Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

Katori Hall Strip Club Drama To Begin Production

Katori Hall

P-Valley, a Starz series adapted from Memphis playwright Katori Hall’s strip club drama Pussy Valley, has been ordered to series, Variety reports. 

Like the script it’s based on, P-Valley tells the story of a rural Mississippi strip joint, the girls who work there, the customers who visit, and Uncle Clifford, a trans man connected to the club. Hall will serve as showrunner.

Hall who served briefly as artistic director for Memphis’ Hattiloo Theatre, was recognized as a writer of note in 2009, when her play, The Mountaintop, won an Olivier award. She’s also the author of Hurt Village, Hoodoo Love and Tina: The Tina Turner Musical. Pussy Valley was originally produced by Mixed Blood theater in Minneapolis in 2015. It has been in development as a Starz series since 2016. A Memphis area talent search was conducted in July.

Variety describes P-Valley.

It tells the story of a little-strip-club-that-could and the characters who come through its doors—the hopeful, the lost, the broken, the ballers, the beautiful, and the damned. It will star Brandee Evans as Mercedes and Nicco Annan as Uncle Clifford. Shannon Thornton and J. Alphonse Nicholson will appear as series regulars.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Crosstown, Memphis Made Will Brew Resilience IPA

I heard about this fund-raiser on the radio yesterday, so it’s pretty cool to see that Crosstown Brewing is picking it up.

Sierra Nevada is brewing Resilience IPA as a fund-raiser for the California Camp Fire relief effort, donating 100 percent of beer sales. In addition, they’ve asked brewers to join them and have gathered malt, hop, and yeast donations as well to help. So far, more than 1,000 breweries have stepped up.

From the release:

In our first year at Crosstown Brewing Company, we’ve learned a lot about the impact that breweries can have on our communities. We’ve been thrilled to see local groups and charities use our space and our products to make this city a better place. When we saw that one of the largest and oldest craft breweries in the United States, Sierra Nevada, was taking steps to bring the American brewing community together to help the victims of the California fires, we knew we wanted to be a part of it. We will brew Resilience IPA and serve the beer in our taproom in the coming weeks. All proceeds will go directly to Camp Fire relief efforts in Butte County, California. So far, more than 1,000 breweries nationwide have heard the call and are taking action. Helping the victims of this tragedy reminds us that we can help people in any part of the world and reinforces the strong bonds and generosity that attracted us to the brewing community in the first place. Please join us in showing the people of California that they have friends here in Memphis, Tennessee.

UPDATE: Memphis Made announced yesterday they will brew a 10-barrel batch of Resilience IPA. The beer will be available in the taproom by the middle of next month, Memphis Made said on Facebook, “with 100% of the proceeds going to the Sierra Nevada Camp Fire Relief Fund.”

Crosstown, Memphis Made Will Brew Resilience IPA

Categories
News News Blog

Memphis Pets of the Week (Nov. 29-Dec. 5)

Each week, the Flyer will feature adoptable dogs and cats from Memphis Animal Services. All photos are credited to Memphis Pets Alive. More pictures can be found on the Memphis Pets Alive Facebook page.

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Categories
Sports Tiger Blue

Three Thoughts on Tiger Football

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

• Put down the voodoo dolls! The American Athletic Conference’s two best quarterbacks — Houston’s D’Eriq King and UCF’s McKenzie Milton — each go down with season-ending injuries a week before their teams play Memphis. Spooky stuff. King’s absence may have been the difference in the Tigers’ win over Houston last Friday, a game that was tied at 31 entering the fourth quarter. As for this week, beware a good team playing for a cause. The entire UCF roster will be playing for Milton Saturday in Orlando, not necessarily the intangible Memphis needs in this matchup. On the other hand, the Knights have utterly dominated this series, winning 12 straight. If the Tigers aren’t motivated by such a one-sided “rivalry,” they need not suit up.
Larry Kuzniewski

Mike Norvell

• After clinching the AAC’s West Division title a second straight year, coach Mike Norvell emphasized the “hard-earned culture” that now exists in and around the Memphis football program. It’s an apt description. The Tigers have won more games over the last five seasons (45) than they did over the previous ten (2004-13). No Memphis team scored 500 points in a season before 2015. The Tigers have now scored more than 500 points in four straight seasons (the last three under Norvell). Here’s the big-picture challenge for the U of M: How does a culture outlast a coach?

Norvell has been mentioned in the current searches for a new coach at Colorado and Texas Tech. I’m not convinced either job would be a step up, regardless of the Power Five qualifications at each program. But Norvell will not spend his entire career on the Memphis sideline. He’s too young (37), wins too much, and there are too many programs out there with deeper pockets than an AAC program can claim. So the challenge — for Memphis athletic director Tom Bowen and those who helped find Justin Fuente and Norvell — is keeping a hard-earned culture alive regardless of who happens to be sitting in the head coach’s office. This week’s opponent is a prime example, UCF now ranked 7th in the country after a coaching transition last winter.


• The AAC championship will be closer than the SEC championship. The Tigers and Knights will be playing (on ABC) at the same time Alabama and Georgia stage a rematch of last year’s national championship contest (on CBS). I’m convinced the better game will the one with the smaller viewing audience. Last year’s AAC championship was, by some measures, the game of the year (nationally), UCF winning, 62-55, in two overtimes. The Knights beat Memphis in October, 31-30, after erasing a 13-point deficit. Two of the top eight scoring teams in the country — they each average more than 43 points per game — should make for a thrilling Saturday afternoon in Orlando. My prediction: Memphis wins the game, but only if the Tigers rush for 250 yards. (The U of M is 7-1 in such games this season, the only loss coming against . . . UCF.)
Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Ralph Breaks The Internet

The internet. It’s everywhere. You’re soaking in it, right now. It’s been blamed for a lot of things, but the relevant accusation right now is the decline of the theatrical movie business. But seeing as Ralph Breaks The Internet just helped make last Thanksgiving weekend the most profitable in Hollywood history, maybe the death of the film business has been exaggerated. Again.

Turns out, what was needed in the internet age is more movies about the internet. Legacy media behemoth Disney was poised to deliver with the second stage to a new franchise launch, Ralph Breaks The Internet.

The very first bad decision here was not calling the film “Ralph Wrecks The Internet” instead of adopting fully the Kardashian’s PR firm’s framing with “breaks”. If 2012’s Wreck It Ralph proved anything, it’s that Ralph (John C. Reilly) wrecks stuff. Here, it’s initially not the internet, but his friendship with Princess Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) after the video game villain (whose resemblance to Donkey Kong is a source for sight gags) restored the Princess to her rightful place as ruler of the Sugar Rush game in Litwak’s Family Fun Center and Arcade. Now they hang out nursing frosty brews in Root Beer Tapper, until their paradise is interrupted by the arrival of a wifi router. When the Sugar Rush game’s steering wheel breaks, Venellope and Ralph must travel through the world wide web to eBay to find a replacement before the arcade owner throws her home on the scrap heap.

Ralph Breaks The Internet is the second major film this year to attempt the difficult task of visualizing the internet. What the Internet looks like in real life is a bunch of people staring at screens, thousands of miles of wires, and vast, sterile server farms. You’re not “visiting” a website. You’re just looking at it. To capture the “traveling without moving” vibe of the internet, both Ready Player One and Ralph Breaks The Internet basically go with the avatar model described by Neil Stephenson in his 1992 novel Snow Crash. Spielberg, by way of Earnest Cline, goes with the Stephenson vision of a wildly creative, surreal world populated by a menagerie of weird creatures dredged up from the psyches of millions of users. Directors Phil Johnston and Rich Moore see cyberspace as a vast mall populated by uniformly cute, Funko Pop-headed avatars. If you want a visual metaphor for how the internet has gone from a free-form platform for communication and connectedness to a vector for authoritarian, surveillance capitalism mind control, there it is.

If you want to be even more nerd-outraged, the Ralph-net is not even neutral. They actually go out of their way to make that point. It pissed me off.

Once you look past the subtext, Ralph’s attempt to be www.Who Framed Roger Rabbit is reasonably successful. Reilly’s voice work is aces, and Silverman makes Vanellope into a cool girl with a little rasp in her throat. They spend a lot of time in the Disney web properties (complete with a Stormtrooper chase, with the soldiers of the Empire demonstrating their trademark lack of attention to detail). The funniest part is another bit of cross branding, where Vanellope teaches the collected Disney Princesses about the wonders of comfortable clothes, while they show her how to find herself through a musical number. It’s charming and self-aware, but not enough to really elevate Ralph Breaks The Internet beyond a routine (but profitable) kid-pleasing pot boiler.

Categories
Beyond the Arc Sports

Grizzlies Cough Up 17-Point Lead, Lose to Raptors 122-114

CREDIT: Larry Kuzniewski

The Memphis Grizzlies entered Tuesday night’s homestand on a two-game losing streak, and faced the top team in the East in the Toronto Raptors. After a brief stint at the top of the West, Memphis has hit a rough patch, having trouble closing out close games and giving up sizeable leads.
Larry Kuzniewski

The Grizzlies had an abysmal start to the game. Jaren Jackson picked up two fouls in the first minute of play, and took an early seat on the bench. Meanwhile, the Raptors jumped out to an 8-0 lead.

The Grizzlies defense eventually settled in, slowing down the game and allowing the Grizzlies to battle back to take the lead with 4:13 remaining in the first period.

Both teams got it going later in the first quarter, with the Grizzlies finishing with a 1-point lead over the Raptors at 32-31.

The Grizzlies’s defense on Kawhi Leonard was particularly strong to start the game, holding him to 4 points on 2-5 shooting, and no assists. Overall, team defense played a big part,.I n his pregame availability J.B. Bickerstaff talked about how the Grizzlies would throw a lot of bodies at Leonard. Kyle Anderson’s effect cannot be diminished, however, as he played fantastic individual defense on Leonard.

The Grizzlies continued their surprisingly high level of scoring in the second quarter, finishing with 39 points. Mike Conley also had a nice block on Kyle Lowry at the buzzer that left the home crowd on their feet heading into halftime.

Marc Gasol led all players in the first half with 15 points, dished three assists, and played with a great rhythm on both ends of the floor (shooting 6-9 and registering 2 steals). Garrett Temple also had an impact with 12 points and two made threes.

Overall team defense was stout in the first half, accumulating tons of deflections, 7 steals, and making it difficult for Toronto to get into their offensive sets.

The Grizzlies went into halftime with a 71-59 cushion over the Raptors, and extended the lead to 17 early in the third. On the first possession out of the half, Conley and Gasol executed a brilliant two-man game that was essentially a give-and-go vortex with both players swirling around one another’s screens and cuts, resulting in both defenders following Conley’s drive into the paint before he kicked the rock back to Gasol for an open three-point make.

But the Raptors battled back to cut the Grizzlies lead to one point, as Memphis’ defense fell flat for most of the period. At one point the Raptors were shooting 11-14 in the quarter, and the Grizzlies didn’t seem to get any stops, until they strung several together to end the period. The Raptors finished the third quarter shooting 11-21 from deep, and trailing the Grizzlies 97-93.

The stellar defense on Leonard fell apart in the second half. He finished the third quarter with 9 points and shot 7 free throws after scoring just 5 in the first half. He finished the game with 17 points, 5 assists, 2 steals, and one turnover.

Jaren Jackson picked up another couple of fouls in under a one-minute span early in the fourth quarter, and things continued to go downhill from there. Memphis has been giving up a lot of three-point looks from the corner this season. The Grizzlies have been relatively lucky, with teams not converting on those open looks at as high of a rate as they should, but they got bit in this game, as Toronto buried corner three after corner three down the stretch to put the game out of reach. The Raptors hit 7 threes in the final quarter.

Conley also missed consecutive free throws in the fourth quarter. He’s done that several times this season, and I can’t tell if it’s fatigue late in games or if it’s a mental thing.

In his postgame press conference, Bickerstaff said the Grizzlies got rushed as the Raptors dialed up the defensive intensity, forcing Memphis to play at a pace too fast for its comfort. He also characterized the open three-point looks granted to Toronto in the corner as non-structural, saying “there were some errors we made to create those situations. We’re not trying to give up corner threes by any means.” Still, this has been a problem pretty much all season, and tonight was the first time the Grizzlies paid for it. It probably won’t be the last.

Marc Gasol rolled his ankle late in the game, finishing with a noticeable limp. Fortunately, his injury appears to be a day-to-day thing.

In the locker room after the game, JaMychal Green (13 points, 7 rebounds) said: “We just got to bounce back. Ain’t no excuse. We just got to come in, play hard, and when it gets down to crunch time, lock up.”

The Grizzlies will have two days of rest before they travel to Brooklyn on Friday to play the Nets.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Best Bets: Mortimer’s gumbo

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

Michael Donahue

Gumbo at Mortimer’s Restaurant

I was in the mood for something hearty, so I ordered a bowl of gumbo at Mortimer’s Restaurant. I’d eaten gumbo there before, but, this time, after I took a bite I verbally exclaimed how great it was. It had a kick to it. I’ve always liked the taste, but this added zip was wonderful.

After I made my announcement, I noticed the people on either side of me suddenly ordered it, too.

I asked owner Christopher Jamieson what was up with the gumbo.

“We’ve been selling gumbo since 1981,” he says. “We’ve built on the same foundation or the same base gumbo, but it’s evolved into what it is now.”

The gumbo includes smoked oysters, clams, shrimp, and sausage.

Former kitchen manager Larry Smith “started tinkering with it and re-did it.”

But that’s not where the additional spiciness came from. The gumbo recipe, which is “two pages long,” already has “about 40, 50 things in it,” Jamieson says. Assistant kitchen manager Kevin Sykes accidentally substituted an ingredient for another ingredient. Hence the tangy taste.“He was putting crawfish seasoning in it,” Jamieson says. “He thought it was cayenne.”

It was crawfish seasoning or crawfish boil, which, accidentally, was put into the tub where the cayenne was kept. The crawfish boil is “a whole blend of a bunch of different spices,” Jamieson says.

“People have said something’s a little different and I couldn’t figure it out for the longest time ‘cause, with Larry, I wrote down exactly all the measurements and typed it all up for Kevin.”

People kept saying they liked it. And they said, “It’s got more flavor to it.”

“This past season I ordered some extra crawfish boil from my vendor,” Jamieson says.

He served the gumbo at the recent Spirit of SRVS event at the Memphis Hilton.

Jamieson and his wife, Ashley, transported the gumbo in their car. It took him about two weeks to get the smell of gumbo out of their car, he says. “And I didn’t even spill. Just it being in the air getting from my car to the Hilton.”


Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Old Zinnie’s Is Closed

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

Is there a drink large enough to “pour one out” for Old Zinnie’s?

The mainstay Midtown bar is set to close December 31st.

According to Adam Lafevor, owner Bill Baker’s lawyer and onetime OZ bartender, “The lease is finally up. That’s it — no fines, no violations, no hard feelings.”

Lafevor said, “Old Zinnie’s wants to say thank you to its loyal customers. We’re sad to see everybody go.”

Old Zinnie’s opened in 1973.

The space is owned by the Barrasso family and Malkin Management.

Arthur Malkin of Malkin Management says he learned of Zinnie’s closing at 1 p.m. via a faxed letter. He says the rent was not raised and he was not approached to renegotiate.  “Malkin Management worked with Zinnie’s for years, and we just received notice from their attorney today (this afternoon) that they were closing their doors and cancelling their lease. We had no prior knowledge and are just as sad to see them go. They have been a great tenant and fulfilled all of their obligations over the years. My understanding from Zinnie’s attorney (we spoke today) is that the ownership was simply ready to close and retire, end of story. They will be missed, and truly are irreplaceable. We love Memphis and have no influence over their decision to close. Anyone interested in carrying on the tradition is more than welcome to reach out to us or call. Warmest respect and regards to all of our fellow Memphians.”

Malkin says he would be willing to talk to Baker about a new lease. He thinks that Baker may simply be ready to retire.

“He’s an institution,” says Malkin of Baker. 

Categories
News News Blog

Street Closures for St. Jude Marathon to Begin Early Saturday

CREDIT: St. Jude

St. Jude


Street closures for the 17th annual St. Jude Marathon will begin Friday night, according to officials with the Memphis Police Department (MPD) and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

There are five separate race events scheduled: a 5k, 10k, half-marathon, full marathon, and a kids marathon. Officials expect about 26,000 participants overall — 1,000 more than last year. Additionally, officials said the number of spectators will likely grow from the 40,000 who attended last year. There are also 4,000 volunteers signed up to help throughout the day.

MPD Deputy Chief Michael Hardy said during any event of this magnitude, public safety is the number one concern.

Lt. Coronel Keith Watson said set up for the start and finish lines will begin Friday at 10 p.m. Around 4:30 a.m. Saturday, traffic barricades will go up along the route.

Watson said these closures will likely be in effect to 5 p.m. on Saturday “until the last runner crosses the finish line.”

Watson adds that within the protected zone, there will be an area in the Downtown core where no vehicles are permitted at all during the race day. The no-vehicle area is bounded by Madison on the north, Second on the west, MLK on the south and Fourth on the east.

Steve Cox, senior vice president of communication at ALSAC, St. Jude’s fundraising arm, said this year the race routes were changed up due to feedback from the public and to better show off the community.

Key changes to the route include more time running on the riverfront and through the St. Jude campus, as well as an added stretch through Overton Park and by Crosstown Concourse.

There will be two separate starting lines and three different start times. The half and full marathon will start at 8 a.m. at B.B. King and Lt. Lee Avenue near the FedexForum. While the 5k and 10k will start an hour earlier at B.B. King and Madison near Autozone Park. The children’s marathon is slated to begin in the same spot at 1:30 p.m. All of the races will finish on Union near AutoZone Park, where a post-race celebration will take place, Cox said.

See the full list of road closures for each affected neighborhood at the bottom of the page.

More information and updates about street closures and other race day tidbits can be found here or on the Waze app, which will provide up-to-date street closure and reopening updates throughout the day on Saturday.

St. Jude

Categories
News News Blog

Bus Riders Call for Better Safety Measures at Downtown Terminal

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Justin Fox Burks

After a Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) passenger was shot by a contracted security guard Friday, Memphis bus riders say that there needs to be more efforts toward maintaining public safety at the Downtown bus terminal.

Following an argument with a bus driver near the William Hudson Transit Center, the victim was shot by Milz Mayhorn, a security guard with Ambassador Worldwide Protection Agency.

MATA announced Monday that it is cutting ties with the security agency and is immediately launching an internal systemwide agency review of public safety, as well as security measures and procedures. The review, led by former director of the Shelby County Office of Preparedness, Dale Lane, will look at current security practices and make recommendations.

But, in a letter to Gary Rosenfeld, CEO of MATA, members of the Memphis Bus Riders Union (MBRU) said that they have been asking MATA to end the contract with the Ambassador Agency since 2015.

“We also want to commend MATA for holding Ambassador Worldwide accountable by ending their contract and beginning an internal security review,” the group said. “However, it’s important to acknowledge that MBRU has repeatedly expressed concerns to MATA about Ambassador Worldwide’s practices.”

The letter said the Ambassador guards “maintained discriminatory practices, like harassing customers with sagging pants, using unprofessional language, and resorting to excessive force — without ever being disciplined.”

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Continuing, the letter cites specific incidents of excessive force by the private agency. According to the group, Cynthia Bailey, a regular bus-rider, was placed on an authorization of agency, after being assaulted by an Ambassador security guard.

On other occasions, the group claims that the guards prohibited them from doing outreach at the bus terminal, calling it solicitation. MBRU said that is a “clear misinterpretation” of the Memphis Code of Ordinances which they believe defines public solicitation as “any begging or solicitation in the city of money, subscriptions, or contributions for a particular cause, or the offering for sale of any merchandise or subscriptions that benefit said cause.”

“MBRU’s outreach involves talking to bus riders about free meetings that are open to the public, and thus do not fall under this ordinance,” the letter said. “MBRU has never made public solicitations of money or financial contributions of any kind at the terminal.”

Additionally the group noted that the Hudson Transit Center, also known as the North End Terminal, “is a hub for Memphians from many walks of life, and should be a safe space for everyone.”

“We believe that MATA could take more action to ensure that the NET is a place where low-income people and people of color can be accommodated without fear of harassment,” members said.

The group is looking to collaborate with MATA officials on the safety and security at the terminal moving forward.

“We want to see a proper balance between keeping bus riders safe and holding law enforcement accountable, and that’s something that can help our common investment in better transit,” MBRU said.