Month: August 2016

Categories
From My Seat Sports

A (Slightly Premature) Redbirds Season Wrapup

The 2016 Memphis Redbirds concluded their home schedule with Sunday’s loss to the Nashville Sounds. They have eight road games to play (four in Oklahoma City, four at Round Rock), but won’t reach the Pacific Coast League playoffs for a second year in a row. A few thoughts as we near the end of the Redbirds’ 19th season in Memphis.

• It would be hard to script a better feel-good weekend to conclude the season at AutoZone Park. On Friday — the day after a walk-off victory — the Redbirds greeted the 10 millionth fan to enter the gates at Third (now B.B. King) and Union. (The prizes presented this lucky family would fill a small warehouse.) Better yet, former president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, visited the ballpark as part of a promotion for Habitat for Humanity. Then Saturday, the stadium drew its largest crowd of the season with announced attendance of 11,041.

• The Redbirds have suited up 56 players this season, matching a record set in 2002. But it isn’t so much the men who have played at AutoZone Park this summer who have written the season’s story. It’s more a tale of those who did not. Last March, the Redbirds’ middle-infield appeared to be Aledmys Diaz (shortstop) and Greg Garcia (second base). But when St. Louis Cardinal shortstop Jhonny Peralta broke his left thumb late in spring training, Diaz found himself with a promotion and proceeded to hit .312 for the Cards until he had his own digit damaged by an inside pitch in late July. When incumbent second-baseman Kolten Wong struggled in St. Louis, Garcia was called to help spur the offense and has since become an integral — and versatile — member of the Cardinal bench. Outfielder Jeremy Hazelbaker would have been a middle-of-the-order presence in the Memphis lineup, but Tommy Pham went down with an injury on Opening Day. Since making his big-league debut, Hazelbaker has drilled 11 home runs for St. Louis, including four as a pinch-hitter.

Then there’s the pitching. The Cardinals’ top prospect, Alex Reyes, sat out the season’s first seven weeks, having been suspended for testing positive for marijuana. He made only 14 starts for the Redbirds before being called up to help the Cardinal bullpen. The system’s second-ranked starting pitcher, Luke Weaver, made a solitary start for Memphis (August 8th) before being promoted to St. Louis after Michael Wacha went to the disabled list with a shoulder injury. It’s a form of fantasy baseball, but imagine this Redbirds team with Reyes and Weaver making 40 percent of the starts. It’s highly unlikely they’d be 11 games under .500 and in the cellar of their division had such a scenario met with reality.

• The Redbirds are again near the bottom of the PCL in attendance, having sold 324,581 tickets for the season, an average of 4,704 per game (ahead of only Colorado Springs). The numbers don’t jibe with a stadium annually ranked among the finest in minor-league baseball, and in a city that has shown a passion for sports, from the high school level to the NBA. What are the factors that weigh on the AZP turnstile count?

This season’s schedule was odd. From April 15th to July 3rd, Memphis had but one home stand longer than four games. That’s a lot of starting and stopping when it comes to stadium operations, sales efforts, and building any momentum when it comes to engaging fans with the product on the field. As mentioned above, the team’s top stars this season were two pitchers who started a total of 15 games, only seven of them at home. And concession prices remain steep, as much as $8 for a beer or hamburger. Fireworks on Saturday night continue to attract larger crowds. Theme nights — from Star Wars to Christmas in July — add some color to the concourse. And the right promotion will draw crowds: More than 9,000 attended a pair of games where Yadier Molina jerseys and Adam Wainwright bobbleheads were distributed. But Tuesday night in May? Wednesday night in August? These are the white whales of minor-league baseball.

The Redbirds hit the 9,000 mark seven times this season after never hosting such a crowd in 2015, and total attendance was up more than 15 percent this season. So growth is evident. Can it be sustained?

• Next year will bring the 20th season of Redbirds baseball in Memphis. The anniversary would be a nice occasion for the club to start celebrating its history, and in a manner that would remind local baseball fans — for posterity’s sake — how glorious the team’s history has been at times. The Pujols Seat stands regally on the rightfield bluff, where Albert’s championship-winning home run landed way back in September 2000. Beyond that, there is nothing visual that would tell a casual fan that baseball was played at AutoZone Park the day before he or she walked through the gates.

Up in St. Louis, the parent Cardinals fly 11 flags representing each of the franchise’s World Series championships. The 11 years are painted as pennants above the home team’s dugout. Here in Memphis, you can find acknowledgment of the Redbirds’ two PCL championships (2000 and 2009) on a wall next to the batting cage, below the main concourse, and only with a credential for access.

The franchise’s lone retired number — Stubby Clapp’s 10 — was unceremoniously erased from the bullpen wall when the Cardinals retired the same number to honor Hall of Fame manager Tony LaRussa. Five former Redbirds have been honored as MVP of a League Championship Series: Adam Kennedy, Pujols, Placido Polanco, David Freese, and Michael Wacha. There’s no indication any of these stars once played in a Redbirds uniform. Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina have started more games as the Cardinal battery than any two men in the storied franchise’s history. They also played together in Memphis in 2004, as thousands who lined up for those promotional items well know. It’s time casual baseball fans are reminded about two decades of Redbirds history. Who knows? They might become more than casual fans.

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Don Lifted

Today’s Music Video Monday is pretty heavy. 

Memphis polymath Lawrence Matthews’ work spans many media. He’s a visual artist who works in paint, print, and installations, and, as Don Lifted, he’s also one of Memphis most formidable hip hop talents. Today is the world premiere of his new music video for the song “Harbor Hall”, the first single from his upcoming album ALERO. With tense, compelling cinematography by Justin Thompson, the video tells a chilling story of a man facing his life’s hardest decision. 

Music Video Monday: Don Lifted

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

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Guess Where I’m Eating Contest 110

Oh my goodness … 

The first person to correctly ID the dish 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 109 is the Southwestern salad at Wild Beet Salad Co., and the winner is … Michael Erskine! 

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Offering a little help with Trump’s test.

CREDIT: Dwong19 | Dreamstime.com

I want desperately to help Donald Trump. I think I can be of great service to him, his image, his campaign, and his fight against the immigrants he thinks are trying to get into the United States to blow us up. I was elated when he made his “foreign policy” speech the other day and announced that, if elected president, he would put in place a new ideology “test” that immigrants would have to take before they were allowed into the country — to make sure we don’t let in, for heaven’s sake, any bigots. I levitated. My head spun. My eyes bulged. My heart raced. Actually, my skin crawled, but I ignored that because I really want to help. First, however, I have a few questions for Mr. Trump.

Dwong19 | Dreamstime.com

Donald and Melania Trump

1) Is this test going to consist of questions that have to be answered true or false, or will it be multiple choice? And will there be an essay component to it?

2) I assume it will be the same test for immigrants from all countries, but I don’t want to make an ass out of you and me, so can you jot me a quick email to let me know if you need a set of questions for, say, people traveling from Syria that’s different than a set for, say, people traveling from Luxembourg? You just never know these days whom not to trust.

3) Are the questions going to be opinion-based or fact-based? Like, “What do you think about baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie?” as opposed to “Who is buried in Grant’s tomb?”

4) Will you ask them what they think about Trump Tower? This could get really iffy with the stuck-up French and those smartass, superior Germans, who like that woman president of theirs.

5) Will your wife Melania’s family members from Slovenia have to take the test when they come to visit, or can we just skip over them and let ’em on in to save time? I say, make them take the test just to be sure.

6) The trend now in all communications is to keep things brief. Can we keep the test brief for everyone, or is it going to “be huge”?

7) Does the size of male immigrants’ hands need to be addressed? Is it okay if theirs are bigger than yours? I’m a little doubtful you’ll give them much leeway on this one, given the way things have been going.

8) And speaking of size and hands and such, how are the two of us going to address these giant, naked Donald Trump statues that some damn crazy artists placed in various cities the other day? They may have been immigrants. Probably from Finland or some other punk-ass Scandinavian country. The Washington Post described the likenesses of you by writing, “The eyes scowl, the mouth pouts, and the veiny, almost reptilian skin looks like it was torn off a human-size frog and dipped in bronzer.” You know that’s not what you look like. And whatever terrorist made the statues put a little, tiny, barely visible … well, I’m sure you saw the photos and the headlines and the stories and the YouTube videos showing the statues to billions of people around the world. We need to put some questions in the quiz about this. Something to the effect of, “If we allow you to enter the United States of America, do you have plans to create naked statues of me, President Donald J. Trump, with a tiny penis, and place them in public for the world to see? Please answer true, false, or I’m not really sure at this time.” If they fill in the last option, keep them out of the country. It’s as easy as that.

9) The other big thing to worry about is keeping out people who might decide they like the Clintons. You don’t want to run the risk of that, do you? As you have pointed out, Hillary and Barack Obama founded ISIS, so you can bet plenty of the terrorists they trained are going to try to get in one way or another. You better put a question on the test about that. Something to the effect of, “When Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama came to the Middle East and founded ISIS, did you get any special training from them about how to blow up Americans or any other good, Christian people? Did Hillary show you how to make a bomb and bring it to the United States? Answer just true or false on this one.”

10) And finally, there’s this question about what is in the immigrant terrorists’ hearts when they try to come into the United States. What is their real ideology? Why do they hate the West so much? I think the best way to address that is the way you described it the other day during your town hall with Sean Hannity, when you, I think, talked about getting them off the internet. You said, “Sean, when you look at what’s going on with the internet and how ISIS is using the internet and what they’re doing and what they’re doing to us and then you have people in our country that say oh, you can’t do that, that’s doing something so bad to us, here we are, people — they want to blow us up. We have to be very careful.” I think you are 100 percent right. I would just put that exact quote on the test, and if they can figure out the answer, don’t dare EVER let them in.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Group Paints, Hides Rocks Around Memphis

Cardiology nurse Lisa Dawson wanted to combine her children’s desire to create with their daily use of technology — all while getting them outdoors. So she gave them rocks and paint. Her daughter’s excitement led Dawson to the idea of creating a group to paint rocks, place them around Memphis, and post the photos online.

Dawson pitched the plan on Nextdoor.com to see if it would spark interest. It caught the attention of Amy McSpadden, an elementary school art teacher. Dawson and McSpadden created 901 Rocks!, a Facebook group that’s garnered more than 6,700 members since July. Members paint rocks and hide them around town, posting clues on the 901 Rocks! page. When someone finds a rock, they often photograph themselves with it and post it on Facebook as well. Some keep the rocks they find, while others re-hide them for others to discover.

901 Rocks!

Zoie Dawson shows off a 901 Rocks! creation.

The Flyer spoke with Dawson and McSpadden about the group’s beginnings and an event planned to bring more members aboard. — Joshua Cannon

Flyer: Tell me about the first rocks you hid.

McSpadden: I was determined to make this experience for Lisa’s children rewarding, so I purposely planted my 901 Rocks in places that they would see them while on a family walk in the neighborhood. Her daughter, Zoie, found the first rock. It was a red and gold owl I placed in the knot of a tree at Peabody Elementary. Once I had hidden a few in Cooper-Young, the bug bit me. I found myself driving to local hot spots in Midtown and leaving treasures for others to find.

You’ve used the term “creactivity” to describe the project. What does that mean?

Dawson: When I began writing the description for the 901 Rocks! page, I started by saying I wanted to encourage creativity and activity in our community. I combined the two words into one: creactivity. I live in Midtown, and I feel art and being community-minded are our most defining characteristics. I have always had a desire to be part of something, and I wanted to include my children so we could make a difference and learn lessons as a family.

How did you grow to nearly 7,000 members on Facebook?

McSpadden: As an artist and elementary art teacher, I knew many local artists who I believed would embrace this opportunity to participate in a community art project. Next, I reached out to fellow educators. Many responded positively about the opportunity to share with their students and ways they would work it into their teaching. They, in return, invited other educators, friends, and family members.

How can people participate? Can they use any rock?

Dawson: Any rock can be transformed, although we found river rocks make the perfect canvas due to their smooth surface and larger size. Allow the shape of the rock to inspire your design. One may resemble a dinosaur head, a heart, or even a fruit wedge. Start with a clean rock. Paint on your design using acrylics, paint pens, or even Sharpies. Tag the back of the rock with #901Rocks, “Post a pic,” and “Keep or Hide.” We recommend sealing the rocks with a clear coat. One member shared she was using nail polishes to paint and clear nail polish to seal her rocks.

Do you have any events planned?

Dawson: The Rock-it Launch is scheduled for September 1st — that’s 9/01. To participate, all we ask is you paint 10 rocks (9+01), and plant them around the city or wherever you travel.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

War Dogs

“Bush opened the floodgates in Iraq,” Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) tells his junior-high best friend turned gun-running associate David Packouz (Miles Teller) over breakfast in a Miami, Florida, diner. “It’s a fucking gold rush.”

War Dogs, Todd Phillips’ first film following The Hangover trilogy, is a true story about the Bush administration’s brutalized American dream. As it became apparent that corporations supplied munitions to the United States military through sole source contracts, biddings opened to small businesses — allowing them to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars running guns for Uncle Sam.

Enter Packouz and Diveroli, two aimless and ambitious 20-something stoners reminiscing on their glory days (“I miss not taking shit from anyone,” Packouz says). Packouz is a part-time masseur who empties his savings on a business selling bedsheets to senior citizen homes, and Diveroli, a spray-tanned, sociopathic bro who discovers Pentagon contracts that let the little guy in on the military industrial complex’s “crumbs.” Diveroli and Packouz reconnect at a funeral, to Packouz’s fortune, and partner under Diveroli’s business moniker AEY — a name that stands for nothing, as Diveroli’s life stands for nothing, as the long-drawn out Iraq war came to stand for nothing.

Packouz and his pregnant girlfriend Iz (Ana de Armas) are anti-war, but he can’t really support her selling bedsheets. As Diveroli tells him, “The war is happening. This is pro money.” Packouz lies to Iz. Money rolls in, but trouble mounts at AEY. The two-man business is forced to travel overseas to right a deal trafficking Beretta pistols gone awry. “God Bless Dick Cheney’s America,” Diveroli says during a chase scene through Fallujah, Iraq, as a squad of U.S. soldiers save them from machine-gun slinging rebels while Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” plays overhead. A taste of success carries Diveroli and Packouz to their demise when they meet global gun dealer Henry Girard (Bradley Cooper) at an arms convention in Las Vegas. Girard helps AEY land their biggest deal yet, a $300 million contract selling 100 million rounds of AK-47 ammo to the Afghan military.

Teller and Hill lack the chemistry to create a believable duo. During the nearly two hours spent with Packouz and Diveroli, the surface is scratched, but their relationship never digs deeper than a shallow good-guy-bad-guy rapport. Independently, they shine. Teller’s best when his moral compass points north, and Hill’s performance as an over-the-top cerebral calculator with a Tony Montana admiration lands at the top of his resume. In Packouz and Diveroli’s web of deception and more — themes that drive the film — Armas shines with a grounded portrayal of Packouz’ girlfriend. While Packouz’ humility corrodes, she remains unmoved. Cooper’s charisma is fine-tuned, but don’t get it wrong, this is Hill’s show: a coked-out, conniving looney tune who makes deals with a blade ready for the back.

Those looking for the hijinks and one-liners that characterized The Hangover will be disappointed. With shots from clubby Miami Beach to desolate Albania, cinematographer Lawrence Sher (The Hangover trilogy) keeps Phillips’ vision consistent. Phillips pulls pages from Martin Scorsese’s playbook — all while peppering War Dogs with the gags that have branded his adolescent comedy since 2000’s Road Trip. His latest effort asks to be taken seriously, though, and falls short. War Dogs, a worthy attempt, spends too much time redeeming Packouz and Diveroli. In Scorsese’s hands, a more gripping film might have been made. It’s an important step for Phillips, though, one that shows he should improve with time.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Prichard’s Double Barreled Bourbon: Sold Out

Phil Prichard, the Memphis-born master distiller at Prichard’s Distillery, Inc., the rum and whiskey manufacturer located some 280 miles due east of us, has a supply-and-demand issue many distillers only dream about: His hand-crafted Double Barreled Bourbon, which typically retails for $50-60 on liquor store shelves, has been unavailable for over a year.

In 2015, supplier sales of Tennessee whiskey rose by 7.4 percent, significantly higher than the already robust 5.2 percent growth in American whiskies overall.

Yet even within the Tennessee whiskey category, Prichard’s product is unique: In a part of the state known for whiskies, ranging from Nashville-based micro-distiller Corsair to the behemoth Jack Daniel’s, which is located 17 miles north of Kelso in Lynchburg, Prichard’s facility is the only one not required by Tennessee law to filter its bourbon through maple charcoal. It’s also the only distillery to use Prichard’s exclusive Double Barreled process, which spurns over-dilution during the proof-cutting process.

The term Double Barreled, registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, is currently under legal challenge from Louisiana-based liquor giant the Sazerac Company, which owns a multitude of distilleries including Southern Comfort and Buffalo Trace, the parent company of Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve.

“The biggest problem we have now is this little company wants to infringe on our trade name,” Prichard says. “It’s a silly lawsuit. A trademark is a trademark. Their modus operandi is to outspend us, but fortunately we’ve got good lawyers.”

While he’s currently bottling his award-winning rums and gearing up for brandy production at a distillery in Nashville, it can take Prichard up to a decade to create a bottle-ready batch of Double Barreled Bourbon.

“Somewhere between eight and 10 years, the two elements in those barrels — the caramelized sugars created when the barrel is burned, which make it sweet, and the oak tannins, which make it bitter — will give it that optimal balance between bitterness and sweetness,” Prichard explains.

“We are temporarily out of stock. The whiskey demand has stripped all of our aged product. We’ve laid down more barrels and we’ll have some available in a year or so,” he says.

Last winter, long after his warehouse was empty, Prichard was surprised to discover several bottles of his coveted bourbon at a shop in Winder, Georgia. “I was down there visiting with my distributor, and I decided to drop into Turtle Creek Wine and Spirits and say hello, and lo and behold, I’d be dipped if they didn’t have a whole shelf of it.”

“I bought a bottle or two,” he continues, “and a day or two after that, some guy called me, and he went up and bought everything they had. He thoroughly wiped us out of any residual stock. I’ve got 20 barrels we’ll probably release this time next year.”

That’s good news for music producer and Bo-Keys bandleader Scott Bomar, who describes Prichard’s Double Barreled Bourbon as “the best I’ve ever had in my life.”

The musician whose newest album, “Heartache By the Numbers,” was inspired by Memphis’ onetime late night bar scene — “places like Hernando’s Hideaway, beer joints and juke joints that don’t exist anymore” — discovered the bourbon when Prichard signed on as a sponsor of Staxtacular, the annual benefit the Memphis Grizzlies stage for the Stax Music Academy.

Bomar says that he drinks the bourbon “neat, or with an ice cube or two, in extreme moderation.”

For now, Bomar has switched to craft beer made by Cooper-Young’s Memphis Made Brewing Co. “There’s one I love in particular — the Soulful Ginger,” he says. “It’s a great summer beer. Sometimes flavors just overpower the taste of a craft beer, but this has such a subtle ginger flavor, which makes the beer really crisp.”

Most Memphis Made beers and other fine local craft beers are available at Madison Growler, Hammer & Ale, and on tap at bars and restaurants around town.

Categories
Music Music Blog

Weekend Roundup 77: Sweatfest II, Billy Bob Thornton, Cryptic Hymn

The Subtractions play Sweatfest II this afternoon.

Good afternoon and welcome to a condensed version of my Weekend Roundup. Here is everywhere you need to be this weekend. 

Saturday, August 27th.
Heath and Company, 6:30 p.m. at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Sweatfest II, 12 p.m. at Shangri-La Records.

Weekend Roundup 77: Sweatfest II, Billy Bob Thornton, Cryptic Hymn

Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters, 8 p.m. at the Bartlett Center for performing arts, prices vary.

Weekend Roundup 77: Sweatfest II, Billy Bob Thornton, Cryptic Hymn (2)

Mighty Souls Brass Band, 8 p.m. at Loflin Yard.

Toy Trucks and the Manateees, 9 p.m. at the Buccaneer, $5.

Weekend Roundup 77: Sweatfest II, Billy Bob Thornton, Cryptic Hymn (3)

The Dolly Llamas w/ Ego Slip, Shame Finger, Conspiracy Theory, 9 p.m. at Murphy’s,$5.

Indeed We Digress (album release), Banned Anthem, 9 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $5.

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

Weekend Roundup 77: Sweatfest II, Billy Bob Thornton, Cryptic Hymn (4)

Sunday, August 28th.
The Buccanites, 9 p.m. at the Buccaneer. $5. 

Cryptic Hymn, 9 p.m. at Murphy’s, $5.

Weekend Roundup 77: Sweatfest II, Billy Bob Thornton, Cryptic Hymn (5)

Old Table, Sweet Baby Jesus, Puppy-O, & Allen Waymar, 9 p.m. at the Hi-Tone, $10.

Categories
News News Blog

MATA Security Guard Placed on Diversion in Passenger Death

Adicus Mitchell

A private security guard responsible for pushing a Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) passenger, which resulted in that passenger’s death, has been placed on diversion for three years. 

On May 6th of last year, a bus driver at the North Main terminal alerted security guard Adicus Mitchell that he had an unruly passenger on board, and Mitchell responded by forcefully pushing the passenger off the bus. The passenger, 69-year-old Robert Gray, landed face-first and lay motionless on the concrete. Mitchell wasn’t a MATA employee but was hired to as a security guard at the terminal.

Gray was hospitalized in critical condition and later transferred to a long-term care facility. He died there from complications from his fall on August 3rd, 2014. Gray had been allegedly been making obscene remarks to a female passenger when the driver alerted Mitchell.

Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Lee Coffee granted Mitchell’s request for diversion, a type of probation that will erase the conviction from his record after three years of good behavior.

Categories
News News Blog

Top Guns: Shelby Tops Tennessee in Handgun Permits

Shelby County handgun permits
Create your own infographics

Top Guns: Shelby Tops Tennessee in Handgun Permits