Month: November 2007

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News

Saturday is “Senior Day” at Memphis Humane Society

As if owning a pet wasn’t sweet enough, the Humane Society of Memphis and Shelby County is going to make pet ownership even sweeter — especially for seniors.

November is Adopt a Senior Dog Month and to mark the occasion, the Humane Society will hold a Pets and Pastries Open House from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, November 10, at its facility at 935 Farm Road in Shelby Farms.

Not only will free pastry items be available, there will be a special price for senior dogs. And for senior humans, it is an opportunity to get a senior dog for free.

Any dog five years or older is considered a “senior.” During November, the adoption fee for a senior dog will be $50.

“We participate in a program called Pets for the Elderly which pays $50 towards adoptions by anyone over 60 years old, so this month, anyone over 60 who adopts a senior dog will get their pet without having to pay an adoption fee,” said Ginger Morgan, president of the Humane Society of Memphis and Shelby County.

Morgan said even if someone is not interested in adopting a senior dog, Saturday will be an excellent time to visit the organization and sample a free pastry item. The free pastry is actually part of National Animal Shelter Appreciation week which began Sunday and runs through Saturday.

For more info, visit the Memphis Humane Society website.

Categories
Music Music Features

Willie Mitchell Re-launches Record Label

Willie Mitchell, best known as the producer of Al Green’s hits in the 1970s, announced the re-launch of Waylo Records. Not quite the resurrection of Stax many had hoped for, but the 79-year-old Mitchell seems committed to Memphis singers, beginning with Waylo’s first release, Mashaa’s Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere.

Mitchell started Waylo in 1982, and released albums by Otis Clay and Ann Peebles before mothballing the venture about 20 years ago. Mashaa is a longtime Mitchell protégé, dating back to her sessions as a back-up vocalist in the glory days at Mitchell’s South Memphis recording studio.

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News

Garth Brooks Tops Elvis For Best-Selling Artist

Your friends at the Recording Industry Association of America have announced that country star Garth Brooks passed late local man and King of Rock-and-Roll Elvis Presley as the highest selling solo artist ever.

The RIAA, beloved in digital file-sharing circles, reports that Brooks has sold 123 million units to Presley’s 118.5.

If nothing else, this renders the notion of Brooks having friends in low places less plausible.

However, an unofficial survey of superstar impersonators, er, tribute artists, shows that the number imitating Brooks is nowhere close to the number paying tribute to the King.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

Griz Top Sonics for First Win, 105-98

AP — Veterans told Kevin Durant there would be nights like this. And just about everybody told the rookie’s SuperSonics there would be a season like this.

Rudy Gay overcame a cold start to score 25 points and Kyle Lowry hit a clinching 3-pointer as the Memphis Grizzlies overcame a 14-point deficit in the second half to beat the winless Sonics 105-98, sending Seattle to its worst start in 38 years.

Lowry, who missed five of his first six shots, got a rebound off his missed layup and then swished a 3-pointer with 11.3 seconds remaining to clinch the first win of the season for the Grizzlies, in their first road game.

Durant, playing for the third time in four nights in a welcome-to-NBA life stretch, scored a season-low 17 points and was a woeful 3-for-17 from the field for the Sonics (0-5). The second overall draft pick missed his first four shots and then sat 10 minutes before finally scoring midway through the second quarter.

And just a reminder to all you Grizzlies fans: Chris Herrington’s “Beyond the Arc” Grizblog is your best bet for pre-game and post-game analysis and reaction.

And, there’s always the ever-popular Jacob Riis report — today, featuring Sonics ginger-boy center, Robert Swift.

Read it here.

Categories
Sports Sports Feature

Tigers Glide Past Tennessee-Martin; Rose Debut a Good One

(AP) – Derrick Rose didn’t take long to adjust to the college game.

The highly touted freshman had 17 points, six rebounds and five assists in his collegiate debut and No. 3 Memphis beat Tennessee-Martin 102-71 on Monday

Calipari said Rose might be the player Memphis needs this year to push them into the Final Four.

“You need to have a guy, that when the game is on the line, he can just dog the other guys and do whatever he wants when he wants,” Calipari said. “He can do that.”

Memphis senior forward Joey Dorsey has a sprained right shoulder sprain and did not play. He is also expected to miss Tuesday night’s game with the injury. Shawn Taggart, a transfer from Iowa State, started in his place and finished with 15 rebounds.

The Tigers will play Richmond, which beat Maine 44-42 on Monday, in the regional final Tuesday night. The winner will play in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden on Nov. 15.

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News

DA Gibbons Runs NY Marathon

District attorney Bill Gibbons took time off from doing important attorney stuff this past weekend to engage in one of his favorite pastimes — marathon running.

The 57-year-old Gibbons finished the New York Marathon. It’s the fifth time the D.A. has completed the 26.2 mile run.

This year’s annual race attracted around 40,000 participants, in which runners compete for $600,000 in prize money.

For more information, or to see if Gibbons beat Katie Holmes, go to the NY Marathon website.

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News

Goodwyn Street Hearing Postponed 30 Days

A hearing scheduled this Thursday, November 8th, about the closing of Goodwyn Street at Southern Avenue has been postponed for 30 days. The Land Use Control Board (LUCB) has re-scheduled the hearing for December 13th at 10 a.m.

In an e-mail sent to members of a committee resisting the street closing, activist Gwen Lausterer said that those pushing for the closing “will withdraw their request for a wall [at Southern] if we will back them for speed bumps and a sidewalk.” The e-mail included the statement that the LUCB staff has “already submitted its Report to the Board recommending that the application be REJECTED.”

The Midland Goodwyn Neighborhood Association, which is close to Chickasaw Gardens but has a separate association, has been trying for years to close the street in order to control speed and traffic. Residents are sharply divided over the issue, with opponents saying the measure is all about race and class and that the closure is to keep residents of the poorer neighborhood south of Southern from being able to enter the exclusive Chickasaw Gardens area.

However, in an e-mail to the Flyer, Will Deupree, president of the Midland Goodwyn Neighorhood Association, explained, “Our design left open a walkway for all pedestrian foot traffic, bike riders, and families who want to use Goodwyn. We were only closing it to cars. We do not want a gated community. We want the street open at Central and on Midland so all neighbors and Memphians can access the street.”

Deupree also emphasized that the street closing is “not about crime” or, specifically, the rape that occurred on Goodwyn last May. “Having a gate would not have prevented this crime by any stretch of the imagination nor will it protect the residents of our street from crimes in the future … ”

For more information, contact Gwen Lausterer at glausterer3@comcast.net or wdeupree@bellsouth.net

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News

Pau Gasol’s New Play-Station Ad

Watch the Grizzlies’ Pau Gasol fall through the clouds, bounce off a blimp, land on a bi-plane, and fall some more.

It’s all part of a new Spanish ad for PlayStation games systems. Pau doesn’t say anything, but he screams a lot.

You can watch it here.

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News

Memphis City Council to Hear Beale Street Development/Performa Conflict Tuesday

Saying they were going to nullify their agreement with Performa, members of the Beale Street Development Corporation asked the City Council this morning to audit the management company.

The city signed an agreement with the Beale Street Development Corporation to redevelop Beale in 1982. Lacking management experience, the group subleased the responsibility to the company now known as Performa Entertainment Real Estate, owned by John Elkington.

Performa was supposed to take 15 percent of the rents from Beale Street establishments, then give the remainder of the funds to the development corporation, which was then to turn them over to the city.

“Since 1983, not a single dime has come back to the Beale Street Development Corporation or the city of Memphis,” said BSDC member Randell Catron, accompanied at the meeting by blogger Thaddeus Matthews.

In 2002, a chancery court decision ordered Performa to enter any current or future funds into an escrow account pending further orders of the court. However, Performa never paid any funds into escrow and the city did not pursue the matter.

“Those of us who have been here a long time counted on the administration to handle this and it has not been handled,” said Councilman Jack Sammons. “I got an e-mail last night about B.B. King playing and it’s $200 a ticket. A lot of money is being generated on that street.”

Echoing that sentiment, Charlie Ryan, an owner of Club 152 and Blues City Cafe, said his establishments have paid $1.1 million to Performa since 2003.

“As a tourist attraction, we need to make the area safe and clean, and John Elkington is in charge of doing that. We’ve paid $280,000 in the last four-and-a-half years [for common area maintenance] and we’re not getting what we paid for,” he said.

No one from Performa attended this morning’s meeting.

The council was expected to get an update on the ongoing litigation during an attorney-client meeting this afternoon. The council was also prepared to take up the matter in full session later today.

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News

Noah Wyle, Alan Alda, and Matt Dillon Dine at Felicia Suzanne’s in Memphis

Diners at Felicia Suzanne’s in downtown Memphis this week weren’t just treated to the restaurant’s signature milk and cookies.

Saturday night, restaurant-goers were surprised to see Noah Wyle, a former cast member on ER and currently in town filming Nothing But the Truth, walk in and head to the kitchen. A few minutes later, Emmy winner and Oscar nominee Alan Alda walked in. Matt Dillon came in next, and he, too, walked to the kitchen.

Apparently the Nothing But the Truth stars have been dining at the Main Street eaterie for several days. Unfortunately, Kate Beckinsale and Angela Bassett never showed.