Month: February 2011

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Herrington and Akers on the Oscars (2011), Part 4: Lead Players

The long Oscar endurance race that began on Monday is entering the home stretch. Today, with our penultimate installment, Flyer film writers Chris Herrington and Greg Akers are gazing at the lead Actress and Actor categories. Who will and should win and who got robbed? Read on.

Best Actress
Nominees: Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole), Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine).

CHRIS HERRINGTON: “Oscar buzz” tells us this is a two-person race between Bening and Portman, and given that hers is a more central and more showy performance in a somewhat more high-profile film, I’m saying the person that Will Win is Natalie Portman.

Should Win: Rabbit Hole is one of the few nominated films that I didn’t manage to see, so I can’t comment on Kidman. As for Bening, she’s good but I thought Julianne Moore had both the more substantial role and better performance in The Kids Are All Right. And I think Portman is quite effective in Black Swan and won’t complain when she wins. But for me this comes down to Lawrence and Williams. The former is perfect in Winter’s Bone, but it feels like alchemy that may not be repeated. Michelle Williams — as we’ve seen in Brokeback Mountain and Wendy & Lucy — is the real deal. While her co-star in Blue Valentine, Ryan Gosling, never lets you forget that he’s acting, Williams never lets you catch her performing. Her naturalism is pure poetry.

Got Robbed:Williams gave one of my three favorite lead female performances of last year. The other two are, unsurprisingly, not on this slate of nominees. One is Hye-Ja Kim, a South Korean TV icon who apparently tweaks her persona as the disturbingly dedicated title character in Bong Joon-Ho’s Mother. The other is Lesley Manville, a longtime regular in Mike Leigh’s company of great actors who finally gets her spotlight in Another Year, where she is unnervingly good as a very difficult character.

On this we agree: Lesley Manville in Another Year was “robbed”:

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News

Change Comes from the Bottom Up

In his editor’s note, Bruce VanWyngarden argues that all mass rallies are not created equal.

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We Recommend We Recommend

Pour Thing

On Thursday, February 24th, the debate that has split a nation and pit brother against brother will finally be resolved. End of story and amen.

Yes, folks, it’s the Beer Vs. Wine Dinner, to be held at the Brushmark at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Each of the five courses will be paired with one wine and one beer. Diners will vote on their favorites, and the winner will be announced at the meal’s conclusion.

While the Brooks hosts the biggest wine event of the year — the multi-affair Memphis Wine & Food Series (formerly the Art of Good Taste) — the Brushmark has recently been paying more attention to beer. According to Andrew Adams, the Brushmark’s chef de cuisine, “Beer has been the tiny, fine print on the menu. We wanted to bring it out front.” To help revamp the restaurant’s beer list, a tasting was held, led by Southwestern Distributing’s Steve Barzizza. It was Barzizza who suggested the competitive dinner.

Barzizza’s son Mike (Tennessee’s only “cicerone”) will take the beer side, while it’s Jason Doble of Trinchero Family Estates for wine. Steve Barzizza will serve as the referee, promising, “There will be no betting. There will be no fighting.”

Among the courses: a soy-roasted grouper to be paired with a Barbar Honey Ale and Joel Gott Riesling and Colorado lamb with a Gulden Draak and the Show Malbec. For dessert, there will be chocolate bombes and almond crumbles served with Young’s Double Chocolate Stout and Terra d’Oro Port.

The Brushmark’s new attitude toward beer has meant learning about what beer goes in what glass and serving it at just the right temperature (no frosty mugs!). And now the beer bottle is left on the table. “We showcase the beer the same as wine,” Adams says.

As for Adams’ own beer vs. wine preference? “It depends on the day.”

 

Beer Vs. Wine Dinner at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Thursday, February 24th, 7 p.m. $60. Reservations: 544-6225.

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Opinion The Last Word

The Rant

I haven’t seen the film The Social Network yet, but now I feel kind of compelled to check it out because when I waded into using Facebook as a reluctant novice a couple of years ago, I never dreamed that such a thing would have an impact great enough to start changing world history the way it has recently with all of these fabulous uprisings taking place all over the world. I thought Twitter was for twits with too much time on their hands, but now it looks like it can help overthrow a government, and I am all about that kind of unrest because it is exciting.

It’s not a bunch of suits bickering back and forth about budget cuts and gays in the military and various and sundry other tiresome topics. It’s real revolution. I wonder if, when they came up with the idea, the people behind Facebook and Twitter ever imagined that it would lead to ending a 30-year political regime in one of the oldest civilizations on earth and spark similar upheavals in numerous other places, just because of the sheer numbers of people who can stay in touch with each other at once and be in contact within a split second’s notice anywhere in the world.

(You would think SOMEONE would have figured out a way for bald people to grow hair by now, but I digress.)

I guess it shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise, since Barack Obama had such great success with it in his presidential campaign and became our first African-American president, and Lady Gaga used it to become the most famous person in the world ever to make an entrance into a hugely televised event being carried in a giant egg. Which, by the way, I have to say, kind of cracked me up and made me like her a little.

But really. Think about it: Facebook = major world changes. I read a story about a couple in Egypt who actually named their new baby Facebook. I wonder if this kid is going to be the Second Coming. I just wonder that because I am obsessed with End Times propaganda and all of this recent technology-generated world upheaval has that written all over it. I need to check with my contacts in the Ozarks to find out what their take is on it. Armageddon via Skype? Ya never know. I tried to tool around a little on the Facebook page for “End Times Message Believers” but there was a lot of chatter about clean women with long hair and it freaked me out but not as much as the advertisement on the side of the page, which read, “If you owe less than $729,000 on your mortgage, you probably qualify for the President’s Making Home Affordable Program.”

Are they kidding? Less than $729,000? How many people owe more than that? Does that seem to be a limit that makes sense? I need to get in on that game. Oh, never mind. I tried. It looked like a scam. Imagine that.

Which leads me to this: I know that as Americans we are way too spoiled and lazy and unimaginative to have an actual uprising that would interest much of anyone other than ourselves, but how about using Facebook to get back at all the quick-loan outfits, shady mortgage companies and, especially, credit card companies that have done more real damage to the American people than probably any other entity? The companies that promise people the moon but deliver not much more than a little instant gratification along with a truckload of bullshit fine print that NO ONE could possibly understand without an MBA. Ultimately they push people into so much debt that it becomes a cycle of minimum payments that never ends. I don’t have or use credit cards. But I did when I was young and trying to establish credit (and travel and eat and clothe myself, etc.) because in America if you don’t have credit you can’t do things like buy a house. Especially not a house that costs more than $729,000!

So if the Egyptians can organize a peaceful protest and start to change the world by ousting Hosni Mubarak from his 30-year reign and thereby embolden young people all over the world to say, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it!” don’t you think it would be fairly easy for everyone to get together, send each other Facebook and Twitter messages, and boycott a couple of the credit card beasts for a few days and have them panic to the point of finally coming clean with the real story on the rates, minimum payments, due dates, and late fees? Or go away forever? Just one day might do it. Any takers? Could the American people even go one day without using credit cards? It certainly seems Tweet-worthy to think about.

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Music Music Features

Local Beat: Going Preauxx

Twenty-year-old emerging rapper Chris “Preauxx” Dansby grew up in New Orleans, moving to Memphis at age 10, where he ended up graduating from Bolton High School.

New Orleans, via the No Limit and Cash Money crews, and Memphis, via the Three 6 Mafia family, both boast distinctive hardcore rap sounds that thrived during Dansby’s formative years. But Dansby, who appeared on a Live From Memphis “60 Seconds” video last year clad in a Tribe Called Quest T-shirt, says his favorite rappers were Jay-Z and Kanye West.

This interest in hip-hop history and penchant to find influence via records and media rather than from physical environment connects Preauxx (who celebrates the release of his second mixtape, Love Jones, at the Hi-Tone Café this weekend) to an emerging new generation of somewhat like-minded but still diverse local rappers who includes promising artists such as Skewby, Cities Aviv, Taktix, Royal’ T, and Knowledge Nick.

In fact, Preauxx recently collaborated with Cities Aviv and Royal’ T on a one-off song, “Fame x Money.”

“We’ve done so many shows together,” Preauxx says of the collaboration. “We just decided to go to the studio and make a song together.

“Different is good,” Preauxx says of his connection to local artists. “I found my own lane. I feel like Memphis is welcoming to different styles.”

Currently a junior marketing major at the University of Memphis, Preauxx says he always wanted to get involved in music — not just hip-hop — and was influenced to write by the poetic talents of an older sister.

“I used to write poems in class to try to get the girls,” Preauxx says. “But I loved hip-hop so much, that I started writing to a beat.”

Preauxx got serious about recording and performing and trying to find his niche in the local scene when he started college and draws on his penchant for romantic themes on Love Jones.

“Love Jones is a mixtape about my trials and tribulations in life and love,” he says. “I didn’t want to do a mixtape that was a hip-hop vibe, a lot of nod your head stuff. I know I can do that.”

Preauxx’s engaging charisma comes through on the video for the Love Jones song “Going In For the Night,” directed by fellow U of M student Steven Simpson, which depicts Preauxx lugging his backpack around the U of M campus on a sunny autumn day. It was also on display at a hip-hop show at the Young Avenue Deli last month, where Preauxx welcomed MC Dutchess onstage to give himself a female focus for one of his romantic songs.

If Preauxx’s style stands in contrast to regional expectations, there is one area where his Louisiana upbringing is apparent: his chosen moniker.

“I started out as ‘Pro,'” he says, “but that just seemed so bland. And around that time the [New Orleans] Saints won the Super Bowl, and I saw fans holding signs that said ‘Geaux Saints.’ I thought that was cool, so I decided to spice up my name a little bit.”

Preauxx will be joined at his mixtape-release show by DJ Homework (aka Josh Metzger), who is helping him produce and release Love Jones via Homework’s newish Westham label. Homework introduced the label last year with “Pushin’ Buttons,” a terrific Internet single featuring Cities Aviv and Taktix along with singer Ify. He’s also been working with Taktix on a debut album.

Also on the bill for the show, which is Sunday, February 27th, at the Hi-Tone Café, are new local rapper Tres, scene stalwart Jason Da Hater, and DJ Redeye Jedi. Admission is $5, which also gets you a physical copy of the Love Jones mixtape. Doors open at 9 p.m.

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter From The Editor: Kabuki Demonstrations

Remember back in August, when Glenn Beck held that big rally in Washington, D.C., to “restore honor”? Tens of thousands of people gathered to cheer on right-wing speakers and protest … something. Not long after that, Jon Stewart held a rally in the same city to “restore sanity.” Tens of thousands of people gathered to celebrate … irony?

Those rallies got a lot of attention in the American press at the time but neither amounted to diddly-squat. Both were examples of Kabuki theater on a mass scale — entertainers performing for their fans, about as consequential as Saturday morning television wrestling.

What’s happening in the Middle East is the real deal — demonstrations and protests with consequences, instigated by people who have had enough, who want their freedom, who want their despotic leaders removed, and who are brave enough to risk everything to achieve those goals.

To a lesser degree, the same thing is playing out in Wisconsin, where thousands of people are outraged at the government’s attempt to take away their right to unionize and are willing to take to the streets to oppose the legislation. And with the advent of the Internet and social tools such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, it’s never been easier for people to organize mass protests or to show the world where and how injustice is happening.

And that’s the eternal lesson: Change — real change — always comes from the bottom, from the people getting screwed. When a sufficient number of personal lives — and livelihoods — are impacted, people will organize and fight. Some of those at the top — the Sarah Palins, Glenn Becks, and Al Sharptons of the world — will try to jump in front of the crowds and call themselves leaders. But they’re not. They’re opportunists and parasites on the body politic.

It’s a sad fact of human nature that those with power and money never seem to be able to help themselves from seeking more — through oppressive, vengeful legislation, through gerrymandered redistricting, through corporate bailouts and tax laws that favor those who already have more money than they can ever spend, through service cuts that punish those who are struggling.

The arc of history shows that power is fluid. When those few on top abuse the many below, their days on top are numbered. It may take years or even decades, but eventually, what goes around comes around. Honor and sanity can be restored — at least until the next bunch gets greedy.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

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We Recommend We Recommend

Divine Beings Dancing

This Saturday, Shen Yun Performing Arts performs at the Orpheum. Based on a repository of Chinese history and culture that date back millennia, Shen Yun presents luminous costumes, graceful dancers, strikingly scaled backdrops, and rich live music that bridges East and West. Chinese civilization is steeped in the idea that humanity and the divine are intertwined. In context, Shen Yun translates as “the beauty of divine beings dancing.” We asked Jason Wang — coordinator of New Times Culture and Education Center, which is hosting the Shen Yun performance — to tell us more.

Flyer: How is classical and folk and ethnic Chinese dancing different from Western dance?

Jason Wang: Classical Chinese dance has a vast training system and is a dance form still mostly new to the West. It carries the essence of Chinese cultural expression in its movements, postures, and aesthetics. In its early years, it was passed down primarily in the imperial court and as part of ancient theater.

In past years, you’ve examined themes of justice, ethnic identity, and spiritual belief under Communist rule in China. What can the Memphis audience expect to see?

In a collection of short pieces, audiences may travel from the Himalayas to tropical lake-filled regions; sit in on a school of mischievous monks; or follow a journey of the Monkey King. The theme of each show is the revival of traditional Chinese culture by portraying, through classical dance, the history of what China once was with all its beauty, diversity, spirit, and color and what it has become. Shen Yun artists immerse themselves in both worlds in order to portray each story as authentically and realistically as they can.

Shen Yun Performing Arts at the Orpheum, Saturday, February 26th, 2 and 8 p.m. $70-$150. Go to ShenYunPerformingArts.org for more information.

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Music Music Features

The Road South

New York native Richard James’ journey from the Big Apple to the Bluff City was a long one, but ultimately it has led to his emergence as a viable force in the local punk/garage-rock community.

James’ awakening as a musician occurred during the late 1960s in the New York City borough of Queens, where as a kid he discovered rock-and-roll.

“Two records really affected me,” James says. “The first was Led Zeppelin IV, the other was Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around the Clock.’ It was right there with those two that I caught the sickness of loving rock music.”

At the age of 18, James enlisted in the army and relocated to Fort Campbell, Kentucky. And then in 1985, after three years of service, he migrated to Nashville and developed an affinity for Southern hospitality and live performance.

“New York was a very jaded place at that time,” he says. “It was not a place to explore one’s self or experiment musically. It was just way too competitive. There was a certain sense that you had to be weirder than weird, which is not me.

“One night in Nashville I was at a bar watching a touring band play, and they had a meltdown on stage,” James recalls. “The guitar player threw his guitar down in the middle of the set and walked off. I had had a few drinks and jumped up on stage and started playing guitar with them, even though I didn’t really know how. It was an epiphany for me.”

From that point on, James committed himself fully to playing guitar and writing songs, honing in on a sound equally influenced by classic punk rock and American roots music. Along the way, he also moved back to New York for a time, met and married fellow musician and songwriter Anne Schorr (the pair played around the New York area in the early to mid-’90s as the Broken Chains), and eventually resettled in Tennessee once and for all in 1997.

His current project, Richard James & the Special Riders, was formed in Nashville in 2004 and from the onset featured contributions from a rotating cast of backing musicians, including Schorr, onetime Memphian Marty Linville (Pisshorse), Jason Frazier, and former Tin Machine guitarist Reeves Gabrels. While in Nashville, the group produced several recordings, including the excellent debut LP Music for People Who Been Wrong(ed).

By 2006, however, James and Schorr had grown weary of the Nashville music scene and decided to roll the dice and take up shop in Memphis.

“I just found Nashville to be too sterile,” James says. “People in Memphis are more engaged in the local music scene and seem to like music more generally. It’s messed up, in a good way, and community-oriented — like New York was in the ’70s.”

Since coming to town, James has collaborated with several of the scene’s most noteworthy musicians, including Ross Johnson (Panther Burns, Alex Chilton), Jake and Toby Vest (The Third Man, The Bulletproof Vests), Patrick Glass (Noise Choir), and Marcus Battle, among others, as the Special Riders. At any given show, the group is composed of various combinations of local players behind James and (most of the time) Schorr.

“Richard has such a strong musical identity, other people just naturally fall in line,” Schorr says. “Despite the changes in lineup, the sound has become more consistent over the years.”

Late last year, James and company began laying down tracks at the Vest brothers’ local studio facility, Hi/Lo Recording, for what would become the group’s newest effort, The Hi, The Lo, The Night Life. As with previous efforts by Richard James & the Special Riders, the record explores familiar roots-punk territory but with a slightly more laid-back and twangy edge, largely thanks to the nimble lead guitar work of Jake Vest.

“Jake’s a great guitar player, because he doesn’t just impose his will on a song. He really listens,” James says. “All of the guys I play with now have that trait. They play for the music. They put their asses on the line and do what’s best for the song.”

This Friday night, Richard James & the Special Riders will celebrate the release of The Hi, The Lo, The Night Life with a special show at Murphy’s featuring an expanded lineup.

“We’ll have three guitars, maybe a couple of different drummers,” James says. “It’s going to be a fun show.”

http://www.myspace.com/rjames6

Richard James & the Special Riders Record Release Show, with Chinamen, Dream Team, and Allen Morrison

Murphy’s

Friday, February 25th

10 p.m.; $5

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Love Story

CREDIT: William Morrow

What makes a good romance book? There’s got to be chemistry, a little bit of conflict, a good dose of humor, and, of course, a happy ending. Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels — A Love Story (William Morrow) is a slam dunk.

For those who don’t know her already, Drummond is better known, at least on the Internet, as the Pioneer Woman. The blog she started in 2006 chronicles her story as a city-girl-turned-ranch-wife in the wilds of Oklahoma. While a large focus of the blog has been food, as was her first book, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, this love story, co-starring Drummond’s husband, aka Marlboro Man, has been woven in almost from the beginning.

When I talked to Drummond, she and her daughters were hiding out in Salt Lake City, avoiding the minus-20-degree weather that the boys were braving back on the ranch. After reading her book, it’s hard not to wonder how it feels for a woman who left the busy world of Los Angeles for a quiet life in Oklahoma now that she is on the road and in the spotlight as a best-selling author.

“The irony is hilarious,” Drummond says. “It took me about 10 years to really get in the groove. Living there those 10 years before I started blogging helped feed my creative side; I wouldn’t be a writer without the experience. That’s where the contentment comes from. Traveling and meeting people is great, but it has made me realize how much I love home and the country.”

For some men, being the star of a sweet love story could be a bit awkward, but for Drummond’s Marlboro Man, it’s been just another part of the ride. “He’s fine with it. He’s always been very supportive of the blog. Besides, he knows I wouldn’t write anything I wouldn’t want the kids to read, so he knew it would stay family-friendly,” she says.

The story starts with their meeting in a smoky bar in Drummond’s hometown just as she was beginning to transition from her life in L.A. to a new life in Chicago. Four months later, he called, and they began a romance that changed all of her plans. Drummond shares the story of their courtship and the first year of their marriage, telling it with the humor that got her through the hard, embarrassing, and heartbreaking moments.

Turning the story into a book, though, seemed to happen organically. “I didn’t really plan it when I started telling it on the blog. I never thought about turning it into a book. It came out because I had writer’s block one day. I posted the first part of it for fun. I was sure no one would be interested in this, but then over 18 months it turned into a serial on the blog, and people kept asking for more,” she says.

“As a book, people can enjoy sitting down and reading it straight through,” Drummond continues. “And it gave me the opportunity to talk about how our honeymoon fell apart and what happened when we got back. People are getting a kick out of it.”

And then, of course, there’s the food. While there were stories in The Pioneer Woman Cooks about Marlboro Man’s reactions to some of her original ideas about cooking, this book goes more in depth. Drummond was very proud of the first meal she cooked for her husband, and she was also very sure that he loved it. “It was awhile before he fessed up about that — after we got married actually,” Drummond says. “Those first couple of meals almost killed him, but my cooking has only improved since then.”

It wasn’t that her food was bad in the beginning; it just wasn’t “cowboy food.” As Drummond says, “I had to re-invent how I cooked. For cowboys, food is about refueling. It’s not about stimulating the palate or experimenting. My favorite part of blogging is still sharing the recipes.”

You’ll find some of those recipes at the end of Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. Make them for your special somebody.

Ree Drummond discusses and signs Black Heels to Tractor Wheels on Friday, February 25th, 6 p.m., at Davis-Kidd Booksellers. Line tickets are required and are available at Davis-Kidd.