Tag: COVID19

Categories
Music Music Blog

Bar DKDC Opens Saturday with DJ Matty, More in Store

DJ Matty (Photo courtesy DJ Matty)

Plenty of music venues that have reopened in recent months have done so with the caveat, “Masks are required.” But when Bar DKDC opens its doors again tomorrow night, they’ve added another condition: “Dancing is a must.” And that’s a given with their musical curator of the evening, DJ Matty from New Orleans, famous for his Mod Dance Parties in the Crescent City.

DJ Matty is especially appropriate to get the tiny venue hopping again, now that dancing is allowed, as owner Karen Carrier explains: “It’s funny, because Matty opened up DKDC’s first night in January of 2013. And now he’s reopening us after the pandemic.”

Karen Carrier (photo by Michael Donahue)

But there will be some precautionary measures, above and beyond the official mandates. “Our thing is, you have to be masked up to be in there, but you can dance your ass off,” says Carrier. “Even when the mandate changes, when the City of Memphis lifts everything, I’m not going to lift the mask mandate. I just believe people need to be masked. ‘Cos I don’t know if you’re vaccinated. We’re still going to take temperatures to enter. We’re going to have security outside. So we’re going to try to do our own thing, even as we reopen DKDC.”

With the cozy club having been used as an annex of sorts for Carrier’s Beauty Shop restaurant through the months of quarantine, when more spread-out seating was required, this is a big moment for Carrier and the many music fans who hold her club dear. But it’s not exactly going full blast just yet. “We’re going to do this Saturday night as a one-off, then we’ll close down, and then we’re going to figure this whole thing out,” she says. “So we’re getting ready to blow open pretty soon. Probably by the first of June.”

There are already shows planned for next month, notably a two night residence on June 23 and 24 by a group that includes Memphis’ swamp soul queen, Marcella Simien. Known as Gumbo, Grits & Gravy, the trio also includes guitarist Guy Davis, son of civil rights activists/actors Ruby Dee & Ossie Davis, and violinist Anne Harris.

They have been gaining fans and acclaim internationally, with several European appearances planned for later this year.

Meanwhile, Bar DKDC staff and regulars are eagerly anticipating this weekend’s event, starting at 10:30 p.m. on Saturday. Carrier sees it as a therapeutic necessity. “We can only let so many people in,” she says, “but we’re going to shake your ass off for a while. I think people need to get out there and dance. And when Matty’s in the house, you can’t sit down, you know?”

Categories
News News Blog

COVID-19 Vaccines to be Dispensed at Memphis Area Walmart Stores

CREDIT: Walmart

Walmart

Memphis-area Walmart stores will soon provide COVID-19 vaccines.

Walmart will soon administer COVID-19 vaccines in the Memphis area.

The retailer was chosen here and could begin giving the shots her next week, according to a story in The Daily Memphian. That story says, however, that the date for the Walmart rollout has not yet been confirmed.

But here are the eleven Memphis-area locations approved to give the shots:

Walmart has been gearing up to provide the shot over the past year, the retailer says on its website. At full capacity, Walmart and Sam’s Club stores could deliver 10 million-13 million doses every month.  

“As we look to a future when supply can meet demand and more people are eligible to receive the vaccine, we plan to offer the vaccine seven days a week at our pharmacies, through planned in-store vaccination clinics and through large community events,” reads a news release on the store’s website.

The retailer has been training “thousands” of pharmacists and pharmacy techs, building a new digital scheduling tool, and partnering with state and federal agencies on allocations.

“At full capacity, we expect we will be able to deliver 10 million-13 million doses per month when supply and allocations allow,” reads the site.

Here is a list of all Tennessee pharmacies approved so far to give the COVID-19 vaccine:
[pdf-1]

Categories
Music Music Blog

Christmas is a Dish Best Served Blue: Elvis’ Song of Holiday Longing Lives

CREDIT: Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment

The holidays are back, and with them come the inevitable festive songs. Yet not everyone is feeling so chipper. While a “Blue Christmas” might be construed by some as an expression of great relief over the outcome of last month’s election, who can deny that one of Elvis Presley’s most cherished hits expresses no such jubilation, only an absence?

As an article on webmd.com notes, “this time of year may trigger a bout of the blues or perhaps ignite a depression that has been smoldering under the surface for months.”

And so it is that the irony and poignancy of “Blue Christmas” has touched a collective nerve for 63 years now. Indeed, the song has been one of the King’s biggest hits, and the collection from which it’s drawn, Elvis’ Christmas Album, has joined the rarefied ranks of records that the Recording Industry Association of America® (RIAA) has certified not as gold, not as platinum, but as diamond — reserved for records that have sold 10 million units or more.

In honor of such longevity, Sony Legacy has released the first official music video for the song. Created by MoSoMoS, a New York animation studio led by Mathew Amonson, the video follows the stories of three characters who can’t be with loved ones during this time of togetherness. Like the song, the video mixes the isolation and despondency of the lyrics with the inherent beauty of the music and Elvis’ voice. It’s a lovely diversion for those of us who may find that all the tidings of joy merely mark an empty chair or bed or home, with only memories of past joy, and a hope for better tomorrows, to sustain us.

Christmas is a Dish Best Served Blue: Elvis’ Song of Holiday Longing Lives

Categories
News News Blog

Shelby County Schools to Go All-Virtual This Fall

Shelby County Schools to Go All-Virtual This Fall


As the numbers of confirmed COVID–19 cases continue to rise in Memphis, Shelby County Schools superintendent Dr. Joris M. Ray announced Monday that the district will begin its school year fully virtual starting on August 31st.

The move came amid growing national pressure for schools to remain closed due to the COVID–19 pandemic. However, Ray cited the growing number of cases and uncertainty of the pandemic as major factors in the decision. 

“Safety signage, spacing desks, more hand sanitizer, and masks simply cannot make a school safe in a community that is experiencing a daily triple-digit increase of virus cases,” Ray said in a video announcement. “There are more than 18,000 cases of COVID-19 in Shelby County — a 9.3% positivity rate and growing. Science tells us that by September, our community will reach the same trajectory as New York City, and this figure does not account for the students returning to school.”

Teachers will have the option to teach remotely or in classrooms, but all students will rely on remote learning until further notice.

To supplement the process all students will be given a digital device and have the opportunity for an internet hotspot, based on need. Shelby County Schools will also continue to provide meals for students and accommodations to students who receive special education services.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

County Commission Readies Actions on Budget, COVID, Voting

In a sprawling, nearly day-long session of committee meetings, the Shelby County Commission on Wednesday decided to authorize a hiring freeze, finally designated a formula for payments to COVID relief, and began a move for state approval of expanded absentee voting and voter-marked election ballots.

The commission also continued to examine ways of dealing with an ever-growing deficit crisis, one that County Financial Officer Mathilde Crosby now reckons at $39.1 million without “a trimming out of our budget.” County Mayor Lee Harris reinforced Crosby’s forecasts with the warning that there was “a real possibility” of layoffs. “We have to assume the worst in some ways,” he said.

The problem, as Commissioner Michael Whaley noted, is complicated by the fact of pending additional expenses for the Sheriff’s Department as it gears up for enlarged responsibilities in portions of Shelby County de-annexed from the City of Memphis, or about to be.

Harris indicated he would be consulting with other county officials this week preparatory to making a major budget statement on Monday, when the commission will be holding its next regularly scheduled public meeting.

The promise of imminent focus on budget matters was uniformly welcomed by Commissioners. “The public understands the severity of the situation,” as Commissioner Brandon Morrison noted. As well, County CAO Dwan Gilliom said he supported “any action to mitigate spending and find a way out of the fiscal situation. The hiring freeze, good until at least June 20th, was proposed by Commissioner Mick Wright.

In a special ad hoc meeting that followed the committee sessions, the commission returned to the matter of appropriating $2 million to assist in responding to the COVID-19 epidemic. The appropriation was rejected in regular session last week when commissioners failed to agree on a source for the funding.

In Wednesday’s reconsideration of the matter, Commissioner Tami Sawyer proposed a direct outlay of the previously considered $2 million for PPE equipment, personnel, and overtime expenses, as well as an additional $500,000 to the Christ Community Health Service to support testing for coronavirus at its outlets. Her resolution passed unanimously.

All of the matters discussed and approved on Wednesday will be revisited for formal approval at Monday’s regular commission meeting.

That includes a resolution on voting matters, proposed by Sawyer Whaley and Van Turner that 1) seeks an executive order from Governor Bill Lee to allow expanded absentee voting in light of the ongoing pandemic; and 2) urges again, as the commission has already done once, that machines allowing voter-marked paper ballots be purchased to replace the Diebold machines currently in use.

That resolution received a favorable recommendation on a vote of 7 for, 3 opposing, and 1 abstaining.

Categories
Music Music Blog

Video Pairs Amurica’s Indelible Local Portraits With Gifted Teen Singer

CREDIT: Jamie Harmon

Jamie Harmon

From Amurica’s portraits of Memphians under quarantine.

As it has for so many of us, the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted some long-anticipated events in the life of teenager Skyy Jordan. A budding singer, the local ninth-grader was looking forward to performing the national anthem this Saturday at a Peabody Hotel event honoring The Salvation Army of Memphis & The Mid-South, featuring special guest Tony Dungy.  But the fundraiser and the NFL celebrity’s visit were postponed to a future date (to be announced) due to the current need for social distancing.

While most of us have come to recognize how the hardships of isolation have affected musicians in particular, this may be doubly so for teens. Just as their talents are blossoming, they must curtail all group activities and often even their lessons. Postponing a high-profile event can have a huge impact on a young person who’s invested many hopes and dreams in such a moment.

Skyy Jordan

This is especially so for Jordan, who was born with a rare and relatively unknown condition called septo optic dysplasia, leaving her completely blind. Despite such a setback, Jordan has doggedly pursued her love of singing and is already making a name for herself in the region. The support of her mother, Bridgett Jordan, has been no small part of this, and that led her to make something of her daughter’s vocal talents in an imaginative way.

Inspired to pair a recording of her daughter’s singing with the recent work of photographer Jamie Harmon, Bridgett ended up with an especially moving homemade video. As the mastermind behind the roving Amurica studio, and a well known professional in the field (whose work is familiar to most readers of this blog), Harmon has taken a unique approach to the current straits we’re living in. A quick visit to the @amuricaworld account on Instagram reveals his latest project: a photographic series documenting people stuck at home.

Photographer Jamie Harmon of Amurica

Such a description doesn’t do the work justice, given the charged meaning of such non-activity these days. And now, paired with the purity of Skyy’s voice, intoning a song that cuts to the soul of many a fellow citizen, those images come to life as never before.

While we don’t often make a great show of patriotism here at the music blog, this is a time and a place where the shared community of such music cuts through all jingoism and cant. Here, in stark images and heartfelt music, is the “imagined community” of a nation of which author Benedict Anderson wrote. In the end, we are left with a pure Memphis moment, both intimate and moving in its unadorned simplicity. Take a few minutes to watch and listen to this video, a true labor of love from just one family among many that are trying to make the best of these all-too-interesting times.

Video Pairs Amurica’s Indelible Local Portraits With Gifted Teen Singer

Categories
Music Music Blog

“Virtual Music Festival” To Raise Funds For Memphis Musicians

With social distancing as the new normal, countless musicians have taken to the internet, staging live video concerts of all kinds on multiple social media platforms. How did players manage a century ago, during the Spanish Flu pandemic? Now, at last, people have cause to be less snarky and more appreciative of online interactions, and musicians especially so.

David McClister

Southern Avenue

This week, the concept of the live-streamed music concert is being ramped up to festival-like heights, thanks to the efforts of the Memphis Music Hub, a division of Memphis Tourism, who have collaborated with I Love Memphis and Music Export Memphis to coordinate the Get Live! Memphis event. Scheduled to take place from March 26 –March 28, the series serves as a fundraiser for Music Export Memphis’ COVID-19 Emergency Relief Fund.

Over the course of those days, viewers need only log on to Facebook to view live-streamed performances by nearly a dozen of Memphis’ finest musicians, including headliners MonoNeon, Ben Nichols of Lucero, Grammy-nominated band Southern Avenue, and producer IMAKEMADBEATS. 

Justin Fox Burks

IMAKEMADBEATS

“This is the time to give back to the Memphis music community that has given so much to our city’s cultural identity,” says Music Specialist Jayne Ellen White of the Memphis Music Hub. “Our music has brought such joy to so many and now is the time to speak to the world through our universal language: music.”

Ben Nichols

“Our local musicians play an integral part of the Memphis destination’s identity as a live music city,” says Kevin Kane, President and CEO of Memphis Tourism. “Their talents not only keep Memphis’ music scene vibrant but, now more than ever, they are able to share those talents to lift up, not only our local community but also a world of music fans. As people around the world connect with us during this virtual musical festival, these outstanding artists will have an opportunity to not only share their talents with new audiences, but also share messages of hope.”

Justin Fox Burks

MonoNeon

To view the festival performances, viewers need only visit the Get Live! Memphis event page on Facebook and the various performers will connect their feeds at the appointed times. The festival schedule is:

Thursday, March 26th
7:00: MonoNeon

Friday, March 27th, 8PM – 10PM
8:00: D’Monet
8:30: IMAKEMADBEATS
9:00: Louise Page
9:30: Southern Avenue

Saturday, March 28th, 8PM – 10PM
8:00: Brandon Kinder of The Wealthy West
8:30: Doll McCoy & Derek Brassel
9:00: Cameron Bethany
9:30: Ben Nichols of Lucero
Toonky Berry