October 1st is World Vegetarian Day, kicking off Vegetarian Awareness Month.
One of my favorite vegetarian dishes in Memphis is Shang Hai’s tofu pad prik.
- Justin Fox Burks
Month: October 2009
Categories
Mud Island Maps
Did I mention it was Mud Island week here at In the Bluff? No? Well, guess I should have.
The second Mud Island meeting is tonight, but if you can’t go and still want to check out the alternatives, I have the proposals … after the jump.
Categories
best of memphis
Categories
Best of Memphis Party
Categories
Best of Media
Alex Harrison
If your best friend had an eclectic and kick-ass record collection and had a radio station, it’d be WEVL. Programmed by your neighbors and listener-supported, WEVL is one of the best things in Memphis.
Though modern-rock station 93X was punted this year to make way for
ESPN, it still garnered votes, along with pleas to bring it back. One
media personality, despite making the Best Of consistently, was also
unplugged this year. The response? A smattering of support and one
voter noting since that person’s departure, “My ears hurt less.”
Best AM Station
1. WREC-AM 600 News Radio
2. WHBQ-AM 560 AM Sports
3. ESPN 680 AM Sports
Fun-time exercise: Rank these magnificently popular WREC-AM 600
shows from least sane to most kooky: on-air right-wing national talk
titans Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage,
local drive-time firebrand Ben Ferguson, and left-wing conspiracy show
Coast to Coast with George Noory.
Best Sports Radio Show
1. Chris Vernon Show, 730 Fox Sports Radio
2. Sportstime with George Lapides and Dave Woloshin, WHBQ-AM
560 Sports
3. The Geoff and Gary Show, 730 Fox Sports Radio
To misquote Mae West, when Chris Vernon is glad he’s very good, but
when he’s mad he’s better. To hear him raging about the Grizzlies or
John Calipari is a thing of beauty. No homers allowed on the Chris
Vernon Show.
Best Drive-Time Show
BOM 1. Drake & Zeke in the Morning, WXMX-FM 98.1
The Max
2. Bad Dog & Ric, WEGR-FM 102.7
3. Janet’s Planet, WEVL-FM 89.9
Pulling down honors for “Best Drive-Time Show” and “Best Local Radio
Talk Show,” Drake & Zeke in the Morning is the 500-pound
gorilla of the Memphis radio dial. They’re so badass, they air the same
show twice Mondays through Thursdays (Drake & Zeke After
Dark) and are reportedly looking for a way to crack into the
elusive 5 o’clock time slot.
Best Local Radio Talk Show
BOM 1. Drake & Zeke in the Morning, WXMX FM 98.1
The Max
2. Chris Vernon Show, 730 Fox Sports Radio
3. The Ben Ferguson Show, WREC-AM 600 News Radio
Best Radio Personality
1. Drake Hall, WXMX-FM 98.1 The Max
2. Tom Prestigiacomo, WKIM-FM 98.9 Kim FM
3. John “Bad Dog” McCormack, WEGR-FM 102.7
One-half of the aforementioned radio behemoth Drake & Zeke in
the Morning, Drake Hall eats lightning and craps thunder. Drake
Hall counted to infinity — twice. Drake Hall can slam a revolving
door. If you spell “Drake Hall” in Scrabble, you win. Forever. Jesus
turned water into wine, and then Drake Hall turned it into beer.
Best Newspaper Columnist
1. Geoff Calkins, The Commercial Appeal
2. Wendi Thomas, The Commercial Appeal
3. Michael Donahue, The Commercial Appeal
Are we miffed that a Flyer columnist didn’t make the cut?
Well, sure. But when the prize goes to a nice fellow like Mr. Calkins,
we don’t mind so much. Not only is this Harvard-educated lawyer-to-be
one of the best sportswriters in town, he’s not afraid to lend his
voice (and column) to other civic issues. Add this honor to your shelf
of prizes, Geoff.
Best TV Weatherperson
BOM 1. Dave Brown, WMC-TV, Channel 5
2. Ron Childers, WMC-TV, Channel 5
3. Jim Jaggers, WREG-TV, Channel 3
Some of us old-timers remember when Dave Brown was the voice of
Memphis wrestling, but in later years he certainly found his niche as
our readers’ favorite meteorologist. Maybe it’s that striking white
hair, or maybe it’s the 30-plus years on television, but with his air
of calm authority Dave makes us feel safer when he’s warning us about
the latest storms heading our way.
Best TV Sportscaster
BOM 1. Jarvis Greer, WMC-TV, Channel 5
2. Carrie Anderson, WMC-TV, Channel 5
3. Glenn Carver, WREG-TV, Channel 3
Jarvis Greer’s “Friday Football Fever” may be the best thing on
local news each fall, and the weekly pep squad of local high school
cheerleaders rowdily enthusing the pigskin highlights is eclipsed only
by Greer’s gleeful sports salesmanship.
Best TV News Anchor
BOM 1. Joe Birch, WMC-TV,
Channel 5
2. Mearl Purvis, WHBQ-TV, Fox 13
3. Claudia Barr, WREG-TV, Channel 3
He’s quite possibly Christian Brothers University’s most famous
graduate, and Joe Birch, who recently celebrated 30 years in
television, has become the face of local news and a consistent winner
in the Flyer‘s Best of Memphis poll. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a
darn nice guy, who devotes so much time to local charities that we
don’t even have space to list them here.
Best Website
What can we say? We try, and apparently you like what you see. Thank
ya very much.
Best Local Blogger
1. Paul Ryburn, Paul Ryburn’s Journal, paulryburn.com/blog
2. Stacey Greenberg, Dining with Monkeys, diningwithmonkeys.blogspot.com
3. Chris Herrington, Beyond the Arc, memphisflyer.com/blogs/BeyondTheArc
Ryburn’s blog is subtitled “Daily thoughts of a Downtown Memphis
resident,” and that’s an apt and significant descriptor. Unlike many
bloggers (none on this list, mind you), Ryburn didn’t punk out after a
few posts, and Ryburn doesn’t take days off. The blog is an extension
of Ryburn, and he gives downtown a little extra personality.
Best Twitter-er
1. @theogeo
2. @DanWolken — tie —
@watchdogon3
3. @memphisnews — tie —
@sloganeerist
Wittily pithy (at 140 characters an entry), @theogeo is queen of the
Memphis Twitterati. A couple recent tweets: “When I make my biopic, the
soundtrack is going to be nothing but Richard Marx.” And: “Ahhh,
Nashville. Your performance lesbians make me want to barf. And your men
are even more repulsive for watching.” Love her.
Categories
Fly on the Wall
Watchdog Dreams
One of the best things about Twitter is the ability to follow your
favorite media personalities and to find out what they’re like when the
cameras stop rolling. This can also be one of the more disturbing
things about Twitter.
Take for example this Monday evening’s post by Mike Matthews, WREG’s
“watchdog,” who apparently has been having unpleasant dreams about
Memphis’ former mayor.
“I need help,” the Watchdog wrote. “I have nightmares that Willie
Herenton is my proctologist.” In a subsequent tweet, he added, “I’m on
the examination table when I hear Doctor Herenton snapping on a rubber
glove and saying, ‘Dog, bend over.’ I scream ‘No, NOT THE FINGER!'”
Matthews, who spends most of his time on Twitter making fun of his
weight, hair, and love life, was probably kidding. He still should have
saved the line for #tmithurs (Too Much Information Thursday).
Et Tu, NOLA?
It’s pretty bad when residents of New Orleans look down their noses
at you. In an article for The Times-Picayune, columnist Jarvis
DeBerry makes fun of Memphis’ mayoral election, saying, “No matter what
happens in New Orleans, let’s agree that we will not see a debate
between an alien in a ratty blond wig and an opponent who has
historically solved problems by wrapping his fist with a chain pulled
from his tights. … We have a reputation for absurdity, but it’s hard
to imagine us descending to Memphis’ level.” Ouch.
Memphis Metro
When the cast of Memphis, the Broadway-bound musical, visited
the Orpheum earlier this year, Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau
honcho Kevin Kane noted that the city would never be able to afford
such a great branding campaign in New York. He must be thrilled that
The Mythical Memphis Coy: Or Just Another Metrosexual?, a play
about an international supermodel with narcissistic personality
disorder, opens in Dallas this week.
Categories
Peace Out
As a general rule, members of the media — nagged by deadline
pressure — aren’t the most patient people.
I know that rule applies to me, and it seemed to apply to other
members of the local and national press waiting for the Dalai Lama to
arrive at a question-and-answer session at the National Civil Rights
Museum last week.
The Dalai Lama was in Memphis to accept the museum’s International
Freedom Award for his role in protecting and defending the rights of
the Tibetan people. While His Holiness was led on a tour of the museum,
we waited impatiently in a cold auditorium for more than two hours.
But all the tension in the room lifted when the bespectacled, bald
monk made his way down the aisle, flanked on all sides by stern men in
black suits. I was sitting on the end of an aisle, and as he walked by,
the Dalai Lama lightly touched my shoulder.
The aged holy man, his translator, and National Civil Rights Museum
chairman Benjamin Hooks took a seat behind a folding table. Cameras
clicked, and flash bulbs popped. After a brief opening statement, he
opened the floor to questions.
A technology writer from San Francisco asked the Dalai Lama how
social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, could help spread peace and
harmony. A puzzled look crossed the Dalai Lama’s face, and he admitted
to not knowing anything about Twitter.
But he did take the opportunity to address the media about the
importance of its watchdog role: “Media people should have a long nose.
Media people should smell in front and also behind,” said the Dalai
Lama, as members of the press erupted in laughter. “Media should have
full freedom to find out what is going on.”
Throughout the session, I had a hard time understanding the Dalai
Lama’s accent, but I knew when he was cracking a joke. A grin would
spread across his face, causing everyone to laugh whether they
understood him or not. He even made a quip about former President
George W. Bush.
“It’s no secret. I loved President Bush. He was a very
straight-forward person,” said the Dalai Lama, as several media folks
groaned. “Now his policies … I have some great reservations about
that.”
When the session was over, the Dalai Lama rose from his chair to
leave. Several people reached out to shake his hand as he passed down
the aisle.
I held back. But the Dalai Lama made eye contact with me and reached
out and wiggled my silver lip stud, similar to how a grandfather might
react to his granddaughter’s lip piercing. He chuckled aloud, as did
everyone else in the room, and continued out the door.
If I learned anything from my brief encounter with His Holiness, it
was the virtue of patience. Suddenly, that morning’s two-hour wait
seemed worth every minute.
Categories
Plus-Sized
Photo: John Betancourt
Frederick Sandys’ Ysoude with the Love Philter (1870) Collection Museo de Arte de Ponce
There’s something big happening at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
And no, I’m not cracking wise about the famously plump models of the
renowned Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens, though several of his works
will be on display when “Masterpieces of European Painting from Museo
de Arte de Ponce” opens at the Brooks this weekend.
The Ponce Museum of Art in Puerto Rico houses more than 4,000
pieces, including the most impressive collection of Pre-Raphaelite
paintings outside of Europe. The Brooks show features 56 works
representing six centuries of mythologically inspired paintings by a
variety of Spanish, Dutch, German, British, Italian, and French
artists. The artists include Edward Burne-Jones, a painter and designer
whose wide-ranging influence impacted painters and printmakers like
Gustav Klimt and Alphonse Mucha as well as fantasy author J.R.R.
Tolkien whose visions for Middle Earth were inspired, in part, by
Burne-Jones’ paintings.
“Masterpieces of European Painting” also includes works by Frederick
Sandys, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Anthony Van Dyck, and Francisco de
Goya. It includes extraordinary examples of Renaissance, Baroque
Rococo, and neoclassical painting.
The exhibit’s opening weekend kicks off with a members reception at
6 p.m. on Friday, October 2nd. On Saturday and Sunday, the public will
enjoy free guided tours in English, Spanish, and French as well as live
music and a special menu in the Brushmark restaurant.
Categories
Edge of Desire
Ekundayo Bandele, Krissi Cain, and Bronzjuan Worthy
By all rights, Hattiloo Theatre’s founding executive Ekundayo
Bandele should make a fantastic Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’
A Streetcar Named Desire. He’s got a look that fluctuates
between easygoing elegance and smoldering intensity. His performance in
Topdog/Underdog was a highlight of the 2007/’08 theater season,
proving that the gifted writer, designer, and director can come out
from behind the curtain and hold his own as an actor. But for some
reason, Bandele never seems completely at home in the skin of Williams’
brutish masculine archetype. And his performance, while always
watchable, is surprisingly mundane. The same may be said for the rest
of an ensemble that gives until it hurts but still comes up short.
There are times when I think of Williams as the Yngwie Malmsteen of
American playwrights. Like the quick-fingered guitar player, Williams
was given to a bit of excess. And all possible lessons from
Amadeus aside, even the greatest artists can play too many
notes. I agree with critic Brooks Atkinson, who, in 1947, described
A Streetcar Named Desire as overlong, explaining that “not all
those words are essential.”
Although he’s associated with naturalistic Method actors such as
Marlon Brando, Williams was a formalist’s formalist and his
self-consciously poetic words with their expressionist overtones and
echoes of Shakespeare and Chekhov were never intended to be
“essential.” They were supposed to be a beautiful assault on the
audience’s senses, capturing every sweaty, grimy nuance of life in New
Orleans’ French Quarter. They were supposed to play out like jazz, and
when an ensemble really cooks, that’s exactly how it works. But not
every ensemble can jam. There’s not always a lot of natural chemistry
between the principle characters at Hattiloo, and without that
chemistry, this overheated melodrama about sex, money, power, and the
crumbling aristocracy of the Old South can drag on. Without that
natural chemistry, the words can pile up like a wreck on the
interstate, bringing any forward progress to a crawl.
A show where most of the racist language targets people of Polish
descent and where much of the drama keys off of the loss of a family
plantation can be a jarring test for an African-American theater
company. It’s a test Hattiloo ultimately passes as a result of their
honest, unfussy performances. Still, there’s a little something lost in
the translation.
Krissi Cain makes for a sweet Stella, though it’s hard to know why
she doesn’t run when Stanley turns violent. The “things” she speaks of
that happen between a man and a woman making everything else okay are
seldom evident.
Bronzjuan Worthy gets all of Blanche’s nervous fragility but very
little of her edge. The character may be wounded and delusional, but
she’s also a master manipulator of both women and men. She’s a
proto-cougar who’s always depended on her wits, not the “kindness of
strangers.” Even in the end, as she’s being taken to a mental hospital,
that famous line is a part of her act. Worthy’s performance is detailed
and often compelling. But only in the scene where Blanche considers
seducing a newspaper boy are we allowed to see her more reptilian and
predatory side emerge.
Delvyn Brown seems to understand that beneath his character’s
mama’s-boy exterior lurks the heart of a wolf. Oh sure, he’s the most
polite guy on poker night, but he still tries to push his date with
Blanche as far as it will go. Unfortunately, of all the major
characters, his seems to be the most interesting and the least fully
developed.
Director Leslie “Stickey” Reddick has crafted a solid if not always
exciting production of one of the 20th century’s most deceptively
difficult scripts. Light changes can be abrupt and jarring, and the
voices from the street never mingle as smoothly as the Dixieland
Williams attempted to mimic. Still, there is virtue in simplicity, and
even if the play is never as dynamic as it could be, it’s refreshing to
see A Streetcar Named Desire presented free from so much
of the baggage that usually accompanies it.
Of all of Tennessee Williams’ best-known scripts, Streetcar
may have aged the worst, but even Hattiloo’s uneven production will
remind audiences why this show changed the face of American
theater.
Categories
Of Friendship and Fury
It’s been said that roller derby is a cross between a sorority and a
gang. But in Whip It, the directorial debut of Drew Barrymore,
roller derby is both a family and an escape from family.
As a producer, Barrymore has created films that feature quirky
characters, strong female leads, and cute love stories. The only
difference is that Whip It is a cute romance between a quirky
girl and the sport she loves (and the other women who love it,
too).
Bliss Cavendar (Ellen Page) is a reluctant pageant girl from a small
town outside Austin. She works at a barbecue restaurant with her best
and only friend, Pash (Alia Shawkat, “Maeby” from Arrested
Development) and longs for the day she can leave Bodeen, Texas,
behind her.
On a shopping trip to Austin, she discovers the roller derby, a
world full of badass chicks and cute boys. Bliss unearths her Barbie
roller skates and, despite being in high school, lies about her age and
sneaks off to become a derby girl.
Based on a novel by derby girl Shauna Cross, Whip It does a
good job straddling the expectations of the derby audience and what it
needs to appeal to the rest of the audience.
I’ve been involved in derby in some capacity for more than three
years, so I’m well versed in the source material. Whip It gets
most of the details exactly right: former figure skaters turned derby
girls, the skeezy guy fans, and girls comparing bruises at parties.
Derby fans might wince when Bliss ultimately joins derby over a cute
boy or that the film’s hits aren’t exactly what you’d call regulation
for flat-track derby. But for the uninitiated, it gets the camaraderie,
the athleticism, and the importance of the sport to the women who play
it completely right.
The only off-note is perhaps Barrymore’s own character, Smashley
Simpson, the film’s running sight gag and most violent skater. There
are real-life skaters who are quick to retaliate a real — or
imagined — foul with an intentional trip or even a punch,
but they generally aren’t free-spirited, happy-go-lucky hippies.
The rest of the actors are well cast in this heart-warming comedy:
Page can deadpan with the best of them, but it’s refreshing to see her
play a character with more vulnerability and warmth.
Daniel Stern is her somewhat oblivious but doting dad, and though
the story rests on the female relationships, it’s the chemistry between
Stern and Page that makes the whole thing work.
Kristen Wiig is perfect as team captain, adoring mom, and mother
figure Maggie Mayhem. And Juliette Lewis is all lanky, feral
malevolence as Bliss’ arch-enemy, Iron Maven.
Because when it comes down to it, you might join derby for the
sport, but you stay for the people.