Month: May 2015

Categories
Music Music Features

Sound of the Streets

CREDIT: Keith Cooper

The latest crop of local garage rock bands to grace the stages of places like Murphy’s and the Buccaneer is turning to a house behind the Kroger on Union Avenue to preserve their songs. Since moving in last August, Keith Cooper has offered his services to up-and-coming Memphis bands like Nots, Time, and Chickasaw Mound. Working under the moniker “Burgundy Sound,” Cooper offers a live-recording environment in his living room, where songs get cut in one take and smudges on the recording tape are considered psychedelic blessings. We caught up with the man behind the last three Goner Records releases to find out more about his home studio, his history of home recording, and what the people he shares a driveway with think of their new neighbor.

Memphis Flyer: When did you first start recording bands at home?
Keith Cooper: Every time I would try to record in a studio there just wasn’t a sound that captured what I wanted, so I started looking into tape machines and analog recording. I bought a reel and didn’t know how to use it for a long time, but then I got a mixer and when the Sheiks started getting rolling I got more serious about recording the bands I was in. I started talking to [local recording engineer] Andew McCalla because I knew he recorded bands, and he helped me out a lot in the beginning. This was all when I lived at my parents’ house. Mostly we were just testing out different recording ideas, turning knobs and figuring out sounds. We recorded the first Sheiks single at my parents’ house, and we’d be messing around until 4 a.m. before eventually my dad would come up and tell us to chill out.

When I moved into the “Burgundy Ballroom” I figured out how to make more weird psychedelic noises, and Chris Owen from Time asked if I would record his first album. That was my first hired job. There were some accidents during that recording session, but it had a human quality to it and Chris was really happy with the way it turned out.

When did you move into this new spot and how many different recording sessions have you worked on since moving in?
Since I’ve been recording at this new place, I’ve mostly been working with Jack Oblivian on his new album. I’ve also worked with Time, Aquarian Blood, Nots, Chickasaw Mound, Blackberries, plus all of my projects.

A lot of the equipment at your recording studio was either donated or loaned to you. Where did it all come from?
Andrew [McCalla] and I spent two days setting up the room, and Jack [Oblivian] brought over his tape machine and his drum set from when he was in the Compulsive Gamblers, and that’s when it became a real studio. I also got a lot of equipment from Kelley Anderson from Those Darlins. She had so much cool stuff, but when she moved to Memphis she couldn’t use any of it in her apartment, so she just unloaded all of this cool gear on me. She gave me a lot of tube pre-amps and a compressor, which is helping me keep this place strictly analog. Kelley’s also been coming over and showing me how to transfer things digitally, because that’s always been the chink in the chain for me. She’s been helping me get stuff completely ready to be mastered.

Because a lot of the recording equipment was donated, it seems like a co-op space to a certain extent. Does it have that kind of vibe?
I want it to be a relaxed, creative environment. At the same time, it is my house and I’d like to eventually soundproof this place. My neighbors don’t seem to mind, they like seeing the freaks roll in and play music. I guess it does have a loose co-op vibe.

With all the new bands cropping up around town right now, how busy are you with recording? Is there a limit or rules to the types of bands you work with?
Mostly I’ve been recording garage and punk bands because those types of bands seem to be the most comfortable with doing live, in-the-moment stuff. I try to make that option available to them, but I would definitely be interested in working with other types of bands. I’ve always told people that if they have something good to cut, bring it on. It’s really fun to preserve all this stuff going on right now, ya know? It’s going to be on tape forever.

Would you like to see your studio eventually move into a building other than your home?
That thought has crossed my mind, and that would be cool if this becomes something that big. The thing about living at home is that there are time constraints, so I definitely wouldn’t be against moving into a real space. On the other hand, I really like having all this stuff at my disposal when it comes to practicing and jamming. There are a lot of times when you’re in the zone and then later you’re like, “Wait, what the hell was I playing,” but that moment is gone forever. Being able to hit record whenever I want helps preserve ideas and late-night jams.

What are you working on right now?
We’ve been finishing up the latest Jack Oblivian album I’m pretty sure he’s done with it now and it’s been sent over to Hi-Low. Every song on his new album, besides a couple, were recorded at my house. Blackberries are coming back over, and Naan Violence might come over and get some stuff done.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Good Kill

CREDIT: Good Kill

Behold the gaunt, bony, rodent-like face of Ethan Hawke, who often spackles his strongest performances with the feints and dodges of a scared, reluctant rule-breaker too dim-witted to completely cover his tracks. Hawke’s distracted, sad shiftiness — which makes it seem as though he’s trying (and failing) to pull one over on you — serves him well in Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill, a crisp, smart, talky film about the escalating absurdities of the ruthless, endless war on terror.

Although Good Kill is set in 2010, its hand-wringing over combat ethics and shell-shock remain current. Hawke plays Major Thomas Egan, a middle-aged Air Force pilot whose latest tour of duty is part flight simulation and part desk-jockey drudgery. From inside a cramped, windowless mobile bunker on a military base not far from his suburban Las Vegas home, Egan and his fellow airmen sit at their computers and watch live UVA (unmanned aerial vehicle) video footage of potential targets in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Middle East. Whenever Egan and company are given the order to strike, they abstract their actions and its destructive consequences by repeating a grim mantra: “Missiles away. Time of flight: 10 seconds.” They are then rewarded with footage of faraway people, places, and buildings blowing up.

It’s clear that the job is getting to Egan; the coals in his backyard grill at night remind him of the fiery destruction he helped unleash during the day. Plus, he no longer feels like a soldier — he misses the “fear” of actual manned flight. His drinking is getting worse, his relationship with his wife Molly (January Jones) is falling apart, and he can’t seem to explain to himself why he’s following the orders he’s being given.

Egan’s dilemma is not lost on Lieutenant Colonel Jack Johns (Bruce Greenwood), his superior and occasional confidant.

In contrast to Hawke’s hoarse underplaying, Greenwood imbues his weary philosopher-coach role with swagger and gusto. He gets to curse and rage at new recruits while standing in front of a giant American flag, and he also gets some of the film’s most self-consciously aphoristic dialogue: “Drones aren’t going anywhere. They’re going everywhere.” Although Johns is too on the nose a bit too often about the subtle catch-22s of the new war technology, his willingness to think about the paradoxes of his job seem visionary when contrasted with the devastatingly cruel orders given in perfectly scrubbed English by a CIA member (Peter Coyote, literally phoning it in) whose directives push Johns, Egan and others into grayer, darker moral corners.

Niccol keeps his ideas about war in the foreground while the suspenseful action unfolding on the monitors remains chillingly remote and abstract. The drone strikes and explosions are both devastating and completely silent, and there’s some artsy stylistic rhymes thrown in, too: Through Niccol’s use of extremely high-angle establishing shots for both rural villages and suburban backyards, the parallels between Vegas and Afghanistan grow more obvious. People may live and work in these places, but the eye in the sky sees no meaningful distinctions.

Good Kill
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Categories
Music Music Features

This Weekend at the Levitt Shell

CREDIT: Pauly Lingerfelt

Things are heating up at the Levitt Shell this weekend, with four shows taking place between Thursday the 28th and Sunday the 31st. Hurray for the Riff Raff kick things off Thursday night, bringing the critically acclaimed folk rock of Alynda Lee Segarra (pictured) to the Overton Park stage. Originally from New York City but now based in New Orleans, Segarra cites everything from political poetry to the punk scene on the Lower East Side as inspiration for her brand of socially aware music. Segarra’s trip to Memphis is in the middle of a full U.S. tour that features a plethora of up-and-coming openers, including Brooklyn artist Juan Wauters on select dates.

The AJ Ghent Band keep things moving on Friday night with some legendary lap-steel guitar shredding from Ghent and company. Ghent comes from a long line of world-renowned lap-steel guitar players, and his grandfather Henry Nelson created the lap-steel sound known as “sacred steele,” a genre kept alive today by guitarists like Robert Randolph. Ghent cut his teeth playing with the Col. Hampton Band and also jammed with the Zac Brown Band before releasing his debut album Live at Terminal West earlier this year.

Saturday night brings New Orleans trombonist Glen David Andrews to the Shell, an artist who’s been riding the wave of good press since releasing Redemption last spring. If you’re in the mood for a history lesson on New Orleans music, don’t miss Andrews perform Saturday evening. Blues singer Earl Thomas closes things out on Sunday, an artist who has played with Ike Turner and written songs for Etta James. Thomas has been in the game for a while now, and has been called one of the best blues singers in the world, which makes him an excellent closer for a weekend that showcases unique Southern songwriters.

All shows at the Levitt Shell this weekend start at 7:30 p.m. and admission is free.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Bus Riders Union Asks For Improvements at North End Terminal

CREDIT: Memphis Bus Riders Union

It’s doubtful that anyone, not even Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) President Ron Garrison or MATA board member Chooch Pickard, would say the North End Terminal bathrooms are in good shape.

“It’s horrible. It’s like third-world conditions,” said Pickard, referring to the state of the downtown bus terminal restrooms.

Garrison admitted that, although they’ve put extra staff on cleaning duty in those bathrooms, he didn’t think “the extra cleaning being done is adequate.”

Renovated restrooms at the North End Terminal are one of many improvements the Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU) is demanding in a new plan addressing what they consider to be inadequacies at the downtown station. Among those are problems with MATA’s contracted security officers, poor customer service due to a lack of personnel, and general lack of aesthetics.

“It’s been a long time since that place has seen some love,” said MBRU’s Bennett Foster. “We’re hoping the MATA board will adopt this plan and that they can set aside some funding in this budget cycle.”

Garrison hadn’t seen MBRU’s plan as of press time since they’re planning to introduce it at MATA’s June board meeting. But he said bathroom renovations at the downtown terminal are already in the works. Renovation work should start before the end of this fiscal year, he said.

“Those bathrooms were one of the first things I saw when I was brand new [last summer] and touring all the facilities,” Garrison said. “We immediately began to look for money in the budget or some way we could keep the bathrooms cleaner.”

Perhaps a more complicated issue in MBRU’s plan addresses issues with security officers from Ambassador Worldwide Protection Agency, which MATA contracts with to provide security at the terminal facilities. Foster said the union has received complaints from riders that officers have harassed riders for wearing sagging pants, and one officer was overheard using a racial slur.

MBRU is demanding that MATA terminate its contract with Ambassador and begin contracting with Memphis police officers for security since the South Main precinct is moving its offices into the North End Terminal this fall. They say that will create better transparency.

“With Memphis police, if we have any issues, we can do an open records request. But with a private company, they don’t have to tell us anything. They can keep us in the dark,” Foster said.

Pickard is pushing for body cameras for the Ambassador security officers, and Garrison said he’s working with Ambassador to correct the problems. Garrison agrees that body cameras would be a good idea.

“I think that would help a lot of things,” Garrison said. “For example, when you know your mom and dad are watching you and you’re 15, you’re probably not going to go in and have a glass of wine or beer in front of them. You’ll be on your best behavior. That’s so the customer will have a higher level of service.”

Other MBRU demands for the North End Terminal include an intercom that would announce when buses arrive, art exhibits, a play area for kids, free wifi, and a new paint job, among others.

Garrison agrees with some of those suggestions. He said he’d love an intercom system if MATA could find the money for it. And in other transit systems where he’s worked, he says he often incorporated art into bus facilities.

“It helps create a sense of place and a sense of wonder,” Garrison said. “This is something we haven’t done yet, but what if we had partnerships with local artists and arts organizations and gave them an opportunity to display their art? That’s what I would like to do.”

The MBRU is also asking MATA to hire more customer service staff system-wide. Garrison admits that customer service “is not what it could be” and says that’s something MATA will be focusing on.

“There are just a few customer service reps, and they do the best they can with what they have. But the only way to solve this issue is to employ more customer service reps and more people on staff who can answer the phone,” Foster said.

Pickard said he’s in agreement with the concerns of the MBRU and that, when the plan is presented to the board, he’ll push for some of these changes. But he warned that change will take time.

“It’s going to take a long time to turn the entire ship around, but we’re going to need to start seeing incremental change very soon,” Pickard said. “There’s been a lot of frustration, but we have a new [MATA president in Ron Garrison].”

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Rant (May 28, 2015) …

CREDIT: Carrienelson1 | Dreamstime.com

Finally, finally, FINALLY! The Memphis Flyer has had the good sense to curb the liberal writings of old men like Tim Sampson and Randy Haspel and change the back page of this paper to something more sensible by adding some female voices. Thank God — and I’m speaking of the God of Christianity who rules this nation and should rule the rest of the world, instead of these so-called prophets like Mohammed — that the paper has finally come to its senses and is now giving voice to women with some conservative values and extremely long necks like mine.

That Sampson guy has been writing his drivel for this paper for 26 years now, and it’s about time he gets limited to write just one piece of garbage each month from now on. I don’t know how you readers have put up with his left-wing musings for this many years. I hope that you will just skip over his soon-to-be monthly “Last Word” column and pay attention to writers like me, who really have something important to add.

Let’s take a look back: Most recently, Sampson verbally defiled pro-American-values crusader Pamela Geller, just because she had the audacity to host a pro-freedom-of-expression art show in which artists and normal God-fearing American citizens were invited to draw cartoons of the Islamic prophet Mohammed at an art gallery in the great, GREAT state of Texas, which (thank God again) gives criminals the death penalty more than any state in the country. They know how to deal with heathens, and I say more power to them.

It’s still a shame that Texas Governor Rick Perry didn’t beat the communist Barack Obama in the last presidential election. Now look where we are: Our taxes are being used right and left to finance food stamps for poor people who are too lazy to get jobs that would allow them to buy their own food and not put the burden on those of us who need to stockpile our millions for when Obama finally destroys the country, which has been his plan all along, because he is a socialist who was not even born in the United States and is, in fact, a radical Muslim from Africa.

Thank God, again, for people like Sarah Palin and me who aren’t afraid to tell the truth about him. Oh, yeah, you’ll be reading much more about this when Sampson’s “Rant” business is sidelined. You better get down on your knees and pray that this new change lasts for a long, long time.

And, no more will you have to be besieged on such a regular basis with his “ranting” about how gay marriage should be legalized in every state or how he thinks voting rights for impoverished blacks and other Democrats are being jeopardized, or his ongoing babbling about how that Soulsville Charter School’s seniors have all been accepted to college for the past four years that it has had graduations — with their inner-city kids receiving more than $30 million in scholarships. To read his biased (because he works there) views, you’d think white kids from wealthy families, who attend Christian-based private schools, don’t achieve anything. It sickens me, and I know it sickens you.

And then there’s the way he goes on and on and ON about how much he loves Memphis and how it’s the coolest city in the world. Give me a break. Most of you reading this live there and you know what a hellhole Memphis is. There’s nothing but crime and people living on welfare there and one black mayor after another. You all know you live in the poorest, most dangerous, most obese city in the United States and that Memphis has nothing to offer upstanding, conservative people of virtue. He thinks places like Wild Bill’s, Ernestine & Hazel’s, Beale Street, and the Blue Worm are all so great, but he never talks about all the great things on Germantown Parkway or the gated subdivisions in the suburbs, where people exercise their God-given freedom to stay away from all that filth that goes on in the city. He and Haspel are just old, white liberal men who are stuck in their hippie days and don’t see the light of what really matters to true Americans.

And speaking of the great Sarah Palin, it is almost criminal the way this paper has allowed Sampson to criticize her for her beliefs, her animal killing, her beautiful and intelligent children, and her stance on American values. She is a true American hero, but to read Sampson, you’d think she isn’t the genius that she really is, no matter what newspapers she reads. And when she says she can see Russia from Alaska, she is telling the truth. She always has and continues to do so on national Fox News, which Sampson also dismisses as right-wing propaganda, which you all know is not true.

So be very, very happy, people, that “The Rant” will be changing soon, albeit not soon enough for those of you who have had to put up with Sampson’s diatribes for so long. I say, so long to him and pay no attention to what he and Haspel write in their new monthly “Last Word” columns.

This column was actually written by Tim Sampson, of course. No conservative publicity whores were harmed in the writing of this column.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1370

Best Outrage Ever
A strange thing happened last week. Tennessee’s artsy-fartsy set and its tax-hating tea party set wound up, more or less, on the same side of an issue. You see, Tennessee has spent $46,000 for a new state logo. Now, when it comes to brand development, that’s really not much money to spend on a good logo. Then again, there’s nothing good about this.

The outrage was instant, and many fine things came about in the ensuing fracas. The Tennessee logo has its own parody Twitter account @TnLogo, of course.

But the very best thing to result from the logo outrage has to be Senator Brian Kelsey’s mirror selfie, which he took in support of a movement to preserve the state’s current logo. #Kelfie.

Categories
Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

Why Do Memphis Police Streams and Ambient Music Sound So Good Together?

Have you ever wished that you could relax while feeding your crippling paranoia? If so, then you need to tune into You Are Listening to Memphis. Seriously, click that link.

The “You Are Listening to” project mixes live police streams, from a variety of North American cities, with nature sounds and moody new age music. 

“You Are Listening To” has been around for about four years, but I thought I’d share anyway for the uninitiated. It’s weirdness worth knowing about. 

Categories
News News Blog

UPDATED: Memphis Honors B.B. King

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Jackson Baker

UPDATED: Fans, family, friends, musicians, and local dignitaries gathered on Beale Street in the rain, Wednesday, to honor the King of the Blues, B.B. King. Tributes were heard from band members and other musicians, with a processional down Beale to follow. Jackson Backer shot the first three pictures. The remaining shots are by Justin Fox Burks.

Jackson Baker

The Signing Board

Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

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Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Categories
Blurb Books

Riding with Bill Hancock

On a July day in 2001, the temperature in Memphis at 5 in the morning was already in the high 70s, and for breakfast, Bill Hancock had toast, a banana, then a cinnamon roll, followed, for lunch, by cheese crackers and Vienna sausage. The carbs didn’t stop there.

Dinner consisted of a hamburger, a hot dog, onion rings, tater tots, and peach cobbler. To wash it all down, Hancock went through six quarts of water, three quarts of Gatorade, and a root beer. He had to to keep hydrated, because he was on a bike, and he was pedaling cross-country — from Huntington Beach, California, to Tybee Island, Georgia.

And no, that wasn’t Memphis, Tennessee, Hancock was passing through that July day. It was Memphis, Texas.

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Hancock’s wife rode ahead in the couple’s pop-up tent trailer, where Hancock would spend nights. But on his bike, he was on his own — except for what was on his shoulder, the “blue moth,” the name given to the grief Hancock and his wife shared after their son Will, age 31, died in a plane crash six months before.

The plane was carrying members of the Oklahoma State University men’s basketball team and athletic staff, and Hancock describes that horrible day in the opening pages of Riding with the Blue Moth, a memoir of his 36-day, 2,746-mile bike trip.

Originally published in 2005, the book has been reissued in paperback by Nautilus Publishing of Oxford, Mississippi. Hancock will be discussing and signing Riding with the Blue Moth at the Memphis Botanic Garden on Monday, June 1st, from 6 to 8 p.m., with Burke’s Book Store handling the event.

Blue_Moth_final_cover.jpg

Bill Hancock has worked as a journalist, but he’s better known for the 13 years he served as director of the NCAA’s Division I Men’s Basketball Championship. He was the first executive director of the Bowl Championship Series, and he currently acts as executive director of the College Football Playoff. He also served on the U.S. Olympic Committee over the course of 11 Olympic Games.

But for someone so identified with sports, it’s surprising to learn in his book that he planned to study piano or math in college. That helps to explain why, in Riding with the Blue Moth, Hancock was a stickler for counting out his Fritos and peanuts and why his diary entries often come with a “song stuck in my head” — from “Play That Funky Music” (while he rode through desert California) to “Farmer and the Cowman” from the musical Oklahoma! (while Hancock headed to Onward, Mississippi).

“The best thing you can do with death is ride off from it,” says a character in Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, as Hancock reminds us. But that’s not what Hancock and his wife Nicki did on their cross-country road trip. “Not once did we discuss the journey as a balm for our souls,” Hancock writes, “we were going on an adventure. Nothing more.”

And it was … an adventure: flat tires, sun, wind, bugs, the changing landscape, the changing cast of characters Hancock met on America’s back roads (he avoided the interstates). His trip also drew the attention of a growing number of supporters who contacted Hancock by email — supporters who asked him questions that ranged from his diet to his bike, to his favorite state, to what he thinks about all day, to the condition of his rear end:

“You haven’t written a word about your, er, tail end. If I ride more than five miles, my tail is sore for a week,” one emailer wrote. Wasn’t a problem, Hancock responds. He credits his Cannondale’s split-style seat, which “spreads the burden.”

“I had ridden the bike to a place where I could see the world differently,” Hancock writes at the tail end of his journey and after he’d dipped his front tire in the Atlantic.

What he also saw differently was the blue moth. Where once it was something to shake, it was something now to accept.

“I know the moth will come and go as it pleases, and not as I dictate,” Hancock concludes. “Now I do not try to escape when it arrives. I simply listen to what it has to say, and wait quietly for it to fly away. And it has always done so.”

That’s the great insight Hancock arrived at after completing his cross-country adventure, and Hancock’s words — scattered throughout Riding with the Blue Moth — to his grand-daughter Andie are just as insightful. Readers can’t help but benefit too as they ride with Bill Hancock in these honest, heartfelt pages. •

Categories
News The Fly-By

Infant Mortality Rate Down But More Work Needed, Says Health Department

In 2005, when a series of Commercial Appeal articles was published, the infant mortality rate (IMR) for Shelby County was 14.9 deaths per 1,000 live births. The county was ranked third-highest in the country and was similar to rates in developing countries.

Those newspaper articles spawned a Tennessee governor’s summit in 2006, which aimed to tackle the issue head-on statewide. Now, 10 years of work by various agencies in Shelby County has resulted in the lowest reported infant mortality rate in 100 years: 9.2 deaths per 1,000 live births.

But it’s still much higher than the national rate of 6.17 per 1,000 live births, according to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s 2014 World Fact Book data.

Dr. Michelle Taylor, a maternal and child physician for the Shelby County Health Department, said a range of possibilities — sudden infant death syndrome, lack of immunizations — contribute to the high IMR. The rate is usually a “general health and wellness indicator” for communities, Taylor said. As medical knowledge on how to take care of infants increases, infant mortality has decreased over time, particularly over the past 60 years.

“Even though we’ve had a 30 percent reduction in the mortality rate in the last 10 years, we still know there’s a lot of work to do,” Taylor said. “We know there’s a gap between African-American and white infants. We’re trying to change that as well.”

Premature births also contribute to a high IMR. According to the Urban Child Institute, 13 percent of babies born in 2013 were preterm. Of those, 15 percent of black infants were born preterm, compared to 9 percent of white infants.

Low-income families also tend to have an effect on the IMR when there aren’t enough resources in the community, either medically, nutritionally, or economically.

“We know that if you’re under-resourced, your diet may not be as good,” Taylor said. “You may not have as many opportunities for employment. You may struggle to take care of yourself during pregnancy, meaning that you may not get prenatal care as early as you would like.”

On May 7th, during an Infant Mortality Reduction Summit in Memphis, agencies focused on measures that would further lower the rate. The Infant Mortality Reduction Initiative looks at prenatal care access, breastfeeding initiation, and teen birth rate, as well as appropriately spacing out pregnancies to 18 months apart and seeking care within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

“We found our rate was still higher than it needed to be,” Taylor said. “There were several concerned citizen organizations, agencies, and nonprofits that weren’t going to let that stand. With the summit we had a couple of weeks ago, we had people from all walks of life, people who have been engaged in this fight. They’re ready to make that paradigm shift to the next level in working on this issue.”

The health department has launched two technological initiatives: a blog, called the Shelby County Infant Mortality Reduction Initiative, centering on the issue and an iPhone and Android app. The free app, called B4Babylife, is designed to help people remain healthy before, during, and after pregnancy.

“The blog is going to continue the conversation we had on May 7th, and we’ll have local experts, community leaders, and members blog about how to continue to reduce the rate in Shelby County,” Taylor said.

The next step in terms of lowering the IMR isn’t one step, she said, but a collection of steps needed to continue driving the number down. By organizations stepping up collectively, each issue can be tackled one at a time by various groups.

“We have to do it as a community,” Taylor said. “You know, there are not a lot of initiatives that I know of in Shelby County that have lasted 10 years. [This has been] 10 years of work that different groups of people have been trying to maintain and make sure that we continue to pay attention to the issue. That’s a long time for any locality, any group of people, to continue working on a problem.”