THE ROYAL HELLO
SHARA CLARK Editor-in-Chief
ABIGAIL MORICI
Managing Editor
JACKSON BAKER, BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN Senior Editors
TOBY SELLS Associate Editor
KAILYNN JOHNSON News Reporter
CHRIS MCCOY Film and TV Editor
ALEX GREENE Music Editor
MICHAEL DONAHUE, JON W. SPARKS Staff Writers
GENE GARD, EMILY GUENTHER, COCO JUNE, PATRICIA LOCKHART, FRANK MURTAUGH, WILLIAM SMYTHE Contributing Columnists
SHARON BROWN, AIMEE STIEGEMEYER Grizzlies Reporters
CARRIE BEASLEY Senior Art Director
CHRISTOPHER MYERS Advertising Art Director
NEIL WILLIAMS Graphic Designer
KELLI DEWITT, CHIP GOOGE, SHAUNE MCGHEE, PATRICK PACHECO Senior Account Executives
CHET HASTINGS Warehouse and Delivery Manager
JANICE GRISSOM ELLISON, KAREN MILAM, DON MYNATT, TAMMY NASH, RANDY ROTZ, LEWIS TAYLOR, WILLIAM WIDEMAN Distribution
KENNETH NEILL Founding Publisher
THE MEMPHIS FLYER is published weekly by Contemporary Media, Inc., P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101 Phone: (901) 521-9000 Fax: (901) 521-0129 memphisflyer.com
CONTEMPORARY MEDIA, INC.
ANNA TRAVERSE FOGLE Chief Executive Officer
LYNN SPARAGOWSKI Controller/Circulation Manager
JEFFREY GOLDBERG Chief Revenue Officer
MARGIE NEAL Chief Operating Officer
KRISTIN PAWLOWSKI Digital Services Director
The Memphis Flyer folks love Halloween — and all things spooky. Our very own Toby Sells has even written a book — Haint Blues: Strange Tales from the American South — for which he used his sharp reporter’s skills to get to the heart of some of the South’s best paranormal stories. With just a mention of ghosts, our managing editor Abigail’s eyes light up. So when we discussed what we wanted to do for this issue, all sorts of ghoulish ideas flew. Did we want to recount regional ghost tales (of which there are many)? Could we schedule a ghost tour (several operate in the area)? Was there a haunted house nearby where we could spend a night (and have our timbers shivered)?
Although these conversations spanned over a few weeks before our favorite holiday, we weren’t quite able to get our butts in gear for a full-fledged ghost outing on the streets of Memphis or in a spooky B&B. The next best thing, of course, was a professionally guided hunt for ghosts in the famously haunted Earnestine & Hazel’s. Sadly I missed the excursion for a concert I’d already bought tickets to, but thankfully a few eager Flyer staffers were available for the experience. You can read all about it in this week’s cover story, “Ghost Fishing.”
While this week we relish in the ghastly fun, some not-so-fun horrors may be impending. Of course, I’m referring to the election as we count the days until the country’s new leader is revealed. Next week as results slowly pour in, our staff will be up past our bedtimes Tuesday night awaiting that answer. And as our regular readers well know, the Flyer always hits newsstands on Wednesday mornings. That will not be the case for the coming edition. Our printer has given us an extension on our deadline so that we can wait until the absolute last minute to call it. Whether that will be a clear winner or “too close to call,” we’re hanging on as long as they’ll let us before hitting “send” on the cover image and cover story. With a late ship, the papers will be printed later — which means our delivery will also be later. In this case, copies of the November 7th issue won’t make their way to newsstands until Thursday morning, November 7th. So heads up: If you don’t see us in your regular pick-up spot on Wednesday, please check back Thursday for a hard copy (the individual features will be published on our website as usual early Wednesday morning).
NEWS
&
OPINION
THE FLY-BY - 4 POLITICS - 6 AT LARGE - 8 FINANCE - 9 COVER STORY
“GHOST FISHING” BY TOBY SELLS - 10
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
WE RECOMMEND - 14 MUSIC - 16 AFTER DARK - 17 CALENDAR - 18
NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 20
WE SAW YOU - 22 FOOD - 24 BOOKS - 25
We’ll be on the edge of our seats with the rest of the nation (world?) next week, trying to keep the nail biting to a minimum as our fate unfolds. The ghosts of a previous term under Trump floating in the back of our minds are as haunting as anything we’ve seen — and those ghosts are very real. I urge you all to get out and cast your votes, so that this particular horror story might have a happier ending.
Shara Clark shara@memphisflyer.com
fly-by
{CITY REPORTER
By Kailynn Johnson
Questions, Answers + Attitude
Edited by Toby Sells
Memphis on the internet.
HUEY’S
Jada Renee’s now-deleted post about Huey’s on a first date tipped off what was a whole week of debate about the restaurant and first dates in Memphis. See our story to the right for all the details.
Huey’s owned it all with a great and subtle response, BTW.
ABANDONED
Click yourself over to YouTube to watch some amazing drone footage of the abandoned Memphis International Raceway. The race track closed in 2022 amid rumors of a land purchase for a new warehouse. But Mayday.Aerial’s video from last week shows that little has been done on the site, aside from vandalism.
OAK COURT
Memphis Reddit user u/etherian1 alerted the community to “that one door at Oak Court that leads to a secret courtyard paradise” with a video that was just way more amazing than it needed to be.
First Dates and ‘Pickmeshas’
Huey’s viral moment spurred by ongoing dating etiquette debate.
Last Tuesday, a beloved Memphis restaurant found itself in the middle of a perpetual debate over dating etiquette in Black culture.
Typing “Huey’s” into your Facebook search bar will show that the restaurant chain’s recent virality was not the result of its iconic burgers and wings. Rather, it was the catalyst for a conversation about date nights and rst impressions.
is viral debate feeds into a recurring internet frenzy that resurfaces weekly across podcast discussions and TikTok live panels.
In short, if you want to stir up a storm online, just ask whether “insert popular chain here” is an acceptable rst-date spot. Huey’s is the latest casualty in a long list of places swept up in this conversation — following the footsteps of Chili’s and countless local co ee shops.
In a post that has since been deleted, a Facebook user by the name of Jada Renee wrote that a potential suitor of hers said she was on a “high horse” because she didn’t want to go to Huey’s on a rst date.
“Baby, you ain’t even my kind,” the post read. “Hueeeeyyyssss? Where they spit at the ceiling?”
Within minutes people began to share their thoughts on the matter, with some saying they had been on rst dates there with no complaints, while others were appalled by the idea of it.
“Paige and I had bu alo wings with fries at Huey’s on our rst date. We actually shared it,” a user by the name of EJ Daplugg Busby said in a post with more than 200 shares. “If she likes you, the location doesn’t matter and we still go there to this day.”
e post was shared with mixed reactions, with many saying the venue didn’t matter to them as long as they were with someone they loved, while others expressed they preferred more “upscale” eating for a rst impression.
“Hueeeeyyyssss? Where they spit at the ceiling?”
“Huey’s is a spot once you and shordie locked in — not no rst date,” MuneyMan Ant said in a post.
A user by the name of Danielle Antoinette shared another side of the argument, sharing that women may worry that they’ll be perceived as “not down to earth” because they don’t want to go to Huey’s for a rst date.
When asked what an ideal rst date looked like to her, Antoinette said: “It would depend on the person, the age range, and the budget. I’m personally at the stage where I like to do activities as a rst date. Top Golf, mini golf, sip
worthy?
and paint, wine bar, etc. Usually I’ll just say that or tell the man to give me three options. I won’t assume he can read my mind if we just met.”
Several users shared the post, agreeing with Antoinette, with some nixing Huey’s because of the ambiance, while others simply don’t like the food.
User Donna White took it a step further, going to the Huey’s in Southaven on Malco Boulevard to see if she could nd a “Pickmesha” on a date.
For those who may not be chronically online, Pickmesha is a play on the term “pick me.” It was coined by internet users years ago to describe a woman who typically sides with men on topics, or goes out of her way to gain male approval in hopes of being “chosen.”
Pickmeshas have o en been seen as somewhat of an antiheroine by popular dating content creators. is archetype o en exempli es someone who settles in the dating world, and will relate to the lowest common denominator without acknowledging their worth.
White said she didn’t see a Pickmesha at the Huey’s she visited.
e conversation seems to have wrapped up, but Huey’s took this as a perfect opportunity to plug their “2-for-1 Happy Hour” paired with their appetizers as the “perfect date night.”
POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY JADA RENEE
PHOTO: SHARA CLARK A Huey Burger not rst date
By Kailynn Johnson
MATA Money
A new transit group says transit agency su ers from “years of underfunding.”
The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) is undergoing signi cant changes following the release of a dra report from TransPro, a transportation consulting organization.
MATA has replaced its entire board of commissioners under the direction of Memphis Mayor Paul Young, and the mayor is also urging the agency to delay service changes and cuts. While these measures are taking place in order to ensure the viability of the agency, transportation advocates are unsure that MATA can implement these changes without proper funding.
Better Transit for a Better Memphis (BTBM), a coalition founded by Memphis Interfaith Coalition for Action and Hope (MICAH) and Sierra Club Chickasaw Group, said these changes are a “temporary win” but found the decision to continue current service “unrealistic.”
“The public hasn’t changed in what they want and what they need. It’s just our ability to deliver these services.”
“Years of underfunding have le MATA without enough buses to meet even the existing, limited schedule. Interim MATA CEO Bacarra Mauldin has been scrambling to secure more buses, but 151 of the eet’s vehicles require repairs and the wait time for a new bus can be up to a year,” BTBM said in a statement. “Regardless, MATA lacks the funds to purchase parts and supplies or to place an order for new buses.”
e previous MATA board voted to cut six bus routes, including Route 16 Southeast Circulator, Route 28 Airport, Route 34 Central and Walnut Grove, Route 37 Perkins, Route 69 Winchester,
and Zone 3 Cordova Ready! On Demand. e cuts were slated to go into e ect November 3rd. However, during last week’s city council meeting, Young said he wanted to halt these changes a er TransPro released its report.
Prior to those changes being passed, the agency held 19 public meetings before the board meeting to discuss them. A er hearing from the community, the agency said many had a desire to maintain the current bus service, and they wanted service to last longer with an improved on-time performance.
“ e public hasn’t changed in what they want and what they need. It’s just our ability to deliver these services,” John Lancaster, MATA’s chief development o cer, said during a previous board meeting.
In addition to route suspensions, the board also decided to raise fares for MATA’s xed-route buses. Adult base fare will be $1.75 compared to the current fare of $1.00. e increases also a ect fares for students, senior citizens, and individuals with disabilities. Fares for FastPasses were also increased.
TransPro said route cuts would make it harder for MATA to deliver reliable service, which they argued should be the primary goal of the agency. However, BTBM said TransPro failed to consider that the agency is not able to provide these services consistently due to their lack of buses in the eet.
“How can the report recommend maintaining service levels when the system doesn’t even have the buses to run those routes reliably?” BTBM co-chair Dorothy Conner asked. “It’s not supported by data or resources, and it contradicts its own ndings, which highlight that Memphians want reliable transit — not an overstretched system that can’t deliver.”
BTBM said the report also failed to show the “underfunding” from previous city councils, as the city is the primary funding source of the agency. Leo Arnoult, spokesman for BTBM, said both the mayor and city council have “failed to provide in ation-adjusted budgets or release Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) funds.” e organization said these issues were unaddressed in the report, and that replacing the entire MATA board would not x these issues. e agency has been open about the cost of doing business as they need an additional $7.5 million for personnel costs and $5 million for operating expenses. BTBM is urging both Mayor Young and the city council to increase funding for the agency to resolve these issues.
MY HEALTH is our health
Since welcoming little one, life expanded while my world contracted.
More complexity, less time
Every day I advocate for my baby whether it’s at daycare or the doctor’s office.
And every day, I push off one thing—my own health.
Cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer of new moms, with risks can last for months post-partum.
So, I’m taking action and starting the conversation, with not just my doctor, but with other moms I know, too.
Because not only do I want to be a great mom I want to be a mom for a very long time.
Locally supported by
PHOTO: JUSTIN FOX BURKS
MATA faces a $60 million budget shortfall.
POLITICS By Jackson Baker
Sharing the Spotlight
Among last weekend’s pre-election e orts was one in which rivals collaborated.
MUSIC
FRIDAY NOVEMBER 8 THE
As was surely to be expected, the nextto-last weekend of the climactic 2024 election campaign was lled with feverish activity of various kinds — with early voting into its second week and candidates trying to get as many of their partisans as possible to the polls.
A case in point was a pair of events involving Gloria Johnson, the Knoxville Democrat who is trying to unseat incumbent Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn.
Johnson, the state representative who gained national attention last year as a member of the “Tennessee ree” proponents of gun-safety legislation, has raised some $7 million for her bid — almost all of it from in-state sources, she contended proudly.
While that is no match for the incumbent’s $17 million or so, it has been enough to buy Johnson a series of concise and wellproduced TV spots pinpointing Blackburn’s alleged shortcomings. And it even gives her some of the kind of in uence that politicians call coattails.
conversational time with the attendees and with each other.
e event was the brainchild of one Philip D. Hicks, impresario of something called the Independent Foundation for Political E ectiveness. Hicks says he hopes the Nordstrom-White encounter, his organization’s maiden e ort, can serve as a precedent for other such joint candidate e orts to come — presumably in future election seasons.
Inasmuch as political competition is, by its nature, an adversarial process, it’s somewhat di cult to imagine such events becoming commonplace, but, all things considered, this rst one went amazingly well.
Johnson was in Shelby County on Saturday, sharing time with two other Democrats, District 83 state House candidate Noah Nordstrom (like Johnson a public schoolteacher) and District 97 House candidate Jesse Huseth.
PAUL MCKINNEY
CROSSTOWN
e rst event was a joint rally with Nordstrom and state Democratic chair Hendrell Remus just outside the perimeter of the New Bethel Missionary Baptist earlyvoting station. Next, Johnson met up with Huseth at High Point Grocery for some joint canvassing e orts, a er which Huseth, who opposes GOP incumbent John Gillespie, set out on some door-to-door calls on residents in that western part of his district.
e most unusual pre-election event on Saturday didn’t involve Johnson, nor was it, in the strictest sense, a partisan event at all. It was a meet-and-greet at the Belly Acres restaurant in East Memphis involving both Nordstrom and his GOP adversary, incumbent Republican state Representative Mark White.
Not a debate between the two, mind you. A joint meet-and-greet, at which both candidates circulated among the members of a sizeable crowd, spending
It wasn’t the same kind of thing at all, but there were elements of such collegiality between potential election opponents at an earlier event, a meeting of the Germantown Democratic Club at Coletta’s on Appling Road during the previous week. at event included Memphis City Council Chair JB Smiley as its featured speaker, and Smiley, who is reliably reported to be thinking of a race for Shelby County mayor in 2026, spent a fair amount of time comparing notes on public matters (e.g., MLGW, the future of the erstwhile Sheraton Hotel) with attendee J.W. Gibson, a businessman who has basically already declared for that o ce.
PHOTOS: JACKSON BAKER
(above) Democrats Johnson, Huseth at High Point; (below) opponents Nordstrom and White at Belly Acres
OUTDOORS INC
OUTDOORS INC. GRAVEL RACE
AT LARGE By Bruce VanWyngarden
Poll Dancing
The weighting is the hardest part.
If you’re like me, you’ve spent a lot of time recently reading about — and listening to people talk about — presidential polls. I keep reading and hearing that the race is a toss-up, or worse, that Donald Trump is leading. I don’t buy it. These are the same pollsters who told us Hillary Clinton was a lock in 2016, that Joe Biden would win easily in 2020, and to prepare for a “red wave” in 2022. The polling for those three elections was all over the place and mostly wrong. Polling itself appeared to be broken. What has changed in 2024?
According to a Pew Research analysis, in the 2020 election there were 29 pollsters of record, and nearly all of them used the live-phone-call method. Now that it’s known that hardly anyone, particularly young voters, ever answers an unknown phone call, that methodology is considered unreliable — hopelessly skewed toward lonely geezers desperate to talk to anyone.
Does anyone really think Trump has strengthened his appeal to women and college-educated whites in the past four years? I don’t. And polls, for what they’re worth, show just the opposite has happened.
And consider this: In the 2020 presidential election, population density was arguably the single most-dominant element. Biden won the presidency while carrying only 16 percent of America’s counties. In fact, the most reliable predictor of voting patterns in the United States in recent years is rural versus urban/ suburban. And guess which of these is declining in population. Hint: It’s not cities and suburbs. Rural and small-town America are shrinking under the crushing double whammy of corporate farming and the Walmart-ization of local townsquare businesses. Trump won 84 percent of America’s counties, but his human voter base is shriveling. Acreage doesn’t vote. I find that encouraging when considering how 2024 might turn out.
In the wake of the 2022 election’s miscalculations, Pew says most pollsters now use combinations of live calling, emailed opt-in surveys, online opt-in surveys, and “probability based panels,” whatever that may be.
Pollsters then take the results of their surveys of, say, 1,237 people, and “weight” them, using various percentage models, trying to suss out how many young voters will turn out, how many Republicans who pull an early ballot will vote for a Democrat, how many women of both parties will vote for abortion rights, how the large contingent of independent voters will swing, how likely a “likely voter” is to vote. Bear in mind, they don’t know any of this information. They’re estimating these weighted numbers and hoping to get an accurate prediction of election results for 150 million voters by extrapolating, typically, from fewer than 3,000 voters.
In a New York Times analysis of the 2020 election, Larry J. Sabato, a professor at the University of Virginia discussed how the electorate had changed from 2016: “Trump’s appeal to college-educated whites, especially women, was never very strong. Trump’s character and antics in office sent his backing among this large group plummeting. Blue-collar and rural whites loved it, but their numbers could not substitute for losses elsewhere.”
Here’s another way to look at the race: Use your own eyes and ears. Look at the large, noisy, rabid turnout for Kamala Harris’ events and contrast that with the half-empty, sad-trombone “rallies” of Donald Trump rambling on for two hours, doing his “Scary Home Companion” riffs as his cult-fans trek to the exits. His campaign reminds me of the Seinfeld “Festivus” episode, with its “airing of grievances” and “feats of strength” rituals. Does any of this say “momentum” to you? It doesn’t to me.
Trump has never gotten more than 47 percent of the electorate to vote for him. His “platform” consists of trying to scare his (mostly) white supporters with horror stories about Black and brown people stealing their jobs, eating their pets, taking over cities, and committing horrific crimes. Oh, and LGBTQ people are coming to change your gender and make you marry them. So be very afraid and vote GOP, because we’re like you: Real Americans!
What percentage of Americans will fall for this pseudo-fascist act in 2024 is still unknown, but it’s never been a majority of us, which is a comfort of sorts. The scariest part, as always, is the waiting. Well, that and the Electoral College. And now I’m worried again. Dang it.
Getting Covered
Establishing income to cover your retirement living expenses.
Whether retirement is on the horizon or it’s quite a few years away, planning what your retirement will be like can be very exciting! This stage in life comes with a mix of emotions, but with planning, you can turn your savings into a source of income to cover your living expenses. Here are four important tips to help you plan for income in retirement.
1. Make a plan.
The first step in preparing for retirement income is to have a comprehensive plan. A custom financial plan serves as a blueprint to inform your financial decisionmaking and helps ensure all aspects of your financial life are working together to achieve your goals.
2. Properly structure your portfolio. One of the best ways to generate income in retirement is to strike a balance between short- and long-term investment accounts.
It’s recommended to maintain three to five years of living expenses in a shortterm, semi-liquid investment account. A mix of bond funds works well, as it provides capital for opportunistic rebalancing as well as a monthly income. Having a short-term allocation to bonds can prevent you from being forced to sell out to equities at a loss when markets are low.
It’s also important to continue growing your assets in order to help offset inflation and ensure you have enough income to last throughout retirement. You should consider investing any assets not necessary to fund your short-term needs in a diversified portfolio that focuses on growth and inflation protection. While this portfolio should be in line with your overall risk tolerance and investment objectives, it can be invested in riskier assets than your short-term account.
3. Implement a tax-efficient withdrawal strategy.
Ideally, you’ve been saving in multiple accounts with different tax treatments, such as traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, 401(k)s, and taxable accounts. If so, you may have an opportunity to maximize your income by strategically withdrawing from different accounts in different circumstances. This is called tax diversification.
• Taxable (non-retirement) accounts – These offer the benefits of tax-loss harvesting and have fewer restrictions on contribution amounts and fewer distribution penalties.
• Tax-deferred retirement accounts,
such as pre-tax IRAs and 401(k)s –Withdrawals from these trigger ordinary income taxes, as they’ve enjoyed taxdeferred growth.
• Tax-exempt accounts, such as Roth IRAs – These allow tax-exempt investments to grow for as long as possible, and qualified withdrawals are tax-free.
There are two main withdrawal strategies to consider based on your specific goals, tax situation, and income needs.
• Traditional approach – Using this, you would withdraw from one account at a time. Typically, the order of withdrawals is from taxable accounts first, followed by tax-deferred accounts and, finally, tax-exempt accounts. This allows the taxadvantaged accounts to continue growing tax-deferred and tax-free for a longer period of time. However, it may result in uneven taxable income.
• Proportional approach – This strategy establishes a target percentage that will be withdrawn from each account each year. The amount is typically based on the proportion of retirement savings in each account type. This can help ensure a more stable tax bill from year to year and can also help you save on taxes over the course of your retirement.
The benefit of following a disciplined approach is that you won’t be tempted to spend more than you can afford in any given year (or less than you’re able to!). This practice can help you maintain adequate assets to last a lifetime, regardless of market volatility. An advisor can assist you with creating a distribution strategy aligned with your financial needs and tax bracket on a year-by-year basis.
4. Regularly revisit and readjust.
Given the potential longevity of retirement, periodic reviews of your financial plan and income strategy are essential. Work with a qualified wealth manager who can help you understand how regulatory and market changes may impact you and adapt your plan as needed to align with your evolving goals and needs.
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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.
COVER STORY By Toby Sells
Ghost Fishing
Ghosts haunt Earnestine & Hazel’s. You get that info in your Welcome to Memphis starter pack, tucked next to other fact cards that read, “Central has great wings” and “ e trolleys ain’t for transportation.”
I’d heard about the bar’s many ghosts, and its haunted jukebox. Chris McCoy, our lm and TV editor, had, too.
“ e rst time I ever heard about Earnestine & Hazel’s, the rst thing they said was, ‘Oh yeah, it’s haunted,’” McCoy said. “ ere’s a lot more crazy stu about this place besides that but … if any place is going be haunted around here, it’s this place.”
I’d heard. McCoy had heard. So had Abigail Morici, our culture editor. None of us were sure, however. None of us had ever had a paranormal encounter in the place. But I knew some people who had, some people with the tools, the know-how, the experience, and a dogged curiosity about what lay beyond the veil to help us turn our second-hand knowledge into, maybe, a rsthand experience.
Last week, the investigation team from Historical Haunts Memphis showed us around Earnestine & Hazel’s in a spooky nighttime adventure that o ered the ultimate Memphis Halloween experience, and, perhaps, a glimpse into the spirit world.
Prologue
I don’t work many nights. I get my journalism-ing done in daytime hours so that evenings are clear for family, dinner, and show-binging with my wife. But this was an o er impossible to pass up.
I’m a ghost guy. Well, I celebrate all of paranormalia, really. And I mean really. For proof, look to my rst book, published this year — Haint Blues: Strange tales from the American South It’s full of ghosts, monsters, aliens, and even a psychic horse. Wrote a whole-ass book on this stu , y’all.
But I’ve never had a paranormal encounter. Never seen Bigfoot. Never spotted a UFO. And never have I ever had an encounter with anything even remotely ghostly — no apparition, nor shadow gure, shade, specter, phantom, presence, revenant … you get it.
I’ve watched a million hours of ghost evidence videos on YouTube, enough to believe that likely 90 percent (or more) were hoaxed for cheap internet attention. But my mind was wide open heading into our guided spirit investigation last week. And as I le Cooper-Young, I also had my antennae up, a sort of low, gnawing anxiety that I could not quite put my nger on nor dispel as regular reporter jitters. Even as I turned onto South Main from Crump, the “ghost” in Ghost River Brewing took on a strange dread. I love Ghost River and I was truly excited to maybe encounter a real ghost. So what was this anxiety? I wasn’t sure.
en, I saw the caboose of a Canadian National train pass over me as I drove under the trestle, and thought I remembered that to be an omen of either good or bad. I couldn’t remember which. It didn’t matter. Because just thinking about it underscored that I was, in fact, having some sort of weird anxiety about the evening. en, I saw the sexy-posing, winking screw on the Active Bolt and Screw Co. building and thought, “Well, there’s that, at least.”
Meet the Team
e Earnestine & Hazel’s building earns the bar’s “ragged but right” ethos. Usually, I revel at a chance to celebrate in those vaunted rooms of peeling paint, uneven oors, low light, and murky history. But that Tuesday evening, the bar slumped on the sidewalk, unlit and sad — like the face of friend lost in an unpleasant revery when they think no one can see them. And, yes, this description ts under the “meet the team headline,” for it was as big a character in our evening as any there with a pulse.
omas, a super nice guy in a Pantera T-shirt, unlocked the doors, pulled away the massive door bar, and allowed us entry, leaving us to our own endeavors. e lights seemed lower than usual, casting deeper shadows into an already dim room. Wheel of Fortune played silently on at screens above, the audience applauding someone who’d just solved the puzzle — “Purple Rain, Purple Rain.” e air was close but not sti ing, scented with roasted onions, a hint of stale beer, and the dusty passage of time.
we probably had $1,000 worth of equipment.”
at’s Bob all over, the data hound. He works in tech and trusts his tools to measure physical aberrations that may hint at a presence our eyes cannot see. en, there’s Barbara, the sensitive one. Spiritual abilities run in her family, enough for her to once correctly foretell her sister’s pregnancy. She respects the spirits she connects with like the living.
“I’ve always felt like there was more out there for us to understand,” Barbara said.
During the load-in, settle-in, meet-and-greet beginning of our investigation, Emily Guenther seemed
Memphis” for his familiarity with the city’s spirit side, a title I’ll renew here, but not just for his knowledge. Stephen can break down complex spiritual concepts and draw them broadly enough that even I can understand.
Chris McCoy, who we met earlier, has worked on Memphis’ independent lm scene for more than two decades. He loves a good story in the theater, but on the street, he’s a man of science. Ask him about rocketry or the chemical reasons hemp can get you high, and you’ll see what I mean. Still, it was plain Chris came to the evening with an open mind and an open heart.
When I asked Abigail Morici, who we also met earlier, if she’d ever had a paranormal encounter, she immediately (and shockingly) replied,
Meanwhile, Bob Roy sat his blue tool tote on a table and began checking his many devices. ough the bag he ri ed through was “the small one,” ribbed his wife Barbara Roy.
“We started with just one cheap little meter,” Bob said. “A year later,
at home in the darkened barroom, at ease, checking her phone and the windows. She’s a well-tuned empath, among other things, who has spent hours in that very place doing the very thing we were about to do, so her ease was no surprise. at experience was a calming in uence for the uninitiated, like us, as she tried to contact spirits, even inviting one to sit in her lap.
Emily’s husband, Stephen, served as a sort of a lead guide for us that evening. He, too, has spent countless hours investigating countless haunted sites, attempting to glimpse other realms in real life. In a Flyer story ages ago, I called Stephen the “Mayor of Spooky
“Well, my mom says I had a ghost friend when I was 3.” Dorea, Abigail named the ghost girl. ough, when I asked her to spell it, she didn’t know. She was 3, she explained.
“I told my mom things like she wore pantaloons, and she came on a boat with her brother and her mom,” Abigail said. “We lived in New Orleans, in this house right by all the cemeteries. [Dorea died of] yellow fever, we think, maybe. It gave my mom the creeps and she won’t talk about it to this day.”
The Set Up
Our team assembled under the bar’s bare naked light bulbs by the downstairs bar. All the hands were shook, introductions made. Bob explained how he uses all his tools. Stephen explained the evening’s basic run-of-show. en, he explained some of what we might expect.
“Sometimes, especially here at Earnestine & Hazel’s upstairs and in the backrooms, at times it’s very heavy,” Stephen said. “It almost feels like barometric pressure, like you can almost feel a bit of pressure.
“Some people get touched, never violently. You may feel, particularly women, someone touch your hair.” en, he explained what we should not expect.
“Ghost hunting is a bit of a misnomer; it’s really like ghost shing,” he said. “You just go sit somewhere, set up your stu , and wait.
“A lot of the [ghost hunting] TV shows are about … 22 minutes long,
continued on page 12
PHOTOS: TOBY SELLS
(le to right) Bob Roy, Barbara Roy, Emily Guenther, and Stephen Guenther
without commercials. at might be days of lming — three or four days — edited down to the best parts.”
Much of the evening, Stephen warned, might be boring. We’d snug in somewhere, sit in the dark, and ask a lot of questions. Actually communing with the dead, it turns out, can be every bit as tough and tedious as any other worthwhile endeavor made to look easy by a charismatic TV host. (I’m looking at you, Bill Dance.)
Questions would form the core of our evening’s commune. at’s how we let the spirits know we were there and there to listen to them, not drink Hi-Life and draw cuss words on the wall. And there were a few best practices for those questions.
Ask binary questions, not openended a airs. So, Stephen explained, instead of “What’s your favorite avor of ice cream?” ask “Do you like chocolate?” at way, a spirit can more easily communicate with the team — lighting up a motion sensor or tripping a meter rather than soliloquizing about frozen desserts. While the veil may be thin in places like Earnestine & Hazel’s, it can be hard to be heard through the curtains, it seems.
Some other guidelines for clarity: Keep conversation to a minimum. Use your voice to “tag” human noises like passing cars, passing pedestrians, or even passing gas. (Stephen joked his team has a strict no-Taco-Bell rule before their investigations.) Phones go in airplane mode to not give trip electromagnetic equipment for false positives.
With the team and ground rules established, it was time to wobble up the familiar wobbly back stairs and into the must-odored heart of the unfamiliar, the unknown.
The Black Room
You’ve sat in this room. Make a 180 right turn at the top of the stairs to the end of the hall and choose the room to the right. e walls are painted black, illuminated with a single blue light bulb. Being in this room with a beer and your friends is one crazy stitch in the fabric of this great city. But in that room with ghost hunters, the room vibrates with some silent expectation that had me focused to the very edge of senses.
“Emily, if you sense anything, you let us know,” Stephen said as we settled into the Black Room’s squishy seats.
“I sense the batteries in my audio recorder are dead,” Emily said.
“So,” Stephen began, “we usually just start talking. is is Stephen. I’m here with Emily, Bob, and Barbara. We have some guests with us. ey wanted to come over and hear and just kind of experience for themselves how it feels here. So many have expressed the presence of spirits here. So we hope that
you’ll interact with us tonight.
“We come peacefully, just to talk. We like to tell your stories. at’s how people live on. We tell their stories.”
Silence. Focused silence. Extended silence. I busied myself taking photos of the scene. Chris angled his phone video rig around the room. Abigail clutched her bag on her lap with two arms as if in fear of some ghostly ne’er-do-well. Bob moved a small, black, digital device back and forth.
“It got up over one just a second ago,” Bob said, almost to himself as he watched the readings. is drew a mild hmm from Barbara.
Stephen asked if any of the spirits were women and promised that the men in the room would leave if that made them feel more at ease. Silence. “Any waitresses or servers among us?” Emily asked. “ e building was once a church,” Barbara said.
“When it was a church, did a little girl fall down the stairs?” Barbara asked.
More silence. Who else? e team asked if any among them had been cooks, clergy, or musicians — horn or piano players. Silence. Stephen said aloud he’d heard there were no spirits in Earnestine & Hazel’s, a gentle taunt to coax communication. Nothing.
Barbara said she’d spoken once with the spirit “Mr. George,” Russell George, the bar’s former manager who had committed suicide in the building, about his famous Soul Burgers, and their famously secret sauce.
Nate’s Bar
You’ve been in Nate’s Bar, too, at the far other end (the front) of the building. ere, Stephen said he’d heard reports of encounters with the spirits of Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles, and B.B. King. He himself connected with the ghost of Wilson Pickett there one night. ( e details are creepy and amazing. Ask him.)
e team continued with familiar questions: Any one with us tonight?
amid a pause in the stutter, a voice could be heard to say, “yeah” or “yup.” Later, this prompted Stephen to begin talking about Ray Charles and his alleged carousing at the bar.
“I don’t know why people have to bring out the negative all the time,” he began. “Clearly, we each have things we struggle with. So …”
With that, one of the motion-sensor balls lit up in a sparkle of multi-colored lights. Barbara and I had been four feet from the dark thing for at least 15 minutes. Neither had moved to touch it — even to look at it — as it lit up. is drew shallow, excited gasps. is was the moment we’d planned for, organized for, and waited patiently for.
“Oh, hello!” Stephen said. “ ank you! I hope you agree with that. You should talk about the good times and the contributions of folks …”
With this, another motion light dazzled in a spray of color, a di erent one, drawing another wave of muted, respectful exultation, and a “thank you” from Barbara.
Heading Home
Stephen said aloud he’d heard there were no spirits in Earnestine & Hazel’s, a gentle taunt to coax communication.
ere it was. Something I could not explain, in an environment I thought I knew. In short, it was a paranormal experience, my rst in the more than 30 years since I fell into the rabbit hole of myth, legend, and the unexplained.
In the moment, my heart raced and eyebrows went wide. ough, the situation called for respect and calm, I wanted to yell, “Holy fucking shit!” I didn’t.
“Does anybody here know the secret?” Emily asked.
ere was a so pause and Chris then so ly said, “Worcestershire sauce and pickle juice.”
A er some gentle snickering, Stephen said to the spirits, “Chris just shared the secret. Is that okay?”
e men eventually did leave the Black Room but it was not enough to bring any spirits to the fore.
e spirits of Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles, and B.B. King are said to frequent Nate’s Bar.
Anyone had a drink here? Silence. Stephen then turned on a spirt box. It’s a digital device that (to my unscienti c ear) produces a skipping stutter of static. With them, ghost hunters can ask direct questions and, sometimes, get direct answers. When Emily asked, “Any musicians here?”
Instead, I felt kind of warm. And in the place of that weird anxiety on my way there, my way home was a state of sort of quiet contemplation. Did I witness a sign or message from the dead? Did the veil open just feet from where I stood? If it did, what then? Is there an a erlife? If not, what did I see? I decided to not think too hard about the answers to those questions. Instead, I put on some Wilson Pickett and decided that Bob was right. It’d be easy as hell to spend big money just to have that experience one more time.
steppin’ out
We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews
Roll On
By Abigail Morici
e Memphis Roller Derby A-Tracks are about to face the Spring eld (Missouri) Roller Derby in their season closer this Saturday.
Memphis’ recreational home teams, the Ghost River Ghouls and the Memphis Minions, are also set to play in their nal bout of the season. In between bouts will be a costume contest, chuck-a-duck, and a demonstration by the Memphis Armored Fight Club. ere will also be tabling local vendors, a bake sale, and beers provided by Memphis Made Brewing.
“Memphis shows up for us,” says Kendall Oli, the league’s marketing director. “It’s really fun. When the crowd is super loud and really into it, we can feel that. We take that, we harness it, and do our thing out there. And the home teams, even though it’s recreational, they’ve both developed their fan bases as well — the Minions and the Ghouls.”
Oli, for her part, is on both the Memphis Minions and on the travel team, having joined the league in 2017 a er the Memphis Roller Derby hosted one of its Skate Schools, or boot camps. “I’ve always been sporty, and I’ve always liked team sports, so I was kind of looking for something in adulthood to ll that,” she says. “It’s not only an outlet for me to exercise and be t, but also I get to hang out with my friends, with a nice competitive edge to it.”
Out on the rink and with her derby friends, Oli goes by Choke — a “derby name.” “It started out as Diet Choke, instead of Diet Coke,” she says. “It got abbreviated [over time]. I’m just an avid Diet Coke drinker.”
ough the game this Saturday is the last of the season, the Memphis Roller Derby plans to continue to engage with Memphis outside of the season. On December 14th, 8 p.m., the league will have its Ho Ho Ho Burlesque Show. “We do it every year,” Oli says. “It’s one of our biggest fundraisers, and it’s a lot of fun. League members will do the performances, and they’re usually really unique, eclectic, just super fun. And then we also have around 100 di erent donated items up for auction.”
“We are always looking for new fans,” she adds, “and we’re also always looking for new members. We hold our boot camps, or we call it Skate School [a few times a year]. We’re always trying to grow. We teach down to the very basics. Like, I didn’t know how to roller skate when I started in 2017 and now I travel to play with other teams. ere’s just so many opportunities for not only growing your skills, but also personal growth and joining a community that has something for everyone — even for non-skaters.”
Keep up with the Memphis Roller Derby at memphisrollerderby.com and on social (@memphisrollerderby).
SPRINGFIELD ROLLER DERBY VS. MEMPHIS A-TRACKS, THE AGRICENTER, 7777 WALNUT GROVE, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2 P.M., $15/ADULT, $5/KIDS (5-13), FREE/KIDS UNDER 5.
VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES October 31st - November 6th
We All We Got: A Binghampton Play
First Baptist Church, 530 Scott, Friday, November 1, 7 p.m. | Saturday, November 2, 1 p.m. | Sunday, November 3, 1 p.m., free Shavonne is the “it girl” from a Black family that goes back generations. Bakari is a refugee with big dreams and even bigger obstacles. Two girls with starkly di erent lives come of age in the same vibrant and unpredictable neighborhood. Inspired by hundreds of real Binghampton stories, this ctional Binghampton introduces a colorful community of characters bringing up their young people and holding on to hope in one of Memphis’ most diverse — and fast-changing — neighborhoods.
RSVP to attend any one of the performances at orpheummemphis.com/event/we-all-we-got.
Día de Los Muertos Parade & Festival
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, 1934 Poplar, Saturday, November 2, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., free e Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and the Cazateatro Bilingual eatre Group invite you and your family to honor your ancestors and celebrate the cycle of life and death. e festival at the Brooks will offer art-making activities, face painting, music, costumed performers, dance performances, and more. e parade will start on Madison Avenue in Overton Square at 10 a.m. and end at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
Memphis Japan Festival
Memphis Botanic Garden, 750 Cherry, Sunday, November 3, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., $12
e Memphis Japan Festival is a fun, family-friendly, interactive, and
hands-on experience of Japanese culture. Festival highlights include traditional and contemporary Japanese music and dance, martial arts demonstrations, cultural lectures, arts and cra s, merchandise, children’s activities, sumo-suit wrestling, a roving Japanese Candyman, tours of the Japanese garden, and a variety of Japanese cuisine featuring special menus from local restaurants and food trucks.
Broad Avenue Art Walk
Broad Avenue, Saturday, November 2, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Broad Avenue brings back another fun- lled and free fall festival, featuring 60-plus local artists and makers, live music, a kids cra area, and fun activities. Drink and food available will be available for purchase.
Fun fact: ere will be a Corgi Parade at 3 p.m.
PHOTO: TRICE PATTERSON Memphis Roller Derby team
H E CH O E N MEMP H I S M ADE I N MEMP H I S
2024 GREAT AMERICAN BEER FESTIVAL GOLD MEDAL WINNER THANKS TO OUR HOME BASE OF MEMPHIS, TN!!!
MUSIC By Alex Greene
Aquarian Blood Redux
A er a
haunting triptych of albums, the inventive band sheds its skin once again.
Once you delve into their catalog, Aquarian Blood can be hard to pin down. eir 2017 debut LP on Goner was a rollicking, ri -heavy burst of punk guitar and synth noise centered on the hearty screams of co-founder Laurel Horrell. And while there were more minimalist avors present, such as the moody “Won’t Forget to Die,” few were prepared for the sea change that came with their sophomore release. A Love at Leads to War was an abrupt, acoustic about-face that featured co-founder JB Horell’s delicate picking on a nylon string classical guitar, blended with low-key drum machines and hand percussion, spooky synths, and haunted, primitive melodies in a quieter vein.
(le to
PHOTO: SARA MOSELEY
right) Jeremy Speakes, Michael Peery, Laurel Horrell, JB Horrell, and Keith Cooper: the latest Aquarian Blood
And yet the world the Horrells created was no fairy folk land of unicorns and tarot card poetry. ese were dark missives from an underground life lled with trauma and desire, and the sheer sound of the home recordings captured what might happen if German sonic artists Can reinterpreted the Incredible String Band. It was intimate and compelling, and, with Covid striking only months a er the album’s release, oddly prescient. During lockdown, I wore the album out. And, it turned out, there was more where that came from. In 2022, the band released Bending the Golden Hour, also on Goner, and earlier this year Black & Wyatt Records dropped Counting Backwards Again. row in the 2020 EP Decoys, and it’s clear that this acoustic chapter of the band’s career has been fruitful. Indeed, the three LPs and associated material hang together so well, I called on JB recently to lend some perspective to this impressive body of work, and what the future may hold.
Memphis Flyer: I’ve really been digging Counting Backwards Again since it came out in April. And it strikes me that you could call the last three full-lengths a trilogy. ey hang together that well. JB Horrell: Yeah, I agree with that. All the music on those three records was created in the same period of time, between 2019 and 2022. And it’s interesting because there are songs
“We knew that we were ready to turn the page. We had a whole batch of brand-new songs.” – JB Horrell
on this third [acoustic] record that predate songs on the rst record, and songs on the rst record that post-date songs on the third record. ere’s this speci c body of music that’s broken up over three albums, and all of the songs encapsulate everything that was going on. And it feels good. ree is a good round number.
Is there a narrative through-line to the albums, or is it more oblique than that? I didn’t choose the songs for the two before this third one. Zac [Ives, of Goner Records,] was a huge catalyst in the entire shi in the band’s approach and sound. Our drummer had broken
And the band was expanding through those years, as you embraced the wider sonic palette.
Yeah, it had gotten up to seven people. But coming into 2024, it kind of felt like we had cleaned out the closet to make room for new stu . We knew that there was this imminent change about to take place, and we knew the band was going to downsize to ve people, total. I wanted everybody involved in the new lineup to have a lot more of a hand in writing and arranging the songs.
So, since the release of Counting Backwards Again, there’s been another sea change in Aquarian Blood’s sound?
his arm, so in the down time we were doing this kind of acoustic thing for fun. [We told Zac], “I guess it’s still Aquarian Blood, whatever.” And he was very encouraging. He said, “Well, you guys should try playing a show like that.”
And then Zac more or less curated the rst albums, correct?
Yeah. We gave him 23 tracks for the rst record, and that ended up being 15 songs. en there were 32 tracks we gave him for Bending the Golden Hour, and he picked 15 again. So for the Black & Wyatt record, we had 17 le , and I pared it down to the 12 that felt to us, in a very personal way, like the ones that completed that whole trip. at was a really brutal period for all of us, with Covid going on, everybody sort of disconnected, and a lot of personal stu going on, like losing people close to us in terrible ways. So all that felt like it was of a time and of a process. It was cathartic, a process of grieving and sort of trying to gure out the way forward.
Yeah. We knew that we were ready to turn the page. We had a whole batch of brandnew songs. So we started completely from scratch last winter, with Keith Cooper on guitar, Michael Peery on keyboards, and Jeremy Speakes on drums. en we took it on the road in June, and it was interesting to be touring, playing nothing that was ever released. I wasn’t sure what to expect about that. We had never played a show with that lineup before the tour! All of it seems counterintuitive, but the opportunity was there, so we jumped at it, and the tour couldn’t have gone any better. Playing 17 shows in 18 days really locked it in. So, since we’ve been home, we’ve been hitting the studio quite a bit, and the recordings are just stacking up. Our intuition was right. We’ve got this group of people together, taking it somewhere else. e Lucky 7 Brass Band just put horns on some stu last week. And Krista Wroten and Ethan Baker play violin on it. So the whole thing has become very collaborative. And it feels really good to get out of my head and out of my recording room at home and go out and collaborate again.
Aquarian Blood will play with Vorhex Angel (with members of Je the Brotherhood) at B-Side on Friday, November 1st, at 9 p.m.
Ashton Riker & The Memphis Royals
AFTER DARK: Live Music Schedule Oct. 31 - Nov. 6
ursday, Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
Blind Mississippi Morris
Friday, Nov. 1, 8 p.m. |
Saturday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Earl “The Pearl” Banks
Tuesday, Nov. 5, 7 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Eric Hughes
ursday, Oct. 31, 7 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Flic’s Pics Band
Led by the legendary Leroy
“Flic” Hodges of Hi Rhythm.
Saturday, Nov. 2, 4 p.m. |
Sunday, Nov. 3, 3 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
FreeWorld
Friday, Nov. 1, 8 p.m. |
Saturday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
FreeWorld
Sunday, Nov. 3, 6 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Ghost Town Blues Band
ursday, Oct. 31, 7 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Memphis Soul Factory
Sunday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
The B.B. King’s Blues Club Allstar Band
Friday, Nov. 1, 8 p.m. |
Saturday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m. |
Monday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
Elevation Memphis: Tina
Turner Tribute
Saturday, Nov. 2, 5 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
The Deb Jam Band e Deb Jam Band featuring Debbie Jamison. Free. Tuesday, Nov. 5, 6 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
The Three B’s: Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven
Kyle Dickson conducts the MSO, featuring Shantanique Moore on ute. Sunday, Nov. 3, 2:30-4:15 p.m.
SCHEIDT FAMILY PERFORMING ARTS
CENTER
Van Duren e singer/songwriter, a pioneer of indie pop in Memphis, performs solo. ursday, Oct. 31, 6:308:30 p.m.
DJ Nico
Saturday, Nov. 2, 9 p.m.
EIGHT & SAND
Live & Local Music
Live and local music, every Wednesday night on the all-weather patio. Wednesday, Nov. 6, 7-10 p.m.
MOMMA’S
Paul Brock Band Live at Cossitt
Come to the Cossitt Library to pick up lunch or a cool drink from Dos Hermanos Kitchen and enjoy a free live performance from the award winning Paul Brock Band!
Wednesday, Nov. 6, noon1 p.m.
COSSITT LIBRARY - DOWNTOWN MEMPHIS
Stephany Medina
Stylistically versatile, DJ Medina spins a wide array of genres with a central focus on funk, soul, disco, house, and global music. Friday, Nov. 1, 9 p.m.
EIGHT & SAND
Wendell Wells e singer-songwriter is also a cartoonist and congressional candidate. Sunday, Nov. 3, 9 p.m.
WESTY’S
MORTIMER’S
Almost Elton John & the RocketMen
Friday, Nov. 1, 7 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Bailey Bigger: Resurrection Fern
Album Release
A captivating evening of music as Bailey Bigger celebrates the release of her new album, which takes the listener on a journey through the four seasons and the cycles of death that we, and the earth, face every year.. $22.
ursday, Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m.
THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS
Bob & Angela
Sunday, Nov. 3, 3 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Devil Train
Bluegrass, roots, country, Delta, and ski e. ursday, Oct. 31, 10 p.m.
B-SIDE
Devil Train
Saturday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m.
RAILGARTEN
Duane Cleveland Trio
Saturday, Nov. 2, 1 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
General Labor
With Snorkeler. ursday, Oct. 31, 8 p.m.
RAILGARTEN
Greed Worm
With Human Shield, Chaosphere, Calamity [Small Room-Downstairs]. 21+.
Saturday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Halloween at the Lab!
Spooky tunes all day. ursday, Oct. 31, 11 a.m.-
5 p.m.
MEMPHIS LISTENING LAB
Hayden Hunter & The Yearly Trials
With e Narrows [Small Room-Downstairs]. Sunday, Nov. 3, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Herakleion
With Ruined God [Small Room-Downstairs].
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Jackyl ese veteran rockers have still got it. Sunday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m.
MINGLEWOOD HALL
Joe Restivo 4
Guitarist Joe Restivo leads one of the city’s nest jazz quartets. Sunday, Nov. 3, 11 a.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Maddy O’Neal
O’Neal’s lush textures and atmospheric layers draw heavily from her roots in funk and soul. ese in uences meld with deep bass frequencies and innovative synth designs, creating a unique sonic space. ursday, Oct. 31, 8 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Matty O’ and The Ghosts of the Insane
With e Big Shredder, Justin White. Wednesday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m.
GROWLERS
Roxy Love
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 6 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Salo Pallini
Imaginative rock/jazz/ country/exotica instrumentals. Tuesday, Nov. 5, 8 p.m.
B-SIDE
Ted Horrell & The MNC Album Release
Celebrating the new album, Mid-South Fare. With the Church Brothers, Sam Raines. Saturday, Nov. 2, 3 p.m.
GROWLERS
The Neon Mooners Friday, Nov. 1, 8 p.m.
RAILGARTEN
The Three B’s: Bach, Brahms, and Beethoven Kyle Dickson conducts the MSO, featuring Shantanique Moore on ute. $40/General Admission. Friday, Nov. 1, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
CROSSTOWN THEATER
Trey Bands
$25. Sunday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m.
GROWLERS
Vinyl Happy Hour
With guest DJs every Friday. Friday, Nov. 1, 3-5 p.m.
MEMPHIS LISTENING LAB
Walrus
An eclectic set of classic alternative/college rock songs you remember but never hear live anymore. Friday, Nov. 1, 10 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Wyly Bigger & the Coyotes
Bailey Bigger’s brother is a formidable pianist and singersongwriter in his own right. Sunday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Blues Traveler – 30
Years of Four Tour e legends return! Saturday, Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m.
GRACELAND SOUNDSTAGE
Fantasia
With Anthony Hamilton. $64. Friday, Nov. 1, 8 p.m.
LANDERS CENTER
Hearts Gone South Saturday, Nov. 2, 8 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
Bailey Bigger’s new album
Pound4Pound Sneaker
Ball
Come dressed to impress. Live music by Courtney Little and band. $20/wristbands . Friday, Nov. 1, 7 p.m.
POUND 4 POUND CLUBHOUSE
WhiskeyDick Wednesday, Nov. 6, 8 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
Concerts in The Grove — Landslide:
A Memphis Tribute to Fleetwood Mac
A Memphis band performing the timeless songs of Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham $9.
ursday, Oct. 31, 6:30-8 p.m.
THE GROVE AT GERMANTOWN
PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Memphis Blues Society
Weekly Jam
Hosted by Jackie Flora & Friends. ursday, Oct. 31, 7:30 p.m.
ROCKHOUSE LIVE
Paul Brock Band Live in Cordova
Join the Cordova library for a live performance from the award winning Paul Brock Band. Wednesday, Nov. 6, 3-4 p.m.
CORDOVA BRANCH LIBRARY
Phantom Phavorites
Concert
Webber’s haunting Phantom of the Opera and other spooky music in a dark, decorated cathedral. Free. ursday, Oct. 31, 7 p.m.
ST. MARY’S EPISCOPAL CATHEDRAL
Richard Wilson Soulful Jazz and Bossanova
ursday, Oct. 31, 11:30 a.m.-
2 p.m. | Friday, Nov. 1, 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
JACKIE MAE’S PLACE
Singer Songwriter
Sundays
Enjoy some of the area’s best local musicians every Sunday. Sunday, Nov. 3, 4-6 p.m.
MEDDLESOME BREWING COMPANY
PHOTO: GRAHAM FIELDER Blues Traveler
PHOTO: COURTESY ROSE DAGGER
CALENDAR of EVENTS: Oct. 31 - Nov. 6
ART AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS
“All Aboard: The Railroad in American Art, 1840 - 1955”
Examining the o en-symbiotic relationship between painters and the passenger and freight trains that populated cities, towns, and countrysides across the nation. Sunday, Nov. 3-Jan. 26.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
“All Rise: Memphis Bar Association at 150” rough arresting objects and powerful images, the exhibition showcases the Memphis Bar Association’s historical signi cance and continuing relevance. rough Nov. 10.
MEMPHIS MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY
Andrea Morales: “Roll Down Like Water”
Featuring 65 photographs spanning a decade of work by the Memphis-based PeruvianAmerican photographer. rough Jan. 31.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
“Beyond the Surface:”
The Art of Handmade Paper, Part I
Featuring handmade paper creations showcasing a variety of techniques that expand our understanding of the medium, created at Dieu Donne, a leading arts organization in New York. rough Dec. 15.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Billy Renkl: “Corporal Gestures”
Renkl works with vintage and antique paper. “It is almost like a body, the way that it ages, gets scarred, bears the marks of what has happened to it, who has owned it and how they used it,” he says. rough Nov. 16.
DAVID LUSK GALLERY
“Bracelets, Bangles, and Cuffs: 1948-2024”
A remarkable collection of contemporary bracelets. rough Nov. 17.
METAL MUSEUM
Carol Adamec Exhibit:
“In a Japanese Garden”
An exhibit of owers, kimonos, and gardens in oil on canvas and acrylic gouache on rice paper and panel. Friday, Nov. 1-Dec. 30.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Huger Foote: “Two Rivers”
“If you look through Huger’s photographs backwards and forwards, you can feel the tension of a mysterious hidden story, one that keeps emerging and vanishing.” – Bernardo Bertolucci. rough Nov. 16.
DAVID LUSK GALLERY
Kevin A. Williams:
“Native Son”
Williams is one of the most celebrated gurative storytellers of this era, with his collection of paintings being the most widely circulated urban ne art series in the world. rough Dec. 15.
HYATT CENTRIC
“Manor in Mourning” Exhibit
e “Manor in Mourning” exhibit will feature over 100 19th century mourning artifacts. Items like mourning attire, prints, hair jewelry, and more will be displayed. rough Oct. 31.
DAVIES MANOR HISTORIC SITE
Master Metalsmith
Preston Jackson: “A Hidden Culture”
Honoring the Metal Museum’s 38th Master Metalsmith, this exhibition “reveals history that has been buried, forgotten, or deemed unimportant by society.” rough Jan. 26.
METAL MUSEUM
“Meeting Room:” The 6 Points Artists Featuring six artists — Sharon Havelka, Mary Jo Karimnia, Paula Kovarik, Carrol McTyre, Jennifer Sargent, Mary K. VanGieson — at the Bornblum Library. rough Nov. 27.
SOUTHWEST TENNESSEE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Natural Histories: 400 Years of Scientific Illustration
Showcasing hidden gems and unique masterworks from the American Museum of Natural History’s rare book collection. Sunday, Nov. 3-Jan. 26.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
“Pissarro to Picasso:” Masterworks from the Kirkland Family Collection
Eighteen art treasures from the Kirkland family’s collection. rough Jan. 26.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Preston Jackson: Tales of the River Cities is large sculpture features narrative vignettes that speak to Jackson’s family history near the Mississippi River. rough Jan. 26.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Scott A. Carter: “Energy States”
Memphis artist, educator, curator, and musician Scott A. Carter makes objects and environments that exist somewhere in the spaces between sculpture, architecture, design, and sound. Sunday, Nov. 3-Jan. 19.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
PHOTO: COURTESY DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Leon Kroll’s in “All Aboard: e Railroad in American Art, 1840-1955”
Sayali Abhyankar:
“Dhara (Mother Earth)”
Inspired by the beauty of nature, Sayali Abhyankar’s acrylic paintings feature vibrant colors and intricate patterns based in two traditional Indian folk art styles. rough Nov. 27.
MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE HISTORY
Southern Heritage Classic Exhibit
Celebrating 35 years of an HBCU Memphis tradition, the exhibition tells the story of Fred Jones Jr., the founder of the Southern Heritage Classic. rough Feb. 28.
NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM
ART HAPPENINGS
Artist Meet & Greet ~ Connect With Other Creatives at The Memphis Art Salon
Learn about upcoming events and opportunities to showcase your work, connect with other creatives, and how to get involved at the Memphis Art Salon. Wednesday, Nov. 6, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
MINGLEWOOD HALL
Closing ReceptionArt Salon: The Fifth Installment Includes a live art auction. $5/ cover. Saturday, Nov. 2, 7:3010 p.m.
MEMPHIS ART SALON AT MINGLEWOOD HALL
Send the date, time, place, cost, info, phone number, a brief description, and photos — two weeks in advance — to calendar@memphisflyer.com.
DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, ONGOING WEEKLY EVENTS WILL APPEAR IN THE FLYER’S ONLINE CALENDAR ONLY. FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVENT LISTINGS, SCAN THE QR CODE OR VISIT EVENTS.MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL.
MadameFraankie: “Intertwine” Opening Reception Exhibition of new work by MadameFraankie. Friday, Nov. 1, 5-8 p.m.
BEVERLY + SAM ROSS GALLERY
Marshall Arts is Back! Opening for a group exhibition featuring new work by Jodi Brewer, Pam McDonnell, Lisa Williamson, and Paul Behnke, all local artists a liated with the art department of the University of Memphis. Saturday, Nov. 2, 6-8 p.m.
MARSHALL ARTS GALLERY
BOOK EVENTS
Jill Tew: The Dividing Sky
A dystopian romance debut that follows a cunning memory merchant who deals a little extra happiness on the side and the handsome rookie o cer on her tail. Saturday, Nov. 2, 2 p.m. | Saturday, Nov. 2, 6 p.m.
NOVEL
Queen of the Clouds: An Afternoon with Author Taylor C. Phillips
Two women. One quest: to be the rst to y solo around the world. In 1964, two women independently decided to set a world record. Taylor Phillips wrote their riveting story. Free. Friday, Nov. 1, 2:30 p.m.
RHODES COLLEGE
CLASS / WORKSHOP
Beginners Casting: What a Relief!
Cast a relief sculpture of your own creation in aluminum. Students will be supplied with a panel and oil-based clay. Sunday, Nov. 3, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.
METAL MUSEUM
Bird Photography
Curt Hart and Allen Sparks lead a class on bird photography. Saturday, Nov. 2, 9 a.m.
LICHTERMAN NATURE CENTER
Fall Watercolor Workshop with Drew Blake
A cozy watercolor workshop, capturing autumn’s vibrant hues and textures. $45. Saturday, Nov. 2, 1-4 p.m.
ARROW CREATIVE
iPhone Photography with Erica Haskett
Learn how to take stunning photos and capture the beauty of your natural surroundings using only your iPhone. $35. Saturday, Nov. 2, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
OVERTON PARK
Lunchtime Meditations
Looking for something relaxing to do to clear your mind and improve your overall health? Head to the Dixon for free meditation sessions every Friday. Friday, Nov. 1, noon12:45 p.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Queer & Allied Theatre
Troupe
An LGBTQ+Allied theater group for young people ages 1421. ursday, Oct. 31, 5 p.m.
PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE
COMEDY
Becky Robinson: She Gone Tour
Robinson is an LGBTQ+ comedian, writer, actor and voice-over star. You may know her as the “Entitled Housewife,” her outspoken viral golf character. Friday, Nov. 1, 8 p.m.
ORPHEUM THEATRE
Kat Timpf
Ripped from the pages of her new book, Timpf takes the audience on a deep dive through her notoriously whacky stories, outrageous misadventures, and a colorful cast of characters. $43-$78. Saturday, Nov. 2, 7 p.m.
ORPHEUM THEATRE
Saturday Night Showcase is underground comedy show, hosted by Tylon Monger, explores the art in its rawest and most sublime form. $15. Saturday, Nov. 2, 7 p.m.
MEMPHIS CLOVER CLUB
COMMUNITY
116th Holy Convocation
An annual gathering for e Church of God in Christ, Inc. (COGIC). Tuesday, Nov. 5-Nov. 10.
RENASANT CONVENTION CENTER
APEX 2024:
Intersectionality, Leadership, and DEIB e Junior League of Memphis hosts its signature diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) event — APEX. With keynote speaker Donna Murray Brown. $81.88. Friday, Nov. 1, 8 a.m.-4 p.m.
SOUTHWEST TENNESSEE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Lupus Support Group
Join the Lupus Support Group for connection, sharing, and strength. You’re not alone in this journey. Saturday, Nov. 2, 10:30 a.m.-noon.
EAST SHELBY LIBRARY
Stomp the City Iconic Awards Empowering local heroes, celebrities, and community leaders, this event combines entertainment with issues like domestic violence and gun violence. Sunday, Nov. 3, 6:30-10 p.m.
CANNON CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
The Mystic Live at the Green Room e Mystic is hosted by a rotating panel including Rabbi Micah Greenstein, Dr. Scott Morris, Rev. Joshua Narcisse, Dr. Rev. Lillian Lammers, and Kirk Whalum. Tuesday, Nov. 5, 6-7 p.m.
THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS
DANCE
Charli XCX & HyperPop Dance Party
Friday, Nov. 1, 8 p.m.
MINGLEWOOD HALL
Line Dancing with Q Line dancing lessons, Tuesdays with “Q.” 21+. Tuesday, Nov. 5, 6-9 p.m.
DRU’S PLACE
Wednesday Night Karaoke
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 5 p.m.
DRU’S PLACE
CALENDAR: OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 6
EXPO/SALES
28th Annual Quilt & Fiber Arts Show and Sale
Featuring 100 antique, vintage, and modern quilts, vendors, demonstrators, and a new special exhibit. Sunday, Nov. 3, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
DAVIES MANOR HISTORIC SITE
Palladio Interiors & Garden’s Holiday Market
Shop gifts, tabletop decor, fun holiday decorations, pop-up vendors and one-of-a-kind inspiring surprises. Wednesday, Nov. 6-9, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
PALLADIO INTERIORS
Temple of Souls Art & Vintage Shoppe
Just in time for the HallowDays, Vintagia presents Temple of Souls Art & Vintage Shoppe, featuring a carefully curated selection of art and gifts by local 901 artists and makers. Thursday, Oct. 31, noon-6 p.m. | Friday, Nov. 1, noon-6 p.m.
VINTAGIA MEMPHIS
FAMILY
Hollywood Halloween
This Halloween, dive into thrills and chills at the annual Halloween celebration. Thursday, Oct. 31, 3-5 p.m.
HOLLYWOOD LIBRARY
Homeschool Days
Hands-on learning that supplements a homeschool curriculum for ages 6+. Students will enjoy discovering plants and learning botany in greater depth. Monday, Nov. 4, 10 a.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Mini Masters (ages 2-4)
Introduce your little ones to the arts and nature with crafts, movement, and more. $8.
Tuesday, Nov. 5, 10:30-11:15 a.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Nightmare on 3rd Street
Halloween Bash
Join the South Branch for the annual Halloween celebration. Thursday, Oct. 31, 4-5:30 p.m.
SOUTH LIBRARY
Story Time
Enjoy stories, songs, art activities, and creative play that connect with Collierville history.
Friday, Nov. 1, 10:30 a.m.
MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE HISTORY
Story Time
Story time with WKNO’s Teacher Teacher. Free. Monday, Nov. 4, 4-5 p.m.
RALEIGH LIBRARY
Story Time at Novel
Recommended for children up to 5 years, Story Time at Novel includes songs and stories, featuring brand-new books in addition to well-loved favorites. Saturday, Nov. 2, 10:30 a.m. | Wednesday, Nov. 6, 10:30 a.m.
NOVEL
The Inger Upchurch
Early Childhood Fair and Conference
Fun child/family vendors, games and crafts, educators and parent workshops. Free. Saturday, Nov. 2, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
BENJAMIN L. HOOKS CENTRAL LIBRARY MEMPHIS PUBLIC LIBRARY
Trick or Treat at the Mound
Don’t wait until the sun goes down to take the kids trick or treating. Thursday, Oct. 31, 3-5:30 p.m.
MEMPHIS PUBLIC LIBRARIES ORANGE MOUND BRANCH
World Jellyfish Day
Keepers and education staff meet face to face with guests and teach them how to be conservationists. Sunday, Nov. 3, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
MEMPHIS ZOO
Your Chariot Awaits at Carriage Crossing Carriage Crossing is now offering free carriage rides every Saturday from noon-3 p.m. Through Dec. 29. THE SHOPS AT CARRIAGE CROSSING
FESTIVAL
Broad Ave Art Walk
2024
A fun-filled and free fall festival. Featuring 60+ local artists and makers, music, kids crafts, and activities. Saturday, Nov. 2, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
BROAD AVENUE ARTS DISTRICT
Día de Los Muertos
Parade & Festival
The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and the Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group invite you and your family to honor your ancestors and celebrate the cycle of life and death. Saturday, Nov. 2, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Memphis Japan Festival
A fun, family-friendly, interactive and hands-on experience of Japanese culture. $12/adults, $10/seniors, $7/students, $7/ children 2-12 years. Sunday, Nov. 3, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
continued on page 20
PHOTO: COURTESY JOE ROYER
Boomer Leopold and Brent Barrett at Outdoors Inc.’s race
CALENDAR: OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 6 continued on page 19
FILM
Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko Ayumu Watanabe’s heartwarming and moving comedy-drama with touches of magical realism. Free. Friday, Nov. 1, 5 p.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Scream
A free screening in the Chimes Square courtyard on Trimble Place. Blankets and folding chairs welcome; no outside alcoholic beverages, please. Thursday, Oct. 31, 7 p.m. OVERTON SQUARE
Spanish Cinema Now+: Four’s a Crowd
A Spanish box office hit described by Filmax as “a wild romantic comedy,” directed by Alex de la Iglesia. In Spanish with English subtitles. Free. Wednesday, Nov. 6, 5-6:45 p.m.
RHODES COLLEGE
FOOD AND DRINK
Memphis Farmers Market
A weekly outdoor market featuring local farmers and artisans, live music, and fun activities. Saturday, Nov. 2, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.
MEMPHIS FARMERS MARKET
Sip TN Wine Fest - Memphis
Sip TN Memphis showcases Tennessee’s finest wines at the Farmers Market. $45/general admission, $10/designated driver. Saturday, Nov. 2, noon-5 p.m.
AGRICENTER INTERNATIONAL
LECTURE
Art History 101: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism
Learn how innovations in both the production of paint and theories of color perception would inform the radical experiments of these movements. $20. Thursday, Oct. 31, 6-7:30 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Exhibition Lecture: “The Railroad in American Art, 1840-1955”
Visit the Dixon and enjoy the latest exhibition and learn more about it from director Kevin Sharp. Sunday, Nov. 3, 2 p.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Science Cafe: Rare Plant Species
Roger McCoy from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation will discuss rare plant species monitoring and management. Tuesday, Nov. 5, 5:30 p.m.
ABE GOODMAN GOLF CLUBHOUSE
for a medallion
17 Dish that’s both hot and cold
19 Brian who was the 1980 N.F.L. M.V.P.
20 Lousy floor contractor
Ex amount
Unleashes (on)
Crossword
26 Theory that many different realities are happening at once 29 “You should
44 Some displays of power, for short
Brought (in)
Record-holding Italian soccer club whose name means “youth”
[mic drop]
Detective in an aloha shirt 52 Santa ___ (virgin martyr in the Italian Catholic Church)
Goes down
“Couldn’t agree more”
World-weary
PERFORMING ARTS
Monster Booooobs
Memphis Burlesque Productions’ special Halloween show. $15/general admission. Thursday, Oct. 31, 8-11 p.m.
HI TONE
SPECIAL EVENTS
Día de los Muertos Parade
Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group helps celebrate the cycle of life and death. The parade will start on Madison Avenue in Overton Square and end at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Saturday, Nov. 2, 10 a.m.
OVERTON SQUARE
“Home for the Howl-idays” MegaAdoption Event
An event featuring adoptable dogs, pet portraits by a local artist, a pet costume contest with prizes, a photobooth, and food trucks, presented by Hollywood Feed and Overton Park. Sunday, Nov. 3, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
OVERTON BARK PARK
Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Glow Party
Watch monster trucks in the dark. Saturday, Nov. 2, 12:30 p.m. | Saturday, Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m. | Sunday, Nov. 3, 2:30 p.m.
FEDEXFORUM
Edited by Will Shortz No.
0322
Spooky Halloween Cocktail Party
A special event and costume contest during Nightmare on Union Avenue, featuring DJ Amy Dobbins. Thursday, Oct. 31, 4 p.m.-midnight.
CAMEO
SPORTS
First Saturday Wolf River Paddle Through wetland forests, cypress swamps, and wetlands. $25. Saturday, Nov. 2, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
WOLF RIVER CONSERVANCY
Memphis Grizzlies vs. Los Angeles Lakers
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m.
FEDEXFORUM
Memphis Grizzlies vs. Milwaukee Bucks
Thursday, Oct. 31, 7 p.m.
FEDEXFORUM
Memphis Roller Derby Season Closer
Memphis Roller Derby vs. Springfield Roller Derby. $15/adult, $5/kids. Saturday, Nov. 2, 2-8 p.m.
AGRICENTER MEMPHIS
Midsouth Sober Living Annual Charity Golf Tournament
Tee up and haunt the fairways for a cause! $100/ single player, $400/team of four, $600/hole sponsor, $1,500/eagle sponsor, $3,000/tournament sponsor. Thursday, Oct. 31, 11 a.m.
THE LINKS AT GALLOWAY GOLF COURSE
Outdoors Inc. Grit & Grind
One of the region’s premiere bicycle racing events. Sunday, Nov. 3, 8 a.m.
DUCKS UNLIMITED PARK
THEATER
Moulin Rouge! The Musical Baz Luhrmann’s revolutionary film comes to life onstage, remixed in a new musical mash-up extravaganza. $33-$134. Thursday, Oct. 31-Saturday, Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m. | Sunday, Nov. 3, 1 p.m. | Sunday, Nov. 3, 6:30 p.m.
ORPHEUM THEATRE
Rhodes Theatre Guild Presents: Mystery at Greenfingers
Rhodes Theatre Guild kicks off its ninth season with a dotty rendition of J.B. Priestley’s chaotic comedy, directed by Julie Reinbold, with assistance from Gabe Kestrel. In this intriguing murder mystery set in the 80s, the staff of the Greenfingers Palace Hotel find themselves snowbound. As the weather takes a turn for the worse, unexpected guests Mr. Crowther (the hotel detective), the enigmatic Miss Tracey, and her companion Mrs. Jernigan arrive to test fortunes. However, it isn’t long before tensions rise among the hotel staff, and the real mystery begins. Friday, Nov. 1, 7:30-10 p.m. | Saturday, Nov. 2, 7:30-10 p.m. | Sunday, Nov. 3, 2-4:30 p.m.
MCCOY THEATRE AT RHODES COLLEGE
The Smell of the Kill
A hilarious dark comedy where real housewives are tempted to let their husbands … go! Perhaps their gilded cages were made of cardboard all along. $26/adults, $21/seniors 60+, $16/student/ teacher, $16/military, $10/sensory friendly. Friday, Nov. 1, 7:30-9:30 p.m. | Saturday, Nov. 2, 7:30-9:30 p.m. | Sunday, Nov. 3, 2:30-4:30 p.m. GERMANTOWN COMMUNITY THEATRE
We All We Got: A Binghampton Play Shavonne is the IT Girl from a Black family that goes back generations. Bakari is a refugee with big dreams and even bigger obstacles. Two girls with starkly different lives come of age in the same vibrant and unpredictable neighborhood. Inspired by hundreds of real Binghampton stories, this fictional Binghampton introduces a colorful community of characters bringing up their young people and holding on to hope in one of Memphis’ most diverse — and fastchanging — neighborhoods. Free. Friday, Nov. 1, 7 p.m. | Saturday, Nov. 2, 1 p.m. | Sunday, Nov. 3, 2 p.m.
PUZZLE BY BRENDAN EMMETT QUIGLEY
SAT 11.9.24 10AM-4PM
CROSSTOWN CONCOURSE CROSSTOWN CONCOURSE
It’s going to be a beautiful day at Crosstown Concourse! Join us for 80+ of the best Mid-South makers, crafters, and artisans at this holiday event
+ SELFIES WITH SANTA
Bring a donation for Santa’s favorite animal rescue! Kids and (well-behaved) pets arewelcome.
We’re hosting a well-curated Beer Garden featuring delicious regional tastes! + BEER GARDEN HOSTED BY
We Saw You.
with MICHAEL DONAHUE
Danny Barlow recently attended his rst RiverArtsFest, which was held October 19th and 20th on Riverside Drive.
“We kind of stumbled on it,” says Barlow, who attended with Kendra Hall. “We were Downtown doing a picnic and were looking for food.”
He was impressed with a man out of California who made watches. “I want to get connected with him. I want to get a couple of watches made.”
Around 165 artists markets were featured at this year’s event, which marked the 18th anniversary of RiverArtsFest, says founder and longtime board member Chuck Mitchell.
He had great feedback from the artists. “All of them are thrilled with their experience here,” Mitchell says. “Hopefully, they sell a lot of artwork, but they’re always happy with how we treat them, load them in, and provide lunch for them in our hospitality tent.”
And, he says, “We’re really trying to make it great for the artists to share a great experience in Memphis. And all love being in Memphis and being Downtown.”
Artists also head to Beale Street “and other areas a er the festival closes each day.”
MICHAEL DONAHUE above: (le to right) Vicki Phillips and Vincent Price; Kim Samuel and Ann Hyung Jae; Kendra Hall and Danny Barlow below: (le to right) Dustin and Kaytlyn McNeal; Shauntelle Rodgers and Carter Phelan; Jack Isley, Jonah Green, Kim Eubank, and Stefan Hochhuber bottom row: (le to right) Sharon Ratton and Celia Racicot; Kent and Annette Simon, Jack Simon, and Savannah McCarter
PHOTOS:
above: Erika Pittman and Beth Wilson circle: Stan Taylor and Katelyn Butler below: (le to right) Je Baldwin and Serena Davis; Aaron Brame and Je Hulett bottom: Jonathan White and Jessica Faro right row: (top to bottom) Chris Norwood, Teresa Spencer, Winston Norwood; Josh and Lyndsey Hammond and Harold Graeter; Latoyia, Joshua, and Jillian Casey
FOOD By Michael Donahue
Movin’, Groovin’, Jukin’, Eatin’
Monique Williams opens new Biscuits & Jams location.
Dinner — as well as breakfast, lunch, and brunch — is now being served at the new Downtown location of Biscuits & Jams at 24 B.B. King Boulevard, adjacent to Hotel Indigo.
e restaurant, which provides food services for the hotel and the public, recently held its grand opening.
Williams, who also owns Biscuits & Jams at 5806 Stage Road in Bartlett, Tennessee, says the new location has “a little more city vibe” since it’s in a Downtown hotel. “A certain type of upscaleness you would think of a restaurant that’s attached to a hotel,” she says.
e Juke Speakeasy at Biscuits & Jams, which features a bar, food, and live music for people 25 years and older, is downstairs, where the iconic Memphis Sounds night spot used to be located. “I had been there in the past when it was Memphis Sounds. Very nostalgic. I thought we could do our own little take on that space.”
juke joint. It has that kind of look to it.”
e Juke Boom Boom Room is a small, private, eclectic room o the side with a TV and comfortable chairs where guests can just relax.
e Juke Speakeasy at Biscuits & Jams features “moonshine-infused beverages,” Williams says. “Our signature cocktail drinks are made from moonshine.”
For now, items on the upstairs menu at the Downtown Biscuits & Jams are identical to those on the Bartlett restaurant’s menu. ey include “a lot of the signature items that people have grown to love from the Bartlett location. But we will be introducing some di erent dishes with a certain amount of air to them. A lot more Cajun, Creole dishes.”
In other words, “Some delicious updates to the menu and more, with very intricate culinary items that I think people will love.”
e new Biscuits & Jams location doesn’t have the same feel as the Bartlett location, which is “like walking into grandma’s house. A lot more cozy.”
But both places have her grandmother’s vibe, Williams says.
Her grandmother, the late Laura Stepter, was the inspiration for Biscuits & Jams as well as e Juke, she says. “You get two sides of Laura in here.”
“My grandmother worked for Memphis City Schools. She did all types of di erent cakes, pies, and breads. She cooked for so many people. She made biscuits every day. Homemade biscuits. is is like a love story to her.”
Biscuits & Jams upstairs is bright and airy, with light coming through the windows and an open kitchen where diners can see cooks “moving and grooving.”
e decor is in green, gold, and tan. “ ose earthy tones.”
Williams also includes pictures of di erent musicians hanging on the wall. “We serve biscuits and jam and preserves and ‘jams’ music.”
“Downstairs is all inspired by my grandmother in her younger days. She was a ‘preacher’s kid.’”
Her grandmother’s father was a minister in Indianola, Mississippi, in
Sun ower County, but that didn’t stop Stepter from following her own path, Williams says. “In her younger days, she made moonshine.”
Stepter made brandy from the peach skins she collected a er making her peach preserves. Williams says her cousin, who is a Biscuits & Jams co-owner, remembers how her Uncle Hoover got “deathly ill” and “almost
died from getting into the moonshine our grandmother made.”
“Moonshine light xtures,” which resemble Mason jars people used as moonshine containers, hang from the ceiling. e doors look like barn doors, tin is used on the front of the long bar, and the tabletops and chairs are made of rustic, distressed wood. “We wanted you to make believe you stepped into a
Signature items include shrimp and craw sh Benedict, shrimp and grits, gumbo, and hamburgers.
And, on the upcoming dinner menu, Williams says, “You’ll see some alligator.”
An Alligator Corn Dog will be one of them. “It’s actually alligator that I marinated and I cooked. We batter it and fry it.”
ey’re served on a stick with “di erent mustards. Cajun mustard and all that. And regular table mustard.”
Another upcoming dinner item will be Seafood Monica, which is made with a buttery Chardonnay, rotini noodles, shallots, cream sauce, and “other goodness.”
Williams also is planning to add cat sh and grits with craw sh gravy, which has been a popular special at the Bartlett location.
A new brunch item is Lemon Ricotta Pancakes, which are thin, light, and similar to crepes. ey’re served with blueberry syrup.
In addition to ordering food from the upstairs menu, customers can order from e Juke menu at night. Items include cheese charcuterie trays, crab cakes, tru e fries, and crab and craw sh bisque.
Her Bourbon Beef Sliders come with onion jam, arugula, and bourbon barbecue sauce, Williams says.
e Juke menu items, which also can be ordered upstairs at Biscuits & Jams, include cheese charcuterie trays, crab cakes, tru e fries, and crab and craw sh bisque.
PHOTOS: MICHAEL DONAHUE
Monique Williams (above); server China Crump (below); performers Steve Bethany and Gerald Richardson (circle)
BOOKS By Abigail Morici
Included in the Mosaic
Jasper Joyner’s Pansy shares a nonbinary transmasc experience, but more importantly a human experience.
Think of a pansy, the flower, pink or yellow, blue or deep purple, marked with sharply defined pigmentation or a soft blending of hues on the petals that fold over each other in layers.
That’s how Jasper Joyner pictures their identity as a nonbinary transmasc writer. It’s masculine and feminine, soft yet hardy, layered. It’s why Joyner titled their memoir, Pansy: A Black American Memoir, which was released on October 22nd.
Of course, pansy has another connotation, used to derogatorily describe gay men. But Joyner says, “I thought of that. I’ve been calling myself a pansy for 15 years. That’s not why I chose it [as a title], but I’m trying to reclaim that word.”
Joyner, now 34, set out to write a memoir some four years ago after reading Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde, who established a new genre called biomythography that combines history, biography, and myth into a narrative.
Joyner describes this style as a “mosaic” of “snapshots” of the author’s life. “I was really inspired to read more memoirs like it because it really made me start asking questions about myself,” they say.
It was almost like an obsession. They went on to read memoirs by Black queer writers, by Black Southern writers. They read Alice Walker and read “how she talked about how important it is for Black Southern writers to tell their stories.”
belief, I never transitioned. I’ve always been this person, and I think everyone is constantly becoming more of themselves. … We can all see ourselves in that nuance.”
Told in nonlinear episodic snapshots in the biomythographic style of Audrea Lorde, Joyner’s memoir explores their Memphis upbringing in the ’90s, their time at Vanderbilt, finding themself in New York City, and more.
There are moments of intense vulnerability. “There’s a chapter in there where I talk about suicidal ideation that I almost wasn’t going to include, but transmasc folks in LGBTQ communities have the highest rate of suicidal ideation. You never really hear about it.”
But there are moments where Joyner holds back or leans into poetic truths and mythmaking. “I didn’t want this to be a story about a trans person who’s struggling. I wanted it to be a human story that people can relate to,” they say. “I didn’t want to accidentally exploit myself by focusing too much on any one of my identities.”
Joyner has always considered themself a writer, ever since childhood. They’ve written a young adult novel, Juniper Leaves, and a chapbook, A Flamboyance They’re currently the managing editor for Focus Mid-South magazine.
Yet never did they intend to write a memoir. “After reading [so many though],” they say, “it was like it makes sense for me to add my story to this mosaic of stories because I didn’t see a lot of stories like mine with my similar experiences. … It’s worth it to go ahead and try to tell my story, not because it’s unique, but because it’s a human story that I think makes sense to share.”
“I feel like,” they add, “my particular experience with transness shows you that it’s much muddier than a lot of the ways transness is defined now because, in my
After all, this book was and is about more than themself. Joyner says that at only 34, many in the LGBTQ community would consider them a trans elder. “It’s a devastating fact, but at the same time, there are so many young trans folks who look at me and see, like, oh, you still exist. You’re still surviving, you’re thriving, and for a lot of young trans people, they don’t want to wait to see what that could look like.”
Joyner sees this firsthand in mentoring 20-something-year-olds in creative spaces and through the Sam & Devorah Foundation for Trans Youth.
That’s why Joyner didn’t wait until they were older to write their memoir, but it’s also why they took so much care with it. The book went though eight or so drafts with several readers’ feedback — an approach they hadn’t taken before with their published work. “I write work like Pansy for them and also my younger self,” Joyner says.
Jasper Joyner’s Pansy can be purchased at DeMoir Books & Things and other independent bookstores as well as online. Pansy was named one of BookLife’s Best of 2024 by Publishers Weekly
By the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
Police Report
Javaughn J. Owens, 23, was charged with first-degree attempted murder after he got into a dispute over a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on Sept. 15, the DeKalb County Daily Chronicle reported. A witness told DeKalb police that Owens and another man argued about the victim “not cleaning up after themselves,” whereupon Owens swung a butter knife and struck the other man. The victim was seen at a local hospital but had to be transported to Chicago for further treatment of a punctured intestine. He said he believed “100%” that Owens would kill him. Owens faces up to 60 years in prison. [Daily Chronicle, 9/17/2024]
the breakers off.” He also purchased a device that tells him how many watts of energy his appliances use. But recently he noticed that his bill was higher than normal. Wilson has lived in an apartment, unit 91 of his building, for 18 years. After Wilson called PG&E to come out and check his meter on Sept. 10, he discovered he’s been paying for unit 90’s electricity usage for years. PG&E admitted the mix-up and said it is “fully committed to rectifying the situation.” Wilson said he hopes the story can help others with similar problems. [KMAX, 9/16/2024]
Politics, Am I Right?
Inexplicable
Beaches along the Atlantic Ocean in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia were closed to swimmers by authorities on Sept. 15 after mysterious medical waste started washing up, The New York Times reported. The trash included syringes and needles, used feminine hygiene products, and plastic cigar tips. “We currently have no idea where it came from and will not be speculating about a source,” said the National Park Service office at Assateague Island National Seashore. They were unsure how long beaches would remain closed. “We recommend wearing shoes on the beach and avoiding the ocean entirely,” warned Joe Theobald, director of Emergency Services in Ocean City, Maryland. [NY Times, 9/17/2024]
As candidates for mayor in Sao Paulo, Brazil, took to the stage for a televised debate on Sept. 15, Pablo Marcal referred to allegations of sexual misconduct against his rival, Jose Luiz Datena, the Associated Press reported. In response, Datena picked up a metal chair and approached Marcal’s podium, then slammed the chair into Marcal’s side. The moderator cut to commercials, and later the debate resumed without Marcal, who was rushed to a hospital with a fractured rib cage. Marcal portrayed the event as “attempted homicide,” while Datena admitted his mistake but said he didn’t regret it “at all.” [AP, 9/16/2024]
Explosive!
Saw That Coming
Norton Havoc, 32, can now “smell colors,” they said, after blowing their nose in the shower and dislodging a Lego block that had been stuck inside for “at least 26 years,” the New York Post reported. Havoc posted that they suffered from “multiple breathing issues” after the childhood incident; at the time, their mom tried to extricate the piece with tweezers, to no avail. “I can breathe out of this side of my nose now, and it’s fantastic,” Havoc said. [NY Post, 9/14/2024]
The Way the World Works Vacaville, California, resident Ken Wilson is VERY careful about his consumption of electricity. “I was being very vigilant on this,” he told KMAXTV. “Every day that I go to work, I turn
Magnet fisher and YouTuber Dani Dip pulled a provocative find out of the Saint Joseph River in South Bend, Indiana, on Sept. 1, ABC57-TV reported. “We believe this is a 175mm Howitzer round from like a stationary cannon back in the day,” Dip said. “It took four people to pull this big 2-foot round over the wall to safety so it wouldn’t fall back in and potentially go off.” The South Bend Police Department said further testing would be necessary to make sure the charge is not live. “We’re just here to help and clean out the river and see what we can find,” Dip said. [ABC57, 9/3/2024]
Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.
NEWS OF THE WEIRD © 2024 Andrews McMeel Syndication. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Many people believe in the existence of ghosts. If you’re not yet one of them, you may be soon. The spirit world is more open than usual to your curiosity and explorations. Keep in mind, though, that the contacts you make might not be with ghosts in the usual sense of that term. They might be deceased ancestors coming to deliver clues and blessings. They could be angels, guardian spirits, or shapeshifting messengers. Don’t be afraid. Some may be weird, but they’re not dangerous. Learn what you can from them, but don’t assume they’re omniscient and infallible. Halloween costume suggestion: one of your ancestors.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): When you attended kindergarten, did you ever share your delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich with friends who didn’t like the broccoli and carrots in their lunch boxes? If so, you may be well-primed to capitalize on the opportunities now in your vicinity. Your generous actions will be potent catalysts for good luck. Your eagerness to bestow blessings and share your resources will bring you rewards. Your skill at enhancing other people’s fortunes may attract unexpected favors. Halloween costume suggestion: philanthropist, charity worker, or an angel who gives away peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): For you, dear Gemini, the coming weeks could be the least superstitious time ever. There will be no such thing as bad luck, good luck, or weird luck. Fears rooted in old misunderstandings will be irrelevant. Irrational worries about unlikely outcomes will be disproven. You will discover reasons to shed paranoid thoughts and nervous fantasies. Speaking on behalf of your higher self, I authorize you to put your supple trust in logical thinking, objective research, and rational analysis. Halloween costume suggestion: a famous scientist you respect.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): Which sign of the zodiac is sexiest? Smoldering Scorpios, who are so inherently seductive they don’t even have to try to be? Radiant Leos, whose charisma and commanding presence may feel irresistible? Electrifying Aries, who grab our attention with their power to excite and inspire us? In accordance with current astrological omens, I name you Cancerians as the sexiest sign for the next three weeks. Your emotional potency and nurturing intelligence will tempt us to dive into the depths with you and explore the lyrical mysteries of intimate linkage. Halloween costume suggestion: sex god, sex goddess, or the nonbinary Hindu deity Ardhanarishvara.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In ancient Egypt, onions were precious because they symbolized the many-layered nature of
Rob Brezsny
life. Just as some modern people swear oaths while placing a hand on a Bible, an Egyptian might have pledged a crucial vow while holding an onion. Would you consider adopting your own personal version of their practice in the coming weeks, Leo? It is the oath-taking season for you — a time when you will be wise to consider deep commitments and sacred resolutions. Halloween costume suggestion: a spiritual initiate or devotee.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Two of the world’s most famous paintings are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper
Both were made by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), one of the world’s most famous painters. Yet the brilliant artist left us with only 24 paintings in total, many of which were unfinished. Why? Here are two of several reasons: He worked slowly and procrastinated constantly. In the coming months, Virgo, I feel you will have resemblances to the version of da Vinci who created The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. Some of your best, most enduring work will bloom. You will be at the peak of your unique powers. Halloween costume suggestion: Leonardo da Vinci or some great maestro.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “When you are faced with a choice between two paths, it’s always better to take the most difficult one.” What!? No! That’s not true! A shamanic psychotherapist gave me that bad advice when I was young, and I am glad I did not heed it. My life has been so much better because I learn from joy and pleasure as much as from hardship. Yes, sometimes it’s right to choose the most challenging option, but on many occasions, we are wise to opt for what brings fun adventures and free-flowing opportunities for creative expression. That’s what I wish for you right now. Halloween costume suggestion: a hedonist, a liberator, a bliss specialist.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Sagittarian Keith Richards, guitar player for the Rolling Stones since 1962, is a gritty, rugged man notorious for his rowdy carousing. Lots of observers predicted he would die at a young age because of his boisterous lifestyle, yet today he is 81 years old and still partying. But here’s his confession: “I never sleep alone. If there is no one to sleep next to, I’ll sleep next to a stuffed animal. It makes me feel secure and safe. It’s a little embarrassing to admit it. It’s important to me, though.” I bring this up, Sagittarius, because I feel that no matter how wild and free you are, you will be wise to ensure that you feel extra secure and supported for a while. Halloween costume suggestion: a stuffed animal or a lover of stuffed animals.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Halloween offers us a valuable psychological
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Scorpio painter Pablo Picasso has been described as a “masterfully erratic pioneer.” He influenced every art movement of the 20th century. His painting Guernica is a renowned anti-war statement. Though he was a Communist, he amassed great wealth and owned five homes. Today, his collected work is valued at over $800 million. By the way, he was the most prolific artist who ever lived, producing almost 150,000 pieces. I nominate him to be your role model in the coming weeks. You are due for a Season of Successful Excess. Halloween costume suggestion: an eccentric, charismatic genius.
opportunity. We can pretend to perform our shadowy, wounded, and unripe qualities without suffering the consequences of literally acting them out. We can acknowledge them as part of our make-up, helping to ensure they won’t develop the explosive, unpredictable power that repressed qualities can acquire. We may even gently mock our immature qualities with sly humor, diminishing the possibility they will sabotage us. All that’s a preamble for my Halloween costume suggestion for you: a dictator or tyrant. If you have fun playing with your control-freak fantasies, you will be less likely to over-express them in real life.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Paganism and astrology have key affinities. For instance, they both understand that our personal rhythms are connected with the Earth’s cycles. I bring this to your attention because we are in the season that pagans call Samhain, halfway between the equinox and solstice. For Aquarians, this festival marks a time when you are wise to honor and nurture your highest ambitions. You can generate fun and good fortune by focusing on lofty goals that express your finest talents and offer your most unique gifts. How might you boost your passion and capacity to make your mark on the world? Halloween costume suggestion: your dream career.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): I like how you are opening, widening, and heightening! Keep up the good work, Pisces! I am cheering you on as you amplify, stretch, augment, and burgeon. Here’s a small alert, though: You may be expanding so fast and so far that it’s a challenge for less expansive people to keep up — even your allies. To allay their worries, be generous in sharing the fruits of your thriving spaciousness. Let them know you don’t require them to match your rate of growth. You could also show them this horoscope. Halloween costume suggestion: a broader, brighter, bolder version of yourself.
TV By Chris McCoy
Twilight of the Vampires
What We Do in the Shadows enters its nal season with its fangs sharp.
Happy Halloween, everyone! With the looming presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and fascist degenerate Donald Trump on everyone’s mind, this spooky season has been scarier than normal, but not in a good way. As we rush toward the inevitable day of judgement, I trust Memphis Flyer readers to do the right thing next Tuesday, so that one day soon, we will never have to look at that evil orange clown again.
Since real life is pretty frightening, you can ee to TV for horror that’s a lot more funny than it is scary. I’m talking about What We Do in the Shadows, which debuted its sixth and nal season this month on FX and Hulu.
What We Do in the Shadows began life 10 years ago as a movie directed by Flight of the Conchords co-creator Jemaine Clement and or: Love and under tor Taika Waititi. Originally set in a normie suburb of Wellington, New Zealand, the lm made great use of the mockumentary format. Many contemporary reviewers compared it to e O ce with vampires, but it had more in common with the seminal 1992 mockumentary Man Bites Dog In that lm, which is rarely seen these days, a Belgian documentary lm crew follows a psychopathic serial killer named Ben as he goes about his grisly business. His avuncular, sometimes goofy nature is contrasted with the brutality of his murders, and the lm crew slowly moves from detached objectivity to complicity. e vampires in What We Do in the Shadows are also stone-cold killers, but they’re stonecold because they’re undead monsters. e original lm was a reaction to the ridiculously popular Twilight series, which took the “forbidden monstrous passion” subtext inherent in vampire stories since Bram Stoker, and made it the whole of the text.
together in a crumbling Victorian haunted house. ere’s Nandor the Relentless, a 760 year-old former Ottoman warlord, played by Kayvan Novak. Nadja of Antipaxos (Natasia Demetriou) is a 500-year-old Greek Romani sorceress who, last season, brie y became a nightclub manager. Laszlo Cravensworth, played by the imitable Matt Berry, is a 310-yearold British noble who was turned by, and later married, Nadja.
Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) is the youngest of the coven, at 100. He is an “energy vampire” who feeds by boring his victims to death with long soliloquies about nothing. e only non-vamp in the mix is Guillermo (Harvey Guillén), who is Nandor’s familiar. But rather than a sniveling Igor type, mindlessly in thrall to his vampiric master, Guillermo is organized, thoughtful, and keeps the household running. He desperately wants to become a vampire himself, and in the h season it seemed he would get his wish. But he’s also a descendant of Van Helsing, Dracula’s arch enemy, so that complicates matters.
(Doug Jones), an ancient vampire lord. Needless to say, they haven’t made much progress towards that goal.
at’s where Season 6 kicks o . In the rst of three episodes aired as the season premiere, the roomies suddenly remember to awaken their forgotten roommate Jerry, played by former SNLer Mike O’Brien. Jerry is a basic vampire who entered “super slumber” in 1976, leaving instructions that he be awakened in 1996. But Nandor and the crew got busy and kinda forgot. Jerry’s return serves as a wake-up call to our vamps. He’s ba ed with the lack of progress at conquering the New World, and chalks it up to decadence. e Guide agrees and anoints Jerry as e Chosen One who will lead vampires to world domination. is leads the vamps to reconsider their comfortable, laid-back lives. But not too closely.
fearing their familiar’s betrayal, also in ltrate the rm to keep an eye on things.
e third episode, “Sleep Hypnosis,” is the funniest. Guillermo has moved out of the house and into the garden shed, to get a little much-needed independence from the vamps. is causes a power struggle in the house, as all four roomies want the space for themselves. When Colin complains to Guillermo that he can’t use his vampiric hypnosis on another vampire, the familiar recommends trying it when they’re asleep. It works, and as the idea spreads among the vamps, they take turns hypnotizing each other, with increasingly hilarious results.
Now, with Twilight fading in memory, What We Do in the Shadows has ourished. e TV series, which premiered in 2019, moved the setting from New Zealand to Staten Island, New York, where four vampires live
e main cast has been joined by a bevy of guest stars over the years, including the great Kristen Schaal as e Guide, a representative of the Vampiric Council who, a century ago, assigned the vampiric roomies to bring North America under the thrall of e Baron
In the second episode, “Headhunting,” our vamps try to refocus themselves on their personal goals, which don’t really have anything to do with conquest. Laszlo returns to his scienti c pursuits. He wants to reanimate dead tissue, like Dr. Frankenstein, and with the help of Colin and some gruesome slapstick, he pretty much succeeds. Meanwhile, in a subtle nod to e O ce, Guillermo gets a job with another group of vampires, a private equity rm run by Jordan (Tim Heidecker). Nadja and Nandor,
So far, the nal season has allowed the actors to stretch out and expand their characters. When Colin hypnotizes Nandor, Novak gets to do his dead-on Richard Nixon impersonation. Watching Guillermo interact with his new employer reveals that, for him, at least, the show has been a workplace comedy all along. So far, the nal season shows every sign of What We Do in the Shadows going out while they’re at the top of their game. Unlike a certain monstrous presidential candidate, we’re going to miss these vampires when they’re gone.
What We Do in the Shadows Season 6 is now playing on FX and Hulu.
In the sixth and nal season, the vampires of What We Do in the Shadows suddenly remember to awaken their forgotten roommate Jerry.
Our critic picks the best films in theaters.
Here
Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis reunites the core team behind his Best Picture-winning Forrest Gump, writer Eli Roth and stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. Here is an adaptation of a graphic novel by Richard McGuire that tells the sweeping story from a single perspective. The camera angle never changes over hundreds of years, but as time passes from the distant past to the future, what goes on inside the frame certainly does. Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly co-star.
Hitpig!
In this animated film, set in a future cyberpunk world inhabited by animals, a whimsical, free-spirited elephant
(voiced by Lilly Singh) finds herself in the crosshairs of Hitpig, a porcine bounty hunter voiced by Jason Sudeikis. But when the two finally meet, their destinies become intertwined, and they team up for a world-spanning adventure. Bloom County creator Berkeley Breathed wrote the original children’s book Pete & Pickles, and wrote the screenplay. Rainn Wilson co-stars as the Leapin’ Lord of the Leotard, and RuPaul appears as a polecat.
Venom: The Last Dance
The final installment of Sony’s successful Venom trilogy stars Tom Hardy as both Eddie Brock and the alien symbiote which shares his body. This time, they’re running from the Xenophage, another alien who is trying to bring his master Knull to Earth, with disastrous consequences.
November 22, 2024
The University of Memphis UC Ballroom
November 22, 2024 The Univeristy of Memphis UC Ballroom
THE
LAST WORD
By William Smythe
Walking? In Memphis?
Good luck, babe.
A walk can be many things. You can have a lovely stroll in the woods on a nice autumn day; you could be going to a friend’s house to play or gossip; or, you may even walk just for walking’s sake. But for many folks, me included, walking is their one and only form of transportation — especially without buses and trolleys available.
e trolleys of Memphis used to run from East Memphis, near the college, all the way down to the river. Along the river, it ran the span of North to South Memphis. Nowadays, if you want to get through any of those neighborhoods, you either have to walk the length of the city or become car-dependent. e last remaining trolley, the Main Street Line, has been shut down by the city, and with it, accessibility for anyone without a car Downtown.
Some walk for health, some out of necessity.
Honestly, Memphis is beautiful when you walk its streets. I have seen families growing up and trees blooming over the years. Infrastructure rising and falling. Businesses coming and going, new youthful energy rushing into those spaces like birds to their nests. But I’ve also seen the sidewalks get torn up from mismanagement. I’ve seen streetlights go dim and then nally o for good. And I’ve seen the rusting rails of our once magni cent trolley lines.
I could rant and rave, of course, about how frustrating it feels to be so closed-o from my communities, land-locked to Midtown. But even when I want to walk in the other areas of Memphis, it’s much more di cult than I remember. Out east and beyond, every road is meant for cars and tra c. Over by White Station, the intersection might as well be nonexistent. Forget trying to see a movie at Paradiso.
I’m mad about how MATA got its funding cut, about how the trolley lines sit unused.
Downtown is almost no better. Constant construction means diverging pathways for any visitor to those streets, sometimes well out of the way of anywhere you want to go. And the only surprisingly easy pathway is along Tom Lee Park, by the blu s. Credit where credit is due: e switchback installed by the city is one nice treat for any pedestrian. But god knows if you are disabled, that hill is still a nightmare.
Now, I feel like I should specify that when I say pedestrian I mean anyone who doesn’t drive or cannot drive. at includes my disabled neighbors. at includes my friends and family who shake behind the wheel of the car and realize that they’d be more a danger on the road than o it. at especially includes those who walk to combat climate change, to try our damndest to lower emission levels, even by a smidgen. For us, it feels like survival of the ttest on these streets.
My colleague Alyssa Wolf has a project she’s working on, researching the a ordabilty of Memphis housing. One thing she’s included on her list is a “walkscore.” How close are you to the nearest stores; how rough is the terrain outside your home; how close are you to any other city infrastructure? Let’s just say, in her research, she has found more disappointment than relief. What else can be said? I’m mad about how MATA got its funding cut. Mad about how the trolley lines sit there, unused. I used to live in Portland before moving back home. ere was a lot I had trouble with in that city, but the trolleys and rails led everywhere. Trains connected the airport to Downtown and to a suburb called Beaverton, their version of Germantown. I saw a future for Memphis’ public transportation.
Instead, the Memphis City Government has decided to, on November 3rd, eliminate ve major routes. One of those routes is to and from the airport (Route 28). When I was a tutor, I took Route 50 to and from the sessions. Seeing that that route was not on the chopping block was a slight relief. But my heart goes out to the people who need the Southeast Circulator (16) and Winchester Route (69) to get from the Greyhound station to Downtown. Or those who live along the Perkins Route (37) who use it to get to and from their jobs like I once did. And then there’s the sister route to 50 along Central Avenue that I’m sure a lot of Cooper-Young residents and university students could rely on to get to and fro. I am home, yet trapped in my town. So many of my fellow citizens are. It was agreeable with the bus routes (when buses would come) at the very least, but not ideal. I have only seen my city go backwards when it comes to how well it treats its citizens and especially its pedestrians, us unlucky few who simply want a good life. No matter what our reason to stroll, whether its to go to the store, get to work, or even to enjoy the day, we should be able to do it comfortably and safely.
William Smythe is a local writer and poet. He writes for Focus MidSouth, an LGBT+ magazine.
PHOTO: VADIM ZAKHARISHCHEV | DREAMSTIME.COM
