The Grizzlies return to the court at 8:30 tonight at FedExForum in a spot they were able to avoid last spring: Down 0-1 and fighting, early on, to keep hope alive.
Can they recover from a historic collapse and a game that functioned like one the greatest cases of unintentional rope-a-dope ever seen? The mood at practice the past two days has seemed relaxed but determined. If anything, I’d worry about a hangover for the too-quiet, nail-biting fourth-quarter crowd than from the players themselves.
I had a chance to re-watch Game 1 last night for the first time, and it looked a little different than in the blur of the moment.
With that in mind, here are 10 takes on the state of the series heading into Game 2:
1. Offsetting Improbabilities and the Sensible Center: The fourth quarter of Game 1 was like a rock slide: In the four minutes that the Clippers cut a 24-point Grizzlies lead down to 12, it was like a few small chunks of stone were falling down the hill. Something to take note of but not be too concerned about. When that lead held for the next two-and-a-half-minutes — a 12-point lead with less than three minutes on the clock? — the quiet felt like everything had stabilized. And then Nick Young hit three three-pointers in the span of exactly 60 seconds and the whole mountain came tumbling down.
To lose a 24-point lead in eight minutes and then a 12-point lead in under three takes everything going wrong. We won’t see anything quite like that again. But some of what built that lead was pretty improbable too: Chris Paul and Blake Griffin combining for more personal fouls (4) than points (3) in the first quarter. Grizzlies perimeter players connecting on 10 of their first 12 three-point attempts.
It felt like the Grizzlies dominated the game until those last eight minutes, but they only really dominated the first quarter. The Grizzlies’ 34-16 explosion in the first was balanced by the Clippers’ 35-13 explosion in the fourth. Those quiet, comparatively forgettable middle quarters — in which the Grizzlies outscored the Clippers 51-48 — are probably more indicative of what to expect going forward.
This is national signing week, in a way that has nothing to do with the vertical jump, bench press, or 40-yard dash. This is the week when high school seniors send in their enrollment deposits for college. At $400 or so a pop, it’s a pretty big bet that is forfeited when academic stars decide on, say, Vanderbilt instead of Rhodes, Ole Miss, or SMU after getting accepted by all of them.
For some reason, it is acceptable to talk about desirable “top schools” and less desirable “lower-ranked schools” when the subject is colleges, but we get squeamish when the subject is public elementary and high schools. The politically correct thing to say is that all schools in Memphis and Shelby County should strive for excellence, or something like that.
We’re not going to get to a unified school system that way. And a system that does not include the suburbs is not a unified system. We might not get there no way no how, but since we’ve gone to so much trouble already, we ought to give it our best shot.
It is not pandering or groveling to the suburbs to make practical compromises on attendance zones and personnel. It is not a desire for segregation or apartheid that is driving the ‘burbs. Legal segregation and apartheid were enforced by courts, cops, and White Citizen’s Councils. Bartlett High School is 46 percent minority, Germantown High School is 56 percent minority, Houston High School is 32 percent minority, and Collierville High School is 20 percent minority. There are only 33,000 white students in the current Memphis and Shelby County systems combined. It is not pre-Civil Rights Act 1964 or pre-busing 1972.
Louis Padgett, principal at Northaven Elementary and member of the transition team, made a good suggestion a few months ago. Members should “really go at each other really hard” and “take on our biases.”
What is driving the push for municipal school systems more than race is the desire to protect the status of the top public schools and the property values of the neighborhoods around them. That is what motivated me to choose the top Memphis optional schools when I had school-age children in Memphis. I want those schools to survive. I want people who can afford to send their children to the top public and private schools to choose to live in Memphis.
I want the empty and foreclosed houses on my street to have people in them who pay their taxes, keep up their property, and compliment my wife on her garden. Darn right I want suburbanites in the same boat. Because I’m afraid that with four or five small boats and one big boat, the big boat will sink. If you’re not rich and you have school-age children, why buy 2,500 square feet of Memphis property taxes if you won’t send them to public school?
Here’s the problem for the Transition Planning Commission. It can only make recommendations. And if the suburbs form their own school systems, their report will be moot. So it should compromise to try to save the union.
Here’s the problem for the unified school board. It has a responsibility to the future but also to the present. It’s the board of education, not the board of civic betterment. The main obligation of the Memphis members on it is to the people who come, not the ones who don’t come.
The task force recommends closing 21 unnamed schools. That’s a lot relative to the three closed this year and the four closed in 2005 but not so many relative to the 90 underutilized schools in all. The school board must not only name them but also pull the trigger before the 2013 school year to save $20 million a year. Easy to say, huh?
And here’s the problem for U.S. district judge Samuel H. Mays, if I can be so presumptuous. In his 146-page ruling last year, Mays had a whole section on “ripeness.” A case is ripe for a judge in “a dispute that is likely to come to pass.” Ripeness would not happen until “an attempt was made to create a municipal school district or special school district. Nothing in the record suggests that such an attempt has been made or will be made in the future.”
On Thursday, May 24th at 7:00 p.m., high school students and supporters from throughout the Mid-South will gather at The Orpheum for the High School Musical Awards where more than 200 teenage actors will perform on stage. Lead Actor and Actress winners will then travel to New York City in June to compete in the Jimmy Awards held at the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway.
Tony Award nominated actress and country artist, Laura Bell Bundy, from Legally Blonde and Wicked will return to The Orpheum Theatre as host for the evening.
The Nominees for the 2012 High School Musical Theatre Awards
Outstanding Chorus
Briarcrest Christian High School-Anything Goes
Evangelical Christian School-Beauty and the Beast
Hutchison School-Return to the Forbidden Planet
Lausanne Collegiate School-Once on this Island
Ridgeway High School-Once on this Island
St. Agnes Academy-Godspell
Outstanding Small Ensemble
The Little Old Ladies in The Producers-Memphis University School
The Cool Girls in Back to the 80s-Corinth High School
The Silly Girls in Beauty and the Beast-Evangelical Christian School
The Gods in Once on this Island-Lausanne Collegiate School
The Gods in Once on this Island-Ridgeway High School
The Crows in The Wizard of Oz-St. Mary’s Episcopal School
Rehearsing “Thoroughly Modern Millie” in Collierville
Outstanding Student Orchestra
Collierville High School-Thoroughly Modern Millie
Harding Academy-She Loves Me
Houston High School-Once Upon a Mattress
Overton High School-Grease
Southern Baptist Educational Center-Oklahoma!
Outstanding Music Direction
Arlington High School-Hairspray
Briarcrest Christian High School-Anything Goes
Collierville High School-Thoroughly Modern Millie
Hutchison School-Return to the Forbidden Planet
Memphis University School-The Producers
St. Agnes Academy-Godspell
Outstanding Dance Execution
Arlington High School-Hairspray
Collierville High School-Thoroughly Modern Millie
Hutchison School- Return to the Forbidden Planet
Lausanne Collegiate School-Once on this Island
Overton High School-Grease
St. Benedict at Auburndale- Anything Goes
Outstanding Featured Dancer
Morgan White in Hairspray-Arlington High School
Cheyenne Green in Chicago-Cordova High School
Russell Lehman in Grease-Horn Lake High School
Zach Favorite in Anything Goes-St. Benedict at Auburndale
Rachel Vernon in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat-Tipton-Rosemark Academy
Jenny Casilag in Dream Girls-Millington Central High
Outstanding Hair and Makeup Design
Arlington High School-Hairspray
Briarcrest Christian High School-Anything Goes
Collierville High School-Thoroughly Modern Millie
Evangelical Christian School-Beauty and the Beast
Hutchison School-Return to the Forbidden Planet
Southern Baptist Educational Center-Oklahoma!
The Drowsy Chaperone at Bolton High School
Outstanding Costume Design Tier I
Briarcrest Christian High School-Anything Goes
Collierville High School-Thoroughly Modern Millie
Evangelical Christian School-Beauty and the Beast
Ridgeway High School-Once on this Island
St. Mary’s Episcopal School-The Wizard of Oz
Arlington High School-Hairspray
Outstanding Costume Design Tier II
Bolton High School-The Drowsy Chaperone
Horn Lake High School-Grease
Lausanne Collegiate School-Once on this Island
Millington Central High School -Dreamgirls
Southern Baptist Educational Center-Oklahoma!
Tipton-Rosemark Academy-Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Outstanding Scenic Design Tier I
Collierville High School-Thoroughly Modern Millie
Evangelical Christian School-Beauty and the Beast
Hutchison School-Return to the Forbidden Planet
Memphis University School-The Producers
Briarcrest Christian High School-Anything Goes
St. Mary’s Episcopal School-The Wizard of Oz
Outstanding Scenic Design Tier II
Hernando High School-The Robber Bridegroom
Lausanne Collegiate School-Once on this Island
Southern Baptist Educational Center-Oklahoma!
St. Agnes Academy-Godspell
Wynne High School-Seussical the Musical
Tipton-Rosemark Academy-Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Outstanding Lighting Design
Arlington High School-Hairspray
Millington Central High School-Dreamgirls
Cordova High School-Chicago
Hutchison School-Return to the Forbidden Planet
Southern Baptist Educational Center-Oklahoma!
St. Mary’s Episcopal School-The Wizard of Oz
Outstanding Artistic Element
Graphic Design in The Producers- Memphis University School
The Wolves in Beauty and the Beast-Evangelical Christian School
The Parasol Car in Once on this Island-Lausanne Collegiate School
The Greased Lightning Car in Grease- Horn Lake High School
The Fish Puppets in Seussical the Musical- Wynne High School
Outstanding Production Materials
Briarcrest Christian High School-Anything Goes
Horn Lake High School-Grease
Hutchison School-Return to the Forbidden Planet
Southern Baptist Educational Center-Oklahoma!
St. Agnes Academy-Godspell
Memphis University School-The Producers
Outstanding Front of House
Arlington High School-Hairspray
Horn Lake High School-Grease
Hutchison School-Return to the Forbidden Planet
Overton High School-Grease
Tipton-Rosemark Academy-Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Technical Achievement Award
Collierville High School-Thoroughly Modern Millie
Evangelical Christian School-Beauty and the Beast
Hutchison School-Return to the Forbidden Planet
Bolton High School-The Drowsy Chaperone
St. Benedict at Auburndale-Anything Goes
Arlington High School-Hairspray
Student Technical Achievement Award
Alex Kesner-Briarcrest Christian High School
Reina Ishii-Lausanne Collegiate School
Carson House-Memphis University School
Kisshanee Phillips-Ridgeway High School
Hayden Morrissett-St. Benedict at Auburndale
Elizabeth Kruczek-St. Agnes Academy
Abrianna Miller- Millington Central High School
Outstanding Featured Actress
Ashley Allen as Motormouth Maybelle in Hairspray-Arlington High School
Tiffany Brantley as Kitty in The Drowsy Chaperone-Bolton High School
Bailey Hyneman as Erma in Anything Goes-Briarcrest Christian High School
Josi Ingram as Babette in Beauty and the Beast-Evangelical Christian School
Olivia Wingate as Gloria in Return to the Forbidden Planet-Hutchison School
Issa Basco as Andrea in Once on this Island-Lausanne Collegiate School
Return to the Forbidden Planet at Hutchison
Outstanding Featured Actor
Michael Vance as Ching Ho in Thoroughly Modern Millie – Collierville High School
Houston Meihofer as Fred Casley in Chicago-Cordova
Austin McCann as Lefou in Beauty and the Beast – Evangelical Christian School
Baker Ball as Mr. Marks in The Producers-Memphis University School
Kylan Owens as Rump in Grease-Overton High School
Payton Powers as Elisha Whitney in Anything Goes- St. Benedict at Auburndale
Outstanding Musical Production Number
“Steepin to the Badside” from Dreamgirls- Millington Central High School
“I Want to be a Producer” from The Producers-Memphis University School
“All That Jazz” from Chicago-Cordova High School “Anything Goes” from Anything Goes-Briarcrest Christian High School
“I Know Where I’ve Been” from Hairspray-Arlington High School
“Forget About the Boy” from Thoroughly Modern Millie-Collierville High School
Outstanding Supporting Actress
Samantha Simonetti as Mama Euralie in Once on this Island-Lausanne Collegiate School
Shekinah Graham as Sour Kangaroo in Seussical the Musical-Marion High School
Mariatu Okonofua as Mama Euralie in Once on this Island-Ridgeway High School
Logan Martin as Ado Annie in Oklahoma!-Southern Baptist Educational Center
Skylar Joyner in Godspell-St. Agnes Academy
Alanna Murphy as Erma in Anything Goes-St. Benedict at Auburndale
Outstanding Supporting Actor
Kristoff Hart as Seaweed in Hairspray -Arlington High School
Noah Gustafson as Adolpho in The Drowsy Chaperone-Bolton High School
Matthew Keaton as Jester in Once Upon a Mattress-Houston High School
Britt Colcolough as Roger De Bris in The Producers-Memphis University School
Gabriel Bailey as Papa Ge in Once on this Island-Ridgeway High School
Kyle Van Frank as Moonface Martin in Anything Goes- St. Benedict at Auburndale
Curtis Wegener as Lord Evelyn Oakley in Anything Goes-Briarcrest Christian High School
Outstanding Direction by a Teacher
Keith Salter-Collierville High School
Lorraine Cotten-Evangelical Christian School
Anne Marie Caskey-Hutchison School
Ann Lane Neal-St. Agnes Academy
Ashley Bugg Brown-Lausanne Collegiate School
Jenny Madden-St. Mary’s Episcopal School
Outstanding Actress in a Lead Role
Lauren Mohler as Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes-Briarcrest Christian High School
Jamie Boller as Millie in Thoroughly Modern Millie-Collierville High School
Bethany Beckam as Belle in Beauty and the Beast-Evangelical Christian School
Jules Jordan as Ulla in The Producers-Memphis University School
Saaba Sharma as Ti Moune in Once on this Island Lausanne Collegiate School
Haley Harris as Ti Moune in Once on this Island Ridgeway High School
People’s Choice Award
Voting Begins May 11
Outstanding Actor in a Lead Role
Wilson Howard as Jimmy in Thoroughly Modern Millie-Collierville High School
Sam Shankman as Leo Bloom in The Producers-Memphis University School
Chase Waldrip as Curly in Oklahoma!-Southern Baptist Educational Center
Jari Head as Jesus in Godspell-St. Agnes Academy
Luke Conner as Cat in the Hat in Suessical the Musical-Wynne High School
William Monteith as Man in Chair in The Drowsy Chaperone-Bolton High School
Outstanding Overall Production
Thoroughly Modern Millie -Collierville High School Beauty and the Beast-Evangelical Christian School
The Producers-Memphis University School
Once on this Island -Lausanne Collegiate School
Once on this Island -Ridgeway High School
Godspell- St. Agnes Academy
The Orpheum’s High School Musical Theatre Awards are Thursday, May 24th, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $15-$35 and go on sale to the public May 8th.
On Sunday, Imagine Vegan Cafe celebrated its one-year anniversary with a buffet spread and a SRO crowd, but it was only last Thursday that I made it to the Cooper-Young restaurant myself.
Thursday’s visit was prompted by Imagine’s participation in Dining Out for Life — they generously donated 50% of the day’s proceeds to the Friends for Life event.
Governor Haslam, flanked by Lt. Gov./Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey (left() and House Speaker Beth Harwell afrer close of 107th General Assembly
NASHVILLE — Bartlett Mayor Keith McDonald and his fellow suburban chief executives can apparently rest easy about the prospect of Governor Bill Haslam’s interposing himself against HB1105/SB1923, the bill just passed by both chambers of the legislature authorizing referenda this year on creating municipal school districts.
In a valedictory meeting with the Capitol Hill press corps following the General Assembly’s adjournment late Tuesday afternoon, Haslam, who had frequently expressed the hope that the Transition Planning Commission could finish its labors on school merger before any legislation was passed, was asked his attitude toward the bill, which was relentlessly pushed by state Senate majority leader Mark Norris of Collierville.
The governor was asked if it was “a given” that he would sign the bill. Haslam responded: “I don’t think anything is a given. Our policy has been that we’ll look at everything when it goes to our desk. So I don’t think anything is a given. We have been having those discussions. As you know, I’ve made my thoughts clear. I really did want to see the [Transition Planning]Commission get their plan out and implement it. So we’ll have to see how all of this impacts that.”
After the formal press conference, Haslam was asked about the matter another way. Was there a chance, given his preference that the TPC to allowed to come to a finish fist, that he would consider vetoing the measure? After praising the TPC again (Haslam: “Their work has been extraordinary”), he said, “We’ll look at it, but, just to be honest, I doubt that we’ll veto it.”
More than 30 homeless and formerly homeless people held a press conference at the corner of Washington and Third downtown this afternoon to voice opposition to a new law that makes it a crime to sleep on state property. Louis Goggans has the story.
More than 30 homeless and formerly homeless people held a press conference at the corner of Washington and Third downtown this afternoon to voice opposition to a new law that makes it a crime to sleep on state property.
The law, which passed earlier this year, makes it a Class A misdemeanor to use tents, tarps, and other temporary shelters for sleeping, making fires, or using portable cooking equipment on Tennessee-owned property. This includes, but is not limited to, state parks, recreation areas, historic buildings, educational institutions, and natural green spaces. The law carries a penalty of up to 11 months and 29 days in jail and/or a $2,500 fine.
At the press conference, members of Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality (H.O.P.E.), a new organization composed fully of people that have or are currently experiencing homelessness, stood in front of the Shelby County Correctional Center at 201 Poplar as they expressed their dissatisfaction with the law.
The group discussed the details of a meeting they had earlier today with Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich, urging her to refuse to prosecute homeless people for violating the new law.
“This office is tasked with enforcing the laws that the General Assembly enacts. We do not pick and choose which laws we enforce,” Weirich said in a statement. “We do, however, have the discretion to review cases and decide the proper resolution based on the facts, circumstances, and the reasonable probability of conviction. This new law will not change how we prosecute cases in Shelby County. Nor will it change the way we work with outside agencies to do what we can to prevent issues that lead to crime.”
Marquella Scott, one of the H.O.P.E. members in attendance, said although the bill was formulated to deal with Occupy Nashville and their unwillingness to leave Legislative Plaza, it will affect everyone experiencing homelessness in the state.
“The 11/29 [jail penalty] to a homeless person equals a death sentence, because that’s time that they don’t have to get a job,” Scott said. “That’s time that they don’t have to get back in school. That’s time that they don’t have to take care of medical issues.”
Besides the bill, the group also discussed their support of Veterans Court. More than 30 percent of the city’s homeless are veterans.
The program, lead by General Sessions Criminal Court Judge Bill Anderson and others, provides veterans who have been arrested for crimes with the chance to receive help from the Veterans Administration Medical Center. If the veteran follows through on a treatment plan, criminal charges might be dismissed or penalties reduced.
The group also announced that they have a homeless liaison to work as a go-between with the Memphis Police Department and H.O.P.E. members regarding harassment and increasing homeless sensitivity training for officers.
Marian Bacon with the Memphis Center for Independent Living is also a member H.O.P.E. and was in attendance at the press conference. She says she’s concerned about the consequences of police fining or jailing homeless people under the new law.
“If you don’t have $6 to [pay for a night at] the shelter, how are you going to come up with $2,500?” Bacon said. “That means a homeless person will be criminalized and stuck in jail until they can come up with the money. With a Class A misdemeanor, if you get too many of them, that can be a felony. That’s a worse offense then getting a domestic assault charge.”
H.O.P.E. meets at Manna House at 1268 N. Jefferson on Thursdays at 7 p.m.
