Memphis Flyer 12/7/2023

BOWL-BOUND TIGERS P11 • SUSHI JIMMI P19 • DREAM SCENARIO P20 OUR 1815TH ISSUE • 12.07.23 • FREE

THE FIGHT FOR FOOD With food instability increasing, residents get support from community sources.

PHOTO: LUCY GARRETT FOR MLK50

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December 7-13, 2023

OUR 1815TH ISSUE 12.07.23 Editor’s note: Flyer writers will occasionally share this space.

“Did anyone just hear gunshots and police cars in Cooper-Young?”

“Did anyone just hear that drive-by shooting? Five shots fired, I hear police now.”

“My camera caught this random guy going through my car. Around 1:55 a.m.”

“Anybody recognize this porch pirate. 4:00 in the afternoon!”

“Kittens! Found these three under my porch.”

JERRY D. SWIFT Advertising Director Emeritus KELLI DEWITT, CHIP GOOGE, PATRICK PACHECO Senior Account Executives CHET HASTINGS Warehouse and Delivery Manager JANICE GRISSOM ELLISON, KAREN MILAM, DON MYNATT, TAMMY NASH, RANDY ROTZ, LEWIS TAYLOR, WILLIAM WIDEMAN Distribution THE MEMPHIS FLYER is published weekly by Contemporary Media, Inc., P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101 Phone: (901) 521-9000 Fax: (901) 521-0129 memphisflyer.com CONTEMPORARY MEDIA, INC. ANNA TRAVERSE FOGLE Chief Executive Officer LYNN SPARAGOWSKI Controller/Circulation Manager JEFFREY GOLDBERG Chief Revenue Officer MARGIE NEAL Chief Operating Officer KRISTIN PAWLOWSKI Digital Services Director MARIAH MCCABE Circulation and Accounting Assistant

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CONTENTS

SHARA CLARK Editor SAMUEL X. CICCI 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 ABIGAIL MORICI Arts and Culture Editor GENE GARD, EMILY GUENTHER, COCO JUNE, PATRICIA LOCKHART, FRANK MURTAUGH Contributing Columnists SHARON BROWN, AIMEE STIEGEMEYER Grizzlies Reporters ANDREA FENISE Fashion Editor KENNETH NEILL Founding Publisher

These were the first five posts I read Sunday on Nextdoor.com, the social media network that keeps us all alerted to gunshots, porch pirates, “suspicious” youths, and stray kittens. I get email alerts and occasionally succumb to the teasing headline, often to my regret, mainly because of the comments.

But last Monday, November 27th, Nextdoor made real news. You probably heard or read about it. The Flyer’s Kailynn Johnson broke the story (see page 5) on our website, and local television stations soon ran with it. It was a pretty scary tale.

A woman living on Peabody posted a photo of one of her neighbors walking down the street brandishing an automatic weapon. He was holding it high, at face level, and appeared to be striding westward. Two schools are within a couple blocks of the spot where the armed man was walking: Grace St. Luke’s (GSL) and Idlewild Elementary.

From Johnson’s story: “When pictures of the individual began to circulate on the neighborhood app Nextdoor, GSL began a school-wide lockdown and notified police. At the time that parents received the initial notification, the school stated that the ‘suspect [had] been apprehended per the Memphis Police Department.’

“Shortly thereafter, parents received a second email with updates to the situation stating that they had received information from the West Precinct that ‘the individual with the weapon had been apprehended.’ However, according to the school, an in-person visit from an officer contradicted this information.”

MPD spokesperson Christopher Williams issued a statement Monday that there were complaints of a “man walking on the sidewalk armed with a rifle.” Williams said the man was not accused of committing a crime. “While it’s odd,” he said, “merely openly carrying a gun on a public sidewalk isn’t illegal. He was not located.” The spokesperson said there was “no incident report” filed on the Peabody gun-wielder.

“Odd” is not the word I would use, but that’s just me. What is odd is the fact that people on Nextdoor said they saw police officers and vehicles at the mystery man’s house, to wit: “He lives near me in a rental. And yes. It’s for real. Eight policemen were over there banging on the door and on the side of the house. He wouldn’t come out. They spoke to him thru his door and then left.”

On Tuesday, November 28th, the MPD told Johnson the individual was not accused of a crime and was not located.

So, who was lying? GSL, the Nextdoor posters, or the Memphis Police Department. The answer became obvious the following day, Wednesday, November 29th, when the MPD issued an, oops, incident report.

From the report: “The male subject told officers that he was the person walking down the street with his weapon. He said he was walking down the road with his weapon because he was scared. He told officers that Memphis is a dangerous place.

He advised that he never wanted to harm anyone. He said that he only carried the rifle for his protection.

“The writer [officer] had the Real Time Crime Center check the subject, and he came back with negative results. Officers on the scene also checked him; he had no criminal history. The writer asked him if officers could see the weapon he was walking with, and he allowed officers to see the weapon. The writer NEWS & OPINION … took a photo of the weapon. … The THE FLY-BY - 4 writer did not notice him to have any POLITICS - 6 mental illness. The weapon was left FINANCE - 7 COVER STORY with the subject.”

“THE FIGHT FOR FOOD” Well, that certainly makes me feel betBY SONO MOTOYAMA, ter.

An MPD officer “did not notice” him MLK50: JUSTICE THROUGH to be mentally ill, so he got to keep his JOURNALISM - 8 AK. Welcome to Governor Bill Lee’s and SPORTS - 11 WE RECOMMEND - 12 the GOP’s Tennessee, where a random MUSIC - 13 guy can walk the streets around elemenAFTER DARK - 14 tary schools with an automatic weapon.

CALENDAR - 15 For freedom. Or something. Please NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 15 remember who put the NRA in charge of ASTROLOGY - 16 NEWS OF THE WEIRD - 17 Tennessee gun laws when you vote next BOOKS -18 November. And let’s all pray that the unFOOD - 19 named police officer’s evaluation of “the FILM - 20 subject’s” mental health is accurate.

CL ASSIFIEDS - 22 Bruce VanWyngarden LAST WORD - 23 brucev@memphisflyer.com

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THE

fly-by

MEMernet

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Questions, Answers + Attitude Edited by Toby Sells

W E E K T H AT WA S

By Flyer staff

Memphis on the internet.

Memphis in May, Schools, & LGBTQ

MARATHON WEEKEND

Longtime CEO to retire, a $150M budget gap, and the AG fights foster kids.

HOLT TO RETIRE

POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY ST. JUDE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL

The St. Jude Memphis Marathon drew throngs to the streets here last weekend with unbelievable sights like the one above on Riverside Drive.

More than 20,000 from 50 states and 75 countries ran this year. The marathon raised a record $15 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and brought an estimated $43 million in economic impact for the city.

RIBS? YES, BUT …

December 7-13, 2023

POSTED TO X BY @SLOW_SCHOOL

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X user @slow_school posted this piece of AI art with the caption, “Who wants some ribs?” It’s cool but disturbing in a way that’s hard to explain.

METEOR? Over the weekend, many Memphis Reddit users reported seeing “a very bright white flare that shot straight down and turned more greenish as it fell.” It was most likely a meteor, according to the consensus in the comments. Redditors said they saw it from Arkansas, Midtown, and the Memphis Botanic Garden.

“The spaceship was found in a parking lot near 4th and Beale,” joked u/FedexRebel, “but it’s already been stripped of its landing gear, rocket boosters, and luggage.”

Memphis in May International Festival (MIM) president and CEO Jim Holt will retire in January, the festival announced last week.

His retirement comes after attendance and revenue slumps for the organization’s 2023 events, which MIM blamed largely on the renovated Tom Lee Park.

MIM then put Beale Street Music Festival on hold for 2024. But it plans to bring the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest to Liberty Park next year.

Forward MomenPHOTO: GAYATRI MALHOTRA | UNSPLASH tum, the group behind The $3.9 million grant awarded to Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mempho Music Festival, Mississippi will allow the nonprofit to continue providing free care to patients in need. announced earlier this year it would bring a three-day music festival and a barbetion savings account program, which currently is limited to cue cooking contest to Tom Lee Park next year. three urban counties, has just under 2,000 enrollees.

MSCS TO CUT $150M IN SPENDING Memphis-Shelby County Schools (MSCS) leaders proposed eliminating 675 jobs along with a mix of student programs as they figure out how to cut $150 million in spending from next year’s budget.

The budget gap is an expected result of the end of federal pandemic relief programs. District leaders have been preparing for this day with analyses of how they spent the money, so they can try to preserve what has been most effective for students.

Tennessee districts like MSCS will benefit from a new state school funding formula that came with a $1 billion infusion of new state funds, so the cliff won’t be so steep. But it’s still pretty tricky terrain, and MSCS is taking a harder look at which positions and programs it can afford to trim without sacrificing academic progress too much.

LEE WANTS MORE SCHOOL VOUCHERS Gov. Bill Lee proposed last Tuesday to take Tennessee’s education voucher program statewide, starting with up to 20,000 students who would get taxpayer money next school year to attend a private school or homeschool. He also called for all K-12 students to be eligible for vouchers beginning in 2025.

Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act, offering $7,075 annually for each participant, would mark a massive expansion of eligibility for a voucher program that was billed as a pilot project and is now in its second year. The state’s educa-

FUNDING FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi (PPTNM) launched its Title X services last week with a new grant.

The $3.9 million from the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood was given after Tennessee became ineligible for the funds this year because of its strict abortion limits.

With the new money, PPTNM said it had already served 129 patients.

TN AG FIGHTS LGBTQ PROTECTIONS Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is leading a coalition of 17 states in fighting a proposed federal rule intended to give LGBTQ kids greater protections in foster care.

He said the proposed rule illegally intrudes on state authority and risks violating the free speech and religious rights of foster parents and organizations that provide care to kids in state custody. He said it would force “children’s services agencies to police pronoun usage with the same urgency they address physical abuse.”

Chalkbeat Tennessee and Tennessee Lookout contributed to this report.

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

Gun Scare {

CITY REPORTER

By Kailynn Johnson

An armed stroll in Midtown brings fear, school safety measures, and tons of internet debate.

A

man carrying an assault rifle in Midtown last week brought fear and extra security to two schools, caused an uproar among neighbors and social media users, and stirred up a number of questions for police.

Last Monday, Central Gardens neighbors and other concerned residents took to social media regarding the man who was spotted walking “on Peabody (near Cooper).”

Two schools in the area, Idlewild Elementary and Grace-St.Luke’s Episcopal School (GSL), took precautions. In a letter to Idlewild families last Monday, school officials said they contacted the school district’s safety and security team. This prompted additional officers to arrive at the school, as they also contacted law enforcement.

“At no time did the individual come on Idlewild property or attempt access to our school,” reads the statement.

“Additionally, at no time did [the Memphis Police Department] advise us to go on lockdown or take any other additional security measures.”

Emails shared with the Flyer confirm when pictures of the individual began to circulate on the neighborhood app Nextdoor, GSL began a schoolwide lockdown and notified police. At the time that parents received the initial notification, the school stated that the “suspect [had] been apprehended per the Memphis Police Department.”

“He told officers that Memphis is a dangerous place.”

Shortly after, parents received a second email with updates to the situation stating that they had received information from the West Precinct that “the individual with the weapon had been apprehended.” However, according to the school, an in-person visit from officers contradicted this information.

“We were subsequently visited inperson by the team of officers assigned to our area, who informed us that the individual was not apprehended,” an email said. “Nonetheless, MPD has

HealthCare.

Better Together.

advised us that a further lockdown is not necessary at this time.”

While law enforcement did not advise the schools to take security measures, the schools did, out of “an abundance of caution,” as additional officers remained on campus at Idlewild, and GSL closed its playgrounds for the remainder of Monday.

An additional email sent from GSL on Monday night said MPD had informed them that “they spoke to the individual and determined that he was lawfully carrying the weapon.”

Neighbors of Idlewild also took to Nextdoor to share their version of the incident. A user named Randi Brown told neighbors about the heavy police presence and called the incident “beyond frightening.”

The Flyer reached out to MPD last Tuesday following the incident.

Christopher Williams of MPD’s public information office said that while they had received complaints, the man was “not accused of committing a crime” and was not located.

Williams also initially said that there

PHOTO: CATHERINE GOODE | NEXTDOOR

“He was scared.” was no incident report on file. However, a day later, an official incident report showed that the man was located.

The report said that around 10:44 a.m. on Monday, November 27th, officers were dispatched to Diana and Carr. An additional call prompted officers to “make the scene” and “contact the suspect.”

“The male subject told officers that he was the person walking down the street with his weapon,” the report said. “He said he was walking down the road with his weapon because he was scared. He told officers that Memphis is a dangerous place. He advised that he never wanted to harm anyone. He said that he only carried the rifle for his protection.”

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m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

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Simultaneously the most feared and most courted man in Memphis government for the last several years has been Doug McGowen, successively, director of innovation for the City of Memphis, head of the Memphis and Shelby County Covid-19 Task Force, and chief operating officer for city government. For the last year he has served as president/CEO of Memphis Light, Gas and Water, the city’s utility.

Unofficially, the onetime combat aviator is generally credited with having been a major force behind the scenes in the late city mayor’s race and, some say, was the inspiration for the erstwhile residency-requirement issue that for a crucial twomonth period in midyear, until invalidated, stymied the mayoral campaigns of such major mayoral contenders as Sheriff Floyd Bonner and Van Turner and, whether by design or not, boosted the steady efforts of ultimate winner Paul Young.

The MLGW role is probably destined to be the most controversial of McGowen’s career.

For reasons that remain mysterious, he recently — and unceremoniously — terminated the employment of longtime MLGW spokesperson Gale Jones Carson. Having presumably reaggregated the decision’s hierarchy to his satisfaction, he is poised to spearhead two major initiatives — to push a 12 ⅓ percent MLGW rate increase through city council and, allegedly, to arrange the transfer of the utility’s headquarters from its current site in a core Downtown area to a suburban location out east.

The one move already has the city’s ratepayers, exhausted by a series of service dysfunctions, alarmed; the other has reportedly activated an ongoing revolt among Downtown business owners, who fear the immediate economic consequences of losing the 500-strong customer base of MLGW’s employees.

McGowen will need all his acknowledged skill, persuasiveness, and derring-do to achieve these new objectives, which are sure to dominate much of the news of the next few months.

8/18/23 10:40 AM

• Another increasingly active mover and shaker on the governmental scene is District 31 state Senator Brent Taylor, a Republican who, since his election last year, has rapidly become a major player in the arenas of both Nashville and Memphis. A veteran of both the Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission, Taylor also led the Shelby County Election Commission in recent years.

Having disposed of a far-flung regional funeral-home empire, netting millions in the process, Taylor became an indispensable source of donations and campaign support for the Shelby County Republican Party, which is some years past its heyday in county politics. He has single-handedly endowed major party occasions, and his Eads mansion is a staple stopping point and fundraising site for any significant

PHOTO (LEFT): DOUG MCGOWEN | FACEBOOK

Doug McGowen PHOTO (RIGHT): SENATOR BRENT TAYLOR | FACEBOOK

Brent Taylor statewide GOP election campaign.

Even as former state Senator Brian Kelsey’s growing legal issues made his position in the suburban district unstable, Taylor became the obvious party choice for a replacement, and his Senate campaign was ready to go in 2022. He won easily, backed not only by his party establishment but

by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, a nominal Democrat.

Predictably, Taylor has become a player in state government, acquiring key committee positions and ready access to Governor Bill Lee and other state officials. He is notable lately for his published communications seeding increased state involvement in the crime-control affairs of Shelby County, even suggesting at one point that the National Guard be activated in the county. Whatever Taylor’s long-term personal goals — and a 2026 gubernatorial try could be one of them — he is clearly on the board to pass go.

FINANCE By Gene Gard

Taxes and Retirement Here are ways to take advantage of tax-saving opportunities.

PHOTO: TOWFIQU BARBHUIYA | UNSPLASH

2. Gifting strategies There are many non-financial reasons to donate to causes you believe in; however, being smart about how you donate is what I’m talking about here. Consider donating appreciated stock from your taxable account as opposed to liquidating a position and donating the proceeds.

You can deduct the full amount of the appreciated stock so long as it doesn’t exceed 30 percent of your adjusted gross income, and you’ll pay no tax on the gains.

If you need to take a required minimum distribution (RMD) from your IRA but don’t need the funds, consider directly transferring those funds from your IRA to a qualified charity instead, and you won’t need to consider that RMD amount as income that year.

4. Wise withdrawals Once you’ve gone through the process of determining your specific income needs, you’ll need to decide which of your investment account(s) to pull funds from. Keep in mind that funds taken from a traditional IRA will be taxable income in the year they’re taken out, funds sold from a taxable account may have gains/ losses that could affect your taxes, and funds taken from your Roth IRA have no tax consequences. One size does not fit all, but I normally recommend you take your retirement income as needed — first from cash sources, then from taxable investment accounts, then from traditional IRAs, and finally from Roth IRAs. Take advantage of the Roth rules by letting those funds work (with no RMD or tax liability) for as long as you’re able to.

5. Roth conversions Now that you’re retired, you’re likely earning less income than when you were working, which will likely put you in a lower tax bracket. To take advantage of this shift, now may be the time to move funds from your traditional IRA into your Roth IRA. Yes, the funds taken out will be taxed, but likely at much lower rates than while you were working. We recommend you work closely with your advisor and CPA to efficiently manage your tax brackets.

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.

m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

1. Qualified dividends versus capital gains Depending on your income and whether you file a joint or individual return, federal short-term capital gains tax rates range from 10 percent to 37 percent, while long-term rates range from 0 percent to 20 percent in 2023.

Qualified dividends are also taxed between 0 and 20 percent in 2023.

Work closely with your advisor to develop an income and tax planning strategy that’s tax-efficient — don’t needlessly get stuck with higher rates.

3. Retirement-friendly states If you’ve ever considered moving, check out states that either have no state income tax or offer a deduction on your retirement income. Taxfriendly states besides Tennessee include Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Nevada, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

NEWS & OPINION

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reparing for your ideal retirement begins during your working years with saving, some discipline, and taking advantage of the many planning efficiencies available to help you retire the way you want. When you officially make the jump to retirement, the planning doesn’t stop — it just changes.

One way to help yourself while in retirement is to understand and take advantage of tax-saving opportunities.

Here are some options you may want to consider:

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THE FIGHT FOR FOOD With food instability increasing, residents get support from community sources.

December 7-13, 2023

COVER STORY

By Sono Motoyama, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism

PHOTO: LUCY GARRETT FOR MLK50

A family visits the Mobile Grocer on the project’s one-year anniversary in October.

F

or Queen Calhoun, 30, a simple grocery shopping trip can be an exhausting affair that takes several hours.

The resident of the Hollywood neighborhood, who does not own a car, has to walk to the nearest Kroger, in Frayser, more than three miles away.

Though there are a couple of corner stores and a dollar store nearby, there are few options for fresh produce.

Calhoun refuses to take the bus because she was “traumatized,” she said, when a car she was in was hit by a bus that ran a red light. The accident and resulting injuries also made it impossible for her to continue her work as a waitress at Pancho’s restaurant. Yet she must make the long march to buy food; she’s the mother of four.

“The kids gotta eat,” she said.

But on a recent morning, passing by the Hollywood Community Center, Calhoun spotted the Mobile Grocer, an initiative of the community development corporation The Works Inc. For about a month, the grocery store

on wheels had been making a biweekly stop at the center, about three minutes from her apartment. After discovering the 44-foot trailer, she did some shopping, and that afternoon, she came back to pick up strawberries for her kids, aged 3 to 10.

“It’s really convenient,” Calhoun said of the truck.

With 19 percent price increases since 2020, the end of Covid benefits, and limited access to transportation, poor Memphians, already living in food deserts — low-income areas with no supermarkets — are looking to community sources for help putting food on the table.

Memphis nonprofit, volunteer, and religious organizations are mounting a range of efforts to address the problem, from food pantries to hot-meal distributions to community fridges and roving grocery stores. And what is at stake is not merely a question of filling people’s bellies.

Research indicates a link between chronic diseases — such as heart disease, cancer, asthma, diabetes, and kidney disease — and low food security. According

to the Shelby County Commission’s 2022 District Health Profile, people who live in Memphis’ poorest areas, generally with poor food access, live 11 years fewer than more upscale areas across town.

The USDA has mapped areas with inadequate food access across the U.S. The map confirms that the poorest areas, including the poorest neighborhoods in Memphis, are also the ones with the least access to nutritious food. Black people are more than twice as likely to experience food insecurity as white people, according to the USDA. The national nonprofit food bank Feeding America estimates that 103,440 people in Shelby County are food insecure; half of that number, 50,850, are children.

Though they serve as essential stopgaps, nonprofits and others emphasize the need to address basic, structural problems.

As Pastor Tony Coleman of the First Congregational Church put it, he would like his church’s food program to initiate policy discussions to help Memphians “think more about poverty and equity and what it means to be a compassionate city.”

A double whammy: inflation and federal cutbacks Low-income families that receive assistance, already hit by inflation, are also suffering from cutbacks in federal pandemic programs. Notably, a 2021 child tax credit expired at the end of that year, and a plan that increased Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits stopped in Tennessee at the same time — though other states continued the program till the end of February 2023. (Individual states PHOTO: LUCY GARRETT FOR MLK50

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BJ Adams, the Mobile Grocer’s driver, hands a shopping bag to a customer.

PHOTO: LUCY GARRETT FOR MLK50

PHOTO: COURTESY OF FIRST CONGO FOOD JUSTICE MINISTRIES

Sophia Dandridge (right), the Mobile Grocer’s cashier, helps a customer check out their haul for the day.

First Congo’s director of Food Justice Ministries Ann Wallace (second from left) helped volunteers serve guests earlier this year.

have leeway in deciding how to administer federal benefits.)

A survey of SNAP recipients showed significant differences between states, such as Tennessee, that ended emergency allotments early and those that did not.

The states that ended benefits early showed higher levels of skipped meals, relying on others for meals, and visiting food pantries. A look at dollar amounts shows why.

Households in states that offered emergency food assistance received at least $95 per month over their regular benefits; the average person received about $90 more.

But even if they had the money to buy sufficient food, families living in food deserts would need a way to get to the nearest supermarket.

For many in Memphis’ poorest neighborhoods, owning a car is not feasible.

Therefore they are obligated to rely on a dysfunctional public transportation system, which is considering eliminations or partial suspensions of at least 19 routes and ending service after 7 p.m. (a decision on these proposals was postponed after community meetings). The suggested eliminations include the Southeast Circulator, Airport, and Walnut Grove routes, and the Madison and Riverfront trolley lines. These would come on top of the 2021 elimination of the Boxtown, Firestone, and Germantown routes; the Memphis Area Transportation Authority reduced service in four other routes at the time. Some of these lines serve or served food-desert areas.

Saturday to collect food from benevolent vendors at the market; they said they would later bring their haul to First Congo.

They gathered squash of several sorts, sweet potatoes, lettuce, peppers, eggplant, and boxed meals from a food truck. All would have otherwise gone to waste.

Food Not Bombs also works to stock the open-air refrigerators established by 901 Community Fridges. The idea is to

‘A fridge on every corner’ First Congo relies not only on its own staff and church-member volunteers for its food programs, but other volunteer organizations as well. David Virone and Neal Trotter of Memphis Food Not Bombs, a volunteer organization dedicated to nonviolent social change, were at the Downtown Farmers Market on a recent

“take what you want and leave what you can.” 901 Community Fridges currently has three sites, at First Congo, the Holy Trinity Community Church in Messick Buntyn, and the Binghampton Community Church.

At the end of October, Food Not Bombs established a community fridge continued on page 10

WHERE TO FIND FOOD The Mobile Grocer posts its schedule on Facebook. It accepts cash, credit, debit, and EBT cards.

Customers can sign up for the SoMe Fresh Savings Program, which allows SNAP recipients to earn an extra $20 for each $20 spent on produce. Seniors (aged 60 and older) who don’t have SNAP benefits can earn an extra $10 for each $10 spent. Any customer who spends $10 or more gets a star; 10 stars earn customers $10 for free groceries.

The Mobile Grocer makes the following stops and will soon be adding a stop in South City: • Hollywood Community Center, 1560 N. Hollywood St., 38108 • Dr. R.Q. Venson Center, 439 Beale St., 38103 • Legends Park North, 295 W. Red Sox Lane, 38105 • Senior Living at University Place, 600 S. Somerville St., 38104 • Northside Square, 1212 Vollintine Ave., 38017 • Renaissance at Steele, 3085 Steele St., 38127

First Congregational Church, 1000 S. Cooper St., 38104: • Serves a sack lunch on Monday and hot lunches Tuesday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-noon, with extra packed meals distributed on Thursday for the weekend • Distributes groceries every Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to noon; emergency pantry deliveries are sometimes possible.

• There is also a community fridge on its property, which it does not manage.

901 Community Fridges has sites at: • First Congregational Church, 1000 S. Cooper St., 38104 • Holy Trinity Community Church, 685 S. Highland St., 38111 • Binghampton Community Church, 362 Tillman St., 38112 The Memphis Food Not Bombs fridge is at: • The Memphis Church, 7400 Cordova Club Dr. E., 38018

MLK50 would like to continue to expand this list of Memphis food resources. If you know of a food pantry or other program that addresses the problem of food scarcity, please email sono.motoyama@MLK50.com.

COVER STORY m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

‘You’re literally keeping people from starving’ Along with nonprofits like The Works Inc., religious and volunteer-run organizations are also serving as stopgaps in the food scarcity landscape. First Congo, the First Congregational Church in Cooper-Young, wanted to address food scarcity back in 2011 when it began a program of distributing groceries once a month after Sunday services, about 80 to 100 boxes of groceries to as many families.

Since then, the program has grown so

that it has hired a director to oversee its Food Justice Ministries and now includes sack and hot lunches during the week, a weekly “pantry” (grocery distribution), and redistributing food from partners such as Panera Bread, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s — perfectly good food that would have otherwise been thrown away.

“I’ve heard just recently, ‘If you did not give me this pantry, my family would be hungry this week,’” said Ann Wallace, director of the church’s Food Justice Ministries. “I know the work that we do is impactful, but to me, that’s when it really hits home is that literally, you’re keeping people from starving through this work.”

She said participants in the program are in such precarious situations that one setback — a breakup or an illness — may cause “people to spiral, and then it’s hard for them to get back on their feet.” The church has found people living in its parking lot, under the building, and even “setting up camp” in the church without the church’s permission, Wallace said.

Coleman, the church’s senior pastor, estimates that today the church gives away 700 boxes of groceries a month and serves 60 to 100 people lunches four days a week.

He notes that recent reductions in federal benefits, especially for families with children, have made a bad situation worse.

The return to pre-pandemic-level benefits falls short, he said, because it doesn’t take inflation into account — and that even at maximum levels, some families still had trouble putting food on the table. Families, he said, are feeling pinched by housing costs, utility bills, and stagnant wages.

9

PHOTO: SONO MOTOYAMA FOR MLK50

David Virone (left) and Neal Trotter, of Memphis Food Not Bombs, show some of the food they collected at the Memphis Farmers Market for their volunteer-run food program. continued from page 9

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of its own in Cordova at The Memphis Church.

Trotter said that the group’s model of collecting free food from donors proves that efforts to address food scarcity need not be costly.

“It’s a misconception that you have to spend money to feed people,” Trotter said.

“We really don’t have to spend anything at all.”

As he spoke, a man with a limp and two blankets around his neck asked for a meal. Virone handed him one of the boxed meals.

Although one might think that the pandemic was the high point for food scarcity, “it’s pretty much constant,” Virone said. When group members arrive to stock a fridge, people come up to get food before it can even be stowed away, he said.

After the Cordova fridge, the group hopes to establish more.

“We won’t be done until there’s a fridge on every corner,” Virone vowed.

Choosing medicine or food The Works Inc.’s Mobile Grocer, inspired by a similar effort in Louisville, Kentucky, just celebrated its first year in October. It makes six stops around the city, providing reasonably priced groceries, including fresh produce, in some of the city’s food deserts, largely in North and South Memphis.

At a stop at the Dr. R.Q. Venson Center, a senior residence Downtown, BJ Adams, the manager and driver, pauses to discuss his work. Adams has been the sole driver during the shop’s one-year existence.

He notes that the truck offers “one stop,” where people can “get everything they need.” The truck stocks greens and tomatoes that come from The Works Inc.’s own urban plots.

During the year, he has learned the specific preferences of customers at various locations. “Some of my locations, I have people that like ginger or avocado. Then, some of our locations, they want more greens, or they may want more meat. …

Other locations, I may have more children, so you’re going to have people buying ramen noodles.” Shoppers can pre-order items, and the Mobile Grocer will have their groceries ready when it pulls up.

At senior centers such as this one, Adams said, residents are generally dependent on family or transportation services that may charge $20 to take residents grocery shopping — $20 that could have gone toward groceries.

Estela Kuykindall, 74, is in a wheelchair after a recent stroke. Normally, she said, she would have to take a bus to the Kroger in Midtown, where shopping in a wheelchair can be a time-consuming challenge.

Today, she bought turnip greens and a beef neck bone at the Mobile Grocer.

She hailed the convenience of the truck and found the prices reasonable.

“You don’t have to go nowhere; just go in there and out,” she said.

Ester Patrick, 77, a volunteer with the Mobile Grocer, pointed out that many seniors have to make hard choices with a limited budget.

“We got to make a decision between food or medicine,” she said. Though she is now more secure, Patrick said that she herself used to have to make that choice.

In fact, Feeding America, in a 2023 report, found that 79 percent of those experiencing food insecurity said they skipped or delayed other needs — like seeing a doctor, filling a prescription, or paying for health insurance — to pay for food for themselves and their families at some point during the last two years.

The Mobile Grocer’s cashier, Sophia Dandridge, a North Memphis resident and mother of two, said that she too had struggled with food access. Rather than spend funds on an undependable bus, she often preferred to save the money for groceries. She has, therefore, made hours-long walks to a supermarket or ridden a bike with heavy bags.

Dandridge summed up her own situation and that of others she served.

“The struggle is real,” she said.

This story was originally published by MLK50: Justice Through Journalism.

S P O R T S B y Fr a n k M u r t a u g h

Bowl-bound Tigers

GIFTS FOR KIDS!

Quarterback Seth Henigan will be back for more.

It’s a good time to remember the AutoZone Liberty Bowl will be played for the 65th time, the eighth-oldest bowl game on the college football calendar. It may not be among the “New Year’s Six” when it comes to prestige, but it’s on the next tier and has been the stage for some unforgettable players: Archie Manning, Bo Jackson, Doug Flutie, and Dak Prescott to name just four. Last year’s three-overtime epic between Arkansas and Kansas was among the four or five best games of the season. Here’s hoping for the right kind of new memories later this month.

• Memphis quarterback Seth Henigan has announced he’ll return

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1636 Union Ave • Memphis, TN 38104 276-6321 • Open Every Day

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m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

PHOTO: WES HALE

Seth Henigan

for a fourth season in blue and gray.

In the age of the “transfer portal” — essentially free agency for every player on every team after every season — Henigan’s devotion to the Tiger program is rather astounding.

And his return, by itself, gives the 2024 team the scent of a contender. A second-team all-conference selection this season, Henigan has passed for 3,519 yards and 28 touchdowns, with only 9 interceptions. He needs only 291 yards to break Brady White’s program record of 10,690 yards (something we could see in the Liberty Bowl), and 16 touchdowns to top White’s record of 90. The Henigan number I’ll be watching closest: 22, his number of wins as the Memphis quarterback.

With health and success, he could become the first Tiger signal caller to top 30 wins for his career (White won 28). Henigan should become only the third player to lead Memphis in passing four consecutive years, joining Lloyd Patterson (1975-78) and Danny Wimprine (2001-04).

• There is some grumbling in socialmedia circles that the Tigers’ 9-3 record somehow isn’t good enough. Memphis didn’t beat the teams it needed to for a conference championship (Tulane, SMU) and escaped with wins over programs it should beat handily (North Texas, Charlotte). To this I have a brief response: horse hockey. A win in the Liberty Bowl would give the Tiger program its fifth 10-win campaign (and fourth since 2014, a single decade).

Those with short memories forget that Tiger football once counted a total of five wins in three seasons (2009-11).

Now we’re supposed to be disappointed with a nine-win (possibly 10-win) season?

The Tigers were in contention for the American Athletic Conference championship until their loss to SMU in the season’s 11th game. This should be the standard for the program, as long as they sit outside the four remaining “power” conferences (SEC, ACC, Big 10, Big 12). It’s a formidable challenge for coach Ryan Silverfield and his staff, especially with a $220 million renovation scheduled for Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium.

Memphis remains a basketball town and its flagship university a basketball school. But can the football program make the right kind of dent on that perception, both locally and nationally?

In my view, nine-win seasons are a significant step in that direction.

NEWS & OPINION

T

he Memphis Tigers are staying home for bowl season, and they’re perfectly happy to save on the holiday travel expenses. In a rematch of the 2017 AutoZone Liberty Bowl, Memphis will face Iowa State of the Big 12 on December 29th in the stadium the Tigers have called home since 1965.

(A slot opened for Memphis when the SEC fell one team shy of qualifiers for its bowl commitments.) This makes 10 consecutive bowl seasons for the Memphis program, and the Tigers will have a chance to win 10 games for only the fifth time. The Cyclones will come to town with a record of 7-5 (6-2 in the Big 12). In that 2017 clash, Iowa State beat the Tigers, 21-20, in front of 58,318 fans. Kickoff is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN.

11

steppin’ out

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

For the Ghetto Girls

By Abigail Morici

at

MEMPHIS MUSEUM

OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

•Enchanted Forest •Holiday Movies •Laser Shows •Winter Camp

Jolly Jam S

E

S

S

I

O

@ MoSH

N

S

LIVE MUSIC FRIDAY NIGHTS STARTS DEC 1ST

Laser Holidays FRIDAY NIGHTS

December 7-13, 2023

NOV 24thru DEC 29-

The Magic of Holiday Science Camp DEC 18, 9:00 AM JAN 3, 3:00 PM (select dates)

3050 Central Memphis,TN 38111 901.636.2362 moshmemphis.com 12

PHOTO: ABIGAIL MORICI

Zaire Love shows various hairstyles as works of art.

Zaire Love’s “Ghetto Girls Deserve Good Things” is a vibe. On display at Christian Brothers University’s Beverly + Sam Ross Gallery, the exhibition takes the typically quiet and “look-don’t-breathe” feel of white-walled galleries and makes the space at CBU a place you won’t want to leave. Love’s catchy “She So Ghetto” plays on a loop, the walls are pink and purple, and multi-colored wigs hang from the ceiling. Like I said, it’s a vibe. “‘Ghetto Girls Deserve Good Things’ is an ode to Black women who have created the colorful, creative, and carefree style that has influenced the trends of popular culture without the proper credit,” Love says in an email interview. “It is also an extension of my narrative short film, ‘ETTO.’ [Indie Memphis award-winning] ‘ETTO’ is about an unapologetically ghetto Black woman who has to choose between her ghetto peace and her proper paycheck.”

As loaded as the word can be, “ghetto,” to Love, is about creativity. “Some folks make it synonymous to ratchet,” she says. “However, … these styles and folk inventions society calls ghetto are actually very creative, innovative, and resourceful. There’s a special alchemy about it. I wanted to highlight the ghetto girl and her story because the narrative has been distasteful, [but] these women birth the taste of popular culture with their eyes closed.”

This exhibition, Love says, “exists to ensure ghetto girls have a chance to pull their seats up to the table and tell their stories.” It’s part of a movement that began with her short film, and it’s a movement about “embracing your uniqueness and loving yourself in the face of a world that continuously wants to humble you.” A gallery, in a sense, is one way for these girls and women to take up literal space and be seen and heard — a thought that is not lost on Love, especially with this being her first visual arts show.

“Radical representation,” Love says, “is necessary for activism and radical imagination to result in liberation, so we can all have a seat at the proverbial table. Amen.”

Within the show, viewers will be treated to stunning photography of “ghetto girls from Memphis and the U.S. [whose], I think, influence ain’t credited enough.” Love also experimented with sculptural elements for the exhibit, bedazzling Styrofoam cups of pink ramen, pressing nails onto a sculpted hand, draping wigs across the wall and from the ceiling, and building pedestals for painted mannequin heads adorned with wigs, beads, jewelry, and lashes. “Hairstyles in the culture are the main calling card,” Love says on the plethora of wigs. “So, for the hairstyles I created I wanted to put them on pedestals to show they are indeed art.”

Love will give an artist talk on Wednesday, December 13th, at noon. The exhibition closes on Friday, December 15th.

“GHETTO GIRLS DESERVE GOOD THINGS,” BEVERLY + SAM ROSS GALLERY, CHRISTIAN BROTHERS UNIVERSITY, 650 E. PARKWAY S., ON DISPLAY THROUGH FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15TH.

VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES December 7th - 13th Cremaine Booker & Olatunde Osinaike: Small Business Series Café Noir, 635 Madison Ave., Thursday, December 14, 5:30 p.m., $20 Opening in 2024, equal parts bookstore, coffee shop, and inviting community space, Café Noir will fill its shelves with books by BIPOC and LGBTQ authors. For this special event, they’re filling your cup with music, too, as they kick off Iris Collective’s Small Business Series with poet Olatunde Osinaike and Iris musician Cremaine Booker, aka That Cello Guy. This one-of-a-kind concert in the Medical District will be an intimate experience in a historic Memphis building before the doors of the bookshop are even officially open.

Tickets can be purchased at iriscollective.org.

Holiday Bazaar at Tom Lee Park Tom Lee Park, Beale and Riverside, Saturday-Sunday, December 9-10, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Shop with local merchants and find the perfect gifts for the ones you love. This special event will bring together artists and creatives specializing in jewelry, textiles, home goods, accessories, and more, all on the North Lawn at Tom Lee Park. ¡Christmas Fiesta!

Dixon Gallery & Gardens, 4339 Park, Saturday, December 9, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., free Dixon Gallery & Gardens, Cazateatro Bilingual Theatre Group, and Opera Memphis present their third annual ¡Christmas Fiesta! Visitors will enjoy the Christmas traditions of Latin America and the Caribbean, and enjoy traditional Christmas music in Spanish, Latin food, crafts, and activities.

The Nutcracker Orpheum Theatre, 203 South Main Street, Saturday, December 9, 2 p.m., 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, December 10, 2 p.m.; Friday, December 15, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, December 16, 2 p.m., 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, December 17, 2 p.m., $16+ Building on Ballet Memphis’ nearly 40-year legacy of sharing the joy of Nutcracker with the Mid-South community, this season features an enchanting evolution of set and costume design that bring renewed vibrancy to the classic story. Transport yourself to a sweetly nostalgic riverside and a confectionary dreamland through the eyes of a young girl destined for adventure.

Ballet Memphis’ new production of this beloved American holiday tradition promises to delight in both familiar and unexpected ways.

MUSIC By Alex Greene

That Memphis Sound A sprawling landmark collection of Memphis blues brings history alive.

DO ES YO

by Victor Records in 1927. What could have been a typical guitar-driven blues takes on an eerie quality through its use of the jaw harp, with its strangely atonal harmonics adding a uniquely alien sound to the small combo’s sound. Blues from Mars, perhaps? As Evans notes, “That’s an interesting one. It might be the only commercial recording of that instrument in a blues setting. It’s a little chaotic, musically, and Ollie Rupert was obviously kind of an amateur performer, with that voice. I’m glad it was issued, though.”

More familiar names abound as well, including Furry Lewis, Memphis Minnie, Elvis Presley, and even Booker T. Jones, but sometimes it’s the

names behind the stars that are most striking. Many Stax fans know that drummer Al Jackson Jr.’s father was a bandleader, but now you can hear the actual sides Al Jackson Sr.’s jump band cut. Here too are sides cut by pianist Phineas Newborn’s father and “the Phineas Newborn Orchestra.” And two local music dynasties are evoked with The Jesters’ stomping version of “My Babe” on disc 20, featuring both Sam Phillips’ son Jerry on guitar and Jim Dickinson on piano and vocals.

Thus, a good deal of fine-grained, detailed history resides in this music, and the book alone is a monumental work of scholarship.

PHOTO: COURTESY BEAR FAMILY RECORDS

The Memphis Blues Box: Original Recordings 1914-1969 Introduced by Charlie Musselwhite, the book offers biographies of every performer (many newly researched), notes on each recording, and many unseen photographs. The project was produced and part-written by historian Martin Hawkins, but the book also includes important essays by other experts on various aspects of the Memphis blues, including local scholars like Evans, Richard Raichelson, and Tyler Fritts.

m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

music to choose from. With 20 CDs, 534 tracks, and an accompanying 360-page book, the set starts over 100 years ago with W.C. Handy’s tune “Memphis Blues,” then moves through classic blues, jug band blues, itinerant blues from the 1920s and ’30s, the R&B bands and small combos of the 1940s and ’50s, and the tougher blues styles recorded up until the close of the 1960s. And even within those stylistic movements, there’s considerable variation. It’s a testament to how diverse the blues can be.

Take track 10 on the first disc, “I Raised My Window and Looked at the Risin’ Sun,” by Ollie Rupert, released

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

M

any have spoken of a “Memphis sound” that permeates the playing of musicians who grew up here, yet the particulars of that sound can be elusive. That’s especially true if one takes the long view of over a half century, as does the latest release from Bear Family Records, The Memphis Blues Box: Original Recordings 1914– 1969. And yet that title alone, and the span of its purview, connotes one common thread through Memphis music: the blues itself.

As David Evans says of his contribution to the box set’s liner notes, “I tried to address that in my essay, which looks at urban and regional blues and whether there was any particular sound to it. By and large, you get a lot of variety. So it’s pretty hard to characterize urban blues. I’d be reluctant to go too far in that direction, trying to characterize a Memphis sound. But in a broader sense the blues itself and blues techniques permeate an awful lot of Memphis popular music.”

That said, listeners should buckle up for a wild ride through history as Bear Family, known for its thorough, completist collections, takes a tour through “Memphis blues as defined by the performers and their record companies during the years 1914 to 1969,” as the set’s promotional material says.

Significantly, that was the period when blues was issued primarily on singles (78 RPM records and later 45s), and the box includes at least one side of every blues record made in Memphis

by Memphis-area musicians in that period. But there are also many sides cut elsewhere by artists whose grasp of the blues took them to studios far and wide. Aside from the blues, the key common thread is that, as with Harry Smith’s 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, all of these tracks were commercially released at one time.

That doesn’t make them any more rare or surprising. There was a lot of

IA N S ! NA L MU SIC ?

M U SURIC BA ND WR ITE OR IGI

13

AFTER DARK: Live Music Schedule December 7 - 13 Flic’s Pic’s Band

50th anniversary with a free performance. Saturday, Dec. 9, 1-2 p.m.

B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB

CROSSTOWN CONCOURSE

FreeWorld

Vinyl Happy Hour

Saturday, Dec. 9, 4 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 10, 3 p.m.

After Hours Sundays

NYCELYFE and friends will be hitting you with your favorite music all night long.

Sunday, Dec. 10, 9 p.m.-4 a.m.

PHOTO: JASON STOLTZFUS

MEMPHIS LISTENING LAB

Daniel Donato

Lawson Harris

Ashton Riker & the Memphis Royals

TIN ROOF

Friday, Dec. 8, 9 p.m.

Memphis Jones

TJ MULLIGAN’S, MIDTOWN

Friday, Dec. 8, 7 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 9, 7 p.m.

Baunie & Soul

Friday, Dec. 8, 4:30 p.m.; Monday, Dec. 11, 4 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Mule Man

B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB

Sunday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m.

Charlotte Taylor Duo Sunday, Dec. 10, 3-6 p.m.

HUEY’S DOWNTOWN

Chris Gales

Friday, Dec. 8, 12:30-3:30 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 9, 12:303:30 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 10, 3:30-6:30 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Christmas with Memphis ChoralArts Featuring all of MCA ensembles, this holiday celebration will feature familiar carols and new music, a carol singalong, and the annual festive reception to follow. Monday, Dec. 11, 7 p.m.

ST. PETER CATHOLIC CHURCH

Cody Clark

Thursday, Dec. 7, 8 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 8, 10:30 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Red Thomas

Saturday, Dec. 9, 4-7 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Robbie Bletscher on Piano

A singing waiter with talent.

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 5-8 p.m.

WESTY’S

Rodell McCord

Saturday, Dec. 9, 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 13, 8 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Scott Southworth Trio

Saturday, Dec. 9, 6-8:45 p.m.

CENTRAL BBQ

CAFE NOIR

Divercity

Sunday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 13, 7 p.m.

B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB

DJ Alpha Whiskey

DJ Alpha Whiskey is an international female DJ and aviator whose passion for mixing music and making people fall in love with music started at a young age. Thursday, Dec. 7, 8 p.m.

CENTRAL STATION HOTEL

DJ Marcjayy

Tuesday, Dec. 12, 8 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Sunday, Dec. 10, 3-6 p.m.

HUEY’S POPLAR

Jolly Jam Sessions

Holiday fun featuring Strictly Jazz performing the music of Nat King Cole. $22. Friday, Dec. 8, 6-8 p.m.

Driver

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

Thursday, Dec. 7, 7 p.m.

Keepin It Memphis

Drivin n Cryin

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

The Blues Trio

Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute

Saturday, Dec. 9, noon; Sunday, Dec. 10, 11 a.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 13, 4 p.m.

B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB

Tiny Kitchen Concert Friday, Dec. 8, 4-6 p.m.

Experience an explosive live music tribute to the songs of Lynyrd Skynyrd performed by Memphis musicians. Friday, Dec. 8, 8 p.m.

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

Vince Johnson

Monday, Dec. 11, 7 p.m.; Tuesday, Dec. 12, 7 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

Wendell Wells & The Big Americans

Free live music, songwriters, musicians, singers, jam session. Saturday, Dec. 9, 9 p.m.

WESTY’S

Friday, Dec. 8, 9:30 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 7, 10 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 9, 10:30 p.m.

A BLVD Christmas: Featuring Anthony Hamilton

With an all-star lineup, including the renowned and Grammy-award winning artist Anthony Hamilton, The BLVD Sanctuary Choir & Orchestra, and an array of exceptional guest artists. $40-$70. Friday, Dec. 8, 7-9:30 p.m.

MISSISSIPPI BOULEVARD CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Alexis Jade

Thursday, Dec. 7, 7-10 p.m.

TIN ROOF

Elmo & the Shades, Eddie Harrison

THE SLIDER INN

Contraband

Variety show of Memphis talent. Free. Friday, Dec. 8, 9 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 7-11 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 8, 10 p.m.

NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM

WESTY’S

Gavin and Friends

Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country & Eggy

Classically-trained tenor Gavin Wigginson brings you a mesmerizing concert of captivating and intimate

$10. Sunday, Dec. 10, 8:30 p.m.

HI TONE

Frankie Hollie (solo)

Sunday, Dec. 10, 3:30 p.m.

Jazz Is Dead

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 7 p.m.

MINGLEWOOD HALL

Joybomb, Spacer, Ozark Riviera Friday, Dec. 8, 9 p.m.

BAR DKDC

COSSITT LIBRARY

DJ Stringbean

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

EARNESTINE & HAZEL’S

Thursday, Dec. 7, 6-10 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 8, 6 p.m.

MEMPHIS MUSIC ROOM

TIN ROOF

Eric Hughes

THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS

B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB

Wyly Bigger & The Coyotes

Donna Padgett Bowers Presents

Jad Tariq Band

A double bill of music performances. Friday, Dec. 8, 6-7:30 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 8, 8 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 9, 8 p.m.; Monday, Dec. 11, 8 p.m.; Tuesday, Dec. 12, 8 p.m.

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 7 p.m.

DJ Ooouuuweeee

Saturday, Dec. 9, 8 p.m.

BUCKMAN ARTS CENTER AT ST. MARY’S SCHOOL

danieljmorrow & OutPastMidnight live in the Green Room

Fearless Dave and the Tsunamis, Banales, Speaker Girl, One Strange Bird

The B.B. King’s Blues Club All-Star Band

Iris Collective kicks off its Business Series with a performance by Cremaine Booker, aka TheCelloGuy. $20. Friday, Dec. 8, 5:30 p.m.

duets and small ensembles. $30.

Saturday, Dec. 9, 7-8:30 p.m.

Keepin It Memphis is an award-winning weekly concert series that promotes the Memphis culture and highlights the works of the Memphis underground arts scene. $20/general admission, $10/admission with a local I.D. Wednesday, Dec. 13, 7:30-10:30 p.m.

Soul St. Mojo

Computermane

Cremaine Booker

Fuel

Friday, Dec. 8, 4-7 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 10, noon-3 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

TIN ROOF

Wendell Wells & The Big Americans

B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB

TIN ROOF

Friday, Dec. 8, 10 p.m.

December 7-13, 2023

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

JERRY LEE LEWIS’ CAFE & HONKY TONK

Thursday, Dec. 7, 7 p.m.

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Special guest DJs spinning vinyl in the main room. Friday, Dec. 8, 3-5 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 8, 8 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 9, 8 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 8 p.m.

RAILGARTEN

Maul, Sentenced 2 Die, Grave Lurker, Feral God Thursday, Dec. 7, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Melinda, Late Night Cardigan Saturday, Dec. 9, 9 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Memphis Concrete

Dinosauria (ambient, postrock), Cel Shade (vaporwave, electronic), Towering Flesh (horror soundscape, heavy drone), and Vincent Manard (experimental songwriter). $10.

Monday, Dec. 11, 8:30 p.m.

Nordista Freeze

With Shorty and the Grooves, The Hypocrites. $10. Saturday, Dec. 9, 8 p.m.

GROWLERS

Rice Drewry Collective Wednesday, Dec. 13, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Royal Blues Band Jam Tuesday, Dec. 12, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Souled Out

Sunday, Dec. 10, 8 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Sounds of the Season: Overton High School Choir for the Creative and Performing Arts Memphis choirs and bands will perform in the main lobby, and it is sure to get you into the holiday spirit.

Tuesday, Dec. 12, 11 a.m.

BENJAMIN L. HOOKS CENTRAL LIBRARY

Sounds of the Season: Ridgeway High School Choir

Sunweight & Jombi with Dream of Gardens $10. Friday, Dec. 8, 8 p.m.

GROWLERS

The Chaulkies

Sunday, Dec. 10, 3-6 p.m.

HUEY’S MIDTOWN

The Meat and Three Tour

Artbully, Chuck Indigo, Mafia 9, Mike Floss, Reaux Marquez, DJ Truestarr. $15, $20.

Friday, Dec. 8, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

The Memphis Winslows with Coach and the Confidant

Memphis Knights Big Band

THE COVE

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Live music in-store, Christmas music, and other goodies on sale, free cheer for all. Saturday, Dec. 9, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Sunday, Dec. 10, 8 p.m.

MINGLEWOOD HALL

High Point

Sunday, Dec. 10, 6-9 p.m.

HUEY’S SOUTHWIND

Honky Tonk Holiday Writers-in-the Round

Hosted by Amber Rae Dunn.

Featuring Alexis Jade, Brian Blake, Moses Crouch, Drew Sherrod, Nia Nicholls, and Jesse Jordan. $10. Thursday, Dec. 7, 8 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDEAWAY

Stax Soul Mobile, Soul for the Holidays Pop Up

Holiday soul music + exclusive gifts for the whole family!

Saturday, Dec. 9, 2-8 p.m.

END OF ALL MUSIC

The Double D’s

Sunday, Dec. 10, 6-9 p.m.

HUEY’S SOUTHAVEN

The Pretty Boys

Sunday, Dec. 10, 6-9 p.m.

HUEY’S OLIVE BRANCH

BENJAMIN L. HOOKS CENTRAL LIBRARY

Saturday, Dec. 9, 9 p.m.

Mempho Presents: American Aquarium with Lance Roark

GOLD STRIKE CASINO

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 11 a.m.

HI TONE

Monday, Dec. 11, 6 p.m.

The esteemed multiplatinum rock phenomenon Fuel has made an exceptional resurgence in 2021, garnering widespread acclamation from both devoted fans and discerning music enthusiasts.

Friday, Dec. 8, 8 p.m.

The Shangri-La Records Holidy Road Show

SHANGRI-LA RECORDS

TUBACHRISTMAS!

The renowned TUBACHRISTMAS! celebrates its

Everly Brothers Experience Holiday Show

A fantastic night celebrating the early rock music of The Everly Brothers, full of the music loved across generations. $40. Thursday, Dec. 7, 7:30 p.m.

BARTLETT PERFORMING ARTS AND CONFERENCE CENTER

Germantown Holiday Concert: Germantown Symphony Orchestra

Featuring the Houston High School Concert Choir. $30.

Saturday, Dec. 9, 7-8:30 p.m.

GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

Ken Jackson Experience

Sunday, Dec. 10, 6-9 p.m.

HUEY’S MILLINGTON

Richard Wilson Friday, Dec. 8, 12:30 p.m.

JACKIE MAE’S PLACE

CALENDAR of EVENTS: December 7 - 13

Ice Skating in the Park with Mr. and Mrs. Claus

F I LM

Holiday Horror Triple Feature: Santa’s Slay, Krampus, & Black Christmas

A mini marathon of some of the best holiday horrors of all time. Sunday, Dec. 10, 5 p.m.

AUDUBON PARK

DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, ONGOING WEEKLY EVENTS WILL APPEAR IN THE FLYER’S ONLINE CALENDAR ONLY. FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVENT LISTINGS, VISIT EVENTS. MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL.

Streetdog Foundation Sippin’ with Santa Paws

Krampus Yule Ball

BLACK LODGE

An evening of entertainment celebrating Yule. $25. Saturday, Dec. 9, 8 p.m.-midnight.

Lodge Cinema at the Brooks Museum: Holiday Double Feature Double feature of beloved Yuletide movie classics: Nightmare Before Christmas and Gremlins.

Wednesday, Dec. 13, 5:30 p.m.

Featuring holiday photos with Santa Paws, a silent auction, dog costume contest, adoptable pups, and more. $25.

Saturday, Dec. 9, noon-4 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Laser Holiday Light Show

A holiday mix of everyone’s favorite holiday music set to fantastic laser light. $15. Thursday, Dec. 7, 1:30 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 8, 1:30 p.m., 7 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 9, 1:30 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 10, 1:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 13, 1:30 p.m.

MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART

H O LI DAY E V E N TS

2023 Memphis Holiday Parade Send the date, time, place, cost, info, phone number, a brief description, and photos — two weeks in advance — to calendar@memphisflyer.com.

Shelby Farms Park’s Starry Nights brings the spirit of the season to life with dazzling displays.

Enjoy ice skating, pictures with Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Free. Friday, Dec. 8, 4-8 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 9, noon-4 p.m.

Ring in the holiday season with marching bands, steppers, twirlers, floats, and more.

Saturday, Dec. 9, 2-3:30 p.m.

LOFLIN YARD

P E R FO R M I N G ARTS

A Christmas Carol ’23

Miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is approached by the ghostly vision of his former business partner, Jacob Marley, who warns him of an upcoming spiritual journey. Through Dec. 23.

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

Santa & Snow in Chimes Square

BEALE STREET

Santa returns to Overton Square for this magical holiday event. Saturday, Dec. 9, 5-7 p.m.

Breakfast with Santa

THEATRE MEMPHIS

OVERTON SQUARE

Enjoy breakfast, storytelling, face painting, coloring, photos with Santa, and much more.

Saturday, Dec. 9, 8 a.m.

The Nutcracker

Southwest Twin Holiday Market

Presented by Ballet Memphis. Saturday, Dec. 9, 2 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 10, 2 p.m.

’Tis the season to support local at the next Southwest Twin community event. Saturday, Dec. 9, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

FIRE MUSEUM OF MEMPHIS

Christmas Fiesta!

ORPHEUM THEATRE

SOUTHWEST TWIN

Enjoy the Christmas traditions of Latin America and the Caribbean. Free. Saturday, Dec. 9, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Who’s Holiday

Starry Nights

Who’s Holiday! is bringing a whole new side of Cindy Lou Who to the stage. Through Dec. 22.

Experience the magic of the holidays at Shelby CIRCUIT PLAYHOUSE Farms Park’s largestSyndication event. ThroughSales Dec. 31.Corporation The New York Times

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

FARMS PARK 620SHELBY Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 For Release Thursday, February 28, 2019

AR T HAP P E N I N G S

Crosstown Arts Resident Artists Open Studio Nights

Gold Hoop Wreath Workshop

Create a modern evergreen wreath on a gold hoop. $55. Thursday, Dec. 7, 6 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 10, 3 p.m.

MIDTOWN BRAMBLE AND BLOOM

Holiday Bazaar at Tom Lee Park

Shop with local merchants. Saturday, Dec. 9, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 10, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

TOM LEE PARK

Holiday Sip & Shop

Shop local. Sunday, Dec. 10, 2-6 p.m.

MEMPHIS MADE BREWING COMPANY

Krampus Holiday Market

ACROSS 1 First U.S. color TVs 5 Shooter’s need 8 Believers in oneness 14 “Spamalot” lyricist 16 Post-flood locale 17 One stuck abroad?

Shop vintage horror collectibles, natural oddities, magic, and witchery. Saturday, Dec. 9, 3-7 p.m.

18 Frame of reference

HI TONE

19 Professor to Harry Potter

Photo Transfer Holiday Ornaments with Valley Evangelista Make your own one-of-a-kind decorations. $45. Saturday, Dec. 9, 1-3 p.m.

ARROW CREATIVE

Winter Arts

Annual showcase of exceptional and unique hand-crafted works by the region’s finest artists.

Through Dec. 24.

20 Follower of “My country” 22 Raiding grp.

23 It can make an impression in correspondence

37 British record label

71 Revenue-raising measure

41 “I’m out”

72 “Neato!”

14

44 Unlikely source of a Top 40 song

73 Branch of Islam

17

45 Popular Greek dish

DOWN

46 Surrounds 49 On the blue side, for short 50 Ottoman 53 ___ beetle 56 Clay, after conversion 57 Call to reserve?

59 Calrissian of “Star Wars” 63 Traffic enforcement device

WINTERARTS 2023

29 Lacking a mate

66 Adoring looks seen 10 times in this puzzle’s grid

Woodburning: Ornaments

32 Fit for a queen

69 Curfew, maybe

34 Key

70 Lickety-split

Learn how to use woodburning tools to make holiday ornaments. Sunday, Dec. 10, 3 p.m.

26 Risk-free

FIVE IN ONE SOCIAL CLUB

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE

B O O K EVE N TS

C R A B A R C S H O T E L L I T E P E R P A W A K E O V A L S T A R N I X E D D E L I V E R Y A D D E R S T L E O A O N E E L K F L Y I N G B U T T E R S S S E N S S A U T E C A T N A P S A T E C R O W A D R E P C N N N N E B L O W U P M A T T E R S Y N H E R E M A G M A G E N D E R N E U T R A L L E M M E M A N X T I T O A W A I T A C A I A M E N V E N T S W E S T N Y S E

Anne Hamer: Fearless Freedom

Novel welcomes Anne Hamer to celebrate her book Fearless Freedom: A Divorced Lawyer’s Guide to Divorce. Thursday, Dec. 7, 6 p.m.

NOVEL

Reading and Book Signing with Dan Conaway and Bill Haltom

Join Burke’s for an evening with Dan Conaway and Bill Haltom for their new book, Never Over the Hill: A Memoir in Bright Orange.

Thursday, Dec. 7, 5:30 p.m.

BURKE’S BOOK STORE

Edited by Will Shortz 1

2

3

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6

3 Work whose title character is buried alive 4 Equipment in an ice cream shop 5 Rabblement 6 In a bad way 7 Annual spring occurrence 8 Instrument that opens Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” 9 Homer’s path

10

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39

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62

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20 23 30

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1 Guns 29

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2 Sing sentimentally

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56 63

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10 “I bet!”

PUZZLE BY STU OCKMAN

11 To the stern

35 Ones pumped up for a race?

48 Sierra Nevada product

60 When doubled, a taunt

13 Several lines of music?

36 “That’s beyond me”

50 Side

61 South Asian living abroad

15 “Bonne ___!”

38 Dressed

21 “___ ever …”

39 Sam of R&B

24 Playfully roguish

40 Not know from ___ (be clueless about)

12 “Same here!”

25 Where photosynthesis occurs 27 ___-slipper (flower) 28 Commoners 29 Eight: Prefix 30 Wilt 31 Superserious 33 Grabs (onto)

42 Some deer 43 Closet-y smell 47 Freon, for one

51 “C’est magnifique!”

52 Competitor of Citizen 54 Standoffish 55 Iona College athletes 58 Cry after a hectic week

62 Org. for some inspectors 64 ___ Air, carrier to Taiwan 65 Supporting letter, informally 67 A Chaplin 68 Gossip

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

Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

Crossword

CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Crosstown Arts is proud to invite the Memphis community to visit the artist studios.

Friday, Dec. 8, 5-7:30 p.m.

15

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY By Rob Brezsny

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): I will cheer you on as you tenderly push yourself to be extra exploratory in the coming weeks.

It’s exciting that you are contemplating adventures that might lead you to wild frontiers and half-forbidden zones. The chances are good that you will provoke uncanny inspirations and attract generous lessons. Go higher and deeper and further, dear Aries. Track down secret treasures and lyrical unpredictability. Experiment with the concept of holy rebellion.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In January, I will tempt you to be a spirited adventurer who undertakes smart risks. I will invite you to consider venturing into unknown territory and expanding the scope of your education. But right now, I advise you to address your precious needs for stability and security. I encourage you to take extra good care of your comfort zone and even add cozy new features to it. Here’s a suggestion: Grab a pen and paper, or open a new file on your favorite device, then compose a list of everything you can do to feel exceedingly safe and supported.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Booker T. Washington (1856–1915) was an American Black leader who advocated a gradual, incremental approach to fighting the effects of racism. Hard work and good education were the cornerstones of his policies. Then there was W. E. B. Dubois (1868–1963). He was an American Black leader who encouraged a more aggressive plan of action. Protest, agitation, pressure, and relentless demands for equal rights were core principles in his philosophy. In the coming months, I recommend a blend of these attitudes for you. You’ve got two big jobs: to improve the world you live in and get all the benefits you need and deserve from it.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I periodically get a big jolt of feeling how much I don’t know. I am overwhelmed with the understanding of how meager my understanding of life really is. On the one hand, this is deflating to my ego. On the other hand, it’s wildly refreshing. I feel a liberating rush of relief to acknowledge that I am so far from being perfect and complete that there’s no need for me to worry about trying to be perfect or complete. I heartily recommend this meditation to you, fellow Cancerian. From an astrological perspective, now is a favorable time to thrive on fertile emptiness.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Have you reached your full height? If there were ever a time during your adult life when you would literally get taller, it might be in the coming weeks. And that’s not the only kind of growth spurt that may occur. Your hair and fingernails may lengthen faster than usual. I wouldn’t be shocked if your breasts or penis got bigger. But even more impor-

tantly, I suspect your healthy brain cells will multiply at a brisk pace. Your ability to understand how the world really works will flourish. You will have an increased flair for thinking creatively.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I like Virgo author Cheryl Strayed’s thoughts about genuine togetherness. She says, “True intimacy isn’t a cluster fuck or a psychodrama. It isn’t the highest highs and lowest lows. It’s a tiny bit of those things on occasion, with a whole lot of everything else in between. It’s communion and mellow compatibility. It’s friendship and mutual respect.” I also like Virgo author Sam Keen’s views on togetherness. He says, “At the heart of sex is something intrinsically spiritual, the desire for a union so primal it can be called divine.” Let’s make those two perspectives your guideposts in the coming weeks, Virgo.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): According to my interpretation of your astrological prospects, you now have the capacity to accelerate quickly and slow down smoothly, to exult in idealistic visions and hunker down in pragmatic action, to balance exuberant generosity with careful discernment — and vice versa. In general, Libra, you have an extraordinary ability to shift moods and modes with graceful effectiveness — as well as a finely honed sense of when each mood and mode is exactly right for the situation you’re in. I won’t be surprised if you accomplish wellbalanced miracles.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Dear Goddess — Thank you a trillion times for never fulfilling those prayers I sent your way all those years ago. Remember?

When I begged and pleaded with you to get me into a sexy love relationship with You Know Who? I am so lucky, so glad, that you rejected my prayers. Though I didn’t see it then, I now realize that being in an intimate weave with her would have turned out badly for both her and me. You were so wise to deny me that misguided quest for “pleasure.” Now dear Goddess, I am asking you to perform a similar service for any Scorpio readers who may be beseeching you to provide them with experiences they will ultimately be better off without.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The eminent Capricorn philosopher William James (1842–1910) is referred to as the “Father of American Psychology.” He was a brilliant thinker who excelled in the arts of logic and reason. Yet he had a fundamental understanding that reason and logic were not the only valid kinds of intelligence. He wrote, “Rational consciousness is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Among our most impressive superpowers is the potency to transform ourselves in alignment with our conscious intentions. For example, suppose you feel awkward because you made an insensitive comment to a friend.

In that case, you can take action to assuage any hurt feelings you caused and thereby dissolve your awkwardness. Or let’s say you no longer want to be closely connected to people who believe their freedom is more important than everyone else’s freedom. With a clear vision and a bolt of willpower, you can do what it takes to create that shift. These are acts of true magic — as wizardly as any occult ritual. I believe you will have extra access to this superpower in the coming weeks. Homework: Identify three situations or feelings you will use your magic to change.

This quote appears in his book The Varieties of Religious Experience. In accordance with astrological omens, I invite you to investigate those other types of consciousness in the coming months. You don’t need drugs to do so. Simply state your intention that you want to. Other spurs: dreamwork, soulful sex, dancing, meditation, nature walks, deep conversations.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Are people sometimes jealous or judgmental toward you for being so adept at multi-tasking?

Are you weary of dawdlers urging you not to move, talk, and mutate so quickly? Do you fantasize about having more cohorts who could join you in your darting, daring leaps of logic? If you answered yes to these questions, I expect you will soon experience an enjoyable pivot. Your quick-change skills will be appreciated and rewarded more than usual. You will thrive while invoking the spiritual power of unpredictability.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Romantic relationships take work if you want them to remain vigorous and authentic. So do friendships. The factors that brought you together in the first place may not be enough to keep you bonded forever.

Both of you change and grow, and there’s no guarantee your souls will continue to love being interwoven. If disappointment creeps into your alliance, it’s usually wise to address the issues head-on as you try to reconfigure your connection. It’s not always feasible or desirable, though. I still feel sad about the friend I banished when I discovered he was racist and had hidden it from me. I hope these ruminations inspire you to give your friendships a lot of quality attention in 2024. It will be an excellent time to lift the best ones up to a higher octave.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD By the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication

News You Can Use Bet you didn’t know that every year, U.S. Department of Agriculture officials distribute oral rabies vaccines to raccoon populations in 14 states, driving around and targeting areas where the critters will find and eat the bait. But, as NPR reported, in rural communities, it’s more efficient to drop the little packets from low-flying planes. “The planes have a tube and a conveyor belt that just drops these vaccines to make sure they’re sort of evenly dispersed,” said journalist Emily Mullin. Jordona Kirby with the USDA said the trick was to make the

What’s in a Name?

Too many words, according to officials in Spain. Fernando Fitz-James Stuart, the 17th duke of Huescar, recently baptized his second child with a name 25 words long, Sky News reported.

The name pays tribute to the baby’s mother and father, other members of the family, and religious devotions.

But register rules limit a child’s name to one compound name and two simple ones, and the duke and his wife will need to shorten the name for legal purposes. [Sky News, 10/26/2023] Questionable Judgment As college antics go, it stands up: On Oct. 25, someone wearing a giant penis costume was escorted out of the stands at a football game between Sam Houston State University and the University of Texas at El Paso, HuffPost reported.

A school spokesperson said the prankster was given “the option to take the costume off or leave the stadium.” Sam Houston was winning the game until the phallic fan was removed; they lost 37-34. [HuffPost, 10/26/2023] Crime Report Officials in Melbourne, Australia, raided a home on Oct. 31, where they found a meth lab, boxes of gemstones, and so many Legos that they’ll need a truck to haul them away, The Guardian reported. Police found 1,130 boxes of the plastic blocks valued at more than $200,000 and arrested a 36-yearold man and a 32-year-old woman.

“This is the first time our detectives have seized a Lego collection,” said Detective Inspector Anthony Vella.

[Guardian, 11/1/2023]

Couples Massage, Hypnotherapy, Facials, Sound Therapy The largest selection of Tibetan Singing Bowls in the Mid-South

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@amuniversal.com.

News of the Weird is now a podcast on all major platforms! To find out more, visit newsoftheweirdpodcast.com.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD © 2023 Andrews McMeel Syndication.

Reprinted with permission.

All rights reserved.

m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

It’s Come to This A 75-year-old woman in Pavia, Italy, had to get the courts involved to get her two sons, ages 42 and 40, out of her house, CNN reported on Oct. 27.

Mom described her sons as “parasites” who had been living with her without contributing financially, even though both had jobs. Judge Simona Caterbi called the brothers “bamboccioni,” or big babies, and declared they have until Dec. 18 to vacate the woman’s home. “Once a certain age has been exceeded, the child can no longer expect the parents to continue the maintenance obligation within limits that are no longer reasonable,” Caterbi said. The brothers hadn’t decided whether they would appeal the decision. [CNN, 10/27/2023]

vaccines palatable to a raccoon, so they come in a fish flavor and a sweet flavor. If other animals find and eat the packets, it won’t hurt them. [NPR, 11/1/2023]

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Ewwwww!

Desirae Kelly of Farmington, Missouri, woke up at 5 a.m. on Oct. 24 to a strange feeling. “I actually felt something move in my ear,” Kelly said in a TikTok video. Fox News reported that Kelly was in such discomfort, she started to cry in the waiting room at urgent care. As a nurse started to flush her ear with water, Kelly “felt whatever that was crawl out of my ear … and I watched out of the corner of my eye something fall and land on my sweater,” Kelly said. “I watch this black spider with all eight legs crawl across the floor.” She said she screeched and threw up as the nurses trapped the spider in a container. “The nurses were so sweet and passed no judgment like I thought they would,” Kelly said. “I don’t think I could ever sleep without earplugs again.” [Fox News, 10/26/2023]

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17

BOOKS By Abigail Morici

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18

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Former Negro League Baseball player examines the history of baseball and its impact on Black youth in the sport today.

I

must admit I’m no baseball aficionado; I understand the basics — home runs, foul balls, three strikes and you’re out at the old ball game.

There’s a reason I’m writing a books column, and not the sports column. Yet, when I heard about Reginald R. Howard’s Baseball’s Silent Genocide: How They Cut Black Youth Out of Baseball, I knew it was a story I wanted to know more about.

Yes, it’s a story about baseball, specifically Negro League Baseball, but it’s a story that examines an unheard perspective. “People sing the praises of Major League Baseball players but Negro League players aren’t even mentioned in that song,” Howard writes. “My primary reason for writing this book is to express my heartfelt beliefs about why and how black youth in this country have been kept from playing the ‘Great American Game’ called baseball.”

Within his book, Howard, who played for the Indianapolis Clowns in the ’50s and ’60s, weaves the history of baseball and his own experiences in the league into his thesis. Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, Howard says his family was addicted to Black baseball, with his uncle even playing for the Memphis Red Sox. Yet, he says, “All the black students who played baseball were being steered toward track and field. The coaches didn’t want us to play baseball. In fact, I kept hearing stuff like, ‘You guys don’t like baseball.’ Well, they were saying that to the wrong person when they said it to me.”

To Howard, as he reflects back on his early days, it was like “the [white] majority said, ‘We’re going to preserve baseball for our kids. We do not want minority kids to dominate all sports.’” It began with defunding baseball in the inner city and creating more expenses to play, and segregation only helped keep Black players out of the sport.

When Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color line in 1947, Howard was still a child, but “when I became an adult it didn’t look that good to me,” he says.

Indeed, at the time, the Negro League was a successful business, “second only to the

black insurance industry.” But as Major League Baseball gleaned players here and there from Negro League rosters, the team owners were not compensated, and eventually, the Negro League deteriorated into oblivion.

As of 2021, 8 percent of MLB players are Black, compared with 78 percent in the NBA and 67 percent in the NFL. “Those numbers don’t become that lopsided without somebody doing something to cause that,” Howard writes.

Today, Howard laments baseball’s fall in popularity. Eighty or so years ago, baseball was America’s most popular sport, followed by football and basketball. Now, baseball places third. “When I go to speak to black kids today and ask, ‘Who doesn’t like baseball?’ hands shoot up all around the place,” Howard writes. “‘Why don’t you like baseball?’

‘Oh, it’s too slow.’

‘It don’t move fast enough.’ ‘Basketball is faster.’ ‘It’s dull!’

I’ll counter with something like, ‘Hey, something is happening on every pitch. There’s always something happening in baseball.’”

Howard goes on to say, “I’m not saying for one second, or the militancy of black baseball is not saying for one second, that black kids playing baseball would be a panacea for race relations and black incarceration in America, but it would have helped a lot.”

In its entirety, Howard’s book is only 135 pages long, but it is filled with insights that the baseball enthusiast and nonenthusiast can appreciate. “I’m in my 80s now,” he writes, “and I want to make these statements. I don’t want to die with this stuff in my head. It would be a serious dereliction on my part if I did.”

Within the pages are photographs, charming excerpts from Howard’s own life, passages about forgotten players and their contributions to the sport, and a chapter about Tennessee’s and Memphis’ significance in the Negro League — all of it written as if you were sitting beside the writer listening to him speak in a conversation that draws your full attention.

Purchase Baseball’s Silent Genocide at tinyurl.com/t7t7kcu4.

FOOD By Michael Donahue

Heeere’s Jimmi Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh is back with a new Cordova restaurant, but no hints just yet.

Sinh, who has been working out of his Poke Paradise food trailer and his Poke Paradise kitchen/pick-up center at 5310 Crestview Road, says all of that will end when the restaurant opens because he wants to focus on the restaurant. That includes his private dinners and catering. “I need everyone to put in their dates now because May 2024 is my last month taking any type of catering order or any private dinners or weddings and stuff that I do.”

The upcoming restaurant isn’t Sinh’s first rodeo. He owned the popular Sushi Jimmi Asian Fusion restaurant at 2895 Poplar Avenue.

He closed that restaurant on May 23, 2019. He said at the time he was burned out and he wanted to spend more time with his family.

That “was a while back,” Sinh says.

“And I went through a lot with my old restaurant. So, it’s been a few years

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Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh

and I just feel more comfortable now, looking back. I was going to move, but since we’re here I want to establish another brick and mortar.

“I’m very excited to be honest.

I’ve been thinking about it for a while. The food truck is good. But I think I’m ready to get back into brick and mortar.”

Sinh ordered a new 16-by-8-foot food trailer made for his Poke Paradise business. Poke is diced, raw fish served with either a soy base or mayo base.

The food trailer “will be put on the market for sale. And if anybody’s interested, they can contact me. We can even sit down right now.”

Same goes for his Poke Paradise location. “If they want to take over Poke Paradise, they’re welcome to come talk to me about it.”

That goes for all his equipment.

Sinh opened Poke Paradise for business last year. “It’s good. No complaints.

I stay busy all year long. I established it just to keep myself here in Memphis and keep myself busy. Nothing like working for yourself. Right?”

The idea to open another restaurant wasn’t sudden, Sinh says. “It hit me around the summer of this year. Because I want to get back in the kitchen.

And I want to create something, which will serve Memphis in a good way.

And I just think that Memphis needs it really bad. So, I created something that everyone can appreciate. And that’s what I always wanted.”

Sinh believes in reinventing himself.

“I’m a chef. So, I’m always up for trying new things. Whatever works works.

And you’ve got to take out the stuff that doesn’t work.

“I’m very, very open minded. I like to try new things and I like to perfect my craft. I like to go outside the box and create new things. I even help other people with their restaurants. I train a lot of staff.”

After he closed his first restaurant, Sinh announced he wasn’t going to open another one. “Every chef, every server, every dishwasher, when you’re in the restaurant industry it’s long hours, long weeks.

“You get burned out from time to time. You just have to know when to take a break. If you don’t, it will just kill your team. And that’s what I didn’t want to do. So, I took some time off.

And now I’m back.”

Sinh is reachable at 901-604-0058, or online at poke-paradise-106339. square.site.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

J

immy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh is opening a restaurant in Cordova. And that’s all he’s going to say about it.

For now.

“I just want everybody to know I do have a restaurant coming up next summer,” Sinh says. “No date on it.

Just signed the lease. So, that’s 100 percent guaranteed.”

But his fans have to wait to hear his concept. “The menu and everything like that. I don’t have any of that information at the moment. I should have all the information by next spring.”

So, he’s keeping people in suspense.

“We’re still figuring things out now.”

Any hints? “I’m not going to spill the beans.”

19

FILM By Chris McCoy

Main Character Nicolas Cage gets in your head in Dream Scenario.

T

his bit of wisdom was posted on Twitter by user @maplecocaine in January 2019: “Each day on Twitter there is one main character. The goal is never to be it.” Social media promised to fulfill the techno-utopian dream of the internet by connecting every human being on the planet, but there was a reason that, even before the carnage of pandemic information warfare, Twitter’s heaviest users called it a “hellsite.” The reality of universal connection is that you’re a few milliseconds away from every asshole on Earth. Fame has unpleasant side effects, and that goes double for internet fame, which can be both unexpected and unintentional. When everyone knows your name, you become less of a human being and more of a symbol.

Elon Musk is currently finding this out the hard way.

Fame in the internet age is the subject of Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario. Like many directors before him, his best decision was casting

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Nicolas Cage as his lead. Cage plays Paul Matthews, a biology professor at a sleepy Midwestern liberal arts college.

Paul has done some pioneering work on hive minds, which he calls “antelligence,” but his book on the subject is languishing while his former colleagues get all the credit.

One day, he notices a lot of strangers staring at him on the street. Then, he runs into his ex-girlfriend Claire (Marnie McPhail), who tells Paul she’s been dreaming about him. This doesn’t go over very well with Paul’s jealous wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson), but she takes some comfort in the fact that he’s not doing much, just watching the dream unfold along with the dreamer.

Soon, other people realize that Paul is the weird guy showing up in their dreams, and he becomes an internet sensation. His biology lectures go from sparsely attended to overflowing. Paul is, at first, amused and excited about his newfound notoriety. Maybe he can use his fame to get his book published.

But he can’t help but be a little disap-

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pointed that he never seems to actually do anything in the dreams but watch.

But as the phenomenon spreads, Paul gets his wish, and his image becomes an active participant in dreamtime. For some people, his presence is benevolent.

For others, like Molly (Dylan Gelula), it’s erotic. But most people see Paul trying to murder them in ways director Borgli has way too much fun staging.

Paul’s celebrity sours. The endorsement contract with Sprite, which marketing guru Trent (Michael Cera) painstakingly negotiated, is suddenly off the table. When Paul tries to hook up with his dream lover Claire IRL, it leads to one of the least erotic sex scenes ever committed to film. Even though real Paul has done nothing wrong, he is barred from his daughter’s school and

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This is what dreams are made of — Nic Cage, just being Nic Cage. forced to make an apology video. Naturally, that only makes things worse.

As usual, Cage is better than the material — and nobody does “schlub” better. But in this case, Borgli’s screenplay is thoughtful, and his execution is always impeccable. When the metaphor gets stretched thin, Cage is there to beam a goofy smile or wet his pants or do literally anything asked of him with manic charisma and superhuman intensity. Dream Scenario is a comedy that gets in your head.

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N O W P L AY I N G B y C h r i s M c C o y Our critic picks the best films in theaters.

The Boy and The Heron Legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki comes out of retirement for this “big, fantastical film.” The semi-autobiographical story involves 12-year-old Mahito who loses his mother during World War II. When his father remarries, he finds solace at an abandoned tower on the edge of town, where he befriends a talking heron. We assume that’s the fantastical part.

Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé On the high heels of Taylor Swift’s blockbuster concert film comes this spectacular from Queen Bey. Filmed during her 2023 tour, it provides both

intimate looks at the artist’s family and process and performances that will bring down the house.

Godzilla Minus One The King of the Monsters goes back to basics in this new film from Toho, the studio that started it all. Set in the 1940s, it brings back the look and feel of Ishirō Honda’s 1954 masterpiece Gojira. If you like your kaiju as fire-breathing symbols of man’s folly, rather than big cuddly robots, this one’s for you.

Die Hard It’s just not Christmas until Alan Rickman falls from the top of Nakatomi Tower. Is the Bruce Willis action classic the new It’s a Wonderful Life?

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A (Family) Memphis Weekend Friday fun, free art, and frightening heights.

Let’s be honest: Memphis has many outlets for adults and little kids, but there aren’t as many options that interest pre-teens and teenagers. So I’ve decided to be intentional and create a Memphis Weekend for my kiddos. Twice a month, we’ll go to a Memphis location on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Since we are a family of six and not overflowing in riches, our outings will always be wallet-friendly. Here were the stops for this past weekend.

PHOTO: PATRICIA LOCKHART

Friday: Crosstown Concourse There’s plenty of Memphis family fun After a school week, everyone needs to relax! Each person in this family has their own way of to be had on the weekends … even for relaxing. For my daughter, it’s fries and a book. One twin loves a good MemPop, while the other the kids. is more partial to artwork and scenery. My oldest must grab a pizza, play a game, or hear some cool beats. My husband enjoys a good cocktail. Me, I love it all!

Crosstown Concourse has everything. We first stop by MemPops and grab some minis. They are the perfect size to snack on while walking to the WYXR radio station. We sit and watch the people in the glass like a fish bowl. They always wave kindly to us. Next, we go to the other side of the stairs. My boys take a pit stop at Sweet Magnolia for some gelato. How they can eat sweets back-to-back is beyond me! My daughter, husband, and I share some fries from Farm Burger. We have balance! Something sweet and something salty.

We agreed to meet in the Memphis Listening Lab after snacking. My kids get a kick of listening to music from the 1900s. (I know, I know. I keep asking them to refer to my birth year as the 1980s, but they insist on saying that I was born during the 1900s! The disrespect!) Oh, the Listening Lab is free! After listening to a few tunes, the kids go to the big steps to read or play cards, while hubby and I grab a quick cocktail at Art Bar. The cocktails there are top-notch, and I love the oddly decorated yet comforting rooms.

When the kids start texting me they’re done, we take a walk through the Crosstown Arts Galleries, which are also free!

Before we knew it, we’d spent about two hours at Crosstown Concourse and enjoyed every minute of it. One day I hope to save up enough money to spend the weekend at Crosstown’s AirBnB Pettigrew Adventures. That would definitely make me Parent of the Year!

THE LAST WORD

Sunday: Memphis Rox I’m not afraid of heights. I’m simply afraid of falling. But my fear of landing face-first was not dampened by Memphis Rox’s atmosphere. This is a place where my teenagers are sure to be ready for a nap afterwards.

Because I’m new to rock climbing, I thought about taking the Top Rope Class. I felt it would be informative and reassuring. I thought if I had proper training and guidance, I could be the best climber in the building. I thought about how cool I would look scaling the wall and mastering near-impossible reaches. I thought about hanging from the “cliff ” by sheer finger strength. I thought the entire time … with my feet planted securely on the solid ground. I did not engage.

My family, however, thoroughly enjoyed themselves! They were climbing and bouldering as if they didn’t have a care in the world. Even my daughter was having a good time! (Which reminds me, when she was 4, she refused to hold my hand on the Ferris wheel when I was afraid. The disrespect!)

What I most love about Memphis Rox is that they exclude no one, regardless of ability to pay. While a day pass can cost anywhere from $10 for kids to $12 for adults, you’re also welcome to set a price that works for you.

Although I didn’t climb, I did sign up for Memphis Rox’s next community cleanup. It’s always good to give back! Register for the next event via Volunteer Odyssey. Next time, I promise I’ll try a little climbing.

Enjoy Memphis!

Patricia Lockhart is a native Memphian who loves to read, write, cook, and eat. Her days are filled with laughter with her four kids and charming husband. By day, she’s a school librarian and writer, but by night … she’s asleep. @realworkwife @memphisismyboyfriend

m e m p h i s f l y e r. c o m

Saturday: Memphis Brooks Museum of Art After a slow morning filled with video games and a melee of breakfast, we finally break out of our pajamas and head to the Brooks Museum. At the Brooks, the first Saturday of every month is Super Saturday. From 10 a.m. to noon, they have free admission and art making facilitated by an art educator. My kids love art galleries, but it’s not often they get to see Black art by Black artists. The Brooks currently has an exhibit called “Black American Portraits.” It’s so DOPE! My kids laughed, joked, and stood in awe of some of the work. While you can roam and view for yourself, we decided to get a guide. The docents were so knowledgeable and provided a lot of context about the work and artists. There was even some Memphis artwork by a Memphis artist showcased!

I’m going to remind you, like I have to remind my kids at every gallery we go to … Don’t get too close to the art! No matter how much it boggles and inspires you.

23

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