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Shop Local Midtown

This holiday season, we’re encouraging our readers to support local businesses by shopping right here at home.

Five in One Social Club

This “Kindergarten for Grown Folks” hosts creative workshops — casting, wood-burning, and more — for small groups. Its retail shop showcases work by local artists, with a focus on one-of-a-kind pieces. Also available are household goods, T-shirts, and jewelry. Miniature food jewelry, like these earrings, handcrafted with polymer clay by Funlola Coker ($24), can be found within. Visit Five in One Social Club at 2535 Broad Avenue or fiveinone.org.

Outdoors, Inc.

Since 1974, Outdoors, Inc. has outfitted outdoor enthusiasts with the best in activewear and sporting gear. Their knowledgeable team can help you find the perfect piece for the men, women, or children in your life — from camping gear and hammocks to shoes and accessories. This Arc’teryx Men’s Atom LT Hoody ($249) is a popular choice. Visit Outdoors, Inc. at 5245 Poplar, 1710 Union, 833 N. Germantown Parkway in Cordova, 3421 Summer Avenue (outlet) or outdoorsinc.com.

Falling Into Place

Home-and-lifestyle boutique owner Mary Claire White opened Falling Into Place in 2015, with a focus on featuring work by independent artists and designers. White handcrafts small-batch soy wax candles infused with natural essential oils. Your gift recipients can relax with soothing aromas like Candied Saffron Ginger or White Tea + Berries, available in 7.5-ounce jars ($24). Visit Falling Into Place at 2613 Broad Avenue or fallinginto place.net.

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Holiday Blu Ray Offerings Get Weird with Twin Peaks, animated Star Trek and Twilight Zone

Looking for a gift for the cinephile in your life? Tired of your Blu Ray player sitting alone on the shelf? Need more stuff to binge watch? Three new releases of classic TV shows will fill stockings to satisfaction this season.

Twin Peaks: The Original Series, Fire Walk With Me, and The Missing Pieces

You may have heard that David Lynch and Mark Frost’s groundbreaking series will be getting a long-overdue sequel in 2017, so now’s the time to remember what went on with a total rewatch. This 9-disk set collects the whole donut: All 30 episodes of the original series, complete with introductions by The Log Lady; Fire Walk With Me, the 1993 film that explored the surreal backstory behind Laura Palmer’s last night on Earth, and more deleted scenes and alternate takes than anyone but the most devoted fans—and there are many of them—want to watch.

The original series was shot on film, so the HD remastering looks pristine. And when you revisit the show, or visit for the first time, you’ll be amazed at how many of the innovations attributed to the current “Golden Age of Television” came from the mind of Lynch: persistent season-long storylines, haunting “true crime” narratives, and cinematic visuals just to name a few. Your rewatch may also reveal just how good the whole package was. If you remember that the quality of the show dropped off after the premature revelation of Laura Palmer’s murderer midway through season two, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. And the final episode, which Lynch returned to personally direct, is among the most amazing hours of television ever created.

Star Trek: The Animated Series

2016 marked the 50th anniversary of the most beloved American sci fi series of all time. Star Trek ran for three seasons from 1966-69, ironically leaving the air shortly after the first moon landing. Trek’s devoted fans laid the groundwork for modern fandom, and the show got a brief second life in 1973 from Filmation, an animation company that got its start making cheap Bozo and Popeye cartoons. The animated series featured all of the original cast except for Chekov, who was replaced by a sexy feline humanoid named M’ress and a bizarre alien named Arex.

Filmation pioneered the limited animation style used by current cartoons such as Archer, and the remastered Trek visuals look both beautiful and clunky—often at the same time. Gene Roddenberry realized that the flexibility of the animated format would allow for much more creative visuals, including stranger aliens and elaborate, exotic planets. He brought back many of the writers from the Original Series, including legendary show runner Dorothy “D. C.” Fontana, whose episode “Yesteryear” fills in Spock’s backstory and set Vulcan lore that would remain in place for four more TV series and ten movies. David Gerold, the sci fi writer whose very first script was “The Trouble With Tribbles”, returned with “More Tribbles, More Trouble”. New Wave sci fi standout Larry Niven, hot off his hit novel Ringworld, wrote the episode “The Slaver Weapon”.

Filmation and Paramount might have had a more kid-focused series in mind, but the results are more in line with a straight up continuation of the Star Trek universe, keeping the dreams of spaceflight, discovery, and a tolerant, multicultural future alive.

The Twilight Zone: The Complete Series

Rod Serling is, without a doubt, one of the best screenwriters America has ever produced. Before the debut of “Where Is Everybody?”, the 1959 pilot of what would become The Twilight Zone, there was a legacy of horror and sci fi shows on radio and television, but Serling’s penetrating gaze into the human condition and his often gleefully perverse instinct for throwing his audience cognitive curveballs raised the bar for both the genre and the medium.

The complete Blu Ray collects all 126 episodes of the five seasons of the original Twilight Zone run from 1959-1964 on a whopping 24 discs. Serling had a good eye for talent, and he employed writers such as Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, and adopted stories from the likes of Ambrose Bierce. Guest stars in the ever-changing anthology cast include future space captain William Shatner, who was memorably terified by an airplane destroying gremlin in “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”; Burgess Meredith as a bookish survivor of nuclear holocaust in “Time Enough At Last”; and Dennis Hopper as a neo-Nazi haunted by the ghost of Hitler in the chillingly prescient “He’s Alive”. The set also includes interviews with cast and crew and extensive commentary by the author of The Twilight Zone Companion Marc Scott Zicree.

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Style Sessions We Recommend

A Look inside Oxn – A New Men’s Clothing Store

In an unexpected part of the South Main district, 4-foot tall white letters “OXN” cover the glass of a previously empty storefront to mark the presence of new men’s clothing and lifestyle store. Oxn was recently launched by Zac Woolfolk as part of MEMShop’s latest initiative to activate a portion of the proposed Heritage Trail route with small business retail on South Second Street.

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After applying for the MEMShop Heritage Trail inclusion in January of this year, Zac already knew he would carry brands he personally had been buying and wearing for years. Quality basics such as jeans and T-shirts would define the stock. He points to his first pair of Rogue Territory jeans displayed on Oxn’s back wall. The retired pair is well-worn and well-loved. The wear of his jeans demonstrates the nice fade, not evident when glancing at a fresh pair.

Rogue Territory and other brands at Oxn like Ewing Dry Goods and Apolis are not only high quality and functional but also meaningful to Zac. For example, he recently featured on his website the Apolis Market Bag that sources fabric from a co-op of artisan women in a rural part of Bangladesh, demonstrating their company name meaning “global citizen.” Zac’s care for the mission and story behind each brand drove his choices and eventually led to Oxn. It would be the only shop in Memphis to carry most of these brands.

In the spirit of MEMShop’s mission, Zac developed a name to the retail store that spoke of its potential in Memphis.

‘Auxin’ is a growth hormone in plants. I liked the idea of growth with my type of store in the city of Memphis, so I played around with the homophone and ended up with Oxn,” he explains. Looking ahead, Zac hopes to test out and carry more brands.

“Earlier this week I was introduced to the best T-shirt in the world made by 3sixteen. I was skeptical but 3sixteen proved me wrong. So I hope to be carrying those in the next couple of weeks.”

Zac also is looking forward to carrying another brand acknowledged by GQ in their Best of 2015 Designers of the Year, The Hill-Side out of Brooklyn, NY, for their use of fabric in men’s ties, pocket squares and scarves.

“I’m looking into other accessories and men’s goods. While I may not carry women’s clothes in the immediate future, unisex accessories is something that I plan to always keep in stock, as well. Scarves, bags, and I even had women’s perfumes, which have sold quite well,” he adds.

Oxn will be in the Second street space through October 31 when Zac will then decide on leasing it further on a month-to-month basis or find a more permanent space for his store.

Visit them at 488 South Second Street, east of Central BBQ.
Hours are Monday, Wednesday through Saturday noon-7 p.m. Sunday 1-5 p.m.

The online shop is now open. Keep up with store updates on Instagram and Facebook – OxnShop.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Gifts Galore

Do Good

Buy a membership to the Southern Food and Beverage Museum. Located in New Orleans, the museum is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the discovery, understanding, and celebration of the food, drink, and related culture of the South. Memberships start at $35.

southernfood.org

Make someone a friend of the Memphis Farmers Market. The mostly volunteer-operated downtown market needs the community’s support to grow and thrive. Friendship levels start at $35.

memphisfarmersmarket.com

Chew on This

If you want to give a gift certificate for a local restaurant but can’t decide which one, you can purchase a gift certificate from the Memphis Restaurant Association. The list of participating restaurants is long and includes such favorites as Automatic Slim’s, Ronnie Grisanti & Sons, Memphis Pizza Café, Jarrett’s, Jim’s Place East, and Café Society. Gift certificates are available in $10, $25, and $50 increments.

mra.memphis-dining.com

A membership to Mantia’s cheese-of-the-month club will please any cheese lover. Mantia’s in East Memphis carries the largest selection of imported and domestic cheeses in town. Club memberships can be purchased for three, six, or 12 months and cost $15 per month plus tax. The deli also sells fine Italian meats and hard-to-find gourmet food products.

Mantia’s, 4856 Poplar (762-8560)

No Ordinary Joes

For coffee connoisseurs, the options at Ugly Mug Coffee are endless. You can even please the Elvis fan with the roaster’s Elvis coffee Christmas collection, containing four bags of Love Me Tender, Santa Baby, Blue Christmas, and Silent Night for $27.95. Ugly Mug also offers gift boxes and samplers from $17.50 to $36. uglymugcoffee.com

High Point Coffee also offers gift and sample boxes, including a two-coffee set in three varieties for $19.95 and a travel mug and coffee set for $21.95. ($1 refills for travel mugs in the stores.) Discounts are available for orders of 10 or more. Call 662-234-9942 for more information.

High Point Coffee, 6610 Poplar (761-6800); 1680 Union (726-6322)

highpointcoffee.biz

Café Las Flores offers premium, full-bodied roast coffee, along with other items from owner Lucia Heros’ home country of Nicaragua. Heros can custom-design a gift basket with coffees, candles, candies, and rustic hand-made Nicaraguan coffee and espresso cups, creamers, and sugar bowls. To place your order or for more information, call 647-4321.

cafelasflores.com

Kitchen Aide

If your home chef needs a new knife, more cookie cutters, or specialized kitchen gadgets, Forty Carrots is the place to go. Among the items to make the home chef drool: Zyliss soft skin peeler ($9) for delicate produce such as kiwis and tomatoes; the Totally Bamboo double salt box ($30); and the Camerons stove-top smoker ($65).

Forty Carrots, 5101 Sanderlin (683-5187)

Ben Smith, owner/chef of Tsunami, offers private cooking classes for groups of 12 or more. Cost is $50 per person plus tax. For more information, call 274-2556.

Tsunami, 928 S. Cooper

tsunamimemphis.com

Read All About It

Give a subscription to Edible Memphis, the magazine for locally grown and produced food, featuring profiles, essays, and more. Edible Memphis is published quarterly; an annual subscription costs $28.

ediblememphis.com

Another valuable resource for local food lovers is Memphis magazine, the Flyer‘s sister publication. Each issue features dining reviews by Nicky Robertshaw, recipes from area chefs, and extensive restaurant listings. In addition, Memphis publishes its “Dining Guide” every January. And, to sweeten the deal, gift subscriptions come with a Dinstuhl’s “Taste of Memphis” candy bar. Annual subscriptions are $12. memphismagazine.com