Month: August 2018

Fallout From the August Election and Predictions for November

Post author By Jackson Baker
Post date August 16, 2018

Here we go again. The voting round that concluded on August 2nd with a virtual Democratic sweep is the second local election in a row in which a resurgent Democratic Party has demonstrated quantifiable strength at the polls, just as it did in the May 1st county primary election, when the Democrats totaled 44,768 votes against 30,208 for the Republicans.
And here again, too, comes some of the skeptical second-guessing that followed that outcome, the tenor of which is that an apt reading of the numbers actually proves the opposite of what the election results seemed to indicate.

My resourceful and distinguished friend John Ryder, the former general counsel of the Republican National Committee and as eminent a Republican as can be found in these parts, assayed forth in The Commercial Appeal last weekend with an analysis of the August 2nd election that mirrored his conclusions about the previous one.

On the prior occasion, Ryder juggled some numbers from past elections in order to demonstrate that, as he insisted, the voting curve actually favored Republicans and that Democrats would discover on the then-far-off date of August 2nd, that conditions boded ill for their party.

But, just as the Ides of March inexorably came for Caesar, the 2nd of August would come in for Ryder and other GOP optimists — with the aforementioned result, a sweep for Democratic candidates in countywide races and a measurable gain for them in other positions.

Predictably, however, Ryder managed to find solace in the numbers. More Republicans across the state of Tennessee voted for governor in their primary than statewide Democrats did in theirs, he noted, a finding that led him to conclude: “This does not bode well for the Democrats in the November election.” Considering the difficulties incurred by Ryder since his similar prophecies in May, it may just be that his bod-o-meter is out of order and needs to be serviced.

Or he may be right, of course, in implicitly predicting a victory for Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Lee, who certainly emerged from the GOP primary as a likeable new face, and who, perhaps conveniently, lacked any political record and thus was immune to the knife-throwing tactics of his chief Republican opponents, Randy Boyd and Diane Black, who managed to slash each other into irrelevance.

Or maybe the problem was that Boyd and Black were engaged in a desperate contest to see who could more accurately pose as a loyal minion to President Donald Trump. Trump deigned not to confer his official favor on either, for better or for worse.

In any case, the Republicans’ four-way gubernatorial race (which included also state House Speaker Beth Harwell) certainly generated more press attention than did the Democratic race between former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and the woefully underfunded House Democratic Leader Craig Fitzhugh. That could be one explanation for the numbers differential of the two parties’ gubernatorial votes — which Ryder cites as gospel, despite declining to accept the Democrats’ edge in mayoral-primary voting as an indicator back in May.

Whatever the reasons for his thinking, Ryder seems implicitly to be predicting that 7th District Congressman Marsha Blackburn, an outspoken Trumpian with The Donald’s full endorsement, will triumph over her Democratic opponent for the U.S. Senate. That would be former Governor Phil Bredesen, a middle-of-the-road veteran whose two gubernatorial terms were won with significant crossover votes from Republicans and independents, and who has been faring well so far in competitive polling against Blackburn.

Trump’s coattails or more blue wave? Which bodes well — and for whom — in the November general election? It remains to be seen.

• If Jesse Jackson has his way, the blue wave will keep on rolling. The iconic civil rights veteran and former Democratic presidential candidate was in Memphis early this week on behalf of his Rainbow PUSH coalition’s effort to encourage more voter participation in this year’s election process.

Jackson spoke Monday

morning to students at Booker T. Washington High School, urging them to register to vote and to stand against violence in their neighborhoods. Afterward, asked his reaction to the Democratic sweep in the county election here, Jackson said he was pleased to see “blacks and whites voting together” in recognition of their “common interest” in “a very difficult season of our lives as Americans.”

Jackson said it was too early for him to get behind a specific presidential candidate in 2020. “We don’t know who’s running. It’s too early.” But he took the occasion to inveigh against the current electoral-college winner-take-all system of voting by states.

“The last time around, the loser won, and the winner lost,” Jackson said, noting Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 3 million popular vote edge. “We need a one-person, one-vote democracy,” he said. “Let the winner win, and the loser lose, to be fair.”

As for the Electoral College, “we never could apply to it,” he said in a bit of wordplay. What the country needs is “universal rights, not states’ rights.”

• Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a former local Democratic Party chairman who keeps a low partisan profile as a nonpartisan political official, was invited to deliver the opening statement Saturday at a “Hot Dogs in the Park” event in Overton Park celebrating recent Democratic election victories.

Strickland complied and launched into a congratulatory message to the sponsoring organization, the Democratic Women of Shelby County, and continued with several citations by him of progress on his mayoral watch, which he attributed in part to inspiration by the DWSC.

Commissioner-elect Tami Sawyer, a Democrat, is welcomed by GOP Commissioner Mark Billingsley.

A group of four or five protesters, led by activist Hunter Demster, began heckling the mayor’s brief remarks, yelling things like “Where’s Tami?” (an apparent reference to the absence from the event of County Commissioner-elect Tami Sawyer) and “How many African Americans?” in answer to Strickland’s claims of increased city contracting with firms owned by women or minority members.

In response to the heckling, event organizer Norma Lester called for a police presence, and a few squad cars pulled up, though the officers never entered the pavilion where the event was taking place and stood quietly, as observers on the periphery. After the initial heckling, there was no further interruption, and various newly elected Democratic officials contributed brief statements to the celebration.

• “Changing of the guard” was a largely unspoken theme Monday at what was the next-to-last full meeting of the Shelby County Commission before its newly elected members are sworn in at the end of the month. Such Commissioners-elect as Democrat Sawyer and Republican Amber Mills sat onstage on the periphery of the meeting, as outgoing members struggled to complete a lengthy agenda of unfinished business. Most got processed, but two key items — one levying a new tax on Airbnb domiciles and another involving a proposed new housing development in Collierville — were kicked back to committee, with but one public meeting left to consider them.

Tags Bill Lee, John Ryder, Karl Dean, Marsha Blackburn, Phil Bredesen, Tami Sawyer

News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1538

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date August 16, 2018

Bye, Boris

The controversial, law-bending $3.9 billion merger of Tribune Media and Sinclair TV collapsed last week when Tribune Media’s board voted to terminate the deal.

That means WREG-Channel 3 will remain a Tribune property and Memphis will be spared commentary from Sinclair’s senior political analyst and former Trump advisor Boris Epshteyn.

Dammit, Gannett

You know what? I’m not going to complain. It could have been worse.

It could have been like that time in 2017 when the Gannett-owned Commercial Appeal honored the best places to work in Memphis with awards featuring a picture of Nashville.

So, maybe we should all be thankful that the picture illustrating this ad for the CA‘s annual Most Memphis poll was, at least, taken in Memphis. You can even see a little skyline in the upper left.

But, if you take out your magnifying glass and squint, you’ll notice that it’s just a shot of the Bass Pro Pyramid’s southern parking lot. Under the interstate.

The ad’s from July. But, like they say, if you haven’t read it, it’s still a parking lot under the interstate. And that’s so Memphis. To somebody.

News The Fly-By

Eyes on You

Post author By Maya Smith
Post date August 16, 2018

CREDIT: Facebook/ Keedran Franklin

A court ruled last week that city leaders violated a 1978 federal court consent decree by gathering political intelligence on protesters over a two-year period.

The ruling by U.S. District Attorney Jon McCalla was an order denying the city’s motion for summary judgment, while granting part and denying part of the motion for summary judgement by the plaintiff, the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ALCU-TN).

The non-jury trial is set for Monday, August 20th. The lawsuit was filed in 2017 by the ALCU-TN after active protesters were added to Memphis City Hall’s “blacklist,” requiring them to be escorted while on the premises. The plaintiff alleges that the list was derived from political surveillance by the Memphis Police Department (MPD) during public protests, as well as private events.

“The consent decree’s definition of political intelligence does not depend on whether the conduct being investigated was lawful in the sense of being allowed under the city’s ordinances and does not depend on whether the city’s investigative acts were taken for the purpose of intimidation or harassment,” McCalla’s order reads. “Therefore, the city engaged in political intelligence as defined and prohibited by the consent decree.”

Facebook/ Keedran Franklin

participating in protests.

Bruce McMullen, the city’s chief legal officer responded to the order last week, saying that the ruling as “an interpretation of the definition of political intelligence under the consent decree” is “woefully outdated and impractical to apply in modern law enforcement.”

“Reading the consent decree literally, and applying it in today’s technological world, would require the police department to turn off all security cameras and body-worn cameras during a protest,” McMullen said. “It would prevent police from looking at publicly posted content and severely hamper their ability to provide public safety.

“We firmly believe the consent decree was drafted without any conscious thought of the technological advances that exist today, and that we have substantially complied with the consent decree in these modern times.”

The police department’s monitoring of social media for protests is non-partisan and allows the department to respond to public safety threats, McMullen said. Monitoring social media has allowed MPD to dispatch the appropriate number of resources to protect protesters, he said.

“We are proud that MPD’s efforts have prevented disruptions and violence from happening while allowing citizens to engage in their First Amendment rights,” McMullen said. “And we’re confident that the court will find that no one’s constitutional rights were violated.”

However, McCalla said there is a “genuine dispute” to whether the city disseminated any derogatory or false information for the purpose of political intelligence, whether the city passed personal information outside of law enforcement agencies, or whether the city has infringed upon First Amendment rights.

If the ACLU-TN is able to establish standing in trial next week, the court will determine the appropriate sanction, which will depend, in part, on how many and to what degree the decree’s provisions were violated.

It’s about citizens’ civil liberties, said Keedran Franklin, one of protesters on city hall’s former list.

“Our privacy is being attacked and violated,” Franklin said. “And we have a right to our privacy.”

We Recommend We Recommend

Kim Vodicka’s Psychic Privates

Post author By Chris Davis
Post date August 16, 2018

Kim Vodicka opens a freshly minted copy of her new book Psychic Privates and begins to read aloud at the table. Java Cabana has always attracted poets and spoken word artists, so it’s not a suspicious behavior. Nevertheless, after an almost but not quite whispered verse or two, she pauses, and her eyes roll mischievously from left to right to make sure we’re not shocking the neighbors too badly.

Vodicka’s poetry is “adult” in nature; a Romantic’s tour of the lower chakras with a calculated juvenile streak. Like a fusion of all the underlined parts in all the “dirty” dog-eared novels teenagers giggled over before the internet came along and took the fun out of smut.

“Before Psychic Privates became a full-length book, I tried experimenting with different media,” Vodicka says, describing the evolution of her work and her previous experiences reading it in public. “One of my dreams had always been to release a poetry record,” she says, recalling the tour following the release of her Psychic Privates EP — a chapbook on 7″ vinyl.

“Nothing’s more important than connecting with people in the live setting,” Vodicka says. “And, yes, I’ll play anywhere — coffee shops, art galleries, bookstores, which are typical for literary things, but I’ve also played dive bars, punk clubs, a microcinema in Tucson, the rooftop of a building in Dallas, and even a tennis shoe store in San Diego. I’m also a big believer in the informal performance, the one-on-one experience of sharing a work with someone, and the intimacy of that connection, which is really what I try to recreate live.

“I don’t want to be a poet for other poets, academics, and aesthetes,” Vodicka says. “I’d much rather be a poet for the average person on the street who has a thought in their mind and a feeling in their heart but maybe grew up on hamburgers and TV. What good is any of this if it doesn’t leave the congregation and the choir?”

Cover Feature News

CBD is Legal: Does It Work? Is It Safe?

Post author By Chris McCoy
Post date August 16, 2018

The Bust

In February 2018, 23 businesses in Rutherford County were raided by police. Operation Candy Crush came about when Rutherford County District Attorney General Jennings H. Jones acted on reports that stores in the area were selling marijuana-laced candies. Stores were shuttered, 21 people were indicted, and Jones held a triumphal press conference to let his constituents know that he was protecting the community against drug pushers.

But there was a problem with Operation Candy Crush. The products in question were derived from cannabis sativa, but they had no intoxicating effects. The gummies contained cannabidiol (CBD), but not tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

A few months before the raid, in May 2017, the Tennessee legislature had unanimously approved a measure legalizing the cultivation of industrial hemp in the state. The bill included a provision that allowed the sale of hemp-derived products containing less than 0.3 percent THC without a prescription, as long as the products are tested and clearly labeled.

“General Jones could not be more misguided in his attempt to interpret the law. He is completely mistaken, perhaps intentionally so,” Joe Kirkpatrick, president of the Tennessee Hemp Industries Association told the Murfreesboro Voice.

By March, all charges brought by Operation Candy Crush had been dropped, the stores reopened, and their confiscated cash returned. CBD was now unquestionably legal in Tennessee.

The Boom

For the past three years, Memphians Paula Robinson and her business partner, Tracy DuMars, have run a successful mail-order store through the online retailer Amazon. Last year, they were contacted by producers of CBD products asking them to consider selling oils, salves, candies, and sprays. At first, Robinson says she was hesitant. “You always get nervous because of state laws and the federal government. But everybody in the industry was talking about how CBD was legal in all 50 states. It settled our minds.”

Robinson and DuMars attended a “Hemp Summit,” where experts and early adopters in the burgeoning field of medicinal cannabinoids pitched their wares. “Everybody got up on stage and did their presentation, with their research and how long they had been in business,” says Robinson.

The pair were impressed with what they heard. “We decided instead of selling other people’s products, we would sell our own.”

They partnered with a skin-care products manufacturer who was eager to get into the CBD business and created Simply Hemp oils, oral sprays, teas, and even honey sticks infused with cannabidiol. But there was a problem: You can’t sell CBD on Amazon, because as far as the federal government is concerned, it’s still a Schedule 1 controlled substance.

“But that’s about to change,” says Robinson. “The Senate just passed the 2018 Farm Bill, that Mitch McConnell is a big player in. It will be in a separate category from marijuana: CBD from industrial hemp. It will be completely legal in the eyes of the federal government.”

Robinson and DuMars lacked a brick-and-mortar store, but started selling their products by mail and at fairs and flea markets. They found rapidly growing demand. “Since our first festival in April, we are getting repeat customers from everywhere we’ve gone,” DuMars says. “We have a lot of repeat customers for the sleep spray.”

Maggie’s Pharm has been selling dietary supplements and herbal remedies in Overton Square since 1979. Manager Sue Jordan says, earlier this year, they were contacted by Veteran Grown, a Clarksville, Tennessee, industrial hemp operation. “At first we were like, ‘Is this stuff legal?'” she recalls.

Sue Jordan (left) and Bella Golightly with CBD gummies, oils, and other products at Maggie’s Pharm in Midtown.

Bella Golightly, who works behind the counter at Maggie’s Pharm, knew there was pent-up demand for CBD. “So many people were asking for it before we even had it.”

Now, the CBD tincture, extract, sprays, and candies are flying off the shelves. Their restocking orders went from monthly to weekly. “It was pretty much instantaneous,” says Jordan.

What’s It For?

When I asked Facebookers for their experiences with CBD, I was inundated with testimonials. “I’m getting eye injections for Diabetic Retinopathy,” says Mitch McCracken. “I also have problems with Peripheral Neuropathy, which is nerve pain in my feet. Rest assured that since being diagnosed [with diabetes] in 2003, I have done a lot of research on how to live longer.”

For 15 years, McCracken’s diabetes has caused burning sensations in his feet at night and numbness during the day. “I take medication for it, but the pain and burning are still always there. That is, until recently. I no longer have to sleep with my feet sticking out from under the covers. No burning at night, no more numbness. What’s going on? My blood sugar readings are lower, my cholesterol is better, and so is my blood pressure. AND when I’m on Facebook and I read something I don’t like, I don’t feel the need to respond! The only difference is taking drops of CBD oil twice a day.”

Katherine Dohan has also seen great therapeutic effects from CBD. “I’m pretty obsessed with it,” she says. “It helps my pain and anxiety. It’s been a game-changer for me. I take several drops every night of CBD oil, and I’ve been vaping organic CBD throughout the day. An herbalist told me that you need to build it up in your system and keep dosing every six to eight hours for pain and inflammation. So I’ve been vaping it when I feel like it throughout the day — pretty often to be honest — and then talking three to five drops before I go to sleep.

Ally Aycock was one of several people who have found veterinary uses for CBD. “My dog is allergic to everything,” she says. “After six steroid shots in three years, I worried about the risk of long-term issues. I paid for allergy panels and put him on an allergy shot regimen. His condition did not improve. I changed his diet — and now give him CBD oil. The transformation has been amazing. No hives. No skin infections. No steroid shots.”

Sue Jordan became a CBD believer soon after Maggie’s Pharm started carrying the products. She says she uses it to treat pain from her temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ). “I take about a dropper full of extract a day. If I don’t take it, I can tell. I’m not taking Advil or naproxin or anything.”

One respondent, BL, who asked that her real name not be revealed, used CBD salves to replace opioid pain medications after having foot surgery to repair broken bones, ripped tendons, and accumulated scar tissue. “I had taken a fair share of pain meds until my friends bought me some balms/creams that I could rub on the hurt area, which would allow me to sleep,” BL says. “I also used CBD in combination with THC in the form of edibles to help with sleep and anxiety, so I simultaneously got off all pain meds and anxiety meds. Opiates make me feel high and drowsy, but also make me sleepless and have nightmares. CBD has no real side effects at all.”

BL says she now works in the field of addiction recovery. “The mind is a tricky thing. I would say that CBD does not pose relapse issues with recovering addicts. I might not recommend it for the first year or two of recovery, like many things. But, I think a lot of relapsing happens from methods not agents. Like all users of CBD, the recovering person should be educated about the product — its chemical make-up; how it is a non-narcotic, etc. I would not recommend vaping CBD to a person who has just quit smoking. I’d recommend a tincture instead.”

The Science

Is this all too good to be true? A growing body of research supports the anecdotal claims.

The cannabis sativa plant naturally produces more than 100 closely related compounds known as cannabinoids. For decades, black market marijuana growers have bred strains of the plant that concentrated a single cannabinoid, known as Delta-9-THC, in the unfertilized flowers or buds of the female plant. But in the process of optimizing their product for euphoric potential, they also discovered that different cannabinoids expressed in the plants could cause vastly different effects when ingested by humans. Cannabis had been used in traditional herbal remedies for millennia, but until recently there had never been a serious study of the chemistry involved. As cannabis has become legal in various states, more science was applied to the question, and CBD has emerged as the most interesting group of compounds.

“The CBD does not react with the same receptors as THC, and therefore does not produce the psychotropic effects associated with cannabis,” says Lindsey Carr of Midtown Chiropractic.

Lindsey Carr

Carr says her practice has been offering CBD products for about 10 months. “I started to carry them for my chronic pain patients due to their anti-inflammatory properties. … CBD acts on the endocannabinoid system. This system plays a role in many of our necessary functions, including mood, memory, pain regulation, and cognitive processes.”

Carr says the feedback has been very positive. “My patients have found CBD to be effective in relieving both pain and anxiety symptoms. I do not use CDB on a regular basis, but rather utilize it more as a ‘spot check’ if I am experiencing anxiety or inflammation. My senior Great Dane, Doc Holiday, is a daily CBD user. It has helped him recover from major bowel surgery and has helped to manage his arthritis.”

As a physician, Bradley Postlethwaite knows a thing or two about arthritis. “As a rheumatologist, I would like to see more clinical trials evaluating the potential of CBD for control of pain and inflammation,” he says. “More and more patients are inquiring about it for these indications. Preclinical studies and anecdotal accounts by a growing patient population suggest that CBD could have potential as an anti-inflammatory and analgesic agent.”

Postlethwaite says he has not been directly involved in any research, but first became interested in the chemical’s potential about eight years ago. “CBD is interesting for many reasons. It is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid, has a good safety profile, has unique pharmacologic properties, and possibly a broad range of therapeutic applications, based on both pre-clinical research and human clinical trials. It was the first (and currently only) plant-derived cannabinoid to be evaluated in randomized controlled trials. More importantly, it was approved by the FDA for treatment of rare, severe forms of epilepsy. This makes CBD the first cannabis-derived compound to win FDA approval — and even more interestingly, the only Schedule I substance to ever be FDA-approved for treatment of human disease.”

In 2017, doctors Kerstin Iffland and Franjo Grotenhermen published an extensive review of the existing body of research in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. They compiled all existing data on CBD’s physiological, neurological, neuropsychiatric, glycemic, endocrine, and toxicity and mutagenicity effects.

“In general, the often-described favorable safety profile of CBD in humans was confirmed and extended by the reviewed research,” the report concluded. “The majority of studies were performed for treatment of epilepsy and psychotic disorders. Here, the most commonly reported side effects were tiredness, diarrhea, and changes of appetite/weight. In comparison with other drugs used for treatment of these medical conditions, CBD has a better side-effect profile. This could improve patients’ compliance and adherence to treatment.”

Postlethwaite says CBD research is still in its infancy, but already there are tantalizing hints of deeper benefits. “The absolutely most interesting aspect of CBD is its potential as a tool in the treatment of a variety of cancers. A great deal of preclinical research suggests CBD may help slow growth of certain types of tumors and also decrease aggressiveness/metastatic potential in a variety of cancers.”

A 2006 UCLA study led by pulmonologist Donald Tashkin delved into the connection between marijuana and cancer. With more than 2,000 participants, it was the largest study of its kind ever conducted. “We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” Dr. Tashkin told the Washington Post. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”

By contrast, the same study found that subjects who smoked two packs of cigarettes a day increased their chances of lung cancer by 20 times. The findings have been controversial for years, but now appear to support the hypothesis that CBD in marijuana has an anti-cancer effect.

Postlethwaite cites a recent study on the effects of CBD for patients with aggressive brain tumors. “The findings of this clinical trial along with all of the aforementioned preclinical data seem to suggest that CBD may have a role in the actual treatment of cancer, not just alleviation of symptoms and pain. While CBD may not turn out to have the same potency as other anti-cancer agents when used as a stand-alone therapy, it certainly has a better safety profile than most drugs used in oncology, and thus could be a powerful add-on therapy.”

He emphasizes that this is very much an open field of study. “It’s crucial for cancer patients interested in trying CBD or any cannabis-based treatment to involve their oncologist in the process.”

What to Know

In the last 12 months, there has been a major proliferation of CBD products. As with any new product, consumers should beware. “Some of these companies — it’s hard to know how many — may misrepresent the dosage or content of CBD in their products,” says Postlethwaite. “Several came under fire from FDA after their supplements were tested and found to contain no CBD at all.”

Proper dosages have not yet been established, except for anti-seizure and epileptic applications. “Randomized trials are needed to determine effectiveness and recommended dose for treatment of arthritis and pain in humans, but if you extrapolate the data from preclinical studies, the average 70 kg human would seem to need a minimum dose of around 400 mg daily to have an effect on arthritis pain. Recommendations on dosing are usually included with these products and generally translate to less than 100 mg daily. Assuming CBD works as an anti-inflammatory or analgesic agent in humans, the effective dose is likely higher than what most individuals are taking.”

But while CBD is exceptionally non-toxic, as far as drugs go, the same can’t be said for any additives in the various over-the-counter CBD products in stores now. Users should research the manufacturers and be wary of additives.

“You want to know where the hemp is grown and whether or not it is organic,” says Paula Robinson of Simply Hemp.

A “full spectrum” product contains several different cannabanoids, while an “isolate” contains just a single cannabanoid isolated for a particular effect. Most of these claims have not been evaluated by the FDA, so users should be cautious while finding the ones that work for them.

“There are no official guidelines yet,” says Robinson. “Everyone’s body is different, everyone’s needs are different. … We don’t just want to give people the product and send them on their way. We want to educate people.”

Tags CBD oil, CBD products in Tennessee, CBD shops in Memphis, Maggie's Pharm, Memphis hemp sales

Music Music Features

Jonathan Kirkscey: Memphis Music’s Renaissance Man

Post author By Alex Greene
Post date August 16, 2018

The world of classical music evolved dramatically by the end of the 20th century, to a point where now, well into the 21st, traditional notions of proper music and genre boundaries have all but dissolved. No one in Memphis exemplifies the shift better than musician and composer Jonathan Kirkscey.

For years, music fans have known him as the city’s go-to cellist for bands and performers that want to expand their sonic palates. Aside from his regular work with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Kirkscey has recorded with everyone from soul giants like Al Green and Solomon Burke to indie-rock artists like Cat Power and the late Jay Reatard. And he’s honed his composition skills on soundtracks as diverse as Mike McCarthy’s Cigarette Girl, Robert Gordon’s and Morgan Neville’s Best of Enemies, and Neville’s recent Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, a new documentary on PBS icon Fred Rogers.

IMDB

Jonathan Kirkscey

While his work for the Emmy-winning Best of Enemies in 2015 garnered him the International Documentary Association’s award for best music in a documentary, Kirkscey’s latest score for Neville marks a new expressiveness in his work that may win him even more acclaim. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, the soundtrack, is already available on streaming services and soon will be released as a vinyl LP. Add the critically acclaimed series of Mellotron performances he’s helped stage locally, as well as his frequent work with the new music-oriented Blueshift Ensemble, and you have all the trappings of a true Renaissance man of Memphis music.

Kirkscey’s well suited to genre-hopping. After taking up cello at age 6, he also dabbled in piano. “We had a piano at home when I was growing up,” he recalls. “Although I didn’t take piano lessons, I’d play it for fun.”

In his teens, Kirkscey played guitar. “I was into Metallica and Slayer and Helmet. Angry teenager music! Actually, I played in my first-ever band in high school with Hemant Gupta, who I still play with in Mouserocket. It’s not what people usually want me to do when they have me compose a score, but if they want me to write a song that sounds like Ministry or Metallica, I can do that!”

While that particular skill set wasn’t required for his Mr. Rogers project (though one can dream), the film did take him into new territory as a composer.

“Best of Enemies definitely had more of that Philip Glass or Steve Reich influence. But with Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, there’s a lot of emotional turns. So it wouldn’t work as well having a minimalist, repetitive thing going on underneath it. It needed to reflect those emotional shifts,” he says. “So there ended up being more twists and turns in the music. Morgan Neville pushed me to get more complex, harmonically. There’s definitely more chromaticism in this one. More modulating to different keys and exploring different harmonic areas.”

In layman’s terms, it translates into some truly poignant passages that reveal the inner, darker moods of television’s favorite toddler-positive persona.

Such success seemed unlikely when Kirkscey got his first soundtrack job. “Cigarette Girl was the first film I scored. I wasn’t really a composer at that point, but I played in a band with Mike McCarthy, the director, called Fingers Like Saturn. He mistakenly thought that I was a composer, because I had done some arranging for string quartets. I really didn’t know what I was doing, but I just said yes and hoped I would figure out how to do it. It was very stressful, but as hard as it was, it made me want to do it more. It really inspired me.”

Kirkscey is staying busy. There are more soundtracks to tend to, mixes of his live Mellotron recordings with Robby Grant, Pat Sansone, and John Medeski to supervise, and performances of music by John Cage and others to rehearse for this weekend’s Continuum Music Festival. (Hear Kirkscey discuss the festival in the video clip below).

Jonathan Kirkscey: Memphis Music’s Renaissance Man

The festival, enthuses Kirkscey, is indicative of a nationwide sea change in musical tastes. “There’s a different attitude among the younger generation of classical musicians. They’re a lot more open to playing music from other genres, and there’s been an explosion of new music ensembles in the U.S. in the last 20 years. If you want to breathe life into a genre, you gotta perform new music.”

Tags Jonathan Kirkscey, Won't You Be My Neighbor

Food & Wine Food & Drink

Cool As a Cucumber Drinks for Summer

Post author By Andria Lisle
Post date August 16, 2018

CREDIT: Kaiskynet | Dreamstime.com

I was enjoying dinner at Char last week — a payday tradition for me and a good friend — on one of those August days when the temperature soars so high that it feels like fall is a long way off. At Char, a great dining experience if you’ve never had the pleasure, I usually sip a Woody Creek Mule, made with a craft potato vodka distilled in Colorado. Last week, however, my finger wavered over the menu, and I selected Char’s tequila cocktail instead.

It was the best decision I’ve made all month.

The waiter delivered a concoction of Tres Agaves Blanco, cucumber liqueur, lime juice, cilantro and jalapeño syrup, and Vinho Verde wine. Served in a highball glass, the drink was a delight, easy on the palate, and utterly refreshing. It had a complex flavor: The cucumber and peppers mingled with the fruity notes of the tequila and Vinho Verde.

Two were my limit, but the drink has caused me to reappraise cucumbers. The timing couldn’t be any better — right now, cukes are at peak production here in Memphis. The crisp, juicy vegetables can add a real tang to your late-summer cocktails.

For the last several days, I’ve been sampling drink recipes at home. I’ve sliced and muddled cucumbers. I’ve made cucumber simple syrup. I skipped the cucumber-and-lime flavored carbonated soda I spotted on the shelves at Target, but I did splurge on a $21 bottle of Thatcher’s Cucumber Liqueur, which is bottled in Michigan but tastes like it’s straight from the backyard garden.

Kaiskynet | Dreamstime.com

And if September is as sultry as it can be, I’m sure I’ll try one of the cucumber vodkas on the market. I’m tempted by Effen Cucumber Vodka, bottled in the Netherlands, and Prairie Cucumber Vodka, which is distilled up the river in Minnesota. I’m also intrigued by Cucumber Bitters bottled by German distillery The Bitter Truth, a company that took top honors for their Celery Bitters at Tales of the Cocktail New Orleans 2010.

I like simple cocktails, and the Cucumber Cooler, a cocktail I found on the Minimalist Baker’s website, is quick and easy. Simply add 1½ ounces of gin, a few slices of lime, and 6 mint leaves to a shaker and muddle. Add 4 to 6 cucumber slices, shake vigorously, and pour into an ice-filled glass. Top the drink with tonic water (I used Schweppes diet tonic water) and stir. Let it sit for a few minutes to meld, then enjoy. If it’s too tart for your tastes, add a tablespoon of sugar to the ingredients in the first step next time.

Cucumber gimlets take a little more time to make, but the payoff is worth it. Start with 2 cucumbers, slicing off a few nice pieces to use as garnish. Set those aside, then coarsely chop the rest of the cucumbers. Puree the vegetable in a food processor, then strain and discard the solids, reserving at least one cup of cucumber juice. In a large pitcher, combine the cucumber juice with a half-cup of gin, 4 teaspoons of lime juice, and a tablespoon of sugar. Add a cup of ice cubes, and stir until the mixture is cool and all the sugar has dissolved. Strain the drink into Martini glasses, garnish with lime and cucumber slices, and serve.

I used more homemade cucumber juice to recreate the Cucumber Lime Tequila Cocktail recipe I found on a website called Food with Feeling. The drink called for lowball glasses, but I used a taller glass to combine 3 ounces of cucumber juice, 1½ ounces of lime juice, 1½ ounces of tequila, and a quarter-teaspoon of sugar over ice. Then I topped off the drink with club soda and garnished it with a lime wedge and a slice of cucumber. It might not have been as fancy as the cocktail I was served at Char, but it tasted just as refreshing.

Tags Char, Cucumber drinks for summer, Lime Tequila Cucumber, Tres Agaves Blanco

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Memphis Pets of the Week (August 16-22)

Post author By Susan Ellis
Post date August 15, 2018

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.

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News News Blog

REI Opens Next Friday

Post author By Toby Sells
Post date August 15, 2018

REI opens here next Friday in the Ridgeway Trace Center at Poplar and I-240.

The 23,000 square-foot store has taken shape in the space that once housed Sports Authority. The shopping center is also home to a Target, Best Buy, and more.

REI is a specialty outdoors store, headquartered in Seattle, Wash. It claims to be the largest consumer co-op in the country with a dedicated following of more then 17 million members.

The store offers outdoor gear, expertise, classes, and trips. It has 152 stores in 35 states and Washington, D.C. The Memphis store, REI’s first in the city, will employ 50 and include a full-service bike shop.

“People in Memphis love the outdoors, whether it’s biking, paddling or camping,” said Annelise Danielson, REI Memphis store manager. “We are excited to join this community and help connect people in Memphis to a life outdoors. We’ll offer the best gear for the activities they already love, and in-store workshops for those who want to try something new.”

Starting in September, REI Memphis will offer in-store workshops including camping basics, backpacking basics and women’s kayaking basics.

To celebrate the new store, REI Memphis will host a party next weekend with free breakfast, music, games, giveaways, and REI Outdoor School programs. The activities begin at 8 a.m. Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Events end at noon on all three days.

The first 250 people (age 18 and up) through the door on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will receive a water bottle with a $10, $50, or $100 REI gift card inside. Doors open at 10 a.m. on Friday, 9 a.m. on Saturday, and 11 a.m. on Sunday.

REI has partnered with Ghost River Brewing on a limited-edition India Pale Ale, Happy Herd IPA. REI and Ghost River Brewing will donate 10 percent of beer sales to Shelby Farms Park Conservancy.

The company has also donated $20,000 to three Memphis nonprofits: the Wolf River Conservancy, Overton Park Conservancy, and Shelby Farms Park Conservancy. Funds will support trail restoration and other improvements.