Month: December 2008

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

It’s a Wrap

CREDIT: by Justin Fox Burks

Let’s start our year-end review with a question: What was memorable about Memphis food news besides the economic meltdown of the past few months?

Since we know you need a little help remembering (yes, we’ve been celebrating the holidays too), here are the highs and lows of 2008 wrapped up to spell Christmas.

“C” is for CSA, a trendy food acronym here and across the country. A CSA — or community supported agriculture — works like this: Participants buy a seasonal share of a local farm and in return receive a grab bag of whatever fruits and vegetables are ready to harvest. There are many bonuses. Participants eat more veggies, reduce their carbon footprints, and get to be friends with farmers like Whitton Flower and Produce’s Jill and Keith Forrester, who offer a CSA for flowers in addition to produce.

“H” is for Harbor Town Coffee, owned and operated by Glenn and Elizabeth Roseberry. The coffee shop offers fair-trade java along with tea, wi-fi, local art, and an assortment of goodies from Big Ono Bake Shop, Howard Montgomery’s new bakery on Front Street.

“R” is for all the restaurants that have opened this year, and lucky for us, they are a mix of menus and locations. Downtown, the Blue Monkey reopened after a devastating fire in 2005; vegetarian chef Bastet Ivery and Creole chef Gary Williams started their own restaurant on Florida Street called Dejavu; Clint Boutwell turned the former Cayenne Moon into Orleans on Front; Don Scott opened On the River Seafood and More (the “more” is a seafood market); and the owners of Interim spun some new magic with Sole Restaurant and Raw Bar at the Westin Hotel.

In Midtown, Cathy Boulden opened Café Eclectic on N. McLean, and Kelly English renovated the former La Tourelle into Restaurant Iris. Farther east, Chris Connor relocated Republic Coffee to Walnut Grove, boyhood friends Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman hit a home run with Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen, Kat Gordon opened Muddy’s Bake Shop in the Sanderlin Centre, and Michele D’Oto turned a historic Presbyterian church in Collierville into Old Church Steakhouse.

by Justin Fox Burks

Kat Gordon of Muddy’s Bake Shop

“I” is for Italian bar owner Aldo Demartino, who opened a tavern downtown on Monroe near Front. Called Bardog — a moniker for bartenders in the old West — the neighborhood gathering spot features a great selection of wines and beers on tap, along with classic pub fare influenced by Demartino’s Italian heritage.

“S” is for South Main, where local food businesses continue to contribute to the development of the city’s historic arts district. Frank’s South Main Market & Deli opened in early November, bringing the neighborhood a much-needed grocery store and bicycle delivery. Down the street, Onix also opened, featuring $5 lunch specials and live jazz on Saturday nights.

“T” is for Thomas Boggs, the much-loved CEO of Huey’s, who died May 5th at the age of 63. In addition to operating his seven-restaurant chain, Boggs was a committed community activist, a generous mentor to the next generation of local chefs, and a person who, in the words of Grove Grill’s Jeff Dunham, “always put Memphis first.”

“M” is for Mantia, a gourmet market in East Memphis that closed after 12 years due to a drop off in catering. The recession has hurt other businesses, as well, and caused a number of closings, including two downtown favorites, Lolo’s Table and Conte’s Italian Restaurant, and The Red Rock Tavern in East Memphis.

“A” is for Automatic Slim’s, Karen Carrier’s flagship restaurant on Front Street. After 17 years, Carrier sold the restaurant, but started her next culinary adventure a few weeks later: Noodle Doodle Dō, a lunchtime Asian noodle bar inside Carrier’s Dō restaurant in Cooper-Young.

“S” is for Simone Wilson, who wrote more than 100 food articles for the Memphis Flyer before reluctantly giving up the column after the birth of her second son, Ari.

So what’s ahead for 2009? In the spirit of the holidays, look for these “C” words from both professional chefs and family cooks in the kitchen: crispy, casserole, comfort, chick pea, Chilean, and cheap.

by Justin Fox Burks

Elizabeth Roseberry of Harbor Town Coffee

Categories
News The Fly-By

What’s That Again?

CREDIT: by Greg Cravens

You’ve read what we had to say; now read what you had to say.

It’s all here: Willie Herenton resigning, then taking it back; the Tigers going all the way to the championship game; and politics, politics, and more politics.

• About the commemorative “Blues Notes” placed along Beale Street:

“Is there any explainable earthly reason why my name and those of Pat Kerr and John Tigrett should be placed alongside the true masters and heroes of American music: W.C. Handy, Otis Redding, B.B. King, Isaac Hayes, Jerry Lee Lewis, Sam and Dave, and Elvis Presley!?! This is a travesty to Memphis music.” — IsaacTigrett

“Tigrett’s letter is some angry throw down on his stepmother, Ms. Pat Kerr Tigrett. There seems to be some sort of nasty family feuding going on.” — Summerlib

• 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

• About “Willie Herenton to Resign”:

“This is a great day for Memphis — like having simultaneous brain and heart transplants in a previously dying patient.” — mmiddle

• About “Cinderella Don’t Do Tats,” an analysis of the Memphis Tigers’ so-called Cinderella season and the tattoos worn by some players — an article that some readers apparently thought was: 1) negative and 2) written by Frank Murtaugh:

by Greg Cravens

“Calling Frank Murtaugh ‘anti-Tiger’ is like calling Santa Claus anti-Christmas. The man loves the Tigers. And this article is POSITIVE regarding the Tigers. How clueless can you possibly be, anyway?” — wino

• About “Chick-fil-A to Demolish Cumberland Presbyterian Building:

“What’s the big deal? We can always travel to visit cities with a varied and rich architectural heritage. We don’t need good architecture here in this rathole.” — packrat

• About “Doing Pennsylvania with Bill and Hill,” by Jackson Baker:

“The Empire Strikes Back in Pennsylvania.” — tomguleff

by Greg Cravens

• About the possible conversion of the Pyramid into a Bass Pro Shops instead of Greg Ericson’s theme-park proposal:

“The theme park was a brilliant idea that seemed to make sense economically. The Bass Pro idea is terrible. Realistically, how much business will it do, especially since there’s already a Bass Pro in Memphis? Common sense is a precious commodity indeed.” — pcolinjr

• From “Complete Street,” an article about ways to improve the Main Street Mall:

“I am all for making downtown as attractive and as bustling as possible, but we need to stop dreaming that this city can support retail that it has no record of supporting, in areas where the market clearly doesn’t exist.” — Jack

• About “Mayor and City Council Mull Putting School Board Out of Business”:

by Greg Cravens

“Wow. I like my power grabs naked, for sure, but this is a daring daylight coup.” — stork

• About “Tinker Gets Nod Again from Emily’s List,” by Jackson Baker:

“Let’s see … John Branston is a racist because he referenced Lean on Me, now Steve Cohen’s a misogynist thanks to a Fatal Attraction reference. Did it ever occur to anyone that maybe, just maybe, film critics are potentially the most wicked people on the planet? I DEMAND CHRIS HERRINGTON’S HEAD ON A PIKE. THAT DUDE TALKS ABOUT MOVIES ALL THE TIME AND NOBODY HAS THE GUTS TO STOP HIM!!!!!” — autoegocrat

• About college radio, one of the “Bright Ideas” for Memphis:

“I love WEVL, but it is NOT a college-radio format. You could only think so if you’ve never heard an authentic college-radio station. Which is a forgivable mistake to make, because you live in Memphis, which doesn’t have one.” — YaYa’s Papa

by Greg Cravens

• About “MATA’s Moment of Truth,” by John Branston and Mary Cashiola:

“If MATA wants people that have a choice in transportation to choose the bus, they need to create a system that is more convenient than driving and not a huge pain in the ass.” — melanie

• About “McCain’s Strategy: What Is He Doing?” by Bruce VanWyngarden:

“If I were McCain’s campaign manager, I would stay half-blind on whiskey all day, every day until the election.” — rantboy

• About “White Power Summit Planned for Olive Branch”:

“These people should be completely ignored. They have no power and very, very small testicles.” — 38103

by Greg Cravens

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Worst Year Ever!

If 2008 was a year of smarter-than-average popcorn movies (The Dark Knight, WALL*E, Tropic Thunder, Iron Man), that’s where the good news ended. Foreign and indie distribution continued to dry up (no 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Paranoid Park, or Flight of the Red Balloon for Memphis, among countless other intriguing titles), Hollywood Oscar bait underperformed, and pleasant surprises were outnumbered by disappointments. (On a more optimistic note, perhaps things will look better after a flood of promising January releases, including Waltz With Bashir, The Wrestler, I’ve Loved You So Long, and Gran Torino.)

Amid the wreckage, our critics scavenged for good stuff. This is what we found.

Chris Herrington:

1. Happy-Go-Lucky: In the worst film year in the more than a decade I’ve been keeping track, this deceptively minor character study from the medium’s greatest working artist takes the top spot by default. From the dreamy, on-the-move, triptych opening credits to a serene closing seemingly indebted to ’70s art-house classic Celine & Julie Go Boating, British master Mike Leigh (see also: Topsy-Turvy, Naked, Vera Drake) has never exhibited as light a touch or been as inspiringly humanistic as with this portrait of a London schoolteacher (Sally Hawkins) whose sunny demeanor is challenged by others’ ways of seeing — and being in — the world.

2. Rachel Getting Married: Jonathan Demme directs this blend of intense family melodrama and epic, Robert Altman-style party sequences with the same intimacy and purpose he put into such masterful concert docs as Stop Making Sense and Neil Young: Heart of Gold. The tumultuous homecoming of Anne Hathaway’s doe-eyed narcotics addict is shown as an oscillating series of white-knuckle interactions and quiet retreats, a handheld camera capturing furtive reaction shots. As the gonzo wedding celebration fights against the family tension, Demme turns indulgence into strength, and the viewer is sucked into the middle of the most audacious home movie ever.

3. The Dark Knight: At one level an almost sympathetic critique of post-9/11 government overreach, The Dark Knight achieved resonance without straining for topicality. The late Heath Ledger’s agitated, sarcastic performance as the Joker managed the impossible task of exceeding pre-release hype, but credit director Christopher Nolan with making a movie that wasn’t overshadowed by it. There’s a procedural tension and insistent, palpable anxiety to The

Dark Knight common to great crime films (from Fritz Lang to Michael Mann) but unprecedented in comic-hero adaptations. This was grand, gripping, propulsive filmmaking.

4. Cadillac Records: This story of the rise of Chicago R&B label Chess Records exposes good movies like Ray and Walk the Line for the self-serious Oscar bait they were. Don’t believe me that this under-marketed, late-year “B” movie was the 2008’s most purely enjoyable Hollywood film? Search YouTube for the clip of Eamonn Walker’s ferocious Howlin’ Wolf singing “Smokestack Lightning” to Muddy Waters’ woman while Muddy (Jeffrey Wright, earning the nomination he won’t get) looks on from the other side of the recording-studio window. That should be all the convincing anyone needs.

5. There Will Be Blood: Paul Thomas Anderson’s three-hour fever dream about the unsteady partnership of capitalism and Christianity in forging manifest destiny opened in Memphis in January 2008 — even if it seems to have come out two years ago. But it seems even older: an increasingly rare handcrafted American cinema epic; a celluloid triumph in a digital age.

6. Man on Wire: This documentary about the day in 1974 that French tightrope walker Phillipe Petit spent 40 amazing minutes on a strand of wire between the World Trade Center towers is the most exciting caper flick in years. And Man on Wire is all the more effective because its wonder at dual human achievements (Petit’s walk and the buildings’ construction) and its melancholy that Petit outlasted the towers are both allowed to emerge without direct commentary.

7. Milk: Gus Van Sant’s fiercely patriotic biopic of martyred gay politician Harvey Milk (Sean Penn’s best lead performance in years) is novel for celebrating Milk as simultaneously a principled leader and a hard-nosed, pragmatic politician. Pertinent viewing in the Age of Obama.

8. Persepolis: This sharp adaptation of Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novels about growing up Iranian during and after the revolution cleverly, believably, and movingly weaves the personal and political.

9. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: As befits the story of a man reduced to communicating with the world via one functioning eye, Julian Schnabel’s biopic of late journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby is a profoundly visual film — from its disorienting point-of-view opening to its increasingly devotional and sensuous embrace of a world its locked-in protagonist can no longer fully experience.

10. WALL*E: In the Worst Year Ever, the wordless, severe, beautiful opening section of this latest Pixar blockbuster was enough to sneak it onto the best-of list, even if I was disappointed by how noisy, violent, and conventional it became when action moved to the mothership.

Honorable Mentions: Trouble the Water, My Blueberry Nights, Married Life, Priceless, Taxi to the Darkside, Tropic Thunder, Son of Rambow, Slumdog Millionaire, Tell No One, Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Addison Engelking:

1. Happy-Go-Lucky: Mike Leigh’s study of hard-working London educators loses none of its charms even after multiple viewings: Its bright, children’s-book imagery and its multifaceted humanism still gleam. Both on its own and as an inspirational counterargument to Leigh’s infernal 1994 film Naked, Happy-Go-Lucky is an essential, strangely necessary moviegoing experience.

2. The Diving Bell and The Butterfly: This celebration of the physical world — of beauty, of nature, of communication — doesn’t begin happily at all; it opens with a frightening sequence shot from the point of view of an immobilized stroke victim. But Butterfly director Julian Schnabel, much like Leigh in Happy-Go-Lucky, is more interested in the way a person’s consciousness colors a world than he is in any kind of sustained realism. What could have been a maudlin, predictable story about hope and affliction is thus turned into a poetic vision of everyday life.

The Dark Knight

3. Cadillac Records: So many of the character/actor pairings in this extravaganza deserve their own TV spin-offs. Think of it: “On this week’s episode of Moanin’ in the Moonlight, Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright) challenges Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker) to a knife fight, only to be told that shivs are for little boys and not grown-ass men. When Wolf asks Muddy whether he thinks he’s grown because he’s been ‘smelling his piss,’ sparks fly! Wendell Pierce guest-stars as Bo Diddley.”

4. Role Models: This was the funniest, most unpredictable comedy of the year. Director David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer) shows he can handle grown-up stuff better than Judd Apatow’s goons these days. Which is funny, because Wain is also working with Paul Rudd, the most reliable comic actor around. Yes, Rudd’s bid for maturity and social responsibility involves creating a breakaway heavy-metal republic that challenges the smug assholes in charge of a LARP battle royale, but any comedy that encourages its characters to enlarge their sense of self is pretty special.

5. The Forbidden Kingdom: Aside from those Jason Statham quickies and Rob Marshall’s splatter-pocalyptic Doomsday, this was the only action movie this year with fight scenes that looked good and said something about its characters. Why expect less?

6. My Blueberry Nights/Ashes of Time Redux: Wong Kar-Wai’s criminally underappreciated romance is both a perceptive movie about the American landscape and an insightful look at the psychology of neon lights and window graffiti, which function like mood rings for the two leads (Jude Law and Norah Jones). It ends with a kiss that should draw sighs. Ashes of Time remains enigmatic and beautiful; made in 1994, it’s Wong’s least accessible film — which nevertheless makes it better than all but a half-dozen other movies released this year.

7. Man on Wire: This is a film in which a gifted French gab re-creates the literal and figurative high point of his existence through inspired, nonstop storytelling. It is also an ode to the expressive possibilities of urban architecture that, at its best, recalls the great dream-city films of F.W. Murnau and Frank Borzage.

8. The Wackness: This story of a mixed-up New York City kid wandering in and out of love in 1994 stuck with me because it captured every moment of sincere or awkward adolescence I recall from the headphoned summers I spent between the ages of 16 and 22, when each month pivoted on a new, surprising crush or love affair that was as instructive as it was painful. Clever/ postmodern moment: Method Man’s drug supplier sings along with himself on a Biggie Smalls mixtape.

9. WALL*E: Considering its fast-paced, visually stunning pedigree, its reliable storytelling, and its target market, Pixar’s complex, melancholy response to the Spielberg-Kubrick hybrid A.I. Artificial Intelligence is one of the most confounding major-studio films of the year. The first 45 minutes are wordless, lovable tertiary characters are absent, and the film seems constructed from garbage, dust, new and rusted metal, smog, and highly buffed synthetic plastic. After that, the image of fattened, immobile earthlings whose clothes change for them is probably too prescient to dwell upon.

10. Persepolis: It’s just like a graphic novel, except that it’s compelling, emotionally engaging, and worth revisiting.

Honorable Mentions: Ten performances just as good as Heath Ledger’s Joker: Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, Dominique Pinon and Audrey Dana in Roman de Gare, Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder, George Clooney in Burn After Reading, Viggo Mortensen in Appaloosa, Anne Hathaway in anything, Audrey Tatou and Gad Elmaleh in Priceless, Belen Rueda in The Orphanage.

Greg Akers:

1. Frozen River: Compared to lots of my other favorite 2008 films, former Memphian Courtney Hunt’s debut film, Frozen River, says what it does sans hoopla and bombast. It saves the fireworks for the cherry bomb sparking at its emotional core, and the only scenery chewing going on is happening to leads Ray (Melissa Leo) and Lila (Misty Upham) as they’re mashed up and spit out by a callous world. But they find each other. And they push the ball forward a little. And sometimes that’s enough.

2. There Will Be Blood: P.T. Anderson’s Citizen Kane. Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance as American wolf Daniel Plainview is colossal. Too bad Paul Dano as preacher Eli Sunday isn’t up to snuff. But nothing can suppress the singular experience of watching Plainview eat the sun. Hey, kids: Come watch capitalism bash in the brains of religion. Woot!

3. The Dark Knight: Finally! A comic-book adaptation that’s more of a movie than just a stay-inside-the-lines, rote project based on origin-story source material or fanboy wish fulfillment. With Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, comic-book superhero movie meets genre pic. History will recall the moment Batman went crime epic on the big screen, but it just as easily could have been Superman going torture porn or Wolverine in X-Men: The Musical! I’m glad it happened the way it did.

4. Cloverfield: The movie’s probably not as good as I remember, but what I do recall is the electrical charge I had coming out of the theater. I could’ve pulled one of those Donald O’Connor climb-up-the-wall-and-flips off the side of the Paradiso. I was high on life, man. The best theatrical experience of the year; cinema in all its visceral glory.

5. Rachel Getting Married: The less narrative Rachel Getting Married becomes, the better. When it’s a home-movie-style documentation of a wedding, it celebrates life and possibility in ways most films can’t touch. When it’s in plot-forward mode, it’s still really good.

6. Iron Man: Growing up, I never much got over to the Marvel side of comic-book town. I had Batman/Bruce Wayne already — why would I need anybody else, much less another rich smart guy fighting crime, such as Iron Man? What I didn’t know worked in my favor. I went into the film relatively cold and came away pleased as punch. For once, make mine Marvel.

7. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: A solid film with a napalm ending: I’ve rarely been so obliterated by a movie. Designed like a long con, Striped Pajamas suckers the audience into believing this may be the one story you could tell about the Holocaust that’s — to the extent that is possible — feel-good. Wrong. There are no happy Holocaust stories.

8. Be Kind Rewind: A film that busts easy categorization, Michel Gondry has now made my favorite music video ever (the White Stripes’ “Hardest Button to Button”), my favorite Jim Carrey movie (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and my favorite movie about video stores, making movies, and Fats Waller (Be Kind Rewind). He’s a five-tool director.

9. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: I’m not sure I understand the vitriol surrounding the latest installment in this popcorn series nearing three decades old. Aren’t movies sometimes supposed to be fun? Can’t some fiction be improbable? Isn’t it occasionally a good thing to see people eaten alive by ants or surviving a nuclear blast in a refrigerator? And sure, Shia. But did he, like, spill wine on your couch or something? Sheesh.

10. Redbelt: This isn’t by a long shot David Mamet’s best film. But Redbelt‘s protagonist, Mike (Chiwetel Ejiofor), is by far Mamet’s most likable character and the only one I think I’d like to see again in another adventure. The ending has stayed with me for seven months now, so I guess it’s in my head to stay.

Honorable Mentions: Doubt, The Fall, Man on Wire, Milk, Taxi to the Dark Side, Quantum of Solace, Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie, Persepolis, Wall*E, Slumdog Millionaire.

Cadillac Records

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall

Happy Old Year

Hey, Fly fans! It’s the holiday season, that very special time of year when your pesky host phones it in! And by “phones it in,” we mean that he looks back over everything he’s written in the past 51 weeks and cringes. Er, he lovingly and painstakingly compiles the best of Memphis’ worst and then writes about it in the third person. So take a shot and smoke ’em if you got ’em. This — cue cable-news-style theme music — is Your Year in FLY.

Random Silliness I

File under dirty homophones: While visiting one of Memphis’ many fine Family Dollar stores, your Pesky Fly was shocked to discover a shoplifter shoving a large, economy-size package of Butterfingers down the front of his pants. And this tag:

Just Sayin’

If you say endlessly entertaining things without making any sense at all … you might be a Mid-South opinion maker:

• “I like to look at the glass as being half full, and in this we got a glass that maybe wasn’t half full last year but at least we got a glass that had some content to it.”— police director Larry Godwin on the “Crooks With Guns Act”

• “The public, of course, often operates in a herd mentality, thundering to the worst-case scenario because everyone else is going there. Herd, hear this. There is a plausible alternative.”— Commercial Appeal editor Chris Peck on why the mortgage crisis was a golden opportunity for mavericks without liquidity issues

• “[We must] break our independence on foreign oil. … It’s time that America cuts up its credit cards — especially to foreign countries — and gain our dependence back.”— Southaven mayor Greg Davis at a political rally in Oxford, Mississippi

• “Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord, for making it so economical. … That’s all I can say.”— Tennessee senator Ophelia Ford after Nashville’s WSMV-TV asked why she spent $12,000 of taxpayer money on travel during a time of economic hardship

Happiness/Warm Gun

• In January, the Tennessee Senate supported a measure to allow anyone of legal drinking age who also holds a gun permit to bring firearms into bars. The Senate’s desire to put deadly force in the hands of drunks, a human subset known to brawl over incredibly important things like who’s lookin’ at who, was summarily hailed by NRA types as a victory for the “good guys.”

• In June, The DeSoto Times reported that a Byhalia man was seriously wounded after he attempted to use a muzzle-loading rifle as a hammer. The Times failed to point out that this is a perfect example of why all hammering should be done with screwdrivers.

Unrealest

Has there ever been a fake tabloid headline more shocking than this actual headline from the CA? “Girl: Dad made me dismember mom.”

According to police testimony, James Hawkins bought a circular saw from Kmart for the grisly chore. Once he and his 12-year-old daughter finished the job, Hawkins returned the saw to the store for a refund.

Our Gaydar

Christian-themed news outlet OneNewsNow uses a computer program that automatically replaces the word “gay” with the word “homosexual,” with hilarious results. To wit: “Memphis Grizzlies backers hit the hay hoping that Kevin Love would open things up for Rudy Homosexual in the frontcourt.” Amen, hallelujah, and boom-chicka-bow-wow!

Random Silliness II

In honor of Telly Savalis Johnson’s recent conviction on five counts of attempted first-degree murder, let’s all say it together: “Who loves ya, baby?”

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Stage to Screen

Like so many movies this year, Doubt is very good, but it’s missing something that would’ve made it great.

You can’t fault the premise. Doubt is about a Catholic school and parish in quiet crisis, when a nun suspects a priest of “inappropriate behavior” with an altar boy. The nun, Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep), is the school principal, a ninja disciplinarian who sees her duty as stemming the tide of change in the church (and, thus, the world). To her, a barrette in a girl’s hair is a clear indicator of impending teenage pregnancy.

The priest, Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman), has a different perspective on the way the world is going. The year is 1964, and he senses his flock feeling hopeless following President Kennedy’s assassination. In a homily opening the film, Flynn asks, “What do you do when you’re not sure?” and concludes, “Doubt can be a bond between people as powerful and sustaining as certainty.” As to matters of church, Flynn sees intolerance where Sister Beauvier sees staying the course of tradition. The school has admitted its first black student (Joseph Foster), and Father Flynn takes him under his wing to protect him from the racist sins of his classmates.

Caught between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn is Sister James (Amy Adams), a young, guileless nun and schoolteacher undergoing a crisis of belief when the nun accuses the priest of doing things he ought not. Sister James is the one who might actually have seen something, making her a trustworthy witness to circumstantial evidence. She doesn’t want to believe it’s true. Sister Aloysius, with an institutional memory of institutional sin, is certain that it is.

Doubt was written and directed by John Patrick Shanley, based on his own play. The film does things the play can’t, such as exploring the setting visually. As a director, Shanley is interested in architecture, angles, and the shapes of things. The film feels very much like a play adaptation, with long, uninterrupted scenes of dialogue and confrontation.

Shanley is also interested in actors, and the acting is Doubt‘s greatest strength. Streep is as good as she’s been in a long time, tasked with keeping Sister Aloysius unlikable but not villainous. Hoffman, who looks like an overgrown boy, is dynamite: At a few key times, he’s able to express two contradictory emotions at the same time, proving his innocence or guilt depending on which you think it is.

Doubt

Opening Thursday, December 25th

Multiple locations

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

The year of the comic-book movie ends with a whimper.

We almost made it. 2008, the year of the damn comic-book movie, is this close to being over. By my unscientific count, there have been about 63 comic-book adaptations this year. Lest you think Hollywood was fresh out, though, here comes one last, The Spirit, released a mere six days before ’08 gives up the ghost. Aren’t there poems out there we could make into a movie instead? Medication warning labels? E-mails?

And this weariness with the genre comes from a comic-book guy! What must my fellow Americans feel? In The Spirit‘s defense, though, it is a stab at bringing to the big screen for the first time a giant in the industry, Will Eisner. They named what are basically the comic-book Oscars after Eisner, and his style helped create the language of Western comics, widely borrowed by just about everybody. In other words, he’s the Velvet Underground of comic creators — more influential than he ever was popular.

The Spirit is Eisner’s comic that ran beginning in 1940. It, and now the movie, features the titular superhero, the alter ego of a cop named Denny Colt (Gabriel Macht), who was killed and mysteriously came back to life to continue fighting crime.

The Spirit’s nemesis is the Octopus, a criminal mastermind who, in the plot, tries to become immortal so that, I guess, he can be evil for even longer. In the book, you never see the Octopus’ face. In the movie, he’s Samuel L. Jackson in all his Samuel L. Jackson glory, though, unlike most comic villains, he changes wardrobes as often as Cher in concert, wearing, in turn, a big Super Fly-type hat, a white kimono, a Nazi uniform, and a fur coat.

The Spirit was written and directed by Frank Miller, a famous comic creator in his own right. Miller’s Sin City was made into a movie in 2005, and the look of that film will be the first thing viewers of The Spirit will think of: all-CGI sets, high-contrast visual information, parsimonious usage of color. In other words, the movies look like a series of Frank Miller panels come to life. Similarly, the dialogue here is stylized to the point of sounding distractingly anachronistic.

The whole thing oscillates between thoroughly awful and entirely entertaining (maybe lingering a bit on the awful side). If nothing else, I guess, The Spirit is positioned to appeal to the 13-year-old-boy market. For one, there’s lots of non-gory, consequence-free violence. (The Spirit and the Octopus are indestructible, and Octopus’ cloned henchmen are replenished like they’re fishes and loaves of bread). For another, this is the sweet-toothiest of eye-candy movies you’ll see, with actresses Eva Mendes, Scarlett Johansson, Sarah Paulson, Paz Vega, Stana Katic, and Jaime King vying for the Spirit’s (and our) attention. They could have an issue of FHM all to themselves.

The Spirit

Opening Thursday, December 25th

Multiple locations

Categories
Editorial Opinion

How We Got Here

A year ago at this time, we cast about for a theme worthy of editorial contemplation as we prepared to turn the calendar page for 2008. We settled on city/county consolidation as an issue worth raising and pursuing, and, sure enough, as the new year began, both Memphis

mayor Willie Herenton and Shelby County mayor A C Wharton made major speeches on behalf of full or partial consolidation.

Even so, the extent to which our two local eminences were committed to such an endeavor wasn’t as obvious at the time as it would become. It was to the Flyer, we don’t mind boasting, that Wharton would later confide the essentials of what would seem, in retrospect, to have been a strikingly original — and pragmatic — plan on the part of the two mayors to bring about consolidation. After conversations with Governor Phil Bredesen in Nashville, Herenton and Wharton had launched a coordinated initiative that would involve, first, former superintendent Herenton’s resigning as mayor to resume control of the city’s schools; second, a special election that would almost certainly have resulted in the elevation of Wharton (boosted by his predecessor) to city mayor; and, third, a referendum on consolidation to be overseen by the new chief executive, who presumably would still be entertaining a honeymoon with his reconfigured constituency.

There were, to be sure, some details to be worked out: How, for example, would the office of Shelby County mayor be disposed of, in both short and long term, after the planned ascension of the popular Wharton to City Hall? What would be the exact mechanics of transitioning to a unified government? What snags could develop, and how might they be neutralized? These and other conundra were not to be minimized, but there was some sense that they could be reckoned with. As things turned out, however, step one in the process was nullified by the simple fact that the city’s independent-minded school board wouldn’t cotton to it. Herenton didn’t get the school job, which would ultimately go instead to a new face, Miami import Kriner Cash, and, instead of his presiding over his designated end of the dramatic transformation, Herenton would end up spending a visibly uncomfortable year at the helm of the city, a premature lame duck, around whom were spinning lurid, unspecified reports of his imminent arrest and indictment.

Step two of the process went ahead, after a fashion. Three years ahead of the next regularly scheduled city election, Wharton announced his candidacy for Memphis mayor and his hopes for a city/county referendum on consolidation in 2010. But cart had been put ahead of horse, and, unless events should in fact result in Herenton’s suddenly leaving office — in far less ideal circumstances than the departure originally envisioned — a referendum on city/county resolution would come before, not after, a changing of the guard.

Moreover, the economics of local government are in direr straits than anyone foresaw a year ago, and, while that fact is itself an argument for pooling the two governmental systems’ dwindling resources, it has led to the kind of crisis atmosphere that precludes careful planning. To put it bluntly, anything could happen between now and 2011. And we don’t know how we’ll get there from here.

Categories
Fashion Fashion Feature

Shop This

Giving props to the bumper-sticker mantra that the best recovery plan for global economic blight begins at home, all of the products in play this week are of the home-grown variety. Some of these items are available at Memphis-area retailers; others can be purchased easily online. All are très fabulous.

ROCK SOFT: Grand Leader owner/creator Margo Wender Gruen believes in T-shirts. She also believes that great rock lyrics, such as “just a kiss away,” are lodged in our cultural subconscious like time-capsule triggers with the power to flood us with memories and emotional responses. Marry the two, and the result is Gruen’s line of vintage-style rock T’s. This one is 100 percent cotton jersey, garment-dyed, and washed with more than just a kiss of attitude. The number on the back denotes the year the song was recorded. $72. Available at grandleaderonline.com.

SAFE TRAVELS: Not a “travel lightly” person? Neither was Janie E. Sims. After growing weary of spending a disproportionate amount of her vacation time untangling her jewelry, she created the perfect solution. Called the JJ, this travel pouch keeps 20 pairs of earrings and other jewelry untangled. $33 and up at Bella Vita, 3670 Houston Levee.

LOVE MATCH: As a mother, Marilyn Kosten’s love for tennis began when her daughters first took to the court. As a designer, that love became a thriving brand and stylish clothing line. One of Kosten’s early designs, a tennis dress made for Tracy Austin, hangs in the Tennis Hall of Fame. Now her court gear can be found hanging in the closets of stylish tennis kids all over the country. Kosten’s line, Little Miss Tennis, features clothing for girls and boys ages 3 to 14 and is sold at several Memphis locations, including The Racquet Club, 5111 Sanderlin. Pieces start at $39.

PRIZE WINNER: Joanna Lipman is half of the design genius that is Femme Sud, whose handbags and clutches offer much more than a place to store your lipstick or cell phone — they’re mad-darling, OMG conversation starters. The county-fair inspired “Grand Prix” comes in two sizes and five colors. Meanwhile, the bookish “Ex Libris” bags resemble hard-cover novels, with winning titles such as Fame & Fortune. Bags start at $225. Visit femmesud.com to order.

Shop This is compiled by Shopgirl.
E-mail shopgirl@memphisflyer.com with tips and suggestions for items to be promoted. Please send a daytime phone number and print-quality digital images for consideration.

Categories
Opinion

A Remarkable Year

What kind of year was 2008? A remarkable one, of course. They all are. But this one really was.

Best news: Most of us have enough stuff.

Worst news: Most of us have enough stuff. If they didn’t make another car, flat-screen television, or pair of sneakers in 2009, would we really be worse off?

Best performance by a Memphis public company: AutoZone, hands down. The Fortune 500 company, up 12 percent, was one of four companies in the 50 “stocks of local interest” (Fred’s, Gtx Inc., and Kirklands, all relatively tiny companies, were the others) that went up in 2008. Incredible.

Worst performance by a Memphis public company: Tie between Fortune 500 biggie International Paper (down 60 percent) and little Pinnacle Airlines (down 80 percent), but if you include companies with a big presence but no headquarters, then the casino (Boyd Gaming), retail (Macy’s and Dillards) and financial (Regions, SunTrust, and First Horizon) sectors would place.

Worst trend: The growing acceptance of anonymous rumor-mongering, stupidity, and slander on the Internet in the name of free expression.

Best trend: Skepticism of all financial experts.

Biggest story: The astonishing loss of wealth in Memphis stocks, mutual funds such as Longleaf Partners (down 50 percent), bonuses and salaries (FedEx), and layoffs.

Most irrelevant thing: The zero, or the string of zeros in large numbers, such as the size of the bailout or the loss of wealth in Memphis. We are in the numerical realm of astronomers.

Worst movie release: The timing of the release of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, a moving film about the Holocaust, at the onset of the holiday season. I saw it on Thanksgiving, spoiling an otherwise upbeat and festive day.

Best movie: Purely subjective — I don’t see many movies in theaters because I resent the commercials — but I liked Memphian Bob Compton’s Sole of a Hustla, which goes into general release in February. The story is about a venture capitalist’s attempt to partner with street-smart Memphis dudes with big dreams. Shot in Memphis and China, it doesn’t flinch from the truth and turns itself in and out a couple times.

Best move by a (former) public official: Bruce Thompson’s decision to plead guilty instead of going to trial. He got a six-month sentence. Had he gone to trial he could have gotten several years, and the particulars of his “consulting” business as a Shelby County commissioner would have been explored in the detail they deserved instead of, alas, being left in limbo.

Worst move by a (former) public official: David Kustoff’s decision to resume his role as local spokesman for the Republican Party a few months after resigning as United States attorney. By failing to lay low for a decent interval of at least a year or two, Kustoff gave credence to every suspicion that politics perverts the administration of justice, from Washington to Memphis.

Worst courtroom performance by a key witness: Joe Cooper in the Edmund Ford Jr. trial. Brave as he was to go undercover for the government, Cooper was an easy target for the defense despite the presence of incriminating tapes.

Best courtroom performance by a key witness: Edmund Ford Jr.’s wife, Myrna, as his business partner, loving wife, and mother of his children.

Most uncanny parallel: The undercover tapes of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and the undercover tapes of John Ford, Roscoe Dixon, and Barry Myers in Operation Tennessee Waltz. “Show me the f****** money!”

Most dubious claim: That Illinois is the most corrupt state in the U.S. Shouldn’t Tennessee at least get some consideration?

Most overexposed: Annual Memphis-centric “civil rights” games by the NBA and Major League Baseball.

Worst investment decision: MATA locking in a year of diesel fuel futures for $4.52 a gallon in August. Current price: $2.50.

Best investment decision: Refinancing your mortgage at the never-seen-in-this-lifetime rate of 4.5 percent.

Best crowd: Filling FedExForum for a meaningless game between Memphis and U-Mass with an 11 p.m. start.

Worst crowd: 15,000 or less for the U of M’s last football game.

Deadest holiday party tradition: Willie Herenton and Pete Aviotti’s $1,000-a-big-dog bash.

Categories
Music Record Reviews

Old Hands and New Bands

Music editor Chris Herrington lists the best local albums of 2008, and our other music writers pay tribute to a few of their favorite things. (Our national music “best of” lists will follow in the January 8th issue.)

Top 10 Local Albums:

1. Matador Singles ’08 — Jay Reatard (Matador): The onetime enfant terrible who named his first two albums (with the Reatards) Teenage Hate and Grown Up, Fucked Up gave growing up a good name in 2008. A decade into one of modern Memphis music’s most prolific and most relentlessly creative careers, Reatard decided that energy and passion don’t have to be sacrificed by more space and less volume, resulting in the so-far best music of his life — one melodic, personal pop gem after another, first released as limited-edition singles but collected on disc here. Highlights abound: The soaring romantic chorus of “See Saw” that goes “She creeps me out/She crept me in again”; the merciless but unexpectedly generous childhood reminiscence of “Screaming Hand”; the eloquently strangled guitar line that drives “Always Wanting More”; the way the restless, regretful “No Time” is effectively roughed up with some intentional distortion.

2. Lay It Down — Al Green (Blue Note): This is the third in a series of quality “comeback” albums Al Green has made this decade, and, as a Memphis music writer, I’m probably supposed to say that this one, recorded in New York with Roots drummer ?uestlove producing, isn’t as good as the ones recorded down home with legendary local collaborator Willie Mitchell. But that’s just not true: It’s better. Both too tasteful and too contrary to let the album get bogged down by its cameos (John Legend, Anthony Hamilton, Corinne Bailey Rae), ?uestlove merely replicates the form and spirit of the classic Hi sound as best he can and lets Green go to work. The opening title track, in which Green worries — with slowly increasing intensity — over a simple, familiar instrumental bed, might be his finest recorded moment since the Carter administration. It sets a tone that the rest of the album improbably lives up to.

3. Pretty Loud — Mouse Rocket (self-released): Alone or together, Robby Grant and Alicja Trout are two of Memphis’ finest music makers. In their “other bands” (Vending Machine and River City Tanlines, respectively), Grant specializes in gentle, melodic homemade pop, and Trout plays guitar-god bandleader. Joining forces in Mouse Rocket, they meet halfway (the album title is truth in advertising), and it suits them both. The best local album of 2008 without a strong national profile.

4. Spills & Thrills — John Paul Keith & the One Four Fives (self-released): Nashville’s loss is Memphis’ gain — big time. Onetime NashVegas hopeful Keith relocated to the other end of the Music Highway, assembled a crackerjack band (producer/guitarist Kevin Cubbins and rhythm-section-to-the-stars John Argroves and Mark Stuart at the core), and, on this debut album, puts a vibrant, nimble country twist on the city’s latent roots-rock/bar-rock style.

5. 2 Man Wrecking Crew — Cedric Burnside & Lightnin’ Malcolm (Delta Groove): In a genre — the blues — aching for interesting young talent, the late R.L. Burnside’s grandson Cedric delivers with this Blues Music Award “best debut” nominee. Switching off drums and guitar and taking songwriting turns with gruff-voiced sidekick Malcolm, this heir to the north Mississippi blues throne tells his personal family story (“R.L. Burnside”), makes an unforced connection to the hip-hop generation he’s a part of (his baby “backs that ass up on me” in “My Sweetheart”), and reveals a sweet, soul-infused singing voice (“That’s My Girl”). Keeping the blues alive, indeed.

6. Spacetime Breakfast — The Warble (self-released): The playful, personal, mischievous folk-rock on this painstakingly homemade document makes for the most idiosyncratic local debut in recent memory.

7. The 2nd Edition: Memphop — Iron Mic Coalition (self-released): Estranged from both the baser concerns and sounds of most local rap and the mainstream’s indie-equivalent minority, this sprawling local crew of rappers and producers has been an island unto itself. On the most interesting local album of 2008 that almost no one heard, disparate voices (stand-outs: Jason the Hater, gruff and comical; Mighty Quinn, smooth and fierce; Derelick, nasally and sly) weave in and out of dense, soulful tracks.

8. Brooklyn Hustle/Memphis Muscle — Jump Back Jake (Ardent): The “Brooklyn hustle” is Jake Rabinbach, a recent arrival with big ideas. The “Memphis muscle” is primarily a trio of musicians from notable local indie-rock bands (Snowglobe, the Third Man, Antique Curtains) who heroically and effectively push themselves into new territory as an ace R&B/roots band while Rabinbach “sings like a man” in a milieu that demands it.

9. Generous Gambler — Antenna Shoes (Shangri-La Projects): Snowglobe’s Tim Regan goes “solo” with help from a gaggle of talented friends. With Regan’s warm, supple voice putting across a collection of melodic songs whose nooks and crannies are filled with classic-rock grace notes, it sounds just like a Snowglobe record with Regan singing all the songs. And that’s a good thing.

10. Alliance — Afrissippi (Hill Country Records): Oxford-based Senegalese native Guelel Kumba fuses blues with West African music, and it’s a winning recipe on this second album, with hypnotic Junior Kimbrough-style guitar riffs layered over polyrhythmic African percussion. But Alliance may be even better when the electric blues guitar drops back and the African rhythmic and vocal traditions take the fore, as on the gorgeous call-and-response “Leeliyo Leele” or when Kumba’s African guitar launches a song, as on “Maasina Tooro.”

Honorable Mentions: Chairmen of the Bored — Lord T & Eloise (self-released); Wild One — Those Darlins (Oh Wow Dang); Gully — Rob Jungklas (MADJACK); Hernando — North Mississippi Allstars (Songs of the South); Egypt Central — Egypt Central (Fat Lady).

Ex-Pats: Oracular Spectacular — MGMT (Columbia); One Kind Favor — B.B. King (Geffen); Eddie Loves You So — Eddie Floyd (Stax); Red Neck, Blue Collar — Bob Frank (Memphis International).

Reissues: Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul — Otis Redding (Rhino); Singles ’06/’07 — Jay Reatard (In the Red); Soulsville Sings Hitsville — Various Artists (Stax); Johnny Cash’s America (Columbia/Legacy).

Chris Davis:

1. The Warble: I was drinking beer and having a depressing conversation about the 20th anniversary of the cool new record store I stumbled into 20 years ago when I was 20 when Shangri-La Records owner Jared McStay started bragging about the Warble, a band I’d checked out online but nowhere else in spite of the fact that one of the members, Alex Harrison, was (and still is) working in the Flyer‘s art department.

McStay said the group reminded him of the artier Midtown sound in the late ’80s and early ’90s. That recommendation, and Spacetime Breakfast, the absolutely unique CD that showed up at my desk shortly thereafter, finally got me out to see this singular band I’d vastly underrated.

The Warble’s approach to what is essentially folk music has both the arty punk edges and the stumbling psychedelic wooziness of older, long-gone local bands like the Odd Jobs and Shangri-La’s first recording artists, 611. Their tunes are every bit as quirky and personal as anything recorded by Shelby Bryant before he skipped town. But that’s where any comparison to Midtown’s Babylon Café scene ends. Harrison and partner Judith Stevens’ lyrical images are as graphic and playful as the murals he painted on the walls of the Hi-Tone Café.

2. The Southern Girls Rock and Roll Camp: So there I was in a theater full of twisting femininity, watching the rockabilly filly, Rosie Flores, play her heart out for all the girls at Rock Camp. It was an inspired set but not the most inspired set of the week. That didn’t happen until the last night of camp when bands of tween girls who’d only been playing together for a week showed their stuff.

By the time the Arcadian Sugarplumz played their original composition, “Testing Testing 1, 2, 3, Let’s Go Out There and Rock the Show,” it was pretty clear that Memphis’ traditionally strong music scene isn’t going to dry up anytime soon.

3. Roy Head vs. Terry Manning: In 2006, I included on this very list a performance by Roy Head at the Ponderosa Stomp. The elderly-ish “Treat Her Right” singer moved like a dervish as he laid down the blue-eyed Texas soul that made him world famous for a minute or two in the mid-’60s, and it blew me away. I wish I could say the same thing about his performance at this year’s Memphis Pops Festival. But by the time Head went on it was late, he was half lit on fresh-squeezed screwdrivers, and he was grumpy because his shoes wouldn’t scoot around the Hi-Tone’s carpeted stage. That’s not to say that the whole Pops Festival was a disappointment: I got to hear the Hombres play “Let It All Hang Out” twice and saw storied Led Zeppelin engineer Terry Manning play an absolutely stunning, show-stopping cover of Chris Bell’s “I Am the Cosmos.” That’s special.

4. John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives’ “Rock and Roll Will Break Your Heart”: It can, you know.

5. The return of the downtown alley parties: It’s about time. There are lots of folks who’ll fall in love with the Barbaras’ 21st-century answer to Phil Spector and Brian Wilson who just aren’t going to go to the Buccaneer at midnight. Hope these continue.

Andrew Earles:

1. Jay Reatard singles: Out of his Matador singles series, which had people acting like impoverished participants in a wartime bread/toilet paper line, I’d say that “See Saw,” “Always Wanting More,” “Hiding Hole,” and “You Were Sleeping” were the faves.

2. Black Cobra at the Hi-Tone: The latest two-piece noise band that “sounds like a lot more than just two guys” (always overheard at such performances). Not metal, not punk. Just really loud. Positioned in the middle of a three-band set headlined by instrumental “metal” band Pelican, Black Cobra momentarily made me forget about all other heavy bands.

The Warble

3. Gonerfest highlights: Sic Alps live: I get it. Sic Alps on record: I don’t get it. The Ooga Boogas brought a serious punch — a visceral endurance test that (wonderfully) contrasted the power-pop and pub-rock that dominated their particular evening. No Comply was great during an afternoon set at Murphy’s, and whether or not you dig the band’s ’80s/’90s hardcore history lesson, it was more than worth it to see the head-scratching and, uh, “dancing” within the assembled crowd. I don’t even know how to describe the Intelligence — really, really unsophisticated Joy Division? — but they scratched the right spots. And AV Murder sounded amazing in the middle of the afternoon for some reason.

4. The Brothers Unconnected (2/3 of the Sun City Girls) at Odessa: A wonderful treat for a longtime Sun City Girls fan, accented by the fact that more than 10 people showed up to witness the two-and-a-half-hour set of purely bent entertainment and every possible genre of music that can be accomplished with two acoustic guitars and two mics (plus lots of comedic banter!).

5. Torche at the Hi-Tone: This band released what is likely to be my album of the year (Meanderthal). They’re also the closest I’ve ever come to enjoying the Foo Fighters, an influence that is lost to the blunt-force trauma of their live set. So loud that they caused the Hi-Tone’s support beams to vibrate, Torche’s Melvins-meets-Guided By Voices-meets-Motörhead recipe for greatness was so forceful live that I almost had a panic attack at the thought of possible heart palpitations. Not kidding around here.

Honorable Mentions: Box Elders at Murphy’s, Memphis Pops Fest at the Hi-Tone, Skeletonwitch at the Rally Point, Blood on the Wall at Odessa.

J.D. Reager:

1. The Bulletproof Vests: The Bulletproof Vests is a local super-group of sorts. Composed of members of several notable local bands, including the Third Man, Jump Back Jake, and Antique Curtains, the Bulletproof Vests might be the best of that talented lot on the strength of their spot-on Stones/Faces-influenced songwriting and the sheer guitar wizardry of frontman Jake Vest. Vest is everything an aspiring lead guitarist would hope to be — his licks are tasteful, effortless, and incendiary. The Bulletproof Vests is the best new band to emerge from Memphis in 2008.

2. Pretty Loud — Mouse Rocket: A local musician acquaintance recommended this album to me with the following caveat: “I don’t normally like indie-rock-type stuff, but this album rocks.” Well, I’m here to tell you that I do generally like indie-rock-type stuff and that this album is pretty spectacular. Pretty Loud is the finest collection of straight-ahead rock songs by co-bandleaders Alicja Trout and Robby Grant to date.

3. Billie Worley & the Candy Company and the Warble live at the Cooper-Young Festival: I’m not sure which was more fun for me to watch or more confounding for the average midday passerby — Billie Worley’s over-the-top (in a good way) rock anthems and fake-mustache hawking or the Warble literally scaring off families with a manic set of their indescribable, genre-bending pop gems, sprinkled with obscenity.

4. Memphis music at the Indie Memphis Film Festival: Probably the most exciting moments of the Indie Memphis Film Festival came when the spotlight shone on Memphis music. Filmmaker Craig Brewer used the occasion to preview scenes from $5 Cover, his upcoming MTV web-series about Memphis music, and Live From Memphis once again put together a fine collection of locally produced videos for the Music Video Showcase. The MVS was particularly a revelation, mainly for exposing the world to Choir Boi’s instant classic “Texting You,” which remains firmly implanted in my brain to this day, despite existing on an alternate plane where there might only be one T in the word “texting.”

5. Oracle and the Mountain: Local scene vet Dale Naron’s new band Oracle and the Mountain expertly bridges the gap between hard rock and indie pop on their eponymous debut offering. What’s more, Naron seems to have found a swagger as a frontman/vocalist that was missing from his previous project, the Great Depression.

Honorable mentions:  Lord T & Eloise’s Chairmen of the Bored, the Perfect Fits’ “Radio Transmitter,” Against Me! at FedExForum, the Subteens reunion.  

Mouse Rocket