Memphis Flyer 10/27/2022

SHARA

JACKSON BAKER, BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN

TOBY SELLS

KAILYNN JOHNSON

CHRIS MCCOY

ALEX GREENE

SAMUEL X. CICCI, MICHAEL DONAHUE, JON W. SPARKS

ABIGAIL MORICI

GENE GARD, COCO JUNE, RICHARD MURFF, FRANK MURTAUGH

AIMEE STIEGEMEYER,

BROWN

ANDREA FENISE

KENNETH NEILL

CARRIE BEASLEY

CHRISTOPHER

WILLIAMS

JERRY D. SWIFT

KELLI DEWITT, CHIP GOOGE, HAILEY

My grandmother can’t keep a secret, specifically my mother’s secrets. When I was 12, she spoiled the surprise trip to Disney World that my parents had planned to take my sister and me on. When I was 21, she broke the news that our two family dogs (may they rest in peace) ate our pet bird (may he rest in peace) when I was in kindergarten. Admittedly, even as a 5-year-old, I suspected that Doc had died un der hushed circumstances, and now, at least, I know that my suspicions were right. Guess you could say that I have a sixth sense (more on that in the next paragraph).

But perhaps the biggest secret that has slipped through my grandma’s well-lip sticked lips was one that drastically shaped my identity: I had a ghost friend when I was 3, back when my family was renting a house that happened to be directly across the street from a cemetery in New Orleans. Reader, this meant that six years, two-thirds of my life at the time — I knew my fractions — had gone by without mention of the fact that I had my very own Casper. I had no memory of this, of course, but the betrayal I had felt in that moment at 9 years old, from the very woman who touts “no secrets in this family,” was like none I’ve felt since.

Once those beans were spilled at that fateful lunch, my mom looked like — well, she looked like she had just seen a ghost. Unlike the killer-dog secret which garnered nervous laughter upon revelation, this secret made my mom give Gammy the look I had thought was only reserved for when my sister and I were in deep, deep trouble, the kind of trouble where we went to our room without having to be told. This secret was unspeakable, and she said as much: “I’m not talking about it.”

To this day, I cannot get this woman to tell me all the dirty, ghostly details, and I try. Trust me, I try. In between begging for answers and “Jesus Christ, Abigail, ask me again and see what happens,” I’ve gathered a few tidbits. My mom would see me talking to nothing, though I claimed to be talking with my friend. I called her Dorea. She was around my age. She had a brother. She came to New Orleans on a ship. I told my mom Dorea wore “pantaloons” under her dress — a word far outside my 3-year-old vocabulary. I said she looked “strange” — the only word in my vocabulary that I could muster to describe whoever, or whatever, I was seeing.

Regardless, it was enough to freak my mom out. She won’t drive past that house anymore. The family that lived there after us died in a plane crash. I’m sure there’s no relation; she’s not so sure.

Despite my mother’s clear aversion to the topic, after I found out about Dorea, I felt like a badass. I was (am) a shy kid, but apparently my shyness didn’t stop me from speaking with the dead. Dare I say, I felt like the Virgin Mary, the ultimate lady in my Catholic schoolgirl frame of reference — hand-selected for something greater than what the skeptics in this world could handle. I longed to find a way to wedge Dorea into my story, to make her more than just a one-line anecdote that my grandmother casually mentions in a conversation at a random Tuesday lunch.

I’d try to force a memory of that time, to picture what Dorea looked like, what our conversations could’ve been, but all I can remember from that house was the green carpeted staircase that I took a tumble down in front of the young handyman (the embarrassment!) and the PBS Kids logo that floated on the TV screen when my mom told me that our dog Hobbes (who we had before the bird-killing ones) had gone off to heaven, and that no, the vet didn’t kill him, no matter how con vinced I was. (I guess my sixth sense wasn’t fully formed then … or maybe it was. Now, that’s a haunting thought.) Oh, if only I could remember Dorea instead.

JANICE GRISSOM ELLISON, KAREN MILAM, DON MYNATT, TAMMY NASH, RANDY ROTZ, LEWIS TAYLOR, WILLIAM WIDEMAN

But I don’t.

So now Dorea really is simply an anecdote with just enough embellishment to fill this short space in the Flyer, but not enough to write the next Nancy Drewesque book that 9-year-old me had planned to get out of the whole “Dorea thing.” (Dorea would’ve been the perfect Bess to my Nancy, I was convinced.) Every now and then, I’ll hop onto Google and go down hours-long rabbit holes of census records, looking for some kind of answer, but I’m as clueless as ever.

There’s a part of me that thinks I should just let the idea of her go and be grateful that I had a friend when Hobbes died or when my mom was dealing with my grouchy, recently born little sister. I was never alone or lonely in that house. I wonder, though, if Dorea is.

I’m going back to New Orleans for the weekend, which just so happens to be Halloween, when the veil between this world and the next is thinnest. Maybe I’ll drive by that house. In theory, I’m old enough to go by myself, but my mom has volunteered Gammy to go with me. Maybe I’ll see Dorea, or maybe I’ll just get another secret out of my grandma. Either way, I’ll be in good company. Abigail Morici abigail@memphisflyer.com

fly-by

{STATE WATCH

By Toby Sells

Memphis on the internet.

DOWN THE RIVER

Posts are pouring in on the recordlow level of the Mississippi River. Let’s have a look at conditions from the headwaters at Itasca State Park in Minnesota (where levels are normal) to Louisiana (where they’re not).

MINNESOTA

ILLINOIS

MISSOURI

People are hiking to Tower Rock, which is usually surrounded by water.

TENNESSEE

Boats sag onto the muddy bottom of the Wolf River Harbor at the Mud Island Marina.

LOUISIANA

Questions, Answers + Attitude

Edited by Toby Sells

Touching You (Down There) While You Sleep

State

In Tennessee, medical professionals and medical students can — without any kind of permission — stick their ngers and instruments inside a woman’s vagina and rectum while she is under anesthesia.

Under normal conditions, these are called pelvic exams. In them, doctors, nurses, or medical students examine a woman’s vulva and internal reproductive organs like the vagina, cervix, ovaries, fallopian tubes, and uterus.

e exams are considered routine parts of wellness checks and Planned Parenthood suggests them for those turning 21.

Walking under the USS Kidd in Baton Rouge.

PHOTO: JAFAR AHMED | UNSPLASH

A

However, done under anesthesia and without permission, the exams have been labeled nonconsensual pelvic exams. e use of such exams has been normal and widespread for decades. However, critics of them say they strip “the rights of patients to decide who touches their bodies” and are more for the bene t of medical students than of the unconscious patient.

In recent years, medical students have begun to publicly decry the practice, saying they’ve done it shamefully and only at the behest of their instructors. A June study published in the Journal of Surgical Education found that of 305 medical students surveyed, 67 percent said they “never or rarely witnessed an explicit explanation that a medical student may perform a pelvic [examination under anesthesia, or EUA].”

“… Students wanted to uphold patient autonomy but felt they did not have the personal autonomy to object to performing pelvic EUAs that they believed were unconsented,” reads an abstract from the paper. “ ey faced signi cant emotional distress when consent processes were at odds with their personal ethos and professional ethical norms. Students favored more standardized and explicit patient consent processes for educational pelvic EUAs.”

Now, an increasing chorus of states are passing legislation against nonconsensual pelvic exams. As of May, 28 states — including Tennessee — still allow it by law. Before 2019, only six states banned the exams, according to data from the Epstein Health Law and Policy Program at the University of Illinois.

states

to outlaw the

A er 2019, 16 more states banned the practice. In 2021, bills to outlaw the exams were put before legislators in four states.

“Yet, the practice persists because the controversy it periodically sparks dies out eventually,” reads a statement from the Epstein policy website. “And, like clockwork, attending physicians and medical educators resume teaching their trainees through the bodies of unconscious/anesthetized patients. is, in turn, strips the rights of patients to decide who touches their bodies.”

A search of the Tennessee General Assembly bill archive shows no piece of legislation ever introduced here to ban such exams.

Memphis-based University of Tennessee Health Science Center is not waiting for state lawmakers to act on the matter. In March, the school’s College of Medicine enacted a new policy that says “the listed attending [physician] will ensure that adequate consent is obtained for an exam under anesthesia.” Further, students in an operating room can decline to do such an examination “without repercussion, if consent is not documented or is unclear.”

“Learners in the operating room should only perform an exam under anesthesia for teaching purposes when it is explicitly consented to, related to the planned procedure, performed by a learner who is recognized by the patient as part of their care team, and done under direct supervision by the educator,” reads the policy.

is new policy was created a er an opinion from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in 2011 that said pelvic examinations “on an anesthetized woman that o er her no personal bene t and are performed solely for teaching purposes should be performed only with her speci c informed consent obtained before her surgery.”

A dry spot south of Cairo, IL.

“This, in turn, strips the rights of patients to decide who touches their bodies.”

POSTED TO YOUTUBE BY ITASCA STATE PARK

POSTED TO TWITTER BY OHIO VALLEY AERIAL

POSTED TO TWITTER BY CHARLES PEEK

POSTED TO TWITTER BY LAURA TELHIARD SMITH

POSTED TO TWITTER BY HIKING WITH SHAWN

REPORTER

By Kailynn Johnson

empers ared between neighbors of Audubon Park and Memphis Parks o cials last week over a plan that could take away green space for more golf facilities.

Memphis Parks hosted a public forum on the plan last week a er neighbors of Audubon Park voiced their concerns and complaints on the plan.

Memphis Parks released design renderings of the updated Links at Audubon Park in September. However, Angela Link, a representative of the group “Saving Audubon Park,” said that the renderings failed to acknowledge that the renovations will eliminate public use of green spaces by the park’s lake.

Adrianna Moore, a Memphis Parks o cial, said “we dropped the ball” on the plan’s release and held the public hearing last week to “right our wrongs and acknowledge the fact that we did not get out information the way we should have gotten information out.”

During the hearing, Memphis Parks director Nick Walker worked to address questions and concerns that neighbors routinely raised. But tensions rose as neighbors felt that their concerns had not been addressed properly.

information, I imagine they might have asked some questions like, ‘Have you talked to the public that uses the park and [gotten] their input?’”

As Link continued to raise the concerns of the neighbors, many citizens and homeowners began to voice their support of Link. However, as the crowd grew more vocal, Walker urged citizens to wait until the question-and-answer portion to voice their concerns.

“So, I can bring my dog over there to play golf?” park user Cathy Minch asked.

“Mr. Walker, [in] the presentation to the parks committee of [Memphis City Council] on September 13th, you characterized the renovation of Audubon and I’ll quote ‘a similar rescale and redo of the golf course as we just did with Pine Hill,’” Link said during the presentation Wednesday evening. “But what you failed to tell the councilpersons that were getting ready to vote, was that they were also voting for the destruction of all the green space at the east end of the park — the last natural, public space with a lake in East Memphis.

“Had they been given that

While there were some that were in favor of the expansion and used the hearing to voice that, there were still a number of neighbors who used it to voice their disapproval, with many o ering their own solutions.

Walker said the start date for these renovations would be in the winter. While he provided a space for the public to voice their concerns and grievances, he did state that he did not want to “mislead you into thinking that it is our intention to do a wholesale change on this.”

“However, that being said, if we were coming here tonight without the hope to have an open discourse, that would be disingenuous,” Walker continued. “We’re not here because we have to be. We’re here because we want to be.”

According to Walker, the nal decision will be based on a conversation between himself, the administration, and City Council. Walker also said that the funding has already been appropriated and approved, and that the project has already been scheduled. He also said that the nal decision ultimately rests with him.

Edited

PHOTO: FRIENDS OF AUDUBON PARK/FACEBOOK Park o cials say the plan is not nalized.

Bruce

Bottom’s Up

Exploring the Mississippi at its all-time low.

The boardwalk to Harbor Town Marina on Mud Island usually runs at a slight decline to the water from the parking lot near Cordelia’s Market. Today, the walkway slants at a precipitous angle, at to the ground, down to the marina and its collection of yachts, cruisers, houseboats, and ski-boats, most of which are literally stuck in the mud. e Mississippi River is at its alltime historical low in Memphis — 10.75 feet below normal.

I’m meeting John Gary, one of Memphis’ preeminent river men. Gary’s been going out on the Mississippi since his boyhood, 50 years ago. He knows the Memphis section of the river like few others. We’ve been friends for many years.

“Over here,” he shouts. I see him approaching from the far end of the dock, where there appears to be at least a few inches of water, and where Gary’s 19-foot runabout is tied up.

“ is is crazy,” I said.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he replies. “ ere’s a lot of beach out there where a river used to be.”

We climb into the boat and putter our way south, heading out of the harbor, past the Downtown skyline, past the exposed cobblestones, and past an ancient, long-hidden motorboat with its stern sticking out of the mud. Gary’s two dogs, Max and Lyon, are our happy passengers.

Once on the river, we turn north and motor briskly under the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. We’re going over to take a look at the Loosahatchie Bar (known by locals as Robinson Crusoe Island). It’s the island you see just north of the bridge as you cross into Arkansas. Well, it used to be an island. Now, not so much. What was once a river back-channel is currently a vast sandbar that connects the island to the mainland and reaches halfway across the river to Downtown.

Gary nds a good spot to stick the boat anchor in the sand and we tie o . e dogs run ahead, eager to explore this fresh Sahara, with its high white dunes and its deep dark pockets where the water lingered longest, now as dry as the gar and carp bones bleaching in the sun. Animal footprints remain in the once-muddy sand around the now-gone watering holes: great blue heron, coyote/ dog, raccoon, even a large cat track or two. I take photo a er photo, dazzled by

the weirdness of standing on the bottom of the country’s biggest river.

A er a while, we decide to motor upriver along Mud Island, where we pass a long string of barges that are running their engines at the precise speed needed to stay in place against the current. ey are loaded with benzene (used to re ne gasoline), ammonia, concrete, and other industrial essentials.

Gary explains that the channel has narrowed so much upriver that only one barge can pass at a time. Barges coming downstream have the right of way, so upstream barges can o en sit for hours a day, burning fuel, awaiting their turn. For the moment, this section of America’s supply chain is dead in the water. Results coming soon to a gas station or construction site near you.

PHOTO: BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN e Mississippi is 10.75 feet below normal.

We continue north until we reach the mouth of the Wolf River, which looks more like the Wolf Ripple as it splashes over rocks and mud, adding a temporary trickle to the Mother of Waters.

How long does this go on? How low can the Mississippi go? And as Mother Nature continues to show us new climate change tricks, is this something we can expect to happen more o en? e immediate prediction is that we can expect the river to stay low for the near future, and possibly even drop further. Meaning we can expect a vital supply lane for the U.S. economy to continue to be slowed, at best.

Back at Harbor Town, we tie o Gary’s boat to the very end of the marina in a couple feet of water. As we survey the bent steel and broken boards of the marina’s structure, and the dozens of boats settled into the brown goo, it’s obvious that most of these vessels won’t be going anywhere for quite some time. For now, there is no joy on Mud Island. e mighty Mississippi has struck out.

Unless there are unexpected changes in the political weather, this week is due to see the advent of the second consecutive threeway contest in a Memphis mayoral race.

Already getting campaigns in gear were local NAACP head and former County Commissioner Van Turner and Memphis Downtown Commission CEO/president Paul Young. Barring a last-minute change of mind, Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner is about to challenge these two previously declared worthies.

Bonner’s entry could change the race from a conflict of credentialed challengers to one in which the city’s priorities are in for the same kind of policy shifts Shelby County experienced just months ago.

This time will see a contest between rival views of government — call it pro gressive versus traditional — but with the direction of attack reversed, progressivism

faces the prospect of a new and power ful coalition, conventional in attitude but encompassing constituencies overlapping the usual boundaries.

It is Bonner’s persona, coupled with his breadth of appeal and success in electoral politics, that makes this possible. The sher iff polled more votes than all contenders in other countywide races, both in 2018 and in his 2022 re-election race. The last time around, while running as a Democrat, he ended up on the endorsement list of the Shelby County Republicans as well. To the population at large, he seems to inspire confidence. Yet he is not menacing. On the stump and in person, he comes across as something of a Teddy Bear.

Many a candidate tries to run on the bromide that “my friends have urged me to run.” In most cases, this is a semi-fiction at best, a cloak for personal ambition. But, uniquely, Bonner seems to have been the subject of a genuine draft. His appeal across party lines is replicated in the racial sphere as well, and going into the mayor’s race, addressing an electorate that is con siderably less conservative than that of the

county population as a whole and is made freshly apprehensive by an outbreak of violent crime, that is no mean advantage.

Bonner will remind the AfricanAmerican community that he is a native of Orange Mound, the son of one of the first waves of Blacks to be allowed to join the Memphis Police Department. Some have noted the sheriff’s current residence in unincorporated Shelby County. He has explained that he moved from Whitehav en when he was doing undercover work in that area’s drug trade, to reduce his family’s potential vulnerability. Bonner is report edly seeking a new residence in the city.

There are no Ds and no Rs on the city’s political ballot, a fact that makes Bon ner’s attempt at being a unity candidate easier than was that of, say, former District Attorney Amy Weirich, who tried to run as “our DA” in a demographically divided community but was weighed down by her Republican label.

Can Bonner compete in such policy areas as that of economic development? He vows to pay special attention to that matter and says he will appoint a ranking

city official to attend to it.

All that having been said, neither of Bonner’s declared mayoral rivals is ex actly a slouch. Turner is a skilled political veteran with ties to various factions. He will have the particular support of those members of the political left who rallied in August to the support of DA Steve Mulroy and who formed a hard core also for Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon and County Mayor Lee Harris.

Young can count on powerful support from members of the city’s commercial and industrial elite.

Money counts in political races, and Bonner will have a chance to demon strate his own strength. He begins with a leftover political kitty amounting to a hundred thousand dollars, and his backers proclaim an optimism that this will grow to several hundred thousand by January 15th when the candidates’ first financial disclosures will be made.

In the meantime, Bonner’s entry will, a the very least, be a strong dissuader to other potential candidates who have considered running.

By Sharon Brown and Aimee Stiegemeyer

Time to Grind

Predictions for the 2022-23 Memphis Grizzlies season.

The Memphis Grizzlies’ surprising run to the Western Conference’s second seed last season caught many NBA observers by surprise. Overnight, the squad went from being the NBA’s ugly duckling to must-see TV. Nonetheless, nobody will be caught o guard this year. e team has an opportunity to demonstrate that they are serious contenders in the West for the foreseeable future.

One can consider that the team won 56 games last year and has one of the best young cores in the league at under 25 years old. e Grizzlies are counting on improvements from their returning players and a group of newcomers. Other teams around the league made signi cant roster adjustments and have a litany of healthy players who are returning from injury.

Memphis had a season that set a new standard for excellence. By playing sti ing defense, the Grizzlies made NBA history by being the rst team to nish rst in rebounding, steals, and blocks all in the same season. Fast break points, o ensive rebounds, points in the paint, and second-chance points were also league-bests for this team.

Because of his tremendous growth

PHOTO:

2022 NBAE | DAVID DOW/NBAE VIA GETTY IMAGES

Morant has come into his own as a leader of the team.

PHOTO: AIMEE STIEGEMEYER

as a player, Ja Morant was selected as a starter for the All-Star Game and became the league’s most-improved player. Morant agreed to a ve-year maximum rookie extension, the team announced on July 6th, worth upwards of $231 million. With Jaren Jackson Jr. leading the NBA in blocks and earning rst-team All-NBA Defense honors, the team won the Southwest Division for the rst time in franchise history.

Sharon Brown and Aimee Stiegemeyer, the Flyer’s special Grizzlies correspondents, analyze here the key questions facing the team as they prepare for the 2022-23 season.

ere have been several changes to the roster since last season. Whose absence will have the most impact on the Grizzlies’ success?

Aimee Stiegemeyer: No disrespect to De’Anthony Melton, but Kyle Anderson’s absence is going to have the most noticeable impact. Anderson is one of the most underrated role players in the league and his talent o en gets overlooked because his style of play is not the ashiest, and the best basketball that he has ever played was during the 2020-21 season when he lled the starting power forward position in Jaren Jackson Jr.’s absence. Memphis will need a Kyle Anderson this season.

Sharon Brown: It’s possible that Kyle Anderson’s worth can’t always be reduced to a number in the box score. However, the group greatly bene ted from his leadership. e Grizzlies were in a jam in the rst round of the playo s last year, Game 5. It seemed like the Minnesota Timberwolves had their number, and Jaren Jackson Jr. was frustrated and in foul trouble, but the veteran leadership of Anderson and Steven Adams helped the young team stay composed.

At one point in the game, the Timberwolves were up and were poised

to even the series 2-2, but the Grizzlies were able to recover and win the game, largely in part to the veteran presence on the bench that night.

Anderson was a veteran voice the team needed, in addition to being a great ball handler and above-average defender with length. In Anderson’s absence, Danny Green is ready and able to ll that void with his leadership pedigree.

Among the returning players, who will have the most impact on the court in terms of the Grizzlies’ success? O the court?

AS: On the court? is is Ja Morant’s world, and we are all just living in it.

As Morant goes, the team goes. He has really come into his own as the leader of this Grizzlies team, and during games you can nd him encouraging and coaching his teammates from the oor.

O the court, I envision Steven

Adams taking on the role as the team’s dad. Big dad energy was on display with Adams last season when he physically picked up and carried Tony Bradley away from Ja Morant, thereby thwarting an altercation between them. We saw it again a er the season opener when Adams swiped a towel from John Konchar to give to Morant.

And while he is not a returning player, Danny Green’s veteran leadership and guidance can be of immense value before he ever steps foot on the court. Green has seen the top of the mountain and he has been where the Grizzlies are trying to go — the NBA Finals. e experience and maturity that Green has gathered during his years in the league will be a welcome addition to this squad.

SB: On the oor, I would say a combination of Morant and Jackson Jr. Morant can alter the course of games o ensively and Jackson Jr. is the anchor on the defensive side of the ball. O the court, Danny Green. Green brings that championship experience as a three-time NBA champion. He has been on the big stage and knows what is required. On media day, Green was adamant that the team lacked maturity in a way. “A lot of guys like to do the social media — the TikTok, the tweets,” Green said.

“We can try to limit that a bit — focus on staying locked in to the game and treating the game the right way.

“We love to have fun, but the basketball gods will turn on you if you celebrate too early. Acting like you’ve been there and realizing you haven’t done anything yet — regardless of how many games you won in the regular season — if you haven’t won a championship, there’s nothing to

PHOTO: SHARON BROWN e Grizzlies’ most recent season set a new standard for excellence.

really celebrate. My focus is on keeping them with that mentality for the whole season: Job’s not done,” Green added. e team is about accountability and I believe Green’s presence will help with that.

And Morant is on board also. “I mean we’re young — he’s a vet,” Morant said when told on Grizzlies media day that Green thinks the team can bene t from maturity. “ at’s his job … to hold us accountable. He’s going to be a big help for us in that area. It’s what we need.”

Last year the Grizzlies nished second in the Western Conference. Where do we expect them to rank this year?

AS: Fourth or h seed — not because the Grizzlies got worse over the summer but because other teams in the conference got better. e return of Zion Williamson for the Pelicans will be huge, and Minnesota made some o season moves that will help propel them to a better ranking in the standards. Memphis’ loss of Kyle Anderson is Minnesota’s gain.

SB: I’m going to guess somewhere in the range of 2-7. It’s the Wild West, a place where anything can occur. e Los Angeles Clippers have Kawhi Leonard and Paul George back, the Minnesota Timberwolves have Rudy Gobert, Zion Williamson is healthy for the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Sacramento Kings and Oklahoma City under might make huge strides this season.

“My focus is on keeping them with that mentality for the whole season: Job’s Not done.”

irteen-year NBA veteran Danny Green brings championship experience to the Grizzlies.

Which player will take his game to the next level?

AS: All signs point to Santi Aldama taking a big leap forward this season. His performance in the season opener shows him already playing at a higher level than last season, particularly putting up a double-double in his rst career start. Aldama made himself useful on both ends of the oor, adding o ensive power with some clutch baskets and snatching defensive rebounds. e Grizzlies and Spanish big men are historically an iconic duo.

SB: For me, I’d say Desmond Bane. Even though Morant was voted as the league’s most-improved player, that honor should have gone to Bane. e Grizzlies’ young sensation shot 43 percent from outside and averaged over 18 points per game last year.

Considering Bane more than doubled his scoring average and improved on nearly all counting stats averages last season, he is undoubtedly taking another leap. Bane might be on track for an All-Star appearance.

He was phenomenal and a major reason the Grizzlies made the playo push last season. Bane averaged 18.8 points and hit 49 percent from deep in the postseason.

With Jaren Jackson Jr. sidelined for an undetermined amount of time, who will step up to ll his role?

AS: ere is no one player on this roster who can give you all the things that Jaren does, which means it will take a group e ort from multiple players to provide the o ensive and defensive value missing. Expect to see this coming from a combination of Santi Aldama, Steven Adams, Brandon Clarke, and Xavier Tillman Sr. is is where losing Kyle Anderson is going to hurt Memphis the most.

SB: e success of the Grizzlies can be attributed to their “next-man-up” mentality. ere is no egotism in the locker room, which contributes to the culture. Every single one of them has the same goal in mind, and that’s to win basketball games. at manner of thinking and feeling is unimpeded by anything. Every single thing is geared toward achieving that one goal.

In my opinion, any player on that roster is capable of stepping into that role on any given night.

Predicted season win total?

AS: Fi y-three games. e competition among the Western Conference this season will be cutthroat and relentless.

On a micro-level, there is the factor of Jaren Jackson Jr.’s indeterminate

timeline for returning to the court.

SB: Barring serious injuries to key players, I have them winning between 50 and 56 games. Memphis has the right vibe and players who are eager to prove themselves. e squad is still as con dent as ever and ready to take on any opponent. And then there’s that person at number 12 who can alter the course of games.

e Grizzlies have a franchise record of 18 nationally televised games, and for the rst time they will be playing on Christmas Day. Will that adversely a ect the team’s performance?

AS: Not even a little bit. is group has shown that they thrive under pressure and embrace the opportunity to prove any naysayers wrong. If anything, the increased national exposure will be a motivating factor for this Grizzlies team, especially given how intense the rivalry between Memphis and Golden State has become.

SB: e opposite is true; it will only encourage them to improve. e Grizzlies don’t have much to worry about other than getting out of their own way and focusing on the task at

hand. Morant is a once-in-a-generation talent for Memphis, with the capacity to completely dominate games once he gets into his groove. Memphis has taken a giant step forward with the Christmas Day game. To top it all o , the squad still has more to prove.

Five rookies joined the Grizzlies’ roster this o season. Who should we be keeping an eye out for?

AS: David Roddy and Jake LaRavia are the likeliest to see game-time minutes early in the season, but I am most looking forward to seeing Kenneth Lo on Jr. develop and how his game progresses. Junior, as he is known, will spend most of the time playing with the Hustle in Southaven, but he has the potential to put up big numbers. If the Grizzlies can get the version of Lo on we saw during Summer League, he can be a substantial weapon in their arsenal for years to come. His basketball IQ and smooth footwork are reminiscent of Grit-and-Grind-era Zach Randolph.

SB: ere was no doubt that Kenneth Lo on Jr., better known by his nickname Junior, was a sight to behold in the Summer League and the few games in which he participated in the preseason. People should go to Southaven to watch him play for the Memphis Hustle. With a two-way deal, Lo on may only play in 50 regular season games for the Grizzlies and cannot participate in the postseason. Even in preseason, the crowd was screaming “bring in Kenny” for Junior, indicating that he had a devoted fan base. A #FreeJunior hashtag has also been created for use on social media. Zachary McKenley Randolph, also known as Z-Bo, is a Grizzlies icon who is o en compared to Junior. Lo on is a bucket-getter, a traditional post player who makes the most of his size and strength.

TONY BLACK

KRIS SHAW

FROM KEVIN HART’S LOL RADIO, CBS, AMAZON’S LAUGHS AFTER DARK AND MORE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3

The squad is still as confident as ever and ready to take on any opponent.

PHOTO: SHARON BROWN e Grizzlies will have 18 nationally televised games, a franchise record.

SUE BURROW

“I LOVE OUR CITY”

NOT AFRAID OF HARD WORK

Growing up, we had outdoor plumbing. Was I embarrassed? I used to be. Now, it serves as a reminder of how far I have come!

We also had a heater that burned wood and a well from which we dipped water for drinking and bathing. My father (the Late Reverend William “Billy” Burrow) was a preacher and my mother (the Late Geraldine Clark Burrow) was a head start teacher. Following in the country way, I was named after my aunts Minnie Sue and Mamie Sue. Naturally, I was named Latonya Sue. I have five (5) sisters.

I started working between the ages of thirteen (13) and fifteen (15) on the CETA Program (Comprehen sive Employment and Training Administration) for underprivileged teens. Two years later, I worked two full-time jobs during the summer.

I graduated from Bolton High School, Rhodes College and the University of Memphis, School of Law.

I am a member of First Baptist Church-Broad.

During two separate time periods, I worked at Dairy Queen located on the corner of Summer Avenue and Hollywood.

I considered myself a “burger-flipping, ice cream sundae-making professional!” I knew then that it is not what you do, but how you do it. On the first time of employment there, I made $1.35 per hour. We did not get tips. While at Rhodes College, I worked at the Burrow Library (work-study program) and Holiday Inn Reservations.

Between undergraduate and Law School, I lived in West Germany and upper state New York. Among other places, I traveled to Paris, France, Austria and West and East Berlin (when “the wall” still stood).

As Facility Director of the Army Library at Schloss Kaserne, Butzbach (West Germany), I was awarded a Scroll of Appreciation for “Outstanding Performance.”

I have helped people through the practice of law for nearly 30 years.

TOUGHER THAN I LOOK

My prior experience includes:

• Special Judge in Municipal and General Sessions Courts

• City of Memphis Chief Ethics Officer

• Argued before the Tennessee Court of Appeals

• Tried Cases in State, County and Municipal Courts

• Qualified by the Tennessee Supreme Court to Litigate Capital Murder Cases

• Re-Entry Work and Drug Court

• Very Active in Community Service

THAT’S WHEN THE HARD WORK BEGINS

Some people might think that the bench is where lawyers go to retire. That is not my philosophy! Becoming a Judge should not only be the culmination of a career, but also the place where you apply all of your years of experience. My prior experience serves as a blueprint from which to build. Becoming a Judge is when the hard work begins

MAKING MEMPHIS STREETS SAFER, ONE DRIVER AT A TIME

PLATFORM: I LOVE OUR CITY

As Municipal Court Judge, I will be fair and impartial.

Currently, General Sessions has a Veterans’ Court, Drug Court, Mental Health Court and Domestic Violence Court.

Municipal Court handles traffic matters. I would like to see a City Re-Entry Court: In addition to the regular court docket, one aspect of City Court 2 could be dedicated to helping people keep their driver’s license and others to get their driver’s license reinstated.

Helping more drivers to get licensed and to comply with traffic laws is a win for everyone, because it makes our city streets safer. I Love Our City, and I want to do all that I can to make it better!

I’m counting on your vote November 8th (Early Voting Oct 19 - Nov 3) for Latonya Sue Burrow for Municipal Court Judge, Division 2!

The race for Municipal Court Judge is at or near the end of the ballot. On the list of candidates, alphabetically my name is #2 on the ballot for Division #2. That’s #2 on the ballot for Division #2!

VOTE Latonya Sue Burrow for Municipal Court Judge, Division 2.

Thank you, for your support!

Live music at steppin’ out

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

A Bloody Good Show

By Abigail Morici

We may be in a national blood shortage (donate if you can!), but the folks with New Moon eatre Company have a surplus of blood — fake blood, that is — and they’re ready to shower their audience with it.

Grooms

What exactly calls for blood to run on the stage of New Moon’s latest production? Well, it’s all for Evil Dead: e Musical. Taking elements from the cult classic lms Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness, the show spins the tale of ve college students going to an abandoned cabin and accidentally unleashing an evil force that turns them all into demons. But, as director Ann Marie Hall says, “In this case, they’re all singing and dancing” — to songs like “All the Men in My Life Keep Getting Killed by Candarian Demons” and “What the Fuck Was at.”

“‘What the fuck was that? Your girlfriend has turned into a demon,’” chirps Hall during our phone call. “‘What the fuck was that? Your sister’s a demon, too.’ And then two of the main guys do a tango.”

LORD T & ELOISE

Hall adds, “It’s kind of stupid and funny, just the kind of way I like my show. Stupid and funny.” Indeed, Hall has acted in and directed a number of comedic shows, most recently having directed eatre Memphis’ You Can’t Take It With You.

“I like to laugh. I like to make people laugh. at’s my favorite thing — hearing people laugh,” she says. “I will try to nd the comedy wherever it is. And sometimes it’s just in the tragedy. So when somebody gets their head lobbed o or you have to kill your girlfriend with an axe, then chop it up later with a chain saw, that’s terrible, but sometimes it’s funny.”

So when presented the opportunity to direct New Moon’s Evil Dead, Hall jumped at it immediately. She had seen the show years ago in Charleston and loved it — especially the Rocky Horror-like moments where the cast splatters the audience with blood in the midst of their violent throes. “I’d been trying to get somebody in town to produce the show for ages,” she says. “I’m so excited for the blood part.”

For those who are also excited for the blood part, the theater will have a special section reserved: the Splash Zone. ese seats will quite literally be in the middle of the action, practically on the stage. “Your chairs are on the oor with the cast,” Hall explains. “ ey are dancing right up to your face.”

Tickets for the Splash Zone cost $35 and include a commemorative T-shirt. For those not wanting any blood on them (couldn’t imagine why), non-Splash Zone tickets are available for $30. Performances run ursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. through November 13th. Evil Dead is not recommended for those under 17. For more information or to buy tickets, call 901-484-3467 or visit newmoontheatre.org.

EVIL DEAD: THE MUSICAL, THEATRE WORKS, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 13, $25-$35.

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Dracula Orpheum eatre, Friday-Saturday, October 28-29, 7:30 p.m. | Sunday, October 30, 2 p.m., $28-$78 Ballet Memphis launches the season with the suspenseful and gripping thriller, Dracula. Reimagined by artistic director Steven McMahon, this version of the chilling classic will be sure to tantalize and mesmerize in equal measure.

Recommended for audiences 12 years and older.

Día de los Muertos Parade & Festival Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Saturday, October 29, 11:30 a.m., free Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, along with the Cazateatro Bilingual eatre Group, invites you and your family to honor your ancestors and celebrate the cycle of life and death.

e parade will begin at 11:30 a.m. in the Tower Courtyard at Overton

Square with oats and performers making their way to the Brooks. e festival at the Brooks will offer art-making activities, face painting, music, costumed performers, dance performances, and more!

Women and Witches in Beer: Halloween Candy Pairing Wiseacre HQ, Saturday, October 29, 1 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., $25 Did you know that the original beer brewers were women or that for the vast majority of history women ran the beer world? Did you also know that Halloween candy and beer are actually a delicious combo? Well, this is the class to nd out as you embark on a tour of Wiseacre’s Downtown HQ to learn about beer history, women in beer, and where witches come into play. e class will also include a special Halloween candy/ beer pairing.

21st Annual Black Lodge Halloween Masquerade Ball

Black Lodge, Saturday, October 29, 7:30 p.m., $25, 18+

Join the Lodge for a night of mirth and mischief, of costumes and chaos, as a devilish mix of music, drinks, dancing, and debauchery is unleashed. Featuring hoop and ow dancers, re performers, sideshow performances, and more.

Scheidt at the Shell: Frankenstein in Concert

Overton Park Shell, Sunday, October 30, 6:30-9 p.m., free e University of Memphis Wind Ensemble will play the 1931 classic movie score as the lm plays on giant screens in high de nition. Grab your picnic baskets and chairs and arrive early for the costume contest and Monster Mash dance party!

PHOTO: NEW MOON THEATRE Evil Dead: e Musical

Michael Donahue

Hope for a Dying Planet

The new HEELS album, Pop Songs for a Dying Planet, features 15 songs from Joshua McLane and Brennan Whalen.

“Brennan writes all the lyrics,” McLane says. “Except anytime you hear me scream on the record, I write it. When you work with someone like Brennan Whalen, why would you want anybody else to write the lyrics?”

e album, released October 22nd, is “what we’ve been since day one,” McLane says. “Life’s a fucking struggle, man. It’s like we love writing upbeat, fast, very poppy, catchy songs. But once you break down the lyrics, they’re usually pretty sad.”

“ is one feels a little more frantic,” Whalen says. “I guess I feel like the overall sound of the record is kind of re ective of where my mind was and where Josh’s mind was when we were writing. Just individually shaken up by the last few years. We both had really bad years. We both had stu in our families. ere was a lot of loss.”

But there also was joy. McLane’s wife Cara gave birth to their son Gideon, who just turned 2. e album includes “old songs we wanted to give a fair shake to” and “brand-new ones,” McLane says.

check out this song I just pulled out of thin air.’ I sped it up a little bit and it turned out to be a monster.”

McLane wrote “Sad Max” “from neck to nuts. … at song is about how I spent most of my life as a junkie asshole. And plowing through life. And then I grow up.”

As for “Wolf,” McLane says, “Brennan ends the record with a hopefulness we’ve never done before. It’s literally screaming, ‘Let me die.’”

McLane plays his son’s toy piano on “Giddy.” He thought, “What if we put this at the very end? A bookend? Maybe there’s some hope in the future. Which is something we usually don’t do.”

“I didn’t have any hope for the fucking future. I guess I didn’t have anything vested in it. Now, I have to work for it. It sucks. I would love to be just a bump on a log.

Whalen sees his writing style changing. “I think I’ve been a little more loose with my writing,” he says. “Kind of leaning a little more into punk and garage rock.”

Previously, he says, “I tried to focus more on narrative lyrics and leaning more into a kind of a folk songwriting style. at translated over to the sound that we have. But, lately, I’ve been leaning more into more aggressive, more enthusiastic music.”

Why? “Need it more. I think everybody needs more fun. e past decade has been a huge drag. So, I don’t like being a part of making anybody sad, even though I do. I don’t mean to.”

“Dread,” one of the new songs, is “trying to face tragedy with a sense of optimism about the future,” Whalen says. “But that’s against the backdrop of kind of wishing for the end of the world.”

“Last Man” is “maybe the heaviest song,” McLane says. “ at song was the key to the whole record. When we pieced it together, it was kind of missing something. Brennan said, ‘Hey,

“For me, it opens up, for lack of a better word, stylized memories. Like it’s a wonderful kind of a vision where everything is perfect. For some reason, I associate things like the Muppet Babies. Like perfection of childhood that I probably never had much of.” ey say they’re halfway done writing their next record. ey usually say the next album is going to be a “big departure” and “super weird,” but, McLane says, “It ends up being more pop songs for a dying planet.”

Describing Pop Songs for a Dying Planet, McLane says, “ is is a playlist for the end of the world kind of thing. Meaning, a bunch of these songs are really sweet pop songs to distract you from everything going to shit. Once you actually gure out the lyrics, it’s about how everything is going to shit. You don’t notice that at rst.” Pop Songs for a Dying Planet can be heard on all musical platforms. e record release party for the album will be at 8 p.m. October 29th at Hi Tone at 282-284 North Cleveland Street. Mo Alexander will open.

“Once you actually figure out the lyrics, it’s about how everything is going to shit. You don’t notice that at first.”

PHOTO: COURTESY JOSHUA MCLANE Joshua McLane and Brennan Whalen

CALENDAR

ART AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS

“Alice’s Adventures at the Garden”

Meet larger-than-life Alice in Wonderland-themed sculp tures. Through Oct. 31.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

“ARTober”

Members of Artists’ Link pres ent an exhibition of a variety of artistic media and creative subjects. Through Oct. 31.

GALLERY 1091

“be/longing”

A solo exhibition exploring the work of Nigerian vi sual artist Amarachi Odimba. Through Oct. 31.

UREVBU CONTEMPORARY

“Miscellany”

Carroll Todd’s collection of small bronze works. Through Nov. 12.

DAVID LUSK GALLERY

“Mourning Memphis”

Viewing the beautiful Vic torian mourning collection. Through Oct. 30.

WOODRUFF-FONTAINE HOUSE MUSEUM

ART HAPPENINGS

Gallery Opening for “Nature’s Rhythms”

The reception, featuring the art of Anne Froning and Sally Markell, will kick off the gallery’s 25th anniversary celebration. Friday, Oct. 28, 5-7 p.m.

BUCKMAN ARTS CENTER AT ST. MARY’S SCHOOL

Skinny Teaches Bob Ross Terribly

This is not a training class. This is like-minded indi viduals doing dumb shit. One night only. Paint, canvas, brushes provided. Special menu and drinks. Ticket in cludes pizza and beer all night. $20. Thursday, Oct. 27, 7 p.m.

HI TONE

South Main Trolley Night

Galleries, shops, restaurants, and bars open their doors to the masses and feature live music,

dance performances, and more. Friday, Oct. 28, 6 p.m.

SOUTH MAIN HISTORIC ARTS DISTRICT

BOOK EVENTS

Fall Book Sale: Friends of the Library

Thousands of books. Prices $3 or less! Friday, Oct. 28-Oct. 30.

BENJAMIN L. HOOKS CENTRAL LIBRARY

Meet the Author: Dr. G. Scott Morris Dr. G. Scott Morris will discuss his CARE: How People of Faith Can Respond to Our Broken Health System. Thurs day, Oct. 27, 6 p.m.

NOVEL

Día de los Muertos Festival & Parade at the Brooks features artmaking activities, face painting, music, costumed

Meet the Author: Jeff Kinney

Join Diary of a Wimpy Kid’s Jeff Kinney for “The Diper Överlöde Show,” an in-person rock con cert featuring Rodrick Heffley’s band, Löded Diper. Saturday, Oct. 29, 3 p.m.

through a storytelling cer emony honoring our deceased queer and loved ancestors. Thursday, Oct. 27, 6:30 p.m.

THE BROOM CLOSET

Carroll Todd’s exhibit includes a variety of small works in bronze at David Lusk Gallery.

WHITE STATION HIGH SCHOOL

Meet the Author: Shari Brand Ray

Celebrate the launch of Shari Brand Ray’s Surprised by Im perfection: Essays and Stories on Wonder. Tuesday, Nov. 1, 6 p.m.

ST. MARY’S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL

COMMUNITY

Decreasing Community Violence

The discussions and presenta tions will focus on collabora tive approaches to decreasing community violence. Friday, Oct. 28, 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m.

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER

Fright at the Brewery

All are invited to United Hous ing’s Halloween fundraiser. $25. Thursday, Oct. 27, 5-9 p.m.

WISEACRE BREWERY

Queer Beyond Matt Petty guides attendees

Victorian Village: A Year from Today Guest speakers will talk about new initiatives and short-term goals for the Victorian Village. Thursday, Oct. 27, 5:30-7 p.m.

SUNRISE MEMPHIS

FESTIVAL

Memphis Storm Water Festival

At this free family event, enjoy crafts, face painting, candy, games, food, and more. Satur day, Oct. 29, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

CHARLES E. POWELL WESTWOOD COMMUNITY CENTER

Singing News Gospel Music Festival

Fifteen artists are slated to ap pear during the three-day event. Wednesday, Nov. 2-Nov. 4.

GRACELAND SOUNDSTAGE

FILM

Cemetery Cinema Double Feature

A special double feature: The

Soul of the City: Memphis Music and Hocus Pocus. $18. Friday, Oct. 28, 6-9 p.m.

ELMWOOD CEMETERY

Fright-tober

A kid-friendly screening of Ho cus Pocus at 2:30 p.m., followed by a slightly spookier screening of Return of the Living Dead at 6:30 p.m. Free. Saturday, Oct. 29.

CROSSTOWN THEATER

Halloween Dinner & A Movie: The Rocky Horror Picture Show Celebrate the Halloween season with a Transylvania dinner party! $35. Thursday, Oct. 27, 7 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

S**TFEST Halloween Marathon: Best Worst Horror Movies Ever The Lodge has an especially painful triple feature for Hal loween: The Gingerbread Man, Troll 2, and Shock ’Em Dead Free. Friday, Oct. 28, 5:30 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

FOOD AND DRINK

Frayser Dinner Series

Join The Frayser Connect for community conversations around creating an ecosystem

in Frayser. Chef Eli will create the menu. $35. Saturday, Oct. 29, 5-7:30 p.m.

FRAYSER CONNECT

Su Casa Tour de Tamales

Taste the varieties of tamales from Mexico, Honduras, Gua temala, and Colombia. You can even make some yourself. $50. Thursday, Oct. 27, 6:30 p.m.

SU CASA FAMILY MINISTRIES

HALLOWEEN EVENTS

21st Annual Black Lodge Halloween Masquerade Ball

A devilish mix of music, drinks, dancing, and debauchery. Saturday, Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Black October

Dress to impress the creatures of the night. DJs Breezye, Nico, Qemist, and Space Age will take you through the night. $10-$20. Monday, Oct. 31, 9 p.m.-1 a.m.

ORANGE MOUND TOWER

BOO-Cycle Tour of Elmwood Cemetery

Bike through history at Elmwood Cemetery. $10. Saturday, Oct. 29, 10:30 a.m.-noon.

ELMWOOD CEMETERY

Costumes and Cocktails on the River

A multicultural event including an open bar, live entertainment, vendors, and costume contest. Monday, Oct. 31, 6:30 p.m.

JACK ROBINSON GALLERY

Dia de los Muertos Parade & Festival 2022 Honor your ancestors and celebrate the cycle of life and death. Free. Saturday, Oct. 29, 11:30 a.m.

MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART

FOTCAS Howl-O-Ween Costume Pawty

Dress your pups up. There will be adoptable dogs as well as T-shirts for sale. Sunday, Oct. 30, noon-4 p.m.

GRIND CITY BREWERY

Fright Night

This spectacular soiree will

have unlimited cocktails all night and a $500 grandprize costume contest. Saturday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m.

COLLAGE DANCE COLLECTIVE

Fun Fall Bash

This fun day will have games, activities, Halloween prizes, face painting, food, costume contest, candy, and trick-or-treating. Saturday, Oct. 29, 1-3 p.m.

KROC CENTER

Halloween Campfire Storytelling: Marshmallows and Mayhem

Families will be treated to folktales and fables while roasting marshmallows with local radio personality Mother Wit and Park Ranger Jessica Gossett. $5, $10. Friday, Oct. 28, 6-8 p.m.

T.O. FULLER STATE PARK

Halloween Hike

Get an active start to your Halloween celebra tions by taking a not-so-spooky walk through the garden. Saturday, Oct. 29, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

Haunted Hayride of Terror

Enjoy a thrilling hayride through the park and expe rience a night of terror. Friday, Oct. 28, 7 p.m.

SHELBY FARMS STABLES

Souloween

Entertainment, treats, and games, all topped off with a themed movie mystery surprise. $5. Friday, Oct. 28, 5 p.m.

FOURTH BLUFF PARK

Trunk or Treat at The Edge Triangle

Bring your family and friends for an afternoon of fun, with costumes, food trucks, photobooth, music, and a screening of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Saturday, Oct. 29, 2-5 p.m.

EDGE TRIANGLE

Zoo Boo

Grab your boo crew, your costumes, and your trick-or-treat bags to make sure you score those hallowed sweets. Through Oct. 31, select nights.

MEMPHIS ZOO

HEALTH AND FITNESS

12th Annual Kick It 5K

The event is virtual or in-person, and participants can choose between a 1-mile walk or a 5K run/ walk. All proceeds go toward funding pancreatic cancer research. Sunday, Oct. 30, 1 p.m.

SHELBY FARMS

GI Seminar with Mona Bailey

Class with multi-time champion Mona Bailey. Open to all schools and affiliations. Free. Sunday, Oct. 30, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

JIU

THEATER

Arsenic and Old Lace

The outrageous and comedic play by Joseph Kesselring. Through Oct. 30.

THEATRE MEMPHIS

Kill Move Paradise

Four Black men find themselves stuck in a waiting room for the afterlife. As they attempt to make sense of their new paradise, they are forced to confront the reality of their past. $30-$35. Through Oct. 30.

HATTILOO THEATRE

The Evil Dead

This hilarious show takes all the elements of the cult classic films The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness and combines them into one of the craziest theatrical experiences of all time. Friday, Oct. 28-Nov. 13.

THEATRE WORKS

MEMPHIS JUDO

PERFORMING ARTS

A Barbie Tea Dance

Are you a Barbie, a Ken, or a MIDGE? Whoever you are, join Dru’s for a special drag show to ben efit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Sunday, Oct. 30, 2 p.m.

DRU’S PLACE

Big Top Tease: Freak Show

Complete with all the chills and thrills that go along with seeing circus performers on the spookiest night of the year. Saturday, Oct. 29, 9 p.m.

DRU’S PLACE

Blue Man Group

Featuring pulsing, original music, custom-made instruments, surprise audience interaction and hilarious absurdity. $35-$115. Tuesday, Nov. 1, 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m.

ORPHEUM THEATRE

Ballet Memphis presents Dracula New costumes, scenic design, and choreography set the tone for this dark and suspenseful thriller. $28-$78. Friday, Oct. 28, Saturday, Oct. 29, 7:309:30 p.m.; Sunday, Oct. 30, 2-4 p.m.

ORPHEUM THEATRE

SPECIAL EVENTS

General Hospital Fan Celebration

The stars of ABC’s General Hospital return to Graceland for a third annual fan celebration, fea turing six panels, photo/autograph opportunities with the stars, and more. Friday, Oct. 28-Oct. 30

GRACELAND

TOURS

Haunted Memphis Bus Tour Informative and entertaining guides will share the dark history of Memphis, including murders, hauntings, and tales of the paranormal. Thursday, Oct. 27-Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m.

THE BROOM CLOSET

Late Night Ghost Tour

An evening of ghost stories, dark history, and tales of the paranormal. Saturday, Oct. 29, 9:3011 p.m.

THE BROOM CLOSET

Memphis True Crime Tour

True crime fans: Get on the bus for an adultsonly true crime tour. Murders, mysteries, and disappearances along with strange and unusual history. Sunday, Oct. 30, 6:30-8 p.m.

THE BROOM CLOSET

Tales at Twilight Tour of Elmwood Cemetery

Join Elmwood’s Kim Bearden for this after-hours tour and learn about Victorian cemetery symbol ism, the majestic trees, and the many fascinating people who reside in the cemetery. $20. Saturday, Oct. 29-Oct. 30.

ELMWOOD CEMETERY

True Crimes of Bygone Times

True crime stories of decades past — that’s what’s featured on this fascinating tour of Elmwood Cemetery. Who was accused of lacing cook ies with arsenic? Who was at the center of a nationwide missing person search for decades beginning in 1899? Who was married (at least) seven times, and was also accused of offing at least three of her spouses? $20. Sunday, Oct. 30, 3-3:30 p.m.

ELMWOOD CEMETERY

Big

RESEARCH

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

VOLUNTEERS NEEDEDRESEARCH VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

RESEARCH

MLM Medical Labs

MLM Medical Labs is currently seeking

to donate blood for a

Volunteers to donate blood for a research study.

MLM Medical Labs is currently seeking Volunteers to donate blood for a research study.

If you are between the ages of 18 and 80, weigh more than 110lbs, and are currently taking a blood thinner such as Aspirin, Brilinta, Eliquis, Lovenox, Plavix or Xarelto, or have been diagnosed with Kidney Disease, you may be eligible to participate.

If you are between the ages of 18 and 80, weigh more than 110lbs, and are currently taking such as Aspirin, Brilinta, Eliquis, Lovenox, Plavix been diagnosed with Kidney Disease, you may be

This is a blood collection study only. No drug treatment will be provided. Participants will be paid for blood donation.

This is a blood collection study only. No drug treatment

If you are between the ages of 18 and 80, weigh more than 110lbs, and are currently taking a blood thinner such as Brilinta, Eliquis, Lovenox, Plavix, Xarelto, or Coumadin or have been diagnosed with Kidney Disease, you may be eligible to participate.

For more information, call: 901-866-1705

Participants will be paid for blood donation.

This is a blood collection study only. No drug treatment will be provided.

For more information, call: 901-866-1705

Participants will be paid for blood donation.

For more information, call: 901-866-1705

to applaud

By Michael Donahue

Just Desserts

Inga eeke grew up with Latvian baking. Like pīrāgis.

“It is like yeast dough lled, usually, with bacon and onion,” says eeke, who is from Chicago. “A little bit of ham in there. And that is the o cial Latvian treat.

“Every grandmother has their touch to it. It’s one of those things. ey can’t give you the recipe, but they can show you if you spend some time with them in the kitchen.”

eeke keeps busy nowadays baking things like seasonal pear tarte Tatins and pumpkin cheesecake over gluten-free spice cake.

She moved to Memphis in July 2021 to become pastry chef for all of the Kelly English restaurants, which include Restaurant Iris, Pantà, Second Line, and Fino’s from the Hill, and for the catering arm, Iris Etc.

line. “During the pandemic, I looked into one of Kelly English’s Zoom classes and participated with about 70 people around the country. I watched him make a dish.”

She found English “so engaging and so real in connection with people via Zoom” and contacted him the next day. “And I said, ‘I don’t know if you are hiring, but this is who I am and keep in touch.’ We started a conversation and that turned into this position.”

eeke, whose daughter graduated from Rhodes College, had visited Downtown and Midtown Memphis. She found Memphis “so authentic and so inviting.”

She expanded Fino’s menu. “I changed their tiramisu recipe to make it a little more traditional and easier for more production.”

eeke then came up with the desserts at Pantà. “I’m a food anthropologist at heart. Although I’ve never been to Spain, I had the opportunity to do the research and do the homework when I prepared the dessert menu for Pantà. I dug into cookbooks, travel journals, online research — anything about the Catalan region I could access from Memphis. It wasn’t just the items but the stories behind them, so when the server brought it to the table, they could tell you how that t into Catalan culture and the traditions as well.”

She also met people who had spent time in that region, asked them what they ate, what it tasted like, and then she created something.

PHOTO: ETARA EÑA-VITRIVA

eeke worked in human resources in Chicago, but that changed a er she went to pastry school at Kendall College. “I thought I was going to learn more about techniques and recipe development and just use it for hosting family and friends. But I caught the bug and started working for some ne dining restaurants a er that.”

She worked as a pastry chef at Carlos’ in Highland Park, and the old 302 West in Geneva, Illinois.

Her specialty is “maybe taking an ingredient or something we haven’t always used in pastry and guring out how to pull that together into something unique. I’m one of the rare birds that really likes change. So, being in an environment we have now, where we can pivot and try things out, has really been fun.”

eeke met her current employer on-

Like brazo de gitano. “Ours here is a chocolate cake rolled with chocolate ganache in between and then nished with a little bit of latte crème anglaise. e style is a little bit di erent from what I believe is served in Spain, but it resembles it enough.”

As for the Iris desserts, eeke says, “ e goal is de nitely to o er a traditional Creole menu with our own spin on things as well. Again, I have been to New Orleans, but I did my research on these as well so that we understand the story behind some of these. Like bananas Foster. It’s everything you think of in a Creole restaurant’s Foster, but our twist here is to make it a bananas Foster within a tres leches cake. Bring that roasted banana and rum taste through it. And then our crème brûlée here features a chicory co ee avor.”

All the restaurants “set the tone” for what the dessert menu will look like. But eeke says, “Every now and then I’ll come up with something. And they’ll let me know if I’ve crossed the line between forgiveness and permission.”

Join us for an exclusive evening inside the historic theatre, where we’ll be shaking up specialty cocktails and dishing up food from your local favorites. Strike a pose at the photo booth, shimmy-shake at the silent disco, and raise your paddle to win exciting items during our live auction.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18 •

Tickets on sale at ORPHEUM-MEMPHIS.COM

Inga eeke

Inga eeke enjoys her sweet job.

2, 2022

Indie Memphis

The 25th Indie Memphis Film Festival concluded last Monday with a lm that made a case for the importance of the 1970 Blaxploitation wave, and a lm that proved its point. Is at Black Enough For You? is the rst movie by Elvis Mitchell, a former New York Times lm critic and cinema scholar turned documentary director. Mitchell traced the history of Black representation in lm from the era of silent “race” pictures and D.W. Gri th’s pro-KKK, protoblockbuster Birth of a Nation through the foreshortened careers of Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge to the wave of lowbudget, Black-led gangster, adventure, and fantasy lms which started in the late 1960s and crested with e Wiz. Films like Super y and Co y, Mitchell argues in his voluminous voice-over narration, presented the kinds of rousing heroes that attracted lm-goers while the New Hollywood movement presented visions of angstlled antiheroes.

Blaxploitation lms also introduced a new kind of music to lms and the concept of the soundtrack album, which was o en released before the movie itself in order to drum up interest. e prime example was Sha ,

which featured an Academy Awardwinning soundtrack by Isaac Hayes. Mitchell introduced the classic with Willie Hall, the Memphis drummer who recorded the immortal hi-hat rhythm that kicks o Hayes’ theme song. Mitchell revealed in Is at Black Enough For You? that Hayes had been inspired by Sergio Leone’s score for Once Upon a Time in the West, and the score he penned for Sha still holds up, providing much of the detective lm’s throbbing propulsion.

e winners of the competitive portion of the 2022 lm festival were announced at a hilariously irreverent

awards ceremony Saturday evening at Playhouse on the Square. A er a two-year hiatus, Savannah Bearden returned to produce the awards, which were “hosted” by Birdy, the tiny red metal mockingbird which has served as the lm festival’s mascot for years. But amidst the nonstop jokes and spoof videos, there were genuinely touching moments, such as when Craig Brewer surprised art director and cameraperson Sallie Sabbatini

with the Indie Award, which is given to outstanding Memphis lm artisans, and when former Executive Director Ryan Watt was ambushed with the Vision Award.

e Best Narrative Feature award went to Our Father, the Devil, an African immigrant story directed by Ellie Foumbi. Kit Zauhar’s Actual People won the Duncan Williams Best Screenplay Award. e Documentary Feature award went to Reed Harkness for Sam Now, a portrait of the director’s brother that has been in production for the entire 25 years that Indie Memphis has been in existence.

e Best Hometowner Feature award, which honors lms made in Memphis, went to Jack Lo on’s e ’Vous, a moving portrait of the people who make e Rendezvous a worldfamous icon of Memphis barbecue. (“We voted with our stomachs,” said jury member Larry Karaszewski.) e Best Hometowner Narrative Short went to “Nordo” by Kyle Taubken, about a wife anxiously waiting for her husband to return from Afghanistan. Lauren Ready earned her second Indie Memphis Hometowner Documentary award for her short lm “What We’ll Never Know.”

In the Departures category, which includes experimental, genre, and

Percy Norris and “Big” Robert Stewart in e ’Vous

out-of-the-box creations, This House by Miryam Charles won Best Feature. (This House also won the poster design contest.) “Maya at 24” by legendary Memphis doc director Lynne Sachs won the Shorts competition, and “Civic” by Dwayne LeBlanc took home the first trophy in a new Mid-Length subcategory.

Sounds, the festival’s long-running music film series, awarded Best Feature to Kumina Queen by Nyasha Laing. The music video awards were won by the stop-motion animated “Vacant Spaces” by Joe Baughman; “Don’t Come Home” by Emily Rooker triumphed in the crowded Hometowner category.

Best Narrative Short went to “Sugar Glass Bottle” by Neo Sora, and Best

Documentary Short went to “The Body Is a House of Familiar Rooms” by Eloise Sherrid and Lauryn Welch.

Some of the Special Awards date back to the origin of the festival in 1998, such as the Soul of Southern Film Award, which was taken by Ira McKinley and Bhawin Suchak’s documentary Outta The Muck. The Ron Tibbett Excellence in Filmmaking Award went to Me Little Me by Elizabeth Ayiku. The Craig Brewer Emerging Filmmaker Award went to Eric Younger’s Very Rare.

The IndieGrants program, which awards $15,000 in cash and donations to create short films, picked Anna Cai’s “Bluff City Chinese” and A.D. Smith’s “R.E.G.G.I.N.” out of 46 proposals submitted by Memphis filmmakers.

FOR THE CURRENT

By Leah Fox-Greenberg

Why Save the Mid-South Coliseum?

Memphis Heritage has a successful history working with development partners on these projects.

As a native Memphian — and, yes, biased toward keeping the memories of my childhood alive — I can’t imagine Memphis without the Mid-South Coliseum.

Times with Dave Brown and Jerry “ e King” Lawler and at Central High School graduations and my rst Memphis State University Tigers game (I guess that shows some age) were all spent there. I grew up in Midtown and spent my summers at the Fairgrounds. My sister got to go to concerts there. e Coliseum was the shrine to all things cool. So, the building held future aspirations for me and countless others.

Even today, as it sits vacant, global tourists make it a “must-stop” to take their picture in front of Elvis’ home concert hall. Beatlemaniacs stop by to see where John, Paul, George, and Ringo had to apologize for saying they were “bigger than Jesus.” Fans nationwide see the Coliseum as a cathedral to the history and sport of wrestling. Just ask where Dwayne “ e Rock” Johnson got his start next time he comes to lm at one of our historic sites in Memphis.

Your eyes don’t deceive as you drive around the immense parking lot. ose memories were long ago, and the place has been empty for years. Why not tear down? Simply put, not all buildings were created equal and the Coliseum was built better than most.

At a time when supplies run short and we all know the costs incurred with construction (not to mention possible new taxes), why not reuse what we have? Take a trip around the surrounding area and you can nd empty land to build an amazing stadium, within the footprint of the Fairgrounds area.

I learned from my predecessor, June West, that if you think it can’t be saved … think again. She, as well as so many advocates across our city, have countless stories of working together with developers and city and state o cials and coming together to compromise, while still having a thriving and growing economic opportunity. Whether it’s a revolutionized Crosstown Concourse, a revitalized South Main corridor, or the new culinary destination of the Edge District, Memphis knows how to adapt and reuse, not to mention bring jobs, spur economic growth, and give a much-needed boost in revitalizing neighborhoods.

If that is the only location possible, what does saving a “portion” of the Coliseum mean? Memphis Heritage has a successful history working with development partners on these projects, including the Chick- l-A on Union and the new Caption by Hyatt Downtown — facades can be part of an amazing facility.

However, that is not what was shown. History can’t be replicated, but new stadiums … well, they can always be built and, in some cases, become a great retail space. Yes, the Pyramid is saved, but not the Coliseum.

I, as well as many of my advocate partners, are not naïve. We win some and lose some (RIP Napoleon Hill Mansion, our rst loss, back in 1975). Although the loss may be inevitable, we need not speed up time by demolishing before the money is in the bank and nal plans are approved. Unfortunately, this happens far too o en in our city.

Currently, our members are nding a home for the ironwork le over from the torn-down, historic dog pound building at the corner of North Front and A.W. Willis Avenue. Why was it torn down without a nal plan and full funding in place? e hotel never came and the building no longer remains.

I am excited to see the new Brooks campus Downtown, but why tear down a building before its time? e parking lot next door is due to come down as well. Please let the checks clear rst.

Our mayor and city council members have been part of many of the successful projects listed above. I know they share our interest in ridding the blight that our city su ers from: crumbling buildings. Demolishing these buildings before their time only further increases this ugly scar on our hometown. It was a campaign focus for many running for o ce in our city and one we all agree on, no matter what the political stripe. Shiny and new has its place and not every building with some years on it deserves to be saved.

I want to see Memphis grow and prosper. It is why I moved back to my hometown to raise my daughter. I love the idea of our city growing and becoming an even larger economic powerhouse.

But if we lose our history, our soul, our bones (aka our historic buildings), are we still Memphis? at is what we will learn over the coming months. I hope we protect what makes Memphis unique — why it is the city I invested my family’s future in and the city that Memphis Heritage will always protect and preserve.

Leah Fox-Greenberg is the CEO of Memphis Heritage Inc.

PHOTO: STEVE HOPKINS VIA FACEBOOK

Poster from the Mid-South Coliseum’s opening in 1964