Each week, the Flyer will feature adoptable dogs and cats from Memphis Animal Services. All photos are credited to Memphis Pets Alive. More pictures and more information can be found on the Memphis Pets Alive Facebook page.
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Month: February 2020
Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in the worst of all possible timelines in Back To The Future II.
There’s a wide variety of offerings on big screens this week. On Wednesday, Feb. 19th at 7 p.m., Indie Memphis presents Beanpole, by Russian director Kantemir Balagov. Set in Lenningrad after World War II, Beanpole is the story of two best friends (Viktoria Miroshnichenko and Vasilisa Perelygina) who are trying to overcome their wartime trauma and are united by the unlikely idea of surrogate motherhood. Beanpole screens at Studio on the Square.
Russian Dramas, Bibi Netanyahu, and Back To The Future II in Theaters This Week
The Morris and Mollye Fogelman Memphis International Jewish Film Festival continues on Thursday, Feb. 20th with King Bibi, an intimate look at the career of outgoing Israeli prime minister Bibi Netanyahu. The meticulously researched documentary screens at the MJCC Belz Theater at 7 p.m.
Russian Dramas, Bibi Netanyahu, and Back To The Future II in Theaters This Week (2)
Or, for something completely different on Thursday, you can see my favorite film whose story requires a diagram to explain. Back To The Future II was released in 1989, four years after the original film became a surprise hit. It’s fascinating to watch today to see what it got right and wrong about the 21st century. For my money, the best scene in the film is when writer Bob Gale stops the action entirely to draw a diagram that explains the ingenious plot, which involves the accidental creation of an alternate universe. It’s a lot more fun than it sounds.
Russian Dramas, Bibi Netanyahu, and Back To The Future II in Theaters This Week (3)
See you at the movies!
Photo by Andrew Eccles
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Last weekend’s string of performances by The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Orpheum Theater revealed a lot about this city’s enthusiasm for world-class modern dance. While the Orpheum regularly brings in high-caliber touring shows, it might be said that two hours of abstract movement could be a harder sell in cities away from the coasts. But that would be dead wrong. The chemistry between the audience and the dancers was palpable in these shows, lifting both to truly inspired heights.
From the beginning, the melding of music and pure movement revealed wide-reaching imaginations at work. As the strains of Bach’s Trio Sonata No. 6 in G major played, a solitary dancer peppered her balletic movements with echoes of African dance, a tendency that only grew more pronounced as she was joined by others and the music morphed first to some swinging Mary Lou Williams and then on to the actual African sounds of Yao Ababio and Kofi Osei Williams.
A brief pause, and suddenly we were riding, with two virtuostic, acrobatic dancers, on the roller coaster of an Ella Fitzgerald scat. Only in a moment when Ella went down for some guttural growls did other dancers appear, a line of veritable Oompa-Loompas marching through in a line as if to emphasize the singer’s stark melodic lines; and they never showed again: in that moment, the inspiration was pure, graphic whimsy.
That mood shifted yet again in the powerful “Ode,” which just debuted last October, and was described as “a flower on the graves of the innocent victims of gun violence and a meditation on the beauty and fragility of life.” To music (jazz great Don Pullen’s “Suite (Sweet) Malcolm (Part 1, Memories and Gunshots)”) alternately tortured and angular, then full of flowing chords reminiscent of Debussy, six men twisted through a painful journey, only to end as it began, with one of them lying prone, the others bent over him in a tableau.
Throughout, the sets were sparse, yet effective: a splash of light suggesting noirish Venetian blinds, a simple illuminated circle and subtle shades of color, a river suggested by two narrow sheets of fabric, stretched taut across the stage. Using the simplest effects, and uncomplicated costumes, a universe was suggested for each piece. Inevitably, the finales brought a roar of applause and appreciative hoots of enthusiasm from the nearly full house. “Yes!” Memphis seemed to be saying, “Yes to these meditations embodied by some of the world’s strongest and most expressive dancers.”
The grand finale, of course, was the latest iteration of the Ailey classic, “Revelations.” First performed in 1960, the piece has lost none of its power, especially in a city like Memphis, so steeped in the ecstatic services of African-American churches. And though the piece has been centered on the same collection of African-American spirituals, song-sermons, gospel songs, and holy blues as ever, the versions used today create a perfect musical balance between pristine recordings of voices and drums alike, and the inherent grit and groove of songs created before recordings were even possible.
By the end, the dancers could barely rest from the audience’s demand for encore bows, ultimately reprising a bit of the last piece in exultant joy. It was a passionate reminder of the aesthetic heights that can be reached by this most visionary and venturesome of American dance institutions.
Memphis Police Department/Facebook
Voters will get to decide if police and fire personnel should be able to live within 50 miles of the city.
The Memphis City Council voted 7-5 Tuesday to not rescind a decision made by the previous council to place the referendum question on the November ballot.
Ahead of the vote, Councilman Jeff Warren, who voted in favor of keeping the question on the ballot, encouraged council members to let the voters decide.
“We’ve heard from the police and fire chief,” Warren said. “There is wisdom in what they’ve said.”
Warren said there is also validity in the concerns from community leaders who are wary about having police officers not living in Memphis police their community. But, Warren said he is ”counting on the police academy to weed people out who don’t need to be here.”
Also voting in favor of the referendum was Councilman J. Ford Canale, who addressed another concern voiced by council members throughout the month-long conversation — how much money would the city lose if the employees in question could live outside of the city?
Canale said that the estimated $7.3 million loss in property tax that would result from all 4,000 public safety employees moving out of the city is much lower than the combined $39.5 million that the police and fire departments estimate spending in overtime this year.
Council Chairwoman Patrice Robinson told officials that the departments and the council need to work together to remove other barriers that stymie recruitment, such as grooming policies. She suggested forming an ad hoc committee led by Councilwoman Jamita Swearengen to come up with recommendations for the departments to remove other barriers.
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“Even after we vote on this and allow citizens to vote on it or not have it, we still have that same issue,” Robinson said. “How do we make this a more attractive position in the community?”
The issue of reforming the departments’ grooming policies was first brought up by Councilman Martavious Jones and echoed by Councilman JB Smiley Jr., who said in order to hire more officers, the police department should consider changing it’s grooming requirements related to tattoos and facial hair. He said it’s “something we need to start talking about sooner than later.”
“Our generation makes up a large bulk of the population,” Smiley said. “If we truly want to have new officers willing to serve, it’s almost apparent that we have to make ways for that group of people to feel comfortable.”
To that, Michael Rallings, Memphis Police Department director, told the council that he will “make a deal with you. I’ll allow facial hair and tattoos if you let the voters vote on residency.”
Rallings said the department is currently working on drafting a new grooming policy, but that is it a process.
Rallings also added that the department isn’t “able to pick and choose what we do. I think we need to do all of it,” naming a take-home-car program, the residency requirement, and grooming policies as just a few examples of ways the department can increase recruitment.
After the vote, Swearengen said she will move forward with forming a task force to access other ways to reduce barriers for potential hires.
Larry Kuzniewski
Sept. 5 — ARKANSAS STATE
Sept. 12 — at Purdue
Sept. 19 — HOUSTON *
Sept. 26 — at UTSA
Oct. 1 — at SMU *
Oct. 16 — UCF *
Oct. 24 — TEMPLE *
Oct. 31 — at Cincinnati *
Nov. 7 — USF *
Nov. 14 — at Navy *
Nov. 21 — UT MARTIN
Nov. 28 — at Tulane *
Dec. 5 — AAC Championship Game
* AAC game
Jonas Valanciunas and Jaren Jackson Jr.
As everyone is winding down from the excitement of All-Star Weekend and we enter the stretch run to the end of the regular season, now seems like a good time to publicly rescind a thing that I said here in this space last month.
At the time, it seemed like a pretty reasonable position – this early in a rebuild, the playoffs shouldn’t be the season’s goal, and thus the Grizzlies should continue their focus on developing as a team, not altering plans in a pursuit to win now.
It was not meant to disparage any part of this fledgling squad. I didn’t realize how many people would misinterpret it or just be plain mad about it. I’m looking at you, Memphis Twitter.
But now the trade deadline has passed and with it my biggest fear (an ill-advised roster move in an effort to win now). The Grizzlies seem to have landed organically in the 8th seed, so I’m ready to reconsider my previous position on the playoffs.
Two things have set us on this path. One, this team has been light years better than anyone expected. Two, other teams in the West have been a lot worse than expected.
It’s amazing how much can happen in the space of a month. Since I published that article in early January, the Grizzlies have played 16 games, posting a 12-4 record, including a seven-game winning streak.
During that time we have also seen: a career-high scoring game from Brandon Clarke, Ja Morant’s first NBA triple-double, and the aforementioned players, plus Jaren Jackson Jr. playing in the Rising Stars Challenge game during NBA All-Star Weekend.
Along the way the team has managed to surpass the overall expected win total they were predicted to have, with still 28 games left to play in the regular season.
This squad has absolutely proven me wrong and I am not above admitting that.
They truly are so much better than anyone anticipated, and I can’t recall having this much fun watching winning Grizzlies basketball in years.
There is a part of me will always feel sentimental about the Core Four era of Grit ‘n Grind. That team meant a lot to this city, and even in today’s RINGZ culture, that still means something.
But I have quickly grown to love the new GNG era, the #GrzNxtGen one. If this is the future of our franchise, I will take it.
So, in conclusion: F*ck it, let’s go to the playoffs.
MIchael Donahue
The parlor at Porch & Parlor
Michael Donahue
The porch at Porch & Parlor
Don’t look for wicker furniture on the porch and Victorian furniture in the parlor at Porch & Parlor. The gas lights, book shelves, and elegance of the new Overton Square restaurant evoke the turn of the 20th Century.
Porch & Parlor, which opens tonight (February 17th), is housed at 2125 Madison in a circa 1908 building.
“We tried to embrace the era,” says Russ Graham, who, along with Tom Powers comprise the Flight Restaurant Group. They are the owners of Flight, Southern Social, and Coastal Fish Company.
The era between the end of the Franco Prussian War and World War I (1871 to 1914) was known as the Belle Epoque (“Beautiful Age”) era in France. “Champagne flowed,” Graham says.
Impressionist painters, including Renoir and Monet, were the rage. So, impressionist works line the restaurant walls.
All the booths in the “parlor” section of the restaurant, which seats 36 people, are made of real leather. Bookshelves line the walls.
The elegant dining room seats 60 people. And the bar seats another 54.
The wide, welcoming porch on the front will seat 65.
Graham describes the food as “Southern style steakhouse. So, in addition to, say, a Wagyu filet, you can add fried green tomatoes and collard greens to your meal. The quality of the steaks can’t be found anywhere else in Memphis,” Graham says. Paul Walsh is executive chef. Eduardo Murillo is the corporate executive chef.
If you’re wondering why a wooden bear head is in the center of the arch over the bar, it’s because it’s supposed to be a likeness of Natch, a Southern black bear who was the mascot of the old Memphis Turtles baseball team in 1908. Because of Natch, the Memphis Zoo eventually was built, Graham says.
The restaurant is curved shape because that part of Cooper and Madison was the “end of the city,” Graham says. Trolleys coming from Downtown would turn around at that corner and return Downtown.
Porch & Parlor, like the other Flight Restaurant Group restaurants, will be open 365 days a year. Porch & Parlor is open for dinner only, but, eventually, will open for brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.
Michael Donahue
The dining room at Porch & Parlor
Michael Donahue
The bar at Porch & Parlor
Michael Donahue
Paul Walsh, Franck Oysel, Eduard Murillo, and Ashton Hall at Porch & Parlor
Michael Donahue
Porch & Parlor in Overton Square
Tennessee Valley Authority
TVA workers install water quality monitoring wells near the Allen Fossil Plant.
A new Tennessee bill could ”un-protect our aquifer,” removing Shelby County’s ability to control wells drilled into the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the source of the area’s famously pristine drinking water.
The bill was filed last week by two West Tennessee Republicans, Sen. Delores Gresham (R-Somerville) and Rep. Curtis Halford (R-Dyer). The bill would prohibit cities and counties from exercising authority over a landowner’s water rights on “certain drilling requirements.”
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A detailed explanation of the bill was not available on the Tennessee General Assembly website Monday. The legislature was not in session Monday, thanks to the Presidents Day holiday, and lawmakers could not be immediately reached. Also, request for comment on the bill was not immediately returned by Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus.
Scott Banbury, Conservation Programs Coordinator for the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club, said he had not spoken to the bill’s sponsors as of Monday afternoon. But the bill is “about whether or not Shelby County has the authority to regulate groundwater wells within its jurisdiction.” 
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Scott Banbury of Sierra Club Tennessee
“If this were in effect when we fought the (Tennessee Valley Authority), the (Shelby County Health Department) would not have been able to take their groundwater wells away from them,” Banbury said.
The TVA had drilled five wells into the aquifer near its now moth-balled Allen Fossil plant and intended to pump about 3.5 million gallons of water from them each day to cool its new gas-fueled power plant. Those wells were close to contaminated areas of the TVA site. TVA agreed to not use the wells in December 2018. By February 2019, the health department placed explicit rules on TVA using the wells in the future.
If the new bill was made law, Banbury said landowners would have to apply to the state for a permit. Shelby county would likely administer the program but local authorities would not be able to deny permission for any well being drilled here as long as it met state code. He said the proposed law would “remove Shelby County’s ability to do the right thing” in regard to protecting its water.
Ward Archer, president of Protect Our Aquifer, said the bill would “un-protect our aquifer” and “set us way back about 50 years” before local well controls were established here.
JB
(l) Ward Archer of Protect Our Aquifer displays some of the sand particles which, at several deep layers (this sample from 400 feet down) filter the near-pristine drinking water enjoyed by Memphis and Shelby County; (r) Jenna Stonecypher and Linda Archer sell a T-shirt to the Sierra Club’s Dennis Lynch. The shirt, bearing the non-profit group’s logo, says, ‘Save Water/Drink Beer.’
“We need (local regulation) because we are the largest city in the country getting all its water from the ground,” Archer said. “It’s not that way in Nashville. It’s not that way in Knoxville. It’s just not the way they get their water; theirs is mostly surface water.
“What we’re trying to do is not just conserve our water but to protect it from getting contaminated. So, that’s why you have to have a well program.
“We’ve got to manage that process tightly to make sure that if someone drills a well 800 feet down into the aquifer — and doesn’t do it properly — it can become a conduit for contaminants.”
The Senate bill was passed on to the Energy, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Committee but is not on the calendar for this week’s meeting. The House is not on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources committee.
Music Video Monday has what you want.
Coffee. That’s what we all want. I want more right now. But before I get more, I’m going to introduce you to Jordan Occasionally, the artist behind “Coffee (I’m Addictied).” With this video, shot in Avenue Coffee Shop, it seems like the Choose901 Artist to Watch has got her finger on the racing pulse of caffeinated Memphis.
Except, in this case, the coffee might be a metaphor. “It is a black queer love story, that lacks the elements of tragedy Hollywood seems to impose on black queer relationships,” says Jordan. “I hope to encourage and promote love because more children need to know that it is okay to be who they are, and I know my music video will provide them with that hope.”
Coffee, the drink of love. Here’s the video, produced and directed by NuJas:
Music Video Monday: Jordan Occasionally
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com
Last spring I found myself in a position of unimaginable privilege. For the first time in my adult life, I had a car that worked and was paid off. No weird rattles, squeaking brakes, bald tires. I hate the term “adulting” for philosophical reasons, but it was one of those times in my life that made me think “so this is what it’s like.”
Then I started anticipating the inevitable break-in, wreck, or other misfortune that would set me back again and put me in my cosmic place. “Just watch,” I’d say. “Something’s going to fall out of the sky and land on my car because I don’t deserve this.”
A month later, as a chunk of road debris hurtled toward my windshield on I-40, I thought, “Well, there it is.”
Justin Fox Burks
What’s the MATA?
The damage turned out to be minor, but being virtually carless for a couple weeks reminded me how difficult it is to thrive in Memphis without a vehicle. My home and my office are two miles apart, putting me on the road a grand total of 10 minutes a day. I know I have it easy. But I tried to plot a bus route home from work and MATA’s trip planner told me “LOL, walk” — which I did, a couple times. And let me tell you, it sucked! If that’s more optimal than the bus, we’ve got a problem with the bus.
I can shrug and catch an Uber, but someone who has to schlep across town for a $7.25-an-hour job does not have that luxury. The bus ride from Whitehaven to Downtown takes about an hour one-way, not including the wait. Anyone who doesn’t have access to a car has their opportunities limited by the number of hours in a day. I’m heartened by the county mayor’s commitment to transit equity, and I’d love to see MATA viewed less as the nuisance in the right lane on Poplar and more as a reliable way to get around. Improving and expanding service are obviously high priorities for increasing ridership, but there’s one more way to get people to hop on.
The New York Times last month published a story about a growing trend in cities that have seen bus ridership increase up to 60 percent. All they had to do was waive the fare. Should Memphis try something similar? Yes, it sounds counterintuitive, as the city and county look to infuse more money into MATA, not less. But public transportation can’t work unless it’s an option for everyone, versus the only option for some. There are two ways to do that: Make it convenient, and make it affordable. $1.75 a ride seems affordable, until you factor in the time investment and the fact that $70 a month does not fit everyone’s definition of “affordable.”
“Oh, but who will pay for it?” Let’s just get this out of the way: the same people who pay for every other public good. I have little patience for those who bristle at paying for services they don’t use, as if we could allocate our taxes to the projects we care about. I don’t have kids, and my house hasn’t burned down yet, but here I am, still dutifully paying for schools and the fire department. If you live in Cordova and have never seen a bus, I’m sorry to hear it — but you chose the Germantown Parkway lifestyle, friend. And you’re contributing to the road congestion and pollution that better public transit would solve.
Actually, that makes a pretty good case for a toll. How about, say, $1.75 each way for commuters on 240 and 385? While cities that waived bus fares saw an increase in ridership, they didn’t see a decrease in the number of cars on the road. This is because people who ride the bus generally don’t have cars. Such is the case in Memphis, where bus riders typically live in poorer neighborhoods. Why should they pay to be part of the solution?
In addition to the wheel tax the county commission is considering, there are other car-centric ways to fund free transit. On any given day in Midtown, the city could make a boatload ticketing cars parked illegally on the street — too close to the corner, in no-parking zones, in front of fire hydrants. Maybe some incentives could encourage businesses to dig in and support a transit fund. Who knows? It’s not impossible to make transportation a right, not a privilege.
Jen Clarke is a digital marketing specialist and an unapologetic Memphian.