Month: July 2010

Categories
News The Fly-By

Remaking the Grade

A few years ago, Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen realized something: The state tells 85 percent of its eighth graders they’re proficient in math.

On national assessments, however, only 21 percent of Tennessee’s eighth graders are deemed proficient in the subject.

“There’s no explanation for that other than we have easy tests,” Bredesen told a group at the University of Memphis’ Fogelman Executive Center last week. “We’re not setting a very high standard.”

With representatives from both local school systems attending, Bredesen, state education commissioner Tim Webb, and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist were in Memphis last week as part of the First to the Top Coalition launch. The coalition, a statewide alliance of business, community, and education groups, is beginning by warning parents and teachers that student test scores will drop — maybe drastically — this fall.

“You will see a drop in proficiency levels across the state,” said Memphis City Schools board commissioner Tomeka Hart. “It will happen. That’s what happens when you set a higher bar. It doesn’t mean our students have lost knowledge.”

Like more than 30 other states in recent months, Tennessee is aligning state standards to national education standards. Under the federal No Child Left Behind law, many states weakened their standards to avoid being penalized, but with the Race to the Top challenge, states applying for the second round of funding get extra points for adopting the national criteria.

Tennessee began looking at its measures in 2007 when the U.S. Chamber of Commerce gave it an “F” for lacking high standards in the classroom.

“When compared to the other Southern states, we remain at the bottom, and Southern states have traditionally been at the bottom when compared to the rest of the nation,” Hart said.

The state is expected to vote on the new requirements this week, a move that Webb, interviewed several weeks ago, said he thought would help Tennessee become a gold standard in education.

“Now when we say a child is proficient, it will mean proficient,” he said. “Before, a child could be proficient based on our standards and not be ready for college-level math.”

After an initial dip in state proficiency levels, state educators and the coalition hope to see an uptick in student performance within three to five years.

Frist, chairman of the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), explained it thusly: If a patient is having heart trouble but doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, they might not be so inclined to stop smoking or start exercising.

Literature released by the First to the Top Coalition urges parents to not get discouraged by the new standards and to ask for help if their child’s scores have slipped.

“Parents are going to say, you told me my child was doing well and is proficient. Now you tell me my child is not proficient,” Frist said. “The pressure will be on politicians to slide the standards back.”

Already there have been some concerns among educators.

“We’re not adverse to the changes,” said John Aitken, superintendent of the Shelby County Schools system. “Our concern is the rapidity with which things are changing.”

But Bredesen and Memphis mayor A C Wharton said it was better to get the initial shock over with now and move on to improving education.

“There are those who say we should have waited until next year or when we had more time to prepare. There’s no wrong time to do the right thing,” Wharton said. “A little discomfort now will make Tennessee truly competitive.”

In addition to a truer assessment of students, the coalition hopes the change will ultimately benefit the state economically.

A generation ago, about a third of U.S. jobs required some education or training after high school. That figure today is 80 percent.

“If we are to be economically successful as a state, we have to have the skills to do what it takes,” Bredesen said. “There are going to be very unhappy parents, superintendents, and politicians out there, but this is what we have to do.”

Though not yet determined at press time, the standards will be applied to TCAP tests taken in April. School systems should get preliminary results by mid-August, with scores going out to parents in September.

“It’s going to hurt,” Hart said. “When the scores come home, parents are going to think we’ve done something to them and their child. What we’ve done was prior to today: We let you believe your child was high-performing.”

To read more about this and other topics, visit Mary Cashiola’s In the Bluff blog at memphisflyer.com/blogs/

InTheBluff/.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter from the Editor: The Man From Paris

The man from Paris and I were having coffee and breakfast at an outside table at Miss Cordelia’s in Harbor Town. It was a warm, sunny morning, a prelude to another bright, soul-wiltingly humid July day in Memphis. The man from Paris was a business writer for Agence France-Presse. He was staying at my house under the auspices of the Memphis Council for International Visitors as part of a month-long sojourn in the U.S. He’d spent time in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Atlanta, and other spots, mostly in the South.

As he observed the passing joggers, the lively conversations at nearby tables, the mothers walking by with strollers and dogs in tow, he remarked: “I’ve seen so many American cities with downtowns that are lifeless. This is really pretty striking.” And it was. From where we sat, Memphis was alive, urbane, interesting. The man from Paris was impressed.

He spent the day being squired around — to the Chamber of Commerce, to industrial sites on Presidents Island and near the airport, to the National Civil Rights Museum. When he returned to my house, he was hot and tired but pleased with the stories he’d found.

My wife and I took the man from Paris out to dinner that night at a Midtown restaurant. It was bustling and crowded and smelled of sauteed butter and smoky herbs. Over glasses of wine, we discussed his day and his thoughts on Memphis. Bottom line: He liked us. He was impressed. He even wanted to go see Graceland before catching his plane the next day.

Joining us at dinner was a representative from International Visitors, a Memphian who escorts foreigners around the city every month. She was pleased that the man from Paris had had such a good experience, but, as she confided to me, two other Memphis guests had not had such a pleasant time.

Two women visiting from Thailand — a professor and her interpreter — were staying at a hotel near Court Square. When they ventured out to walk around, they were immediately accosted by several aggressive panhandlers. Frightened, they hurried back to their hotel room and refused to leave again without accompaniment. Needless to say, these two won’t be writing love letters about Memphis. Just the opposite, I suspect.

Last week, when it came to international visitors, we went one for three.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
News The Fly-By

Art House

When artist Russell Wild moved into his apartment in the Edge District in 1998, the neighborhood was filled with body shops and garages. Today, the area around Marshall Avenue is the scene of a burgeoning arts district, and Wild values living in an area with like-minded artists.

“Visual artists are a bunch of weird, quirky people,” Wild said. “You feed off the energy and get ideas from people. You support their work, and they support your work.”

It’s that sort of shared artist experience that the city of Memphis eventually hopes to create in a new, affordable living/studio space for artists. In mid-July, the city received a $250,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The money will go toward funding predevelopment work on a study to assess the living, working, and space needs for artists in the city.

The city is contracting Artspace, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit real-estate developer, for the study. Representatives from the organization will be in town for a few days in August, meeting with artists and scouting possible locations.

“[The space] would probably, but not necessarily, be somewhere in the South Main corridor,” said Kerry Hayes, research and innovation specialist with Mayor A C Wharton’s office. “There’s so much building stock in South Main, but we’re almost pricing it out of range for artists.”

The NEA grant was one of 21 grants totaling $3 million awarded to cities across the country through the Mayor’s Institute on City Design Anniversary Initiative. The money must be used to support projects that “transform sites into lively, beautiful, sustainable places with arts at their core,” according to a statement from the NEA.

Though creating affordable housing for artists will be a focal point of the Memphis study, Hayes said they’ll also be looking at how to keep artists in the city.

“What do emerging artists need to sustain and stay in Memphis? How do we help them make work?” Hayes said.

Hamlett Dobbins, director of Rhodes College’s Clough-Hanson Gallery, lives and works in the Broad Avenue Arts District. Like Wild, he thrives on living in an area with other artists.

“It’s nice to be around people like you, and people in the neighborhood really look out for each other,” Dobbins said.

As someone who works with art students, Dobbins supports the city’s plan to retain young and emerging artists.

“A lot of kids graduate and think about moving to other cities that have bigger arts communities,” Dobbins said. “We need to do anything we can to keep our kids here. We always lose kids to bigger art cities, but Memphis is a really great art town.”

Categories
Cover Feature News

The August Election: Part 2

Voters confronted with what is in essence two different and simultaneous elections, a countywide general election and a primary election for state and federal candidates, could easily become confused.

A case in point: Republican voters wishing to cast crossover votes in the Democratic primary for Congress in the 9th District might fear to do so, thinking they would then be deprived of the opportunity to vote for, say, Mark Luttrell, the Republican nominee for county mayor.

Conversely, a Democrat living in Germantown (and yes, there are some) might want to cast a ballot in the hotly contested Republican primary for governor but worry that they could not then vote for Democrat Joe Ford for mayor.

Not to worry. The primaries for county races, held in May, are over with, and anybody can now vote for anybody in those contests. To vote for governor or for Congress in one of the legislative races, you have to choose between a Democratic or a Republican ballot. But, whichever way you choose, you can still vote for anybody running for a county office, be they Republican or Democrat.

Here: We’ll make it easy for you, dividing our rundowns into two sections — the first being the countywide races, the second being primary races for governor and federal offices.

Note: Races for judgeships (open to all Shelby County voters), county school board races (open only to the affected county districts), and contested legislative primaries are dealt with in Political Beat, here.

The Countywide General Election

SHELBY COUNTY MAYOR — Nothing has troubled the forces working for the election to a regular term of interim county mayor Joe Ford like the statistics reported 10 days after the onset of early voting in Shelby County. To be sure, more voters have opted for Democratic primary ballots than for Republican ones, by margins that change from day to day but have hovered in the 55 percent-45 percent range.

Superficially, that would appear to be a godsend for Ford, the Democratic nominee, who is in a tight race with Sheriff Mark Luttrell, the Republican nominee. But Democrats who understand the nuances of voting in Shelby County are aware of two facts: A) the percentage of Democratic primary voters this year is substantially less than it was in 2006 and 2008, when it rose above 60 percent; and B) the percentage of Democrats voting who are African-American appears to be lower than has been the case in recent years.

The fact is, there are relatively few contested races in either primary. The major ones are, for the Democrats, the 9th District congressional race pitting former Mayor Willie Herenton against incumbent Steve Cohen, and, for the Republicans, the three-way gubernatorial battle between Knoxville mayor Bill Haslam, Chattanooga congressman Zach Wamp, and Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey of Blountville.

(Both these races were discussed last week in part one of the Flyer‘s August 5th election preview and are briefly reviewed in recaps below.)

The bottom line seems to be that Herenton’s failure to make a compelling case to his historic African-American base that he should replace Cohen has diminished the expected black vote. Another factor in the lower-than-expected African-American turnout was attributed by one veteran Democratic observer, a legislator, to what he called “confusion” among black voters. “They aren’t sure who to vote for, though those who are sure seem to like the job Cohen is doing. Herenton has to take it away, and he hasn’t made the case for that.”

The relative narrowness between Democratic and Republican primary figures may also owe something to what has been reported, more or less anecdotally, as Republicans crossing over to vote against Herenton. The aforesaid legislator disputes that, however, citing figures which indicate that most of the voters in both primaries have been traditional voters in the party primaries of their choice this year.

In any case, primary voting totals are not an altogether reliable guide as to how voters will make selections in non-primary races like those appearing on the county general election portion of the August 5th ballot. Ford and his backers know well that Luttrell has always commanded reasonably high votes from crossover voters — an estimated 15 percent or more of the Democratic vote in his previous two races for sheriff. That much in the race for county mayor could be fatal for Ford’s chances, especially under circumstances of a lower than expected Democratic turnout.

Luttrell is, almost by definition, the Shelby County Republican Party’s ticket-leader, and party officials, from county chairman Lang Wiseman on down, have treated him as that — on the theory that a tide of crossover votes for him would be a boat-raiser for the candidacies of down-ballot nominees of the GOP, now clearly the minority party in Shelby County.

The way in which the two candidates have handled the potentially hot-button issue of consolidation has been an indication of their respective strategies. From day one of his campaign, Ford has made a point of insisting at every opportunity that he has opposed city/county consolidation since 1994. Paradoxically and alternatively, he has made the case that formal consolidation is unnecessary, since the county government he manages is already comprehensive enough in its scope to qualify as consolidated. “You’re looking at your metro mayor,” he boasted in a televised mayoral debate on WMC-TV, Action News 5.

Ford’s views, though doubtless sincere, have a political thrust as well. He is under no delusion that his opposition to consolidation will gain him significant numbers of votes from white suburbanites and residents of the outer-county municipalities, where consolidation is regarded as unpopular. But by stressing his opposition to the process, he may well succeed in neutralizing or suppressing a single-issue vote that could hurt him at the polls.

Luttrell’s original strategy had something similar in mind. Whenever he was queried, early on, about the issue of consolidation, he would say that, in deference to the Metro Charter Commission which had been authorized by city and county governments, he would await the results of their deliberations before committing himself. He would add, if pressed, that he had “never been a proponent” of consolidation.

Politically, such a response kept the sheriff’s avenues open to the Midtown Democrats, many of them consolidation proponents, who had traditionally given him crossover support. And Luttrell seems to have hoped that county voters did not require his explicit rejection of consolidation. He found out otherwise when the Charter Commission’s recommendations were made public in late June. He was reportedly hotboxed by a group of suburban mayors, who insisted that he take an adverse position and make it public.

Whether or not he was under such pressure, Luttrell promptly did just that on the occasion of his televised Channel 5 debate with Ford on July 8th. The Ford camp privately rejoiced, inasmuch as this seemed to enhance the interim mayor’s chances to nail down the Midtown Democratic constituency for himself. Ford had already mounted a systematic campaign to touch all the Democratic bases, including environmentalists, with whom he scheduled several meetings, and the gay and lesbian constituency, whose meetings he attended and whose concerns he addressed sympathetically (though stopping short of endorsing such desiderata of theirs as an ordinance banning discrimination in the workplace).

Above all, Ford was hoping that undecided voters would opt for him on the basis of “the great job” he persistently maintained he had done — “saving” the Med (he had unquestionably been vigorous in seeking out financial help for the institution from local, state, and federal sources, though Luttrell maintained the solutions were merely stopgap) and bringing in a well-balanced budget without tax increases or employee layoffs, among other accomplishments.

Luttrell, likewise, boasted his eight-year history of redeeming a Sheriff’s Department which had been in a shambles and gaining reaccreditation for the county jail.

Both candidates were girding for a photo finish as Election Day approached — Ford taking solace from a fly-in endorsement visit by nephew Harold Ford Jr., now a New York resident but a well-remembered presence in Memphis politics, and Luttrell from the apparent proportions of the early-voting turnout.

And, oh, for voters who can’t deal with either mayoral alternative, there’s independent Leo Awgowhat, whose campaign has consisted of periodic heckling of both Ford and Luttrell as “liars.”

SHELBY COUNTY SHERIFF — Though he, too, was concerned about the distribution of early voting, Democratic Randy Wade had a few things going for him in the race for sheriff that he hoped would surmount any late Republican surge.

For one, the former district director for Representative Cohen was running in tandem with his former employer — the two of them appearing at rallies together, each describing the other as “my brother from another mother.” To the extent that the congressman seemed to be putting distance between himself and challenger Herenton, Wade had reason to believe that some of that aura of success would rub off on him. His association with Cohen had been invaluable in another way, as well.

As the face of the office in the 9th District while Cohen was in Washington — “the man to see” — and as an ever-ready companion while the congressman was in the district, Wade had made himself a familiar figure and impressed many, both in the community and among political observers at large. Wade, a Vietnam War veteran, also had ample credentials in law enforcement, including several years as a ranking administrator in the Sheriff’s Department.

The Republican nominee, Bill Oldham, was also well credentialed — having served as an interim Memphis police director during Willie Herenton’s second term and, more recently, as chief deputy to Luttrell. When Oldham became a candidate for sheriff, he took an unpaid leave of absence from the position, as members of the department running for sheriff had done in the past, notably in the election of 2002, when several deputies were candidates.

All well and good, until a complaint was filed against Oldham’s continued presence on the department roll in light of two opinions by state attorney general Robert Cooper, in 2008 and 2009. Cooper had advised that deputy sheriffs seeking the office of sheriff in Tennessee could not make such a race without first resigning from the department outright. His reasoning was based on the federal Hatch Act, which sets limits on political conduct by elected officials and government employees during election periods. Cooper said sheriff’s departments, which receive some of their funding from federal sources, come under the Hatch Act. In Tennessee, opinions by the state attorney general do not have the force of law but are merely advisory. Even so, Oldham felt compelled to offer his resignation so as to make the issue moot, he said.

Oldham had already been confronted by another complaint — this one informal and coming from opponent Wade, who said, during a League of Women Voters-moderated debate, that Oldham had charged personal transportation expenses to a city credit card during his service as police director. Oldham denied any impropriety and pointed out that he had never been charged with such. He himself, in the course of that debate, linked Wade to a period of inmate unrest in the county jail referred to as “Thunderdome,” but Wade insisted had had no connection with jail oversight during that time.

The “Thunderdome” issue flared up again during a televised debate on WREG-TV, News Channel 3, with the same difference of opinion persisting.

Oldham got an unexpected boost when his ex-boss, Willie Herenton, went out of his way, at the annual political picnic of Shelby County commissioner Sidney Chism, to praise the former police director’s ability and integrity. Wade indicated he saw that as a plus for his own campaign.

On the scale of policy matters, there have been few large disagreements between the contenders, each of them opposing consolidation of city and county law enforcement units and each also opposing construction of a new jail or outsourcing responsibility for incarcerating inmates. Wade has also made an issue of billboards that threaten offenders with jail time, advocating various intervention techniques as alternative approaches to crime control.

From time to time, there have been reports of conflict within the department between factions loyal to either Oldham or Wade, a reminder of the department’s politically charged history. It was Wade, however, who got the endorsement of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies Association.

COUNTY COMMISSIONER, DISTRICT 5 — This is the only remaining contested race of the 13 commission seats, the others having been disposed of in single-party primaries in May. As it happens, District 5 is the only single-member district and was designed expressly to be a swing district, politically. It has been occupied, successively, by Republican Bruce Thompson and Democrat Steve Mulroy, the current incumbent.

Mulroy’s Republican opponent is Rolando Toyos, an ophthalmologist with a nationally known practice and the son of a Cuban émigré. His Hispanic background and impressive professional pedigree enhance his credibility in the highly diverse district, which spans much of East and Southeast Memphis.

Mulroy, however, has made himself a familiar figure on the Memphis political landscape through his leading role in several causes, from voting-machine reform to living-wage proposals to reclamation of the Zippin Pippin roller coaster and brokering its sale to Green Bay, Wisconsin. He was also instrumental in the passage of a precedent-setting antidiscrimination resolution and the election-eve securing of a pay raise for sheriff’s deputies designed to give them parity with Memphis police.

An indefatigable campaigner and energetic fund-raiser, Mulroy has set a difficult pace for challenger Toyos, who, however, could make it close with a significant Republican tilt in the voting.

SHELBY COUNTY TRUSTEE — On the surface, incumbent Regina Morrison Newman should have nothing to worry about. She is a female Democratic incumbent in a county with voting patterns that should reward all those categories. She is, moreover, highly sociable and, to judge by an achievement award presented to her by the National Association of Counties, capable.

But in addition to the turnout issue that has other Democrats concerned, Newman has Republican opponent David Lenoir to worry about. A consultant in financial management, ex-Alabama footballer Lenoir talks about cultural outreach and proposes various innovations, including a plan to use the trustee’s office (“the county’s bank”) to mount an assault on predatory lenders.

Asked at a recent forum at a retirement home to “say something nice” about their opponents, Newman described Lenoir as “handsome,” and he reciprocated by calling her “attractive.” Behind the scenes, their support groups are not nearly so flattering.

Democrats have noted Lenoir’s youthful conviction of disorderly conduct on a Beale Street evening, as well as over-the-limit contributions from supporters. They also challenge the management record of one of his prior companies. The GOP has returned fire with allegations that Newman forced an expensive new telephone system on the county without getting bids. (She counters that plans for the system preceded her taking office and that it will save the county money in the long run.) The presence on the ballot of independent Derrick Bennett, who has attempted previous political races as both a Republican and a Democrat, won’t alter the basic equation much.

CIRCUIT COURT CLERK — Republican incumbent Jimmy Moore, a former auto dealer and longtime pol with numerous friendships across all sorts of lines, including political ones, should be ensconced enough to withstand a challenge from the Democratic nominee, police officer Ricky Dixon, brother of former state senator Roscoe Dixon, who was convicted of Tennessee Waltz charges.

CRIMINAL COURT CLERK — Kevin Key, son of outgoing GOP incumbent Bill Key and a veteran county hand himself, is matched against Minerva Johnican, a once-famous political name in Shelby County who was the incumbent clerk before the senior Key beat her in the local Republican landslide of 1994. “Return Minerva Johnican,” her signs say, and she has a fair chance of exactly that happening — particularly with the independent candidacy of Jerry Stamson, the brother and brother-in-law of retiring GOP clerks Steve Stamson (Juvenile Court) and Debbie Stamson (Shelby County clerk).

JUVENILE COURT CLERK — Democrat Shep Wilbun, a onetime clerk who lost his bid for reelection in 2002 after being investigated for misconduct, is favored to get back in, with wind in his sails from supporters who note he was never indicted and contend he was wholly blameless. Joy Touliatos, the current second-in-command, is the Republican nominee, and there’s an independent here, too — Julia Robinson Wiseman.

PROBATE COURT CLERK — Sondra Becton is a familiar name, long associated with the office and an unsuccessful candidate for the top job in it several times. This time appears to be her moment, in that her underfunded Republican opponent, Paul Boyd, a plucky fellow who has worked in various county offices, has little name recognition and can’t match her on-the-job training.

SHELBY COUNTY CLERK — Republican nominee Wayne Mashburn works for the office and is the son of the late “Sonny” Mashburn, a longtime former clerk. As such, he has name recognition and a built-in edge over Democrat Corey Maclin, who has been running hard for the office for almost two years.

The likable Maclin has come a serious cropper, though, with recent revelations that he owes court judgments, totaling $171,203.36, and back taxes on three businesses, totaling nearly $35,000. Maclin also is subject to an IRS lien of nearly $6,000.

Maclin blames the exposure of his problems on the forever resilient Joe Cooper, who has assisted pro wrestling legend Jerry Lawler in filing legal actions against Maclin, a former wrestling promoter and onetime Lawler associate. Lawler and Maclin, who has counter-sued, are involved in a dispute over the rights to videos and other Lawler memorabilia which Maclin has sold to other vendors for resale.

Maclin has noted that Cooper, a veteran pol and behind-the-scenes operator, is a convicted felon, having recently served a brief term for money laundering after assisting the government in corruption stings against Memphis politicians. Cooper, who professes to be a full-time foe of corruption now, points out that Bret Thompson, Maclin’s campaign manager and a disbarred lawyer, is also a convicted felon. Mashburn has reasons for optimism.

REGISTER OF DEEDS — Another case where a bit of tarnish has adversely affected a candidate’s chances is in the race for county register, where Democratic nominee Coleman Thompson had acquired some good name recognition and a modicum of sympathy after earlier near misses in seeking the office. But all that has likely been offset by publicity about the pending eviction of the financially distressed Thompson and his business, Pyramid Recovery Center, from a site on South Third, which, ironically, serves as an early-voting site.

Republican incumbent Tom Leatherwood was favored, anyhow, on the strength of what amounts to a fair degree of bipartisan approval of his job performance.

State and Federal Primary Races

(Voters choose between a Republican or Democratic ballot.)

GOVERNOR — Nothing much has happened to change the perspective on this race since we dealt with it at length in last week’s issue — except that Bill Haslam, the presumed Republican frontrunner then has to be reckoned as even more so now, on the strength of a new poll showing him with a double-digit lead on Zach Wamp and Ron Ramsey. Democrat Mike McWherter, unopposed, is still watching and waiting, having done little campaigning of any kind.

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 7th DISTRICT — Incumbent Republican Marsha Blackburn of Brentwood is unopposed, as is Democratic challenger Greg Rabidoux of Clarksville. Blackburn is the overwhelming favorite in the general.

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 8th DISTRICT — State senator Roy Herron of Dresden has a nominal opponent in the Democratic primary, Kimberlee L. Smith, but he is widely considered the nominee-in-waiting and a formidable test for whichever Republican finally emerges from an increasingly bitter struggle in the Republican primary: Stephen Fincher, Ron Kirkland, and George Flinn of Memphis. Fincher appeared to be holding a narrow lead in the stretch, but the other two were pouring enough money and resources into their campaigns to make the conclusion problematic.

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 9th DISTRICT — Although its superficial black-vs.-white thematics have gained it some interest in the national media, the 9th District Democratic primary may more accurately be viewed as one between a highly active incumbent, two-termer Cohen, and an on-again, off-again challenger, former Memphis mayor Herenton.

The underfunded, underbacked Herenton still hopes to confound the skeptics with a late rush and a big turnout from the masses who supported him for almost two decades, but almost none of the factors that aided him in his upset 1991 mayoral victory are at work for him now.

Charlotte Bergmann, an African-American entry on the Republican side, has a billboard proclaiming “Charlotte Bergmann Can Whip Willie Herenton.” But Bergmann not only has overlooked the likelihood of facing Cohen, she now has to confront a late surge in signage from Jim Harrell, a GOP activist, and Kevin Millen.

Categories
Music Music Features

Deer Tick at the Hi-Tone Café

With a grunge-Dylan singer-songwriter fronting a particularly adept roots-rock band, Rhode Island’s Deer Tick might be one of the most promising new entities to hit the indie scene’s bar-band circuit over the past few years. On the band’s breakthrough second album, 2009’s Born on Flag Day, the mix of roots elements — country, folk, blues, ’50s rock, lazy, front-porch-style classic rock — are so thorough and yet so easily integrated into a seamless personal sound that the band evokes ’80s roots-rock heroes the Blasters more than any of their less-accomplished, more theoretical contemporaries. The band’s new album, The Black Dirt Sessions, is a somewhat softer record, with the roots influences toned down to highlight the croaky singing and sharp songwriting of bandleader John McCauley. I don’t know if that’s exactly an equally fruitful path, but it still works. Deer Tick plays the Hi-Tone Café Wednesday, August 4th, with Georgia rockers Dead Confederate opening. Showtime is 10 p.m. Admission is $10.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Heavenly

Soon to grace Broad Avenue, Three Angels Diner will stay open late and serve classic diner food. The diner is the newest project from Bari Ristorante owners Jason and Rebecca Severs and is named for their three boys, Julian, Lucian, and Matteo.

“We’ve been thinking about this for several years,” Jason says. “We’ve owned Bari for a while and had three or four different ideas for other things. We always looked for things to be at the right place at the right time. This just happened to be at the right place at the right time and at the right price.”

The space was once intended for a coffee shop, which never opened. “The [owner] started and then just kind of disappeared,” Jason says. “It was supposed to open about four or five months ago. He did some work but never completed it.”

With the space more or less primed for a restaurant and the landlord looking for a new tenant, the couple seized an opportunity they’d been waiting for. They still have to build the vent-a-hood in the kitchen and are waiting for city approval and permits, but Jason hopes to be open within the next couple of months.

Three Angels comes just in time to join the Broad Avenue revival. The area has become an arts district with a line of galleries and studios filling its storefronts. The success of Broadway Pizza and the Cove provides something of an anchor for new restaurants.

“We saw that there was something going on here,” Jason says. “They were making everything angled parking. They wanted to promote walking. It’s an arts district, and [my wife and I] both got our degrees in art. This is a really cool area.”

The menu is still in question, and that’s just the way Jason and Rebecca want it. “We’re using the term ‘diner’ because when you say ‘diner’ it can kind of be whatever,” Jason explains. “Our plan is to get open and start serving things, and if people say, ‘Hey, where’s this?’ we’ll put it on the menu. It’s not like Bari. We aren’t doing any regional Italian cuisine. We’re saying it’s a diner, because we want to be flexible.”

Of course, you can expect to see some of your favorite diner foods: burgers, fried chicken, meat-and-three plates. And, because Rebecca is a vegetarian, they’ll also serve vegetarian options: tofu, tempeh, grains, and beans. “By no means will it be a natural-foods place,” Jason says, “but it will be good and healthy. We don’t use butter for anything at Bari, so we aren’t going to use butter here. We’re going to take the same process of letting the food speak for itself with quality ingredients and doing as little as possible to bring them to the plate.”

Add kid-friendly to the twin goals of diner food and late hours. Jason and Rebecca wanted a spot where families can feel comfortable and parents don’t worry about bringing their children. “People don’t bring their kids to Bari; it’s too quiet,” Jason points out. “You can be loud at Three Angels.”

You will also be able to drink liquor and beer (once they get their licenses), get an entrée and a drink for around $10, and sample some small-plate options. The final diner touch? Jason hopes to have an old-school arcade with a pinball machine. Three Angels just might be heaven.

Three Angels Diner, 2617 Broad

threeangelsdiner.com

Categories
News The Fly-By

History Lesson

When it comes to a concentration of historic structures, Cordova is no Midtown. But that doesn’t mean the suburb doesn’t have old buildings of value.

At a meeting last week at the Bert Ferguson Community Center in Cordova about Memphis’ Preservation Plan, Graydon Swisher of the West Tennessee Historical Society listed several structures still standing in old town Cordova, including the train depot on Macon Road.

As Swisher named historic Cordova locations, Emily Trenholm of Livable Memphis marked the spots on a large wall map. The addresses will likely be added to a new online database of more than 700 historic and culturally significant structures throughout the city.

The database is part of the updated Memphis Preservation Plan to protect properties already on the National Historic Register, properties that are 40 years old and eligible for the register in 10 years, and sites that may not qualify for the register but have significance to the community.

The existing preservation plan was drafted in 1997, and more than 40 volunteers are doing the legwork on the update, which includes hosting a series of 16 public meetings to decide which structures should be added to the database.

“The need for the database is really important. We wanted all the city agencies to see what is considered historic to help with planning,” said Nancy Jane Baker, manager of the Memphis Landmarks Commission. “We don’t want to run into this last-minute ‘you can’t tear this down because it’s historic’ thing.”

On Union in Midtown, some of the avenue’s remaining historic structures — the Union Avenue United Methodist Church, the Nineteenth Century Club, and the Scottish Rite building — have become endangered. Though the database wouldn’t necessarily save those buildings, it might raise awareness of their importance.

“This is more of an informational tool than anything else,” Baker said. “With the Scottish Rite building, the database would help the University of Tennessee system to know that this is an important building to the community.”

Besides basic address information, the public database will also include information on whether a structure is threatened by neglect or redevelopment.

Cathy Marcinko, the Memphis Preservation Plan facilitator, said the database should be ready by the end of the year.

For more information on the remaining public meetings, call Nancy Jane Baker at 576-7170.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall

Neverending Elvis

• Elvis’ more ghoulish fans will be disappointed to learn that an unfortunate pair of Presley-themed auctions have ended prematurely after a public dispute regarding the authenticity and ownership of the artifacts. Turns out taste wasn’t the only questionable thing about a Leslie Hindman auction, which listed the toe tag, selected documents, and a generous assortment of surgical tools used for Elvis’ autopsy. Items for sale included a needle injector, an arterial tube, one comb, two lip brushes, an eyeliner pencil, two aneurysm hooks, a pair of forceps, four four-lock forceps, and one slightly ominous pair of ancient rubber gloves. They were taken off the market after Memphis Funeral Home president E.C. Daves challenged the provenance of the artifacts, asking the seller to return all misappropriated instruments.

In an interview with The Commercial Appeal, Daves suggested that the instruments used in Elvis’ autopsy were sterilized and kept for reuse, which opens up a whole new can of wormfood for Elvis fanatics. He also prevented (or at least postponed) the ultimate “Funeral in Vegas” vacation package where your average Joe Nobody can go out like the King of Rock-and-Roll.

• While we’re on the subject of dead Elvis, Viva Elvis, a new album inspired by the Cirque du Soleil’s recent Elvis-themed production, drops in November. According to Erich van Tourneau, who produced and arranged the album tracks, he wanted to know “what would the songs of Elvis be like if he were doing them for the first time today.” A little stiff, we’re guessing.

• This latest installment of our Neverending Elvis series concludes with more exciting news on the auction front. In 1957, Presley bought a white Knabe piano, which had been played by the King’s favorite touring gospel acts, from Ellis Auditorium. Unlike the autopsy instruments, which were valued between $6,000 to $8,000, this musical instrument is expected to fetch more than $1 million.

By Chris Davis. E-mail him at davis@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky

Opening with a masterful, 20-plus-minute re-creation of the infamous 1913 Parisian premiere of the ballet The Rite of Spring and shot through with a gorgeous mise-en-scène that makes the film as much about place as people, Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is the art-house companion piece to last year’s more-traditional biopic Coco Before Chanel.

The bulk of the film takes place in 1920: after the Russian Revolution has forced Igor Stravinsky (Mads Mikkelsen), his consumptive wife Katarina (Yelena Morozova), and their children into exile; after Boy Capel, the love of a lifetime for Coco (Anna Mouglalis), has died; and before Coco creates Chanel No. 5 — “a fragrance worthy of a woman.”

Coco gives the Stravinskys a place to stay and Igor a place to work at her country home. The house becomes a main character in the film, too — director Jan Kounen explores its striking black-and-white interior with a camera that tracks and swirls and defies gravity.

In Coco Before Chanel, Audrey Tautou gave the fashion icon a fresh-faced luminance that seemed to put the 20th century on notice. Mouglalis’ Coco is necessarily older, and she brings to the role sex and command, lithely knifing through the film like a shark fin.

Mikkelsen keeps Stravinsky’s passion in reserve, but when the composer is at work, in the throes of inspiration, you can hear all of the roiling emotions battling for high ground.

Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky is in French and Russian with subtitles. It’s full of Stravinsky compositions that probably will further illuminate the proceedings for the musically informed viewer. For the ignorant, such as myself, it nevertheless left a rich aftertaste.

Opens Friday, July 30th at Ridgeway Four.

Categories
Music Music Features

Grant at the Brooks; Antenna Redux

“People always ask me what I’m doing these days, so I tell them, ‘Whatever I want to do,'” says Marshall Grant, the original bass player for Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two.

Fortunately for local music fans, one of the things Grant wants to do is share his stories about his life on the road with Johnny Cash. On Thursday, July 29th, at 7 p.m., the Memphis chapter of The Recording Academy is hosting Up Close & Personal, an intimate conversation with Grant at the Brooks Museum of Art. As an added treat, Grant, whose visit coincides with the museum’s “Who Shot Rock & Roll” exhibit, has invited some special guests to sit in with him for a rendition of “Folsom Prison Blues” played on the instruments used during the original Sun recording session.

“I’m gonna play my bass just like Sam Phillips told me back when we were playing on The Louisiana Hayride,” Grant says of his impending performance. “He told me, ‘Marshall, whenever you get down there, I want you to get a microphone and slap the hell out of that thing.'” Grant has also loaned several Cash-era artifacts to the museum and will be available to sign copies of his book, I Was There When It Happened.

“You know, [the museum] only had one case, so I wasn’t able to bring all that much,” Grant says. “I brought the electric bass I played on Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison and Johnny Cash at San Quentin. And I am also the proud owner of nine Grammys.”

Antenna Reunion Redux

Do you have a great story from the glory days of the Antenna club that needs to be preserved on film? The second annual reunion concert inspired by Memphis’ fabled punk club kicks off on Thursday, July 29th, with a meet-and-greet at the Buccaneer Lounge, and Memphis filmmaker C. Scott McCoy will be conducting interviews for his documentary about the club.

“Anyone who has an Antenna story that they’d like to share with us should come down and participate,” McCoy says. “If it’s good, it’ll make it in the movie!” The Live From Memphis crew will be assisting McCoy by filming the 26 bands scheduled to play at Nocturnal and the Hi-Tone Café on Friday and Saturday nights. Rocket Science Audio will also be recording the shows.

“We hope to release a DVD of reunion performances mixed with some vintage performances we’ve dug up on video from some of the reunion bands as well as some bands that couldn’t be here,” McCoy says.

The first Antenna club reunion, held in 2009, lured hundreds of music fans back to the corner of Madison and Avalon to relive a bit of their misspent youth.

“I guess I must have been living in a cocoon, because I had no idea that so many people were interested in this,” says former Antenna owner Steve McGehee. “Now I can see this getting bigger,” he adds, contemplating the possibility of developing the reunion into an annual festival with an outdoor component.

The Antenna was ground zero for punk, new wave, and alternative culture in Memphis. Bands such as the Crime, the Klitz, the Randy Band, and Tav Falco’s Panther Burns (featuring Alex Chilton) started playing there regularly in 1979. In addition to booking touring bands like Black Flag, the Meat Puppets, and Robyn Hitchcock, it was also the launch pad for many well-known local bands, including the Grifters, Pezz, the Oblivians, and Impala.

The noisy club quietly closed 15 years ago after a show by the alt-radio band Tripping Daisy.

Antenna reunion schedule, music starting at 7 p.m.:

July 30th — Nocturnal (formerly the Antenna): Small Room, Fluorescent Butt Jam, Pezz, Sobering Consequences, The New Mary Jane does the Grifters, Reigning Sound. Hi-Tone Café: Gasoline Grace, The Linda Heck Experiment, Four Neat Guys, Impala, Neighborhood Texture Jam, Soul Capitalist.

July 31st — Nocturnal: ’68 Comeback with Lesa Aldridge and Ross Johnson, Neon Wheels, Calculated X, Barking Dog, Randy Band, The Crime, Distemper. Hi-Tone Café: Sons of Mud Boy, DDT, RBS, Greasland, Eraserhead, Recoil, Raid.