Month: March 2016

Categories
Memphis Gaydar News

MGLCC Conducts LGBTQ Census

The Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) has launched a census project to help them get a more accurate picture of the LGBTQ community. 

The anonymous survey asks questions about sexual orientation, gender identity, how comfortable a person is being “out” to family, co-workers, faith communities, etc. It also surveys participants on what LGBTQ issues are most important to the Mid-South community (i.e. making Memphis safer for trans people, preventing school bullying of LGBTQ students, housing LGBTQ homeless youth, etc.).

The survey will be available through April 8th online. Those who would rather fill out a paper copy may do so at MGLCC (892 S. Cooper) during regular business hours (Monday-Friday 2 p.m. – 9 p.m.).

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Mung

Don’t call today’s Music Video Monday a comeback! 

Actually, you can call it a comeback. Long before Dethklok ruled the basic cable mindspace, there was another band known as the Four Horsemen of the Metal Apocalypse. Mung was a tongue-in-cheek group of metalheads consisting of Joey “Joecephus” Killingsworth, Josey Van HellSing (Wade Long), Zim (John Pickle), Varmint (Mike Matthews), and Suzy Savage (Rhiannon Smith). Under the direction of Memphis underground video pioneer John PIckle, the band shot a pilot intended to sell to network TV. “We did a VH1 Behind The Music sort of thing about Mung,” Pickle recalls.

The pilot effort was not successful, and much of the raw footage was lost for years, until Pickle accidentally uncovered it and edited this video together out of some of the recovered material. “I saw this old footage and thought, there’s no sense in letting all this stuff go to waste.”

The director says the video for The Spell Song—Mung’s theme song—was shot in his living room. “We put a bunch of garbage bags up over the walls and windows and just went at it,” he says. 

This Wednesday night, Mung will return after an eight year hiatus to open for Mac Sabbath, the McDonald’s themed Black Sabbath cover band, for one can’t miss night of metal and comedy at the Hi-Tone. “We picked up right where we left off eight years ago,” Pickle says. 

Music Video Monday: Mung

If you would like to see your video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com

Categories
News News Blog

Earthquakes On The Rise

CREDIT: United States Geological Survey

United States Geological Survey

Earthquakes are increasing in the central and eastern parts of the United States including West Tennessee and the risk of earthquake hazards has “significantly increased,” according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

For the very first time, new reports from the USGS included man-made earthquakes to its study and forecast of earthquakes. The new report shows that about 7 million people in the central and eastern parts of the U.S. could be affected by earthquakes. The chance of damage from those earthquakes is similar to that of natural earthquakes in high-hazard areas of California, the report said. 

“By including human-induced events, our assessment of earthquake hazards has significantly increased in parts of the U.S.,” said Mark Petersen, chief of the USGS National Seismic Hazard Mapping Project. “This research also shows that much more of the nation faces a significant chance of having damaging earthquakes over the next year, whether natural or human-induced.”

Earthquakes in the central U.S., which the study defines as the area between the Atlantic and basically the Rocky Mountains, have increased markedly in the last six years, the study said.

Between 1973 and 2008, the average amount of earthquakes of magnitude 3.0 or higher was 24. From 2008 to 2015, the average increased to 318 per year. So far this year, there have been about 226.

Much of the increase is linked to fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, according to the USGS. The mining process injects highly pressurized water, chemicals, and waste water into the ground to break up rocks to help release petroleum, natural gas, and more.

But the main culprit isn’t the fracking itself, the USGS reported, but the wastewater byproduct. Wastewater from fracking is collected, trucked, and then injected and stored in deep underground wells, below aquifers that provide drinking water.

Tennessee did not make the USGS’s top six states at risk for increased earthquakes. Those states are Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arkansas.

In the area around Memphis, 12 earthquakes have been reported to the USGS’s “Did You Feel It?” website.

For the first time, the USGS has given a one-year earthquake forecast. That forecast puts a 1 percent to 5 percent risk of earthquake damage to an area along the Mississippi River that stretches from southern Illnois almost to Memphis.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

A Visit to Curb Market

I stopped by the new Curb Market on Friday, opening day. 

Curb Market, in the old Easy Way site on Cooper, specializes in locally sourced goods. 

[slideshow-1]

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Guess Where I’m Eating Contest 95

Something for breakfast … 

The first person to correctly ID the drink and where I’m eating wins a fabulous prize. 

To enter, submit your answer to me via email at ellis@memphisflyer.com. 

The answer to GWIE 94 is Bryant’s Breakfast, and the winner is … Todd Lowe!

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Final Four-gettable?

No American team sport is as exclusive as college basketball. Say what you will about the “wildly unpredictable” NCAA tournament, no champion is as easy to forecast as the survivor of March Madness. (I love the now-copyrighted title for this event. Forget the fact that the nets at the Final Four are actually cut down in April.) If it’s not Kentucky this year, it’s certainly Duke. Or North Carolina. Or for those years when an old-school power doesn’t achieve dominant status … it’s Connecticut.

At the beginning of every college hoops season, more than 300 teams are technically eligible to win the NCAA men’s basketball championship, three times the number in contention for the FBS football title. With such a field, you’d figure entry in the record book as champion would be once-in-a-generation at best, once-in-a-lifetime for most programs. Instead, “One Shining Moment” has become a soundtrack familiar only to those with the right jacket, proper door code, and a retina scan that proves blue-blood status. Over the course of two decades, three percent of the college-basketball universe has won a national title. For longer odds of winning a championship, you’d have to be a member — or fan — of the Chicago Cubs. (I know. This is the year.)

Look at the last 20 champions. It’s actually a list of just 11 programs, as UConn (4), Kentucky (3), Duke (3), North Carolina (2), and Florida (2) have won multiple titles since 1996. If you’re looking for an outlier — think Marquette in 1977 — you won’t find one, with the possible exception (if ironic) of Florida, the only team in this period to win back-to-back titles (in 2006 and ’07). The Gators rose to greatness under coach Billy Donovan and won championships behind future NBA stars Joakim Noah and Al Horford. But aside from a return to the Final Four in 2014, Florida hasn’t achieved that retina-scan status and with Donovan now in the NBA, the Gators may soon be just another SEC program.

From 1988 through 2012 — a 25-year period — no Final Four was played without one of the following programs in the mix: North Carolina, Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, and/or UCLA. The streak ended in 2013, but there was Louisville (blue blood) and the next year, UConn. Relatively new to their blue-blood status, the Huskies won a fourth championship since 1999. Kentucky returned to the Final Four in 2014 (and ’15), Duke won the title last year, and now this weekend we get to see North Carolina, appearing in its record 19th Final Four (but first since 2009!).

Our only chance for a legitimate championship surprise will be the winner of the Oklahoma-Villanova semifinal. Don’t let Syracuse — a 10 seed! — fool you. Jim Boeheim’s squad is a blue-blood in orange clothing, appearing in a fifth Final Four under a coach who served a nine-game suspension to start the season (for a decade of impropriety under his watch).

The Wildcats are descendants of the 1985 team that upset mighty Georgetown (after beating Memphis State in the national semifinals) and the Sooners — get this — have never won a national championship in basketball. There will be no bigger star in Houston than Oklahoma’s All-America guard Buddy Hield. The senior Bahamian has averaged 29.2 points in the Sooners’ four-game tournament run and dropped 37 on Oregon in the West Regional final. (Hield opened the season by scoring 30 points at FedExForum in a win over Memphis.}

Here’s hoping this year’s Final Four becomes a Buddy movie, something different from anything we’ve seen before. It’s surely nice to occupy that three-percent luxury loft in college basketball’s tower of success. But there’s a lot to see — and cheer — in that other 97 percent.

Categories
Letters To The Editor Opinion

What They Said…

CREDIT: Greg Cravens

Greg Cravens

About Frank Murtaugh’s post, “Memphis Tigers Post Mortem” …

Josh Pastner is my guy. He’s 38, a great recruiter, has gotten us to the tourney three times, and is destined to make a great run because he’s a great coach.

How stupid will Memphis look if he leaves and gets that run for another school? I’m a true fan of Memphis, but unfortunately our fans will turn their backs on you the minute things aren’t going the way they imagined it.

We’ve got to go through it to get to it. If we bring another coach in, we lose the recruits coming in, and to recruit a decent team will take a couple years or more. No one said it was easy, but for the sake of Memphis, Tiger fans need to be patient and loyal. Go Tigers, go!

Stevo37

Pastner may be a nice guy, but that isn’t the only requirement for being a head coach. We all knew when he took the job that he was coming in green. Heck, he started off badly by saying in his first interview with the Commercial Appeal that if his team tried on defense, he’d let them run on offense. That might be fine in high school, but it’s a recipe for disaster in college.

Being a mediocre coach would have been okay if he had made efforts to get better. That should have included bringing in an experienced bench coach who could help him learn the ropes. That he never did was his failing. It’s also the responsibility of the AD to recognize that. His teams look lost on defense. Trying hard isn’t enough, and too often, he didn’t hold his players accountable on the court. When your power forward runs down and attempts a three-pointer when the clock has barely started, why does he stay on the floor? The fact is, Pastner had the talent to be in the sweet 16 or better almost every year.

The city of Memphis has great talent. Any good coach should be able to keep the best talent home, not chase them away. Pastner needs to GO, GO, GO!

DatGuy

Dedric Lawson has done his year of indentured servitude, and there’s not much promise of improving his position next year, while there’ll be plenty of opportunity to suffer an injury. He should take as much money as he can get. Whoever gave Pastner that contract should foot the bill to buy him out of it.

Jeff

If you’re Pastner, you’d be crazy to take another job. Where else are you going to get that level of salary guaranteed for the next four years? If he walks away, he leaves $10.6 million on the table. If I’m him, I’m staying until they either fire me (and pay me), or until the contract runs out. I might leave if I’m down to the last year in my contract. In that case, I could pass up $2.6 million in the final year, if I got a nice $1.5 million gig with a fresh start.

GroveReb84

About Toby Sells’ story, “Q & A with Tina Sullivan” … 

It seems to me that there’s a parking solution that would be acceptable to the Memphis Zoo and the Overton Park Conservancy: Couldn’t overflow parkers be directed to the nearby Center City Shopping Center? All it would take is a shuttle, charging a nominal fee, to ferry zoo-goers from the shopping center to the zoo’s front gate. The Greensward could be preserved (as it should be; the zoo has taken over too much of the park), and the zoo would have parking for busy days.

Cheryl M. Dare

About President Obama and the Supreme Court …

The cover of the November 14th Time magazine had Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s face on it. The caption read “Change.” That’s because Mitch and other Republican leaders promised to cooperate and work with Democrats for the good of the country. For the last two years, Republican politicians have done the exact opposite, obstructing President Obama at every turn.

McConnell said he was going to “teach the GOP a new word: ‘Yes.'” The “Party of No” had no intention of honoring this promise. 

Now McConnell is leading the Republican charge to keep Obama from his constitutional duty to select a new Supreme Court justice. As Donald Trump might tweet: “Losers!”

Brad Levin

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Two new food trucks, two food truck festivals

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

And the council declared, “Let there be food trucks in Memphis,” and so there were. Lots and lots of food trucks. At least four dozen, as a matter of fact, with the list tirelessly expanding. Two new food trucks have caught the eyes of Memphians as of late, with a flurry of Facebook posts and tweets and Instagramming broadcasting where to find them and what’s good.

JoyRide and RAWK’n Grub have joined the ranks of the food truck experience, and just in time for two upcoming food truck festivals — the Great River Indoor Food Truck Festival and Marketplace, this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Cook Convention Center, and the Midsouth Food Truck Festival on Saturday, May 7th at Tiger Lane.

Justin Fox Burks

Lunch on the run ­— new food trucks JoyRide (above) and RAWK’n Grub

Justin Fox Burks

JoyRide, owned by Joy Padilla-Anderson, of Memphis, hit the streets less than a month ago, serving up authentic Cuban sandwiches and Latin eats.

Fried plantains ($3), chicken, beef, veggie, or dessert empanadas ($5-$6), yucca ($5), and papa rellenas, or stuffed potatoes, Padilla-Anderson is doing what she knows.

“I moved to Memphis nine years ago from Tampa Bay. I grew up in the restaurant business with my grandmother, and she taught me all her great recipes,” Padilla-Anderson says.

She’s worked in the local restaurant scene for most of her tenure here, including the Cove and Chiwawa, until one day she took a leap.

“I just raised my hands to my higher power and said, ‘Open the next door,'” she says.

Three hours later her father-in-law called.

“He said he had a food truck for me,” she says. “I had no idea this was what I was going to be doing. I always planned on opening a restaurant by the time I was 40,” Padilla-Anderson says.

She’s 41.

In addition to the catering she’s been called in for, Padilla-Anderson sets up on Tuesdays at Audubon Park from around 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and at the same time in Court Square on Thursdays.

She has a presence on all the usual suspects — joyridememphis.com, facebook.com/joyridememphis901, and @joyridememphis.

“It’s been great. I’ve put myself out there, and people love the food,” she says.

Steph Cook is finally following his dream of running a food truck. This winter he launched RAWK’n Grub, which presents gastro-pub food using raw, local ingredients with rock-and-roll-themed handles.

“We play with comfort food and put a rockstar spin on it,” Cook says.

His No. 1 seller are his C.C. Sliders, made with ground beef chuck, which Cook grinds himself, sirloin brisket, chorizo, and applewood smoked bacon topped with tomato chutney and chipotle aioli ($8.50).

Or his Cheesy Like Sunday Morning, his version of the old standby, grilled cheese, which is layers of smoked gouda pimiento and cheese and fontina grilled on thick-cut wheatberry bread ($7.50).

Cook is not new on the Memphis food scene either, opening Memphis MoJo Cafe in Bartlett as well as cooking at eighty3 in the Madison and Hog & Hominy.

He’s been spotted at the Ridgeway Loop, the Baptist Memorial Hospital campus, St. Jude, and other locations, changing it up to keep people interested.

He lists his weekly schedule on his website, rawkngrub.com, or on Facebook, facebook.com/RAWKn-Grub-Food-Truck, and hopes to go 24 hours.

“We’ve been catching a lot of traction. We’ve had good responses on Facebook, and we just started getting on Yelp,” he says. “I love it. I’m having a blast.”

The Great River Indoor Food Truck Festival and Marketplace happens this Saturday in the Memphis Cook Convention Center from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Look for more than 14 food trucks, a beer garden featuring local brews, live music by eight local performers, and local vendors. Tickets are $5, which goes toward the Hospitality Hub. For more information, visit the Great River Indoor Food Truck Festival and Marketplace Facebook page or go to www.ticketoven.com/foodtruckfestival for tickets.

For more information about the Midsouth Food Truck Festival in May, go to http://www.midsouthfoodtruckfest.com. Admission is $5, $2 for kids ages 5 to 12.

Categories
News News Blog

Police Monitor Greensward Protest

CREDIT: Facebook

Facebook

Protesters sit and play in the Greensward’s ‘cone zone.’

Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers responded to Overton Park at around 11 a.m. Saturday as hundreds of protesters attempted to prevent parking on the Greensward.

Officers from Crump Station said about 200 protestors “were laying in the grassy area refusing to move,” according to a statement from MPD.

“This protest is the latest effort to prevent the Memphis Zoo from using part of Overton Park for overflow parking on the grass,” the statement said. “At this point, this appears to be a peaceful protest. Officers are on the scene and monitoring the situation.”

The protest was planned by park advocacy groups Citizens to Protect Overton Park and Get Off Our Lawn, a group organized specifically to protest Greensward parking. The event, called Greensward Play Date, was for “peaceful play and protest.” 

Facebook

Here is the advice form the groups for anyone planning to sit in the area of the Greensward designated for Memphis Zoo parking:

“We endorse all forms of peaceful protest,” read the Facebook invitation. “We do not endorse vandalism or violent behavior. We expect all of our supporters to treat other people with civility. In particular, if you interact with zoo employees or zoo visitors, please remember to be friendly.”

Categories
Music Music Blog

Weekend Roundup 56: Billy Joel, Jack Oblivian, Greensward Benefit

BIlly Joel plays the FedEx Forum tonight

Welcome to the 56th edition of my Weekend Roundup. Friday night is STACKED, but there are also some great shows Saturday and a benefit worthy of your time on Sunday. You know the deal, here is everywhere to be this weekend.

Friday, March 25th.
Papa Top’s West Coast Turnaround, 7 p.m. at Club 152, free.

Weekend Roundup 56: Billy Joel, Jack Oblivian, Greensward Benefit

Southmain Songwriters Night, 7 p.m. at Meet Me in Memphis, free. 

Billy Joel, 7 p.m. at the FedEx Forum, prices vary.

Weekend Roundup 56: Billy Joel, Jack Oblivian, Greensward Benefit (2)

Lee Bains III and The Glory Fires with Mike Hewlett & The Racket, 9 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $10.

Weekend Roundup 56: Billy Joel, Jack Oblivian, Greensward Benefit (3)

Peelander Z, Richard James and The Special Riders, 9 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $10.

Weekend Roundup 56: Billy Joel, Jack Oblivian, Greensward Benefit (4)

Jack Oblivian, 10:30 p.m. at Bar DKDC, $7. 

Saturday, March 26th.
Pam and Terry, 6:30 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Purgefest at Shangri-La, 11 a.m., free.

Marcella Simien, 10:30 p.m. at Bar DKDC, $7.

Weekend Roundup 56: Billy Joel, Jack Oblivian, Greensward Benefit (5)

The Roomsounds and The Broadcast, 9 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $7.

Sunday, March 27th.
Greensward benefit featuring: Tony Manard,Faux Killas, Southern Avenue, Winchester and the Ammunition
Hope Clayburn, Zigadoo Moneyclips, Marcella and Her Lovers, Dave Cousar, Chickasaw Mound, Artistik Approach, Chinese Connection Dub Embassy 2p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $10.

Weekend Roundup 56: Billy Joel, Jack Oblivian, Greensward Benefit (6)

Jeff Austin Band 8 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room,