Month: July 2015

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies sign Brandan Wright to 3 year, $18mm deal

CREDIT: ESPN

ESPN

In a move that isn’t surprising in hindsight but sure feels like a steal, last night the Grizzlies and big man (and Tennessean) Brandan Wright agreed to terms on a 3-year, $18 million deal.

Wright played for the Mavericks last year, and some suggested he’d be a trade target for the Grizzlies, but then he was dealt to the Celtics and subsequently to the Phoenix Suns, where he played out the year.

Wright has been a solid bench big for his whole career, and is very efficient. He excels as the roll man in pick and roll situations, and has a very high FG% at the rim, which, not coincidentally, is where he takes almost all of his shots. Alongside Zach Randolph and especially Marc Gasol (assuming he returns—the lack of news on that front is starting to get a little strange), Wright can do serious damage as an offensive weapon and he’s a decent enough defender, too.

This is a great signing for the Grizzlies, considering some of the other larger deals that went down yesterday. Wright is basically taking a Tennessee Discount (though maybe not a very big one) to come play for the Grizzlies.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

The Week That Was …

CREDIT: Bruce VanWyngarden

I was on vacation last week — on the road, on a boat, in the woods — mostly off the grid, as it were. Did I miss anything?

I mean, besides the Supreme Court approving the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and making gay marriage the law of the land, and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley deciding to take down the Confederate flag, and the Grizzlies making a few moves and drafting another “project.” That’s about it, right?

Oh, and President Obama singing a hymn and making one of the most powerful and beautiful speeches I’ve ever heard. That, too.

I got bits and pieces of it all on my cell phone. Traveling across Long Island with my son at the wheel, I checked CNN and saw that the ACA had survived its most serious challenge. “Wow,” I said. “The Supreme Court upheld Obamacare today.”

“That’s a big deal, right?” said my son.

“Yes, it is,” I said. “A very big deal.” Then back to vacationing we went.

It was the same sort of scenario with the SCOTUS gay-marriage decision. I learned of it on my phone in a coffee shop in Amagansett.

“That’s huge,” my son said.

“Amazing,” I said. Then back to vacationing we went: sailing, surfing, hikes in the woods, walks along secluded beaches. Our Airbnb didn’t have wi-fi and phone reception was iffy. The country was changing in monumental ways and we were barely aware of it.

Friday night, we went to hear a couple of acoustic musicians play in the local town square. It was a gorgeous evening, cool, dark, and starry, with a half-moon hanging overhead. The performers finished with a lovely version of Neil Young’s “Helpless.” Blue, blue windows behind the stars. Such peace.

As the crowd stood and shuffled, I stayed seated on the blanket and checked Facebook, as one does occasionally, even on vacation. A friend had posted a video of President Obama singing “Amazing Grace” during his eulogy for Reverend Clementa Pinckney. I clicked on it and listened. Within seconds there were tears in my eyes. What a powerful and perfect redemptive gesture. I sat for a while, taking it in and maybe for the first time understanding the magnitude of what had transpired in my country in a few short days.

I got back to Memphis Sunday and spent hours catching up, reading newspapers, checking websites, getting opinions and reactions to all the drama.

Justice Scalia’s get-off-my-lawn dissents, citing “hippies” and other “jiggery-pokery” were priceless. There was the inevitable blowback. Some GOP officeholders were still trying to figure out ways to keep the tides of change at bay. The old tropes of Christian persecution and states’ rights were run up the flagpole again, but even the politicians seemed to know it was over. The KKK announced a march in South Carolina, for “heritage.” Send in the clowns. Speaking of which: Donald Trump even got fired.

What a week.

Categories
Cover Feature News

We Can’t Drive … I-55!

Pretty soon, Memphis and the Mid-South will be down to one bridge over the Mississippi. At least it will if the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) gets to implement its current plan.

TDOT wants to close the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge (what most Mid-Southerners call the “Old Bridge”) for nine months in 2017. Officials say the closure is necessary to expedite work on a new interchange at E.H. Crump Boulevard and Interstate 55. That new interchange is needed because the current one is unsafe and ineffective.

TDOT Commissioner John Schroer

TDOT Commissioner John Schroer calls it “the worst interchange we have in the state of Tennessee.”

But opposition to the TDOT plan is building. TDOT has fielded calls from politicians and many in the business community who are concerned that the closure would cause traffic gridlock and negatively impact the regional economy.

So far, the most visible opposition to the plan is a change.org petition from Arkansas state Senator Keith Ingram that says the closure “will devastate local economies throughout Eastern Arkansas and will cripple emergency services in the event of an accident or natural disaster.” Sources on both sides of the bridge say behind-the-scenes organizing is underway for more formal opposition to TDOT’s plan.

Senator Keith Ingram

Schroer says he considered another plan for the project that had a five-year construction timeline and no bridge closure, but maintains the current plan is the best, safest, and most cost-effective. Schroer says the Hernando de Soto “M bridge” can handle the traffic.

Many think Schroer couldn’t be more wrong, and the idea of limiting the Mid-South to one bridge over the Mississippi pushes their thoughts to worst-case-scenario territory.

The Plan

When asked what he thinks of closing the Old Bridge, Schroer says, “I hate it.”

“It certainly isn’t an option we wanted to pursue, but sometimes you have to look at all your options and pick what is the least evil of them all, the least disruptive for a duration of time, and what is the safest as well,” Schroer says.

Schroer says TDOT picked through a lot of plans, pointing to the fact that all considered plans were listed alphabetically and the plan on the table now is labeled Z-1.

Schroer says he made the final choice on the design and the closure, and they were “probably the toughest decisions I’ll have to make in eight years in office here.”

Courtesy TDOT

This map shows the roundabout (in yellow) and the sweeping curve (in orange) of TDOT’s proposed interchange at E.H. Crump Boulevard and I-55

Z-1 will replace the current cloverleaf design at Crump and I-55 with a roundabout for local traffic and a long, elevated, sweeping curve to keep I-55 traffic flowing without slowing to (or below) the posted speed limit of 25 miles per hour.

The cloverleaf design was built in the mid-1960s. It was meant to handle 28,500 vehicles daily, with 8 percent truck traffic, according to the Federal Highway Adminstration [FHWA]. Today, traffic averages 60,330 vehicles daily with 26 percent trucks. By 2035, the interchange will see 84,500 vehicles per day, according to FHWA projections.

Brandon Dill

Trucks enter the current cloverleaf ramp to I-55, where interstate traffic must slow to 25 miles per hour

Local streets also directly intersect with I-55 at that interchange. “The project needs are to improve interstate safety and traffic operations by improving interstate speeds, managing heavy truck crashes and large traffic volumes, and reducing overall crashes,” an FHWA statement says.

Crash data specific to the Crump/I-55 interchange were not available. But data for the Tennessee stretch of I-55 show 851 total crashes between 2009-2011. Of those, there were five fatalities, 196 injuries, and 650 wrecks that yielded only property damage.

The price tag for the new interchange project has grown from $35 million when it was announced in 2010 to about $60 million now. TDOT officials say the cost rose as the project was reviewed by government and construction officials. Those conversations changed construction methods, materials, and the overall design.

If the plan moves ahead on schedule, the contract for it will be opened for bid this winter.

Phase 1 construction will begin March 2016 and last through February 2017. During that time, TDOT will close the ramp for southbound Riverside traffic, which will be routed from Riverside to Carolina Street to Florida Street to Crump. Crews will build a temporary ramp for I-55 southbound and build noise walls for the French Fort neighborhood.

The ramp for southbound Riverside traffic to the I-55 bridge will also be removed, as well as the ramp for westbound Crump traffic to the ramp for I-55 South. That traffic will also be detoured to Florida Street.

Phase 2 construction will shut down the Old Bridge from March 2017 to the end of November. TDOT will keep one lane across the bridge open for emergency vehicles only during the closure.

The timing was selected to expedite the project, TDOT officials say. “We did that so we can keep this project going during the nine-month construction season of 2017,” says Nichole Lawrence, TDOT’s community relations officer for West Tennessee. “If we start in the summer, then construction will go into the winter, and there will be some dead time.”

The decision to close the bridge was made March 13th, according to the FHWA, after the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (AHTD), the Arkansas and Tennessee Divisions of the Federal Highway Administration, and construction industry representatives met to discuss the project — with and without an interstate closure.

“Based on the review, the group determined that the project could not be built safely without the closure of I-55 for approximately nine months during the projected three-year construction project,” a statement from FHWA says. “The basis for closure is the limited space available to safely construct the interchange while keeping the road open.”

Paul Degges, TDOT’s deputy commissioner and chief engineer, says those construction issues relate mainly to building the sweeping, elevated curve of the new I-55 ramp. Degges says the new ramp will have to be built farther from the bridge than the current ramp, and that the large construction machinery is not safe to operate around traffic.

I-55 will be closed for an 11.5-mile stretch from the I-55/I-40 split in West Memphis to the McLemore Avenue exit in South Memphis. Southbound I-55 traffic will be detoured across the Hernando de Soto Bridge and then to I-240 Midtown, then to I-55 South near the interchange at Elvis Presley Boulevard. Northbound I-55 traffic will be detoured at that same interchange to I-240, then to I-40 West across the Hernando de Soto Bridge.

The cloverleaf will be demolished. Riverside Drive will be closed from Crump to Carolina. Southbound Riverside traffic will be detoured to Carolina, to Florida, to Crump. Crump will be closed to westbound traffic at Third Street and be detoured north or south on Third.

Phase 3 construction will last from December 2017 to November 2018. Riverside will remain closed from Carolina to Crump. I-55 will be reopened and will be running on new southbound lanes.

Phase 4 construction will last for about three months in the spring of 2019, slated to be completed by May. The project will be “open,” according to TDOT, as crews complete final paving operations.

The total construction project is projected to last three years and two months.

The Opposition 

West Memphian Jim Russell is retired and spends a lot of time tending the irises at the Memphis Botanic Garden. But that may end soon.

“If TDOT’s going create all sorts of traffic problems, I’m not going to do that anymore,” Russell says. “I’m not going to get into that mess every day just to get to where I want to go.”

But Russell has bigger issues with the bridge closure. He has Parkinson’s disease and often has to get across one of the bridges for medical appointments. Last winter, he was stuck on the Hernando de Soto Bridge for hours after accidents stopped traffic on both bridges. Russell worries that if he needs immediate medical help he wouldn’t be able to get it, even with the promise of the emergency lane on I-55.

Concerns like Russell’s have been echoed by many on both sides of the Mississippi River since TDOT announced its plan. Those concerns are gaining momentum, as leaders consider the effects of the closure on individuals, businesses, and neighborhoods around the interchange and the potential broad economic impact on the Mid-South region — and the country.

TDOT is now working on an economic impact study of the bridge closure. But Phil Trenary, president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, can already put that figure in the ballpark. A post-9/11 study showed that closing all of the city’s bridges would have a negative economic impact of about $11 billion to $15 billion per year, Trenary says. The impact on business would be “significant to not only the local economy but to the national economy.”

Trenary says that closing the bridge is a recent idea, and the chamber is forming a coalition to start a formal discussion with TDOT. “We want to understand what the options are,” Trenary says. “What options can we put on the table that can achieve most of our objectives, like improving the traffic flow without closing the bridge.”

Troy Keeping, president and general manager of Southland Park Gaming and Racing, says the closure’s impact on his company could have a tax impact for Arkansas in the neighborhood of $7 million to $10.5 million. Keeping says the impact is far beyond that number, though, as he sees many Memphians shopping at the West Memphis Walmart and many from both sides of the river crossing the bridges to work and play.

TDOT’s plan is “very shortsighted,” Keeping says, and can likely be done without a closure, much like the current road project underway at the I-40/I-240 juncture.

“[TDOT has] kept that [section] open during the entire construction period, and there are large amounts of traffic through there,” he says. “[TDOT has] been able to reroute the traffic, and they should do the same thing on [the I-55 interchange project].”

“It’s going to cause great inconvenience to a lot of people,” says 9th District Representative Steve Cohen. “It will create traffic problems for Memphians who use the expressway either in Midtown or going downtown. It’s going to really clog it up and make traffic difficult — unbearable — for a long time.”

Schroer told Cohen that closing the bridge was the only way forward on the project. Cohen says he asked Schroer to at least expedite the work.

Jim Strickland

Jim Strickland, Memphis City Council member and a candidate for Memphis mayor, said he had not yet talked with TDOT as of last week but was skeptical that the bridge has to be closed. Other interstates aren’t shut down for months at a time for repairs, he says.

“At a minimum, TDOT needs to fully explain their current position,” Strickland says. “Why do we need to shut the bridge down? Is there no other way to design the interchanges? I have not heard these answers.”

The Wait-and-See Crowd

FedEx Corp. spokesman Jim McCluskey says his company is keeping an eye on the project.

“We are working with local and state officials to assess the effect of the bridge closure and evaluate alternate routing options that will lessen the impact for transportation carriers,” he said in a statement. “FedEx is focusing on and committed to providing the best level of service possible to our customers during this major infrastructure project.”

Lauren T. Crews, managing partner of City South Ventures, has been working for years to transform the abandoned U.S. Marine Hospital in the French Fort neighborhood into a multi-use residential and retail campus. He says he likes the interchange’s current design, but he wishes that TDOT had not announced changes to it years ago.

“When some entity comes along and announces that they’re going to do something but they don’t do anything, it just sort of shuts you down; there’s no progress that can be made,” Crews says. “It shuts the entire community down, as far as any improvements to be made. You can’t borrow money. You’re not going to find investors who are interested if they don’t know where the road systems are going to be.”

Brandon Dill

French Fort neighborhood

Crews say the situation has led to a decay in the French Fort neighborhood. Blight has claimed many buildings, and property values have declined. He sees brighter days ahead for the neighborhood with the coming of the roundabout, which would connect French Fort to downtown. “When you come into this community — if you can get the roundabout done — it may not look like Beirut over here,” Crews says.

The Supporters

Memphis Mayor A C Wharton says he is satisfied TDOT has done due diligence on the project and that they’ll do everything possible to minimize the impacts of the closure.

“I am looking forward to the completion of this project, because it eliminates one of the city’s last ‘malfunction junctions’ on our interstate highways,” Wharton said in a statement. “While the closure will be inconvenient, it’s only temporary, and the benefits of this project are far-reaching and long-term.”

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell says the closure will be inconvenient but that the project’s time has come. “It’s something that has to be done, and this is the best option we have,” Luttrell says. “To extend it over a multi-year period would be a mistake. We just need to move on with it and close it down.”

U.S. Rep. Stephen Fincher says infrastructure projects have allowed Memphis to become a leader in transportation and that he commends Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam for making the investment in Memphis.

“I am confident that TDOT will do everything in its power to ensure this project is carried out as smoothly and as safely as possible,” Fincher said in a statement.

Traffic City

Tony Bologna, a Memphis architect and developer, said he dreads those nine months when the bridge is closed in 2017.

“It’s going to cause a big overload on the M Bridge if you divert everything that way,” Bologna says. “If there’s a minor accident on that bridge now, traffic is already backed up for miles.”

Transportation consultants CDM Smith studied the new interchange project and said closing the bridge will add 46,850 new vehicles daily to the Hernando de Soto Bridge, for a total of 81,220 vehicles. Along Midtown I-240, the group said the I-55 bridge closure will add around 40,000 new vehicles, increasing daily totals to around 132,000 vehicles.

But TDOT officials say I-40 and I-55 will look much different (and traffic there will run much more smoothly) on the Arkansas side by the time the Old Bridge is closed. Traffic capacity there has been reduced for years by a seismic retrofit project by the FHWA, and by I-40 improvements that led the Arkansas Times to wonder, “Will Interstate 40, between North Little Rock and West Memphis, be under construction forever?”

TDOT’s Jane Jones, director of project development, says, “We’ve been working with the ASHTD, and we’ve had assurances that their work will be completed [before the bridge is closed] and the seismic retrofit project will be completed. And we’ll have system improvements along the detour route before all that takes place.”

Where It Stands

TDOT Commissioner Schroer says the five-year plan with no closure was not as safe, not as efficient, and “financially a horrible option.” In that scenario, the bridge would be open with one-lane traffic headed in both directions. Roadblocks and temporary closures would be the norm, Schroer says, as equipment and construction materials are moved in and out of what would be an open construction site.

Schroer points to the project’s road-user cost number, a standard measurement in the road-building industry to define the cost of projects for drivers based on gasoline costs, loss of productivity, lost wages, and more.

The five-year, non-closure plan has a user-cost of $871 million, Schroer says. He says the three-year project with bridge closure will have a user-cost of $350 million.

Asked if there was anything anyone could do to change his mind on closing the bridge, Schroer says, “It’s not a case of changing my mind. It’s about making the right decisions, and, in this case, we made the right decisions.”

Schroer says he knows Memphis motorists will probably curse his name when they’re stuck in traffic but that they’ll forget all about it when the new interchange opens up.

While the decision may be a done deal for Schroer, for many others on both sides of the river the decision process is just getting started. Some are awaiting TDOT’s economic impact study for the project and will likely use it as a springboard to begin a formal opposition process.

When told that TDOT’s decision on the closure was “final,” at least in their minds, Senator Ingram remembers another Memphis road project from decades ago.

“TDOT probably didn’t think the Overton Park expressway was going to be stopped, either,” he says.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Congrats, Bristol!

CREDIT: Featureflash | Dreamstime.com

Featureflash | Dreamstime.com

Bristol Palin

Hey Bristol,

Congratulations! I read that you were expecting again! I’m not really sure why I know this, because it’s 2015 and, no offense, I expected your family to have dropped off the face of the earth by now. I thought I wouldn’t hear your name again after your mom didn’t get to be vice president in 2008. But then came summer 2009, when Sarah Palin decided she just didn’t feel like being governor of Alaska anymore. Can you believe that was six years ago? Wow.

But then came the reality shows, the books, the Fox News segments, and the will-she-won’t-she in the months leading up to the 2012 presidential election. I can’t give Sarah Palin credit for much, but she sure made the most of her 15 minutes of fame. I guess that makes your family the Kardashians of politics.

Speaking of your mom, I bet she’s super-excited about the new addition! I’m sure she can’t wait to be a grandma again, especially since she is pro-life and all. I’m so sorry to hear that you’re no longer engaged to the father of your future child, but at least you’ll have the loving, nonjudgmental support of your family. You may be on your own, but you’re not alone. Believe me, that’s more than a lot of women can say.

Wait, sorry, is everything okay? Your blog post says, “This has been a huge disappointment to my family.” Ouch. That’s unfortunate.

Bristol, I know you said you’re not looking for any sympathy, but I thought I’d just let you know these things happen all the time. I bet at least half the people you know are on this earth as a result of an accident, or, as we call them here in the South, “blessings.” Sometimes “surprises” or “miracles” — it really just depends on who it is, bless their hearts. Literally, every single day countless women become pregnant whether they plan to, want to, or even can afford to. Anyway, it won’t be easy to proceed with this on your own, but take comfort in the fact that we live in a free country where, as women, the choice to proceed is ours to make.

Even though I don’t know you, you’re a public figure and I know all of your business, so here’s some unsolicited advice. You don’t have to apologize for getting pregnant out of wedlock. But you should probably — no, definitely — stop lecturing people about abstinence. The good news is, Bristol, I read somewhere the average American changes careers four times. And, you know, millennials just can’t stay in the same place for very long. So you can find something else to do. It’s hard enough to get through to young people. Giving them advice you obviously don’t follow? Now, that’s just buildin’ a bridge to nowhere. I’m sure it will be tough to give up your $262,000 salary as an “abstinence ambassador,” because that’s more than an ambassador to an actual country makes.

I’m not exactly sure what being an abstinence ambassador entails. I assume it involves you talking to teens about how much your child changed your life. “Don’t have sex or you’ll end up like me,” in other words. But how? With a cute, happy, healthy kid and a bunch of money you earned as an abstinence ambassador? That strategy sounds about as effective as abstinence-only education.

You love your child, so why would you talk about him like he’s a punishment? How do you think that makes him feel? How do you think your second child will feel when he or she is old enough to read about you apologizing for bringing him or her into the world?

You’re 24 and you’ve given in to the fact that you’re a human and having sex is a fun thing humans like to do, whether they’re married or not. Good for you. You’re an adult woman, and it’s okay to admit that. Better yet, own it. Turn your hypocrisy into an opportunity.

Abstinence didn’t work for you, but you know what probably would have? Birth control. There are a ton of options, and your doctor will help you find one that’s right for you. Some even have non-reproductive benefits and help with issues like migraines and acne. Methods like implants and IUDs last up to five years and are great for single mothers. Organizations like Planned Parenthood can point you in the right direction, just in case the whole abstinence thing falls through again. Give them a call sometime. Who knows, they might even need an ambassador.

Jen Clarke is an unapologetic Memphian, and a digital marketing strategist.

Categories
News News Feature

A Week of Change

In a week of monumental events signaling — and legally upholding — transformational change in America, my imagination was drawn to a 21-year-old man-child sitting in an isolated jail cell in Charleston, South Carolina. What must admitted mass murderer Dylann Roof be thinking, I wondered. He set out to tear apart, through one heinous and violent act, the moral fabric of this democratic republic established nearly 239 years ago. He is not the first to try — and fail — to do so, and he won’t be the last.

What Roof missed — now that he’s just another misguided, murderous idiot behind bars — was hearing the resounding echoes of social and economic triumph two United States Supreme Court rulings finally addressed in declarative fashion. What Roof missed was a president of the United States rising to oratorical heights in a speech meant to speed the healing process surrounding the pain, anger, and disillusionment Roof’s act of racial intolerance created. He missed the inspiring words that celebrated the resiliency of our country in times of unspeakable tragedy. He missed “Amazing Grace.”

In his incarcerated absence, Roof may have been unaware of the high court’s solid majority vote upholding the legality of the Affordable Care Act. For millions of people in this country, including thousands in Tennessee, the fight to insure the poor, the elderly, and those on the borderline of a healthy existence will continue. They will have new paths toward being able to secure medical treatment for afflictions and diseases that otherwise would have sentenced them to lives of pain or unneccessarily premature death. Unfortunately, the SCOTUS decision on Obamacare by no means ends the political opposition to it, but it gives legal clarity to what is an earnest attempt to level the health-care playing field for the haves and have-nots.

The same antagonistic forces that have long opposed “Obamacare” have vowed to continue to seek a constitutional amendment overturning the court’s ruling. Word to the wise: Barring more conservative appointments to the high court, an unlikely prospect, that ship has sailed.

Roof, in the personal “manifesto” that surfaced after his arrest, expressed his loathing for African Americans, Latinos, and Jews. Oddly, none of his hate-filled rants targeted gays or same-sex marriage. Not that Roof will be in a position to witness such unions, but that issue was also addressed by the Supreme Court last week, and the court struck down barriers against gay marriage instituted by state governments. The majority decision used the words “human dignity” — a number of times — to bolster its judicial opinion. The same phrase was often used by abolitionists in arguing against the evils of slavery.

While young Mr. Roof rots in prison awaiting his likely execution, he will find plenty of the kind of seething anger and racial and sexual intolerance he had hoped to ignite by sparking a race war. He will have plenty of time to ponder how his cowardly and pathetic actions served as a sad precursor to what became a magnificent week in American history.

I hope he will agonize about the hour he spent inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church — a Judas in the House of the Lord. I hope the parishioners’ words of prayer and forgiveness that he heard while plotting his mayhem will be seared in his memory for whatever time he has left on this earth.

Mr. Roof, you picked the wrong place, the wrong time, and the wrong people. You failed.

And as long as the United States remains strong enough to tolerate dissent and disagreement, as long as “we the people” are willing to listen to opposing opinions about the issues that divide us, as long as we recognize injustice and fight to right the wrongs that befall the least of us, then people like Dylann Roof will be forgotten footnotes in the great American story.

As a nation, we are a work in progress, an ongoing saga of success and failure, where perfection will never be achieved. But last week demonstrated we’re still valiantly searching for it.

Categories
Music Music Features

Dawn Patrol Release new album

The metal band made up of brothers Tommy and Kyle Gonzales are back with a full-length follow-up to 2014’s Police State EP. Recorded by Alan Burcham (the same producer behind Police State) at Ardent Studios and at his home, Democracy Delivered is a nine-song album that is “85 percent metal and 15 percent experimental,” according to frontman Tommy Gonzalez.

“We started mixing in elements of ska and punk on some songs, but overall it is still a metal album,” Gonzales said.

Since forming in 2012, Dawn Patrol have gained a strong local following, performed regional tours, and opened for national touring acts that found their way to Memphis. Through the help of venues like the Hi-Tone and Rock 103’s “Memphis Made” show, the band has become one of the mainstays of the “new Memphis metal scene,” alongside bands like Reserving Dirtnaps and Ritual Decay. The artwork on Democracy Delivered was created by Benjamin Velasco, and the album’s title comes from something that Gonzales saw at a concert.

Dawn Patrol

“I saw someone wearing a shirt that said ‘Democracy Delivered,’ and there was this image of a plane dropping bombs from the sky,” Gonzales said.

“That image stuck with me, so when I got home that night, I wrote a song with that phrase in mind. I looked it up and there wasn’t already a band called Democracy Delivered, so we just stuck with it.”

To celebrate the release of Democracy Delivered, Dawn Patrol will play a local show at the Hi-Tone with locals Klaxxon and Process of Suffocation, along with touring act Cryptic Hymn from Louisville, Kentucky. Democracy Delivered will be available for the first time at Friday’s show.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

A Trip to the Moon at the Brooks

I hereby declare Thursday, July 2nd, national “dance around a statue of a wizard” day. And, no, this has absolutely nothing to do with Nathan Bedford Forrest. I’m referring to the closing images of Georges Méliès’ groundbreaking 1902 silent film A Trip to the Moon, which finds a bunch of happy Earthlings celebrating science, progress, and a narrow escape from alien bug men by dancing around a wizard fountain.

A Trip to the Moon, which gets a screening at the Brooks this week, moves at a breakneck pace. It begins with a parade of science wizards with tall pointy hats and great golden telescopes that vanish on command. They’ve assembled in a magnificent hall of science, lovely assistants in tow, to hear a fellow wizard’s plan for colonizing space. There’s dissent in the ranks, but it’s quickly squelched, and in an eyeblink, wizard robes and hats are replaced by frock coats and toppers. Factory smoke belches into the sky. An enormous gun is constructed. A hollow bullet is shot right into the eye of a smirking moon. The human payload is delivered. Cinema history is made. Visually speaking, we move from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution to the Space Race and beyond, all in about seven minutes. And that’s just the beginning.

Méliès started out as a stage magician, and he brought the mystery, drama, and wonder of a great stage show to every frame of his most famous film. He also brought a good deal of vaudeville glamor and silliness. Loosely based on Jules Verne’s science fiction novel From the Earth to the Moon, the 12-minute epic cost 10,000 francs and took four months to complete. It was only one of the 23 movies the cinematic wizard and grandfather of fantasy film and special effects would complete that year.

Animation aliens have always played a big role in computer gaming, and A Trip to the Moon is being screened in conjunction with the Brooks’ “Art of Video Games” exhibit.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

World UFO Day

It wasn’t your typical Tuesday morning for Memphis police officers Lamar Todd and Jerry Jeter. Around 3:30 a.m., on May 17, 1977, the two men emerged from their unmarked surveillance van to get a better look at the enormous object hovering in the dark, early-morning sky above the Pine Hill Golf Course. It was shaped like a Dorito and as big as a football field.

The two officers came in peace, but the craft took off like a shot when Jeter went back to the van to fetch his rifle with a telescopic sight. He only wanted a better look, but in the blink of an eye, the unidentified flying object was over the horizon. The National Enquirer listed the Memphis sighting among the best UFO stories of 1977, which, being the year of Star Wars and rampant 1950s nostalgia, meant quite a lot.

Todd is just one of the many speakers scheduled to appear at Memphis’ World UFO Day Festival. He’ll be joined by UFO investigator Peter Robbins and extraterrestrial-circuit superstar Travis Walton, the American logger who was allegedly abducted in 1975. Syfy Channel magicians the Close Up Kings will also be on hand to dazzle and mystify.

“This is going to be a family event,” says event co-organizer Eddie Middleton, a college professor, UFO investigator, and director of the Tennessee chapter of the Mutual UFO Network.”We’ve got an alien costume contest and an alien pet costume contest.

“We’re hoping we break the record for attendance at a UFO conference,” Middleton says, anticipating between 1,500 and 2,000 attendees. “Everything is free except for the speakers.” And you can see all of them for $10.

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Music Music Features

Mulherin Selected for Red Bull Music Academy

Memphian Marshall Mulherin will be taking his talents to Paris, France, this fall as a member of the Red Bull Music Academy. Out of over 4,500 applicants, Mulherin was one of the 61 candidates chosen for the 12-day program that offers workshops, lectures, studio time, and much more to what Red Bull considers the next wave of young, influential musicians.

Since forming Mulherin at Loyola University in New Orleans, twin brothers Marshall and Parker Mulherin have earned a loyal following, been compared to Drake and the Weeknd, and performed regional shows in addition to playing at Loyola. We caught up with Marshall to learn more about his project, what he plans to take away from the Red Bull Music Academy, and how it felt to learn his brother Parker (the other half of Mulherin) wouldn’t be making the trip.

Flyer: How did you and your brother get into making music in Memphis?

We were born and raised in Memphis, and we went to Snowden for elementary and middle school and Central for high school. Ever since third grade, I wanted to be on the drum line, and I started playing snare drum once middle school came around. In high school, my brother and I were both drum captains on the drum line, but we hadn’t really been singing.

It wasn’t until we got to Loyola that we got interested in singing together. We had never sung in front of anyone until we got to college, and around our second year at Loyola, we started making beats and singing.

How would you describe the type of music you make?

The guy who wrote the bio for our Red Bull thing really captured it best. He called us “a downbeat pop and R&B-infused duo from Tennessee.” Our harmonies are inspired by the Beatles instead of something like the Beach Boys, but the production definitely pulls from the darker side of R&B, similar to Drake, Frank Ocean, and the Weeknd. I’m starting to get into D’Angelo, the low-end, darker, and more brooding stuff. But I’m not always sad. I can make some happy stuff too.

How did you find out about the Red Bull Music Academy?

I found out about it from one of my friends at school who is a producer and just a really talented musician. I knew that Red Bull does a lot of music events, sporting events, and all of that stuff, but I wasn’t too familiar with the academy. I also knew Amahl Abdul-Khaliq, a New Orleans rep for the Red Bull Music Academy. He encouraged me to apply, but he didn’t have anything to do with the decision to accept me.

So the Red Bull Academy only chose you to go, even though this project is a duo with your twin brother. How did that work? Was your brother jealous?

That’s just a rule that they have. If they invite a band to work at the academy, they don’t want six people representing a band; they only want one. They want to benefit as many different artists and groups as possible, so they can only take one person per project. He’s going to apply again next year, and he might apply for this thing they have called bass camp. They strongly suggested that he apply again next year, but it was very bittersweet to find out that I was going and he wasn’t.

What do you hope to get out of your time spent at the Red Bull Academy?

The ultimate goal is to not have a real job in a few years. I’ve already gotten some good solid connections with some of the people who are going to the academy, but I want to build more connections and become a better producer and a better writer. There are so many different types of people attending, and all these different people from all of these different places, so I just want to soak it all in.

I’m also really excited about being in Paris. I took French class in college, so I’m hoping to get to try some out.

At the same time, I’m just excited to see what kind of music I’m going to make during or after this experience. It is satisfying to see your play numbers go up and your fan base go up, but to me the most satisfying thing is surprising yourself with something you’ve made. That’s the main goal.

Could you see yourself going solo after the Red Bull Music Academy experience?

I’m not really considering a solo career right now. Mulherin is a very collaborative thing that we are doing together. Making art is something that connects us more, and we haven’t experienced anything like that before. There aren’t any solo plans for either of us; we are trying to build a career out of Mulherin at this point.

What does Mulherin have planned for the future?

We were planning on releasing an EP this summer, and we’ll be making more music and releasing singles. We haven’t really considered a full-length yet. We want to start with singles and wait to do an LP that really captures what we do. When that happens, it will probably be a 10-song deal.

Other than that, we have a lot of shows coming up over the school year, because our whole live band goes to school with us. In the summertime, everyone goes back to New Jersey, Boston, Memphis, or wherever.

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News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1375

Verbatim

“They hijacked the civil rights movement and say it’s the same thing, but it’s not the same thing.” — Memphis pastor Bill Owens, founding president of the Coalition of African-American Pastors, explaining why he opposes same-sex marriage. Owens is encouraging religious leaders to engage in civil disobedience to protest the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling. “When we sat at the counters at restaurants, we knew we were going to be arrested. You do things to get arrested, to call attention to it,” Owens said.

In related news, Charles Lee was released on probation after sending a slur-filled bomb threat to the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center and decorating his delightful missive with a German swastika. Authorities had hoped to charged Lee with a hate crime, but charges were reduced because Tennessee’s anti-intimidation laws cover race and religion but don’t include sexual orientation.

Hair Loss

We’ve all seen them. The flipped wig. The tumbling tumbleweave. Memphis is a city of feral hairpieces separated from their owners and left to rot in the street like roadkill. Fly on the Wall is reaching out to readers and asking them not to ignore all this senseless hair loss. If you see a lost wig or some lonely extensions, take a picture and email it to the Fly on the Wall blog. We’ll post it in the hopes that we can reunite some good people with their good hair. Send your photos to davis@memphisflyer.com.

Also, if you know whom this hair belongs to, contact Fly on the Wall. We’ll tell you where it was last seen but can’t guarantee a successful reunion, because we’re not touching that.