Many who lived in Memphis during the ’90s and early aughts know Bill Ellis’ name — he was the music writer at The Commercial Appeal for nearly a decade, and his byline appeared in the paper for even longer. “I have to pinch myself that I was in Memphis when I was,” he says, thinking back on those days. “Jim Dickinson and Sam Phillips and Isaac Hayes were just a phone call away. I still can’t believe I was there at that time. The music I covered in the ’90s — the emerging hip-hop scene and also the North Mississippi hill country blues — those things resonate to this day. When I left, I realized that they were important, and time has only proven that in my mind.”
Meanwhile, he was pursuing another track as William Lee Ellis, the name under which he releases his folk- and blues-influenced music, a side of him that’s being foregrounded anew with the release of his sixth album, Ghost Hymns (Yellow Dog Records). Yet while his first release came out in 1999, during his tenure as a music writer, he’d been performing since long before that. Indeed, his father, banjoist Tony Ellis, is a veteran of Bill Monroe’s early-’60s Blue Grass Boys. But Bill Ellis didn’t quite follow in his father’s footsteps. After frequently backing the elder Ellis on guitar during his teen years, he studied classical guitar at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
It took an encounter with one of Memphis’ great traditional blues and ragtime guitarists, Andy Cohen, to steer him beyond both classical and bluegrass. “I met Andy through my dad back in the late ’80s,” says Ellis. “He gave me a pile of records and said, ‘Here, learn these.’ Six months later I showed up and I’m playing all the songs on those records.” Moving to Memphis in the ’90s only sealed his love of the blues.
In fact, he ended up putting journalism on the back burner in 2005 to study ethnomusicology with David Evans, ultimately writing his doctoral dissertation on the Reverend Gary Davis. That in turn led him to a faculty position at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont, where he’s currently chair of fine arts and associate professor of music. But Memphis still figures heavily in both his scholarship and his music. As for the former, one need look no further than the current exhibit he curated for the Art Museum of the University of Memphis, “Build Me a Heaven of My Own: African American Vernacular Art and the Blues.”
As for the latter, Ghost Hymns is bursting with Memphis influences and talent. On one track, Cohen plays dolceola, a kind of keyboard-enhanced zither; another tune was written with fellow former music writer Larry Nager, who also co-produced the album; and Memphian Brooke Barnett designed the cover.
Beyond those contributions, and the influence of Memphis on Ellis’ general aesthetic, the album sports more global influences, reflecting the artist’s lifelong peregrinations. “It’s not a world music record,” says Ellis, “but it is a record with some interesting global touches to it, by virtue of the people I call friends in Burlington, if that makes any sense.” The album’s Bandcamp notes are more specific: “Played on an array of instruments from fretless banjo and slide guitar to Ghanaian percussion and Chinese yueqin, the original tunes of Ghost Hymns offer an expansive view of tradition, visiting blues, gospel, high life, and more in a singular journey.”
While most of the songs were penned by Ellis, the echoes of world folk traditions are unmistakable here, from album opener “Cony Catch the Sun,” where Ellis’ fretless banjo recalls Taj Mahal’s work with Malian kora master Toumani Diabaté, to Matt LaRocca’s lush string arrangement for “Earth and the Winding Sheet,” reminiscent of British art-folk artist Nick Drake.
Yet Ellis points out that the album’s greatest influence was closer to home: his own father. One of Tony Ellis’ originals is on the album, and his presence is felt throughout. “Looking back,” says the younger Ellis, “there are guiding voices in the wilderness helping you figure out who you are as a musician. My dad, first and foremost, being that. I hear more of my dad on this album than on any of my other records.”
America undermines its workers. (Photo: Wirestock | Dreamstime.com)
America is one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Yet when compared to other advanced industrialized countries, it fares dismally in national laws and policies affecting workers. This is a major claim of a recent cross-national study sponsored by the humanitarian organization Oxfam America, a report that offers a powerful lens for understanding the major strike activity now underway in the U.S. The study notes how political choices create environments that favor or undermine working people — choices that in the U.S. have largely been to the detriment of workers.
In light of the current strikes (e.g., writers, actors, hotel workers, Amazon delivery drivers), the study reminds one that, whatever the political environment may be, it’s the workers themselves — and the unions that represent them — that must continue to assert the leadership needed to bring about a more just and equitable society.
Perhaps the disadvantaging of U.S. workers is no more readily apparent than in policies setting the minimum wage. Unlike 80 other countries that mandate an annual review of a national minimum wage, the U.S. requires no such review, and Congress has failed to raise the hourly wage from $7.25 since 2014, and failed as well to raise the tipped minimum wage (from $2.13) since 1991. Many states and localities have set their minimum wage above the national standard, from $8.75 per hour in West Virginia to $16.50 in the District of Columbia.
But these numbers only begin to become meaningful when you factor in the cost of housing. According to latest figures from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, workers in this country must earn on average $28.58 an hour for a “modest two-bedroom rental home” and $23.67 for a “modest one-bedroom rental home.” In California, where housing costs are the highest in the nation, a working person must earn $42.25 an hour for a two-bedroom rental.
For hotel housekeepers in Los Angeles, who currently make on average only $20 to $25 an hour, the only way to survive financially is to take on two or three jobs — or to commute two or three hours a day from distant, less expensive locations. So these workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 11, opted to take collective action. Once contracts with 61 Southern California hotels expired on June 30th, they began a series of rolling strikes, walking off the job at selected groups of hotels to make clear to employers their critical role to the industry. The strikes continue to this day.
As hurtful as the rent/wage disparity is, it’s still part of a much bigger picture of policy failures. The U.S. is almost alone among advanced industrialized nations in tying health insurance to employment. Without universal, tax-based health insurance, many workers risk losing their insurance as a result of work-related issues and changes.
As the current SAG-AFTRA strike has made clear, many actors are at risk of losing their insurance if they’re not able to work a minimum number of days per year or reach a minimum earnings threshold. Some 86 percent of the union’s 160,000 members do not earn enough to qualify for health insurance.
And healthcare is only one of the comparative indices with which to measure a nation’s commitment to the well-being of its workers and their families. The U.S. stands alone among advanced nations in lacking a federal mandate to provide paid leave. By way of contrast, consider Spain’s mandate of 16 weeks of paid maternity leave and 16 weeks of paid paternity leave for new parents.
As challenging as the current strikes are for workers in a wide range of sectors, it’s even more challenging for workers to begin organizing unions and securing fair contracts. In a nation where union busting is a major industry, and where penalties against companies for labor violations are relatively minor, it’s not difficult for large corporations like Amazon or Starbucks to stonewall efforts at collective bargaining.
Though Starbucks workers have voted to unionize at more than 340 stores since the first successful vote in 2021, the company has failed to negotiate a single contract with workers at any of the stores.
Once again, a contrast with other nations is instructive, particularly in countries like Austria, where sectoral bargaining allows panels of workers to bargain with employers across an entire industry, rather than company by company.
Workers and unions do need allies in government and in the community. They can’t change laws and policy without strong support.
And current strikes demonstrate how such support can be manifested in many ways — from open letters to employers, to legislative initiatives, to direct participation in worker-led actions, including civil disobedience.
But ultimately the initiative, the perseverance, and the courage lie with the workers themselves — seeking dignity and a better life for themselves and their families. It is out of this leadership that a more equitable society must, in the final analysis, emerge for us all.
Andrew Moss, syndicated by PeaceVoice, writes on labor and immigration from Los Angeles.
When Keisha Jackson isn’t baking and lavishly decorating cakes, she’s driving her 72-foot-long tractor trailer.
“I’m a trucker,” she says. “I’m owner/operator. I drive a semi. I drive a Freightliner.”
She’s also the owner of Tasty Pastry. She bakes cakes, cookies, and other items in her Cordova home.
Jackson, 35, who is married and the mother of four children, packs a lot into her day. On a recent Monday, she baked and decorated a 12-inch “number” cake for a sweet 16 birthday party and then made salmon lasagna for the family dinner before she left home at 9 p.m. to drive to Olive Branch, Mississippi, to pick up her truck and then head to West Memphis, Arkansas. “I run trailers from Memphis to West Memphis. The rail yard. Drop off one and pick up another. And I do that four times [a night].”
She finished about 7 a.m. Tuesday. She then returned home, cooked breakfast for her husband, showered, and went to bed. Growing up in Memphis, Jackson didn’t like to cook. “Because I’m the only girl. I have three brothers. So, I was a ‘little boy’ running around with them. We wrestled a lot. We watched wrestling on TV.”
She also liked to draw “little people.” She drew “little girls and boys. Mostly girls ’cause I would change their hairstyles.”
Jackson, who wanted to be a tattoo artist, drew tattoos on her arm with gel pens when she was in middle school. She also charged 25 cents to draw tattoos on other children’s arms.
Jackson got serious about cooking when she met her future husband. She already had one child and he had two. “I went from just being a mother of one to three overnight. With a live-in boyfriend, I had to learn how to cook.”
So, she says,“I started making meals that my mom made for us as a kid.”
Jackson began baking two years ago, after she had another baby. Since she was home every day, she decided to start baking and decorating cupcakes as a hobby. She bought a decorating kit on Amazon.
She was asked if she sold her cakes after she posted photos of her first elaborately decorated batch of “red roses with green leaves” cupcakes on Nextdoor. The cake she baked for that woman led to more cake and baked goods commissions.
Jackson, who is known for her over-the-top colorfully decorated cakes, says a “divorce cake” was the “most outlandish” cake she ever made. A woman had requested a two-tier teal-and-pink cake to celebrate the occasion. Jackson ordered a cake topper of “a woman spanking the man” as one of the decorations.
“She loved it. And she ordered a dozen cupcakes to go with it. She wanted little penises on the cupcakes. Oddly, they have a penis mold. So, I guess her husband was a dick.”
Jackson baked one of her cakes for the recent New Beginnings and Friends of Horn Lake Animal Shelter Hollywood Gala at Theatre Memphis. She made a Hollywood-themed cake decorated with “a red carpet. There were mini dogs on the cake. And I had cameras, popcorn, and a director’s chair.”
The only cake request that stumped her was from a woman who wanted a cake shaped like a shoe. “She wanted a tennis shoe for her son. A Nike Jordan.”
Jackson doesn’t feel she’s adept enough at this point to work with fondant, which she’d need to “make shoe strings and the little badges on the shoe and the holes on the shoe.”
She’d “literally have to try to make an exact replica of a shoe” if she wanted the cake to fit her standards.
Jackson made her own cake for her 35th birthday. “I put mini liquor bottles all over it,” she says. And, she adds, “It was all white with clear and silver liquor bottles with silver sprinkles and silver roses.”
But, she says, “My husband drank one of the mini liquor bottles before I put it on my cake.”
Jackson, who requests seven days advance notice for cakes and other baked goods, can be contacted at 901tastypastry.com.
“You’ve [always] got mail!” (Photo: Justin Morgan | Unsplash)
Sometimes Sundays feel like the eve of the first day of school. Like a kid anticipating a new semester, the nerves swirl and keep me awake before the “big day.” Working on a perpetual deadline, with a column due each week, it’s as if there’s an essay looming, to be graded — and I’m not always prepared for it. The “grade,” of course, will come from you, the readers — and my aim is to write something relatable, entertaining, or in line with current events.
But this Monday, as is occasionally is the case, I wasn’t sure where to begin. I stared at a blank document longer than I’d like to admit, pausing from that daunting task to edit stories as they traveled through our production process or to review articles awaiting publication on the website. Another distraction, albeit a necessary part of the job, is sorting through emails. Dozens come through my inbox daily, of varying degrees of importance — from promotional product pitches to local news items to (more rare) reader feedback.
One email, with the subject line “Checking In,” caught my eye. Typically if someone is checking in, it’s in relation to a previous conversation or a follow up to a prior email that I’ve not yet replied to. This, though, was something else entirely. Feedback of sorts, I guess you could say, but more just an airing of grievances on Memphis, its politicians, and crime. The note, from a person who no longer lives or works in the city, according to the sender, referred to “you” and “your” a handful of times, as if I or the Flyer has some kind of control over the issues listed within. And they were “checking in” to let me know they still can’t stand our “leftist bullshit.”
“The truth is, Memphis is a steaming, stinking, shithole caused solely by your demokrat [sic]/leftist policies,” the email reads, in part. “Amazing how you otherwise intelligent people, smart enough to write and publish, can be so stupid – or brainwashed – to think your leftist ways work. Liberalism IS a mental disorder and you are both administrators and patients of the socialist insane asylum.”
So this publication, a historically left-leaning alternative newsweekly, somehow, in this person’s mind, contributes to the problems they perceive to weigh on Memphis as a whole? Hmm.
I realized last week that it’s been nine months since I took the helm as editor-in-chief of this paper (and this was my first hate mail, a good run if you ask me). There have been growing pains, as is natural with any job, but particularly one in which you have a platform such as this. Writing something of substance in my column is top of mind, and I’d like to use my voice for good as often as possible. Anyone who has followed this space over the course of my tenure may have noticed I don’t make a habit of intentionally riling people up. I prefer not to promote division, but rather gently remind people that we’re all human, mere specks floating on a rock in space, trying to get by.
So I find myself wondering what would inspire a person to wake up one morning and think, “You know what? I’m pissed off and the editor of the Flyer needs to know this.” The message wasn’t directed at something in particular I had written or a specific piece composed by one of my many talented colleagues. There were no suggested solutions provided or any actionable critiques. Just an anger-dump, addressed to me, for reasons I can’t quite discern.
There was one thing I wanted to weave into my column last week about the congressional hearing on UAPs and the alleged discovery of “non-human biologics,” but with limited space, it didn’t make the cut. I wrote on how we simply don’t have the time to worry about that — unless UFOs land in our front yards, no big deal, who cares. But in reality, some people have a lot of time to worry about a lot of stuff — to be keyboard warriors berating others for their beliefs, to moan about “woke culture,” to bash people for their personal life choices.
I don’t venture to think I can change anyone’s mind, nor do I impose my opinions in ways that belittle others. But I do urge you to think for yourself, do your own research, and above all, be kind.
Hate is a choice. Imagine where we could be if more of us chose love.
Cowabunga! Mutant Mayhem shows off the best versions of Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatello, and Raphel
in years.
I had one eyebrow raised as I walked into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. I’d been burned by the turtles before. I watched the classic ’80s cartoon as a kid, but their previous big-screen offerings have featured bright green costumes that seemed more the stuff of nightmares than a stylish interpretation of their indie comics origin.
Mutant Mayhem, luckily, has no such missteps. Director Jeff Rowe and producers Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver embrace the good kind of weirdness that comes with the turtle territory. The success of Into the Spider-Verse has opened the door to fresh approaches in animation, and Mutant Mayhem takes full advantage. The visible brush strokes in an early shot of the moon over New York City set the mood for a film filled with jagged, scratchy lines. The artistic mayhem captures both the glamor and grime of the city’s sidewalks and sewers, while adding an air of controlled chaos during the rapid movements of combat scenes. Mutant Mayhem’s doodle aesthetics harken back to scribbled drawings in the corners of middle-school notebooks.
As baby turtles, our quartet of heroes are exposed to radioactive ooze which transforms them into humanoid form. Their adoptive father Splinter (Jackie Chan), a rat who was also exposed to the ooze, discovers them in the sewers and trains them in martial arts. Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Donatello (Micah Abbey), and Raphael (Brady Noon) sneak their way through the streets of New York City to retrieve vital supplies like toilet paper and Cool Ranch Doritos. They watch humans from afar, idolizing Ferris Bueller during a movie night in the park and dreaming of one day joining the paradise that is high school. Like normal teenagers, they do things like bicker and film themselves as real life Fruit Ninjas slicing watermelons with a sword.
But the turtles are tired of living in the sewer. Their new human friend April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri) needs to do something great to distract her classmates from an embarrassing high school moment. They hatch a plan to record the turtles performing heroic deeds and package it as the news story of the year. Luckily for their plan, a villain known as Superfly (Ice Cube) has been stealing fancy scientific equipment from armored cars around the city and needs stopping.
Sure, there are superhero elements, but Mutant Mayhem is a high school soap opera about a group of outcasts who just want to fit in. The turtles aren’t ready-made heroes or defenders of New York. Their teen angst eventually spirals into a large-scale city conflict, but it’s this grounded take that makes this the best TMNT film ever. According to Rogen, this is the first time that all the titular characters have been voiced by actual teenagers. It’s easy to tell when the voice actors are freed to riff off script, improvising with one another and bantering like kids at school.
Other longtime TMNT stalwarts pop up, including fellow mutants Rocksteady (John Cena) and Bebop (Rogen). As a fan of the original cartoon, I missed their arch enemy Shredder and members of the Foot clan, but really, they’re not needed here. Teen melodrama, cool visuals, and fancy fisticuffs earn Mutant Mayhem a deserved “Cowabunga!”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Now playing Multiple locations
That’s right, it’s everyone’s favorite time of the year again: Memphis Flyer Burger Week! For 2023’s celebration of the holy grail of classic American dining, we researched some of the best beef patties around and released our writers all over the city to sample some good ol’ Bluff City hamburgers. The usual suspects are out in force, while some newcomers showed off their tasty takes on ground chuck. All of the restaurants on the following pages are participating in Burger Week this year, so we went ahead and checked out what you can expect for some pretty cool $6.99 deals.
Old Bridge Burger – Loflin Yard
“Oh gee,” mused an indecisive diner during a night out on the town in Downtown Memphis. “What do I want to eat tonight? A hamburger? Some barbecue? Or maybe just a small snack of onion rings to tide me over?”
“Oh-ho!” chortled a voice just over his shoulder. “Trouble deciding what to eat tonight?”
“The Loflin Fairy!” the diner exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
“Why, I’m here to solve your dinnertime woes with the Old Bridge Burger at Loflin Yard.” With a flourish, the Loflin Fairy snapped his fingers to conjure a plate out of thin air, topped with a hefty burger piled with all sorts of different accouterments. The diner leaned in, eyes wide, as his salivating gaze wandered over the myriad ingredients.
“It’s got a large Angus beef patty, coleslaw, pickles, barbecue sauce … wait, is that pulled pork on top of the burger? And some fried onion rings under the top bun?”
“Indeed it is,” laughed the Loflin Fairy.
“That’s so much food!” But when the diner looked up, the Loflin Fairy had vanished, leaving him alone with the large Old Bridge Burger, a side of fries, and a frozé for good measure. — Samuel X. Cicci 7 W. Carolina Ave.
The Celtic Burger (Photo: Jon W. Sparks)
The Celtic Burger – Celtic Crossing
Celtic Crossing’s old standbys — think shepherd’s pie and bangers and mash — are splendid, but if you’re hankering for a good ol’ hamburger, you’ll get a beefy serving of satisfaction at the classic Irish pub. The Celtic Burger starts with its blended patty that is nicely seasoned and sports a satisfying topper of American cheese. There is also a “secret sauce,” which implies a certain possible leprechaun involvement, but which my taste buds and some discreet inquiries revealed to have elements of ketchup and mayonnaise (probably not from County Mayo, though).
Verdict is: delicious. Rounding it out are pickles, tomatoes, and shaved lettuce. It all sits comfortably between two halves of a potato bun liberally festooned with sesame seeds. The dish comes with thick, savory fries, as one would expect from a Hibernian kitchen. The seeded bun itself is a delight, but, as will happen with robust burgers, might not stay intact through the end. This, however, is why the Irish invented forks, so you can enjoy it to the last morsel. — Jon W. Sparks 903 Cooper St.
World Famous Huey Burger (Photo: Shara Clark)
World Famous Huey Burger – Huey’s
When’s the last time you had a World Famous Huey Burger? For me, it’s been a year. Yep, when I signed up to eat this classic for this year’s Burger Week preview, I’d forgotten I volunteered to eat and write about the same burger last year.
Oops. Not to fret; it was a welcome change from my typical steak on a stick or potato soup order (I still got some soup to-go because, duh). And who doesn’t love a time-tested cheeseburger?
A perennial Flyer Best of Memphis “Best Burger” winner, the Huey’s standard features a 6-oz. certified Angus beef patty with all the fixings — mayo, lettuce, tomato, mustard, pickles, onion, and cheddar or Swiss cheese on a toasted sesame seed bun. This is a somewhat hefty burger, so prepare to unhinge the jaw a tad to get a taste of all the goods in one go. The combination of juicy beef (medium-cooked for maximum results) and familiar condiments offers that summer backyard cookout flavor we all crave when a burger hankering hits.
Plan your Huey’s trip wisely. In a noon-hour lunch attempt, the line spilled into the lobby and out the front door at not one but three locations. Which on its own is a testament to the quality and longevity of this Memphis-favorite institution. — Shara Clark Multiple locations
Southern Smokehouse Burger (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Southern Smokehouse Burger – Tops Bar-B-Q
A regular Tops hamburger is now iconic. The Southern Smokehouse Burger is a cheeseburger with grilled onions, thick-cut bacon, and a sweet Southern glaze. That glaze drenching that bacon is over-the-top great. Or make that “over the Tops.”
They added the burger with its “smokey molasses-based glaze” as a limited-time offer for the summer, says Hunter Brown with Tops Operations LLC. He and Tops CEO Randy Hough were at the Tops location at 5144 Poplar Avenue the day I was there. Also at the restaurant were a bunch of guys from Christian Brothers High School. Hough and Brown let the guys sample the Southern Smokehouse Burger.
I asked the students what they thought. They liked the “nice texture,” “sweetness and flavor,” and the “sauce.” Another guy specifically said “glaze,” so he knows his cuisine. Brown says one of the guys told him it was “amazing.”
The Southern Smokehouse Burger is $5.99, which is below the Burger Week price point. “What we’re doing is giving the burger and a side of macaroni and cheese for $6.99,” Brown says. The mac and cheese is another new Tops item. — Michael Donahue Multiple locations
Sunrise Burger (Photo: Kailynn Johnson)
Sunrise Burger – Sunrise Memphis
Working for the Flyer has come with a lot of firsts, and this year’s Burger Week was no different. It was my first time trying an egg on a burger. Not too crazy, I know, but for someone who usually sticks to a regular cheeseburger, with the occasional addition of bacon, it can be intimidating. Alongside a sunny-side-up egg, the Sunrise Burger from Sunrise Memphis comes with a double smash patty, cheddar cheese, bacon jam, and jalapeño cream cheese spread, all served on a brioche bun.
When I told my dad about how nervous I was to try all these elements together, his reaction was, “I’m not going to lie, that sounds good,” and per usual, he was right. The ingredients seemed to work together in a way that “breakfast for dinner” does, and it was a nice mix of sweet and savory. The star of the burger would definitely have to be the bacon jam, as the sweetness doesn’t overpower the other elements, and works really nicely with the jalapeño cream cheese spread. While it’s not usually my first thought to visit a breakfast spot to satiate burger cravings, I think a new 20-minute commute is now in the rotation. — Kailynn Johnson Multiple locations
Soul Burger (Photo: Earnestine & Hazel’s)
Soul Burger – Earnestine & Hazel’s
Earnestine & Hazel’s iconic Soul Burger is a dose of Memphis magic served on a blanket of crinkly deli paper.
The ingredients are simple: a bun, patty, onions, cheese, pickle, and “Soul Sauce.” The bar says that’s “all that’s needed to make our delicious burger.” And it has been for years. But there’s something … else about the Soul Burger. Something transportive. But something also elusive. Just what, exactly, has made this humble burger such an essential stitch in the fabric of Memphis culture? Again, it’s hard to define.
But you feel it when the barkeep slides that little paper basket your way. The warm, little burger is just how you remembered. That first bite hits your taste buds and magically unlocks some core Memphis memory.
And never a bad memory. It’s beers and buddies, and the jukebox, and Mr. Nate upstairs, and the peeling paint, the “no dope smoken” sign, and how “ragged but right” (the bar’s ethos) fits it and the city so well, and somehow you feel at home in it all.
Have you been drinking? Probably! But that’s not what makes a Soul Burger taste so good. And neither, really, is it just pure nostalgia.
It’s the perfect blend of simple, savory ingredients done just right every single time. That’s what has brought generations of Memphians coming back for more soul. — Toby Sells 531 S. Main St.
DaLabSpecial (Photo: Chris McCoy)
DaLabSpecial – Dexter’s Lab 901
It’s a hot August night on Shelby Drive. Dexter’s Lab 901 food truck is posted up in a corner of the Walmart Neighborhood Market parking lot. As soon as the blue LEDs light up, cars gather around in a semicircle, waiting for Allante Armstrong’s grease and griddle to get hot enough to cook his signature wings and burgers. “And guess what? I ain’t even posted that I’m open yet!” says Armstrong. “That’s a blessing.”
Armstrong named Dexter’s Lab 901 after his younger brother who passed away from lupus. On the side of the truck, millennial cartoon science hero Dexter shares space with a smiling Dexter Wooten, eternally young.
The burger Armstrong serves up, DaLabSpecial, is a classic griddle burger with the traditional fixings served on two thick, buttered slabs of Texas toast. “I do it just to be different because everybody else put it on regular cheeseburger buns,” says Armstrong.
The burger is thick, but not overwhelming, and super juicy. The buttered buns soak up the ample drippings without falling apart. (Structural integrity is an underrated trait in all sandwiches.) Served half-buried in spicy crinkle fries, it’s ideal street food.
Armstrong gets into a groove, taking orders and juggling burgers on the grill and wings in the fryer. “It’s just something that turned into a hustle. I don’t really know how to cook. If you put me in a real kitchen, I wouldn’t know what to do. But I’m learning,” he says.
The guy next to me in line seems amused when he hears that. “[Armstrong] catered my sister’s wedding,” he says. “You tell ’em he’s good. He’s real good.” — Chris McCoy 6990 E. Shelby Dr.
The Memphis Belle (Photo: Michael Donahue)
TheMemphis Belle – Belle Tavern
They call them “designer burgers” because of their high quality, but they usually cost more than $10. These are hamburgers made with prime beef trimmings. They’re usually available at high-end restaurants.
Well, for Burger Week, Belle Tavern at 117 Barboro Alley (on the flipside of Union’s 117 Prime) is offering its hamburger, the Memphis Belle. According to the description from the restaurant’s general manager Jake Smith, who designed the burger, the hamburger is a quarter-pound patty of ground beef “from the trimmings of our USDA prime steaks, smoked Gouda, caramelized onion, house-made dill pickles, Prime sauce, on a toasted onion kaiser bun.”
Diners can tell the difference when they take a bite, Smith says. “You get all those textures and flavors working together.” The trimmings come from their whole rib-eye New York strips at 117 Prime. “We take these trimmings and get this grind.” USDA prime, he says, “is all about flavor and tenderness.”
They’re considering permanently adding the Memphis Belle to their menu at Belle Tavern. “We’re looking at this as a test drive. Get some feedback from our guests and see what they think.” But it will cost more. And, man, oh, man, those fries that come with it. “Fries are the secret weapon.” — MD 117 Barboro Alley
The Crazy Coop (Photo: Alex Greene)
Build Your Own Burger – The Crazy Coop
The Crazy Coop, which only opened its two locations this February, offers a back-to-basics take on the classic American burger. It’s a no-frills, artisanal approach that focuses on freshness, but one can build on that foundation to create the custom burger of your dreams. That’s because The Crazy Coop is much more than a burger joint. As the name suggests, they specialize in chicken, and especially wings (indeed, they only serve burgers at their Bartlett location). But while all their flavorful options, which include both classic wings seasonings and unique creations like BBQ Bacon Bourbon or Honey Habanero BBQ, originated in their dedication to hot wings, they encourage customers to apply them to burgers as well.
But I wanted to get down to the fundamentals: their basic, unadorned cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, and onion. The flavor was exquisite. Owner/chef Darius Buckner explained that, having cooked since childhood, then working with a chef in Atlanta for decades, he was committed to seasoning and shaping the patties by hand himself. That attention to detail pays off in the nuanced flavors of their burgers. You could order up a bunch to go for a backyard cookout without ever firing up your grill. — Alex Greene 7199 Stage Rd. (Not available at Ridgeway location)
“Young women are at risk of many dangers, horrors and trauma as they leave adolescence, two out of 100 girls will have a tragic ending,” reads the synopsis for Kansas Bowling’s latest film Cuddly Toys.
That statistic is completely made up, but that is to be expected from a film that harkens back to the genre of mondo. “It’s sort of like a forgotten genre that I’m trying to bring back,” Bowling says. Popular in the ’60s, mondo films are pseudo-documentaries, usually depicting sensational and exploitive topics, or shockumentaries. “A lot of the mondo movies back in the day, they would say it was all real, but sometimes it’ll be completely fictional. And then sometimes it’d be like a mixture; sometimes it’d be all real. But this is a mixture.”
With its title coming from a Harry Nilsson lyric — “You’re not the only cuddly toy/that was ever enjoyed/by any boy” — Cuddly Toys takes a nuanced and dark approach as it depicts true and fictional stories about growing up as a girl in America, with 100 actresses participating. “It’s somewhat of a horror movie, somewhat of a comedy.”
The fast-paced film, Bowling says, takes inspiration from her life, from girls she grew up with, and from the actresses themselves. “There’s just a bunch of smaller stories put together to make up a bigger story, being reconnected through the on-screen narrator,” she says.
Now 27, Bowling wrote the film when she was 19. “It feels funny putting out this, like, teenage movie now that I’m older,” she says. “I wasn’t a teenager too long ago, but, yeah, it’s a little more angsty than I am now, I guess.”
Bowling directed her first feature, B.C. Butcher, at 17, and shot the film, starring Kato Kaelin, in her dad’s backyard with money raised from bussing tables. After its release by Troma Entertainment, Bowling went on to direct over 30 music videos and act in films such as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Cuddly Toys will be her second feature.
“I just love movies,” Bowling says. “I’ve always been really passionate about them, but I guess I just feel like there’s a lot of stories that haven’t been told or haven’t been told in interesting ways.”
And Cuddly Toys promises to be “interesting,” for sure. “I don’t want to give too much away,” Bowling says, “but based on people’s reactions to it — sort of not knowing what to do with it — I feel like it means it’s not like anything they’ve seen before.”
The reactions have been myriad, with some people walking out at times due to some intense and graphic content, but Bowling has taken joy in both the good and bad reviews, noting her pride that the film’s left an impression either way.
“I didn’t make it for a certain demographic,” Bowling says, “and that’s actually what was a little difficult about getting it out there. It’s not for a certain person, but all sorts of people from different walks of life have been connecting with it. So that’s been really cool to see.”
Cuddly Toys’ premiere tour will make its way to Memphis this Sunday, August 13th, 7 p.m., and Bowling will be in attendance for a Q&A in conjunction with the screening at the Black Lodge.
For more information on the screening, visit here. Check out the trailer below.
If I played rugby and had been on the winning team at the Elvis 7s, I would have won a guitar bearing a Troy McCall drawing of the King wearing a beret.
The tournament, presented by the Memphis Blues Rugby Club, was August 5th at McBride Field in Tobey Park.
I asked tournament director Harrison Lampley to tell me who came up with the guitar idea. “It was one of our colleagues, Dan Brewer,” Harrison says. “He found the guitars I think in a pawn shop. We changed trophies a few times over the years. This year, the first place trophies were the guitars and the little busts of Elvis were the second place trophies.”
Harrison says that, “Troy did the art and we printed those wraps at Van Wraps (Gallery) on Madison. They gave me a little tutorial on how to wrap them. I did one the night before at my kitchen table and one the morning of the event.”
Kudos to Harrison’s wife, Taylor, by the way. “My wife is pregnant and we had a baby shower (last) weekend. And somehow we fit it all in.”
They used vinyl material like what they use to wrap vehicles. But next year, he said, “we’re going to go with acoustic guitars, ’cause the electrics were a little too difficult.”
Acoustics, he says, “have those flat faces and electric guitars are just hard to wrap. The ones this year are cool ’cause they look like knockoff Stratocasters. But we’ll go with acoustic. That will be more authentic to Elvis anyway.”
Why is Elvis wearing a beret in his drawing? “The Rugby World Cup, which is contested every four years, takes place in France next month,” McCall says. “Since 2011, when the RWC was in New Zealand, I’ve always tried to connect the Elvis 7s graphic theme to the country where that year’s World Cup competition was being held. (In) 2015 it was in England. And Japan in 2019. And, of course, this year, France. Vive Le Memphis!”
That slogan is also on the guitars as well as the 2023 Elvis 7s T-shirts, which feature McCall’s drawing.
Ron McGhee at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)Kyle Wilson at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)Tezzyo Mosley, Javon Chapman, Dre Thomas, Christopher Lemon at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)Bidders Butters at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)Maranda McLemore, Cadi Morrison, Cassidy Clayton, Theresa Garcia, Claire Thompson , Christa Griffith at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)
The Arkansas Griffins won the men’s division and the Little Rock Women’s Rugby Club won the women’s division. It was the latest competition for the Elvis 7s, which I’ve covered for decades, and it’s uniquely Memphis.
Ruggers play to a soundtrack of Elvis music heard over a loudspeaker. In previous years, players with shaggy side whiskers competed for prizes in the Mr. Sideburns Contest. They had to sing a snippet of an Elvis song. Even if they couldn’t sing.
There were a lot of former players who I’d photographed over the years, including Matthew Wrage, Kyle Baker, and Devin Faletto. It was like a “This is Your Life Covering Elvis 7s.”
Gibs Kell of the USA South Panthers, 19, wore bushy sideburns, but they were artificial and removable. Not like veteran rugger Chris Claude, whose chops were real.
Gibs Kell at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)Cayden and Chris Claude at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)
But it’s great to see players like Kell continue the tradition of celebrating Elvis through rugby. He’s 19 years old.
The hits keep on coming.
Johnny Holloway, Annabell Joyner, Jimmy Holloway, Jalen Jones at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)Kameron Walker and Harvey Taylor at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)Jennae Ramey, Alex Easley, Kayla Davis at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)Bennett Murphy and Jace Phillips at at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)Gabbi Jennings and Cameron Jennings at Elvis 7s rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)Elvis 7s 2023 rugby tournament (Credit: Michael Donahue)We Saw You
Photo credit: Greater Memphis Chamber, WeCare tlc, and YMCA
The YMCAs of Memphis and the Mid-South will house primary healthcare centers in the upcoming year. Chamber Benefits Inc., a subsidiary of the Greater Memphis Chamber, the YMCA, and WeCare tlc said that they plan to open the centers starting in 2024, targeting markets in Whitehaven, Downtown Memphis, and Cordova, and plan to open “the first two centers after enrolling a total of 6,000 lives in the program, including dependents.”
“The goal of the program is to expand access to healthcare for businesses and individuals, especially in areas of Memphis where affordable primary care options are needed the most,” said the organizations in a joint statement.
“Now in the rear-view mirror of the pandemic, we understand that access to quality equitable healthcare is even more punctuated,” said Ted Townsend, president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber. “The need for an offering like this throughout our community is absolutely critical and vital.”
Townsend said that not only are they focused on a healthy economy, but a healthy community as a whole. Through partnerships with the YMCA and WeCare, Townsend said that they are continually looking for ways to create advantages for businesses, specifically small-owned.
Through the ChamberCare Health Centers,businesses of all sizes can enroll their employees in the program for $40 per month per employee, said partners. Individuals may also enroll for $40 per month, and dependents are included at no extra charge.
The centers will be operated by WeCare tlc, a second-generation, family-owned and Tennessee-certified Woman Business Enterprise company.” Townsend explained that they pride themselves on working with all kinds of businesses, especially those minority or women-owned. Raegan Le Douaron, CEO and owner of WeCare tlc, said that the company itself was born out of the need for small business owners to control their healthcare costs.
“This program is something that employers pay for, but the employees do not,” said Le Douaron. “Full primary care is offered to the employees and their dependents on their health plan at no cost to the employees.”
Le Douaron also honed in on the regional impact of their partnership. “We’ve always known that if you can have one employer on their health plan, [then] that’s terrific. The real value is when you compound that over an entire region,” she said.
According to partners, the centers will be approximately 2,500-square-feet, and will have full-time staff, primary care physicians, and health coaches. Townsend said that they want these health centers located “all across Memphis and the Mid-South,” which is why he said their partnership with the YMCA is so critical.
“They have the existing infrastructure with their YMCA centers across the community,” said Townsend. He explained that this increases access to a “neighborhood amenity,” and is a major step in accessibility to healthcare, by expanding primary care access in “low-income neighborhoods.”
Jerry Martin, president and CEO of the YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South said that not only does this community partnership provide more access to healthcare, but it also has the “potential to create lasting change in our communities health and wellness.”
“This potential partnership perfectly aligns with our mission and will serve a crucial need in our communities and enables the Y to broaden our services to continue to help families and individuals to thrive in their health & wellness journeys,” said Martin.
Overdose deaths involving an emerging drug called xylazine have climbed in Tennessee, according to the latest state data, and while a new law outlaws the drug here (for illicit purposes), officials are searching for ways to battle the drug.
Xylazine is a non-opioid tranquilizer used by veterinarians, usually to sedate horses or cattle. Its street name is “tranq” or “tranq dope.” In legislation this year, the Tennessee General Assembly called xylazine the “Drug of the Living Dead.” That might be because that, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), those injecting the drug can develop severe wounds, including necrosis, the rotting of human tissue.
The powerful sedative is most often mixed with other drugs, especially fentanyl, but also with heroin and cocaine. A 2022 DEA report said the drug was first seen used as an adulterant in drugs from Puerto Rico but has become widespread.
Xylazine is not listed as a controlled substance in the U.S., like cannabis or LSD, and is “readily available” to buy on the internet, the DEA said, in prices ranging from $6 to $20 per kilogram.
“At this low price, its use as an adulterant may increase the profit for illicit drug traffickers, as its psychoactive effects allow them to reduce the amount of fentanyl or heroin used in a mixture,” reads the report. “It may also attract customers looking for a longer high since xylazine is described as having many of the same effects for users as opioids, but with a longer-lasting effect than fentanyl alone.”
Alarm bells began to ring on xylazine after the DEA report last year and newer reports that began to track the drug’s appearance in screens from overdose cases, especially fentanyl. More than half (66 percent) of the 107,735 drug poisonings from August 2021 to August 2022 were caused by fentanyl, according to the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier,” said DEA Admisntrator Anne Milgram. “DEA has seized xylazine and fentanyl mixtures in 48 of 50 States. The DEA Laboratory System is reporting that in 2022 approximately 23 percent of fentanyl powder and 7 percent of fentanyl pills seized by the DEA contained xylazine.”
In Tennessee, 56 drug overdose deaths involved xylazine in 2020, according to the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH). That number jumped to 94 in 2021, the state said. In all of these deaths, xylazine was found mixed with other drugs, mostly fentanyl, methamphetamine, Delta-9 THC, cocaine, and Xanax, TDH said.
Tennessee Department of Health
The Shelby County Health Department does not break down suspected overdose deaths by drug type, an official said, so, it’s unknown how many drug deaths here involved opioids, fentanyl, or xylazine. However, as of July 22nd, 239 had died of suspected drug overdoses Shelby County. Forty-five percent of those were Black males and the most common age was 28.
The latest state data show 549 drug overdose deaths in Shelby County in 2021, the highest of any Tennessee county that year. DEA data found xylazine rose in all four quadrants of the U.S. but saw the highest rise (193 percent) in the South.
Earlier this year, state lawmakers added xylazine to the state’s Schedule III, placing it alongside steroids, ketamine, and some other depressants. This made possession of the drug a Class Class A misdemeanor, which could come with jail time of up to 11 months and 29 days and a $2,500 fine.
In April, the Biden Adminstration used a brand new designation for fentanyl mixed with xylazine, labeling it “an emerging threat to the United States.”
