A FESTIVAL OF DREAMS
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
JESSE DAVIS, GENE GARD, EMILY GUENTHER, COCO JUNE, PATRICIA LOCKHART, FRANK MURTAUGH
Contributing Columnists
SHARON BROWN, AIMEE STIEGEMEYER Grizzlies Reporters
CARRIE BEASLEY Senior Art Director
CHRISTOPHER MYERS
Advertising Art Director
NEIL WILLIAMS Graphic Designer
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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
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A Festival of Dreams
Indie Memphis brings 2024’s best weekend at the movies. p10
Boys Go to Jupiter
Not of this Earth Producer-engineer IMAKEMADBEATS morphs into a player and composer on WANDS p16
PHOTO: PEYTON DOLLAR
Where’d My Rose-Breasted Grosbeak Go? A re ection on the turning of seasons and the recurrence of cycles, natural and human-made. p16
PHOTO: JESSE DAVIS
NEWS & OPINION
THE FLY-BY - 4 POLITICS - 7 AT LARGE - 8 FINANCE - 9 COVER STORY
“A FESTIVAL OF DREAMS” BY CHRIS MCCOY - 10 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT WE RECOMMEND - 15
MUSIC - 16 AFTER DARK - 17 CALENDAR - 19
NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 21
WE SAW YOU - 22 FOOD - 24
NEWS OF THE WEIRD - 26 ASTROLOGY - 27
CLASSIFIEDS - 30 LAST WORD - 31
fly-by
MEM ernet THE
Wouldn’t it be cool to drive around Memphis in a video game? at’s just what Cory Owens has been working to do. His MemphisMETAs project is a “Digital Twin” of the city. Driving and walking around the virtual model is just the beginning. Owens imagines users buying virtual properties, hosting virtual events, and more.
REDBIRDS UPDATE
Turns out the “something big” teased by the Memphis Redbirds on Facebook last week was, indeed, an exhibition match with the St. Louis Cardinals in March.
MONEYBAGG
A new YouTube Short from @saydattv shows “Moneybagg Yo feeding the streets of Memphis.” Moneybagg played a sold-out show at FedExForum last weekend on Rod Wave’s Last Lap tour. e show included a surprise appearance by GloRilla.
Questions, Answers + Attitude
Edited by Toby Sells
{WEEK THAT WAS
By Flyer staff
Buds & Brews, Vouchers, & Trump
A new cannabis restaurant, school voucher bills set for return, and election reactions.
BUDS & BREWS
Buds & Brews, Tennessee’s rst cannabis bar and restaurant concept, is slated to open a Memphis location next month.
e restaurant was created and is owned by Nashville-based Cra Cannabis, a Tennessee seed-to-shelf cannabis company. e company’s new Memphis location is in the former Bounty on Broad space in the Broad Avenue Arts District.
e rst Buds & Brews opened in Nashville in 2022. It o ers patrons the opportunity to “enjoy cannabis in a safe, legal, and fun environment” with upscale bar food like burgers, wings, and “Wake & Bake Brunch.” Diners can choose their favorite condiment sauces infused with Tennessee grown and extracted hemp-derived THC.
YOUTH TRANSPORTATION
Community partners are urging the Shelby County Sheri ’s O ce and Youth Detention Center to be transparent about their decision to stop transportation of youth to court, and their decision to transition Youth Justice and Education Center (YJEC) operations to the Juvenile Court.
An open letter issued on behalf of youth justice and community organizations asked Sheri Floyd Bonner to address these issues, while also shedding light on how these decisions a ect both young people and the community.
SCHOOL VOUCHERS RETURN
Seven months a er Governor Bill Lee’s rst universal school voucher bill died over disagreements within the legislature’s Republican supermajority, GOP leaders were uni ed as they introduced new legislation last Wednesday.
House and Senate majority leaders William Lamberth and Jack Johnson led identical bills to create Education Freedom Scholarships giving $7,075 each in public funding for a private education for up to 20,000 students, beginning next fall.
In an e ort to garner support among public school advocates, the proposal calls for giving every public school teacher in Tennessee a one-time $2,000 bonus. It also would direct 80 percent of tax revenues from Tennessee’s new sports betting industry toward local school building costs,
especially for emergency needs and for 38 rural counties designated as distressed or at risk.
TRUMP REACTIONS
Local and state leaders had mixed emotions about former President Donald Trump’s reelection last week.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee said, “ ere is no doubt our country will again be stronger with President Trump in o ce, and as a result, our children and grandchildren will enjoy greater opportunity, security, and freedom.”
Senator Marsha Blackburn, who also kept her Senate seat, said she welcomed Trump back to the White House, noting the “golden age of America is ahead.” U.S. Representative David Kusto (R-TN 8) said, “I am looking forward to working together to Make America Great Again!”
Molly Quinn, executive director of OUTMemphis, called the outcome “dreadful” for the LGBTQ community.
“Our solidarity is a foundation for our safety and our futures and that’s especially important for trans, Black, and brown people, who are most at risk under a MAGA regime,” Quinn said.
Francie Hunt, executive director of Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood (TAPP), called the result a setback.
“Let us grieve and then, we begin the ght again. Let this be a chance to rebuild and strengthen our movement. We may have lost this round, but we have not lost our resolve,” Hunt said.
Chalkbeat Tennessee contributed to this report.
Visit the News Blog at memphis yer.com for fuller versions of these stories and more local news.
POSTED
BY MEMPHIS REDBIRDS
PHOTO: (INSET) SHALEAH CRAIGHEAD, PUBLIC DOMAIN | WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; BUDS & BREWS (inset) Trump triumphant; the cannabis-friendly restaurant Buds & Brews, owned by Cra Cannabis, is “safe, legal, and fun.”
SHAKURA S’AIDA
STEVE FORBERT TIM EASTON TOM RUSH
{CITY REPORTER
By Kailynn Johnson
Power to xAI
Elon Musk’s controversial supercomputer project gets TVA green light as “we can’t say no.”
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board of directors approved the request from Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) to power Elon Musk’s controversial xAI project during a meeting last week.
TVA policy requires the board to approve any project that requires over 100 megawatts of power. According to the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), MLGW requested that TVA provide 150 megawatts of power to xAI. SELC said this demand is enough to power 100,000 homes.
O cials from TVA said this load is consistent with their wholesale power contract, and that xAI has agreed to speci c demand response terms so that TVA and MLGW can provide power according to the requested timeline.
ey added that xAI has “met or exceeded” conditions established by MLGW, including energy storage solution, recycled water solution, and positive community impact.
MLGW CEO Doug McGowen spoke with the TVA board last Wednesday about an investment in the water cycling system to reduce reliance on the Memphis Sand Aquifer, TVA o cials said.
When the project was announced, several groups asked city leaders to deny an electricity deal and demanded a public review of the project. A letter from the SELC outlined community concern and condemned McGowen for approving an electricity deal.
“Recycled water from this system could also be used for cooling water supplying our Allen Combined Cycle Plant and nearby industrial users — reducing aquifer usage by millions of gallons per day,” Dan Pratt, senior vice president of regional relations for TVA, said.
Board member Michelle Moore said both MLGW and the Memphis Chamber of Commerce told her of the importance of the xAI project as an economic development for the future of a “digital Delta.” Moore also said they heard from neighbors regarding pollution concerns, speci cally on respiratory health.
“We have an obligation to serve our customers — MLGW serves xAI; our obligation is to serve,” Je Lyash, president and CEO of TVA, said. “We can’t say no. We can say when and under what system conditions we can serve that load.”
Lyash went on to say that xAI has agreed to a demand response program
that enables them to adjust their load, allowing TVA to approve the request.
“Because we don’t control it, I can’t speculate as to how they will use their generation in the future,” Lyash said. “Once their facilities are complete, then TVA in partnership with MLGW is in a position to supply 150 megawatts of low-cost, clean energy for this phase of their installation.”
In regards to xAI’s supplemental water treatment facility, Lyash added that at this stage TVA is only aware of what the intent of the project is, and can’t see why it can’t be “brought to reality.”
“I think it’s exciting,” he said. “It’s the right environmental thing. If that facility is brought into reality and the water meets the requirements we need for the Allen Combined Cycle Plant, we would be excited about transitioning our facility to that source.”
e project has been condemned on several fronts, from environmental groups to city leaders. Many have criticized the Chamber for its lack of transparency, speci cally towards the Black community, and said its decision goes against the principles of environmental justice.
“Construction and other industrial activities at Musk’s facility should be stopped until the community has been given a voice — through open processes conducted by state or local o ces with authority over electricity planning (TVA), water system planning (MLGW), or environmental safety (Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation),” the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy said in a statement. “Subverting or ignoring these processes has already led to public outcry, but the true downsides — weaker infrastructure and higher rates of pollution, illness, and other maladies — can still be avoided.”
PHOTO: FRÉDÉRIC LEGRAND | DREAMSTIME.COM Memphis is home to “Grok.”
Apocalypse Now?
“Mass
deportation” is a violation of the American dream.
In the week since the end of the 2024 presidential campaign, various experts, partisans, and pundits have been holding forth on the meaning of it all.
Well, with your indulgence, it’s my time for a little thumb-sucking. Really, I just wonder how this new order is supposed to work. e incoming Trump administration is pledged, as its rst order of business, to expel somewhere between 2 and 20 million undocumented immigrants in what the president-elect has promised will be “the largest mass deportation in this nation’s history.”
Probably a majority of those being targeted are embedded to some degree in the fabric of society — as mothers and fathers and sons and daughters and students and toilers (signi cantly, in that last category, as taxpayers).
ose Haitians in Spring eld, Ohio, who became the bane of Republican rhetoric during the campaign, were not here as scavengers of dogs and cats and geese, nor is there any reason to believe they performed as such. ey were not border-jumpers, by the way, but nose-to-thegrindstone workers legally imported to do local infrastructure jobs that nativeborn sorts wouldn’t touch.
retributive exodus of that country’s own civilians, driven in the other direction by Russian tanks), the Nakba of Palestinians in 1948, the ethnic cleansings of Yugoslavia in 1992.
Hyperbole? Maybe. But that’s the name I myself would give to the whole imagined immigrant scare.
Compromise. Consensus. ose are indispensable qualities of the democratic process, indeed, of the human contract itself. And there is no sign of them as concepts of this plan — no indication even of a reliable means of distinguishing between the rank and le of the immigrant population and the relative few malefactors that may lurk within them. Nor of an inclination to apply such means.
No provision to earn future citizenship for the long-term residents whose worth as permanent members of the American body politic has already been demonstrated by their conduct and contributions to society. On top of it all is the expressed intent of the incoming administration to renounce that traditional birthright of citizenship that is automatically conferred on those born here.
Remember all those new houses that went up during the building boom of the ’90s? To a substantial degree, the grunt work on them was done by Mexicans, most of them undocumented, to be sure.
A er the deportation of all these willing hands, there is sure to be some serious attrition within a labor market that is arguably under-strength already.
And what about the sheer expense of such a massive operation, estimated to be as high as $315 billion, and the human costs of all this forced dislocation?
ere are few parallels for mass deportations on such a formidable scale, most of them stained by controversy, disrepute, or worse — the Turkish expulsion of Armenians, the German boxcars of Jewish victims eastward to death camps in World War II (and the
And the most agrant cheat of the whole thing? ese all-too-disposable migrants are here by express invitation. Latinos in the main, they are — man, woman, and child — the blood brothers and sisters of all the upstart populations that have come to America before them — the Teutons and Anglo-Saxons and Jews and Italians and Slavs and Irish and Asians who, amid unimaginable hardship and life-and-death circumstance, answered the call of one Emma Lazarus, the poet whose words adorn the Statue of Liberty in the beckoning waters of New York harbor: “… Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, e wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I li my lamp beside the golden door!”
Keeping that lamp lit for others, not snu ng it out, should be the concern of those of us fortunate to nd ourselves secure behind that door.
PHOTO: ALKAN2011 | DREAMSTIME.COM
AT LARGE By Bruce VanWyngarden
The Boy in the Bubble
Who could it be?
The way we look to a distant constellation
That’s dying in a corner of the sky These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don’t cry, baby, don’t cry Don’t cry.
— “The Boy in the Bubble,” Paul Simon
I heard that Paul Simon song on Sirius radio last Thursday. I think it was on the Classic Vinyl station. I turned it up loud and thoughts arose, mostly about the time I first heard the Graceland album on which the tune made its debut.
It was the 1980s and we were living in Pittsburgh. My family and I were at a state park in Ohio, where we’d met up with three other families — friends with similarly aged young children. We’d rented cabins for the weekend and planned to fish and hike and cook out and probably have a little too much wine after the kids went to bed.
over two days — and listened to nothing but news and commentary, mostly about the presidential race. Even the podcasts I listened to were about politics. I was hooked by my confirmation biases and, if I’m honest, by the progressive outrage I was stewing in for hours at a time.
I was a boy in a bubble, and I wasn’t alone. There were millions of us, most of whom had convinced themselves that the Democrats would win, buoyed by outraged, pro-choice women, a fresh wave of committed young people, and a massive get-out-the-vote ground game. Oops.
There was another bubble, of course, one that pushed storylines supporting the GOP candidates and stirred up several ignorant and hateful narratives. There were millions of people in that bubble. I knew it existed, but I never dipped my toe into it for very long. Honestly, what kind of idiots would believe people were eating cats and dogs? Millions of them, apparently.
I’d just bought the Graceland cassette and we adults wore it out on a big jam box over the weekend. It took a minute for us to get used to the album’s quirky African rhythms and instrumentation — it was the big-hair Eighties, after all — but when it sunk in, it stuck, hard. It’s funny how music attaches itself like a sticky note to moments in your life.
Last Thursday, I happened to be listening to music because the thought of turning the Sirius dial to CNN or MSNBC or NPR or, heaven forbid, “Progressive Talk” radio was just unthinkable.
I used to listen to music all the time in the car, but as “The Boy in the Bubble” reached its familiar refrain in the Fresh Market parking lot, I realized I hadn’t really done so in months. I’d become obsessed with politics and the presidential race and I’d been spending all my time while in the car listening to news and political analysis. Horse race radio, basically.
A month ago, for example, I drove to upstate New York — 17 hours
Some votes are still being counted as I write this, but it appears the Republican candidate won the presidency with around 25 percent of the nation’s eligible voters, about the same number he had in 2020, when he lost. The Democratic candidate garnered around 24 percent this time around.
But here’s the sad truth: The largest party in the country isn’t the Democrats or the Republicans. It’s the Apathy Party, which makes up around 47 percent of America’s eligible voters — those who couldn’t work up the time or energy to cast a ballot. They hold the power, but apparently have no interest in using it.
Around 8,000,000 fewer Americans voted in 2024 than in 2020. That’s a dangerous trend for a democracy, and something we need to figure out how to fix. In the end, it certainly wasn’t a landslide, as some have claimed. It was more like a slow mudslide. We need to dig out of the mud and leave our bubbles, but keep the faith. Speak the truth. These are the days of miracle and wonder. Don’t cry, baby. Don’t cry.
Happily Ever After
How to build a strong financial foundation as newlyweds.
As a newly married couple, you have many exciting life milestones to look forward to. You may buy a home, start a family, or travel the world — the possibilities are endless. However, in order to achieve your goals, it’s important to make sure your financial house is in order. Here are six financial planning tips for newly married couples.
1. Understand each other’s approach to finances. Have an open and honest conversation about your approach to money. Most people’s views on spending and saving are formed early in life, and it can be difficult to alter your mindset. Consider your earliest memories about money, any financial fears you have, what your savings priorities are, and how much debt you’re willing to take on. Find common ground and establish a strong foundation on which to build your financial lives.
2. Share financial histories. Gain an understanding of your starting point. This means sharing details about your past and current finances. Important topics to cover include:
• Income — What’s your gross and net income monthly? Do you receive bonuses? Do you have any contract income to consider for tax planning?
• Spending habits — Discuss monthly expenses and understand where discretionary income is spent. That can help plan for how you’d like to adjust your expectations and work toward a compromise early on.
• Savings amount — Identify how much is kept in savings on average and how much each partner saves regularly.
• Investments — Does your partner have a 401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, or investment account? Which are you saving toward regularly? The amounts you can save for each may change once you’re married.
• Debts — Understand debts your partner may have: credit cards, student loans, personal loans, mortgages, or even back taxes.
3. Establish shared financial goals. Work together to establish shared goals in the short term and the long term. What do you envision for your financial future? What savings goals do you have? New home? Future children’s college expenses? Retire early? Travel the world? Start a business?
How do your goals differ from your spouse’s? It’s okay to have differing goals. The key is to communicate and come up with a financial strategy that allows you to
pursue both your shared priorities as well as your individual objectives.
4. Create a budget. A budget provides insight into exactly where your money is going each month and can help identify spending issues.
Start by determining how much money you anticipate spending each month. Then divide your expenditures into nondiscretionary and discretionary expenses. Once you have a handle on your expenses, compare that amount to your income. Are you spending less than you earn? Are you saving enough to hit your targets? If not, find ways to reduce discretionary spending.
You may also want to combine some bills into shared plans. Bundling your auto or homeowners insurance will likely reduce your nondiscretionary expenses.
The key is to establish a budget that allows you to pay for nondiscretionary and certain discretionary expenses while progressing your financial goals. If you and your spouse have different spending habits, you may consider giving each other an agreed-upon monthly “allowance” that can be freely spent or saved without the other’s input. Establish separate accounts so that you both have complete freedom over this limited amount of money.
5. Cover your bases. After the difficult discussions, take time to restructure your income, expenses, insurance, and savings plan. Establish joint checking, savings, and investment accounts; update your income payouts into the appropriate bank account(s) for your overall goals; and review existing insurance policies and purchase/update any relevant policies.
6. Review beneficiaries and create an estate plan. If beneficiary designations are not updated and you’ve listed someone other than your spouse, when you pass they won’t have the ability to contest or receive those funds. Update designations on retirement or savings accounts and establish estate planning documents to ensure your spouse receives assets as you desire.
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.
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TCOVER STORY By Chris McCoy
A FESTIVAL OF DREAMS
Indie Memphis brings 2024’s best weekend at the movies.
he mission of the Indie Memphis Film Festival is to bring lms to the Blu City which we could not see otherwise. Some Indie Memphis lms return to the big screen the next year, like American Fiction, which screened at last year’s festival and went on to win an Academy Award for writer/ director Cord Je erson. For the last 27 years, it has been an invaluable resource for both beginning and established lmmakers in the Mid-South. Early on, the festival launched the career of Memphis-based director Craig Brewer, whose recent limited series Fight Night was a huge hit for the Peacock streaming service. Many others have followed. is year’s festival brings changes from the norm. First of all, it takes place later than usual, with the opening night lm, It Was All a Dream, bowing on ursday, November 14th, and running through Sunday, November 17th. ere will be encore presentations at Malco’s Paradiso on Monday, November 18th, and Tuesday, November 19th. “We are having encores because our biggest complaint is that we have too many lms back to back that people want to see. So that was a direct response to our audience,” says Kimel Fryer, executive director of Indie Memphis.
Opening night lm It Was All a Dream is a documentary by dream hampton, a longtime music writer and lmmaker (who prefers the lowercase) from Detroit, Michigan. Her 2019 lm Surviving R. Kelly earned a Peabody Award and was one of the biggest hits in Net ix history.
“I’m really excited to see how everyone thinks of our opening night
lm,” says Fryer. It Was All a Dream is a memoir, of sorts, collecting hampton’s experiences covering the golden era of the hip-hop world in the 1990s. “I really enjoyed watching it, especially seeing footage of Biggie Smalls, Prodigy from Mobb Deep, Method Man, and even Snoop Dogg before they became icons. ey’re just hungry artists. Even Q-Tip is in it, and the other night, Q-tip was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. So I was thinking about that as I was watching the awards. He was such a baby in this eld, he had no clue 20, 30 years from now he was going to be on this stage,”
says Fryer.
e festival is moving in space as well as time. While the festival will return to its longtime venue Malco Studio on the Square, there will be no screenings at Playhouse on the Square this year. e 400-seat Crosstown eater will screen the opening night lm and continue screenings throughout the long weekend. On Saturday at 11 a.m., it will also be the home of the Youth Film Fest.
“ is is the rst year we’re combining the Youth Film Fest with the annual festival,” says Fryer. “ at’s really cool, being able to allow the youth lmmakers to still have their own dedicated time, but also to be able to interact and see other lms that are outside of their festival. We do have some lms that are a little bit more family-friendly
than what we have had in the past.”
Among those family-friendly lms are a great crop of animated features, including Flow by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis. Flow is a near wordless adventure that follows a cat and other animals as they try to escape a catastrophic ood in a leaky boat. e lm has garnered wide acclaim in Europe a er debuting at the Cannes Film Festival, and will represent Latvia in the International category at the Academy Awards.
“I thought it was interesting because, of course, when Kayla Myers, our director of programming, selected these lms, we had no idea some of the more recent impacts from the hurricanes and things of that nature would happen,” says Fryer.
Julian Glander’s Boys Go to Jupiter is a coming-of-age story about Billy 5000, a teenager in Florida who nds himself tasked with caring for an egg from outer space. First-time director Glander is a veteran animator who did the vast majority of the work on the lm himself. e Pittsburgh-based auteur told Cartoon Brew that he and executive producer Peisin Yang Lazo “… did the jobs of 100 people. I have no complaints — it’s been a lot of work, but it feels really good to make a movie independently, to not have meetings about everything and really own every creative decision.”
e festival’s third animated lm, Memoir of a Snail by Australian animator Adam Elliot, is the story of Grace (Sarah Snook), a young woman who escapes the tedium of her life in 1970s Melbourne by collecting snails. When her father dies, she is separated from her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and put into an abusive foster home.
We follow Grace as she navigates a di cult life, full of twists and
turns, with only her snails as a constant comfort. “Memoir of a Snail is an adult animated lm,” says Fryer. “Bring the kids at your own risk.”
e spirit of independence is what puts the “indie” in Indie Memphis. e festival has always been devoted to unique visions which question the status quo. Nickel Boys, the centerpiece lm which will screen on Sunday night at Crosstown eater, is by director RaMell Ross. “I’m really excited about that lm,” says Fryer. “But also, it uses lm as a critique. It’s based on the novel from Colson Whitehead that won a Pulitzer Prize.”
Nickel Boys takes place in 1960s Florida, where a Black teenager, Elwood (Ethan Cole Sharp), is committed to a reform school a er being falsely accused of attempted car the . ere, he meets Turner (Brandon Wilson), and the two become fast friends. e lm is shot by Jomo Fray, who was the
cinematographer behind All Dirt Roads
Taste of Salt, which opened last year’s Indie Memphis festival. It is highly unusual for its rst-person perspective, which shi s back and forth between the two protagonists, so that you are put in the perspective of the characters, who are battling to keep their humanity in a deeply inhumane environment.
Fryer says bringing radical artistic works like these to Mid-South audiences is central to the organization’s mission. “I think that’s honestly one reason why people like Indie Memphis. Don’t get me wrong, people do like to see the very well-known lms, the more commercial lms, the ones that get a lot of press. But I think the people who enjoy coming to Indie Memphis also enjoy seeing things outside of the box, seeing things that push the narrative. And it makes sense when you think about Memphis. Memphis is never going to be this cookie-cutter place, and
people who live here love it because it’s not.”
Funeral Arrangements
is year’s festival has a strong local focus, with seven features in the Hometowner category. One of the locals is a 15th anniversary screening of Funeral Arrangements by Anwar Jamison. e writer/director is low-key one of the most successful Memphis lmmakers from recent years, having produced, directed, and starred in Coming to Africa and its sequel, which were both big hits in Ghana and other African countries. Funeral Arrangements was his debut feature.
“Man, talk about a passion project,” Jamison says. “I just think back to being in lm school in the graduate program at the University of Memphis, and now, it’s a full-circle moment because I’m teaching at the University of Memphis, and I have grad students and
I’m working on these projects. I look back like, ‘Wow! at was me!’ And now I understand why my professors were telling me no, and that I was crazy to try to do a feature lm for my nal project, when I only needed 15 minutes. But I’m like, ‘No, I have this script!’ We had a bunch of young, hungry crew members. No one had done a feature, whether it was the crew or the actors. We had a lot of theater students in it, and everybody was just like, ‘Wow, this would be cool!’ ey all saw my vision. I had the script, being that I come from a writing background, and everybody really jumped on board to make it happen. I feel like it was the perfect storm of young creativity and energy, and it really showed in the nal product. I’m proud of it!”
e idea for the lm began with an incident at work. “Most of the things I’ve written start out as something that happened in real life, and then I take it and ctionalize it,” Jamison says. “It was based on an experience I had working a job that really was like that. I couldn’t be absent again, so I really lied to the supervisor and told him I had to go to a funeral. And he really said, ‘Bring me the death notice or the obituary.’ In real life, I didn’t do it, and he didn’t bother me. I ended up keeping my job. But as
continued on page 12
(above) Memoir of a Snail (right) Blu City Chinese (below) Boys Go to Jupiter (bottom right) Flow
a writer, in my mind it was like, ‘Whoa, that would be funny. What if the guy really went to a funeral, and now he gets caught up in a situation?’ It just came from there.”
It was this idea that got Jamison’s talent noticed. “When I was an undergrad, actually in the very rst screenwriting class that I took, my professor called the morning a er we had the nal project, which was to write the rst act of a feature lm. I’m like, ‘Why is this professor calling me?’ And she was like, ‘I really enjoyed the script. Could we use it as the example in class to read for the others?’ at let me know I was onto something.”
Jamison says he’s ready to celebrate the past and looking forward to the future. “I have the third Coming to Africa that I’m preparing for, and I hope to do in 2025, if all goes well, and wrap that up as a trilogy. But what I found, once you get there, there’s just so many stories that connect the diaspora and Ghana in so many ways. ere’s so many natural stories to tell that I would love to keep telling them.”
Blu City Chinese
“I actually got into lmmaking through fashion,” says andi Cai. “I was working in textile art for a while, and I was making a lot of costumes. A lot of the things that I was making didn’t really make sense in our reality right now, so I was starting to build stories around the costumes I was making. en I wanted to create lms out of those costumes and realized, ‘Oh, this is a potential career that I could follow!’
So then I started doing videography commercially, in addition to all these little small fashion lms on the side. Film and video started becoming more of my storytelling practice, and a tool of how I could explain and share what I was learning with the world.”
ey began work on their documentary feature debut Blu City Chinese in 2020. “It originally started out as an oral history project. And because, like I said, I think lm is such a powerful tool, I started recording oral histories visually. But then didn’t know what we were going to do with it.”
continued from page 11 continued on page
Several people suggested Cai
apply for an Indie Grant. The Indie Memphis program, originated by Memphis filmmaker Mark Jones, awards two $15,000 grants each year, selected from dozens of applications by local filmmakers. Cai was awarded the grant in 2022. “I really didn’t have very high expectations of getting it, so I was just blown away and really grateful that we did.”
Indie Grants are nominally for short lms, but Cai said their project grew to 45 minutes. “It was just a huge, huge help. I think it made a really big di erence because prior to getting that money, the vision for the documentary was very DIY, really lo- . I was not expecting this to be a full- edged lm, really. It was like, let’s try to get these oral histories out there by whatever we need to do to get it out there. To be able to have that money to really just dive in and see how far we could take the actual production value was just enormous. And yeah, it’s much more beautiful than I ever thought we could make it, and I think that will just help us be able to share these stories with more people.”
Cai grew up in Memphis, but they say it wasn’t until later in their life that they were aware of the long legacy of Chinese immigrants who had made Memphis home. “ at’s the crazy part! Growing up as a Chinese American in Memphis, I didn’t learn about any of this until 2020, and it was only because of all the things that were happening in the world, and especially to people who look like me. at’s why I’m pushing this lm so hard because this isn’t something that a lot of us get to learn when we’re growing up. ere haven’t been a lot of discussions or platforms that are sharing these stories. I consider a lot of the people that we talk about as my ancestors or my elders or my community members, but I didn’t meet a lot of them until very recently. I really hope that no matter how late someone is in their journey, that when they do nd this connection to their roots, they feel like they can just jump in and embrace it.”
Marc Gasol: Memphis Made
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HAVE YOURSELF A MERRY LITTLE COCKTAIL
NOV. 22 THE KENT
6:00 - 9:00 PM
Try the merriest sips of the season with your holiday crew, plus enjoy gourmet treats, grown-up photos with Santa, and lots of festive surprises.
Benefiting:
NEW! HOLIDAY PARTY PACK
Save some jingle when you buy 6 tickets or more.
SIGNATURE COCKTAILS PRESENTED BY
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Captain Morgan • Bulleit Bourbon • Insolito Tequila
Corsair Distillery Nock Tequila Old Dominick
Log Still Distillery • Doughball Whiskey • Chopin Vodka
Penelope Bourbon • Leiper’s Fork Distilling
Shadow Tequila + MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED
TICKETS
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We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews
Reharvest It
By Abigail Morici
Any way you slice it or dice it, food is food, says Leann Edwards, Project Green Fork program director. “It’s meant to feed people. If it doesn’t feed people, then it has other purposes. It feeds animals; it feeds the soil to grow more food. And so seeing food as valuable, in all of its forms, is part of what we’re trying to do through Project Green Fork (PGF).”
is weekend’s fundraising event is one such example of that e ort as some of the city’s most innovative chefs try their hand at creating hors d’oeuvres using surplus ingredients from the Mid-South Food Bank, Cordelia’s Market, and Alpha Omega Veteran Services. ey’ll transform what could have gone to waste into beautiful and tasty dishes for guests to try. It’s a chance for these tatemakers to ex their creativity but also to showcase sustainability e orts.
“One thing that Project Green Fork does is, we work to rescue food surplus, generally prepared food from restaurants and special events catering,” Edwards says. “We take that rescued food through our network of rescue organizations and turn it into something beautiful for people who experience food insecurity in our city. And so Reharvest is a way for us to show people in the community that food that’s appropriate for donation is also food that’s appropriate for us to share and enjoy.”
e chefs participating in this year’s Reharvest are Dave Krog (formerly of Dory), Terrance Whitley (Inspire Community Cafe), Daishu McGri (Shroomlicious Meals), Monique Williams (Biscuits & Jams), Josh Mutchnick (JEM Dining), and Kat Gordon (Muddy’s Bake Shop). All of the chefs are PGF-certi ed, meaning they have been trained in PGF’s sustainability practices.
In addition to the one-of-a-kind fare made by these chefs, attendees will receive complimentary beer, wine, a signature cocktail, and a mocktail. B. Sartain will also be doing live art, and that piece of art will be sold in a silent action. is is PGF’s largest fundraiser of the year, Edwards says.
“We have a goal of 50 percent reduction in food waste by 2030 and we’re not close,” she adds. “We’re working on it. But it can feel daunting. But then you remember, every bit of progress is progress, and every time someone makes the connection between saving their food and the community and saving money for themselves and saving the environment, it really feels like a win.” at’s one of the goals of this event — to make that connection for people — and get just a little bit closer to that 50 percent reduction. Tickets can be purchased at tinyurl.com/2uu5jcy6.
REHARVEST MEMPHIS, COLLAGE DANCE CENTER, 505 TILLMAN STREET, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 5:30-8:30 P.M., $79.57, 21+.
VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES November 14th - 20th
All I’ve Got and en Some Malco Cordova Cinema, 1080 N. Germantown Road, ursday, November 14, 6:30 p.m. | Friday, November 15, 3:30 p.m. & 7 p.m.
All I’ve Got and en Some is loosely based on Atlanta transplant Rasheed Stephens’ own tale of survival and triumph while navigating the comedy scene in Los Angeles, and movie-goers are along for the ride on the day Stephens has his rst paid gig.
e ursday night showing will have all the trappings of a Hollywood red carpet and a Q&A directly a er the screening with key members of the team, including executive producer and prominent Memphis attorney Ronald Krelstein. Along with Stephens, co-writer, editor, and director Tehben Dean will also be joining the panel for the Q&A.
Science of Spirits
Lichterman Nature Center, 5992 Quince, Friday, November 15, 6-9 p.m., $100.75, 21+
Science of Spirits will mix spirits tasting, food pairing, and fun activities that explore the science of making spirits. is inaugural event will feature caterers Bain Barbecue, Graz’n, and Huey’s, plus distillers to help guests discover and appreciate the science and art behind their pairings. e event will also include live music by Mark Edgar Stuart.
Purchase tickets at moshmemphis.com.
Grind City Co ee Xpo
Crosstown Concourse, 1350 Concourse Avenue, Saturday, November 16, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., $44.52
The Grind City Coffee Xpo (GCX) was created to celebrate the exploding coffee culture. From
roasters to shops and everything in between, the Xpo is meant to show everyone all the great options available by bringing the very best of the coffee community together under one roof.
During the GCX, attendees will be able to sample various brewing and roasting methods as well as food from local restaurants and bakers. e goal is to make the co ee culture more approachable to the guest with hands-on demos, from roasting “green” beans to creating picture-perfect latte art.
A er the Xpo, attendees will be able to take everything they learned with them and use that knowledge to create an amazing cup of co ee at home. Proceeds bene t Protect Our Aquifer because you can’t have great co ee without great water.
Purchase tickets at tinyurl.com/ yfeh7jrr.
PHOTO: COURTESY PROJECT GREEN FORK Reharvest is Project Green Fork’s largest fundraiser.
MUSIC By Alex Greene
Not of this Earth
Producer-engineer IMAKEMADBEATS morphs into a composer and spacefarer on WANDS
The road to recovery from a major health condition can happen in stages. Confronting a disease when you’re in its grips, determined to keep moving forward, is one thing; putting yourself out in the world once the worst of it is over is another. Having gone through hell, you realize things about yourself — things you can’t forget. at’s one way into WANDS, the new instrumental album by IMAKEMADBEATS, aka James Dukes, which arguably marks a new aesthetic high point in the producer’s career. at much will be evident on Saturday, November 16th, at the Pink Palace’s Sharpe Planetarium, when MAD (as he is known) will premiere the album live, in an extravaganza of light and projections that will likely be seen as a de ning moment in Memphis’ Afrofuturist scene.
PHOTO: PEYTON DOLLAR IMAKEMADBEATS
Bubbles.’”
It should come as no surprise that the producer who named his dream studio Outerspace has been fascinated with the cosmos, or characters like the Mars-dwelling Watchmen character Doctor Manhattan, all his life. “ e only eld trip I cared about as a kid was to the planetarium. I didn’t care about nothing else!” he says, as we chat amid the glowing buttons and dials of Outerspace.
“I spent my whole life making things with my hands, and suddenly I couldn’t use my hands.”
“I’ve always been attached to space and the unknown,” he explains. “In WANDS, the general idea is that I have to leave here to nd out where home is. e very rst song is about me leaving here. e second song is the soundtrack to me making my way through the Earth’s atmosphere. e third is about ying through stars. e fourth is about me running into an alien that is telling me where to go to nd home. e h song is about me descending onto that planet where there are clouds of bubbles that sing to me. And so that song is called ‘Choir of
If such a tale captures the album’s epic sweep, that last title hints at the album’s sonic palette. While there are indeed mad beats throughout, sporting MAD’s trademark glitches and tweaks, there are also orchestral passages both ethereal and bombastic, at times sounding eerily like the ’70s synthmeister Tomita. It’s an interstellar trip in audio form, in which you’re never sure if you’re hearing a sample or an intricate new composition by MAD himself. e track “I’m Losing My Mind I’m OK” even features lyrics, hauntingly sung by Ti any Harmon.
Another track, “James Michael,” features the producer — typically seen behind a console of sample triggers — playing a solo keyboard passage. And that, it turns out, is a clue to how the entire album came to be, starting with MAD’s decision to take videoconference music lessons (full disclosure, from me) during Covid’s early months of social distancing. As with the great Sun Ra himself, MAD’s latest voyage to outer space began through that trans-dimensional portal known as a “piano.”
“I wanted to be a jazz pianist since I was a teenager,” he says. “I just didn’t have any kind of keyboard. What I did have was access to old records and a sampler. So, you know, I had a professional career in music before I had an instrument. en I bought this keyboard, the Korg SV-1, with the
weighted keys on it, and it feels like a real piano. And I felt drawn to that, like, ‘Yo. is is my time to actually learn this.’”
But eventually there was an even more compelling reason to play.
During his rst forays into playing keyboards, “I was just messing around and having fun,” MAD says, “until I got sick.” Just as Covid emerged, the producer contracted a rare autoimmune condition which initially threatened his motor skills. “You know,” he re ects, “I spent my whole life making things with my hands, and suddenly I couldn’t use my hands, with any real accuracy, for a couple of months. at scared the shit out of me!” He points to our surroundings to underscore his point. “I mean, I’m literally surrounded by buttons and knobs.”
Nonetheless, he kept at it, o en with Kid Maestro twiddling the dials under MAD’s direction, and eventually the material that became
MAD Songs, Volume 1 and Volume 1.5 came together. ose albums stood as proof positive that he could soldier on artistically through the hardship of his illness. Yet a er that came a recovery of sorts, and it was in that period that the seeds of WANDS were planted.
“A few months later, my hands came back and I started hitting you up.” MAD was a student of singular focus and determination. “One of the top things I remember in those lessons was how you would slide from one note to the next, and it would just add these, like, half step emotions. Which I am addicted to: half step movements in any chord progression I ever write.”
But beyond the raw knowledge of harmonies and melodies, or the basic physical therapy of strengthening his hands, playing the piano became a skeleton key, thanks to the in nite library of sounds available to any producer now, into the world of composing and arranging. (If this was a lm, we would insert the heroic montage here.) Taking long sabbaticals of studying only piano, MAD began experimenting with the complex jazz harmonies that had always fascinated him. At that point, pairing music’s in nite plane of harmonics with his love of space was an easy leap to make. at in turn led him to an insight into his own condition.
“ ere’s no one else in my family with any sort of autoimmune disorder. So for me to have this is an extreme anomaly. And so it made me wonder, you know, maybe I’m an alien?” Which brings us back to the story of WANDS, soon to be premiered musically in the planetarium (on his birthday, no less), but later to be revealed narratively a bit further down the road. Look for a second edition of the album early next year featuring voiceovers recounting the tale in all its world-building glory. In the meantime, just know that an alien walks among us, and he is MAD. “I literally was telling my mom a couple weeks ago,” he says. “I was like, ‘Mom, if you didn’t actually remember birthing me, I would swear I’m not from here. You are the sole evidence that I am from Planet Earth.”
AFTER DARK: Live Music Schedule November 14 - 20
Ashton Riker & The Memphis Royals
ursday, Nov. 14, 7:30 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
Blind Mississippi Morris
ursday, Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Earl “The Pearl” Banks
Tuesday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Eric Hughes
ursday, Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Flic’s Pics Band
Led by the legendary Leroy “Flic” Hodges of Hi Rhythm.
Saturday, Nov. 16, 4 p.m. |
Sunday, Nov. 17, 3 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
FreeWorld
Friday, Nov. 15, 8 p.m. |
Saturday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
FreeWorld
Sunday, Nov. 17, 6 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Memphis Soul Factory
ursday, Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
The B.B. King’s Blues Club Allstar Band
Friday, Nov. 15, 8 p.m. |
Saturday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB
Vince Johnson
Monday, Nov. 18, 7 p.m. |
Tuesday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Hal Greens
Saturday, Nov. 16, 9 p.m.
EIGHT & SAND
Kendra Remedios, Bryson Cooper, and Rice Drewry
Songwriter night. Friday, Nov. 15, 7-9 p.m.
SOUTH MAIN SOUNDS
Live & Local Music
Live and local music every Wednesday night on the all-weather patio. Wednesday, Nov. 20, 7-10 p.m.
MOMMA’S
Mr. White
Friday, Nov. 15, 9 p.m.
EIGHT & SAND
Ryan Rachel
Sunday, Nov. 17, 3 p.m.
HUEY’S DOWNTOWN
Literacy Mid-South’s 50th Anniversary Celebration featuring Doug E. Fresh
A 50th anniversary celebration like no other! Enjoy cra cocktails and musical stylings of the one and only Doug E. Fresh against the backdrop of the beautiful Memphis Botanic Garden. $200/ individual tickets. Saturday, Nov. 16, 7 p.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Organ Rededication
Recital Series
A series of organ recitals in 2024 to celebrate the rededication and refurbishment of the parish organ. Monday, Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m.
CHURCH OF THE HOLY COMMUNION
The Deb Jam Band
Featuring Debbie Jamison. Free. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 6 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
The Johnny Burgin Band
Sunday, Nov. 17, 3 p.m.
HUEY’S POPLAR
Van Duren
e singer/songwriter, a pioneer of indie pop in Memphis, performs solo. ursday, Nov. 14, 6:308:30 p.m.
MORTIMER’S
Atlus
All ages show. $23.90/general admission. Sunday, Nov. 17, 8-10 p.m.
MINGLEWOOD HALL
Bluff City Fest
From rap and contemporary rock to pop, blues, jazz, and classic rock, hear the talent of the University of Memphis
Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music with eight killer bands. Wednesday, Nov. 20, 7:30 p.m.
THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS
Bobby Mahoney
With River City Tanlines, e Ellie Badge [Small RoomDownstairs]. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Brian Blake/Jeff Ray
With Alice Hasen/Josh relkeld. Friday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m.
B-SIDE
Chinese Connection Dub
Embassy
A holiday toy drive, also featuring San Salida. Sunday, Nov. 17, 6-10 p.m.
B-SIDE
David Alexander
ursday, Nov. 14, 8 p.m.
RAILGARTEN
Devil Train
Bluegrass, roots, country, Delta, and ski e. ursday, Nov. 14, 10 p.m.
B-SIDE
Drake White
With special guest Reid Haughton. Friday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Escape From The Zoo
With Hans Gruber and the Die Hards, e Wailing
Banshees [Small RoomDownstairs]. Monday, Nov. 18, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Gored Embrace
With Skinman, Cherry Smoke, Feral God [Small Room-Downstairs]. Sunday, Nov. 17, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Grape Saturday, Nov. 16, 9:30 p.m.
B-SIDE
Harbour - I Only Wanna Create Tour
With Wild Party. Monday, Nov. 18, 8 p.m.
GROWLERS
Headcannon
With Seize and Desist, Stay Fashionable [Small RoomDownstairs]. Saturday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Heartbreak Hill Trio
Sunday, Nov. 17, 3 p.m.
HUEY’S MIDTOWN
Hope Clayburn’s Soul Scrimmage
Friday, Nov. 15, 8 p.m.
RAILGARTEN
Jazz Jam Session Hosted by Alex Upton Quartet
For both the house band performance and jam portion, the set/jam tunes will be announced from the stage. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 7:30 p.m.
THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS
Jazz Saturdays with Memphis Jazz Workshop Saturday, Nov. 16, noon.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Jeff Hulett & the Hand Me Downs
A record release show for Hulett’s newest work, Little Windows. Friday, Nov. 15, 8 p.m. THE COVE
Jim Lauderdale & The Game Changers with Lillie Mae
One of our era’s greatest songwriters and singers. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Joe Restivo 4 Guitarist Joe Restivo leads one of the city’s nest jazz quartets. Sunday, Nov. 17, 11 a.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Kesha Cook
With a deep love for music that spans genres, this Mississippi transplant’s artistry is a blend of contemporary and classic
blues and soul sounds. Friday, Nov. 15, 7:30 p.m.
THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS
Marceaux Marceaux
With Strooly, Qemist. Saturday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m.
BAR DKDC
Memphis Mojo ursday, Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Morgan Wade - The Obsessed Tour
All ages show. $42.85/general admission. Friday, Nov. 15, 8-10 p.m.
MINGLEWOOD HALL
Ouija Macc - Kick Da Wiccit Tour
With Darby O’Trill, Tony Bone, Gloom. Saturday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m.
GROWLERS
Razorblade
With Anemoia, bvrnbvbybvrn [Small Room-Downstairs]. ursday, Nov. 14, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Salo Pallini e group specializes in “instrumental progressive Latin space country,” plus a bit of rock. With Alexis Grace. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 8 p.m.
B-SIDE
Seeing Red
Saturday, Nov. 16, 9 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Slater
With Faerybabyy, Funerol. Sunday, Nov. 17, 8 p.m.
GROWLERS
Sounds of Memphis: Wyly Bigger and Friends
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and the Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum proudly present Wyly Bigger and his band. $12/general admission. ursday, Nov. 14, 6-8 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Steve Selvidge Saturday, Nov. 16, 8 p.m.
RAILGARTEN
Strictly Jazz: The Music of Stevie Wonder, feat.
James Austin Jr. Trio e Strictly Jazz Series, presented by Crosstown
Jazz Talk with James Austin, Jr.
For all 6th to 12th graders, a workshop designed to ignite the creativity and passion of young jazz musicians. Free.
Friday, Nov. 15, 5:30-6:30 p.m.
STAX MUSIC ACADEMY
The Java Trio
Sunday, Nov. 17, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S SOUTHAVEN
The Pistol & The Queen
Sunday, Nov. 17, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S SOUTHWIND
William Outlaw
Wednesday, Nov. 20, 8 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
Delta Rain
Sunday, Nov. 17, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S MILLINGTON
Duane Cleveland Band
Sunday, Nov. 17, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S OLIVE BRANCH
Arts in collaboration with Strictly Jazz Entertainment, is designed to salute classic jazz music. Saturday, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m.
THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS
The Crypt: Goth Night
With DJ St. Faust and DJ Dragon y. Friday, Nov. 15, 9 p.m. HI TONE
Thelma & The Sleaze With e Eastwoods. ursday, Nov. 14, 8 p.m.
GROWLERS
The Risky Whiskey Boys Wednesday, Nov. 20, 6 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Vinyl Happy Hour
With guest DJs every Friday. Friday, Nov. 15, 3-5 p.m.
MEMPHIS LISTENING LAB
Washed Out - Mister Mellow Tour e singer, songwriter, and record producer makes a rare Memphis appearance. Wednesday, Nov. 20, 8 p.m.
MINGLEWOOD HALL
Writers in the Round With Runi Salem, Rosey, Raneem, Schaefer Llana. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 8 p.m.
LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
Y2K Night
With DJ Aura and DJ Bizzle Bluebland. Friday, Nov. 15, 8 p.m. BAR DKDC
Chicken $#!+ Bingo with Honky Tonk Airlines
Sunday, Nov. 17, 3 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
Claire Doyle & Michael Gay
With Alexis Jade & the Gemstones. ursday, Nov. 14, 8 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
Elizabeth Wise & Her Guys
Sunday, Nov. 17, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S GERMANTOWN
Emmet Cohen Trio Cohen plays with the command of a seasoned veteran and the passion of an artist devoted to his cra . $20. Saturday, Nov. 16, 8-9:30 p.m.
GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Iris Collective “Giving Thanks” Lunch Concert
Iris Collective comes to GCT to celebrate melodies of warmth and gratitude in anticipation of anksgiving season with this lunch break concert that gives thanks. $10/ general admission. Friday, Nov. 15, noon-1 p.m.
GERMANTOWN COMMUNITY
THEATRE
Jad Tariq Band
Sunday, Nov. 17, 8 p.m.
HUEY’S CORDOVA
John McEuen & the Circle Band
Founding member of e Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and celebrated banjo player McEuen brings music and stories from across his legendary career. $40.
Saturday, Nov. 16, 7:30 p.m.
BARTLETT PERFORMING ARTS AND CONFERENCE CENTER
Memphis Blues Society Weekly Jam
Hosted by Jackie Flora & Friends. ursday, Nov. 14, 7:30 p.m.
ROCKHOUSE LIVE
Peanut Butter & Jam: Roots Music with Rachel Maxann
Children and parents are invited to come jam out with Maxann. Free. Saturday, Nov. 16, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Singer Songwriter
Sundays
Enjoy some of the area’s best local musicians every Sunday. Sunday, Nov. 17, 4-6 p.m.
MEDDLESOME BREWING COMPANY
PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE Wyly Bigger
CALENDAR of EVENTS: November 14 - 20
ART AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS
Alexandra Baker:
“Healing Through Color” e St. Mary’s alum has been celebrated for her visionary, abstract expressionism. rough Dec. 16.
BUCKMAN ARTS CENTER AT ST. MARY’S SCHOOL
“ANA•LOG” – Lester
Merriweather e gestural treatment of layered and excavated surfaces here pays homage to the experimental processes of the mid-’60s works by the late Jack Whitten. rough Jan. 19.
CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE
Andrea Morales: “Roll Down Like Water”
Featuring 65 photographs spanning a decade of work by the Memphis-based PeruvianAmerican photographer. rough Jan. 31.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
“A River I Loved”Maysey Craddock
Works that examine the dualities and mysteries of nature as they relate to space and time, through saturated earth tones and translucent elemental layers. Tuesday, Nov. 19-Dec. 21.
DAVID LUSK GALLERY
“All Aboard: The Railroad in American Art, 1840 - 1955” is exhibition examines the o en-symbiotic relationship between painters in the United States and the passenger and freight trains that populated cities, towns, and countrysides across the nation. rough Jan. 26.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Artists’ Link Winter Art Show Artists’ Link, a nonpro t group of over 150 visual artists, announces its annual. rough Nov. 24.
ST. GEORGE’S ART GALLERY AT ST. GEORGE’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
“Ascension”: The Art of Haylstorm e Memphis Art Salon’s extraordinary art exhibit features works by the visionary artist Haylee Hearn, a ectionately known as Haylstorm. rough Nov. 26.
MEMPHIS ART SALON AT MINGLEWOOD HALL
“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
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.
PHOTO: COURTESY MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Andrea Morales’ Crystal and Danielle (detail), 2017, is on display as part of her “Roll Down Like Water” exhibit at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.
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. rough Dec. 30.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Gallery 1091: “Connected Through Art – A Leonardo da Vinci-Inspired Exhibit” Presented by WKNO Channel 10 and Creative Aging of the Mid-South. rough Nov. 27.
WKNO-TV/FM
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
Justin Bowles: “Green Fountain”
A fantastical garden, with a pool surrounded by animals, plants and crystal rock formations, depicted in three intricate collage works. rough Feb. 16.
TOPS GALLERY: MADISON AVENUE
PARK
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
“LC150+ Memphis”
An exhibit focused on work of Swiss-born architect and city planner Le Corbusier, showcasing 150 models of his work, including built and unbuilt projects. rough Nov. 22.
ART MUSEUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS (AMUM)
MadameFraankie: “Intertwine” New mixed-media works that invite the artist’s family into her photographic practice. rough Dec. 13.
BEVERLY + SAM ROSS GALLERY
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
“Pissarro to Picasso:” Masterworks from the Kirkland Family Collection anks to the generosity of the Kirkland family of Los Angeles, visitors to the Dixon will be able to enjoy 18 art treasures from the family’s collection. rough Jan. 26.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Preston Jackson: Tales of the River Cities Tales of the River Cities, by artist Preston Jackson, features narrative vignettes that speak to Jackson’s family history near the Mississippi River. rough Jan. 26.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
“Natural Histories: 400 Years of Scientific Illustration”
Showcasing hidden gems and unique masterworks from the American Museum of Natural History’s rare book collection. rough Jan. 26.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
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
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. rough Jan. 19.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Gallery Talk with Ariel Cobbert
Ariel J. Cobbert (b. 1995, Hattiesburg, MS) is a Memphisbased multidisciplinary artist featured in the New York Times, National Geographic, Bloomberg, and CNN. Saturday, Nov. 16, 2-3 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Lamplighter Bazaar: Friendsgiving ’24
You’ve never seen “Friendsgiving” like this before! With live music by Turnt, dope art with Buy One Get One deals from the vendors, and so much more. Sunday, Nov. 17, 2-6 p.m.
LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
“Milestone” - Reception Celebrating Mezzo Fresco Paintings by Tom Clifton and 40 Years in Business Gallery owner and mezzo fresco artist Tom Cli on celebrates forty years of business, creativity, and cra manship with an art opening for “Milestone.” ursday, Nov. 14, 3-7 p.m.
T CLIFTON GALLERY AND FRAMING
“Size Matters” – Alex Paulus
A series focused on the juxtaposition of small gures within expansive landscapes, alongside large-scale portraits depicting gures from the artist’s childhood. rough Jan. 19.
CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE
Southern Heritage Classic Exhibit
Celebrating 35 years of an HBCU Memphis tradition, the exhibition tells the story of Fred Jones Jr., the founder of the Southern Heritage Classic. rough Feb. 28.
NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM
“Still” – Michelle Fair
Figures and landscapes exploring solitude and loneliness, but also the meditative aspects of painting. rough Jan. 19.
CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE
“The Funny Pages” Art Show with MidSouth Cartoonists Association at GCT
See the shows, buy the art, come meet the artists — it’s a great time to shop for art for all your gi -giving needs! Multiple opportunities to engage with MSCA and GCT. rough Jan. 17.
GERMANTOWN COMMUNITY THEATRE
ART HAPPENINGS
Artist Reception — Artists’ Link “Telling Our Stories”
A variety of works and mediums from an eclectic group of local artists. Free. Sunday, Nov. 17, 2-4 p.m.
GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS
CENTER
Sean SchererDecorative Arts Trust Reception and Talk Designer, collector, and proprietor of the contemporary curiosity show Kabinett & Krammer, Scherer shares his secrets for composing vignettes of favorite objects. Free. ursday, Nov. 14, 5-7 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
The Orpheum Soirée
An unforgettable night bene ting arts education, with glittering entertainment, a live auction, specialty cocktails, exciting eats, and fun surprises. Friday, Nov. 15, 7-11 p.m.
ORPHEUM THEATRE
“Vessel & the Odyssey” BFA Senior Thesis Show Opening Featuring work by the fall 2024 graduating class of the University of Memphis department of art and design. Friday, Nov. 15, 5-7 p.m.
THE MARTHA AND ROBERT FOGELMAN GALLERIES OF CONTEMPORARY ARTS
CLASS / WORKSHOP
Abstract Gouache Painting Workshop with Amaia Johnson
Explore techniques and create your own stunning artwork in a fun, supportive environment. $45/general admission. Saturday, Nov. 16, 1-4 p.m. ARROW CREATIVE
continued on page 20
continued from page 19
Autumn Alchemy
Hunter Coleman’s 21+, hands-on workshop blending the art of mixology with the seasonal beauty of autumn botanicals. Sunday, Nov. 17, 2-3:30 p.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Beginners Casting:
Playing in the Sand
In this two-day class, participants will learn two-part sand molding, melt aluminum, or bronze and pour that liquid metal into the molds. Finishing techniques will also be covered. Saturday, Nov. 16-Nov. 17.
METAL MUSEUM
Fall Harvest Floral
Arranging Workshop
Midtown Bramble & Bloom will guide you through selecting owers, balancing colors and textures, and creating stunning arrangements. e arrangements you create are yours to take home. $60.
Sunday, Nov. 17, 2-4 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Figure Drawing (Clothed Model)
Learn about gure drawing. $12/member, $18/general admission. Saturday, Nov. 16, 10 a.m.-noon
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
From Anecdote to Essay: A Workshop and Reading Courtney Miller leads this hands-on writing workshop designed to help you turn your best anecdotes and family stories into published essays. Saturday, Nov. 16, 2 p.m.
NOVEL
Laws of UX Speaker Luncheon with Jon Yablonski
Professionals and students are invited to hear author/designer Jon Yablonski speak on the Laws of UX — design principles to guide interface design. $30/general admission ticket, $20/AAF Memphis member ticket. ursday, Nov. 14, noon-1:30 p.m.
CENTRAL STATION HOTEL
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. 15, noon-12:45 p.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Queer & Allied Theatre
Troupe
An LGBTQ+Allied theater group for young people ages 14-21. ursday, Nov. 14, 5 p.m.
PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE
Telling Your Story: Messaging & Media Tools For Today’s Activist GLAAD Media Training
GLAAD, the world’s leading LGBTQ+ media advocacy organization, invites you to a free media engagement training aimed to empower
activists, advocates, and allies through storytelling. Free. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
TBA COMEDY
Ben Brainard Live!
A comedian with a natural ability to make any crowd laugh. Friday, Nov. 15, 8 p.m. | Friday, Nov. 15, 10:30 p.m.
GROWLERS
Craig Ferguson: Pants on Fire e beloved Scottish-American actor, comedian, writer, and television host. 16+. $38.80/ general admission. ursday, Nov. 14, 8-10 p.m.
MINGLEWOOD HALL
Loudmouth
CALENDAR: NOVEMBER 14 - 20
Comedy Stand-up comedy hosted by Allison McArthur, no pretense [Small RoomDownstairs]. $14, $20. Friday, Nov. 15, 9 p.m.
HI TONE
Open Mic Comedy Night
Hosted by John Miller [Big Room-Upstairs]. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 8 p.m.
HI TONE
Saturday Night Showcase
is underground comedy show, hosted by Tylon Monger, boasts a diverse and interesting lineup each week that cracks smiles, shakes heads, and causes uproarious laughter. $15. Saturday, Nov. 16, 7 p.m.
MEMPHIS CLOVER CLUB
You Look Like It’s not a roast show … [Big Room-Upstairs]. Saturday, Nov. 16, 9 p.m. HI TONE
COMMUNITY
New Memphis Teachers’ Lounge
New Memphis’ Teachers’ Lounge is a casual and safe space to join other pre-K to 12 teachers from around the city to discuss pressing topics in today’s education landscape and grow together. Free. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 5:30-7 p.m.
DIM SUM KING
Touch a Truck
Sit in the seat, honk the horn, and turn the wheel of your favorite community service vehicles. $5/general admission - individual, $20/general admission - family of four or more. Saturday, Nov. 16, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
ACCEL PERFORMANCE AND WELLNESS
Walk-N-Roll for Spina
Bifida
A free, family friendly, noncompetitive one-mile fundraiser raising awareness about spina bi da and celebrating
the visitors center through the end of the year, with tropical and unusual plants, stylish pots, and other botanical novelties to make the perfect gift. Monday, Nov. 18-Dec. 30.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Holiday Bazaar
the accomplishments of the those living with it. Saturday, Nov. 16, 10 a.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
World Day of Remembrance for Road Crash Victims
In the East Parkway Pavilion, a free, family-friendly event including a vigil with LED candles and a moment of remembrance. Speakers will include Mayor Paul Young and other city representatives. Sunday, Nov. 17, 4-7 p.m.
OVERTON PARK
DANCE
Beginner Salsa Class
Put more sizzle in your week. $70. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 6-6:45 p.m.
CAT’S BALLROOM
Contra dance
Contra dancing is an older form of folk dancing. No previous dancing skills required. Come to have fun. Friday, Nov. 15, 7-10 p.m.
LATTER DAY SAINTS
Free Beginner Swing Class
You’ll love this fun and easy dance. Free. Saturday, Nov. 16, 4-5 p.m.
FOURTH BLUFF PARK
Line Dancing with Q
Line dancing lessons, Tuesdays with “Q.” 21+. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 6-9 p.m.
DRU’S PLACE
EXPO/SALES
Gifts of Green
A seasonal shop open in
Shop 100+ local artists and makers this holiday season. Friday, Nov. 15-Dec. 22.
ARROW CREATIVE
Holiday Bazaar: First Dibs Preview Party Shop 100+ local artists and makers this holiday season.
$25. ursday, Nov. 14, 5:308:30 p.m.
ARROW CREATIVE
Mystical Moxy Market
Krystal Karma’s Mystical Moxy Market, featuring magical goodies from local vendors and Bar Moxy’s Sip by Sign specialty drinks. Sunday, Nov. 17, 4-8 p.m.
MOXY MEMPHIS DOWNTOWN
Pop Up Market
Featuring food, drink, and a variety of local vendors.
Saturday, Nov. 16, 11 a.m.5 p.m.
DRU’S PLACE
Southern Flea Market
A mere two greenbacks buys you entry into a vast world of treasures. $2. Saturday, Nov. 16-Nov. 17.
LANDERS CENTER
Tennessee Bridal & Wedding Expo
A selection of wedding professionals ready to help you nd the perfect gown, reception venue, invitations, photographer, music, menu, honeymoon destination, and much more. Sunday, Nov. 17, 1:30-5 p.m.
RENASANT CONVENTION CENTER
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 wellloved favorites. Saturday, Nov. 16, 10:30 a.m. | Wednesday, Nov. 20, 10:30 a.m. NOVEL
Super Saturday –Ancient Egyptian Scrolls
Inspired by the Egyptian collection at the Brooks, this scroll activity will allow the whole family to create their own ancient legend. Saturday, Nov. 16, 10 a.m.-noon.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
The Enchanted Forest Festival of Trees
A bene t for Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital that lls the Pink Palace Mezzanine with beautifully decorated trees as teddy bears beckon, trains chug, elves work, and penguins play in the snow.
Saturday, Nov. 16-Dec. 29.
MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND HISTORY AT THE PINK PALACE Youth Workshop: Daffodils
FAMILY
Cordelia’s Market FREE Kids CraftThanksgiving Join Sarah at Cordelia’s Market for a free hand turkey cra . Let your kids express their thanks through creativity and color. Saturday, Nov. 16, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
CORDELIA’S MARKET
Homeschool Day –Memphis Through Photography
Learn about the history and current events of Memphis through the work of Andrea Morales. Kids will reimagine their own Memphis landscape and learn how to photograph it themselves. Thursday, Nov. 14, 10 a.m.1 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Junior Drawing Club: Holiday Edition
A chance for kids and tweens to hang out, doodle, eat snacks, and have a laugh. Paper, markers, pens, pencils provided. Friday, Nov. 15, 4-6 p.m. NOVEL
Make Your Own T-Shirt
Mini Makers Workshop (6th - 8th Grade)
All 6th to 8th graders are invited to join this Saturday a ernoon workshop. $35/ general admission. Saturday, Nov. 16, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
ARROW CREATIVE
Mini Masters (ages 2-4)
Introduce your little ones to the arts and nature with cra s, movement, and more.
$8. Tuesday, Nov. 19, 10:3011:15 a.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Story Time
Enjoy activities that connect with Collierville history.
Friday, Nov. 15, 10:30 a.m.
MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE HISTORY
Learn the science behind bulb planting and get your hands dirty in this intensive twohour workshop. $15. Saturday, Nov. 16, 1:30-3:30 p.m. THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
FESTIVAL
27th Annual Indie Memphis Film Festival Experience premieres, Q&As with lmmakers, lm workshops, and parties. Discover new independent features, documentaries, and short lms from up-andcoming lmmakers, as well as independent powerhouse distributors. Visit indiememphis.org for details. $240/ VIP pass, $130/festival pass, $30/virtual pass, $15/single tickets. ursday, Nov. 14Nov. 19.
CROSSTOWN THEATER, MALCO’S STUDIO ON THE SQUARE 4th Annual Greens Cook-Off e Frayser Urban Garden is thrilled to announce the 4th Annual Greens Cook-O , a down-South inspired culinary competition celebrating all things green. $12.75. Saturday, Nov. 16, 2-6 p.m. LICHTERMAN NATURE CENTER
FILM
Stand By for Failure: A Documentary About Negativland “40+ years of Negativland metamedia, recontextualized into a popular feature length documentary entertainment format by Ryan Worsley. You’ve seen and heard it all! But you’ve never seen and heard it like this! ” - Boing Boing. Sunday, Nov. 17, 7:30 p.m.
LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
The Matrix
A free screening in Chimes Square. Blankets and folding chairs welcome; no outside
GALLERY
Maysey Craddock’s “A River I Loved” at David Lusk Gallery examines dualities in nature.
alcoholic beverages, please. Thursday, Nov. 14, 7 p.m.
OVERTON SQUARE
Time Warp Drive-In: Deliciously
Deranged - A Hannibal Lecter Double Feature
Screening The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal. $25/carload. Saturday, Nov. 16, 7 p.m.
MALCO SUMMER 4 DRIVE-IN
FOOD AND DRINK
Celtic Crossing Whiskey Pairing DInner
A whiskey pairing dinner hosted by in-house whiskey connoisseur DJ Naylor. $80. Thursday, Nov. 14, 7-9 p.m.
CELTIC CROSSING IRISH PUB
Dõ Sushi Pop-Up
The brief return of Karen Carrier’s beloved Midtown eatery. Thursday, Nov. 14, 4:30 p.m.
BAR DKDC
Lunar Luxe Event at The Memphian’s Tiger & Peacock
The final supermoon of the year awaits. $20 Thursday, Nov. 14, 8 p.m.-midnight.
THE MEMPHIAN, A TRIBUTE PORTFOLIO HOTEL
Science of Spirits
A 21+ event mixing spirits tasting, food pairing, and fun activities that explore the science of making spirits. Distillers and chefs will help you discover which drinks pair with different foods. Friday, Nov. 15, 6-9 p.m.
MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND HISTORY AT THE PINK PALACE
HEALTH AND FITNESS
Slow Your Roll | Saturday Morning Meditation
A serene start to your Saturday with some morning mindfulness, led by the experienced mindfulness educator Greg Graber. Free. Saturday, Nov. 16, 8-8:30 a.m.
CHICKASAW GARDENS PARK
Taijiquan with Milan Vigil
Led by Milan Vigil, this Chinese martial art promotes relaxation, improves balance, and provides no-impact aerobic benefits. Ages 16 and older. Free. Saturday, Nov. 16, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
Yoga
Strengthen your yoga practice and enjoy the health benefits of light exercise with yoga instructor Laura Gray McCann. Free. Thursday, Nov. 14, 6-6:45 p.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
LECTURE
Lunch & Learn: Germantown During the Civil War Era
Author George Browder discusses his work on the effects of guerrilla war, emancipation, social and political Reconstruction, and a disastrous Yellow Fever epidemic on our neighboring community. Thursday, Nov. 14, noon-1 p.m.
MORTON MUSEUM OF COLLIERVILLE HISTORY
Munch and Learn: Making Room for the River with Jared Darby Jared Darby, a meteorologist and resilience planner for the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development, serves as the administrator for the Office of Sustainability and Resilience. Wednesday, Nov. 20, noon-1 p.m.
THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS
PERFORMING ARTS
Soulful Sounds in Memphis
Join Acute Inflections for a night of soulful music and comedy. $30. Wednesday, Nov. 20, 7-9 p.m.
SMILEZ VENUE
“Sweet Tea Sundays”
Featuring a tea dance and show. Sunday, Nov. 17, 3-6 p.m.
DRU’S PLACE
SPECIAL EVENTS
MSPAL Presents Color Block Ball
Get ready to dance the night away in a sea of vibrant colors. It’s all about dinner and dancing for a cause. $55/general admission. Saturday, Nov. 16, 7-11 p.m.
MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND HISTORY AT THE PINK PALACE
SPORTS
Memphis Grizzlies vs. Denver Nuggets Sunday, Nov. 17, 5 p.m.
FEDEXFORUM
Memphis Grizzlies vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Wednesday, Nov. 20, 7 p.m.
FEDEXFORUM
Memphis Hustle vs. Okalhoma City
Blue
The G-League Affiliate of the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies calls the Landers Center home. Friday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m.
LANDERS CENTER
Memphis Hustle vs. Osceola Magic
Wednesday, Nov. 20, 10:30 a.m.
LANDERS CENTER
Mississippi State Bulldogs vs. Utah Utes
A marquee non-conference men’s basketball match-up. $20. Sunday, Nov. 17, 3 p.m.
LANDERS CENTER
NBA Cup: Memphis Grizzlies vs. Denver Nuggets
Tuesday, Nov. 19, 7 p.m.
FEDEXFORUM
Ole Miss vs. Colorado State
A key non-conference men’s basketball matchup. $20. Saturday, Nov. 16, 3 p.m.
LANDERS CENTER
THEATER
Another Christmas Temptation Stage play featuring the hilarous Patrice Lovely, Tony Grant, and Trisha Mann-Grant. Sunday, Nov. 17, 3-5 a.m.
BREATH OF LIFE CHRISTIAN CENTER
Junie B. Jones: Toothless Wonder
Junie B. Jones is losing her first tooth and didn’t get invited to Jim’s birthday. Will she get an invite, and what happens when her tooth falls out? Find out in this fun adventure. $25/single ticket. Saturday, Nov. 16, 2-4 p.m. | Sunday, Nov. 17, 2-4 p.m.
CIRCUIT PLAYHOUSE
The Wizard of Oz
Swept to the enchanting land of Oz by a tornado, Dorothy Gale teams up with a Scarecrow, a Tin Woodsman, and a Cowardly Lion to find the Wizard. Friday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m. | Saturday, Nov. 16, 2 p.m. | Sunday, Nov. 17, 2 p.m.
PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE
TOURS
Haunted Pub Crawl
Visit three local bars for ghost stories, dark history, and tales of the paranormal. Friday, Nov. 15, 7:30-10 p.m.
THE BROOM CLOSET
The Original Memphis Brew Bus
The Memphis Brew Bus is a Saturday afternoon trip into the amazing Memphis craft brewing scene. Visit three local breweries for tours, talks with the brewers, and of course beer. $59. Saturday, Nov. 16, 2-5:30 p.m.
THE BROOM CLOSET
Scandals & Scoundrels Tour: Encore!
A tour of the infamous residents of Elmwood Cemetery. $20/general admission. Saturday, Nov. 16, 2-3:30 p.m.
ELMWOOD CEMETERY
Tree Tour of Elmwood Cemetery
Elmwood Cemetery is a Level II arboretum and home to almost 1,400 trees. Elmwood’s tree expert Amanda Zorn will show you a few of these and more during this special tree tour. Don’t worry; she’ll answer your history questions, too. $20/general admission. Saturday, Nov. 16, 10:30 a.m.-noon.
ELMWOOD CEMETERY
“Holy moly!”
“Young Frankenstein” assistant
___ and crafts
Corporate giant in a 2001 bankruptcy
Tito Puente’s specialty
China’s Mao ___-tung
“Wishing won’t make ___”
Material that’s spotted at a fashion show?
Matterhorn or Mont Blanc
Golfer’s goal
Slippery fishes
“___ favor, señor”
Mothers, informally
___ Lingus (carrier to Dublin)
Big name in newswires
Area of a basketball court near the basket
Lead-in to “la-la”
Candy that’s not in-dispensable?
44 Like the hooves of wild horses 45 Kind of tide 46 What children should be (but not heard), they say 48 Dove’s sound 50 12 on a grandfather clock 51 Rocket’s takeoff point 56 “Right away!” 59 So-so 60 Sound from a goat
61 Court case, e.g.
67 Get a grip on
68 What you might use to get a grip on something
69 Prime draft category
70 “Hair” dos
71 Composer Satie
72 Corvette Stingray feature DOWN
1 “Shop ___ You Drop” (old game show)
2 Turkish title
3 Mega Millions jackpot
4 Invigorating, as autumn air
5 Mushy baby food
6 Before, in poetry
7 Take it all off 8 Felix’s partner on “The Odd Couple” 9 “Affirmative” 10 Kind of inspection 11 Habeas corpus, e.g.
PUZZLE BY KEVIN CHRISTIAN AND ANDREA CARLA MICHAELS
We Saw You.
with MICHAEL DONAHUE
Stewart Guenther recently had people in tears. And it wasn’t because of a funny joke he told.
Guenther, who participated in the 901 Hot Wing Festival, let people try the wings he cooked using a sauce made from the Carolina Reaper pepper. at pepper, one of the hottest in the world, is only surpassed, according to a Google search, by one known as Pepper X.
Guenther’s team, Whiskey & Swine, was among the 15 teams participating in the event, which was held November 2nd at Grind City Brewing Company. “We mostly compete in barbecue contests, in which chicken is one of the categories,” he says. “We do chicken, but it’s always chicken thighs. We’ve never turned in wings for competition except at this event.”
Grind City owner Hopper Seely created a new brew — Cranberry Beret —for the occasion. “It’s a cranberry seltzer, but it uses real cranberry juice,” Seely says. Cranberry Beret is available in the tap room, he adds.
PHOTOS: MICHAEL DONAHUE
above: Stephanie Richer, Will Presley with Milo on his back, and Emily Presley circle: Hopper Seely below: (le to right) Ashton Catlett and Harper Timmerman; Perry Smith and Bella Schwartz; Will Hudson and Trina bottom row: (le to right) Ieshia Mosley and Alicia Jones; Stewart Guenther; Peyton Coker
above: Alden Woodard and Joe Wilson circle: Ryan Marsh
below: (le to right) Les and Ashley Jones; Andrew Zarshenas and Ashley Riggins; Qwanza Bryson and Quarren Bryson
right row: (top and below) Chance and Corey Ruben; Shelby Patrick and Jake Hargrove bottom le : Don McCarrens and Justin Fitzgibbon
FOOD By Michael Donahue
Derenburger Cheeseburger
Amelia Gene’s o ers new menu items.
xecutive chef Nate Henssler is keeping Amelia Gene’s restaurant as fresh and innovative as the dishes on his menu.
Take the Derenburger cheeseburger, which Henssler added about a month ago to the menu at the restaurant at 255 South Front Street, adjacent to the Caption by Hyatt Beale Street Memphis hotel.
e burger, named a er their pastry chef Jessi Derenburger, is available only at the bar a er 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. It ts in perfectly with Henssler’s concept for Amelia Gene’s, which he describes as “a modern American chef-driven restaurant.”
Henssler, who butchers the meat, uses the “chain,” a piece of meat on the side of the tenderloins used for their prime let mignon. He also uses the trimmings from their short ribs.
Jessica Henssler, Nate’s wife as well as the restaurant’s general manager, suggested they do a bar burger. “Jessica actually had the idea of doing some kind of a secret bar menu item, to try and drive some business toward the end of the night.”
Since by 9 p.m. they “still get a good amount of bar tra c,” they wondered how to get guests “to enjoy some food while they’re here and utilize some product. So, we took the short ribs and this tenderloin and tinkered with it to make a blend.”
ey also tinkered with di erent cheeses on their cheese cart, but decided to use American cheese on the cheeseburger. In addition to caramelized onions, they “dress the bun with a garlic mayonnaise, spicy pickled yellow peppers, and then it’s served with hand-cut fries.”
Henssler envisions
Amelia Gene’s as “a modern American chefdriven restaurant.”
e fries are made in-house using twice-cooked potatoes.
Derenburger makes the sesame seed brioche hamburger buns for the cheeseburgers, which sell for $25. “It’s a 10-ounce burger, so it’s substantial.” ey’re not on the menu, so it’s up to the server and the bartender — as well as customers who’ve tried them — to spread the word about the hamburgers. “We make 10 on Friday
and 10 on Saturday. And we’re selling out.”
Henssler is also changing his ursday night ve-course tasting menu almost weekly. “We started o in
(top to bottom) Chef Nate Henssler shows o Amelia Gene’s new cheeseburger, “kind of a secret bar menu item”; sea bass and monksh are among Amelia Gene’s new menu items.
the summertime and it was vegetarian. And dishes changed every week. We started adding some proteins to the menu.”
e price for the ursday night special has gone from $50 to $60, but, Nate says, “It’s still an incredible deal.”
For an additional $30, diners are served wine that pairs with each course.
“Sometimes the last course is a cocktail,” Henssler adds. is week’s special will include Nate’s 30-layer lasagna, which includes layers of béchamel as well as Bolognese made with scraps from the tenderloins and short ribs. He probably will include monk sh, which recently was added to the menu and has been very popular.
As for the regular menu, Nate says part of it changes monthly. “We change at least one or two items. As you see a new menu go on, another menu item comes o .”
His Rohan duck dish is one item
that hasn’t le the menu since Nate added it. “It’s still one of our four top sellers.”
e crispy duck dish, which Henssler calls “a play on duck à l’orange,” takes ve days to produce.
As he said in a 2023 Memphis Flyer interview, “ e legs we cure in a salt and sugar mix with soy spices. And we cure that for a day, cooking it in its own fat. Con t.”
e dish includes butter, garlic, shallots, and Belgian endive. And, he says, “It’s served with the same sauce we make from the duck bones with orange puree and kumquats preserved in honey.”
On a slow night, they might sell four or ve Rohan ducks, Nate says. On a Friday and Saturday night, 20. And, he adds, that dish takes about 45 minutes to prepare from when the order comes in until it gets to the table.
Amelia Gene’s closed for two weeks during a traditionally slow period last August to “save labor and give the sta a chance to have some time o . “I’ve been going seven days a week for a year and a half.”
He and his wife spent about two weeks in Chile on a trip that included Santiago and Patagonia. “We visited some wineries and ate some amazing food.”
And “for sure” he added some Chilean items to the ursday night ve-course menu a er they returned, Nate says. Since its not king crab season, he’s waiting for his vendor to get some Chilean king crab. “ ey’re sourcing it for me right now.”
e Hensslers are currently talking about doing a “pastry cart takeover” of their cheese cart for the holiday season. Also, he says, “We’re getting a lot of requests for whole carrot cake and whole chocolate cakes.”
Since his wife came on as general manager last June, private and semiprivate events at Amelia Gene’s are picking up, Nate says. “She is very good at what she does.”
As for a husband and wife working together, Nate says that type of relationship “works best when it’s all about communication. Like a marriage.”
And, he adds, “If something goes wrong, it’s usually my fault.”
Henssler, who grew up in New Hampshire, has worked at top restaurants in Las Vegas and Chicago. He moved to Memphis in 2022. He’s also a managing partner in the Carlisle Restaurant Group.
PHOTOS: MICHAEL DONAHUE
SATURDAY,
A CHAPEL HART CHRISTMAS
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
By the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
Awesome!
Back by popular demand! Chapel Hart won the Golden Buzzer on America’s Got Talent, played the Grand Ole Opry, & toured across America. Known for their colorful spirit, contagious energy & power-house vocals. Catch this brand new show fi lled with their songs, plus a dash of original & traditional holiday music. Enjoy Chapel Hart…only at BPACC.
Student volunteers were helping out with an archaeological dig in Eu, France, when one of them found a small glass bottle inside an earthenware pot, United Press International reported. Inside the bottle was a message, written in January 1825, from one “P.J. Feret, a native of Dieppe, member of various intellectual societies.” Feret was carrying out excavations at the same site and left the message for future explorers. “It was an absolutely magic moment,” said Guillaume Blondel, head of the town’s Regional Archaeology Service. Local records revealed that Feret was a well-known archaeologist of his time. Blondel said such finds are rare: “Most archaeologists prefer to think that there won’t be anyone coming after them because they’ve done all the work.” [UPI, 9/24/2024]
It’s Good To Have a Hobby Joshua Kiser of Breinigsville, Pennsylvania, was looking for something to amuse himself during the Covid shutdown in 2020 when he came across an idea: “I stumbled upon a picture of the eccentric man posing with a gigantic top hat on his head,” Kiser said, referring to Odilon Ozare, who set the record for World’s Tallest Hat in 2018. Kiser thought it would be easy to surpass Ozare’s 15-foot, 9-inch hat, but it wasn’t until this year that he managed to engineer one, at 17 feet, 9.5 inches, that could withstand a walk of the required 32.8 feet while wearing it. United Press International reported that his final, winning design incorporated lightweight guttering and a Philadelphia Eagles trash can that “looked about the circumference of my noggin.”
[UPI, 9/26/2024]
Freaky
A 27-foot-tall puppet in the shape of a seated baby was installed in the center of the town of Rochdale, England, the BBC reported on Sept. 25. The baby, named Lilly, with a mouth and eyes that open and shut, was part of a council project to encourage schoolchildren to talk about the importance of the environment. Ostensibly, the kids spoke to Lilly; their conversations were recorded and broadcast from the baby at an
event on Oct. 24 at Hollingworth Lake Nature Park. But townsfolk weren’t warming up to Lilly, calling it “the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen.” One said, “It’s creepy with its eyes shut, never mind open.” No telling how school-aged kids reacted to it. [BBC, 9/25/2024]
Overreaction
A 58-year-old Simcoe, Ontario, Canada, woman, Wendy Washik, was taken into custody on Sept. 1 and charged with assault with a weapon, the CBC reported. The charges stemmed from an incident at a backyard party when Washik, who was playing with a child, accidentally shot a neighbor with a water gun while he mowed his lawn. Washik said she apologized repeatedly, but the “victim” “wouldn’t listen to me and … was screaming at me.” She said police “didn’t ask me a single question. They didn’t ask to see the water gun.” Washik was due in court on Sept. 24. [CBC, 9/13/2024]
Bright Idea
A Florida man (of course) was rescued late on Sept. 23 after he apparently attempted to swim across the Detroit River from Windsor, Canada, to Detroit, CBS News reported. The U.S. Mail Boat J.W. Westcott II was launched after hearing of the swimmer, who was using a life ring to help support himself. “There’s a very strong current, and the water temperature is about 73 degrees right now,” said Capt. Neil Schultheiss. “Even with the life ring, he was struggling.” The boat picked up the swimmer after about 10 minutes of searching. Crew members said he seemed disoriented and under the influence. “He just kind of kept pacing around the front deck, saying, ‘Is this boat U.S.? Are we going back to the U.S.?’” Schultheiss said. He was transferred to an EMS unit. [CBS News, 9/24/2024]
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): You may be on the verge of the breakthrough I prophesied a while back. Remember? I said you would be searching for the solution to a boring problem, and on the way you would discover a more interesting and useful problem. That exact scenario is about to happen. I also predict that the coming weeks will be a time when you tame an out-of-control aspect of your life and infuse more wildness into an overly tame part of you. I will speculate on one further stroke of good fortune: You will attract an influence that motivates you to be more passionately pragmatic about one of your key dreams.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): It’s time for some friendly warnings that will, if heeded, enable you to avoid problematic developments. 1. An overhaul in your self-image is looming; your persona requires tinkering. 2. Old boundaries are shifting and in some places disappearing. Be brave and draw up new boundaries. 3. Familiar allies may be in a state of flux. Help them find their new centers of gravity. 4. Potential future allies will become actual allies if you are bold in engaging them. 5. Be allergic to easy answers and simplistic solutions. Insist on the wisdom of uncertainty.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): To honor and celebrate your melancholy, I’m turning this horoscope over to Gemini author T. H. White and his superb formulation of the redemptive power of sadness. He wrote: “The best thing for being sad is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.”
CANCER (June 21-July 22): A Massachusetts woman named Andrea Martin loves chickens so much she treats them as family. A few years ago, she took pity on one of her favorites, a young bird named Cecily, who had been born with a damaged tendon in one of her legs. Martin arranged to have the limb amputated. Then she made a prosthetic device on a 3D printer and had it surgically grafted onto Cecily’s body. Success! The $2,500 cost was well worth it, she testified. I propose we make Andrea Martin one of your role models for the coming weeks. May she inspire you to take extra good care of and shower bonus blessings on everyone and everything you love. (PS: This will be really good for your own health.)
By Rob Brezsny
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Once a year, the city of Seoul in South Korea stages a Space-Out Festival. Participants compete to do absolutely nothing for 90 minutes. They are not allowed to fall asleep, talk, or check their phones. To test how well they are banishing stress, burnout, and worries, their heart rates are monitored. The winner is the person who has the slowest and most stable pulse. If there were an event like this in your part of the world sometime soon, Leo, I’d urge you to join in. I expect the winner would be a member of your astrological tribe, as you Leos now have a high potential for revitalizing relaxation. Even if you don’t compete in a Space-Out Festival, I hope you will fully cash in on this excellent chance to recharge your spiritual batteries.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): My favorite Virgos love to learn. They are eager to add to their knowledge. They have a highly honed curiosity that is always percolating, continually drawing them towards new comprehension. On the other hand, some of my favorite Virgos are inefficient at shedding long-held ideas and information that no longer serve them. As a result, their psyches may get plugged up, interfering with their absorption of fun new input. That’s why I recommend that you Virgos engage in regular purges of your mental debris. Now would be an excellent time for one of these sessions. (PS: The futurist Alvin Toffler said that a key to intelligence is the ability to learn, unlearn, and relearn. I invite you to act on that counsel.)
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I endorse Libran tennis star Serena Williams’ approach to self-evaluation — especially for you right now. She testified, “I’m really exciting. I smile a lot, I win a lot, and I’m really sexy.” I’m convinced you have the right to talk like that in the coming weeks — so convinced that I suggest you use it as a mantra and prayer. When you wake up each morning, say what Williams said. When you’re asking life for a sweet breakthrough or big favor, remind life why it should give you what you want. Feel free to add other brags, too, like, “I’m a brilliant thinker, a persuasive negotiator, and a crafty communicator.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): My father was a big fan of the military. As a young man, he served as a lieutenant in the army and for a time considered making that job his career. I’m the opposite of him. I keenly avoided becoming a soldier and have always been passionately anti-war. I bring this subject to your attention because I think now is an excellent time for you to get clearer than ever about how you don’t resemble your parents and don’t want to be like them. Meditate on why your life is better and can get even
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You are entering a phase when you can acquire more mastery in the arts of self-care and self-sufficiency. I hope you will become more skillful in giving yourself everything that nurtures your emotional and physical health. Have you gathered all you need to know about that subject? Probably not. Most of us haven’t. But the coming weeks will be a favorable time to make this your main research project. By the way, now is also an excellent time to kick your own ass and unbreak your own heart.
better by not following their paths and ways. There’s no need to do this with anger and blame. In fact, the healthiest approach is to be lucid, calm, and dispassionate.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): At age 49, James Patterson retired from his job as an advertising writer. Until then, he had produced a few novels in his spare time. But once free of his 9-to-5 gig, he began churning out books at a rapid pace. Now, at age 77, he has published over 305 million copies of 200-plus novels, including 67 that have been #1 New York Times bestsellers. Would you like to make an almost equally memorable transition, Capricorn? The coming weeks and months will be an excellent time to plan it and launch it.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The Breakfast Club was an iconic 1985 film about teenagers coming of age. Critics liked it. At the box office, it earned 100 times more than it cost to make. Aquarian director John Hughes wrote the screenplay for the 97-minute movie in two days, on July 4th and 5th of 1982. I predict that many of you Aquarians will have a similar level of productivity in the coming weeks. You could create lasting improvements and useful goodies in short bursts of intense effort.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Ben & Jerry’s is a wildly successful ice cream maker that sells its products all over the world. Its founders are two Pisceans who met in seventh grade. Over 45 years since they launched their business, they have become renowned for their wide variety of innovative flavors and their political activism. When they first decided to work together, though, their plans were to start a bagel business. They only abandoned that idea when they discovered how expensive the bagel-making equipment was. I suspect that you are near a comparable pivot in your life, Pisces: a time to switch from one decent project to an even better one.
or have unwanted items or debris hauled away?
Marc Gasol: Memphis Made Director Michael Blevins is the head of video post-production for the Memphis Grizzlies. “Basically, the way I describe it is anything that gets edited, it comes through me and my team,” he says. “So the intro video that gets played before the game, I will edit that, and commercial spots or behind-the-scenes stu about the current team.”
Before coming to Memphis in 2016, Blevins had previously been with the Chicago Bears, the Houston Astros (“I believe we had one of the worst records in baseball history,” he says), and the San Francisco 49ers. “ en I came here, and I overlapped with the subject of the documentary, Marc Gasol, for his last three seasons in Memphis. So I got to know him and Mike Conley really well.”
So a month or two to edit something in a vacuum sounds great compared to the usually quick turnaround of a current NBA team. But then you want to tell a story perfect because it is telling his whole story of his professional basketball career. So it’s not like with current content, when there’s always another game coming up. is is it. It’s a little dramatic, and he has a sense of humor, so we laugh about it. But it’s like writing somebody’s obituary. You’re not going to get another chance to do it. It’s their basketball career.”
Lockridge, who began as a writer, produces, directs, lights, shoots, and edits his lms. “When I found quickly that I couldn’t a ord to hire people to continued from page 12
Blevins normally works on a very quick turnaround, but the world of documentary lms is quite di erent. It requires patience and exibility. “In a project like this, the scope becomes bigger. In terms of production, in terms of lining up interviews, shooting, all that stu , we were able to spend seven months on it. But in the same time, you then have 50 interviews. You got to tell an hour-and-a-half story basically.
It was important to Blevins to go beyond the surface image of the star basketball player and uncover the emotions that drove him. “Marc is a super competitive guy, and the big thing was, as the people that knew him say — and a lot of people didn’t realize this from the outside — is that competitiveness would spill over a lot of times in terms of trying to deal with teammates. at’s one of my favorite segments in the lm. It’s like 20 minutes about di erent stories people were telling about Marc being very competitive and looking back at everything through a di erent lens of today. And I think he looks at it very di erently, where he felt like he could have been better. But he knows in his
‘What was the cost of that?’”
head, and di erent players say it in the lm, they needed him to be like that. If that was a spillover of him chewing him out during the game and then a er the time-out was over, he was going to give it all and make a play on defense to save that guy, or make a play on o ense to set that guy up. It was going to be worth it. But I think athletes, and all of us in general, as we get older, sometimes if you reach success or you’re happy with what your career has done, you start to look back and think,
Cubic Zirconia Jackson, Tennessee, native Jaron Lockridge’s Cubic Zirconia is the only locally produced narrative feature in a eld of thoughtful documentaries. “I’ve been lmmaking now since about 2016, and just self-producing feature lms, and going that route now that technology makes it easier. I just decided to jump out there and don’t take no for an answer.”
Cubic Zirconia Jaron Lockridge
produce my work, I just became that multi-tool to start producing my own work, and getting to this point now.”
Cubic Zirconia takes place in what Lockridge calls The Stix Universe, which is tied into his self-produced web series. “It’s a good old-fashioned crime mystery, I like to say. It’s similar to something like Prisoners or maybe even a touch of Se7en, for people who like those type of movies. It follows a missing family, and these detectives are trying to find some answers to what happened. When they locate the deceased mother of this missing family, then it’s just an all-out blitz to find the children and figure out the ‘why’ behind it all. You’ve kind of got to pay attention. But when it comes to the end and you realize what’s happened, I believe it’ll be a shocker to a lot of the audience members.”
Keith L. Johnson stars as the police
detective on the case. “I’ve worked with him several times before. He’s one of my regulars, so we just have a great chemistry together to the point where I can just give him a script and give him very little direction. He just understands my work.”
Memphians Kate Mobley and Kenon Walker are also veterans of the Stix Universe. Terry Giles is a newcomer. “He was one that I haven’t worked with before, and he was a very pleasant surprise. He only has a small time on the movie, but when you see him, you notice him. He commands the screen, and he’s a talent that I’m looking forward to working with again. I’m very excited about the performances in this movie.” Passes and individual screening tickets are on sale at imff24.indiememphis.org. There, you can also find a full schedule for this weekend’s screenings and events.
By Jesse Davis
Where’d My Rose-Breasted Grosbeak Go?
A re ection on the turning of seasons and the recurrence of cycles, natural and human-made.
“Wow, that is one honking big sparrow,” my wife said, peering out our bedroom window and into the backyard. e bird in question — a mottled, dun-colored songbird — perched on one of our backyard bird feeders, occasionally munching on sa ower seeds, and staring into the middle distance in a way that I’m sorely tempted to describe as “uncanny.” It dwarfed the little song sparrows and fox sparrows hopping amid the fallen seeds and shells beneath the feeder. e next morning, there were more of the birds.
It wasn’t until the red-throated, black-and-white males of the species showed up that we realized we weren’t being invaded by massive sparrows, but were dealing with a di erent kind of creature altogether. So, a er consulting our handy, dandy Birds of Tennessee Field Guide (Adventure Publications), we realized that our backyard had become a migratory pitstop for rose-breasted grosbeaks, on their way south and west from East Tennessee in early autumn.
By this time of year, now that our clocks have fallen back an hour, a er the leaves aren’t just turning but falling, the grosbeaks have gone. ey’re in Central and South America, far from any, ah, shall we say “North American concerns” that may be troubling the rest of us le behind in Memphis.
is time of year is truly one of change, when the world feels poised on the brink of something, hesitating before the charge into new seasons. Some of those changes are human-made — the grosbeaks, rose-breasted or otherwise, have no use for clocks and time zones and Daylight Saving Time. eir bodies tell them when to y and where to stop. Elections, though they have far-reaching consequences on the natural world, won’t keep a blue jay or mourning dove up all night, stress-drinking, doom-scrolling, and refreshing a vote count. e raccoons who steal black-oil sun ower seed from my birdfeeders by the stful are also blissfully ignorant of politics.
Lucky them, right?
ere is also the headlong holiday rush from Halloween to New Year’s Eve, and though its onset always leaves me anxiously checking and rechecking my bank balance, it also brings the excitement of friend and family reunions, of kids’ surprised smiles. e Pink Palace Cra s Fair and the Corn Maze give way to the Enchanted Forest and Starry Nights. Zoo Boo precedes Zoo Lights.
Evening shadows lengthen and come sooner, as autumn sunsets yield to lengthening night earlier with each passing day. Fallen leaves crunch underfoot; squirrels scurry from tree to tree, increasingly frantic as winter’s onset draws near. Everything prepares to hunker down for the cold.
I thought about the grosbeaks — and our other seasonal visitors, in spring and autumn both — as I walked this week. e reminder of the natural world, with its reassuring certainty of cycles of warmth and cold, has been a source of comfort and inspiration both. ose polite birds have yet to overstay their welcome. I never worry about the peaceful transition of power from autumn to winter. ( ough winter to spring o en feels anything but certain when mid-February rolls around, but that’s a topic for another day.)
It seems telling to me that I have yet to reopen Facebook since November 5, 2024, but I feel called to walking trails, parks, and other public greenspaces. Some inner voice, quiet but persistent, is pushing me toward interactions that nourish the soul. In this time of uncertainty, change, and mind-numbing existential dread, I’m especially thankful for that inclination to step outside, instead of reaching for the junk food dopamine hit of social media. e smell of decomposing leaf litter on an urban forest trail is far more palatable to me right now.
If, like me, you have rushed toward natural rhythms as a source of comfort, then I can only say that soon we will have to return the favor for Mother Nature. Even the usually staid AP Times sounds downright alarmist on the impending second term of former President Donald Trump, with a new piece by Jennifer McDermott and Matthew Daly warning that the President-elect’s planned rollbacks could be a serious hurdle to green energy measures. So, to everyone else whose comfort place is Overton Park, I say now is our time to shine. We should look to our local leaders, especially those with environmental experience, like Rep. Justin J. Pearson, recently re-elected to District 86. Memphis Community Against Pollution, Protect Our Aquifer — these folks’ ght is about to get harder, and they need our help.
In the meantime, I’m going to take a walk, crunch some leaves, and touch some damn grass.
Jesse Davis is a former Flyer sta er; he writes a monthly Books feature for Memphis Magazine. His opinions, such as they are, are his own and not the fault of his overworked editor.
PHOTO: JESSE DAVIS; (INSET) BRIAN KELLY | UNSPLASH Elections don’t keep rose-breasted grosbeaks awake at night.
