Month: July 2017

Categories
We Recommend We Saw You

Alexis Grace, Canvas, Trolley Night, Live at the Garden, Crescent Club, Rooftop

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Alexis Grace and Thomas Bergstig were at Railgarten

Alexis Grace and her husband, Thomas Bergstig, were the guests of honor at a party July 1 at Railgarten.

The couple are moving to Los Angeles.

The invitation for the event – “A Trash Party for Alexis” and an “Avskedfest for Thomas” – asked guests to “Come say goodbye to the two trashiest worst humans on the planet ….Let’s celebrate their awfulness together.”

A native Memphian, Alexis was a finalist who came in 11th place on season eight of TV’s “American Idol.” For the past eight years, she was a deejay on Q-107 FM.

Thomas, who is from Sweden, is the former music director at Playhouse on the Square. He and Isaac Middleton are the tap-dancing-musical-instrument-playing performers in Swedish Gun Factory.

It was Alexis’s idea to move to LA. “I decided LA over New York,” she said. “At first it was New York, but I just know so many people (in LA) and I know a lot of people in the same industry as me. I made a lot of friends and connections from my ‘Idol’ days and a lot of them live out there. That was a big reason. I want to do more TV and film, which, obviously, is heavier out there than in New York. I’ve always wanted to live in either city and I reached a point in my life where I’m able to do that now.”

Bergstig plans to focus on his tap dancing and composing in LA. On July 11, he and Middleton will officially release their Swedish Gun Factory EP, “Chris Raines,” which includes six songs and one piano composition.

“I’m going to bring Swedish Gun Factory to Los Angeles,” Bergstig said. “I have meetings set up with producers, managers and agents and I’m definitely going to try to make that happen.”

Asked who wrote their party invitation, Bergstig said, “It was Courtney Oliver (Playhouse on the Square special events director) who wrote it. We were supposed to have it at her house. We were sitting on her porch and said, ‘Write something.’ And she wrote that.”

Maybe it’s what she was really thinking and she finally got to write it, Bergstig said.

And the meaning of “avskedfest”? “It just means ‘goodbye party’ in Swedish.”

….

Michael Donahue

From left, Robert Coletta, Jim Lord, Seth Cook and Juju Bushman at Canvas wedding.

Guests celebrated the nuptials of Canvas of Memphis and RAWK ‘n Grub July 1 at the Midtown club.

The “bride” – Robert Coletta, who, along with Brandon Knight, co-own Canvas – wore a gown and the groom – RAWK ‘n Grub owner/chef Steph Cook wore a tuxedo T-shirt and chef’s pants.

RAWK ‘n Grub is a “food truck specializing in gourmet sandwiches and burgers and unique dishes,” said Cook.

The marriage was “a union of two businesses,” Cook said. His food truck will provide the fare for Canvas seven days a week from 5 p.m. until 3 a.m. He’ll use Canvas’s kitchen as the prep area and he’ll cook the food in the truck.

“We’ve added a lot of our favorites,” Cook said. “In the past we couldn’t stay on top as a truck because we didn’t have the proper facility to hold product, which we do now.”

The menu includes “Kung Fu Al Green” (collards and kimchi) and “Fried Fleetwood Mac” (four cheese breaded and fried macaroni and cheese).

Asked why he wanted to join together Canvas and RAWK ‘n Grub, Coletta said, “Food is not my best forte.” He wanted to showcase creative food as well as paintings and other works by artists at Canvas. “Food should be art.”

Juju Bushman performed at the “reception.”

Michael Donahue

Snowglobe performed at Peabody rooftop.

……

Snowglobe, which celebrates its 16th anniversary this year, performed June 28 at the Peabody rooftop party.

“I think the overarching thing that’s held us together is just our friendships,” said drummer/songwriter Jeff Hulett. “Some of us have known each other since we were kids. Brandon (Robertson) and Brad (Postlethwaite) have known each other – literally – since kindergarten.”

The band performed some of its well-known songs, including “Waves Rolling,” “Playground” and “Ms. June.”

“The other thing that’s kept us together so long are the friendships we’ve made with our fans. And the people singing along and coming up to us and telling us how much those songs mean to them and how they feel like they’re a part of the band.”

Memphis Flyer sponsored the June 28 rooftop party, which included a special cocktail appropriately titled the “Fireflyer.”

Michael Donahue

Boston at Live at the Garden

……

Boston met Memphis July 1. Or at least a good portion of the city.

About 6,400 attended Boston’s performance at Live at the Garden, said Memphis Botanic Garden executive director Mike Allen. “That’s a good number,” he said.

About 2,800 of those people were in the VIP area, which held 300 tables, Mike said.

“I thought the huge video screen, the technology in the background, which is so current, juxtaposed against the music, which is 40 years old or something, made for a current and fun show. But still a throwback to the day, if you will.”

And, he said, “They’re from my era when I was in college. When they sang, a lot of memories came flying back.”

Michael Donahue

Gabrielle Pappas and Stephen Duckett at Trolley Night.

……


Music was on track June 29 at Trolley Night.

“I had more music on the street between Green Beetle and Central Station down to St. Paul,” said South Main Sounds owner Mark Parsell.

He also held his South Main Sounds Songwriter Night, which featured Low Society Band, blues player Danny Green and singers Claire Radel and Levi Smith.

Earnestine and Hazel’s house band performed a tribute show to the late E&H manager Keenan Harding.

This wasn’t your typical trolley night. Joan Robinson with the Downtown Neighborhood Association “organized a committee to ramp it up a little bit,” Parsell said. “She had the Grizzline and the Second Line band.”

Adding to the energy of the evening were SuperLo on the Go’s steaks, which were grilled outdoors, and the Amurica photo booth.

The Trolley Tour committee included South Main Association president Don Williams and Penelope Huston with the Downtown Memphis Commission.

Michael Donahue

Bridges Phillips, Michaelyn Bradford, Stan Gibson, Cynthia Thompson, Angel Fisther, Charles Thompson were at Farm to Table Wine Dinner at the Crescent Club.

….

How difficult is it to pair wines with a dinner?

Bridges Phillips, on premise sales representative for Southern Glazers Wine and spirits of Tennessee, took on that job at the four course Farm to Table Wine Dinner June 29 at the Crescent Club.

“Since it was warm outside, being on the patio, I wanted to do more white ’cause I knew it was going to be a little warm,” Phillips said.

He doesn’t do a taste testing. “I get the men from Stan (Gibson, Crescent Club executive chef). I pair the wines based on the menu. I don’t eat everything. I’ve tasted all the wines before. He gave me the menu one day. I had them paired the same day.”

Gibson’s dinner began with an amuse of roasted beets and gorgonzola with white balsamic vinegar and continued with free range chicken tortilla soup, farm-raised catfish-stuffed portabella mushroom, a local Tennessee beef tenderloin in cabernet sauce and smashed potatoes and a peach and preserve crepe. 

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Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Old Whitten Tavern: Ankle Tattoos & Cheap Drinks

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

It’s a Tuesday night, and this strip mall is crawling with people. I am wildly unprepared to fight a hundred-person mob for a domestic beer in the suburbs, but it turns out the crowd belongs to a nearby dance studio hosting a dance-team tryout. A much more manageable crowd belongs to the Old Whitten Tavern, a bar that has come highly recommended from devoted Bartlett beer-drinkers. The Old Whitten is the local watering hole; it’s small, dim, and it is delightful.

When visiting a new bar, I want to know what the place is known for. While Old Whitten has the Bonnie Melt (“The Bonnie Melt is #1!” says the homemade sign above the kitchen entrance; silver glitter on blue paper serving as all the proof you need to order their famous version of the Patty Melt) and serves tater tots (we’re all suckers for bars that serve tots, and if you claim otherwise, you’re a liar), it doesn’t have a drink that it can claim as its own. Or does it? In perusing their shot menu, I found something called Walter’s Muffin Top, which is essentially just blueberry vodka and sweet and sour. While this isn’t anything super-special, it is named after a guy named Walter and his muffin top, and that’s funny enough to warrant ordering. “To Walter, and his seemingly too-small pants!”

Justin Fox Burks

The Bonnie Melt at Old Whitten Tavern

On this evening, there is a man seated next to me who arrived on his motorcycle. He’s a regular and sporting a biker vest that proclaims him to be a member of the Boozefighters. He’s drinking, so I assume he’s not fighting against booze, but I do wonder if he’s fighting on behalf of booze or because of it? The Old Whitten has many mysteries, and this must be one of them.

Another mystery: The online reviews of this place all talk about how amazing the bar grub is, and yet no one is eating. I quickly discover that, for the Tuesday after-work crowd, sitting down to dinner isn’t in the cards. There are nine TVs in there, at least two on each wall, so no matter where you’re seated, you are accommodated. What cracked me up is that the Old Whitten keeps all nine remote controls behind the bar, like one couldn’t do the trick. There are also three pool tables, all occupied the night that I went. Also worth noting: two very special barstools that were covered in camouflage material — for the barfly who doesn’t want to be seen.

A sign of a great bartender? One who knows the name and order of every patron before they even finish sitting down. Holly is a wonderful bartender. Smiley and quick, she greets every single person in there by name. More: The drinks are cheap — domestics at $3, and that isn’t even for happy hour. The Old Whitten also boasts an enviable selection of flavored moonshines which can always be counted upon to facilitate a good drinking and karaoke crowd. The bar hosts karaoke each Saturday night, and, if the regulars are to be believed, it gets rowdy. Who doesn’t like rowdy karaoke?! This night, however, Celine Dion’s “All by Myself” is playing loudly over the speakers, which, if we’re being honest, might also facilitate drinking and singing.

Justin Fox Burks

Walter’s Muffin Top at Old Whitten Tavern

I don’t venture to the outskirts of Memphis Metro that often, but the Old Whitten Tavern made it worth it. It was similar to one of my favorite Midtown haunts, right down to the Buffalo chicken egg rolls on the menu and the indoor smoking (your move, Blue Monkey). If it’s one thing that can be counted upon in a neighborhood bar, it’s ankle tattoos, pool, and cheap drinks. Truly, that’s the tie that binds us all, regardless of whether you live inside the Parkways or not. Final note: The bar has a Pabst mirror so you can make a crappy joke to your unimpressed fellow bar patron.

The Old Whitten Tavern is open at 11 a.m.-2 a.m. daily, with daily happy hour specials, open mic and karaoke nights, and live music on select nights. It has a full bar and menu. 21-plus only.

Old Whitten Tavern, 2465 Whitten

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

The Beguiled

Sofia Coppola approaches The Beguiled like an scientist preparing an experiment. The source material—a novel that was already adapted into a 1971 film with Clint Eastwood and Dirty Harry director Don Siegel—provided her with an isolated community of women to work with. It’s the waning days of the Civil War, and Miss Farnsworth’s School for Young Ladies holds on by a thread in rural Virginia. Miss Farnsworth (Nicole Kidman) is left with only a few charges, girls and young women with dead parents and nowhere else to go. The atmosphere is made ominous by the low rumble of dueling artillery over the horizon, and teacher Edwina Morrow (Kristen Dunst) keeps a spyglass lookout for approaching soldiers.

Nicole Kidman in The Beguiled

One day, while foraging for mushrooms, Amy (Oona Laurence) finds instead a wounded Union soldier. Corporal John McBurney (Colin Farrell) caught a leg full of shrapnel before fleeing the battle and finding a tree to die against. Emily helps the Corporal back to the school, where he collapses. Miss Farnsworth decides the Christian thing to do is to show mercy, so they take the soldier into the mansion’s music room to treat his wounds. Jane (Angourie Rice) says he’s a obviously a rapist in waiting and wants to hand him over to the Confederate army, but Alicia (Elle Fanning) thinks he should be allowed to stay. Miss Farnsworth leads the group in a prayer for the Corporal’s “return to health, and early departure.”

But it’s too late. The Corporal lands in the midst of the women like a sex grenade, and the first to catch the shrapnel is Miss Farnsworth herself. The prim and proper woman who makes a living instilling values in young ladies finds herself overcome with lust while washing the naked, unconscious soldier. She recognizes the danger and makes the music room off limits to the girls, which quickly becomes the most-violated rule in the crumbling school.

Colin Farrell puts the moves on Elle Fanning.

Like in The Virgin Suicides and The Bling Ring, Coppola’s subject is a group of women gone feral. As each of her characters sneak into the Corporals’ room for a little conversation and illicit hand-holding, their relationship to the group changes. Each of these scenes also explores how women of different ages relate to men. Miss Farnsworth offers brandy and conversation, while 18-year-old Alicia wordlessly kisses his sleeping lips. Even the youngest girls understand they’re supposed to dress up for the man, but they don’t really know why. Eventually, bodices are (literally) ripped, and jealousy and anger spiral out of control.

In some ways, the escalating tension and subtly shifting allegiances in The Beguiled resembles the paranoid neo-horror of It Comes At Night. Coppola’s strongest points as a director serve her well. She has an incredible eye for composition, and her work here with French cinematographer Phillippe Le Sourd is beautiful and meticulous. Most impressive is the Kubrickian candlelight photography around the school’s tense dinner table.

Coppola is also top notch with actors, and she has a potent pairing with Kidman, nailing the pragmatism and repressed passion of the Southern spinster. Dunst deftly plays against type as the plain, desperate schoolteacher, and Oona Lawrence is outstanding as the budding tween naturalist whose compassion backfires.

Like a scientist, Coppola is controlling the variables of her experiment. A black slave character present in the original film is absent in this version. Taking race out of the equation keeps the focus on the female group dynamics and sexual selection pressures Coppola wants to pick apart, but setting the story in the Civil War makes the absence of racial tension obvious. Would we be less sympathetic to these ladies’ plight if we saw how they treated their slaves? Maybe. Or maybe, as with Marie Antoinette, Coppola wants to make beautiful images from the grand trappings of fading aristocracy without confronting the exploitation that created them. As it is, The Beguiled is a movie with no good guys or bad guys, just people responding to pressures in strange, but understandable, ways.

The Beguiled

Categories
Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

All Buttholes Considered: The Imagine Cafe Story in Tweets

Lifted from Imagine Butthole Cafe

All Buttholes Considered: The Imagine Cafe Story in Tweets

Categories
Music Music Blog

Herman Green: Then & Now

CREDIT: Paul Dagys

Paul Dagys

Herman Green in 1984

After last week’s cover story on Dr. Herman Green, we realized that Memphis Magazine had featured him over three decades ago. It’s telling that he has carried on here in his hometown ever since. One notable similarity: it was just as hard to make a living playing jazz in Memphis back then. 

But it’s worth a read just to learn more telling details about making it, or not,  in the jazz scene of 1950’s New York. Green’s perseverance paid off. By now, it’s little wonder that he has received the Lifetime Music Achievement Award at the 13th annual W.C. Handy Heritage Awards, and multiple Premier Player awards (as a saxophonist and a teacher) from the local chapter of The Recording Academy.

With decades of performances and recognition under his belt, you would think you could find more of Green’s work on record. But the only documentation of his solo jazz career here in Memphis, backed up by The Green Machine, exists on two CDs: Who is Herman Green? and Inspirations: Family and Friends, both on private labels from the mid-1990s. Tracks from both are included on The Best of the Green Machine, Vol. 1, released by Green Machine Enterprises in 2011, but even that is hard to track down. Ask for it at your local record shop, and happy record hunting!

Categories
News News Blog

MLGW Will Begin Automatically Rounding up Bills in January

Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) will begin automatically rounding bills of its residential and commercial customers up to the next dollar beginning Jan 1 of next year for a program meant to ease the energy burden of the utility’s low-income customers.

In January, the City Council resolved for MLGW to provide an opt-out option, allowing the utility to automatically round up individuals’ bills unless the customer opts out.

Donations will average about an added 50 cents on each bill, capping at $11.88 each year.

The additional collected funds, which MLGW officials expect to equal up to $2.5 million, will be donated to the Share the Pennies program which funds grants for low-income homeowners who due to a combination of poverty and energy-inefficient homes, have a high energy burden, as they have to use a higher percentage of their resources to pay for things like basic heating and cooling.

The grants will be used to make energy-efficient improvements in those homes such as, fixing broken windows, replacing insulation, and repairing furnaces, which MLGW officials say will lead to less wasted energy.

Previously only available for senior or disabled customers and maxing at $1,500 per customer, the grants will now be open to all low-income customers with a new maximum of $4,000 per customer.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Cold Brew Throwdown Friday!

Competitors will be vying to make the best cold brew and non-alcoholic cold brew cocktail during the Cold Brew Throwdown this Friday, 6-9 p.m. at City + State.

Roasters are coming from from Louisville, Nashville, and Atlanta to flex their coffee muscles and to best roasters from Memphis.

A panel of judges will decide the winners, but there’s a People’s Choice Award as well.

There will be beer from Wiseacre, and El Mero and Say Cheese will be there as well.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies Retire Zach Randolph’s #50

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Larry Kuzniewski

The Grizzlies moved quickly to retire Randolph’s number.

Now that the NBA’s free agency moratorium has lifted and they’re able to address the departure of Zach Randolph, the team posted an Open Letter to Z-Bo and Grizz Nation penned by GM Chris Wallace and President of Business Operations Jason Wexler.

The letter is a heartfelt expression of thanks from a team that very much knows that Zach Randolph is in no small part responsible for putting them on the NBA map:

The eight years Zach spent in the mud, in Memphis, are special. They are filled with franchise-defining basketball success, but they are so clearly about more than that. Every Memphian felt it and all of us believe it.

Zach helped establish what it means to play for the Grizzlies on the court and in the community, and in doing so helped forge an identity for our City.

Grizzlies owner Robert Pera also announced that Randolph’s #50 will be retired:

Grizzlies Retire Zach Randolph’s #50

The immediate retirement seems like the only thing to do in this situation. Given Randolph’s relationship with the city of Memphis, and things he’s meant to the Grizzlies franchise both on and off the court, this is the only right course of action.

With Randolph gone and Tony Allen’s future still an open question (though it seems exceedingly likely that he will not be retained) it’s clear that an era of Memphis Grizzlies history has come to an end, and a new one is beginning. There was never any question of whether the Grizzlies would retire Randolph’s jersey; it was only a question of whether he’d play out the rest of his career in Memphis. Since he isn’t, the time to start commemorating the “Grit & Grind” era is now.

Categories
News News Blog

Patterson Resigns as President of Downtown Memphis Commission

Terrence Patterson has resigned his post as president and CEO of the Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC).

DMC board chairman Carl Person said Patterson is “leaving to pursue other opportunities.”

“The DMC appreciates his service as well as his willingness to work with the organization at our request during its transition into new leadership,” Person said in a statement. “We believe the organization is in a great position to build on its positive momentum.”

Patterson will continue to serve in an advisory role to the DMC while board members work out the next steps to hire a full-time replacement.

Jennifer Oswalt, the DMC’s chief financial officer, will serve as the group’s interim president until a replacement is found.

In his resignation letter to the DMC board Thursday, Patterson said he was honored to serve in the role, especially as the first African American and youngest president and CEO of the DMC.

“I focused on the work and I’m really proud of that,” Patterson said. “I love this city more than anything; that’s why it’s so great to go to work everyday. I had a chance to make an impact on one of our greatest communities — and all communities are great — but what Downtown Memphis means to every Memphian is powerful.”

Patterson said he wasn’t yet ready to discuss his future plans but said that he was “hopeful in the next few weeks that I’ll be able to share what that is.”

Patterson was selected for the post in September 2015 after a months-long hunt to replace former president Paul Morris. That hunt yielded more than 50 candidates.

During his term, Patterson scored numerous base hits with programs that brought energy back to the Downtown core, like pop-up shops and music programs. (See a list from Patterson below.) He was also part of the team that lured ServiceMaster Downtown where the company plans to establish its headquarters in the former Peabody Place mall building.

But Patterson recently found himself in the crosshairs of angry Memphis City Council members who believed the DMC”s Beale Street Bucks program was racist.

The DMC manages the street for the city and last year the group instituted a $10 entry fee there to control crowd sizes on some Saturday nights. The program came after two stampedes on Beale Street brought injuries and property damage. But some council members believed the fee unfairly targeted African Americans.

Some council members wanted the program ended. But after weeks of debate the council decided to reduce the fee to $5 until a task force on Beale Street security could devise new strategies.

But Patterson (who is African American) maintained during all those weeks of debate that race had noting to do with the Beale Street Bucks program. His assertion was backed by MPD director Michael Rallings (who is also African American). He said the program was “one of the only tools we found that actually works to help with overcrowding and reducing the stampedes and to increase safety.”

Patterson is a native Memphian, a Harvard University graduate with a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University, where he also earned his law degree.

Before he was president of the DMC, he was the treasurer of the DMC’s Center City Development Corp. committee and had worked with the DMC for many years. Previous to his job at the DMC, Patterson was the program director for education for the Hyde Family Foundation.

Patterson has worked with Walt Disney Co. as a financial analyst, practiced corporate law with Kirkland & Ellis, and he then served as the interim executive officer of new schools for the Chicago Public Schools system. He returned to Memphis in 2011 to work with Hyde.

“This guy loves Memphis; it’s his hometown,” Morris said when Patterson was selected in 2015. “He’s lived in Los Angeles and Chicago and with his credentials, he could work anywhere in the world he wants to. He wants to make this place better and recognizes how important Downtown is to making Memphis better.”

In his resignation letter to the DMC and its affiliate boards Thursday, Patterson said he was most proud of the following:

• Successful negotiation of a comprehensive DMC incentive package to help secure ServiceMaster headquarters (and 1,200 employees) in Downtown Memphis—the largest and first major headquarters since AutoZone over two decades ago

• Redesign and enhancement of the world famous Blue Suede Brigade program to feature 12 new full-time, livable wage Security and Hospitality Officers with extended street coverage, more mobility and longer hours

• Continued support for renovation of the historic Universal Life Insurance Building at Danny Thomas and MLK

• Beautiful rebrand of Downtown Memphis as “The Soul of the City”
• Installation of anti-blight public art along the Main Street Mall and in the Collaborative “Artery” at Barboro Alley

• Attracting formerly East Memphis-based Wunderlich Securities (110 employees) to replant their corporate headquarters in Downtown
• Successful leadership and facilitation of the installation of lights on the Harahan Bridge/Big River Crossing

• Development of core district activations, such as the Kids’ “Touch-a-Truck” Summer Event, Main Street Mall “The 101” and “Open on Main” pop-up shops, Farmers’ Market in Court Square Park, and Shelby County’s largest Yoga Class on Fourth Bluff

• Active participation and collaboration with Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the newly created Memphis Medical District Collaborative, Memphis Brand Initiative, and Beale Street and Riverfront Task Forces.

Categories
News News Blog

City to Provide Financial Assistance to 1968 Sanitation Workers

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced today that the City will provide financial support to 1968 sanitation workers.

Fourteen living 1968 sanitation workers— four of which still working in the field today—

will each be awarded $50,000 grants.

Mayor Strickland says the plan to provide more financial security to these 14 men is a “nearly $1 million commitment to do the right thing.”


Also announced today, pending City Council approval, the City will create a new retirement plan for sanitation workers starting after 1968.

In 1968, these workers upon retiring were given the choice of social security or the City’s pension plan, and chose social security, which has proved to not provide enough funds for the workers to support themselves.

Now, the City will supplement social security and deferred compensation plans based on length of employment, matching up to a 4.5 percent of the employee’s contributions.