Month: December 2014

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said (December 25, 2014) …

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Joe Boone’s music feature, “Venerable Studio Changes Hands” …

What did they do with the hundreds of pictures of Sai Baba that were hanging everywhere?

Yeah Man

About Steve Steffans’ Viewpoint, “Southern Democrats: Down, Not Dead” …

I’m going to get this article tattooed to my forehead so I don’t have to keep saying this over and over again when I talk to any Tennessee Democrat who isn’t from Memphis.

Autoegocrat

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s letter from the editor, “Good Cop. Bad Cop” …

I’ve been an advocate of a constitutional ban on union representation for public employees for quite a while.

But I have to admit, if I were a police officer and had heard and read all of the idiots and their mindless followers blaming “economic inequality” as the root cause for the recent highly publicized police incidents, I’d probably want a good union steward, too.

Nightcrawler

Your call for police departments to “man up and acknowledge their bad apples” is one of the best positioned arguments on the issue I have read. Unfortunately, this posture of “protect your own no matter what” permeates so many organized labor organizations, to the detriment of the reputation of the organization overall. From teachers to bus drivers to NFL players, the representing labor organizations seem to go out of their way to protect even the most obviously unqualified or, at times, criminally inclined members at the expense of the reputation and good work of its majority.

There are bad people in every profession. If others in those professions would acknowledge that and help clean house, it would benefit everyone — fellow professionals and the customers of those professions alike.

rjb

I’m still wondering why no one is talking about the fact that Ohio has an Open Carry law. In fact, the city of Cleveland’s ban on open carry was overturned by the Republican legislature — something the NRA praised. And before you say, “Well, kids are not covered by open carry!” Remember that the officers after the shooting called in: “Shots fired. Male down. Black male, maybe 20.”

Charley Eppes

About Wendi C. Thomas’ column, “The Roots of Protest” …

It appears Obama and the Democrats are going to fix the black unemployment problem by opening the borders to millions more illegals and giving amnesty to those already here. I’ll admit I don’t understand how flooding the job market with an unending supply of cheap labor is going to help African Americans get jobs, but I’m sure all of the black Democratic politicians have it figured out because none of them are complaining.

GWCarver

Every Republican and Democratic administration in the past 30-plus years has refused to enforce the laws that would have fined employers of illegals thousands of dollars per hire. That simple upholding of their sworn duty would have saved those jobs that big business couldn’t export via the myriad of free-trade agreements. It ain’t a Democrat vs. Republican thing.

CL Mullins

The prospect of low-cost labor has been very appealing to both Republicans and Democrats alike. And the lack of any sort of sustained protest from the general public who enjoyed those lower priced goods produced by that cheap labor was also a factor. Call it the Walmart Factor. There are many who scream about what they consider Walmart’s “slave” wages, but they also enjoy the low prices, so they really don’t complain too much.

Arlington Pop

I can agree that public investment in Graceland is nonsense, but what other economic development plans are on the table for Whitehaven? Southbrook Mall? That is even more nonsensical by a large margin.

If it’s all going to boil down to race for everything that occurs, then the point that the money is being spent in Whitehaven rather than downtown or in East Memphis should amount to something. But it is conveniently forgotten in this column.

Brunetto Latini

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Culinary creativity and craft butchery at Porcellino’s.

CREDIT: John Klyce Minervini

With its black-and-white honeycomb tile and quaint vintage tableware, Porcellino’s — the new restaurant from chefs Michael Hudman and Andy Ticer — strikes an appealingly casual note, one that is matched by its affordable menu.

Porcellino’s is essentially two shops. In the front, there’s an espresso-centric, European-style café where you can order pastries for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and small plates for supper. In the back, there’s a craft butcher shop that features traditional steaks, sausages, and cured meats — plus some truly exotic cuts.

I began with a double shot of espresso — which, for me, is kind of a big deal. I’m pathologically sensitive to caffeine, so I usually draw the line at a single cup of green tea in the morning.

It was worth making the exception. The espresso — a Metropolis Redline blend — was like an awakening. It had a thick, creamy body and a beautiful crema, with notes of honey and lavender in the finish. Pair it with a couple of Bomboloni ($2) — fluffy Italian donuts — and you’re ready to take on the world.

“I want our coffee to be a craft experience,” says head barista Destiny Naccarato. “And that means eliminating guesswork. It means timing everything out, measuring it, weighing it.

“I actually think the first sip should be a little shocking,” she adds.

John Klyce Minervini

Apple Cider

On to small plates. When building their menu, chefs Hudman and Ticer say they were inspired by their friend the late Mark Newman of Newman Farm. The word “porcellino” means “baby pig” in Italian, and many dishes were created to showcase the farm’s heritage pork and lamb.

“We kept asking ourselves,” says Ticer, “why do we have to go to New Orleans to get boudin? Why do we have to go to St. Louis to get decent cured meat? We can do those things at least as well as anybody else. Hell, we can do them better.”

One of my favorite dishes was the Collard Green Dumplings ($9). Loaded with collards from Woodson Ridge Farms, spicy nduya sausage, Calabrian chili oil, and Newman Farm pork belly, these demure little rice paper packets pack a punch. But if you can stand the heat, they’ll reward you. Drizzled with benne oil — an aromatic, nutty oil derived from an heirloom ancestor of the sesame seed — they are interestingly tangy and peppery.

John Klyce Minervini

Ash Flour Pita

For those seeking something less spicy, I recommend the Ash Flour Pita — stippled with melted cheese and marinated olives — or the New Orleans-style boudin, served with pickled onions over corn bread porridge.

But Porcellino’s is first and foremost a butcher shop, so I decided to take a tour with head butcher Aaron Winters.

“You remember how, in The Brady Bunch, they had Sam the Butcher?” asks Winters. “That’s what I want. I want people to say, ‘Aaron’s my butcher.’ I want to start the conversation again.”

Naturally, the conversation will include things like tenderloin and pork chops. But part of Winters’ mission at Porcellino’s is to introduce Memphians to more uncommon cuts of meat. Things like bavette — a strip of beef loin that runs along the ribcage — and spider steak — named for its web-like pattern of marbling.

“In America,” Winters says, “most of these cuts get ground up for hamburger, so we never even see them. Which is a shame, because they are some of the tastiest parts of the whole animal.”

To learn about bavette and spider steak, Winters spent the summer in Italy. There he studied with Dario Cecchini, the world’s foremost master butcher, and Filippo Gambassi, scion of an ancient Italian salumi dynasty.

It probably goes without saying, but Winters is the only person within 300 miles of Memphis with that kind of training. Why don’t you pay him a visit and let him recommend something?

Categories
Art Art Feature

“Voice of the Turtle” at TOPS.

John Fahey’s 1968 guitar ballad “Voice of the Turtle” is a classic piece of Vietnam-era musical Americana. The song’s train-like rhythms draw out a melody that is as mournful as an empty boxcar but as defiantly optimistic as the all-American promise of something greater down the line. “Voice of the Turtle” is a kind of frontier hymn colored by the psychedelic urge to “turn on, tune in, drop out.”

This past Saturday night, TOPS Gallery opened an exhibition called “Voice of the Turtle” in honor of the late Fahey. The show features a small, abstract tempera work by the guitarist who took up painting in the years before his death in 2001. Fahey’s painting is shown at TOPS alongside work by eight Memphis artists, many with a similar interdisciplinary bent. The show includes sculpture and drawing by Fahey’s friend and 1960s Memphis scene-maker John McIntire, alongside drawings by William Eggleston, Guy Church, and Jonathan Payne, sculpture by Terri Phillips and Jim Buchman, collage by Kenneth Lawrence Beaudoin, and painting by Peter Bowman.

Fahey’s small painting at TOPS is nothing to write home about, at least in light of his talent as a musician. Painting was a secondary art form for Fahey, but that isn’t a bad thing. Plenty of artists, including Bob Dylan, David Lynch, and Eggleston, have exploratory painting practices that often meet with undue critical disdain. TOPS’ “Voice of the Turtle” is an exhibition that celebrates these practices, and references a time when the interdisciplinary (art as a multi-hued journey of personal discovery, rather than as a specialized niche practice) was more celebrated than it is today.

A marble “game” sculpture by McIntire occupies the center of the gallery. To clarify: It is a sculpture made from white marble, but it is also a game of marbles. Viewers are invited to drop a marble into one of the sculpture’s many holes connected to a network of tunnels, and assumably, see where the marble emerges. At Saturday’s opening, no one had any marbles (perhaps having misplaced them in the ’60s? ba dum ching…), but not much was lost. McIntire’s sculpture is still beautiful and playful — the sort of thing you’d expect a favorite uncle to have stashed in his attic.

John McIntire’s portrait of John Fahey

McIntire also contributed a small drawing on yellow legal paper of Fahey, sitting in profile, wearing sunglasses. A cigarette hangs out of Fahey’s mouth. The drawing feels like a dashed note, a quick record of a lost conversation. Between this drawing, McIntire’s sculpture, and Fahey’s painting, there is a kind of friendly history — a warm context that makes room for the other featured artists’ work.

Eggleston’s squiggly, colorful drawings are each about five inches tall. There is not much to say about them except that they are really fun, and that every artist should probably make a squiggly drawing once in their lives. Beaudoin’s cut-and-paste collages are assembled from old magazines. They are at once personal and alienated by the material’s faded gloss. Buchman contributed two roughly hewn abstract ceramic works with an understated drama.

The works that pack the most punch are four expertly stippled drawings by self-taught artist Church, whose genre scenes seem drawn from an otherworldly forest. The characters that inhabit this realm are likewise magical; their exaggerated proportions seeming all too natural in Church’s constructions. “Voice of the Turtle” is worth going to see if only for Church’s work.

Another high point in the exhibition is a small drawing by Payne. His elaborate, obsessive mark-making, navigated through hundreds of undulating lines, is quietly done without seeming restrained or restricted. Payne is also the youngest artist in the exhibition, and his presence in “Voice of the Turtle” shows a kind of artistic heritage — a generational relationship between artists that is as open-ended and bravely optimistic as Fahey’s eponymous song.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (December 26, 2014)

CREDIT: Carrienelson1 | Dreamstime.com

Everybody laughs at Dennis Rodman. He is America’s favorite, cross-dressing, tattooed metalhead. His piercings set off alarms
at airports five minutes before he arrives. He’s dyed his hair every shade of the color chart wheel, plus a few other hues not seen before on this planet. He was married to Carmen Electra and linked romantically with Madonna — but then, who hasn’t been? He wore a wedding dress and full make up to promote his 1996 autobiography, claiming that he was bisexual and marrying himself. And his nickname is “The Worm.”

Rodman is also a seven-time NBA rebounding champion, and a two-time defensive player of the year. He wears five NBA championship rings with the Chicago Bulls and had his number retired by the Detroit Pistons. He entered the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2011. Rodman’s drunken bellicosity has cost him his credibility, which is too bad since he’s one of the only living Americans to have had a laugh with North Korea’s Dear Leader, Kim Jong-un.

Rodman went to North Korea in 2013 to assist their national basketball program and returned the next year with a group of former NBA players for a tour of the country. Afterward, Rodman claimed Dear Leader was a “friend for life,” and that Obama should, “pick up the phone and call Kim,” since the two leaders were basketball fans. But he was drunk and verbose upon his return. His agent claimed Rodman had been drinking heavily to an extent “that none of us had seen before,” and he promptly entered a rehab facility.

But Rodman’s message was simple: North Koreans are nuts over basketball. So, before we enter a second Korean War over a Seth Rogen stoner movie, perhaps we should consider invading with basketball. There is a precedent. In 1971, the U.S. Table Tennis Team was invited to China, where no American had been since 1949. On the team was a long-haired, redheaded hippie named Glenn Cowan, and everywhere the team went Cowan was mobbed by fans who were perhaps seeing what freedom was for the first time. The press dubbed it “Ping-Pong Diplomacy,” and it helped thaw relations with China leading up to Richard Nixon’s famous handshake with Mao Zedong, who enjoyed a game of ping-pong himself. Nelson Mandela once said: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.”

Speaking of sports, the island of Cuba, one of the last existing communist countries, produces great baseball players. Even Fidel Castro was reputed to be a decent pitcher. Cuban baseball stars like El Duque and Livan Hernandez risked their lives to come to this country. But with Obama’s singular destruction of the mummified, Cold-War corpse of calamities lasting from the Kennedy administration, we may soon see some free-agents.

The fastest way to transform a communist country is to give them a Major League Baseball franchise. The professional suits should get in there fast. I believe there’s already a pretty good ball club in Havana called the Leones. There’s a team in Toronto, and they’re already looking at Mexico City, so let’s give the other half of the hemisphere a chance to compete. New York could play Havana, and they could bring back all those posters that say, “Cuba, si. Yanqui, no,”

Over a half century, the CIA has tried to kill Castro by exploding cigars, poison pills, bacteria, LSD, snipers, bombers, and thallium salts to make his beard fall out. Fidel said, “If surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, I would win the gold medal.” Before another Bay of Pigs, let’s invade with pro baseball, Coca-Cola, and Mickey D’s.

Given the chance, I would love to go to Cuba and habla a little espanol. I’d like to see the marketplace and the old cars. A new car in Cuba is a ’57 Buick, but now they can finally get some genuine GM parts. In return, we get the near-mythical Cuban cigar. I smoked a few Hav-a-Tampa jewel sweets with the wooden tip back when I was in college until I realized that the taste was disgusting, but even I would smoke a Cuban cigar just for the hell of it. I could pull one out at a party and scream, “Say hello to my little friend.” We can also learn how to say “banana daiquiri” in Spanish and see some of those racy shows where Hyman Roth would never go. I’m sorry. I just love Godfather references.

One thing’s for sure: The Castros can’t live forever, and their successors won’t have personal connections to the revolution. Maybe an MLB all-star team could tour Cuba like the ping-pong team did China. Then dry out Rodman and make him our ambassador to North Korea. Even Lil’ Kim plays a little ball. Wilt Chamberlain and Jong-un each hold the record for scoring 100 points in a game. The only difference was that Chamberlain did it with other players on the floor. Let’s play ball for a change.

Randy Haspel writes the “Recycled Hippies” blog, where a version of this column first appeared.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Neighborhood Texture Jam at the Hi-Tone

CREDIT: Don Perry

Don Perry

Neighborhood Texture Jam

Nothing says Merry Christmas and Happy New Year like the sound of weedeaters and guitars squalling side by side and the sight of Neighborhood Texture Jam (NTJ) frontman Joe Lapsley in a loin cloth, smeared head to toe in mud, with some kind of bone strapped to his face like a mask. Every year or so, Midtown’s favorite post-hardcore, semi-industrial weirdos reunite to kick out funky holiday jams like “Unnecessary Surgery,” “Torsos of Murdered People,” and, of course, everybody’s favorite Yuletide singalong, “I Fell Into the Borax Factory of Your Love.” This year’s concert takes place Saturday, December 27th, at the Hi-Tone.

NTJ guitar slinger/dentist John Whittemore says the band’s fans should come out and see them while they can because he doesn’t know how many more times the Antenna Club favorites will perform together. Then again, this is a band that called it quits in 1996, a good seven years before they finally got around to performing their epic rock opera Frank Rizzo at Colonus, so with these guys, you never know.

NTJ formed in the late ’80s and found a loyal following for their smart lyrics, absurd theatrics, and the use of dangerous percussion instruments and power tools. Though the culture has changed somewhat since Lapsley first belted the words, “You’re a special person, you’re unique, you’re an employee in a mall boutique,” songs like “Rush Limbaugh Evil Blimp” never seem to go out of style.

Neighborhood Texture Jam at the Hi-Tone, Saturday, December 27th, 9 p.m. $10.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

New Plays/Old Friends

Theatre Memphis, We Live Here

In 2013, Playhouse on the Square planted a seed when the theater company began to aggressively search for original plays to develop. Now it’s time for a winter harvest. The first winner of the NewWorks@TheWorks series is We Live Here by New Orleans playwright Hal Ellis Clark, which receives its world premiere Friday, January 2nd, at TheatreWorks. Set in 2011, We Live Here is a play that looks at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It tells the story of an African-American couple from New Orleans’ lower 9th Ward that wins a new home in Metairie, a Crescent City suburb.

“I live in Metairie,” says actor Curtis C. Jackson, describing the area as having been “David Duke” country, when the former KKK leader ran for governor. Jackson plays a civil rights leader who comes to town when the newly relocated couple receives what appears to be a warning.

Jackson, who developed an affinity for new works while pursuing his MFA at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, was once a familiar face on Memphis stages. He worked at Playhouse on the Square in the ’90s and left the company in 1995 to pursue other endeavors following a production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. Jordan Nichols, who spearheads the NewWorks program, invited him back to perform in We Live Here.

“I’d love to come back more often,” says Jackson, who’s eying a role in The Gospel at Colonus, opening at Playhouse on the Square in June 2015.

Playhouse on the Square is currently accepting scripts for its third “NewWorks@TheWorks” competition. Six finalists will receive staged readings of their plays during the 2015-16 season. The two winners will receive $500 each, and their plays will be given full productions during Playhouse on the Square’s 2016-17 season. More information about the competition is available at playhouseonthesquare.org.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1348 and 1349

Criminal Activity

• A Memphis man was arrested for possession of women’s underwear with intent to sell. According to reports, Joe Milam opened his very special pop-up shop at a downtown MATA station and attempted to sell approximately $800 worth of Victoria’s Secret underwear. The fancy drawers were unworn and still festooned with the original price tags and clearly ineffectual anti-theft devices. Few souvenirs really scream “Memphis” like a pair of stolen bus station panties.

• A man named James ‘Peg Leg’ Adams was arrested after getting into a fight over who was the best karaoke singer at Barbie’s Sports Bar. Linda Wyman and her friend Possum were singing the Kid Rock/Sheryl Crow song “Picture” when things got ugly. Wyman told WMC’s Janice Broach that she continued to sing although she heard the victim hollering that he’d been stabbed and saw blood coming. “They were all drunk,” the witness was quoted as saying.

Politics

• Who among us hasn’t occasionally wished there were more hours in the day? State Rep./Time Lord Curry Todd waved his sonic screwdriver and created legislation to eliminate Daylight Savings Time and/or make it permanent, miraculously giving Tennesseans an extra hour to get ready for work in the morning and an extra hour to unwind in the evening. Or something like that.

Todd’s brave and ambitious proposal was met with skepticism by science wonks and global sorcery-deniers like Rep. Kent Williams, an independent from Elizabethton, who asked if Todd could make Tennessee more like Alaska: “Six months of daylight and six months of darkness?” State Rep./Tribal Chieftan Ryan Haynes (R-Knoxville) asked for a year’s delay so lawmakers could study the issue. The Tennessean‘s political reporter Chas Sisk suggested, “Perhaps by watching the skies.”

• A recent Commercial Appeal feature spotlighting Mayor A C Wharton’s “Blueprint for Prosperity” yielded this charming anecdote from the Whitehaven Christmas parade. Once upon a time Wharton was riding in a convertible through the streets of Whitehaven tossing individually wrapped pieces of candy …

“I don’t want no damn candy. I want a job,” one woman called out, causing the mayor to think. “We’ve been throwing them candy,” he was quoted as saying. “What they want to do is to be able to buy their own candy.”

Media

• The thing about live TV is, well, it’s live. That’s the lesson WMC news reporter Jerica Phillips learned when she reported the impact of heavy rains on one of Memphis’ poorer neighborhoods. Priscilla Lester, an angry Frayser resident, walked into the shot complaining — and rightfully so — that this marked the fourth or fifth time the “motherf#$%&r” had flooded. The video went viral and became so popular that WMC returned to the scene to meet Lester, a 51-year-old mother of five adult children, who was sorry about cursing on TV, out of Kool cigarettes, and in need of a hug.

• 2014 is notable for this photo of WMC reporter Jason Miles under a car on a birthday cake.

• The best trending topic of 2014 had to be #Rockbone. The word started trending after an official tweet from WREG News Channel 3, generated ostensibly to encourage viewers to use the station’s interactive weather radar, was loosed into the twitterverse with an attached link for

pornhub.com/users/rockbone …

Twitter users responded immediately with things like this …

And this …

Memphisness

• Justin Timberlake answered a social media critic who accused J-Tim of being a “bandwagon” Memphis Grizzlies fan. Timberlake’s response: “Uh … I’m from Memphis and I’m an owner. Anyone else? #WigSnatch.”

• An unidentified woman was permanently ejected from the Memphis Zoo for getting a little too close to the animals. On Monday, June 23rd, a woman wearing brown scrubs crossed a barrier in Cat Country in order to serenade the lions and feed them cookies. Nobody seems to have recorded what types of cookies she thought a 250-pound carnivore might enjoy. Ladyfingers, perhaps?

Mississippi, Our Neighbor

• Life imitated a worn-out Monty Python sketch last week when 78-year-old Walter Williams of Lexington, Mississippi, turned out to be “not dead yet,” in spite of the fact that he’d been pronounced so by the coroner, zipped into a body bag, and taken to Porter and Sons Funeral Home to be embalmed.

“He was not dead, long story short,” funeral home manager Byron Porter was quoted as saying, explaining how it came to pass that Mr. Williams got better and started kicking and making noise inside his body bag, trying to get out.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Best of “What They Said”

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

Each week, editorial cartoonist Greg Cravens illustrates a reader comment from the articles on memphisflyer.com. The Flyer staff looked over every illustration from the past year, and after much deliberation, we’ve chosen these as our top 10.

Greg Cravens

About Jackson Baker’s Politics Blog post, “Judge Joe Brown Uncorks a Shocker, Taunting Weirich About Her Sexuality” …

“Does this mean that Joe Brown won’t be attending the annual Memphis Pride Parade?”

— Tom Guleff

About Toby Sells’ cover story, “Trolley Trials”…

“Without the trolleys, it’s like the heart has been ripped out of Downtown Memphis. They truly were the heart, soul, and glue that held everything together. The sooner they’re back, the better off everyone will be. It’s sad to read that many businesses are suffering. What makes this really disappointing is this entire episode could’ve been avoided had competent management been in place. I do feel Ron Garrison has a good handle on the situation, and I feel confident in his leadership.”

— Midtown Mark

Greg Cravens

About Toby Sells’ story, “Confederate Heritage Groups Vow to Fight Park Name Changes” …

“Health Sciences Park, Mississippi River Park, and Memphis Park. Good Lord, how about just Tree Park, Grass Park, and Wino Park (let’s be real)? Or since the Confederates surrendered Memphis after 15 minutes of battle, how about Slam Bam Thank You Ma’am Park?” — CL Mullins

About Bruce VanWyngarden’s letter from the editor on an email comparing President Obama to Russian President Vladimir Putin …

“Obama thinks before he acts; personally, I really like a thinking president, for a change. I can see why Putin is Palin’s idol — two of a kind …”

— Brenda Beasley Berretta

From “Not Okay, Cupid,” Kerry Crawford’s column about her problems with online dating, in which she complained of too many pictures of dudes holding fish …

“Yes, 90 percent of men in Memphis are rednecks with camo hats. Is this surprising? You live in the South. Also, don’t begrudge someone because they have an outdoor-related hobby. Boats are fun. Fishing is relaxing. Fishing is better than sitting around watching Netflix night after night.”

— bill.automata

About Chris Shaw’s post, “Arrests Made at Fast Food Strike” …

“Ya B1971, a living wage is unhealthy! We need an undead wage!” — Ern

From “Death Policy,” about proposals for sedation and live-feed cameras in the animal shelter’s euthanasia room. In the comments, one person said the Bible doesn’t condone mistreatment of animals. Here’s the response …

“The Bible is A-OK with lots of things we don’t condone today. Like, you know, dashing the babies of your enemies against rocks, stoning disrespectful children, keeping slaves, having your women be silent in church. Do you honestly think that if Jesus were here today and you invited him to a dogfight, he’d be all like ‘Not a sin, so let’s go. I love me some dogfighting.’?” — Jeff

About Jackson Baker’s Politics column detailing Steve Mulroy’s apprehension of a thief …

“Is chasing a thief across downtown for $20 indicative of something mayoral that should elicit my vote? If so, I need it spelled out.

— Brunetto Latini

Greg Cravens

From “Haslam, Ramsey State Positions on Meth, Medicaid, Vouchers, Guns, and More,” an article about Haslam’s conservative views …

“So from what hillbilly law school did that slack-jawed yokel Ron Ramsey graduate? The Blountville Moose Lodge?” — Robert Ritchie

Greg Cravens

About Bianca Phillips’ story on animal fighting, “For the Birds (and Dogs)” …

“A last-minute amendment has been added by Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville) to allow the trunking of poor, gay, uninsured schoolchildren. I’m not sure how that will affect passage.” — Chris in Midtown

Categories
Editorial Opinion

A Mixed Bag in 2014

If you’re standing up, sit down; if you’re sitting down, stand up — whatever you need to do to take stock of the year that just passed or get ready for the new one. Frankly, we don’t know whether to be shocked, bemused, or encouraged.

There was a rush of things at year’s end regarding which we’re just going to have to wait and see.

To start with, it was one of the most satisfying: Yes, considering how often we’ve been on the short end of the stick in matters having to do with our relations with our sister city of Nashville, it does feel good to have something to gloat about. Folks up that way may not have noticed how well our NBA Grizzlies did in 2014 compared to their NFL Titans, but they dang sure noticed when the Swedish furniture giant IKEA chose to locate its newest mega-store not in the Middle Tennessee environs of the state’s capital city but on a generous stretch of land along Highway 64 in our own Shelby County bailiwick — within the city limits of Memphis, in fact. We know from things we read or saw on TV or picked up online that Nashville had been competing pretty hard for that honor. 

The folks there had let it be known that they were tired of having to truck the 250 miles or so to Atlanta to shop for the nifty, lightweight, modernist stuff that IKEA makes. Well, the good news for Nashvillians is, they won’t have to drive quite so far to get to the IKEA store in Memphis. And, in season, they’ll be able to take in a Grizzlies game while they’re here, and, you know, get that sense of what it’s like to be a winner.

Along with the news that Target intends to locate a fulfillment center here, the news about IKEA would seem to provide some justification for the high hopes that had been invested in the joint city/county EDGE (Economic Development Growth Engine) board, as well as to allay some of the doubts about that board’s incentives policy.

We still think, though, that the policy of attracting new business and industry through the liberal use of PILOTS (payments-in-lieu-of-taxes) needs careful oversight, lest it be abused. We don’t have much of a tax base for public purposes to start with, and to squeeze it much further could be counter-productive — and regressive. Surely nobody needs to be reminded that the city’s first responders are aggrieved by changes wreaked in their health-care and pension options as a result of austerity measures in local government. Nor has memory faded about the recent outbursts in public violence that caused such concern about our ability to counter or contain them. 

We are ending the 2014 year with a nice seasonal glow, thanks to some successes like those mentioned above, and we’re grateful. But we’re well aware from the all too obvious disturbances and discontent that have also manifested themselves that we have continuing and grave problems that have not gone away. It’s a mixed bag, but Happy Holidays is still the right thing to say. So we do.

Categories
Cover Feature News

2015: The Year Ahead in Memphis

Business

Bass Pro Shops: Last year, right here in this very same spot in this very same issue, we said you’d be doing your 2014 Christmas shopping in the Pyramid. 

It was the truth at the time, at least based on the information we had. But things change, and when it comes to Bass Pro, Memphians know schedules do, too. Now the new open date is May 2015.     

So, why the date change? Bass Pro officials said they wanted to open the entire establishment — the store, the restaurants, the hotel, the bowling alley, and the Ducks Unlimited Waterfowling Heritage Center — all at the same time. Here’s how Bass Pro founder and CEO Johnny Morris explained it in November:

“This started off as kind of a bait and tackle shop. It’s evolved to be considerably more than that. I just say from everybody in the company and all involved … we’re very proud of the progress that we’re making and the grand plans that have been developed. It’s an undertaking that’s become probably larger than any of us probably envisioned at the outset. Partly, that’s because as time’s gone on we’ve become more and more excited about the potential of this facility here in Memphis.”

Main to Main: Improvements will continue along Main Street in 2015, leaving the Harahan Bridge as the only piece of unfinished work for the (take a deep breath) Main Street to Main Street Intermodal Connector project. 

Sidewalks, gutters, and streets will all be fixed next year along the stretch of Main Street from Henry Avenue in Uptown to Carolina Avenue in South Main. The drainage system (including those unsightly boards) along the Main Street Mall will be fixed and new trees will be planted, too. 

Crews have been at work this year on South Main south of Talbot Avenue fixing what were nearly impassable sidewalks and repaving Main Street.

Work will also continue on converting one section of the Harahan Bridge into a bike and pedestrian pathway called Big River Crossing. But that work won’t be complete until 2016.   

Memphis International Airport: Memphis International Airport (MEM) is going to feel smaller in 2015. That’s because it will be smaller, a lot smaller. Concourses A and C will be closed. By late 2015, all gates, restaurants, bars, and retailers will be consolidated into Concourse B. (It’s the one right in the middle of the ticketing area.)

This is all a part of the airport’s $114 million modernization project. The plan underscores the need for the airport to get with the times. That is, the times after Delta Air Lines de-hubbed the airport, removing dozens of flights. Back in the Delta days, airport officials said MEM needed its 85 gates. Now, it needs about 25 (but will keep 45 total for future expansion).

Demolition is underway on parts of Concourse A and is expected to be complete by early 2015. Demolition on parts of Concourse C will begin after that, in late summer 2015. 

Guest House at Graceland: Will the new Whitehaven hotel be the hottest place Memphians will brag that they’ve never visited? 

We’ll find out in late 2015, when the Guest House at Graceland opens its doors. Fueled with government financing, work is slated to begin on the 450-room hotel in early 2015. The project will cost somewhere between $121 million and $132 million. 

It is slated to be built on the same side of the street as Elvis Presley’s mansion but farther north, on the corner of Elvis Presley Boulevard and Old Hickory Road. The Guest House will have two restaurants, meeting and event spaces, a pool, unique VIP suites designed by Priscilla Presley, a free airport shuttle, room service, and a 500-seat theater for live performances.  

AutoZone Park: Remember when we bought a baseball park this year? 

Even if you don’t, we totally did. It was AutoZone Park, and it cost us $24 million. The St. Louis Cardinals bought the Memphis Redbirds, and they promised to keep the ‘Birds here for another 17 years, and the Cardinals are going to run the park, too. No? Still, no. Well, the deal went down in early January 2014 and a lot has happened since then.

The city is in the baseball park business. One of things the city promised it would do was to spruce the place up. In fact, $4.5 million of that total $24 million price tag was to go to improvements on the park. 

The Cardinals have promised $15 million in stadium improvements to reach Major League Baseball standards (and those improvements will become assets of the city). These improvements include LED boards on the right field and left field walls, new grass berms, a new club on the suite level, ribbon boards (like those that run around the inside of FedEx Forum) down the right field and left field lines, a new bar in left field, and improved picnic areas.

Chisca Hotel: Something like a caterpillar in a cocoon, the Chisca has been wrapped in a layer of scaffolding for much of the past year. Once its $24 million redevelopment is complete later in 2015, owners say it will emerge like a butterfly: a 100-year-old, retro-modern apartment building with space for a few shops and a healthy, fast casual restaurant called LYFE Kitchen. 

The building will have about 160 units, a mix of one-bedroom loft units, two-bedroom loft units, and some two-story townhomes. Rent prices will range from $750 to $2,100. Leasing will likely begin early next year with late-2015 move-in dates.

Orpheum Theatre: The curtain will rise on the Orpheum’s Performing Arts & Leadership Centre in 2015. 

The three-story complex is under construction on the piece of property adjacent to the theater’s south side. The 50,000 square-foot building is estimated to cost $10.7 million. It will include a black box theater, a rehearsal hall, a commercial kitchen, dressing rooms, and classrooms for pre-show and post-show workshops. It will also feature office spaces and meeting areas.

Blues Hall of Fame: A brand new home for the Blues Hall of Fame is slated to open in mid-2015. The 12,000 square-foot site is located at 421 S. Main across from the National Civil Rights Museum. It will house the hall, of course, and the offices of the Blues Foundation.

Curators have been at work this year reviewing items for exhibits from performers including B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Howlin’ Wolf. Blues Foundation CEO Jay Sieleman said in October that he would step down from his role with the group sometime in 2015.  

Old Dominick Distillery: Spirits will flow from this brand new Memphis distillery next year (if all goes according to plan). Longtime beverage distributor and wholesaler D. Canale and Co. is behind Old Dominick, and the distillery will produce bottles of booze, of course, but will also feature a tasting room slated for a fall 2015 opening. 

Old Dominick will be located downtown at 301 S. Front Street, right across the street from Gus’s Fried Chicken.   

Toof Building: Residents will be able to move into the long-blighted Toof Building on Madison in 2015. The five-story building is perhaps best known for the huge and colorful mural painted in 2008 that can be see at Memphis Redbirds games. The building is in the midst of a $5 million upgrade to transform the old print shop into 60 apartments and retail space. 

The Edge: No, it’s not the U2 guitarist that needs the help of the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC), it’s The Edge neighborhood. DMC President Paul Morris said his group has had a laser focus on South Main for the past three years. With that neighborhood thriving, Morris said they’ll divert their focus now to The Edge, which runs (basically) from Sun Studios to AutoZone Park and from Union to Madison.

The Horizon and One Beale: The recession halted work on two planned high-rise apartment buildings. But now they’re back.

The Horizon has been an empty hull since the recession sapped its financing in 2009. Mississippi-based Dawn Properties bought the 16-story, 155-unit apartment building in October for more than $13 million. Work will continue next year to get it open and leased. 

Dirt never moved on the One Beale project, which was planned to sit below the bluff at the corner of Beale Street and Riverside Drive. But the Carlisle Group (the same group behind the Chisca Hotel development) is making moves to get it off the ground. 

IKEA: Giant Swedish home-goods retailer IKEA will break ground (and Nashville’s heart) on its massive new store next year at the corner of Germantown Parkway and I-40. The store is slated to open in 2016.

Also: Look for these other projects to get going or to open next year: the Hole In the Wall restaurant behind Ernestine & Hazel’s (where chef Kelly English will reside as “director of taste”); the Agave Maria Mexican restaurant at Main and Union; Aldo’s Pizza Pies Cooper-Young location; the Truck Stop restaurant/food truck hybrid; the Butchery at Bounty on Broad; big renovations at the Memphis VA Medical Center; new buildings at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; a new emergency department at Methodist University Hospital; a new research building at UT Health Sciences Center; South Junction Apartments; and construction work on the Tennessee Brewery building. And work will continue on the Union Avenue Kroger, and scads of new apartments will open on South Main. — Toby Sells

Music

Big Legal Mess is completely out of control in the best way. I don’t know what they got into down in Water Valley, Mississippi, but it’s working. They started the year off with Leo Bud Welch’s Sabougla Voices. Welch is not the force that R.L. Burnside or Junior Kimbrough were. Maybe that’s only because he was discovered so late in life. But his Hill Country jump gospel is completely captivating. We’re lucky to have the record. Then they dropped the Designer Records collection of pay-to-play gospel soul cut by Style Wooten in the 1970s. The sounds here are exactly what was great about the classic era of soul music. The acts were working bands who had one shot to make a record. They sang their hearts out. In an era of off-puttingly over-produced music, this collection was like an oasis in the desert. See Local Beat (p. 29) for what we think of Alvin Youngblood Hart’s 7-inch.

So, when rumors started to circulate that Big Legal Mess might be linked to a group, including Fat Possum Records and Audiographic Masterworks, that will start pressing vinyl records in Memphis, we freaking fainted. You can have the sugarplums; pressing records in Memphis is what keeps me up at night.

This year was impossibly hard on Ardent Studios, with the recent deaths of John Hampton and founder John Fry. We will closely watch what happens there. But over in Crosstown, Toby Vest of High/Low Recording and Pete Matthews, long associated with Ardent and his own PM Music, joined forces this year. With Fry, Ardent had technical excellence and an appetite for creative risk in one person. Fry, as we have said, is irreplacable. But the yin and yang between Vest and Matthews has a similar dynamic. Maybe it’s unfair to compare them to Fry. Maybe they deserve it. Keep an eye on this pair. They offer more than a glimmer of hope after a cruel season.

As for artists, there are too many to mention. But our favorites are the ones who keep honing their craft. It’s like making money with compound interest: not glamourous but very effective. Memphis artists play so frequently that you become numb to seeing their names. But what happens is a slow-burn process in which smart talent and regular audiences conspire to improve music and performance. See Local Beat (p. 29) for our take on Amy LaVere, a perfect example of this process.

Marcella René Simien had a banner year, and we are excited to see what she does next. Valerie June, about whom we all wondered if she’d ever get to the next level, sure as heck did get to the next level. Her voice is finally in its place. Can’t wait to see where she’s headed next. Watch out for other folks in this course of study: The Memphis Dawls, James & the Ultrasounds, and others we may not yet know about.

We lost Newby’s, and folks are fretting (these people are always fretting) about the Hi-Tone, but rest assured that Memphis will have its live music. Lafayette’s reached out to an under-served segment of the local audience. GPAC is having a heyday. Bar DKDC ripened into a perfect place to hear live music. The Bucc and Murphy’s, our golden cockroaches, seem impervious to the goings on around them, as they should. You’ll never do without live music in Memphis. We look forward to more. — Joe Boone

Politics

Between the forthcoming session of the Tennessee General Assembly, early, and the Memphis city election, later on, the political year 2015 promises to be chock-full. 

What the legislature will have to tangle with, right off the bat, is Governor Bill Haslam’s just-announced “Insure Tennessee” plan, designed to allow the state to receive substantial benefits — estimated to be between $1 and $2 billion annually — for Medicaid expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA). The plan is Haslam’s way of tapping into the ACA without seeming to be embracing the act, known more familiarly to the Republican super-majority that controls the legislature as Obamacare and almost universally scorned by GOP legislators. 

The plan, presented as a home-grown alternative to the ACA, offers two tracks to poverty-level recipients — vouchers for use with private insurors or participation in TennCare along with modest co-pays and premiums. Though a waiver from the federal government has apparently been assured in advance, the plan must also be endorsed by a majority of the members of both the state House of Representatives and the state Senate.  

The plan has the public support of the state’s congressional delegation and organized business groups, as well as of the state’s hospitals, many of which are desperately in need of the ACA funds. Even the arch-conservative Lieutenant Governor/Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey has expressed open-mindedness to it. But there still could be opposition from Tea Party legislators and other influential Republicans. State Senator Brian Kelsey of Germantown is a likely opponent, and Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris has indicated his ambivalence.

Haslam has called a special session to deal with the matter on the eve of the regular legislative session, and consideration of the plan could take up most of January.

Once that matter is disposed of, the legislature has other thorny issues to deal with, among them the still unsettled one of educational standards  (the previously rejected “Common Core” having earned the same ill repute as Obamacare), the possible abolition of the Hall Income Tax on interest and dividends (stoutly resisted by the newly determined Haslam), and a variety of bills designed to impose new curbs on abortion, as permitted by the recently passed Amendment 1 to the state constitution.

By the time the General Assembly quits its run in April, the Memphis city election should be heating up. The Election Commission will start issuing petitions for municipal races on April 17th, with a filing deadline set for July 17th. Primary attention, of course, will be paid to the mayor’s race, in which incumbent Mayor A C Wharton, given a boost by a string of positive-looking year-end actions, will be facing off against a set of opponents whose identities are still largely unknown. Among the possible challengers are Councilman Jim Strickland, Councilman Harold Collins, former School Board maverick and New Olivet Baptist pastor Kenneth Whalum Jr., and former County Commissioner James Harvey. Numerous others have floated trial balloons, including Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams, County Commissioner Steve Basar, former councilmember Carol Chumney, and, most recently, County Commission Chairman Justin Ford.

Ford, though, is likely to be fully occupied attempting to consolidate his authority as chairman against persistent challenges from the venerable Walter Bailey and other Democrats concerned about fellow Democrat Ford’s working alliance with the Commission’s Republicans. That should keep things interesting.

— Jackson Baker

LGBT Rights

Nationally, 2014 was a landmark year for marriage equality. Same-sex couples have the freedom to marry in 36 states, and in four other states, including Arkansas and Mississippi, judges have ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, but those rulings are stayed as the cases proceed to appellate courts.

But 2014 wasn’t Tennessee’s year. At this time last year, a lawsuit had been filed seeking recognition for three Tennessee same-sex couples who had legally wed in other states. The hope was that the case would get taken up by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. It seemed like a shoo-in since every other federal appeals court had ruled in favor of overturning same-sex marriage bans.

But the Sixth Circuit’s three-judge panel ruled in favor of marriage bans in Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan. While, on its face, that seems like a blow to the marriage equality movement, it might turn out to be a good thing.

The Sixth Circuit’s split from the other appeals courts means the issue could now be taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court. At their January conferences, Supreme Court justices are expected to discuss whether or not they will take up the Sixth Circuit case. If they do, a ruling could come down by June 2015.

“If the Supreme Court takes up the case and we get a positive ruling, that will help settle things for everybody,” said Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP).

On a local level in 2015, TEP will again push the Shelby County Commission to pass more specific wording for its non-discrimination ordinance protecting county employees. The current ordinance has vague language that protects employees based on “non-merit factors.” But the commission voted down adding “sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression” to the ordinance this year.

On a state level, Sanders said they’re watching out for a possible comeback of what they labeled last year the “Turn the Gays Away” bill, which would have allowed persons or religious organizations (both for- and non-profit) to deny services or goods in conjunction with a civil union, domestic partnership, or gay marriage. That state bill was introduced in 2014, but it was later dropped.

“I think with the coming decision on marriage, legislators are going to look for ways to opt out people who don’t want to deal with married, same-sex couples,” Sanders said.

Both TEP and the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition (TTPC) will be pushing for a comeback of what they call the “Dignity for All Students Act,” an anti-bullying bill that would include sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, etc. in a list of things children could not be bullied for in public schools. That bill was sent to study last March. It does have bipartisan support, just not enough. Sanders expects it will be back.

TTPC is pushing for the General Assembly to pass legislation in 2015 that would allow transgender people to change their gender on their birth certificates. “Tennessee is the only state with a law that bans gender changes on a birth certificate,” said Marisa Richmond, secretary and lobbyist for the TTPC.

TTPC is also pushing a statewide non-discrimination act that would protect LGBT people in areas of employment, housing, financing, and public accommodations, and they’re seeking the addition of “gender identity and expression” to the state hate crimes law. Currently, with regard to LGBT matters, Tennessee only includes “sexual orientation” in its hate crimes law. — Bianca Phillips

Film

Assuming Hollywood survives the North Korean cyberwar, there are a lot of films to look forward to in 2015.

In January, there are a bunch of good end-of-the-year Oscar hopefuls going into wide release that will hit Memphis theaters. Chief among them is Paul Thomas Anderson’s Thomas Pynchon adaptation, Inherent Vice, starring Joaquin Phoenix. Selma, the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic Civil Rights march, starring David Oyelowo and Oprah Winfrey, is also gathering good buzz.

February starts with a new sci-fi epic from the Wachowskis, Jupiter Ascending, starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis, which was delayed from last summer, meaning either it could be a dud or they were really working on the special effects. Perhaps both. The Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation will be hitting theaters shortly afterwards, which is the definition of “highly anticipated,” but there is little hope of it rising above its source material.

The summer blockbuster season looks fairly promising, kicking off with the next big Marvel superhero fest, Joss Whedon’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron, which has the same great cast, plus James Spader as the artificially intelligent robot villain. Australian director George Miller returns to the post-apocalyptic turf he pioneered with Mad Max: Fury Road, which is looking incredible right now in previews, starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.

Brad Bird, the director of The Incredibles, whom I will always follow eagerly, teams up with George Clooney and Hugh Laurie in Tomorrowland. The Jurassic World trailer, starring Starlord himself Chris Pratt, ginned up some excitement earlier this month. Pixar’s internal monolog movie Inside Out looks to be a return to form for the animation powerhouse, but the troubled Ant-Man production could prove to be a Marvel misstep. Later in the summer, 20th Century Fox will try again to make a decent movie out of Fantastic Four starring Miles Teller as Reed Richards.

On a more human scale, Amy Schumer will be stepping into the leading role for the first time with Judd Apatow’s comedy Trainwreck, and the summer closes out with Straight Outta Compton, the NWA story that has both Ice Cube and Dr. Dre as producers.

The holidays will see the closing chapter in The Hunger Games four-part trilogy, which, judging by Mockingjay — Part 1, could be the strongest film of the franchise. Quentin Tarantino will have a new postmodern Western The Hateful Eight ready by the end of the year with Samuel L. Jackson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Kurt Russell.

But by far the most anticipated movie of the decade so far is the first non-George Lucas Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens. Set 30 years after Return of the Jedi, Director J. J. Abrams and screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan will bring back Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford for one last galavant around the galaxy. Will The Force be with them? Here’s hoping.

— Chris McCoy

Crime and Public Safety

Homicides are up, residential and business burglaries are down, and the amount of forcible rapes in Memphis is neck and neck with last year.

Nevertheless, serious crime in Memphis as a whole has declined slightly. And the Memphis Police Department (MPD) anticipates this trend will continue on into the New Year.

In 2014, through December 15th, there were 45,914 part one crimes committed in the Bluff City, according to MPD data. Part one crimes include offenses like murder, forcible rape, aggravated assault, burglary, robbery, automobile theft, and larceny.

Over the same period in 2013, there were 46,533 crimes committed — a 1.3 percent decrease.

However, if you look at the number of part one crimes committed in the city in 2006, through December 15th, it’s evident that crime has experienced a significant drop.

In 2006, the year Memphis’ metropolitan area was ranked as having the second-highest rate of violent crimes in the U.S., there were 65,783 part one crimes. Since then, the number of serious crimes committed in Memphis has decreased more than 30 percent.

But crime still remains an issue in Memphis. According to MPD data, this year, through December 15th, the number of homicides, automobile thefts, and robberies of individuals and businesses has increased. But burglaries of both residences and businesses, and larceny and aggravated assault as a whole have slightly declined.

And, in comparison to recent years, the number of police-involved shootings also declined in 2014. From January 1st to December 15th, there were nine police-involved shootings in Memphis, none of which were fatal.

In 2013, over the same time frame, there were 14, seven of which were fatal. And in 2012, there were also 14 shootings involving MPD officers, in which six were fatal.

The MPD’s efforts to combat crime were impacted in July, when more than 500 Memphis police officers called in sick to protest the Memphis City Council’s vote to cut health-care benefits of current and retired city employees. At press time, there was no data to show the impact, if any, the absence had on local crime stats.

Looking forward into 2015, the MPD says it’s determined to continue lowering crime through community interaction and policing, as well as by utilizing various crime reduction initiatives such as the Community Outreach Program and Blue Crush.

“We will continue to be enthusiastic and committed to fighting crime utilizing all of our resources and technology,” said MPD Sergeant Alyssa Macon-Moore. “We want to build an even stronger relationship with citizens of this great city.”

— Louis Goggans

Theater

When Playhouse on the Square opened its new facility at the corner of Cooper and Union in 2010, Overton Square was in serious decline. By the time the Hattiloo Theatre opened its new, custom-designed space on Cooper and Monroe in 2014, the entertainment district was in the midst of a full-fledged renaissance. Next year promises even more growth for the local performing arts community, which will see the opening of new facilities and new plays.

In March, The Orpheum broke ground on its new 39,000-square-foot, $14.5-million Centre for Performing Arts and Education, which is being built over the parking lot on the south side of the theater. When it opens, the new space will include classrooms, an additional performance hall, and rehearsal space.

Orpheum president and CEO Pat Halloran has also announced that he will end his 30-year run and retire at the end of 2015.

Memphis audiences will be treated to more original work in 2015. In 2013, Playhouse on the Square began an ambitious push to find new playwrights and produce their work. That endeavor starts paying dividends in the new year when We Live Here, the winner of the first NewWorks@TheWorks new play competition, opens at TheatreWorks on January 2nd. The Hattiloo is also currently rehearsing fresh material. Hoodoo Love, a new play by celebrated Memphis playwright Katori Hall, whose previous works include Hurt Village, and The Mountaintop opens January 15th. — Chris Davis