Music Video Monday gives and gives and gives to you people!
Lee Taylor’s bouncy blast “Bens” is all about that feeling that you’re giving more than you’re getting. Recorded live at the HiFi Loft in 2019, this song about a draining relationship will refill your energy reserves. The Blake Heimbach-directed video was shot by Jared Cullen and produced on location in Memphis by WAFilms. Big shout out to the 80’s Backlit Sax Guy!
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If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
For Kermit Throckmorton, 30 years at the helm of Southern Spray Company gave him an intimate knowledge of the challenges facing companies when trying to communicate with customers. With social media apps like Facebook and Twitter tricky to use when it comes to maximizing a message, he sought a solution: a new app called Knowtice, aimed to bridge the communication gap between businesses and consumers, while also providing a philanthropic boost along the way.
“Communication and marketing are so important for businesses,” says Throckmorton. “And especially during the pandemic. With other tools like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, there are so many other things to navigate. Stuff you might want to see can get lost in the shuffle.”
Throckmorton’s Knowtice app dispenses with many of the distractions you’d find elsewhere. Gone are the sponsored ads, targeted posts, or frivolities. When a user creates an account on Knowtice, they can choose which local businesses to follow, and nothing else will get in the way.
“Normally, on places like Facebook, you’re seeing hundreds of posts from your not-so-close friends,” says Throckmorton. “You have to wade through political posts, pet pictures, recipes, and there are so many moving pieces. When speaking with businesses and chambers of commerce, we found there was just this disconnect with the community sometimes, so we want to fix that.”
For example, when deciding to follow Crosstown Brewing Co. on Knowtice, a user’s page will only show updates from the brewery. That includes items like specials, upcoming events, what they have on tap for the day, and other similar things. If several other establishments are added, the page will again only include updates from those specific businesses. That doesn’t change, unless the user decides to bring more companies into the rotation.
Knowtice founder Kermit Throckmorton
It’s really easy to curate a select group of favorite spots and stay up to date on what might be going on. And for the businesses, it guarantees that people will have eyes on their content, rather than accidentally scrolling past it. Any business that does choose to participate will receive a Knowtice sticker to place in their building. That will let visitors know that they can keep up with their favorite spots on the app.
“We’ve got 24 categories that businesses can choose from,” says Throckmorton, “that can range from Dine, to Schools, to Religious. And creating a profile is free for any business. Business owners should never have to pay money for people who want to follow them.”
Where Knowtice does make a profit is when a company decides to upgrade to a paid plan, for either $30 a month, or $250 a year. That gives companies a customization suite of 150 extra options for their profiles. Some cool extra perks come with things like coupons, that are assigned on the app. Meanwhile, Knowtice’s calendar will alert a customer when the coupon is set to expire, or if there’s a specific timeframe it needs to be used.
“We wanted to make it affordable,” he continues. “We’ve worked with the Shelby County Chamber Alliance and Arlington Chamber of Commerce to create a good model for what we’re doing.”
While subscriptions are Knowtice’s only revenue stream, the entirety of that money doesn’t go straight back into the app’s coffers. Instead, it will be reinvested into the community. Forty percent of each subscription fee is earmarked to go towards a scholarship fund for students at participating colleges in a company’s home state. When business owners pursue a premium plan, they’ll be asked which school they’d like to have the money go toward. Participating colleges in Tennessee include University of Memphis, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Tennessee State University, and Austin Peay State University. So far, Knowtice has partnered with 39 colleges across 12 states, and is also working to create internship positions for students at those schools.
Some of the categories that can be found on Knowtice
Interns for Knowtice will reach out to local businesses and explain the benefits of the app. In addition to being compensated for their time, some students have found that their participating university may allow class credit for the work. Interns will also be eligible for scholarship money generated by Knowtice.
“I think it ticks a lot of boxes,” says Throckmorton. “Students are getting compensated; they’re coming right out of the gate with a startup in the technology world, but they’re also learning how to give back to the community. We’ve been receiving a lot of interest from schools and potential interns.
“What it comes down to is that we’re ‘communication with a mission,’ he says. “We have the capability to help others — businesses, schools, students — so, we’d like to see this grow even more.”
Knowtice is available on the Apple App Store or Google Play. knowticeapp.com
Just shy of a year ago, the Memphis Flyer reported on a new outdoor performance space at the Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC) that showed great promise. The Grove had been years in the making, partly because there were no half-measures in its planning or construction.
The Grove (Justin Fox Burks)
Yet the venue showed only an unrealized promise at its completion because of the pandemic’s lockdown. Through the summer and fall of last year, however, it came into its own. Indeed, as an outdoor performance space, it was unrivaled in its combination of high professional standards and open-air safety.
First Horizon Foundation Plaza, the drinking and dining area at The Grove (Justin Fox Burks)
Now The Grove is gearing up for an even more ambitious 2021. It begins this week as a series known as Spring Into the Grove gets under way.
All this month and into May, music, poetry and film will light up the place in ways that will feel gloriously close to those pre-pandemic days of congregating in public, albeit with the usual caveats. Given that outdoor gatherings are far safer than any others, these nights of entertainment will offer the best way to ease out of the shut-in life. It will happen via The Grove’s state of the art projection and sound in the beautifully landscaped space surrounding GPAC. The highlights include some of our best-loved local singer/songwriters, performances from the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Iris Orchestra, and a celebration of poetry in memory of one of the city’s most ardent supporters of the arts, the late Mitch Major.
The Grove (Justin Fox Burks)
Spring Into the Grove Schedule:
Thursday, April 1, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with Deborah Swiney. Every Thursday in April will feature music and cocktails on the First Horizon Foundation Plaza, with a full bar, beer, wine, snacks and drink specials.
Thursday, April 8, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with Michelle & Jeremy Shrader.
Friday, April 9, 2021, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Gates at 5 p.m. Family Night: Aladdin and live music with Josh Threlkeld. Includes a local food truck, live music by Threlkeld, and drinks on the First Horizon Foundation Plaza. At 6 p.m., the movie Aladdin will be screened.
Sunday, April 11, 2021, from 2 to 4 p.m. Word Travels: Annual Poetry Contest Kickoff. April is National Poetry Month, which includes Germantown’s annual poetry contest. In collaboration with the Germantown Library, Parks & Recreation, and the Department of Public Works, the city’s Public Art Commission (PAC) will host the Word Travels: Annual Poetry Contest. Each year, winning poetry entries will be imprinted on sidewalks throughout the city. At this event, there will be literary activities provided by the library, food truck fare, live music, and more. To partially fund the project, GPAC and PAC will establish a Mitch Major – Word Travels Memorial Fund in memory of late GPAC board member and Germantown resident Mitch Major, whose fondness for literature shaped his life.
Thursday, April 15, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with Blackwater Trio.
Saturday, April 17, 2021, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Gates at 5 p.m. Crawfish Boil, Gus’s Fried Chicken, and the Mighty Souls Brass Band.
Sunday, April 18, 2021, at 2:30 p.m. Memphis Symphony Orchestra with Kalena Bovell, conductor, and Adrienne Park, piano. MSO assistant conductor Bovell leads the orchestra in a program that includes British composer Doreen Carwithen’s piano concerto featuring MSO principal pianist Adrienne Park.
Thursday, April 22, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with Mark Edgar Stuart.
Friday, April 23, 2021, from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Gates at 5 p.m. Family Night: Mary Poppins and GPAC Dance Kids. GPAC Dance students perform at 5 p.m. and Mary Poppins starts at 6 p.m. Food trucks and cocktails.
Saturday, April 24, 2021, at 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. GPAC Youth Symphony Program Spring Concert. Including pieces for string orchestra, wind ensemble, and chamber orchestra that highlight historical composers (including Mendelssohn, Hindemith, Grainger, and Tchaikovsky) and contemporary composers (including John Mackey and Steven Bryant).
Thursday, April 29, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with Amy LaVere & Will Sexton.
Saturday, May 1, 2021, at 2 p.m. Iris Orchestra Concert. Featuring violinist Nancy Zhou, the program will include Sally Beamish’s Hover, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5, and Saint-Georges’ Symphony No. 2.
Sunday, May 2, 2021, at 2 p.m. Iris Orchestra Chamber Concert. Featuring violinist Nancy Zhou, the program will include Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 6 in A Major and Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 3.
Thursday, May 13, 2021, from 4 to 8 p.m. Bluebird Happy Hour with artist TBD.
Saturday, May 15, 2021, from 6 to 9 p.m. Gates at 5 p.m. Sierra Hull Concert.
While the Memphis Redbirds must wait another excruciating month for their first Opening Day in two years, the team’s parent club takes the field — with a significant new addition — this Thursday in Cincinnati. Few “lid-lifters” in St. Louis Cardinals history have been as eagerly anticipated as this one, a broad fan base desperate for the daily version of normality baseball has delivered for well over a century now.
His name is Nolan Arenado, should you not happen upon baseball-related media, social or otherwise. The Cardinals acquired Arenado — one of the ten best players in the sport — in a January trade with the Colorado Rockies that cost St. Louis little more than a back-of-the-rotation starting pitcher named Austin Gomber. Arenado’s contract is massive ($214 million over seven years), and he has opt-out clauses after this season and again after the 2022 campaign. But the Rockies agreed to pay $50 million of the contract (in order to “save” more than $150 million), and the general impression is that Arenado fits St. Louis in much the same way Mark McGwire (1997) and Matt Holliday (2009) did upon arriving in trades prior to free agency. Arenado’s resume is staggering, considering he turns just 30 on April 16th: 235 home runs, eight Gold Gloves at third base, and four Silver Sluggers. He’s the kind of player who transforms a team’s batting order while, at the same time, dramatically improves a defensive position that’s been a Cardinal Achilles heel for more than a decade.
While the Cardinals gain a Gold Glove third-baseman, they’ve lost one at second base, Kolten Wong having departed for Milwaukee after St. Louis chose not to pick up the option on his contract. Another former Memphis Redbird, Tommy Edman, takes over at second after playing a utility role the last two seasons. With Paul Goldschmidt (three Gold Gloves) manning first base and Paul DeJong back for his fifth season at shortstop, the Cardinals are fortified on the infield, with a pair of sluggers at each corner, both in the prime of their careers.
The Cardinals’ outfield is more complicated, with several one-time prospects expected to shoulder a larger load offensively. Tyler O’Neill won a Gold Glove in leftfield last season, but batted only .173 with a .360 slugging percentage in the abbreviated campaign. He’s hit the ball hard this spring, though, and would be a difference-maker if he could raise that slug average about 150 points. The franchise’s top prospect, 22-year-old Dylan Carlson, is expected to play every day, either in rightfield or, as he will on Opening Day, centerfield. (The team’s incumbent centerfielder, Harrison Bader, will start the season on the injured list with arm discomfort.) Justin Williams, Lane Thomas, and John Nogowski are three more outfield candidates Memphis fans will recall seeing at AutoZone Park as recently as 2019.
At a time with so much uncertain, two players will make the 2021 Cardinals feel much the way they felt in, oh, 2015 . . . or 2006 (when the franchise won its first World Series in 24 years). Catcher Yadier Molina is back for his 18th season with the franchise and pitcher Adam Wainwright is back for his 17th. The two men are 26 starts shy of becoming only the fourth battery in baseball history to start 300 games. (They’re scheduled to start the Cardinals’ home opener on April 8th.) And this is no farewell tour for either player. Wainwright led St. Louis in wins last season and no Cardinal starter performed better this year in the Grapefruit League. Jack Flaherty is classified as the team’s ace, but the 25-year-old needs to flash his 2019 form (2.75 ERA, 231 strikeouts) and confirm 2020 (4.91 ERA) was a pandemic-muddled aberration.
A loaded bullpen — headlined by flame-thrower Jordan Hicks and former top-prospect Alex Reyes — will be relied upon to counterbalance a shaky starting rotation for St. Louis, with Carlos Martinez, Kwang Hyun Kim, John Gant, and Daniel Ponce de Leon among the men expected to support Flaherty and Wainwright. A pair of starting pitchers will headline the Memphis roster: Matthew Liberatore and Zack Thompson. If the Cards’ rotation cracks, one or both could make the trip north this summer.
Baseball is back. The crowds will be limited to start the season. (No more than 15,000 at Busch Stadium.) But as vaccination efforts expand and temperatures warm, here’s to a healthy dose of the National Pastime to help bring the rest of us back, too.
The Memphis Tigers are national champions. Of a sort.
Sparked by 23 points from sophomore guard Boogie Ellis, the Tigers pulled away from Mississippi State after halftime and won the National Invitation Tournament in Frisco, Texas, the second NIT title for the program and first since 2002. Landers Nolley scored 10 points for Memphis and earned Most Outstanding Player honors for the tournament. A third Tiger sophomore, Lester Quinones, scored eight points and pulled down 16 rebounds to join Nolley on the all-tournament team.
The win earns Tiger coach Penny Hardaway a third-straight 20-win season, as Memphis finishes 20-8 for the campaign, one abbreviated by eight games due to Covid-19 cancellations. The Bulldogs finish their season with a record of 18-15.
The Tigers appeared on their way to a breezy win as they scored the game’s first 13 points. But their shooting got sidetracked and DeAndre Williams was forced to the bench midway through the opening half with his second foul. Led by Olive Branch native Cameron Matthews, the Bullies gradually reduced the Memphis lead before tying the game at 33 just before the halftime buzzer. (The Tigers shot a dreadful 27 percent over the game’s first 20 minutes.)
Ellis hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions early in the second half to give the Tigers a nine-point cushion (46-37). He connected on another to make the lead 11 (55-44) with just over 11 minutes to play. (Ellis hit four of seven shots from beyond the arc for the game.) A D.J. Jeffries trey with 4:15 on the clock put Memphis up 67-51 and essentially clinched a postgame celebration. Jeffries finished the game with 15 points and five rebounds. Williams scored 12 points despite being limited to 25 minutes of action.
“It wasn’t easy,” said Hardaway after the trophy presentation. “We had to grind. I never let up. It’s a huge start for where this program really wants to go. I knew we had the talent. We just have to commit to doing it for 40 minutes.”
How did the Tigers pull off this championship? You might look back to February 1st, when Hardaway sent a starting unit of Ellis, Quinones, Nolley, Williams, and freshman Moussa Cisse to the FedExForum floor to start a game against UCF. Starting with that game (a 27-point Memphis win), the Tigers went 11-2 to finish the season, the only two losses coming in the closing seconds to a team — the Houston Cougars — that will compete in the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight. (Houston plays Oregon State Monday night in the Midwest Region final.) Hardaway’s players discovered — or perhaps determined — their roles and made the third-year coach’s job easier as February turned to March and the postseason arrived.
How much will the championship mean to a program that has not played in the NCAA tournament since 2014? Finishing one season on a high note — and consider this as high as they’ve come since 2002 — can do wonders for the next. A college basketball team would rather lose in the first round of “the Big Dance” than win “that other tournament,” which speaks to the character, each year, of the team that actually competes and wins the NIT. This year, that team is the University of Memphis.
All nine members of the Tigers’ playing rotation are eligible to return for the 2021-22 season. If they do, you can count on a Top-25 ranking come November. Add a pair of four-star recruits to the mix — Josh Minott and Jordan Nesbitt — and it appears Hardaway is close to a talent surplus as he plots the course for his fourth season at the helm. Such are the kind of problems coaches — and fan bases — dream about.
“We have so much talent, sometimes we get in each other’s way,” noted Hardaway. “We’re headed in the right direction. It’s a beautiful thing to see. We want to win championships. The NIT is just a start. If this group wants to stay together, we’ll be really dangerous. They know what the culture is.”
For now, for an entire offseason, there’s a championship to celebrate. In a season we’ll remember for a pandemic’s repercussions, we’ll also remember lots of smiles, whether or not they were hidden by masks. A Memphis Tigers team found the best version of itself and put on the right kind of show deep in the heart of Texas.
Quick dribbles on the Grizzlies’ 110-126 loss to the Utah Jazz on Saturday.
1) Donovan Mitchell was aggressive from the start. He finished with 35 points and seven assists off of 12 of 17 shooting.
2) Utah held Memphis to 40 percent from the field and 27 percent from three. Meanwhile, the Jazz shot 50 percent from the field and connected on 19 three-pointers at 42 percent.
3) Kyle Anderson led the Grizzlies with 16 points off of 6 of 12 shooting, and added four assists and two steals.
4) Jonas Valanciunas tallied his 30th double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds as the Grizzlies dropped a game under .500 at 21-22 on the season.
5) Jordan Clarkson continues to make his case for Sixth Man of the Year. As a reserve, the Missouri alum finished with 28 points, six rebounds and four assists for the Jazz.
6) Ja Morant couldn’t capitalize after his 32 points and 11 assists on Friday night against the Jazz. On Saturday, Utah kept Morant in check most of the night. He ended with only 12 points and four assists.
7) With the win Utah moved to 34-11 on the season to maintain the league’s best record. The Jazz have won 19 consecutive home games.
8) Morant is still a human highlight reel. This dunking was jaw dropping.
The Grizzlies kicked off a four-game road trip Friday night against the top-ranked Utah Jazz. Ultimately, Memphis would lose the contest 117-114, but not until after cutting down a 21-point lead by Utah.
There isn’t a lot of negative things to say about the way the Grizzlies played, quite the contrary. But there is a reason that the Jazz are currently sitting at the top of the NBA rankings, and it was on full display Friday night.
In position-to-position matchups, there was a familiar face squaring off against Ja Morant, former Grizzly Mike Conley.
Morant would easily win that matchup against Conley, but the real power player for the Jazz was guard Donovan Mitchell. Like most teams, Memphis didn’t have an answer for Mitchell who led all scorers with 35 points. Whatever the answer is for Mitchell, it very much isn’t Grayson Allen.
The loss to the Jazz snapped a three-game Grizzlies winning streak. Utah currently leads the league with 18 consecutive wins on their home court. The Grizzlies will get another chance to upset that streak as they face off against the Jazz for the second night in a row.
Memphis head coach Taylor Jenkins had this to say in the postgame interview:
“Hope we can bounce back, fill our cup, learn from this one. Guys competed great, heck of a ball game. Let’s go have another good one tomorrow.”
By the Numbers:
Ja Morant finished with a team-high 32 points and 11 assists. Morant made a little franchise history, becoming just the fourth Grizzlies player to record multiple 30 + point, 10 + assist games.
.@JaMorant recorded his second career game with 30+ points and 10+ assists last night.
Morant joined Mike Conley, Tyreke Evans and Jason Williams (two games each) as the only @memgrizz with multiple 30-point, 10-assist performances. pic.twitter.com/YCKJpNrHa9
Dillon Brooks had a good scoring night, closing out with 22 points. Brooks managed to stay out of foul trouble as well, something he has long struggled with.
Jonas Valanciunas made his presence felt on the glass more than the scoreboard, scoring 14 points and racking up a game-high 18 rebounds.
Jonas Valančiūnas has grabbed 157 total rebounds over his last 10 games (March 10-26), breaking his own @memgrizz franchise record for total rebounds in any 10-game span. pic.twitter.com/5NumEHTdc2
Grayson Allen played his fifth consecutive game in the starting lineup and finished the night with 17 points and 5 rebounds, including 5 of 9 from 3-point range.
Brandon Clarke led the bench in scoring with 13 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists.
Who Got Next?
The Grizzlies will run it back against the Jazz Saturday, March 27th, with tip-off at 8 PM CST
The Memphis Tigers will play for a national championship* Sunday in Frisco, Texas. Playing their best basketball of the season, the Tigers ran Colorado State out of the gym Saturday in the semifinals of the NIT. They’ll face the winner of a Bulldog battle — Mississippi State or Louisiana Tech — from the tournament’s other semifinal. (*No, it’s not the national championship, but the NIT predates the NCAA tournament and yes, its field is national. So play along.)
Sophomore guard Landers Nolley — a Virginia Tech Hokie at this time a year ago — scored a career-high 27 points and the Tigers drained a season-high 14 three-pointers to dehorn the Rams, the NIT’s overall top seed. The win improves Memphis to 19-8 on the season while Colorado State finishes with a record of 20-7.
The Tigers fell behind early, 15-5, but reeled off a 22-2 run keyed by three treys from sophomore guard Lester Quinones and led 44-38 at halftime. A 12-0 Memphis run early in the second half put the Rams in a 15-point hole (56-41), and essentially booked the Tigers’ ticket to the NIT final for the first time since 2002. Quinones finished 4-for-7 from three-point range and scored 18 points. DeAndre Williams — like Nolley a transfer during the 2020 offseason — hit nine of 12 field-goal attempts and scored 21 points to go along with nine rebounds and six assists. The Tigers scored 90 points for only the third time this season.
David Roddy led the Rams with 18 points, but his team shot merely 39 percent from the field while Memphis hit on a sparkling 56 percent of its shots. The Tigers dominated in the rebound department (37-25) and even — catch your breath — connected on eight of nine free throws. It was a thoroughly dominant performance by one of 20 teams (counting those in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16) still playing college basketball.
Sunday’s game will tip off at 11 a.m. and be televised by ESPN. Memphis will be seeking its second NIT championship, having beaten South Carolina for the trophy 19 years ago.
Memphis hasn’t played Mississippi State since the second round of the 2008 NCAA tournament, when the Tigers played for the national championship. The Tigers last played Louisiana Tech in December 2015.
Bleeding Audio won Best Music Documentary at Oxford Film Fest 2021.
For a music fan, there’s nothing more special than the one band they know and love, but that never quite made it big. For many people over the years, that band was Memphis’ Big Star. For many people who came of age in the ’00s, such as director Chelsea Christer, that band is The Matches.
Christer saw the band play an opening slot at a show in her native Colorado in 2005. “I was blown away by their performance and became an instant fan,” she recalls. “Then, when I moved to San Francisco for film school, I had a documentary project I had to do. They’re a Bay Area band, so I decided to shoot my shot and see if they’d let me do a little mini doc about them for my class project. I’ve been friends with them ever since. So when they let me know that they were going to reunite, I was already a member of the inside circle. So I was just like, ‘Hey, let me, let me help document this for you guys.’ And it just kind of snowballed from there.”
Her documentary Bleeding Audio had its world premiere at Cinequest Film and Creativity Festival in San Jose, California on March 7, 2020. “We had a little secret show afterwards, and it was the last live event that I’ve been to. It was amazing, but they announced they’re shutting down the festival the same day.”
A little more than a year later, Bleeding Audio will screen at the Oxford Film Festival’s in-person program on Saturday, March 27th, and on the festival’s virtual program throughout the month of April. Christer says the film is about more than The Matches. “I wanted to give fans the story that they didn’t know, and make a film that fans would love and appreciate. But to me, it’s always been very important to focus on a general audience and make sure that the narrative was constructed in a way that you could watch this film and whether you like The Matches, or you had no idea who they were. You could at least walk away feeling like you had enjoyed a really great story.”
The pop punk band released four albums from 1997 to 2009, and amassed a cult following with their relentless touring before succumbing to burnout. “I wanted to use their story almost like a case study to represent most artists who came up during that time,” says Christer.
During that period, digital music distribution overtook physical CD and album sales, disrupting the business model for musical acts, and tanking careers that would have been viable in the 1990s. “The Matches’ major career milestones line up, tragically, and beautifully, with how the digital age of music has played out. I found that while yes, they’re unique and they’re wonderful characters, they weren’t the only band that went through this. In our structuring and telling of the story, we wanted to make that abundantly clear that while The Matches coulda, woulda, shoulda, there were so many other bands out there that might not have the same kind of redemption story The Matches do.”
The tragedy of coulda, woulda, shouda is balanced by the punk ethos that helped the band thrive when they staged a comeback. “They always have this central focus on the community of their fans. It wasn’t rockstar-to-fan, it was always peer-to-peer. I feel like that that’s like a power that we have now, thanks to this digital leveling of the playing field. You can actually reach out to your fans and have this one-on-one relationship with them. The Matches were able to come back so strongly not just because the music stood the test of time, and they were talented, but also because they truly cared about their fan base in a way that helps emphasize the power of the community of music. You can become disconnected from that the more you grow in your career. The Matches just never had that ego.
“If there’s anything my own film taught me, and this experience taught the matches, it is that being an arena band and a household name is great and fun and a cool goal, but those benchmarks for success are not realistic for everybody. And while it’s fun to dream about that, I think we should all look internally and redefine what success means to us. If you can make a modest, sustainable living off of your art, that’s really exciting and, and should be celebrated. If that expands further, that’s great, but if you just have a group of people who are supporting you, that’s success, you know?”
Tickets and passes to the Oxford Film Festival are available from the festival website.
Roland Lamah warms up before an FC Cincinnati match in 2019 (Hayden Schiff from Cincinnati, USA, CC BY 2.0)
It’s now 12 signings for Memphis 901 FC, and the latest name might be the biggest one yet.
The organization announced the acquisition of Roland Lamah, a winger who has seen it all during a lengthy career spanning the globe and more than 300 appearances. The Ivory Coast-born, Belgian international has plenty of top-level experience, including time playing for CA Osasuna in the Spanish La Liga and Swansea City in the English Premier League.
He’s also picked up a few trophies, including the Belgian First Division and Super Cup titles with RSC Anderlecht, as well as a memorable EFL Cup win with Swansea in 2013. Most recently, he played in America for MLS sides FC Dallas and FC Cincinnati.
“We are thrilled to have a player of Roland’s quality and experience join us in Memphis,” said 901 FC sporting director Tim Howard. “He has enjoyed success at some very high levels in football and will pose an attacking threat to every defense he lines up against this season.”
Lamah will make his first official appearance in Memphis during 901 FC’s home opener on Wednesday, June 16th.
