About a week ago coworker Michael sent out the following email:
Some of you skeptics always doubted the existence of “Baloney Boats” even though I insisted this mouth-watering blend of fried baloney, mashed ‘taters, and eerily yellow cheese was a staple of the finest public high-school cafeterias.
Well, here’s the proof. An actual photo showing now just one, but TWO of these delicacies.
Please make sure these are served at my funeral.
LAST WEEK: 9-1
SEASON: 32-7
THURSDAY
Houston at UTEP
FRIDAY
SMU at TCU
SATURDAY
North Carolina at East Carolina
Marshall at Louisville
Memphis at Middle Tennessee
Rice at Southern Miss
Tulane at Army
North Texas at Tulsa
UAB at Troy
Toward the end of Monday’s meeting of the Shelby County Commission, the venerable Walter Bailey read aloud the text of a letter he had dispatched to his fellow commissioners. Bailey referred obliquely to conduct by an unnamed colleague which had “ignominiously” earned public attention and demonstrated “questionable judgment” that “reflected adversely on the rest of us as public servants.” He concluded, “[W]hen such action reflects on us negatively, it becomes our responsibility to at least express disapproval, otherwise it could be mistaken as the norm.”
Give Commissioner Terry Roland, the outspoken Republican from Millington, his props. “Ditto,” he responded, which under the circumstances was king-sized chutzpah, inasmuch as everyone in the auditorium presumably knew that Bailey was referring to Roland himself, who most recently had been fingered by Democratic colleague Steve Mulroy after an incident in the commission library.
On that occasion Roland had either challenged Mulroy, a frequent commission adversary, to a fistfight or made a joke about the two of them putting on a celebrity boxing match, or something in between. (The two commissioners disagree on just what happened.) On top of a mounting history of what even Roland might concede have been over-the-top outbursts on his part, Bailey came to feel that a rebuke of some sort, however cloaked in anonymity, was called for.
Coincidentally, the commissioner’s reading of his prepared statement had closely followed another incident with untoward proportions. This came in the form of a statement from the audience by one Richard Fields — the same Richard Fields who, a few seasons back, loudly protested his innocence of a charge of blackmail levied against him by the then Memphis mayor, Willie Herenton. Fields claimed then to have been smeared by unconscionable hearsay. As if unaware of the irony involved, he then launched a wide-ranging assault on several individuals, including county attorney Kelly Rayne, by way of commenting on a current scandal in Chancery Court involving an employee’s apparent theft of public funds.
In rapid sequence, Fields made an unelaborated accusation that Rayne, who has issued at least an arguably comprehensive report on the Chancery situation, was “incompetent,” made unsourced allegations of oral sex performed by employees on Chancery officials, told Commissioner James Harvey, who was commenting on the Chancery situation, that he had no right to speak, and was finally gaveled into silence by commission chairman Sidney Chism, who must have wondered if a full moon had somehow risen in broad daylight.
Under the circumstances, a succeeding statement of some importance by Commissioner Mike Ritz — that he intended to file ethics complaints against various Chancery Court personnel, including clerk Dewun Settle — came off as mild and almost anti-climactic by comparison.
It isn’t just on the premises of the Shelby County Commission that circus-like behavior has come into vogue. Public venues everywhere are increasingly subjected to various forms of freak-show theater. Under the circumstances, Commissioner Bailey’s complaint is well taken, and the liberal use of the gavel by presiding officials may be the last recourse available this side of first responders.
Documentary filmmaker Errol Morris has spent the past 15 years dealing with some pretty heavy subjects: torture at Abu Ghraib (Standard Operating Procedure), America’s role in Vietnam (The Fog of War), and capital punishment (Mr. Death). Given that recent track record, Morris’ deliriously entertaining new film, Tabloid, is a throwback to the lighter, loopier subject matter of the filmmaker’s earliest work: classics such as 1978’s Gates of Heaven (about a pet cemetery) and 1981’s Vernon, Florida (about eccentric residents in the titular town).
Tabloid is so crazy that synopsis is elusive, but the subject is Joyce McKinney, a now-middle-aged woman who has found herself at the center of two very different tabloid stories. McKinney’s first bit of notoriety came as a twentysomething in the late ’70s, when her Mormon boyfriend, Kirk, left for a mission overseas or, in McKinney’s mind, was “abducted by a cult.”
The former beauty pageant contestant — “a slim, sweet, Southern blonde” — sets out to “liberate” the man she loves, recruiting accomplices with a newspaper ad (“help a lovely fox fulfill a unique sexual romantic fantasy”) and flying to London, where she ends up abducting/rescuing her man from the Mormon mission — perhaps at gunpoint — and squiring him away for a lost weekend of bondage, (forced?) sex, and chocolate cake.
The subsequent legal mess became known in the British tabloids as the case of “the beauty queen” and “the manacled Mormon sex slave.” “There was something in that story for everyone,” a writer who covered the case notes.
But if you think that’s more than enough story for a 90-minute documentary, well, there are many more twists to come, from “32-Year-Old Sex-in-Chains Story” to “Cloned Puppies.”
Needless to say, this is a very subjective account. The “manacled Mormon” himself declined to be interviewed and the additional interview subjects — a couple of tabloid journalists, a short-lived accomplice, a former Mormon missionary turned activist — are minimal. This is McKinney’s show and Morris seems less interested in the truth of her testimony than the telling.
Has anyone ever won Best Actress for a documentary? At turns tearful, joking, biting, flirting, incredulous — McKinney should be a contender. “Everyone was just mesmerized by her performance,” one witness says of court testimony that included the assertion, “I would have skied down Mt. Everest nude with a carnation up my nose for the love of that man.”
But Tabloid is great not just for the incredible story. If the oddball subject matter is a throwback to Morris’ earliest work, the detached, ironic air of mystery is reminiscent of his 1988 masterpiece The Thin Blue Line, while the interviews, as in Morris’ other recent work, make use of the filmmaker’s “Interrotron” camera, into which subjects can look directly while looking at the interviewer (Morris himself, sometimes heard off-screen asking questions).
Morris spices up the story with a kaleidoscope of other visual content: newspaper clippings, file footage, risqué photographs, home videos, cartoons, car commercials, film noir scenes, clips of bathing beauties, etc. Best is his use of words. As an interviewer, Morris lingers over odd, colorful phrases — “inseminate,” “spread-eagling,” “barking mad.” As a director, he splays words across the screen, sometimes as ironic counterpoint: When McKinney testifies, “I wasn’t looking for just any guy. I wanted a special guy,” the screaming tabloid headline “SEX HOSTESS” flashes on screen. Repeatedly, key words are doubled on-screen — superimposed over the interview subject — for emphasis: “GUILT,” “CHAINED!,” “KIDNAPPED,” “DOO-DOO DIPPER,” “IMPOTENCE,” “MINIBAR.”
Morris is one of the few true geniuses in contemporary American movies and this ostensibly minor work underscores his brilliance. Where Morris’ The Thin Blue Line built a hypnotic, unnerving rhythm in its steady pursuit of truth and his Fast, Cheap and Out of Control was a symphony of visual and sound editing, Tabloid turns the standard documentary device of the talking-head interview into music via the deployment of jump cuts, a subtly playful score, the array of visual information, and McKinney’s own bebop-solo-worthy verbal performance.
Tabloid
Opens Friday, September 30th
Ridgeway Four
Little by little, a degree of suspense has crept into the generally ho-hum Memphis municipal election, and minimal early-voting turnout figures — far from cinching the expected series of victories by incumbents — have made a few of the city council races look unexpectedly close.
Of at least one outcome, though — that of the mayor’s race — there can be little doubt. Incumbent A C Wharton will win, and win big. Not only did the financially well-backed mayor swamp his opposition in the only objective poll so far — conducted early this month by Yacoubian Research — but he has sufficient all-purpose appeal to have put out his own sample ballot of preferred candidates in other races.
The mayor has even bagged a union endorsement, from the Building & Construction Trades Council, in a year in which he gave the high sign for a 4.6 percent decrease in public employees’ pay.
From an electoral point of view, the chief consequence of that budgetary decision has been to give former city council member Edmund Ford Sr., who has espoused the cause of the employees’ unions and was endorsed by the Memphis Labor Council, a clear entrée into a low-double-digits second place (which he might have secured anyhow, thanks to the enduring clout of the Ford family name).
James Harvey, who has his impressive moments on the Shelby County Commission, has failed altogether to generate momentum, notwithstanding his potentially saleable skepticism regarding Wharton’s come-hither policy of industrial recruitment. Harvey will battle it out with Robert “Prince Mongo” Hodges for third place. Nobody else is in the game.
City council races could be more suspenseful:
A close race could develop in District 1, where first-termer Bill Morrison is challenged by deputy sheriff Kendrick Sneed, who touts his erstwhile employment in the office of former 9th District congressman Harold Ford Sr. Morrison is white; Sneed is African-American in a district that is almost equally balanced racially but could tilt black. Sneed has endorsements from the Memphis Labor Council and the Tennessee Equality Project but has raised less money than the incumbent, who has name recognition and key endorsements from the mayor and from The Commercial Appeal as well as from the socially conservative Family Action of Tennessee.
District 2, also somewhat balanced racially but with a slight white majority, is another case where a favored incumbent, Bill Boyd, has a single challenger, former Metro Charter Commission member and IT contractor Sylvia Cox. And, as with District 1, the social lobbies have locked horns — with Family Action of Tennessee for Boyd and the TEP for Cox. Cox, who owns a prior victory over Boyd in the 2006 race for the charter commission, is also involved in the animal rights reform movement, one of the causes of the day.
Former council chairman Harold Collins, an employee of the district attorney general’s office, is unopposed in District 3.
District 4 sees incumbent Wanda Halbert opposed by three contenders: Louis Matthew Morganfield III, Michelle Smith, and George Walker, none of whom would seem to have the name recognition or wherewithal to overcome the entrenched Halbert, a sometimes controversial member of the council and one with a penchant for taking on hot-button issues. Despite (or because of) the latter, she has Wharton’s ballot endorsement. Smith has an outside shot at a runoff.
Lawyer Jim Strickland, a likely future mayoral hopeful, is unopposed in District 5.
Ed Ford Jr., who ran for his father’s seat when the senior Ford stepped down four years ago, has won credit with his colleagues and played a major role in resolving 2011 city budget issues. As with Halbert, that should be enough to hold off challenges from three opponents: Rhoda Mays Stigall, former charter commission member and Memphis City Schools board member Sharon Webb, and Clara Ford, the latter not a member of the well-known political clan but capable of snagging some votes because of name confusion. Ed Ford Jr. is probably in good shape but has to run at least somewhat scared. A runoff situation is possible, if not probable.
In District 7, the only open seat, there’s something of a free-for-all: Lee Harris, a young professor of law at the University of Memphis, has campaign cadres, phone banks, and — perhaps most importantly — fund-raisers. He is supported by establishment figures and, from the beginning of the campaign season, has been considered in some quarters the favorite in this race. Harris rates highest on the Coalition for a Better Memphis scale (but just barely over some others) and has the TEP recommendation, as well as the mayor’s and the CA‘s. The question is, does he have grass-roots support?
Kemba Ford, an erstwhile actress and the daughter of the currently imprisoned former state senator John Ford, has two advantages: She is a Ford, number one, and, while the famous power clan is no longer the leviathan it once was, the family name and the loyalties it inspires clearly still count for something in the precincts of the inner city. Omnipresent at recent political events, Ford’s other advantage is that she is crisp, highly presentable, and grounded in such populist issues as insisting on local workers for local construction projects.
Michael Steven Moore is a political offspring, as well, the son of the now retired longtime incumbent in this seat, Barbara Swearengen Ware. Moore, a self-described “musician, minister, marketing specialist, [and] community activist,” was heavily involved in his mother’s political campaigns and could well inherit a substantial amount of her North Memphis base. So far, though, he may not have flexed his base enough. A late mailer from Mama could help.
Most likely, the runoff duo will come from those three, with Harris and Ford the best bets. Activist Scott Banbury is well known for his hard work in a dozen causes in his North Memphis neighborhood and in the city at large. Like Banbury, Raymond Bursi, a past president of the Frayser Community Development Corporation, is well respected.
Others are Evelyn Fields, Erskine Caldwell, Jesse Jeff, Julia Ray, Artie Smith, Coby Smith (a onetime leading member of the 1960s activist group the Invaders), Darrell Wright, David Vinciarelli, and Leandra Rene Taylor.
Two of the three Super District 8 races have contests. In so many words or less (as he would say), Joe Brown, the sometimes edgy incumbent in Position 1, is favored over two challengers, Mark Coleman and Timothy Warren. There has been a fair amount of talk that Janis Fullilove, the ever-embattled incumbent in Position 2, is threatened by Rosalyn R. Nichols, a respected minister who has an energetic campaign and big-time endorsements from Wharton, civil rights icon Maxine Smith, and the CA. The presence of two other opponents, Mario Dennis and Isaac Wright, could influence the results, probably in favor of Fullilove, who, with endorsements from the Memphis Labor Council and the TEP, may still have an edge.
Council chairman Myron Lowery is unopposed in Position 3.
District 9 also boasts two contested races. In Position 1, there is something of a grudge match. Incumbent Kemp Conrad, the former Republican chairman who was best known in the budget wrangles of 2011 for proposing a governmental downsizing that included privatization of the city’s sanitation department, is opposed by Paul Shaffer, the business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local, a figure well-liked in union and Democratic Party ranks. If an aggrieved labor community can mount a significant challenge, it will be here, but Conrad, who got the CA nod and is running some TV ads, remains the favorite. Interestingly, Wharton is giving this race a pass.
The District 9, Position 2 race pits two candidates who rated high with the Coalition for a Better Memphis — incumbent Shea Flinn and challenger James A. Sdoia. Sdoia, a retired businessman and the force behind the Urban Debate League, matched up reasonably well with Flinn during a recent League of Women Voters forum, but Flinn is one of the real political comers in these parts, a media star, a phrasemaker, and a tireless student of the issues with the ability to cut deals that prove acceptable across factional lines.
The other District 9 seat in Position 3 belongs to incumbent Reid Hedgepeth, who is unopposed.
The heavily favored and somewhat innovative long-term city court clerk Thomas Long is opposed for reelection by Betty Boyette, a spunky former employee of that office, and Antonio Harris, another veteran of the office who hopes the voters give him a promotion. Meanwhile, city court judges Earnestine Hunt Dorse, Tarik Sugarmon, and Jayne Chandler are unopposed.
Nutbush resident Adam Guerrero wins a victory in environmental court.
“Cancer comedy” is the kind of high concept that’s hard to pull off, but that’s just what director Jonathan Levine and screenwriter Will Reiser do with 50/50. On one level, 50/50 looks like a typical “bromance” comedy, pairing old buddies turned odd-couple co-workers Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Kyle (Seth Rogen), who both work at the Seattle branch of National Public Radio, where sensitive Adam pursues complicated environmental stories while slovenly Kyle does audio listicles about the city’s best burgers.
But this is a buddy comedy in the style of Rogen mentor Judd Apatow, where broad laughs are connected to recognizably human characters and actual emotions. This makes it possible for 50/50 to nail a difficult tonal balance when Adam is diagnosed with a serious form of spinal cancer, the film’s title denoting Adam’s chances for survival. Kyle points out that those would be amazing odds on a casino game.
Gallows humor like this works in 50/50 because the film also takes the physical and emotional trajectory of Adam’s illness and treatment seriously enough that rueful humor is just one of many reasonable responses to the situation.
Gordon-Levitt finds every beat in a demanding role and Rogen’s familiar blend of comic timing and latent humanity fits a sidekick who hides his concern beneath guy-talk bluster. The film is generous and understanding toward these characters and others dealing imperfectly with a difficult situation, including Adam’s worried, smothering, well-meaning mother, Diane (Angelica Huston), and his inexperienced, inconsistent, well-meaning grief counselor, Katherine (Up in the Air‘s Anna Kendrick), who morphs into a love interest with fewer character and plot acrobatics than you expect.
The one time 50/50 falters is with Adam’s girlfriend, Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard, giving better than she gets), who has only recently moved in with him when the news hits. She decides to stay with Adam and help, but quickly finds herself not up to it. That she falters is in line with the imperfect responses of other characters, but 50/50 doesn’t extend her the same generosity. In turning this character into an easy villain, 50/50 betrays its own best impulses.
50/50
Opens Friday, September 30th
Multiple locations
If it’s September, it must be time for the Flyer‘s annual Best of Memphis extravaganza. It’s our biggest issue of the year, the edition that brings smiles to the faces of our bean counters and joy to our account reps, thanks to the zillions of ads packed into its pages. For our staff, it means lots of extra hours editing, building ads, counting ballots, and putting together a massive party.
The Best of Memphis has become an institution, a chance to celebrate what’s good about our city. We’ve come a long way from the early days, when interns spent countless hours counting ballots by hand and tabulating the results on yellow legal pads. Now, voting is electronic and the turnout rivals some city council elections.
There are the always predictable results in some categories. If Joe Birch didn’t win Best News Anchor or Huey’s didn’t get Best Burger, we would be beyond surprised. Their election victories are as preordained as Vladimir Putin’s. But there are also surprises every year. Zach Randolph won Best Local Athlete. Las Delicias won Best Mexican Restaurant. YoLo has taken the Best Frozen Yogurt category by storm.
And consider the three winners for Best Memphian: Mayor A C Wharton, FedEx CEO Fred Smith, and Tigers basketball coach Josh Pastner, representing politics, business, and sports, respectively.
The Best of Memphis results are a bit like a barometer for the community, a measure of who we are and what we like about ourselves. Too often, we get mired in political and racial squabbles and forget that we are bonded by geography and culture.
My stepson is in the marching band at White Station High. A couple weeks ago, my wife and I attended the football game between White Station and CBHS. It was a great game, decided by one point. But more interesting to me was the parade of kids from both schools walking around the field and grandstands throughout the game. They were in bands of three, four, six — all colors and ethnicities and socioeconomic groups, yakking it up, checking each other out, having fun.
They are Memphis’ future, and they’re moving past the old divisions that have held us back. We’d do well as a community to do the same. The real best of Memphis is yet to come, if only we let it.
Bruce VanWyngarden
The Whistleblower
This first feature from Canadian director Larysa Kondracki is an earnest, effective bit of muckraking drama, based on the true story of an American woman who was wrongfully terminated from a U.N. peacekeeping job when she exposed criminal activity by her colleagues.
Rachel Weisz, in a very strong lead performance, plays Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska cop struggling with a lost custody battle and a failure to secure a transfer that would move her closer to her daughter. Adrift, Kathryn takes on a $100,000 appointment to serve as a government-contracted peacekeeper in post-war Bosnia. On the job, she stands out from her colleagues by pursuing cases other deem not worth the effort, successfully coaching a local officer into arresting an abusive husband.
This work draws the attention of Madeleine Rees (Vanessa Redgrave), head of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Sarajevo, who gets Kathryn an appointment as head of the “gender affairs office.” There, Kathryn uncovers a sex-trafficking operation that implicates peacekeepers not only as customers by as par-ticipants in the trafficking itself.
Showing the exploitation of sex trafficking without being exploitative is tricky territory, and The Whistleblower wobbles a bit on that tightrope. But it provokes righteous anger without shortchanging the strong procedural plotting or overinflating its heroine. The Whistleblower returns for a full theatrical run after debuting locally earlier this year at the On Location: Memphis film festival.
Opens Friday, September 30th, at Ridgeway
