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News News Blog

Study: Switch From TVA Power Could Save Up To $333M

CREDIT: TVA

TVA

TVA’s new Combined Cycle Plant.

Memphis Light, Gas & Water could save $240 million to $333 million each year by switching away from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for electricity, according to a new report issued Monday.

Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy group, ordered a study of the switch from the Brattle Group, an “energy, economic, and financial research group that advises major energy providers, utilities, and governments around the country and across the globe.”

The study is called “Power to Memphis – Options for a Reliable, Affordable, and Greener Future.” It contends that if MLGW and the city of Memphis terminated its contract with TVA and develop an alternative energy supply, the savings each year could reach to $333 million per year.

The options in the study do not include the proposal to use an abandoned TVA nuclear power plant in Alabama for Memphis energy.

“We could have reliable, cheaper, cleaner power for customers across Memphis,” Herman Morris, former MLGW president, said in a statement. “Memphis has the power to become a showcase for 21st century energy that will cost less and stop polluting the air and water. We should be looking ahead and not backward to TVA’s expensive and dirty nuclear reactors and coal-fired power plants.”

If MLGW signed letters today to end its contract with TVA, MLGW would still have to buy power from TVA for five years. In that time, Memphis could build its own energy systems or buy it for another supplier like Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), the nonprofit energy group supplying energy for parts of 15 states like Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi.

MLGW

A solar panel array at Agricenter International.

All of the options studied would create fewer emissions than those with TVA’s current power supply, according to the study, and some scenarios saw all of Memphis’ power coming from renewable sources as early as 2050.

“MLGW customers deserve to know their options for cheaper bills and cleaner energy,” said former TVA chairman David Freeman. “City officials and MLGW officials need to begin the conversation now so the required five-year TVA notice process can begin sooner rather than later.”

TVA officials did not immediately respond to an invitation to comment on the study. We’ll update this story if they do. 

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Impala

Music Video Monday is kicking in the door to your week!

Are you ready for a hard-boiled music video from Memphis surf gods Impala? Buckle in while Memphis Flyer cover model Rosalyn R. Ross solves the case of the missing painting in this boffo promo for “Double Indemnity” by expat Memphis filmmaker Edward Valibus.

Music Video Monday: Impala

If you’d like to see your music video on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com

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From My Seat Sports

Hockey and the Hoop Hall

I’ve come to believe the essence of team sports — its purest form at the highest level you can find it — can be experienced on Division 3 college campuses. No athletic scholarships in D-3. No TV contracts and very few sponsors. Athletes with very little chance of making a career out of their game of choice. And free admission to many events for the few hundred fans who might attend a “big” football game.

Hockey in its purest form: Wesleyan vs. Trinity

I spent much of last week in Connecticut, on the campus of Wesleyan University, where my daughter, Sofia, is studying (and competing for the Ultimate Frisbee club, Vicious Circles). On Friday night, Sofia forfeited the latest screening in the campus film series (Oscar-nominated animated shorts) for a hockey game at the Freeman Athletic Center. The 12th-ranked Cardinals hosted 11th-ranked Trinity College in a clash between the top two teams in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). I’ve been to my share of hockey games, and this was the best I’ve ever attended.

Trinity scored first, but the Cardinals rallied with three unanswered goals and took a 3-2 lead into the third period. The Bantams scored two goals early in the third, but Wesleyan rallied with two of their own for a 5-4 lead that brought most of the crowd — all 300 of us — to our feet. Alas, Trinity scored the game’s final two goals, the game-winner with just 1:33 left to play. Eleven goals and four lead changes. If such a game occurred in the Stanley Cup playoffs, it would be replayed ad nauseum on the NHL Network. Be glad you got to read about it here.

There was no advertising on the ice or boards. Sofia purchased a bag of candy for $2.50. We sat near center ice, with plenty of elbow room between us and the Trinity cheering section. (The school is in nearby Hartford. This was a D-3 hockey version of Memphis-Ole Miss.) Wesleyan’s top scorer, Walker Harris, scored his team’s last goal. And Harris will eat in the same dining hall Sofia does, unrecognized by most students who aren’t his teammates. A student who happens to be an athlete, and a very good one. Imagine that.

• I hand-delivered a copy of the December issue of Memphis magazine to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. The issue includes my case for Penny Hardaway’s induction. On the day I delivered the magazines, the Hall announced its finalists for the 2019 class, and Hardaway’s name is not on the list. The man Orlando traded to Golden State for Hardaway during the 1993 NBA draft (Chris Webber) did make the cut. Number of first-team All-NBA selections: Hardaway 2, Webber 1.

Should you have any doubts about Hardaway’s credentials for enshrinement, consider the name of a 2018 inductee: Dino Radja. Debate over.

• The Hoop Hall presents honorees in a dynamic, but inefficient, manner. A large, black-and-white, photo of each Hall of Famer is backlit and stares down from the domed roof of the facility. But there is little order to where you might find one Hall of Famer or another. They are not grouped by induction year. They’re not alphabetical. And they don’t correspond to the information panel that rings the platform below where visitors can read about each basketball legend (by induction year). Furthermore, the photos need to be more carefully chosen, with players as they appeared in the prime of their careers. Larry Bird, for instance, doesn’t have a mustache in his Hall of Fame portrait, taken near the end of his days with the Celtics. At the very least, the induction year needs to be added to the Hall of Famer’s name, so a visitor can cross-reference the information panel below.

Categories
Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

High School Magic and a Pam Grier Double Feature this Weekend at the Cinema

Pam Grier as Jackie Brown

Saturday is packed with cinematic treats this week.

First, at 10 a.m., a rare screening of a Memphis classic at Malco Studio on the Square. When What I Love About Concrete won the 2013 Best Hometowner Feature at Indie Memphis, it had been in production for several years. Filmmakers Brett Hannover, Alanna Stewart, and Katherine Dohan began the project while they were still in high school at White Station. As I said in my Indie Memphis’ Greatest Hits article about the film, everyone thinks they should make a movie about the high school experience, but these folks actually did it, and their movie is much cooler than yours would have been. Somewhere between Sixteen Candles and A Wrinkle In Time, What I Love About Concrete is a must-see. And if you, or someone you know, is in grades 7-12, you can see it for free, and have a pizza lunch with the filmmakers, courtesy of the Indie Memphis young filmmakers program! Click here to sign up.

High School Magic and a Pam Grier Double Feature this Weekend at the Cinema

Then at sunset, the Time Warp Drive-In kicks off its sixth season with a tribute to actress Pam Grier. Quick, what’s the best Quentin Tarantino movie? Time’s up! It’s Jackie Brown,  the Elmore Leonard adaptation QT wrote for Grier in the mid-90s. And there’s no better place to see it than the Malco Summer Drive-In.

High School Magic and a Pam Grier Double Feature this Weekend at the Cinema (2)

Then, Grier’s breakthrough performance, the 1973 blackspoitation flick Coffy, in which she is an incredible bad ass.

High School Magic and a Pam Grier Double Feature this Weekend at the Cinema (3)

Get out and see some flicks this weekend! 

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Prank Calls to Satan: Wiseacre’s Wicked Good Beer.

Once, in my younger days, I thought it was a terribly clever idea to prank call the planet. Which is how I know that at one point in history there were three people named Mortimer Underhill living in London, England. With long distance rates being what they once were, I didn’t pull a stunt like that on my phone. So, about three weeks later, there was also one set of parents in Baton Rouge who had a terrible time reconciling their daughter’s overseas phone bill. She later admitted it was pretty funny, but I was still on the hook for dinner.

So when I saw that Wiseacre Brewing had a black IPA called Prank Calls to Satan, I was intrigued. And why not? My ill-advised yet expensive quest for Mr. Underhill was entirely fueled by barley-water. This is the sort of imbecility we used to do in a world before the internet and Caller ID.

There is no real history to black IPAs. The brew is still considered an emerging style, although you see it around fairly often, these days. It is an ale with IPA-level hopping that also has a distinct toasted malt flavor. While it looks like a stout, it lacks the heavy body of that style.

I’ll admit that I’ve never been an unqualified fan of some of these “emerging” styles. Some of them can be too clever by half. And there are plenty of very traditional practices that, like the Salem Witch trials, really ought to remain a historical curiosity. I’m looking at you, Sour Beer. On the other hand, it’s no good standing in the way of innovation, either.

It was on a rainy, almost warm day that I headed over to Wiseacre to test Prank Calls to Satan.

It’s available in cans, but a trip to the taproom over on Broad is almost always worth it. The rain coming off the overpass gives the porch an urban groovy backdrop, and inside it looks like a family garage that has been taken over by an artistic, pot-smoking son — the one no one trusted to go to college out of state.

Wiseacre calls Prank Calls “deceiving and fun.” It’s deceptively drinkable is what it is. Honestly, I was annoyed it had taken me this long to try it out. The highly toasted malt gives it a deep, dark color, but it’s much lighter than anything we’d call a stout. With the just right amount of Delta and Chinook hops, this ale has a crispness that isn’t usually found in a toasted beer. It is a solid 6.5 percent ABV, but the 40 IBU hits a great balance of bitter body.

In short, this is a beautiful note to hit on a Memphis afternoon that can’t decide if it’s winter, spring, or summer. And I imagine that it would go well in the fall as well.

As for what to eat with it, the hoppy crispness opens up possibilities, because it likely won’t overpower other flavors. All kinds of tapas and appetizers would do the trick, especially the stinky cheeses. To be clear, Ramen noodles wouldn’t stand up to it, but this Black IPA will play well with a cheeseburger or a pizza. As much as I love barbecue, however, I can see how it might confuse the issue.

The guys over at Wiseacre named the beer after a Far Side cartoon that made them giggle. For me, all I could think of was making phone calls at 2:30 a.m. (8:30 a.m., London time) looking for a chap whose parents had saddled him with some ridiculous name I’d just made up. Mentally, that’s a strange place to go for a beer, but it was fun. The perfect beer to toast idiotic collegiate foolishness ruined by technology, and the manual transmission, while I’m at it, and, of course, one Mortimer Underhill, Esquire.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

What Men Want

One of these days, someone’s going to write a leading role worthy of Taraji P. Henson.

Maybe that seems like an ignorant thing to say about one of the most-seen actresses in America. As Cookie Lyon on Empire, she has become an icon of bold, empowered black womanhood. She’s got the career everybody in the business wants.

But here’s the thing: Henson’s a damn movie star. That’s been obvious ever since Hustle & Flow, where she first teamed up with Empire co-star Terrance Howard and director Craig Brewer, who now writes and directs for the show. Since then, she’s generally been bigger than the roles she’s taken. The possible exception is her role as NASA scientist Katherine Johnson in Hidden Figures, but even that hit film didn’t do either its subjects or its actors justice.

Taraji P. Henson (above) rules the screen in Adam Shankman’s What Men Want.

While I was watching Henson flat murdering every stupid scene of What Men Want, it really drove home to me that the chief skill of a movie star is to get people to relate to them on screen. Maybe it’s even deeper than “relate.” You want to be this person. Their success feels like your success. Their failures sting, and we need to see their defeats redeemed, because it kind of makes up for all the unredeemed failures in our own lives.

If a movie star can deliver that, it’s enough. But Cary Grant, the consummate movie star, not only had a string of flaccid potboilers where he’s the best thing on the screen, he also had Notorious, North by Northwest, and Bringing Up Baby. That’s what Taraji needs: A challenge for her formidable talents.

I admit that I remember very little about the 2000 film What Women Want starring Mel Gibson. This is probably because it is the 2000 film What Women Want starring Mel Gibson. The basic concept is that Mel was shocked by a hair dryer and instead of dying like a decent person he gained female telepathy, which he then uses to succeed in advertising and woo Helen Hunt. In this time of changing expectations, the war between the sexes seems more literal than ever, so gender flipping that idea could work. Perhaps we could achieve understanding between the sexes with a little inter-cranial communication.

Except, I listen to a man’s thoughts all day, and trust me, ladies, you want no part of it.

This is a lesson that Henson, as crackerjack sports agent Ali Davis, learns very quickly. She’s the kind of person who wakes up at 3 a.m. to conduct negotiations while walking a treadmill without even getting short of breath. After she meets a tarot card-reading psychic named Sister, played by neo-soul diva Erykah Badu, and drinks a Haitian herbal tea, she gains the ability to read the thoughts of men. Unfortunately, the firm where she works is populated exclusively by square-jawed, mouth-breathing douche nozzles, and their thoughts are even worse than mine.

The telepath tortured because she can’t turn it off is an old sci-fi trope, and every now and then you can see one of the seven writers who have had a spoon in this stew flirt with actual thought, like when Ali accidentally helps someone kick a cocaine habit, or plays matchmaker between her openly gay assistant Brandon (Josh Brener) and a closeted co-worker (Pete Davidson). But for the most part, Ali is just bombarded by intercepted masculine notions that sound like tweet-sized utterances workshopped from an ’80s sitcom writer’s room: Men be like this, women be like that.

If there’s a guy to take a talent like Henson and build a subversive #MeToo screwball comedy around her, it’s not The Wedding Planner director Adam Shankman. You want to spin comedy gold out of the idea that the little deceptions and deflections of everyday life might just be the basic glue of civilization, and total honesty would be an ongoing disaster? Too bad, here’s a Fiji Water product placement shot and a drunken, wig-snatching wedding brawl. He lingers too long on jokes, and the film has as many endings as Return of the King.

But in the end, I couldn’t bring myself to hate What Men Want. Maybe I’m getting soft. Or maybe, against all odds, Henson just carries the day. In fact, her movie star charisma ends up undermining one of the film’s plot arcs. The lead character is supposed to read as an egotistical jerk who is taught a lesson in humility by their experience. Mel Gibson fits that bill. Henson? I’d pay to watch her read the phone book.

Categories
Intermission Impossible Theater

OMGWTF: Sister Agnes is Back and Bleeding All Over Theatreworks

CREDIT: Chase Yarwood-Gustafson

Chase Yarwood-Gustafson

Susan Brindley, Mariah Chase and Kim Justis Eikner

To understand Agnes of God, a “psychological/supernatural thriller” from 1979, maybe it’s helpful to look a little harder at the more ancient and epic battle it represents. On the surface, John Pielmeier’s drama seems to be a psychobabble-laden tug-o-war between believers and a damaged, analytical mind fallen away from the church. Structured primarily as a series of arguments between a nun with secrets and a shrink with secrets, Agnes of God may not be about the innocent, simple-minded young sister who appears to have murdered an unwanted baby. Sure, that’s the show’s sensational hook, but this highly actable, if frequently problematic script, wants to grow into a full throated Platonic dialogue rehashing the 500-year-old grudge match between empirically verifiable “facts” and that which was once determined by the church to be “truth.”

Even with all the news about “fake news” we take the primacy of facts for granted these days, but all in all, they’re a relatively new concept. As emerging sciences elevated empirical knowledge during the Renaissance the very idea of fact-based learning challenged and chipped away at the church’s supreme authority. Progressive minds were often imprisoned or excommunicated or worse for subverting “truth” but little by little all absolutes buckled under the terrible weight of relativism and “facts” emerged as the frequently assaulted measure of everything that matters. To this end, Agnes of God seeds its struggle between faith and scientific inquiry with doubt, bias, and a great deal of manipulative woo-woo! A critic writing for The Chicago Reader once called it the “anti-Inherit the Wind,” and while I might be a bit more charitable, the description’s not so far off base that I’m not going to appropriate it. And like the American criminal court system, the script’s apparent aim isn’t to prove that divine miracles can happen, only to insert a gore-spattered habit’s worth of reasonable doubt.

More frustrating: As the play’s ancient polemic reveals itself, the more apparent it becomes that Agnes, a helpless creature who’s been raped by her author if by nobody else, has little meaning to either side of this debate outside of how she might serve self interest or self-preservation. To that end she’s both the title character, and a walking, talking McGuffin. This makes it exceedingly difficult to like anybody in this play enough to care about who wins the fierce debate. It’s pretty evident from the beginning that whether Agnes is declared competent to stand trial or not, it’s certainly not going to be this doe-eyed and free-bleeding jumble of ignorance and anxiety who may or may not be a virgin mother and saint.

What Agnes of God does that we can all be thankful for is provide three women with some extremely showy acting opportunities. New Moon Theatre’s cast and crew delivers all the fireworks you could possibly hope for. It’s a remarkable convergence of talent with Kim Justis stepping into the part of Dr. Livingston, Susan Brindley as Mother Miriam, and Mariah Chase as Sister Agnes.  Bringing these three strong performers together under the direction of Pamela Poletti, is a special occasion to be celebrated, even if the material’s more sensational than satisfactory.

That’s a fact. 

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We Recommend We Saw You

Marc Gasol, Works of Heart, Peabody’s 150th and more

CREDIT: Frank Chin

Frank Chin

Me and Marc at Art on Fire 2018 at Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

I’m going to miss Marc Gasol.

I’ve photographed the former Memphis Grizzlies player, who recently was traded, and I’ve been photographed with him several times over the past 12 years. It’s always a pleasure to see Gasol at parties, which have included the old Grizz Gala in Tunica, the opening of The Gray Canary restaurant, and the Memphis Food & Wine Festival.

Gasol always was gracious, but if he didn’t want his photo taken at that moment because the program was about to start or whatever, he’d say so. And when he was ready, he let me know. I never argued with him.

When you knew Gasol was going to be at a party, it was a big deal. He is the epitome of star power.

Here are a few photos of Gasol from parties I covered. Frank Chin took the ones of me and Gasol at Art on Fire, which was held last October at Dixon Gallery and Gardens. I took the other ones.

Michael Donahue

Marc Gasol with Alan and Susan Graf at the Memphis Food and Wine Festival in 2017.

Michael Donahue

Marc Gasol and his wife, Cristina Blesa, at the opening of The Gray Canary restaurant February 20th, 2018.

Michael Donahue

Dixon Gallery and Gardens director Kevin Sharpe and Marc Gasol at Art on Fire.

Frank Chin

Mike Conley, Michael Donahue and Marc Gasol at Art on Fire.

……………..
Michael Donahue

‘The Queen of Hearts’ by Younok Jung at Works of Heart.

Instead of “Be my valentine,” guests were thinking, “I want that heart,” at Works of Heart, which was held February 9th at Memphis College of Art.


More than 100 artists created works with a “heart” as the inspiration for the annual Memphis Child Advocacy Center fund-raiser.


About 350 people attended, says Beryl Wight, the center’s communications and grants manager.


“Net proceeds are $75,000,” Beryl says.

Michael Donahue

Works of Heart

Michael Donahue

Works of Heart

Michael Donahue

Works of Heart

Michael Donahue

Works of Heart

Michael Donahue

Works of Heart

…………..

Michael Donahue

Doug Browne, Marty Belz, and Scott Boucher at The Peabody 150th anniversary reception.

The Peabody kicked off its 150th celebration with a reception to announce upcoming events.

On September 5th, the hotel will host its 150th Anniversary Party and Grand Dinner. The party will begin in the lobby and will include a special guest, who will be induc(DUCK)ted into the Duck Walk Hall of Fame. Dinner will be held in the Continental Ballroom.


The Jack Daniels Tasting and Dinner will be November 7th. The dinner will be a Jack Daniels-inspired dinner.

A Skyway Sunset Serenade, a throwback big band dance party to the old Skyway and rooftop events of the past, will be held at a date to be announced.

And — if you’d like something extra fancy — try the Royal Wagyu Truffle Burger at Chez Philippe. It includes butter poached lobster, caramelized onion, St. Andre cheese, huckleberry aioli, parmesan black truffle fries on a brioche bun. It comes with a half bottle of Rombauer cabernet sauvignon. California, 2015. And it’s only $150.

Michael Donahue

Jim Holt, Kevin Kane, and Craig Unger were at The Peabody’s 150th anniversary kickoff reception.

………..

Michael Donahue

JJ Keras, Kristina McMorris, Anne Bogel, Brad Taylor, and Janie Lowery at Literacy is Key.

Anne Bogel, Kristina McMorris, and Brad Taylor were the featured authors at the Literacy is Key: A Book & Author Event, which was held February 7th at Holiday Inn at the University of Memphis.

Bogel, who hosts a weekly podcast, “What Should I Read Next,” is the author of two books, including her recent, I’d Rather be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life.

McMorris is author of Letters from Home, Bridge of Scarlet Leaves, and other best-selling novels.

Taylor is author of the “Pike Logan” series, which now includes 12 installments. His books draw from his experiences in the United States Army Infantry.

The annual event is presented by the Memphis Alumnae Association of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity.

Its primary beneficiary is First Book Mid-South, a non-profit with a mission of providing the first books to children of low income families.

…………

Michael Donahue

Christine and Page Robbins Adult Day Center board president Paul Woods at the Page Robbins Winter Gala.

…………………….

This year’s Page Robbins Winter Gala, the largest fund-raiser for the Page Robbins Adult Day Center, was a record breaker. The event netted more than $195,000, which is more than the event ever raised. About 420 people attended the event, which was held February 2nd at The Guest House at Graceland.

The event included a cocktail hour, silent and live auctions, and dancing to the Soul Shockers.

Herbie Krisle is executive director of the center.

The Page Robbins Adult Day Center is a non-profit organization in Collierville that provides daytime care for adults with memory loss.

Michael Donahue

Board member Carole Williams was chair of the Page Robbins Winter Gala. With her is her husband, Dodd.

Michael Donahue

Peggy Killett and Wes Parker were at the Page Robbins Gala.

Michael Donahue

David and Rachel Wall and Laura and Charles Hall were at the Page Robbins Gala.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Edge Alley’s Tim Barker.

CREDIT: Michael Donahue

As a child, Tim Barker spent summers on his grandparents’ farm in Kentucky.

“We’d be up around 4 a.m. to pick tomatoes,” he says. “And then we’d come in for breakfast and eat tomatoes. And then go out and sell tomatoes. And then for lunch we would eat tomatoes.

“For a long time I didn’t eat tomatoes.”

Michael Donahue

Tim Barker

As chef/owner of Edge Alley, Barker, 38, now includes tomatoes in his popular shrimp and grits. “I [fell] in love with tomatoes. I turned into a tomato snob.”

Barker, who was born in Martin, Tennessee, got his first restaurant job at 13 working at a Shoney’s. He rose from washing dishes to flipping burgers and frying steaks.

Barker studied artistic photography at Murray State University. “My plan was to be a successful photographer.”

But, he says, “I was in school for photography and needed a job.”

He went to work at an upscale restaurant in Murray. “That was the restaurant where I realized this could be more than just a job.”

Instead of just flipping a steak, Barker started “to care about whether the thing is overcooked or not. It stops being just a job and you have to worry about the presentation. The quality. There’s more to it than just food.”

Barker, who briefly went to culinary school, eventually moved to Memphis, where he worked under chef/owner José Gutierrez at the old Encore restaurant at The Peabody and at the Beauty Shop working with chef/owner Karen Carrier.

Deciding he wanted to open a restaurant consulting business, Barker now owns Table and Bar Consulting Group. “We do restaurant concept and design for ground-up projects. And then we can also help people reorganize and repair their existing operation.”

He wasn’t thinking about opening a restaurant at 600 Monroe when the developer asked him what he thought he should do with the empty space. “I outlined this concept for some retail and art space, a restaurant, and a coffee roastery.”

A year and a half later, Barker opened Edge Alley, which serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, and, Saturday and Sunday, brunch. The restaurant space has 60 seats. A photography gallery soon will fill another space.

Owning his own restaurant was his longtime fantasy, but, Barker says, “I’ve always thought that I would end up with a fine dining restaurant. A few years ago, I realized that’s not the way the world is going.

“What we do here is fun. There has to be a certain amount of whimsy.”

Their food concept has always been “fresh, light, as few ingredients as possible. No heavy sauces. Everything is meant to be refreshing.”

And, Barker says, “If we can’t make it, we prefer not to serve it. So, at first everything was served on a biscuit because that was the bread we were making at the time. We’ve expanded into other breads.”

A vegan avocado toast is their most popular item. “We put an entire avocado sliced and fanned out over the two slices of [wheat] bread. Then we make an herb vinaigrette and an herb and olive oil puree. So, it’s nice and bright and green. Then a little bit of dressed arugula and chia seeds.

“Every recipe is four or five ingredients, and every plate has four or five things on it. Nothing is so complicated that it’s difficult to understand or unfamiliar.”

Their shrimp and grits recipe is simple. Instead of “a sauce that’s made of Worcestershire hot sauce, all these tons of ingredients,” their sauce “starts off with charred tomatoes” and also includes garlic, onion, shrimp, and “a handful of spices.”

Their chocolate pot de creme dessert is made of dark chocolate, whiskey, whipped cream, and fresh berries.

Edge Alley isn’t the end of the line for Barker. “I think we have a lot of opportunity in 2019 to do other stuff in the neighborhood.”

He’s not ready to talk about it, but Barker says, “We’re working on another concept for the neighborhood.”

Think “bar.”

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Prospects Exist for Modest Legislative Cooperation between the Parties

CREDIT: JB

JB

Democrats Stewart, Akbari, and Camper

NASHVILLE — Huge partisan differences remain between Republicans and Democrats on key issues before the Tennessee General Assembly — in particular, Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, which Governor Bill Lee and legislative Republicans continue to oppose — but there are glimmers here and there of possible bipartisan cooperation.

As she indicated in two press conferences this week, House Democratic Leader Karen Camper of Memphis is convinced that there are areas of potential joint action with Lee and Assembly Republicans on medical issues. One of them, which other members of the Democratic legislative leadership concurred with in general at a post-session media availability on Thursday, was the concept of the state’s availing itself of closed hospital facilities as centers to cope with the opioid-addiction crisis in Tennessee.

As Democratic Caucus chair Mike Stewart of Nashville observed, there are sufficient reserves available in state’s general fund to endow such facilities without the necessity to enact new legislation.

There was no bridging the partisan gap, however, between Democratic support for Medicaid expansion under the A.C.A. and the general opposition to it among Republicans, tempered by proposals that the state seek a waiver from the C.M.S. (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) to allow distribution of A.C.A. funds to the state as a block grant.

Sen. Raumesh Akbari, of Memphis, the party’s caucus chair in the state Senate, pointed out that there is no legal or congressional basis for distribution of Medicaid expansion funds, and she was seconded on the point by Stewart and Senate Democratic Leader Jeff Yarbro of Nashville. The Democratic leader salso agreed that efforts to allow Governor Lee to act on the issue without the legislative approval now required would be pointless, given his own declared resistance to the A.C.A.

The other point of potential cross-party agreement that emerged from the Democrats’ media availability session on Thursday concerned a bill proposed by Republicans Steve Dickerson of Nashville in the Senate and Michael Curcio in the House on the subject of streamlining restoration-of-voting-rights procedures for released felons. Akbari has offered similar legislation but said she would be willing to subordinate her effort to that of the two Repubicans’ effort, given the gathering support evident for the latter.

Party ranks closed fairly tight, however, against another Republican proposal, this one announced on Wednesday by GOP Senator Dolores Gresham of Somerville and Republican Rep. Susan Lynn of Mt. Juliet. Their bill, supported by the entire legislative Republican caucus, would return Tennessee to a legal position outlawing abortion if and when the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

Lynn had suggested that some Democrats might support the proposal as well. Asked about that on Thursday, there were no takers among the four ranking Democrats — Stewart, Akbari, Camper, and Yarbro —though Camper did say that “abortion is a personal matter, and people have personal reasons for their views,” and she did not discount the hypothetical possibioity of there being a Democrat or two who might support the measure.