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Month: August 2009
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Make Your Dollars Gay-Friendly
Over the past few years, the Greater Memphis GLBT Chamber of Commerce has amassed a pretty useful list of local gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses. Among them are Crye-Leike Realtors, First Tennessee Bank, and Frank Balton Sign Co. For a full list, arranged by type of business, check out their directory.
The chamber is currently seeking input for additions to the directory. If you know if a gay-friendly business that’s not on the list, send your suggestion to info@memphisglbtchamber.com.
For a very comprehensive list of national gay-friendly companies, check out the Human Rights Campaign’s 2009 Buyer’s Guide.
We continue our countdown to tonight’s De La Soul concert at Minglewood Hall. Let’s go back to the beginning with this promo video from the group’s first albm, 3 Feet High and Rising:
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Bianca Knows Best
Dear Bianca,
I have a three-year-old son, and unlike most boys his age, he’s a little delicate. He’d rather play with dolls and host tea parties than play in the dirt.
My best friend has a four-year-old son, and he’s all boy — toy cars, water guns, you name it. He’s also a little, um, violent towards my son. When they play together, I often catch him hitting, pinching, or biting my son.
This behavior always makes my son cry, and he’s even told me that he doesn’t like playing with the other boy. I’m not an overly protective mom, but I don’t like seeing my son abused by his peers. If he’s not happy playing with my friend’s son, I don’t want to force him.
Unfortunately, my friend loves bringing her son over to play, and I don’t have the heart to break it to her that my son doesn’t like her son. She seems oblivious to her son’s violent behavior. What should I do?
— Worried Mom
Dear Worried,
Tough as it may be, you’re going to have to have a heart-to-heart with your friend. Her son’s violent behavior needs to be stopped before he enters school.
I doubt she hasn’t noticed that he’s hitting, pinching, and biting other kids, but some moms aren’t very good at discipline. Take for example those annoying moms that let their screaming, obnoxious kids run loose in grocery stores. Nothing grates on my nerves more than an uncontrolled child.
The next time your friend suggests a play date, calmly tell her that your son has expressed some fear of playing with her son. Explain that you’ve witnessed her son’s violent behavior. Offer to help her research and develop a system of discipline to prevent future situations.
I’m no expert in child development, but I’m sure it’s important for kids to learn to respect their elders at an early age. If her son is allowed to continue his unruly behavior, he may end up causing many more problems later in life.
After your heart-to-heart, your pal may be angry with you, but eventually she’ll realize that your concern was in her and her son’s best interest.
Got a problem? E-mail Bianca at bphillips@memphisflyer.com.
Over the years, I’ve gotten quite a lot of questions, comments, and suggestions from readers. Almost two dozen, I’d say! But my favorite correspondence of all, I might as well admit, is the kind that does my work for me. And such is the email that I recently received from my good friend, Melissa Anderson Sweazy, a super-talented photographer and writer (and author of the upcoming book, Veiled Remarks: A Curious Compendium for the Nuptially Inclined).
Melissa wrote to tell me that the old Memphis Daily Appeal newspaper from the 1860s — that’s right, the EIGHTEEN 60S — is now online, where you can peruse it at your leisure. It’s not available in Memphis, where you might expect, but is archived (along with many, many other newspapers) at the University of Texas in Tyler, Texas.
And my oh my, it’s a treasure trove of historical tidbits. Not only are there plenty of compelling stories about the Civil War, but the newspapers back then were just packed with oddities. Such as this little item, from March 26, 1861: “We learn that the 14 men and 15 women at the Home for the Homeless are all troubled with sore eyes.”
Home for the Homeless?
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Blog Blog Blog
From the Flyer‘s blogs: a preview of the Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival in SING ALL KINDS; a cocktail that never was in HUNGRY MEMPHIS; what John Branston did for his summer vacation in GET MEMPHIS MOVING; and confusion in the wake of Herenton’s departure in POLITICS BEAT. Check ’em out here.
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Blues News From Clarksdale
Unlike their rock-and-roll counterparts, who are busy over-analyzing the death of music magazines or pondering the navigational routes of social networking sites, blues fans Roger Stolle and Jeff Konkel aren’t content to cool their heels while the music biz struggles to reinvent itself for modern times.
Last year, the duo, respective owners of the Clarksdale, Miss.-based Cat Head record label and retail store and the Missouri-based Broke and Hungry CD imprint, combined their mission via M for Mississippi: A Road Trip Through the Birthplace of the Blues, a blues tourism-oriented documentary film that celebrates contemporary performers such as guitarists Duck Holmes, T-Model Ford, Robert “Bilbo” Walker and the late Wesley “Junebug” Jefferson, who succumbed to cancer on July 22.
We continue our countdown to next Tuesday’s De La Soul concert at Minglewood Hall. Since I missed my self-appointed De La duties Sunday, I’ll double-up today.
First, “A Rollerskating Jams Called ‘Saturdays'”:
It looks like it’s going to be quiet at Midtown hangouts like the Hi-Tone and the Buccaneer this fall, as this trio of local stalwarts — which encompass a wide range of local sidemen, including John Paul Keith, Rick Steff, Adam Woodard, Mark Stuart, and John Argroves — hit the road soon after the release of Lucero‘s major label debut, 1372 Overton Park (more on that here).
Lucero’s Ramblin’ Roadshow & Memphis Revue, featuring John Paul Keith and the One Four Fives and Jack O. and the Tennessee Tearjerkers:
Monday Oct. 26 – Ft. Collins, CO – Aggie Theatre
Tuesday Oct. 27 – Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
Thursday Oct. 29 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
Friday Oct. 30 – Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theatre
Sunday Nov. 1 – San Francisco, CA – Mezzanine
Wednesday Nov. 4 – San Diego, CA – The Casbah
Thursday Nov. 5 – Tempe, AZ – The Clubhouse
One of the first drink ideas that I came up with for the 901 Silver Tequila story was Steve Jobs’ Liver.
Yes, it is in bad taste, but that’s not the reason it never made it to the testing phase.