Blame it on Hamilton. The Orpheum’s summer film series is no more, due, in part, to the fact that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit musical’s coming to camp in Memphis for almost the entire month of July. As it happens, this is great news for fans of old movies who like to see their favorite flicks projected on the big screen. Instead of being confined to the hotter months, Movies at the Orpheum is now a year-round film series, and the new tradition gets underway Friday, January 11th with the classic Hollywood musical, Singin’ in the Rain.
Singing in the Rain
Singin’ in the Rain‘s a perfect film to launch with. When it came out in 1952, The Orpheum was Malco’s Downtown movie palace. And the best thing about this tuneful story, apart from the all the fancy dancing and great chemistry between its principal players, has always been its delicious film-on-film satire. Singin’ in the Rain is a movie about movies and about how Hollywood transitioned from silence to sound, starring Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, and, perhaps most importantly, a flickering silver screen. With wall to wall standards like “Good Morning,” and “Make ’em Laugh,” some singing along seems likely.
There’s no official schedule yet, but Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny team up in Space Jam Friday, March 15th, and, in celebration of Memphis’ bicentennial, the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line screens Friday, April 26th.
Additional dates and titles will be added throughout the year.
“Singin’ in the Rain” at the Orpheum Theatre, Friday, January 11th 7 p.m. $8 for adults and $6 for children 12 and under. orpheum-memphis.com/movie.
Ysaac Ramirez will leave his post as chef de cuisine at The Gray Canary on Dec. 31.
Ramirez, 38, says he’s leaving to “pursue another opportunity and possibly open my own restaurant in Memphis, hopefully.”
When he was 15, Ramirez moved from California to Memphis, where he graduated from Bartlett High School and L’ecole Culinaire.
Nine years ago, he went to work for Jackson Kramer at Interim. He then began his long tenure at restaurants owned by Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman.
He was one of the opening cook at Hog & Hominy before becoming a pasta cook at Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen.
Ramirez then moved to North Carolina, where he worked for Colin Bedford at The Fearrington House Restaurant & Village. He then worked in the restaurant at The Carolina Inn in Chapel Hill.
Rameriz was back working for Ticer and Hudman when he moved to New Orleans and helped open Josephine Estelle, where he was sous chef. He then became executive chef at the Ace Hotel in New Orleans.
After two years, he moved back to Memphis and helped open The Gray Canary, which opened Jan. 23, 2018.
When he opens his own restaurant, Ramirez would concentrate on Latin cuisine. “Going back to my heritage,” he says. “My dad is from Mexico. Just going back to my roots and incorporating not just Mexican cuisine, but various Latin-style cuisines. And dealing with a lot of seafood.”
Two of Memphis’ heaviest blues-inspired rock bands are set to perform at Minglewood Hall this Saturday, December 29th. The Dirty Streets will open for Tora Tora, and there is sure to be wah pedal aplenty at this last Saturday-night concert of the year.
Both bands recently recorded at Sam Phillips Recording Service on Madison, and Tora Tora are gearing up to release a new album, Bastards of Beale (Frontiers Records), their first new recording in years. “The last studio album we did for a label was in ’94, when we were on A&M Records,” guitarist Keith Douglas says. “We felt like we picked up right where we left off.” That was the band’s third record, their last on A&M, Revolution Day, which the label shelved for years. Tora Tora eventually released the album themselves on FnA Records, “a small label out of Nashville,” in 2011. “Right around that time, in the early ’90s, when grunge hit, record companies shed a lot of their rock bands,” Douglas says. “We got shown the door with everybody else.” It’s not as though that was the end of the story for Tora Tora, though, and Douglas doesn’t sound bitter or critical as he references the end of that chapter for the band. Chris Neely
Tora Tora
The new album’s title refers to the band themselves. As a hard rock band that often performed in the blues-centric venues of Beale Street, they were something of an anomaly. But the members of Tora Tora have a long history with the blues — it clearly informs their sound, even if they don’t play the straight-up 12-bar variety — and they have a long history with Beale. “We were hanging out down there before we were old enough to be in bars,” Douglas says, explaining that, even as friends before the formation of Tora Tora, he, Anthony Corder, Patrick Francis, and John Patterson would hang around Beale, soaking up the music. It’s a time-honored Memphis tradition — loaf around Beale taking in the music and the raucous energy. “That was in our blood from when we were kids,” Douglas says, but he also admits to other influences, name-checking Tom Petty and Styx. But the lessons learned on Beale never seem far from Douglas’ mind. “Lights up the River,” from Bastards of Beale, is a blues performer’s perspective on Memphis, a rural musician determined to play his way to the bright lights of Beale. “A lot of it is about Memphis,” Douglas says of the new record.
Though Douglas points out that much of returning to write and record with Tora Tora has felt comfortably familiar, the recording process was something of a break from tradition. The band, as was standard operating procedure for bands signed to major labels at the time, spent long hours, even weeks, in the studio, and usually did most of their tracking at Memphis’ Ardent Studios. Bastards of Beale, though, was recorded in a much shorter period of “six or seven days” at Sam Phillips. There was some continuity to the sessions, though; Tora Tora brought on Jeff Powell, who has been producing and mixing records for 30 years, and whom they worked with before at Ardent.
“We’ve got a lot of history with Ardent,” Douglas says. For a performer who has played on major label tours, Douglas shows a fondness and familiarity with the city that’s been his band’s home base, and talking about Ardent sparks some memories — like when Tora Tora performed at the Levitt Shell in 2015 as part of “Press Play: A Tribute Concert to John Fry and John Hampton.”
“We miss John Hampton and John Fry both,” Douglas says. “[Hampton] was so great for us. He helped us develop.” Douglas remembers Hampton sometimes turning up at the band’s rehearsals, making suggestions. Douglas goes on, mentioning a long list of Memphis musicians, vocalists, producers, and engineers he’s worked with over the years.
But for all the history in the rear-view mirror, Tora Tora have big plans for the new year. The group already has some concerts lined up in Texas, and Bastards of Beale will be released on February 22, 2019. Douglas says the band plans to mix in some new songs at Saturday night’s concert, but fans should expect to hear a lot of Tora Tora’s classic material.
Bob Bayne
The Dirty Streets
The Dirty Streets will open the concert at Minglewood for Tora Tora. It’s a tasteful pairing: two bands on the rougher, rawer side of rock, with a heaping dose of blues in their backgrounds but with a willingness to experiment and embrace other genres. Both bands have a flair for energetic performance, and the Dirty Streets also recently recorded an album at Sam Phillips.
While Tora Tora’s new album is as yet unreleased, the Dirty Streets self-released their fifth album, Distractions, in September of this year. It’s a strong showing from a band that has steadily grown and evolved since their first outing, Portrait of a Man.
Their first record was released in 2009, shortly before I first saw the Streets perform, their rumbling Fender amps crammed between shelves of vinyl in Shangri-la Records. Portrait of a Man was recorded at the Hi-Tone over a holiday weekend, when the bar was closed. Andrew “Buck” McCalla engineered the album. The sessions went well, but the recorder ate the files, forcing the band to wait for another holiday before re-recording the entire album in another marathon two-day session, with McCalla again behind the soundboard.
“We’ve never recorded an album without at least one major malfunction,” frontman and guitarist Justin Toland says. “We’re five albums in, and now I just expect things to go wrong.”
Toland reels off a list of irrecoverable files, blown amps, and guitar solos lost to studio gremlins, chuckling as he does so. The singer and guitarist has the air of someone who’s learned not to try to force a sound or idea. Rather, Toland has a performer’s grace, ready to roll with whatever the gremlins throw at him. “It’s all about funneling that tension,” Toland elaborates, saying he and bandmates Thomas Storz and Andrew Denham have learned to channel frustration back into the performance. Those time-honed skills are evident on the self-released new album, which is brimming with ready-to-cut-loose energy.
“We’ve always had crazy strict deadlines,” Toland says, continuing on the theme of past recordings, but, he says, the Streets decided not to rush Distractions. “We took our time on this one,” Toland says, describing a relationship the band has built with producer Matt Qualls over the course of a (so far) three-album collaboration.
Toland says Qualls came on board on their third album, Blades of Grass, which was when the band began to focus more on production, adding layers of instrumental tracks. That process of layering helped build the Dirty Streets sound — beefy guitar riffs that vibrate the listener’s skull like buzzsaws. The collaboration continued through the Streets’ stellar fourth release, Whitehorse, and into 2018’s Distractions. The result is a full-bodied sound that bolsters the Streets’ natural talent for raw energy without detracting from the immediacy of the songs; the tracks on Distractions sound no less live for the extra production. Rather, the tasteful work by engineer Wesley Graham, Qualls, and the boys in the band only serves to help capture the ear-ringing, bone-shaking roar that is a live performance by these psychedelic blues-rockers.
And there will be more Dirty Streets concerts to come in 2019. Toland says the band plans to tour in the spring to support the record. In the meantime, the next time Memphians can catch the band is at Minglewood Hall, this Saturday.
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam wants to hear your comments on a new statewide water plan that came thanks, in part, to the ongoing concerns of the Memphis Sand Aquifer.
In January, Haslam organized a committee to study Tennessee’s water assets here, a group comprised of leaders from federal, state, and local governments, industry, academia, environmental advocacy groups, and public utilities.
“Tennessee is blessed with great sources of water today, but we should never take that for granted,” Haslam said in a statement. “As our state grows, we must maintain our capacity to meet our water needs. That takes a plan, and I am grateful for the amount of work that has gone into this issue.”
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The group studied surface water, groundwater, and natural aquatic systems. They reviewed the state’s water and wastewater infrastructure, water law, and recreation areas. The group then made recommendations to maintain water availability here in the future. That plan — called TN H2O — was made public in early December and will be open to public comment through the end of February.
Here are some recommendations from the plan:
• Address current and impending infrastructure needs. A mechanism should be established to address unserved areas, infrastructure repair/replacement issues, and funding shortfalls faced by rural systems.
• Develop a comprehensive water resources planning process and planning cycle based on good science and information (consistent monitoring, data collection, modeling, trending, and reporting) that includes all major users and stakeholders.
• Develop a campaign to help the public and decision makers understand the value of water and natural resources and complexity in managing them.
• Encourage greater collaboration and communication concerning Tennessee’s water resources.
• Evaluate existing laws to assess their implementation (e.g., Water Resources Act, Watershed District Act, and Water Resources Information Act) and determine and enable proper jurisdictions for regional water planning and programs.
• Use the state water-resources task force or advisory committee and regional water-resources jurisdictions to facilitate intrastate and interstate regional cooperation.
• Identify sustainable funding for all TN H2O recommendations.
“This plan will help inform our future leaders — inside and outside of government — on important steps they can take to ensure our abundance of water,” said Deputy Governor Jim Henry, who served as chairman of the committee. “This plan will need continuous and close attention to keep our economy and quality of life thriving for future generations.”
The need for such a plan came as the state’s population is set to double over the next 50 years, according to the news release form Haslam’s office. But it also came “along with recent concerns over the utilization of the Memphis Sand Aquifer, droughts that have impacted numerous Tennessee communities, failures of aging drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, and interstate battles over water rights.”
The plan is available for viewing here. The comment period ends February 28th, 2019.
The number of holiday travelers in Tennessee and across the nation are expected to break records this year, according to AAA.
The auto club began tracking holiday travel in 2009 and officials there believe more will travel this season than any other previous year. AAA considers the holiday travel period to be from Saturday, Dec. 22nd through Tuesday, Jan. 2. The eleven-day period is one day longer than last year, according to AAA, as Christmas and New year’s Day fall on Tuesdays.
AAA
About 2.7 million Tennesseeans — two of every five people who live in the state — are expected to travel this season, AAA said, a 5.1 percent increase over last year. About 2.5 million will travel by road. About 70,000 will fly this year, and 93,000 Tennesseans are expected to get on a train, bus, or cruise ship.
About 112.5 million Americans are expected to travel this holiday season, according to AAA. About 102.1 million will travel by road, 6.7 million by plane, and 3.7 million will travel by bus, train, or cruise ship.
“Tennesseans, even more than the average American, are traveling in record numbers this holiday season journeying to spend time with friends and family,” Stephanie Milani, AAA’s Tennessee public affairs director, said in a statement. “Gas prices below year-ago levels is a nice gift for any driver this season, but strong economic growth fueled by robust consumer spending also continues to drive strong demand for seasonal travel.”
AAA
AAA expects gas prices to remain low throughout the holiday season. Prices fell about 51 cents across the country from October through December to an average of about $2.40 per gallon (as of Dec.12th). But AAA expects those prices to rise as the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will cut production for the first six months of 2019.
Christmas music is a hallowed tradition, especially in a city built on music. And there are plenty of chart-topping yuletide tracks that have emerged from Memphis studios, like Elvis’ “Blue Christmas”, or the entire album by Booker T. & the MGs, In the Christmas Spirit. Such masterpieces get plenty of airplay, and, in the case of the MGs, tribute concerts recreating the entire album live (thanks to that masterful tribute band, the MDs).
But there are plenty of neglected gems, twinkling like ornaments at the back of the tree. Let’s see what surprises we may find behind the tinsel…
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks
And hey! Look who we found hanging out back there — Elvis! “Mother Nature wears a bridal gown,” sings the King. Hmm…who’s the lucky fella? Sounds like it might be Santa, for this is from Elvis Sings the Wonderful World of Christmas. Bassist Norbert Putnam writes evocatively about recording this album in his recent book, Music Lessons, Vol. 1. True, the Bluff City doesn’t get snow very often, but a fella can dream, can’t he?
And of course, we all know Carla Thomas’ brilliant “Gee Whiz, It’s Christmas,” don’t we? Most Memphibians do, and here are some paying tribute to the original in miniature. Yes, it’s the Memphis Ukulele Band, bringing a wonderfully earnest version with a well-crafted arrangement. The key line, “Oh by the way, it’s snowing,” always gets me, as I imagine silent flurries sweeping past the Stax marquee.
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (3)
Speaking of Stax, there were plenty of holiday tracks cut there. When the late bassist Duck Dunn toured the newly rebuilt Stax building one summer, he remarked how strange and welcome it was to finally have air conditioning in the museum. It’s hard to imagine that, through all those years of hits, they were cutting tracks in the Memphis swelter without climate control. Pioneers! It gives one renewed admiration for the MGs. Just imagine them recording their holiday masterpiece there in the summer of 1966.
And while we’re visiting Stax (which may have been the most Christmassy label in the city’s history), let’s tip our hat to this answer song, of sorts. Everyone’s dreaming of a White Christmas, yada yada yada. Let’s appreciate a Black Christmas too, while we’re at it.
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (2)
Yes, let a thousand alternative Christmasses proliferate! Moon Records was all about “alternative,” back in the day. They were the other rockabilly label named after a celestial orb, and the label’s queen and CEO was Cordell Jackson. Here’s her shout-out to those who celebrate the season with bongos and jazz cigarettes. I’m still waiting for an actual be-bop interpretation of this song.
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (5)
And, since we know how scary jazz can be for some folks, here’s Cordell once again, bringing Christmas rock to the world:
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (6)
Speaking of alternative, the decades following Moon Records’ heyday have been more and more about the growth of once-underground cultures. The beatniks have taken over, and alt-rock is king. Nowadays, we have thousands of slightly tweaked visions of sugar plums. Heck, even I have dabbled in the genre, and both Reigning Sound and Big Ass Truck were early adopters of Christmas motifs. Here’s a gem from BAT’s own Robby Grant, whose band Vending Machine has a long track record of holiday cheer. On this latest addition to his ever-growing Christmas “album,” he recruits several other Grants.
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (6)
And they’re not the only family band this season. Just get a load of this offering from the Burks family, who could go pro at any minute. Note to other Memphis parents: we need to step up our game!
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (14)
This is just the tip of the Memphis alt-Christmas iceberg, of course. Some years ago, underground champions Makeshift Music released an entire album of holiday music from the city’s back alleys and hidden corners. Here’s one that conjures the disarming frankness and intimacy of the Magnetic Fields, but with a Bluff City angle. Yes, it’s Tommy and Trace Bateman.
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (7)
And here’s another from this intriguing compilation. Time to rock the holidays with the True Sons of Thunder!
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (8)
And another, because doesn’t Christmas make you want to hear some Joy Division or Bauhaus?
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (10)
It turns out there are plenty of noirish, sci-fi takes on the season, including Robert Traxler’s mashup of samples and electronic noise from this year’s Memphis Concrète holiday event at the Hi Tone. Keeping that icy holiday sheen going, we peruse Soundcloud, where New Memphis Colorways keeps things human in the face of all the tech that capitalism can muster:
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (9)
This year, in honor of these yeoman musicians’ indefatigable commitment to gigging, even on Christmas Day, here’s the latest from the Sheiks’ secret holiday studios. It brings to mind the goofy songs/skits the Beatles would visit upon their fans “at the end of every year.”
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (11)
And now I must go finish my holiday shopping: It’s time to “wrap up” this blog. Yes, plenty of gems were left out, but I hope this has only marked the beginning of your Christmas journey. Check out the Easter Egg links in the text above for more, and if you really want to get raunchy (I don’t, not at this hour), you can groove to Indo G’s “Santa’s Ho House” from 2002. (Pro tip: the album also features such hits as “Frosty the Blowman” and “All I Want for Christmas is my Charges Dropped”). But how can we quit before hearing one of the greatest, most hypnotic Christmas blues ever cut in the Bluff City? Here’s Jessie Mae Hemphill bringing things back home, and back down to earth:
Get Yer Nog On With These Rare Memphis Christmas Tracks (12)
Mark Edgar Stuart, Kyndle McMahan, Jason Freeman, Logan Hanna, and Jon Hornyak, aka The Memphis Ukulele Band, bring you a very Bluff City Christmas. Director Kim Lloyd mixed live footage of the band playing at Lafayette’s with 8mm home movies from the Sam Phillips archive showing the mastermind of Memphis music at home with his family. Lloyd dedicates the video to Becky Phillips and Louise Layton, and we dedicate it to you, our loyal MVM readers, on this holiday season.
ServiceMaster, city-owned golf courses, new health benefits for Shelby County Commissioners and more made this year’s Pork Report from Nashville’s Beacon Center, a free market think tank.
Each year the center lists the biggest examples of what it deems to be government waste in its report.
Here are the Memphis and West Tennessee morsels from the report.
Beacon Center
Shelby County Commission benefits — “Christmas came early”:
Did you know that in order to have lifetime health and life insurance benefits, all you have to do is serve on the Nashville Metro Council for two terms? It seems that Shelby County Commissioners got word of that, and this year, Commissioners voted themselves those same types of benefits once they have served on the commission for eight years. Those benefits are estimated to rack up a tab for taxpayers between $6 and $10 million. For Shelby County commissioners, Christmas presents came early this year, while local taxpayers got stuck with the bill.
TNECD
A view of the megasite looking north from I-40.
West Tennessee Megasite — “a complete and unmitigated disaster”:
The practice of corporate welfare is bad enough, but the Memphis Regional Megasite really takes the absurdity of this practice to a whole new level. Tennessee decided to spend $144 million of taxpayer money and eight years to “develop” an empty field, with the hope of attracting businesses at some point. That means we spent nearly $150 million with absolutely no commitment from any business to open up shop there.
What’s worse is that apparently the $144 million and nearly a decade still wasn’t enough to make that site “shovel-ready,” so now the Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) received another $30 million for wastewater improvements. Several businesses have passed over the site for other states, yet officials want to waste even more of our hard-earned dollars on a job site with no actual jobs. To top it all off, the government will have to take people’s private land through eminent domain to bring the project to fruition.
This entire project has been a complete and unmitigated disaster. We are going to spend over $170 million and still have absolutely nothing to show for it. Even if a big company does eventually move to the Megasite, there is no possible way that taxpayers will get our money back. The worst part about this is that there is no end in sight. Who is to say that ECD won’t ask for another $100 million next year if the site is still unoccupied? Tennessee needs to learn the idea of a lost cause and sell this barren land to the highest bidder.
City of Memphis
The Links at Galloway
City of Memphis golf courses — “Memphis lost over $2 million”:
Instead of spending tax dollars on essential public services like roads, public safety, and schools, local governments across Tennessee spend millions on city-owned golf courses that continue to lose money. In 2017 alone, Memphis lost over $2 million dollars trying to operate eight golf courses.
Why should fans of any other sport have to subsidize the hobby of golfers, a sport that is generally played by wealthier constituents? Even worse, why are governments competing with private businesses that offer the same service but don’t have access to taxpayer funding, putting them at a severe disadvantage?
Even if you love golf, it’s not the role of government to use your tax dollars to enter the golf business. Taxpayers should demand their local governments take a mulligan on the concept of funding golf courses and focus instead on vital services.
Collierville Middle School PTA/Facebook
Collierville Middle Band Director Embezzles — ”using these funds on personal gambling trips…”
Former band director and band booster for Collierville Middle School Jason Seek was charged with embezzling after a state Comptroller investigation discovered that Seek misappropriated $133,064 of band booster funds.
Seek was found forging signatures and creating elaborate schemes to cash checks and withdraw funds from ATMs over the course of roughly five years. Seek was caught using these funds on personal gambling trips to Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, and even Las Vegas.
ServiceMaster
ServiceMaster Moves Downtown — ”What’s next? The government giving money to the McDonald’s across the street.”
Earlier this year, employees for ServiceMaster began reporting to their newly renovated office in the old Peabody Place mall in Downtown Memphis after relocating from their former location on the edge of town. The renovation and relocation was announced in 2016 and cost more than $35 million.
Everybody loves a good ol’ HGTV-style renovation with an open concept and natural light for their office, but does government need to fund it? The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, which has never seen a taxpayer handout it doesn’t like, gave ServiceMaster $5.5 million to aid in the move across town, despite knowing that ServiceMaster would not create a single job in exchange for the grant money.
Company officials are hoping the renovation helps the company “recruit technologically savvy and creative millennials.” What’s next? The government giving money to the McDonald’s across the street to serve kale chips and kombucha to get them to spend money eating out for lunch instead of brown- bagging it?
If ServiceMaster has trouble attracting programmers with man buns, that’s their problem to fix, not the problem for Tennessee taxpayers to subsidize.
The five most memorable sporting events I attended in 2018:
5) Redbirds 4, Oklahoma City 3 (September 9) — There are no analytics that measure The Stubby Touch. But it was on full display in Game 4 of the Pacific Coast League semifinal series between the Redbirds and Oklahoma City Dodgers. Leading the series two games to one, with a chance to advance to a second straight championship series, the Redbirds fell behind, 3-1, in the top of the 10th inning (in a game scheduled for seven innings as part of a potential doubleheader). With two outs and two strikes, Alex Mejia drilled a line drive single just over the glove of the Dodger second baseman to drive in the tying run. An intentional walk to Max Schrock ensued and forced Memphis manager Stubby Clapp to send his pitcher to the plate, having exhausted his supply of bench players. Giovanny Gallegos clubbed a ball into the left-centerfield gap for the series clincher. It was his second at-bat in seven professional seasons. The Stubby Touch.
St. Jude Marathon
4) Tigers 52, Houston 31 (November 23) — Teams that start league play 1-3 are not supposed to play for a conference championship. But thanks to help from other middling teams in the American Athletic Conference’s West Division, the Tigers found themselves playing favored Houston for a chance to face undefeated UCF in the AAC title game. The Tigers’ incomparable running-back duo of Darrell Henderson (178 yards, two touchdowns) and Patrick Taylor (128 yards, two touchdowns) were too much for the Cougars. Three of the tandem’s four scores came in the fourth quarter after Houston had tied the game at 31. Oh, and Tony Pollard was there with 116 receiving yards, 83 on the ground, and a 37-yard kickoff return. Stars were shining this Friday afternoon at the Liberty Bowl, and Memphis indeed clinched a second straight division crown.
3) Tigers 76, Tennessee Tech 61 (November 6) — I’ve sat courtside at Memphis Tiger basketball games for the better part of two decades. I’ve been able to read tattoos on the likes of Derrick Rose and Will Barton, hear the screams of John Calipari and the cheers (alas, too infrequent) of Donna Smith. But on this night, I confess to staring more than a sportswriter should during game action. For there on the Tiger sideline — finally, after making us wait more than seven months! — was coach Anfernee “Penny” Hardaway. The announced crowd (15,231) made it feel like a major conference clash in late February, and not merely Tennessee Tech on the other bench, the Tiger football season still going strong. Senior forward Kyvon Davenport scored 30 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to help Memphis win Penny’s first game as a college coach. But the star of this show was wearing a coat and tie, a new era dawning only a few feet from where I sat.
2) Redbirds 5, Fresno 0 (September 15) — Randy Arozarena drilled a three-run homer in the first inning and a two-run bomb in the eighth. Jake Woodford pitched seven shutout innings. And the Memphis Redbirds clinched their second straight PCL title (and first at AutoZone Park since 2000). Despite suiting up 66 players over the course of the season and sending only two position players — Wilfredo Tovar and Tommy Edman — to the field with 2017 championship credentials, Memphis ended another season with champagne showers. Having won Game 3 with the first squeeze play of their season (Mejia drove in Edman), the Redbirds made the celebration seem almost formulaic.
1) St. Jude Marathon (December 1) — If you don’t get a lump in your throat at the sight of thousands of runners on Riverside Drive — all for the kids at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital — your throat isn’t designed properly. My wife, Sharon, ran this year’s marathon, her first (at age 50). Attending a marathon as a spectator is somewhat similar to a golf tournament except the athletes are, you know, running. I caught a glimpse of Sharon (she claims she saw me) on Front Street, early in the race. Then I did my own jogging, first to Riverside (around mile 7), then to Carolina Avenue. From there, I drove to Midtown, where I saw her closing in on mile 20 on North Parkway. All the while, other spectators ringing bells, flashing signs of support, and calling these runners what they are: heroes. It’s the single greatest sports day in Memphis, Tennessee, and may not need the “sports” qualifier.
The Grizzlies have lost five straight games, including three straight on their current five-game road trip. After a 14-5 start that had them atop the Western Conference, the home team is now 16-16 and sitting outside of the top eight playoff seeds in 10th place. Larry Kuzniewski
JB Bickerstaff
Whenever a team has a fall from grace like this, there is always a wide range of reactions and responses. Fans are asking, “Is this who the team really is?” “Do the Grizzlies need to do something drastic to shake up the roster?” “Are we about to move to Nashville?”
Well I haven’t heard that one yet, but it wouldn’t be a Grizzlies season without someone worrying that each and every loss inches us closer to Nashville.
Probably the most common response to the Grizzlies recent run of mediocrity has been an increased amount of criticism towards first-year head coach J.B. Bickerstaff. Bickerstaff, who filled in for David Fizdale after Fizdale was fired early last season, is serving in his first permanent role as a non-interim head coach after stints as interim here in Memphis and in Houston. Many of the questions concern his perceived under-utilization of rookies Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jevon Carter, and his over-use and over-dependence on the players who stand in their way the most — Jamychal Green and Shelvin Mack.
This year’s Grizzlies roster is far from perfect. As a matter of fact it has a generous helping of flaws. Mike Conley and Marc Gasol are at the twilights of their respective primes and there is no other consistent scorer outside of those two. There is definitely a need for talent upgrades in certain areas, but I, for one, believe that a lot of the Grizzlies’ problems don’t come down to “trade this player and trade that player” but more to “play this player and not that player.”
Yes, the Grizzlies could trade for another scorer or shooter, but in the meantime, I believe that a lot of the team’s roster issues can be remedied internally. Maybe the most unsettling feeling that I have is that we are leaving bullets in the chamber. It’s the feeling of not maximizing everything that the team has to get the best results — and that, unfortunately, points directly to Coach Bickerstaff.
Do I think that Bickerstaff is a bad coach, in general? No. I’ve seen bad coaches and I’m not quite ready to label him as such. He’s a phenomenal defensive coach and has the genuine, unanimous respect from his players — something that has been a rarity throughout the history of the Grizzlies. Is he stubborn? Yes. And it is clearly to his detriment. It makes me wonder if someone from the Grizz front office or owner Robert Pera himself has ever addressed Bickerstaff about certain things.
Unlike the three Grizzlies coaches before him, Bickerstaff comes off as the one who would most likely respond well to criticism — or a decree — to make a change, which makes me wonder if it’s ever happened.
Pera has been around the team up close lately and I, like many, would love to hear his thoughts. We have a rookie in Jackson who has all of the tools to be a superstar and it often seems as though Bickerstaff handles him with unnecessary caution. This was clearly seen in Friday night’s 102-99 loss to the Kings, in which Jackson had 12 points in the first quarter, then went scoreless and, more importantly, was under-utilized for the rest of the game. Jevon Carter brought life into a Houston game last week and he was not rewarded for his performance, either.
It’s odd. It’s head-scratching. It’s frustrating. Bickerstaff seems to manage his rotations as if the Grizz are a star-studded super team that doesn’t need a young star like Jackson or a defensives spark like Carter to help win games. They are both treated like luxuries, instead of two players that the team needs to help them win. Bickerstaff is old-school, cut from the same cloth as his father, Bernie Bickerstaff, and former Grizz Coach Lionel Hollins. He comes from a belief that rookies have to wait their turn and that it’s best to rely on your veterans to win. But, in my opinion, his over-dependence on Grizz veterans has cost him several games this season, and has rightfully brought him criticism.
In a season where you already are at a talent disadvantage, there is no excuse for not using all assets that you have at your disposal. He’s a new coach with old-school ways, a combination that so far has had mixed results.
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