Month: March 2022

Categories
At Large Opinion

The Ashtray of History

Photo: Bruce VanWyngarden

Sure, your grandparents loved you, but did they love you enough to put a picture of you and your siblings on the bottom of an ashtray? I think not. Check, and mate, my friend.

If you look at the photo accompanying this column, you’ll see me (middle) and my brothers mugging for the camera in clothes made by my stepmom. It was taken in the 1960s, probably for Easter, and was on the wall in my parents’ house for a long while. I’m guessing they must have given a copy to my paternal grandparents, at least one of whom thought, “Hey, I’ll put this in the bottom of an ashtray so I’ll think of the boys whenever I crush out a Camel.”

My sister found the ashtray in a long-unopened box last week and sent me a picture of it. It was truly a “WTF?” moment, and we had a good laugh over the phone. But that’s because we were looking at it through the social mores of 2022 rather than those of 60 years ago, when smoking was acceptable and decorative ashtrays of one sort or another were displayed in most people’s houses. My grandfather was a physician and smoked like a wet campfire all his life. Having an ashtray with a photo of his grandkids was probably normal back then. I assume. I hope.

I shared the photo with my brothers and the rest of my family via social media and we had a good laugh — or at least some good emojis and text exchanges. These kinds of familial artifacts are like archeological finds, evoking memories long buried. We shouldn’t take them for granted.

I wonder, for example, how much family memorabilia was destroyed in Luhansk, Ukraine, last week, when a Russian tank pulled up in front of a home for the aged and opened fire, killing 56 elderly people. “They just adjusted the tank, put it in front of the house, and started firing,” an official told The New York Times. Lives and memories lost forever in the rubble.

These stories keep emerging. It’s like an enormous, crushing boulder, seemingly unstoppable. Each day brings new tales of horror, of bombed schools, of proud, once-vibrant cities being blasted apart block by block, of Ukrainian civilians being put in trucks and shuttled back to camps in Russia.

Almost as horrifying are the Americans who support this evil or who look for rationalizations or suggest providing an “off-ramp” for Putin. This would include the Republican senators who were fine with former President Trump withholding arms and supplies from Ukraine for political purposes, and who are now hypocritically raging that President Biden isn’t sending enough. Marsha Blackburn, I’m looking at you.

We’re way past the time to let domestic politics have any part in this struggle. This is a pivotal moment in world history. Are we big enough as a country to rise to the occasion? Or do we waste our energy hating the president of Mar-a-Lago or shouting, “Let’s Go, Brandon”?

Maybe, instead, we should be thinking about how many families have been destroyed by Vladimir Putin’s forces in attacks on more than 50 hospitals. Hospitals! And about how many lives and families have been ended or ruined because of cruel attacks on apartment buildings, schools, grocery stores, and homes? If it helps humanize the situation, maybe think about how much family memorabilia has been left behind by the 10 million Ukrainians displaced from their homes by this merciless, unprovoked assault on their country.

A crucible is coming. We can’t keep appeasing a murderous sociopath with the lives of innocents, hoping he will stop if we keep enough Big Macs and credit cards from his people. How many more civilians have to die before we realize the Russian leader just doesn’t care? What is the level of evil we will tolerate before we call his bluff, before we finally put Vladimir Putin’s picture in the ashtray of history?

We’re going to find out soon.

Categories
Music Music Features

A Life Told in Mad Beats

I MAKEMADBEATS, aka James Dukes, the founder and original producer at the UNAPOLOGETIC collective and label, recalls growing up with his father in Orange Mound, working on a barely functioning computer. “He had no idea what I was talking about,” the son remembers today, “but I got him to say something into the pencil-sized microphone. I just wanted to show him I could sample his voice. And he said, ‘Voulez-vous coucher avec moi,’ from that song. Then I made a beat out of it and he was like, ‘What?’ He couldn’t believe I could do that.”

Many still can’t believe the sounds that same knob-twiddler and composer is capable of today. And yet, aside from a 2011 album and a 2017 EP, most of the beats he’s known for are for other performers on the UNAPOLOGETIC roster. Lately, that’s changed. Starting last November, MAD, as he’s known, released MAD Songs, Vol. 1, the first of five releases that he’s personally sculpted to tell his story. Volume 2 is due out in early April, with three more after that slated for later in the year.

“When I’m done dropping all of one through five, it’ll just feel like one long album,” says the producer. “It’s really the story of me that I’ve never told, historically, because I’m usually busy producing other people. But there’s a lot that happens in the world of James, in the world of IMAKEMADBEATS, in the world of dad, and in the world of being a husband, that I’ve never explored musically. And that’s what these tell the story of. When it’s all said and done, MAD Songs Vol. 1-5 will really be MAD Songs, the album.”

If you know Vol. 1 already (one of the Flyer’s top 10 albums of last year), you’ll note that it has plenty of featured artists. Indeed, MAD himself is still behind the scenes, as his favorite singers and rappers step up to the mic. The difference? He’s crafting the narratives with them, in pursuit of his vision.

“There were times where I wrote a hook or suggested certain lyrics, but on a whole, it was more of an emotional bed that I created. Like ‘Depression And Redemption’ [on Vol. 1], was a group collaboration between me, Idaly, Idi, and Teco. I wasn’t really trying to control the words of the song so much as just tailoring a song that felt like what I went through. With ‘What I Need’ by PreauXX — well, PreauXX, that’s my brother. What he’s talking about are things we’re both going through. Basically, I would say, ‘Talk about this your way, as long as it fits under the umbrella of this general emotion that I need to be a part of this story.’”

Make no mistake, MAD needed to tell this story. It took on a new urgency around the time the pandemic started, but it wasn’t Covid: He had other crippling health issues. “I was going through some health things,” he says. “I had the feeling of being in a choke hold by my own illness and by the pandemic, and that was pushing me into a dark, dark tunnel about myself. ‘Born Again’ [from Vol. 1] is probably the song that set all of this off. My best friend, the best man at my wedding, the number one person I’ve ever made music with, a guy named MidaZ the Beast, had just been diagnosed with stage 3 lymphoma. For us to both be facing life-threatening illnesses at the same time didn’t feel like a coincidence.

“In the midst of all that, I found this song we made in 2014 called ‘Born Again,’ where MidaZ raps about diseases and plagues and how he can remove cancer by being born again. Not in the religious sense. It really is about being forced into something new, adapting, and that being okay. I took that as a sign: ‘You’ve got to put this song out.’”

MAD’s even recruited his father again, for a Vol. 2 track about parents teaching their kids about violence. “He came to my new studio Downtown to record it. It was beautiful, knowing that the very first recording he ever did for me was on that broken down computer, and now he’s in my studio.”

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Pickleball Party at Memphis Hunt & Polo Club

Photo: Ben Hershey | Unsplash

If someone were to ask you what’s the fastest-growing sport in America, what would your answer be? If you answered pickleball, congratulations, you must be a blast at trivia night. And if you think that pickleball involves throwing a pickle across the kitchen table, then you must be a different kind of blast at trivia night.

In all seriousness, if you haven’t heard of the game played with paddles and a perforated ball, you aren’t alone. When Taylor Taylor, founder of PickleMania, first heard of the game, she says, “I laughed. I thought it was the weirdest sounding thing.” Taylor played tennis professionally for 20 years until, after a few knee surgeries, her doctor told her to stop. “I was sort of freaking out. Like, oh gosh, what am I gonna do now? I’ve been doing this since I was 10 years old.”

Fortunately, a friend pushed her to start playing pickleball. Though she was hesitant at first, Taylor says, “I was just hooked from the first day. … Then I started thinking about what I wanted to do for the second half of my life. I have a master’s in clinical social work. I had written my thesis … about teaching life lessons through sport.

“I woke up in the middle of the night thinking, oh my gosh, pickleball is the perfect sport because it’s so easy. The learning curve is very small compared to something like tennis. … I always say, nothing is sore in my body when I play pickleball except for my face because I’ve been smiling the entire time, even when I’m getting my booty kicked.”

Out of this idea came the nonprofit PickleMania, which teaches pickleball to under-resourced kids while implementing a curriculum of social-emotional learning, based on adverse-childhood-experience research. So far, the program has been implemented in three Universal Parenting Places. And, since the pandemic, the organization has painted more than 30 pickleball courts in driveways, and it hopes to work in charter schools during this summer for kids in summer school. The organization also offers pickleball lessons outside of its nonprofit efforts. Basically, “The people who can pay for lessons pay for the people who can’t.”

To raise more money, PickleMania is hosting a pickleball tournament in a round-robin style in partnership with Church Health on March 26th. That Friday, there will be an exhibition and pro-am featuring professional player Kyle Yates. Tickets for one or both of the days can be purchased at picklemania.org/events.

Pickle & Party, Memphis Hunt & Polo Club, 650 S. Shady Grove, Friday, March 25, 5-8 p.m. | Saturday, March 26, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink Food Reviews

Troy Davis’ Groovy Italian Ice

Troy Davis (Photo: Alice Kerley)

Italian ice is hot — as in, very popular.

Just ask Troy Davis. He recently rolled his Groovy Italian Ice food truck into Shelby Farms Park and set up shop.

“They sold me out twice,” he says.

Davis knew he was onto a good thing when he participated in the Soulful Food Truck Festival March 13th at Tiger Lane. “It did amazing. We sold out about 4:30 [p.m.]. We opened at noon.”

He got the idea to sell Italian ice about two years ago. “I wanted to bring something different to Memphis. You got a lot of people doing snow cones. And you got Baskin-Robbins and all that doing ice cream. So, I said, ‘I want to do Italian ice.’”

Italian ice isn’t the same as a snow cone, Davis says. “A snow cone is kind of crunchy. Italian ice is soft and smooth.”

He offers a variety of Italian ices. “I do eight flavors, but, eventually, I want to do at least 20.”

Davis currently sells blueberry, strawberry, cherry, pineapple, mango, cotton candy, and strawberry lemonade. “The most popular is strawberry lemonade. They’ll be gone in an hour.”

Davis, who also owns a lawn service, TD’s Lawn Care, discovered Italian ice during one of his jobs. He met a man selling it on his food truck. He told Davis, “You need to do it. It’s easier to scoop and there’s a bigger profit margin.”

A native of Nashville, Davis was adopted by his grandmother when he was 10 and moved to Memphis, where he began his lawn service. “I was cutting grass at 10 years old. Walking around the neighborhood cutting grass.

“I took it seriously about two or three years ago. I really sat down and started looking at the numbers and started realizing I could make a good profit over the years. I started buying better equipment to make the job easier for me.”

He originally was going to call his Italian ice business TD’s Italian Ice, but he thought, “I’ve already got TD’s Lawn Care.

“I was talking to my girl. She said, ‘You should do ‘Groovy Italian Ice.’”

“Groovy” conjured up “bright colors, happiness, peace, and love,” which Davis then used in his logo.

Strawberry lemonade is his favorite flavor. “I like strawberry and lemon mixed together. I like sour apple, too.”

He gets flavor requests from customers. “Sometimes people ask, ‘Can you mix it?’” Davis will then mix together flavors like blueberry, pineapple, and lemon.

Along with Italian ice, Davis also sells nachos and jumbo hot dogs on the food truck. And he sells his homemade cookies: strawberry lemonade, lemon, and regular strawberry. “I’m not necessarily a good cook. I’m still learning. Right now I’ve started baking cookies.”

His first batch of cookies he brought to the food truck sold out, Davis says. “The way we advertise our business is it’s unique and different. We were doing the cookies for a test run, and I saw that people really liked the cookies. So, I’m going to start making the cookies now. Really, I looked on YouTube at how to make the strawberry lemonade cookies.”

Davis plans to open an additional food truck. And he’d eventually like to open a brick-and-mortar business, where he’ll sell more food in addition to the Italian ice and cookies. “Like funnel cakes, chicken tenders, hamburgers, funnel fries, different kinds of carnival food.”

Grass-cutting time will hit around the end of March, so Davis’ sister, Ashley Randolph, will be helping with the food truck business.

And after a particularly grueling yard-cutting job in the blazing sun, Davis probably will quench his thirst with one of his Italian ices. And it’ll probably be strawberry lemonade.

To find out where the Groovy Italian Ice truck will be, go to @groovy_italianicellc on Instagram.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Memphis is My Boyfriend: Inspired to Dance

Losing the “Covid 10” with fun classes at Collage Dance Collective (Photo: Courtesy Patricia Lockhart)

I have this saying, “I work on myself when it suits me.” And ever since 2020, when the world shut down and there was nothing to do, I’ve been dabbling in exercising. A long walk here, a hike through Stanky Creek there, PopSugar YouTube videos sprinkled throughout the week — I’ve done a little bit of everything. Through virtual classes offered by Fit4Mom and Downtown Yoga and outdoor exercise classes offered by Wolf River Conservatory, I was able to keep the Covid 15, a weight gain of 15 lbs., to a respectable Covid 10. But the way my body is set up, any weight gain was inevitable.

So at the beginning of 2022, I decided I wanted to switch up my workout routine. I spent most of January doing Zumba on my Nintendo Switch. But I found myself shortening the workouts. A 30-minute Zumba session turned to 15, and then quickly to 10. In February, my job had a steps challenge. So I was at least motivated to move more throughout the day so I wouldn’t “look bad” in front of my peers. It worked … mostly. But I was still in a fitness rut. Then a coworker mentioned wanting to sign up for an adult yoga class at the Collage Dance Collective. I knew that they had an amazing reputation for nurturing kids into incredible dancers, but I didn’t know that they extended their talent to adults, too. So I checked out their website and behold — dance classes.

Even though I love to dance, I didn’t want to engage in this new activity by myself. So I reached out to my best friend, my buddy, my forever date … my husband. His response came quickly and unstrained, “Immediately, no. No, babe. Not at all.” But I didn’t let the first “no” stop me. I asked a few more times throughout the week and surprisingly got the same answer. (A solid “no” if you weren’t sure.)

Not one to be thwarted, I decided to make it a Girls’ Date Night. So I reached out to a few of my girls and explained what I’d discovered. So, on a Wednesday, my sister and I arrived just in time for the Zumba workout. Here’s what I learned about myself: I have lost all of the cardio endurance I had gained in the past. My hips don’t really swivel or swerve. I can easily burn 500 calories in one hour. And Zumba is too much fun to be considered a workout.

I immediately signed up for Line Dancing on Friday, Yoga on Saturday, and Hip Hop Cardio on Monday. I had so much fun in Line Dancing. I clocked well over 4,000 steps while I moved and grooved. Because this was low-impact, I didn’t have to drag myself to the car afterwards. Hip Hop Cardio lets you listen to some of the coolest DJs while learning routines. So within three weeks, I found myself with a new exercise routine that didn’t feel like work at all. I absolutely love every dance class I have attended. So much so that I’ve signed up for the Adult Beginner’s Ballet Class. What do I know about ballet? Mostly nothing. Why did I sign up? Because I love adventures!

So now that I have an awesome exercise routine and can soon be called a ballerina, I needed an awesome reward to match it. There are three ways I reward myself: books, food, and experiences. And if I could mesh all three together — golden! With my TBR list being over 50 books and dancing at Collage being an experience within itself, the only choice left was food. But I wanted my food to compliment my new workouts, not hinder everything I’d done. I’m also not a lettuce type of girl. I need something flavorful and filling while being healthy at the same time. I found just the place right across the street.

Inspire Community Cafe serves some deliciously healthy foods. Coffee, tea, breakfast served all day, quesadillas, rice or quinoa bowls, chili, barbecue nachos, and smoothies! And that’s just the short version. I love their egg scrambles. Although, after a hard workout, there’s only one way to treat my inner child. That’s right — Choco-Monkey Pancakes! These pancakes are so delicious; they’re made from a gluten-free batter with chocolate chips sprinkled generously throughout the batter and topped with thickly sliced bananas. Usually, gluten-free bread items have a gritty taste to them, but I had honestly eaten these pancakes three or four times before I looked closely at the menu. All of their pancakes are gluten-free.

But if you’re not a pancake person, I would recommend an Egg-cellent. It’s scrambled eggs topped with your choice of veggies and meat. I ask for everything and the kitchen sink in mine. Pro-Tip: Get it with a side of toast and jelly. Oh, and an extra slice of bacon. The Breakfast Quesadilla is also delicious. But if you decide to go that route, be warned … it’s huge!

While Inspire Community Cafe serves breakfast all day, their lunch menu is not to be ignored either. The Slow-Cooked BBQ Chicken Quesadilla does not disappoint.

Both of these amazing places, the Collage Dance Collective and Inspire Community Cafe, can be found in Binghampton, at the corner of Tillman and Sam Cooper. The adult dance classes can range from $6 to $8 per class. A delicious meal at Inspire Community Cafe can range from $5 on up, depending on your appetite. But your experience at both places … priceless.

Gotta love it, mane!

Collage Dance Collective, 901-800-1873, IG: @collagedance;
Inspire Community Cafe, 901-509-8640, IG: @inspirecommunitycafe

Patricia Lockhart is a native Memphian who loves to read, write, cook, and eat. @realworkwife @memphisismyboyfriend

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

X

Mia Goth in X.

Two strippers, a sleazy club owner, an aspiring film director, and his sound recordist girlfriend set out from a Houston shake joint in a van marked “Plowing Service.” They drive to an isolated Texas farm where they intend to shoot a porno movie. The farm’s owner is a creepy old man with a wife who stares at the city folk from an upstairs window. 

If that scenario just screams “slasher movie” to you, you’re going to love X. Ti West seems to have set out to create the kind of movie Golan Globus Productions would buy based on a pitch and a poster and release in a double bill with Ninja III: The Domination. RJ (Owen Campbell), who serves as West’s alter ego, insists he can make a “good dirty movie.” That’s West’s attitude towards this audacious genre exercise. X is the inevitable moment when the “elevated horror” movement crashes into trash horror, and y’all, I’m here for it. 

I always say that all you have to do to get a good review out of me is get the fundamentals right, and West, an indie film vet who has taken his lumps in the studio system, absolutely does that. X is shot through with bodyslam jump scares, but it’s also a work of great directorial elegance, such as the breathless scene in a darkened bedroom where West and cinematographer Eliot Rockett ratchet up the tension with a simple focus pull. 

West is not shy about his influences. The opening title card announces that it’s 1979, the year of Alien, The Amityville Horror, Phantasm, and Abel Ferrara’s Driller Killer. RJ name-checks Psycho, then has a breakdown in a familiar-looking shower.

RJ (Owen Campbell) Bobby Lynne (Brittany Snow) Jackson Hole (Kid Cuti) and Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) get ready to make movie magic in X.

All slasher movies worth their salt need a great final girl, and X’s long windup is all about guessing which one of the three women it will be. Overt sexuality is always punished in slasher movies, so odds are it’s not going to be the brassy blonde porn star Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow). Maxine’s (Mia Goth) blue eye shadow and predilection for skinny dipping seem to mark her for a grisly death. That leaves Lorraine (Jenna Ortega) the wide-eyed sound girl as the obvious choice — at least until she asks to shoot a scene with veteran woodsman Jackson Hole (Scott Mescudi aka Kid Cuti).  

The answer is actually surprising. For even though X is a self-conscious genre exercise, it’s also a subversive deconstruction that has its own theories about why and how sex and violence intersect in this kind of horror film. But maybe extended discussion of the subtext (although is it really a subtext when the author keeps waving it in your face?) distracts from the questions that matter most to horror fans: Is it scary? Is it gory? Is it fun? Yes to all three. West has taken the familiar beats of VHS-era horror and smoothed them down like a producer crafting a perfect pop song. He knows that editing and sound design are the key to making a good scary movie. And it also helps that his cast, which include Goth playing two characters, is game for anything. X is an instant horror classic—a guilty pleasure you shouldn’t feel too guilty about. 

Categories
CannaBeat News News Blog News Feature

State Bill Threatens Hemp-Derived THC (Like Your Delta 8 Gummies) in Tennessee

Photo by Elsa Olofsson on Unsplash. Olofsson manages the CBD Oracle blog at cbdoracle.com.

State lawmakers will review a bill Wednesday that threatens a number of hemp-derived THC product sales in Tennessee, would slightly increase felony incarcerations, and would cost the state millions of dollars.

The bill seems to tackle the thorny issue of federally legal, hemp-derived THC products like Delta 8, HHC, and THC-O in Tennessee. It would ban the sale or possession of such products that have a THC concentration of more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis, which is already the federal legal limit for such products.

The bill, sponsored by Republicans in the House and Senate, would redefine hemp products with more than the federally legal limit as “marijuana,” according to an official review of the bill. This would make selling or possessing these products criminal offenses equal to marijuana in state law.

The Farm Bill was updated in 2018 to clarify the main difference between hemp and “marihuana,” as it is spelled in federal law. It says marijuana does not include hemp. Hemp has a dry-weight THC concentration of less than .3 percent. Marijuana contains more than that.

HB-1927-AmendedDownload

The review of the bill from the Tennessee General Assembly Fiscal Review Committee is built on a set of assumptions. It says such products are unregulated at the state and federal level. Sales of the products are assumed to be due to psychoactive effects of the cannabinoids found in them.

Also, products sold here are “assumed to significantly exceed the concentration threshold of 0.3 percent.” Finally, “it is assumed that the majority of retailers who currently sell such products will cease sale of such products across the state, rather than risk criminal penalties.”

If retailers stopped selling these products, state and local taxes would decrease by more than $4.8 million in the next fiscal year and about $1.9 million in following years, according to the review. These figures are based on a study from the Brightfield Group, a hemp market study firm. Tennessee sales of the products targeted by the legislation were about $4.7 million in 2020, according to the study. State researchers valued the overall market for the products in question at $73.4 million in Tennessee.

As for felonies, the Tennessee Department of Corrections told state researchers that an average of 6.6 Class C felons have been admitted to its system each year for the last 10 years. That figure would increase by one under the new legislation, according to the review. With this, incarceration costs would rise by $2,900 annually under the legislation.

For this and more, the Tennessee Growers Coalition, a political action committee that supports hemp-friendly politicians, told its supporters on Facebook this week that “we must organize to oppose” the bill.

“This is to all but make [Delta 8] and all other hemp-derived THCs illegal, re-criminalizing what is now legal under state and federal law,” reads the post. “Please act on this. Not the time to remain on the sidelines or be apolitical. This is your livelihood.”

The state House Criminal Justice Subcommittee is slated to review the bill Wednesday.

Categories
Uncategorized We Saw You

We Saw You: Local Performers Honored at The Tommy Awards

Julien Salley, Lafayette's Music Room general manager, and Michael Donahue at The Tommy Awards

Tommy Peters probably would have vetoed the idea of having an awards show named after him.

The late businessman’s daughter Bethany Peters Stooksberry told me after he died, “He has a brass note on Beale he never wanted to accept. He never wanted to be in the media. He wasn’t very ostentatious.”

But I think Peters would have loved The Tommy Awards, a show honoring local performers, that was held March 20th at Lafayette’s Music Room.

Between 400 and 500 attended the event — a benefit for the Memphis Music Hall of Fame — that featured 15 acts and 22 awards, says Julien Salley, general manager of Lafayette’s, which Peters owned.

The awards show “was Paul Moreau’s idea,” Salley says. “I’m a marketing professional for FedEx now and I’ve been a musician since high school, so, I’ve always been doing both. I’m in three bands: Thumpdaddy, Led Zep’n, and Rock the Boat. I love marketing and I love music. So, the past several years I’ve started merging both passions.”

Shara Layne Matlock and Paul Moreau at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Shara Layne Matlock)

Moreau began doing Merry KISSMAS fundraising concerts two years ago. “We had 12, 15 bands paying nothing but KISS songs.”

He got the idea for the recent awards show after a reading a Facebook post. “A member from one band just made a post on his page out of the blue where he was giving kudos to a guy in another band.”

The post went along the lines of, “I always thought you were good. But you’ve really gone from good to great. And I just want to say that publicly.”

“I read that and it got me to thinking, ‘Hey, there really ought to be a forum, a way for us to celebrate all these hard-working bands in the Mid-South area. They bring so much happiness to others. They have so much talent and work so hard to do it.’”

I thought, “‘Why don’t we celebrate each other together?’ So, I noodled it around a little while. What would really be cool is if we did a Grammy-style awards show.”

He took his idea to Lafayette’s.

“When he came to us, we said, ‘Yes. We’d love to host this awards ceremony,” Salley says. “Paul was showing up at our weekly manager meetings. We were blowing up his phone, email, text. It was constant communication. We partnered with him. Our team and Paul were in non-stop contact for the last three months putting this together.”

“I wasn’t sure what we could call it,” Moreau says. And, he added, “I initially suggested, ‘What if we call it ‘The Julien?’ Like the Oscar.

“I made this silly little image of an Oscar body with Julien’s head on it. But then he kicked it around and he said, ‘You know what would really be cool? If we call the awards ‘The Tommy’ in honor of Tommy Peters, who basically brought Lafayette’s back to life.”

Moreau liked the idea. He’d heard stories of the old Lafayette’s, which opened in 1972 in Overton Square. “I’ve seen pictures from the heyday of Billy Joel and KISS. It must have been a magical place.”

Peters, who died September 5th, 2021, was founder, president, and CEO of Beale Street Blues Company, which includes Lafayette’s Music Room, B. B. King’s Blues Club, and Itta Bena and Moondance restaurants. In Orlando, he owned The Wharf and Lizzie’s BBQ. In Montgomery, Alabama, he owned B. B. King’s Blues Club, Lucille, and Itta Bena in Wind Creek Casino. He also owned B. B. Kings Blues Clubs in the Holland American Cruise Lines.

 “Tommy Peters wasn’t your typical leader,” Salley says. “He was a high-energy visionary that led from the front. Every day with him was exciting because we were always after something new. ‘How can we improve our live music program?’ ‘What new opportunities exist in the market?’ ‘What can we do to shake things up in Memphis?’ These were questions he was constantly asking.”

They used a few of the “guitar drop elements” from the Beale Street New Year’s Eve events at The Tommy Awards. These included the Sky Tracker, which flashed lights across the sky. Arriving guests were photographed on the black carpet runway. “Black is a little more rock and roll than a red carpet,” Salley says.

During one point, Loeb Properties president Bob Loeb introduced Peters’s daughters Bethany Peters Stooksberry and Sara Fay Egan, and Peters’s granddaughter, Grace Egan. 

Sara Fay Egan and Bethany Peters Stooksberry at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)

“We’re going to continue to carry on my dad’s commitment to Memphis,” Stooksberry said, “and his mission to support these musicians that are in this room tonight and this unique sound that can only be found right here.”

Six Feet Thunder did a tribute to Junior Grant, who recently died. They played Queensryche’s “Silent Lucidity.” That showed “just how united the band community in the Memphis area is,” Moreau says. “It was a beautiful moment.

Shawn Few and Shara Layne Matlock hosted the event.

Salley wore a glittering gold lame jacket, which also has a tie-in to Peters. Years ago, Salley had a Lansky Bros. jacket, which he was wearing the night when he had to break up a fight between two guys at Lafayette’s. One of the men left, but the other tried to fight Salley and also threatened to kill him. “I reached down to ball him up a little bit to drag him out,” Salley says.

That’s when the guy tore Salley’s jacket. “I felt it tear from top to bottom on my back. I was livid.”

The story ended when an undercover policeman arrested the guy and took him away. “Tommy felt sorry for me losing the jacket. The following Monday he shows up with this gold jacket.”

Originally Salley says he thought it was a lot of gold, a bit much. “Elvis, Prince, or the Bar-Kays could get away with wearing it, but not me. We wouldn’t be able to bring the lights down low enough for me to walk around in that thing.”

The Tommy Awards was only the second time he’s worn the jacket. Salley says he wore it to honor Peters.

 “I feel like at this point I’ve seen every shape, size, and temperament a boss can have. And Tommy Peters is the best of all of them. It stings that I’ll never be able to repay him for everything he did for me. Every single shift I miss him. The entire team misses him.”

Al Kapone performed at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Richard and Debba Ross and Pat Kerr Tigrett were at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Bob Loeb, right, introduced Tommy Peters’s daughters at The Tommy Awards. With him are Jennifer and Jason D. Williams. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Chris Pietrangelo was at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Geri and Hal Lansky were at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Cheryl Thomas and Helen Stewart were at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Nicole Johnson and Marc Meredith were at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Courtney Griesenauer and Justin Hodges were at The Tommy Awards (Credit: Michael Donahue)
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UPDATED: Memphis Photographer Tommy Kha’s Photo Removed from Airport

Update: On Tuesday, March 22nd, the Airport Authority, in a statement from president and CEO Scott Brockman, announced its intentions to reinstall the photo. “The Airport Authority appreciates the support that the community has shown for Tommy and we have made the decision to reinstall the artwork,” the statement reads. “We apologize to Tommy for the effect that this ordeal has had on him.”

Memphis photographer Tommy Kha’s work has been displayed in prominent galleries and museums all around the world. Not surprisingly, one of his photographs was included among the artworks selected for the new Concourse B at Memphis International Airport by the UrbanArt Commission. It was taken down this week, said the Airport Authority, in response to complaints from “Elvis fans.”

The photograph in question features Kha in an Elvis jumpsuit, standing in a kitchen with what appears to be 1950s-era furniture.

Tommy Kha’s photo “Constellations VIII / Golden Fields” at the opening of Concourse B. (Photo by Jon W. Sparks).

Scott Brockman, president of the airport authority, released a statement regarding the removal of the photo:

“Recently, the Airport Authority has received a lot of negative feedback from Elvis fans about one of the art pieces that was purchased and installed in our recently modernized concourse. When the airport created its art program, our goal was to purchase and display artwork that did not include public figures or celebrities.

“Our selection committee made an exception in the case of Tommy Kha’s piece and recommended its purchase. This was the only piece in the art collection that depicted a celebrity or public figure. While we understand that the artist created the piece as a tribute to Elvis, the public reaction has been strong, leading us to revisit that original goal of avoiding the depiction of public figures in our art collection. As a result, the airport determined it was best to temporarily remove the piece while we determine our best path forward.

“We are open to the possibility of commissioning new artwork by Tommy Kha to replace his previous piece.

“Among the complaints, there were a small number of comments that included language that referred to Mr. Kha’s race, and such comments are completely unacceptable. The Airport Authority does not support those comments nor does it form the basis for the Authority’s decision regarding the piece. MSCAA has been very intentional to emphasize local artists, diversity and inclusion with this art program, and we will continue to do so.”

The UrbanArt Commission also issued a statement:

“UAC respects and appreciates Tommy Kha and his art, and was pleased to recommend him to be included in the Memphis International Airport collection. Tommy grew up in Whitehaven, has spent years doing documentary work around Elvis tribute artists/impersonators, and considers himself a part of that community.

“We are opposed to Tommy Kha’s installation being removed from display, especially considering the openly racist comments made online in the development of this situation. … Airport leadership has chosen to remove an artwork from a Memphis artist, for reasons that we adamantly disagree with. UAC is in contact with the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority and advocates for the artwork to be reinstalled.”

Editor’s Note: The Flyer is working on a more comprehensive story about this situation. Stay tuned.

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Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “The Rope” by Don Lifted

Don Lifted played SXSW last week to support his new album 325i. The video for his latest single “The Rope” is a trippy affair showcasing the artist’s talent for creating an arresting image. Co-directed by his brother Martin Matthews and shot by Sam Leathers of Studio One Four Three, it features a misty recreation of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Let Lifted take your Monday higher with this atmospheric groove.

If you’d like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.