Month: October 2019

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News News Blog

Arrow to Build New ‘Forever Home’; Passes on Plan for MCA Space

CREDIT: Paradigm Marketing and Creative

Paradigm Marketing and Creative

A rendering of the proposed Arrow building in the Broad Avenue Arts District.

Arrow, one of the organizations that had bid to take over Rust Hall next year when the Memphis College of Art closes, has pulled out of consideration and will instead set up its headquarters in the Broad Avenue Arts District.

Abby Phillips and Dorothy Collier, co-founders of the nonprofit creative co-working space, made the announcement Monday evening at Arrow’s temporary space at 2535 Broad.

Arrow has raised about $2 million toward acquiring the property and will mount a capital campaign to get another $10 million.

“The space will be more than a building, more than a program, and more than just studio space,” Phillips said. “Arrow will be a one-roof creative district in the heart of Memphis. We will house micro retail opportunities, creative community education with a focus on workforce development and artist development.”

It will have studios and creative offices, as well as co-working and shared equipment. Arrow has acquired some of the equipment from Memphis College of Art that will be available to the Arrow community.

“This space provides a unique opportunity with easy access,” she said. “We are 20 minutes or less of a drive from anywhere in the city, the street is already an established and thriving arts district, and over the next few years, there will be over 400 apartments in the surrounding five blocks.”

The 80,000- to 100,000-square-foot project is expected to take more than a year. Meanwhile, Arrow will remain in its temporary “concept” space that has six studios and already has artists working there. “We wanted to be closer to our forever home and to prove our concept that access to foot traffic does help these artists,” Phillips said.

Arrow is also offering classes and hopes this summer to have a summer camp for students much like MCA has offered for many years.

The city has selected several finalists who have proposals on what to do with the 75,000-square-foot MCA building, which will become vacant at the end of the 2019-2020 school year. Arrow had been one of the finalists. The city is also looking for ideas for the 86,000-square-foot Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, which plans to move Downtown in 2024. 

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Other Foods Kitchen Offers a Place to Mass Produce Your Eats

Your cozy kitchen probably isn’t going to cut it if you want to mass produce your mom’s famous oatmeal cookies and sell them to grocery stores or restaurants. Plus, the kitchen needs to be certified by the Department of Agriculture.

Other Foods Kitchen, a shared, commercial Department of Agriculture-certified kitchen at 1249 Heistan Place off Bellevue near Lamar, can solve your problem, says CEO Steve Cantor. “We have a 24-hour facility that can handle up to six groups at a time. You just rent it by the hour.”

On a recent Friday, the kitchen was bustling with people slicing, dicing, and preparing food to be sold to the public. They have “regularly scheduled” people, whom they call “members,” who make food at designated times each week. “We’re up to 16 members now, and we’re growing,” Cantor says.

Michael Donahue

Other Foods’ Richard McCracken, Steve Cantor, and Evan Katz

The 5,000-square-foot space is a fully equipped commercial kitchen. “We have four convection ovens, 16 stove top burners. We have grills, all kinds of mixers, prep tables, coolers … pots and pans and utensils.”

People can use the walk-in cooler, but, Cantor says, “We’re not a warehouse. You come in and you make it and you sell it. It’s gone.”

This began three years ago with Benefizz, a probiotic beverage developed by Cantor. He came up with the low-sugar drink recipe in the kitchen at Otherlands Coffee Bar, where he and his wife, Karen Lebovitz, are owners. He now sells Benefizz, which comes in ginger, cranberry, and lemon flavors, at 21 locations, including grocery stores and cafes, in Memphis and Nashville.”

After he outgrew the Otherlands kitchen, Cantor found other like-minded food makers and moved into a building on Madison.

When they outgrew that space, Rick Hechinger, one of their investors, told them about a building he owned next to his business, Blue Sky Couriers. “Literally, within a month of that conversation we started building it out,” Cantor says. “And two months ago we opened the doors.”

Rental price typically is $13 an hour.

Long-range plans include adding another building. “We would want to keep this facility and open another facility that could be very similar,” he says.

Richard and Molly McCracken needed more space for their business, Amplified Meal Prep, which Richard describes as “healthy comfort food.” They also make custom meals, which they deliver on Sundays.

They outgrew the Madison kitchen. “When we hit about 800 meals a week, that’s when we knew we needed to go somewhere ASAP,” Richard says. “Right now we’re about 1,300 meals a week.”

Richard, who also is kitchen manager for Other Foods Kitchen, likes the open floor plan. “When we designed it, we wanted to make it use-able,” he says. “Where more than one resident could be in there at one time.”

Dave Scott, who sells his Dave’s Bagels products to restaurants and other businesses, works about five hours a day, four days a week at Other Foods Kitchen. “I do all of my production and storage over there,” Scott says. “I do anywhere from 1,500 to about 2,000 bagels a week. And I do somewhere between 400 and 600 pretzels, hot dog buns, and pretzel hot dog buns. I brought in all of my manufacturing equipment, and I use the Other Foods’ ovens and stove top.”

Other Foods Kitchen is beneficial for novice cooks, Scott says. “I love that it gives young and starting entrepreneurs the chance to give their dreams a shot without the super-high financial commitment of buying your own commercial space or signing up for a lease you’re not sure you’re able to afford in six months if your idea doesn’t work out.”

It’s a “business incubator,” he adds. “It gives people enough time to test their food ideas and gives you some room to grow while you’re figuring all that out.”

Visit otherfoodskitchen.com for more information.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Cider Flight: Weathering the Season’s Apple Brews

All that Americana foolishness the wee ones are taught about Johnny Appleseed isn’t entirely BS — just about 65 percent. In truth, there was a fellow named John Chapman who introduced apple trees in groves to the west — back when that meant Ohio. The fruit he was slinging around Hell’s half acre, however, wasn’t for wholesome snacks and pie. They were little crabby things — cider apples — best used for tying one on.

With the cooler fall weather, of course it was up to DJ, Memphis’ favorite Irishman, to throw an All-American Ciderfest over at his pub, Celtic Crossing.

“It was my wife’s idea,” he pointed out. I feel you brother. In my house, the good ideas generally are, as well.

Sipping cider at Celtic

They’d had a Ciderfest last year, and along with periodic Scotch and bourbon and gin tastings, as well as World Cup-inspired beers, Celtic is a pretty good place to pop in and have something you’ve never tried.

“DJ,” I said, “you really love a festival.”

“Well, if you’re going to own an Irish bar,” he replied, “you’d better learn to throw a party.”

In these unsettled times, there is a certain genius to that. I mean, the Irish basically colonized half the large cities east of the Mississippi without firing a shot. They drank their way in.

For Ciderfest, the weather broke the habit of a century and cooperated with very fall-like temperatures on a crisp, beautiful day. Football was on the widescreen, and pale, fizzy flights were passed around all over the place — drawn from 26 different bottled ciders, and four on draft.

The flights are a great way to go, even though DJ and I both agreed that, with our generation, a flight was a way to try something new and decide which of the four you were going to stick with on the night’s epic journey to get plowed. These younger kids, though, will order flights and then more flights, sampling and tasting. According to DJ, “They want to own the experience. See all of what is out there. It’s really a better way than what we did.”

“Oh God, without a doubt,” I think I said.

Memphis’ own Long Road Cider was slinging a clean, crisp, and dry tipple called Lagerhead — which is worth the trip out there to try a pint. Of course, the big names were there, like Angry Orchard, with an unfiltered cider that tasted unfiltered, a rosé that tasted like a rosé, and an extra crisp that tasted … Well, you get the picture. Evidently the trend of esoteric craft-brew names hasn’t gripped the cider community just yet.

Then things did get creative. I’d had something that had been cleverly christened a Black & Wood earlier that week; it’s a Guinness and Woodchuck cider. This concoction is the artistic love child of a traditional Black & Tan and a shandy: The whole thing gets lightened up with the cider, but it isn’t as sweet as a beer doused in lemonade.

Woodchuck’s Pear Cider is another off-the-wall choice. It’s not what you’re probably expecting: It’s very good and lacks the bite of an apple cider. It goes down smooth, almost weirdly so. Mrs. M liked it, although she stuck with her Bud Light.

There was a cider-inspired food menu, but we managed to miss it, although at home I marinate pork in cider all the time, and it works beautifully. Sitting in Celtic, watching Cooper Avenue go one way then the other, we had the bacon-wrapped shrimp — which are beautifully non-greasy and will go with whatever you’re drinking — and the fries. Mrs. M has strong opinions on French fries, and these were in in her top five. Although it should be pointed out that the lady has been known, from to time, to change her mind on things.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

The Current War

The two stories of The Current War are both fascinating in their own way. The first is the actual story told by director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and writer Michael Mitnick: In 1879, Thomas Edison’s team invented the incandescent light bulb in his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory. To the masses who spent way too much of their time trying not to burn down their houses with candles or asphyxiate themselves with gas lights, the clean, steady light from the bulb seemed like magic. But the bulbs, and new applications for electricity being developed by industrialists like George Westinghouse, couldn’t run without juice. In 1880, unless you had a dynamo in your back shed, you were out of luck. Thus, the most pressing problem for engineers in the early Gilded Age was how to get electricity into businesses and private homes all over the country.

Benedict Cumberbatch (above) stars as inventor Thomas Edison in The Current War.

There were two possible solutions: direct current (DC), where the electrons flow through the circuit in one direction like water in a river; and alternating current (AC), where the electrons shuffle back and forth through the circuit like line dancers. DC is the simplest and most versatile. You can run lights, motors, and anything else you can dream up on DC, but the stream of electrons tends to peter out over long distances. AC is more complex to implement, and in 1880, you could run a light bulb, not a motor, from it. But you can transmit AC power over thousands of miles without significant power loss if you crank up the voltage high enough.

Edison had spent all of his time experimenting with DC and had developed short-range distribution systems, which he first implemented in densely populated New York City. But most of America is much more spread out, and a new coal-smoke-belching power plant every square mile was only an attractive prospect to the guy who would get paid to build them. AC transmission, which Westinghouse favored, was much more efficient, but the high voltage carried with it a danger that didn’t even have a name yet: electrocution.

Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse

The Current War is the story of how Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) waged a two-decade contest to decide how the world would be wired. It was a conflict that played out in laboratories, in boardrooms, in the media, and, in the film’s telling, climaxed at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. The wild card came in the person of Nikola Tesla (Nicholas Hoult), the immigrant super-genius who, among other things, figured out how to run a motor on AC power. Tesla first went to work in Edison’s proto-corporate invention mill, quit to go into business for himself, and then sold out to Westinghouse.

You can’t fault Gomez-Rejon and Mitnick for lack of ambition. This is a complex story with huge historical repercussions and potentially something to say about our own late-stage capitalist moment. But that’s where the other story of The Current War comes in. The film originally premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2017. Producer Harvey Weinstein was not pleased with the reception there, so he took it from the director and was re-editing it when multiple sexual assault and rape charges ended his career and collapsed the Weinstein Company. After extensive bankruptcy litigation, Gomez-Rejon regained control of the film and made his own improvements. Thus, the version that goes into wide release this week is subtitled “Director’s Cut.”

I was not at Toronto in 2017, so I don’t know how much of the movie has changed since then, but something about The Current War doesn’t feel right. It somehow manages to be simultaneously undercooked and fussed-over. I generally advocate for shorter films, but this is a lot of material to pack into 107 minutes. For big chunks of its running time, it feels like a sizzle reel for The Current War mini-series. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you made an entire picture along the lines of a Rocky training montage? If so, this is the film for you. Edison and Westinghouse take turns doffing their hats and proclaiming their latest accomplishments while years fly by. Tesla, the most genuinely interesting character, feels like an afterthought.

Nicholas Hoult as Nikola Tesla

And that’s a shame because the cast, which also includes the underrated Katherine Waterston as Westinghouse’s wife Marguerite Erskine Walker and Tom Holland as Edison’s right-hand man Samuel Insull, are clearly committed to the project. When Shannon and Cumberbatch finally confront each other at the World’s Fair, the scene crackles. The cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung is frequently exceptional, with compositions that seem to come out of a Gilded Age Harper’s Bazaar illustration.

I didn’t hate this film. There’s a great movie hiding in there somewhere, but it’s ironic that a story about capitalist greed and executive malfeasance threatening scientific advance and engineering progress seems to have been thrown off track by executive malfeasance.

Or maybe that’s not ironic at all. What’s the opposite of ironic? Expected.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Halloweenies: Why We Don’t Answer the Door

All Hallow’s Eve is nigh, so we’ll probably celebrate in the traditional manner: Lock the doors, close the shutters, turn out all the lights, and trust that the dogs will bark ferociously should anyone dare to knock. Just as added protection, I plan to hang a sign on the door that says “Quarantine! — Norovirus” and wrap the porch in yellow police tape.

It wasn’t always like this. We participated in the pagan ritual of children shaking us down for candy for many years, just to see them in their costumes. When we first moved to this neighborhood, the local kids would come around while the young moms and dads stayed on the sidewalk carrying cocktails in Solo cups under the guise of “taking the children trick-or-treating.” Maybe word got out that we were a candy-rich area because after a while, the nature of the tricksters changed. They seemed to be much older and not wearing children’s-size costumes anymore. They were no longer dressed like pirates and princesses but more like prostitutes and pallbearers. Then van-loads of sugar-crazed teenagers began circling the block in search of Snickers. I finally decided that if you’re old enough to drive, you’re old enough to buy your own damn candy. 

I used to love Halloween. When I was a kid, my sister and I would circle a neighborhood that was so wealthy, they handed out Dinstuhl’s. I’m kidding, of course, but nearly every home was generous with their candy. Some people even went to the trouble of making caramel apples for us. But one year, after a “razor blade-in-the-apple” scare, that practice pretty much ended. No one in the civilized world ever found a razor blade in an apple.

There was one old man on our block who was too elderly to go shopping for candy, so every year, he gave us each one raw wiener. I would eat it before we got home so my mother wouldn’t take it away. I still find the old man’s gesture touching.

Eventually, I aged out of the trick-or-treat scene and entered into the unholy world of teenager Halloween. This was the age of egging houses and rolling yards with toilet paper. When we said “trick-or-treat,” we meant it. Some of the pranks we played would be classified as atrocities today. But we grew out of that too.

I have always believed that Halloween was for children. Maybe it’s because when I was a child, I saw my parents leaving for a costume party dressed as two giant, pink rabbits. It’s tough to take your dad seriously while he’s wearing a fluffy cottontail. That’s why I was never much into costumery as I grew older. Some friends used to throw an annual Halloween party Downtown. What began as a gathering of a small group of friends, turned into a bacchanalia of such grotesque and unmanageable proportions that the cops were often called, and no one could tell if they were real or just in costume. That’s when I became convinced that grown-up Halloween was pretty much X-Rated and that it served as an opportunity for ordinarily staid ladies to dress up like sluts and sexy witches. My party invitation was rescinded after one year when I couldn’t be bothered with a costume, so I just got naked, strapped on a pair of roller skates, and went as a pull-toy. At least it was inexpensive. Contrast that with the benchmark set in 2018, when 30 million Americans spent $480 million on costumes — for their pets.

I’m aware that times change. Now, children go door-to-door at their own risk and adults go bobbing for Xanax instead of apples. We had one kid show up at the door in a baggy blue suit and oversized red tie with a bad, blonde wig atop an orange painted face. When we asked him if he wanted some candy, he said, “If it’s all the same, I’d rather have the cash.” And to think that I used to put an illuminated Nixon mask in the front window to scare the children.

Elevating the fright level now are the “Haunted Houses.” What once was a church-sponsored, family entertainment where cobwebs brushed your face and volunteer ghosts said “boo,” has turned into gore-fests with professional actors and animatronics. One such “house” features a cemetery crawling with corpses awakened from their graves. Another leads patrons through an actual funeral home, where visitors are taken from the parlor to the embalming room to the morgue, and ultimately to hell. Memphis is home to several such haunted houses, one of which advertises “a brain bashing, fear soaked … experience that will scare you to the core.” Another brags of “ghastly butchery that won’t be believed.”

Such horror from a holiday that began as a day of prayer for the souls of the departed! These times are plenty scary enough for me as it is.

Now, what am I supposed to do with this bag of miniature Snickers?

Randy Haspel writes the “Recycled Hippies” blog.

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Frog Squad

Jazz up your week with Music Video Monday.

Frog Squad is a Memphis collective dedicated to the kind of electronically infused space jazz pioneered by Sun Ra and His Arkestra.

“Solar System in Peabody” is a musical tribute to sculptor Yvonne Bobo’s Around We Go and Without Boundaries, both located in Peabody Park on Cooper. It was written by Khari Wynn and David Collins, and features saxophonist/flutist Hope Clayburn, keybaordist Dave Hash, drummer John Harrison, and saxophonists Michael Shults and Aaron Phillips.

This performance of the epic suite was filmed live in Peabody Park by Brett Hanover for the Urban Arts Commission. Frog Squad’s new album will be released on Halloween, and they will be at B Side for a record release party on Friday, November 1st. Get spaced!

Music Video Monday: Frog Squad

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

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Tiger Football

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

• Just how big is this week’s Memphis-SMU showdown?
I’m calling it the biggest Tiger game in the 55-year history of the Liberty Bowl. We’ve had big upsets (i.e. Tigers over Tennessee in 1996), but has there ever been a game at the Liberty Bowl between two teams in such lofty positions — nationally — and with so much at stake? This is only the fifth time since 1965 (when the Liberty Bowl hosted its first game) that Memphis has reached November with no more than one loss. The first two occasions (1966 and ’67) get the asterisk treatment, as the season began later and the Tigers were merely 5-1 each time. In 2015, Navy came to town sporting a 6-1 record, the only other time — before this Saturday — a game was played this late in the season at the Liberty Bowl between teams with no more than one loss each (the Tigers were 8-0 and lost that game to the Midshipmen).

Larry Kuzniewski

Navy was not ranked, though, four years ago. Both SMU (15th) and Memphis (24th) will take the field Saturday night among the AP Top 25. As for what’s at stake, let’s see: first place in the American Athletic Conference’s West Division and, with it, “control your destiny” privileges for a berth in the AAC championship game and the possibility of a — big gulp — New Year’s Six bowl invitation. The game will be played in front of ABC’s cameras for an entire country to see what this “American” league is all about. The league’s top quarterback (SMU’s Shane Buechele) against the league’s top freshman (Tiger tailback Kenneth Gainwell). One team averaging 43 points per game (SMU), the other just under 40 (39.5). Three days before the basketball Tigers open their season, Memphis will be a distinctly — and historically significant — football town.

• The Tigers’ path to a New Year’s Six bowl game is (somewhat) clear.
Only one team from a “Group of Five” conference gets to play in one of the six most prestigious bowl games. There are currently four such schools ahead of Memphis in the AP poll, with two of them (15th-ranked SMU and 17th-ranked Cincinnati) still on the Tigers’ schedule. If Memphis can handle the Mustangs and Bearcats, that would leave 20th-ranked Appalachian State and 21st-ranked Boise State among current contenders, and neither of them have two “Group of Five” rivals to beat for bonus points among bowl voters. (Memphis could theoretically play Cincinnati twice, should the teams each win their division of the AAC.) It’s hard to envision a two-loss team earning this prestigious bowl nod. It’s also hard to envision Memphis not getting the call should the Tigers run the table and win the AAC championship.

• Tigers ranked here, there, everywhere.
On the subject of “Group of Five” institutions, Memphis is the only one that can currently claim a spot in the AP Top 25 for both football and basketball. (Penny Hardaway’s Tigers are 14th in the preseason rankings.) And the truth is, football or men’s basketball may not be the top team on campus right now. The U of M women’s soccer team is 15-1-1 and ranked 11th in the country. (The Tiger men’s soccer team is just outside the Top 25.) I can’t remember a time when University of Memphis athletics were so thoroughly infused with positive vibes. These are the days we bottle and shelve in the memory bank, there for soothing when (if?) tough times arrive. For now, sport your blue and gray proudly.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

All About Ja

Larry Kuzniewski

Ja Morant

Sunday night belonged to the most electrifying man in Memphis, Ja Morant. The Grizzlies rookie point guard made his mark, as he went toe-to-toe with one of the league’s best players, Kyrie Irving.

With only 3.7 seconds left in OT, Morant delivered a dime to a trailing Jae Crowder, who hit a game-winning three-pointer as time expired to seal the victory before 15,517 delighted fans at the FedExForum. Memphis beat Brooklyn 134–133.

“It was a great play call by coach,” said Morant on the game winning dish to Crowder. “I’m not going to lie. At first, when I went behind the back, I was just trying to get my feet set. But then Jae called ‘Trailer!’ and I knew that both defenders were on me, so I just pitched it back and backed into the other defenders so they wouldn’t be able to contest his shot. I believed in Jae the whole way and he delivered for us tonight.”

This marked the first win of the 2019 season for the Grizzlies and the first win for rookie head coach Taylor Jenkins.
Larry Kuzniewski

Taylor Jenkins

In his third NBA game, the rookie point guard tallied 30 points (career-high), nine assists, and four rebounds in 32 minutes. The Murray State alum became only the third player in NBA history to score at least 30 points and have at least nine assists within the first three games of their career, joining Isiah Thomas (1981) and Trae Young (2018).

He had 17 points in the fourth quarter, while leading the Grizzlies back from a 118-110 deficit with 3:20 remaining. Also Morant had a key block on Irving to send the game to overtime.

Morant on the final sequence of the fourth quarter, “On that last play, coach was just telling us to stay down, and once he pump faked it, I was down and I knew the shot was coming,” Morant said. “Man, it was great. Special talent — he’s [Irving] a handful; I can say that. Definitely was putting pressure on our defense tonight.”

After the game, Morant said it felt great to get the win in front of the rousing home crowd after coming up short the first two games.

Jenkins was glad to get his first win and was very proud of his rookie. Jenkins said, “We’ve said to him daily that he’s our engine. We go as he goes. I think he’s starting to see how defenses are going to guard him. He’s got to be full throttle early on. Credit to him, the last couple of days watching film and in his individual work, working on different finishes.”

Jenkins added, “To see him finish at a pretty high level tonight, to be able to complete those attacks is huge. To be able to find his teammates in great times, getting in there and kicking out, it was great to see. That was a great Ja Morant performance. A lot of guys played great tonight. Hopefully we continue building on this moving forward.”

“Obviously, he’s a very talented player. He hit some tough shots and his quickness and speed to the rim to get downhill,” said Brooklyn Head coach Kenny Atkinson about Morant.

Irving also had high praises for Morant: “I expected him to come out aggressive, be who he is. He got downhill a few times and finished over our bigs. Didn’t really hit the outside shot tonight, which we wanted to encourage, but he did pretty great at what he is known for and that is getting in the paint and playing with a lot of passion, and I think he showed that tonight.”

Nets guard Caris LeVert said Morant made good decisions and said he thought Morant was going to be really good in the league.

Notes:
The Grizzlies converted on a season-high 14 three-pointers and shot 48.5 percent from the field.

Jonas Valanciunas recorded his second double-double of the season, tallying 16 points and 11 rebounds in just 20 minutes of play. Dillon Brooks had a strong night as he went 9-of-15 while shooting 3-of-6 from three. Brooks ended with 21 points.

Solomon Hill saw his first action in a Grizzlies uniform. Hill went a perfect 5-of-5 from the field and finished with 13 points and five rebounds.

Irving led all scorers with 37 points, seven assists and seven rebounds while shooting 11-of-27 from the floor. Caris LeVert also had a good night for the Nets as he tallied 27 points, five assists and four rebounds as the Nets fell to 1-2 on the year.

What They Said
Grizzlies forward Jae Crowder ended the night with six points, seven rebounds and five assists. All of Crowder points came in OT and including the game winner.  Larry Kuzniewski

Jae Crowder


On the win: “Obviously, just to get the win, get our first win and try to get some momentum. We’ve been playing well these first two games and we put five quarters together and came out with a win.”

On keeping an even keel in the fourth quarter:
“We just wanted to stay with the game plan and obviously we felt like we took our foot off the gas pedal the other two games and we wanted to try and finish a full game with some veteran presence down late and it helped out. We just played very scrappy on the defensive end, coming up with loose balls. They had a five out there. We had four smalls I think at one point so we’re just playing scrappy and doing whatever it takes to win the game.”

On what he tells the young players:
“We want to limit those guys to one shot where, like I said, we were playing small in the clutch so we didn’t want to give any second chance points. I think all game we were getting beat with second chance points, so there late we just wanted to limit those guys to one shot, make or miss, and get out and have a good offense on the other end and find the best shot we can get. So I think we limited those guys. I think they got a tip-in late which we tried to not give up, but we did a good job of limiting those guys to one shot.”

On the locker room celebration:
“We’re coming together. I think that’s what it’s about. It’s about coming together as a team. Coming together as one. And obviously a win always brings a team a little closer and to get that first win for coach speaks volumes for him. We’re just happy for him. Happy for our rooks, they played a great game and we’re just trying to get a win and get some momentum here early in the season.”

On Ja Morant:
“He stepped up especially in that to force overtime. That defensive stop that he had on Kyrie [Irving], stayed down on the pump fake, contested it, got a piece of the ball. That was big. That was probably my highlight for him of the game along with the points. He did a good job of scoring and facilitating but that defensive stop to push it to overtime was huge.”

Up Next
The Grizzlies head out to take on Anthony Davis, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, with a 9:30 p.m. start, Central time.

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

#25 Tigers 42, Tulsa 41

The stage is set for one of the biggest games in the 55-year history of the Liberty Bowl. With a win Saturday night at Tulsa, the 7-1 Tigers will host SMU (8-0) next Saturday in a Top-25 showdown, only the second Tiger home game as late as November since 1965 with the teams combining for a single loss.

Tulsa’s freshman kicker, Jacob Rainey, missed a 29-yard field-goal attempt (wide left) as time expired to secure the Tiger victory. The Golden Hurricane had erased an 11-point halftime deficit (28-17) to take a 41-35 lead with 5:14 left in the game, scoring on four consecutive possessions and imposing its offensive will on the Memphis defense. But Kenneth Gainwell‘s third touchdown of the game with 4:26 on the clock — a one-yard scamper following a 57-yard gain by wideout Damonte Coxie — proved to be decisive. Gainwell has six touchdowns in the Tigers’ last two games and 14 for the season.

The Tigers won despite surrendering 584 yards (on 101 plays) to Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane dominated possession time (35:59), largely by averaging more than four yards per carry in rushing for 275. Memphis won despite a fourth-quarter fumble by Gainwell that gave Tulsa three points on the ensuing possession, via Rainey field goal. The Tigers won despite Tulsa quarterback Zach Smith passing for 309 yards without an interception.

Tulsa falls to 2-6 with the loss and remains winless (0-3) in American Athletic Conference play. The Tigers are now 3-1 in the AAC, one game behind the Mustangs with a chance next week to gain ground in the league’s West Division.

Gainwell rushed for 149 yards on 24 carries, the freshman’s sixth straight game with 100 yards on the ground. Memphis quarterback Brady White completed 15 of 25 passes for 277 yards and two touchdowns (one to Antonio Gibson, the other to Joey Magnifico). Coxie caught five passes for 112 yards.

In November 2015, Navy came to Memphis with only one loss to face the undefeated (8-0) Tigers. It’s the only such late-season clash in Liberty Bowl history, though both teams in that case were not ranked (as SMU and Memphis will be next weekend). Memphis has won five straight in its series with the Mustangs and owns an 8-3 advantage since the teams first played in 1976.

Categories
News News Blog

No Guns Allowed: A Look at Local Gun Policies

A Memphis Zoo guest accidentally shot himself in the leg Tuesday near the zoo entrance. The guest sustained a non-fatal wound and no one else was hurt from the incident, but zoo officials have since said they are reviewing its gun policy.

Currently, the zoo allows concealed weapons, but guests are required to check in at the front gate and present a gun permit.

Now, that policy will change, Nick Harmeier, the zoo’s chief marketing officer said. Input for that new policy will have to come from the city and state, he said.


Harmeier said since the arrival of the zoo’s new CEO, Jim Dean in April, “we’re doing a lot of different things at the zoo in general right now. Our new CEO came in and he’s making quite a bit of changes.

Harmeier said the gun policy “would not have been looked at on the front end, but what happened this week definitely sparked us to say ‘hey this is something we really need to dig into.”

“We’ve been ahead of the situation, where as a public space you’re always trying to look at the what ifs,” Harmeier said. “At the end of the day our number one priority is to have a safe space for families.”


Here’s a look at the gun policies for some other places around town:

Children’s Museum of Memphis: CMOM does not allow guns on the property.

National Civil Rights Museum: Weapons, including sharp objects longer than 2.5 inches long, are not permitted in the museum.

Brooks Museum of Art: There is no mention of weapons in the museum’s visitor safety and security guidelines or listed under prohibited items.

FedExForum: Weapons of any type, including guns and knives are prohibited.

Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium: Weapons of any type, including guns and knives are prohibited in the stadium.

AutoZone Park: Weapons of any kind are prohibited.

Beale Street: Knives, guns, and other weapons are not allowed on the street.

Crosstown Concourse: Possession of firearms is prohibited.

Bass Pro Shop at the Pyramid: Guests are asked to check their firearms at the entrance of the store, where a trigger lock is applied and the chamber is emptied.

City-owned public places: “It shall be the intent of the city government to exercise its statutory option to opt out of any state law that would otherwise authorize the carrying of firearms on public parks, playgrounds, civic centers and other public recreational buildings and grounds,” reads a city ordinance on weapons.


State Parks: Guns are permitted


Rhodes College: The college “strictly prohibits possession of weapons of any type by students, employees, or visitors, including but not limited to firearms, B-B guns, pellet guns, bows and arrows, hunting knives, explosives, or any object that could be used as a deadly weapon.”

However, those with a valid handgun carry permit can store firearms and ammunition in their vehicles on campus.

University of Memphis: Possessing or carrying a firearm on the campus is prohibited except for by authorized employees with a valid handgun carry permit. Still, per state law, authorized employees are prohibited from carrying a firearm in plain sight, to university sponsored events, disciplinary or tenure meetings, or the university medical clinic. Part-time employees are completely prohibited from possessing a firearm anywhere on campus.

University of Tennessee Health Science Center: Students are not permitted to carry a concealed handgun. Employees with a valid handgun carry permit can store firearms and ammunition in their vehicles on campus. Additionally, full-time employees with handgun permits may carry guns on campus except where prohibited by state law.


Tennessee Gun Laws


Tennessee is a one of 41 “shall issue” states, which means so long as an applicant reaches the basic requirements set out by the state, they can be issued a handgun permit.

In Tennessee:

• No permit, background check, or firearm registration is required when buying a handgun from a private individual.

• Open carry is legal for residents over 18 years old with or without a permit as long as the gun is unloaded and there is no ammunition in the immediate vicinity.

• Concealed carry is permitted with a license or permit for residents at least 21 years old. To receive a Tennessee Handgun Carry Permit, residents must complete a state-approved handgun safety course that includes classroom and hands-on training.

• Beginning in January, applicants will be able to obtain a permit that allows them to carry handguns open or concealed by taking an online class only.

• It’s legal to have a handgun open or concealed in a private vehicle without a permit.

• Even if there is a “No Weapons” sign at a location, there is no legal penalty for entering with handgun unless asked to leave.

• Guns are not allowed in correctional facilities, schools (unless authorized), public parks, playgrounds, civic centers or other buildings owned and operated by the city or state government.