Month: January 2016

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Junior’s Generation: Ken Griffey Jr. In the HOF

I’ve interviewed my share of professional baseball players over the last 15 years (most of them Memphis Redbirds). The most consistent answer I’ve heard to any regular question has been the favorite player of these men growing up: Ken Griffey Jr. Infielders, outfielders, pitchers, it doesn’t matter. Almost invariably, they made their own way on baseball diamonds with Junior — or the Kid, as he was affectionately known — as their model.

And journalists loved Griffey just as much. Last week, Junior was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame with the highest percentage of the total vote — 99.3 percent — in the history of the institution. (Tom Seaver had held the record for 23 years.) Three voters were apparently napping in the press box as Griffey hit 630 home runs and won 10 Gold Gloves over a 22-year career, primarily with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds. Griffey, sadly, is just the fourth first-ballot Hall of Famer never to have played in a World Series game. (The others: Ernie Banks, Rod Carew, and Frank Thomas.) Which only proves how cruel baseball can be, for no player — including Banks — combined supreme talent with a child-like love for playing the game like Ken Griffey Jr.

Griffey is just the second man younger than me to enter the Hall of Fame (after 2015 inductee Pedro Martinez). As an 18-year-old outfielder in 1988, Griffey played 17 games with the Double-A Vermont Mariners, who played their home games at Centennial Field in Burlington. The previous year, I played my last high school game — a Vermont state championship — in the same stadium, the same outfield. So I can claim one (and precisely one) baseball memory in common with Junior Griffey, the planet’s greatest player of my generation.

Here’s where Griffey’s story gets bittersweet, and reflects the generational pull of our national pastime. The Kid is a middle-aged man. His Hall of Fame induction will serve as that mile-marker baseball fans use for players of “yesteryear,” the greats who had their day and have stepped aside for a current crop of sluggers, speed-demons, and flame-throwers. For me personally, his induction is a reminder of one boy’s dream not quite realized. (I’ll give up on being a big-league player the day I draw my last breath. I have my glove at the ready; just need a phone call.) And a reminder that no matter how skilled we might be on a baseball diamond, no matter how much we love our time on the base paths or in the outfield, there comes a time for plaques, speeches, and gentle applause. Can the Kid actually have gray hair? Impossible.

The annual Cardinals Caravan rolls into Memphis this Friday (doors open at AutoZone Park at 5:30). Among the headliners appearing will be a current St. Louis Cardinal All-Star (Michael Wacha) and one who appears to have an All-Star Game or two in his future (Stephen Piscotty). Also appearing will be a pair of former Cardinals — a different generation — who are best remembered in these parts for their exploits with the Memphis Redbirds. Stubby Clapp (now 42) will be here, and I’m guessing for the right price he just might try a backflip. Bo Hart (now 39 and living in Memphis) will also be here, the man who succeeded Clapp at second base for the Redbirds in 2003. Upon being promoted by the Cardinals that summer, Hart picked up 18 hits in his first 35 at-bats, a debut unmatched by any other player in major-league history (including Junior Griffey). Hart played a total of 88 games in the big leagues, but he lived the dream, particularly for two weeks.

In my personal Field of Dreams, Ken Griffey Jr. would be in the lineup. So would Stubby Clapp and Bo Hart. I’d be the guy merely asking one of them to play catch a few minutes. Baseball is indeed timeless. There will be new heroes to compare with those your parents cheered, just as your folks compared their heroes with those of your grandparents. But relish the moments provided by those of your own generation, particularly a Hall of Fame induction. Baseball may be timeless, but alas, we are not.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Mark Woodall’s Viewpoint column, “By Any Name” …

I groaned reading Mark Woodall’s article “By Any Name” where he tries to disassociate Islam from terrorism. This sentence in particular seemed to sum up his thinking: “I’m just going to assume if you are a terrorist, you are a radical, but calling all Muslims terrorists does a great disservice to the six million American-born Muslims in this country, and to millions of peaceful people who worship Islam.”

First of all, nobody but nobody is calling all Muslims terrorists, and second, Islam is the religion of Muslims. They no more worship Islam than Christians worship Christianity.

Almost every day we are told that Islamist terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. That is nonsense, and deep down everyone knows it. This is not just a question of semantics. It is a question of the best way to deal with a problem.

If someone gets sick, how can you treat it if you won’t identify the cause? There are, in fact, different kinds of terrorists, and acting as if Basque separatist terrorists and Irish Republican Army terrorists and radical Islamic terrorists are all the same blinds you to possible motives and inhibits your ability to do an intervention or hopefully prevent an act of terrorism to begin with.

We need to quit denying the obvious: Not all Muslims are terrorists and not all terrorists are Muslims, but in those terrorists that are in fact Muslim, religious motivations do play a role, and we ignore that at our peril.

Bill Runyan

Donald Trump is guilty of fomenting hate against Muslims. If attacks on innocent Muslim men, women, and children in America begin, then he should be held accountable. Innocent Muslims are no more to blame for terrorist acts committed by ISIS and al-Qaeda than Christians are for terrorist acts committed by the KKK or Timothy McVeigh. 

We are a nation of immigrants, but past immigrants, including the Italians, the Irish, and others were not welcomed and even hated in America. It is hard to imagine, though, how much poorer our nation and our culture would be without the contributions made by the people who have come here from countries around the world. 

There is every reason to believe that our Muslim friends and citizens will continue to make many contributions that will enrich American society and culture and make the United States an even greater country.

Philip Williams

About Jackson Baker’s post, “Strickland Gathering No Moss on Governmental or Money Fronts” …

I would still like to know how Strickland plans to stop police officers from leaving. Over 400 officers have retired or resigned in the last three years due to Strickland and the Memphis City Council’s decisions to reduce pay, eliminate retiree healthcare, kick spouses off the healthcare plan, and transform the pension system. Simply put: It makes no sense to work in the sencond-most dangerous city in the U.S. for what officers now receive in pay/benefits.

In order to get back to a force of 2,400 officers, the city would have to hire/train/graduate at least 100 officers per year for the next 4 years AND have no officers retire or resign in that time frame. It’s not going to happen. If the whispers are true that Strickland has his sights set on switching employees to a high-deductible healthcare plan this summer, you can bet at least 400 more officers will flee the department in the next few years.

Firefox

About Jackson Baker’s post, “MHA Head [Maura] Sullivan Headed to Chattanooga” …

Congrats, Maura Sullivan! I’m sure once she got a chance to see what tangled web of corruption Robert Lipscomb left MHA in, she wanted out. Public housing can work with the right director. It is underserving a city of this size.

Truth Hurts

TH: And you came to this conclusion by way of UFO? I may have my issues with Lipscomb, but surely you know what he has worked to change. Section 8 is a federal government program that local governments participate in. That program makes more sense than concentrating poor people in one section of a city. Certainly, we remember the result of that before Lipscomb worked to change it.

1Memphomaniac

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Artist Vodka for the creative types; Buster’s expands.

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

There’s an old saying, “What rhymes with Friday? Vodka.” And, folks, there’s a new sheriff in town. Or right outside of town. In Oxford.

Artist Vodka, made by Old Venice restaurateur and Oxford resident Jim Bulian, hit the shelves a year ago and is doing its darndest to make sure that old saying rings true.

Its slogan is “The art is in the party,” and it’s making the rounds to parties across the continent with its business plan to pair up with artists and act as their vodka-in-residence.

“We promote their work, and they promote our product,” Bulian, also an artist, says.

So far, the wheat-based vodka label has paired up with close to a half dozen artists, including painter Jeremy Lipking, novelist Ace Atkins, and jazz musician Ray Angry, and is looking to add more to the Artist Vodka Collective.

“We do pourings and tastings. We just did one at an art gallery in Culver City for Susan Carter Hall,” Bulian says.

Bulian also makes his product available to film producers for product placement purposes, an idea that sparked from a run-in with Alison Eastwood, i.e. Clint Eastwood’s daughter.

“I bumped into her at a dinner party. Our vodka is organic, and she loves anything organic, so I gave her a taste, and she asked if I would like to do a product placement in her film,” Bulian says.

Speaking of organic, the Italian farro wheat that Bulian imports from Europe is USDA certified organic. He uses water from Lake Stevens in the Cascade mountain range in Washington and the old world Russian distillation method in a copper kettle.

“Lake Stevens gets 200 inches of rainfall a year and 200 inches of snowfall, so the water is fresh and perfectly pH balanced, and you get this really clean and soft taste,” Bulian says. “We have yet to lose a taste test, and we’ve gone up against them all. We are 22 and 0.”

So far Artist Vodka can be found in 45 restaurants, bars, and stores in Memphis, including Old Venice, of course, Cafe Pontotoc, Bardog, and Spirit Shop.

The website is still in launch-mode but eventually will host its Artist Collective, with bios and links for each artist it represents.

“I went through 75 different profiles to try to get it right. It’s beautiful inside, and it’s beautiful outside,” Bulian says.

Buster’s Liquors & Wines is thinking about changing its name. Again.

As the liquor laws or the drinking culture in the state of Tennessee slowly catch up with the rest of the country, or at least the less absurd areas, the 60-plus-year-old retail institution continues to evolve, and so does its name.

First it added the “& Wines” part as wine became more en vogue in the ’80s and ’90s. Next up is either adding a comma, moving the ampersand, and adding “Beer,” or a similar configuration but with the word “More.”

That’s because Buster’s definitely has beer now, and it has lots of more.

The store recently added 6,000 square feet to its existing 10,000, paying particular attention to making sure the beer nerds (cerevisaphiles?) of the Mid-South are properly slaked.

They now carry more than 500 beers stocked behind 14 cooler doors, and they launched Memphis’ only Pegas growler system, which uses a pressurized environment and CO2, pumping out oxygen to keep the growler fresh for several weeks.

“It’s a state-of-the-art system,” Buster’s president and co-owner, Josh Hammond, says. “Used to you would have to drink it in a few days. Now it can stay fresh for two months until you decide to open it.”

They plan on rotating their eight taps regularly, concentrating on local brews, one-offs, and insider-knowledge beers made outside the state.

Because the Wine in Grocery Stores law, or WIGS, works both ways, Buster’s also added edibles to their well-stocked shelves.

They offer Boar’s Head sausages and packaged sliced meats, the Good Ham Company hams, 50-plus varieties of specialty cheeses, olive oils, Felicia Willett’s Flo’s products, Judy Pound Cakes, Shotwell candies, Papi Joe’s Bloody Mary mix, plus a nice selection of accessories, from stemware to gift bags.

The expansion also gave the store room to spread out a little, with wider aisles, a more roomy register, and the space for tasting desks, where they plan to hold weekend tastings on a regular basis.

“Our grand opening [in early December] was awesome. I would be waiting on a customer, showing them all the new stuff, and they would be sampling something, then I would look up a couple of hours later, and they were still there,” Hammond says. “That’s the kind of experience we want to give.

“That’s where the industry’s headed, and we’re definitely raising the bar.”

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

The Big Short

In 1947, Humphrey Bogart was the biggest movie star in the world. With a fresh contract giving him greater creative control in hand, Bogie and his drinking buddy, director John Houston, set out to make a new western called The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, in which he would play the hero. But when the film was released the next year, audiences were in for a shock. As expected, Bogart was the center of the movie. He had the most lines, the most close-ups, and was featured prominently in the advertising, but his character, Fred C. Dobbs, was not the hero of the story. Played by Bogie as selfish, paranoid, vain, and crude, Dobbs was actually the villain. Houston and Bogart were subverting the audiences’ expectations to make a point about unchecked greed.

Toward the end of The Big Short, Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) shows the camera a bonus check for $47,000,000 he earned for his part in destroying the world economy in 2008. Speaking into the camera, he says, “I never claimed to be the good guy.”

Brad Pitt

Michael Lewis’ 2010 book The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine is a detailed explanation of the events leading up to the 2008 collapse of Wall Street trading firm Bear Stearns, which precipitated the financial crisis and resulting Great Recession, the effects of which are still being felt today. Strangely enough, the film adaptation of the best seller fell to former Saturday Night Live writer and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy creator Adam McKay. When Stanley Kubrick was researching nuclear war scenarios in the early 1960s, he decided that the only honest way to make a film about Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) was to make it a comedy, and so Dr. Strangelove was born. Faced with the corrupt ridiculousness of Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs), McKay made the same choice, and created the best movie of his career.

Steve Carell

The ensemble cast McKay assembled is top-notch: In addition to Gosling, Christian Bale plays one-eyed M.D.-turned-capital manager Michael Burry; Steve Carell plays rageaholic investment banker Mark Baum, and Brad Pitt (who also produces) plays former-banker-turned-full-time-paranoid Ben Rickert. There’s a ton of complex exposition to get through, so McKay throws Margo Robbie in a bubble bath and has her explain the basics of the mortgage market. The screenplay is downright brilliant, pulling tricks like pointing out when events have been simplified to gain the audience’s trust.

Like Dr. Strangelove, the laughs The Big Short elicits are coal black, but unlike Wall Street, it tips its hand enough to avoid making its sociopathic greedheads into heroes. No one will look at Bale’s scarily committed portrayal of a speed-metal-obsessed, autistic number cruncher and say, “I want to be that guy.” Instead, McKay’s masterful sendup of late-stage capitalism will leave you saying, “Never again!”

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

“Last Holiday Party,” a Bi-Partisan Fundraiser, Defies the Elements

CREDIT: David Upton

It had been relentlessly hyped by various social media (and by various hands) for weeks, and the self-styled “Last Holiday Party of the Season,” a karaoke affair hosted by lawyer Barry Frager and numerous others defied the wet and frigid elements Saturday night to be a success.

A significant crowd turned out at the Asian Palace in East Memphis to hear amateur warblers from both political parties do justice — or injustice, as the case might be — to assorted musical standards. Below Shelby County Commissioner Steve Basar, a Republican, and his wife Brenda, a lawyer and consultant, are captured in a photo by co-host David Upton as they try their hands (literally) at “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

David Upton

The party, the second annual one of its type at the Asian Palace site, doubled as a fund-raising event via contributions to the South Memphis Alliance, a community-based service organization founded by another Commissioner and attendee, Reginald Milton, a Democrat. Last year’s initial effort raised several thousand dollars for SMA’s coffers, and Saturday night’s likely did as well.

In the shot below, Milton listens as State Rep. Joe Towns (D-Memphis) explains the purposes of the organization. (Towns was conspicuous also in his customary rendition of “Wonderful World” in a voice that (most often) succeeded uncannily in sounding like the late Louis Armstrong.)

David Upton

•

 

A more solemn weekend event, a memorial service for the late Robert Hummel, an almost legendary proprietor of direct mailing, will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Highland Heights Presbyterian Church in Arlington. Hummel, whose services at election time were decidedly bi-partisan, died unexpectedly last month.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

#23 Connecticut 81, Tigers 78

For the second straight Saturday, the Tigers battled a Top-25 team to the final minutes on the road. And for the second straight Saturday, they came up short. Tonight in Storrs, Connecticut, Avery Woodson gave Memphis a 75-74 lead with a three-pointer from the left corner with 51 seconds to play. But the Huskies drew fouls on their next two possessions and made all four free throws (two by Sterling Gibbs and two by Daniel Hamilton). Trahson Burrell missed a jumper and Woodson missed a three-point attempt that would have tied the score at 78. A desperation heave by Dedric Lawson missed its mark as time expired.

The loss drops Memphis to 10-5 for the season (1-1 in American Athletic Conference play), while UConn improves to 11-4 (2-1).

Senior forward Shaq Goodwin picked up two fouls in the game’s first four minutes and watched the rest of the first half from the Tiger bench. (This after serving a suspension and missing the Tigers’ win over Nicholls State four days ago.) He dominated much of the second half and finished with 23 points before fouling out with just over a minute to play. Lawson also battled foul trouble, finishing with 10 points but making only four of 13 attempts from the field.

Gibbs led the way for UConn with 26 points, draining five of seven shots from long range. Rodney Purvis added 13 and Hamilton 12. As a team, the Huskies hit nine of 19 three-pointers (47 percent) and shot 43 percent overall.

Ricky Tarrant Jr. scored 15 points for the Tigers and Burrell added 17 off the bench. The Tigers kept in the game by hitting 84 percent of their free throws (26 for 31) and winning the rebound battle, 32-26. The case could be made the Tigers’ three most impressive outings this season have been losses, against Oklahoma, South Carolina, and now the Huskies.

The Tigers return to FedExForum Wednesday night to host Temple and will host USF next Saturday.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies 91, Nuggets 84: Five Thoughts

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

In an ugly game that ended up being exciting because it was close, the Grizzlies ground out a tough win over the rebound-happy Nuggets last night at FedExForum, 91-84. The Grizzlies shot 36%, got outrebounded 59-43, trailed for large periods of time (and played an especially heinous third quarter), and still managed to gut out a win, based largely on defensive intensity and the inability of the Nuggets’ young bigs to do anything to stop Zach Randolph from scoring.

All in all, it was closer than it should have been, hard to watch, and the Grizzlies won it by keeping another opponent from scoring 90 points. Maybe the old ways of playing aren’t quite dead yet.

Five Thoughts

★ Tony Allen played the best game he’s played all year, especially in the first half. He was everywhere. On defense, he hounded every Denver guard into bad shots and turnovers, and he finished the game with three steals that really felt like six or seven in the moment. He was relentless—the way he has to be to play his best basketball. Allen’s 38 minutes were probably too many, and it probably only happened that way because both Mike Conley and Courtney Lee were out with injuries, but he made them all count.

In a season where he’s looked really out of sorts most of the time, it was uplifting to see Allen out there performing at his best, and a reminder of what he can bring to this team when he’s dialed in, and how much that force for chaos can disrupt everything opponents try to do.

★ Zach Randolph scored 24 points in 28 minutes, single-handedly outscoring the Denver bench, who combined for 23. It’s the second game in a row where Randolph has come in as a sub and demolished the interior of the opponent, and these last two games have been a real model for how to use Z-Bo if you’re going to bring him off the bench: choose your matchups, play him fewer minutes, and if he’s able to get going, play him at a higher than normal usage rate while still spotting him his rest. It works. I’m sure he’s not excited about coming off the bench, but he’s had some really great games that way, and I’m sure putting up 20+ points in a win goes a long way towards soothing whatever ego damage he’s incurred.

★ Elliot Williams, former Tiger, is in town on a 10-day deal to bolster the wing rotation while Conley and Lee are both out. He looked good in his almost-10 minutes Friday night, especially on the defensive end. I know the Griz are interested in evaluating him for future purposes, not just filling a rotation spot with somebody (thought that is definitely part of it), so if Williams plays like this for the rest of his time here, I’d expect him to get another 10-day.

Asked about how Williams played after the game, Joerger said he didn’t really know him and talked about how he was a high character guy, instead of commenting on the fact that he clearly played pretty well, which I thought was strange. I’m not sure what that was about, but his avoidance/non-answer of a question about how Williams looked on the court was odd enough that I nmade a note of it.

★ The real news of the day came before the game, when the Grizzlies released a statement that Jordan Adams is going to have to have knee surgery after all, and he’ll have it early next week, with no timetable for recovery. My understanding is that it’s probably an arthroscopic procedure for cartilage damage, and it won’t necessarily rule Adams out for the remainder of the year, but considering that the Grizzlies are desperate for young wing talent and Adams was supposed to be back playing by preseason, it felt more like a gut punch. Who knows what happens next there. But hopes of seeing Adams insert himself into the rotation and blossom this season are now dashed, and that’s alwaus a bummer.

★ The Grizzlies are now in a 6-game home stand that lasts until the MLK Day game against the Pelicans, and most of these games are very winnable. If they’re going to start building momentum and getting things together, it’s going to be now, except now the injury bug is getting to them even harder than it was already. These games against Houston, Detroit, New York, and New Orleans (I expect the Boston game to be a tough one) are all there for the taking, if the Griz can put together some motivation and intensity. If they have to do that on the backs of Tony Allen and Zach Randolph instead of Marc Gasol and the injured Conley, it seems like that’s what they’re going to do. It’s going to be an interesting 10-day stretch.

Tweet of the Night

Sigh.

Larry Kuzniewski

Up Next

Like I said, this is an important home stand. I’m not sure Sunday’s 5pm game against the Boston Celtics is one the Grizzlies should pencil in as a win—the Celtics are very good, and the Grizzlies don’t play well against very good teams this season—but the rest of this home stand, in which they play every other day, is very wnnable, and they should be able to string together some wins. That could have a really good effect on their overall morale and certainly on their record. Going to be an interesting week and a half.

Categories
Music Music Features

An Evening at Elvis’ House

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

“We go in through the kitchen because that’s how Elvis used to do it,” John Bass, director of the Mike Curb Institute for Music at Rhodes College, says as he swings open a screen door and steps into 1034 Audubon Drive. “It feels like 1956 when you walk in. He went from being an interesting, regional musician to becoming Elvis while living here.”

Walking through the house, which Presley bought with royalties earned from “Heartbreak Hotel,” is a step back through time to his final months of normalcy. 1956 was a big year for the 21-year-old musician. A number of his songs — “Hound Dog,” “Don’t Be Cruel,” and “Love Me Tender” — would top the charts. He’d also make his debut appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. But for 13 months, before the Presleys moved to Graceland, Elvis and his parents called Audubon Drive home. Wood paneling lines most of the walls, save a few, which are covered in busy wallpapers — hummingbirds hovering above plants, music notes circling guitars and drums. Framed photos of the Presleys can be seen at every turn. A baby-blue couch sits on top of bright red, shag carpet that flows into a wide, open den Presley himself built onto the house. Acoustic tiles, the same used at Sun Studio, soundproof and cushion the room for a warm sound.

Bass knows the house well. In 2006, Mike and Linda Curb of Curb Records purchased and restored it, and the Curb Institute eventually repurposed the space for a student-led concert web series. “Evening at Elvis” kicked off in November 2013 with Memphis locals Star & Micey.

“We realized students at Rhodes had a lot of interest in music-focused things, but Rhodes doesn’t have a music business program. The idea became, ‘Well, what if we did house concerts that were filmed? What if we put them online? We could share what we were doing.'”

The den seats about 75 people, and the event is invitation only. Bill Frisell, Rosanne Cash, and Bobby Rush have played in the room.

“There was major apprehension [before the first show],” Bass says. “But once the music started — and this still happens — it’s such a deep and profound experience. The room has this deep vibe in it. You’re in this tight, little space, and once the music starts, everybody is captivated by it. I hesitate to call it a magical experience, but it almost is, and it just feels so right every time.”

Bass’ mission digs deeper. He wants both to bring in musicians who connect meaningfully with Memphis’ musical reach and to expose his students to the artists still around to tell their stories and pass the torch.

“We’re not interested in creating museums, but using history to inform the present,” Bass says. “Elvis will probably come up, but we’re talking about Memphis and what it means. It’s a powerful experience seeing a young person talk to someone like Charles Lloyd and know they have a connection to them that they’ve never had before.”

This year, Bass hopes to partner with other Memphis-based organizations to bolster the institute’s reach. Rhodes will collaborate with Stax Records for a performance featuring Terry Manning in March.

“The project is cool, but this resource is important to us to do something positive for the community,” Bass says. “Can we effect positive social change with it? I’ve got students working on that question now.”

As the series grows, so does the responsibility. Bass teaches a class named “Music and Community in Memphis,” in which he splits 15 students into groups: audio and visual recording, public relations and marketing, research and writing, and education and community engagement. Students work closely with real-world professionals to hone their skills.

Ashley Dill, a 20-year-old student who works as the associate event manager for the series, says the class shares a vision that parallels what Elvis saw in Memphis as rock-and-roll was on the upswing.

“Memphis was such a huge part of who he was,” Dill said. “He saw something special in Memphis that I also see.”

Of the few musicians who have played at Audubon, Dill and Bass both said Frisell made them see “how connected it all is.”

“Frisell’s songs just kind of flow from one to the next,” Bass says. “Textures just come out. We’re sitting there — an ethereal, moody wash of sound happening — and all of a sudden “That’s All Right, Mama” comes through. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. [A photo of] Elvis is in this glass case on the wall, and Frisell is playing the first hit he recorded at Sun. And we’re sitting in his living room.”

Though decades have passed, Bass sees a connection between his students and a young, impassioned Presley during his unprecedented rise to stardom.

“He was just a young guy trying to do cool stuff and buck the system,” Bass says. “We’re trying to use the house in the same way. If you just read about him, you might not have the same connection as you would standing there looking at photo of him on the wall saying, “Wow, when he was my age, he was right here trying to do cool things.'”

For more information on the Mike Curb Institute for Music, visit www.rhodes.edu.

Categories
News News Blog

Memphis Airfares Dropped By More Than $93 Since 2012

CREDIT: Caribb

Caribb

Back in 2012, when Delta Airlines still had a hub in Memphis, the city was known for having some of the highest airfares in country. They were so high that concerned citizens formed a Facebook group, Delta Does Memphis, and the Greater Memphis Chamber hosted a public forum on the issue. It wasn’t uncommon for locals to drive to Little Rock’s airport for cheaper fares.

But statistics released by the Department of Transportation on Friday show that the average airfare at the Memphis International Airport has dropped by more than $93 since 2012. Round-trip airfares in Memphis averaged $418.70 compared with $511.93 in 2012. Memphis International Airport has dropped from one of the highest-ranking cites on the list of high fares to 30th out of 100 airports across the country.

That’s due in large part to Delta’s 2013 de-hubbing of Memphis International Airport. Once Delta pulled out, the doors were opened for more low-cost carriers, such as Southwest Airlines and Frontier Airlines. Just yesterday, Frontier Airlines announced a new non-stop, low-cost flight to Atlanta out of Memphis International Airport.

“This is very positive news for the Memphis community,” said Scott Brockman, president and CEO of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority. “What we’re seeing here is the effect of competition and an influx of low-cost air carriers that are helping to make flights more affordable. While the airport does not set airfares, we can help to positively impact them by adding competition.”

In 2015, Memphis International added 12 new flights and three new airlines.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Altered Resolution an Accident, Says County Administration

More on the case of the Altered Resolution— famous or infamous now in the annals of county government.

Mayor Luttrell

In the previous episode, Shelby County Commission chairman Terry Roland and his Commission ally Heidi Shafer were suggesting that someone in the administration of Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell had changed numbers in a resolution prepared by Roland and sent the resolution, altered also in the text, to the state Comptroller’s office in Nashville.

Roland’s resolution, clearly intended as a salvo in the running power struggle between an apparent Commission majority and the Mayor, sought to have the county’s fund surplus — the amount of which has been a matter of dispute between the Commission and the Mayor — routed from the administration’s financial office to the Commission’s contingency fund.

Such a resolution, if passed, would not only put points on the board for the Commission in its contest with the Mayor, it would in theory give the Commission an independent set of eyes in determining just exactly what the county’s surplus for 2014-2015 had been — whether $6 million, as the Administration had first reported in advising the Commission against a property tax decrease, or somewhere in the neighborhood of $21 million or even higher as Commissioners came to believe on the basis of late-breaking information.

Before the resolution could be acted on by the full Commission, however, a copy of it went to the Comptroller’s office, and where there had been a blank for the amount of the imagined surplus intended for transfer, there was now entered an amount of $107,772,795.00 — which was the amount of the county’s entire fund balance!

As the Comptroller’s office promptly notified all the local parties, such a transfer would be illegal and impossible, since it would deprive the county of its entire operating monies for any and all purposes. When that response went public, Roland cried foul, and he and Shafer suggested that nothing short of forgery could account for what he called a “blatantly altered” document.

A planned “discussion” of the matter was on the Commission’s agenda for its committee sessions on Wednesday, but Roland said it was being withdrawn pending further “investigation” of the matter.
Asked for his response to the matter on Thursday, Mayor Luttrell recalled that, during a recent weekend budget summit between the administration and the Commission, there had been a dispute over the issue of who should have supervision of the county’s surplus funds.

“That alarmed us,” said Luttrell, “and then when this draft resolution came down, we said, “OK, we really need to get some clarity from the state comptroller’s office. Let’s just go to the comptroller, so we’ll know where we stand.” That accounts for the dispatching of a copy of the resolution to Nashville.

A letter this week from Kim Hackney, deputy CAO, to Roland supplies further explanation of the incident from the Administration’s point of view. The letter suggests that the alteration of the amount sought for transfer occurred inadvertently as copies of the resolution were passed back and forth between deputy County Attorney Marcy Ingram, Commission administration assistant Quoran Folsom, and County Financial Officer Mike Swift.

The letter, the link to which is below, should perhaps be allowed to speak for itself:

[pdf-1]

Or here is the letter, with exhibits, reproduced in sequential pages: