Month: March 2019

Categories
Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

Memphis In May Scientist Warns Against Dinosaurs In Tom Lee Park

‘Artistic’ rendering of proposed changes to Tom Lee Park.

Dr. Ian Malcolm, Senior Chaos Theorist for Memphis In May, warned of grave danger to the public if a plan devised by the Memphis Riverfront Public Partnership (MRPP), to exhibit genetically engineered dinosaurs in a newly revamped Tom Lee Park, is allowed to go forward.

“Life will find a way,” the dashingly handsome, black-clad scientist told an enraptured crowd at a recent public forum on the proposed revamp of the city’s premiere riverfront acreage.  [pullquote-1]
MRPP was represented by Dr. Perceval Petrodopolos, a paleo-genetic engineer who said new advances in CRISPR technology has enabled him to reconstruct the genomes of dinosaur species that have been extinct for millions of years. The dinosaur DNA material was recovered from blood found in the stomachs of mosquitoes trapped in amber and spliced with that of dinosaur descendants such as frogs and birds. Plans and renderings unveiled by MRPP showed brontosaurus, tyrannosaurus rex, and velociraptors playing whimsically with school children among the rolling hills of Tom Lee Park.

“The lack of humility before nature that’s being displayed here staggers me,” said Dr. Malcolm, pounding the table. “Don’t you see the danger in what you’re doing here? Genetic power is the most awesome force mankind has ever seen, but you wield it like a kid who has found his dad’s gun!”

“I don’t think you’re giving us our due credit,” said Dr. Petrodopolos. “I have done something that has never been done before!”

“But you were so preoccupied with whether they could, you didn’t stop to think whether you should,” replied Malcolm. “Isn’t that right, Dr. P.P.?”

Dr. Malcolm described the prospect of revived, probably carnivorous thunder lizards  sharing a park with some of the top musical acts in the country and tens of thousands of revelers during the Beale Street Music Festival as “chilling. I simply cannot guarantee the safety of the food trucks and merchandise vendors in such a situation.”

Dr. P.P. was incredulous at what he called “Luddism from a scientist” and questioned why Memphis In May even needed a chaos theorist on staff.

Dr. Ian Malcolm

“Have you ever been to Music Fest?” replied Dr. Malcolm.

City officials are expected to rapidly approve the Jurassic improvements to Tom Lee Park, which will include pterodactyl roosts on the heavily populated bluff overlooking the riverfront.
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YES! This article is a parody. We said so in the tab up top!

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Snazzy-Line ft. Ryan Peel, Webbstar & Rico

Feeling snazzy this Music Video Monday? You’re not alone.

Memphian Ryan Peel sends us this music video from Japanese artist Snazzy-Line (aka Hidetaka Fujiki).

“Hidetaka initially flew to Nashville to make his record, but after some organizational issues, was sent to me by a mutual friend. Then, sight unseen, Fujiki rode a bus to Memphis and we began creating his album! Fast forward a few months and one more round-trip flight from Japan, Hidetaka returned to finish up the rest of his record and I hosted an event (30for$30) to showcase his music and shoot this accompanying music video. This was an incredible experience for both of us and I was able to employ multiple Memphis artists to complete the vision: Rico Fields (Negro Terror), Derek Brassel (Black Cream), Stephanie Doll McCoy (Adajyo), and WEBBSTAR.”

Shot and edited by Josh Collins and Bronson Worthy, here is “Life Of The Party”:

Music Video Monday: Snazzy-Line ft. Ryan Peel, Webbstar & Rico

If you’d like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com. 

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Apollo 11

Who has two thumbs and just landed on the dang moon?

Anyone who thinks the moon landings were fake should see Apollo 11.

The moon race was a unique kind of Cold War competition. The technologies of war and mass destruction were redirected towards peaceful exploration. The contest was not who could kill more, but who could go farther. And for once, that exploration was victimless.

There were no indigenous populations in space — at least, none that we know of — to displace. The Apollo program was an intersection of state propaganda, engineering, and science. That means that it was documented every step of the way by the most advanced photographic equipment available. Unlike other major historical events, many of the artifacts produced were cataloged with an archivist’s care in real time. There’s more real, verifiable, physical evidence that we went to the moon that there is of your birth.

Every so often, NASA gets the footage out of the nitrogen-filled vaults where it is intended to last until the fall of technological civilization and gives some filmmakers, armed with the latest video and audio technology, a crack at it. The last time this happened was in 1989, with For All Mankind, a film cut together from Apollo archival footage and contemporary interviews with the astronauts. It’s an amazing documentary that won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and was nominated for an Academy Award. But that film has been overshadowed by its score, an instant ambient classic by the creator of the genre, Brian Eno.

Apollo 11 premiered at Sundance 30 years after For All Mankind. Instead of offering an impressionistic interpretation of the entire three-year lunar exploration program, the new film focuses on the first moon landing. All the footage is from the two weeks around July 20th, 1969, when the attention of the world was focused on Cape Kennedy and the sky above.

Director/Editor Todd Douglas Miller had access to all of NASA’s archives of 16mm, 35mm film, and hours upon hours of audio recording. Incredibly, the team even uncovered some previously unseen 70mm footage taken by a NASA documentary crew wandering through the crowds gathered on the beach to watch the launch. Ordinary people gathered to watch history in the making turns out to be some of the most compelling footage from a film where people land on the moon.

All of these sources were digitized in the highest possible resolution, color corrected, and transferred to IMAX size. It’s a good reminder of the resolution possible from even 16mm film. The images you’ve seen, like the long slow pan up the Saturn V, are stunningly rendered here. But there are lots of footage that have never been seen before, like the closed circuit video footage of the astronauts climbing into the elevator. The haunted look on Neil Armstrong’s face as he suits up makes a good argument for Ryan Gosling’s emo spaceman performance in First Man. The spacecraft, blown up to IMAX size, look like steampunk contraptions from a different age. The walls of the lunar module are clearly as thin as aluminum foil, and flex madly in space when a thruster washes across them. You can clearly see the reflection of Buzz Aldrin in the window as he films Neil Armstrong taking the first steps on the moon.

Miller’s editing is uncannily good. He takes inspiration from the other great cultural documentary about 1969, Woodstock, and uses splitscreen liberally and effectively. While not nearly the equal of Eno’s Atmospheres, Matt Morton’s score, created using vintage synthesizers, throbs and booms majestically. The film is a masterpiece of visual storytelling that is destined to have a very long life in educational and science center IMAXes all over the world.

It is a melancholy experience to watch the triumphs of Apollo 11 in 2019. This is what We The People could accomplish if we put our minds to it. And yet we have a Russian-installed gangster in the White House helping as the super rich loot the country. We have a scientific challenge that needs addressing with the same urgency as the space race, and much larger stakes. But we have a climate change denier in charge who wants only to profit from the destruction of technological civilization.

Back to the moon landing conspiracy theorists. There’s no way what we see in Apollo 11 was faked. The scale of it is just too big, and the results too haphazard. It’s obvious most of Apollo 11 was shot by people with very little cinematographic training. Kubrick’s vision of space travel was clean, hygienic, and effortless. Apollo 11 is dirty and precarious.

I think it’s significant that the moon landing conspiracy theory first surfaced in its modern form on Fox television in 1999. If a simple hour of deceptively edited TV could erase from the minds of millions the greatest propaganda triumph of the twentieth century, then the sky was the limit.

Now we have people being manipulated into believing Hillary Clinton’s satanic pedophile ring is based in a DC pizza joint. The trick is not to erase the images you don’t want, or even create fake images. It’s to convince your marks to reinterpret all images in the way the propagandist wants you to interpret them. Meaning itself is systematically destroyed. Apollo 11 simply strives to reconstruct the events from the existing evidence. And for that simplicity, it might be one of the greatest documentaries ever made.

Apollo 11

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Mixed Messages on Gambling Legislation

Although a bill that would allow betting through sports-books in Tennessee  advanced in the state House Departments and Agencies subcommittee last week, other measures to liberalize gambling were headed off, two of them via pressure from Governor Bill Lee, according to a Memphis legislator.

As a direct response by an alleged intervention by Lee, two bills that were to be heard in a House committee on Wednesday, both sponsored by state Representative Larry Miller, were delayed, and one, HB 130, proposing a Constitutional Amendment to allow the legislature to authorize casinos, was taken off notice.

The other Miller measure, HJR 142, which would authorize the state comptroller to conduct a study of the financial impact on Tennessee of legalized gambling in adjacent states, was “rolled” a week, and is scheduled to be taken up at the subcommittee’s meeting this coming Wednesday.

Asked about the two bills, Miller said essentially that he’d been warned off by a liaison person from Lee’s office, who visited him last Tuesday on the governor’s behalf, “flagged” the Constitutional Amendment (which is to say, warned him off); Miller says that he intends to bring the Constitutional Amendment bill back, but only after some serious organizing of support.

Miller says his decision to delay HJR 142, calling for the impact study, was also related to the word he’d received from the governor’s emissary.

“It just seemed to me that this was not a good moment to be asking for a decision on measures involving gambling. I’m going to try to build up some more momentum,” said Miller, who indicated that he intends to bring back a version of HJR 130 at some point and to go ahead, as indicated, with consideration next week of the financial-impact measure.

Apropos Miller’s foreboding about timing, Representative Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) got a turndown on Wednesday in the Department and Agencies subcommittee on another bill for a Constitutional amendment to allow bingo games for charity (HJR 102).That measure was turned down on voice vote after Griffey received an admonition from subcommittee chairman Bill Sanderson (R-Kenton) that legal bingo had a “tragic history” in Tennessee and that a former Secretary of State [Gentry Crowell] had committed suicide [in 1959] at a time when his office was under investigation for corruption in relation to regulation of bingo games.

Sanderson identified the scandal as being “Tennessee Waltz,” but that FBI sting came later. The one in 1959 was designated “Operation Rocky Top.”

Griffey asked for a roll-call vote on the subcommittee, but Sanderson ruled that his gavel had already come down and that the matter could not be renewed.

There was no indication that Griffey’s experience was in any way related to gubernatorial intervention, but it did perhaps underscore the climate for such bills right now and Miller’s reluctance to put his bills up for grabs.

A spokesperson for the governor was unable to confirm that Governor Lee had intervened with Miller concerning either of his measures.

Meanwhile, HB 1, the aforementioned sports betting measure allowing sports-books and online sports betting received a tentative okay in the Departments and Agencies subcommittee and was passed along to the full State Committee. The bill would allow local-option voting on the creation of sports books and would allocate some proceeds to vo-tech education.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Jeremiah’s Time

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

Four Tiger basketball players who transferred to Memphis in 2017 will be saluted this Saturday at FedExForum, and rightfully so. But with due respect to Kareem Brewton Jr., Kyvon Davenport, Mike Parks Jr., and Raynere Thornton, let’s call this year’s Senior Day what it should be called: Jeremiah Martin Day in Memphis. A Tiger who averaged 2.7 points (and 13.8 minutes) per game as a freshman will likely finish his career among the top ten scorers in Memphis history and 10th in assists. There are precisely two other players over a century of Tiger basketball who rank as highly in both categories: Elliot Perry and Joe Jackson. Last month, the pride of Mitchell High School became the first Tiger to score 40 points in two games in a career (and he came three points shy of doing it a third time). A player who seemed misplaced upon his arrival will leave the program among the most memorable of all time. “It’s been a journey,” emphasizes Martin, “but it’s been great, no regrets. No looking back.”
Larry Kuzniewski

Martin’s journey has included time with three different head coaches: Josh Pastner his freshman season, two years with Tubby Smith, and this season under Penny Hardaway. His first practice was at the Larry Finch Center. His last will be at the extravagant Laurie-Walton Family Basketball Center. “It’s a different program,” says Martin. “Every coach has different philosophies. My first year was a struggle, the transition from high school. Coach Pastner was always on me about playing hard, making myself fit in. I was turned into a full-time point guard; that was one of the hardest parts. Coach Smith was about doing everything the right way. And Coach Hardaway shows us how to be a pro. He and the entire staff emphasize how to be a professional.”

Few players in Memphis history personify the concept of development at the college level like Martin. After stumbling as a freshman, Martin took command of the Tiger offense as a sophomore, handing out more than twice as many assists (142) as turnovers (63), then earned second-team all-conference honors in 2018 when he finished second in the American Athletic Conference in scoring (18.9 points per game). He recovered from a foot injury that ended his junior season and today represents his team’s only real chance to win the AAC tournament and capture a prize that’s eluded him to this point: an NCAA tournament berth.

“The one thing I didn’t know he could do is score in volume,” says Hardaway. “He averaged 19 points last year, but to score 40 in a half [as Martin did at USF]? To catch fire and catch rhythm like that? That’s amazing; he’s amazed me this year.”

Martin’s not at ease discussing his skill set, but acknowledges an improved jump shot magnified his threat on the offensive end. And then there’s confidence, the intangible that tends to grow exponentially when a player spends four years in college. “I can play at my own pace,” says Martin. “I can get players — on offense or defense — to play at my pace. I can speed them up, or change speeds. I didn’t envision myself being the same player I was last year. It comes with putting in the work.”

Martin counts Faragi Phillips, his coach at Mitchell (and currently the coach at Whitehaven High School), among those who’ve made the greatest impact on his rise as a player and person. He remains Memphis to the deepest part of his core, a connection he’s relished this winter as the city has come to appreciate and celebrate his remarkable play. “I could’ve left,” says Martin, “but I was loyal to the city, even more than the coaches. I love this city. I get to be with my family.”

With a one-year-old daughter, Martin has all the more reason to play near home, but he’s prepared for what’s next, wherever “next” may be. “I want to play in the NBA,” he says. “That’s my dream, what drives me. That should be everybody’s ultimate goal at this level. I want to be there, long term.” Whether or not his name gets called in June’s draft, Martin intends to play professionally, if not in the NBA, perhaps the G League or overseas. But for now, there are a few more games in blue and gray. Jeremiah Martin will finish his Tiger career as living proof that some stars shine brightest when not born, but made.

Categories
Music Music Blog

Musical Memorial Planned Sunday For Swain Schaefer

CREDIT: courtesy Swain Schaefer Memorial Page

Memphis native and journeyman musician Frederick Swain Schaefer passed away at his Nashville home on February 16, at the age of 70. Though his playing never made him a household name, he was beloved by many in the Memphis and Nashville music communities, and was one of those players who made the local rock, country and soul scenes hum. Many of his colleagues will gather on Sunday, March 3 at Huey’s Midtown to pay their respects and play music in his honor. 

courtesy Swain Schaefer Memorial Page

Swain Schaefer

Schaefer began his life in music with one foot in the big band era, having studied piano with Memphis bandleader and music store owner Berl Olswanger. But as a teen, he quickly jumped into the rock ‘n’ roll game, playing bass with the Scepters. By 1965, only a year after they’d formed, the group was in Royal Studios recording their first single. The A side, their version of Bobby Emmons’ “Little Girls Were Made to Love,” took off with regional DJs. As Ron Hall writes in Playing for a Piece of the Door, the single “did extremely well in the tri-state area and made the guys local celebrities.” 

Musical Memorial Planned Sunday For Swain Schaefer (3)

But the B side, written by Scepters guitarist John Wulff, offers more surprises:  

Musical Memorial Planned Sunday For Swain Schaefer (2)

Schaefer played with other groups from the same era, keeping his keyboard skills sharp with combos like the Memphis Blazers. His multi-instrumentalist talents culminated in his short tenure as the Box Tops’ bassist, starting in heavy touring year of 1969, when Alex Chilton and Gary Talley were the only original members left. Indeed, Schaefer was in London with the group when Chilton’s disenchantment with their management came to a head, partly due to a travesty of tour planning that left them stranded there with no gigs. Yet, as related in Holly George-Warren’s Chilton biography, when the singer announced he would leave the group while in London, Schaefer threatened “to beat him up and put him in the hospital.” 

The Memphis Blazers, ca. 1967, with Swain Schaefer on organ

Such incidents notwithstanding, after the inevitable collapse of the Box Tops, Schaefer was a regular visitor to Ardent Studios, often with Chilton, in those pre-Big Star days. “Alex and I’d get loaded and go into Ardent,” Schaefer told George-Warren. “I’d play organ, and he’d play piano. He liked Scott Joplin and played a couple Joplin tunes like ‘The Entertainer’ pretty well.”

From there, Schaefer built a life around music, rubbing shoulders with a number of greats. Here’s a song he co-wrote with Dan Penn, featured on Irma Thomas’ album My Heart’s In Memphis – The Songs Of Dan Penn, released in 2000.  

Musical Memorial Planned Sunday For Swain Schaefer

Indeed, Schaefer’s writing and arranging skills earned as much respect as his playing. As The Daily Memphian‘s H. Scott Prosterman writes:

Schaefer co-wrote the song “Happy Holidays” on Alabama’s double platinum 1985 “Christmas” album. Among the Memphis and Nashville musicians Schaefer worked with over the years were Delbert McClinton, Ronnie Millsap, Don Nix and Sid Selvidge. He collaborated with Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, Jimmy Griffin and John Paul David, and performed with Tony Joe White, Levon Helm, The Pointer Sisters, and with Ed Bruce on Austin City Limits. He was a member of the bands Wind Mill and Brother Love.

Jimmy Crosthwait, a bandmate and surviving member of Mudboy and the Neutrons, created marionette shows at Memphis’ Pink Palace Museum with Schaefer’s help. “Swain and I worked together recording the music and narration of several productions that I performed through many of those years,” Crosthwait said. “He did so without monetary compensation, and for very little recognition.”

A service was held Monday at the Church of Hope in Nashville, where Schaefer was the organist and musical director. In Memphis, a musical tribute hosted by Jimmy Crosthwait and Jimmy Newman will take place at Huey’s Midtown, on Sunday, March 3, 3-7 p.m. 

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We Recommend We Saw You

Remembering Rufus Thomas’s Birthday Party and More!

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

I had the pleasure of being a guest of honor, along with Rufus Thomas, at Thomas’s birthday dinner given by Eugene Phillips. Judging by my hair, this should be the late ’80s or early ’90s. I’m with Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Willie Bland and Ethan Taylor.

Parties given by Eugene Phillips are a part of Memphis music history many people don’t know about.


I began attending birthday parties given by Phillips for Rufus Thomas about 30-plus years ago. My birthday is around the same time as Thomas’s, so my birthday was celebrated, too.

They were amazing when I think back. Carla Thomas, Rufus’s daughter, was there and other music notables or relatives of music notables.

Phillips hasn’t stopped giving parties with music guests. In addition to celebrating Rufus’s birthday back in the day, Phillips celebrates his own birthday. I attended his recent birthday party, which was held February 10th at his Germantown home. His long-time friend Anita Ward, whose 1979 recording of “Ring My Bell” was a hit song, was among the guests.

I asked Phillips to tell me the history of his parties.

“Over 40 years ago, Sandy Lewis, who was on the board of St. Jude, took me on a tour of the hospital and I was so impressed,” Phillips says. “And, I remember, on my birthday people were always giving me a lot of gifts. Things I didn’t need.”

He told Ward, who was his next door, “I was thinking. I’ve got a birthday coming up. I’m going to ask them to take that money and donate to St. Jude. And they started doing it.”

To date, Phillips says he’s raised “over $80,000” for St. Jude.

The birthday parties for Rufus also began about 40 years ago, Phillips says. “I gave Rufus a birthday party. And Rufus told me, ‘I don’t care what’s going on on my birthday, what other people plan, I want my birthday dinner at your house.’ This is what he told me years ago. That’s why every year I always held Rufus’s annual birthday dinner. ‘Cause Rufus always enjoyed being in my home and with friends. People he felt comfortable around.”

Rufus had “two birthdays,” Phillips says. “The way that happened was he always celebrated on the 26th, and found out in later years his birthday was on the 27th.”

I remember the lavish spreads at Rufus’ birthday parties at Phillips’ home. “Baked turkey and dressing and candied yams. Rufus liked real food. We had a variety of salads and vegetables and wine. We just had everything.”

Rooms in Phillips’s home are named after his friends. He’s got the Rufus Thomas music room, the Bobby “Blue” Bland room, the George Nichopoulos room, the Pat Vanderschaaf room, and hallways named after Ward and attorney Jocalyn Wurzburg, and rooms named after Kelly and Dr, Greg Hanissian, Vera and N. J. Ford, and the children of the Church of God in Christ founder, the late Bishop C. H. Mason.

I asked him to save the garage for me.

Photos of his friends line the walls upstairs and downstairs in Phillips’s home.

“It is so nice to have memories,” Phillips says.

Michael Donahue

Eugene Phillips birthday dinner.

Michael Donahue

Michael Fahr, Zeina Alwafai and Eugene Phillips at Phillips birthday party.

Michael Donahue

Andreas Kisler with his wife, JoAnn, and son, Blade at Memphis Restaurant Association’s 55th annual banquet.

Chefs Andreas Kisler and Patrick Reilly, and non-chef (at least professionally) Shawn Massey brought home the bacon this year at the Memphis Restaurant Association’s 55th annual banquet, which was held February 24th at The Peabody.

Kisler, executive chef at The Peabody, was named Chef of the Year. Reilly, who, along with his wife, Deni, own The Majestic Grille, is Restaurateur of the Year. And Massey, a partner in the Memphis Office of The Shopping Center Group (TSCG), was named Associate Member of the Year.

Ernie Mellor is Memphis Restaurant Association president. Father Nicholas Vieron gave the invocation.

As one would expect, lots of food was on hand, including the cocktail portion of the evening. And, as one would expect, Kisler was in the kitchen getting the food ready.

Michael Donahue

Patrick and Deni Reilly at Memphis Restaurant Association banquet.

Michael Donahue

Shawn and Price Massey at Memphis Restaurant Association banquet.

Michael Donahue

Lynn and Ernie Mellor at Memphis Restaurant Association banquet.

Michael Donahue

Taylor and Hannah Hemphill at Memphis Restaurant Association banquet.

Michael Donahue

Amanda and Drew Cipala at Memphis Restaurant Association banquet.

Michael Donahue

Nick, a St. Jude patient, and Richard Shadyac at St. Jude Spirit of the Dream.

This year’s St. Jude Spirit of the Dream event honored the legacy African-Americans have contributed to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

More than 350 attended the event, which was held February 22nd in the Domino Event Center at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

A C Wharton acknowledged Dr. Rudolph Jackson, St. Jude’s first African-American doctor; attorney Robert L. J. Spence, the hospital’s first African-American pharmacist; and Dr. William Terrell, St. Jude’s first African-American resident.

A total of $110,000 was raised.

Gary Goin’s G3 Band performed.

Michael Donahue

A C Wharton and Mayor Jim Strickland at St. Jude Spirit of the Dream.

Michael Donahue

Christopher Greer and Javaris Tucker at St. Jude Spirit of the Dream.

Michael Donahue

Kiesha Davis and Christopher Capel at St. Jude Spirit of the Dream.

Michael Donahue

Les Passes Cabaret

……….

“Havana Nights” was the theme of this year’s Les Passees Cabaret, which was held February 23rd at Memphis Botanic Garden. That meant guests dined on mojo-marinated pork tenderloin, ropa vieja (slow cooked Cuban beef), and papas bravas (Spanish roasted peanuts).

The tradition of Living Ads – young women representing businesses and individuals – continued. This year’s Ads were Madison Elizabeth Anton, Annie Laurie McPherson and Savanna Theresa St. John.

Kacie Cooper and Missy Green were Cabaret co-chairs. Suzanne Oliphant is Les Passees president.

A total of 220 people attended.

Michael Donahue

Les Passes Cabaret

……………..

Michael Donahue

Zachary Clark and Anna Hunigan at Madonna Learning Center gala.

It’s not every fundraiser where most of the audience sticks around for a live auction that ends around 10:30. But that’s what a lot of people at the Madonna Learning Center Annual Gala and Auction did.

More than 900 people attended the event, “A Night of Reel Fun,” says the center’s development director Carrie Roberts. The party was held February 23rd at the Hilton Memphis.

The live auction raised more than $72,000. And, Roberts says, Light Up the House, where “people donate money to help support us” during the event, raised an additional $40,000.

The silent auction raised $47,000.

“We’re very happy with our numbers this year,” she says.

As for this year being a record, Roberts doesn’t yet know. But, she says, “We’re neck-and-neck with last year, which was a record.”

Aggie Fratta was event chair. The Soul Shockers performed.

Michael Donahue

Katie Elliot, Jordan Bruce, Bill Frese, and Tricia Frese at Madonna Learning Center gala.

Michael Donahue

John Scalisi and Andria Destefano at Madonna Learning Center gala.

…….

Michael Donahue

Phillip Hicks and Olivia Ameigh at Memphis Garden Gala.

Guests were asked to dress in snow skiing attire for the third annual Memphis Garden Gala, which was held February 23rd at Teton Trek at the Memphis Zoo. “Apres Ski” was the theme.

But that day was one of those crazy February Memphis days when the weather was in the 70s.

That night, the weather still was balmy, but most people — even those bundled up — didn’t seem to mind.

The event, which drew 200 people, was a fund-raiser for Big Green, a nonprofit founded by Kimbal Musk and Hugo Matheson dedicated to building a healthier future for children through a nationwide network of Learning Gardens and food literacy programs.

The first Big Green Memphis Learning Garden, where students are exposed to life cycles of fruits and vegetables, was built in 2015. Now, 122 more have been built and another six more are slated to be built by July, 2019.

“Apres Ski” featured live and silent auctions. Dinner was by chefs Jose Gutierrez of River Oaks, Will Byrd of City Silo Table + Pantry, Patrick Reilly of Majestic Grille, and Konrad Spitzbart of The Peabody.

Lisa Ellis is Big Green Memphis regional director.

Michael Donahue

Connor Glennon and Kristen Rotenberry at Memphis Garden Gala.

Michael Donahue

Emily and Mitchell Lindsey at Memphis Garden Gala.

Categories
News News Blog

Mayor on Tom Lee Park: Don’t Worry About It

CREDIT: JB

Studio Gang

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said in his end-of-week update email that disagreements over Tom Lee Park will be worked out.

Memphis In May (MIM) voiced concerns last week over the Memphis River Parks Partnership’s (MRPP) proposed redesign of Tom Lee Park. The groups met Tuesday with Studio Gang, the park’s designer, and Architect Inc., the local firm MIM used to vet MRPP’s design with its needs. 
JB

Mayor Strickland

“We had a very productive meeting,” reads a joint statement issued Tuesday by MIM and MRPP. “Our teams will continue to work together over the next couple of weeks to address the remaining issues with the goal of producing these two big Memphis in May weekends in a new signature riverfront park.

“We will meet again the week of March 18th and feel confident we’ll reach a solution together that works for the community.”

With that (and likely some behind-the-scenes insight) Strickland said this of the past friction: “My advice: Don’t worry about it too much.” [pullquote-1] “This week, our office asked leaders of the Memphis River Parks Partnership and Memphis in May to get together to work through specific issues,” Strickland said in a Friday statement. “They made meaningful progress. Like I’ve been saying for three years now, we can do so much in Memphis when we work together and build consensus behind the scenes.

”My goal remains the same: I want a Tom Lee Park that is an asset all 365 days a year, and I want a Memphis in May that continues to thrive. We will accomplish both.”

Categories
News News Blog

Mississippi River Rising, But Officials Say Not to Worry

CREDIT: Facebook- Mike Lawhead

Facebook- Mike Lawhead

The Mississippi River at 38 feet on February 24th.

The Mississippi River is set to crest here at its fourth-highest recorded level next week, but the city said Friday via Twitter that “it shouldn’t be cause for concern.”

The National Weather Service has projected the river, now at 40.5 feet, to crest here at about 41.5 feet on Wednesday, March 6th. This would be the highest the river has been since 2011, when the river reached an historic 48 feet, partially submerging Mud Island and leaving Riverside Drive completely underwater.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Forecast of the Mississippi River flood stages

Robert Knecht, director of the city’s Public Works division, said in a video Friday that the water will stay at that level for a few days before it begins to drop. Over the next 30 days, “hopefully we’ll see a significant drop,” Knecht said.

Knecht said the city is “fortunate,” as major flooding should not be an issue. Historically, Memphis has had challenges with flooding, but Knecht said the city has since “invested significantly” to improve the city’s flood control system. The system protects most of Downtown and many residential areas.

“We’re nowhere near what happened several years ago,” Knecht said, citing the 2011 flood. “And it [flood control] worked flawlessly then.”

Knecht said the city will continue to monitor the river, but that right now he doesn’t foresee any challenges.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Kelly English to Take Over Midtown Fino’s

CREDIT: tripadvisor.com

tripadvisor.com

Exciting news, Kelly English is taking over the Midtown Fino’s.

His goal, he says, is to preserve something that is so authentically Midtown.

He plans to serve breakfast, with an emphasis on breakfast sandwiches, including pork rolls. But, otherwise, the menu will be much the same.

He hopes to have it open by early April.

When asked if this was out of his comfort zone, English replies, “Everything I do is outside of my comfort zone.” He says that’s what keeps him striving.

He says he is not taking over the East Memphis location.

We’ll keep you posted on this story.