Author: Ben Popper

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Art Art Feature

Arresting Artwork

It was a lively occasion when students, teachers, friends, and family gathered in Rust Hall last week to view thesis work by the BFA candidates at the Memphis College of Art. On display were works by 18 seniors, representing the school’s 11 departments. The exhibit was the culmination of the students’ years of study and their final projects with many professors.

“They are all like my children. It’s going to be hard to let them go,” said professor of fine arts Maritza Davila.

Paintings and drawings covered the walls, along with two computers showing work from students majoring in digital arts. As patrons moved about, they were recorded by local filmmaker Morgan Jon Fox and his crew, lending the entire event the air of an incubated performance.

Several of the pieces forced the viewer to go beyond simple observation and interact with the work. Michael Hilde-brand’s Evolving Gender came with a set of white gloves to wear while leafing through the book that accompanied his graphic work on the wall of the gallery. The book’s images, drawn from the Kama Sutra, elicited nervous grins. “It’s a little provocative, especially since it seems very personal. But it’s great design,” said one attendee, Rod Burch.

John Adcock was one of the two students showing digital work. He described the suspenseful nature of creating his animation. “I set everything up the way I want it to be on the computer, then I push a button and go away for 30 hours. I have to hope that when I come back everything has come out well.” The result, a continually shifting series of black and white shapes, entranced many viewers.

Mia Kaplan, a drawing major, was showing a large-scale work titled Memos, featuring two panels with wide swaths of abstract color evoking human forms. “I just like the way a large piece looks, the size of it,” said Kaplan, who had mixed feelings about this being her final show for MCA. “I think it’s bittersweet. I just hope that as a graduate I set an example for younger students.”

Ethan Suarez, a fiber-arts major, did a very personal work based on his adolescent experiences as a homosexual in the Boy Scouts. He work included re-imagining merit badges. “This one of Ethel Merman is for theater,” he pointed out, “and that’s a nipple ring for metalworking.”

The relative calm of the evening was shattered by the appearance of two Memphis police officers, who walked directly over to senior Matt Melton and placed him under arrest. The arrest was a part of Melton’s work, Cafeterium, a series of photos capturing every high school cafeteria in Memphis. “The photographs’ intent was to wonder who we are through the environments we create for ourselves,” Melton explained.

Melton had asked the Memphis City Schools for permission to take pictures of the cafeterias. Melton never got permission, so he snuck in.

The arrest, which featured Melton smashing a wine glass and bitterly denouncing the officers, was bathed in a flood of popping flashbulbs from dozens of onlookers who had been given disposable cameras. Melton describes the event as form of protest — not an attack — against Memphis City Schools.

“My intention was for the performance to imply that the photographs were taken illegitimately,” Melton said. “By attempting this, I was conducting an experiment that explored the way we value the image.”

The scene drew mixed reactions from the crowd, some of whom were aware the arrest was staged and others who were not.

“He invited me to this show and then he goes and gets arrested. That is no way to treat your audience,” said local filmmaker John Michael McCarthy. Others felt the event was the perfect expression of a young talent at work.

Onlooker Mike Bibbs thought it injected something new into the evening: “Art should be madness, and tonight Matt gave us a hint of that.”

2005 BFA Exhibition

Memphis College of Art

Through December 10th

ben@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

News From New Orleans

When New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin spoke at a town hall meeting last week in Memphis, it was clear that this was a man in touch with his constituents.

“What UP New Orleans!” Nagin bellowed as he began his address. It wasn’t long before the nearly 1,000 displaced citizens at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church gave the mayor a standing ovation.

After being introduced by Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, Nagin spoke for three hours, taking questions from the crowd for much of that time.

To begin, he tried to sum up the scenario in the city right before Hurricane Katrina occurred. “People were out having a good time. I was saying, get out of the city,” said Nagin, who described Katrina as a deceptive storm.

“He didn’t say that,” came a whisper from the crowd.

Nagin was clear that housing was the biggest challenge New Orleans faced. “I still don’t live in my house,” he said. Yet he tried to encourage residents about the city’s progress. “We are improving every day, especially in terms of critical civil services.”

Attendees were told that 60 percent of the city now has electricity and 50 percent has gas.

“The area we struggle with the most is the 9th Ward,” said Nagin, explaining that the area had actually been flooded twice, by Katrina and Rita. He then announced that starting December 1st the 9th Ward would be open to returning citizens, drawing another cheer from the crowd.

Nagin tried to encourage people to return by discussing the difficult paradox of available work.

“It is kind of like the chicken and the egg. We need people to reopen businesses and we need open businesses to encourage people to return.” Nagin said that 1,100 businesses have received permission to reopen and that FEMA trailers will be available while homes are being gutted and repaired.

“I stand by him,” said former 7th Ward resident Wilhelmina Mathieu, “but as a former renter I’m planning on staying in Memphis for at least three years. I wouldn’t go near a trailer park in New Orleans.”

At times, the mayor was critical of the support his city has received from the federal government. Yet the mayor also admitted that given the chance there were things he would have done differently.

“To me this is to be expected,” said Carl Honore, a former resident of New Orleans East. “He is giving political answers, not details that help me know when I can go back and rebuild.”

In a city that is struggling to rebuild, however, the mayor’s words also touched some hearts. Barbara Jordan was also displaced from New Orleans East.

“He made you feel like you weren’t alone, like someone cared,” she said.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Track Cocaine?

A local referendum with big economic implications occurred this week in West Memphis.

Citizens voted on whether or not Southland Greyhound Park should be allowed to expand its electronic gaming options to allow “games of skill” such as video poker and re-spin slot machines. Results of the election were not available at press time.

“Video poker is basically the crack cocaine of the gambling world,” says Bill Wheeler, executive director of Families First, the group leading the movement against the new machines. “It’s fast-moving and addictive. The results of this expanded gambling will be as simple as ABC: addiction, bankruptcy, and crime.”

But Barry Baldwin, Southland’s general manager, sees things differently.

“We’ve had gambling here at Southland for 50 years,” he says. “They refer to machine gambling. Well, I think that Tunica has quite a few machines, and that is less than an hour away. So if there are any social problems in this area, we have already paid the cost without reaping any benefit.”

There was a time when Southland was one of the premier dog-race tracks in the nation. “All the best greyhounds would come to Southland every summer and go to Kirby Park in Florida for the winter,” Baldwin says.

The arrival of Tunica casinos cut deeply into the park’s success. “Before Tunica, our handle — meaning the amount of money wagered — was $212 million a year. Last year that number was less than $35 million,” Baldwin says.

Southland commissioned two studies on the economic impact of the planned developments, one with the New Orleans firm TIG and another with the Chicago firm ERA.

“The studies show that we would bring in about 200 to 229 full-time jobs,” says Robert McLarty, campaign manager for the Southland-backed Jobs for West Memphis Committee. “These are not minimum-wage jobs, either. They have salaries averaging around $30,000.”

Wheeler points instead to gambling’s negative economic impact, despite the revenue and jobs it brings. “For every dollar that comes into the city and county coffers, $1.57 will have to be paid in social costs,” he says.

If the citizens of West Memphis vote to allow expanded electronic gaming, the Arkansas Racing Commission will decide which games are acceptable and how many the park will be allowed to add. The track is also planning on a $15 million to $18 million expansion if the vote is in their favor.

Categories
Best of Memphis Special Sections

A-List ZZZs

The public often gets to see what celebrities are up to at night. Their faces are splashed across the pages of the supermarket tabloids, their exploits recounted in the entertainment pages. But when the night has ended, these A-listers need a place to lay their heads (and maybe something else) just like the rest of us. The beds on this list have been used by presidents and pop stars, diminutive divas and pro athletes.

Talbot Heirs Suites: $175 a night

The intimate lodging at the Talbot Heirs on Second Street has drawn an impressive list of celebrities. The hotel’s owner, Dana Gabrion, discovered the Talbot while working on the film Finding Graceland, when stars Bridget Fonda and Jonathan Schaech were staying there. Gabrion, who is currently the co-executive producer on the television program America’s Next Top Model, purchased the Talbot Heirs this year. Her parents manage the place while she is out of town.

The queen-size beds at Talbot Heirs are each unique; one even has suede duvet covers. Marti Pellow, the former lead singer of Scottish band Wet Wet Wet, is staying at the Talbot while he’s in town recording with Willie Mitchell. “I sleep in hotels eight months out of the year, in places all over the world,” he says. “When I come to Memphis, I always stay here because the beds are so comfortable, almost dreamlike.”

Heartbreak Hotel themed suites: $379 a night

There is plenty to appreciate about the beds at the Heartbreak Hotel on Elvis Presley Boulevard, from the hand-crafted pool-cue headboards to the bejeweled mountains of pillows. The Heartbreak Hotel has had a few celebrity guests, like Jim Carrey and Gunner Nelson, but it’s true popularity comes because its beds allow guests to sleep close to their favorite A-lister, Elvis.

“Yes, I do dream about Elvis when I’m here,” says frequent guest Jerry Engelby. “Just snuggling down with Elvis’ picture above me and his movie on — what more could you ask?”

“When I first got here, they were barely open. They didn’t even have bedspreads yet. I told them I didn’t care, I just wanted to be close,” says Sharon Parker, the Heartbreak’s first guest. Now she stays here several times a year.

Madison Hotel Presidential Suite: $1,300 a night

General manager Mohamad Hakimian says that the beds in the Presidential Suite at the Madison Hotel downtown are so nice it sometimes causes problems. “We had a doctor from Arizona staying here. About a week after he left he called up and said he could no longer sleep on his own bed.” The hotel uses Egyptian cotton in its 650-thread-count Italian linen, making beds smooth as silk.

The Peabody’s Celebrity Suite: $1,200 a night

The Peabody probably boasts the city’s longest list of celebrity guests, in fame and stature. It has hosted three U.S. presidents and 14 NBA teams. “We always make sure those players get our California king-size beds,” says Kelly Earnest, director of public relations.

The Peabody “Dream Bed” features a duck-down blanket, dual-chambered pillows, and a Platinum Plush mattress pad. “People rave about the beds, but I’ve also gotten in trouble because of them,” says general manager Douglas Browne. Browne was in the lobby when he overheard a customer complaining that he had missed his business meeting. Browne asked if they had forgotten his wake-up call. “No,” the man replied. “It’s that damn bed; I didn’t want to get out of it.”

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

A Movie Massacre

After Tupac died,” rapper 50 Cent tells the audience in a voiceover, “everyone wanted to be a gangsta.”

Get Rich or Die Tryin‘, the story of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, plays out like the darkest of gangsta-rap fantasies, but it confirms a sad truth about the music that is supposed to represent harsh realities. The film, like 50 Cent’s career, is obsessed with the gangster life and assumes his passion and talent will be self-evident. But there is so little rapping in this movie — and the minimal amount is so uninspiring —  that it turns the rapper’s very fame into a bewildering spectacle.

The film, directed ineptly by Jim Sheridan, begins with the real-life event that cemented Jackson’s “gangsta” status. Coming home from a robbery, Marcus (played by 50 Cent) is ambushed and shot nine times by an unknown assailant. As he lies on the ground awaiting a final shot to the head, the film spins back to his childhood, leaving Marcus’ fate hanging over the entire story.

The portion of the film that covers Marcus’ childhood feels the most honest and interesting, perhaps because 50 Cent isn’t in it. Marcus, played as a child by Marc John Jefferies, is growing up without a father, and his mother, a drug dealer, has little time for him. Even at this young age, Marcus was rapping, adopting the moniker Little Caesar. A splendid scene chronicles his early rap career: When the raunchy love tape that Marcus gives to his grade school crush is discovered, it makes her parents so nervous they send her away to live with relatives.

The small comforts of his early childhood are lost, however, when his mother is brutally murdered. This sets up an unintentionally comic vendetta, because the young Marcus blames his mother’s death on another drug dealer, Slim, with whom Marcus witnessed his mother having an altercation. Slim was, by all accounts, “a Rick James looking motherfucker,” and from that point on, Marcus keeps a tattered photo of the funk star closeby.

At the moment young Marcus buys his first gun, the film leaps ahead several years, introducing a brooding 50 Cent in the place of Jefferies. But the film missteps in retaining the 50 Cent voiceover that narrated the earlier scenes, a sad confirmation of 50’s total lack of onscreen charisma.

Get Rich or Die Tryin‘ falters in trying to take on too much material. By the time Sheridan arrives at the most interesting portion of 50 Cent’s career — his rise to rap stardom on the strength of his hungry mix-tapes — he only has time to give a brief glimpse.

When a film deals with a musician, it cannot simply discuss his passion. Nothing about 50 Cent’s delivery during his few rap scenes implies that he has anything like star talent. The impassioned delivery of Terrence Howard, who shines in this film as he did in Hustle & Flow, proves that being a real gangster is no substitute for being a real performer. In this film, Howard rattles off dialogue with an ease and pleasure that exposes 50 Cent’s monosyllabic acting.

As the film draws to a close and Marcus steps onstage to finally deliver a performance, it seems we will at least have a chance to see what all the talk of passion is about. Then, before Marcus can get halfway through a song, the credits start rolling. A film this misguided doesn’t deserve your time, but that’s just my two cents’ worth.

Get Rich or Die Tryin’

Opened Wednesday, November 9th

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Visual spectacle

The team behind Mirrormask certainly possesses a sterling imaginative pedigree. Director/co-writer Dave McKean and co-writer Neil Gaiman are a long-standing team, responsible for the inspired comic book series Sandman. The film is also a product of Muppets creator Jim Henson’s production studio, prompting hopeful comparisons to that company’s mischievous children’s masterpiece, Labyrinth. The film shares its basic premise with the Henson work — be careful what you wish for — and draws heavily on the eerie visual sensibilities of McKean. But it lacks narrative conviction.

The film begins with family conflict, as the young heroine Helena (Stephanie Leonidas) tries bitterly to declare her independence from her parents’ dream of owning a circus. Helena tells her mom to drop dead, and when, shortly after, her mother succumbs to an unnamed illness, a wellspring of guilt opens, which sends Helena tripping toward a rabbit hole.

The dreamscape that constitutes the majority of the film is an intricately textured place, but it wraps itself around Helena and her traveling companion Valentine in a gauzy, insubstantial fashion. The film often relies on the boxy graphics the Discovery Channel might use to recreate a dinosaur, albeit with a much more playful edge.

There are moments where McKean’s imagination steps out of the background and grabs our attention, most memorably in a scene where beaked gorillas save Helena from a cloud of inky eyeball spiders. But it fails to maintain this visual interest.

The main problem is the fact that the film does not recognize a guiding principle for the “Wonderland” film genre — that the world in which the characters are living must be defined by its own whimsical logic. The film succeeds at this in an early scene, when Helena and Valentine escape a room by insulting a pair of books. The injured tomes decide to fly back to the library and our heroes get to hop a ride.

Sadly, Mirrormask very rarely allows invention to run its course. More often it forces the protagonists into an awkward no-man’s-land, where the rush of new and strange situations is dulled by uninspired riddles or flat coincidence.

This film feels most like a stocking stuffer for fans of the Gaiman/McKean aesthetic. So unless you’re a huge fan, don’t bother with this droll fantasyland.

Mirrormask

Opening Friday, November 4th

Ridgeway Four

Categories
News The Fly-By

No Limit to CAAP

When the Cocaine and Alcohol Awareness Program (CAAP) officially opened its new residential treatment center last Friday, it marked another milestone for the substance abuse program. The new 83-bed center is the largest in a series of facilities that the nonprofit has built over the last 16 years.

What began in 1989 as a 500-square-foot clinic — financially supported by its founders — eventually grew to a number of centers around the city.

“When we started, I was working night shifts at the sheriff’s office just to pay the bills,” says Albert Richardson, co-founder and executive director. In 1991, the program opened its first residential facility, a 19-bed clinic in Whitehaven. Later, the group opened a residential facility for nonviolent female offenders and a nonresidential treatment center for homeless veterans.

“What we’ve learned after 16 years is that substance abuse has no boundaries. It affects all parts of our community,” says Richardson. CAAP now has an annual budget of over $3 million and cares for 220 residential clients. After acquiring the Knight Arnold property for $1.4 million, renovations cost $870,000.

The facility is divided into separate areas for men and women. Rows of bedrooms run along long, white corridors that are monitored by motion sensitive cameras. The bedrooms are sparsely furnished with a cot and a dresser.

“This work continues even after their release,” says Richardson. CAAP provides job training and placement and works with banks such as Tri-State and First Tennessee to help patients organize their finances.

“Our patient success rate has actually been growing steadily,” says Richardson. Patient success rate refers to those who have graduated from the program and remained clean. According to a University of Memphis study, the center has a 91 percent success rate.

“My addiction was a grim reality. It just took me down a deadend street,” says Maurice Kneeland, a resident in the program for the last three months. At age 47, he developed a cocaine habit, lost his job as a clothing salesman, and his family refused to see him. “When even your own family doesn’t want to be around you, you become hopeless,” he says.

Kneeland says the program has had a great effect on him. “When I came to CAAP they promised to love me until I was ready to love myself.” When he finishes CAAP, he wants to work in social services, hoping to give back to others what this program gave to him.

good ending. I like the synchronicity.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Future Films

“Right now, the state seal of Tennessee features plowshares, a cotton boll, and some wheat. One day I would like to see a film reel in there, as well,” says David Bennet, chairman of the State Film Production Advisory Committee.

The group, which is composed of state film commission officials and local television executives and film producers, held a public hearing at the Memphis Botanic Garden last week to discuss the future of film and television production in Tennessee.

The discussion focused on growing opportunities in media production in Tennessee and the need for new tax incentives to encourage film industry growth.

“By not offering these incentives, you’re taking an arrow out of your quiver,” says Adam Hohenberg, associate producer of the Memphis-based 40 Shades of Blue. “We need to seize this momentum.”

Ira Sachs’ 40 Shades of Blue, along with Criag Brewer’s Hustle & Flow and the soon-to-be-released Walk the Line, represent recent large-scale projects filmed in Memphis. Nashville producer Mitchell Galin warns that Memphis is “beginning to be recognized as having homegrown directorial talent,” he says. “Pockets of production develop around that, but right now, these guys are fighting an uphill battle just to work here.”

Stephanie Allain, a producer on Hustle & Flow and the upcoming Brewer project Black Snake Moan, agrees.

“It was a tough choice to come back to Memphis. The studio really did push us to the wall,” she says.

John Ryder, an attorney for the local film commission, compared tax credits for the film industry to incentives for manufacturing.

“For a steel plant, they would move heaven and earth,” he says. “I think the time has come for Tennessee to bite the bullet and get aggressive about this.”

The committee will give its recommendations for new laws to the governor and General Assembly on February 1st. The tax incentives that attract production business are nothing new to the state.

“We were one of the first states to have a film incentive,” says Bennet. “When we created it in 1995, it looked pretty good. Now it looks pretty anemic.”

Dama Chasle, a former vice president with 20th Century Fox, cited Louisiana as a potential model for Tennessee. The state passed new tax incentives in 2002 and production spending then grew from $20 million that year to more than $300 million by 2004.

Other speakers at the forum cited the ancillary benefits to the music and tourism industry. Allain noted that local production has value beyond economics. “A local production provides a sense of pride and ownership, that homegrown love you can’t quantify,” she says.

Remember that the next time someone yells, “Whoop dat trick!”

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Past Is Prologue

It is not necessarily a bad thing to watch a film and come away with the sensation that something larger is looming just beyond the frame. Having never read Jonathan Safran Foer’s autobiographical novel Everything Is Illuminated, I’m not sure how much of the book this film adaptation manages to capture, but I get the distinct feeling that first-time director Liev Schreiber is having trouble separating his experience of the novel from the one his film manages to create.

The movie is carried by its supporting cast and the slowly mounting relationship its characters have with their intertwining pasts. Elijah Wood, whose acting amounts to watery-eyed gawking, plays Jonathan, an American who has come to Ukraine to search out the village where his grandfather lived and the woman who helped him escape to America during World War II. Jonathan is a collector, obsessively acquiring objects that relate to his family, preserving his memories in plastic Ziploc bags.

Luckily for us, Jonathan enlists the aid of a tour service, which specializes in helping American Jews search for their ancestors. His tour guides include the cantankerous old driver, Grandfather (Boris Leskin), who claims to be blind, and his deranged “seeing-eye bitch” Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. Serving as Jonathan’s translator is young Ukrainian hip-hop fan Alex (Eugene Hutz), whose brand of American vernacular is almost worth the price of admission. “Because I am such a premium dancer, I have much carnal relations,” he informs us early on.

The three men quickly become lost in the vast expanses of rural Ukraine. As they drive deeper into the country, Grandfather’s anti-Semitism begins to wedge open his own reasons for taking this journey. Jonathan and Grandfather are both on a quest to the same place, and their distrust of one another forces Alex to begin questioning his own family’s past actions. Schreiber’s handling of the dynamics within the trio — well, quartet if you count Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. — is agile and well paced.

It is when the traveling circus finally arrives in Trachimbrod that the film’s near-mystical aura comes to life. Living alone in an ocean of sunflowers is Lista (Laryssa Lauret), who appears at first to be the woman Jonathan is searching for. She is not quite the person Jonathan thought she was, but she is a collector as well. Her connections to Grandfather run as deeply as they do to Jonathan, and her presence sends their various histories roiling to the surface.

For these characters, coming to terms with the past is an illuminating experience, providing the possibility of closure. This is an enjoyable and interesting film, but I’m not certain that it ever comes to grips with its own source material. It is a solid film, and if it doesn’t completely satisfy, it certainly provides the impetus to search further, which perhaps is the most fitting adaptation of all.

Everything Is Illuminated

Opening Friday, October 21st

Studio on the Square

Categories
News The Fly-By

Family Tree

“Where did you park your car when you came in?” asks Patrick Haller, the incoming president of the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council. “I bet you parked it under a tree, didn’t you? See, trees tend to be forgotten as part of our cities, but they play a crucial role.”

We both gaze up as reigning state tree-climbing champion Ben Poteet swings across a set of branches 30 feet above ground.

Last weekend, the normally placid trees at the Memphis Botanic Garden became an arena for competition. Professional arborists from around the state gathered for the Annual State Tree Climbing Contest, an event sponsored by the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council.

During the work week, these competitors help maintain historic trees and remove ones that have become dangerous.

“We’re the guys who come and remove that tree that’s hanging over your house, your pool, your car, and your garage,” says Rob Bramblett as he gazes around the Garden. “To tell you the truth, some of the trees here need to be removed.”

“Actually, they’re probably historic,” his Arbor Guard partner, Odis Sisk, replies.

The competition consists of five events in a secluded grove on the Garden’s north side. Each one tests different skills, from climbing speed to the intricate operation of safely lowering an injured climber, in this case a 200-pound dummy, to the ground. Dozens of family members and climbing enthusiasts have gathered to watch the day’s events, shouting encouragement and instructions to the climbers in the trees above.

Spectator Mark Culver knows the allure of tree climbing. “I’ve been climbing for 28 years, so I figured today maybe I’d let the young guys take it,” he says.

Culver is standing with his son watching the Workman’s Climb, one of the most difficult events at the competition. The climber must ascend to the top of the tree, then work his way down, traveling to the tree’s outer reaches to ring a number of bells placed at various points.

“I used to chase hurricanes, but climbing trees, that’s a real rush too,” says Culver. “It’s a great profession, but I wouldn’t wish it on my kid. I hope he goes to school. Of course, if he doesn’t, I’m not worried, ’cause he’s a climbing little dude.”

The competition is fierce, but the event also builds camaraderie and gives the climbers a chance to develop their skills. “You go to these competitions and you learn a lot from the other fellas,” says Poteet.

In the end it’s the family team of Aquilino and Salvo Amador who clinch the championship with first and second place, respectively. Poteet comes in third. Wes Hopper, one of the event organizers, says the Amadors are extremely tough customers.

“What makes these guys unique is they spend all day long working on trees,” he says. “Then at night they go out to practice their competitive kickboxing.”