Month: November 2016

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Begin Your Holiday Backlash With Bad Santa 2

At first Christmas movies were all smiles. Lots of snowy landscapes, reindeer, and brightly wrapped presents for good little boys and girls, that’s all you needed to make a holiday movie and rake in those White Christmas bucks. Then after about 50 years of that, the Christmas backlash movie began to appear. Maybe it’s the twisted legacy of A Christmas Story, which is a fabulously positive holiday movie, but includes acknowledgements that the Yuletide can be a stressful time for all involved. Another early example of a holiday backlash movie is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, which is probably the best Thanksgiving themed film ever made.

Kathy Bates and Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa 2.

Terry Zwigoff’s 2004 Bad Santa is a standout holiday backlash movie because it dared to go full nilhilist. It revolved around Billy Bob Thornton’s scarily committed performance as Willie Stoke, a criminal deadbeat with a knack for safecracking and a taste for cheap booze and large women whose seasonal employment involves dressing up as Santa Claus. Nowadays, there are more holiday backlash movies (The Night Before and Office Christmas Party, for example) than actual holiday movies to backlash against, and if Bad Santa 2 is any indication, it might be time for a market correction.

As the English say, Bad Santa 2 does what it says on the tin. It’s pretty much just a straight remake of the original movie, a “let’s get the band back together” (except Zwigoff is out) done 10 years too late because nobody in Hollywood funds original ideas any more. That being said, it does, in fact, do what it says on the tin. Are you feeling grumpy about this impending season of darkness? Go watch Billy Bob Thornton and Kathy Bates—two extremely talented actors who don’t get to work as much as they should—lock horns as the worst mother and son pair since Caligula and Agrippina. Also back is Tony Cox as the treacherous elf Marcus, and Brett Kelly as Thurman Merman, the clueless little kid now grown up to a clueless young adult.

Brett Kelly and Billy Bob Thornton share deep dish pizza and a cig.

It may be difficult to impossible to shock us jaded filmgoers in this dark timeline, but Bad Santa 2’s writers Johnny Rosenthal and Shauna Cross gives it the old college try. About the time the novelty of seeing Santa Claus cuss at a midget starts wearing off, the film transitions into a low-impact heist comedy, and director Mark Waters executes both halves of the movie pretty well.

I always try to judge a movie first on what the filmmakers were apparently trying to achieve. On that level, the makers of Bad Santa 2 have clearly succeeded. But on the other hand, the thing they have succeeded at is making another Bad Santa movie. Maybe try to set the bar a bit higher next time.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Tigers 104, McNeese State 65

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

The Tigers’ eight-day, four-game, warm-up homestand is complete. A rotation has been established (with emerging impact players), centered around sophomore forward Dedric Lawson. Players are healthy (with Providence looming Friday at the Emerald Coast Classic). And Dedric, it appears, is merely one half of a brother act first-year coach Tubby Smith will lean on all winter.

Memphis essentially put the Cowboys away in six minutes of basketball Tuesday night, exploding to a 17-1 lead. Reserve guard Craig Randall — among those emerging players of impact — scored 11 points in the game’s first 14 minutes and finished with 18 (in just 21 minutes), three shy of the career high he set merely three days ago.

Larry Kuzniewski

Jeremiah Martin

This was still a Lawson show. Dedric became the first Tiger in 21 years to start a season with four consecutive double-doubles (20 points and 10 rebounds). His older brother, redshirt-freshman K.J. Lawson, notched his third straight double-double (13 points and 10 rebounds) and dished out seven assists with but one turnover. Each player re-entered the game late, needing a single rebound for the statistical mark. The gesture was acknowledged by Dedric: “Thanks to Coach Smith. I appreciate it. He understands goals individuals are trying to reach.”

It’s the larger team goals that the U of M hopes to soon have in clearer focus. Based on numbers alone, the Tigers have separated themselves from Memphis teams of recent vintage. Not since 2010 has a Tiger team begun a season 4-0. Not since 2014 has a Tiger team scored 100 points in a game. And only once before has a Tiger team handed out as many assists as it did against the Cowboys (35).

“We started out with the right kind of energy, the right kind of focus,” said Smith following the game. “They played unselfishly. We’re pleased in some areas; others we have to get better.”

Point guard Jeremiah Martin handed out seven assists with only one turnover, giving him totals of 29 and 7, respectively, through four games. Christian Kessee came off the bench and made his first real impact of the season with six assists and only one turnover himself. Freshman Keon Clergeot scored his first points of the season (11) in 16 productive minutes off the bench. If nothing else, these four opening games have infused a team with much-needed confidence as the schedule strengthens after Thanksgiving.

“Taking care of the basketball is critical,” emphasized Smith. “The competition is going to be a lot stiffer now. Show me a team that’s having a tough time winning, and I’ll show you a team turning the ball over. We have some good ball-handling guards. When you can keep the ball in a guy like Jeremiah’s hands . . . he was impressive.”

Entering the holiday weekend, Smith expressed a few reasons to be grateful, quoting one of his father’s favorite expressions: “Every day is a great day above ground.” Two games over the holiday weekend (Providence followed by Virginia or Iowa) will test his team in ways it hasn’t been challenged over the season’s first eight days.  Such is the natural progression for a developing team.

“Preparation is the same,” said Smith, “but we’ll make adjustments. We’ll see better athletes with Providence. I think we’re ready.”

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News News Blog

First Community Listening Sessions With Department of Justice Announced

CREDIT: Department of Justice

Department of Justice

The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services has announced their first two community listening sessions, to be held Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

The community meetings are part of a lengthy DOJ review of the Memphis Police Department’s community policing policies and policies regarding the use of deadly force. Citizens are encouraged to attend and voice their concerns with representatives from the COPS office.

The partnership of the MPD and the COPS program was announced last month by Chief Noble Wray with the COPS office, Memphis mayor Jim Strickland, U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton III, and MPD director Michael Rallings, who all emphasized that the partnership was sought by Memphis officials.

At the time, Rallings said of the decision, “We want to improve. And, in order to improve… you have to open yourself up.

The first community meeting is at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Midtown, on November 29 from 6:00p.m.-9:00p.m.. The second meeting is on November 30, at the Hickory Hill Community Center from 5:00-8:00 p.m.

Categories
Art Exhibit M

Art Apprenticeship Offers Outlet for North Memphis Teens

CREDIT: Elle Perry

Elle Perry

Apprentice Ca’Terrya Hilson works on screen printing during an exhibition hosted by the Klondike/Smokey City Community Development Center.

Blocks away from Northside High School, girls aged 15 to 19 spent several months learning art and other skills from mentors at the Klondike/Smokey City Community Development Center in North Memphis.

The program began in March 2016. The next month, the number of girls went from eight to seven when a 15-year-old apprentice in the program died violently.

Mentor and visual artist Drea Powell said that the death was sobering to the girls. For some, it fueled them, while others wanted to retreat.

Creating art and journaling served as outlets for the girls. The work made them confront their feelings about their friend’s death and other issues they were facing.

Visual artist Brittney Bullock, who served as project lead, said she first developed a professional relationship with CDC Executive Director Quincey Morris while working at Crosstown Arts. Bullock then volunteered for the CDC and continued to attend the monthly neighborhood partnership meetings.

When the community engagement grant was offered Bullock asked Morris if the CDC would apply. Bullock said Morris initially said “no” because she had no one to manage the project. The two landed on the apprenticeship model after talking about their interests (Bullock’s in community engagement work and youth development and Morris’ in community development and providing resources).

Khara Woods, a local designer and photographer, served as a mentor to the participating girls.

“Watching them grow has been amazing,” Powell said.

Through the apprenticeship, the girls were paid a stipend and worked four hours on two Saturdays a month. The grant money ran out in September.

When they decided what to work on, the girls landed on screenprinting. They learned how to set up the entire process and work with different colors for prints.

Elle Perry

Apprentice Ca’Terrya Hilson hangs a screen printed piece to dry during an exhibition hosted by the Klondike/Smokey City Community Development Center.

A show and sale of the prints was held on October 29th at the CDC.

One piece reads “Reach for the stars” — a note of hope and possibility — and shows a chorus of hands reaching towards a group of stars. Another reads “Our Lives Matter,” a way for the girls to personalize the Black Lives Matter movement. A third reads “Fear – Violence = Peace.” Peace is represented by the peace sign, while violence is symbolized by a gun.

Throughout the CDC’s office are large sheets of white paper listing the skills the girls worked on during the camp, such as branding and product development. The lists were flanked by large prints of the girls and their mentors.

Part of the apprenticeship included the girls visiting the studios of professional, working artists to show that entrepreneurship and working as an artist could be a viable path.

The mentors even brought in their work and showed client receipts as part of that process, Powell said.

“Evidence was important,” she said. “To build trust and show it could happen.”

Sixteen-year-old Ca’Terrya Hilson applied for and was accepted to the program after hearing Bullock speak about the opportunity at the Boys & Girls Club.

Hilson said she had not previously worked with art, but found painting to be her favorite part of the experience.

She said that working the apprenticeship was a good experience because it allowed her to try something new and because, “I’m a quiet person and I learned how to communicate and talk to people.”

Morris said that she continues to follow up with the girls, to encourage them ib things such as taking their ACTs and applying to college.

Morris said with additional funding she would like to continue the program and expand it to more girls, and eventually boys.

Categories
Music Music Blog

Standing Rock Benefit at Midtown Crossing

Grace Askew

This Saturday night local musicians will donate all proceeds from a show to the friends and members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe fighting against Energy Transfer’s Dakota Access Pipeline.

Grace Askew, Ben Abney, Barbara Jenice, and Keedran “TNT” Franklin are all set to perform at Midtown Crossing Bar and Grill, with doors opening at 8 p.m. and a $10 (or larger) donation required for entry.  All money raised and 10% of restaurant sales will be donated to the effort.

”It’s about time Memphis had an event to stand for Standing Rock,” says Askew.” I am so honored to unite for our brothers and sisters protecting our water of life.”

Check out music from Grace Askew below.

Standing Rock Benefit at Midtown Crossing

Categories
Music Music Blog

Garth Brooks Announces Show at FedEx Forum

Garth Brooks.

Garth Brooks will return to Memphis for the first time in 19 years when he plays the FedEx Forum this February with Trisha Yearwood. The country music superstar’s world tour will stop in Memphis on Saturday, February 4th, and tickets to the event go on sale on Friday, December 2nd at 10 a.m..

Tickets are available through ticketmaster and the FedEx Forum website, but it is important to note that NO tickets will be on sale at the FedEx Forum box office the day the tickets are available.

Tickets are estimated to be around $75.00, check out videos from Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood below.  

Garth Brooks Announces Show at FedEx Forum

Garth Brooks Announces Show at FedEx Forum (2)

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News News Blog

TDOT: Westbound I-40 Lanes Open Wednesday

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has sent out an email notifying the public that all lanes of I-40 West that have been under construction will be opened Wednesday morning.

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Memphis-filmed drama Free In Deed Nominated for Four Independent Spirit Awards

Jake Mahaffy’s made-in-Memphis drama Free In Deed was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards today in an announcement ceremony in New York City.

Actor David Harewood was nominated for Best Male Lead alongside such other decorated thespians as Viggo Mortensen, Tim Roth, and Casey Affleck. A Best Supporting Female nomination went to Edwina Finley, who will compete with Paulia Garcia from Ira Sach’s film Little Men. Cinematographer Ava Berkofsky was also nominated, and director Mahaffy is nominated for the John Cassavettes Award for best film made for less than $500,000.

Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight got the most nominations with six. Memphian writer/director Ira Sach’s Little Men received a second nomination for Best Screenplay. Mid-South connected director Jeff Nichols received a Best Director nomination for Loving, and the film’s female lead Ruth Negga was also nominated.

After a successful debut at the recent Indie Memphis Film Festival Free In Deed will open theatrically in Memphis on Friday, December 9. The Independent Spirit Awards ceremony will take place the day before the Academy Awards, on Saturday, Feb. 25 on IFC.

Categories
News News Blog

Cohen: TVA Should Not Tap Aquifer

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) should cool its proposed, natural-gas-powered energy plant here with recycled waste water, not fresh water from the Memphis Sand Aquifir, according to Rep. Steve Cohen in a recent letter.

Cohen said the TVA should stick to its original plan to use waste water from Memphis Light Gas & Water to cool its plant, instead of pulling 3 million gallons of Memphis drinking water per day from the aquifer. Cohen called TVA’s new proposal “unprecedented.”

“The potential for increased pollution in the aquifer brought on by an increase in well-drilling and water-pumping has also been a matter of concern for residents and for leaders in the Tennessee environmental community,” Cohen said.

He said he’s in contact with TVA president Bill Johnson and TVA board members about the matter, not only about the move to tap the aquifer but also about the “the limited dissemination of public notice and lack of opportunity for public comment regarding TVA’s water usage decisions, and the potential for the degradation of the aquifer caused by well-drilling and water-pumping.”

Cohen said while the new energy plant could be an environmental and economic boon to Memphis, he hopes TVA will revert to its original plan to use waste water to cool it.

The TVA has three permits to drill wells into the aquifer already in-hand. Permits for the other two wells have been delayed as the Chickasaw Group of the Sierra Club asked for an appeal on them before the Shelby County Groundwater Control Board.

Here is Cohen’s letter in full:

Dear Mr. Strickland,

Thank you for contacting me to express your thoughts regarding the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) proposed use of water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer. Having been a Memphian for nearly my entire life, I understand what a precious resource the City of Memphis has in the Memphis Sand Aquifer. I appreciate your shared interest in this important issue.

As you may know, in April of 2011, the TVA entered into an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina, and three environmental advocacy groups, which requires the TVA to phase out older coal-fired plants by the year 2020 and to phase in cleaner, greener forms of energy.

Part of this agreement includes the reduction of carbon and sulfur dioxide emissions at the Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis. In order to achieve this reduction in harmful emissions, TVA has decided to invest more than $900 million in the City of Memphis to replace the Allen Fossil Plant’s coal-fired generators with a new natural gas plant (which will be named the “Allen Combined Cycle Plant”, or “Allen CC Plant”) that will provide Memphis and West Tennessee with cleaner, more affordable energy. I have commended TVA for its clean energy investment in Memphis, as well as for its commitment to reducing harmful emissions not only in our city but also across the entirety of its operating presence.

In April of 2016, TVA diverged from its originally-announced plans to utilize waste water to cool the new natural gas generators at the Allen CC Plant, and announced a decision to instead pursue the use of water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer. Many Memphians, including me, were concerned with this development—the prospect of TVA drawing in excess of 3,000,000 gallons of water each day from the aquifer is unprecedented. The potential for increased pollution in the aquifer brought on by an increase in well-drilling and water-pumping has also been a matter of concern for residents and for leaders in the Tennessee environmental community.

The Memphis and Shelby County Health Department, who have jurisdiction over well-drilling permits, have issued three permits to TVA to tap into the aquifer. TVA’s final two applications are on hold pending a hearing from the Shelby County Ground Water Quality Control Board.
Since issues concerning TVA’s pursuit of water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer were brought to my attention, I have remained in contact with TVA President Bill Johnson and with concerned Memphians and leaders of the Tennessee environmental community.

I have raised the concerns of 9th District residents—such as requests for clarification on TVA’s decision to pursue the use of fresh water as opposed to recycled waste water, the limited dissemination of public notice and lack of opportunity for public comment regarding TVA’s water usage decisions, and the potential for the degradation of the aquifer caused by well-drilling and water-pumping—with President Johnson and with the TVA Board of Directors, and will continue to do so.

The Allen CC Plant has the potential to serve as both an environmental and economic boon to Memphians, but I am committed to bringing the concerns of my constituency to the forefront as TVA and the City of Memphis move forward in completing the project. It is my hope that TVA will revert to their originally-proposed plans to utilize recycled waste water at the Allen CC Plant.

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me regarding this important matter. Please rest assured that I will keep your thoughts and concerns in mind as I continue to advocate for TVA to change their direction in this decision regarding our fresh water.

As always, I remain.
Most sincerely,
Steve Cohen
Member of Congress

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies 105, Hornets 90: Five in a Row

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

They’re fighting for post position, not preparing to hug.

Last night the Grizzlies played their most impressive half of basketball all season, followed by a tough defensive half when that offense started to wane, and came away with their fifth straight win, this time on the road over the tough-to-beat Charlotte Hornets. The Grizzlies scored 69 points in the first half—more than the Mavericks were able to score against them in an entire game on Friday night—and never let up as Charlotte, one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference this year, tried to mount a comeback. It was a culmination of a trend that started in the Grizzlies’ game at the Utah Jazz last week: clamping down on defense, moving the ball well on offense, getting good looks at the basket from long range and shooting well enough to capitalize on them.

The Grizzlies have now defeated the Jazz, Clippers, Mavericks, Timberwolves, and Hornets in consecutive games. Four of the five happened on the road. Chandler Parsons played in three of those games. Gasol and Conley, apparently operating without a minutes limit, carried the team in all of them. Here are some scattered thoughts about the game last night, about the win streak in general, and about where the Grizzlies are right now.

Five Notes for Five Wins

Larry Kuzniewski

Tony Allen (shown here against Minnesota Saturday) finally looks healthy, and has made a difference.

★ With Tony Allen back and healthy, the Grizzlies’ defense is much better. This seems obvious now, but the Grizzlies’ defense was the source of much consternation up until about a week ago. The new defensive scheme clearly gave the Grizzlies some difficulty, and still does at times, but with Allen back—and he certainly looks back, when he pretty clearly wasn’t right yet when he first took the floor this season—the issues that may still linger are much less apparent. Allen’s return has also coincided with a defensive renaissance from Marc Gasol, who is playing much better defense right now than he did at any point last year, and maybe the year before. It’s easy to forget that this is a guy who won Defensive Player of the Year. It’s also easy to forget how hard it is for opposing wings to even get the ball with Tony Allen is playing at or close to his peak. Welcome back, Grizzlies defense. We missed you.

★ Andrew Harrison has won the backup PG battle for now. At the beginning of the season, that seemed like and impossible thing for me to say by late November, and yet: Harrison’s defense has steadily ramped up, he’s starting to figure out (1) what to do with the ball on offense and (2) how to get to the foul line if all else fails, and Wade Baldwin went from DNP-CD to garbage time to being dispatched to the Iowa Energy to get some minutes there. Harrison is a shining example of the Grizzlies’ new-found focus on player development, even with all of the rough edges he still clearly has. Playing for the Energy last year, putting in the work with Fizdale all summer, being trusted to carry the workload when he clearly wasn’t quite up to it yet at the beginning of the season… by January, Harrison may be even better and we’ll put all of the “Grizzlies need a vet backup” talk to bed. At the very least, he’s already earned the benefit of the doubt.

★ Mike Conley has stepped up his game to match his paycheck. In the last five games, Conley has scored 30 points twice (against the Clippers and Hornets), has defended tenaciously, moved the ball well even when his shot wasn’t falling (let us never speak of that Mavericks game again), and done all of the things that Grizzlies fans hoped he would still be able to do when the team signed him to a max contract this summer. I’d still like to see Fizdale rest him a little more; his minutes have crept up as the winning streak has continued, as have Gasol’s. But Conley’s been great, and after the perpetually banged-up last couple of seasons he’s had, it’s good to see him in top form again.

★ Chandler Parsons can take his time getting right. The Grizzlies have shown they’re capable of beating good teams whether Parsons is on the floor or not. Now, I say this with a big caveat: James Ennis left the floor with a calf injury last night and didn’t come back, and if Ennis is down for any significant amount of time, Parsons becomes a lot more necessary. But with Parsons clearly not functioning at 100%, the Grizzlies have still been able to use him when he’s playing and survive without him when he’s not, and that’s encouraging. I didn’t even expect to have seen this much of Parsons yet, so I’m still treating any minutes he plays as a pleasant surprise, and the Grizzlies seem to be treating his situation the same way. Assuming he can play his way into form by Christmas or so, I don’t really see any reason to worry about Parsons yet.

Larry Kuzniewski

★ David Fizdale knows what he’s doing. That’s not to say he hasn’t made any mistakes, but for the most part, the Fizdale Era has brought a new focus, a new energy, and a new sense of unity and motivation to a Grizzlies team that was clearly (in hindsight) not firing on all cylinders for the last 18 months or so. That’s not to say that all of the blame lies at the feet of Dave Joerger, or that Fizdale is the only reason things are turning around; health of key players, organizational philosophies, and changes to the roster itself have all played a major role in the transformation. But Fizdale certainly brought with him a new sense of togetherness, of relaxed intensity, and of authenticity in communication that has resonated with the Grizzlies’ players in important ways. Moving Zach Randolph to the bench without starting a mutiny, moving Gasol behind the three point line, running an offense that generates great looks for guys who can shoot, trusting the young players to carry the team (whether that’s Harrison for big minutes or Deyonta Davis for small minutes, or even starting James Ennis instead of Vince Carter)—all of these are coaching matters, and Fizdale has excelled at them. I was excited about the hire when it happened, and even more excited when I got to sit down and talk to the guy earlier in the preseason. But now… is it to early to call him a coach of the year candidate?

Up Next

The Grizzlies are busy over the Thanksgiving holiday, with a game in Philadelphia on Wednesday night, followed by a home-and-home back to back with Miami that sees them play in Memphis Friday night and Miami (for Fizdale’s big homecoming against his mentors Spoelstra and Riley) Saturday night. Miami is really struggling this year, and despite their trust in Joel “The Process” Embiid, the Sixers are still very much a young team with little consistency from night to night, so this is a stretch of the schedule where the Grizzlies should do well and also maybe get some rest for Conley and Gasol. After all, there’s still a great deal of basketball to be played.