As a newly married couple, you have many exciting life milestones to look forward to. You may buy a home, start a family, or travel the world — the possibilities are endless. However, in order to achieve your goals, it’s important to make sure your financial house is in order. Here are six financial planning tips for newly married couples.
1. Understand each other’s approach to finances. Have an open and honest conversation about your approach to money. Most people’s views on spending and saving are formed early in life, and it can be difficult to alter your mindset. Consider your earliest memories about money, any financial fears you have, what your savings priorities are, and how much debt you’re willing to take on. Find common ground and establish a strong foundation on which to build your financial lives.
2. Share financial histories. Gain an understanding of your starting point. This means sharing details about your past and current finances. Important topics to cover include:
• Income — What’s your gross and net income monthly? Do you receive bonuses? Do you have any contract income to consider for tax planning?
• Spending habits — Discuss monthly expenses and understand where discretionary income is spent. That can help plan for how you’d like to adjust your expectations and work toward a compromise early on.
• Savings amount — Identify how much is kept in savings on average and how much each partner saves regularly.
• Investments — Does your partner have a 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, or investment account? Which are you saving toward regularly? The amounts you can save for each may change once you’re married.
• Debts — Understand debts your partner may have: credit cards, student loans, personal loans, mortgages, or even back taxes.
3. Establish shared financial goals. Work together to establish shared goals in the short term and the long term.
What do you envision for your financial future? What savings goals do you have? New home? Future children’s college expenses? Retire early? Travel the world? Start a business?
How do your goals differ from your spouse’s? It’s okay to have differing goals. The key is to communicate and come up with a financial strategy that allows you to pursue both your shared priorities as well as your individual objectives.
4. Create a budget. A budget provides insight into exactly where your money is going each month and can help identify spending issues.
Start by determining how much money you anticipate spending each month. Then divide your expenditures into nondiscretionary and discretionary expenses. Once you have a handle on your expenses, compare that amount to your income. Are you spending less than you earn? Are you saving enough to hit your targets? If not, find ways to reduce discretionary spending.
You may also want to combine some bills into shared plans. Bundling your auto or homeowners insurance will likely reduce your nondiscretionary expenses.
The key is to establish a budget that allows you to pay for nondiscretionary and certain discretionary expenses while progressing your financial goals. If you and your spouse have different spending habits, you may consider giving each other an agreed-upon monthly “allowance” that can be freely spent or saved without the other’s input. Establish separate accounts so that you both have complete freedom over this limited amount of money.
5. Cover your bases. After the difficult discussions, take time to restructure your income, expenses, insurance, and savings plan. Establish joint checking, savings, and investment accounts; update your income payouts into the appropriate bank account(s) for your overall goals; and review existing insurance policies and purchase/update any relevant policies.
6. Review beneficiaries and create an estate plan. If beneficiary designations are not updated and you’ve listed someone other than your spouse, when you pass they won’t have the ability to contest or receive those funds. Update designations on retirement or savings accounts and establish estate planning documents to ensure your spouse receives assets as you desire.
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.
The mission of the Indie Memphis Film Festival is to bring films to the Bluff City which we could not see otherwise. Some Indie Memphis films return to the big screen the next year, like American Fiction, which screened at last year’s festival and went on to win an Academy Award for writer/director Cord Jefferson. For the last 27 years, it has been an invaluable resource for both beginning and established filmmakers in the Mid-South. Early on, the festival launched the career of Memphis-based director Craig Brewer, whose recent limited series Fight Nightwas a huge hit for the Peacock streaming service. Many others have followed.
This year’s festival brings changes from the norm. First of all, it takes place later than usual, with the opening night film, It Was All a Dream, bowing on Thursday, November 14th, and running through Sunday, November 17th. There will be encore presentations at Malco’s Paradiso on Monday, November 18th, and Tuesday, November 19th. “We are having encores because our biggest complaint is that we have too many films back to back that people want to see. So that was a direct response to our audience,” says Kimel Fryer, executive director of Indie Memphis.
Opening night film It Was All a Dream is a documentary by dream hampton, a longtime music writer and filmmaker (who prefers the lowercase) from Detroit, Michigan. Her 2019 film Surviving R. Kelly earned a Peabody Award and was one of the biggest hits in Netflix history.
“I’m really excited to see how everyone thinks of our opening night film,” says Fryer.
It Was All a Dream is a memoir, of sorts, collecting hampton’s experiences covering the golden era of the hip-hop world in the 1990s. “I really enjoyed watching it, especially seeing footage of Biggie Smalls, Prodigy from Mobb Deep, Method Man, and even Snoop Dogg before they became icons. They’re just hungry artists. Even Q-Tip is in it, and the other night, Q-tip was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. So I was thinking about that as I was watching the awards. He was such a baby in this field, he had no clue 20, 30 years from now he was going to be on this stage,” says Fryer.
The festival is moving in space as well as time. While the festival will return to its longtime venue Malco Studio on the Square, there will be no screenings at Playhouse on the Square this year. The 400-seat Crosstown Theater will screen the opening night film and continue screenings throughout the long weekend. On Saturday at 11 a.m., it will also be the home of the Youth Film Fest. “This is the first year we’re combining the Youth Film Fest with the annual festival,” says Fryer. “That’s really cool, being able to allow the youth filmmakers to still have their own dedicated time, but also to be able to interact and see other films that are outside of their festival. We do have some films that are a little bit more family-friendly than what we have had in the past.”
Flow
Among those family-friendly films are a great crop of animated features, including Flow by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis. Flow is a near wordless adventure that follows a cat and other animals as they try to escape a catastrophic flood in a leaky boat. The film has garnered wide acclaim in Europe after debuting at the Cannes Film Festival, and will represent Latvia in the International category at the Academy Awards.
“I thought it was interesting because, of course, when Kayla Myers, our director of programming, selected these films, we had no idea some of the more recent impacts from the hurricanes and things of that nature would happen,” says Fryer.
Boys Go to Jupiter
Julian Glander’s Boys Go to Jupiter is a coming-of-age story about Billy 5000, a teenager in Florida who finds himself tasked with caring for an egg from outer space. First-time director Glander is a veteran animator who did the vast majority of the work on the film himself. The Pittsburgh-based auteur told Cartoon Brew that he and executive producer Peisin Yang Lazo “… did the jobs of 100 people. I have no complaints — it’s been a lot of work, but it feels really good to make a movie independently, to not have meetings about everything and really own every creative decision.”
Memoir of a Snail
The festival’s third animated film, Memoir of a Snailby Australian animator Adam Elliot, is the story of Grace (Sarah Snook), a young woman who escapes the tedium of her life in 1970s Melbourne by collecting snails. When her father dies, she is separated from her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and put into an abusive foster home. We follow Grace as she navigates a difficult life, full of twists and turns, with only her snails as a constant comfort. “Memoir of a Snail is an adult animated film,” says Fryer. “Bring the kids at your own risk.”
The spirit of independence is what puts the “indie” in Indie Memphis. The festival has always been devoted to unique visions which question the status quo. Nickel Boys, the centerpiece film which will screen on Sunday night at Crosstown Theater, is by director RaMell Ross. “I’m really excited about that film,” says Fryer. “But also, it uses film as a critique. It’s based on the novel from Colson Whitehead that won a Pulitzer Prize.”
Nickel Boys takes place in 1960s Florida, where a Black teenager, Elwood (Ethan Cole Sharp), is committed to a reform school after being falsely accused of attempted car theft. There, he meets Turner (Brandon Wilson), and the two become fast friends. The film is shot by Jomo Fray, who was the cinematographer behind All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, which opened last year’s Indie Memphis festival. It is highly unusual for its first-person perspective, which shifts back and forth between the two protagonists, so that you are put in the perspective of the characters, who are battling to keep their humanity in a deeply inhumane environment.
Fryer says bringing radical artistic works like these to Mid-South audiences is central to the organization’s mission. “I think that’s honestly one reason why people like Indie Memphis. Don’t get me wrong, people do like to see the very well-known films, the more commercial films, the ones that get a lot of press. But I think the people who enjoy coming to Indie Memphis also enjoy seeing things outside of the box, seeing things that push the narrative. And it makes sense when you think about Memphis. Memphis is never going to be this cookie-cutter place, and people who live here love it because it’s not.”
Funeral Arrangements
This year’s festival has a strong local focus, with seven features in the Hometowner category. One of the locals is a 15th anniversary screening of Funeral Arrangements by Anwar Jamison. The writer/director is low-key one of the most successful Memphis filmmakers from recent years, having produced, directed, and starred in Coming to Africa and its sequel, which were both big hits in Ghana and other African countries. Funeral Arrangements was his debut feature.
Funeral Arrangements Anwar Jamison
“Man, talk about a passion project,” Jamison says. “I just think back to being in film school in the graduate program at the University of Memphis, and now, it’s a full-circle moment because I’m teaching at the University of Memphis, and I have grad students and I’m working on these projects. I look back like, ‘Wow! That was me!’ And now I understand why my professors were telling me no, and that I was crazy to try to do a feature film for my final project, when I only needed 15 minutes. But I’m like, ‘No, I have this script!’ We had a bunch of young, hungry crew members. No one had done a feature, whether it was the crew or the actors. We had a lot of theater students in it, and everybody was just like, ‘Wow, this would be cool!’ They all saw my vision. I had the script, being that I come from a writing background, and everybody really jumped on board to make it happen. I feel like it was the perfect storm of young creativity and energy, and it really showed in the final product. I’m proud of it!”
The idea for the film began with an incident at work. “Most of the things I’ve written start out as something that happened in real life, and then I take it and fictionalize it,” Jamison says. “It was based on an experience I had working a job that really was like that. I couldn’t be absent again, so I really lied to the supervisor and told him I had to go to a funeral. And he really said, ‘Bring me the death notice or the obituary.’ In real life, I didn’t do it, and he didn’t bother me. I ended up keeping my job. But as a writer, in my mind it was like, ‘Whoa, that would be funny. What if the guy really went to a funeral, and now he gets caught up in a situation?’ It just came from there.”
It was this idea that got Jamison’s talent noticed. “When I was an undergrad, actually in the very first screenwriting class that I took, my professor called the morning after we had the final project, which was to write the first act of a feature film. I’m like, ‘Why is this professor calling me?’ And she was like, ‘I really enjoyed the script. Could we use it as the example in class to read for the others?’ That let me know I was onto something.”
Jamison says he’s ready to celebrate the past and looking forward to the future. “I have the third Coming to Africa that I’m preparing for, and I hope to do in 2025, if all goes well, and wrap that up as a trilogy. But what I found, once you get there, there’s just so many stories that connect the diaspora and Ghana in so many ways. There’s so many natural stories to tell that I would love to keep telling them.”
Bluff City Chinese
“I actually got into filmmaking through fashion,” says Thandi Cai. “I was working in textile art for a while, and I was making a lot of costumes. A lot of the things that I was making didn’t really make sense in our reality right now, so I was starting to build stories around the costumes I was making. Then I wanted to create films out of those costumes and realized, ‘Oh, this is a potential career that I could follow!’ So then I started doing videography commercially, in addition to all these little small fashion films on the side. Film and video started becoming more of my storytelling practice, and a tool of how I could explain and share what I was learning with the world.”
Bluff City Chinese
They began work on their documentary feature debut Bluff City Chinese in 2020. “It originally started out as an oral history project. And because, like I said, I think film is such a powerful tool, I started recording oral histories visually. But then didn’t know what we were going to do with it.”
Several people suggested Cai apply for an Indie Grant. The Indie Memphis program, originated by Memphis filmmaker Mark Jones, awards two $15,000 grants each year, selected from dozens of applications by local filmmakers. Cai was awarded the grant in 2022. “I really didn’t have very high expectations of getting it, so I was just blown away and really grateful that we did.”
Indie Grants are nominally for short films, but Cai said their project grew to 45 minutes. “It was just a huge, huge help. I think it made a really big difference because prior to getting that money, the vision for the documentary was very DIY, really lo-fi. I was not expecting this to be a full-fledged film, really. It was like, let’s try to get these oral histories out there by whatever we need to do to get it out there. To be able to have that money to really just dive in and see how far we could take the actual production value was just enormous. And yeah, it’s much more beautiful than I ever thought we could make it, and I think that will just help us be able to share these stories with more people.”
Cai grew up in Memphis, but they say it wasn’t until later in their life that they were aware of the long legacy of Chinese immigrants who had made Memphis home. “That’s the crazy part! Growing up as a Chinese American in Memphis, I didn’t learn about any of this until 2020, and it was only because of all the things that were happening in the world, and especially to people who look like me. That’s why I’m pushing this film so hard because this isn’t something that a lot of us get to learn when we’re growing up. There haven’t been a lot of discussions or platforms that are sharing these stories. I consider a lot of the people that we talk about as my ancestors or my elders or my community members, but I didn’t meet a lot of them until very recently. I really hope that no matter how late someone is in their journey, that when they do find this connection to their roots, they feel like they can just jump in and embrace it.”
Marc Gasol: Memphis Made
Director Michael Blevins is the head of video post-production for the Memphis Grizzlies. “Basically, the way I describe it is anything that gets edited, it comes through me and my team,” he says. “So the intro video that gets played before the game, I will edit that, and commercial spots or behind-the-scenes stuff about the current team.”
Marc Gasol: Memphis Made
Before coming to Memphis in 2016, Blevins had previously been with the Chicago Bears, the Houston Astros (“I believe we had one of the worst records in baseball history,” he says), and the San Francisco 49ers. “Then I came here, and I overlapped with the subject of the documentary, Marc Gasol, for his last three seasons in Memphis. So I got to know him and Mike Conley really well.”
Blevins normally works on a very quick turnaround, but the world of documentary films is quite different. It requires patience and flexibility. “In a project like this, the scope becomes bigger. In terms of production, in terms of lining up interviews, shooting, all that stuff, we were able to spend seven months on it. But in the same time, you then have 50 interviews. You got to tell an hour-and-a-half story basically. So a month or two to edit something in a vacuum sounds great compared to the usually quick turnaround of a current NBA team. But then you want to tell a story perfect because it is telling his whole story of his professional basketball career. So it’s not like with current content, when there’s always another game coming up. This is it. It’s a little dramatic, and he has a sense of humor, so we laugh about it. But it’s like writing somebody’s obituary. You’re not going to get another chance to do it. It’s their basketball career.”
It was important to Blevins to go beyond the surface image of the star basketball player and uncover the emotions that drove him. “Marc is a super competitive guy, and the big thing was, as the people that knew him say — and a lot of people didn’t realize this from the outside — is that competitiveness would spill over a lot of times in terms of trying to deal with teammates. That’s one of my favorite segments in the film. It’s like 20 minutes about different stories people were telling about Marc being very competitive and looking back at everything through a different lens of today. And I think he looks at it very differently, where he felt like he could have been better. But he knows in his head, and different players say it in the film, they needed him to be like that. If that was a spillover of him chewing him out during the game and then after the time-out was over, he was going to give it all and make a play on defense to save that guy, or make a play on offense to set that guy up. It was going to be worth it. But I think athletes, and all of us in general, as we get older, sometimes if you reach success or you’re happy with what your career has done, you start to look back and think, ‘What was the cost of that?’”
Cubic Zirconia
Jackson, Tennessee, native Jaron Lockridge’s Cubic Zirconia is the only locally produced narrative feature in a field of thoughtful documentaries. “I’ve been filmmaking now since about 2016, and just self-producing feature films, and going that route now that technology makes it easier. I just decided to jump out there and don’t take no for an answer.”
Cubic Zirconia Jaron Lockridge
Lockridge, who began as a writer, produces, directs, lights, shoots, and edits his films. “When I found quickly that I couldn’t afford to hire people to produce my work, I just became that multi-tool to start producing my own work, and getting to this point now.”
Cubic Zirconia takes place in what Lockridge calls The Stix Universe, which is tied into his self-produced web series. “It’s a good old-fashioned crime mystery, I like to say. It’s similar to something like Prisoners or maybe even a touch of Se7en, for people who like those type of movies. It follows a missing family, and these detectives are trying to find some answers to what happened. When they locate the deceased mother of this missing family, then it’s just an all-out blitz to find the children and figure out the ‘why’ behind it all. You’ve kind of got to pay attention. But when it comes to the end and you realize what’s happened, I believe it’ll be a shocker to a lot of the audience members.”
Keith L. Johnson stars as the police detective on the case. “I’ve worked with him several times before. He’s one of my regulars, so we just have a great chemistry together to the point where I can just give him a script and give him very little direction. He just understands my work.”
Memphians Kate Mobley and Kenon Walker are also veterans of the Stix Universe. Terry Giles is a newcomer. “He was one that I haven’t worked with before, and he was a very pleasant surprise. He only has a small time on the movie, but when you see him, you notice him. He commands the screen, and he’s a talent that I’m looking forward to working with again. I’m very excited about the performances in this movie.”
Passes and individual screening tickets are on sale at imff24.indiememphis.org. There, you can also find a full schedule for this weekend’s screenings and events.
Stewart Guenther recently had people in tears. And it wasn’t because of a funny joke he told.
Ashton Catlett and Harper Timmerman
Qwanza Bryson and Quarren Bryson Alden Woodard and Joe WilsonPerry Smith and Bella Schwartz Will Hudson and TrinaLes and Ashley JonesRyan Marsh
Stephanie Richer, Will Presley with Milo on his back, and Emily Presley
Guenther, who participated in the 901 Hot Wing Festival, let people try the wings he cooked using a wing sauce made from the Carolina Reaper pepper. That pepper, one of the hottest in the world, is only surpassed, according to a Google search, by one known as Pepper X.
Ieshia Mosley and Alicia Jones Andrew Zarshenas and Ashley RigginsChance and Corey RubenStewart GuentherDon McCarrens and Justin Fitzgibbon
Guenther’s team, Whiskey & Swine, was among the 15 teams participating in the event, which was held November 2nd at Grind City Brewing Company. “We mostly compete in barbecue contests, in which chicken is one of the categories,” he says. “We do chicken, but it’s always chicken thighs. We’ve never turned in wings for competition except at this event.”
Shelby Patrick and Jake HargrovePeyton Coker
Grind City owner Hopper Seely created a new brew — Cranberry Beret —for the occasion. “It’s a cranberry seltzer, but it uses real cranberry juice,” Seely says.
Cranberry Beret is available in the tap room, he adds.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): You may be on the verge of the breakthrough I prophesied a while back. Remember? I said you would be searching for the solution to a boring problem, and on the way you would discover a more interesting and useful problem. That exact scenario is about to happen. I also predict that the coming weeks will be a time when you tame an out-of-control aspect of your life and infuse more wildness into an overly tame part of you. I will speculate on one further stroke of good fortune: You will attract an influence that motivates you to be more passionately pragmatic about one of your key dreams.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): It’s time for some friendly warnings that will, if heeded, enable you to avoid problematic developments. 1. An overhaul in your self-image is looming; your persona requires tinkering. 2. Old boundaries are shifting and in some places disappearing. Be brave and draw up new boundaries. 3. Familiar allies may be in a state of flux. Help them find their new centers of gravity. 4. Potential future allies will become actual allies if you are bold in engaging them. 5. Be allergic to easy answers and simplistic solutions. Insist on the wisdom of uncertainty.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): To honor and celebrate your melancholy, I’m turning this horoscope over to Gemini author T. H. White and his superb formulation of the redemptive power of sadness. He wrote: “The best thing for being sad is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.”
CANCER (June 21-July 22): A Massachusetts woman named Andrea Martin loves chickens so much she treats them as family. A few years ago, she took pity on one of her favorites, a young bird named Cecily, who had been born with a damaged tendon in one of her legs. Martin arranged to have the limb amputated. Then she made a prosthetic device on a 3D printer and had it surgically grafted onto Cecily’s body. Success! The $2,500 cost was well worth it, she testified. I propose we make Andrea Martin one of your role models for the coming weeks. May she inspire you to take extra good care of and shower bonus blessings on everyone and everything you love. (PS: This will be really good for your own health.)
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Once a year, the city of Seoul in South Korea stages a Space-Out Festival. Participants compete to do absolutely nothing for 90 minutes. They are not allowed to fall asleep, talk, or check their phones. To test how well they are banishing stress, burnout, and worries, their heart rates are monitored. The winner is the person who has the slowest and most stable pulse. If there were an event like this in your part of the world sometime soon, Leo, I’d urge you to join in. I expect the winner would be a member of your astrological tribe, as you Leos now have a high potential for revitalizing relaxation. Even if you don’t compete in a Space-Out Festival, I hope you will fully cash in on this excellent chance to recharge your spiritual batteries.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): My favorite Virgos love to learn. They are eager to add to their knowledge. They have a highly honed curiosity that is always percolating, continually drawing them towards new comprehension. On the other hand, some of my favorite Virgos are inefficient at shedding long-held ideas and information that no longer serve them. As a result, their psyches may get plugged up, interfering with their absorption of fun new input. That’s why I recommend that you Virgos engage in regular purges of your mental debris. Now would be an excellent time for one of these sessions. (PS: The futurist Alvin Toffler said that a key to intelligence is the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn. I invite you to act on that counsel.)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I endorse Libran tennis star Serena Williams’ approach to self-evaluation — especially for you right now. She testified, “I’m really exciting. I smile a lot, I win a lot, and I’m really sexy.” I’m convinced you have the right to talk like that in the coming weeks — so convinced that I suggest you use it as a mantra and prayer. When you wake up each morning, say what Williams said. When you’re asking life for a sweet breakthrough or big favor, remind life why it should give you what you want. Feel free to add other brags, too, like, “I’m a brilliant thinker, a persuasive negotiator, and a crafty communicator.”
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You are entering a phase when you can acquire more mastery in the arts of self-care and self-sufficiency. I hope you will become more skillful in giving yourself everything that nurtures your emotional and physical health. Have you gathered all you need to know about that subject? Probably not. Most of us haven’t. But the coming weeks will be a favorable time to make this your main research project. By the way, now is also an excellent time to kick your own ass and unbreak your own heart.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): My father was a big fan of the military. As a young man, he served as a lieutenant in the army and for a time considered making that job his career. I’m the opposite of him. I keenly avoided becoming a soldier and have always been passionately anti-war. I bring this subject to your attention because I think now is an excellent time for you to get clearer than ever about how you don’t resemble your parents and don’t want to be like them. Meditate on why your life is better and can get even better by not following their paths and ways. There’s no need to do this with anger and blame. In fact, the healthiest approach is to be lucid, calm, and dispassionate.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): At age 49, James Patterson retired from his job as an advertising writer. Until then, he had produced a few novels in his spare time. But once free of his 9-to-5 gig, he began churning out books at a rapid pace. Now, at age 77, he has published over 305 million copies of 200-plus novels, including 67 that have been #1 New York Times bestsellers. Would you like to make an almost equally memorable transition, Capricorn? The coming weeks and months will be an excellent time to plan it and launch it.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The Breakfast Club was an iconic 1985 film about teenagers coming of age. Critics liked it. At the box office, it earned 100 times more than it cost to make. Aquarian director John Hughes wrote the screenplay for the 97-minute movie in two days, on July 4th and 5th of 1982. I predict that many of you Aquarians will have a similar level of productivity in the coming weeks. You could create lasting improvements and useful goodies in short bursts of intense effort.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Ben & Jerry’s is a wildly successful ice cream maker that sells its products all over the world. Its founders are two Pisceans who met in seventh grade. Over 45 years since they launched their business, they have become renowned for their wide variety of innovative flavors and their political activism. When they first decided to work together, though, their plans were to start a bagel business. They only abandoned that idea when they discovered how expensive the bagel-making equipment was. I suspect that you are near a comparable pivot in your life, Pisces: a time to switch from one decent project to an even better one.
Chef Nate Henssler shows off Amelia Gene’s new cheeseburger, “kind of a secret bar menu item” (Photos: Michael Donahue)
Executive chef Nate Henssler is keeping Amelia Gene’s restaurant as fresh and innovative as the dishes on his menu.
Take the Derenburger cheeseburger, which Henssler added about a month ago to the menu at the restaurant at 255 South Front Street, adjacent to the Caption by Hyatt Beale Street Memphis hotel. The burger, named after their pastry chef Jessi Derenburger, is available only at the bar after 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It fits in perfectly with Henssler’s concept for Amelia Gene’s, which he describes as “a modern American chef-driven restaurant.”
Henssler, who butchers the meat, uses the “chain,” a piece of meat on the side of the tenderloins used for their prime filet mignon. He also uses the trimmings from their short ribs.
Jessica Henssler, Nate’s wife as well as the restaurant’s general manager, suggested they do a bar burger. “Jessica actually had the idea of doing some kind of a secret bar menu item, to try and drive some business toward the end of the night.”
Since by 9 p.m. they “still get a good amount of bar traffic,” they wondered how to get guests “to enjoy some food while they’re here and utilize some product. So, we took the short ribs and this tenderloin and tinkered with it to make a blend.”
They also tinkered with different cheeses on their cheese cart, but decided to use American cheese on the cheeseburger. In addition to caramelized onions, they “dress the bun with a garlic mayonnaise, spicy pickled yellow peppers, and then it’s served with hand-cut fries.”
The fries are made in-house using twice-cooked potatoes.
Derenburger makes the sesame seed brioche hamburger buns for the cheeseburgers, which sell for $25. “It’s a 10-ounce burger, so it’s substantial.”
They’re not on the menu, so it’s up to the server and the bartender — as well as customers who’ve tried them — to spread the word about the hamburgers. “We make 10 on Friday and 10 on Saturday. And we’re selling out.”
Henssler is also changing his Thursday night five-course tasting menu almost weekly. “We started off in the summertime and it was vegetarian. And dishes changed every week. We started adding some proteins to the menu.”
The price for the Thursday night special has gone from $50 to $60, but, Nate says, “It’s still an incredible deal.”
For an additional $30, diners are served wine that pairs with each course.
“Sometimes the last course is a cocktail,” Henssler adds.
This week’s special will include Nate’s 30-layer lasagna, which includes layers of béchamel as well as Bolognese made with scraps from the tenderloins and short ribs. He probably will include monkfish, which recently was added to the menu and has been very popular.
Sea bass and monkfish (right) are among Amelia Gene’s new menu items.
As for the regular menu, Nate says part of it changes monthly. “We change at least one or two items. As you see a new menu go on, another menu item comes off.”
His Rohan duck dish is one item that hasn’t left the menu since Nate added it. “It’s still one of our four top sellers.”
The crispy duck dish, which Henssler calls “a play on duck à l’orange,” takes five days to produce. As he said in a 2023 Memphis Flyer interview, “The legs we cure in a salt and sugar mix with soy spices. And we cure that for a day, cooking it in its own fat. Confit.”
The dish includes butter, garlic, shallots, and Belgian endive. And, he says, “It’s served with the same sauce we make from the duck bones with orange puree and kumquats preserved in honey.”
On a slow night, they might sell four or five Rohan ducks, Nate says. On a Friday and Saturday night, 20. And, he adds, that dish takes about 45 minutes to prepare from when the order comes in until it gets to the table.
Amelia Gene’s closed for two weeks during a traditionally slow period last August to “save labor and give the staff a chance to have some time off. “I’ve been going seven days a week for a year and a half.”
He and his wife spent about two weeks in Chile on a trip that included Santiago and Patagonia. “We visited some wineries and ate some amazing food.”
And “for sure” he added some Chilean items to the Thursday night five-course menu after they returned, Nate says. Since its not king crab season, he’s waiting for his vendor to get some Chilean king crab. “They’re sourcing it for me right now.”
The Hensslers are currently talking about doing a “pastry cart takeover” of their cheese cart for the holiday season. Also, he says, “We’re getting a lot of requests for whole carrot cake and whole chocolate cakes.”
Since his wife came on as general manager last June, private and semi-private events at Amelia Gene’s are picking up, Nate says. “She is very good at what she does.”
As for a husband and wife working together, Nate says that type of relationship “works best when it’s all about communication. Like a marriage.”
And, he adds, “If something goes wrong, it’s usually my fault.”
Henssler, who grew up in New Hampshire, has worked at top restaurants in Las Vegas and Chicago. He moved to Memphis in 2022. He’s also a managing partner in the Carlisle Restaurant Group.
“Wow, that is one honking big sparrow,” my wife said, peering out our bedroom window and into the backyard. The bird in question — a mottled, dun-colored songbird — perched on one of our backyard bird feeders, occasionally munching on safflower seeds, and staring into the middle distance in a way that I’m sorely tempted to describe as “uncanny.” It dwarfed the little song sparrows and fox sparrows hopping amid the fallen seeds and shells beneath the feeder.
The next morning, there were more of the birds.
It wasn’t until the red-throated, black-and-white males of the species showed up that we realized we weren’t being invaded by massive sparrows, but were dealing with a different kind of creature altogether. So, after consulting our handy, dandy Birds of Tennessee Field Guide (Adventure Publications), we realized that our backyard had become a migratory pitstop for rose-breasted grosbeaks, on their way south and west from East Tennessee in early autumn.
Photo: Brian Kelly | Unsplash
By this time of year, now that our clocks have fallen back an hour, after the leaves aren’t just turning but falling, the grosbeaks have gone. They’re in Central and South America, far from any, ah, shall we say “North American concerns” that may be troubling the rest of us left behind in Memphis.
This time of year is truly one of change, when the world feels poised on the brink of something, hesitating before the charge into new seasons. Some of those changes are human-made — the grosbeaks, rose-breasted or otherwise, have no use for clocks and time zones and Daylight Saving Time. Their bodies tell them when to fly and where to stop. Elections, though they have far-reaching consequences on the natural world, won’t keep a blue jay or mourning dove up all night, stress-drinking, doom-scrolling, and refreshing a vote count. The raccoons who steal black-oil sunflower seed from my birdfeeders by the fistful are also blissfully ignorant of politics.
Lucky them, right?
There is also the headlong holiday rush from Halloween to New Year’s Eve, and though its onset always leaves me anxiously checking and rechecking my bank balance, it also brings the excitement of friend and family reunions, of kids’ surprised smiles. The Pink Palace Crafts Fair and the Corn Maze give way to the Enchanted Forest and Starry Nights. Zoo Boo precedes Zoo Lights.
Evening shadows lengthen and come sooner, as autumn sunsets yield to lengthening night earlier with each passing day. Fallen leaves crunch underfoot; squirrels scurry from tree to tree, increasingly frantic as winter’s onset draws near. Everything prepares to hunker down for the cold.
I thought about the grosbeaks — and our other seasonal visitors, in spring and autumn both — as I walked this week. The reminder of the natural world, with its reassuring certainty of cycles of warmth and cold, has been a source of comfort and inspiration both. Those polite birds have yet to overstay their welcome. I never worry about the peaceful transition of power from autumn to winter. (Though winter to spring often feels anything but certain when mid-February rolls around, but that’s a topic for another day.)
It seems telling to me that I have yet to reopen Facebook since November 5, 2024, but I feel called to walking trails, parks, and other public greenspaces. Some inner voice, quiet but persistent, is pushing me toward interactions that nourish the soul. In this time of uncertainty, change, and mind-numbing existential dread, I’m especially thankful for that inclination to step outside, instead of reaching for the junk food dopamine hit of social media. The smell of decomposing leaf litter on an urban forest trail is far more palatable to me right now.
If, like me, you have rushed toward natural rhythms as a source of comfort, then I can only say that soon we will have to return the favor for Mother Nature. Even the usually staid AP Times sounds downright alarmist on the impending second term of former President Donald Trump, with a new piece by Jennifer McDermott and Matthew Daly warning that the President-elect’s planned rollbacks could be a serious hurdle to green energy measures. So, to everyone else whose comfort place is Overton Park, I say now is our time to shine. We should look to our local leaders, especially those with environmental experience, like Rep. Justin J. Pearson, recently re-elected to District 86. Memphis Community Against Pollution, Protect Our Aquifer — these folks’ fight is about to get harder, and they need our help.
In the meantime, I’m going to take a walk, crunch some leaves, and touch some damn grass.
Jesse Davis is a former Flyer staffer; he writes a monthly Books feature for Memphis Magazine. His opinions, such as they are, are his own and not the fault of his overworked editor.
Student volunteers were helping out with an archaeological dig in Eu, France, when one of them found a small glass bottle inside an earthenware pot, United Press International reported. Inside the bottle was a message, written in January 1825, from one “P.J. Feret, a native of Dieppe, member of various intellectual societies.” Feret was carrying out excavations at the same site and left the message for future explorers. “It was an absolutely magic moment,” said Guillaume Blondel, head of the town’s Regional Archaeology Service. Local records revealed that Feret was a well-known archaeologist of his time. Blondel said such finds are rare: “Most archaeologists prefer to think that there won’t be anyone coming after them because they’ve done all the work.” [UPI, 9/24/2024]
It’s Good To Have a Hobby
Joshua Kiser of Breinigsville, Pennsylvania, was looking for something to amuse himself during the Covid shutdown in 2020 when he came across an idea: “I stumbled upon a picture of the eccentric man posing with a gigantic top hat on his head,” Kiser said, referring to Odilon Ozare, who set the record for World’s Tallest Hat in 2018. Kiser thought it would be easy to surpass Ozare’s 15-foot, 9-inch hat, but it wasn’t until this year that he managed to engineer one, at 17 feet, 9.5 inches, that could withstand a walk of the required 32.8 feet while wearing it. United Press International reported that his final, winning design incorporated lightweight guttering and a Philadelphia Eagles trash can that “looked about the circumference of my noggin.” [UPI, 9/26/2024]
Freaky
A 27-foot-tall puppet in the shape of a seated baby was installed in the center of the town of Rochdale, England, the BBC reported on Sept. 25. The baby, named Lilly, with a mouth and eyes that open and shut, was part of a council project to encourage schoolchildren to talk about the importance of the environment. Ostensibly, the kids spoke to Lilly; their conversations were recorded and broadcast from the baby at an event on Oct. 24 at Hollingworth Lake Nature Park. But townsfolk weren’t warming up to Lilly, calling it “the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen.” One said, “It’s creepy with its eyes shut, never mind open.” No telling how school-aged kids reacted to it. [BBC, 9/25/2024]
Overreaction
A 58-year-old Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, woman, Wendy Washik, was taken into custody on Sept. 1 and charged with assault with a weapon, the CBC reported. The charges stemmed from an incident at a backyard party when Washik, who was playing with a child, accidentally shot a neighbor with a water gun while he mowed his lawn. Washik said she apologized repeatedly, but the “victim” “wouldn’t listen to me and … was screaming at me.” She said police “didn’t ask me a single question. They didn’t ask to see the water gun.” Washik was due in court on Sept. 24. [CBC, 9/13/2024]
Bright Idea
A Florida man (of course) was rescued late on Sept. 23 after he apparently attempted to swim across the Detroit River from Windsor, Canada, to Detroit, CBS News reported. The U.S. Mail Boat J.W. Westcott II was launched after hearing of the swimmer, who was using a life ring to help support himself. “There’s a very strong current, and the water temperature is about 73 degrees right now,” said Capt. Neil Schultheiss. “Even with the life ring, he was struggling.” The boat picked up the swimmer after about 10 minutes of searching. Crew members said he seemed disoriented and under the influence. “He just kind of kept pacing around the front deck, saying, ‘Is this boat U.S.? Are we going back to the U.S.?’” Schultheiss said. He was transferred to an EMS unit. [CBS News, 9/24/2024]
Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.
Reharvest is Project Green Fork’s largest fundraiser. (Photo: Courtesy Project Green Fork)
Any way you slice it or dice it, food is food, says Leann Edwards, Project Green Fork program director. “It’s meant to feed people. If it doesn’t feed people, then it has other purposes. It feeds animals; it feeds the soil to grow more food. And so seeing food as valuable, in all of its forms, is part of what we’re trying to do through Project Green Fork (PGF).”
This weekend’s fundraising event is one such example of that effort as some of the city’s most innovative chefs try their hand at creating hors d’oeuvres using surplus ingredients from the Mid-South Food Bank, Cordelia’s Market, and Alpha Omega Veteran Services. They’ll transform what could have gone to waste into beautiful and tasty dishes for guests to try. It’s a chance for these tatemakers to flex their creativity but also to showcase sustainability efforts.
“One thing that Project Green Fork does is, we work to rescue food surplus, generally prepared food from restaurants and special events catering,” Edwards says. “We take that rescued food through our network of rescue organizations and turn it into something beautiful for people who experience food insecurity in our city. And so Reharvest is a way for us to show people in the community that food that’s appropriate for donation is also food that’s appropriate for us to share and enjoy.”
The chefs participating in this year’s Reharvest are Dave Krog (formerly of Dory), Terrance Whitley (Inspire Community Cafe), Daishu McGriff (Shroomlicious Meals), Monique Williams (Biscuits & Jams), Josh Mutchnick (JEM Dining), and Kat Gordon (Muddy’s Bake Shop). All of the chefs are PGF-certified, meaning they have been trained in PGF’s sustainability practices.
In addition to the one-of-a-kind fare made by these chefs, attendees will receive complimentary beer, wine, a signature cocktail, and a mocktail. B. Sartain will also be doing live art, and that piece of art will be sold in a silent action. This is PGF’s largest fundraiser of the year, Edwards says.
“We have a goal of 50 percent reduction in food waste by 2030 and we’re not close,” she adds. “We’re working on it. But it can feel daunting. But then you remember, every bit of progress is progress, and every time someone makes the connection between saving their food and the community and saving money for themselves and saving the environment, it really feels like a win.”
That’s one of the goals of this event — to make that connection for people — and get just a little bit closer to that 50 percent reduction. Tickets can be purchased at tinyurl.com/2uu5jcy6.
Reharvest Memphis, Collage Dance Center, 505 Tillman Street, Thursday, November 14, 5:30-8:30 p.m., $79.57, 21+.
A multi-million-dollar glow up is underway at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center (UTHSC) campus in a plan that includes the $19.4 million demolition of a much-criticized, abandoned hotel on Madison.
The plan was laid before the UTHSC board in a meeting Friday by Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Operating Officer Raaj Kurapati. The slate of projects underway at the Medical District school totals more than $100 million, Kurapati said.
While not the most expensive project on the list, Kurapati said there is one that “everybody gets excited about every time we speak about it.”
“That is the demolition of the eyesore of a building that comes on when we drive on to campus — that’s the Holiday Inn tower and the adjacent buildings,” he said. “We’ve been able to put together some funds to be able to finally say we’re going to move forward with that.”
The buildings are currently under review for hazardous materials. Demolition work is slated to proceed next month, according to a slide shown during the meeting. That work, however, will likely only include readying the site, including things like erecting a fence around its perimeter. The work is expected to be complete by June 2026 at a cost of about $19.4 million.
UTHSC bought the buildings from the Memphis Bioworks Foundation in 2015 for just around $1.5 million million. The parcels were eyed for purchase by the school as early as 2013, nearly a decade ago. A UTHSC board committee said at the time they were interested in the buildings for “for the control and future use of the land base as anticipated in the UTHSC” master plan.
The school’s 2020 master plan said UTHSC’s new College of Medicine building will be “located at the southwest corner of Pauline and Madison on the old hotel site.”
UTHSC officials sought a developer in 2015 to transform the existing 12-story building into a hotel and conference center, according to a story at the time from The Daily News. While the school earned the approval to do so, it was apparently unable to find a develop for the project.
The building has been vacant ever since. This has earned the building criticism for years.
“UT is forever planning on developing that site but I wouldn’t hold my breath,” wrote u/tristanape on Reddit two years ago in a discussion of the building. “My understanding is the cost to knock it down and clear out the asbestos is just too much.”
That is at least partly true, according to Kurapati’s update on the project Monday.
“The reason it took a while is because there’s a lot of remediation work that needed to be done, clearly because it’s a very old building,” he told committee members. “There’s some asbestos, and other building practices, and materials that were used that call for us to be very diligent about making sure that we bring it down in a very safe and responsible manner.”
The most expensive item on the list of upcoming capital projects at UTHSC is a new Gross Anatomy Lab. Renovation work is now underway for the $30 million project on about 35,000 square feet of the school’s General Education Building.
Gross anatomy is the study of the human body’s structure visible to the naked eye like bones, muscles, and organs.
Also, expect a new fencing project to commence around UTHSC soon. That project is set to showcase the school in the community and to provide better security for parking lots that have seen some break-ins recently.
Four Nigerians were sentenced here to years in federal prison recently for their parts in a years-long, international romance scam.
Reagan Fondren, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, announced the sentences Tuesday. The group was indicted with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering in June 2023.
Those indicted were:
• Patrick Edah, 40, a Nigerian citizen residing in the Toronto, Canada area
• Efe Egbowawa, 41, a Nigerian citizen residing in the Atlanta area
• Igocha Mac-Okor, 40, a Nigerian citizen residing in the Atlanta area
• Kay Ozegbe, 44, a naturalized U.S. citizen residing in Atlanta
The group operated the conspiracy from 2017 to 2021. They assumed false identities on social media, gaming applications, dating websites, and other internet-based platforms to trick victims into entering friendships and romantic relationships. They then played various roles in exploiting those connections to convince individuals to send them money via wire, check, U.S. mail, and package delivery services.
Dozens of victims lost amounts ranging from several thousand dollars to several hundred thousand dollars. One victim in West Tennessee lost more than $400,000 to this scheme over the course of several months.
In the conspiracy, romance scammers or “handlers” posed as potential friends or romantic partners and entered online relationships with unwitting victims. The relationships usually developed quickly through social media contact, text messages, email, and phone calls.
Once the victim was clearly engaged in the scam, the scammer would begin to ask for emergency financial assistance. If the victim sent money, the scammer would ask for increasingly larger amounts of financial assistance.
Edah, Egbowawa, Mac-Okor, and Ozegbe functioned as “money mules” in the conspiracy. They worked in conjunction with other members of the conspiracy to move the financial proceeds of the scams through several layers of bank accounts and shell companies to hide the sources of the money and made it difficult to trace.
For their roles, Egbowawa was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison, Ozegbe was sentenced to 36 months, Edah and Mac-Okor were sentenced to 30 months and 50 months, respectively.
“These individuals used deception and fraud to prey on the vulnerable causing unmeasurable emotional damage and significant financial losses,” said Special Agent in Charge Joe Carrico of the FBI Nashville Field Office, Memphis Resident Agency.
