Categories
News News Blog

Gannett Rejects MNG Purchase Deal

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Gannett Co.’s board of directors unanimously rejected MNG Enterprises’ offer to buy the company, calling the proposal “not credible” and saying it undervalued Gannett.

MNG proposed buying the newspaper company, owner of The Commercial Appeal, earlier this month, in an unsolicited deal worth $12 per share. The move left many to worry that the company would lay off even more staff at Gannett papers to drive profitability.

But Gannett board chairman Jeffry Louis said the board is optimistic about the company’s future and its digital strategy.

“Our board of directors is confident that Gannett has significant value creation potential,” Louis said in a statement. “Our vision and pursuit of our digital transformation, combined with our USA Today Network strategy, enables us to serve more directly and efficiently the persistent demand of our audiences and customers to engage with their communities.

“We believe that our future — and that of the industry — turns on thoughtful investments in journalism and marketing solutions, so we can deliver engagement when, where, and how our audiences and customers demand it. Delivering on this purpose will deliver value to our shareholders and benefit the communities we serve.”

“We know there are challenges that face us and our industry. We firmly believe, however, that given our operational expertise, our focus on evolving our business model, and our unwavering commitment to remaining a trusted source of news, we are uniquely positioned to grow this company and its valuable assets.”
[pullquote-1] A news release from Gannett early Monday morning provided some interesting details of the deal proposed by MNG. The company’s actions — before and since its public proposal — “suggest that MNG’s proposal is not credible,” according to Gannett.

MNG did not talk to Gannett officials before a story of the offer appeared in The Wall Street Journal. Gannett received a letter from MNG a day after the story ran, even though “MNG and Gannett management are well known to one another and in fact are partners in significant operations.”

MNG did not give Gannett any information on how it would finance the deal and “failed to address potential regulatory risks and other fundamental issues that Gannett considered important.” Gannett leaders did meet with MNG officials but left with unanswered questions.

“Gannett posed questions to MNG that are routinely addressed by someone making a credible, public, unsolicited takeover proposal: Can MNG fund it? Can MNG close it?” according to Gannett.
[pullquote-2] Without the information, Gannett leaders said they felt uncomfortable signing a non-disclosure agreement with MNG. Gannett said they asked for written responses to questions that would not have required MNG to disclose confidential information. But MNG would not give them any more information about how it would execute the deal.

“In light of this, Gannett now questions MNG’s motives and can only conclude that the proposed nondisclosure agreement is a distraction designed to mask MNG’s inability to finance and complete the proposed transaction,” reads Gannett’s news release. “Indeed, given MNG’s refusal to provide even the most basic answers to Gannett’s questions, it appears that MNG does not have a realistic plan to acquire Gannett.”

Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

USF 84, Tigers 78

The Tigers played two of the most historic halves in program history Saturday at USF. The end result: a third loss in four games.

Senior point guard Jeremiah Martin scored 41 points, becoming only the eighth Memphis player to put up 40 in a game (and the first since December 1997). And he scored all 41 after halftime.

Unfortunately for Martin and his teammates, there was a first half in Tampa. Memphis missed its first 16 shots from the field and was gored in a running of the Bulls, falling behind 27-1 before Kyvon Davenport scored the team’s first field goal of the contest. The Tigers missed 24 of 28 shots from the field in the first half and committed 14 turnovers on the way to a 38-13 deficit at the break.

Then Martin took over. The pride of Mitchell High School buried his seventh three-pointer of the second half with 32 seconds left to close the deficit to six points (82-76). But Memphis would get no closer, exchanging field goals with the Bulls before the final buzzer. The 65 second-half points are the most Memphis has scored in a period this season.

David Collins led USF with 20 points as the Bulls improved to 15-6 for the season and are now tied with Memphis in the American Athletic Conference with a 5-4 league mark. The Tigers dropped to 13-9 with the loss.

Davenport scored 13 points off the Tiger bench. No other Memphis player reached double figures in the scoring column. Davenport, Mike Parks, and Isaiah Maurice each fouled out.

The Tigers return to FedExForum Thursday night when they’ll host Cincinnati. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Below are the previous 40-point games in Memphis history:

• February 17, 1942: Leslie Steele (42)
• December 11, 1953: Dick Kinder (44)
• December 1, 1955: Win Wilfong (40)
• December 7, 1955: Forest Arnold (46)
• January 20, 1973: Larry Finch (48)
• January 30, 1991: Elliot Perry (42)
• December 13, 1997: Marcus Moody (41)

Categories
News News Blog

New Tom Lee Park Design Unveiled

CREDIT: Sutdio Gang

[slideshow-1]

Construction of the newly unveiled design for Tom Lee Park could begin as early as June and be finished as early as December 2020, according to the Mississippi River Parks Partnership (MRPP).

The public is now invited to a new Tom Lee Park engagement center inside Beale Street Landing (where the gift shop with shirts that read “It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere” used to be) to see the vision for the park.

For hours and more information on the engagement center, see our previous story here.

That new design is a blend of landscaping and architecture meant to mimic and restore some of the 30-acre river park’s natural ecology and better connect the city to the river.

It features cutouts of the river bank on the east side of Riverfront Drive to offer places to explore and places to sit. The design adds an outdoor activity court that could be used for everything from basketball games to concerts. Tom Lee Park visitors of the future can also expect spaces for education, sports, recreation, play, events and amenities like a cafe, concessions, lockers, storage, and bathrooms.

Water features, trees, gently sloping hills, and riverfront seating break up the now-vast, now-flat, now-wide-open Tom Lee Park.

MRPP hired two firms — Studio Gang and SCAPE — to deliver the plan. MRPP president Carol Coletta promised Friday the plan will be executed and will not sit on a shelf.

Designers laid out their vision for the park in four distinct zones, laid out from the north end of the park at Beale Street Landing to the wilder, more-remote south end of the park. Designers said the zones are inspired by unique features of the Mississippi River and all flow together for a variety of uses.

Here’s how the designers describe the four zones: 


The Gateway: A welcoming new connection linking Downtown Memphis to the riverfront will bring new life to the east side of Beale Street Landing, create a universally -accessible pathway down the bluff from Beale Street, and welcome visitors in a new entry plaza that can accommodate public gatherings, art installations, and festival tents.

The Riffle: Modeled after the pattern of river water flowing over stones, the park’s central zone is defined by dynamic topography that shapes areas for relaxation and play, activity courts shaded by a signature canopy for everyday use (from basketball to yoga, dance, and fitness classes) and special events, and river-facing overlooks and “eco edges” that give visitors an intimate experience of the water.

The Pool: A network of open lawns that act as the park’s anchors for field activities and large events, designed to accommodate signature events including the Beale Street Music Festival. The pools support large and small festivals, and everyday recreation like field sports, picnics, kite flying, or playing fetch.

The Tailout: At the southern end of the park, where its landscape becomes more wild, active, and accessible, recreation paths lead to an outdoor learning and play area where children and adults find hands-on opportunities to connect with nature. A large outdoor classroom will host STEM programs facilitated by a scientist-in-residence.

The dramatic Habitat Tower provides an attractive structure for birds to nest and rest and a memorable gathering space where park visitors can feel as if they’re hovering above the Mississippi — taking in views of the water and, after sundown, the Mighty Lights.

Categories
Music Music Blog

Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo : Old World Circus Melodies Take Flight

Thirty-five years after its inception, most Americans are so familiar with the work of Cirque du Soleil that it’s become a cliche. Which is surprising, given the troupe’s penchant for constant reinvention. Moreover, the cliche doesn’t account for the broad diversity of musical genres used in their various productions. Last night’s Memphis premiere of Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo was a reminder of just how powerful their music can be.

If any Cirque music is famous, it is the soundtrack to their Beatles tribute, Love. which relied on Giles Martin’s startlingly imaginative mash ups of familiar Beatles tracks. Naturally, that music was all pre-recorded. So casual theatergoers (arena-goers?) might not be anticipating the power of Corteo‘s live band.

The show is ostensibly a cross between a circus and a funeral, beginning with our protagonist Mauro lying in repose on his deathbed, or perhaps dreaming of that moment. If Mauro was a clown in life, here he is bereft of greasepaint or costumes, rising from the bed in his plain suit to wistfully guide us through kinetic tableaux from his life. There is no narrative as such; rather, we take a tour through moments of his youth rather like the globe-trotting vignettes of The Nutcracker.  And, like that classical chestnut, an air of slightly threadbare Old World pageantry permeates every scene. 

The same aesthetic colors the music. While much of Cirque music tends toward a fantasy/futurist/New Age vibe, Corteo’s sounds, to their credit, are more grounded in Old World earthiness. Much of the lyrics are Italian, with sprinklings of Spanish, Portugese, and French (and a bit of English dialogue and joke-cracking). The somewhat nostalgic sounds are carried off with aplomb by the live band in the wings.

And the band lives in a plurality of wings, not an orchestra pit. The two-sided stage, set down in the center of the FedEx Forum, has band members tucked into four corners: the drummer here, the singer and accordionist there, here the bass, there the horns. That they can stay so perfectly in sync is surely a miracle of click-track sorcery, yet the unabashedly sentimental music flows like water, or tears. 

Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo : Old World Circus Melodies Take Flight

It can range from intimate nostalgia to grandiose operatic melodies. Yes, there’s more than a hint of Broadway here, but the chief departure from the music of European salon and folk idioms comes when the Cirque composers show their true postmodern colors, with bits of Brazilian samba and even Tibetan harmonic bowls making an appearance. 

Mozart meets Tibetan bowls in a scene from Corteo

Some of the most surprising musicianship comes from the onstage performers. This goes beyond moments when, say, the drummer leaps from behind his alcove to play a snare alongside the acrobats and dancers, underscoring their every feat. Mauro himself appears in one scene playing a tuba. The recurring White Clown character, it turns out, is also a consummate violinist; and the ringmaster is revealed as a virtuoso whistler of Mozart. Most alarmingly, the woman who twines herself in hanging fabrics, making death-defying drops and rolls, is, through her athletic breathing, singing the entire time.

In the end, this is show music, of course, and much of it serves to accentuate the movement, which remains the star attraction. Yet this can be rather powerful, when the band swells to every sudden lifting of angels in flight. Furthermore, accompanying mid-air twirls and hairs’-breadth escapes from danger may be one of the best uses of prog rock imaginable.

Finally, if you’re contemplating making this a family outing, I should note that our freshly minted 15-year-old, more accustomed to the cool, guarded sounds of Lorde, thoroughly enjoyed this Old World melody-laden musical experience. 

The musicians featured in this staging of Corteo include:

BAND LEADER – Roger HEWETT (United Kingdom)
VIOLIN – Stéphane ALLARD (Canada)
BASS/CONTRABASS – Robert BRENNAN (USA)
MALE SINGER – Alain LABRIE (Canada)
FEMALE SINGER – Aurélie DEROUX-DAUPHIN (France)
SAX/KEYBOARD 2 – Philippe POIRIER (Canada)
DRUMS/PERCUSSION – Alexandre REIS (Brazil)
GUITAR/ACCORDION – Eve WILLEMS (Belgium)

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

The Trump Tariffs and the Memphis Electrolux Disaster

A Wednesday announcement by U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander of his co-sponsorship of a bill to return control of American tariff policy from the president to Congress ironically highlights the news, a day later, of the Electrolux Corporation’s decision to abandon its Memphis plant.

One section of Alexander’s press release analyzes the probable deleterious effects of President Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs on manufacturing plants in Tennessee:

“In general, steel and aluminum tariffs put in place for national security purposes are a big mistake. No state is likely to be more damaged by these tariffs than Tennessee, because in many ways we are the nation’s number one auto state. One third of the manufacturing jobs in Tennessee are auto jobs. We have more than 890 automotive suppliers — almost all of which use aluminum and steel — in 88 of our 95 counties.

“Just last year, the largest employer in Springfield, Tennessee — Electrolux, which makes home appliances — put a $250 million expansion on hold. Electrolux buys all of its steel from U.S. suppliers, but, of course, when you raise the price on imported steel, the price of U.S. steel also goes up, and Electrolux concluded that it could not be competitive in the U.S. market with these higher prices. Now, if we were moving toward a policy of reciprocity — do for us what we do for you — there would be zero tariffs, and the people of Springfield would have a $250 million plant expansion and the jobs that come with it instead of a 25 percent tax on the U.S. steel that Electrolux buys.”

On Thursday, the day following the press release containing this analysis, residents and officials of Memphis were shocked by the news of a pending shutdown by Electrolux of its plant in Memphis, constructed under a 2010 contract calling for nearly $190 million in state and local government incentives without the protection to taxpayers of a “clawback” agreement.

The giant corporation’s plans were presumably affected by such other circumstances as the recent bankruptcy of Sears, for which Electrolux was a major supplier of home appliances. It seems clear that the same arguments put forth by Alexander regarding effects on the Springfield plant of Electrolux might also have had decisively adverse consequences on the company’s plans for the Memphis plant’s future.

The bill co-sponsored by Alexander would require Congressional approval of tariffs proposed by the president under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to address threats to national security.

As the Senator’s press release notes, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress authority to regulate trade with foreign nations and to impose tariffs.

Categories
News News Blog

New Historical Marker Honors College Students’ Sit-in

A historical marker has been placed on a college campus here honoring three dozen students who participated in 1960 sit-ins.

The Tennessee historical marker acknowledging the 36 students from LeMoyne-Owen College and Owen Junior College has been placed on the LeMoyne-Owen campus. The marker stands near the Hollis F. Price Library on campus, and reads, in part:

“The Sit-in Movement against racial segregation reached Memphis Friday, March 18, 1960, when seven Owen Junior College students sat-in at the lunch counter in McClellan’s Variety Store Downtown.”

Following that sit-in, 36 students from Owen Junior College and LeMoyne-Owen left a rally on the following day to participate in sit-ins at the Cossitt and Peabody libraries in an effort to desegregate public facilities in Memphis.

The 36 students, along with five African-American journalists covering their actions, were arrested as a result of the sit-ins.

“These public facilities-focused sit-ins inspired others to sit-in at city museums and parks, churches, and department stores,” the marker reads. “Urged by Marlos Barry, a LeMoyne graduate and national chair of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the resolute efforts of these students were important contributions to the desegregation of Memphis.”

The marker will be officially dedicated on Wednesday, February 6th at 11 a.m. during the college’s Black History Month chapel service at Metropolitan Baptist Church on Walker.

The state historical marker program, headed by the Tennessee Historical Commission, began in the 1940s and has since been responsible for erecting close to 2,000 markers across the state.

The markers commemorate sites, people, or events significant to the state’s history.


Categories
Fly On The Wall Blog Opinion

MAGA Bro Pens Love Letter to MAGA CAP: Dammit Gannett

“Nonpartisan” and “fair and balanced” journalism sound like great ideas. But they probably aren’t what you think they are. They’ve been made to sound like best practices for ethical news gathering. But historically these ideas are artifacts of technology and capitalism.

I bring this stuff up because getting beyond all the usual ideological mess and straight bullshit like this tone-deaf nonsense from The Tennessean, is crucial to understanding why “writer and social media personality” Ryan Moore’s weird love letter to his Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat appeared in Gannett newspapers including The Commercial Appeal.

A screen shot/excerpt from The Commercial Appeal.

America’s partisan-funded press came skidding to a halt in the last quarter of the 19th century when new, high-speed printing made it possible for newspapers with enough up-front investment capital to distribute their products farther than ever before. Lots of attention is paid to the idea that “a biased news medium is bad for a self-governing people.” But the thing is, at scale, it was also bad for business. Politically neutral papers could reach bigger markets becoming valuable to local interests and emerging national brands wanting less partisan places to advertise.  Economic realities forged the new journalistic ideals regarding what makes appropriate news content, not idealistic struggles for better information and freer reporting. And they still do.

A similar technological disruption bent the modern media mythos away from big-market “objectivity” toward a more useful narrative for an exploded economy: “fair and balanced.” This works in a crowded field because you can’t know the truth until you’ve heard every [hardline ideological] side, right?  When cable news blew up and America went from having only three major news networks to having so many choices you could no longer get by without a remote control, the basic idea of what constitutes respectable market shares reduced considerably. Niche marketing and partisan reporting made sense again. This is where Fox News comes from and with it the logical fallacy that all tits require right-wing tats. 

So what does any of this have to do with Gannett’s MAGA-Man-crush?

Like I’ve said before, markets determine content and Tennessee remains a solid red patch on the political map. Gannett’s earnings are in the shitter and its products, deformed as they are by a loss of local autonomy and investment, waste like plague victims. So much reporting and media opinion following the infamous MAGA-Teen‘s 15-minutes in the barrel, cast MAGA caps in a bad light, and judging by the color of those electoral maps I’ve linked above, that’s the favored headgear of many if not most Tennesseans. In other words, the news smacked lots of Gannett’s subscribers and potential subscribers right across the brim. 

Market served. “Tat” accomplished.

Moore’s editorial is mostly familiar rhetoric about folks needing to be respectful of other folks and judging people by the content of their character, not the color of their stupid, racist hats. I could do a whole post on irony and the character of Moore’s content, but that’s not my purpose.

✖
This stuff’s candy — bulked up by outrage-shares and sweetened with hate-clicks.
click to tweet

If serving readers/viewers/listeners is important it’s probably not a good idea for news-oriented media to be in the business of promoting standard, white-male victimization narratives. If media serves a public good it’s also probably a bad idea to participate in softening symbols that, regardless of what secret, special things they may mean to social media personalities, are also, inarguably, touchstones for white supremacists.

But c’mon! From a commercial POV this stuff’s candy — bulked up by outrage-shares and sweetened with hate-clicks. Win-win for everybody! Unless the consumer was looking for information instead of a daily rise, in which case, not so much there.

Nevertheless, the story went big opening Moore’s complaint up to a wider dialogue.

Top comment, Newsweek

I’ll conclude my rant by answering some rage-posts I’ve seen in my social media feed from folks justifiably wondering why MAGA-bro Moore is fronting all over their social media feeds. The real question is, why are you sharing it? And are you ready for more?

It’s just business; thanks for yours.   

 

Categories
Film/TV TV Features

High Maintenance

Ben Sinclair as The Guy

The definition of an anthology series is one that lacks recurring characters or continuing storylines. They used to be more common in the early days of television, and the form reached its apex in 1959 with The Twilight Zone, which connected its disparate scripts with merely a mood of eerie surreality. The current most prominent anthology show in the Zone template is Black Mirror — although The Twilight Zone will be getting a reboot courtesy of Jordan Peele this spring, so expect to see that name again in my column.

High Maintenance comes at the anthology series idea from a completely different angle. Instead of Serling-esque, story-driven thought experiments, every week the HBO episodic series focuses on a new character study of someone plucked from the psychic maelstrom of New York City. Like Girls, HBO’s zietgiest-y show that everyone seems to have taken turns loving and hating, High Maintenance has its origins in the DIY digital indie movement of the Aughts. It was begun in 2012 as a webseries on Vimeo by co-creators Katja Blichfeld and Ben Sinclair, who plays The Guy, an anonymous weed dealer living in Brooklyn. Every week, The Guy delivers his wares to a new eccentric, whose life and struggles we get to glimpse for the next 15 minutes or so.

Two episodes into its third season sees the cannabis-infused series maturing, but not necessarily growing up. Until the most recent series premiere, The Guy was not so much a character as he was a framing device. His street-level view of the various potheads, sad sacks, and weirdos he meets on his appointed rounds defines the show’s nonjudgmental tone of social realism, but we don’t know much about him as a person. In “M.A.S.H.,” The Guy opens up a bit when he leaves the city to attend the funeral of a friend named Berg. The old stoner’s funeral service, populated with unreconstructed hippies who break out into a memorial jam session of questionable quality, is a quick and easy demonstration of the show’s attitude towards its characters. This is a celebration of eccentricity that approaches its creations with love, even if they can’t play banjo as well as they think they can when they’re stoned.

Moments before a stoned jam session breaks out on the season 3 premiere of High Maintenance

The second episode, “Craig,” sees the show back in the familiar physical and psychological territory of Brooklyn. In the first segment, one of Guy’s regulars named Marty (Gary Richardson) gets his bike stolen. When The Guy suggests he look for it for sale on Craigslist, Marty falls down a rabbit hole of unwanted merchandise and bartering with the strangers from the internet. He never does find that bike, but at least his apartment is much better decorated than before.

Catherine Cohen (left) as the mad flasher Darby

The second segment of “Craig” soars with a killer performance by Catherine Cohen as Darby, a mild-mannered Manhattan office worker by day who fills up her evenings by selling purloined goods on Craigslist and flashing her boobs at unsuspecting civilians. Darby the Mad Flasher meets her match when she targets a self-described sociopath in the Personals section of Craigslist. Sinclair, who directed the episode, teases out her comeuppance with a delicious slow-build, then tacks on a hilarious coda involving a taxi driver who looks like Barack Obama.

The taxi driver who looks like Barack Obama.

The most enduring legacy of digital DIY cinema has been a naturalistic acting style, but in High Maintenance, with its skillful digital camera work, minimal lighting, and slice of life storylines descended directly from Slacker, we finally see the real deal transformed into prestige television. American indie cinema is still stoned, but it’s moved out of mom’s basement, bought an RV, and landed a job with HBO.

High Maintenance

Categories
News News Blog

Massive Memphis Investment In Electrolux ‘Won’t Pay Off’

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Electrolux site

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said he heard of Electrolux leaving Memphis in a press release and that the news was “disappointing.”

The company said it would move much of the work done here to Springfield, Tennessee Thursday morning. The company got a massive incentive package to build a plant here in 2010 (details below). 

Here’s what Strickland said of the move Thursday afternoon:

“Electrolux may be leaving Memphis, but they aren’t leaving because of Memphis. To hear about this announcement in a press release after being told a month ago that the plant wasn’t closing is disappointing to say the very least,” Strickland said. “There is some consolation that Electrolux has committed to work with employees by allowing them to have time to find other opportunities, and from a community perspective, we will do all we can to help them find other employment.

“In 2010, the state, county and city acted in good faith and made an unprecedented investment in this company and in Memphis.

Just like they are exercising their option to leave, we will exercise our option to vigorously defend our investment. With a tough global economy, rising tariffs and losing a major product retailer, they are making business decisions. This in no way will affect our determination to continue to recruit new companies and jobs to our city. We are meeting with Electrolux officials tomorrow.”

[pullquote-1]
Here’s what U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen said of the move:

“I’m very disappointed that the employees of Electrolux learned today that Memphis’ economic development investment in one company’s future apparently won’t pay off.

The company’s abandonment of Memphis will mean potential financial hardship for its employees and suppliers, and should result in more careful review of promises made by corporations about local job creation in the future.”

Here’s what taxpayers gave the company in 2010:

• Two parcels of free land totaling 800 acres in Pidgeon Industrial Park

• $40 million from city and county

• Additional $2 million from city/county for ancillary costs

• 15 year PILOT abating 90 percent city and 75 percent county property taxes

• $95 million cash grant from state of Tennessee

• $3 million federal grant from Delta Regional Authority

Categories
News News Blog

State Abortion Bill Called ‘Extreme Legislation’

A bill filed in the state legislature would prohibit an abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected and would require fetal heartbeat testing before an abortion, a move Planned Parenthood said that would “make safe abortions illegal in Tennessee.” 

Van Huss

The bill was filed last week by Rep. Micah Van Huss (R- Jonesborough). The bill has 24 co-sponsors in the House. However, no companion bill has yet been filed in the Senate.

Van Huss filed similar legislation before, according to Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi and Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood. The groups said in a statement Wednesday that the legislation filed previously “was not supported from Tennessee Right to Life and the state attorney general due to constitutional concerns.” They called it “extreme legislation.”

“North Dakota and Arkansas both passed similar abortion bans and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars defending their laws in court, only to have the laws struck down or permanently blocked as unconstitutional,” the groups said.