Memphis Flyer - 2.9.23

NEXT LEVEL BENEFITS ARE HERE

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I count myself lucky to never have used a dating app. I’ve pretty much been in one long-term relationship or another since high school, with blips of single/dating life between, so I’ve never had a need to join in the endless swiping — or whatever y’all are doing — on the variety of such apps that have become prevalent in recent years. I’m also glad to have been part of the meeting-people-in-person generation, before the World Wide Web took over so many aspects of our lives, including nding our perfect (or even just an okay) match via a never-ending selection of head shots and “about me” blurbs.

Hearing single friends dish on dating disasters, inappropriate DMs, and all sorts of meet-up mishaps is mind-numbing. Is it really that bad out there? Out of curiosity — and yes, research for this very column — I recently joined a local Facebook dating group, which claims it’s “a place for women to protect and empower other women while warning each other of men who might be liars, cheaters, abusers, or exhibit any type of toxic or dangerous behavior.” I’d found that dozens of my female friends — single, married, or otherwise partnered-up — were members (along with more than 6,500 others), and, well, I wanted to see what was going on in there. e premise is harmless enough. You can nd out if you’re getting played and/ or warn others about abusive, cheating, narcissistic, or generally “toxic” men. But the reality is a little more convoluted. At times, it’s like witnessing a Jerry Springer episode unfold, with accusations and below-the-belt jabs in the comments sections. And so many of the posts — which typically include a photo of the gentleman in question, along with the inquiry “[tea emoji] or [red ag emoji]?” — are published anonymously, appearing as a question from an unknown “Group member.” I understand there could be circumstances that would necessitate anonymity when it comes to this type of thing, but a er a few days as a silent observer, it’s leaving a bad taste. Are some of these “group members” simply hoping to stir the pot? Are they jilted lovers trolling for others to bash their ex or to prevent him from moving forward in another relationship? Wanting to start drama with current girlfriends, partners, or potentials? Some women provide info or experiences without the added bashing — and o er positive responses and recommendations to go ahead and date the guy — but it seems the group’s intent has been stretched into some warped reality-TV type territory. Grab your popcorn and settle into this week’s shit show.

I remember the days when you had to actually talk to and hang around a person to gure out if they were a creep or not. Never did I have the option to screenshot someone’s dating pro le and post a poll for reviews. “Talked twice and then he ghosted me.” “He was nice but wanted to cuddle all the time, and we only chatted for a couple weeks.” “Total sex addict.” “Says he doesn’t have kids but has two who have nothing to do with him.” “Lives with his mom.” You get the idea. It’s a weird time we’re living in. is group frames a bleak picture of the overall dating landscape in Memphis — and not just for women. But if the couples highlighted in this week’s cover story are any indication, enduring love exists. eir stories show that love isn’t just the butter ies and rainbows (though it has its magical moments) but also the challenges and growth two people experience on their journey together, the development of patience and understanding that carries them through the years.

NEWS & OPINION

THE FLY-BY - 4

POLITICS - 8

FINANCE - 9

AT LARGE - 10

COVER STORY

“BLUFF CITY LOVE”

BY FLYER STAFF - 12

WE RECOMMEND - 16

MUSIC - 17

AFTER DARK - 18

CALENDAR - 19

NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 20

FOOD - 23

THEATER - 24

METAPHYSICAL CONNECTION - 25

NEWS OF THE WEIRD - 26

ASTROLOGY - 27

TV - 28

CLASSIFIEDS - 30

LAST WORD - 31

You can nd your person if you hang in there — perhaps without even trying. You may very well cross paths in the unlikeliest of places, o screen, in real life — in line at the bank, browsing the aisles of Cash Saver, or sitting at the bar of your favorite restaurant. Maybe you were too shy to introduce yourself to the cutie you locked eyes with at Hollywood Feed but you can’t get them out of your noggin. Let us help! We’re reviving the Flyer’s “I Saw You” missed connections. Send yours to isawyou@memphis yer.com, and we’ll publish them in an upcoming issue. True love could be right around the corner.

Shara Clark shara@memphis yer.com

PHOTO: ISSELEE | DREAMSTIME.COM

THE fly-by

ernet

Memphis on the internet. MYEYEDR.

Questions, Answers + Attitude

Edited by Toby Sells

{WEEK THAT WAS

By Flyer staff

Nichols, Crime, & a Panda Passes

THREE FIRED IN NICHOLS CASE

ree personnel from the Memphis Fire Department (MFD) were red last week for failure to “conduct an adequate patient assessment” of Tyre Nichols.

is image was so prevalent around the MEMernet last week, it had to be noted here.

“Even in a dark time someone nds humor,” Memphis Memes 901 said on Facebook. “MyEyeDr. on Main Street.”

ICY COOL

According to a statement released by the MFD, EMTBasic Robert Long, EMT-Advanced JaMichael Sandridge, and Lt. Michelle Whitaker were red for violating “numerous MFD policies and protocols.”

MAJOR VIOLENT CRIMES DOWN

e Public Safety Institute at the University of Memphis and the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission used preliminary data from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to release 2022 crime gures last week.

“Something you don’t see everyday in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee,” wrote Shaun Brennan on Facebook. “A co-worker, Zack Repischak, ice skating with a hockey stick on top of one of the garages on the campus of the world-renowned St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.”

BAD DRIVERS

A 2-year-old post to the Old School Ridiculous subreddit resurfaced in the Memphis sub last week. And it is, indeed, ridiculous enough to share.

A news story, apparently from 1939, says Memphis police considered issuing a special license plate for regular sco aws. e tag had a skull with the word “careless” below it. e tag also said “tra c law violator.”

O cials said while still higher than previous years, the number of reported major violent crimes has gone down. ese crimes saw a 5.1 percent decrease compared to 2021 in Memphis, and 5.0 percent countywide. Reported major violent crimes include murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assault.

However, there was an increase in major property crimes, speci cally vehicle the s. Reported burglaries, vehicle the s, and other felony the s are considered major property crimes.

Memphis saw a 29.3 percent increase in major property crime compared to 2021 numbers, while vehicle the s “skyrocketed” with a 113.1 percent increase in Memphis and 107.9 percent increase countywide.

O cials also reported that the number of guns stolen from vehicles also saw a drastic increase. According to reports from the Memphis Police Department, 2,441 guns were reported stolen in 2022. is is a 19 percent increase compared to 2021 (2,042), and a 750 percent increase compared to 2011 (287).

NICHOLS VIDEO REACTIONS

As the Tyre Nichols case and video received national attention, activists and representatives, locally and nationally, shared their thoughts and demands regarding police reform.

e O cial Black Lives Matter Memphis Chapter said, “ is type of violence illustrates how irredeemable an institution policing is, primarily because it is rooted in upholding white supremacy and state-sanctioned violence, no matter the racial or gender makeup of the o cer. Despite attempted reforms, police forces cannot diversify or

restructure their way into becoming just institutions, and no reform will end the intentional and incessant terrorizing of Black communities. e O cial Black Lives Matter Memphis Chapter is resolute in our position that policing and prisons must end.”

President Joe Biden said, “It is yet another painful reminder of the profound fear and trauma, the pain, and the exhaustion that Black and Brown Americans experience every single day.”

GIANT PANDA PASSES

Le Le, one of the Memphis Zoo’s giant pandas, died last week.

e zoo announced the death Friday morning, calling the news “devastating.” e cause of death had not been determined and a medical investigation is pending.

WEEK OF ACTION

Decarcerate Memphis and the O cial Black Lives Matter Memphis Chapter hosted a “Week of Action” for Tyre Nichols.

e week started with a phone zap, where members of the community were asked to make calls to Memphis City Council and county commissioners and let them know “you want our demands met and ordinances passed.”

Visit the News Blog at memphis yer.com for fuller versions of these stories and more local news.

PHOTO: MEMPHIS ZOO

PHOTO: MEMPHIS FIRE DEPARTMENT Robert Long, JaMichael Sandridge, and Lt. Michelle Whitaker

By Toby Sells

Winter Weather

Snow and ice are not Memphis hallmarks.

ey lack the predictability of a Beale Street Big Ass Beer. Memphis lacks the topography to thread winter sports into our tourism package.

But here we are. We can’t count on them, but they have become more frequent.

Memphis muddled through three winter weather events last week. ese events followed a quick freeze late last month that broke water mains (which brought a boil water warning), cut power to thousands, and made driving hazardous. at followed at least one major winter weather event in Memphis each year for the past few years.

It’s not enough to add snow and ice as a Memphis hallmark. But it is enough for Memphians to wonder just what is going on and if weather patterns are related to climate change.

For answers, we asked Mike Johnson, senior forecaster with the National Weather Service Memphis. — Toby Sells

extreme events have always happened. Attributing any single one of them to any kind of climate change perspective, you just really can’t do that. You have to look at it from a 30,000-foot view, through the big lens.

When you and your colleagues are sitting around the National Weather Service o ce, what conclusions do you come up with?

We all have an atmospheric science degree or a meteorology degree, or something along those lines that all ties in. Nobody in this o ce is a climate expert. ey all work the [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – NOAA] level or the headquarters level. So, some of the stu that you’re asking are questions that we have as well because we don’t necessarily deal with the climate like that day in, day out.

So, with my background not really being a climatologist … I’m not completely comfortable with my own ideas regarding how climate change works because I just don’t know. I would love to be able to say this is getting worse and it’s going to keep happening for the next 10 years. That may very well be the case but again, I just don’t know.

Memphis Flyer: Are these winter weather events normal and we just forgot?

Where are these events coming from?

Mike Johnson: We selectively remember the big things. ere’s always some bias to that.

But the overarching theme is that we, as an agency, have noticed that extreme weather events are becoming more likely than they were in the past.

Now, if you want to relate that to, say, the ice storm last year or the double, heavy snow event that we had in 2021, it’s really hard to do that. ese

So, for these winter events in Memphis, is it just polar air that gets pushed down here? Did something change? What’s going on here?

We’ve always gotten air cold enough to support winter storms. But maybe not to the degree of these zerodegree readings that we had last year and I think even earlier this year. We don’t always get that cold, but we always have temperatures that are subfreezing.

A lot of times when we get those temperatures coming in, that’s when all the moisture is moving o to the east because the cold front’s through the area and the timing was just o . So, we got rain and we got cold.

But some of these events set up right where the moisture is in place, the cold air comes in and undercuts it, and — voilà — there’s our snow.

partnership with Iris Collective, Avery Fisher Career Grant winner and Memphis native Randall Goosby and New York Times “Best of 2021” pianist Zhu Wang celebrate music’s capacity to connect us to our past and families, featuring music by Black and living Chinese composers.

Extreme weather events are becoming more likely than they were in the past.

PHOTO: ANNA TRAVERSE FOGLE An icy tree from the 2022 winter ice storm.

CITY REPORTER

Mike Johnson, senior forecaster with the National Weather Service Memphis, answers our questions.

POLITICS By Jackson Baker

Surprise, Surprise!

Colvett and Herenton create a stir on the developing Memphis mayoral front.

The January 15th financial disclosures revealed four declared mayoral candidates as “cash on hand” leaders — Downtown Memphis Commission president/CEO Paul Young, Sheriff Floyd Bonner, businessman J.W. Gibson, and NAACP head and former County Commissioner Van Turner.

With months to go before petitions can even be drawn, though, surprise news last week from two other individuals in the ever-increasing list of mayoral prospects indicated the fluidity of things.

Frank Colvett: When he announced for mayor last week, the city councilman, a white Republican, surprised a lot of people, who wondered how he — as a member of both a racial minority and a political minority — stood a chance of victory. Asked about that kind of skepticism, Colvett cited what he said was his proven record as a conciliator on the

council, where he served a recent term as chairman.

“White, Black, Republican, Democrat, none of that matters. This is a nonpartisan race and a nonpartisan job, I intend to represent all the people,” said Colvett, with an unexceptionable answer that will seem so much pure rhetoric to the aforesaid skeptics. He said he intends to focus on the issues — crime, especially — and to demand that each of his opponents “produce a plan,” a detailed blueprint, with no evasions or mere platitudes.

Whatever his own prospects, Colvett has already had an effect on the race. Merely by announcing, he has probably forestalled prospects of a candidacy by lawyer John Bobango or council colleague Chase Carlisle or Carlisle’s developer brother Chance, all of whom had been rumored to be interested in running but who would be dependent in the beginning on the same GOP base as Colvett.

And, however fractional it might be, Colvett’s appeal to that base will drain some support from candidates Bonner

and Young, each of whom has been making inroads among conservatives.

Colvett insists he is in the race to stay and won’t get out to accommodate anybody else, nor will he consider brokering a large-campaign exit by himself to affect the ultimate outcome.

Willie Herenton: The former mayor, who officially entered the race on Monday, had created a considerable stir last week among those observers paying attention with a heavily stylized online post that repeated variations of the sentence “Get the hell out of my office!” That was a reminder, the post elaborated, of Herenton’s clash with an impertinent reporter during his 18-year mayoral tenure. Significantly, the post ended with two panels which, together, formed the slogan “Campaign Coming Soon … 2023.”

Herenton lost his last two races for elective office — a somewhat feckless race for Congress in 2010 and a sixth race for mayor in 2019. In the loss to Jim Strickland in the latter race, a three-way affair, Herenton received some 30 percent of the

total vote and finished second. Conceding to Strickland on election night, he referred to the 2019 race as being “my last,” though his recent post certainly suggests a change of mind.

Now that he is competing again, his impact could be considerable. Though he never gained traction in his 2010 congressional try, in the 2019 mayoral race he received the endorsement of several public-employee unions and polled well among African-American voters, many of whom still see in Herenton the heroic change-maker who in 1991 had become Memphis’ first elected Black mayor.

As an active candidate Herenton will almost certainly attract votes — perhaps a considerable number — which might ordinarily go to one of the several African-American Democrats now contending. And he remains controversial enough among conservatives — both white and, to some degree, Black — to coalesce in a backlash vote for a specific candidate or two among the other contenders.

New Spending Ideas

An honest relationship with past spending can lead to better decision-making in the future.

Anew year is upon us, and that means many are setting (and forgetting) new year’s resolutions. New beginnings are a common time to think about spending, saving, and budgeting. In this space, we’ll talk through a few concepts that might be useful as you consider your relationship with your money in the coming year.

One of the trickiest things to de ne when mapping out a plan is what kind of spending to actually worry about. Spontaneous purchases on Amazon or a fancy bottle of wine at a restaurant is more of a luxury than a necessity if you’re looking to cut costs. But what about grocery spending? Doctor visits? School tuition? Your mortgage?

incremental security.

Another source of unnecessary spending is the desire to be spontaneous. While spontaneity has a role for all of us, there is no place for it nancially if you’re aggressively trying to work your spending down. ings like dining out, buying clothes, and weekend getaways are easy to stumble into, and the costs can add up quickly. Planning just one nice restaurant meal each week could not only help control the budget but also give you something to look forward to in advance — and that anticipation can greatly increase the enjoyment per dollar spent.

Probably the best way to look at it is to consider only things you want to change. If you’re happy in your house and committed to staying, then there is not much to do about your property taxes. ey are of course an item that must be considered as part of cash ow planning, but there is not much reason to spend mental energy on them.

ere is a potential big blind spot, however, which is the savings that can be had even in “non-negotiable” categories. For example, many people believe you should spend as much as possible on tires, since they are an important safety component when it comes to driving. Even if you consider safety non-negotiable, you might nd through research that certain less expensive tires are just as safe as the top tier. Even if you remain committed to the most reputable and well-known tire brands, you likely will nd that you can achieve substantial savings by shopping around. e knee-jerk reaction to spend as much as you can on safety-adjacent stu might be just as in uenced by marketing as any actual

In the end, the most important spending principle is to be honest with yourself. Every dollar we spend is because in the moment we have convinced ourselves it’s a good idea, but that justi cation can be ephemeral. If you use a transaction aggregator like Mint, it can be instructive to go back over your transactions weeks or months later and see what you value a er the fact and what you don’t. Even better is to look at your Amazon purchase history, which is never purged. Which items you’ve bought do you still use? Which did you never use? Which items make you wish you could go back in time and unorder them?

An honest relationship with your past spending is one of the best ways to develop better decision-making about the future.

If you are happy with your spending, you have nothing to worry about, but most of us have some work to do in this realm. Like we always say, we cannot control markets, but we can control spending, and your spending habits likely have the most outsized impact of anything on the path to your secure nancial future. Hopefully, these tips can help you develop a mindset that serves you as you make decisions about your money.

Gene Gard, CFA, CFP, CFT-I, is Chief Investment O cer at Telarray, a Memphis-based wealth management rm that helps families navigate investment, tax, estate, and retirement decisions. Ask him your questions or schedule an objective, no-pressure portfolio review at letstalk@telarrayadvisors.com. Sign up for the next free online seminar on the Events tab at telarrayadvisors.com.

PHOTO: KELLY SIKKEMA | UNSPLASH

NO cartoons, kids

AT LARGE By Bruce VanWyngarden

Shiny Objects

Sometimes we just need a break.

Last Friday, a er enduring three cold, gray days and nights beneath a quarter-inch of ice, we in Memphis were gi ed with the return of the sun and a glittering display of trees sparkling in the morning light. Like many of you, I went out and took pictures and listened to the sounds of the clicking, dripping, shimmering ice-fall with some gratitude. It had been a long week.

And it felt something like closure, an o ering, maybe a respite of sorts from the previous week’s civic trauma surrounding the Tyre Nichols case, though much work — and further trauma — surely lies ahead of us in that arena.

Nevertheless, on this glorious morning, the national news media seemed to have at least temporarily moved on to other matters, and for that we could be grateful. e new shiny object (literally) that was garnering the media’s attention was the presence of a large balloon driing high over the state of Montana that had been determined to be of Chinese origin. Was it a weather device, as the Chinese were alleging, or was it a piece of nefarious spy-machinery seeking to glean military secrets from the barren Montana terrain, 60,000 feet below?

Long ago, I spent a summer in Montana as a farm laborer, driving grain trucks through lush green elds surrounded by distant mountains during the day and drinking 3.2 beer and getting schooled at 8-ball in cowboy saloons by night. In my admittedly wan memory of those days, nothing much happens in Montana, though it is a beautiful place to spend a summer when you are young and full of yourself.

But back to the balloon, which, as it slowly crossed the country, served much like a high-altitude Rorschach test for the body politic. Republicans, including usual suspects Marjorie Taylor Greene, Mike Pompeo, Tom Cotton, Donald Trump (Jr. and Sr.), and nearly every other GOP yahoo you could name, began clamoring for President Biden to shoot it down immediately, no questions asked. Maybe they thought the balloon was “woke.” Can’t be too careful.

e current president’s advisors, on the other hand, were urging caution, both for the fact that detritus and equipment falling from a balloon as big as “three buses” might damage something or somebody below, and for the possibility that the balloon could be retrieved and brought down safely to better determine its true purpose. Or, in other words, get woke about it.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy jumped into the fray, calling for

a brie ng of the “Gang of Eight” — the group of lawmakers charged with reviewing the nation’s most sensitive intelligence information. “China’s brazen disregard for U.S. sovereignty is a destabilizing action that must be addressed, and President Biden cannot be silent,” McCarthy tweeted.

Perhaps fearing the “Gang of Eight” was an actual gang in Congress (and who could blame them?), the Chinese government issued further clari cation: “It is a civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes. A ected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course. e Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure.”

For its part, the U.S. intelligence community pretended to know what “force majeure” meant for several critical minutes as researchers scrambled to determine what they were up against. A er all, it’s not every day you get a Chinese balloon over your airspace, and it’s even more complicated when the Chinese start speaking French. Sacre bleu!

As the balloon dri ed across the country on Saturday, the GOP upped its rhetoric: We were all in danger of … something, and Biden’s refusal to shoot it down was just despicable and cowardly. You’d have thought there were drag queens cooking on gas stoves in that thing.

Finally, late in the a ernoon, as the evil blimp entered airspace above the Atlantic, it was shot down o the coast near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. A Pentagon spokesperson said that the U.S. had disabled the balloon’s equipment days earlier and had decided to wait until there was no danger to those on the ground before taking it down. e Pentagon added that three Chinese balloons had crossed the country unmolested during the Trump administration. Oh. Oops.

On Sunday, the entire nation took a deep breath and began looking for the next shiny object to ght about.

PHOTO: BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN

health-related, obit, cartoons, kids

February 9-15, 2023

bluff city

Love

THE PATH TO TRUE LOVE WEAVES THROUGH MUSIC, FAKE SLAPS, AND APPLEBEE’S FOR THREE MEMPHIS COUPLES.

The early days of 2023 brought more chilly winds and snowfall to the streets of Memphis. But as our teeth chattered and the thermostats dropped, we searched the city for the couples, the lovers, and the romantics who took a unique approach to their relationships, whether it was a chance encounter at Applebee’s or a simmering seven-year passion. With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, read on for three upli ing tales of love that could melt an icy Poplar and thaw even the most frozen of hearts.

MARCELLA SIMIEN AND DUSTIN REYNOLDS

A lot of locals know singer/songwriter

Marcella Simien’s story, including her roots in Mallet, Louisiana. “ ere’s a church and grocery store, and that’s about it,” she told us last year. “ at’s where my grandparents’ home is and where my dad grew up. e Simien family’s ancestry goes back hundreds of years there.” But Simien arrived in Memphis to study art and play the music she’s now celebrated for here. And not long a er that, her current romance began — sort of.

“I met Dustin way back in 2012, when I was 20 and he was 36 at the time,” she laughs.

“Nope!” interjects Dustin Reynolds, recalling that time and his reluctance to take things further then. A er leaving his native Oklahoma City for Austin, he wound up in New Orleans, which in turn led him to tour with Jack Oblivian and Harlan T. Bobo. “A er that I was like, ‘ at’s it.

ese are my dudes. I’m just going to be full-time Memphis.’ And everybody here was like, ‘So you’re from New Orleans! You’ve got to meet Marcella!’ I’d heard of Terrance [Simien] in New Orleans, just because he would play Jazz Fest a lot. I knew his name. So I met 20-year-old Marcella, and I thought she was charming and beautiful, but she needed to ripen on the vine. A little too young!”

“And a little too wild!” interjects Marcella. “So we kind of got our ya ya’s out, and then reconnected when we were a little more calm.” e singer has a gi for understatement: Getting their ya ya’s out actually took a full seven years.

“So I moved home to Oklahoma City for a while, got my shit together, saved some money,” Dustin explains. Meanwhile, the connection they’d felt stayed with both of them.

“I had kind of a crush on him when we met in 2012, but we just had a couple conversations and that was about it,” Marcella says of their rst encounter. “He was only in Memphis for a short time that year.

en in 2019, I reached out to him. I really wanted to see him. During that seven-year span, he was kind of in the back of my mind. Like he’d pop up in my mind and I’d think about him sometimes and wonder how he was doing and what he was up to. ose thoughts became so strong that the day a er New Year’s 2020, I drove up to Oklahoma City to visit him. And stayed for the weekend, and when it was time for me to leave, we didn’t want to be apart, so he drove his car back to Memphis with me! And he said he was just going to stay a few days —”

Dustin lets out a big laugh, then Marcella continues. “And we didn’t want to be

Marcella Simien and Dustin Reynolds

apart, so he just stayed!”

Looking back now, they feel they had two things going for them: their shared love of music and the weeks of lockdown due to Covid. e latter turned out to be a plus, romantically speaking. “It was actually kind of the perfect way to dive in,” re ects Marcella. “It’s sink or swim, and you’re either going to go so well together that you can tolerate and handle each other and know when to give each other space, or not. It’s the fast track to developing a relationship, and I think it strengthened our rst year together. We wouldn’t be where we are without that constant time.”

ey also made plenty of music during that time, including a single they just dropped, a cover of Johnny unders’ “I’m a Boy, I’m a Girl.” And making beautiful music together clearly makes their bond ever stronger, as becomes clear when, at the close of our interview, Marcella lets out: “We just got engaged in August!”

— Alex Greene

REGIS AND ASHLEY ELEBY

Twenty-four years ago, 19-year-old Regis Eleby’s grandma spotted a hiring sign at the Applebee’s on Union while they were out for lunch a er church. She urged him to apply, so he did. Soon, he was hired as an expeditor in the kitchen. “And that’s how it happened,” Regis recalls. at’s how he met Ashley.

Prior to meeting Regis, Ashley had been working at the Applebee’s for a year or so as a hostess. “I was quiet,” she says. “I saw him, but I just thought he was the new guy. He was very loud. Seriously. His job was to call the waiters to come get their food when it was ready in the kitchen and literally I could hear him when I was at the front door at the hostess station.”

Yet, as Ashley and Regis say, opposites attract. Plus, it didn’t hurt that Regis found her cute. But their di erences, they soon realized, complemented one another. “I think we’ve kind of rubbed o some on each other,” Ashley says.

“I balance her out, with her coming out a little bit more,” Regis says. “And she actually showed me ways and times when I need to pull back just a little bit. … She has taught me just generally in life, there’s a give and take.”

too. And so I think a lot of the traditional things that we saw growing up just kind of attracted us to each other ’cause it was so familiar.

“Like even I tell [Regis] — him and my grandfather share the same birthday — but I think sometimes the longer we had been together, I realized that they were so much alike. So it was kind of familiar in that way. It was just like some things felt too easy to not be real.”

longest time, ‘When y’all getting married?’ Imagine hearing that for 20-somethingplus years from everybody’s family and everybody you know.”

Medical Center. rough it all, laughter remains at the core of everything they do, whether that’s speaking in obscure movie quotes or gi ing each other with gag gi s.

“Once we really got to know each other,” Ashley adds, “it was like we were di erent, but we were somehow the same. We realized that [we shared] a lot of experiences from growing up. … We both had our grandparents kinda heavily in our life. I lived with my grandparents and my mom, and he stayed with his grandparents,

And things have remained easy for the two, even through di cult times. “With us being together forever,” Regis says, “we’ve gone and grown through normal things in life with each other — setbacks and celebrations. We’ve done that with each other over all of this time.

“And, like, when we got married [in 2018], it was not a formal thing, but kind of more like a celebration ’cause everybody was constantly asking us for the

“We’ve pretty much grown up together,” Ashley adds. “You change as a person, personalities and sometimes expectations change. If you don’t recognize that, that’s where the ripples come from. At times we’ve gone through that and had our ups and downs. And in those times we have realized that maybe this is just us from being together so long, changing and growing, so we gotta switch it up and gure out how to settle things.”

Still, the two have found fun in growing together, raising their dog Ro, traveling, embracing being homebodies, and, a er their days at Applebee’s, embarking on different careers: Regis as a lead department manager at Floor & Decor, and Ashley a case manager at Regional One Health

“I think anybody else would probably get sick of us,” Ashley says. “But at times where things just get rough and you wanna cry, we nd something funny out of it, so I think it de nitely eases a lot of the con ict. We gotta laugh.”

As the couple re ects on their 24 years together, from rocking baggy jeans to rocking gray hair and back problems, they look forward to the future and growing older together. “We just talk about [the past] and look at what we’ve been through and realize how that is helping us to focus on the future of what’s coming and just to be ready,” Regis says. “Ready to tackle and handle whatever comes.” —

continued on page 14

Abigail Morici

“It was just like some things felt too easy to not be real.”

Regis and Ashley Eleby

ALEX DA PONTE AND KAREN MULFORD

Alex da Ponte and Karen Mulford’s meet-cute wasn’t ushered in by a car ride from Chicago to New York or a summer romance set at the beach. Believe it or not, their relationship started with a slap.

Alex — a local musician — and Karen met at Ardent Studios, where a music video was being lmed.

“Karen was the star of it,” Alex explains. “She was having to slap people across the face to the beat of a song.”

Alex explains that as someone was running around Ardent Studios looking for other volunteers to be slapped, she was doing vocals for another project, and eventually became lucky enough to be slapped by Karen.

“Literally the rst time I met her, she slapped me across the face,” Alex says.

A er a few conversations, Karen says she thought Alex was cute and remembers reaching out to Alex to see if she was playing anywhere.

“I ended up going to one of her shows at the ‘old-old’ Hi Tone,” explains Karen. “ at’s kind of how we got to talking and kind of started to get to know each other a little bit better.”

“In true lesbian fashion, we moved in fairly quickly,” says Alex. “I think we knew when we had gotten through the whole summer and we were still wanting to be around each other all the time.”

April will mark 10 years since they’ve been together, and it also marks their seventh wedding anniversary. And a lot has changed since the couple rst crossed paths in 2012, including welcoming a child through IVF. While parenting has changed their lives, there has been a de ning characteristic of their relationship that they say has stayed true: silliness. Alex explains that it’s something they both share, and something that keeps things fun.

“I’ve learned a lot about parenthood through her,” Karen says. “ e rst diaper I’ve ever changed was my son’s diaper, and I was like 35. So seeing how she is with other kids, with our son, she’s just really good at just setting boundaries and sticking to them, and it being consistent.

authenticity.

Becoming parents has also provided an opportunity for the two to learn more about each other, and how to balance each other out with their strengths.

“It’s been funny to see both of us coming on this journey from completely di erent sides of the coin,” Alex says.

Alex grew up as the middle child of ve, while Karen grew up as the “baby of the family.”

“We have di erent strengths in that arena for sure,” she continues. “Swooping in when we see the other one needs to switch out. It’s been a good experience.”

Karen points to tasks outside of parenting, such as housework, that they’re able to level each other out with. Alex also shares that while she has been able to teach Karen about parenting, she’s been able to learn more about

“I think she helped me get more comfortable with being sincere and genuine,” says Alex. “I’m much more guarded in general, and I think I was more so, before Karen, very guarded, less open. I feel like I’ve become more open.”

ey’ve been able to help strengthen each other in areas that they may lack, but they also emphasize how the little things make a big di erence.

“If I get anxiety over calling the doctor, she’ll just do it for me. Always. It’s just something that she takes care of. And vice versa. It’s lots of little things like that where it’s like, ‘I got you,’ or ‘I’m here for you,’” Karen says.

ose little things are actually key in a successful relationship, Karen says.

“You never feel like you’re going to have to face something alone, for one. You’ve always got your teammate, your partner, but also if it’s something that you can’t handle then you know the other one is there,” Alex adds.

“It’s a tag-team e ort.” is is also a result of time, which the couple agrees has made their relationship stronger. Karen says that in the beginning they weren’t used to each other’s quirks and rhythms. But as they continue to get to know each other, it becomes so much easier.

— Kailynn Johnson

“You never feel like you’re going to have to face something alone.”

Alex da Ponte and Karen Mulford

February 16th

steppin’ out

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews Pilobolus

By Abigail Morici

In 1971, three Dartmouth students — a cross-country skier majoring in English, a fencer majoring in philosophy, and a pole vaulter on the pre-med track — enrolled in a dance composition class. ey had no dance experience, and their teacher had no faith in their technique. For an assignment, they created a comedic dance, themed around walking, on a squash court. Today, that dance, titled “Walklyndon,” is the oldest dance in the repertoire of Pilobolus, the dance company that formed out of this moment of exploratory movement.

February 17th

Decades later, Pilobolus still performs this dance, and will perform it this weekend at Germantown Performing Arts Center, along with selections from performances throughout its 50 years. “We’re like a TARDIS [from Doctor Who] in a way,” says Matt Kent, the group’s artistic director. Indeed, the pieces, ranging in length, take audiences through di erent times, taking inspiration from antiquity, to the Elizabethan era, to the present day.

e style is experimental, holding no rule of dance too high. A er all, as Kent says, “[ e original students] didn’t know what to do; they also didn’t know what not to do. And so they created a vibe of collaborative improvisation that yields non-traditional dance vocabulary.”

February 18th

For one of the pieces in this tour, Pilobolus has collaborated with Indigenous storyteller Darlene Kascak from the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation. “ e Schaghticoke Tribal Nation,” Kent explains, “are the people who have belonged to and cared for and lived and worked on the land that Pilobolus lives and works on now in Washington, Connecticut.”

e piece explores an Indigenous myth about the Wendigo, a cannibalistic monster created from greed. “It’s become a symbol of colonial greed and more recently corporate greed,” Kent says.

And while there are heavy moments like this in the show, there is also laughter. “ e world doesn’t need artists at this moment to tell everyone how shitty everything is — we already know that,” Kent says. “I hope that people leave our show feeling restored, that they’ve been able to laugh, that they’ve been able to feel that they’ve let something wash over them. at it gives them something to think about, but also that they can just kind of enjoy for the beauty that it is.”

Plus, for those looking to embrace the Pilobolus experience even further, the company is o ering a free class, open to anyone, dancers and non-dancers alike, ages 14 and up. “It’s so much fun,” Kent says. “And it is not a class where anyone is asked to do movement that they’re gonna fail at. It’s a no-fail zone. … Like I said, we came out of non-dancers, so we know a thing or two about having people be comfortably out of their comfort zone and nd ways to express themselves.”

To register for the class or purchase tickets to the performance, visit gpacweb.com.

PILOBOLUS MASTER CLASS, UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 11

TEDxMemphis

Museum of Science & History, Friday, February 10, 6:30-10 p.m., $25-$250 Art Dash has become one of the most exciting art events in the MidSouth. e concept is simple: enjoy some refreshments, browse the wide variety of art across di erent mediums, and dash to get what you love. is year’s Art Dash is back and bigger than ever with over 400 pieces of art set against the gorgeous backdrop of the Pink Palace Mansion with music by the talented emcee DJ AD. e Dash features work by local, regional, and national artists.

Proceeds bene t Friends For Life, whose mission is to prevent the spread of HIV and help those affected by HIV/AIDS live well.

Crosstown eater, Saturday, February 11, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., $75 TEDx events offer an opportunity for people to come together and share in the deep discussion and connection that characterize TED talks. The lineup of speakers brings intentionally diverse perspectives and topics to the stage every year. This year’s theme is “Truth or Dare?” and will explore bravery through the lens of the classic party game we all experienced in childhood.

Hear from the 2023 speakers with talks ranging from the benefits of garden tourism and the psychology of interior design to leadership lessons from horses. Find out more and purchase tickets at tedx-memphis.com.

TINA: e Tina Turner Musical Orpheum eatre, Tuesday, February 14-19, $29-$125

From humble beginnings in Nutbush, Tennessee, to her transformation into the global Queen of Rock-and-Roll, Tina Turner didn’t just break the rules; she rewrote them. is new hit stage musical, presented in association with Tina Turner herself, reveals the untold story of a woman who dared to defy the bounds of her age, gender, and race.

Featuring her much loved songs, TINA: e Tina Turner Musical is written by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Katori Hall and directed by the internationally acclaimed Phyllida Lloyd.

A.M.-1 P.M., FREE.

PILOBOLUS, GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 8-10 P.M., $25-$75.

Art Dash

VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES February 9th - 15th

PHOTO: ROBERT WHITMAN “On the Nature of ings”

MUSIC By Michael Sangiacomo

The Kids Are All Right

Memphis was heavily present at this year’s Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City.

The folk music old guard that dominated the Folk Alliance International conferences for the past 35 years has passed the guitar to a new generation that is younger, energized, and mostly female and non-white.

And the kids are all right.

In the BC years (before Covid), the annual ve-day conference that draws more than 1,000 musicians from around the world was largely the province of aging performers and music lovers.

is year, the beat has changed. Most of the performers were young, female, and non-white, lending a whole new energy to the event that was held this past weekend in Kansas City, Missouri. e LGBTQIA+ community was also well-represented.

Memphis was everywhere, chosen as the rst “City of Honor,” with Memphis-oriented workshops, speakers, and a slew of talented performers including Amy LaVere, Bailey Bigger, Talibah Sa ya, Yella P of Memphissippi Sounds, violinist Alice Hasen, and the brilliant Aquarian Blood.

Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, poet, and actor Valerie June astounded with her keynote speech that said love and hope can defeat hate and fear. As she spoke about the global crisis, the “technological hacking of the human mind and body,” and nuclear war, she abruptly stopped and ashed her trademark smile. She walked to center stage, picked up a banjo, and played a delicate version of “What a Wonderful World” in de ance of the doomsayers.

Wherever she walked, she was treated like royalty. Women and children rushed up and hugged her.

She now lives in Brooklyn but said she would always consider Memphis her home. Like the rest of us, June went from concert to concert to hear the young artists.

e annual gathering is designed to allow music critics, agents, disc jockeys, and concert and festival bookers to get up close and personal with new artists and discover new talent.

It’s also a chance for singers and musicians to strut their stu in the smaller, intimate venues of the Westin Hotel and gather new fans. ere are organized workshops and concerts during the day and evening, though much of the action started at 10:30 p.m. and continued almost to daybreak in hundreds of hotel rooms converted into

makeshi music spots. Sometimes a performer played for just one or two people, a memorable experience.

ere were a few older performers here, like Tom Paxton and Janis Ian, who acted in more of a non-performing, advisory capacity. Ian received a well-deserved lifetime achievement award. Paxton said he was just there to be inspired by the young people.

Instead of the usual performances by folk icons like Livingston Taylor, John McCutcheon, and Eliza Gilkyson, visitors chose between blues singers from Memphis, storytellers from Ireland, brash bands from Australia, and new Americana voices from everywhere.

e toughest challenge is choosing who to see since every concert choice means missing hundreds of other mini concerts going on elsewhere.

In one, Josh White Jr. seemed a little ba ed when his co-performer, 92-year-old jazz genius, composer, and orchestra conductor David Amram asked him to play “House of the Rising Sun” a second time. But he smiled and acquiesced.

Amram impulsively invited young musicians he just met hours earlier to join them. Violinist Rahel-Liis Aasrand of Estonia and percussionist Natalia Miranda from Guatemala nervously joined Amram and White in an impromptu jazz number, as if they had played together for years.

Amy LaVere has a voice much larger than her lithe frame which was dwarfed by the stand-up bass she played. Her voice is at once sweet and powerful, and her accompanying guitarist and violinist could not have

been better.

Alice Hasen and showed just how versatile the violin could be, switching gears from classical to folk to almost hip-hop.

ere was music around every corner. In one room, Brit Shane Hennessy played an instrumental tribute to Chet Atkins. In another, the laid-back Aquarian Blood’s J.B. Horrell played the guitar upright between his knees while his wife, Laurel, sang along.

And the talent goes on and on, stretching out through the halls and into the early morning hours as it expands the de nition of folk music far, far beyond the notion of a guy with a guitar.

For more information on the Folk Alliance and how to attend next year’s conference, go to folk.org.

PHOTOS: KAREN PULFER FOCHT (top) [l to r] Mark Edgar Stuart, Amy LaVere, and Will Sexton chat between performances at the Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City.

(bottom) Valerie June

AFTER DARK: Live Music Schedule February 9 - 15

Amber Rae Dunn

Friday, Feb. 10, 7 p.m.

JERRY LEE LEWIS’ CAFE & HONKY

TONK

Andrew Cabigao

ursday, Feb. 9, 6:30 p.m.

TIN ROOF

An Evening with Don Bryant and the Bo-Keys $37.50. Friday, Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m.

THE HALLORAN CENTRE

Black Love Concert

Black Love Live is a live soul concert that feels like a family reunion! e concert features performances Gerald Richardson, J.Buck, and Courtney Little. $45-$95.

Sunday, Feb. 12, 5:30 p.m.

THE ORPHEUM

Cody Clark

Friday, Feb. 10, 10 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Denver Massey

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 5:30 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Grayson

Friday, Feb. 10, 6:30 p.m.;

Saturday, Feb. 11, 6:30 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Jarred Kingray

Saturday, Feb. 11, 3:15 p.m.;

Saturday, Feb. 11, 10 p.m.

TIN ROOF

John Easton

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 6 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Love and All That Jazz

Live jazz by Jeremy Shrader and his quartet. Sunday, Feb. 12, 11 a.m.

THE CHURCH OF THE RIVER - FIRST

UNITARIAN CHURCH OF MEMPHIS

Love is the Message

An evening lled with lovethemed music from the iconic DJ Rashida. ursday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m.

CENTRAL STATION HOTEL

Memphis Songwriters Assoc. Monthly Meeting

Monday, Feb. 13, 7 p.m.

THE ARCADE RESTAURANT

Rodell McCord

Sunday, Feb. 12, 7 p.m.;

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 8 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Tennessee Songwriter

Week Qualifying Round

Friday, Feb. 10, 6:30 p.m.

SOUTH MAIN SOUNDS

Trevor Berryhill

Saturday, Feb. 11, noon.

TIN ROOF

Abby K, Memphis Mojo

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 9 p.m.

HI TONE

Bush’s Benefit Show

Saturday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m.

HI TONE

Carlos Ecos Band

Friday, Feb. 10, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Carver Commodore & Brother Moses

$12-$15. ursday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m. GROWLERS

Certified Lover’s Bass Therapy

Featuring GrayMatter, Odd Wilson, Don Twan, and Potion2Poison. ere will be vendors, live painting, and lasers. $10-$15. Saturday, Feb. 11, 9 p.m.

THE CAT’S MEOW

Clancy Jones, Pink Williams, Dandelion Williams

Sunday, Feb. 12, 9 p.m.

HI TONE

Cognate Souls, Beeler, Life Explicit

Saturday, Feb. 11, 9 p.m.

HI TONE

Colter Wall After Party with Daniel Mason

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 10:30 p.m.

B-SIDE

Colter Wall with Special Guest Vincent Neil

Emerson

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 8 p.m.

MINGLEWOOD HALL

Cyrena Wages

Saturday, Feb. 11, 8 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Devil Train

ursday, Feb. 9, 9:30 p.m.

B-SIDE

Fuck Cupid: A Variety Show

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 9 p.m.

HI TONE

General Labor, Loose Opinions, Etta Havoc

Friday, Feb. 10, 10 p.m.

B-SIDE

Highly Suspect

With special guest Dead Poet Society. Friday, Feb. 10, 7 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Iris Collective: Intersections

This chamber concert will feature music by Black and Chinese composers.

$30-$35. Thursday, Feb. 9, 7:30-9:30 p.m.

CROSSTOWN THEATER

JD Westmorland Band

in A- at Major, Op. 105. $10$55. Sunday, Feb. 12, 3-5 p.m.

Kevin & Bethany Paige

Friday, Feb. 10, 10 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Late Night Cardigan, The Family Ghost, Caryatids, and droneroom

Modern Masters Jazz Series: Khari Allen Lee Khari Allen Lee has arisen as one of the most in-demand saxophonists, educators, composers, and multiinstrumentalists of his generation. $10-$25. Sunday, Feb. 12, 6:30-9 p.m.

THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS

Rachel Maxann

Friday, Feb. 10, 8 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Rock the Boat

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Seeing Red

Saturday, Feb. 11, 10 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Seize & Desist, The Smokin’ Jays, Robenx, Stay Fashionable, Turn

$10. Friday, Feb. 10, 7 p.m.

GROWLERS

Softcult with Soft Blue Shimmer

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 7 p.m.

GROWLERS

Superbowl Party with Georgia

Sunday, Feb. 12, 4 p.m.

B-SIDE

Tanner Usrey with Rowdy Franks $15-$20. Saturday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m.

GROWLERS

The Black Opry Revue

Black Opry is a home for Black artists and Black fans of country, blues, folk, and Americana music. Free.

Friday, Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m.

THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS

The Pinch

Sunday, Feb. 12, 8 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

The Shotgunbillys

ursday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Turnt

Sunday, Feb. 12, 2-5 p.m.

LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE

Valentine’s at Memphis Current

Featuring Spacer, Joybomb, and Flirting with Sincerity. $10. Friday, Feb. 10, 6 p.m.

MEMPHIS CURRENT

Will Tucker Band

Sunday, Feb. 12, 3:30 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Allman Brothers Tribute

Friday, Feb. 10, 8 p.m.

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

WALRUS

Friday, Feb. 10, 9 p.m.

SWANKY’S TACO SHOP EAST MEMPHIS

Monday, Feb. 13, 7 p.m.

B-SIDE

Joe Restivo 4

Saturday, Feb. 11, 11 a.m.; Sunday, Feb. 12, 11 a.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Juilliard String Quartet Program: Beethoven, String Quartet No. 16 in F, Op. 135; Ravel, Quartet in F Major; and Dvorak, String Quartet No. 14

CROSSTOWN THEATER

Karaoke of Love: with Good Ole’ Tevin Sing, drink, and dance with karaoke master Good Ole’ Tevin. ursday, Feb. 9, 7-11:30 p.m.

MEMPHIS CURRENT

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 7:30 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Laundry Bats

Saturday, Feb. 11, 10 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Lipstick Stains, Joybomb

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 9 p.m.

HI TONE

Marcella & Her Lovers

– Album Listening Event

Hear the new album by Marcella & Her Lovers. Meet the band and pick up a copy of the album on vinyl or CD.

ursday, Feb. 9, 6:30 p.m.

MEMPHIS LISTENING LAB

Marcella Simien Album

Release

Friday, Feb. 10, 10 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Memphis Knights Big Band

Monday, Feb. 13, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

The Swade Diablos

Saturday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

Cecile McLorin Salvant $30. ursday, Feb. 9, 7:30-9:30 p.m.

GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

PHOTO: SHAWN MICHAEL JONES Cecile McLorin Salvant at GPAC

PHOTO: ANNA ROSE WILLIAMS Spacer at Memphis Current

CALENDAR of EVENTS: February 9 - 15

ART AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS

“2023 Mid-South Scholastic Art Awards”

Exhibition featuring more than 135 artworks by school youth. Through Feb. 19.

“AI Artificial Intelligence: Your Mind & The Machine”

Learn how AI touches lives — now and in the future. Through May 6. MUSEUM

“As It Is, As It Could Be”

A solo exhibition featuring new paintings by Ethiopian artist Dereje Demissie. Through Feb. 28.

UREVBU CONTEMPORARY

“Black Alchemy: Backwards/Forwards

Revisited”

A solo exhibition by photographer Aaron Turner that explores the depths of music through visual art. Through March 18.

TONE

“Community Art Gallery: Southern Buildings”

Series of small-scale watercolor paintings by artist David

The Mid-South’s brightest student artists are featured in the Brooks’ new exhibition.

Rawlinson. Through March 4

MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE

HISTORY

“Evocative Moments”

Exhibition of work by Marc Wheetley. Sunday, Feb. 12-March 31.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

“Gentle Awakenings, The Art of Keith Burns”

Exhibition of woodwork by Keith Burns. Through April 22.

MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE

HISTORY

“Global Glimpses”

Exhibit of snapshots from the travel scrapbook of Will and Sarah Bettendorf. Through Feb. 22.

ST. GEORGE’S ART GALLERY AT ST. GEORGE’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH

“Jeanne Seagle: Of This Place”

Exhibition of Jeanne Seagle’s perceptive drawings. Through April 9.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

PREVENT OPIOID OVERDOSE CARRY NARCAN

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, VISIT EVENTS.MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL

“Jet Lag”

An exhibition of works from 16 of the artists comprising the airport’s Concourse B. Through Feb. 24.

THE MARTHA AND ROBERT FOGELMAN GALLERIES OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS

“Salmon Skin Fried … and Other Delicacies”

Exhibition of work by Sharon Havelka. Through Feb. 25.

BEVERLY + SAM ROSS GALLERY

“Shared Spaces: Works by Rob Gonzo & Collabs with George Hunt”

Featuring pieces that were sketched by Hunt before his death and later finished with paint and collage by Gonzo. Through March 4.

BUCKMAN ARTS CENTER AT ST.

MARY’S SCHOOL

“Sons and Daughters”

Exhibition of Anne Siems’ work. Through Feb. 11.

DAVID LUSK GALLERY

“Tarred Healing”

A photographic exhibition by Cornell Watson. Through March 20.

continued on page 20

FEBRUARY 16 | 7PM Minimum

PHOTO: COURTESY SYDNEY WICKENS

continued from page 19

“The Art of Friendship”

Show that features artwork by Danny Broadway, Wanda Donati, Leatha Frost, Lou Hoover, Laurie Samuels, and Vicki Shipley. Through Feb. 28.

MEMPHIS JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER

“The Ecstasy of Influence: Midsouth Artists Centering the Margins”

Featuring Ahmad George, Maritza Davila, Tommy Kha, Richard Lou, and D’Angelo Lovell Williams. Through March 10.

CLOUGH-HANSON GALLERY

“When Arrows Meet”

Exhibition of work by Nick Canterucci. Through Feb. 18.

MEDICINE FACTORY

“Who Is That Artist?”

Visitors can explore interactive components created by Johana Moscoso, Karla Sanchez, and Danielle Sierra, who speak to Latinx identity, intersectionality, and transcendence. Through April 16.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

“Young Gifted & Dope”

A Lyfe is DOPE x Alive Paint collaboration. Through Feb. 14.

ART HAPPENINGS

Art Dash

The concept is simple: Enjoy some champagne, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres, browse the wide variety of art across different mediums, and dash to get what you love. $25-$250. Friday, Feb. 10, 6:30-10 p.m.

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

Lunch & Learn: The Art of Woodturning

Enjoy an introductory presentation about wood-turning and learn how to get started close to home. Thursday, Feb. 9, noon-1 p.m.

MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE HISTORY

Ron Fuchs, Chinese Blue and White

Porcelain: The First Global Brand

A talk by formerly senior curator at the Reeves Museum of Ceramics at Washington and Lee University, Fuchs, who brings new perspective to collectors the world over. Free. Thursday, Feb. 9, 6:30 p.m.

MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART

“Tend To” Opening Celebration

Opening reception of “Tend To,” a flora filled group exhibition featuring works from Memphis-based artists Joel Parsons, S.E. Cornejo, and Verushka Dior of The Mane Wildling.

Saturday, Feb. 11, 1-4 p.m.

URBAN ART COMMISSION

COMEDY

Roast Battle on the Bluff

Hosted by Nathan Jaxon. $15. Friday, Feb. 10, 8 p.m.

THE COMEDY JUNT

Tyler Chronicles & Friends

Most known for his off-the-cuff free-styling flow of comedy, Tyler Chronicles has opened for comedians such as Cedric The Entertainer, Rodney Perry, Joe Torry, and a host of others.

$22-$40. Friday, Feb. 10-Feb. 11.

CHUCKLES COMEDY HOUSE

Willie Brown & Friends

Willie Brown is a nationally known ventriloquist who dabbles in topics from the family and church to how to deal with the homeless to current events.

$25-$50. Tuesday, Feb. 14, 8 p.m.

CHUCKLES COMEDY HOUSE

COMMUNITY

Memphis Matters

Join Playback Memphis for an evening of storytelling, music, and ritual. $10-$30. Saturday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m.

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH

EXPO/SALES

Repticon

The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 For Release Friday, January 11, 2019

This family-oriented, fun-filled event offers guests the opportunity to learn about animals

Crossword

Edited by Will Shortz No. 1207

not normally seen in local pet stores. $6-$15.

Saturday, Feb. 11-Feb. 12.

LANDERS CENTER

FAMILY

All You Need Is Love: Homeschool Day

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with the Brooks and learn how artists have expressed and captured love throughout the ages in our galleries. Artmaking activities and fun are a given! Free.

Thursday, Feb. 9, 10 a.m.

MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART

Free Family Day at Stax

Special programming for young people including live music, arts and crafts, snacks, games, activities, and more for young people of all ages. Saturday, Feb. 11, 1-4 p.m.

STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC

¡Viva el Teatro! Bilingual Theater with Cazateatro (all ages)

Explore fun bilingual theater activities for the whole family. This is your chance to practice Espanol! Free. Saturday, Feb. 11, 10 a.m.-noon.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

FILM

End of the World Double Feature

Two legendary early animes in one dark double feature: Wicked City and Fist of the North Star. 18+. Free. Thursday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

A Sapphic Valentine’s Dinner & A

Movie: But I’m a Cheerleader

Bring your loved one/ones and watch a wonderful film while you enjoy a delicious three-course meal, specifically designed for the occasion. 18+. Tuesday, Feb. 14, 6 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

MicroCinema: 60th Ann Arbor Film

Festival Shorts Tour

Screening a program of shorts from the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the oldest avant-garde and experimental film festival in North America. Wednesday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m.

CROSSTOWN THEATER

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Absent Friends bring you a reason to love this cult classic with costumes, props, and callbacks. $10. Friday, Feb. 10, 11:30 p.m.

THE EVERGREEN THEATRE

Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey

The days of adventures and merriment have come to an end, and Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet embark on a bloody rampage. Wednesday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m.

MALCO PARADISO CINEMA GRILL & IMAX

FOOD AND DRINK

Dinner on Stage

An inside peek into the stories and history of the historic Orpheum Theatre. $80. Thursday, Feb. 9, 6 p.m.

THE ORPHEUM No Show Ball

Benefitting the Forrest Spence Fund, the No Show Ball comes to you in the form of a dinner in a cooler bag dropped off at your front door. $125. Saturday, Feb. 11, 9-10 a.m.

THE SHOPS OF CHICKASAW GARDENS

Whiskey, Wine, and Chocolates

This beloved event features perfect pairings of chocolates by Memphis-based chocolatier Phillip Ashley Rix with select whiskeys, wines, and craft beers. $60-$75. Friday, Feb. 10, 7-10 p.m.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

LECTURE

African American History & Elmwood Cemetery: An Online Presentation

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 7,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Learn about the African-American history at rest in Elmwood Cemetery. $20. Saturday, Feb. 11, 10:30-11:30 a.m.

ELMWOOD CEMETERY

continued on page 22

MARSHALL ARTS GALLERY

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• Must be able to attend 4-6 study visits at the research site over approximately 10-16 weeks

• There will be compensation for time and travel.

2022-2023 SEASON

CALENDAR: FEBRUARY 9 - 15

PHOTO: CHASE YARWOODGUSTAFSON

New Moon Theatre presents Misery, based on the novel by Stephen King. Performances run February 10th-26th.

Greg and Liz. $30. Friday, Feb. 10-Feb. 19.

THE EVERGREEN THEATRE

The Scottsboro Boys

A retelling of the landmark trial of nine falsely accused Black teenagers. Through Feb. 19.

PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE

TINA: The Tina Turner Musical

BRAVO AMICI

FEB 10 / 7:30 PM

Bravo Amici performs world-wide. They sing Opera —Broadway — Popular music. They’ve performed for the Queen, Nelson Mandela, Sir Elton John & more. You’ll be blown-away!

901.385.5588

FEB 25 / 7:30 PM

Direct from Ireland, Dervish has played the globe. Their charismatic stage presence includes traditional & modern Irish music. Get your Irish fi x on with Dervish!

For help, call the Tennessee REDLINE

1-800-889-9789

continued from page 20

Love on the Rocks: Victorian Monument Symbolism

During this indoor, seated presentation, explore the meaning of the symbols in the cemetery’s stonework.

$20. Sunday, Feb. 12, 2-3 p.m.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

PERFORMING ARTS

Devon’s Dollhouse: The Purple Party Devon Davenport Phillips welcomes you to Devon’s Dollhouse: The Purple Party!

Thursday, Feb. 9, 10 p.m.

DRU’S PLACE

Pilobolus

Presenting works dynamically reimagined for a never-beforeseen Pilobolus experience..

Saturday, Feb. 11, 8-10 p.m.

GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS

CENTER

Poleluminati 14:

Valentine’s Revue

A variety show that brings you Memphis’ hottest pole performers, burlesque and bellydance babes, dazzling dancers, and aerial artists, all for one night only. $19.

Sunday, Feb. 12, 7 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Siudy Garrido

Flamenco Company

Presenting contemporary interpretations incorporating eight dancers and an ensemble of virtuoso musicians.

Friday, Feb. 10, 7 p.m.

BUCKMAN ARTS CENTER AT ST.

MARY’S SCHOOL

SPECIAL EVENTS

7th Annual Tilted

Hearts Pinball Tournament

Join the best pinball players in the Mid-South and compete on classic games. All skill levels are welcome! $10.

Saturday, Feb. 11, 1 p.m.

FLIP SIDE MEMPHIS

TEDxMemphis

TEDxMemphis’ annual conference will embrace thinking that propels us forward and stirs conversations in communities. This year’s theme is “Truth or Dare?” Saturday, Feb. 11

CROSSTOWN THEATER

SPORTS

901 Wrestling

Brothers Chris Ward and Shane Shoffner face off.

Saturday, Feb. 11, 7 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Memphis vs. Temple

Sunday, Feb. 12, 11 a.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Grizzlies vs. Minnesota

Timberwolves

Friday, Feb. 10, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Grizzlies vs. Utah Jazz

Wednesday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

THEATER

Cyrano de Bergerac

Rostand’s Cyrano is a hero whose depth of love, humor, courage, and vulnerability belies his outward appearance. But will his secret love, Roxanne, recognize this before it’s too late? Through Feb. 19.

TENNESSEE SHAKESPEARE

COMPANY

Macbeth

The powerful and dramatic William Shakespeare tragedy ascends to the stage. $25. Through Feb. 19.

THEATRE MEMPHIS

Misery

A successful romance novelist, Paul, is rescued from a car crash by his number-one fan, Annie, and wakes up captive in her secluded home. Through Feb. 26.

THEATREWORKS

ROE

Lisa Loomer’s play weaves the stories of multiple women and men involved in the movement leading up to the Roe v. Wade decision and its aftermath. Through Feb. 19.

CIRCUIT PLAYHOUSE

Shakin’ the Mess Outta

Misery

This timeless coming-of-age tale explores passage into womanhood, race, and rituals in the 1960s South. $30-$35.

Through Feb. 26.

HATTILOO THEATRE

The Loves II

Temperatures rise, and relationships are turned upside down on a television production of the charismatic husband and wife team of

A jukebox musical featuring the music of Tina Turner and depicting her life from her humble beginnings to her transformation into a rockand-roll star. Tuesday, Feb. 14-Feb. 19.

ORPHEUM THEATRE

VALENTINE’S EVENTS

Date Night in the Park Dinner and dessert will be provided as the park shows the movie The Lost City. Free. Saturday, Feb. 11, 6 p.m.

MARQUETTE PARK

Love Wild Brunch : A Dining Experience with African Penguins

A romantic brunch date with special penguin keeper chats and a meet-and-greet with the zoo’s feathered friends. $80$100. Saturday, Feb. 11, 11 a.m.

MEMPHIS ZOO

Notez&Flow: The Love Edition

Taking you on a journey through R&B, jazz, some of your favorite tunes, and comedy. $65. Tuesday, Feb. 14, 7 p.m.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre Party

Valentine’s Day can be a mess no matter if you are single, dating, or married, so dress as if it’s 1929 … Chicago. Saturday, Feb. 11, 8 p.m.

BLIND BEAR SPEAKEASY

Valentine’s Day Dinner & Music

Grab your favorite person for an unforgettable cruise down the Mississippi on Valentine’s Weekend! Boarding is at 6 p.m. with return at 9 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10-Feb. 14.

MEMPHIS RIVERBOATS

Valentine’s Plant and Sip Social

Enjoy refreshments while learning a little bit about getting cacti and succulents to thrive. Then arrange the perfect heart-shaped planter. $45-$70. Thursday, Feb. 9, 6 p.m.

URBAN EARTH GARDENS, NURSERY & MARKET

Valentine’s Vibes Drinks, food, hookah, good vibes. Playing the hottest Afrobeats, hip-hop, dancehall, R&B, Latin music, reggae, and more. 21+. Saturday, Feb. 11, 9 p.m.

THE GENRE

FOOD By Michael Donahue

Eating Healthy at Mosa

Customers have all manner of options at the Asian bistro — from sautéed chicken to grilled salmon.

Istopped at Mosa Asian Bistro because I wanted Rainbow Panang Curry, one of my favorites. But I didn’t want it with fried chicken or fried shrimp.

at’s when I was told I could get it with grilled salmon. Salmon?

It’s now one of my favorite dishes. It also comes with tofu, but I’m going to stick with the salmon.

I asked Michelle Pao-Levine, daughter of chef/owner Eddie Pao, how the salmon came about. Customers “wanted to eat a healthier and lighter version, so we had to really think about how we can o er this dish with a seafood portion, but not have it be fried,” says Pao-Levine, who, along with her brother, Alex Pao, is a managing partner at Mosa.

sauce over a white sh, it almost drowns it. But when a piece of salmon is put with it, it stays nice and just delicious.”

is is not a skimpy portion. “It’s a whole let of salmon. It’s not cut up in chunks.”

e sauce includes “freshly-squeezed citrus, coconut curry, panang curry, lime leaves. Lemongrass is in there.”

Pao-Levine wouldn’t tell me the secret ingredient that makes it sweet. “ at’s one ingredient I’m not going to mention.

“I can literally just eat the sauce with the rice. It’s that kind of sauce. A lot of people ask me for extra rice ’cause they love that sauce so much.”

Mosa o ers other healthy options. Customers can substitute grilled or sautéed chicken or shrimp in Rainbow Panang Curry and other dishes. “Basically, that dish can be made lighter and healthier, and I think we can please all di erent palates.”

e restaurant’s classic Szechuan Chicken also can be adapted for those “who don’t want the protein in it to be grilled or fried.”

Typically, the protein, whether it’s chicken, meat, or shrimp, is “going to be fried and then tossed and cooked with a sauce and the veggies.”

But they can “sauté the grilled chicken, shrimp, or beef. We can do it all.”

And, Levine says, “Certain dishes we can steam the veggies and our protein and put the sauce on the side.”

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“We, actually, used to o er it with a grouper or halibut. A white aky sh. And we used to fry it. We’d put it in a batter almost like sh and chips. e same batter you’d use for chicken and shrimp.”

But customers wanted something healthier. “People who like to eat sh always asked us if we could o er a nonfried version of the sh. But a cod or a halibut non-fried, if we were to sear it in a wok, it would just ake up. It wasn’t rm enough of a sh meat. Using a salmon let really works great because we can either put it in a panini press and cook it that way or put it in a wok. Either way it’s caramelized and seared all the way through.

“We discovered salmon, the avor of a salmon let, took to the Rainbow Panang sauce. Other types of sh didn’t seem to as much. When you pour all the

ey also can also reduce the sauce in dishes, including their Pad ai noodle dish or a broccoli with garlic sauce and chicken dish. “Asking for lighter sauce reduces the salt by half, but you still get the avor. And you’re cutting down on your sodium and sugar.”

ey also adapt their Su Chai Vegetables stir fry. “Like a vegetable medley stir fried, cooked in a light, white garlic sauce. We can take that and put the sauce on the side. So, almost any of our stir fries can be steamed with sauce on the side.”

Pao-Levine eats at Mosa every day she works. “I’ve been at the restaurant over 15 years. e way I eat is to cut down on my sauce.

“We make amazing sauces. at’s what Eddie does best. He makes over 27 sauces at this restaurant. It’s about enjoying the sauces. And I think people like coming to us because we can cook vegetables and make them delicious because we have so many delicious sauces. But you can still eat healthier.”

Mosa Asian Bistro is at 850 South White Station Road; (901) 683-8889

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PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE Rainbow Panang Curry

Scottsboro Boys

In attempting to describe Playhouse on the Square’s production of Scottsboro Boys to a friend, I found the concept of the show somewhat di cult to explain. Scottsboro Boys is the retelling of the case of nine falsely accused Black teenagers, which eventually became one of the sparks that lit the re of the Civil Rights Movement. e show is a musical, which may come as a surprise given its heavy subject matter. And not just a musical, but a vaudeville-style variety show which features minstrelsy as an intentional part of its social commentary. It’s not so much a story within a story as it is a performance within a performance.

Director Jared omas Johnson says, “ e construct of the show is fun, makes you laugh, and is entertaining so it hides the ugly truth in plain sight.”

e play begins as the reverie of A Lady, who is eventually revealed to be Rosa Parks. We are quickly introduced to the mistral concept of the performance, as well as the theme “speak the truth.” Parks is one thread running throughout the show, a viewer alongside the members of the audience. Our guides, so to speak, are the two zany, almost slapstick characters of Mr. Bones and Mr. Tambo, who play many of the various white characters in the story. Several cast members change characters throughout the play, showcasing dexterity, humor, and vocal talent by the frequent character shi s. Similarly, the set, made up mostly by the simple repurposing of chairs, changes o en. e back of a chair may be reimagined as bars of a cell or the caboose of a train. We rst see the nine boys riding a train, which gets stopped by two policemen. Two white girls, who the policemen correctly surmise are sex workers, then accuse the boys of rape in order to avoid being jailed themselves for prostitution.

As Johnson puts it, “When dealing with any subject, humor has a way of healing and feeling like a hug, an embrace. I think the show is designed to let you laugh, smile, and enjoy the talents of our Black artists who have cra ed some of the best performances I have seen from Black actors in a very long time. e humor makes the characters real people, people I wanna get to know.”

e actors succeed in balancing the juxtaposition of humor and solemnity, masterfully juggling switches between characters, complicated choreography, and powerhouse vocals — o en all at the same

time. Music director Tammy Holt praises the cast, saying, “It’s rare and invigorating to have the opportunity to put that many Black male voices together on stage, and these men can sing! We really worked to build community so that the bond would be displayed in their performance, and I think it truly does. is cast is heavily committed and engaged in bringing this story to life, so that’s what you see and hear in every note.”

e ensemble numbers throughout the show were a true delight to take in, layered with adroit harmonies and emotion. My friend, Rhett Ortego, and I were both especially moved by “Southern Days.” A er the show, Rhett, who has told me before that he normally doesn’t care for musicals, said, “I almost started crying during the one about home.”

Perhaps the most unusual thing about this play is that by the time the cast lines up for the nal bow, the overall feeling is that of being upli ed. One might expect to feel overly saddened by the story, but I found that was not the case. And Johnson and Holt both spoke about how important it was to the cast and crew to present this story through a lens of joy.

“We have made a very earnest e ort to make the show upli ing, inspirational, and joyous despite the subject matter,” Johnson says. “So I hope folks see there is joy in Black experience at all times.”

Holt adds, “Simply see it, process it, and examine how you will walk forward from the experience.”

Scottsboro Boys runs at Playhouse on the Square through February 19th.

PHOTO: BILL SIMMERS

Mr. Bones and Mr. Tambo

Playhouse on the Square production is somber yet

By Coco June

February Is for Lovers

An exploration of The Lovers card in tarot.

February might be the shortest month of the year, but it is packed with meaning. February is the month of love, hosting Valentine’s Day on the 14th. What better tarot card to discuss this week than The Lovers card?

In tarot, The Lovers is card number six of the Major Arcana. The Major Arcana section of tarot represents the big picture in our lives, marking milestone events or major turning points. The Lovers card is about love, but there is so much more to it than romance.

To get a fuller understanding of The Lovers, let’s look at its number, six. Sixes in tarot reflect our journey to harmony and unity, not just with ourselves but with others. The number six calls us to engage with society. As we learn and grow through our interactions, we change. The number six of The Lovers card tells us that, going forward, things will be different, and our experiences with The Lovers card will leave us transformed.

ability to choose to be in a relationship with them — whether it’s a friendship, business, or romantic relationship. With The Lovers card, you are choosing love — and choosing the person you want to express that love with. The Lovers also represents those choices we make when we truly desire something. The attraction and allure of the card doesn’t end with people but can symbolize decisions we make in our lives.

Imagine that you are content with your life. You go about your days not seeking any changes. Then, out of the blue, you see a job posting for a job you’ve always wanted. Now that you know your dream job is available, do you apply and pursue it, even though it means changing your career? Or do you ignore it? The excitement and the almost spiritual pull of that dream job is an example of the choices we have to make with The Lovers.

With a name like The Lovers, it’s natural that love is the first thing we think of when we see this card. If you are looking for romance in your life and you see The Lovers in a reading, it is a good indication that what you are looking for is in your future. As an attraction card, The Lovers represents those feelings of excitement, hopefulness, and joy of new love. It represents the allure and passion of love that can be hard to define. The Lovers represents a romantic partnership between people that is complementary and uplifting to both parties. If you are considering taking your relationship to the next level, The Lovers card is a welcome indication that it’s time to get more serious and that your relationship is well-matched.

The Lovers card is also about choices. With each person we meet, we have the

All choices come with a consequence — good, bad, or indifferent. If we make the choice to pursue our dream job, then we may find ourselves changing careers when we didn’t plan on it. We might find ourselves with pressure to relocate. We now have to accept and deal with the consequences of the choice we made. The Lovers is about moving toward a more harmonious lifestyle, which means things in our life will change, and those changes can be lasting. There may be a sacrifice you must make in order to have this dream. In some ways, all commitment is a sacrifice, but one made for the right reason or person can help you grow as an individual.

The next time you receive a reading and The Lovers card appears, get ready! The person, thing, or situation you’ve been manifesting is on its way. Now you have to make sure you are ready for the love and the choices it will bring into your life. Until your ideal partner or situation arrives, live your life in harmony and unity with yourself and others so that you are in a space of love and ready to receive your blessing that The Lovers card brings.

Emily Guenther is a co-owner of The Broom Closet metaphysical shop. She is a Memphis native, professional tarot reader, ordained Pagan clergy, and dog mom.

SPONSORED BY

OF THE WEIRD

By the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication

Animal Antics

A live nativity scene in Carolina Beach, an island community about 140 miles southeast of Raleigh, North Carolina, was missing its cows on Dec. 4, the News & Observer reported. The two cows escaped their pen at Seaside Chapel around 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 3, police explained, and were apparently so determined to get away that they ended up in the Cape Fear River. Carolina Beach police were joined by state park rangers and a K-9 with special herding skills as they hauled the soggy bovines back to shore. [News & Observer, 12/7/2022]

Bright Idea

A homeowner in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, was puzzled when he discovered five bullet holes in the siding of his house, along with another in his son’s bedroom window, the Grand Forks Herald reported. Police were summoned, and they questioned a next-door neighbor, Michael James Powers, 76, who readily admitted that he’d been shooting at a squirrel that was on his bird feeder; as he put it, “Well, that’s war.” Powers was aiming from his own bedroom window and said it wasn’t the first time he’d shot at squirrels. He offered to go talk to “the other guy” and make it right, but officers had something different in mind: They arrested him for reckless discharge of a firearm. When Powers told his wife he was being arrested, she responded, “Well, I told you.” [Grand Forks Herald, 12/9/2022]

Police Report

Anthony Thomas Tarduno, 48, saved the Hernando County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office the trouble of investigating after one of their patrol cars was set on fire on Dec. 7 in Spring Hill, Florida, WTSP-TV reported. As officers looked over the scene, Tarduno walked up and confessed to being the arsonist, saying he “had been drinking at a bar … and decided he’d like to set it on fire.”

Tarduno placed a bag of garbage under the patrol vehicle and used a lighter to set it ablaze, police said. Tarduno admitted to detectives that when he gets drunk, he does “stupid things.” [WTSP, 12/8/2022]

It’s a Mystery

Residents of South Tampa, Florida, are shaking their heads, trying to discover

the source of “a deep, vibrating bass sound” that’s been occurring on Saturday evenings for months, Fox13-TV reported. “You can feel it when your head’s down on the pillow,” said Abbi Reynolds. People have posted on social media, saying that their “windows are literally rattling” and “it reverberates from neighboring tall houses like an echo chamber.” But Tampa police can’t locate the source, either. They’ve checked with the local Air Force base and cruise lines, neither of which are responsible for the noise. Resident Zach Reynolds and others want to get to the bottom of it, trying to triangulate the noise and station people in different areas to suss out the culprit. [Fox13, 12/10/2022]

Crime Report

Police in the village of Warzymice, Poland, are hunting for an unlikely culprit in a vandalism case, Notes From Poland reported on Dec. 12: a Christmas tree. The odd figure cut a hole in a fence and slashed the tires of 21 vehicles belonging to a meat warehouse around 1 a.m., and cameras recorded the whole incident. In fact, the figure is seen loitering nearby and covering themselves with branches taken from nearby trees before committing the crime. Mateusz Watral, who works for the meat company, called it “more of a guerilla [action] than a well-prepared operation. Along the way he lost his ‘camouflage,’ [and] branches were scattered everywhere.”

[Notes From Poland, 12/12/2022]

Flipping the Script

Alligator intrusions in Florida are so ubiquitous that News of the Weird has stopped reporting them. But in Brevard County on Dec. 4, the alligator’s lookalike cousin made an appearance in Melbourne Beach, WESH-TV reported. A 9-foot-long American crocodile, which is seldom seen so far north, was chilling on a beach. “American crocodiles typically live in coastal areas throughout the Caribbean, and southern Florida is at the very north end of their range,” noted the county’s Environmentally Endangered Lands Program. Uh, not anymore. [WESH, 12/8/2022]

© 2023 Andrews McMeel Syndication. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): During my quest for advice that might be helpful to your love life, I plucked these words of wisdom from author Sam Kean: “Books about relationship talk about how to ‘get’ the love you need, how to ‘keep’ love, and so on. But the right question to ask is, ‘How do I become a more loving human being?’” In other words, Aries, here’s a prime way to enhance your love life: Be less focused on what others can give you and more focused on what you can give to others. Amazingly, that’s likely to bring you all the love you want.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You have the potential to become even more skilled at the arts of kissing and cuddling and boinking than you already are. How? Here are some possibilities. 1. Explore fun experiments that will transcend your reliable old approaches to kissing and cuddling and boinking. 2. Read books to open your mind. I like Margot Anand’s The New Art of Sexual Ecstasy. 3. Ask your partner(s) to teach you everything about what turns them on. 4. Invite your subconscious mind to give you dreams at night that involve kissing and cuddling and boinking. 5. Ask your lover(s) to laugh and play and joke as you kiss and cuddle and boink.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): You are an Italian wolf searching for food in the Apennine Mountains. You’re a redcrowned crane nesting in a wetland in the East Hokkaido region of Japan. You’re an olive tree thriving in a salt marsh in southern France, and you’re a painted turtle basking in a pool of sunlight on a beach adjoining Lake Michigan. And much, much more. What I’m trying to tell you, Gemini, is that your capacity to empathize is extra strong right now. Your smart heart should be so curious and open that you will naturally feel an instinctual bond with many life forms, including a wide array of interesting humans. If you’re brave, you will allow your mind to expand to experience telepathic powers. You will have an unprecedented knack for connecting with simpatico souls.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): My Cancerian friend Juma says, “We have two choices at all times: creation or destruction. Love creates and everything else destroys.” Do you agree? She’s not just talking about romantic love, but rather love in all forms, from the urge to help a friend, to the longing to seek justice for the dispossessed, to the compassion we feel for our descendants. During the next three weeks, your assignment is to explore every nuance of love as you experiment with the following hypothesis: To create the most interesting and creative life for yourself, put love at the heart of everything you do.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): I hope you get ample chances to enjoy deep soul kisses

in the coming weeks. Not just perfunctory lip-to-lip smooches and pecks on the cheeks, but full-on intimate sensual exchanges. Why do I recommend this? How could the planetary positions be interpreted to encourage a specific expression of romantic feeling? I’ll tell you, Leo: The heavenly omens suggest you will benefit from exploring the frontiers of wild affection. You need the extra sweet, intensely personal communion that comes best from the uninhibited mouth-to-mouth form of tender sharing. Here’s what Leo poet Diane di Prima said: “There are as many kinds of kisses as there are people on earth, as there are permutations and combinations of those people. No two people kiss alike — no two people fuck alike — but somehow the kiss is more personal, more individualized than the fuck.”

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Borrowing the words of poet Oriah from her book The Dance: Moving to the Deep Rhythms of Your Life, I’ve prepared a love note for you to use as your own this Valentine season. Feel free to give these words to the person whose destiny needs to be woven more closely together with yours. Oriah writes, “Don’t tell me how wonderful things will be someday. Show me you can risk being at peace with the way things are right now. Show me how you follow your deepest desires, spiraling down into the ache within the ache. Take me to the places on the Earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart.”

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author Walter Lippmann wrote, “The emotion of love is not self-sustaining; it endures only when lovers love many things together, and not merely each other.” That’s great advice for you during the coming months. I suggest that you and your allies — not just your romantic partners, but also your close companions — come up with collaborative projects that inspire you to love many things together. Have fun exploring and researching subjects that excite and awaken and enrich both of you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio writer Paul Valéry wrote, “It would be impossible to love anyone or anything one knew completely. Love is directed towards what lies hidden in its object.” My challenge to you, Scorpio, is to test this hypothesis. Do what you can to gain more in-depth knowledge of the people and animals and things you love. Uncover at least some of what’s hidden. All the while, monitor yourself to determine how your research affects your affection and care. Contrary to what Valéry said, I’m guessing this will enhance and exalt your love.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In his book Unapologetically You, motivational speaker Steve Maraboli writes, “I find the

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): To get the most out of upcoming opportunities for intimacy, intensify your attunement to and reverence for your emotions. Why? As quick and clever as your mind can be, sometimes it neglects to thoroughly check in with your heart. And I want your heart to be wildly available when you get ripe chances to open up and deepen your alliances. Study these words from psychologist Carl Jung: “We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.”

best way to love someone is not to change them, but instead, help them reveal the greatest version of themselves.” That’s always good advice, but I believe it should be your inspirational axiom in the coming weeks. More than ever, you now have the potential to forever transform your approach to relationships. You can shift away from wanting your allies to be different from what they are and make a strong push to love them just as they are.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I analyzed the astrological omens. Then I scoured the internet, browsed through 22 books of love poetry, and summoned memories of my best experiences of intimacy. These exhaustive efforts inspired me to find the words of wisdom that are most important for you to hear right now. They are from poet Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Stephen Mitchell): “For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): “In love there are no vacations. Love has to be lived fully with its boredom and all that.” Author and filmmaker Marguerite Duras made that observation, and now I convey it to you — just in time for a phase of your astrological cycle when boredom and apathy could and should evolve into renewed interest and revitalized passion. But there is a caveat: If you want the interest and passion to rise and surge, you will have to face the boredom and apathy; you must accept them as genuine aspects of your relationship; you will have to cultivate an amused tolerance of them. Only then will they burst in full glory into renewed interest and revitalized passion.

STAY IN THE LOOP

Just One More Thing …

The X-Files paved the way for a big shi in how TV series work. Serial storytelling, where each episode advances a larger story line, was very common in the early days of lm, radio, and television. It has the inherent advantage of keeping an audience coming back for more each week — especially if you end each episode with a cli anger, as the Saturday morning serials like Flash Gordon perfected.

e problem lies with onboarding new audiences. If I missed the rst episode of a slow-burn mystery show like True Detective or Fargo and instead tuned in mid-season, I would probably be lost. If the drama depends on complex world-building like Game of rones, fuggetaboutit. But if I tune into just about any episode of 1970s detective show Columbo, I’m not lost at all. Here’s this weird little guy who solves murders. No need to learn any dragon names.

In 1990, Twin Peaks rescued serial storytelling from the soap opera ghetto. e X-Files, which premiered in 1993, split the di erence between “Monster of the Week” episodes and serial “mythology” story lines, setting an example for a generation of showrunners. Now that prestige television is almost exclusively serial, Poker Face intends to reclaim episodic TV from the doldrums of endless CSI reincarnations. Created by Knives Out director Rian Johnson and Russian Doll star Natasha Lyonne, it is a selfconscious reinvention of the Columbo formula.

In the pilot episode, written and directed by Johnson, we meet Lyonne as Charlie Cale, a cocktail waitress at Frost Casino in Las Vegas who has

an innate ability to determine when people are lying. If you’re thinking, “Charlie could make a killing playing poker,” she is way ahead of you. Charlie was using her disarming manner and human lie detector skills in backrooms and casinos when Sterling Frost Sr. (Ron Perlman) gured out her deal and gave her a job at the casino to keep her under control. Now that Sr. is retired, Jr. (a deliciously sleazy Adrien Brody) gets a notion to use Charlie to shake down a high roller. When her friend Natalie (Dascha Polanco), a hotel maid, is found dead next to her abusive boyfriend, everyone at rst believes that it’s a case of domestic violence — sad, but all too common. Everyone, that is, except Charlie. Something about the way Jr. talks about the death of her co-worker sets o her Charlie-sense. In the ensuing tangle of

ashbacks and reveals, Charlie ends up on the lam with Cli (Benjamin Bratt), the Frosts’ head of security, in pursuit. Every week, Charlie tries to settle down in a new place, but inevitably, someone commits murder, and her inquisitive nature and overdeveloped sense of justice get the better of her. It’s a little bit Murder, She Wrote, a little bit e Incredible Hulk (the ’78-’82 TV series, not the misbegotten Ang Lee movie), and a whole lotta Columbo e rather strict formula (a “howcatchem” in screenwriter parlance) means the pleasures of Poker Face are all in the execution. e stories have been uniformly good. Johnson and sister showrunners Nora and Lilla Zuckerman keep the settings proletariat: So far, Charlie has cleared a lesbian trucker (Hong Chau) of the murder of a Subway sandwich artist

Poker Face, starring Natasha Lyonne, brings back old-school episodic television, much to this critic’s delight.

(Brandon Micheal Hall) and avenged the death of a barbecue pitmaster (Shane Paul McGhie). e talent on display has been impressive — in “Rest in Metal,” for example, indie lm legend Chloë Sevigny is the singer of a one-hit-wonder metal band, her guitarist is the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle, and her roadie Chuck Cooper has a Tony Award.

Poker Face is great, escapist fun, but not bingeable. It’s old-fashioned weekly appointment television, and when it’s done this well, there ain’t nothing wrong with that.

Poker Face is now streaming on Peacock.

TV By Chris McCoy

Natasha Lyonne channels Columbo in Poker Face

Our critic picks the best films in theaters this week.

Magic Mike’s Last Dance

Channing Tatum strips down for the third (and supposedly final) trip on the catwalk. This time, Tatum is joined by Salma Hayek Pinault (sorry guys, she’s married to a billionaire) and director Steven Soderbergh, who created stripper phenom Magic Mike back in 2012. Expect a Cat 5 himbo storm.

80 for Brady

What do you get when Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, and Rita Moreno go to the Super Bowl? Comedy gold! Four ladies beyond a certain age do what it takes to score tix to the Big Game to see their pigskin idol Tom Brady play one last time. Highlights of the film include Sally Field in

a hot wing eating contest.

Knock at the Cabin

M. Night Shyamalan continues his creative method of throwing darts at a wall of high concepts. This time, he hit “Would you kill your dad if it meant saving a million lives?” Can I make one of the lives saved my dad? Dave Bautista awaits you with answers to these and other pressing questions you didn’t know you had.

Avatar: The Way of Water

You can still see this one, too. In 3D IMAX, even! Sexy blue fox people! Space whales! Sigourney Weaver as herself as a sexy blue fox person teenager! A large boat sinks with Kate Winslet on board! Big Jim Cameron spent a lot of money on this stuff. What the hell are you waiting for?

NOW PLAYING By Chris McCoy

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Change Has to Come

What happened to Tyre Nichols cannot be forgotten.

e footage of Tyre Nichols being fatally beaten by Memphis police has haunted me. ose ve o cers pepper sprayed, punched, kicked, and beat a defenseless Nichols with a baton. ose who vowed to protect and serve brutally killed the 29-year-old father.

Although I felt compelled to view the videos, I strongly disapproved of the manner in which they were made public. at everyone around the globe was anticipating the release of the horri c videos, treating it like a movie premiere, sickened me.

Five Black Memphis police o cers were red from the department and were given numerous charges following the death of Nichols, including second-degree murder, kidnapping, assault, o cial misconduct, and o cial oppression. at a Black man died at the hands of Black police o cers was unfathomable to most.

Family members told reporters Nichols went into cardiac arrest and kidney failure due to the vicious beating. e question “Why?” keeps coming back to me. Why was this young, vibrant, creative soul taken so violently by those whose job it was to protect and serve the community? is was an act of terror. As Reverend Al Sharpton said at Nichols’ homecoming services, “You don’t ght crime by becoming a criminal yourself.”

Seeing this unfold in a city I’ve called home for 20 years was di erent for me. My husband was a Black o cer for the Memphis Police Department for nearly 14 years, and I previously worked for another law enforcement agency for close to seven years. As my husband watched the videos, I could hear the sadness in his voice. Watching it hurt. He kept saying they didn’t have to kill him. He questioned the supervision, the training, and wondered if the o cers had done it before. He was angry at the narrative the o cers were trying to paint of the situation in the video. He wants them held fully accountable for their actions.

While on the force, my husband felt it was his duty to mentor young o cers since he was older starting out. He advised them to approach everyone with the same degree of decency and respect, urging them to be careful how they treated citizens since it could come back on them. ey wouldn’t be recognized as ofcers out of uniform or in other jurisdictions, but in or out of uniform the same would apply. He made it clear that he had a family to provide for and an account to God to keep, so he wasn’t going to put his career or freedom in jeopardy. He said some police o cers go too far and it’s not worth it. ere are some good ofcers out there. I’ve encountered them. ey want to serve their communities and get home safely to their families. O cers like these are willing to sacri ce their lives to protect the public. e conduct of those who have no business being police in the rst place has caused a signi cant loss of public trust of law enforcement. I’ve spoken to former co-workers and other o cers since the release of the video. Many are hurt, angry, and appalled by what happened to that young man, especially the Black o cers. Some are even questioning if they should continue in law enforcement.

As a mother to adult Black children, it terri es me that this happened so close to home, literally. Both scenes are not too far from my home. And I can’t help but think it could’ve been one of my sons coming to our house. Or even my husband. I don’t believe I would have the grace of RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother. She shouldn’t have to say her son was a good man. But even if Tyre Nichols had been a known criminal, he still didn’t deserve to be beaten to death. ere’s no justi cation. It would have torn me to pieces if one of my children’s last words were calling for me like Tyre was calling for his mom as he lay there dying.

Were there no rational people around who could have said, “ at’s enough”? e only “good” cop on that scene was the SkyCop. e most complete picture of the assault was revealed by that camera. It’s ironic that something constructed with public safety in mind will be instrumental in bringing these ex-cops to justice. Everyone on that scene should be held accountable.

Memphis Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins said this prior to last week’s game against the Indiana Pacers: “Sadly, this is reminiscent of George Floyd back in 2020. We were all in Covid. We were all sitting at home and … had more time to think about it. Whereas now, the world’s still going, and I’m worried that people are going to take their focus o of making change, making positive impact in their city, in the country. When everyone’s clamoring for it, we can’t nd distractions, we can’t forget, we can’t let this just be an a erthought in two weeks, in a month.”

is can’t be an a erthought. Change has to come, and it has to come within law enforcement. I don’t have all the answers and I don’t claim to. Like law enforcement tells citizens, if you see something, say something. I only wish someone had been there to stand up for Tyre Nichols.

Sharon Brown is a Flyer Grizzlies reporter.

THE LAST WORD By Sharon Brown

PHOTO: FAMILY OF TYRE NICHOLS Tyre Nichols