Memphis Flyer 6.29.23

SHARA CLARK

Editor

SAMUEL X. CICCI

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It surprised me this Monday morning to see the OceanGate website still up and functional, still advertising an opportunity to “Explore the world’s most famous shipwreck,” listing the 2023 Titanic expedition as “currently underway,” and showing two missions scheduled for departure in June 2024. Surely there will be no future Titanic excursions offered by this company following the events that unfolded last week.

“95% of the Earth’s ocean is unexplored. You can change that,” reads a note on the site’s homepage. No thanks.

The internet was astir as people across the globe followed the Titan submersible news after its communications ceased and location was lost an hour and 45 minutes following its launch on Sunday, June 18th. What was supposed to be a two-hour descent to tour the 111-year-old shipwreck 13,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic turned into a nightmare-come-true for the sub’s passengers. When it did not return to the surface as scheduled, the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, the U.S. Navy, and other international resources embarked on a days-long search and rescue effort. And the world waited anxiously as the clock dwindled on the Titan’s estimated oxygen supply.

Aboard the sub were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, French diver and Titanic researcher Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and British aviation tycoon and space tourist Hamish Harding. While the search was underway, thousands of memes mocking the risk-taking billionaires flooded the internet, juxtaposed alongside thoughts and prayers for the missing from those who didn’t find an ounce of humor in the foiled voyage.

As average citizens struggle to afford basic necessities amid inflation, it’s no surprise folks are poking fun at the 1 percent. These wealthy adventurers paid a quarter-million dollars each to take a voluntary ride in an ill-equipped and poorly tested tube — made with parts from Camping World and steered by a game controller — to the bottom of the ocean to sightsee. They signed a waiver agreeing to risk death for a frivolous trip to an old wrecked ship.

On Thursday, June 22nd, debris including the Titan’s tail cone was found 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreckage. The findings were “consistent with a catastrophic implosion,” according to the U.S. Coast Guard. All passengers were presumed dead.

It’s difficult to feel sympathy for Rush, especially, who for years ignored alarm calls about the safety of his watercraft. In a 2018 lawsuit, the company’s former director of marine operations David Lochridge claimed to have been fired from OceanGate for raising concerns. According to the suit, Lochridge objected to “deviation from an original plan to conduct non-destructive testing and unmanned pressure testing” of the Titan.

A 2018 email exchange between Rush and deep-sea exploration specialist Rob McCallum emerged, in which McCallum urged Rush to consider further safety measures: “Until a sub is classed, tested and proven, it should not be used for commercial deep dive operations,” he wrote, in part. Rush responded: “I have grown tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation. … We have heard the baseless cries of ‘you are going to kill someone’ way too often. I take this as a serious personal insult.”

It makes more sense to mourn the loss of the 19-year-old, who, according to reports, was “terrified” to take the voyage but gave in to appease his father. Personally, I find the ocean — the creatures within, the dark depths, the sheer expanse — horrifying. Simply watching footage of prior Titan dives gave me heart palpitations — crew huddled near the tiny porthole, in a claustrophobic cylinder, staring into the abyss until the bow of the Titanic crept into view, dripping in rusticles. Just looking at photos of the wreckage, a graveyard two and a half miles under the sea, gives me the heebie-jeebies. Would you like to tour an eerie endless void from inside a replica of a bullet blender? That’s a no from me.

NEWS & OPINION

THE FLY-BY - 4

POLITICS - 6

AT LARGE - 7

So, some very rich people went for a joyride. They knew the risks and used poor judgment. They didn’t make it back. This gripped the attention of the entire world. All while at least 79 people died and hundreds more were feared missing after a migrant ship capsized off the coast of Greece. All while 39.7 million people in the U.S. alone live in poverty.

COVER STORY

“CAN YOU FEEL IT?”

BY ALEX GREENE - 8

FINANCE - 11

WE RECOMMEND - 13

MUSIC - 14

CALENDAR - 15

NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 15

NEWS OF THE WEIRD - 16

ASTROLOGY - 17

THEATER - 18

FOOD - 19

FILM - 20

CLASSIFIEDS - 22 LAST WORD - 23

If you believe conspiracy theories, they either never took the trip in the first place or it was all a distraction. But from what exactly?

There are a quarter-million ways in which a quarter-million dollars could be better spent, and as many injustices that better deserve the world’s attention — mass suffering at which no one blinks an eye. No matter what you believe, I bet we can agree on that.

Shara Clark

shara@memphisflyer.com

THE fly-by

MEM ernet

Memphis on the internet. FIRMLY CRUISIN’

Questions, Answers + Attitude

Edited by Toby Sells

CITY REPORTER

By Toby Sells

Drinking by the Numbers

Drinking out in Memphis slumped in pandemic, roared back a erward.

Nashville drinks.

Tom Cruise was in town. In 1992. He was lming e Firm WMC-TV covered the crowds that showed up to see the star.

“No, he was not shopping at the Walmart in Collierville,” said thenreporter Denise DuBois-Taylor. “No, he and Nicole Kidman were not house hunting in Germantown.”

e gem of a clip surfaced recently on YouTube thanks to a Facebook group called “ ings at Aren’t in the Memphis Area Anymore.” Long name, but worth the follow if you’re looking for hometown nostalgia.

MEMPHIS WOMEN

On Twitter last week, Big Mek started a “#Memphis Women read.” It’s now an endless scroll of photos and videos of women showing their stu .

Squeak checked in to say, “I didn’t see any other Memphis women posting.” She identi ed herself as a “Memphis woman.” en, she showed her credentials.

POPLAR PLAZA

Memphis comes in second but it’s not even close. e latest state numbers show that Davidson County drinking is on a whole other level. ose numbers also show that drinking out roared back in Memphis last year, just like so many predicted before the pandemic’s end.

Before we get to the numbers, let’s check some assumptions for the Memphis/Nashville comparison.

Nashville gets a lot of tourists. It’s become a national destination for those woo-girl bachelorette parties with pink cowboy hats, brand-new boots, sashes, and penis-everything accoutrements. Plenty of country music fans ock to Music City for the, uh, music. Conventioneers also gather at the city’s myriad conference rooms to discuss their thing.

Nashville is also Tennessee’s capital, of course. It brings business people from all kinds of industries there to talk turkey with state o cials. e Tennessee General Assembly’s annual session in Nashville brings lawmakers, lobbyists, and constituents together for hosts of meet-and-greets, receptions, dinners, and more.

What does this have to do with drinking?

dia, and masked-up friends — was predicting a new Roaring ’20s a er the mess was over. We’d all be so happy to get back to life that bars and restaurants would be packed, they predicted.

While it’s hard to remember getting back to normal — even though it was really only last year — the state’s drink numbers tell the tale.

Sales gures were steady through the end of 2019. ey began to slump in the beginning of 2020 and fell through the oor as lockdowns came in April and May.

May 2020 was the bleakest pandemic month for Tennessee drink sales in bars and restaurants, crashing 73 percent from the previous month. However, sales sprang back 182 percent the next month, possibly spurred by the organization of to-go sales programs at bars and restaurants. But those sales were nowhere near back to normal.

Reddit user u/etherbeta shared studies of redesigned Memphis locales last week. Above, a revamped Poplar Plaza would have a movie theater, new restaurants, residences, and an electric vehicle charging lounge that would complement the nearby Exxon.

Liquor-by-the-drink sales in Memphis over the last 12 months were nearly $140 million. Sales in Nashville were nearly $600 million. e number of drinks served in Memphis last scal year was not quite a quarter (23 percent) of those served in Nashville. ese numbers are all extrapolated from recent data from the Tennessee Department of Revenue (TDR). e o ce said liquorby-drink taxes collected from Davidson County over the last 12 months were nearly $90 million. In Memphis, those taxes were nearly $21 million.

For a more straight-up comparison, the state said tax collections in Memphis were $22.39 per capita last scal year. In Nashville, the gure was $129.48.

Roaring back?

During the pandemic, it seems everyone — headlines, social me-

Around March 2021, vaccines became available, mask mandates loosened, and many businesses announced plans to fully reopen. Drink sales spiked 78 percent from March to April that year, the largest monthly sales gain during the last four years.

2021 year-end drink sales in Memphis were nearly $95 million, the lowest during the pandemic. at number boosted to more than $157 million in 2022, once many began to put the pandemic in the rearview mirror and return at will to the city’s many bars and restaurants.

at gure would prove to be the high-water mark for postpandemic, drinks-out revelry in the city, the height of the new Roaring ’20s so many predicted here and everywhere. Drinks sales settled back this past year to about $140 million. However, the gure remains way higher than the beginning of the pandemic, when sales were $112.5 million in 2020.

CHART: MEMPHIS FLYER; PHOTO: ADAM WILSON | UNSPLASH Liquor-by-the-drink tax data shows that Memphis is drinking out more than before the pandemic, but Nashville leads the way and it’s not even close.

Trans Agenda { STATE

WATCH

By Toby Sells

Lawmaker blasts AG in hospital transgender-care case.

ATennessee Democratic leader said the state’s attorney general has gone too far in a transgender-care probe and is, in general, widely deviating from his role in order to “promote his own political agenda.”

State House Democratic Caucus Chair Representative John Ray Clemmons (D-Nashville) blasted Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti in a statement last Tuesday. Clemmons said the AG is seemingly “weaponizing and abusing” his powers in the trans-care case.

e investigation, he said, comes in a series of politically partisan moves by Skrmetti, the former Memphis lawyer given the post last year.

Skrmetti recently required Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) to hand over patients’ medical records and the employment records of some of the hospital’s healthcare providers. e AG said a doctor there had “publicly described” how she manipulated medical billing codes to get trans care covered by insurance. e investigation is to deter-

mine whether the act occurred and if it broke state law.

Skrmetti defended his action in the case. He said getting medical records is done in “dozens of billing fraud investigations” and his o ce investigates and litigates “numerous” medical-billing cases each year.

e Nashville hospital started giving him the records more than six months ago, Skrmetti said. His o ce has kept the investigation con dential for more than a year, and he said he was “surprised by VUMC’s decision to notify patients.”

“ e Attorney General has no desire to turn a run-of-the-mill fraud investigation into a media circus,” reads a statement from Skrmetti’s o ce.

The investigation is directed at the hospital, not the patients, he said, and the records will be held “in the strictest of confidence.” He also said, “We understand patients are concerned that VUMC produced their records to this office.”

But Clemmons said the investigation is targeting trans care and by

entering private medical records into the public record, it seems Skrmetti “intentionally created a signi cant threat to medical professionals and their patients’ privacy and safety.”

“Given the specialty areas General Skrmetti is targeting, his actions give the appearance that he is improperly weaponizing and abusing the broad CID [civil investigative demand] powers of the Attorney General’s o ce to carry out an intimidation campaign against one of our state’s preeminent healthcare facilities and its providers and patients for the purpose of promoting his own radical political agenda or that of an extremist faction within his political party,” Clemmons said in a statement.

Clemmons listed other ways he thought Skrmetti used his o ce politi-

cally. Here’s part of his list:

• [Skrmetti] headlined an event, titled “We Know What a Woman Is,” hosted by IWN [International Women’s Network], an ultra-conservative women’s group, to praise new discriminatory state laws

• Used state resources and personnel to promote a fundraising campaign for anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” to celebrate the anniversary of the Dobbs decision

• Unnecessarily entered into an agreed order in a federal lawsuit led by a California gun rights group to overturn a state law regarding rearms permits

• Unnecessarily involved his o ce in a suit involving a Kentucky wedding photographer who refused to perform services for a same-sex wedding

• Unnecessarily supported a Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn a rule allowing the U. S. Department of Veteran A airs to provide access to abortions and abortion counseling for veterans

• Unnecessarily joined a Texas lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s border patrol policies.

PHOTO: STATE OF TENNESSEE Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti

POLITICS By Jackson Baker

Highs and Lows

Back in the early fall of 2021, the Tennessee legislature, meeting in special session, voted to subject the powers of health departments in home-rule counties — like Shelby (Memphis) or Davidson (Nashville) — to veto-like controls by the state health department.

at action, taken at the still virulent height of the Covid pandemic amid controversies over masking and school shutdowns, was the most notable action of that special session.

Another important change was voted in with conspicuously less fanfare.

e General Assembly, dominated then as now by Republican supermajorities in both houses, also struck down prohibitions against partisan elections for school boards, allowing school districts, anywhere in Tennessee, to have partisan school board primaries at their own discretion.

At the time, the Democratic and Republican parties of Shelby County opted not to avail themselves of the primary option.

at’s all changed now. e Democratic Party of Shelby County, chair Lexie Carter con rms, has informed the Election Commission that it intends to conduct primaries in March to determine o cial party candidates for the ve Shelby County Schools seats to be voted on next year.

Shelby GOP chair Cary Vaughn, in noting that the county’s Republicans will not follow suit, said, “We are Republican strong [sic] through the municipalities and suburban areas pertaining to school board races. ese communities know their leaders, and they know exactly who to support. We are giving them the freedom and exibility to do so.”

e partisan primaries for other Shelby County o ces stem from a 1992

decision by the local GOP, then marginally more populated, to try to steal a march on the Democrats.

• Some Shelby Countians have ulterior motives for this year’s scheduled special session of the legislature, set for this August a er the spring’s gun massacre at a Nashville Christian school and intended to “strengthen public safety and preserve constitutional rights”

e headline of a message being sent around by various conservatives sets forth their desire: “Let’s Get Rid of Steve Mulroy Before Labor Day 2023!” Maintaining that violent crime has increased “geometrically” in recent months, the message proclaims that rst-term Democratic DA Mulroy “as the top law enforcement o cer in the county … is accountable for this increase.”

e message, being circulated petitionstyle, urges those who agree to go to a state government website and argue for including that premise — technically, an “impeachment” procedure, spoken to in Article VI, Section 6, of the state constitution and requiring a two-thirds majority vote of both houses — as part of the forthcoming session.

On its face, the e ort lacks credibility, both in its premises and in its prospects. A “nothingburger,” summarized Mulroy, on the same day that he and Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis had announced a dramatic series of new arrests and indictments in a joint e ort to combat organized “smash and grab” retail burglaries, and it has clearly not gathered any traction.

But it is apparently not the most ridiculous e ort aimed at Mulroy. Still to be con rmed is the reality of an o er, allegedly being considered by a hyper-wealthy Memphian, notorious already from previous bizarre actions, to provide the DA with $1 million, plus an additional $200,000 o er for each year of his vacated term, to take leave of his o ce voluntarily now.

What’s the saying? “Fat chance.”

PHOTO: JACKSON BAKER Justin J. Pearson took “ e Movement” to Germantown last ursday.

Dems to hold school board primaries. Mulroy’s critics explore the absurd.

Remissionary Position

Six months y by, even when you’re not having fun.

Iwrote a column in late January called “Daze of Christmas Past,” in which I recounted how I got diagnosed with cancer — large B-cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma — a couple weeks before Christmas. It was a really not-fun holiday surprise. As a bonus, since the tumor was attached to the front of my spinal column, I had to undergo a reconstruction of my upper spine to stabilize it prior to cancer treatment.

By the time I got home from the hospital, on Christmas Day, no less, I was sti , sore, using a walker, and breathing from an oxygen tank at night. I felt like I was 95 years old. It will get better, the doctor said. Be patient. Or a patient. I can’t remember which. I didn’t move around much for a couple of weeks, but I began keeping a daily journal that I cleverly called “Cancer Diary.” I was scheduled to begin chemotherapy in late January. e odds of a cure, they told me, were 70 percent. Not so bad.

stand holding medical drip bags. ere was a wall of windows facing Union Avenue, the cars lled with people who, like me, had probably never noticed this building or had any idea what happened inside. A Wendy’s was across the street.

I was taking the “R-CHOP” protocol, a well-established treatment for large B-cell lymphoma. It’s a regimen of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, prednisone, rituximab, and vincristine. So there. Mmmm.

e process began with three 40-minute drips: Tylenol, Benadryl, and an anti-nausea medication. e heavy stu was to come a couple hours later. I was to be there “all day,” the nurse said. Two of my fellow drippees chattered ceaselessly on their phones. Others slept or listened to music through headphones. I guessed they were old hands at this. Six hours later, and I was no longer a chemo virgin. us began the next ve months of my life. I never had the horrible reactions to chemo that many people get — headaches, nausea, and other gastric thrills — but I got three or four days of extreme fatigue about halfway through each three-week cycle. My hair fell out in mid-February. I tried wearing various theoretically cool-looking toppers but decided nally to just roll with a chrome dome. Once my facial hair was gone, my head looked like a thumb.

I watched on television as Congressman Jamie Raskin announced that he’d been diagnosed with the same cancer I had. He was about a month ahead of me in treatment, it appeared, so I decided to keep an eye on his progress. He was wearing a kerchief to cover his newly bald head — not a great look.

I read a lot about various natural cancer- ghting foods and decided to begin each day with a bowl of Cheerios and fresh berries, and with liquid mushroom extracts — lion’s mane, turkey tail, and reishi — on the highly scienti c theory that it couldn’t hurt.

On January 24th, I began the rst of six chemo treatments — one every three weeks — at West Clinic in Midtown. After I arrived and had some blood taken, I was escorted into the chemo area, a large room with 20 or so matching reclining chairs, each next to a rolling

I started writing my column again in late January and only missed a couple of weeks. I read voraciously on the Kindle my son bought me. It’s light and easy to hold in bed. My mother-in-law came from Spain to stay with us and help out until I “got better,” and she was a delight.

I had a couple of setbacks that led to visits to the ER and hospital stays, but I weathered the storms. e scans I took showed the tumor was shrinking — from an egg, to a walnut, to a grape, over the course of three months. en, in late April, Congressman Raskin announced that “chemotherapy has extinguished the cancer cells.” I took this as a good sign. In the meantime, I was starting to feel pretty “normal.”

A er my last chemo on June 5th, I got another PET scan. ree days later I got an email from my oncologist. “Scan showed remission,” it said. “More details when we meet.” Details, schmetails. I still have some follow-up treatments to get through, but apparently “chemotherapy has extinguished the cancer cells,” and I count myself a lucky man.

PHOTO: @CALLTOACTIVISM | TWITTER Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland rocks a kerchief.

CanFeelYouIt?

Producer/ engineer

Ari Morris is Memphis music’s secret weapon.

ven in the rare ed world of gold and platinum hip-hop records, anonymity has its rewards. For producer/engineer Ari Morris, the joys of being unknown can materialize randomly, at the turn of any corner. “I used to love pulling my car up to a stop sign or a gas station and watch people bangin’ records I did,” he says today. “Nobody would have any idea that I had anything to do with it. Like, nobody knows me!” Yet this doesn’t bother Morris in the least. He’s satis ed if his mixes work their magic, as they typically do via releases by Moneybagg Yo, GloRilla, Royce da 5’9”, Rod Wave, Hitkidd, and many others.

Beyond not recognizing him personally, most passersby wouldn’t even know they were near a studio if they chanced by his workplace. He’s long preferred to work under the radar. Sitting today in his current bunker-like space, Edge Recording, he recalls his last unobtrusive location fondly. “My old studio was in Midtown across from Central BBQ, and the cooks and waitsta there would park on my block. If I stepped out the back door, I’d see kids on their break bumpin’ records that we had just nished inside that building! But nobody knew what was going on in there.”

Such moments capture what he’s chasing when perfecting a record’s mix. “Watching their real reaction is amazing because it’s like, ‘Oh, wow, this really connected. It worked; they are feeling this.’” at last phrase is key. Morris has come as far as he has by prioritizing a mix’s feel above all else.

In pursuit of that feel, and despite his taste for nondescript studio exteriors, Morris and construction partner Karl Schwab have just built what is arguably the most advanced recording and mixing studio in the city. Walking past a dumpster and through a corrugated steel garage door, a whole world of high-end speakers, racks of gear, sound ba es, blinking lights, and mixing desks opens up as if you’ve stepped through a portal. And one room in particular makes this studio unique among all others in Memphis: the Dolby Atmos room, where 12 precisely positioned speakers create the kind of surround sound that most of us only experience in cinemas. While most studios here lean into their vintage gear and classic sounds, Morris has gone the opposite route, embracing the future of listening like no other studio owner in the city. Yet he sees it mainly as a matter of keeping up with audio’s future — and the future is now.

THE RISE OF DOLBY ATMOS

“Everything I deliver for major labels that I mix in stereo, I also mix in Atmos,” Morris says. “I also mix entire albums in Atmos that I didn’t do in stereo. Last year alone I mixed two No. 1 albums that are

solely in Atmos: Lil Durk’s album 7220 and Rod Wave’s album Beautiful Mind, both of which are two of the highest selling rap albums of 2022. And I mixed them in Atmos right here in Memphis.”

He invites me to sit in the listening chair, an “X” on the oor marking the ideal spot in the room to hear all 12 speakers work their magic. When Morris pulls up his mix for Rod Wave’s “MJ Story” from the artist’s second 2022 release, Jupiter’s Diary: 7 Day eory, I’m at rst shocked by the very low- delity sounds of the song’s intro, which turns out to be a sample of

of Dolby Atmos’ spatial illusion become common in headphones, this immersive listening is becoming the industry standard. Yet it’s still in ux during this transitional time.

“Atmos is still evolving,” Morris says. “And a lot of that evolution right now has been on the tech side and then the engineering side. But it’s not really going to nish until the tech grows on the listeners. Because it’s the listeners who dictate the decisions that we make in the studio. I’m not in here trying to make the perfect record for another engineer. I’m trying to make

rendering of an Atmos mix. And Mercedes now has cars with spatial in their 2023 models. Last year, Tesla became upgradable to Dolby Atmos. I can put more low end into records now because cars and headphones can output more low end.”

THE FEEL

Still, for Morris, even such cutting-edge tech boils down to one thing: the feel — as in “ at’s How I Feel” by Young Dolph from his Morris-mixed Bulletproof album, which also included “100 Shots.” A plaque honoring that single as a certi ed gold record testi es to how many listeners felt it. While Morris could have more than 50 such gold or platinum record plaques on his wall, this one is special, partly because he and the late Dolph connected so early on. “Me and Dolph met in the studio and we just kind of caught a vibe. I mixed a bunch of his early singles, like ‘Not No More’ or ‘Choppa on the Couch’ with Gucci Mane. I think it was 19 total releases that we did together.” Yet it’s his work on Bulletproof that stands out to him, because of its feel. “On ‘100 Shots,’ the bass doesn’t drop till damn near a minute in,” he enthuses. “But when it drops, I mean, it rattles the chandeliers in the venue!”

To his nely tuned ear, it’s more than just making the bass louder — he hears a distinct approach to sound in every artist he works with. “I know which artists like their kick [drum] to run the record versus who likes their bass to run the record.” And Morris isn’t just pumping up the bass as an exercise in technology. He believes it’s more primal than that. “It takes us back to the camp res, man. Before melody there was rhythm, right?”

“Teenage Dirtbag” by Wheatus. at’s just a sonic sleight of hand, though. When the bass and kick drum hit, it feels like they’re inside you, deep slabs of oomph that rattle you even as they leave space for the airy music oating out in middle space.

Even more so than the experience of Dolby Atmos in a cinema, the music mixed to this format creates a world of space far beyond stereo; in addition to le and right, sounds can be precisely positioned in front of or behind you, above or below you, or from a faraway horizon to deep inside you. As such systems become more widespread, and simulations

the perfect record for the fan of that artist. It’s a hell of an experience. e rst time I listened to it, the music was something I’d heard a million times before, but the hairs on my arm stood out. I hope more people can have that experience because it’s really crazy when sound isn’t just around you but it comes in and out of you.”

e way Morris sees it, the cutting edge of what consumers will adopt starts with cars and headphones. “If you use Apple headphones, they have their own interpretation of a Dolby Atmos music experience called Spatial Audio. Tidal now has Atmos available. Amazon HD does a binaural

Yet, he observes, getting to that primal reaction requires his engineering mind to work in overdrive. “It takes a neurosis for the details to do it. It takes like an obsessive neurosis,” he notes. But that laser-like focus also helps him tune in to what makes every artist unique. “When you really listen to rap music, every artist has their own kind of sound and presentation of how things exist. With the established artists, I try to respect where they sit already. And if I’m working with a new artist, which has always been one of my favorite things to do, it’s discovering that unique position. So you know it’s them from the onset, you feel them. Because the more personal it is, the more it’s going to connect with the listener.”

As he told Sound on Sound magazine last year, “For me it’s all about feel and vibe. It’s all heart for me. … I just kind of close my eyes, and go.” He details how this applies to his work with Moneybagg Yo. “When I started working with Bagg again in 2019, I went for this vibe, which sits in the tonality of his vocal and in the placement. … Bagg hates the traditional ear candy like delay throws, reverb swells, reversing things and panning them around, and so on. It’s not how he feels music. It

continued on page 10

PHOTO (BELOW): JUSTIN FOX BURKS Morris (right) in the studio with assistant Logan Schmitz

PHOTO (ABOVE): COURTESY CARLOS BROADY Ari Morris, Carlos Broady, and Royce da 5’9”

takes you out of the moment. Instead, the feel with him is bone-dry, raw power.”

Beyond mixing, this dedication to feel also translates into how he records. “As a recording engineer and a producer, my job is to keep everybody from thinking in the studio. The minute you start thinking too hard, you’re second-guessing yourself. My approach is, however we’re feeling that day, let’s get the idea out. If we don’t like it tomorrow, let’s try it with tomorrow’s feelings. But let’s not stop and second-guess ourselves halfway through. Let’s just finish it.”

The bottom line, as he sees it, is freedom: “In the studio, we’ve got to be like children. Otherwise, it’s not freedom. It’s forced. And then we might as well go home.”

“NOT ABOUT THE PLAQUES ON THE WALLS”

That attitude has won him a lot of repeat clients. Despite Morris’ technical obsessions, they feel they can stay loose while they’re creating. That in turn creates some long-term friendships. “You’re always trying to let yourself be vulnerable,” Morris says. “You want to be around people that you’re comfortable with. Having artists and producers feeling comfortable with me on that level just makes me feel awesome. It’s not about the plaques on the walls and all

that shit.”

That’s exactly why Memphis-born Carlos “Six July” Broady, producer of numerous hits like The Notorious B.I.G.’s “What’s Beef” and Ma$e’s “24 Hours to Live,” keeps coming back to Morris, who he’s known for well over a decade. “He’s one of maybe two or three mixing engineers that I can send my work to and I know I won’t have a complaint,” says Broady. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, so when it comes to hip-hop and beat-making and producing, I’m real picky, but Ari knows. I send records to him because he already knows what I like. And that’s important, when you bet on a relationship.”

While the plaques don’t matter, Broady and Morris are rightfully proud of an honor they recently acquired: certifying their Grammy nomination for Best Rap Album of 2020. “Even if Ari doesn’t understand an album immediately,” notes Broady, “he’s gonna do the research to figure out what’s the best way to approach this record. That was what was important about The Allegory, and that’s what made him stand out amongst everybody else, and why I pitched him to be the mix engineer for it.”

That album’s Grammy nomination was the first for rapper Royce da 5’9”, who’s been in the music business for more than 20 years. “We ended up in Detroit for 10 days,” recalls Morris, “and it’s the first album that Royce da 5’9” produced entirely

himself. It’s a huge concept album, and he’s been one of my favorite rappers from my childhood. Like, I grew up in New Jersey, man. There’s a lot of heavy metal, hardcore, and basement hip-hop. That was the universe that I grew up in as a child. I lived in Jersey during the Jersey hard-core scene, so of course I was into that. And rap music and hard-core metal are so similar in so many ways.”

Coming to the University of Memphis in the late 2000s to study recording engineering only encouraged Morris’ eclecticism, especially when he started interning at local studios. “I was lucky that really good people took me under their wing,” he says. “Like the late Skip McQuinn taught me how music works. And then Nil Jones, the producer and bass player, I assisted him for many years and that’s how I learned how to mix records. He taught me how to get paid. And I also apprenticed for the rock producer, Malcolm Springer.”

Broady sees that jumble of styles from Morris’ New Jersey youth as a key to his success. “Here you have a guy that’s able to mix hip-hop, rock, heavy metal, alternative pop, and R&B! I mean, you don’t have a lot of guys that can jump from genre to genre like that and can do a great job at it. But Ari understands all of those different musical types, you know?”

Morris’ success in Memphis — in multiple styles — has been so great that now, at age 34, New Jersey seems to be shrinking

in his rearview mirror. Unlike many in the hip-hop industry who relocate to Atlanta or Los Angeles upon finding success, Morris is firmly committed to making Memphis grow. Beyond his mixing and engineering work, he’s taken to producing local artists, like Talibah Safiya, who are committed to their art as a way of life more than any career success. “You’ve got to be bigger than your music,” he says. “You’ve got to be a movement.”

And the producer/engineer sees more artists of that caliber here than anywhere else. “Memphis’ primary export to the world is culture,” he adds. “Our artists, homegrown artists, have come to dictate the culture. They not only just become popular; they dictate the culture. That’s why I stayed here. Whatever we do, you know, it just ends up being fucking cool.”

Morris himself can’t quite explain why that is. “There’s something in the water down here, man!” he exclaims. “It breeds this innate musical talent. Part of me regrets that I didn’t grow up playing guitar in a church down here. I would be an infinitely better musician today. Because there’s just this thing. And the city is waking up. I think everybody sees that. It’s not the same city it was in 2008, 2009, when I started living here. It’s not the same place at all — in a good way. The music industry is waking up. I can dream really big here and make those dreams happen. And do it on my own terms.”

Gifting a Roth IRA

Five reasons to consider giving this financial gift.

When it comes to giving thoughtful gifts, financial security may not be the first thing on your mind. However, giving a Roth IRA can be a meaningful way to start your loved ones on a path toward financial security.

A Roth IRA is a type of individual retirement account that offers tax-exempt growth and tax-exempt withdrawals in retirement, which make it a powerful tool for building long-term wealth. Contributions to Roth IRAs are made with after-tax dollars, and qualified withdrawals of assets are tax-exempt and don’t increase your taxable income. In contrast to traditional IRAs, they aren’t subject to required minimum distributions (RMDs) during the owner’s lifetime, which means assets in the account can continue growing tax-exempt throughout the account holder’s life.

There are several benefits to giving a Roth IRA.

1. Tax-Exempt Growth

One of the primary benefits of Roth IRAs is that they allow contributions to grow on a tax-exempt basis. This means any earnings, such as interest, dividends, and capital gains, aren’t subject to federal income taxes while held within the account. Over time, this can add up to significant savings, especially for younger investors who are able to let their assets grow over many years before withdrawing them in retirement.

2. Retirement Savings

Establishing a Roth IRA for a loved one can be a great way to help them save for retirement. Many young people struggle to find extra money to set aside for retirement planning. Funding a Roth IRA can help remove some of that financial burden and allow your family member to focus on other financial priorities, such as saving for a home, paying down student loan debt, starting a business, etc.

3. Financial Literacy

Giving a Roth IRA can be a great opportunity to educate loved ones on multiple financial topics, such as saving early and often, the power of compound interest, the basics of investing, and the importance of planning for retirement. With a Roth IRA, not only are you helping your loved ones financially, you’re also teaching important financial strategies.

4. Estate Planning

Not only are Roth IRAs not subject

to RMDs during the account holder’s lifetime but they can also be passed on to heirs tax-free following the account holder’s death. Roth IRAs are a taxefficient way to transfer wealth to future generations because they allow heirs to receive assets without having to pay income taxes on the distributions (unless the Roth IRA is less than 5 years old).

In addition, Roth IRAs don’t count toward the taxable estate of the account holder, which means they can help reduce the size of an estate for tax purposes. By giving a Roth IRA as part of an estate planning strategy, the account holder has the potential to reduce their heirs’ estate tax liability, which helps preserve more assets for future generations.

5. Compound Interest

By giving a Roth IRA to a younger family member, you offer the opportunity to take advantage of compounding interest over the individual’s lifetime. The impact of this cannot be overstated.

Suppose you contribute $1,000 to a Roth IRA on behalf of your granddaughter every year, beginning at age 20. By the time she reaches 40, you would have invested $20,000 on her behalf ($1,000 x 20 years). Assuming an average annual return of 10 percent, the investment would be worth $63,773.40 after 20 years.

On the other hand, if your granddaughter began contributing $2,000 per year to a Roth IRA from age 30 to 40 ($20,000 total), her investment would only be worth $36,934.83 after 10 years (again assuming an annual average return of 10 percent) because she has less time to take advantage of the power of compounding.

Contributing to Roth IRAs should not exceed the amount actually earned in a year by the account owner — or the maximum contribution limit, if the owner earns more than that amount.

The gift of a Roth IRA to young family members has the potential to significantly improve their long-term financial outlook and be a cornerstone of their nest egg now and in the future. Roth IRAs can truly be the gift that keeps on giving.

Gene Gard, CFA, CFP, CFT-I, is a Partner and Private Wealth Manager with Creative Planning. Creative Planning is one of the nation’s largest Registered Investment Advisory firms providing comprehensive wealth management services to ensure all elements of a client’s financial life are working together, including investments, taxes, estate planning and risk management. For more information or to request a free, no-obligation consultation, visit CreativePlanning.com.

Thinking about taking a vacation? Hit the beach or create your own special staycation. We can help make it happen with a Southeast Financial personal loan. It’s your loan, your way!

steppin’ out

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

Get Creative

By Abigail Morici

“I didn’t call myself an artist until I was 52 years old,” says Jana Wilson, executive director of Arkwings. She’d always been creative, even sold her assemblage art from time to time, but since that wasn’t her fulltime gig, she didn’t feel she t the title of “artist.” at is, until someone at an art show pointed out that just making art meant she was an artist. “And all of a sudden I was like, ‘Whoa, I could have been doing this my entire life.’ It’s my identity.”

Now that Wilson is executive director of Arkwings, she says, “I don’t want people going through life the way I did, and not identifying as whatever creative type of being they are.” A er all, for her and for many like her, creativity through the arts is healing. “Nine times out of 10, when you ask an artist why they make art, it always go back to, ‘It makes me feel good,’ or ‘It makes me feel like a whole person.’ And there’s so many people out here who are craving arts engagement, and that’s really the heart and soul of why the arts became part of [Arkwings’] mission statement, which is ‘mind, body, and spirit wellness through the healing power of arts and nature.’”

For its part, Arkwings o ers free access, seven days a week, to its Art Yard where guests of all ages can take part in di erent outdoor creativity stations, such as painting on a mini mural, building fairy houses, adding to the poetry tree, picking seeds or herbs from the community garden, and making music at the “Rhythms of Nature Circle.” Plus, every Wednesday, from 2-5 p.m., guests can tour all of Arkwings’ galleries during their Open Gallery Day.

Currently, Arkwings boasts the “Boys 2 Men: If You Don’t See Black, You Don’t See Me” exhibition, curated by Lurlynn Franklin. e exhibit features art solely by local Black men, ranging in age and style: Earle Augustus, Toonky Berry, Eric Echols, Clyde Johnson Jr., Montrail Johnson, Devin Kirkland-XXIV(k), Hakim Malik, Lester Merriweather, Carl E. Moore, Frankd Robinson, Najee Strickland, Andrew Travis, Larry Walker, Steven Williams, and Shamek Weddle.

In curating the exhibition, Franklin says she wanted to highlight each artist’s individuality. “My dad was a real kind gentleman, and he was pro led. You know, you can just snu out a person’s life, and that’s it, because somebody decided to attach a label, a stereotype, to it,” she adds. “So the major requirement I’m having for the African-American men who are going to be in the show is, I want you to demonstrate your style. It doesn’t have to be political. You ain’t gotta speak to what the title implies. I just want people to see your skill level and artistry.”

“Boys 2 Men” will be on display at Arkwings through July 22nd and will travel to University of Memphis’ Fogelman Gallery in September. For more information on Arkwings and all its upcoming events, follow the nonpro t on Facebook.

OPEN GALLERY DAY, ARKWINGS, WEDNESDAY, JULY 5, 2-5 P.M., FREE.

“BOYS 2 MEN: IF YOU DON’T SEE BLACK, YOU DON’T SEE ME,” ARKWINGS, ON DISPLAY THROUGH JULY 22.

VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES

Jersey Boys

Playhouse on the Square, performances through July 16, $30 Oh, what a night! And we’re not just talking about late December back in ’63; we’re talking about the nights at Playhouse on the Square where Jersey Boys leaves audiences in awe, exclaiming, “What a night!”

e Broadway smash hit chronicles the rise and eventual breakup of the legendary doo-wop group Frankie Valli and e Four Seasons. Featuring chart-toppers like “Sherry,” “Beggin’,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” and “Walk Like a Man,” Jersey Boys is an exciting walk down memory lane of the golden era of American music.

Performances run ursdaySaturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets, call the box o ce at (901) 726-4656 or visit playhouseonthesquare.org.

july 1st

july 22nd

Whet ursday | Whale Watch

Metal Museum, ursday, June 29, 5-7 p.m., free Whale, whale, whale, what do we have here? A bunch of whales? Maybe, if you keep your eyes peeled, you might see a whale in the Mississippi at the Metal Museum’s Whet ursday.

Even if you don’t spot a whale, you’re guaranteed to have a whale of a time, with live music, delicious food and drinks, mesmerizing metalsmithing demos, and hands-on activities. Plus, you can sign up at metalmuseum.com to make your very own enameled whale necklace for $25.

Lake & Lodge: Movies by Moonlight: Addams Family Values Lichterman Nature Center, Friday, June 30, 7-10 p.m., $15

Join MoSH and Black Lodge at Lichterman Nature Center for a social and experimental outdoor

movie experience like no other with a screening of e Addams Family Values

e evening will feature fun — more like creepy — activities, including experiments with electricity, interactions with human heart models (and a look at a preserved pig heart), and a meet-and-greet with resident creepy crawlies (a tarantula, a snake, and Madagascar hissing cockroaches — yikes!).

Goth and ’90s costumes are encouraged. Tickets can be purchased at moshmemphis.com/event.

Central Gardens July 4th Parade

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Tuesday, July 4, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., free

Enjoy a Fourth of July Parade, followed by a celebration complete with children’s activities, free hotdogs and popsicles, and live music.

july 27th

PHOTO: COURTESY WE ARE MEMPHIS Enjoy Arkwings’ free art yard.

Summit of the Scribes

The air was charged last Friday night at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, as ve of Stax Records’ most valuable players gathered together to answer questions and speak their minds. e sold-out event was rst and foremost a celebration of Written in eir Soul: e Stax Songwriter Demos, Cra Recordings’ seven-CD compilation (reviewed last week in the Memphis Flyer) featuring 140 never-before-heard recordings made in the studio’s back rooms, when songwriters made reference tapes of their compositions. ose demos would ultimately be led away among the holdings of East/Memphis Music, the label’s publishing company, with the best serving as blueprints for full-on studio recordings by Stax artists. Hence, it was not in their capacity as Stax performers that William Bell and Eddie Floyd appeared last Friday, but as some of the label’s best songwriters. ey were joined by Deanie Parker, Bobby Manuel, and Henderson igpen, fellow masters of the cra , in a kind of summit of the scribes. e panel was rounded out by wordsmith Robert Gordon and the visionary record producer who’d rst conceived of the release, three-time Grammy Awardwinning producer Cheryl Pawelski.

Although the museum, built according to the original building’s plans, always conveys a sense of the bustling Stax studios and o ces to the casual visitor, this historic gathering made it more palpable, as the panelists discussed their days in those very halls when Stax was at its zenith. It

was a veritable money machine in its heyday, but, as Robert Gordon explained, that money wasn’t just from record sales. East/ Memphis Publishing oversaw the equally lucrative income stream of song royalties. For songwriters like those gathered at the museum Friday, those royalties translated into “mailbox money.”

Henderson igpen was perhaps the purest expression of the songwriter’s ethos that evening. e others were involved with Stax in several capacities besides songcra : Deanie Parker headed the label’s public relations and was later known as the primary conceptualizer of the Stax Music Academy and associated museum, Bobby Manuel was an ace session guitarist, and Bell and Floyd were stars, the most public voices and faces of Stax. igpen, however, focused on writing with laserlike determination, always keeping “a pen in one pocket and two notepads in the other pocket,” as he explained.

He described writing the Shirley Brown hit, “Woman to Woman,” noting the care with which he sang the demo to show Brown how the opening monologue had to be delivered. en the museum’s executive director, Je Kollath, cued up the demo featuring igpen’s vocals, sung from a woman’s point of view, seeming to take the songwriter by surprise. He winced good-naturedly as his haunting voice from half a century ago lled the room, then took a moment to point out his wife in the audience. His only regret about the master recording of No. 1 R&B hit, he said, was that it didn’t open

with the sound of a ringing telephone.

e room lit up when “Dy-No-Mite (Did You Say My Love)” by composer Mack Rice was played; while the song was recorded and released by the Green Brothers, all agreed that Rice’s highspirited delivery on the demo, complete with whistles, could not be topped. Indeed, the late Mack Rice was a recurring presence at the event. So were proli c songwriters Bettye Crutcher, who passed away last October, and Homer Banks, who died in 2003.

e set’s art director and designer, Memphis’ own Kerri Mahoney, was in the audience and noted a erwards how stunned she was that so little memorabilia was preserved from those days. She’d had little to work with, she said, though her work ultimately resulted in a richly illustrated and smartly designed package.

Pawelski, for her part, sat back and let the legends speak, but eventually Gordon asked her to tell the long tale of the collection’s genesis and realization. When she worked for Concord Records (of which Cra is a subsidiary), she learned of the demos kept by East/Memphis. But, having been archived haphazardly, many were buried in long, uncatalogued tapes on which completely unrelated demos also appeared. Over 17 years and a few career changes culminating in the founding of her own label, Omnivore Recordings, Pawelski gradually listened through nearly 2,000 hours of audio in her quest to identify the lost gems of Stax. She was clearly elated that her baby was now out there in the world.

PHOTO: KYLE TAUBKEN

Panel moderator Robert Gordon and Written in eir Soul panelists Deanie Parker, William Bell, Eddie Floyd, Bobby Manuel, CD producer Cheryl Pawelski, and Henderson igpen

MUSIC By Alex Greene

Stax legends gathered to celebrate Written in eir Soul: e Stax Songwriter Demos

CALENDAR of EVENTS: June 29July 5

Send

experimental outdoor movie experience like no other. Friday, June 30, 7-10 p.m.

LICHTERMAN NATURE CENTER

Summer Movie Series: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella

A film the whole family will enjoy. Saturday, July 1, 7 p.m.

GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

PERFORMING ARTS

Spillit Slam: Summer Lovin’

An evening of your stories about the people, places, and things that are loved during the summer. Friday, June 30, 7 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

SPECIAL EVENTS

All-American Weekend

There is nothing more American than Elvis, rockand-roll, fireworks, and barbecue, so celebrate U.S. independence at Graceland. Saturday, July 1, 4:4510 p.m.; Sunday, July 2, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

GRACELAND

DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS,

Central Gardens July 4th Parade

Enjoy the parade, then enjoy a “make and take” crafts table, hotdogs, popsicles, and live music.

Tuesday, July 4, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

CATHEDRAL OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Collierville Independence Day

Celebration

The highlight of the event will be Collierville’s

18-minute fireworks show, one of the largest in the Mid-South, set to a live music performance.

Monday, July 3, 6 p.m.

H.W. COX COMMUNITY CENTER

Memphis’ Largest Fireworks Festival

An Independence Day festival and the official city fireworks show, complete with music, inflatable, face-painting, carnival games, food trucks, and more.

Monday, July 3, 5-9 p.m.

FAIRGROUNDS - LIBERTY PARK

Overton Square

Independence Celebration

A free, fun celebration with live music from Cyrena Wages. Bring the kids for free face-painting and balloon art, and check out the Fire Museum’s cool vintage fire trucks.

Saturday, July 1, 7-10 p.m.

OVERTON SQUARE

Summer Splash!

Overton Park Conservancy is popping up waterslides on the Greensward. Free. Saturday, July 1, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

OVERTON PARK

SPORTS

901 Wrestling

1819 champion Kevin Bless defends his gold against Andy Mack. Saturday, July 1, 7 p.m.

Memphis Redbirds vs. Nasvhille Sounds

Thursday, June 29, 7:05 p.m.;

Friday, June 30, 7:05 p.m.

AUTOZONE PARK

THEATER

Jersey Boys

The Broadway smash hit, chronicling the rise and eventual breakup of the legendary doo-wop group Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. Through July 16.

PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE

Mary Poppins

When Jane and Michael, the ill-mannered children of the wealthy Banks family of London, are faced with the prospect of a new nanny, they are pleasantly surprised by the arrival of Mary Poppins. Through July 2.

THEATRE MEMPHIS

Frozen

An unforgettable theatrical experience filled with sensational special effects, stunning sets and costumes, and powerhouse performances! Through July 2.

ART AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS

“Reimagining the Real”

Artists Ana M. Lopez and Natalie Macellaio utilize the visual language of the everyday to create unique works of art that are both familiar and fantastical. Through July 9.

METAL MUSEUM

Summer of Art: Byhalia Area Arts Council.

Peruse works of art in various mediums by Byhalia Area Arts Council. Through June 29.

WOMAN’S EXCHANGE OF MEMPHIS

ART HAPPENINGS

Artist Showcase - Cara Sievers

Join Serendipity Labs for light refreshments and a chance to view and purchase a painting from Cara Sievers. Thursday, June 29, 4-6 p.m.

SERENDIPITY LABS

Super Saturday: Painting, Pointillism, and Pisarro

From 10 a.m.-noon, the Brooks will have free admission and art-making led by art educator Mrs. Rose. Saturday, July 1, 10 a.m.-noon.

MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART

Whet Thursday

Enjoy games on the lawn, food truck fare, live music, metalsmithing demos, and more. Free. Thursday, June 29, 7 p.m.

METAL MUSEUM

COMEDY

Mark Curry

Mark Curry is an actor, comedian, and host, best known for playing Mark Cooper in the hit ABC sitcom, Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper Friday, June 30-July 2.

CHUCKLES COMEDY HOUSE

FILM

Dinner & A Movie: Pan’s Labyrinth

Experience this haunting and ethereal masterpiece, as you enjoy a special three-course meal. $30. Thursday, June 29, 6 p.m., 8 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Guitar Heroes Summer Laser Shows: Pink Floyd’s The Wall

Experience Pink Floyd’s The Wall in a brilliant laser light show in the full-dome planetarium.

Friday, June 30, 7 p.m.

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

Lake & Lodge: Movies by Moonlight: Addams Family Values

Join MoSH and Black Lodge for a social and

The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018

ORPHEUM THEATRE

BLACK LODGE

For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550

For Release Friday, February 1, 2019

Crossword

48 Rose

49 Screw up

51 New toy?

53 Legislative body of Russia

54 “Gil Blas” author

58 Everywhere

59 Things that contain 59-Across that contain 59-Across that …

DOWN

1 Online gamer’s problem

2 Orate 3 “100 Years … 100 Movies,” e.g.

Edited by Will Shortz No. 1228

123456789101112131415

u ask me …”

46 America’s busiest airport after ATL and LAX

47 ___ América (soccer tournament)

CAROMETNAJAW

ALONGALOOFEPA

TOTEMSKYWRITER

AHABSESSIONS

WATCHTV TTOP BOOEYEDERMA

AERIALRE CON REEL

HRE CON ESIAGO

EMOTI CON YOYOMA

SLOP CON TAINER

TELE CON ROSESBAM

AGETOALLITALO

GIRARDIARTISAN

GEAROILNAILSIT

STALEDESTINY

4 Many employees of the Lego company

5 So

6 Seriously shortchange

7 ___ Little, “The Wire” character

8 Prolific

9 Event of 1964 and 2020

10 It’s two hours behind Pacific: Abbr.

11 Memorable time

12 12 points, typographically

13 Many a battery charger

14 Instrument whose name comes from the Latin for “heavenly”

15 Hard to eat quietly, in adspeak

21 ___ Dems (U.K. political party, informally)

23 Highish bridge holding

26 “Je vous en

___” (French for “You’re welcome”)

27 City on the Mexican border

28 Things that amaze

29 Noted arms manufacturer

31 Designer Gucci

33 Indicator of a coming storm

36 Friend of Tarzan

37 Tar

39 Communication means since 1911

40 Hobbit corrupted by the Ring

41 “That HURTS!”

42 Refusal with a contraction

44 Lewdness

47 Host Bert of old game shows

48 Vim

50 Gucci competitor

52 Corner office, maybe

53 Out of juice

55 Car that went defunct in 1936

56 Place to count sheep

57 Pair of nines?

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.

PHOTO: MATTHEW MURPHY | DISNEY

Disney’s Frozen comes to life on the Orpheum’s stage.

PUZZLE BY DAVID STEINBERG

Weird Science

Spring weather can be unpredictable, but a man in Ankara, Turkey, got an up-close glimpse of exactly what intense winds can do on May 17, Metro News reported. As Onur Kalmaz looked out his window, trying to check on his car during the storm, he captured on video a sofa flying from a balcony of a 35-story block of apartments nearby. Kalmaz said the sofa crashed into other buildings before falling to the ground. “No one was hurt, but we were pretty scared,” he said. [Metro News, 5/18/2023]

Clothing Optional

• After crashing his truck into a Volusia, Florida, utility pole around 2 a.m. on May 21, completely severing it, 39-yearold Kevin Gardner did the obvious thing: He took off all his clothes and started banging on the front door of a home nearby. ClickOrlando reported that when officers arrived at the home, Gardner had injuries on his face and legs. The truck was registered to him, but he said it had been stolen … and that he’d had seizures and didn’t remember anything. A breath test revealed an illegal blood-alcohol content, and Gardner was held on multiple charges. [ClickOrlando, 5/23/2023]

• In Georgia, residents can now use a digital driver’s license, which can be uploaded to Apple Wallet and allows users to leave their IDs in their bag or pocket at TSA checkpoints. But, as United Press International reported, snapping a selfie for the ID comes with a few rules. “Attention, lovely people of the digital era,” the Georgia Department of Driver Services posted on its Facebook page on May 23. “Please take pictures with your clothes on when submitting them for your Digital Driver’s License and ID. Cheers to technology and keeping things classy!”

Put your shirt on. [UPI, 5/25/2023]

The Passing Parade

High school seniors in Marlin, Texas, are getting a few extra days of school tacked on, KWTX-TV reported on May 23. The reason: Twenty-eight of the 33 seniors — about 85 percent — were not eligible to graduate, according to an audit performed by the Marlin Independent School District because they had failed or neglected to complete a course or they had too many absences. The ceremony, originally scheduled for May 25, will take place sometime in June. “They told us that because of the students that didn’t meet the requirements, it wouldn’t be fair for only five students to walk the stage,” said Alondra Alvarado, who is eligible to graduate. Victoria Banda, whose son did not meet the requirements, said they were given very little notice about the change in plans. They had family “traveling in from Mexico” for the original ceremony — “and if anyone knows, it’s not cheap,” she said. Administrators hope the extra time will allow the majority of students to meet the state’s requirements. [KWTX, 5/23/2023]

Florida

• When the Brevard (Florida) Public Schools board met on May 9, the topic of dress codes came up, but it went way beyond hoodies and beachwear, ClickOrlando reported. Vice chair Megan Wright told board members that she has heard concerns about students dressing up as “furries” — people who anthropomorphize animals. District

5 Representative Katye Campbell

weighed in: “I’m not a big fan of the furry movement, but … if ‘ears’ means a headband with pointed ears on them, it’s a hair accessory. Tails are different, and students meowing and barking at other students — that’s not cool. But that’s not dress code.” Chairman Matt Susin said his daughter is “tired of furries” at school and the subject comes up at least once a month at his dinner table. Leave it to District 3 Representative Jennifer Jenkins to cut through the kitty litter: “This is not rocket science ... If you don’t want tails on kids, just say you don’t want tails.” She said among middle school students, the new thing is barking and meowing at each other, unrelated to furry costumes: “It’s weird, but they’re doing it.” [ClickOrlando, 5/11/2023]

• Omar Gutierrez, 32, of Gainesville, Florida, donned a cat costume before plunging a knife into his roommate’s neck on May 22, WCJB-TV reported. When the victim asked why he stabbed him, Gutierrez said, “It was instinctual.” Police reported that Gutierrez had told the victim a week earlier that he was “not above killing” him; Gutierrez had claimed that the roommate had hurt his cat, although he denied it. Gutierrez was charged with first-degree attempted murder — because, you know, he had to plan the costume. [WCJB, 5/24/2023]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com. News of the Weird is now a podcast on all major platforms! To find out more, visit newsoftheweirdpodcast.com.

By the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication

W/ PURCHASE OF ONE 2PC DARK DINNER & 2 MED DRINKS. WITH THIS COUPON. EXPIRES 12/31/23.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Visionary author Peter McWilliams wrote, “One of the most enjoyable aspects of solitude is doing what you want when you want to do it, with the absolute freedom to change what you’re doing at will. Solitude removes all the ‘negotiating’ we need to do when we’re with others.” I’ll add a caveat: Some of us have more to learn about enjoying solitude. We may experience it as a loss or deprivation. But here’s the good news, Aries: In the coming weeks, you will be extra inspired to cultivate the benefits that come from being alone.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The 18th-century French engineer Étienne Bottineau invented nauscopy, the art of detecting sailing ships at a great distance, well beyond the horizon. This was before the invention of radar. Bottineau said his skill was not rooted in sorcery or luck, but from his careful study of changes in the atmosphere, wind, and sea. Did you guess that Bottineau was a Taurus? Your tribe has a special capacity for arriving at seemingly magical understandings by harnessing your sensitivity to natural signals. Your intuition thrives as you closely observe the practical details of how the world works. This superpower will be at a peak in the coming weeks.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): According to a Welsh proverb, “Three fears weaken the heart: fear of the truth; fear of the devil; fear of poverty.” I suspect the first of those three is most likely to worm its way into your awareness during the coming weeks. So let’s see what we can do to diminish its power over you. Here’s one possibility: Believe me when I tell you that even if the truth’s arrival is initially disturbing or disruptive, it will ultimately be healing and liberating. It should be welcomed, not feared.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the book Curious Facts in the History of Insects, Frank Cowan tells a perhaps legendary story about how mayors were selected in the medieval Swedish town of Hurdenburg. The candidates would set their chins on a table with their long beards spread out in front of them. A louse, a tiny parasitic insect, would be put in the middle of the table. Whichever beard the creature crawled to and chose as its new landing spot would reveal the man who would become the town’s new leader. I beg you not to do anything like this, Leo. The decisions you and your allies make should be grounded in good evidence and sound reason, not blind chance. And please avoid parasitical influences completely.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I rebel against the gurus and teachers who tell us our stories are delusional indulgences that interfere with our enlightenment. I reject their insistence that our personal tales are

distractions from our spiritual work. Virgo author A. S. Byatt speaks for me: “Narration is as much a part of human nature as breath and the circulation of the blood.”

I love and honor the stories of my own destiny, and I encourage you to love and honor yours. Having said that, I will let you know that now is an excellent time to jettison the stories that feel demoralizing and draining — even as you celebrate the stories that embody your genuine beauty. For extra credit: Tell the soulful stories of your life to anyone who is receptive.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In the Mayan calendar, each of the 20 day names is associated with a natural phenomenon. The day called Kawak is paired with rainstorms. Ik’ is connected with wind and breath. Kab’an is earth, Manik’ is deer, and Chikchan is the snake. Now would be a great time for you to engage in an imaginative exercise inspired by the Mayans. Why? Because this is an ideal phase of your cycle to break up your routine, to reinvent the regular rhythm, to introduce innovations in how you experience the flow of the time. Just for fun, why not give each of the next 14 days a playful nickname or descriptor? This Friday could be Crescent Moon, for example. Saturday might be Wonderment, Sunday can be Dazzle Sweet, and Monday Good Darkness.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): From 998 till 1030, Scorpio-born leader Mahmud Ghaznavi ruled the vast Ghaznavid empire, which stretched from current-day Iran to central Asia and northwestern India. Like so many of history’s strong men, he was obsessed with military conquest. Unlike many others, though, he treasured culture and learning. You’ve heard of poet laureates? He had 400 of them. According to some tales, he rewarded one wordsmith with a mouthful of pearls. In accordance with astrological omens, I encourage you to be more like the Mahmud who loved beauty and art and less like the Mahmud who enjoyed fighting. The coming weeks will be a favorable time to fill your world with grace and elegance and magnificence.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): About 1,740 years ago, before she became a Catholic saint, Margaret of Antioch got swallowed whole by Satan, who was disguised as a dragon. Or so the old story goes. But Margaret was undaunted. There in the beast’s innards, Margaret calmly made the sign of the cross over and over with her right hand. Meanwhile, the wooden cross in her left hand magically swelled to an enormous size that ruptured the beast, enabling her to escape. After that, because of her triumph, expectant mothers and women in labor regarded Margaret as their patron saint. Your upcoming test won’t be anywhere near as demanding as hers, Sagittarius, but I bet you will ace it — and ultimately garner sweet rewards.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Hexes nullified! Jinxes abolished! Demons banished! Adversaries outwitted! Liabilities diminished! Bad habits replaced with good habits! These are some of the glorious developments possible for you in the coming months, Cancerian. Am I exaggerating? Maybe a little. But if so, not much. In my vision of your future, you will be the embodiment of a lucky charm and a repository of blessed mojo. You are embarking on a phase when it will make logical sense to be an optimist. Can you sweep all the dross and mess out of your sphere? No, but I bet you can do at least 80 percent.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn-born Johannes Kepler (1571–1630) was an astronomer and mathematician who was an instrumental innovator in the Scientific Revolution. Among his many breakthrough accomplishments were his insights about the laws of planetary motion. Books he wrote were crucial forerunners of Isaac Newton’s theories about gravitation. But here’s an unexpected twist: Kepler was also a practicing astrologer who interpreted the charts of many people, including three emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. In the spirit of Kepler’s ability to bridge seemingly opposing perspectives, Capricorn, I invite you to be a paragon of mediation and conciliation in the coming weeks. Always be looking for ways to heal splits and forge connections. Assume you have an extraordinary power to blend elements that no one can else can.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Dear Restless Runaway: During the next 10 months, life will offer you these invitations: 1. Identify the land that excites you and stabilizes you. 2. Spend lots of relaxing time on that land. 3. Define the exact nature of the niche or situation where your talents and desires will be most gracefully expressed. 4. Take steps to create or gather the family you want. 5. Take steps to create or gather the community you want.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I’d love you to be a deep-feeling free-thinker in the coming weeks. I will cheer you on if you nurture your emotional intelligence as you liberate yourself from outmoded beliefs and opinions. Celebrate your precious sensitivity, dear Pisces, even as you use your fine mind to reevaluate your vision of what the future holds. It’s a perfect time to glory in rich sentiments and exult in creative ideas.

ALEXIS GRACE

THURSDAY, JUNE 29

6:00 PM, Gates Open at 5:30 PM

CYRENA WAGES

THURSDAY, JULY 6

6:00 PM, Gates Open at 5:30 PM

SATURDAY, JULY 8

A Spoonful of Sugar

e Disney-classic-turned-stage-show is a delight for all ages.

For around a month when I was 8 years old, I had a routine. Every day when I got home from school, I would turn on the VHS player and watch the same tape: Mary Poppins. I’ve seen it more times than I can count and would hazard a guess that I am more familiar with it than any other movie. Funnily enough, until recently I had never seen Mary Poppins performed on stage. To be honest, I wasn’t even aware that it had been developed into a musical, rst on West End and then, two years later, on Broadway. Now that I think about it, I’m surprised it wasn’t turned into a stage play sooner than 2004. Mary Poppins is everything you’d expect from musical theater — it’s a show all ages can enjoy.

eatre Memphis’ production of Mary Poppins has had “phenomenal sales,” according to director of marketing and communications Randall Hartzog. Audience members are encouraged to recycle their programs as almost every performance is already sold out.

Sitting in the Lohrey eatre before a Sunday matinee, I notice there are numerous families with small children in attendance. Directly in front of me, a family of three asks if I will take their picture — it’s their little boy’s rst time seeing a live show. Behind me are two more children, although one of them moves next to me during the rst few minutes, his mother’s lap being a more preferable seat. Listening to his guileless commentary was an unexpected, yet welcomed, added bonus to my theater experience.

To my surprise, and in spite of my childhood obsession with the story, there were many new things to be discovered about Mary Poppins, including scenes that are altogether absent from the 1964 Disney lm. I was also glad to take note of themes relevant to our cultural experience in 2023 that went over my head as a child.

e mighty character of George Banks, for example, can be seen on the surface as a basic absentee-father-stock-character mired in patriarchal gender roles. However, in taking a closer look, it’s obvious that George Banks is more dynamic than static, and modern audiences might interpret his character as a manifestation of breaking generational trauma.

e musical number “Playing the Game” is another part of the onstage

production that departs from the Disney lm, during which the toys in Jane and Michael’s nursery come to life in response to being mistreated. It brought to mind that scene in Toy Story when Sid’s toys come out from under his bed, and I would be remiss not to include the reaction I overheard from the boy sitting beside me. As multiple toys crawled out of the wings and even out of the set itself (it was the replace that really got me), I heard from my right, “What the …” A few moments later, the same voice whispered, “Mom, I’m scared.” Me too, kid.

On the whole, though, the musical was upli ing, and any time the ensemble came together in choreography, it was a treat to behold. e complicated, fast-paced synchronicity in numbers such as “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and “Jolly Holiday” was performed without a hitch. e elaborate and frequent costume changes added to the overall visual spectacle achieved by these full-scale musical numbers.

Russell Lehman’s performance as Bert stood out in particular. Bert acts as a sort of narrative guide throughout the show, orchestrating scene changes and introducing scenes as a central cog in the machinery of the production. Lehman’s energy and enthusiasm shone on stage and seemed to buoy the other cast members.

It’s always encouraging to me, as a person who fell in love with the stage at the tender age of 10, to see enthusiastic theater audiences lled with multiple generations. Fortunately, Memphis is a city with many opportunities to introduce kids and rst-time theatergoers to the magic of live performance. eatre Memphis’ Mary Poppins is a perfect example of one such opportunity, and I am grateful to have been a part of it.

Mary Poppins runs through July 2nd at eatre Memphis.

PHOTO: CARLA MCDONALD Mary Poppins is just as magical on the stage as on the screen.

THEATER By Coco June

THE GUITAR AND A CHANGING NATION

THE

EXHIBITION

A Touring Exhibition of The National GUITAR Museum

MEMPHIS MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

In partnership with

Photo courtesy Steve Roberts

FOOD By Michael Donahue

Sweet Inspiration

Serving cold gazpacho soup on a hot a ernoon at the recent Loving Local fundraiser was inspired.

So, it’s no surprise the chef who created it was Terrance Whitley, executive chef/cofounder of Inspire Community Café.

“I knew it was going to be hot,” says Whitley, 37. And he knew he had to make enough to serve 250 people.

Whitley was aware Central BBQ was going to serve meat. So, he thought, “I won’t feel bad about bringing something cold. Give everybody a little refreshing moment from being in the sun.”

Taking part in the Project Green Fork fundraiser was a given. Whitley, who is “always looking to help out,” began doing volunteer work at St. Patrick Catholic Church when he was 10 years old. “St. Patrick’s had an a er-school program. We used to do little stu like rake leaves and community clean-up projects.”

Whitley went without food. “We were down bad.”

On those days, he would “just go to sleep, man. And, hopefully, the days are brighter tomorrow. Some days we just didn’t have it.”

Whitley began cooking when he was in his mid-20s. “I ended up realizing one day that I was a bum and that I needed a job. But I didn’t want to ip burgers. I didn’t want to do any warehouse things.”

He focused on getting a restaurant job. “I just knew I wanted to be in a position to move up and acquire a skill.”

Whitley became a dishwasher at South of Beale on South Main. “ e one dude who is really responsible for my cooking career was my head chef, Carl White, but everybody calls him ‘C.J.’ I was washing dishes one day and he just says, ‘Hey, man. You want to learn how to cook?’

“ e rst thing he told me was, ‘You see this steak? Pick it up. Put a little oil on it. And salt and pepper the shit out of it. row it on the grill.’ Once he threw it on the grill, it inspired me. e rst time I stepped on that line, it just became natural.”

Whitley eventually moved to other restaurants until he and his “mentor/tutor,” Kristin Fox-Trautman, came up with the idea of Inspire Community Café. FoxTrautman wanted them to create “something cool to give back to the community.”

ey opened Inspire Community Café at 510 Tillman Street, Suite 110, in January 2019.

As for the name, Whitley says, “We wanted to inspire change.” e focus was on healthy food, so Whitley looked for “creative ways” to use healthier ingredients. “We don’t have a fryer and we don’t have a soda machine. And we use olive oil and vegetable stock in all our stu .

A native Memphian, Whitley grew up nearby in Foote Homes and Cleaborn Homes. “I needed help when I was a kid. My family was poverty-stricken. So, I just wanted to help people the way I wanted somebody to help me.”

As a child, Whitley was able to get something to eat, thanks to St. Patrick’s, which passed out food to the homeless. “I knew St. Patrick’s had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And I knew when I went in church they were passing out doughnuts and stu like that. I was just trying to look for sustainable food ’cause we didn’t have much at home.”

Some days when he was young,

“ e menu came from Kristin just traveling around. She’d come back with all these ideas and I just went on and executed them. Like they went to Costa Rica and found out the way they do black beans.”

Popular Inspire items include the Costa Rican black bean, roasted sweet potato, and quinoa bowl; barbecue chicken quesadillas; and the Strawberry Field Salad with strawberries, candied pecans, feta cheese, and red onions. And everything is under $10.

For now, Whitley is just watching the restaurant grow. “I want it to be pro table. And I want it to be more of a staple in the Memphis community. I want to make sure when it’s all said and done, Inspire Community Café is a household name to the people of Memphis.”

PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE Terrance Whitley

Inspire Community Café’s Terrance Whitley aims to give back with his food.

SALE

Lost in the Cosmos

This morning, as I was scrolling Twitter over coffee, I saw a user complaining about the avalanche of Wes Anderson parody TikToks. ey posted the “Reading of the Will” scene from e Grand Budapest Hotel to prove that none of Anderson’s legion of sarcastic imitators could touch the genuine hilarity of Ralph Fiennes deadpanning, “I sleep with all of my close friends,” or the urry of punches that ends with an iris-in on a snarling Willem Dafoe. I was low-key shocked at how many Twitter users responded with variations on “OMG, is this from a real movie?”

Anderson is now in that weird space of being famous for being famous. His distinctive style, which rst came together in e Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, has been around long enough to be ripe for parody. Apparently, some clout chasers didn’t know what, exactly, they were laughing at. It was encouraging to see a couple of those responders chime in later to say they had sought out e Grand Budapest Hotel and found it hilarious and touching. You can imitate the surface with at performance and fussed-over mise-en-scène, but the qualities that make Anderson one of our greatest living lmmakers are more elusive. His secret sauce remains secret — perhaps even from the artist himself.

Asteroid City is the follow-up to e French Dispatch, which is not just a career peak for Anderson, but in the running for the greatest lm of the 2020s. (It’s early, I

know.) So it carries a very heavy burden of expectations. Normally, this is the point of the review where I say something like, “It’s the story of blah blah, who must yadda yadda to avoid an oopsie.” But I’m not sure whose story Asteroid City is. Is it Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman), the war photographer on a road trip to the 1955 Junior Stargazer Convention who must decide when to tell his kids their mother died three weeks ago? Is it Conrad Earp (Edward Norton), the closeted gay playwright whose latest play, Asteroid City, is an examination of grief and hope in a Nevada desert scarred by craters from atomic bomb tests? Or is it Schubert Green (Adrien Brody), the director so obsessed with his production of Asteroid City that he sleeps in the theater? Or maybe it’s all of their stories, as told by Bryan Cranston, the host of a Playhouse 90-style anthology TV series that is staging a broadcast version of the play.

e basic plot of Asteroid City (the play) is “a stranger comes to town.” e stranger is an alien (seen twice as stop motion animation, and once as Je Goldblum’s cameo), and perhaps the story is really about the sprawling cast’s reaction to its arrival. General Grif Gibson (Je rey Wright) reacts by imposing a quarantine on the Junior Stargazer Convention. Dr. Hickenlooper (Tilda Swinton) just wants to study the alien. Augie, at his lowest point in life, discovers romance in the person of Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson), a famous actress who likes to practice her nude

ere’s a heck of a lot going on with the many oddballs in Wes Anderson’s new lm, Asteroid City

scenes in front of her cabin window.

As you can see, there’s a lot going on. Each of the pieces of this sprawling puzzle works in their own way. Wright is Anderson’s new favorite monologist, and he delivers brilliantly. Schwartzman, Anderson’s longtime foil, pulls o a bewilderingly complex triple role as Augie, the actor who plays him, and Conrad Earp’s memory of his lost lover. Johansson, who has always had deeper chops than most of her roles require, lays on the a ected midAtlantic accent of a spoiled, bored movie star reawakening her passions. Anderson goes from wide-screen to 4:3, and from a desaturated postcard color palette to stark black and white, uidly and naturally. Practically every shot is perfectly composed joy unto itself.

e problem is, the parts don’t play well with one another. Cranston’s TV show, ostensibly the “top” layer of reality, adds too much metatextual complexity. e huge cast is fun, but it also means we don’t get to spend enough time with some of them.

Anderson superfans like me will have a grand time with Asteroid City, and hopefully, it will open up upon rewatch. But more casual viewers might end up lost in the director’s swirling cosmos.

Asteroid City

Now playing Multiple locations

FILM By Chris McCoy

A stranger comes to town in Wes Anderson’s sprawling Asteroid City

NOW PLAYING By Chris McCoy

Our critic picks the best films in theaters. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Harrison Ford dons the fedora for a victory lap, courtesy of director James Mangold. Phoebe Waller-Bridge costars as Helena, Jones’ goddaughter who drags the retired archaeologist on one more adventure. Mads Mikkelsen is a former Nazi also looking for the Dial of Destiny, a magical item which could control the flow of time. John Rhys Davies also returns as Indy’s good friend Sallah, and Karen Allen is back as Marion Ravenwood, Indy’s old flame whom he married at the end of Crystal Skull.

Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken This animated comedy from Dream -

Works features 16-year-old Ruby (voiced by Lana Condor) who is trying to fit in at her high school despite the fact that she is secretly a mythological monster who rules the deep. It’s a coming-of-age comedy with a difference: Think Booksmart , only fishy.

No Hard Feelings

Jennifer Lawrence is Maddie, a down-on-her-luck Uber driver who reluctantly takes a job from a Craigslist ad looking for someone to drag 19-year-old Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman) out of his shell before he attends Princeton in the fall. This old-fashioned sex comedy has been an unexpected hit for Lawrence and director Gene Stupnitsky.

Deborah Fisher

A Matter of Public Record

A er extended delays, a local journalist les a lawsuit over Memphis police audits.

For two and a half years, the City of Memphis has sent journalist Marc Perrusquia perfunctory communications that it is still reviewing and considering his records request, each time pushing the date for its response down the road. Perrusquia asked for the audits and evaluations of a Memphis police program that provides nondisciplinary intervention when police o cers exhibit behavior and performance problems. e city’s policy and procedure manual requires an audit of the program every six months to evaluate the outcomes of supervisory interventions and the quality of reviews. Quarterly reports are also required.

Perrusquia, a journalist in Memphis for more than 30 years, asked for ve years of the audits and evaluations on December 6, 2020. If an audit is done every six months in compliance with the city’s policy, that’s 10 audits. However, the city stonewalled his request, contacting him 41 times extending the “time necessary” to complete it. One time, the city told him that the responsive documents were with the city attorney for review. en the next month, the city said it had not yet determined that records responsive to his request existed. Now Perrusquia has led a lawsuit against the city over the delays, saying they amount to a constructive denial of his public records request. His attorney is Paul McAdoo with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and represents journalists in Tennessee as part of the Reporters Committee Local Legal Initiative. e Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA) outlines how government entities are required to respond to a public records request in T.C.A. § 10-7-503 (a)(2)(B):

“ e custodian of a public record or the custodian’s designee shall promptly make available for inspection any public record not speci cally exempt from disclosure. In the event it is not practicable for the record to be promptly available for inspection, the custodian shall, within seven (7) business days: (i) Make the public record requested available to the requestor; (ii) Deny the request in writing or by completing a records request response form developed by the o ce of open records counsel. e response shall include the basis for the denial; or (iii) Furnish the requester in writing, or by completing a records request response form developed by the o ce of open records counsel, the time reasonably necessary to produce the record or information.”

Perrusquia’s lawsuit says the city’s “chronic delay is a violation of the TPRA’s requirement that non-exempt public records be made ‘promptly’ available to the requester.” He also takes aim with the city’s multiple extensions of “the time reasonably necessary to produce the record or information.” “Mr. Perrusquia’s attempts to obtain these public records without ling a petition with this Court have been unsuccessful. It is therefore necessary to bring this action for access and judicial review,” the lawsuit says.

e lawsuit aims at a problem that confounds many journalists and others in Tennessee who request public records: A government entity that gives an estimate on when records will be available, then keeps extending the time over and over. Or, as in Perrusquia’s case: A government that never gives a time estimate and just keeps sending a pro forma letter that it is still reviewing the request and it will let you know later.

In my work as executive director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, I’ve o en seen denial letters to journalists and citizens with this phrase: “ e o ce is still in the process of retrieving, reviewing, and/or redacting the requested records,” with a note that the requester will hear back in another 30 days. e 30 days come, and the journalist gets the same response. Or they get no response, as if someone forgot to send out the letter again. On the outside, it feels like nothing is being done on your request for records and that maybe no one has even looked at it.

e problem with delays has been acute in Memphis for years. In August 2019, the Memphis Business Journal produced an investigative report about the city’s responses to public records requests. It documented a request it made on December 6, 2017. It was ful lled a year later, but only a er the editor of the newspaper was meeting with a high-level sta er about another matter and mentioned the delayed request. A er he did, the sta er promised to look into it, and within three days the city ful lled the request.

e city responded in the story, saying they initially thought they might have a sta ng issue, either needing more people or more training of people. But later they told the newspaper they had a better handle on the situation and had updated its policy from a rst-in/ rst-out to a rolling request system. “Under the new process, rather than letting one request hold up the queue just because it was received rst, custodians will try to ll the easy requests quickly and ll large requests in sections.” at was 2019.

No matter the processes employed by government entities, Perrusquia’s lawsuit may be the rst in Tennessee that has taken aim at unusual and inexplicable delays. It’s notable that he is asking for records that go to the heart of questions about police oversight in Memphis. His request was made in December 2020. In January 2023, Tyre Nichols was pulled over by police for what they said was reckless driving, then beat to such a pulp that he later died. Much of it was caught on body camera and a street camera. e police o cers directly involved have been relieved of duty.

e audits of the city’s police program that seeks to intervene in behavior problems of police should have been released quickly, back in 2021. What do they show? Perhaps this lawsuit will shake them loose and, at the same time, push back on the pattern of delays that undermine transparency in government.

e case has been assigned to Shelby County Chancellor Melanie Taylor Je erson.

Deborah Fisher is executive director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government. Previously she spent 25 years in the news industry as a journalist.

PHOTO: PHARTISAN | DREAMSTIME.COM

What happened to government transparency?