“Just as every restaurant, company, and organization across the country has had to change the way they operate to keep their customers safe, we’re having to do the same thing. . . . You can be assured, we’ll manage it appropriately.”
— University of Memphis Athletic Director Laird Veatch (June 11th)
Picture the Liberty Bowl packed with 59,000 fans for the home team’s epic win over SMU last November, ESPN’s cameras broadcasting that sold-out football frenzy for the entire country to enjoy. Picture it now, because you won’t see it again — a football stadium packed to capacity — anytime soon. The University of Memphis has already disclosed the likelihood of limited seating — perhaps only season-ticket holders — if football games are played this fall. The aim, of course, is to practice a form of social distancing in an environment built for the precise opposite. Sean Locke Photography/Dreamstime.com
No human being on the planet had knowledgeable experience with a pandemic before the current crisis hit. The global shutdown has stretched the thinking capacity of the world’s smartest scientists, to say nothing of what it’s done mentally to the rest of us. So what can be expected of leaders like Veatch in the realm of sports, where just about every instinct — starting with the gathering of people to, you know, watch — feels counterintuitive?
For longtime followers of the Tiger football program, the jokes write themselves:
“Social distance? Did you attend a game during the Larry Porter years?”
“Masks at a football game? Have you eaten French fries at the Liberty Bowl?”
The Tigers have played more than 50 years in a stadium about 20,000 seats too large. Until they started winning conference championships, that is. That oversized bowl may turn into a blessing if pandemic conditions persist. Arkansas State and UT-Martin — to name two opponents Memphis is scheduled to host this year — are unlikely to draw a crowd much larger than 30,000. Smallish groups (10 people? 20?) may be asked to sit together, and visits to the restroom, as uncomfortable as it sounds, will likely be regimented and monitored. (Even a crowd as small as 10,000 would make, say, “two visitors at a time” all but impossible in a public restroom.)
Here’s the thing: We have to try. Carefully and intelligently, but we have to try to play games again. Major League Baseball is scheduled to return later this month, a 60-game season of regional play that will, hopefully, be followed by a postseason and World Series in October. (It will be a cruel tease for fans of the Memphis Redbirds, as minor-league teams will not be stocked with players this year.) The World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational has been rescheduled for July 30-August 2 at TPC Southwind. Golf is among the few sports made for a pandemic, where the view on television can be a better experience than hiking a course with a gallery of fellow fans. If the players and tournament officials can be properly monitored and cared for, the WGC could be an unforgettable — and singular — highlight of the Memphis sports summer.
There’s a reason beyond cheering and championships to find our way back to spectator sports. Games we play move dollars we spend. “If things play out as we’re currently projecting, it will be a seven-figure impact — to the negative — for the [athletic] department,” says Veatch in describing the financial hit the U of M will take in a reduced-seating world for football and men’s basketball. “We’re trying to get our heads around how to manage that appropriately.”
The absence of sports — locally and worldwide — has been traumatic, but hardly tragic. Not when the COVID-19 death toll worldwide has climbed above half a million. Not when the United States has become the global test case for how not to manage a killer contagion. No, the absence of sports has been merely a painful casualty of a global crisis.
More patience required. More determination. We’ll remember 2020 as the year we learned it’s not so much our right to cheer our favorite teams, but a privilege.
Memphis’ Star & Micey have a rocking new song called “Falls Apart.” Joshua Cosby says the tune predates the pandemic, having been recorded by Curry Weber at the band’s Superman Ranch, but feels newly relevant. “This song was written a while back when we were constantly on the road. And at this time in particular it really felt like the band was gonna break up — which was our world at that time. Thankfully, we all stuck it out and are still not just a band of musicians, but a band of brothers. Still writing, still recording, and still having “House Party” Zoom calls with each other.”
The video, shot during the quarantine by Stephen Hildreth, was directed by the band’s Nick Redmond from his new home in Philadelphia. It shows the band in silhouette, giving a stark visual to reflect the apocalyptic lyrics.
Music Video Monday: Star & Micey
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Test results reported Monday morning showed 190 new cases of COVID-19 in Shelby County. The latest data available shows 10.3 percent of all tests were positive for the week of June 14th. The positivity rate has grown steadily since the 4 percent rate recorded for the week of May 4th, just as the county’s economy began to re-open.
The county’s overall average positive rate for COVID-19 has rose steadily last week to 8.4 percent on all test results. The total number of COVID-19 cases here stands at 12,019.
Rick James, CEO and owner of the local Castle Retail Group, chats outside High Point Grocery.
High Point Grocery has been purchased by Rick James, CEO and owner of the local Castle Retail Group, the company behind Cash Saver grocery stores.
The High Point Terrace store closed in April because of the coronavirus virus pandemic. Longtime operator C.D. Shirley decided to sell the store.
“We are excited to continue serving the High Point Terrace neighborhood and
community in the coming weeks after minor renovations are made,” James said in a statement.
James plans to have the store cleaned, stocked, and reopened by mid-August. A company official said Monday morning no major changes will be made. James said he hopes the former High Point Grocery employees will return to work at the store.
James has a connection to the High Point Grocery form early in his career. Shirley’s father, Charles, bought the store in 1971, and James became the wholesale
representative for the store and other many others in the 1980s.
[pullquote-1] “This store is similar to the store in which I started my career,” James said. “High Point Grocery is a treasure of the neighborhood, and we’re thrilled that C.D. is willing to allow us to continue its legacy,” James said.
James’ Castle Retail Group operates three Cash Saver grocery stores in the Memphis area. James has been in the grocery business for nearly 50 years, and he serves as the chairman of the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association and vice chairman for the Mid-South Food Bank.
First, the confession: Before watching the film of the Broadway show now streaming on Disney+, I had never seen Hamilton. I had added the cast recording to my iTunes library, where it languished after one perfunctory listen. It’s not that I don’t like musicals. On the contrary, I’m much more into musicals than most middle-aged white guys; I’d much rather go to a musical than a football game. I would have loved to have seen Hamilton live on Broadway, but the truth is I was too broke to afford a pair of $500 tickets. When the touring company came to the Orpheum, I came up empty in the press pass lottery.
Maybe I could have scraped together the dough, but I wasn’t motivated to, because as a passionate student of American history, I’ve never been a big fan of Alexander Hamilton. The founder of the country’s first central bank and probable closeted royalist has always come across as an ambitious schemer to me, even as I generously quoted Publius, the pen name he used while writing the bulk of the Federalist Papers. For me, Hamilton has always represented those who love America more for its capitalism than for its democracy. The penniless immigrant from the Caribbean turned self-made statesman was ripe for a reputation renovation, but it was his status as proto-capitalist that allowed Hamilton the musical to see the light of day. If you don’t believe that’s true, let me tell you about my thwarted plans for an epic musical biography of five-time socialist presidential candidate Eugene V. Debs. “Wall Street thinks you’re great,” sings Aaron Burr (Leslie Odom Jr.). “You’ll always be adored by the things you create.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda as Alexander Hamilton and Phillipa Soo as Eliza Hamilton
But it is Hamilton’s moral ambiguity that makes him such a rich character in the hands of Lin-Manuel Miranda. There’s a lot of sappy, second-rate musical theater, which hits big on the strength of melody and sentiment. (Andrew Lloyd Webber, I’m looking at you.) Hamilton is the opposite. Part of Broadway’s cultural function has traditionally been to assimilate different popular music traditions, and Hamilton’s integration of hip-hop with show tunes is the perfect example. Miranda uses the lyrical density to weave a decade-spanning story of wartime heroism, political intrigue, and personal ambition. Rap cyphers turn out to be the ideal format to dramatize George Washington’s confrontational cabinet meetings.
Manuel’s music and story sit among the greatest of Broadway history. It’s easy to craft inspirational songs about revolutionary fervor — just look at Les Misérables. But creating a song about the ugly political wrangling that comes after a successful revolution is something else entirely. The first act of Hamilton is filled with bangers like “History Has Its Eye on You,” but the depth of Manuel’s genius is revealed in the second act’s “The Room Where It Happens.” Sung by Burr, the story’s heel (and a right bastard in real life), it’s a show-stopper about the creation of a national banking system and the geographical placement of Washington, D.C. Who even knew such a thing was possible?
(left) Leslie Odom Jr. as Aaron Burr
Now, the prediction. In a few years, once we’ve fought COVID-19 to a draw and film production can resume, The House of Mouse is going to drop $100 million to make a blockbuster version of Hamilton. They’ll film in Independence Hall (the room where it happened) and “Guns and Ships” will be staged at a lavishly recreated Battle of Yorktown. But it won’t have a tenth of the power of the version that just dropped on Disney+.
Thomas Kail, who directed both the Broadway musical and the film, uses techniques pioneered by Jonathan Demme in Stop Making Sense, cutting together footage captured over three nights of shows at the Richard Rogers Theatre in June 2016. The original cast had been the toast of the town for a year at that point, and the show had just set records at the Tonys and was about to take home a Pulitzer. From the first close-up of Miranda as Hamilton, backed by a chorus singing “What’s your name, man?,” it’s clear that these performers are on fire. Tony winner Renée Elise Goldsberry as Hamilton’s sister-in-law Angelica, roars onto the stage for her introduction in “The Schuyler Sisters.” Christopher Jackson as George Washington visibly chokes back sobs when the crowd leaps to their feet for “One Last Time.” After the duel that claims Hamilton’s life, the fires of victory turn to ashes in the mouth of Odom as Burr. No soundstage-bound film will ever match the blood-and-guts heroism of these glorious humans facing a full house on a Friday night.
Renée Elise Goldsberry (center) as Angelica Schuyler
Hamilton bowed on Broadway in August 2015, three months after the decade’s other towering masterpiece, Mad Max: Fury Road, hit movie theaters, and only a few weeks after Donald Trump announced his presidential campaign. Like Fury Road, the cascading catastrophes that began in 2016 have deepened Hamilton’s meaning. For all the flaws of the Founding Fathers — and they had many — their experiment in government by the people, for the people has endured and brought hope to the world. Hamilton lived at a moment when the old order was breaking down and an opportunity for a new, more just alignment of power became possible. 2020 now looks like one of those times. In Hamilton’s day, the young Republic was threatened by the personal ambitions of powerful men. So, too, is it in our day. In Manuel’s telling, Hamilton’s ambition is both his driving force and tragic flaw. Nevertheless, he recognized the dangers of a president driven only by the will to power when he swallowed his pride and endorsed his longtime rival in 1800. “When all is said and done/Jefferson has beliefs/Burr has none.”
History Has Its Eyes on You: Hamilton Bows on Disney+
MEMernet is a weekly roundup of Memphis on the World Wide Web.
Lordy, Lloyd
Does everyone in Shelby County know Lloyd Crawford by now?
If so, they might even know his company, work address, phone number, email address, and some other, uh, observations about him. How? Well, he showed us. By “us” I mean every single person on the entire internet.
On Saturday, Twitter user @edwardnelson4tn was holding a Black Lives Matter poster on a street in Germantown. He said he got stares, a few middle fingers, and some shouts from passing cars. But Lloyd Crawford took it many physical steps further.
Here you go:
Meet Lloyd Crawford. Lloyd has a problem with taxpayers exercising their 1A rights in Germantown. He drove by twice, yelling obscenities & threats. Then this. #blacklivesmatter
MEMernet: Lloyd Crawford, Underwear, and Pride Paint
Lordy, Lloyd.
He was trending on Memphis Twitter over the weekend. By Monday morning, the 36-second video had been seen nearly 528,000 times.
Memphis internet people marveled at Crawford’s bold flash of his business card. Wendi Thomas had the best one.
Others were concerned, saying showing Crawford’s information was indeed an attempt to “dox” him.
Others noted the Trump sticker on Crawford’s car, his short fingernails, and the, uh, peculiar way he walked off.
WMCTV received a statement from Crawford’s company, Financial Consulting Group, on Sunday. The statement said “the white man protestor” egged Crawford on and some other stuff. But the writing of the statement itself led many to wonder if it is real at all. The Memphis Flyer requested a statement from the company on Crawford (asking whether or not the man would remain with the company) but had not received one as of press time.
Safety Underwear
The city of Memphis urged citizens to treat their face masks like underwear. It’s actually pretty solid advice.
MEMernet: Lloyd Crawford, Underwear, and Pride Paint (4)
Pride Paint Satisfying on so many levels, Mid-South Pride live-streamed Sunday’s painting of the rainbow crosswalk in Cooper-Young.
MEMernet: Lloyd Crawford, Underwear, and Pride Paint (5)
Matthew Harris is the newest edition to the Contemporary Media team. He is a 2020 graduate of Rhodes College who interned with the Memphis Flyer and Memphis magazine before being hired as an editorial assistant. I persuaded him to watch all three hours and 20 minutes of Spike Lee’s epic 1992 biopic Malcolm X. Our epic conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Chris McCoy: So tell me, what do you know about Malcolm X?
Denzel Washington as Malcolm X
Matthew Harris: I know what I have learned in the American school system. I know he was a civil rights leader. At first, he was anti- working with the African-American establishment. But then that changed close to his death, and he was really like, “You know we really need to stand together with the African-American civil rights movement. We need to be one unified voice.” But he died. A lot of what I know comes secondhand, from hearing my grandparents talk about it, my mom talk about it. But you know, I went to high school in Texas, and we didn’t talk about Malcolm X or any other outside-the-mainstream leaders. Ironically enough, I watched I Am Not Your Negro, which is a documentary based on the works of James Baldwin, two weeks ago. That was really the first time in my life where I was like, “Oh, wow. Okay. This was the movement. There were all these civil rights leaders like Fred Johnson I never really learned about in school.”
Chris: Well, you’re about to learn a lot more. What do you know about the movie Malcolm X?
Matthew: I know It’s a Spike Lee film, and it stars Denzel Washington.
Chris:Have you seen other Spike Lee films?
Matthew: I’ve seen Do the Right Thing, BlacKkKlansman. I ended up watching Da 5 Bloods very, very late last night. Chi-Raq was also by him. I’m a huge Spike Lee fan. I was talking to my mom and told her I was watching Malcolm X because I was helping a friend for something at work. She said, “Oh yeah, you’re going to be mad at the end. You’re going to be mad because Denzel didn’t win an Oscar for his performance, and he was amazing.”
Chris: Not to bias the experiment, but I think your Mom has a point.
201 minutes later …
Chris:Okay, Matthew Harris. You are now someone who has seen Malcolm X. What did you think?
Matthew: Oh, it was really, really, really good. The first half was very hard to watch. There were a lot of decisions that were made where I found myself saying, “No! No! Don’t do that! Just walk away!” The conversation he has with his wife Betty, where she says, “Open your eyes!” is now in my top five movie moments. That’s such a hard scene. He really owes his life to the movement, and is ready to do anything for them. But they were taking advantage of him. You can just tell, knowing this is based on his book, you know it was hard for him to do, and it was such a hard conversation to play. But they just knocked it out of the park. It was so well done.
Chris: Are you upset, like your mom said, that Denzel didn’t get the Best Actor Oscar?
Matthew: I’m pretty angry. Angela Bassett was amazing as well.
Chris: Oh yes. She’s always amazing.
(left) Angela Bassett as Betty Shabazz
Chris: Do you know who actually won, instead of Denzel?
Matthew: Who?
Chris: Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman.
Matthew: Huh.
Chris: I know. That was one of those awards that was a “He’s done so much good stuff, we need to give him one” kind of thing. But come on! Denzel’s so good. The way he carries himself from phase to phase in this movie, you can sort of watch the moral maturity of his character evolve, just from the way Denzel holds his shoulders. It’s stunning.
Robbed
Chris: So what do you think about watching this today? What does this movie say to 2020 America?
Matthew: There were a lot of messages and shots that were so very poignant, especially in the latter half. There’s one shot of Malcolm near the end that I want to say is a fisheye effect, or something like that. And then there’s a lady on the street who stops him, and says, “Don’t let them get you down, don’t let them talk to you like that.” And that’s something Spike Lee does. It’s in BlacKkKlansman as well, with a burning cross. The message of that … As a Black man, there have been times when there’s so much pressure and social tension going on. There’s a weight there. You find yourself with these moments where you’re just on autopilot. I remember there would be days at Rhodes where something would happen, and I would just walk past my friends. They would be like, ‘Hey, Matt, how are you doing?” And I’m just not there, because I’m not in a moment. Keep moving, keep moving on. You have to put yourself into that mindset. That’s how you get from day one to day two because you don’t know any other way. You hear the slight against you, or you see systemic racism, and you’re like, I just can’t deal with that today. You really zone out. I loved that scene.
Chris: That’s one of Spike’s signature shots. It might not have been the first one, but it’s the best one, because of Denzel’s face. What’s going on is pretty simple. It’s a dolly shot with the camera angle pointing up. The actor is just riding on the dolly with the camera. He’s in motion, but he’s not walking. It looks like he’s gliding. He’s ascending, because the motion of the trees in the background is downward, so it’s like he’s ascending to heaven. It’s kind of a Jesus moment. He’s in the Garden of Gethsemane, awaiting his betrayal. Not to be insensitive to him as a Muslim. I think Spike kind of calls himself out there. The woman you were talking about who stops him on the street says “Jesus will protect you.” I was like, yeah, probably not the best thing to say to this guy at this moment. But she meant well.
Never Seen It: Watching Malcolm X with Flyer Writer Matthew Harris (6)
Chris: This movie came out when I was in college. I was already a big Spike Lee fan, because I was a film nerd and I loved She’s Gotta Have It and Do the Right Thing. This is Spike doing the prestige studio movie, 1992 style. It’s a formal exercise for Spike, where in Do the Right Thing, he’s free form. He’s just doing his own thing. But this is a big studio thing, and he did it so much better than anybody else at the time. He’s just good at everything. I’m so jealous of him. He’s great with actors. You just watched Da 5 Bloods, right? What did you think of that?
Matthew: It was good. I think you can sort of categorize Spike Lee films in two ways. There’s the overtly politicized movies, like Malcolm X and BlacKkKlansman. Then there’s the sort of more internalized African-American movies, like Do the Right Thing.
In Da 5 Bloods, the entire premise of the movie is bringing back money to the community that they feel is rightly theirs. But part of it is also dealing with how African Americans see themselves. How do they deal with their struggle, their problems? BlacKkKlansman and Malcolm X, you have characters who live in a political sphere. It’s about how they navigate the space around them, how they exist in the space around them. So, one thing I harken back to in BlacKkKlansman, you have this really strong African-American lead who has to go through changes. But then at the end of the day, he realizes it doesn’t matter what changes he goes through. He’s just found a way to live, but the world doesn’t really care.
In Malcolm X, we have a character who goes through significant changes. We follow him throughout his entire life, and in the end, nothing changes. He’s murdered, Black men and women are still facing prejudice, the injustice is still occurring, and the movie ends. That’s one thing I’ve always liked about Spike Lee movies, especially the politicized ones — they don’t have happy endings. That’s real life. Even Da 5 Bloods is not a super happy ending.
Chris: Most of them die. And Delroy Lindo dies sort of unredeemed. Did you notice him in this movie? He’s so good as Malcolm’s criminal mentor.
(left) Delroy Lindo as West African Archie, Malcolm Little’s criminal mentor.
Chris: I was keeping track of the timing. The first hour is basically a gangster movie.
Matthew: It’s like a gangster movie, then it’s like The Green Mile or Shawshank Redemption, then it becomes a political movie.
Chris: And when it’s The Shawshank Redemption, it’s better than the actual Shawshank Redemption! Spike’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I can do this!” Another one he does is JFK, the Oliver Stone movie that was out the year before this. I really noticed it during the part where Malcolm made the comments about the assassination. It’s cut like an Oliver Stone montage in that moment. Spike is just casually doing everyone else’s riffs better than they could.
Like you said, it’s kind of a hard movie to watch, because it’s almost three and a half hours long. But it doesn’t feel like I’m wasting my time. I’m the biggest nerd you’ll ever meet, but when I spent three hours with those Hobbit movies, I felt like I was wasting my time.
Matthew: There’s no space wasted in this movie.
Never Seen It: Watching Malcolm X with Flyer Writer Matthew Harris (3)
Chris: One thing that struck me this time was, this isn’t just a movie about racism. It’s exploring racism as a phenomenon. It poses the question, which Malcolm’s life does — when he was a Black separatist in a cult of personality, as the Nation of Islam was — was he a racist? Ultimately, he comes around to cosmopolitanism after he goes to Mecca and sees everybody worshiping together. He gets a new perspective when he leaves the racist environment of America. I don’t have the answer to that question, and that makes it uncomfortable to watch for a lot of people.
Matthew: Being a younger African American, and going to college at a PWI, a Primarily White Institution, I met people on different ends of the spectrum. In Texas, I grew up as pretty much always the only Black person in the room. People are always going to ask me questions. People are going to do microaggressions towards me. But they don’t know. I have very curly hair, and some of my earliest memories from middle school are people playing with my hair. … They had never been around people with Black hair.
So, when I came to Rhodes, I was very different than people there, because I was like, “Hey, you know it’s okay to tell people that they’re wrong and to educate people.”And I met a lot of people who were like, “No, they should know, and they’re either with us, or they’re against us.” I saw so much of that in Malcolm X, with the kind of transformation he makes. At Boston College, there’s this one white lady who asks, “What can I do to help you?” And he says, “Nothing.” To this day, I know people who are like that. “There are no good white people. They’re all out to get us.” I’ve seen people, as they get older, make the transformation that Malcolm makes. I think a lot of African Americans make that change in their life. They’re like, “Is my outlook toward other people, toward people who are trying to be allies, problematic?”
‘Nothing.’
And it’s so crazy because I had a conversation with my mom last week. We were talking about Juneteenth. We’re from Texas, and Juneteenth is a state holiday. We got the day off. My mom never celebrated. She thought it was really dumb. And with everything that was happening, people were wishing her a happy Juneteenth. And she’s like, “Am I a jerk or an asshole if I email people back and tell them I don’t celebrate Juneteenth?” We had a really long conversation where I told her I think that she’s being a little hard. Because these are people who don’t know any way to ally. This is the way that some people told them that they can be an ally. They’re doing their best, they’re making an effort, and you’re basically just shitting on them for making an attempt.
Chris: I think that the tribal instinct, you know, the instinct toward being a member of a group of people who are like you, a sort of extended family group, is natural. And it served humanity well for a really long time. But it also turns toxic. We just have to figure out a way to extend that feeling in people toward all of humanity at once, if that makes any sense. I don’t know if I’m making sense right now. That’s the way forward. And what Malcolm says in the letter that he writes to Betty from Mecca is that racism is leading toward an inevitable disaster. That’s someone who has seen a higher wisdom.
Matthew: That reminded me of Kendrick Lamar at the end of To Pimp a Butterfly. In the song “Mortal Man,” he has a conversation with a recording of Tupac. One of the things he talks about is that there’s going to come a point in time when African Americans are going to start shooting back. He likens it to Nat Turner. That’s something I’ve always thought about, with things going on today. You can only push and push and push so much before people push back. I’m not going to compare 1960s America with 2020 America, but I think a lot of the pushback we’ve seen recently is due to 400 years of systematic oppression, of taking people’s voices away. Of saying, no, you can’t protest like that. You can’t say this, you can’t kneel. You eventually back people into a corner, where they say, “How can I speak out on the injustices that are in front of me without breaking the law?” If the only way you’re going to listen to me is by breaking the law, and that’s the only way change is going to happen, what other choices do you have? I care about my family, and I care about the people around me, and I care about the people who look like me. Every time I’ve tried to raise my voice, you’ve shut me down, but when I go out and shut down a street, that’s illegal. So when I first saw that, that’s all I could think of. All that anger and frustration, and people are going to rise up. And people are rising up.
Never Seen It: Watching Malcolm X with Flyer Writer Matthew Harris (2)
OUTMemphis is offering financial support for LBGTQ+ adults who are the most disenfranchised from social services and community support.
The OUTLast Emergency Assistance Program has immediate resources for trans people of color over 25 years-old, LGBTQ+ seniors who are 55 and older, people living with HIV over 25 years-old, and undocumented LGBTQ+ individuals over 25 years-old.
Applicants can receive funds for:
Food and supplies: $100 gift card to a grocery store or pharmacy
Mental health: Financial assistance for five therapy appointments for individuals starting work with a new counselor
Direct financial assistance: $200 immediate assistance, check or debit card
Rent and utilities: $500 for rent or utilities. Payment must be made to MLGW, leasing agent, or property owner
Transportation: up to $50 via MATA bus passes or Uber/Lyft gift card or gas gift card
OUTLast is open for individual applicants the 1st through 15th of every month. Awards are made on the first weekday of the following month. The OUTLast fund is open on a monthly basis as funds last. Apply here.
For anyone in need of services under 25 years-old, contact kblack@outmemphis.org.
Local restaurant chain Packed House Productions (PHP) announced Thursday, July 2nd, it would be closing its restaurants temporarily after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
The company owns the restaurants Bardog Tavern, Slider Inn, Aldo’s Pizza Pies, and Momma’s.
In a statement posted to social media, PHP said they learned on Wednesday, July 1st, that an employee tested positive for the virus. That employee, they said, works at various times in each of the restaurants. The restaurant group is taking the time while they are closed to encourage their employees to get tested for the coronavirus.
“Out of an abundance of caution and commitment to doing the right thing concerning our hard-working employees and loyal customer base, we made the decision to shut down all establishments, when, after conducting a cursory contact tracing inquiry, we saw this as a good opportunity to request every employee that works for us to be tested for coronavirus,” the owners said in a statement posted to social media.
The full statement is below:
To Our Friends & Family,
Packed House Productions (PHP) restaurant and bar group – consisting of Aldo’s Pizza Pies, Bardog Tavern, Slider Inn, and Momma’s – learned on Wednesday, July 1, that an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
This employee does not work at any one specific establishment but does appear and has a presence at all of them at various times. The individual is not exhibiting any symptoms, is not a member of the customer-facing wait staff or kitchen crew, and has subsequently begun quarantining. Out of an abundance of caution and commitment to doing the right thing concerning our hard-working employees and loyal customer base, we made the decision to shut down all establishments, when, after conducting a cursory contact tracing inquiry, we saw this as a good opportunity to request every employee that works for us to be tested for coronavirus.
What this means for us:
While temporarily inconvenient, we look at this as an attempt to establish some semblance of baseline as we reckon with and navigate this new normal and try to responsibly move forward in a community fashion. In doing so:
– If employees test positive, they will follow recommended guidelines.
– Employees who test negative will return to work.
– Service hours may be modified based on staff availability.
– We will consistently provide socially-distanced, sanitized, and indoor and outdoor dining and drinking, regarding the safety of all as our most important concern.
What this means for you:
When we re-open, our businesses will persist – as we have done since the beginning of this pandemic – in being industry leaders that provide safe and healthy environments for all employees and customers.
Precautions set in place for both customers and staff will continue to include (but are not limited to):
– Temperature checks upon entry
– Masks required to be worn properly by staff at all times and by customers upon entry and while navigating the premises
– Hand washing/sanitizing between each guest interaction; regular staff inspections
– Non-communal table items, including QR menu codes, personalized condiments, and more
– Enforcing social distancing
– Sanitation stations
Fortunately, our industry has always been predicated on high standards of sanitation and cleanliness, and you’ve always trusted us with your health. You know we’re not going to start letting you down now. Please stay tuned to our social media channels for the most up-to-date information regarding our reopenings.
We can’t thank you enough for being faithful and look forward to meeting up soon for that drink or pizza, as we have so many times before.
Dr. Jonathan Mermin, a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service, speaks during Thursday’s Memphis and Shelby County Joint Task Force briefing.
Federal health officials have been in Shelby County to offer assistance as a part of a tour to the country’s top 10 locations seeing “dramatic” numbers of new coronavirus cases.
Dr. Jonathan Mermin, the director of the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention and a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service, said he and others came here as federal officials saw a “dramatic increase” in Shelby County and other locations in the country. Officials also came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR).
Here, those teams gave technical support and expertise to local officials for a more effective response to an ever-growing number of COVID-19 cases. Total cases for Shelby County topped 10,000 earlier this week, and new case rates here have been over 300 for the past few days.
Mermin said federal health officials “are concerned” about the rise of virus cases here, especially the disproportionate rise of cases in minority communities.
“Memphis has come together before and beaten even bigger odds,” Mermin said. “We can do it again.”
Memphians will get that chance this weekend. Local officials have said they knew holidays like Mother’s Day and Memorial Day would lead to spikes of new cases. They were concerned Thursday about the upcoming Independence Day holiday weekend.
Doug McGowen, Chief Operating Officer for the city of Memphis, urged locals to take safety precautions during celebrations. In this request, he noted it was the work of ordinary Memphians that beat back the yellow fever epidemic that “nearly wiped out the city” 150 years ago.
“I’m asking you; I’m imploring you,” McGowen said. “Let’s show the world that grit and grind is not just a slogan, it’s who we are. Let’s have the grit to wear face masks and grind (the virus) out in small groups, not large groups.”
[pullquote-1] Greg Akers, editor of the Memphis Business Journal, asked McGowen if the high numbers of new cases were because the phasing of the Back to Business plan was too lenient or if it was because individuals were becoming lax on safety precautions. McGowen said “neither one of those is right.”
He described an early approach to virus-related clamp-downs and phased reopenings that were patient and thoughtful. He said local officials expected to see upticks in the average of new cases in Phase I (about 100) and in Phase II (about 200). He said the county has averaged about 200 daily new cases of the virus over the last two weeks.
However, there are some increases “we can’t explain.” Clusters appear and sometimes it can be explained because some live in houses with many people or people attend gatherings with many people. But now, he said, officials here have a better ability to look at data and target approaches for effective interventions.
On the whole, though, “the pacing of the reopening was right,” McGowen said.
Sean Locke Photography/Dreamstime.com 
Taylor James 
OUTMemphis 
City of Memphis/Facebook