If you’re not too damn scared to leave the house after watching their video, you can go see the Night Beats at the Hi-Tone. That video’s nuts. Just goes to show be careful who you put in a scary torture mask, because OBVIOUSLY they’re gonna come crawling up out of the ground to seek revenge. Bear that in mind.
Month: November 2013
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Grizzlies Beat Lakers, 89-86
Kevin Lipe reports on the Grizzlies gritty win over the Lakers in L.A., Friday.
Categories
All is Lost
Robert Redford plays a stranded mariner in the grueling survival drama, All is Lost. Addison Engelking’s review.
It was a Grizzly final score and a Grizzly stat line for Zach Randolph—28 points and 11 rebounds, 11-18 shooting and a perfect 6-6 from the line—but the Grizzlies’ Friday night win over the Lakers in Los Angeles was not a pretty one.
- Larry Kuzniewski
- Zach Randolph was in rare form Friday night as he carried the Griz past the Lakers.
Randolph got on a roll early and kept it going all night, taking over the game in the fourth quarter with the Lakers in the lead and threatening to extend it. The Grizzlies have struggled mightily to be able to absorb the other team’s run and stay within striking distance this year, but tonight in L.A. it didn’t seem to be as much of an issue. Randolph was huge tonight, no two ways about it, and his stepping up had to have been a calming influence on the rest of the Grizzlies team.
The issues tonight, though, were on full display. The defense is still terrible. Tony Allen, maybe the best perimeter defender in the league last year, has been great on offense but not as great on defense, as communication issues on switches often leave the opposing shooting guard uncovered. Lakers guards Jodie Meeks, Nick Young, and Steve Blake all got plenty of wide open looks at the basket tonight by camping out on the weak side and waiting for Tony Allen or Mike Conley to help off of them.
Allen sometimes struggles with spot-up shooters because he wanders off of them toward the ball handler, as was especially evident during last year’s Western Conference Finals when Allen would help off Danny Green time after time. Those struggles seem to have carried over to this year. But I’m not willing to claim that Allen is solely responsible for these lapses. At several times tonight, either Conley or Allen would switch off of his man, expecting the other to switch at the same time, but it wouldn’t happen, leaving Meeks, Young, or Blake wide open. It happened too much.
Compounding the issue on the perimeter are the Grizzlies’ continued struggles guarding the paint. Marc Gasol continues to stumble around on defense like The Dude, blissfully unaware of what’s happening around him. This is bad for guarding the other team’s big men, but it’s also bad for perimeter defense. I lost count of how many times a Laker guard—usually Blake—was able to drive all the way to the restricted area and kick it out to a wide-open Meeks or Young.
In the end, Zach Randolph, like a whirlwind of mean-mugs and flying elbows, was too much for the Lakers to handle, and he returned to “Vintage Z-Bo” mode, getting the ball on almost every trip down the floor, taking it straight to Jordan Hill and Pau Gasol, scoring seemingly at will, and that was enough to put the Grizzlies back on top and keep them there while the Lakers attempted to mount a comeback.
The rest of this road trip, the next game of which is Sunday evening in Sacramento, is going to be informative: is this who the Grizzlies are this year, having to depend on a vintage Z-Bo takeover, a commodity that is probably harder to come by than Griz fans would like to admit, to score enough points to make up for the abysmal defensive play and the horrible (7.7%) shooting from beyond the arc to get past a bad team on the road, or was tonight just a “circle the wagons” and get back to business win that will start the Grizzlies on the path back up to a .500 record and help them form an identity?
We’ll know soon. Out on the West Coast, the team is away from the Memphis echo chamber that’s sprung up in the last couple of weeks—where everybody blames a different Griz player for the problem, while some blame Dave Joerger and some blame Jason Levien and Robert Pera for the problems on the court—and they’ve got a perfect opportunity to come together as a team and start to build a foundation for the season going forward. Will they take advantage of the opportunity, or are they really the team that showed up tonight? It remains to be seen.
Mary Crimma is angry.
“I’m not angry,” Crimma insists. But the culinary genius behind the popular food truck That’s Nacho Cheese, is lying through her meth-ruined teeth. She’s really pissed off, as are several of the more reputable automobile-based restaurateurs that are supposed to fill spaces at a new parking garage built into the meticulously restored facade of the Nineteenth Century Club on Union Av.
“What I am is disappointed,” Crimma continued because nobody was brave enough to tell her the interview was over. “There was an understanding between the city and numerous small business owners that this new garage would be for food trucks and food truck customers only, and so a lot of us were shocked and dismayed to see plans that include what appears to be a brick-and-mortar McDonald’s built right into the ground level of the garage.
“On one hand, I recognize the value of having an anchor business like McDonalds,” Crimma shouts unreasonably. “It just seems like this was inserted behind our backs and at the eleventh hour so there would be no time for anybody to negotiate.”
“I’ve got no problem with McDonald’s entering the food truck market if that’s what they really want to do,” says award winning chef Sayden Dunn of the upscale TruckDucken Diner. “But if they want to be a part of this food truck parking garage they need to at least respect the integrity of the potentially mobile business model it was created to accommodate.
“Frankly, if they want to slap some golden arches on an old school bus with no wheels, I’m fine with that,” Dunn says. “It would feel like they were at least meeting us somewhere near the middle.”
The McDonald’s flap is just the latest hitch in a plan that had been devised as an alternative to an earlier proposal to use a large crane and magnet to stack a similar number of food trucks vertically in the parking lot of Urban Outfitters on Central.
“This would have been the largest food truck tower east of the Mississippi River and an overnight tourist destination,” says Midtown resident and large magnet-crane operator Benny Hanna, a vocal opponent of the food truck parking garage.
“The food truck tower is an idiotic idea,” says regular food truck patron Kai Yiyo who says he will definitely use the parking garage even if it houses a stationary fast food restaurant. “Times are changing and people need to get with the program because the younger generation doesn’t like its food trucks parked on top of each other. They want them either in a garage, or crammed together on a big slab of asphalt, or randomly scattered all up and down Summer Ave.”
Additional reporting by The Wiseguys
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Chris Davis Sez …
Flyer theater critic Chris Davis takes on the latest from Theatre Memphis and the U. of M. theater department.
Yesterday, on my way into the Cash Saver on Madison, I paused a moment to admire the newly renovated exterior.
Then I saw it. More specifically, I saw “A.”
One of the few pleasures I have is saying the full name of Cash Saver Cost Plus Food Outlet. I mentioned it way back when on the day of the store’s debut.
But now the new sign clearly reads Cash Saver A Cost Plus Food Outlet. What the what?
Rick James is owner of the Castle Retail Group which runs 5 area Cash Savers. According to James, the name of the store is not Cash Saver Cost Plus Food Outlet and never has been. It’s Cash Saver. The “A” on the new exterior sign is a matter of terminology and has been added to the sign to make clear that the “Cost Plus Food Outlet” is a descriptor and not part of the name.
I’ve been living a lie this whole time! Cash Saver Cost Plus Food Outlet Cash Saver Cost Plus Food Outlet Cash Saver Cost Plus Food Outlet Cash Saver Cost Plus Food Outlet. Whew! I’m done now. I’m ready to move on.
Categories
In Praise of Booze
I’ve never seen the ghost of Elvis on Union Avenue, but I’m pretty sure this is a spirit photo of Joni Mitchell who turned 70 last week.
- Kimberly Baker
Happy birthday Joni. And well played, Kimbrough!
The original members of Three 6 Mafia, excluding Juicy J, have reincarnated themselves as “Da Mafia 6ix” and released one of the best mixtapes I’ve heard this year thus far: 6ix Commandments.
The mixtape begins with the bass-filled, DJ Paul-produced “Go Hard,” which features Shady Records signee Yelawolf. It’s a perfect way to start the project off. Over the hard-hitting track, the group delivers solid verses in a style that’s reminiscent to the way they did in the 90s.
But that appears to only be the beginning of a well put-together installment.
The track is followed by the dope boy-satisfying “Beacon N Blender” and the trunk rattling “Been Had Hard,” which is one of my favorite cuts on the mixtape.
The group also revisits their classic track “Break Da Law” on 6ix Commandments. The initial track was released nearly two decades ago, and since then there’s been several versions created but this is hands down one of the best I’ve heard. The transitions in the beat, samples, and turntable scratches are a perfect match for the group’s dark, horrorcore-esque verses.
Another highlight on the mixtape is “Murder On My Mind.” The track features underground Florida sensation SpaceGhostPurrp, Hypnotize Minds affiliate JGrxxn, and legendary, tongue-twisters Krayzie Bone and Bizzy Bone. Similar to other tracks on the mixtape, it incorporates samples of sounds that were used on Triple 6 records during their heyday. But there’s a refreshing feel to it that brings it up to speed, perfect for 2013.
The group reconnects with past Hypnotize Minds comrade Lil’ Wyte on the mixtape as well with the tracks “Betta Pray” and “Remember.” And Memphis rap legends 8 ball and M.J.G. make appearances on “Yean High.” Around the 3:40 mark of the song, it breaks down and transitions into a totally different beat that is doper than the original track it started with. It gives off that vintage, 90s feel that Hypnotize Minds is so popular for.
The project culminates with “Body Parts,” a multi-featured, nine-minute long track similar to the HCP posse cuts that fans could look forward to on every album released by Hypnotize Minds. Juicy J, who’s been pursuing his solo career through Wiz Khalifa’s Taylor Gang imprint lately, unexpectedly starts the track off with a savage verse in a style that’s relatively-similar to his Juice Man days. Past HCP members Kingpin Skinny Pimp and La Chat also appear on “Body Parts,” along with Project Pat, Lil Wyte, Houston underground legend Point Blank, JGrxxn, and Kokane and Locodunit—who are both artists on DJ Paul’s Scale-A-Ton label.
All in all, 6ix Commandments, to me, is more than a solid effort from the group that had everybody screaming “Tear Da Club Up!” and sippin’ on sizzurp back in the day. It’s a reminder of who is responsible for that crunk, dark, and 808-ridden sound that’s been embraced by so many up-and-coming rap artists and producers these days. Gangsta Boo, Koopsta Knicca, Lord Infamous, Crunchy Black, and DJ Paul all contribute some of the best verses I’ve heard from them in recent years. And the mixtape’s production, primarily provided by DJ Paul, is pretty much flawless in comparison to the bulk of mixtapes that have entered my eardrums lately.
The only thing that doesn’t sit well with me is the promotion of satanism on the project. As a youngster, I was more impressionable and idolized the group, so the countless references of “666” and other satanic remarks were overlooked easily. Now an adult and more in-tune with my mind and spirit, it’s hard for me to act oblivious to things like that. But what do you expect from members once a part of a Platinum-selling group known as Three 6 Mafia?
Aside from disliking some of the content on 6ix Commandments, I think the mixtape is jammin’. And although your opinion may differ from mine, I think one thing that all listeners can agree to is that this is a solid release from the bulk of one of rap music’s most prolific, trendsetting, and prosperous groups. The mixtape is unquestionably worth checking out and serves as an awesome reestablishment for Three 6 Mafia Da Mafia 6ix.
Check out the video for Da Mafia 6ix’s “Go Hard” below.
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Java Cabana proprietress Mary Burns was in that special zone Thursday morning, halfway between exhaustion and elation, when she pulled out a broom to sweep sawdust from her establishment’s newly-installed floor.
“It’s heart of pine,” she says surveying her progress on a tough DIY project undertaken with the help of good friends. The trees were over 100-years-old when they were cut and the panels are an inch-and-a-half thick. And if you look around you can see stamps from the last time the bowling lanes were resurfaced.”
Yep. The new wood floors for the tiny Cooper Young coffee house with the vintage Memphis vibe were salvaged from the shuttered Imperial Lanes bowling alley on Summer Ave.
“I got the idea when I was out there for the Memphis Flyer ‘Best of Memphis’ party,” she says.
Burns thinks the new wood floors will improve the room’s acoustics and says she can’t wait to hear how it sounds.