Month: March 2015

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Schweinehaus’ Kartoffelpuffer

It’s easy to fall into the habit of going out to eat at the same places over and over again. Then it hits you, the desire to branch out and find something different. Well, at Schweinehaus in Overton Square you can go to Germany without having to even leave Memphis. This German/Memphis restaurant brings the traditional German cuisine and atmosphere to us!

The one thing on the menu you have to try is the Kartoffelpuffer. For just $7, you can have an amazing German-style potato pancake filled with bacon, onions and kraut. It’s served with apple butter and quark on the side to put onto the Kartoffelpuffer. The dish has four medium-sized potato pancakes and is enough to split between two people.

The Kartoffelpuffer itself is fried and crunchy. You can taste the flavor of the potatoes and everything is nicely seasoned. The onions and kraut blend together well and go down smoothly while the bacon adds a small but pleasant change of texture.

As for your sides to spread onto your Kartoffelpuffer, the apple butter is amazing! It’s pretty much a sweeter version of applesauce. The quark tastes like a mixture of cream cheese and sour cream. I couldn’t get enough and devoured both of them! For the brave individual, try putting Schweinehaus’ homemade peach habanero sauce on top of your Kartoffelpuffer! I tried and couldn’t handle it! 

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Next Day Notes: Cavaliers 111, Grizzlies 89

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

I just don’t even know what to say about these anymore. The Grizzlies lost at home to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, 111-89, in a game that was interesting for the first half and then found itself over in a hurry as the home team lost touch with the lead, and then lost interest.

It wasn’t pretty. Marc Gasol looked like he was tired and/or like he didn’t want to be there. Zach Randolph shot 2-8 from the floor and ended up with 5 points and 3 rebounds. Courtney didn’t attempt a field goal in his first 13 minutes on the floor, and finished playing 19 minutes and going 0-3. Mike Conley was decent but got flat-out worked by Kyrie Irving—something that’s been happpening a lot to him recently against the league’s (other) best point guards as of late and a trend that has gotten worse as the season goes along and Conley struggles to get healthy and stay healthy.

The list goes on. Vince Carter wasn’t playing well and then managed to get himself ejected while on the bench during a timeout in the third quarter. Jeff Green was okay, but that’s it, just okay. Garbage time let us see Calathes/Adams/Leuer/JaMychal Green/Koufos, so that was fun, I guess.

One thing you can’t say is that the Cavs didn’t deserve it. Their offense is running at something close to full speed now, and when they really start moving the ball, and when Kevin Love is brought into the fold enough to contribute close to the basket, their execution is fearsome. The Grizzlies’ defense, just at the very core scheme level of what they’re doing, can’t handle the Cavs when they’re moving the ball as well as they were last night. The second the Griz overloaded one side of the floor or overhelped on one drive to the basket, the ball was kicked to the perimeter and somebody on the weak side was wide open.

I just wonder about this Grizzlies team. All season long, they’ve played badly against bad teams, and then the “real” Grizzlies come out in the big games and they either take care of business or lose a tight game. Last night was not that—last night they got waxed by one of the best teams in the East, and never looked like they were executing at their highest level for a single second. The timing on all the sets was wrong. The interior passing game was being disrupted by two Cavs just standing on either block and a guard coming to help. (Mozgov and Love aren’t exactly known for their tough defense.) Sure, the Cavs were playing exceptionally well, but the Grizzlies didn’t just lose a hard-fought game against a good opponent; they got run out of their own building.

[jump]

Larry Kuzniewski

With Golden State coming to town Friday night—a team with which the Grizzlies match up well, and against whom the Griz are historically pretty good—one wonders whether another team who is really good at moving the ball will be able to pick the Grizzlies apart the same way. The Grizzlies will either win that game by 10 or, if they’re not careful, and if they come out playing the same way they played against the Cavs, they’ll lose by 30. And it’s hard to feel good about the championship hopes of a team that’s still sputtering down the stretch while the other top teams are starting to round into form.

I don’t remember another Grizzlies season so fraught with expectations and then filled with existential puzzlement down the home stretch. Here we are, almost to the end of March, and the Grizzlies aren’t playing anywhere near the level they played at to begin the season, they don’t look like they remember how to play at that level, their body language, while not as terrible as it was a week ago, still isn’t quite right—like something, no one knows what but something, is still bothering them all, eating at the same team chemistry that got them so many features written about them back in December. The question no one wants to ask—myself included—is “what if they played way above their heads early on and this is more in line with who they really are?”

I don’t necessarily believe that’s true, at least not completely true. As discussed ad nauseum by everyone writing about the Griz, if Gasol doens’t get back to MVP form in the playoffs, they don’t have much hope of making it to the Finals.

But there are small things that would help in the meantime, and the main one is Courtney Lee. When he shoots well, the Grizzlies win. When he shoots poorly, they lose. The correlation is too tight not to be significant. And you can see why just from watching: now that the Grizzlies don’t have a reliable shooter who isn’t Conley, teams are packing the paint against the Grizzlies and forcing them to deal with it, interrupting the execution on which the sets the Griz run depend so much. Lee was brilliant to start the year, with the highest 3P% in the league for a long early stretch, and he’s been slumping (a.k.a. “regressing to the mean”) ever since. Shooting that far above his career averages was never going to be sustainable, but to play 14 minutes of basketball before even attempting a field goal—like he did last night—makes him useless. He’s got to be shooting, and some of them have to be going in, if the Grizzlies are going to get anywhere. They need the floor spacing, desperately.

Larry Kuzniewski

That’s an important fix, but it’s only a minor one compared to the more generic and hard to pin down “they have to play harder.” Execution has been sorely lacking for the Grizzlies for a long time now, and on some nights, effort, too. It’s easy to write that off as “veteran team coasts through March,” but when they come out against the Cavs and have some of the same problems—a team against which they shouldn’t be coasting—it’s hard not to wonder whether they’ve formed some bad habits.

Last night was a little scary. The Cavs absolutely dismantled the Grizzlies, and the Griz wanted no part of it. Maybe they just realized they weren’t going to win and shut it down, looking forward to Friday at home against the Warriors and Sunday on the road at San Antonio. But that’s not really what it felt like. It felt like the Griz were just operating on a different level than the Cavs, a difference of class of team, not just of execution on a given night. They (the Grizzlies) made it feel like they weren’t up to the Cavs’ standards, and that was concerning. The Grizzlies now have a lot to prove, to themselves and to the whole rest of the world, over the next couple of games. We’re waiting.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Flying by the Seat of My Pants

A couple weeks ago in this space, I jokingly wrote that Memphis Airport Authority head Jack Sammons had agreed to become the executive editor of the Flyer. At least, I thought I was joking.

But some folks took me seriously and wrote emails castigating the Flyer for “selling out.” I guess they also believed, as I wrote, that Sammons was taking over MIFA, the CVB, the Chris Vernon Show, Muddy’s Bake Shop, and other local organizations.

Now it appears there may be a catch in Mayor Wharton’s plan to add Sammons to his staff (for real), as the state legislature is declining to overturn the law that keeps a city’s airport authority chief from serving in the administration of that city. This, in my opinion, is a good thing — because we need Sammons to keep focused on applying his formidable sales skills to get airlines to bring more flights to Memphis.

It won’t be easy. The number of flights at MEM has increased slightly this year, but it’s still way too difficult to get to anywhere from here. The situation isn’t helped by the fact that competition between airlines is almost nonexistent these days. The country is basically down to four major airlines: Delta (spit, spit), United, Southwest, and USAirways/American.

And though fuel prices have declined by half, airline ticket prices have risen precipitously. A number of recent studies and articles have shown just how badly the American public is getting gouged by the airlines. But we have little recourse, unless Congress takes some action, a doubtful prospect.

Every May for years, I’ve been meeting some old friends for a fishing week in Pennsylvania. I used to hop on a Delta flight to Pittsburgh for around $250 and get there in less than two hours. That sweet deal ended a few years back. Now, my options are to fly through Atlanta (spit, spit) or Dallas or Orlando(!) or Charlotte or wherever else the airlines want to shuttle me to for a long layover. The prices have more than doubled. The travel time to get from Memphis to Pittsburgh has more than tripled.

One of my friends drives to our fishing camp from Detroit, so I got the bright idea to take a direct flight (one of the few remaining) to Detroit and ride down with him. It would be a five-hour drive, but at least I’d have good company. Nope. The Memphis/Detroit flight was around $700. Seriously?

We’re getting gouged, I tell you.

Here’s my new travel math: It takes 12 hours to drive from Memphis to Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Gas is around $2.50. My wife has a hybrid I can borrow that gets 50 miles a gallon: Road trip. Bite me, Delta.

The only other option I can think of is actually hiring Jack Sammons to run the Flyer, so maybe he can get me an Airport Authority discount.

Jack? Call me. Such a deal I’ve got for you.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Spring Brews

CREDIT: Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

These days you can watch the seasons change in your pint glass.

Beers have always changed with the seasons. They do in Memphis now, too, thanks to the maturing craft beer scene here. 

Like the leafers who hit the New Hampshire backroads each fall, you can watch the beer seasons turn here with the changing tap handles at the big draft houses like the Flying Saucer and the Young Avenue Deli. Watch the chalkboard menus change at the Madison Growler Shop and the newly branded Hammer and Ale (formerly The Growler) in Cooper-Young. Heck, even watch the six packs change at just about every gas station in Midtown or downtown.

Just a very few weeks ago, Memphis was a fortress of ice and snow. It was the time for staying warm and inside, brooding over heavy beers — roasty porters and coffee-tasting stouts.

The ice is gone. Flowers are blooming. It’s a time for sitting on a patio with your friends drinking lighter stuff, like crisp and clean pilsners and freshly picked pale ales.

Knowing many of you are heading to patios to do just that, we wanted to give you a guide to what has just come on tap now and some of the handy standbys you can drink all spring and summer long.

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

J.C. Youngblood and the good people at Central BBQ allowed us to set up our tasting shop at their downtown location on the back patio. There, we unloaded our coolers and dug into more than a dozen local, regional, and national beers.

The caveat here is that no one on the Flyer staff is a beer expert. We’ve seen the business end of our share of pints, but we’re no cicerones. We needed help.

So, we brought in spirit guides for this vision quest. David Smith and Kevin Elbe from Hammer and Ale described the beers we were drinking as did last year’s cover boy, Taylor James, beer manager at the Madison Growler Shop. 

Our tasters this year were Flyer editor Bruce VanWyngarden (BV), staff writers Louis Goggans (LG), Chris Davis (CD), and Toby Sells (TS); senior editor Jackson Baker, former music editor Joe Boone, film and TV editor Chris McCoy (CM), regular Flyer contributor Eileen Townsend (ET), and Inside Memphis Business editor Richard Alley (RA), who made it plain that he doesn’t like IPAs. — TS

Toby Sells

Hefeweizen, High Cotton 

What they say: “Traditional German hefeweizen … citrusy … doesn’t carry the heavy banana flavor as some do.”

I can see drinking a lot of this without thinking very much about it. It doesn’t have much “mouth taste” (I think that’s what I heard the beer men call it?), once you swallow you are no longer thinking about what was going on before you swallowed. They should call it The Amnesiac. Goldfish Brew. — ET

Don’t you want to taste your beer while you’re sitting by the pool? With this hefeweizen, you get the clean, summery, effervescence you want in the summer time. It’s a beer that tastes like a beer should. — CM

This wheat beer is golden in color and is light enough for sipping on the porch. It has an aftertaste, though, that would make me stop at one. Not an all-day beer. — RA

I’m not a hefeweizen guy. But High Cotton turned down that banana-taste volume way down on this one. I could fall in love with a … hefeweizen?

Louis Goggans

Grindhouse Ale, Ghost River

What they say: “A light cream ale designed to be enjoyable to all types of beer enthusiasts. The subtle malt and hop flavors tease your palette and demand another taste.

A round, almost fruity taste, bright and sassy. An open-voweled beer. — Jackson Baker

We got this beer early in the formal tasting. I called it “normal” beer. It has a drinkable consistency and a distinct lack of banana. I came back to this beer once we were set loose on the goods. I’ll drink this on tap. — Joe Boone

Tasteless and timid, it is apparently aimed at the Bud Light drinker who is scared of the microbrew. And while it is better than Bud Light, it’s not up to the standards of this great Memphis brewery. — CM

Light and creamy, like drinking a big boy cream soda. I like a cream soda, but the aftertaste of this beer stayed with me like grandma’s hard candy. Another one that would stop me after a single pint. — RA

Suzy B, Southern Prohibition

What they say:  This dirty blonde with a pinch of wheat has a nice honey malt backbone and a balanced bitterness set apart by its pleasant cascade hop aroma.

I foresee a six-pack of this appearing on my grocery list in the near future. It was pretty smooth and palatable. — LG

Suzy was the belle of the ball. This is a summer beer that’s balanced between flavor and heft. It’s a natural beer. It’s not some dude showing off with a 20-minute discourse of some aspect of beer culture that his wife must hate. It’s just a beer. Order this. — Joe Boone

The Southern Prohibition blonde ale tasted unremarkable at first, but it did boast an excellent balance, even though the finish was slightly bitter. But as our tasting went on (and on…), I found myself coming back to it. This one’s a grower, not a shower. — CM

This blonde ale was made in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. But it seems made for a hot night on a Midtown porch. — TS 

Eileen Townsend

Starless, Wiseacre 

What they say: Schwarzbier. Dark elegance.

Relatively bitter, but I enjoyed it. It’ll go great with one of my signature grilled T-bones. — LG

Considering it’s a black lager, it’s lighter on the palate than you would think, nothing at all like engine sludge. — Jackson Baker

Whoa! This tastes like licking a walnut. It is very mellow. If I were to write a fantasy novel about this beer, it would be a gentle but wise animal in a magical forest. — ET

Dark in color, but with a lighter mouthfeel than Guinness, this black lager immediately got my attention by combining the best of both worlds between a lager and a stout. In my notebook from the tasting, in big letters, I wrote “BEST BEER,” so this one is a keeper. — CM

Here we go: a stout, malty lager with a roasted flavor, a darker beer I can sink my teeth into. This is what I like, and it was perfect (not too heavy) for this first day of spring on the patio with just a slight nip still in the air. — RA

Hornet’s Revenge, Ghost River

What they say: Very medium in body, which gives it a twist with most black beers being heavier set (fatties). A hint of sweetness, followed by the a crisp and clean hoppy finish.

The saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” fits perfectly with this beer. It’s a dark IPA but light in taste. Nevertheless, it didn’t sit well with my taste buds. — LG

Nice pale ale, looks a bit dark, but doesn’t taste dark. It’s got some snap to it. — Jackson Baker

While working on a farm in my youth, I once suffered a hornet’s revenge. It hurt like a sumbitch. This Hornet’s Revenge was much nicer — a rich, dark, creamy payback that caused pleasure, not pain. I even went back for more. You might say Revenge is sweet. — BV

I would drink anything with this name. A black pale ale involved similar trickery to the Starless: It’s a dark beer that has flavor but lacks the knockout tanginess of trendy IPAs. — Joe Boone

I don’t feel “hornet” from this, unless it is a literary reference. This is a beer for successful academics in very remote fields and people who enjoy seeing stage productions of English tragedies. It is strange and complicated and good, but probably not to take lightly. — ET 

Ghost River scores with this playful combination of styles. It’s bitter, but with a light mouthfeel and just enough hops to keep it interesting. This went really well with the Central BBQ I was snacking on while we were tasting, and I think it would pair excellently with a big, fat burger from the grill. — CM

Beautiful dark beer, but you can’t fool me — this is a pale ale. It’s fruity and won’t abide. Nope. — RA

Love that Ghost River has unleashed its brewing talent with the Brewers’ Series of seasonal and one-off beers. This black pale ale is bold, balanced, and delicious. — TS   

Session IPA, High Cotton

What they say: Citrusy hops, low alcohol, kind of deceiving for an IPA, and very smooth. 

I’m a little offended at the idea of calling a “session” to drink multiple beers. I thought this was America. But given the brewers’ tendency to cram as much flavor and alcohol into a can, I get where this beer is coming from. — Joe Boone

This beer is the Justin Bieber of beers (Bieber circa 2013-2014, when he was getting arrested and peeing in public and fighting with Orlando Bloom or whoever) because it knows you are curious about it, and it knows it has a lot of spirit (/spirits) to offer, and it does not give a fuck. — ET

Very sharp, light, and acidic. I’m not sure who this low alcohol beer is designed for, but it isn’t me. The first sip made my salivary glands seize up. Not recommended. — CM

I’m a big fan of the ESB at High Cotton, and I love their taproom. But the name says it all: IPA. On this first day of spring, I prefer my flowers in the ground and not in my glass. — RA

Session beers? More beers and more time to drink ’em? Hell, yes. I could drink this IPA for a very long session. Who’s buying? — TS

Spring Seasonal, Yazoo 

What they say: A Helles bock style …nice deep tan color with a slight bready sweet aroma, with a light mouth feel that finishes with a smooth maltiness and clean hop flavor.

Two thumbs up! This one was fruity, flavorful, and delivered a smooth aftertaste. It’s perfect for the springtime.  — LG

Tangy but mellow, a little gold sneaking through, not so much light as buoyant. — Jackson Baker

Spring Seasonal was heavenly — a light, citrusy, easy-to-drink beer that had me wanting to dance around in a field of daisies. Or maybe just sit on my porch and drink more. — BV

Okay, so this is the beer for the boat. This beer is like your best bro from college — not the one that used to do a bunch of coke and now works in investments, but the responsible one who has made good life choices but doesn’t brag about them. It is respectable but also relaxed, simple, never shallow. — ET

It’s light and citrusy, and the best of these light beers so far. It’s the only one I would drink for a whole session (beer term and I have no idea what it means). — RA

Lucid, Memphis Made

What they say: This pale golden German ale is light and crisp. Memphis Made’s only year-round beer, it has a slightly bready aroma and a spicy hop note from Herkules hops. 

This is the ideal brew to guzzle down after you’ve finished some extensive yard work in the humid Memphis heat. — LG

A little watery, for better or for worse. It’s a beer for way down the line when you need something that goes down easy. — Jackson Baker

Bubbly and regional-ish. Deutsche. Ich finde die Memphis Made Lucid Kolsch ich bin sehr gut! Ja wohl.  — ET

This is a carefully controlled, well-balanced, German beer. Nothing fancy, just quality, like a well-made, comfy chair. If you’ve got this waiting for you after you mow the lawn, you’re in good shape. — CM

Light and fruity, but not too much. I could drink a few of these in a sitting, and I probably have. It’s a German-style, but none of the bitterness that comes with the hoppiness. — RA

Rockbone IPA, Memphis Made 

What they say: A heavy hand of Herkules hops gives this IPA a real bang, while the Mosaic hops do the dirty work and ooze out flavors of passion fruit and berries.

Got some kick to it, all right, as if made of wild grass. Anti-mellow. Lovers of buttermilk probably like it. — Jackson Baker

Long and strong and turgid. Best to finish it quick. Too much of this bad boy and you’ll be tweeting embarrassing stuff all over the internet. — BV

When Memphis’ beloved Rockbone made his or her ignominious debut into Memphis society, some suggested that, after what must have been a stressful day, people should buy that person a beer. Folks at Memphis Made must have been listening: They created a beer especially for Rockbone. IPA stands for Internet Porn Aficionado, right? No? My bad. — Joe Boone

This is the beer to do your air guitar solo with. But what band will you sample? Not Journey! Nope. Not even Def Leppard. This is a straight-up Axl Motherfucking Rose beer. It wears its denim shirts real tight, with some buttons open. It doesn’t shy away from a bandana. — ET

Boomslang IPA, Wiseacre 

What they say: Unlike most Belgian beers with little hop bitterness, flavor, and aroma … Belgian IPAs are bursting forth with all of those.

Bitter for no damn reason. Period. — LG

Boom-slanga-langa-langa! Floral-ish, hoppy, Belgian beer that makes a statement: Drink me. Drink me now or die. — BV

By the time we got to this beer, we had smashed almost everything in the place and the staff had retreated next door to call the authorities. — Joe Boone

Again with the IPAs. This was the last beer and, honestly, I was too buzzed to give a shit any longer. I do feel bad, though, about Central BBQ’s flower bed on the south side of their patio, where we tossed the dregs of our glasses. On the bright side, their azaleas should look terrific in a few weeks. — RA

Chris Davis, a gluten-free man, tested a number of brews for the wheat-averse. Never let it be said the Flyer doesn’t love you. All of you.

Hopsation, Woodchuck Cider 

Hopsation is a “hop forward” cider that aims to be more beer-like by adding a bitter dose of hops to the fruity brew. The result is a more complex sip. I’ve never been a cider fan, although this somewhat citrusy, riesling-like option has softened my opinion. — CD

Pale Ale, Omission 

Bubbly, honey-colored, and fragrant, Omission comes on crisp and refreshing. It has herbal notes and a distinct toasted-biscuit flavor that, I suppose, makes it a breakfast beer. But I’d happily drink it with lunch or dinner, too. — CD

Redbridge, Anheuser-Busch

Redbridge may not have a complex craft beer flavor profile, but it’s completely drinkable. Oh sure, this sorghum-based beer has the malty/yeasty smell of a laundry pile, but it absolutely beats the pants off a Bud Light. — CD

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Jindal Talks Tough on Islam

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

One of the problems faced by each of the last two American presidents — George W. Bush and Barack Obama — has been how to discriminate rhetorically between Muslims in general, who constitute 23 percent of the world’s population and encompass many countries that the United States is allied with, and the kind of militant Islamic movement that America has been struggling against on a variety of battlefronts since at least September 11, 2001.

Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a potential presidential candidate and one of several who are likely to appear in Memphis before the GOP nomination is decided in 2016, was in town on Friday to address local Republicans at a closed “Leadership Event” fund-raiser at the Racquet Club.

He told reporters at a preliminary press conference at the Signature Air terminal that the dilemma was less real than it seemed, and, further, that the Obama administration, in particular, was guilty of mincing words in the struggle against radical Islam.

“You’ve got an administration whose officials, like [Attorney General] Eric Holder, saying things like ‘We’re not in a type of war.’ You’ve got a State Department saying, ‘We’re not going to kill our way to victory,” said Jindal. “This is nonsense. This is ridiculous. These are terrorists who are beheading and killing. … They’re Muslims. They’re not a religious minority. … The reality is that this is an enemy we must defeat. We must hunt them down and kill them.”

Jindal prides himself on being outspoken. He made headlines last week by announcing here and elsewhere that he had asked to sign the famous (or notorious) letter addressed by 47 Republican Senators to the Ayatollah of Iran, cautioning that country’s leader against signing a nuclear-freeze agreement with President Obama.

At his Memphis press conference, he recalled some other recent remarks of his. “I gave a speech in London. I called on Muslim leaders to condemn these men by name, make clear they’re not martyrs. And then finally … here in the West, we need to insist on assimilation. We must teach American exceptionalism in our classrooms.”

Reminded by a questioner that not all Muslims are Jihadists opposed to the West, Jindal seemed to relax his rhetoric a bit before ramping it back up.

“The reality is, I think the vast majority of Muslims don’t agree with the terrorists. … But I do think that Islam has a problem. [Muslims] should not just condemn acts of violence but condemn the individuals who commit these acts of violence.

“They can’t use the freedom we give them to undermine those same freedoms for other people. … If they want to treat women as second-class citizens, they have no room in our country. We shouldn’t allow them here.”

Jindal scoffed at what he saw as the moral relativism of President Obama’s recent comparison of Islamic radicals to Christian fanatics in previous centuries. “You want to talk about the Crusades, you want to talk about medieval Christians, I can deal with them. I’ll keep an eye out for medieval Christians if he’ll keep an eye out for Islamic terrorists, the enemies we face today.”

Jindal himself is of Indian parentage. He was raised a Hindu and at birth bore the name Piyush (pronounced “PEE-yoosh”) Jindal. Asked if he thought he could have been elected in Louisiana with that name rather than “Bobby,” he answered, “Absolutely,” and defended his state’s tolerance of ethnic diversity. “In Louisiana we don’t look at people by the color of their skin or by how they spell their names but by the content of their character.”

The governor drew some chuckles when he explained how he got the name “Bobby.” He described himself as a devotee of television growing up, including programs like The Brady Bunch, The $6 Million Dollar Man, and Gilligan’s Island. He said he identified so much with the youngest Brady family member, Bobby, that he ended up being called that. He added, “It’s a good thing I didn’t identify with Gilligan.”

Jindal explained that when he converted to Christianity and was baptized, he took on the name “Robert” legally. He milked the name game for a few more laughs when he noted that he had an 8-year-old son who had developed a fascination for a product called “Boudreau’s Butt Paste” and had earned the nickname “Boudreau” around the household — something, said Jindal, that might be hard to explain to outsiders.

In the course of his session with reporters, Jindal defended his record as Louisiana governor, acknowledging he had to cope with a serious deficit of $1.6 billion but boasting that he had been able to reduce the state budget and the number of state employees while raising the per capita income average in his state.

The press conference was too brief to allow any discussion of how Jindal dealt in his state with Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, an issue that remains controversial in Tennessee, but, for the record, the Jindal administration has rejected it in Louisiana. Some years ago, when the issue was fresh, Jindal put forth several objections to Medicaid expansion, among them that “we should not move people from private insurance onto government-run programs” and that “we should design our policies so that more people are pulling the cart than riding in the cart.”

Jindal’s views on both health care and foreign policy are significant in that he is known to be considering a race for the presidency. Asked about that at the press conference, the governor gave a stock answer — that he was “thinking about it and praying about it seriously.” He promised to “make that decision in a couple of months.”

At his Memphis press conference, Governor Jindal was flanked by state Republican Chairman Chris Devaney, originally a Chattanoogan, and Shelby County Republican Chairman Justin Joy.

Ironically, neither chair will be holding office for very much longer. Devaney made a surprise announcement this week that he is resigning his chairmanship, effective April 1st, to become executive director of the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti, “a faith-based nonprofit” headquartered in Chattanooga.

Joy’s departure was less surprising, in that this coming weekend will see a long-scheduled changing of the guard for both local political parties.

The Shelby County Democrats will hold their biennial convention on Saturday, March 28th, at First Baptist Church Broad, beginning at 10 a.m., with registration of the delegates who were selected from each state House of Representatives district in the party caucuses held at the same venue on March 14th.

Shelby County Republicans will also be choosing a new chair for the next two years. Their convention will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, March 29th, in the Bartlett Station Municipal Center banquet hall. The party caucuses, which selected delegates for the convention, were held in the same building last month.

Jackson Baker

Women of Achievement honorees

Honored last Sunday with “Women of Achievement” awards at Holiday Inn University of Memphis were (l to r) Nadia Matthews (Initiative); Amerah Shabazz-Bridges (Courage); Bettye Boone (Vision); Sheila Williams (Determination); Dr. Owen Phillips (Heroism); and Barbara C. King (Steadfastness). This was the 31st year that the awards have been presented. Presiding over the event was Deborah M. Clubb, WA president and Memphis Area Women’s Council coordinator.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Red Army

Billy Corben’s documentary Cocaine Cowboys was a minor hit when it was released in 2006, but it has proven hugely influential in the current golden age of documentaries. It ostensibly told the story of the motley crew of renegades, McGyver types, and hardened criminals who pioneered modern drug smuggling, but it was really about a specific place and time: South Florida in 1970s and ’80s.

Corben’s influence is felt profoundly in Gabe Polsky’s Red Army. Like Corben’s work, it focuses on first person interviews with a fascinating cast of characters to sketch the outlines of a bigger story. During the Cold War, life inside the Soviet Union was only known to Americans through propaganda. Soviet propaganda painted a picture of a worker’s paradise, free from want and capitalist exploitation of workers. American propaganda, on the other hand, highlighted the political subjugation of the Russians and their conquered peoples and the failure of communism to provide the most basic goods and services.

Red Army

The picture painted of life behind the Iron Curtain in Red Army is somewhere in between the two extremes. Polsky’s subject is the story of the most popular athletes in the Soviet Union, the national hockey team, who dominated the sport for decades. The star of the show is Slava Fetisov, who is introduced taking an important phone call while he is being interviewed by the impatient Polsky. Fetisov’s list of accomplishments and accolades spills off the screen, in one of the great little visual touches Polsky brings to the film. He is probably the greatest defensive player the game has ever seen, and the story of how he got that way is the story of the Soviet system in a nutshell. He was born in the Soviet Union that, in 1958, was still reeling from the destruction of World War II. Even though he grew up in a 400-square-foot apartment inhabited by three families, he describes himself as a happy child, because he got to play hockey. At the age of 8, his burgeoning talent was recognized by Anatoli Tarasov, the coach who built the Russian Army team from scratch after the war and created an international sports power.

The training regime for the players was brutal. 11 months out of the year, the team lived in virtual isolation. Next door to the hockey camp was the chess players’ camp, and as legendary player Anatoly Karpov recalls, the two, very different kinds of players influenced each other. Tarasov created a whole new strategic philosophy that emphasized teamwork and deep strategy and revolutionized hockey, soundly defeating the international champion Canadian team in 1979. But Tarasov had the misfortune of running afoul of Leonid Brezhnev, and he was replaced by one of the Soviet premiere’s KGB cronies before the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. The resulting upset by the American hockey team, dubbed The Miracle On Ice in Western media, stunned Russia and redoubled the resolve of the players, who would then continue to dominate the sport through the next decade. In one especially telling archival clip, a young Wayne Gretzky, after losing handily to the legendary Russian Five, says “We can’t compete. It’s too difficult.”

Polsky gives just as much time to the dissolution of the legendary team as he does it rise, and it serves as a proxy story for the end of the Cold War. Tired of the deprivations of Siberia and lured by promises of wealth in the West, the team slowly fragments and its players absorbed into the NHL. But the story doesn’t stop there. Polsky continues to trace the players as they navigate the oligarchical world of Putin’s Russia.

The director’s light touch allows unplanned moments to seep into the film, such as when a former KGB agent has trouble controlling his feisty granddaughter while trying to tell a story about the old Soviet system. I’m not much of a sportsman, much less a hockey fan, but this meticulously crafted documentary is a knockout.

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Opinion Viewpoint

No Red-light Cameras

The city of Memphis has a large (and growing) red-light camera program. Every year, we faced a budget crisis. And every year there was a temptation to expand our traffic camera program.

In our past council meeting of the fiscal year, we decided to amend our speeding camera program from 15 cameras to 150. It was a heated discussion of city finances and future deficits, not so much about public safety.

In the last five years, Memphis’ traffic cameras have raised $10.8 million. However, most of that money goes to American Traffic Solutions, ATS, the Arizona company that installs the cameras and administers the program. Of the $10.8 million, ATS received $6.2 million. That means that more than 57 percent of the money from Tennessee residents goes to a private out-of-state firm.

They are really in charge of these programs. They are, in effect, policing our streets. 

Of course, since so much money from our cameras goes to an out-of-state vendor, their representatives were at virtually all our council meetings, regardless of whether there was discussion of anything related to cameras.

Through bipartisan legislation for which I am a co-sponsor (SB 1128; HB 1372), the Tennessee General Assembly will get a chance in the current term to curtail the use of these cameras.

I believe the cameras fly in the face of the American tradition of “innocent until proven guilty.” The red-light camera issues a citation and there is very little people can do to defend themselves against an improperly issued citation. 

In Memphis, you would have to travel to our criminal complex to fight the ticket, wait for several hours in line, and try to recall the circumstances surrounding a picture that was taken of your car several weeks earlier, when you may or may not have even been the driver of the vehicle.

The cameras distract from real public safety challenges. In Tennessee’s big cities, the most important problem with respect to public safety is what’s happening in our neighborhoods, not at red-light intersections. 

Some motorists are racing through neighborhood streets, looking for a shortcut to their destination. To do something about the most serious public safety problem plaguing our neighborhoods, we need more speed humps, speed bumps, and other simple, cheap traffic-calming devices.

Lastly, based on the evidence, it is not clear that the cameras contribute positively to public safety. 

True, two studies produced by a major manufacturer of traffic cameras argued that they did. One study, of a community in Florida, suggested that red-light cameras had reduced crashes there by as much as 72 percent. The authors of that study also published a poll purporting to show that 85 percent of respondents supported the installation of red-light cameras.

If you believe the company that makes traffic cameras, in other words, then you believe the cameras eliminate the vast majority of traffic accidents — and that almost everyone loves them.

In fact, other, more neutral studies show different results. According to a report commissioned by the federal Department of Transportation, the cameras do not change “angle accidents.” Further, the study finds large increases in rear-end crashes and many other types of crashes that occur at intersections. The study concludes that red-light cameras create (not reduce) public safety problems. 

The red-light camera program is not a program of and for cities or communities. The red-light camera program is a program for the profit of private vendors that deploy the cameras and process the citation.

Plenty of individuals from both parties, from all over the country, have grave reservations about approaching public safety in this way. 

At the federal level, legislation to ban red-light cameras has been proposed by members of both parties and from all areas.

For years, the ACLU on the left and the Tea Party on the right have opposed red-light cameras. And what’s more surprising is that both groups oppose them for largely the same reasons.

This issue is not about Democrats versus Republicans or urban versus rural areas. It’s about restoring credibility in government, fairness for motorists, and effectiveness to our public safety programs.

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News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1361

Arab Spring

American Atheists, the national nonbelievers organization bringing its annual convention to Memphis this Easter, is out to prove that they’re equal-opportunity religion teasers. Last December, the advocacy group got the local media salivating — and the local church community hyperventilating — by erecting a billboard depicting a grumpy-looking dark-haired girl in a Santa hat scribbling a note to the holiday elf. “All I want for Christmas is to skip church,” it read. “I’m too old for fairy tales.”

Earlier in March, a second billboard campaign launched depicting a happy-looking dark-haired girl wearing bunny ears with the text, “An atheist convention on Easter Weekend? Looks like we’re skipping church again!”

The most recent edition features the same girl with bunny ears but is written entirely in Arabic. The translation: “An atheist convention featuring Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Easter Weekend? Looks like we’re skipping mosque again!”

Ali is a Somali-born politician, activist, and fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Neverending Elvis

From wads of hair to rare recordings, Elvis is always for sale. This week, Julien’s Auctions announced the impending sale of a TCB tour bus Elvis bought for J.D. Sumner and the Stamps, a gospel group that sometimes doubled as the King’s backing vocalists. The fully restored bus, which Sumner decked out like a rolling Elvis shrine, was in at least one accident — when Presley took the wheel and summarily drove the bus into a cornfield.

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News The Fly-By

Attendees Flock to Board Games at MidSouthCon

CREDIT: Alexandra Pusateri

From the number of anime and comic book characters wandering around the Hilton Hotel in East Memphis, it’s obvious MidSouthCon 33 is underway. Last weekend’s convention was the fifth the hotel has hosted, so the staff is used to the scene.

Throngs of costumed characters move through the hallways, navigating to panels and events. Two rooms in particular — besides the suite featuring free snacks and drinks — remain full: The board and tabletop gaming rooms feature tables, chairs, and a wall of board and card games available to attendees.

Kyle Wayne LaCroix sits with two other players organizing “Everyone is John,” a tabletop role-playing game that skews into the ridiculous. He has led the game the past three years at MidSouthCon. Each player acts like a voice in the head of a man named John, attempting to accomplish goals such as beating a world record for most jellybeans eaten or assassinating a mayor.

“It’s sort of competitive,” LaCroix said. “They bid to possess John and get him to do things. The skills are super esoteric, like ‘make string into interesting shapes’ or ‘quilting.’ Just generally useless things that the player makes up.”

Alexandra Pusateri

A MidSouthCon attendee.

MidSouthCon has reported an increase in its attendance numbers every year.

“I think there’s been a rise in deeper board games, but that feeling could be exaggerated by my ignorance of them until I started going to things like MidSouthCon,” LaCroix said. “It was just a place to experience it for the first time and have fun with it. I think cons like this and the internet are helping these sorts of things get more popular.”

Matthew Perry, a convention veteran of 15 years, organized a different type of game, one that thrusts players into a whodunit scenario. In “Ultimate Werewolf,” each player is a villager, but at night, some may be holding a secret. They could be witches or werewolves trying to kill off other villagers or impede them from figuring out who the killer werewolf is.

“The whole concept of the game is the paranoia aspect, proving if you are good and [capable of] keeping the village alive,” Perry said.

Perry’s game, which he has organized for eight MidSouthCons, had more than 48 players during his sessions — held just after midnight, perfect for a game like Ultimate Werewolf. Tabletop and board games at MidSouthCon, like Ultimate Werewolf, bring out a lot of players who may not have heard about them, but that’s a good thing, Perry said.

“Cons introduce new players into an environment where it’s user-friendly,” he said. “It brings in a lot of new blood, especially those who have never been to a con before. It really opens up that dialogue, and 95 percent of the time those people come back next year. And they remember the games they played. They start getting into it.”

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We Recommend We Recommend

Benefits for Joyce Cobb and Bobby Memphis

Everybody loves Joyce Cobb, the Memphis jazz singer, WEVL DJ, and sometime actress who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Cobb’s longtime bandmate, multi-instrumentalist Hank Sable is ready to take that love to the next level. “I’ll tell you what I think,” he says. “I think Memphis would be better off if we made Joyce mayor of the city. She represents the best of who we are. When she sings there’s no black or white or anything else.”

Joyce Cobb

Sable, who’s played violin and guitar with Cobb’s band for 10 years, is just one of the many artists scheduled to perform at a benefit show at Boscos Squared on Sunday, March 29th. The event will include an open bar and food, a silent auction, and music performed by the Stax Academy, members of Cobb’s band past and present, and a long list of friends and musical collaborators.

And, even if you’re not a Memphis music aficionado, chances are you’ve seen Bobby Memphis (aka Bobby Jordan). Long before there were bike lanes in Memphis, Jordan, a cycling enthusiast who’s played bass and sung with bands like the Mudflaps and the Great Indoorsmen, could be seen pushing pedals all over town. Jordan was hospitalized after suffering a heart infection that lead to a stroke, and benefits have been scheduled in both Memphis and Nashville.

The Memphis benefit is Monday, March 30th, at Lafayette’s Music Room featuring performances by Amy LaVere and Will Sexton, Susan Marshall, the Bluff City Backsliders, and Papa Tops West Coast Turnaround. The show starts at 6 p.m. There is no cover charge, but donations are being accepted.