You’ll notice a couple of places in this issue where I’ve been named responsible for the “New Year, New You” cover story. at dang editor is at it again! e truth is, the Flyer has done some form of this theme for as long as I can remember for its rst issue at the turn of a new year. It had its place on the publication calendar long before I took the helm, so, objectively, for this edition at least, we’re still the same ol’ Flyer despite annually rallying for a “new you.” (Former editor and longtime “New Year, New You” “responsible party” Bruce VanWyngarden nally let the intrusive thoughts win this round; see “New Year, New Ewe” on page 9.)
Anyhow, we like you exactly as you are! And you get bonus cool points just for being here. But if you’re thinking of reinventing yourself, exploring new activities, or (not-so) simply putting the phone down for a change, our writers have some thoughts for you.
SHARA CLARK Editor-in-Chief
ABIGAIL MORICI
Managing Editor
JACKSON BAKER, BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN Senior Editors
TOBY SELLS
Associate Editor
KAILYNN JOHNSON News Reporter
CHRIS MCCOY Film and TV Editor
ALEX GREENE Music Editor
MICHAEL DONAHUE, JON W. SPARKS Staff Writers
GENE GARD, EMILY GUENTHER, COCO JUNE, PATRICIA LOCKHART, FRANK MURTAUGH
If, like me, resolutions aren’t your thing, maybe you’ll take a lesson in something I’ve learned from my dad: zip-a-dee-doo-dah. Let me explain. My 60-somethingyear-old father is the primary caretaker for my paraplegic brother, a commitment he ful lls with love and grace. He’s the family’s black sheep — outspoken, a country boy through and through, perhaps a bit wild — if you believe the stories (hint* they’re true). By most accounts, his life hasn’t been easy. rough the back-to-back deaths of my grandparents, my brother’s health challenges, nearly two years of sibling squabbles over estate matters, (minor outbursts aside) my dad remains as calm and cool as can be. “Zip-a-dee-doodah,” he says as he tells me my brother threw a t to be discharged from the hospital. “It’s another wonderful day!” he responds when I call stressed out over … any of the many things that stress me out. “Zip-a-dee-doodah,” he replies when I swear everything is falling apart (it’s not).
Before I go any further, I’m aware of controversy over the 1946 Disney lm from which the line “zip-a-dee-doo-dah” was pulled. What I’m writing here has nothing to do with that. Please don’t hang me out to dry! Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, for my dad anyway, is a way of life, a motto by which to live. It’s closely akin to “hakuna matata” — which, thanks to e Lion King, we all know means “no worries.” Maybe I should have used that as the title of this piece instead. No one has anything bad to say about e Lion King. (Who am I kidding? You name it, someone’s got a gripe.) Oh well. e idea is to stop taking things so seriously. is has been a longtime battle for my overthinking, overanalyzing brain: Everything is serious! Something could go wrong at any time, and what do we do then? Let’s ponder every possible, surely horrible outcome!
NEWS & OPINION
THE FLY-BY - 4 POLITICS - 8 AT LARGE - 9 COVER STORY
“NEW YEAR, NEW YOU BECAUSE WE SAID SO” BY FLYER STAFF - 10 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
WE RECOMMEND - 15 MUSIC - 16 AFTER DARK - 17 CALENDAR - 18
So that is what we won’t do this year, okay? We won’t be guided by fear. We won’t expect the worst. We won’t agonize over things that haven’t happened yet. Instead, we will let go of what we can’t control, or the need for control. We’ll smile through the hard stu . When life starts life-ing a little too hard, we will say to ourselves, quietly (or loudly to really drive it home), “Zip-a-dee-doodah!” And you’ll know when it’s time. A at tire? Zip-a-dee-doo-dah. Water heater went out? Zip-a-dee-doo-dah. Editor asks you to write another “New Year, New You” blurb? Zip-a-dee-doodah! Much like “hakuna matata,” it’s a “problem-free philosophy.”
NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 19
WE SAW YOU - 20 FOOD - 23 METAPHYSICAL CONNECTION - 25
NEWS OF THE WEIRD - 26 ASTROLOGY - 27 FILM - 28 NOW PLAYING - 29 CLASSIFIEDS - 30
WORD - 31
We’ll still run into problems, of course. But maybe we’ll look at them as opportunities. Maybe we’ll start with small steps to address the ones we want to x. But we certainly won’t worry. ere’s just no sense in that. We’re going to go with the ow. We’re going to let that sh*t go. My dad says so, and that’s that. Shara Clark shara@memphis yer.com
THE fly-by
{CITY REPORTER
By Toby Sells
Memphis on the internet.
MLGWHAT?
Memphis Light, Gas & Water last week invited customers to play bingo with a card holding squares that said, “bragged about my low utility bill,” “didn’t lose power during a storm,” and more.
Commenters (not so gently) reminded MLGW of the impending 4-percent energy rate increase this month and that their power can still be unpredictable. Many said the post was “tone-deaf,” with some suggesting that it was proof of MLGW’s “toxic” relationship with customers.
NEW YEAR’S TEAR
Drag artist Moth Moth Moth was on a Facebook tear New Year’s Eve morning, saying, “Understand this. I will rip this town apart and sew it back together myself if I have to.”
By that a ernoon, though, Mothy so ened: “I’m not feeling grumpy anymore!
I just needed to eat some toast.”
“DISTINCTIVE WEAPON”
Comments went wild-larious on two WREG posts about the search for and arrest of Jayden Burns. He allegedly robbed Midtown stores, using an old-timey, longbarreled pistol.
Steve Clarke said, “Hear ye! Hear ye! Unhand thy currency!”
Questions, Answers + Attitude
Edited by Toby Sells
Crash Fatalities
Shelby County leads the state in car crash deaths, double over no. 2 Davidson.
PHOTO: THSO
Davidson County has slightly more daily miles driven (25.3 million) than Shelby County (24.6 million). Shelby has the most miles of roadways in the state.
Shelby County had the highest rate of vehicle fatalities in Tennessee over the last ve years, according to a new state report. e Tennessee Highway Safety O ce’s (THSO) latest report says that between 2018 and 2022, 640 died in Shelby County as a result of a car crash. e gure made Shelby County the site of nearly 16 percent of all vehicle-related deaths in Tennessee.
However, Shelby County saw a decline in these deaths in 2022.
Davidson County (Nashville) was the runner-up in this metric. But with its 305 deaths, it had fewer than half of the vehicle-related deaths than Shelby. Davidson County deaths accounted for 7.5 percent of all vehicle-related deaths in Tennessee.
e number of car-related fatalities here is way up from nearly 20 years ago. e same THSO report found that in the ve years from 2005 to 2009, there were 397 fatal crashes in Shelby County. Fewer average daily miles were driven back then, nearly 1 million fewer miles per day.
Meanwhile, Davidson Countians drove more each day than Shelby County drivers. e THSO gures said more than 24.6 million miles are driven in Shelby County each day. In Davidson County, the gure is more than 25.3 million.
e new report also shows that Shelby County has the most miles of roadways in the state. It has 10,759 miles of roads. Knox County comes in second with 9,903 miles. Davidson is third with 9,448. Hamilton County (Chattanooga) is a distant fourth with 7,962 miles.
e busiest road in Shelby County is the I-240 stretch be-
tween Mt. Moriah and Perkins, with about 194,040 cars daily. e next busiest was at the yover around the Sam Cooper Blvd. exit, with around 156,970 cars daily. e third-busiest was two-mile stretch of I-240 between the Walnut Grove and Poplar exits. at portion saw about 149,320 cars each day in 2023. But it is the most-driven road in the county, with about 337,463 miles driven on it each day.
e busiest local roads were Germantown Road (59,980 cars daily), Lamar Avenue (39,410 daily), and Covington Pike (21,460 cars daily).
e new report shows that Tennesseans buckled up at record rates in 2024 for the second year in a row.
e Tennessee Highway Safety O ce (THSO) said the 2024 statewide seat belt usage rate was 92.2 percent, a slight increase from the 2023 rate of 92 percent. Shelby County’s usage rate was only slightly lower at 91.7 percent.
e THSO collected data at 190 roadway locations across the state, involving nearly 29,000 vehicle occupants.
Key gures:
• Sport utility vehicle occupants had the highest seat belt usage rate (96.3 percent), while pickup truck occupants had the lowest (84.6 percent).
• Female occupants wore seat belts more frequently (96.2 percent) compared to males (89.2 percent).
• Front-seat passengers wore seat belts (92.3 percent) more than drivers (92.1 percent).
• McMinn County had the highest seat belt usage rate at 97 percent.
Dem’s Agenda {
STATE WATCH
By Toby Sells
Universal pre-K, recycling, jobs, and more ahead for Dems in Nashville.
Tennessee Democrats will push for recycling, jobs, universal pre-K, and roads in the coming session of the Tennessee General Assembly, and they issued questions on the GOP’s new plan to repeal the state sales tax on groceries.
Universal pre-K
Senator Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) and Representative A yn Behn (D-Nashville) introduced a bill to provide free, universal prekindergarten for all 4-year-olds in Tennessee. e proposal aims to reduce childcare costs, boost family incomes, and improve educational outcomes statewide.
e bill would require all school districts to o er pre-K, using a new funding mechanism: a 9.5 percent tax on social media advertising by major tech companies operating in Tennessee. Universal pre-K increases parental earnings by 21 percent and delivers $5.51 in bene ts for every dollar invested, according to the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research.
Waste to Jobs
Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) introduced the Tennessee Waste to Jobs Act, a bill to transform the state’s waste management system by expanding recycling access, reducing land ll waste, creating over 7,700 jobs, and having packing producers pay for it.
Tennessee Democrats are expected to push an infrastructure plan.
Only 20 percent of Tennessee’s 4-year-olds are enrolled in state pre-K programs, according to the nonpartisan National Institute for Early Education Research. Oliver and Behn argue their plan will close this gap and bolster Tennessee’s economy.
Under the legislation, the producers who create product packaging would join a statewide Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO), which will work with local governments to manage and fund recycling programs using an innovative extended producer responsibility model. Producers will nance recycling services based on the type and volume of packaging they produce, freeing local governments from bearing these costs.
e network would also work with local governments to implement programs to educate consumers, reduce waste, and expand recycling access in
underserved areas. Counties with a population of less than 200,000 would have to opt in to the program.
Campbell said the bill could divert and repurpose 950,000 tons of waste bound for land lls.
“ e Tennessee Waste to Jobs Act creates over 7,700 jobs, brings $300 million annually into our state, and ensures local governments save millions while providing access to recycling for every community that opts in to the program,” Campbell said.
Tennessee fell one spot on Ball’s annual recycling report. e state recycles 5 percent of its waste. is is down slightly from 2021 to earn Tennessee a 48th ranking of 50 states.
“Rocky Top, Not Rocky Roads” Tennessee Democrats are also expected to push an infrastructure plan next year to battle the state’s “growing tra c crisis” and “crumbling transportation infra-
structure,” laying blame at the feet of the Republican supermajority. In a Nashville news conference in October, lawmakers launched the “Rocky Top, Not Rocky Roads” campaign, highlighting road conditions and tra c congestion. ey pointed to an annual state infrastructure audit that said the state now faces a $34 billion backlog in transportation projects.
e plan would have Tennessee’s government issuing debt rather than relying on inhand revenues to increase the state’s ability to invest in largescale infrastructure programs, the lawmakers said.
Grocery tax cut Democrats have pushed the GOP supermajority to cut the taxes on groceries in Tennessee. When Governor Bill Lee paused the tax for 30 days back in 2017, Democrats said they’d pushed the idea for a decade.
Oliver and Behn worked this past legislative session to eliminate Tennessee’s sales tax on groceries. e e ort was thwarted and the two said, “Republicans in the state legislature opted to pass a $5.5 billion tax handout for large corporations instead.”
But the GOP seems poised to review the tax cut next session. House Bill 21 says it would exempt “from the state sales and use tax the retail sale of food and food ingredients.” Its sponsors are state Representative Elaine Davis (R-Knoxville) and House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland).
Democrats said, based on this year’s review of cutting the tax, it would leave a $755 million hole in the state budget. So far, Republicans have not said how they’d replace that money.
PHOTOS:
POLITICS By Jackson Baker
Early Heat
e Rs and the Ds are mixing it up in chairmanship contests.
As no one needs to be reminded, the year 2025 is starting o with near-arctic temperatures, but enough political action is ongoing or forthcoming in the near future to generate a bit of heat.
• e executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party will convene in Nashville on Saturday, January 25th, to pick a new chairperson, and no fewer than seven candidates have been nominated for the honor. ey are:
— Rachel Campbell of Chattanooga, currently serving both as party chair of Hamilton County and vice chair of the state party. She is one of two co-favorites in the race.
— Gloria Johnson of Knoxville, a state representative and, most recently, the Democrats’ unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2024. e other co-favorite, she has good name recognition and a residual network within the party, but there is some question as to whether her legislative service would disqualify her from the fundraising duties required of a chair.
— Brian Cordova of Nashville, the state party’s current executive director, and a veteran of numerous Democratic electoral campaigns. In the event of a deadlock between Campbell and Johnson, he is seen as a possible fallback choice.
— Vincent Dixie of Nashville, another state representative and a former chair of the party’s legislative caucus. Like Johnson, he, too, might be con icted on the issue of fundraising.
— Alec Kucharski, a veteran of Tennessee political campaigns and currently a resident of Chicago, where he serves as a liaison with the Democratic delegation of the Illinois legislature.
cratic state committee from Shelby County, David Cambron, takes note of this, saying in a text, “We are not Big Shelby any more.”
Cambron maintains that the Memphis area’s “last chance of relevancy” was lost in the 2006 U.S. Senate election, which saw Democrat Harold Ford Jr. lose to Republican Bob Corker.
And, in Cambron’s view, the problem has bipartisan dimensions. “It’s the same reason every statewide discussion of possible Republican gubernatorial candidates doesn’t mention Brent Taylor.”
e reference is clearly to state Senator Taylor’s seemingly nonstop campaigning for more assertive state authority over law enforcement in Memphis and Shelby County. O en, such intentional omnipresence in media attention bespeaks an intention to seek higher o ce.
Yet, as Cambron points out, Taylor’s name is rarely to be found in public speculation about the 2026 governor’s race.
(In fairness, it should be pointed out that when the Flyer queried Taylor about a possible ambition to run for governor, the senator replied, “ e short answer is no. e long answer is hell, no.”)
• As it happens Saturday, January 25th, is also the date for a GOP chairmanship decision, this one for the leadership of the Shelby County Republican Party, the issue to be decided at the Venue at Bartlett Station.
— Todd Frommeyer of Pulaski, an activist, lawyer, and Navy vet.
— Edward Roland of Chattanooga, said to be a salesperson.
All these candidates will participate in a forum at 1 p.m. on Saturday, to be streamed on Facebook via the Tennessee Democratic County Chairs Association.
• It will be noticed, by the way, that this fairly sizeable eld of Democratic candidates contains no aspirants from Memphis.
One longtime member of the Demo-
e two declared candidates are former Memphis City Councilman Worth Morgan and longtime GOP activist Naser Fazlullah. As noted previously in this space, Morgan has been the bene ciary of a hypedup PR campaign involving numerous public endorsements from in uential local GOP gures.
All of that has gotten the goat of one prominent Republican, however.
Former County Commission Chairman Terry Roland of Millington, who praises Fazlullah’s “sel ess” service to the local party, denounces the pro-Morgan faction’s “Revive” campaign as nothing more than an “elitist” plot to suppress grassroots Republicans.
And Roland, who has headed up local campaign e orts for Donald Trump from 2016 on, levies what may be the worst charge in his vocabulary against Morgan, whom he calls a — wait for it — “Never-Trumper.”
PHOTO: SHELBYCOUNTYTN.GOV
Terry Roland
By Bruce VanWyngarden
New Year, New Ewe
Taking advantage of an opportunity.
o, the editor said at our last sta meeting that we all needed to come up with something to write about for our annual “New Year, New You” issue. Basically, it’s anything to do with reinventing yourself without actually saying “New Year’s resolution.” Most of the time, it comes down to writing about self-improvement projects, like taking up hot yoga, quitting drinking, getting a Peloton, or buying those pu y new running shoes that somehow make jogging in Overton Park at the crack of dawn appealing. e advertising folks will be selling to local businesses who specialize in such services, so it all tracks.
I have threatened for years to write about adopting a sheep for this issue, because, well, not using the headline “New Year, New Ewe” just seems like a wasted opportunity. And since 2025 is looming like the open cellar door to the end-times, I gured it was now or never.
I did a bit of research and read that a ewe is a female sheep, which I already knew. And I quickly learned that my word processing program unhelpfully corrects “a ewe” to “an ewe.” It’s ewes-less to try to reprogram it, I discover, so I move on. A er all, I’ve still got to gure out how to get a new ewe in the new year.
for much of the year, I’d think, but I don’t have a big lawn, so I might have to supplement it with a couple of hay bales or something. Plus, I could probably walk it around the neighborhood and let it graze in my neighbor’s lawns as we stroll along. I don’t think they’ll mind. In fact, I suspect that my ewe and I would soon become a legend on nextdoor. com — not to mention, the talk of the Memphis Reddit community. Once my sheepish girl has gotten her ll of yummy Midtown zoysia, we’ll just make a ewe-turn and head back home. And, of course, I’ll carry a sheepy-bag for the ewe-doo, just in case. I know the rules. I’m not a savage. And here are some of the lifestyle improvements attendant with getting a New Ewe in the New Year: Exercise — walking around the neighborhood every day, he ing the occasional bale of hay, not to mention carrying the 12-pound bags of ewe-doo home from your daily walk. You’ll be t and bu in no time. Free Wool — You just shear your ewe once a year and voila, a big bag of premium wool, ready to be spun into yarn and turned into a sweater by your dear old Aunt Nedra.
Here are some other sheep terms I became familiar with: A male sheep used for breeding is a ram or a buck. A male that has been castrated and that will be used for meat is a wether. And, of course, the little cute ones are called lambs. Whether a lamb grows up to be a wether, a ram, or a ewe (or a chop) is all in the roll of the sheep dice. But for purposes of this story (and maintaining a commitment to the pun), I’m only thinking of ewe, dear.
A mature ewe weighs 200 to 225 pounds, which seems like a big-ass sheep. So once I get my new ewe (on Amazon?) I’m going to need to gure out a way to keep it fed. It should be able to graze o my yard
And I’m sure that there are other benefits of ewe-ownership besides exercise and free wool but they’re not coming to me right now. Let me think … Nope. In fact, it’s beginning to become obvious that I’ve written this entire column just to justify using a stupid pun that I’ve resisted using every Flyer New Year’s issue for years. And that’s not fair to you, the reader, or to ewe, my sheep, who’s been caught up in this awkward transition to urban living through no fault of her own.
I had another option, too, which makes this all the more tragic. If I had gone with the alternative plan, it would have been easier for all of us. Get a shrub. Plant it. Keep your head down and hope for the best. New Year, New Yew.
PHOTO: TIMOTHY LARGE | DREAMSTIME.COM Don’t ew my ewe.
New Year, New You Because We Said So
THE FLYER’S MOST RESOLUTE WRITERS SHARE THEIR RESOLUTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR.
o it begins — 2025 has arrived. A new year, a new horizon, a new spectacle to behold. We don’t have much to say about 2025, not yet. But we do have our hopes and resolutions, which we must share with you in our “New Year, New You” issue because our editor said so. And since this is the new year and a new us, we’re actually listening to her. And, hey, maybe, you’ll listen to us and adopt a few of our resolutions.
Put Down Your Phone
We all love our smartphones. ey help us connect with each other. ey’re windows to the world. ey serve us dank memes. We can’t go to a game or the club without taking video and sharing it with friends and strangers on the internet.
But these days, it’s easy to feel that you have too much of a good thing. You might have already guessed from your weekly average screen time reports that smartphone addiction is real. In many cases, that’s because your apps are working as designed. Social media platforms are designed to keep you engaged as long as possible. ey
Seize the means of barbecue production! Turn o your phone! Or get down in the dirt.
don’t care if that engagement makes you mad, sad, or happy. A public, friendship-splintering ght sparked by an Instagram post is actually a win as far as Meta is concerned. Other apps are designed to deliver a steady drip feed of dopamine, a chemical your brain associates with rewards, like a slot machine.
If you think your smartphone
use is out of control, try deleting the most problematic apps. Maybe you only need to access X on your laptop instead of on your phone — or maybe you don’t need to access it at all. iPhones have features that can help you decrease your dependency, such as Focus settings which limit your noti cations. On Android systems, the Digital Wellness settings can also be
helpful. If that doesn’t work, consider getting a “dumb phone” — that is, an old-fashioned ip phone that will send and receive calls and T9 text messages.
— Chris McCoy
Cook Some Barbecue
You’re Memphis AF. We get it. You’re a Stax scholar, an Overton Park zen master, Midtown shortcut navigator, and a top-rated commentator on r/Memphis.
Take that AF-ness one step further this year: Add pitmaster to your Memphis CV.
Barbecue is a mysterious art. Tough pork cuts tenderize in a dark sauna of smoke and low heat. To watch this process spoils the magic, a sin immortalized in the phrase, “if you’re looking, you’re not cooking.” It emerges hours later, dark, rustic, supple to the touch, and maybe hissing but still needing a rest — a tiny dose of extra magic — to make it Memphis barbecue.
But they sell everything you need for this so-called magic at nearly every grocery store in town. So, how hard can this be?
Folks on barbecue subreddits
PHOTO: (TOP LEFT) JON TYSON | UNSPLASH; (TOP RIGHT) MICHAEL DONAHUE; (ABOVE) TOWFIQU BARBHUIYA | PEXELS
and YouTube say you’re probably overthinking it. Folks on barbecue subreddits and YouTube say you’re not thinking about it enough. Do I wrap ribs? How long should I rest a pork butt? Should I use yellow mustard to hold a dry rub? Will sauce anger the Memphis barbecue gods?
It can be tough to cut through the noise. e only way to know what is going to work is to do it yourself.
You probably already have the gear. All you need is an outdoor, low-heat source (around 225-275 degrees) and some wood chips. Almost any grill can smoke, yes, even most gas grills. (Google “aluminum wood packets for smoking” for help here.)
Pork cuts for smoking are usually cheap, too. Ribs run around $15 a slab. Feed a crowd with a pork butt for about $20. Also, a shaker of dry rub can start as low as $5.
e low cost helps take the sting out of a bad batch (ask me how I know). A pro tip here, if you’re just getting started, and your barbecue is the star dish of a get-together, have the pizza man on speed dial in case things go south. — Toby Sells
Plant the Seeds
Your New Year, New You could be “Johnny Appleseed” in 2025. Or some other seed.
Plant some seeds this spring and watch what happens. Not only will you see something green grow into a plant that (a.) blooms, (b.) turns into something you can eat, or (c.) both; it’s also one of the oldest head-trips.
I’m talking about seeds that are easy to grow. Each year I plant seeds I know I’ll get results from. As somebody once said, if you grow a lot of something that’s easy, people will think you know what you’re doing.
I feel great all over the rest of the day a er I plant some balsam, tomato, marigold, or other easy seeds. I don’t buy boxes of already blooming plants or already growing herbs and vegetables. at’s not fun. I want to watch the growing process from the time the seeds sprout until they’re fully grown.
I wait until mid-May to plant most of my seed because the soil is warm and it doesn’t take long for the seed to sprout.
ese are what I plant every year. And you can get seeds for all of these at nurseries or online:
• Balsam, or “touch-me-not.” A er the blooms on the side of the stem fade, they will produce seed pods. When the seeds are ripe, the pods will burst open
Of course, very few free, out, experimental, or avant-garde musicians would use that antiquated term anymore. I still like it, even as a punch line, but let’s just call it improvisatory music. By any name, it can be the perfect catalyst for rethinking your own personal big picture.
Be a Part of the Solution
when you touch them.
• Gomphrena, or “globe amaranth,” is my favorite. I started them from some little round purple flower globes I snipped off some plants one summer. In mid-May, I crush the dried blooms and just plant the flat seeds in shallow rows.
• Tithonia, or Mexican sun ower, is one of the most fun for me. e plants, which bear vivid orange daisy-looking owers, can grow over 7 feet tall.
• Celosia, or “cock’s comb,” are very easy to grow and they also reseed. ese have the velvety red blooms that look like rooster combs.
• To round out your garden, plant the super-easy sweet basil seed. ey come up fast and last all summer until frost.
Just make sure you water your plants. Don’t let them dry out. I plant my ower, vegetable, and herb seed in big pots and just keep them there. ey’re a lot easier to manage.
— Michael Donahue
Free Jazz: Just What the Doctor Ordered
If you should nd yourself asking, “New year, new me, sure — but how?” this January, try my sure re way of dusting o the mental cobwebs, shaking up old habits, and nding a fresh perspective: free jazz.
Because it grows from extemporized thought, such music stays unpredictable, making it a sure tonic for anyone stuck in a rut. Yet it’s not incoherent. Just listen to one of last year’s nest releases, one of many emerging from our city’s thriving improvisatory scene: Sonic Alchemy Suprema, featuring a world-class improvisational drummer now based in Memphis, Ra Kalam Bob Moses. Technically, the album is by Alma Tree, a group that includes Ra Kalam, Vasco Trilla, and Pedro Melo Alves — all drummers. And though three horn players also join them, the sheer richness of the percussive tones alone will keep your ears fascinated. Give the album a few minutes and, as the virtuosic players speak to each other through sound, the tales they seem to spin emerge organically, sewing dramatic threads of thought and imagination.
At times meditative, at times frenetic, the moods they conjure will surely get you thinking outside of the box — or the algorithm. On the surface, it sounds like a punch line: Hey, try rethinking your life to the sound of bells, gongs, ratchets, drums, and horns on a free jazz album. But really, it’s a matter of “kidding on the square,” as the old jazzers would call it: a joke that tells the truth. — Alex Greene
With my job requiring me to be tuned in to how current events a ect speci c communities, I’m also inclined to research how citizens grapple with solutions to certain problems. It doesn’t take a deep dive into the city to show that people are concerned about our youth and their trajectories. For decades there’s been a heavy emphasis on law enforcement to intervene aggressively on youth crime and intervention. While enhanced conversation on the relationship between law enforcement and young people is always encouraged, there are ways for the community to be proactive as well.
For 2025, I’d like to see more community engagement and involvement in nonpro ts and organizations that focus on improving the lives of youth in Memphis. Crisis and crime intervention are always at the forefront of community involvement; however, at-risk youth are not monolithic and don’t exclusively occupy these spaces. As a community we can consider volunteering and supporting arts organizations who seek to provide an outlet for our youth. Organizations like the Young Actors Guild have prided themselves in improving graduation rates and college enrollment by cultivating an interest in the arts for young people. Not to mention the plethora of schools that are always looking for tutors to help students in need.
Improving the lives of young people
continued on page 12
PHOTO (ABOVE): COURTESY RA KALAM
Ra Kalam Bob Moses and one of his most recent works
PHOTO: CRAIG THOMPSON
e Young Actors Guild is known to improve graduation rates.
continued from page 11
requires involvement from all sectors. Youth need to know that the people in their community are invested in their well-being and interests. is can lead to con dence and improved outcomes in so many areas, which can positively impact Memphis as a whole.
— Kailynn Johnson
No Spin New Year
I’m cable news sober since November 5th. Not one second of MSNBC, CNN, Fox, or any other network’s “news analysis” has crossed my eyes. Yet, I’m better informed than ever because I’m no longer consuming the garbage I used to watch every night — the garbage that fed my outrage machine and my con rmation biases. Instead, I’ve signed up for AP News, which is ranked the most down-the-middle news site. Also good are Reuters, BBC, e Guardian, and the straight news reporting by the major dailies. ey all send links to your phone through the day, so you don’t miss anything.
Sometimes on social media a teaser will spin its way through to my attention. Last week, CNN wanted me to watch a clip where apparently resident troll Scott Jennings was trashing the legacy and integrity of former President Jimmy Carter on the day of his death. No thanks. e more clicks that stu gets, the more they publish it. I’m out. For good. I’m getting my news the old-fashioned way; I’m reading it on my phone.
— Bruce VanWyngarden
Get to It!
e only task any of us should be concerned with as we enter yet another new year is that of cooking the seeds. at is, nishing the le over business we’ve put aside or not gotten around to.
Cases will di er from person to person, but for most of us, that entails a lot of catching up to do. Dust o that incomplete manuscript and nish the book. Patch up that broken friendship. Stop griping about how slow the boat is going and put your own oar to work. And, since you’re not really going to be an expatriate, swallow your disappointments about the public weal and nd some volunteer organization that can use your two-cent’s worth.
Instead of wishing you’d said this or that to him or her, go ahead and say it now. Even though it’s no longer timely, it may well clarify the outcome.
None of this should preclude any new initiatives on your part. In fact, clearing o the cluttter will give you a clean new desk and good ideas for lling it up again. You’ll likely discover that this process can begin at once.
And don’t worry about getting it all done and having to face some terrifying void. You’ll never get through. at’s kind of the idea.
Oh, and if you’re that rare individual who’s always caught up on everything, here’s an idea: Learn a new language; you’ll confront the same old world, but with a wholly di erent way of looking at it. — Jackson Baker
Consider paring back your media intake or completing your to-do list.
In October 2024, the Metal Museum named Preston Jackson as its 38th Master Metalsmith. “A Hidden Culture,” the exhibition now on display in honor of Jackson’s achievement, features 16 freestanding sculptures and four paintings by the artist, who describes the show as revealing “history that has been buried, forgotten, or deemed unimportant by society.” e Flyer had a chance to speak with Jackson about the show for our “Winter Arts Guide,” published in December 2024.
Memphis Flyer: What was your reaction to being named the Metal Museum’s Master Metalsmith?
Preston Jackson: When I got the call to get involved in this, especially being in Memphis, you know, where my ancestors are from, I jumped at that opportunity, and I took it on, even preparing new works for the show. So it was an upli to do what you’re supposed to.
Your work goes into history and wants to uncover hidden histories, right?
Yeah, things that people feel uncomfortable talking about. … I nd that looking back and re-understanding, rethinking things that were only a hint in your past because you didn’t have the facilities to understand them or express them, it’s almost like admitting it’s good to be human.
Preston Jackson, Madame Fruitvale and Her Dog, c. 2003. Courtesy of the artist.
Did you always know that you wanted to tell stories of other people, or was this something that you developed? A lot of these traits that I have today were discovered, as my parents tell the story of my growing up, many years ago, right at the beginning of my little life as a young kid. Growing up in Decatur, Illinois, a product of the great migration that happened, my life is so much a part of that history. My exhibit gave me a chance to express my feelings about that.
And when you’re looking at these stories, are you doing a lot of research?
Yeah, you don’t want to be wild in your thinking, because of how important it is to tell the truth. Just look at our politics today. Truth is sought a er, and it’s valuable. If we live a lie or believe in lies, we’re going to sort of destroy the entire civilization.
VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES January 9th - 15th
International Blues Challenge
Beale Street, through Saturday, January 11
e International Blues Challenge (IBC) represents the worldwide search for blues bands and solo/duo blues performers ready for the international stage but just needing that extra big break. e world’s largest gathering of blues musicians will take place on Beale Street, with over 20 clubs hosting the challengers and fans. In addition to featuring these nal rounds of the prestigious blues music competition, the IBC event week will o er seminars, showcases, master classes, lm screenings, networking events, book signings, and receptions for blues societies, fans, and professionals.
For more information and a full schedule of events, visit blues.org/ international-blues-challenge.
Artist Talks: Lester Merriweather & Alex Paulus
Crosstown Arts, 1350 Concourse Ave., Saturday, January 11, 2-4 p.m.
Discover the stories and processes behind current exhibitions Lester Merriweather’s “ANA•LOG” and Alex Paulus’ “Size Matters.”
Shanghai Express: Film Screening and Discussion
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, 1943 Poplar Ave., Sunday, January 12, 2 p.m., $5
Join the Brooks for an in-depth look at the 1932 classic lm Shanghai Express starring Anna May Wong. is drama- lled lm will have you on the edge of your seat as a group of hostages are held captive on a train in war-torn China.
Following the screening, SunAh Laybourn and Katie Gee Salisbury, author of Not Your China Doll, will
lead a discussion delving into the groundbreaking career of Anna May Wong, the lm’s star and the rst Asian-American woman to achieve signi cant recognition in Hollywood. Movie bu s and novices alike will enjoy learning about how this classic lm provides a new lens to view modern-day Hollywood.
Meet the Author: Helen of Troy, 1993
Novel, 387 Perkins Ext., Tuesday, January 15, 6 p.m.
Memphis poet and educator Maria Zoccola celebrates the release of her debut poetry collection, Helen of Troy, 1993 , at Novel. Part myth retelling, part character study, this sharp, visceral debut poetry collection reimagines Helen of Troy from Homer’s Iliad as a disgruntled housewife in 1990s Tennessee.
METAL MUSEUM, 374 METAL MUSEUM DRIVE, “A HIDDEN CULTURE,” ON DISPLAY THROUGH JANUARY 26.
MUSIC By Jackson Baker
Remembering a Friend
Stanley Booth, an artisan of the word, is gone, but not forgotten.
My previous piece in 2018 on my friend Stanley Booth, whom I knew for 64 of his 82-plus years, had concluded with his revelation to me that he’d become a Catholic, achieving what he called “the greatest pleasure of my life … a complete redesign.”
It was surely appropriate, then, for Stanley’s funeral to be a Roman Catholic mass, which took place at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Central Avenue on Saturday, December 28th, more than a week a er his death at Harbor View Nursing Facility on North Second Street.
e attending group of communicants was smaller than I would have anticipated and scattered throughout the venerable highceilinged Midtown church. A mass was a mass, a er all, and this one kept pretty much to the standard litany, without allowances for the kind of open memorial that people of consequence so o en receive these days.
And Stanley Booth was very much a person of consequence. His authorship of e True Adventures of the Rolling Stones Outlaw Band (published in 1984 as Dance With the Devil a er years of dedicated e ort and familiarity with the band) was arguably the War and Peace of the rock era. ere were other notable books, like Rythm Oil, a compilation of shorter pieces about the people, places, and things of that era, which, a er all, is still very much with us. ( e purposely misspelled title was typical Boothian waggishness.)
My favorite single piece of Stanley’s, a brief review of a Janis Joplin concert in Memphis during the mid-’60s, a failure through no fault of the singer’s own, somehow manages to encompass all the rights, wrongs, misadventures, and pretensions of the time.
A writer is all he was. No scatterer of loose energy across the lines.
A memorial for Stanley will be scheduled for later on, or so promises our mutual friend David Less (no slouch as an author himself), who had made a point of looking in on Stanley in his last days. According to David, Stanley had been lonely and depressed at the nursing home, where he had
grown progressively more physically incapacitated, even as his mind strained, as writers’ minds do, toward articulation and purpose.
All that striving had ceased mere days earlier, as Stanley, a er consultations between David and Stanley’s daughter Ruby, was entered into hospice care per se. He had become mute and incommunicative, hovering on the edge of vegetative.
Very regrettably, I had not gotten around to seeing Stanley as he neared his end. Many reasons for that, including a newly acquired auto that couldn’t be depended on to start and resisted all e orts to x. e basic reason, though, was that our relationship, like the car, famously had its ts and starts.
A few years ago, a er a reasonably longish period of keeping close company (which meant, signi cantly, carting Stanley around and making
sure he had things — e.g., wheelchair, TV, what-have-you — and passing on periodic feelers from music media types trying to connect with him), we’d had a bizarre interruption. Out of the proverbial blue, he’d asked me why, some 60 years earlier, I’d referred to his girlfriend of that time as “simian.”
I remembered no such shocking incivility toward a lady whom I had in fact admired and, reasonably enough, therefore, could o er no explanation. Many protests and back-and-forths later, there had been an exchange of over-the-edge remarks between us, resulting in a breach. Inevitably, there would have been a healing, something we’d gone through more than once during those aforesaid 60-odd years, but — time ran out.
Sadly, this kind of thing was not atypical for Stanley. His persona, like his sense of language, lled all the obvious, and most of the imaginable, spaces.
ough he had reservoirs of charm, many of his relationships ran into stormy weather. Long on talent and short of stature, he had his share of the Napoleon syndrome. He could be modest, but never exactly humble. Or maybe that should be stated the other way around. His earliest literary model had been Ernest Hemingway, that paragon of basic English and exact phraseology.
At a public function some years ago, the late George Klein introduced him, molto con brio, as a celebrated music writer. No, Stanley objected, for better or for worse, he was a writer, pure and simple. is was an echo of Hemingway’s famous late-career admonition to his overly self-concerned contemporary F. Scott Fitzgerald, “You see, Bo, you’re not a tragic character. Neither am I. All we are is writers.”
Over the years, I’ve known numerous highly talented individuals whose abilities transcended various categories of the usually recognized earthly disciplines. Even as we speak, I could name you a handful, right here in Mempho. Would-be Renaissance men (and women).
ough he was not without a generous amount of self-regard (as the high proportion of references to himself in all his work indicates), Stanley Booth was not among these across-the-board pretenders. A writer is all he was. No scatterer of loose energy across the lines. No diluter of his essential being.
And for that he deserves to be called a Master.
I did not mean to confer, earlier in this article, any slight upon the reach and scope of the Roman Catholic litany. Its very universality and subordination to a (lowercase) catholic whole may have been the aspect of the religion that most appealed to Stanley and caused him to embrace it.
“I am not a er any pie in the sky,” he would tell me, by way of an awkward attempt to account for his conversion. In this piece, I have not listed any of the earthly honors conferred upon him, and there were many, including a lifetime achievement award from the Smithsonian Institute. But as Stanley once said, wistfully, “You can’t eat reputation. If I had a nickel for every good review I’ve had …” letting that sentence fade out rhetorically.
As the aforesaid litany notes, “we know partially, and we prophesy partially.” But it holds forth the idea for the striver of attaining the company of the saints, and that ain’t hay.
PHOTO: NANETTE BAHLINGER Stanley Booth
AFTER DARK: Live Music Schedule January 9 - 15
Baunie & Soul
Sunday, Jan. 12, 7 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Chris Gales
Sunday, Jan. 12, 12:30 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Flic’s Pics Band
Led by the legendary Leroy “Flic” Hodges of Hi Rhythm.
Sunday, Jan. 12, 2 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
International Blues Challenge
e world’s largest gathering of blues musicians will take place on Beale Street, with over 20 clubs hosting the challengers and fans. Visit blues.org for details. rough Jan. 11.
BEALE STREET
Memphis Soul Factory
Sunday, Jan. 12, 6 p.m. |
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 6 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
Soul St. Mojo
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 7 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
The B.B. King’s Blues Club Allstar Band
Monday, Jan. 13, 6 p.m. |
Tuesday, Jan. 14, 6 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
Vince Johnson
Monday, Jan. 13, 7 p.m. |
Tuesday, Jan. 14, 7 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Last Chance Jug Band
Sunday, Jan. 12, 3 p.m.
HUEY’S DOWNTOWN
Memphis Songwriter Series, Hosted by Mark Edgar Stuart With Hannah Blaylock, Rice Drewry, and Raneem Imam.
$10. ursday, Jan. 9, 7-9 p.m.
HALLORAN CENTRE FOR PERFORMING ARTS & EDUCATION
The Central BBQ Sessions Great food and smokin’ tunes every Saturday. Saturday, Jan. 11, 6-8:30 p.m. CENTRAL BBQ
e singer-songwriter, a pioneer of indie pop in Memphis, performs solo. ursday, Jan. 9, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
MORTIMER’S
Advance Base With Pas Moi [Small RoomDownstairs]. Tuesday, Jan. 14, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Alex Wilkerson With Victoria Dowdy. ursday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m.
LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
Amber McCain Band
Friday, Jan. 10, 6 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Be Kind Rewind Wednesday, Jan. 15, 9 p.m.
B-SIDE
Candlelight: Neo-Soul Favorites
Davis Coen & The Change
Sunday, Jan. 12, 3 p.m.
HUEY’S POPLAR
Elvis Presley 90th
Birthday Celebration
Celebrate Elvis Presley’s 90th birthday at e Audubon
Home with Ronnie McDowell, for a show and tour of the home. ursday, Jan. 9, 7 p.m.
THE AUDUBON DRIVE HOME
Discover the music of neo-soul favorites. Songs by Prince, Childish Gambino, and more will be performed by the Beale Street Quartet at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art under the gentle glow of candlelight. $29.63/general admission. Friday, Jan. 10, 8:45-10 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Candlelight: Tribute to Adele
Discover the music of Adele at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, performed by the Beale Street Quartet under
the gentle glow of candlelight.
$29.63. Friday, Jan. 10, 6:307:45 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Club ’90s: Sabrina Carpenter Night
Embrace the vibrant, eclectic style of this themed dance party with our touring DJs spinning your favorite dance hits. 18+. $12-$20. Friday, Jan. 10, 9 p.m.
GROWLERS
Crum B.
With Squib Kick, Missed Dunks At Summer League [Small Room-Downstairs].
Bluegrass, roots, country, Delta, and ski e. ursday, Jan. 9, 9 p.m.
B-SIDE
Douglas
With Screamer, Shorty and the Grooves, Fearless Dave & the Tsunamis. ursday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m.
GROWLERS
East ov Eden
With Ruined God, Magnolia, Obiscuithead, Syntrax, Ferb, Ask. All ages. $15. Saturday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m.
GROWLERS
Emp Entertainment
Presents
With Bass Blast, Jordan Rogers, Von Gogh, Kenshi, N4it, Ash B2b Lumen. Friday, Jan. 10, 9 p.m.
B-SIDE
Flamy Grant
With Tornsey. Sunday, Jan. 12, 7:30 p.m.
GROWLERS
Gritty City Bang Bang Tuesday, Jan. 14, 9 p.m.
B-SIDE
Joe Restivo 4 Guitarist Joe Restivo leads one of the city’s nest jazz quartets. Sunday, Jan. 12, 11 a.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Korroded
With Heavy Machine Gun [Small Room-Downstairs]. $12. Saturday, Jan. 11, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Luke Borchelt & Chase Huglin
With CJ Starnes. Wednesday, Jan. 15, 8 p.m.
GROWLERS
Mahogany Chamber
Music Series: Hope Including works by Margaret Bonds, Jake Haggie, Joseph Joubert, and two world premieres commissioned by Armand Hall, conductor. With Kearstin Piper Brown, soprano, Artina McCain, piano, and the Mahogany Ensemble. $20/advance, $30/ at the door. Sunday, Jan. 12, 2:30 p.m.
CROSSTOWN THEATER
Memphis Dance Music Association Presents With Aberrant, Jos. Heat, DJ Fatherdad. Sunday, Jan. 12, 10 p.m.
B-SIDE
Memphis Knights Big Band
A 17-piece orchestra (plus two singers) featuring standards and popular hits. Monday, Jan. 13, 6 p.m.
A special show featuring a live band and larger-than-life visuals of Elvis at Graceland. $45/reserved seating. Friday, Jan. 10, 7-9 p.m.
GRACELAND SOUNDSTAGE
Elvis Music Salute
Celebrate Elvis’ 90th birthday at Graceland with a concert featuring his greatest hits performed by those who shared a stage with him. $45/ reserved seating. ursday, Jan. 9, 7-9 p.m.
GRACELAND SOUNDSTAGE
MacLeod & Lonardo
Sunday, Jan. 12, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S SOUTHAVEN
Misty Blues
ursday, Jan. 9, 8 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
Porters
With A er e Rain, e Contradictions [Small RoomDownstairs]. Sunday, Jan. 12, 7 p.m.
HI TONE
Scott & Angela Tuesday, Jan. 14, 6 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Shara & Sky Trio
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 6 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Shara’s Songwriter Showcase
Sunday, Jan. 12, 6:30 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Sonidero Gotico: Vol. 3
With DJs La Femme Radical, Mala Leche, Kid Mestizo. 21+. Saturday, Jan. 11, 9 p.m. HI TONE
Spite House
With A er the Rain, Shit re Crumb. Saturday, Jan. 11, 9 p.m.
LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
The Drip Edges: Record Release Show
Celebrating the release of the EP, Kicking the Tires on the Clown Car. With Joecephus & the George Jonestown Massacre, Hail Maria. $10. Friday, Jan. 10, 9 p.m.
LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
The Pinch
ursday, Jan. 9, 7 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Thumpdaddy
Saturday, Jan. 11, 9 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Twin Soul Duo
Sunday, Jan. 12, 3 p.m.
HUEY’S MIDTOWN
Singer Songwriter Night with Mark Sinnis and Friends
Friday, Jan. 10, 8 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
Ethan Smith Duo
Sunday, Jan. 12, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S MILLINGTON
High Point
Sunday, Jan. 12, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S OLIVE BRANCH
John Németh & The Blue Dreamers
Sunday, Jan. 12, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S GERMANTOWN
Meshell Ndegeocello
Masterful and mercurial, expect the unexpected as this Grammy-winning artist sojourns into soul, spoken word, R&B, jazz, hip-hop, and rock, all bound by a lyrical, spiritual search for love, justice, respect, resolution, and happiness.. $30/general admission. Saturday, Jan. 11, 8-9:30 p.m.
GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Peanut Butter & Jam: Andrew Best
Children and parents are invited to come move and groove. Get to know singer/ songwriter Andrew Best and his latest children’s album, Emerson the Moose, in this super-fun musical session.
Free. Saturday, Jan. 11, 10:3011:30 a.m.
GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Tequila Mockingbird
Sunday, Jan. 12, 8 p.m.
HUEY’S CORDOVA
The Java Trio
Sunday, Jan. 12, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S COLLIERVILLE
Andy Sydow & The Minor League With Gia Welch Duo.
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 8 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
PHOTO: GEORGE HANCOCK e Drip Edges
CALENDAR of EVENTS: January 9 - 15
ART AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS
“All Aboard: The Railroad in American Art, 1840 - 1955” is exhibition examines the o en-symbiotic relationship between painters in the United States and the passenger and freight trains that populated cities, towns, and countrysides across the nation. rough Jan. 26. THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
“ANA•LOG” – Lester Merriweather
e gestural treatment of layered and excavated surfaces here pays homage to the experimental processes of the mid-’60s developer tool works by the late Jack Whitten. rough Jan. 19.
CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE
Andrea Morales: “Roll Down Like Water”
Featuring 65 photographs spanning a decade of work by the Memphis-based PeruvianAmerican photographer. rough Jan. 31.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
“Back for Seconds”
Featuring work by Roger Allan Cleaves, Melissa Dunn, Stephanie Howard, and Clare Torina. rough Feb. 1.
SHEET CAKE
Fall 2024 BFA
Exhibition
e Fall 2024 BFA Exhibition features work by Ciridany Genchi Cortez and Piper Grokulsky, both graduating seniors in Christian Brothers University’s department of visual arts. rough Feb. 14.
BEVERLY + SAM ROSS GALLERY
Jodi Hays: “Befores and Afters”
Hays’ paintings can be found in many public and corporate collections including the J. Crew Group, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, and the Birmingham Museum of Art. rough Feb. 8.
DAVID LUSK GALLERY
Justin Bowles: “Green Fountain”
An ecstatic rendering of a fantastical garden. Bowles’ garden depicts a pool surrounded by animals and plants and crystal rock formations depicted in three intricate collage works. rough Feb. 16.
TOPS GALLERY: MADISON AVENUE
PARK
Kenneth Lawrence
Beaudoin: “In the Hands of a Poet”
John McIntire fondly recalls Beaudoin’s creative process behind “Eye Poems”: “He would just sit in the middle of piles of magazines and books, cutting, gluing, and smoking.” rough Feb. 22.
TOPS GALLERY
“Loose Ends”: New Work by Brittney Boyd
Bullock
Bullock examines the intricate narratives of Black labor, migration, and cultural identity through an interdisciplinary approach that merges textilebased art and collage. Monday, rough Feb. 1.
SHEET CAKE
Master Metalsmith
Preston Jackson: “A Hidden Culture”
Honoring the Metal Museum’s 38th Master Metalsmith, this exhibition “reveals history that has been buried, forgotten, or deemed unimportant by society.” rough Jan. 26.
METAL MUSEUM
MGAL Winter Exhibition
St. George’s Art Gallery hosts Memphis/Germantown Art League’s juried winter exhibition by Mid-South artists. rough Jan. 14.
ST. GEORGE’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
“Natural Histories:
400 Years of Scientific Illustration”
Showcasing hidden gems and unique masterworks from the American Museum of Natural History’s rare book collection. rough Jan. 26.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
“Pissarro to Picasso”: Masterworks from the Kirkland Family Collection anks to the generosity of the Kirkland family of Los Angeles, visitors to the Dixon will be able to enjoy 18 art treasures from the family’s collection. rough Jan. 26.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
“Pompeii: The Exhibition”
In a media-rich, object-based immersive experience, discover the bustling commercial port and strategic military and trading center that was Pompeii before Mount Vesuvius erupted. rough April 13.
GRACELAND EXHIBITION CENTER
Preston Jackson: “Tales of the River Cities” Narrative vignettes speaking to Jackson’s family history near the Mississippi River. rough Jan. 26.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Rivertown Artists 2025 Winter Expo Exhibition
With paintings, ceramic creations, photographic showpieces, and collages to satisfy everyone’s artistic tastes. rough Jan. 31.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Scott A. Carter: “Energy States” Artist, educator, curator, and musician Carter makes objects and environments somewhere in the spaces between sculpture, architecture, design, and sound. rough Jan. 19.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Send the date, time, place, cost, info, phone number, a brief description, and photos — two weeks in advance — to calendar@memphisflyer.com.
DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, ONGOING WEEKLY EVENTS WILL APPEAR IN THE FLYER’S ONLINE CALENDAR ONLY. FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVENT LISTINGS, SCAN THE QR CODE OR VISIT EVENTS.MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL.
COURTESY MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN Dr. Susan Elswick celebrates places she’s lived in “Scenic Narratives: e Art of Landscape.”
Sheryl Hibbs: “Two
Sides of the Same Coin”
Oil paintings both representational and abstract. Saturday, Jan. 11-Feb. 28.
CHURCH HEALTH
“Size Matters” – Alex Paulus
Images juxtaposing small gures within expansive landscapes, alongside large-scale portraits depicting gures from the artist’s childhood. rough Jan. 19.
CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE
Southern Heritage Classic Exhibit
Celebrating 35 years of an HBCU Memphis tradition, the exhibition tells the story of Fred Jones Jr., the founder of the Southern Heritage Classic. rough Feb. 28.
NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM
“Starry, Starry Winter Garden”
For the museum’s inaugural Winter Art Garden, artist
Greely Myatt uses found objects, including scrap metal, neon, and discarded signage, to create an illuminated starscape on the museum’s plaza. rough Jan. 31.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
“Still” – Michelle Fair Figures and landscapes conjuring ideas of solitude and loneliness that also explore the meditative aspects of painting. rough Jan. 19.
CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE
Susan Elswick — “Scenic Narratives: The Art of Landscape”
Dr. Susan Elswick’s watercolor and acrylic paintings of landscapes she’s known, from salt marshes in South Carolina to the rolling hills of East Tennessee. rough Jan. 30.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
“The Funny Pages:” MidSouth Cartoonists Association at GCT See the shows, buy the art, meet the artists. Multiple opportunities to engage with MSCA and GCT. rough Jan. 17.
GERMANTOWN COMMUNITY THEATRE
Thomas Jackson: “Chaotic Equilibrium” Jackson harnesses the wind to create ethereal works that blur the boundaries between landscape photography, sculpture, and kinetic art. rough April 28.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
ART HAPPENINGS
Artist Talks: Lester Merriweather and Alex Paulus
An inspiring conversation with artists Lester Merriweather and Alex Paulus as they discuss their current exhibitions and creative processes. Saturday, Jan. 11, 2 p.m.
CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE
CLASS / WORKSHOP
2025 Vision & Empowerment Weekend
For all women, women’s organizations and clubs, professional and faith-based groups, this is an event worth rallying the troops to attend together. It is sure to ignite your new year and propel momentum beyond your wildest dreams. $80/Friday & Saurdayt (Adult) save $20 o , $40/Friday only (Adult), $60/Saturday only (Adult), $50/teen girl ticket. Friday, Jan. 10, 4 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 11, 9 a.m.
DOUBLETREE BY HILTON EAST
Art Club
A monthly Art Club, where you can get an in-depth look at a di erent work of art each month. $20. Sunday, Jan. 12, 2-3 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Beginners Watercolor Painting Course and Critique Award-winning artist Fred Rawlinson teaches technique, brushstrokes, color, and layering, with gentle critiques of student work. Supplies not provided. $350/six week course. Monday, Jan. 13, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. | Tuesday, Jan. 14, 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Sheryl Hibbs: “Two Sides of the Same Coin” Opening Reception
Opening reception for an artist whose love of oils manifests itself in both representational and abstract artworks. Saturday, Jan. 11, 3-5 p.m. CHURCH HEALTH
BOOK EVENTS
Chris Whitaker: All the Colors of the Dark It’s the mid-’70s and life in Monta Clare, Missouri, is not easy for Patch and Saint. Raising bees brings Patch and Saint together and rst love seals their bond — but fate will soon intervene. Sunday, Jan. 12, 2 p.m. NOVEL
Kwame Alexander and IMAKEMADBEATS: How Sweet the Sound
A stunningly illustrated celebration of the history of Black music in America by the award-winning author of e Undefeated. Listen to the sound of survival, courage, and democracy. Wednesday, Jan. 15, 6 p.m.
MEMPHIS LISTENING LAB
Maria Zoccola: Helen of Troy, 1933
In the hills of Sparta, Tennessee, in the early ’90s, Helen makes a drastic choice to break free from the life that sti es her. is debut poetry collection explores Helen’s isolation and rebellion. Tuesday, Jan. 14, 6 p.m. NOVEL
Figure Drawing (Nude Model)
Artists of all levels can practice and increase their skills drawing the human form at Memphis’ art museum. $18/ general admission. ursday, Jan. 9, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART MIG Welding I Each student will spend time welding on “coupons” or small pieces of steel, working to perfect their weld beads through body mechanics and machine settings. Saturday, Jan. 11, 9 a.m.-noon | Saturday, Jan. 11, 1-4 p.m. METAL MUSEUM
COMEDY
Open Mic Comedy Night
A hilarious Midtown tradition. Tuesday, Jan. 14, 8 p.m. HI TONE
COMMUNITY
Girls on the Run
Memphis: Spring Virtual Coach Info Session
Interested in empowering young women in the MidSouth? Learn more about volunteering as a coach with Girls on the Run this spring season. Visit girlsontherun.org.
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 7-8 p.m. ONLINE
Seed Library Garden
Club Kickstart e MPL Garden Club hosts a meet and greet with its sponsoring librarians and o ers a tour of the Seed Library.
PHOTO:
Vinyl Voices: DJs & Their Collections, a unique collaboration between WYXR 91.7 FM and Brooks Museum of Art. Free. Thursday, Jan. 9, 6-8 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
“Run the Wolf” Race Registration Party
To support the Wolf River 5K on Jan. 18, Memphis Made has created a “Run The Wolf” brew and will host a race registration party. Friday, Jan. 10, 5-8 p.m.
MEMPHIS MADE BREWING (DOWNTOWN - THE RAVINE)
Shaken + Stirred Cocktail Class
Take a little bit of that Bar Moxy magic home and wow guests at your next get-together by learning a few tricks at this free cocktail class. Wednesday, Jan. 15, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
MOXY MEMPHIS DOWNTOWN
LECTURE
Wednesday, Jan. 15, 5 p.m.
BENJAMIN L. HOOKS CENTRAL LIBRARY
FAMILY
Project Grow
A hands-on activity for all ages! Learn something new about gardening and horticulture every month while getting your hands dirty. Drop-in program. Supplies included. Saturday, Jan. 11, 1-3 p.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Stax Free Family Day
Kick off the new year with a fun-filled afternoon at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music!
All ages. Free. Saturday, Jan. 11, 1-5 p.m.
STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC
Super Saturday - New Year’s Cherry Blossoms
Celebrate the beauty and symbolism of cherry blossoms as you ring in the new year. Free. Saturday, Jan. 11, 10 a.m.-noon.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Wintertime Work of the 1800s Homeschool Days take place in the event hall, Hillwood. Try some of the common wintertime work like darning and patchwork, whittling, and more. Friday, Jan. 10, 10 a.m. DAVIES MANOR HISTORIC SITE
FILM
Back to the Future
Small-town California teen Marty McFly is thrown back into the ’50s when an experiment by his eccentric scientist friend Doc Brown goes awry. Saturday, Jan. 11, 4:30 p.m.
MEMPHIS MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY
InReach Productions Film Festival
See short films created by impassioned independent filmmakers with fun and powerful stories to tell. Tuesday, Jan. 14, 6-7:30 p.m.
MALCO POWERHOUSE CINEMA GRILL & MXT
Shanghai Express: Film Screening and Discussion
An in-depth look at the 1932 film starring Anna May Wong. SunAh Laybourn and Katie Gee Salisbury will discuss Wong’s groundbreaking career. Sunday, Jan. 12, 2 p.m. | Sunday, Jan. 12, 2-4 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Space: The New Frontier 2D
From self-assembling habitats, commercial space stations, and rockets without fuel to the Lunar Gateway to deep space. Through May 23.
MEMPHIS MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY
FOOD AND DRINK
Bog & Barley Whiskey Pairing Dinner
A whiskey pairing dinner hosted by Bog & Barley’s in-house whiskey connoisseur, DJ Naylor. $110. Thursday, Jan. 9, 7-9 p.m.
BOG & BARLEY
Happy Hour at the Brooks: Vinyl Voices with WYXR Dive into the heart of music collecting with
Munch and Learn: Color Me Happy: Plants that Brighten Winter’s Gloom Presentations by artists, scholars, and Dixon staff sharing their knowledge on a variety of topics. Wednesday, Jan. 15, noon-1 p.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
PERFORMING ARTS
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus
With 75 performers from 18 different nationalities, showcasing over 50 exhilarating circus acts in a fast-paced, action-packed two-hour show. Friday, Jan. 10, 7 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 11, 11 a.m. | Saturday, Jan. 11, 3 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 11, 7 p.m. | Sunday, Jan. 12, noon.
LANDERS CENTER
Slayful Sundays
An evening filled with delicious drinks, amazing music, tasty food, and your favorite performers. Sunday, Jan. 12, 6 p.m.
DRU’S PLACE
SPECIAL EVENTS
Cordelia’s Market Trivia: 2024 Year in Review
Get ready to test your knowledge of 2024. Wednesday, Jan. 15, 6:30 p.m.
CORDELIA’S MARKET
Morrighan’s Bluff, Amtgard of Memphis
Meet Saturdays at noon for a medieval/fantasy live action roleplay game. Join the adventure! Saturday, Jan. 11, noon.
W. J. FREEMAN PARK
SPORTS
Memphis Grizzlies vs. Houston Rockets Thursday, Jan. 9, 7 p.m.
FEDEXFORUM
Memphis Hustle vs. Rip City Remix
The G-League Affiliate of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies calls the Landers Center home. Wednesday, Jan. 15, 7 p.m.
LANDERS CENTER
MRTC Frank Horton Memorial Winter Off-Road Series
Four trail-running races. Sunday, Jan. 12, noon-3 p.m.
OVERTON PARK
THEATER
Cat Kid Comic Club: the Musical TheaterWorks USA brings the book series from Dav Pilkey (Captain Underpants, Dog Man) to life!
Cat Kid and Molly Pollywog start a club to teach rambunctious frogs how they can use their creativity. $20/adult, $15/youth. Saturday, Jan. 11, 2 p.m.
BARTLETT PERFORMING ARTS AND CONFERENCE CENTER
Six Men Dressed Like Joseph Stalin
Set in a neglected part of the Kremlin, this abstract play follows two actors as they prepare for their most significant role yet: Joseph Stalin. $25/ single tickets. Friday, Jan. 10, 8-10 p.m. | Saturday, Jan. 11, 8-10 p.m. | Sunday, Jan. 12, 2-4 p.m. THEATREWORKS CALENDAR: JANUARY 9 - 15
Crossword
CELEBRITYCROSSWORD
This puzzle is a collaboration by the actress Natasha Lyonne of Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black” and “Russian Doll,” working together with Deb Amlen, who writes the Times’s daily crossword column, Wordplay (nytimes.com/ column/wordplay). You can read more about the making of today’s puzzle there. This is Deb’s fourth crossword for The Times.
ACROSS
1 Who says “Speak, hands, for me!” in “Julius Caesar” 6 Poehler vortex of funniness?
It might be on one’s radar
Reward for Fido
Tiny
Where to enjoy a Goya
Queen’s domain
N.Y.C. subway overseer 18 Wanders
Dressed like “a hundred-dollar millionaire”
22 Lo ___ (Chinese noodle dish)
23 “Portlandia” airer
24 Glossy fabric 27 “I’ll pass”
32 “___ bin ein Berliner”
33 It might have golden locks
35 Howe he could invent!
“I think I made a mistake here”
“Bedtime for ___”
bear
50 “Add some throw pillows or a pop of color around here, why don’t you!”
57 Parting words
58 Aah’s partner
59 Words on some blood drive stickers
61 Is very fortunate, with “out”
62 Wharton grad
63 Creature to get down from
64 Polynesian carving
65&66 Choreographer whose life is depicted in the starts of 19-, 36- and 50-Across
Felt remorse for
Fateful day for Caesar
1 Middle: Abbr.
The “A” in BART
Animal having a ball at the circus?
4 1980 Blondie hit
Cost of withdrawing, say
“Gee, you’re killin’ me!”
7 Baseball’s “Amazin’s” 8 When sung three times, what follows “She loves you”
Vegetable with a head
Volcano’s spew
Our, in Orléans
Analgesic’s
PHOTO: COURTESY DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Project Grow is a great way to get your hands dirty.
Edited by Will Shortz No.
We Saw You.
with MICHAEL DONAHUE
Memphis Zoo was aglow for the holidays with its annual Truist Zoo Lights. Attire was heavy coats on chilly nights for visitors who drank hot chocolate and took photos standing in front of festive light displays. ey kept their coats on, but removed their shoes to don skates at the ice-skating rink.
Zoo Lights has been going on “at least 20 years,” says Memphis Zoo communications specialist Rebecca Winchester.
“ is year’s event was successful. It is always wonderful welcoming the community back to Memphis Zoo.”
And, she says, “We look forward to providing the Memphis community with this holiday tradition every year.”
Asked how many lights were displayed, Winchester says. “I do not know the exact number of lights. However, it does take an entire month to set up.”
Winchester did know how many people viewed those lights. “From my understanding, we have seen over 45,000 guests so far this season.”
PHOTOS: MICHAEL DONAHUE above: Morgan, Maverick, and Tony Morgan circle: Bryson McArter, Jessica McArter, and Janae Topes below: (le to right) Zoe, Portia, Enzo, and Ashton Je ries; Veronica Chacin and Diego Sanchez; Kristyn Martin and Keiyoma Dabney bottom row: (le to right) Ian Cox and Joe Craig; Nicole Cupo and Patrick Croce
right row: (top and below) Sophia, Charlotte, and Drake Newman with Hunter, McNeilly, and Miller Cowan; David and Debbie McAnally, Chris Buckley, Cindy Buckley, and Carolyn Jackson
bottom le : Li Mayblum, Jordan Kamerzink, and Adeline Janovice
above: Alissa and Anthony Martin, Caleb Fuller, and Peyton Brown circle: Jahnearean Joy and Myashanti Edwards below: (le to right) Carlo Duran and Eliza Seaton; Matt Quick and Katie Fye; Dakota Wilson and Ajay Jones; Sienna Dawson and Aubree Green
FOOD By Michael Donahue
Restaurants Ring in the New
Owners and chefs reveal what foodies can look forward to in 2025.
Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh introduced his new menu January 7th at his Poke Paradise restaurant at 6343 Summer Avenue, Suite 110.
He’s added more items, including some of his weekly specials. “I’m doing the same thing I always do,” Sinh says. “Fusing my food up a little bit. Asian fusion.”
Sinh plans to add another item in about a week. “We’re a city that loves barbecue, and I have this cool pulled pork sandwich that will be really good for Memphis.”
With in uences from Memphis, Asia, and Hawaii, the sandwich will be “the normal jumbo pulled pork sandwich we love here, but the sauce and seasoning will have more of an Asian twist to it.”
e Hawaiian in uence is “how the sauce is cooked. e ingredients in the sauce. It will also have a slice of pineapple on it as well as the pulled pork.”
In the coming weeks, Sinh, who has served lunch to patrons who requested it since the restaurant opened, will introduce his o cial lunch menu featuring smaller portions from the dinner menu. “And we are also o ering soups and salads with our lunch menu.”
Sinh also is bee ng up his catering business. He plans to do “more than sushi and poke” and to o er a pho bar featuring Vietnamese cuisine.
Sinh’s catering business isn’t limited to corporate events or large venues. “It can be anywhere. If you don’t have a kitchen, no worries. We can bring everything there.”
• Executive chef Nate Henssler has a lot going on in 2025 at Amelia Gene’s Restaurant at 255 South Front Street.
ey’re going to take advantage of the success of their special ursday Tasting Dinner by continuing their thematic approach to the ve-course dinners, Henssler says. In homage to the Lunar New Year, which is coming up at the end of January, they’re going to o er a “fun tasting menu” featuring a Chinese- ailand tasting menu “but using Amelia Gene’s products and Amelia Gene’s presentation.”
e ursday night tastings are “very popular,” Henssler says. “Every ursday, we’re seeing between 30 and 45 of these guests coming in for a ve-course meal.”
He says, “We’ve also started to put a wine pairing on the tasting menu, and we added a cocktail pairing. We’re continuing to evolve that. We’re going to expand our spirit-free cocktails as well.”
Henssler adds, “Our guests have really enjoyed discovering our expansive wine list, thanks to our general manager Jessica [Henssler].”
Henssler plans to o er rare or special wines by the glass or half glass, like the popular 2015 Dom Perignon champagne they served during the holidays. “On weekends we will open a special bottle. And we’ll let people know.”
Diners will be able to enjoy this wine by purchasing a glass instead of the whole bottle.
Amelia Gene’s, which does two menus a year, will launch the new one in the latter part of January.
ey’re working on getting some live lobsters in and, instead of shrimp and grits, maybe doing a lobster and grits dish using a whole live Maine lobster.
ey are currently o ering a special hamburger at the bar. Henssler is thinking about o ering a “New England-style lobster roll” instead of the burger for a limited time. “Something for the guests that they can only get at the bar.”
“I’ll be sourcing live lobsters from New Bedford, Massachusetts. I’m from New Hampshire, so that’s mother’s milk to me.”
During the holidays, they turned their cheese cart into a dessert trolley for a couple of weeks. It was “wildly popular,” he says. He’s planning to do more limitedtime dessert carts. eir dessert chef Jessi Derenburger is “super creative.”
In short, Henssler says, “For 2025, we want to keep pushing creativity. We want to show our guests that ne dining can be very fun. Quirky dishes. And that starts on the ursday tasting menu.”
His goal is to “just keep pushing forward. We’re got an amazing team. I truly believe we have the best team in Memphis. And we’re just going to keep getting better.”
• Carlee McCullough is looking west during 2025. Not as in cowboy hats and boots, but sunsets.
McCullough is the owner of Mahogany River Terrace, which arguably has the best view of sunsets on the Mississippi River. It’s the ideal place to sip wine or a cocktail and dine on an elegant meal while viewing the waning sun.
“Sunset and Champagne” is slated to launch in the middle of January at the restaurant at 280 Island Drive, McCullough says. “Basically, what we’ll do every day is we’ll check and see when the sunset is expected,” she says. “We’ll be posting on social media.”
ey will feature discounted rates on champagne and appetizers.
ey’re currently focusing on their prix xe dinners, which they will feature on Valentine’s Day at Mahogany River Terrace as well as McCullough’s other restaurant, Mahogany Memphis at 3092
Poplar Avenue, Suite 11, in Chickasaw Oaks mall. ey always have steak options at both restaurants, but for Valentine’s Day they will o er a rib eye and lobster pairing at Mahogany Memphis and a tomahawk steak and lobster pairing with crab cakes at Mahogany River Terrace, where the fare is more seafood-oriented.
McCullough also is getting ready for the warm weather. “In summertime we are poised to be very popular because of the patio.”
ey will feature food specials. And, she says, “We’re going to be very big on champagne.”
She’s partnered with a distributor to o er Veuve Clicquot champagne. “We’ve talked about ‘Veuve Clicquot Wednesdays.’”
at will include appetizers and live music, she says. And, of course, “ ere’s not a bad seat in the house.”
As for Mahogany Memphis, McCullough wants people to know that the restaurant hasn’t closed just because she opened Mahogany River Terrace. e restaurant is “still going strong,” she says. “We’ve still got fabulous food.”
Chickasaw Oaks is “such a quaint mall,” McCullough says. “You don’t even know you’re in Memphis when you’re in that mall.”
• e dining room is open again at SideStreet Burgers at 9199 MS-178 in Olive Branch, Mississippi.
“It closed for Covid, obviously, a long time ago now,” says owner Jonathan Mah. Customers picked up their orders outside. Mah used the dining room area for storage and as a prep area. “Since then we made room for the storage and prep area.
PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE
Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh with his new pulled pork sandwich
And we renovated the dining room with some tile oors.”
ey opened up the dining room last August to make room for more tables. It now seats 20 people.
Mah plans to get a vent hood for the stove. “So, we can do grilled burgers. And possibly add a fryer.”
ey’ve never sold grilled hamburgers, he says. “We’ve always baked our burgers in a convection oven, which is very unorthodox in a burger joint. We started 13 years ago and that’s all the money we had. So, we just kind of stuck with it. at’s what we had to use, so we had to be more creative with how we season our burgers.”
Baking the meat “keeps it juicy, for sure.” But a griddle would help sear the outside of the meat and keep the juices in, he says.
ey want a fryer so they can start selling French fries, which they’ve never o ered. ey use roasted potatoes instead, which they will continue to o er as well as the fries.
In addition to hamburgers, Mah says, “We want to completely revamp our menu and put some more fun stu on the menu. Maybe Philly cheesesteaks or Cubans. Or bring back some sandwiches like the bánh mì, a Vietnamese sandwich. You normally would have pâté on there, but we would do some sort of Vietnamese marinated pork, pickled cucumbers, jalapeños, pickled carrots, and cilantro.”
Mah adds, “ e economy is so tough you have to be creative to draw in more customers and new customers.”
As for his other restaurant, OB Pizza Company at 9215 MS-178, Mah says, “In addition to our pizza and our wings and pizza by the slice, we’re hoping to add some gelato up there.”
Nominate a young person for the 10<20 Youth Impact Awards, presented by Memphis Parent. This award celebrates youth and young adults who strive to impact their community through school, business, leadership, or service by committing themselves to changing the lives of others for the better. Nominations will be accepted for K-12 students.
By Emily Guenther
The 2025 Tarot Card
At the beginning of 2024, I wrote about how to nd your personal tarot card for the year. To kick o this new year, I want to discuss the tarot card for 2025. is card is for all of us and is o en a summary of what to expect from the year ahead.
If you’d like to nd out what your personal tarot card for 2025 is, all you need is your phone. For this exercise, we are only going to focus on the major arcana portion of the tarot deck. Although there are 22 cards, they are numbered 0 to 21. When you do the math to get the number correspondence for your card, you will want a number between 1 and 22. It is impossible to get a 0 when you are adding numerical values higher than 0 together. To compensate for not being able to have 0 as a number, if your nal number is 22, then that means e Fool card, card number 0, is your card for the year.
e rst thing you will do is add your birth month and day to the current year, 2025. Let’s look at an example. For our example, we’ll use a birthdate of February 10th. You can add 2 (for the month of February) plus 10 (for the day) plus 2025. If you add 2+10+2025, you get 2037. 2037 is much bigger than numbers 1 to 22, so we will need to reduce this number.
Next, we will add
2025 marches to a di erent tarot beat than 2024 did. e card for 2024 was Strength. But 2025 will be ruled by e Hermit, which invites introspection. Instead of pushing forward, this card advocates for a strategic withdrawal, a pause for self-re ection and understanding. is is a fantastic year for study. Deepen your knowledge with books, classes, and lectures. Get a library card. Work closely with a trusted teacher or mentor. It’s also possible you could play that role with others. Share what you know and be open to other ways of looking at the world.
2+0+3+7, which gives us 12. Using this method, card number 12 — the Hanged Man card — will be your card for the year. To nd the tarot card that represents 2025, we will do a similar exercise of adding each number for 2025 together.
2+0+2+5=9. When nding your personal tarot card for the year and when nding the tarot card for the collective for the year, we are going to focus on the cards in the major arcana portion of the tarot deck. Card number 9 of the major arcana is e Hermit card. However, if you’d like to get more in-depth, you can also look at the cards of the minor arcana that share the number 9 as well.
e Hermit card is also a card of taking a step back from the world. is can allow us to gain clarity. Many worked hard in the past year, only to see their goals fall short. Rest is needed. Wise elders will emerge, and the heroes may wear cloaks instead of capes. Many world leaders may retire or step out of the spotlight for other reasons. e ght to preserve wisdom could be intense as institutions such as libraries, schools, and universities come under attack. We must not let history repeat itself, or we could return to a new dark age. e wisest among us have learned from the past and will shine a light on what we need to do to keep moving toward an enlightened future. And perhaps most poignantly, the number 9 represents the end of a cycle. Certain situations may be ready to wrap up in your life. is will allow space for new things to come into your life. Let go and trust that the universe will sort it out.
e Hermit is associated with Virgo, a sign that knows how to clean, declutter, heal, and serve. 2025 brings an opportunity to clean up a er ourselves and others. No matter how big the mess may be, a concentrated e ort will clear the slate and lay the groundwork for a fresh start.
Qualifying Agencies are:
•Health Organizations
•Treatment Centers
•Churches
•Schools
•Local Businesses
•Non Profits
•Restaurants/Bars/Clubs
•Hotels etc... memphisprevention.org
Emily Guenther is a co-owner of e Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis
professional tarot reader,
and
PHOTO: PAMELA COLMAN SMITH | PUBLIC DOMAIN | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
WE DO THIS
Out of Love
The staff at Twin Oaks Memorial Gardens & Funeral Home takes great pride in caring for our families, and has made a commitment to provide you with a beautiful, lasting tribute to your loved one. Honoring your loved one is our top priority, and part of that is assisting you deal with grief during this difficult time.
Everyone’s needs are different, and for that reason, families can entrust their loved one’s wishes to our staff. We have a wide range of resources to support you not only today, but in the weeks and months to come. Here, everyone is welcome.
Twin Oaks Memorial Gardens & Funeral Home
290 GOODMAN RD E • SOUTHAVEN, MS 38671
662.349.9720 • TWINOAKSFUNERALHOME.COM
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
By the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
Ewwwww
• Los Angeles is known for many things, but perhaps its most ignominious claim to fame is being the “clogged capital” of the United States on “Brown Friday” — the day after Thanksgiving, when plumbers nationally go out on emergency calls 65 percent more often than on other Fridays. Analysis by Yelp showed that plumbing-related searches went up 73 percent in L.A., followed by 37 percent in Miami, United Press International reported. Roto-Rooter said the most common problem areas were kitchen sinks, toilets, and garbage disposals.
• Looking for a different type of pizza than the standard pepperoni or sausage? At Pizza Hut restaurants in China, customers are being offered deep-fried frogs on top of their pies, the Independent reported on Nov. 21. The pizza has a thick crust with red sauce and basil, with a whole fried bullfrog on top. The limited-time variety is being offered in a collaboration with Dungeons and Dragons and is called “Goblin Pizza.”
Rude
• Starting on Jan. 1, the Garden of Remembrance cemetery in Stoke-onTrent, England, will welcome visitors from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, the Stoke Sentinel reported. But should family members want to visit at other times, they’ll be required to buy a VIP pass for 5 pounds (or 10 pounds, if they also want to visit the rose garden). “Now I need to pay a membership fee to visit my dad’s grave,” groused Jode Bourne, whose father Mark is buried there. “This is an absolute disgrace.”
A posted notice says the new rules will make “the site secure for our staff, families, and visitors.”
• A prop gravestone for Ebenezer Scrooge, left behind after a 1984 movie adaptation of A Christmas Carol starring George C. Scott, was smashed on Nov. 24, the BBC reported. The cemetery next to St. Chad’s Church in Shrewsbury, England, was part of the scene where Scrooge meets the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come; much of the movie was filmed there. Town council clerk Helen Ball said the stone is “in multiple pieces. I think it’s one of those things that’s very dear to everybody’s hearts.” She said the
council would determine whether the stone could be repaired.
No Good Deed …
Nigel Carter, 64, of Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland, collected 500 bikes to send to a charity in Sudan that helps people who need cheap transportation to school or work, the BBC reported on Nov. 22. But a Scottish Environment Protection Agency inspector said the shipment could not leave the port because some of the bikes needed minor repairs, such as oil on chains and new brake cables. Carter said he found it “ludicrous” that the bikes were returned to him. A SEPA official said he had a duty to ensure that Scotland’s waste was not dumped on another country, but Carter said the Sudanese charity had picked out the bikes and were happy with their condition. They will likely be returned to the recycling center where they came from and scrapped.
It’s a Mystery
George Oliver of Calvert County, Maryland, often walks the beach looking for fossils, NBC News reported. As he strolled along Chesapeake Bay on Nov. 4 during low tide, he spotted a coffin in the water. Inside was a nearly whole human skeleton. Oliver removed the skeleton and dug the mostly submerged coffin out of the water. “When I first found it,” he said, “you could not tell that there was human remains. You just thought that it was full of beach sand.” Oliver called the sheriff’s department, who called an archaeological society. Based on the construction of the coffin and the condition of the body, it’s believed to be at least 100 years old. Kelcey Ward, a crime scene technician with the sheriff’s office, said the skull showed signs of “a gunshot wound or blunt force trauma of some sort.” The remains and coffin will be interred at a local cemetery.
Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries poet Charles Baudelaire said that if you want to fully activate your personal genius, you will reclaim and restore the intelligence you had as a child. You will empower it anew with all the capacities you have developed as an adult. I believe this is sensational advice for you in 2025. In my understanding of the astrological omens, you will have an extraordinary potential to use your mature faculties to beautifully express the wise innocence and lucid perceptions you were blessed with when you were young.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In many Asian myths, birds and snakes are depicted as adversaries. Their conflict symbolizes humanity’s problems in coordinating the concerns of Earth and heaven. Desire may be at odds with morality. Unconscious motivations can be opposed to good intentions. Pride, self-interest, and ambition might seem incompatible with spiritual aspirations, high-minded ideals, and the quest to transcend suffering. But here’s the good news for you, Taurus: In 2025, I suspect that birds and snakes will cooperate rather harmoniously. You and they will have stirring, provocative adventures together.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Using a fork to eat food was slow to gain acceptance in the Western world. Upper-class Europeans began to make it a habit in the 11th century, but most common folk regarded it as a pretentious irrelevancy for hundreds of years. Grabbing grub with the fingers was perfectly acceptable. I suspect this scenario might serve as an apt metaphor for you in 2025. You are primed to be an early adapter who launches trends. You will be the first to try novel approaches and experiment with variations in how things have always been done. Enjoy your special capacity, Gemini. Be bold in generating innovations.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Psychologist Abraham Maslow defined “peak experiences” as “rare, exciting, oceanic, deeply moving, exhilarating, elevating experiences that generate an advanced form of perceiving reality, and are even mystic and magical in their effect upon the experimenter.” The moment of falling in love is one example. Another may happen when a creative artist makes an inspiring breakthrough in their work. These transcendent interludes may also come from dreamwork, exciting teachings, walks in nature, and responsible drug use. (Read more here: tinyurl.com/PeakInterludes.) I bring these ideas to your attention, Cancerian, because I believe the months ahead will be prime time for you to cultivate and attract peak experiences.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): According to my analysis of the astrological omens, your
Rob Brezsny
life in 2025 will be pretty free of grueling karmic necessity. You will be granted exemptions from cosmic compulsion. You won’t be stymied by the oppressive inertia of the past. To state this happy turn of events more positively, you will have clearance to move and groove with daring expansiveness. Obligations and duties won’t disappear, but they’re more likely to be interesting than boring and arduous. Special dispensations and kind favors will flow more abundantly than they have in a long time.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): One of my most enjoyable goals in life has been to expunge my “isms.” I’m pleased that I have made dramatic progress in liquidating much of the perverse cultural conditioning that imprinted me as I was growing up. I’ve largely liberated myself from racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heteronormativity, looksism, and even egotism. How are you doing with that stuff, Virgo? The coming months will be a favorable time to work on this honorable task. What habits of mind and feeling have you absorbed from the world that are not in sync with your highest ideals?
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Here’s one of my predictions for you in 2025, Libra: You will reach the outer limits of your domain and then push on to explore beyond those limits. Here’s another prediction: You will realize with a pleasant shock that some old expectations about your destiny are too small, and soon you will be expanding those expectations. Can you handle one further mind-opening, soul-stretching prophecy? You will demolish at least one mental block, break at least one taboo, and dismantle an old wall that has interfered with your ability to give and receive love.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): If you’re not married and would like to be, 2025 might be your best chance in years to find wedded bliss. If an existing intimate bond is less than optimal, the coming months will bring inspiration and breakthroughs to improve it. Let’s think even bigger and stronger, Scorpio, and speculate that you could be on the verge of all kinds of enhanced synergetic connections. I bet business and artistic partnerships will thrive if you decide you want them to. Links to valuable resources will be extra available if you work to refine your skills at collaboration and togetherness.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I wonder how you will feel about the fact that I’m declaring 2025 to be the Year of the Muses for you Sagittarians. Will you be happy that I expect you to be flooded with provocative clues from inspiring influences? Or will you regard the influx of teachings and revelations as chaotic, confusing or inconvenient? In the hope you adopt my view, I urge you to expand your under-
CAPRICORN
(Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Astrologers in ancient China had the appalling view that over two-thirds of all omens are negative, threatening, or scary. I haven’t seen formal research into the biases of modern Western stargazers, but my anecdotal evidence suggests they tend to be equally pessimistic. I regard this as an unjustified travesty. My studies have shown that there is no such thing as an inherently ominous astrological configuration. All portents are revelations about how to successfully wrangle with our problems, perpetrate liberation, ameliorate suffering, find redemption, and perform ingenious tweaks that liberate us from our mind-forged manacles. They always have the potential to help us discover the deeper meanings beneath our experiences. Everything I just said is essential for you to keep in mind during 2025.
standing of the nature of muses. They may be intriguing people, and might also take the form of voices in your head, ancestral mentors, beloved animals, famous creators, or spirit guides.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Over the years, a few people who don’t know me well have accused me of “thinking too much” or “overthinking.” They are wrong. While I aspire to always be open to constructive criticism, I am sure that I don’t think too much. Not all my thoughts are magnificent, original, and high-quality, of course; some are generated by fear and habit. However, I meticulously monitor the flow of all my thoughts and am skilled at knowing which ones I should question or not take seriously. The popular adage, “Don’t believe everything you think” is one of my axioms. In 2025, I invite you Aquarians to adopt my approach. Go right ahead and think as much as you want, even as you heighten your awareness of which of your thoughts are excellent and which are not.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I’m pleased, bordering on gleeful, that your homecoming is well underway. All the signs suggest that as 2025 unfolds, you will ripen the processes of deepening your roots and building a stronger foundation. As a result, I expect and predict that your levels of domestic bliss will reach unprecedented heights. You may even create a deeply fulfilled sense of loving yourself exactly as you are and feeling like you truly belong to the world you are surrounded by. Dear Pisces, I dare you to cultivate more peace of mind than you have ever managed to arouse. I doubledare you to update traditions whose emotional potency has waned.
FILM By Chris McCoy
Bob Dylan: Musical Genius, Bad Boyfriend
A Complete Unknown explores the myth behind the music.
There’s one detail that everyone who was at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival seems to agree on: Bob Dylan wore a polka-dot shirt.
Dylan’s three-song set at the annual music festival was one of those moments where an artist challenged their audience so intensely that it broke brains. In 1913, the Paris premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s e Rite of Spring caused a literal riot in the theater. Fi y years later, when Dylan takes the stage in the sleepy Rhode Island town armed with a Stratocaster and backed by Chicago electric blues disciple Mike Bloom eld, the audience which had made him a star shouts, “Judas!” in this lm. It is a moment that has become fraught with meaning. Depending on which side of the Great Folk Divide you fall on, it was either a rejection of the folk movement’s New Deal ideology or a declaration of artistic independence from hidebound tradition.
which was lmed in Memphis, set the standard for the genre. It was skewered so e ectively by Walk Hard: e Dewey Cox Story that many people have become allergic to the basic story beats that appear in every musician’s story.
e Newport set is the climax of Elijah Wald’s book Dylan Goes Electric!, which James Mangold has adapted into A Complete Unknown. Timothée Chalamet is the latest in a surprisingly long list of actors who have played Bob Dylan onscreen — including Bob Dylan himself.
If you want a lm that uses Dylanesque artistry to explore the mythic aspects of Bob Dylan, it’s Todd Haynes’ I’m Not ere. is is a music biopic by James Mangold. His Walk the Line,
Mangold and his star overcome self-parody by sheer force of execution. His actors sing all of the songs live on set, a Herculean task that is a bit easier for Chalamet than it is for his co-star Monica Barbaro, who must sing like Joan Baez. e contrasting grit and glamor of the folk movement’s two greatest stars is what made their pairing palatable and gave it a hint of danger. Baez recognizes Dylan’s talent as soon as she hears him sing in a cramped Greenwich Village basement.
But she’s one of the few people who doesn’t immediately worship him,
which makes her irresistible to him.
e self-possessed Baez never gives him an inch; when he betrays her onstage in front of a crowd of restless proto-hippies, she calmly sings the song without him.
Joan didn’t need Bob, but Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning) does. Based on the real Suze Rotolo, who appears with her then-boyfriend on the cover of e Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, Sylvie is the New York sophisticate who introduces the weird boy from Minnesota to the big city. Dylan takes rst the bohemian folk scene, then the cocktail party circuit by storm.
And that’s where his polka-dot
shirt comes in. Dylan’s appearances at the 1963 and 1964 Newport Folk Festival brought him to national attention, and his album sales took o like none of the other folkies who he emulated and idolized ever did. By 1965, he had turned the Beatles onto marijuana and was dressing like a Soho hipster instead of wearing the populist work shirt uniform favored by his mentor, Pete Seeger (Ed Norton). For the folkies, it was the rst sign that their standard bearer was going to betray them.
I keep using the word “betray” in this review. Mangold and Gangs of New York writer Jay Cocks’ screenplay may not please Dylan pendants. Great as he is, Bobbie didn’t write “Masters of War” in response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, debut it in a Greenwich Village co ee shop, and bed Joan Baez all in one night. But Chalamet’s dead-on Dylan impression papers over the holes, and the lm captures the essence of the time. A Complete Unknown is not a hagiography. Dylan might be a musical genius, but he’s a toxic boyfriend, and by the end of the lm, both of his prime paramours know it. He is beloved by millions, but he is alone. As he rides o on the motorcycle that will almost kill him a few weeks later, he does not yet know the price he will pay for his freedom.
A Complete Unknown
Now playing
Multiple locations
Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro) and Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) sing in A Complete Unknown
Our critic picks the best films in theaters.
Nosferatu
Director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Northman) remade the groundbreaking silent vampire classic as a folk horror creepshow. Nicholas Hoult stars as Thomas Hutter, a real estate agent sent to negotiate a deal with a mysterious Count Orlock (Bill Skarsgård). What he doesn’t know is that Orlock is an ancient vampire obsessed with Thomas’ wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp). They must enlist Prof. Von Franz (Willem Dafoe), an eccentric alchemist, to battle for their souls. A must-see for horror fans.
Babygirl
Nicole Kidman stars as a high-powered executive plotting to automate the jobs
of warehouse workers. But her personal and business power reaches its limit when confronted with Samuel (Harris Dickinson), a sexy intern whose dom tendencies awaken the latent sub in her. The ensuing affair endangers both her job and family — which makes it all the more irresistible.
Mufasa: The Lion King Indie legend Barry Jenkins directs this prequel/sequel to the 1994 Disney fairy tale that harkened the animation houses’ renascence. This “live action” CGI story stars Aaron Pierre as the voice of Mufasa, father of Simba (Donald Glover), who must guide his family through a conflict with the Outsiders, a rival pride led by Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen).
She didn’t just teach me to bake … She taught me to measure, and meet, my potential.
THE LAST WORD
By Patricia Lockhart
Yes Day
e one day a year we treat ourselves the most, and plan for growth and exploration.
I have four tweens/teens: a 16-year-old boy, twin 13-year-old boys, and an 11-year-old girl. Teens can ask for some of the most random things. Another laptop, shopping sprees, beauty products, and a whole host of material things. And throughout the year, I nd myself saying, “No,” “What do you think your allowance is for?”, “Absolutely not!”, and “ at seems like something you need to ask your uncles to buy you” to several of their requests. Honestly, I feel like if I give them a decent allowance and provide all of their needs, they can at least spend their own money on any gadget, game, or beauty product they want. My purse is shallow and the strings are tight.
Except for one day a year. e last day of the year to be exact. New Year’s Eve.
On New Year’s Eve, my husband and I give the kids a “Yes Day.” It’s simple: Whatever the kids ask for, we simply say, “Yes.” We only ask questions for clari cation, and we don’t de ect or say no.
Here’s a list of things and experiences our tweens/teens asked for:
“Can we eat breakfast at IHOP?”
“Can we go to Jumping World?”
“Can we eat pizza for lunch?”
“Can we get a hotel?”
“Can we go to the Amuse Adventure Museum?”
“Can we shop at Best Buy?”
“Can we go to Target?”
“Can we go to Hobby Lobby?”
On Yes Day, anything goes, from eating out to shopping. Try picking physical, creative, and social hobbies instead of making resolutions.
And of course we said “Yes” to every single request! e kids had a blast! We ate breakfast and picked up a few cra ing materials from Hobby Lobby. en we did a little window shopping at Best Buy and Target. Next, we went to Jumping World. By the time we checked into the hotel, I was already exhausted. We ate an early dinner at Rock’n Dough Pizza and had the most amazing server. Next, we went to the Amuse Adventure Museum and had a blast. Fun fun fun! Lastly, we did a grocery store run for snacks before heading back to the hotel. I passed out. e kids and Hubby played video games. I woke up and played games as well, then I went back to sleep. Finally, the New Year came and concluded our Yes Day.
If you’re wondering about the nancial cost of a Yes Day, I’ll be very transparent with you. Our Yes Day cost $537 for this family of six. e most expensive tickets were the Amuse Adventure Museum and Rock’n Dough Pizza, both over $100. If you would like to do a Yes Day for your kids but you’re concerned with getting a lot of materialistic requests, then set some parameters. Explain to your teens that their request must create an experience and be centered around engaging with the family.
While Yes Day is very fun, we did make time for something very serious. Now, we don’t do New Year’s resolutions. Tweens and teenagers are still developing a sense of self. New Year’s resolutions can unintentionally bring about stress from trying to be this perfect image of themselves that they’ve placed in their mind. And as an ever-evolving teenager, perfection is impossible.
So instead of focusing on achievements, we focus on exploration. Everyone chooses three hobbies they want to nurture for 2025. While the hobbies can be brand-new or something you’re still learning, there is a short guide. You must have a physical hobby, something that gets you moving. You must also have a creative hobby, to explore new ways to express yourself. Lastly, you must have a social hobby, something that brings you together with other people. Here are our 2025 hobbies (physical, creative, social):
Anthony/Dad: running, learning to play the piano, and running with a club
Patricia/Mom: yoga, sewing, painting, and learning Spanish
Aiden (16): jogging, playing the piano and reading sheet music, and hosting events at home
Elliott (13): stretching, creating new video games, and TBD*
Elijah (13): biking, creating a YouTube channel, and creating a video gaming club
Eve (11): ballet and dance, and sewing with a club
*It’s okay that he doesn’t know how he wants to engage with others. He has a low social battery threshold.
For the rest of the year, I will scour the Memphis Flyer for events and activities that pour into my kids’ hobbies. If you hear of any, please feel free to share it with me via Instagram @memphisismyboyfriend.
Patricia Lockhart is a native Memphian who loves to read, write, cook, and eat. By day, she’s an assistant principal and writer, but by night … she’s asleep.
