Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Shut Up, Phil.

So I’m sitting quietly at my neighborhood bar, nursing a beer, chatting with some of the regulars, when a new guy walks in.

“What’ll you have, pal?” says Ray, the bartender.

“What a stupid question,” the guy says. “But then, you ask a lot of stupid questions. Gimme a Diet Coke.”

“Okay, comin’ right up, sir,” says Ray, thinking to himself, “what an asshole.”

But Ray’s a congenial guy. He likes to keep the peace. So he slides a Diet Coke across the bar and tries to make conversation. Pointing to the TV, he says to the newcomer, “Helluva thing, those wildfires out in California, eh? Dozens of people killed, whole towns burned to the ground. Schools, houses, cars, everything. It’s pretty bad.”

“Nah, they got what they deserved,” says the new guy, loudly. “It’s just bad forest management. They ought to cut off federal funding to those people. Sad!”

At this point, the other customers in the bar are beginning to notice. There’s an awkward silence in the room, until a perky dishwater blonde at the right end of the bar speaks up.

“You know, I actually think you’re right,” she says. “The only way to stop a bad forest with a fire is a good forest with a fire.”

“That makes a lot of sense, Marsha,” says another customer. “In fact, that’s just the sort of creative bipartisan thinking I could work with, if I were given a chance.”

“Shut up, Phil,” says Marsha. “You’re boring the crap out of everybody. Nobody wants to hear it any more.”

“Yes, ma’am, I suspect you’re right,” says Phil. “I’m just trying to point how easy-going and inoffensive I am.”

“Yeah, shut up, Phil,” says the new guy. “I just met you, and even I can see you’re a loser. Think I’ll call you Flounderin’ Phil.”

“Hey, you don’t need to talk to Phil that way,” says Mario, another regular. “He’s totally harmless.”

The new guy turns to look at Mario. “You look kinda brown, Pedro,” he says. “You some kinda gang member? You come up here in a caravan? You MS-13?”

“No, I was born in Puerto Rico. I’m an American. I live here. What’s wrong with you, anyway?”

“Puerto Rico, eh?” says the new guy. “That was some really bad hurricane management you people had down there. All those fake death reports. Ridiculous. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Sad!”

“Wait a minute,” says Mario. “You think you can just come in here and start insulting everybody and get away with it?”

“Sure, I can. I’m a very stable genius. I have the best words. I could take you out and shoot you in the middle of Union Avenue and people would still love me.”

“Why, you son of …”

“You know,” says Phil, cordially interrupting, “you’re probably right, sir. And that’s just the kind of strong leadership I could work with, if given a chance …”

“Shut up, Phil!” says Mario.

“Yeah, shut up, Flounderin’ Phil,” says Marsha.

The new guy takes a sip of his Diet Coke and looks in the mirror behind the bar. “Looks like I’m having a bad hair day,” he says. “I’ll be right back. And you,” he says, pointing a tiny forefinger at Marsha, “I’ll need two cans of L’Oreal Ultra Freeze hairspray, stat. Follow me. And don’t make me grab you.”

“Yes, sir!” says Marsha, beaming, obviously smitten by the manly newcomer.

As they head to the men’s room,
Mario turns to Ray and says, “What could she possibly see in that guy?”

“What could anybody see in that guy?” says Ray. “He’s a total jerk.”

“I don’t know,” says Phil, cautiously. “He has the kind of hair I could work with, given the chance …”

“SHUT UP, PHIL,” says everyone.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

Trump’s GOP

On midterm election night, I looked into the camera and told President Trump — who watches a lot of Fox News — that his success in keeping a Republican Senate majority was the dagger that destroyed the old Republican Party. He is now the sole proprietor of what I call the Trump Party.

Juan Williams

Brit Hume, my conservative colleague, disagreed. He said Trump is fulfilling longstanding GOP priorities by nominating right-wing judges, lessening government regulation on business, opposing abortion, opposing gun control, and more.

But the GOP before Trump stood for free trade, not tariffs. They supported legal immigration. They fought high deficits. They backed NATO allies and opposed Russian aggression. And they did not embrace the politics of put-downs — including lying, nasty comments about women — while emboldening racists and anti-Semites.

It is hard for me to believe that so many people who once called themselves Republicans, specifically in Indiana, Missouri, and Florida, decided to vote for Trump’s candidates, despite the president’s daily words and actions debasing honest political debate. Those voters had no problem with a political ad so racist that Fox, NBC, and Facebook eventually pulled it. They had no issue with his fear-mongering over a caravan of desperate immigrants. They saw nothing wrong with him demonizing Democrats who stand up to him as a “mob.”

It is hard to understand how close to 40 percent of the country and 90 percent of Republicans approve of this man.

To choke off dissent from the old GOP, the day after the midterms Trump dumped on Republicans who did not embrace him. He named candidates who lost to shame them. He cut down proud Republican lawmakers including Representatives Peter Roskam of Illinois, Barbara Comstock of Virginia, and Mia Love of Utah.

As retiring Representative Ryan Costello (R-Pa.) tweeted, it is tough enough that so many House Republicans lost their seats but then to “have him piss on [you] — angers me to my core.”

In fact, of the 75 candidates endorsed by Trump, only 21 won. That is 28 percent, a losing record. Even in the Senate, where Republicans retained their majority, the party saw Democrats win the popular vote by more than 9 million votes. Somehow, Trump described those results as “very close to complete victory.”

He must be talking about the party of Trump, because the election results in the House, in governors’ races, and state legislature races were good news for Democrats.

But Trump was sending a message to Republicans. Like a mob boss, he demands absolute loyalty and will turn his back on any Republican who fails to fall in line. With Trump critics in the GOP like Ohio Governor John Kasich, Senator Jeff Flake, and Senator Bob Corker now leaving office, there will be few Republicans left to challenge Trump, further consolidating his rebranding of the GOP as his personal vehicle.

When the House GOP conference chooses its leaders next week, it will be a contest among zealous Trump acolytes. Freedom Caucus member Jim Jordan announced his bid for Minority Leader last week, saying it is House Republicans’ job to defend the president from Democratic investigation. He is challenging an incumbent, Kevin McCarthy, who is a longtime Trump apologist who brags about his personal relationship with the president. Forget House Republicans. 

The Republican resistance — such as it is — could find new voices among kinder, moderate GOP governors in blue states who eschewed the Trump brand of politics. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker was reelected with 67 percent of the vote. Maryland Governor Larry Hogan was reelected with 56 percent of the vote. Neither man has shown an appetite to take the fight directly to Trump. Mitt Romney, who once stood with the anti-Trump resistance, just won a Senate seat in Utah. But in 2018 Romney praised Trump, saying his policies are “pretty effective.” Trump then endorsed Romney.

Sticking with Trump cost Republicans the House majority and over 300 state legislative seats this time around. How many more seats in Congress and statehouses across the country are they willing to sacrifice on the altar of Trumpism? Will any Republicans step forward to try to reclaim the soul of their party before Trump further corrupts it? 

Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.

Categories
Cover Feature News

Riverfront Reboot: New leaders and New Plans for Memphis’ Waterfront

CREDIT: Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

Take yourself to the river. 

“Land Down Under” plays softly over the Front Street Deli sandwich board that implores passersby to “Rise & Shine!” with a biscuit, croissant, or toast. Just down the bluff, a retirement-home bus idles in front of the Memphis Tourism office on Union, its driver chatting with a Blue Suede Brigade member. 

Through the shadows of the bluff and its buildings, the Wolf River Harbor spreads brightly — a brown and sky-blue expanse punctuated with the gleaming whites and reds of river boats and their big paddle wheels. Cars, rigs, and vans slide silently in the background across the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. 

Shirtless runners pad across Riverside at the stoplight, passing a group of bundled-up guys on Birds. An older couple uses their hands as visors against the glare to read historic markers and take in the whole scene — from the shiny point of Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid to the north to the tiny Harahan Bridge at the south.

Then there’s the Mississippi River, flat and wide, churning slowly to the sea, seeming to simmer more than it flows. 

Mighty and muddy, the Mississippi River made Memphis. But what will Memphis make of the river has been a long-unanswered question. It’s one we’ve studied a lot. Lordy, how we’ve studied. 

Plans have come and gone since 1924, at least a dozen in the last 25 years. Elected officials, business leaders, and civic-minded citizens have all tried. Some have had some success. The $63 million Mud Island River Park opened in 1982. The $43 million (and much-criticized) Beale Street Landing opened in 2014. All have had challenges, many of which still remain.

But there’s a new energy in the air. The Riverfront Development Corp. (RDC) hired Studio Gang, an internationally known design firm, to form a plan in 2016. In 2017, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland formed a task force to focus on riverfront change. Last year, Studio Gang delivered its ambitious Memphis Riverfront Concept Plan, which imagined a waterfront connected with parks, markets, museums, and more.  

Then, earlier this year, a new group took the riverfront’s reins. The Memphis River Parks Partnership (MRPP) took over for the Riverfront Development Corporation (RDC), which had managed the riverfront for more than a decade. With the concept plan in hand and MRPP at the helm, the buzz about the river got loud. Its new leader, Kresge Foundation fellow Carol Coletta, had big ideas and the connections, motivation, and know-how to push them forward. 

Within months, things were changing. Look no further than the brand new River Garden park and River Line trail system that opened on Friday.

We talked with a few folks with front seats to riverfront activity. Portions of those interviews are below.

Photographs by Justin Fox Burks

(Studio Gang), and Jeanne Gang (Studio Gang), [from left to right], usher in an ambitious new look for the Memphis riverfront.

Memphis Flyer: Memphis has been planning for its riverfront for a long time.

Carol Coletta: The first riverfront plan that Memphis did was in 1924. You can say, gosh, Memphians have had a vision for their riverfront for almost 100 years. I mean almost 100 years ago, Memphians thought, I have a great riverfront.

While we’ve done bits and pieces along the way, I think no one would say, we have one of the world’s great riverfronts. I think we would say, we have one of the world’s great rivers but not riverfront. So, now I think the community has come together in a way that will — I believe — allow us to make good on that promise that people saw almost 100 years ago. 

How so?

This year, we’ve made a series of important steps to realize that ambition. The city granted us a 13-year management agreement to manage the 250 acres of riverfront that are owned by the citizens of Memphis, a 13-year agreement with a 10-year extension. That was important. 

We completed the concept plan in 2017. But instead of a plan that sits on a shelf, which is what everyone fusses about, and rightly so, we’ve taken a very quick start on the [capital funding] thanks to national funders, including the Kresge Foundation and the JPB Foundation. We were able to start and complete River Garden on what is now called Mississippi River Park. It’s a beautiful river garden. In fact, everyone we’ve shown it to in a sneak-peek situation said, I can’t believe this is what our riverfront looks like. Also, the city is committed to getting the cobblestones underway — a restoration of those five blocks of cobblestones — in January. 

We’re doing a very quick start on design for Tom Lee Park, from the bluff to the water, from Carolina Street all the way to Beale. If all goes well, we can raise the money that we need, start construction in June, and our estimated schedule calls for completion in December 2020. 

If you put River Garden, cobblestones, and Tom Lee Park together, we have a chance — I think unparalleled in the U.S., maybe in the world — to remake the heart of Downtown and the narrative for our city by doing those projects on our riverfront. 

We need to make sure this time that we joined it up north to south, that we join it east to west and west to east, that’s our challenge. Make great places to be on the riverfront but also make sure it’s all joined up.

Why was the change needed from the RDC to the MRPP?

One was [former RDC leader] Benny Lendermon’s retirement. He’d been here, I think, 17 years and … if you look at the riverfront today you would have to credit Benny with a number of [projects], like the Bluff Walk, the cobblestone walkway, and even the city’s foresight … in creating this big Tom Lee Park.

There were important moves that had been made over the 17 years and certainly maintaining the parks is no easy feat. But I think there was, with a completion of the Riverfront Concept, excessive excitement and possibility. I think the board wanted to put the organization in high gear. 

Memphians want and deserve a great riverfront, and we’re missing this great opportunity that goes way beyond the riverfront, way beyond Downtown. 

It extends to the city and even the region in terms of the narrative: how Memphis is viewed by the people coming into the city, going out of the city, investors, and prospects, and just Memphians. We don’t need to settle for a second-class riverfront.

Adding to the riverfront — the just-completed River Garden infuses new life to the recently rebranded Mississippi River Park.

A statement from your organization earlier this year mentioned a new business model for MRPP.

We re-thought pricing. We re-thought relationships. We started with the belief that we manage this organization with and for the people of Memphis to trigger the transformative power of the river. 

We always try to start with the belief that we’re stewards of these parks for the people of Memphis, who own these parks. Making this riverfront all it should be, can be, and Memphians want it to be, is really a great act of democracy. It’s also in philanthropy, and generous corporations, and individuals who will help us get there.

Let’s talk about the new, $70-million capital campaign. Where did you start? Where are we now?

We are in the phase of calling on prospective donors. But early on, the city proposed to the state that the riverfront would be a focus of some of the [Tourism Development Zone] funds. They felt like development on the river would generate sales taxes that would fund the TDZ. So, we were fortunate to get some early money to get design underway.

But we’re going to have some major announcements on funders coming up very shortly. The Hyde Family Foundation has made a $5.2 million commitment. We’re just thrilled to have that foundation’s support and we’ve got some more commitments to be announced soon.

You invited consultants here over the summer to have a look at Mud Island. Did we ever hear back from them?

Yes, we did. I can’t talk about the plans for Mud Island yet. But I can tell you that we’ve got some really exciting things cooking that come directly from that visit. We know that Memphians are uneasy about Mud Island. It’s sitting out there. … But what should it be? There are all those legitimate questions. We think we have a way forward on Mud Island that will activate it, animate it in a way that Memphians will kind of fall in love with.

Any idea when we might hear something?

I think it could very much be a next-season kind-of-thing. We’re working on it.

Talk about River Line and the connections it’ll make.

One of the beautiful things about Memphis in the last few years is that we really have begun to understand the power of connection. Connection was one of the major themes, major valued things, of the Riverfront Concept. It’s a critical missing piece of our trail system that we’ve invested in. This will make Wolf River Greenway Trail that much more valuable. It will make Big River Crossing and Big River Trail that much more valuable. 

River Line connects Downtown from the north end to the south end. That’s never been done with any sort of decent pedestrian [walkways], and certainly not with biking trails. Then to think about connecting it all to South Memphis where South Memphians now have an easy safe way to get from their neighborhood up to Big River Crossing and into Downtown. It will have a spectacular impact. 

Path to New Orleans

Imagine riding a bike from Germantown to New Orleans. If planners have their way, you’ll be able to do it in the future. Wolf River Conservancy and city leaders are pushing to complete the nearly 26-mile Wolf River Greenway Trail (stretching from Germantown to the River Line Downtown) by 2021. Across the river, leaders in West Memphis have completed bike trails that connect to Big River Crossing and are working to do more. 

Big River Trail will now take you south to Marianna, Arkansas. But those leading the project want cyclists to one day be able to ride Mississippi levee trail all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. We spoke with Keith Cole, executive director of the Wolf River Conservancy, and Paul Luker, director of planning and development for West Memphis. 

What do you make of River Line and the Wolf River Greenway Trail?

Keith Cole: It’s going to be a game-changer for the city. All of these projects are designed to connect people and communities. As we do that, we’ll provide new access and provide potentially new economic activity that people might not have thought about or done before without these access points. 

How does the connectivity with River Line and Downtown affect the Greenway?

The more connectivity and the more access you can have, it should provide more users. Let’s say you live in the South Main district of Downtown. Before the opening of the River Line, you could — if you knew what you were doing — ride from South End and go all the way to Harbor Town. Certain areas were a little rocky and not safe. But now, that’s improved. So, you create these new avenues and new connectivities from these different projects … more accessibility should create more users. 

How will River Line affect West Memphis?

Paul Luker: I think they’re complementary. River Line will make it easier for the larger population concentration of Memphis to easily access what we’re calling our River Park. 

Right now, it’s just some trails with the idea that we’re going to keep working on it. We’ll be adding trails but, also, with some land acquisition, it’ll allow us to have some larger events and stage some things and offer more variety to go beyond biking and trail walking.

What else are you doing in this area?

We want to continue to play off of Big River Crossing. It’s a catalytic project. The city of West Memphis has always looked at the Mississippi River and tried to think of how they could take advantage of that asset. The thing that has always come to mind is having a park there. 

Well, Arkansas State Parks already has a lot of parks. We were never really able to sell them on the idea of another state park there. But when Big River Crossing came around, that reignited the enthusiasm for trying to develop something park-like on the river. 

How has Big River Crossing affected West Memphis?

It’s still in its infancy as to what it’ll give to West Memphis. But right now it’s given us recognition that we have something on this side of the river, that we have an attraction. Pancho’s restaurant, which is at the trailhead of Big River Crossing, they’ve seen a big uptick in their business related to bike traffic. That’s one tangible impact. 

It’s like a lot of projects — you have to prove that it’s really going to get used before people will risk their money. We’re still waiting for the full impact of what can be seen from Big River Crossing as far as how it’s affecting West Memphis. It’s at least changed the conversation when you bring up West Memphis/Crittenden County. 

Tom Lee’s Potential

With River Line and River Garden opened last week, MRPP set its sights on Tom Lee Park. To transform the flat, wide-open park (best known as a festival grounds for Memphis in May), MRPP picked Studio Gang and SCAPE, a New York City-based landscape architecture and urban design studio. Gia Biagi, principal of Urbanism and Civic Impact for Studio Gang, told us her team wants to help the park “reach its full civic potential.” 

What are the broad opportunities and challenges with Tom Lee Park?

Gia Biagi: We are energized [by] the potential of Tom Lee Park to strengthen the relationship between Memphians and their Mississippi River waterfront. 

We are excited to help Tom Lee Park reach its full civic potential … by delivering a revitalized park that is inviting, inspiring, and helping to better connect Memphians to the riverfront and to each other.

We’ve heard a lot about transforming the park with outdoor “rooms.” What can we expect at the park?

Our goal for the urban design of the park is to create a variety of experiential spaces that will transform what is now a flat surface into a diverse landscape that is more accessible, welcoming, and can be active 365 days a year. We are working with our partner, landscape architect SCAPE Studio, to develop a landscape of micro-forests and large clearings to come together with architectural structures, outdoor learning spaces, and activity courts.

How have the discussions with Memphis in May gone? What can festival-goers expect in a re-designed Tom Lee Park?

Over the last two years, we have collaboratively worked with Memphis in May to explore ways that the park design can also benefit festival-goers.  We have worked closely with Memphis in May and other key stakeholders to arrive at a design for the park that will also improve the logistics of large events. 

We have been discussing how areas of hardscape and other structures can be used as stages, food tents, access, and loading. We’re working toward improvements that make for a vibrant, signature civic space that can accommodate all kinds of events and even reduce overhead and operating costs for both the Memphis River Parks Partnership and Memphis in May. 

How will the redesign better connect Tom Lee Park with the rest of Downtown?

We’re working on gateways and crossings that make it safe, easy, and enjoyable for walkers, bikers — even scooter-riders — to get to the park from Downtown and nearby neighborhoods, as well as connections to transportation nodes for people visiting from further away. 

Categories
News The Fly-By

Makers’ Space

CREDIT: Maya Smith

When I walked into Crosstown Arts’ new Shared Art-Making Facility, I was met first by a few eclectically styled mannequins and then a bearded man who was screen-printing an image of a deer onto a tote bag.

Jamie Harmon, the manager of the space, was just finishing up what to me looked like a complex process involving a dark room, ink, and a large machine, but for him was just another day at the office.

Harmon said the membership-based workspace has been open for about three weeks, but they haven’t done much by way of marketing yet. There are 10 members so far, which Harmon said have served, in part, as “guinea pigs.”

Maya Smith

Kiia Wilson works in the woodshop.

“Right now, it’s kind of slow, but we’re also new,” Harmon said. “So we’re welcoming a slow pace to work through the process of the rules, safety, basics like what works and what doesn’t work when five people want to use a machine, and other things like that.”

The space is like a gym, but instead of stacks of dumbbells and rows of treadmills, the space houses long work tables, iMacs, large printers, and other tools for artists including musicians, designers, filmmakers, and woodworkers.

Although the facility is available for artists of all abilities and there are techs on hand to train members to use the equipment, Harmon said the staff isn’t there to “teach you how to make the stuff you want to make.”

“We can’t teach you how to use Illustrator because we could sit with you for five hours and you still may not know,” Harmon said. “So we have to manage the expectations of members.”

However, he said once membership grows, members will be able to teach classes, as well as tutor other members in a one-on-one setting.

The setup is for anyone who wants to use equipment that they can’t afford or don’t have room for, Harmon said. He adds that the membership fee — $80 a month — is “low” considering that members have access to “hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment easily.”

“Once a place like this is introduced to you, then the ideas of the things you could make change,” Harmon said. “You don’t even know you want this, but if you’re a person who makes things, then this opens up the doors.”

The facility will host an open house on Friday, November 30th, which Harmon said “will hopefully be our big reveal.”

Meanwhile, Crosstown Arts’ space has already helped one member expand her business, Jungle Faire. When I visited the space’s woodshop, the business’ owner Kiia Wilson was in the middle of making three more Yoni Steam Chairs (used for aromatherapy) to add to her stock.

Never having built anything in the past, Wilson said she saw a need for this kind of chair, and with help the of a few Google searches and the staff at the art-making space, decided to try her hand.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Fly on the Wall 1551

Verbatim

Mississippi Senator and suspected lynching enthusiast Cindy Hyde-Smith is grabbing big national headlines for comments she made at a recent campaign stop.

“If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row,” she said in response to praise by an area rancher.

President Donald Trump supports Hyde-Smith in a November 27th runoff with Democratic challenger Mike Espy.

Related News

Regional One Health terminated the employment of a nurse and former Memphis police officer who became an internet star after wearing a T-shirt with a Confederate flag, a noose, and the words “Mississippi Justice” to vote.

Neverending Elvis

So dizzy. Feelings of “It’s about time” are interrupted by twinges of “Why now?” followed by questions like, “Is it because they both have a thing for gold-plated potties?”

Donald J. Trump will honor Memphis’ own Elvis Aaron Presley with The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the president can bestow on a civilian. Presley’s contribution to American culture is being recognized in a class of seven including baseball legend Babe Ruth, conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, and GOP mega-donor Miriam Adelson.

It’s the potties, isn’t it?

Neverending Dammit

Gannett Co. shared its Q3 earnings, and the report contains some good news for The Commercial Appeal‘s parent company. Digital revenue is up by $3.3 million over last year. But digital gains couldn’t keep pace with the $5.5 million in revenue lost from declining circulation. Publishing revenue is down, and advertising and marketing also took a hit. The report was released a week after Gannett announced that results of hotly contested midterm elections wouldn’t be included in the next morning’s newspaper.

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Wildlife

The central motif of Wildlife, the brilliant new film by actor-turned-director Paul Dano, is an all-consuming wildfire. Released on the weekend when unreal images of burning Malibu and Paradise, California, flocked into our collective field of vision, the film has acquired an unexpected timeliness.

Or maybe it wasn’t so unexpected. As the Earth warms and rainfall becomes heavier but more sporadic, wildfire is becoming more common and more severe. This is a case of Dano and his partner, co-writer, and producer Zoe Kazan, making their own luck via deft choice of material — an adaptation of a 1990 novel by Jackson, Mississippi, native Richard Ford.

It’s 1960, and 14-year-old Joe (Ed Oxenbould) is trying to fit in and make friends at his new high school in Great Falls, Montana. His father Jerry (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a golf pro, popular with the old rich guys at the country club. His mother Jeanette (Carey Mulligan) stays at home to keep the house like a good little wife.

Carey Mulligan, Ed Oxenbould, and Jake Gyllenhaal (left to right) star in Paul Dano’s tightly composed new drama,Wildlife.

Dano’s been acting since he was 10, and he’s been spectacular in films like Love & Mercy, where he nailed a difficult part as young Beach Boy Brian Wilson. So it’s natural that he would be an actor’s director. Wildlife is told from Joe’s point of view, but Dano pays equal attention and care to each of his lead trio of actors. In the beginning, it feels like Jerry’s story. Gyllenhaal’s epic, thrusting jawline embodies Eisenhower-era masculinity. He yucks it up with the privileged class on the links, even hustling them out of a few bucks here and there. But tellingly, he’s introduced cleaning the golf cleats of a cigarette-smoking banker, hunched over subserviently before capital.

When a bet comes back to bite him and he loses his job, Jerry starts to spiral into depression. A man without a job in America ought to be ashamed, even if it’s not his fault. Gyllenhaal’s performance is finely modulated — his mood in each brief scene is directly connected to what happened in the previous scene. Each rejection saps his will to go on just a little more.

As Jerry flounders, Jeanette starts to flourish. She gets a job teaching swimming lessons at the YMCA and enjoys getting out of the house and helping people be more self-sufficient. Even Joe gets a job before Jerry. He becomes a photographer’s assistant, and the portraits of weddings, graduations, and happy families become a poignant counterpoint to his own increasingly bleak home life.

The pressure of his own perceived failure becomes too much for Jerry, so it’s a relief to him when he finally lands a job on a firefighting crew that will require him to be in the Montana mountains until the winter snows put the fires out. The story’s focus shifts to Jeanette, who feels abandoned and betrayed by her husband leaving her to alone to raise a child, and the rest of the film belongs to Carey Mulligan. Joe watches his mother fall into a deep depression, then raise herself out of it by pursuing an affair with a rich man she met at the Y, played by a frighteningly greasy Bill Kamp.

Mulligan lets Jeanette’s self control slip away bit by bit. She is torn by financial worry, heartbreak, and social stigma, but also invigorated by the freedom of her bad behavior and the realization that she can be whomever she wants to be. Mulligan’s face gives you glimpses of the pitched battle inside her mind.

Dano not only has a deft hand with his actors, but also a great collaboration with cinematographer Diego García. As Joe’s formerly normal world closes in on him, García’s focal length narrows, leaving the character literally hemmed in by blurry uncertainty on the screen. The low light and muted palates give it a vintage 8mm home movie feel — assuming your old home movies were shot by Roger Deakins. Wyoming’s wide plains give way to soaring mountains in the distance, while in the foreground, desperate poor people huddle in desolate brick ranch houses. Wildlife is the inside story of a family burning down, but it is also a tale of toxic masculinity and capitalism’s spiritual toll. It’s a work that bridges the intimate and expansive with deceptive ease.

Categories
We Recommend We Recommend

Corey Mesler’s book signing

“Do you know what madstones are?” he asks. A metaphor, clearly. A joke, probably. Madstones is the name of Corey Mesler’s newest poetry collection, and the Burke’s Book Store owner’s not above a little fun at his own expense. “They’re not actually stones,” he explains. “They’re regurgitated matter from ruminants like cows and goats. You find them in fields. It was once believed they had magical healing properties.”

Mesler connects the idea to his own work: “It’s thrown up matter that has some kind of numinous presence to it.”

The anklet Barbara Stanwyck wears in Billy Wilder’s noir masterpiece, Double Indemnity; TV cowboys; words by Frost and Bukowski; Klaus Kinski’s fever dreams; dogs: These are a few items from the buffet table. Mesler’s regurgitations are a tangle of old movie stars, TV shows, stories from the nightlife and bright midwinter mornings. “Inauguration Day 2017” begins with crows and beetles and “it will end badly.”

Madstones

“Pop culture is really where I live,” Mesler says. “I’d rather watch Double Indemnity than read Proust.

“The title poem means a lot to me because it’s the jumping off point for the book. But I like to keep something for the end. And toward the end, there’s a poem that kind of speaks for the book. It’s called ‘Let’s Do This.’

“Let’s throw a party and invite those people who insult us, who are so edgy they have no middle,” he writes. “Let’s assume we’re all in this together, making it up as we go along, singing the old songs, believing in the newest and best revolutions.”

Mesler’s hosting a booksigning event on his home turf. He’ll be reading selections from Madstones Thursday, November 15th at Burke’s.

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We Recommend We Recommend

Kevin McDonald’s comedy workshop

Some people are born funny. Some achieve funniness. Others have funniness thrust upon them. Shakespeare sort of said that. And so did Kids in the Hall co-founder Kevin McDonald, who’s coming to perform stand-up comedy, sketch comedy, and an improv jam with Memphis’ own Bluff City Liars.

“It’s going to be a great workshop,” says comedian and Bluff City Liar Benny Elbows-Frederick. “The Kids in the Hall is one of the greatest sketch shows of all time, and Kevin’s going to teach how they wrote it. The fact that the sketches written in the workshop will be performed on the show Sunday night is icing on the cake.” There are sprinkles on that icing too. Some Memphians who take part in the workshops will also get to perform some of the developed sketches alongside McDonald.

Kevin McDonald

“Honestly, we just got an email from him out of the blue,” Frederick explains. “Someone must have told him about our shows at TheatreWorks. It was a little weird getting an email from someone I’d watched so much growing up. I was a little skeptical that maybe it was a prank.”

Don’t think you’re funny enough to jam with one of the Kids? McDonald has some tips. “I think to be more spontaneously funny you have to attempt to be funny all the time,” he says. “If you try making people laugh a lot, it soon becomes natural to at least try to be funny a lot. You also figure out what jokes work and which ones do not. The more you try comedy, the easier it becomes and the less afraid of it you get.”

The other way of being spontaneously funny is to be born a funny person, McDonald says: “However, no workshop in the world can help you with that. A good workshop can make you funnier — but I believe you are either born naturally funny or you are not.”

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

The News From Hell: Keeping Up With DT

CREDIT: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Remember Brent Kavanaugh? Or was it Bart? Those noxious hearings seem so long ago, I can hardly remember. I seem to recall something about the rollicking activities of Bart and his bros P.J., Squi, and Tobin having a “drink until you puke” contest during Beach Week on a private island somewhere. In between alcohol-fueled episodes of bird-dogging teenage girls, Kavanaugh’s Krewe was directly responsible for the banning of beer on the beach because girls kept getting sand in their Schlitz.

It seems Burt may have received serious mental impairment from Beach Week, because 30 years later, he sat in front of a Senate sub-committee and continued to repeat the phrase, “I like beer,” as if it were some sort of alcoholic zombie mantra.

The all night benders, the shit-faced stupors, along with the alleged sexual assaults, are just the qualities many fine people look for in a Supreme Court Justice. I heard Thurgood Marshall was known to butt-chug some suds while attending keggers at Howard University Law School. I don’t know for sure but many people are saying that. He shouldn’t worry. I understand that Thurgood Marshall is getting more popular every day. He and Frederick Douglass rented a loft in D.C. where they have “brewski orgies” every weekend. Bruce Kavanaugh is still waiting for an invitation.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Jeff Sessions

Trump got his frat-boy “fixer” onto the Supreme Court just in time to quash any pesky subpoenas he might receive to testify before the special counsel. Weren’t the tumultuous Kavanaugh hearings supposed to be the major issue for the Republicans in the mid-terms? Oops. As usual, Trump had to change the subject to make it all about himself. He told his rabid cultists to “pretend I’m on the ballot,” and they did. Either voters believed his racist and maniacal rantings about the caravan filled with ISIS terrorists and horny “big, strong men” walking from Honduras to your town to have their way with your women and spread exotic diseases — or you believed the truth.

Fox News even featured an ex-ICE agent who said the migrants were bringing smallpox, leprosy, and TB, even though smallpox was eradicated in 1980. According to President Norman Bates, Democrats are evil people who “don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants to pour in and infest” the nation. When Nancy Pelosi objected to the reference of migrants as “animals,” Trump responded by stating that she “came out in favor of MS-13.” Miraculously, when the election was over, the caravan vanished from the news, except for Trump’s stunt sending 5,000 troops to spend Thanksgiving in West Texas eating turkey and dressing from an MRE pouch.

Trump’s post-election press conference was the most graceless, combative, and condescending yet. Words can’t compare with the YouTube video you should see for yourself. His singling out of CNN’s Jim Acosta as, “A rude, terrible person [who] shouldn’t be working for CNN,” was only the beginning of the cratering of decency. After the press berating, the unforgivably recused Jeff Sessions only lasted an hour. Trump left it to General John Kelly to do the firing. This was expected, but before Trump flew off to France, he installed his pool boy as acting attorney general. The lackey’s name is Matt Whitaker, who looks like a bouncer in a biker bar, but was actually a huckster for World Patent Marketing, a fraudulent invention promotion firm that scammed clients out of $26 million dollars, including the doomed investments from their marketing outreach program for veterans. The FTC shut the company down in 2017 citing “threats, intimidation, and gag clauses,” and froze their assets. Now who doesn’t deserve a job in the White House after that? Especially since Whitaker wrote in USA Today that Hillary should be indicted and appeared on CNN advocating for limitations to the Mueller probe. It’s become obvious that in the lame-duck session, the cornered Trump will do as much damage as possible before the new Congress comes in and demands to see his birth certificate, so expect more Brownshirt rallies.

Cable news pundits assert that Democrats should feel elated for taking back the House, but this election left me disgusted. I’m dismayed that nearly half the country thinks that this sociopath’s blatant racism, sexism, and fear of the “other” is all right by them. This was the most vile, repulsive, and racist campaign in my lifetime, and that was just in Tennessee. The former “image consultant,” Marsha Blackburn, embraced every Trump atrocity, and then some. Her television ads were a disgrace. Sure, Phil Bredesen stepped on his dick with the whole Kavanaugh business, but I naively believed enough people thought he was a good enough governor to be elected. He wasn’t just beaten, he was slaughtered, proving that fear-mongering works among the rural folk. Our little corner of Tennessee was a blue canoe in the midst of a redneck sea. Trump has pledged a “war footing” if the Democrats begin investigating his abuses, meaning nothing gets done for the foreseeable future.

There hasn’t been one calm day since this duck-tailed Colonel Parker clone took office. California is currently experiencing the deadliest fires in its history, on top of the 12 people slaughtered in a bar by a twisted gunman with an illegal extended magazine. Trump has yet to utter a word. He has, however, announced the winners of this year’s Presidential Medal of Freedom awards, including right-wing Justice Antonin Scalia, baseball legend Babe Ruth, and home-boy, Elvis Presley. At least he doesn’t have to worry if they’ll be showing up for the medal ceremony.

Randy Haspel writes the “Recycled Hippies” blog.

Categories
Book Features Books

Shaun Bythell’s The Diary of a Bookseller.

If ever there was a book that’s right in my wheelhouse it’s this bookseller’s memoir. I was sent by God to review it. The Diary of a Bookseller is just that, a sincerely rendered, day-to-day year in the life of an antiquarian bookseller in a small Scottish town. I was prepared to enjoy the particular and peculiar differences between what he does regularly in his used bookstore, across the pond, as compared to what I have done in mine over the past 30 years at Burke’s. But, what I found more interesting is that his days are so similar to mine. His customers could be our customers. His worries are assuredly our worries. His joys are our joys. Even his stock is somewhat similar to our stock, both weighted toward local histories and writers, both a mix of used books and select new books. The similarities pile up; I won’t bore you with others.

It’s hard for me to determine whether or not this book is for anyone who doesn’t work in a bookstore, especially an antiquarian bookstore. But, part of the charm, or at least guilty pleasure of the book, is Bythell’s dour humor and his barbed tongue. He dishes on his employees: “Nicky arrived at 9:13 a.m., wearing the black Canadian ski suit that she bought in the charity shop in Port William for £5. This is her standard uniform between the months of November and April. It is a padded onesie, designed for skiing, and it makes her look like the lost Teletubby.” Or later this, about another: “I have a feeling that ‘outraged’ may well be her factory setting.” He dishes on his customers: “A customer came to the counter and said, ‘I’ve looked under the W section of the fiction and I can’t find anything by Rider Haggard.’ I suggested that he have a look under the H section.”

His store is called The Bookshop and it is in Wigtown. His stock is eclectic, everything from cheap Agatha Christie mysteries to pricey and scarce histories from the 16th and 17th centuries. His insights into the buying and selling of used and rare books were as exciting, for this reader, as his sarcastic quips.

In general, in his daily diary, he talks about the books he’s acquired, what he’s reading, the friends he’s made in the business, his partner Anna, his fishing trips, the store’s faulty heating, the estate sales he travels to in search of new stock, and what irritates him. Many things irritate him; his sardonic wit overrides everything. He also notes how many online orders the shop received and how many they were able to fulfill (we do this daily also) and how many customers he had that day and how much money they pulled in. In a singularly British manner, it’s a quaint way to concoct a book.

Of course, working with the public is a constant source of good material for anyone writing a memoir. People are fascinating, ridiculous and sublime, predictably drab or constantly unpredictable, funny and sad, sharp and dull. A year spent noting the passing parade, especially if one is a lively observer, as Blythell is, makes for entertaining reading. Hemingway said, “This looking and not seeing things was a great sin, I thought, and one that was easy to fall into. It was always the beginning of something bad and I thought that we did not deserve to live in the world if we did not see it.” Blythell sees, and he also has a keen waggishness which makes his reflections funny and memorable and this book a hoot.

Finally, it’s also the observation of small, human scenes like this which makes the author a delightful companion through a year of bookselling: “When the old man in the crumpled suit came to the counter to pay for the copy of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, I discreetly pointed out that his fly was open. He glanced down — as if for confirmation of this — then looked back at me and said, ‘A dead bird can’t fall out of its nest,’ and left the shop, fly still agape.”