Tag: 2021

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Film Features Film/TV

The Best (and One Worst) Films of 2021

Mavis Staples and Mahalia Jackson in the electrifying Summer of Soul

This year was an up-and-down time for film, as audiences cautiously returned to theaters. But even if box office returns were erratic and often disappointing, quality-wise, there was more greatness than could be contained in a top 10 list. Since I hate ranking, here are my personal awards for movie excellence in a weird year.

Vicky Kreips and Gael García Bernal aging on the beach in Old.

Worst Picture: Old

“There’s this beach, see, and it makes you old.”

“That sounds great, M. Night Shyamalan! You’re a genius!”

Annabelle Wallace wonders what it’s all about in Malignant.

Dishonorable Mention: Malignant

WTF was that about?

Bryce Christian Thompson stars as Shah in “The Devil Will Run.”

Best Memphis Film: “The Devil Will Run”

Director Noah Glenn’s collaboration with Unapologetic mastermind IMAKEMADBEATS produced this funny and moving memory of childhood magic. Glenn topped one of the strongest collections of Hometowner short films in Indie Memphis history.

“Chocolate Galaxy”

Honorable Mention: “Chocolate Galaxy”

An Afrofuturist hip hop opera made on a shoestring budget, this 20-minute film features eye-popping visuals and banging tunes.

Puppet Annette

Best Performance by a Nonhuman:
Puppet Annette

This coveted award goes to Annette, Leos Carax’s gonzo musical collaboration with Sparks, which used a puppet to represent its namesake character, the neglected child of Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, because they couldn’t find a newborn who could sing.

Dev Patel as Sir Gawain in The Green Knight.

Medievalist: The Green Knight

To create one of the strangest films of 2021, all director David Lowery had to do was stick to the legend of Sir Gawain’s confrontation with a mysterious Christmas visitor to King Arthur’s court. Driven by Dev Patel’s pitch perfect performance, The Green Knight felt both completely surreal and strangely familiar.

Cryptozoo is not about Bitcoin.

Best Animation: Cryptozoo

Annette and The Green Knight were weird, but the year’s weirdest film was Dash Shaw’s exceedingly strange magnum opus. Think Jurassic Park, only instead of CGI dinosaurs it’s Sasquatch and unicorns drawn like a high schooler’s notebook doodles come to life.

Bad robot — director Michael Rianda’s The Mitchells vs. the Machines finds one family squaring off against the techno-pocalypse.

Honorable Mention: The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Gravity Falls’ Mike Rianda pulls off the difficult assignment of making an animated film that appeals to both kids and adults with this cautionary tale of the connected age.

Anna Cobb in We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

Best Performance: (tie) Kristen Stewart, Spencer; and Anna Cobb, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair

Both Stewart and Cobb played women trapped in nightmarish situations, trying to hold onto their sanity while watching their worlds crumble around them. For Stewart, it was Princess Diana’s last Christmas with the queen. For Cobb, it’s a teenager succumbing to an internet curse. The success of both pictures hinges on their central performances, but the difference is that Stewart’s one of the world’s highest paid actresses, and this is Cobb’s first time on camera.

Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Sandie in Last Night in Soho. (Credit: Parisa Taghizadeh / © 2021 Focus Features, LLC)

MVP: Edgar Wright

Wright started the year with his first documentary, The Sparks Brothers, an obsessive ode to your favorite band’s favorite band. Sparks’ story is so strange and funny, and Wright’s style so manic and distinctive, that many viewers were surprised to learn it wasn’t a mockumentary. Then, he dropped Last Night in Soho, a humdinger of a Hitchcockian horror mystery which evoked the swinging London of the 1960s. Wright continues to deliver the most fun you can have in a multiplex.

Ariana DeBose as Anita in West Side Story.

Best Director: Steven Spielberg,
West Side Story

I feel like this Spielberg kid’s got potential. Hollywood’s wunderkind is now an elder statesman, but his adaptation of the Broadway classic proves he’s still got it. With unmatched virtuosity, he brings Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s songs to life and updates the story’s sensibilities for the 21st century. West Side Story stands among the master’s greatest work.

Sly Stone performing at the Harlem Cultural Festival in Summer of Soul.

Best Documentary: Summer of Soul

The most transcendent on-screen moment of 2021 actually happened in 1969, when Mavis Staples and Mahalia Jackson duetted “Precious Lord” at the Harlem Cultural Festival. Questlove’s directorial debut gave the long-lost footage of the show the reverent treatment it deserves. Thanks to the indelible performances by the cream of Black musical talent, Summer of Soul was as electrifying as any Marvel super-fest.

Riley Keough and Taylour Page are strippers on a Tampa tear in Zola.

Best Picture: Zola

I can hear you now: “You’re telling me the best picture of 2021 was based on a Twitter thread by a part-time stripper from Detroit?” Hey, I’m as surprised as you are. But director Janicza Bravo turned a raw story of a road trip gone wrong into a noir-tinged shaggy-dog story of petty crime and unjust deserts. The ensemble cast of Taylour Paige, Nicholas Braun, Colman Domingo, and particularly Riley Keough is by far the year’s best, and Bravo shoots their ill-fated foray into the wilds of Tampa, Florida, like she’s Kubrick lensing A Clockwork Orange. Funny, self-aware, and unbearably tense, Zola is a masterpiece that deserves a bigger audience.

Categories
Cover Feature News

New Year, New You: Ways to be Your Best Self in 2021

CREDIT: Alex Greene

I don’t know how much more excited we can be to say goodbye forever to 2020. Here we are, in a brand-new year — all shiny and sparkly and brimming with potential. The Flyer staffers have some ideas on ways to grow and thrive in 2021. Here, we offer them up for your consideration.

Alex Greene

Take Time to Make Time for Music

As 2020 was in its final throes, I spoke with Steve Selvidge, guitar-slinger extraordinaire, and he observed: “With technology these days, streaming music is daytime whatever, just put on something that’s rockin’, get the dishes done. But for me, vinyl is the nighttime thing. It’s the kids have gone to bed, decompressing, and talking about the events of the day, and what are we gonna put on?”

What indeed? Of course, Steve is a fellow performer, and we’re known for taking time to make time for music. But music is so omnipresent these days that, for most people, it’s strangely devalued. We have the power to soundtrack every moment, and many of us do. But a soundtrack is designed to play second fiddle to moving images, to washing dishes or to that endless scroll. I fall prey to that mindset myself.

To break out of that matrix, I make a conscious effort to settle into a space by the hi-fi and just listen. No devices, no flickering screens. Just me, the lamplight, and the sounds of my favorite players. If you take the trouble to make it happen, with a streamed playlist, a CD, or — still the best — a vinyl long-player, you will find spaces opening in your imagination that render all the anxious scrolling meaningless, so much chaff in the wind. Meanwhile, the beats, harmonies, and melodies, given their proper time and space, can resonate with nuanced emotions deep within. They are heavy, they are solid, they are sound. — Alex Greene

Maryjoy Caballero | Unsplash.com

Move More

It’s too damn cold outside right now for the lovely walks I enjoyed so much last spring and summer, which kept me sane in the throes of The No-Good, Horrible Year. Until we get longer days and first blooms and that warm kiss of the season change, we can find new and different ways to move more.

I’ve never been much of a gym person, but I have quite the collection of Tae Bo DVDs. You know, the taekwondo-inspired workout that was huge in the ’90s, hosted by master motivator Billy Blanks. I have very much enjoyed working out solo in my own home through the years, and it was especially beneficial over the course of 2020 — for both physical and mental health. I dropped some pounds and gained some sweet serotonin boosts.

You probably don’t have a Tae Bo collection, but there are tons of free workouts available online via YouTube and Facebook and Instagram live. Kroc Center of Memphis, YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South, and the Downtown Memphis Commission are just a few of the local sources for free virtual workout sessions (yoga, boot camp, barre, kickboxing, and more). Tune in and get your body movin’ — it’ll feel real good, I promise.— Shara Clark

Do it Yourself, and Do it Now

He who hesitates is lost, goes the saying, and that holds for she and it as well. Lost or not, the perpetrator of procrastination is certainly destined to fall behind, and only rarely is this strategically useful.

While Shakespeare’s immortal anti-hero Hamlet mulled over several other existential dilemmas in the famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy, certainly the issue of timely and forceful action was paramount. Avenging his old man was only secondary; the real point at issue was that Denmark was by rights his own kingdom-to-be; all he had to do was work up a sweat, commit to a risk or two, and take it away from Claudius the usurper. But he balked, and paid for it.

Rarely do our own timidities and postponements confront matters of such pitch and moment. But they sting all the same. The floor stays unswept; the book remains unwritten or unread; the romantic opportunity evaporates; the dream job, sans your completed application, goes to somebody else. T.S., buddy. Pick up the damned broom!

There are both disadvantages and advantages to our cybernetic age. But one of the latter is the ready accessibility of D.I.Y. instructions online — governing almost the entire range of needful actions you’ve been putting off. Surely you’ve already discovered that waiting for somebody else to do it for you is either futile or too expensive. And one thing leads to another: The habit of successful initiatives orders the mind for more of the same. Before you know it, you’re self-reliant. It ain’t Denmark, but it’s something! — Jackson Baker

Get Your Head in the Game

In the immortal words of Troy Bolton, you gotta “get’cha head in the game.” The best way to jump into the new year after the horror show that was 2020 is to have some fun, blow off some steam, and inject some gamesmanship into your rotation.

Start by checking out some organized sports (when it’s safe to do so, of course). Socialize and get a workout in at the same time by signing up for a local soccer league, or harkening back to your high school P.E. days with some Thursday night kickball action. There are plenty of options out there, and if sports aren’t your thing, there are plenty of casual and beginner leagues to sign up with (for now, tennis makes for a great social distancing sport).

Looking to keep things indoors? Set up a weekly board game night to stay connected, and hone that competitive edge. Outwit your friends in a game of Settler of Catan, hoard all the wealth in Monopoly, or make things personal in a chess duel. With a little bit of ingenuity, it’s easy enough to set something up over Zoom.

And if that’s not enough, head over to the digital frontier. Video gaming is a great way to stay engaged with far away, out of town, or just plain unavailable friends, and there are lots of options even if you don’t want to invest in expensive equipment. Try out some Jackbox Games over the phone for a casual opener, or engage in Clue-like, murder mystery shenanigans in Among Us. But if you have the equipment, there’s no substitute for the catharsis of crushing your closest confidants in an intense round of Mario Kart. They probably deserved it, anyway. — Samuel X. Cicci

Total Reboot

It’s time for a reboot of self. This upcoming year is well-situated to accommodate a mental initializing (exorcizing) and a physical revamp (exercising). But all this better/healthier blather of resolve is nothing without a nice systemic overhaul. The promise of a new year is only fulfilled when changes include not only what’s gained, but what’s axed.

It’s vexing, for example, when a shiny up-to-the-minute laptop is acquired and then the end user migrates everything from the old drive to the new. No. Have patience and take time to evict the clutter. Those unreadable files from the previous millennium will likely not reveal deep thoughts or significant histories.

Understand that I am not really talking about computers here. This is the ultimate inside job, the better nature cultivating patience, saying “no” kindly to the insistent voices in culture, refining gratitude, paying attention, caring thoroughly. Also, updating passwords and deleting what’s in the Trash queue.

I’m inspired to reboot because, since SCS started instructing at home a few months ago, my first-grade granddaughter has been coming by three days a week with tablet in hand to work the class. It’s eye-opening. She grasps things with alacrity and makes astonishing observations. These sessions are a priority, for her sake of course, but especially for me. And I want more, which means eliminating distractions elsewhere.

So it is a change of priorities, not a revolution. More of a change in administration, if you will. The quotidian stays in place — I am not restless. But I’m done with being in a hurry. And I bet the wife and kids are gonna love it! Maybe. — Jon W. Sparks

Fizkes | Dreamstime.com

Take Mental Health Seriously

There was a second, parallel pandemic in 2020. Depression and anxiety rates spiked alongside COVID cases. The numbers are striking.

“COVID-19 and Life Stressors Impact on Mental Health,” a study published last September by the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the number of people reporting depressive symptoms tripled from April 2019 to April 2020. Later studies would find that was the year’s happiest point; a CDC survey in late July showed a whopping 41 percent of respondents were depressed. Correspondingly, the suicide rate is up (although it’s unclear at this point by how much) and more than 81,000 people died of drug overdoses between May 2019 and May 2020, a new record.

If 2020 was the year you learned to take hand washing seriously, 2021 should be the year you learn to take your mental health seriously. With everything that’s happening, if you aren’t anxious, you aren’t paying attention. Unplug occasionally — our messed-up world is still going to be there, even if you log off Twitter for a couple of days. Exercise, like yoga or running/walking, can help take the edge off, and also improve your sleep habits.

If your anxiety is spiking, mixing with depression, and interfering with your functioning, know you’re not alone. The first line of defense is talk therapy, so find a therapist who can help turn things around. From there, they can help you find other medical interventions, if needed. If you’re in the darkest of places, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is (800) 273-8255. For Spanish speakers, it’s (888) 628-9454.

Even if you’re not depressed and anxious, watch out for your friends, neighbors, and family. If someone close to you is withdrawing or showing signs of strain, reach out to them. Tell them they’re not alone. — Chris McCoy

Michael Donahue

Learn to Cook

Before the pandemic, my kitchen skills included baking a killer country ham and yeast rolls from scratch, and making the cream sauce and hollandaise from the old Justine’s restaurant.

But none of these were something I’d whip up for a quick dinner.

My box of recipes I’d collected for decades wasn’t a lot of help, either. Recipes included Thomas Jefferson Ice Cream, Huckleberry Cobbler, and 14-Day Sweet Pickles.

So, when everything was locked down, I had to quickly get acquainted with my kitchen because I’d eaten just about all of my meals except for breakfast at restaurants for years. I began with pasta, which I mixed with chicken and fish. Then I got into different types of vinegar and spices. I steamed beets for the first time.

I realized there are so many things I’ve never done in the kitchen.

I’ve branched out to different recipes. If you look around, you might find an old cookbook at your house. I have a few of my Mom’s. But you can find everything you want — recipes and videos — online. My favorite quote from a recent story on baker Sara Embrey, was when she said, “Thank goodness my mother taught me to read. So I know how to read a recipe.”

Best of all, you can call a friend or relative who knows how to cook. I’ve found they’re more than happy to help you. — Michael Donahue

Jeepers Media

Reuse

Memphis put the recycling program on hiatus due to COVID. Reusing is a form of recycling. Why not pivot for the time being?

My grandmother was the master of reuse. Every other month or so, my mother went to her home and threw out all the old Cool Whip containers and such in her kitchen cabinets and replaced them with Tupperware. This went on for years. The Tupperware remained untouched and the reused containers were back.

One day, near the end of my grandmother’s days, I visited her. On the bedside table was a Cool Whip container with “cookies” written on the top in my mother’s handwriting.

My four-foot-tall, 80-pound, 95-year-old grandmother had raised three families; my grandfather’s younger siblings when their mother died, her own, and an uncle’s three kids when their mother died. She was the first child in her family born in the United States. She lived through the depression with immigrant parents. Her mother never learned English. Waste was not an option.

It took her a while, but she finally taught my mother this lesson. I think this is a lesson that I’ll take into 2021. Especially since things might be tough for a while. Maybe one day I can pass the lesson to my nieces and nephews. The same ones who recently threw away a perfectly good chair that I curb-shopped from their home. It’s not quite ready for the landfill yet. And neither are my Cool Whip containers. — Julie Ray

Bruce Vanwyngarden

Learn to Live Outside

The safest place to be during this pandemic we’re experiencing is outside. Which is easy and natural when you’re taking a jog or biking or walking your hound. But not so much if you just want to sit around and visit with your friends and family. Indoor gatherings can be dangerous. And if you’re not moving, hanging around outdoors in the winter can get chilly. That’s why you might want to consider creating an outdoor living space — a “room” with lots of fresh air.

It’s not that difficult. All you need is a porch or patio or backyard space with places for people to sit and a heat source (or two). And it wouldn’t hurt to have a barrier against the wind, which can be as simple as the side of your house.

Any kind of deck chairs or camp chairs or outdoor furniture will work for seating. As for heat? There are many kinds of portable firepits available; just add wood and voila! Instant campfire.

But firepits can be hazardous on a wooden surface or even in a small yard in the city, so if you’re setting up an outdoor space on your deck or porch, I’d suggest purchasing a portable heater of some sort. Options include electric coil heaters, electric oil-filled radiators, or propane fueled towers, like the ones restaurants use. Find the option that best fits your space and budget, and you’re ready for company — the host with a great outdoor living room. — Bruce VanWyngarden

Read More

Last year I was given a stack of 12 books with the challenge to read one a month. For this challenge, the only rules my godmother — who, since I was little, has given me enough books to fill a small library — gave me was to finish at least one book a month and to read only one book a month. I would be lying if I said I thought the rules were a good idea. I’m an avid reader and plow through a couple of books a month, so the thought that I would be limited to one per month felt wrong.

But then I sat down to read.

For the first two months I was skeptical. I wanted to read more, and I came close to picking up another book and walking away. But then the world shut down. And as I found myself sitting in my apartment looking for things to do, the time that I spent reading and reflecting became more and more impactful. In the time that I needed it most, I found inspiration, escape, and hope in the pages of books. So for the new year, take the time to stop and read. — Matthew J. Harris

Jesse Davis

Don’t Stand So Close to Me

At least until June or July. I feel like I’m cheating a bit here, taking the most obvious option, but if there’s one thing Tennesseans need to do better in 2021, it’s practice social distancing. As I write these words, we’re the national hotspot for new coronavirus cases per population.

True, the numbers from Memphis and Shelby County reliably show that we’re usually best in the state at slowing the spread of the disease, though we can always aim to be better. The good news is that the end is in sight. Even now, frontline healthcare workers are being vaccinated. But it will be a while, likely spring or summer ’21, before the general population is in line for those sweet, sweet shoulder jabs.

So let me be the one to say let’s all keep our cool, at least until the summer. Of course, I’m not talking to the people who have to expose themselves at work, who’ve borne the brunt of this pandemic. I’ve had so many jobs where I had to physically be somewhere to make a pizza or move a few hundred packages, so I recognize that it’s a privilege to be able to work from home.

And I’m not talking out of one side of my mouth while I party it up in private. I’ve had exactly one friend over one time, and I set up chairs nine feet apart in the backyard. We drank and caught up. It wasn’t exactly the same as porch beers after band practice, but I was happy for the company anyway. Then we got a little too much company, when my neighbor ran over, maskless, and tried to high-five us both. Maybe it’s a low bar, Memphis, but just don’t be that guy. At least until July. — Jesse Davis

Quit Talking Shit and Commit

Want to lose weight? Want to get a new job? Want to start that YouTube channel?

You can do all these things. Only you stand in your way. But you have to quit talking shit and commit.

C’mon folks, I’m no guru and I ain’t trying to be one. I don’t have the answers, especially in 2021. But I do know one thing. If you want change, you have to do it. No one is going to do it for you. No one is even going to give you a roadmap.

Take a breath this year and clean off your mental worktable. Pull out that goal and plop it down. Yes, it looks daunting sitting there, but remember other people (people not as smart as you) have done it before. You can do this. You will do this. Commit.

Find out what it takes (you probably know already) and take your first step. It’ll be weird and probably hard and it’ll make a mess of your regularly scheduled program. This is called “stepping outside your comfort zone,” and that’s where the magic happens, baby.

Look a’there! You got the hard part out of the way. Take the next step and the next 100 steps. — Toby Sells

Do It Yourself, and Do It Now

He who hesitates is lost, goes the saying, and that holds for she and it as well. Lost or not, the perpetrator of procrastination is certainly destined to fall behind, and only rarely is this strategically useful.

While Shakespeare’s immortal anti-hero Hamlet mulled over several other existential dilemma in the famous “to be or not to be” soliloquy, certainly the issue of timely and forceful action was paramount. Avenging his old man was only secondary; the real point at issue was that Denmark was by rights his own kingdom-to-be; all he had to do was work up a sweat, commit to a risk or two, and take it away from Claudius the usurper. But he balked, and paid for it.

Rarely do our own timidities and postponements confront matters of such pitch and moment. But they sting all the same. The floor stays unswept; the book remains unwritten or unread; the romantic opportunity evaporates; the dream job, sans your completed application, goes to somebody else. T.S., buddy. Pick up the damned broom!

There are both disadvantages and advantages to our cybernetic age. But one of the latter is the ready accessibility of D.I.Y. instructions online — governing almost the entire range of needful actions you’ve been putting off. Surely you’ve already discovered that waiting for somebody else to do it for you is either futile or too expensive. And one thing leads to another: the habit of successful initiatives orders the mind for more of the same. Before you know it, you’re self-reliant. It ain’t Denmark, but it’s something! — Jackson Baker

Categories
Cover Feature News

2021: Here’s Looking at You

If 2020 was the year of despair, 2021 appears to be the year of hope.

Wanna see what that could look like? Cast your gaze to Wuhan, China, birthplace of COVID-19.

News footage from Business Insider shows hundreds of carefree young people gathered in a massive swimming pool, dancing and splashing at a rock concert. They are effortlessly close together and there’s not a mask in sight. Bars and restaurants are packed with maskless revelers. Night markets are jammed. Business owners smile, remember the bleak times, and say the worst is behind them. How far behind? There’s already a COVID-19 museum in Wuhan.

That could be Memphis (once again) one day. But that day is still likely months off. Vaccines arrived here in mid-December. Early doses rightfully went to frontline healthcare workers. Doses for the masses won’t likely come until April or May, according to health experts.

While we still cannot predict exactly “what” Memphians will be (can be?) doing next year, we can tell you “where” they might be doing it. New places will open their doors next year, and Memphis is set for some pretty big upgrades.

But it doesn’t stop there. “Memphis has momentum” was Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s catchphrase as he won a second term for the office last October. It did. New building projects bloomed like the Agricenter’s sunflowers. And it still does. Believe it or not, not even COVID-19 could douse developers’ multi-million-dollar optimism on the city.

Here are few big projects slated to open in 2021:

Renasant Convention Center

Throughout 2020, crews have been hard at work inside and outside the building once called the Cook Convention Center.

City officials and Memphis Tourism broke ground on a $200-million renovation project for the building in January 2020. The project will bring natural light and color to the once dark and drab convention center built in 1974. The first events are planned for the Renasant Convention Center in the new year.

Memphis International Airport

Memphis International Airport

Expect the ribbon to be cut on Memphis International Airport’s $245-million concourse modernization project in 2021. The project was launched in 2014 in an effort to upgrade the airport’s concourse to modern standards and to right-size the space after Delta de-hubbed the airport.

Once finished, all gates, restaurants, shops, and more will be located in a single concourse. The space will have higher ceilings, more natural light, wider corridors, moving walkways, children’s play areas, a stage for live music, and more.

Collage Dance Collective

The beautiful new building on the corner of Tillman and Sam Cooper is set to open next year in an $11-million move for the Collage Dance Collective.

The 22,000-square-foot performing arts school will feature five studios, office space, a dressing room, a study lounge, 70 parking spaces, and a physical therapy area.

The Memphian Hotel

The Memphian Hotel

A Facebook post by The Memphian Hotel reads, “Who is ready for 2021?” The hotel is, apparently. Developers told the Daily Memphian recently that the 106-room, $24-million hotel is slated to open in April.

“Walking the line between offbeat and elevated, The Memphian will give guests a genuine taste of Midtown’s unconventional personality, truly capturing the free spirit of the storied art district in which the property sits,” reads a news release.

Watch for work to begin next year on big projects in Cooper-Young, the Snuff District, Liberty Park, Tom Lee Park, and The Walk. — Toby Sells

Book ‘Em

After the Spanish flu epidemic and World War I came a flood of convention-defying fiction as authors wrestled with the trauma they had lived through. E.M. Forster confronted colonialism and rigid gender norms in A Passage to India. Virginia Woolf published Mrs. Dalloway. James Joyce gave readers Ulysses. Langston Hughes’ first collection, The Weary Blues, was released.

It’s too early to tell what authors and poets will make of 2020, a year in which America failed to contain the coronavirus. This reader, though, is eager to see what comes.

Though I’ve been a bit too nervous to look very far into 2021 (I don’t want to jinx it, you know?), there are a few books already on my to-read list. First up, I’m excited for MLK50 founding managing editor Deborah Douglas’ U.S. Civil Rights Trail, due in January. Douglas lives in Chicago now, but there’s sure to be some Memphis in that tome.

Next, Ed Tarkington’s The Fortunate Ones, also due in January, examines privilege and corruption on Nashville’s Capitol Hill. Early reviews have compared Tarkington to a young Pat Conroy. For anyone disappointed in Tennessee’s response to any of this year’s crises, The Fortunate Ones is not to be missed.

Most exciting, perhaps, is the forthcoming Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda prose anthology, expected February 2nd. The anthology is edited by Memphis-born journalist Jesse J. Holland, and also features a story by him, as well as Memphians Sheree Renée Thomas, Troy L. Wiggins, and Danian Darrell Jerry.

“To be in pages with so many Memphis writers just feels wonderful,” Thomas told me when I called her to chat about the good news. “It’s a little surreal, but it’s fun,” Jerry adds, explaining that he’s been a Marvel comics fan since childhood. “I get to mix some of those childhood imaginings with some of the skills I’ve worked to acquire over the years.”

Though these books give just a glimpse at the literary landscape of the coming year, if they’re any indication of what’s to come, then, if nothing else, Memphians will have more great stories to look forward to. — Jesse Davis

Courtesy Memphis Redbirds

AutoZone Park

Take Me Out With the Crowd

Near the end of my father’s life, we attended a Redbirds game together at AutoZone Park. A few innings into the game, Dad turned to me and said, “I like seeing you at a ballpark. I can tell your worries ease.”

Then along came 2020, the first year in at least four decades that I didn’t either play in a baseball game or watch one live, at a ballpark, peanuts and Cracker Jack a soft toss away. The pandemic damaged most sports over the last 12 months, but it all but killed minor-league baseball, the small-business version of our national pastime, one that can’t lean on television and sponsorship revenue to offset the loss of ticket-buying fans on game day. AutoZone Park going a year without baseball is the saddest absence I’ve felt in Memphis culture since moving to this remarkable town in 1991. And I’m hoping today — still 2020, dammit — that 2021 marks a revival, even if it’s gradual. In baseball terms, we fans will take a base on balls to get things going before we again swing for the fences.

All indications are that vaccines will make 2021 a better year for gathering, be it at your favorite watering hole or your favorite ballpark. Indications also suggest that restrictions will remain in place well into the spring and summer (baseball season). How many fans can a ballpark host and remain safe? How many fans will enjoy the “extras” of an evening at AutoZone Park — that sunset over the Peabody, that last beer in the seventh inning — if a mask must be worn as part of the experience? And what kind of operation will we see when the gates again open? Remember, these are small businesses. Redbirds president Craig Unger can be seen helping roll out the tarp when a July thunderstorm interrupts the Redbirds and Iowa Cubs. What will “business as usual” mean for Triple-A baseball as we emerge from the pandemic?

I wrote down three words and taped them up on my home-office wall last March: patience, determination, and empathy. With a few more doses of each — and yes, millions of doses of one vaccine or another — the sports world will regain crowd-thrilling normalcy. For me, it will start when I take a seat again in my happy place. It’s been a long, long time, Dad, since my worries properly eased.— Frank Murtaugh

Film in 2021: Don’t Give up Hope

“Nobody knows anything.” Never has William Goldman’s immortal statement about Hollywood been more true. Simply put, 2020 was a disaster for the industry. The pandemic closed theaters and called Hollywood’s entire business model into question. Warner Brothers’ announcement that it would stream all of its 2021 offerings on HBO Max sent shock waves through the industry. Some said it was the death knell for theaters.

I don’t buy it. Warner Brothers, owned by AT&T and locked in a streaming war with Netflix and Disney, are chasing the favor of Wall Street investors, who love the rent-seeking streaming model. But there’s just too much money on the table to abandon theaters. 2019 was a record year at the box office, with $42 billion in worldwide take, $11.4 billion of which was from North America. Theatrical distribution is a proven business model that has worked for 120 years. Netflix, on the other hand, is $12 billion in debt.

Will audiences return to theaters once we’ve vaccinated our way out of the coronavirus-shaped hole we’re in? Prediction at this point is a mug’s game, but signs point to yes. Tenet, which will be the year’s biggest film, grossed $303 million in overseas markets where the virus was reasonably under control. In China, where the pandemic started, a film called My People, My Homeland has brought in $422 million since October 1st. I don’t know about y’all, but once I get my jab, they’re going to have to drag me out of the movie theater.

There will be quite a bit to watch. With the exception of Wonder Woman 1984, the 2020 blockbusters were pushed to 2021, including Dune, Spielberg’s West Side Story remake, the latest James Bond installment No Time to Die, Marvel’s much-anticipated Black Widow, Top Gun: Maverick, and Godzilla vs. Kong. Memphis director Craig Brewer’s second film with Eddie Murphy, the long-awaited Coming 2 America, will bow on Amazon March 5th, with the possibility of a theatrical run still in the cards.

There’s no shortage of smaller, excellent films on tap. Regina King’s directorial debut One Night in Miami, about a meeting between Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown, premieres January 15th. Minari, the stunning story of Korean immigrants in rural Arkansas, which was Indie Memphis 2020’s centerpiece film, lands February 12th. The Bob’s Burgers movie starts cooking April 9th. And coolest of all, next month Indie Memphis will partner with Sundance to bring the latest in cutting-edge cinema to the Malco Summer Drive-In. There’s plenty to be hopeful for in the new year. — Chris McCoy

Looking Ahead: Music

We usually highlight the upcoming hot concerts in this space, but those are still on the back burner. Instead, get a load of these stacks of hot wax (and streams) dropping next year. Remember, the artists get a better share when you purchase rather than stream, especially physical product like vinyl.

Alysse Gafkjen

Julien Baker

One of the biggest-profile releases will be Julien Baker’s Little Oblivians, due out on Matador in February. Her single “Faith Healer” gives us a taste of what to expect. Watch the Flyer for more on that soon. As for other drops from larger indie labels, Merge will offer up A Little More Time with Reigning Sound in May (full disclosure: this all-Memphis version of the band includes yours truly).

Closer to home, John Paul Keith’s The Rhythm of the City also drops in February, co-released by hometown label Madjack and Italian imprint Wild Honey. Madjack will also offer up albums by Mark Edgar Stuart and Jed Zimmerman, the latter having been produced by Stuart. Matt Ross-Spang is mixing Zimmerman’s record, and there’s much buzz surrounding it (but don’t worry, it’s properly grounded).

Jeremy Stanfill mines similar Americana territory, and he’ll release new work on the Blue Barrel imprint. Meanwhile, look for more off-kilter sounds from Los Psychosis and Alicja Trout’s Alicja-Pop project, both on Black & Wyatt. That label will also be honored with a compilation of their best releases so far, by Head Perfume out of Dresden. On the quieter side of off-kilter, look for Aquarian Blood’s Sending the Golden Hour on Goner in May.

Bruce Watson’s Delta-Sonic Sound studio has been busy, and affiliated label Bible & Tire Recording Co. will release a big haul of old-school gospel, some new, some archival, including artists Elizabeth King and Pastor Jack Ward, and compilations from the old J.C.R. and D-Vine Spiritual labels. Meanwhile, Big Legal Mess will drop new work from singer/songwriter Alexa Rose and, in March, Luna 68 — the first new album from the City Champs in 10 years. Expect more groovy organ and guitar boogaloo jazz from the trio, with a heaping spoonful of science-fiction exotica to boot.

Many more artists will surely be releasing Bandcamp singles, EPs, and more, but for web-based content that’s thinking outside of the stream, look for the January premiere of Unapologetic’s UNDRGRNDAF RADIO, to be unveiled on weareunapologetic.com and their dedicated app. — Alex Greene

Chewing Over a Tough Year

Beware the biohazard.

Samuel X. Cicci

The Beauty Shop

Perhaps a bit hyperbolic, but the image that pops into my head when thinking about restaurants in 2020 are the contagion-esque geo-domes that Karen Carrier set up on the back patio of the Beauty Shop. A clever conceit, but also a necessary one — a move designed to keep diners safe and separated when going out to eat. If it all seems a little bizarre, well, that’s what 2020 was thanks to COVID-19.

We saw openings, closings, restrictions, restrictions lifted, restrictions then put back in place; the Memphis Restaurant Association and Shelby County Health Department arguing back and forth over COVID guidelines, with both safety and survival at stake; and establishments scrambling to find creative ways to drum up business. The Beauty Shop domes were one such example. The Reilly’s Downtown Majestic Grille, on the other hand, transformed into Cocozza, an Italian ghost concept restaurant put into place until it was safe to reopen Majestic in its entirety. Other places, like Global Café, put efforts in place to help provide meals to healthcare professionals or those who had fallen into financial hardship during the pandemic.

Unfortunately, not every restaurant was able to survive the pandemic. The popular Lucky Cat Ramen on Broad Ave. closed its doors, as did places like Puck Food Hall, 3rd & Court, Avenue Coffee, Midtown Crossing Grill, and many others.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Working in the hospitality business requires a certain kind of resilience, and that showed up in spades. Many restaurants adapted to new regulations quickly, and with aplomb, doing their best to create a safe environment for hungry Memphians all while churning out takeout and delivery orders.

And even amid a pandemic backdrop, many aspiring restaurateurs tried their hand at opening their own places. Chip and Amanda Dunham branched out from the now-closed Grove Grill to open Magnolia & May, a country brasserie in East Memphis. Just a few blocks away, a new breakfast joint popped up in Southall Café. Downtown, the Memphis Chess Club opened its doors, complete with a full-service café and restaurant. Down in Whitehaven, Ken and Mary Olds created Muggin Coffeehouse, the first locally owned coffee shop in the neighborhood. And entrepreneurial-minded folks started up their own delivery-only ventures, like Brittney Adu’s Furloaved Breads + Bakery.

So what will next year bring? With everything thrown out of whack, I’m loath to make predictions, but with a vaccine on the horizon, I’m hoping (fingers crossed) that it becomes safer to eat out soon, and the restaurant industry can begin a long-overdue recovery. And to leave you with what will hopefully be a metaphor for restaurants in 2021: By next summer, Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman’s Hog & Hominy will complete its Phoenician rebirth from the ashes of a disastrous fire and open its doors once again.

In the meantime, keep supporting your local restaurants! — Samuel X. Cicci

“Your Tickets Will be at Will Call”

Oh, to hear those words again, and plenty of arts organizations are eager to say them. The pandemic wrecked the seasons for performing arts groups and did plenty of damage to museums and galleries.

Not that they haven’t made valiant and innovative efforts to entertain from afar with virtual programming.

But they’re all hoping to mount physical, not virtual, seasons in the coming year.

Playhouse on the Square suspended scheduled in-person stage productions until June 2021. This includes the 52nd season lineup of performances that were to be on the stages of Playhouse on the Square, The Circuit Playhouse, and TheatreWorks at the Square. It continues to offer the Playhouse at Home Series, digital content via its website and social media.

Theatre Memphis celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2021 and is eager to show off its new facility, a major renovation that was going to shut it down most of 2020 anyway while it expanded common spaces and added restrooms and production space while updating dressing rooms and administrative offices. But the hoped-for August opening was pushed back, and it plans to reschedule the programming for this season to next.

Hattiloo Theatre will continue to offer free online programming in youth acting and technical theater, and it has brought a five-week playwright’s workshop and free Zoom panel discussions with national figures in Black theater. Like the other institutions, it is eager to get back to the performing stage when conditions allow.

Ballet Memphis has relied on media and platforms that don’t require contact, either among audience members or dancers. But if there are fewer partnerings among dancers, there are more solos, and group movement is well-distanced. The organization has put several short pieces on video, releasing some and holding the rest for early next year. It typically doesn’t start a season until late summer or early fall, so the hope is to get back into it without missing a step.

Opera Memphis is active with its live Sing2Me program of mobile opera concerts and programming on social media. Its typical season starts with 30 Days of Opera in August that usually leads to its first big production of the season, so, COVID willing, that may emerge.

Courtesy Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Dana Claxton, Headdress at the Brooks earlier this year.

Museums and galleries, such as the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, National Civil Rights Museum, and the Metal Museum are functioning at limited capacity, but people can go and enjoy the offerings. The scope of the shows is limited, as coronavirus has put the kibosh on blockbuster shows for now. Look for easing of protocols as the situation allows in the coming year. — Jon W. Sparks

Politics

Oyez. Oyez. Oh yes, there is one year out of every four in which regularly scheduled elections are not held in Shelby County, and 2021 is such a year. But decisions will be made during the year by the Republican super-majority of the state legislature in Nashville that will have a significant bearing on the elections that will occur in the three-year cycle of 2022-2024 and, in fact, on those occurring through 2030.

This would be in the course of the constitutionally required ritual during which district lines are redefined every 10 years for the decade to come, in the case of legislative seats and Congressional districts. The U.S. Congress, on the basis of population figures provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, will have allocated to each state its appropriate share of the 435 members of the U.S. House of Representatives. And the state legislature will determine how that number is apportioned statewide. The current number of Tennessee’s Congressional seats is nine. The state’s legislative ratio is fixed at 99 state House members and 33 members of the state Senate.

Tennessee is one of 37 states in which, as indicated, the state legislature calls the shots for both Congressional and state redistricting. The resultant redistricting undergoes an approval process like any other measure, requiring a positive vote in both the state Senate and the state House, with the Governor empowered to consent or veto.

No one anticipates any disagreements between any branches of government. Any friction in the redistricting process will likely involve arguments over turf between neighboring GOP legislators. Disputes emanating from the minority Democrats will no doubt be at the mercy of the courts.

The forthcoming legislative session is expected to be lively, including holdover issues relating to constitutional carry (the scrapping of permits for firearms), private school vouchers (currently awaiting a verdict by the state Supreme Court), and, as always, abortion. Measures relating to the ongoing COVID crisis and vaccine distribution are expected, as is a proposal to give elected county executives primacy over health departments in counties where the latter exist.

There is no discernible disharmony between those two entities in Shelby County, whose government has devoted considerable attention over the last year to efforts to control the pandemic and offset its effects. Those will continue, as well as efforts to broaden the general inclusiveness of county government vis-à-vis ethnic and gender groups.

It is still a bit premature to speculate on future shifts of political ambition, except to say that numerous personalities, in both city and county government, are eyeing the prospects of succeeding Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland in 2023. And several Democrats are looking at a potential race against District Attorney General Amy Weirich in 2022.

There are strong rumors that, after a false start or two, Memphis will follow the lead of several East Tennessee co-ops and finally depart from TVA.

And meanwhile, in March, the aforesaid Tennessee Democrats will select a new chair from numerous applicants. — Jackson Baker