Corinne Knight at recent
Science of Wine event at
Museum of Science & History (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Those still bemoaning the closing of the Grecian Gourmet Taverna on South Main can rejoice. They can still get all those popular Greek dishes in frozen or packaged form online or in grocery stores through Grecian Gourmet Kitchen.
They began selling their Greek fare about nine years ago at the St. Jude Farmers Market, says Grecian Gourmet Kitchen president/CEO Corinne Knight. “We sold our classic humus, feta dip, pita chips, and all your Greek dishes — spanakopita, pastitsio, and moussaka,” she says.
Her dad’s (Frank Sousoulas) side of the family is Greek, so they have “all these bulk recipes” from Easter, Christmas, and birthday family gatherings that drew 69 to 80 people to their home. “All of these recipes are a combination of [ones from] my grandmother, great aunts, and a lot of the ladies at the church. My mom and my grandmother took a lot of pieces of different recipes they liked and they made them their own.”
They sold at all of the farmers markets for about two years before they opened their restaurant in spring 2018. Grecian Gourmet Taverna, which was owned by Knight, her mother Jo Beth Graves, and Knight’s stepfather Jeff Watkins, was “very popular,” she says. “We were very busy pretty much up until Covid. During Covid we really transitioned to a lot of corporate catering. And you didn’t have consistent foot traffic Downtown anymore.”
They began focusing on retail and preparing large-scale catering items, including box lunches for 300 people. ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital asked them to begin serving their food on the St. Jude campus. “I realized that shifting to corporate catering would give us a much better work-life balance as well as just be far more cost-efficient to do.”
Instead of renewing their lease on South Main, they closed the restaurant in December 2022 and in February 2023 opened their Grecian Gourmet Kitchen manufacturing/shipping center in Bartlett.
They’re considering opening the center as a grab-and-go at some point, but, for now, they’re “building out corporate catering and not having customers come in. … Everything that is in the grocery stores is made there, as well.”
In addition to catering one week a month at St. Jude’s Kaye Cafe, Grecian Gourmet Kitchen frozen foods and other items are sold at Cordelia’s Market, Superlo Foods on Spottswood Avenue, High Point Grocery, South Point Grocery, Buster’s Liquors & Wines, Buster’s Butcher, Curb Side Casseroles, Katie’s Kitchen, and Oh Grate!
Pita chips, dips, and pasta salads are their most popular items, Knight says.
Their gyro and rice bowl bars, which can serve 60 to 80 people, are popular corporate catering items. “The gyro bar is pita bread and a protein of lamb, chicken, or vegetables, and it has onions, lettuce, tzatziki, and everything to build your own gyro.” The rice bowl bar includes garlic rice, sautéed vegetables, and choice of protein along with the extras that go on the gyros.
As for new website offerings, Knight says, “We’ve added Greek chicken pot pie — kotopita. It’s Greek baked chicken, onion, celery, and white wine in a béchamel and baked between filo.”
They also added a “gluten-free vegan pasta salad and gluten-free vegetarian pastitsio.” The latter includes gluten-free noodles, egg, and butter. “And the sauce is eggplant, tomato, red wine, cinnamon, and nutmeg with a gluten-free béchamel.”
Items can be ordered at thegreciangourmet.com.
They are currently testing their chickpea salad at Cordelia’s Market. “It’s chickpeas, red onions, bell pepper, feta, and tomato tossed in our vinaigrette.”
And they’re trying to figure out how to offer other items, including a gluten-free spanakopita and gluten-free moussaka.
They’ve talked about opening another restaurant, but that’s something she’d consider when her children are a lot older, Knight says. “Because my oldest pretty much grew up at farmers markets and restaurants. While fun, it’s not great for a kid to only see their mom at work.”
Her husband Caleb is a firefighter, she says. “A lot of days he was at work and our eldest was having to come to work with me. … I know people really like our food, but I want to be able to hang with our kids a little bit more before we do that.”
Tennessee Republicans cannot stand the federal government telling them what to do — especially when a Democrat’s in the White House — but they do love telling Tennessee’s biggest cities what to do.
Republicans cry “overreach,” in general, when the feds “impose” rules that “overrule the will of the people of Tennessee.” (All of those quoted words came from just one statement on abortion from Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, who yells “overreach!” the loudest.) But they call it “preemption” when they do it to Memphis and Nashville — their favorite targets — leaving big-city locals to bemoan that same overreach.
When punching up at the federal government, Tennessee conservatives send angry letters to the president lamenting rules they have to follow to get big “seductive” tax dollars. But they don’t often win much in this process.
When they punch down at cities, the power struggle really comes down to rural conservatives exerting whatever influence they have to temper (squash) the sometimes “woke” ideas of urban progressives. They have a lot of power to do this, as state law does, usually, preempt local law.
So, Republicans do what they want in the Tennessee General Assembly and say, “See you in court,” because cities don’t typically give up their authority without a legal fist fight. (This happens so much state Democrats say Republicans pass lawsuits, not laws.)
But cities lose these fights often. Some of that is thanks to the powerful state AG’s office, who gets in the ring for state conservatives. That office has even more punching power with a brand-new $2.25 million, 10-member unit. It force-feeds conservative priorities in Tennessee cities and blocks D.C.’s liberal agenda.
Here’s an example of this double-edged subversion: Skrmetti, the Republican AG, cried “overreach” when a 2022 USDA rule said LGTBQ kids had to have access to lunch at school. But when Memphis and Nashville tried to decriminalize cannabis in 2016, a state Republican said, “You just can’t have cities creating their own criminal code, willy-nilly.”
Same coin. Two sides. Yes, state law rules most times, but the premise of the argument is the same. State citizens and city locals know what’s best for them and pick their leaders accordingly. Then, an outsider who, maybe, doesn’t share their values, swoops in to make locals comply with theirs. It’s like, “Hi, you don’t know me but you’re doing it wrong and are going to do it my way.”
In this game, Memphis has been on the ropes at the legislature this year. State Republicans want to take away some of the power from the Shelby County district attorney. They want to remove a Memphis City Council decision on when Memphis Police Department (MPD) officers make traffic stops. They also wanted to dilute local control of the Memphis-Shelby County School (MSCS) board with members appointed by the governor. But they decided against it. Details on many of these and some from the past are below.
Meanwhile, some Republican lawmakers have looked up, wondering if they could really cut ties with the federal government. They took a serious, hard look at giving up $1 billion in federal education funding for state schools. They wanted to do it “the Tennessee way.” Left to guess what that meant, many concluded they hoped to eschew national discrimination protections for LGBTQ students.
This year, a state Republican hopes to establish state sovereignty. He wants to draw a clear line between state and fed powers and to install a committee to watch that line. It’s not a new idea, but it’s always had “don’t tread on me” vibes.
The road from Memphis City Hall, to the State Capitol, to Congress and the White House is littered with complaints (usually court papers) about political subversion. All the hollering and legal fights along the way have to leave voters wondering, who’s got the power?
Steve Mulroy (Photo: Steve Mulroy | Facebook)
District Attorney Power Battle
A legal battle over who has the power to decide on some death penalty cases has been waged since Republicans passed a bill here last year.
That bill stripped local control of post-conviction proceedings from local district attorneys and gave it to Skrmetti, the state AG. In Memphis, the bill seemed largely aimed at Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy, with some concerned he may be lenient for those facing the death penalty.
“This sudden move appears to be a response to the choices of voters in both Davidson County and Shelby County, who elected prosecutors to support more restorative and less punitive policies,” Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty said at the time.
Larry McKay, who received two death sentences for the murders of two store clerks in Shelby County in 1981, requested a court review of previously unexamined evidence in his case. Despite the new law, McKay’s attorney sought to disqualify Skremtti’s office from reviewing the case because he was not elected.
His attorney argued the new law infringes on the responsibilities of local district attorneys. The big changes made in the legislation also violated the state constitution, the attorney said.
Mulroy agreed.
“The newly enacted statute is an unconstitutional effort to divest and diminish the authority granted to Tennessee’s district attorneys general by the Tennessee Constitution,” Mulroy said at the time. “The new statute violates the voting rights of such voters because it strips material discretion from district attorneys, who are elected by the qualified voters of the judicial district.”
But state attorneys did not agree.
“The General Assembly was entitled to take that statuary power away from the district attorneys and give it to the Attorney General in capital cases,” reads the court document. “They have done just that and their mandate must be followed.”
But in July Shelby County Judge Paula Skahan ruled the Republican legislation did violate the state constitution. New arguments on the case were heard by the Tennessee Criminal Court of Appeals earlier this month. No ruling was issued as of press time. However, an appeal of that ruling seems inevitable, likely pushing the case to the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Pretextual Stops
State Republicans are actively trying to undermine a unanimous decision of the Memphis City Council to stop police from pulling over motorists for minor things like a broken taillight, a loose bumper, and more.
This council move came three months after MPD officers beat and killed Tyre Nichols, who was stopped for a minor traffic infraction. The local law is called the Driving Equality Act in Honor of Tyre Nichols.
Council members said police time could be better spent, that the stops expose more people to the criminal justice system, and, as in the Nichols’ case, could be dangerous. The stops also disproportionately affect Black people, who make up about 64 percent of Memphis’ population but receive 74 percent of its traffic tickets, according to Decarcerate Memphis.
The council’s decision made national headlines. But it found no favor with Republican lawmakers.
Rep. John Gillespie (R-Bartlett) introduced a controversial bill this year that would end that practice and reestablish state control over local decisions on criminal justice.
“We’re simply saying a state law that’s been on the books for decades is what we’re going by here,” Gillespie told Tennessee Lookout earlier this month. “And if there are people that have problems with what state law is, then maybe they should change state law instead of enacting local ordinances that are in conflict with state law.”
He initially cooled on the matter, promising to pause his bill for further review after Nichols’ parents spoke at a press conference.
“I am just appalled by what Republicans are trying to do in this state,” Nichols’ father, Rodney Wells, said at the event.
Gillespie promised Nichols’ family he’d hold the bill but surprised many earlier this month when he brought it to the House floor for a vote, which it won. Some said Gillespie acted in bad faith. State Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) said he straight-up lied to Nichols’ family and subverted local power to boot.
“You, as a person who lives in Shelby County, seek to undo the will of the people of Memphis and Shelby County,” Pearson said on the House floor. “The Wells family spoke with him briefly; he told them this bill wouldn’t come up until probably next Thursday.”
The Senate approved the bill last Thursday. It now heads to Gov. Lee for signature.
Six school board members for Memphis-Shelby County Schools met with three state lawmakers representing Memphis on Feb. 14, 2024, at the state Capitol. Their agenda included pending legislation from Rep. Mark White and Sen. Brent Taylor, both Republicans, to authorize Gov. Bill Lee to appoint additional members to the board. (Photo: Courtesy Memphis-Shelby County Schools | Chalkbeat)
MSCS School Board
State Republicans want to control schools here, too.
Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis), chair of the House Education Committee, filed a bill earlier this year that would add six governor-appointed members (read: more Republican influence) to the MSCS board. When he filed the legislation, he said he was unimpressed with the slate of those vying for the district’s superintendent job and concerned about students falling behind state standards on reading and math.
“I’m very concerned about the district’s direction, and I just can’t sit back any longer,” White told Chalkbeat Tennessee. “I think we’re at a critical juncture.”
However, MSCS board chair Althea Greene said at the time that White’s proposal was unnecessary.
“We may have had some challenges, but more interference from the General Assembly is not warranted at this time,” she said. “We have to stop experimenting with our children.”
Since then, the MSCS board chose Marie Feagins as the district’s superintendent and she got to work early, before her contract was supposed to start. Also, White paused his bill earlier this month to give board members a chance to submit an improvement plan. White said the plan should show how they’ll improve on literacy, truancy, graduation rates, teacher recruitment, underutilized school buildings, and a backlog of building maintenance needs, among other things, according to Chalkbeat.
While it’s the newest move in state “overreach” into schools here, it’s hardly the first. State Republicans once seized dozens of schools in Memphis and Nashville as laboratories for what they called “Achievement School Districts.” After more than a decade, these schools only angered locals, showed abysmal student performance, and now seem to be on their way out.
Cannabis
For six weeks back in 2016, Memphis City Council members debated a move that would have decriminalized possession of small amounts of cannabis in the city.
Hundreds were (and are) arrested each year on simple possession charges, and most of those arrested were (and are) Black. Council members didn’t want cannabis legalization; they wanted to steer folks away from the criminal justice system. They hoped to keep them out of jail and avoid a criminal record, which could hurt their chances at housing, employment, and more.
The city council — even though some had reservations about it — said yes to this. So did the Nashville Metropolitan Council. State Republicans said no.
Upon their return to the Capitol in 2017, they got to work ensuring their control over local decisions on the matter. A bill to strip this control easily won support in the legislature and was signed by then-Gov. Bill Haslam, who said he acted on the will of state lawmakers.
“You just can’t have cities creating their own criminal code, willy-nilly,” Rep. William Lamberth (R-Cottontown), the bill’s House sponsor, told The Tennessean at the time.
Then-Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery issued an opinion that said, basically, cities can’t make laws that preempt state law. With that, Memphis resumed regular enforcement of cannabis laws.
Ranked Choice Voting
In two elections — 2008 and 2018 — Memphians chose how they wanted to pick their politicians, but they never got a chance to use it. State Republicans said no.
Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) would have allowed voters here to rank candidates on a ballot, doing away with the need for run-off elections that always see lower voter turnout. It was new and different but voters here “decided, over and over again, to give it a try,” reads a Commercial Appeal op-ed from 2022 by Mark Luttrell, former Shelby County mayor, and Erika Sugarmon, now a Shelby County commissioner.
However, state Republicans then-Sen. Brian Kelsey (R-Germantown) and Rep. Nathan Vaughan (R-Collierville) filed a bill to upend the voters’ decision for good with a bill to end RCV in Tennessee. Kelsey said it was about voter clarity. Opponents said it was about more.
“If the bill passes, it will disrespect Memphis voters, make a mockery of local control,” Luttrell and Sugarmon said in the op-ed.
In the end, the state won. The bill passed and RCV was banned, with added support and sponsorship of Memphis Democrats Rep. Joe Towns Jr. and the late Rep. Barbara Cooper.
State Sovereignty
“So, you hoe in your little garden and stay out of our garden,” said Rep. Bud Hulsey (R-Kingsport).
He was explaining to the House Public Service Committee last year how the country’s founders designed the separation of powers between the state and the federal governments, how it was supposed to work, anyway.
But federal government agencies — not elected officials — issue rules pushed on to “we, the people,” he said. They tear families apart. They split marriages. They end lifelong friendships, he said. They bring bankruptcy and suicide. He gave no more details than that. But he was sick of it and said the bill he brought would fix it.
When some Republicans here aren’t busy in committee or court, rending control from local governments, they like to think about state sovereignty. They want to defend Tennessee from the feds, especially when a Democrat is in the White House. They want to know what the exact rules are and to tell D.C. “don’t tread on me.”
Since at least 1995, bills like these have been filed here and there in the state legislature. There’s a new one pending now. In them, “sovereignty” sometimes sounds like a preamble to “secession.”
Hulsey’s bill didn’t go that far. He really wanted to set out a way to nullify D.C. rules he didn’t like. Lee’s office was against it, though. Senate Republicans were, too. The idea failed to even get a review in the Republican-packed Senate State and Local Government Committee. Conservatives worried “nullification” could also nullify big federal tax dollars.
That 1995 bill demanded, “The federal government, as our agent, to cease and desist, effective immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of its constitutionally delegated powers.” Another Republican sovereignty bill later would have voided the powers of any representative of the United Nations once they entered the state.
One in 2014 (that was signed by the governor) simply expressed the state’s sovereignty to set educational standards. A 2016 bill said the feds “seduce” states to go along with their new rules with federal funds they treat as grants, not as tax funds for the state. Another in 2013 would have formed a committee to see what financial and legal troubles could be in store for Tennessee if it scaled back or quit the “state’s participation in the various federal programs.”
Ten years later, this idea is back. The “Tennessee State Sovereignty Act of 2024” would form a 10-person committee to watch and see if any federal rule violates the Tennessee State Constitution. If it does, “it is the duty of both the residents of this state and the General Assembly to resist.”
Now, if that don’t say “don’t tread on me” …
In the Senate, the bill was deferred until near the end of session (usually meaning they’ll get to it if they can). A House review of the idea was slated for this week, after press time.
Education Funding
Sovereignty bills rarely go anywhere but in talking points for reelection campaigns.
However, last year high-ranking Republicans took state sovereignty a step beyond rattling a saber. They announced a bold plan to have a serious look at if and how Tennessee could cut ties with the feds and their $1 billion in education funding. If it did, Tennessee would have been the first state in history to decline such funds.
“We as a state can lead the nation once again in telling the federal government that they can keep their money and we’ll just do things the Tennessee way,” House Speaker Rep. Cameron Sexton said at an event in February last year.
He didn’t outline what the “Tennessee way” entailed, though he complained about testing mandates and strings attached to funding. Many said the big federal string Republicans wanted to cut was the one attached to Title IX mandates. Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that get federal money. The Biden administration has promised an update to these that could strengthen protections for LGTBQ students.
Tennessee has passed more anti-LGBTQ laws than any other state, according to the Human Rights Campaign. The week of March 4th alone, 18 such bills were before state lawmakers and targeted diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; made it easier to ban books; and attempted to legalize discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
State Republicans have passed bills to mandate transgender students only play on sports teams that match their gender at birth. They have mandated which bathrooms trans people have to use (a decision struck down by a federal judge). They’ve allowed teachers to go unpunished if they refuse to use pronouns that students identify with. They’ve wanted certain books with LGBTQ themes banned at school. They’ve wanted LGBTQ, especially gender identity, issues banned from discussion in sex-ed classes. This list goes on and on.
However, the precise motive for looking into cutting those federal education dollars was never stated. Some said it was always good to review the relationship between nation and state. In the end, Republicans spent a lot of time and money to research the idea but set it aside. They took the federal money and the strings attached anyway. But taking it so seriously was maybe that “don’t tread on me snake” just shaking its rattle.
“Deep in my Soul”
Separation of powers is a doubled-edge sword. It’s that cartoon drawing of a big fish eating a small fish that is getting eaten by the even bigger fish. It’s a “layer cake” form of federalism.
Call it what you will, but it’s clear locals want to make their own decisions. For Hulsey, the Republican talking about who tends whose garden, the idea runs deep.
“I stood up on that House floor over there a few weeks ago and we raised our hand, and we swore to 7 million people in this state, we swore not that we would rake in all the federal money we could get,” Hulsey told committee members. “We swore that we would always defend the inalienable rights of Tennessee people by defending and upholding the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Tennessee.
“We should not be for sale. I want to tell you that deep in my soul, I have a conviction that is deep-seated. I believe that if state legislatures in this country do not stand up and hold the federal government to obey the Constitution of the United States, we could very easily lose this republic.”
Jim Strickland (Photo: Aspaan-19 | Wikimedia |
Creative Commons)
The news is out that Jim Strickland — recently the two-term mayor of Memphis and before that a member of the city council — is the prime candidate to become the next dean of law at the University of Memphis.
There are those who would see that outcome, the appointment of a non-academic, as something strange, or at the very least, untypical. To disabuse themselves of that notion, they should think no further than the name of the institution Strickland would accede to the head of — the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.
The eponymous Humphreys, though, strictly speaking, no academic, achieved his early renown as the head football coach of Memphis State College in the prewar years of 1939-41. He later served as the school’s athletic director. Still later, Humphreys would become president of Memphis State itself, which under his leadership would become the super-charged multi-disciplinary University of Memphis.
Hence, and quite appropriately, his name graces the university’s school of law, which for years led all degree-granting schools of law in Tennessee in the important metric of the percentage of its graduates passing the bar exam, but now, reportedly, has fallen somewhat off that mark.
Could Strickland, who lobbied for the job, be the right man to lead the law school into its next period of achievement and growth?
Consider that he owns a Juris Doctor degree from the law school and currently serves as an adjunct professor there. And though, like any politician, he has his detractors, his service at the helm of Memphis city government was deemed satisfactory enough by his constituents to gain him two full terms and to generate the momentum for a referendum which, had it passed, would have enabled a third.
Consider, further, that Strickland is the first Memphis mayor in almost half a century to leave that office altogether on his own terms. Not since the late Wyeth Chandler resigned the office in 1982 to become a judge had a Memphis mayor clearly done that.
Chandler’s successor, Dick Hackett, was defeated for reelection in 1991 by Willie Herenton, who in his turn was elected five times before bowing to various pressures and resigning in the middle of his fifth term. (“Retired” is how Herenton put it, and arguably he too departed voluntarily, though, to say the least, his tenure had become shaky.)
Next up was Mayor AC Wharton, who served from 2009 until he was upset by Strickland in the election of 2015.
To be sure, Strickland, who once served as chair of the Shelby County Democratic Party, was formally censured by that party this year on account of his support for the political campaigns of assorted Republicans, but, all things considered, his exercising of bipartisan options as a nonpartisan official probably boosted his stock rather than diminished it.
The case for a Strickland appointment was further fortified surely by a study sent to all faculty members by David Russomanno, the university’s provost for academic affairs.
The document, “Non-Traditional Law Deans: Their Experiences and Those of the Law Schools that Hired Them” by one Timothy Fisher, underscored the striking number of such appointees and their successes in office.
Few musicians are as familiar around town as the indefatigable Graham Winchester, the drummer/multi-instrumentalist who plays with the Sheiks, Jack Oblivian, Turnstyles, Devil Train, the MD’s, and a few others. Along the way, he founded Blast Habit Records with Lori McStay and her late husband, Jared, and is now producing other artists — like Cheyenne Marrs — in his home studio. Yet that last achievement, ironically enough, was only made possible by the quarantine years of Covid, when Winchester was forced to relax the furious pace of his gigging schedule and delve into himself more, writing and recording songs entirely on his own. Now the product of that time is emerging as an LP, Nobody Waters the Flowers, on Red Curtain Records, and Winchester’s gearing up for a record release show at Bar DKDC on March 22nd.
The album has been available on streaming platforms since December of 2022, and, given the album’s provenance, it’s understandable that he was impatient to get it out in the world well before it could exist on vinyl. For this record is a document of another time, the lockdown prompted by Covid and those trepidatious months that followed it, from 2020-2021.
“I think that in the isolation of the shutdown era of the pandemic, anything I was writing was for me. I didn’t even know if there was going to be a future of playing on stage with my friends anytime soon,” Winchester says now. “The songs came from an intimate, personal place and most of them were written and recorded between 2020 and 2021. And a lot of them come out of a place of self-reflection, and reflection about the world we live in. Not being able to be busy made me meditate and think about my own life more.”
Song titles like “Quietly,” “Coming Down,” and “I’ll Be Sad With You” evoke Winchester’s frame of mind at the time. “It was a necessary slowdown for me, personally,” he says. “Obviously, I wish there was no Covid and no isolation, but I made the most of it, I guess.”
Indeed, many families untouched by Covid directly found more quality time during lockdown, and the Winchesters were no different. “There’s a song on the album called ‘From the Start’ that I’m singing directly to my children. And that was inspired from being around my boys all day every day for the first time. Since they’d been born, I’d spent any waking moment I could with them, but I’m a busy guy, a busy dad. To be able to just sit in the backyard on a picnic blanket with my sons brought us so much closer to each other.”
Other songs are not as bound to Winchester’s own life, but spring from his penchant for the pure craft of writing. “‘Nobody Waters the Flowers’ is more of a story song,” Winchester says. “That’s me trying to get into that old country music storytelling zone. ‘Can’t You See?’ as well — sort of like The Band’s approach, or even Creedence Clearwater Revival’s.”
While the album does include the odd garage stomper like “Lab Rat,” listeners who largely associate Winchester with the amped-up sounds of Jack Oblivian or Turnstyles may be in for a surprise. Yet he’s actually been cultivating his quieter side for some time now, often leading songwriter nights at Bar DKDC. The way Winchester tells it, the less raucous approach is really at the core of his compositional style.
“I’ll usually even write Turnstyles songs on the acoustic in sort of a folky way,” he says. “And then I’ll bring it to Seth [Moody] and go, ‘I need help rocking this up.’ So we might put a more aggressive beat on it, he puts his distorted, Jaguar guitar surf-ness on it, and then it becomes this rock song. But when I approach songwriting I think, ‘Is this a song that can be played in any style? Do the lyrics and the chords stand up on their own, to where anybody can adapt it?’ I’m not a huge riff songwriter. I like to start with melodies and chords. And a lot of times I’m writing on piano. I’m really coming at it from a songwriting standpoint, where the song can be taken any kind of way.”
It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch
a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway
into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak
— Mary Oliver, “Praying”
Sometimes I stop on my neighborhood walks to caress the moss carpeting the arm of a mighty magnolia that reaches toward the sidewalk. As spring approaches (which, as I write this, officially begins today), the buds and blossoms intoxicate my senses — the sweet smell of blooming dogwoods and the bright hues of newly flowering gardens speckling the way. One might consider these moments something like prayer — a pause to appreciate things often missed in the hurriedness of human life.
The signs of spring as spotted on a recent walk (Photo: Shara Clark)
Last week, I noted the many dandelions and clover patches dotting the edges of the walkways on my route. I’ve never been too good at finding four-leaf clovers, but occasionally I’ll stop and scan for one. After passing several over the course of a mile, a particular patch called to me and broke my stride. I took a few steps back to get a closer look, and as soon as my gaze focused on the clovers, there it was — a four-leaf! But then, wait — another, and another, and another. It felt like I’d hit the jackpot. Moving my eyes and fingers along the puffs of green, it seemed every other clover was a lucky one. I plucked until I hit seven. I’m not sure why, but that was the number. Although I knew in my gut there were more; I’d leave those for someone else who took the time to look down. It filled me with warmth, perhaps something like a response to prayer, a sign in the silence that I was on my right path that day.
Yesterday, as the temperature dropped before what I hope was the last frost of the season, I saw from my porch a mama squirrel carrying her baby in her mouth. Mama scurried quickly across a lattice portion of my side fence, with baby curled in a ball hanging by the scruff of its neck. I assume she was transporting the wee one to a safer or warmer nest, as I read they’re known to relocate. Her acrobatics were impressive, toting a baby a third of her size as she jumped down, ran, and leaped to the top of the wooden fence across the yard, tight-roping the height of it and only stopping every few feet to secure baby in her grip. Having never seen such a thing in my decades on Earth, a warm feeling washed over me watching this gentle moment unfold. A representation of love and protection, nature and nurture.
Once the squirrels disappeared from view, I let my own furry creatures outside to play. My dogs Frances and Steve enjoy sunbathing on these longer days, and happily munching away at the creeping ivy, sniffing the tiny blue violets, or rolling around in the now lush grass.
I’ve never been too good at praying, and elaborate words may escape me most days. But I do see the beauty in the weeds and stones, in the moss and magnolias. And witnessing this rebirth — this voice of spring — is something like prayer.
If you identify as a geek, nerd, gamer, cosplayer, or anything of that ilk, you’d best head out to the MidSouthCon, where you’ll be in paradise. Over the course of three days, guests will enjoy gaming, panels, meet-and-greets, workshops, vendors, an art show, and more.
“MidSouthCon is the single largest gaming event that will happen [in the region],” says Denise Hager, head of gaming and marketing. “It runs like a mini Comic Con.” Begun in 1982, MidSouthCon initially focused on science-fiction literature, but since then, Hager says, “it’s become a little bit of everything that’s kind of fandom and geekdom.”
This year’s MidSouthCon expects to have more than 500 board games available for play in the dedicated game room, open 24 hours a day the entirety of the con. There will be raffles, play-to-win games, and tournaments, some of which will be hosted by gaming guests of honor Kristin and Andy Looney, owners of game company Looney Labs.
Other guests of honor include Elizabeth Bear, award-winning science-fiction and fantasy author; Memphis’ own Sheree Renée Thomas, award-winning and New York Times-bestselling writer and editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction; Paul and Michael Bielaczyc, artists and founders of Aradani Studios; Stephanie Osborn, veteran of more than 20 years in civilian/military space programs; and Randall Pass, longtime MidSouthCon volunteer and fixture of the Southern science-fiction fandom.
This year’s con also will feature live podcast recordings with Geek Tank Radio and Didn’t Hate It Movie Podcast, Hager points out. “We haven’t done [live podcasts] before.”
Hager’s personally looking forward to being part of the “Silently Screaming Inside” panel. “It’s a conversation about anxiety, depression, and fandom,” she says. “How you can stand in a crowd and feel alone, and then you come to places like the con and you find people that feel like that too, and maybe you’re not so alone.”
Other highlights of the con include a designated sensory-friendly space for those who need to decompress from the goings-on of the convention, plus the Masquerade costume contest, the annual screening of TheRocky Horror Picture Show, and “lots of opportunities to meet the guests and meet people that are in the industry or work for NASA, or our award-winning artists or cosplayers. If you have a fandom out there from Doctor Who to Superman, you’ll find it there. And if you don’t, tell us about it; maybe we can do something with that.”
More information and a full schedule of events can be found at midsouthcon.org. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Literacy Mid-South.
MidSouthCon 39, Whispering Woods Hotel and Conference Center, 7300 Hacks Cross, Olive Branch, MS, Friday-Sunday, March 22-24, $60/weekend, $30/kids 12 and under.
Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart sizzle off the screen in their portrayal of a toxic relationship.
I’m a sucker for a good film noir, or even a mediocre film noir that pushes all the right buttons. Director Rose Glass’ new flick, Love Lies Bleeding, has got my number. Glass, whose first film for A24 was the psychological horror Saint Maud, has studied the classics, and it shows. But Love Lies Bleeding is a neo-noir that uses the form as a jumping-off point, rather than being shackled to the past.
When we first meet Lou (Kristen Stewart), she is shackled to her past. She’s working at a gym in small town Texas, somewhere near the Mexican border. Much of her job entails bailing out a toilet that is perpetually clogged by the pumped up patrons. Some of that foul bowel activity may be the side effects of the black market steroids she slings on the side. The year is 1989, so it’s not a great time for Lou to be an out lesbian in Texas. Then Jackie (Katy O’Brian) walks in.
Jackie is an aspiring bodybuilder from Oklahoma, who happens to be currently homeless. In one great early shot, she does pull-ups on a pipe under a bridge while trucks rumble by overhead. She gets a job at the local shooting range by showing the manager J.J. (Dave Franco) a good time in the parking lot of the club. Before she even has a place to stay, she uses the money to join Lou’s gym. Jackie’s ultimate goal is to compete in a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas, and from the looks of her extremely stacked body, she’s got a shot at a trophy.
Lou certainly notices Jackie’s assets, and after the two of them run off some alpha males who aren’t bright enough to realize they’re barking up the wrong tree, they fall into bed together. Glass has a lot of fun shooting the sex scenes, bathing these two unconventional beauties in blue light like an erotic thriller from the 1980s. Over a morning-after omelette, Jackie admits she doesn’t have a place to stay and asks if she can crash on the couch. Lou makes clear that’s not where she’ll be sleeping.
Another 1980s trash cinema trick Glass has down pat is the training montage set to pop music. I’m sure they would have loved to have had “Eye of the Tiger” play while pushing in on Jackie’s ripping muscles, but Clint Mansell’s pulsing electronic score gets the point across nicely. Jackie’s single-minded pursuit of physical perfection gets a boost when Lou introduces her to steroids. Unfortunately, this new chemical enhancement proves destabilizing to Jackie’s already fragile psyche. Glass uses flashes of psychedelia to draw us into her deteriorating mental state. The gun range where Jackie works just happens to be owned by Lou’s estranged father Lou Sr. (Ed Harris) who, it turns out, is using the range as a front for his gunrunning operation, supplying weapons to Colombian drug cartels. There’s always an element of Greek tragedy in a good film noir, where the characters carry their doom in them, just adjacent to their strength. Lou Sr. teaching a woman in the throes of spiraling steroidal psychosis to use a gun certainly qualifies.
Lou’s cut the old man off, but she keeps in touch with her older sister Beth (Jena Malone), who is being brutally abused by her husband J.J., the amorous gun range manager. When J.J. puts Beth in the hospital, and Lou finds out about Jackie’s prior carnal knowledge of J.J., the pressure becomes too much, and Jackie lashes out. The repercussions of her violence spread through this small town in true noir fashion, with framing, counter-framing, bushwhacking, and betrayal around every corner.
Glass’ direction is confident and occasionally daring, and her two leads sizzle off the screen. The ending swerves hard toward the magical in a way I’m still not sure I’m on board with. Film noir is outwardly cynical, but the greats, like Out of the Past, always have a romantic core — even if the fire of love ultimately consumes the lovers. Compared to the corrupt world of Love Lies Bleeding, Lou and Jackie’s toxic relationship looks downright healthy.
Love Lies Bleeding is now playing at Malco Collierville, Paradiso, Stage, and Wolfchase cinemas.
Bukka White and Jimmy Crosthwait onstage at the the Overton Park Shell in The Blues Society. (Photo: Randall Lyon | courtesy of The Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane)
Four years ago, the Oxford Film Festival was the canary in the coal mine. It was the first film festival to cancel because of the rapidly-spreading Covid-19 outbreak that would, before the month was out, become a full fledged pandemic.
The festival survived the uncertain plague years and is now back for 2024 with a huge lineup, beginning on Thursday, March 21st, with Adam the First at the University of Mississippi’s Gertrude Castellow Ford Center. Director Irving Franco filmed Adam the First in Mississippi, and he will be in attendance at the Oxford opening night festivities, which will also be the movie’s regional premiere. Oakes Fegley stars as Adam, a 14-year-old living deep in the country with his parents, James (David Duchovny) and Mary (Kim Jackson Davis). But one fateful day he finds out that James and Mary aren’t his real parents, but fugitives hiding in the woods from some mysterious bad guys who just found them. Adam flees, but not before his foster father tells him the name of his real father is Jacob Waterson. The boy looks up all the people he can find by that name and visits each of them, trying to discover who his real father is.
The screening at Oxford’s Ford Theater will be proceeded by a recording of Thacker Mountain Radio Hour, the syndicated radio show that has longtime ties with the festival. Thacker Mountain is broadcast in Memphis by WYXR on Fridays at 6 a.m. Original Brat Pack member Andrew McCarthy, star of Pretty in Pink and Less Than Zero, who went on to direct 15 episodes of Orange Is the New Black, will be the guest of honor.
On Friday, the festivities move to the Malco Oxford Commons Studio Grille. Three Memphis-made feature films will be screening during the festival. The first is Juvenile: Five Stories(Friday, March 22nd, 4:45 p.m.), the documentary directed by Joann Self Selvidge and Sarah Fleming. The film traces the stories of Ariel, Michael, Romeo, Shimaine, and Ja’Vaune, who were all thrown into the juvenile justice system as children for a variety of reasons and are now helping others who are in the same place. The film is an examination of a deeply broken system by its own victims.
The Blues Society (Friday, March 22nd, 7:30 p.m.) by Augusta Palmer is a self-described “moving image mixtape” about the Country Blues Festival held at the Overton Park Shell in the mid-1960s. The director’s father Robert Palmer, music writer and author of the landmark cultural history Deep Blues, was one of the organizers of the festival, which proved to be crucial in reintroducing the blues artists of the Depression era to rock-and-roll obsessed hippies, and securing recognition of the music’s cultural value. But selling the blues to affluent white audiences entailed compromise and distortion which have shaped music ever since.
The third Memphis movie at the Oxford Film Festival is the most unlikely. Scent of Linden (Saturday, noon) is the only movie in the program with dialogue in Bulgarian. Producer/Director Sissy Denkova and writer Jordan Trippeer created story about the Bulgarian immigrant community in Memphis. Stefan (Ivan Barnev) comes to the States in search of a good paying job to support his ailing mother back home, and instantly falls in with a small but tight-knit group of eccentrics who are also chasing the elusive American dream. Scent of Linden recently completed successful theatrical runs in Bulgaria and Europe, and is now expanding to select screenings in the United States.
After the awards ceremony on Saturday night, March 23rd, the winners will have encore screenings on Sunday. For a full lineup, tickets, and more information on the weekend’s events, visit ox-film.com.
Jaren Jackson Jr. drives to the basket against Domantas Sabonis. Credit: NBAE/Getty Images
Behind the strength of Domantas Sabonis and Malik Monk, the Kings overpowered the Grizzlies during extra time to lead Sacramento to a 121-111 victory over Memphis.
Let’s get into it.
Memphis might not have come away from this matchup with the win, but they overcame a 12-point deficit to force overtime, and they did it with only eight available players.
Marcus Smart racked up two back-to-back technical fouls and was subsequently ejected from the game, despite not being active or available to play, after vocally expressing his displeasure at one of the refs.
The Kings have been a tough matchup for the Grizzlies this season, and this was no exception.
Memphis started on a hot streak, shooting seven of 13 from beyond the arc in the first quarter. Unfortunately, the opposite was true in the next period, and the Grizzlies closed the second quarter shooting one of 10 from three-point range.
Sacramento had a 10-point lead at halftime and an eight-point lead after three quarters and the Grizzlies outscored the Kings 29-21 in the fourth to push the game to overtime.
The Kings dominated the extra period to come away with the win. For Sacramento, Malik Monk put up a game-high 28 points, 12 of them in overtime. Domantas Sabonis added 25 points and recorded his 50th consecutive double-double.
By The Numbers:
Jaren Jackson Jr. led the Grizzlies with 25 points, two rebounds, four assists, one steal, and four blocks before fouling out in overtime.
— Bally Sports: Grizzlies (@GrizzOnBally) March 19, 2024
From the second unit, Jake LaRavia added 12 points, eight rebounds, and five assists.
Who Got Next?
The Grizzlies continue their road trip and will pay a visit to the Bay to face off against the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, March 20th. Tip-off is at 9 p.m. CDT.
Multiple agencies are working together to empower entrepreneurs to find solutions to transportation issues in Memphis.
The “Memphis Challenge Explore Report” was released today by Ford Motor Company, the Greater Memphis Chamber, Start Co., and Christian Brothers University. The report emphasizes multiple areas of improvement for “community-center mobility.”
“We launched this initiative to transform cities by helping solve mobility problems via the inclusion of community input,” the Memphis Challenge team said. “ Our framework zooms down to one person, one solution at a time to provide an intimate view of a city’s needs and how they may be addressed with new innovative solutions.”
Findings from the report highlight four areas the agencies are hoping to find solutions to in late 2024 through an initiative called the Memphis Challenge, led by Ford’s Urbanite program “with support from 12 local collaborators.” These four areas include: creating safe access to transportation, safety through the entire mobility journey, personal vehicle reliability, and understanding the total cost of car and mobility ownership.
This will allow local and national entrepreneurs to propose ideas to remedy these issues.
“Memphis Challenge winners are expected to receive up to $150,000 in pilot grant funding through the challenge program, with an additional $450,000 available to challenge finalists in seed funding, technical support, legal assistance, and startup business resources.”
The companies are urging entrepreneurs to find solutions that will improve accessibility to jobs, education, and healthcare. Past winners included community mobility hubs, pick-up/drop-off services for school children, farm-to-door food delivery, and more.
One of the key findings of the report found that citizens are concerned about their safety when using any mode of transportation.
“Regardless of time of day, gender, age, ability or mode of transportation, Memphians are concerned about their personal wellbeing and safety when walking out their front door,” the report said.
It also stated public transportation is not always the preferred method, as many found Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) to be “unable to get them to their destination at a time that works for them.” This resulted in many reporting they only use MATA for non-time-sensitive trips.
Citizens also told the team many of their options for jobs, food, education, and healthcare in their immediate neighborhoods have left them “dissatisfied” causing them to travel to locations that may be “ 20-30 minutes away by car.” According to the report, this makes alternative modes of transportation such as walking and biking “infeasible.”
Another aspect of the report showed many Memphians rely on relatives and extended family for multiple mobility purposes such as pickup and organizing rideshare.
“These family networks felt unique asset to Memphis and something to be considered when developing new mobility solutions,” the report said.
The report added that the median household income of the city is $50,622 with a poverty rate of 18 percent for adults. From these findings, the team concluded “Memphis residents don’t have much extra to spend on transportation.”
These areas represent multiple opportunities for change, and the Memphis Challenge Team is urging entrepreneurs to submit proposals to consider these things along with intentional equity, environmental sustainability, replicability and scalability among others.
“These Explore Report findings complement other transit and mobility initiatives throughout the greater Memphis area – however, it does highlight some recent trends that tie into the public safety concerns Memphis has been experiencing,” the team said in a statement. “The Ford Urbanite Memphis Challenge is a spark to provide support, spread awareness and rally additional resources to an area that is ripe for innovation in, and around, Memphis.”
