If you search for Kid Maestro on your favorite streaming platform, you’ll find the bulk of his credits couched after the names of the rappers and singers he produces. One playlist is proudly headlined, “OMG It’s the Tajin God!!” (echoing the sonic tag he inserts into all his beats — the guy loves Tajín seasoning), then notes “Everything Produced, Co-Produced, Recorded, or Mixed by Kid Maestro,” before listing over five dozen tracks, largely with the Unapologetic-adjacent artists with whom he’s worked for the better part of a decade: PreauXX, AWFM, Cameron Bethany, MonoNeon, Aaron James, and IMAKEMADBEATS.
At the top of that playlist is a collaboration Kid Maestro did with PreauXX and AWFM in late 2020, the single “10K,” which, being about the proverbial 10,000 hours of experience one needs to master a craft, stands out as the perfect foreshadowing of where Kid Maestro — the artist — finds himself now, over three years later. These days, Kid Maestro is actually racking up those hours that his rappers boasted of in 2020. Indeed, that’s the key to understanding his new series of ambitious, sprawling, and unorthodox releases on the Unapologetic app, the Tajin Tapes.
As Maestro writes in a preamble to the collection, “I refuse to allow myself to stay the same, so I came up with the Tajin Tapes beat series. I’m releasing a beat tape every week.” Having just dropped Tajin Tapes Vol. 5 this Monday, the series is already proving to be a massive collection of music. But beyond sheer volume, this self-challenge was aimed at mastering a new tool in his arsenal, the Ableton Push, which Ableton is hyping as a standalone “instrument” for playing samples as easily as other instruments play notes. As Maestro notes, “I just upgraded to the Ableton Push 3 and I want to be one of the greatest users in the world of that machine. I have to get my 10,000 hours in.”
Yet he’s also philosophical about it. “It’s more of a practice, an exercise,” he says of his one-beat-tape-per-week discipline. “It’s a punching bag; it’s going into the gym. The only thing I can do is just get my reps in. So it’s a myriad of different kinds of self-improvement, on multiple fronts, not only in music-making, but in being an artist, and accepting that I’m an artist and valuing my art. All of those things are wrapped up into Tajin Tapes.”
The result feels a bit like getting a rare view into an artist’s sketchbook, as one soundscape after another, each built on layers of samples, synths, and effects, unfolds effortlessly and then is gone. Aside from the ever-inventive beats and basslines, these loops are especially distinctive for their samples, which range from the symphonic to the folkloric — a global smorgasbord of sonic flavors. As Kid Maestro explains, that’s partly due to the touring he’s done in recent years as the playback engineer for Lauryn Hill.
“I started digging for samples when I started going to other countries to do playback for Ms. Hill. The first place I went was Brazil, so I got some Brazilian records. And from there, it just became a thing. Every time I go out of the country, I make it a point to get some records. Then I get them organized for me to use the sample when the time comes.”
From there, Maestro moves quickly. “I have this personal goal of averaging two beats a day right now,” he says. “It takes an incredible amount of focus to keep up the pace because a new tape drops every week. But because of the pace of it, there is not too much that you can overthink if you plan to keep up. It’s very freeing to work through an idea, then say, ‘Okay, this is done. I’m going to move on and let it do what it’s supposed to do in the world.’ Like, stop holding on to it and let it grow into whatever it grows into.”
That reveals the true potential of these mostly instrumental tracks: Each is a kind of seed that could grow into more fully developed tracks in time. “PreauXX has already released a song that’s in the app and he put out a visual for it on social media. He’s recorded and chosen multiple beats from the Tajin Tapes, and AWFM just did the same last night. And that’s really exciting because it’s just great when an artist can see their art being accepted and used in ways that they couldn’t have imagined.”
The Tax Relif act means there are some changes in store. (Photo: Kelly Sikkema | Unsplash)
The Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 was passed by the House of Representatives on January 31, 2024, by a 357-70 vote. It now heads to the Senate where it faces an uncertain future. Although the bill hasn’t become law yet, it’s important to be aware of the potential changes, outlined below.
Child Tax Credit
The refundable portion of the credit would be increased over a three-year period (2023, 2024, and 2025). For 2023, the maximum refundable portion would be increased from $1,600 per child to $1,800. In 2024, it would increase to $1,900 and then in 2025 it would be $2,000. The calculation of the refundable credit would change in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Research and Experimental Expenditures
The bill would allow taxpayers to deduct currently (rather than capitalize and amortize) domestic research and experimental costs that are paid or incurred in tax years beginning after December 31, 2021, and before January 1, 2026. Foreign costs would continue to be capitalized and amortized over a 15-year period.
The bill doesn’t provide any commentary related to claiming the deduction in a tax year for which a return has already been filed. We’re not sure if this will mean amended returns for 2022 will need to be filed or if there will be a way to claim the deduction on a subsequent year’s return.
100 Percent Bonus Depreciation
The bill would extend 100 percent bonus depreciation for property placed in service after December 31, 2022, and before January 1, 2026 (January 1, 2027, for longer production period property and certain aircraft). The 20 percent and 0 percent rates would continue to apply to property placed in service in 2026 and 2027.
Increased Code Sec. 179 Deduction
The bill would increase the amount of the Sec. 179 deduction to $1.29 million in 2024 and increase the beginning phase-out amount to $3.22 million. These amounts would be indexed for inflation for taxable years beginning after 2024.
Business Interest Expense Limitation
The bill would make the limitation on business interest expense deduction less severe. Prior to 2022, when companies computed adjusted taxable income for the purposes of seeing whether their interest expense deduction was limited, they were allowed to add back depreciation, amortization, and depletion expense. This add back was taken away in 2022, making adjusted taxable income smaller and therefore making it more difficult to deduct the full amount of interest expense paid or incurred.
Disaster-Related Tax Relief
The bill would eliminate the requirement that casualty losses must exceed 10 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI) to qualify for the deduction. Each separate casualty would still be subject to a $500 floor. The casualty loss would be able to be taken even if taxpayers don’t itemize their deductions, meaning they would be allowed to claim the casualty loss in addition to the standard deduction. The bill would extend the relief to apply to any federally declared disaster during the period beginning on January 1, 2020, and ending 60 days after the date of the enactment of this bill.
Employee Retention Credit (ERC)
The period for filing ERC claims for both 2020 and 2021 would end as of January 31, 2024. Even if the bill is signed into law after January 31, 2024, the January 31st deadline will likely apply retroactively.
It would also increase the penalty on any “COVID-ERTC promoter” who “knows or has reason to know that an understatement of the tax liability of another person would result from the use of his aid, assistance, or advice.” The penalty would increase from the current $1,000 to “the greater of $200,000 ($10,000 in the case of a natural person) or 75 percent of the gross income of the ERTC promoter derived (or to be derived) from providing aid, assistance, or advice with respect to a return or claim for the credit refund or a document relating to the return or claim.
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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Memphis Voices for Palestine
Memphis on the internet.
Palestine Protest
“WE TOOK OVER THE BRIDGE Y’ALL!!!!!” Memphis Voices for Palestine (MVP) posted to Instagram last Saturday. “FREE PALESTINE!!!!”
The event was called Shut It Down for Palestine: Memphis Protest. A flyer for the MVP event said, “Biden, no more U.S. aid to Israel! The people demand a ceasefire! Free, free Palestine!”
The protest began at Memphis City Hall last Saturday afternoon. Protesters then made their way to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. Once they amassed on the bridge, they stopped traffic for more than an hour. Though the group promoted the event for a week online, Memphis Police Department did not respond until protesters took the bridge.
Posted to X by Chelsea Chandler
“The amount of people in my comments who act as if they’d be willing to commit vehicular homicide is alarming,” Fox13 meteorologist Chelsea Chandler tweeted Sunday. “Regardless of the circumstances, it’s still murder.”
On Monday, state Sen. Brent Taylor tweeted that he requested a review of the event by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations “to determine which individuals are responsible for this action and refer the findings to the appropriate office to be fully prosecuted.”
Justin J. Pearson +
Oceana Gilliam (Photo: Courtesy Justin J. Pearson + Oceana Gilliam)
The annual big freeze seems to have gone, but what could have dispensed with the cold Memphis weather? Perhaps it’s all the love in the air. With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, be uplifted by the stories of three Bluff City couples who navigated their own twisty, windy paths to love. Their tales will thaw both the frostiest days, and our cold, frozen hearts.
Justin J. Pearson + Oceana R. Gilliam
Oceana Gilliam says she met Justin Pearson in 2016 at Princeton University. “Justin and I, we both did this program together called the … what is it?”
“Policy International Affairs Junior Summer Institute,” says Justin, finishing her thought, as the couple are prone to do.
“We were both juniors in college going into our senior year,” Oceana continues. “I was really smitten, I think, when I first saw him, because even then, when we were just in college, he would have on his suit. When he would introduce himself, he would stand up and say, ‘Hello, I’m Justin J. Pearson.’ I was just like, oh my God, I really love that. He was always so kind. He’s always so sweet.”
“She was this very cute Black girl who was speaking Russian and singing in Russian at this program,” Justin recalls. “There was a song that I had just learned by Leon Bridges. One of the lines is ‘Brown skin girl with the polka-dot dress on.’ I love the song and I remember sending that to her, so I liked her a lot.”
Oceana, who was “born and raised in South Central,” Los Angeles, went to grad school at UCLA, while Pearson was all the way across North America at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, before leading the charge to stop the Byhalia Pipeline with Memphis Community Against the Pipeline. (After their victory, the environmental justice organization changed its name to reflect a wider focus on pollution.) “Even though we didn’t get together, it’s like the flame never went away,” says Justin. “Which is why I kept pursuing, probably more than she was. I was in the DMs between 2016 and literally 2020.
“We reconnected because I actually went to L.A. and I saw her for 30 minutes before I gave a speech. She was in grad school at UCLA getting her master’s in public policy. And so anytime I would talk to her — which was very little over those few years — she was just doing some amazing stuff for policy and political science things. But then we had Covid, and we had the summer of Black Death with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Rayshard Brooks, these lynchings going on. She was protesting a lot in Los Angeles, and I was starting to get more engaged and involved in things in Memphis because we just moved back home. Then we had the pipeline fight in Memphis, and we really started to connect and bond and talk. She was a big support system during that time, too.”
“We really, really connected during the pandemic — we’re one of those pandemic bae couples,” says Oceana. “It was such a difficult and hard time. He was someone that I could really turn to, and he was always there for me. … We would literally be working with each other — I’ll be on a work meeting, he’ll be on a work call, but we have our Zooms on or our FaceTime on mute. We spend hours and hours together.”
When Justin broached the subject of running for the Tennessee House of Representatives to Gilliam, “At that point I could really see it,” she says. “He was already doing a lot of great work with MCAP, and I saw how he spoke out against trying to build this pipeline between people’s homes and take land. And so when he decided to say, ‘Hey, I want to run for office,’ I was with him fully and completely. I feel like that was a great path for him. He’s really passionate about this work, but he’s also very genuine. He’s very serious.
“Just from my own experience, being around other type of politicians, what I really appreciate about Justin the most is that the work that he does, he really does it from the heart. After going around with him, door knocking, meeting people in Westwood and other parts of Memphis and Millington, people really, really love Justin.”
As Justin grappled with the decision to run for office, the couple took a road trip from L.A. to Memphis. “You’re on the diving board and you’re like, am I really going to jump? We kept getting all these signs that this is the right thing to do. I remember, I was driving and I was like, ‘We going to do it, right? We going to do it? We were in Texas, and this huge cross kind of appeared out of nowhere, seemingly. And it was like, yeah, we’re going to do this thing.”
After Justin won a special election in 2023, Oceana was going to return to Los Angeles, but instead got caught up in what Justin calls “the most wild week ever known to humanity,” where he was sworn in to the house, brought the post-Covenant School shooting protests against gun violence onto the State House floor, and was then impeached and temporarily expelled from the Legislature. “That was such a difficult time,” she says. “I was in the gallery every single day with him. It was really something else.”
Justin and Oceana got engaged at her birthday party in 2023. They plan on tying the knot in the spring of 2025. “You get triumphs, or you get tragedies, that bring people together,” says Pearson. — Chris McCoy
Amir Hadadzadeh and Sepideh Dashti (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)
Sepideh Dashti + Amir Hadadzadeh
Amir Hadadzadeh and Sepideh Dashti met some 10 years ago in Iran — they’d met a few times actually, but mostly in passing. Amir’s university friend married Sepideh’s sister, so they were bound to get to know each other one day.
At the time, Amir was studying in Canada, and Sepideh was still in Iran. On a visit back home, Amir had been tasked with dropping off something from his friend and his wife to Sepideh. “I knocked on the door,” Amir reminisces, “and someone — Sepideh — just opened the door a little bit and a hand came out, grabbed the thing, and went in. She didn’t even show her face.” This day, it turned out, wouldn’t be the day that Amir and Sepideh got to know each other, but they laugh about it now.
Instead, Amir says he kept thinking about her while he was studying for his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. He was drawn to her seriousness. “She didn’t care about any guy. I mean, there was no one,” he says. “And then I decided to call, so it started from there.”
“Actually, we would chat [over Skype and Yahoo Messenger],” Sepideh corrects. “We were too shy to talk.”
But in 2009, the internet in Iran was not stable as the government sought to tighten its control. “We would start to chat with each other. And in the middle of the chat, the government decided to shut down the internet,” Amir says, “and we were not able to really have a deep conversation. It was very tough for us.”
“The internet shutdown happened,” Sepideh says, “and that was a moment we felt that [we would make a good couple] because then our conversations stopped for several days and I remember Amir’s sister called me and said, ‘Amir is very worried for you and asked me to tell you not to go outside because they arrested someone for protesting the election.’”
And so, Amir and Sepideh kept chatting, sending messages when the internet allowed, and eventually graduated to phone calls and video calls after the shyness wore off. After a few months, Amir returned to Iran and proposed. “She accepted,” Amir says. They had about a month together before Amir returned to Canada, and they could only see each other a few hours a day. “Sometimes we had to be sneaky,” Amir says with a smirk.
A year later, they were married. “We only had 10 days to be really close to each other [after the wedding before Amir had to go back to school],” Sepideh says. She was able to get her visa six months later, so they could finally be together in the same country. The day they reunited was April 15, 2011, Amir recalls immediately.
Since then, they’ve moved from Canada to Memphis, with Amir taking a job at the University of Memphis as a professor of mechanical engineering. Sepideh, meanwhile, is something of a multi-hyphenate as an art instructor at the Kroc Center, adjunct faculty at U of M, a Ph.D. candidate in educational psychology and research, and an artist who explores identity, womanhood, and the body. “I always tell her, ‘You are an internationally recognized artist. You should acknowledge that,’” Amir adds when he boasts about his wife’s accomplishments.
“He’s why I can manage,” Sepideh says, “especially with two kids. Honestly. … Like, even, I can say now in our parenting that we are very involved. So I’m very serious and I get mad and angry very easily, so most of the time I ask, ‘Can you manage this?’ I think his humorous sense has helped to engage with kids, make them calm, and make me calm.”
With both their families back in Iran, the two have found support and comfort in each other. “I think sometimes I feel this attachment is too much because when he goes somewhere for a seminar that is not in Memphis, I’m so stressed,” Sepideh says.
“We’ve imagined what would happen if we were back in Iran and discussed that a lot,” Amir says, “and we’ve concluded that we wouldn’t be as happy as what we have here. … I only wish that I would have met her earlier. That’s the only regret that I have. I wish we would have met, I don’t know, 10 years, at least five years earlier. [For now,] I’ll just admire her, love her, try to make her laugh.”
“We hope to grow old together,” Sepideh adds, “and watch our children become independent and lead fulfilling lives, just as our parents wished for us.” — Abigail Morici
Mario + Kristin Linagen-Monterosso (Photo: Justin Fox Burks)
Mario + Kristin Linagen-Monterosso
I happened to be present the moment sparks flew between Mario Monterosso and Kristin Linagen. As Kristin recounts it, “Mario asked a mutual friend about me, and she said, ‘You know, she’s single now, if you’re asking about her.’ And he reached out to me via social media and said, ‘Hey, I’m playing at DKDC tonight. I’d love to see you.’”
Monterosso, of course, is the celebrated Italian guitarist who moved to Memphis years ago to follow his dream of living in the birthplace of the music he loved most. He soon became an integral part of the roots music scene here. Last May, as James and the Ultrasounds, with me on keys, held court at Bar DKDC, Mario sat in with us and we all did a double take: He was on fire that night.
Yet it was Mario’s winning personality more than his musicianship that caught Kristin’s eye. “You know, it was fate,” she says now. “We went out for a couple cocktail nights, and then he said, ‘Hey, I’d like to take you out. I’d like to court you.’ And I’m a traditional woman, I’m old-fashioned, so I just loved that idea. I thought he was a cool guy.”
Kristin has an ear for music herself. “I love music,” she says. “I played the guitar growing up. I’m not much of a guitar player now, but I picked it up when we first started dating. Just to show him a little bit because I still remember all the songs I grew up playing in high school.”
While her real calling has been her own business, Therapeutic Touch Massage, opened after she studied at the Massage Institute of Memphis, Kristin clearly loves the arts. That may be why Mario decided that they must visit New York together. “After about a month of dating, he said, ‘Hey, I want to take you to New York,’” Kristin recalls. “It was June of last year, and we planned the trip for December. And we said, ‘You know, even if things don’t work out, we’re still going to go together.’ So we made a pact! I mean, we spit on our hands and shook on it and everything. You know, we go all the way!”
Mario smiles at this memory, then adds, “Being in New York with someone I love was always a big thing to me. But I’d never done it before.” Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, his new amore had similar feelings about the Big Apple.
“Three years ago, I had this fantasy of being in New York with a man that I love over Christmas,” recalls Kristin. “And when he asked me to go, I thought, ‘Wow, this man is making my dreams come true. Are we making each other’s dreams come true?’ And by the time December comes along, and we’re all in, I’m thinking, ‘Okay, he loves New York. He loves me. Maybe he will propose?’”
She kept that to herself, though, as they embraced the city’s energy. “He took me to a Broadway show, Some Like it Hot,” Kristin recalls. “Then we walked to Rockefeller Center and experienced the crowd and the Christmas tree and Radio City Music Hall. And then we went to Sardi’s for dinner.”
After their meal, Kristin made a suggestion. “I said, ‘Let’s finish our wine upstairs, more privately, where we can look out the window at the Shubert Theatre. That’ll be fun!’ And of course he loves this idea, because it’s my idea, but he has things planned that I don’t know.”
That’s when Mario excused himself and pretended to visit the restroom. “It was the moment,” he says, “where I was thinking, ‘Do I do it now? Do I do it now?’ The ring was in my pocket!”
“He comes back and goes right into it,” says Kristin. “He just says, ‘Can I be direct with you?’ And he pulled out a red velvet box and said, ‘Kristin, will you marry me?’ I said, ‘Yes!’ And I ran up to the bar. ‘We need two glasses of champagne!’ Everybody applauded and we had a great evening from then on. And then the next morning, I woke up at 4 a.m. with a fever, shivering and sweating. I had gotten the flu!”
It was a perfect moment of “in sickness and in health,” and Mario dutifully cared for his beloved through the rest of their stay. By the time another month went by, Mario and Kristin Linegan-Monterosso had eloped. Nowadays, if you happen to see them, they’re likely to be beaming. — Alex Greene
Mickey Blancq,
Louis Connelly, and
Dustin Brantley at
Louis Connelly’s Bar (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Something about the old Printer’s Alley bar piqued Louis Connelly’s interest.
“There’s just something about bars that are sort of old and run-down and dilapidated,” he says. “And the other people that are there are just looking to have a good time and not taking themselves too seriously.”
“You need some characters there for sure,” he adds.
Printer’s Alley was “a fun place to end the night. When every other place was closed, Printer’s Alley was open.”
Connelly is now owner of Louis Connelly’s Bar for Fun Times & Friendship, which opened February 3rd in the space once occupied by Printer’s Alley at 322 South Cleveland.
When he moved from Brunswick, Maine, to Memphis, Connelly didn’t dream he’d open a nightspot. “At that time in my life I didn’t really have enough money to even consider opening a restaurant or bar or anything.”
He used to stop in Printer’s Alley every couple of months. “I ended up there one, two o’clock in the morning. Nothing particularly bad happened while I was there. I guess it went through a series of different owners. I moved here in 2013. From when I moved here and until it got shut down, I got along with various bartenders and owners.”
He knew Printer’s Alley didn’t have the greatest reputation. “Not a good local spot to hang out,” he says. “Smoking inside, for one, turned off a lot of people. I knew that drug use was sort of rampant. I just knew it was a little bit of a shady bar. Overall, my experiences were positive.
“Now that I own it, people are telling me all sorts of stuff. Picking up ladies of the night or whatever.”
Connelly, who works at Evolve Bank & Trust, would “look at different websites that post businesses for sale.”
When he discovered Printer’s Alley, he called up the renter and went by the place. “It was pretty dilapidated as you can imagine.”
But it fit his budget. “I liked the history of the building and the spot. I don’t live in Central Gardens. I live in Cooper-Young. I always thought people in Central Gardens don’t really have a local spot to hang out.”
He signed the lease a year ago. “I got a guy in there and we drew up some plans and he started working on it.”
Connelly hired manager Mickey Blancq, a Memphis restaurant veteran.
And he hired Dustin Brantley to “help with the decor and the vibe. To get that right. He’s really punk rock.”
Brantley has been working in production design and set decoration in Memphis for the past 10 years.
He’s not a drinker, but “I’ve always been a big fan of dive bars and that culture and that feel,” says Brantley.
Searching in antique stores, private collections, and other sources, Brantley says he brought in a lot of advertising from the ’70s and ’80s, and historical pieces dating back to the ’60s.
He wanted “to honor the history” of the old Printer’s Alley space.
“Whether you’re a 70-year-old biker or a 21-year-old Midtown artist, I wanted people to feel like they belong here,” Brantley adds. “So, I just took that and ran with it. I wanted it to feel familiar in a way that all good dive bars should feel.”
Connelly kept some Printer’s Alley pieces, including a mural. As for renovations, Connelly says, “We took out the hallway that was next to the bathrooms to expand the kitchen. And then we covered up the brick wall that had a chalk wall on it on the other side with an actual wall to make it easier to hang stuff up like TVs.”
They put in a new bar. “That [old] bar was not worth salvaging. It was completely busted up. And we moved the bar from one side of the room to the other. It’s much more functional over there.”
He considered keeping the old epoxy bar top, which had pennies and old photos of Printer’s Alley customers attached to it, but, he says, “Hey, we’re going for a new bar. It doesn’t really make sense to keep pictures of people I don’t know.”
Connelly created a “full kitchen” by adding new equipment, including a flat top grill, a charbroiler, and a new stove. “They literally only had one kitchen stove. Like one that you’d have at your house.”
Blancq, Connelly, and chef Juan Amaro collaborated on the menu, which includes nachos, Philly cheesesteaks, and smashburgers. “Really solid bar food,” Blancq says. “Nothing too fancy. Just making bar food right.”
They had a great response at their grand opening February 3rd. “I think our whole vibe is different enough that we’re going to attract a new clientele,” Connelly says.
Louis Connelly’s Bar will close at 3 a.m. “We do want to stay open late.”
Not too many local bars are open late these days, he says. “The pandemic killed a lot of them. P&H is gone.”
“This is new,” Connelly continues, “but we want to make it feel like it’s been there for a while. It will take a lot more time to really get that feel. I think we’re starting from a really good place.”
I’m old enough to remember when Tracy Chapman released “Fast Car” — old enough to remember how stunning and incongruous it was, coming out at the end of the techno-Eighties, a softly strummed acoustic song with lyrics that indelibly captured what it meant to be young and poor and stuck in a bad place with no way out. I bought the album, bought the cassette, played it, and played it again.
I didn’t watch the Grammys Sunday night, but the video of the song’s performance by Chapman and country singer Luke Combs — who resurrected the song and released his own version last year — was everywhere the next day. No doubt there were millions of people who’d never heard of Tracy Chapman or heard the original version who were seeing her sing it for the first time. It was a beautiful and moving performance, and I must admit it got a little dusty in my office as I watched it on my laptop. Twice.
It’s a testament to the song’s power that it could be sung together by a queer Black woman and white male country star who says he used to hear it in his dad’s truck when he was a kid. The lyrics transcend categories that too often put us in our separate silos, unable to see what we could have in common with one another.
See, my old man’s got a problem He lives with a bottle that’s the way it is He says his body’s too old for workin’ His body’s too young to look like his When mama went off and left him She wanted more from life than he could give I said, “Somebody’s got to take care of him” I quit school and that’s what I did.
In 1988, when Chapman released “Fast Car,” it became a big hit, rising to number six on Billboard’s Hot 100. Chapman won three Grammys that year — a year in which the other top songs belonged to INXS, Guns N’ Roses, Cheap Trick, George Michael, Billy Ocean, and Rick Astley (who is never going to give you up). Mostly white guys with guitars and hair.
In 2023, 35 years later, Combs’ version of “Fast Car” hit number one on the Billboard country charts in July and earned the number two spot on Billboard’s Hot 100. Other number one country songs on the chart in 2023 were by Jelly Roll (a country rapper), Kane Brown (a multi-racial singer who was discovered on social media), and Morgan Wallen, who famously once used the “n-word,” got drunk at Kid Rock’s Nashville club, and has been fervently rebranding himself ever since. Country music ain’t what it used to be (totally white, except for Charley Pride), and that’s mostly due to TikTok stars coming into the picture. It can’t hurt, I say.
Speaking of country music … I don’t know how many of you have heard of this girl, Taylor Swift. She also won a Grammy or two and is becoming something of a big deal these days. I predict major success for her. Sure, she’s gotten famous mostly because of her boyfriend — Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce — but I’ve seen a couple of her videos and she seems to have a real knack for making snappy songs for young people. Of course, it can’t hurt that Taylor’s boyfriend is playing in the Super Bowl this weekend. Talk about your lucky timing! Plus, he’s rich!
There are those who say Taylor Swift’s rise to fame isn’t based on talent or luck. They say it’s all part of a deep-secret government operation that goes all the way to the top: namely, President Joe Biden. Certain MAGA types now say that the Super Bowl is rigged and that after the Kansas City Chiefs win on Sunday, Swift is going to come out and endorse Biden.
It makes sense, when you take a minute to think about it. What does Biden famously have in his garage? A 1967 Corvette. And what is that? A fast car. Boom! Game, set, and match, sheeple!
Maura Black Sullivan (Photo: Courtesy Maura Black Sullivan)
The Memphis Flyer has confirmed that Mayor Paul Young and a veteran public official now serving in Nashville are in continuing conversations about her possible employment here. This would be Maura Black Sullivan, a native Memphian who now holds the position of chief operating officer of Nashville Public Schools.
Sullivan, who previously served as COO for former Memphis Mayor AC Wharton and later for former Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, confirmed that conversations with Young are ongoing for the position of his chief administrative officer.
On Tuesday of this week, the city council was prepared to deal with some unfinished business — including a controversial healthcare allowance for council members of two terms’ service or more, and a decision on yet another mayoral appointment — this one of public works director Robert Knecht.
A vote on Knecht, whom Mayor Paul Young submitted for renomination week before last, was deferred after council chairman JB Smiley publicly criticized Knecht for “attitude” issues and asked for the deferral.
Several of Young’s cabinet choices were viewed negatively by Smiley and other council members — notably Police Chief CJ Davis, whose reappointment the council narrowly rejected via a 7-6 vote. (She was later given an interim appointment by Young, pending a later reexamination by the council.)
Another issue with several council members has been unease at the mayor’s inability so far to complete his team with credentialed new appointees in other positions. He has not yet named permanent appointees for the key positions of chief operating officer and chief financial officer, for example.
That circumstance could change soon. Sullivan is frank to say that she has not been in a job search, enjoys her present circumstances in Nashville, and has made no decision to leave them, but acknowledges that a possible return to Memphis would be attractive as well.
Sullivan is the daughter of the late Dave Black, a featured radio broadcaster of many years in Memphis, and the late Kay Pittman Black, who was a well-known journalist and government employee here.
• With Governor Bill Lee’s appointment this week of Mary L. Wagner to the Tennessee Supreme Court, the state’s high court continues with an unmistakably red hue politically.
As a judicial candidate in her two elections as a Circuit Court judge in Shelby County, Wagner campaigned without ideological inflection and enjoyed relatively diverse support, and there was no hint of political bias in her judgments. But her background was that of a Republican activist, and she both was a member of the right-leaning Federalist Society and served a term as chair of the Shelby County Republican Party.
In appointing Wagner, Lee said, “Her understanding and respect for the rule of law and commitment to the conservative principles of judicial restraint make her well-suited for the state’s highest court, and I am proud to appoint her to this position.”
Technically, Wagner is a justice-designate. The justice she was named to succeed, Roger Page,will keep his position for some months.
• District Attorney Steve Mulroy was in a celebratory mood last Monday evening after the Shelby County Commission voted unanimously — except for three abstentions — to pass an ordinance imposing guidelines ensuring that all members of his office, whether their technical employment is by the county or by the state, are paid according to the same pay scale.
As a county official, Mulroy had recently trimmed his own pay according to the lower county rate. He has now restored the voluntary pay cut.
Update: After our print deadline, Mayor Young clarified to the Flyer: “I can confirm that we had early talks with Maura Sullivan about a different position with the Young administration, not the COO/CAO position. We have a strong leader currently acting in the COO role who has my full faith and confidence.”
The mayor’s spokesperson/CCO, Penelope Huston, added: “The role we initially discussed was a high level position on the Mayor’s cabinet. And while talks about that position haven’t continued, we do have an ongoing dialogue with her and many others who we consider allies in the work of creating a stronger Memphis.”
I generally don’t get too bent out of shape about the Academy Awards. I guess my attitude comes from a lifetime of disappointment stemming from the fact that Oscar voters don’t like the same things I like. Academy Awards nominations and wins are best viewed as conversation starters, not any objective (whatever that means) measure of the best films of the year.
Having said that, Past Lives was ROBBED! Yes, I’m YELLING ABOUT IT!
Maybe it seems strange to be crying — no, YELLING foul about such a quiet film that has been lavished with accolades. Yes, it is nominated for Best Picture, and writer/director Celine Song was nominated for Best Original Screenplay. Both of these nominations are well deserved. But Past Lives deserved more.
The film opens in millennial Seoul, South Korea. Na Young and Hae Sung (played as children by Seung Ah Moon and Seung Min Yim, respectively) are middle-school classmates. Just as they move from fast friends to puppy love, they are separated when Na Young’s family immigrates to Toronto, Canada.
Twelve years pass. Na Young has Westernized her name to Nora Moon, and is now played by Greta Lee. She has moved to New York City for her education and to pursue a career as a playwright. Hae Sung (now played by Teo Yoo) is finishing up his hitch in the South Korean military and trying to figure out what to do with his life. Hae Sung does some internet searches for Na Young, but since he’s unaware of her name change, they come up empty. He puts out an open call for help in reconnecting with his long lost not-quite-girlfriend via Facebook, and word gets back to now-Nora via the Korean diaspora. It seems she has never stopped thinking about him, either.
From opposite sides of the world, they reconnect on period-appropriate video conferencing app Skype. (Song may be the first director to induce nostalgia with Skype’s “boodle-oodle-oodle-oop” incoming call alert sound, but she probably won’t be the last.) It’s these conversations where Teo Yoo and Greta Lee shine. They’re subtle, quiet, and totally relatable. Nora and Hae Sung are hesitant at first. They’re happy to see each other, for sure, but also feeling each other out. Emotions are complicated on both sides. A lot can change in 12 years, especially when that time period is half a lifetime. They become each other’s comfort, something to run to after a hard day. But the distance between them seems unbridgeable. Eventually, Nora breaks it off, saying she wants to devote herself to her career by taking a slot at a prestigious writer’s retreat, while Hae Sung goes to China for language lessons. The first person Nora meets at the writer’s retreat is Arthur (John Magaro), a fellow writer, and they immediately hit it off.
Then, 12 more years pass. Now Nora and Arthur are married and living in New York City, both with reasonably successful careers, but no children. Out of the blue, Nora gets a message from Hae Sung. He’s going to be in New York on business and was wondering if they could finally get together and see each other in real life for the first time since Seoul. Nora accepts, but when they finally do lay eyes on each other, things become a lot more fraught and complex than either one of them ever imagined.
Lee, who has been low-key brilliant in Russian Doll and What We Do in the Shadows, absolutely deserved a Best Actress nomination for her work as Nora. She juggles conflicting motivations and feelings with remarkable subtlety — which is perhaps a strike against her with an Academy that tends to equate good acting with MORE acting.
The same with Teo Yoo. In lesser hands, Hae Sung would have been a whiny loser or a John Cusack-ian perfect (yet kinda toxic) boyfriend. Instead, he’s a successful, otherwise well-adjusted guy who is following a deep impulse he doesn’t fully understand. And while we’re at it, John Magaro could have easily come off with a Best Supporting Actor nomination as the long suffering Arthur.
Maybe if it had been released in 2024, Past Lives would have gone on to a big Oscar sweep. But 2023 was the best year for film in recent memory, so the competition is crowded with worthy nominees. Even the ones I would have swapped out for Past Lives (I’m looking at you, Maestro) are still well-made and enjoyable films. Just like the star-crossed lovers it portrays, there’s an alternate world where things worked out better for Past Lives.
Past Lives Now Streaming Hulu and Amazon Prime Video
The Metal Museum’s latest exhibit turns recycling into art. (Photo: RJM Press)
Reduce, reuse, recycle. It’s a mantra we’ve all heard so many times that it’s been reduced to a bit of white noise amid loudening concerns about the environment, climate disasters, supply chains, ethical consumption, the list goes on. Still, the three Rs are a good practice to keep, most would agree, but it’s hardly enough to feel special or creative. But the practice of repurposing has gotten a bit of a new shine thanks to a project that’s been around for the past 15 or so years that reuses and recycles donated jewelry into something beautiful. And now, that project is coming to Memphis’ Metal Museum in the form of an exhibition: “Radical Jewelry Makeover: The Artist Project.”
“Ethical Metalsmiths is a group of artists and they started this project called Radical Jewelry Makeover,” explains Laura Hutchison Bhatti, director of collections and exhibitions at the museum. “Their focus is sustainability in the jewelry industry. So it’s a lot about putting focus on things like over-mining and all the discarded stuff that people just get rid of, and they take these crazy pieces, they send artists bags and bags of this discarded jewelry that’s really set to go to, like, Goodwill or just sits in jewelry boxes, but instead, the artists make these beautiful pieces out of them.”
For the exhibition, the Metal Museum will have over 70 works on display by over 25 artists, all invoking their own styles. Some use costume jewelry; others use precious heirlooms. “There’s a lot of play with the unexpected and with elevating low-quality jewelry pieces to a high-end market,” says Alicia George, special projects advisor, who curated this exhibit. “And then also melting down heirloom jewelry pieces and repurposing them into more artful modern jewelry, so there’s a constant flux between expectation and what you actually see.”
“They all tell a story,” adds Bhatti. “And with metalwork, there’s always an element of metal being repurposed or melted down or refabricated into something new, but the story of these pieces is much more tangible because you can see the remnants of what it used to be.”
The exhibition space itself is set up to look like a jewelry box, George says, with red and purple velvet panels and velvet-lined display cases. To boost the museum’s own sustainability efforts, the velvet is mostly recycled. Plus, the drapes that also decorate the space are on loan from Opera Memphis, and all the label information for the pieces is printed on recycled paper. “We’re trying to be a part of the movement and maintain the idea behind the Radical Jewelry Makeover,” George says.
The exhibition is on display through April 14th. Radical Jewelry Makeover co-directors, Susie Ganch and Kathleen Kennedy, will join the Metal Museum for the opening reception and artist talk on February 11th. RSVP to attend at metalmuseum.org.
To coincide with the exhibition’s run, the Metal Museum will also offer two classes (February 10th and March 16th) for those who want to create a one-of-a-kind piece of their own. Students will be able to bring their old jewelry or use provided pieces, and then will learn how to take apart old jewelry and repurpose it into new jewelry using rivets, glue, and wire. Register for a class at metalmuseum.org.
“Radical Jewelry Makeover: The Artist Project” Reception & Artist Talk, Metal Museum, 373 Metal Museum Drive, Sunday, February 11, 3-5 p.m.
Editor’s Note: Flyer writers will occasionally share this space.
I have a few good cooks in my family. My grandpa mastered a recipe for red gravy, passed down through generations of Sicilians — yes, red gravy, not red sauce. My mom has her signature chocolate chip cookies; my dad has perfected his crab and crawfish boils, and he also makes red gravy now. And my sister, as much as I hate to admit (because of sibling rivalry and all that), can make a mean red velvet cupcake. Today, my cooking set off the smoke detector. I burnt butter. It’s fine. It’s whatever. I’m definitely not insecure about my apparent un-inherited culinary skills.
I was also told that the way I was holding the knife was wrong and that I was bound to slice a finger off. My “nice” cooking knife privileges were swiftly revoked before I was handed a less nice cooking knife. But it’s fine. It’s whatever. I definitely didn’t take it personally.
I also might have let a few chickpeas explode in my boyfriend’s oven. But, again, it’s fine. It’s whatever. He said it was, as he ushered me away from the kitchen. I’ll make it up to him one day, perhaps by sticking my head in the oven. To clean it.
These days, I’m trying something new: cooking something other than pasta with three ingredients. You see, I’ve got about three recipes I know — three recipes that, for the most part, are harder to mess up than to get right, yet somehow only come out right for me about 75 percent of time. But there’s only so much pasta a human can/should consume in a given week, at least that’s what the internet says, so I’ve enlisted my boyfriend into a Hello Fresh trial as advertised in every true crime podcast you could listen to. Three packages of ingredients come delivered to the door, and it’s up to us to assemble them into something edible. A bonding experience that hopefully won’t make him think less of me. It’s fine.
So far, I’m mostly the sous-chef … or the anti-sous-chef, more of a menace in the kitchen than anything. (It’s me. Hi. I’m the problem.) I’m not sure where my culinary incompetence stems from — if it’s a nature vs. nurture thing. I guess it doesn’t really matter because the problem is here nonetheless. Growing up, I never really wanted to be in the kitchen to learn to cook; that was my sister’s thing (and we couldn’t possibly like the same things, God forbid), and I was (am) a picky eater, so there was no way I was going to touch half of the stuff that was being prepared. Rolling up meatballs with my dad might sound like a charming generational memory, but that is one my sister can cherish ’cause I won’t, just won’t do that. I don’t eat meat, never had, couldn’t tell you why, but I can tell you that the thought of rolling ground beef between my knuckles makes my skin crawl. (It’s just one of those things, okay?)
But I eat seafood. And for most of my life that’s been the caveat that restarts people’s judgy hearts and unrolls their eyes after they hear that I don’t eat meat, especially since I’m from New Orleans, land of the seafood fanatics.
This is why I love Lent, which is coming up in about a week and means no meat on Fridays (or Ash Wednesday) for us Catholics. Growing up, Lent for me was a certified guarantee that every Friday no matter what we were eating as a family it was going to be something I liked. Alleluia. Red gravy without meatballs? Hell yeah! Boiled crabs? Music to my ears! Grilled cheese? Sure thing! Crawfish? Yes, please! Shrimp? You know it!
Sure, Lent is supposed to be a time to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ and to pray and make your own sacrifices, blah blah blah. Like, my dad would give up sweets for those 40 days, so that just meant more dessert for my sister and me (score!). I did do my own sacrifices, too, like giving up meat on Fridays (score!). For a few years, I gave up watching the Disney Channel. It was hard. I missed my Suite Life of Zack & Cody and Hannah Montana, but I lived. Obviously.
The idea of Lent is nice, though. It makes you see what you can live without, makes you respect the important things and practice gratefulness. Could you go without TikTok for 40 days? What about cursing at traffic? My fourth-grade teacher once told us we could also commit to do something extra every day instead, like saying the rosary (what fourth-grader is going to do that?) or picking up an extra chore (nah). I think my new 40-day commitment might be cooking a new recipe on the weekdays/not burning the house down (whichever ends up less ambitious). The great thing about it is that it’s only 40 days to give something up or add something new, and it’s only your relationship with God on the line, which is fine. It’s whatever. If you’re not Catholic, it’s a nice challenge for mindfulness.
But the best part of Lent has always been gathering for meals on Fridays, usually seafood boils back home in New Orleans, and since I’m not in New Orleans, these mostly edible meals with my boyfriend will do. It’s better than fine.
