Month: July 2020

Categories
News The Fly-By

Week That Was: the Virus (Of Course), Mud Island Amphitheater, and Black Lives Matter Avenue

CREDIT: Courtesy: Jerred Price

Monday
• Shelby County added 304 new cases of COVID-19 on test results reported from the prior weekend, bringing the total number of cases to 16,767. Eleven deaths were recorded on the weekend for a total of 244.

Courtesy: Jerred Price

Image concepts of Mud Island Amphitheater with corporate branding.

Tuesday

• Shelby County added 211 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 16,987. ICU capacity was at 85 percent.

• The Mud Island Amphitheater has been quiet for a while now, but a new group announced plans to try to change that.

Jerred Price was elected president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA) in February. He formed a committee focused on reviving Mud Island Amphitheater.
Price said he hoped the group can attract corporations interested in the naming rights to the amphitheater in exchange for funds to improve it and, ultimately, begin to host shows there once again. (See image examples above.)

“(Mud Island Amphitheater) is challenging, but it can still work, and it did for years and years and years,” Price said. “It’s just become not the focus. I think a lot of Downtowners are really disappointed in the condition of it.”

• A Memphis City Council committee agreed to rename a stretch of Poplar “Black Lives Matter Avenue” last week.

However, the proposal was stalled before it could make it to the full council for a vote. Another council vote that Tuesday formed a new committee that will review the renaming of Memphis city parks, streets, and place names.

Should the Black Lives Matter renaming pass out of committee, it would then head to the Land Use Control Board for a final say. If approved, Poplar — between Front Street and Danny Thomas, which runs in front of 201 Poplar — would get the name change.

Kristen Walker

Wednesday

• Shelby County added 277 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 17,255. Seven new deaths were recorded, bringing the total death toll to 251.

• The Humane Society of Memphis and Shelby County (HSMSC) was searching for people to foster shelter animals, especially kittens.

Society officials said kittens are susceptible to disease and can’t stay in the shelter environment for long. Last month, the shelter’s kitten intake was up 236 percent, compared to June 2019.

While they get more puppies and kittens during warmer months, officials said they received three times the requests this year due to a variety of reasons related to COVID-19, such as limited facilities offering spay and neuter surgeries, as well as fewer shelter options for surrendering litters.

Google Maps

Thursday
• Riverside Drive will reopen to vehicles on Monday, August 3rd, but will close again on weekends, according to the Mississippi River Parks Partnership (MRPP) last week.

The group said the street will close each Friday at 6 p.m. and open again at 6 a.m. on Monday mornings “to allow people to use the street and park safely.” The Tom Lee Park parking lot will remain closed.

• Shelby County added 429 new cases of COVID-19 on test results reported since Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of cases to 17,255. The death toll rose by five to 256.

• The MRPP, in response to an announcement from the Downtown Neighborhood Association (see above) regarding Mud Island Amphitheater, said refurbishing the venue would be costly and was more complicated than just upgrading the amphitheater itself.

George Abbott, director of external affairs for the MRPP, said the amphitheater should be considered a part of the entire Mud Island River Park. To deliver the venue as a “minimum viable product” — for safety upgrades to even allow shows back there at all — would cost $2 million. But to do it right for modern productions, it would cost more than $10 million.

“I don’t think there’s really anyone who disagrees with the fact that we’ve got an asset on our hands,” Abbott said. “The discussion really is, again, we need the right partner to be in place, to operate this at a level that we all want to see here in Memphis.”

Friday
• Shelby County added 374 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 18,058. Three deaths were reported for a total of 259. The number of active cases in the county fell below 5,000 (4,980) and was only 27.6 percent of all virus cases reported since the disease arrived here in March.

For fuller version of these stories and even more local news, visit The News Blog at memphisflyer.com

Categories
Music Music Features

Stax Music Academy to “Pump It Up” with Elvis Costello to Keep Music Flowing

CREDIT: Courtesy Stax Music Academy

Of all the gems in the crown of the thriving Memphis music education scene, the Stax Music Academy (SMA) may shine the brightest, by virtue of its location right beside the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Though it wasn’t yet in its current building, the music school opened 20 years ago at Stafford Elementary School and has gone from success to success ever since.

Despite the pandemic, the school is forging ahead with the new academic year, albeit with some new approaches in place. “We’re starting virtual,” says executive director Pat Mitchell-Worley. “We’re still going to keep the attention on the craft of being a musician, but instead of live performance, we’re focusing on recorded performance. And our students get to spend a lot more time in the studio this year, which is something we’ve always wanted to do, but preparing for all those live performances made it sort of impossible. So this is an opportunity. I want to focus on, what can we do that wasn’t possible last year?”

Courtesy Stax Music Academy

Booker T. Jones with Stax Music Academy students

One thing they’re doing is making up for the shortfall resulting from SMA’s suspension of all tuition charges when the pandemic hit. That’s the focus of a new fundraiser involving songwriter extraordinaire and longtime SMA supporter Elvis Costello, who is lending his voice to the cause. It’s not a recording or a performance, exactly, but a unique art object created by the London- and Austin-based Soundwaves company, which specializes in transforming audio recordings by musical artists, from Fleetwood Mac to Paul McCartney, into visual representations of the recordings’ waveforms.

Now, Soundwaves’ Tim Wakefield has created such a work based on Costello’s 1978 classic “Pump It Up,” and produced a limited-edition collection of prints, individually numbered and signed by Wakefield and Costello, as well as four originals. When first offered on July 15th, the originals sold out at $2,500 each, and roughly half of the prints sold for $450 each. Remaining prints are still available.

Courtesy Stax Music Academy

SMA students

As Costello observed in a statement, “I think this is the first time anyone has paid money to look at my voice. That said, I am really grateful to those who have made these contributions in support of the great work done by my friends at the Stax Music Academy.”

As Mitchell-Worley notes, Costello has often been involved with SMA. “He’s met with students,” she says, “and when he was in town last time, he did a testimonial video about the program.” The “Pump It Up” campaign is a perfect expression of that support. “It’s something I’m super excited about,” she says, “’Cause it’s just a cool thing. I’m like, is it wrong for me to buy one? ‘Cause I’m a fan!”

Costello isn’t the only musical genius to lend support to SMA. Direct financial assistance has come from a notable Stax alum. “Steve Cropper put up all the money for the cash prizes for kids, for the songwriting contests we’re doing,” says Mitchell-Worley. “The next one will be in August, and Cropper’s coming again with the prize money. He wants to encourage kids to write songs. He knows how important that was for him.”

The assistance of high-profile artists like Costello and Cropper is crucial now, according to Mitchell-Worley, as the SMA fills in where other avenues of music education have been curtailed due to the coronavirus. As she notes, simply taking a break from playing is not an option. “You’ve got to keep your skills up,” she says. “It’s just like math. If you go without math for a time, then that knowledge is lost. Continuing to practice, continuing to play is an important piece of growing as an instrumentalist and a vocalist.”

After virtual classes begin on August 17th, says Mitchell-Worley, “We’re playing it by ear. ‘Cause we know kids want to be back, and their families want them back, but safety, of course, is everybody’s first concern. For us, it’s still our 20th anniversary, COVID or not, and we’re still going to educate teenagers about music. We’re adapting to what the community needs are. It’s a really strange time, but we’re trying to figure out how we can help. These are the things I’m thinking about, the things that keep me up at night.”


Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets: An Ode to a Vanishing Dive Bar

The day shift watches Jeopardy! in Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets.

The greatest irony of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the two most dangerous things you can do are go to church and go to a bar. As independent and self-sufficient as we think we are, humans are social animals. The novel coronavirus spreads by exploiting that need for close contact, singing, and conversation.

All three of those things happen with abandon in Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, directors Bill and Turner Ross’ ode to the vanishing world of the barfly. The Ross brothers, who are New Orleans filmmakers, have until now worked primarily in documentary. Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is billed as a hybrid documentary, which in this case basically means nonprofessional actors improvising in real locations.

In other words, this is an indie film in the oldest, and most pure, sense of the term. Was Bicycle Thieves a documentary? Did John Cassavetes make documentaries? Were the Dogme 95 films documentaries? Is Blue Citrus Hearts a documentary? As the saying goes, all films are documentaries of the time of their making.

But while the question of exactly what type of film this is may be interesting if you’re concerned about who your film is competing against at Sundance, it’s not particularly relevant to connecting with the work. The set up here is the last night of the Roaring 20s Cocktail Bar, a cozy little spot carved out of a strip mall in Las Vegas. This is not the tourist Vegas of showgirls, neon, and casinos. This is a working-class joint populated by barstool philosophers and faded honky-tonk queens. One devoted patron takes pride in the fact that alcohol didn’t derail his life. “I ruined my life sober. Then I came to you.”

The dive bar is a cultural institution, but this one is closing due to soaring rents in Sin City. “The World’s Largest Gift Shop is closing. What chance does this place have?” frets the day bartender, a huge bear of a man with a Viking beard. “Celine Dion can have this place.”

The day shift is getting tanked while the Today Show is still on. One craggy drinker named Ian gets a call from his work telling him to come in. He grumbles as he leaves, but they knew where to find him. As the bar fills up for the last time, they watch Jeopardy! together and ignore news about the election. They listen to the bartender sing out the end of his last shift with a rough but moving rendition of Roy Orbison’s “Crying.” It’s a tough song to sing, and he nails it.

Bruce Hadnot

That’s just one affecting moment in a film that’s made of nothing but. There’s no story to Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, just stuff that happens. It’s like two dozen character sketches stuck together with gum found under a bar table, and I mean that as a compliment. There’s the Black veteran (Bruce Hadnot) who laments getting sucked into “horseshit, stupid wars” but waxes rhapsodic about the his time in the Army. “When you in a platoon with me, you like family.”

There’s the nighttime bartender without a childcare option who just has her teenage son stick close to the bar all night until he falls asleep in the backseat of her car. He and his friends smoke weed in the back alley and crack up listening to the drunken conversations indoors. There’s the poet who begins the evening by reading his elegy to the Roaring 20s and ends by trying to fight everybody. There’s Pam, the 60-year-old who still flashes her breasts at the bar, and the young musicians who appreciate her bust.

Most poignantly of all, there’s Michael. Played by veteran New Orleans indie actor Michael Martin, he’s introduced by the day bartender with “I can’t imagine that dude functioning without this place.” Michael is the purest distillation of this little band of lovable losers. Every moment he’s not cleaning houses, he’s at the bar. Everyone wants to pretend this is just another night, but he’s the one who really sees his world crumbling around him. He tearfully tells one young musician to get out of the bar scene before it’s too late. “I used to be an actor. Now I just come to the bar.”

Michael Martin listens to the conversations on the last night of the Roaring 20s Cocktail Bar.

In the end, the regulars get too drunk, and the closing night cake, which says “This Place Sucked Anyway,” gets dropped in the middle of an impromptu parking lot dance party. The all-important sense of community, and what happens when it is taken away, is the subject of Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, and today it takes on new meaning. As the pandemic stretches on, it’s increasingly apparent what we took for granted. It’s not just the gloriously disreputable neighborhood watering holes that are in jeopardy of disappearing forever, it’s the music venues, the theaters, the pizza joints with an open mic comedy night. When this disease has been tamed, we can’t take these places for granted, lest they all end up like the Roaring 20s Cocktail Bar.

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets is streaming on the Indie Memphis Movie Club.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational from TPC at Southwind

CREDIT: Facebook/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

The golf is back on the green with social distancing measures in place for golf fans everywhere.

Originally scheduled for July 2nd-5th, in April it was announced that the World Golf Championships FedEx St. Jude invitational would be rescheduled for the week formerly occupied by the Summer Olympics, which have been postponed to 2021.

Facebook/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

“I know the Memphis community is looking forward to hosting another FedEx St. Jude Invitational event,” says Executive Director Darrell Smith. “We will continue to work with the PGA TOUR and the recommendations and regulations of leading public health authorities as we go forward to ensure the well-being for all.”

What ultimately manifested is an Invitational without spectators. However, the opportunities to explore Memphis and enjoy the sport are still in play, albeit a bit different. For instance, the PGA website offers a spectator guide so that golf enthusiasts can follow easily on the green. In addition to tournament information the website has an Explore Memphis link where virtual spectators can “Discover Memphis,” order barbecue for home delivery via The Pit @ Home, and a Kids Zone link with entertaining and educational opportunities for the younger spectators.

In addition to enjoying golf, there are some fun opportunities to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. To participate in Birdies for St. Jude, sign up on the website birdiesforstjude.org, follow your favorite golfers, and donate for every birdie they card. Visitors can also find some fun items like shoes, putter covers, and bibs featuring St. Jude patient art in the Spectator Guide.

TPC Southwind, 3325 Club, wgcfedex.com. Visit website for PGA Tour App and schedule of events. Spectators can follow on social media from July 30th-August 2nd.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Marinated to the Bone: Peggy’s Healthy Home Cooking

CREDIT: Jon W. Sparks

Dining-in is down, but Peggy Brown’s chin is up at Peggy’s Healthy Home Cooking. She’s weathering the pandemic storm at her Midtown restaurant.

“We got our tables six feet apart,” Brown says. “We’re offering dine-in, but a lot of people really aren’t dining in. I think this virus thing has everybody so scared. But most of ours is carry out. People who normally would dine-in that pick up their food and go on.”

She’s seen a big difference on Sundays. “After church we’d have all the church people. And a lot of the churches are still closed, so we don’t have our church crowd like we normally would have. So the more people that come in are mostly working class folk — our construction workers. And MLGW. All of them. They come in and dine in. But otherwise, not a lot of people are dining in. A lot of people are working from home.”

Jon W. Sparks

Peggy Brown

Her takeout business is thriving. She began offering curbside, takeout, and Bite Squad and DoorDash delivery as soon as she was able. But, she says, the pandemic “hurt us bad, business-wise. We did about a third of normal what we would do. I had to let some of my people go. It was tough.” But, Brown says, “I came in every day and cooked.”

She opened for dine-in about a month ago. “I was really trying to keep everybody from coming in, but they told us we could have 30 percent dine-in, so people knew we were open for dine-in. And I had some of my customers that live right down the street. They’ve been getting my food to go. They were so happy: ‘Hey, we were just waiting to come in and sit down and get some of this good food.’ I wasn’t going to turn them away. They’re my regulars. They’ve been coming in ever since I’ve been here.”

Brown doesn’t skip a beat when asked to name her most popular items. “Greens, yams, and meatloaf. Everybody loves our meatloaf. And greens? We won’t even discuss those greens. If you don’t have greens people get mad. They all walk out if you don’t have greens.

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“Basically, the story on the greens is we don’t cook with meat. We don’t cook any of our vegetables with meat at all,” Brown says. “Food has its own flavor. So, the only thing I do is add the herbs to enhance the flavor to the greens and not take away from the flavor. The greens have their own flavor. Most people cannot believe that our greens taste that good and we don’t use meat.”

Her fried chicken is “very, very popular. People come every day and want our fried chicken, but we only do fried chicken once a week. We do it on Tuesdays. But I’ve got a special marinade I marinate my chicken in. My chicken is marinated to the bone.

“One of the things in our marinade is we do a little poultry seasoning, a little garlic powder, a little onion powder,” she continues. “And we do a season salt. We’ve got a couple of other things we put in there we try to keep a little secret.”

Her meat loaf, which includes honey in the tomato sauce, is featured on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Brown hasn’t let the pandemic get the better of her. “I never did get depressed or down because, you know what? I’m a religious person. I get up in the church and I believe the Lord will provide. And he always does. I’m a praying person. No, I didn’t get depressed. You just have to pray a lot. That’s the only thing you can do. And not only do I pray for my business, but I pray for the other people’s businesses in the city.

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“I tell you what. Our business is doing great. Compared to a lot of people’s business, our business is really fantastic, to be honest with you. Because of the Lord. My health is good. I can’t complain a bit.”

Sanitizing at her restaurant isn’t something new because of the virus, Brown says. “I grew up in the country. We’ve always been clean. We bleached down. We’d clean down everything. That’s how I grew up. Cleanliness has always been a big thing. Clorox. We’d Clorox our dishes. We mopped our floors with Clorox. We really scrubbed and cleaned. It’s nothing new to me.”

A silver lining was Brown’s recent tie-in with FedEx.“I recently became a vendor for FedEx. I make food for certain shifts.”

So, it’s business — just about as usual — at Peggy’s Healthy Home Cooking.

“God did not give us a spirit of fear,” Brown says, adding, “I don’t live in fear. It’s not part of me. You have to take precautions. People are dying from this stuff. I wear a mask if I’m in a crowd. Yeah, I’ll put my mask on.”

And, she says, “Sometimes God has to do things to get our attention. I think things happen in order for him to get our attention and let us know we’re not running anything. We’re not in charge of anything. He gave us a mind to choose right or wrong, but so much has gone wrong. We have strayed so far from the Lord. I think sometimes he has to do things to bring us back.”

Meanwhile, Brown says, “I’ll do my do and talk to the Lord and be blessed. That’s what you do. That’s exactly what you do.”

Peggy’s Healthy Home Cooking is at 326 South Cleveland; (901) 474-4938


Categories
Cover Feature News

Survivors! Five Victims of Coronavirus Tell Their Stories

CREDIT: Mike Maple

Since the novel coronavirus pandemic came to the Memphis area, more than 18,000 people have come down with COVID-19. As of this writing, 259 people have died. Four months after a state of emergency was declared, the numbers continue to tick upwards with no end in sight.

The Flyer spoke with survivors who volunteered to tell their stories. These people have experienced a disease that simply didn’t exist in humans a year ago. Several common themes emerged. Most strikingly, everyone we spoke with appears to have lasting effects from their brush with the virus. Here are five stories of fear and strength in the face of the unknown.
Mike Maple

Jeff “Bunny” Dutton

Jeff “Bunny” Dutton is a musician and recording engineer. His partner Suzy Hendrix is a visual artist who specializes in stained glass. Dutton’s first symptoms appeared in early March, when he was working in the studio. “I remember setting up mics for recording, and all of the large muscles in my body were aching like I was lifting cars the day before.”

After a successful weekend in the studio, Dutton and his friends went out for drinks.
“It was a Sunday, and a large group was at a Mexican restaurant,” he says. “We were all planning on this being our last night out together till the danger was over. We were pretty naive about the whole thing at the time, and didn’t think it was going to turn into a major pandemic. I was very uncomfortable. My legs were still aching and I felt restless and confused. My head was getting cloudy and I was starting to get anxious about it. I couldn’t concentrate on anything.”

The next day, Dutton couldn’t get out of bed. By mid-week, he was having trouble breathing. On Friday, March 17th, he finally went to a minor medical clinic. “They said that my lungs sounded fine and they couldn’t understand why I was in so much distress, so they gave me a COVID test just to be safe. The nurse asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital for chest X-rays. I told her I couldn’t stay on my feet any longer, and I went back home to bed. I do remember they gave me a steaming treatment that is used for asthmatics, but it did no good.

“About this time Suzy started feeling ill. Three days later my test results came back positive and Suzy went for tests. For some reason, hers was negative, and though she wasn’t nearly as sick as I was, it still wasn’t any fun.”

Dutton and Hendrix were among the first people in Memphis to experience the full course of COVID-19. “I had one night of fever and demented dreams, but for the next couple of weeks I just laid around trying to get an entire lung full of air into me,” Dutton says. “No one knew what to do or what to expect, so I had to self medicate. I chose to use aspirin, despite the crazy warnings on the internet. Later, I started finding out about all of the blood clotting doctors were finding, so I was happy with that decision. As far as spending a couple of weeks gasping for breath goes, it is the worst. I suggest practicing some sort of meditation now. You might need it someday when all you can think about for days at a time is, ‘Don’t stop breathing.’” 

With both people in the household sick, the couple turned to their community for help. “What was really great about the whole thing was friends dropping off fresh food, books, and cake, and relatives depositing cash into the bank account. Such a helpful happy bunch, you gotta love ’em.”

But navigating the health-care system and government aid programs while fighting for breath was a traumatic experience. “I’m happy that I did not need hospitalization,” Dutton says. “Tennessee is a crappy state to live in if you need medical care.”

Eventually, Dutton found he had a little more energy every morning. “I’m pretty good for five or six hours now. … Being sick was pure hell. I’m glad to be back up and about, but I have some pretty serious damage. Unless I get hit by a bus or something, one good lung infection is all it’s going to take to take me out. My days of being a social animal are probably over.”

His experience has left one enduring question. “I have no idea how I contracted the virus,” says Dutton. “Almost everyone I know was traveling around the country, or on their way back from Mardi Gras at that time. Other than Suzy, none of my friends seemed to get sick. It’s a mystery.”

Leslie K. Nelson

In late May, Leslie K. Nelson had a houseguest for a few days. On June 1st, the guest was treated for what doctors believed was heatstroke. It was COVID-19. “Around the 7th or 8th, I too was sick,” Nelson says. “But I was much worse than my friend.”

Nelson’s guest had 10 days of mild symptoms. Nelson was admitted to the hospital on June 11th.

“I called because I couldn’t breathe,” she says. “I was coughing, constant migraine, hot, sweaty, hurting all over. I could not focus at all. I was immediately admitted.”

Nelson was given oxygen and intravenous fluids in the hospital. Everyone entering her room was required to wear protective gear. “I only saw a doctor the first couple days. I had questions. The nurses would tell me to bring that up with the doctor. I did request to see him a few times. My questions and concerns went unanswered. Honestly, I know they’re busy, I know they’re understaffed, I know they’re overworked. But I was made to feel like I was bothering them.”

Nelson says the headaches were constant, accompanied by mental confusion, the “CoFog.” She found herself unable to do even basic tasks for herself. “The weakness is a different type of fatigue than I’ve ever experienced.”

After eight days, Nelson was sent home in an ambulance. She was still so weak she had to be strapped into a gurney for the journey. “They told me there were patients in the emergency room that needed my room. They sent me home even though I couldn’t take care of myself.”

Nelson says her friends and family have rallied around her. “They’ve picked up my medications, brought me groceries — because, remember, I can’t go out. Even if I could, I don’t have the energy or brain power yet. One friend brought me the Huey’s veggie burger I had been craving. A neighbor and close friend made it a point to get my mail out of the mailbox and drop off at my door because I’ve been too weak to go to the mailbox. Then there have been the homemade soups and chocolates. I couldn’t have survived without my friends.”

Today, Nelson is still feeling the effects of the virus. She is one of the people known in medical circles as “long haulers.” Her fever never went away, and no period of recovery has proven to be permanent. “Symptoms develop at different times, even new ones, like tendinitis and ringing in my ears/head,” She says. “My taste never totally went away. It changed, got weird. Some things got really awful. Chocolate tasted like oil.”

Nelson decided to document her experiences on Facebook with a series of posts called “My No Pity Covid-19 Symptoms.”

“I was starting to feel pretty down, discouraged. I had to find a way to be productive. I needed to have a purpose, help in some way,” she says. “For anybody just starting to go through it, the unknown is scary. Reading the illness’ effects from somebody that doesn’t have a political agenda gives it validity,” she says. “No one would, or could, give me any answers. If one person reads my story and now wears a mask — which has happened — or if someone laying in a bed alone, scared, and confused derives the strength to hold on a little while longer, it will have been worth it.”

Ariana Geneva

Ariana Geneva is a 33-year-old manager at a Memphis-area restaurant. She started feeling sick in mid-June.“It was in the 90s that week, and the Saharan dust cloud was moving through the atmosphere,” she recalls. “I chalked up not being able to breathe to be my asthma, and headaches to TMJ. I grind my teeth when I’m stressed. I still worked out, ran shorter distances — under two miles at a time — but it was super difficult. I had no energy.”

At the end of June, one of her co-workers tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and the entire staff went to get tested en masse on July 1st. “We all went to the Tiger Lane testing center, sat in line, and all got turned away because we didn’t have appointments, even though the websites say that between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. you don’t need one. The testing site operator told us all to come back the next day at 8:30 a.m. and get tested, so we did. Came back that next morning to all get turned away again.”

The crew of 15-20 people finally got tested at Methodist Hospital. Two days later, Geneva’s test came back positive. Then she spent the month of July “rotating between my couch, my desk chair, and my kiddie pool in my front yard.”

Her fever spiked to 100 F, “high enough my bones and skin hurt,” and her shortness of breath intensified. After about 72 hours, her fever broke, and soon after, she could breathe easier. “I haven’t been able to taste anything since then however.”

Geneva says her test results came back promptly, but it took weeks for some of her co-workers to find out their status. A promised follow-up call from the Health Department never came. She says she had a persistent headache, and reduced stamina. “I’ve been able to work out after the fever went away. I work out every other day, but I have not been running,” she says.

Geneva believes that restaurant workers are particularly at risk from the virus, which spreads freely in close quarters.“People who work in restaurants always get sick. The public comes in sick, gets us sick, and we are all so close to each other in operation, once one person gets sick, it spreads. … Restaurants can’t operate with people standing six feet apart. It’s just not physically possible. It’s not an office or a classroom, where you’re stationary for most of your workings. There is constant movement in a restaurant.”

Now recovered and back at work, Geneva says people who refuse to wear masks “drive me batty,” and she hopes the habit will stick around after the pandemic subsides. “I don’t hate the mask thing. Do you know how many times I’ve bartended and listened to someone hack up a lung? All while I’m like ‘Cool, I’m trapped in this five-foot space with a plague rat.’”

Nancy Wilder

Nancy Wilder is a yoga teacher and 30-year resident of Memphis who is currently living in Franklin, Tennessee. In mid-June, her daughter and her boyfriend, who still live in Memphis, thought they were coming down with COVID.

“I told them to immediately get tested, so that they could at least start getting treated as soon as possible,” Wilder says. “The very next day, I met her halfway between Memphis and Nashville. I picked up my grandson from her there. I was certain that I could take better care of him, since I felt her tests were going to be positive. I thought from my experience, being a mom of three kids and a grandmother, that I could still take good care of him, even if I caught something.”

A day later, her one-year-old grandson developed a high fever that lasted for three days. Soon afterwards, Wilder started to feel like she had bad allergies. “Then, my daughter called to say, yes, her tests were positive. So then I said, ‘Okay, these weird things that are happening to me have got to be COVID,’ because by then I had developed a dry cough.”

The next day, she went to a clinic to get checked out. “When they saw me, they were used to the symptoms enough that they went ahead and got an ambulance for me and sent me to the ER, maybe because of my age of 65, maybe because I have an autoimmune disease. They were concerned for my heart, ’cause they were seeing a lot of heart problems.”

Wilder’s COVID test came back positive. “Then I knew I was in for a ride and I didn’t know what it was going to end up looking like.”

Her daughter recovered quickly, and came to retrieve her son as Wilder’s symptoms worsened. “I would never believe that would happen,” she says. “I’ve never not been able to take care of a child or someone in my household who is sick. And that was the case.”

Wilder’s doctor told her to “throw every over-the-counter medication that I could at the COVID. Medicine for cold, flu, or cough — anything I could to keep ahead of the symptoms to keep them from getting worse to where my lungs got so bad, I would have to go to the hospital.”

After 12 days of high fever, shortness of breath, and a light-headed feeling, “like I was floating above my body,” she started to improve. But it took a long time for her sense of smell and taste to come back. “About seven or eight days in, I tried to cook. I made spaghetti, and it tasted like warm pudding with texture. It was really gross.”

Wilder is now back to doing yoga two or three days a week, but her strength has not fully returned. While watching New York governor Andrew Cuomo reporting on the situation in his state on television, “I really developed a deep concern for Memphis because here I am in Williamson County, and there’s a sense here of being spread out. When I think of Memphis, with so many friends there, and my daughter and grandchildren, I think of the density. You’re much more in contact with other people. And, I thought, this is not good. This could be so serious for Memphis.”

Rev. John Wilkins

To Mid-South music fans, Rev. John Wilkins, the pastor of Hunter’s Chapel Church in Como, Mississippi, is a treasure. Like his father before him, the 76-year-old makes music at the intersection of blues and gospel that has brought him international acclaim.

Wilkins says he was feeling fine until he fell out of the back of his truck on April 1st. Three days later, he still wasn’t back on his feet, and “my back was bothering me.”

His daughter Joyce took him to the hospital at Baptist DeSoto, but the family were not allowed to come in with him. “I called and told them they were going to keep me. And that’s all I remember,” says Wilkins.

“He didn’t have any symptoms,” says Miriam Triplett, a friend. “He was admitted in the hospital for his back, and we were informed that he had pneumonia and his oxygen level was low. After his daughter received notice about that, then they informed us later on that night that he was in critical condition and he was put on a ventilator. They had to open up the airways to his lungs for oxygen, because if he didn’t, they didn’t, he was going to die that night.”

Wilkins was unconscious in the intensive care unit for 17 days while his family waited and worried. “We were scared to death, but we were just blessed that he actually made it through,” Triplett says. “The Lord really favored him, to bring him out of what he went through, because he was in critical condition. At one time, they informed us that, that he would not make it, because of him being in such bad shape. But we trusted in the Lord and prayed that he made it through, and he came to.”

“After I woke up, man, I had to come to myself and realize where I was,” Wilkins says. “And then they found a blood clot in my leg and did surgery on me.”

Wilkins was in the hospital from April 4th to May 27th. “For you not to even have no relatives to be able to come see you or anything, that’s really scary,” says Triplett. “To be alone like that, and really not knowing what’s going on with you.”

Wilkins’ only contact with the outside world came when a nurse helped him use FaceTime to talk with his family. “He couldn’t do any talking, but she could talk and let him know that he wasn’t alone,” Triplett says.

“That was a real blessing,” says Wilkins.

Wilkins is back home, but is suffering from kidney damage from the coronavirus. He is now receiving regular dialysis treatment. “I tell you something else I wish I could get rid of: Ever since I come out of the hospital, I don’t have no taste. Nothing. I cannot eat.”

Wilkins advises people not to take this pandemic lightly. “Make sure you stay with a mask. Make sure you stay in the house. Because they don’t know what you got until they get you to the hospital. I’ve had about three or four preacher friends who went to the hospital and died. They said I was the only one at Baptist who went like that and came out alive.”

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

The Trump Virus

Okay, let me answer the only talking point the Trump campaign has left: The president’s team is demanding that critics tell them what Joe Biden could have done better than President Trump to prevent the deaths of 140,000 Americans, and counting, due to the coronavirus. Obviously, this is a weak argument. You might even say it is a desperate argument.

Why? Because the only real issue is Trump’s handling of the virus.

Juan WIlliams

Already, 60 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the virus, according to a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll. Another recent poll, from Fox News, had 56 percent of registered voters disapproving of Trump’s response to the virus. In fact, voters have already concluded by a large margin — 17 percentage points in the Fox poll — that they trust Biden to do a better job of leading the nation through the pandemic.

Even on a personal basis, Fox reports that only 36 percent believe Trump has “the compassion to serve effectively as president.” By comparison, 56 percent say Biden is a compassionate man.

So the American people have reached a conclusion about the performance of the incumbent: Trump failed. And that has big political consequences because the coronavirus is the No. 1 issue for voters.

By asking what Biden could have done differently, Trump’s campaign is trying to change a national conversation that has already reached a conclusion. They are kicking up a storm of distraction by arguing that even if Trump dropped the ball, where is the evidence that Biden might have done any better?

Biden answered the question last week. While Trump was promising that “like a miracle — it will disappear,” Biden said he would have to work — improving testing, tracing people who had spread the disease, and using the Defense Production Act to get U.S. companies to produce tests, masks, and equipment for hospitals.

Trump did not do those things, Biden said, but instead “raised the white flag.”

“He has no idea what to do,” Biden told MSNBC host Joy Reid last week. “Zero.” Trump’s only concern is winning the election, Biden said. “And it doesn’t matter how many people get COVID or die from COVID,” Biden added, “because [Trump] fears that if the economy is strapped as badly as it is today … he is going to be in trouble [in November].”

Let’s take Biden’s answer with a grain of salt, since he is running against Trump. But what do political reporters — people watching every day, the judges at ringside — think of how Trump is handling the virus?

After interviewing Trump for an hour, Chris Wallace of Fox said Trump’s White House still “doesn’t seem to have a handle” on the pandemic. That is damning given that Trump was warned about the potency of the virus to kill in January.

Jake Tapper of CNN offered a similarly negative judgment. Trump’s “refusal to lead has a body count,” as in the number of people who have died from the virus.

How does Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has seen Trump’s response from the beginning, judge Trump’s performance? “When you look at the numbers, obviously, we’ve got to do better,” Fauci told The Atlantic a week ago. “We’ve got to almost reset this and say ‘Okay, let’s stop this nonsense.’ … So rather than these games people are playing, let’s focus on that.”

These judgments that Trump has failed are hard to refute. It is a fact that in January Trump told CNBC he had no worry about the coronavirus because “we have it totally under control. … We have it under control. It is going to be just fine.”

In late February, Trump again steered the country wrong by tweeting that the virus is “very much under control in the USA. … Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

In March, as the situation grew worse, Trump blamed “Fake News Media and their partner, the Democrat Party,” for trying to “inflame the CoronaVirus situation.”

Then in mid-March he declared, “I’ve felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic.” Later in March, he announced the virus would be gone in time for Americans to gather at church for Easter services in mid-April.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi  now goes so far as to call the disease the “Trump Virus.”

“If he had said months ago, ‘Let’s wear masks. … Let’s socially distance’ instead of rallies … then more people would have followed his lead. He’s the President of the United States,” Pelosi told CNN, in explaining her negative judgment of Trump.

That’s why the question of what anyone else might have done is a useless parlor game. Its only purpose, as conceived by a desperate Trump campaign, is to get people to ignore the president’s costly failure.

Juan Williams is an author, and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Zen-stagram Edition

CREDIT: Dixon Gallery and Gardens/Instagram

MEMernet is a weekly roundup of Memphis on the World Wide Web.

We thought we’d take a week off from the snark and outright comedy Memphians so often provide on the internet.

Things are are still way weird out there, so let’s just take some deep breaths and soak in the serenity of some of our favorite Instagram posts from the week.

The Gardens

View this post on Instagram

Mask up, Memphis. 😷

A post shared by Dixon Gallery and Gardens (@dixonmemphis) on

MEMernet: Zen-stagram Edition


The Rainbow

MEMernet: Zen-stagram Edition (2)

The Birds

View this post on Instagram

More nest ❤️ from the park

A post shared by Overton Park Conservancy (@overtonpark) on

MEMernet: Zen-stagram Edition (3)

Don’t you feel better? We do. 

Categories
News The Fly-By

U of M Research Aims at Tech Innovations in Health, Transportation

CREDIT: University of Memphis/Facebook

University of Memphis/Facebook

The University of Memphis took steps into the future of health care and transportation recently with a $5.9 million federal grant and a new research center.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded the grant to a group at the U of M focused on artificial intelligence (AI), mobile computing, wearable sensors, privacy, and precision medicine. Think of the way an Apple Watch can detect falls or monitor a heart rate; this group works to expand the idea into applications that could help people quit smoking or to adapt a healthier diet.

It’s a national group from U of M, Harvard University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ohio State University, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the University of California at San Francisco. The group is called the mHealth Center for Discovery, Optimization & Translation of Temporally-Precise Interventions (mDOT) and will be headquartered at the MD2K Center of Excellence at the U of M.

“Researchers and industry innovators can leverage mDOT’s technological resources to create the next generation of (mobile health, mHealth) technology that is highly personalized to each user, transforming people’s health and wellness,” said Santosh Kumar, mDOT’s, director of MD2K Center of Excellence, and U of M computer science professor.

All of the work takes aim at the rising cost of healthcare spending for patients with chronic diseases, many of which are linked to daily behaviors and exposures like dietary choices, sedentary behavior, stress, and addiction.

The U of M also created the Center for Transportation Innovation, Education and Research (C-TIER) to shape issues affecting the country’s multimodal transportation system and “to increase its economic competitiveness, and reduce economic, racial, and gender inequality.”

“In recent years, the transportation sector has seen introduction of disruptive technologies such as connected autonomous vehicles, battery electric vehicles, ride-share and mobility enhanced travel to make cities more safe, efficient, resilient, and environmentally friendly,” said Dr. Sabya Mishra, an U of M civil engineering professor who will serve as the center’s director. “Memphis is one of the national hubs of transportation.

“There is a need for interdisciplinary research at the University of Memphis to address the impact of innovative technologies, and forthcoming newer challenges.”

C-TIER’s work will improve mobility, accessibility, and safety and focus on transportation sustainability that will promote “smart, equitable cities” and improve efficiency of transportation systems that move freight and people.

Categories
News News Blog

Governor Lee Announces Recommendations for 2020-2021 School Year

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said his administration prefers in-person learning for the 2020-2021 school year Tuesday and announced other recommendations to reopen schools for the coming year.

Governor Bill Lee:

“Providing parents a choice in their children’s education is incredibly important. In-person learning is the medically sound, preferred option. Our state is doing everything we can to work with local school districts and ensure that in-person learning is made available in a way that protects the health and safety of our students and educators, and this plan helps us accomplish that goal.”

Tennessee Commissioner of Health Dr. Lisa Piercey:

“Leading health organizations, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, American Academy of Pediatrics, and National Academies of Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering, have all stressed the importance of in-person learning for students. The Department of Health has worked with Department of Education to establish a protocol to keep school buildings open safely and cause minimal disruption when positive cases occur.”

Tennessee Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn:

“Tennessee is prioritizing health and safety of our school communities. Ensuring schools, teachers, families, and students have the critical resources and supports they need to start the new school year strong is paramount, and I am thankful to Governor Lee for continuing to support education in Tennessee as schools reopen across the state.”

Here are the full recommendations announced Tuesday from from the Tennessee Department of Health and the Tennessee Department of Education:

HEALTH

When to Test & Quarantine

10-Day Sick Window

Anyone testing positive for COVID-19 must isolate themselves at home for 10 days from the onset of their symptoms or 10 days from the date their test was done if they never developed symptoms. Fever must be gone and they must be feeling better for at least 24 hours.

14-Day Quarantine

Anyone who has been within six feet of someone who has COVID-19 for 10 minutes or more must quarantine themselves at home for 14 days from the last time they were with that person. These time periods do not change with a doctor’s note or with a negative test.

Contact Tracing

Keeping schools open for in-person instruction depends upon our ability to quickly isolate people who are sick and quarantine their close contacts.

If a child is ill, parents should not send them to school where they could infect others. If a child is diagnosed with COVID-19, parents are asked to assist the Department of Health by contacting the child’s close contacts so those individuals can quarantine at home.

If a parent is notified that their child has been in close contact of someone with COVID-19, please follow the guidelines and quarantine them at home for 14 days.

Texting Platform

Schools may be able to assist with notifying families of the need to quarantine through text messaging services. If parents receive a message from their child’s school informing you that your child needs to stay at home for 14 days, please follow those instructions.

IMMUNIZATIONS

School entry immunizations have not changed. Even if students are learning online, they still need the required immunizations to register for school. COVID-19 has had a significant impact on immunization rates: 43 percent fewer immunizations were reported during April 2020 compared to April 2019.

It is critical that children receive regular check-ups and have their immunizations up to date. Immunizations mitigate outbreaks of preventable diseases, such as the measles and whooping cough.

State of Tennessee

SUPPORTING CHILD WELLBEING

In response to the pandemic’s long-term effects on Tennessee’s school districts and students, Lee charged Schwinn with convening the 38-member COVID-19 Child Wellbeing Task Force.

The findings of the task force’s Initial COVID-19 Impact Summary include:

• Reports of suspected child abuse dropped by 27 percent during peak stay-at-home orders in Tennessee

• 75 percent of students nationally receive mental health care in a school setting;
in 2019, approximately 45,000 school-aged children were served for mental health through the community-based system

• Approximately half of districts were able to address or check on wellness and safety of students during spring closures

• Nearly 14 million students across the country go hungry when school is not in session, so resumption of in-person learning is critical to ensure access to nutrition

ACADEMICS

Empowering Parents

Whether it be in-person or virtual, we want parents to have a choice in their child’s education. For those who choose the virtual option, the state will provide free resources to supplement their district’s school-based services.

The resources include:

• Early Literacy Resource: A free resource for students pre-K through 2nd grade to build foundational skills and support early literacy

• PBS Learning Series: Complete lessons for 1st-9th grade students in both math and ELA taught by Tennessee teachers

• STE(A)M Resource Hub: Three challenges per week to spark creative thinking, design, and career exploration from the home

• Start of the Year Checkpoint: A free and optional assessment to measure student performance at the beginning of the year and help inform educators about student readiness for the year ahead

ADVOCATING FOR STUDENTS

Technology and Continuity of Operations

Devices and connectivity will be critical resources to ensure quality remote learning this school year. The $50 million grant initiative to support district technology purchases is now available and is intended to increase student access to one-to-one instructional devices such as laptops or tablets.

The Department of Education is supporting districts, schools, and teachers through additional WiFi and technology supports, including 250,000 devices.

MEAL SUPPORTS AND FOOD SECURITY

The school meal finder will continue to be provided to ensure parents know where to go for school meal programs should a school building be closed.

Financial assistance is available for families who qualify for free or reduced school lunches, through the Department of Human Services’ Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program.

SUPPORTING TEACHERS

Safety Equipment for Teachers

The state is providing no-cost PPE, including face masks for any school stakeholder who wants or needs one, thermometers for every school, and face shields for every staff member. This includes 298,000 cloth reusable masks for teachers, and 27 million disposable masks for students distributed by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

Every classroom teacher will have a full-year classroom disinfecting kit to use so no teacher pays for these materials out of their own pockets. The kits include hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, gloves, and masks.

School nurses will be provided with surgical masks, gloves, protective gowns, and face shields.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT RESOURCES

The Department of Education will offer free professional development classes on remote teaching that will cover relationship-building, using instructional materials, and system set-up. These resources have extended through August 31st.

Principals and assistant principals will have access to remote education professional development through UT-Knoxville, and teachers have access through Trevecca Nazarene University.

The department also announced the Special Education Additional Endorsement Grant, which will enable every public school district to provide at least one teacher with a special education endorsement (SPED) for free. Eight SPED Additional Endorsement Grants, totaling $1 million, have been awarded to Educator Preparation Programs (EPPs) to deliver courses in a virtual environment.

ASSISTING DISTRICTS

Decision-Making Protocol

The Department of Education will provide district leaders with a decision-tree that includes recommendations on how to keep school buildings open safely when a case or cases are confirmed among students or staff, developed in collaboration with the Department of Health and School & District Action Teams.

Recruiting Additional Personnel

A job board for educators and substitute teachers has been created so districts can use remote resources to ensure they are staffed for the start of the year and can fill vacancies more quickly. More than 1,000 educators have already utilized the job board, showing the strong teaching workforce present in Tennessee.

Funding

Ensuring districts have the resources they need to implement remote learning with fidelity is paramount. The $11 million grant program to bolster programmatic supports and implementation will be released to districts soon.

The Department of Education is establishing a criteria list for potential district partners to ensure supports are well-versed in the academic programming needs to successfully implement district Continuous Learning Plans (CLPs).

As districts finalize their CLPs and build team capacity to effectively implement them, this grant program will provide funding for supports such as:

• Training educators on effective instructional practices in virtual classroom environments

• Integrating the use of high-quality instructional materials in virtual instruction

• Supporting operational aspects of virtual instruction, including IT support for students, families, and staff

Tennessee will continue to ensure parents, teachers, and school leaders are equipped with the appropriate information to provide a high-quality education for all students.

CONTACT SPORTS

Lee will issue Executive Order No. 55 to allow for contact sports to resume, provided they follow the requirements of TSSAA. Non-TSSAA schools must follow equivalent guidelines, and non-school-sponsored athletics should follow the Tennessee Pledge guidelines. An update to the Pledge guidelines will be forthcoming.