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.”
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.
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.
Bryant and Heather Bain and Ryan Glosson (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Rise and shine. Breakfast is almost ready.
Barksdale’s, the iconic eatery at 237 Cooper Street, is about to reopen after a fire in June 2024.
And I can’t wait.
“We’re hoping to open by the end of next month,” Bryant Bain says. “By the end of March.”
Bain, his wife Heather, and Ryan Glosson are the new owners of Barksdale’s. They’re also the owners of Bain Barbecue down the street at 993 Cooper Street in Cooper-Young.
Why did they want to buy Barksdale’s? “We’ve all eaten there,” Bryant says. “And it’s been in the community for so many years.”
When they heard Barksdale’s was going to close, they knew that couldn’t happen. It was, “Hey, if we can do something about it, we’re going to.”
They’re going to retain as much of the look and atmosphere of the old Barksdale’s as possible. “We’re trying to keep it feeling like it used to be.”
Barksdale’s in the early days (Photo: Courtsey Barksdale’s)
But, Heather adds, “They had a terrible fire. Because of grandfather laws and stuff, we had to redo the vast majority of it.”
They had to get “all new electric,” Bryant says. As well as “rebuild the bathrooms. The ceilings are new. All new light fixtures. Everything is new except the walls.”
They did save the bar and tables and chairs. “That kind of thing.”
Plates and cups were also saved, Heather says.
As for the employees, Bryant says, “They’re all invited to come back. Some of them obviously had to get other jobs.”
But, he says, “I know Miss Debbie [Miller] and Bert [McElroy] are coming back, for sure. Some kitchen staff are coming back.”
Asked what they ate when they used to visit Barksdale’s, Heather says, “I would just get eggs and bacon.”
Bryant got the plate lunch. “More of the veggies, to be honest.”
Customers can look for their favorites on the menu. “It’s going to be the same type of menu, but I’ve overhauled it to make it fresher,” Bryant says. “Everything is going to be homemade. A lot of things they were making out of bags. And I just don’t do that.”
Asked if they’re going to sell barbecue at Barksdale’s, Bryant says, “We will not be.”
In April 2024, I did a story about Barksdale’s, then known as Bob’s Barksdale Restaurant, for MemphisMagazine. This was my description of the place after I ate there that morning: “Every table is taken on my visit. Photos of smiling customers on memorabilia-covered walls look down on the smiling faces of customers talking and eating. Servers with coffee pots wind around tables pouring refills and taking orders.”
The original Barksdale Restaurant was at 227 South Barksdale Street, owner Beth Henry told me. The owner’s last name was Stamson, she said. He was from Greece.
The restaurant moved to where it is now around 1968. Stamson gave the restaurant to his son Jerry Stamson, who sold it to Bob Henry in 2000, Beth said. Bob changed the name to Bob’s Barksdale Restaurant.
Beth married Bob, who she got to know after she began visiting the restaurant from her job at an insurance company across the street. She took over the restaurant after Bob died.
“We were just friends for years,” Beth told me in my interview. “I’d come over and have coffee. Then I got to know people. And I got to know some of the servers. And then later on in life it worked out to where we ended up getting together and got married. I just knew that he was a good man.”
Not much was done to the interior after she took over, Beth told me. When she pondered the idea of sprucing the place up a bit after she bought it, she said, “You could hear the Midtown gasps: ‘No, no, no. We like it like that.’”
She said customers told her they began going to the Barksdale with their dad and now they bring their granddaughter.
Beth did say she had interior painting done when they were closed for 82 days during the pandemic. And then she had to repair the foyer after a car crashed into the front of the restaurant on June 26, 2022.
She said half the customers are college students. “We have some customers who have been coming here 30, 40 years. When we don’t see them, we start to worry.”
And she told me over the years, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and the filming of at least one short movie took place at the Barksdale.
“If you’re a nice person, you are welcome to be a part of our family.” (Photo: Courtesy Dru’s Bar)
Tami Montgomery calls herself someone who would have never considered buying a bar. In fact, while she may own a bar on paper, she doesn’t consider herself in the “bar business.”
“I’m in the community business,” she says. “Not just the gay community business — the Memphis community. I just want to leave it how I found it.”
Montgomery has been the owner of Dru’s Bar (1474 Madison Avenue) since 2008. And there’s a surprising story about how she came to be in either business in the first place. According to Montgomery, she got two separate phone calls on two different days, notifying her that the bar — known as The Jungle at that time — was for sale.
“I am not someone who ever, ever, considered buying a bar,” Montgomery says. “I’m not one of those people that would go out and have a drink and say, ‘Oh I’d like to own a bar sometime.’ That is not me.”
She says those phone calls felt like cosmic alignment. Taking guidance from that, Montgomery told the previous owner she wanted to purchase the building. Two weeks later, she quit her job to prepare to reopen.
“It was a bit of an out-of-the-blue experience, but I felt like it was the right decision, and I’ve been working at it ever since,” she says.
Dru’s has meant a lot of things to a lot of people who walk through the doors. While some may come in looking for a fun night out, others have found it to be a sanctuary of sorts.
“We’ve taken the approach that all nice people are welcome,” Montgomery says. “We couldn’t care less whether you’re gay, straight, Black, white — we don’t care. If you’re a nice person, you are welcome to be a part of our family.”
Dru’s was created as a space for people to be themselves and have fun — free of judgement. Those who frequent the bar have admitted it’s hard not to be drawn in by the welcoming environment. Aubrey Wallace — also known as Aubrey Ombre in drag — has been working at Dru’s for 15 years.
“For a lot of us [Dru’s has] been here for so long it’s more than just a bar — it’s home,” Wallace says. “It’s the only place we really have left we can fight for. This is where all of us started. This is forever going to be home, and we’re going to come together and keep it going no matter what.”
Montgomery notes Dru’s doesn’t have a lot of the problems that come with bar culture such as fights and brawls. Yet this doesn’t mean it’s exempt from the troubles many bars have faced since the pandemic.
“We’re just now starting to see the true fallout from all the Covid stuff and shutdowns,” Montgomery says. “All the bars and restaurants that have closed recently. I think we’re finally seeing that happen. It’s like, ‘We’ve held on as long as we can.’ Most people who own a small business have been in the same position. … Nothing has bounced back like we thought it would in the industry as a whole.”
Terry W. has helped organize an upcoming benefit for Dru’s. He notes that gay clubs in the area are dwindling after Atomic Rose’s closure last year, but adds that Dru’s incurred additional expenses when a brick was thrown through the window.
“Your safe places for the whole community, they’re kind of going away,” Terry says. “But Tami is working hard to not let that happen. She wants everybody to have a place.”
To help with its challenges, the bar will be hosting a Benefit Drag Bingo on February 23rd at 1 p.m. In addition to bingo, patrons can participate in raffles and a silent auction and purchase their own brick to sign at the bar. The event, hosted by Pat McCooter and Shyla Tucker, will also have live entertainment and a roast of Montgomery.
“There’s been so much that Tami has done,” Terry says. “We want to come back and help her. She has been there for everybody — it’s time everybody comes for her.”
Richard Ross, John and Suzanne Scharff, and Deborah Ross (Photos: Michael Donahue)
Guests were all heart at Works of Heart, the Memphis Child Advocacy Center fundraiser presented by Stern Cardiovascular. The art auction and party was held Saturday, February 8th, at the Memphis Botanic Garden.
Chloe Haynes and Will TaylorDebbie Eddlestone and Steven GubinMurray Riss and Shanna RissVirginia Stallworth, Richard Wood, James Hay, and Kevin ScottBennett Foster, Nubia Yasin, and Lawrence Matthews
“Works of Heart was a record-breaking success,” says Beryl Wight, the center’s communications and grants manager. “We had 122 artists — a record — and raised over $139,000 [also a record].”
Alexandra Eastburn, George Williford, Donna Williford, and Juston Williford
This was the third year at the Memphis Botanic Garden, Wight says. Between 300 and 350 people attended the event.
Robyn and Joe BirchSteve MulroyKristi Goldsmith and Mike AlabasterSonal Mehr, Sujit Mehr, Swati Chokshi, and Saurin ChokshiDoug Wright, Lucas Skinner, and Rick Bartl
Now in its 33rd year, Works of Heart’s first beneficiary was the Mental Health Association. After it closed, the Memphis Child Advocacy Center became the beneficiary.
Tracy Thomas and Burton BridgesDavid Driscoll and Gloria DoddsSusanna Souliere and Toni CrutchfieldJeanne and David SimmonsDJ Alpha Whiskey
Longtime Works of Heart supporter Murray Riss was at this year’s event with his wife Karen and daughter Shanna. “Murray was part of the planning committee that brought the event to us,” Wight says, adding, “He certainly is a very important contributor, serving as chair and co-chair for many years. And, of course, he still is a contributing artist.”
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.
Anthony Mackie takes up the shield as Captain America in the hot garbage that is Brave New World.
While watching Captain America: Brave New World, I had a realization that Disney will be making Marvel movies for the rest of my life.
There have been 35 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) since Iron Man debuted way back in 2008. This is not exactly a new phenomenon in the hundred-plus years of commercial filmmaking. There have been 52 movies and serials starring Tarzan, beginning with Tarzan of the Apes made by the National Film Corporation of America in 1918, and continuing until 2016’s The Legend of Tarzan.
But MCU pictures are a different beast. Tarzan was a guy who lived in the jungle with Jane (star of 1934’s Tarzan and His Mate), who solved jungle-style problems, which differed from year to year (he fought the Leopard Woman, found the magic fountain, etc.). The MCU presents a unified story, now at more than 60 hours long — at least theoretically. But what happens when you’re telling a unified story, and you get to the part called Endgame, but you want to keep going for, say, 13 or 14 more movies?
The answer that Captain America: Brave New World suggests is, you flail until you fail.
Reader, I try to go into every film with an open mind. If it’s a genre I don’t generally care for, I try to evaluate it on its own terms. Is the film succeeding in what it’s trying to do, even if I don’t like what it’s trying to do? But the MCU is mightily trying my patience. What is Captain America: Brave New World even trying to do? It doesn’t know.
Actually, that’s not true. Executive Producer Kevin Feige is trying to make money for his corporate overlords, and, judging from the $190 million opening weekend, he will likely succeed. But that’s not your problem, or your win. You want to see a well-made, entertaining movie. Captain America: Brave New World is not that.
That’s a shame because the previous Captain America stories had been some of the highlights of MCU. Chris Evans hung up the shield at the end of Avengers: Endgame, when Steve Rogers chose to use the time travel tech that won the Infinity War to go back to the 1940s and romance Peggy Carter. He tapped Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon (aka Anthony Mackie) to be his successor. When we pick up with Sam, it’s after the events of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier miniseries, which aired on Disney+. (I know nothing about that part of the story because it contained my least favorite Marvel character of all time, Bucky Barnes.) He’s down in Mexico, leading Seal Team 6 on a mission to recover a mysterious package from the clutches of the Serpent Society, led by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito). What starts as a simple MacGuffin retrieval immediately goes south. The buyer for the package declined to show up to the rendezvous, and the frustrated Sidewinder is taking out his frustrations on a group of nuns. While Captain America (who, the film reveals, speaks both Spanish and Japanese) saves the clergy, his new sidekick Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez), who has taken up the mantle of the Falcon (which is to say, Sam’s old super-suit) retrieves the package.
Afterwards, Cap and Falcon are summoned to an audience with the new president, Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross (Harrison Ford). Ross was one of the bad guys in The Incredible Hulk (2008), when he was played by the late William Hurt. But now, he’s shaved his mustache, cleaned up his reputation, and won the election as a reformer. Sam is naturally suspicious of the guy who has always had his own agenda of personal ambition, but now he’s the president, so it’s Captain America’s duty to obey orders. At least that’s how this Cap interprets his role.
President Ross reveals his plan for world peace, or something like it. The giant Celestial monster that tried to emerge from the Earth during the climax of The Eternals ended up as a stone head and hand protruding from the Indian Ocean. It turns out, the package Cap and Falcon were sent to retrieve is a sample taken by the Japanese which proves Celestial Island is extremely rich in adamantium, the fictional super-metal that Wolverine’s claws and skeleton are made of. Unlike vibranium, the other super-metal whose sole source is controlled by Wakanda, the adamantium reserves are up for grabs because the terra nova of Celestial Island belongs to no one. Rather than risk a war, President Ross is trying to negotiate a treaty that will share the new super-resource with the world.
While Ross is making his presentation, an assassination squad led by Sam’s mentor Isaiah Bradley, himself a product of postwar super soldier research, tries to shoot him. Now, Captain America has to a) find out who’s behind the assassination attempt while b) clearing his friend Isaiah’s name and c) preventing a war. Director Julius Onah and his five credited writers have a lot of goals to fulfill, and they attempt it by shuffling Cap and his ever expanding cast of sidekicks through a series of incoherent battles and strained conversations.
The Captain America movies have been showcases for some of the best action sequences the MCU has produced, such as the famous airport confrontation in Civil War. Nothing attempted here even comes close to that standard. I will applaud Brave New World for not attempting the Marvel Third Act, where our heroes fight a large number of faceless adversaries. Instead, Cap faces off against the Red Hulk (who, it must be noted, is not even the primary villain) in D.C.’s cherry blossom orchard. This sounds great on paper, but it looks like absolute ass. Maybe it’s the extensive reported reshoots leading to a rushed final assembly, but this film feels like three or four films haphazardly spliced together. Mackie is game, clearly giving the role his all, but he never stands a chance because the material is hot garbage. I have trouble faulting Onah, as he is the latest in a series of semi-disposable helmers appointed as scapegoats. Brave New World bears the mark of a film made by feuding, status-obsessed middle managers. This is not filmmaking; it’s brand management disguised as entertainment.
Captain America: Brave New World Now playing Multiple locations
Groundbreaking of Alliance’s Children and Youth Crisis Center (Photo: Jake Sanders )
Last Friday, Alliance Healthcare Services held the opening of its new 24/7 Crisis Wellness Center on Broad Avenue, the final product of a $34 million project that broke ground in September of 2023. Along with 18 other locations, Alliance says it serves “as Shelby County’s only countywide mental health facility.” The organization also works to promote wellness and mental health awareness in Memphis.
A group of representatives attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, including Mark Billingsley (executive director of the Alliance Foundation), Laurie Powell (Alliance Healthcare Services CEO), and Marie Williams (commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services). Local officials including Mayor Paul Young and Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis also attended the ceremony.
Alliance’s expansion addresses a larger issue of mental health in Tennessee. According to the University of Memphis’ SMART Center, “There is a serious known mental health workforce shortage.” Further, “approximately 60 percent of Tennessee residents who need mental health services do not receive treatment.” A majority of these residents are located in rural and urban underserved areas where mental health support is not present.
Alliance opened just over 40 years ago. They provide outpatient mental health services, addiction recovery services, and crisis services for the Memphis community. According to their LinkedIn, they employ “more than 350 caring, licensed professionals.”
During her speech, Powell described how Alliance partners with first responders to direct arrested/detained individuals to proper care and treatment. She said Alliance “divert[s] around 400 people a year or more” from misdemeanor jail time. Once again, Alliance’s work is touching on a much greater issue: “About two in five people who are incarcerated have a history of mental illness (37 percent in state and federal prisons and 44 percent held in local jails),” according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Powell announced how the new crisis center will be “the only detox facility in Shelby County that serves the uninsured.” Anyone in need of crisis services can get immediate care and attention, regardless of their income or socioeconomic status. The SMART Center reports, “Common barriers to treatment … include stigma, lack of insurance, and limited availability of providers.” Alliance has structured their services to help combat these barriers.
A large number of benefactors helped fund the new Crisis Wellness Center. Alliance received $7 million from Tennessee and will continue to receive $4.4 million in annual funding. Other contributors include the city of Memphis, Day Foundation, First Horizon Foundation, Assisi Foundation of Memphis, and others. Billingsley also noted “angel” philanthropists who have donated to the project.
The February 14th opening also marked the groundbreaking of Alliance’s new Children and Youth Crisis Center, located next to the new Crisis Wellness Center. This is part of a greater movement to address the need for youth mental health services and awareness in Memphis. A SMART Center study, conducted pre-Covid, found that “22.3 percent of youth had scores indicative of clinical depressive symptoms, which is higher than the 13.2 percent estimated prevalence of youth depression.” During his announcement of the youth crisis center, Billingsley emphasized that Alliance aims to serve everyone, “from 4 years old to 100 years old.” The Children and Youth Crisis Center is set to open in early 2026.
Alliance’s new Crisis Wellness Center will be in full operation on February 25th. This marks a “new day for mental health in Memphis and Shelby County,” said Billingsley, but “our work is not over.”
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].”
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.
