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It’s Saturday afternoon, and my wife is making a pie crust, not a particularly regular occurrence, since she’s a busy professional lawyer-type person and I’m a work-at-home schlub who ends up doing most of the cooking these days. I am smart enough, however, not to offer advice on pie-crust-making.

As we chat, Tatine pulls a box of parchment paper out of the drawer where all the stuff in long, rectangular boxes goes: foil, plastic wrap, wax paper. You know. We all have one of those.

“We’re almost out of parchment paper,” she says. “And it looks like we’re also really low on plastic freezer bags.”

“Okay.”

I pull out my phone and tap it a few times.

“It’ll get here Monday,” I say.

The transaction happens almost without thinking. A year ago, I would have added “freezer bags” and “parchment paper” to the standing grocery list on my phone. Five years ago, I would have added the items to a grocery list stuck on the fridge with a magnet. No more. After 11 months of COVID-19, I just order that crap instantly. I’ve got priorities, after all. I’m not gonna shower and put on hard pants and real shoes and mask up and get in my car and risk my life for a roll of parchment paper. No sir, buddy.

On Monday, a package will appear on my porch, and it’s likely I’ll have no idea what it is until I open it and discover — whee! — parchment paper and freezer bags!

Or it might be fire starters for the fireplace or three new black T-shirts or a cool new meat thermometer that I convinced myself I needed late one night. Who knows? Santa comes all year now!

Sometimes change happens and it takes us a while to realize it. Now, while we all jockey for position and wait and hope for a vaccine dose, it might be a good exercise to consider just how much COVID has changed us, and how much of that change might linger after COVID is just a bad memory that arises when you find a mask in a coat pocket a year from now.

I look forward to wandering through a bookstore, lingering in a coffee shop, sitting in a restaurant over a good meal, going to a concert, strolling through a museum, flying on an airplane, drinking a cold local brew at a bar where everybody knows my name. I might even miss going to the office. Sort of. Those things will come back into my life and I will welcome them.

But I think many of us, including me, will continue to order the mundane stuff we used to drive around and pick up. Not fun shopping, mind you, but yeah, parchment paper, plastic bags, vitamins — that stuff? Just drop it off on the porch, please. Thanks.

Have COVID and Amazon and Uber Eats and other delivery services transformed our urban way of shopping in a manner similar to how Walmart transformed rural America’s way of shopping? I don’t know. I read an essay this week called “Rural Doom,” by Evan Charles Wolf on medium.com. I recommend it to you. It is the best analysis I’ve seen yet on the country’s now-massive rural/urban divide. Wolf acknowledges how Walmart (and globalization) destroyed the economies of rural and smalltown America.

As the factories left and small businesses died and the towns shrunk, our cities and suburbs absorbed more people — and gained more votes and more power. Joe Biden took the presidency handily — in the popular vote and Electoral College — and yet won majorities in only 16 percent of the nation’s counties! Population density was the single most important factor in determining who won the election. The lesson: Win the cities and suburbs and you win the presidency. Walmart didn’t just transform a way of life; it transformed our electoral politics.

Will COVID leave a similar mark?

N E WS & O P I N I O N Time will tell.

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BY MICHAEL DONAHUE - 10 WE RECOMMEND - 14 MUSIC - 15 CALENDAR - 16 FOOD - 18 SPIRITS - 19 FILM - 20

C LAS S I F I E D S - 21 LAST WORD - 23

• Readers of the print edition of the Flyer will no doubt have noticed that the paper is a different shape — slightly wider and a bit shorter. That’s because the printer we’ve used for many years was recently shut down. We’ve found a new printer, but it was necessary to conform to a slightly new shape. Same Flyer, same content, just a slightly new package. We think it’s pretty snazzy.

Bruce VanWyngarden brucev@memphisflyer.com

CONTENTS

BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN Editor SHARA CLARK Managing Editor JACKSON BAKER Senior Editor TOBY SELLS Associate Editor CHRIS MCCOY Film and TV Editor ALEX GREENE Music Editor SAMUEL X. CICCI, MICHAEL DONAHUE, CHRISTEN HILL, JON W. SPARKS Staff Writers JESSE DAVIS Copy Editor, Staff Writer JULIE RAY Calendar Editor MATTHEW J. HARRIS Editorial Assistant LORNA FIELD, RANDY HASPEL, RICHARD MURFF, FRANK MURTAUGH, MEGHAN STUTHARD Contributing Columnists AIMEE STIEGEMEYER, SHARON BROWN Grizzlies Reporters ANDREA FENISE Fashion Editor KENNETH NEILL Founding Publisher

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OUR 1667TH ISSUE 02.04.21

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A roundup of Memphis on the World Wide Web.

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MAR S HA’S TU R NAR O U N D The internet dragged Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn last week. George Takei (yes, that one) summed it up in a tweet that said, “How it started, how it’s going, etc.”

Takei showed two tweets from Blackburn.

In one from October 2020, she blasted then-presidential-candidate Joe Biden for being “all talk and no action.” In another from last week, she blasted Biden for his many and quick actions as president saying, “30 executive orders and actions signed in only three days’ time. @POTUS, you can’t govern with a pen and a phone.”

In a response, Jaime Harrison, current chairman of the Democratic National Committee, tweeted at Blackburn saying “you’ve been in Congress for almost 20 years. You have only sponsored three bills that have become law: two were to rename post offices and the other to study a battlefield.”

SAVE B LAC K LO D G E Owners of Black Lodge video store launched an Indiegogo this month to “pay our rent until we can get to the other side of COVID. “Right now we’re making enough to pay our employees and almost all of our other bills, but rent is what’s killing us,” reads the site. As of press time, the store had earned $9,233 of its $25,000 goal.

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Questions, Answers + Attitude Edited by Toby Sells

W E E K T H AT W A S

By Flyer staff

Crime, Riot, & COVID-19 Crime rises, council calls for investigation, and a new vaccine system.

VI R US N U M B E R S FALL Virus numbers continued to deflate last week as the seven-day rolling average and active case counts declined. Area hospitals also saw softer numbers in patient populations.

Monday: new - 417; total - 80,770; deaths - 1,194 Tuesday: new - 221; total - 80,991; deaths - 1,202 Wednesday: new - 220; total 81,221; deaths - 1,228 Thursday: new - 446; total - 81,657; deaths - 1,241 Friday: new - 270; total - 81,927; deaths - 1,252 As of the latest information last Thursday, 50,094 COVID-19 vaccines had been given in Shelby County. As of that day, 12,256 had been given two doses for full vaccination, and 37,838 had been given a single dose.

Clockwise from top left: Memphis pups go pro at the Puppy Bowl XVII, and the new Vax Queue unused vaccine distribution system goes online

VI O LE NT C R I M E R ATE R I S ES Shelby County’s crime rate fell in 2020, but major violent crime, specifically murder and aggravated assaults, rose at a “disturbing pace,” according to the Shelby County Crime Commission.

Much of the decrease comes from a “plummeting” burglary rate, the commission said last week, and noted the reduction could come as people are staying home because of COVID-19.

Major violent crime — murders, rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults — rose 24.3 percent citywide and 23.1 percent countywide. In Memphis, murders were up 49 percent compared to the previous year.

CAP ITO L R I OT I NVESTI GATI O N A Memphis City Council committee passed a resolution last week requesting an investigation of any public safety employees involved in the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.

The resolution asks Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration to “develop and present a plan to the council” revealing those employees and creating a “process to ensure former city of Memphis public safety employees re-hiring status reflects participation in [the] U.S. Capitol riots.”

The council’s public safety committee gave a near-unanimous approval of the resolution with only council member Worth Morgan voting against it. The resolution is sponsored by council members Michalyn Easter-Thomas, Martavius

Jones, J B Smiley, and Dr. Jeff Warren.

The resolution is important, it says, to further “address concerns about the need for increased oversight and accountability within public-safety-based departments, especially in light of 2020’s international call for reform within the criminal justice system.”

N EW STAN D BY VAC C I N E SYSTE M Unused doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will soon no longer go only to those well-connected in Shelby County.

Vaccine doses go unused when patients don’t show for their appointments. Now, those unused doses go to those who are connected in the healthcare system, for example, or in government and political systems.

To fight this, health department leaders unveiled a new system last week, called Vax Queue, that will allow a countywide waiting list for those standby doses.

P U P PY B OWL On Super Bowl Sunday, Memphis will be represented in this year’s Puppy Bowl XVII. Jiffy, Vinnie, Pluto, and Tank of Charlie’s Crusaders Pet Rescue of Germantown will compete for CHEWY’s “Lombarky” trophy.

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

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POLITICS By Jackson Baker

Out of the Past Joe Cooper mulls a re-emergence; David Bradford is a “yes” man.

KANDACE SPRINGS FEB. 13 – 7:30P.M.

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Joe Cooper is a name from the political past: He called this last week to suggest that he was thinking seriously of running for the Shelby County Commission next year. Most of us, myself included, had lost track of Cooper, who was a squire on the old Shelby County Court back in the 1970s, and once considered a player.

That was before a run of bad luck and/or bad conduct that would see him bereft of his first wife and his office and, temporarily, of his freedom. At that time, Cooper received the first of two felony convictions, this one for acquiring bank loans circuitously, in the names of influential friends. That mischance, arguably, may have owed something to simple politics. Cooper, then a nominal Republican when the GOP controlled the Justice Department, had ostentatiously tried to do some impolitic public brokering on behalf of Democrats.

Though he thereafter attempted to regain his equilibrium in politics (this time as a Democrat) and as a businessman, Cooper never quite got back on his feet, though he maintained enough connections and savoir faire to be an advisor and backroom wheeler-dealer on behalf of other public figures.

If you needed an autographed photo of Grover Cleveland by 3 p.m. tomorrow, Cooper could get it for you. He proved useful in an administrative position here and there, and for years arranged an annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway on Beale Street for the homeless and indigent.

As the late state senator and Juvenile Court Judge Curtis Person Jr., one of several prominent Memphians who had a soft spot for Cooper, used to say, “Joe has a good heart.” In recent years, he partnered with Jerry “the King” Lawler in several valid commercial ventures.

But there were lapses. Cooper got nailed by the FBI in a money-laundering scheme and ended up having to shill for a federal sting against city politicians in order to reduce his own time in a new conviction.

As he said in 2012, when he was mulling over a commission race: “I know I’ve got some baggage, but I also know how to get things done.” If he follows through this time

around, Cooper would likely be seeking the East Memphis commission seat now held

by Republican member Brandon Morrison.

• In an online post last week, I noted that Shelby County Commissioner David Bradford of Collierville has the habit, which has been contagious to other members, of voting “yes” instead of the venerable “aye” in answering roll calls.

This week comes Bradford’s explanation of the practice, which is worth repeating: “I was wondering if anyone had picked up on my ‘yeses,’” he wrote. “It was a conscious choice to use ‘yes’ instead of ‘aye,’ and honestly I thought I might get reprimanded by the parliamentarian the first time I used it. I’ve strived to stay with the ‘yeses’ throughout my term. I wish I could say my ‘yeses’ were some sort of stand against 16th century [parliamentary precedent], but, alas, they are not.

JACKSON BAKER

Joe Cooper in 2012 “The reason I chose ‘yes’ over ‘aye’ is three-fold: “1) About 20 percent of it is that I prefer the less formal. I think using ‘aye’ makes the whole system seem more complex, when the simple ‘yes’ conveys the same meaning.

I hope less formal and less complex provides a system that is more approachable and understandable to all.

“2) About 75 percent has to do with clear communication. The buttons on our screens that we use to vote don’t say ‘aye.’

They say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ So the engineer in me that likes everything to be orderly, drives me to say what’s on the screen before me.

“3) That last 5 percent is just to see who’s listening and who catches on. Bravo to you, sir!”

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COVER STORY BY MICHAEL DONAHUE

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF FREESOL

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Free★at Last ★★ FreeSol’s long journey through the music business — and back to Memphis.

FreeSol appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.

Then, in 2012, everything stopped.

“As soon as we got dropped from Interscope Records I bounced to California,” says Free, now 42. Trying to “re-find himself,” he worked in real estate and became involved with the legal marijuana industry. “I was on the verge of opening my own brand, Sweet Cali,” he says. “We’d been in business since 2014 and we were looking for investors.

It’s a marijuana THC/CBD edible brand and street apparel brand.”

But in late 2019 Free decided to move back to Memphis. “I wanted to use some of my new hustle, and the things I learned about business and put that with music. I want to be an inspiration and a motivator for the city. I want to be a personality here. I had only been seen here in a dark, thuggish, rough, sexual light. I came to Memphis to get busy.”

F

ree, a native Memphian whose real name is Christopher Anderson, is now vice-president of Elite Home Flippers and wants to open a restaurant.

“I’m a hustler, man. I like food and I’m

from Memphis. I have always felt I was going to come home and do something for Memphis. And one of those things needed to be Memphis food. Growing up, I loved good Southern food.”

There will be music along with the food, Free says. “If I’m going to be in the business, we’re going to have music there.”

Free says he also will be bonding with young, local musicians. “I really want to connect myself to up-and-coming cats and do whatever I can. And do what I did with FreeSol, just trying to build a network — be connected and throw events and collaborations. If you remember the rise of FreeSol — how we played often at different events.”

Free says the late California rapper Nipsey Hussle was the inspiration for his moving back to Memphis and getting involved here. “He died in 2019.

He was shot outside of his store. The cool thing about him was that he had rented out a store in this building and he sold T-shirts, sold suits, while he was building up his music. He ended up buying the whole building. Then he owned a restaurant. He became a local entrepreneur, but he also was a national rapper.

“As soon as he was murdered, it was like his spirit was released and a lot of people built up a Nipsey Hussle mindset.

I knew I had to build up an empire, a business, and be an inspiration and motivation in my city. I see myself as a Nipsey Hussle. He made me want to come home, basically, to be here to be an entrepreneur while opening up a restaurant, putting on shows, eventually starting a record company. We can do it all and we can inspire and make friends.

And do it all with a smile on our face.”

FreeSol was ahead of the curve in rapping over music by a live band.

F

ree says art was his first creative outlet, but when he was 12, he began rewriting lyrics to the music of Boney James and the Yellowjackets in his mother’s record collection. He began writing his own rhymes when he was 14. “Fourteen was a big year for me. I started smoking weed, lost my virginity, and started rapping — all in the same summer.”

He gave his first performance during an overnight lockdown at Bishop Byrne High School. His friend, a DJ, told him he was going to get him on stage. “I was so nervous. I’ll never forget. The crowd went crazy.”

Rap music was all he wanted to do after that, he says. “They talk about that ‘drug’ of being on stage. That addiction.

That was it. I had 100 kids screaming, having a good time. After it was over it was like I just invented the cure for cancer.”

Free then started his first band, Sol Katz, with two other rappers. Their agent signed them to do talent shows in Atlanta and Texas. A little later, while going to school at Clark Atlanta University, he got a call from Beyoncé’s father, Mathew Knowles. “He heard about us and he called Orin Lumpkin at Elektra, who wanted to work out a deal. But it all fell through. When that didn’t work out, the band kind of broke up.”

F

reeSol says he got his name when he was 21. He was teaching Bible class at his church when he came across Galatians 5 verse 1, which “talks about freedom. So that was the birth of me wanting to be called ‘Free.’ Never being held by the yoke of slavery. I lost all religion and became ‘Sol,’ son of light.

It just came to me. It had to do with wanting to follow the light. From the darkness comes the light. To be the son of light, the son of goodness, is the

highest form of energy.”

In 2001, Free got a $25,000 loan from his cousin and recorded his first solo record, FreeSol. “I got in my car and drove all over the country and sold that record.”

He then ran into drummer James “Kickman Teddy” Thomas at Applebee’s on Union. “He was drinking this big ass beer at 12 on a Monday,” he remembers.

He offered his headphones to Thomas and asked him if he’d listen to his record. “He loved it.”

Bass player and keyboardist Daniel “Primo Danger” Dangerfield joined them that afternoon. “That Thursday we had our first rehearsal,” Free says. “Three to six months later we had our full band.”

“From the darkness comes the light.

To be the son of light, the son of goodness, is the highest form of energy.”

Songwriter/co-producer Elliott Ives, longtime studio and touring guitarist with Timberlake, recalls how impressed he was with FreeSol when he saw the group perform at Automatic Slim’s. “There were not many rappers performing with bands,” he says. “And not just that, but also having auxiliary members of the bands singing hooks.”

When he joined the band, Ives says, “I pretty much sang every hook. You’ve got this white boy Memphis guitar player singing these hooks and this Memphis rapper with a live band. A few years later, people started doing that. Now you rarely see a hip-hop artist without a band.”

FreeSol “was just different,” Thomas says. “We were on a different vibe at the time. There weren’t too many bands doing what we were doing. We were breaking down so many boundaries and breaking down so many doors as far as being new, energetic. For me, it was special, man. From the day I met Free, there was something special about what he was bringing, what he was trying to do at the time. It was a brotherhood as well as being a band. It was fun times, continued on page 13

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

F

reeSol is a free soul again.

After getting his musical start as lead singer of the alternative soul band also known as FreeSol, which formed in 2003, “Free” moved back to Memphis two years ago after several years of ups and downs.

FreeSol was originally signed to Justin Timberlake’s production company, Tennman Records, in 2006.

After then signing with Interscope Records, the band debuted its first single,“Fascinated,” on American Top 40 with Ryan Seacrest, and appeared on Late Night with David Letterman. The band was also presented the Memphis Sound Award at the Blues Ball in Memphis. The future looked bright.

11

Crosstown Arts: Against the Grain — an online platform where viewers can watch new, made-at-home performance videos by Memphis musicians — now features more than 150 local musicians. View their videos for free, or show your support with a donation. 100% of donations on an artist’s page will go directly to the artist.

Fe b r u a r y 4 - 1 0 , 2 0 2 1

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RESOLVE TO SUPPORT LOCAL MEDIA. The Memphis Flyer tells you what you need to know in good times and in tough times. That’s what we’ve done since 1989, and not even 2020 could stop us. So, as we enter this new year, resolve to support the free, independent local paper that’s always here for you.

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man.”

Describing their music, Free says, “I don’t believe in race. I don’t believe in labeling music. I think we think too much about things and try to divide things and put things in boxes. I take a little bit of Islam, atheism, Christianity, Buddhism, and find truth in my own lane. I took rock, rap, hardcore rap, hardcore rock, jazz music, pop music, and never tried to label it. And in all our songs I put elements of what we love.

We tried to create something new for everyone to fit into.

“Everyone came to our shows, from ’hood, straight-up crack dealers to the silliest of the white girls. I had everybody included. We were able to wrap it up because we had pieces of everything people wanted and respected in music and art. The real strength we had was our versatility.”

Christopher “Free” Anderson with his wife, Melissa Anderson FreeSol’s most popular songs included “Busy Watching Me,” “Don’t Give a Damn,” and “Crazy.”

Lightning struck when they met Timberlake at a private showcase and were subsequently signed to Tennman Records and then, Interscope Records.

Between 2006 and 2011, the band released Role Model and Hoodies On, Hats Low. One of their songs “Fascinated,” was co-produced by Timberlake and featured Timbaland.

Timberlake, who also appeared in the video, produced an album with FreeSol for Interscope. But in January 2011, FreeSol was dropped by Interscope.

“The politics of the major label music business got in the way of the actual talent and the music, and had nothing to do with the success we were having or the success we were about to have,” Ives

says. “It was pure politics.”

Everybody in the band “took it really hard,” Free says. “We had made it — and to have all it taken from us right then and there, everybody was heartbroken.

We did everything we were supposed to do. We had a fan base. We had a work ethic. But things didn’t work out.”

F

ree and his wife, Melissa, moved to California. They were married three years later.

In California, Free says his “main bread and butter” was real estate, but that he was also “figuring out how to learn the game with [legal] marijuana and how to get your own brand, your own farm, your own store. My passions have been weed and music. I always cared about those two things a lot. I wanted to be involved.”

But he reached a point when he felt it was time to move back home.

Free says he continues to write music but his subject matter has changed. “A lot of songs in my past are about sex, women, being a player — a young, childish perspective on life. Now I’m an older man. My lyrics are more mature.

I’m a prouder. I love a lot of the music I made, but I hadn’t seen anything, and that’s apparent. I was just pulling things out of my head and was trying to make them sound cool.

“Now, I can talk about life. I’m a business owner, a father of two, a husband. Everything I eat comes from my own hustle, my own inventions. I haven’t worked for anybody since I was 21 years old. I take care of myself and my family.”

One recent song is called, “Is It the Way?” It’s about “how I thought I’d never get married. How I met my wife. How it feels after losing the record deal with Interscope and taking that fall. A lot of people lost jobs, chased dreams, weren’t happy, or came up short. I know how you feel. You don’t know how it feels until you walk in those people’s shoes.”

Ives is producing two of Free’s recent songs — “Quit Playin’” and “Money Magnet” — at Ives’ Domination Station studio at Young Avenue Sound.

Would FreeSol ever reunite?

“Absolutely,” Free says. “We talk about it all the time.”

In addition to his music and business ventures, Free also hosts a podcast, Ice to Eskimos, with comedian Rob Love and artist Frances Barry Moreno.

“I’m an extremely happy man,” Free says. “I realized life is what you make it.

Your thoughts, your perspective matters a lot. No one is in control of your happiness, your days. I’m where I need to be.”

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

continued from page 11

13

steppin’ out (& stayin’ in)

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

dis/content

By Julie Ray

You may have heard that the pioneering and ambitious Art Village Gallery on South Main in Downtown Memphis has been renamed Urevbu Contemporary.

After a one-year hiatus, the gallery is debuting its first physical exhibition in time for African-American History Month.

The exhibition, “dis/contented realities,” presents a range of works from five emerging artists to watch from Nigeria, Cameroon, and the United States: Sophia Azoige, Samuel Dallé, Árá Deinde, Amarchi Odimba, and Kaylyn Webster.

To promote safe art appreciation, the gallery offers socially distanced artviewing appointments in seven different time slots.

“Though the paintings in the exhibition are unified by their figurative imagery, each of the artists approaches their subject from a fresh perspective COURTESY UREVBU CONTEMPORARY according to their own individual aesthetics, representing a spectrum of styles Untitled work by Árá Deinde ranging from the abstract to the naturalistic,” explains Urevbu Contemporary in a post to social media.

Through layers of oil and acrylic — and, in some cases, unexpected additional media — the paintings of “dis/contented realities” are informed by the rich, personal histories and experiences of the artists they represent.

Confronting issues of race and identity, immigration and diaspora, beauty and friendship, the artists grapple with issues of the current moment. Some of the individuals in the exhibition advocate for a restructuring of reality, others stimulate their audience to confront the political and social landscape. The paintings are placed in conversation with one another, allowing the viewer to appreciate and explore the connections and the conflicts of the artists’ respective viewpoints.

OPENING RECEPTION FOR “DIS/CONTENTED REALITIES,” UREVBU CONTEMPORARY (FORMERLY ART VILLAGE GALLERY), 410 SOUTH MAIN, SATURDAY, FEB. 6, 5:30-9 P.M., FREE WITH REGISTRATION.

Fe b r u a r y 4 - 1 0 , 2 0 2 1

VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES February 4th - 10th

DO GOOD. BETTER.

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We help Mid-South nonprofits succeed.

Book Discussion by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain Online from National Civil Rights Museum, civilrightsmuseum.org, Friday, Feb. 5, 6 p.m., free with registration Authors discuss Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, a compilation of 90 writers’ stories, each of which takes on a five-year period of that 400-year span.

Online Art Auction: “Incognito” Memphis Botanic Garden, 750 Cherry, memphisbotanicgarden. com, starts Friday, Feb. 5, and continues through Feb. 25 Peruse work online or in person by over 90 artists who have donated original unsigned work. Artist identity revealed after the auction.

Bidding exclusively online.

Artist Q&A with Mary Lee Hu and Elizabeth Brim Online from the Metal Museum, metalmuseum.org, Saturday, Feb. 6, 2-3 p.m., free Artists will discuss their careers, preferred techniques, and inspiration for their works in conjunction with “It Takes a Village,” the museum’s first crowd-curated exhibition.

Bluff City Fire & Ice Polar Bear Plunge Online from Special Olympics Greater Memphis, specialolympicsmem.org, Saturday, Feb. 6, donations Take the virtual plunge whenever and however you like. Dip into an ice-cold bath or add a bucket of ice water to your favorite TikTok dance.

Take a photo or video and share your virtual plunge on social media.

Eagle Festival Reelfoot Lake State Park, 2595 Hwy. 21 East, Tiptonville, Tennessee, Friday-Sunday, Feb. 5-7, free Featuring activities including eagle and waterfowl tours, art contest, photo contest, auction, birds of prey programs, arts and crafts vendors, and more.

Works of Heart Online Art Auction Online from Memphis Child Advocacy Center, memphiscac.org, starts Sunday, Feb. 7, and continues through Feb. 14, free-$200 VIP Featuring heart-inspired works by leading regional artists. Bid for free.

A Big Heart Lounge (VIP) ticket includes live, virtual preview, as well as early bidding benefiting Memphis Child Advocacy Center.

MUSIC By Alex Greene

The Stax Gospel A new reissue reveals the depth and breadth of the sacred music released by the label. umnist for The Daily Memphian. As he notes, “From its very launch, [the label] was formed around the strengths of the Rance Allen Group, a Michigan family band whose electrifying leader had a remarkable vocal range and an unabashed infusion of blues, soul, and rock-and-roll.”

Indeed, Rance Allen, who just passed away last October, was a force of nature. As Robert Gordon puts it in Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion, “Stax liked them so much, they created a new imprint, The Gospel Truth, just so they could sign them.” Beyond Allen’s singing, they were pioneers of a fresher, funkier version of gospel than what was common in their day. Many secular fans got their first taste of the group at the 1972 Wattstax festival, where the raw funk of their “Lying on the Truth” sat nicely alongside the Bar-Kays.

It’s telling that the first track in this collection is Allen’s take on the Temptations’ “Just My Imagination,” subtitled

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Wah-wah clavinet introduces the song, announcing that you are deep in the 1970s. “Talkin’ about a good time, we gonna have a time!” It’s one of the best party tracks you’ve never heard, though it’s possible you have, if you ever chanced upon the single by Jacqui Verdell in 1973, on a label under the umbrella of Stax Records: The Gospel Truth.

While music historians usually give a nod to the gospel roots of so much of the Stax soul sound, the actual gospel records released by the label are often overlooked. And yet, late in the Stax story, from 1972 to 1974, The Gospel Truth played a pivotal role in the genre. Some would even deem it a revolution, as the label championed gospel music with a funky, contemporary edge.

Craft Recordings, second to none in the business of reissues, and a longtime purveyor of classic Stax albums, has made that history easier to comprehend than ever, thanks to their new three-LP collection, The Gospel Truth: The Complete Singles Collection. If that’s not your medium of choice, the set’s also available as a digital release, but the grooves and textures of these tracks benefit immeasurably from their vinyl incarnation, cut to lacquer by Jeff Powell. It’s how the Good Lord meant for them to be heard.

Either way, you’ll get the in-depth essay by Jared Boyd, program manager at radio station WYXR and music col-

“Just My Salvation.” Nor is it surprising that the group accounts for 10 of the 34 tracks here. But the label’s other featured artists stick with that same commercial sensibility.

“Ooh, I got the vibes you’re sending with your eyes,” sings Joshie Jo Armstead on “I Got the Vibes,” a 1973 track that anticipates the onset of disco so presciently that Joshie should get royalties from the Bee Gees. “If the Shoe Fits Wear It” and “Who’s Supposed to be Raising Who,” from the same year, mine similar ground, and the group that sang them, the 21st Century, would later have a bona fide disco hit with “Tailgate,” under the name 21st Creation.

And yet the repertoire here doesn’t represent a complete break with gospel tradition, either. Rev. Jesse Jackson’s People’s Choir of Operation Push, which arose out of the Civil Rights struggle, supplies plenty of the gigantic, singalong choruses typically associated with gospel, albeit with a rhythm section that could have been right out of a Stax pop record.

In truth, the regular Stax session players don’t make much of an appearance. With Clarence Smith being the only Memphian here, among many from Chicago or Detroit. Most of these bands had their own provenance.

In fact, label head Dave Clark had a knack for buying up bands’ unreleased tracks, shelved by other labels, and readying them for release by having the Stax engineers brighten up the mixes a bit. The fact that these sound so cohesive is simply a sign that this was a whole movement of bands forging a new, modern form of gospel. And most of them loved the hits that had made Stax what it was.

15

CALENDAR of EVENTS:

February 4 - 10

T H EAT E R

A R TI S T R EC E PT I O N S

C O M E DY

Hattiloo Theatre

Urevbu Contemporary

Chuckles Comedy Club

From the Frontlines of COVID-19, online series that spotlights healthcare workers who share emotional insight of their critical work as they care for those who have been impacted by the virus. hattiloo.org. Free. Ongoing.

37 S. COOPER (502-3486).

Kudzu Playhouse

Kudzu Playhouse Virtual, join Kudzu social media for donation-based classes, games, scholarship opportunities, and more. Download the app for more fun theater activities and information. Ongoing.

P.O. BOX 47 (888-429-7871).

The Orpheum

Orpheum Virtual Engagement, join Orpheum staff, artists, and students for activities, interviews, and more on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Visit website for more information. Ongoing.

203 S. MAIN (525-3000).

Playhouse on the Square

Registration for Winter Adult Theatre School, a fun and challenging experience, in-person or online, for both the beginner and the experienced performer. $150. Through March 1.

Playhouse on the Square at Home, a series of digital content through POTS website and social media platforms. View past performances, engage in quizzes, enjoy digital playwriting, and more. Free. Ongoing.

66 S. COOPER (726-4656).

Theatre Memphis

Fe b r u a r y 4 - 1 0 , 2 0 2 1

Online on Stage, a Theatre Memphis Facebook group that serves as a clearinghouse for performers wanting to share their talents. Featuring storytime, readings, or performance art. Ongoing.

630 PERKINS EXT. (682-8323).

Opening reception for “dis/ contented realities,” exhibition of work by five emerging artists from Nigeria, Cameroon, and the United States. urevbucontemporary.com. Sat., Feb. 6, 5:30-9 p.m.

Tim Bae, $22-$45. Fri.-Sat., Feb. 5-6, 6:45 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

1700 DEXTER.

The Comedy Junt

Henry Coleman, $20. Fri.-Sat., Feb. 5-6, 8 p.m.

4330 AMERICAN WAY (249-4052).

410 S. MAIN (521-0782).

LECT U R E /S P EA K E R

OTH E R A R T HA P P E N I N G S

Book Discussion by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

Artist Q&A with Mary Lee Hu and Elizabeth Brim

Authors discuss Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, a compilation of 90 writers’ stories, each of whom takes on a five-year period of that 400-year span. Free with registration.

Fri., Feb. 5, 6 p.m.

Artists will discuss their careers, preferred techniques, and inspiration for their works in conjunction with “It Takes a Village,” the museum’s first crowd-curated exhibition. Free.

Sat., Feb. 6, 2-3 p.m.

NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM, 450 MULBERRY (521-9699), CIVILRIGHTSMUSEUM.ORG.

METAL MUSEUM, 374 METAL MUSEUM DR. (774-6380), METALMUSEUM.ORG.

Book Event by Ariel Lawhon

Fantastical Fairy Houses

Make your own fairy house for your garden with Becky Zee. All skill levels welcome. Children age 10 and up welcome with parent. $55 members, $65 nonmembers. Wed., Feb. 10, 12-3 p.m.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN, 750 CHERRY (636-4100).

Online Art Auction: “Incognito”

Peruse work online or in person by over 90 artists who have donated original unsigned work. idding exclusively online.

Feb. 5-25.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN, 750 CHERRY (636-4100), MEMPHISBOTANICGARDEN.COM.

Memphis Flyer Coloring Book

Order your book today benefiting local artists and journalism. $35. Ongoing.

MEMPHISMAGAZINESTORE.COM.

PINK PALACE WWW.MEMPHISMUSEUMS.ORG

16

Send the date, time, place, cost, info, phone number, a brief description, and photos — two weeks in advance — to calendar@memphisflyer.com or P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101.

DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, ONGOING WEEKLY EVENTS WILL APPEAR IN THE FLYER’S ONLINE CALENDAR ONLY.

Metal Museum Online

Peruse the art and craft of fine metalwork digitally. Featuring past gallery talks from previous exhibitions, interviews with artists, and demonstrations including “Beauty in the Boundary,” the Museum’s exhibition of gates and railings. Free. Ongoing.

METAL MUSEUM, 374 METAL MUSEUM DR. (774-6380).

The Peace Project

Hear the peace offerings made up of artists voices, instruments, ambient noises, and reverberations in a healing space featuring work by Hank Willis Thomas. Ongoing, 6 a.m.-6 p.m.

MEMPHIS PARK, FRONT AND MADISON, MEMPHISRIVERPARKS.ORG.

Works of Heart Online Art Auction, February 7th-14th, at memphiscac.org Pinch District Art on the Patio Artists’ Market First Sunday of every month, 2 p.m.

WESTY’S, 346 N. MAIN (543-3278).

Virtual Filmmaker Speed Meetings

Speed dating, but for filmmaking guidance. Opportunity for new/ new-to-Memphis filmmakers to connect with industry professionals. Free with registration. Tues., Feb. 9, 7 p.m.

INDIEMEMPHIS.ORG.

Author discusses Code Name Hélène: A Novel. Free with registration. Tues., Feb. 9, 6 p.m.

Works of Heart Online Art Auction

Featuring heart-inspired works by leading regional artists.

Browse and bid for free. A Big Heart Lounge (VIP) ticket includes live, virtual preview and early bidding. Proceeds benefit children served by Memphis Child Advocacy Center. Free, $200 VIP. Feb. 7-14.

MEMPHISCAC.ORG.

NOVEL, 387 PERKINS EXT. (922-5526), NOVELMEMPHIS.ORG.

Hollywood Feed University: Surviving K9 Adolescence

Certified trainer Alex Sessa covers an often-overlooked topic of K9 adolescence and the challenges that come with this developmental period.

Free. Thurs., Feb. 4, 8-9:30 a.m., noon-1:30 & 5-6:30 p.m.

HOLLYWOODFEED.COM.

OPERA

“Opera Speed-Runs” Series by Jake Stamatis

Tales of Hoffman on YouTube

by Handorf Company artist.

Free. Ongoing.

OPERA MEMPHIS, 6745 WOLF RIVER (257-3100).

Virtual Black History Speech Series: “Say It Loud”

A free Black history series featuring well-known locals portraying historical figures with an introduction by other well-known locals. Visit website

DINOSAURS IN MOTION Exhibit Now Open sponsored by

C A L E N DA R: F E B R UA RY 4 - 1 0 Eagle Festival

C O N F E R E N C ES/ C O NVE NTI O N S

Featuring activities including eagle and waterfowl tours, art contest, photo contest, auction, birds of prey programs, arts and crafts vendors, and more. Fri.Sun., Feb. 5-7.

Registration Open: PNA Professional Conference

REELFOOT LAKE STATE PARK, 2595 HWY. 21 E., TNSTATEPARKS.COM.

HATTILOO THEATRE, 37 S. COOPER (502-3486), HATTILOO.ORG.

Professionals in the field of aging can learn and connect with sponsors and vendors.

Featuring keynote speaker Olen M. “Mac” Bailey Jr. of the Bailey Law Firm. Receive five CEUs including one in ethics. $75.

Through Feb. 10.

(730-0528), PNAMIDSOUTH.ORG.

ELMWOOD CEMETERY, 824 S. DUDLEY (774-3212), ELMWOODCEMETERY.ORG.

HOLLYWOOD CASINO, 1150 CASINO STRIP RESORT, TUNICA, MS (662-357-7700), HOLLYWOODCASINOTUNICA.COM.

Pre-Order for Romance at Home

Enjoy a romantic dinner for two in the comfort of your home with a dinner prepared in the Peabody kitchens. Order by February 6, 3 p.m., for pickup February 1213. $195 service for two. Through Feb. 6.

AGRICENTER INTERNATIONAL, SHOWPLACE ARENA, 105 S. GERMANTOWN, TNIBRA.MYONLINEENTRY.COM.

Churches from the Presbytery of the MidSouth: Sunday Worship Livestream

Shop the Elmwood store online for books, cards, mugs, and more. Ongoing.

Hotel special featuring two nights and a $100 credit at Fairbanks Steakhouse. Valentine’s Day addon for $39 includes a bottle of champagne and gourmet snacks. $199. Through Feb. 14.

Fri.-Sun., Feb. 5-7.

M E ETI NGS

Elmwood Store

Lovers Stay Here

Ashley Brooks Memorial Scholarship Barrel Race

Be Mine Boutique

FOUND STUDIO, 497 N. HOLLYWOOD (652-0848).

THEATRE MEMPHIS, 630 PERKINS EXT. (682-8323).

S P O R TS / F I TN ES S

E X POS/ SALES Featuring handmade local artisan items and vintage gifts. Sundays, 1-4 p.m., and Tuesdays-Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. Through Feb. 13.

Memphis, Dinstuhl’s, and more. $10-$50. Through Feb. 13.

F ES TI VA LS

Combined livestream worship.

Visit website for more information and livestream link. Sun., 11 a.m.

IDLEWILDCHURCH.ORG.

Free Tax Prep

United Way of the Mid-South will prepare and file taxes for low-to-moderate income families. Walk-up or drive-through locations available. Visit website

for locations. Free. Through March 15.

UNITED WAY OF THE MID-SOUTH, 1005 TILLMAN (433-4300), UWMIDSOUTH.ORG.

Eagle Festival at Reelfoot Lake, Friday-Sunday, February 5th-7th

OUTMEMPHIS.ORG.

THE PEABODY HOTEL, 149 UNION (529-4000), PEABODYMEMPHIS.COM.

Levitt Shell Virtual Black History Month Series

St. Valentine’s Virtual Run

S P E C IA L E V E N TS

Opening event features gospel quartet The McCrary Sisters from 2018. Free. Saturdays, 7:30 p.m. Through Feb. 27.

Bluff City Fire & Ice Polar Bear Plunge

Love Notes

Virtual-T

Weekly Zoom gathering for anyone 18+ who identifies as a member of the trans or GNC community. For login information, email ahauptman@outmemphis.org. Tuesdays, 6 p.m.

H O LI DAY EVE NTS

Sat., Feb. 6.

SPECIALOLYMPICSMEM.ORG.

LEVITTSHELL.ORG.

Order one of three audio files. Add basket, for pick-up February 10-13, noon to 4 p.m.

Includes goodies from Theatre

Complete your run at your leisure, on a course that you choose during the week. All participants will receive a medal and race sweatshirt with registration. Swag bags while supplies last. Benefits Bartlett Parks and Rec. $25, $40 per couple. Feb. 6-13.

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FOOD By Michael Donahue

Kicking it up a Notch Papi’s Pepper Sauce started in the garden — and grew to reach 40 stores in eight states.

W

hen life gives you hot peppers, make pepper sauce. That’s what Joe and Kay Paul did.

“I was growing all these different peppers out back,” says Joe, 73. “And I got to wondering what I could do with them. So I started playing around with different hot sauces. I researched them on the internet.”

One day the couple came up with the perfect vinegar-based sauce: Papi Joe’s Tennessee Pepper Sauce. Made at their commercial kitchen in Rossville, Tennessee, it is now in eight states and 40 stores, including Whole Foods.

“It’s a combination of a lot of different flavors,” Kay says. “That’s what makes it so special. Joe didn’t feel like it was really a hot sauce because it’s not so hot that you can’t enjoy it. It’s got more flavor.

“Every batch has 100 cloves of fresh garlic,” Kay adds. “We don’t use garlic powder or garlic salt in our sauce. And he insists that it has to be USA-grown.”

The couple took the sauce to Jungle Jim’s International Market Weekend of Fire in Fairfield, Ohio, where they got a good response. They competed the next year. Out of 3,500 people and 300 sauces, Papi Joe’s took first place. “We knew we had them when their eyes got great-big when they tasted it,” says Kay. Their business started to grow after Joe took the sauce to gift shops in Collierville, where they live. “I just walked in and said, ‘Hey, do you want to taste something?’”

They then began thinking about making a Bloody Mary mix. “Every time we cooked the sauce, we had the drippings that were literally thrown down the drain,” Kay says.

So they took the pepper sauce, tomatoes, and celery salt and came up with Papi’s Sassy Bloody Mary Mix, which now is in about 40 liquor stores, including Buster’s Liquors & Wines.

They then created Papi-Q Tart & Tangy BBQ Sauce. “It’s got plenty of pepper sauce in it, brown sugar, local sorghum molasses, no additives,” Joe says.

They also have Papi Joe’s Tennessee Whisky BBQ Sauce, which is made with George Dickel whiskey. It comes in a 12-ounce flask. And Papi Joe’s X-treme Pepper Sauce includes ghost peppers. “It will not hurt you, but it’s a lot hotter than

the pepper sauce in our original recipe,” says Kay. Joe and Kay’s son, Don Paul, is also part of the operation. “We have the original location in Rossville,” Joe says. “It’s a 100-year-old building. It used to be a general store. We rehabbed that to make our commercial kitchen.”

Their equipment includes a 40-gallon steam kettle and a grape press. “It’s bottled there, labeled there, and shipped from there. All by hand.”

Kay and Joe Paul

Joe and Kay, who have been married 53 years, met in Lexington, Kentucky. “I was riding down the street backwards on my bicycle and she saw me and fell in love with me,” says Joe. “And a week later she asked me to marry her.”

That’s not exactly how it happened, Kay says: “We were neighbors.”

Joe got his Papi Joe nickname after his first grandchild was born. He wanted to be called Papi.

“I took that picture in the backyard that’s on the bottle,” Kay says. “Every bottle has a picture of Joe on it.”

Joe and Kay are considering pepper jelly, glazes, and rubs but aren’t planning for more products yet. Kay’s thought is, “Let’s just do really well at what we’re doing now and give ourselves a break. And then we’ll get onto something else.”

To buy online, go to papijoes.com.

S P I R ITS By Richard Murff

Three Great Whiskeys A tasting of stellar offerings from Scotland, Ireland, and the U.S.

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of Bourbon.” It’s a great drinker, not too big, and easy on the heat, with vanilla and caramel sweetness balanced with an element of black pepper spice at the back. The bottle is easy to recognize: It’s the one that looks like a hand grenade with Secretariat on top. Those racing jockey stoppers have made it something of a collector’s item, which partly explains why the bottles are so hard to find.

The retail price is around $50 (ish) and worth every penny. The secondary price, however, can be closer to $200. This is not a $200 bourbon.

Then there was a Bushmills 21-yearold single malt, in a nod to the old country. I’ve always thought of Irish whiskey as Scotch with the corners sanded off, which is true enough, but it sounds more insulting than intended. Bushmills 21, however, is its own creature and isn’t the power-washed version of anything. It’s aged 19 years in old sherry and bourbon barrels before being finished off for a couple more years in madeira barrels.

Madeira is a fortified wine in the same ballpark as porto, which accounts for the dried-fruit finish over the spicier notes. There are hints of dark chocolate and toffee.

Fine, but to detect the individual elements took a lot of nosing and talking because the layers aren’t exactly obvious. The whiskey was like an opera where the end result was so brilliant that you are largely unaware of the individual notes.

Despite the elements of fruit, there is a dry, almost creamy finish. Which may account for its 96 rating

by Whisky Advocate. I tend to agree.

Which goes to show you that even a Scotch guy shouldn’t go calling races in the first lap. The gold went to Team Ireland.

The downside, of course, is that Bushmills 21 is a $200+ bottle of whiskey.

Whether it’s worth the price is up to you, but it’s certainly justified.

And that is what I mean by positive drinking.

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et’s say it together: 2021 is going to be the year of positive drinking. And there is a difference. So just in time to miss Bobby Burns night, Celtic Crossing rolled out its new series of whiskey tastings. There is a virtual option that includes curbside pick-up of samples — then check in on Zoom from the confines of your fortress of solitude, where at least you’re familiar with the germs around you. For health reasons, I chose to attend the outdoor tasting in masked, socially distanced person because a) I’ve already had the crud, and b) after last year the greater health hazard for me is a fatal bout of cabin fever.

There is a world of difference between tastings and drinking (or drankin’ — defined here as “drinking with intent”). These tastings are great for the whiskey lover as well as anyone who would like to know more. It involves more sticking your nose in snifters and talking about it than actually quaffing booze. Although some of these whiskeys were very quaffable.

I’m a Scotch guy in my off hours, so I was excited about the Aberlour 12 Double Cask Matured. That double cask business — first, used bourbon barrels, then, finished off in sherry casks — makes it deep and spicy.

Aberlour is a big flavor without the sensation of wallowing in a peat fire.

It’s smooth and what fruit there is reminds me of orange peel. It’s not too hot and has a nice, long finish that starts off like — words fail me — crème brûlée.

I called the winner early in the evening.

The next was the hard-to-find Blanton’s — the first single-barrel bourbon commercially produced. It is in the Buffalo Trace family of distillers, so quality control is solid: These are the same people who put out George T. Stagg and are responsible for Van Winkle, “the Beatles

19

TV By Chris McCoy

Life, Death, and Laughs Buried by the Bernards puts a real-life Memphis family business on Netflix.

L

Fe b r u a r y 4 - 1 0 , 2 0 2 1

ocal commercials are a TV genre unto themselves; often low-budget to the point of almost being homemade, and produced without the benefit of ad consultants trying to make it more palatable to suburban masses, they can be cringeworthy and inadvertently hilarious. But they can also be just as memorable as a $1 million Super Bowl ad — and after all, isn’t that the goal? How many Memphians of a certain age remember Memphis preacher Dr. James Salton telling local TV audiences “You’ll never get nowhere smoking the pipe”? It’s the rare advertisement that created such a following that fans made T-shirts devoted to it.

Memphis’ Bernard Funeral Services scored a viral hit with a 2018 ad wherein the deceased is so shocked by their low prices, he sits up in the coffin and demands to be taken there.

The Bernards were, at the time, relative newcomers to the industry, says family matriarch Debbie Bernard. “My brother and I used to talk about the mortuary business, maybe 10, 15 years ago. We would just talk about it, but we never really did anything about it. As time progressed and we started doing other things, we put it on the back burner. Then we pulled it up to the front burner.”

Now they’re about to be on the Netflix front burner in a new reality series called Buried by the Bernards. Life

20

comes at you fast.

A close-knit family with roots in Memphis that go back generations, the Bernards all pitched in on the new business endeavor, says Debbie. “Everybody had something that they had to contribute. Ryan’s was the biggest, actually.

He had to go to class, go to mortuary school, take the mortuary test and everything. My assignment was ‘research and development.’ Regan was gonna work on the website. So collectively we got all together and our Bernard Funeral Services was born.”

Ryan Bernard says his mortuary science training was “an eye-opening experience. You know about death. It’s natural to life. But to actually go to school and learn the ins and outs of it, it’s almost like going to doctor school.

You have to learn everything about the body and the nervous system. It’s also like being a psychiatrist, a grief counselor. You have to deal with many aspects of death, and grieving families.”

What first attracted public attention was probably the building Debbie chose for the new business: a former Union Planters bank at Lamar and Pendleton in Orange Mound.

The location was perfect, and the building had a drivethrough window, so they decided to make the most of it and offer drive-through funeral services. Before the pandemic, comedians thought this was

(above) The Bernards’ 2018 TV ad was their first claim to fame; (below, l-r) Kevin and Debbie of the new Netflix show Buried by the Bernards hilarious. Debbie heard all the jokes. “Can I have two orders of fries and a milkshake with that?”

Ryan was booked on national talk shows. “They had me on The Steve Harvey Show trying to make a joke about it. I had to go defend the operation and let them know what the real was. Now, fast-forward two years down the road, the drive-through has been helping us out, especially with COVID. And it’s been helping out families, too.”

The TV exposure started the phones ringing. “We were just coming out the gate. We were trying to focus on building our brand and building our business,” says Debbie. “The people who called, some of them were just saying ‘Ryan needs a wife. Can I speak to him?’ We ain’t got time for that lane.”

One of the people who called was reality show producer Warren D. Robinson. At first, Debbie didn’t take his pitch seriously. “We said the ‘D’ stood for ‘Don’t call here no more!’”

But Robinson persisted. Ryan says he didn’t think his

EMPLOYMENT Kevin Miller says the humor in Buried by the Bernards comes naturally to everyone involved. “They looked at us as characters, but that’s just us every day around the funeral home.”

The show was filmed from January to March 2020, wrapping right before the COVID pandemic hit. When it debuts on Netflix on Friday, February 12th, the Bernards will suddenly reach an international audience. “I’m shocked,” says Ryan.

“This thing is going to be in 191 countries! It just doesn’t feel real to me.”

Buried by the Bernards premieres on Netflix Feb. 12.

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THE LAST WORD By Jackson Baker

Pipkin Parade

THE LAST WORD

You do feel the needle going in. Don’t let anySCALIGER | DREAMSTIME.COM body tell you otherwise. And, depending on the day’s weather, it’s likely to be cold and drafty when you have to bare an upper arm to get your COVID vaccination shot.

Have an “appointment” to get a COVID vaccine, do you? Well, good luck. Things may have become more streamlined since early last week, when negative word-of-mouth and social media had famously attested to the delays and traffic snarls of the county’s vaccine rollout. You could count on spending hours of your life in bumper-to-bumper traffic, driving in seemingly endless loops across the whole of the Fairgrounds driving surface to reach one of the six improvised bays in the interior space in the Pipkin building. There, finally, assisted by some very helpful and, under the circumstances, preternaturally cheerful folks administering the shots on behalf of the Shelby County Health Department, you could begin your inoculation against the potentially deadly and certainly ominous virus and conclude Phase One of the requisite two.

An ordeal? Yes. And worth it? Yes, and hail to the hard-working folks who were there laboring in the building’s six bays long before you get there and who will be there long after you leave. Like the besmocked lady wielding the needle when I pulled up: “Got to have some flesh,” she said, prompting me to temporarily shed coat, sweater, and shirt, and the assisting Sheriff ’s Department deputy who had greeted me by saying, “Where you been? Been waiting on you for six hours!”

And that was no joke. It had been every minute of six hours since I had pulled my Kia Soul into the north entrance of the Fairgrounds, off Central Avenue onto Early Maxwell Drive. “Where’s the Pipkin Building?” I had naively asked the deputy who was parked there, his car’s revolving light flashing, to monitor new arrivals.

“Get behind the red car,” he said, indicating a late-model Volvo. Upon complying, I noticed that I was thereby joining a queue of seemingly stalled vehicles that, via that previously indicated series of back-and-forth loops, spread far into the distance. Farther, indeed, than I could see. Hundreds of them, I would ultimately realize. The line would presently begin inching forward, and I mean “inching.” You know that old maxim about watching paint dry? Well, the queue’s progress was of that kind.

It was only later that I reflected on the obvious circumstance that all of these folks could surely not have been scheduled for 4 p.m., as I was, or 4:30, as my son Marcus, who was with me, was. Nor even 5 nor 5:30 nor 6, for that matter. A significant percentage of them had to be crashing (as in “gate crashing,” though, given the immensity of the jam-up, the literal form of the verb was always a possibility).

Note: I am trying not to be overly querulous here, nor judgmental. We all know that, going into January, neither the state nor federal sources had been models of advance preparation. Nobody knew exactly how much vaccine was on hand locally nor how long it would last. The first shots had been administered, without prior notice, in several days in late December and the first week of the New Year. They were earmarked for first responders and medical folk, but the grapevine had alerted a sizeable number of interlopers, and, in practice, those word-of-mouthers who were 75 or older had been permitted in the drive-throughs at Lindenwood Christian Church and the Health Department’s facilities on Sycamore View. For a week or so, the vaccination process was on hold, then opened up again on January 12th via a registration process.

Before the rolls closed on the month of January, I was able to grab a spot on grounds of age, and Marcus by dint of certifiable disabilities. Believe me, when the day came, it was beneficial to have a companion and an active radio, tuned mostly to SiriusXM news stations, from which I would learn, repetitiously and in detail that day, about both Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and the Robin Hood caper on Wall Street. There wasn’t much we could do about the paucity of porta-potties — only three over the whole Fairgrounds expanse. And we hadn’t thought to pack water bottles or snacks.

I am no masochist, but, lookit, all of the hardship, culminating in that final bite of the needle, turned the whole day into something of an adventure. And, yes, I’ll be grateful for the chance to do it one more time.

Jackson Baker is a Flyer senior editor and politics editor.

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

Roughing it in the vaccination line.

23

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