Ja Morant after Grizzlies 120-109 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday, November 29, 2024. (Photo credit: @memgrizz on X)
With a 120-109 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans at FedExForum on Friday, the Memphis Grizzlies extended their winning streak to five games, the team’s longest since March 2023.
It was their first-ever win in the Emirates NBA Cup after a previous record of 0-6.
Memphis moved to six games above .500, boasting a 13-7 record and a 6-1 mark in their last seven contests.
The Grizzlies remain formidable at FedExForum, where they’ve won four straight and own a 9-3 record this season.
In his first NBA Cup group play appearance, Ja Morant led the Grizzlies with 27 points (10-18 FG, 7-7 FT), seven assists and three steals. Morant consistently proves why he’s the most electrifying player in the NBA, treating fans to a nightly spectacle of athleticism and skill.
With an impressive line of 22.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.8 blocks, 1.3 assists, and 1.3 steals in 28.3 minutes per game while shooting 51.6 percent from the floor, the 25-year-old is well on his way to a career-best campaign.
In their last two games together, a clear pattern has emerged: Morant sparks the Grizzlies in the first half; Jackson Jr. seals the deal in the second half.
“It’s great that Ja [Morant] sets a tone when we talk about our pace,” said Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins, when asked about the Morant and Jackson Jr. dynamic. “When he’s a driver of that, we get guys running without the ball. We get kick-aheads, we get early lobs. We get drive, kick-swings or swing-swings off of his early attacks.”
Jenkins continued, “Credit to the Pelicans. [They] had a pretty good game plan against Jaren [Jackson Jr.]. He couldn’t really get to some spots on the floor. They showed double teams. He had one good kick out and then another crowded one. It took him maybe a minute to get in the flow. I’m glad in the second half he turned it up.”
Off the bench, Santi Aldama added 20 points (8-9 FG, 3-3 3P, 1-2 FT), six rebounds and four assists.
The Grizzlies reserves have been critical to the team’s success early in the season. Memphis’ bench is second in the association in scoring this season. Over the past two games, they have outscored opponents 118-79.
On the Horizon
In the last game of their four-game home stand on Sunday, December 1, the Memphis Grizzlies will host the Indiana Pacers at 2:30 p.m.
Marcus Smart against the Detroit Pistons. (Credit: NBAE/Getty Images.)
The Memphis Grizzlies are very thankful for Marcus Smart’s breakout night, which led them to a 131-111 victory over the Detroit Pistons, Wednesday..
It was also the bench unit’s time to shine, as they offered up a season-high 72 points.
The Pistons took a one-point lead into the second quarter but were quickly surpassed by the Grizzlies on the backs of Smart and Scotty Pippen Jr., who shot a combined eight-of-10 from the field in the quarter.
Smart has struggled to stay healthy this season and has already missed 10 games. Between injuries and inconsistencies, Smart’s role with the team has been relegated from the starting lineup to the bench.
— Grizzlies On FanDuel Sports Network (@FDSN_Grizzlies) November 28, 2024
Smart’s season-high 25 points against the Pistons could start an upswing in his performance. His seven made three-pointers are the most by any Grizzlies player this season.
Memphis built an 18-point lead that carried into the second half after being down as many as 11 points in the first quarter.
Four of five Grizzlies’ starters finished the night in double-digits:
Scotty Pippen Jr. put up 19 points on nine of 12 shooting and added seven rebounds, four assists, and three steals.
Jaylen Wells and Brandon Clarke added 13 points each, and Jaren Jackson Jr. contributed 12 points.
From the bench:
Smart led all scorers with 25 points, and added four rebounds, five assists, and three steals.
Jake LaRavia put up a season-high 19 points on eight-ofnine overall shooting and hit three of four from beyond the arc.
Jay Huff added 13 points, two rebounds, and three assists.
Who Got Next?
The Grizzlies will continue their homestand Friday afternoon against the New Orleans Pelicans in an NBA Cup game, and Ja Morant is slated to return to the lineup. Tip-off is at 4 PM CST.
In January, a new “blended sentencing” law will go into effect in Tennessee that could usher hundreds of children into the adult criminal justice system with fewer checks than the existing adult transfer process. It will also keep those kids in the juvenile justice system longer.
The law is “extremely harmful for youth in Memphis,” said Ala’a Alattiyat, coordinator for the Youth Justice Action Council. “It will not keep our community safer, and it will continue to perpetuate the cyclical nature of the justice system by making it harder for youth to exit that cycle.”
Children as young as 14 could be subject to blended sentencing. These children will be required to serve juvenile sentences until they turn 19. They will also face up to four years of adult prison or probation.
Initially, this adult sentence is stayed, meaning it will only take effect if certain criteria are met. Only one of these criteria concerns whether a child has committed another delinquent act.
As a result, kids could end up in adult prison without committing anothercrime, said Zoe Jamail, policy coordinator at Disability Rights Tennessee. Instead, the text of the law allows children to increase their risk of going to prison by breaking curfew or failing to graduate from high school.
Ultimately, children “who would otherwise never have been facing an adult sentence” will be swept into the adult system, said Jasmine Ying Miller, a senior attorney at Youth Law Center.
Blended sentencing is part of a broader effort by some lawmakersto make Tennessee’s juvenile justice system more punitive, even though rates of youth crime in the state have been declining for at least a decade.
Rep. John Gillespie. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50
The blended sentencing legislation, which also passed in May, was introduced and sponsored by several Memphis-area lawmakers. In the State Senate, the bill was sponsored by state Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Memphis). In the House, the bill was sponsored by Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis), Rep. John Gillespie (R-Memphis), and Rep. G.A. Hardaway (D-Memphis).
“State policies related to youth justice consistently and disproportionately target Memphis, which is a predominantly Black city,” said Alattiyat. As a result, “this type of law always ends up disproportionately targeting Black youth.”
Blended sentencing’s sponsors often imply — incorrectly — that youth are responsible for most of Memphis’s crime.
“We are living in a state of fear in Memphis, in the surrounding area,” Rep. Gillespie told colleagues during a House discussion of blended sentencing, “and it is almost entirely because of juveniles committing violent crimes that are going unpunished.”
These claims are misleading. Memphis-Shelby County Juvenile Court has said that adults are responsible for most crimes in the county. Children do seem to be disproportionately involved in car theft; about a third of those charged with vehicle-related crimes are youth offenders, according to the Memphis Police Department. Available data suggest that youth are less involved in violent crime.
According to statistics maintained by the Memphis-Shelby County Juvenile Court, juvenile crime did increase in 2022. But by 2023, juvenile crime had fallen to the same level as 2021. Overall, juvenile crime in Memphis has been on a steady decline since at least 2011.
Nevertheless, legislators insist that drastic action must be taken on youth crime in Memphis.
Rep. Mark White during a House committee hearing in March of this year. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50
“Juvenile laws traditionally have been there to protect the juvenile,” said White, who introduced the bill in the House. In his view, protection is no longer the right approach. “We’re living in a different time with some of the crimes committed by these 14, 15, 16, 17-year-olds.”
Currently, Tennessee’s juvenile justice system operates on two tracks: either children remain in the juvenile system — where they must be released by 19, no matter the offense they’ve committed — or they can be transferred to the adult system.
White believes that the first track, in which children remain in the juvenile system until age 19, enables juvenile crime. Under the current system,children “can shoot and kill a person at 17 and go free at 19,” he said.
Children accused of murder and attempted murder are usually transferred to adult court unless they have been abused or coerced, lawyers say.
Some juvenile judges also take issue with this part of the law; they’d like the option to keep older kids who have committed serious offenses in the juvenile system beyond 19.
“We all want a tool where we can extend jurisdiction to capture youth past the age of 19,” said Judge Aftan Strong, chief magistrate of Memphis-Shelby County’s Juvenile Court. “Extended jurisdiction” would give courts more time to rehabilitate young offenders, she said.
Blended sentencing bears little resemblance to this policy. And while juvenile judges are legally required to rehabilitate youth offenders, the architects of blended sentencing have made it clear that rehabilitation is beside the point.
White introduced an initial version of blended sentencing to the legislature in April 2023. The next month, White published an op-ed where he wrote, “We are well past the time of ‘we need to rehabilitate our youth.’” Instead, he wrote, the juvenile justice system should focus on “discipline, correction and punishment.”
A view of the state legislature floor during a House session in March 2023. Photo by Andrea Morales for MLK50
In that same op-ed, White compared Memphis’ “undisciplined youth” to the 1870s yellow fever epidemic that killed or displaced 30,000 Memphians.
Ultimately, blended sentencing will likely incarcerate more children while failing to address youth crime, critics say. Empirical research on young people “does not support this viewpoint that you can punish your way into reducing crime.” said Cardell Orrin, Tennessee executive director at Stand for Children.
White is not concerned by this critique. “We have to have a system where [young offenders] understand the seriousness of what they did and that they will be detained in the system,” White told MLK50.
“A lot of the issues are coming from 2 percent-4 percent of our [youth] population,” he continued. “If we would just detain those people and make believers out of them, it may keep other people from reoffending.”
Four percent of Memphis’ population between the ages of 10 and 17 is roughly 2,700 children, based on available U.S. census data.
“We may have to go too far to one side trying to correct it in order to get back to sanity,” said White.
Rebecca Cadenhead is the youth and juvenile justice reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. She is also a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. Email her rebecca.cadenhead@mlk50.com.
This week on the Memphis Flyer podcast, Chris McCoy and Abigail Morici talk Thanksgiving food, and our annual Black Friday Local Gift Guide. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving just hasn’t been the same since 2020. On that very day, November 26th of that year, the epic life of saxophonist and flutist Herman Green came to an end. Covering it at the time, the Memphis Flyer quoted Richard Cushing, who co-founded the band FreeWorld with Green, reporting that his friend and bandmate had passed away “at home, surrounded by family, listening to Coltrane.”
That one comment spoke volumes about the deep commitment to jazz Cushing shared with Green, capturing Cushing’s concern for what his bandmate was hearing in his final hours. And it was indicative of how a deep love of jazz marked FreeWorld’s earliest days. Of course, anything involving Green, who once played with the likes of B.B. King, Lionel Hampton, and John Coltrane, among many others, was bound to tap into a direct throughline to jazz at its deepest. And yet, FreeWorld has never been considered a jazz band, per se.
Not that the players themselves care much for labels. Over more than three decades, the band has perfected a cheerful amalgam of influences, noting the influence of artists from Steely Dan to the Meters to the Grateful Dead on their website. Or, as one writer put it, “the best of Memphis, New Orleans, and San Francisco.” That combination, with a strong common denominator of funk and soul, has been tested in the crucible of FreeWorld’s countless nights on Beale Street.
And you have to hand it to a band that can keep nine musicians working regularly: with its horn section and solid command of the funk vocabulary, it’s as close to the old Beale Street as we have these days, and, like Beale in its heyday, the crowd-pleasing big band also happens to host some great jazz players.
In that sense, the legacy of Herman Green shines on through FreeWorld, but it’s especially worth noting with the band’s new album, More Love, as it contains one of the purest musical tributes to Green I’ve heard, by way of one of his own compositions: “Red Moon.” Though not the obvious crowd-pleaser, to these ears it’s the crown jewel of the album.
Easing in quietly with saxophone evoking Green himself, it seems like noirish crime jazz, before kicking off into a Chicago-like groove that provides a superb bed for some virtuosic solos, including a Clint Wagner cameo on guitar and a dazzling jaunt on the Fender Rhodes piano courtesy erstwhile Memphian and FreeWorld alum Ross Rice. Finally, as the whole swanky arrangement comes to a close, we hear the voice of Herman Green himself, advising us on how to get to heaven.
Yet Green’s tune is not the only instrumental vehicle for these stellar soloists. “Rush Hour” and “Who Knew?” by sax player Peter Climie and “Color Trip” by keyboardist Cedric Taylor (both of whom shine, along with trumpeter Alex Schuetrumpf, throughout the album) are other standouts. And, speaking of noir, “11:11 on Beale” is a masterclass in atmospherics, featuring some very beat poetry by co-writer Benjamin Theolonius “IQ” Sanders. Ultimately, his monologue winds up with a promotional spiel of sorts: after introducing the band, he notes that they can be heard “every Sunday on Beale Street,” and, appropriately, that brings the instrumental odyssey back to the band’s bread and butter.
Those bread-and-butter tunes are here too, of course, with stomping grooves and singalong choruses aplenty. Indeed, the title song, sung by the inimitable Jerome Chism (who’s usually across Beale fronting the B.B. King’s Blues Club All-Star Band), takes “singalong” to a whole new level, as Chism’s soaring lead is backed by the Tennessee Mass Choir, directed by Jason Clark. That’s entirely appropriate if you consider “More Love” to be a kind of secular gospel, a non-denominational call for greater understanding from all our hearts.
Much of the other songs have the same positive message. There are no songs of lust, deception, or murder here — only testimonials to what one hopes are noncontroversial values of tolerance, empathy, and forbearance. Hippies can dream, can’t they? As Cushing sings on one track, “Why all this fussing and fighting? Stop all this killing and dying … The world we know is transforming, trees on fire, the water is warming … It’s time for justice to arise!”
Don’t be surprised if you hear the track during broadcast breaks for Democracy Now! in the near future. And, for such a song to come from Memphis, Tennessee, at this dark hour is a very welcome thing. The same could be said for FreeWorld’s single from 2021, titled “D-Up (Here’s to Diversity),” included here as a bonus track. As a band promoting both Herman Green’s memory and good ol’ wholesome, progressive values, I say more power to FreeWorld, and may they ever go viral.
FreeWorld will have a series of record release shows this Thanksgiving weekend, starting with Lafayette’s Music Room on Thursday, Nov. 28, 7 p.m.; followed by the Rum Boogie Cafe on Friday, Nov. 29, and Saturday, Nov. 30, 8 p.m.; and wrapping up with Blues City Cafe on Sunday, Dec. 1, 8 p.m. The band will also host a listening party at the Memphis Listening Lab on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 6 p.m.
Some 60 percent of Tennessee third-grade students scored below proficiency in English language arts on 2024 state tests. Fewer than than 1 percent of them were retained under the state’s reading and retention law, and about 2.5 percent are no longer enrolled in public schools, according to new data.
Among fourth graders who had been promoted by receiving tutoring during the 2023-24 academic year under the same law, just over 1 percent were held back this school year, while at least 4 percent have left their public school.
The findings, presented by Tennessee’s chief academic officer to the State Board of Education on Thursday, show some of the effects of Tennessee’s 2021 reading intervention and retention law aimed at accelerating learning after the pandemic.
The controversial statute was pushed by Gov. Bill Lee, who said he wanted to draw a hard line to “stop the cycle of passing without preparation.” The legislature has since approved severalrevisions to loosen the policies and provide more pathways to promotion for students who don’t test as proficient readers.
State leaders are ‘encouraged’ by tutoring and summer program data
The big question is whether students are becoming better readers with the state’s interventions.
That includes summer programming, which began in each school system in 2021 to mitigate the effects of disruptions to schooling during the pandemic. About 121,000 students went that first year, and participation has leveled off to about 90,000 in subsequent years.
Chief Academic Officer Kristy Brown, in her presentation to the board, said attendance rates improved for recent summer programs, indicating that parents are finding value in them.
As far as academics, she said: “What we’re really seeing is the effects of decreased summer slide, or the lack of it, for students who are participating, compared to those who are not.”
Summer slide, referring to when students’ academic proficiency regresses during summer break, is a common phenomenon, especially for historically disadvantaged populations.
As for required small group tutoring, which younger students receive weekly during the school year if they don’t meet expectations on state tests, Brown said students testing in the bottom level, called “below” proficiency, are moving in the right direction.
In addition, almost half of the 12,260 fourth graders who received required tutoring in 2023-24 showed improvement as the year progressed. Over 14 percent of them scored as proficient on their TCAPs last spring, and nearly 33 percent met the threshold for showing adequate growth based on a state formula.
The data is the first available for fourth-graders who started receiving additional support after scoring below proficiency in the third grade.
“To finally have the numbers — to see that the needle appears to have been moved in a positive way like that — I was glad to see,” said Ryan Holt, a member of the state board.
Several other board members also said they were “encouraged” by the data.
Brown, the state’s academic chief, cautioned that gains can’t be traced at this point to any single part of the state’s reading interventions.
“It’s a combination of the things that we’ve done,” she said, “with professional learning for teachers, and summer programming, and tutoring, and those things customized for those students to see the gains that I think we’ve seen in Tennessee.”
Many educators and parents have been less enthusiastic.
The legislature’s most recent revisions to the law were intended to give parents and educators more input into retention decisions.
Many students facing retention used alternative pathways to promotion
After the 2023-24 school year, most of the nearly 44,000 third graders who were at risk of retention used other pathways to promotion.
Nearly 27 percent were exempted for various reasons, including having a disability or suspected disability that impacts their reading; being an English language learner with less than two years of ELA instruction; and having been previously retained.
Over 4 percent retook the test at the end of the academic year and scored as proficient.
Others were promoted through a combination of tutoring and summer program participation.
For the 12,260 fourth graders who participated in tutoring last school year, over 14 percent scored as proficient on the state’s assessment in the spring.
Over 32 percent met the state’s “adequate growth” measure that’s tailored to each student. It’s based on testing measurements that the state uses to predict the probability that a student can become proficient by the eighth grade, when they take their last TCAP tests.
And nearly 44 percent of at-risk fourth graders were promoted by a new “conference” pathway that lawmakers approved on the last day of the 2024 legislative session. It allows the student to be promoted if their parents, teacher, and principal decide collectively that it’s in the child’s best interest.
Any fourth grader promoted to the fifth grade via the conference pathway must receive tutoring in the fifth grade.
Marta Aldrich is a senior correspondent and covers the statehouse for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Contact her at maldrich@chalkbeat.org.
Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.
A home is one of the most valuable and complex assets to hand down. It can be an incredibly emotional experience and may be difficult to find common ground. Thoughtful planning can ensure your home is passed along according to your wishes. A well-constructed plan can minimize the risk of legal, financial, and tax complexities. If you’re proactive, your heirs can have clarity and a clear course of action for when the time comes.
1. Start planning early.
Start early and discuss your intentions with family members and heirs. Understand their wishes and ensure your decisions align with their hopes for the future.
2. Understand the potential tax consequences.
Transferring property to an heir can trigger various tax consequences, including estate taxes, gift taxes, and/or capital gains taxes. Work with an estate planning attorney or tax professional to implement a tax-efficient transfer strategy.
3. Explore different transfer options:
Joint ownership — If you plan on living in the home until you pass away, you may wish to add your heir’s name to the property’s title as a joint owner. This ensures that the joint owner receives full ownership rights to the home without restrictions after one’s passing.
If a spouse is listed as the co-owner of the home, the value transferred to the spouse is exempt from estate and gift taxes as they benefit from the unlimited marital deduction. The surviving spouse would inherit your ownership interest of the home and become the sole owner.
When a non-spouse co-owner is listed:
• The value transferred is considered a gift and must be reported for gift tax purposes, meaning it counts toward your lifetime exemption amount.
• Lifetime gifts to non-spouse heirs are subject to the carryover of cost basis, which may be equal to the original cost of the home (excluding improvements). This means they may be subject to higher taxes due on the future sale of the property because they’ll likely not be eligible for a step-up in cost basis at the time of your death.
• As a co-owner, your heir assumes ownership of a portion of the home’s value. Should they experience financial difficulties, initiate divorce proceedings, or incur debt issues, this could put your home at risk of a lien or other legal action. Further, you would need the permission of your co-owner to take out a new mortgage, refinance the existing mortgage or sell the home in the future.
Will — A traditional will allows you to name an heir as the beneficiary of your home. A testamentary trust setup can provide more control over how your home is managed and used. Having a will alone doesn’t prevent your assets from going through probate. And a will is a public document, so anyone can see who inherited assets.
Revocable trust — A revocable trust allows you, as “grantor” or “trustee,” to maintain control over your home while specifying how and when it will pass to your heirs. Following your death, the trust enables your home to be quickly and privately transferred to your heir while bypassing the probate process. This approach allows you to retain full control and use of your home during your lifetime and a seamless transition after you pass away.
Qualified personal residence trust (QPRT) — A QPRT can help you transfer your home’s ownership at a reduced gift tax rate. Here, the home is transferred to a trust, but as the owner, you maintain the right to live there for the QPRT’s duration. At the end of the trust, the house is transferred to the designated beneficiary, and you no longer have an official right to live there (however, it’s common to negotiate a lease with the beneficiary).
For this strategy to be most effective, the original owner must outlive the terms of the trust. If you die before the trust ends, the value of your home will be included in your taxable estate.
4. Evaluate financial readiness.
Make sure your heir is financially prepared for homeownership and the commitments associated with the property. Passing down a home can mean additional financial responsibilities, including property taxes, home insurance, maintenance costs, and mortgage payments.
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.
Turkey breast at Tops Bar-B-Q & Burgers (Photo: Courtesy Tops Bar-B-Q & Burgers)
Maybe you don’t want to pull out grandma’s tarnished silver turkey tray and gravy boat this year.
Maybe you don’t want to hold a big frozen turkey under a sink faucet for an hour because you forgot to thaw the bird.
Maybe you really just want a “happy” Thanksgiving this time.
So, here are a few places that can redress Turkey Day stress.
Tops Bar-B-Q & Burgers is offering its Pit-Smoked Turkey Club. (Photo: Karen Pulfer Focht)
Tops Bar-B-Q & Burgers
Just in time for the holidays, Tops is offering its Pit-Smoked Turkey Club as well as whole turkey breasts.
The sandwich comes with pit-smoked turkey breast slices, “barbecue mayonnaise,” applewood bacon, American cheese, lettuce, and tomato.
That barbecue mayonnaise — Tops’ original sweet barbecue sauce blended together with some spices — is a special component, says Tops CEO Randy Hough.
“Guests have been asking us for years — around the holidays, especially — ‘What do you have in terms of a turkey for the holidays?’” says Tops exec Hunter Brown.
They ask, “Are you going to have anything like a seasonal ham or turkey this year?” Hough adds.
This year, the restaurant chain has obliged. The five-pound breasts, which serve up to 10 or 12 people, are “100 percent usable,” Brown says. “You don’t have to carve around any bones.”
Tops will be closed on Thanksgiving, but customers can preorder the turkeys or just pick them up at a Tops location. “It’s already ready. We’re serving it as a sandwich and are able to get them one.”
And, Brown says, “Where else can you roll through a drive-through on your way home and say, ‘I want to get one of those pit-smoked turkeys,’ and several minutes later have it in your car on your way home as if you’re getting a cheeseburger combo? And we will hand it to you out the window.”
“We’ve got you covered until 9 at night,” Hough adds. “I could have used this a couple of times in my lifetime.”
Another Tops Thanksgiving option? Their turkey burger, which they offer all year round. “What’s cool about turkey burgers is turkey burger eaters love it, but cheeseburger eaters also love it,” Brown says.
Chef Keith Clinton’s sweet potato and chèvre with sauce poivrade (Photo: Courtesy Chez Philippe)
Chez Philippe
This might not be the year you want to whip up truffle-stuffed squab and Chateaubriand for your Thanksgiving feast. So, let Keith Clinton make it for you from 5:30 to 10 p.m. Thanksgiving night at Chez Philippe at The Peabody.
Clinton, the restaurant’s chef de cuisine, and Konrad Spitzbart, the hotel’s executive pastry chef, created an elegant four-course prix fixe Thanksgiving dinner.
“At Chez, we are detail-oriented,” Clinton says. “We want to emulate the nostalgia and memory of a family meal by way of taste and service. We have familiar staples of holiday tradition. We just tweak the approach and keep it interesting.
“I’m going to use cranberries, turkey, and sweet potato. But I’m also going to use truffle, squab, and edible gold.”
Clinton also is also paying tribute to his own Thanksgivings past. “My grandmother has a patch of persimmon trees on her land. I’m going to use them in our opening canapé sequence as kind of a memory of those family gatherings of my own.”
That will be his persimmon and merengue, which he is featuring with pear and port gelée.
There will be sweet potatoes: Clinton’s “sweet potato and chèvre with sauce poivrade,” which he will serve with Heritage Farms turkey. “I have a distinct memory of watching the marshmallow bubble on top of the sweet potato casserole when I was a kid. I’m leaning on that memory to cook a course for our guests this holiday season.”
Spitzbart is offering pumpkin bavarois along with chocolate brûlée with brown butter and micro sponge crisp honeycomb for the dessert course.
Turkeys ready to go at Neil’s Music Room (Photo: Courtesy Neil’s Music Room)
Neil’s Music Room
If you want a more laid-back Thanksgiving dinner, but still desire traditional turkey and all the trimmings, head over to Neil’s Music Room at 5725 Quince Road. Owner Neil Heins is continuing his more than 30-year tradition of offering Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving day.
Heins began doing the dinners when his club was on Madison Avenue. “I started doing them ’cause I was broke,” he says. “Everything was closed on Thanksgiving. I said, ‘Shit. I’ll open up.’”
His menu includes smoked turkey, homemade dressing, “real mashed potatoes,” cranberry sauce, green beans, corn, English peas, and rolls. “And then we give them a dessert. And most of the time it’s pumpkin pie.”
Dinner is served until they run out. “We start at 11 in the morning. And we normally close at 1 in the morning. It usually dies down at about 4 or 5. We’ll serve all day as long as we have it.”
John Williams and the A440 Band will perform.
Neil’s also is selling its Thanksgiving meal to-go.
Chicken and dressing at Dale’s (Photo: Courtesy Dale’s)
Dale’s
Dale’s is continuing its 20-year-tradition of serving dinner on Thanksgiving. It’s featured from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the restaurant at 1226 Main Street in Southaven, Mississippi.
Customers get a choice of chicken and dressing or baked ham along with three vegetables, homemade rolls, and cornbread. “And it comes with a piece of sweet potato pie,” says owner Larita Mathis.
They normally serve the same items on their regular Thursday and Sunday menus. “So, we thought, ‘Why don’t we open on Thanksgiving?’” Mathis says.
Customers include “regulars that come every year and new people that just heard about it — or that we do everything from scratch.”
Dale’s also offers to-go orders to feed approximately 10 or 20 people. “All our vegetables and pies are available. So, that’s a big part of our business. People can place orders a few days before Thanksgiving.”
The dressing is made from her grandmother’s recipe, Mathis says. They boil the chickens to make the broth. And they make the cornbread that goes in it.
“We don’t use turkey because the turkey broth has a wilder flavor. If you try to make dressing with that, your dressing has a totally different taste. We tried that one year and it’s just not the same.”
Mathis and her family may grab something to eat that day. But, she says, “By the time we feed everybody, we just want to eat a hot dog or something. We don’t want to look at chicken and dressing.”
Mac, Derelick, and Duke of the Iron Mic Coalition, performing at the Undugu Hip Hop Festival. (Photos: Courtesy IMC)
Memphis is known for its world-class rappers; trap is the new “Memphis Sound.” But while we might hear BlocBoy JB shout out, “901 Shelby Drive, look alive, look alive,” on the radio, there’s a cohort of lesser known but very active hip-hop artists among us who live and breathe such lyrics, depicting life in our place and time like no others. Does any recent rhyme capture the feeling of living under the weight of this city’s history like: “I rap Memphop, I rap the deep quadrant/I come from the marshes, the shady tree garages/The torn-down projects, the cotton on the barges”?
Some readers will instantly recognize that as a line from “Maybap Music” by Iron Mic Coalition (IMC), as a devoted following has developed around the group over the past 20 years. If you know, you know. Part of that comes down to IMC’s undeniable grounding in this region. That comes across both lyrically and musically, as on 2014’s “Home,” driven by a minor key soul blues sample, with the lyrics: “A stranger in his own land, a Delta blues homeland … Crossroads demon summit, now the blues man cometh with the truth boom bappin’ hell on ’em.”
Jason Da Hater, Duke, Milk, and Mac of the Iron Mic Coalition (Photo courtesy IMC)
Indeed, IMC’s music over the years has been full of Southern soul and blues, (or even the tweaked voice of Billie Holiday singing “Gloomy Sunday” on “Crown”). Case in point: the hard-hitting blues guitar lick on their best-known single, “Memphop,” done many years before Al Kapone began experimenting with his own style of blues-infused rap. Clearly, IMC is fully rooted down, devoting a whole track (not just one line of a hit single) to the “901 Area Code” on their 2005 debut.
Skipping back and forth across the decades is par for the course with IMC’s music, as the collective of DJs and MCs have been remarkably true to their vision and consistent in their output for 20 years, across three releases whose titles speak to their shared coherence: The1st Edition (2005), The2nd Edition (2008), and The3rd Edition (2014). These artists have always been playing the long game, as should be clear this Friday, November 29th, at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, where the IMC will make a rare appearance to celebrate their 20th anniversary, revisiting their debut album in full and hinting at what a fourth work-in-progress might hold in store.
The Memphis Flyer, it should be noted, has been with IMC for the whole ride, starting with Chris Herrington’s 2004 survey of Memphis hip-hop, but as I speak now with IMC member Quinn McGowan, aka The Mighty Quinn, there’s one thing he’d like to clear up about how the group’s been described here in the past. “The popular misnomer was always we were like the Wu-Tang [Clan] of the South, but actually a more accurate description would have been the Native Tongues of the South, right? Because we were always a group of groups. Native Tongues was the Jungle Brothers, Black Sheep, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah — all those folks kind of wrapped up in a loose association.” The same affiliation of like-minded groups coalesced in Memphis “because we were all doing shows together, right? And we were carving out what would become Memphop, throwing our own kind of shows, with b-boys [breakdancers] and the artists out front. We were adhering to the four elements.”
Those would be the four elements of hip-hop — DJing, MCing, breakdancing, and graffiti art — and the IMC members’ adherence to them as a way of life might explain the collective’s longevity, despite having never blown up coast to coast. Through the decades, the core group of groups, including Fyte Club (General MacArthur, The Mighty Quinn), M.O.S. (Duke, Derelick, and Milk [aka Yasin Allah]), Kontrast (Jason Da Hater, EMPEE, and DJ Capital A), and Fathom 9 (aka Avenging Wind), have continued as a tightly knit cohort, despite Fathom 9’s untimely passing in November of 2014.
“There have always been eight MCs and our DJ Capital A,” says McGowan, before noting the involvement of another stealth participant of sorts. “My son was always a secret 10th member. I drew a future projection of him as a silhouette inside of the eye in the Iron Mic borders.” That was back when McGowan was helping craft the visuals for the fledgling group. McGowan’s son, then very young, uttered the first line of the first IMC release. An upcoming album now in the works will echo that when Eillo, as McGowan’s son is known, now a key player and artist in his own right with the Unapologetic collective, will join the IMC. “Eillo is finishing a verse at the end of the project for the point of the symmetry, right?” says McGowan. “He starts out The1st Edition. So we wanted to make sure to have him, you know, get his lyricism on to close out The4th Edition.”
In keeping with the four elements of hip-hop, expect a visual element at Friday’s show as well. McGowan’s other creative outlet is his visual art, including a line of comics called Wildfire, published by his own Legends Press. “My approach to comics is very much rooted to my approach to hip-hop. There’s this lineage of comic books in hip-hop that goes back to Rappin’ Max Robot.” It’s all been part of living the hip-hop life for McGowan, staying true to his vision and offering commentary on the state of the world. (It’s no accident that IMC opened for knowledge rapper KRS-One back in the day). “My band of brothers are a group of men that I have a great deal of respect for, and we try to live the values that we espouse,” says McGowan. And part of that involves embracing the unabashedly local “Memphop” tag, a term McGowan coined when the group began.
“There’s always going to be a culture of hip-hop or Memphop in Memphis. Hip-hop has its own very distinct expression here, even in the ways that we execute those four elements. Our graffiti is different. We have not only have b-boys; we’ve got jookin, right? You can still hear a Southern twang, so to speak. Memphop is bigger than us. So we want to do something that’s dedicated to that. And this thing at Stax is about our own placement in that.”
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Renowned composer Mozart had a sister nicknamed Nannerl. During their childhoods, she was as much a musical prodigy as he. They toured Europe doing performances together, playing harpsichord and piano. Some critics regarded her as the superior talent. But her parents ultimately decided it was unseemly for her, as a female, to continue her development as a genius. She was forcibly retired so she could learn housekeeping and prepare for marriage. Is there a part of your destiny, Aries, that resembles Nannerl’s? Has some of your brilliance been suppressed or denied? The coming months will be an excellent time to recover and revive it.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Do you know if you have any doppelgangers, Taurus? I bet you will meet one in the coming weeks. How about soul friends, alter egos, or evil twins? If there’s no one like that in your life right now, they may arrive soon. And if you already know such people, I suspect your relationships will grow richer. Mirror magic and shadow vision are in the works! I’m guessing you will experience the best, most healing kind of double trouble. Substitutes and stand-ins will have useful offers and tempting alternatives. Parallel realities may come leaking through into your reality. Opportunities for symbiosis and synergy will be at an all-time high. Sounds like wild fun!
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Humans have been eating a wide range of oranges since ancient times. Among the most popular type in modern times is the navel orange. It’s large, seedless, sweet, juicy, and easy to peel. But it didn’t exist until the 1820s, when a genetic mutation on a single tree in Brazil spawned this new variety. Eventually, the navel became a revolutionary addition to the orange family. I foresee a metaphorically comparable development in your life during the coming months, Gemini. An odd tweak or interesting glitch could lead to a highly favorable expansion of possibilities. Be alert for it.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Cancerian, you are a finalist for our “Most Resourceful and Successful Survivor of the Year” trophy. And if you take a brief trip to hell in the next two weeks, you could assure your victory. But wait! Let me be more exact: “Hell” is an incorrect terminology; I just used it for shock effect. The fact is that “hell” is a religious invention that mischaracterizes the true nature of the realm of mystery, shadows, and fertile darkness. In reality, the nether regions can be quite entertaining and enriching if you cultivate righteous attitudes. And what are those attitudes? A frisky curiosity to learn truths you have been ignorant about; a brave resolve to unearth repressed feelings and hidden yearnings; and a drive to rouse spiritual epiphanies that aren’t available when you’re in the trance of everyday consciousness.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In my astrological opinion, you need and deserve big doses of fun, play, pleasure, and love. Amusement and enchantment, too. As well as excitement, hilarity, and delight. I trust you will schedule a series of encounters and adventures that provide you with a surplus of these necessary resources. Can you afford a new toy or two? Or a romantic getaway to a sanctuary of adoration? Or a smart gamble that will attract into your vicinity a stream of rosy luck? I suggest that you be audacious in seeking the sweet, rich feelings you require.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): December will be Home Enhancement Month for you Virgos. Get started immediately! I’ll offer tips for how to proceed and ask you to dream up your own ideas. 1. Phase out décor or accessories that no longer embody the style of who you have become. 2. Add new décor and accessories that will inspire outbreaks of domestic bliss. 3. Encourage everyone in your household to contribute creative ideas to generate mutual enhancement. 4. Do a blessing ritual that will raise the spiritual vibes. 5. Invite your favorite people over and ask them to shower your abode with blessings.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran songwriter and producer Kevin MacLeod has composed over 2,000 pieces of music — and given all of them away for free. That’s why his work is so widespread. It has been featured in thousands of films and millions of YouTube videos. His composition “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” has been played on TikTok over 31 billion times. (PS: He has plenty of money, in part because so many appreciative people give him free-will donations through his Patreon page.) I propose we make him your inspirational role model in the coming weeks and months, Libra. How could you parlay your generosity and gifts into huge benefits for yourself?
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): According to my grandmother, I have such a mellifluous voice I should have pursued a career as a newscaster or DJ on the radio. In eighth grade, my science teacher admired my work and urged me to become a professional biologist. When I attended Duke University, my religious studies professor advised me to follow his path. Over the years, many others have offered their opinions about who I should be. As much as I appreciated their suggestions, I have always trusted one authority: my muses. In the coming weeks and months, Scorpio, you may, too, receive abundant advice about your best possible path. You may be pressured to live up to others’ expectations. But I encourage you to do as I have done. Trust your inner advisors.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I invite you to get a head start on formulating your New Year’s resolutions. January 1st is a good time to instigate robust new approaches to living your life, but the coming weeks will be an even better time for you Sagittarians. To get yourself in the mood, imagine you have arrived at Day Zero, Year One. Simulate the feeling of being empty and open and fertile. Imagine that nothing binds you or inhibits you. Assume that the whole world is eager to know what you want. Act as if you have nothing to prove to anyone and everything to gain by being audacious and adventurous.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): There was a long period when many popular songs didn’t come to a distinct end. Instead, they faded out. The volume would gradually diminish as a catchy riff repeated over and over again. As you approach a natural climax to one of your cycles, Capricorn, I recommend that you borrow the fade-out as a metaphorical strategy. In my astrological opinion, it’s best not to finish abruptly. See if you can create a slow, artful ebb or a gradual, graceful dissolution.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): When he was young, Aquarian musician and sound engineer Norio Ohga wrote a critical letter to the electronics company now known as Sony. He complained in detail about the failings of their products. Instead of being defensive, executives at the company heeded Ohga’s suggestions for improvement. They even hired him as an employee and ultimately made him president of the company at age 40. He went on to have a stellar career as an innovator. In the spirit of the Sony executives, I recommend that you seek feedback and advice from potential helpers who are the caliber of Norio Ohga. The information you gather in the coming weeks could prove to be highly beneficial.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): What would your paradise look and feel like? If you could remake the world to suit your precise needs for maximum freedom, well-being, and inspiration, what changes would you instigate? Now is an excellent time to ponder these possibilities, Pisces. You have more ability than usual to shape and influence the environments where you hang out. And a good way to rouse this power is to imagine your ideal conditions. Be bold and vivid. Amuse yourself with extravagant and ebullient fantasies as you envision your perfect world.
