Month: February 2025

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Fun Stuff News of the Weird

News of the Weird: Week of 02/20/25

It’s Come to This

The Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain in Belgium was forced to issue a warning to the country on Jan. 7 against eating Christmas trees, United Press International reported. The statement was in response to the city of Ghent recommending cooking with conifer needles. “You can make delicious spruce needle butter with them for bread or toast,” Ghent’s website read. But the FASFC wasn’t having it: Christmas trees “are not meant to end up in the food chain” because many have been treated with pesticides and other chemicals, including flame retardant. Ghent responded by changing its headline to read “Scandinavians eat their Christmas trees” and added a warning: “not all Christmas trees are edible.” Way to throw the Vikings under the bus, Belgians!

Wait, What?

In early November, Emily James, 27, of Kansas City, Missouri, underwent a most unusual and expensive ($17,000) body-altering surgery, the New York Post reported. The trans woman had six ribs removed from her rib cage in order to achieve a smaller waist. The recovery gave her plenty of time to think about what she wanted to do with those extra ribs — yes, the hospital gave them to her — and her options seemed limitless: Make them into dog toys, boil them down for broth, have an “Emily barbecue.” But eschewing all the cannibalistic notions, James has come up with the perfect project: “I plan on having someone make a crown and, like, incorporate my bone pieces in there,” she said. “Getting my ribs removed doesn’t change the fact that I’m a kind, loving trans girl. It’s my money, my body, and I’m going to do what I want with it.” Yas queen.

Precocious

A 12-year-old boy from Grand Traverse County in Michigan was charged with joy riding, operating a motor vehicle without a license, carrying a concealed weapon, and possession of marijuana on Jan. 12, MLive.com reported. The boy’s parents contacted the county sheriff when they realized their 2000 Chevy Blazer was missing, saying their son had taken it. They had tracked his progress south into Clare County, where deputies were alerted to be on the lookout. By the time he was stopped, he had driven more than 90 miles; officers found a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and ammunition, along with a little weed, but said there was no indication that he planned to use the gun. He did tell deputies he was unhappy at home. He was released to his parents.

Compelling Explanation

San Mateo, California, police arrested a Kentucky man early on the morning of Jan. 12 for a suspected hit-and-run incident, CBS News reported. Frank Falcone, 62, told officers that he was driving northbound on Pacific Boulevard when a southbound car came toward him with its high beams on. The lights disturbed Falcone “because of the brightness and potential radiation,” he said, so he rammed the other car. When it stopped, he allegedly rammed it two more times. Falcone fled the scene and told officers he evaded them because people impersonate cops. He was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

Um …

Nigerian gospel singer Timileyin Ajayi, 30, was arrested on Jan. 12 as he carried a bag that contained the severed head of his purported girlfriend, the BBC reported. The bag drew the attention of other people, who held him until police arrived. “The suspect was found with a fresh human head,” Nasarawa police said, “and when we got to the scene, we rescued him from being mobbed.” Other parts of the deceased’s body were found later at his home. Abby Simon, a friend of the 24-year-old victim, said Ajayi was not her boyfriend. “Even if she was his girlfriend, she didn’t deserve to die this way,” Simon said.

You Had One Job

Brigantine (New Jersey) police were called to a home on the Jersey Shore on Jan. 13 after a neighbor found a toddler wandering around outdoors, NBC Philadelphia reported. The neighbor recognized the child and returned them to their home, where she found babysitter Jena Davidson, 35, passed out on the floor. First responders took Davidson to the hospital, where it turned out she had “consumed a significant amount of the homeowner’s alcohol to the point that she became unconscious and unresponsive,” police reported. She was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD
© 2025 Andrews McMeel Syndication.
Reprinted with permission.
All rights reserved.

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Astrology Fun Stuff

Free Will Astrology: Week of 02/20/25

Dario Bronnimann | Unsplash

ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Hindu holiday of Maha Shivaratri is dedicated to overcoming ignorance and darkness in celebrants’ own lives and in the world. This year it falls on February 26th. Even if you’re not Hindu, I recommend you observe your own personal version of it. To do so would be in accordance with astrological omens. They suggest that the coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to be introspective, study your life and history, and initiate changes that will dispel any emotional or spiritual blindness you might be suffering from. PS: Remember that not all darkness is bad! But some is unhealthy and demoralizing, and that’s the kind you should banish and transmute.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The blue whale is the most massive animal that has ever lived. You could swim through its arteries. Its heart is five feet high and weighs 400 pounds. And yet, when diving, its pulse slows to four to eight times per minute. I propose we choose the blue whale to be your spirit creature in the coming weeks. May this magnificent beast inspire you to cultivate slow, potent rhythms that serve you better than hyperactivity. Let’s assume you will accomplish all you need by maintaining a steady, measured pace — by focusing on projects that require depth and diligence rather than speed. Your natural persistence will enable you to tackle tasks that might overwhelm those who lack your patience.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Over 10,000 years ago, someone walked for a mile through what’s now White Sands National Park in New Mexico. We know they did because they left footprints that were fossilized. Scientists believe it was probably a woman who mostly carried a child and sometimes let the child walk under its own power. Like those ancient footprints, your actions in the coming weeks may carry lasting significance — more than may be immediately apparent. I encourage you to proceed as if you are making a more substantial impact and having a bigger influence than you imagine.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): What’s the oldest known recipe? What ancient food product did our ancestors write down instructions about how to make? It was beer! The 4,000-year-old Sumerian text included a hymn to Ninkasi, the goddess of beer. It tells how to use the right ingredients and employ careful fermentation to concoct a beverage that lowers inhibitions and brings people together in convivial celebration. In that spirit, Cancerian, I encourage you to meditate on the elements you can call on to create merrymaking and connection. Now is a good time to approach this holy task with extra focus and purposefulness.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In November 1963, the captain of a sardine boat sailing near Iceland noticed a column of dark smoke rising out of the water. Was it another boat on fire? No, it was the beginning of a volcanic eruption. A few days later, steady explosions had created a new island, Surtsey, which still exists today. I suspect you will have a metaphorically comparable power in the coming weeks, Leo: an ability to generate a new creation out of fervent energies rising out of the hot depths. Be alert! And be ready to harness and make constructive use of the primal force.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson was a 10th-century Danish king. He united the tribes of Denmark into a single kingdom. His nickname originated in the fact that he had a prominent dead tooth that turned bluish-gray. More than 10 centuries later, engineers who created a new short-range wireless technology decided to call their invention “Bluetooth.” Why? Because they imagined it would serve a variety of electronic devices, just as the king once blended the many tribes. In the spirit of these Bluetooth phenomena, I’m urging you Virgos to be a uniter in the coming weeks and months. You will have an enhanced capacity to bridge different worlds and link disparate groups. PS: An aspect that could be construed as an imperfection, like Harald’s tooth, could conceal or signify a strength.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author Ursula K. Le Guin wrote, “Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake.” I know from experience there’s truth in that idea. But I’m happy to tell you that in 2025, freedom will be less heavy and less burdensome than maybe ever before in your life. In fact, I suspect liberation will be relatively smooth and straightforward for you. It won’t be rife with complications and demands, but will be mostly fun and pleasurable. Having said that, I do foresee a brief phase when working on freedom will be a bit more arduous: the next few weeks. The good news is that your emancipatory efforts will set the stage for more ease during the rest of 2025.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Always and forever, the world is a delicate balance of seemingly opposing forces that are in fact interwoven and complementary: light and shadow, determination and surrender, ascent and descent, fullness and emptiness, progress and integration, yes and no. The apparent polarities need and feed each other. In the coming weeks, I invite you to meditate on these themes. Are there areas of your life where you have been overly focused on one side of the scale while neglecting the other? If so, consider the possibility of recalibrating. Whether you are balancing emotion with logic, rest with work, or connection with independence, take time to adjust. If you honor both halves of each whole, you will generate fertile harmonies.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): The ancient stands of cedar trees on Japan’s Yakushima Island have a special power. They create weather patterns for themselves, generating rain clouds from the water vapor they release through their leaves. This ingenious stroke of self-nurturing provides them with the exact rainfall they require. I propose that we make these cedar trees your power symbol in the coming weeks. It’s an excellent time for you to dream up and implement more of the conditions you need to flourish.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Tardigrades are tiny, eight-legged animals colloquially known as water bears or moss piglets. Their resilience is legendary. They can thrive anywhere, from mountaintops to the deep sea, from Antarctica to tropical rainforests. They can withstand extreme temperatures, live a long time without water, and even survive in outer space. I propose we make the tardigrade your power creature for the coming weeks, dear Capricorn. Your flexibility and fluidity will be at a peak. You will be hardy, supple, and durable. It will be a favorable time to leave your comfort zone and test your mettle in new environments. Seemingly improbable challenges may be well within your range of adaptability.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In the coming days, playing games could be good practice for life. Breezy exchanges and fun activities could stimulate clues and insights that will be useful in making important decisions. What appears to be ordinary entertainment or social engagement may provide you with profound lessons about strategy and timing. How you manage cooperation and competition in those lighter moments could yield useful guidance about more serious matters. 

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Have you been struggling to summon the motivation to start anew in some area of your life? I predict that sometime in the coming weeks, you will find all the motivation you need. Have you been wishing you could shed the weight of the past and glide into a fresh project with unburdened mind and heart? I believe that destiny will soon conspire to assist you in this noble hope. Are you finally ready to exorcise a pesky ghost and dash jubilantly toward the horizon, eager to embrace your future? I think you are.

Categories
Fun Stuff Metaphysical Connection

Metaphysical Connection: Candle Magic

Photo: Petar Milošević | creative commons | Wikimedia Commons

Candles are used by multiple religious traditions in their regular services and as part of their holy days. The use of candles as magical devices is more common than many people may believe. 

The light of a candle has always been considered a sign of spiritual illumination, compared to the darkness that symbolizes ignorance. The candle can also be used as a metaphor for the brief time we spend in this lifetime, and how easily life can be extinguished. In religious paintings, a candle often symbolizes the soul. 

The hypnotic fascination that the candle flame produces gives a clue as to why people began burning candles for magical purposes. The flickering flame appears to ignite something deep inside us that connects us with the infinite, and with all humanity. Life, death, and rebirth are all revealed by a candle. The relationship between the human soul and a solitary candle burning in the dark reminds people of the power of the human spirit, and how it can turn darkness into light.

According to Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, magic is defined as the art of achieving a desired result by the use of certain mysterious techniques, such as incantations or ceremonies. Aleister Crowley, the infamous 20th-century magician, defined magic as “the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity of will.” We use our will to make things happen, and candle magic is where we use candles to help achieve that end result we desire. 

Candle magic is one of my favorite forms of magic, and I believe it has advantages over other types of manifestation because it is relatively uncomplicated. Manifesting your desires with candle magic is simple but effective. The costs are minimal. You can usually find items that you need on hand or buy them at an affordable price. You can perform candle magic anywhere that it is safe and acceptable to burn candles. And there is no need for training to do it. All you need to know is what you want, and the correspondences for your work — which you can find online or at any metaphysical store. And you can use candle magic for any need. 

Like any type of manifestation work, candle magic requires you to have a purpose or goal that you are trying to achieve. The more specific you can be, the better the results. To get the most out of your candle work, it is advised that you keep your desire in mind while performing all the steps. Use the correct color candle. What color candle should you use? Do a quick internet search for it and you should be able to get your answers easily, or come ask us at The Broom Closet and we will help you. You can add herbs or oils to your candle to amplify your intention, but they are not necessary. The most important thing to remember when doing candle magic or manifestation work is to believe in your own power and energy. Although magic helps us achieve desired goals, you still have to do the legwork here in the mundane world to achieve your desires. 

If you find yourself wanting to do candle work on the spur of the moment, take a rummage through your cabinets, closets and drawers. Any kind of candle will work, even birthday candles. The only difference in candle size is that the longer the candle burns, the more energy and focus is being sent out into the universe to manifest your goal. But you could burn multiple small candles over a period of time instead of one big one. 

Part of magic is using what you have. You can use a white candle for any desire, you will just need to make sure you set your intention clearly. You can also use a red candle for any goal that you want to manifest quickly. Some of the best practitioners I know keep their work simple and use whatever they can find on hand. Candles are a beautiful and mesmerizing vehicle for our intentions, but the magic truly comes from within. 

Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.

Categories
News The Fly-By

MEMernet: Chin On Facebook, and Pork, Plz

Posted to Facebook by Frank Chin

Memphis on the internet.

Chin on Facebook 

Memphis photographer (and physician) Frank Chin made it Facebook official last week. He posted a screenshot showing that Google Maps officially changed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Just, wow.

Posted to Facebook by Frank Chin

His Facebook is worth a scroll, y’all. He gets around, shooting some of the great events around town. Like one this past weekend showing the University of Memphis volleyball team taking the annual Polar Bear Plunge, benefitting Special Olympics of Greater Memphis.

Or this one, showing warriors facing off at the Memphis Lunar New Year Fair.

Pork, plz

Posted to Facebook by Allan Creasy

MEMernet celebrity Allan Creasy delivered the comment of the week. On a Fox13 post proclaiming “Memphis in May Announces Barbecue Competition for Kids,” Creasy said, “I think we’d all prefer pork.”  

Categories
At Large Opinion

ICE, ICE, Baby

(Photo: TaconGanas | Facebook)

There are about 1,200,000 children enrolled in Tennessee public schools in grades K-12. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that of that number, 10,000 are undocumented immigrant children, less than 1 percent. 

In order to deal with this horrific problem, Tennessee House Majority Leader Representative William Lamberth and state Senator Bo Watson have introduced a bill that would allow local public school boards to ban students without legal citizenship. The bill would challenge the 1982 U.S. Supreme Court Plyler v. Doe decision, which entitles all children to public education regardless of immigration status. 

Watson and Lamberth say the bill “seeks to challenge” the court decision. “The flood of illegal immigrants in our country has put an enormous drain on American tax dollars and resources. Our schools are the first to feel the impact,” Lamberth said. 

Watson added, “An influx of illegal immigration can strain LEAs [local educational agencies] and put significant pressure on their budgets. This bill empowers local governments to manage their resources more effectively and builds upon the legislative action taken during the special session to address illegal immigration at the local level.”

So, in order to save all those precious tax dollars being spent on less than 1 percent of Tennessee’s schoolchildren, these bozos intend to spend millions of dollars challenging a Supreme Court ruling that has been law for more than 40 years. This isn’t about saving money. It’s just more performative GOP cruelty wrapped up in a legislative package.

Look, every politician knows how to stop illegal immigration: arrest the employers who hire undocumented labor. Problem solved. But their money is green and their skin is white and their profits depend on cheap labor, so we’ll just continue to get this crap legislation targeting the weakest link in the chain. 

Speaking of which: Another recent GOP bill would require the parents of children without citizenship to pay tuition for public school. It’s called the Tennessee Reduction of Unlawful Migrant Placement Act. And yes, those initials spell “TRUMP” because there’s nothing more amusing than effing up the lives of innocent children. 

These same Trumpaholics also passed a bill that would fine and/or jail any local government officials who don’t cooperate fully with federal and state deportation efforts. That bill is also headed to the courts.

Which brings us to Memphis-Shelby County Schools, which, to its credit, has established a legal hotline and guidelines for school principals in response to a new federal directive allowing immigration-enforcement officials to make arrests at schools. Principals are instructed to ask for identification and the purpose of the visit, and demand to see a warrant or other documents. If there are documents, they are to scan them and send them to the central office.

From the directive: “Federal government agencies like ICE are required to follow proper legal procedures when engaging immigration enforcement activities. … It is reasonable and appropriate to request that the official wait until you have received a response from the Office of General Counsel.”

“Reasonable and appropriate” are not terms I would use to describe behavior we have seen locally by federal agents, most notably the bizarre raid conducted by masked and hooded men on a TACOnganas food truck last week. But the raid, in which three men were escorted from their jobs and reportedly sent to an immigration facility in Louisiana, had the desired effect of sending many local immigrants into hiding. 

A landscaping service in my neighborhood was working with half as many laborers as usual last week, and taking “twice as long” to do the job, according to the crew leader I spoke with. And at my favorite Mexican restaurant last Friday, the usual servers were nowhere to be seen. The manager was waiting tables, the kitchen was behind on orders, the understaffing was obvious. 

Across Memphis and across the country, untold numbers of people are staying home, avoiding work, avoiding school. There will be a cost for all of this — financially, yes, as food prices rise and restaurants and other businesses struggle to stay afloat. But there is another price we’ll all pay: a diminished sense of community and the pointless pain being caused by these laws that are passed solely to inflict suffering on the least of us. We’re all going to pay the price for that, one way or another.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The Missing Ingredient in Our National Dialogue

Lucas Trautman (Photo: Bob Bayne)

In a group therapy session this winter at the Oxford Treatment Center, two individuals — one a military veteran, the other a civilian deeply skeptical of the military — sat across from each other. They shared the same space, but the emotional distance between them was vast. Each felt the other embodied everything they feared or resented about the world. The veteran saw in the civilian a person who didn’t understand the sacrifices he’d made. The civilian saw in the veteran a symbol of a system that had caused harm. Yet, through shared vulnerability and open dialogue, a remarkable shift occurred. Over time, they began to see beyond their differences and discover the common humanity that bound them together. Connection trumps division, every time. And this same principle applies not only in therapy but across our increasingly polarized society.

As a psychiatrist, medical director, and complex emergencies operator, I’ve spent over two decades working with individuals in crisis, seeing firsthand how relationships can transform even the most entrenched perspectives. One of the most striking lessons I’ve learned — often in high-pressure situations where the stakes couldn’t be higher — is that when we take the time to truly understand each other, even the deepest divides can be overcome. I’ve experienced this in the Central Plateau of Haiti during the cholera epidemic, where aid workers, government officials, and community members — despite their differing priorities — came together to save lives. In these intense moments, I learned that relationship was the bridge, even when the world seemed to be on the edge of collapse.

This principle is glaringly absent in our current media landscape. Algorithms, designed to provoke outrage, have woven a narrative that promotes division at every turn. The result? We find ourselves more polarized, angrier, and increasingly unable to see the humanity in those we disagree with. But there is another path. When we engage in face-to-face dialogue, when we have conversations grounded in mutual respect, the walls of division begin to crumble.

Consider the diverse group of veterans and civilians I’ve had the privilege of working with. These individuals — some from vastly different backgrounds, some having lived lives that could not seem more divergent — eventually found common ground. Over shared stories, common experiences, and even the same love for certain foods, their dogs, or childhood memories, they began to see each other not as “other,” but as human. The differences were still there, but they were no longer insurmountable. Instead, the connections they formed allowed them to thrive, both as individuals and as a group.

In this fractured moment in history, we are bombarded by voices that encourage us to dig deeper into our entrenched views. We’re told to pick a side — but at what cost? That cost is the loss of connection, of shared humanity. And the reality is, the differences that feel so stark on our screens are often far less significant in person. We’ve been led to believe that our ideological divides are so vast, but when we meet each other face-to-face, we often find that the space between us is not as wide as we thought.

It’s crucial to acknowledge that some differences will never disappear. People will always have deeply held beliefs, some of which may never align. But perhaps the true challenge is not to change the minds of others, but to see that the cores of our humanity — our desires for love, respect, and belonging — far outweigh the ideological labels we’ve attached to each other. We are not defined by our differences. Rather, we are united in our shared experiences, in the joy of connection.

Research consistently supports the power of in-person dialogue to break down barriers. Whether in controlled settings or informal spaces, people who engage face-to-face are often able to hear one another in ways that digital interaction simply can’t replicate. They begin to see past the headlines, the algorithms, and the echo chambers that seek to keep us apart.

As someone who has witnessed the effects of isolation and division — both in the context of addiction treatment and in conflict zones around the world — I can say with certainty that human connection is the antidote. Whether we are talking about veterans and civilians or Democrats and Republicans, we all share the same essential need: the need to be understood, to be seen. Let’s choose connection over division, dialogue over outrage, humanity over algorithm. In 2025, this is perhaps the most courageous choice we can make. 

Lucas Trautman, MD, MPH, ABPN, is a board-certified psychiatrist, medical director at Oxford Treatment Center, and contributor to the BBC, Washington Post, and Vice News, specializing in mental health and addiction treatment.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Dive Into Thought-Provoking Conversations at Hattiloo Theatre for Black History Month

Charles McKinney at a previous Black History Symposium (Photo: Courtesy Jennifer Sharp)

Black History Month, as we all know, is a month dedicated to celebrating Black culture, the history of Black people, and the willingness one must have to learn more about it. Black History Month is coming to an end soon and what better way to close out the month than by attending the final installment of the Black History Symposium Series?

The symposium, hosted by the Hattiloo Theatre, is intended to give people in the Memphis community the space to talk, share their experiences, and learn something new by discussing the struggles Black individuals have faced through storytelling. “The only way that a person can relay a thought is by telling stories. They tell a story of experience. They tell a story of a book that they read. They tell a story of a class that they took or a conference they attended,” says Ekundayo Bandele, executive director and founder of Hattiloo Theatre. “And so one of the things that we’re doing is looking at more ways of storytelling, and not just storytelling but culturally relevant storytelling.” 

Bandele encourages anyone to come and let their voice be heard: to offer solutions, listen and ask questions, and think critically about the current situations that are affecting Black communities around the country. “There has to be a response, and a response isn’t necessarily the symposium itself. The response is from people to see that they are part of a community, for individuals to ask themselves questions that they may not have otherwise considered on their own,” says Bandele.

So far, two of the three symposia have already passed, having been led by keynote speakers Charles McKinney, associate professor of history at Rhodes College, and Charity Clay, visiting assistant professor of African-American history at Rhodes College. The final one will be this Saturday, February 22nd, from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., with president of the National Civil Rights Museum Russ Wigginton delivering the keynote address. There will be plenty of opportunity for discourse, and there will also be light refreshments available and two 15-minute breaks before the closing segment.

To learn more information about the Black History Symposium and to register to attend for free, visit hattiloo.org/black-history-symposium-series/.  

Black History Symposium Series: The Gentrification of Black Culture, Hattiloo Theatre, 37 South Cooper, Saturday, February 22nd, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m., free.

Categories
Music Music Features

Bright Eyes

Mike Mogis, Conor Oberst, and Nate Walcott of Bright Eyes (Photo: Nik Freitas)

As any Memphian knows, there are advantages to being a land-locked city far away from the coastal metropoles of money and power. While music industry towns like L.A. or New York seem to be where the action is, being left to one’s own devices in mid-America encourages a certain independence of mind, and hence some especially innovative creatives — from Sam Phillips to Jay Reatard. It turns out the same can be said for Omaha.

That Nebraska burg, like Memphis, felt relatively sleepy back in the ’90s, yet ultimately birthed a scene of its own that has endured for decades. Eventually the standard bearer for “the Omaha sound” was Bright Eyes, still going strong and set to appear at Minglewood Hall on Monday, March 17th. But they were only one of many bands sprouting up in the Omaha scene as the last century ended. 

Bright Eyes multi-instrumentalist and chief recordist Mike Mogis recalls those days well. “Over the course of the last 25 to 30 years, a lot has changed about the Nebraska music scene,” he says today from his ARC studio in Omaha. “But back in the day, like the late ’90s, early 2000s, there was a very strong community of friends that all made different-sounding music. Bands that come to mind are Bright Eyes, our band, or The Faint, which is kind of an electronic band, or a band like Cursive, which is a heavier, emo kind of rock band. But we all played in bands together as well, like side projects. We’re all just friends, and that created a supportive musical community that we all felt inspired by. You know, inspired by each other.”

And the way Mogis describes it, all those bands sprang from a determination to make their own fun, despite living in the hinterlands. “I’m looking out my window, and it’s like 10 degrees and there’s snow everywhere,” he observes. “It’s sometimes a harsh place to live, but because of that, it’s also a good place to make music. When it’s cold like this, it’s what I call ‘record-making weather.’ You stay inside and you record music. Weirdly, Bright Eyes tends to record mostly in the winter. Maybe it’s coincidental, but it’s right after fall, which is kind of my favorite season. Anyway, it’s a good place to make music because, to be honest, there’s not a ton else to do.”

It was in that spirit that Mogis first worked with Bright Eyes’ chief singer/songwriter Conor Oberst. “I remember making the first proper Bright Eyes record, which is [1998’s] Letting Off the Happiness. I lived in Lincoln at the time, going to college, and I would drive to Omaha because Conor was in high school. I set up a quarter-inch Fostex eight-track reel-to-reel machine — you know, all analog — and a little mixing board. And we recorded that record in his mom’s basement. I set up in the laundry room as a control room, and then the room adjacent to that was like a little family den. Me and my brother A.J. Mogis just learned on our own, and he kind of taught me.”

That early effort already featured the fundamentals of the Bright Eyes sound, resting initially on the twin pillars of Oberst’s socially and psychologically astute lyrics and melodies over a strummed guitar, and Mogis’ delight in recorded sound and its infinite mutability. Both born of a D.I.Y. spirit, they come together to stunning effect on opening tune “If Winter Ends,” launching with a sound collage suggesting playgrounds, feedback, and traffic, then yielding to Oberst singing, “I dreamt of a fever/One that would cure me of this cold, winter-set heart/With heat to melt these frozen tears.” Record-making weather, indeed.

With a rotating cast of players, the band went from success to success into the new millennium. “We started our own record label, Saddle Creek, and just did our own thing, putting out our own records and our friends’ records,” says Mogis. “And, you know, it kind of took off for a moment there, in the early 2000s, with all those three bands that I just mentioned. We’re all still kind of kicking it today. And we all live in different places now, but Conor and myself have stuck it out here in Nebraska.”

As the band was taking off, another member of the extended Nebraska musical family, Nate Walcott, with roots in Lincoln, joined the group as a multi-instrumentalist, and 2007’s Cassadaga featured his musicianly contributions and full-on, edgy orchestral arrangements. “The first time we recorded the orchestra in L.A., at Capitol Studios, in their big room,” says Mogis, “I just got chills. I’m getting goosebumps right now, just remembering it.”

Thus the now-classic trio emerged, each bringing his own strength to the mix, as they continued to work primarily in Mogis’ studio. All the while, even after a nine-year hiatus, the group has made a point of giving every album a distinctive sonic stamp. Which holds true for their latest work, Five Dice, All Threes, released last year.

“With this one we wanted a more simplistic, sincere-sounding rock record, not too labored-over. We wanted to get back to being more of a live band again, like we used to be. It kind of had a similar approach to what we took on I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning, except the fact that it’s not a folk record. This one is more akin to The Replacements, like more ruckus-y rock music.” Having said that, there are plenty of the band’s other elements present, from extended cinematic audio quips to Walcott’s arrangements for horns and strings, not to mention cameos from Cat Power and The National’s Matt Berninger. Mogis says audiences for their upcoming tour can expect an unpredictable mix of songs old and new, with a full sonic palette. 

“We have a whole sample bank that Nate plays live, so he’ll trigger them throughout the show. It changes from night to night, depending on the mood,” Mogis says. “And we dig deep into our back catalog.”

Meanwhile, he’ll keep savoring the “record-making weather” that Nebraska offers. “You know, there’s not that many distractions,” Mogis reflects. “And that’s sort of what keeps me here. The fact that Conor and I built this recording studio anchors me here, because it’s a nice place. I enjoy making albums, making music, art, you know, whatever. And it’s a good place for that because it’s affordable, there’s not a whole lot else to do, and there’s a lot to be inspired by, living out here.” 

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Catching Up

Protesters gathered on President’s Day to condemn President Donald Trump and his administration. (Photo: Chris Davis)

The Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility had good news last week for Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy regarding four distinct matters charged against him by his persistent adversary, state Senator Brent Taylor, who had included them in his proposed resolution to seek legislative removal of Mulroy. 

The board found Mulroy legally blameless in:

1) His decision to take the death penalty off the table in the murder case of Michael Sample, when two different experts concluded that the defendant was intellectually disabled and thus ineligible, under the law, for the death penalty.

2) His decision not to oppose a reduction of a 162-year sentence for a string of nonviolent forgeries in the case of Courtney Anderson. 

3) and 4) Two separate allegations that he had engaged in improper “ex parte” communication with a presiding judge outside the presence of opposing counsel. 

OUTMemphis placed third at the 12th Annual TEP Gumbo Contest. (Photo: Courtesy Jonathan Cole)

• The OUTMemphis organization, whose booth is pictured here, was one of several winners in the annual fundraising gumbo contest sponsored by the Tennessee Equality Project.

The 12th annual TEP event was held Sunday at the Memphis Sports and Events Center at Liberty Park, drawing a large crowd of entrants, attendees, and public figures who braved the frigid weather.

Proceeds from the event support a variety of projects which, in the words of TEP, “advance the well-being of LGBTQ people and their families here at home in Tennessee.”

Among the elected politicians on hand were state Senator Raumesh Akbari and state Representative Gabby Salinas. Senator Akbari served as one of five primary judges for the event.

This year’s event was held amid several pending developments in both state and national government of direct interest to the LGBTQ community and on the eve of hearings in the state General Assembly on HB 315/SB 0737, the “Tennessee Covenant Marriage Act.”

That legislation, as described by its chief sponsor, state Representative Gino Bulso (R-Williamson), would allow marital unions “between a man and a woman,” requiring compulsory counseling and excluding “irreconcilable differences” as reasons for divorce.

Bulso said the bill would also challenge the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling that enabled same-sex marriages.

• President’s Day weekend was notable in other ways as well. On Monday, a sizeable crowd of protesters gathered Downtown to convey their sentiments regarding ongoing actions by the Trump administration.

Former Flyer staffer Chris Davis was there and took the photo below. 

(Photo: Chris Davis)
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Art Art Feature

Rachel David’s ‘Engorging Eden’ at the Metal Museum

Rachel David, swallowed ice (table lamp), 2024. Steel Stainless, steel, brass, selenite (Photo: Daniel Barlow)

Molded from mud, the golem is brought to life with ritual incantations of the Hebrew alphabet, its purpose to protect, but even with instructions placed on its tongue, the golem inevitably goes amok, twisting those intentions and bringing disaster upon those who called for it. From this Jewish parable, Rachel David gathers, “You can only rely on your community. You can’t offset your responsibilities.”

David, an Asheville-based blacksmith, turned to this story for inspiration in conceptualizing her exhibition, “Engorging Eden,” on display at the Metal Museum. “I started thinking about different parables that could be translated to working with what I’m worried about in this country and in this world,” she said in her artist talk at the opening reception for the show on February 16th. “I think that’s a really pertinent thing to remember as we are experiencing really scary things — that we are each other’s saviors. That’s something that I want to be very explicit about in all of my work.”

David primarily works in furniture, a familiar form that in itself evokes community. “We live with furniture,” David said. “And it’s conversational. … These are forms that tell stories and hold their own narratives but also are part of our narrative.”

For David, her pieces reflect our relationship with the Earth and with one another. The furniture seems to bubble with pustules and pits, a mix of metals melting off the surfaces in slivers. Each bulbous facet David shaped using a different support system. “Really all of this is planned,” David said. “Like, it has to fit; it has to work. But part of my interest is in the distortion that you can achieve in hot forming metal.”

The distortion, David said, reminds her of natural erosion formations. In her Savage Horizon Jewelry Cabinet, she pointed out, “They also look like cobblestones, which also are like city-building blocks, and I think with these really aggressive clawing shapes and then these phallic drippings, this is climate change, and this is what extractive capitalism has done to this world. Where we are in the mountains, there was a hurricane, and everything is insane.”

Indeed, many of the pieces in this show were created in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. “This piece is very much responsive to the hurricane and all of the landslides,” she said of the jewelry cabinet. “There’s 500-plus hours in this piece.”

“When we’re talking about erosion, there are a lot of implications in that word: erosion of trust, erosion of the Earth, erosion of values, and then where does that leave us?”

That’s where David expects viewers to involve themselves — literally — through reflections and refractions of the metals and selenites brought about in their shine. Mirrors, too, offer this reminder. In Family Tree, where representational ancestors and the suns and moons fill a gallery wall with circular shapes, a central mirror piece reminds us that “we are responsible for what we put in[to the world].”

Rachel David, Fluvial Mirror, 2024. Stainless steel, steel, brass (Photo: Daniel Barlow)

Abstract tongues also roll out of these ancestral creatures, and many of David’s other pieces. “The tongue is like the idea of communication [which] has always been a big part of my work [as an activist and artist],” she said. “That’s part of my responsibility as a member of this community: to be responsible to my ancestors and to the future.”

In keeping with this responsibility, as part of her practice, David sources more than 85 percent of her metal from Asheville scrapyards. Further, she, along with Lisa Geertsen and Anne Bujold, co-founded the Society of Inclusive Blacksmiths. “We foster having diversity in blacksmithing.”

David’s commitment to community is furthered in swallowed ice (table lamp), which was part of her “Pollination” series — “like a pollination of ideas when we come together and we inspire each other.” The lamp features a light bulb in the center with candles affixed to a suspending bridge-like form. “They’re reflecting each other, and they’re also holding each other … always bringing in the light.” 

The symbolism in the lamp is apparent: “I’m cynical and I’m dark, but I also feel a lot of obligations to my community to be proactive and contributive. I make work sometimes [because] I have to remind myself to get out. Get out!” 

“Engorging Eden” will be on display at the Metal Museum through May 11th. The exhibit is a part of the museum’s Tributaries series.