Month: June 2022

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We Recommend We Saw You

We Saw You: Jesus Christ Superstar is Super Duper

"Jesus Christ Superstar" cast members get some love from the audience at The Orpheum. (Credit: Alice Kerley)

Well, I was blown away by Jesus Christ Superstar when I saw it on June 28th at The Orpheum.

I’d seen parts of the 1973 movie, but I’d never seen it on stage. I did catch the end, I believe, and I covered the cast party at a stage production years ago at The Orpheum.

I remember photographing Ted Neeley, the movie Jesus who also played Jesus in that earlier stage production at The Orpheum. Neeley was late arriving to the after party. Kate Pera, one of the guests, said, “Isn’t there a hymn called ‘Waiting for Jesus’?”

Honestly, I could go back night after night — and matinees — to see this current production of the musical by Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice at The Orpheum.

It harkened back to when I went to see the 1970 production of Hair directed by Dr. Keith Kennedy at my alma mater, University of Memphis, when it was Memphis State University. I do remember being astonished at how much hair the musical’s co-writer, Gerome Ragni, who was at the presentation, had at the time. Maybe that’s why I kept mine growing all these years.

Like Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera. It was great to hear songs, including “Hosanna,” which I hadn’t thought of since I heard them on the album when it came out in 1970. The album preceded the stage production. I’m still singing songs after hearing them the other night, which, they say, is the test of a good musical. I’m sure my neighbor is a little puzzled after hearing me constantly singing the lyrics, “Always hoped that I’d be an uh-pahhh-suhl [apostle],” from “The Last Supper.”

Waiting for Jesus Christ Superstar to begin at The Orpheum. (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Aaron LaVigne was fantastic as Jesus. His voice, his bearing, everything. This isn’t the Jesus with the long, dark hair, mustache, and beard. This is a lanky, light-colored hair Jesus with, what I first thought, was a man bun.

Jenny Mollet, as Mary Magdalene, was superb. She’s listed in the program as an understudy to “Mary.” Her rendition of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” was flawless. I realized I knew all the words to that song, thank you, Helen Reddy.

And I thought Tommy McDowell, who played Peter, was fabulous. He looks like what I’ve always imagined Peter to look and act like — blonde and sometimes clueless when dealing with Jesus.

I also liked Omar Lopez-Cepero who played the conniving Judas Iscariot with just the right touch of nastiness.

The production is basically non-stop music. And those dancers who have to play different characters in the musical are astonishing. All that writhing and dancing and twisting and turning and falling on the floor must be extremely strenuous. Elvis would have been impressed.

According to my nephew, who looked around while I was doing it, I was the first to stand up and give the cast a standing ovation. But I did wait until the show was over.

Jesus Christ Superstar runs through July 3rd at The Orpheum.

Bev Johnson was at the June 28th performance of Jesus Christ Superstar. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Gayle and Dave Woloshin and Steve Conley and Jeanie Gunlach at Jesus Christ Superstar (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Devan, Cynthia, Jason, and Noel Sengel at Jesus Christ Superstar (Credit: Michael Donahue)
We Saw You
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News News Blog News Feature

Greater Memphis Chamber Releases Jobs Update for May

(Credit: Pixabay)

The number of jobs in Memphis may have dropped slightly in May, but the figure still remains at one of its highest levels in decades.

According to a May 2022 jobs brief by the Greater Memphis Chamber’s Center for Economic Competitiveness, the Greater Memphis region saw a 0.2 percent (1,800 jobs) drop in the number of employed people after record highs in March and April, due to uncertainty over inflation and the national economy. But the total number of jobs in Greater Memphis currently stands at 659,600, which is 0.25 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels.

And the current market is still higher than the previous record set in February 2020, with an estimated 657,900 jobs.

“Greater Memphis continues to show strong signs of recovery from the worst pandemic in modern history,” said Ted Townsend, chief economic development officer, and president- and CEO-elect, for the Greater Memphis Chamber. “At the same time, we know there are areas where we, as a region, can improve. As we work to make Memphis the No. 1 economic development destination in the nation, the Chamber is already developing the inclusive talent pipelines that new and existing businesses need to accelerate our momentum.”

The report also detailed job growth by industry. Construction continues to surge, as it leads regional recovery at 10.67 percent growth over March 2020, followed by Trade/Transportation/Utilities (7.3 percent) and Business Services (6.5 percent). Per the report, small drops for Information, Financial Activities, and Other Services are likely byproducts of inflation. However, the Education and Health industries continue to see their recovery lag behind other sectors, with employment standing at -6.6 percent below pre-pandemic numbers.

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News News Blog

Bob Bostick (1939-2022)

Bob Bostick with Dalai Lama (Photo courtesy Jocelyn Wurzburg).

A personal note: Bob Bostick, a dedicated Flyer reader and one of my oldest friends, whose conversation and encouragement has buoyed me significantly over the years, died unexpectedly last week. I happened to be in the hospital for check-ups myself and could not respond right away. I want to do so now, by passing on the following words from another longtime friend, Paula Casey:

Robert L. Bostick Jr. (1939-2022)

Storyteller. Raconteur. Musician. U.S. Navy veteran. World traveler. Great cook. Pragmatist. Avid reader.

These are some of the aspects of the life of Robert Lee “Bobby” Bostick, who died June 24, 2022, at the age of 82. Born in Memphis on August 28, 1939, to Robert L. Bostick Sr., and Abby Middlebrooks Bostick, he enjoyed his childhood and graduated from Central High School where he made lifelong friends. He attended the University of Mexico, Vanderbilt University, and eventually graduated from Ole Miss.

During his naval career, he served on the aircraft carrier Kearsarge with John McCain. Bobby shared that McCain was just one of the guys — until at a port when his father’s admiral limo would pick him up.

Bobby was one of the earliest teenage rock and roll guitar players in the ’50s, even playing one night with Elvis when Scotty Moore was late. He said that was good for “girls” for months. Bobby injured a finger and had trouble making an “F” chord, so he took up the five-string banjo playing blues and rock.

He met Jocelyn Dan (later Wurzburg ) at Central High School and they would dance at the rainy-day sock hops, although they never dated because of religious differences. They re-met in 1982, after their divorces, and began a relationship that lasted nearly 40 years.

They traveled extensively in Europe, Canada, and enjoyed frequent excursions to Mexico. Their last adventure was to San Sebastian, Spain, which has more Michelin-starred restaurants than anywhere else in the world. He was the definition of a “foodie.”

Traveling, they often took their banjos with them to make friends; Bobby taught Jocie how to play it so if she played rhythm he could play lead. He had a wonderful time performing with the Steamboat Strummers and had a blues band with the late Lee Baker. He also ran the Strand Theater in Millington where he played with the country music show for decades.

The pragmatist Bostick was once invited to a meeting of Mensa, a group of highly intelligent individuals, but decided if one joined the organization and purchased the attending paraphernalia, they didn’t show very good judgment.

He attended Consultation on Conscience conferences in Washington, D.C., where he once met and was hugged by the 14th Dalai Lama, in whom he held high regard.

Bobby was pre-deceased by his parents. He is survived by cousins in Georgia and his (in the words of Dolly Parton) dear companion.

Bobby, a staunch feminist, would be pleased with a contribution to Planned Parenthood or the music education program for talented kids, the Memphis Jazz Workshop, P.O. Box 11461, Memphis, TN 38111.

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MLGW: Be Ready for “Substantial” Bill Increases

Photo by Ant Rozetsky on Unsplash

Memphis Light Gas & Water (MLGW) customers can expect their electricity bill to rise “substantially“ this summer, the utility said Thursday.

MLGW said customers can expect their electric bills to rise by 20 percent to 40 percent on average, depending on consumption. This could translate to bills rising by by $30 to $60 per month.   

“The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and utility industries across the globe are experiencing fuel-market challenges in the face of high natural gas and coal prices, summer supply concerns, and an increase in electricity demand,” reads a statement from MLGW. “Due to increasing TVA fuel rates combined with increasing summer electricity consumption, MLGW customers will see summer electric bills increase substantially.”

MLGW said air conditioning accounts for most of summer electricity costs. The utility  recommends setting thermostats to 78 degrees or above for maximum savings. To find more energy conservation tips, visit mlgw.com/conserve.

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News News Blog News Feature

Memphian Takes the Stage at Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest This Year

(Credit: Major League Eating/Facebook)

Brett Healy, a Memphian via New Jersey, will take the stage Monday for Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Eating Contest.

(Credit: Major League Eating)

Healy is ranked 19th in Major League Eating and has 72 food challenge wins under his belt as he heads to the “Super Bowl” of eating competitions. Getting there was tough, Healy said, calling it a “bloody road.” He fell “agonizingly short” in the Coney Island qualifiers in Miami and St. Louis.

(ESPN will cover the event live from 9:45 a.m. to noon CST.)

We caught up with Healy before the big hot-dog-eating contest to talk about training, going pro, and how you feel after a competition. — Toby Sells

Memphis Flyer: How did you get started?

Brett Healy: I did a small burger challenge at a pub near where I used to work in New Jersey. I just went there after work one day, not really knowing what I was doing. But I work out and I have a pretty big appetite. I won the challenge and physically I felt terrible but mentally I felt amazing and it was exciting.

What’s the bridge between this being a hobby and then going pro?

The thing that vaulted me was the [Breakaway Running and Bardog Tavern] meatball eating contest. My first time doing that meatball eating contest, I broke the record that they’ve had for that. That YouTube video actually got pretty popular.

Then, [Bardog owner Aldo Dean] actually wanted to sponsor me. I did some contests with Major League Eating later that year. I did a Moon Pie eating contest that took place outside the [Bass Pro Shop at the Pyramid].

Then, Bardog sponsored me to go to some of these Nathan’s hotdog qualifiers. I lost several of them by a very, very close margin. It was a bloody road. I had to train myself up and get better and better. Then, in August 2019 I finally won a qualifier in Des Moines, Iowa, and that qualified me for the 2020 Nathan’s Fourth of July contest.

Obviously, the world went upside down for a couple of years after that. So, I’m glad I’m finally actually getting to punch my ticket to the big show here.

What’s your strategy?

[Takeru Kobayashi] pioneered this and it’s the technique that everyone does now. If you’re not doing this, you’re doing yourself a huge disadvantage. I eat the hot dogs first. I dunk the bun in — I actually don’t use water. I put a flavor enhancer into it. So I’ll do lemon or blue raspberry flavor. The hot dogs go in first and then you’re putting in that disgusting wet bun, it’s just so much easier to eat fast.

In the weirdest way, this is a sport because there’s eating. … and, then, [competitive eating] is not eating. This is getting food inside you as quick as possible.

I’ve been signed with Major League Eating as a pro for a little over three years now. I’ve learned some techniques along the way. I’ve learned some techniques from some of the other eaters, too. It is a great, close-knit community. Most of us have a regular day job and we’re just normal people doing this weird, fun hobby.

How do you train?

I used to use solids and fluids. I’d eat eight to 10 pounds of watermelon and then chug half a gallon of fluid after that. That takes a lot of preparation and time and we’re all busy. So, these days my training sessions usually looks like. … I’ll chug between 1.5 gallons to 1.75 gallons of fluid. Just let that stretch my stomach. Nutrition is key to doing this, too. I like to eat healthy, stay lean. This is a sport. So, you want to have your body in good shape, be flexible, and be ready to handle anything.

Obviously, you want to to keep your weight under control. This is something that, if you don’t take care of yourself, it can get out of whack pretty easily. So, it’s actually forced me to be very cognizant of my health when I’m not at the competitive eating table.

How big of a deal is the Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest?

This is the pinnacle, the apex, the Super Bowl of competitive eating. So, this is extremely exciting that I’m getting to represent Memphis on the biggest stage.

Not too many people know about all the other eating contests and the circuit that Major League Eating has throughout the year. But they know the Nathan’s Fourth of July contest. So, it’s been kind of a surreal experience that I actually get to get there and enjoy that thrill.

How do you feel after a contest like this?

Oh, absolutely awful. If you’re not walking away from the table feeling like absolute garbage, you didn’t push yourself.

You would think fullness is the worst of it. Dehydration, I think, is actually the most punishing aspect after a restaurant challenge or an eating contest.

Your body’s completely empty going into it. I generally won’t have solid foods for 20 to 22 hours. before an event. So, I wanna make sure I’m completely empty, ready to take everything in.

Obviously, you’re pretty devoid of water. So, eating a lot of salty hot dogs or burgers or pizza, it takes about 24 hours before you feel kind of back to normal physically.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

Political Ads Gone Awry — Cases in Point

County DA candidates Amy Weirich and Steve Mulroy. (Photos by Jackson Baker)

Yes, “Defund the Police” was a terrible idea and a genuinely stupid slogan. Any true believers in it are deserving of whatever comeuppance they get.

But the fact is, the unjust  linking of the term to political adversaries has turned into the latest political smear. It’s McCarthyism on steroids — right up there with a previous era’s “Soft on Communism.”

A solid piece of fact-checking by The Commercial Appeal’s Katherine Burgess conclusively made the case against County Mayor candidate Worth Morgan’s allegation that incumbent County Mayor Lee Harris, whom he opposes, defunded Sheriff Floyd Bonner’s budget, to the tune of some $4½ million. The accusation turned out to be so much jiggling of budget numbers, and Morgan has since owned up to having made an “error.” The clincher is that the Sheriff himself disowns any such complaint.

The “defund-the-police” smear has meanwhile become an increasingly prominent aspect of incumbent District Attorney Amy Weirich’s campaign against her Democratic challenger, Steve Mulroy.

It is the linchpin of a currently playing TV commercial on Weirich’s behalf, one in which Mulroy is not only accused of having advocated defunding the police — something which he denies and for which no credible record exists — but is represented, through a highly creative juxtaposition of images, as having marched in a parade with activists carrying “Defund the Police” signs.

Fact: a still photo of Mulroy holding a picket sign (but obscuring what the sign says) quickly segues into a video of the aforesaid defunders’ march. The reality is that his sign (and his march) belonged not to that affair but to a wholly different one, on behalf of Starbucks employees’ efforts, ultimately successful, to unionize their workplace.

Similarly, the same commercial misrepresents Mulroy’s support, during a severe phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, of ongoing  litigation to secure improved safety precautions for at-risk jail inmates. The ad would have us believe the suit, by Mulroy himself as the litigant of record, was against Bonner for the simple purpose of releasing criminals  — any and all criminals, it would seem — from jail.

This is not to suggest that Mulroy himself, or his own ad-makers, are wholly innocent of misrepresentation. An  ad on his behalf yoked Weirich together with Donald Trump and the ex-president’s  “mobs”  on the occasion of Trump’s recent appearance in nearby Southaven. Yes, Weirich is running for reelection as the Republican nominee, but there is little in her record to suggest that she is a party-line Republican, much less a Trumpian fanatic.

The balance of Mulroy’s ad is more defensible. He alleges, correctly, that violent crime has risen during Weirich’s tenure as D.A., and viewers of the ad can decide for themselves whether that upsurge has occurred because of, or in spite of, her crime-fighting techniques. It is also true, as the ad suggests, that Weirich has been accused by official tribunals more than once of professional misconduct.

On a recent prime-time evening, the two ads ran back-to-back on local television — Weirich’s first, followed without a break by Mulroy’s. To say the least, the combined effect did not add up to an ideal instance of the Socratic method at work. (Not that TV advertising of any kind is totemic with regard to truth.) And, in fairness to the two candidates, head-banging distortions of the sort described here  seem to be the rule, not the exception, for political advertising in particular.

POSTSCRIPT: Despite the fact-checking in the CA, a TV ad continues to push Morgan’s claim that County Mayor Harris “defunded the police.”  The “defunding the police” claim put forth by Weirich against Mulroy is still extant as well. Meanwhile, the Mulroy ad mentioned above continues to appear, though both he and Morgan have aired new commercials.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Magnolia & May: a “Country Brasserie”

Chip and Amanda Dunham (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Chip Dunham may be the only chef inspired by SpongeBob SquarePants.

Dunham, 31, who owns Magnolia & May along with his wife Amanda, was 14 when he began working at a restaurant. “My parents told me I needed to get a job if I wanted to go to the movies or any sort of extracurricular activity with my friends,” he says. “I needed a job to pay for that.”

His mother wanted him to bus tables at The Grove Grill, which was owned by his dad, chef Jeffrey Dunham. “My dad said cool people cook in the kitchen.”

Thanks to an animated TV series, Chip became a pantry cook, making cold salads and appetizers. “At the time I was really into SpongeBob SquarePants. He was a fry cook.”

Working at the restaurant was “a really positive experience. We had a good bunch of people back there. When I first started, Ryan Trimm was the chef de cuisine.

“I wouldn’t be doing it to this day if I didn’t love it. It was a lot of fun. It gave you a creative outlet.”

Chip, who could “work every station in the kitchen,” enrolled in The Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, New York. “There’s a distillery on campus, a brewery, a culinary science program. If anyone is going into the culinary arts field, that is the place to go.”

Chip, who met Amanda at school, worked at Slightly North of Broad Restaurant, Butcher & Bee, and The Glass Onion in Charleston, South Carolina, before moving back to Memphis.

In 2017, his parents were thinking about adding a second location of The Grove Grill but couldn’t find the right location. They decided to convert Chip’s grandfather’s insurance company into a restaurant.

The Grove Grill closed in March 2020 during the pandemic. “We ended up just putting all our efforts into Magnolia & May,” Chip says.

They opened the restaurant in May 2020, with Chip as executive chef and Amanda as general manager. “We were ready to go and our employees were ready to go. There was no sense in waiting anymore.

“We had online orders, did curbside, and you could dine in. It was all about doing what we could to stay afloat. We did those chef boxes and instructions on how to make a dinner for two.”

As for the concept, Chip says, “We call ourselves a country brasserie. We present ourselves in a rustic way, but while we’re a restaurant based in the American South, we don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves as that.”

Influences include Asian and Middle Eastern, but everything is “rooted in that classic French technique,” Chip says. And they change the menu daily. “That could be as simple as one change or we could basically overhaul the whole menu.”

Core items include sautéed trout with fried green tomatoes and jumbo lump crab meat and hollandaise. “We’re doing it with sockeye salmon right now. The only reason we switched out trout is salmon is in season.”

Sandwiches include a fried chicken and collard greens melt and a double cheeseburger with melted cheddar.

They still serve the pimento cheese from The Grove Grill. “We don’t have the ability to do the flatbread like we did at The Grove. We just serve it with crackers, pickles, and bacon marmalade.”

They include some “exclusive items” for the recently reinstated lunch. One is pastrami made with Home Place Pastures beef brisket served on marble rye bread. “And then I put some house-made barbecue chips on it and jalapeño cheddar cheese sauce.”

As for desserts, Chip says. “My kids really like ice cream cones, so one of our desserts is chocolate-dipped cones with sprinkles.”

Dunham family children are responsible for the restaurant’s name. “Our family has a silly tradition where before you know the gender of the baby, you give it a little nickname. At the time, Amanda was pregnant with our daughter, who we called Baby Magnolia. And my sister was pregnant, and we called my niece Baby May.”

Magnolia & May is at 718 Mt. Moriah Road; (901) 676-8100.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

A New Third Rail

Nashville DA Glenn Funk (Photo: Courtesy Nashville Post)

Since the bombshell announcement last Friday of the Supreme Court decision invalidating the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion, numerous political figures — governors, senators, an abundance of political candidates, and smaller fry galore — have gotten themselves on the record either for or against the court’s dramatic reversal.

Few and far between are those politicians who have spoken in more qualified, measured terms, but among the most cautious have been the two candidates for Shelby County District Attorney — incumbent Republican DA Amy Weirich and her Democratic challenger Steve Mulroy.

Both had addressed the pending decision weeks ago, after a draft of the ruling-to-be, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, had been leaked to the media.

Weirich’s first utterance on the subject came early in June on the occasion of a ceremony in which she received the endorsements of the Memphis Police Association and the Shelby County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.

The full SCOTUS decision had not yet been formally announced, a fact which underscored Weirich’s reluctance when she was asked point-blank what would be her attitude toward enforcing Tennessee’s new anti-abortion act, a “trigger” law that would come into effect once Roe was dissolved.

“To answer that question, we have to assume a lot of hypotheticals,” Weirich said. “And I think any conversation about a law that hasn’t gone into place about a Supreme Court decision that may or may not be overturned … is hypothetical and, quite frankly, political grandstanding. To even discuss what our office would do, you would first have to assume that doctors in this community would break the law. And then you would have to assume that that criminal conduct was reported to law enforcement. There’s a lot of criminal conduct that doesn’t get reported about.

“And then you have to assume that an investigation is conducted and that there is enough information to make a charge against someone. Too many hypotheticals, too many hoops to jump through. And that’s not, that’s not the universe I live in. I don’t make conjecture statements about what I will remand or could or should do. We deal in facts, we deal in truth, and we deal in the evidence that’s before us.”

On Friday, Weirich updated those sentiments: “It is a dangerous path for a DA to make broad and hypothetical statements without an actual charge or case before them. To do so violates Tennessee Code Annotated 8-7-106, which requires a DA to consider the unique facts and circumstances of a particular case.”

The law referred to by Weirich is sometimes called “the Glenn Funk law,” after a Davidson County (Nashville) DA of progressive bent who has long made public his refusal to prosecute any and all cases dealing with anti-abortion statutes. Funk repeated his adamance in the wake of the Roe reversal.

Candidate Mulroy, asked weeks ago about his attitude toward enforcing the state trigger law, declined to make a Funk-like disavowal, noting that 8-7-106 allows the state Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor for cases disdained by local district attorneys. Mulroy did say abortion-law violations would be a very low priority in his tenure.

On Friday, Mulroy said, “This is a sad day. The politicized right-wing Court goes out of its way to overturn half a century of precedent, with women as the victims. As District Attorney, I’ll be very different from Amy Weirich.

“Weirich’s party and Donald Trump want her to turn her attention away from prosecuting violent crime and prosecute women and their doctors. We need to be focusing on carjackings, murders, domestic violence — not jailing doctors helping women make reproductive choices.”

Mulroy also said Weirich, who “won’t say what she thinks about prosecuting reproductive choice,” was “one of the few Tennessee DAs who, under a now sunsetted law, prosecuted pregnant women for ‘fetal assault’ for showing up to hospitals to get substance abuse treatment.”

Categories
Music Music Features

Model Zero Obey the Rhythm’s Demands with New Single

Model Zero (Photo: Chloe Littlefield)

Memphis music fans looking for the short, sharp, shocking angles of ’80s post-punk have long known of Model Zero, who began circulating cassettes as early as January 2018. Since then, they’ve been regular players around town — but that’s all in a day’s work for these yeoman troubadours, who’ve played musical chairs through various overlapping bands together for years. Many know Frank McLallen, Keith Cooper, and Jesse James Davis as the Tennessee Screamers, and McLallen and Cooper are with the Sheiks, but their roles are scrambled here, with Cooper playing only bass, McLallen on guitar, and Davis on drums, not to mention Linton Holliday’s guitar thrown in for good measure.

Today, it’s clear that all those nights in hot, sweaty nightclubs tweaked these players’ brains: Their latest slice of wax clearly comes from a land where dancing rules. “Little Crystal” b/w “Leather Trap” arrives this week, courtesy Nashville’s Sweet Time Records (complete with a vivid music video directed by Laura Jean Hocking), and everyone is bound to find their ideal groove on one side or the other. True, “Little Crystal” is the A-side, but the drums and groove on the flip are just as infectious.

That’s no coincidence, as Cooper confesses that the entire band is committed to a life of servitude, not just to the rhythm, but to the Rhythm Master. “It’s funny,” he reflects, “this whole band is obeying the drum machine. It’s a brown box. A Rhythm Master, model RM-10, made in Whippany, New Jersey, in the late ’60s or early ’70s. It’s the most valuable member of the band, for sure.”

Devoted to their vintage overlord, the band works tirelessly to ensure its comfort and safety. “When we play outside in the sun, it heats up,” Cooper says. “If it even thinks about the sun, the tempo starts to really slow down. So with outdoor shows, I have to bump it up a little bit. But come nighttime in the cool, dark club, it’s fine.”

Ah yes, nighttime in the cool, dark club. That environment may be Model Zero’s other overlord, or guiding star. As Cooper says, “The whole concept of Model Zero was this forging of two worlds. We wanted a club dance sound, but also to rock. That’s where the drum machine pulse idea came in.”

McLallen concurs: “Everything’s written with the drum machine in mind. It’s groove-based. That’s been our philosophy from the beginning. It’s our synth groove band — a departure from what we’re doing with the Sheiks, which is more just guitar-driven garage rock.”

To be sure, there’s still plenty of garage in this machine. That dirty, distorted edge, combined with pounding beats reminiscent of Gang of Four and a very Memphis punk energy, heavily colored the band’s eponymously titled 2019 album. But then, Cooper says, as the band opened their minds and hearts more and more to the Rhythm Master, they began to mutate and change. “The old stuff was much edgier and a little bit darker,” he says. “We got that out of our system, and then it was time to party!”

As his zeal becomes more fervent, Cooper edges closer to the Rhythm Master, a gleam in his eye. “We’ve been discovering more beats on the drum machine, you know. Like ‘Little Crystal’ is mambo and Rock 2 combined. You can’t not dance to it.” Then he nudges the pulsing brown box closer to the air conditioning.

Yet it must be stressed that the Rhythm Master’s power is amplified by the considerable talents of minion Jesse James Davis, whose feel for New Wave tribal grooves organically augments his analog overlord to perfection. And he in turn serves other task masters, such as an Arturia MicroBrute synthesizer. “Jesse is able to sync up with the drum machine on his synth,” says Cooper. “You hear it in the background on ‘Leather Trap.’ He’s tapping the tempo and it’s this constant flourish of ethereal ambient noise. Nightclub-type stuff.”

For Cooper, the synth flourishes, the drum machine, and the grooves are all means to reach the end of a nightclub state of mind. “I’m just trying to summon this Happy Mondays vibe in this band,” he says. “That’s always been my mental approach to bass in Model Zero. It’s more like a mindset than an actual, direct reference. It’s just trying to tap into that world of the late nightclub.”

Model Zero performs this Friday, July 1st, at the Nashville East Room, and Sunday, July 3rd, at B-Side Memphis.

Categories
News News Feature

To Jump or Not to Jump?

Photo: Jp Valery | Unsplash

With the recent market downturn, I’ve seen countless questions like this:

I put $1,500 each month into my 401(k) and it has done well. Lately, however, the balance has been dropping very quickly. My friends are all stopping their contributions because they’re tired of adding money and watching it go away. What do you think I should do?

I remember being on the playground as a young child discussing ways to avoid catastrophes like an airplane crash or a falling elevator. The general consensus was to wait until the very last moment and then jump — rendering you immune from any sort of injury due to falling. That logic is similar to the logic above — stopping investment or pulling out of markets now is not going to prevent further losses. In fact, it will probably cause you to miss out on a rare opportunity to buy stocks at a discount.

One of the reasons investing is confusing is that market returns and bank account interest rates seem to be similar. In reality, they are completely different things. A high-yield savings account earning 1 percent a year means that you’ll earn 1 percent going forward, at least until the rate changes again. Returns of an investment account with stock and bond funds up 1 percent or up 20 percent or down 20 percent over the last year provide no reliable indication of what performance will look like tomorrow.

Saying “stocks always go up” sounds flippant and even reckless, but there is some truth to that notion. The price of stocks over time is tied to real businesses. In the long run, as long as GDP grows, productivity gains continue, and companies continue to earn and grow their income, it is very likely that stock market indices will continue to rise over time as well. Positive earnings growth is like a rubber band that pulls up on stock prices over time.

When market valuations get high, the rubber band gets slack and doesn’t pull up as hard, making market downturns more likely. When valuations are low, the rubber band gets taut and the stock market is more likely to rise, sometimes quickly. Earnings don’t tend to change as quickly as stock market prices, so the most common way to see the rubber band get stretched is during a stock market decline. It’s counterintuitive, but the best time to buy into the market is almost always after steep declines in share prices, when instincts tell us to run far away from risky investments.

Looking at recent performance is one of the worst ways to pick investments in a 401(k), second only to basing decisions off the names of the funds! To pick the right investments for the long run, you need a deep understanding of the choices and a plan to invest for the long haul using funds with reasonable fees, a sensible investing approach and as broadly a diversified footprint as possible. It’s very important, as many people have most of their investment assets in company 401(k) plans and the like. Financial advisors like Telarray who can help guide these investment selections can be invaluable in this effort.

Is the market going to go back up from here? The answer is almost certainly yes — eventually — but nobody knows for sure when. One thing that seems certain is that if you like the markets at the beginning of this year, you should like them a lot more now that they’re down 10-30 percent from those levels. There’s no way of knowing if by the end of 2022 markets will be down more from here or mounting a recovery. In our view, continuing to invest at discount prices is the best decision today just as it has been in each market downturn we have studied. Nobody knows the future, but a true long-term approach means you should be excited to put money to work at a discount!

Gene Gard 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 questions or schedule an objective, no pressure portfolio review at letstalk@telarrayadvisors.com. Sign up for the next free online seminar on the Events tab at telarrayadvisors.com.