Month: May 2019

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News News Blog

TVA Makes Case For MLGW Not to Switch Suppliers

CREDIT: Maya Smith

Maya Smith

Jeff Lyash, president and CEO of TVA speaks to PSAT

The head of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) told the team charged with weighing power supply options for Memphis that he’s “committed to helping them through the process.”

At the second meeting of Memphis Light, Gas & Water’s (MLGW) Power Supply Advisory Team (PSAT), Jeff Lyash, president and CEO of TVA, said he would like to see Memphis stay with TVA, but that he’s committed to helping Memphis make the “right decision.”

“It’s a critical decision for MLGW and the community of Memphis,” Lyash said. “So we want to help you through this process in order for you to get all the information you need … But, at the end of this, we would like to be your power supplier.”

Lyash said that in the past TVA has not “lived up to our or your expectation” in serving Memphis, but that “one of my objectives this year is to change that.”

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Making the case for TVA, John Thomas, chief financial officer of TVA, said Memphis has the lowest, most competitive utility rates in the country,

Thomas also said that the utility doesn’t anticipate those rates increasing over the next 10 years. This summer, the utility will draft its long-range plan for the next 10 years, which will include rate projections.

Although Memphis has the lowest rate in the country, at 6.81 cents per kilowatts hours, Memphis City Council member Martavious Jones, who is serving on the PSAT, said that about 20 percent of that rate is allocated to TVA’s debt budget.

Jones said without accounting for the utility’s debt, the rate would be 4.81 cents per kilowatt hour. If switching to another utility, with no debt, Jones said the rate might be cheaper, but the group should also consider the costs of transmitting the power to Memphis.


Lyash agreed, saying that MLGW should be “very careful and diligent” throughout the process and understand the “risks and assumptions” of any decision.

Lyash said that if MLGW pays 3 cents per kilowatt hour, “that’s not enough.” He said the utility also has to pay for reliability, operations, transmission, and maintenance. TVA’s rate includes those, he said.

“What you’ll see over time is that people like to quote you an energy price, but make sure you’re getting the whole picture.”

Lyash said that TVA’s transmission system is “arguably the most reliable in the country.”

“You need to consider what stands behind the product you’re buying,” he said. “Our power portfolio is strong and moving in the right direction.”

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MLGW president and CEO J.T. Young, who is heading the PSAT group, said the purpose of Thursday’s meeting was not to deliver a “TVA sales pitch,” but to look at the current state of operations in order to understand “how we get what we get.”

“When we anticipate anything different from that, we need to start with a good base line,” Young said.

Ultimately, any recommendations the PSAT team comes up with will have to be approved by both the MLGW board of commissioners and the Memphis City Council.

Still, Young said their input is “critical” to the final decision.

The next PSAT meeting will be on June 6th at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library at 10 a.m. Young said the group will review the recent studies done on alternative power suppliers. All of the meetings are open to the public.

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Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

Gannett Shareholders Reject MNG Nominees, Avoiding Takeover For Now

UPDATE: Gannett/Tribune merger talks?

There’s some fairly good news for people who care about the information industry.

In an act of relative sanity, Gannett shareholders have — at least temporarily — turned back MNG/Alden Global Capital’s attempted hostile takeover. For Memphians, that means The Commercial Appeal avoided falling into the fire of hedge-fund ownership, though it remains a frying pan heated by economic pressure, and hedge-fund created trends. In the short run, it means we won’t lose the city’s historic paper of record, giving the newly right-sized and relocated newspaper an opportunity to claw its way back to relevance.

Beyond the actual vote, what followed was like a conversation from fantasy land.

Via USA Today:

Gannett Chairman [John Jeffry] Louis said the company is “laser focused on transformation” and is successfully transitioning to a business model that “positions the company to thrive in the digital future.” 

Settle down Flash Gordon! The laser-wielding chairman muddles issues and arguments, in ways a good debate team might challenge, but he’s at least partly correct. Only significant digital growth isn’t reclaiming segments of lost readership, and nothing is keeping pace with losses in traditional models where the bedrock of local news is going to pieces. Newspapers have been cutting their way to “sustainability” for decades now, and as a result, the products look like chemo patients, taking a cure that’s also killing them. Hopes and prayers go out in the form of stories about AI, digital inevitability, and an abiding belief that we’ll be saved by the same kinds of disruptions that brought us to this apocalyptic prom date.

Meanwhile, comments from MNG — a company famous for its community-be-damned, slash-and-burn roadmap to double-digit profits — read like broadcasts from Bizarro world.

Via USA Today:

“This is a win for an entrenched Gannett Board that has been unwilling to address the current realities of the newspaper business, and sadly a loss for Gannett and its shareholders,” MNG said in a statement. “Gannett’s newspapers are critical local resources, and we hope that Gannett’s incumbent Board and Management shift course to embrace a modern approach to local news that will save newspapers and serve communities. That would be the best outcome. If Gannett’s Board does not shift course from overpaying for non-core, aspirational and dilutive digital deals, we believe the stock will drop further.”

HA! That’s rich stuff right there. Though, who’s to say in regard to the final prediction.

For the moment, Memphis is a two-daily-newspaper town. Though, one — The Daily Memphian — doesn’t exist in paper form. That’s weird, right? And it feels like it should be awesome. Though, between intrinsic, probably unavoidable redundancy in beats, it’s difficult to measure at the moment just how much more is being covered or how much more audience is reached and influenced as a result.

Branding matters. The force with which any story lands is determined, in part, by reach, and the strength of certain social bonds. There’s historic erosion in both these areas and recent redundancies.

SB 30 Episode 9: Chris Davis of the Memphis Flyer

For our show April 28, we sat down with journalist Chris Davis of the Memphis Flyer and took an in-depth look at the current landscape of the print newspaper and how we got here, based in part on Chris’ great reporting for his Flyer series Justice in Journalism, and his March 14, 2019 story ‘Going to Pieces’ (link below).

Gannett Shareholders Reject MNG Nominees, Avoiding Takeover For Now (2)

If one cares to indulge in fantasy, (as executives at Gannett and MNG clearly do) it’s not that hard to picture a positive result from the almost certain disaster of MNG control. If the CA underperformed, it might be sold off locally, and relatively cheaply. Once upon a time interests behind The Daily Memphian wanted to pull off just that kind of ownership transfer, so it’s not completely insane to picture some kind of triumphant restoration, with lost employees returning to old beats in new digs. Like, I said — fantasy. It’s not entirely unprecedented but, as is the case with  most genie wishes, there’s a price.

Like one friend on social media said, “One-and-a-half cheers for the less bad guys!” That’s about right.  But I’m also reminded of Avengers: Infinity War when Drax the Destroyer tells Star-Lord he’s a sandwich away from being fat. Newspapers are priced to flip these days, and now that it’s been looted, the CA is one disruption away from whatever comes next.

via GIPHY

Gannett Shareholders Reject MNG Nominees, Avoiding Takeover For Now

One sentence summary: Gannett, and Memphis dodged a bullet, but the gun’s still loaded. 

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Dr. William Ferris Brings Voices of Mississippi to Crosstown Theater

Dr. William Ferris with his camera in Mississippi in the 1970s.

In the early 1970s, William Ferris was a graduate student studying folklore at the University of Pennsylvania. His specialty was studying the rich musical culture of North Mississippi. “I was doing field recordings and photography, and coming back and presenting that. I felt I couldn’t communicate the full power of the church services and juke joints I was working in. Film would be the best way to do that. No one there was willing to help me, at the film school. So I got a little super 8 camera and began to shoot footage and do wild sound on a reel-to-reel recorder. I put together these really basic, early films, which in many ways are the best things I ever did. It’s very visceral, powerful material. I brought those back, and people were just blown away by them.”

Ferris was particularly interested in the proto-blues fife and drum music tradition kept alive in Gravel Springs, Mississippi, by Othar Turner. “I was trying to finish a film on Othar Turner that I had shot, and David Evans had done the sound. Judy Peiser was working at public television in Mississippi, and she interviewed me. I told her about the fife and drum film, and she said she would like to edit it. That led to the creation of the Center for Southern Folklore in 1972, and to a long history of working on films. I would spend my summers in Memphis when I was teaching at Yale. We would work on films and other projects. I made a lot of wonderful friends that I’ve been close to ever since.”

Dr. Ferris, with the help of Peiser and others, acquired progressively better equipment and, over the years, created a series of short documentaries immortalizing the artists and traditions of the Mississippi Delta. His successful academic career would go on to include a stint as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Currently, he is a Senior Associate Director Emeritus at the Center for Study of the American South at the University of South Carolina, Chapel Hill. The Center for Southern Folklore, which he and Peiser founded, became a beloved institution in Memphis. “The Center has made a mark, and continues to make a mark with its festivals and exhibits. Judy Peiser has continued it. She’s an anchor for all this work and Memphis, and really a national treasure.”

On Friday, May 17th, Indie Memphis will present “Voices of Mississippi,” a collection of Ferris’ now-classic short documentaries, beginning with “Gravel Springs Fife and Drum.” “Ray Lum: Mule Trader” introduces us to the title character, who Ferris calls “an amazing raconteur.” Ferris recorded the auctioneer’s stories and tall tales in film, and with an accompanying book and soundtrack. “There are two soundtracks. You can hear the wild sound, and his voice. I don’t think that had ever been done before. All of that was published and produced through the Center. I think it was really ahead of its time in terms of media and film.”

“Four Women Artists” documents writer Eudora Welty, quilter Picolia Warner, needleworker Ethel Mohamed  and painter Theora Hamblett  “Bottle Up and Go” records a Loman, Mississippi, musician demonstrating “one strand on the wall,” a precursor to the slide guitar that makes an instrument out of a house. “It’s one of the earliest instruments that every blues singer learned on as a child, because it was free,” says Ferris. “He also did bottle blowing. Both of those are sounds that have deep roots in Africa and are the roots of the blues.”

Dr. Ferris will bring along some of his Memphis-based collaborators and sign the Grammy-inning box set of his life’s work. He says that for him, this Memphis screening is like a homecoming.“To me, Memphis is the undiscovered bohemian culture,” he says. “You have black and white, rural and folk voices coming out of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee, meeting this formally educated group of musicians and artists like Sid Selvidge, William Eggleston. Music and photography was a big part of the scene. The photography, because of Eggleston and Tav Falco and Ernest Withers, makes Memphis unique. It just has so many pieces that you don’t find in the French Quarter in New Orleans, where William Faulkner went to write. You have Julian Hohenberg, this very wealthy cotton broker whose heart is in music. He was involved in the music scene for many, many years. It’s the escape valve for people who love the arts. It’s really funky and countercultural. Everything they couldn’t do in these little towns and rural areas, they do in Memphis — and they do it with a passion.”

“Voices of Mississippi” will screen at 6 PM on Friday, May 17 at the Crosstown Theater. RSVP for a free ticket at the Indie Memphis website. 

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We Recommend We Recommend

Black Arts Fest at Overton Park

From its earliest days as a shopfront theater in Downtown’s Edge district, Ekundayo Bandele’s Hattiloo Theatre aimed to become a melting pot for artists from various disciplines. The lobby space doubled as Zora’s Lounge showcasing poetry, comedy, and music. “We were always committed to helping in whatever way we could, to help other artists of color in the city,” Bandele says. When his theater started to attract attention, he took advantage of the moment to launch an annual spring festival in the park. “We didn’t just want to showcase theater,” Bandele says. “We wanted to show the breadth of what was available in the arts locally.”

For the past seven years, Black Arts Festival has brought the spirit of Zora’s Lounge to Overton Park’s Veterans Plaza. The event features dance, a variety of musical performance, spoken word artists, and hip-hop.

“Out of the 10 acts we showcase every year, I would say at least seven of them are regulars,” Bandele says ticking off creative partners like the Memphis Black Arts Alliance, Blues City Cultural Center, and SubRoy Dance Studios.

In addition to all of the performers, this year’s festival is expanding to include a 20×20 tent displaying work by 10 visual artists. “All of this is free,” Bandele says. “We’ve got DJ AO, and I’m always excited to see SubRoy because they represent all the dance forms found here in the city.”

“We’re making it more comfortable this year,” Bandele adds, acknowledging that May’s weather can be tricky. “We get families, and older people out. So we’re adding some big umbrellas for shade.”

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Politics Politics Feature

Lammey, Casada, Michael Harris Face Potential Threats to Their Jobs

It was a 12-0 vote on the Shelby County Commission on Monday to support the pending possible censure by the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct of Criminal Court Judge Jim Lammey for social media posts that consistently contained links to racist, anti-immigrant, and anti-Semitic themes.

The potential 13th vote, which would have made things unanimous, was that of Democratic Commissioner Reginald Milton, who had to miss the meeting for personal reasons but who had made his approval of a censure resolution known.

Even two Republican commissioners who had demurred at endorsing censure for Lammey when a preliminary vote was taken in committee last Wednesday — Amber Mills, who wanted Lammey to be given a chance to present “his side” and Brandon Morrison, who argued that the commission had no judgmental authority over the judiciary —  voted with the others on Monday.

Commissioner Tami Sawyer

Lammey, who was invited to appear before the commission on Monday, did not do so, pleading a “heavy trial docket” for the date, but the beleaguered jurist did submit a letter to the commissioners that Lammey suggested would “set the record straight against those who so maliciously mischaracterize me as an anti-Semite hater of all immigrants.”

The accusations against Lammey stem from a series of articles by Commercial Appeal writer Daniel Connolly documenting, first, a Facebook post by Lammey linking to an article by one David Cole, identified by several sources as a Holocaust denier. That article stated, among other things, that Jews should “get the f**k over the Holocaust” and referred to Muslim immigrants as “foreign mud.” Lammey’s post called the story “interesting.”

Subsequent Lammey posts and links unearthed by Connolly dealt with a variety of right-wing nativist themes in which disdain for immigrants loomed large. The judge also received negative publicity for his insistence on ordering immigrants with cases before his court to register with immigration authorities.

Ultimately, Lammey’s actions were condemned by a variety of civic organizations and religious groups — Christian, Jewish, and Islamic. Spokespersons for the groups — some demanding the judge’s outright resignation — appeared before the commission both on committee day last Wednesday and on Monday.

Speaking on behalf of the pro-censure resolution on Monday were Rev. Lucy Waechter-Webb of MICAH (Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope); Imam Nabil Bayakly, chairman of Muslims in Memphis; Rabbi Katie Bauman of Jewish Community Partners and MICAH; Marti Murphy of Facing History and Ourselves; and Duane Stewart of the Messianic Jewish Movement, a Christian group.

In his letter to the commission, Lammey protested that both he and his social media posts had been mischaracterized. Cole, he said, was “Jewish and not a Holocaust denier,” and he appended a note from Cole himself in which that author contended that the term “foreign mud” used in the article posted by Lammey was a reference to the Golem figure in Jewish legend, not immigrants. As for his courtroom behavior toward immigrants, Lammey said, “I believe all immigrants should come here legally. That’s my constitutional right under the first amendment.”

Several of the speakers on Monday disputed Lammey’s claims as equivocations, with Rev. Webb contending they “confirmed his lack of judgment.”  Stressing the need for a formal judgment, Rabbi Bauman said, “Silence helps the oppressor, never the victim.”

Republican Commissioner Mick Wright, who noted that he and Lammey were Facebook friends and that the judge was his constituent, observed that “some of my constituents believe Judge Lammey has been singled out for political reasons” and continued, “Because of that, I feel it’s important to point out that it’s entirely possible to hold conservative views on immigration, to believe our borders should be protected, and our immigration laws should be enforced, and to also love immigrants and to have compassion and mercy on those who are unlawfully present. Because I believe all our laws should be respected and enforced, I hold those who share my viewpoint to the highest possible standard of conduct.”

Commissioner Van Turner, the body’s chairman, worried aloud that Lammey’s attitude over the years may have “infected” others in the legal community.

Summing up before the vote, Democratic Commissioner Tami Sawyer, author of the pro-censure resolution, thanked “all those who have spoken out in support of this resolution,” characterized action on the issue as the kind of thing “we are here to do,” and called for a unanimous vote. She got it.

• Memphis got a visit last Thursday from members of the campaign of California Senator Kamala Harris, who seeks the Democratic nomination for president. The group included Harris’ campaign manager, Juan Rodriguez, senior advisors Averell “Ace” Smith and David Huynh, Southern regional finance director Stephanie Sass, and political director Missayr Boker.

Daphne Rankin, a local representative of the campaign, said that response from Memphis activists to Harris indicated that the city was one of the most receptive areas in the nation to her candidacy. The senator, a former California attorney general and San Francisco district attorney, has attracted considerable attention for her piercing interrogations of witnesses before the Senate Judiciary Committee, including, most recently, William Barr, attorney general in the administration of President Donald Trump.

Harris is considered to be in the first tier of the heavily populated field of declared Democratic presidential contenders. While in Memphis, the Harris representatives were the guests of honor at a reception held at Mahogany Restaurant, hosted by owners Veronica Yates and Colleen McCullough. They also met privately with Gale Jones Carson, Democratic National Committeewoman from Tennessee, and had a late dinner at the Rendezvous with influential local party activist David Upton.

• The 2019 session of the Tennessee General Assembly may have ended week before last, but fallout on Capitol Hill from recent revelations concerning Republican House Speaker Glen Casada continues unabated, threatening Casada’s tenure as speaker and possibly even as a member of the House.

Most recently, the legislative Black Caucus, headed by state Representative G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis), met with Casada on Monday and afterward formally asked for him to step down as speaker. The caucus had earlier sought an investigation of charges that Casada’s then aide Cade Cothren forged the date on an email to Casada from protestor Justin Jones, making it appear that Jones had violated a judicial no-contact order.

That was one of several matters that have the speaker in hot water. He was also recently exposed for having exchanged sexist emails with Cothren and tolerating racist attitudes from his aide, who has since resigned. Casada and Cothren are also suspected by some of illegal electronic eavesdropping on legislators.

The Democratic Caucus as such has also sought Casada’s resignation, as have several Republican legislators, singly.

• Michael Harris, the controversial recently elected chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party, conducted his first meeting of his executive committee last Thursday at the IBEW Union Hall. Harris, whom some members seek to unseat because of misconduct allegations that caused the suspension of his law license by the Board of Professional Responsibility, agreed to schedule a meeting in the near future to consider the issue in response to a motion from member Sanjeev Memula.

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Cover Feature News

It’s Memphis vs. Nashville. When It Comes to Barbecue, Who Does It Better?

CREDIT: Courtesy of the Nashville Scene

Some would say it was the hell-naw-iest of hell naw headlines: “Sorry, Memphis, but Nashville does have the best barbecue.” It appeared in The Tennessean back in April, stirring up a hornet’s nest of hurt feelings, civic pride, and apple-wood-smoked talking points.

Could it possibly be true? Nashville has all the money and the glam, but Memphis … well, Memphis is Memphis: soulful and fun and ridiculous, just like our barbecue.

We had two ‘cue-perts speak in their city’s favor. Steve Cavendish is the former editor of the Nashville Scene and is leading the effort to launch a nonprofit news organization in Nashville. Chris McCoy is the Flyer‘s film editor and a barbecue savant. What results is a sort of meeting in the middle, where we all agree that barbecue is made for eating and not for arguing.

Meanwhile, this year, Memphis’ 200th, Memphis in May (MIM) decided to honor our city, instead of a country. Usually, the MIM-honored country has a team in the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest. This year, MIM assembled a team of super barbecuers. We check in on them.

…

Nashville Twang

Greetings, Memphians. I come in the name of peace and barbecue, two things you might not normally associate with Nashville.

We’ve been fighting a lot online about ‘cue lately, Twittering about who has the best this and Facebooking about who has the better that and calling each other names in the process. But our two cities have less of a problem with delicious smoked meat than they do with the newspapers that keep trying to stir up trouble.

Recently, a reporter at The Commercial Appeal took offense at a Nashville joint being selected over someplace from Memphis in a Southern Living list of top barbecue places. So she did what every click-chasing writer seems to do these days — she blogged about her indignancy. The digital weasels at The Tennessean, seeing her post trending on social media, had their own resident clickbait artist return fire.

You see, these Gannett hucksters make their money online by ginning up controversy and getting you to click and comment on it. And over what? Another list in a magazine we’re reading less and less each year?

They’re playing us, barbecue fans. What we should be concerned about is where to get our next great sandwich, wing, or rib. And if you haven’t been to Nashville in a while, it’s as good of a time as there has ever been to eat great barbecue. Is it better than what you have in Memphis? I’m not here to say things like “Rendezvous is criminally overrated,” I’m here to invite you to dinner. Here are five places you shouldn’t miss and what they do best:

Courtesy of the Nashville Scene

Martin’s

Martin’s

Most Nashville barbecue has roots in the same traditions that Memphis has made famous. For Pat Martin, who grew up in West Tennessee, that means the smell of whole hog hits you in the face as you walk into one of his many locations around town. The near-perfect pulled pork sandwiches of Martin’s — topped with slaw, of course — have that deep umami mix of smoke and sweetness that makes every bite satisfying. Martin started with an original joint in Nolensville and then peppered the area with five more places, including a two-story temple to pig Downtown that has become the go-to destination for many folks pregaming a Predators or Titans game. Martin’s redneck tacos (meat, slaw, and sauce on top of a hoecake) are a fine alternative to the traditional sandwich, and every time I’m in there with a group, I order one of his thick pieces of bologna and slice it up for everyone. It’s charred on a griddle and topped with pickles, onion, and mustard and there are never, ever any leftovers.

Courtesy of the Nashville Scene

Peg Leg Porker

Peg Leg Porker

Carey Bringle, like Martin, has deep ties to the western grand division. After years of success on the pitmaster circuit, including a third-place finish at Memphis in May, he opened his own place near Downtown in the Gulch in 2013. But instead of adding more stores, Bringle built straight up to create a three-story tower complete with an apartment on top. And while his place does some great things with pork shoulders, Peg Leg Porker’s best feature are the ribs, dry-rubbed racks of tender goodness a la the version Charlie Vergos made famous. I’d stack them up against anyone’s. The restaurant’s name comes honestly — Bringle lost part of a leg to bone cancer in his youth — as does the decor of white cinder block and polished concrete. It’s like stepping into the past. If chicken is your thing, his smoked, Springer Mountain yardbirds are scrape-off-the-bone delicious and come with a side of Alabama white sauce that’s also the perfect accompaniment to French fries.

Gambling Stick

For the longest time, I have believed that it was near impossible to get great brisket on this side of the Mississippi. Kansas City? Tulsa? Austin? Dallas? Sure. Tennessee? No way. The cut of meat is too finicky and, besides, our tradition has been pig (unless you’re one of those freaks in central Kentucky that insists on barbecuing mutton). Then the guys at the Gambling Stick changed my mind. Located in the East Nashville parking lot of the best meat shop in town, CIA-trained Matt Russo turns Porter Road Butcher’s immaculate beef into amazing, tender brisket. The simple equation — dry rub plus cherry wood smoke — yields the best thing you will find on this side of the Texas border, and the burnt ends make for some truly decadent baked beans.

Slick Pig BBQ

I grew up driving around during summers with my dad, an insurance salesman, and we hit every meat-and-three and barbecue place between Covington and Cookeville. Not long after moving to Murfreesboro in the 1990s, he called me up to rave about a place called the Slick Pig and the best wings he had ever eaten. I’m not sure what the father-and-son team of Jerry and John Robinson marinate those wings in before they go on the smoker, but they come out blackened, lacquered, and perfect. Every bite is a little bomb of flavor. After trying these, you will have a hard time going back to standard hot wings. Well worth the 30-minute drive south.

Courtesy of the Nashville Scene

Edley’s Bar-B-Que

Edley’s Bar-B-Que

When the Nashville Scene held a bracket-style sandwich contest a few years ago, I put my bet on the Tuck Special, a fixture on the menu at Edley’s Bar-B-Que since it opened in 2011. It is decadence on a bun: layers of smoked brisket are topped with pimento cheese, pickles, red sauce, white sauce, and an over-easy egg. My friend Ashley describes it as being “like Whitesnake or US Weekly, it’s bad for you and embarrassing to consume in public.” Christ, it’s good. Traditionalists are sure to be horrified, but it’s their loss. Pro tip: You can get Edley’s wonderful banana pudding as a side item instead of as a dessert, making this just about the richest meal in town. — Steve Cavendish

…

It Came from Memphis

People of Nashville, I send you greetings from Memphis, Tennessee, the country music capital of the world!

See how silly, how completely out of touch with reality, that sounds? The Memphis-Nashville rivalry is also silly, and counterproductive. The people of the state’s two biggest urban areas have much more in common than we have differences. We’re all just trying to make a living in a fast-changing, mid-sized Southern city. Let’s not allow those who do not have our best interests at heart to divide us over the narcissism of small differences.

Which brings us to the silly thing we’re supposed to be fighting over, barbecue. Specifically, slow cooked barbecue pork. The truth is, as Anthony Bourdain once pointed out, cultures all over the world figured out thousands of years ago that the tastiest way to eat a pig is to cook it slowly over low heat. In Hawaii, they bury the pig in the sand with hot coals and let it get acquainted with itself. Here, we cook swine over indirect heat, using smoke to impart the meat with a distinctive flavor. At the risk of sounding like the arrogant loser Memphian who exists in the Nashville imagination, our way is the best way.

Or is it? This clickbait brouhaha has shaken my fragile Memphis arrogance. I needed to reconnect with our source of civic culinary pride. This is my investigative journalism duty, not just a way to get the paper to pay for three lunches.

Chris McCoy

Tops Bar-B-Q

I stand in the parking lot of Tops Bar-B-Q, buffeted by sound waves. Next to me is a tall man whom I deduce from the badge on his belt is a police detective. We watch a helicopter ambulance land on the roof of Methodist Hospital in a stiff crosswind. “That guy’s got a tough job,” I say, and the detective agrees.

Tops is fast food, but it’s not a late-stage capitalist branding playground. On the walls are faded pictures of Elvis, and an American flag hangs in the window. The detective, who clearly has a lot on his mind, says when he was growing up, his father used to be a dedicated backyard barbecuer. I tell the detective that my job is to explain how Memphis barbecue is better than Nashville. “That sounds like an easy job,” he says.

Last month, Tops Bar-B-Q announced a new ownership group, who took pains to emphasize their commitment to keeping tradition alive. Restaurateur Tiger Bryant called it a “special institution in Memphis … a true gathering place where people from all walks of life — of all ages — come to enjoy.”

A businessman with a bluetooth headset chooses fries to go with his pork-covered Tops burger, as smartly dressed young men throw around terms like “systems integration.” An older married couple sits in comfortable silence. Two middle aged women are catching up over a pair of sandwiches and Lay’s chips. “That baby’s got enough onesies!” one exclaims, and they both laugh.

I choose the regular pork sandwich with beans and slaw. “You want slaw on it, right?” the young lady behind the counter drawls. It’s not really a question.

The sandwich is modest perfection. The key to great Memphis barbecue, as in most things, is balance. The meat is sweet, smoky, and spicy, all at once, in pleasing proportions. The slaw on the sandwich is mostly a texture thing for me, a little contrast, but it also balances out an excess of spicy sauce.

At $7.59, the meal is less expensive than most fast food, and I actually feel good after I eat it. As I walk to the parking lot, I tell two of my fellow diners my mission. They scoff at the assertion that Nashville barbecue is in the same league as Memphis’. “We started it, they copied it, that’s the truth,” one says.

As I start my car, one of my new friends gives me the “roll down your window!” signal. Being true Memphians, they want to tell me about their favorite barbecue spots: A&R in Hickory Hill. The Neely’s on Winchester. Arnold’s on Shelby Drive.

Justin Fox Burks

Payne’s BBQ

The parking lot of Payne’s on Lamar is crowded even at 2 p.m. If your idea of a great dining experience is a long-term real estate play cleverly disguised as a hip, yet rootsy restaurant revitalizing a post-industrial space, know this: The look and feel those places are trying to emulate is basically Payne’s. Sitting at the red-and-white checker-clothed tables with a rib sandwich in front of you is a quintessential Memphis experience. It’s a sandwich in name only — the white bread’s function is not to contain the meat, but rather to act as an edible napkin to keep your fingers clean as you slither the thews from the bone.

Justin Fox Burks

Cozy Corner

At the Bar-B-Q Shop on Madison, Eric Vernon diplomatically declines to comment on the Memphis-Nashville controversy — except to shout out Cozy Corner as another barbecue restaurant that “gets everything right.” We start with a Memphis creation, barbecue nachos. The ballpark food was made popular at AutoZone Park, but this plate is elevated by the Vernons’ pulled pork. Then, the blockbuster main course. Frank Vernon’s glazed rib recipe must be experienced to be believed. There’s nothing like that whiff of wood smoke that wafts up as the rib slabs hit the table. The slightly crunchy, caramelized exterior contrasts perfectly with the juicy, tender interior. As we dig in, the dining room fills up with families. It’s graduation day.

Eric’s dad Frank Vernon was a backyard pitmaster turned struggling restaurateur. He was tapped by the owner of Brady and Lil’s, the favorite barbecue joint of the Stax Records, to carry on their legacy. Mr. Brady and Vernon sealed the deal by signing a Bible. Their story is typical of so many black families in Memphis who clawed their way into the middle class by devoting themselves to perfecting barbecue — and thus preserving a vital part of African American and Southern culture. The cuisine sustained the people and reached across racial barriers. If we can dine together at the same checkered tablecloth, are we not all humans, in this thing together? That’s what barbecue is to Memphis. Not a new foodie frontier to conquer, or a flag to capture, but a pillar of the community, a tangible example of who we are. — Chris McCoy

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Team BBQ

Yeah, Tony Stark may have that fancy Iron Man suit, but I heard his pork shoulder ain’t worth a damn.

A Memphis superhero makes good barbecue. Period. And when the whole world descends upon Tom Lee Park, we’ll need an elite team of ’em to defend our fair city. Good news. We got one.

Memphis in May (MIM) honored Memphis this year for the city’s 200th birthday. So, the honorary barbecue team is from Memphis. Imagine how hard it would be to pick that elite team of barbecue all-stars.

Walter Crutchfield made the cut. You’ll know him from Crutchfield’s BBQ on Hollywood or from his recent appearance on Food Network’s Chopped.

We caught up with another part of the team, a battalion from Hog Wild — Real Memphis Barbeque & A Moveable Feast Catering — John Oborne, executive chef; John Caldwell, sous chef; and Schuyler O’Brien, chef de cuisine. Here they come now, slo-mo walking through a fog of barbecue smoke, tongs in hand.

Schuyler O’Brien (l to r), John Caldwell, and John Oborne

Memphis Flyer: How did Hog Wild get together?

John Caldwell: Hog Wild and A Moveable Feast Catering have been in the Memphis market for 23 years this summer. [Company founder Ernie Mellor] started out by cooking catfish in the back of his truck. He had some skill on a barbecue rig, and it exploded from there. We think we’re the premier caterer in the Memphis area, and we love what we do.

Ernie, because he cooks on a competition team, is not a member of the — and I’m doing air quotes because we don’t consider ourselves this — the all-star team cooking at the Memphis in May tent.

MF: Have you competed at Memphis in May in the past?

JC: Yes, but it’s the [Hog Wild] team not the company, if that makes sense.

MF: It does. What is the Hog Wild company’s barbecue philosophy?

JC: You’re going to hear it all week long — slow and low.

MF: Talk about your cooking methods.

JC: We’ve had a line of retail and dry rubs available for years. We lay the dry rub on their shoulders, let them sit in that love for a couple hours before it goes on the smoke. Run [the shoulders] at about 210 for 16 hours and then that’s it. It’s a feel thing.

You’ve got to have a little touch, and John Oborne is the master at it. He can tell you when they’re done just by opening the door on the smoker.

MF: All right, well, John, tell me about it.

John Oborne: It’s a process. It takes a long time. You can’t rush good barbecue.

MF: Even though y’all put it in air quotes, you have been picked for the all-star team. It’s got to feel pretty good.

JC: We can’t tell you how excited we are. We are slammed busy. But every day after we finished our shifts and all the parties have gone out and we completed our parties, we’re sitting down and taking notes about the things we want to do for the all-star team, and how much fun that’s going to be and how excited we are about being selected, and representing Memphis on its 200th anniversary. That’s a big deal. — Toby Sells

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Rock and Roll Never Forgets

CREDIT: Bruce VanWyngarden

Long-time readers of this column know that each May I take a journey to the backwoods of Western Pennsylvania, near the historic town of Ohiopyle, to hang with a few old friends and share lies and whiskey. This year, I added a little bonus trip.

It began with a couple of days in Pittsburgh, where I spent eight years as editor of Pittsburgh Magazine. I spent some time reuniting with a couple of former co-workers, but mostly I just drove around and marveled at the things that had changed. And the things that hadn’t.

Bruce VanWyngarden

Hey hey, my my. Rock-and-roll can never die.

The iconic things hadn’t changed — the Carnegie Museum, the University of Pittsburgh Cathedral of Learning (where I once taught undergrads how to write news features), the massive spires of PPG Place, and the rivers and bridges and countless green hills. What had changed is pretty predictable: Old neighborhoods like Lawrenceville are getting repopulated and redeveloped with those ubiquitous, glassy, boxy apartment buildings that seem to be the required urban redesign form these days. There were coffee shops where machine shops used to be. The infamous Sal’s Salvage was nowhere to be seen, replaced by yoga studios and boutiques and hip-looking cafes. The old Steel Town ain’t the same. It’s mostly better.

The next day, I continued my tour of the upper Midwest by driving over to Cleveland, where my son’s band, MGMT, was playing the Masonic Hall. I got to town before he did, so I did what you’re supposed to do in Cleveland: I went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which sits on the very edge of Lake Erie, Downtown.

The building is a glassy pyramid (sound familiar?) designed by famed architect I.M. Pei, but it’s much smaller than Memphis’ Pyramid. Out in front is a long and linear (and Instagram-unfriendly) slogan: Long Live Rock. After backing up as far as could, I got a picture of “ONG LIVE ROCK.”

I paid my $28 and started the tour. It begins below ground level, where you are first forced to walk past a photographer who tries to get you to hold a guitar while he takes your picture and then sells it to you. I bypassed the line of grandmas and geezers waiting for their chance to strike a pose, strolled under a neon sign reading “For Those About to Rock,” and wandered into the dark room that begins the self-guided tour.

It starts with various historic exhibits meant to demonstrate the evolution of rock-and-roll — early blues artists, mostly. This area also includes musical artifacts and historic photos from the seminal rock cities, including Memphis (Furry Lewis’ guitar, some old blues records and posters, etc.), Detroit, New York, Chicago, L.A., San Francisco, etc. Notably, Cleveland is not among them. That would be because Cleveland’s claim to be the birthplace of rock-and-roll is specious and overblown, at best. But that’s another story.

The exhibits spiral from bottom to top, with lots of stair climbing from one exhibit level to another. One is forced to accept, after touring the six increasingly smaller floors (that pyramid construct has limitations), that rock-and-roll history is basically comprised of stage outfits and shoes worn by facsimile mannequins, old album covers, posters, vintage photos, music videos, and lots and lots and lots of guitars.

Major icons — Elvis, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Aretha, Springsteen, to name a few — are given individual displays. Michael Jackson, whom I suspect once had a place of prominence, has been downgraded to a single large photograph near an emergency exit — in case you have to beat it, I guess.

The history of hip-hop gets a nod, but not much else. This is a pretty caucasion kind of place, to be honest. As are most of the visitors.

As you leave, you are funneled — as you are in most museums, these days — into the gift shop, where a maze of over-priced T-shirts, guitar earrings, miniature pyramids, guitar picks, posters, snow globes, and other rock chotskies awaits. Meh.

They say rock-and-roll never forgets, but honestly, this place is, well, kinda forgettable.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Suppress the Vote

CREDIT: U of M/Facebook

A new Tennessee law on voter registration might violate the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to a lawsuit filed last week.

The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee by the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN), Campaign Legal Center, and Fair Elections Center on behalf of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center and four other organizations, challenges a law signed by Governor Bill Lee last week.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Tim Rudd (R-Murfreesboro) and Sen. Ed Jackson (R-Jackson), lists a slew of requirements for those participating in voter registration efforts and penalties for those who don’t comply.

U of M/Facebook

A voter registration event act University of Memphis last year

Some of the requirements include providing the coordinator of elections with information about the drive prior to holding it, completing a training, and filing a sworn statement stating an intention to obey the laws and procedures pertaining to the process.

In a letter sent last week to two of the defendants, Mark Goins, coordinator of elections for the State of Tennessee, and Tre Hargett, Secretary of State for the State of Tennessee, the ACLU-TN explains how the law violates the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993.

The law “impedes the proper exercise of federal law by imposing undue and unjustified restrictions and burdens on community-based voter registration activity,” the letter reads.

“The NVRA’s general purpose is to facilitate voter registration, and Congress expressly intended for private groups and individuals to play an active role,” the letter continues. “The law frustrates the ability of plaintiffs and other civic organizations to facilitate voter registration in the manner contemplated by the NVRA by deterring groups and individuals from engaging in voter registration activities, and therefore violates the NVRA.”

The letter also calls the provisions of the law “vague” and “over-broad.”

“Because it does not clearly provide notice as to which organizations and individuals are subject to its terms, the law gives rise to the risk that different county election officials will provide varying interpretations of the law’s application, leading to a non-uniform program or activity in violation of the NVRA,” the letter reads.

The ACLU-TN said that Tennessee is ranked 44th in voter registration, but that there was a surge in registration during the 2018 midterm elections. The group believes the new law comes as a result of that registration growth and election officials’ lack of resources to handle the influx.

Paul Garner, organizing director of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, one of the plaintiffs, said last week that the law is “draconian” and a form of voter suppression. Garner said the law punishes “those that want the democratic process to reflect and represent as many people as possible in communities like Memphis.”

The lawsuit aims to ensure the political participation of all the state’s eligible voters, Hedy Weinberg, executive director of ACLU-TN, said.

“Voter registration drives have long been a way for communities that are historically disenfranchised — including students, people of color, immigrants, and senior citizens — to empower individuals and gain access to the ballot box,” Weinberg said.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

200 Has a Lot to Say at Pink Palace

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Bicentennial events are tricky. Everybody celebrating is inclined to touch on similar themes, or remember similar events, reducing complex histories to a series of greatest hits. “We wanted to make sure we weren’t just focusing on the 19th century or on early Memphians, or on Dr. King or Elvis,” Pink Palace curator Nur Abdalla says, describing the bicentennial storytelling event, 200 Has a Lot to Say. “These parts of history are important, of course, but there are so many other places that do a great job of telling those stories, and they may be having bicentennial events of their own. So we wanted to do something that was a little bit more diversified.”

200 Has a Lot to Say brings together musicians, actors, dancers, and characters, all charged with creating unique snapshots of Memphis.

Justin Fox Burks

Nur Abdalla

“We decided on storytelling, but we’re using that word in a non-traditional sense,” Abdalla says. “So we’re not just talking about someone standing around telling you a story orally or reading from a book. We have storytelling through dance, and interactive musicals. We have a re-enactor, a theatrical performance, and an open mic-type performance for present-tense stories that will hopefully be more relatable because they’re told by everyday people, so to speak.”

Storytelling mediums range from drumming to dance, and topics include Africa’s influence on the Memphis sound, Memphis’ Latino experience, and a ballet about Robert Church, the South’s first African-American millionaire.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1577

Dammit, Gannett

It’s an exciting time for The Commercial Appeal, having moved from its oversized offices on Union and into a cozier, contemporary space in the heart of Downtown Memphis.

The paper’s done solid work under pressure, but nothing wrecks solid reporting like botched subliminal messaging. Between one sentence introducing criminal conduct, and another about evading arrest, the CA plugged in this misspelled message: “Help us power more stories like this. Become a subscirber today.”

Neverending Elvis

Last week, the official Elvis Presley Twitter account shared a bit of boilerplate: “There will never be another Elvis.”

This seems unimaginative, at least, or maybe un-ambitious. Over the decades, Fly has chronicled many bags of Elvis hair, teeth, used straws, and other gobs of loose DNA for sale. Miniature pet Elvises seem like a black-market inevitably.

Questions

If you cover the Tennessee legislature, you may have to ask if one legislator peed in another legislator’s chair.