Month: March 2008

Categories
Living Spaces Real Estate

Show Off

The real estate bubble has burst. The housing market is in shambles. The economy is in recession. There’s panic in the streets!

Tell that to downtown Memphis residential developers. The downtown condo market, which was booming the last several years, leveled off by the end of 2007.

In 2007, 488 home units sold in the downtown zip code, down from 750 the year before. That’s a drop of 34.9 percent, the most in any zip code in the county. But average home prices remained steady: $241,871 in 2007 compared to $241,830 in 2006. So, is the decrease a function of people not buying, the supply of units being bought up, or just the normalization of a market that had been outperforming for a few years?

In the first months of 2008, closing prices have increased an average of $32,000 from the same figures last year.

And developers in the South End district of downtown have decided that the best defense is a good offense. The third Downtown Home Show at South End is set to kick off Friday, April 11th.

The home show will showcase a number of diverse developments, including high-rises, gated condo communities, single-family homes, and converted warehouses.

State Place

The show runs Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, April 11th to 28th, from noon to 6 p.m. each day. Parking and admission are free, and shuttles will be provided at no charge on Saturdays and Sundays.

For those with their eye on buying, the Downtown Home Show may be a good time to do so; some developers are offering incentives for those who sign a contract during the event.

The Downtown Home Show is co-sponsored by Henco Furniture, out of Selmer, Tennessee. Henco is decorating models for the developers.

The Machine Shop Condos

There are six properties featured in the home show. They are:

• The Machine Shop Condos at 465 S. Main, a triangle-shaped development across from the National Civil Rights Museum. The property was developed by Porter Kerr Investments.

• The Nettleton, at 435 S. Front, a reworking of the Piggly Wiggly warehouse built in 1915. The luxury condos feature 24-inch heart-pine columns and beams, and some units have 17-foot ceilings.

• St. Charles on Main, a gated condominium community being sold by Kendall Haney Realtors and Re/Max on the River.

• State Place, a $49 million development on Georgia Street a block from Riverside Drive.

• The Horizon, an elegant tower overlooking the Mississippi River. Under construction, the Horizon has a well-appointed model unit and sales center at 717 Riverside Drive.

• River Tower, the neighbor of the Horizon on Riverside Drive, a 14-story high-rise with direct access to the River Walk and views of the Mississippi River. ■

Courtesy of the Nettleton

The Nettleton

Downtown Home Show at South End

Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, April 11th-28th, noon to 6 p.m.

Free admission and parking

Free shuttles on Saturdays and Sundays

Go to southendmemphis.com for more information.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

Letters to the Editor

Herenton and the Libraries

The mayor’s office, acting like an agency for ignorance and decadence, has deliberately damaged Memphis’ endeavors to become a progressive 21st-century American city. The intent of a platitudinous mayor and his confederacy of corroborators to shut down nine libraries and community centers are tantamount to abandoning the neighborhoods and citizens they serve. These closings are ripping out the very resources critical to public safety. Any capable urban official realizes that the root of violent street crime and other illegal disturbances is a community deficient in essential civilized services.

Memphians should demand from their mayor and City Council a reversal of these policy decisions. Furthermore, the city leadership must nullify the appointments of high-salaried city administrators who are academically void in the library sciences. The idea that “efficiency” will improve in the Memphis library system or in neighborhood community-center functions with underqualified administrators is simply unreasonable.

Timothy McKay

Memphis

The Riverfront and The Pyramid

Friends for Our Riverfront has adopted the cause of protecting the natural and historical look of our riverfront. We have all witnessed their passionate albeit misguided protest of Beale Street Landing.

It is odd now that the group remains completely silent about the Greg Ericson theme-park proposal for The Pyramid and Mud Island — a proposal which would bring noisy rides, amusement games, Pronto Pups, loud music, crowds, litter, traffic congestion, added need for police, and potentially the moving of the I-40 ramp, which clearly will impact the riverfront.

How can Friends for Our Riverfront justify saying nothing over the potential commercialization of 90 acres of prime riverfront property, given their charter? My personal belief is that their president’s friendship with Commissioner Steve Mulroy, an Ericson supporter, has compromised the group and left them bastardizing their own commitment to the riverfront. Normally frenzied in opposition to such projects, Friends has a moral and civic obligation to speak out against the Ericson proposal.

Tommy Volinchak, President

Memphis Downtown Neighborhood
Association

Obama and Wright

Are we to believe that after 20 years as a member of his church, Barack Obama has never heard the anti-American, racist remarks of his mentor and pastor, Jeremiah Wright? Dozens of videos of his sermons are now out, showing this man ranting against “white people” and America, yet Obama states he was never present for any of these. Not very observant is he?

The more likely scenario is that he has known about this pastor all along and is now denying it. The very fact that he has listened to this hate speech for 20 years must mean he agrees with these messages. Obama could have walked out of this church but chose to remain in the congregation of a bigoted, Farrakhan-supporting hate monger.

Americans rightfully condemn the KKK for racist remarks against blacks and should also condemn people, even so-called preachers, who spread racism against whites. Admitting that he did not know this side of his pastor after a 20-year association shows a lack of judgment that we cannot afford to have in the White House. Think of what terrorists around the world will be able to do behind this man’s back.

Of course, Hillary is not much better. As the most famously cheated-on woman in her own house, our enemies will have a field day behind her back as well.

Rick Sneed

Nashville

Bush is the Worst

Many historians now believe that George Bush will be seen as the worst president in our history. By way of contrast, they deem Washingon, Lincoln, and FDR to be our greatest presidents. Two basic elements constitute the criteria of judgment: the profound nature of the crisis the presidents faced and the creative way in which they responded.

The litany of Bush’s failures in foreign and domestic affairs continues to grow, and the evil consequences of those failures will surely impact the nation for a generation or more to come. Many things help explain the enormity of his flawed stewardship: self-righteous arrogance, ideological fixation, incompetence, and the tragic innocence that informs his “freedom agenda” for the world.

It was a wise sage who observed that “character is fate.”

M.L. Wilson

Memphis

Categories
Music Music Features

Leader of the Pack

It’s no mystery why the world needed neo-soul: A sizable portion of R&B’s target audience was destined to turn against the cartoonish limitations of that music’s now-decade-long perpetual-after-party vibe and instead seek a musical worldview more rounded and grounded, that reflects the diversity of experience in the listeners’ daily lives.

But the extent to which the genre has remained so subcultural seems to have more to do with musical limitations than demographic destiny. The genre bloomed a decade ago with attention-getting sonics (D’Angelo’s Voodoo) and compelling quirks (Erykah Badu’s Baduizm). The genre’s first and last masterpiece, Voodoo may not have been music to get drunk (or crunk) to, but it was built on a separate-but-equal sonic foundation, a headphone-funk tour de force nearly on a par with the classics of the form — Sly & the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Prince’s Sign O’ the Times, and Tricky’s Maxinquaye.

Since that heady period, the genre has devolved into generics. Musically, draggy jazz-lite tempos and unobtrusive beats have won out over D’Angelo’s ambitious soundscapes. Lyrically, the success of something-to-says like Badu and Anthony Hamilton have been exceptions. All too often, neo-soul’s lyrical love paeans have been as indistinct as Usher’s club-bound come-ons.

With D’Angelo missing in action since Voodoo and Badu’s output erratic, Philly soulster and Roots protégée Jill Scott has become the scene’s true standard-bearer. She’s the genre’s reigning poet laureate — a strong, precise lyricist in a genre without many.

Scott has generally been held back by the neo-soul’s self-imposed musical limitations, though the slow-jam, tea-sipping groove on 2007’s The Real Thing digs deeper than before. But it would be your loss if that kept you from attending to Scott, who is a total charmer — a deft vocalist, light and lovely enough for straight jazz, and simply the best, most subtle songwriter in her little corner of the musical world.

Scott’s verbal skills were apparent on her debut, 2000’s Who Is Jill Scott?, where the spoken-word-over-jazz-accompaniment “Exclusively” was so economical and unpredictable that it might have qualified for Best American Short Stories of 2000. But Scott’s writing really flowered on Beautifully Human, which was also, happily, a more vocally and musically confident record.

On “The Fact Is (I Need You),” the catalog of domestic tasks she doesn’t need your help with ranges from the knowing, charming cliché (“kill the spider above my bed”) to the surely unspoken in love-song history (“I can even stain and polyurethane”). The sneaky “My Petition” starts out as a relationship metaphor only to gradually reveal a more literal intent. And the foolproof “Family Reunion” (see Kanye West’s “Family Business”) is a series of finely observed details skipping into the next until family tensions heat up so much that only a little Frankie Beverly on the stereo can cool things down.

Though Scott’s pen knows no limitations, her greatest subject might be the same primary subject of most modern soul singers: S-E-X.

Scott takes Topic A to compelling places all across Beautifully Human: The post-coital bliss of “Whatever” is as weird and real as anything Prince ever came up with — Scott’s delirious declaration of appreciation (“You represented in the fashion of the truly gifted”) yielding to comically desperate attempts to keep her partner from leaving. The high-stepping lustiness of “Bedda at Home” is equally Princely: “Your sexiness and vivacity makes me want to cook my favorite recipe/And place it on your table . . . Baby!”

After giving well-rounded self portraits on her first two albums, Scott turns Topic A into the whole alphabet on The Real Thing, a concept album about one woman’s love and sex life that, after a couple of opening statements of musical purpose, follows one relationship through its dissolution into a bout of the “Celibacy Blues” and back into the emotional and physical renewal of a new partnership.

After a couple minutes of sexual play-by-play on “Crown Royal” (which is like “The Loco-Motion” gone R-rated), Scott’s descriptions get loopy and poetic over a rattling beat on “Epiphany.” She finds out her man is marrying another on “My Love,” is crippled by “Insomnia,” and then is wracked by inactivity in “Celibacy Blues,” a brief, acoustic-guitar-driven lament that playfully references the R&B classic “Since I Don’t Have You.” (“I get some new batteries most every night,” Scott cracks.) All this sets up a closing three-song quiet storm of a finale that’s as strong a stretch of music as found on any R&B record this decade.

At its very best, The Real Thing is a sex album as clinically carnal as Dirty Mind-era Prince and as warm and mature as Sign O’ the Times-era Prince. Praising her lover for doing her “as if this year’s harvest depended on it,” Scott’s career peak is funny, weird, and erotic all at once. And she purrs, scats, sighs, and shouts the hell out of it.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Heart and Soul Food

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Try ordering vegetarian food at a local soul food joint, and you’ll likely be greeted with a laugh. The collards? Seasoned with ham bone. The black-eyed peas? Loaded with bacon chunks. You’ll likely even discover pork pieces in your platter of green beans. And when it comes to entrées, well, you’re out of luck there too.

Unless you’re dining at Java, Juice, & Jazz in South Memphis. The restaurant, which opened on Elvis Presley Boulevard in 1999, has always served vegetarian-friendly sides, but Java’s new chef, Bastet Ankh Re, has removed eggs and dairy from the menu to make sides and entrée items vegan.

But, meat-eaters, don’t despair. There’s something for you too. Chef Gary Williams was recently hired to cook New Orleans-style soul food, which means shrimp Creole, seafood gumbo, fried chicken, fried catfish … the works.

It’s a combination that Re and Williams believe will draw in both strict vegetarians and omnivores hoping to cut a little cholesterol and fat from their diets. After all, they may order fried chicken, but since all side dishes are vegan, omnis will be taking in far less saturated fat with the rest of their meal.

“Everybody’s not cut out to be vegan, but if you do some things in moderation, you can expand your life,” says Williams, who received his chef training at Delgado College in New Orleans. “What we’re doing here is a great combination. Everybody can find their little niche.”

Re, who used to cook vegan items at Precious Cargo Coffeehouse downtown, prepares one or two meat-free protein entrées each day. Dishes vary, but common offerings include curried tofu, vegan “egg” rolls, Jamaican jerk tofu, portobella mushroom steak, and faux chicken quesadillas with vegan cheese.

“The vegetarian food will be a mixture of soul food and international food — it’ll be a melting pot,” says Re, a vegan of 12 years.

Guests peruse a cafeteria-style food bar to select one vegan entrée item or one meat item and two sides for $7.99 ($8.59 on weekends). Typical vegetable dishes include grilled cabbage, garlic mashed potatoes, yams, fried eggplant, spinach and bok choy, grilled vegetables, and okra and tomatoes.

But leave room for Re’s egg- and dairy-free chocolate chip cookies or her vegan banana pudding. For non-vegans, Williams claims to make a mean bread pudding with whiskey sauce. On alternating days, he also offers non-vegan praline cheesecake and peach cobbler.

Justin Fox Burks

Though Williams and Re have been cooking individually for years, the two believe their partnership at Java, Juice, & Jazz to be a spiritual thing. After suffering a heart attack several months ago, the owner of the building (who asked to be called simply Miss Toni), put out a call in her South Memphis neighborhood asking for help in the kitchen.

“I said if there were some sisters out there cooking, they’d be welcome to come in and rent a day and bring their clientele,” Miss Toni says. “I didn’t get any takers.”

She’d considered asking Re, but Re was already preparing to open her own vegan restaurant on Florida Street. She thought about Williams too, but he was busy with his catering business.

“Then Gary came in one evening, and I said I really need to put one of his dishes on the menu,” Miss Toni says. “He just gave me this look — and bam! — that was the beginning.”

“The spirit told me to try here,” Re adds. “And then Miss Toni and Gary talked about it, and Gary said, ‘Let me ask my goddaughter Bastet.’ And voila.”

That was about a month ago. Re and Williams held a grand opening for the “All-New Java, Juice, & Jazz” on March 8th. Since then, the pair has been serving food Monday through Friday (except on Tuesdays) from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on weekends until 7 p.m.

Justin Fox Burks

Gary Williams, Miss Toni, and Bastet Ankh Re

Re and Williams’ joint effort not only benefits Miss Toni’s business and the local vegetarian community, it’s also been advantageous for Williams’ diet.

“Cooking with Bastet has been every-day training for me. In New Orleans, all we know is meat. Now I’m learning to do the tofu,” Williams says. “She’s helping me lose weight.”

Besides offering new, healthier dining options, Miss Toni says Java will continue its tradition of live jazz by Kurl McKinney and Alfred Rudd on the first Saturday of each month. The restaurant hosts weekly poetry readings on Friday nights.

“We’re just trying to bring a little more variety to South Memphis,” Williams says. “We want people to come out and give us a chance. We’re the all-new Java, Juice, & Jazz.”

Java, Juice, & Jazz, 1423 Elvis Presley (774-3004)

Categories
Book Features Books

A Season on the Brink

George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Gloria Steinem, Meryl Streep, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Madonna, Samuel L. Jackson, Reba McEntire, and Ronald Reagan: What do they have in common? What could they have in common with Kristen Murdock, Casi Davis, Courtney Powell, Ashley Chambers, Monica Moody, Kristen Kern, and Callee Jackson?

Cheerleading, that’s what, and it’s the subject of Cheer! (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster) by Kate Torgovnick. But if you don’t recognize that latter list of names above, you will after following all seven of these young women — Torgovnick did, from tryouts, to “spirit camp,” to a national cheerleading competition — as the 2006-’07 University of Memphis All-Girl Tigers.

Don’t confuse them with the school’s coed squad — the squad that performs at the U of M men’s basketball games and the squad that gets the TV airtime and the bigger budget. But don’t think these “girls” — under head coach Carol Lloyd — can’t execute a Rewind, a Double Down, a One-Man Walk-In, a Toe Touch Back Tuck, and a 2-2-1 Pyramid with the best of them. In fact, the All-Girl Tigers were the best of them, according to judges at the 2004 national championships conducted by the Universal Cheerleaders Association, an organization founded by Jeffrey Webb in Memphis over 30 years ago and not to be confused with the National Cheerleaders Association.

No trouble, though, distinguishing the All-Girl Tigers from the Lumberjacks of Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. (They’re coed.) Or the Southern University Jaguars from Baton Rouge. (They’re strictly African-American.) But all three teams are “on a quest for college cheerleading’s ultimate prize”: national champs. The subtitle of Torgovnick’s book says so, and Torgovnick’s one to know. Her specialty as a writer/editor — onetime for Jane; now for Dame — is “extreme sports.”

“Extreme” is the right word for cheerleading at this level. But a “sport”? The schools don’t consider it one. Nor does it fall under the jurisdiction of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It’s an “activity” that just happens to call for athleticism, timing, concentration, strength, training, endurance, and the possibility of serious injury. Or do you not remember the sight of Kristi Yamaoka of Southern Illinois University, who went, during one routine, from the top of a pyramid down to the hardwood during the 2006 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament? To the sound of 14,000 screaming fans, she was wheeled off the court on a stretcher, her neck in a brace but her free arm moving to the beat of the Southern Illinois fight song. She left the arena with a concussion and fractured vertebrae, but she landed on the Today show, interviewed by Katie Couric (another former cheerleader).

That — Yamaoka’s fighting spirit, not her Today show appearance — takes uncommon commitment, and, as Torgovnick points out, in the world of competitive cheerleading it sometimes takes more than commitment. It can mean steroids for the guys on the squad, diet pills for the women. But, if anything, the all-girl teams have it their way. They welcome a wide range of body types — the stronger a team member, the better she can perform as a “base” for the “flyers” on the squad. Others point to the “unique” bonding experience a female team offers. The All-Girl Tigers, Torgovnick writes, “are on the forefront of this shift, which would make even the starkest feminist applaud. If only they’d change the division name to All-Woman.” “All-girl,” though, definitely applies to the youngsters at the Memphis Elite gym, founded by the U of M’s spirit director Frankie Conklin in 1992, making it one of the first cheerleading training grounds in the country.

Which makes the ACU national championships in Orlando the ultimate proving ground. How did the All-Girl Tigers do in the competition that Torgovnick describes? You won’t read the result here. See, instead, the dramatic outcome in Cheer!. And while you’re at it, congratulate your All-Girl Tigers of today. They finished first in the nation at this year’s contest, but Kristen, Casi, Courtney, Ashley, Monica, Kristen, and Callee weren’t there for the award. Not one of them is still leading cheers.

Categories
News

Ethanol’s Growth Slow in Memphis

When it comes to trends, Memphis isn’t known for leading the way. In fact, the city has a reputation for being a little, well, fashionably late.

That’s been the case with the availability of ethanol, a renewable fuel made from corn. Ethanol blends have been sold at fueling stations in Middle and East Tennessee for more than a year, but the biofuel has only recently become available in Memphis …

Read the rest of Bianca Phillips’ story on Ethanol in Memphis.

Categories
From My Seat Sports

FROM MY SEAT (Special CRG Edition): A Game for All

Ten
things to love about Saturday’s Civil Rights Game at AutoZone Park:

1) Back
for a second year, the Civil Rights Game is beginning to feel like a national
Opening Game, even if but an exhibition. Boston and Oakland may have officially
started the 2008 season Tuesday in Tokyo(!), but we can certainly consider the
Mets-White Sox tilt at AutoZone Park a lid-lifter here stateside.

2) The
national exposure for AutoZone Park — and Memphis — is magical, and this has
everything to do with the mission of the game itself. Say what you will about
the crime and poverty problems Memphis suffers, but in hosting the Civil Rights
Game, the city becomes a voice for the entire country. A voice that reminds us
that the struggles of the civil rights movement remain pertinent, with lessons
still to learn.

3)
Regarding that national exposure: there are a LOT of TV sets in New York and
Chicago. As wonderful as the inaugural CRG was — played between St. Louis and
Cleveland — there will be millions more viewers tuning in this Saturday.

4) One
of this year’s Beacon Awards honorees is Hall of Famer Frank Robinson. Not only
is Robinson somehow one of the most underrated legends in the game’s history
(586 home runs, a Triple Crown, MVP in both leagues), he belongs in the Club of
Class along with Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, and Tom Seaver. Robinson
was also the first African American manager in the major leagues (Cleveland,
1975). The weekend will be made brighter merely by Robinson’s presence.

5) For
nine years (1948-56), the Memphis Chicks were an affiliate of Chicago’s South
Siders. Luis Aparicio was a Memphis infielder before he was helping the “Go-Go
Sox” win the 1959 American League pennant on his way to the Hall of Fame. The
Chicks won three Southern Association championships during this stretch,
including two seasons (1952-53) when they were managed by Hall of Famer Luke
Appling.

6) After
seven years without professional baseball (following the burning of Russwood
Park), the Memphis Blues took the field in 1968 at the fairgrounds ballpark that
would become Tim McCarver Stadium. And the Blues’ big-league affiliate was the
New York Mets. These were glorious days for “the Amazin’s,” with a world
championship in 1969 and a National League pennant in 1973. The Blues were
winners, too, earning Texas League titles in 1969 and 1973.

7) Let’s
all hope for a plate appearance by Chicago designated hitter Jim Thome.
According to Memphis baseball historian John Guinozzo, only two players have
batted in Memphis exhibitions having already hit 500 home runs: Babe Ruth and
Hank Aaron. With 507 career long ones, Thome would become the third.

8) Few
teams can match the star quality the Mets will bring to Third and Union.
Centerfielder Carlos Beltran, shortstop Jose Reyes, and third baseman David
Wright are among the finest players at their positions in the majors, and should
remain such for years to come.

9) The
Mets are managed by an African American (Willie Randolph) and have a Latino
general manager (Omar Minaya). The White Sox are managed by a Latino (Ozzie
Guillen) and have an African American G.M. (Ken Williams). Jackie Robinson and
Roberto Clemente would be proud.

10) The
game will be played merely six days before the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther
King’s assassination in Memphis. Which makes the partnership between the
Redbirds and the National Civil Rights Museum as poignant — on many levels — as
any sporting event might be.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant

Forget the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox. New York has its own team now. Yes, the Eliot Spitzer Black Socks. As if the media doesn’t have enough to sink its teeth into with real corruption that actually has an effect on everyday people, they are now obsessed with whether former New York governor Eliot Spitzer removed or kept on his mid-calf-length black socks while having sex with the prostitutes with whom he has been linked. There are even media “psychologists” talking about it and the reasons for keeping his socks on while having sex. So far, the consensus seems to be that he has a fear of intimacy. I guess $4,300 a pop can’t even buy that. Between this and that New Jersey ex-governor now saying that he had three-ways with his wife and some other guys, not to mention Idaho Republican senator Larry Craig stepping down after being busted trying to play footsy — socks or not — with the guy in the bathroom in the Minneapolis airport, the media, especially the celebrity media, ought to be having some real fun — at the expense of others, of course. But you know, I kind of don’t mind it. It’s actually a bit refreshing in its own twisted way. I say this because the mainstream media is just not much good for anything else. When was the last time you saw a headline on the mass rape crisis in Africa that got as much ink as a governor caught in the sack with a hooker? When was the last time you read a really good, in-depth piece on Dick Cheney and his connections to the big energy companies? When was the last time you read anything about Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli man who went to the press in 1986 about the terrible things that were going on at the nuclear plant where he worked and was subsequently kidnapped, returned to Israel for a trial that was held in secret, and spent the next 18 years — 11 of them in solitary confinement — in prison? He was supposed to have had a trial last Sunday that would allow him to talk with people from countries other than Israel. I don’t know why I’ve been following this guy’s story, but I have, and it’s fascinating. But sometimes I get too bent out of shape about all of the war and poverty and injustice in the world and just need to kick back with a good New Jersey governor’s three-way story. Sometimes, there’s just so much seriousness. I need to spend some time wondering what Spitzer looked like having sex in those black socks. I’m sure his wife has gotten rid of all those! I also have to wonder, as I’m sure everyone is, about what on earth he was getting for his $4,300 nights. WHAT POSSIBLY could be worth that much money? I feel like I am missing out on something. Not that I would ever have the $4,300, but I would still like to know what exactly one could get in return for that amount. And what about Heather Mills McCartney and her $48 million divorce settlement? WHAT can she possibly spend $48 million on in one lifetime? And she wants MORE? She already has a fake leg good enough to use on Dancing With the Stars. I am not religious, but I do think there’s something to be said about being rich and not getting into heaven. Not that I think there is a heaven, but really. Just how greedy can a person be? Especially someone without the taste to spend the money on things that are tasteful. I certainly hope she plans to give a good chunk of that loot to charity. It’s like people who win lotteries. They either become drug addicts and buy the most vulgar houses and cars and then die, when they could easily have used that money to help the disenfranchised. All I would like to do is have central air conditioning installed in my house before summer and have the gutters that are hanging off the roof replaced. If the hooker who got paid the $4,300 or if Heather Mills or if any of you Powerball millionaires should happen to read this for some reason and want to help me out, just call this paper. They know where to find me.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Two Down, Final Four to Go

Haven’t we been here before? A John Calipari-coached Memphis Tiger basketball team has found its way to that hallowed section of your office bracket known as the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16. With 30-plus wins and a top-five national ranking, winners of Conference USA’s regular-season and tournament championships, star power that borders on excess, Memphis fans should be thrilled.

But it’s not enough. Not this year.

Spoiled with success as Tiger Nation may be, this is the season — the weekend just ahead — that will stand out in bold on this program’s long, proud history. Anything less than the school’s first Final Four berth in 23 years will be seen as falling short of expectations. And when you factor in the precious single-season window the Tigers have with Derrick Rose at point guard, anything less than a national championship may leave a wound of regret.

Here are four keys — the final four, you might say — to the Tigers reaching the NCAA’s third weekend.

A Shooter’s Chance

The Tigers had their share of stars last week in Little Rock, but the difference-maker was reserve guard Willie Kemp. In drilling four of his five three-point attempts (the rest of the team was two for 11), Kemp’s shooting against Mississippi State provided the necessary cushion that allowed the Tigers to survive their own free-throw ineptitude (eight misses in 16 shots over the final two minutes).

Whether it’s Kemp again, or Doneal Mack, or more likely candidates like Rose or Chris Douglas-Roberts, the Tigers must find a shooter for each tournament contest, one who will stretch the opponent’s zone defense and create the gaps for dribble-drives that have become the team’s offensive weapon of choice.

In describing the struggles of the 2004 Olympic team, Calipari once said, “Shooting makes up for a multitude of sins on a basketball team.” Tiger fans still grind their teeth over the sins of the 2006 NCAA regional finals, when Memphis took 54 shots against UCLA and made exactly 17 (31 percent). Another 40 minutes like that and a dream season ends in a cold sweat.

Tag Team Inside

Calipari’s bench management against the Bulldogs was the most impressive in his eight years as Tiger coach. He essentially had 15 big-man fouls to give against MSU’s formidable frontcourt, and he used 14 of them, with 25 seconds to spare (the time left when Joey Dorsey joined Robert Dozier on the bench with his fifth foul). Despite the foul difficulty, Dorsey picked up his first double-double (13 points, 12 rebounds) in 10 NCAA tournament games. Dozier and Shawn Taggart combined for nine offensive rebounds, critical stats in a three-point victory.

“Shawn gives us what we haven’t had since I’ve been here: that big guy off the bench,” Calipari said after a win in mid-January. “We can tell [Joey] if you don’t play well — you foul — you sit, and we win anyway. You need that to coach a team to the level we’re trying to [reach].”

The enigmatic Dorsey was at his ferocious best Sunday, two days after a mediocre outing against Texas-Arlington. He needs to bottle the energy he displayed against the Bulldogs for the Tigers to beat the next MSU they face.

“[Joey’s] going to be held to a standard he’s capable of reaching,” Calipari stresses. “When he comes and he’s ready to play — an intense athlete like he is — there is no rage. He’s beating [the opponent] to every spot, he’s grabbing the ball with two hands. There’s no need for rage. I challenge him, because I want him to be the best in the country at what he does.”

Stars Must Shine

“Arrogance is what gets you in trouble,” Calipari says. “Swagger is based on great preparation, being prepared to play anyone, anytime.”

Rose and Douglas-Roberts will ultimately be remembered as the faces of the 2007-’08 Memphis Tigers. CDR is the program’s first first-team All-American in 15 years. Rose is all but certain to be a top-five NBA draft selection in June. They are the tandem that must be at its best for Memphis to reel off four more wins in the NCAA tournament.

CDR averaged 20 points and Rose 17 in the two games in Little Rock. Rose added seven assists and nine rebounds to his line against Mississippi State. Perhaps most critically, these are the two Tigers capable of winning games at the free-throw line, so Rose will have to improve on his four-for-nine performance in the second round.

“Everybody has to be at their best,” Rose says, as deferential as your garden-variety freshman sensation. “Coach has been saying every position, every player has to be on their game.” For a national championship, this NBA All-Star-to-be needs to be on his game and bring his teammates along for the run.

Defense: First, Last, and Always

The loudest cheers heard all season long at FedExForum came not when the Tigers had possession of the ball — though a few Dorsey dunks did shake the rafters — but when they were seizing control of a game defensively — a relatively routine basket made by the likes of Douglas-Roberts, followed by the immediate transition into a full-court press that can exhaust an opponent before it’s even able to establish a halfcourt offensive set.

This is the variable most under the Tigers’ (and Calipari’s) control. Utilizing his bench to its ninth and tenth man, Calipari can keep five fresh, quick players on the floor for an entire game. That quickness and energy are the chemical ingredients to a press that demands another team to be just as quick to break it. And no one on the Tiger roster takes a breather in the fullcourt press. In many respects, Dorsey plays the most valuable role, that of midcourt rover, quick enough to cover either side of the court and large enough to pick off passes made by opposing guards trapped in the backcourt.

“Our press is our bread and butter,” Douglas-Roberts says. “We try to get at least three steals a game off the press. When it’s effective, it opens up our transition game. We take great pride in it. We feel like a lot of teams can’t press like us, because we’re so deep. We can go 10 or 11 deep and still press. [Dorsey’s] the intimidator back there. He’s like the goaltender. If we happen to get beat on the press, he’s back there to block it or muck it up.”

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“Unnatural Causes” Debuts Thursday on WKNO

Memphis is often listed as one of America’s unhealthiest cities. And maybe, according to one new documentary, that has as much to do with socioeconomic inequality as it does with germs or biology.

Unnatural Causes, a seven-part documentary series, asks the question: “Is inequality making us sick?” and suggests that how we are born, live, and work can make us ill.

It’s not necessarily a ground-breaking notion, but executive producer Larry Adelman notes that the United States has the worst disease outcomes of any industrialized nation and that even its middle class – yes, that’s probably you — die, on average, about three years sooner than the rich.

The first section of the documentary will air tonight. The rest will air the next three consecutive Thursdays (April 3rd, 10th, and 17th) on WKNO at 9 p.m.

To learn more about the documentary, go to the filmmakers’ website.