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Month: August 2010
- Natalie Root
Hitting the bookstores today is Memphian Jennifer Chandler‘s latest cookbook Simply Suppers, a followup to Simply Salads.
Chandler, who studied at Le Cordon Bleu and was co-owner of the much-missed prepared-foods market Cheffie’s, took the time to answer questions about Simply Suppers and her new role as spokesperson for French’s Mustard.
Your new book Simply Suppers offers no-hassle recipes, everything from your grandmother’s eggplant casserole to fish tacos and buttermilk pie. Did you have an audience in mind when putting together the book?
Yes, I did have an audience in mind. Folks like me!
Even though I’m a trained chef, I am a mom first. I deal with the same challenges of trying to put a delicious, home-cooked dinner on the table after a long day at work or an afternoon of driving the kids around.
The 27th Annual Ostrander Awards show began at 7 p.m. on Sunday, August 29th with a live performance by the cast of Hank Williams: Lost Highway
Oh wait, that wasn’t the Lost Highway cast. Sorry about that but my camera misfired and I missed the one number I wanted most to preserve. This group of actor-musicians fronted by Tim Greer transcended a messy script and put the lanky, cranky ghost of Hank Williams Sr. in front of some surprised and truly appreciative audiences. They might as well have been the real thing.
The fake Drifting Cowboys were followed by a monologue in which Janie McCrary the theater awards tireless organizer made many amusing if not always accurate comments. La Cage director Mitzi Hamilton wasn’t the first Memphis director to cast Jonathan Christian in a drag role, silly goose. Way back in the 1990’s a reluctant Christian, who was new to Memphis and worried that he might be typecast, signed on to play a grotesque yet strangely MILFy old gypsy woman in New Bridge Theatre Ensemble’s production of Tennessee WIlliams’ 10-Blocks on the Camino Real at TheatreWorks. Christian was brilliant although some of the credit has to go to a young visionary director whose name escapes me although I seem to recall that he became some kind of theater blogger for The Memphis Flyer, whatever that means.
McCrary—who didn’t hurt my feelings at all with her drag dis— went on to describe the shoddy state of state of theater journalism in Memphis right there in front of her co-sponsors the Journalists. It wasn’t the most elegant way to transition into into a pitch for ArtsMemphis’ own stable of critics, and a website where readers can find reviews written by a show’s producing angel. In fact, it was really kind of awkward but Janie’s always a hoot and the weirdness passed quickly enough.
Enter Sister Myotis whose performance at last year’s Ostranders was only a warm up for her big mainstream breakthrough as hostess for the Orpheum’s High School Musical awards.
Well, like the sister asked, are you ready for some rewards?
Now on display at Askew Nixon Ferguson is New Work by Ann Fitzgerald Bailey and Kathy Williams. Combining Fitzgerald’s watercolors and mixed media and Williams’ acrylic dyes on silk and bamboo, the exhibition makes an elegant addition to the gallery.
- Ann Fitzgerald Bailey
- Survival of the Fittest
- Kathy Williams
- Gray Blocks #7
- Kathy Williams
- Textured Swirls Orange
- Ann Fitzgerald Bailey
- The Road Less Traveled
The show will be up until September 24. Askew Nixon Ferguson Gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects, 1500 Union Ave, 278-6868, www.anfa.com/gallery.aspx
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Memories of “Monkey Mountain”
In the July issue of Memphis magazine, I wrote about the “neighborhood of the future” that was to be constructed in the area of East Memphis bounded by Park, White Station, Estate, and Quince. Perhaps “Country Club Estates” was ahead of its time, but such a concept never left the drawing board. Developers eventually constructed Sea Isle School and lots of nice homes instead, but one large area in particular — several acres just to the northeast of the school property — was left wild and undeveloped for years.
Everyone called it “Monkey Mountain.”
Today, it’s a nicely manicured park with soccer fields and a walking path. But in the late 1950s and early 1960s, this area was a vast wasteland, rutted with deep ravines and vine-covered trees. Naturally, it was a magnet for any child living in the neighborhood, who could play “army” or Tarzan or anything they wanted in this jungle. Not too long ago, I made a rare public appearance before the Sea Isle Park Neighborhood Association, and my visit prompted long-ago memories of just what, exactly, Monkey Mountain actually was.
Danny Milam, whose family lived in the area in the 1950s and ’60s, remembers it this way:
“I read with interest your article in the July edition, “Estate Planning.” I lived in that area when I was young (on White Station Road, just north of Sea Isle Road) and never knew about the grand plans for the area. Pity it never came to fruition. It would have been cool.
“But then again, if it had, my family probably couldn’t have afforded to live there.
“The undeveloped area around Sea Isle School was enormous. Even with the development of a park with a lighted baseball field, there was still a hefty tract of unimproved acreage that just sat there for years. In the area slightly northeast of where a lake was proposed was an odd land formation featuring many deep rills and ditches that couldn’t be explained. If it had been on a steep hill, one could understand all the rills and crevasses, but it was flat. (This is Memphis, after all.) Now that I’ve read your article, I wonder if perhaps some preliminary earthwork was done and then abandoned when the grandiose plans for Country Club Estates fell through.
[It IS possible, I suppose, that this “land formation” was leftover fill from the developers scooping out the lake proposed for the area. — Vance]
“It looked like an area used for WWI-era trench warfare. In fact, that’s how we used it, employing dirt clods instead of rifles to fend off the enemy combatants. Yes, the ditches were deep enough to crouch in and seek cover from an assault.
“Everyone in the neighborhood called this tract of odd topography “Monkey Mountains.” No one knew how it got that name, or why, because there was certainly nothing there that brought up images of mountains. A better name would have been “Monkey Canyon.”Â
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Chow for Cheap: Cafe Eclectic
The menu at Cafe Eclectic isn’t always the most affordable, but there are some secret – and surprising – deals to be found.
Take their grilled cheese, for example. For a mere $3.95, you get an exceptional sandwich (truly one of my favorites) and a side item. The Eclectic hot dog offers the same, also for $3.95.
For a few extra bucks, the grilled cheese also complements their wide range of soups very well – my favorite, the Greek lemon soup, is always spot-on.
Not a bad four-dollar meal, if you ask me.
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Larry Porter Names Starting QB
Larry Porter announced the first winner of the Tiger football season, and it’s sophomore quarterback Cannon Smith. After battling with freshman Ryan Williams for the nod to start Saturday’s season opener at Mississippi State, the son of FedEx founder Fred Smith will take his first snap since transferring from Miami.
“As we go forward, our starting quarterback will be Cannon Smith,” said Porter at Monday’s press luncheon. “We sat back and evaluated the quarterbacks based on three things: decision making, being able to manage the offense, and productivity. And, when you look at the two, Ryan and Cannon, are very similar in terms of their production. They both bring a different style. Overall, I’m very happy with their growth as quarterbacks. So, I look forward to those guys being in position to lead this team.”
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Is This Man Ruthless?
- District Attorney General Bill Gibbons
So says Bev Harris of Seattle, Washington, one of the investigators for Shelby County’s post-election litigants in a post on the blackboxvoting.org website of her advocacy organization.
In fact, Harris seems to have settled on Bill Gibbons as one of the villains of the piece — suggesting that the mild-mannered District Attorney General for Shelby County….well, let her tell it:
“…There is a county district attorney that needs closer scrutiny from the world at large. His name is William Gibbons. Quite a puller of strings in the Memphis power structure. Ruthless. Everyone I talk to behind the scenes is scared of retribution from Gibbons. As I understand it, the intimidation factor, announcing the arrest of a couple people for voting twice four years ago, plastering the media with this just days before the election, came from Gibbons’ office.
“Then, as you see, the expresspollbooks (e-pollbooks) were coded to wrongfully reject thousands of voters who were told ‘you have already voted.’ This, in combination with the media push touting arrests for voting twice, created voter intimidation. The records needed to identify which voters and how many were disenfranchised were stonewalled, altered, redacted, refused, etc….”
Ironically, Gibbons himself was one of the voters identified incorrectly on August 5 as having already voted because of the incorrect early-voting data — from the May 5 primary election season, says the Election Commission — fed into the electronic poll book (EPB) for election day on August 5.
Apprised of Harris’ statement, the Attorney General responded as follows:
“When the Election Commission refers a matter to us regarding possible voter fraud, if, upon review, we feel there is a possibility of any criminal conduct, we refer it to the TBI for investigation. After we receive the results of the TBI’s investigation, we decide whether there is sufficient proof to move forward with prosecution. Sometimes we move forward, and sometimes we do not, depending upon whether we feel we have sufficient proof.
“No one should feel intimidated by prosecutions for voter fraud, unless, of course, that person either has or is contemplating engaging in such conduct !
“I was one of those voters who, on election day, was told I had already voted when , in fact, I had not !”
Gibbons would go on, like apparently thousands of other voters, to fill out a “fail-safe” affidavit, after which he was allowed to vote on one of the county’s Diebold voting machines.
In the aftermath of the election, when the results were first disputed, Gibbons was asked by the Election Commission to investigate the election and passed on that request to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The TBI went on to investigate but has not yet released its report.
Meanwhile, the litigants, who by this time include all of the defeated Democratic countywide candidates except for outgoing interim mayor Joe Ford, have filed the second of two Chancery Court suits — this one asking that the election be ruled invalid as “incurably uncertain.”
According to Trustee Regina Morrison Newman, attorney for the group and a litigant herself, the Election Commission has suspended any further investigative access by the litigants or their representatives.
The group is holding an “informational meeting” on Thursday at 6 p.m. at Bloomfield Baptist Church at 123 South Parkway West and is asking that any voters who had “issues in the August election” attend.
On Tuesday, September 14, at 6 p.m. the litigants and their supporters plan a march on the Election Commission headquarters downtown.
And an account — entitled “Shelby County Voter Protection Rights Fund” — has been opened at First Tennessee Bank to accept donations for the ongoing legal action.
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Midnight Ride Hit and Run
I’ve heard two accounts this morning of a hit-and-run during the middle of Saturday night’s popular Midnight Classic Bike Tour.
Apparently, around 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning, a male cyclist was approaching the intersection of Madison and Cooper and was waved on by the police officer directing traffic.
The cyclist was then hit by a dark-colored vehicle traveling on Madison at about 30 to 40 mph. The driver did not stop.
Eyewitnesses say the west-bound lane of Madison was blocked off by police, but no one was in charge of the east-bound lane. (UPDATE: From other reports I’ve gotten, it seems the officer had east-bound traffic stopped, but no one was directing west-bound traffic and the light at the intersection was green.)
The cyclist was taken to the Med, but that’s about all I know right now. Check back for more details.
This week, ’90s alt-rock/power-pop stalwarts the Posies and acclaimed Raconteurs co-frontman Brendan Benson announced plans for a massive co-headlining fall tour of Europe and the United States. Both artists will be promoting new albums; Benson’s latest, My Old, Familiar Friend, was released last week, while the Posies will unveil Blood/Candy, the group’s first collection of new material in more than five years, on September 28.
Both artists also have strong ties to the Memphis area. Posies co-founders Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer performed off-and-on for the last 15+ years in the latter-day incarnation of Memphis’ now legendary Big Star along with Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens. Meanwhile, the Raconteurs’ Grammy-nominated 2006 debut album, Broken Boy Soldiers, was mixed at local hit factory Ardent Studios.