Month: February 2017

Categories
News News Blog

Henri Brooks’ Sentencing Overturned, Second Diversion Request to Follow

CREDIT: Micaela Watts

Micaela Watts

Attorneys Michael Ryan Working and Andre Wharton of the Wharton Law Firm say that a second motion for diversion will be filed on behalf of former Shelby County Commissioner Henri Brooks.

Former Shelby County Commissioner Henri Brooks won an appeal yesterday from the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals for falsifying an election document that misstated her home address.

In 2014, Brooks was popped by county officials for living outside of her district. After this controversy, Brooks left her post on the Shelby County Commission and, then, lost a bid for Juvenile Court Clerk. She pleaded guilty to the charge in 2015.

Attorneys working for Brooks announced Tuesday that she had won an appeal that reversed her original sentencing in the matter, two years probation and 80 hours of community service.

André Wharton, one of Brooks’ attorney, said that, if anything, the reversal is a sign of a healthy criminal justice system in the state of Tennessee, since the appeals court was able to conclude that matters irrelevant to the case ultimately, and wrongfully influenced the court’s decision.

“What this shows,” said Wharton, “is that we still have a system that works. It worked in this instance. And I would encourage everybody not to give up on our justice system. Challenge it, but do so in a respectful fashion.”

Central to the appeal was Brooks’ claim that two events — remarks made to a Hispanic man concerning diversity in contracts at a commission meeting and a dismissed assault charge stemming from Brooks allegedly throwing water on a woman — actually had no bearing on the crime. However, those events became a focal point during her original sentencing hearing.

Brooks, who entered an Alford plea of guilty to a felony charge of making a false entry on an election document was not present Tuesday as her lawyers discussed the the implications of the court’s reversal of the decision to deny Brooks diversion.

For now, Brooks’ sentencing has been set aside until her lawyers can submit a second request for the diversion of Brooks’ sentence. If diversion is granted, Brooks original sentence would be thrown out. The Alford plea would still stand. If Brook’s is granted diversion, then her lawyers will move to have her conviction expunged.

“In yesterday’s opinion, the court essentially ruled that some outside factors from Commissioner Brooks’ years of public service in the community came into the court and clouded the trial court’s judgement,” said Michael Ryan Working, one of Brooks’ attorneys, who added that if diversion is granted, the former commissioner would have a chance to have her record expunged.

“The next step will be to determine whether or not the special prosecutor decides to agree on diversion, or whether we will have a new sentencing hearing,” said Working.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Why are the Grizzlies hard to talk about this year?

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

The Grizzlies, for all of their seeming success, have been difficult to pin down this year. It’s hard to find a narrative through-line to the whole season in a way that makes it easy to frame what’s currently happening in the context of the 2016-17 season as a whole.

But why is that? What could be the causes of that? Instead of doing a Beyond the Arc podcast this week, I thought Phil Naessens and I could have a running conversation about it:

[jump]

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

The Lego Batman Movie

Remember when Batman was fun? If you were born this century, probably not. Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy had its moments of bravado filmmaking, but the tone was unrelentingly grim. Maybe it was the tone of the times—Batman Begins was released in 2004, during the height of post-9/11 terrorism hysteria and the grinding horror of the Iraq War—but Batman was supposed to be a grimdark mumbling head case. All memory of the 1966 Batman TV series’ campy fun was excised from the collective memory.

This was all fine and good for the time. Every era gets the Batman it needs. But to me, the problem is all other superheroes had to be Batman, too. The most visible s victim of creeping Batmanization is Superman. The current DC film take on Superman, courtesy of Zach Snyder, is brooding and tortured. Superman is a lot of things, but he’s not depressed.

That’s why the Batman portrayed in The Lego Movie was so refreshing. He was a Batman who was a badass, of course, but his huge ego makes him a huge target for jokes. The great part about the Batman ’66 aesthetic is that it recognizes how ridiculous the Batman premise is, and revels in it. That’s the approach director Chris McKay took when he got the assignment for The Lego Batman Movie.

Produced by Lego Movie creators Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, The Lego Batman Movie is actually (gasp) fun! McKay is a veteran of Adult Swim’s “stop motion action figures cussing” show Robot Chicken, so he’s a pro at taking the piss out of overly pretentious kids characters. Voiced by Will Arnett, Lego Batman is every bit the vainglorious jerk you want him to be. He’s not so much A Batman as he is THE Batman, the character come to self-aware life, kind of like the point of view of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, only in LEGO form.

His foe is not so much The Joker as it is his own personal shortcomings. Zach Galifanakis does yeoman’s work as The Joker, although it’s a shame that the return of Luke Skywalker put Mark Hamill out of the movie’s price range, as he played the greatest Joker of all time in the 1990s animated series. LEGO Batman must naturally take a swing at the Marvel Third Act showdown, so some meta business with the Phantom Zone releases a hoard of cross-property baddies to try to take over Gotham, including The Daleks, Voldermont, Sauron, and the Wicked Witch of the West. When the big punch-up comes, it’s accompanied by onscreen “BAM!” s and “POW”s.

It would all be lightweight and completely disposable it if weren’t for the bits of stunning animation that pop up ever five minutes or so. The visual inventiveness of LEGO Batman far surpasses anything the DC franchise has produced, and only Doctor Strange comes close on the Marvel side. Maybe it’s comparing apples to oranges, but photorealism and a seeming obligation to maintain a single grim mood for the entire picture is really weighing the superhero genre down. After this film, I can’t wait for McKay to tackle LEGO Batman vs. LEGO Superman. It’s got to be better than the live action version.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Two Beers From One Brewery Are Finalists for our Beer Bracket Challenge

Two beers. One brewery.

That’s how it shook out in the Memphis Flyer & Aldo’s Beer Bracket Challenge this year.

Ghost River Brewing faces off against…itself!…in the final matchup of our 2017 Beer Bracket Challenge.

Thousands of votes. 16 beers. 14 matchups. Four days. It’s all brought us to the Final Two — Ghost River Gold (from the light beer category) and Ghost River Grindhouse Cream Ale (from the seasonal category). One will emerge as our readers’ favorite in this challenge.

Gold is a golden ale, a light, bright, year-round workhorse for Ghost River. The brewery says it’s a “no-fuss, balanced brew that ready to go anywhere.” Grindhouse Cream Ale is far less available, only on taps around town October through May. Though, it, too, is on the lighter side, smooth, not at all bitter, and very, very drinkable.

Today is our FINAL day of voting. Today’s choices will dub the winner of our Beer Bracket. Will it be Gold or Grindhouse? Make your voice heard here!

We’re not yet sure if we’re going to announce the winner tomorrow or have our readers wait an ENITRE WEEK for our beer issue, which will hit the stands March 9. Stay tuned and thanks for voting!

Categories
News News Blog

Task Force Wants Your Opinion on Riverfront

John Branston

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s Riverfront Task Force (RFT) wants to know what you think of the riverfront and what you’d like to see there as the group has launched a new online survey.

Strickland launched the task force last month to guide the next stage of development for the riverfront. The move came after the Riverfront Development Corp. (RDC) hired Studio Gang, a Chicago-based consulting firm specializing in “architecture, urbanism, interiors, and exhibitions” to develop the “Riverfront Concept Plan.”

That plan will come thanks to donations from the Hyde Family Foundation and the Kresge Foundation. But those donations come with promises that the RDC will raise $350,000 to implement portions of the plan and that the city of Memphis sign on as a plan partner.

The task force’s survey was announced Tuesday. It asks basic questions like — How often do you visit the riverfront and how do you get there? What needs the most improvement on the riverfront? The task force’s survey also asks participants’ age, ZIP code, and race.

The survey specifically asks what participants think of the area’s green space, access to the river, Mud Island access, parking, historical landmarks, access to Downtown and nearby attractions, family areas, current festivals, outdoor activities, safety, and landscape.

“Our riverfront is one of our most important, significant, and historic assets,” reads a quote from Strickland on the page. “It is crucially important that we create an interconnected riverfront that reflects our community as a whole and showcases Memphis to the world.”

The page also includes a full list of those on the Riverfront Task Force. Here they are:

• Task Force Chairman: Alan Crone, special counsel to the mayor of Memphis Jim Strickland
• Berlin Boyd, District 7 representative and chairman of the Memphis City Council
• Jared Bulluck, director of community and alumni engagement, Leadership Memphis
• Carol Coletta, senior fellow, American Cities Practice, Kresge Foundation
• John Farris, chairman, Riverfront Development Corp.
• Maria Fuhrmann, grants and partnerships, city of Memphis
• Jim Holt, president and CEO, Memphis In May International Festival
• Kevin Kane, president and CEO, Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Rachel Knox, program associate, Innovate Memphis
• Mickell Lowery, president, Downtown Neighborhood Association
• Laura Morris, former executive director, Shelby Farms Park Conservancy
• Bill Morrison, District 1 representative, Memphis City Council
• Terence Patterson, president, Downtown Memphis Commission
• Ray Pohlman, vice president, AutoZone
• Lauren Taylor, program director for Livable Communities, Hyde Family Foundations
• Diane Terrell, vice president of community engagement, Memphis Grizzlies; executive director, Memphis Grizzlies Foundation
• Paul Young, director, city of Memphis Division of Housing and Community Development

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

The “Fake News”

For reasons he cannot fathom, President Donald Trump has been asked recently about anti-Semitism, not just the rising number of incidents both here and abroad but also — as he oddly interpreted a question at his latest news conference — his own attitudes. As for the latter, he is, by his own testimony and that of others, no anti-Semite. If he were, he’d have to hate one of his own daughters, her husband, and their children, who are all observant Jews. So when he declares, “I am the least anti-Semitic person that you’ve ever seen in your entire life,” his crude hyperbole aside, I believe him.

Richard Cohen

But either out of calculation or instinct, Trump operates as an anti-Semite of old in the way he describes the news media. Listen for the anti-Semitic tropes: Journalists are urban — or as the communists used to say, cosmopolitan. They live in a bubble, a kind of ghetto. They are rootless — another communist opprobrium — in the sense that few journalists work where they were born and are not responsible to their original community. They are politically and culturally liberal and secular, meaning they are free of conventional morality or religion. They can lie. They can sin. They can, as a result, be attacked with impunity.

Anti-Semitism is largely a spent force in America. We live in an era of Seinfeld and Streisand and Stewart. A Jew ran for vice president (Joe Lieberman), and one recently ran for president (Bernie Sanders), and both of last year’s presidential nominees have a child who was married by a rabbi. This is not your grandfather’s America. That one was virulently anti-Semitic. Issur Danielovitch became Kirk Douglas, Charles Lindbergh cuddled with Hitler, Jews fleeing the Holocaust were told to go somewhere else, and my mother had to go from Pearl Rosenberg to Pat Tyson to find work as a bookkeeper. All that is gone.

What remains, though, is the continuing need for some force that could serve as a scapegoat. Trump, a man of considerable ability in such matters, has found it in the media. As it always was with anti-Semitism, portions of the culture were already receptive. Many people needed to find someone to blame for a society that was becoming less comforting, less conventional, that was depressing their standard of living, closing their factories, favoring foreign labor — doing all the things that Jews once supposedly did. Here is Trump at his news conference last week:

“Unfortunately, much of the media in Washington, D.C., along with New York, Los Angeles, in particular, speaks not for the people, but for the special interests and for those profiting off a very, very obviously broken system. The press has become so dishonest that if we don’t talk about it, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people. Tremendous disservice. We have to talk about it, to find out what’s going on, because the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control.”

This is a neo-Hitlerian statement — only the word “Jews” is missing. Not missing is the alien, secular big city, the unnamed “special interests,” the loaded word “profiting,” and, of course, the utter mystery of it all. Why are these people doing such things? Why do they lie? Why do they want to hurt “the American people”? Why? It’s because they are not-like-us. They are evil.

You may argue that this is nothing new. I remember Spiro Agnew, Richard Nixon’s corrupt vice president, ranting against the liberal press. At one Agnew event I covered, his denunciation of the media brought Republican women out of their chairs, fists in the air, shouting their agreement and serenely unaware that Agnew’s words were probably written by future New York Times columnist William Safire.

George Wallace, both a racist and self-pronounced champion of the working man, castigated the press for its unaccountable hostility to Jim Crow, naming “the Time magazine,” “the Newsweek,” and so on. Still, even an Agnew or a Wallace would have shied away from Trump’s expansive conspiracy theory.

Trump has set himself an agenda. He must rid America of the evil that he describes and that is visible only to him and his followers. He must, in other words, rein in the news media, limit their scope and influence — a task that will become more and more urgent as he fails in his presidency. The fault for that, after all, cannot be his. He will go from florid-faced fool to brooding menace. It is an old pattern. Only the scapegoat is new.

Richard Cohen writes for the Washington Post Writers Group.

Categories
Music Music Features

Unapologetic

“Throughout my life, a lot of people have called me obsessive,” says IMAKEMADBEATS. “If I took interest in something, it wasn’t just ‘I like that.’ If I liked something, I usually went way deeper into it. Music was one of the first.”

Back in the day, IMAKEMADBEATS was a kid from Orange Mound named James Dukes. Now, he’s Memphis’ most sought-after hip-hop producer and guru of Unapologetic, which he calls “A label? A collective? Maybe all of those things.”

IMAKEMADBEATS got his musical start from his family. His father was an avid record hound with an encyclopedic soul, blues, and R&B collection. But in the car, he listened to just jazz — “the most artistic, calm, riff-changing, random jazz. That had the biggest influence on me,” the producer says. “About a month ago, I asked him, ‘Hey dad, why did you listen to jazz only in the car?’ He said, ‘That’s because Memphis drivers can’t drive. I needed something to calm me down.’ … Jazz was like music that was how my brain works. I liked how randomness didn’t feel so random.”

As a teenager, his musical tastes ranged from Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, and Gang Starr to Detroit techno, trip-hop, and rock. “If it sounded like magic, I loved it.”

But he quickly found his eclectic taste marked him as an outsider. “When I got on the Orange Mound bus to go to school … I’ll never forget that. I had to be playing Three-Six, or nothing. If it ain’t that, you’re either gay or white or weird.”

“I started making beats on a computer we found on the side of the street,” he says. “My first group that I was in in high school was called The Strangers. We were called The Strangers because we felt like strangers in our own community. I lived here, I know every street here, I know your grandmother. But everyone tells me I act and sound like I’m from somewhere else.”

IMAKEMADBEATS moved to New York quickly after he graduated from White Station High School and eventually became an engineer at Manhattan’s Quad Recording Studios, where he worked with Talib Kweli, Common, Missy Elliott, Musiq Soulchild, Ludacris, and Solange Knowles, and many others. In 2009, he got a break to record his own album The Transcontinental with Roc C. He moved into lucrative soundtrack work and corporate jobs, and returned to Memphis in 2011 for family reasons, where he spent most of his time in his sound lab. Finally, a friend dragged him out of his solitude to see a show with Cities Aviv and PreauXX, and he found kindred spirits. “PreauXX, being the most popular guy ever, eventually pulled me out of the cage. He got me working with artists again and making my own music.”

Better Left Unsaid is a seven-song EP of cut-up instrumental hip-hop IMAKEMADBEATS recorded in 11 days. Like the works of Madlib and Donuts-era J Dilla, the work defies conventional genre labels. Suffice it to say that IMAKEMADBEATS can do literally anything in a studio. After shopping the record to indie labels for a time, he decided that no one knew how to do the record justice but himself, so he founded Unapologetic. The album comes on a USB drive shaped like the IMAKEMADBEATS logo: a giant afro surrounding the artist’s signature mask. There’s also a comic book drawn by Gift Revolver to dramatize the story behind the track “Mother Sang to Us” and an animated video.

Unapologetic is just getting started. IMAKEMADBEATS is planning four more releases this year, including Stuntarious Vol. 2 compilation in May, gospel singer/songwriter Cameron Bethany in July, and hip-hop duo Kid Maestro and A Weirdo From Memphis’ Enter Weird Maestro in September. The aim is to tap into the creativity of the dispossessed Memphis artists. “Unapologetic is my stand against being what you’re supposed to be, externally, and just being what you are, which is what you’re supposed to be.”

To those who think Memphis, and the world, isn’t ready for these new sounds, “The punch you didn’t see coming is the one that hurts most.”

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Jimmy Gentry takes charge of Cafe Brooks and Izakaya

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Once he graduated with a culinary degree from Johnson and Wales in South Carolina, Jimmy Gentry began to make a name for himself in Memphis.

He served as executive chef at Erling Jensen: The Restaurant, which was named “Best Restaurant” by local polls including The Memphis Flyer‘s Best of Memphis, and he presented at the James Beard House in New York. He ran several restaurants and opened one, Magnolia: A Delta Grille, during a tenure in Tunica, until taking an instructional position at L’École Culinaire.

He wanted something of his own, though, and that turned into the visionary catering company Paradox Catering and Consulting, which he opened in 2010 with business partner and fellow casino culinary employee Alia Hogan.

One of their regular clients was the Brooks Museum, which has become quite the trendsetter for happening events, especially when food oriented.

Meanwhile, in early 2016, the long-standing Brushmark closed its doors while the Brooks continued its renovations and prepared for its year-long centennial celebration.

Brooks administrators weren’t sure what they were going to do to replace the beloved Brushmark until it dawned on them.

“We really liked [Jimmy’s] art, the art of his food,” says Karen Davis, public relations specialist for the Brooks. “We thought it would be a good fit for everybody.”

And in mid-January, Café Brooks by Paradox opened to reveal a rustic, but modern, upscale fast-casual dining experience just off the museum’s rotunda.

“[The Brooks] approached us, and we were thrilled,” Hogan says. “It was a natural fit.”

The menu is described as “a unique take on classics.”

Take the Reuben. Gentry and team pickle their own corned beef and cut it in-house, then they top it with Korean cabbage and serve it on a pretzel bun ($10).

Their Caesar salad comes with arugula rather than Romaine lettuce and is topped with a special Asian fish sauce vinaigrette ($7).

“We use day-old croissants for our croutons,” Hogan says.

One of their top-sellers is the Grown Up Grilled Cheese, using house-made pimento and cheese with bacon served on French bread ($10).

They offer daily specials, a soup of the day (I had the lentil and kale in coconut milk with curry and sort of quit listening to them while I was eating it), weekly grits dishes, and burger specials.

“We try to use as many local products as possible,” Hogan says, serving local grits, Claybrook Farms burgers, and seasonal vegetables.

That includes coffee — Reverb drip and espresso drinks — and beer, with one local brewery on tap at a time.

They also have wine on tap, one red and one white, and all of their pastries, including bread, cookies, muffins, biscotti, and fruit galettes, are made fresh in-house.

Future plans include debuting a brunch on Mother’s Day and hopefully doing some special events during the Levitt Shell season.

The decor was planned by the Brooks, with massive pieces of local wood used for tables and countertops, designer-inspired seating, and artwork and other ornamentation echoing exhibits in the museum.

Currently, fabrics inspired by Yinka Shonibare MBE’s “Rage of the Ballet Gods” exhibit hang on the walls and wrap throw pillows.

“We plan on rotating the art to match whatever we have going on,” Davis says.

For Gentry and Hogan, the Brooks venture does not mean putting an end to their other ventures and activities. They will continue running their catering business and continue to offer their Underground supper club, pop-up dining experiences that take place at off-the-wall locations and are announced only two days before.

And recently Gentry took the executive chef position at Izakaya.

“We know where we need to improve, and we have a better feel of what diners want,” Hogan says. “Jimmy is there to take care of getting the food to match the Japanese-French fusion they want it to be.”

After debuting some of his ideas on Valentine’s Day, including Miso Butter Oysters, Smoke Pork Belly with pear purée and black garlic reduction, Jidori Chicken with celeriac purée and foie gras sauce, and Crisp Salmon with red curry, avocado, coconut, and arugula, he hopes to have the menu he wants in place by March.

Categories
Memphis Gaydar News

Trans Equality Rally Planned for Memphis

CREDIT: Courtesy of Trans Equality Rally Planning Committee

Courtesy of Trans Equality Rally Planning Committee

OUTMemphis will hold a rally in support of transgender rights and protections tomorrow at the Overton Park Greensward from 5:00p.m. to 7:00p.m. in response to the Trump administration’s revocation of federal protections for transgender students in public schools.

Last week, officials with the federal departments of education and justice notified the U.S. Supreme court that the administration will order that public schools disregard Obama’s federal guidelines that say prohibiting a transgender student’s ability to use the restroom that aligns with their gender-identity is a violation of federal anti-discrimination laws.

OUTMemphis’ transgender services coordinator, Kayla Gore reiterated OUTMemphis’ commitment to fight the federal revocation and all future measures out of the Trump administration that could harm LGBTQ individuals.

“The LGBTQ community, and specifically the transgender community refuses to be silent in the face of deliberate and targeted discrimination,” said Gore. 

Several Memphis organizations have signed on to attend the rally including Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region and the Tennessee Equality Project. The rally will host several speakers from these and other community organizations.

The state of Tennessee has also joined in on the federal efforts to police bathroom use by transgender individuals.

State lawmakers Rep. Mark Pody and Sen. Mae Beavers have revived the “bathroom bill” for this year’s legislative session. Last year a similar piece of legislation was introduced by Rep. Susan Lynn but was ultimately scrapped amid growing resistance and controversy.

The state of North Carolina passed their own version of the “bathroom bill” in 2016, and saw immediate backlash from national sports organizations like the NBA and the NCAA, who both pulled multi-million dollar events from North Carolina venues. Forbes estimates that the state has lost $630 million in tourism revenue as a result of the law’s backlash.

Categories
Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

Little Gangsta Walker, Big Night: Dance at the Hard Rock Cafe

Last week’s issue of the Memphis Flyer alerted readers to Blood on the Dance Floor 5 at the Hard Rock Cafe. The annual event’s a dance competition for serious Memphis Gangsta Walkers and Jookin enthusiasts. The name may sound a little edgy, but if you missed Friday’s show, then you missed this fun family team-up.

This video of Memphis being Memphis has been viewed more than 30,000 times since it posted to social media Saturday.

Little Gangsta Walker, Big Night: Dance at the Hard Rock Cafe