Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Cafe Eclectic Opens in Midtown

Catherine Boulden never really cared for espresso until she got hooked on the brew in Paris. In Memphis, however, she had trouble finding that perfect little shot in a two-and-a-half-ounce porcelain demitasse — until now. Boulden and business partner/chef Mary O’Brien opened Cafe Eclectic in the Vollintine-Evergreen neighborhood three weeks ago.

One could argue that Cafe Eclectic has been in the making for more than 20 years. Back in the mid-’80s, Boulden and her children made frequent visits to Overton Park and the Memphis Zoo. The outings had the family yearning for a neighborhood coffee shop.

Read the rest of Simone Wilson’s story on Midtown’s newest restaurant.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant

Wow. I guess I haven’t been paying much attention to much. I’ve just read some articles (and responses to them) about Reverend Jeremiah Wright and his relationship to Barack Obama and some of the comments the reverend has made and how outraged people are and how the world is now about to come to an end because of it. Welcome, once again, to the United States of America. Land of the media frenzy and home of the media frenzy. And might I say to all of the hand-wringers who have posted the thousands of comments about Barack Obama’s “judgement” regarding this: That the word is spelled j-u-d-g-m-e-n-t. I have never seen so many grammatical errors and misspelled words in my life than in the comments posted on news and blog sites. Who gives a rat’s ass what you think about Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or Jeremiah Wright or anyone else if you can’t even spell the word “judgment”? And if you think racism in America is any less rampant than it used to be, all you have to do is read these comments — in response, in this case, to an article about Wright and Obama that appeared in the Los Angeles Times the other day. Half of the people who chimed in seem totally shocked that an African-American minister would feel anger against white America. And my favorite of all is the notion that if Obama were a Muslim, we would all instantly perish if he won the presidency. So what if he happened to be a Muslim? I hope he wins the presidency and turns out to be a Muslim. ANYTHING would be better than what we have now — a pitiful excuse for a human being who donned an oversized cowboy hat and sang a ridiculously stupid song at a fund-raiser just days after vetoing a bill to limit the torture of people “suspected” of a crime. A bill, as I mentioned in this space recently, that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton didn’t bother to show up for and vote on. And a bill John McCain voted against. So no matter who among the candidates we get in the White House for the next four years, it’s just the lesser of evils. But then I guess I’m one of them damn left-wing liberals who doesn’t care about Amurka’s safety. And I must admit that one of the best things I’ve ever heard was when a friend of mine mentioned that they should “gravyboard” suspected terrorists in Mississippi when they pass the law prohibiting restaurants there from serving all-you-can-eat buffets. Yes, I have just generalized everyone in an entire state. Sue me. I was kidding. And speaking of which, you really should read that Los Angeles Times article and the comments posted and check out how serious the writers are. Here’s one by a person who goes by the cyber name “America The Beautiful”: “Obama knew his pastor and used his sermon to write his book. He has got to be kidding. Reverend Wright was involved with Louis Farrakhan and who knows how many other radical leaders. For Obama to address the American people and say that he didn’t know that Wright had sermons about race and the hate that he has for our country is absurd. Shame on the media for not bringing this to the forefront. The media should harp on this news. Why would Obama admit that he thinks the way the pastor speaks to his congregation? It’s a disgrace. This is VERY SERIOUS. No American should make light of this. Wake up media! Wake up America!” Please. If this whacko thinks the media ISN’T jumping all over this, he needs to either take some drugs or stop taking so many. I feel certain this person has wallpaper borders with pastel-colored geese on it and has several American flag motifs on his house and a “W” sticker on his car. Guess what, America The Beautiful? I am making light of this. I do not take this seriously. I think the media should forget about it and focus on the reasons so many people are losing their homes and the reasons the rest of the world views us as absurd clowns. I’m surprised they haven’t focused more on John McCain having an affair behind the back of his disabled wife and divorcing her and marrying someone much younger and prettier. That’s usually the kind of thing they hang their headlines on. But I don’t even care about that. I just want my tax rebate check to come in the mail because that will be one tiny amount of United States money that I know won’t be used to build a giant fence across the border.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

It’s quiet — too quiet — for this band of outsiders.

The Band’s Visit begins with a silent-movie title card: “Once — not long ago — a small Egyptian police band arrived in Israel. Not everyone remembers this; it wasn’t very important.” Seldom has an opening shot summarized a film better.

Writer/director Eran Kolirin’s new comedy is demure, modest, and simple. It’s also boring as hell, but if you don’t mind some quiet time in the theater to think for yourself while the film’s poetry leavens, it can hardly be called a disappointment.

The police band’s leader is singer-conductor Lieutenant-Colonel Tawfiq Zacharya (Sasson Gabai). Dressed in his sky-blue quasi-military ensemble, Tawfiq stiff-chests his way through the film like he’s king of the crossing guards. When he’s not incanting his band’s name, “Alexandria Ceremonial Orchestra,” to anyone within earshot — as if it were a magical mantra that could lift him from the Israeli town he and his boys mistakenly find themselves in — he keeps his eye on Haled (Saleh Bakri), a lean, confident smoothie whose interest in foreign women supersedes his fears of a foreign land.

After some poky, jokey compositions in and around the airport that toy with deep and shallow space — the actors peep and peer out from the edges of the frame like endangered species caught on tape for the first time — the band stops for food and directions at a wayside café run by Dina (Ronit Elkabetz), a forty-something woman whose time in this dusty backwater has not dimmed her lust for life. Because this small town has no hotel, and because there’s no bus to take the band to the city where they are supposed to perform, Dina offers a couple band members beds for the evening. Incredibly low-voltage romantic mischief follows — or threatens to.

Elkabetz shows a little paunch and weariness in her body and posture, and she spits English in a way that nobody could call seductive, but she’s a natural, sexy performer and a reminder of what is lost when only certain kinds of feminine beauty are allowed onscreen. Tawfiq resists her arsenal of romantic gestures as long as he can, until some revelations tumble from him in lieu of a goodnight kiss.

The wait for action of any kind is long for the other actors, who always seem to stand at right angles to each other like variables in an unsolved geometry problem. But the little poetry of little movies is there waiting. One sequence, in which Haled takes another café worker on the town and tries to teach him the rules of love in a nearly empty roller-rink, begins and ends with a sad sigh that evokes some of Buster Keaton’s tentative romantic moments.

In spite of some of these moments, I still found The Band’s Visit too slow and reserved. Maybe something else was going on with me as I watched it, though. While Tawfiq tried to resist Dina’s advances, I kept thinking about Brett Favre’s retirement from football. Now, I’m a huge Packers fan — a season-ticket holder, in fact. Seeing one more classy, talented, larger-than-life old-timer ruefully pass up a chance for bliss was probably too much for me to bear.

The Band’s Visit

Opening Friday, March 21st

Ridgeway

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from the Editor: The Endless “Job” of War

Five years ago, we watched the United States start a war from the comfort of our living rooms. Our television screens gave us the full audio-visual impact of “shock and awe,” a unilateral attack by U.S. forces on the country of Iraq.

It does little good now to reiterate the lies (or “false intelligence,” if you prefer) upon which this ill-fated operation was propagated. There were, of course, no weapons of mass destruction. We weren’t greeted as liberators. It wasn’t over “in a matter of weeks.” The mission has yet to be accomplished.

This week, during a surprise visit to Iraq (ever notice they’re all surprise visits?), Vice President Cheney proclaimed the war a “successful endeavor” and urged that we not “quit before the job is done.”

Whenever the hell that might be. One hundred years from now? Five years? Four thousand more dead American soldiers? Eight thousand? Nobody knows. We just can’t leave.

We’ve got 158,000 troops stuck in this desert morass, dying at the rate of two a day. The suicide bombers continue their deadly work in the marketplaces and mosques. The roadside IEDs continue to maim and kill America’s finest. The Iraq government continues to be unable to make political or military progress. And we’re staying, according to McCain, Bush, Cheney, et al., until the job is done.


Five years ago
, we editorialized that “unleashing the dogs of war” would likely lead to a lengthy and costly struggle and that the U.S. should not be in the business of starting armed conflicts. We even cited Henry Kissinger, who said at a committee hearing before the war vote passed by the Senate, that he was “viscerally opposed to a prolonged occupation of a Muslim country at the heart of the Muslim world by Western nations who proclaim the right to re-educate that country.”

Five years later, that is precisely what we’ve got: a prolonged occupation that has cost us nearly a trillion dollars, a “job” without an end in sight. Meanwhile, our economy is tanking, spurred by the unregulated greed of financial institutions who played with “hedge funds,” made millions, then lost their shirts. Now, we the taxpayers are picking up the tab.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of picking up the tab for stupid mistakes made by others. Let’s get these clowns out of office. November can’t come soon enough.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
News The Fly-By

Modern-Day Poll Tax?

“The vote is the most powerful instrument … for destroying the terrible walls that imprison men.”

So said President Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act that outlawed poll taxes, literacy tests, and other measures enacted in the South to keep African Americans from voting.

Last month, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against the state of Tennessee to remove obstacles — including what they call a modern-day poll tax — that keep formerly imprisoned men from the polls. The suit seeks to nullify sections of the Tennessee Code that restore voting rights to felons only under certain conditions.

Traditionally, a felon who receives a pardon, serves a full sentence, or completes parole or probation can apply for the right to vote. In 2006, though, the state legislature added new amendments that force felons to pay victim restitution and be current on child support payments, when applicable, before voting again. The American Civil Liberties Union contends that “no one should have to pay any fine or any monetary obligation as a condition to vote,” according to ACLU Voting Rights Project attorney Nancy Abudu.

The ACLU Voting Rights Project conducts public voting education programs, which brought them in touch with the plaintiffs, including Shelby County resident Terrence Johnson, who owes both restitution and child support, the latter amounting to $1,200 despite the fact that he maintains custody of his daughter.

“With respect to child support,” Abudu says, “one of our biggest concerns is that people who owe child support but have never been convicted of a crime don’t have their voting rights taken away. It creates a double standard.”

The 2006 restitution amendment was sponsored by Memphians Kathryn Bowers in the Senate, who has since resigned after a guilty plea in a Tennessee Waltz case, and Joe Towns Jr. in the state House. Though the ACLU has referred to the legislation as a modern-day poll tax — citing legal measures that prevented African Americans from voting during Reconstruction — both sponsors of the amendment are African American.

Abudu explains that the suit is not race-based.

“But if you look at the history of the law and the current context of the law, you can’t ignore the racial implications,” she says. She adds that the disproportionate numbers of minorities imprisoned means that the felon voting law affects them unequally.

Of the more than 25,000 male inmates incarcerated in Tennessee in June 2007, roughly 48 percent of them were African American.

The defendants — Governor Phil Bredesen, coordinator of elections Brook Thompson, Secretary of State Riley Darnell, and Shelby County election administrator James Johnson, in addition to elections administrators in Davidson and Madison counties — have not responded to the suit. Abudu hopes that the case will be heard this summer.

Abudu believes that the ACLU suit also reinforces the main goal of the penal process. “If you’re looking at rehabilitation, allowing someone to vote helps,” she says.

Towns could not be reached for comment. James Johnson indicated that he’s unable to address pending court cases.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Q&A: Donald Johanson

Anthropologist Donald Johanson will talk about evolution and finding “Lucy” at Rhodes College at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Bryan Center on Tuesday, March 25th.

Lucy — the name was borrowed from the Beatles song “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” which expedition members played over and over in celebration after “her” discovery — is one of the oldest and best-preserved skeletons of a walking-erect human ancestor. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Johanson is director of the Institute for the Study of Human Origins at Arizona State University. — by John Branston

Flyer: What can Memphis expect from the man who discovered Lucy?

Johanson: They can expect a presentation on the importance of Lucy, not only in my life but in our understanding of some of the early stages of the origins of humans. Since the discovery in 1974, Lucy has become the touchstone by which the average person enters into an understanding of human evolution.

People should also expect to hear a little about how we go about running expeditions like this.

What is Lucy’s importance?

Lucy sits on the family tree at an interesting point between our more primitive apelike ancestors and our first glimpse at creatures walking fully upright, and she is probably the last common ancestor to later branches, including the one that led to modern humans.

So the earth is not 6,000 years old?

That’s right. Lucy is 3.2 million years old, and that is really well documented in geological dating.

Are you ever picketed when you give talks?

No, I never have been.

You’re coming to the heart of the Bible Belt. Do you do a lot of lectures in the South?

I’ve lectured all around Georgia and always had an appreciative audience.

Are you surprised at the ongoing debate about evolution and creation?

It’s not surprising. Different people have various views of how the world got to be the way it is. Some focus on a belief-system brand of religion without scientific substance. Others are more scientific.

As anthropologist Ashley Montagu said, “Science has proof without certainty and religion has certainty without proof.” From the scientific point of view, we have to look within the framework of evolution. And there are people who accept both explanations — that whatever or whoever the creator was, evolution was his/her way of bringing about humans.

Is it true that you had low S.A.T. scores in high school?

I did not do well on the tests. I thought they were not culture-free, and I said, “I am not going to study for this.” My high school guidance counselor in Chicago said I should go to trade school and study electronics.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

How Much Change?

Few of us need to be reminded that “change” is the watchword of the day in politics and government. At one time or another, the word has been uttered manifesto-style by virtually every candidate running for president this year — including all three surviving hopefuls: John McCain, Hillary Clinton,

and, notably, Barack Obama.

And change in the most literal sense is under active consideration in both city and county government. After conducting a series of public forums, the citizen members of an elected City Charter Commission are in the final stages of preparing their recommendations for the ballot — either in August or November — and the Shelby County Commission, which held its own public meetings, is already signing off on its recommendations for a referendum to be held in August.

The County Commission’s most significant task is to provide charter definitions for five county offices that had been regarded as spoken for in the state constitution until a judicial finding last year in Knox County declared otherwise. Those positions are sheriff, trustee, assessor, county clerk, and register. By now every conceivable variation on each of the positions has been debated in public, in private, and in between. Some, like commissioners Steve Mulroy and Deidre Malone, felt that the aim of good government would be best served if some or all of the officials holding these jobs were appointed. Most of the other commissioners seem to have believed, just as strongly, that the affected officials should continue to be elected. In this regard, popular opinion seems to have been on the side of election and has apparently carried the day so far.

In morning deliberations Monday, commissioners reached agreement on one office — that of sheriff. By super-majority vote (requiring nine votes of 13 for passage), the commission agreed to put on the August ballot a provision to elect the sheriff, to limit any given sheriff to three four-year terms, and to establish in the county charter a definition of duties consistent with those previously assumed to be his under state law.

It could well be that some of the other four positions still being deliberated as of this writing — notably those of register and county clerk — may be deemed suitable for appointment rather than election. If so, those jobs will not be affected by a provision that a groundswell of the public has insisted upon: term limits.

What people seem to be demanding is a limitation of two four-year terms for any officeholder of one of the affected jobs. The County Commission, however, exercised its discretion Monday to allow a third four-year term for the sheriff. The same latitude may or may not be extended to other positions, but it was granted Monday after commissioners Mike Carpenter and Mike Ritz, among others, made the case for the value of longevity in positions more than usually needful of experience.

To use the cliché: The system seems to be working and no doubt will be seen to, as well, when the City Charter Commission (which also has responded to the public call for term limits) finishes its task.

The changes that voters will be asked to approve may not seem as radical as those which some in the community have demanded. Indeed, at this point they seem moderate on their face, but where the public will has expressed itself, they have incorporated that will.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

Letters to the Editor

Shakespeare in the Park

Shakespeare in a newly created “arts park” in Germantown (“To Be Or Not To Be,” March 13th issue)? Why not? Dan McCleary’s ambitions are inspiring and a breath of much needed positive energy. We need more people in this town who are willing to think big. If “to be or not to be” is the question, I say the answer is always “be.”

James Ryan

Memphis

Trail Mess

It is a long-standing rule of outdoor ethics that you’re not supposed to participate in heavy-impact activities (e.g., cycling, horseback riding) on off-road trails when the trails are wet and susceptible to damage. However, on Saturday, March 15th, the Shelby Farms Equestrian Alliance ignored the fact that there were torrential rains on Friday night and went ahead with the City Slickers Endurance Ride, a 50-mile horse race on the Wolf River and Shelby Farms trails.

The trails are now in terrible shape. There are sections that look like they have been butchered with a garden tiller. Potholes eight inches deep litter the trails. Six-foot-wide mudholes are now two and three times wider, due to horse traffic forging new trails around them. For the casual user of Shelby Farms and Wolf River trails, this damage poses many threats. The trails in many sections are impassable for recreational bikers, and hikers and runners risk injury from the uneven terrain.

Why was this event allowed to take place under such conditions? Who is responsible for fixing the damage? This is unfair to other trail users. Flyer coverage would be greatly appreciated, so we can get some answers.

Chris Smith

Memphis

The Zoo Trees

Concerning the destruction of Overton Park forest areas by the Memphis Zoo (“Up a Tree,” March 6th issue): Is anyone really surprised? I have been noticing the loss of trees in the park for some time, but no one could ever tell me what was going on. Overton Park is one of the coolest things about this city, but no one with the authority to stop this madness seems to care. After all, years ago, they tried to build a highway through the park.  

Memphis is one of the most backward cities in the country when it comes to conservation and ecological thinking. Trees? Who cares? Not to mention all the turtles, snakes, lizards, etc. that were killed when large equipment destroyed their homes in mid-winter.

Once you tear down a forest, you can’t just rebuild it. Replacing a real habitat with a fake habitat that represents a real habitat? How insanely stupid. And how typical of Memphis.

Yvette Rhoton

Memphis

Leadership Memphis

I read Bruce VanWyngarden’s open call for a leader, a visionary, a bringer of hope, a straight-talker (Editor’s note, March 13th issue). Perhaps you — and we — are looking in the wrong direction. Perhaps that kid who sat around writing poetry and smoking pot in San Francisco years ago has learned something. Maybe the writers and editors of widely circulated publications are obligated to report harsh realities, but they can also spotlight the good things and give insight into the lonely, tall anonymous “walker” who is our neighbor. Do we not have the ability to study centuries of leaders in the books in our great public library and borrow from them?

Dr. Martin Luther King didn’t cry out for a leader (other than the God he served) to give us a quick fix. He urged even the street sweeper to be the best street sweeper he could be, and maybe the rest will follow — and with it, opportunity. So if not you and me, then who?

Hugh Crafton

Memphis

Ba-da-dump!

When New York lieutenant governor David Paterson is sworn in to replace Eliot Spitzer, it is reported that he will be the first “blind” governor in the U.S.

I always thought it was Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. After all, he hit on Paula Jones.

Joe Mercer

Memphis

Editor’s note: Bob Levey’s name was misspelled in the attributions for his Viewpoint column in the March 6th issue.

Categories
News The Fly-By

What They Said

About “The Rant” and the religious requirements demanded of presidential candidates:

“Who friggin’ cares what the Bible says, which every Christian interprets differently anyway? Anyone who believes the Bible is literally true is literally deluded.” — Packrat

About Shara Clark’s “Up a Tree,” concerning the Memphis Zoo’s chainsawing of Overton Park trees to make way for a new exhibit:

“Is anyone really surprised? Memphis is one of the most backward cities in this country when it comes to conservation and ecological thinking. … Once you tear down a forest you can’t just rebuild it. Replacing a real habitat with a fake habitat that represents a real habitat? How insanely stupid. And how typical of Memphis.” — mtnbikingchik

About “New Day at the Shelter” by Bianca Phillips, who reported that the former Albuquerque animal shelter director is coming to Memphis:

“An animal services director with shelter experience. Yay. Now if we could just get the city to hire a library services director with library experience.” — B

Comment of the week

About “Council May Re-establish Animal Shelter Board”:

“This is an excellent idea, except for the mayor-appointed part. How can we be sure that he won’t just appoint his gardener and driver to the positions?” — Friday

About the Lester Street killings (“Police Charge Victim’s Brother with Six Murders” by John Branston):

“There is an important life lesson to be learned from this incident. When your brother has already murdered someone, you should avoid arguing with him at all costs.” — Mon_Kie

To share your thoughts, comments, concerns, and — maybe — get published, visit memphisflyer.com.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Three-Way in the Ninth

The race for Memphis’ 9th District congressional seat, now held by first-term Democrat Steve Cohen, was always destined to be closely watched, inasmuch as it pitted Cohen against Nikki Tinker, the runner-up in the 2006 Democratic primary.

There are obvious contrasts between Cohen and Tinker in gender, race (he’s white, she’s black), religion (he’s Jewish, she’s Christian), and, not least, political ideology, an area where Cohen’s legislative record and several decades’ worth of outspokenness are counterpointed by what is, relatively speaking, Tinker’s blank slate.

Moreover, both those campaign efforts are expected to be well-funded, and Cohen has attracted an unusual degree of national attention during his first term — much, but not all, of it for his close attention to matters affecting his predominantly African-American constituency.

For her part, corporate attorney Tinker, who opened her Elvis Presley Boulevard headquarters last weekend, has shown conspicuous determination in mounting a second run for Congress. And, though she has (to put it mildly) been unspecific about issues as such, she is pitching broad campaign themes — for education and economic development and against crime — aimed squarely at the district’s black majority.

But hold everything! As of Monday, this established pas de deux took on a third member, whose volatile presence, personal history, and family name seemed likely to turn what had been a tidy ballet into a free-for-all.

Jake Ford, second son of one former District 9 congressman, Harold Ford Sr., and brother of another, Harold Ford Jr., picked up a petition at the Election Commission Monday to run for the 9th District seat.

At first, Ford appeared ready to run as a Democrat, squaring off against Cohen, Tinker, and several other less ballyhooed figures in the party’s August 7th primary. But hold everything! Ford returned his Democratic petition on Tuesday, swapped it for an independent candidacy (like the one he ran in 2006), and filed it later on Tuesday. That means Cohen (or Tinker) will have to tangle with him after the ordeal of a basically one-on-one primary.

The Cohen-Tinker or B.J. (Before Jake) component of the race went this way last week: The congressman got a boost from the state AFL-CIO, which formally endorsed him. Tinker, who in 2006 had the support of Emily’s List, an organization which raises money for pro-choice female candidates, acknowledged that she hadn’t yet been endorsed by the group for her 2008 campaign but said she hoped to be so favored.

Cohen with Obama

Both Cohen and Tinker support the presidential candidacy of Illinois senator Barack Obama. Cohen, who met with Obama in Washington last week and says he discussed crime and other issues with the senator, formally endorsed Obama before the Tennessee primary on Super Tuesday on February 5th.

Tinker pointed out in an interview after her headquarters opening on Saturday that she, too, could be reckoned as an Obama supporter: “A lot of people who work for me are big on Obama’s team, and I’ve been a Barack Obama supporter since way back,” she said.

Tinker said she hadn’t formally endorsed the senator because she wasn’t an elected official. “But people close to me knew that’s where I was.”

In the interview, Tinker disclaimed any intention of making Cohen an issue in her campaign, but in her earlier remarks to supporters at the headquarters, she seemed to be indulging in a swipe at the congressman, who has been a conspicuous presence at community events: “Simply because somebody shows up at your gate and eats your food and drinks your wine and reads off a proclamation that was prepared by their clerk and has a photo opportunity does not make them a good elected official,” she said.

Others who have drawn petitions as Democrats are James Gregory, Perry Steele, M. LaTroy Williams, and Isaac Richmond.