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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, JON W. SPARKS Staff Writers JESSE DAVIS Copy Editor, Staff Writer JULIE RAY Calendar Editor 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

OUR 1678TH ISSUE 04.22.21 I crossed the Rio Grande river last week — several times, actually. It wasn’t that difficult. In fact, I could have walked across and not gotten my feet wet, much less my back.

In Las Cruces, New Mexico, where I was visiting family, the Rio Grande comes down from the northern part of the state and runs along the city’s western edge. Or at least it used to. Right now, the Rio Grande is as dry as a buzzard’s brunch — a 100-yard-wide strip of sandy dirt. The river has looked like this in Las Cruces from October to February for most years since the 1990s. The Rio Grande is “turned on” again early each spring by releasing water from the Elephant Butte Reservoir 70 miles upstream.

But things are changing, and not for the better. In 2020, water wasn’t released into the Rio Grande bed until late March, and the river was back to dirt by September. This year, the Elephant Butte Irrigation District says levels are so low that water won’t be released until June, and that the river will probably be dry again by the end of July. In New Mexico, the Rio Grande is no longer grande — or even a rio — for most of the year.

Historically, the Rio Grande used to flow year-round through the Mesilla Valley from Hatch (Chile Capital of the World), through Las Cruces, down to El Paso, at least at some level. Before the Spaniards arrived, Native Americans farmed the valley and fished the river’s waters. Then as agriculture began to increasingly tap into the river in the 20th century, the Rio Grande was dammed in several places to prevent seasonal flooding, BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN capture snow-melt runoff from the The Rio Grande at Radium Springs mountains, and provide water as needed to irrigate many thousands of acres of pecans, alfalfa, lettuce, chiles, onions, and cotton. Now, there is enough water for agriculture — maybe — but that’s about it.

South of El Paso, where the river becomes the border between the United States and Mexico, the water level picks up again somewhat, as the river is fed by reservoirs in both countries. But drought (which doesn’t recognize lines on a map) is also affecting flow along the border.

It’s a good thing we have that beautiful 2,000-mile wall. Or, actually, I guess it’s the 452 miles of fencing that were already in place, plus the 80 miles that the Former Guy added.

According to Google, there are 300 or so miles of barrier (fencing or wall) along the dry border between San Diego and El Paso. After that, we’ve traditionally counted on the Rio Grande to handle the job of stopping would-be immigrants: making them swim for it or die trying. We may have to rethink that strategy. Wading isn’t all that dangerous.

But I digress. Las Cruces is a lovely place. It has beautiful scenery, and it’s fun to drive around and take in the vast vistas of sky and mountains. (And also to drive into the desert with my brother and shoot at Amazon boxes using my late father’s old .22. We killed several.)

On a whim, I took my tack-sharp 95-year-old mother on a drive north of Las Cruces, through the farm fields of the Mesilla Valley to Radium Springs, where there is actual water flowing in the middle of the desert and where some of the world’s largest pecan orchards are located. We veered off toward the Rio Grande on a gravel road and found a couple of small, shallow pools in the riverbed — a lovely reminder of what used to be, and, sadly, probably not a harbinger of what’s to come.

In fact, if what I saw in Las Cruces is N E WS & O P I N I O N any indicator of where we’re headed with THE FLY-BY - 4 the Rio Grande, keeping the scary hordes NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 6 of brown people from invading our pure POLITICS - 8 Anglo-Saxon soil is just going to keep getFINANCIAL FEATURE - 9 ting harder. It’s clear that Mother Nature COVER STORY “CARS GO ELECTRIC!” — or climate change, if you’re an elitist — is

BY CHRIS MCCOY - 10 conspiring against our puny idea of what WE RECOMMEND - 15 makes a border.

MUSIC - 16 It may come down to a choice between CALENDAR - 17 saving American pecans or keeping a few FOOD - 19 American wing-nuts happy. I stand with FILM - 20 the pecans.

C LAS S I F I E D S - 21 Bruce VanWyngarden LAST WORD - 23 brucev@memphisflyer.com

Special thanks to Memphis City Council and the Shelby County Commission!

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THE

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MEMernet A roundup of Memphis on the World Wide Web. B EAUTI F U L Heartwarming beauty is rare on Facebook. But one thread last week overflowed with it. On the Buy Nothing Midtown/Downtown group, a transitioning woman asked for any unwanted clothes.

In less than 24 hours, the post had 503 comments. There were clothes offers, natch, but also an outpouring of support, pride, and congrats.

“I’M F R O M M E M P H I S” Head over to Mari Beth’s Facebook page for a sticker that reads, “I’m from Memphis not Tennessee. Oh, and also fuck Bill Lee.”

April 22-28, 2021

POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY MARI BETH

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IT’S C O M P LI CATE D A Shelby County Commissioner had a question on Facebook last week about the Complicated Pilgrim restaurant to open inside The Memphian Hotel: “I want to know the market research that said, ‘Name your flagship restaurant Complicated Pilgrim’ in the middle of damn Memphis, Tennessee, in a hotel named The Memphian? Please someone email me that study. Seriously. WTF is a complicated pilgrim?”

The restaurant gave, maybe, a hint of an answer in a December Facebook post that read, “muse mention: Dorothy of The Wizard of Oz.” POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY COMPLICATED PILGRIM

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Questions, Answers + Attitude Edited by Toby Sells

CITY REPORTER B y To b y S e l l s

Top Cop Mayor’s pick to lead the Memphis Police Department would be its first female chief.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced Monday, April 19th, he picked Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis to be the next director of the Memphis Police Department (MPD).

If approved by the Memphis CITY OF MEMPHIS/YOUTUBE City Council, Davis would be the first woman to lead the department.

She is now the chief of the Durham Police Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis now serves as the first Black female chief of the Durham Police Department.

Department in North Carolina, serving as that department’s first Black female chief. Prior to On interacting with activists: Durham, she served as Deputy Chief of Police for the Atlanta “We need to ask our community, ‘What do you want from Police Department. your police department?’ and find time to be in those difficult Strickland made the announcement in a YouTube video conversations, even with activists.

Monday morning. In it, Deidre Malone, president and CEO of “They deserve space to exercise their First Amendment The Carter Malone Group, a public and government relations rights. In Durham, that’s what we’ve allowed them to do. As firm, interviewed Davis about the kind of leader she would be I’m here right now, we had protests in Durham last night. But for MPD and how she would handle some of the city’s unique my staff has learned it’s not all about wearing mobile field force challenges. gear and getting in front of people who are already angry, who Here are some of Davis’ comments on some of the biggest have reasons to be angry. We need to give individuals their topics covered in the interview. space to protest.”

On police shootings: On challenges in MPD: “This is a very painful time, and in our country. This is a “I believe in maximizing manpower. You know, sometimes very difficult place for the law enforcement industry because you can’t get the additional officers that you really need, and — time and time again — we have failed. sometimes you really need to take a surgical look at what you “As an African-American woman who gets up in the have and are using.” morning without the uniform on, I understand that there is On Tennessee’s new open-carry gun law: work to be done. There’s much work to be done to build up “That’s very challenging, and I think is very inconsiderate. those relationships.

I hate to say it like that, but I think it’s very inconsiderate to “We have officers that get up every day to really protect and communities that are already struggling with gun violence. serve. They don’t get up in the morning thinking that they’re “When you put officers in a situation where they can’t going out to hurt somebody or kill somebody. We need to be address suspicious individuals, because they’re walking around able to build that trust with our communities by showing them with weapons, that makes it very complicated.” that we’re not just going to respond to a call because something Visit the News Blog at memphisflyer.com for fuller versions of these stories and more local news. bad has happened.”

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The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 For Release Friday, September 28, 2018

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A controversial conspiracy theorist approved for state panel.

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3 “The foundation of most governments,” per John Adams

7 Log unit

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE A V I D

57 Neil Armstrong or Jesse Owens, say 58 Flirt with disaster

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Edited by Will Shortz

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@ CROS S TOW NCONCOURSE

The mosque-fighting, anti-Black Lives Matter, 9/11 Truther, insurrectionist Laurie Cardoza-Moore will help pick Tennessee textbooks for the next year.

Cardoza-Moore was confirmed by both houses of the Tennessee General Assembly with a final House vote on Monday, April 12th, securing her spot on the State Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission. The House vote ran along party lines with 66 members voting to approve her, 26 voting against, and two members who were present but did not vote.

Cardoza-Moore was nominated to the board by House Speaker Rep. Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), and the resolution for the nomination was carried in the House by Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver (R-Lancaster). On the House floor, Weaver gave no speech supporting Cardoza-Moore.

Only Rep. Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville) spoke against the nomination.

“There are almost 7 million Tennesseans to choose from for the textbook commission and we pick the leader of an organization that has been on a hate group list, one who said 30 percent of Muslims are terrorists, and one who is a 9/11 Truther,” Johnson said.

Johnson quoted Cardoza-Moore from a video attempting to recruit others for the Capitol insurrection, saying “God did not put us on this earth to be cowards. He brought us into this world and prepared us for this moment in time. …

We have to go in, march into the battlefield, and go to the front line and hold the line.” Johnson said Cardoza-Moore tapped active-duty military officials and veterans to join the insurrection, too.

“I think that’s frightening,” Johnson said. “I believe that there are millions of

people in this state that would serve our textbook commission well. It’s not about ‘Is this person able to do the job?’ It’s ‘Is this someone we elevate at the state level?’ Someone who’s a 9/11 Truther.

Someone who believes that 30 percent of Muslims are terrorists, and someone who literally tried to incite violence and a military coup at our Capitol. I think we’re better than that. And I think this is a huge mistake.”

Sexton asked Weaver, who carried the bill, for a rebuttal. Weaver said only “thank you for your comments.” Cardoza-Moore’s term begins July 1, 2021, and ends June 30, 2022.

PROCLAIMING JUSTICE TO THE NATIONS/ FACEBOOK

Laurie Cardoza-Moore incited insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The textbook commission is composed of 10 members. Three spots are vacant. The only Memphis-area member of the board is Millington High School geography teacher Billy Bryan.

According to the state website, the commission’s “responsibility is to recommend an official list of textbooks and instructional materials for approval of the State Board of Education.”

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Meanwhile, life goes on and so does the Tennessee General Assembly, which has reached what could be called the stretch drive of its race to conclude its annual session. The bills that are going to be run through this last-chance wringer include the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Here are a couple that were scheduled for a significant look-see this week: HB 577/SB 139 — Slated for the Senate regular calendar on Monday night was this brainchild of Rep. John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge) and Sen. Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma). The bill is seemingly intended as some sort of counter to the urges of horny adolescents as well as a shield against liberal attempts at family-life curricula. Essentially, it is aimed at halting or limiting minors’ access to “contraceptive procedures, supplies, and materials.”

It “prohibits distribution of contraception on school property,” “requires the Textbook and Instructional Material Quality Commission to approve all medically acceptable contraceptive information distributed at public schools or public charter schools,” and requires parental permission for a minor to access any contraceptive materials that might possibly be referred by public schools or public charter schools.

Bearing down on its central point, it prohibits instruction in a “family life curriculum” that does not emphasize the primacy of abstinence. An omission from the bill, perhaps an oversight, is the lack of any requirement involving cold showers for affected adolescents.

Oh, and language in the bill does warn that “passage of the proposed legislation could jeopardize federal Title X funding in FY21-22 and subsequent years to the Department of Health, received for providing comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services.”

• Adults come in for their fair share of regulation, as well. On the calendar for floor action in the House on Monday night of this week is HB 532/SB 406,

by Rep. Ron Gant (R-Rossville) and Sen. Page Walley (R-Bolivar). The bill’s

abstract advertises its purpose: “revises exemption that authorizes municipalities having a population of 10,000 or less to enforce traffic laws on a contiguous portion of an interstate highway within the boundaries of the municipality if there are at least two entrance ramps and two exit ramps so that the contiguous portion no longer needs to be solely within the boundaries of the municipality.”

Got that? No? Here is HB 532/SB 406 described a tad more purposively: “This is a bill for Piperton, a small town on the Fayette-Shelby line that’s known in the area as a speed trap. The bill gives the town the ability to catch speeders on a 1.5 mile stretch of I-269. Designed to help enhance the coffers of small towns that have extended their lines to include portions of interstates.”

Go back to the use of the word “solely” in the bill’s official abstract. The situation faced by officials of Piperton (pop: 2,142) is that, as I-269 transects Piperton, only the northbound section of it lies within the town limits, while the southbound part goes through neighboring Collierville.

This mischance threatens at least half of the town’s potential revenue from speeding tickets and other moving citations on that small stretch of interstate. This bill allows the town’s constabulary to hit up the other side of the interstate as well, with the likelihood of doubling receipts.

State Rep. Dwayne Thompson, who was the only naysayer to the bill on its way through the House Transportation Committee, planned to renew his objections during floor discussions and hoped to be joined by more than a few of the colleagues who may have to encounter the turf in question with some regularity.

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When I ask my clients how much income it would take for them to live comfortably and save appropriately, the answer is usually the same — something like 20 percent more than what they earn now.

The irony, of course, is that it’s like a treadmill — someone else is dissatisfied living on your 20 percent higher dream income, and there are others desperate to make it to your baseline.

Money does equal happiness, but only up to a point. Studies have suggested that a household income of about $75,000 is the upper boundary of that zone. Everyone would appreciate a raise, but studies suggest that emotional wellbeing, defined as aspects of day-to-day joy, sadness, anxiety, anger, and hap-

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Both the 20th and 21st centuries have provided an opportunity in capital markets unparalleled in history. Anyone can earn money by saving and investing. Returns can be volatile, but the idea of approaching a double-digit average return on investments year after year, safe from hyperinflation, expropriation, or other disruption, is very special.

This phenomenon has created the concept of retirement, where financial assets can grow over a lifetime and eventually replace the need to work. But how do you get your money invested and working early enough to make a difference?

piness, is controlled by other variables once basic needs are met and income rises above $75K. How to get there? Well, spending less is a lot easier than earning more. The only way off the treadmill is to truly believe that beyond a certain point more spending does not equal more happiness.

Bill Gates famously says, “It’s the same hamburger,” when asked about being a billionaire. He has the means to hire chefs or fly in food from the finest restaurants in the world, but he still eats a lot of hamburgers. More expensive options simply don’t make him any happier and he has nothing to prove by consuming more.

I used to have an almost-daily Starbucks habit that I decided to address.

Rather than budgeting $10 or $20 every week to moderate it and occasionally treat myself, I realized I was paying a huge premium for an addictive product that didn’t really matter to me. I switched to homemade decaf, which I can take in my insulated mug down to a park bench among the Starbucks sippers essentially for free.

That saving strategy works for me not because I’ve trained myself to accept privation; it works because my mindset is now that spending money makes me feel deprived. Just like Bill Gates (well, maybe not exactly), I also have nothing to prove. If someone thinks my DIY coffee is less impressive than a Starbucks cup, so be it. I’d rather have the money.

To paraphrase the Dickens quote above, if you can find true happiness living below your means, everything else is likely to fall into place. That revelation is more powerful than a thousand life hacks or budgeting tips, even if you can’t let go of Starbucks. There are probably things you can release, which, with the right mindset, could leave you closer to financial independence — and just as happy.

Gene Gard is Co-Chief Investment Officer at Telarray, a Memphis-based wealth management firm that helps families navigate investment, tax, estate, and retirement decisions. Contact him at ggard@telarrayadvisors.com.

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“Annual income £20.00, annual expenditure £19.97½, result happiness.

“Annual income £20.00, annual expenditure £20.02½, result misery.”

— Mr. Micawber, from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield

9

COVER STORY BY CHRIS MCCOY

ONE PHOTO | DREAMSTIME.COM

Cars Go Electric!

Drivers, dealers, and utilities are preparing for the EV revolution.

W

April 22-28, 2021

hen the light turns green, the work truck ahead of me belches out a cloud of dark smoke. I drive through the black cloud, and after a second, the smell seeps in.

It’s that familiar stench of half-burned hydrocarbons that permeates so much of modern life.

I’m behind the wheel of a 2021 Nissan Leaf, which, unlike the lumbering work truck in front of me, has no tailpipe to emit smoke, water vapor, or, worst of all, carbon dioxide. It’s an electric vehicle (EV) which runs on energy stored in the 62-kilowatt lithium ion battery beneath my feet. Introduced in 2011, and built in Smyrna, Tennessee, the Leaf was the world’s best-selling EV for nine years, until it was surpassed by the Tesla Model 3 in 2020. “We were one of the first ones on the market,” says Maurice Walker, internet director for Jim Keras Nissan.

Today, there are more than 1.7 million electric cars on the road in the United States. “There are about 13,000 10 across the state of Tennessee,” says Becky Williamson, strategic marketing

coordinator for MLGW. “Most of those are congregated in the large metro areas of Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga.”

Walker, who has been selling the Leaf since its 2011 debut, says concern about climate change is the biggest reason people buy EVs. “For all of the customers we’ve sold to, their main idea was to help the environment, to cut down on emissions, as well as save some money by not having to go to the gas pump. It worked out really well for them. [The Leaf] had a very aggressive lease to get them out there, so you’re looking at payments between $200 and $300 a month for a $40,000 vehicle that could get you to and from in comfort, and you don’t have to stop at the gas station. So it was way cheaper than driving anything else in the market.”

According to Drive Electric Tennessee, fuel costs for a traditional gasolinepowered internal combustion engine run between $0.12 to $0.13 per mile, while it only takes $0.02-$0.04 per mile to charge an EV. But EV sales represent

only about 2 percent of the American automotive market, which is dominated

by SUVs and big trucks, like the Ford F-150. Walker says even though the Leaf is manufactured here in Tennessee, most of Nissan’s sales are in states with strict emissions controls, like California. “You can’t even sell a [Nissan] Armada [SUV] in California, because it doesn’t pass the emissions test,” he says.

Tennessee has much looser emissions standards. “In Memphis, it doesn’t sell as well,” says Walker. There’s one overwhelming reason for that sales gap: “range anxiety.”

ENERGY DENSITY It takes a lot of power to move you and your metal chariot down the road to grandma’s house, so you need a means of carrying energy with you. Throughout the 1800s, would-be automotive engineers came up with a lot of different storage methods, from coal-fed steam power, like a locomotive, to compressed air. Electricity, stored in lead acid batteries, was tried very early. The American

inventor Robert Anderson had a working electric car in 1832; by the turn of the century, a fleet of electric taxis roamed New York City. A full third of all automobiles sold between 1900 and 1912 were electric.

That would soon change. The internal combustion engine, invented by Karl Benz in 1886, ran on a potent liquid fuel derived from crude oil. Gasoline is one of the most energy-dense substances known. In physics terms, it contains 34 megajoules of energy per liter of volume.

For comparison, a modern lithium ion battery, like the one in the Nissan Leaf, can hold about two megajoules per liter.

That means, all things being equal, you can get a lot farther with one liter of gasoline than one liter of lithium. In the 1920s, when Ford introduced the gaspowered Model T, the crude batteries of the day couldn’t compete either in range or price. Electric cars disappeared from the road.

But the EV’s saving grace is that all things are not equal. The internal combustion engine is extremely

PHOTO BY CHRIS MCCOY

Nissan Leaf, with Maurice Walker at Jim Keras Nissan

BMWUSANEWS.COM

The BMW i4 electric car do some math. Over the last decade, battery technology has grown by leaps and bounds. According to my dashboard meter, the battery is at 94 percent, which will take me 205 miles. I could make it to Nashville, Little Rock, or Jackson, Mississippi, before needing a recharge.

I hop on I-240 to return to Covington Pike, accelerating onto the freeway like normal. By the time I look at the speedometer, I’ve topped 90 mph.

CHARGE UP “This is the gem of your story,” says MLGW’s Williamson. “All you need to do is go pick up your electric vehicle from the dealer, drive it home, and plug it into the outlet that is more than likely already sitting there in your garage or carport.

You can charge an electric vehicle with a

standard, 120-volt outlet.”

Most EV owners “trickle charge” their vehicles overnight and wake up with more than enough juice in the batteries to get where they need to go. You can also opt for a Level 2 charger, which requires the installation of a dedicated, 240-volt circuit. “Those are the types of chargers that typically you find at businesses,” says Williamson. “The ones at Shelby Farms, which were installed in the last decade as a part of our EV project, are Level 2 chargers.”

A Level 2 charger can fully charge a battery in five hours, adding 12-60

miles of range per hour. “In most public places, people are just charging for the 30 minutes they’re in the grocery store, or the couple of hours they’re having dinner.”

Newer Level 3 chargers, also known as DC Fast Chargers, can get a depleted EV back on the road with an 80 percent charge in about a half hour.

Networks of Level 3 chargers, like Tesla Superchargers, are springing up all over the country, according to Williamson.

“There are about 12 to 15 of those DC fast-charging stations here in Shelby County.”

Range anxiety is really infrastructure anxiety — gas stations are everywhere, but will there be a charger handy when I need it? With the help of websites such as PlugShare, which keeps track of every publicly available charger, it’s increasingly possible and convenient to string together longer journeys.

But Karen Lombardo, general manager of Roadshow BMW Mini, is not sure it’s enough to overcome EV reluctance for many drivers. “They want to be able to just jump in the truck, drive down to Destin, and not have to worry about it,” she says. “Not necessarily speaking from my professional opinion, but more my personal opinion, I think one of the reasons that people have wanted to wait on electric is that they don’t just look at their car as a commuter vehicle. The United States is different from other parts of the world, where people don’t take their personal commuter on trips. They jump on a train in Europe, or they can fly from country to country very easily and affordably. Here, people look at their vehicle as their freedom — especially in the last 12 months, with COVID making people not want to fly.”

BMW was another early entrant into the EV game. The i3, an advanced compact hatchback made with lightweight, carbon fiber components, debuted in 2014 with an 83-mile range — the top 2021 model will go 180 miles. The i3’s technology and unique styling earned three World Car of the Year awards, but less than 42,000 have sold in America.

Still, Lombardo says BMW considers the i3 experiment a success. “The expectation wasn’t there that the i3 was going to sell the way the 3-Series does.”

Companies like BMW, who have spent the last century building up an infrastructure to support fossil fuelpowered cars, use projects like the i3 to continued on page 14

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

inefficient. About 65 percent of the energy stored in gasoline is wasted when it’s burned in an engine, mostly to the vast amounts of waste heat that must be dissipated by a car’s radiator. Electric motors waste only about 10 percent of the energy stored in the battery. Electric cars are much lighter and have fewer moving parts. That means no oil changes, and much less maintenance. “Rotate the tires every 10,000 miles, and get the battery checked once every 12 months,” says Walker. “I think the total service for all of that is about $200 a year, which is way cheaper than anything else.”

Three years ago, Shannon Dixon bought a used 2015 Nissan Leaf. “What I like about it is, it’s really fast. It has no lag. You hit the pedal, and you’re out of there, so you can get out of some tricky traffic situations. It just feels very nimble.

I love the environmental benefits of it, for sure, and the economic benefits. It has not been to the shop yet.”

The listed range of the 24 kWh battery pack is 84 miles, “… but it really has to be perfect temperature,” says Dixon. “If it’s too cold, the battery works really hard to recharge. The same if it’s really hot.”

Heating and air conditioning can also cut into the range, and as the battery pack ages, it holds less energy. But Dixon says range is rarely a problem. The average American drove about 26 miles per day in 2017, so even a battery pack that is six years into its estimated 10-year lifespan is more than adequate for most days. “You have to learn the car, and you have to learn a few tricks on how to increase your range,” she says.

Over the last two decades, EV manufacturers have pursued a lot of strategies to extend range. One of those is regenerative braking, which was pioneered by gas-electric hybrid vehicles like the Toyota Prius. When Dixon wants to slow down in her Leaf, the electric motors switch from drawing power from the batteries to harvesting power from the car’s momentum to feed back to the batteries. Most EVs come with the option of “one-pedal driving,” where regenerative braking kicks in automatically, and the brakes are only for emergencies. “If you don’t have your foot on the — I was going to say the gas pedal, but it’s the electric pedal — in the battery mode, it slows down, and really saves you the miles,” Dixon says. “That’s kind of fun. I like to try to game it sometimes: Can I drive from here to there without losing any electric miles?”

In my test drive of the 2021 Nissan Leaf, I switch to one-pedal mode at a stoplight. It’s like driving a golf cart, and a little disorienting at first. I stop next to the Malco Summer Drive-In to

11

WE COULD USE YOUR

HELP.

JESSE DAVIS

Copy Editor

As the copy editor for the Memphis Flyer, I spend a fair amount of time just looking things up. So I can’t help but notice how many news sources are behind a paywall. Just like us, they have bills to pay, of course, so I understand. You’ve got to make money somehow. Still, I believe that people have a fundamental right to information about their communities.

April 22-28, 2021

O

12

n an individual level, we need to know what’s going on in our communities to make good decisions for ourselves and our families. As a society, we need an informed populace in order to make wise choices for ourselves as a collective. In that sense, the Flyer provides a necessary community resource. Jackson Baker writes indisputably vital candidate coverage in the lead-up to local elections. Toby Sells keeps tabs on all the local news. And none of that is locked away behind a paywall.

Sure, when you see my byline in the Flyer (I write as well as proofread), I’m not likely to be reporting that kind of hard news. Books, music, art — that’s my beat. But I think that being engaged with your community means being aware of both civic and cultural happenings. It’s important to keep up with the politics and policies, and with the art and events. Besides, engaging with others’ stories encourages empathy and imagination. I like to think it makes us better and more creative problem solvers. And it’s my way of supporting the Flyer folks who do report the hard news.

It takes the whole package — the news, reviews, and advertisers — to make the Flyer what it is. And I like to think there’s something here every week (and every day online) for everyone. I love being a part of the cultural conversation in Memphis, and I love being a Frequent Flyer and a member of the Flyer team.

FUEL THE FREE PRESS M E M P H I S F LY E R . C O M / S U P P O R T

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. Even a little helps a lot.

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

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

RESOLVE TO SUPPORT LOCAL MEDIA. 13

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April 22-28, 2021

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continued from page 11 gauge what will be needed to support the new technology. “We have to make sure that we can provide the same service level to the electric vehicle owner as we can to the rest of our client base.”

These lessons are being applied to the BMW i4, which will make its debut in 2022. It’s a more conventionally styled sedan, which sports the distinctive BMW kidney grill. The i4 will have a 300-mile range, handle like a sports car, and go zero to 60 in four seconds.

A similar pattern is playing out across the industry. After a decade of development, Nissan Leaf sales are up 50 percent in 2021; in 2022, the company will introduce the Ariya, an electric SUV with a 300-mile range. The new Ford Mustang Mach-E will deliver similar performance for around $40,000. GM is rebooting the infamously thirsty Hummer as a 300-mile EV supertruck and expects to offer only electric vehicles by 2035. Audi, Volkswagen, and Porsche have also pledged to go all-electric in the next 20 years.

MLGW expects to see 50,000 EVs on its grid in the next 20 years.

Williamson says MLGW has seen interest in electric cars wax and wane over the years, but this time is different.

“Drive Electric Tennessee is looking for 200,000 EVs across the state of Tennessee by 2028,” she says. MLGW expects to see 50,000 EVs on its grid in the next 20 years, “… and that’s not taking into account buses and other unique electric vehicles.”

Lombardo agrees there has been renewed interest in EVs. “I would say the last 12 months, in Memphis, Tennessee, I’ve seen Tesla registrations increase by a lot.”

THE FUTURE Founded in 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, Tesla has been associated with Elon Musk since he took over as CEO in 2008. The vehicles have a reputation as the most advanced EVs on the market; there are more than 800,000 Model 3s on the road.

Adam Hohenberg says when he needed a new car, he intended to buy

a Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid — only to find Chevrolet had discontinued it.

“When I looked around, it just seemed like Tesla was really far ahead of everybody else, and it wasn’t that much more than a hybrid.”

Hohenberg says he has had no regrets. “It’s been great. It just plugs in, and you go. In my garage, I get 45 miles of range per hour. You don’t even charge it all the way up unless you’re going on the highway. I’ve taken it on the road to Florida and to Hot Springs, and you just stop at Superchargers. They’re all just off the highway, so I just stop for 20 minutes a couple of times, and that’s it.”

Investors think EVs are the future: Tesla’s market capitalization is currently $820 billion. That, more than anything, explains why old line automotive companies are rushing EVs into production, and why wave after wave of EV startups have flooded the capital markets.

One of those startups is Mullen Technologies, which recently announced plans to open a manufacturing facility to produce a Chinese-designed electric SUV in a former Nike warehouse at 8400 Winchester Road in Memphis.

The project was granted a 15-year Jobs PILOT by the Economic Development Growth Engine for Memphis and Shelby County (EDGE). “We were attracted by the fact that they have an exceptional leadership team,” says Reid Dulberger, president and CEO of EDGE. “They have what appears to be a very sound vision and a path forward. Nonetheless, it is a hyper-competitive industry. There are many new players trying to get into the market, and you have the established auto companies also pivoting heavily toward electric vehicles. So the total cost of entry into the market is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars.”

The deal is expected to bring in more than $360 million in new investment and create 434 new jobs with an average wage of $53,000 — if it happens. Mullen Technologies has been in business since 2012, but has never actually produced anything. Repeated requests to the company for interviews were not returned. Dulberger is quick to point out that the PILOT is conditional on Mullen signing the lease, and making the investment.

One thing is clear: The automotive industry is at a moment of great change. “It’s the wave of the future,” says Hohenberg. “You’ll enjoy not smelling fumes or hearing a loud engine. When I got the car, I started noticing all these machines around me, driving around with smoky engines that seemed like they were from another century — which they are.”

Give Time

By Julie Ray

Stay right where you are and you’ll be in the perfect place to make a difference for Memphis during National Volunteer Month. Volunteer Odyssey is bringing the opportunity to do good directly to you — wherever you might be — on Friday during National Volunteer Week.

The VO team will be live on Facebook with a featured nonprofit at the beginning of each hour. These show-and-tells will walk you through each short, creative project to explain how you can support your community and make a difference with things you already have on hand at home or in the office.

“When we planned our first Virtual Volunteer Day in June of PHOTO COURTESY OF VOLUNTEER ODYSSEY AMBASSADOR last year, we did not fathom that a full year later we would still ANNA UNDERWOOD be living in a virtual world. Though many things were paused Volunteer Odyssey encourages Memphians to pitch in. or canceled, the need for volunteers in our community has remained and is as crucial now as ever,” says Dannon Eubanks, community engagement manager for Volunteer Odyssey. “This Virtual Volunteer Day presents us with opportunities to help provide shelter and compassion for those in our community.

We’ll share how to help families who are experiencing homelessness, how to brighten the day of children facing illnesses, and how to leave our neighborhoods better than we found them.”

Programming will include Memphis Botanic Garden’s spring cleaning scavenger hunt, WYXR’s listener diaries, Make-AWish card campaign, Room in the Inn Help From Home videos, and more. Projects can be completed at any time before, during, or after the live event.

At the close of the day, share your impact through pictures and videos of the projects you completed. Good job.

VIRTUAL VOLUNTEER DAY, ONLINE FROM VOLUNTEER ODYSSEY, VOLUNTEERODYSSEY.COM, FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 9 A.M.-5 P.M., FREE.

VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES April 22nd - 28th Spring Plant Sale Memphis Botanic Garden, 750 Cherry, Thursday-Saturday, Apr. 22-24, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Monday-Friday, Apr. 26-30, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

A huge assortment of sun and shade annuals, perennials, tropicals, herbs, shrubs, and trees, plus specialty garden items by local artisans. Online shopping, May 5-28.

43rd Original Art Auction Playhouse on the Square, 66 S. Cooper, and online from playhouseonthesquare.org, Saturday, Apr. 23, continues through Apr. 30, free to browse Over 100 local and regional artists have donated their one-of-a-kind masterpieces to be bid on from the art novice to the seasoned collector.

Available for online viewing prior to the auction dates and at the theater.

Artist Reception for “Wonderstruck” David Lusk Gallery, 97 Tillman, Saturday, April 24, noon-3 p.m., free Exhibition of new contemporary still-life paintings by Beth Edwards showcasing quiet, yet wondrous moments in nature.

The Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Gala Online from Tennessee Shakespeare Company, tnshakespeare.org, Saturday, Apr. 24, 6 p.m., free A fun, online-only gala live from TSC’s Tabor stage featuring favorite film/TV/stage actors, singers, musicians, and personalities, benefiting education programs.

Author Event: Katie Quinn Online from Novel, novelmemphis.com, Tuesday, Apr. 27, 5 p.m., $30 Author, in conversation with food YouTuber and podcaster Jen Phanomrat, will celebrate the publication of Cheese, Wine, and Bread: Discovering the Magic of Fermentation in England, Italy, and France via Crowdcast.

Includes book and food demo.

English Tea Spring Fling Woman’s Exchange Tea Room, 88 Racine, Tuesday, Apr. 27, 2:30 p.m., $25 Celebrate spring and early Mother’s Day with family and friends. Don your hat or fascinator, sip tea, and sample sandwiches, savories, and sweet treats.

A new site takes

flight!

Welcome aboard the shiny new

memphisflyer. com!

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

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

steppin’ out (& stayin’ in)

15

MUSIC By Alex Greene

PHOTO BY MATT WHITE

Living in the Last Days Elizabeth King is making gospel the old-fashioned way.

April 22-28, 2021

Elizabeth King has been singing since she was three. In fact, she fronted a 10-man group, the Gospel Souls, for almost 40 years, starting at the dawn of the ’70s when she first recorded for Pastor Juan Shipp and his D-Vine Spirituals label.

But, while she’s always sung at home and church, she hadn’t performed with the Gospel Souls for quite some time when Shipp called her out of the blue a couple of years ago.

“Pastor Shipp called and asked how I felt about going back in the studio,” she recalls. “I said, ‘I would like to, but it’s been so long.’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve got somebody who wants to record you.’ And I said, ‘You need to quit playing!’ ’Cause you know, Rev. Shipp likes to play a lot. ‘Nobody wants me to sing after all these years!’ He said, ‘I’m serious. His name is Bruce Watson. Can you come in tomorrow morning?’”

Shipp had been cultivating a partnership of sorts with Watson, as Watson delved into the catalogs of Shipp’s old labels and began releasing archival material on his new imprint, Bible & Tire Recording Company. Indeed, while a few recordings of King and her group were released as singles way back when, there were many others that didn’t see the light of day until Watson’s new label issued them as The D-Vine Sprirituals Recordings in 2019. But Watson wouldn’t stop at that. He wanted to capture her voice now, after many

16

years of a life well-lived, working day jobs and raising 15 children.

When she arrived at Watson’s DeltaSonic Sound studio, he already had backing tracks recorded, using what has become a house band of sorts for many of his projects: guitarists Will Sexton and Matt Ross-Spang, bassist Mark Edgar Stuart, and drummer George Sluppick. Also in the mix were keyboardists Al Gamble and Rick Steff, saxophonists Art Admaiston and Jim Spake, and a host of background singers, including the Barnes Brothers (who have an album of their own on Bible & Tire) and some of King’s background singers from the ’70s, the Vaughn Sisters and the D-Vine Spiritualettes.

King was impressed with the band immediately. “They’re good!” she says. “They’re professionals. The guy on drums, on one song, he showed me a couple of turns to put in, to change it a little, to fit their music, and it worked out great.”

Meanwhile, King hadn’t been in a studio for nearly 50 years. When she walked in, “Bruce said, ‘Let me hear you sing.’ He was playing the music and it sounded good, and I started singing. I sang from 10 to 2. He said, ‘Okay, come listen, I think I’ve got something.’ We recorded three songs

Elizabeth King that day and I didn’t even know it! I knew he was recording, but I didn’t know it was going to sound that good. It was amazing because I hadn’t rehearsed a lick with those guys. And he brought all this out. I said, ‘Next time, I’m going to rehearse and it’ll be even better.’”

She never did rehearse, but it didn’t matter. The band had learned songs she’d known all her life, and she poured all of her life thus far into them. This month, Bible & Tire released the fruits of their labor, Living in the Last Days, and it sounds like a miracle. The band, relative youngsters compared to King, play with a deep knowledge of classic gospel, and it gives her work a unique stamp in an age of synthesizers, click tracks, and a genre now deeply shaped by jazz fusion and funk.

“There have been a lot of changes in gospel music and singing, to me. But I’m still old-school. My kids laugh at me all the time. They say, ‘Mama, that’s old-school. We don’t like for you to sing because you be making us cry!’ I think Bruce is doing a good job. I like all the sounds of the groups that have recorded since I’ve been there. They’re kind of oldschool. I like that.”

Meanwhile, King is glad she continued her involvement in music long after the breakup of her original group. “I kept going, because, if you’ve got a voice and you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. I kept going.”

TH EAT E R

A R TI S T R EC E P TI O N S

Hattiloo Theatre

David Lusk Gallery

Neat, the story of an urban African-American girl bursting into adulthood, experiencing first love, and embracing both Black pride and feminism. $150 for four seats. Saturdays, Sundays, 2 p.m., and Fridays, 7:30 p.m. Through May 9.

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.

Artist reception for “Wonderstruck,” exhibition of new paintings by Beth Edwards. Sat., April 24, 12-3 p.m.

97 TILLMAN (767-3800).

MEMPHIS.EDU/THEATRE.

1700 DEXTER.

The Comedy Junt

Comedian Ace, $20. Fri., April 23, 8 p.m., and Sat., April 24, 10 p.m.

4330 AMERICAN WAY (249-4052).

PO ET RY /S PO K E N WO R D

PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE, 66 S. COOPER (726-4656), PLAYHOUSEONTHESQUARE.ORG.

Wardell Johnson Youth Center

Lunch at the Mid-South Artist Gallery

Theatre Memphis

Working: A Musical, features an exciting, eclectic score that juxtaposes individual sang and spoken stories, showing us a glimpse at how Americans view work. memphis.edu/theatre.

Free with registration. Through April 24, 7:30-9 p.m.

Tony Roberts, $20-$35. Fri.Sat., Apr. 23-25, 6:45 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

More than 100 local and regional artists have donated their one-ofa-kind works to be bid on from the art novice to the seasoned collector. Available for viewing prior to the auction dates online and at the theater. April 23-30.

MID-SOUTH ARTIST GALLERY, 2945 SHELBY (409-8705).

University of Memphis Department of Theatre & Dance

Chuckles Comedy Club

43rd Original Art Auction

203 S. MAIN (525-3000).

630 PERKINS EXT. (682-8323).

C O M E DY

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

Serving a table of four. Catering provided by Chicken Salad Chick. Call for reservations.

Free. Sun., April 25, noon.

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.

“Africa on My Mind,” featuring Introspection by Johnson Uwadinma, at Urevbu Contemporary, through June 15th

“What’s Your COVID-19 Story?” Art exhibition and spoken-word presentation. Sat., April 24, 12-3 p.m.

1800 KANSAS (208-403-8402).

Urevbu Contemporary

“Africa on My Mind,” exhibition featuring new and recent paintings by Ethiopian artist Dereje Demissie and Nigerian artist Johnson Uwadinma. On view through June 15.

410 S. MAIN STREET UREVBUCONTEMPORARY.COM.

Meet + Greet Reception: Wyatt Waters

Metal Museum Online

Peruse the art of fine metalwork digitally. Featuring past gallery talks from previous exhibitions, interviews with artists, and demonstrations. Free. Ongoing.

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

Watercolorist Wyatt Waters unveils his painting “Under the Big Top” and will be available to sign prints gifted to members who purchased or renewed their memberships. RSVP online. Free for members, $10 nonmembers.

Sat., April 24, 3 p.m.

Read to Relate: A Small Oak Tree Runs Red by Lekethia Dalcoe

THE MAX: MISSISSIPPI ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT EXPERIENCE, 2155 FRONT, MERIDIAN, MS (601-501-1550).

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

Online reading and discussion group that reads works by American playwrights of color and/or differently-abled. $15.

Tues., April 27, 7 p.m.

OPERA

30 Days of Opera

Participate in the virtual version of this annual festival featuring virtual events, drive through arias, and more. Free. Through April 30.

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

Wednesday Opera Time

Join Opera Memphis every Wednesday on Facebook for an assortment of live events including “Opera for Animals,” Bingo Opera, and more. Free.

Wednesdays, 7 p.m.

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

“The Impact of the 1866 Memphis Massacre on the Lives of Black Women” Dr. Beverly G. Bond, Ph.D., professor of African-American history at the University of Memphis, will speak on topic.

Free. Wed., April 28, 12-1 p.m.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS, 4339 PARK (761-5250), DIXON.ORG.

Katie Quinn

Author, in conversation with food YouTuber and podcaster Jen Phanomrat, to celebrate the publication of Cheese, Wine, and Bread: Discovering the Magic of Fermentation in England, Italy, and France via Crowdcast. Food demo. $30.

Tues., April 27, 5 p.m.

NOVEL, 387 PERKINS EXT. (9225526), NOVELMEMPHIS.COM.

Porch Chat

Learn about the park’s iconic buffalo herd from the rangers who take care of them as they share info and fun facts about the herd. Free. Sun., April 25, 11 a.m.

LECT U R E /S P EA K E R

SHELBY FARMS PARK, VISITOR’S CENTER, 6903 GREAT VIEW DRIVE NORTH (767-7275).

Author Event: Nigella Lawson

TO U R S

Author, in conversation with Yotam Ottolenghi, introduces online, Cook, Eat, Repeat: Ingredients, Recipes, and Stories.

Recorded live-to-tape. View via Crowdcast. $32. Thurs., April 22, 8 p.m.

NOVEL, 387 PERKINS EXT. (9225526), NOVELMEMPHIS.COM.

Conservation Conversations: What’s Blooming?

Which plants are native and which are invasive to Tennessee? Join via Zoom to learn more. Free with registration.

Wed., April 28, 6 p.m.

Central Gardens Association’s Film and TV Walking Tour Virtual, self-guided tour of homes in the Central Gardens neighborhood used as film/TV sites, plus Elmwood Cemetery. Includes 13 locations and nine “selfie stops.”

Free. Through May 2.

CENTRALGARDENS.ORG.

continued on page 18

HARPETHCONSERVANCY.ORG.

Join The Nation

APR

24

MAY

01

JUN

11

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

April 22 - 28

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

CALENDAR of EVENTS:

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.

17

CALENDAR: APRIL 22 - 28 continued from page 17 Secrets in Stone: Monuments and Their Symbols

Join staff member Amanda Knight for a walking tour through Elmwood Cemetery. $20. Sat., April 24, 12-1:30 p.m.

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

Tales from Elmwood: A Cemetery Walking Tour

Get to know the residents of Elmwood Cemetery on this 90-minute walking tour of the cemetery grounds. $20. Saturdays, 10 a.m. Through May 8.

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

Woodruff-Fontaine Mansion Tours

$15. Fridays-Sundays, 12-4 p.m. Through June 30.

WOODRUFF-FONTAINE HOUSE, 680 ADAMS (526-1469), WOODRUFF-FONTAINE.ORG.

E X PO S/ SA L E S

Bike Sale

The park is selling off an old fleet of over 50 bikes, parts, and accessories. Prices start at $25.

Proceeds benefit Shelby Farms Park and Shelby Farms Greenline. Sat., April 24, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

SHELBY FARMS PARK, VISITOR’S CENTER, 6903 GREAT VIEW DRIVE NORTH (767-7275).

Cars on Main

Curated car show featuring over 70 cars. Free. Sat., April 24, 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

COURT SQUARE, AT N. MAIN AND COURT.

Plant Sale

Thousands of plants predominantly native to the Mid-South will be available via online and on-site shopping. Through May 29.

LICHTERMAN NATURE CENTER, 5992 QUINCE (767-7322), MEMPHISMUSEUMS.ORG.

Spring Plant Sale

April 22-24, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and April 26-30, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

April 22-28, 2021

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

S PO R TS / F IT N ES S

Ladies’ Night

All ladies and non-binary participants get 50 percent off day passes. Fourth Tuesday of every month, 6-10 p.m.

Through April 27.

HIGH POINT CLIMBING AND FITNESS, 21 N. HUMPHREY’S (2036122), HIGHPOINTCLIMBING.COM.

Memphis Grizzlies vs.

Portland Trail Blazers Wed., April 28, 8 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM, 191 BEALE.

SCCA Track Night In America

18

Free for spectators. Tues., April 27, 2:30-8:30 p.m.

MEMPHIS INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, 5500 VICTORY LANE.

Shell Health & Wellness Series Featuring mindfulness and good health practice events.

Free. Through April 28.

LEVITT SHELL, OVERTON PARK (272-2722), LEVITTSHELL.ORG/ HEALTHSERIES.

The Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Gala Online-only gala featuring favorite film/TV/stage actors, singers, musicians, and personalities benefiting education programs. Free. Sat., April 24, 6 p.m.

Tennessee Madness

TENNESSEE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY, 7950 TRINITY (759-0604), TNSHAKESPEARE.ORG.

MEMPHIS INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY, 5500 VICTORY LANE.

The Pick Awards

$20-$30. Fri., April 23, 8 a.m., and Sat., April 24, 10 a.m.

Virtual Earth Day Dash 5K Run/Walk

Your gear will be mailed to your door. Run/walk and submit your photos/results to Southwest Tennessee Community College’s FB @SouthwestTN. Proceeds benefit Science Club. $10.

Through April 24.

(482-2939), SOUTHWEST.TN.EDU.

M E ETI N G S

As We Are

A social support group for trans/ GNC people of color over the age of 18. The group meets biweekly via Zoom. Fourth Thursday of every month, 6 p.m.

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S P EC IA L EVE NTS

Countdown to 100

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Dinosaur Adventure Drive-Thru

$49 per car. Saturdays, 9 a.m.9 p.m., Sundays, 9 a.m.-8 p.m., Thurs., April 22, 9 a.m.-8 p.m., and Fri., April 23, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Through April 25.

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The Elizabethan Feast

Party to benefit the Education Program on the Tabor Stage sponsored by TSC’s Board of Directors. Sat., April 24, 6 p.m.

TENNESSEE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY, 7950 TRINITY (759-0604), TNSHAKESPEARE.ORG.

Family Night: Mary Poppins and GPAC Dance Kids

Featuring movie, entertainment, food trucks, and more.

Fri., April 23, 6 p.m.

GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, 1801 EXETER (751-7500).

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Through May 31.

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English Tea Spring Fling

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Cat Cora will headline a group of chefs who will prepare a variety of foods with Mississippisourced ingredients. Benefits educational programming. $65 members, $75 nonmembers.

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Slalom

Cannes-selected #MeToo drama centers on the relationship between a young French ski prodigy and her predatory instructor. Free for members, $12 nonmembers. Through April 29.

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FOOD By Michael Donahue

T

ake a chef de cuisine from a fine dining restaurant, add a former personal chef/catering company executive chef, and what do you get?

Good Groceries Mobile Diner.

“My husband is the chef de cuisine at River Oaks Restaurant. Chad Getchel,” says Leah Roberts Getchel. “In 1999, I became a certified personal chef.”

She worked a corporate job at AutoZone for almost nine years before becoming an executive chef for Cotton Bowl Catering.

She returned to the corporate world, where her jobs included working for FedEx, Hilton, and St. Jude.

But, she says, “When COVID hit, I lost my corporate job.” Wondering what she was going to do next, Leah thought, “Go back to the food world.”

PHOTO BY LEAH ROBERTS GETCHEL

Chad Getchel and Leah Roberts Getchel She and Chad, who was laid off for three months from the restaurant, originally thought about starting a food truck to service corporate offices that lease space and don’t have company cafeterias.

They bought a food truck, which they equipped with a 36-inch stove, flattop, and burners before the lockdown. “People were still going to the offices for the most part.

We thought this would be over. Shortly after that, nobody went to work. The offices were empty.”

They noticed more people were patronizing food trucks, so they began serving the general public at farmers markets and neighborhoods. But, she says, “It took a little time for people to adapt to our menu because it’s a little bit more of a high-end restaurant-style menu, not your typical food truck fare.”

Instead of pork, they serve duck because the pork industry is “just riddled with problems,” including inhumane treatment of pigs, Leah says. “We started playing with ducks and made duck breakfast sausage.

You can’t tell the difference between it and a pork sausage.”

They serve the Barbecue Duck Sammy — pulled duck with tangy barbecue sauce, cole slaw, and sliced pickles on brioche bread. Their Duck Confit sandwich is slowcooked duck with mango chutney and a medium-fried egg on toasted brioche. “Egg yolk is my favorite sauce,” she says.

Here Chicky Chicky is marinated chicken on a toasted ciabatta bun with mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato. “We also have the fresh (vegan and nut-free) pesto, lemon juice, olive oil, and melted Provolone.”

Realizing they went “a little too crazy on the duck,” they added a housemade salmon burger with mango chutney and jerk seasoning. They only serve pork if it’s “local and certified humane.”

They call themselves a “mobile diner” because they take traditional diner foods “and elevate them.”

Chad, who works part-time at Good Groceries Mobile Diner when he’s not at River Oaks, is leaving the restaurant in May to work full-time at the food truck.

“I really love it,” Chad says. “It’s a lot of freedom. You get to do whatever you want as long as somebody is going to buy it.”

Born in Lansing, Michigan, Chad began cooking early. “I remember asking my mom if I could make an experiment. I’d go into the kitchen and put a whole bunch of random stuff in a frying pan. I ruined a whole bunch of pans when I was five or six.”

Since he played guitar in bands, Chad worked in kitchens because the hours were flexible. Realizing he wasn’t going to make a living playing music, he went the cooking route and went to cooking school at Sullivan University in Lexington, Kentucky.

A Downtown brick-and-mortar restaurant is in the planning stages for Good Groceries Mobile Diner, Leah says. “We’re not making a move on that until September. But, later down the road, we’d love to have a restaurant and keep up with the food truck. It’s a lot of fun.”

To find out where Good Groceries Mobile Diner will be during the week, go to eatgoodgroceries.com or their Facebook page.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

As the Duck Flies

19

FILM By Chris McCoy

The Weirdest Oscars Strong candidates emerge from a strange year in movies.

T

April 22-28, 2021

here’s never been anything like the 2021 Academy Awards, which will air live on ABC, Sunday, April 25th. That’s because there has never been a year like 2020. The pandemic shut down the world’s movie theaters for the better part of 12 months, disrupting the industry more profoundly than anything else in its 120-year history. The Oscar ceremony comes later this year, with the hope that it would give audiences and voters time to catch up with the films they might have missed in all the chaos. And the rules concerning theatrical distribution have been relaxed somewhat.

Without an acclaimed, Titanic-level blockbuster (Tenet was neither) up for any awards, the atomized audiences of the streaming era largely missed the nominated films. That’s a shame, because it turns out 2020 was a very good year for film. If you’re looking to catch up on some good cinema between now and the time your second vax dose kicks in, there are plenty of gems on the Oscar shortlist.

But it wouldn’t be the Academy Awards without a high-profile snub, and the most egregious is the Spike Lee shutout. Lee has a history of being overlooked at Oscar time, but this year was the worst of all. He turned in a pair of career-highlight films that couldn’t have

(above) Frances McDormand stars in Nomadland; (below) Chadwick Boseman is a contender for Best Actor for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. filmmaker and freediver Craig Foster’s life-changing experiences in the kelp forests of South Africa; and Time, the chronicle of Sibil Fox Richardson’s twodecade battle to get her husband released from prison.

Pixar’s out-of-body jazz odyssey, Soul, is the front runner for Best Animated Feature, but the gorgeous Irish film Wolfwalkers could be a dark horse, and the Pixar fantasy/comedy Onward is definitely worth a watch.

Judas and the Black Messiah was a surprise Best Picture nominee, sneaking in before the extended deadline. It’s a crackerjack film that casts the true story of Black Panther Fred Hampton as a streetwise thriller, like Goodfellas. Daniel Kaluuya deserves the Supporting Actor trophy for his role as Hampton, but his co-star LaKeith Stanfield was also nominated, potentially splitting the vote and raising the question of who exactly was the film’s lead actor.

Minari, the story of Korean immigrants struggling to

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been more different. Da 5 Bloods would be my personal choice for Best Picture, and both Delroy Lindo and Chadwick Boseman deserved at least nominations for their performances as soldiers coming to terms with their experiences in Vietnam and racism in America.

But the only nomination Da 5 Bloods received was for Best Original Score.

That begs the question, why isn’t Lee’s concert film with David Byrne, American Utopia, represented in the Best Original Song category, where there’s a chance “Husavik” from the Will Ferrell comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga will take home the trophy?

The Best Actor category is as close to a lock as it gets. Chadwick Boseman, beloved from his role as Black Panther, died last year. His last performance as a tortured, treacherous trumpet player in the bluesy Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is even more Oscar-worthy when you consider he delivered it while dying of cancer.

The Documentary Feature category, on the other hand, is up in the air, with three excellent nominees. My choice is Crip Camp, the story of the birth of political activism among the disabled community, buoyed by the impeccable editing of former Memphian Eileen Meyer. Equally powerful are My Octopus Teacher, about

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FILM By Chris McCoy

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

inspired, black-and-white imagery.

My pick for Best Picture is Nomadland. Director Chloé Zhao and actress Frances McDormand crafted a moving portrait of a woman adrift, both economically and spiritually, in the American West. McDormand deserves Best Actress for one of the most detailed and emotionally resonant performances you will ever see, and Zhao — who lived on the road with her actress and crew for months at a time — should become the second Asian person in a row, after Bong Joon-Ho for Parasite, to win Best Director.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

make ends meet in rural Arkansas, was the charmer of Indie Memphis 2020. It received six nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director for Lee Isaac Chung; I’m pulling for Yuh-Jung Youn for Best Supporting Actress.

Mank, which received 10 nominations total, is a tasty slice of Old Hollywood by David Fincher. Starring Best Actor nominee Gary Oldman as Herman Mankiewicz, the alcoholic screenwriter who penned Citizen Kane, its meticulous craftsmanship is a wonder to behold. Erik Messerschmidt should win Best Cinematography for his Kane-

21

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THE LAST WORD By Craig David Meek

Canceled?

THE LAST WORD

I spent a long time battling with cancel culture.

Growing up, cancel culture was an evangelical Christian thing. They were always boycotting something. We couldn’t even play Dungeons & Dragons on Boy Scout trips, out of fear it would turn us into little Satan worshipers. The problem was that, as an adjective, “Christian” in front of pop culture anything like music, movies, or books meant it was going to suck rhinoceros dick, to borrow a phrase from the movie Porky’s.

As a kid, I thought Porky’s II was hilarious. I grew up in a good, protestant Southern household, where the raunchy comedies were like liquor — they stayed hidden at the back of a closet. I’d pull those Betamax tapes out and laugh my ass off when my parents weren’t home.

Remember those pitiful kids whose parents canceled everything popular?

Want some heavy metal? Here is Stryper. Want a superhero movie? Here is Willie Aames as Bibleman. Want to read a supernatural thriller? Here’s Left Behind.

I didn’t want to worship Satan. I just wanted music that rocked, and the Christian bands weren’t offering anything that competed with Danzig and Slayer.

As a kid, I saw three innocent teens in West Memphis get canceled all the way to death row for being into things I enjoyed, things you could buy at Walmart, like Iron Maiden albums and Stephen King books.

My mom went to classes at church that taught her what I shouldn’t be exposed to. They studied what to cancel. From Mötley Crüe to NWA, I learned the protestant lesson. You kept the fun stuff hidden.

I could listen to music with headphones. I could get books from the library. I didn’t really ELDADCARIN | DREAMSTIME.COM notice the ’90s Disney boycott. I had younger siblings who wouldn’t stand for any Flandersesque substitutes, so that one didn’t last long in our house.

The one that got me was the Levi’s boycott. Suddenly we were wearing Lee jeans, an off brand who made jeans with no regard for the shape of actual human bodies.

They were cut to fit a theoretical person with stick legs that merged with an ass that was about four inches tall but as wide as a dump truck. Then they narrowed back to be too tight at the waist.

These days, people are only being “canceled” to the extent they aren’t getting big money from big corporations. They aren’t censored by the government. And big companies have to go where the money is. They can’t rely on racist artifacts like the Electoral College and the Senate and voter suppression. To them, money from a gay guy in San Francisco or a Black woman in Atlanta is as important as money from a white guy in rural Wyoming. It’s that actual conservative God — the Invisible Hand of the Free Market — at work.

The Dr. Seuss estate stopped publishing some books that weren’t selling much to begin with. Pepé Le Pew, a character built around one joke that isn’t funny anymore, won’t be in the new Space Jam movie. Mr. Potato Head … nothing changed there except the logo.

Mainstream conservative media just told people they should be mad. When there is a widely popular plan to tax the rich to rebuild bridges and roads, you have to change the subject somehow.

People comparing the Lil Nas X video for “Montero (Call Me by Your Name)” and Cardi B video for “WAP” to Pepé assaulting a cat seem to be missing some big points about both consent and media aimed at children versus adults. And, as someone who enjoyed so-called “devil music,” I never noticed these kinds of complaints thrown at Hank Williams III for his “Straight to Hell” song. Go listen to that one to hear a straight white guy enthusiastically singing about heading down there. It didn’t generate any uproar.

As a kid, the Bible had the most murder, rape, violence, and supernatural horror I encountered in anything I read or listened to.

For all the talk about the devil, he’s a bit player in the story, rarely mentioned outside the book of Job, where he is God’s gambling buddy. The real villains, occurring again and again throughout history, are the sanctimonious, authoritarian hypocrites who abuse scripture to justify their self-serving actions. The book’s main protagonist calls them on their bullshit and tells them God wants them to help the poor, the sick, and the downtrodden. Then they cancel him on a cross.

Craig David Meek is a Memphis writer, barbecue connoisseur, and the author of Memphis Barbecue: A Succulent History of Smoke, Sauce & Soul.

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

The conservative outrage over “cancel culture” is hypocritical at best, a calculated distraction from real issues at worst.

23

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