The [title of show] cast—nominated for best musical— starts the evening off with a big bang, delivering this wonderfully charismatic performance in spite of a failing sound system.
You can check out all the rest below the fold…
Month: August 2011
Before Friday’s annual Orpheum screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, Mid-South Pride will host “Antici…pation,” a pre-film party in the Orpheum’s Broadway Room.
The party features food from Momma’s Old Style Catering and door prizes, like Rocky Horror gift bags, Mid-South Pride t-shirts, Dixon Gallery & Gardens family packets, and tickets to La Cage Aux Folles at the Orpheum in March 2012.
Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 at the door. Door prizes will be announced at 7:15 p.m. As with every year’s screening of Rocky Horror, costumes are STRONGLY encouraged.
Overton Park users want a safe, litter-free park managed by a nonprofit conservancy, according to results from the Speak Up for Overton Park survey. Bianca Phillips has the story.
So, I didn’t do too badly this year. Out of 22 announced Ostrander categories, I picked 11 winners. That’s half exactly, for the arithmetically challenged. Alas, two well known contestants (and past Ostrander winners) picked 12 winners. Dave Landis, of Playhouse on the Square, and Tony Isbell, who also won last year’s contest (The Beerstranders? Anybody?). Since there were only two winners (And no rule barring consecutive winners) instead of having a drawing I flipped a coin with Landis as heads, Isbell as tales. This year’s winner…
Dave Landis!
Scenes from the 2011 Ossies will be available soon. They would be online already but I switched to DSL. Big, big mistake.
The results are in: Overton Park users want a safe, litter-free park with better parking and an updated playground. Users also overwhelmingly support the creation of a nonprofit conservancy to manage the Midtown park.
In late June, a group of park preservationists, ecologists, business leaders, and others launched the Speak Up for Overton Park campaign to gauge interest in forming a conservancy and to determine priorities for the park’s future. The results were released today.
“We saw this as a way to say, let’s take a few steps back and get an idea of what the community wants,” said Josh Horton, a volunteer with the Speak Up campaign.
In the fall, the group will present a conservancy proposal to the Memphis City Council, and if created, Horton said the conservancy could use the needs survey results as a “punch list” for which issues to tackle. Besides safety and cleanliness, user also indicated interest in protection for the Old Growth Forest and greensward, more community activities, restrooms, a fenced dog park, foods carts, and bike and pedestrian trails.
For a full report, go to the Speak Up campaign website, or for a quick glance, click on this PDF link for an infographic. OvertonParkSurvey-Infographic.pdf
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Ted Nugent at the New Daisy
Right-wing guitar god Ted Nugent plays the New Daisy Wednesday.
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Tiger Talk: Jamon Hughes
In this week’s print edition, five former Tiger football stars weigh in on the past, present, and future of the program. Here’s one more.
JAMON HUGHES
Linebacker (20009-10) As a senior last fall, Hughes made 147 tackles, the fourth most in Tiger history. He was named first-team all-conference. Hughes played for coach Tommy West as a junior, then Larry Porter as a senior. The Tigers went 3-21 over his two seasons.
What drew you to the U of M as a recruit?
It was the coaches, and some of the players. They actually recruited me out of high school [Hughes spent two years at junior college]. They were real good people. I fell in love with Memphis. It was the people.
- U of M Athletics
- Jamon Hughes
What are your fondest memories of the program?
It was the time I had with my teammates. When I look back, I miss my teammates. Just being at practice, on campus, hanging out with the players.
Is it critical that the Tigers become a member of a BCS conference?
That would attract a lot of top recruits. Guys want to come to a place where they can win the big ballgame.
Do you like the idea of an on-campus stadium?
Oh, yes. That would make a difference. The stadium would fill up if it was on-campus. There are a lot of kids who live on campus who don’t have vehicles. It’s hard for them to move around in the city. It’s easy just to leave your dorm room and walk [to an on-campus stadium]. The Liberty Bowl is so far from campus. There are people who want to go to the game, but just can’t because of transportation reasons.
Is a 60,000-seat stadium too big?
I don’t feel it’s too big. More people from Memphis need to come out and support the football team, like they have the basketball team. It’s kind of unbalanced, the support factor.
You’re the athletic director and you have an unlimited budget. What’s the first thing you do to help the football program?
I would change the meal plan, and make sure all the facilities for the football team are top-notch. I’d improve the medical facilities. I’d make sure the football team has everything they need to become better athletes. You know, I can’t complain about anything at Memphis. My teammates and I came to love Memphis. They gave me everything I need to become a success.
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U of M’s Hall of Fame Opens
U of Memphis President Shirley Raines, Anfernee Hardaway, and R.C. Johnson opened the school’s hall of fame Tuesday night.
If a straw poll taken of local Republican cadres by East Shelby Republican Club president Arnold Weiner is to be taken seriously, it indicates an unexpected level of strength for Texas governor Rick Perry¸ who finished way ahead of the rest of the field of active or potential GOP presidential candidates.
The poll was of attendees at last week’s annual East Shelby club “Master Meal, and the results broke down this way — Perry, 61; former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, 12; Minnesota congresswoman Michelle Bachmann and Georgia entrepreneur Herman Cain, 6 each; Ron Paul, 5, and other candidates, including former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, trailing with scattered votes.
“I was surprised at Perry’s strength, and I was surprised by how few votes (2) Sarah Palin got,” said Weiner, who described the club’s poll as “maybe the first straw vote taken in the South.” (Weiner would later say the results indicated the depth of conservatism among local Republicans.)
Reinforcing the accuracy of the local straw-vote results to some degree is the fact that the Texas governor, a late entry in the presidential sweepstakes, has been topping the charts in various national surveys of Republicans, as well.
One of the featured speakers at the annual dinner, held last week at the Great Hall in Germantown, was state Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris of Collierville, who expressed satisfaction that the Norris-Todd bill, moved in the General Assembly by himself and state Rep. Curry Todd, also of Collierville, was essentially upheld by federal Judge Mays as the lynchpin of the ongoing process of merging Memphis City Schools with Shelby County Schools.
Said Norris: “It’s too bad that it took a federal court to explain the role of state government in education, isn’t it? Should that have been necessary? How many people at the time took swipes at the legislature for getting involved with education in Shelby County? They didn’t know the role that state government plays in providing public education in this state”
Other speakers at the Master Meal event, which is a kind of summer counterpart to the Shelby GOP’s annual Lincoln Day celebration, were Justin Joy, Shelby County Republican chairman; and Chris Devaney of Nashville, chairman of the state Republican Party.
Joy noted that the only two countywide elective offices not currently held by Republicans — General Sessions Court clerk and Assessor, now held by the beleaguered Otis Jackson and Cheyenne Johnson, respectively— were on the 2012 ballot, and challenged his audience of party adepts to help capture them. A third office, that of District Attorney General, is currently held by Amy Weirich, who will seek reelection as a Republican.
In his remarks, Devaney put forth three goals for 2012: to reelect U.S. Senator Bob Corker; to elect enough Republicans to the General Assembly to make it “walkout-proof” (a reference to the situation this year in Wisconsin, where a Democratic boycott was aimed at denying a legislative quorum); and “to send Barack Obama back home — to Chicago or Hawaii or wherever he’s from.”
Recipients of special recognition from the club were veteran club member Bob Pitman, now suffering from the after-effects of a stroke (his award was received by wife Toni and son Alan); and John Willingham, the venerable sage and frequent candidate who, in his role as barbecue maven, had catered the event.
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Hall of Fame Ribbon-Cutting
With his name (and nickname) on the building facade above him, Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway took a very small pair of scissors (blue handles) and, along with University of Memphis president Shirley Raines, cut a ribbon (also blue) to mark the official opening of the U of M’s spanking new Hall of Fame.
Built in less than two years (thanks largely to a $1 million donation from Hardaway), the Hall of Fame will now greet Tiger fans on their way to the adjacent ticket office with trophies, jerseys, and memorabilia across the years — and across sports — from the school’s almost-100-year history. A wall in the back of the facility honors every member of the M Club Hall of Fame with plaques devoted to each year’s honorees.
A few shots from tonight’s grand opening:
Dr. Shirley Raines, Anfernee Hardaway, and athletic director R.C. Johnson make the opening official.
A newspaper headline and the game-worn jersey of Chris Powers from some football game the Tigers won on November 9, 1996.
Game-worn jerseys from a pair of football All-Americas: DeAngelo Williams and Bob Rush.
Game-worn jersey from the greatest Tiger of them all, Larry Finch.