Month: August 2018

Categories
Editorial Opinion

The Lessons of Watergate

It was some 44 years ago, in the dog days of a humid summer, when the members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee met to consider articles of impeachment against the president of the United States, Richard M. Nixon. This was at a late point in the ever worsening saga that had begun with a criminal break-in of the opposition Democrats’ election headquarters, and, while hard and fast evidence of Nixon’s guilt  — the so-called “smoking gun” — was not yet in hand, the president’s culpability in the series of high crimes and misdemeanors we now call Watergate had long since become obvious.

There was plenty of smoke, enough of it that several Republican members of the Judiciary Committee would forgo their partisan loyalties and join Democratic members in voting for one or more of the impeachment articles presented. But there were other GOP committee members who could not bring themselves to do so. One of them, a Pennsylvania congressman named Charles W. Sandman, became famous (or notorious) because of his unstinting defense of Nixon during the televised Judiciary hearings and his insistence that all the evidence aggregated thus far had been circumstantial.

“Specificity!” Sandman thundered over and over, making the point that even the crime of jaywalking required some physical and irrefutable proof to justify prosecution.

The odds against the president’s survival in office were already tilted irrevocably against Nixon — Sandman himself had conceded that 37 committee votes, a clear majority, were already committed to impeachment — and yet he and a few other Republican loyalists persisted in their defense. There was something pathetic, yet oddly admirable, about their determination to go down with the ship.

And go down they did. The committee voted its judgment, and only days later, one of the president’s surreptitiously recorded tapes surfaced publicly, and all the world heard Nixon strategize out loud about trying to subvert the FBI and the Justice Department to quell an investigation of the break-in at the Watergate.

For his pains, Sandman, who had been his party’s nominee for governor of Pennsylvania only the year before, was defeated for re-election to Congress that fall, along with other unregenerate loyalists.

The moral of that story for today’s congressional Republicans is obvious: Most of them continue to ignore  the meaning of the ever multiplying facts that seem clearly to indicate improper collusion by the Trump campaign with Vladimir Putin’s Russian government during the 2016 presidential campaign and to obstruct an investigation afterward. Demanding uncontrovertible evidence, they parrot President Trump’s mantra of “No collusion!” Presumably, they equate a forthright recognition of Trump’s guilt with the specter of their own potential defeat at the polls.

But, like Sandman, they’ve got it backwards. It was a refusal to acknowledge plain truth and a reluctance to put country before party that doomed Sandman and the others whose political careers were wrecked or ended by Watergate. Most of the Republicans who owned up to the reality of Nixon’s misprisions were able to survive; most of those who could not do so, like Sandman, were in short order eliminated from public life.

It’s not a Sophie’s Choice. Admitting the obvious is the best way Republicans can save themselves and their party.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Shelby Politics Won’t Take a Break After August Election

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

For all the ballyhoo, emailed appeals for more cash, and intensified public rhetoric of recent days, the known world will exist in more or less its usual form after the electon results of this week are digested.

There are more election matters to be decided, for one thing: Someone will have to succeed the late state Representative Ron Lollar as the Republican nominee for state House District 99 on the November ballot. Lollar’s death occurred after the ballot was irrevocably composed, but on August 6th, a GOP caucus will meet to name a successor to run in November against Democratic nominee David Cambron.

The caucus will be made up of the members of the Shelby County Republican Committee who represent District 99. Those are current GOP chair Lee Mills, Mills’ wife Amber Mills, Becky Parsons, and Kenny Crenshaw. Among those interested in becoming the District 99 nominee are chairman Mills himself; Bartlett alderman David Parsons (husband of Becky Parsons); Lakeland Mayor Wyatt Bunker; and County Commissioner David Reaves.

For obvious arithmetical reasons, Lee Mills would seem to have an edge. The chairman has already cleared a prospective leave of absence with FedEx, for whom he is a pilot.

• Still unresolved, too, is the matter of whether residents of three City Council districts in Memphis will have a chance to vote on replacing any of three council members who may have been elected to county positions this week. The three are Bill Morrison of District 1, candidate for Probate Court Clerk; Edmund Ford Jr. of District 6, candidate for the County Commission; and Janis Fullilove of Super District 8, Position 2, candidate for Juvenile Court Clerk.

There had been, as of this week, no definitive answer as to when any of the three, if victorious in their county races, would formally resign their council positions. They could resign immediately upon election to their new posts, but the county charter allows them to retain their current position for as long as 90 days. If they should stay on the council for the entirety of their allotted time, there would be no opportunity to schedule a special election on the November ballot.

Jackson Baker

Janis Fullilove advocating for IRV.

What several local activists fear is that the dominant council faction, which has close ties to the city’s business elite and whose members tend to vote as a bloc, would relish the opportunity to skirt the election process and appoint the successors to any or all of the vacated positions.

Uncertainty on the point has been whetted by the claim of council Chairman Berlin Boyd, a member of the dominant faction, that the city charter does not allow for a replacement election on a November ballot. Council attorney Allan Wade apparently backs Boyd on the issue.The activist group cites charter language specifically licensing a potential November election for the purpose, and the matter is further complicated by ambivalence as to the post-election intentions on the part of the three council members whose seats would be in question. 

While continuing to keep her own counsel on the resignation matter, candidate Fullilove did choose, weekend before last, to make a public break from her council mates on another matter —  the referendum scheduled by the council for November that, if successful, would repudiate an earlier 2008 referendum enabling Ranked Choice Voting (aka Instant Runoff Voting), a process that Election Administrator Linda Phillips had scheduled for the 2019 city election.

Fullilove’s statement: “Back in 2008, as a charter commission member, I voted to support Instant Runoff Voting. I also supported it during the 2008 referendum Campaign, when 71 percent of Memphians voted for it. That was a good idea then, and it’s a good idea now. Last fall, I deferred to some of my colleagues on the city council who expressed concerns about IRV. But I have rethought my position. The people have already voted for this. We ought to give it a try. So I am … announcing my support for instant runoff voting and my opposition to any attempt at repeal. I call on my council colleagues to take both IRV referenda off the November ballot. Thank you.”

So far, there have been no takers on Fullilove’s request, and the referendum still stands. But chalk up at least a partial victory for the activist group, Save IRV Memphis, many of whose members have doubled up on the lobby process concerning the resignation matter.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Will a TDZ TCB? The Future of Memphis’ Fairgrounds

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

A critical decision looms on a years-in-the-making plan that could transform one of the largest pieces of public property in Memphis.

The stakes could not be higher for the city’s plan to turn the largely fallow Memphis Fairgrounds into a youth sports tourist magnet. It’s the end of the road. There’s no appeal. There’s no review-and-update process. The city either gets the money and builds a “world class facility,” or it doesn’t get the money and then, well, who knows? The plan lives or it dies.

The city wants to create a Tourism Development Zone (TDZ) around the Fairgrounds. An increment of state sales taxes would be collected in the zone to pay for the project. The problem is that legislation approved in the Tennessee General Assembly this year deadlined consideration for any and all outstanding TDZs at December 31, 2018. And the only one left to be considered is for Memphis’ youth sports idea.

The high stakes were enough to cause city officials to hone the plan, shrinking the project in scope, size, and price tag. Meanwhile, local grassroots advocates for the Fairgrounds and the Mid-South Coliseum have continued to beat the drum of local access to the property and for re-activiation of the building. Through it all, developers have stayed mostly on the sidelines, waiting to see if the plan gets an up or down vote before they move in.

If the city’s plan is approved by the state, the Fairgrounds could get a brand-new, multi-million-dollar, state-of-the-art indoor sports building, retail shops, a hotel, play areas, and more. It’s a play to attract out-of-towners and their sports-playing children (and the tax dollars that come with them) to the city.

Justin Fox Burks

How We Got Here

The most recent moves to reanimate the Memphis Fairgrounds began in 2005, 13 years ago. Back then, the city was “eager to revitalize and re-imagine,” the Fairgrounds, as reporter Ben Popper wrote in the Flyer at the time. 

“It is really the nexus between East Memphis and what is going on Downtown,” Robert Lipscomb, then-director of the city’s Housing and Community Development (HCD) division, said at the time. “I think it’s under-utilized and potentially has much greater value. Our job is maximizing that asset.”  

That year, Lipscomb formed a special Fairgrounds Redevelopment Committee to envision the Fairgrounds’ future. The architectural firm Looney Ricks Kiss drew up six proposals for the site.

The group picked an option with “large green space, small-scale retail, and 40-plus acres for sports and recreation.” The plan did not include Libertyland, the Mid-South Coliseum, or the Mid-South Fair. The committee’s selection decision came on the same day leaders decided to close Libertyland, citing several years of financial losses.

Retail, green space, sports, and recreation. Sound familiar?

But then-Shelby County Mayor A C Wharton told the Memphis Business Journal‘s Chris Sheffield at the time he wasn’t in a hurry to get anything done “given the nostalgia and fond memories and public importance of the property. There’s nothing wrong with going through a laborious process,” Wharton said in 2006.

Laborious, indeed. Two years later, John Branston, writing for the Flyer, described the scene at the Fairgrounds this way: 

“The stadium and the Children’s Museum [of Memphis] still draw crowds, but the rest of the property is demolished, abandoned, or underused. Libertyland amusement park, part of its roller coaster still standing, is closed. So is the Mid-South Coliseum, home to concerts and basketball games … before giving way to The Pyramid and then FedExForum. 

“Tim McCarver Stadium was demolished a few years ago,” Branston wrote in 2008, “long after it was replaced by AutoZone Park. The annual Mid-South Fair is moving to Tunica, Mississippi, next year. Fairview Junior High School is blighted and has about 300 students. The main feature of the Fairgrounds on most days is several acres of asphalt parking lots.”

Those comments came in Branston’s story about a new group heading up a new push to, finally, finally, finally get something done at the Fairgrounds. It included a heavy-hitting bunch of names: Henry Turley, CEO of Henry Turley Co.; Bob Loeb, president of Loeb Properties; Archie Willis III, president of Community Capital; Mark Yates, now-Chief Visionary Officer of the Black Business Association of Memphis; Jason Wexler, president of business operations at Memphis Grizzlies; Elliot Perry, retired pro basketball player; and Arthur Gilliam Jr., president of Gilliam Communications.

Called “Fair Ground,” the idea was to make the Fairgrounds a common area for all Memphians to meet, play, and mingle. At its core, Fair Ground would have transformed the sleepy area “into a combination of sports complex, renovated stadium, park, and retail center.” Sound familiar? A big difference, though, was that Fair Ground also promised a “network of new public schools” good enough to rival private schools.

In 2007, the city applied for its TDZ with the state and the Salvation Army Kroc Center bought a parcel of land to build upon. But by 2009, Lipscomb was referring to the Fair Ground deal with Turley and his folks in the past tense. He said they couldn’t come to an agreement. He pivoted quickly to a Plan B, in which Lipscomb tapped former Memphis City Council member Tom Marshall to design a plan that centered on — wait for it —  sports, recreation, and retail. 

That $125 million plan was ultimately panned, though the city did add that formal TDZ request to its quiver. A 2009 Flyer headline read, “The Fairgrounds: Big, Complicated, and Leaderless.” 

Come 2013, another plan — this one with a $233 million price tag — centered on (surely you guessed it by now) sports and retail. By 2014, Lipscomb was reported selling the plan to the Shelby County Commissioners in a Flyer story by Jackson Baker. Some commissioners worried the TDZ would “cannibalize” future sales tax from Cooper-Young and Overton Square and that the scheme would siphon funds (maybe $1 million to $2 million every year) from Shelby County Schools. 

“But it hardly seemed to matter as Lipscomb, at his super-salesman best, seemingly had the members of a commission largely revamped by the election of 2014 treating Lipscomb’s propositions like ‘candy in the palm,'” Baker wrote. 

Lipscomb, who Baker described as “the city’s veteran Svengali of urban planning,” said the buildings that would rise on the Fairgrounds would be “world class,” helping to raise “a great new city right before our very eyes.”

Commissioners loved it. Van Turner congratulated Lipscomb. Terry Roland called it a “world-class deal,” and only Steve Basar and Walter Bailey seemed cautious.

That was November, but by December, commissioners shelved a vote on Lipscomb’s plan, hoping to bring a compromise plan of their own. 

In January 2015, Lipscomb told city council members he’d bring his plans to state officials in February. But public concerns crept into Lipscomb’s plans, fears that Fairgrounds neighbors and local stakeholders were being left out the conversation. Lipscomb vowed to get more people involved. That was February. 

To get there, the Urban Land Institute, a third-party group of of city planning professionals, had a look at the plan. Their $184-million recommendation included sports and retail, natch, but also more improvements to Tiger Lane, a park with a lake, a surf park, a “Coliseum stage,” and more. That was in June.

In August, Lipscomb said he’d take the new plan to state officials in October. But when allegations surfaced that Lipscomb had raped a young man, his grand plan for the Fairgrounds was stalled, to say the least. Memphis Mayor Wharton fired Lipscomb immediately.

The Plan’s “New” New Era

Jim Strickland was elected Memphis mayor in October 2015. He hired Paul Young, former director of legislative affairs for Shelby County government, as director of HCD. Plans for the Fairgrounds weren’t really discussed much for two years. 

In 2017, rather than starting from scratch, Young dusted off the recommendations from the Urban Land Institute panel (with youth sports and retail as the centerpiece, of course). But Young and the Strickland administration did something different this go-around. They began the conversation of the Fairgrounds’ future in public forums and actually used some options they got to shape the final plan. This was August 2017, and Young hoped to present his plan to state officials by the end of that year. 

In November, Young unveiled the new $160-million Fairgrounds plan. It included an $80 million youth sports complex, retail and hotel space, a 500-space parking garage, $20 million worth of upgrades to the Liberty Bowl, upgrades to nearby Tobey Park, renovation of the Pipkin and Creative Arts buildings, basketball courts, a track, a soccer and football field, renovations to nearby Melrose High School, and new infrastructure to spur investment at Lamar and Airways.    

But Young (some say on the advice of the state officials who’d vote on the plan) decided to have another look. Earlier this month, he brought a scaled-back, “workable” proposal to Memphis City Council members, who approved it. Almost everything (save for the $20 million improvements for the Liberty Bowl) was shaved. Two youth sports buildings became one. The parking garage was halved, basically. Off-site projects were cut out of the plan. 

Courtesy of Allen & Hoshall

Why?

“As we really dove into the specifics and saw that TDZ revenues were much lower than we expected them to be, it was incumbent on us to take some time and really, really hone down the plan and try to figure out what things do we have to do to make this site activated,” Young said in an interview last week.

So, now — with more than a decade of plans, dreams, opinions, and varying degrees of political will on the project — Young and his team are slated to take their plan to Nashville later this year. If the State Building Commission doesn’t give the city the money, the Fairgrounds will stay largely the same as it is today, Young said.

Money Ball

At the very core of the new plan — and almost every plan proposed so far — is youth sports. That might not be what you think it is. It’s not your kid’s T-ball team sponsored by a local insurance agent. Youth sports is a big, sophisticated business. The teams the city wants to attract are called travel teams or competitive teams. The kids who play are elite (or at least seen that way). Not every kid makes the team. Those who do practice at private facilities, wear custom uniforms, carry custom equipment bags, get elite coaching, travel around the country to tournaments, and pay mightily for the privilege of doing so. Many parents see these teams as a path to help their child get a college scholarship and then, perhaps, to play in the bigs. In short, these parents often are monied and motivated.

How much money? According to WinterGreen Research, an independent organization that tracks the youth sports market, the U.S. market is worth $15.5 billion. There’s more. 

“This is a nascent market, there is no end to growth in sight,” WinterGreen reported in September 2017. “Markets are expected to reach $41.2 billion by 2023.”

Young says the Memphis sports market is worth $120 million, without an indoor youth sports facility. The Rocky Top Sports World in Gatlinburg created $35.4 million in economic impact for that city last year, according to Young’s report. A Fort Myers, Florida, venue yielded $47.7 million. Another in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, grossed a whopping $186 million.     

Critics of the city’s Fairgrounds plan have said that leaders want to build an elite facility for rich kids and their rich parents.

“It’s not for them,” Young responds. “It’s for our economy.”

Young adds that the facility would be available to locals anytime it isn’t being used for youth sports tournaments, which usually run from Thursday through Sunday. 

Jamie Harmon

Reviving the Roundhouse

In 2015, some Memphis folks got together and decided they wanted the Mid-South Coliseum saved and re-opened. After years of community meetings, government meetings, tours of the building, business research, creating a business plan, media interviews, three Roundhouse Revival events, and a top-to-bottom examination of the massive building, they are still at it. They say the future of the Coliseum has never looked brighter. 

“There is a wider wind in our civic sails, and we’re racking up civic win after civic win after civic win with Crosstown Concourse, the Chisca Hotel, the Levitt Shell, the Tennessee Brewery, Broad Avenue, and Clayborn Temple,” says Marvin Stockwell, co-founder of the Coliseum Coalition and a second group, the Friends of the Fairgrounds. “This seems a whole lot more possible than it did when we first started, and way more possible than it did 10 years ago.”

That enthusiasm is shared by Coliseum Coalition president Roy Barnes and Charles “Chooch” Pickard, a coalition member and preservation architect, even as the city’s new plan (and just about every plan so far) aims only to “preserve” the Coliseum. To them, preservation is at least a step away from razing the building, as Lipscomb wanted to do. 

Two Saturdays ago, July 21st, hundreds of people sweated together outside the Coliseum, with 90 degrees of Memphis summer sun blasting from above and radiating back off the parking lot. Barbecue smoke scented the air, vendors sold vintage T-shirts, and a brass band covered the Meters’ classic “Cissy Strut” inside a wrestling ring. 

It was the third spin of the Coliseum Coaltion’s Roundhouse Revival event, which featured music, wrestling, food, and a few public service announcements. “The Coliseum is in great shape,” read a flyer posted on a column. The group has used the events to garther input from community members and garner support for their cause. 

“I just saw these photographs over here that show me that the building is in great shape,” said Tennessee gubernatorial candidate Craig Fitzhugh, at the event. “To me, now it’s a perfect-sized venue. It won’t compete. There’s not any competition for it. They could put a lot of different things in here — from music to wresting to whatever — roller derby. For the Grizzlies, this would be a great place to put their … developmental league team.”

Fitzhugh hit upon the No. 1 problem for re-opening the Coliseum, according to the Coliseum Coalition — the Grizzlies non-compete clause. With the clause, Grizzlies officials have a measure of control over the local entertainment market and local venues. The team is on the hook for any operating losses at the FedExForum (not the local government) and might perceive a revived Mid-South Coliseum as competition.

That was city council members’ central argument against Elvis Presley Enterprises’ proposed $20-million arena in Whitehaven. And it’s been a central argument against re-opening the Coliseum. Barnes thinks it’s bogus.

“There’s nothing in it … that gives the Grizzlies the ability to say, ‘Sorry you can’t re-open the Coliseum,'” Barnes says. “It doesn’t give them the ability to say, ‘You can’t have events there.'”

Only certain events are blocked by the clause, Barnes says. Stockwell says that the perception that the clause blocks any new, large-ish venue from opening is “completely false.” But there is little political will to alienate the Grizzlies, a major city brand and a major corporate citizen, Barnes says.

The Coliseum, Pickard says, should be right-sized to about 4,900 fixed seats with about 1,000-2,000 on the floor. That would make it the perfect venue for up-and-coming artists and established artists who are playing their way back down the musical food chain from arena shows. 

“We’ve gone to the Grizzlies and said, ‘We think there’s a market for that,’ and they said, ‘We don’t think there is, but if there is, we can accommodate those shows,'” Pickard says. “We’re the venue for that.”

While there seems to be little movement ahead for changing perceptions on the non-compete or the clause itself, the Coliseum Coalition is moving ahead, working with city officials to allow them to clean up the inside of the building and, perhaps, hold a new event inside. They hope if the TDZ is approved and successful, funds could be found down the road to save the Coliseum. 

Plan B = Status Quo

So, what if the TDZ is not approved?

Some sources the Flyer talked to said a “no” vote could be used to further punish Memphis for its removal of Confederate statues this year. Others said moderate Republicans have convinced their right-wing colleagues the deal would be an economic development win for the state. Part of that deal, too, sources said, was the satisfyingly loud outcry from Memphis Democrats over the state lawmakers’ removal of $250,000 from the city’s bicentennial celebration, which was some tasty red meat for Republicans.   

In that case, political tea leaves may point to approval of a TDZ for the project. But if it’s defeated, nothing happens. 

“I think the Plan B is the status quo,” Young says. “It’s what we have today. When the mayor came in, he commented that the Fairgrounds, while we’d love to see it maximized, it’s not something that had to be done at that point in time.

“I think that opinion would still ring true. It is underutilized, but it’s not necessarily having a negative impact on the community as it sits today.”

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Is Poll Showing Burgess Win a Bellwether?

One of the local races being watched for evidence that there is (or isn’t) the likelihood of a Democratic “blue wave” in Thursday’s final election results is that for Shelby County assessor.

The Chism Strategies firm, headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi, offers some last-minute evidence, via poll numbers, that Democratic nominee Melvin Burgess has a substantial lead over his Republican opponent, Republican Robert “Chip” Trouy.

Claiming a margin of error of plus-or-minute 5 percent, the Chism poll of “457 likely county general election voters” was conducted on July 25th via the IRV (Interactive Voice Response” method — i.e., by robocall. It shows Burgess drawing more positive responses than Trouy by a margin of 52.6 percent to 25.4, with 22 percent “unsure.”

Burgess, now finishing his second term as a Shelby County commissioner, was reported as leading with both males and females overall, and with a lead among African Americans of 75 percent to 3 percent. Trouy had a reported lead among Caucasians (41 percent to 35 percent) and Asians (33 percent to 0), with respondents describing themselves as “other” polling for Burgess by a margin of 48 percent to 33 percent.

Clearly, the sample cannot be extrapolated fully to the entire voting population (0 percent of Asian voters for Burgess?), and robo-polls are considered suspect by some analysts, but Burgess backers and Democratic strategists at large see in the poll evidence of potential success on August 2nd.

Categories
News News Blog

Memphis Pets of the Week (August 2-8)

Each week, the Flyer will feature adoptable dogs and cats from Memphis Animal Services. All photos are credited to Memphis Pets Alive. More pictures can be found on the Memphis Pets Alive Facebook page.

[slideshow-1]

Categories
We Recommend We Saw You

Priscilla Presley, Stuntarious Vol. III, The Lifter, 40 Watt Moon

CREDIT: Harold Graeter

Harold Graeter

I had the pleasure of having my photo taken with Priscilla Presley the night she received the AutoZone Liberty Bowl Distinguished Citizen Award.

Priscilla Presley’s visit to Memphis drew a crowd of almost 500 June 24th at the Hilton Memphis. She was here to accept the AutoZone Liberty Bowl Distinguished Citizen Award.

The event, along with the 24th annual AutoZone Liberty Bowl Golf Classic (held June 25th at Ridgeway Country Club), and Liberty Bowl’s partnership with the College Playoff Foundation, raised a record amount of about $250,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“I’m truly honored to be here,” Presley told the audience. “I’m a bit taken aback by all the honors. And it’s very hard for me to take that. But I’ll do whatever I can to help Memphis. I now feel officially a Memphian with this honor.”


Past recipients of the Distinguished Citizen Award include Danny Thomas, Frederick W. Smith, Kemmons Wilson, Paul “Bear” Bryant, Lou Holtz, Archie Manning, and Tim McCarver.

The 60th AutoZone Liberty Bowl will be at 2:45 p.m. Dec. 31 at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium and will feature teams from the SEC and Big 12.

………

Michael Donahue

Maricus Windless

Wearing a pair of knickers with long red-and-white-striped socks, Maricus Windless waited for customers in his golf cart.

No, he’s not a caddy. He and Donte Jones operate “The Lifter” shuttle service. It provides quick rides to local destinations, including restaurants, bars, sporting events, and concerts, to people in the Downtown area.

“We’re trying to revolutionize the way people commute Downtown,” Windless says.

People can call him at 901-GOLIFTS and he’ll take them where they want to go. “Each ride is two to three minutes anywhere in the Downtown area, including Sun Studios.”

If people just have a 30-minute lunch break, they “have the option to go further” with his service, he says. They don’t have to eat close to where they work or pay to park. They also can do emails and text on their phones will they ride. “It’s saving them time.”

His service also takes out “a lot of the guesswork” for tourists, he says. “I’m the first person they see for recommendations.”

They began with a soft opening last year, but went full-time during the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, Windless says.

They now operate between 7 a.m. and 12 a.m. during the week and 7 a.m. until 2 a.m. on weekends.

And “The Lifter” is expanding. “We’ve already purchased two more carts.”

The knickers and red-and-white socks are part of his weekend outfit, which also includes a cap, a red and white polka dot bowtie and Chuck Taylors, Windless says. During the week he wears khakis and blue jeans, but everything else stays the same.

His headgear either will be a Memphis Redbirds or Memphis Grizzlies cap, Windless says. “I’m always going to be representing Memphis.”

………………….

Michael Donahue

IMAKEMADBEATS and PreauXX at the release of Stuntarious Vol. III at Railgarten.

Unapologetic released “Stuntarious Vol. III” July 30th at Railgarten. It’s the third volume of a series of compilations dropped by Unapologetic every summer since 2016.

The EP features Cameron Bethany, IMAKEMADBEATS, AWFM, Kid Maestro, PreauXX, Aaron James, ISpeakWIthaFift, Idi Aah Que, MIIDAS, Blueprint, Mean Joe Scheme, R.U.D.Y., C Major, and Coldway.

“It went great,” says Unapologetic producer/founder IMAKEMADBEATS. “Some of the stuff we tried, we’d never tried before. It worked out very well.”

As for its meaning, “Stuntarious” is “a word we created,” he says.

Most of the material was recorded at Dirty Socks studio.

…….
Michael Donahue

Chip Googe performs with his band, 40 Watt Moon, at Lafayette’s Music Room.

My colleague, Memphis Flyer senior account executive Chip Googe, and his band 40 Watt Moon, have a show booked for August 10th at The Blue Monkey on Madison.

I’d recommend going. I saw his show June 12th at Lafayette’s Music Room.

“The best way to describe us is power pop,” Googe says.

The band performed music from its first album, August in Grace, which was released in 2006. The group currently is recording its next album at Young Avenue Sound and American Recording Studios. That album is slated to be released in a few months.

In addition to Googe, who plays lead guitar and is background vocalist, are guitarist/lead vocalist Kevin Pusey; bass player/songwriter Michael Duncan; and drummer Vince Hood.

[slideshow-1]

Categories
News News Blog

Group Plans Civic Hackathon to Address Social Issues

A gathering to generate ideas to address social issues in Memphis is set for this weekend, August 3rd- 4th on the riverfront.

The “civic hackathon” is hosted by the Fourth Bluff, an initiative aiming to revitalize and connect public spaces Downtown.

The two-day event is designed for people to come and share ideas for ways to tackle the various social issues in the city. Shamichael Hallman, the civic engagement coordinator for the Fourth Bluff said he wanted to take the traditional hackathon concept and “put a social-minded spin on it.”

“I often hear people talk about various issues as though they don’t have the power to do anything about it,” Hallman said. “They are waiting to see who else will act, but I’m hoping an event like this will make people think ‘we can actually do something about this.’”

The first day will be an “evening of inspiration and networking,” followed by a “day of ideating and hacking.”

On Friday, over dinner, attendees will hear from a speaker panel comprised of local social entrepreneurs like Tony Knox, founder of Fitnexx, a fitness gaming system and Sarah Petschonek, founder of Volunteer Odyssey, a platform designed to connect people with volunteer opportunities.

For Saturday’s discussion, attendees will break into groups to tackle the focus areas: civic engagement, cultural fragmentation, and chronic homelessness.

This means generating ways to get people involved in the government process, bring people together, and bridge the gap among the city’s homeless population, Hallman said.

After the event, Hallman said the Fourth Bluff will help connect those who want to pursue their ideas to the necessary resources or groups who are involved in similar work.

“We hope this is the first of a set of ongoing events,” Hallman said. “We want relationships to form to create a framework for these events to happen again. It’s an important opportunity to bring together a diverse group of people in public place.”

Bringing people together in public places is one of the goals of the Fourth Bluff, which is a piece of the national Reimagining Civic Commons initiative. Other cities participating in the three-year initiative include Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Akron. In Memphis, the Fourth Bluff project is seeking to empower people to “take back, recapture, and reclaim” public places in order to create spaces that are welcoming to all, Hallman said.

The hackathon here will take place at the Beale Street Landing, beginning at 3 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday. Everyone is welcomed and it is free to attend.

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Eighth Grade

Elsie Fisher as Kayla in Eighth Grade

FULL DISCLOSURE: Once upon a time, I was in eighth grade. So I may have some bias in my feelings about this film. Eighth Grade follows Kayla (Elsie Fisher) through her last week of middle school, complete with a one-sided crush, pool party, awkward sex ed video, and all the classic elements of a teen movie. It also investigates Kayla’s online persona and relationship with social media, which, in addition to casting actual young people in the parts of the teenagers, makes the movie feel shockingly accurate.

Half the story is told through the screens of digital devices, with Kayla’s entire life outside of school revolving around her laptop and smartphone. She posts video blogs of herself speaking to her computer’s camera, with monologues that are partially the sage wisdom of self-help memes (“You can’t be brave without being scared!”) combined with tongue-tied word vomit that is both familiar and painful to watch. Although Kayla’s video blog personality preaches confidence, it’s clear that she’s uncomfortable in her skin. The success of vloggers hinges on their performance of authenticity — “being real” while simultaneously appearing optimistic, carefree, and cool — which Kayla mimics, but ultimately fails to conceal her anxiety and awkwardness.

Teens today are six times more likely to experience anxiety and depression than they were 80 years ago, thanks to the impossible expectations of neoliberalism and social media. While my generation of Old Millennials used the internet to explore our identities and our feelings through online forums and blogs, we were almost always anonymous. We had been taught that it was dangerous to use our real names, and through our internet names and avatars, we were able to play with aspects of ourselves in a private/public way without the risk of social ridicule or the permanence of making a real-life decision about how we spent our time and who we spent it with. We could choose to sit at a different lunch table in the virtual world with none of the social consequences we knew at school.

The internet I grew up with officially died when Google bought YouTube and forced us to give up our anonymity, to use our legal names in place of our chosen handles. Now that social media encourages users to showcase their real lives, teenagers perform as themselves, all of them trying to mirror what they see as acceptable or cool according to the unending feeds on their screens. In Eighth Grade, Kayla is constantly scrolling, reacting, living on her phone. In her desperation to be cool and to be accepted, she creates an overly curated online persona, applying makeup along with a video tutorial, so that she can get back in bed and post a selfie captioned, “I woke up like this, ugh.” Like many of Kayla’s statements, these words are not her own, and by utilizing memes rather than speaking in her own way, Kayla can bypass the chance that she will be judged or ostracized in case her personal thoughts are deemed “wrong.” The scrutiny, from herself and everyone around her, is constant. The performance never ends.

Kayla is probably becoming an interesting person, but most of what we learn about her is surface level. I wanted to see a little more of Kayla’s off-screen home life, but maybe she doesn’t have one. Even in her room, typically a teenager’s safe haven, Kayla obsessively interacts with an internet audience that rarely responds. She’s never truly alone. So who would Kayla be if she were performing only for herself? If she ever does get close to solitude, Dad barges in with his dorky jokes and exasperating “I love you’s.” Her replies to his attempts to communicate range from stone-cold to downright mean, mirroring the popular girls’ reactions to Kayla. The parallel hints at a larger cycle of violence, in which young people respond to traumatic experiences of growing up by enacting cruelty on each other and themselves. At school, the students participate in active shooter drills (with special thanks to the drama club) but there are no lessons on communication, compassion, or consent.

The movie never pushes too hard in any one direction, but rather orbits smoothly around its protagonist. The new frontiers of dating and sexuality are approached with caution, and thankfully, we’re spared most tired teen movie tropes. The storytelling feels gentle and supportive, with small doses of blood, fire, and tears, because it just wouldn’t be a coming-of-age story without the hard stuff. Director Bo Burnham’s well-rounded approach presented a full picture of a modern middle schooler. I’m glad he didn’t go further to tackle the reality of adolescent girlhood, considering he’s never been one. Other directors could take a page out of Burnham’s book in that regard.

ACTUAL FULL DISCLOSURE: Once upon a time, I was a dorky eighth grade girl with acne, anxiety, and exactly zero friends, just like Kayla. I also played cymbals in the school band, and if I’d had a smartphone, laptop, and wifi, I probably would’ve been just as internet-obsessed as Kayla. I related to her immensely and low-key cried through the whole movie, not only because of the genuine representation of teen girl loneliness, but also because I realized I was still holding so much pain from my life as that person, in that body, and watching this movie was a healing experience I didn’t even know I needed.