Month: May 2023

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News News Blog News Feature

Anti-Black Lives Matter, Vax-Hoaxer, Insurrectionist Gets More Power to Review TN Social Studies Books

Credit: state of Tennessee

The mosque-fighting, anti-Black Lives Matter, anti-CRT, 9/11 Truther, insurrectionist Laurie Cardoza-Moore just got even more power to choose what’s in Tennessee textbooks recently.

In a story first published on the Popular Information Substack, Cardoza-Moore won an appointment this month from Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton to sit on a committee to review social studies textbooks for the state’s public schools. 

The state began a review of social studies academic standards in June. Since then, the public has weighed in, a teacher advisory group worked on the issue, revisions to texts were reviewed by another committee, and then the public was asked to weigh in on those revisions. In August, the State’s Standards Recommendation Committee, to which Cardoza-Moore was appointed, will “submit the final recommendations for standards” to the State Board of Education. 

”The materials we will be reviewing can only accomplish the mission of educating good, American citizens if our Tennessee textbooks are devoid of left-aligned historic revisionism and the toxic material found in the antisemitic Critical Race Theory; Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Social-Emotional Learning and Ethnic Studies,” Cardoza-Moore said in a news release statement from her Franklin-based group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN). 

That release further crafts Cardoza-Moore as a controversial figure who recently ”came under fire for her criticism of Governor Bill Lee’s appointment of Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds as the new Tennessee Department of Education Commissioner.” Cardoza-Moore also beamed in the praise of a spokesman for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for her review of textbooks there that ”caught and corrected dozens of books to prevent political indoctrination of Florida’s children.”

Press Release: Controversial Conservative Voice in TN Education – Laurie Cardoza Moore Appointed to Serve on State’s Standards Recommendation Committee

Cordoza-Moore does not shy away from her past controversies in her news release. In 2010, she publicly fought against the construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro. On “The 700 Club” television show, she told host Pat Robertson the mosque was a training camp for terrorists. In her news statement this month, she claimed one person on the mosque’s board was ”actively recruiting Muslims to kill Jews on his MySpace page.” 

Cardoza-Moore once criticized President Barack Obama, saying that after a speech on Palestinian border claims, weather patterns in America changed and tornadoes came to kill hundreds. 

Obama Causes Tornadoes

In 2021, Cardoza-Moore was appointed by Sexton to the state’s Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission. In a confirmation hearing, Senator Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis), asked her about a recommendation from her nonprofit to revise a textbook statement about 9/11. 

The passage from the textbook reads, “on September 11th, 2001, members of al-Qaeda carried out a terrorist attack on New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.” In the PJTN report, the phrase ”members of al-Qaeda carried out” is underlined. The PJTN report said “given the plethora of evidence, the reviewer suggests removing the underlined section of sentence.” 

“This is a highly contested (per architects and engineers for 9/11 Truth, and demolition experts) argument,” reads the PJTN review. “There is ample evidence that refute the ‘official’ story of what was perpetrated that day.”

When Akbari pressed Cardoza-Moore to confirm that these were, in fact, the statements of her organization, Cardoza-Moore said: “What you’re quoting right now, I never would have said that.” Cardoza-Moore then told the committee on the question of al-Qaeda’s involvement in 9/11: “I need to see the quote in the context you’re pulling it from. Is that from a Power Point? I would never say al-Qaeda never participated in [9/11].”

After Cardoza-Moore’s testimony was complete, Akbari said she “cannot think of someone who is more uniquely unqualified to be on this position.”

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News News Blog News Feature

Innovate Memphis Launches Rides to Resources Program

Credit: Innovate Memphis

Innovate Memphis is offering a new phone service targeted towards older adults and people with disabilities in Shelby County. The Rides to Resources program will provide these individuals with “reliable transportation options to get to their destinations,” with no mobile app required.

Innovate Memphis says the program can be used for activities “related directly to essential health care and social determinants of health (SDOH)-related services.” The Office of Disease Prevention and Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines these as the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.

“We continue to ask ourselves and our nonprofit partners an important question: How can we keep Memphis seniors moving?” said Innovate Memphis executive director Jessica Lotz. “Rides to Resource will increase accessibility to a variety of basic needs beyond primary and urgent health care. Aging adults are encouraged to use this free, reliable service to get them where they need to go — safely and on time.”

For this service, eligible destinations are behavioral health appointments, case management sessions (medical or non-medical) and food access points.

Courtney McNeal is the city innovation director and chief of staff for Innovate Memphis. The 901RideChoice program was launched in 2019 as a free phone service for the aging population and people dealing with disabilities to connect them to reliable transportation options within the city. It was initially presented as a way to address non-emergency rides.

901RideChoice is a phone service program that connects older adults with a variety of transportation options and is funded by the Memphis Area Transit Authority and the City of Memphis through a federal Department of Transportation 5310 grant.

Through this program, callers would receive the best option to procure a ride depending on circumstances.

“We noticed that it was high call volume with the emergency telephone number, which increased the hold time for those who actually had emergencies,” said McNeal. “This was a way for us to focus on that — to decrease the number of non-emergency related phone calls, as well as to address the need of getting seniors to and from different places depending on reliable transportation options.”

It started as a way for the organization to get the word out and connect this population with resources, however as time went on, more opportunities became available for them to form partnerships with other agencies to provide subsidized rides.

The Rides to Resources program is free, and funded by Local Initiatives Support Corporation and Uber Health. Innovate Memphis said that this grant is “meant to help solve transportation barriers in the city as it relates to health care services and detriments of service accessibility.” According to Innovate Memphis, callers can schedule rides to and from health care appointments, homecare provider services, and services that address SDOH. 

This service is available for Shelby County residents from Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Rides may not be used for personal purposes, and assistance to and from the vehicle is not part of the resource.

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News News Blog News Feature

GOP Lawmakers Call to Cancel Special Session on Guns, Calling It A “Publicity Stunt”

From left: Butler, Richey, and Warner I State of Tennessee

Three Tennessee Republican lawmakers want Governor Bill Lee to “abandon” a special session of the Tennessee General Assembly, scheduled for later this year to focus on gun safety, calling it a “publicity stunt” that will incite the “national woke mob.”  

Rep. Bryan Richey (R-Maryville), Rep. Ed Butler (R-Rickman), and Rep. Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) signed an open letter to Lee Wednesday saying any gun measures can be addressed during the regular session in January. 

“Summoning legislators to Nashville to enact an unconstitutional ‘red flag’ law will not, as you suggest ‘strengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights,” reads the letter posted to Twitter by Richey. “To the contrary, the General Assembly adamantly opposes — and refused to enact — measures that violate Tennesseans’ Second Amendment rights, whether styled ‘order of protection’ legislation or any other euphemism.”

The letter reminded Lee that the legislature did not consider his gun safety legislation at the end of the last session. It said Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson has said the legislature will “not pass any red flag law, period.” The lawmakers said they would not “violate” their oaths to the Constitution “for political expediency or to curry favor with special interests.”

“Your proposed special session, apparently calculated to pressure legislators to pass such a law, strikes us as an expensive, disruptive, futile, and counter-productive publicity stunt,” reads the letter. “The [Covenant School] tragedy would not have been averted by a ‘red flag’ law in any event. Your proposed special session is a solution in search of a problem.” 

However, Democrats are “ready to get to work,” said Tennessee House Democratic Caucus Chair John Ray Clemmons in a statement. 

“Tennesseans overwhelmingly support gun safety laws to better protect our children and communities and want legislative action,” Clemmons said. “Democrats agree and stand ready to get to work. As usual, the only thing standing in the way to public safety is the Republican supermajority.”

The GOP letter warns that a special session of left-wing activists will protest in Nashville and is in “service to the national woke mob that will descend on the Capitol.” All of it will “make the ‘Tennessee Three’ circus look like a dress rehearsal.” They claim “heavy security” will be needed to protect lawmakers from “unruly agitators.” 

“There is no emergency, declared or otherwise, that justifies calling us back to work in August,” reads the letter. “The reason is a series of policy proposals that we, as a legislative body, deliberately — and prudently — chose to reject this session.”

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News News Blog News Feature

Mid-South Pride To Host Memphis Pride Fest Weekend

Photo: Kevin Reed

Mid-South Pride will host the Memphis Pride Fest Weekend starting on Thursday, June 1st, and ending on Sunday, June 4th.

According to the organization, this event “honors the diverse LGBTQ+ community and its allies, offering a unique experience that transcends traditional boundaries and fosters unity through a variety of engaging activities and inspiring performances.”

“Mid-South Pride will not back down when any part of our community is attacked. We will always support drag entertainment and those who choose it as a freedom of expression,” said Vanessa Rodley, president of Mid-South Pride.

The weekend will start off with a “Drag N Drive” event at the Malco Summer Drive-In located at 5310 Summer Avenue. There will be a showing of the movie Legally Blonde at 8 p.m., with a drag show starting at 10 p.m. According to Mid-South Pride, this is a “fun family-friendly event that sells out every year.” Tickets are $35 and can be purchased here.

On Friday, June 2nd, there will be a “Big Gay Dance Party,” hosted by Friends For Life at the New Daisy Theatre located on 330 Beale Street. The theme for this year’s party is “Hate is a Drag,” which the organization said celebrates gender nonconformity and self-expression. Attendees are encouraged to dress up as their favorite celebrity or in their best decade-inspired attire. Cross-dressing is also encouraged.

The Memphis Pride Festival will take place on Saturday, June 3rd, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will be live entertainment, more than 150 vendors, a food truck, a car show, and a kids’ area, along with “free and discreet HIV screenings.” There will also be a Pride Parade from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m starting at Robert Church Park.

Photo: Courtesy Mid-South Pride

Live entertainment will feature prominent Memphis performers like the Moth Moth Moth, Aubrey Ombre, and Devon Davenport, as well as performances by RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants Kameron Michaels and Lady Camden. 

There will also be a Pride Night at 901FC on Saturday, June 3rd, at 7:30 p.m., as well as the official 2023 Memphis Pride Fest after-party, Bacchus, at the New Daisy Theatre, starting at 8:00 p.m.

The weekend will end with a Grand Marshal Drag Brunch on Sunday, June 4th. The location has yet to be announced; however, it will start at 11 a.m.

Find more information on the Memphis Pride Fest Weekend and purchase tickets to the various events here.

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Art Art Feature

“A Requiem for King”

Ernest Withers’ photographs illustrating Memphis in 1968. (Photo: Abigail Morici)

Last month, to honor the 55th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the National Civil Rights Museum unveiled “Waddell, Withers, & Smith: A Requiem for King,” an exhibition highlighting three Memphis-based artists whose work responded to King’s assassination and the Civil Rights Movement: self-taught sculptor James Waddell Jr., photojournalist Ernest Withers, and multimedia artist Dolph Smith.

“It goes to show the levels of Dr. King and how many people he impacted,” NCRM associate curator Ryan Jones says of the exhibit. “He didn’t just impact people who were civil rights leaders and human rights activists; he impacted people who were artists. And so this goes to show what he meant as a man and that people here in this great community of Memphis have channeled and responded to something that has been a dark cloud over the city in the past 55 years. Dr. King impacted the hearts and minds of so many citizens.”

Each of the three artists were born and raised in Memphis, Jones says, and all served in the military, with their respective services being turning points in their artistic careers. Withers, a World War II veteran, learned his craft at the Army School of Photography. He would then go on to photograph some of the most iconic moments of the Civil Rights Movement, including King’s fateful visit to Memphis, the priceless images for which line the exhibition’s walls.

“We can’t tell the story of the modern Civil Rights Movement without the role of photography,” Jones says, and truly, Withers played one of the most significant roles in documenting that history, capturing approximately 1.8 million photographs before his death at 85 years old in 2007.

At the same time Withers was documenting King’s Memphis visit and the aftermath of his assassination, James Waddell (who happened to later be photographed by Withers) was serving in the Vietnam War and didn’t learn what had happened in Memphis until weeks later. For Waddell and his family, King’s death marked a period of pain and grief — “His relatives compared the assassination to a death in the family,” reads the exhibit’s wall text.

“[Sculpture] was his way of reacting to the tragedy that had happened,” Jones says. “He said that living in Memphis and being a native Memphian and not doing the work would be something he would never be able to get over.” So when he returned home, Waddell channeled this grief in the work now on display — an aluminum-cast bust of King and Mountaintop Vision, a bronze statue of King kneeling on a mountaintop with an open Bible. “It shows he’s humbling himself to God,” Waddell said of the sculpture in a 1986 interview in The Commercial Appeal with Anthony Hicks. 

James Waddell’s Mountaintop Vision (Photo: Abigail Morici)

Initially, as the 1986 article reveals, Waddell planned to create an eight-foot version of Mountaintop Vision as “the city’s first statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” “The time is right, because Memphis is beginning to voice an opinion that there is a need for a statue,” Waddell told The Commercial Appeal. “This will be a tool for understanding.”

Waddell, who has since passed, said he hoped “to see the finished piece placed at the proposed Lorraine Motel Civil Rights Museum, Clayborn Temple, or in Martin Luther King Jr. Riverside Park.” Though that eight-foot version never came to fruition, at long last, the smaller version of Waddell’s Mountaintop Vision can be seen not only in a public display for the first time, but also at the National Civil Rights Museum as he once had envisioned. 

Dolph Smith’s The Veil of the Temple Was Rent in Two (Photo: Abigail Morici)

Meanwhile, Dolph Smith, who had long since returned home from the Vietnam War, was in Memphis the night of King’s assassination. As Memphis was set ablaze that night, he and his family stood on the roof of their home, watching the smoke rise around them. He vowed to never forget that date — April 4, 1968. In his personal calendar for that day, he wrote, “If this has happened in Memphis, then now I know it can happen anywhere. It is so hard to believe a man’s basic instinct is to be good.”

In response to what he called “an unspeakable tragedy” and the public uprising that arose from it, Smith took to the canvas. For one piece on display at the museum, titled The Veil of the Temple Was Rent in Two, the artist ripped an American flag, placing photographs of the Civil Rights Movement in between its tears, as Jones says, “to show the extreme divisiveness that the assassination caused.”

In all, Jones hopes the exhibit will show the reach of King’s legacy extending beyond April 4, 1968, all the way to the present day. In one of the videos projected on the exhibition’s walls, Smith, now at 89 years old, speaks on the importance of witnessing artwork like the pieces on display. “If you make something and it just sits there, it’s unfinished,” Smith says. To him — a painter, bookmaker, and educator — in order for a work of art to be “finished,” it has to be shared, for the mission of the artist is not simply to create but to spark conversation, to encourage self-reflection, and in cases like that of Withers, Waddell, and Smith, to activate progress.

“Waddell, Withers, & Smith: A Requiem for King” is on display at the National Civil Rights Museum through August 28th.

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News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Hijacked and Tweet of the Week

Posted to Instagram by someone who apparently stole the Brother Juniper’s account

Memphis on the internet.

Hijacked

Someone — we’re guessing the guy above — apparently hijacked Brother Juniper’s Instagram account this month. A stream of delicious food photos was interrupted by three photos of the guy above. Then, the account went completely dark with an ominous note: “This account for sale. Contact DM.” The page has now been removed. 

Tweet of the Week

Posted to Twitter by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
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We Recommend We Recommend

“Rich Soil” at Memphis Botanic Garden

Kristine Mays’ Celestial Prayer Meeting (Photo: Courtesy Kristine Mays)

This summer at the Memphis Botanic Garden, bodiless dresses float above the freshly-tilled garden beds, as if they, too, have emerged from the same soil where plants stretch out their roots. The effect is otherworldly, a dance frozen in time as the greenery around them shifts with the winds, the leaves unfolding toward the sun. For a moment, there is peace.

“It’s more than physically seeing it, but actually feeling whatever feelings come up,” says Kristine Mays, the San Francisco-based artist who hooked and looped the wires shaping these 29 figures featured in the “Rich Soil” exhibition. “My hope is that people will experience it.”

Inspired by the work of Alvin Ailey, who used dance to uplift Black lives in America, Mays created her dancers to be “celebrations to the ancestors, to all the people who have toiled the land, specifically the people who have gone through life invisible, all of the workers that go unrecognized. And so the concept behind it is that these ancestors have now come back and risen through the soil, and they’re rejoicing.”

The dresses, she adds, have no bodies so that “anyone could be in the dress. A lot of times people will look at specific dresses and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s Joanne,’ or ‘That’s my Aunt Sheila.’” In turn, the pieces become more about the collective human experience, rather than about the individual.

Even the material itself — the rebar wire — speaks to this sentiment. This kind of wire can be used to mend fences, to hold concrete in place while laying a foundation, or to stabilize railroad tracks. “It makes me kind of giddy to think that I’m using it in a way that’s kind of bringing people together and mending,” Mays says, “mending circumstances and inspiring people to look at just the fact that we’re all humans. … And one of the qualities that I like about [the wire] is that it is lasting. I know that it’ll last beyond my lifetime.”

As the exhibition has traveled from California to D.C. to Atlanta and now to Memphis, Mays says that the pieces adapt to the different environments, soaking up the richness of each location’s history, people, and culture. “As soon as I was asked to come to Memphis,” Mays says, “I was like, ‘Wow, this is great’ — just considering that so many historical things have happened here, that this is the birthplace of so many creative acts.”

To complement the exhibit’s run, the garden will host Rich Sounds on the last Sunday of each month, which will include performances and demonstrations from local arts and culture organizations. This Sunday, May 28th, will mark the first of this series, with Ekpe Abioto performing. Visit membg.org/rich-soil for more information on the exhibit and its accompanying programs.

“Rich Soil at the Garden,” Memphis Botanic Garden, on display through October 1.

Rich Sounds, Memphis Botanic Garden, Sunday, May 28, 2-5 p.m., free with garden admission.

Categories
Astrology Fun Stuff

Free Will Astrology: Week of 05/25/23

ARIES (March 21-April 19): My reading of the astrological omens inspires me to make a series of paradoxical predictions for you. Here are five scenarios I foresee as being quite possible in the coming weeks. 1. An epic journey to a sanctuary close to home. 2. A boundary that doesn’t keep people apart but brings them closer. 3. A rambunctious intervention that calms you down and helps you feel more at peace. 4. A complex process that leads to simple clarity. 5. A visit to the past that empowers you to redesign the future.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Do you want a seed to fulfill its destiny? You must bury it in the ground. There, if it’s able to draw on water and the proper nutrients, it will break open and sprout. Its life as a seed will be over. The plant it eventually grows into will look nothing like its source. We take this process for granted, but it’s always a miracle. Now let’s invoke this story as a metaphor for what you are hopefully on the verge of, Taurus. I invite you to do all that’s helpful and necessary to ensure your seed germinates!

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Your meandering trek through the Unpromised Land wasn’t as demoralizing as you feared. The skirmish with the metaphorical dragon was a bit disruptive, but hey, you are still breathing and walking around — and even seem to have been energized by the weird thrill of the adventure. The only other possible downside was the new dent in your sweet dream. But I suspect that in the long run, that imperfection will inspire you to work even harder on behalf of your sweet dream — and this will be a blessing. Here’s another perk: The ordeal you endured effectively cleaned out stale old karma, freeing up space for a slew of fresh help and resources.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Testing time is ahead, but don’t get your nerves in an uproar with fantasy-spawned stress. For the most part, your challenges and trials will be interesting, not unsettling. There will be few if any trick questions. There will be straightforward prods to stretch your capacities and expand your understanding. Bonus! I bet you’ll get the brilliant impulse to shed the ball and chain you’ve been absent-mindedly carrying around with you.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Biologist Edward O. Wilson said that the most social animals are ants, termites, and honeybees. He used the following criteria to define that description: “altruism, instincts devoted to social life, and the tightness of the bonds that turn colonies into virtual superorganisms.” I’m going to advocate that you regard ants, termites, and honeybees as teachers and role models for you. The coming weeks will be a great time to boost your skill at socializing and networking. You will be wise to ruminate about how you could improve your life by enhancing your ability to cooperate with others. And remember to boost your altruism!

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Jack Sarfatti is an authentic but maverick physicist born under the sign of Virgo. He suggests that if we make ourselves receptive and alert, we may get help from our future selves. They are trying to communicate good ideas to us back through time. Alas, most of us don’t believe such a thing is feasible, so we aren’t attuned to the potential help. I will encourage you to transcend any natural skepticism you might have about Sarfatti’s theory. As a fun experiment, imagine that the Future You has an important transmission for you — maybe several transmissions. For best results, formulate three specific questions to pose to the Future You.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I have five points for your consideration. 1. You are alive in your mysterious, endlessly interesting life, and you are imbued with the fantastically potent power of awareness. How could you not feel thrilled? 2. You’re on a planet that’s always surprising, and you’re in an era when so many things are changing that you can’t help being fascinated. How could you not feel thrilled? 3. You have some intriguing project to look forward to, or some challenging but engaging work you’re doing, or some mind-bending riddle you’re trying to solve. How could you not feel thrilled? 4. You’re playing the most enigmatic game in the universe, also known as your destiny on Earth, and you love ruminating on questions about what it all means. How could you not feel thrilled? 5. You never know what’s going to happen next. You’re like a hero in an epic movie that is endlessly entertaining. How could you not feel thrilled?

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Trust those that you have helped to help you in their turn,” advises Scorpio author Neil Gaiman. Let’s make that one of your mantras for the coming weeks. In my astrological understanding, you are due to cash in on favors you have bestowed on others. The generosity you have expressed should be streaming back your way in abundance. Be bold about welcoming the bounty. In fact, I hope you will nudge and prompt people, if necessary, to reward you for your past support and blessings.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): So many of us are starved to be listened to with full attention. So many of us yearn to be seen and heard and felt by people who are skilled at receptive empathy. How many of us? I’d say the figure is about 99.9 percent. That’s the bad news, Sagittarius. The good news is that in the coming weeks, you will have an exceptional ability to win the attention of good listeners. To boost the potential healing effects of this opportunity, here’s what I recommend: Refine and deepen your own listening skills. Express them with panache.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Because you’re a Capricorn, earthiness is probably one of your strengths. It’s your birthright to be practical and sensible and well-grounded. Now and then, however, your earthiness devolves into muddiness. You get too sober and earnest. You’re bogged down in excess pragmatism. I suspect you may be susceptible to such a state these days. What to do? It may help if you add elements of air and fire to your constitution, just to balance things out. Give yourself a secret nickname with a fiery feel, like Blaze, or a crispy briskness, like Breezy. What else could you do to rouse fresh, glowing vigor, Breezy Blaze — even a touch of wildness?

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I love to use metaphors in my writing, but I hate to mix unrelated metaphors. I thrive on referring to poetry, sometimes even surrealistic poetry, but I try to avoid sounding like a lunatic. However, at this juncture in your hero’s journey, Aquarius, I frankly feel that the most effective way to communicate with you is to offer you mixed metaphors and surrealist poetry that border on sounding lunatic. Why? Because you seem primed to wander around on the edges of reality. I’m guessing you’ll respond best to a message that’s aligned with your unruly mood. So here goes: Get ready to surf the spiritual undertow all the way to the teeming wilderness on the other side of the cracked mirror. Ignore the provocative wasteland on your left and the intriguing chaos on your right. Stay focused on the stars in your eyes and devote yourself to wild joy.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “The gift of patience opens when our body, heart, and mind slow enough to move in unison.” So says Piscean poet Mark Nepo. I feel confident you are about to glide into such a grand harmony, dear Pisces. Through a blend of grace and your relaxed efforts to be true to your deepest desires, your body, heart, and mind will synchronize and synergize. Patience will be just one of the gifts you will receive. Others include: a clear vision of your most beautiful future; a lucid understanding of what will be most meaningful to you in the next three years; and a profound sense of feeling at home in the world wherever you go.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Fast X

In Fast X, Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto uses a car door as a shield, as one does.

Ever since I first looked at the release schedule for 2023, I have been dreading Fast X. The tenth Fast & Furious film seems completely pointless. I love a good car chase as well as the next guy, but Dom (Vin Diesel) and his “family” long ago exceeded both the bonds of Newtonian physics and cinematic decency. In the last one, F9, they literally drove cars into space. When a long-running film series that does not take place in space suddenly decides to go into space, it means they’re out of ideas. That’s called the “Moonraker Rule.”

Given Fast X’s running time of 141 minutes, it looked like a bad weekend was brewing for me. Then, a stroke of luck. On Saturday night, my wife LJ and I went to the monthly Time Warp Drive-In for Singalong Sinema: Mad Musicals in May, a triple feature of Little Shop of Horrors, The Blues Brothers, and The Wiz. It was a perfect night to camp out at the Malco Summer Drive-In’s Screen 4 with several hundred of our closest friends. Next door, Screen 3 was also filling up with a crowd who favored muscle cars and giant trucks.

At dusk, the films started. A miscommunication led to the Time Warp films being played out of order, so The Wiz rolled first. From our lawn chairs next to our parked car, we could see both screens 4 and 3. That’s when I got the idea. It’s highly unethical to review a film without watching it. But the truth is, nobody who is going to go see Fast X cares what a critic like me has to say about it. You’re either down with $350 million and 141 minutes worth of explosions and big guys in muscle cars going vroom, or you’re not. But technically, I was watching Fast X, even if the sound I was hearing was the Tony Award-winning score of The Wiz. If the other Fast & Furious films were anything to go by, it’s not as if hearing the dialogue would shed any light on the plot that was allegedly happening between car chases. I have seen at least five of them, and I have never understood what is going on. Is Dom a street racer? A bank robber? Some kind of super spy? All of the above?

The first big improvement I noticed in Fast X is that Aquaman himbo Jason Momoa is the big bad, a drug lord named Dante who is dead set on revenge for Dom’s crimes against (what else?) his family. This information comes from an extended opening flashback taken from Fast Five, where Dom and the crew steal a bank vault and drag it through the streets of Rio. Aquaman’s exquisitely-styled locks mean that, unlike earlier installments with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jason Statham, the story does not boil down to bald guys punching each other. Momoa’s performance is so excessive it lands like a silent film actor’s pantomime — especially when accompanied by the dulcet tones of Diana Ross as urban Dorothy Gale.

At roughly the time in The Wiz when Michael Jackson is introduced as the Scarecrow, Charlize Theron is reintroduced in Fast X as Cipher. I hope she got paid a lot of money. Same for Rita Moreno and Helen Mirren, both of whom have scenes with Dom which I think are supposed to be motherly, but come off as romantic. You go, ladies!

As Diana Ross and Michael Jackson explode into the radio hit “Ease on Down the Road,” Fast X travels to Rome, where Dante is planting a bomb that looks like a giant metal ball. Naturally, automotive hijinks ensue, with Dom and fam chasing the big ball through the streets of the Eternal City. By the time Nipsey Russell is introduced as the Tin Man, the giant ball is on fire; it eventually explodes in the Tiber River in a way that is somehow both good and bad for Dom.

In conclusion, The Wiz, a box office bomb widely credited as ending the ’70s golden age of blaxploitation cinema, is flawed, but much more fun than its reputation suggests. The disco-era bass work in Quincy Jones’ soundtrack is especially choice. Fast X is elevated by the presence of Aquaman and a flagrant disregard for human constraints like “good taste.” It’s the best film in the Fast & Furious series to kind of watch out of the corner of your eye while doing something else.

Fast X
Now playing
Multiple locations
(But unfortunately not alongside The Wiz again)

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

On Ja and Guns

When guns are involved, no one is invincible. (Photo: Tom Def | Unsplash)

You’ve all heard by now that Grizzlies star Ja Morant has been seen, once again, on a social media live stream flaunting a gun. Back in March, Ja, looking a bit intoxicated, flashed a small handgun on an Instagram Live from a nightclub in Denver, Colorado. He was suspended for eight games following that incident and entered a counseling program in Florida, issuing a statement saying he needed “to get help and work on learning better methods of dealing with stress and my overall well-being.” On May 13th, another video surfaced of Ja and friends having a big time in a car, with Ja swinging a gun to and fro in the passenger seat.

A few notes: The man is 23 years old. He’s from a small (small) town — he attended high school in Sumter, South Carolina, whose population was just over 43,000 in the 2020 census; for perspective, compare that to the just under 55,000 in Southaven, Mississippi, and 628,000 in Memphis. In 2019, at the age of 19, Ja signed a four-year contract with the Memphis Grizzlies worth $39.6 million. Last summer, he signed a five-year extension, a deal worth a guaranteed $193 million, with a potential $231 million if selected for All-NBA. I’m not an avid basketball fan and couldn’t tell you what All-NBA means without googling it. But this isn’t about basketball, Ja’s talent, or even the specifics of these and other reported events (an alleged confrontation with Indiana Pacers players in January, another with a teen at his home in March). This is about a young man, just past the age to even drink alcohol or buy cigarettes, who, like most young men his age, probably wants to have a good time. But unlike most young men his age, he has risen to fame quickly and has millions of dollars to play with, and that could arguably lead to a bad decision here and there, perhaps even a sense of invincibility. With enough money, you can get away with a lot (or think you can). But — especially when guns are involved — no one is invincible.

My issue with all of this has less to do with Ja Morant — who hasn’t broken a law that I’m aware of — having a gun. My issue is that he’s recklessly brandishing a gun.

To bring it closer to home, I’ll share this. Sixteen years ago this summer, I lost a close friend in a similar incident. It was 4th of July, and he and some peers were joyriding, intoxicated, and he was in the passenger seat waving a gun. I have no idea why he’d do that. Other than he was always a little wild, the life of the party, doing crazy stuff like eating live bugs or walking across fires to see people’s reactions. But one bump in the road, a slip of the finger (we’ll never know exactly) caused the gun to go off, and he shot himself in the head. I can tell you that his sister, one of my very best friends, did not want to see her brother in that condition in a local ER. Nor did she expect that night that she’d be by his bedside as he took his last breath. In the blink of an eye, a good time turned tragic — and this is what I’m reminded of when I see people handling guns without regard.

Ja Morant is a role model for countless youth. Waving guns around in public spaces or while jamming tunes in a car with your buddies is not “cool.” And yes, I know the probability of a gun going off on accident is low, but it is never zero. Add alcohol or inexperience to the mix, and it’s a recipe for disaster — especially for young folks who’ve never been properly trained on gun safety but sadly could likely get their hands on one with little effort. Guns are for hunting, for protection — not for showing off on a live stream to thousands of impressionable followers. Unfortunately, some will want to emulate this behavior. And they will.

According to Gun Violence Archive, as of May 21st, there have been 597 unintentional shootings in the U.S. so far this year. The most recent in Memphis happened on May 17th, in which a 5-year-old was accidentally shot and injured by a sibling.

This isn’t just about Ja. It’s about a culture in which people don’t respect the fact that a gun can end a life in a split second. Promoting reckless gun use has got to stop. So many lives depend on it.