Month: August 2023

Categories
Fun Stuff Metaphysical Connection

Metaphysical Connection: August Requires Strength

The Strength card from the Angel Tarot deck (Photo: Shara Clark)

If you are a follower of spiritual bloggers, you may have noticed a trend recently — a struggle with the month of August. For some of us, it’s because we live in the South and it’s hot. The heat and humidity make even the smallest thing difficult. Combine that lethargy with the demands of school starting back, and for the most part, we are over it. All we can think about is cooler weather and Halloween. But there is still more of August and all of September to go before relief is in sight. Which means we are going to need strength. Luckily, there is a tarot card for that. 

August is Leo season in the zodiac, and Leo corresponds to the tarot card Strength. Technically Leo season ends on August 22nd, but for Leos, is Leo season ever really over? 

The Strength card in tarot typically features a woman and a lion. The symbolism of the woman and the lion is a beautiful combination. The lion on the card is a magical being, king of the jungle and a fierce predator, and yet, it is being constrained by the simple touch of the woman. This shows that the woman has dominion over the lion. The woman here is calm, in control, and disciplined in times of difficulty. The lion is a symbol for our courage, desires, and temper. These are feelings we all have, but we must keep them in check so that they do not lead to our downfall.

Strength is a balance card, much like Temperance. We need to be able to balance and integrate our base, animal desires and drives with our civility and humanity. We have to learn to control our ego and temper our passions with understanding, compassion, and grace for ourselves and others. 

Seeing the Strength card in a tarot reading can indicate that you have the inner strength and fortitude to overcome your current situation. It can represent the fact that you have self-mastery and are staying calm during times of distress, or it can be a call to action and encourage you to bring a more harmonious attitude to your current problems. Compassion is a big part of strength, and not just the tarot card. You can see the compassion of the woman in the card by how gently she interacts with and handles the lion. If you see the Strength card in a tarot reading, it could be talking about your compassion and care for others — especially if you are one to give at your own expense. 

This August we could all use a little strength in our lives. And if you like to meditate or reflect on a tarot card, the Strength card might be a good one to focus on right now. We can use the energies and symbolism of this card to help us navigate the changing cycles that occur this month. Many families are adjusting to the new school year. And heat and humidity aside, August is the beginning of the harvest season — a time most of us celebrate the idea of, rather than the actual work — and the beginning of fall.

As we take stock of 2023 and look at our progress and accomplishments, it is okay to be proud of what we have accomplished. Allow yourself to embrace the leonine energy of Leo season and share your sense achievement with the world. But if 2023 has not gone as you planned, remember the compassion of the Strength card. Be gentle with yourself and take care of yourself so that you can live to fight another day.

Even though it is the beginning of harvest season, there is still a lot of work to be done. Pull the fortitude and inner strength you have to the forefront of your being if you need a little push to get to the end of the year. Remember that this Leo season — and all year long — we have a lion inside of us, ready to motivate us with divine love and help us shine like the divine royalty we are. All it takes is a little hard work and strength.

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.

Categories
News News Blog News Feature

Researchers and Community Leaders Seek Equity-Driven Approach to End HIV

(Credit: Testalize.me on Unsplash)

While strides are being made to end the HIV epidemic, it is still considered a “worsening public health crisis in the United States.” It has also proven to disproportionately affect Black Americans.

Darwin Thompson, director of public affairs at Gilead Sciences, said there is also a disproportionate impact in the southern United States. Information released by Gilead Sciences and Meharry Medical College said “southern states accounted for 51 percent of new HIV diagnoses in 2020.” 

“To add onto these troubling statistics, Black Americans make up 42 percent of new HIV diagnoses. A higher proportion than any other racial or ethnic group,” said Thompson.

In Tennessee, Thompson said Black Americans accounted for 58 percent of new HIV diagnoses. He also said there has been a “sharp increase” in legislative attacks against the LGBTQ+ community and other groups that are more affected by HIV.

Thompson said while HIV is no longer considered a “death sentence,” a new “equity-driven” approach is required to address the social and cultural issues that contribute to the spread of the disease. “Many people who live in the southern U.S. face a multitude of serious societal and systemic challenges that fuel the epidemic including the burden of poverty, stigma, prejudice, low health literacy, and lack of insurance and access to care,” said Thompson.

In hopes of collaborating with community-based organizations, Gilead launched its COMPASS initiative in 2017 for “HIV advocacy focused on evidence-based policies.” One of the partners of the COMPASS initiative is Relationships Unleashed, a nonprofit organization based in Memphis. 

Gwendolyn Clemons,  executive director of Relationships Unleashed, said the mission of the organization is personal to her, as she lost her sister, who died a year after being diagnosed with HIV. “The lack of education and understanding of HIV in the Black community, along with stigma associated with it, both exist in our community,” Clemons said. 

Clemons said Shelby County has one of the highest new infection rates for HIV. In March, the Flyer reported that Shelby County ranked number three in “incidence rates of new HIV infections in the United States,” and the disease disproportionately affected those in minority populations.

“One area in particular that we found problematic in Memphis, was the continuous rise of new HIV diagnosis in Black, same-gender loving men, and Black cisgender women,” said Clemons. “The city that we love so much has continuously been ranked in the top 10 of diagnoses for years.”

James E.K. Hildreth, president of Meharry Medical College, said the problem of HIV has never been “strictly medical.” He said that a broader approach is required, specifically honing in on community leaders and organizations and the role they play in ending the virus.

“To truly end the epidemic, we need community solutions that work in the context of those communities,” said Hildreth. “We also need to have communities work hand in hand — scientific community and healthcare providers.”

Categories
Fun Stuff News of the Weird

News of the Weird: Week of 08/17/23

It’s Come to This

Cedric Lodge, 55, and his wife, Denise, 63, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, were indicted in federal court on June 14th after it was revealed that they allegedly were stealing and selling human body parts, the Associated Press reported. Lodge was the manager of the Harvard Medical School morgue until May 6th, when he was fired. He and his wife offered a shopping opportunity at the morgue, where buyers could pick which donated remains they wanted. The Lodges would then take the items home and ship them through the mail. The parts included heads, brains, skin, and bones. Three others were indicted: Katrina Maclean, 44, of Salem, Massachusetts; Joshua Taylor, 46, of West Lawn, Pennsylvania; and Matthew Lampi, 52, of East Bethel, Minnesota. Prosecutors say they were part of a nationwide network of people who buy and sell human remains. Harvard called the actions “morally reprehensible.” [AP, 6/15/2023]

Smooth Reaction

When Martin Trimble, 30, tried to rob a convenience store in Durham, England, in May, the shop owner got the best of him: He lowered the store’s steel shutter, trapping Trimble on his back half in and half out, and waited for authorities to arrive. Once Trimble realized he was pinned to the ground, Fox News reported, he popped open one of the beers he’d tried to steal and drank it as he waited to be arrested. Trimble pleaded guilty on June 16th to attempted robbery and possession of a knife and was sentenced to three years in jail. [Fox News, 6/18/2023]

Bright Idea

Self-pitying Belgian TikToker David Baerten, 45, has a morbid sense of humor — or a fragile ego. According to Sky News, Baerten and his family decided to “prank” his friends by faking his own death because he felt “unappreciated” by them. The funeral, which took place in early June near Liege, drew a crowd of friends and family, who were shocked when a helicopter landed nearby and Baerten stepped out. “What I see in my family often hurts me. I never get invited to anything. Nobody sees me,” Baerten said. “That’s why I wanted to give them a life lesson.” [Sky News, 6/14/2023]

Weird Science

KTVX-TV reported on June 21st that snow in the mountains of Utah is turning pink, red, and orange — what scientists call “watermelon snow.” Experts said the colored snow results from blooming green algae, which is found in mountain ranges. “The snow algae produce a pigment that basically darkens their cells,” said Scott Hotaling, an assistant professor at Utah State University’s department of watershed sciences. Basically, the algae turn colors to protect themselves. One young visitor said the snow turned his shoes orange. “I thought that was pretty cool,” he said. [KTVX, 6/20/2023]

You Had One Job

The town of Stuart, Iowa, needed a new water tower to handle its growing population, according to KCRG-TV. But when residents saw the name painted on one side, they cringed. Rather than STUART, the tower was painted with START. Mayor Dick Cook called the social media attention about the misspelling “hilarious,” and the tower has been repainted. [KCRG, 6/21/2023]

Maybe the Dingo Did Eat Your Baby

On K’gari beach (formerly Fraser Island) in Australia, a 10-year-old boy was bitten and dragged under the water by a dingo on June 16th, The Guardian reported. Not two weeks earlier, another dingo was euthanized after biting multiple tourists, including a French woman who was bitten on her posterior as she sunbathed. In the most recent event, the boy’s older sister rescued him, and he was treated for puncture wounds to his shoulder and arms. “These animals are capable of inflicting serious harm … some are quite brazen and are not fleeing when yelled at or when someone brandishes a stick,” said ranger Danielle Mansfield. “Children and teenagers must be within arm’s reach of an adult at all times.”
[Guardian, 6/21/2023]

News of the Weird is now a podcast on all major platforms! To find out more, visit newsoftheweirdpodcast.com.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD
© 2023 Andrews McMeel Syndication.
Reprinted with permission.
All rights reserved.

Categories
Astrology Fun Stuff

Free Will Astrology: Week of 08/17/23

Dario Bronnimann | Unsplash

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Lincoln Calibration Sphere 1 is a hollow globe of aluminum launched into Earth orbit in 1965. Fifty-eight years later, it continues to circle the planet — and is still doing the job it was designed to do. It enables ground-based radar devices to perform necessary calibrations. I propose we celebrate and honor the faithfulness of this magic sphere. May it serve as an inspiring symbol for you in the coming months. More than ever before, you have the potential to do what you were made to do — and with exceptional steadiness and potency. I hope you will be a pillar of inspiring stability for those you care about.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “Live as though you’re living a second time and as though the first time you lived, you did it wrong, and now you’re trying to do things right.” Holocaust survivor and author Viktor Frankl offered this advice. I wouldn’t want to adhere to such a demanding practice every day of my life. But I think it can be an especially worthwhile exercise for you in the coming weeks. You will have a substantial capacity to learn from your past, to prevent mediocre histories from repeating themselves, to escape the ruts of your habit mind and instigate fresh trends.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini author Jamie Zafron wrote an article titled “To Anyone Who Thinks They’re Falling Behind in Life.” She says, “Sometimes you need two more years of life experience before you can make your masterpiece into something that will feel real and true and raw. Sometimes you’re not falling in love because whatever you need to know about yourself is only knowable through solitude. Sometimes you haven’t met your next collaborator. Sometimes your sadness encircles you because, one day, it will be the opus upon which you build your life.” This is excellent advice for you in the coming months, dear Gemini. You’ll be in a phase of incubation, preparing the way for your Next Big Thing. Honor the gritty, unspectacular work you have ahead! It will pay off.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): You’re entering a phase when you will generate maximum luck if you favor what’s short and sweet instead of what’s long and complicated. You will attract the resources you need if you identify what they are with crisp precision and do not indulge in fuzzy indecision. The world will conspire in your favor to the degree that you avoid equivocating. So please say precisely what you mean! Be a beacon of clear, relaxed focus!

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Unless you are French, chances are you have never heard of Saint-John Perse (1887–1975). He was a renowned diplomat for the French government and a poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Now he’s virtually unknown outside of his home country. Can we draw useful lessons for your use, Leo? Well, I suspect that in the coming months, you may very well come into greater prominence and wield more clout. But it’s crucial for the long-term health of your soul that during this building time, you are in service to nurturing your soul as much as your ego. The worldly power and pride you achieve will ultimately fade like Perse’s. But the spiritual growth you accomplish will endure forever.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique, and not too much imagination.” Virgo author Christopher Isherwood said that. I’m offering his thought because I believe life will be spectacularly not bad for you in the coming weeks — whether or not you have a good physique. In fact, I’m guessing life will be downright enjoyable, creative, and fruitful. In part, that’s because you will be the beneficiary of a stream of luck. And in part, your gentle triumphs and graceful productiveness will unfold because you will be exceptionally imaginative.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “You know how crazy love can make you,” write Mary D. Esselman and Elizabeth Ash Vélez in their book Love Poems for Real Life. “On any given day, you’re insanely happy, maniacally miserable, kooky with contentment, or bonkers with boredom — and that’s in a good relationship.” They add, “You have to be a little nuts to commit yourself, body and soul, to one other person — one wonderful, goofy, fallible person — in the hope that happily-ever-after really does exist.” The authors make good points, but their view of togetherness will be less than fully applicable to you in the coming months. I suspect life will bring you boons as you focus your intelligence on creating well-grounded, nourishing, non-melodramatic bonds with trustworthy allies.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “I don’t adopt anyone’s ideas — I have my own.” So proclaimed Scorpio author Ivan Turgenev (1818–1883). Really, Ivan? Were you never influenced by someone else’s concepts, principles, art, or opinions? The fact is that all of us live in a world created and shaped by the ideas of others. We should celebrate that wondrous privilege! We should be pleased we don’t have to produce everything from scratch under our own power. As for you Scorpios reading this oracle, I urge you to be the anti-Turgenev in the coming weeks. Rejoice at how interconnected you are — and take full advantage of it. Treasure the teachings that have made you who you are. Sing your gratitude for those who have forged the world you love to live in. You now have the power to be an extraordinary networker.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The Tibetan term lenchak is often translated as “karmic debt.” It refers to the unconscious conditioning and bad old habits that attract us to people we would be better off not engaging. I will be bold and declare that sometime soon, you will have fully paid off a lenchak that has caused you relationship problems. Congrats! You are almost free of a long-running delusion. You don’t actually need an influence you thought you needed.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): If you’re like many of us, you have a set bathing routine. In the shower or bath, you start your cleansing process with one particular action, like washing your face, and go on to other tasks in the same sequence every time. Some people live most of their lives this way: following well-established patterns in all they do. I’m not criticizing that approach, though it doesn’t work for me. I need more unpredictability and variety. Anyway, Capricorn, I suspect that in the coming weeks, you will benefit from trying my practice. Have fun creating variations on your standard patterns. Enjoy being a novelty freak with the daily details.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In July 1812, composer Ludwig van Beethoven wrote a 10-page love letter to a woman he called “My Angel” and “Immortal Beloved.” He never sent it, and scholars are still unsure of the addressee’s identity. The message included lines like “you — my everything, my happiness … my solace — my everything” and “forever thine, forever mine, forever us.” I hope you will soon have sound reasons for composing your own version of an “Immortal Beloved” letter. According to my astrological analysis, it’s time for your tender passion to fully bloom. If there’s not a specific person who warrants such a message, write it to an imaginary lover.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): At age 32, artist Peter Milton realized the colors he thought he used in his paintings were different from what his viewers saw. He got his eyes tested and discovered he had color blindness. For example, what he regarded as gray with a hint of yellow, others perceived as green. Shocked, he launched an unexpected adjustment. For the next 40 years, all his paintings were black and white only. They made him famous and have been exhibited in major museums. I love how he capitalized on an apparent disability and made it his strength. I invite you to consider a comparable move in the coming months.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Taco Tuesdays

Jordan Beatty (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Along with his tacos, Jordan Beatty is making two-pound colossal burritos at his Taco Tuesdays setup at Memphis Kitchen Co-Op.

Beatty, 29, isn’t Mexican, but, he says, “I would definitely say Mexican food is part of my vibe.” And, he adds, “I wanted to share my passion for Mexican food with other people who would enjoy it. I’ve been working on my Mexican food for about two years now. I’m really honing in on it. I’m really proud of my product.”

Tacos were Beatty’s introduction to Mexican food. “The first time I ever ate Mexican food was probably Taco Bell. My father was regional manager at Taco Bell for six or seven years. He managed four different stores, so we ate Taco Bell. I have three brothers my size. We are very large men. We ate Taco Bell almost every night ’cause that’s what my dad could get for free.”

Mexican food gives him “a good feeling,” Beatty says. “It’s very straightforward and honest. The ingredients speak for themselves without any real intense culinary techniques. It’s just pure flavors put together.”

Opera singing was Beatty’s first vibe. “When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be an opera singer. Not a chef. I would sing opera music to anyone who would listen.”

A “true baritone,” Beatty, who sang in the choir in middle school, high school, and college, liked the “emotion, the intensity” of opera music. Cooking wasn’t on his radar. “I come from a long line of people who can’t cook at all.”

Little Caesars pizza was Beatty’s first restaurant job. “I was the sign shaker from 11-3 p.m. And then I would go inside and scrub and clean.”

One sign was shaped like a guitar. “You’d see me dancing on the side of the road with that sign.”

Beatty also cooked. “They showed me how to make pizzas. And then I started working the line. I learned how to make dough.”

In college, Beatty wanted to be a teacher. He later opened Tiger Paws Landscape, his own landscape business, but he closed it after he developed “an allergy to trees, grass, and weeds.”

Beatty, who married a professional chef, Lee Anna Beatty, while he had his landscaping business, told her he was interested in learning to cook. “I just didn’t really know where to start. It just so happened that week chef Spencer McMillin posted on his Facebook page that he needed a dishwasher for the space where he was. Caritas Village. I started the next day.”

He rose from dishwasher to sous-chef, thanks to McMillin’s guidance. “I loved it. I went straight into it. I haven’t looked back.”

Beatty also worked at Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza, The Vault, and FLIP SIDE Memphis before he moved to Memphis Kitchen Co-op and began working for co-owner Richard McCracken’s Amplified Meal Prep.

He also became his wife’s chef at Busy Bee Catering. “We do a little bit of everything. I would say mostly we are Asian fusion, Mexican inspired, and classic Americana.”

Beatty’s Taco Tuesdays is a part of Busy Bee Catering. “We’ve been serving what I call a premium taco bar for a while.”

He held his first official Taco Tuesday on August 8th. “I make my own adobo sauce, which is the basis of a lot of my Mexican cooking. A mixture of peppers, onions, garlic, vinegar, spices, and oil.

“I marinate my meats in it and my mushrooms. And that’s how I make my taco sauce.”

He offers chicken, beef, shrimp, barbacoa, and marinated mushroom tacos. “And I do one chef special every week that’s going to change.”

His first one was pollo adobo blanco. “Adobo beurre blanc over marinated chicken.”

And, yes, Beatty still sings. “Constantly. But not really for other people’s enjoyment. Just my own.”

Instead of opera, Beatty sings rock, folk, Americana, and country music.

“That’s one of the great parts of being a chef. The kitchen is my stage. I can just enjoy my time and sing and just kind of have a good time. And as long as I’m doing that, I don’t feel like I’m working at all.”

Memphis Kitchen Co-Op is at 7946 Fischer Steel Road in Cordova.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

Facing Climate Change As One World

Global warming continues unabated. (Photo: Markus Spiske | Unsplash)

“… We need to do everything we can to keep [global] warming as low as possible.”

When it comes to climate change, one two-letter word has me totally perplexed: “we.” There’s an implication of global unity — a transcendent “we,” marching as to war (so to speak) — facing humanity’s greatest crisis, undoing the exploitative, Earth-destroying aspects of our social structure and grabbing control over the planet’s rising temperature. We need to do everything we can!

Yeah, sure. And then it turns out “we” aren’t doing nearly enough. The blame gets passed around — to the rich countries of the global north, to the world’s largest fossil fuel companies. And the ice keeps melting; the wildfires rage; average temperatures keep setting records. Scientists grow ever more distraught. The cry repeats itself: We need to do everything we can!

I don’t disagree with this. I just don’t know who “we” are, and hardly feel like a participant in the process, except in small ways: when I recycle stuff or argue with a climate-change denier or walk rather than drive wherever (achy legs, balance issues — I mostly drive). This isn’t enough, of course. It’s change from the social margins. The global warming — the global “weirding” — continues unabated, as do the warnings from the science community. National promises to change remain minimal, and are ultimately bypassed and ignored.

What I’m trying to say is this: There is a “we” that most Americans embrace and feel a part of, but it has nothing to do with the warming planet and collapsing ecosystem. Before we can begin “doing everything we can,” we have to transcend our limited sense of who we are and what matters. 

The New York Times’ Brad Plumer, for instance, writing about a report recently released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a body of experts convened by the United Nations, noted: “Governments and companies would need to invest three to six times the roughly $600 billion they now spend annually on encouraging clean energy in order to hold global warming at 1.5 or 2 degrees, the report says. While there is currently enough global capital to do so, much of it is difficult for developing countries to acquire. The question of what wealthy, industrialized nations owe to poor, developing countries has been divisive at global climate negotiations.”

These words quietly scream for a fundamental shift in the planet’s political infrastructure. “Encouraging clean energy” isn’t really any nation’s first priority, especially if it’s rich and powerful. As I read that paragraph, what popped into my head is this: The planet’s annual military budget is about $2.2 trillion (with the United States accounting for nearly half of that). War is hell, but that’s okay. It’s the primary manifestation of nationalism, the primary expression of power. 

We have treaties and such — some nations are allies — but the essence of the situation is this: We live in an us-vs.-them world. We have to be continually cautious and, if necessary, aggressive. This is a divided world. Any questions?

The problem, of course, is that the divisions are mostly arbitrary, not to mention pragmatic. There’s nothing like a good enemy to help a country maintain its unity, to help a government assert control over the population. (Careful, he may be a commie.) But these arbitrary divisions are also distinct and specific; they’re called borders. Borders have nothing to do with reality, but “we” pretend that they matter — often to the detriment of people who need to cross them. And as climate change continues to create chaos, it makes certain regions uninhabitable. More and more human beings will find themselves being pushed out of the “human climate niche,” which means they’ll have to go somewhere else.

As Anju Anna John and Stefano Balbi write at Common Dreams, regarding a study called Quantifying the Human Cost of Global Warming: 

“In the worst-case future scenario — where the world reverts to fossil-fueled development and has a population of 9.5 billion at the end of the century — the study found that 5.3 billion people would be left behind. We would be looking at a world where about half the world’s population would no longer be able to live in regions they once considered home.”

So they’d have to move. They’d have to become climate refugees, which probably means confronting a foreign bureaucracy at some border or other. Uh oh. That could be a problem, even though, according to The Guardian: 

“… [T]he richest 1 percent of the world’s population is responsible for twice the amount of greenhouse gases as the world’s poorest 50 percent, who suffer the brunt of the harms.

“So far, the rich countries of the global north are regarded as having promised too little — and delivered even less — for climate adaptation efforts in poorer countries.”

We need to do everything we can — to minimize global warming, to deal with its inevitable effects on some. But this will only happen minimally in the context of the present moment, in which the wealthy and powerful are motivated primarily to protect and expand their wealth and power, and who will casually dehumanize those who are in the way or who attempt to cross a sacred border.

This is not the “we” that’s going to do everything it can to save the planet, but it’s the “we” we’re stuck with, at least for now. Truly dealing with climate change — doing everything we can — means transforming who we are and reorganizing ourselves as one world. 

Robert Koehler (koehlercw@gmail.com), syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. He is the author of Courage Grows Strong at the Wound.

Categories
Music Music Features

Basil Alter Releases First EP, Mooncat

Basil Alter (Photo: Michael Donahue)

Basil Alter’s first violin was made out of a tissue box and a stick used for stirring paint. His bow was a dowel.

That was his violin before he was 3 years old.

Alter, 23, now performs with a violin that belonged to his mother. “It was made around the 1820s in Italy by a man named Giuseppe Baldantoni, who also made weapons,” Alter says.

He doesn’t know what kind of weapons Baldantoni made, but Alter can knock people out of their seats with his violin while playing Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso Opus 28” or any Niccolò Paganini piece.

He’s performed around the country, including Carnegie Hall in New York.

Alter, who is about to move to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music, doesn’t limit himself to classical music. In addition to his longhair music, he also lets his hair down and plays jazz on occasion with Joyce Cobb. He played rock on two albums with Jesse Wilcox’s band, Daykisser. He also played on Ben Callicott’s new album, Late. And he played on “sweet state of mind” by Forty Thieves (Ali Abu-Khraybeh).

In late August, Alter will release his first EP, Mooncat, which he describes as “sitting somewhere between the classical idiom and the jazz idiom. The official label on the genre is ‘new age.’”

Born in South Carolina, Alter initially learned the Suzuki method of violin playing from his mom, but he got more interested in percussion and timpani in grade school and middle school. The school’s string program “wasn’t as exciting as band.”

He began to take violin seriously when he was 12 and realized that was the instrument he “most enjoyed.”

When he was 19, Alter moved to New York to study at the Manhattan School of Music. He moved back to Memphis in August 2022. “I just wanted a break from school. And [to] hang out until I tried to figure out what my next move was.”

He’s kept busy in Memphis. “I started a chamber music series at a church [All Saints’ Episcopal] in East Memphis, which was fun. I did a few recitals. I played with the Germantown Symphony [Orchestra].”

Alter also worked with local artists on their projects. “I think the good thing about not being in school is you get the opportunity to try a bunch of different things and see what you like and what you don’t like.”

In 2020, Alter recorded his first single, “Billings,” which was inspired by the music of William Billings, an American composer in the 18th century.

The new age classical piece was, like all his original work, “music I wanted to listen to that didn’t exist already.”

His Mooncat EP, which he began working on two years ago, just features himself on violin and Michael Manring of Windham Hill on bass. Alter met Manring through finger-style guitarist Jake Allen, who is mixing and mastering Mooncat. Calvin Lauber is the engineer.

The first track, “Two Children’s Songs for Violin,” is a two-movement work “inspired by Chick Corea’s children’s songs.”

“Mooncat,” the second track, is “more of a jazz tune.”

Alter plays solo violin on the third track, “Laika,” which he describes as having more of a “cinematic and movie” style. The title came from the dog, Laika. “The Soviets put this street dog into space.” Naming the song after the dog fit in “with the cosmic theme of the album.”

Alter was accepted to the Royal Academy of Music after his audition there last March. “One of the best auditions of my life.”

He plans to move to London in about two weeks.

But getting back to his violin. “My mother was a freelancer in New York and ended up playing a lot of odd jobs with this violin, including the theme song for Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and the Obsession cologne ad that won a lot of awards. Seems like when I bring it up, everyone who was alive then knows about it.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Marsha, Marsha; Corporate Memphis; and Well Done

Posted to X by Sen. Marsha Blackburn

Memphis on the internet.

Marsha, Marsha

Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn tweeted, “Merrick Garland appointed David Weiss as special counsel because he knows Weiss will protect Hunter.”

Turns out she was one of 34 Republican senators that specifically requested Weiss for the job in September. Enough X users pointed out this dissonance that the platform marked her tweet with that special box that reads, “Readers added context they thought people might want to know.”

Corporate Memphis

Posted to YouTube by Cat Graffam

A new-ish design illustration trend, called “Corporate Memphis,” has emerged, and you’ve probably already seen it in Kroger TV ads.

YouTuber Cat Graffam explained the style to be “flat, digital illustrations with characters that have exaggerated proportions.” Graffam breaks the whole thing down in a video posted last week.

Well Done

Posted to X by Bartlett Police

Bartlett Police Department and Bartlett Fire Department rescued a missing child from a storm drain this past weekend and posted the drone footage to X. “Everyone loves a happy ending,” reads the post. We do, too.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Brooks to Open New Exhibit, “Black American Portraits”

Photo: Courtesy LACMA Sargent Johnson’s Chester

In the wake of the killing of George Floyd, the general public was flooded with images of Black pain and suffering. From news stations to social media feeds, these images proliferated by modern technology were and are instantaneous with nothing, really, to prevent them from surfacing on our screens.

To counteract this, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) curated the “Black American Portraits” exhibition, filled with portraits celebrating and depicting Black joy, power, and love. And now the exhibit has made its way to the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

With 129 pieces of art in total, the exhibition spans over 200 years in history, from 19th-century studio photography to paintings completed as recently as this year. The works hang in the “salon style” with the art lining the walls in a way that one might adorn their own walls — a more contemporary piece may be placed beside antique tin types, one artist’s work may hang above that of another. It’s almost domestic in that way, says Patricia Daigle, the Brooks’ curator of modern and contemporary art.

Still, the exhibition is divided into three gallery spaces, with each space focusing on power, love, and joy, respectively. “I think a lot of us think we understand what power looks like or what love feels like,” says Daigle, “but I think one thing you’ll see in this exhibition is that these are really complicated concepts and emotions. And they’re presented through a Black lens.”

“We’re not trying to present an image that’s like a rose-colored-glasses view of the past,” adds Efe Igor Coleman, Blackmon Perry assistant curator of African-American art and art of the African Diaspora at the Brooks. “But it’s important to see that [power, love, and joy] existed and still exists, … [that] people are able to find joy and love and power in periods of incredible difficulty or suffering.”

While some of the images are from historical moments or of recognizable figures, a large portion of the pieces highlights the ordinary: the love of spending time with family, the joy of listening to music, the power in seeing oneself represented. As Coleman says, “For Black folks, owning yourself, owning your own presentation, like literally being able to hang an image of yourself, is really important,” and that’s also part of why the Brooks wanted to bring this exhibition to Memphis, a majority-Black city. One of the questions that the curators ask of every show they generate at the Brooks is, she says, “Why Memphis?”

And thanks to Daigle and Coleman, the exhibition has Memphis connections with works by local artists Jarvis Boyland, Derek Fordjour, Catherine Elizabeth Patton, and the Hooks Brothers. “Memphis has always been joyful,” says Coleman. “So [the exhibition’s] banking on that legacy and showing off that legacy, especially as we’re part of this monumental national tour.”

“Black American Portraits,” Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, on display August 17-January 7.

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Rumblings

Reverend Earle Fisher with mayoral candidates Van Turner and Paul Young at the People’s Convention (Photo: Facebook | People’s Convention)

As the recent nonstop turbulent weather subsided somewhat, last weekend saw the culmination of candidate endorsements by the People’s Convention, a citizens movement of some years’ standing, with roots in the inner city and among progressives. That turned out to be a mano a mano between NAACP president Van Turner, the early favorite of Democrats and progressives, and Paul Young, the Downtown Memphis Commission CEO who has undeniable momentum (and cash reserves) feeding his goal of across-the-board support.

Despite a stem-winding address to the 300 or so attendees by Turner in which the candidate recounted his many services in his NAACP work, as a county commissioner, as a Democrat, and as a prime mover in the removal of Confederate memorabilia Downtown, the win went to Young, the election season’s most unstinting mayoral aspirant, who focused his remarks on his past services as a workhorse in city and county government, which, he said, had garnered support for such community additives as the Memphis Sports and Events Center at Liberty Park itself, where the People’s Convention was being held this year under the direction of the Reverend Earle Fisher.

Fisher has in recent years revived the convention, which had first been held in 1991 and had been a force that year in the election of Willie Herenton as the city’s first Black mayor. Ironically, Fisher on last Saturday would chastise both Herenton, a mayoral candidate again, and Sheriff Floyd Bonner, another aspirant, for their no-shows this year at the People’s Convention.

Bonner had opted instead for a well-attended forum on women’s issues, being held simultaneously at the IBEW building on Madison under the auspices of the Democratic Women of Shelby County. Eight other mayoral contenders also participated in that event.

The mayoral-preference vote at the People’s Convention last Saturday was 224 for Young and 116 for Turner, and owed much to the disproportionate sizes of the supportive claque each brought with him.

Other Convention preferences were for Jerri Green in council District 2; Pearl Walker in District 3; Meggan Kiel in District 5; Michalyn Easter-Thomas in District 7; JB Smiley Jr. in Super District 8, Position 1; Janika White in Super District 8, Position 2; Jerred Price in Super District 8, Position 3; and Benji Smith in Super District 9, Position 1.

• Later last Saturday night (actually early Sunday morning), a massive and unruly crowd materialized in Downtown Memphis, resulting in shots being fired. Eight victims were injured, and an MPD officer was roughed up by out-of-control youths.

The event illuminated the issue of crime as a dominant motif in this year’s election. Mayoral candidates Bonner and Herenton especially have emphasized the importance of the issue and their determination to deal with it.

Fisher would also weigh in on the matter, condemning the violence but calling for long-term community-based alternatives to repressive-suppressive techniques for crime control. (Of note to Flyer readers: This week’s cover story by Chris McCoy also considers such alternatives.)

As a kind of footnote to things, the Shelby County Commission last Monday considered, but deferred for two weeks, action on proposals for restrictions on preemptive traffic stops and use of specialized units by the Sheriff’s Department.

Similar curbs were recently imposed on the MPD by the city council.