Month: June 2015

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies trade Luke Ridnour for Matt Barnes

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

In a move that is surprising and yet also feels like the realization of a long-forseen destiny, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports is reporting that the Grizzlies have traded Luke Ridnour—acquired yesterday in a swap with Orlando for the rights to Janis Timma—to the Charlotte Hornets for Matt Barnes.

Matt Barnes is the quintessential “hate him unless he’s on your team” player, and he gives the Grizzlies another wing who can play, who can consistently shoot 33% from 3-point range, and who is just as insane as everyone else already on the Grizzlies’ roster in the most delightful way possible.

Barnes is a guy who Griz watchers have been saying for years would fit right in on this team, and though he’ll turn 36 during the upcoming season, there’s no reason to believe he won’t be a good fit here.

One wonders what the addition of Matt Barnes to the roster means for Jeff Green and Vince Carter, but I suppose we’ll find that out in due time.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Memphis Tiger Trivia (answer)

Since the Tigers upset Tennessee in 1996 (surely you remember), the SEC has had its way with Memphis, its teams winning 26 of 28 games. But the talent disparity has not always been so dramatic. When was the last time the Tigers beat three SEC teams . . . in the same season? And who were the teams?

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In 1993, the Tigers opened their season with a 45-35 upset of 23rd-ranked Mississippi State in Starkville. They beat Arkansas, 6-0, on the road and handled Ole Miss, 19-3, at the Liberty Bowl. Unfortunately, coach Chuck Stobart’s team went 3-5 against teams outside the SEC (with three losses by a total of nine points) and did not receive a bowl bid.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

White is the New Black

Yo, white people. We need to talk. Pull up a chair, pour yourself a glass of Pinot Grigio or sweet tea or whatever. We’ve got a problem and it’s going to take a while to get to the bottom of it. I’m talking about racism in this country.

Not your personal racism, of course. Or mine. We’re cool. And not just in that hackneyed, “I have black friends” way. Though, of course, we do. And we’ve taught our kids not to hate, not to discriminate on the basis of race. They all have black friends, too. More than we do, actually. They’re cool. Good, open-minded kids. We’re not racists. It’s not really our problem.

Yes, it is.

It’s not enough to declare ourselves and our families non-racism zones. We need to look at what’s going on outside our cocoons and take some responsibility for it. Too many black kids are still being born in situations where they have little to no chance of “pulling themselves up” by their bootstraps. They don’t even have boots. Their schools are substandard. Their food is junk. They’re trapped in a cycle of poverty and neglect and violence. It’s not because they’re lazy; it’s because they know nothing else.

Yeah, I know, you hear it said all the time: Blacks need to take responsibility for single-parent homes, “black-on-black” crime, poor schools, gangs. That’s self-defeating, divisive, and gets us no closer to solving the problem. The power to fix that situation lies with all middle- and upper-income folks, black, white, and brown — those who have escaped the ghetto and those who never had to worry about it. We need to work together to address the effects of institutional racism that still linger in the United States, and in the South, particularly.

And if we are going to insist black people take responsibility for “black problems,” we white people need to step up and take of our “white problems.” Problems like Dylann Storm Roof and the thousands of kids like him, and the thousands more adults who shape kids like Dylann. They’re out there — ignorant and angry, raised on a steady diet of racism and hatred, waving the Confederate battle flag like a cudgel, listening to wing-nut radio, devouring Nazi/racist web propaganda. We white people need to call that shit out. Now.

Getting rid of Confederate flags is a symbolic start, but more is needed. When we hear — or hear of — someone saying or writing such vile things, we need to pull off their hoods (real or cyber) and push them into the light. If your kids’ private school or your country club is not diverse, well, maybe it’s time to speak up and push for a change. If your kids don’t have interactions with other races, don’t be shocked when they’re caught on a cellphone video singing racist frat songs.

In a radio interview this week, President Obama said, “It is incontrovertible that race relations have improved significantly during my lifetime and yours, and that opportunities have opened up, and that attitudes have changed. … What is also true is the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives … casts a long shadow and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on. We’re not cured of it.”

No, we’re not, as events in Charleston last week made clear.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1374

Logo No Go

Not only is it crude and embarrassing, the controversial new $46,000 Tennessee logo doesn’t meet the criteria for a trademark. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the red and blue box with the state’s “TN” abbreviation is too “geographically descriptive.” That means a trademark could grant the holder exclusive rights to design elements that other parties need for general identification and use.

Like the USPTO says in its FAQ, “Under U.S. trademark law, geographic terms or signs are not registrable as trademarks if they are geographically descriptive or geographically misdescriptive of where the goods/services originate. The theory is that other producers in that area would need to be able to use a geographic term to describe where their goods/services are from and that one person should not be able to prevent others from using that term.”

Guns & Money

Media outlets and gun dealers have a special relationship. Every headline about crime sells more guns. Every article about the virtues of guns sells more guns. Every article calling for gun control also sells more guns. At least the Commercial Appeal put its post-Charleston full-page gun ad on page 13.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Upcoming Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Awareness Events Focus on Men

CREDIT: David Wayne Brown

A full day of events addressing issues of sexual assault and domestic violence is planned for Thursday, June 25th, but the intended audience isn’t the demographic most affected by those crimes.

Rather than focus on women for these events, the Sexual Assault Kit (SAK) Taskforce is inviting men to be guests at its quarterly “community conversation” event. That public forum will be immediately followed by the annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event, where men are asked to don high heels for a one-mile awareness walk.

“Men have been basically silent on the issues of domestic violence and sexual assault. And the silence is what creates the permissive space for abusers to be abusive,” said Kevin Reed, the Shelby County judicial commissioner over the domestic violence court and a member of the SAK Taskforce.

David Wayne Brown

Participants in a past Walk a Mile event

The taskforce, which was established in January 2014 to deal with the city’s rape kit backlog, has been hosting quarterly public forums since its formation. The first few meetings lacked a theme, but they’ve begun narrowing the intended audience. Taskforce coordinator Doug McGowan said they invited women’s groups last time, and the next meeting will focus on student groups. But men’s groups are invited to this upcoming meeting, scheduled for 3 p.m. on June 25th at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts.

“Men have to understand that we have a role to play. We want to come up with ways that men can be part of the solution, whether that’s holding each other collectively accountable or teaching the next generation of young men the expectations for behavior relative to domestic violence and sexual assault,” McGowan said.

The Memphis Area Women’s Council (MAWC) is behind the annual Walk a Mile event, which is in its fifth year. The walk kicks off at 5 p.m., immediately following the community conversation meeting. Participants will walk from the Cannon Center to the FedExForum Plaza, and while high heels aren’t required, they are encouraged.

“We as women aren’t giving up any responsibility or energy to change this. We’re saying that men have to unite with us,” said Deborah Clubb, executive director of MAWC and a member of the SAK Taskforce

After the walkers arrive at FedExForum Plaza, Mayor A C Wharton’s office will hold a press conference to announce the city’s launch of the Memphis Say No More campaign, a public-awareness campaign that will feature local celebrities and ordinary Memphians speaking out against rape and domestic violence on billboards and posters around town.

The events aren’t without critics. Meaghan Ybos, a rape survivor and activist, said the June 25th events won’t do much to solve the city’s rape kit backlog crisis.

“If Memphis wants to end rape, they can start by prosecuting rapists,” Ybos said. “It’s nice to have PSAs, but the problem in Memphis isn’t that people are unaware that these things are happening. People are very aware that we’re being raped. It’s the police that need to change.”

The SAK Taskforce reported last week that 53 percent of the total inventory of rape kits had been fully analyzed or are at labs awaiting analysis. Of that percentage, only 15 percent have been completely processed for DNA, but that number isn’t often publicly touted. Investigations have resulted in 98 requests for indictments of known individuals or DNA profiles.

When the taskforce began their work of getting the kits tested, there were a little more than 12,300 backlogged kits. Ybos has been critical of the city’s progress, and she says the city shouldn’t be combining the numbers for tested kits with those still awaiting testing at labs.

“That’s a slap in the face to victims because they’re misleading us by claiming progress for something that hasn’t been done yet,” Ybos said.

But Clubb said the tests sitting at labs are at least further along than they were before, when they were piled up for years in the city’s backlog.

“The labs can only do what they can do, and we’re using four labs,” Clubb said. “Other cities and counties are trying to get stuff to labs too, and rape kits aren’t the only thing the labs are trying to process. We can’t speed it up, but we’re staying on it.”

Categories
Music Music Features

The New King of Memphis

CREDIT: Cole Wheeler

Yo Gotti gave local hip-hop fans the concert they deserved this past Sunday night at his annual birthday celebration. Known for guest appearances and multiple surprises, Yo Gotti and Friends Birthday Bash at Mud Island Amphitheater didn’t disappoint, with Nicki Minaj, Meek Mill, O.T. Genasis, Dej Loaf, Shy Glizzy, Snootie Wild, Wave Chappelle, Zed Zilla, and Monica making guest appearances, in addition to DJ Paul and La Chat of Da Mafia 6ix joining forces with Yo Gotti on stage for the first time. Those following the Memphis rap game know that DJ Paul and Yo Gotti were once considered enemies, with Yo Gotti calling out Three 6 Mafia on his smash hit “That’s What’s Up” from the 2006 album Back 2 Da Basics. All beef seemed to be squashed when DJ Paul appeared on stage to do the classic Three 6 Mafia club jam “Who Run It,” alongside Yo Gotti, as confetti shot out of cannons and fireworks exploded over the Mississippi River. Later, Yo Gotti called the on-stage performance “a victory for the whole city,” and residents of every section of Memphis cheered loudly in appreciation of the unity the performance symbolized between two of the biggest rappers the city has ever produced.

Cole Wheeler

DJ Paul

When asked about holding the event at Mud Island, Yo Gotti (whose real name is Mario Mims,) said that a much larger venue was mandatory for this year’s bash.

“We’ve done the Orpheum and the Cannon Center, and we sold them out so quick that I knew I had to go somewhere bigger,” Mims said.

“I felt like there were thousands of people who were getting left out, and if you looked around tonight, you saw that we were top-to-bottom, and this place is twice as big as the other venues.”

The rapper also acknowledged that he’s come a long way since his days of playing all-ages clubs and places like the Plush Club.

“When I was coming up, I just wanted to perform anywhere. When I first heard my music in Denim & Diamonds, I was really excited about it,” Mims said.

“The first time I ever performed at Cactus Jacks or The Premier was very special to me. I have always loved to get on the stage. It seems like Memphis rappers have to work twice as hard as everyone else to get some recognition, but if you keep grinding, it will happen for you.”

Lil Boosie received one of the strongest receptions of the night (along with Monica), and after a few songs, Yo Gotti (who calls himself the King of Memphis), joked that Memphis might actually belong to Louisiana-based Lil Boosie. Other highlights included O.T. Genasis doing his mega-hit “CoCo,” Monica’s amazing vocals, and Nicki Minaj appearing on stage seemingly only to take selfies and wave to her fans, who were all collectively losing their minds. Backstage at Mud Island, Cîroc and Patrón seemed to be the drink of choice, along with enough blunt smoke to choke Snoop Dogg. Each rapper had an extensive entourage, who seemed to each have their own separate mini-entourages as well.

Lil Boosie might have had the biggest entourage of them all, with 30 or so people pouring out of a tiny dressing room before joining him on stage for multiple songs. Behind the stage sat Yo Gotti’s white Lamborghini, though sadly it did not become a part of his performance in the same way it did at his Cannon Center Birthday Bash the year before. When asked how he will manage to top this year’s festivities, Mims said he’s already started planning.

“Im just going to keep grinding, keep trying to make it bigger than it was the year before. We don’t have Summer Jam in Memphis anymore, so this is the new Summer Jam.”

Cole Wheeler

Dej Loaf

Writers Notebook:

• O.T. Genasis had the best style of the evening, rocking a Day-Glo motorcycle jacket and at least three seriously impressive gold chains.

• Rappers really do drink as much Patrón as they say they do.

•Monica might have reached the peak of her career in the ’90s with hits like “The Boy is Mine” and “For You I Will,” but her vocal performance Saturday night was spine-tingling. She’s also sold over 10 million records, so there’s that, too.

•Yo Gotti’s hype men deserve a bonus for keeping the crowd thoroughly crunk throughout the evening, as they rarely stopped moving during the show’s five-hour duration.

• After the show, Nicki Minaj went to Blues City Cafe to pick up a to-go order, and was immediately swarmed by fans. Minaj handled the fanfare with ease, taking selfies with her fans and posing for multiple photos before getting back in her SUV.

• Memphis showed that it could hang with the big dogs in terms of getting premier hip-hop talent, which is amazing for our city’s entertainment industry. Don’t be surprised if Yo Gotti’s next birthday bash is in the FedExForum, or better yet, the Mid-South Coliseum.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Don’t Be Afraid of the Josh McLane Comedy Special at the Hi-Tone

CREDIT: Eric Huber

The title “hardest-working man in show business” gets tossed around lightly at times, but it is certainly an appropriate moniker for local creative Josh McLane. Not only is McLane a highly respected drummer around town with bands such as Hombres, Heels, and Special Agent Cooper (just to name a few), he’s also a sturdy presence in the burgeoning local stand-up comedy scene.

But wait, there’s more! He’s also a podcaster, radio host, pro-wrestling ring announcer, independent film writer/producer/actor, and show promoter. How does he keep it all together?

“I enjoy doing a lot of things,” McLane says. “I get bored easily. Comedy is a main focus, but so is playing music and making sure my wife isn’t tired of it yet.”

Eric Huber

Josh McLane

McLane started doing stand-up more than seven years ago on a dare from local comic Mike Degnan, who said McLane was “funny enough” to get up at an open-mic. By his own admission, McLane’s early forays into comedy were somewhat one-note (“I was just screaming at everyone,” he says), but he has since developed a more nuanced, heartfelt approach to his performances and is now easily one of the scene’s unique and most consistently funny voices.

On Wednesday, McLane will tape his first stand-up comedy record live at the Hi-Tone. The event is called “The Don’t Be Afraid of Josh McLane Comedy Special,” named after the successful monthly show “Don’t Be Afraid of the Comedy, Memphis” that McLane hosts at the venue. The idea was born out of yet another dare — this time from Katrina Coleman, a fellow Memphis comedian who released her own debut album, Womanchild, last year.

“Josh has emerged as a reluctant mentor and role model to the other comics with the longest-running and strongest showcase in town,” Coleman says, who will serve as host for the show. “His stand-up is somewhere between a hellfire-spouting evangelist for reason and a chain-smoking stitch.”

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Memphis Margarita Festival and Tamale Festival Saturday

Is there anything better than a pitcher of margaritas and a pile of handmade tamales, piping hot inside their corn husks? If your answer to that question was anything other than “all of that and a rack of ribs,” you’re wrong. That’s why a pair of dueling festivals, both being held this Saturday, will present right-thinking Memphians with something of a dilemma. They will be forced to choose between tamales at the Latino Cultural Center’s first Tamale Festival at Caritas Village or margaritas at the Memphis Flyer‘s first Margarita Festival on the Greensward in Overton Park. Or maybe, since they’re both in Midtown, folks can figure out a way to have a little taste of one and a little sip of the other.

“The heart of our festival is the tamale competition,” Tamale Fest spokesperson Kristin Fox-Trautman says. “We have 10 teams headed by experts who’ve learned to make tamales or who have old family recipes that have been passed down for generations.” Samples of the competition tamales will be available, and there will be plenty of Mexican and Delta-style tamales for sale. “I’ve been a volunteer with Latino Cultural Center for a couple of years,” Fox-Trautman says. “When we got ready to grow our efforts, someone joked and said a hot dog festival would be perfect. Everybody loves hot dogs. But the tamale has a special place in so many Latino cultures. And even here in the South with the Delta tamale. And the corn dog!” Burritos, tacos, paletas, and funnel cakes will also be available for purchase. And hot dogs. General admission is $5 and includes two tamale tastes.

Michael Gray | Dreamstime.com

Tickets to the Memphis Flyer Margarita Festival include 15 margarita samples. Margarita mixologists will be competing on behalf of restaurants like Babalu, Swanky’s, Happy Mexican, Molly’s, Agave Maria, and many more. Proceeds from the event go to Leadership Memphis’ program, Volunteer Memphis.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

The Future of Energy

It is an unfortunate fact that low-income and minority Americans are more likely to live near power plants. Communities living in such close proximity also bear the brunt of the negative health impacts caused by the pollution spewed from these power plants. Due to these historic disproportional impacts, it is imperative that we ensure that those who have been harmed by power plant pollution see the benefits of our nation’s transition to a clean energy economy.

The Clean Power Plan, part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, will be our nation’s first comprehensive regulation aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants. Coal plants emit 77 percent of carbon dioxide emissions from our nation’s power sector, as well as millions of tons of hazardous air pollutants that contribute to the formation of harmful ground-level ozone. Ground-level ozone and hazardous air pollutants are particularly dangerous for vulnerable populations, like children and the elderly.

Additionally, ground-level ozone increases smog, which contributes to respiratory illnesses such as asthma and can cause reduced lung function, particularly for adults who spend more time outdoors. Carbon dioxide emissions contribute to the ever-growing threat of climate change, which is predicted to impact historically disadvantaged communities more severely than others due to increases in extreme weather and more extreme heat. 

The Clean Power Plan will not only reduce carbon dioxide and the accompanying suite of harmful air pollutants emitted by coal plants, but it will also spur the development of clean energy resources such as solar and wind and increase energy efficiency.

By increasing renewable energy resources, we will create much-needed jobs in the clean energy sector. According to national business leaders, more than 18,000 jobs were announced in the clean energy sector in the third quarter of 2014 alone. A study released by the Natural Resources Defense Council found that if the Clean Power Plan is enacted, 274,000 jobs related to energy efficiency will be created over the next five years.

One important aspect of jobs in the clean energy sector is that many are accessible to those without advanced degrees and are generally higher-paying jobs compared to other jobs attainable to those with similar education backgrounds. The typical wage for someone employed in a clean energy industry — about $44,000 — is 13 percent higher than the typical wage earned by Americans. Perhaps most important, these jobs will be created at the local level and cannot be exported.

This clean energy revolution can and should benefit low-income communities by increasing the availability of higher-paying jobs and providing these communities access to low-cost, safe, and clean energy resources. Energy efficiency programs can reduce a family’s energy bills in both the short- and long-term. Experience has shown that well-designed and adequately funded energy efficiency programs can trim utility bills and limit exposure to pollution by reducing reliance on traditional forms of energy such as coal plants.

Increased access to funding for energy efficiency improvements is especially important for limited-income households, which spend disproportionately higher amounts of their monthly income on electric bills and often live in homes or apartments lacking proper insulation with old, inefficient appliances.

Last month, Vanderbilt University Law School and Medical Center hosted a two-day forum on the Clean Power Plan. This forum allowed doctors, lawyers, scholars, business leaders, and policymakers an opportunity to discuss how we can work to protect our state and citizens from the threats of climate change while benefiting from the positive impacts of a transition to a clean energy economy.

For new jobs, energy savings, health benefits, and basic economic fairness, we should invest in clean energy resources in order to level the playing field for disadvantaged communities. I stand ready to work with the Tennessee Valley Authority, leaders in the energy industry, and my colleagues in Congress to make this commitment a reality.

We can and must do more to focus on the fair distribution of both the benefits and the burdens related to how we produce and consume energy.

Categories
Book Features Books

For one Memphis book dealer, the old way is still the best way.

Susan Davis isn’t sure about the number of used books she has for sale, but her guess would be around 2,500 — in her words, “a modest amount.”

First editions and signed editions, fiction and nonfiction, special interest and local interest, Davis’ inventory lines the walls of several rooms in this one-woman show, Susan Davis Bookseller, which is housed, literally, in a quiet East Memphis neighborhood. Ask her how she keeps track of her inventory, however, and the answer’s simple, because there’s not much high tech here:

“I tend to remember what books I have,” Davis said after an open house that she recently held. (Her business is normally open by appointment only.) “For consigned items, I do keep a detailed list,” she added. “But most of the books are in my head. I tend to remember where I got them, what I paid for them.”

What you’ll pay for one of Davis’ more expensive items is $800, which is what she’s asking for a worn but handsome, oversize monastery song book (in Gregorian chant), whose previous owner Davis described as an Arkansas hermit.

One thousand five hundred dollars (marked down from the original asking price of $5,000) is what you’ll pay for a particular favorite of Davis’: Men of Mark (1913), a book of photographs by Alvin Langdon Coburn, a contemporary of Stieglitz and Steichen. But she has some signed Faulkners on consignment that are worth more than the Coburn book. She also has a first edition of L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics, which used to belong to Isaac Hayes. And she has hardback mysteries published between the wars, which Davis said never go out of style and continue to be highly collectible.

Southern authors are, not surprisingly, among Davis’ bestsellers, and signed books are always desirable — “well, usually desirable,” Davis reported. Surprisingly, though, books on the Civil War don’t sell as they once did, nor do signed first editions by contemporary authors, except, according to Davis, in the case of Donna Tartt.

“Modern first editions have gone down,” Davis said of recent trends. “There are so many now for sale on the internet, and the tide started turning around 2008. F. Scott Fitzgerald, however, does well, because young people still respond to him.”

Davis still responds to what she called “old classics” in addition to novels from the 1920s and ’30s, with their artful covers.

“The reason I got into this business is because I love books, and I love books published between the wars … the gorgeous book jackets of that era. First editions from that period, however, are hard to find, so for a dealer it’s catch-as-catch-can.”

Valuable collectibles are especially hard to track down in Memphis, according to Davis, who finds many of her books at local estate sales:

“Memphis is a challenging market for good books. When I started in this business 20 years ago, I thought I’d be going to sales and finding great books all the time. That’s not really how it works, and I think my fellow dealers would agree with me.”

Like many seasoned dealers too, Davis has mixed feelings about the internet, which she described as too often “a race to the bottom” when it comes to successfully selling a title, but she does use AbeBooks on occasion.

“I put older stuff that hasn’t sold on there,” Davis said. “And if it’s a book on consignment, I have a commitment to the seller to do my best to move the item. But that’s a last resort. I like the older way — where you have an ongoing, personal relationship with the potential buyer.”

So far, however, there have been no buyers for one of Davis’ favorite categories, which is included on the business card for Susan Davis Bookseller: “First Editions – Local History – Islands – General.” Islands?

“It’s kind of a subspecialty of mine — books about islands,” Davis said. “I just like islands. I’ve been to a few odd ones. I don’t think I’ve had any customers for my island books, but I keep buying them, hopeful.”

For more information on Susan Davis Bookseller or to schedule an appointment, call 362-1423. Or if you’re in Sewanee, Tennessee, July 18th-19th, stop by Davis’ table. She’ll be participating again this year in the Tennessee Antiquarian Book Fair at the Sewanee Inn, which will include more than two dozen vendors. The number of books Davis will have on hand and for sale, by her estimate: “400-ish.” And if an antiquarian book fair sounds stodgy to you, Davis understands, but she’ll have you know: “It’s amazingly jolly!”