Memphis director Craig Brewer has been secretly developing a film about Rudy Ray Moore for Netflix.
The film will star Eddie Murphy as Moore, the Los Angeles street comedian who gained fame as a fast talking pimp named Dolemite, who was featured in three groundbreaking blacksploitation films in the 1970s. This will only be Murphy’s second live action movie appearance since 2012.
David Shankbone – flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10220764
Eddie Murphy
Brewer will be directing from a script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. The writers specialize in left-field biographical material, having penned The People vs. Larry Flynt, Ed Wood, Big Eyes, Man On The Moon, and The People vs. O.J. Simpson. In addition to filming The People vs. Larry Flynt in Memphis, Karaszewski is also a frequent guest and jurist at the Indie Memphis Film Festival. C. Neil Scott from Columbia, SC, US CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5183785
Rudy Ray Moore aka Dolemite
Brewer’s made-in-Memphis 2005 film Hustle & Flow was a box office hit that earned an Academy Award for Best Song and a Best Actor nomination for star Terrance Howard. He has recently been writing and directing episodes for the Fox TV hit Empire and producing the You Look Like comedy show in Memphis for independent studio Gunpowder and Sky. According to a report in Deadline Hollywood, shooting for the as-yet untitled Rudy Ray Moore film will begin in Los Angeles on June 12.
Marty Stuart’s been on a country music pilgrimage since he left Mississippi at the age of 14 to tour with bluegrass icon Lester Flatt. He worked as a sideman for Johnny Cash and some of the biggest names in country music before launching a solo career in the 1980’s. In addition to leading his aptly named band, the Fabulous Superlatives, Stuart’s become the living embodiment of honky tonk history, amassing an enormous collection of artifacts.
This Saturday he’s sharing some of that history when Graceland cuts the ribbon on Hillbilly Rock, a new exhibit assembled from Stuart’s collection. Later that evening he’ll share his talent with a concert at Graceland’s Guest House.
Memphis Flyer: So how are you doing?
Marty Stuart: I’m home — I feel great!
MF: Nashville?
MS: I still live around Nashville but I came back to my grandpa’s farm in Mississippi. Connie and I built the cabin down here a few years ago. It looks like a state park and it’s a retreat. We come here every chance we get. The dust of the world can cover you up very fast.
MF:It can, which is why I’m always amazed by your enthusiasm. I mean, you’re a great player with a great band but, end of the day I think I’m as much of a fan of how much of a fan you are. How do you hold on to that when you’re out chasing hits and the dust of the world is covering you up?
MS: I think at all costs. And it’s always a struggle. To stay in tune with the very thing that you fell in love with. Or that I fell in love with in the first place. It was just a sound of music music.
My first memory on this Earth is being in my mother’s arms crying. I know what the fabric on her dress felt like. I couldn’t remember why I was crying, but I later found out it was the church bells. They were coming across the breeze in Philadelphia, Mississippi, from the Methodist church across town.
The second time I can remember feeling that way as a little boy was standing on the corner watching a parade go by. Some tired little circus came through Philadelphia. The high school band announced their arrival. I was standing on the corner just bawling my eyes out at the power of music.
That’s my first memory on Earth. And nothing has changed. The right piece of music can reduce me to a puddle of tears in a heartbeat. Or get the Goosebumps on me. I fell in love with it. It was a natural wonder to me, even through all the ups and downs and victories and defeats. After 40-something years of doing this, I still feel like a nine-year-old kid when I hear songs that made me fall in love with music. That’s a long-winded answer but that’s about it.
MF: I’d say it took exactly as much wind as required.
MS: You know there’s two ways I can get down here. You can go through Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, which is shorter. Or I can come by way of Memphis and cut through the woods down 55. Sometimes I drive by Memphis just to go visit Sun Studios. It’s a touchstone. A spiritual hotspot. I’m reminded when I look in that little room and imagine what happened in there. I can almost tangibly feel it. Those are just things that keep me alive.
Marty Stuart on Memphis, country music and the life of a honky tonk pilgrim
MF: You had a lot of opportunity to get to know the folks who made records in that room working on Class of ‘55 at American. You also met one of my favorite folks who doesn’t seem to get the recognition he deserves, Cowboy Jack Clement.
MS: I met Cowboy Jack and Johnny Cash on the same day.
MF: Really? Somehow I had it in my head that you met him first and he introduced you to Johnny Cash. Is that not what happened?
MS: No. It happened there was a buddy of mine who made the introduction. See, Lester Flatt had passed away and I didn’t have a job. I worked for just a few months goofing around with Doc and Merle Watson. That came to an end. So this buddy of mine named Danny Ferrington was working in Nashville at the time building this really fancy black guitar. I asked, “Who’s that for?” And he said, “Johnny Cash.” and I told him I wanted to go with him when he delivered it. And I kept up with the progress of that guitar. And the day he delivered it to Cash it was in Jack Clement’s office. So the door swung open and Cowboy was dancing in the room with a martini on his head and Cash was singing the “Wabash Cannonball.” And there was two of my best friends that I got with a swing of one door.
MF: Wow. He’s an amazing character and talent who somehow gets lost in Sam Phillips’ shadow in Memphis, I think.
MS: The thing about Cowboy I love and he was such a great songwriter…
MS: And a good guitar player too. And everybody knows he’s a great engineer. But, dude, he was a magician, and he was a star-maker. He was a star-maker the way Cecil B. DeMille was a star-maker. And his track record bears that out. They’re aren’t any of those people left. Cowboy was the last of his breed in Nashville
MF: We haven’t even talked about your solo career because you start playing with some pretty serious folks as a teenager — and obviously learned from them all. But I’m curious —who taught you to be a bandleader? Who mentored you as a musician? Who kicked down the great life lessons?
MS: I was a sponge.
MF: You’re kidding me.
MS: I’ve always learned. Maybe from a 12-year-old kid playing his guitar in a parking lot. I can learn something from him and hope I give something back. Of my own mentors, Lester Flatt primarily. Lester had a third-grade education but was one of the wisest human beings I’ve ever known. He was a great man. When it came down to the basic rules of life and the basic rules of show business, I had all that by the time I was 15-years-old because of Lester Flatt.
Johnny Cash was my lifetime chief and mentor. Another was Sam Phillips. Whenever I had outlandish or dreamy ideas, I’d come to Memphis and talk to him. Cowboy was another one. I was blessed with so much wisdom and experience in my path as a young artist. That comes with a responsibility these days to make sure it gets passed on to the next generation of musicians.
MF: There’s a handful of folks who really take that responsibility seriously. Folks like you and Dale Watson. It’s not about being stuck in the past so much as just knowing where you came from. But making that commitment seems to come at some cost.
MS: Thing is I find out that it enriches my life. Tradition can trap you and you can be a prisoner to it. Or, I can inspire you and inform you to take things into the future. The past is the past. We all look at it with wonder and see our mistakes and the accomplishments of our heroes. But as far as moving the story, song by song, show-by-show, museum exhibit by museum exhibit, photography exhibit by photography exhibit, day after day, we have to keep pushing it into the 21st century, deeper and deeper. We’ve got to keep getting it in the hearts and hands of like-minded kids who get it. There was a price to pay when I made that turn almost 20 years ago. It started at Sun Records at the end of the 90s. I said I’ve got to do something different and I don’t know where to start.
MF: That room means a lot of things to a lot of people.
MS: During the Class of ‘55 sessions I was looking to start my own band. And be a band leader. Well, I had a bunch of hits after that. After the first round of that, though, I thought I had to keep going deeper. So I went back to Sun and started working on a record called The Pilgrim. That record was the line in the dirt record that got me on the trail that I’m still on today. I had enough radio hits. My piggy bank was full. I was married to the girl in my dreams. I had a huge Cadillac and a Telecaster. It was time to do something that had some meaning to it. Something other than just stack up more money in the bank and be a star. I had all that.
MF: So, you’re coming to town to play at Graceland’s Guest House with The Fabulous Superlatives. But you’re also opening a new exhibit out there as well. Tell me a little about Hillbilly Rock.
MS: I wrote the whole exhibit. And you’ll find artifacts out there of Hank Williams, Hank Snow, the Maddox Brothers and Rose, Little Jimmy Dickens. And I show how they informed The Million Dollar Quartet. Then, how the Million Dollar Quartet basically informed Dwight Yoakam,Travis Tritt, Chris Isaak. It’s about evolution and inspiring the next generation.
MF: You have been collecting this stuff for a long time. And between your own connections and being married to Connie Smith, you’ve had uncommon access. But I can’t help but wonder if there’s “one that got away.” A holy grail. Something you want in your collection that’s just not happening.
MS: There are 20,000 items in this collection. And it’s deep stuff. It’s some crazy stuff. Johnny Cash’s first black performance suit. The handwritten lyrics for “I Saw the Light” and “Your Cold Cold Heart.” The boots Patsy Cline was wearing when she lost her life. On and on, and all at that level. But there is one thing I have yet to find, that I’ve been looking for for a long time. I have Jimmie Rogers briefcase that was in his casket when he died and they brought him home on the train from New York City. But I do not have Jimmie Rogers’ autograph.
MF:Before letting you go, I want to ask about a piece of advice you once shared. About how, when a fella’s down all he really needs is a new Cadillac and a Nudie suit. Always thought that sounded like something that couldn’t fail to cheer a person up.
MS: That’s what Merle Travis told me. That was in Mountain View, Arkansas. It’s when I was married to Cindy Cash. We were over there for Merle Travis days or something like that.
After the show he said to come by the room and we’d talk and play poker. I was down to like 10 bucks. Well, he beat me and took my $10. I love Merle Travis. He was one of my heroes. But he put my 10 bucks in his pocket and said, “now I’m going to sell you some advice for $10 that will last you a lifetime. I know you’re fixing to leave J.R.’s band to go off and be a country music singing star. Well you’re about to find out what the real definition of ups and downs is. Now let me tell you what you do when you’re really coming up out of a bad place or a bad spell where the world is upside down. Go buy you a Cadillac. It don’t have to be a new one, but buy you a Cadillac. Call out there to California and get you a Nudie suit. Find your guitar because you probably lost it somewhere along the way in the last week or two. Put some new strings on it. Make you up a new song and start singing it. Make sure it’s one that makes you feel good about yourself. And go put your suit on and get in your Cadillac and drive around town and remember who you are.” I laughed, but several times along the way I’ve done that and it worked.
At 2 p.m. on June 9, Stuart will participate in a ribbon cutting ceremony for his new “Hillbilly Rock” exhibit at Elvis Presley’s Memphis entertainment and exhibit complex. Tickets for the evening concert start at $35.
Scientists from Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium collect water samples from the Gulf of Mexico.
The dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico will be “average” this year, scientists said Thursday, and while it’s much smaller than last year’s zone, it’s still about the size of Connecticut.
Pollution from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers spills into the Gulf and promotes algae growth. Algae sucks oxygen from the water, making it uninhabitable for fish and other marine life.That hypoxic zone — or “dead zone” — flows west from the tip of Louisiana and hugs the coast.
Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA) predict the dead zone will be about 5,780 square miles this year, close to the 33-year average (since records began in 1985). It is much smaller than last year’s zone, which covered a record-breaking 8,776 square miles.
“The Gulf’s recurring summer hypoxic zone continues to put important habitats and valuable fisheries at risk,” said Steve Thur, director of NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. “Although there has been some progress in reducing nutrients, the overall levels remain high and continue to strain the region’s coastal economies.”
NOAA
Last year’s record-breaking dead zone was about the size of New Jersey.
Tennessee contributes to the dead zone, sending pollution — from urban activities, farming, and other sources — down the Mississippi River. The river drains about 1.2 million miles of all or parts of 31 states and two Canadian provinces. Renée Hoyos, executive director of the Tennessee Clean Water Network, said the river drains about one-third of the nation, and the nation uses it as a “sewer.”
“By the time it gets to Memphis, it’s in pretty bad shape, because it’s at the bottom of different sources of pollution that’s come to us from as far away as Montana,” Hoyos said.
Memphis now operates under a 2012 federal consent decree after a number of agencies alleged the city illegally allowed its sewer system to overflow into the river. In 2016, the city’s system spilled millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into the Mississippi.
U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander urged government officials to finalize rules passed Thursday that will ban cell phone calls on commercial flights.
The issue has been a longtime focus for Alexander. He and Senate Democrat Ed Markey, of Massachusetts, filed the bill a year ago and it was passed Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Sen. Alexander
“I would suggest that any senator who opposes banning cell phone conversations on flights be sentenced to sit next to a loud businessman talking to his girlfriend on a six-hour flight between New York and California,” Alexander said in a statement. “Keeping phone conversations off commercial flights may not be enshrined in the Constitution, but surely it is enshrined in common sense.”
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considered allowing calls on flights in December 2013. But current FCC chairman Ajit Pai axed the consideration in April. Though, future FCC chairmen could allow it.
Alexander’s bill directs the Department of Transportation to finalize regulations banning in-flight calls.
[pullquote-1] Rep. Steve Cohen, too, has been working to make the skies friendlier. He has long urged Congress to set minimums on the sizes of seats on commercial airlines and minimums on the distance between rows of seats.
According to Cohen, the average distance between rows of seats has dropped from 35 inches before airline deregulation in the 1970s to about 31 inches. The average width of an airline seat has also shrunk from 18 inches to about 16.5.
“Planes need to be capable of rapid evacuation in case of emergency, and we need the (Federal Aviation Adminstration) to examine the impact of today’s smaller seats.” Cohen said in a statement. “Safety has to come first.”
Buckle up, friends. This is war. We’ve finally identified our real enemies, and we’re taking strong measures to stop them from destroying us. And not a moment too soon.
The Axis of Evil — Canada, Germany, Great Britain, France, and the other democracies of Europe — has for far too long been trying to undermine the very foundations of our economy with their nefarious “trade” policies and their so-called “friendship” and “mutual self-defense” alliances. Their evil leaders — Trudeau, Merkel, May, Macron, and the others — must finally face the wrath of President Donald Trump, the Master of the Deal.
If it’s war they don’t want, it’s war they shall get!
But we’re not going into this conflict alone. Oh, no. Thankfully, our allies — North Korea, China, and Russia — are stepping up to help. Last week, for instance, North Korea’s second-in-command (and former spy chief), Kim Yong-chol, personally delivered a letter to the White House in a really huge envelope. It was so big, the president said he liked the letter even before he read it. In that diplomatic missive, North Korea agreed to possibly agree to discuss the possible discussion of a meeting between President Trump and Kim Jung Un. Winning! The only stipulation DPRNK made is that the U.S. would have to pay for the North Korean leader’s hotel room and parking, which is no big deal, really. I mean, it was a really big envelope, and probably expensive. Plus, we have Trivago.
And let’s not forget China, one of our oldest allies, which, as a gesture of good will, has just granted licenses and permits to some of Ivanka Trump’s fabulous companies. Ivanka, of course, would love to have her clothing manufactured in the United States, but it would be such a hassle to move everything over here, so who can blame her for staying? Well, maybe Samantha Bee, but nobody normal.
All we have to do in return is rescind the ban on the sale of American equipment to ZTE, China’s phone company, which was sanctioned for trading with Iran and stealing American technology. Sure, ZTE phones can be set up to collect all user data and send it back to China, and sure, Congress is almost unilaterally opposed to the deal, but I think most of us would agree with the president that it’s a small price to pay for such a terrific friendship and cheaper purses.
And, of course, it goes without saying that Russia is behind us 100 percent. Russian President Vladimir Putin is just itching to help us in our efforts to destabilize the economies of Canada, England, Germany, and France. A better ally, you couldn’t ask for. Especially, since the president wisely decided not to implement any of those horrible economic sanctions against Russia for election meddling that were unanimously passed by Congress last year. That kind of forward thinking is finally paying off. Three-dimensional chess. Boom. And, as a bonus, the Russians have agreed to help with our elections again this year!
So, my fellow Americans, no more of those lousy Volkswagens, Mercedes, and BMWs. It’s Kias and Hyundais all the way, baby. And sure, you might like the occasional LaBatt’s and that weird Canadian “bacon,” but wait till you try Tsingtao and Korean kim chi. Plus, French wine is overrated, anyway. Two words: cheap vodka! And you won’t even miss your iPhone, once you’ve gotten your hands on a ZTE ChiPhone. The president says it’s important that we save Chinese jobs, and who could disagree with that?
On the domestic front, the president’s wartime economic policy is equally forward-thinking. He’s demanding that American companies buy coal from failing U.S. mining companies, despite the increased energy prices and manufacturing costs that will result. Sure, higher consumer prices are never fun, but we all have to sacrifice in times of war. Besides, everyone knows that capitalistic free-hand-of-the-market stuff is old news. It just can’t compete with a government-controlled, impulse-driven economy. Thankfully, Russia, China, and North Korea have shown us the way to the future.
Diane Black, a U.S. Representative and candidate for Tennessee governor, believes grocery-store porn is a “big part” of the “root cause” of “why school shootings happen.”
Fly on the Wall decided to see if there was anything to Black’s claim.
Convenience stores in Midtown/Downtown barely carry magazines at all anymore. Kroger had some, but none were dirty unless you count Cosmopolitan. And whatever you think about the “Cosmo-is-porn” billboard campaign, we’re pretty sure any smutty advice the women’s mag may or may not have printed about “polishing your partner’s assault rifle” was pure metaphor.
There were some hot publications, however. They had titles like Sniper, and Precision Rifle Shooter. And the 2018 Handgun Buyer’s Guide, and Guns & Ammo AR-15 Pistol Edition with an assault pistol on the cover. Or, whatever.
Precision Rifle Shooter had yet another sexy rifle on the cover. And then there’s all the copies of 2018 Handgun Buyer’s Guide right where little hands can reach them, free from parental guidance.
Long story short: Black’s weird claim just doesn’t seem to be true. Can we please get back to the time-honored business of blaming society’s ills on comic books, Atari, and Satanic messages hidden on Black Oak Arkansas cassette tapes?
UPDATE: Similar porn deserts identified in Nashville.
In her fourth-floor loft near South Main, April Jones sings as loud and as often as she wants, and her neighbors don’t mind.
That’s because Jones, a musician and painter, recently moved into the South Main Artspace Lofts, a newly built Downtown residence tailor-made for artists and their families.
The lofts were developed by Artspace Projects, Inc, a Minneapolis-based nonprofit real estate developer that specializes in creating affordable spaces for artists and creative businesses. The group transformed the former United Warehouse and an adjacent parking lot into a 63-loft apartment complex for artists to live and work.
For Jones, Artspace has been an “answered prayer.” Living situations for artists in Memphis can be challenging, she said. In the past, Jones said she struggled to find a place to live while pursuing her artwork and went through bouts of homelessness as a result. But now, she said she’s found a place to live that’s “conducive to my talent.”
Maya Smith
ArtSpace resident April Jones
“I don’t have to worry about being embarrassed to do my work,” Jones said. “There’s other people around you doing the same thing. The first three questions someone asked me here are always ‘What’s your name, which floor do you live on, and what’s your art?'”
Kimberly Moore, asset manager for Artspace, said residents’ artforms can vary and be anything from painting and sculpting, to photography and animation, to culinary arts and playwriting.
“A singer could be next door to a dancer who could live next to a jeweler,” Moore said. “They all build off of each other’s creative energy and are expected to support each other.”
To live on the “creative campus,” Moore said residents must go through a three-step application process that can be “intensive, but worth it.”
The final step, an interview with a committee of local artists, is the most important piece of the process, Moore said. Applicants must demonstrate their art form before the committee, in order to “ensure the property maintains its creative character.”
The applicants aren’t judged on the quality of their art, though, Moore said. Instead, the committee is looking for passionate artists who are committed to their work and willing to be engaged in the larger art community.
The goal of the project is not only to give artists a place to live, Moore said, but to also provide housing that’s affordable. Prices for the units (studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, and three-bedroom) are based on income and range from about $500 to $800 a month.
Each loft also includes about 150 more square feet than a comparable affordable housing unit to make room for artists to have a working nook, Moore said. The complex also includes an outdoor plaza, community rooms, and studios for workshops, performances, and exhibitions.
Though 60 percent of the units are already full, construction is still wrapping up on the two-building complex. Full renovation of the former warehouse isn’t slated to be completed until the end of June, and the official Artspace Lofts grand opening is set for Thursday, November 8th.
The National Civil Rights Museum’s Marketing Communications Manager, Connie Dyson describes The Lorraine Motel as a “Refuge during Jim Crow.
“When you were traveling, there were only specific places where African Americans could go,” she says. “In Memphis, the Loraine was that place for people of importance like Jackie Robinson, B.B. King, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Cab Calloway. They all stayed there when they were here in town to record or perform on Beale Street.
“Booker T & the MGs stayed here and played jam sessions here at the motel,” Dyson says, describing life at the Lorraine before everything changed following MLK’s assassination. “They say Wilson Pickett wrote ‘In the Midnight Hour’ here. And Eddie Floyd’s ‘Knock on Wood’ was written here at the Lorraine.” This is how Dyson sets up A Night at the Lorraine, a fund-raiser for the museum. It’s a time machine of an event created to transport guests to the mid-20th century and show them what the Lorraine meant, not just to travelers, but to the African-American community generally.
“It was one of those places that people came to congregate for a night on the town,” Dyson says. Night at the Lorraine is an indoor and outdoor event with retro-themed music and decor. There will be a temporary photo exhibition, catered food, swag bags, a silent auction, valet parking, and music and dancing indoors and out.
Last year, when Crosstown Arts hosted a unique collaboration between Blueshift Ensemble, a group of classically trained Memphis musicians, and ICEBERG, a collective of composers based in New York City, ICEBERG’s founder, Alex Burtzos, discovered something about Memphis concerts that is hard to come by in the Big Apple.
“It’s a completely different type of audience than in New York,” he notes. “And better, in most ways. If you produce a New Music concert in New York, half the audience members will be composers. You struggle to fill the hall and then it’s half composers. And in Memphis, we were blown away, because at both concerts we had over 100 people, and they were just members of the public who were curious and wanted to learn more. After the concert, they weren’t afraid to come up and engage with us and ask questions. ‘What was it that you were doing with the cello there, that made that sound?’ Questions like that. And that’s exactly what we want. We want to engage with listeners. We want to make people curious.”
That last comment could be a rallying cry for a genre that’s coming to be called “New Music.” Arising out of the milieu of conservatory-trained performers and composers, New Music’s embrace of eclecticism would seem to be a good match for the melting pot of styles that has always defined Memphis music.
Jenny Davis, artistic director and flautist for Blueshift, reflects on this from a Memphis native’s point of view. “People are just open to hearing new things,” she observes. “People tend to be curious in Memphis. So having Blueshift is really exciting. We can program things that haven’t been done much, or ever, here in Memphis.”
Aleksander Karjaka
Alex Burtzos
Curious listeners will be in luck next week, when Crosstown Arts once again sponsors a brief residency for ICEBERG composers, with a concert and two composers’ discussions. The beauty of New Music for the inquisitive fan is that it serves the curiosities of many kinds of listeners. As Burtzos says, “What’s happening in music right now, and what ICEBERG is striving to embrace, is a greater democratization of style. There is no dogma anymore. The wide variety of media has enabled us as listeners to pick and choose, regardless of school or style.
“At ICEBERG, we have people who are into indie songwriting, and people who are into writing musicals, alongside people who are students of the 20th-century avant garde, and composers of electronic sound installations. It represents that gamut, and our aesthetic is that there is no one aesthetic anymore.”
And, as Burtzos notes, Blueshift is a perfect fit. “What I really love about Blueshift, as an ensemble, is not just that they play at a high level, but that they do collaborations with so many different people. They are capable of playing mid-century modern music, but they also can jam with an MC. They have a passion for both styles and everything in between. So they are the perfect interpretive force for our creative force.”
ICEBERG, being a loose affiliation of composers rather than a performing ensemble, relies on such versatile groups as Blueshift to realize their work — groups that are hard to find outside of New York. “The idea of engaging and collaborating with ensembles, that’s our normal mode of operation. So in our first two seasons, we partnered with four different New York ensembles. But this work in Memphis is unique. We don’t do residencies like this anywhere else.”
Alex Smythe
Blueshift Ensemble performers at work
As Davis notes, the unpredictable nature of the collaboration can be salutary for Blueshift. “Each of the composers is different,” she says. “Like Jonathan Russ — his music is very influenced by indie rock. For Drake Andersen, we play a piece of his using graphic notation. It’s challenging but also very rewarding for us to tackle so many different styles.”
Having met Russ and Burtzos at a contemporary music festival in 2014, they were naturally a point of reference when Davis helped found Blueshift. “Jonathan wrote a piece for us, and he told Alex, ‘Hey, there’s something special going on in Memphis. We should see what ICEBERG can do there.’ And Crosstown Arts ended up hosting these concerts and letting us use their spaces. So we can’t thank them enough.”
Beyond the performances, ICEBERG composers will be hosting discussions with the public on the following Saturday. While Cooper will offer an approach to appreciating contemporary music in general, Burtzos will share his insights into a Radiohead track, “Pyramid Song,” that is informed by music theory of the Middle Ages. These won’t be typical lectures: Dialogue is encouraged, and judging from last year, that’s what they’ll get from Memphis. As Davis reflects, this city’s fascination with new and unusual music is not going anywhere. “It’s really worked out so well. I’m excited to see what can become of this collaboration in future years, too.”
Blueshift Plays ICEBERG, Thursday, June 14th, 7 p.m., Crosstown Concourse, Central Atrium. Free.
Free lectures, Saturday June 16th, Crosstown Concourse Theater Stairs: “Getting Medieval: Ancient Techniques in the Music of Radiohead” by Alex Burtzos, 1 p.m.; “So You Don’t Like ‘New Music’: A Suggestive Way to Listen to Contemporary Classical Music” by Derek Cooper, 2 p.m.
Adrift begins with a body sinking into the abyss, surrounded by jetsam from a shipwreck. Tami (Shailene Woodley) awakens in the flooding vessel to discover her two-masted yacht has been reduced to zero masts by the winds and waters of Hurricane Raymond. Her fiance Richard (Sam Claflin) is nowhere to be seen, and the boat, while upright for now, is in serious danger of following Richard into the unknown depths of the Pacific. Shivering and covered in blood from a nasty cut on her forehead, Tami immediately sets about the business of survival at sea.
Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, Adrift is the true story of Tami Oldham. The screenplay starts in the middle, at the moment Tami wakes up alone in the Pacific, and works both backward and forward as the film progresses. Tami was a surfer and sailor, who found her way to Tahiti while beach bumming around the world in 1983. There, she met a kindred spirit named Richard Sharp, a British naval academy dropout who built his own sail boat, the Mayaluga, while working in an Australian shipyard. After an awkward first encounter, Richard and Tami hit it off and have an idyllic fling amid the Polynesian waterfalls and beaches, sailing Mayaluga from one tiny island paradise to another.
Their time together is interrupted when Richard gets a job ferrying the yacht Hazanya to San Diego. The proceeds from the 6,500 mile trip will pay for a year of beach lounging for the couple, and Tami’s from San Diego, so she decides to tag along. It would turn out to be the most fateful decision of her young life.
After the storm passes and Tami is miraculously still alive, she sets about to render the ship as seaworthy as possible. She spots the Hazanya‘s lifeboat and finds Richard clinging to it, badly injured and delirious. With the senior sailor out of commission, Tami must navigate across the South Pacific using only her sextant, a makeshift sail, and her wits.
Kormákur is a prolific Icelandic director who seems drawn to stories of survival. His film The Deep, about an Irish fisherman lost in the frigid North Atlantic, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2012. This time around, the water is warmer, and the seascapes much sexier. Both Tami and Richard’s gorgeous Tahitian romance and the humbling vastness of the ocean are exquisitely rendered by cinematographer Robert Richardson, a three-time Oscar winner who is this movie’s ace in the hole.
The queen in Adrift‘s hand is Shailene Woodley. Since she’s in practically every shot, if Woodley doesn’t get the job done, the picture sinks. Add in the facts that the production is working on the water, which as Steven Spielberg will tell you is a terrible idea, she’s doing tons of stunt work, some of which looks fairly dangerous, and looks increasingly beat up as the story unfolds, and you know this is a daunting job for even the most experienced actor. Woodley nails it, again and again, in both the romantic scenes and the rough-and-tumble sailing sequences. Sam Claftin as Richard does solid service as the hunky dream date, but the most important thing he brings to the screen is good chemistry with Woodley.
Kormákur’s director’s touch is subtle to the point of invisibility. But he does provide a perfect example of the proper use of nonlinear storytelling. The key, it seems, is that if you want to introduce complexity to the story structure, the story you’re telling needs to be fairly simple and straightforward. Tami’s ill-fated trip across the Pacific was days of grinding boredom punctuated by moments of unfathomable terror, but it progressed pretty logically, and there’s lots of room for flashbacks to explain exactly how she got into this mess. The increasingly fractured nature of the story also effectively mirrors our heroine’s fragmenting consciousness as the stress and deprivations of the trip wear away at her sanity.
Adrift is a solid, midrange picture of the type that is increasingly rare. It’s star-driven, suspenseful, and just plain gorgeous to look at. Despite its narrative of woman against nature, my primary reaction was a desperate need to go sailing. This is not the kind of picture that changes your life, but at least you won’t feel ripped off after it’s over.
Laura Jean Hocking 
David Shankbone – flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10220764 
C. Neil Scott from Columbia, SC, US CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5183785 
NOAA 
Maya Smith 
Aleksander Karjaka 
Alex Smythe 