Month: August 2022

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

October Surprises

Thaddeus Matthews

A phrase that has attached itself to presidential election years, especially between well-matched candidates struggling to get in the last and best word to the electorate, is “October Surprise.” That’s the name given to an unexpected event that sometimes occurs and sometimes doesn’t, but is always feared by each of the rival candidates.

The October Surprise, so called because it occurs just before the final vote takes place in early November, is sometimes carefully hatched by one of the candidates and sprung against the other. Sometimes it occurs all by itself, without any obvious prompting or advance management.

The late announcement in 2016 by FBI director James Comey that his agency was reopening its investigation of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails was an October Surprise. So was Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The one circumstance benefited Donald Trump, the other Barack Obama, the then-president whose emergency efforts were enabled thereby to come to the fore.

In the case of this week’s county election, one could speak of both a late July Surprise or an early August Surprise — both affecting the crucial and hard-fought race for district attorney general. The first was the brutal hijacking murder a week before last of beloved local pastor Autura Eason-Williams. The second was a controversy over the call-in appearance by incumbent GOP DA Amy Weirich, via Facebook and YouTube, on the talk show of “shock jock” Thaddeus Matthews.

The murder, committed by a 15-year-old who had been the beneficiary of a restorative-justice program, fed directly and unexpectedly into the ongoing debate between Weirich and Democratic opponent Steve Mulroy over the pros and cons of transferring violent youthful offenders to adult criminal court. An issue that had been discussed in statistical, largely hypothetical terms — with Weirich taking the hard line and Mulroy a reformist view — suddenly became very real and very concrete. It is fair to say that determining the right legal response proved a difficult task not only for the two candidates but for members of the deceased’s family and for on-the-fence voters as well.

Was Weirich’s discussion of the state’s new truth-in-sentencing law with Matthews, who is the subject of ongoing prosecutions by her office, as seen both on Facebook and on YouTube, an open-and-shut case of conflict of interest, as charged by Mulroy? Or, was it, as Matthews maintains, a simple matter of venting an informed view on a matter of public interest?

One thing is certain: Both of these circumstances could have had a seismic effect, whether small or large, and in whatever direction, on the outcome of a race which, in the well-established jargon of pol-watching, had been too close to call.

• One of the most unusual — and in many ways most endearing — endorsements administered during the run-up to the August 4th election occurred at a fundraiser back in July on behalf of David Pool, a judicial magistrate seeking to become the judge of Criminal Court, Division 6, otherwise known as felony drug court.

Before an audience including at least a score of other candidates for various offices at the East Memphis home of Dr. Kishore Arcot, Pool was steadfastly making his case. “What do you want in a Criminal Court judge?” he asked his audience rhetorically, then began dutifully listening to some of the likely answers to such a question: experience, dedication, knowledge of the law, etc., etc. Until he was stopped cold by an outburst from one of the several rows of listeners seated nearby.

“Cute!” came a loud and enthusiastic voice. “Cute!” the voice repeated. “That’s what we want!” As the stunned audience beamed in surprise, the even more surprised Pool, a performing musician in his spare time, bounded over to where fellow lawyer and supporter Ellen Fite was sitting and gave her an appreciative hug. Then, he walked back to where he’d been talking and there, sober as a judge, resumed his remarks and his recitation of judicial attributes, to the group at large.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

An Ideal Type

Typewriter under construction

I am building a typewriter.

Those who know me are aware of my interest in typing machines as I have collected a few over the years, including a century-old Underwood No. 3 and an even older Wellington No. 2. I also acquired one of the earliest Underwood electrics that is both ugly and far too heavy for one dilettante to pick up.

None of them work, but the allure is impossible to resist. My parents got me a portable (all italic type for some odd reason) that I pecked on until I took a proper touch-typing class in high school. I had decent speed and somewhat less decent accuracy. No matter, I typed papers for school — slowly as they had to be perfectly done, including two spaces after periods, precise indents, no strikeovers and no Liquid Paper. No time for keggers in college. We were tough kids for a reason.

Later on, I would master the glorious IBM Selectric with its distinctive golf-ball shaped typing element. I was getting into typefaces and fonts by then and collecting replica pages from Gutenberg Bibles.

But even as Gutenberg’s press changed the habits of monkish calligraphers, computers turned typewriters into relics and doorstops. Good for collecting and sentiment, not so much for conducting business instantaneously and worldwide.

You can still find small enclaves of typewriters in town. Burke’s Book Store is something of a petting zoo for hunters and peckers, with a variety of machines that amaze children who have never seen such things.

My latest typing machine project came in the form of a gift for Father’s Day. I have taken over the dining room table with the 2,079 tiny pieces of plastic that will soon become a Lego Typewriter.

What, you say? A real, working Lego typewriter? Oh, don’t be silly. It doesn’t actually type, but it’s not about hammering out a breaking news story on deadline. That’s what the Mac is for, even with its cursed butterfly keyboard. The Lego is about the design, the construction, the feel of a splendidly engineered, um, toy. Yes, that’s what it is — it’s a Lego after all. But it’s incredibly cool. All those little pieces snapping together into an intricate assembly and I get to preside over how it all comes together.

This is a project that is beautifully designed. The pieces fit together flawlessly and the 260-page instruction manual is an example of how to beautifully and clearly explain a how-to.

There is much to be said for showing it off as well. My half-assembled project was recently observed by some visiting teenagers who were in our house because their mother required it. They were bored and prepared to be even more bored as the visit went on — until they laid eyes on the work in progress. They were impressed, which is a difficult achievement with that demographic. In fact, everyone of any age who sees it experiences some level of astonishment.

It’s certainly not about my skill — I just follow instructions — but it’s the realization that the fundamental connectivity that is characteristic of Legos can be so cleverly realized. One part fits neatly into another, and after a while, all those thousands of tiny plastic bits come together into something that pretty much makes you want to smile.

And so, because this is a letter from an editor and we’re expected to discourse on serious things, I am compelled to make a serious connection. This being election week in Memphis, we can make an imperfect comparison to the importance of voting. Nobody is required to vote, but for those who do, it’s part of being on the team that shapes our society.

This particular Shelby County cycle has a ballot that has around 2,079 choices, and you would be well advised to take an instruction manual, or perhaps just a cheat sheet, with you into the voting booth. It gets you into the game and gives you a say in how it should play out. (Let’s start with having a better way of choosing judges, shall we?)

But you can’t construct your assembly without getting familiar with the parts, the process, and what you want to be the end result. Whether building a toy typewriter or choosing who you want to run a government, you are required to work at it.

Take the time. Filter out the theatrical outrages from this side or that. Beware the power hungry who smile too much. Determine who really wants to make our government more responsive. Reward competence. Make sure the pieces fit together.

And take pride in your achievement.

The Memphis Flyer is now seeking candidates for its editor position. Send your resume to hr@contemporary-media.com.

Categories
We Recommend We Saw You

We Saw You: Take Me to the River

Matthew Burdine of Mississippi River Expeditions with one of his canoes (Credit: Michael Donahue)

Beat the heat. Get out on the river with Matthew Burdine for a professionally guided canoe trip on one of his Mississippi River Expeditions.

“We guide canoe trips down the Mississippi River in our big multi-person Voyaguer canoes, which include a custom-made sailing canoe,” says Burdine, 36.

In spring and fall, he offers “multi-day camping trips” on the mighty Mississippi: “Camping on islands, sleeping under the stars, and cooking meals over the fire.”

For now, Burdine offers half-day trips. “With the heat, we’re offering these sunset cruises and morning cruises in the coolest part of the day. It’s always cooler on the river. We all meet at the marina of the Memphis Yacht Club. From there, we’ll shuttle up river where we put in at the mouth of the Wolf River. From there we paddle across to Loosahatchie Bar. We’ll swim, hang out and explore the beaches of the island.” And river-goers get to eat: “I do hors d’oeuvres. River charcuterie.”

The sunset cruises are BYOB, Burdine says. “We’ll be paddling underneath the bridge to downtown Memphis with the city glowing as the sun is setting.”

Morning trips basically follow the same formula. Sunset trips are from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and the morning trips are 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Matthew Burdine of Mississippi River Expeditions (Credit: Michael Donahue)

In early September, they will resume full-day trips and camping trips, Burdine says. “We meet in the midmorning. It’s about a six-hour trip. From there, we put in at Shelby Forest and canoe 17 miles back down to Memphis while we stop on islands and have lunch, swim, explore all the main and back channels.

“Each canoe holds up to 14 people. We’ll take out any size group, whether it’s one person or 30. They’re all professionally guided custom trips.

Burdine also is doing yoga retreats, friends and family groups, youth groups, and corporate retreats. These include “full moon floats,” “creative retreats,” and “supper club on the river.” Check Misssissippi River Expeditions on Instagram and Facebook. “Before school starts is the ideal family trip,” he says. “Ages six and up.”

Burdine, who was born in Greenville, Mississippi, finished his MBA at the University of Mississippi at Oxford. Instead of pursuing a career in finance, he moved to Colorado, where he became a white water river guide and ski instructor at Vail. He describes himself as “a Mississippi native who has spent the past 10 years in Colorado guiding white water rivers in the mountains and deserts of the west.”

He’s spent thousands of hours on “big moving water.” In the fall of 2015, he began a six-month source-to-sea solo trip taking his time canoeing the length of the Mississippi River. 

Mississippi River Expeditions is a partner and is affiliated with Quapaw Canoe Company out of Clarksdale, Mississippi.

 “It’s been really cool and amazing this past year to take people from Memphis down the river who have never seen Memphis from that point of view.”

To book a trip, visit canoememphis.com.

We Saw You
Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Music Video Monday: “How Does That Make You Feel?” by The Stupid Reasons

Looking around, it’s pretty obvious America is in the midst of a full-blown mental-health crisis. More people are discovering therapy to help them deal with the world. But what happens when you start to have inappropriate feelings for your therapist? Who do you talk to about that?

This scenario can be especially hard if your therapist is chanteuse Louise Page. That’s the conundrum The Stupid Reasons‘ Gus Carrington finds himself in in “How Does That Make You Feel?”

The Stupid Reasons’ third video (after the slickly animated “The Moon (From Heaven)” which the Flyer covered last November) was directed by Justin Malone. It stars Carrington on the couch and Page as his beautiful counsellor. Can The Stupid Reasons keep it professional?

You can find out at the Belltower Coffeehouse on Thursday, August 4 when Carrington and bandmate Daniel Wasmund—along with Carrington’s dad Charley on drums—will celebrate the release of their new album (Petunias). Meanwhile, here’s the video.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Is This an August Surprise?

Image of Trustee Regina Newman

With Election Day coming this Thursday, August 4th, I’m making allowances this week for candidates’ versions of an “August Surprise.” That’s adapted from the well-established term “October Surprise,” having to do with late-breaking revelations that are sometimes (but not always) something sensational that is released, effected, or revealed by one campaign in order to embarrass another campaign with the aim of turning the tide of a race.

Steve Basar, the Republican nominee for the office of Trustee, offers up this mailing as a case in point. What Basar suggests is that his opponent, incumbent Democratic Trustee Regina Newman, is mixing in campaign materials with tax bills she’s sending out.

Asked about the insert, Newman audibly suppressed a chuckle and said the insert explains various standard services offered by the Trustee’s Department to the taxpayer regarding a variety of potential issues. Here is the brochure, folded out:

Newman, meanwhile, sends along a specimen of a similar informational brochure sent out from the office of her predecessor, former Trustee David Lenoir.

Categories
Music Music Blog

Cobra Man Kick Off August with a Steamy Slam Bang

Sarah Rayne and Andrew Harris of Cobra Man (Credit: Brian Ziff)

The California skateboard scene knows how to party. Exhibit A: The self-described “Los Angeles Power Disco” of Cobra Man, who play Memphis tonight at the Hi-Tone Cafe.

It was sunny sidewalk surfers that birthed the synth-heavy dance group, when Andrew Harris and Sarah Rayne first collaborated for a video, “New Driveway,” by The Worble skateboard company in 2017. That collaboration felt so perfect that they built a band around it — now grown to seven members. And it felt right to Goner Records, who released both that soundtrack and its follow up, Toxic Planet.

And, unlike most soundtracks, the sound is intoxicatingly hedonistic, a heady blend of fat analog synth riffs with soaring choruses that plays like a lexicon of ’80s synth pop, distilled to its throbbing dance core. In memory of the recently departed Alan Hayes, I’d even put them in the company of Memphis’ darkly synthetic dance pioneers of the late ’70s and ’80s, Calculated X. And yet Cobra Man’s perch from the heights of the 21st Century lends them a more brazen take on the genre. As Harris told Thrasher magazine in 2020, “We are definitely being shamelessly grandiose. We’re leaning into all of our guilty pleasures at one time, which some people think is corny but I honestly just don’t give a shit.”

It’s that last sentiment that puts Cobra Man, and thus their commitment to the party vibe, over the top. The blended textures of thick, chorusey keyboards, riff rock guitar, and unrelenting rhythms are true to their “Los Angeles Power Disco” tag, but one is never quite sure where they’ll take it.

Cobra Man, with opener Snooper from Nashville (slated for their own Goner release) play the Hi-Tone Cafe Monday, August 1, also featuring the premiere of a new Worble skate video. Doors 8 p.m.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

CROWN Act Bans Discrimination on Natural Hairstyles

Photo by Good Faces on Unsplash

The struggles of embracing natural hairstyles in the workplace has come to an end in Tennessee.

This year, state lawmakers passed the CROWN Act, which stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.” The new law prohibits companies from discrimination based on an employee’s hairstyle.

“For decades, Black hair has been unjustly policed as too ’unprofessional’ or ’unkempt’ for public spaces, such as classrooms and workplaces,” said Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis), the sponsor of the CROWN Act bill.

When the law passed here, Tennessee joined 15 U.S. states and the U.S. Virgin Islands in passing similar legislation. A CROWN Act bill was passed by the U.S. House in March and introduced in the Senate. The Senate bill was referred to the Judiciary Committee but has not seen action since March.    

Porsha Hernandez, a graduate of the University Memphis said she struggled with her natural hair. 

“It is actually sad because I first experienced this in middle [school] when I flat-ironed my hair and damaged it to fit in with the other girls,” Hernandez said. “My hair was so frayed that I had to cut it all off when I was at a comfortable age. When I did the big chop, people used to think I was another gender sometimes or make fun of me, which hurt my self-esteem at first. But I realized I’m beautiful either way, with or without hair.” 

The CROWN Act was Hernandez’ platform last year when she sported her natural hair in a University of Memphis beauty pageant with the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity. During her talent performance, she presented a poem about her natural hair and brought awareness to the importance of embracing one’s hair. She remembers people seeing her natural hair and wondering if she planned to wear it during the pageant. 

Photo courtesy: Porsha Hernandez

”They were like, ’Is she gonna do her hair?’” she said. “My friends would tell them, ‘she is standing for the CROWN Act.”

Hernandez was crowned Miss Delta Nu 2021.

When the law was signed by Governor Bill Lee this year, Akbari called it “a big day for any Tennessean who has ever been told their hair looks unprofessional.”

“No one should ever have to experience discrimination because of the hair that grows out of their head,” Akbari said.

Under the new law, an employee may complain to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development if their right to wear their hair naturally is violated.

Hernandez urges people to always embrace their natural hair.

“Woman or man, wear your hair because it defines you, [whether] your hair defies gravity or plays along with it,” Hernandez said. “Your hair is natural and natural cannot be threatened. It cannot be changed. It is who you are, so show them you.”

Hernandez is elated about the new law and believes “it will expose all cultures to the ’new’ natural. 

“It will show them the authenticity of people and it will bring more respect in the workplace,” she said. “It will show them that not all shapes are the same.”