Preparing for your ideal retirement begins during your working years with saving, some discipline, and taking advantage of the many planning efficiencies available to help you retire the way you want. When you officially make the jump to retirement, the planning doesn’t stop — it just changes. One way to help yourself while in retirement is to understand and take advantage of tax-saving opportunities.
Here are some options you may want to consider:
1. Qualified dividends versus capital gains
Depending on your income and whether you file a joint or individual return, federal short-term capital gains tax rates range from 10 percent to 37 percent, while long-term rates range from 0 percent to 20 percent in 2023. Qualified dividends are also taxed between 0 and 20 percent in 2023. Work closely with your advisor to develop an income and tax planning strategy that’s tax-efficient — don’t needlessly get stuck with higher rates.
2. Gifting strategies
There are many non-financial reasons to donate to causes you believe in; however, being smart about how you donate is what I’m talking about here. Consider donating appreciated stock from your taxable account as opposed to liquidating a position and donating the proceeds. You can deduct the full amount of the appreciated stock so long as it doesn’t exceed 30 percent of your adjusted gross income, and you’ll pay no tax on the gains.
If you need to take a required minimum distribution (RMD) from your IRA but don’t need the funds, consider directly transferring those funds from your IRA to a qualified charity instead, and you won’t need to consider that RMD amount as income that year.
3. Retirement-friendly states
If you’ve ever considered moving, check out states that either have no state income tax or offer a deduction on your retirement income. Tax-friendly states besides Tennessee include Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
4. Wise withdrawals
Once you’ve gone through the process of determining your specific income needs, you’ll need to decide which of your investment account(s) to pull funds from. Keep in mind that funds taken from a traditional IRA will be taxable income in the year they’re taken out, funds sold from a taxable account may have gains/losses that could affect your taxes, and funds taken from your Roth IRA have no tax consequences. One size does not fit all, but I normally recommend you take your retirement income as needed — first from cash sources, then from taxable investment accounts, then from traditional IRAs, and finally from Roth IRAs. Take advantage of the Roth rules by letting those funds work (with no RMD or tax liability) for as long as you’re able to.
5. Roth conversions
Now that you’re retired, you’re likely earning less income than when you were working, which will likely put you in a lower tax bracket. To take advantage of this shift, now may be the time to move funds from your traditional IRA into your Roth IRA. Yes, the funds taken out will be taxed, but likely at much lower rates than while you were working. We recommend you work closely with your advisor and CPA to efficiently manage your tax brackets.
Gene Gard, CFA, CFP, CFT-I, is a Partner and Private Wealth Manager with Creative Planning. Creative Planning is one of the nation’s largest Registered Investment Advisory firms providing comprehensive wealth management services to ensure all elements of a client’s financial life are working together, including investments, taxes, estate planning, and risk management. For more information or to request a free, no-obligation consultation, visit CreativePlanning.com.
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St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Memphis on the internet.
Marathon Weekend
The St. Jude Memphis Marathon drew throngs to the streets here last weekend with unbelievable sights like the one above on Riverside Drive.
More than 20,000 from 50 states and 75 countries ran this year. The marathon raised a record $15 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and brought an estimated $43 million in economic impact for the city.
Ribs? Yes, but …
Posted to X by @slow_school
X user @slow_school posted this piece of AI art with the caption, “Who wants some ribs?” It’s cool but disturbing in a way that’s hard to explain.
Meteor?
Over the weekend, many Memphis Reddit users reported seeing “a very bright white flare that shot straight down and turned more greenish as it fell.” It was most likely a meteor, according to the consensus in the comments. Redditors said they saw it from Arkansas, Midtown, and the Memphis Botanic Garden.
“The spaceship was found in a parking lot near 4th and Beale,” joked u/FedexRebel, “but it’s already been stripped of its landing gear, rocket boosters, and luggage.”
“Did anyone just hear gunshots and police cars in Cooper-Young?” “Did anyone just hear that drive-by shooting? Five shots fired, I hear police now.” “My camera caught this random guy going through my car. Around 1:55 a.m.” “Anybody recognize this porch pirate. 4:00 in the afternoon!” “Kittens! Found these three under my porch.”
These were the first five posts I read Sunday on Nextdoor.com, the social media network that keeps us all alerted to gunshots, porch pirates, “suspicious” youths, and stray kittens. I get email alerts and occasionally succumb to the teasing headline, often to my regret, mainly because of the comments.
But last Monday, November 27th, Nextdoor made real news. You probably heard or read about it. The Flyer’s Kailynn Johnson broke the story on our website, and local television stations soon ran with it. It was a pretty scary tale.
A woman living on Peabody posted a photo of one of her neighbors walking down the street brandishing what appeared to be a semi-automatic weapon. He was holding it high, at face level, and looked to be striding westward. Two schools are within a couple blocks of the spot where the armed man was walking: Grace St. Luke’s (GSL) and Idlewild Elementary.
From Johnson’s story: “When pictures of the individual began to circulate on the neighborhood app Nextdoor, GSL began a school-wide lockdown and notified police. At the time that parents received the initial notification, the school stated that the ‘suspect [had] been apprehended per the Memphis Police Department.’
“Shortly thereafter, parents received a second email with updates to the situation stating that they had received information from the West Precinct that ‘the individual with the weapon had been apprehended.’ However, according to the school, an in-person visit from an officer contradicted this information.”
MPD spokesperson Christopher Williams issued a statement Monday that there were complaints of a “man walking on the sidewalk armed with a rifle.” Williams said the man was not accused of committing a crime. “While it’s odd,” he said, “merely openly carrying a gun on a public sidewalk isn’t illegal. He was not located.” The spokesperson said there was “no incident report” filed on the Peabody gun-wielder.
“Odd” is not the word I would use, but that’s just me. What is odd is the fact that people on Nextdoor said they saw police officers and vehicles at the mystery man’s house, to wit: “He lives near me in a rental. And yes. It’s for real. Eight policemen were over there banging on the door and on the side of the house. He wouldn’t come out. They spoke to him thru his door and then left.”
On Tuesday, November 28th, the MPD told Johnson the individual was not accused of a crime and was not located.
So, who was lying? GSL, the Nextdoor posters, or the Memphis Police Department. The answer became obvious the following day, Wednesday, November 29th, when the MPD issued an, oops, incident report.
From the report: “The male subject told officers that he was the person walking down the street with his weapon. He said he was walking down the road with his weapon because he was scared. He told officers that Memphis is a dangerous place. He advised that he never wanted to harm anyone. He said that he only carried the rifle for his protection.
“The writer [officer] had the Real Time Crime Center check the subject, and he came back with negative results. Officers on the scene also checked him; he had no criminal history. The writer asked him if officers could see the weapon he was walking with, and he allowed officers to see the weapon. The writer … took a photo of the weapon. … The writer did not notice him to have any mental illness. The weapon was left with the subject.”
Well, that certainly makes me feel better. An MPD officer “did not notice” him to be mentally ill, so he got to keep his AK. Welcome to Governor Bill Lee’s and the GOP’s Tennessee, where a random guy can walk the streets around elementary schools with an automatic weapon.
For freedom. Or something. Please remember who put the NRA in charge of Tennessee gun laws when you vote next November. And let’s all pray that the unnamed police officer’s evaluation of “the subject’s” mental health is accurate.
(left) Doug McGowen (Photo: Doug McGowen | Facebook); (right) Brent Taylor (Photo: Senator Brent Taylor | Facebook)
Simultaneously the most feared and most courted man in Memphis government for the last several years has been Doug McGowen, successively, director of innovation for the City of Memphis, head of the Memphis and Shelby County Covid-19 Task Force, and chief operating officer for city government. For the last year he has served as president/CEO of Memphis Light, Gas and Water, the city’s utility.
Unofficially, the onetime combat aviator is generally credited with having been a major force behind the scenes in the late city mayor’s race and, some say, was the inspiration for the erstwhile residency-requirement issue that for a crucial two-month period in midyear, until invalidated, stymied the mayoral campaigns of such major mayoral contenders as Sheriff Floyd Bonner and Van Turner and, whether by design or not, boosted the steady efforts of ultimate winner Paul Young.
The MLGW role is probably destined to be the most controversial of McGowen’s career. Having presumably reaggregated the hierarchy to his satisfaction, he is poised to spearhead two major initiatives — to push a 12 ⅓ percent MLGW rate increase through city council and, allegedly, to arrange the transfer of the utility’s headquarters from its current site in a core Downtown area to a suburban location out east.
The one move already has the city’s ratepayers, exhausted by a series of service dysfunctions, alarmed; the other has reportedly activated an ongoing revolt among Downtown business owners, who fear the immediate economic consequences of losing the 500-strong customer base of MLGW’s employees.
McGowen will need all his acknowledged skill, persuasiveness, and derring-do to achieve these new objectives, which are sure to dominate much of the news of the next few months.
• Another increasingly active mover and shaker on the governmental scene is District 31 state Senator Brent Taylor, a Republican who, since his election last year, has rapidly become a major player in the arenas of both Nashville and Memphis. A veteran of both the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission, Taylor also led the Shelby County Election Commission in recent years.
Having disposed of a far-flung regional funeral-home empire, netting millions in the process, Taylor became an indispensable source of donations and campaign support for the Shelby County Republican Party, which is some years past its heyday in county politics. He has single-handedly endowed major party occasions, and his Eads mansion is a staple stopping point and fundraising site for any significant statewide GOP election campaign.
Even as former state Senator Brian Kelsey’s growing legal issues made his position in the suburban district unstable, Taylor became the obvious party choice for a replacement, and his Senate campaign was ready to go in 2022. He won easily, backed not only by his party establishment but by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a nominal Democrat.
Predictably, Taylor has become a player in state government, acquiring key committee positions and ready access to Governor Bill Lee and other state officials. He is notable lately for his published communications seeking increased state involvement in the crime-control affairs of Shelby County, even suggesting at one point that the National Guard be activated in the county. Whatever Taylor’s long-term personal goals — and a 2026 gubernatorial try could be one of them — he is clearly on the board to pass go.
This is what dreams are made of — Nic Cage, just being Nic Cage.
This bit of wisdom was posted on Twitter by user @maplecocaine in January 2019: “Each day on Twitter there is one main character. The goal is never to be it.” Social media promised to fulfill the techno-utopian dream of the internet by connecting every human being on the planet, but there was a reason that, even before the carnage of pandemic information warfare, Twitter’s heaviest users called it a “hellsite.” The reality of universal connection is that you’re a few milliseconds away from every asshole on Earth. Fame has unpleasant side effects, and that goes double for internet fame, which can be both unexpected and unintentional. When everyone knows your name, you become less of a human being and more of a symbol. Elon Musk is currently finding this out the hard way.
Fame in the internet age is the subject of Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario. Like many directors before him, his best decision was casting Nicolas Cage as his lead. Cage plays Paul Matthews, a biology professor at a sleepy Midwestern liberal arts college. Paul has done some pioneering work on hive minds, which he calls “antelligence,” but his book on the subject is languishing while his former colleagues get all the credit.
One day, he notices a lot of strangers staring at him on the street. Then, he runs into his ex-girlfriend Claire (Marnie McPhail), who tells Paul she’s been dreaming about him. This doesn’t go over very well with Paul’s jealous wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson), but she takes some comfort in the fact that he’s not doing much, just watching the dream unfold along with the dreamer. Soon, other people realize that Paul is the weird guy showing up in their dreams, and he becomes an internet sensation. His biology lectures go from sparsely attended to overflowing. Paul is, at first, amused and excited about his newfound notoriety. Maybe he can use his fame to get his book published. But he can’t help but be a little disappointed that he never seems to actually do anything in the dreams but watch.
But as the phenomenon spreads, Paul gets his wish, and his image becomes an active participant in dreamtime. For some people, his presence is benevolent. For others, like Molly (Dylan Gelula), it’s erotic. But most people see Paul trying to murder them in ways director Borgli has way too much fun staging.
Paul’s celebrity sours. The endorsement contract with Sprite, which marketing guru Trent (Michael Cera) painstakingly negotiated, is suddenly off the table. When Paul tries to hook up with his dream lover Claire IRL, it leads to one of the least erotic sex scenes ever committed to film. Even though real Paul has done nothing wrong, he is barred from his daughter’s school and forced to make an apology video. Naturally, that only makes things worse.
As usual, Cage is better than the material — and nobody does “schlub” better. But in this case, Borgli’s screenplay is thoughtful, and his execution is always impeccable. When the metaphor gets stretched thin, Cage is there to beam a goofy smile or wet his pants or do literally anything asked of him with manic charisma and superhuman intensity. Dream Scenario is a comedy that gets in your head.
Tennessee Valley Authority offices in Knoxville. (Photo: TVA)
The Tennessee Valley Authority is paying Memphis-based vice president Mark Yates nearly a quarter-million dollars a year in salary and possibly as much as $338,000 or more, counting bonuses.
That’s according to newly released records obtained through a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by an attorney with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
TVA is paying as much as $1.4 million in annual salaries and bonuses to Yates and three others who were hired to fill newly created regional vice president positions in 2021.
“It just defies logic,’’ said TVA critic Karl Schledwitz, a Memphis businessman who said he believes the federal utility’s total annual cost for the four positions could reach as high as $3 million when short-and-long-term incentives, staff support, and other factors are considered.
Mark Yates (Photo: The Institute for Public Service Reporting Memphis)
“TVA is a bureaucratic organization that has not had checks and balances for a long time,’’ Schledwitz said. “As a result of that, they have gotten very fat. They’re very top heavy.’’
In response, TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said the agency fixes competitive salaries based on “benchmarking with other utility peers,’’ contending the new vice presidents are helping improve performance and customer service.
They have gotten very fat. They’re very top heavy.’’
Karl Schledwitz
“Our customers expect and deserve affordable, reliable, resilient, and clean energy,’’ Brooks said in a statement released to the Institute for Public Service Reporting. “To meet their expectations, we must attract and retain the best talent — highly skilled individuals in a specialized industry.”
TVA created the position of West Regional Vice President and hired Yates, a longtime Memphis businessman and political operative, to fill the post in early 2021. The move stirred criticism because it came as officials at Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) debated whether to sever ties with TVA and find a cheaper power supplier. TVA receives about $1 billion a year from city-owned MLGW to serve as its exclusive supplier of electricity.
At the time TVA hired Yates, his wife Veronica was operating a business with Carlee McCullough, then a member of MLGW’s board of commissioners. Veronica Yates and McCullough were listed at the two key proprietors of the popular Midtown restaurant, Mahogany Memphis. McCullough has since left the MLGW board.
TVA later hired three other regional vice presidents across its seven-state service area.
Paul McAdoo, an attorney for the Reporters Committee, filed suit in federal court in Knoxville in September 2022 on behalf of a Memphis journalist after TVA declined to release salary and compensation information involving the four regional vice presidents.
U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie Greer ruled earlier this fall that TVA must release the compensation information. TVA is a federal agency created by Congress during the Great Depression that generates electrical power for local utility companies in portions of seven states. The agency has attempted to conceal salary information of its employees in recent years, arguing that it no longer receives subsidies from the federal government, although its dams and utility infrastructure were built with millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money.
• U.S. District Court Judge Ronnie Greer’s order requiring TVA to release records detailing salary and compensation information for its four regional vice presidents.
• TVA’s record release detailing the vice presidents’ compensation information.
Greer said in his decision that TVA could withhold the names and other personal identifying information of the four regional vice presidents.
In response, attorneys for TVA released four sheets of information last week listing salary and compensation details for four unnamed regional vice presidents.
According to the released records:
One of the regional vice presidents received a rate of pay equivalent to $242,050 a year effective Sept. 30, 2021. The employee also was eligible for an additional 40 percent annual bonus, which would boost total compensation to $338,870, plus an additional 30 percent long-term bonus.
Two of the regional vice presidents received a rate of pay equal to $244,400 a year, plus short-term and long-term bonuses. One of the regional vice presidents received a rate of pay equal to $286,768 a year, plus short-term and long-term bonuses.
TVA spokesman Brooks said in an email that a greater share of compensation for higher level employees like the regional vice presidents comes through “at risk” pay — through short-term and long-term incentives — that is based on performance.
“No individual payout is guaranteed. It is directly tied to meeting specific, measurable financial and operational performance goals, and in many cases the individual’s personal performance,” Brooks said.
Yates, 57, could not be reached for comment.
TVA service regions. Source: Tennessee Valley Authority
TVA announced in January 2021 that it had hired Yates to fill its newly created West Regional vice presidency. Four months later, the agency announced that it had named longtime TVA employees Carol Eimers and Jared Mitchem as vice presidents in its east and south regions respectively. Then, that June, TVA said it had selected its vice president of federal affairs, Justin Maierhofer, to serve as regional vice president in its north region.
TVA said at the time of the appointments that the new regional vice president positions would help build “powerful partnerships” and strengthen relations “with customers and local leaders to bring value to the communities we serve.’’
As controversy about Yates’ appointment grew, Buddy Eller, TVA’s vice president for communications and public relations, said in 2022 that TVA hired Yates for “his extensive business background,’’ which includes stints as chief financial officer at LeMoyne-Owen College, senior vice president at First Horizon National Corporation, and vice president at the Morgan Keegan investment firm.
Yates also once served as chief of staff to former Congressman Harold Ford Jr., and as chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party.
Comparative industry salaries weren’t available Thursday, but critics said creation of the four regional vice president positions fits a larger pattern of secrecy and excess at TVA.
“TVA didn’t have (these positions) for a hundred years. And so now, all of a sudden, they need to pay out a couple of million dollars more in salaries for newly created positions? It just defies logic,’’ said Schledwitz, chairman and CEO of Monogram Foods, who co-founded a nonprofit advocacy group, 450M For Memphis, that contends Memphis could save money by finding a new power supplier.
Our customers expect and deserve affordable, reliable, resilient, and clean energy. To meet their expectations, we must attract and retain the best talent — highly skilled individuals in a specialized industry.
This is amplified by the unprecedented increase in energy demand, the need to expand and replace our assets, and the national skilled trades labor shortage. The regional vice president roles are essential to our business and play a pivotal role in delivering to the communities across this region – they have a direct working relationship with our customers and the people in their region to keep them informed of TVA’s efforts.
Ongoing benchmarking with other utility peers ensures TVA maintains a competitive compensation system to support a diverse and skilled workforce that can deliver the outcomes our customers expect, including keeping energy cost low. This is specifically defined in the TVA Act. _____________________________________________________________
“This is all ratepayers money. They’re a government organization. I mean, we deserve for them to be transparent. You shouldn’t have to sue to get public information from a public entity. It makes you wonder: What do they have to hide?”
Retired East Tennessee utility executive Rody Blevins said he tried unsuccessfully for years to get executive salary information from TVA while trying to determine if the power supplier was overcharging ratepayers.
“It’s supposed to be public power. You know, they’re supposed to be transparent,’’ said Blevins, the former CEO of Volunteer Energy Cooperative, a rural power company in Decatur, Tennessee, about an hour northeast of Chattanooga. “I think ratepayers should know that information.”
As a corporate entity of the federal government, TVA is required to provide salary data for a handful of top executives in annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. TVA’s latest annual reportshows it paid CEO Jeff Lyash $10.5 million in total compensation during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. It paid four others compensation ranging from $2.5 million to $4.6 million.
Lyash often is characterized as the highest-paid federal employee, yet his compensation is far less than some peers in the utility industry. The Knoxville News-Sentinel reported last month that Pacific Gas and Electric’s CEO Patricia Poppe makes considerably — $51.2 million in 2021 — as does Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good, who made $21.35 million in 2022.
TVA spokesman Brooks said in his written statement that the new regional vice presidents serve as key liaisons between the federal power company and the communities it serves.
“The regional vice president roles are essential to our business and play a pivotal role in delivering to the communities across this — they have a direct working relationship with our customers and the people in their region to keep them informed of TVA’s efforts,’’ TVA spokesman Brooks said.
Nonetheless, TVA critic Stephen Smith said he believes the new regional vice presidents are little more than “cheerleaders for TVA’’ who are trying to keep Memphis and other cities in the region from abandoning it for other power suppliers.
“This is just TVA paying money to keep the citizens of Memphis held captive,’’ said Smith, executive director of the Knoxville-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “They are holding Memphis hostage.”
Editor’s Note: Karl Schledwitz has given a total of $850 to the Institute for Public Service Reporting through four separate donations since 2021.
After years of steady declines, Tennessee’s prison population climbed by nearly eight percent last year, a bump in the rate of incarceration that surpassed all but three other states during a period of time that also saw steep drops in the most serious crimes.
Tennessee added 1,615 more men and 125 more women to its roster of state prisoners in 2022, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Justice. Only Mississippi, Colorado, and Montana experienced greater gains.
By the end of 2022, there were 23,735 state inmates in Tennessee; the data does not include the population in county jails, which hold individuals for misdemeanor offenses and those awaiting trial.
Criminal justice reform advocates said they were disheartened but unsurprised by the data.
“Everything that we said was going to come true has come true,” said Dawn Harrington, executive director of Free Hearts, a nonprofit that advocates for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals.
Among the drivers, Harrington believes, is Tennessee’s so-called truth-in-sentencing law, which took effect midway through 2022. The law requires heightened minimum sentences for a host of offenses.
The COVID epidemic also ushered in a series of social and economic challenges — among them unemployment, limited access to mental health resources and widening disparities in education and healthcare. All are “predetermining factors” that may also explain why more men and women wound up behind bars, she said.
The Tennessee Department of Correction did not respond Friday to questions about factors state officials believe are driving the growth in Tennessee’s prison population.
Tennessee incarcerated more people in 2022 despite a drop in crime. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reported incidents of murder, rape, and kidnapping decreased by double digits last year.
2022 Tennessee crime rates. Source: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
Data that could shed light on the number of imprisoned people who received lengthier sentences as a result of last year’s truth-in-sentencing law was not immediately available last week.
The law was enacted over the objections of Gov. Bill Lee, who said he was concerned about “unintended consequences.”
“Widespread evidence suggests that this policy will result in more victims, higher recidivism, increased crime and prison overcrowding, all with an increased cost to taxpayers,” Lee said in a letter to House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Lt. Gov. Randy McNally before the legislation was enacted.
“If we need to build more prisons, we can,” Sexton responded at the time.
Lee, nevertheless, declined to veto the law, allowing it to take effect without his signature.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and Twitter.
Wearing a green ribbon can mean a lot of things, or nothing at all. That’s part of the mystery at the heart of Louise Page’s new music video, where the core message is “I want to see you dance the way you dance in your kitchen,” and the stylish art direction assures us that, in that part of the house, green pairs well with pink.
For many, the green ribbon signifies mental health awareness, and there’s a primal call for sanity in the way Page calls out the kitchen boogie as an integral part of mental hygiene. But maybe that’s reading too much into a song that just wants to make you dance.
To that end, Page musters the full power of her band, complete with violin and horns, to make the most danceable track she can. And the video captures that energy perfectly, tacking back and forth between that kitchen and a sweaty, stomping club scene, where drag queens Moth Moth Moth and Baby Mas, plus dancer Felicity Fox, match the singer’s moves strut for strut, and even producer/engineer Boo Mitchell gets down on the dance floor.
As Page says in her artist’s statement, she was “trying to write a song that was both a dance and a celebration, but also acknowledging how absolutely bat shit insanely difficult it has felt to be a functioning human being in a dysfunctional, often dangerous world. Joy can be a revolution. You can dance for the dead. That’s what this song celebrates to me.”
It’s a perfect way to bring out the power of Page’s crack combo. “Huge shoutout to my band — Annalisabeth Craig, Jawaun Crawford, Gunter Gaupp, and Michael Todd — for playing the hell out of this song and for riding with me. Huge shoutout to my friend Calvin Lauber for mastering the song, and Boo Mitchell for recording, producing, and believing in it!”
Director Laura Jean Hocking also hails the group effort that made such a wild party of a video possible. “I am credited as director on this video,” she says, “but so many people were vital in making these visual worlds come to life — the fabulous art direction team of Sallie Sabbatini/Erica Qualy/Annalisabeth Craig, Robbie Eubanks’ beautiful hair & makeup, Chad Barton’s excellent lighting and color timing, Sarah Fleming’s stellar camerawork — the list goes on. Being able to showcase Moth Moth Moth and Baby Mas was important to me, with the government trying to enact laws to ban drag performances. I wanted them to convey the message, ‘You cannot make our art form a crime. We’re not going away.’ And any time Louise calls me to do a music video, the answer is yes. She’s a great collaborator and a joy to work with.”
The Memphis Tigers are staying home for bowl season, and they’re perfectly happy to save on the holiday travel expenses. In a rematch of the 2017 AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Memphis will face Iowa State of the Big 12 on December 29th in the stadium the Tigers have called home since 1965. (A slot opened for Memphis when the SEC fell one team shy of qualifiers for its bowl commitments.) This makes ten consecutive bowl seasons for the Memphis program, and the Tigers will have a chance to win ten games for only the fifth time. The Cyclones will come to town with a record of 7-5 (6-2 in the Big 12). In that 2017 clash, Iowa State beat the Tigers, 21-20, in front of 58,318 fans. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN.
It’s a good time to remember the AutoZone Liberty Bowl will be played for the 65th time, the eighth-oldest bowl game on the college football calendar. It may not be among the “New Year’s Six” when it comes to prestige, but it’s on the next tier, and has been the stage for some unforgettable players: Archie Manning, Bo Jackson, Doug Flutie, and Dak Prescott to name just four. Last year’s three-overtime epic between Arkansas and Kansas was among the four or five best games of the season. Here’s hoping for the right kind of new memories later this month.
• Memphis quarterback Seth Henigan has announced he’ll return for a fourth season in blue and gray. In the age of the “transfer portal” — essentially free agency for every player on every team after every season — Henigan’s devotion to the Tiger program is rather astounding. And his return, by itself, gives the 2024 team the scent of a contender. A second-team all-conference selection this season, Henigan has passed for 3,519 yards and 28 touchdowns, with only 9 interceptions. He needs only 291 yards to break Brady White’s program record of 10,690 yards (something we could see in the Liberty Bowl), and 16 touchdowns to top White’s record of 90. The Henigan number I’ll be watching closest: 22, his number of wins as the Memphis quarterback. With health and success, he could become the first Tiger signal caller to top 30 wins for his career (White won 28). Henigan should become only the third player to lead Memphis in passing four consecutive years, joining Lloyd Patterson (1975-78) and Danny Wimprine (2001-04).
• There is some grumbling in social-media circles that the Tigers’ 9-3 record somehow isn’t good enough. Memphis didn’t beat the teams it needed to for a conference championship (Tulane, SMU) and escaped with wins over programs it should beat handily (North Texas, Charlotte). To this I have a brief response: horse hockey. A win in the Liberty Bowl would give the Tiger program its fifth 10-win campaign (and fourth since 2014, a single decade). Those with short memories forget that Tiger football once counted a total of five wins in three seasons (2009-11). Now we’re supposed to be disappointed with a nine-win (possibly 10-win) season??
The Tigers were in contention for the American Athletic Conference championship until their loss to SMU in the season’s 11th game. This should be the standard for the program, as long as they sit outside the four remaining “power” conferences (SEC, ACC, Big 10, Big 12). It’s a formidable challenge for coach Ryan Silverfield and his staff, especially with a $220 million renovation scheduled for Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. Memphis remains a basketball town and its flagship university a basketball school. But can the football program make the right kind of dent on that perception, both locally and nationally? In my view, nine-win seasons are a significant step in that direction.
Jaren Jackson, Jr. against Kevin Durant on December 2, 2023 as the Grizzlies battled the Phoenix Suns at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images)
Jaren Jackson Jr. played just 14 minutes and was benched due to foul trouble on Friday night in the Mavericks victory. He made amends by scoring a season-high 37 points in Saturday’s 116-109 loss to the Phoenix Suns.
Jackson Jr. scored a game and season-high for Memphis on 13-of-21 shooting while adding seven rebounds, three steals, an assist, and a block. He was 6-of-6 from the field at the half. He has now scored in double figures in all but three games this season.
“Angles — it was all angles,” Jackson Jr. described what was working for him against the Suns. “That was all that was working. Just figuring out how to score tonight; just figuring it out and just driving. That is all I had going for me.”
Although his offensive output has been off this season, the one positive aspect of his offense has been Jackson Jr.’s ability to get to the free-throw line. He is getting to the line for 6.1 attempts per game so far this season and has become one of the league’s best at drawing fouls.
Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins praised Jackson Jr. for his efforts against Phoenix. “I mean, this was a great game for him to bounce back from the other night, Jenkins said.
“But I’m really impressed with him just playing with force, physicality, and getting angles on guys one-on-one. Touch, finishing ability — it’s always been there.”
Jenkins continued: “And then, obviously, he unleashed it tonight. He knocked down threes, so [with] that inside-outside game that he’s capable of — stepping up to the free throw line, he had 10 free throws tonight, which is really impressive.”
The reigning Defensive Player of the Year was not pleased, however, with how things got away in the second half. He said, “They started scoring a little bit. Sometimes, good teams just keep going. We have to figure out a way to cut that off — we did not. They just got a big lead late, and that was kind of the problem.”
Desmond Bane finished with 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting, five assists, and three rebounds for Memphis, even though he was limited in the first half due to foul trouble. Bane is averaging a career-best 23.8 points per game this season.
Vince Williams Jr. added 12 points and six rebounds in 30 minutes of action as a reserve. Williams Jr. nearly recorded his first double-double in a win against Dallas on Friday night, tallying 15 points (matching his career high) and a career-best nine rebounds.
For the Suns, Devin Booker (34) and Kevin Durant (27) combined to score 61, taking over the game for good in the second half. Durant said after the game, “That team over there (Memphis), they play extremely hard. They muddy up the game a lot. So from just playing them over the years, we knew it was going to be a back-and-forth game in the first half.”
He concluded, “Our defense was solid the whole game, and we were able to get out into transition and get some baskets to open the game up.”
The Suns used the free throw line to their advantage, getting to the line 19 more times than Memphis, finishing 35-for-43 while the Grizzlies finished 22-for-24 from the line.
The Magic Number is Six
There are six more games until Grizzlies All-Star guard Ja Morant is scheduled to return from his 25-game league suspension.
Up Next
Memphis will head to Detroit to take on the 0-17 Detroit Pistons at 6 p.m. CT at Little Caesars on Wednesday, December 6.
