In the last few years, mortgage rates have touched lows we’ve never seen in our lifetimes, and recently have risen to levels not seen in over a decade. In the initial stages of mortgages, the interest calculated is based on the mortgage rate applied to a vastly huge mortgage balance. You might be surprised to learn that even relatively small changes in mortgage rates can have massive impact on the percentage of payments that go toward principal, on the advantage of making early prepayments on the mortgage, and on the value that can be financed in a loan.
By the end of the loan, almost 100 percent of every payment goes to principal, but early on the amount varies widely. For example, for a 2 percent mortgage, 55 cents of every dollar in the first payment goes toward paying off principal. For a 6 percent mortgage, only 16.6 percent of that first payment goes toward principal. This means the lower the mortgage rate you lock in, the quicker you can build equity.
For a 30-year fixed mortgage at the beginning of the loan, how much time does it knock off to prepay one month’s payment? Again, the answer varies widely depending on your mortgage rate. At the extreme of a zero percent mortgage, a month’s prepayment will reduce the term of your loan by exactly one month. At a 2 percent mortgage, it will knock almost two months off, while at 6 percent it will reduce the term by almost six months. As mortgage rates get higher, the numbers get more extreme — at an 11 percent mortgage, a single month’s prepayment early on will reduce the term by over two years! This is interesting, but not very practical. If you have resources to make very large prepayments early in a mortgage, you probably could have just made a larger down payment to begin with and locked in a much lower monthly payment. Nevertheless, it does show that as mortgage rates rise, prepayments become much more beneficial.
Probably the most interesting variable about mortgage rates is the potential impact they could have on house prices. Imagine a 30-year fixed mortgage with a $1,500 monthly principal and interest payment and zero down payment. How much house will that buy? At today’s 5 percent mortgage rate, that payment would finance a $279,000 loan. At 2.75 percent, a rate we were seeing just a few months ago, that payment would buy a $367,000 house. If rates jumped to 10 percent, a rate most of us have seen in our lifetimes, that same $1,500 a month could only buy a $170,000 house.
When mortgages are discussed, the question of paying them off early always comes up. When we run the numbers historically, the answer is that you should not prepay a mortgage at all if you can help it, at least at these rates. It’s difficult to find a 30-year period where the return of a reasonable investment allocation would not meaningfully exceed 5 percent. Ultimately owning a house is far more an emotional decision than a financial one, so making choices in your mortgage for peace of mind, rather than dollars and cents, can make sense — many of our clients pay off their mortgage even knowing it’s not likely to be an optimal financial decision.
There is always uncertainty in real estate, and it feels like these times are more uncertain than usual. Hopefully these facts can help you think through your real estate decisions as mortgage rates rise and more inventory comes on the market.
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.
It was on an August night in 1964 when Memphian Bob Tucker, leading the Bill Black’s Combo as they toured with The Beatles, heard that a singing duo who’d also been opening the shows was leaving the tour. “I walked up to them,” Tucker recalled recently, “and I said, ‘Wait a minute! Hold it! This is the biggest tour in the history of show business,’ which it was at the time. ‘If you quit now, you’re finished! You’ll be blackballed. You’re through!’
“They didn’t care,” Tucker continued. “‘We’re going to California!’ they said. ‘We’re gonna be on a TV show out there and we’re gonna record some more!’ So they left. They went out to California and got on Shindig!, and then cut the most programmed record in the history of music. Later they said, ‘We’re sure glad we didn’t take your advice!’”
That singing duo was The Righteous Brothers, of course. After leaving the tour, they joined Phil Spector at Gold Star Studios and recorded the era-defining “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’.” Today, the duo’s distinctive bass/baritone singer, Bill Medley, recalls, “Well, Bob Tucker was certainly more right than wrong. Leaving The Beatles’ tour wasn’t the smartest thing in the world. It turned out to be, but it shouldn’t have been.”
Ultimately, the iconic status of The Righteous Brothers today has borne out the good fortune of their decision. “It was definitely eye-opening,” Medley recalls, “and we learned a lot from Phil Spector. He was brilliant. It was the first time we’d ever worked with that kind of an orchestra, doing that kind of song. So it was brand-new for us. It took us away from what we were doing, which was all rock-and-roll and rhythm and blues.”
Medley credits that rock-and-roll and rhythm and blues with getting him into music in the first place. He and Bobby Hatfield, his partner in The Righteous Brothers until his untimely death in 2003, were just “two punks from Orange County,” Medley says. “It was just bean fields back then, and it was a real white area, so it was strange for The Righteous Brothers to come out of Orange County. But we would tune in to the Black station out of L.A. that played all rhythm and blues. That’s the only stuff Bobby and I listened to.”
And though their second album, released well before they connected with Phil Spector, was titled Some Blue-Eyed Soul, that was not a common term or genre label at the time. But The Righteous Brothers came to define it. “When they started playing ‘You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’’ on Black stations, a disk jockey out of Philadelphia started calling us the blue-eyed soul brothers. He was trying to hip his audience to the fact that we were white. Since the ’40s or whatever, a Black guy would refer to a white guy as a blue-eye, and this DJ was playing all Black music.”
Like the Mar-Keys out of Memphis, the group’s sound alone was breaking down racial barriers and expectations. And for Medley, that was a great thing. “It was a very cool time to be around,” he says. “It was wonderful.”
Through all of it, Memphis loomed large in Medley’s mind. “I love Memphis. It’s got a great history,” he says. He and Elvis Presley became friends even before the Spector years, a bond that strengthened when Medley and Presley both performed in Las Vegas. Then “in the ’70s, I did a solo album for about three weeks with Chips Moman in Memphis. I’d record every day, and every night I’d have dinner with Elvis at Graceland. We had a great time.”
All of which makes The Righteous Brothers’ appearance at the Graceland Soundstage on July 30th a kind of homecoming for Medley. Since 2016, when he recruited his old friend Bucky Heard to fill Hatfield’s shoes, the duo has been touring again to great acclaim. Beyond the group’s classic tracks, Medley also sings his Grammy-winning 1987 hit with Jennifer Warnes, “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life,” as a duet with his daughter. “Oddly enough,” he says, “when we recorded it, my wife was just having our daughter McKenna, and now McKenna sings it with me on stage. She’s very, very good. So I’m a very happy man: 81 years old, and still singing songs I recorded at 25!”
How high was your Memphis Light, Gas & Water bill? A Memphis Redditor suggested the answer with a meme showing Willie Nelson, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, and Snoop Dogg, all notorious for being super-duper high.
Hate Watch
Posted to YouTube by Forgotten Places
The Memphis subreddit was (mostly) hate-watching a YouTube video published last week from a channel called “Forgotten Places.” In it, the YouTuber (sounding like he’s reading a book report before his fifth-grade social studies class) says that Memphis has seen “rises, falls, and stagnation quite contrary to national trends.”
Though, he said (many hilarious times) the city has “fairly desirable weather.” To which, Redditor lokisilvertongue said, “‘Fairly desirable weather,’ he says, as the Gold Bond in my pants is turning into roux.”
Burgers and Dogs
Posted to Facebook by WMCTV Action News 5
WMCTV had some fun with a crazy news story last week, in which a Knoxville couple allegedly stole $2,000 worth of hot dogs and hamburgers. Crazier still, the couple did it, “During Memphis Flyer Burger Week? On National Hot Dog DAY?! What are the odds?” asked the station.
Crown Me Royal hosts its first film fest. (Photo: Courtesy CMRL)
“I was kind of a troubled teenager, you could say,” Chassidy Jade says with a bit of a chuckle, but she adds, she found a mentor in fellow church-attendee Ron Crawford, who worked for Fox 13 News and encouraged her to try filmmaking. “He gave me a camera and was like, ‘You just need something to do.’ I was always a creative person, and I just didn’t know where to put that energy. I had no idea about filmmaking or how it worked.” Now, Jade works remotely in Memphis as an editor for Parallax Post, a production studio in L.A., in addition to pursuing her own creative projects and developing her production studio Crown Me Royal Labs. Yet, even in the whirlwind of her burgeoning career, she still seeks to follow her mentor’s example and expose the Memphis community, “especially Black and Brown girls,” to opportunities in the film and media industry.
One such step in her ambitions is this weekend’s Crown Me Royal Film Festival, which will have panels, workshops, and more for those curious about the film industry. “A lot of our panelists and people on the lineup for workshops are people who work behind the scenes, not in front of the camera,” Jade says. “So we have voice actors, we have editors, cinematographers, we have Carmeon Hamilton who has her own show on HGTV. … People will be able to meet the people who work on these big projects for Netflix, HBO, BET, [and more].” Of course, no film festival would be complete without a few movies, and Crown Me Royal won’t disappoint with screenings of The Last Dragon, short films by youth filmmakers, and short films centered around Black male voices, some even local.
“[The festival’s] also a place for people to network, have fun, and experience some local vendors and installations,” Jade says. “We have a lot of free activities [like pottery and shea butter making].” To close the festival, Jade will host her fourth annual “Visuals & Vibes,” an exhibition of film and other forms of art by female artists. “It’s not just paintings,” Jade says. “You’ll see a henna artist and a pole dancer and a body painter [and more].”
“It’s really a festival that’s for everyone,” she adds. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit crownmeroyallabs.com/filmfest.
Crown Me Royal Film Fest, various locations, Friday-Sunday, July 29-31, $25-$100.
You never know who you’ll run into late at night if you stop by a restaurant or bar that serves food after 10 p.m. In Memphis, it could be a drunk bounty hunter at now-closed CK’s, an election conspiracy theorist throwing back Bud Lights, or hopefully, a local celebrity.
Rocky Kasaftes remembers when Priscilla Presley stopped by Alex’s Tavern with a group of people around 11 p.m. Kasaftes, who owns the iconic bar/restaurant at 1445 Jackson Avenue, made his famous Greek Burgers, hot wings, and ribs for everybody. But he fixed something special for Presley.
“I don’t eat meat,” says Presley, who was in Memphis recently. “So instead I asked him to make me a grilled cheese sandwich. I still eat grilled cheese sandwiches when I need to.”
The sandwich was “great,” she adds. And Alex’s Tavern was “very quaint. And nice. Not too large. I enjoyed it very much.”
The Memphis Flyer recently set out on a quest to check out some late-night dining spots that continue to serve food after most places have shut down their kitchens. And while there used to be plenty of easy fixes for the late-night munchies, Covid saw some restaurants decide to forego their nocturnal offerings. But fret not: For the night owls among us, there are still those who work tirelessly to make sure that, yes, after stumbling out of the bar or getting off work late, they’re still here to keep us fed. As we ventured out into the night, our odyssey took us to three different pillars, old and new, of late-night dining that are sure to do the trick when Taco Bell just won’t cut it.
The authors’ first late-night stop took them to Pantá where they sipped on a Toussaint Daiquiri and split a Catalan Hot Dog. Oh, and they had coffee. Can’t forget the French press coffee. (Photo: KD Holliday)
Pantá
For our first stop, we trekked to a bumping new Midtown Catalan hot spot. Chef/owner Kelly English specifically wanted a late-night menu at his latest endeavor, Pantá, at 2146 Monroe Avenue.
“Pantá is a real view of Catalan eating and the way they approach dining in that region of Spain,” English says. “In Barcelona, a lot of restaurants don’t even open until 7 or 8. We open at 6. They stay open at least until midnight. This is a natural part of what we have set out to provide. The kitchen has been open until 11 on Thursdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday since we opened.”
The response has been great, English says. “We’ve recently changed the program for late night a bit to give our guests what we have heard them asking for — a little more approachable late-night food served with some of the exact same ingredients we use earlier in the evening.”
Diners who come in after 10 p.m. order from a special late-night menu, not from the earlier menu.
“We originally served our entire dinner menu through the end of service. We started this new menu a couple of weeks ago. It is also available during normal hours during Sunday supper.”
Pantá’s late-night menu has six items that harness the restaurant’s Catalan inspiration. They’re all a bit cheaper than the regular menu (think the $8-$12 range). There are some enticing-looking options like the Brava Burger — a patty of spiced beef with grilled onions, mozzarella, olive pickles, and brava sauce — or Pantá’s take on a Philly — made with pork secreto, slow-cooked onions and peppers, and a healthy helping of “melty white cheesiness.” We opted for the Catalan Hot Dog to start, a grilled “glizzy” placed on a bun, but there’s no sauerkraut-and-mustard combo here. Instead, the dog is topped with escalivada (a traditional Catalan vegetable mix) and a smooth garlic aioli. We cut it in half for an easy shareable and also ordered French press coffee to prepare for the journey ahead.
But perhaps the best late-night snack is the Loaded Brava Fries. It’s almost like a fries-based version of loaded nachos but with a Catalan twist. Let’s just say it certainly made a good impression. The tender, slow-roasted duck is delicious and very easy to scarf down with a handful of fries. And there’s a bit of a kick to it from a spicy harissa pepper sauce. It’s an approachable, but elevated, snack that has all the right ingredients to keep that buzz from spilling over. All the while, front-of-house manager and overall vibe-setter Aaron Ivory is ready to whip up one of his specialties.
“Personally, I like that we have a spot for people in my industry to come after work,” English says. “Or people in the world of theater. Both patrons and professionals. A place that can grow with what we think is a new chapter of Midtown that is coming about. I love the new avenue of freedom that our manager, Aaron Ivory, can show behind the bar and our chef, Patrick Kee, can express in the food.”
A group of young people came in Pantá around 11 p.m. and sat at a table in the dining room. They wanted to eat after leaving Tiger and Peacock, says Ken LeGassey. This was their first time at Pantá.
They wanted to eat as well as “continue to drink and socialize,” LeGassey says. Speaking for themselves and other young people out on the town, he says, “After they’ve been drinking, they’re looking for a place with the right food that’s unique, high-quality.” LeGassey and his friends found it at Pantá. “This is the new Taco Bell.”
Like Priscilla Presley, our authors made their way to Alex’s Tavern, where they caught up with owner Rocky Kasaftes about his famous Greek Burger. (Photo: Samuel x. Cicci)
Alex’s Tavern
Our next stop took us to Alex’s Tavern, which has been serving food late at night for decades.
Rocky’s dad, Alex Kasaftes, who opened the bar in 1953, used to serve ham sandwiches.
“Remember the big hams? You could put a ham in a rack and slice off the bone? He did that.”
After his dad died in 1978, Rocky took over the bar. He began serving hamburgers, but he also concentrated on people who arrived late. “It was really for restaurant people that got off work at 11 or whatever. That’s kind of how it started. For a while it was mostly restaurant people or people who worked at the hospital or police to get a burger.”
His mother, Eugenia Kasaftes, would “make the patties at home, slice cheese and tomato, and I’d come pick it up.” Alex’s Tavern served food until 3 a.m. in those days. Now, it’s until midnight during the week and maybe 1 or 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Rocky now makes the hamburgers, which are 80/20 ground chuck. “My mom was big on just a good ol’ burger with salt and pepper, but we added Cavender’s to it.” Cavender’s All Purpose Greek Seasoning is on just about everything Rocky serves. He even sprinkles it on the potato chips. “Cavender’s, that’s the key to everything, which makes us different, I guess.”
His Greek Burgers have “the good crust on the outside.” And, he says, “You never press it on the grill. Never do that. The cheese has to be melted. You never want cold cheese on a piece of meat.”
Alex Tavern’s Greek Burger was featured on Burger Land with host George Motz on the Travel Channel and in Motz’s book, Hamburger America.
Rocky began doing hot wings in the late ’80s. “They’re not breaded at all. We just fry them.”
He dips the wings in a vat of Texas Pete Hot Sauce and butter for those who want hotter wings. He dips the others in a vat of Wicker’s marinade and Worcestershire sauce for people who prefer a milder snack. “I put them on the plate and sprinkle the Greek seasoning on top.”
He also uses Cavender’s on his ribs, which he began doing during football season about 20 years ago. He adds apple juice to the ribs while he cooks them. He then adds Wicker’s marinade and Worcestershire sauce. “While I cook them, I spray them with apple juice. Then when they’re almost done, we wrap them in tinfoil and I’ll put more apple juice on them. They’ll steam in that juice on the flattop.”
Gumbo came next. “It’s just really shrimp, sauce, and chicken. I’ll add other stuff, of course.”
He also does barbecued shrimp with lemon butter and garlic and cold shrimp with his own sauce “with lots of horseradish. Enough to where it brings a tear to your eye.” Usually during the winter Rocky makes his mother’s Mama K’s homemade vegetable beef soup.
Sometimes he makes toasted ravioli and fried cheese and pork tenderloin for special occasions, including events he caters. “Usually, I’m the one cooking. I like it that way.”
But Rocky doesn’t stop there. “I’ll do stuff for folks when they request it. A filet with a baked potato and salad, filet and shrimp. I’ve made my mom’s spaghetti recipe. Everything is from scratch. I made Alfredo with shrimp or chicken. They just have to let me know ahead of time. And they do.”
They’ll say, “Hey, I want something different.” And Rocky responds, “Okay, I got it.”
Just like when he came up with a grilled cheese sandwich for Presley. “I think I put two or three different kinds of cheese on it just for her.”
“Tell Rocky I’m coming back on Elvis Week in August,” Presley says. “I’m going to be here for about five or six days. It’s a wonderful, wonderful restaurant, and I know I’m going to get great food. Especially great grilled cheese sandwiches.”
An unusual menu item, the Tofu Nachos are RP Tracks’ secret weapon. (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)
RP Tracks
The final stretch of our journey took us to RP Tracks at 3547 Walker Avenue, home of an eclectic guest list, thirsty University of Memphis students, and those oh-so-delectable barbecue tofu nachos. It’s a tried-and-true template, one that’s been working for Tracks and its customers for almost four decades now. Mary Laws has been running the place alongside her husband, Bernard, since 2015, after buying Tracks from original owners Rick Johns and Peter Moon.
And Laws has her own history there. “I’m a U of M grad, and I’d started working at RP Tracks in 2004,” she says. “And I met Bernard there. I was a server, he was a dishwasher, so it was kind of like a fairy-tale story that Rick and Peter approached us to buy the place.”
And since taking over seven years ago, Laws has continued to make sure that Tracks is a place that anyone can come to for some relaxation and recreation. And maybe even to meet some new people. “We’ve got a large crowd Monday through Friday that comes to watch Jeopardy!,” she says. “And late at night hanging out at the bar or in the restaurant, it’s so easy to strike up a conversation with someone who is virtually a stranger to you.”
Laws says Tracks has grown the food side of the business since trimming down the menu so that the cooks could get things out more efficiently. “We only have eight or so feet of cooking space, so they were bending themselves into pretzels to accommodate the larger menu.” But one steadfast presence at Tracks has been the popular barbecue tofu nachos. It’s the perfect snack, and certainly a perfect choice for late-night diners. It’s a heaping bowl, with thin chips covered with all the regular fixings: jalapeños, tomatoes, lettuce, shredded cheese, and sour cream. But Tracks’ secret weapon added to the mix is the layer of black bean chili (carnivores can order meat chili instead) that accentuates the crispy tofu blocks. And there are plenty of other nacho customization options to find the right flavor.
“Those nachos are wonderful and delicious, and always have been,” says Laws. “But I also enjoy our barbecue chicken Gouda quesadilla, and I like to put hot sauce on there for some heat. And the RP Burger with cheddar cheese is my other go-to.”
And at RP Tracks, there’s almost always something for everyone. The menu is “all over the place, in a good way,” says Laws, boasting everything from quesadillas to nachos to burgers to sandwiches to salads. But the ace up Tracks’ sleeve is the wealth of vegetarian bar food options they have for late arrivals. There are the nachos, of course, but the sandwiches and quesadillas both have a separate “animal-friendly” section featuring more tofu and fresh vegetables. Even hot wings can be swapped out for tofu slices. “It’s really important we have that. In addition to being the place where I cut my teeth on drinking, it’s where I also grew to really appreciate vegetarian food.”
For now, Tracks’ kitchen is open until 12:30 a.m., with the bar closing half an hour later. While Tracks would stay open until 3 a.m. pre-Covid, Laws says they didn’t see much business during that last hour and likely won’t bring that back. However, they will be expanding their hours again soon, pushing the kitchen to 1:30 a.m., with closing at 2 a.m. “We’ve been getting everyone acclimated again to our new schedules,” says Laws. “And I think in mid-August, we’ll be ready to keep our kitchen open until 1:30.”
Laws’ push to return to later hours comes from her trouble finding places to eat late on her drive home. “I would leave Tracks at midnight and be driving around, and things just weren’t open. And I think that’s one of the ways Covid really shaped things. I realized, ‘My god, there’s not much late-night dining anymore! We’ve gotta stay open until 1:30 so that people have a place to go, a place to eat.’ And I think that’s something a lot of Memphians want.”
Tuning it Up: GOP state Senate candidate Brent Taylor at campaign kickoff last week with country singer John Rich (Photo: Jackson Baker)
As the August 4th countywide election cycle winds down, the marquee race is still, as before, that for district attorney general between Republican incumbent Amy Weirich and Democratic challenger Steve Mulroy. The race remains the focus of attention in local politics. It has also engendered significant statewide and national attention.
A quiet moment in a turbulent campaign (Photo: Jackson Baker)
The Tennessee Journal, a weekly which is the preeminent statewide source for political news across Tennessee, featured the race in its lead story for the July 15th issue. Editor Erik Schelzig recaps some of the significant charges and other back-and-forths of the contest, highlighting the two candidates’ major differences regarding the state’s new “truth-in-sentencing” law, which eliminates parole in several major violent-crime categories.
Weirich, who boasts her years-long efforts on behalf of passing the law, points with pride. Mulroy sees it as a case of vastly increasing state incarceration expenses while blunting possible rehabilitation efforts.
In the several recent debates between the two candidates, the challenger notes that his skepticism puts him on the same page regarding “truth-in-sentencing” as opponents like the American Conservative Union and GOP Governor Bill Lee, who declined to sign the bill, letting it become law without his signature. Weirich seizes upon Mulroy’s mentions of that fact as an opportunity to advertise her purported independent-mindedness, noting that she also disagrees with Lee (and the Republican supermajority) on such issues as open-carry gun legislation. “I don’t care what the American Conservative Union says,” she adds.
All that being said (and it’s consistent with her would-be crossover slogan, “Our DA”), the race as a whole is between Weirich’s right-of-center hard line and Mulroy’s highly reform-conscious point of view. Mulroy wants cash-bail reform and systematic post-conviction reviews, the latter including DNA testing. Weirich is open to modifications in those areas but not to major changes.
The two have battled over the matter of alleged racial disparity issues in the DA’s office, with Mulroy charging, among other things, that Weirich has an 85-percent white staff of attorneys prosecuting a defendant population that is 95 percent Black. Weirich says she’s trying to alter the ratio but cites the difficulty of competing with better-paying private law firms in efforts to acquire African-American legal talent.
Both contenders have seemingly forsworn the Marquis of Queensberry rules regarding the etiquette of competition. With no real evidence to base her claim on, Weirich’s ads consistently try to saddle Mulroy with the onus of being a “Defund the Police” enthusiast. He answers that he would like to see more police hired, and at higher salaries, and given “better training.” His ads portray Weirich as being a Trumpian (a stretch) and the “worst” district attorney in Tennessee, one saddled with several citations for misconduct from state overseeing bodies and with an ever-rising violent-crime rate during her 11-year tenure that is the worst in the nation.
The two candidates took turns in verbally pummeling each other in a series of almost daily formal debates the week before last. The venues were the Rotary Club of Memphis, the Memphis Kiwanis Club, and an Orange Mound citizens’ association. Neither gave any quarter, each attacking the other along lines indicated above.
Much of the aforementioned Tennessee Journal article is dedicated to the two candidates’ fundraising and campaign spending. In the second quarterly disclosure of the year (April through June), Weirich reported raising $130,400 and spending $240,400 — much of it on the Memphis consulting firm of Sutton Reid, where her blistering TV and radio ads are prepared. She began the quarter with nearly half a million dollars on hand and ended it with $361,00 remaining.
Mulroy raised $279,000 in the period, a sum which included a loan from him to his own campaign of $15,000. He spent $194,000 and had a remainder on hand of $159,000.
As noted by the Journal, Weirich has gotten almost all her funding from within Tennessee, all but $1,600. Mulroy, who has the avowed support of such celebrities as singer John Legend and author John Grisham, is also boosted by several national groups with a professed interest in criminal-justice reform. Some 35 percent of his funding has come from out of state.
One key venue for Mulroy is New York, where he has traveled twice recently, attending public occasions in tandem with such supporters as criminologist Barry Scheck, mega-lawyer Ben Crump, and entertainer Charlamagne Tha God. Mulroy’s travels and his funding sources are reportedly the target of a new Weirich TV spot which begins this week. It should be noted that the vast majority of Mulroy’s trips out of town during the campaign — all unpublicized until now — have been to Pensacola, where he drives down regularly to look in on his elderly mother.
With early voting about to expire and a week to go before the judgment day of August 4th, polling information is being held close to the vest by both principals, though Mulroy publicized an early one showing him with a 12-point lead.
A fact that looms large to all observers and to both participants and their parties: The position of district attorney general, is, as of now, the only major countywide position held by a Republican. Early voting statistics gave evidence of serious turnout efforts by both parties.
• There are other key races, to be sure. The race for county mayor, between Democratic incumbent Lee Harris and Republican challenger Worth Morgan has been something of a back-burner affair, with neither candidate turning on the jets full-blast in the manner of the DA race. Harris basically is resting on what he sees as a high productive record, and Morgan, though he challenges that, saying the county “deserves better,” has not featured many specifics beyond Morgan’s ill-based claim that Harris has — wait for it — defunded the police (strictly speaking, the Sheriff’s Department).
A recent TV ad shows Morgan in interview mode, chatting about his life and outlook and looking and sounding likable. Given Harris’ edge in incumbency and party base, that is probably not enough for now, but it does bolster Morgan’s name and image for later on.
In the race for Juvenile Court judge, Dan Michael’s incumbency works for him, while his opponent, city Judge Tarik Sugarmon, has a well-known local name and an active Democratic party base working on his behalf. Michael is heavily backed by the GOP in what is technically a nonpartisan race.
Few surprises are expected elsewhere on the ballot, though Democratic County Clerk Wanda Halbert, who has fumbled the issuance of new automobile plates, may get a scare (or worse) from Republican opponent Jeff Jacobs.
We’re hearing a lot about God in politics lately. Maybe not your god, especially if you’re Muslim or Buddhist or Jewish or, I don’t know, Episcopalian. No, the god that’s being shoved into our faces by the United MAGA Church is the American fundamentalist Christian god, the one who doesn’t approve of unmarried sex, homosexuals, abortion, interracial marriage, or even contraception. This god is a real hard-ass, and the MAGAs have attached themselves to him like a barnacle on a tugboat. (We’ll assume His pronoun is Him.)
This god was invented in backwoods American churches, where fast-talking evangelists did their best to guilt their flocks into obeisance and into donating money to “the church” before seducing the prettiest 15-year-old in the congregation and running off to dupe the next group of suckers.
As is often the case with successful small businesses in America, that model got leveraged and eventually morphed into the big mega-churches whose preachers fly private jets, live on palatial estates, and have television shows. The payoff is bigger but the game is the same — guilt and grift: “You poor schmucks are going to fry in eternal hellfire FOREVER if you don’t stop sinning. Here’s a list of stuff that’s bad. Don’t do any of it, even if most of it feels good. Like sex. Sex is really bad unless you’re heterosexually married and only doing it to have babies. Did I mention you need to send me money so we can stop all these other schmucks from sinning? In the name of JAYSUS, amen!” Millions of idiots buy into this.
All of this hustle is theoretically based on Christianity, which, applied properly, is a respectable religion, based on the life and example of one Jesus Christ of Nazareth, a poor man who lived in the Middle East a couple thousand years ago, and who, as far as I’m aware, never asked for money or said a word about abortion, guns, contraception, interracial marriage, or white supremacy (which is a good thing, since Jesus wasn’t white).
Mainly, as I recall from my Methodist raising, Jesus was against materialism (money-changers), for forgiveness — and for treating our fellow humans as we ourselves would like to be treated. If we did this, I was taught, we’d go to Heaven, where we’d see all the people in our lives again and hang out with them forever (which was a concept I spent many a night in my youth trying to get my head around).
But any religion is subject to perversion of its core beliefs, whether in the pursuit of money, power, or both. And make no mistake, nationalistic Evangelicalism is a perversion of Christianity. It has literally nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus. It’s a bizarre cult that believes a 10-year-old should be forced to carry a rapist’s baby to term, that everyone should carry guns, and whose political representatives are now passing laws prohibiting women from crossing a state line to get a medical procedure they disapprove of.
This Christian Taliban thinking led all but eight Republicans in Congress to vote last week against a bill guaranteeing the right to contraception. Think about it: Ninety percent of Congressional Republicans literally voted against guaranteeing people the right to buy condoms.
Also, last week: Georgia Congress-beast Marjorie Taylor Greene said on television: “We need to be the party of nationalism. I say it proudly. I’m a Christian Nationalist!” So were the Nazis, Marge.
Colorado Congress-gun Lauren Boebert said, “We need to get over this idea of the separation of church and state, because we’re a Christian nation.” The Founding Fathers would be surprised to learn that, LB.
And there was Florida Congress-putz Matt Gaetz, who offered the novel theory that women demanding abortion rights shouldn’t worry “because they’re all 5’2” and 300 pounds and no one’s going to want to impregnate them.” So, only hot chicks get abortion rights?
How deep does this crazy go? And more important, how far do we let these dangerous freaks go before we stand up and vote-shame them back into the guano-glutted bat-caves from whence they came? If we don’t take these people seriously — right now — we will regret it for the rest of our lives. They’ve gotten a taste of power (and money) and now they’re coming for our freedoms.
A few months ago, I wrote a Last Word column in this paper, titled “The Rent is Too Damn High.” At the time, the landlord of the house I’d been renting was showing the property to investors. They’d come into my personal space, take photographs of said space with my belongings in it, and leave as quickly as they came, with me wondering, “Will they buy this house and kick me out to flip it? Will they take over the property and lease and raise my rent?” With uncertainty looming like a dark cloud, I began to search the market for rentals to gain some sense of control over the situation, and a stark realization came to light: The rent in Memphis is too damn high.
I quickly learned that I’d been paying significantly less than what I’d be shelling out monthly moving into another rental in the city. The numbers shocked me, as I hadn’t paid much attention to the rising costs over the last couple years, being in place for as long as I had. According to a June 2022 Apartment List report, the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in Memphis stands at $1,174, an 11.6 percent increase over last year — and a 29.5 percent increase from the June 2020 average of $906. The most recent data from Dwellsy (February 2022) showed the median rent listed for a single-family home here sitting around $1,700, 55 percent higher than the same time last year — adding a shocking $605 to the monthly bill. Data from the 2020 United States Census Bureau showed median incomes in Memphis at $26,006 for individuals and $41,864 for households. Do you think those, too, have seen such sharp increases? In the last two years, how many of you received a 55 percent raise? Or even 11 percent?
As you can imagine, the prospect of this potential additional hit to my bank account had me stressed to the max. I suddenly shifted gears … it didn’t make sense to rent, not in this market, not anymore, ever maybe. Buying would be the way to go. I’d soon have as big a wake-up call in this arena as well. Zillow’s Home Value Index, which “only includes the middle price tier of homes,” shows the typical home value in Memphis at the end of June 2022 was $153,894 — a 21 percent increase over last year. That number in the June 2020 report was $107,000.
To be honest, I couldn’t find any decent homes near $150,000. And if I were to daydream about one even $100k more than that, it’d be contingent or pending about as soon as it was listed. The market was “hot,” despite rising mortgage rates (which, we touch on in this issue’s finance column, “Mortgage Math”) — and not in any way ideal for a buyer. So I did what any panic-prone, emotional decision-maker would do: I put an offer on the home I already lived in. If investors wanted it, shouldn’t I? The whole reason I was in this mess in the first place was because I didn’t want strangers in my space or to be forced to unexpectedly move or endure an exorbitant rent hike. And since another appointment had been made for the landlord’s “old friend” to come check the place out, I offered a little more than I thought I should — to really seal the deal. All I could think of was a line from one of my favorite Portlandia skits: “Get these people out of my house, Ron!” (Fittingly, the landlord’s name was Ron.)
Things became a blur pretty quickly after that. While I did get a good price, depending on who you ask, I bought at a horrible time for interest rates. And every problem the ancient home has now sticks out like a streaker in Walmart. It’s a too-small fixer-upper that hasn’t been properly cared for the 18 years my landlord owned it. So … perhaps I’m feeling some regrets. But hey, no one can come in unless I want them to. Take that!
With so much talk about low inventory — for rentals and homes for sale — and the cost of *gestures broadly at everything* increasing exponentially, almost in the blink of an eye, what are folks to do? I know I’m not the only one who’s felt this type of pain recently. I’ve had friends get the boot after the rental they lived in was sold to investors. I’ve heard of many home-buyers paying way over asking price.
For now, I’ve gotten off that ride. But it’s all still spinning out of control. Whatever the hell is going on, can someone slow it down?
We all just want a place to call home.
The Memphis Flyer is now seeking candidates for its editor position. Send your resume to hr@contemporary-media.com.
The 2022 Evolve Bank & Trust Cooper Young Festival, slated for Saturday, September 17th from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., has announced its musical lineup.
The headliner will be Bailey Bigger, backed by a band featuring Mark Stuart (bass guitar), Wyly Bigger (keyboards) and Danny Banks (drums).
Growing up in small town — Marion, Arkansas, just outside of Memphis, Tennessee — Bigger began writing and performing seriously in Memphis at the age of 14. It’s been quite a journey from that to Bigger’s debut full length album, Coyote Red, released by Madjack Records in March and featured in the Memphis Flyer‘s music column at the time.
At the time, we wrote of her strong-yet-delicate singing and evocative songwriting, with echoes of Joan Baez and similar artists. Bigger noted that when producing the album, Mark Stuart told her, “I think this record’s about you showing who you are, in a genuine, down-to-earth way.” It’s not to be missed. Visit baileybigger.com to learn more and find tour dates near you.
Here is the complete music lineup for the 2022 Cooper Young Festival:
Memphis Grizzlies Stage 12:30 pm Joy Dog – Danny & Joyce Green 1:30 pm Rachel Maxann 2:30 pm The Delta Project 3:30 pm Jay Jones 4:30 pm Generation Gap
Evolve Bank & Trust Stage 11:15 am SoundBox 12:15 pm Rodrick Duran 1:15 pm Elevation 2:15 pm The City Fathers 3:15 pm Chinese Connection Dub Embassy 4:15 pm Carlos Guitarlos 5:15 pm Headliner – Bailey Bigger
Michael Donahue enjoys a World Famous Huey Burger during Memphis Flyer's Burger Week (Credit: Michael LaRosa)
I thought I was doing pretty good eating more than one hamburger a day during Memphis Flyer’s Burger Week, which ends today, July 26th.
But after talking to Jack Heston, 60, I think I’m burger weak.
I ran into Heston at Grill Grabz food truck in front of the old Steak ‘n Shake on Hack’s Cross Road. I’ve been going around to the different participating restaurants and taking photos of people with their $6.99 burger specials. Heston, who was carrying a copy of the recent Burger Week issue of the Flyer with him, can eat the hamburgers several times a day during Burger Week. “I’ve done four a day,” he says. “This year, only three a day.
“I usually try to get an early lunch, most times an early dinner, and sort of a later dinner.”
And all of them featuring hamburgers.
Jack Heston at Grill Grabz (Credit: Michael Donahue)
If it’s his day off like it was that day, Heston says he eats four. “I haven’t eaten more than four in a day. Usually it’s three. It’s sort of hard.”
Heston is a dealer at Horseshoe Tunica. “Craps, usually.”
He makes Instagram posts about the hamburgers he eats during Burger Week. “I try to give a positive spin on all of them.”
Heston had to work the day Burger Week began, so he started the trail the next day at Pimento’s Kitchen & Market.
The Sweet Heat Burger at Pimento’s Kitchen & Market (Credit: Michael Donahue)
He then went to Farm Burger Memphis, which featured a hamburger topped with peaches and peppers. Heston describes the burger as “sweet and hot. I’d never had a Serrano pepper before.”
The Peach Burger at Farm Burger (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Heston and his buddy, James Griffith, usually hit the Burger Week spots, but Griffith had to go to Hot Springs, Arkansas that weekend. “He’s a nice guy. He can eat five times as much as me.”
Why does Heston like Burger Week so much? “I just think it’s a fun thing to do — go to places you probably have never been to.”
Tenero Cafe and Butcher was a new one for him. “That burger was monstrous. I was flabbergasted. Two patties.”
Stopping by Tenero Cafe and Butcher to try the Butcher’s Burger (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Heston usually orders more than the Burger Week special. “I almost always get a side or a beer. With a beer and a side I think I can burn off more beer calories than food calories.”
Here are more Burger Week photos taken around town:
Zoe Ungren enjoys a Huey Burger during Burger Week. (Credit: Michael Donahue)Danielle Chavers at Grill Grabz (Credit: Michael Donahue)World Famous Huey Burger (Credit: Michael Donahue)Dallon Cheesman at Grill Grabz (Credit: Michael Donahue)Chowing down at Pimento’s Kitchen & Market (Credit: Michael Donahue)The Royale at the Downtown location of Flying Saucer Draught Emporium (Credit: Michael Donahue)A Grill Grabz fan, Patrick Liggins ordered ribs on this visit. (Credit: Michael Donahue)Alesia Ingram and the Smokehouse Burger at Grill Grabz (Credit: Michael Donahue)The classic burger from Tops Bar-B-Que (Credit: Michael Donahue)Grill Grabz. I ate two of the Burger Week specials the same afternoon. (Credit: Michael Donahue)The Grill Grabz Smokehouse Burger (Credit: Michael Donahue) We Saw You
