Month: August 2009

Categories
Memphis Gaydar News

All Mayoral Candidates Support Non-Discrimination Ordinance

In last night’s mayoral debate on WMC-TV, all nine candidates present — Charles Carpenter, Wanda Halbert, AC Wharton, Carol Chumney, Kenneth Whalum, Sharon Webb, Prince Mongo, Jerry Lawler, and Myron Lowery — declared support for a non-discrimination ordinance protecting city of Memphis employees.

News anchor Joe Birch posed the question, but he didn’t specifically mention that the ordinance would protect gay and lesbian workers. One would assume that’s what he meant since he framed the question by comparing a possible city ordinance to the county ordinance intended to protect LGBT workers that passed earlier this year.

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In other LGBT-related mayoral debate news, panelist and Memphis Flyer political reporter Jackson Baker asked candidate Whalum to explain what happened with the two lesbians who claimed they were ejected from his New Olivet Baptist Church last Sunday.

Whalum avoided the question, saying he would “absolutely, positively not” explain what happened.

Whalum went on to say: “You know what happened. Nothing happened out of the ordinary. Find out. Come over there and find out.”

Categories
News

Sk8 Glenview

Even though redevelopment plans for Mud Island are still in the early phases, local skaters may soon have a new home.

The city’s park services division has proposed Glenview Park, south of Southern at McLean, as the site for a $440,000 skate park.

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Hidden Histories: Turner Family Picnic, Plus Blues Marker Unveiling

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As Michael Flanagan noted in this week’s edition of the Memphis Flyer, one of the Mid-South’s most unique traditions, the Turner Family Picnic, is slated for Gravel Springs, a rural outpost near Senatobia, Miss., this weekend.

And at 11 a.m. on Saturday in nearby Como, Turner family patriarch Otha Turner will be posthumously honored with a marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail.

Admission to blues guitarist Kenny Brown’s Hill Country Picnic, held in July, provided funds to help erect the marker for Turner, who died in 2003. “I listened to Otha from the time I was six years old, so it was nice to be able to help him out,” says Brown, who considers part of his mission to be a living link to the late fife-and-drum musician and other gone-but-not-forgotten performers like R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough.

Fife-and-drum music isn’t exactly analogous with most Mississippi blues music.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Waiting on the Answer

The Allen Iverson Watch is back on for the Grizzlies, announced by Iverson himself via this Twitter post yesterday:

Well I am about to begin another workout session. Agent informed me that Memphis made us an offer on yesterday. Stay tuned.9:03 AM Aug 26th from web

This was followed up yesterday afternoon with this:

Memphis is a place that I would love to play. The Grizzlies have good young players with a great upside. I love the city of Memphis too.about 17 hours ago from web

I would lead by example. I could show how important it is to work hard everyday, play the game the right way, & just like it’s your last!about 17 hours ago from web

Grizzlies brass has confirmed ongoing interest in Iverson, interest that seems the be clearly emanating from the owner’s box, where Georgetown alum Michael Heisley seems intrigued by Iverson’s box-office potential and not particularly concerned about what his basketball people think.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Collierville Farmers Market Thursdays and Saturdays

CREDIT: farmersmarketcollierville.com

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  • farmersmarketcollierville.com

Farmer Carl Wayne Hardeman worked for five years to get the Collierville Farmers Market off the ground. It opened July 2nd, and there’s now a waiting list for the 14 vendor spots.

Categories
News

What Green Looks Like

Last January, BioDimensions held two public meetings to discuss what “green jobs” might be in the Mid-South.

This week, a study sponsored by the Memphis BioWorks Foundation suggested the answer was in bioprocessing.

The study found that a bioeconomy could support more than 25,000 green jobs in the next decade, and more than 50,000 in the next two decades, in the Mid-South Mississippi Delta, a region encompassing parts of Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee.

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Daily Photo Special Sections

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Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

The Debate: Ten Preliminary Statements in Advance of a Think Piece

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1. Jerry Lawler proved he was no circus freak; Robert “Prince Mongo” Hodges proved he was.

2. Carol Chumney and Kenneth Whalum Jr., both of whom can be quite engaging, each, when asked about difficulties with colleagues, gave the game away with downright scratchy, even snarly answers.

3. This contest, insofar as there is one, is going toward a face-off between A C Wharton and Myron Lowery — the highly diverting Chumney-A C scrap notwithstanding.

4. Wanda Halbert sounded a bit canned, but at least she was prepared — unlike poor sweet Sharon Webb.

5. Charles Carpenter proved serious but unexciting, not a bad combination for someone already in office but difficult for a candidate having to make up a lot of ground just to get there.

6. A little bit of Mongo goes a very long way. He lawyered up with Leslie Ballin to force his way in; A C was tempted to drop out because of it but stayed in.

7. The WMC-TV folks worked hard; they and the League of Women Voters designed a format with enough variance to crack any walnut.

8. Channel 5’s brass promised that Mongo’s “turd” remark would stay in the replays, unbleeped. Good for them.

9. All the candidates revealed something important about themselves, for better and for worse.

10. Twitter got a workout and proved itself again, but, for all the tweeted hoots and howls, there was a good deal of intelligence buried in the crevices of the questions and answers, requiring a second or even a third hearing to fully grasp — one reason why your visitor (a panelist for the evening) will deliver a more elaborate judgment a little later. (Not that much later.)

10a. (Ignore everything you’ve just read. It could all be overhauled upon further review).

Categories
Opinion The BruceV Blog

The Great Debate

Just finished watching the first Memphis mayoral debate on WMC. I still don’t know whether to laugh or cry. The panelists and moderators did a great job, considering the mess o’ candidates they had to deal with.

These are my personal opinions. Take them for what you will.

Lowlights: The utterly embarrassing performance of Sharon Webb, who appeared to be on heavy tranquilizers and unfit for any office; Prince Mongo’s proposals to give every citizen an UZI, put comic books in the library, and “flush the political turds down the toilet”; Jerry Lawler’s continuing insistance that he isn’t a politician; Kenneth Whalum’s weird suit, winks, refusal to speak of the incident at his church, and his comment that he “hates religion.” Just weird.

Sharon Webb

  • Sharon Webb

Quick impressions:
Halbert appeared stiff, answers canned. Not at ease.
Chumney seemed flinty and tough, but not so likeable. Very blinky.
Carpenter: smart, well-spoken, but probably a non-entity in final shakeout.
Lowery: Seems a little prissy, but gave the most substantive answers IMO.
Wharton: better than “tapioca,” did nothing to hurt himself as front-runner

If I were producing this reality show, Mongo and Webb would be kicked off the island before the next debate.

For some of the funniest comments you’ll ever read, check out the Twitter debate thread.

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

Buggin’: A video review of “Cicada” at TheatreWorks