If you want near-daily updates on the repairs of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, follow the City of West Memphis on Facebook.
The city provides regular updates on the repairs, which range from general updates for the public to technical, in-the-weeds descriptions of the work being done, and images of the work you won’t likely see anywhere else. It all makes the city’s Facebook page a go-to site if you want to know what’s going on out there.
(Credit: City of West Memphis/Facebook)
For example, on Monday the city said the “contractor is making significant progress on the repairs.” For true bridge-repair enthusiasts, the city noted that “in-depth ultrasonic weld testing inspections of the I-40 bridge” were continuing Monday.
On Tuesday, the page offered that “both PT weldments/anchors were delivered this weekend and are being installed. The first anchor is 50 percent complete. Installation of the second anchor will start as soon as today. Steel-strengthening plates and splice plates for the permanent repair are being fabricated.”
Sounds like forward motion, to this layman, anyway.
But another piece of information is easier to understand, especially for anyone using I-55.
“A second lane was added over the weekend to the I-55 southbound ramp to help alleviate some congestion and advance flow through the Crump Interchange,” the city reported on Facebook. “Crews also repaired some damaged pavement on I-55 northbound.”
Newly renovated Uncle Henry's on Moon Lake. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Since I’m super excited about the iconic restaurant-bar Uncle Henry’s reopening on Moon Lake near Clarksdale, Mississippi – hopefully before July 4th – here’s some more info about it.
In addition to being its general manager, Whitney Myers, 35, is the creative force behind the renovated restaurant, says owner Donald Knapp.
“We just started discussing Uncle Henry’s one day,” Myers says. “And how we thought a daytime attraction would bring the lake to life. There’s so many more people out here year round than there used to be. He thought the lake needed something. One day, he called and said, ‘I bought Uncle Henry’s.’ I’m sure I said, ‘Oh, shit.’”
The old building, which was the Moon Lake Club around the ’20s and ‘30s and supposedly was the “Moon Lake Casino” in Tennessee Williams plays, needed a lot of work. It had been closed since 2012.
“He asked me to be involved in it. I didn’t really know what my title was going to be at the beginning. There was so much construction. It’s just now coming to life. I can actually see a restaurant now instead of a construction project.”
Myers came up with the idea of the concrete walkway and the pavilion in front, as well as moving the bar to a separate room instead of where it used to be. “These folks were trying to put the bar in a hidden location in the bar room. I had to tell them, ‘Hey, it’s visual. They need to see the bar when they walk in.’ It’s just stuff like that.”
The walkway goes all the way from the front door to the boat dock, Myers says. Sixty red Knock Out rose bushes line the walkway. “I planted wildflowers in there, black-eyed susans. Once those flowers come up it’s going to be phenomenal.”
Hydrangeas and evergreen trees are planted around the 20-by-30-foot pavilion, which is painted “a smooth gray with ‘music stand’ darker gray.”
The pavilion at Uncle Henry’s. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Live music will be featured in the pavilion. “I’m going to do some local bands. I like classic rock. I think we’ll just do a variety. Probably rock and roll. Feel-good music. Probably not any blues. I’m going to leave that to Clarksdale.”
The magnolias are still on the grounds. “We wanted to keep the magnolias for the fact of the South.”
But they trimmed them “so you’d be able to see the building. We were so engulfed in trees. You couldn’t see the building from the road. You would not be able to see a sunset from Uncle Henry’s unless we did a lot of tree work. We just trimmed the magnolias up to the roof of the building just to be able to see.”
Myers had a personal reason for clearing out a good viewing space of the lake. “My dad, he loved to be on the water. He loved the sunsets. Sunsets are really important to me. It brings back a good feeling.”
As for the inside, Myers says they’re still waiting for 110 chairs to be delivered. But, she says, “The iron tables that were in Uncle Henry’s dining room, which is now the bar, I sanded and painted. I kept the original table from Uncle Henry’s.”
Myers also kept other pieces from the old Uncle Henry’s. “The bar room, in a way, favors old Uncle Henry’s dining room. I think that’s pretty cool. The two swinging doors coming out of the kitchen, old school restaurant-style doors, I wanted to keep those. I still have the ‘employees only’ sign on the one going into the kitchen. I have the old Uncle Henry’s specials chalkboard.”
The fare at Uncle Henry’s will be “Southern style Creole,” Myers says. “I’ve got a little menu in my head. But it’s salmon, tuna, double bone-in pork chop, filet, ribeye, ahi tuna. I was born on the Gulf Coast. So, I am a seafood lover.”
Her father, the late Jesse Myers, would be happy for her, Myers says. “My dad loved to cook. He’s probably thrilled for the opportunity I have now. He opened a restaurant before he moved away from Clarksdale. He was a great cook. He’s probably pretty pumped for me.”
She won’t be the chef, Myers says. “I can do the cooking, but I can’t run the front and the back. As of right now, I’m still looking for a chef. I do have somebody in mind. They’re coming to look this weekend.”
Myers was a general manager at the old Madidi restaurant that was co-owned by actor Morgan Freeman in Clarksdale. “I think I’ve worked at every restaurant around here. My first restaurant job was Airport Grocery in Cleveland [Mississippi]. And it didn’t take long to know that I liked that kind of business.”
But Uncle Henry’s was one restaurant where she never worked.
She also never met previous owners George Wright and his mother, Sara, whose father was Henry Trevino, who owned “Uncle Henry’s” long before she bought it. “The only thing I know about George is what people tell me. I love him already.”
Upstairs, which included bed-and-breakfast bedrooms when the Wrights owned it, will be renovated in phase two, Myers says. Gambling was featured at the place way back in the day. “‘Roulette,’ ‘Blackjack’ are still on the doors. Bamboo tables with glass tops. I’m supposing they didn’t take anything. Probably looks like they left it. Six wicker chairs. A big, wooden table.”
Uncle Henry’s on Moon Lake. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
What about the ghost stories? Has Myers seen any ghosts? “I have not. But I also am not going to tell you that I’ve been up there by myself at night, either. I’m not sure I’m going to go upstairs at night at any point.”
A woman who used to work at Uncle Henry’s told Myers about someone telling her about seeing a ghost at the restaurant. “But I wouldn’t let her tell me. So, the ghost stories are all out there, for sure.”
Uncle Henry’s is at 5860 Moon Lake Road in Dundee, Mississippi.
Memphis Whistle's David Parks at the restaurant/bar slated to open in Cooper-Young. (Photo by Jef Hicks).
If you wanted to reach Margaritaville on June 11th, you headed east on Madison Avenue, took a right on Cooper and another right on Trimble, and you were there.
Except it was called “Memphis Flyer’s Margarita Festival.”
Memphis Whistle, which participated in the festival for the first time this year and came in third place in audience voting, is slated to open as a restaurant in Cooper Young.
“We’re opening our own space soon,” says Jef Hicks, who, along with David Parks, owns Memphis Whistle. says, “We’re waiting for licensing and permitting.”
And, he says, they’re hoping to open “within the next few weeks.”
Jef Hicks, Justin Wells, and David Parks at Memphis Flyer’s Margarita Festival. (Photo by Michael Donahue).
Memphis Whistle, which will be located at 2299 Young, will be “a restaurant that serves alcohol. This is in a little house. We’re going to make it all lounge-comfortable and relaxed.”
Asked what the interior colors will be, Hicks says, “It makes you look pretty. I used a lot of dark plum, almost like a burgundy, amber, and dusty blue.”
Memphis Whistle, which began as a drink delivery service during the pandemic, will feature a full bar. As for the food, Parks says, “We’re going to be really eclectic. We’re going to work with people we know in the business who are chefs and line cooks. Mostly chefs who were impacted by the pandemic and were displaced.”
“We’re probably leaning more towards grab-and-go and finger food, just for simplicity,” Lewis says.
They also might serve their Margarita Festival-winning margarita — the Wicked Strawberry Elixir. “This is made with fresh strawberries,” Hicks says. “And we use heirloom oranges, fresh lime, and serrano-infused agave. I would describe it as a little bit spicy, a little bit festive.”
Just like the new restaurant is going to be.
About 600 people attended this year’s Margarita Festival (tickets sold out 10 days prior to the event), which was held in Overton Square.
Rachel Anderson and Kieana Smith at Margarita Fest. (Photo by Michael Donahue).Elizabeth Avery and Michael Lowery at Margarita Fest. (Photo by Michael Donahue).
A total of 11 margarita sampling stations were featured along with food stations.
Agavos took top honors in the audience voting, followed by Moe’s, which came in second place; and Memphis Whistle.
Reigning Sound is currently on a high note. Since Greg Cartwright reunited his original Memphis lineup of Jeremy Scott, Greg Roberson, and the Memphis Flyer‘s own Alex Greene, and added in drummer Graham Winchester for spice, they’ve cracked the Billboard charts with their album A Little More Time, played a sold-out show at the River Series, and announced as GonerFest 2021 headliners (which is also sold out, so grab a streaming ticket instead).
The music video for the lead single “Let’s Do It Again” shows the rockers in full flight It’s the Monday kickoff you need right now.
If you would like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Anthony Ramos and Melissa Barrera star in the long-awaited musical "In The Heights."
One of the most stinging political critiques of the United States ever penned came from a musical. In the the 1950s, the decade now lionized as our golden age, the country was fresh off saving the world from fascism in World War II, and desperately high on its own propaganda supply. Along comes West Side Story, the 1957 Broadway adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, set in the Hispanic immigrant quarter of New York City, where teenage race gangs challenged the idea of the melting pot. In a time when racism and discrimination was studiously avoided in pop culture, “America” laid out the county’s stark dichotomies of poverty and prosperity, and set it to a jaunty beat. Presented as a dialog between optimistic women and pessimistic men of Manhattan’s Puerto Rican immigrant community, every one of Stephen Sondheim’s couplets cut to the bone. “Free to be anything you choose/Free to wait tables and shine shoes.” “I’ll get a terrace apartment/Better get rid of your accent.” “Life is all right in America/If you’re all white in America.”
The West Side Story generation is represented in In The Heights by Abuela (Olga Merediz), the kindly grandmother who immigrated to America in the 1940s. She tells the story of what happened to the Anitas and Bernardos of the world with “Paciencia Y Fe,” just one of the show-stoppers in this fantastic musical.
The first draft of In the Heights was written by Lin-Manuel Miranda in 1999, when he was a sophomore at Wesleyan University. In 2008, the future Hamilton made his Broadway debut playing Usnavi De La Vega, the owner of a corner bodega in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In the long-awaited film adaptation, Usnavi is played by Anthony Ramos, and Miranda is demoted to the role of Piraguero, a shaved ice vendor who witnesses the gentrification of the historic immigrant neighborhood.
Usnavi is proud of his bodega, and the community it nourishes, but he longs to return to the Dominican Republic and reopen the beachside bar his late father left to bring them to America. But his plans for the future are complicated by his crush on Vanessa (Melissa Barrera), who works in the corner nail salon run by Daniela (Daphne Rubin-Vega). Meanwhile, Nina Rosario (Leslie Grace), is returning to the neighborhood where she grew up after her freshman year at Stanford. Nina’s father Kevin Rosario (Jimmy Smits), a self-made man who owns a car service, has sacrificed much to send her to the expensive university. Nina, feeling guilty about the burden she had put on her family, has decided to drop out. Her movement between worlds is symbolized by her return to the salon, where she trades straight hair for curly, like the other neighborhood girls.
The subject of In The Heights, gentrification pushing out the natives of a long-ignored neighborhood in favor of higher-income, mostly white newcomers, turned out to be the defining fact of twenty-first century urban life. Daniela’s nail salon is being forced to move to The Bronx, and the private equity vultures are circling the Rosario’s business. In 2021, what was a New York-centric driver of conflict when Miranda picked up his pen is now relatable content in communities all over the country. Miranda’s distinctive, rapid-fire, rap-sing style of lyrical delivery made famous by Hamilton apparently emerged fully formed when he was but a wee polymath. But the sprawling ensemble and intertwining micro-narratives of In The Heights lack Hamilton’s focus and deep characterization.
One of In The Heights massive dance numbers filmed on the streets of New York City.
While you’re in the hands of director Jon M. Chu, you’re not going to care about that very much. Chu comes out guns blazing with an epic dance sequence set to the overture, introducing the setting and characters while choreographing literally hundreds of hoofers through the real streets of New York City. “96,000” goes full Busby Berkley with a reported 500 dancers pulling shapes in an actual public pool. The film’s most gleeful show stopper is “No Me Diga,” an ensemble number set in the nail salon, featuring dancing wig heads.
Just as in Robert Wise’s 1961 West Side Story film adaptation, the leads are outshone by the supporting actors. Ramos and Barrera are great as the narrator and the object of his desire, but Grace’s deeply conflicted Nina commands the screen, and Smits (who even does some singing) is simply magnificent as the aging patriarch struggling to provide a better life for her.
In The Heights joins Moulin Rouge, Chicago, La La Land, and Rocketman on the list of great 21st century film musicals. If you’ve been waiting for something awesome to draw you back to the movie theater after a painful pandemic pause, this is the one.
In The Heights is now playing in theaters at multiple locations, and streaming on HBO Max.
We tried hard, but came up short — for the 32nd year in a row, the Memphis Flyer was shut out of the Pulitzer Prizes. But Memphian Katori Hall had a much better day. She was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for her play The Hot Wing King.
The Pulitzer committee called the play, which is set in Memphis, “A funny, deeply felt consideration of Black masculinity and how it is perceived, filtered through the experiences of a loving gay couple and their extended family as they prepare for a culinary competition.”
Hall was previously nominated for a pair of Tony Awards for Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, and won a Laurence Oliver Award for The Mountaintop, her dramatization of the final night of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life. Her short film “Arkabutla” won the Audience Award at Indie Memphis 2018. Hall’s play Pussy Valley was adapted into the Starz TV series P-Valley, which was just renewed for its second season. Season 1 currently sits at an exceedingly rare 100 percent fresh rating on the film and TV critic roundup site Rotten Tomatoes.
The Pulitzer Prizes were established by pioneering newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer in 1917 to award excellence in journalism and writing. Among the winners in the Memphis Flyer’s categories this year were The New York Times for its team coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and the staff of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for their coverage of the George Floyd murder and the protests that followed. A special citation was given to Darnella Frazier, the 17-year-old whose video of the death of Floyd sparked the largest protest movement in American history.
The staff of the Flyer sends our congratulations to Katori Hall. We’ll get ’em next year. Meanwhile, here’s the trailer to the Signature Theater’s February 2020 production of The Hot Wing King.
In some universe, Freeloader would be considered a supergroup. In fact, that universe exists, and it’s called Midtown. In this universe (for I live here, too), the Dead Soldiers tower over other bands as one of the truest expressions of creative energy combined with traditional chops and forward thrust. Amy LaVere and Will Sexton hosted them on their porch not long ago, and it was a glorious return to form by the beloved group. Meanwhile, Amy & Will’s drummer, Shawn Zorn, is another supernova in his own right.
Now take this universe, put it in a jar, and shake it up. One thing that falls out is Freeloader, the freakish hybrid created when Dead Soldiers’ Benjamin Aviotti and Nathan Raab teamed up with Zorn in 2009. The trio embodied the slacker aesthetic, writing one song and booking no shows. It would ultimately take them 10 years to find a bass player in Clay Ayers.
From there, things took off at a relatively furious clip when they wrote more material and released a four-song EP, Endless Bummer, in 2019.
As evidenced by those songs, the group functions as an outlet for its respective members to get their ya-yas out. Heavy guitars abound, even on relatively mid-tempo tunes like “Here Come Ol’ Four Top,” the lyrics of which — “Look at your brunch plate/Shining like a cover shot of Bon Appétit” — are indicative of the high levels of irony, wit, and allusion present in these songs. Imagine the band Cake teaming up with Queens of the Stone Age and you’ll have an idea of the approach.
Now they’re back, as they say, “with far less material than their last release.” In fact, it’s a single that builds on the aesthetic limned out two years ago. It’s a stomper and a barn-burner to be sure, and especially cathartic as many feel the bonds of lockdown being cast aside, ready to move again.
The band describes “All the Wrong Notes” as “a cautionary tale about taking yourself too seriously as a musician,” and yet Freeloader is at last taking themselves seriously enough to book their first shows. After roughly a dozen years of playing together, that’s got to be some kind of record. They too, it seems, are ready to move again. Let’s give them some slack, even amidst this brief, alarming display of gumption, and just let them be slackers in motion.
Freeloader plays the Hi Tone on Saturday, June 12, with openers Red Squad and Aktion Kat.
Thanks to the closure of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, big trucks roll through West Memphis neighborhoods, driveways are blocked, and emergency medical services are “struggling,” according to a Friday Facebook post from West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon.
McClendon said he knows citizens are “frustrated and looking for someone to point the finger at” and he’s “normally that target.” But he reminded West Memphians “that I live in this city also, and I see what you see.”
(Credit: Marco McClendon/Facebook) West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon
“I understand that big trucks are going through your communities, tearing up city streets, and prohibiting our children from simply playing in the yard,” he wrote. “After a hard day’s work you just want to get home for some relaxation and peace, but your driveway or entrances are blocked. I know the impact that this is having on our local businesses and especially small businesses. Our emergency medical services are struggling just to make it through traffic.”
(Credit: Tennessee Department of Transportation) A TDOT SmartWay camera shows traffic backed up on I-55 at Ingram in West Memphis Friday morning.
He said GPS services are now routing truckers in residential communities and that “we are working with Google [for a] virtual reroute.” He said he’s working with the Arkansas Department of Transportation on a number of adjustments to alleviate traffic, but “I believe the only solution to this is getting that new bridge fixed quickly.”
Pray for West Memphis!
West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon
“Be safe out there, and pray for West Memphis!” McClendon wrote. “We will get through this together. There was not a road map through COVID and a bridge closing but this too shall pass!”
(Credit: Tennessee Department of Health) The state health department will get the lion's share of the grant.
Health departments in Memphis and Nashville got a $50.3 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to address COVID-19 health disparities in what officials call the agency’s “largest investment to date to improve health equity in the United States.”
The Shelby County Health Department will get just a bit less than $6.6 million. The health department in Nashville will get just under $5 million. Most of the funding ($38.8 million) will go to the Tennessee Department of Health. The grants are part of a $2.25 billion national investment in funds from the CDC aimed at advancing health equity in COVID-19.
“The pandemic has laid bare longstanding health inequities…”
Dr. José T. Montero, CDC
“The pandemic has laid bare longstanding health inequities, and health departments are on the front line of efforts to address those inequities,” Dr. José T. Montero, director of CDC’s Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support, said in a statement. “These grants will provide these health departments with much needed support to address disparities in communities that need it most.”
The grants are set to improve and increase testing and contact tracing “among populations that are at higher risk and are underserved, including racial and ethnic minority groups and people living in rural communities.” They’re also to improve state health department capacity to prevent and control COVID-19 infection.
A $1 million Tennessee project was launched in April to improve COVID-19 outcomes for underserved Tennesseans. Researchers at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center joined the group of 33 academic and community organizations in the project led by Nashville’s Meharry Medical College. The project is called the Tennessee Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities.
People with low incomes are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection because they more often serve as front-line workers and live in more crowded households.
Dr. Jim Bailey, UTHSC
“People with low incomes are at increased risk of COVID-19 infection, because they more often serve as front-line workers and live in more crowded households,” said Dr. Jim Bailey, a UTHSC professor and an investigator on the Tennessee COVID-19 project. “And because low-income people don’t have equal access to healthful food, opportunity for exercise, and primary and preventive care, they are more likely to suffer from obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, conditions that put them at much higher risk of death from COVID-19.
“We are testing whether intensive support from community health workers in developing their own COVID-19 prevention strategies and encouraging vaccination, can help the most vulnerable people in our community protect themselves and their families from COVID-19.”
(Credit: University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center)
The goal of the Tennessee CEAL project is to dig into and better understand the factors that contribute most to disparities in COVID-19 infection and death rates impacting African Americans and the Latinx community in Tennessee. It is also looking for ways to prevent COVID-19 infection, expand testing, and improve vaccine readiness in those communities. The long-term goal is to better address structural inequities and social determinants of health driving racial and ethnic disparities in infection and death rates from COVID-19.
Each region’s leadership is identifying any unique regional resources or cultural norms that will encourage a successful outcome for those participating in the project.
Dr. Altha Stewart, UTHSC
“This is a statewide effort being customized for each of the regions,” Dr. Altha Stewart, a UTHSC professor and project investigator, said in a statement. “The partners are working to assure that there is a consistency to the implementation of the interventions and the community education components, but each region’s leadership is identifying any unique regional resources or cultural norms that will encourage a successful outcome for those participating in the project.”
Earth, Wind & Fire (photo courtesy Live at the Garden)
Music can be heard among the flowers once again this summer, as Memphis Botanic Garden announces the return of its Live at the Garden summer concert series. In what was supposed to be a 20th anniversary year, Live at the Garden was forced to cancel last summer because of COVID-19 and social distancing restrictions, making the return of the music series all the sweeter.
Live at the Garden will begin on July 13th, with a performance by country stars Little Big Town, in the recently renamed Radians Amphitheater. Brad Paisley will perform on August 13th, and Memphians can “Soak Up the Sun” with singer/songwriter Sheryl Crow on September 17th. Soul/fun superstars Earth, Wind & Fire will headline on October 21st, and a fifth concert is yet to be announced.
“We were devastated, as was everyone in the event business, to have to cancel last season’s plans. It was supposed to be our 20thanniversary. Due to generous fans and sponsors, we were still able to commemorate the anniversary with the permanent Can’t Stop the Music donor wall, which is located on the west side of the stage,” says Sherry May, co-director of Live at the Garden. “We are so excited to bring Live at the Garden back this July.”
Sheryl Crow (photo courtesy Live at the Garden)
As the bands strike up again, a new “Title Sponsor” will be supporting the concert series: Regions Bank. The Title Sponsorship role follows Regions’ support as the Can’t Stop the Music Kick-Off Sponsor in 2020.
Season Lawn Passes for Live at the Garden are $250 for a regular season lawn pass and $300 for a Premium Season Lawn Pass, which allows patrons entry to the venue 15 minutes prior to general gates opening. Individual TruGreen lawn tickets start at $50 plus fees. Both Season Lawn and all individual show tickets go on sale Friday, June 11th, at noon.
Patrons are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets, and coolers to the concerts. Food trucks and bars are also located onsite, as well as pre-order catering.
For more information on Live at the Garden, call 636-4107 or visit liveatthegarden.com.
