This is ripe for a punchline. Give it your best, er, shot in the comments.
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Month: March 2015
One of the nominees for XXL’s 2015 Freshmen Class, Snootie Wild checked in with Sway in the Morning while out at SXSW.
The CMG representative shared his thoughts on being selected as a XXL Freshmen Class candidate, and provided a pre-acceptance speech.
Snootie also explained the title of his upcoming project, Ain’t No Stopping Me, during the interview. And revealed why people call him “the James Brown of rap.”
The melodic Memphian later disclosed methods he uses to stay relevant, touched on Yo Gotti’s involvement with his forthcoming mixtape, and performed the hook of his yet-to-be released song “Who’s Faking.”
Check out the interview below.
Snootie Wild Talks XXL Freshmen Class, New Mixtape, and Yo Gotti
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On Wednesday, fans of retro arcade games will have the chance to brush off their skills at the Rec Room, a new arcade bar inside a warehouse at 3000 Broad Avenue.
The venture — spearheaded by a partnership group that includes Taylor Berger, Bill Ganus, Barry and Blake Lichterman, Andy Cates, Michael Tauer, and several others — will feature a number of 1980s and ’90s arcade games as well as mini-living rooms set up with retro gaming consoles.
Standing arcade floor games will include Pac Man, Street Fighter II, Donkey Kong, Tron, Burger Time, Road Blasters, among others. But groups can also rent one of six mini-living rooms — complete with couches and chairs — by the hour to play games on gaming consoles. The games, broadcast from everything from Atari 2600 to Xbox 1 and Playstation 4, will be projected onto a wall.
At first, the bar will serve four rotating styles of beer from Wiseacre Brewing Company, as well as some nationally distributed beers by Sweetwater and Oskar Blues Brewery. The Truck Stop food truck, which debuted at last year’s “Untapped” event at the Tennessee Brewery, will be on-site at the Rec Room peddling tacos. Bluff City Biscuits will sell biscuit sandwiches. The bar will be open seven days a week, opening at 4 p.m. on week days but earlier on weekends.
Check out this week’s Memphis Flyer for more details. Until then, check out these pics from Flyer photographer Justin Fox Burks of Rec Room’s Monday night soft opening.
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The Achtungs Live at the Buccaneer
The Achtungs play the Buccaneer tomorrow night, the only Memphis show on the band’s east coast tour. Hailing from Finland, The Achtungs play bruising punk rock in the vein of The Weirdos, Crime and even Memphis’ own The Reatards. Simply put, this is one of the best punk bands to come through Memphis in quite some time. The Nervous Ticks and Gimp Teeth round out the bill. The show starts at 9, don’t sleep on this one.
The Achtungs Live at the Buccaneer
The Achtungs Live at the Buccaneer (3)
The Achtungs Live at the Buccaneer (2)
Sammons
Memphis Mayor A C Wharton has made official his intention to hire Jack Sammons as the city’s chief administrative officer.
The confirmation came in a news release Tuesday morning that he has appointed “the business leader and former city councilman,” effective May 8.
Wharton said the opportunity to hire Sammons was like “(University of Memphis Football) Coach Fuente finding out that there’s a five-star quarterback who is willing to join his team.
“I said in my State of the City speech that this is a transformative year for Memphis because we have laid the foundation and set an agenda for accelerated progress.
“This appointment guarantees that we will make the most of these opportunities to dramatically move Memphis ahead.”
Wharton said his responsibilities will include the day-to-day operational control of the city.
“He will put together his team; he will lay out the operating structure for the administration; he will work on relationships with the (Memphis City Council) and the state legislature, and he will have authority for the management of all city divisions,” Wharton said.
The news release said that in the coming weeks, Sammons will wind down his personal business affairs (as CEO of Ampro Industries, his haircare products company) and will meet with internal and external “customers, including the city council, labor, retirees, the business community, neighborhood leaders, and more.”
“The mayor is bringing me in to run the business, and that’s what I will do,” Sammons said. “I’m not there to be political. I will do whatever it takes for city government to be one of the best in the nation. I’m not a 9-to-5 kind of person, so I will do whatever it takes and stay as long as I can make a difference.”
Here are some reactions to the announcement from some members of the city council:
• Memphis City Council member and mayoral candidate Jim Strickland
Strickland said he did not expect Sammons’ hiring to affect the upcoming mayoral election or the current relationship between the Wharton Administration and the city council.
“A C Wharton has admitted in the announcement to (The Commercial Appeal) why he needs to be replaced — his failure to act,” Strickland said. “First, he admits that he has failed to do much. And that’s been the missing link: follow through. Not just on one or two things.”
Second, Strickland said, “(Wharton) admits he’s known this for five years.” He pointed to the CA story that said the change in the CAO position has been ongoing since 2010.
“You can shuffle the staff all you want,” Strickland said. “But until we replace the man at the top, Memphis will not have leadership and change.”
• Memphis City Council chairman Myron Lowery
Sammons served as Lowery’s CAO during his term as interim mayor. Lowery said he has seen some in the Wharton administration that “haven’t been 100 percent in what they’re doing.”
“Jack has been where councilman has been for many, many years and served longer than many on the council currently here,” Lowery said. “He understands the role of the council and the mayor and the oftentimes conflicting nature of what we do but the necessity of working together.
“Because he understands this better than most, he is the perfect individual to bridge the gap of communication and trustworthiness between the council and the mayor. Every organization needs a touch of new blood to give it new life and just some new perspective. Jack will come in with that.”
• Memphis City Council vice chairman Kemp Conrad
“We need more business people in government and I’m glad Jack is once again answering the bell,” Conrad said. “This move is good for Memphis although the mayor should have kept him in board from the get go.
“It will be good to have a results-oriented, energetic, don’t-take-no-for-an-answer, go-getter running the operations of city government and collaborating with the council.”
• Council member Bill Boyd
Boyd said he would not support Sammons’ appointment if it meant a big increase in Mayor Wharton’s budget.
“Jack is a very capable person to fill the position,” Boyd said. “I have no problem personally business-wise with Chief (George) Little. I thought he was a good representative for (Mayor Wharton). (Little) has always been ready for presentations and honest and forthright with me.
“It’s an internal thing that the mayor has to call. Sometimes you second-guess a coach for using a player or not using them but you’re really not sure of what going on during practices.”
Next steps for the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority
Scott Brockman, president of the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority, said he and his staff will carry on but “Jack will be greatly missed as chairman.”
“I don’t think we’re losing Jack,” Brockman said, “his role is just changing. He’ll remain a tremendous asset to the airport authority, just not as a voting member.”
Should Sammons be confirmed as the new CAO, Brockman said he expected him to immediately resign his post as chairman of the airport board.
The election for a new board chairman could come during the board’s meeting on April 17. If not, Brockman said vice chairman Pace Cooper will convene the May meeting as the board chairman.
The newly elected chairman will serve out the remainder of Sammons’ term, which ends on December, 31, 2016. Sammons was serving out the remaining term of Arnold Perl, who left the board in 2012.
Sammons could have sought a new five-year term as the airport’s board chairman. The newly elected chairman will be able to fill out the term left vacant by Perl and, perhaps, Sammons and then seek another five-year term at the end of 2016.
“We are going to continue and press on with our mission and devote our energies into advancing the ball for the this airport every day,” Brockman said. “We’ll continue on and embrace the next chairman and move on.”
The Sammons back story
News of the high-ranks shuffle has simmered for more than a month but it broke yesterday. Sammons told the CA that he had accepted the position as the city’s chief administrative officer and will leave his post as chairman of the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority, according to numerous media sources.
His appointment is subject to a vote by the Memphis City Council next Tuesday, April 7. Should council members approve his appointment, he’ll take a leave of absence from the airport. He would take his new job as second in command to memphis Mayor A C Wharton in May.
Wharton offered Sammons the job in February. But he would not talk on his motivation to hire him. But that didn’t stop many around Memphis to speculate that it was a political move.
Even more wondered how Sammons would split his time between city hall, the airport, and his haircare company, Ampro Industries.
State law prohibited Sammons (or anyone) from serving both at the Airport Authority and at Memphis City Hall. Wharton tried to change that bill to change it failed before the Tennessee General Assembly.
Sammons will replace George Little in the CAO slot. Little will turn his attention to special projects, like re-aligning the Memphis Police Department, cutting costs in the city’s solid waste division, bringing efficiencies to the Memphis Fire Services Division, and spearheading the city’s new Division of Minority Business Services, which Wharton introduced in his State of the City address in January.
JB
Milton makes the case against Aramark.
The Shelby County Commission, which is constantly redefining itself as the personalities on it redefine themselves, underwent another self-adjustment Monday, under the prod of an issue — out-sourcing forced by austerity — that keeps cropping up these days.
In this case, the question was whether the county should continue to run its own food service operation for the Division of Correctons compound in east Shelby County or lease that task to a private corporation, Aramark Correctonal Services, Inc., at something of a cost-savings. The decision was prompted by a decrease of $1.9 million in annual funding from the state of Tennessee.
At stake was the fate of 31 jobs, which ordinarily would be up to Aramark, a profit-based enterprise, to make decisions about, and, sans any effort by the county administration or the Commission to mitigate the fate of the employees, might have been arbitrarily trimmed the same way that similar positions at the jail and at Shelby County Schools had been when Aramark took over food services there.
That previous experience prompted anguished — and angry — testimony before the Commission from affected workers and spokespersons for them, several of whom made clear they distrusted conditions attached to the proposed deal by the administration that, in theory, would guarantee any terminated county food-service workers continued employment and benefits at existing levels, in jobs to be provided elsewhere in county ranks.
“We don’t want to hurt employees. We can realize savings without impacting any employees adversely,” said County CAO Harvey Kennedy, who was accompanied (and backed up) by County Mayor Mark Luttrell throughout the discussion.
Monday’s debate revolved around that latter concession, which in the end would deter two of the Commission’s Democrats — Van Turner and Willie Brooks — from joining a party-line revolt against the deal and stave off a contemplated objection also from at least one Republican, former Shelby County Schools member David Reaves, who had been dubious about the quality of the Aramark operation at SCS.
At various points in the discussion Republicans Reaves, Mark Billingsley, Steve Basar, and Heidi Shafer
The case against the Aramark contract was made primarily by Democratic Commissioners Walter Bailey, Eddie Jones, and Reginald Milton, and by Republican Terry Roland, all of whom expressed variations on the themes that the rights of workers should come first while expressing doubt that employees discontinued by Aramark could find suitable re-employment by the county.
Democrat Milton had originally been a co-sponsor of the contract arrangement with Aramark but withdrew his sponsorship, both because he had come to agree with the objections made by other Democratic opponents and, it was said, because he had been seriously put off by lobbying for the deal by some of the same Sheriff’s Department employees who had decisively intervened last weekend for eventual winner Randa Spears against Milton’s candidacy for the chairmanship of the local Democratic Party.
That last extra-curricular matter also nettled even one or two Republican Commissioners, who in solidarity with Milton reportedly considered the idea of deferring the Aramark contract, which will free up funding prospects for additional money which, with budget season approaching, the Sheriff’s Department is said to be seeking.
Much of the fight against the Aramark contract was also made by Roland, who, as other opponents had, disparaged “good faith” pledges on behalf of the employees and also questioned whether local businesses that have been serving the Corrections Center would be dropped by Aramark in favor of corporate vendors elsewhere.
Roland, a Millington Republican with quite conservative credentials on most issues, has always made a point of defending county employees’ interests. And, as one known to be intending a race for County Mayor in 2018, he has consistently been extending his rhetoric into more centrist areas as well. One remark of his, expressed in the vernacular he often favors, summed up his point of view: “I’m not going to take nobody’s job as the price of being conservative.”
Democratic Commissioner Jones at one point passed out some elaborate charts designed to disprove the administration’s contention that the Aramark contract was necessitated by financial exigencies. He maintained in effect that the administration had been sandbagging the Commission and that the county had been guaranteed more than enough money from the state to continue its own current food services operation.
Branding Jones’ assertions as “ludicrous,” Kennedy pointed out an apparent miscalculation by Jones, who had interpreted a maximum annual allotment figure based on a multiple of inmate numbers at the Correction Center to be a guaranteed annual figure, good for any year and any number of inmates.
In the end, the Commission would vote 7-5 in favor of the Aramark contract, with the add-on of an amendment by Turner, which essentially converted the “good faith” assurances of further employment for current food-services employees into precise contractual language. Voting for the contract were Republicans Reaves, Steve Basar, Mark Billingsley, George Chism, and Heidi Shafer. The five dissenters were Democrats Bailey, Milton, Jones, and Melvin Burgess, and Republican Roland. Abstaining was chairman Justin Ford, a Democrat.
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Grizzlies 97, Kings 83: Catch–33
Larry Kuzniewski
Gasol goes to work, pre-jersey rip.
It took Marc Gasol taking out his frustrations on his jersey, ripping the front of it wide open à la Hulk Hogan (and also Grizzly legend Darko Milicic), but the Grizzlies got a win, and a good one, over the Sacramento Kings last night at home, 97-83.
For all the talk we’ve been doing—”we” being myself and everybody else who covers this team night in and night out—I don’t think we’d considered that the answer to “What’s wrong with Marc Gasol?” was “He’s actually been slowly going insane for eight weeks” until last night. He started out missing shots again—similar to the San Antonio game Sunday night in which he was getting good looks at the basket and they were just rimming out—and in the first quarter he missed a 16-footer and had had enough:
The most “Marc Gasol” moment of the whole incident is when he rips the front of the jersey open, and then immediately realizes what he did and tries to stick the two sides of the tear back together. Not how it works, but a nice thought. He continued to play on with his jersey flapping in the breeze until the next timeout, when Kosta Koufos entered the game for him.
Ever since Gasol’s meltdown in the Detroit game, where he fouled out and just sat on the floor for a while, his mental state has been called into question. Last night was decidedly not evidence that everything is fine, but it was evidence that Gasol’s lack of intensity—his “checked-out-ness”—seems to be slowly subsiding and what’s coming in its place is an overwhelming frustration with himself and his lackluster play.
This is good and bad. It’s good because it means he cares. It’s bad because it means he’s playing with a lot of frustration, fouling sometimes after failing to make a play (in the style of Tony Allen), replacing the exuberant self-butt-slap with something more sinister—the rending of garments and a thousand-yard stare.
Someone asked Gasol about the jersey destruction in the postgame presser. Gasol just smiled, clearly sheepish, and said “That was my Darko moment. He was my man, and I miss him. I miss him a lot.”
Game Notes
Larry Kuzniewski
Kosta Koufos had one of his best nights ever off the Grizzlies’ bench.
➭ Kosta Koufos had the most rebounds he’s ever had coming off the bench for the Grizzlies (12) and played an all-around excellent game while backing up a Marc Gasol on the edge of some sort of mental break. He was everywhere last night, banging bodies with Grizzly Nemesis Reggie Evans and keeping him from accomplishing much, scoring as the roll man, setting picks, doing Kosta Koufos things. He may not be as good as Gasol (clearly he isn’t) but when he’s got a big chunk of minutes (and/or he is maybe halfway auditioning for his former coach George Karl) Koufos is such an excellent piece to have on this basketball team.
➭ Jeff Green had a really good night, even as he was inserted back into the starting lineup in place of the still-injured Tony Allen. Green played 33 minutes, was 6-11 from the floor (including 2-5 from 3pt. range) for 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. Jeff Green may not have good games as often as it seems like he should—something that has been the case throughout his NBA career, of course, and something Griz fans should’ve known they were getting—but he does genuinely look like he’s starting to learn where he’s supposed to be when he’s on the floor with the first unit, and I don’t doubt that his knowledge is going a long way towards reducing some of those guys’ frustrations.
Also, he had another ridiculous dunk in transition. He’s good at those.
Green is still a very important piece of the Grizzlies’ postseason puzzle. If he can continue to show this sort of growth over the last seven games of the season and into the first round, they’re in a lot better shape (even if he’s part of the second unit) than otherwise.
➭ Jokes about insanity aside (although I’m no longer convinced they’re jokes; the jersey tear was deeply uncomfortable even though it was funny), Gasol had a decent game: his shot wasn’t falling (4-11 from the floor), so instead he switched into “facilitator” mode, and did a good job with it, to the tune of 11 rebounds and 6 assists in 27 minutes. With the game Koufos was having, Gasol wasn’t really necessary, even when Joerger put him back in to finish out the game. I probably would rather have seen him sit the rest of the 4th quarter out and chillax, given the circumstances, but Joerger loves putting the starters in at the end of the game, so that’s what happened.
I do think we should be keeping an eye on Gasol from here on out. Jokes aside, he seems to be playing basketball from kind of a dark place right now. Who knows if his baby daughter stopped sleeping, or what. (You want to know what’ll make a grown man tear his own clothes in anger? A tiny human experiencing a sleep regression.) But it’s been a while since Gasol had this kind of an edge, and was playing kind of poorly at the same time.
Larry Kuzniewski
I wish I had words for how much I dislike Reggie Evans. Which is the entire point of his career.
➭ In the standings, last night was a good night. The Toronto Raptors beat the Rockets, and the Grizzlies won, so the Griz reclaimed 2nd place in the West and the lead in the Southwest division. Given the two teams’ remaining schedules, I think the Grizzlies should hold on to win the division, but they’ll probably have to go 6-1 or 5-2 over the last seven to do it. I think they can, but given their seeming instability as of late, I’ve been wrong before.
Tweet of the Night
No explanation necessary.
Dead. “@BSO: So Fast… RT @Steve_OS: GASOL!! “@theScore: NWO 4 LIFE! http://t.co/La3tevTXpP pic.twitter.com/n6p9rTWnCO””
— Steve Danziger (@StevieDanziger) March 31, 2015
Up Next
Three days of glorious rest, followed by a rare home-and-home back to back that sees the Grizzlies taking on the Thunder Friday night and the Wizards Saturday night, both at FedExForum. Then three more days off and a home game against the Grizzlies Kryptonite All-Stars New Orleans Pelicans with divisional implications. Road games at the Jazz, Clippers, and Warriors follow, before the Grizzlies play their last game of the regular season at home against the Pacers on 4/15.
NPR
Violent crime stats and clearance rates for Memphis between 2011 and 2013.
A new database created by National Public Radio (NPR) allows people to view the percentage of crime that has been solved by local law enforcement from 2011 through 2013.
Compiled using statistics submitted to the FBI’s “Uniform Crime Report,” the tool allows a person to enter a city, county, agency, or state into a search bar and see both the violent crime and property crime that occurred in the requested area. By doing so, people are also able to view the amount of crimes that were cleared by law enforcement.
According to the FBI, a variety of instances can result in the clearance of a crime, including a person being arrested, charged, identified as a culprit, or when an alleged offender dies.
When a person types Memphis into the NPR’s database search bar, they may be alarmed at the number of crimes committed that are actually not cleared.
In 2011, there were 10,309 violent crimes (murder, manslaughter, robbery, and aggravated assault) committed in Memphis. Of that number, 40 percent were cleared.
The clearance for violent crime declined for the following two years.
In 2012, there were 11,390 violent crimes with a 32 percent clearance rate. And in 2013, there were 10,833 violent crimes; 28 percent were cleared.
NPR
Property crime stats and clearance rates for Memphis.
For property crime (burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson), the clearance rate was even more alarming.
In 2011, there were 42,720 property crime offenses reported in Memphis. Only 13 percent were cleared.
The following year, the number of property crimes decreased but so did the clearance rate. There were 41,965 acts of property crime; 12 percent were cleared by law enforcement.
For 2013, however, property crime went down but the percentage of solved cases increased. There were 40,242 acts of property crime, of which 14 percent were cleared.
An in-depth crime report of Memphis and any other jurisdiction in the nation can be viewed here.
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Tonight: Benefit for Bobby Memphis
Bobby Memphis
Friends of Robert Jordan AKA Bobby Memphis will gather tonight at Lafayette’s Music Room to raise money for Jordan’s recent medical expenses. Performers include Amy LaVere and Will Sexton, Susan Marshall, The Bluff City Backsliders, and Papa Tops West Coast Turnaround. Children are welcome at the event until 9, and checks and cash will be accepted although the concert is free. Those who cannot make tonight’s concert but wish to donate can do so by clicking here.
Tonight: Benefit for Bobby Memphis (2)
Tonight: Benefit for Bobby Memphis
“The song is simple if you want it, take it. Freedom, quality of life, and the right to express yourself,” says Black Rock Revival’s Sebastian Banks. “What could better express the push and pull of life than a wrestler?”
This clip for the band’s new single, “If You Want It”, produced by Banks and helmed by Atlanta-based director Nina Stakz, combines some hardcore wrestling action with moodily lit performance footage.
“We shoot this in a one-day, 10-hour shoot,” Banks says. “The planning was key, with storyboards, fight choreography, and locations. We also where going for things we don’t usually see, an all-Black cast for a hard rock video. The action had to match the speed and intensity of the guitars and commanding vocal. Hopefully we made something MTV worthy and Memphis strong.”
Music Video Monday: Black Rock Revivial
If you have a music video you would like to see featured on Music Video Monday, email a link to cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.