Ghostface Killah and Raekwon of Wu-Tang Clan.
On Friday, July 31st, two living legends will perform at Minglewood Hall. Ghostface Killah and Raekwon (of Wu-Tang Clan) are responsible for some of the most influential hip hop of the last 20 years, and after an amazing performance at the Young Avenue Deli in 2012, Raekwon will be back in Memphis. More information on the show can be found here. Get ready for the duel of the iron mics.
Minglewood Hall Announces Ghostface Killah and Raekwon Show
Mid-morning, mid-week, a pretty day …
The first person to correctly ID the dish and where I’m eating wins a fabulous prize.
To enter, submit your answer to me via email at ellis@memphisflyer.com.
The answer to GWIE 64 is the Santa Fe salad at Cheffie’s, and the winner is … Colin Roper!
Photo courtesy Blair Ball Photography
“It’s more difficult to get to the starting line of a triathlon than to the finish line.” So says David Sitton, and he should know. By his count, the 62-year-old Sitton has completed more than 150 triathlons since 1991 including 15 of the Ironman variety. (An Ironman consists of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and 26.2-mile run. In other words, a full marathon is merely the third act.) When Sitton enters the water this Sunday to start the Memphis in May Triathlon at Edmund Orgill Park in Millington, he’ll continue what has become a lifestyle commitment to balance. Physical balance, sure, but also of the mental and spiritual variety.
“For me, it’s about the lifestyle,” says Sitton, a graduate of Whitehaven High School (where he played baseball and football) and currently a sales rep for Barnhart Crane & Rigging. “In the NFL, NBA, even golf, you can have drug addicts [competing]. But you’re working against yourself [with that lifestyle] as a triathlete.”
Sitton took a marketing job in the early ’90s with the World Triathlon Corporation, whose new owner at the time, Dr. James Gills, convinced Sitton he should enter the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii. (Sitton originally met Gills through his work with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.) After a short-course tune-up in March 1991, Sitton entered — and importantly, completed — that Ironman in October 1991, and with a borrowed bike. To date, Sitton has yet to receive a DNF (“did not finish”) tag. “The way I looked at it,” says Sitton, “25 percent of the field ends up in the medical tent. If you have 1,600 people enter the event, and I can at least finish ahead of the people in the medical tent, I can finish [close to] the top 1,000. I didn’t know what I was doing. I wore my bike helmet backwards for my first month of training.”
In terms of training, Sitton advocates moderation, noting that the human body starts breaking down when pushed a certain distance of miles. (Sitton describes a marathon as being “half over” at the 20-mile mark. He’s completed both the Boston Marathon and New York City Marathon multiple times.) “A lot of it is mental,” says Sitton. “When I swim [in an Ironman], I tell myself I’ve fallen out of a boat and it’s 2.4 miles to shore. It’s survival mode.” When not on the road (running or biking), Sitton trains with free weights, primarily upper body exercises. As far as the swimming component, he says few triathletes can shave much time from the opening leg. Unless you grew up swimming competitively, your swim speed today will likely be your swim speed years from now.
The rigors — and dangers — triathletes endure are not merely in competition, though Sitton has competed in triathlons in which swimmers have drowned. “It’s like an underwater boxing match,” says Sitton. “You get elbowed, heels to the head. It’s easy to come out with a nose dislocated or a chipped tooth.” Training on his bike in 2002, Sitton was hit by a car and, after refusing medical treatment at the scene, discovered he’d suffered broken ribs. After a month of rest, he completed a short-course triathlon, and later that year completed his last Ironman (in Utah). And then there are the elements. Chopping water (or waves), heat, and wind can make an already-taxing course purely torturous.
Sitton has found that training for a triathlon is a “license to eat what you want,” though again, with moderation. He does not eat after 5 p.m. the night before a triathlon, and sticks to bananas and water on race day. “The main thing is time management,” he says. “It’s real easy to talk yourself out of [a training exercise]. I don’t have a chair at work. I stand up in front of my computer. I’ll watch the news on a stationary bike.” Sitton goes to bed at 10:30 p.m. and rises at 5 a.m.
This week’s MIM Triathlon will be the 33rd-annual and marks the event’s return to Edmund Orgill Park for the first time since 2009. Athletes will swim .93 miles (1.5K), bike 24.8 miles (40K), and run 6.2 miles (10K). There will be a sprint triathlon on Saturday (1/3-mile swim, 12-mile bike ride, 3-mile run). “There are a few hills on the course,” says Sitton, “but it isn’t really challenging. Mostly just the wind. And it can get warm.”
Sitton has framed dozens of medals, including the four he received for finishing the Ironman World Championship (1991-94). But they serve primarily as a chronicle of one man’s commitment to “not being a couch potato.” Sitton takes ministry seriously and is grateful for the lives he’s been able to touch over a quarter-century of traveling as a triathlete. (A favorite passage from scripture is from the Book of Jeremiah: “ . . . let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me.” [RSV])
“The triathlon is a spiritual discipline,” says Sitton. “If I can get disciplined in this area of my life, it will carry over to other areas. It keeps me balanced.”
Since the Grizzlies take on the Warriors again tonight for a pivotal Game 4 with a chance to take the series back to California with a 3–1 lead over Golden State, I thought it would be a good idea to jot down some quick thoughts in preparation for tonight’s 8:30 (Memphis time) start.
Larry Kuzniewski
1. Expect Steph Curry to play like the MVP tonight.
Whether he does or not is beside the point: Curry has been shooting well below his averages so far in this series, and the Grizzlies have to prepare for tonight’s game like he’s not going to do that anymore. This is one way in which this series is similar to last year’s first-round battle with the Thunder: the Warriors have two players who are capable of combining for 80 points at the drop of a hat. They haven’t done that yet, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less capable of it.
Curry had 23 points 21 shots in Game 3, shooting 38% from the floor and 20% from three. Even though the Grizzlies’ defense had more than a little to do with those poor percentages, the Grizzlies have to pretend that they didn’t—that Curry and his backcourt mate Klay Thompson were just “off” and not bothered by some guy running around yelling “first team all defense”. (Certainly a segment of the national media seems to be doing just that.) Defend them just as vigilantly as they did in games 1–3 and don’t be surprised if they get hot. They’re due for it. Have a plan B.
2. The Griz don’t want to have to win one at Oracle.
The Grizzlies proved in Game 2 that they can win in Golden State’s building, but that doesn’t mean they want to put themselves in a situation where that’s the only way they can advance. The percentages are not in their favor for doing such a thing. (Of course, the percentages are not in their favor for much of anything they’ve done so far in this series, but still—it’s a hard place to win.) If they can hold home court tonight and win Game 4, the pressure is off in Game 5—not the pressure to win, but the pressure to have to.
Of course, I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or not for this Griz team, who seem to play better when they don’t have an option, but still: the Grizzlies stole home court advantage in the series by winning Game 2 out West. They’d do well not to give it back to the Warriors tonight.
Larry Kuzniewski
3. Marc Gasol still hasn’t had a complete dominant game on offense.
Game 3 was the best one out of Gasol yet, who had 21 points and 15 rebounds and carried the team through large stretches, but almost all of that production happened in the first half. In the second half, Gasol shot 1–8 from the floor and had 5 rebounds—and also somehow managed to get called for five fouls in the fourth quarter as the refs made a pretty blatant attempt to even out the number of free throw attempts between the two teams.
If Gasol can take his first half performance and duplicate it over the course of a whole game tonight, the Grizzlies will be unstoppable. When Gasol gets going, it forces the Warriors to guard him with Andrew Bogut (who also hasn’t been as much of a factor in this series as I’d expected), and puts the smaller Draymond Green on Zach Randolph, freeing him up to play bully ball on the blocks. If Randolph heats up, Bogut gets assigned to Randolph, putting Green on Gasol, who can then punish Green in different ways, unleashing his arsenal of post moves and set shots (and the Dirk-like one-legged fadeaway he’s been taking all year, which I still kind of hate, but am starting to accept).
The Grizzlies know by now where their best matchups are and who will need to carry them. They just need to execute on those strategies.
4. Courtney Lee has been spectacular.
Lee hasn’t always put up the best stat lines in this series, box-score-wise, but his shots all feel like they’ve come at exactly the right time. Lee’s shooting has been key to keeping some sort of spacing available for the Grizzlies’ offense, and his postseason play this year is so much better than last year’s disappearing act it’s hard to believe they’re the same player.
Other Griz players who were supposed to provide that sort of offensive lift—Jeff Green and Vince Carter, mainly—haven’t really done so yet, but Lee has been good, hitting shots, defending well, making plays. The Grizzlies’ chances against the Warriors depend on Lee (and if not Lee, then somebody else) being able to hit outside jumpers as an escape valve for the interiors stuff. Giving them someone other than Mike Conley to bail out to, adding another wrinkle to the Grizzlies’ very scripted, violence-heavy offensive system.
Lee needs to have a big night for the Grizzlies to have a big night, and so far, he hasn’t let them down.
I was really hyped to see Johnathan Robert Payne’s performance, ”Meet Me Where I’m At,” Friday night at Crosstown Arts. I’m glad I did.
I’ve loved Payne’s art since I first ran across it at Beige, where the artist had a solo show last fall. That show was made up of obsessive, abstract ballpoint pen drawings — all modular lines, meditatively blended. I’m a sucker for his pensive and lonely works on paper, which seem more about the repetitive process than the final product. They recall Alighiero Boetti’s intricate ballpoint pen pieces, as well as the strangely sloping linear drawings of folk artist Marin Ramirez. They feel to me like a removed headspace, rhythmically applied.
Which is partially why I was so curious about this show. How would Payne’s pensive, quiet style of making translate into performance?
We were given 20 minutes between the show’s opening and the start of the performance to roam the gallery. Near the door, there were several curtains made of cut paper that Payne threaded together, fishnet style. A black, industrial tub full of water sat in the middle of the room. Several small drawings hung on the walls and, in one corner, a braided yarn rope dangled from the ceiling. Towards the back of the space, lit tea lights demarcated an 8ft x 5ft (est) rectangle on the ground. A projector lit up the far wall of the gallery, paused on a still frame from the opening sequence of Billy Blank’s Tae Bo Workout. The objects could have been the set-up for a joke: “A duck walks into a bar…”
Payne entered the space, kneeled facing the audience, and immediately shaved his beard and head. As he shaved his head, I became aware of what he was wearing: a grey hoodie, which suddenly took on a monastic glow. I also became aware of text on the paused screen behind him, a disclaimer that reminded us that Tae Bo is not a substitute for “counseling from your healthcare professional.” Payne then put on a pair of glasses and moved into the middle of the tealight-defined stage. The video started. For the next 50 minutes, he faced the back wall of Crosstown arts and did Tae Bo.
Payne was dwarfed by the screen, by Billy Blank’s huge projected visage. The scale of the projection reminded me of what it was like to watch Tae Bo commercials as a kid during endless, bored summers. Billy Blank instructs a crowd of fitness models on a red mat, backed up by graphic art of Billy Blank himself and a block lettered sign that reads “BE STRONG.”
Tae Bo, it turns out, is really difficult. Payne became visibly more exhausted as the video picked up speed. After 45 minutes had passed, the audience members who’d hung around that long started to cheer Payne on: “You got this!” or “Almost there!” Some of the Tae Bo moves were funny. Others were exposing. It was hypnotic. The bathtub loomed.
When the video finally ended, Payne sat down and turned towards the audience. He looked beat. He was a human again. I felt a wave of embarrassment, or guilt, or something. Payne then stripped down to his boxers and got in the bathtub. He submerged himself, then washed his whole body, carefully, with a bar of ivory soap. He didn’t acknowledge us.
He got out of the bathtub, still wet, and began to pick up small fortune cookie fortunes that, I realized, had been floating in the water. For the first time, Payne looked at us, and read: “Now is the time to investigate new possibilities with friends.” He then picked up another object — a pink funnel attached to a pink tube, beer bong style — and filled it with the fortune and soapy bathwater. For a moment, I thought he was going to offer it to us to drink.
Instead, he turned the action on himself. He attempted to swallow the water, choked and spit up. He repeated this action with three more fortunes (“a distant friendship could begin to look more promising,” “you will take a pleasant journey to a place far away,” “you will soon have the opportunity to improve your finances”), circling the tub each time. Then he exited the room. Someone said: “Are we going to clap? That was pretty good, wasn’t it?” and everyone clapped.
Payne’s work is punishing, but not exactly cruel. Tae Bo is a lonely mortification to be followed by ablutions in a rubbermaid tub, to be followed by a spiel of Chinese fortunes (the food of lonely American cliche.) These are familiar, unthinking moments. Who hasn’t worked out alone, showered, and eaten take out?
The weirdness of performance art vs. theater is that, rather than removing you from your body with a fear of lighting and narrative, performance art more often than not makes you super conscious of it. Which might be Payne’s point: rinse, repeat, repeat, rinse, pay attention. Stay aware. We’re all lonely. Meet us where we’re at.
Larry Kuzniewski
Last night, the Grizzlies beat the Golden State Warriors 99-89 and took a 2-1 lead in their Western Conference Semifinal series. Going into the game, I knew it was going to be crazy; there were too many narratives in play for it not to be. The Grizzlies were challenging the consensus title favorites and actually giving them a run for their money. Mike Conley, who suffered multiple facial fractures in the first round against Portland, played Game 2 in a mask and played out of his mind, with a red eyeball and a swollen face, even hanging on after Warriors big man Draymond Green hit him in the face going for a loose ball (pretty close to after a whistle). Tony Allen was mic’d up for Game 2, and while he was repeatedly stealing Klay Thompson’s lunch money the whole world heard him declaring (repeatedly) that he’s “First team all-defense.” The series now had a clear Bad Guy, and a clear Good Guy, which put it in the terms that Memphis understands best: a wrestling match.
That’s pretty much what Game 3 was, too. I can’t possibly convey the crowd noise, the feeling in the arena, the haze of yellow lint coming off the growl towels emblazoned with “Memphis vs. Errrbody”. But these are my notes on what happened, and why, and what it was like.
Pregame
First things first: Beale Street is packed from one end to the other, with more people than the FedExForum can hold, most of whom have been drinking since some time after lunch. There are reports that people are yelling “FIRST TEAM ALL DEFENSE” back and forth at each other, randomly, without provocation. Memphis is a strange and beautiful place.
Inside the building, there are the customary growl towels on every seat. This time they say “Memphis vs. Errrbody” and there’s also a mask in every seat, for Mike Conley, who—and I don’t know how you could’ve forgotten this already—is playing with a broken face. Like, his face has fractures in it, which were surgically repaired with titanium bits. The Golden State Warriors Twitter account tweets out a picture of the empty arena and says:
Feels like home. Thanks for all the gold @memgrizz! #WarriorsGround pic.twitter.com/bua8vv3TLf
— Golden St. Warriors (@warriors) May 9, 2015
I don’t know that it feels much like home when there are 18,119 inebriated Memphians screaming at them. Grizzlies fans showed up to this one early, showed up having had a couple of adult beverages, and it was clear that they had all made plans for Sunday that did not involve speaking above a whisper. The Forum sounded like the inside of a jet engine during the Grizzlies starting lineup.
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First Half
11:33, 1Q – The first shot of the game for the Grizzlies is a Zach Randolph three point attempt as the shot click expires. If that’s a sign of things to come, it’s going to be a long night.
Z-Bo playing in the low post involves the counterintuitive combination of minimal motion and unlimited violence
— SPENCER HALL (@edsbs) May 10, 2015
9:40, 1Q – Steph Curry comes around a screen expecting to be wide open for a shot attempt and Tony Allen is five feet away from him and closing out hard. Curry shoots anyway, but he airballs, clearly not ready for what was waiting on him. On the next Warriors possession, Draymond Green screens Conley off Curry by holding Conley against his back so that Conley can’t go one way or the other around him. Game 2 was physical, but Game 3 is starting out as a slugfest. These guys are going to feel this in the morning.
3:23, 1Q – Gasol gets Draymond Green going the wrong way and lays it in, tying the game at 17. The crowd is loud, and things are going the Grizzlies’ way, but the Grizzlies’ bench is about to start their shift, and that’s been bad news so far in this series. In Game 2, the Griz bench leaked points out of the lead and needed the starters to bail them out and hang on. It’s already clear that that isn’t going to work tonight—that Golden State came to play, and mediocre isn’t going to cut it.
Larry Kuzniewski
2:21, 1Q – Steph Curry is missing shots. Open ones, contested ones, all of them. He’s just missing stuff. I’m not sure whether this is good or bad. It’s good, of course, because he’s not scoring points, but it’s bad, because it means he’s going to be “regressing” upwards to the mean later, and probably go on a hot streak at the worst possible time for the Grizzlies. It’s both good and bad that he’s so cold early. Honestly, though, it’s mostly just weird. Steph Curry doesn’t miss, not like this. He just looks totally out of sorts.
10:36, 2Q – Beno makes a layup without meeting any resistance whatsoever. He just runs straight to the hoop and lays it under reverse. It looked like the Warriors didn’t think he was acually going to score, which, unlike his fellow backup PG Nick Calathes, is pretty much the thing that he’s best at out of all basketball skills. More importantly: if the Grizzlies bench is actually going to show up to this one and be able to produce against the Warriors reserves, Golden State might be in for a long night. But what do I know. It’s 27-20 Grizzlies right now and I don’t feel good about that in the least. I don’t feel good about any lead against the Warriors until the final buzzer sounds and the game is over—they can score too many points too quickly. No lead is ever safe.
7:30, 2Q Vince Carter grabs a rebound over Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson, all of whom were probably in diapers when he started college, and gets the putback, which ignites the crowd. On the ensuing Warriors possession, Jeff Green steals the ball and starts running down the court while the crowd is absolutely roaring like I don’t think I’ve heard it do… …and then Green, instead of trying to dunk it, passes it to Nick Calathes, who is standing wide open in the corner.
Turns out the reason Nick Calathes is wide open in the corner is that he’s still wearing his warmups, because he is not currently checked into the game. He’s on the bench. He is standing in the corner because that’s where the bench is.
It’s hard to overstate how primed the Forum crowd was to shake the whole building to pieces if Green had actually followed through with one of his trademark Statue of Liberty transition slam dunks. It could’ve been the loudest sound recorded in the Memphis metro area since Black Sabbath and Van Halen played the Coliseum in 1978. Instead, it was nothing.
Jeff Green doing the structural integrity of FedEx Forum a solid.
— MattyP (@grizzlam) May 10, 2015
1:56, 2Q – I stopped taking notes because it’s just starting to feel weird that the Warriors are struggling so much. It feels like the Clippers Game 1 from 2012, where things are working a little too well, even though that’s clearly not what’s happening; the Warriors are being completely taken out of their game. The difference is in that game, the Grizzlies got out to a huge lead by shooting the lights out, something they can’t do on a regular basis. Not tonight. They’re playing deliberately and playing very physical defense and it’s got the Warriors flummoxed. Still, it feels too good to be true.
Larry Kuzniewski
1:11 TA steals the ball and Klay Thompson’s soul behind the arc. Knocks the ball away, Thompson recovers, and then Tony just rips it out of his hands. A “First team defense” (clap clap clap-clap-clap) chant breaks out in the arena, one that I’m glad NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was in the house to be deafened by. The next trip down the court, he jumps a pass and steals the ball again. At this point, there are 25 seconds left in the half, the Grizzlies are up 55-39, and the building may or may not actually be shaking.
You can actually see Klay go, “OH NO WHERE IS TONY ALLEN” every time he touches the ball
— ☕netw3rk (@netw3rk) May 10, 2015
Halftime
It occurs to me at halftime that though the Warriors were undoubtedly a very special team during the regular season, there’s one thing that all those comparisons to the ’96 Bulls left out: by the 95-96 season, the Bulls had been in the playoffs every year since 1985 and won three championships. That’s not a “COUNT THE RINGZ” argument, it’s an argument about experience. That Bulls team had been in some serious playoff battles, gotten knocked around by the Detroit Pistons, and had to learn how to play their game through the physically torturous gauntlet that is the NBA postseason.
The Warriors have been in playoff battles, but not that many. They’ve played four series in three years. It’s a world away from a ten year postseason run with three championships—the Warriors have played against the Nuggets, Spurs, and Clippers. That’s not to say that the Warriors can’t win a championship this year; they absolutely can. But they don’t have years of experience playing through these kinds of series together, getting beaten up and figuring out how to advance anyway. If they’re going to win this series, the Warriors have to figure that out, because the Grizzlies are clearly imposing their will on these games, and it’s got the Warriors rattled.
Larry Kuzniewski
Second Half
8:36, 3Q – The Grizzlies call a timeout. The score is now 58-51 Grizzlies, and the Warriors have come out and started the second half on a 12-3 run by getting stops and then getting out in transition—exactly what the Grizzlies have been trying to prevent them from doing for two and a half games so far. They have these kinds of runs in them—this is what they do. The Grizzlies just need to make sure they snuff out these runs before they cut the lead too far.
3:39, 3Q – Mike Conley steps into the lane to draw a charge on Leandro Barbosa while wearing a mask because he has a broken face. This man must not feel pain. At one point in the game, I can’t remember when, there was an official timeout because Conley was bleeding. He removed his mask and the trainers tended to him and then he masked back up and returned to the game. Later on, in the locker room, he told reporters that he’d popped some stitches in his face and that’s why he was bleeding. I wouldn’t keep writing this article if I had popped a stitch, much less playing basketball in a playoff game. NBA players are not like us.
1:59, 3Q – Zach Randolph almost loses the ball out of bounds, but at the last possible second he snaps into form and drills a rainbow jumper from 20 feet out, and the Forum explodes. Randolph now has 14 points and 7 rebounds, and for some reason (foul trouble for Draymond Green and Bogut, mostly) the Warriors are guarding him with Festus Ezeli.
Don’t see this every day https://t.co/gChywyfH1I
— SB Nation NBA (@SBNationNBA) May 10, 2015
1:06, 3Q – Steph Curry airballs. He has 19 points and it feels like he’s got 5. At the end of three quarters, the Grizzlies lead by 15.
9:33, 4Q – Dave Joerger has had both Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol out of the game for a few minutes now, having played them both for a large stretch of the third quarter. Now, with the two of them on the bench, Marreese Speights has 9 points for the Warriors and Griz players are daring Speights to take 15-foot jump shots, which is probably the only thing he’s good at. Gasol comes back in the game.
6:15, 4Q – Vince Carter can’t stop fouling, so he goes to the bench. I thought Carter played pretty well in the whole game, doing little (important) things rather than trying to make hero shots, but he got stuck with a tough defensive assignment (Barnes) and couldn’t really do much but foul. It’s hard to watch Vince Carter struggle to play basketball. You can tell it’s foreign to him, and he doesn’t like it. My hope is that another summer of recuperation and conditioning and Carter can be back and better next year instead of hurt, but… I guess we’ll see.
Larry Kuzniewski
4:26, 4Q – The Grizzlies haven’t scored in a long time, sitting there with 85 points while the Warriors slowly chip away at their lead. This is the most predictable thing that’s ever happened in a game: the Griz offense looks like a train wreck. Nobody can get to their spots, no one is hitting the shots that they can take, and nothing is working. Golden State, remember, had the best defensive rating in the league. They know how to defend, and they’re doing it right now with the game in the balance.
This is about when the Warriors start getting a friendlier whistle, too, as the Grizzlies are getting a little overaggressive on defense and the officials are doing that annoying NBA thing where they try to even out the number of free throw attempts. The most annoying thing in the world—and NBA refs do it on a regular basis—is when refs start out calling a game very loosely, let teams get used to it, and then tighten up the officiating as the game goes on. Guys get in foul trouble doing things that the same refs watched them do earlier in the game without calling it. If anything, they should call the first half tighter than the second. Set a tone. Don’t change the rules out from under the players as the game goes on. (NBA officiating pet peeve rant over and out.)
Larry Kuzniewski
3:08, 4Q – Harrison Barnes hits a layup and cuts the Grizzlies’ lead to 4 points. Everyone has known this was coming all night; the question is whether the Grizzlies offense, which is about to fall in on itself like Prince Mongo’s dilapidated old mansion on Central, is going to get it together and start making buckets again or whether the scoring drought has gone on so long that it’s too late to find any sort of rhythm again. The building is tense, everyone nervous about the two ways this game could go.
2:45, 4Q – Courtney Lee hits a 3-pointer to push the Grizzlies lead back out to 7 and buy the Griz some time to figure out how to play offense again. Lee has been downright incredible in the playoffs, coming in and hitting shots when it matters and forcing opponents to guard him—almost like he’s a real NBA shooting guard or something. Lee’s poise—and his defense—have been lifesavers against the Warriors.
2:02, 4Q – Marc Gasol hits a three pointer and the building explodes. Marc Gasol then immediately gets whistled for a foul and is disqualified from the game, having gotten called for five fouls in the fourth quarter of the game. Then, once he’s been fouled out, the refs review the 3-pointer and it turns out it was actually a long two. It feels like the Forum crowd might turn French Revolution and chop the refs into pieces, but fortunately that doesn’t happen. Still, hard to deny that the officiating has not helped the Grizzlies down the stretch of the game. Gasol might have broken Hamed Haddadi’s all-time fouls-per-minute record in the 4th, a feat I could’ve gone a whole postseason without seeing.
Mike Conley ain’t worried, he knows you can get a new face over in West Memphis for like seventy bucks
— SPENCER HALL (@edsbs) May 10, 2015
0:37, 4Q – Mike Conley hits a one-handed layup while falling away from the basket and out of bounds at the same time, and the shot falls in as Conley falls to the floor. The building is now louder than I’ve ever heard it. The crowd knows what’s going on; the Warriors are about to lose a road game and the Grizzlies are about to lead the series. In the back of my head, I’m thinking that this is the way the Oklahoma City series went last year—Griz go up 2-1, then the series plays out to seven—but there are differences.
For one, Oklahoma City and Memphis played a lot of overtime games to determine those outcomes—4 OT games in a row, actually. These games have not been that close, regardless of who won, and in games 2 and 3, the Grizzlies have imposed their will on the game from tip to buzzer. The Warriors are going to have to start just shooting over the defense from 30 feet out and hoping they can stretch things. Fortunately for the Warriors, they have players who can actually do that. Unfortunately for the Warriors, those players have been harrassed into some pretty poor shooting performances so far.
The series is far from over, but now Monday night’s upcoming Game 4 feels like everything. If the Grizzlies can win Game 4 and take a 3-1 lead back out West to Oracle, the pressure eases up a little, for better or for worse. If the Warriors win Game 4, they take back home court advantage for the best-of-3 death match that is the remainder of the series. I think it’s safe to say that Game 4 is now the most important game in the history of the franchise, especially given the way all the other playoff matchups have gone this year. The Grizzlies need to win this series. The Grizzlies can win this series. They can shock the world. But Golden State is not done, not by a long shot. They’re going to come out in Game 4 and do everything in their power to play like the best team in the league; the Grizzlies will have to drag them, kicking and screaming, back into the mud. That’s the only way they know how to win.
Larry Kuzniewski
If you’ve visited MUSE boutique downtown, you might have noticed a local line of handmade jewelry they feature – Vashti’s Jewels. In fact, a couple of the heirloom quality necklaces from that line were included in the Style Sessions Favorite Finds list earlier this year. Today, we have the pleasure of meeting the artist behind Vashti’s Jewels – Carole Manley. Carole’s attention to the jewels she incorporates, the decorative fasteners, and special crafting techniques are what make the pieces such great heirlooms.
See some of her current pieces below, perfect gift ideas for Mother’s Day.
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How did get started in jewelry design?
I have been interested in stones since I was a young girl. My mother was a diamond buyer for DeBeers and she and I would go to diamond auctions together. It was fascinating to me then and now that such beautiful crystals were produced by the earth. I incorporate semi-precious stones in all of my jewelry. Jewelry making techniques that I use are wire wrapping, bead knotting, and intricate beading. I like to work with copper, sterling silver and gold filled/plated wire, and silk thread. I learned my jewelry making skills from Adele Gomero, and I am very particular about quality workmanship.
How did you decide on the name of Vashti’s Jewels?
Queen Vashti is a Biblical name from the Old Testament book of Esther. Queen Vashti was beautiful, independent, mysterious, and true to her convictions. I envision Queen Vashti as having many precious jewels. I want whoever is wearing or giving my jewelry to feel the spirit of Queen Vashti.
Tell us about your Memphis.
I love the flavor of Memphis. I enjoy the adventure of frequent travel, however, it is good to come home to Memphis. I have lived in Memphis most of my life, and for the past 12 years, I have had the excitement of living in downtown Memphis. I love to go to the Orpheum, Grizzlies games — My favorite player is Mike Conley, and I love his mother’s taste in jewelry — and visit museums.
What are some of your signature pieces?
You can find my signature ” Pics and Pearls” earrings at STAX Museum. I do take custom orders for “Pics and Pearls” earrings. MUSE Inspired Fashion also carries my necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. I have just started beading bracelets and earrings. This technique is fun, but very time consuming. I enjoy visiting MUSE to see all the new fashions and creating strong statement jewelry pieces to compliment the fashions. Or maybe the fashions compliment my jewelry designs! My earrings will soon return to Delta Groove Yoga Studio*.
*Carole also teaches private yoga lessons, and is in RYT-500 hr. Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training at Delta Groove Yoga Studio.
“I am very grateful for all the many positive moments in my life. It is rewarding to create and design jewelry art, and know that someone selected my jewelry to add beauty to her/his life.” – Carole
Contact Details:
Carole Manley
Vashti’s Jewels
(901) 337-1361
carolemanley21@yahoo.com
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Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center
On Thursday, the Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) received a message from someone threatening to harm the people who visit the center and the center’s property at 892 S. Cooper.
Will Batts, MGLCC’s executive director, said the center receives “vile, bigoted, disturbing communications from individuals” occasionally, but he said this one was different because it specifically threatened people and property. Batts could not offer specifics about the threat or where it came from because it is under active investigation by the Memphis Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
Batts said the center’s board has begun reviewing its security measures, polices, and procedures. They are making enhancements to security where needed.
“We talk about this as a safe space, so we need to make sure that it’s not only mentally safe but also physically safe,” Batts said.
Batts said that, as the county draws nearer to the expected June Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality, LGBT organizations across the country have to consider enhanced safety measures.
A statement from Batts was issued to the media on Friday afternoon. It says, “We take seriously the role we play as a physical symbol of our community’s strength, courage and perseverance. We will continue business as usual. All of us on the staff and the board of MGLCC remain committed to our mission and will continue working every day to ensure our equal rights, and to be safe, respected and celebrated.”
The Church Health Center (CHC) won’t be moving into the Crosstown Concourse building until 2017, but it’s already focusing on improving it’s future North Midtown neighborhood.
Operation Crosstown, the CHC’s volunteer-driven effort to make Crosstown “healthier, safer, and more livable” has just released its 2015 lineup of neighborhood improvement projects with a focus on fitness and art.
Last September, CHC hosted an idea lab for Operation Crosstown, and community members were invited to submit ideas for how to improve the neighborhood. In a test run for the organization, Operation Crosstown hosted a trash-can painting event after the idea lab. Afterward, volunteers installed them along Cleveland.
Church Health Center
Operation Crosstown trash cans
On Giving Tuesday in December, it launched a crowd-sourced fund-raising campaign for Operation Crosstown and netted its goal of $10,000. Operation Crosstown narrowed down a list of feasible projects from the idea lab, and now it will start initiating some of those ideas.
“The project calendar we just announced is about making the ideas that the community sourced a reality,” said Dylan Sandifer, program manager for Operation Crosstown.
This spring, volunteers will install a bike repair station near the bus stop shelter at Poplar and Cleveland. The station will consist of a concrete pole with various bicycle repair tools and an air pump. Its installation was originally set for May 9th, but shipping problems have pushed the date back.
“The Poplar/Cleveland bus stop is the number two hub of public transit in the city. It’s a very popular area for people who use buses and bikes as their primary transportation,” Sandifer said. “We’ll have a free bike repair station there so if someone gets a flat tire, they won’t have to miss work.”
On June 20th, outdoor fitness equipment will be erected on a yet-to-be-announced “prime piece of green space in Crosstown,” Sandifer said.
“It will be similar to RiverFit [in Tom Lee Park], but we’re making it with what Crosstown wants,” Sandifer said. “We’ll have some picnic tables and some outdoor games, like bocce and horseshoes. We’ll have a community meeting to let people vote on what they want. It’s a fitness area, but it’s also a community park. It won’t be just a workout area.”
On the following Saturday, June 27th, the CHC will host an outdoor block party at the new fitness park. There will be food trucks and demonstrations on how to use the equipment.
Operation Crosstown will partner with Clean Memphis on August 22nd to pick up litter and brush on the V&E Greenline, which begins just north of Crosstown Concourse and runs through the Rhodes College area.
And some time in the summer, with a date to be determined, the CHC will host a pop-up dental clinic for people without insurance in the Crosstown neighborhood.
They’re also working on adding more public art to the area. Operation Crosstown is currently seeking artist proposals for a mural on the south wall of Midtown Crossing Grill. The application form is available at churchhealthcenter.org, and there is a May 22nd submission deadline.
In October, Operation Crosstown will oversee another public mural project in the area, but the location for the artwork has not yet been released.