Tag: interview

Categories
News The Fly-By

Q&A: Pablo Davis

Q&A: Pablo Davis,
Executive Director, Latino Memphis

Founded in 1995, Latino Memphis (LM) assists the Latino community in a variety of capacities, from helping new arrivals get settled to promoting cross-cultural understanding throughout the city. Jose Velazquez led the organization from 2001 until this year, when Pablo Davis became executive director August 1st. For more information on LM, visit www.latinomemphis.org. — By Preston Lauterbach

Flyer: What’s the basic function of Latino Memphis?

Davis: LM has a four-part mission: educating Latinos about Memphis, [educating] Memphis about Latinos, to be an advocate for people who may not have a voice, and to help people develop their own voice and use it. There are a lot of us — about 100,000 Latinos in the metro area. Latinos are a new phenomenon in Memphis on this scale. On the other hand, Latino culture is an old influence in America.

In what professions are Latinos working in Memphis?

All levels. People come in at high-responsibility management positions, doctors, nurses, and teachers. The numbers aren’t as high here as they need to be, but that will happen. Our work is to help accelerate that. There are plenty of people doing restaurant work. We’re interested in encouraging people to get into business. There’s an illusion that Latinos are stuck in certain professions and aren’t learning English. It’s an illusion because those are only the newest arrivals that people can readily identify as Latinos.

How do you help illegals?

It may seem like semantics, but to change that word from an adverb, describing someone who is here illegally, to an adjective, “illegal” immigrant, and finally a noun, calling someone an “illegal,” is a brutal dehumanization of someone.

It’s not that undocumented residents are one community. It’s very common for a family to have legal residents and a member who is undocumented. The thing that has terrible consequences for living, breathing human beings is that immigration is collapsed into just Latinos, which is usually collapsed into just Mexicans, and from there into “illegals.”

Do you encourage assimilation as a strategy?

If one person from Bulgaria comes to Memphis, that person will learn Memphis ways over time. If a hundred Bulgarians come, it would be different. The language would last a little longer. If a thousand Bulgarians come over, that would be enough to support a Bulgarian grocery, and who knows, maybe a Bulgarian food item would become popular among natives and be part of Memphis culture. The process can go two ways.

Categories
News The Fly-By

Q&A: Karanja Ajanaku

The Memphis Tri-State Defender has gone through a lot of changes recently. In June, former Commercial Appeal reporter and editor Karanja Ajanaku assumed the executive editorship. Ajanaku avoids disparaging remarks about either his previous employer or Tri-State predecessors, though he acknowledges that he brings much-needed energy to his new job.

The Tri-State also recently moved into a new office overlooking W.C. Handy Park on Beale Street, where its first office opened in 1951. — Preston Lauterbach

Flyer: Tell us about your experience in local media.

Ajanaku: I spent 14 years as a reporter, starting out general assignment. I got to see the world and find out who I was. I covered City Hall in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

How did you view the Tri-State defender when you worked for The Commercial Appeal?

My interest in the Tri-State is longstanding. I came down here to volunteer. I wanted to help. That editor, for whatever reason, wasn’t able to have that conversation with me but later claimed that the African-American reporters in town didn’t find any way to contribute to the Tri-State. I thought, These two points aren’t hooking up.

What do you see as the role of black media in Memphis?

I see myself as an agent of change. Part of the job of being an executive editor of this paper is to effect change in the community. I intend to do that. We have to eliminate ethnic hatred. That’s the number-one thing that we have to do in this town.

How does the tri-state deal with the issues facing print media with declining circulations?

It’s no secret that the Tri-State has to increase its circulation. But if you’re delivering a relevant product — as it was in the past — you will serve the community and be profitable, and that’s what I intend to do.

We have to be able to communicate, to advertisers first of all, that we can penetrate the African-American community deeper and on a broader level than [other media] in this town. Real Times Media is interested in doing what it can for us to be relevant today — to pick up from the glory days of the African-American newspaper.

Categories
Music Music Features

Soul Comes Home

After a long absence from secular music, Al Green — arguably Memphis music’s most important living artist — has been busy this decade, with two new collaborations with producer Willie Mitchell, 2003’s I Can’t Stop and 2005’s Everything’s O.K., prompting a heavy touring schedule.

This week, at the Memphis Botanic Garden, Green will give his first public Memphis concert in recent memory. Green took time out during a European tour that landed him in London, Madrid, Paris, and the Netherlands to talk to the Flyer about his homecoming concert, the exciting new album he’s been working on, and how he ran into Justin Timberlake at an overseas airport.

Flyer: Has your touring schedule increased in the aftermath of these last two albums?

Al Green: Last year we did 147 shows. This year we’re doing 130 shows. It was really two things: It was [Green’s guest appearances on] the Ally McBeal shows — there was an awakening of something there. And it’s the new albums with Willie Mitchell. We’ve been opening our shows with “I Can’t Stop.”

And you’ve been working on a new record?

Yeah. We’re doing another album with a hip-hop band called the Roots. I’ve done two songs with Anthony Hamilton. I got two songs with D’Angelo. And hopefully I’ll get two songs with a girl singer. They’re trying to pick between Alicia Keyes and the new girl from Blue Note, Joss Stone. It’s gonna come out [later this year]. I wrote 15 songs for it, but they can’t use but 12.

Everyone says Al sings like Al, but the music is different. The music is kind of hip-hop. That’s the way they want to make it, but they don’t want me to sing any different: “You sing like yourself. And let us do the music.” It’s coming off nice.

What was it like working with a younger generation of musicians and producers?

They are so up on things. Quick to catch little things. Anthony Hamilton and D’Angelo just wanted to come into the studio to hear me sing. But I wanted to write some songs. So me and Anthony did two songs, and he did the background on another one. I’m hoping for the best. I want to do a good job. I’m not a very complicated man or extravagant man, as you can see living with me there in Memphis.

You mentioned the heavy touring you’ve been doing the past couple of years, but I can’t remember the last public concert you gave in Memphis. How long has it been?

I’ve done two concerts at the Peabody. One was for the American Cancer Society. The other was for St. Jude, and that was this year, now. But the members bought up all the tickets. But this time at the Botanic Garden is for the public. I really can’t remember the last one before that.

Why has it been so long?

Because I live in Memphis. I kind of like to work other places than where my home is and where the church, the Tabernacle, is. People come from all over the world to see Al down at the Tabernacle on Hale Road in Whitehaven. It’s amazing to see all these people come.

Will the show in Memphis mean anything different to you?

For me, I have to be real and approach it the same way I would the show in Paris or London. I have just one way of doing it, and that’s to go out there and sing from your heart.

A lot of focus in Memphis lately has been on Justin Timberlake, whose family is here and who claims the city as his hometown.

Yeah, he’s my neighbor. His people live out in Shelby Forest. I live out in Shelby Forest. I talk to his mother at the gas station.

We were at the airport the day before yesterday and believe me, coming through the line, going through the maze, was Joe Cocker’s band, because he was opening the show for me; Justin Timberlake and all his group — boy, there’s a lot of them; and Al Green’s band and all his people. The guy at the checkpoint said, “How many bands do we have here?”

So you just ran into Timberlake at the airport?

Yeah. It was nice to run into him. I get to hug him, and he gets to hug me, and there’s really nothing else to say. We all went to the checkpoint, and everyone had to pull off their shoes and take off their belts and go through the metal detectors.

What do you thinkP about what Timberlake is doing lately with his music? It seems to have become a lot more R&B-oriented.

What I think is not important. I have to let Justin do what he thinks in his heart is good for him. He has to work out his own destiny, just like I had to work out mine. It’s what he thinks about himself that matters.

Now, he’s got about three bodyguards who are about 6′-6″. I shook hands with all three of them, and, man, my little hand in theirs looked like a little penny or something. I’m going like, “Damn, what do you eat?” And this one guy said [in a deep, growling voice], “People.” I said, “Oh, okay. Get away from this guy.” [Laughs]

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

Well, look, tell all the people at the Flyer and back in Memphis that I said hello and that I also said love and happiness, because that’s what the world is made of, and I believe in that. I’m gonna stick to my guns and try to do a great show in my hometown. Me and the band, I mean, we’re gonna get down. You’re gonna come to the show cause you know I’m gonna rock the house. What do I always do? I rock the house. Ain’t no doubt about that. So come on down with your rocking shoes on.

Al Green

“Live at the Garden”

Memphis Botanic Garden

Saturday, July 21st

Showtime 8:30 p.m., tickets $35-$86

Categories
News The Fly-By

Q&A: Phil Cannon,

“Golf is a good walk spoiled,” Mark Twain once famously said. But for Phil Cannon, tournament director of the Stanford St. Jude Championship golf tournament, golf is a good walk, period — especially when it benefits St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. A volunteer with the tournament since 1968, Cannon became tournament director in 2000. Last week, the Flyer spoke with Cannon during the tournament’s 50th anniversary. — by Rachel Stinson

Flyer: What is your favorite memory from the tournament?

Cannon: Working with the volunteers has generated hundreds of memories for me because they’re donating their time and raising money for children. For every five years of volunteering, we award the Volunteer Year Pin. After someone has volunteered for 25 years, we give the gold pin. This year, Gertie Tribo was the first volunteer to get the diamond pin for 50 years of volunteering.

On a more personal level, I’ve loved the opportunity to make friends with Bill Murray; he came to play in the pro-am in 2005. He is the most generous, down-to-earth celebrity in the world. Every once in a while, my cell phone rings, and it’s Bill Murray.

What about the tornado in 1986?

That was FedEx’s first year as title sponsor, and it was then that we really saw FedEx’s “can-do” spirit. The storm came in about 6 p.m. the night before, and it blew down trees everywhere. The PGA tour accessed everything and said we were in jeopardy of not being able to have the tournament. Either we were going to need hundreds of people to clean up, or we were not going to have it.

The next morning at 5 a.m., there were 250 people out there working as human vacuums. They weren’t even trained volunteers; they were just hard workers. That really was an indicator of FedEx and the local community.

Which hole is the most difficult?

The 14th hole is the most challenging. It’s over water, and [with the wind blowing] 15 to 20 mph, it’s difficult.

The slogan for the tournament used to be “Hush, Y’all,” but it changed this year. Why?

Early on in conversations with Stanford, we came to the realization that this was much more global for them than for FedEx; certain things that translated well in the Mid-South didn’t translate well globally. “Hush, Y’all” may have fit the Mid-South and been endearing here, but it wasn’t global. Our new slogan is “Desire Knows No Bounds.”

How long does it take to plan the tournament?

We have 1,850 volunteers this year, and they’ve worked a combined 22,500 hours. They love the family atmosphere, and they love the chance to combine effectively into big teams to raise money for St. Jude children. We also have six full-time staff members year-round. On Monday, June 11th, we start planning the next tournament.

Categories
Music Music Features

Rebirth

If you’ve heard a Cherry Valence song, chances are it was live, and chances are you remember it being a great show. Far more people saw the Raleigh, North Carolina, band tear up a stage than heard their records, as they were one of those outfits that built their reputation on touring incessantly. And having double drummers helped. In the spring of 2004, after seven years and two albums, this became tiresome for founding members Paul Siller (bass) and Cheetie Kumar (guitar), who defected, got married, and formed Birds of Avalon later that year.

Where the Cherry Valence perfected a hybrid of AC/DC, Motörhead, the MC5, and the classic-rock-by-way-of-garage-punk revivalism of the Hellacopters, Birds of Avalon are more about layers, psychedelia, and the song.

The Birds of Avalon lineup was made complete by some North Carolina associates who had spent time in bands the Weather and the Dynamite Brothers (vocalist Craig Twilley and drummer Scott Turkin, respectively), and what better way to hammer things out than to go on the road? (Some of you may have seen the nascent Birds of Avalon in action opening for Oneida last year at the Hi-Tone Café.)

When it came time to record an album, Birds of Avalon enlisted the sizable talents of North Carolina luminary Mitch Easter, the man behind R.E.M.’s best albums as well as the founder of Let’s Active and overlooked late-’70s/early-’80s power-pop legends the Sneakers. The resulting debut, Bazaar Bazaar, was released this past Tuesday on Volcom Records. Situated in between the F*cking Champs and the not-to-be-missed upstarts Red Fang, Birds of Avalon will fill out a very satisfying evening of rock when the tour makes it to Memphis Saturday night. I recently spoke with the wonderfully amiable Siller about, among other topics, the transition from the Cherry Valence to Birds of Avalon, working with Easter, and Black Oak Arkansas.

Flyer: What led to the decision to exit Cherry Valence? How do you view this band differently?

Paul Siller: This band is definitely spending more time trying to write hooks than being just simply a live experience with mediocre records. We want the live part to be a bonus. We’re trying for a bigger, wider sound, more colorful, and though “pop” can be a bad word sometimes, there’s great pop in a lot of things … early Black Flag and the Ramones, for instance. We want to make something that you can listen to five years from now, and unlike Cherry Valence, this band will cut and slice and rework one song as opposed to making a song a part of the repertoire before it’s ready. Some people, like Jay Reatard or Greg Cartwright, can write a great song in five minutes, but we need to work a little harder than that.

Band names are the first piece of information absorbed by listeners and a vital part of a band’s aesthetic presentation. Where did “Birds of Avalon” originate?

Well, I’m not really sure how we thought of it. I know that we thought long and hard on it, because it’s insanely hard to come up with a name that captures what you’re going for as a band. Still, it’s weird, because if Led Zeppelin somehow turned out to be a bad band, then their name would be considered a bad band name, but because they were a great band, the name fits and seems perfect. Also, we like the “B.O.A.” acronym.

So did it help that Black Oak Arkansas shares the acronym?

Ha, we didn’t think of that at the time, but we’re fans, and it now seems appropriate for the Memphis show.

What’s the story with Volcom?

Well, it’s the music offshoot of the major skatewear/gear manufacturer, which seemed really weird at first, but it’s four very down-to-earth guys who have been given a section of the huge Volcom building to basically do what they want. They’re young enough to be very excited about music, which is refreshing, and being on the label has drawn younger people to the shows. It’s great to add a different demographic to the crowds that I feel like I’ve been playing in front of for years.

What was it like to work with Mitch Easter?

We’ve always wanted to do an entire album with him but couldn’t afford it when Cherry Valence was on Estrus. We’ve stayed close friends with him for around 10 years. He’s got this way about him that’s really comfortable — great storyteller and a great sense of humor.

Categories
News News Feature

Extra Innings

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

From the outside looking in, baseball is the most cliché-riddled institution in America.

So it is that when former big-league ballplayer and now Memphian John Denny says he played “for love of the game,” he is, strictly speaking, using a cliché, but he himself is not a cliché; he’s worthy of a pass (and no one cry foul).

Denny has had a charmed life in baseball. He came up with the St. Louis Cardinals organization, with his first full season coming in 1975. In 1983, with the Philadelphia Phillies, Denny posted career bests: 19-6, 2.37 ERA, 150 strikeouts, winner of the Cy Young Award for best pitcher, pitched in and won game one of the World Series.

Following the season, Denny was invited to a state dinner at the White House. Included at his table of eight were President Ronald Reagan, the Queen of Nepal, Carol Burnett, the secretary of the Treasury, and a general.

All told, Denny played 13 seasons for the Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, Phillies, and Cincinnati Reds, retiring in 1986. In 2001, as a rehab pitching coach with the Arizona Diamondbacks, he won a World Series ring.

A few years ago, Denny moved to Memphis. Even this, it must be admitted, seems scripted: “I met this girl on the steps of Graceland,” Denny says.

Now Denny is getting back into the swing of things. At his school, JAD Baseball Experience, Denny instructs students of all ages on the finer points — and some not so fine — of pitching. As a teacher, Denny is part anatomist, part psychologist, part friend, part father to his students.

“I want them to understand that this is an art form. This is something that not everyone can do. It takes a real commitment to spend the time to do something right.”

Denny’s coaching stint with the Diamondbacks was a key stepping-stone to his current career in Memphis. “I felt like I had a talent to teach pitching,” he says. “Some of these [Diamondbacks] guys I had to rebuild. It seemed like I was able to see things and do things with them that other guys couldn’t.”

What it all comes down to is focus, he says: “Focus is certainly a common denominator that all players at the professional level need to have. You can’t be distracted by what you’re trying to do. If you are, you’re going to have a problem.”

For instance, take game one of the 1983 World Series in Baltimore. President Reagan was in attendance, and Denny had just given up a first-inning home run. “The crowd noise was so intense,” he says. “I could feel the vibration in the pitcher’s mound.” Denny recovered to win the game.

Denny’s decision to stay in the game as an instructor, long after playing, is owed in some part to early teammates, including Joe Torre, Tim McCarver, Bob Gibson, and Lou Brock. “Brock was one of the best teammates I ever had,” Denny says. “He took me under his wing. One time he said, ‘John, you need to learn to play the game within the boundaries of fair play.’ There’s an unwritten code of ethics. You act very professional. Be dignified, a class athlete, someone that people would respect.”

These principles, Denny feels, connect him to an earlier time in baseball history. Torre, McCarver, Gibson, and Brock “learned from the players [who started] in the 1930s and ’40s,” Denny says. “What was common in those players was a real passion and love for the game. It wasn’t so much money and notoriety; it was just loving the game.

“It has been a way of life. I can do it now in a different capacity and try to pass some of it on, because it means that much to me. [Baseball is] a game you’re set up to fail. Maybe that’s the beauty of it: It’s a game you’re set up to fail, but because of that, you still want to try to prove that you’re not going to.”

Categories
News The Fly-By

Q&A: Caroline Mason

On a recent episode of A&E’s The First 48, the camera zooms in on Detective Caroline Mason applying lip liner and sliding on stylish sunglasses.

“I gotta have my J.Lo glasses,” she says just before her Memphis Police Department (MPD) homicide team heads out to solve one of the city’s many murders.

On The First 48, a reality show in which investigators from a handful of major cities have 48 hours to arrest and charge homicide suspects, Mason is known as a chic investigator with a closet full of trendy clothing and too many shoes to count. But in Memphis, the 19-year MPD veteran is known for her high homicide solve rate.

The only African-American female in the homicide department, Mason was recently nominated for America’s Most Wanted‘s All-Stars, an online contest in which AMW viewers cast votes for their favorite first-responder.

Voting is open through April 15th on www.amw.com. The winner will be announced next month.

— by Bianca Phillips

Flyer: How did you become an officer?

Mason: I was going to school to be a nurse, and I got a part-time job at Ike’s on Park Avenue. A girlfriend of mine who worked in cosmetics said the police department was hiring. She said I could make $1,300 every two weeks. We applied, and we both got the job.

Why homicide?

I worked in Crime Stoppers for three years. It was right across the hall from homicide. I’d always go over there and ask the guys if I could see the pictures. They were always gruesome, and it just seemed like something I really wanted to do.

Well, a year after I came to the police department, a good friend of mine was murdered. I would go over there every day to see how they would try to solve it. That inspired me.

What’s your murder solve rate?

Out of the 20 or so cases I had last year, I only have one that remains unsolved.

On The First 48, you wear a special black blazer to interview suspects. Does it really help you get confessions?

It was kind of blown up by The First 48. [The camera crew] came to my house. They filmed inside my closet to show how I’m a shop-aholic. I love shoes and bags.

They wanted me to pick up a particular blazer and say, “This is my interview blazer. I get most of my confessions in that.”

Isn’t it kind of a depressing job?

A hard thing about dealing with death is that when I see that body out there on the street, I can’t look at it as a human being. I have to look at it as a science, because now it’s evidence. I have to figure out what happened to this person, why it happened, and who did it.

The worst part of that whole scenario is telling the victim’s family that their loved one has been killed at the hands of someone else. I actually have to do the notification myself. It’s heartbreaking.

Any other downsides to working homicide?

Last year, my son graduated from Dexter Middle to go to Cordova High School, and right when he went across the stage, I got called out. I missed going to dinner with him and the other boys.

If I go on a date, I always have to drive, because if we get a homicide, I’ve got to go.