and sink the expansion of SCHIP.

Ron Lowe

Grass Valley, California

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Food for Thought

CREDIT: Andrew MacNaughton | dreamstime.com

Learning how to cook is always such a hit-and-miss experience. It requires very patient and tolerant people around you, who are willing to wait long, hungry hours while you figure out just how long to cook lentils or bake a 10-pound roast.

I was born into a family of very understanding people. There was one time, though, when I decided to make garlic bread with roasted garlic. I found a recipe and proceeded to follow the directions to roast an entire head of garlic. As I started to spread the soft white garlic meat onto a loaf of French bread, my mom suddenly got up from the kitchen table. “You are using way too much garlic,” she said. I adamantly declared I wasn’t, I had followed the recipe, and it was going to be amazing. She was still skeptical, but, luckily for me, the garlic bread ended up being delicious. The garlic, a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper all saturated the white bread.

Trying out a recipe that uses an entire head of garlic takes some faith and some guts. Sometimes, making healthy eating choices is the same way. You know you want to eat healthy, you try to eat healthy, but everyone else is going for that Swiss cheese and bacon hamburger with a side of fries. So why not you?

Subway has these great commercials going right now. A guy asks his co-workers if they want him to bring back lunch. The co-workers are all gung ho and start putting in their orders. “I’ll have the I-ate-so-much-I-just want-to-sleep-for-three-days platter,” one guy says. “I’ll have a bucket of please-keep-your-shirt-on,” says another. They go on and on.

Although the commercial is a good laugh, it also has a more serious message. What we eat is reflected in our bodies. And when you look around, you will see that what we are eating is fat and sugar and lots of it.

The thing that most people miss is that eating healthy doesn’t have to mean eating blandly. Take, for example, the two recipes in this article. Both are healthy, low in bad fat, high in flavor, and relatively simple to throw together.

The recipes were adapted from Food for Thought: New Southern Classics Blended with Stories from Celebrated Birmingham Authors, published by the Junior League of Birmingham, Alabama. It’s a great read, full of unique recipes and musings on food.

Garlic Stuffed Potatoes

The great thing about this recipe is that it uses no butter or extra salt. All the flavor comes from the garlic and olive oil. You might feel like you are using too much garlic, but roasted garlic is quite mild and creamy in texture. You can easily use a whole head in this recipe and not be overloaded with garlic flavor.

4 medium red potatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup soy milk

1 head of garlic

2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese

Rub potatoes with 2 tablespoons olive oil. Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour. Cut one-quarter inch off the top of the head of garlic. Roast at 275 degrees for one hour. Scoop out potato pulp and save potato skins. Scoop out garlic pulp. In a bowl, combine potato pulp, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, soy milk, Parmesan cheese, and roasted garlic pulp. Stuff potato shells with mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Pecan-Crusted Tilapia

This tilapia is amazingly flavorful and crunchy, but not fried. Much to my surprise, tilapia is a healthy powerhouse. One serving of tilapia has 10 percent of the recommended daily intake of potassium. It also has lots of those good Omega-3 fats and is low in calories. A bit low in taste, too, so that’s why you have to do something a little bit fancy with it. Also, tilapia is farmed in the United States and is an easily renewable resource.

½ cup pecan pieces

½ cup seasoned breadcrumbs

2 eggs

¼ cup soy milk

2 tilapia filets (6-ounce each)

1 tablespoon olive oil

Cajun seasoning

Place pecans on cookie sheet; broil for 30 to 60 seconds. Do not burn. Let cool. Beat eggs and milk together. Combine roasted pecans and breadcrumbs. Dry tilapia with paper towels. Sprinkle both sides of tilapia with Cajun seasoning. Dip each filet into egg mixture; dip both sides into pecan mixture. Repeat with other filet. Place on greased baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.