Neile Martin takes center stage with Bea Dawg. (Photo: Julie Ray)
There is a lot of talent under the roof at 360 Walnut — and one Bea Dawg.
“Bea Dawg is the star of the show,” says Neile Martin, one of the choreographers for the upcoming dance production of The Firebird. The affable, tail-wagging, tongue-lolling Off the Walls Art warehouse dog is limited to one talent — an overload of cuteness. But that’s okay. The talent pool is covered by the many artists working in the shared space.
Yvonne Bobo and Brendan Duffy had planned events for 2020 in their renovated mid-century 12,000-square-foot warehouse. Everything had to wait. Until now.
“Before and after the performances, we are having an art exhibition down here where my office is,” says Duffy. The basement office has a handmade, wall-length bar. “I’ll be back there serving drinks.” Upstairs, the dancers are practicing. Co-choreographer Ashley Volner steps in time with fellow dancers Grace Byrd, Aiyanna LaRue, and Conor Chaparro. Including Martin, the dancers have nearly 100 years of combined dance experience. “When I ran into Yvonne at Memphis Rox and she talked about a collaboration, I conferred with Ashley and said, ‘Put me in coach,’” says Martin.
A fiery bird wall mural created from an original sketch by local artist Melanie Pyron is the backdrop for the performance utilizing Bobo’s metal sculpture. Stravinsky’s score, adapted for modern dance, provides the music. “We wanted music that was well-known, beautiful, and could be adapted. Not only is Stravinsky’s musical score well-known and beautiful — it’s public domain,” says Martin.
The Firebird, Off the Walls, 360 Walnut, opens Saturday, July 31, 7 p.m., 8 p.m., and 9 p.m., continues Sunday, 4 p.m., 5 p.m., and 6 p.m., Thursday-Saturday, 7 p.m., 8 p.m., and 9 p.m. through Aug. 7, $12.
MMI hosted the indoor event Take the MMIc in 2020. (Photo: Christy Calvin, Courtesy of MMI)
Just outside the Memphis Music Initiative (MMI) Downtown office is a parking lot that is the perfect place to take indoor events outside. It’s so perfect that MMI composed a block party with Downtown neighbors including FedExForum, FedEx Logistics, the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, and the Memphis Grizzlies that will be music to your ears.
All are invited to stop by and enjoy live music, food trucks, Grizzlies giveaways, activities for kids, and the company of community following a long hiatus of live music. “Our block party is our welcome back embrace after a long absence,” says Amber Hamilton, executive director of MMI. “We have been through so much over the last year collectively, and we need opportunities to reconnect and remember what is special about Memphis.”
The Memphis Grizzline will kick off the party at the intersection of South B.B. King and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Performances will include young people who are part of MMI as well as professional musicians who serve as MMI Fellows. Guests can compete for prizes during a two-hour block of live-band karaoke. Don’t be shy. You know you want those prizes.
The party favors continue past Friday’s event. Guests who are Shelby County residents can also visit the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum for half-priced admission from Friday-Sunday, July 30-Aug. 1, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
It has been a uniquely challenging year, but all are welcome. Admission is free. Donations are appreciated.
Return to Music Community Block Party, Memphis Music Initiative, 198 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Friday, July 30, 4-8 p.m., free.
On YouTube, Memphis voice-over comedian Tmoney SoFunny hilariously puts Memphis words in the mouths of actors. Here are the best insults from an overdubbed episode of Atlanta: “Your baloney sandwich eatin’ ass,” “That Diana Ross lookin’ like” emeffer, and someone with a “Baconater head.”
Gonna Hate
Haters in the Tennessee subreddit hated on Memphis last week (for all the regular reasons) after TIME magazine named the city one of the top 100 places on the planet.
Best defense comment IMHO is from u/Memphis_Fire: “Don’t you Nashville us TIME magazine! Our rough reputation is the only thing keeping housing prices somewhat reasonable! We fear for our lives daily, that’s what we tell outsiders.
“Don’t let them know it takes 15 minutes to drive anywhere and there is always parking. Don’t let others know how wonderful it is seeing all of your friends at the free Shell concerts series. Don’t let anyone know what we have!”
Satisfying
Posted to TikTok by Dinstuhl’s Candies
Dinstuhl’s Candies posted an insanely satisfying video to TikTok showing how they form marshmallow for s’mores.
When you visit the Sumlight Bistro food truck, bring a white tablecloth. Chef/owner Daris Leatherwood serves “elevated street food” — the type of cuisine you’d get at a fine dining restaurant.
Leatherwood is slated to re-launch his food truck the first week of August. Instead of hamburgers, you might be eating his truffle-crusted lamb chops.
“I have the fine dining background,” he says. “So, it’s just taking something that you would normally sit down and eat at a white tablecloth setting, but off the food truck. Same presentation. But it’s also comfortable at the same time.”
Leatherwood cooked as a child in Cleaborn Homes. “It started with me scrambling eggs. I went through two cartons of eggs. I would have too much heat, not enough heat, not enough oil, until I got the math right.
“I just kind of picked it up on my own,” he continues. “I started doing it when no one was around. I knew at an early age that I could make things taste really good.”
Cooking “went from a hobby to a passion, and a passion to a career. In the back of my high school yearbook it says I wanted to be a chef. And I’m one of two people who lived up to what they wanted to be.”
His first job was at Isaac Hayes Nightclub & Restaurant in Peabody Place, where the chef took him under his wing. “He began teaching me about the mother sauces,” Leatherwood says. “I started doing sauté. The rest is history. I started working around the kitchen mastering each station.”
Hayes? “I met him. We cooked for him. Yes, I did. I think he had the rib tips with the french fries.”
Leatherwood then got a job at Ruth’s Chris Steak House, where he went from “salad guy” to “master broiler.” He kept learning. “Learning things from other people, but I bought my own books. Like teaching myself about French cuisine.”
The old Madison Hotel was next. “That was one of the best times in my life. I was running a boutique luxury hotel in Memphis.”
Leatherwood cooked for rapper Lil Wayne. “He had a show here in Memphis, and I ended up cooking for him and his whole entourage.”
He ended up going to Miami to cook for the performer. “He didn’t talk much, but I knew when I saw those clean plates he was happy.”
Leatherwood rose to executive chef while working on the American Empress cruise ship. “On that boat, I was able to save a substantial amount of money ’cause I couldn’t spend it. I was thinking of ways to create a business for myself. What better way than a food truck. Low overhead, full creativity.”
Leatherwood, who returned to Ruth’s Chris as executive chef, bought his first food truck in 2018. He thought, “Why can’t we have fine dining on a food truck? That’s a concept I’d never heard of.”
He began serving grilled salmon sliders, seafood gumbo, Cajun pastas, lamb chops, lollipop lobster tails, crab cakes. His food “mirrored the food” he was cooking on a corporate level. “The type of food I was comfortable with.”
He continued to work at Ruth’s Chris and operate his food truck until the pandemic. He then catered and did pop-ups. Seven months ago, Leatherwood bought a bigger and taller food truck. He and chef Mary Wallace are collaborating this time.
“We just work so well together. We have the same passion about food. The love we put in the food. We’re ready to take it to the next level. I want to cater to the people who want the high-end cuisine, but I want some affordable cuisine as well,” he says. “It will be elevated street food, but I will have vegan options in there as well.”
“Sumlight” is what Leatherwood says when fellow chefs ask what he’s making. “Oh, that’s sum’ [something] light.”
But, he still could be making “something that blows your mind.”
When the COVID pandemic sent the Flyer staff home last year, we moved much of our work onto our Slack channels. The notes in the margins of printed-out pages, the style conversations that used to happen in the hallways all moved online. The jokes, too.
Which might help explain why someone posted a newspaper clipping about a woman who thought she had won a “brand-new Toyota” only to discover that she had, in fact, won a “toy Yoda.” You know, the little green Jedi master from Star Wars who speaks in disjointed sentences. Judging by her photo in the paper, the Yoda-winning woman was not at all impressed. I can’t say that I blame her.
There have been times in my life when I’ve been without a car, and it’s never been fun. A new Toyota would have erased a Hummer’s load of worries. In fact, up until about a week ago, I was carless — again.
When it became clear that we weren’t just going to be working from home for two to four weeks, I began to wonder if I needed the old hunk of junk parked outside my house. I wasn’t driving to work — or gigs or the radio station or to go rock climbing or to visit friends. Why pay insurance on an unreliable car I drove only once a week so that it wouldn’t forget how to turn on? So I sold it. One less thing to worry about, right?
Then, in a whirlwind of everything-hits-at-once, I was double-vaxxed and going into the office more or less daily. As editor, I want the Flyer folks to be able to stick their heads in my office and pitch me stories, ask me questions, or just gripe about what ails them. Suddenly, I needed a car again, but this time, I aimed to go about the whole process a little differently.
In years past, I followed the wisdom handed down by my dad: If you “buy” a car by taking out a loan, that’s not your car; it’s the bank’s. Sensible enough, right? So I would search the classifieds, always on the lookout for that rarest of creatures — an old, honest grandad who lived out in the middle of nowhere and was “gittin’ rid of” the Oldsmobile he’d only ever used to go to church and the grocery store.
Sometimes that system yielded wonderful results — cars bought cheap that weren’t much to look at but got me where I needed to go. Sometimes I ended up being the owner of a money pit in constant need of maintenance, with windows that fell off their track at inopportune times (on Walnut Grove in torrential rain, say) and never quite managed a waterproof seal, giving the car its own subtropic atmosphere, somehow more humid and warmer than even the wettest, hottest Memphis summer. Once I even bought a total lemon, a Saturn that lasted roughly two weeks. The body and interior were in perfect shape. The transmission was not. Luckily, I sold it to a used car salesman who specialized in Saturns, and I walked away (literally) with as much money as I’d put into it.
This time, though, I decided to ignore what, in my family, passes for conventional wisdom. On the advice of some close friends whose parents presumably didn’t take Polonius’ speech in Hamlet about lending and borrowing at face value, I took out an auto loan and bought a three-year-old (not 13-year-old, or 23-year-old, but three!) crossover that still isn’t much to look at but doesn’t develop its own interior nimbuses when it rains. It even has a working radio!
Imagine my surprise when our finance columnist, Gene Gard, this week listed an auto loan put toward reliable transportation as one of the few examples of “good debt.” One has to establish credit, after all, and those charming rural grandpas have never responded to my requests for verification of payments.
Sometimes it pays to take a risk on unconventional wisdom. It’s been worrisome to me that we have been in such a hurry to rush back to “normal,” whatever that means. In the last year, we’ve seen unprecedented things. In fact, I’ve seen the word “unprecedented” in so many headlines, it’s starting to sound like a meaningless buzzword. But in the face of major health crises, weather events, globe-spanning social and racial justice movements, and an attack on our national legislative body, maybe it’s time to embrace the unconventional.
Whether the issue is the climate or public health or our relationship to history, we find ourselves at a crossroads. We can muster the courage to take bold action, or we can continue driving around with our heads in the clouds.
You didn’t really think this column would be about cars, did you? Guess you got “toy Yoda-ed.”
If the upcoming festival season was a road sign, it would read “Road Work Ahead.” After the year we’ve all endured, reconstruction of public events is underway. Some annual fairs and festivals are putting the brakes on events until 2022. Others are proceeding with caution by announcing a TBA festival date. Still, others that were to be inaugural 2020 events are pulling out of the parking lot in 2021.
This list of those that gave the green light should help with planning. Buckle up, you’re now in the fairs and festivals carpool lane. Full speed ahead!
If you like that new car smell, you won’t want to miss a couple of breakout festivals this year. The Mighty Roots Music Festival in unincorporated Stovall, Mississippi, near Clarksdale, is one of them. Though the festival is just sprouting, the roots are deep, according to festival producer Howard Stovall.
And not just the roots of the Delta region’s music, but the roots in the soil, too. That’s one of the unique features of this festival: It’s agri-centric. In fact, the festival is taking place at a long-defunct cotton gin.
“We’ve spent a year and a half converting an old cotton gin on 18 acres of land for this festival,” says Stovall. “There hasn’t been power in that gin for 40 years.”
Stovall has invited 150 young farmers from the Delta Council’s Future Delta group. They’ll meet near the main stage before the first act performs and stay for the entertainment.
It’s also the only festival that has a reading list. Check out the website, mightyrootsmusicfestival.com, and you’ll find not only a suggested reading list highlighting the music, art, and culture of the Delta, but also the history of the Stovall Cotton Gin, the Stovall Store, and former tenant Muddy Waters.
Waters lived on the property for nearly 30 years. The house, in which he lived with his grandmother, is where his music was first recorded in 1941 by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. Long after Waters moved, the house was restored and resides at the Delta Blues Museum to this day.
The festival is not just blues music; it’s roots music: reggae, bluegrass, country, and Americana, as well blues. In fact, when Stovall calls his production partner the “ambassador of music in Mississippi,” he’s not kidding. Co-producer Steve Azar was appointed by Governor Phil Bryant as Music and Culture Ambassador of Mississippi in 2017. Azar is a country-music singer and songwriter with a dozen albums under his belt. He also founded the Mighty Mississippi Music Festival in his hometown of Greenville in 2013.
According to Stovall, Azar’s festival had all the right components except for the location. It was just too far from Clarksdale, and way too far from Memphis. Once that fact sunk in, Stovall and Azar worked together to produce a similar concept for Mighty Roots. This time they think they’ve hit the right note with timing and location. It’s sure to be a hit. Check them out.
$30-$65. Friday-Saturday, October 1-2. Stovall Gin Company, mightyrootsmusicfestival.com.
Another breakout fest that should be on your radar: the Carnival of Creativity.
Organizer and founder Yvonne Bobo refers to it as an “innovative art experience.” She promises “big and crazy” events from some of the most creative minds in Memphis. In addition, the carnival is a community builder. Off the Walls Arts has partnered with some familiar South Memphis neighbors — Girls Inc., Vance Youth Development Center, and Streets Ministries.
The artist incubator and exhibition space already hosts workshops from STEAM projects with Dunbar Elementary and Girls Inc. to continuing education and creativity classes for all ages. The carnival is just another way for the collaborating artists to showcase their talents. One of the most interesting features will be a parade of puppets — Second Line-style. Lucky 7 Brass Band will perform. There will be dancing, art exhibits, and classes. The carnival is a free, family-friendly event.
Saturday, October 2, noon-5 p.m. Off the Walls Arts, offthewallsarts.org
While some festivals are just getting started, others are well into their journey. It’s time to set the cruise control and let those drive themselves.
Gonerfest is a fun festival if you like music on the edgy side. The music lineup describes every dude in the ’80s at the Antenna Club — Spits, Nots, Cool Jerks. Fans of punk, garage rock, the bizarre, and unconventional should find their way to this music festival that is old enough to join the armed forces but not old enough to drink.
30 bands in four days, streaming or in-person. $30, $100 for four-day festival pass. Thursday-Sunday, September 23-September 26. Railgarten, goner-records.com
River Arts Fest (Photo: Mike Baber)
Did you know that River Arts Fest began under another name in 1984? At its inception, River Arts Fest was called Arts in the Park and held in Overton Park. I happened to be a vendor in one of the last years the festival operated under the old name. I even won an award for the best decorated booth. I also got a slap on the wrist from code enforcement because part of my winning decorations were hay bales. Something about how someone could drop a cigarette and catch the whole park on fire. Arts in the Park made its way to South Main with a new name in 2006.
A street celebration of the visual, performing, and culinary arts with attractions and activities for all ages. Saturday-Sunday, October 23-24. Riverside Drive along the bluffs, riverartsmemphis.org
The Pink Palace Crafts Fair is the largest fundraising event for the Museum of Science & History and one of the largest volunteer-run events in Memphis. Funds from the fair support museum exhibits, planetarium shows, Mallory-Neely tours, and the Lichterman Nature Center. The crafts fair started nearly 50 years ago in 1973. It’s grown from about 30 craftsmen to more than 200.
Shop for arts and crafts including woodwork, leatherwork, pottery, jewelry, paintings, sculpture, woven goods, and more. $10, $20 for weekend pass. Friday-Sunday, September 24-26, 10 a.m. Audubon Park, memphismuseums.org
Mid-South Fair (Photo: Courtesy of Obsidian Public Relations)
A lot of fairs and festivals in Memphis have staying power, though most haven’t exceeded the 50-year mark. Two come to mind: the Memphis Greek Festival, in its 62nd year; and the longest-running celebration by a mile — the Mid-South Fair.
In its 165th year, it might not surprise you that the Mid-South Fair was created for business networking purposes. Long before the internet or even phones, farmers and merchants struggled to find ways to communicate and meet one another. The first fair in 1856 was held so that the best in agricultural produce and the latest in machinery and inventions could be showcased to the public.
Shortly after the success of the first fair, fun and games were added for more appeal. The event weathered the Civil War, the yellow fever epidemic, the Depression, and two world wars. At the Centennial Fair celebration in 1956, Elvis made a surprise appearance. A time capsule was buried, to be opened in 2056.
Featuring a petting zoo, fair food, rides, attractions, contests, and more. $10. September 23-October 3. Landers Center, midsouthfair.com
Though it’s been a rough road this past year for festivals, it’s in our rearview mirror. Let’s take the rest of the year to celebrate the things that matter most — art, culture, music, heritage, history, and each other.
AUGUST
Memphis Film Prize
A film festival and contest featuring 10 short films made by filmmakers in and around Memphis. Audience votes for the winner of the $5K cash prize. Friday-Saturday, August 6-7. $30.
Malco Studio on the Square, memphisfilmprize.com
Elvis Week 2021
A lineup of events to celebrate the music, movies, and legacy of the King of Rock-and-Roll. August 11-17.
Graceland, graceland.com
Memphis Summer Cocktail Festival
Enjoy summer-inspired cocktails from more than 30 of your favorite spirits, local food, an epic dance party, and more. $39. Friday, August 13, 6-9 p.m.
Overton Square, memphisfestivals.com
Sunflower River Blues & Gospel Festival
A celebration of blues and gospel music in the Delta. Headliner James “Super Chikan” Johnson opens the festival. VIP tickets include food and beverages. Free. Friday-Sunday, August 13-15.
Clarksdale, Mississippi, sunflowerfest.org
Live at the Garden (Photo: Mike Baber)
Live at the Garden
• Brad Paisley, Friday, August 13, 7:30 p.m.
• REO Speedwagon, Friday, August 27, 8 p.m.
• Sheryl Crow, Friday, September 17, 8 p.m.
• Earth, Wind & Fire, Thursday, October 21, 7:30 p.m.
Summer music series featuring country, rock, pop, and soul-funk superstars. $55-$131.
Memphis Botanic Garden, radiansamp.com
Memphis Chicken & Beer Festival
Chicken, beer, yard games, live entertainment, and more. Benefiting Dorothy Day House. $40. Saturday, August 14, 6-10 p.m.
Liberty Bowl Stadium, memphischickenandbeer.com
Beale Street Artcrawl Festival
Family-friendly event featuring artists on Beale Street. Free. Saturday, August 21, 1-7 p.m.
Beale Street, dearmusicnonprofit.org
Memphis Fashion Week
Take a tour of Arrow Creative’s new Midtown space, join a class for fashionistas, meet designers and local makers, and watch a runway show. $50-$150. Wednesday-Saturday, August 25-28.
Sample wings from more than 70 competition teams vying for the hot wing world championship title. Benefiting Ronald McDonald House Charities of Memphis. $15. Saturday, August 28, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Liberty Bowl Stadium, worldwingfest.com
SEPTEMBER
901 Day: Exposure
City-wide celebration featuring live entertainment, giveaways, local bites, and several organizations representing the Memphis landscape of social, civic, recreational, and entertainment offerings. Wednesday, September 1, 5-6:30 p.m.
FedExForum, newmemphis.org
Delta Fair & Music Festival
Features carnival rides, fair food, live music, attractions, vendors, livestock shows, cooking contests, and more. $10. Friday, September 3-12.
Agricenter International, deltafest.com
River City Jazz & Music Festival
Features Damien Escobar, Karyn White, Con Funk Shun, Kenny Lattimore, and Julian Vaughn. $60. Sunday, September 5, 6:30 p.m.
Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, thecannoncenter.com
Memphis Chevy Show (Photo: Mike Baber)
Memphis Chevy Show
The largest car show in the Mid-South region and a thrilling Pro Show featuring Larry Dixon’s Top Fuel Experience, fire-breathing Jet Funny Cars, and Open Outlaw Racing. $20. Friday-Saturday, September 10-11, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Memphis International Raceway, racemir.com
Memphis Rox Yoga Festival
Features a variety of local and regional studios and vendors, lectures, workshops, film screenings, yoga classes, live music, food trucks, and kids activities. $35-$55. Saturday, September 11, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Featuring bacon-inspired dishes from Memphis restaurants, plus an array of distilled spirits. $39. Friday, September 24, 6-9 p.m.
Metal Museum, memphisbaconandbourbon.com
Latin Fest
Kicks off Hispanic Heritage Month with a family-oriented festival featuring live Latin music, Latin food and drinks, crafts for kids, and vendors. Free. Saturday, September 25, noon-6 p.m.
Overton Square, cazateatro.org
Soulful Food Truck Festival
Featuring more than 100 vendors, 35 food trucks, game zone, and music by J. Buck, Keia Johnson, Courtney Little, DJ Zoom, and DJ Alpha Whiskey. $5. Sunday, September 26, noon-6 p.m.
Tiger Lane, cdcoevents.com
OCTOBER
Mempho Music Festival
Three days of performances, Pronto Pups, art pop-ups, and tunes. $80, $185 for three-day pass. Friday-Sunday, October 1-3.
Memphis Botanic Garden, memphofest.com
King Biscuit Blues Festival
Featuring blues legends and up-and-coming acts to preserve and promote the music of the Delta. $45, $85 for three-day pass. Thursday-Saturday, October 6-9.
Featuring the 2021 Beerfest mug, unlimited samples of beer, and local food trucks. Saturday, October 9, 1-5 p.m.
Midtown Autowerks Inc., cybeerfest.org
Harvest Festival (Photo: Courtesy of Agricenter)
Harvest Festival
Pumpkin-painting, kid’s activities, arts and crafts, hayrides, and educational stations. Saturday, October 9, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Agricenter International, agricenter.org
The Tambourine Bash
Featuring 30+ musicians performing for the benefit of Music Export Memphis. Funds go directly to the artists. $25. Thursday, October 14, 7 p.m.
Levitt Shell, musicexportmemphis.org
Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival
Highlights stories of the people, music, and history along the Mississippi River through discussion, performances, and presentations. Thursday-Saturday, October 14-16.
Various locations and online from Clarksdale, Mississippi,deltawilliamsfestival.com
Brewfest and Brunchfest
Local food trucks, live music, games, vendors, and unlimited beer samples from 40+ breweries from around the world. $45. Saturday-Sunday, October 16-17.
Liberty Bowl Stadium, facebook.com/memphisbrewfest
Indie Memphis Film Festival
Brings a range of independent features, documentaries, and short films to Memphis from all corners of the world. Wednesday, October 20-25.
Playhouse on the Square, indiememphis.org
Mushroom Festival
Camping festival dedicated to mushrooms. Features classes and demonstrations, live music, tastings, wild food forays and dinners, identification tents, guided hikes, and more. Thursday-Sunday, October 21-24.
Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, memphismushroomfest.com
Dia de los Muertos Parade and Festival
Enjoy a reverse parade where families are invited to honor ancestors and celebrate the cycle of life and death. Free. Saturday, October 23, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Memphis Brooks Museum, cazateatro.org
Vegan BBQ Cook-off & Festival
This Halloween edition will feature a cooking contest, food samples, fitness information, and costume contest, plus candy for the kids. Free-$20. Saturday, October 30, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Tiger Lane, missfitnessdiva.com
Crafts & Drafts Holiday Market
Showcases independent local artists, makers, and crafters. Enjoy shopping, family activities, and local brews. Thursday, November 11, 10 a.m.
Crosstown Concourse, memphiscraftsanddrafts.com
Whiskey Warmer
Features 40 labels of whiskey, bourbon, and Scotch, plus local food trucks, a cigar lounge, and bluegrass music. Benefiting Volunteer Memphis. $39. Friday, November 12, 6-9 p.m.
Overton Square, whiskeywarmer.com
Craft Food & Wine Festival
Celebrate culinary magic, benefiting Church Health. $65. Sunday, November 21, 3 p.m.
The Columns, craftfoodandwinefest.com
DECEMBER
Memphis Israel Festival
Enjoy all things Israel, including food, culture, market goods, and activities. Sunday, December 5.
Agricenter International, memphisfoi.org
Holiday Spirits Cocktail Festival
Sip cocktails, listen to music, and wave to the big man in red himself. Each ticket includes 12 sample-sized yuletide cocktails. Food and full-sized drinks will be available for purchase. $39. Friday, December 10, 6-9 p.m.
In what amounted to their last public meeting of the expiring fiscal year, the 13 members of the Shelby County Commission resolved several pending issues, more or less clearing the boards for the year to come.
The Commission overwhelmingly endorsed County Mayor Lee Harris’ nomination of Dr. Michelle Taylor to be the new director of the Shelby County Health Department. The vote was 13-0, unanimous, and it included even Republican Commissioner Mark Billingsley, who had questioned the appointment in committee last week and raised doubts about it in a widely circulated email.
Billingsley made a point of apologizing to Taylor before casting his vote on Monday, attributing his former concerns to a feeling that he had been “misled” by Harris. He did not elaborate further. Taylor’s persona and credentials had been extolled by several audience members before the vote, and a sizeable number of attendees were on hand to root for her approval. The mayor had made a spirited speech in her favor in the Commission lobby before the vote.
Early in the meeting, county health officer Dr. Bruce Randolph had offered the Commission some new statistics indicating part of the challenges facing Taylor. As Randolph noted, only 35 percent of Memphis residents are vaccinated, and the rate of new cases, almost all involving the Delta variant, has jumped sixfold in the last month.
The Commission followed its ringing endorsement of Taylor by choosing a new General Sessions judge to replace the retiring John Donald. Danielle Mitchell Sims was selected from a group including Carlos Bibbs, James Jones, Cedrick Wooten, and William Larsha Jr.
Later on, the Commissioners elected Willie Brooks Jr. as new chair of the Commission in fiscal 2021-22, with Michael Whaley to serve as vice chair. A tradition of sorts was dispensed with, as both the new leaders are Democrats. With some deviations over the years, the Commission had adhered to a formula of alternating the party affiliation of chairs, with the vice chair being a member of the other party from the chair.
The Commission now contains eight Democrats and five Republicans, and outgoing Republican Vice Chair Brandon Morrison’s chances were dimmed for either of next year’s positions when her fellow Republicans cold-shouldered her — payback for her win for vice chair last year with Democratic votes against fellow Republican Amber Mills.
An important bit of old business was cleared out, as the Commission roundly defeated by a vote of 8 to 2 the latest of several requests from the Shelby County Election Commission to purchase $4 million of new ballot-marking voting machines from the ESS Corporation. Election Commission Chair Brent Taylor and Election Administrator Linda Phillips were on hand to plead for the Commission’s support.
The Commission, though, has the responsibility for purchasing new voting machines, and a Commission majority has consistently voted its preference for paper-ballot devices, for reasons of both transparency and expenses. The two bodies have been at an impasse for at least a year on the matter — “Your power versus our power,” said County Commissioner Eddie Jones — and the Commission, by an 8 to 2 vote with one abstention, voted late in the meeting to put out its own RFP (request for proposal) for the paper-ballot devices it favors.
Two more pending issues of more recent vintage were dealt with on Monday. The Commission approved a procedure to process by the target date of September 15th bonuses that it had authorized for county employees in the most recent county budget — $5,000 for full-timers and $1,600 for temporaries. And the body approved a new ethics advisory panel for itself, to be constituted by members of the greater community.
The Commission’s newly formed Black Caucus held a brainstorming session in advance of the regular Commission meeting and emerged, under the guidance of caucus Chair Tami Sawyer, with a commitment to focus on economic and health issues. Caucus members also heard a report on environmental hazards in the city’s underserved neighborhoods and agreed to sponsor a blood drive for victims of sickle cell anemia.
Tiara Woods and Paul Tracy are cleaning lions this week — namely the fearsome-looking stone creatures that guard the bottom of the stairs leading from Morrie Moss Lane up to the west side of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
The lions have been on duty in this location since at least the early 1980s, when they were moved here from a grand mansion that once stood on Union Avenue. Paul and Tiara have been on duty in this location for seven days, as of last Friday.
Though the lions were unable to protect their former home from the predations of a fast-food franchise developer, they’ve held up nicely here in this shady nook in Overton Park — except for some lichens, moss, soot, forest detritus, and occasional bird poop. They still look fierce, but they’ve never been cleaned and could use a proper spruce-up. Which is where Tiara and Paul come in.
Paul Tracy has been a preparator at the Brooks since 1982, when he was hired fresh out of nearby Southwestern College (now Rhodes). You might say he knows the neighborhood, having grown up in Crosstown and gone to Catholic High School, a couple blocks away.
Tiara graduated from Overton High School and attends the University of Tulsa. She is working at the Brooks this summer through an internship sponsored by Studio Institute, which endeavors to get young people connected to the visual arts and art careers. She wants to be an art conservator.
Tiara Woods, Paul Tracy, and a lion. (Photo: Bruce Vanwyngarden)
For the past week or so, Paul and Tiara have been working side by side. Paul has the lion on the right side of the steps; Tiara, the one on the left. They are using a combination of brushes, headstone-cleaning solution, water, and bamboo skewers. It is tedious, serious detail work. The stone is porous, pocked with nooks and crannies, tiny fossils, and complex carving details.
“You have to wet down an area, then spray it with cleaner and let it sit for a bit.” says Paul. “Then you scrub with brushes and pick at the small crevices and pock-marks with the skewers. Your fingers get kinda numb, so after a couple of hours, you have to stop.”
It’s the kind of work that might test the dedication of some young people, but for Tiara, it’s all part of the learning curve. “I like finding out how all these roles come together,” she says, “how people wear different hats.”
“It’s true,” says Paul. “It’s always something different. One day I’m matting a Rembrandt print, the next day I’m moving a heavy crate to a gallery to unpack.”
The museum began the cleaning of its outside artwork during the pandemic. “A lot of employees could work from home,” says Paul. “But the preparators, not so much, because we work on the objects, the art itself, and we couldn’t work in the museum. So it was decided that we would work on the art objects that were outside. It kept us on the payroll, which was nice, and it’s really spruced things up around here. Before this, we cleaned the seasons statues and they look wonderful — and they were a lot easier than these lions.”
After Paul and Tiara are finished cleaning the kings of Morrie Moss Lane, Tiara will move on to spend some time working on pre-Columbian objects with conservators.
“She wants to be a real conservator,” says Paul, laughing. “I just play one on TV.”
Tiara smiles. “I’m just really interested in art conservation,” she says. “And interested in working in a museum setting — so this is a great opportunity for me to get experience in an actual museum.”
That sparkling drink that we know as champagne is less a French innovation than you might think. It was Sir Kenelm Digby, an eccentric Englishman and one-time political prisoner, who first created the wine bottles sturdy enough to hold the bubbles in check, although it never occurred to him that wine bottles would ever hold bubbles.
Over in Paris, one Marquis de Saint-Évremond — a court hanger-on and charming bon vivant — managed to enrage one of King Louis XIV’s more powerful and humorless ministers and got himself exiled. Being a gentler age (for aristocrats, at least), Saint-Évremond was allowed to take his cache of white, tart wine from the Champagne region with him. Because Champagne is cold and wet, the fermentation process of these wines would stop in the winter and pick back up in the spring — causing a little residual CO2 to linger. As wine was stored in big wooden casks, these bubbles would dissipate slowly and then all at once when the bung was removed. The historical irony here is that Dom Pierre Pérignon — the Benedictine monk so associated with the drink — spent his life trying to get the bubbles out of champagne.
So Saint-Évremond, essentially a house guest of the English court, did what house guests do and brought some wine. What happened, in effect, was that he bottled the wine (in Digby’s strong English bottles) before the second fermentation picked back up, trapping the residual CO2 as the yeast started to do its thing again. When opened, the stuff fizzed and tickled noses, and the court went wild. He ordered more champagne and did it again. He wasn’t really doing it for science, or even industry. For Saint-Évremond, the new wine was all about sex and money.
You could argue that it still is.
What made the Champagne region perfect for champagne is that it was cold and wet. Now, with rising temperatures, both yield and, in some cases, the flavors the grapes are producing are changing. Quick ripening in warmed weather causes sugars to concentrate, producing a honey-like wine. It isn’t just Champagne; Riesling- producing regions in Germany are becoming more welcoming to hardier grapes like pinot noir, but more problematic for the delicate varieties. On the other side of this phenomenon is that some regions that haven’t been suitable for wine production for centuries, are again.
Wine production in Britain essentially fell off with the global cooling period that coincided with the fall of Rome. Now, due to rising temperatures, places like Kent and Sussex in the south of England are starting to hit that just-so level of cold and wet to give good sparkling wines a go. I’d read about it, but it wasn’t until Mrs. M and I were having a St. George’s Day dinner that a friend brought a bottle of English “champagne” as a gift from one history nerd to another.
It’s appropriately called “Digby” after Sir Kenelm. It isn’t vintage — the company was founded in 2013 — so it lacks that breadiness of a lot of older sparklers. My suspicion is that these wines are so expensive (and therefore rare) that most people wouldn’t know that they are supposed to taste like that. Instead, you get something like the pastry of an apple tart. It’s a little weightier in feel and has a nice acidity that finishes clean. The bubbles are compact, sparkling with fizz, but if you are looking for that carbonated “bite,” you’ll be disappointed.
In some fit of cultural version of “what grows together, goes together” — the English have made an understated champagne.
As much as it galls the French, you can’t have champagne without the English. What the hell, they did it to us with rock-and-roll: bounced an import back to its homeland with a British twist. And like the rock-and-roll lifestyle, it’s still all about sex and money.
Q: I have debt I want to pay off, but I also want to start investing to enjoy the value of compounding. How should I think about household debt?
A: It’s probably never truly wrong to pay it off, but sometimes a little debt might not be a bad idea.
Let’s start with the easy part. Some types of debt should be attacked mercilessly with singular focus and attention until it’s gone. This would include any kind of payday loan, credit card debt, predatory car loans, or anything with a high interest rate. To me, a high interest rate is anything above what a reasonable investment portfolio could hope to produce on average in the future. Over the last 20 years, U.S. stock market returns have annualized about 10 percent a year and are unlikely to exceed that going forward, so any 10%+ interest rate should certainly be considered high these days and attacked with all available resources.
What about loans with lower interest rates? There’s still a good case to be made for paying them off as soon as possible. Even 0 percent interest sounds like a great deal, but it’s still money spent that you didn’t have at the time, and those payments impact your future financial security and flexibility until they’re gone.
There’s a lot of debate about what defines good debt. The most common example is a mortgage, as it represents a hybrid of paying for shelter and investment in the future. Real estate has made many people wealthy over the years, but not without risk. It’s hard to make big returns in real estate without borrowing, which works great most of the time, but can also go wrong, as we saw leading up to 2008. I believe in buying a house because you need a place to live, not as a speculative investment. Enjoy any appreciation, but don’t expect it and certainly don’t rely on it. A mortgage is usually the lowest-priority debt to pay off in a given household.
A case can be made against almost all other kinds of household debt. The problem is that virtually all household borrowing is financing consumption of things that are currently unaffordable. Some things might be necessary, like a reliable car, but a lot of unnecessary money is spent and justified in the name of reliable transportation. Generally, consumer loans like these should be minimized and paid off as soon as possible.
Student loans are a tricky subject, because right now, many people are expecting eventual forgiveness from the government. Forgiveness might come, or might not. Regardless of your expectations, it’s probably wise to avoid taking advantage of any kind of deferment where payments stop but interest continues to accrue.If possible, make payments so that the balance declines each month.
Credit scores are also tricky. On one hand, a decent credit score is necessary for basic tasks like renting apartments or opening bank accounts. On the other, I’ve seen many financially destructive things done in the name of establishing credit or building credit history. In my experience, credit history will naturally build up over time with things like car loans and a credit card with reasonable limits. There’s no reason to focus on gaming your score.
For some debt, it might make sense to keep the low-interest debt and invest any extra money in the markets. Keep in mind that we may not get another 20 years of 10 percent stock market returns, but there’s a good chance the market will outperform a 2.5 percent mortgage in the long term. Investing in things like 401(k) plans with an employer match should probably be prioritized even above paying off non-mortgage, low-interest debt. Ask your financial advisor about both opportunities and risks in your particular situation. It’s important to look at the big picture.
Many lives have been ruined by overwhelming debt, while I’ve never heard anyone complain about being debt-free, even if it’s not optimal. If in doubt, it’s probably never completely wrong to just pay your debts off if you can.
Have a question or topic you’d like to see covered in this column? Contact the author at ggard@telarrayadvisors.com. Gene Gard is Co-Chief-Investment Officer at Telarray, a Memphis-based wealth management firm that helps families navigate investment, tax, estate, and retirement decisions.
