Categories
We Recommend We Saw You

Stumbling Santa, Crosstown Concourse, Red Boa Ball and more!

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Santas and other holiday characters, including Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Donahue the Long-Haired Reporter, were at the Stumbling Santa Pub Crawl.

This year’s Stumbling Santa Pub Crawl broke records. A record number of 2,750 people attended and a record number of $4,000 was raised.

The event, held December 1st (it’s always held the first Saturday of December), is when men and women dress as Santa, elves, reindeer, Christmas presents, and even Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and make the trek from Flying Saucer Draught Emporium Downtown to Beale Street watering holes.

Stumbling Santa was extra special for Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus a.k.a. Bob Wilhelm and Carolyn Rock. It was their second time to participate in the event. The last time was in 2010 — the same day Wilhelm proposed to Rock.

Wilhelm popped the question after they both ran in the St. Jude Marathon. “We finished inside the ballpark — AutoZone Park,” Wilhelm says. “We walked out on the field. I bent down on one knee. She thought I was fainting and she crouches down.”

They both were wearing shorts and T-shirts. “I had the ring wrapped in tissue in a little plastic bag pinned inside my shorts.”

Later that evening, they participated in Stumbling Santa, which Wilhelm described as “fantastic. Carolyn would show her ring and somebody would buy us a drink and they would cheer for us. It was fun.”

They moved to Chicago two years ago after Wilhelm had a job change. They returned to Memphis and participated in the half marathon. They then donned their Santa outfits and did the pub crawl.

Or part of it. “We started and we went to two more places. We didn’t get to Coyote Ugly. We probably went to bed at 11. We’re old.”

 

MIchael Donahue

Bob Wilhelm and Carolyn Rock at Stumbling Santa


Michael Donahue

Stumbling Santa

…………..

Michael Donahue

Delight at Concourse

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow environmentally safe artificial snow.

That’s what happened November 30th during “Delight at Concourse,” the holiday lighting ceremony at the Crosstown Concourse.

Around 5:45 p.m., 7,500 lights on 76 lighting strands measuring 8,000 feet — in the shape of a Christmas tree — were turned on inside the Central Atrium. And shortly after, snow began to fall. The fake snow is called Snowbiz, says Crosstown Arts communications coordinator Bianca Phillips.

Kids played in the white stuff as if it was the freezing kind. A few children were seen making snow angel angels. Snowbiz angels.

Upstairs, the Crosstown Arts open house was held. Today & Always restaurant, the Art Bar, the galleries, and even the residency studios and the theater were open to visitors.

The open house was “a chance for the public to come out and explore all of our Crosstown Arts spaces at the same time,” Phillips says.

Michael Donahue

Crosstown Arts open house

………….

Michael Donahue

Larry Tyger, Santa Claus and Chuck Guthrie at Market on Madison open house.

It takes a village to make a village — or an enchanted forest.

The window at Market on Madison reminded folks of the old Enchanted Forest, which was a seasonal attraction at the old Goldsmith’s department store, according to Chuck Guthrie, who owns the store with Larry Tyger.

Guthrie and Tyger put the window together at their store. Lisa Faye Veto loaned them the Christmas trees and elves. “Larry has a brother that had the car and tricycles,” Guthrie says. “We went out and bought a lot of cotton. We bought some large snowflakes. Larry hung all the snowflakes. I put all the stuff in the window with his help. And it just kind of evolved.

“Pretty much everybody who came in said it reminded them of the old Goldsmith’s Enchanted Forest.”

But then came the piece de resistance. “This gentlemen already had been in the store and came in the second time. He said, ‘You know, I’ve got the original Santa and Mrs. Claus from the Enchanted Forest.’ I said, ‘No way.’ He said, ‘You guys might be interested in getting them.’ I said, ‘I don’t know know whether we can afford them, but we’d give you a place to use them.’”

The man said he’d bring them and we could “put them in the window as long as we need them.”

The window – complete with Mr. and Mrs. Claus –  is getting a lot of traffic, Guthrie says. “You definitely see a lot of cars slowing down.”

The window display will be up until the week after Christmas, Guthrie says. The store, which sells antique, vintage and retro items as well as gifts, decor, and local art, is at 1399 Madison at the corner of Cleveland and Madison. Market on Madison’s open house was held December 1st and 2nd.

Michael Donahue

Market on Madison open house.

The Enchanted Forest from Goldsmith’s now is on view through December 31st at the Pink 

MIchael Donahue

Market on Madison open house.

Palace Museum.

Michael Donahue

Market on Madison open house.

…………………..

Michael Donahue

K.K. and Johnny Gross at Red Boa Ball

The Red Boa Ball, the annual benefit for America Red Cross of the Mid-South, was another record breaker.

“This year we broke a record on the most money raised the night of,” says Alice Higdon, who chaired the event.

A total of $150,000 was raised at the event, which was held November 17th at Memphis Botanic Garden. Three hundred and fifty people attended.

This is the party where guests — men as well as women — are encouraged to wear red boas.

Coletta’s provided the food and Jamie Baker and the VIPS, the music.

Michael Donahue

Daniel Reid and Alice Higdon at the Red Boa Ball.

MIchael Donahue

Speakeasy on the Square

The Theatre Cafe at Playhouse on the Square was turned into a speakeasy for “Speakeasy on the Square,” a fund-raising cabaret to celebrate the theater’s 49th birthday. It was held November 17th.

More than 80 people attended the event, which raised about $14,000, says Playhouse director of community relations Marcus Cox. “The funds raised will go to repairs in our scenic and costume shops,” he says.

MIchael Donahue

Michael Detroit at Speakeasy on the Square

Categories
Theater Theater Feature

Family Business: A Capote Christmas From Voices of the South

Truman Show

I sure do like watching Voices of the South do that special thing they do. The theater company does lots of stuff, of course — running festivals, hosting forums for writers, staging original plays, cabarets, comedy, improv, etc. But Voices was born in a narrative theater tradition and inspired by U of M professor (and company member) Gloria Baxter, a real pioneer in the form. It sometimes seems that the small, enduring troupe is its truest self when it’s digging into literary content and giving descriptive writing a dramatic shape.

Holiday Memories at Theatre South isn’t the most cheerful of recollections, though it speaks to the sweetness and small comforts that sustain us when the world turns icy and mean. I was instantly reminded of grad school, when this style of performance was still new to me and also to the undergrad students who would go on to found Voices of the South. It’s where I saw most of the faces in this cast and crew for the first time: Alice Berry, Jenny Madden, Todd Berry, Brian Helm. So, for me, this straightforward Truman Capote anthology evoked a kind of holiday nostalgia before anybody on stage ever mentioned food, or dogs, or kites, or Christmas trees. And that’s just the tip of things.

Grad school was long ago. Alice and Todd’s son Reese has since grown into an accomplished young actor, and now he too joins actual and extended family on stage in a show about actual and extended family, set against the backdrop of Thanksgiving and what Dolly Parton dubbed a hard candy Christmas.

Holiday Memories collects a pair of richly described short stories inspired by scenes from Capote’s early life growing up in rural Alabama during the Great Depression. “The Thanksgiving Visitor” and “A Christmas Memory” chronicle the relationship between a young boy called Buddy and his elderly but childlike cousin Sook as they make fruitcakes, drink whiskey, swat flies for pennies, chop down secret Christmas trees, break each other’s hearts, fly handmade kites, and take care of one another when nobody else can or will.

Todd Berry narrates, Alice plays Sook, while Reese takes on the younger Buddy, trying to make sense of his makeshift world. Helm stands in as a variety of characters, but makes his most lasting impression as Queenie, the family dog. Gail Black finds some very funny moments as the ancient, but still enthusiastic family matriarch, and the group coalesces, as only people who’ve worked this closely for this long ever really can. Even Helm, who’s been away in California for many years, slides back into the fold like he’d never been away.

Holiday Memories was still a little rough at the edges on opening night, but the kind of rough that tends to smooth quickly when a show is up and running. It’s not exactly a feel-good experience, but it’s a feel-something experience, free from all the usual seasonal platitudes. There’s no “God bless us every one” and not much “peace on earth” or “good will toward men.” But there is goodness and innocence; affection, comfort, and fruitcake. And for better, worse, and all things in between, there’s family — or whatever passes for family.

I love the holidays, and many of the annual rituals that go along with them. But I also admit to being true Grinch when it comes to so many sentimental holiday entertainments, trotted out year after year to stress ideals, and teach lessons that seldom stick past the new year. I worry, sometimes, that all this seasonal artifact — this Hallmark humanity — is worse for us than all the sugarplums combined. Even Holiday Memories seems like empty calories in the abstract, but less so when I’m watching it unfold. See, I sure do like watching Voices of the South do that that special thing they do. As their latest show builds to its conclusion and both the younger and older Buddies reflect on the loss of their elderly friend, I was confronted by similar moments from the past year and was reminded of all the irreplaceable parts of myself I’ve let loose “like a kite on a broken string.” And again, I’m reminded of my school days, when I first met so many of these actors.

“Walking across a school campus on this particular December morning, I keep searching the sky,” Buddy says in the script’s closing moments. “As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying towards heaven.”

Quiet, unflashy, and built out of imagination, light, and a love of language, Holiday Memories is as chilling as first frost, as filling as cornbread dressing, and far more likely to haunt you than any Christmas ghosts.

Don’t let it float away.  

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

PETA At It Again

PETA, the animal advocacy group, is trying to start some shit, y’all.

The group recently posted a billboard on Summer depicting the three Wise Men. It reads, “Be Wise. Have Faith in Veganism.”

Justin Fox Burks

The billboard was placed near two churches at Christmastime.

From PETA’s press release:

“Going vegan is the perfect way to honor the Christmas message of peace on Earth and goodwill to all members of creation,” says PETA Vice President Colleen O’Brien. “PETA is encouraging everyone to celebrate with compassion by choosing a delicious vegan roast for the holiday table.”

That may be a tough sell in this city. But… but(!) … in sorta related news, the newly elected Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris held a VEGAN BARBECUE on Wednesday for staff and media as part of a kick off for his “Health and Fitness Initiative.” 

Categories
News News Blog

Environmental Groups Ask County to Revoke TVA Well Permits

CREDIT: TVA

USGS

Groundwater discharge from an aquifer test at the Tennessee Valley Authority Allen Combined Cycle Plant in October.

Environmental groups have asked the Shelby County Health Department to revoke and not re-issue permits for five Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) wells near its new natural gas energy plant here.

The health department issued the permits for the wells in 2016. TVA planned to drill the wells into the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the source of the city’s famously pure drinking water, and pump millions of gallons to cool its new Allen Combined Cycle plant.

The Sierra Club and Protect Our Aquifer sued TVA in February last year to stop the plan. The groups were later denied an appeal on the well permits by the Shelby County Groundwater Quality Control Board.

After the hearing, the board developed new regulations on issuing well permits that gave it more oversight on well permits, gave the public the opportunity for hearings before permits are approved, and more.

These new rules, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) on behalf of the Sierra Club and Protect Our Aquifer, prohibit “wells near sites where there are investigations into groundwater contamination, unless the wells will not enhance contamination.”

Environmental investigations are underway at the site of the five wells. They are within a half-mile of a TVA coal ash pit. Arsenic levels in groundwater there were found to be 300 times more than the legal limit.

Tennessee Valley Authority

The depth and amount of the contamination, according to the TVA investigation.

Using the wells near the site of the contamination could put the city’s drinking water at risk, the groups said in a letter to the health department Wednesday.

“With everything that we know about the threats to our local drinking water source, it’s hard to believe that TVA still holds permits issued by the county to operate water wells at Allen,” said Ward Archer, president of Protect Our Aquifer.
[pullquote-1] A review by the University of Memphis and the U.S. Geological Survey earlier this year found that the aquifer containing the contaminated groundwater was hydraulically linked to the Memphis Sand Aquifer.

TVA ultimately rejected the plan to pull water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer. It buys its water from Memphis Light Gas, & Water.

TVA

Crews work to build pads for two, 2.5 million-gallon water tanks to be built on the site of TVA’s new Allen Combined Cycle power plant here.

“It’s time for the county to step up and revoke these permits in favor of protecting the drinking water source for Memphis communities,” said SELC attorney Anne Passino. “As long as TVA has those permits, they have the authority to operate wells that could be a hazard for the Memphis Sand Aquifer.”

As a state Senator, now-Shelby-County-Mayor Lee Harris called for the suspension of the permits in July 2017. 

Categories
News News Blog

Report: Memphis Internet Slowest in the Country

CREDIT: Courtesy of CodeCrew

Courtesy of CodeCrew

Students practice computer coding with CodeCrew.

Memphis has the slowest internet in the country, according to the latest report from Ookla.

The company’s Speedtest product is used by millions each day to test the speed of their internet connection. Ookla also produces regular market reports of fixed and mobile internet speeds in the US.

For the second and third quarters of 2018, Ookla found the national average download speed over fixed broadband was 96.25 Mbps. The national average upload speed was 32.88 Mbps.

Ookla

Memphis’ download speed ranked dead last in a survey of the top 100 biggest U.S. cities. Average download speeds here were 44.86 Mbps. The city was followed by Laredo, Texas, Cincinnati, and Cleveland.

Ookla

Upload speeds here averaged 12.96 Mbps. It was the fourth slowest speed in the country behind Laredo, Toledo, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The nation’s fastest internet can be found in Kansas City, Mo., according to the report.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Bah Humbug! Memphis Should Have Seen Joakim Noah Coming

I’m disappointed in you Memphis. Not because of the low attendance numbers this season, in spite of a Grizzlies team that has managed to look like a playoff contender in the always competitive Western Conference. And doing so, while national media said we had a better chance of moving to Las Vegas or Seattle than making the playoffs. Not because first year head coach JB Bickerstaff is low-key putting together a coach-of-the-year season while implementing one of the league’s best defenses. No, I’m disappointed because we have yet another great reclamation project on our roster and too many fans didn’t see it coming before it happened.

Christmas is 12 days away. Its officially time to sing a song about gifts from your true love that literally no one would be excited to see under the tree. (Hey babe, I got you some pregnant geese that are literally in the act of laying eggs!) But anyway. Speaking of gifts that no one wants … recent Grizz signee and NBA vet Joakim Noah was the turtle dove of guys sitting at home on the couch. The former Defensive Player of the Year and MVP candidate was mostly down-talked by Memphis fans and media members alike.

“He’s old”
“He’s injured”
“He sucks”
“How does he help?”

These were all things fans said and asked about Noah on social media and elsewhere; things that were said about a player that has done exactly what he was brought in to do — bring infectious energy off of the bench, rebound, and embrace his role. His humility and genuine gratitude for being back in the game has been as storybook as it gets. Just another heart-filled holiday story to add to the Grizzlies’ list of residents on its Island of Misfit Toys.

Noah wasn’t the first player to come to Memphis looking for resurgence. He isn’t the first to come with a game and attitude that matched the heartbeat and core of this city, and hopefully he won’t be the last. He joins the likes of Zach Randolph, Tony Allen, James Johnson, Lance Stephenson, Tyreke Evans, and probably some other guys that I’m forgetting about.

Noah will have big games where he comes in and makes his presence felt. He will have games where you forget he’s on the court. But for the most part, I believe that Noah will help this team tremendously, on and off the court. He has a work ethic that will impress and inspire the vets and a quirkiness and peculiarity that will speak to Jaren Jackson Jr. He is broken, damaged, weird, loud, and disruptive.
Sounds like a match made in Memphis, and we should have seen it coming.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Smock Gets in Your Eyes

The week that was …

I don’t know about you, but I find that I notice the passing of time mostly by my mundane weekly rituals. As in, hey, it’s Tuesday: Gotta write a column. Wednesday: Time to prep for the morning staff meeting. Thursday: Go on the radio with Drake. Saturday: Buy pet food, hit the grocery store. Sunday: Ooh, Ray Donovan is on. Aaannd, it’s Tuesday again.

My life is much richer than those weekly markers might indicate, but the repetitive events are what remind me that time goes by in a flash, that weeks pile up into years pretty quickly.

On Monday, I drove over to the central library to appear on Willie Bearden’s Dialogue show for the library channel. It’s a simple format: You sit for an hour and get interviewed about your life and career and whatever else comes up. It was an interesting exercise, and it evoked some stories, memories, and experiences I hadn’t thought about for a while.

Willie’s final question was, “How do you want to be remembered?” To which my first thought was: That’s not a question you ask a young person. Yikes. Like the commercials say: Life comes at you fast.

Likewise, I imagine the weeks are going by pretty quickly for the Memphis City Council — now down to 10 members — who are going to have to figure out how to compromise at some point to get a full quorum and get the city’s business done. The drama will no doubt resume this week. In a guest column in The Commercial Appeal, Councilman Worth Morgan called the situation, “an embarrassingly intractable instance of failed governance,” which is on the money, if a bit wordy. So fix it, y’all.

Other events of note this week: LeBron James and the Lakers came to town and stomped the home team. The Gannett Company is again making noises about staff cuts at its newspapers (which isn’t even news, anymore). Jackson Baker and Michael Donahue sang karaoke together at the Flyer holiday party. And iconic local chef and all-around good guy, Gary Williams, died unexpectedly. R.I.P.

Nationally, the silly debate about “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” continued to rage. The song came on the speakers when I was in Fresh Market on Saturday. Customers began throwing arugula on the floor in protest and a small fire was ignited in the deli section. As customers stomped out in protest, the staff was attempting to put out the blaze with bottles of San Pellegrino. Sad!

None of that is true. Nobody listens to background music about sexual harassment. Or consensual flirting. Or whatever the hell you choose to think that song is about.

One guy who had a very bad week was President Trump, who has gone from denying he even knew Porny, er, Stormy Daniels, to admitting he paid her (and another former paramour) to keep quiet about their illicit affair(s). According to Trump, it was all okay because it was paid with personal funds and was a “private matter.” Good luck with that argument, Mr. Trump. Or should I say, “Individual 1.” Trump’s ALL CAPS tweeting percentage has been on the rise, as more and more of his former associates become besties with Robert Mueller.

I continue to read that a sitting president can’t be indicted. I don’t know how legit that legal opinion is or whether it will be tested at some point. But there’s a real problem with that thinking: If a president can’t be indicted, then what’s to prevent any future candidate from breaking all kinds of laws to get himself elected, knowing that once he’s in office, he’s immune from prosecution? That would seem to encourage and reward law-breaking.
And does that mean the president really can shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue? That can’t be what the Founding Fathers had in mind. But then again, the Founding Fathers probably never anticipated a Congressional majority that would be complicit in such a matter.

In other news, my New Year’s resolution is to quit smocking, and I am going to insist that Flyer staffers now call me “Individual 1.”

Categories
Politics Politics Feature

Candidates Vie for Vacant Norris Seat

It took a while for Mark Norris to become a federal judge. He was nominated by President Trump last year but was only recently confirmed by the U.S. Senate after numerous gridlock-imposed delays. It took a while, too, for Governor Bill Haslam to call for a special election to replace Norris in his vacated District 32 state Senate seat.

But now that things are under way, Republican candidates to fill the vacancy are wasting no time getting their campaigns under way. Former two-term Shelby County Commissioner Heidi Shafer, who was one of the first to indicate her desire to seek the seat after Norris was nominated, made haste to get out of the gate, filing to run at the Election Commission on Monday morning. She indicated later Monday that she already has three fund-raisers scheduled for the near future.

New Democratic House Leader Karen Camper

Shafer, who represented an East Memphis district on the commission and chaired that body this past year, displayed some serious legislative skills there. Even before the District 32 opportunity opened up, she had expressed a desire to run for the legislature and at one point had her eyes on a race this fall for the District 96 state House seat won in 2016 by Democrat Dwayne Thompson in an upset of then GOP incumbent Steve McManus.

The Norris seat became a more inviting target, however, and she and her husband Carl subsequently turned their Memphis home over to their college-age daughter and moved into a new Lakeland residence, well within the District 32 limits.

In something of an irony, or at the very least an interesting coincidence, one of Shafer’s rivals for the District 32 seat is the aforementioned McManus, who forwent the option of trying to regain his House seat from Thompson (who won again over the GOP’s Scott McCormick) and was himself attracted by the prospect of the Norris vacancy.

McManus, too, is off and running, having already run a commercial for his candidacy on local TV this past weekend. In 2016, he had, in the judgment of many, demonstrated a palpable over-confidence in his race against the hard-working Thompson, and his defeat then may have amounted to something of a wake-up call for his future.

In any case, he is unlikely to be taken by surprise this time around and has significant leftover campaign cash from two years ago that will stand him in good stead for the current race.

Both Shafer and McManus are counting on support in East Shelby County, the heartland of the local Republican constituency, as was demonstrated by the weight of Republican voting in last August’s primary.

Shafer’s commission work, much of it in alliance with Terry Roland of Millington, would appear to give her a headstart with the GOP voters of North Shelby County, and she is also well acquainted with the GOP base in the southern part of Tipton County, also part of District 32.

Both Shafer and McManus have to worry about a third candidate, construction executive Paul Rose of Covington, who is well known in Tipton County and moreover has significant contacts with the Shelby County Republican establishment as well.

Rose has indicated he intends to run hard on conservative themes, stressing Christian values and his support for the 2nd Amendment, a focus that should help him in the district’s rural areas.

Yet a fourth potential GOP candidate, not yet announced, is George Chism of Collierville, who served one term on the Shelby County Commission, then gambled on a run for county trustee this year but was defeated by Democrat Regina Morrison Newman, after winning the Republican primary.

So far, one Democrat, Eric R. Coleman of Bartlett, has picked up a petition to run for the District 32 seat. Coleman, a veteran of Naval service and a Wounded Warrior, is a business logistics specialist.

• Shelby Countians are prominent in legislative leaderships positions, at least among the General Assembly’s minority Democrats. In recent elections, District 87 state Representative Karen Camper was elected as the Democrats’ minority leader in the state House, thereby achieving a dual milestone as the first African-American woman to lead a major party in the legislature.

Shelby County Democrats dominated in leadership elections for the state Senate, capturing three of the spots available for the five Democrats in that body. Raumesh Akbari, a former state representative who won election to the Senate’s District 29 seat in this year’s election, was named caucus chair for the Democrats, while Sara Kyle of District 30 was elected vice chair, and Katrina Robinson of District 33, was named party whip.

• Local Democrats also made an impact, though one they surely regarded as less desirable, with the state Election Registry, drawing fines for late financial disclosures. Incoming freshman House state Representatives London Lamar of District 91 and Jesse Chism of District 85 were fined $8,175 and $5,000 respectively, while veteran state Representative Joe Towns of District 84, a perennial collector of fines from the registry, drew a total of $20,000.

• Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, who has demonstrated an innovative bent during his first few months in office, has announced a “Health and Fitness Initiative” to begin on Wednesday of this week, with a “City Silo Vegan Barbecue” meal to be served at noon in the 6th floor lobby of the Vasco Smith County Administration Building to members and staffers of the county commission, members of the Healthy Shelby board, and the media.

The initiative will continue in January with what is billed as a “mini” five-minute bootcamp for the commissioners and media members, conducted by Memphis Tiger basketball star Will Coleman.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Creed II

In this age of sequels, prequels, reboots, sequels to prequels, and reboots of the prequel sequel, film criticism can wander into the realm of sports writing. Is Shazam 14: The Shazaminator Returns better than Shazam 12: The Dark Zam Rises? Does Robert Downey Jr. still have what it takes? Which do you like better, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the DC Universe, or a kick to the head?

Spoiler alert: All the Shazam movies are going to be the same, Bobby Jr. checked out two Avengers movies ago, and I’ll take the kick to the head. Which brings us to Creed II: At Least He’s Not a Superhero.

Sylvester Stallone (left) and Michael B. Jordan star in Creed II, the new Rocky movie.

I made that last bit up. The Rocky movies, beginning with the 1976 Best Picture Winner and continuing for five iterations over 14 years, never used subtitles. In a way, that’s a more honest approach than Thor: The Dark World. Yes, this is the same movie, but this time, Rocky fights Mr. T.!

After a false start in 2005 with Rocky Balboa, written and directed by Sylvester Stallone (“Sly didn’t have what it takes for a comeback!” says the sportswriter), the franchise (there’s another sports term) was rebooted in 2015 by Ryan Coogler with Creed. Coogler cast Michael B. Jordan, who starred in the director’s debut Fruitvale Station, as Adonis “Donny” Johnson, son of Rocky’s frenemy Apollo Creed. Like his father, Donny wants to be the heavyweight boxing champion of the world, so he recruits Rocky to be his trainer, effectively casting Sylvester Stallone as Burgess Meredith. Maybe it took fresh eyes and a fresh ethnicity to breathe new life into the Rocky formula, but it clearly worked. Coogler subsequently got called up to the Big Show, directing Black Panther, where he cast Jordan as Killmonger, who is probably the best villain the MCU ever had.

With Coogler too expensive (industry rumors have him rebooting Space Jam with LeBron James) and Stallone reasserting his position as producer and writer, the team hired a new coach: Steven Caple Jr. As a result, Creed II is like the best parts of Rocky II-V hot glued together.

Donny, now going by Adonis, has achieved his dream of living up to his absent father by winning the heavyweight boxing championship with Rocky as his corner man. But there are a pair of visitors to the statue of Rocky Balboa on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art who are inspired in a different way than most tourists: Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) and his son Viktor (Florian Munteanu). If you will recall, in 1985’s Rocky IV, Soviet superman Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed in the ring, so Rocky had to undertake the mother of all training montages to seek revenge and win the Cold War. Ivan was so disgraced that his wife (played by Stallone’s real-life ex-wife Brigitte Nielsen) left him. So now, he seeks revenge by pitting his son against Rocky’s son-figure.

The Rocky formula goes something like this: 50 percent soapy family drama, 20 percent training montages, 10 percent Zulu sequences (the anticipation of the fight, in which tension is ramped up slowly, named for Michael Caine’s 1964 film debut), and 20 percent men pummeling each other. To its credit, Creed II does vary from the formula by ramping up the training montage content to at least 30 percent. That’s really what the audience is hungry for, right? Rocky‘s training montage, set to the No. 1 hit “Gonna Fly Now,” was so compelling Philadelphia erected a statue to it.

The thing Rocky II-V were about was Stallone’s star power. In the 1980s, people just couldn’t get enough of the guy, whether he was training to defeat the Soviets in Rambo II-III, or training to defeat arm wrestlers in Over the Top. Stallone’s still staggering around like a drunk in Creed II, but it’s Jordan who is flexing. From his superhuman physique, I assume Jordan is doing crunches on a pile of money right now. He can hold the screen as well as any man alive in 2018, and when he gets a chance — such as when he’s in a hospital bed after getting the crap knocked out of him on national television — he can act, too. Tessa Thompson is back as his love interest, the deaf musician Bianca, even though she has little to do but moon after him.

But that’s okay, because this is a man’s story about a man proving his manhood by beating another man into submission. This is a movie unafraid to use the Eiffel Tower as a phallic symbol. The Rocky ur-narrative is patriarchal capitalism propaganda par excellence, and obviously it still works for some people, even if Creed II struggles to go the distance.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Gifts for the Libation Lovers in Your Life

At Christmas last year, a friend lovingly declared that I was too tough to shop for, then proceeded to give me one of my favorite gifts: a bottle of good champagne and a single delicate gold-rimmed flute for drinking it. She topped the beautifully wrapped package with a champagne key chain that she found, along with the glass, at Anthropologie.

It was a thoughtful present that signified, to me, that I deserved to indulge myself here and there — and that champagne for one is a perfectly reasonable proposition. Today, I smile every time I hand wash and put away that elegant champagne flute, which stands taller than all the other wine glasses in my cabinet.

I, too, like to give the gift of spirits — and little extras that help the recipients enjoy them. Here’s what’s hot on my list this holiday season:

Online retailer CB2 has a wide range of old-fashioned glasses that would make the ideal accompaniment for a bottle of Memphis-made Blue Note Bourbon. Choose from the Dip, a handmade, yet thoroughly modern take on hobnail milk glass, the micro-thin Marta, the vintage-inspired Mars Smoke Stacking glass, or the tortoiseshell Franklin. Pick up a couple of glasses (prices range from under $5 per glass to just over $10), and pair them with a bottle of Angostura Bitters, the aforementioned Blue Note Bourbon, a box of sugar cubes, and a few lemons. Add a personal touch by handwriting the recipe for making an Old Fashioned on a postcard or Christmas card. Locally, I like to shop at Flashback for vintage glassware and bar accessories. Score a great cocktail shaker, and pair it with mixers, elixirs, and an ice-cube tray. Or pick up a new but vintage-inspired tea towel (I love the cheekiness of the Blue Q line, which I’ve spotted at Flashback, Maggie’s Pharm, and Novel) and pair it with a set of cocktail stirrers and drink markers. Wrap up your favorite brand of booze in the tea towel, fasten it with a ribbon, and tuck in or tie on the stirrers or markers, and voila — you’re ready with a hostess gift. For stocking stuffers, try airline-sized booze bottles, available at any liquor store in town. Stop by Lit Restaurant Supply for other inexpensive items, including bottle stoppers, spouts, mini-whisks, and more.

Most Memphis shops offer a wine-by-the-case discount, so if you’re short on ideas, buy a dozen tea towels and pair each with a bottle of your favorite wine. Scribble a note about why you like it. Or, for someone really special, buy a dozen different bottles, so they can think of you as they enjoy a new bottle every month of the year. If you want to make an even bigger impression, splurge on membership to a Cheese of the Month Club to go along with said wine. There are dozens to choose from, but my favorite is the $75 option offered by Murray’s Cheese, which ships three varieties on the second Thursday of every month.

Last year, I splurged on a few dozen $4 neoprene koozies from Etsy seller CoffeeItDesigns, located right here in Memphis. The koozies I selected feature a bear emblazoned with Memphis on one side and the statement “We grind here” in a calligraphy-style font on the other. I stuffed each koozie with a can of local beer, then randomly paired them up in gift bags for couples I know. You can also order a personalized beer growler and pint glasses on Etsy — be sure to fill up the growler before giving. Or, pick up a cute coffee mug to go with a bottle of Kahlúa, Amaretto, or Bailey’s Irish Cream.

Need to go kosher? While most local liquor stores have a large selection of kosher spirits, Buster’s has a particularly good variety of Israeli wine in stock, including the Galil Mountain Pinot Noir from Galilee, a bright, cheery red that sells for under $17 per bottle. Traditionalists can also spring for the Manischewitz, which goes for under $6. At that price point, you can spring for a half-dozen wine glasses — I love stemless, easily purchased at a box store or at the Williams-Sonoma outlet in East Memphis.