v8n22 - The Love Issue

The Love Issue starting on page 16

Endrun on Levees?

Ladd and Lynch, pp 10-13

Why I’m a Feminist Wilkes, p 15

Precocious Strings Gibson, p 31

Making a Case for God Mott, p 34

Vol. 8 | No. 22 // February 11 - 17, 2010

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February 11 - 17, 2010

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2

jacksonian

I

t may seem unlikely to see smiles on the faces of patients when walking into a doctor’s, dentist’s or therapist’s exam room. But become a fly on the wall at Balance Studio of Massage and Skin Therapy with canine massage therapist Tara Richardson, 32, and that’s exactly what you will witness.

During a recent massage session, Peaches, Richardson’s 15-year-old Chihuahua, had a blissful look of relaxation.

“Massage therapy on canines has the same benefits as with humans,” Richardson says. Those benefits include relieving aches and pains from arthritis, giving a boost to the immune system and assisting with maintaining bone density.

“I have a medical mind and a creative mind and wanted to mix the two. Massage therapy was the perfect blend for me,” Richardson says.

Richardson is the owner of Balance Studio, in the Orleans East Building in Flowood, and is certified in both human and canine-massage therapy. Although she holds a canine massage certification—the only one in the State of Mississippi on record, she says—she has had to suspend operations of this part of her business, known as Canine Comforts. She is currently working with the State Board of Massage Therapy to bring this part of her practice in line with state

LANGSTON MOORE

tara richardson law, which requires that a veterinarian be on the premises when Richardson works on a canine patient.

She considers her clients, human and canine, as part of her family, and says that she “goes on a search-and-destroy mission when serving each client to make them as comfortable as they can be.”

You will find no white walls in her office, instead orange and aqua blue which Richardson believes makes for a relaxing atmosphere.

Her philosophy of comfort helped Richardson to be voted one of the city’s best massage therapists in the Jackson Free Press’ Best of Jackson awards this year. And she would love to move to Jackson one day. Her love for the arts makes her yearn for a place in Fondren, not only to work, but to live as well. She has many friends in Fondren and would love to be closer to them and take advantage of all the area offers within walking distance.

In addition to having two massage certifications, Richardson enjoys being in the kitchen and cooking by not following recipes.

Because her boyfriend, Fernando, is of Puerto Rican descent, she recently learned to salsa dance for his sister’s wedding. She refers to skydiving as her relaxation activity. Before a shoulder injury, she jumped with the Gold Coast Skydiving Team twice a month and is anxious to jump again soon.

—Langston Moore

Cover illustration by Christi Vivar Febr uar y 11 - 17, 2 0 1 0

VOL.

8 NO. 22 XXXXX; COURTESY MYRA OTTEWELL; RIPTHESKULL / DAVE; COURTESY KNOPF

6

9

16

36

Homeless Ignored

Hard Homecoming

All About Love

Love of Language

The Jackson Fire Department overlooks a man killed in a fire—for two weeks.

Myra Ottewell returns to Jackson to confront the realities of the ’60s, 50 years later.

Everything you need for a fabulous V-Day, from food to gifts to great advice.

Author Steve Yarbrough brings the Mississippi Delta to life in his new novel.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 4 Editor’s Note 28 JFP Events

4 Slow Poke 31 Music

6 Talk 32 Music Listings

14 Zuga

14 Stiggers

34 Body/Soul

36 Books

14 Editorial 40 Slate

26 8 Days 41 Astro

jacksonfreepress.com

contents

3

Christi Vivar Production designer Christi Vivar is a native Jacksonian and honors graduate of Hinds Community College. She loves cooking, illustrating and playing video games with her hubby. A master of the art of sarcasm, she designed the cover.

Donna Ladd JFP editor-in-chief Donna Ladd is a Neshoba County native who graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

After being in exile from Mississippi for 18 years, she came on back where she damn-well belongs. She co-wrote the Super Talk.

Adam Lynch Award-winning senior reporter Adam Lynch is a Winona native and graduate of Jackson State.

He and his wife live in North Jackson. E-mail tips to adam@ jacksonfreepress.com, or call him at 601-362-6121, ext. 8. He cowrote the Super Talk.

Ronni Mott Ronni Mott came to Jackson by way of D.C. in 1997. She’s a writer, photographer and the JFP’s managing editor, where she practices her hobbies of herding cats and curmudgeonliness. She teaches yoga in her spare time.

She wrote a Talk and Body./Soul.

Thomas Beck Freelance photographer Thomas Beck’s work has appeared in numerous local, regional and national publications. His photography can be seen at www.beckphotographic.net. He photographed the Super Talk.

Darrell Creecy Darrell Creecy is a resident of Jackson but a New Orleans native. He is a half-ass Renaissance man, passionate about his personal advancement, and loves his kids to death. He wrote a Valentine’s Day piece.

ShaWanda Jacome Assistant to the editor ShaWanda Jacome recently returned to Mississippi after living in California for more than 20 years. She loves spending time with her family and enjoys good food, movies, reading and music. She did the gift guide.

February 11 - 17, 2010

Carl Gibson

4

Fresh out of Kentucky, Carl Gibson is a recent college graduate, new to Jackson. In his spare time, he enjoys playing drums on Farish Street and riding his bike around the reservoir. He still has yet to perfect his Southern drawl. He wrote a music piece.

editor’snote

by Lacey McLaughlin, Assistant Editor

Lovers Unite

A

s I sit down to write this editor’s note, I can barely make out the blurry words on my computer screen.

It’s been 24 hours since the Saints claimed a victorious Super Bowl win, and I’m still tearing up.

I am not a football fan, which has always been a disappointment to my father—a former University of Southern Mississippi linebacker. But this game was about more than football; it was about the unity of an entire city, perseverance and pure love.

At Markey’s Bar in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans, I watched grown men weep and strangers embrace when the Saints brought it home.

In the French Quarter, the streets flooded with people who danced on top of cars, high-fived each other, blasted car horns and cheered “Who Dat.” I continued to hear horns blaring and cheers well into the early hours of the morning when I woke up.

When I talked to New Orleans natives that night, many of them expressed how outsiders often view their city as corrupt, dirty and second-rate. The force of the Saints gave them something to hope for and renewed pride for their hometown. They’ve endured their share of hard times and misfortunes and for many, this win symbolized overcoming those obstacles.

The next morning, on my early trek home, I started thinking about Jackson— the city I have grown to love and call home.

Comparing Jackson and New Orleans can be a stretch, but I found similar themes in our attitudes. Often, Jacksonians are confronted by other’s stereotypes that Jackson is a crime haven and a place many fear based on speculation.

As if to combat those stereotypes, I find myself constantly gushing to many of my out-of-town friends about the spirit and soul of this city—something I feel sets Jackson apart from other places. When my friends do come for a visit, I am proud to take them to authentic places like The Cherokee Inn or Two Sisters Kitchen and introduce them to the people who make this city worth living in.

What I especially like about our capital city is the variety of progressive and positive conversations taking place.

A few months ago, during a Jackson Free Press Think Tank meeting, several idealistic citizens expressed the desire to find a unifying theme among residents that transcends race, class and generations. A few thought it could be the blues; others said food or the idea of having just one sports team. Perhaps we are already united by our soul and love for our city.

Like New Orleans, Jackson isn’t perfect.

We’ve had our share of poverty, government corruption, crime and infrastructure issues (can you say water?), but we are united by hope that we can dream big and make this city even better.

Since I started working at the Free Press last August, I have learned the importance of investing in the community and seeing the rewards. Donna Ladd and Todd Stauffer are constantly thinking of ways that our publication can give back and get involved.

Unlike many business models, this isn’t a concept in theory only—it’s ingrained into everything we do.

When we receive e-mails or letters expressing gratitude in our work or acknowledging the impact of a story, it puts our work into perspective.

We should celebrate our love–not only our love for each other, but our love for our city.

Last month, at the “Best of Jackson” party, I saw our hard work and the work of others in the community come to fruition. From JFP staffers—like designer Kristin Breneman who worked crazy-long hours with a smile on her face—to local

business owners—like Jeff Good whom I’ve watched joyfully run take-out orders to customer’s cars in the rain––“Best Of ” really embodied the tone of Jackson and recognized the people and places that make living here so great.

I don’t think it necessarily has to take a sports victory win for our city to unite, but I think we can learn from our neighbors and steal some of that spirit.

On my early trek home Monday morning, my tire blew out on Interstate 55. The unfortunate event jolted me back to reality, and I remembered that even in the sweetest moments, life is always throwing us curve balls and setbacks.

I also learned that I don’t own a spare tire or a valid AAA membership. As I sat in my car feeling mired in despair, an offduty fireman pulled up beside me and offered to help.

Without asking for anything in return, he took me to get a new tire and replaced the flat. On the way to the service station we gushed about the Saints win, Tracy Porter’s amazing interception and reflected on the entire season. I realized that the impact of the Saint’s win stretches farther than the city limits. If only for a brief moment, I hope this newfound attitude of perseverance, hope and optimism extends into our daily lives.

The people who go out of their way to make life better for others inspire me. With Valentine’s Day approaching, we should celebrate our love—not only for each other, but our love for our city. Let’s strive to see the bigger picture, especially when pettiness comes between us. I’ve learned that it’s our setbacks that make success and victory sweet.

5

jacksonfreepress.com

news, culture & irreverence

Thursday February 4 Stewpot Community Services holds a memorial service for Jeremy Smith, a 20-yearold homeless man who died in a Jackson warehouse fire. … Wal-Mart announces that the company will cut 300 administrative jobs at its Arkansas headquarters, adding to the 14,000 jobs the company has cut in the past 13 months. … Former Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Chief Phillip Martin dies after suffering a stroke.

Friday February 5 Gov. Haley Barbour announces a fourth round of budget cuts totaling $21 million. … President Barack Obama tells an audience at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser that health-care reform legislation may die in Congress.

Saturday February 6 The Jackson State University football team defeats Alcorn state 85-64. …

Sarah Palin gives the keynote address at the national “tea party” convention, taking the opportunity to criticize President Barack Obama and Congress.

Rev. Luther Ott helped lead a memorial service for Jeremy Smith on Feb. 4.

N

early two weeks after a fire destroyed a west Jackson warehouse, the Jackson Fire Department recovered the body of a homeless man, Jeremy Smith, in the collapsed structure. Now Smith’s family members want to know why it took investigators until Jan. 28 to discover

February 11 - 17, 2010

6

Tuesday February 9 Hundreds of Mississippi black farmers rally at Battlefield Park, asking for Congress to include compensation for discrimination in lending against farmers in a jobs bill. … First Lady Michelle Obama announces a national campaign to combat childhood obesity.

that Smith died in the Jan. 17 fire. They say that Smith, 20, was apparently sleeping in the building at the corner of Capitol and Lemon streets.

“Right now, the family is outraged and shocked,” said Tamara Smith, a cousin of Jeremy. “Why did no one think to say, ‘If that

by Ward Schaefer building caught on fire, is there a possibility someone could be in there?’ Why did it take two weeks for us to determine that there was a body in there?”

The area’s homeless population often used the abandoned warehouse for shelter.

Poindexter Park, across Capitol Street from the warehouse, is a regular daytime meeting place for the homeless in the area, and several day shelters and other community service centers are nearby.

Firefighters responded around 10 p.m. to a two-alarm blaze at the warehouse and had the fire under control within an hour.

Nevertheless, they apparently did not discover Smith’s body until Jan. 28, when Smith’s cousin, Michael Stanford, and a group of homeless persons from the park contacted police after seeing some of Smith’s clothing in the rubble.

“The thing we had a problem with is that the job of a fireman is to sift through the remains of a fire,” said Stephanie Echols, a family friend. “They just didn’t do that.”

The Fire Department’s Arson and Internal Affairs offices are located at 826 Amite St., almost directly across the street from the warehouse, Echols noted.

The Hinds County coroner’s office notified Smith’s family Jan. 29 after identifying Jeremy by fingerprints, which matched those DEATH, see page 7

JFP ALL-PURPOSE

Sunday February 7 The New Orleans Saints win the Super Bowl, defeating the Indianapolis Colts 31-17.

Monday February 8 The Rankin-Hinds Pearl Flood and Drainage Control District Levee Board votes to deliver a letter to the state Legislature opposing a bill that would expand the board’s membership and possibly reverse its decision on a controversial Pearl River development plan. … Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. holds a press conference to unveil 16 new JATRAN buses.

Sen. David Blount joins the fight to save women’s lives, p. 8

Man’s Death in Fire Questioned JESSE CROWE

Wednesday February 3 State Senate and House members begin negotiations on a bill that would restore money from the state’s rainy-day fund and health-care trust fund to offset Gov. Haley Barbour’s budget cuts. … Attorney General Eric Holder announces that he made the decision to charge the Christmas Day terrorist suspect, Umar Farouk Adulmutallab, in civilian court.

Falling in love can induce a calming effect on the body and mind and raises levels of nerve growth factor for about a year, which helps to restore the nervous system and improves the lover’s memory.

TTUB

B

T T U

“Look fella, you work your butt off as long as I have, and some jerk wants to come in here and start maligning me—I don’t take that lightly. And I mean it.” —Jackson businessman Leland Speed to the Jackson Free Press, after fellow Levee Board member Flowood Mayor Gary Rhoads accused him of having a conflict of interest due to Speed’s family property bordering the Pearl River.

M

y _______est ________, Everytime you _________ my ______ ___ goes ______. I love it when you ________ my _______. ________ is red, ________ is blue.

Your _______ reminds me of ________, back when __________ was _________. The very thought of you turns my _________ to ________.

Tis but thy ________ that is my ________. Be my ___________ ’cause ________ hurts.

Je t’ _________________ _____________________

talk

news, culture & irreverence

DEATH from page 6

taken when he was in juvenile detention.

He died from smoke inhalation and thermal burns, according to Hinds County Coroner Sharon Grisham-Stewart. Grisham-Stewart said that there were no signs of trauma.

Formerly a student in Jim Hill High School’s International Baccalaureate program, Smith was a soft-spoken and intelligent young man, the youngest and shyest of his four siblings, Tamara Smith said.

In October 2005, when Jeremy was 16, his mother died suddenly of a heart attack—a result of complications from heart failure and undiagnosed diabetes.

“He was a different Jeremy after his mom (died), prone to rambling and, later, bouts of paranoia,” Echols said.

Smith dropped out of school, spent a year in a mental-health facility in Hattiesburg and also had stints in several other homes.

He occasionally stayed with family members in Jackson but would grow suspicious that people had gone through his belongings and leave. He still maintained regular contact with family, though.

“Jeremy would check in with us about once a week,” Tamara Smith said. “He had just left his sister’s house on Sunday (the night of the fire).”

Tamara Smith, who directs Good Samaritan Midtown’s Montessori pre-kindergarten program, said that she is baffled that the Fire Department did not return to the building earlier. Investigators who worked across the street from the warehouse would have known

that homeless people used it: “Human nature should kick in, and you should think that’s a possibility.”

Arson investigator Greg Travis said Friday, Feb. 5, that the Fire Department had not yet determined the cause of the fire. When asked why investigators did not discover Smith’s body after extinguishing the fire, Travis did not provide a complete explanation.

“Right now we’re looking at things— we’re still looking,” Travis said.

Family and friends of Smith gathered Thursday for a memorial service at Stewpot Community Services. Yolanda Kirkland, Stewpot’s director of teen services, knew Jeremy from the organization’s summer camps.

Even after dropping out and struggling with mental illness, he would stop by weekly to check in with her.

“When Jeremy didn’t make his weekly visit, we thought maybe he was hanging out at the family house,” Kirkland said after his memorial service. “Everybody thought he was with someone else.”

“When that building burned down— they knew homeless hang out there. If you would’ve looked, you would’ve seen him,” she said, her voice shaking and her eyes brimming with tears behind purple-tinted glasses.

“Death happens in this community a lot, but I just felt they did a half-job.”

The ACLU of Mississippi is working with Smith’s family to get their questions answered. On Monday, Smith’s family hosted a press conference with ACLU staff and announced the filing of a complaint with the Fire Department’s Internal Affairs Division.

The Cure Sickle Cell Foundation presents The Fourth Annual

Express Lunch STARTING

February 8th

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Tickets are $25

NOW ACCEPTING RESERVATIONS for Valentine’s Weekend

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FEBRUARY 12, 13 AND 14 Sponsored by:

5402 I-55 Frontage Rd. Jackson MS steamroomgrille.com

New Buses Give Boost to JATRAN

by Lacey McLaughlin FILE PHOTO

T

Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. unveiled 16 new JATRAN buses Monday afternoon.

possible need to cut bus routes because of insufficient funds. The city council voted to approve a $1.2 million budget transfer from the city’s general fund last July, and in August, Johnson transferred $4.2 million again to save JATRAN. With a 14 percent decline in the city’s sales-tax revenue, future funding for the city’s bus remains in question.

“The administration is currently in the process of looking at the (JATRAN) budget and the city budget,” Mims said.

The city council will vote on the budget for fiscal year 2010-2011 on Sept. 15.

jacksonfreepress.com

he uncertain future of JATRAN became a bit more certain Feb. 8 when Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. unveiled 16 new JATRAN buses at an afternoon press conference.

City spokesman Chris Mims said the city was able to purchase the new buses with a Federal Transit Administration grant made up of 85 percent in federal dollars with a match from the city.

Mims said the city applied for the grant in 2008 and ordered the vehicles in 2009. The new buses will be in service by the end of the week.

The new fleet includes 13 30-foot buses costing $1.4 million and three 27foot buses totaling $270,579 with handilift services for disabled citizens. Currently, JATRAN has 42 buses in total.

“These buses will replace the buses in JATRAN’s existing fleet that have reached the end of their useful life, mileage and age,” Mims said. “It will certainly improve the reliability of service.”

Mims said the grant doesn’t cover operational costs, which is where concern lies for future JATRAN funding. Last year the city held a public hearing about the

7

Legislature: Week 5

by Jesse Crow, Lacey McLaughlin and Ward Schaefer

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Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, recently authored and introduced three bills on stalking and domestic violence.

J

ackson state Sen. David Blount has pushed through three bills strengthening domestic-violence laws and protecting victims of abuse.

“We have an unacceptably high number of instances of domestic violence in the state, and we have a weak stalking law that needs to be reformed,” Blount said. “After meeting with people from the Attorney General’s office and from the Coalition Against Domestic Violence, I was convinced this was the right thing and something we needed to do.”

Mississippi is one of eight states that do not prohibit insurance companies from denying coverage to victims of domestic violence.

Senate Bill 2344 would end “unfair discrimination against subjects of abuse in health benefit plans.”

Although health-care providers are able to refuse coverage on the basis of abuse under current law, there have been no reported instances in the state thus far; one suspected reason there has been no reform of the law until now.

S.B. 2344 passed unanimously in the Senate on Feb. 3. The bill was sent to the House of Representatives the next day. If this

LAUGHTER IS A GIFT FROM GOD

Come be a part of a Community of Joy!

February 11 - 17, 2010

Services:

8

10:30 am and

6:00 pm 650 E South St. Jackson, MS 39201

(601)944-0415

bill is signed into law, insurance providers in the state will no longer have the option to deny coverage to someone solely because they have been abused. Its sister bill in the House, H.B. 657, passed by a majority vote on Feb. 4 and has moved to the Senate.

“I couldn’t predict whether it will be the House Bill or the Senate Bill that we hope ultimately makes it to the governor,” Blount said. “I have no pride of authorship. If it’s the House Bill, and it achieves the same goal, that’s fine with me.”

Another bill that would require Gov. Haley Barbour to jump through extra hoops when he frees prisoners made it out of the House Corrections Committee last week. Authored by Rep. Brandon Jones, D-Pascagoula, House Bill 155 would require the state board to make a recommendation in favor or against a pardon.

Currently, there is no oversight or requirement on the governor’s power to grant pardons. Since 2008, Barbour has pardoned or suspended the sentence of at least five convicted killers—four of whom killed their wives or girlfriends, as the JFP revealed.

“It doesn’t change the authority of the governor; it allows another set of eyeballs to obtain the file to consider a pardon and make a recommendation,” Jones told the Jackson Free Press.

Jones explained that the governor has made pardons without considering the cases.

“The governor can make a decision and it can do little with the things that have to do with why they are in prison,” Jones said.

“For example, pardoning someone on the basis that they are model prisoners really misses the point.”

Jones said he expects the bill to be debated on the House floor this week.

Plans to fill the growing hole in the state’s current budget moved forward Tuesday when the House and Senate picked conferees to negotiate a compromise budget plan. House lawmakers approved a bill two weeks ago that would draw $50 million from each of two state reserve funds—the health-care trust fund and the rainy-day

fund—to restore budget cuts to some key agencies. On Feb. 5, the Senate passed a competing proposal that would take $58 million from the health-care trust fund only and distribute the money differently.

Hours after the Senate proposal passed on Feb. 9, Barbour announced another round of state budget cuts totaling $21 million. Those cuts, which represent roughly 0.5 percent of the state budget, bring total cuts for the 2010 fiscal year to $458.5 million. The governor warned that this round of reductions was based on the highest of three different estimates of future tax revenues.

“These cuts are probably optimistic,” Barbour said. “There was conversation among some in state government that we were cutting too much. My own view is that if there’s a criticism, it’s that we’re not cutting enough.”

State tax collections for January fell $40.5 million, or 11.1 percent, below expectations, Barbour said. State law currently allows Barbour to make only equal, across-the-board cuts to all state agencies.

All state agencies, except those governed by court order or protected by other statutes, are now roughly 8.7 percent below their original budget.

“I wish the Legislature allowed the governor to have more flexibility, so that I could cut some things less than 8 percent,” Barbour said. “The ability to set some priorities would be useful for the governor.”

The state Senate passed a bill that would have given Barbour authority to cut any agency budget by any amount, but the House has opposed any such proposal.

“While we remain apart on where to get the money and how much to use, this is an encouraging part of the legislative process,” House Speaker Billy McCoy, D-Renzi, said in a statement naming the House’s budget negotiators. “We cannot be half-hearted when education and vital priorities are at stake. It is time for compassion. I am always optimistic and believe the glass is half full instead of half empty.”

racetalk

by Ronni Mott

Eyes Wide Shut COURTESY MYRA OTTEWELL

A

Filmmaker Myra Ottewell speaks at the premiere of “Mississippi ReMixed.”

subservient, tied to cotton plantations and isolated from any opportunity for social or economic advancement.

From Susan Glisson of the William Winter Institute, she learns about the activities of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. From Gov. Winter, that racism was thoroughly entrenched in Mississippi. She learns of her father’s complicity in keeping blacks out of her white neighborhood. She talks with Brad “Kamikaze” Franklin about black apathy, Dolphus Weary about black inferiority, with JFP editor-in-chief Donna Ladd about dealing with instead of burying the past.

Despite Ottewell’s courage, the documentary has a few disturbing moments.

Viewing the house in Jackson where she grew up, she fails to address the boarded-up house behind her. Saying that she loved and respected blacks growing up, she also admits to her then-contempt of black civil-rights workers for upsetting the unjust “peace.” She learns of footage shot by local TV during the Civil Rights Era that was never aired, yet doesn’t delve into the complicity of mainstream media in keeping the populace of the state ignorant.

She shows politicians at a ’60s Neshoba County Fair, yet makes no attempt to connect the rhetoric of the past—“dictatorial … left-wing social planners”—with the rhetoric of 2010.

“Mississippi ReMixed” is best seen as a personal journey toward banishing one woman’s ignorance. It isn’t meant to be a comprehensive historical perspective, and it’s not.

Ottewell tries a little too hard to find instances of how much Mississippi has changed.

She goes to McComb to attend a graduation of 10 students expelled in the ’60s for supporting a student who joined the civil rights struggle. She has to follow the white and black middle-class flight from Jackson to Madison Central High School in order to show a successfully integrated school where black and white children can be best friends—an unsatisfying end to an unfinished journey.

Finally, through juxtaposing a Martin Luther King speech with glowing positive images of success, Ottewell fails to point to the rest of the path, or even to acknowledge that Mississippi—and possibly Ottewell herself—still has a long way to go.

“Mississippi ReMixed” airsThursday, Feb. 11 at 8 p.m. on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.

jacksonfreepress.com

bout four years ago, a colleague invited Myra Ottewell, a native Jacksonian and teacher in British Columbia, to speak to his class after they viewed “Mississippi Burning,” the 1988 movie about the murders of civil rights workers Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner in Philadelphia, Miss., in 1964. Expecting a discussion about her home state, Ottewell was met with skepticism. She was defensive, they said, and they dismissed her as “an ignorant white woman who couldn’t see beyond her picket fence.”

From the experience, Ottewell was compelled to examine the beliefs she grew up with, about the relationships between blacks and whites, and about how far the Magnolia State had come since the Civil Rights Era. “Mississippi ReMixed” is the result.

At its best, the documentary is a story of one woman’s struggle to come to terms with a brutal history she was blissfully unaware of for decades. Although she grew up in the midst of the Civil Rights Era—graduating from Provine High School in 1964 and attending Mississippi State College for Women—the people of Ottewell’s idyllic white upbringing clearly sheltered her from seeing the reality of the economic and social norm of the day: white supremacy. And not seeing it, she had no impetus to examine it. The experience of seeing through the slats of her black maid’s shotgun-house walls to the yard seems to have been curiously unaffecting. She knew she wasn’t supposed to drink from the colored water fountain at the zoo, but couldn’t say why.

“Everybody knew their place,” she says in “Mississippi ReMixed.” And that place, for a middle-class white kid growing up in Jackson after World War II—whether she knew it or not—was one of power and privilege. That understanding was a revelation to Ottewell.

“How could I have been so sheltered and so naive to have been raised here and not have felt more about it or known more about it?” asks her childhood friend Caroline, a Jackson State professor, about the vicious realities of racism. It’s a question central to Ottewell’s journey. Whites could “love” their black domestics, could even play with black children, as long as those blacks also knew their place. It was a simple, brutal code of behavior entrenched in Mississippi society for hundreds of years, one with echoes that persist in the present.

Ottewell interviews numerous personalities working for racial justice in modern-day Mississippi. From Carlton Turner of Turner World Around Productions, she learns that the economic plight of many of today’s black Mississippians is not because of some mythical “racial work habits,” but because of institutionalized racism dating back centuries.

Ottewell discovers that her great-great grandfather got his 240 acres free through the federal swamp land grant of 1850. Owning land was a whites-only cornerstone that allowed her family to survive the Great Depression. Federal and state laws well into the mid-20th century kept blacks in their place:

9

pearl river talk

part 1 in a series

TOM BECK

Little Love for Levees

The Levee Board angered member Leland Speed (center) Monday by voting to protest an effort by the Legislature to give the state the power to re-shape the board. Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. (left) voted for the letter; business Socrates Garrett (right) abstained. The bill could bring Two Lakes back from the dead.

T

February 11 - 17, 2010

he meeting room for the Rankin-Hinds Pearl Flood and Drainage Control District Levee Board in Flowood filled with rancor Monday, Feb. 8, after the board learned that the state Legislature may vote to dilute its authority to make flood-control decisions for the metro area, clearing the way for the controversial Two Lakes development plan to come back to life.

The majority—the mayors of Jackson, Pearl, Flowood and Richland, along with Chairman Billy Orr—voted to send a letter of protest to the Legislature, as Two Lakes proponent Leland Speed protested and businessman Socrates Garrett sat quietly. Garrett is also on record for Two Lakes, although it was unclear what he thought about the board being re-engineered for a tailor-made vote in favor of Two Lakes. He abstained.

The Jackson mayor wasn’t so reticent.

“This is an effort to anticipate involvement and to involve the state, when it should be at a local level right now,” Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. said of the bill sponsored by Rep. Mary Coleman, D-Jackson. “If the state is forthcoming with money, then I agree with you: There should be representation. But until that time, it’s a local matter, and I don’t think the governor or the lieutenant governor should have appointees on this board.”

The attempted realignment may be the result of the Levee Board moving late last year to follow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineer’s advice on flood control, thus ensuring $133 million in federal funds about to go away if the foot-dragging continued. Late in 2009, the Levee Board voted to support the Corps’ choice of a more basic, and expedient, leveesonly plan instead of a lake-development plan.

The Corps received a Jan. 5, 2010, letter from the board expressing its support for pursuing a comprehensive levee plan “contingent upon various conditions being met.” According to mayors, those include a recreation component and a future impoundment if needed.

For instance, Johnson really wants a river walk downtown, and the Flowood mayor wouldn’t mind one in Flowood as well.

Johnson said at a January editorial meeting with the JFP that he and others on the 10 Levee Board want to work with the Corps to

update the levee plan because the cost of the alternative is prohibitive. The Corps estimates that environmental mitigation alone on the Two Lakes plan would cost upward of a billion dollars, even though Lakes supporters routinely downplay those costs.

“They’ve done a great job of focusing the debate away from the cost of these other options to the cost of levees,” Johnson said. “Any option will be expensive, and I don’t buy that the private sector can come up with $400 million or $600 million to pay for an option.”

The board is now moving to iron out details on beginning the drawdown of federal money in preparation for a final report on levee construction, which the Corps estimated would cost about $1 million.

Jackson said he has met with the Corps and hopes that the levee plan on the books— developed in 1996 with no update due to political pressure on the Corps by then-Rep. Chip Pickering, a friend of Two Lakes—can be greened and made more attractive.

While the board is working to fund the next phase of the levee project, members are exploring possible upgrades to what essentially is a 10-year-old plan, which many levee and Two Lakes critics consider minimalistic at best, an environmental nightmare at worst.

Damn Rotten Ugly Face it: Levees are damn ugly. The Levee Board is only now coming to full grips with the apparent unsightliness of the old levee plan because members spent the majority of the last decade coming to terms with the impossibility of McGowan’s lake plan for flood control. McGowan for years sold to the levee board (with varying degrees of success and varying versions of the plan) the possibility of a lake or lakes to hold floodwater. Constant rain north of the city of Jackson in 1979 resulted in more than $200 million in damage as floodwater backed up over and around the incomplete levee system partially protecting the city of Jackson and Rankin County.

Without acknowledging that the plan could be updated, McGowan argues that the 1996 levee plan, “is one of the ugliest proposals the city of Jackson could face.”

“The people of Jackson aren’t going

to pay for an ugly, bare pile of dirt cutting northward. They’ve got to have something for their money,” McGowan said at a Levee Board meeting in September. That “something” is more than 100 miles of shoreline that Two Lakes proponents ambitiously predict would be worth $2,000 per square foot (making 1,000 feet of shorefront worth $2 million, and raising taxes accordingly for land owners).

McGowan has pledged some of his own property to the government, but his family and business associates and related LLCs own many acres of land in the Two Lakes footprint, much of which would become lakefront.

Since the Levee Board voted to kill his plan in December by pursuing levees, McGowan has focused a public-relations assault against those levees. Looking past the irony that the old plan might have been reworked long ago had it not been for the strength of McGowan’s lobby, his criticism of the nowdated levees plan hits its target.

Levees, nothing more than a trapezoidal pile of dirt, sure would be uglier than a big, happy lake. The Corps plan currently contains no scenic additions.

Downtown Jackson Partners President Ben Allen argues that the levee plan has too many flaws to be acceptable to local voters, who will have to approve a referendum to carry the new taxes to help pay for it.

“A 100-yard swath on each side of all of the levees will be scorched earth forever to assist water flow in the flooded area. Adding this to the width of the levees will equate into a 300-yard-wide scorched earth area throughout the entire levee system,” Allen wrote on the Downtown Jackson blog. “[T]here will be no development within the confines of the proposed Pearl River levees, unless one wishes to invest with cash.

No bank will loan money in an area prone to flooding,” he added.

Insured by Taxpayers, So Far Insurance agent Hank Aiken owns a business on Dunbarton Drive just south of Lakeland with its backside dipping into the chill waters of the Pearl swamp. He says his father purchased the flood-prone land in 1978.

The incomplete levee system offering equally incomplete protection to the downtown section of Jackson in 1979 does not extend to Aiken’s business.

The owners of R.W. Aiken Insurance Agency—at least for a very brief time—were OK with setting up shop slap-dab in the middle of a floodplain. Insurance was cheap, and a flood seemed a distant threat.

“When my dad bought this land, he knew he was adjacent to the Pearl River swamp, but he also knew he was above the 100-year flood plain. When he finished building this building in 1978, he bought federal flood insurance,” Aiken said. “It hadn’t flooded prior to 1979 because the land was created in 1978. They made an earthen dam and pumped silt into it for about a quarter of

the year, back before it was against the law to do that, I guess.”

But the 1979 flood proved the developer wrong, and easily conquered the Aiken foundation, filling the interior of his business suite with at least five feet of water.

Levees are no improvement, from Aiken’s standpoint. The design of the 1996 Corps levee plan will leave his business in the veritable bottle-neck of an expanded levee system, making his business too prone to flooding to be usable. The plan sets aside about $17 million for the relocation of businesses build in the floodplain. Aiken would likely be one of them—and he’s not happy with it.

“I don’t want them to take my land by eminent domain and pay me 10 cents on the dollar,” Aiken said.

“Yes, it goes against common sense to build in a floodplain, but my Dad thought he was no longer prone to flood because of the raised land. They had one of the highest traffic roads, you’re close to the best part of town, and you can rest assured that nobody’s going to build behind you, so you’ll be looking at the wooded nature area back there for the rest of time. The area has its advantages.”

McGowan said the businesses in Aiken’s corridor would suffer no eminent-domain problems under his lake plan, however, even though unoccupied land will. “In fact, it helps them,” McGowan said in December. “That flood-prone property of theirs will become beautiful lakefront property with virtually no chance of flooding. The value of their land will go up. You can’t tell me that somebody getting that kind of benefit wouldn’t be willing to pay a little extra to have it.”

McGowan’s most recent Two Lakes blueprint shows that he has drawn his shoreline around existing businesses, creating islands along Lakeland to contain those built in the floodplain (and, in some cases, land owned by LLCs managed by his business associates).

Ward 1 Councilman Jeff Weill also has had his law office in the flood plain on Lelia Drive since he bought it in 1990 (across the street from the planned Two Lakes shoreline).

Unlike Aiken’s family and like many other business owners in the area, he bought the flood-prone property after the 1979 flood—a decision that can seem odd on its face.

He says it made sense. “They’re talking about this being a multi-hundred year flood (zone), and since I bought this building about 11 years after the last one, I figured my greatgreat grandchildren would have to worry about it, but I don’t,” Weill said this week.

“It’s a great location, a perfect building for a small law practice, and I’m insured against the possibility of flooding.”

Weill said the flood insurance has been “extremely inexpensive” due to federal subsidy. “If the building floods, then Uncle Sam will come and pay for that,” he said.

‘What Do They Care?’

Just as Mayor Johnson warns that Two

by Adam Lynch and Donna Ladd

Levee Board Chairman Billy Orr is against the Levee Board re-do.

result, McGowan expounds at length that the levee plan is only 79 percent effective.

Levee Board member Leland Speed, a businessman and former Mississippi Development Authority head, argues that pumps are absolutely necessary, however.

“They’re leaving the folks of Jackson to the floodwater,” Speed said in December.

“They don’t care what happens here in Jackson. The people over there running the Corps don’t live here. They’re only there for a few months before they move on and leave the problem with somebody else who also doesn’t have a real stake in Jackson. They come and go, so what do they care for my city?”

Some fellow Levee Board members, however, are openly critical of Speed’s role on the board, supposedly representing the State Fairgrounds rather than landowners in Eastover who could make a lot of money off new waterfront property. Flowood Mayor Gary

Rhoads this week told Speed he should step down because his family owns a small-butwell-situated piece of property that Two Lakes maps indicates could be adjacent to water.

Speed was offended at the suggestion that he had a conflict of interest that should preclude him sitting on the Levee Board. “Look fella, you work your butt off as long as I have, and some jerk wants to come in here and start maligning me—I don’t take that lightly. And I mean it,” he told the Jackson Free Press, as well as Rhoads, at the meeting.

Neither Speed or other Two Lakes partisans, such as Allen, believe that the city can get away with not paying for the pumps, even if they aren’t included in the levees construction.

Allen argues on his blog that Jackson would have to cover a total share of about $162 million for the project.

“This local share would have to be raised with taxes in Hinds and Rankin counties. A voter referendum would be needed for an increase in property taxes (to fund the levees), a legislatively approved sales-tax increase vote, or some other citizen-approved tax increase, and 60 percent of the voters in both counties would be necessary for approval,” Allen wrote.

“From Puckett to Pisgah, Edwards to Flora, Jackson to Pearl and on,” (the tax increase would need) 60 percent approval. ...

This will never happen.”

Allen has made clear that he will oppose any attempt to move toward levees and has proposed several public-private options for paying for Two Lakes instead—a route Johnson finds unrealistic for such a large and risky investment.

“The biggest problem, I expect, would be finding enough people willing to invest in the stock,” the mayor said wryly.

Levees v. the Environment The concerns over the levees do not begin or end with lakes advocates. Environmental engineer Pleas McNeel, a long-time opponent to McGowan’s lake plan for several reasons, emphasizes he has little love for the 1996 levee plan, either.

“If you’re an opponent of a levees plan, you couldn’t pick a better proposal to be the only alternative to McGowan’s Two Lakes. It’s not a pretty picture. It’s filled with flaws and not an easy sell. Frankly, we need to re-engage the Corps and try to figure out if we can get flood control back on track,” McNeel said.

When McNeel says “flood control,” he means options Two Lakes supporters have shot down out of hand, and through political means, for years, such as dry dams, buy-outs, impoundments, or a smart combination of some or all of those with levees.

McNeel, who wants to put the wetlands area bordering the Pearl River to better, and greener, use as a local tourist attraction, has long warned that the levees would damage some of the more vibrant sections of valuable wetland.

“Looking at the levee plan, it’s hard to believe that it’s actually more environmentally benign than the lake plan,” McNeel said.

Retired water engineer and Two Lakes opponent Tom Pullen noted that the current design in the levee plan cuts through a portion of the LeFleur’s Bluff State Park, particularly some wetland areas backing up against Eubanks Creek.

“The problem with the way the levees currently look is they’ll mess up the wetlands behind the levee,” Pullen said.

Wetlands derived from the rhythmical flooding of the Pearl River every spring depend upon the drainage of the river to maintain the quality of the water.

Without the flow of the Pearl carrying away whatever obnoxious chemicals the local populace dumps into their rain gutters (cans of paint, motor oil and assorted jugs of who-knows-what, etc.) the water becomes low-grade and stagnant, similar in quality to some of the levee-impounded wetlands on the Rankin side of Old Brandon Road.

“There will still be a wetland area there, but it wouldn’t function like a natural wetland anymore. What it would become is a tap for run-off from the surrounding developed areas.

It would be polluted. Some of that is fairly viable,” Pullen said.

“Maybe with a little design change, they could make the levee a little longer and go further up the valley of Eubanks Creek.”

Corps spokesman Kavanaugh Breazeale said the Corps would not be willing to address “hypothetical questions” concerning added costs to levee alteration at this point.

“If the sponsor makes a specific request, we will study that on a case-by-case basis,” Breazeale said last week.

Expanding Bottlenecks?

Other issues with the levee lie with its narrow bottleneck design. The 1996 map shows that the levees nearly hug the river in every section with the exception of the fairgrounds.

“When the Corps designed the levee, it factored everything around environmental mitigation and costs,” Kamien told the Jackson Free Press in September. “The levee plan is designed to achieve the greatest cost-benefit.”

But Pullen said a design change that expanded the territory inside the levees could mean the levees would not have to be so high.

“If new levees are to be built upstream from Lakeland Drive, according to the plans I’ve seen, they wouldn’t be located as far from the river as I’d like to see them,” Pullen said.

“I’d like to see the levees as far upland as possible, so the amount of land that’s left in the floodplain in a natural state is naturalized. It could be done. The design currently has a straight-line levee, but the Corps can modify it to go around something like that. It depends on how many feet of levees it adds.”

Crystal Lake Park, on the Rankin side of the river, would benefit from moving the levees back, keeping the water viable for fishing and tourism. The park would be subject LEVEES, see page 12

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TOM BECK

Lakes supporters vastly downplay the cost of their plan and are over-confident that banks will buy into a plan with uncertain payoffs far in the future, Two Lakes supporters warn that the old levee plan does not include additional local charges with which the city of Jackson will have to contend.

The Corps estimates the cost of the levees to be about $206 million, but that figure does not include McGowan’s estimated price of $90 million worth of backwater pumps to drain two Jackson creeks over the levee floodgates in the event of a heavy rain over Jackson.

The levee plan, as is, includes floodgates to prevent the rising river from flowing back into town creeks and engulfing creek banks and the homes and businesses on top of them.

The Corps is willing to settle for a levee plan without pumps because they point to a scientific unlikelihood of heavy local rains coinciding with a rush of southbound floodwaters. The 1979 tragedy, for example, happened with only modest local rain, with the brunt of the water emanating from northern storms, the Corps says.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Chief of Project Management Doug Kamien told the Levee Board last September that the Corps estimated the chances of the double-whammy to be low, but nevertheless adjusted the degree of flood protection offered by the levees to only 79 percent because of the possibility. As a

11

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pearl river talk

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part 1 in a series

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to occasional flooding with the levees pushed back, but the water would hardly do damage to a park designed to experience floods. The nearby land is undeveloped and not subject to flood insurance requirements, so putting the park back in front of the levees, according to Pullen, would enliven it.

But the costs incurred in levee construction don’t stop at height. Builders have to move considerably more than just an extra foot of dirt to add a foot to the top of a levee.

The rule-of-thumb approach to raising the levee another foot is that designers must also add a foot of dirt at the bottom of the levee, because the structure has to be wide enough to accommodate a taller top. Lowering the height of levees would compensate for a portion of the cost of moving the levees back, but the savings would likely be minimal.

Breazeale said the next step in the levee process—a review jointly financed by the Levee Board and the Corps—would review the currently proposed alignment, as well as options for reducing costs. Breazeale would not say if cost reductions could include reduced levee height as a result of expanding any bottlenecks.

‘Social Darwinism’ Pearl River Basin Development District Executive Director Mike Davis, who helped design the 1996 levee plan, said the old plan did contain bike paths and walking trails.

“Back in 1996, there were proposed recreational projects that would create places for people to go and exercise and beautification, for parking areas, trees and landscaping. That’s a project we recommended to the Corps in 1996, but unfortunately it hasn’t gone anywhere since that time because of all the focus on the lakes,” Davis said.

The current plan does not yet contain any recreational features.

Federal law already requires beneficiaries to bear part of the costs of installing and all of the costs for managing recreation developments at federal water resources projects.

Construction costs for eligible recreational facilities on federal levee projects normally are cost shared 50/50 with the local sponsor, which also must provide all lands, easements, and rights-of-way and must pay for reloca-

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LEVEES, from page 11

Flowood Mayor Gary Rhoads and Richland Mayor Mark Scarborough are ready to pursue levees, and are against the Legislature moving in on the Levee Board.

tions, operation and maintenance.

It is the policy of federal construction agencies to restrict cost sharing to those types of recreational facilities that promote general public use and enjoyment of the project. (The construction of high-end business suites, apparently, don’t count).

Breazeale said any recreation features of the levees would be cost-shared 50-50 between the Corps and the local sponsor. “The current study does not yet contain a recreation feature,” he said. “The rules for cost share have not changed since 1996.”

Johnson expressed optimism that a new, friendlier attitude toward the Corps out of the Levee Board and the metro community can result in an upgrade of the 1996 plan that includes economic-development components.

Critics say the levees need a lot more than walking trails, however. Johnson told the JFP that he wants to “bring the river to the city,” and advocates heavily for beautification that make the levees more of an asset to development, particularly in the downtown area.

The proposed levee at Lakeland Drive will be running alongside high-end real estate at Eastover and adjacent neighborhoods—areas that probably would not appreciate a bald grassy wall of dirt cutting across the lawn.

Johnson suggests a levee design that includes scenic foliage and walking trails directly connected to paths and sidewalks behind the levee. But the Corps does not approve of much foliage growing on the levees. Even low-growing shrubbery gets mowed. Vegeta-

tion roots, while great for holding soil in place on a mountainside, can tear a levee to bits.

Some levees can accommodate limited vegetation, but only if the levee is of significant enough size to withstand the intrepid tendrils of plant roots. Expanding the size of the levee naturally comes with cost increases.

Johnson has not yet revealed how additional beautification could be financed.

With all the issues, and no-matter-what opposition, piling up against the 1996 plan, the Levee Board undoubtedly will have a hard time selling the concept to the voting populace. Of course, the alternative could be, as Aiken puts it, “a little social Darwinism.”

“If people can’t buy flood insurance because the federal government says the National Flood Insurance Program has already paid you for three total losses so we’re just not going to insure you anymore, then the homeowners and businesses will have no choice but to move out of the floodplain on their own,” Aiken said, adding that there is no guarantee that either the residents or the business owners will relocate in Jackson.

For now, at least some of the businesses in the floodplain seem as far behind on getting information about flood-control options and dangers (beyond Two Lakes, anyway) as the rest of the populace. Over on Lelia Drive, Councilman Weill said he is not sure if he is in Ben Allen’s feared “scorched-earth zone.”

“Am I in it? I haven’t seen the proposed levee locations. ... I don’t suppose you could tell me where they are, can you?”

CUPID HAS HIS HANDS FULL!

Pearl River-Related Bills

by Ward Schaefer

Buy local and give a handmade gift 398 Hwy. 51 • Ridgeland, MS (601) 853-3299 • www.villagebeads.com

Rep. Bill Denny, R-Jackson, is one of the legislators sponsoring a bill to allow state officials to stack the Levee Board and take away local control.

mittee would be the governor, the lieutenant governor, House speaker and the executive director of the Department of Environmental Quality.

Another bill passed by the House this month shows that legislators are closely watching the actions of the local Levee Board. House Bill 918, authored by Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, restricts the use of the state’s eminent-domain law for economic development—with an exception for flood-control projects. The bill “shall not apply to drainage and levee facilities and usage, roads and bridges for public conveyance, (and) flood control projects with a levee component ….”

The legions of the DOA bills impacting local flood control contain two bills by Sen. John Horhn. Senate Bill 2825 would have allowed floating casinos on the Pearl River “within the corporate limits of a municipality with a population of 150,000 or more according to the most recent federal decennial census.” Horhn’s other bill, Senate Bill 2669, would have allowed the governor to appoint to the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District two members from a list of six names submitted by the governing authorities of the city of Jackson.

jacksonfreepress.com

The district is currently only willing to contain an extra four feet of water in the event of a flood similar to the 1979 Easter Flood that inundated a huge portion of downtown Jackson and portions of Rankin County, partially because the reservoir is more comparable to a very large shallow bath-tub, with the average depth being 10 or 11 feet.

A return to the district’s “purpose for which it was created” as envisioned in the Yancey bill could pave the way for a district more friendly toward Two Lakes, despite the reservour’s mechanical drawbacks.

Another living bill, House Bill 1549, authored by Mary Coleman, D-Jackson, and co-sponsored by Bill Denny, R-Jackson, and Rita Martinson, R-Madison, would expand the Levee Board’s membership with state appointees and extra members for Hinds County.

The Rankin-Hinds Pearl Flood and Drainage Control District Levee Board voted Monday to send a letter opposing the bill to legislators, arguing that the bill would turn over local flood control along the Pearl River to state officials who do not live in the flood-prone area around the Pearl River and who have no financial stake in the project.

Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. warned that expanding the board’s membership would be counter-productive.

Another bill authored by Coleman, House Bill 1548, which passed the House this month, creates a joint legislative committee to scrutinize the effectiveness of flood and drainage control districts in the state. Her bill would create a committee “to determine whether through the existence of these districts, the overflow and surface waters have been controlled to insure adequate protection to the inhabitants of the State of Mississippi, to study the economic impact of the potential development of lands within these districts, and to make recommendations regarding the districts’ functional operations as they relate to their existence.”

Making appointments to the com-

FILE PHOTO

L

egislators introduced a number of bills during this year’s legislative session that would have had some bearing on Pearl River flood control, although a few of the measures are dead. Among the living are Senate Bill 2936: “[a]n act to limit the powers of the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District to the basic purposes for which it was created: to preserve, store, conserve and control waters of the pearl river for domestic municipal, commercial, industrial, agricultural and manufacturing purposes.”

The bill is a watered-down version of Brandon Republican Sen. Lee Yancey’s earlier goal to “end” the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District. After revising this initial goal, Yancey finally filed a bill merely limiting the district’s powers. He told the Jackson Free Press that he wanted more local control of the district, with some members being elected instead of the usual appointment process for board members. He also wants the district to surrender land it owns for eventual private ownership.

The bill appears to follow Yancey’s motivation of transferring land control by providing for the transfer of lands belonging to the district to the counties in which the land lies. Critics of the Two Lakes development proposal for the Pearl River point out that the original-intent language of Yancey’s bill could open the prospect of accepting Two Lakes promoter John McGowan’s argument that the reservoir could be used for flood control—because flood control was included in the original “responsibilities” of the district when the Legislature created the district.

In fact, McGowan’s lake plan requires the Ross Barnett Reservoir dam to operate as a device for flood control (rather than its current use as a means of supplying water to the city of Jackson for drinking and waste disposal). “The Pearl River Valley Water Supply District is not going to change the way they operate the dam,” Flowood Mayor Gary Rhoads told the Jackson Free Press. “Even if they could, the reservoir won’t work like that.”

L

ET US HELP YOU MAKE THAT PERFECT GIFT FOR YOUR SWEETHEART.

13

jfp op/ed

opining, grousing & pontificating

EDITORIAL

Hands Off the Levee Board

W

e weren’t surprised to learn that supporters of the Two Lakes Pearl development project are pushing the state Legislature to take more control of the local Levee Board—reconfiguring the appointees so that the board might finally support the controversial project that can’t seem to get “yes” for an answer. The move isn’t subtle.

We’re disappointed to see a Jackson-based state legislator, Rep. Mary Coleman, introduce the bill that would give the governor and lieutenant governor four new appointees, along with a new one for the Hinds County Board of Supervisors and possibly a new one from Byram. The effect of this bill is a dilution of Jackson’s influence on the board, as well as that of the mayors of metro cities that are directly affected by Pearl flooding.

Currently, five members of the board—including all the metro mayors— have voted to pursue a levee plan rather than keep flood control languishing in the controversial waters surrounding the ever-changing Two Lakes plan. Two of the board members—the Hinds County member and the state-appointed member—are against the move.

But should this bill pass, the board could clearly be stacked with Two Lakes supporters, and potentially non-local, un-elected voices.

At this juncture in the process, shaking up the Levee Board is not the solution, and it will not lead to a reasonable, “do-able” flood-control plan that can be implemented with the least harm locally, downstream and to the environment.

It is also a remarkable insult to the entire metro area, not just Jackson.

This isn’t the first time that Two Lakes supporters have used the political system to try to muscle their plan through. During the 2009 Jackson mayor’s election, the Jackson Free Press discovered that the shadowy Better Jackson PAC, which had not filed campaign reports within legal deadlines, was peopled with property owners lining the theoretical Two Lakes map.

John McGowan himself was the largest donor.

We also reported that McGowan partners gave generously to the campaign of now-Pearl Mayor Brad Rogers, who beat the previous Pearl mayor, an anti-Two Lakes voter. Now, Rogers has jumped ship, voting to work toward levees as well.

Two Lakes proponents denigrate the 1996 Comprehensive Levee Plan that the Corps has recommended over Two Lakes in its latest study; that Levee plan is 14 years out-of-date thanks in part to Chip Pickering, who instructed the Corps to study Two Lakes and the 1996 levees—and no others.

Now is not the time for the Legislature to empower a special-interest group to—once again—game the political system and derail the Pearl River flood-control discussion, now going on 32 years since the 1979 flood without a workable solution. Vote no on HB-1549.

KEN STIGGERS

Tuning the Toyotillac

February 11 - 17, 2010

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r. Announcement: “Live from the Clubb Chicken Wing Multi-Purpose Complex, GSPAN (the Ghetto-Satellite Public Affairs Network) presents a brief press conference held by Big Deacon Jones, chairman of the deacon board, head mechanic and company spokesperson of Rev. Cletus’ Car Sales Church. He will address concerned citizens, church members and the Ghetto Science Department of Transportation about using older model car parts to manufacture Hybrid Hoopties.”

Big Deacon Jones: “The media has informed everyone about some newer model cars having problems with the accelerator pedal sticking or the brakes malfunctioning. Many of our customers stopped driving their recently purchased Hybrid Hoopties and started taking the Double Dutch Sunday Service Church Express Bus to the morning and afternoon church services.

Also, our customers had their Hybrid Hoopties towed to the auto shop in the back of the church, assuming that the deacon mechanics will repair vehicles after church service. Rev. Cletus doesn’t like the deacon mechanics to repair cars on the Lord’s Day—if you know what I mean.

“To the concerned citizens of the Ghetto Science community, I’m here to inform you that vehicles like the Toyotillac (combination Toyota and Cadillac) and other Hybrid Hoopty models are safe to drive, because we make them with parts from older models. You know—during the time when cars were pretty reliable. So, continue to get from points ‘A’ to ‘B’ during these slow economic times with a Hybrid Hoopty from Rev. Cletus Car Sales Church.”

CHATTER

The New Orleans Saints

From “America’s Team” by Todd Stauffer “…Y’all should enjoy this one it will probably be another four decades ‘til the next one. Brees is no Elway.”

—WMartin

hear you! There is but one America’s team and it’s Dallas Cowboys ... sorry! Great article though.”

—Queen601

“… I’m surprised the bandwagon could hold all those people jumping on in recent days.

Must have been a big wagon and a very good band. Lord, what’s going to happen when the Cubs finally wins it all in baseball?”

—Walt

“Queen ... don’t worry, I’m not sad at all. You clearly didn’t see me when that young man aimed for the Fleur-de-lis and kicked his field goal through the uprights two Sundays ago.”

—iTodd

“WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” —L.W. “Wonderful article. I was in Dallas in ‘85 and ‘86 and treated my youngest son to a ticket to Dallas vs. (I think) Seattle for his birthday one of those years. He was a big Dallas fan, at that time. They were ‘the’ team.”

—J.T. “The Who Dat Nation welcomes you with open arms, iTodd. The more, the merrier.

WHO DAT!” —EatOutOften “Todd, it sounds like you’re kinda sad. You don’t have to let Dallas go; it’s in your heart.

You know that once you’re a Dallas fan you always are. Just cheer silently so Donna doesn’t

“He’s way past that point, Queen. He is a rabid Saints fan now!”

—Ladd “I can’t believe so many people watched the game. The Saints may be the world’s team, but they aren’t America’s, yet. We will see about that the coming years. I’m so glad the cowpukes weren’t in the Super Bowl. I have to be in Baton Rouge tomorrow and may go on to New Orleans for the parade. I’ll just close my eyes and assume they’re the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the end, I kind of felt sorry for Peyton since he tried so hard. I wasn’t convinced the Saints had the game until the interception by Peyton, then I was alarmed again by the possibility of a quick touchdown and an off-side kick. Luckily or divinely, it all ended well.”

—Walt

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BYRON WILKES

Why I’m a Feminist

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F

eminism. Why is this word considered so foul coming from the mouths of men? It seems like nine times out of 10 when I use this word in a conversation with another man, a thick blank of awkwardness falls over us.

So many men hate this word. In Mississippi, you will find a vast majority of men get their feathers ruffled or grow uncomfortable when you use it, even if you’re not talking about the tenets of the philosophy itself.

As a male, I happen to think the answer to this question lies in the gross misconception of what feminism means, and what it means to proclaim yourself as a feminist.

First off, every single person in the world alive today has a woman to thank for being here.

This alone should make you reconsider why so many women in the world choose to be feminists, right? I mean, if so many women are calling themselves feminists, and they’re proud of it, shouldn’t that tell you there’s probably some legitimacy to it? This leads to my next point.

Feminism is not some clandestine organization designed to castrate and enslave seas of men in a greater scheme for female world domination. Feminists are not the female equivalent to Dan Brown’s Priory of Sion in “The Da Vinci Code.” This misperception might make for lewd chauvinistic humor, but it’s far from fact.

While it’s easy to see the link between the words “feminine” and “feminism,” what it really means to be a feminist is simply admitting that, historically, women have not been treated as equals. I can comprehend, at least tenuously, the notion in which one might assume feminism is professing women as superior to men, but this is far, far from the truth.

Subjecting the opposite sex to hundreds of years of social, physical, emotional, sexual, mental and economic oppression has been the dubious undertaking of the male sex, not the other way around.

This isn’t to say there aren’t feminists who wave the flag of the good-ship feminism to rally others under a plethora of causes.

There are radicals in every belief system: radical Islamists, radical Christians, radical feminists, radical vegans, etc.

Allowing fringe believers to convince you about an entire philosophy would be like publicly decrying a mosque being built in your neighborhood because you hate terrorists. OK, perhaps a poor example.

Allowing PETA to form your impression

of every person who’s a vegetarian, vegan or meat-conscious dieter is equally as absurd. Just because I prefer tofu doesn’t mean I’m going to sling red paint on your fancy new mink.

Saying you’re a feminist doesn’t oblige you to become a man-servant to every woman you see, but it does imply you should treat every woman you meet as equal to any man you know, something you should be doing regardless.

Obviously you have to be mindful of some nuances. Calling yourself a feminist means you actually believe its underlying train of thought. Professing feminism doesn’t mean you get to invite yourself to the powder room.

I’ll save my rant on the deletion of the gender binary system for another time, but seriously, how can you read the history books and not come to terms with feminism?

Not until 1920 did women gain suffrage, about 50 years after another suffrageexpanding amendment, the 15th Amendment, made it illegal for states to prevent citizens to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”

Don’t be mistaken. The 19th Amendment (the one that gave women the vote) didn’t just come overnight; it took about five years for the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to finally ratify it after several votes. Bureaucratic and administrative lag aside, that’s a seriously long time.

Ironically, we like to think of ourselves as a “developed country.” Compared to other countries, such as Saudi Arabia where women still aren’t allowed to vote, this might seem the case. In this day and age, it is no longer ethically permissible to be content with the status quo.

A recent Clarion-Ledger article revealed Dr. Mary Currier, Mississippi’s newly appointed health officer, is being paid $200,000 annually for her services, which is about $30,000 less than her male predecessor. This inequality in pay shouldn’t be too startling. Even after all these years, salaries for women still aren’t close to equal with men’s salaries.

But why am I so adamant about being a feminist, or dispelling the rumors associated with it? Me, a dude of the highest canon of dudery?

I can honestly say that it feels like a moral imperative. I agree wholeheartedly with the tenets and a need to proclaim feminism is something about which I feel very strongly.

And my mama would be proud.

What it really means to be a feminist is simply admitting that, historically, women have not been treated as equals.

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The Book of Eli R Sherlock Holmes PG13 It’s Complicated R Nine PG13

Dear John PG13

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel PG

From Paris With Love R

Avatar 3-D PG13

Edge of Darkness R

The Blind Side PG13

When In Rome PG13 Legion R

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The Tooth Fairy PG

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Editor in Chief Donna Ladd Publisher Todd Stauffer

15

RIPTHESKULL / DAVE

Love is Hell (But Ain’t It Grand)

“I

February 11 - 17, 2010

just want to find my soulmate.”

“Gee, I hope I find Mr. Right soon.”

“I wanna find someone who’ll follow me to the jumpin’ off place” as my friend’s grandparents used to say.

Haven’t we all been a little optimistic that maybe, just maybe, that “someone special” is out there, just for us? Our “plus one”? I guess getting older and hearing my biological clock ticking loudly, as well as seeing my once-single friends haul their Vera Wang-wearing tails into the sunset with some fabulous man in a major love whoopass (thanks, Malcolm White), I can’t help but wonder if there’s anyone for yours truly. So, in fall 2009, I began my benevolent, inconspicuous and infallible quest for heterosexual companionship.

I met a man through friends who seemed to be “intrigued” with me, and asked me out. I half-heartedly agreed to go out with him, only because it had been forever since anyone had asked me out. We met at a local restaurant franchise, where he started right out of the gate being sexually inappropriate, paying for our meal with a coupon, then saying, “There’s plenty more where these came from, darling.”

Ugh. As soon as the date was over, I called to tell my neighbors about what a horrific night I’d had, and they invited me over with open arms and an open bar. With the suggestion of my fab neighbors, Tom and Kitty Ramsey, I decided not only would I blog about my dating misadventures, but I would set out to go on 100 dates in a calendar year and blog about every date, both the good and the bad. So far, since September 2009, I have been on 57 dates and man, what a long strange love trip it’s been.

I have met some great guys on my journey for heterosexual companionship, but have also met some real duds. For instance, I had one guy on the third date ask me if he could stick his finger in my vagina.

I also had a prominent realtor in the Jackson metro area send me a video of him shaking his “hoorah stick” with his parents’ Olan Mills church directory picture in the background. I also went out with a guy who, within 15 minutes of meeting, told me about 16 his four failed marriages, four DUIs (he got two in

by Long Shot

2009), and his two failed stints at rehab, before trying to kiss me.

I also went out with a guy whom I thought was gay. My favorite gay friends advised me to give him the “Gay Aptitude” test (I’ll be more than happy to share this with you if we ever meet), upon which, sadly, he made a 70—barely passing by my standards, so he had to go. On my blog “A Long Shot At Love”, I even play a song for the guys that just don’t make the cut: The Gap Band’s “You Dropped The Bomb On Me.” My quest for Mr. Right hasn’t been without some heartache. I met “Holy Grail” in October, and he totally took the wind out of my sails. He was what I call an “Educated Bubba”: he lived in the country but had a master’s degree; he can skin a deer and write a thesis. When he called it off, I was totally heartbroken. I mean, I thought he was The One. And there have been a couple of other men that I thought might be a potential suitor, but instead they gave me the dreaded “F” word speech: “let’s just be friends.”

My quest for a major love whoopass hasn’t been easy. Dating and love is both hell and grand, all in one. There’s no even keel. While getting rid of the obvious Mr. Wrongs, it’s been kind of hard to dust off my britches and get back out there after so many disappointments. After the last friend’s speech I decided I was done with trying to find a decent guy, but my friends, blog followers, and Facebook fans wouldn’t hear of me quitting and encouraged me. I am forever thankful for these newfound reluctant life coaches.

Friends ask me what I’ve learned from my whole experience, and I have to say the most important things I’ve learned is to just be yourself and trust your gut instincts when dating. No one likes fake, and if you’re putting on a dog-and-pony show just to get some poor sucker to like you, you only set yourself up for failure (done it, didn’t get the T-shirt.) Plus by being yourself, you weed out the jerks and other “sundry folk” that happen to be in the dating pool along with you.

My anthropological study has not only helped me, but I think it has helped others, too. I’ve had women and men give me some great advice while also seeking mine. My “dating panel of experts”—men, women, straight and gay—have been supportive and also protective of me. And I can’t tell you how awesome it is to have such a safety net of support.

Putting myself out there and being so proactive was tough at first; it still is tough. But I refuse to give up on finding the right person for me, whether it takes 100 dates or a 1,000. So, if any of you fellas out there think I’m the woman for you, holla at me. But please, baby please, no videos.

Follow Long Shot’s quest for heterosexual companionship at alongshotatlove.blogspot.com.

a life e from aring m g n for sh r savi Price, nk you fo hank you ng her as a Th treati re ove. T true l y child and hat the futu ’t t u o h wit hm don or w ve wit wait f ogether. I ank that lo n. I can’t t h old w ou. I t your o s we grow good as y I do and a t as holds someone hinking tha nd Kael. t e v r lair a deser ery day fo ou, B you. y h v t i e w God I love dwick y life ng m tine’s Day. Lydia Cha i s s e l b n — y Vale Happ

Max, my best friend and you’re the reason I LOVE. —Momma

My love Jeddy, its our third Valentine’s Day; they will only get better and better. Yours, KC

Harold, I just want to tell you how much I love you and I want to grow old with you. Let every day be our Valentines Day!!! —Macy Russell

hangman ore than a m u yo e v Emily, I lo on Wilkes oose. —Byr loves his n

To my boys-Mateo, you light up my day and I’m so very proud of you. You are the glue that binds our family together. Blowing you kisses … put it in your heart. Mike, we’ve been through so much together and I want to thank you for always being there and holding my hand through thick and thin. I love you both. Happy Valentine’s Day!!! —ShaWanda

Love my son Joseph, on right, and his band Red Hill City. —Gaylen Regan

To my son Myles and my nephew Garrison, you are loved sooooo much! We cherish you boys and wouldn’t trade you for anything!!!!

—The Jackson Family,

A Guy’s Guide to V-Day

by Will Caves

JUST SAY NO … TO FLOWERS To be frank, candy and flowers are a cop-out. If you absolutely cannot think of anything else, then go explore the local nursery, but until then, stay away. Giving your lady flowers on a holiday is like admitting, “Whoops! I forgot about Valentine’s Day until just now,” or even more pathetic, “I couldn’t think of anything else.”

Flowers are best given on a non-occasion, when you are just trying to be nice. Make them a thoughtful gift, not something you defaulted to.

RIPTHESKULL / DAVE

W

ell guys, it’s that time of year that we all dread. (No, not your mother’s birthday. Don’t worry; you didn’t forget it. … I hope).

It’s Valentine’s Day. … DUN DUN DUN. For those of you who don’t have a significant other, you’re in the clear. You can do whatever you want this Valentine’s Day. No worries for you about sleeping on the couch for the next year if you mess up. Those of us who already possess the old ball-and-chain (wink, wink), however, have a little bit more to worry about.

To all the gentlemen not classified as “available,” I am here to provide a bit of insight to this wonderful (and arduous) holiday, and to help you not to screw up what could otherwise be a rewarding evening.

To get the most out of your Valentine’s Day and to put a smile on the face of your sweetheart, put forth just a little effort and show a little of your sensitive side. Here are some suggestions that should prevent you from starting a calamity that could result with a stint in the doghouse.

Keep in mind that while some of these suggestions will work for anyone, you need to keep it real. Women can smell a con job a mile away. In other words, if you’re in a friends-with-benefits type of situation, dropping to one knee with a ring from Carter’s probably isn’t your best option. Make sure that your plans are appropriate for your relationship.

ALWAYS PAY This is a cardinal rule of Valentine’s Day. Times may be infrequent that your honey will insist on paying for things. And even when they do, if they’re anything like my girlfriend, they’re secretly hoping that you’ll offer to pay anyway. Valentine’s Day isn’t the time to “accidentally” forget your wallet, or “forget” that you spent all your money on beer for the kegger at Steve’s. This is a time to celebrate love, not let your significant other start being “Miss Independent” and pay the tab.

You. Pay. The. Bill. End of story.

SOMETIMES EASY AND CHEAP AREN’T BAD Dinner and a movie might seem cliché, but sometimes this kind of thing is what your love craves. Take her for a nice meal at one of Jackson’s many outstanding and afford-

able restaurants. Perennial “Best of Jackson” winner for Italian food Amerigo will probably get a bit of my money this year, but Jackson has dozens of excellent mid-priced restaurants including favorites like Julep and BRAVO! (Show a little love for the local economy by staying away from big chains, and impress your sweetie with your concern, too.)

After dinner, bite the chick-flick bullet and take her to see a movie that she wants to see, not that “Drag Me to Hell meets Indiana Jones” gore fest that you’ve been dying to veg out to. There’s a new movie out aptly named, “Valentine’s Day,” that comes out this week. Hit that one up; you’ll be glad you did.

SMALL THINGS MATTER This last tip is probably the most important one: Things like opening doors and pulling out the chair for your lady at the table may seem like a hassle, but these easyto-forget, miniscule details are sometimes what will make or break the date for you. Little things like this not only show respect for her, but also show that you’ve put a little thought into this one. They also make you seem less like the barbarians that so many of us often are.

Despite what you might have seen on a movie, catering to your girl’s likes and dislikes can go a long way in showing her that you care. She’ll probably be excited that it’s not the same old “pizza, beer, and a movie at my place” routine, and will really enjoy you taking the time you take to make her feel special.

She’ll really appreciate the gesture, and she can brag to all of her friends about how great you are, how caring you can be … all that jazz. So put on a pair of jeans that’s not four days dirty, put on a shirt that doesn’t show off your love handles, and get out there and show your girl that putting up with your shenanigans and washing your clothes means the world to you.

It’ll mean the world to her.

A Fine Southern Romance

A

s a young girl, Mississippi author Melanie Atkins grew up listening to the tall tales that embody the oral tradition of the Deep South.

Writing was her passion, and she scribbled stories about her feline pets. Now she is a multi-format author blending suspense and romance into popular works.

Her newest book, “Skeleton Bayou” (Wild Rose Press, 2009, $14.99), is set in rural Louisiana and follows the story of Savannah Love, an emotionally and physically abused woman who flees the imprisoning life of her cop husband. After hiding for seven months, she turns up at her family home in Louisiana: Mossy Oak. There she meets Mack O’Malley, a former cop turned handyman, and sparks fly.

by Eileen Eady

The drama isn’t just in the book, though. Another publisher originally contracted to print “Skeleton Bayou,” but ended up filing bankruptcy. Atkins had to fight to get the rights back. The Wild Rose Press offered her a contract on the book last year.

Atkins lives in the South and is an avid fan of crime dramas. Locally she is a member of the Mississippi Author’s Guild and the Byram Writer’s Group.

Atkins is also the contest coordinator for the Magnolia State Romance Writers.

Southern writer Melanie Atkins will sign “Skeleton Bayou” at Lemuria Books Feb. 13 at 1 p.m. You can read an excerpt on the Wild Rose Press Web site at www.the wildrosepress.com. “Skeleton Bayou” is also available in e-book formats.

jacksonfreepresss.com

KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID. A five-course meal that you cook yourself plus to a candle-lit table in front of a roaring fire might sound appealing, but I promise that you will see more fruit from your efforts if you decrease the number of problems that you might encounter. Try visiting her local restaurant to see if they have some cheap catering, or maybe cut the five courses down to two. You’ll get more bang for your buck.

17

Be My Valentine

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Advice for Gents on Valentine’s Day

STEAK AU POIVRE

W

TOM RAMSEY

hen I teach a cooking class for guys, I’ve learned that their “special” recipe usually translates as “something I had to learn in college to keep from starving to death.”

Trust me, guys, you need to learn a new dish. Lucky for you, I have just the answer. This recipe has everything you need to sweep your lady off her feet. It has drama, excitement, fancy French words and, most of all, deliciousness.

This Valentine’s Day, you will be making Steak Au Poivre (pronounced: Oh-pwah) with Lobster Whipped Potatoes and Sautéed Asparagus (pronounced: Dee-lish-ush) followed by a Fresh Strawberry Cocktail.

Read the recipe all the way through and get all your ingredients ready before you start to prep and, certainly, before you start to cook. Being prepared will make everything easier, and you will get to impress your girl with another bit of Frenchy-speak. Having all your stuff in the right place is called “mise en place,” (pronounced: Mees-ohn-plaz) which literally translates to “putting in place.”

Make sure that everything is finished at the same time.

I recommend that you cook the potatoes ahead of time and heat them in the microwave while the meat rests. You should also blanch your asparagus ahead of time and keep them in the fridge until just before you sauté them. By preparing your starch and side ahead of time, you also give yourself some room for error. If you burn the potatoes or over-blanch the asparagus, you can always just start over. Your dessert is quite easy and will just need to be assembled. This way, you can enjoy the whole meal together and not have to worry about getting up and spending time in the kitchen while your date waits alone at the table.

Before I turn you loose in the kitchen, I have a few tips: • Buy flowers. Big bunches of flowers. Don’t be cheap.

• Buy chocolates. Fancy ones from Nandy’s. Again, don’t be cheap.

• Buy a card. Incredibly, the sappy sweet ones are better than the funny ones. Don’t be clever.

• Buy a gift that is not lingerie—something that sparkles.

Don’t be a pervert.

• Light candles—new tall ones, not smelly ones in a jar.

Don’t be cheap.

• Put on music. Something she likes. Make her a CD of all the music from the night. Don’t be lazy.

• Clean up your house—the whole house, including the bathroom. Don’t be gross..

• The word “flambé” is only for your date’s ears. When you speak to your insurance adjustor, supplement the phrase “faulty wiring.”

Look for more info and a timeline at www.jacksonfreepress.com Tom Ramsey teaches cooking lessons and is the founder of Ivy & Devine (www.ivyanddevine.com)

LOBSTERWHIPPED POTATOES 2 large russet potatoes 1 tablespoon lobster base* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 cup whole milk 2 green onions Salt Pepper

Peel and cube potatoes. Set milk out and allow it to come to room temperature. Finely chop green onions.

In a large saucepan or medium stock pot, cover potatoes with cold water, add one teaspoon salt and bring to a boil. Continue boiling until potatoes are tender enough for a knife to pass through with little resistance, about 12-15 minutes. Reduce the heat to low. Drain all but 1/4 cup of water from the potatoes and return the pot to the stove. If you can’t determine this amount by “eyeballing” the liquid, remove 1/4 cup of the hot water, set aside and then drain the potatoes completely and return the reserved water to the pot. With a potato masher or ricer, mash the potatoes until all the lumps are gone.

Add lobster base and butter and stir thoroughly. Slowly add the milk, a little bit at a time and whip with a wand mixer while the milk is added. You may not use all of the milk before the desired consistency is reached. When the potatoes are velvety and completely lump-free, add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve hot and top with chopped green onions.

SAUTÉED ASPARAGUS 1 bunch asparagus 1 teaspoon olive oil 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1 lemon 1 pitcher ice water Salt Black pepper

Thoroughly wash and rinse asparagus stalks. Pick up each piece (gripping the base and the upper 1/3 of the stalk) and bend it until it breaks. Repeat this with all of the stalks.

Fill a large saucepan with water, add a teaspoon of salt and bring to a light boil. Add asparagus spears and cook for about two or three minutes. When they turn a brighter shade of green, remove them from the boiling water, place them in a large mixing bowl and cover them with ice water. Once they have cooled, drain the water and set them aside, covered, until ready to cook.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add butter and olive oil. When the butter melts and begins to foam, add asparagus and season with salt and pepper. Cook until hot and still firm, tossing frequently to ensure even heat.

Serve hot and drizzle with lemon juice.

4 beef tenderloin fillets (1-1/2” thick) 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 teaspoon olive oil 1/3 cup cognac 1 cup heavy cream 1 bunch parsley

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees and put dinner plates in the oven to warm while prepping and cooking. Set the steaks out for one hour before cooking and allow them to come to room temperature. Place the peppercorns in a plastic bag, put the bag on a cutting board and cover with a dishcloth. Crush the peppercorns with the bottom of a small pan or skillet, and spread the crushed pepper on a dry plate. Season the steaks with a pinch of salt each and press them (both sides) onto the plate of peppercorns making sure that they are evenly coated with pepper. Finely chop parsley.

Heat a heavy skillet (black iron is best) over medium-high heat. Add olive oil and butter. When the butter starts to smoke, add all four steaks and cook for four minutes on each side (medium rare). Remove the steaks from the pan and set aside under a foil tent.

Return the skillet to the heat and add all but a dash of the brandy. When the brandy begins to bubble, ignite the liquid with a long match or stick lighter. Slowly swirl the brandy in the pan until the flame goes out. Don’t stick your face in the pan to see if it is burning—it is, and less appetizing than the smell of burned hair. Make sure the vent is turned off when you do this so as not to send flames into the vent and burn down your house (see tip 6 if this fails). Slowly whip the cream into brandy reduction and stir frequently until the sauce thickens and reaches a velvety consistency (usually four to five minutes). Add the remaining brandy (no more than 1 teaspoon) and stir before serving.

Serve on warmed plates, with the edges of the steaks leaning on the whipped potatoes. Drizzle the sauce over the top and around the base of the steak.

Garnish with chopped parsley.

FRESH STRAWBERRY COCKTAIL 10 large fresh strawberries 1 pint pineapple sherbet 2 mint sprigs Powdered sugar Champagne

Rinse two martini glasses in cold water and place them upside-down in the freezer at least one hour before dinner.

Leave the green top on two of the strawberries and remove it from the rest of them. Slice the leafy berries half way up from the bottom and toss them in powdered sugar.

Remove the glasses from the freezer and scoop in a large spoonful of sherbet. Add strawberries on top of the sherbet and stick the leafy, split berries on the side of the glass. Serve immediately and when the glass is on the table, fill half way up with champagne.

jacksonfreepresss.com

by Tom Ramsey

19

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E

ach year, I try to make a homemade valentine for at least one person I care about. This is also the time of year I’m short on cash, and getting crafty is a great way to save money.

This year I made a memory box for my sister. The boxes are useful alone, or they can be a unique way to present a gift to the one you love. For memory boxes, all you need is a little paint, photographs, Mod Podge and your imagination.

W W W. C U S T O M O P T I C A L . N E T

MEDITERRANEAN GRILL

...WHAT YOU’LL NEED...

One small wooden box Acrylic paint in the color of your choice Original or photocopied photographs Sequins, glitter or magazine cut-outs One 8-ounce bottle of Mod Podge.

Visit our Gro cery Store next door

Thanks for the Best of Jackson Nominations!

...MAKING A MEMORY BOX...

Visit aladdininjackson.com

Paint the box evenly. You may need two or three coats. lso We a r! cate

Dine in or Take Out! Sun-Thurs 11am - 10pm Fri and Sat 11am - 11pm

WE DELIVER!

730 Lakeland Dr. - Jackson, MS Tel: 601-366-3613 or 601-366-6033 Fax: 601-366-7122

Fondren / Belhaven / UMC area

163 Ridge Way - Ste. E - Flowood, MS Tel: 601-922-7338 Fax: 601-992-7339

step 1 When the paint is dry, arrange photographs, sequins and magazine cut-outs on the outside of the box, using Mod Podge as an adhesive.

step 2 When the materials are dry, cover the entire box with Mod Podge using even strokes. Wait for it to dry. (Note: Mod Podge might look cloudy going on, but it always dries clear.)

step 3

Personalize the box by signing your name and a message.

February 11 - 17, 2010

step 4

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Fill the box with candy or a small gift and allow the box to dry completely overnight before giving it away.

step 5

heart.

We have everything Cupid needs for Valentine’s Day

Always Drink Responsibly

• FREE GIFT WRAPPING • GIFT CERTIFICATES • FRIENDLY KNOWLEDGEABLE STAFF • GLASSES TO LOAN available at

(Next door to McDade’s Market Extra) Mon. - Sat., 10 a.m. - 9 p.m. • Maywood Mart Shopping Center 1220 E. Northside Dr. • 601-366-5676 • www.mcdadeswineandspirits.com

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Have a

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come nda Ja ady a W a h

by S een E and Eil

Valentine’s Tibet Yeti, Rainbow Fair Trade Handicrafts, $14

Swarovski crystal and sterling silver bracelet, Dream Beads, $65

Coral, turquoise, and sterling silver necklace, Dream Beads, $80

Red brocade journal, Rainbow Fair Trade Handicrafts, $16.98

Beeswax candle, Rainbow Fair Trade Handicrafts, $22.79

Tibet “Be Mine” heart, Rainbow Fair Trade Handicrafts $5.75

Felt “I Love You”, Rainbow Fair Trade Handicrafts, $16.50

Turquoise and pearl earring and necklace set, Dream Beads, $165

Flynn Sochon wood box, The Mississippi Craft Center, $60

Red heart frame, The Mississippi Craft Center, $20

Michael Hayman earrings, The Mississippi Craft Center, $86

Don and Louise Coulson bracelet, The Mississippi Craft Center, $35

LILMCKH earrings, The Mississippi Craft Center, $48

Copper magnets, The Mississippi Craft Center, $12 each

Skateboard, Swell-o-Phonic, $120

“I heart Jackson” tee, Swell-o-Phonic, $20

“I heart bacon” tote, Swell-o-Phonic, $10

High-top Nikes, Swell-oPhonic, $88 (currently on sale, 40 percent off)

Columbia plaid shirt for men, Buffalo Peak Outfitters, $64.99

Tom’s burlap shoes for me, Buffalo Peak Outfitters , $54

WHERE2SHOP

February 11 - 17, 2010

Buffalo Peak Outfitters 115 Highland Village 601-366-2557 www.buffalopeak.net

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Denali Dreams soap, Buffalo Peak Outfitters, $6.99 each

Kavu hat, Buffalo Peak Outfitters, $29.99

Teleflora “Two-lips” bouquet, Whitley’s Flowers, starting at $40 (a stuffed animal, balloons and/or boxed chocolates can be added for an additional fee)

Dream Beads 605 Duling Ave. 601-664-0411 www.2dreambeads.com The Mississippi Craft Center 950 Rice Road, Ridgeland 601-856-7546 www.mscrafts.org

Rainbow Fair Trade Handicrafts 2807 Old Canton Road, Suite A 601-982-4471 Swell-o-Phonic 2906 N. State St. 601-981-3547 Whitley’s Flowers 740 Lakeland Drive 601-362-8844

www.whitleyflowers.net

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286 Hwy 51 in Ridgeland | 601-605-7602 Mon-Thurs 10am-9pm, Fri-Sat 10am-10pm Sign-up for our mailing list at www.joets.net and be entered to win a $100 gift certificate.

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It’s Back.

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153 Ridgeway, Ste. 105F • Flowood Telephone: (601) 919 - 0097

Valentine Lovers Night Out At Schimmel’s February 12th Beginning at 9 PM $5 Cover Charge VIP Packages and Packages Schimmel’s and Central Valentine MS Blues Society available for order

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top rated restaurants

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V

alentine’s Day is a day for partners to share their love for one another.

Some people prepare romantic evenings at home by candlelight or plan a night on the town with dinner at a favorite restaurant. Others write love letters and poems, or craft handmade gifts and cards.

When I was dating, I made a “Valentine’s Day Mix tape” for my sweetie featuring our favorite songs, including “Soon As I Get Home” by Faith Evans, “These Three Words” by Stevie Wonder and “Heaven” by John Legend.

I asked a few of my fellow Eagles atHinds Community College to tell me what they would include on a mix tape of their favorite love songs, and the responses include some excellent romantic material.

“Love Me in a Special Way” by DeBarge “Cruisin” by Smokey Robinson “For the Love of You” by The Isley Brothers —Dr. Marquise Loving, Academic Dean “Cause I Love You” by Lenny Williams “Superstar” by Luther Vandross “Knockin’ Da Boots” by H-Town —Illya Harris, Student Adviser “Kiss Me to the Music” by Bobby “Blue” Bland “Simply Beautiful” by Willie Clayton “At Last” by Etta James —Jackie Quinn, Librarian “Angels” by Robin Thicke “Back at One” by Brian McKnight “Look After You” by The Fray —Nicole Finch, Bookstore Manager “Love Calls” by Kem “On The Ocean” by K-Jon “He Loves Me” by Jill Scott —Shaun Hiley, Campus Police

“Like You’ll Never See Me Again”

by Alicia Keys “Cruisin’” by Smokey Robinson “There’s No Me Without You” by The Manhattans —Mrs. Robinson, Admissions Assistant “The Point of it All” by Anthony Hamilton “I Love You” by Lionel Richie “Popcorn Love” by New Edition —Shivochie Dinkins, Paralegal Instructor “Love” by Musiq Soulchild “Endless Love” by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie “More Than Wonderful”

by Brian McKnight —Linda Carter, GED clerk “Am I Dreaming” by Ol’Skool and Xscape “Superstar” by Luther Vandross “Just One of Them Thangs”

by Keith Sweat —Twaneka Jackson, GED clerk

Doing Valentine’s the Green Way

T

he old standby of flowers and candy can get old. Guys, as impossible as it sounds, even women can get sick of chocolate. And whether your beloved is trying to reduce her carbon footprint or you are looking for something different this Valentine’s Day, going green can keep it interesting.

Hit Jackson’s resale and vintage shops to find unique treasures. Consignment shopping is a fabulous way to go. I found a groovy purple picture frame at Orange Peel in Fondren (3026 N. State Street, 601-364-9977). With a little glitter, gloss sealer and paint, you can make a unique gift “from the heart” for that special girl.

If jewelry is more your girl’s style, consignment shops are a great way to find oneof-a-kind baubles. You can even get her a gift certificate and take her for a day of bargain hunting.

Another tip to keep it green is to shop for fair trade or organic items. Rainbow Fair Trade (2807 Old Canton Rd., Suite A, 601-987-0002) has a wide variety of gifts ranging from candles to jewelry. All the merchandise is fair-trade-certified, meaning that the producers of the items are fairly compensated and not exploited, and it’s not the usual bric-a-brac you would

by Eileen Eady find at a big-box store.

Spice up that romance with a locally made beeswax candle, or pick up a scarf to keep your sweetie warm. They also have some cool handmade Valentine decorations from Tibet (see our gift guide on page 22).

Head next door to Rainbow Whole Foods (601-366-1602) to find organic foods and gifts. Whether it’s chocolate, cookies or coffee, Rainbow offers a variety of organic foods sure to impress. Pack organic snacks into a reusable shopping bag for a romantic picnic for two. Or buy the ingredients for a special Valentine’s Day dinner and then promise to cook for her.

If none of these ideas are up your alley, try some of these tips: Buying jewelry from a store? Skip the bag. Clerks will put it in a box for you, so just pocket your receipt and leave the bag there. If you bought a gift bag for your treasures, have the cashier put your purchases into the gift bag instead of the plastic store bag.

Keep a look out for additional green Valentine ideas. Whether you recycle vintage finds, or go organic or fair trade, there are plenty of ways to do red the green way.

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jacksonfreepress.com

BEST BETS February 11 - 18

by Latasha Willis events@jacksonfreepress.com Fax: 601-510-9019 Daily updates at jfpevents.com

THURSDAY 2/11

COURTESY KENDALL MAFFETT

The Dixie National Rodeo starts today at the Mississippi State Fairgrounds (1207 Mississippi St.) and continues through Feb. 17. $16, $20, $24; call 601-961-4000. … Get your “Creative Class” martini during the JFP Lounge at Sal & Mookie (565 Taylor St.), in Pi(e) Lounge. Free; call 601362-6121, ext. 11. … The “Hearts for Heroes” benefit for burn victims and the Mississippi Firefighters Memorial Burn Association at the King Edward Hotel (235 W. Capitol St.) kicks off at 7 p.m. $50, $100 couples in advance, $60, $120 couples at the door; call 601-540-2995. … Watch “Mississippi ReMixed” featuring JFP columnist/blogger Brad “Kamikaze” Franklin, JFP editor-in-chief Donna Ladd and others at 8 p.m. on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, channel 29 (Comcast channel 7).

tires, chemicals and gas tanks will not be accepted. Call 601960-0000 for more information. ... Reserve your spot for a free scuba diving lesson with Adventure Scuba Divers (2625 Courthouse Circle, Flowood) from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Bring your own swimsuit and towel. Call 601-214-2189; visit adventurescubadivers.com. ... G.G. Green signs copies of her book “Sweet Surrender” at Barnes & Noble (1000 Highland Colony Parkway, Suite 3008, Ridgeland) from 2-4 p.m. $20 book; call 601-212-4434. … The HeARTS Against AIDS benefit in Hal & Mal’s Big Room starts at 6 p.m. $35, $20 for students with valid ID; call 601-366-9084. … The Sweetheart Concert at Jackson Medical Mall (350 W. Woodrow Wilson Drive) in the Thad Cochran Center begins at 7 p.m. $10; call Piccadilly at 601-982-9141 for more information. … Shake your groove thing at the “Salsantine” Valentine’s party at the La Salsa Dance Club and Studio (303 Mitchell Ave.) starting at 10 p.m. Free beginner dance lessons at 9 p.m. $10; call 601-213-6355.

SUNDAY 2/14 Treat your loved one to a New Orleans-style Sunday brunch with live jazz music at Huntington’s Grille (1001 E. County Line Road) from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. for $20 per person, or spend the evening there and feast on a four-course dinner and complimentary wine or Champagne at $125 per couple.

Call 601-957-1515 to make a reservation. … Wear your best jammies to the pajama party at Fenian’s from 5 p.m.midnight, which includes karaoke from 6-11 p.m. No cover. … Help the Cure Sickle Cell Foundation by participating in the 4th annual Cheese and Wine for Valentine’s at the Arts Center of Mississippi (201 E. Pascagoula St.) at 6:30 p.m. in the Gertrude C. Ford Atrium. $25; call 601-853-3420 or 601-918-3987.

MONDAY 2/15 Enjoy dinner and an auction during the Evening in Maroon Gala at the Jackson Convention Complex (105 E. Pascagoula St.) starting at 5:30 p.m. $50; call 601-320-3997.

Singer and comedian Rodney Carrington will perform live at Thalia Mara Hall on Feb. 18 at 7 p.m.

February 11 - 17, 2010

Buy your sweetheart a singing Valentine on Feb. 12 or 13, courtesy of the Mississippi Chorus Chamber Choir, which includes a song and a rose to be delivered in person. $50; call 601-278-3351. … Get a free massage, view artwork, listen to poetry and enjoy music by DJ Phingaprint during 4ever Friday at Koinonia Coffee House starting at 9 p.m.

Breakfast served at 11 p.m. BYOB. $10 before 10 p.m.; call 601-454-8313.

SATURDAY 2/13

Get rid of old tree limbs, debris and household items during Roll Off Dumpster Day at various locations in 26 Jackson from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. You must live in Jackson, and

TUESDAY 2/16 Network with young professionals at Third Tuesday at Pi(e) Lounge in Sal & Mookie’s (565 Taylor St.) beginning at 5:30 p.m. Bring your business card for the monthly prize drawing. Free; e-mail jbentertainmentgroup@gmail.com. …

Singers Peter and Kathleen Van de Graaff perform as part of the Arts and Lecture Series at Millsaps College, Ford Academic Complex (1701 N. State St.) at 7 p.m. $10; call 601-974-1130.

WEDNESDAY 2/17 The Mississippi Craft Center (950 Rice Road, Ridgeland) is featuring works by African American artists during the month of February in The Gallery, the center’s gift shop. Free with artwork for sale; call 601-856-7546. … “History Is Lunch” with author Anthony Mozingo at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building (200 North St.) starts at noon. Bring your own lunch; coffee/water provided.

Free; call 601-576-6850.

THURSDAY 2/18 Southern Breeze Gallery (1005 Highland Colony Parkway, Suite 5005, Ridgeland) will host an artist reception for Lorrie Drennan from 5-8 p.m. … Rodney Carrington will perform at Thalia Mara Hall (255 E. Pascagoula St.) at 7 p.m. $42.45, $47.60; call 1-800-745-3000; visit ticketmaster.com. … Murrah High School presents “A Night Of Jazz” at the Jackson State University e-Center (1230 Raymond Road) at 6 p.m., which includes dinner and a concert. $20; call 601969-6602.

More events and details at jfpevents.com.

The artwork of Lorrie Drennan will be featured during Ridgeland Rendezvous on Feb. 18 at 5 p.m. at Southern Breeze Gallery.

COURTESY JACQUELINE ELLENS

FRIDAY 2/12

… Try a beginner’s waltz or rumba class for free at Applause Dance Factory (242 Stephens St., Ridgeland) from 7-8 p.m.

Call 601-856-6168; visit applausedancefactory.com.

www.thepizzashackjackson.com

STOP IN FOR

(BUDWEISER & BUD LIGHT)

Dine-In / Carry-Out Mon - Thur: 11am-10pm

1220 N. State St. (across from Baptist Medical Center)

CATERING AVAILABLE

jacksonfreepress.com

601-352-2001

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jfpevents JFP SPONSORED EVENTS JFP Lounge at Pi(e) Lounge Feb. 11, 6 p.m., at Sal & Mookie’s (565 Taylor St.). Enjoy a special JFP “Creative Class” martini, free munchies, and lots of fellowship with Jackson creatives and progressives.

Free admission; call 601-362-6121, ext. 11.

Mississippi HeARTS Against AIDS Benefit Feb. 13, 6 p.m., at Hal and Mal’s (200 Commerce St.). The 18th annual art auction (live and silent) raises funds to assist Mississippians living with HIV and AIDS. $35, $20 for students with a valid ID; call 601-366-9084.

4th Annual Cheese and Wine for Valentine’s Feb. 14, 6:30 p.m., at the Arts Center of Mississippi (201 E. Pascagoula St.), in the Gertrude C. Ford Atrium. Sample various cheeses and wines, and enjoy music by Soundz featuring Tonya Boyd-Cannon. Proceeds benefit the Cure Sickle Cell Foundation. $25; call 601-853-3420 or 601918-3987.

HOLIDAY Love Stories Feb. 11, 6 p.m., at Millsaps College (1701 N. State St.). A one-night book club, offered

by Millsaps College Community Enrichment Series, devoted to the literature of love in celebration of Valentine’s Day. $40; call 601 974-1130.

W. KESSLER LTD. presents THE BEST OF BROADWAY MONDAY and TUESDAY FEBRUARY 22 and 23 7:30 PM THALIA MARA HALL ticketmaster.com or 1-800-745-3000

THIS WEEK COMMUNITY

LIVE AND LAUGHTER CONCERT: CHARLIE WILSON, RICKEY SMILEY Jackson Convention Complex, February 13th, 8pm 601-960-2321, www.ticketmaster.com www.jacksonconventioncomplex.com

CULTURE

A BROADWAY VALENTINE Presented by the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra.

Thalia Mara Hall, February 13th, 7:30pm 601-960-1565, www.msorchestra.com

MUSIC

ELECTRIC MUDD Martin’s, February 13th, 10pm 601-354-9712, www.martinslounge.net

DINING

KEIFER’S February 11 - 17, 2010

Stop by Keifer’s for the Felafel or the Chicken Gyro.

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Visit www.downtown-jackson.com for a complete calendar.

Call 601-353-9800 for calendar information.

Victorian Valentines Class Feb. 12, 3:30 p.m., at Manship House (420 E. Fortification St.). Children ages five to 12 are invited to learn about and make a Victorian-style valentine wall pocket. Reservations are required. Free; call 601-961-4724.

“Pops II: A Broadway Valentine” Feb. 13, 7:30 p.m., at Thalia Mara Hall (225 E. Pascagoula St.). The Mississippi Symphony Orchestra performs romantic favorites with Broadway singers George Dvorsky and Tamra Hayden.

Enjoy free wine and bottled water during the intermission. $15 and up, $5 children 4-18 and students with valid ID; call 601-960-1565.

COMMUNITY “Profiles of Our Heritage” Black History Month Observance through Feb. 11, at Jackson Medical Mall (350 W. Woodrow Wilson Ave.), in the Thad Cochran Center. A series of forums will be held from 9:30-11 a.m. daily. Speakers include Hinds County Chancery Clerk Eddie Jean Carr, Hinds County Tax Collector Eddie Fair, Walter Saddler, Kamikaze, Primus Wheeler and Charlotte Moman.

Area schools will also provide entertainment. Free; call 601-982-8467.

12th Annual National HBCU Student News Media Conference and Career Fair through Feb. 14 at Jackson State University (1400 Lynch St.), in the JSU Student Center. Plans include workshops covering news reporting, advertising, production and professional development sessions. Registration is required. $100; call 601979-2167.

Free Tax Counseling and Filing AARP volunteers will complete electronic filings at the following dates and locations. Bring all necessary documents. Joint filers must come together. Free.

• Through April 12, at the Richard Wright Library (515 W. McDowell Road) on Mondays from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Call 601-372-1621.

• Through April 13, at the Willie Morris Library (4912 Old Canton Road) on Tuesdays from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Call 601-987-8181.

• Through April 14, at the Margaret Walker Alexander Library (2525 Robinson Road) on Wednesdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Call 601354-8911.

• Through April 15, at the Clinton Public Library (111 Clinton Blvd.) on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-5 p.m. Call 601-924-5684.

Events at Old Capitol Museum (100 S. State St.).

Call 601-576-6920.

• “Preserving Mississippi’s Blues Heritage” Feb. 11, 6 p.m. Alex Thomas of the Mississippi Development Authority will discuss the development of the Mississippi Blues Trail.

Free.

• “Black History: Road to the Vote” through Feb. 25. This program offered to school groups provides a glimpse of African American history in Mississippi, specifically relating to the struggle for voting rights. Sessions are at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reservations are required. Free.

Precinct 2 COPS Meeting Feb. 11, 6 p.m., at Jackson Police Department, Precinct 2 (711 W. Capitol St.). These monthly meetings are forums designed to help resolve community issues or problems, from crime to potholes. Call 601-960-0002.

Greater Belhaven Market Feb. 13, 8 a.m.-2 p.m., at Mississippi Farmers Market (929 High St.). Be sure to stop by and buy some produce or other food or gift items as the market reopens for the 2010 season. Free admission; call 601-506-2848 or 601354-6573.

Black History Praise Festival Feb. 13, 4:30 p.m., at Turning Point Mission Center (1814 Shady Lane Drive). The Puppetry Ministry will perform skits and musical presentations under black lights. Free; call 601-372-1080 or 601-613-2507.

Evening in Maroon Gala Feb. 15, 5:30 p.m., at Jackson Convention Complex (105 E. Pascagoula St.). The reception begins at 5:30 p.m., and the dinner, auction and program follows at 6:30 p.m.

Proceeds will fund scholarships for incoming Mississippi State University students from central Mississippi. Tickets can be purchased via e-mail or online. $50; call 601-320-3997.

“Pioneer African-American Women Leaders in Mississippi” Feb. 16, 11:30 a.m., at Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.).

The program, a celebration of diversity, will be presented by Dr. Beverly Hogan, president of Tougaloo College. The event is sponsored by the Jackson branch of the American Association of University Women. Order lunch by Feb. 12. $11 lunch; call 601-919-2138.

“Breaking Boundaries: A Fine Arts Tribute to Black History” Feb. 16, 6 p.m., at Murrah High School (1400 Murrah Drive). Murrah High School’s fine arts introduction classes present a program featuring visual, theater and performing arts.

Proceeds go toward Haitian relief efforts. $1; call 601-960-5380.

“History Is Lunch” Feb. 17, noon, at William F. Winter Archives and History Building (200 North St.). Anthony Mozingo discusses his new book “The Longleaf Trace Companion.” Bring your own lunch; coffee/water provided. Free; call 601576-6850.

Dixie National Rodeo and Livestock Show through Feb. 21, at Mississippi State Fair Grounds (1207 Mississippi St). The month-long event includes horse and livestock shows and a rodeo from Feb. 11-17. $16, $20, $24 for rodeo, free livestock shows; call 601-961-4000.

“Voices from the Past” through Feb. 26, at Manship House (420 E. Fortification St.). Students in grades 3-5 experience the history of their African American ancestors through hands-on activities and a special tour. Call for more information; call 601961-4724.

MUSIC Jackson Public School All-City Honors Band Feb. 11, 7 p.m., at Belhaven University Center for the Arts Concert Hall (835 Riverside Drive).

Jackson Public School’s middle school and high school instrumentalists will perform. Free; call 601965-7026.

STAGE AND SCREEN “Mississippi ReMixed” on MPB Feb. 11, 8 p.m., at Mississippi Public Broadcasting , MPB-TV (Channel 29). “Mississippi ReMixed” tells the story of Jackson native Myra Ottewell, as she returns to her birthplace determined to celebrate the great racial transformations in the state since the 1960s, but discovers that understanding race relations is far more complicated than she bargained for. JFP Editor-in-Chief Donna Ladd and JFP columnist/ blogger Brad “Kamikaze” Franklin appear in the film. Call 601-987-3000.

Dance Ministry Ensemble Feb. 12-13, at Belhaven University, Bitsy Irby Visual Arts and Dance Center (1500 Peachtree St.). An evening of dance presentation aimed to bring inspiration and encouragement to the soul. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. both nights. $10, $5 seniors and students, free for children; call 601-965-7026.

Power APAC Auditions Feb. 13, 8-11 a.m., at Power Academic and Performing Arts Complex (1120 Riverside Drive). Auditions for visual arts, dance, theater arts, vocal music, instrumental music, and piano will be held. The school is looking for volunteers to assist with the auditions. Call 601960-5300.

Millsaps Arts and Lecture Series: Peter and Kathleen Van De Graaff Feb. 16, 7 p.m., at Millsaps College, Ford Academic Complex (1701 N. State St.). In “The Life and Love of Robert and Clara Schumann,” Robert and Clara’s music comes alive as the Van De Graaffs sing some of their greatest songs and duets and share the stories of their lives. $10; call 601-974-1130.

Mississippi Improv Alliance Winter Wednesdays Feb. 17, 7 p.m., at Banner Hall (4465 I-55 North), in the central communal area with performers on all floors. The performance will feature three associated movements. Performers include Laurel Isbister, Cody Cox and Taylor Hildebrand. Free; e-mail mandolinred@gmail.com.

CREATIVE CLASSES Belly Dance Class ongoing, at Lumpkin’s Restaurant (182 Raymond Road). The class is held every Saturday. Monique Davis is the instructor. $5; call 601-373-7707.

Didgeridoo and Meditation Workshop Feb. 12, 7 p.m., at Butterfly Yoga (3025 N. State St.). This interactive workshop explores the use of breath and sound frequencies to connect with the divine, and create a deeply serene state of consciousness for the enhancement of healing, meditation, prayer and creativity. Phil Jones is the instructor. $20; call 601594-2313.

Belly Dancing Workshop Feb. 13, 6 p.m., at Joyflow Yoga (Trace Harbour Village, 7048 Old Canton Road, Ridgeland). Early registration is recommended. Bring a veil if you have one, as well as a blindfold and writing materials. Shamsi of Dance Meditation is the instructor. $35; call 601613-4317.

LITERARY AND SIGNINGS Events at Lemuria Books (202 Banner Hall, 4465 I-55 North). Call 601-366-7619.

• “Safe from the Neighbors” Feb. 11, 5 p.m.

Steve Yarbrough signs copies of his book; reading of the book at 5:30 p.m. $25.95 book.

• “The Swan Thieves” Feb. 17, 5 p.m., at Lemuria Books (202 Banner Hall, 4465 I-55).

Elizabeth Kostova signs copies of her book; reading of the book at 5:30 p.m. $26.99 book.

PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest through March 31, at Mississippi Public Broadcasting (3825 Ridgewood Road). Children in kindergarten through third grade can submit original stories with illustrations. First, second and third place winners will be chosen for each grade level and given special prizes. Applications are online at mpbonline.org/ mpbkids. Free; call 601-432-6565.

GALLERIES Belhaven Faculty Exhibition through Feb. 15, at Belhaven University, Bitsy Irby Visual Arts and Dance Center (1500 Peachtree St.). Paintings, drawings, sculpture and photography by the Belhaven Visual Arts faculty. Free; call 601-965-7026.

Art Contest through March 15, at Fondren Art Gallery (601 Duling St.). The juried contest is open to those 18 and older with cash prizes for the first and second place winners. The finalists will be displayed in the gallery during Arts, Eats and Beats in April and will be available for purchase. Free; call 601981-9222.

Public schools do more than educate children. They measure a city’s pride. They reflect community. They predict the social and economic well-being of a city’s future.

For 20 years, Parents for Public Schools of Jackson has worked to keep our public schools strong, to empower parents as leaders for positive change, and to engage community support of our public schools.

Join us. For our city. For our children.

For our future.

EXHIBITS AND OPENINGS Power APAC Exhibit of Scholastics through April 18, at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). Artwork by gold and silver key winners of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards will be on display. Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. on Sundays. Free; call 601-960-1515.

“Mound Bayou: The Promise Land, 1887-2010” through April 30, at Smith Robertson Museum (528 Bloom St.). See photographs of the beginning of Davis Bend, the move and name change to Mound Bayou and those who were involved in the founding of the city. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Monday-Friday and 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Saturdays. $4.50 adults, $3 seniors, $1.50 children under 18; call 601-960-1457.

Founding Chapter, Parents for Public Schools, 1989 200 N. Congress, Suite 500, Jackson, MS 39201

www.ppsjackson.org

Check jfpevents.com for updates and more listings. To add an event, e-mail all details (phone number, start/ end date and time, street address, cost, URL, etc.) to events@jacksonfreepress.com or fax to 601-510-9019.

Deadline is noon the Thursday prior to the week of publication. Or, add the event online yourself; check out jfpevents.com for instructions.

BE THE CHANGE My Scoop Party Feb. 11, 6 p.m., at Highland Village (4500 I-55 North), in the plaza. The wine and cupcake tasting is sponsored by Colony Wine Market and The Cake Diva.

Reservations are required. Proceeds benefit the Mississippi Children’s Museum. $40 donation; call 601-981-5469.

“Hearts for Heroes” Feb. 11, 7 p.m., at King Edward Hotel, Hilton Garden Inn (235 W. Capitol St.). The Valentine-themed event benefits burn victims and the Mississippi Firefighters Memorial Burn Association. The gala will feature cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction and live music by The Carltons. “Heroes” will be honored as the 2010 Firefighters Hall of Fame. Attire is semi-formal. $50, $100 couples in advance; $60, $120 couples at the door; call 601-540-2995.

Sweetheart Concert Feb. 13, 7 p.m., at Jackson Medical Mall (350 W. Woodrow Wilson Ave.), in the Thad Cochran Center. Listen to the soulful sounds of Henry Rhodes and the Band while feasting on Piccadilly’s most popular entrees. A portion of the proceeds benefits the Boys and Girls Club of Jackson. Tickets can be purchased with cash, JSU Supercards or credit cards. $10; call 601-982-8467.

jacksonfreepress.com

4ever Friday Feb. 12, 9 p.m., at Koinonia Coffee House (136 S. Adams St., Suite C). View artwork, listen to poetry and enjoy music by DJ Phingaprint.

Complimentary chair massages will be given from 9-11 p.m. Breakfast served at 11 p.m. BYOB. $10 before 10 p.m.; call 601-454-8313.

29

BANDS WANTED vocalist looking for band im a rock vocalist looking for a band in need of a lead singer please call at any time my name is shane (601) 940-0510

BANDS/DJS FOR HIRE Disc Jockey (DJ) Service Professional DJ - 20 Years Experience - Holiday Parties/Weddings/Birthdays/Private Parties, Lights/Fog/Etc available, Photography Services Available, Live Band Availble (601) 850-4380

GEAR

The Mississippi Chorus Chamber Choir presents

SINGING VALENTINE February 12 & 13

February 11 - 17, 2010

Delivered in Person - $50

30

A Singing Valentine for your loved one delivered with a rose.

Call 601-278-3351 to schedule your delivery

Marching Baritone/Euphonium Wanted to purchase: Used marching B-flat baritone or marching euphonium. Very reasonable price. Good condition!

Call: 769-232-2415 Wanted - Baritone Bugle Looking for B-flat Marching Baritone Bugle in good condition. Reasonably-priced. Please call 769-232-2415 Bach stradivarius trombone Bach Stradivarius professional trombone w/ F -rotary valve, Excellent condition. Dynamic tonal quality. $1,600.00 Call:- 769 232 2415 Bass gear Quality professional gear. Swr Silverado combo.

350 watts RMS. $400. New aoustic 200 watt bass head $200. Two Swr 1 15’ and horn cabinets $250 ea. Loud and Clean Sold seperately or together.

(601) 214-4412 Professional Sound Engineers Need sound equipment or just a couple of engineers at your next event call Daniel 601.488.0436 any venue large or small anywhere in the south.

Complete PA Huge carvin pa for sale, all accessories, cables, processors, mics, stands, lights, amps, etc. Over $20,000 in gear to sell for best offers. Equipment is in as new condition. (225) 341-9391 Guitar Gear - Must Sell!!

Vox AD120VTH Valvetronix Stereo Head $400, 1x12 and 2x12 cabinets- $80-$125. (601) 540-1739 Need extra sound?

Need sound or just an engineer at your next event call Daniel 601.488.0436 or Mike 601.291.9713.

1 - 1604vlz 1 - pmp-5000 - powered mixer 10 - b1520 pro - speaker cabinets 6 - b1800x pro - sub cabinets 4 - f1520 pro - monitor cabinets 5 - ep1500 - power amps 2 - ep2500 - power amps 1 - 266xl - compressor limiter 2 - s - 3-way crossover 2 - ew165g2 e865 - wireless mics 6 - pr99 - mics.

Lighting also available: 6 - Scanners 12 - Par Cans 1- Lazer

MISCELLANEOUS Need A Few Good Musicians Interested in helping to set up music non-profit organization (centered around the blues) for disadvantaged youths in the jackson metropolitan area? If so, i am looking to talk to you.

Need musicians who can teach everything from banjo, guitar, dobro, mandolin, fiddle, accordion, harmonica, piano, etc., Etc. Come be a part of this great project! (601) 924-0210.

MUSICIANS AVAILABLE Party time I’m a 29 yo drummer. I primarily like hard rock and heavy metal. Hit me up at DrumminD21311@aol.com. (769) 798-8370

Drummer Available Mature/seasoned drummer available. Have played everything from country to Christian Contemporary.

Would like to join existing band or form new one with seasoned musicians ONLY...no beginners please! Would like to play classic rock, blues and/ or contemporary. Call if interested. (601) 613-5835 Looking to Start Band I am a bass player new in town and am looking to start a band in the Jackson area. I need a guitarist, drummer and lead vocals. No specific genre is preferred, but the band will be based on rock and metal (no death or black metal). I’ve played in several bands and played out hundreds of times and am able to get gigs. If interested or for more info please call Chris @ 386-365-2944 Drummer Available 41 Year old drummer looking to play with existing group or start one. Great love for the instrument and really want to put something together for fun and profit (gigs 1-3 month). Rock, classic rock, pop, jazz, and swing. Good chops and attitude, no ego, just want to play. Call bill @ 601-955-7924 or e-mail at wricha2796@aol. Com. (601) 955-7924 Female Vocalist Seeking Band I am a 16-year-old female vocalist seeking a synthpop or rock band. Ages of band members preferrably 25 years or younger due to parental objections. Contact by email at freezepopforever10 29@hotmail.com.

Old Drummer Available!

DRUMMER AVAILABLE: Most recently, I have played with The Veterans of Foreign Bars band.

Interested in playing Blues, Funk, Soul, maybe Country. I am an older guy and settled in for the duration. I would be interested in a steady band, fill-in, and, possibly, a new start-up. Let me hear: mcdrum89@yahoo.com or call 601-832-0831 Musician Available 25 Years experience playing Drums, Guitar & Bass.

Recently relocated to Jackson from Memphis, TN. All genres of music. Contact Tim at 601-665-5976.

Or email: reeves@cgdsl.net Serious inquires only.

Drummer Looking For Band I’m an experienced drummer looking to form/join a band. I have mostly played metal, but I am open to rock/hard rock/metal, etc. Call Dave at (769) 226-0845.

MUSICIANS WANTED Deathcore guitarists Metal band looking for 2 exp’d guitarists. Influences include WhiteChapel, Carnifex, Opeth, etc.

Call David for more info (601) 201-3815 Metal Singer & Bassist Wanted AnnX is looking for a Experienced Energetic METAL Vocalist and a Bass Player to play shows and write new material. (601) 383-4851 New band Experienced bass player/vocal and sound engineer/ keyboard are forming a rock band. We are seeking experienced musicians to join. +30 age preferred.

Open to music from 1960’s to current day. Must own equipment and no illegal habits. Call Charles at (601) 898-1628 or Gary at (601) 850-4380 Become our Next Instructor Major Scales Studio is accepting applications for a classical or rock or jazz guitar teacher. Must have professional appearance. Please email your resume to Majorscales@aol.com.

Cellist Needed For Album/tour Cellist needed for my album and possibly to tour shortly after. I am signed with South City Records. I need to start recording ASAP! Must be reliable and dedicated. Please contact me at scorpiano31@gmail.com Drummer/Bassist needed - Metal We are in need of a drummer and a bassist. Experience in metal (death, black, etc.) is preffered, but not completely necessary. Call Buddy at (601)5025647. Thanks for reading. -Buddy

Looking for band mates? Wanting to sell your gear? Advertise here for free! Visit JFP Classifieds.com. If you are interested in sponsoring the Musicians Exchange call JFP Sales at 601-362-6121

music

by Carl Gibson

Precocious Strings

Nathaniel Smith,15, is a professional cellist who has played with musicians such as Belá Fleck and Yo-Yo Ma.

F

ifteen-year-old Nathaniel Smith eagerly leads me upstairs to his second-floor bedroom in an expansive ranch house nestled in rural Brandon.

Opening a white case, he produces a sleek, antiquated mahogany cello, made in 1896

by Vincentius Postiglione. I ask him to play it, and he smiles sheepishly before delicately playing a busy rhythmic melody, using long sweeps and short chopping motions with his bow. Before completely losing himself in his playing, Smith stops and flashes a wide, toothy grin.

“I like playing some of the more modern stuff, I guess,” he says, blushing.

Smith has played the cello since age 5, encouraged by his parents, Wayne and Janelle.

Nathaniel is the youngest of three children, all of them musically gifted. His father, a guitarist by hobby, says music has fascinated his son since he was a toddler.

“Anything with a string on it, he could play,” Wayne Smith says.” He’d just pick up my mandolin and play it all over the place.

He got way better than me without any instruction. He passed me quite early.”

Nathaniel has professionally toured the United States and Canada since age 12, mostly with acclaimed fiddler Natalie MacMaster.

He’s also performed with contemporary musical greats like Belá Fleck and Victor Wooten, and composed music for Yo-Yo Ma. Nathaniel, who grew up homeschooled, says his career as a professional cellist early in life leaves little room for anything else.

“The shows start at 8, something like that,” he says, describing a typical tour schedule. “It gets done at like, 10:30. Then you pack up, get on the bus and leave probably around 12:30. Sometimes you stay up until like 3 or 4, go to a truck stop, meet some different people. Then you go to bed, and

you wake up at like, 2 for a sound check. Or maybe a shower.”

The tall, lanky teenager, sporting a slicked-back black ponytail, shyly recalls his first memories when he discovered his love for music.

“I remember there was like, a plastic guitar that we had, and I was trying to play a song on it like a cello with a violin bow,” he says, chuckling. “I thought it was a great song, but I heard it turned out screechy. I’ve always been immersed in different kinds of music, because my dad played and listened to a lot of the guys I’ve gotten to play with over the past couple of years.”

Wayne Smith says his son may shine as a cellist, but that his true passion is for composing.

“It took me about three or four years to get him to bring an mp3 recorder into the studio with him,” he says. Nathaniel had a habit of simply playing and making beautiful music. But without recording it, Nathaniel wasn’t able to remember what he had played and couldn’t reproduce it.

“I’d just think, oh my gosh, we need to start recording this,” his father says.

The young cellist is celebrating the release of two albums: “The Nathaniel Smith Jazz Project Live,” and “Arrythmia,” which features Nathaniel’s solo work. The jazz album features Jackson musicians Allison Jenkins on vocals, Jimmy Jarratt on piano and Tim Avalon on guitar, and includes renditions of timeless Jazz standards. Nathaniel composed the original works on “Arrythmia” just prior to playing and recording them, the senior Smith says.

“He went in the morning with no idea of what he was going to do, and come out that afternoon with a completely developed musical idea,” he says. “I’d drop him off, come back in the afternoon and hear what he had done, and I was just blown away.”

Ever the proud father, Wayne Smith is quick to note the amount of respect Nathaniel has already received as a professional in the music business. He says the connections his son has made through music have helped the growth of his career, particularly in his current tours with Natalie MacMaster.

“Mark O’Connor, Darol Anger—who used to play for the David Grisman Quartet— and Matt Glaser, who is the string instructor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, they all know Nathaniel,” Wayne Smith says. “And so when Natalie called them, they all referred Natalie to Nathaniel. We flew up to Canada for the audition. She said within 10 minutes, she knew she wanted him. And so, for the last three years, he’s been with her.”

This month and next, Nathaniel will play small tours throughout the South and the East Coast with MacMaster, child prodigy violinist Sam Weiser and Grammy Nominee Sarah Jarosz. Smith says constantly touring and traveling can take its toll, but he wouldn’t trade it for the world.

“There was one Canadian tour, where it was like a flight every day after a show. It gets really old being in airports all the time, I guess,” Smith says, laughing. “It’s still just, like, awesome. And a lot of people don’t get to do this who want to. And I really enjoy it in the long run—for sure.”

COURTESY BILLY BRAGG

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

by Rob Hamilton

T

oo often, the break-up song subgenre is not diverse enough. There are several types of break-up songs, generally falling under one of two tents. The first type is the “I-still-loveyou-why-did-you-leave-me?” song. These songs have been the cornerstone of blues, pop and soul for as long as genres have existed. The tone is fairly easy to capture and of course many of the best songs ever written fall into this category.

The second form of break-up song is considerably harder. These songs remove the self-victimization from the break-up.

Generally, these songs fall under one of two categories: 1. I just broke up with you and I feel OK; and, 2. You broke up with me, and I’m fine with it now.

The main risk with these songs is confusing stoicism with self-righteous-

ness and frustration with whininess. Ben Folds Five epitomized this pratfall with its 1997 clunker “Song for the Dumped.” After listening to this drivel, the first thing you wonder is what took his girlfriend so long to kick his a** to the curb?

Due to the fear and overbearing selfrighteousness, you rarely find men singing these songs. Women are far more prone to write proactive break-up songs, largely because their inherent underdog status often encourages self-empowerment.

Can you imagine Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” sung by Ne-Yo or Akon? It wouldn’t go over quite as well.

So how does a man walk that fine line between pride and misogyny? The artists who are most able to do it end up with the classic break-up songs. Let’s look at three examples: “A New England” by Billy Bragg is one of the bluntest break-up songs you

will ever hear by either gender. Nothing simmers under the surface of the song, which makes it surprisingly unique. He tells his girlfriend that he loved her and loves her still, but he’s now “looking for another girl.” It’s definitely one of the most unsentimental break-up depictions.

Then we have the much more abstract songs. “The Rabbit, the Bat, and the Reindeer” by Dr. Dog exemplifies this category. The narrator explains his frustrations in a more conceptual, though no less damning, way. He has had all he can take from his girlfriend and has finally decided to stand up to her, to “get it back like it’s four in the morning” and be rid of her.

All this leads to the best break-up song in recent years, The Exploding Hearts’ “Sleeping Aides & Razorblades.”

It is the most convincing and vivid song of the past decade about persevering and overcoming break-up hardships.

“I hung new posters on my wall, and

“A New England” by Billy Bragg is one of the bluntest break-up songs to date.

the dog don’t remember your name,” our victim sings.

Few songs have ever summed up the idea of having “moved on” from a relationship so succinctly and poignantly.

Being able to capture something other than heartbreak from a break-up is admirable. It is something that is done well so rarely and gives a listener hope that something positive can emerge from the wreckage of a relationship. Happy Valentine’s Day!

jacksonfreepress.com

COURTESY NATE SMITH

To see Nathaniel’s upcoming performances or buy his new CDs visit www.nathanielsmithcello.com.

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livemusic 8

around S A Lthe O Ocorner N

Country and Rock Music OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK - 4 P.M. ‘TIL

HAPPY HOUR 5-7, MON-THURS

COLT FORD COMING APRIL 2

LIVE MUSIC CALENDAR

2nd Week of Karaoke Contest w/ Mike Mott

ALL SHOWS 10PM UNLESS NOTED

LADIES NIGHT (FREE DRAFT CUP 9-11)

WEDNESDAY

TICKETS NOW ON SALE WEDNESDAY - FEBRUARY 10

THURSDAY - FEBRUARY 11 THE COLONELS

2/10

LADIES NIGHT LADIES DRINK ALL YOU CAN 8PM-12AM FOR $5 - NO COVER

THURSDAY

2/11

OPEN ‘TIL 2AM FRIDAY

2/12

- Voted Best Country Band 2010 FRI. & SAT. - FEBRUARY 12 & 13

THE ARIZONAN BAND SUNDAY - FEBRUARY 14 2 FOR 1 DOMESTICS MONDAY - FEBRUARY 15 2 FOR 1 DOMESTICS

QUILLS W/ SPECIAL GUEST SATURDAY

2/13

THE ELECTRIC

MUDD

SUNDAY

2/15

OPEN MIC JAM TUESDAY

2/16

MATT’S LATE NIGHT KARAOKE $2 MARGARITAS $1 HIGHLIFE & PBR

February 11 - 17, 2010

WEDNESDAY

32

2636 S. Gallatin Jackson, MS 39204

601-961-4747 www.myspace.com/popssaloon

2/14

KARAOKE MONDAY

TUESDAY - FEBRUARY 16

POOL LEAGUE NIGHT

2/17

LADIES NIGHT LADIES DRINK ALL YOU CAN 8PM-12AM FOR $5 - NO COVER 214 S. STATE ST. • 601.354.9712 DOWNTOWN JACKSON WWW.MARTINSLOUNGE.NET

TOPTEN SONGS THIS WEEK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

CAVO - Crash SHINEDOWN – If You Only Knew MUDVAYNE – Scream With Me PUDDLE OF MUDD - Spaceship SLIPKNOT - Snuff THREE DAYS GRACE - Break SKILLET - Monster CHEVELLE – Letters From A Thief ALICE IN CHAINS – Your Decision JANUS - Eyesore

FEB. 10, WEDNESDAY Hal & Mal’s Restaurant - Singer/ Songwriter Night: Duff Dourough, Virgil Brawley, Steve Deaton, Steve Chester, Jim Oakes/Keith Shultz 8 p.m. free Shucker’s - DoubleShotz 7:30-11:30 p.m. free F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dillon (blues lunch) free Underground 119 - The Rounders (bluegrass) 8-11 p.m. free Pelican Cove - Karaoke Contest 6-10 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Larry Brewer 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Ole Tavern - Karaoke Regency Hotel - Snazz myspace.com/snazzband2 Time Out - Shaun Patterson 9-12 a.m.

The Auditorium - Karaoke 9-12 a.m.

Footloose - Karaoke 8-12 a.m. free Electric Cowboy - Karaoke McB’s - Houseband 7 p.m. free Eli’s Treehouse, V’burg - Karaoke 8 p.m.

Lyric, Oxford - RJD2

FEB. 11, THURSDAY F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dillon (blues lunch) free Jxn Coliseum/Dixie National Rodeo - Jake Owen Hal & Mal’s - John Royan (New Orleans Jazz Piano) Underground 119 - Swing de Paris (gypsy jazz) 8-11 p.m. free Soulshine, Township - Fingers Taylor & Mark Whittington 6:30-9:30 p.m. free 930 Blues Cafe - Jackie Bell, Norman Clark & Smoke Stack Lightning 8 p.m. $5 Shucker’s - Hunter Gibson & Larry Brewer 7:30-11 p.m. free Fenian’s - Jim Flanagan (Irish Folk) 8:30-11:30 p.m.

Footloose - Karaoke 8-12 a.m.

Regency Hotel - Karaoke 7 p.m.

Poets II - Karaoke 10 p.m.

Cherokee Inn - D’lo Trio (Americana) The Auditorium - Shane & Frazier 7:30-9 p.m.

Castaways - Karaoke 6-10 p.m.

Bonnie Blair’s Irish Pub - Shaun Patterson 7-10 p.m.

Electric Cowboy - DJ Cadillac 9 p.m.

McB’s - Karaoke 7 p.m. free Eli’s Treehouse, V’burg - Karaoke 8 p.m.

Lyric, Oxford - Bela Fleck & the Africa Project

FEB. 12, FRIDAY Jxn Coliseum/Dixie National Rodeo - Joe Nichols Hal & Mal’s - Patrick McClary (of DayBreakDown) Martin’s - Tooz Co. 6-9:30 p.m.; The Quills+ 10 p.m. www.myspace.com/wearequills Underground 119 - Barry Leach (jazz) 9-12 a.m. $10 F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dillon (blues lunch) free; Sherman Lee Dillon’s Miss. Sound w/Amazing Lazy Boi 11:30-4 a.m. $5 Fenian’s - Seth Libbey & the Liberals (Blues Rock) 9-12 a.m.

2/10 2/11 2/13 2/13 2/18 2/19

Ole Tavern - Graham Wilkinson 10 p.m.

930 Blues Cafe - Blues/Jazz 5:30-8 p.m.; Jackie Bell, Rick Lawson 9 p.m. $10 Shucker’s - Snazz 8-1 a.m. $5 Soulshine, Township - Scott Albert Johnson (roots/juke) 8 p.m.

Haute Pig - Larry Brewer 6-9 p.m.

Electric Cowboy - DJ Terry 9 p.m.

Footloose - Karaoke 9-1 a.m. free Dick & Jane’s - Show Night/DJ Allen 9 p.m. $6; 18+ $10 The Auditoium - Shaun Patterson 7:30-9 p.m.

Pelican Cove - Travelin’ Jane 6-10 p.m.

Regency Hotel - Ghost Town McB’s - Jedi Clampett 8-11:30p.m. free Sam’s Lounge - Shaun Patterson 10-1 a.m.

Schimmel’s - Akami Graham (R&B) 10 p.m. $5 Cultural Expressions - Reggae/HipHop/Old School Night 9 p.m. $5 Koinonia Coffeehouse - Forever Friday (hip-hop/spoken word) Reed Pierce’s - Monkey Bone 9-1 a.m.

Two Rivers, Canton - Shane & Frazier 9-12 a.m.

Ameristar, V’burg - Memphis AllStars 8 p.m.

Golden Moon Casino, Choctaw - Hunter Gibson & Rick Moreira 6-10 p.m. free

FEB. 13, SATURDAY Hal & Mal’s Big Room - HeARTS Against AIDS: Scott Albert Johnson+ Thalia Mara Hall - Miss. Symphony Orchestra: Pops II: A Broadway Valentine 7:30 p.m. $15+, 601960-1565, www.msorchestra.com Jxn Coliseum/Dixie National Rodeo - Chris Young Jxn Convention Center, Downtown - Charlie Wilson/Rickey Smiley 8 p.m. $40-$45 Ole Tavern - Valentine’s Zombie Prom: Senryu, J.P. Harris & the Tough Choices 10 p.m. senryu.bandcamp.com Underground 119 - The Juvenators (blues rock) 9-12 a.m. $10 Martin’s - Electric Mudd 10 p.m. www.electricmudd.com F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dillon’s Miss. Sound w/Johnny Owens & Tick-Tock 11:30-4 a.m. $5 Fenian’s - Jack Douglas Trio 9-12 a.m.

930 Blues Cafe - Blues/Jazz 5:30-8 p.m.; Jackie Bell, Rick Lawson 9 p.m. $10 Schimmel’s - Houserockers 10-2 a.m. $5 myspace.com/thehouserockers Cultural Expressions - Kamikaze & Yardboy (hip-hop/Soul) 9 p.m. $5 The Auditorium - Larry Brewer (classic rock) 7:30-9 p.m.

McB’s - Travelin’ Jane 8-11:30 p.m. free Electric Cowboy - DJ Terry 9 p.m.

Regency Hotel - Ghost Town Shucker’s - The Extremez 3-7 p.m. free; Snazz 8-1 a.m. $5 Sam’s Lounge - Diesel 255 - 10-1 a.m.

Pelican Cove - Aaron Coker 6-10 p.m.

Dick & Jane’s - House Party/DJ Allen 9 p.m. $6; 18+ $10 Club Clarion - DJ

RJD2 - Lyric, Oxford Bela Fleck & The Africa Project - Lyric, Oxford Black Eyed Peas - BJCC Arena, Birmingham Tortoise - Bottletree, Birmingham N. Miss. Allstars - Lyric, Oxford Blondie - I.P. Casino, Biloxi

Koinonia Coffee - Gospoetry 8-12 p.m. $5 Reed Pierce’s - Monkey Bone 9-1 a.m.

Southern Cultural Heritage Auditorium, V’burg - 8th Annual Mardi Gras Ball: The Colonels 8 p.m. $40, 601-636-5010 Ameristar, V’burg - Memphis AllStars 8 p.m.

Golden Moon Casino, Choctaw - Hunter Gibson & Rick Moreira 6-10 p.m. free

FEB. 14, SUNDAY Jxn Coliseum/Dixie National Rodeo - Darryl Worley King Edward Hotel - Howard Jones Trio (jazz brunch) 11-2 p.m.

Warehouse - Mike & Marty Open Jam Session 6-10 p.m. free Fitzgerald’s - Andy Hardwick (brunch) 11-2 p.m.

Sophia’s, Fairview Inn - Knight Bruce 11 a.m. (brunch) Shucker’s - Will & Linda 3-7 p.m. free Fenian’s - Karaoke/Pajama Party 6-11 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Emma Wynters 6-9 p.m. www.myspace.com/emmawynters Martin’s - Karaoke 6 p.m.

Roberts Walthall Hotel - “Spoken Word in the City” Battle of the Sexes/DJ Young Venom 7 p.m. $10 Pelican Cove - Extremez 2-6 p.m.

Atwood Elks Lodge, Lynch St - Jazz, Blues & More: The Musicians 6:30-8:30 p.m. $5 The Hill - Open Blues Jam 6-11 p.m.

Footloose - Karaoke 7-11 p.m. free Cultural Expressions - Open Mic Poetry 8 p.m. $5

FEB. 15, MONDAY Jxn Coliseum/Dixie National Rodeo - Randy Houser Hal & Mal’s Restaurant - Central Miss.

Blues Society Jam 8-11 p.m. $5 F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dillon Martin’s - Open Mic 10 p.m. free Fenian’s - Karaoke 8-1 a.m.

Fitzgerald’s - Johnny Crocker 8-12 a.m. free Regency Hotel - Back 40

FEB. 16, TUESDAY F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dillon (blues lunch) free Jxn Coliseum/Dixie National Rodeo - Tanya Tucker Hal & Mal’s Restaurant - Pub Quiz 8 p.m.

Fenian’s - Open Mic 9 p.m.

Martin’s - Karaoke Shucker’s - Mardi Gras Party: Snazz 8-12 a.m. free Fitzgerald’s - Hunter Gibson & Rick Moreira 8-12 a.m.

AJ’s Seafood - Shane & Frazier 6:30-9:30 p.m.

Regency Hotel - Back 40 Ole Tavern - Open Mic Time Out - Open Mic 8 p.m.

McB’s - Karaoke 7 p.m. free Cafe 101, 101 South St - Open Mic (blues/poetry) 7 p.m. $5, 601353-0434 Final Destination - Open Mic

venuelist Wednesday, February 10th Footloose Bar and Grill 4661 Hwy 80 West, Jackson, 601-922-9944 Freelon’s Bar And Groove 440 N. Mill St., Jackson, 601-353-5357 (hip-hop) Fusion Coffeehouse Highland Colony Parkway, Ridgeland, 601-856-6001 Garfield’s Restaurant & Pub 6340 Ridgewood Court, Jackson, 601-977-9920 Gold Strike Casino 1010 Casino Center Drive, Robinsonville, 888-245-7529 Grand Casino Biloxi 280 Beach Boulevard, Biloxi, 228-436-2946 Grand Casino Tunica 13615 Old Highway 61 North, Robinsonville, 800-39-GRAND The Green Room 444 Bounds St., Jackson, 601-713-3444 Ground Zero Blues Club 0 Blues Alley, Clarksdale, 662-621-9009 Grownfolks’s Lounge 4030 Medgar Evers Blvd, Jackson, 601-362-6008 Hal & Mal’s 200 S. Commerce St., Jackson, 601-948-0888 (pop/rock/blues) Hamp’s Place 3028 W. Northside Dr., Jackson, 601-981-4110 (dance/dj) Hard Rock Biloxi 777 Beach Blvd., Biloxi, 228-374-ROCK Hat & Cane 1115 E. McDowell Rd., Jackson, 601-352-0411 Hauté Pig 1856 Main St., Madison, 601853-8538 Here We Go Again 3002 Terry Road, Jackson, 601-373-1520 The Hill Restaurant 2555 Valley St., Jackson, 601-373-7768 Horizon Casino Mulberry Lounge 1310 Mulberry St., Vicksburg, 800-843-2343 Horseshoe Bar 5049 Hwy 80 West, Jackson, 601-922-6191 Horseshoe Casino Tunica, 800-303-7463 The Hunt Club 1525 Ellis Ave., Jackson, 601-944-1150 Huntington Grille 1001 E. County Line Rd., Jackson, 601-957-1515 The Ice House 515 S. Railroad Blvd., McComb, 601-684-0285 (pop/rock) JC’s 425 North Mart Plaza, Jackson, 601-362-3108 James Meredith Lounge 217 Griffith St. 601-969-3222 Julep Restaurant and Bar 105 Highland Village, Jackson, 601-362-1411 Kathryn’s Steaks and Seafood 6800 Old Canton Road, Ridgeland. 601-956-2803 Koinonia Coffee House 136 S. Adam St., Suite C, Jackson, 601-960-3008 LaRae’s 210 Parcel Dr., Jackson, 601-944-0660 Last Call Sports Grill 1428 Old Square Road, Jackson, 601-713-2700 The Library Bar & Grill 120 S. 11th St., Oxford, 662-234-1411 The Loft 1306 A. Washington St., Vicksburg, 601-629-6188 The Lyric Oxford 1006 Van Buren Ave., Oxford. 662-234-5333 Main Event Sports Bar & Grill 4659 Hwy 80 West, Jackson, 601-922-9987 Manda’s Pub 614 Clay Street, Vicksburg, 601-638-6607 Martin’s Lounge 214 S. State St., Jackson, 601-354-9712 (rock/jam/blues) McB’s Restaurant 815 Lake Harbor Dr., Ridgeland, 601-956-8362 (pop/rock) Mellow Mushroom 275 Dogwood Blvd., Flowood, 601-992-7499 Mississippi Academy of Ancient Music 103 Magnolia, Edwards, 601-977-7736 Mississippi Coliseum 1207 Mississippi St., Jackson, 601-353-0603 Mississippi Opera P.O. Box 1551, Jackson, 877-MSOPERA, 601-960-2300 Mississippi Opry 2420 Old Brandon Rd., Brandon, 601-331-6672 Mississippi Symphony Orchestra 201 East Pascagoula St., Jackson, 800-898-5050 Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium 2531 N. State St., Jackson, 601-354-6021 Monte’s Steak and Seafood 1855 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-362-8182 Mugshots 1855 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-713-0383 North Jackson Pockets 109 Culley Dr., Jackson, 601- 362-4939 Okasions 1766 Ellis Avenue, Jackson, 601-373-4037 Old Venice Pizza Co. 1428 Old Square Rd., Jackson, 601-366-6872

Ole Tavern on George Street 416 George St., Jackson, 601-960-2700 Olga’s 4760 I-55 North, Jackson, 601-366-1366 (piano) One to One Studio 121 Millsaps Ave., in the Millsaps Arts District, Jackson One Blue Wall 2906 N State St., Jackson, 601-713-1224 Peaches Restaurant 327 N. Farish St., Jackson, 601-354-9267 Pelican Cove 3999A Harborwalk Dr., Ridgeland, 601-605-1865 Pig Ear Saloon 160 Weisenberger Rd., Gluckstadt, 601-898-8090 Pig Willies 1416 Washington St., Vicksburg, 601-634-6872 Pool Hall 3716 I-55 North Frontage Rd., Jackson, 601-713-2708 Pop’s Saloon 2636 Gallatin St., Jackson, 601-961-4747 (country) Proud Larry’s 211 S. Lamar Blvd., Oxford, 662-236-0050 The Pub Hwy. 51, Ridgeland, 601-898-2225 The Quarter Bistro & Piano Bar 1855 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-362-4900 Que Sera Sera 2801 N. State St., Jackson, 601-981-2520 Red Room 200 S. Commerce St., Jackson (Hal & Mal’s), 601-948-0888 (rock/alt.)

Reed Pierce’s 6791 Siwell Rd., Byram, 601-376-0777, 601-376-4677 Regency Hotel Restaurant & Bar 420 Greymont Ave., Jackson, 601-969-2141 Rick’s Cafe 318 Hwy 82 East, #B, Starkville, 662-324-7425 RJ Barrel 111 N. Union 601-667-3518 Sal and Mookie’s 565 Taylor St. 601368-1919 Sam’s Lounge 5035 I-55 N. Frontage Rd., Jackson, 601-983-2526 Sam’s Town Casino 1477 Casino Strip Blvd., Robinsonville, 800-456-0711 Schimmel’s Fine Dining 2615 N. State St., Jackson, 601-981-7077 Scrooge’s 5829 Ridgewood Rd., Jackson, 601-206-1211 Shuckers on the Reservoir 116 Conestoga Rd., Ridgeland, 601-853-0105 Silver Star Casino Hwy. 16 West, Choctaw, 800-557-0711 Soop’s The Ultimate 1205 Country Club Dr., Jackson, 601-922-1402 (blues) Soulshine Pizza 1139 Old Fannin Rd., Brandon, 601-919-2000 Soulshine Pizza 1111 Highland Colony Parkway, Ridgeland, 601-856-8646 Sportsman’s Lodge 1220 E. Northside Dr. at I-55, Jackson, 601-366-5441 Steam Room Grille 5402 Interstate-55 Frontage Road. 601-899-8588 Stone Pony Oyster Bar 116 Commercial Parkway, Canton, 601-859-0801 Super Chikan’s Place 235 Yazoo Ave., Clarksdale, 662-627-7008 Thalia Mara Hall 255 E. Pascagoula St., Jackson, 601-960-1535 Thirsty Hippo 211 Main St., Hattiesburg, 601-583-9188 (indie/alt.rock/jam/world) Time Out Sports Bar 6270 Old Canton Rd., 601-978-1839 Touch Night Club 105 E. Capitol St., Jackson, 601-969-1110 Two Rivers Restaurant 1537 W. Peace St., Canton, 601-859-9979 (blues) Two Sisters Kitchen 707 N. Congress St. 601-353-1180 Two Stick 1107 Jackson Ave., Oxford, 662-236-6639 Tye’s 120 N. Congress St., Jackson, 601949-3434 Under the Boardwalk 2560 Terry Rd., Jackson, 601-371-7332 (country/classic rock) Underground 119 119 S. President St. 601352-2322 VB’s Premier Sports Bar 1060 County Line Rd., Ridgland, 601-572-3989 VFW Post 9832 4610 Sunray Drive, Jackson, 601-982-9925 Vicksburg Convention Center 1600 Mulberry Street, Vicksburg, 866-822-6338 Walker’s Drive-In 3016 N. State St., Jackson, 601-982-2633 (jazz/pop/folk) The Warehouse 9347 Hwy 18 West, Jackson, 601-502-8580 (pop/rock) Wired Expresso Cafe 115 N. State St. 601-500-7800

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61 South - Rainbow Casino 1380 Warrenton Rd., Vicksburg, 800-503-3777 88 Keys 3645 Hwy. 80 W in Metrocenter, Jackson, 601-352-7342 930 Blues Cafe 930 N. Congress St., Jackson, 601-948-3344 Alamo Theatre 333 N. Farish St, Jackson, 601-352-3365 Alley Cats 165 W. Peace St., Canton, 601-855-2225 Alumni House Sports Grill 574 Hwy. 50, Ridgeland, 601-855-2225 America Legion Post 1 3900 W. Northside Dr., Jackson, 601-605-9903 Ameristar Casino, Bottleneck Blues Bar 4146 Washington St., Vicksburg, 800-700-7770 Beau Rivage Casino 875 Beach Blvd., Biloxi, 800-566-7469 Belhaven College Center for the Arts 835 Riverside Dr, Jackson, 601-968-5930 Beef ‘O’ Brady’s 111 Colony Crossing, Suite 130, Madison, 601-607-3171 Bennie’s Boom Boom Room 142 Front St., Hattiesburg, 601-408-6040 Borrello’s 1306 Washington St., Vicksburg, 601-638-0169 Buffalo Wild Wings 808 Lake Harbour Dr., Ridgeland, 601-856-0789 Capri-Pix Theatre 3021 N. State St., Jackson, 601-981-9606 Castaways 135 Madison Landing Circle, Ridgeland, 601-856-1680 (pop/rock) Central City Complex 609 Woodrow Wilson Dr., Jackson, 601-352-9075 Cerami’s 5417 Highway 25, Flowood, 601-919-2829 Char Restaurant 4500 I-55, Highland Village, Jackson, 601-956-9562 Cherokee Inn 1410 Old Square Rd., Jackson, 601-362-6388 Club 43 Hwy 43, Canton, 601-654-3419, 601-859-0512 Club City Lights 200 N. Mill St., Jackson, 601-353-0059 Club O’Hara 364 Monticello St., Hazlehurst, 601-894-5674 Club Total 342 N. Gallatin St., Jackson, 601-714-5992 The Commons Gallery 719 N. Congress St., 601-352-3399 Couples Entertainment Center 4511 Byrd Drive, Jackson, 601-923-9977 Crawdad Hole 1150 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-982-9299 Crickett’s Lounge 4370 Hwy 80 West, Jackson, 601-922-0500 Crossroads Bar & Lounge 3040 Livingston Rd., Jackson, 601-984-3755 (blues) Cultural Expressions 147 Millsaps Ave., Jackson, 601-665-0815 (neosoul/hip-hop) Cups in Fondren 2757 Old Canton Road, Jackson, 601-362-7422 (acoustic/pop) Cups in the Quarter 1855 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-981-9088 Davidson’s Corner Market 108 W. Center St., Canton, 601-855-2268 (pop/rock) Debo’s 180 Raymond Road, Jackson, 601-346-8283 Diamond Jack’s Casino 3990 Washington Street, Vicksburg, 1-877-711-0677 Dick & Jane’s 206 Capitol St., Jackson, 601-944-0123 (dance/alternative) Dixie Diamond 1306 Washington Street, Vicksburg, 601-638-6297 Dollar Bills Dance Saloon 103 A Street, Meridian, 601-693-5300 Edison Walthall Hotel 225 E. Capitol St., Jackson, 601-948-6161 Electric Cowboy 6107 Ridgewood Rd., Jackson, 601-899-5333 (country/rock/dance) elixir 4800 1-55 N, Jackson, 601-981-7896 Executive Place 2440 Bailey Ave., Jackson, 601-987-4014 F. Jones Corner 303 N. Farish St. 601983-1148 Fenian’s 901 E. Fortification Street, Jackson, 601-948-0055 (rock/Irish/folk) Fire 209 Commerce St., Jackson, 601592-1000 (rock/dance/dj) Final Destination 5428 Robinson Rd. Ext., Jackson, (pop/rock/blues) Fitzgerald’s Martini Bar 1001 E. County Line Road, Jackson, 601-957-2800 Flood’s Bar and Grill 2460 Bailey Ave., Jackson, 601-713-4094

33

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access—mankind understood that God was “utterly transcendent” and limitless, Armstrong writes, beyond our mind’s capacity to name or define (literally: to limit). God was “not this, not that,” reminiscent more of a Zen koan than a biblical verse. Religion provided us with practices for living godly lives. Ritual, prayer, meditation, yoga, charity, rigorous engagement with sacred texts and other practices are all pathways toward religious enlightenment, by whatever name you choose to call it. These practices are the rocks upon which the world’s religions were built, yet for many, are no longer requisites for spiritual understanding. Rather, we want religion to be easy.

The Enlightenment and its numerous scientific breakthroughs radically changed our concept of God, Armstrong writes. Not, she says, by creating science as the antithesis of religion, but through religion’s enthusiastic embrace of scientific proof for all things—including God. Prior to the 18th century, theology (and science) held that God could not be known through the natural world, and even giants like Newton, Einstein and Darwin agreed that sacred knowledge was “unknowable” through scientific methods.

That embrace, however, has reduced God to the universe’s ultimate engineer and mechanic. Science and religion has held that view for hundreds of years, Armstrong says, yet many scientists are returning to “mystical wonder,” understanding that science can no more define God than a finger pointing to the moon defines the moon.

“The most beautiful emotion we can experience is the mystical,” Albert Einstein wrote. “It is the sower of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger … is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself to us as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty, which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the centre of all true religiousness. And in this sense, and in this sense only, I belong to the ranks of devoutly religious men.”

Armstrong writes that “we have lost the ‘knack’ for religion.”

Insisting that God can be defined by scientific proof means that God can also be refuted by it. Yet one can’t scientifically prove a spiritual experience any more than a symphony or a poem. Like art, religion lies in the experience. By becoming facile with our religious practices, we become believers in the sym-

bols of religiosity instead of its skillful, active practitioners. In a scientific context, myth becomes exactly what modern atheists say it is: fantasy. God is a “super” version of a human, instead of “being” in and of itself. Instead of God as love, God has become one who loves; instead of compassion, he is compassionate.

Instead of heaven or hell as ego-driven human states, they have becomes places separate from and outside of our human experience.

Ancient theologians—those who wrote our sacred texts—would see our current view of God as idolatry, Armstrong writes.

“Any image of the divine is bound to be inadequate, because it cannot possibly express the all-encompassing reality of being itself. … If that symbol is a personalized deity, (people) could easily start to imagine “him” functioning as if he were a human being like themselves writ large, with likes and dislikes similar to their own.”

At its core, “The Case for God” is both hopeful and brilliant, while always challenging and sometimes infuriating.

By reengaging with God through “strenuous and committed” religious practice, Armstrong suggests that we can bring our world back from the infantilism of our literalist viewpoints, which, by their very nature, cannot allow competing fundamentalist viewpoints to exist. Religion, she writes, can make it “possible for mortal men and women to live on a higher, divine or godlike plane, and thus wake up to their true selves.”

For any serious student of spirituality, “The Case for God” adds layer upon layer to historical and philosophical understanding.

Beyond simplicity, it is also a spellbinding human story.

COURTESY ALFRED A. KNOPF

February 11 - 17, 2010

LMT #1500 PREGNANCY SWEDISH SHIATZU THAI YOGA REFLEXOLOGY

n her newest book, Karen Armstrong expands on a premise I first came upon in her 2001 book, “The Battle for God,” in which she wrote that religious fundamentalism is a thoroughly modern invention, unheard of prior to the late 19th century. In “The Case for God” (Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, $27.95), she expounds diametrically on this polemic, while providing a thump on the head to contemporary atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

Both camps—fundamentalists of all religions and the atheists who propound that a “fantasy” god is absurd—have a similar, over-simplified and anthropomorphic view of God, she writes, far removed from religion’s roots. They have a common basis: uninformed theology. The factions are two sides of the same late-minted coin.

Armstrong has impressive theological bona fides: author of numerous books on the world’s religions—including biographies of Buddha, Mohammed and St. Paul—and impressive scholarly tomes historically documenting, comparing and contrasting the world’s religious movements; Armstrong is also a former nun. On the basis of her work she advises governments (including that of the U.S.) on the issues of religion and foreign relations, and is a U.N. ambassador for the Alliance of Civilizations. When it comes to religion, especially the three Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Judaism and Islam), Armstrong has done the grueling work of understanding their history, philosophy and theology thoroughly, as evidenced by the voluminous notes and bibliographies for each of her books.

Trying to understand God, she writes in “The Case for God,” should be hard work.

Religion, in both the eras preceding the documentation of our great sacred works and for centuries after their publication (and into the present day for many theologians), provides the framework for profound, spiritually life-altering transformation. The mysteries (which originally referred to reality hidden from ordinary sight that exists beyond the reach of language) were a gift to those who performed the difficult journey of initiation into spirit-filled adulthood. The stories of the Torah, the Bible and the Qur’an were never meant to be taken literally, Armstrong repeatedly writes, but provide models for good, compassionate lives (or the consequences of badly lived lives).

As Armstrong recounts, the Torah, according to one rabbi, has only one basic lesson: Do to others as you will have others do to you. Everything else, he said, is commentary.

From the days when our prehistoric ancestors painted fantastical pictures on cave walls—that are still enormously difficult to

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35

books

by Lynette Hanson

Reveling in the Details at the end of an Ole Miss spring break, writing a 20-page short story about a football player.

“It wasn’t very good,” he says, “but I fell in love with narrative, and after that I would tell everyone that I was a writer, even though there was no evidence of it.”

This man is a writer. More evidence, on page 33: “Around here, true wealth comes coated with glue, and it’s always stuck to the same sets of hands.” The sentence leaves me breathless. In fewer than 20 words, Yarbrough sums up much that I have felt has always been wrong with my beloved home state. I asked Yarbrough how much of that he realized growing up.

“It’s hard to miss it, to be honest. When I was a kid—and it’s still true today to some extent—land ownership meant everything up in the Delta. And it’s hard to miss the fact that, with only a small number of exceptions, African Americans didn’t own anything. I grew up with that reality seeping its daily way into me,” Yarbrough said.

Growing up poor, living on 16th-section land that his father had to bid on every five years in order to keep their home, Luke thinks about Delta wealth as he’s eating lunch with COURTESY KNOPF

H

ow do you measure the heft of a novel? I don’t mean its weight in your hand, but its importance, its influence. If you’re an inveterate reader, as in firmly established by long persistence, you realize you take in every word, you know the novel’s characters, you assimilate what happens to them, using your own life to interpret.

Gained knowledge gives us a frame of reference, a tool we use to make decisions, be they pondered over or split second.

Protagonist Luke May does much the same with his own life in Steve Yarbrough’s latest novel, “Safe From the Neighbors” (Knopf, 2010, $25.95). Set it the small Mississippi Delta town of Loring, much the same as Yarbrough’s home town of Indianola, the novel takes place in the present but depends on the past. Luke, a high-school history teacher, explains to his honors students on the first day of school: “When you pursue truth the way a historian does, though, you’ll find that it seldom travels without escort. There are all kinds of accompanying data. And causation, in particular, is usually a complicated matter.”

I can’t remember a clearer understatement in my recent reading, surely written by a man with a love for language.

During a phone interview, Yarbrough told me that he sat up an entire Sunday night

Yarbrough signs and reads at Lemuria Feb. 11, beginning at 5 p.m. the school’s new French teacher, Mrs. Maggie Sorrentino. She’s no stranger to Luke or Loring. Dangerously fascinated, Luke wonders why such a woman—who drives to work at the small-town high school in a late-model Mercedes, wearing white pants with a purple silk blouse and heavy gold jewelry—would return to a place no one came back to. His thoughts roam from encountering her as a girl to the fact that her father shot her mother, Nadine Calloway, the night of Oct. 1, 1962, the same night as the James Meredith riots at Ole Miss, the same college his twin daughters now attend.

Right after the shooting the Calloways had left town—Maggie, her brother and father—but with no indictment for murder hanging over their heads. Maggie’s return to Loring serves as a catalyst for Yarbrough’s narrative, the telling of Luke’s present as he digs into the collective past of Loring.

I wanted to learn more about why Luke, fixated on the details of the riots at Ole Miss and the death of Nadine Calloway and with his on-point statement to his students about the complication associated with causation, did not like to read novels. They’re compli-

cated; they’re filled with facts; little happens in a vacuum. Yet Luke says that he’s bothered by fiction, by novels and the notion of plot “... in which one event leads to another in a manner that, more often not, seems overly simplistic.”

How could Luke not realize that everything that had happened in his life had led from the past, that everything he’s doing now leads to the present?

Yarbrough told me he wanted Luke to revel in detail, to make the past come alive: the big stories like the riots; the murder; and the little pieces like what groceries sold for at the Piggly Wiggly. To that end, “Safe From the Neighbors” gives Luke the leather-bound volumes of The Loring Times, kept by retired, former owner Ellis Buchanan, Luke’s mentor.

I asked Yarbrough about Luke’s dislike of plot. It had to be that way because, he says, “by the end of the novel I wanted him to realize you cannot avoid the notion that events have consequences, action produces results. Whatever it is, we’ll have to bear some responsibility for it.”

Things just happen, that’s one of the underlying themes in the novel. “You don’t know why,” Yarbrough told me, “Once they do all you can do is pick up the pieces and go on.” That’s Luke’s future, to heft his life and get on with it.

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“We wanted to partner with a company nationally known, and Seattle’s Best is a strong figure in the coffee world,” says Andrew Soliz, Andrew Soliz Director of Food and Beverage with HRI Lodging, Inc. Seattle’s Best Coffee Shop at the new hotel is the first one of its kind in Jackson. Soliz said the Seattle’s Best coffee is the same coffee brewed under the Starbucks brand for the past 39 years. All employees are professional baristas with a certification in drink artistry.

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36

Coming soon, says Soliz, is live music, poetry readings, and book club meetings.

Any book club interested in meeting at Seattle’s Best can call 601-355-5464 or stop by at 235 W. Capitol Street in downtown Jackson.

Seattle’s Best Coffee Shop at the Hilton Garden Inn Jackson/Downtown is open Monday through Sunday from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Check out their uncommonly smooth menu online at www.seattlesbest.com

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s

COFFEE HOUSES

Tues-Fri 11am-2pm

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OEC (Ridgeland 601-853-4188 and Madison 601-853-8288) Dine in or take out Japanese-style hibachi orders, fried rice, salads or sushi. Hibachi options range from veggies to jumbo shrimp. And it ain’t Japanese in Mississippi without the crawfish roll, right?

Tokyo Express (5050 I-55N 601-957-1558 and 900 E County Line 601-899-8838) Lunch or dinner hibachi orders (chicken, shrimp, steak, scallops) and cooked sushi rolls (snow crab, philly, crawfish, dynamite, titanic) along with fried rice and appetizer.

STIX (109 Marketplace Lane off Lakeland Dr Flowood 601-420-4058) Enjoy the quick-handed, knife-wielding chefs at the flaming teppanyaki grill; artful presentations of sushi; the pungent seasonings and spicy flavors of regional Chinese cuisines.

Nagoya (6351 I-55 North #131 @ Target Shopping Ctr. 601-977-8881) Nagoya gets high marks for its delicious-and-affordable sushi offerings, tasty lunch specials and high-flying hibachi room with satisfying flavors for the whole family.

A metro-area tradition since 1977 Dinner Hours: Lunch Hours:

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ASIAN

“Now Dats Italian”

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Voted “Best Chinese” in 2010, cuisine styles at Ichiban actually range from Chinese to Japanese, including hibachi, sushi made fresh with seafood from the Coast, and a crowd-pleasing all-you-can-eat buffet.

Home-Cooking T BUFFE- Friday

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OPEN MIC NIGHT. Friday, Feb. 12th at 7pm

Sushi & Habchi

DAILY HAPPY HOUR 2-5 Free beverage with the $5 purchase DINE IN OR CARRY OUT

5050 I55 N Ste. D Jackson (Located in Deville Plaza) PHONE 601.957.1558 FAX 601.957.1368

BAKERY Broad Street (4465 Interstate 55 N. 601-362-2900) Hot breakfast, coffee espresso drinks, fresh breads and pastries, gourmet deli sandwiches, quiches, soups, pizzas, pastas and dessert. A “see and be seen” Jackson institution!

Crazy Cat Bakers (Highland Village Suite #173 601-362-7448 & Fondren Corner Bldg) The amazing lunch sandwiches include: Meatloaf Panini, Mediterranean Vegetarian, Rotisserie Chicken to gourmet pimento cheese. The outlandish desserts are: to die for. Now open in the Fondren Corner Building on North State Street.

TWO FREE DRAFT BEER MUGS

ITALIAN

When you buy any menu item over $8 after 8pm every Fri. and Sat.

Basilʼs Belhaven (904 E. Fortification, Jackson, 601-352-2002) The signature Paninis are complimented by great Italian offerings such as spaghetti and meatball, tomato basil soup, cookies and cupcakes. Dinner menu includes fresh tilapia, shrimp and risotto, seafood pasta, generous salads—and don’t forget the crab cakes. Party menu includes a “panini pie.” BYOB.

Watch all games for the NFL Sunday Ticket, ESPN Game Plan, and the NFL Channel here!

BRAVO! (4500 Interstate 55 N., Jackson, 601-982-8111)

14 TVs - 1 projector screen - 2 big screens

Wood-fired pizzas, vegetarian fare, plus creative pastas, beef, and seafood specials. Wonderful atmosphere and service. Voted Best Wine Selection and Best Chef in 2009, Bravo! walks away with tons of awards every year.

Daily Lunch Specials - $9 Happy Hour Hour Everyday Everyday 4-7 4-7 Happy

Ceramiʼs (5417 Lakeland Drive, Flowood, 601-919-28298)

LIVE MUSIC Every Tues. thru Sat.

Southern-style Italian cuisine features their signature Shrimp Cerami (white wine sauce, capers artichokes) along with veal, tilapia, crawfish, chicken and pasta dishes. Now with liquor license!

Fratesiʼs (910 Lake Harbour, Ridgeland, 601-956-2929)

BARBEQUE Hickory Pit Barbeque (1491 Canton Mart Rd. 601-956-7079) The “Best Butts in Town” features BBQ chicken, beef and pork sandwiches along with burgers and po’boys. Wet or dry pork ribs, chopped pork or beef, and all the sides.

2003-2010, Best of Jackson

Lumpkins BBQ (182 Raymond Rd. Jackson 866-906-0942) Specializing in smoked barbeque, Lumpkin’s offers all your favorites for on-site family dining or for catered events, including reunions, office events, annivesaries, weddings and more.

DINE LOCAL, see pg. 38

707 N. Congress Street Downtown Jackson • (601) 353-1180 Open 11am-2pm, Sunday thru Friday

“BADGE SPECIAL” Military, Fire, Police, & Emergency Personnel 2-for-1 drinks all day, everyday!

601.978.1839 6270 Old Canton Rd. Jackson, MS 39211

jacksonfreepress.com

LATE NIGHT HAPPY HOUR Sun. thru Thurs. 10pm - 12am Two-for-One, YOU CALL IT!

“Authentic, homey, unpretentious” that’s how the regulars describe Fratesi’s, a staple in Jackson for years, offering great Italian favorites with loving care. The tiramisu is a must-have!

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Paid advertising section.

Lumpkins BBQ (182 Raymond Rd. Jackson 866-906-0942) Specializing in smoked barbeque, Lumpkin’s offers all your favorites for on-site family dining or for catered events, including reunions, office events, annivesaries, weddings and more.

Rib Shack B.B.Q. & Seafood (932 J.R. Lynch Street, Jackson, 601-665-4952) Hickory-smoked BBQ beef or pork ribs, BBQ chicken, giant chopped BBQ beef or pork sandwiches. Fried catfish, pan trout, fried shrimp, po boys. Tues-Thurs (11-8pm) Fri-Sat (11-10pm).

Serving: H OT P ASTA D ISHE G RILLED F ISH P ANINI S ANDWICH

BARS, PUBS & BURGERS

En

from the Belhaven bakery

Mon. - Thurs., 11am - 8:30pm | Fri. & Sat. 11am - 9pm 904B E. Fortification St. - English Village

Call Us: 601-352-2002

“Best Take Out” winner Best of Jackson 2010

Italian Done Right.

OPEN FOR VALENTINE’S DAY 910 Lake Harbour Dr. Ridgeland | 601-956-2929 Monday - Saturday | 5 - until

Telephone:

601-665-4952 For the sizzling taste of real hickory smoke barbeque -

THIS IS THE PLACE! B.B.Q., Blues, Beer, Beef & Pork Ribs

LUNCH: MON.-FRI., 10AM-2PM

Saturday & Friday Night Blues Band Coming Soon!

See Us Come kfast! a e r B r o F

Lunch & Dinner Hours: Tuesday - Thursday 11a.m. to 8p.m.

Friday & Saturday 11a.m. to 10p.m.

168 W. Griffith St. • Sterling Towers

932 Lynch Street in Jackson

7AM -10AM

Across from MC School of Law

601-352-2364 • Fax: 601-352-2365 Hours: Monday - Friday 7am - 4pm

(Across from the JSU Baseball Field)

Come see Why We Were Voted One Of Jackson’s Best Mediterranean Restaurants

February 11 - 17, 2010

Mediterranean & Lebanese Cuisine

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Lunch starting at just $6 .99 Hours of Operation: Everyday 11am-until

Alumni House (574 Hwy 51 Ridgeland 601-605-9903, 110 Bass Pro, Pearl, 601-896-0253) Good bar food, big portions and burgers (with “blackened” as an option) known for their sweet buns. Televisions throughout, even small tubes at your table. Po-boys, quesadillas; good stuff!

Fenianʼs Pub (901 E. Fortification St. 601-948-0055) Classic Irish pub featuring a menu of traditional food, pub sandwiches and beers including Guinness and Harp on tap. Free live music most nights; Irish/Celtic bands on Thursdays.

Cool Alʼs (4654 McWillie, 601-713-3020) A standard in Best of Jackson, Al’s stacked, messy, decadent, creative burgers defy adjectives.

Or try pineapple chicken, smoked sausage...or the nationally recognized veggie burger.

Fitzgeralds at the Hilton (1001 East County Line Road, 601-957-2800) Bar favorites with a Gulf Coast twist like Gumbo Ya Ya, Shrimp Cocktail and Pelahatchie artisan sausage and cheese antipasto. Plus grilled oysters, tournedos of beef, chicken pontabla and of course the fried stuff—oysters, catfish, shrimp, seafood or chicken. Did we mention the bar?

Hal and Malʼs (200 S. Commerce St. 601-948-0888) Pub favorites meet Gulf Coast and Cajun specialties like red beans and rice, the Oyster Platter or each day’s blackboard special. Repeat winner of Best of Jackson’s “Best Place for Live Music.”

Last Call (3716 I-55 N. Frontage Road 601-713-2700) Burgers, sandwiches and po-boys, plus sports-bar appetizers and specialities. Try chili cheese fries, chicken nachos or the shrimp & pork eggrolls. Pay-per-view sporting events, live bands.

Martinʼs Restaurant and Lounge (214 South State Street 601-354-9712) Lunch specials, pub appetizers (jalapeno poppers, cheezsticks, fried pickles) or order from the full menu of po-boys and entrees. Full bar, massive beer selection and live music most nights.

Ole Tavern (416 George St. 601-960-2700) Pub food with a southern flair: beer-battered union rings, chicken & sausage gumbo, salads, sandwiches and weekly lunch specials. Plus, happy hour 4-7pm Monday through Friday.

Shuckerʼs Oyster Bar (116 Conestoga Road, Ridgeland 601-853-0105) Serious about oysters? Try ‘em on the half shell, deep-fried, charred from the oven or baked in champagne. Plus po-boys, pub favorites, burgers, mufalettas, pizza, seafood and steaks!

Sportsmanʼs Lodge (1120 E Northside Dr in Maywood Mart 601-366-5441) Voted Best Sports Bar, Sportman’s doesn’t disappoint with plenty of gut-pleasing sandwiches, and fried seafood baskets. Try the award-winning wings in Buffalo, Thai or Jerk sauces!

The Regency (400 Greymont Ave. 601-969-2141) Reasonably priced buffet Monday through Friday featuring all your favorites. Daily happy hour, live bands and regular specials.

Time Out Sports Café (6720 Old Canton Road 601-978-1839) 14 TVs, 1 projector and two big-screens. Daily $9 lunch specials, pub-style appetizers, burgers, seafood and catfish po-boys, salads, and hot entrees including fish, steak and pasta.

Pelican Cove Grill (3999A Harbor Walk Drive 601-605-1865) Great rez view! Shrimp and seafood appetizers, soups, salads, burgers and sandwiches, plus po-boys, catfish baskets, and dinners from the grill including mahi-mahi and reggae ribs.

Underground 119 (119 South President St. 601-352-2322) Jumbo lump crabcakes, crab quesadillas, beef tenderloin parfaits, orange-garlic shrimp, even “lollipop” lamb chops. Add a full bar and mix in great music. Opens 4 p.m.-until, Wed-Sat.

SOUTHERN CUISINE The Auditorium (622 Duling Ave. 601-982-0002) Sweet Potato Crawfish Cakes, shrimp & grits, fried green tomatos, creole seafood pasta, catfish, shrimp and combo platters, Mississippi cavier salad, babyback ribs with sweet potato fries and cole slaw. Even a veggie plate! Full bar, movie nights and music on the Peavey Stage.

Julep (1305 East Northside Drive, Highland Village, 601-362-1411) Tons of Best of Jackson awards, delicious Southern fusion dishes like award-winning fried chicken, shrimp and grits, blackened tuna and butter bean hummus. Brunch, lunch, dinner and late night.

Primos Cafe (515 Lake Harbour 601-898-3400 and 2323 Lakeland 601-936-3398) A Jackson institution featuring a full breakfast (with grits and biscuits), blue plate specials, catfish, burgers, prime rib, oysters, po-boys and wraps. Save room for something from the bakery.

Sunioraʼs Sidewalk Cafe (200 South Lamar Street 601-355-1955) Homecooking, soul food, buffet and pizza for lunch in downtown Jackson. Soup and salad bar every day, plus daily lunch specials. “Mama’s in the kitchen!” Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm.

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Sugarʼs Place (168 W Griffith St 601-352-2364) Hot breakfast and weekday lunch: catfish, pantrout, fried chicken wings, blue plates, red beans & rice, pork chops, chicken & dumplings, burgers, po-boys...does your grandma cook like this?

The Strawberry Café (107 Depot Drive, Madison, 601-856-3822) Full table service, lunch and dinner. Crab and crawfish appetizers, salads, fresh seafood, pastas, “surf and turf” and more. Veggie options. Desserts include cheesecake, Madison Mud and strawberry shortcake from scratch!

Two Sisters Kitchen (707 N. Congress St. 601-353-1180) Best of Jackson winner for fried chicken (year after year after year) offers a sumptious buffet of your choice of 6-8 veggies, a salad bar, iced tea & one of three homemade desserts. Lunch only.

M-F 11-2, Sun. 10:30-2.

BAKERS • Open for Valentineʼs Day @ 12 noon (serving Dinner menu & Valentines specials)

• Now accepting Valentineʼs Reservations • Special Valentines Menu offered Saturday, Feb. 13th & Sunday, Feb. 14th

MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EASTERN Aladdin Mediterranean Grill (730 Lakeland Drive 601-366-6033) Distinct, casual elegant dining. Delicious authentic dishes, made from scratch, including lamb dishes, hummus, falafel, kababs, shwarma and much more. Consistent award winner, great for takeout or for long evenings with friends.

Jerusalem Café (2741 Old Canton Road 601-321-8797) Yes, it’s a hookah bar in Jackson, which also happens to have a great Meditterean menu, including falafel, lamb shank, feta salad, kabob, spinach pie, grape leaves and baba ghanouj.

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still need help paying off our student loans

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NEW! FONDREN CORNER | 11AM - 2PM HIGHLAND VILLAGE | 10AM - 6PM 601.362.7448 • CRAZYCATBAKERS.COM

FINE DINING Huntington Grille at the Hilton (1001 East County Line Road 601--957-1515) Chef Luis Bruno offers fresh Gulf seafood, unique game dishes and succulent steaks alongside an expansive wine selection; multiple honors from Best of Jackson, Wine Specator and others.

Schimmelʼs (2615 N. State St. 601-981-7077) Creative southern fusion dishes at attractive prices make the atmosphere that mush more enticing. New appetizer menu, “Martini Night Football” and others bar specials for football season!

Steam Room Grille (5402 I-55 North 601--899-8588) Great seafood featuring steamed lobster, crab, shrimp and combo patters. Grilled specialities include shrimp, steaks, and kabobs. Fresh fish fried seafood, lunch menu, catering, live music.

Now with TWO locations to better serve you

BEST PLACE TO PICK UP DINNER AND PRETEND YOU MADE IT Welch-McCann Duo Thursday, Feb. 11th

HAPPY HOUR

2 for 1 ALL Mixed Drinks

PIZZA

Mon. thru Sat., 2-7pm

The Pizza Shack (1220 N State St. 601-352-2001) 2009’s winner of Best Pizza offers the perfect pizza-and-a-beer joint. Creative pizza options abound (“Cajun Joe, anyone?”), along with sandwiches, wings, salads and even BBQ. Sal & Mookieʼs (565 Taylor St. 601-368-1919) Pizzas of all kinds plus pasta, eggplant parmesan and the local favorite: fried ravioli. Voted Best Chef, Best Kid’s Menu and Best Ice Cream in the 2009 Best of Jackson reader poll.

$1 Off Draft Beers & Wine

We Do It All! Hot Lunches and Dinners, Catering, Meals-To-Go, Rent-A-Chef, Gourmet Foods

LUNCH SPECIALS SPECIALS STARTING AT $7.99 AND INCLUDES BEVERAGE

CARRIBBEAN Taste of the Island (436 E. Capitol, Downtown, 601-360-5900) Jerk chicken or ribs, curry chicken or shrimp, oxtails, snapper or goat, plus bok choy, steamed cabbage and Jamaican Greens, Carry out, counter seating or delivery available. 11a-7p.

VEGETARIAN High Noon Café (2807 Old Canton Road in Rainbow Plaza 601-366-1513) Fresh, gourmet, tasty and healthy defines the lunch and brunch options at Jackson’s vegetarian (and vegan-friendly) restaurant. Wonderful desserts!

For catering, 601-978-7878 5050 I-55 N Jackson, MS www.foodiesjackson.com

1428 Old Square Road in Jackson 601.713.2700 lastcallsportsgrill.com

Reflections on the Old Thoughts on the New

free wireless internet Photo courtesy of a proud mom

jacksonfreepress.com

Thank you for entering our doors over the past year

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corkscrew Doctor S sez: Thank goodness the Super Bowl is over.

Now I can start getting ready for the WNBA draft.

$8.99 Valentine’s Day

PAJAMA PARTY!

FRIDAY, FEB. 12 Winter Olympics, Opening Ceremony (6:30 p.m., Ch. 3): Live from Vancouver, it’s the pageantry, the majesty of … hey, when does the women’s figure skating start?

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14

SATURDAY, FEB. 13 Men’s college basketball, Auburn at Mississippi State (6 p.m., Fox Sports South, 105.9 FM): The Bulldogs finally get a breather in the SEC. Maybe.

6PM  MIDNIGHT KARAOKE W/ MATT TRUTH OR DARE PILLOW FIGHTS! 4800 I-55 N, SUITE 32 JACKSON 601-981-1333

WEDNESDAY 2/10

Cumberland Gap (Contemporary Rock) THURSDAY 2/11

Jim Flanagan (Irish Folk) FRIDAY 2/12

Libbey & The Liberals (Blues Rock) SATURDAY 2/13

Jack Douglas Trio (Acoustic Americana)

Brunch 11am-3pm SUNDAY 2/14

Karaoke w/ Matt 6-11pm VALENTINE’S DAY PAJAMA PARTY!

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE AUDITORIUM

MONDAY 2/15

WWW.THEAUDITORIUMRESTAURANT.COM

(Variety)

HAPPY HOUR

TUESDAY 2/16

MONDAY – FRIDAY NOON – 7 PM

CALL (601)982-0002

February 11 - 17, 2010

Karaoke w/ Matt 8pm-1am

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Open Mic

THURSDAY, FEB. 11 Men’s college basketball, Ole Miss at Mississippi State (8 p.m., Starkville, ESPN or ESPN2, 97.3 FM, 105.9 FM): This game could be good for what ails both the Rebels and Bulldogs. Unfortunately, it seems to bring out the worst in both squads.

2 for 1 Domestics & Wells 622 Duling Ave. Jackson, MS

601-982-0002

SUNDAY, FEB. 14 Women’s college basketball, Ole Miss at Mississippi State (4:30 p.m., Starkville, ESPN2): There’s no love lost between these two. … NBA basketball, NBA All-Star Game (7:30 p.m., TNT): The league’s allstars hoop it up in the Cowboys’ new billion-dollar playpen. They’re playing this on Valentine’s Day? Hope you like sleeping on the couch, NBA fan.

MONDAY, FEB. 15 Men’s college basketball, Jackson State at Texas Southern (7:30 p.m., Houston, 620 AM): One way or another, the Tigers will win. But the Blue Bengals rarely pull out a victory in Texas.

TUESDAY, JAN. 16 College basketball, Kentucky at Mississippi State (8 p.m., Starkville, ESPN, 105.9 FM): The Bulldogs and Wildcats always seem to bring out the best in one another. … College baseball, Mississippi College at Millsaps (6 p.m., Jackson): The equipment list for this Maloney Trophy Series game will include bats, balls, gloves and space heaters.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17 Men’s college basketball, UAB at Southern Miss (7 p.m., Hattiesburg, 103.3 FM): The surging Golden Eagles try to douse the Blazers in a C-USA contest.

The Slate is compiled by Doctor S, who thinks Tiger Woods (allegedly) took this if-youcan’t-be-with-the-one-you-love, love-the-oneyou’re-with thing way, way, way too far.

Feel the love (within reason) at JFP Sports at www.jacksonfreepress.com.

BY MATT JONES

QUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Happy Valentine Daze, Aquarius! In my search for the counsel that would be of greatest help to your love life in the coming months, I decided on this observation by psychologist Albert Ellis: “The art of love is largely the art of persistence.” I hope you take that in the spirit in which I’m offering it. It’s not meant to suggest that you will be deprived of love’s burning, churning pleasures; I just want to make sure you know that your best bet for experiencing burning, churning pleasures is to be dogged and devoted and disciplined in your cultivation of burning, churning pleasures.

In 2010, you will have more cosmic assistance than you’ve had in a long time whenever you seek to increase your experience of pleasure. Do you want to get more sensual joy out of eating and drinking and dancing and listening to music? This is your year. Do you want to heighten your perceptiveness and find more beauty in the world and cultivate new ways to stimulate positive feelings and liberating emotions? This is your year. Do you want to intensify your orgasms and have more of them and learn how to use them to enhance your spiritual power? This is your year. And the coming weeks will be one of the best times in 2010 to move from charging up your pleasure to supercharging it. Happy Valentine Daze, Pisces!

ARIES (March 21-April 19): “Hate leaves ugly scars,” wrote author Mignon McLaughlin, but “love leaves beautiful ones.” If I’m reading the astrological omens correctly, Aries, you’re scheduled to receive at least one of the beautiful kind of scars in the coming months—maybe even two or three. In fact, I think they’ll be such lovely booboos that they will markedly add to your overall attractiveness. Rarely if ever have you been privileged to hurt as good as you will in 2010—thanks to the benevolent jolts of love. Happy Valentine Daze!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In my view, 2010 is the year you should expand your world. That could mean enlarging your circle of allies or building a bigger web of connections. It might mean broadening your appeal or widening your frame of reference or opening your mind to possibilities you’ve been closed to. It may even involve extending your territory or increasing the range of your travels. However you choose to expand, Taurus, I urge you to put love at the heart of your efforts. Love should be the fuel that motivates you and the reference point that ensures you’re always making smart moves. For inspiration, memorize this line by poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning: “I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.” In your case, Taurus, “thee” should mean the whole world.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Of all the signs of the zodiac, you Geminis are most likely to thrive if you experiment with new approaches to kissing in the coming weeks. To whip up your fervor, read incendiary texts like William Cane’s “The Art of Kissing.” Conspire with an imaginative partner to conjure up a new kissing game or even a sacred kissing ritual.

And come up with your own interpretations of the following kiss techniques: the throbbing kiss, the sip kiss, the butterfly kiss, the tiger kiss, the whispering kiss. Happy Valentine Daze!

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Happy Valentine Daze, Cancerian! After meditating about what advice would be most valuable for your love life in the coming months, I decided on this challenge from poet William Butler Yeats: “True love is a discipline in which each divines the secret self of the other and refuses to believe in the mere daily self.” In other words, create in your imagination a detailed picture of your loved ones at their best. Each day, make it a point to feel joy and gratitude for their most excellent beauty and power—as well as the beauty and power that are still ripening and will one day appear in full bloom.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): A friend of mine has woven her life together with a Leo who doesn’t fully appreciate the ways she expresses her adoration. She asked me to use my bully pulpit as a horoscope writer to convey a message to her lover, and I agreed, because I think it’s excellent advice for all of the Leo tribe this Valentine season. Here’s what she

said: “Just because somebody doesn’t always love you the way you wish they would, doesn’t mean they don’t love you the best they can and with all they have.” Are you willing to consider the possibility that maybe you should take that plea to heart, Leo? I hope so, because then you’ll be able to get some of the good loving you’ve closed yourself off from.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Happy Valentine Daze, Virgo! I meditated on what message might best energize your love life, and what I came up with is a declaration by author Mignon McLaughlin: “Love unlocks doors and opens windows that weren’t even there before.” In other words, the love you should be most interested in during the coming months is the kind that opens your eyes to sights that were previously invisible and that creates new possibilities you’ve barely imagined.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Happy Valentine Daze, Libra! My astrological hunch is that you’d benefit from the specific teaching that would come from exploring a three-way relationship. But wait.

Don’t jump to conclusions. Here’s the form I think it should take: Fantasize that the merger of you and your lover or ally has created a third thing that hovers near you, protecting and guiding the two of you. Call this third thing an angel. Or call it the soul of your connection or the inspirational force of your relationship. Or call it the special work the two of you can accomplish together.

And let this magical presence be the third point of your love triangle.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Happy Valentine Daze, Scorpio! After meditating on what advice would best serve your love life, I decided to offer you the words of psychologist Carl Jung: “The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.” As I see it, my dear, acting on Jung’s wisdom will help you carry out your primary task in the coming months, which is to bring novel experiences and fresh perspectives to your most engaging relationship. The best way to accomplish that is not with non-stop serious talk and intense analysis, but with a generous dose of playful improvisation and experimental fun.

“Best of the Decade, Part 3”— -this week: 2004-05.

Across 1 Merriam-Webster Online’s #1 word of 2004 5 Take to the stage 8 Former nightclub entertainer Lola 14 Hitchcock’s first Technicolor film 15 Gift adornment 16 Paint store option 17 So cute it hurts 19 Go over 20 Poll response 21 Richard Roeper’s #1 pick in his Best Movies of 2004 list 23 It can measure anywhere from 20 to 50 ml 25 ___ chi 26 Eastern sch. with a Buffalo campus 27 Salad oil pourers 29 “How disgusting” 31 Holy men: abbr.

32 Disaster relief org.

33 Get into an account 36 TV moment that made Wired’s Best Tech Moments of 2005 list 42 Beekeeper’s offerings 43 It’s NSFW material (unless your store sells it) 44 Nightmarish street 47 “That can’t be!” Internet abbr.

48 Petting zoo noises 50 Give the impression 52 “...___ and buts were candy and nuts...”

54 1151, in Rome 55 Dogpile.com’s #1 most searched celebrity of 2005 58 Tooth polish variety 61 Person with conviction?

62 Win over with flattery 64 One who makes people happy 65 Drinker’s police blemish 66 Charge option 67 Powerhouse 68 Summer in la cite 69 Blender magazine’s #1 song (by Usher and Ludacris) on the 100 Best Songs of 2004

©2009 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute.

Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-6556548. Reference puzzle #0447.

Last Week’s Answers

Down 1 Donkey noise 2 Mining deposit 3 They play dead really well 4 It was once divided into East and West: abbr.

5 Heads of monasteries 6 Young bucker?

7 Twitter dispatch 8 Lou who played the Incredible Hulk 9 From the top

BY MATT JONES

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): To prepare your Valentine horoscope, I did a lengthy meditation on your love life. I wish I could offer you a 20page treatise on my conclusions, but there’s not enough room. So instead I’ll give you the single most important piece of advice I came up with: The coming week will be an excellent time for you to survey the history of your love life, starting with the first moment you ever fell in love. I mean you should actually stream the memories across your mind’s eye as if you were watching a movie.

Feel all the feelings roused by each scene, but also try to maintain some objectivity about it all. Watch for recurring themes. Be especially alert for unexpected insights that emerge about the past. And through it all, be wildly compassionate toward yourself and your co-stars.

Last Week’s Answers

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “If I love you, what business is it of yours?” wrote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Now I’m offering his words for you to use as your mantra in the coming months.

Your main job, as I see it, is simply to be a lover of pretty much everything—to generate, cultivate, and express love in abundance—and not to worry about whether your love is reciprocated or how it’s regarded. It’s a tall order, I know—one of the most difficult assignments I’ve ever suggested. And yet I think you have the soul power and the crafty intelligence necessary to accomplish it.

Happy Valentine Daze, Capricorn!

Homework: Want some inspiration as you compose your romantic invitations? Go here: http://bit.ly/LoveAd

“Stepping Stone Sudoku” Each circled square in this sudoku is the same number of steps away from another circled square with the same digit in it as the digit in those two circled squares. For example, a circled square with a 3 in it will have another circled square with a 3 in it exactly 3 steps away. Conversely, a square that is not circled will not have another occurrence of its digit that many steps away. A step is a move into a horizontally or vertically neighboring square (diagonally doesn’t count). Note that none of the circled squares contains the digit 1, because that would require a second 1 in the same row or column. Also note that the number of steps in a path between two squares is counted as the smallest number of steps required to travel between those two squares. When you’re done, as in a standard Sudoku, each row, column, and 3x3 box will contain the digits 1-9 exactly one time. Don’t be scared, you can do it! Or can you...?

jacksonfreepress.com

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):

10 Volcanic outputs 11 90%, perhaps 12 Is unobliged to 13 Forever and ever 18 “...___ time in the old town tonight” 22 Comedy offering 24 Late Ledger 27 Grp. for the Montreal Alouettes 28 ___ Speedwagon 30 Move like a bunny 33 Tennis star Graf 34 Like winter roads, maybe 35 Katmandu’s land 37 “___ was I supposed to know that?”

38 Not-so-noble protagonist 39 “Eh, I don’t mind” 40 Major time period 41 Kind of fingerprint 44 Spotted 45 In a meager way 46 Broadway belter Ethel 48 Low-budget flick 49 Face spots 51 Mazda model 53 Trombone part, mostly 56 Broccoli bit 57 Letter-shaped fastener used in woodworking 59 Lanchester of “Bride of Frankenstein” 60 Remini of “The King of Queens” 63 Creeping plant

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LateNight

Late Night Happy Hour

February 11 - 17, 2010

12am – 2am, Thursday – Saturday Two for One Cocktails and Martinis

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Julep Restaurant and Bar Highland Village Phone 601-362-1411 Fax 601-362-1482 Make your reservation online at www.juleprestaurant.com

Time To Eat. Time To Play.

Time To Shine.

Thursdays-Saturdays 5pm-10pm • $19.99 All-You-Can-Eat Seafood Buffet Grab a plate and dive into unlimited portions of our catch of the day featuring all you can eat of your seafood favorites, including all-you-can-eat crab legs!

Capital City Beverages distributed by

M I S S I S S I P P I ’ S C O M P L E T E B E E R S O U RC E Ask for these beers at stores and restaurants in Central Mississippi.

Can’t find these beers? Call 601-956-2224 for more information.

NOT A BAD SEAT IN THE HOUSE.

We’re Bringing Great Deals To The Table EVERY DAY! Get on a roll at our $2 minimum bet Craps tables from 2am to 2pm EVERY DAY or double down for fun at our $3 minimum bet Blackjack tables EVERY DAY!

Fridays & Saturdays Now-February 13 Drawings 6pm-10pm Each drawing day, we’ll select winners to take home a pocketful of cash and a stunning piece of jewelry! Earn entries by playing your favorite games with your Riverbank Rewards Club card.

Get 10X entries every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Alumni House is your neighborhood sports grill with local flavor. We have an extensive menu featuring homemade twists on sports-themed restaurant classics. Stop in and let our friendly and attentive staff take care of your every need while you relax and enjoy all of your favorite sports action in Hi-Def.

$6 LUNCH MENU | MON-FRI 11-2

February 17th, 8-11pm Gift certificates available at HalfOffDepot.com/Jackson

Not the same old game

Dine-In • Carry Out • Catering

1046 Warrenton Road • Vicksburg, MS 39180 1-866-615-9125 • riverwalkvicksburg.com

3 Locations: 574 Hwy 51, Ridgeland • 110 Bass Pro Dr., Pearl • 204 N 40th Ave., Hattiesburg

Visit Riverbank Rewards Club for more details. Must be 21 or older to enter casino. Management reserves all rights to alter or cancel promotions at any time without notice. Gambling problem? Call 1-888-777-9696. ©2010 Riverwalk Casino • Hotel. All rights reserved.

jacksonfreepress.com

LIVE MUSIC BY SHAUN PATTERSON

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Estates • Wills • Trusts

Space available for Showers, Engagement Parties & Weddings

mmmmmmmmmmmm coffee • culture • community

Voted Best

mmmmmmmmmmmm

D nuts...

BEST OF JACKSON 2010

It’s never too early to start planning Virus and Spyware removal + 1 year of Kaspersky or McAffe Internet Security :$129 Laptop screen replacement: $150

Open 6am to 12pm | Tues. - Sat. 4157-D Robinson Rd., Jackson • (601) 922-8618 Fax: 601.922.8515 125 S Congress St., Jackson • (601) 326-8520

Serving all Open Jackson Area.

6610 Old Canton rd.

Ridgeland MS.

daily 10 am-8pm

601-977-1008

WE BUY CARS We buy cars working or not. Call 601-573-8082

OPEN DAILY 11AM - 11PM

ETRA CAFÉ & HOOKAH Mediterranean & Lebanese Cuisine

Jackson 2960 Woodside Drive, 3 BR / 1 BA Fixer Upper, Owner Financing or Cash Discount, $1250 Down, $472 a Month, 1-803-929-1117

Free Advice!

We’ll Help You Choose A Program Or Degree To Get Your Career & Your Life On Track. Call Collegebound Network Today! 1-877-892-2642

1-800-GAY-LIVE Call now!

Authent ic Mediterrane an cuisine located in historic Old Towne Cli nton 104 W Leake Street Clinton, MS 39056

601.925.0016

www.petracafe.net

Hook up with hot local guys. Talk to Gay, Str8, Curious and Bi men in hundreds of cities across the country. Fast, Discreet, and Easy! Premium FREE trial use promo code: NEWS4

Pregnant? Considering Adoption?

Talk with caring agency specializing in matching Birthmothers with Families nationwide. LIVING EXPENSES PAID. Call 24/7 Abby’s One True Gift Adoptions 866-413-6293

The Law Office of

Shawn M. Lowrey Phone: 601.818.6325 | Fax: 601.949.7574 shawn@shawnlowrey.com http://shawnlowrey.com

601-960-3008 koinoniacoffee.com 136 S. Adams Street in Jackson (Adams & Metro Pkwy between Downtown & JSU)

Studio Chane / Somå / Swell-o-Phonic GARAGE SALE we are redesigning our concept yet again. displays, fixtures, mini fridges, mirrors, hangers, rugs for sale, etc. SEE STORES FOR DETAILS! 601.366.9955

Bartenders in demand.

No experience necessary. Make up to $300 per shift.

Part-time, day, evening, night shifts available. Training, placement, certification provided. Call 877-879-9153

All Areas - Houses For Rent.

Browse thousands of rental listings with photos and maps. Advertise your rental home for FREE! Visit: www.RealRentals.com

GAIN NATIONAL EXPOSURE.

Meet fellow Jackson creatives in Sal + Mookie’s Pi(e) Lounge Thursday, February 11th 6 - 10 PM FREE entry and munchies!

Reach over 5 million young, educated readers for only $995 by advertising in 110 weekly newspapers like this one. Call Jason at 202-289-8484. This is not a job offer.

Fondren

Art Gallery now offers

ART CLASSES

File Chapter 7 Bankruptcy for $999! ($299 Federal Filing Fee Included!)

Interest Free Payment Plans Available

Neil B. Snead

Contact for more info.

601.981.9222

A  C A L Jackson • (601) 316-7147

Fondrenartgallery.com/@gmail.com

FREE BACKGROUND INFORMATION AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST