Bobby “Blue” Bland highlighted the inaugural induction ceremony of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame Thursday. Chris Herrington reports.
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Month: November 2012
- JUSTIN FOX BURKS
- Bobby “Blue” Bland at the Memphis Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
It didn’t have the star power it might have, with living inductees such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Al Green, B.B. King, and Mavis Staples not among the night’s performers, but Thursday’s inaugural induction ceremony at a roughly half full Cannon Center for the Performing Arts was still a nice, if occasionally wordy and slightly overlong, celebration of the breadth of Memphis music.
And when 82-year-old, Beale Street-bred soul-blues titan Bobby “Blue” Bland took a seat on stage and sang his classics “Goin’ Down Slow” and “Stormy Monday Blues,” this alone was, as they say, worth the price of admission.
Bland’s voice was worn but still graceful, with a range that went from his deep “yeah” to quavery high notes. He was helped to the stage and to a chair. When an early bit of feedback disrupted the beginning of his first song, Bland smiled and said “That’s my fault.” And then he dug into “Goin’ Down Slow,” adding extra gravity to the lines “Somebody please write my mother and tell her the shape I’m in/And tell her to pray for me and forgive me for all my sins.”
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Tigers Pummel UT-Martin, 93-65
The Memphis Tigers found a little swagger Thursday night in beating up UT-Martin. Frank Murtaugh has the story.
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Tigers 93, UT-Martin 65
“We had to get the crowd back tonight,” said Memphis coach Josh Pastner after a form-holding drubbing of the UT-Martin Skyhawks. “That was on us. Dive six rows into the bleachers, whatever needs to be done. Like in the movie Gladiator: win the crowd.”
A relatively light crowd (15,398) witnessed the return to FedExForum of a Tiger team no longer in the nation’s Top 25 and, for this night at least, minus Tarik Black, the junior center suspended for a transgression in practice earlier this week. On the heels of the 28-point win over a weak sister of the Ohio Valley Conference, Pastner made it clear once more how he feels about a bad vibe.
“Life is so short for anyone to be negative,” he said to the media throng in part responsible, he felt, for the bad vibe. “I don’t get it. Positive energy is contagious. Negative energy is like cancer. What I can’t have is that negative energy impacting our players.”
Whether it was positive or negative energy fueling them, the Tigers who did play tonight did so with a vitality they left behind for three games last weekend in the Bahamas. Adonis Thomas scored the game’s first field goal on a jump-hook just inside the free-throw line. Chris Crawford drained four three-pointers — one shy of his career high — before halftime. Thomas slammed home a lob from Joe Jackson with one hand. The Tigers even pulled off a lob-pass-trey buzzer beater before halftime, with Stan Simpson — who started tonight in place of Black — lobbing the ball on an inbounds play to D.J. Stephens, who tapped it to Crawford for the long-distance shot. Memphis entered the break with a 17-point lead, 20 minutes of training to follow — positive energy — on the way to its fourth win of the season.
Freshman Shaq Goodwin filled the void left by Black with his first college double-double (17 points, 12 rebounds). When asked about the feat, Goodwin said, “I didn’t even know I had one. I was just in the right place at the right time.” When asked about filling Black’s shoes, he said, “It wasn’t really on my mind. I just wanted to play my game, get my teammates involved.”
- Larry Kuzniewski
- Joe Jackson
Junior guard Joe Jackson admitted Black’s absence was felt. “We missed him,” he said. “We need him out there, getting boards, blocking shots, scoring.” Jackson shook his head when asked if there was any chance Black would not return. Having experienced his own off-court issues, Jackson acted like this was merely a temporary distraction. “I’ve been through things worse than this in college. This is just a week for us to get back to work. We can’t feed into the negativity. We’ve got the talent; it’s just about consistency.” Jackson scored 13 points against the Skyhawks and dished out eight assists. After a dynamic blocked shot at the defensive end in the first half, Jackson shouted with passion, his face contorted with emotion. The kind of look quite absent during the player’s dry spells (like the first two games on Paradise Island).
Playing in his first game at FedExForum, Geron Johnson scored 13 points in 19 minutes, hitting six of 10 shots from the field.
“I was glad of our energy,” said Pastner. “I’m a realist as much as I am an optimist. I wouldn’t trade our [media] coverage or the intensity of our fan base for anything. I don’t take that for granted. We’ve got a tough game next Wednesday [against Ohio]. We’ve got to continue to get better. We’ll continue the mini-boot camp we started, and go from there.”
And the future for Tarik Black? “We will have a resolution tomorrow,” said Pastner. “I can assure you that. I gave him time to think about it. He’s got to decide. I’d like him to be back.”
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Vision for Sierra Leone
Memphis ophthamologist Cathy Shanzer is working to help the vision-impaired in Sierra Leone. Chris Shaw has the story.
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A Plan for Downtown
Downtown leaders and property owners are being asked to weigh in on a redevelopment plan that would capture $100 million in taxes and spend it on a public housing project and “Heritage Trail” by declaring all of downtown a slum. More from John Branston.
Downtown leaders and property owners are being asked to weigh in on a blockbuster 20-year redevelopment plan that would capture $100 million in taxes and spend it on a public housing project and “Heritage Trail” by declaring all of downtown a slum.
The Flyer obtained a copy of a previously unpublicized memo from the Downtown Memphis Commission that was sent to board members and, by them, to other downtowners this month. It discusses a proposed Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) under the control of the Memphis Housing Authority and the Division of Housing and Community Development, currently headed by Robert Lipscomb. The City administration wants the input of stakeholders before the City moves forward with this plan. The focus is redeveloping Cleaborn and Foote Homes, housing projects in the southeastern part of downtown.
From the memo:
“The CRA is established “to combat slum and blighted areas that constitute a serious and growing menace, injurious to the public health, safety, morals, and welfare of the residents of Shelby County.” To provide CRA with jurisdiction to adopt and implement the Master Plan, the CRA is considering declaring Downtown Memphis to be a slum, blighted, and a growing menace.”
The proposed master plan, a 196-page document dated September 13, 2012, includes the entire downtown core, the Beale Street Entertainment District, the South Main District, the South End, Victorian Village, the Edge Neighborhood, and part of the Memphis Medical Center. It targets some 200 downtown parcels for CRA acquisition by purchase or, if necessary, eminent domain. A master developer would be hired by the CRA.
From the memo:
“To begin funding implementation of the Master Plan, the CRA would establish a Downtown tax-increment-financing (TIF) District that would redirect future property tax revenue growth generated Downtown over the next twenty years from the city and county to the CRA. It is projected that over twenty years the TIF would redirect $102,751,238 of city and county property taxes to the CRA. The bulk of this revenue would be generated in the out years, with the first five years generating less than 1.5% of the projected revenue.
“It is projected that 98.7% of this future, incremental TIF revenue will be generated by private properties primarily in the Downtown core outside the Focus Area of the planned improvements. The Cleaborn and Foote Homes redevelopments are expected to generate 1.3% of the TIF revenue over twenty years. PILOT roll-offs are expected to generate 44.5% of the TIF revenue, and general property value inflation is projected to generate 47.5% of the TIF revenue.”
The Master Plan includes 27 miles of streetscape improvements, 6 miles of new streets, and 17 acres of new parks. The TIF funds along with federal grant money would help support the public housing redevelopment in the southeastern section of Downtown, but the source of funding for improvements throughout the remainder of downtown is not identified, nor is a budget or schedule provided for such improvements.
An earlier plan in the Herenton mayoral era dubbed Triangle Noir focused on a much narrower area around Cleaborn and Foote Homes.
The memo asks several questions, including:
How will needed improvements in the rest of Downtown be paid for?
What happens to ongoing private development initiatives if the CRA officially adopt this new, largely unfunded Master Plan for Downtown?
What are the lost opportunity costs of borrowing against and spending twenty years of property tax growth in Downtown Memphis?
If the next twenty years of property tax growth in Downtown Memphis is pledged to pay for the public housing redevelopment project in the southeast corner of Downtown, then how do other important Downtown plans and projects get funded over the next twenty years?
Where there’s a will there’s a way, and there are more ways than ever when it comes to school choice in public education.
First, there is plenty of will, as evidenced by the smashingly successful suburban referendums earlier this year. The strongest force in the universe is a parent determined to get his or her child into a good public school. The current Shelby County school system is essentially what the Memphis optional schools were a few decades ago: the public school option of choice for middle-class families and some affluent families.
The courtroom setback was a gimme for the Shelby County Commission and federal judge Samuel H. Mays. The ‘burbs were sunk in the opening minutes of the trial in September when commission attorney Leo Bearman played the videotape of that legislative exchange about “Shelby County only.” Attorneys for the defendants promptly objected, but the damage was done. The suburban champions were caught on tape and on Rep. G. A. Hardaway’s clever hook. This was bad law, pure and simple. Mays let the defense team run on for a while about the rural county cover story, but the tape was devastating. Plain words mean what they say. His citation was the dictionary.
The pending segregation claim won’t be so easy. Common sense and mathematics could doom it. There aren’t enough white students in the public schools to integrate all of them. Ninety percent of Memphis public school students attend de-facto segregated schools. That won’t change with unification. Most county schools have diverse student bodies. The exception is Southwind High School, with 12 white students in a student body of 1,653, and its feeder schools. That has the ingredients for an interesting segregation claim, but the federal appeals court has already overruled a Memphis federal court ruling that would have racially balanced the county schools.
The merger of Memphis and Shelby County schools is by all accounts unique in size and scale. It goes against the grain. The trend is smaller, fragmented school systems. I was surprised at just how small some big-city school systems are relative to Memphis. Nashville/Davidson County has 74,680 students. Atlanta has 59,000. Detroit has 51,674. New Orleans had 65,000 pre-Katrina and is a melting pot of charter schools and traditional schools today. St. Louis, taken over by the state five years ago and the subject of a glowing report in The Wall Street Journal this week, has just over 24,000 students.
Nashville, with the blessing of Mayor Karl Dean and Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman, is pushing for charter school expansion to the middle class over the opposition of the local school board. The state-run Achievement School District for failing schools is slated to grow in Memphis. The Republican-dominated state legislature is sympathetic to charters as are private donors such as the Gates Foundation. Vouchers have support. Most important, alternative schools have support from teachers and parents who are the ultimate deciders.
Finally, the dysfunctional unified school board with its core of MCS charter surrender proponents is its own worst enemy. The board, which meets Thursday, is likely to close only a handful of schools instead of the 21 closings recommended by the Transition Planning Commission. (There are 45 Memphis schools and 10 Shelby County schools with under 65 percent utilization, according to the TPC.) This will throw the budget out of whack, condemn the half-empty schools to failure or mediocrity, reduced course offerings, and limited extracurricular activities.
My sympathies and my treasure are with Memphis, but my gut tells me suburbs will get their own autonomous school systems within a few years and that this week’s federal court ruling was a temporary setback. It is as inevitable as conference realignment in college sports.
Is there such a thing as too many art openings? I would never have thought this would be the case, especially for Memphis. Sure, New York City can have 514 art opening on a particular night. There are enough people interested in art, at least feign interest, to have a good turnout for most of the galleries. Besides, they can simply go back and see the other shows during the rest of the month.
This is not the case in Memphis. People really only ever attend the opening and that is it. They usually do not go to a gallery the next day or during the month of the exhibitions run because they missed the opening. Unless it is a friend or lover, have you? I do, but this is because that is what I do, go to art exhibitions.
Friday night is one of those nights in Memphis where just about every gallery, museum, and art space is having an opening. There are more than twenty additional openings in banks, restaurants, bars, clothing stores, and coffee shops tomorrow night. Let’s not forget the South Main Trolley Tour.
And people say Memphis is not an art city.
It would be impossible, in one post, to talk about every art show that needs to be mentioned. You would not be able to see half of the exhibitions tomorrow night, even if you tried really hard. It is more impossible to write reviews for these shows, even for just a couple of them. I think I need to try to perfect the 140 character art review for twitter (@dwaynebutcher if you want to follow and see my attempts in defining a future for art criticism)
With all that is going on, there is one thing I think you should be sure to see.
That is “Flat Mates,” the University of Memphis BFA exhibition at Marshall Arts Friday, November 30, 2012 6-9PM. When you go, be sure to get there at exactly 6PM or wait until 8:30. They, for some reason, always do their student awards during the middle of this exhibition and it takes roughly an hour, during which time no one can walk around and see the art.
And you should see the art.
Anna Roach has a salon-style exhibition of 20 oil and graphite on panel paintings of various sizes. Roach’s subject matter is children, and, despite all of us once being innocent children, our future is undetermined and this innocence will inevitably disappear. There are paintings of a baby Bill Clinton, Ted Kaczynski, and Sarah Palin. While finishing up the pieces for this exhibition, Roach was afraid that the Sarah Palin piece would not be dry in time. So, she took it to the tanning bed and let the UV rays speed up the drying time. A perfect metaphor for Sarah Palin, I believe.
- Ashley Watts — Fry 02
Ashley Watts has a slight obsession with food. Specifically, Chick-fil-A waffle-cut french fries. She prefers the term “slight,” as a complete and unregulated obsession would leave her penniless and overweight. She has created 25 mixed-media pieces that examine the simplistic beauty by trying to capture the “glistening, rolling hills connected by deep, almost crimson valleys” that is found in every waffle-cut fry. Watts will even be serving freshly fried fries at the opening (even more of a reason to get there at 6PM sharp.)
Kelly Baldwin has three large grids of photographs printed on silk that are suspended from the ceiling. Each of the silk pieces contains a series of nine photos shown in a grid that offer private glimpses into the artist’s life. The silk pieces are then hung in a circle to provide an intimate setting in which to view and contemplate the photographs.
As a U.S. Army Combat Illustrator during the Gulf War, Paul Eade was inspired by the landscape of the Middle East. Through abstract painting that is influenced on the colors and shapes of the patterned textiles of the ancient churches, mosques, and temples of this region, Eade is attempting to bridge the gap between Western and near Eastern cultures. This offering works best in Effero Extuli Elatum, a 72” x 96” oil on canvas painting.
Phillip Johnson’s watercolor pieces are about manipulation — how an object can change from one form to another, in this case the object is a chair. He is interested in trying to create as many different forms as possible by experimenting and altering the positive and negative shapes of the chair. In the end the pieces are not about an utilitarian object but the abstract forms that result from process.
Cameron Showalter uses a mannequin as a stand-in for himself. Showalter has a tendency to be uncomfortable around people and in social settings. The mannequin is a way to try to deal with these anxieties. The installation is in the back of Marshall Arts in a seldom-used room, a fortuitous location for these prints and their intention.
This is really a nice exhibition and gives me hope for the future of the Memphis art scene. The only problem is that the exhibition is one night only. The art administration has to find a way to have these exhibitions be on view longer. It is a disservice to the students, who have spent the last four years and an ungodly amount of money pursing a degree to only be given one night for an exhibition.
But, we only ever go to the openings anyway, right?
For many of us of the insular Midtown-is-Memphis ilk, there is no grocery store in Midtown, quickly qualified as no decent grocery store. So when we talk about Kroger, we most certainly mean the Kroger on Mendenhall in East Memphis.
And so it goes that almost all adjectives lead to the Mendenhall Kroger. It is the Good Kroger, though that once referred to the one at Kirby Parkway. It is also the Kosher Kroger, while the Schnucks on Perkins when it was still Schnucks was the Kosher Schnucks.
Yes, of course, people still refer to the Kroger on Union as Schnucks or Seessel’s or the Midtown Kroger. And, I absolutely refuse to acknowledge the Kroger at Poplar and Cleveland as the Ghetto Kroger. Come on now, really?
But what do we call the onetime Kosher Schnucks Kroger on Perkins? Anybody? Anybody? How about the Kroger just down a bit near the Home Depot? The one at Poplar Plaza? There are some 50 Krogers (!) in the area. They may not be Good or Kosher, but they could be Average, Awesome, or Appalling.
Who knows? Once the expansion of the Kroger on Union is done, maybe it will be the Decent Kroger.