Categories
News The Fly-By

Local Jeopardy Auditions Attract Hopefuls from Miles Away

The Westin Hotel downtown is hardly intimidating on its own, but when you’re gathered in a conference room full of 20 smart people — at least smart enough to pass the online Jeopardy test — nerves may start to go.

These hopefuls were randomly chosen to audition for Jeopardy in Memphis after passing an online test. Then they had a long wait before the live audition. After they go through the audition process, 18 months will pass before they’ll find out if they’ve made the cut to be on the television show.

They aren’t all from Memphis. In fact, most of the people in the group I’m placed in are from Alabama, South Carolina, and Louisiana. There was only one Memphian in my group, but there were many other locals who tried out over the two days of casting.

I tried out for the sake of a news story with no real hope of making it onto the show.

The first task was to complete a written test with 50 questions, similar to the test contestant candidates took online, according to the show’s producers. The questions were difficult and specific in true Jeopardy fashion.

Alexandra Pusateri

Locals audition for Jeopardy at the Westin hotel.

There were so many arts-based questions that a fine arts course in college suddenly sounded appealing to me. Contestants aren’t told whether they passed or failed the test, and no scores were given out.

This is because, as the producers pointed out, the first thing qualified contestants would ask each other as soon as they met would be, “What did you get on the test?”

After the written test, we competed in a mock game of Jeopardy, complete with buzzers and a projection screen set up in the familiar format. Just like in the show, three people take turns asking for a category. The clue was read, and we battled to be the first to buzz in.

A clue was read from the “Who Made It” category — answer: “Internet Explorer.” I know this one.

“Micro — I mean, who is Microsoft?” I answer, remembering to phrase the answer in the form of a question. Even though we were prepped on that beforehand, it’s much harder to remember in the moment. What you think you may know deep down actually becomes a struggle to get out.

Janice Ingram, the lone Memphian in my group, is originally from the city but currently lives in Lakeland. She’s a retired graphic designer, but now she sits on the board of directors for the Tennessee Genealogical Society.

“I try out every time they come,” Ingram said. “This is not my first time. I love the show. I’ve been watching it since I was in college, since the days of [original host] Art Fleming. I know a little about a lot of different things. I have a sister who lives in Wisconsin, and we play every day over the phone.”

Many others who auditioned alongside Ingram were also on their second, third, or fifth tries. Some traveled for miles just to have a shot on the show, but Ingram isn’t looking for that glory anymore.

“I don’t actually want to get on the show anymore,” Ingram said. “I used to really want it, but now I just do it for the fun of it. I’d be too scared to be on it, I think.”

If she did get on the show, Ingram mused, she would use the money to travel.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Foreign Affairs Should Move to the Front Burner in Congressional Races

Former University of Memphis law professor Larry Pivnick, whose underdog candidacy for Congress in the 8th District is discussed in this issue, turned up at a meeting of the Germantown Democratic Club last week with copies of

a broadside he intended to pass out in support of his campaign. On a single sheet of paper were crowded 12 bullet points, dealing with foreign policy issues relating to Israel/Hamas, eastern Ukraine, and other potential flashpoints on most of the continents of the known world.

Another subject, that of the amount of attention, which the media owe a candidate like himself, a certifiable longshot, came to occupy Pivnick, however — to the point that, when his time came to say a few words, he ditched his intended subject and discoursed instead on the problems that political neophytes like himself have in transcending anonymity.

“Discoursed” is something of a euphemism; the (usually) mild-mannered ex-academic, who normally lectures in what might be considered a professorial style, was hot under the collar and, as a result, was making his points sharply, concisely, and directly — in a mode, in other words, that might work for him out on the hustings.

As for the discarded 12-point position paper, it is highly doubtful that there were — or are — any votes in it, however Pivnick might choose to deliver it. It has been a long time since foreign policy played a major role in determining the outcome of American political contests, and the further down the power chain you go — to the level of congressional candidates, say — the more minute is the impact of such matters on the electorate. That’s the bottom line — especially so, one might conjecture, in the mainly rural and agriculture-oriented 8th District, despite the inclusion of a hunk of eastern Shelby County in the redistricting that followed the census of 2010.

Even more to the point, freshly elected congressmen have almost no say on which committees they’re assigned to (Foreign Affairs is a plum for the well-tenured) and not much post-assignment influence in them for years to come. The more’s the pity. The fact is that rarely have so many global issues posed such direct import on the future of domestic circumstances in the United States — perhaps not since the end of the Cold War.

Or should we say the original Cold War. There may be further surprises to come from the hand of Vladimir Putin, but there is no great mystery as to what he is up to — a wholesale revision of the adverse circumstances imposed on Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union under the terms of what former President George H.W. Bush used to call “the New World Order.”

That “order” is now under enormous strain and may not last. Clearly, the Middle East is undergoing unprecedented jihadist ferment virtually everywhere, and the decades-long standoff between Israelis and Palestinians is igniting disastrously, once again. There are multitudes of other such issues, and there would be worse things indeed than having a few more foreign policy mavens on hand in Washington, where they might find that their concerns have jumped all the way to the front burner.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Women’s Workers Collective Aims to Empower Immigrant Women

At about 10 a.m. on a recent Saturday morning at the Cooper-Young Community Farmer’s Market, the line for homemade tamales and fruit-flavored aqua fresca at the Mujeres Trabajando Juntas booth was by far the longest line for any vendor.

In an attempt to give immigrant women workers a larger role in the local economy, the Workers Interfaith Network (WIN) recently launched the Mujeres Trabajando Juntas (or the Women Worker Collective).

After noticing that fewer women were coming to the meetings at the WIN Workers’ Center, Fabiola Cervantes, a workers’ rights organizer for WIN, said the organization began planning the new program designed specifically for low-income, immigrant women workers.

“We decided we needed to make a program specifically for women as the attendance numbers kept declining,” Cervantes said. “We created the Women Worker Collective to give women a place to go where they can talk to female leaders in the community about injustice at their jobs and get valuable advice.”

WIN teamed up with First Congo Church to secure a booth at the farmer’s market, and on July 19th, the women showed up at the market for the first time to sell their tamales, salsas, agua fresca, chocoflan, and other Mexican food.

WIN offers loans to women who join the Women Worker Collective. After being a member for three months, women are eligible for a $250 loan, and after six months, they may receive a $500 loan. The collective provides economic advice, tips on marketing and communication, and advice on launching a new business.  

Cervantes said the Cooper-Young market was a good place to begin getting the word out about the new program.

Chris Shaw

Women Worker Collective member at the CY market

“A place like the farmers market values the hard work that these women put in to making food and also shows the women that they have the ability to create something valued by the community,” Cervantes said. “The farmers market allows these women to benefit from something they actually like doing, which is exactly what we want to happen.

“The women pay for the ingredients themselves, make whatever they want, and then set their own prices. Last week, we had a woman make more than $300 selling tamales.”

WIN also helps Memphis workers fight against wage theft and fight for the right to organize, for workers’ safety, and the right to a living wage. WIN helped organize recent walk-outs of many Memphis fast-food restaurants earlier this year, and the group has also helped countless employees fight for a living wage.

The organization is one of the only sources immigrant workers can turn to for help and education in Memphis. WIN Executive Director Sheena Foster said, in the future, she hopes that the Women Worker Collective will grow into something bigger than a booth at the farmers market.

“We want to expand, and we have big visions for this collective,” Foster said. “We want the Women Worker Collective to grow its own wings and become its own nonprofit to support immigrant women who aren’t a part of the traditional work force.” 

Categories
News The Fly-By

Local Campaign Urges Millennials to Vote

The last time 24-year-old Havier Green voted was in 2008. President Barack Obama was an Illinois senator running for president, and Green was an 18-year-old college freshman who viewed voting as a “powerful and historical act.”

But Green said he didn’t notice any significant change locally or statewide after Obama’s election, so his perspective on voting changed. He’s refrained from casting another ballot ever since.

“After a few years removed from [Obama’s] inauguration, the illusion that voting brought about great change dissolved,” Green said. “Especially in a red state and a city rampant with corruption and stratification, I just feel like there’s more room for change outside of politics than within, so I focus my energy on those.”

Green is part of the generation of “millennials,” born between the 1980s and the early 2000s. Research has shown that millennials are the least likely to vote in elections.

Steven Cukrov | Dreamstime.com

According to 2012 U.S. Census Bureau data, voter participation of people between the ages of 18 and 29 has consistently decreased since 2008. Also, a survey conducted by the Harvard University Institute of Politics revealed that fewer than one-in-four Americans between those ages plan to vote in November’s presidential election.

Locally, a group of millennials has banded together to galvanize their peers to register to vote and participate in upcoming elections. Led by Allworld Project Management and The Redwing Group, the WhyVote Initiative seeks to increase millennial voter participation and awareness to impact the future of Memphis and Shelby County.

“Millennials aren’t voting because they’re unaware of the issues and the impact [it can have on them],” said Brent Hooks of Allworld Project Management. “You can talk to a bunch of young people right now and ask them what they want to do and they say, ‘Well, I want to own a business.’ And then you ask them, ‘Do you vote?’ and they say no. They don’t understand the correlation between them voting for an elected official who may raise property taxes or raise sales tax, which may affect their business.”

Millennials supporting the WhyVote movement gathered in front of the Civic Center Plaza downtown earlier this week and marched to the Shelby County Election Commission to encourage peers to register and submit ballots.

According to WhyVote data, millennials make up nearly a quarter of Shelby County’s population at more than 196,000 people, but only around 460 had cast votes during the early voting period of the current county election as of last week.

Patrick Hendricks, 30, is one of the millennials who believes in the importance of voting.

“I vote because I want my voice to be heard,” Hendricks said. “Because of the history with African Americans in this country being denied the right to vote, I’m especially motivated to vote. More than that, I have no right to complain unless I exercise my right to vote. Folks in our generation are surprisingly apathetic. Some young people have this false assumption that their day-to-day lives are not affected by the people in office.”

Categories
Flyer Flashback News

Looking Back at a Time When We Cared About Your Dreams

When you approach a bridge, just make a sign against the evil eye. It’s that simple.

Readers of the Flyer got such awesome advice from a syndicated column called “The Dream Zone” that ran in the back of the paper in the early 2000s.

The Dream Zone was the work of two leading dream experts, Lauri Quinn Loewenberg and Dr. Katia Romanoff.

While the Dream Team (I apologize) split up in 2012, they fielded some wild stuff from the minds of sleeping people. All you had to do was write a letter about your confusing dreams, and these two would tell you what it really meant.

For instance, Shelly from Prophetstown, Illinois, had a scary recurring dream about her dad driving over the top of a bridge and almost wrecking his car into the river.

That one is pretty obvious: “The fear of crossing bridges is an ancient one. Our ancestors feared there were trolls and other nasties under bridges. This was really just a fear of the unknown. Just cross your fingers before you move onto the bridge. Crossing your fingers is also a practice used by our ancestors to ward negativity and nasties in general. It was called ‘making the sign against the evil eye,’ and may indeed have a calming effect on the often-fearful subconscious. Try it some time for your bridge fright and rest assured you are using an ancient tried and true technique of your foremothers and forefathers.”

There you go. Problem solved.

Today, Loewenberg, a “certified dream analyst,” appears on all sorts of television programs and holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. She was formerly a student of Dr. Katia Romanoff, who leads the Esoteric Theological Seminary from which you can get ordained in a boatload of priesthoods — the Chaldean Patriarchate of Babylon at Baghdad, for example — and sign up for the New Order of the Knights Templar or third Millenium Angelic Alliance, which works “hand in hand with the angelic-warriors and divine messengers.”

These days, your weird dreams are your own damn problem. But back in the days before the internet could interpret your dreams with some fancy computer program, newspapers were full of syndicated columns of every variety. Columnists and cartoonists were pooled into services that papers could license from the syndicate.

According to a recent article in Editor & Publisher magazine, in the 1930s, there were 130 syndicates offering features and columns to more than 13,000 newspapers throughout the country. That number has dropped precipitously since then with the 2011 merger of United Media and Universal Uclick resulting in a single large syndicate offering some 100 features.

Everyone remembers News of the Weird, which we stopped running about two years ago. As if Memphis wasn’t weird enough. You don’t need to import weird to Memphis. Right next to the Dream Zone is Advice Goddess, whose face will be familiar to readers of a certain age.

Public-radio car gurus Click and Clack had a syndicated column, which I assume was 90 percent just them laughing.

But let’s return to the Dream Zone.

Carol, 43, from Ohio, wrote in June 2004 to complain about her dream in which she was house-hunting and almost got it on with the devil. To her chagrin, she woke up before things got properly sinful. Loewenberg told Carol that if she were really on the right track in her life, there would have been consummation. So, by logical extension, you’ll never know you’re on the right track in life until … oh dear.

Categories
Music Music Features

Chaperone at Amurica

Jason “Witnesse” Sims is showing his roots:

“[I started] collecting disco, jazz, dub, soul. Then getting into early hip-hop and stuff like that. Just getting really crazy about certain things for a while and then moving onto other things. But I’m kind of back to a full circle now. Ten or 15 years later, I’m back into deep house music.”

That return to origins is the driving force behind Chaperone, a DJ collective composed of Sims, Brandon “Wealth” Thornburg, and Don “Wantoo” Seymour. The three have been working together for decades and have followed dance music through its “rave” phase in the 1990s through the recent ascension of electronic dance music, the computer-created, festival-oriented phenomenon known as EDM.

EDM has evolved despite prejudices against the repetitive nature of the sounds. Hint: it’s just like your computer (on, off, on, off, 1, 0, 1, 0). It’s the most fundamental pulse of electricity and the basis of all digital technology. So it’s anything but superficial. But some of the stereotypes have endured. Chaperone is perhaps designed to counter those assumptions about dance music.

“We had a conversation about how we had to agree not to play Chicago house music, as much as we love it,” Thornburg says. “It’s so associated with this music people don’t like. We’re going toward a more psychedelic compositional edge.”

There’s just too much great electronic music.

“The Chaperone thing is a group of guys who wanted to expand on really quality stuff through the ages that might have been overlooked because different things were hyped at the time. You look back on some of this stuff now and you realize this was brilliant techno that someone was writing 10 or 20 years before anybody even cared about it, knew what it was, or it even had a name,” Sims says.

“There are entire club scenes in Europe that had labels people have never heard of except for these weird compilations,” Thornburg says. “There were gay bars in Italy that had their own labels and produced their own music to play in the club.”

“If you had to find a centerpoint, I think you could say Giorgio Moroder,” Sims says. “We’re really into this energy of 1980 trying to describe 2020. It was all sci-fi, but now we live in that era. It’s a fun-motivated electronica, but not electronic that’s in your face. More of a smooth, jovial electronica. Our set list now is such that we’ll play something from 1986 and something that was made this year, and you might not be able to tell the difference. We want to make it seamless and be informed by all the decades.”

Chaperone draws on decades of experience, and devotees of electronic Memphis will know their work. Currently, Thornburg is a computer programmer who runs a label called Voodoo Village. Sims is one of the DJs for Grizzlies games at FedEx Forum. In the past, they ran raves in all sorts of places in town during the 1990s. But before that, Sims had immersed himself in the San Francisco scene and brought those sounds back to Memphis.

“I moved to San Francisco when I was 19 and got really heavy into house music on the west coast,” Sims says. “Particularly 1991, 1992. I got really heavy into this DJ crew out there called the Wicked Crew. Basically consisted of a group of older gentlemen from England in their late 30s and 40s. They were breaking the mold of the ecstasy-house stuff.”

“They were bringing disco elements in and live instrumentation,” Thornburg adds. “They were breaking the mold for the times. House music was exploding, and they were going in another direction entirely.”

“Rave was just coming into existence,” Sims says. “It was this huge thing in itself, but these guys deepened it. That’s what influenced me to get into it as a young punk rocker in Memphis. My initial thoughts on electronica were: cheesy, commericial, stupid. Then being turned onto these guys who had such a deep element to it. It brought me into a lifetime of it.”

EDM had been an underground culture in the U.K. and Germany before it came to the Midwest in the late 1980s. In the U.S., it became “house” music in Chicago and “techno” in Detroit. Since then, the music has splintered into more strands and factions than the American Protestant church. But the rave culture of the 1990s is where the team behind Chaperone began working in Memphis.

“There was a club called Red Square,” Thornburg says.

“And a lot of house parties,” Sims adds. “We were even breaking into warehouses at one point and cranking up a generator and having someone stand at the door as if we had the ability to do that.”

Seymour and Thornburg had a crew for a while, and Thornburg threw the Electrocity parties. But eventually the demands of age and cultural shifts took their toll.

“I know I can speak for myself when I say that I got disinterested for quite a while. I got into different things. But the Chaperone concept is kind of full circle in a way. It was something that brought back and refreshed this old concept for us through thinking of the material that went unnoticed. Thinking through how these [musical ideas] affected each other through time.”

Times have certainly changed for EDM. The current issue of Billboard magazine is dedicated to EDM. A charticle cites 10 DJs who command more than $250,000 per gig and another 10 who earn more than $100,000. Attendees of Las Vegas’ Electric Daisy Festival spent $158 million in aggregate, according to Billboard. The magazine also points out several instances of EDM-based businesses attaining big-time venture capital. EDM is without a doubt the flavor of the moment. But Chaperone, like the Wicked Crew, is ready to put their own spin on what is normally a sound and scene for the young.

“We’re also seeking an adult-format dance party,” Sims says. “Something that’s really groovy for adults. Where you can listen to electronica without having to go to a kiddie party.” Hence the name. “We’re trying to do it in unusual environments. Our debut event was with several hundred people on top of 100 N. Main,” Sims says. “That’s just to give it a better feeling, a new feeling and still be real DJs. We want to give Memphis a good, regular party that it can get behind.”

Chaperone at Amurica Photo, Saturday, August 9th, at 10 p.m.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter From the Editor: Beach Ball of Death

We’ve all had those moments — the little beach ball starts spinning on your laptop, or your iPad screen freezes or, as happened to me yesterday, Siri wouldn’t respond to my request to text a friend. I knew the little minx was in there, but she stayed mum, no matter how hard I pressed the button to summon her.

When these things happen, I always remember the loving mantra of our company IT guy, who, when you ask about a computer malfunction, inevitably snarls: “It probably just needs to reboot. Did you restart it?” And rebooting works, almost every time. It even brought Siri back.

Which brings me to this: Here in Memphis and Shelby County, it’s time to reboot. Far too many of our political offices are held by spinning beach balls. Far too many of our candidates have no business running for public office.

In recent weeks, there has been a lot of strong political reporting hereabouts — by the Flyer‘s Jackson Baker (you should take his cover story from last week with you into the voting booth), and by reporters at the Commercial Appeal. If you’ve been paying attention to the reportage, you have learned that there are judges who don’t come to work on a regular basis; there are judges and judicial candidates with personal issues that should preclude them from any public office, much less that of a judgeship; there are candidates using extremely misleading political advertising, including a white judicial candidate whose ad includes a picture of a black endorsee next to his name. There are candidates and office-holders who don’t pay their taxes, who abuse women, who are racists, who shoot themselves in the foot every time they open their mouth, who are drunks and pill-heads and financial miscreants. Reboot!

The Ophelia Ford Show needs to be cancelled. The Henri Brooks Show is a bad rerun. Judge Joe Brown has fallen and can’t get up. Reboot. Reboot. Reboot. And it’s not just Democrats. Republicans also have their fair share of clowns and buffoons. Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey’s tawdry campaign to unseat three Tennessee Supreme Court judges is beyond shameful, filled with lies and bald-faced distortions.

This has nothing to do with race or party. There are dedicated public servants and qualified candidates of all political stripes and ethnicities. Keep and elect the good ones. Dump and defeat the self-entitled, self-important, and stupid ones.

I know taking the time to learn about all the candidates involves effort. I know it’s a long ballot and that voting can be inconvenient. But surely all sentient Shelby Countians can agree that a little inconvenience is well worth the pay-off: more honest and competent public servants; fewer fools, egomaniacs, and spinning beach balls.

Reboot.

Categories
Theater Theater Feature

4000 Miles at TheatreWorks

“Gentle” is the word I hear over and over again in reference to 4000 Miles, Amy Herzog’s funny, thorny play about geographical, emotional, temporal, and political distance across generations. Director Tony Isbell dropped the word when we chatted online. It’s popped up repeatedly in conversations with friends who’ve seen the play at TheatreWorks. Even New York Times critic Charles Isherwood called it a “gently comic drama” in his review, so there must be something to the idea that it’s a gentle play. But that isn’t how I experienced 4000 Miles. The play I saw was an uncomfortably real snapshot of a generational moment, a sound thrashing of lifestyle-lefties and a similarly-bracing critique of our elders and their astonishing ability to idealize the past. 4000 Miles is a quiet play, mostly. There’s no sustained shouting or violence to speak of, though death looks out from every corner of the room. Genuinely sweet moments are shared between a self-absorbed millennial and his grandmother, an old lefty at the tipping point of senility. But gentle isn’t the first word I’d choose to describe this subtle, one-act reminder that the reward of a long life is outliving everyone who might attend your funeral.

Did I mention that the show is also funny? It is. What it’s not is tightly plotted. Nor is it full of the archetypal characters that tend to populate the classic American family drama. To that end, 4000 Miles — a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist — is a chamber piece, more meditation than assault. But it’s an uneasy meditation, almost never serene.

The play opens with a scruffy, baggage-laden Leo waking Vera, his elderly grandmother in her Greenwich Village apartment at 3 a.m. The last thing she expected was an early-morning visit from her Left Coast grandson, and she doesn’t seem all that happy to see him. Leo has been cycling across the country with a friend, but when that friend died in a horrible accident on the road, he broke off communication with his family in Minneapolis and went off the grid.

Leo’s not intentionally malicious, but the young trustafarian is a natural manipulator: a wounded rugged outdoorsy-type quick to use his personal tragedy if it buys some sympathy or helps get the hot Chinese girl who looks like his adopted sister into bed. He takes up residence with his grandmother on a temporary basis, but makes her promise to not tell the family where he is.

Over the course of the play we watch Leo lose his girlfriend Bec, making one final douchey request to “remember how our bodies were together.” We also witness an attempted hook-up with a rich girl named Amanda who flips out when she discovers she’s in the huge, rent-controlled apartment of a card-carrying Communist. Amanda says she doesn’t think she can have sex in a Communist’s house, allowing that she’s usually kind of slutty. Her drunken anti-Communist rant is one of the show’s best set pieces. Replace the word Communist with any racial descriptor and the monologue would leave audiences slack-jawed. Then again, Amanda is Chinese, and there’s family history.

4000 Miles took its first Off-Broadway bows about three months before the Occupy Wall Street movement moved into Zuccotti Park. I mention that because somehow that real-world occurrence seems more like the ending of Herzog’s play than its actual ending. She uses the outdoorsy Leo and the urban Vera to look at how far the easily-identified tropes of the American left had evolved. Class-conscious collective action had become a lifestyle choice for people who can afford to protest GMOs and oil companies with their purchasing power. There is some suggestion that Leo is growing by the play’s end. It’s not hard to imagine him leaving for his new job out west only to get caught up in the massive street protest brewing in Manhattan. Nor is it hard to imagine him moving on following a fashionable arrest during some clash with the New York police.

Every character in 4000 Miles is a prisoner of perspective, Leo most of all. He’s loveably disheveled, despicably self-centered, and difficult to like. His grandmother, Vera, can be abrasive and muddled, but she clearly has the more sympathetic role, and Karen Mason Riss is spectacular in the part.

Christopher Joel Onken is completely believable as Leo, although his more cloying antics come across as being downright sinister. Carly Crawford is also effective, if a little stilted as Leo’s girlfriend Bec. Then again, if the show has a thankless part, that’s it.

Ron Gordon’s scenic design gives the impression that Vera’s not-so-Manhattan Manhattan residence is infinitely large on the inside. That’s a quibble, not a deal-breaker.

Categories
Cover Feature News

The World of Memphis Twitter

Last year, the Flyer staff decided to do a “Who’s Who in Memphis Twitter” issue. It was a lot of fun, generated some buzz, and made us think, “Hey, we could do this every year.” Except, we can’t. We tried, but really, who wants to read a list of names that would mostly be repetitive from the prior year? Plus, Twitter has become so ubiquitous that picking “Who’s Who in Memphis Twitter” would be like picking “Who’s Who in Memphis Facebook.” Impossible. All we would be doing is picking the people we follow.

Twitter is now so mainstream, potential employers ask for your handle in job interviews. It’s a very rare politician, journalist, comedian, musician, sports figure, etc. who isn’t all over Twitter these days. It’s become an invaluable tool for businesses and for link sharing and breaking news. And if you haven’t watched a Grizzlies or Tigers game with your Twitter peeps, you’re missing half the fun. Twitter is everywhere and all of you deserve prizes. Except for that one guy. We hate him.

Soooo, instead of a “Who’s Who in Memphis Twitter,” this year we decided to do a bit of a potpourri. We picked some local twitterers and asked them to talk about how they use the medium; we interviewed some local celebs 140 characters at a time; we picked some of our favorite tweets and twitterers. Memphis Twitter is a rich world of information, snark, and news. We’ve barely scratched the surface.

Bruce VanWyngarden

Carrie Brown-Smith, Early Adapter

Long before Twitter evolved into the ubiquitous social network and microblogging service it is today, Carrie Brown-Smith was dishing out tweets. An associate professor in the University of Memphis’ journalism department, Brown-Smith got wind of the tool early and decided to incorporate it into numerous courses she teaches. She continues to maintain a strong presence on Twitter.

Flyer: How did you get introduced to Twitter?

Carrie Brown-Smith: A friend of mine was working for Apple at the time; he loved it and kept telling me to use it. Like most other people, I set up an account then didn’t use it for the next two months. It was like, “Okay, now I’m on here, but I don’t see why anybody would want to use this.” Much later, I realized it was really useful.

How often are you on Twitter?

I try to limit myself, because you can get sucked in and end up spending your whole day there. Usually, when I’m taking a little break in the middle of the day, waiting in line, or doing something where I can hang out on my phone a little while, I might spend 10 minutes scanning through my feed. If I come across a link or photo or something that I think is interesting, I’ll just hop on there and share it. At least once a day I’m hopping on there — sometimes more.

In what ways has Twitter evolved since you began using it years ago?

A lot more people are using it now. At the beginning, I think it was kind of this big stereotype that people were only going to use it to tell other people what they had for breakfast. But as time went on, people started to see the utility of it for news and information and for connecting with other people. If you look at a lot of job descriptions today, often they include, “This person should know how to use Twitter and social media.” It’s more mainstream than it was a few years ago.

Does it matter what your avatar looks like?

That’s really important, because I think when people see that little blank egg, they also think that it could be a spam account. Even if it’s not your own picture, [it’s good to] have something there that personalizes it; it just makes you a lot more legitimate and credible.

Any advice for making the best out of those 140 characters?

Obviously, a lot of links get shared on Twitter, but I think some people forget that they can do that. If you want to share longer thoughts, you can share a link to a blog post or an article. People have really short attention spans today, so I think it can be a good discipline to practice writing something that catches people’s attention, even though you don’t have a lot of characters.

Louis Goggans, @Lou4President

CA Commenters Greatest Hits

“Memphis is a war zone of thugs, crooks in suits, and cyclists. I ain’t too fond of Barry Obummer neither. I am the Commercial Appeal commenter.”

So reads the online bio of the most trenchant Memphis satirist on Twitter. This anonymous wit has perfectly nailed the Memphis-hater set. It’s almost scary, it’s so brilliant. That’s my opinion, anyway. Judge for yourself, libtard:

• Lyft sounds like left so I’m starting Ryght, car service for conservatives. Hannity & Limbaugh on the radio non-stop. Burb travel only.

• Maybe on the ballots they could put pictures of the candidates, you know, to see if they have trust-worthy eyes…that’s all…ahem.

• It’s perfect that the trolleys will return this Autumn, right when it starts to get cooler & a nice fire will be warm & inviting.

• Been doing the 30 day #CarFreeMemphis challenge. 1, by using my Hummer which is an SUV not a car & 2, by not actually going into Memphis.

• Sen. Kelsey: What about a bill to have tornado sirens blare Dixie? You’re welcome.

• It sucks that Bring Hannity to TN & Turn Gays Away bills are fine but my Let Duck Dynasty Hunt Peabody Ducks idea was “too out there.”

• Hey @MemphisFlyer, I left the Memphis Press-Scimitar box at your place so you could learn what a real newspaper looks like.

• I wish I would be hired as a coach of a Memphis basketball team because it means you’re guaranteed to leave Memphis in a few years.

• So keeping a building from the 19th Century is a noble cause, but keeping an attitude from that era is wrong? Hypocrites.

• 10 years ago Hurricane Elvis swept through Memphis and Obama did nothing about it. #NeverForget

— Bruce VanWyngarden, @sylamore1

Beth Spencer, Animal Rights Activist

With more than 1,800 followers, Beth Spencer has made a name for herself on Twitter. For more than four months, Spencer has been tweeting every day about the changes going on at Memphis Animal Shelter (MAS) — to the Shelter and Mayor AC Wharton. We sat down with Spencer and asked her how she thinks Twitter can bring about social change.

Flyer: How often do you use twitter?

Beth Spenser: It depends on my mood, I’d say anywhere from 3 to 100 times a day. If something really makes my eyes roll, then my number of tweets increases. The amount of time I spend on Twitter also varies with every time my eyes roll, but on average I’d say about four to six hours a day. When I’m not on Twitter I’m either working or I’m watching Frasier.

What do you normally tweet about?

Normally I tweet about animals, pop culture, and social issues. Today I tweeted about Miley Cyrus and I tried to get the mayor to talk to me. I’ve been tweeting to the mayor for four months now, every day, and I’m not doing it to aggravate him or to harass him, but a lot of times people will retweet what I send to him and it raises social awareness.

Do you think Twitter can bring about social change?

I think it helps people band together. I don’t think it happens in Memphis as much as it does in other places, but a lot of times people can get direct answers on Twitter, and I think ideally it holds those in power more accountable. Twitter gives people a platform that otherwise wouldn’t have one, and I think that’s key to bringing about social change.

Once I sort of “catfished” Memphis Parks, because they run Memphis Animal Shelter. They had been avoiding my tweets as myself so I made a fake name called Mark in Memphis. I made the photo a black male and tweeted them asking about the hour change at MAS. They weren’t responding to any of my tweets or any of the activists that had been asking them questions, but when someone they didn’t recognize tweeted them they answered my questions right away.

Who are you following? Who do you rely on for up-to-the-minute information?

I follow the Memphis Flyer, of course, Miley Cyrus, Jen Sized, the fake Prince Mongo account, and some other local parody accounts like the Midtown Kroger one. I also follow a lot of the usual Memphis media accounts.

— Chris Shaw, @ShawMemphis

Two Funny Twitterers

Twitter is funny (well, y’know, sometimes). Follow the right folks and laughs cascade down that Hootsuite column like Niagara Falls. Twitter, with its 140-character limit, is best for quick hits and one-liners, not for long, story jokes. Think Mitch Hedburg not Bill Cosby.

Ed Arnold and Katrina L. Coleman are two very funny Memphis Tweeters. Arnold is a journalist with the Memphis Business Journal and social media bon vivant. Coleman is a comedian and founder of the Memphis Comedy Fest. 

I interviewed them both, on Twitter, of course. Those conversations started fine but were hijacked by friends, other comics, a paranormal mystery writer, and a Memphis City Councilmember. 

Of course when I say, “hijacked” that just means Twitter worked exactly as it was designed.

Katrina L. Coleman
(with Shea Flinn, sort of)

Flyer: So, youre a comedian and a mover in Memphis comedy (in real life). Why Twitter?

Katrina L. Coleman: It’s a public sketchbook, and a great exercise in brevity, as well as exposure. I have (five minute) bits that started with one dumb Tweet.

Also, constant input. I’m like fuckin’ Johnny 5. News, information, entertainment 24/7. It’s magical for someone like me.

Your style seems tough and self deprecating. True?

KLC: Hell yeah, it is, and I’ll fight you to prove it, but not like in a winning way. (P.S. That’s going in my bio.) 

Sounds pretty Memphis to me.

KLC: Totally. Affects all of our arts. (Full disclosure, grew up in West Memphis, which smells like poo. Memphis is home.)

Shea Flinn: I just want to state: the fact that I am NOT being interviewed for the comedy part of Twitter hurts. Hurts bad.

KLC: NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU, FLINN. Ugh. D-I-V-A

SF: Sure take the “funny” crown and then hurl insults. Standup comedy tax, up next!

Whats it take to be funny in 140 characters in the huge social environment?

KLC: Good spelling, largely. I go the way of sincerity, post what I like. Some people are more jokey joke. Just … entertain yourself.

Ed Arnold

Flyer: So, is brevity the biggest key to being funny on Twitter?

Ed Arnold: It’s not crucial, but it helps. I think a good stand-up comic needs at least a laugh per minute, often more. Twitter forces that. As a consumer of comedy, I love guys who could kill with a sentence. The best Twitter accounts nail that.

Whos that in your profile pic?

Spud Web and Manute Bol, two of the best unintentionally funny NBA players of all time.

Is Memphis funny on Twitter? Are Memphians funny?

We’re a tough group. The #ImSoMemphis tweet game had as many terrifying jokes as playful ones.

I think its that underdog thing we do/love so well here. Finally, where are you on the whole Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding thing?

Look, no one deserves a stick to the kneecap, but if I’m getting drunk … Tonya all the way.

— Toby Sells, @tobysells

Let’s Go Kroegrs-ing!

There’s something universal about discussing your neighborhood grocery, and perhaps that’s what makes the Midtown Kroegrs (misspelled on purpose, but the handle is @midtownkrogers) parody account so appealing. Written from the perspective of a faux Kroegrs social media team for the Union store and filled with misspelled words and often-nonsensical tweets, the daily musings fill us in on what’s going on with faux employees (like the day Tony vomited by the cereal boxes because of his nervous stomach or the time Janice had to get a tattoo “cut off her chest”) and faux specials.

Shortly after the account went live last fall, the real Kroger corporate headquarters ordered the account suspended. But with a little misspelling of the store name, it quickly bounced back and garnered a fanbase of more than 2,500 followers.

The Kroegrs social media team took a few minutes to answer some of our burning questions. (All misspellings are intentional.)

Flyer: What makes Midtown Kroegrs so special?

Midtown Kroegrs: We dont know just its so special here its a good mix mash of folks her excapt new Glenn in truck docks he tranferred from nasty Cleavelands.

Recently, you announced that you were hiring because your employees were “sooo old.” What do you look for in a potential employee?

Yes were still allways needing #fresh employs faces who can work late and have a Go get him attitued just apply upfront by the Rug Doctors.

The employees get a lot of shout-outs on Twitter. Have any complained about the exposure?

Lol no if you remember Steve he got fired she said he told Karen he was going to sue her haha yeah right but he works at Mapcos now.

Captain Jerry gets the #freshest fish! Where does he get it from?

Thanks all Krogers #freshcatch is local fish that Jerry finds it somewere, the rest is China freezer samlon then of course theres lobster.

What’s the craziest incident King Don, the security guy, has dealt with there?

Guess what old Don got caught clowning off on the heart pressure chair at Rite Aids Danny tried to fire him but Mr Charley said no you cant.

Janice recently got an old tattoo “cut off her chest.” Has she made a full recovery?

Yes shes is back! But no shes gone she came by and pickedup a box of #otter pops they help out her sad depression mindgrain head aches :).

Whats been your all-time favorite find from the Managers Special shelves?

Ok well we found 1 Lady Sped Sticks some a bunch of pinchless can Crab’s meat, 2 tore up puff cereal kid bags and a sorted color hair comes.

Tell me about your store specials this week. Any must-have items?

Yes you can defiantly saveon our Morning Farm Vegatrian grill chops, baby freezer cobs #fresh skimp milks and Carpi Suns metal pouch juices.

— Bianca Phillips, @biancaphillips

Politicians, Thought Leaders, and Trolls

On Monday, July 14th, the Commercial Appeal‘s Wendi Thomas posted to her blog about the dress codes at the Montreal, Quebec, location of Bar Louie. The Memphis franchise had been through a controversial revision of its own dress code after allegations that the code was targeting African Americans. Thomas wrote about how people of color feel welcome or unwelcome in spaces based on their race. She linked to the post on her Twitter account, and several people joined in, including Memphis City Councilman Shea Flinn. By Monday evening, it appeared that the two were engaged in a digital kerfluffle. The points of the argument aside, their back and forth and the chorus of folks who were jumping into the conversation revealed the good and the bad of the Twittersphere.

The two primary participants are sharp-witted public figures who were using Twitter to talk about an important social issue in real time. There were no editors to guide the dialog. There were no advertisers or campaign managers to stop what was happening. There was a distillation of opinion that few established media can foster or deliver.

“I was thinking about this,” Thomas said. “One of the reasons that exchange worked — if we can say it worked — is that he and I know each other in real life. If we ran into each other on the street, we say, hey, the side-kind of church-hug greeting. In discussions that I’ve had — and even people who entered that discussion — who I didn’t know, I’m much more leery of what the intent is behind the questions. Are they honestly trying to engage? Or are they trolling?”

“At least from my point of view, we were just having a conversation,” Flinn said. “The weird part about having it in that setting is that there were people on both sides who were interjecting and making it more argumentative than it was between us. We were just having a discussion.”

Wendi C. Thomas: So when youve been in an environment where you felt unwelcome, what was it that made you feel that way? @FlinnShady

Shea Flinn: @wendi_c_thomas lots of reasons. A certain establishment never thought I was “hip” enough. Didn’t like preppy me.

WCT: So I get how that could be uncomfortable, @FlinnShady. I do. But…

WCT: It seems untoward to compare preppy/hipster to a legacy of racial discrimination/modern-day racially charged dress codes. @FlinnShady

SF: I was talking about feeling unwelcome as opposed to discrimination. I see them as very different.

It went on from there. Thomas and Flinn are unlikely to stop with the Twitter.

“Maybe we should have a Twitter chat where people can tune in,” Thomas said. “Wendi and Shea and who ever else is polite can join in. Appointment Twitter.”

— Joe Boone, @Memphidelity

#ilovememphis

Seeing the #ilovememphis hashtag on Twitter might be just another way to join a local conversation, but for some, it means much more than that. Holly Whitfield, who took over the blog about a year ago, said while she wasn’t around for the inception of the hashtag, she’s noticed how local Twitter users have utilized it.

Users will see everyday Memphians, businesses, and organizations all contributing to the conversation through the hashtag, spreading the love through photos, musings, and event postings. Even City Councilman Harold Collins gets in on the action.

“I see people using it in two different ways. One way is when they want to share on Twitter about an event or show. I think they use #ilovememphis because they know that their event is contributing to the cool things in Memphis to make it loveable,” Whitfield said. “The second way I see people use it is when they’re doing something fun that makes them genuinely love Memphis. It’s usually a photo of people having fun — like people at a pool party in Midtown.

“On my Friday post, I remind people to use #ilovememphis to share their pictures over the weekend. I think people are still using it to contribute to the idea that Memphis is loveable,” Whitfield said. “When somebody uses that hashtag, of course their followers will see it, and maybe they’re curious as to whether it’s an official hashtag — which it kind of is — and maybe they’ll look into it a little bit more.”

The I Love Memphis blog will celebrate its fifth birthday on August 17th at Wiseacre Brewing Company.

“When I first started, in my very first post, I said, ‘It’s no longer revolutionary to say I love Memphis,’ which is amazing. When the blog first started, it was. No one was saying that in such an outspoken way,” Whitfield said. “I no longer think it’s a ground-breaking thing, but I do think it’s important. Especially for Twitter. Sometimes it can get really heavy, so being able to see a simple, positive hashtag that is usually accompanied by actual content can be inspiring.”

Alexandra Pusateri, @alexandrathegr8

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Memphis on Twitter

Flyer staffers take a look at the Memphis Twittersphere in this week’s cover story.