Month: June 2010

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

Letters to the Editor

MCS and Family Income

In response to Al Slater’s question, “How and when does MCS ask kids or their parents to document their family income?” (Letters, June 17th issue): The answer is every year, during registration. Each MCS student and parent is required to fill out the application for free and reduced lunch before they can complete the registration process. This is how the district gets the Title I funds that help the system operate. The schools then get funds based on the number of students they have eligible for free and reduced lunch.

The financial data on these applications are verified, because these are federal funds and the number of students qualifying for the funds is audited in order to prevent fraud.

The reason the number is an approximation is because students are highly mobile, meaning students may not always finish the school year where they started, so the numbers are based on the count given at the beginning of the school year in order to keep from counting some students twice.

Zorina E. Bowen

Memphis

Soccer is Good

As a friend of Bruce VanWyngarden and usually an admirer of his consistently brilliant column, I write with deep regret to question his opinion of soccer (Letter from the Editor, June 17th issue). I simply would not have expected the predictable negative comments we have grown to accept from American commentators in his column. Every World Cup year it happens: not enough goals to make it exciting, confusing rules, allowing tie games, of all things.

Interestingly, Bruce’s critique coincides with Glenn Beck’s, whose rants make you want to shake your head in amazement: “Nobody here wants to see it. I am an American, what’s wrong with you? It’s like universal health care, nobody wants it. They continually try to jam it down our throats.” G. Gordon Liddy agrees: “This game … originated with the South American Indians … . They used the decapitated head of an enemy warrior.”

And please don’t forget that soccer begins with “soc,” as does socialism!

Steve Haley

Memphis

The Gulf Mess

Undoubtedly, the oil mess in the Gulf indicates we need a better energy policy, but I believe the crisis points out two broader and maybe considerably more important issues. First, the USA’s obsession with military and terrorist threats from afar has caused us to skew the national budget toward spending billions to build more and more military hardware, like aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines, that are at best only minimally effective at keeping us safe from the threats of the 21st century. (However, they and the huge standing army we maintain make it easier to get involved in adventures like Iraq, but I digress.) What if just a small percentage of the military budget had gone toward creating some sort of 21st-century environmental armada that could have quickly been put into service remedying the problems around the blown-out well? Maybe it wouldn’t have solved the problem completely, but it surely would have reduced the severity of the leak.

The most powerful and richest country in the history of the world having to depend on a private company to solve environmental problems is absurd. While I am somewhat in sympathy with those who claim the Obama administration was a bit late to respond, I think we have to have a reality check here. Has anyone else noticed that many of those Republican legislators and Tea Party nuts who pride themselves on deriding bureaucrats and preaching the need for smaller government are the same ones now at the front of the line demanding that the government “do something”?

As this crisis indicates, it is not that we need smaller government but a government that is properly organized to serve the people and has the power to regulate private interests, whose interests are not always the same as the people’s.

Harry Freeman

Memphis

Beautiful

Dang! The cover of your June 17th issue is absolutely beautiful! Thank you for what has to be the most beautiful cover in Memphis Flyer history. It’s refreshing just to look at it. Please consider making a poster featuring this cover. I’d be first in line to buy it!

Kathy White

Bartlett

Editor’s Note: In response to a number of queries, the photo for the cover and those for the cover story “Go With the Flow” were shot at the Cancer Survivors Park in Audubon Park.

Categories
News News Feature

Just Cos

CREDIT: Erinn Chalene Cosby

Bill Cosby is an open book. “You name it, I’ll tell you all about it,” he says. It’s a trick. From hit TV shows to films to Saturday-morning cartoons to commercials for Jell-O pudding, and social activism, the comedian, who performs his stand-up routine at Harrah’s Tunica on Saturday, June 26th, has accomplished so much in his 72 years that there is no logical starting point. So I embrace the illogical and begin with Cosby’s singing career.

When I was in the sixth grade, I bought a battered Bill Cosby cassette tape for a dime at a yard sale. I’d expected comedy routines but no. This was the Cos singing, and I never could make out the lyrics to my favorite track, although I would try to sing along: “Ursalina, would your washing machine-a, jump so high that you touch the sky.”

“Those were the words,” Cosby says. “You got it right. That song actually became a hit in Israel.”

The Flyer: You’ve done kids’ TV with Fat Albert and The Electric Company. The Cosby Show was the biggest thing on TV in the ’80s. They love your songs in Israel. Why do you keep coming back to stand-up?

Bill Cosby: With a monologue I can write, act, and direct myself. There’s nobody in the middle. Even when I had TV shows I’d perform on the weekends. We’d finish shooting on Thursday, and I was booked Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The monologist is who I am, unless I’m in someone else’s movie.

Even when you broke into TV with

I Spy?

Oh yeah. When I did I Spy, I was only paid $750 per episode. And it took 10 working days to finish a show. These days, comics go to the Comedy Store or Catch a Rising Star hoping an agent will put them in a TV series. Then you never see them doing comedy anymore.

For you the comedy always came first?

The comedy came first always. I developed my style listening to the radio and falling in love with all the funny people. But also by falling in love with funny people who weren’t performers.

When did you start to get serious about it?

Nothing was serious until I entered Temple University. I was put into remedial everything, and I loved it. I started writing. But I didn’t really develop my style until I saw a man with nine friends talking in a Chinese restaurant. It wasn’t a routine, but it was hilarious. That’s my style, I said. I want to be a friend. When you’re a friend, everybody knows you and they know what you’re talking about.

You have been an outspoken, sometimes controversial social critic. Is there anything Bill Cosby is afraid of?

Yes. My wife. You do as you’re told, you know? You don’t want trouble.

People have described some of your criticisms of contemporary African-American culture as elitist and out of touch. But you overcame a lot yourself. You came from a single-parent home. In school you were held back.

I was not held back. People always get my biography wrong. They say, “He quit school to join the Navy.” They don’t mention that I was 19. Nobody held me back. I didn’t study. But I was born again, only not through the words of Jesus Christ.

How were you born again?

In the Navy, a man would wake us up at 4:30 a.m., telling us to get dressed for breakfast. I’d think, You know, I could save you a lot of money by not eating breakfast. But that’s when I “got” it. It happened when that man told me to get up and said, “I am not your mama!” Bill Cosby at Harrah’s Tunica, Saturday, June 26th, 8 p.m. Tickets are $50-$80.

Categories
News The Fly-By

In With a Bang

If last week was any indication, the Junkyard Museum is going to be loud. And lots of fun.

About 40 kids spent the week at the Junkyard Art and Music Camp helping conservatory-trained percussionist Donald Knaack — aka The Junkman — build the future museum’s first permanent exhibit.

“It’s pretty intense,” Knaack says. “They think they’re coming to camp. Uh-uh. They’re working.”

The Junkyard museum, which has plans for a permanent home on Broad Avenue, was inspired by St. Louis’ City Museum, a wonderland of climbable and slide-able art made from recycled material.

With Knaack, the campers built a sound sculpture with three “percussion playstations” — already used in a raucous end-of-the-week concert, as well as a recent Rock-n-Romp — out of recycled materials.

Before camp, Junkyard board members collected a list of items Knaack had asked for, as well as other things they thought made good noise, amassing a collection of metal and plastic tubs, license plates, pipes, coffee cans, old pots and pans, and a large piece of farm equipment.

“We gave him an idea [of what we needed],” says Lisa Williamson, Junkyard Memphis founder. “It needed to be sectional and able to be moved around.”

As “The Junkman,” Knaack does about 12 similar programs each year, teaching children about music, construction, and the environment. He also runs a program in Vermont schools.

“We talk about the environment a lot, because it’s all recycled material, so it’s appropriate,” Knaack says. “We ask kids to look at their daily lives and look at ways they can save money and energy: cutting your shower time in half or turning the water off when you wash your hands or brush your teeth.”

Memphis campers built a wooden xylophone as well as a drum set out of the farm equipment. The children spent time in a drum circle each morning, learning rhythms, but they also filed, drilled, hammered, and painted.

“They love using the power tools,” Knaack says of the students in his programs. “I can teach them all kinds of great things about music, but if they use the saw for 10 seconds, it steals the show.”

As the Junkyard continues to work on funding and a permanent location, the camp is a good way to showcase activities and to keep momentum for the project going.

Mitch Major and his wife Laurie not only enrolled their two children in the camp after a trip to St. Louis, they decided to sponsor it.

“We’ve been to science museums, children’s museums, zoos, nature centers from Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte,” he says. “We went to the City Museum and were just floored by it.”

Back in Memphis, they got in touch with Williamson to see what they could do to support the local effort. Though museums such as the Pink Palace and the Children’s Museum have unique exhibits, Major says that the Junkyard fills a different niche by focusing on the imagination.

“What we’re trying to do here is teach the capacity to look at found objects and think about ways to put them together and make something different out of them other than trash,” Major says. “You can teach somebody something later, but once they’ve gotten to a point where they haven’t developed an imagination, it’s hard to go back and reteach that.”

Major also likes the idea of incorporating Memphis’ musical heritage into the Junkyard.

“I’m not taking my kids to Beale Street,” he says. “Taking something St. Louis did really well and using it for inspiration for something that would tie into music … to me, that seems like a slam dunk.”

Major could see a regional draw from the Junkyard museum, enhancing Memphis not only as a community but as a destination.

But last week, as campers performed with Knaack, beating out rhythms on discarded lawn ornaments, pipes, and coffee cans, that was enough.

“You see your kids participate in team sports, but at 6 and 8, it’s still like herding cats,” Major says. “But to see them do something as a group, and they’re all watching the Junkman for his signal … it was really cool for us.”

And it didn’t hurt that parents got to beat the drum, as well.

For more on this and other topics, visit Mary Cashiola’s “In the Bluff” blog at memphisflyer.com/blogs/InTheBluff/.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Mapping the Draft: Take Three

My second favorite national holiday, the NBA Draft, is finally upon us. The draft begins at 6 p.m. Thursday night, and it sure feels like the Grizzlies are going to be dealing. Rumors so far are varied, from the dramatic (Zach Randolph to Minnesota for Al Jefferson) to the mundane (the team’s latest pick, #28, for cash). And I think that the odds of the team selecting and keeping players with all three of its current picks — at #12, #25, and #28 — are slim.

The biggest rumor, Randolph-for-Jefferson, has been reported as “dead for now” due to Minnesota wanting for draft-related compensation. But I wouldn’t be surprised if that scenario popped back up. Minnesota seems to be aggressively shopping Jefferson, a player Grizzlies GM has a history with and a fondness for. Jefferson is a very similar player to Randolph in size, skill, and production, but is several years younger, under contract (at a large but reasonable salary) for longer, and comes without Randolph’s off-court concerns. A trade built around those two players probably wouldn’t be popular initially among Grizzlies fans, but I think it would be a smart move.

If the Grizzlies don’t use one or both of their late-first-round picks to move up or as secondary assets in a more significant deal, then I think the odds of selling one of those picks is strong. There are reports that the Grizzlies are demanding a second-rounder along with the requisite $3 million cash to part with a late-first-rounder. There are players I like late (that list comes later in this post) who could be on the board in the early second round. If the team were to pocket $3 million to move down and still snag one of those players, then I probably wouldn’t complain.

The team appears open enough to dealing that you should expect more scenarios to emerge during the day leading up to the draft. Keep an eye on Golden State. They’re said to be willing to part with anyone other than Stephen Curry. In the past, the Grizzlies have had some interest in both Monta Ellis and Anthony Randolph. I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of both of those names pop up.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Memphis Beat’s Eats

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People are acting like Memphis Beat punched their baby in the face. And while it’s not the best thing I’ve ever seen, it’s certainly not the worst, not even close.

But what I’m concerned with is how the show fared food- and drink-wise.

Categories
Memphis Gaydar News

Opening Act for George’s Reunion

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In October, a group of patrons from the city’s first gay club will re-unite at Minglewood for the George’s Reunion party.

But you don’t have to wait until October to meet up with old George’s Disco clubbin’ buddies. The George’s Reunion organizers are holding an Opening Act Meet & Greet event at R.P. Billards on Thursday, June 24th from 7 to 10 p.m.

The goal of Thursday’s event is gather volunteers to help organize the big reunion party for October, but everyone is encouraged to hang out, drink beer, shoot pool, and meet the reunion organizers. Also, Lady May will be on hand performing Tarot card readings.

For more information on the George’s Reunion, go to the Friends of George’s website here.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Bari’s Rebecca and Jason Severs To Open Diner

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“We’ve been talking about it for over 2 years,” says Rebecca Severs.

Severs owns Bari with her husband Jason, and in August, the couple are planning to open Three Angels Diner at the corner of Broad and Collins in Midtown.

Those 3 angels are the Severs’ sons, and an impetus for this new venture.

Categories
News

Logo-Rama

If you had to draw a logo from Memphis — and not the oak leaf/riverboat thing gracing City Hall right now — what would it look like?

CitID is amassing a logo or visual interpretation of cities around the world:

“Ever heard of Tegucicalpa? How about Sandnes or Brunswick? Probably not. Right now they’re just hard-to-pronounce foreign words that you will not remember. The fact is, they are all cities somewhere on our planet. Places you’re most likely never to visit. Through this project you will become aware of them, and maybe even remember their names; Here you get to meet them personally and visually, in an inspiring artistic context.”

I saw this on Eric Mathews’ Twitter the other day, but I had so much fun looking through the gallery, I thought I’d share. Plus, Memphis is not yet represented, and if CitID is going to meet its goal of having all continents, countries, capitals, and cities represented, someone around here is going to have to get on the stick.

(I’d do it myself, but well, I can’t draw. My artistic ability is limited to constructing phrases and pulling faces.)

Here are some of the ones already submitted for other cities, just for inspiration:

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CitID says it will take multiple entries from cities. Selected work will be included in a forthcoming book.

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

One Sentence Reviews: Sister Myotis’ Bible Camp (New York Edition)

Sister

  • Sister

Hilariously subversive without being disrespectful, Sister Myotis’s Bible Camp is a drag show that’s not about the drag, a non-partisan political satire, and a really, really good time no matter what those yankee critics may think.

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

One Sentence Reviews: MEMPHIS

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MEMPHIS scored big at the Tony Awards and culturally speaking it may be this generation’s Camelot but the revisionist history is frustrating, and the charming cast’s best efforts can’t change the fact that the music seems to have been written for people who don’t really like Memphis music or early Southern R&B.