Month: July 2019

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Multiple Choices for Justin Ford and Mauricio Calvo

This is the deadline week for candidates in the 2020 Memphis city election, and by Thursday, July 18th, some of the mysteries that have lingered for weeks will have been resolved.

We will know which (if any) of the four races that Justin J. Ford has pulled petitions for — mayor; City Court clerk; city council District 6; or city council, Super District 8, Position 1 — that he intends to run in.

Justin J. Ford

Ford’s case is interesting. His political career so far has included two successes, each netting him a term in the Shelby County Commission. His first win was in 2010, for one of the three positions available in what was then a multi-seat District 3. Then, in 2014, after single-district reapportionment, he was able to win again in the newly created District 9, which covered a smaller slice of the previous District 3.

In both cases, the South Memphis district served by Ford was one in which the extended Ford family has always possessed political power. His father, Joe Ford, represented the District 3 seat before him.

Justin Ford also has three losses on his record — for City Court clerk in 2015, for the 9th District Congressional seat in 2016, and for the District 29 state Senate seat in 2018. He also was charged with domestic assault of a girlfriend in 2017 and offered an Alford plea, which combines an admission of guilt with a technical dismissal. Ford also has been assessed with some $20,000 in civil penalties for violating rules relating to his business, the Justin Ford Funeral Home.

So, suffice to say much is at stake for Ford in this year’s city election — arguably, his last chance at a viable long-term political career — and his choice of which race to run in is crucial.

A District 6 race would pit him against a field including Edmund Ford Sr., who is not only his uncle but the odds-on favorite to regain a seat he once held. Running for the District 8, Position 1 seat would pit him, along with a large field of others, some with name recognition, against a short-term incumbent, Gerry Curry. As for the mayor’s race: The reality is that he would have a hard time being taken seriously in that massive field, in which other challengers loom larger and the incumbent, Jim Strickland, has a million dollars in cash reserves and huge odds in his favor. The race for City Court clerk also has a large field, with former Councilmen Myron Lowery and Joe Brown being the biggest names.

There’s not a slam dunk among those options. Whichever race Justin Ford may have chosen by the time you read this will require maximum effort on Ford’s part, plus significant resources and luck, big-time, if he wishes to avoid the permanent obscurity possessed by, say, one Roderick Ford, who is unrelated to the political Fords but runs in every election in the forlorn hope that voters will mistake him for somebody else.

Mauricio Calvo

• Another would-be candidate who began the week with decisions to make is Mauricio Calvo, who has been a candidate for serious public distinction for years as executive director of Latino Memphis and as a member of the board of directors of the Greater Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce.

Calvo, Mexican-born but a naturalized U.S. citizen, has been pondering a race for the City Council in Super District 9 and drew petitions for Positions 1, 2, and 3. Each of those choices presented difficulties.

In Position 1, he could conceivably be up against six opponents, two of whom — Erika Sugarmon and Chase Carlisle — are regarded as the main competitors and had already filed for the position. In Position 2, the field would appear to be a mite smaller, but one of the two candidates already filed is the incumbent, Ford Canale. And in Position 3, Calvo would face a field containing highly touted Jeff Warren, the leading fund-raiser among council candidates, and Cody Fletcher, another candidate with a serious head start.

In addition to the problem of choosing the optimal ballot position of the three — all of which relate to the same sprawling geographical area comprising the eastern half of the city — Calvo faces another self-created challenge, the fact that he has, for better or for worse, outed himself as gay.

Calvo did so in a June 19th post on his Facebook page. As he explained, “I wanted people to know who I am. … I wanted supporters and voters to know who I am. My mom is 84, and I wanted her to know who I am. In my everyday life, I have the privilege of working and interacting with many inspiring people within and outside of the Memphis community. I wanted them to know who I am. Speaking my truth took a weight that I have carried for decades off of my shoulders.”

Family reasons were important  in Calvo’s decision to come out. His wife, Yancy Villa-Calvo, an artist who collaborates with him on “High Ground News,” a social-activist newsletter, had known for years and remains supportive. “And, of course, there are my loving children: Santiago, Anna, and Carolina,” Calvo added. “After speaking with them earlier this year, I believed it would be inconsistent, unhealthy, and dangerous to encourage them to embrace themselves and others while keeping their father’s truth a secret.”

The responses to Calvo in comments from others on his Facebook page have been resoundingly supportive, and they reflect a generous swath of the Super-District population. It remains to be seen what the impact of his decision has on his candidacy or on his widely acclaimed place in the city’s life, but in the meantime, he would seem to have evinced an indisputable personal bravery that can only be regarded as a triumph in its own right.

• The probable pairing for next year’s U.S. Senate race became apparent this week with the endorsement of Republican Bill Hagerty, current Ambassador to Japan and former Tennessee Economic Development Commissioner, by President Donald Trump for the seat being vacated by Lamar Alexander.

Meanwhile, Nashville lawyer and Iraq war vet James Mackler, a Democrat, has been endorsed by former Governor Phil Bredesen, for whom Mackler dropped out of last year’s Senate race, won ultimately by then-Congressman Marsha Blackburn of the GOP.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Public Money, Private Schools

In May — with help from legally questionable arm-twisting by disgraced and soon-to-be-deposed House Speaker (and general all-around sleazebag) Glen Casada — the Tennessee General Assembly passed an education voucher bill. It was not an easy birth. In fact, the House vote was deadlocked until Casada went into a back room and promised a Knoxville legislator his district would not be affected by the bill. That legislator then conveniently changed his vote.

And that’s how, after much wrangling and behind-the-scenes deal-making, a law was passed that allows 5,000 low-income families in Nashville and Memphis to apply for $7,300 vouchers to use toward purchasing tuition at private schools. “Low-income” is defined as making no more than $65,000 a year for a family of four.

Glen Casada

Does anyone else find it odd that the state’s GOP-controlled legislature thought so little of this bill that they limited its jurisdiction to Memphis and Nashville? I sure do. I mean, if it’s such a great idea, why wouldn’t these lawmakers want the voucher bill to apply to their own districts? The answer is, because they know vouchers would divert funds from their public school systems and tick off their constituents, who would rightly see it as giving public money to private for-profit and religious schools.

But when it comes to those of us living in the state’s largest two cities, the rubes who dominate the legislature are all too eager to bend us to their will, whether it’s outlawing living-wage legislation and minority hiring regulations — or, you know, taking down Confederate statues (which really pissed them off). Most likely, they thought, “Hey, let’s shove this bulls**t voucher thing down Memphis’ and Nashville’s throats and see what happens. That ought to irritate them liberals and uppity black folks.” And, of course, the voucher law has the sweet added benefit of padding the revenues of private schools — and pleasing their lobbyists.

This is a boondoggle. Giving people public taxpayer funds to pay for private schools is nothing more than an incentive to get them to pull their children out of public schools — at a time when weakening public education is the last thing we need to be doing.

And it gets worse. Private schools are under no obligation to accept any voucher student they don’t want. They can be selective. My guess is they’ll be more than happy to welcome $7,300 of our hard-earned money from, say, the family of a star running back and not so eager to welcome a troubled minority kid or a child with family problems or, horrors, a Muslim kid.

This bill is being backed hard by Governor Bill Lee, who’s now pushing to implement the voucher program for the 2020 school year, rather than waiting until 2021, when the law is supposed to take effect.

Chalkbeat.org, a nonprofit news organization that covers education, has reported extensively on Tennessee’s voucher bill. I highly recommend reading their coverage (and supporting their work). In a recent article, Representative Mike Stewart of Nashville was quoted as saying, “In places like Arizona, vouchers have been a rolling disaster marked by outright fraud and theft. We can expect the same thing to happen in Tennessee. … The whole point is to take millions of dollars away from public schools as soon as possible and then to dole them out to Governor Lee’s cronies, who have been pressing for vouchers since he got in office.”

If Lee’s proposed expedited schedule goes into effect, families in Memphis and Nashville would start getting the “education savings accounts” next summer. All this will engender lawsuits, of course. Attorneys for the affected school districts are expected to challenge the bill, primarily on the grounds that it unfairly singles out the Nashville and Memphis school systems. Immigrant rights groups are considering legal action because the law denies vouchers to children whose parents entered the country illegally, even if the children are citizens.

The state is also required by the voucher bill to “vet” private schools. What will that look like? Will the vetting involve looking into religious schools’ curriculums? Will our tax dollars go to support church-affiliated schools? Of course they will. Separation of church and state is so … old school.

And here’s my favorite part: If the state can’t find enough impoverished families to fill the 5,000 designated spots, higher-income families can apply, even if their kids were already set to go to private school.

Bottom line: The Republicans are running an experiment with the Memphis and Nashville school districts and using our money to do it. Our kids are the lab rats.

Categories
Art Art Feature

Local Artist’s Travels Find Expression with “Place Shapes” at the Dixon

As a child, Elizabeth Alley assumed every household had ebony pencils and kneaded erasers laying around. They were everyday objects at home where her father, Rick Alley, was an artist who worked for The Commercial Appeal for more than 30 years. He made sure there was a stack of newsprint around for his kids to draw on, a fitting medium since Rick’s father, Cal Alley, and his grandfather, J. P. Alley, were editorial cartoonists for The Commercial Appeal, J. P. having won a Pulitzer Prize for his work in 1923.

So for Elizabeth to find her passion as a fourth-generation artist is hardly a surprise, but she has assuredly followed her own path, one that has led her to the Dixon Gallery and Gardens where she has an exhibition opening this month.

Her exhibition of recent oil paintings, “Place Shapes,” runs from July 14th to October 6th in the Mallory/Wurtzburger Galleries.

Pinhao Road, oil on paper

Alley graduated from the University of Memphis in 1998 and soon after began exhibiting. And she found that she had to assign herself projects, such as a series of paintings. “After I got out of school,” she says, “I missed the regularity of it, and I kind of needed that structure. I really am best when I work in a series.”

In school, she did what art students do, which is to carry a sketchbook with her everywhere. After graduation, she still kept it with her, but, she admits, “I was lazy about sketching at the time, meaning I didn’t have a direction or a purpose for it.”

That would change.

Around 2009, Alley discovered the group Urban Sketchers, which is devoted to art done by direct observation on location, not from photos or memory. “It was a group of people doing the same things that I was doing, only doing it a little bit better,” she says.

She was motivated to start a Memphis regional chapter of the organization and has been involved in the local and the parent group since. About the time Alley got interested in Urban Sketchers, she started teaching at Flicker Street Studio where she continues to instruct in sketchbook drawing and beginning oil painting.

It is this devotion to sketching that has shaped Alley’s direction and work. She’s traveled quite a bit and has carefully recorded her experiences in far-flung places. “My connection to these places is that I’ve been there and seen them, but also that I’ve sketched them,” she says. “When you sketch anything — a place, a person — you develop this connection with it. So all of these places live in my heart now.”

How, then, did her sketchbook work in her travels turn into oil paintings in the Dixon exhibition? The works in this show all emerged from trips she made to Iceland, Newfoundland, and Portugal, where she particularly noted how the built environment blends with nature. You’ll see walls and roads but also desire paths, which, Alley says, “are where people walk in a natural environment so much that it creates a path.” She doesn’t see the world as “us versus nature,” but rather how societies can coexist with nature.

She decided to get back into oil painting, which she’d set aside for two or three years in favor of ink and watercolors, and she realized she wanted to turn the time she spent traveling into oil paintings. “In the past year,” Alley says, “I have been working on these in oils just to see what else I could do with it other than what I had already done.”

Alley has been working with the Dixon for some time now. She’s had other works on display there, and she was bringing her Urban Sketchers to the gallery, so she got to know the staff and has been doing some teaching there. The “Place Shapes” exhibition is the happy result of the ongoing association between artist and gallery.

An opening reception for “Place Shapes” will be held on July 18th from
6 to 8 p.m. at the Dixon.

Categories
Music Music Features

Playing Opossums: Memphis Rockers Release New Record

CREDIT: Mike McCarthy

Opossums are medium-sized omnivorous North American marsupials, too often maligned because, well, they’re ugly. Frequently seen scurrying across the road or under front porches, the small mammals are best known for “playing possum,” or feigning death when threatened. Opossums is also the moniker of a three-piece band of Memphis-based musicians who specialize in catchy rock-and-roll songs, and they’re set to release their first full-length album later this month.

Opossums’ self-titled debut is being released by Black and Wyatt Records on glorious vinyl (and digital streaming and download), with a release show at B-Side on Friday, July 26th. Dennis Black and Robert Wyatt, pediatricians who met at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital and bonded over a mutual love of music, head the label, which specializes in plumbing the depths of the Memphis underground scene.

Mike McCarthy

Opossums

With their pop sensibilities and no-frills aesthetic, Opossums’ collection of 12 lo-fi songs is a fitting project for Black and Wyatt. Patrick Jordan sings with a nasal, proto-punk vocal timbre. His guitars are heard in snatches over the steady chug of bass and drums. “Patrick writes all the songs,” says Jesse Mansfield, Opossums’ bassist and audio engineer. “Me and Liv [Hernandez] get it together with the arrangements pretty quickly. We usually don’t spend a whole lot of time on anything. If we do, then we’re thinking about it too hard.”

Haley Mitchell

Mansfield says that keep-it-simple ethos is integral to the band dynamic. “I cover all the recording, mixing, and mastering of everything,” Mansfield says. “I don’t mix anything too extensively.” The bare-bones production echoes the origins of Opossums’ songs. Jordan’s songwriting lends itself to a sense of immediacy, which Mansfield and drummer Hernandez bring to life. It helps that Mansfield and Hernandez have known each other for years.

“Me and Liv are from Mississippi,” Mansfield says. “I used to come to Hi Tone shows a lot during college,” Mansfield explains. “I had in my brain that I wanted to move up here just because I liked the Hi Tone and Stax and Goner and Shangri-La.”

So when Jordan moved to Memphis from Asheville, North Carolina, with a guitar, some dark sunglasses, and a tape of song demos, he found a ready-made rhythm section in Mansfield and Hernandez. It didn’t hurt, either, that, like Black and Wyatt, the trio quickly bonded over a shared love of music. “We’re all a bunch of big record nerds,” Mansfield says. “We’re also really into British invasion ’60s garage two-and-a-half-minute singles that’ll blow your ears off, as well as all the various British punk. Big into the idea of pop songs no matter what the genre is because you can fit the pop format into any kind of genre if you keep it simple.”

Fittingly, the songs on Opossums are punkish rock numbers that get to the point. “Sharp Cheddar,” the longest track on the album, clocks in at only 4 minutes and 13 seconds. The band’s DIY aesthetic is on full display in the music video for “Left in the Ground,” the lead single for the album. In the video, Jordan sings, “I don’t really care about it, left in the ground,” as he picks a maroon Danelectro guitar. Mansfield rides an eighth-note groove on bass, and Hernandez keeps the beat in the pocket. The video marries pop simplicity with a dangerous edge: shot in a room with a coffin leaning in the corner and in a small field that the informed viewer might rightly recognize as the Bettis Family Cemetery — or the infamous Cash Saver cemetery.

But why the coffin? Why the cemetery? “I’m not totally sure,” Mansfield says. “The song’s called ‘Left in the Ground.’ I don’t know if it’s about being dead or dying or killing people. I hope it’s not about killing people, but I would assume it has something to do with that,” Mansfield continues before summing up: “Pop doesn’t have to be friendly.”

Opossums album release, with Rosey, at B-Side, Friday, July 26th. 9 p.m.

Categories
News News Feature

System ‘Survivor’

CREDIT: Southern Poverty Law Center

Manuel Duran, the Memphis journalist who was arrested last spring while covering an immigration protest and detained for 15 months, was released on bond last week.

Duran, held in various detention centers, was most recently in the Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Alabama. After the Board of Immigration Appeals ordered that his case be reopened earlier this month, Duran was able to petition the court for a bond.

Reopening the case means Duran will now have the opportunity to go before a federal immigration judge to have his asylum claim heard.

Southern Poverty Law Center

Manuel Duran and some of his attorneys.

Gracie Willis, an attorney for the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), one of the groups providing Duran with legal assistance, said though Duran’s release is cause for celebration, “We are reminded that his struggle over the last 15 months is an indictment of an immigration system clearly designed to force immigrants seeking relief under the law to give up on their meritorious cases.”

Sally Joyner, interim executive director of Mid-South Immigration Advocates (MIA), said Duran is a “survivor of the system,” as over the past few years, it’s become “extraordinarily difficult” to be released from detention centers.

“It’s not impossible, and I think a great example is Manuel’s case,” Joyner said. “He was there for over a year and had the support of his family and the community. What he had going for him is solidarity. Sitting in jail for over a year while your immigration case is ongoing is simply not possible for some people who are so extremely traumatized and isolated.”

Last week, MIA, officially launching its Asylum Initiative, went public with its effort to assist asylum seekers like Duran, but who’ve just recently arrived to the country and are being held in detention centers in the Southeast.

The initial focus of the initiative is the Tallahatchie Correctional Center in Tutwiler, Mississippi, which houses about 1,500 male asylum seekers. Joyner said the team has been traveling there three times a week since January to provide legal guidance by preparing detainees for the next step in the asylum process.

That step is called a credible fear interview. Joyner said that interview is “a crucial part” of the process and is used to determine if an asylum seeker’s case should go before a judge.

The Tallahatchie detention center, located less than two hours from Memphis, opened about a year ago as the first asylum staging center in the country, Joyner said.

Asylum seekers there were transported from a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol facility at the border, put on a plane to Memphis, and then bused to Tallahatchie County where they will stay between three weeks and two months before being sent to another private facility in Louisiana.

“As these facilities open close to us in these isolated, rural locations, it’s important that we make sure these asylum seekers have information about the process and their rights so they can have some kind of chance at making their claim,” Joyner said.

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Virtual Dad

A round-up of Memphis on the World Wide Web.

Virtual Dad

Will Loden wants to be your dad.

If you never learned how to wash a car, throw a football, open a jar, or take a nap, Loden’s character “Virtual Dad” is ready to step in.

About a year ago, Virtual Dad debuted with a how-to YouTube video, “How To Take Out the Trash.”

“This is a full trash can,” Virtual Dad says, motioning to a mound topped with milk jugs and beer bottles. “You’ll notice it’s full ’cause there’s stuff over’n the top of it.”

Dad uses classic-dad nicknames, like hoss, rascal, and kiddo, but he’s not the most responsible, saying once, “I didn’t know I had you this weekend.”

Dad’s instructions are correct, but comedy is the real lesson on display. Directions about washing a car from the top down, for example, lead to a hilariously unexpected diatribe about Reaganomics. Classic dad move.

Production value on the series is high, and Loden doesn’t do it alone. Virtual Dad was created by Loden, Derek Beck, and Jono Foley. Music is by Trevor Smith, and graphics are by Corey Ellis.

Find Virtual Dad on Facebook (@virtualdad) and on YouTube at Virtual Dad.

Categories
Film/TV TV Features

Stranger Things Season 3

When it comes to film and TV, my viewing experience is different from yours. The average American sees four films in the theater every year. In 2019, I’m on pace to see well over a hundred films in theaters and probably at least an additional hundred films at home.

I’m also a filmmaker, which makes me a functionalist. When I watch something, I think in terms of what works and what doesn’t. Does a scene do what the filmmaker intended it to do? Does it transmit the information and convey the emotional impact needed at this moment in the piece? “Does it work?” is a subtly different question than “Is it good?” A film or show can “work,” but the piece itself can be bad. Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper is one of the most loathsome films of the decade, but it works because it effectively uses all the little tricks of film grammar to make you sympathize with a guy we first meet slaughtering Iraqi women and children. I recognize the craftsmanship, but you couldn’t pay me to watch it again — and I got paid to watch it the first time.

(l to r) Sadie Sink, Noah Schnapp, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, and Caleb McLaughlin

It’s easy for me to crawl up my own … crawlspace and just tell everybody to pack it in and go watch Shoplifters because the modest little Japanese film about a dysfunctional family of petty criminals rocked my world. But as a reviewer who writes for a general audience, I feel like it’s my duty to be aware of and reveal my biases, so even if you don’t agree with me, you can say, “Well, he wasn’t into Fast & Furious 27: Bald Men Punching Each Other, but it sounds like something I’d like.”

All this is to say, I am an absolute sucker for Stranger Things.

Yeah, there it is. I admit it. Matt and Ross Duffer have my number. I am powerless against their Spielbergian riffing. I understand at some level that Stranger Things, whose third season premiered on Netflix on Independence Day, is basically just Happy Days if it was set 30 years later and directed by John Carpenter. I understand that I would use “cheap ’80s pastiche” as a withering criticism for most other shows. I think the level of nostalgia the show trades in is probably unhealthy. And yet, here I am, ravenously chomping down on it and then sopping up the sauce with a biscuit.

In my defense, Stranger Things still works. The ensemble cast of teenagers, led by English actress Millie Bobby Brown as the psychic superweapon known as Eleven, is one of the finest on any screen right now. And at least there is an acknowledgment of the passing of time. The first season’s core group — The Party, as they refer to themselves in D&D terms — of Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Will (Noah Schnapp), and Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), with the second season addition of Max (Sadie Sink), begin season three united, then, as any group of kids do, start to slowly come apart. Dustin’s pet project Cerebro, named for Professor X’s telepathic enhancer, is really just a souped-up shortwave antenna he wants to use to contact his girlfriend from Utah he met while away at summer camp. Sure, like he’s got a girlfriend in Utah, right?

The onset of puberty is hitting The Party pretty hard. Will and El have discovered puppy love, until her guardian Hopper (David Harbour) intervenes, and Max teaches El when it’s time to “dump his ass.” This group discord comes at an inopportune time, as mysterious forces are once again messing with the portal to the Upside Down, and the spectral Mind Flayer is back, this time with a side order of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

The Reagan ’80s had a lot of good movies, but there was a lot not to like. Stranger Things season three points more clearly toward the bad parts, beginning with the soundtrack. The first two seasons were awash with the rediscovery of vintage synth sounds, while the new crop of songs draws from the pop sludge that dominated the airwaves in 1985. The corporate colonization of the economy is represented by the new mall, which is shiny on the surface but evil on the inside. Joyce (Winona Ryder, effortlessly incredible) feels her job in Downtown slipping away and distracts herself with yet another paranormal investigation. Economic insecurity manifesting as creeping paranoia was a subtext in the ’80s horror and sci-fi films the show references, and that remains as relevant as ever. Maybe William Faulkner understood the real secret of Stranger Things‘ success when he said, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

Categories
News News Feature

Mid-South Staycation Guide

CREDIT: Calvin L. Leake | Dreamstime.com

It’s summertime, and the living is easy. Everyone loves to plan a getaway — maybe a vacation at the beach or in the mountains, or maybe a long-awaited trip to Europe. But vacations pass quickly, and soon, here you are, back in Memphis, Tennessee. But happily for us, that doesn’t mean our vacation has to end. These fine Flyer advertisers have got some great ideas to spice up your summer without ever having to leave the Mid-South. Relax at a local resort or hotel, ride a bike, enjoy a casino outing, take in a museum. The options are endless, and so is your vacation, if you do it right.

Calvin L. Leake | Dreamstime.com

Bonne Terre Country Inn

Now is the perfect time to find your “Good Earth” at Bonne Terre.

Book a stay at the bed and breakfast to relax, remember, and renew. The pool is open, and the fish are biting in the lake! Celebrate with us seven days a week. Breakfast served for inn guests.

Beautiful Mississippi event resort, hosting beautiful weddings, private meeting retreats, and family reunions. Located just outside Memphis on the quiet country roads of Nesbit, Mississippi.

4715 Church Rd., Nesbit, MS

(662) 781-5100

bonneterreinn.com

Peddler Bike Shop

Peddler is your one-stop shop for all your biking needs. If you aren’t leaving town this summer, plan your staycation with Peddler. Join us for our group rides on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays as we tour Downtown and Midtown. Call or stop by any of our three locations: Downtown, Midtown, and Germantown.

Downtown: 517 S. Main • 522-9757

Midtown: 3548 Walker Ave. • 327-4833

Germantown: 2095 Exeter Rd. • 757-8485

peddlerbikeshop.com

Pink Palace Family of Museums

The Pink Palace Family of Museums opens the door to a world of exploration, discovery, and fun for all. Marvel at ancient history at our exhibits, experience science and technology at the CTI Giant Screen Theater, visit outer space at the AutoZone Dome Sharpe Planetarium, explore nature at the Lichterman Nature Center, or tour one of our historic homes. There’s so much to explore right here in Memphis at the Pink Palace Family of Museums.

3050 Central Ave.

636-2362

memphismuseums.org

The Guesthouse at Graceland

Get an authentic taste of Memphis while staying at The Guest House at Graceland. Packages include historic sites and landmarks. Mix Elvis’ world of glamour with a healthy dose of Southern hospitality, and you get an experience unlike any other at The Guest House.

3600 Elvis Presley Blvd.

(800) 238-2000

guesthousegraceland.com

Memphis Medical District Week

Events are happening throughout the week of July 22nd in the Memphis Medical District. On Thursday, July 25th, from 5 to 7 p.m., you’re invited to a Medical District Happy Hour at High Cotton Brewing Co. Then on Friday, July 26th, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., stop by the Health Sciences Park at the corner of Madison and S. Dunlap for a performance by J. Buck Band, food trucks, MemPops, ping pong, games, and more. Go to mdcollaborative.org for a complete list.

National Civil Rights Museum

Highlighting how everyday people did extraordinary things that changed our nation, the National Civil Rights Museum is a great excursion for vacations, youth groups, summer camps, or family reunions to learn the story of the American Civil Rights Movement. Visit this immersive experience and be transformed.

450 Mulberry St.

521-9699

civilrightsmuseum.org

Peabody Hotel

Rooftop Party season is in full swing at the Peabody Hotel. This Thursday, July 18th, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., City Mix, one of Memphis’ newest party bands will be playing all your favorite party songs along with hip-hop and rap. Tickets are $10-$15 at the door. Ladies and hotel guests free until 7 p.m.

118 S. 2nd St.

529-4000

peabodymemphis.com

Regina’s

Regina’s is your go-to place for a fun time. Saturday, July 20th, Regina’s is hosting a murder mystery dinner with no cover charge! If you’re looking for more fun, come to the ’80s vs. ’90s Party on Saturday, July 27th. If you bring in the ad from this week’s Memphis Flyer, you can get in for free!

60 N. Main St.

730-0384

reginascajunkitchen.com

River City Limousine Memphis

River City Limousine is owned and operated by River City Pedalers, Inc., which has been in the Memphis tourist and entertainment industry for more than four years. ​Active members of the Memphis Convention and Visitors Bureau, Germantown Area Chamber of Commerce, and TripAdvisor Business Advantage Members, River City Pedalers, Inc. is no stranger to Downtown Memphis or the Mid-South metropolitan region. With growth upon the horizon, the push to offer a luxurious limousine service led to the development of Memphis’ newest limousine service and party bus, River City Limousine Memphis! ​

825-7519

rivercitylimomemphis.com

River City Pedalers, Inc.

River City Pedalers’ attraction-touring party bike is a motorized, pedal-powered vehicle with seating for 16 passengers. Appealing to travel enthusiasts, professional corporations, students, adventurers, or anyone looking to just have a good time, the party bike is nonstop fun for all. The party bike tour is ideal for imaginative participants from all walks of life and is booked for everything from parties to group tours.

825-7519

rivercitypedalers.com

Southland Casino Racing

Voted Best Casino and located only seven minutes from Downtown Memphis. The most slots on the biggest casino floor in the Mid-South. All your favorite live table games. World-class steakhouse and all-you-can-eat casual buffet. Free live entertainment. Live racing and off-track betting. Special promotions and offers for Lucky North Club members. Must be 21+ to enter.

1550 N. Ingram Blvd., West Memphis, AR

southlandcasino.com

Categories
Cover Feature News

Bluff City Law: Here’s How They Got to Memphis

CREDIT: Jake Giles Netter/NBC

In 1991, John Grisham published his second novel, The Firm. The lawyer-turned-author’s tautly written legal thriller about a naive young man’s experience with a corrupt Memphis law firm became an instant bestseller. Two years later, Sydney Pollack directed the film adaptation starring Tom Cruise. The film grossed $270 million ($483 million in 2019 money) and indelibly associated Memphis with the legal thriller genre.

More importantly, from the city’s point of view, the success of The Firm also attracted a number of other big-budget film productions to the Bluff City, such as The Rainmaker, The People vs. Larry Flynt, 21 Grams, and, by the middle of the ’00s, Academy Award-winners like Walk the Line and Craig Brewer’s homegrown Hustle & Flow.

But then, shortly before the financial crisis of 2008, the stream of Hollywood productions coming to Memphis dried up. Inspired by the success of Toronto, Canada, in attracting productions like The X-Files, states such as Louisiana and Georgia began offering incentives in the form of tax credits and other perks to entice Hollywood to locate productions there.

Jake Giles Netter/NBC

Going straight — Caitlin McGee (left) and Jimmy Smits play father-daughter attorney duo at the Strait Law Firm.

It worked. New Orleans and Shreveport became unlikely film hubs, and billions of dollars of film and television money — including big-budget films from Marvel Studios — flowed into Atlanta.

In 2011, Brewer fought hard to get Paramount Studios to allow him to film the remake of Footloose in Shelby County, but to no avail. The production landed in Georgia, and as a result, many of Memphis’ tight-knit group of film workers left for greener pastures. Local micro-budget indie filmmakers soldiered on, as we always do, but besides that, the 2010s were bleak years for film production in Memphis.

The 2017 CMT series Sun Records, which focused on the birth of rock-and-roll, was the first sign things might be thawing. Last year, the Hallmark Channel came calling with Christmas at Graceland and Wedding at Graceland. As 2019 dawned, something new was in the air. And it was big.

A Routine Request

On January 10th, Memphis and Shelby County Film and Television Commissioner Linn Sitler got a call from NBC Universal. It was a request for photographs of several Memphis locations, the kind of thing her office fields all the time. A little over a week later, she got a call from Bob Raines, executive director of the Tennessee Entertainment Commission, informing her the state was in negotiations with NBC over a show called Bluff City Law. “I thought, ‘You’re kidding me! They haven’t even come here to scout. They just asked for one package of pictures,'” Sitler recalls.

Raines was not kidding. His contacts at NBC Universal were testing the waters in Tennessee.”I had developed an initial relationship with them over a production called Real Country that was done here in the state.”

NBC executives were very enthused about their new concept, and Raines knew he had to move quickly to make sure it didn’t morph into “Atlanta Law.” When producers pitch a new show to a network and the network is interested, they will order a pilot — a proof-of-concept episode that introduces the characters and situations the proposed series would deal with. Most shows never get past this point. But if Raines and Sitler couldn’t convince NBC to film the pilot in Memphis, there was no chance the eventual series would be filmed here. “The state moved very quickly — with record speed — and agreed to incentivize the pilot,” says Sitler. “On February 4th, the Memphis production office opened.”

A Powerful Message

Bluff City Law was conceived by Dean Georgaris and Michael Aguilar, both veteran writer-producers of film and television. David Janollari, who has earned five Emmy nominations and a Golden Globe Award for his work on Six Feet Under, American Family, and, in 2005, a mini-series about Elvis Presley, is the executive producer of the new series. “The inspiration for [Bluff City Law] is kind of two-fold,” says Janollari. “We were looking to do a great law franchise show that kind of harkens back to some of the great classic legal movies: The Verdict, A Few Good Men, Erin Brockovich. The list goes on. How do we capture that, stand up and cheer the heroes who will triumph over injustice on a week-to-week basis? Also on our minds were inspirations like L.A. Law and The West Wing that dealt with issues and with real, contemporary life in a very honest and provocative and hopefully thoughtful way.”

The courtroom is where many of the conflicts and issues of American society come to a head, making legal thrillers perpetually popular. But legal maneuvering can be dry, so the team knew that this show about “a David versus Goliath kind of law firm that takes on big injustices and fights the noble fight” needed a familial core.

The lead character is named Elijah Strait, whom the executive producer describes as “this kind of Atticus Finch character, a renowned, successful, and popular lawyer in Memphis. We wanted to know what his family life was all about.”
Elijah, the writers decided, has a daughter named Sydney who had followed in his footsteps and entered the legal profession. But when she went to work for the family firm, she and Elijah clashed, and so she left for a bigger, more corporate firm. In the pilot episode, the sudden death of Sydney’s mother motivates her to return to the Strait Law Firm.

“We wanted to put a contemporary American family dynamic on the air in a different way than we’ve seen in a while,” Janollari says. “This father and daughter are cut from the same cloth, and in that respect it’s both a good and a bad partnership because they are so similar and know each other’s tricks and foibles and flaws.”

No matter how good the concept, casting can make or break a show. For the crucial character of Sydney, with whom the audience would be asked to identify, the producers held extensive auditions before finding Caitlin McGee.

“Caitlin walked in and just mesmerized us,” Janollari says. “She kind of transformed into the character right in front of our eyes. It was a magical moment. … This is really her first big series leading role, and she’s fantastic. She’s a breakout. People are going to discover her and fall in love with her. She’s both powerful and incredibly vulnerable at the same time.”

The team knew who they wanted for Elijah. Jimmy Smits first attracted attention as one of the breakout stars of the NBC series L.A. Law. He’s got more than 20 big screen credits, including appearances in two Star Wars movies as Princess Leia’s adoptive father, Bail Organa. His TV career includes stints on NYPD Blue, Dexter, Sons of Anarchy, and, most importantly, three years on The West Wing.

“The West Wing was a kind of touchstone for us as we were developing the show, in terms of it really feeling like it was of the moment and addressing issues that were on people’s minds on a day-to-day basis,” Janollari says. “We live in a world which is even more complicated and more messy, from a standpoint of ‘What is truth?’ and ‘What is right?’ If we can pound the drum a little without being preachy, with the message that you can fight the good fight and you can change the world by sticking to your guns and standing up for the truth, we think that’s a powerful message to land in the world at the moment.”

The Clocks Are Ticking

As the Bluff City Law production offices ramped up in Memphis, Sitler and Raines faced a series of obstacles and a looming deadline. States such as Georgia, which have income taxes, offer productions transferrable tax credits that they can auction off to local companies for a profit. Tennessee doesn’t have a state income tax. “Our system is not a tax-credit system. It’s a grant system,” says Raines.

On paper, the Tennessee incentive structure promises a 30-percent refund of salaries paid to Tennesseans and a 25-percent refund of other spending, such as construction, catering, and transportation. Given the budget NBC was proposing, that translated to a $15- to $20-million incentive grant. It’s a hard sell to budget-conscious legislators, but Raines says these incentives can pay off in a big way.

“The state of Tennessee has invested about $69 million in reimbursements over a 10-year period,” he says. “We’ve gotten back $78 million in sales tax revenues. The program has generated $480 million in income to Tennesseans working in the production industry that we would not have seen without the incentives. It produced $655 million in economic output. … So when people ask, ‘Why are we giving money to productions?’ We’re impacting small businesses. We’re creating high-quality jobs.”

Sitler cites a recent incident when she was able to access a Shelby County jobs training grant to help a young woman train and join the union for the wardrobe department of a Memphis-based production. The woman has worked steadily since and landed a job on the Bluff City Law pilot. “It can lift people literally out of poverty once they learn the job skills,” she says.

In early 2019, Raines and Sitler were trying to explain all this to a brand-new governor and a legislature that had just experienced a 30-percent turnover. Between the legislative session schedule and the deadline for NBC to order the pilot to series, multiple clocks were ticking. “We’re trying to educate them on what the entertainment incentive system is and what we did for the state, utilizing all the data that we have,” says Raines. “They’re just trying to get up to speed on the basic practicality of the system — not only just on film and television, but the entire system.”

By late February, Sitler was shuttling back and forth between meetings in Memphis and Nashville. She found an early ally in the Black Caucus, led by Representative G.A. Hardaway and State Senator Raumesh Akbari, who voted to make an $18-million incentive grant appropriation their top priority. “I give credit for this to my board chairman Gail Carson, who knows all of the members of the Black Caucus and they all trust her greatly,” Sitler says.

But a setback loomed. “The new budget came out March 4th, and there was nothing — zero new funds for the state film incentive fund. Nothing at all,” she says.

On March 11th, filming started on the Bluff City Law pilot.

Hanging in the Balance

“We had a really wonderful experience shooting this pilot in Memphis,” says Janollari. “Our cast is terrific, the script by Dean Georgaris is just terrific and smart and funny and kind of epically emotional. Working in Memphis was a truly charmed experience. The city opened up its doors to us, treated us great, and embraced us.”

But even as they filmed, the precariousness of the situation was not lost on the locals hired for the production. “A couple of the crew people from Bluff City Law started a letter-writing campaign, and I think that really, really helped,” says Sitler. “What I was told was that it made the administration and some of the legislators suddenly take notice that this was something that Memphis really wanted. … It was gratifying to hear reports from the state that the meetings would start with, ‘How many letters did you get today? How many emails did you get today?'”

But even as shooting ground on, it became clear that the initial $18-million request was not going to be fulfilled and that any incentive money would come from either supplemental Memphis and Shelby County budget requests or county and city sources. On April 15th, two-and-a-half weeks after filming wrapped, Governor Bill Lee announced that the supplemental budget would include $4 million in new money for the state film fund.

The Big Deal

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, NBC was mulling over the results of the pilot shoot. Georgaris’ script deftly juggles the relationship between Elijah and Sydney as the father and daughter try to reconcile while taking on an agribusiness giant whose product causes cancer. Memphis locations include the courthouse, where McGee screams an authentic scream in the bathroom, and the Four Way Grill in Soulsville, where a tense lunch meeting takes place between opposing counsels. NBC execs were so impressed with the pilot that they ordered Bluff City Law to series on May 6th. The question was, would they film here, or, like the short-lived series Memphis Beat, do the bulk of their filming elsewhere, venturing to the Bluff City only for the occasional exterior shot?

The scramble continued. The state finally agreed to kick in $2.5 million, and Mayor Jim Strickland’s office searched the coffers for more funding. “A network TV show is a big deal, and we all understood that from from the get-go,” says Reid Dulberger, president and CEO of the Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE). “This was a team effort, and to my mind, the team included NBC. In all my discussions with them, they clearly wanted to film the series here. We have not always seen that in the past. … Generally speaking, the economics of the film and TV industry tend to be very responsive to local subsidy and local financial support. But even when it became abundantly clear that there wasn’t going to be a huge amount of money available at state level or local level for this production, the NBC people continued to work with us.”

In the end, EDGE contributed $1.4 million in county and city incentives. An additional $350,000 came from the marketing budget of Memphis Tourism. “It was a tremendous opportunity for us, one we couldn’t pass up,” says Memphis Tourism president and CEO Kevin Kane. “We’ve had cable shows, but I don’t think we’ve ever had a show on NBC, CBS, or ABC during primetime. After The Voice on Monday night, 9 p.m. Central, is about as good as it gets for viewership potential.”

The experience of 124 episodes of the show Nashville, which ran on ABC and CMT from 2012 to 2018, supports Kane’s decision. “That’s what made the tourism boom here so quickly,” says Raines, who lives in Nashville. “The numbers we saw were 18 percent of the people who saw the show in Middle America, they were getting up off their couch and coming to the city to experience it.”

After an initial ask of $18 million, NBC finally said yes to a $4.25-million package. “I think in the end, they really wanted that authenticity, and then they saw how hard we worked together to try and bring some resources to the table,” says Raines.

Production of the first season begins on July 20th and will last for about six months. David Janollari says he is eager to return to Memphis. “We’re going to strive in the series to include Memphis in each episode, even more than we did in the pilot — really feature the beauty and the history of Memphis and get out on the street more, into real authentic locations.”

The pilot is scheduled to air on NBC on September 23rd. “We’re looking forward to embracing Memphis and reflecting it accurately and beautifully on screen, capturing everything but the aroma of the barbecue,” says Janollari. “But we will be featuring a lot of barbecue.”

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Memphis Twins Produce Jim Varney Documentary

Remember Jim Varney, who played Ernest — the pop-eyed, rubbery-faced guy with the big smile? His adventures in movies, including Ernest Goes to Camp, Ernest Saves Christmas, and Ernest Scared Stupid, made people laugh.

Twin filmmakers/lifelong Varney fans — and Memphians — Eyan and Ivon Wuchina, 29, made a short documentary, Ernest Day, about the actor and his alter ego. It’s named after the annual event in Montgomery Bell State Park in Burns, Tennessee.

“Ernest was an empire,” Ivon says, adding: “He’s out there with the Three Stooges. His skill, his determination, his energy.”

Eyan and Ivon Wuchina

“He was a likeable guy,” Eyan says. “Anything he did, no matter how he messed it up, it was always out of the goodness of his heart.”

Eyan brought his Ernest doll, which talks when a string on its back is pulled, to Ernest Day. “I had so much respect for Jim Varney, I had to strap the doll to my body. Wore it,” he says. “It was in like a Christ-like pose on my chest.”

The twins’ fascination with Ernest began when they were children living in rural Williamson County in Tennessee. Their grandmother loved the Ernest TV commercials. “Commercials were always Ernest talking to his neighbor, Vern, who you’d never see,” Ivon says.

Varney, born in Lexington, Kentucky, was a classically trained actor who began working with John Cherry, who owned an ad agency in Nashville, Eyan says.

Cherry developed Varney’s Ernest character, Ivon says. “He based Ernest off of a guy whose name was Ernest, who worked with his father.

“Ernest is somebody we all know,” he says. “Somebody who thinks they know everything but actually knows nothing.”

For the TV commercials, Varney adopted the “traditional Ernest look” — the denim vest, khaki hat, and jeans, Eyan says.

In real life — except for his sense of humor and friendliness — Varney wasn’t Ernest, Ivon says. He “always dressed really fresh. He had his ears pierced. He wore jewelry — like rings, gold chains, stuff like that.”

Ernest Goes to Camp, released in 1987, was the first Ernest feature film Cherry directed for theatrical release. Varney went on to make eight more Ernest movies.

During his career, Varney got away from the Ernest character. He played Jed Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies, the villain Lothar Zogg in 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain, and Uncle Hazel in Daddy and Them with Billy Bob Thornton.

Varney was the voice of Slinky Dog in his last movie, Toy Story 2. In 2000, he died from lung cancer at the age of 50.

Ivon and Eyan, who began watching Ernest movies on TV when they were toddlers, says Varney influenced them to become filmmakers. “Growing up in Tennessee, people talk about, ‘Hey, the Ernest movies were filmed here,'” Eyan says. “So, growing up as people obsessed with movies and wanting to do films ourselves, it gave us the energy and gumption.”

They took footage at Ernest Day in 2017 with the idea to document the event for a future movie. They interviewed everybody from Cherry to a guy named Victor, “who had a tattoo of Ernest on his calf,” Eyan says.

“I was dressed as Ernest both years,” Ivon says.

The idea behind the Varney documentary was “to remind people how big he was,” Ivon adds.

The biggest compliment about the documentary showed up on Twitter. “Judd Apatow, the director, retweeted [the YouTube link to] our Ernest movie,” says Ivon.”The biggest comedy director of our time, basically, retweets an Ernest movie. He loves Ernest, too.”