Month: April 2022

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Three for the Seat

Cordova commission candidates Avant, French, Folsom (Photo: Jackson Baker)

One of the more closely watched Shelby County Commission races this year is that for District 5, which has been newly reapportioned so as to be a de facto Cordova district, the first time that sprawling area will have had its own distinct representative on the commission.

Some 40 to 50 years ago, Cordova, via a massive redevelopment of what had been a vintage and somewhat sleepy suburban town, became the latest white-flight mega-suburb. Some of its newer parts still correspond to that pattern and have been heavily absorbed in the de-annexation struggle in recent years.

But the community as a whole has ripened into the status of a large and diversified living space, accommodating a highly variegated population of several generations’ standing. Both major political parties will be contesting the seat in August, with the only Republican entry being one Todd Payne. Meanwhile most attention is focused on the Democratic primary, which has three reasonably well-pedigreed candidates seeking the party nomination.

They are: Shante Avant, until recently a member of the Shelby County Schools Board; Qur’an Folsom, chief administrator of the Shelby County Board of Commissioners; and Reginald French, currently the president/CEO of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Tennessee and a former official of both Memphis city government and Shelby County government.

The three gathered on Tuesday night of last week at the Flying Saucer restaurant on North Germantown Parkway for a forum sponsored by District 5 Democrats.

Speaking first, Folsom pledged to deal with the area’s residual safety issues and noted that she, as a hands-on commission administrator, is fully conversant with the district’s resources and the means to fully realize them. Noting the imminent advent of Ford Motor Company’s Blue Oval City complex in the near vicinity of eastern Shelby County, Folsom said, “Cordova is specifically positioned on I-40, to be the premium bedroom district for Shelby County. And I will ensure that we’ll push for that if I am so fortunate to become the next county commissioner of this district.”

She stressed the importance of developing family housing and not allowing Cordova to become a haven for renters, thereby equating planned capital development with the idea of permanence.

In his turn, French emphasized that he was a 20-year resident of Cordova. As a former corrections officer, he argued for more attention to public safety, and specifically for the retention of sheriff’s officers in the county schools. He said his background in both city and county jobs had given him a handle on neighborhood issues at large, including blight. Inattention to the health of neighborhoods would lead to “For Sale” signs, to mass rentals, and to the deterioration of the community, he said.

Avant acknowledged that she was a recent Cordova transplant and said her work as a school board member for South Memphis had given her insights into fundamental issues of education and school overcrowding. “During that time I also served as auditor,” she said. “When you are in charge of $1.5 billion, it is your responsibility to make sure that the resources from taxpayers are put in the right place.”

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

CODA

Ruby (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of her family, navigates the world not only for herself as a shy teen, but for her brother (Daniel Durant) and parents (Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin), whom their hearing community has neglected.

If you want your movie to win an award at a film festival, make sure I don’t see it. When the winner of the jury award is announced at Indie Memphis, it’s inevitably the one I missed. Now, I’ve been bitten twice by the same movie — or maybe I failed the same movie twice.

CODA premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2021, when the pandemic forced the event to go virtual. I watched two dozen features at that fest, but when CODA sold early to Apple TV for a record $25 million, I figured I would have plenty of chances to see it, so it fell to the bottom of my priority list. Naturally, it went on to sweep the jury prizes. When it was released last August, it languished in my streaming playlist for months until it was buried under an avalanche of Oscar screeners. The night of the Academy Awards, I realized I still hadn’t seen it, so naturally, it won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Troy Kotsur won Best Supporting Actor, becoming only the second deaf actor in history to win an Oscar.

Now, writer/director Sian Heder is enjoying a theatrical victory lap, and I finally caught up with CODA. The story, which was based on the French-Belgian film La Famille Bélier, revolves around Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), a high school senior living in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with her father Frank (Troy Kotsur), mother Jackie (Marlee Matlin), and older brother Leo (Daniel Durant). Like many families living in the seaside town, the Rossis depend on their fishing boat to make a living. Unlike the other fisherfolk, the Rossis are deaf — all except Ruby, who, since childhood, has translated between her family and the hearing world.

As she works on the boat, Ruby sings along with the radio, unbeknownst to her family. A painfully shy outcast at school, Ruby surprises her best friend Gertie (Amy Forsyth) when she signs up for choir instead of film club (“otherwise known as ‘put your backpack down and smoke a bowl’”). Her first audition is a disaster, but choir master Bernardo (Eugenio Derbez) hears potential in her voice. Bernardo is an alumni of the prestigious Berklee School of Music in nearby Boston, and he thinks Ruby has what it takes to get accepted, providing she works hard. One motivating factor for Ruby is Miles (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), a cute boy she is assigned to duet with in the upcoming school concert.

Meanwhile, the family’s fishing business is in crisis. Market prices are low, and regulations to protect the fisheries are hitting the trawlers with new expenses. Frank comes up with a scheme to create a co-op and increase the anglers’ profits by cutting out the middleman. But that will require communicating and cooperating with hearing folks, and after years of abuse and neglect, the Rossis have grown insular and distrustful. They need Ruby’s experience and charm to navigate the new business environment.

Ruby is trapped in a no-win situation. If she pursues the dream her parents can’t understand by leaving for music school, the family will falter. But if she passes up her opportunity to go to Berklee, she could end up embittered and wasted in this small town.

CODA is a classic story of intergenerational conflict spiced up with a culture clash narrative between the deaf and hearing communities. The execution is nearly flawless. The core cast is terrific, particularly the chemistry between Kotsur and Matlin (who happens to be the other deaf actor who has won an Oscar, for 1986’s Children of a Lesser God). Jones pulls off an extremely difficult role, in which she both has to sing and use ASL like a native signer. The characterization of the Rossis as authentically rough and rude working class people instead of saintly martyrs to their disability feels like a big leap forward in representation. This story is told from their perspective, and the hearing world are the outsiders. The disconnect between the two worlds is driven home in a masterful sequence at the school concert, where Ruby’s triumphal performance plays in silence, as the family tries to suss out how she’s doing by watching the faces of the audience.

This plucky indie’s well-deserved Oscar wins have been overshadowed by the televised bad behavior of rich movie stars. Since the Academy Awards have been increasingly seen as a way for the wider public to discover quality films that might otherwise get lost in the cultural shuffle, that’s a shame. I slept on CODA for too long. Don’t be like me.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Comedian Gianmarco Soresi’s “Looking for the Next Variant” Tour Stops in Memphis

Gianmarco Soresi (Photo: Mindy Tucker)

Memphis is the next stop on comedian Gianmarco Soresi’s “Looking for the Next Variant” tour, but unlike the other cities he’s visited or will visit, this stop has a bit more stakes. “I’m there to meet my girlfriend’s parents,” he says.

Regardless of how the meeting will go, you’ll probably hear a bit about it at his show. “I really dig into my own life,” Soresi says of his style of comedy. “I find that when you’re really honest about yourself, you connect to other people’s truths because we all are very similar in the ways we can be selfish, the ways we can be fools.”

Before he started doing stand-up, Soresi was a theater kid. “I was planning on being a song-and-dance man,” he says, having gone to college for musical theater. “I was doing all the acting, the singing, and the dancing in New York City and booked some stuff here and there. I was the spokesman for General Electric and Baby Bottle Pop — I used to get recognized on the playground when I was out jogging.”

These days, Soresi’s work is less likely to get recognized on the playground. “I can be loud and singy-songy, but I have a dark edge, so if you want some dark humor, some jokes you probably can’t repeat to your parents or grandparents, I’m your guy,” he says. “My favorite comics are Anthony Jeselnik and John Mulaney. If you like either, I think you’ll enjoy me and find me much more affordable. Even if you hate comedy, just come, help a guy out. My girlfriend’s family is going to be there, and I’d really like to impress them by selling this out.”

Gianmarco Soresi, Chuckles Comedy House, Saturday, April 9th, 5 p.m., $12.50 | Lamplighter Lounge, Sunday, April 10th, 8 p.m., $10.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Iris Orchestra and Collage Dance Collective Partner to Present “Brazil by Night”

Collage Dance partners with Iris Orchestra. (Photo: Courtesy Collage Dance Collective/Iris Orchestra)

You don’t need to grab your passport for this night in Brazil, presented by Iris Orchestra and Collage Dance Collective. “It’s really like a street party indoors in Memphis,” says Rebecca Arendt, director of community initiatives and artist fellows coordinator with Iris.

The night of entertainment will consist of bossa nova melodies with “Memphis-soul seasoning” by the Deborah Swiney Quartet, a Brazilian feast by Carson Rodizio with caipirinha specialty cocktails, and a dance performance, scored by Iris musicians and artist fellows, under the artistic leadership of Iris’ Pedro Maia and Collage’s Fabio Mariano. The night will close with a samba party where guests can dance to DJ Alpha Whiskey.

The two organizations have been in conversation about this event since August 2020. “We knew we wanted to partner between the Iris Artist Fellowship Program and the Collage Dance Company,” Arendt says. They didn’t have a set plan of what that collaboration would look like at first, but when they looked around the Zoom room, they noticed that a few of the dancers with Collage and Pedro Maia, one of the two Iris fellows, were from Brazil. “As we were talking about what really spoke to us artistically, that really kept rising to the surface — wanting to celebrate the mutual connection the two organizations have to that culture,” Arendt says. “We felt that was really the best choice.”

The night promises to be a festive one, Arendt says. “From my perspective, it’s music that’s hard to sit still when you listen to it.”

“Brazil by Night: Where Art and Culture Collide,” Collage Dance Center, Saturday, April 9th, 7 p.m., $75.

Categories
At Large Opinion

SHARE

You cannot possibly go through a day on social media in 2022 without seeing posts that feature lines of five little squares stacked in (up to six) rows. Some of the boxes are black, some are yellow, and some are green. The bottom row is almost always filled with green boxes, indicating that the poster has solved the daily Wordle puzzle. If the bottom line is not all green, the poster will write something like, “Dammit! I am not amused!”

Wordle was invented by a software engineer named Josh Wardle as a birthday gift to his partner. It was released to the public in November and originally had around 90 users. But the game was free and weirdly addictive and, er, word soon spread about it. By January, when Wordle was purchased by The New York Times, millions of people were playing it daily. The Times, to its credit, has so far kept things just the way they were: No app, no ads, no payments of any kind. You just google “Wordle,” go to the website, and play. There’s a new word every day, and on most days you can finish the puzzle before your coffee is cold.

Maybe that’s part of Wordle’s charm. It’s not complicated. You have six tries to guess a five-letter word by a process of elimination. It helps to have a decent vocabulary, but you’ll be relatively competent after a few tries. Here’s the best part: There are no experts, no champions, no tournaments. You don’t “win” at Wordle. The object is to avoid losing. Someone who’s played Wordle for a week might solve tomorrow’s puzzle in fewer tries than Einstein, if Einstein wasn’t dead.

There’s a whole subculture built around “starter words,” i.e. which first-guess word will give you the best chance at solving the puzzle. Favorites include ARISE, SHARE, TASER, ADIEU, etc. You get the idea. Don’t pick EPOXY or FUZZY. But honestly, the game just isn’t that difficult. Sometimes, I start with a weird word just for fun. There are 30 possible letter guesses in six lines and only 26 letters in the alphabet, so why not live a little dangerously?

This is not to say Wordle can’t get frustrating. Let’s say on your third guess you’ve got the following four letters in the correct place: SHA_E. That means you’ve got three guesses left and (depending on which letters you may have already picked) up to seven possible options for that fourth letter. SHAME? SHAPE? SHAVE? SHALE? Good luck, Albert.

And, admit it or not, that’s what much of this game is: luck. Whether you get the answer in two (usually big-time luck, based on a good starter-word guess) or six always comes down to a certain element of chance.

Most people don’t lose at Wordle often, but getting the answer in two or three guesses makes you feel like a winner, at least for 24 hours. And that’s where the communal sharing on social media comes in, I suppose — to commiserate over bad days and celebrate the good ones.

To be honest, random Wordle posts used to make me kind of crazy. “Why would anyone think their Wordle score would be interesting to anyone else?” I groused. Then I got called out as a grinch so now I chill and just scroll past.

It helps that there are now Facebook sites where you can go to share your daily scores with other Wordle-Nerdles. In fact, one local site claims to be founded (cough, Kim Gullett) on the basis of my Wordle grumpiness about score-posting. I occasionally visit and know the ropes over there, so if you’re feeling a little nervous, here’s a handy guide to what to say when posting your score:

One guess: “WOW, I need to go play the lottery!!!”

Two guesses: “Got lucky with my starter word today!”

Three guesses: “Got it in three. Not bad!”

Four guesses: “Oh well, another boring four.”

Five guesses: “I was beginning to get nervous!”

Six guesses: “WHEW! So close!!”

If you didn’t get the answer, a good fallback is “Dammit! I am not amused!”

Categories
News News Feature

Investing in Uncertainty

Photo: Andrii Yalanskyi | Dreamstime.com

As part of the Observatory (our financial planning process), our investors unsurprisingly end up with, well, investments. These allocations are based on client need, desire, and ability to take risk, and the allocations tend to not frequently change over time. A client’s portfolio here is not based on an assumption of all sunshine and rainbows, but rather a review of history, including market declines in March of 2020, 2008, 2000, 1987, and even more obscure disturbances like the events of 1997 and 1937.

In our Observatory process, we don’t model any sort of attempt to predict or avoid these events. Instead, we model a disciplined approach of staying invested and taking opportunities to rebalance into equity markets after drawdowns. This approach has worked well in the past, and our view is that it will continue to work in the future. Nevertheless, there’s a fundamental human desire to avoid risk at all costs, especially when things seem particularly risky, and there are always a few clients eager to “get defensive until the uncertainty subsides” in every market environment.

For our investors, we believe we preemptively position defensively through allocations to short- and intermediate-term bonds. Those bonds aren’t there for the good times — in fact, they are a drag on performance when stock markets are strong. Bonds shine after a serious stock market downturn when they possibly contribute some total return. More importantly, they serve as a source of cash to rebalance into equities (just when equities have declined and become more attractively priced). We believe selling stocks and adding to bond allocations or going to all cash after a big market decline is the worst time to do so.

I was listening to the radio recently, and the host asked a guest, “… but what’s the point of economic modeling at a time of such great uncertainty as this?” I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. The host was referring to the Ukraine invasion, and he seemed to be implying that a forecast made the day before Russia invaded would be much more appropriate than one made the day after since so much “uncertainty” would be introduced by the conflict. I laughed because all forecasts are equally based on ex ante information and therefore don’t incorporate the unknowable future. Forecasts made confidently when things seem certain are likely the worst forecasts of all! The situation in Ukraine has become more certain today than at any time in the last decade or so. The greatest unknown — the question of whether Russia would dare a full-scale invasion of Ukraine — is uncertain no longer.

Stepping back, when in the past was there not uncertainty? Markets have performed exceptionally well for many decades, but we know that only because of the prescience of hindsight. Following the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. stock market bottomed out quickly in March of 2009 and has provided extremely attractive returns ever since, but we sure didn’t know that was going to happen back then. There were concerns that banks would fail, cash would stop coming out of ATMs, and life as we know it would grind to a halt. The last decade was an exceptional one for investors, but who could have credibly predicted that in 2010?

As Yogi Berra said, it’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. We are certain that the future will contain some difficult times, and that’s okay. If we devote all our efforts to avoiding the bad times, we’ll miss the good times too. If history is any guide, the good times will continue to be good enough to offset the bad in the years and decades to come — but only if you stay invested.

Gene Gard CFA, CFP, CFT-I, is Chief Investment Officer at Telarray, a Memphis-based wealth management firm that helps families navigate investment, tax, estate, and retirement decisions. Ask him your question at ggard@telarrayadvisors.com or sign up for the next free online seminar on the Events tab at telarrayadvisors.com.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Cancel Culture and Other Myths

Photo: Richard Van Der Spuy | Dreamstime.com

That does it. Let it be known, with the Memphis Flyer’s readership as my witness, that the 64th annual Grammy Awards officially obliterated the last ounce of patience I had for any argument about so-called cancel culture.

No, I’m not upset that Cedric Burnside’s I Be Trying won Best Traditional Blues Album — last year, the Flyer listed it as one of our top 10 albums of the year, and I’m always pleased when this publication’s record of excellent taste is affirmed.

Rather, I’m totally unsurprised but equally disgusted that comedian and serial masturbator Louis C.K.’s album Sincerely Louis C.K. won the Grammy for Best Comedy Album. A headline from The Hollywood Reporter really sums it up: “Louis C.K. Wins Grammy for First Special Since Sexual Misconduct Allegations.” For those who don’t know or don’t remember, in 2017 five women accused C.K. of sexual misconduct, including masturbating in front of them. The comedian eventually admitted that “These Stories Are True.”

But I don’t want to get off track. It’s not so much that C.K. won a Grammy that upsets me, though I can’t say I’m wild about that development. Rather, it’s that a very vocal contingent of the population will undoubtedly continue to crow about cancel culture despite clear indications that it’s nonexistent.

“What about former Mandalorian actor Gina Carano?” some devil’s advocates might ask. To which I would promptly respond, “Oh, you mean the woman who claimed that being a Republican — a choice one makes — is akin to being a Jewish person forcibly relocated, tortured, or exterminated during the Holocaust? Yeah, pretty tone-deaf and egregious thing to say, right? She’s the star of the forthcoming Western film Terror on the Prairie.”

Oh, and she’ll be at Fan Expo in Dallas in June. She’s still getting work, still collecting checks, and I would be flabbergasted if she doesn’t publish a ghost-written book about the evils of liberalism soon. Carano vs. Cancel Culture: My Stand Against the Elites or something like that.

Look, cancel culture is not real. It’s made up, a bogeyman to drum up right-wing outrage and pearl-clutching fear in Fox News viewers. “You can’t say anything these days. You can’t even publicly denigrate another person for their culture. I ask you, what is the world coming to?”

But why invent a completely cuckoo culture war? It’s the easiest way to get people to vote against their own self-interests.

I’ve made a point to shy away from fuming about hypocrisy — the hypocrisy is the point, it seems. It’s an expression of power, of tribal solidarity. But something about this whole cancel culture debate has really ruffled my feathers. Consider how big a fuss is made, nationally and locally, about protecting children. From critical race theory, from CBD and Delta 8, from predators, from confusion about why little Sarah’s got two mommies. And yet Tennessee state Rep. Tom Leatherwood’s HB 233, which sets up a common-law marriage between “one man” and “one woman,” has no minimum age limit. The Sexual Assault Center of Middle Tennessee said this in a statement: “The Sexual Assault Center does not believe the age of consent should be any younger than it already is. It makes children more vulnerable to coercion and manipulation from predators, sexual and other.” Does that sound like a bill presented by people overly concerned with protecting children?

We have got to get beyond these cancel culture/culture war concerns. There are real, dangerous threats facing us. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just this week released a report that it’s “now or never” if we want to limit global warming. Limit. Not stop, but limit. We are wasting time, energy, and money on spurious arguments when we should be working to end climate change, to end the current pandemic and prepare for the next one, to combat the housing crisis, to focus on any number of other concerns that actually limit many people’s quality of life.

If you agree, I suggest that you do as I will, and shut down any cancel culture talk with one little phrase. I think it will be as useful as “State’s rights to do what?” — the question I use to nip discussions about the “true” cause of the Civil War in the bud.

The next time someone tries to warn me about cancel culture, I’m just going to say, “Louis C.K. won a Grammy for his first special since his sexual misconduct allegations.”

Categories
Politics Beat Blog

Mulroy Alleges Blacks Under-Represented in Shelby D.A.’s Office

Mulroy with supporters at Thursday press conference

“Racial equity” in the D.A. ‘s office was the subject of a press conference held by Democratic candidate Steve Mulroy outside the Shelby County office building Tuesday afternoon, and he got boosting on the point from three key supporters, two of them African-American notables.

Flanked by the Reverend LaSimba Gray and Memphis City Council members Patrice Robinson and Jeff Warren, Mulroy cited figures which, he said, showed that, under incumbent Republican D.A. Amy Weirich,  “we have a district attorney’s office that is 90 percent white, roughly in attorneys, and 90 percent white in supervising attorneys. This is unacceptable. It has been unacceptable for years, and it needs to change.”

Mulroy added, “African Americans in Shelby County are disproportionately the victims of violent crime. And they’re disproportionately the victims of systemic discrimination in our criminal justice system. Therefore, it’s especially important that we have diversity among the actual prosecutors that make the charging decisions.”

Backing up Mulroy, Robinson said, “It is so important to know that you are represented by your community in a like manner. What he’s saying to us today is that currently, we do not have the representation for African-American people in the district attorney’s office, in that most of the people who are being prosecuted don’t have people to represent them ….”

Said Warren: “ I had no idea those numbers were as dramatic. And I think I am certain that Steve Mulroy will make the changes necessary to make our district attorney office look much more like our city in general, like it should.”

Rev. Gray, who in the past has made a point of backing African Americans in primaries where both blacks and whites were candidates, explained why he was supporting Mulroy against two African-American opponents in the Democratic primary:”Obviously, he’s a better candidate. See, in this race, you’re talking about experience. You got some running with no prosecutorial experience. And they are saying that all around the campaign trail.” 

Asked about an accusation by state Senator Raumesh Akbari, in a TV campaign commercial, that Weirich’s office was practicing “racial profiling,” Mulroy  said, “In a 30-second commercial, that was shorthand for the fact that we have disproportionate charging of African Americans, disproportionate treatment of African Americans with respect to pretrial detention, with respect to adult transfer from juvenile court to criminal court, with respect to sentences that are meted out.”

Mulroy contrasted the amount of blacks participating in the Shelby D.A.’s office with the number of those in the D.A.’s office of Davidson County  (Nashville), which has far fewer African Americans in its population. “I can tell you the raw number of African-American attorneys, not just the percentage, but the raw absolute number is higher in Davidson County, even though their total attorney complement is 75 compared to our 115.” 

Responding to the Mulroy press conference, Weirich issued this statement:

“The data Professor Mulroy provided is not accurate but that’s not surprising since his entire campaign is based on false data and dangerous ideas like releasing more criminals from jail.  The percentage is 31 and I have 223 employees – not 148 as he stated. 

“As the first female District Attorney in Shelby County, I have worked hard to hire people who best reflect the community and I’m proud to have increased the percentage of minorities in the office since I was elected.  More minorities hold supervisory positions than any other time in the history of our office.  It is indeed hypocritical that Professor Mulroy, a white male who chose to run against three women, is  making diversity his platform. Electing him alone sends a disturbing message that women shouldn’t be in leadership roles.”

Categories
Music Music Blog

Overton Park Shell Archives Now On Exhibit

Cole Early touring the new exhibit (Credit: Alex Greene)

In light of the Overton Park Shell’s recent rechristening and Memphis magazine’s concurrent dive into the Shell’s history, “The People’s Stage,” let it be known that one fount of knowledge on the topic is the Overton Park Shell itself — especially now, as final preparations are made to open the backstage rooms to tours. With the office walls, greenroom, and other areas now bedecked with a freshly curated display of Shell-related materials, the performers, crews, and visitors can better know the significance of the bandstand as they walk its floors. Those backstage spaces – at various times open to all, shelter for some, or V.I.P.-only – now pay tribute to those who performed there in what’s now known as the Connie Abston Archive & History Exhibits at the Overton Park Shell.

(Credit: Cole Early)

The backstage reboot was masterminded by Cole Early, the Shell’s video crew director and, lately, archives volunteer. Judging from the detailed, polished display, it’s been a labor of love for all the volunteers, and now Early has further plans for the space. “We’re going to start partnering with Memphis Mojo Tours. They already offer a Stax Museum add-on and a Sun Studio add-on. Well, this will be an add-on as well. The guided tour will start out here on the stage, and we’ll give people an idea of what the park’s all about.”

Artist Kirsten Sandlin prepares the exhibit. (Credit: Cole Early)

As a practice run for such a tour, Early walked me through the exhibit areas, starting with the stage itself. Being the site of Elvis Presley’s first public performance, a great many visitors would likely come here for the stage alone. That is where tours will begin. “Since we’re a concert venue, I’ll also take the time to sprinkle in some production terms, just to educate people about the concert industry,” said Early. “And we’ll talk about the acoustics of the Shell. And that it was established in 1936. The tour will then come inside here.”

With that, he led me through one of the center stage doors to the foyer, its walls emblazoned with a statement from its founding day. “During the dedication, the mayor said ‘This is a pledge to the future of music in Memphis.’,” Early said. “This section will cover that and the importance of the WPA to the arts. The importance of Overton Park in the national sense. What was here before the Shell, then the early shows there, like M.O.A.T. [Memphis Open Air Theater], Music Under the Stars, things like that.”

An Overton Park Shell program, ca. 1954 (Image courtesy Shell Archives)

He points to a playbill for one of the acts who started it all: Ralph Dunbar and His Bell Ringers. “He was important,” Early noted. “Before the Shell, it was a natural bowl and they had all kinds of stuff. During the early Depression, before the Shell was built, this cat started doing dirt floor productions out here. And Marion Keisker was a teenager who appeared in the first production; then twenty years later, she worked at Sun and recorded Elvis.”

It’s a beguiling thread of history, leading naturally to a section on Presley’s apprearances at the Shell, starting with a quote from the singer. “That’s what he said, ‘When he was shaking his hips he didn’t know what was going on.’” Early points out. “So this will be all about the ’54 show. And this will be the ’55 and ’56 shows. Blues will be here. And what I just call the classic rock era for shorthand, from the early ’70s will be here. Over here will be the period after the fence came down, the late ’70s. People like Joyce Cobb and the Bluebeats and Keith Sykes. That era.”

Altogether, the different images and plaques cover everything from Johnny Cash’s 1955 appearance, to Black Sabbath’s terrifying and brief appearance (see below), to the Save Our Shell movement that carried the structure into the 21st Century. Portraits of luminaries who have performed there, painted for the exterior in 1999, now hang in both of the larger rooms.

From there, tribute is paid to many more performers in a rotating photography exhibit that brings the exhibit up to the current era. “The theme of this area is ‘Keeping the Pledge – The Next Generation at the Shell,’” Early said. “So you’ve got Lisa Marie Presley, Rosanne Cash, Rev. Robert Wilkins’ son, John Wilkins’ family, the Rufus Thomas family, Shardé Thomas, the Sons of Mudboy.

Cole Early (Credit: Alex Greene)

“And this next section is called ‘Crossing Over,'” Early continued. “Honoring those Levitt Shell era artists we’ve lost since 2008. Unfortunately, we’ve got to add Tim Goodwin and Howard Grimes. And there’ll be more over time. These are all by Andrea Zucker. She’s been taking pictures since day one here.

“I’ve been working on it for 2 1/2 years,” he added. “I just happened to find the poster of the New Moon, New Era show with ‘ZZ Tops’ misspelled on it. Sid Selvidge and Jim Dickinson are among the listed acts — a sweet poster by Randall Lyons. So I found that, and then started finding other stuff.”

As do visitors to the exhibit now, as one image or artifact after another pulls you in deeper. “One of my favorites is this photo of Steve Cropper, and you see the edge of the Shell with him on his Telecaster,” Early said. “Marcia Hare, who held the umbrella over Furry Lewis in the documentary, Memphis ’69, donated her sunglasses.” Even ticket stubs have a place in this exhibit, I found, as we returned to the ‘classic rock’ section.

“Black Sabbath played here twice,” Early explains, “the Paranoid tour and the Masters of Reality tour. And during the Masters of Reality tour, some guy in a trench coat cut himself and started writing stuff in blood everywhere. The band was 20 minutes into their set and got all creeped out and left. Tony Iommi kicked over his amp and walked off. And we found a guy who took a picture during those 20 minutes. So we have blown up that image, with the ticket stub. It’s pieces like that, that are Shell-specific, that I’m thrilled to death to have.”

Black Sabbath at the Shell (Photo credit: Fred Sheron; Ticket stub: Kim Brakefield)

Visit www.overtonparkshell.org for details on touring the Connie Abston Archive & History Exhibits at the Overton Park Shell.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports Uncategorized

Dillon Brooks and a Deep Bench Lead Grizzlies to Victory Over the Suns

Grizzlies players rush Ziaire Williams before his walk-off interview (Photo cred: Grizzlies Twitter)

Without key players, the Grizzlies defeated the Phoenix Suns, 122-114, with lone regular starter Dillon Brooks and a deep bench squad on Friday night before a sellout crowd of 17,794 at FedExForum, aka the Grindhouse. 

No Ja Morant ☑

No Jaren Jackson Jr. ☑

No Desmond Bane ☑

No Steven Adams ☑

No Tyus Jones ☑

Now, imagine a win against the NBA’s best team without four starters, a key reserve, no point guard, and a head coach who was tossed in the first half.

Conventional wisdom would believe a full-squad for the Suns would blow out the short-handed Grizzlies. But this Memphis squad had other plans and grinded it out to take down the Suns. 

This has to go down as the best win of the season. Honestly, who expected the team to win the game? 

The mentality and culture of the Grizzlies is the reason the team is 20-2 with its leading scorer and star player, Morant.

“Every day we work; every day we instill confidence in each other,” said Dillon Brooks who finished the game with 30 points.

“We feel like, regardless of who it is on the floor, we can get the job done,” Brooks added. “Because we play hard. We play together and we compete, regardless of who’s on the floor. So that’s our mentality. That’s our motto and we live by it from one to 12.”

Brooks says it’s like a college atmosphere and that they are family. 

The Grizzlies’ head coach Taylor Jenkins had this to say following the thrilling victory: “Tonight’s a night where you can put your stamp and say, ‘This is who we are and we’re going to be here for a really long time.’”

Yes, Memphis is “here” as said by Desmond Bane before a national audience on ESPN a few weeks ago. The Grizzlies are no longer a surprise or an afterthought. 

“Everybody just stays locked in during practice. I mean people watch the game and everybody just stays locked in,” said Grizzlies forward John Konchar. “We move the ball really well side-to-side and get open shots and just play hard no matter what.”

“It’s just a next man up mentality really — just go in, get your work done,” Konchar added. “And just play hard no matter what. The system works for everybody, honestly. So just move the ball and it’s great.”

Jenkins said games like that are culture wins and it exemplifies the next man up mindset. 

The mindset was truly on display against the Suns. Brooks and Xavier Tillman each tallied seven assists, despite the absence of a true point guard, to lead Memphis to 30 assists. The Grizzlies are 17-0 this season when they record 30 or more assists. 

Former Grizzlies legend Tony Allen had a mantra, “Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready.” And that’s what Tillman and rookie Santi Aldama did on Friday night against the Suns. The rookie forward finished with 12 points and five rebounds plus a highlight dunk that made the Grizzlies bench and the crowd inside FedExForum go bananas.

Jenkins said he tried to stay in coaching mode after his early exit from the game but after the Aldama dunk he said he dropped a hell yeah and two hand slap on the table as he watched from the monitors.  

“This year I came in and everybody was cheering me on every day … talking to me every day,” Aldama recalled. “I just felt part of the family since day one. It’s just having these good vibes, obviously great players, but great people. From the staff, players, everybody. It’s just contagious. I think you don’t get that everywhere and it’s like a really good experience, especially my first year having something like this is very, very special.”

He went on to say, “It’s really looking for the best shot we can take. I think we’re all capable. We all play really well and we play for each other without egos. We don’t have egos here. It’s just about the team. We just get the best shot, move the ball, and we have fun with it. That’s the most important thing.”

The 6-foot-11 Spaniard credits his time with the Memphis Hustle for improvement in his game and that is a confidence builder. The game against the Suns helped his confidence as well. 

“This game will for sure help,” he said. “This season is my rookie year and a learning season. I’m in and out of the rotation so it’s all about gaining confidence and learning every day. This team is very, very deep so we have to keep doing this.

A foundation of consistency and synergy has been laid for the Grizzlies, who are poised for success now and in the future.