Month: May 2023

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Fun Stuff Metaphysical Connection

Metaphysical Connection: A Healing Source

Photo: David Becker | Unsplash

The summer solstice may not occur until June 21st, but summer is officially here in Memphis. We can look forward to high temperatures and humidity for the next few months, with little relief, with one exception: water. Being able to cool off in a pool, water slide, sprinkler, or lake has been the saving grace of Memphis summers my whole life.

Memphis is known for its water. We sit above an aquifer that supplies our area with sweet, soft water, but that is not the only interesting part of Memphis’ water story. In the 1800s, the city of Raleigh, Tennessee, now the Raleigh neighborhood in the northern part of the city, was known for its healing spring waters. There is a story that in the early 1800s, a family was traveling along the stagecoach road, which is now James Road, and stopped overnight because their baby had fallen ill. There was a natural spring nearby and the family bathed the baby in the spring, hoping to ease its discomfort. Supposedly the next day, the baby had completely recovered, and that began the tales of the healing waters of Raleigh.

In 1842 the first spa was built, and in 1892 the Duke family of North Carolina built a spectacular inn off of what is now James Road. The Duke family built a fanciful retreat with gazebos, stone walkways, and a ballroom where orchestras and dances were held regularly, all with electricity and indoor plumbing. It was named the Raleigh Inn and was the place to go to be seen in society and also to partake of the healing spring waters. After about 10 years, the water table in Raleigh dropped and the springs dried up.

Memphis water still has healing benefits, as does all water. It helps keep our bodies hydrated and nourished, especially during the summer, and historically water has been known by many cultures to offer healing and energy to people who partake of it mindfully. Some believe that water has the ability to hold and carry energy and prayers and to cleanse. Water is the source of all life and is a powerful medicine.

To take advantage of all the benefits water has to offer us, partake of your water intentionally. Next time you drink water, put an intention into it. Bless it with the power of good health, or mental clarity, or whatever you need. The water will hold that intention and you will absorb it when you drink. If you have a water bottle that you use regularly, you can write an affirmation or create a sigil and put it on the water bottle to empower the water there. You can change your affirmation as often as you like and always have blessed water with you.

Many people are familiar with the idea of creating and drinking moon water. You simply fill up a cup or jar with water, and place it near a window where the moonlight will shine onto it, blessing and empowering the water with lunar energies. You can also do this with the sun and create sun water.

Water is a powerful cleanser, which is why so many cultures incorporate it into their traditions. When done mindfully, a bath or shower can cleanse negative energy from your body and spirit, leaving you energetically cleansed afterwards. You can even enhance your spiritual baths with water that has been blessed in the sun or moon, or with specific intentions. Moving water is best for cleansing or the releasing of prayers, as the water will run away from you and out into the greater water source, carrying the energy to a place it can be cleansed and healed, or to where the Universe can hear and answer your prayers.

Regardless of how we use it, water is important to life. We must respect it and our water sources and do our best to cleanse and heal the water so that it can continue to cleanse and heal us. As Chief Seattle said, “We are part of the earth and it is part of us. … Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.”

Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.

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At Large Opinion

Targeted

Pride Flag Photo: Cecilie Johnsen | Unsplash

To stimulate sales for Pride Month (June), Target stores around the country put up displays of LGBTQ-centric clothing. Customers in some stores were offended and showed their displeasure by knocking down the Pride merchandise, angrily confronting sales clerks, and posting threatening videos on social media. Target’s response to the vandalism and intimidation was to remove entirely some of its Pride merchandise, and move other items from displays at the front of the store to less-prominent areas.

“Since introducing this year’s collection, we’ve experienced threats impacting our team members’ sense of safety and well-being while at work,” Target said in a statement last week. “Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior.” In other words, Target gave in to the wishes of a loud minority of bigots and bullies who created those “volatile circumstances.”

And we let them.

There were no major counter-protests of Target’s actions from LGBTQ activists. There were no cries of outrage from those of us with LGBTQ friends, co-workers, and family members (which is all of us). We just let it happen. Oh well, who needs a rainbow T-shirt, anyway, right?

This is how fascists take over a country: one small victory at a time. They are the would-be thought police, the Christian Nationalist Taliban, afraid of anything that challenges their tiny-minded view of the world. They are easily manipulated by leaders who stoke their fears and bigotry.

Sadly, there are now plenty of would-be autocrats in this country eager to lead the charge — one small victory at a time: They ban books about Black history, even about heroes like Rosa Parks. They prohibit the viewing of Michelangelo’s sculpture of David. They try to fire a teacher who shows a fifth-grade class a Disney movie suitable for 8-year-olds. They want to force every pregnant woman to give birth. They shoot cases of beer. They make white-supremacist noises on social media and cable news. Their game plan is to intimidate a pliant majority and fire up their own ignorant base in the process.

It’s time to say enough, time to stop conceding ground that was hard-won over decades to racists, bigots, misogynists, and other assorted morons seeking to force their prejudices upon us and our children. It’s time to emulate a group in Florida that fought back when the Escambia School Board banned a book called And Tango Makes Three, a true story of two male penguins, Roy and Silo, who lived in New York’s Central Park Zoo and raised an adopted chick. The book was banned at the insistence of one parent who said she was concerned “a second-grader would read this book, and that idea would pop into the second grader’s mind … that these are two people of the same sex that love each other.”

A group of parents, book publishers, authors, and PEN America stood up and said, “Enough.” They filed suit against the school board, alleging that the ban restricted books “based on their disagreement with the ideas expressed, an orthodoxy of opinion that violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. … State censors are spiriting books off shelves in a deliberate attempt to suppress diverse voices. In a nation built on free speech, this cannot stand.” Hopefully, a judge will agree.

But lawsuits are just one tool in the toolbox. Confrontation at every turn is how this hateful stuff gets stifled. Bullies understand the power of numbers and volume. Progressives need to show out in numbers and stand up to these repressive tactics at every opportunity.

The only reason Governor Bill Lee called for an August special session to deal with gun reform (of the mildest possible sort) is because thousands of outraged citizens filled the streets of Nashville for days at a time after the Covenant School shooting. Now, the Tennessee legislature, which has essentially gerrymandered true democracy out of existence, is trying to cancel the special session, saying it’s a “publicity stunt” that will incite “the national woke mob.”

As a member in good standing of the National Woke Mob™, I say it’s well past time for us to get “incited.” And stay woke. We’re all Targets now.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Dancing Peppers Salsa

David, Tracy, and Sidney Murrell (Photo: Michael Donahue)

I can personally vouch for at least two Dancing Peppers Salsa flavors.

I took a jar of Memphis style, a barbecue sauce-flavored salsa, to a dinner party. It was a huge hit. The hostess couldn’t get enough.

The next day, I took a jar of the mild chili lime to a kindergarten graduation reception. A friend loved a particular taste, which she couldn’t identify. It sets the salsa apart, she says. (I later found out it’s the fresh poblano peppers.)

This is all probably great news to native Memphians David and Tracy Murrell, Dancing Peppers Salsa owners and founders.

David, 66, who was an engineer at Sharp Manufacturing Company, retired as a lab technician at ABB. Tracy, 59, was at International Paper for 11 years.

Dancing Peppers Salsa “is a hobby that we turned into a side business,” Tracy says. Their son, Sidney, 26, handles the social media and deliveries.

Photo: David Murrell

David got the salsa bug in the 1980s after trying Pace salsa for the first time during a trip to Texas. “I had never had salsa before,” he says.

He began to make his own salsa by looking at the ingredients on the jar. “The main ingredient was canned tomatoes. I also used tomato sauce, a little tomato paste. I heated it up and put in onions and garlic. It started with that. My main spice probably at that time was cumin. And chili powder and salt and pepper. No cilantro or anything. Just a basic type of salsa.”

David didn’t get his salsa to taste like Pace’s until he added bell peppers. But he discovered new spices, including Mexican oregano, on a business trip to Monterrey, Mexico. He began adding those to his salsa.

Tracy was a fan of David’s salsa. “I loved it,” she says. “I’d rather have chips and salsa than popcorn and Coke.”

David kept tweaking. And he acquired a name for himself. “I was kind of just ‘the salsa guy.’ That’s what I did.”

In late 2010, he dropped off a jar of his salsa at the old Easy Way produce distribution office on Mendenhall. He also left a note with the secretary that read, “If you’re interested in putting this in your stores, give me a call.”

A month later, he got a call from the owner of Easy Way. He said he wanted 50 cases. He asked David, “How far along are you with this? Have you got a label? Have you got a co-packer?”

David replied: “I have nothing but a recipe.”

But David eventually got his ducks in a row and began selling his salsa under the brand name Rojo Gold in 2011. But he later rebranded because the name was too close to another company.

The Murrells’ medium salsa, which has a pepper blend to give it a little kick, was the first flavor. “It took me forever to get the first one made. The medium hot recipe came out in about a week. I added some habanero and some chipotle powder.”

The Memphis style flavor originated after David and Tracy visited Memphis Italian Festival. They were still hungry when they got home, so David pureed some commercial barbecue sauce with some of their salsa. They loved it.

The barbecue sauce recipe he now uses is based on one from his friend’s mother. “I always loved her barbecue sauce. It’s like our Memphis style. Sweet and spicy.”

His recipe includes tomatoes, jalapeños, brown sugar, white sugar, molasses, onions, garlic, and then the barbecue spices.

Mild chili lime is the latest Dancing Peppers Salsa flavor. In addition to fresh poblano peppers, the salsa includes fresh onion, garlic, and lime juice. It also includes ancho chili pepper.

Naomi’s homestyle marinara, which uses San Marzano tomatoes, is just the latest salsa idea from the Murrells. And the blend is based on one of David’s mother’s Italian recipes.

Dancing Peppers Salsa is now in about 175 stores, including selected Kroger stores.

David has other Dancing Peppers Salsa business ideas dancing around in his head. But he’s not ready to reveal all of them just yet. For now, he’d like to get Dancing Peppers Salsa into more states. But, he says, “I don’t want to get stressed out. I like low stress. I want to keep it manageable.”

Categories
Astrology Fun Stuff

Free Will Astrology: Week of 06/01/23

ARIES (March 21-April 19): History tells us that Albert Einstein was a brilliant genius. After his death, the brain of the pioneer physicist was saved and studied for years in the hope of analyzing the secrets of why it produced so many great ideas. Science writer Stephen Jay Gould provided a different perspective. He said, “I am less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” I bring this to your attention, Aries, in the hope it will inspire you to pay closer attention to the unsung and underappreciated elements of your own life — both in yourself and the people around you.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Human life sometimes features sudden reversals of fortune that may seem almost miraculous. A twist in my own destiny is an example. As an adult, I was indigent for 18 years — the most starving artist of all the starving artists I have ever known. Then, in the course of a few months, all the years I had devoted to improving my craft as a writer paid off spectacularly. My horoscope column got widely syndicated, and I began to earn a decent wage. I predict a comparable turn of events for you in the coming months, Taurus — not necessarily in your finances, but in a pivotal area of your life.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I am weary of gurus who tell us the ego is bad and must be shamed. In my view, we need a strong and healthy ego to fuel our quest for meaning. In that spirit and in accordance with astrological omens, I designate June as Celebrate Your Ego Month for you Geminis. You have a mandate to unabashedly embrace the beauty of your unique self. I hope you will celebrate and flaunt your special gifts. I hope you will honor your distinctive desires as the treasures they are. You are authorized to brag more than usual!

CANCER (June 21-July 22): One study reveals that British people own a significant amount of clothing they never wear. Other research suggests that the average American woman has over a hundred items of clothing but considers just 10 percent of them to be “wearable.” If your relationship to your wardrobe is similar, Cancerian, it’s a favorable time to cull unused, unliked, and unsuitable stuff. You would also benefit from a comparable approach to other areas of your life. Get rid of possessions, influences, and ideas that take up space but serve no important purpose and are no longer aligned with who you really are.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In July 1969, Leo astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on the moon. But he almost missed his chance. Years earlier, his original application to become part of NASA’s space exploration team arrived a week past the deadline. But Armstrong’s buddy, Dick Day, who worked at NASA, sneaked it into the pile of applications that had come in time. I foresee the possibility of you receiving comparable assistance, Leo. Tell your friends and allies to be alert for ways they might be able to help you with either straightforward or surreptitious moves.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Great shearwaters are birds that travel a lot, covering 13,000 miles every year. From January to March, they breed in the South Atlantic Ocean, about halfway between Africa and South America. Around May, they fly west for a while and then head north, many of them as far as Canada and Greenland. When August comes, they head east to Europe, and later they migrate south along the coast of Africa to return to their breeding grounds. I am tempted to make this globe-trotting bird your spirit creature for the next 12 months. You may be more inclined than ever before to go on journeys, and I expect you will be well rewarded for your journeys. At the very least, I hope you will enjoy mind-opening voyages in your imagination.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): One of the central myths of Western culture is the Holy Grail. For over 800 years, storytellers have spun legends about the search for a precious chalice with magical qualities, including the power to heal and offer eternal youth. Sober scholars are more likely to say that the Holy Grail isn’t an actual physical object hidden away in a cave or catacomb, but a symbol of a spiritual awakening or an enlightening epiphany. For the purposes of your horoscope, I’m going to focus on the latter interpretation. I suspect you are gearing up for an encounter with a Holy Grail. Be alert! The revelations and insights and breakthroughs could come when you least expect them.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): June is Dare to Diminish Your Pain Month for you Scorpios. I hope you will aggressively pursue measures to alleviate discomfort and suffering. To address the physical variety, how about acupuncture or massage? Or supplements like boswellia, turmeric, devil’s claw root, white willow bark, and omega-3 fatty acids? Other ideas: sunshine, heating pad, warm baths with Epsom salts, restorative sleep, and exercise that simulates natural endorphins. Please be equally dynamic in treating your emotional and spiritual pain, dear Scorpio. Spend as much money as you can afford on skillful healers. Solicit the help of empathetic friends. Pray and meditate. Seek out in activities that make you laugh.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): A hungry humpback whale can hold more than 15,000 gallons of water in its mouth at once — enough to fill 400 bathtubs. In a funny way, their ability reminds me of you right now. You, too, have a huge capacity for whatever you feel like absorbing and engaging with. But I suggest you choose carefully what you want to absorb and engage with. Be open and receptive to only the most high-quality stuff that will enrich your life and provide a lot of fun. Don’t get filled up with trivia and nonsense and dross.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Funny story: A renowned Hollywood movie mogul was overheard at a dinner party regaling an aspiring actor with a long monologue about his achievements. The actor couldn’t get in a word edgewise. Finally, the mogul paused and said, “Well, enough about me. What do you think of me?” If I had been in the actor’s place, I might have said, “You, sir, are an insufferable, grandiose, and boring narcissist who pathologically overestimates your own importance and has zero emotional intelligence.” The only downside to speaking my mind like that would be that the mogul might ruin my hopes of having a career in the movie business. In the coming weeks, Capricorn, I hope you will consistently find a middle ground between telling the brazen truth to those who need to hear it and protecting your precious goals and well-being.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): When faced with important decisions, most of us benefit from calling on all forms of intelligence. Simply consulting our analytical mind is not sufficient. Nor is checking in with only our deep feelings. Even drawing from our spunky intuition alone is not adequate. We are most likely to get practical clarity if we access the guidance of our analytical mind, gut feelings, and sparkly intuition. This is always true, but it’s extra relevant now. You need to get the full blessing of the synergistic blend. PS: Ask your body to give you a few hints, too!

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Has your intuition been nudging you to revise and refine your sense of home? Have you been reorganizing the domestic vibes and bolstering your stability? I hope so. That’s what the cosmic rhythms are inviting you to do. If you have indeed responded to the call, congratulations. Buy yourself a nice homecoming present. But if you have resisted the flow of life’s guidance, please take corrective measures. Maybe start by reorganizing the décor and furniture. Clean up festering messes. Say sweet things to your housemates and family members. Manage issues that may be restricting your love of home.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

National Insecurity

Photo: Franck | Unsplash

High-tech spying is in the news because of the one-sided, hypocritical debate in Congress on whether the popular app TikTok is actually a tool for Chinese government data collection on American users. The sensitivity of the issue has to do not only with rivalry with China but also the fact that the U.S. government has recently been the target of hackers. In November 2021 President Biden banned use of Pegasus, a powerful Israeli-made surveillance tool, by all U.S. government agencies. His order came in the wake of two developments: hackers who used Pegasus to break into the phones of some State Department employees, and investigative journalism that revealed use of Pegasus by many governments, democratic as well as autocratic, to break into the cell phones of political opponents and human rights activists.

As the New York Times recently found, not all U.S. agencies have apparently gotten the message; an unnamed government agency is said to be using the nearly undetectable surveillance device in Mexico. Meantime, the phones of 50 more government employees have been hacked. The U.S. case against TikTok, however, sidesteps two matters: the government’s own spying on citizens under cover of law, and the questionable political motives that seem to dictate the specific effort to kill TikTok. Congress members are far more concerned about the U.S. government as victim of spying than as perpetrator. We’ve been reminded of that with the top-secret documents hacked by an Air Force reservist that revealed U.S. spying on various allies as well as on Russia. That spying is widely considered legitimate, but Congress members prefer to forget the long history of government spying on unsuspecting citizens, a history that goes well beyond the Cold War. Various agencies — Homeland Security, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the State Department — have monitored social media to report on “national security” dangers. Leaders of Black Lives Matter, left and right political parties and resistance groups, immigrants from Muslim and socialist countries, environmental activists — the list of targeted groups is long. To that list should be added the mainstream social media — Facebook, Twitter, Google — that have given government agencies access to users’ personal information and communications. Their data collection probably exceeds TikTok’s, but somehow they are not considered national security threats.

Legislation passed with strong bipartisan support in Congress has cemented the government’s right to invade privacy, most recently to combat terrorism. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 permits electronic and other means of surveillance of U.S. citizens suspected of being “agents of foreign powers.” A FISA court, consisting of 11 federal district judges appointed by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, considers applications to carry out surveillance and may issue warrants based on probable cause. FISA has been amended several times — the USA Freedom Act (2015) is the latest version — but has been challenged as an unconstitutional violation of personal liberty. That’s because catching terrorists was used to justify creation of a huge database that went well beyond counterterrorism.

The Freedom Act puts some limits on metadata collection but still has provisions for warrantless surveillance, for instance against whistleblowers such as Edward Snowden. Courts have rarely ruled against U.S. government intrusion, usually when national security is the justification. But then there’s the 2013 case in which the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, decided that Amnesty International lacked standing to challenge FISA. The case was brought against James Clapper, then director of national intelligence.

To judge from the virulence of the rhetoric, TikTok is one of China’s biggest threats to U.S. national security. Congress members actually seem to believe that killing off TikTok would be a major victory over a malevolent foreign power — a way to “protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party,” as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy put it. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese technology company, but its CEO claims the company does not share data with the Chinese government, has independent management, and is willing to store its U.S. data in the U.S.

Now I have to say that I have never used TikTok, nor do I even know anyone who does. But the roughly 150 million Americans who use it swear by it; TikTok has become an icon of U.S. culture. A number of countries, including the European Union, Denmark, New Zealand, and India, have restricted government use of TikTok or banned it altogether. But I have yet to see evidence that TikTok is channeling Chinese propaganda or amassing anyone’s personal data to be off-loaded to Beijing. Yet Congress members, and the Biden administration, are determined either to ban TikTok or force its sale, which the Chinese government opposes on the grounds that would harm investments in the U.S. The political lineup against TikTok mirrors the bipartisan consensus in Congress that is hostile to most anything Chinese made or owned.

Allowing TikTok to continue operating but ensuring that its database resides in a U.S. server such as Oracle would seem to be a reasonable answer for those who insist TikTok is a security threat. At one time the administration supported that idea.

But now we learn that Biden has “endorsed a bipartisan Senate bill that would give the Commerce Department the clear power to ban any app that endangered Americans’ security.”

That’s the authoritarian solution, but it would probably satisfy the China hawks, who love the prospect of turning public attention away from America’s real security issues. Their posturing on TikTok may fool some people, but far from strengthening national security, it reveals how insecure government leaders are when dealing with China.

Mel Gurtov, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Portland State University and blogs at In the Human Interest.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

More Than 25,000 Third Graders Tested Last Week to Avoid Being Held Back

Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash

More than half of Tennessee third graders at risk of being held back because of their reading test scores took another test last week to try to advance to fourth grade without summer school or tutoring.

The state began offering the retest last Monday. By Friday, 25,304 third graders had submitted a second reading assessment, said Brian Blackley, a spokesman for the state education department.

Preliminary scores from the initial test in the spring indicated that about 60 percent of Tennessee’s 74,000 third-graders could be at risk of being held back under a new state retention policy for third graders who struggle with reading. But that number is before factoring in exemptions under the law.

The testing do-over marks the end of a pivotal school year for third graders, who were kindergartners in 2020 when the pandemic shuttered school buildings and caused unprecedented learning disruptions. 

A 2021 law enacted a tough new retention policy starting this school year for students who don’t test as proficient readers by the end of third grade. The law also created several learning intervention programs to help students catch up.

Since the 2022-23 retention policy is based on the results of a single test under the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, retesting using a similar “TCAP-style test” was part of the state’s plan for giving third graders another opportunity to improve their score.

The retesting window continues through June 5th, but schools were expected to complete most of the do-overs this week so families can get their students’ results back sooner.

State officials have pledged that test vendor Pearson will return new scores within 48 hours after submission.

To get promoted to the fourth grade, third graders who who score as “approaching” reading proficiency must either attend a summer program with a 90 percent attendance rate, then show adequate growth on a test administered at the end of the program; or they must take advantage of state-funded tutoring throughout the 2023-24 school year.

Third graders who score in the bottom category of readers known as “below” must participate in both intervention programs to get promoted to fourth grade. 

Summer learning camps start as soon as next week at some schools, although the schedule varies by district. For instance, Nashville’s program starts on June 1st, while Memphis-Shelby County Schools launches its summer learning academies on June 20th.

This week’s retests, via the state’s online Schoolnet platform, started off bumpy in some districts due to technical issues but smoothed out after the first day, Blackley said.

There were “isolated tech issues” last Monday in some districts that were “fully resolved,” Blackley said. “Our testing vendor, Pearson, has been troubleshooting effectively to manage and will continue to do so throughout the entire window,” he said.

Blackley added that technical problems will not delay the return of scores.

Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Categories
From My Seat Sports

Arm of Gold

Masyn Winn (photo courtesy Memphis Redbirds)

It was one of those rare plays you see on a baseball field that makes no impact in the box score . . . but remains unforgettable. On a Tuesday night in mid-April, the Memphis Redbirds were hosting the Indianapolis Indians at AutoZone Park. Playing second base for Memphis, Masyn Winn took a cutoff throw in short right field. An Indian base-runner was cruising home from third base, not so much as looking where the baseball might be. Winn turned and fired a heat-seeking spheroid to the catcher, who tagged the Indians’ runner . . . just after he touched home plate. The throw covered at least 140 feet, maybe 150. (For perspective, the distance from third base to first is 127 feet.) There was no “hump” in the throw. It arrived in the catcher’s mitt shoulder height, precisely where Winn released it. And it arrived there fast.

“A lot of guys aren’t running anymore,” notes Winn with a grin sly beyond his years. “Coaches don’t send them. [My arm] is what I’m known for. But sometimes it still catches guys by surprise. Most [infielders] would just eat that ball, but I thought I had a chance.” 

Merely 21 years old and primarily a shortstop, Winn is the 48th-ranked prospect in his sport according to Baseball America. He’s building toward a future in the middle infield despite having a right arm that would be the envy of many players who occupy the pitcher’s mound. (Four years ago, as a junior at Kingwood High School in Texas, Winn posted a 13-0 record as a pitcher with a 0.67 ERA and 117 strikeouts in 76 innings.) He made headlines in the 2022 All-Star Futures Game by hitting 100 mph on the radar gun with a throw from shortstop to first base. That cannon of an arm, though, is a weapon that must be carefully utilized.

Winn first recognized his extraordinary arm strength at age 12 when he made a traveling national team. “Sophomore year in high school, I was throwing mid-90s,” he says. “I knew it was serious then. But I was a pitcher at the time, so didn’t really consider what I could do from short.” In Winn’s first full season as a pro (Class A in 2021), he made 24 errors in 98 games, most of them of the throwing variety. Accuracy, it seems, can improve with a reduction in velocity. Winn credits a longtime Cardinals instructor — newly elected to the franchise’s Hall of Fame — with helping him dial back the power of his right arm when it can benefit the team.

“Defensively, Jose Oquendo may be the best in the world,” says Winn. “He told me that I don’t have to show off my arm with every throw. I can go 80 or 85 percent and still make the play, then dial it up when I need to. Shortening up my motion and throwing like a shortstop [as opposed to a pitcher’s motion].”

At the plate, Winn is focused on making better contact, becoming a catalyst at the top of the Redbirds’ batting order. “I started off the year striking out a lot, so I’m trying to hit more balls on the barrel [of the bat],” he says. “It’s an approach thing. We’ve got sluggers like Jordan Walker, Luken Baker, and Moises Gomez. I’ll let them hit the bombs. I need to be more direct to the ball, get my singles, steal, get a double. Know my game.”

Winn is climbing toward a crowded middle infield with the St. Louis Cardinals. Paul DeJong has reclaimed the shortstop position after a rehab stint with Memphis. Tommy Edman (a Gold Glove winner at second base), Brendan Donovan (utility Gold Glove in 2022), and Nolan Gorman are also in the mix. “I’m gonna play a long time,” notes Winn. “I don’t need to rush anything. I’m enjoying every step. I can’t wait to be [in the big leagues], but I’m having a lot of fun. I get to play baseball.”

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Now Playing in Memphis: Part of Your World

Halle Bailey as Ariel in The Little Mermaid (2023).

 What’s new this weekend? For starters, The Little Mermaid (2023). Including the year is important, because Disney’s latest live-action remake is a new version of the 1989 film which paved the way for the House of Mouse’s animation renaissance. Halle Bailey (not, as I thought, Halle Berry) stars as Ariel, mermaid princess of the undersea kingdom of Atlantica whose love for the human Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) causes her to defy her father King Triton (Javier Bardem) and make a deal with Ursula the Sea Witch (Melissa McCarthy) so she can walk on dry land. Given the sorry state of the Above World, it seems like a big mistake, especially since Ariel has her pick of all those nice fish-boys, but who am I to judge? 

Gerard Butler’s latest shoot-’em-up Kandahar takes him to Afghanistan during the American occupation, where he plays a CIA operative who has his cover is blown. He and his translator (Navid Negahban) must evade the war and hit squads to reach their extraction point in, you guessed it, Kandahar. Expect gun violence and monologs about courage and duty delivered through gritted teeth. 

Comedian Bert Kreischer, allegedly the real-life inspiration for National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, stars in The Machine as himself in this (presumably heavily) fictionalized version of his life from stories he told in the 2016 Showtime comedy special of the same name. He must escape after being kidnapped by people he pissed off twenty years ago while drunk. Mark Hamill is involved, as is YouTube star Jimmy Tatro. Expect gun violence and funny monologs delivered through gritted teeth. Since this is the Flyer, we’re running the Red Band trailer.

Memphis in May officially ends on Wednesday, May 31 with the Indie Memphis screening of Redha. Director Tunku Mona Riza is from Malaysia, the honoree country for this year’s festival; his film tells the story of Daniel (Harith Haziq), an 8-year-old with severe autism whose mother Alina (June Lojong) fights for his acceptance. In English, the title Redha means “Beautiful Pain.” The screening begins at 7:00 p.m. at Studio on the Square.

June 1 at Crosstown Theater is the 1993 neo-noir Suture, which was largely ignored on release but has gained a cult following due to it’s twisty plot and a crafty lead performance from Dennis Haysbert. Years before Face/Off, Scott McGehee and David Siegel were switching faces and taking names.

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LeMoyne-Owen President, Keynote Speaker Talk Diversity and Inclusion

LeMoyne-Owen College president Vernell Bennett-Fairs. Credit: LeMoyne-Owen

Nzinga “Zing” Shaw, The Recording Academy’s chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer was chosen to be the keynote speaker for LeMoyne-Owen’s College 2023 spring commencement.

While Shaw currently leads the organization’s DEI Center of Excellence, which according to LOC aims to “enable a more engaged global workforce,” and creates “enhanced platforms to recognize the diverse array of artists and music professionals,” she has also served as the first chief inclusion and diversity officer for both Starbucks and the National Basketball Association, representing the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena franchise.

Vernell A. Bennett-Fairs, the 13th president of LOC, explained that when people think of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), they tend to think that because of this designation, they’re already “diverse.” However, she explained that diversity is not just “black and white,” but it’s access and equity.

“We hone in by finding support systems and resources that even the playing field and give our students an edge,” said Bennett-Fairs, “whether through corporate sponsorships, mentorship opportunities, identifying resources, and establishing collaborations of grants.”

When the Memphis Flyer spoke with Shaw about the opportunity to bestow her knowledge onto LOC’s graduating class, she explained that as a graduate from an HBCU herself, it was an honor and a pleasure, and that she knew the great value that these institutions bring to young, Black students.

“I have a lot of experience being a marginalized student, as well as a marginalized employee in corporate America,” said Shaw. “I also bring optimism for how these students can overcome some of these challenges that they may encounter as they begin their professional journeys.”

Shaw’s presence was timely not only because of the occasion of commencement, but as the college prepares to expand its music program.

“Music is universal,” said Shaw. “I am ecstatic that this college is continuing the tradition that a lot of HBCU’s have established from their inception, which is to bring people together through the love of gospel music, through the love of hymns, through the love of different genres of music so that the student body can feel united and showcase their talents in a way that inspires the world.”

Bennett-Fairs explained that they have always had a music program, however for the fall of 2023, the marching band has been expanded as a credit-bearing course, with hopes of being an instrumental major. 

“Right now we’ve also expanded the curricular offerings to include sacred music, music production, piano pedagogy, and performance — both vocal and instrumental.”

She also added that the college will have a music studio as well as skilled faculty, including Ashley Davis, who serves as the assistant professor of music. Bennett-Fairs explained that Davis has a connection to Stax Academy, and will help students gain real world experience as well as meaningful connections.

The college will also offer arts programming for the community, and is currently seeking grant sponsorships. They are also currently seeking accreditation for their music program from the National Association of Schools of Music.

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Music Music Blog

Tina Turner and Memphis: Remembering the Late Star’s Thoughts on the Bluff City

Signage celebrating Tina Turner on Summer Avenue (Credit: Alex Greene)

Social media lit up yesterday when news of Tina Turner’s death was announced, especially in this city, with which the singer had a specially affinity. Her passing made for many moving testimonials to the power of her music and the personal depths it plumbed in her fans’ hearts. And with so few details given, what could one do but look back at her place in history? As the New York Times reported, the R&B and pop superstar “died on Wednesday at her home in Küsnacht, Switzerland, near Zurich. She was 83. Her publicist Bernard Doherty announced the death in a statement but did not provide the cause. She had a stroke in recent years and was known to be struggling with a kidney disease and other illnesses.”

The Memphis Flyer recently had an opportunity to hear some of that history straight from Turner herself, when she responded to questions on the occasion of the Memphis premiere of Tina: The Tina Turner Musical earlier this year. The show, written by Pulitzer Prize-winner Katori Hall, portrays Turner’s life with unprecedented veracity, and the premiere offered the singer a chance to look back at some of her less well-known ties to Memphis — and Clarksdale, Mississippi native Raymond Hill, with whom she had her first child. The Flyer, having already delved into Hill’s importance in the local R&B and blues scene, turned out to be a perfect vehicle for conveying the singer’s thoughts about this region. Below, in loving memory of the soulful firebrand who shook the music industry to its roots, we reprint our full email interview with Tina Turner from this February.

Memphis Flyer: Growing up in Nutbush, Tennessee, what did Memphis represent to you? Were you aware of the radio and records coming out of Memphis at the time?

Tina Turner: Memphis seemed another world away when I was growing up in Nutbush. Our town was so small and the access to the records coming out of Memphis was just from the radio. My life in Nutbush was very focused on my family, and the church and I suppose that was the music that I remember and how I started to sing. It wasn’t until I moved to St Louis that I started to be more aware of the Memphis music through the local R&B scene.

In the song “Rocket 88,” Jackie Brentson yells “Blow your horn, Raymond!” Ethnomusicologist David Evans has called Raymond Hill “an unsung hero of Black music.” Was this a significant relationship in your life? How do you feel about seeing that romance portrayed in the musical’s plot?

My relationship with Raymond was a very significant relationship in my life especially because of my son Craig. Raymond and I met when I was very young, and I had just started working with Ike when our romance began. Raymond had so many years of experience and I feel calling him an unsung hero of Black music is very true. I was very happy that the relationship has found its moment in the musical.

Was the fact that Katori Hall is from Tennessee important to you? Did you feel she could better relate to your upbringing because of that? How did that play out in specific scenes from the musical?

From the minute I met Katori I felt she was the right person to tell this story. We talked so much about growing up in Tennessee and our families’ experiences. Katori understood immediately what it took for me to get to where I did, given where I started. The odds I had to overcome time and again.

Some great Memphis soul songs are featured in the musical, from “I Can’t Stand the Rain” to “Let’s Stay Together.” Has the Memphis sound spoken to you over the years, and does the premiere of Tina: The Musical in Memphis take on extra meaning because of it? 

So many forms of music have their roots in Memphis, and my life and career has circled the city so many times. To bring my show to Memphis has huge meaning to me. If you had told me all those years ago as a small child picking cotton in Nutbush that this would happen … I definitely wouldn’t have believed you, and thought you were telling me a fairytale! It does feel almost like a full circle, to be returning home and to be able to tell my story in such an amazing way; through performance including all my music. How special and how lucky am I.  I feel very blessed that I have this opportunity

What is the most powerful moment of the musical for you? Did it lead to any epiphanies about your life, to see it portrayed that way?

Before Tina: The Musical opened in London, my producer Tali [Tali Pelman, the musical’s producer] snuck me into a preview performance. I sat on an aisle, watching the show, and no one ever knew I was there. Later in my hotel room, I turned to Tali and told her that they found the love. That I wished my mother and Ike would have been able to see the show. I remember she teared up. In this way I do feel the musical, though it brought up many painful memories again, also helped me gain acceptance and harmony of the highs and the lows.