Month: December 2016

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

New Destination

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Memphians are facing a public transit crisis.

Ask anyone who relies on our bus system to get to work or school or uses it to run routine errands, and they’ll tell you the same thing: Buses are unreliable, the rides are too long, and, in many cases, their routes are nonsensical. Riders from neighborhoods that were previously served by routes like the 31 Crosstown now find themselves without a dedicated bus route, which means a long walk to the closest bus stop and an even longer ride to their destination. Routes to major employment centers are basically nonexistent from these neighborhoods, furthering the economic segregation that, you guessed it, intersects with race: Black Memphians in particular make up 90 percent of bus riders, and over 30 percent of these Memphians live in poverty. The median annual income of workers who use public transit is just over $16,000, and transportation expenses consume 27 percent of their median household income.

Memphis Area Transit Authority CEO Ron Garrison agrees that there is a public transit crisis. In separate columns in The Commercial Appeal and The Memphis Flyer, Garrison painted a dire picture of MATA’s ongoing financial state. According to his most recent column, MATA is underfunded by more than $20 million in comparison to peer cities’ transit systems, due in large part to decreased ridership and targeted budget cuts during Mayor A C Wharton’s tenure. Garrison acknowledges that these factors have forced MATA to make some tough decisions — such as consolidating the routes of the 31 Crosstown, 43 Elvis Presley, and 10 Watkins into the new 42 Crosstown route — that have further impacted ridership and increased ill will between MATA and bus riders. Garrison’s Flyer column ends with the MATA CEO imploring riders and other concerned citizens to contact their elected officials and ask that they give more consideration to MATA’s funding issues.

Justin Fox Burks

Members of the Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU), an advocacy group of bus riders founded by “Mother” Georgia A. King, will point out instances where previous significant funding awards were dedicated to reinstating the downtown trolley system instead of restoring key services to underserved neighborhoods and increasing the overall effectiveness of routes outside of downtown. Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 713, who have partnered with the MBRU, agree. In his Commercial Appeal column, Garrison identifies the restarting of the trolleys as an important goal for future MATA operations. MBRU members are long past disappointment at these statements, instead attributing the seeming dismissal of their concerns to a longstanding philosophy that prioritizes the concerns of business-minded developers over those of everyday citizens.

The Memphis Bus Riders Union has called the 31 Crosstown “a lifeline” for thousands of Memphians who often could not afford the cost or upkeep of a vehicle and lived in segregation far from their jobs or schools. MATA employees credit the 2012 Short Range Transit Plan (SRTP), conducted by Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, as key to their decision to consolidate old routes into the new 42 Crosstown route. The SRTP did indeed call for consolidation of routes that used the same thoroughfares. It also positioned downtown Memphis as MATA’s strongest market for riders, criticized circuitous neighborhood routes, and identified MATA’s current funding woes vis-à-vis cities with similar populations and transit system considerations. But the SRTP also cited North Memphis, South Memphis, and Frayser as rapidly increasing transit use neighborhoods and advised MATA about the necessity of broad geographic coverage for riders.

I am a former bus rider. My first time catching the 31 Crosstown bus was when I was 8 years old: I rode it to school. In times when my family didn’t have a car, we relied on it to get to work and run household errands, like buying groceries and paying bills. I caught the 31 Crosstown at a stop on the corner of Firestone and Tully — a stop that does not exist on the 42 Crosstown’s current route. My ride on the 31 Crosstown would end at the intersection of Vollintine and Watkins, where I would then cross both streets to catch the 10 Watkins to Delano Elementary School. If I had to catch the current bus, the 42 Crosstown, I would have to find some way to get to the Vollintine and Watkins stop, the closest stop on the 42 Crosstown’s route to my home in North Memphis. If I were a student trying to get to Manassas High School from New Chicago, which my younger brother currently does, I would have to walk a mile down Firestone, a street full of industrial blight with few safe crosswalks or sidewalks. Students of the former Northside High School who have been re-zoned to Manassas face an even longer walk to their new school.

The increased difficulty of student access has undoubtedly led to closures of historic neighborhood schools like Northside and Booker T. Washington. People who live in the neighborhood now called Uptown have no real route out of their community and into employment or shopping districts of the city. I imagine that the same reality exists for residents of the Riverview-Kansas neighborhood that bookended the southern end of the 31 Crosstown’s route. Reinstating the former routes or creating new routes that more adequately serve neighborhood residents would be a start to fixing this. Investing funding toward repairing these routes in addition to repairing the trolleys would work as well.

Memphis cannot continue to provide inadequate transit services to its riders. Our ineffecient, underfunded transit system contributes to the massive economic and racial segregation that affects countless citizens in this city, and we continue that segregation to our own detriment. According to a 2015 report from the American Public Transportation Association, every dollar we spend on a safe, effective public transit system can generate $4 in economic returns. Public transit drives the local economy and directly generates business sales, revenues and new private investment through ridership expansion and an increasingly mobile workforce.

Memphis is enjoying a period of exciting growth right now, but continued equitable development depends on a strong, reliable public transit system that adequately serves all citizens. As is the case with so many other public concerns, true change in this area will require work from everyone, not just those concerned or an affected few.

Troy L. Wiggins is a Memphian and writer whose work has appeared in the Memphis Noir anthology and Make Memphis magazine.

Categories
Food & Drink Food Reviews

Up the Stairs to Bari’s Intimate Dodici

CREDIT: Courtesy of Vincent Hale

Imagine being led up a dark stairwell by a man of small stature with only a few candles to light your way, unsure of what awaits you at the landing above. Is this one of those Game of Thrones nightmares? Not in my case. The man of small stature was not Tyrion Lannister, but Matteo Severs, age 9. What awaited me at the top of the candle-lit stairwell was not death or any sort of mutilation (or marriage, for that matter), but a delicious cocktail. Welcome to Dodici, the heavily spirited, super-secret speakeasy from Bari Ristorante.

Dodici is the latest dream-come-true from Jason and Rebecca Severs (parents of aforementioned maître d’ Matteo), the owners behind Bari at 22 S. Cooper in Overton Square. Formerly an artist’s studio, the upstairs space has been transformed into a cozy, luxurious bar with delectable, carefully crafted cocktails from mixologist/magician (mixomagician?) Vincent Hale.

Calling them cocktails is hardly fair to the drinks, as they are truly works of art. Dodici is the Italian word for 12, the amount of people Dodici can seat. “We named it that to convey the intimacy of the space,” Rebecca Severs says. “It’s still Bari, but we added a room and wanted to give it a name.”

If it sounds exclusive, it is. But this is not a snobby place. Vince welcomes each patron with lively chatter and an in-depth description of each cocktail that is ordered. He handmakes nearly everything, from the ice to the bitters to the syrups. Each liquor is selected by Vince himself, and it is likely something you’ve never heard of. And if you and I have never heard of it, that’s pretty much a guarantee that your in-laws from Collierville won’t infiltrate this place. “When Vince came on board, we quickly realized he has such a unique and clever mind for mixology,” Rebecca says. He doesn’t disappoint.

Dodici is accessible from a “secret door” inside the Bari enoteca (loosely translated, that’s “wine library”). If Dodici is full, you are invited to stay at the enoteca downstairs until a spot upstairs is available. Once upstairs, you take your pick of velvety armchairs or a barstool at the handmade bar (also courtesy of Vince). If you’re lucky, Matteo himself will escort you.

On the menu, Vincent has included an “amaro rapido.” He describes it as a new style of mixing a drink. It translates to “rapid bitters,” and he builds the bitters in front of the patrons. Atop the bar he has several dishes of spices, barks, and seeds, including cinnamon, Angelica, cardamom, and even beet powder, for color and sweetness. Most bitters take months to sit and stew, but Vince’s bitters come together in front of you. “It’s much more aggressive,” Vince says. “Built quickly, you taste every little nuance; it’s much more active.”

The rapid bitters is ground up and mixed with gin and bourbon, double-strained into a coupe glass, and garnished with a sage leaf. “The bar is almost like an apothecary at this point. I can base a drink on a person’s palate and build to suit,” Vince says.

He’s also making a drink from aquavit, a Scandinavian spirit not offered in Tennessee. Because he is handmaking the aquavit, each batch will be different from the last. Similar to gin, it is driven by dill and caraway and backed by autumn spices and barks before being mixed with sugar and absinthe. “You can’t taste it anywhere else in the world,” Vince says. He is affable and funny and there are no dumb questions when Vince is behind the bar, which bodes well for someone who had no clue what aquavit was until he told me. (Now I feel all fancy!)

Dodici will stay open later than Bari’s downstairs bar, meaning that anyone arriving after closing time will have to be let in by Vince. This will probably eventually be done by phone or callbox, so bear with them while they work it out. The good news is, you can enjoy amazing craft cocktails until the wee hours, as long as Vince is willing to let you hang out. Dodici is open on Friday and Saturday nights at 5 p.m. It’s available for rental for private parties. The bar will begin offering meats and cheese plates within the next couple of weeks. Cocktails range between $14 and $15.

Categories
News News Blog

University of Memphis Professor Develops Algorithm to Increase Router Speed

University of Memphis Professor Lan Wang has received a patent for developing an algorithm that will increase router speed without upgrading the router.

The algorithm compresses a router’s forwarding information base (FIB), allowing it to occupy less storage space while making updating speeds more efficient. The invention will allow for 50 percent compression at a speed 50 percent faster than current options. With a software update, current and new routers can be upgraded. It will lower costs for internet service providers, who are forced to continuously replace routers, Wang said.

“The internet relies on routers to forward its traffic,” Wang said. “As the internet grows, routers need to maintain more forwarding information. The fast growth of routers’ Forwarding Information Base is a major concern for Internet service providers (ISP) as it is costly for them to upgrade routers. Our solution, FIB aggregation, reduces the FIB size considerably by merging multiple FIB entries into one, thus extending the lifetime of routers and potentially leading to huge savings for ISP’s.”

The patent is shared among four inventors: Beichuan Zhang of the University of Arizona; Xin Zhao, previously a graduate student under Zhang, now employed at Google; and Yaoqing Liu, a U of M graduate who studied under Wang, now employed at Clarkson University.

Categories
News News Blog

Thousands Visit Big River Crossing

CREDIT: DCA

DCA

More than 66,000 have streamed across Big River Crossing (BRX) since it opened in late October, officials said Thursday.

BRX is a pedestrian and bicycle path that crosses the Mississippi River. The roughly one-mile span is attached to the Harahan Bridge. Officials say it is the longest public pedestrian bridge across the Mississippi River. BRX opened on Saturday, Oct. 22.

“As the longest public pedestrian bridge across the Mississippi River, Big River Crossing attracts international tourism attention while impacting local affinity for the riverfront,” said Kevin Kane, President of the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau (MCVB).

About 70 percent of BRX visitors have been from Memphis, according to numbers released from DCA, the public relations firm that handles publicity for the BRX project. the other 30 percent of visitors were from West Memphis, Ark. Most of the visitors, about 85 percent, were pedestrians, the rest were cyclists.

More visitors crossed BRX on Thanksgiving weekend than any other weekend since it opened.

“We predict that seasonality will have a large impact on traffic,” said Jim Jackson, incoming executive director of the West Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau. “Holidays have a positive influence on numbers, and we expect events such as the Liberty Bowl to similarly attract a large crowd.”

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

La La Land

The medium is the message,” said Marshall McLuhan in 1964. There is no separating the meaning of a work of art (or journalism or anything) from the way the information is delivered. TV news, for example, must first teach you how to watch TV news before it can impart any other meaning. A film may be about war, or love, or death, but first and foremost, it’s about the act of watching a film.

Movie musicals are the perfect example. Made in the earliest years of the transition from silent to talking pictures, 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, and Footlight Parade are all musicals about people trying to make careers in Broadway musicals. 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain, frequently cited as the greatest movie musical ever made, is a musical about people trying to make musicals during the transition from silent to talking pictures. The last musical to win a Best Picture Oscar, 2002’s Chicago, is a musical about people trying to make it in musical theater. Guess what director Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, which stands a strong chance of being the next musical to win a Best Picture Oscar, is about?

Emma Sone and Ryan Gosling star in Damien Chazelle’s La La Land.

I say this not to denigrate La La Land, but to put it into perspective. Professional movie grousers like myself are always going on about the loss of Old Hollywood craftsmanship. Chazelle has apparently decided to stop grousing and do something about it, using the musical as his medium. La La Land transports the tropes of classic Hollywood musicals to 2016, and it’s a perfect fit.

What was better about old school musicals? West Side Story (1961), for example, was fairly conventional in its non-singing parts, but when the music started, the singing and dancing was shot in long takes, with the camera pulled back to reveal the dancers’ entire bodies and the grace of their movement through the stage-inspired sets. When the music starts in Moulin Rouge! (2001), on the other hand, the cuts get quicker and more random, a jumble of close-ups and medium shots meant to create the illusion that Nicole Kidman could dance like Rita Moreno. From the dazzling opening sequence of La La Land, Chazelle puts himself squarely on the side of West Side Story. When we first meet our protagonists, Mia (Emma Stone) and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling), they’re stuck in traffic on Los Angeles’ infamous I-405, oblivious to the intricately choreographed mass of commuters around them singing “Another Day of Sun.” Cinematographer Linus Sandgren’s camera swoops and dives, but the focus is always on the dancers’ athleticism.

The sequence sets the tone for the film. Chazelle has a knack for finding beauty in the mundane details of Los Angeles. Palm trees become pillars of light and shadow, backyard pool parties are riots of dappled color, and, in one of the most dazzling sequences of the decade, Chazelle uses an actual L.A. sunset as a backdrop for Stone and Gosling’s first dance together.

Mia and Sebastian are both trying to make it in showbiz. Mia is an aspiring actress working as a barista in a studio backlot coffee shop, while Sebastian is a keyboardist obsessed with jazz who dreams of owning his own club. But it’s hard out there in La La Land. Mia’s stuck in a loop of humiliating auditions for indifferent casting agents, while Sebastian scrapes out a living playing Christmas carols in a piano bar — at least until he’s fired by J.K. Simmons in a sly reference to Chazelle’s last film, 2014’s Whiplash.

Stone and Gosling can’t live up to the standards of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers — who could, really? — but they more than make up for any shortcomings when they’re not singing and dancing. From the moment she glimpses his shabby convertible out the window of her Prius, you’re instantly rooting for them. This is their third pairing as an onscreen couple, and they have chemistry to spare. It’s the careful balance between the emotional realism of the acting and the sheer technical audacity of the musical numbers that elevates the movie into the realm of greatness even before Chazelle rips out your heart with the extended, bittersweet coda. In a year defined by sadness and loss, La La Land provides a much-needed injection of joy.

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

Man of Tomorrow: Q&A with Annie Lyricist Martin Charnin

CREDIT: Joan Marcus

Joan Marcus

Annie

Martin Charnin‘s Broadway career got of to an auspicious start when he sang and danced his way through more than 1000 performances of West Side Story. And, even if you aren’t a Broadway aficionado and don’t  recognize the name, chances are you probably know some of the lyrics he wrote for Annie, a show he also directed on Broadway in 1977. Charnin additionally directed the Annie revival currently on stage at the Orpheum. Intermission Impossible talked to him about spending a life in the theater, and the last 40-years with America’s favorite orphan.

Intermission Impossible: Annie‘s 40-years-old.

Martin Charnin: It will be, absolutely. 40 years.

II: And you’ve been with it from the beginning. How many productions have you directed?

MC: Aside from the original that I directed on Broadway, I did it three times in revivals on Broadway. And about sixteen other productions. Road companies, London, Amsterdam, Australia. And Regional theater things and tours.

Man of Tomorrow: Q&A with Annie Lyricist Martin Charnin (2)


II: That makes you the foremost authority on all things Daddy Warbucks.

MC: At this time probably yes.

II: I’m always interested in how shows travel through time. And in this case we’re talking about a character that precedes the show by another 40-years at least. So Little Orphan Annie is created during the Great Depression. Annie opens on Broadway in 1977 when America’s struggling with recession, an energy crisis, no jobs, inflation. Now your revival’s coming to the Orpheum at a moment of extreme political and economic uncertainty. Tell me about the life of this billionaire able to access the power of the US government in ways no ordinary citizen might, and the orphan who always seems to show up when things are dark and gloomy/

MC: The concept of this show is universal. One of the things we discovered, particularly in this production, is that it is extremely relevant. And that relevance surfaces in different dosages every time it’s done depending on where the country’s psyche happens to be. We haven’t changed anything. I’m often asked, “When did you rewrite the show to make it appropriate and fitting for the time.” And the answer I always give is, ‘We have not changed anything.’ From a physical standpoint we have. Every time you cast it you change it because different actors will have different attitudes. But the text and musical content hasn’t changed since 1977. We wrote it with an eye for what we were all really feeling, and conflicted about, and angry about, and disappointed about in the 70’s. That cycle comes around and for whatever reason we always need that moment of reassurance — that tap on the shoulder that says, no matter how awful everything is right now it’s going to get better. That’s one of the underlying messages of the play that’s resonated certainly for the last 40-years and my instinct is it will resonate for the next 40 as well.

II: Unfortunately—  or maybe fortunately — I think you’re right.

MC: But one of the things that make it fun and interesting is how audiences respond to it, and that thrills me and keeps it exciting for me. An audience makes a very important contribution to a show. They’re the final part of the puzzle. When that response is good, and in some cases overpowering, it’s a wonderful thing to feel and see.

II: Let’s talk about you for a minute.

MC: Okay.

Man of Tomorrow: Q&A with Annie Lyricist Martin Charnin (3)


II: You really get your start working on Broadway in the original production of West Side Story.

MC: I was a performer at the very beginning of my theatrical career.

II: For someone who wasn’t going to be content just being an actor, this was an opportunity to work with one of the most extraordinary creative teams ever assembled.

MC: I was very fortunate to be attached to that quartet of individuals. Sondheim, Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Jerry Robbins, especially. It was like boot camp. And the only time those four ever collaborated. They never did anything together again. And I paid a lot of attention to the things each one of them were doing. It was quite exciting to watch Jerry Robbins at the top of his form putting the detail work of West Side together. That has resonated with me all my life.
II: That was the first thing that occurred to me when I was prepping for this interview. How could that not set the bar very high?

MC: Also a really interesting time as far as theater was concerned. It was going through profound changes. West Side happened, point of fact it was miles ahead of its time. To the point that it really makes good sense, but wen it opened it was kind of an anomaly. They’d taken major steps with Rodgers and Hammerstein in the 40’s, when they created Oklahoma and started bringing in that kind of writing. But there were still a lot of song and dance shows on Broadway where the book kind of mattered. My Fair Lady happened the year before. Music Man won 95-percent of the Tony Awards given in the year West Side Story opened.

Man of Tomorrow: Q&A with Annie Lyricist Martin Charnin

II: It produces so many songs that have become standards. Which brings us back to Annie. Because you have a few of those too. “Tomorrow” is inescapable — so many people have performed it. Jay Z borrowed “Hard Knock Life.” Is there one version out there you have a special affinity for?

MC: I love them all, but the fun of listening to “Tomorrow” is how many different ways it’s constantly reinterpreted. It has a life of its own and has become one of the great iconic musical theater moments. I didn’t set out to make that happen, but it did. And we were all really pleased when, last year, it was named one of the 100 most sung songs of the last hundred years. It also turns up in interesting ways in some very odd locations. And that’s the fun of it. And why its life is so expansive. It’s done in commercials. But it’s in and of itself what Annie’s all about. It’s her attitude toward life.

II: Has it ever surprised you? You agree to let it be used, then you hear it and find it really effective. Or not.

MC: Occasionally it turns up where you least expected it. A bank using it — “You’ll be able to get your loan. Tomorrow.” Things like that. I rarely let that happen because I want to protect the integrity of the song. Right now it’s being used for a heart medication that’s apparently revolutionized one aspect of how heart medications are used.

II: I’ve seen and written about the show several times. And I’m always struck by one change in Annie’s translation to the stage. FDR’s such a pivotal and heroic character. But Annie’s creator, Harold Gray, hated FDR. I think he even killed off the strip for a while to protest Roosevelt’s reelection.

MC: He was a staunch conservative and had a big problem with FDR. But in order for us to make the points we wanted to make, we tempered that attitude he had. We reconciled the two of them for the two hours the play goes on.

II: Was it difficult to make that change?

MC: It wasn’t a struggle once we decided to do it. The reconciliation part is extremely important in the world. You have to make compromises. Particularly in politics in order to get anything done.

II: You’ve got several projects brewing, can we talk about some of that?

MC: Two things going right now that are kind of fun. In 1992 we did a sequel to Annie which didn’t work at first called Annie 2. But we revised it, called it Annie Warbucks, and did it again Off-Broadway. Because of a snowstorm that blanketed New York we had to close after 8-months. All of a sudden it’s become inspirational and we’re moving toward the possibility of making that happen on Broadway. I’m also involved in a stirring and interesting musical with two young writers, about Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who went to Nazi Germany in the 40’s and was responsible for saving the lives of 100,000 Jews as the. I rather am attracted to subject matter that is relatively important and not frivolous. And Wallenberg is certainly not frivolous.

Categories
Blurb Books

Going to Jackson: James Cherry to Discuss and Sign His New Novel

Let’s not forget our neighbors to the east. This Saturday at ComeUnity Café in Jackson, Tennessee, author James E. Cherry will be reading from, discussing, and signing his latest novel, Edge of the Wind. The Clyde Gilmore Jazz Combo will perform and refreshments will be served. 

In the highly suspenseful Edge of the Wind (Stephen F. Austin State University Press), Alexander van der Pool, a sensitive but deeply troubled 25-year-old black man, is off his meds and has begun hearing voices, especially that of Bigger Thomas, Richard Wright’s iconic character. Having been holed up in his sister’s bedroom in southwest Tennessee for two months, Alex has done nothing but read and write poetry. He is convinced that writing poetry is his life’s calling and sets out to visit a local community college to have his work evaluated. But life takes a terrible turn when those at the college reject him and his work and try to kick him out. Alex takes matters into his own hands and holds the literature class hostage.

 

Noted poet Nikki Giovanni has said of Cherry: “Let me say it plain: James E. Cherry can write.”       

And local author Arthur Flowers says, “Cherry is a master of the word, providing light in darkness, dropping knowledge and taking no prisoners.”

 

Cherry is the author of six books, including Loose Change, Still a Man and Other Stories, Shadow of Light, and Bending the Blues. He has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award, a Lillian Smith Book Award, and as a finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award for Fiction. His work has been published nationally as well as in Nigeria, Canada, France, and China. Cherry has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Texas at El Paso and resides in Tennessee with his wife, Tammy.

 

James E. Cherry

ComeUnity Café

218 E. Main Street

(Jackson, Tennessee)

Saturday, Dec. 17th

1 p.m.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Kelsey, Harris: Bipartisan Effort on Aquifer Issue

“There’s no point in trading bad air to get bad water.”

That was a comment made this past weekend by state Senator Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) in support of his intention to make common cause with fellow state Senator Lee Harris (D-Memphis). The two legislators — one an ideological Republican of the hard right, the other a self-professed progressive and the leader of his party in the Senate — agree on very little, but they share a concern about the impact of five proposed Tennessee Valley Authoirity wells being drilled into Memphis’ Sand aquifer.

Brian Kelsey and Lee Harris

Although it wasn’t immediately obvious just how the aquifer issue could be affected at the state legislative level — a fact granted by both Kelsey and Harris — the prospect of a bully-pulpit effort across political lines could not fail to hearten the sizable (and growing) corps of environmentally conscious citizens opposing TVA’s drilling plans.

Technically the issue has already been resolved in TVA’s favor, as the result of a hearing two weeks ago by the Shelby County Water Quality Health Board affirming the authority’s right to drill the final two wells of the five it envisions in order to acquire a supply of water for coolant purposes at its forthcoming natural-gas power plant on Presidents Island. In 2018, that plant is scheduled to replace TVA’s current coal-burning plant (the source of the “bad air” mentioned by Kelsey).

Scott Banbury, conservation program coordinator for the Sierra Club in Tennessee, had filed an appeal with the board in September to block the two wells after learning that permits for the first three proposed wells had already been granted by the Shelby County Health Department and that a 15-day period for appealing them had already passed. Contending that there had been no public notice of those wells, he resolved to act on the final two, which were still eligible for appeal.

Virtually overnight, a sizeable movement under the name of Protect the Aquifer and led by Memphis advertising executive Ward Archer, sprang up to back Banbury’s appeal. The group held several public-information sessions and turned up en masse for the appeal, held November 30th.

But the appellant group saw themselves impeded by procedural rules preventing them from presenting their expert witnesses but allowing TVA ample scope for its own experts. They felt hampered too by the hearing’s focus on checklist matters rather than the specific issues raised by the environmentalist coalition — namely, that the Memphis area’s long-treasured supply of pure drinking water might be endangered in numerous ways by the intrusion of the TVA wells.

The appellants pointed out that TVA itself had first proposed to use treated water from the nearby Maxson wastewater plant as its coolant agent but had discarded that plan as overly expensive and had not considered another option, that of using water from the Mississippi River’s alluvial aquifer. Drilling into Memphis’ Sand aquifer, they said, meant risking the seepage into it of polluted water through unstable adjacent clay layers.

The board, however, citing the adherence by TVA and the health department to the aforementioned checklist procedures, turned down the appeal, leaving opponents two further options — appealing to Chancery Court and petitioning the Shelby County Commission to alter the rules governing permits for future drilling into the aquifer.

Add to that whatever other options might come from what both Kelsey and Harris see as a bipartisan coalition to raise public consciousness on environmental consequences of the TVA drilling and to explore alternative procedures — both short- and long-term — for vetting water issues. In an interview with Channel 24, broadcast on Sunday, Democrat Harris made public his partnership with Kelsey on the matter and declared, “We have to say that some things are sacred, and our water supply is one of them.”

• Youthful activists from all across America turned up in Memphis over the weekend for the annual Young Democrats of America Winter Conference, hosted this year by the Tennessee Young Democrats. As a bonus, they got a first-hand look at U.S. Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN), who is regarded as the front-runner to become the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Ellison, a diminutive fireplug of a man, had previously impressed Tennesseans at this year’s Democratic convention in Cleveland with a breakfast address to a joint meeting of the Tennesse and Minnesota delegations, and the rousing remarks he delivered on Friday night at the conference’s welcome reception at Bluefin Restaurant on South Main did not disappoint the gathered Young Democrats and a sizeable group of local attendees.

Introduced by Tennessee Young Democrat president London Lamar of Memphis and by Louis Elrod of Atlanta, president of the Young Democrats of America, Ellison called for an “all-hands-on-deck moment” and for a “24/7, 365-days-a-year” effort to revitalize Democratic Party efforts. “As bad as you may have felt on election day, you can feel just that good in 2018, if we get out and organize right now,” he said to the assembled YDs. He likened them to “the young people who fought the civil rights movement” and told them that they and “no chair, no big shot from Washington” would determine the shape of the future.

“What we really need is solidarity,” he said. “Men for women, straights for gays, and all working together for economic justice and for ‘our revolution.'”

Ellison confirmed reports that he had decided, if elected DNC chair, to relinquish his Congressional seat in order to devote full time to DNC leadership efforts.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies 93, Cavaliers 85: Obligatory Basketball Content

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

Marc Gasol rested at Cleveland and only needed to play 28 minutes at home.

For a writer like me, more of an “alt-weekly basketball critic” than anything else, games like the one last night, in which the Grizzlies beat the under-manned Cleveland Cavaliers 93-85 one night after the Cavs did the same to an equally rest-weakened Grizzlies squad in Cleveland, present a bit of a challenge. There’s a term for these games, even: the “schedule loss,” a game in which the tyranny of the overloaded NBA schedule determines that one team just isn’t going to be up to snuff for whatever reason.

The Sports Industrial Complex would like for you to pretend that these games don’t happen, that every one is a hard-fought waypoint on a team’s Journey of Destiny, and for people like me to keep churning out previews and recaps and player grades and social media content like there was any way this home-and-home between teams from different conferences in mid-December was going to have any other outcome. In an industry that thrives on (1) narrative and (2) endless analysis of the games and other peoples’ analysis thereof, it can be a little crazy to sit in the media section wondering whether to watch the game or read this cool blog post about Stanley Elkin, because only one of those things was actually worth paying attention to last night.

Back-to-backs are stupid, and everyone knows they’re stupid, and the only reason the NBA plays them is because it was originally created in the Forties to fill hockey arenas on off nights, and there are a lot of off nights. No one (except maybe former players, who seem to hate any deviation from The Way We’ve Always Done Things) actually thinks the NBA should have them—but if you take the season down to 65 games, teams lose money on gate revenue, and there are fewer Units of Sports Content for ESPN and TNT to show on their cable networks, so TV revenue probably falls too. And so they remain, and probably always will, even as the league looks for a way to make the season run ten months of the year to avoid them instead of the “obvious” solution (to someone not concerned with the bottom line) of just chopping some games off the schedule.

So there I was, caught between a review of Elkin’s Pieces of Soap and a basketball game that was barely worth playing because the Cavs’ three best players stayed in Ohio. Not that I judge them for that; rest is the right policy in this situation, especially given that Marc Gasol stayed home from the Memphis trip to Cleveland the night before. But it does make you wonder: why do we do this to ourselves, other than money? Wouldn’t it have been the same outcome if the Grizzlies had just forfeited the game in Cleveland and the Cavs reciprocated by forfeiting the Memphis game, coming out even, sparing Deyonta Davis from his apparent plantar fasciitis flare-up, and saving everyone on jet fuel and resting thirty players instead of four or five?

Instead, I found little things to talk about, because if I’m not Generating Premium Sports Content, I have failed the system entirely, which requires that each of us microanalyze games that are shown to be meaningless by the fact that the best player(s) on each team weren’t even in the same state when it happened.

Game Notes, Such As They Are

Larry Kuzniewski

Tony Allen tied his career record for field goal attempts with 17 last night.

★ It’s not often that Tony Allen takes 17 shots in a game. It’s probably even less likely in a game that the Grizzlies actually won. As David Fizdale pointed out after last night’s win, if Allen had made all of the layups and point-blank looks he got last night, he probably would’ve scored 25 points. Allen always steps up his offense when the team is depleted. He was great on both ends of the floor in the Warriors game Saturday night. Rumors of his demise are greatly exaggerated, even as he gambles even more on defense. Marc Gasol is playing at an MVP level right now and can cover for him.

★ Wade Baldwin can’t get on the floor in blowouts. I’m not sure if Fizdale is a little over-reliant on Toney Douglas because he desperately needs wins while Conley is out or if Baldwin, who has just been flat-out bad for a few weeks now, is such a liability that he can’t stay on the floor long enough. I hope it’s the former, and that Baldwin will see some floor time soon, before it stunts his development in true Grizzlies form. But if he’s really that bad, well, that’s not a good sign.

★ Bad Andrew Harrison was really bad Speaking of rookies playing badly, Andrew Harrison was terrible at just about every possible opportunity last night. He managed to be -12 in a blowout win. Everything he did was the wrong thing. Rookies have those kinds of nights sometimes, but it was excruciating to watch Harrison slowly maneuver himself into terrible situations last night. Be better, my dude.

Up Next

Friday night should be fun. This game may have been over before it even started, but Friday night Dave Joerger returns to town with his discombobulated Kings squad and I would bet more than one Grizzly has a mind to set a career scoring mark against them. I mostly hope Gasol goes 15 of 16 from three. The Kings are a team that the Grizzlies should beat, even given their injury situation. And maybe let’s go back to vehemently disliking Matt Barnes, okay, Grizzlies fans?

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

A Brief History of Midtown Kroger

My wife and I live on Idlewild Street, very near the new Midtown Kroger, so near, in fact, that Tom Brady could probably throw a football from our backyard into the parking lot. He’d have to clear a couple other backyards and some tall trees, but I believe he could do it.

Given our proximity, we have watched with great interest — and no small amount of trepidation — the process of demolition and construction that has transpired on Union as the Taj Mahal Kroger has come into being.

Our street, despite its connection to one of the city’s main thoroughfares, has always been a quiet one. There are only nine houses on the block. I know the names of all our neighbors, and the names of their kids. They ride bikes and play basketball in the street.

We all feared the new Kroger might mean the loss of our little enclave, especially when we learned another development was planned for the nearby corner of McLean and Union. This precipitated what came to be known “gate-gate” on nextdoor.com. It began with a proposal from McLean developer Ron Belz to gate South Idlewild (his childhood street) from Union. As residents of Idlewild, we thought, “Hell, yes!” Other neighbors were not so enthusiastic; in fact, they hated the idea, which I understand. After much back and forth, a compromise was reached. (Or, as my attorney wife says, “If you want a kitten, ask for a pony.”) It was agreed (and approved by city council) that Idlewild would be one-way north, which would theoretically prevent traffic leaving the new Kroger from using our street. Theoretically.

Then we watched as cranes and wrecking balls ate the old apartment tower and as a new temporary lot was constructed to service the old store. When construction on the new store began, we endured months of loud booms, and jackhammers, and literally earth-shaking pounding. Dust coated our outside window sills. The only consolation was that there was absolutely no traffic on our street.

Then came the opening of the glorious new Kroger, and possibly the largest traffic fustercluck in the history of Midtown. Getting a parking place at Midtown Kroger was like winning the lottery. People were coming from all over — tourists from Bartlett and Southaven, and probably from Switzerland and Romania. City traffic personnel were brought in to direct cars in and out of the lot. Both sides of our street were filled with the parked cars of Kroger shoppers. Grocery carts were left on our sidewalks. Worst of all, hundreds of people just ignored the one-way signs (and red lights and stanchions half-way across the street) and drove south on Idlewild.

Yelling “WRONG WAY” at cars became the neighborhood mantra. At first, if you stopped someone and gently told them they were going the wrong way, they’d look embarrassed and surprised and say “Oops, sorry.” Then they started doing it on purpose, and began speeding up the street to avoid being caught. They no longer said “Sorry” when accosted. They said “Bite me,” or worse. It was the wild west on Idlewild.

But after complaints were made to MPD, everything changed. Officers parked on the street every day and began issuing tickets, dozens of tickets. The city of Memphis had to have made thousands of dollars nailing Kroger scofflaws. We residents took to going outside and high-fiving each other and taking photos of the violaters meekly accepting their tickets. Revenge was sweet.

And now? Knock on wood, things finally appear to be normalizing. You can find parking in the Kroger lot most of the time, and Idlewild is calm again, with only the occasional evil-doer driving the wrong way. The new Kroger is a grand and cavernous store with lovely windows that showcase the beautiful Idlewild Presbyterian Church across the street. And there appears, at long last, to be peace in the valley. At least, until the first time snow is predicted.