Memphis Flyer - 09/10/2020

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DARK TIMES HOW THE CITY AND MLGW ARE STRUGGLING TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON FOR THOUSANDS OF MEMPHIANS.

September 10-16, 2020

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

OUR 1646TH ISSUE 09.10.20 I’m old enough to remember the great Levitt Shell tagging. It was last week, I think.

Memphis woke up to the news that political slogans, including “Black Lives Matter,” “Save the Children,” “Eat the Rich,” and various epithets had been spray-painted on the Shell. The images were all over social media by mid-morning, at which point we also learned that presumably the same taggers had defaced the Great Wall of Graceland with similar slogans.

It was a Rorschach test. Confirmation biases kicked in. Some were outraged by the vandalism itself; others were outraged by the fact that people were more upset by graffiti than by the loss of Black lives. Many were convinced that the tagging was done by right-wing agitators looking to smear BLM and start unrest. There was something for everyone.

Here’s the thing: If you don’t know who did something, you don’t know why it was done. You’re just making noise on social media. By the next day, the paint had been removed, and the brouhaha quickly disappeared, lost in the perpetual churn of the outrage cycle.

There was another story last week that you probably overlooked, and that’s too bad. It was well-reported in The Commercial Appeal by reporter Sarah Macaraeg. A Memphis Police Officer named Matthew Dyess was outed for several racist posts on Facebook. Dyess praised the Kenosha shooter with a meme that read: “Blame it all on my roots, I showed up in boots, and ruined their Black Lives affair.” Another meme Dyess posted read, “Damn, that kid can shoot!” and was tagged with a comment, “Me, watching the Steven Askew news.” And there was more. From the CA story: “A 2017 picture in uniform and the Facebook groups which Dyess follows remained publicly accessible Friday. The groups ‘(F---) the Organization Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Memphis Brigade, Sons of Confederate Veterans’ were listed among them.”

So, Matthew Dyess is a racist Memphis cop. That’s bad enough. But it gets much, much worse. And it gets personal. You see, Matthew Dyess and his thenpartner Ned Aufdenkamp are the cops who shot and killed Steven Askew in 2013.

Steven was the son of Sylvia Askew, my wife’s legal assistant at the Federal Public Defender’s office. I went to Steven’s funeral. I know his father and mother. He was a fine young man, an auto mechanic, not a criminal. He was assassinated by two MPD officers. If this had happened in the past year or two, instead of in 2013, Memphis would be an epicenter for protest. Steven Askew’s name would be known as well as George Floyd’s and Breonna Taylor’s. His death was that egregious. MPD and the DA would not be able to bury this story in 2020.

Here’s what happened: Aufdenkamp and Dyess were patrolling an apartment complex on foot, responding to a noise complaint. They noticed the 24-yearold Askew asleep in his car. He was waiting for his girlfriend, who lived in the complex, to get off work. But Steven never got to tell his story. That’s because, when Aufdenkamp and Dyess woke him (with guns drawn), they got spooked and fired 22 rounds at Askew — from behind. Nine bullets struck Steven in the back and neck, and he died. The cops first told investigators that Askew had shot at them but changed their stories when it turned out that a gun on the floorboard (which Askew had a permit for) had not been fired, and didn’t even have fresh fingerprints on it.

Aufdenkamp and Dyess needlessly shot and killed a man who committed no crime. He wasn’t resisting arrest. He wasn’t speeding. He hadn’t even run a stop sign. He was sleeping in his car and probably awoke with a start when officers tapped the window, a response that cost him his life — killed for the crime of sleeping in his car while Black.

Of course, the incident was “investigated,” but even after the lies the officers told investigators were revealed, District Attorney Amy Weirich declined to press charges, saying it would be too difficult to prove the officers committed a crime.

Right. A civil court saw it differently and awarded Askew’s parents $587,000 in damages. But no crime was committed. Nope. Just a teensy N E WS & O P I N I O N mistake by a couple of hard-working THE FLY-BY - 4 MPD officers.

NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 6 Aufdenkamp had, at the time, a POLITICS - 8 checkered incident history, with several COVER STORY run-ins with the public. Now we learn “DARK TIMES”

BY TOBY SELLS - 10 that Dyess, seven years after pumping WE RECOMMEND - 14 numerous bullets into an innocent MUSIC - 15 Black man, is a racist who posts CALENDAR - 16 white supremacist crap on Facebook.

FOOD - 18 He needs to be relieved of duty BREWS - 19 immediately — which is unfortunately FILM - 20 seven years too late for Steven Askew.

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

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September 10-16, 2020

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S H E LL S H O C K You weren’t a citizen of the MEMernet last week if you didn’t read about/ see pictures of the graffiti at the Levitt Shell. Graceland and the I Love Memphis mural on Cooper were hit, too.

But the Shell’s Facebook post about the graffiti was somehow the sparkiest spark on social.

People raged at the Shell and those upset by the graffiti, accusing them of caring more about “free music” than the lives of Black people. Facebooker Sarah Rushakoff pored over the Shell’s leadership lineup, finding its diversity lacking.

The day after the post, the Shell said on Facebook it had “multiple conversations” and “we appreciate your honesty and willingness to be vocal.”

{

Questions, Answers + Attitude Edited by Toby Sells

W E E K T H AT W A S

By Flyer staff

Graffiti, MATA, & the Virus (Duh) Messages coat Shell and more, bus routes come back, and COVID-19 numbers slide again.

VI R US C O U NTS D EC LI N E Monday: Shelby County added 120 new cases of COVID-19 for a total of 27,587. The death toll in Shelby County was 382. Active cases declined to 2,987.

Tuesday: Shelby County added 110 new cases for a total of 27,697. Two new deaths were reported for a total of 384.

Wednesday: Shelby County added 82 new cases, the first time the figure has been in double-digits in Clockwise from top left: Levitt Shell gets tagged, Christ Community Health Services moves many weeks. One drive-through COVID testing, and MATA resumes some retired routes new death was reported for a total of 385. Total active cases fell again to the I Heart Memphis mural on Cooper.

2,651.

Thursday: Shelby County added 86 new cases for a total TESTI N G O N TH E M OVE of 27,865. Two new deaths were reported for a total of 387.

Christ Community Health Services (CCHS) moved its Active cases fell again to 2,485. drive-through COVID-19 testing site to expand access to Friday: Shelby County added 200 new cases, though the testing services. All of its drive-through testing is now done Shelby County Health Department said 90 of them were at 1720 RKS Commercial Cove. from other counties. The weekly average rate rose slightly Clinic officials said the move will allow them to test up for the week of August 23rd. The figure marked the first to 500 people in a day. CCHS began testing in early March increase to the weekly average of new cases in five weeks. and has tested over 20,000 individuals with drive-through Three new deaths were reported for a total of 390. testing at their Third Street and Hickory Hills locations.

G R AF F ITI The Levitt Shell, the historic public venue in Overton Park, was tagged last week. Messages like “eat the rich,” “Fuck Trump,” and “Fuck Strickland” were spray-painted on the venue, which has remained closed due to coronavirus concerns during what would be its usual summer and fall concert series schedule.

Natalie Wilson, the Shell’s executive director said it was a tough message to wake up to on 901 Day, when she had planned to use her resources to celebrate the city.

“I understand some of these messages,” she said. “I can’t say I understand everything because that would be acting as if I can walk in everyone’s shoes. I can’t. However, I’m empathetic. As you read it all, it’s language of pain, it’s frustration.”

Similar messages were spray-painted at Graceland and on

38 TO B OXTOWN R I D ES AGAI N The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) resumed service to some retired routes last week after discussions with the Memphis City Council, the Memphis Bus Riders Union, and the Boxtown Neighborhood Association.

The Route 6 Northaven, 31 Firestone, and 38 Boxtown will resume effective Monday, September 14th. The routes had been temporarily reduced in response to COVID-19.

The resumption of routes comes amid a push by MATA to implement a new on-demand micro-transit project in Boxtown, Westwood, and parts of Whitehaven in 2021. The project’s goal is to improve access to its fixed-route service and combat declining ridership.

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

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Criminal justice consultants Richard 35 Janikowski and Phyllis Betts from Strategic City Solutions said the city needs 2,800.

Before the size debate began, Memphis 39 Mayor Jim Strickland was having community-wide conversations about reforming the police department. These 42 Matter came in the wake of Black Lives protests calling for change in Memphis and across the country.

46 Last week, Strickland formalized those conversations with a strategic initiative to “Reimagine Policing.” He formed an 50 advisory council to carry the initiative through its processes. That council includes church leaders like Apostle Bill 52 Adkins from Greater Imani Cathedral of Faith, civil rights leaders like Tonja Sesley-Baymon of the Memphis Urban League, legislators like Sen. Raumesh PUZZLE BY Akbari, and law enforcement officials like Rosalind Harris with the Shelby County Sheriff ’s Office.

17 “Over the next 45 days, this group will be meeting with members of the community to bring forth their initial and immediate actionable solutions,” reads a 21“Once they statement from Strickland. bring those initial recommendations, the group will reconvene and continue working with members of the community for an additional 45 days to make final recommendations and present them to the administration.”

24 A website for the initiative, called Reimagine Policing in Memphis, is live.

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communities. And they promise they’re 31

listening.

“Trust between law enforcement and the people they protect and serve is 34 essential in our city,” reads the site. “It is key to the stability of our communities, and the safe and effective delivery of police services. We want to listen and do the work to improve our Memphis Police 40 Department.”

Leaders wanted to grow MPD to 2,300 by 2020. They didn’t make it. The 43will be extremely, 44 new goal of 2,800 extremely difficult, according to council member Worth Morgan, the sponsor 47the MPD 48 of the proposal to increase complement. He said the consultant study showed more cops will mean less crime.

But council member Michalyn EasterThomas wasn’t convinced. She said data could be manipulated to prove any point.

If the council was putting numbers to things, Easter-Thomas suggested setting similar goals to poverty, homelessness, and blight around schools.

KAMERON In 2016, MPDAUSTIN had 30.1 offiCOLLINS cers per 10,000 residents, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

30 Nashville had 20.9, for comparison. New Orleans had 29.5. New York had 42.3.

Chicago had 43.9. Atlantic City had the most with 70.9. Lincoln, California, had 31 the least with 4.2.

So, does it work? Pounds of academic literature says it does. But further reviews, 33 like the one from The Washington Post in June, say more spending on police hasn’t necessarily moved the needle 34 in the last 60 years.

“More [police] spending in a year hasn’t significantly correlated to less crime or to more crime,” Phillip Bump wrote for WaPo.

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October 5th is the last day for voter registration for anyone intending to vote in the election concluding on November 3rd. Numerous offices will be on the ballot, including the Presidency of the United States.

The October 5th deadline holds for registering to vote online and in person. If you register by mail, your mail-in registration form must also be postmarked by Monday, October 5th.

In-person voting: The Shelby County Election Commission offers a link to find your appropriate poll location on its website: shelbyvote.com.

Early voting: You may also vote early or vote absentee by mail, and there is a genuine debate raging just now over which of these modes is to be preferred. A two-week period for early voting is provided, from Wednesday, October 14, 2020, to Thursday, October 29, 2020. Those who advocate it maintain, like Tennessee Democratic Party chair Mary Mancini, that early voting is “the safest, quickest, and easiest way to cast your vote.”

Early voting will be available at locations and during hours that will be posted, in the Flyer and elsewhere, when they are determined by the Election Commission.

Absentee voting: The other mode of voting is by absentee or mail-in ballot, an option whose availability has been extended by judicial action to include persons affected adversely by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The courts have mandated the following conditions will enable voting by mail: • If an individual has an illness, physical disability or other underlying health condition that makes them especially vulnerable to COVID-19, and who, because of that condition is unable to appear at the polling place and instead wishes to vote absentee.

• If an individual is a caretaker of someone who has a special vulnerability to COVID-19 because he or she is ill, physically disabled, or has an underlying health condition.

• Whether that illness or physical disability creates a special vulnerability should be determined by the voter using guidance from the CDC and common sense as to the voter’s other activities in public. Please visit the Centers for Disease Control website for guidance.

A voter is not required to submit a physician’s statement in support of their determination as to their special vulnerability. A complete checklist of eligibility for absentee voting follows: • You will be outside Shelby County during the entire early voting period and all day on Election Day. • You or your spouse are enrolled as a full-time student in an accredited college or university outside Shelby County.

• You reside in a licensed nursing home outside Shelby County.

• You will be unable to vote in person due to service as a juror for a Federal or State court.

• You are 60 years of age or older.

•You have a physical disability and an inaccessible polling location.

• You are hospitalized, ill, or physically disabled and unable to appear at your polling place to vote (this includes persons who have underlying medical or health conditions that in their determination render them more susceptible to contracting COVID-19 or at greater risk should they contract it).

• You are the caretaker of a person who is hospitalized, ill, or disabled (this includes caretakers for persons who have underlying medical or health conditions that in their determination render them more susceptible to contracting COVID-19 or at greater risk should they contract it).

• You are a candidate for office in the election.

• You serve as an Election Day official or as an employee of the Shelby County Election Commission.

• Your observance of a religious holiday prevents you from voting in person during the early voting period and on Election Day. • You or your spouse possess a valid commercial drivers’ license (CDL) or you possess a valid Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) card and certify that you will be working outside Tennessee or Shelby County during the open hours of early voting and Election Day, and have no specific out-of-county or outof-state address to which mail may be sent or received during such time.

• You are a member of the military or are an overseas citizen.

Note: Under Tennessee law, once you have requested an absentee ballot, you cannot vote in person for that election except by provisional ballot.

Applications must be received no later than seven days before the November 3rd election date.

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COVER STORY BY TOBY SELLS

DARK TIMES C

September 10-16, 2020

onfusion reigned on Summer Avenue.

The August heat shimmered off the asphalt in Binghampton where cars were lined up nine-deep in the westbound lane. The cars tailed a line snaking around Memphis Light, Gas & Water’s (MLGW) community office next door to a Dixie Queen. Dozens milled around on foot outside the office with paper bills and cell phones in hand, tempers showing behind furrowed brows.

Their power had gone off at home and they all hoped to talk to someone with MLGW to get it back, but their cell phones only gave them busy signals when they called the help line. The online payment page was jammed.

When those in their cars reached a payment window on the west side of the office, they found no one, only blackedout panes with signs reading “this is not a drive-thru window. Please use drop box>>>>.” Whatever that meant.

No one from MLGW was on site to aid people with bills, questions, and payments. It was 4:50 p.m. on Monday, August 24th, and the posted hours said the office was supposed to be open until 5 p.m. Only official-looking security guards were there to keep the traffic moving, to tell people to keep calling the number, and to receive the business end of tense frustrations.

“Mane, this is fucking bullshit, y’all!” one man yelled to the crowd gathered outside the office. “This is some fuckedup bullshit!”

Temperatures hit 91 degrees on the day Memphis’ hometown utility decided to cut the power from 9,169 customers because they had not paid their bills.

They cut their power even though it was in the heat of the summer and Memphis and the world were in the grip of a global pandemic. Dark times suddenly got even darker.

“Listen here,” said a man waiting in 10 that MLGW payment line with his wife.

He held his cell phone, bleating a busy signal, out the window. He wondered aloud if the MLGW number had been disconnected and if its website was down. The man said he works nights and was home in bed when the power went out. He only knew about it when his phone buzzed an alert from his alarm company. While he was planning to go to work that day, his wife would be left home in the heat with five dogs.

She said she had no idea what she was going to do.

“I heard they weren’t supposed to be turning the power off,” the man said.

“I’ve been keeping in contact [with MLGW], trying to keep my bill paid, but, y’know. Guess I’m just gonna wait in line and see if anybody can tell me something.”

M

LGW suspended cutoffs on March 13th.

It was part of the utility’s Pandemic Plan that also included a “no handshake” policy for employees and a suspension of business travel.

“Our customers are struggling at this time with a lot of uncertainty,” MLGW president and CEO J.T. Young said that day at a city hall news conference. “We have made a decision for the time being that, until further notice, we will suspend disconnects for non-payment for water, gas, and electric services.”

On April 3rd, MLGW waived late fees on any bills issued that day until further notice. As of last week, MLGW had waived $7 million in late fees.

New virus case counts lowered and held in late May and early June.

Memphis came out of the Safer at Home lockdown and entered Phase I of the Back to Business Plan, then Phase II. As the economy began to re-emerge, so,

too, did MLGW. Young told MLGW board members on June 17th that he and his team were preparing to restart disconnections. He said he wanted to give customers time to work on payments and that “we don’t want our customers to get into too deep of a hole of debt.” He promised he’d make an announcement on the decision “fairly soon.” It came two days later.

“As our community begins to reopen, MLGW must now resume our normal policies, as many utilities across the country have done,” read

a statement from the utility on June 19th. “Customer disconnects will resume Monday, August 3rd.”

If MLGW had pulled the plug on every residential customer eligible for a cutoff on June 30th, 10 percent of the homes it served would have gone dark.

By that time, MLGW was owed $30 million in past-due bills. In a normal year, it would have been owed around $14 million.

At a June 30th board meeting, Jim West, MLGW vice president and chief customer officer, rolled out a number of programs to help customers pay their bills and keep their lights on. A deferred billing plan would spread a customer’s past due amount over 12 months.

The clock was reset for those already on a payment plan. Down payments for payment plans for residential customers were lowered from 25 percent to 15 percent. Deposits for reconnections would be spread over five months. “In the end, we’re trying to do everything we can to help our customers avoid

KIRILL SHALMANOV | DREAMSTIME.COM

HOW THE CITY AND MLGW ARE STRUGGLING TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON FOR THOUSANDS OF MEMPHIANS.

T

he Memphis poverty rate in 2018 was 27.8 percent, according to the latest Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet produced by researchers at the University of Memphis. The figure was climbing in 2019. The city usually finds its way to or near the top of lists of America’s poorest cities.

The Memphis-area unemployment rate more than tripled from 3.8 percent in March to 12.8 percent in April, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. The figure eased a bit (10.7 percent in May and 11.9 percent in June) but spiked to 13 percent last month. (State data puts the Memphisonly rate at 16.9 percent). That meant 82,000 Memphis-area workers were without a job last month. A year earlier, in July 2019, the Memphis unemployment rate was 5.1 percent and was 4.6 percent for Shelby County.

To some, MLGW’s cutoffs added a burden to a vulnerable and already burdened segment of society. Critics have abounded — before, during, and after the disconnections began.

To cut utilities here and at a time like this shows “callousness,” says Elena Delavega. She’s with the U of M’s School of Social Work and co-author of the Memphis Poverty Fact Sheet.

“This utility is supposed to be a part of the community, part of the fabric of the community,” Delavega says. “Cutting [people’s utilities] is saying money is more important than people, and we don’t care about people. We don’t care about the community. It doesn’t matter that we have an emergency situation.”

Impoverished people in Memphis often have to make hard choices —

between paying rent, paying utilities, or buying food, Delavega says. If they don’t pay rent, she adds, they may end up on the street. If they don’t eat, they may die. Without electricity, “you can still breathe, you can still be alive.”

Making matters worse, many impoverished people rent, rather than own their apartments or homes. They have little control over needed repairs of their homes — like leaky faucets or unsealed gaps that allow the weather to get in and heating and cooling to escape — which impacts their utility bills in ways they can’t change.

Four days after disconnections began, Shirelle Brown activated her nonprofit network, The Independent Parent, with an email blast. She urged people to write MLGW’s Young, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, Shelby County commissioners, and Memphis City Council members to urge them to extend the moratorium on disconnections.

A former grant coordinator for the Shelby County Commission, upon retirement, Brown went full-time to leading her single-parent advocacy group.

“A lady reached out to one of my board members to say that her and her children had to sleep in their car because it was too hot to be in the house and they needed to charge their phones,” Brown said.

“This just broke my heart to pieces because these people are really struggling.”

Last week, the MLGW board met — virtually, of course. Though members of the public could not speak directly to the board (due to limits of the video conference software), two Memphians submitted statements that were read aloud by West.

“Why is MLGW disconnecting power from customers in the middle of the summer, in the middle of a pandemic, and when so many families are going through virtual learning?” asked Lindsey Hammond. “Are students supposed to log in without power, internet, water, or air conditioning?

Poor students will fall behind. This is egregious.”

MLGW worked closely with Shelby County Schools for weeks, in the run-up to the beginning of the unprecedented start of this unprecedented school year.

While it did not publicize the move, MLGW suspended all disconnections the Friday before school was to start, the Monday school began, and the following Tuesday. The suspensions

lasted for another two weeks, but more on that later.

Alice Miller, another public speaker at MLGW’s meeting last week, noted that “even Nashville Electric Service” has suspended cutoffs. “How can we justify doing it here, even in a poorer city, where we are not seeing the economy recovering, much less [seeing] substantial improvements in fighting COVID?” Miller asked.

Gale Carson Jones, MLGW’s vice president of community and external affairs, said MLGW worked its way carefully through the last five and a half months (after the time payments were suspended) by carefully monitoring cash receipts and disbursements. The $30.2 million cited by the utility ($22.5

TO SOME, MLGW’S CUTOFFS ADDED A BURDEN TO A VULNERABLE SEGMENT OF SOCIETY. million as of late last week) was money owed for services provided.

“MLGW cannot provide free services,” Carson Jones said in an email to the Flyer. “To the extent that MLGW cannot collect outstanding balances, this creates upward rate pressure on all customers. MLGW has a financial responsibility to try to collect all that

is owed.”

As for critics of the move to resume disconnections, Carson Jones said the utility spent months notifying customers of available assistance in the community. MLGW spread the word in news stories, social media posts, a mail campaign that put the word on utility assistance to every single address MLGW serves. Carson Jones also pointed to the myriad programs MLGW established to help its customers get back on track, like the extended payment plans with reduced up-front costs for those with COVID-19 hardships.

T

here is some help for Memphians facing hardships brought on by unpaid bills. Many agencies have funds they can give directly to those behind on their MLGW payments.

Perhaps the largest hub for these funds is the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA). Sally Heinz, MIFA’s executive director, says her group has helped 1,200 households since mid-March. This year, MIFA is already helping “record numbers” of people.

MIFA received $3.5 million from the Memphis City Council for the local COVID-19 response through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Those in need can get some of the money for rent and mortgage assistance and can also find emergency shelter, if needed.

Heinz said $1.5 million of those funds are earmarked specifically for utility assistance. Customers can get $200 and have to prove they have a need related to COVID-19. Word has gotten out about the funds and money is rapidly being dispersed. On one day, two weeks ago, MIFA received over 300 applications for utility assistance, Heinz says.

“We’re grateful these resources are coming into our community and, hopefully, everyone can be a little patient with us as we try to respond to all of this,” Heinz says. “It’s what MIFA has been doing for 50 years and we’re happy to continue to do it for our folks here.”

The Shelby County Division of Community Services gets about $10 million each year from the state for utility assistance. MLGW and the Tennessee Valley Authority also teamed continued on page 12

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

disconnections,” West said at the time.

But before that initial August 3rd cutoff date, MLGW halted cutoffs again on July 30th — until August 24th.

“Many of our customers are facing major financial challenges during this pandemic and, while we must still run the business, we want to give our customers additional time to make payment arrangements and seek bill payment assistance if needed,” Young said in a statement at the time.

However, as promised, Monday, August 24th came, and on that 91-degree Monday, MLGW cut power to 9,169 customers. About 30,000 customers were behind on their bills.

About 15,000 were eligible for a cutoff.

“My daughter called me and said the utilities were off,” said a man sitting in the MLGW payment line on Summer two weeks ago. “I looked at the amount, and it was $650. I thought, well, I’ll shoot over there and see what’s going on. This is the only place you can pay in person. I don’t think this is right, turning off people’s power right now.

Clearly, they should reconsider this and think about pushing this back out another month or two, or maybe the beginning of the year.”

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Now is the time to change all that.

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September 10-16, 2020

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up to donate $400,000 for COVID-19 response here, with $150,000 earmarked for MIFA. The city gave MIFA $700,000 from the general fund for utility assistance.

And there’s about $60,000 left from MLGW’s Save the Pennies program.

The Shelby County government gave MIFA $1.5 million for utility assistance.

All together, total funds available for utility assistance were around $3.9 million as of last week.

Last Tuesday, the Memphis City Council began mapping all of these agencies and their funds. The council was discussing a proposal from council member Martavius Jones that would, eventually, offer MIFA another $5.7 million for its utility assistance fund for a total of $8.2 million from the council.

The council began utility assistance discussions back in May, as they chopped up a portion of the $113 million the city received in federal CARES Act funds. That work was, perhaps, easier, as the federal money sort of fell out of the sky and the council only had to funnel it to the right spots in the community.

“THIS IS A WAY TO HELP PEOPLE WHO HAVE GONE THROUGH DIFFICULT TIMES HERE.” But Jones’ proposal was met with resistance — and was ultimately tabled for two weeks — because, while the money would ultimately come from CARES funding, it would have to tap the budgets of the Memphis Zoo, Memphis Police Department, and Memphis Division of Fire Services to get there.

Jones suggested the $5.7 million could come from CARES Act money destined for the zoo. To fill that budget gap, he proposed removing $5.7 million from the budgets of the police and fire departments, arguing the total funds equaled only 1.2 percent of their entire budgets.

“First thing I want to say is this is not an attempt to defund the police; it is not,” Jones said. “This is a way to help people who have gone through difficult times here.”

While Jones was drafting his resolution, Mayor Strickland’s office was already sending the $5.7 million to the zoo. Jones called the timing of that move “offensive.” Doug McGowen, the city’s chief operating officer (COO), said the mayor’s office had been trying

to get the CARES money out the door into the community as quickly as it could. The scheduling of the zoo payment was not an intentional dodge, he said. It happened when the correct paperwork was in order.

Council member Chase Carlisle said with so much money already available for utility assistance, “we may be getting ahead of ourselves by allocating additional resources,” especially if those resources come at the expense of public safety. “It is imprudent to start arbitrarily cutting the city budget, specifically our public safety budget,” Carlisle said. “Keeping the lights on is a matter of public safety, no question about it.

“I do not support defunding the police. We can say it’s not defunding the police. It’s divesting, it’s cutting, it’s re-appropriating. At the end of the day, we’re moving funds from public safety to somewhere else. As far as I’m concerned, that’s defunding [the police] and I don’t support that.”

Even though he said he hasn’t been to the zoo in years, council member Edmund Ford Sr. said if anyone wants to take money from it, “I have an issue with that.” He also had an issue about exactly who would get help paying their MLGW bills and wanted names, addresses, and a report on which ZIP codes were getting what kind of help.

He had issues with people not going to work because they were getting financial help from the government and not paying their bills.

Ford said to fellow council member Jeff Warren: “You said people were going to get ‘put out.’ Of course they’re going to get put out because they didn’t want to pay but they were getting this money. What did they do with it? Nike got rich, and I got issues with that. The wig place got rich. We’re trying to help somebody who took this money and … didn’t pay a bill at all, and I got an issue with that.”

As the council debated Jones’ zoo/ public safety proposal, they struggled to find a more complete picture of all of the funds available for utility assistance.

Ford asked if MLGW would consider a two-week moratorium on utility disconnections “until we can get this situated.” Then, the committee voted to table Jones’ bill for two weeks. Within minutes of Ford’s request, MLGW CEO Young joined the meeting with a surprise announcement.

“We will extend our moratorium until September 14th and allow our customers to explore their options,” Young said to the council members.

“We would love to work with the council and make sure we can accommodate the needs. So a twoweek extension is something we’re committed to doing.”

And just like that, the power was back on, at least until Monday. Stay tuned.

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SEASON ONE SEPTEMBER 16 OCTOBER 18

Tickets on sale NOW! GPACweb.com Gates open at 5:00 PM Movies & Concerts Start at 6 PM

WEDNESDAYS

MUSIC & MOVIES

9/16 - TAKE ME TO THE RIVER 9/23 - LA LA LAND 9/30 - SHINE A LIGHT Plus Live Local Musicians Series Sponsored by The Village at Germantown

THURSDAYS

DINE OUT IN THE GROVE 9/17 - HOSTED BY CHEF RYAN TRIMM Movie: Julie & Julia

9/24 - HOSTED BY CHEF ERNIE MELLOR, PIT MASTER HOG WILD BBQ Movie: Kings of Beer Series Sponsored by Avenida Watermarq at Germantown

FRIDAYS

FAMILY NIGHT IN THE GROVE 9/18 - LIVE MUSIC W/ JOSH THRELKELD MOVIE - SING

9/25 - DANCE ALONG W/ HOOPS & TAPS MOVIE - ANNIE Series Sponsored by Jabberblabber Magazine

SATURDAYS

CONCERTS IN THE GROVE

September 10-16, 2020

9/19 - MEMPHIS UKULELE BAND 9/26 - OPERA GOES TO BROADWAY Series Sponsored by Jaguar Land Rover Bluff City & Spaces Group, LLC

SUNDAYS

JAZZ IN THE GROVE 9/20 - ANNIE SELLICK & PAT BERGESON 9/27 - KIRK WHALUM Series Sponsored by Jaguar Land Rover Bluff City & Spaces Group, LLC

MORE SHOWS IN OCTOBER! SEE THE FULL SEASON LINEUP AT GPACWEB.COM

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1801 EXETER ROAD GERMANTOWN, TN 38138 901.751.7500 GPACweb.com

steppin’ out (& stayin’ in)

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

Listen Up

By Julie Ray

The National Civil Rights Museum is hosting a webinar featuring Diane J. Goodman, Ed.D., educator, trainer, and consultant on diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice issues.

Recently on The Dr. Pat Show, a talk radio program, Goodman spoke with guest host Dr. Mariangela Maguire discussing “The Challenges & Benefits committing to Equity & Inclusion.”

Goodman stated about current times, “It is hard for anyone to be watching the news and not to have a response. How do we not focus on the violence?”

Of course, for members of different communities, watching the unrest in the news can create different responses. Goodman prefers to focus on the hopefulness of what society is trying to express, acknowledging that we have laws and remedies that didn’t exist before and people of color in power who haven’t been in power before.

Discussions of racism generally focus on the systemic disadvantages and harm to Black, indigenous, and people of color. The other side of the dynamic is how white people are systematically advantaged or privileged.

Through historical and contemporary examples, Diane J. Goodman Goodman will explain what white privilege is, how it operates, ways it is experienced in everyday life, and how it can be used to create more racial justice. This webinar particularly invites white people to examine white privilege in order to more effectively engage in dismantling racism.

“UNDERSTANDING WHITE PRIVILEGE: A KEY TO DISMANTLING SYSTEMIC RACISM,” WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 16, 3-4 P.M. CIVILRIGHTSMUSEUM.ORG, FREE WITH REGISTRATION.

VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES September 10th - 16th Communities in Conversation Series - We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast rhodes.edu, Thursday, September 10, 6 p.m., free with registration Author Jonathan Safran Foer discusses his new book in a virtual presentation followed by a Q&A. Foer emphasizes that the task of saving the planet will involve a great reckoning with ourselves and with our human reluctance to sacrifice immediate comfort for the sake of the future, which all starts with breakfast.

Central Gardens: Home Tour Detour centralgardens.org, Sunday, September 13 through Sunday, September 27, free This self-guided virtual retrospective includes more than 100 homes from the past 20 years of CGA Home Tours with historical information. Walk, drive, or bike while using an interactive map. Take selfies at the 12 featured homes and post them on social platforms with the hashtag #CentralGardensDetour for a chance to win prizes.

Harlem Nights The Orpheum, 203 S. Main, Friday, September 11, 7 p.m. $8 A showing of this film, set in 1930s New York City, where an illegal gambling house must deal with competition, gangsters, and corrupt cops in order to stay in business.

Author Event: Aimee Nezhukumatathil and J. Drew Lanham novelmemphis.com, Monday, Sept.

14, 6 p.m., free with registration Author and naturalist discuss World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments via Zoom.

Virtual Latin Fest 901 cazateatro.org, Tuesday, September 15-Wednesday, September 30, free Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month virtually with this online event, featuring Latin dance classes, artistic presentations, and conversations with experts on topics relevant to the community.

Take Me to the River Germantown Performing Arts Center, 1801 Exeter, Wednesday, September 16, 5 p.m., $10 An outdoor showing of the documentary film, which follows the recording of an album featuring legends from Stax Records and Memphis mentoring and passing on their musical magic to stars and artists of today. Also, live music by local musicians, a food truck, and beverages and snacks available for purchase.

COURTESY OF NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM

GPACweb.com

MUSIC By Alex Greene

Bobby Rush

Bobby Rush

Doo-rwee-dap-dap, bop bop!

it. It’s from Mississippi.’ But I’m not doing it just like they would do it. I’m doing it my way.”

Beyond that, he’s mixed in five of his originals, including the opener, “Down in Mississippi,” and the inimitable “Garbage Man,” best summed up by the line, “Out of all the men my woman coulda left me for, she left me for this garbage man. … Every time I see a garbage can, I think about her and the garbage man, all the time!”

It’s especially stark, featuring only

Rush’s wailing harmonica, voice, and stomping foot. Rawer than raw, indeed.

Though he’s best known for his crack band on the touring circuit, he’s lost none of the chops he refined when he had no ensemble to rely on. “When things go wrong, I take it out on my guitar. And I sing about it and soothe myself.” The album’s climb up the charts suggests that listeners can relate. “Maybe they like it,” he surmises, “because it represents being alone by yourself, set aside, with nothing to do.”

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

sick. I had already done these things. I wanted to do something, and I thought, ‘What am I gonna do?’ You can’t go out. So I said, ‘Dog! I’ve got at least 150 songs already recorded.’ I picked out some that I started with my guitar, and I said, ‘Hell, these are already finished!’”

Choosing which of those would make a coherent album was another matter. “I said, well, let me try to salute all the people that I love and respect.

Still, I couldn’t put all of them on one CD. I said, ‘Let me pick the guys from Mississippi. Like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. People that I knew back in the day, that I respect highly.’ That’s one reason. The second reason is, the guys from Mississippi never change.

When they’re Mississippi blues men, you know who in the hell he is. ‘That’s

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

KIM WELSH

D

espite having won a Grammy award a few years ago for his album Porcupine Meat, and several Blues Music Awards to boot, you can always rely on Bobby Rush to keep things down to earth.

That’s obvious enough on the cover of his newest album, Rawer Than Raw (Deep Rush/Thirty Tigers), released last week, which features him chasing chickens in a farmyard.

That image is in perfect keeping with the album’s sound, and, like the recordings themselves, was only chosen for the album after the fact. “This wasn’t planned to be no album cover.

It was something I’d done because I wanted to go back to my roots. An old friend that I knew, in his backyard.

That’s where I was raised up. Every day, my mama would say, ‘Boy, we need a chicken to eat.’ And we’re out in the yard, we kill a chicken. That’s the way we did it!”

And that’s just how he recorded this album, accompanying himself on guitar and harmonica, his foot stomping the beat. While its closest precursor, 2006’s Raw, was similarly stripped down, it did feature a dobro player on some tracks.

This one is different.

“Ain’t nobody there but me, mane!

Nobody. I had a harmonica around my neck. And when I got to someplace where I’m singing, I went back and did a couple lines with the harmonica, but that’s the only overdub. If I messed up, it’s messed up. If I got it right, it’s right. It’s one take down! I got a board at my feet, and me patting with a damn board, man. Feet going one way, as a drum, and my thumb going one way as a bass player, and the fingers going one way as a guitar player. Doo-rwee-dapdap, doo-rwee-dap-dap, bop bop!”

Like the cover image, the tracks weren’t made with an album in mind.

He may well have been recording with his touring band now, but COVID-19 got in the way. Rush is convinced that the coronavirus was the illness that beset him in February and March.

He’s grateful that he pulled through without any long-term effects but wants the world to know how serious the situation is. “It’s no joke. Wash your hands, keep your mask on, and try to stay to yourself as much as you possibly can. I know you wanna hug and kiss and touch, but that’s a no-no right now.

“I didn’t record this while I was

15

CALENDAR of EVENTS:

September 10 - 16

T H EAT E R

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

Hattiloo Theatre

Memphis Botanic Garden

God’s Trombone, enjoy the original production of inspirational sermons by African-American preachers reimagined as poetry, reverberating with the musicality and splendid eloquence of spirituals. Free. Ongoing.

Sarafina!, past production about human rights in the 21st century, written by Mbongeni Ngema. Ongoing.

Iola’s Southern Fields, enjoy an online past performance drawn from the writings of Ida B. Wells. Free. Ongoing.

37 S. COOPER (502-3486).

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

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).

Tennessee Shakespeare Company

Classical Creations in Quarantine, intrepid exploration of famous creations by artists while enduring multiple forms of isolation featuring Michael Khanlarian, Carmen-maria Mandley, and others. tnshakespeare.org. $15. Fri., Sept. 11, 8 p.m.

7950 TRINITY (759-0604).

September 10-16, 2020

Theatre Memphis

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 “Southern Stories,” exhibition of flower and landscape paintings by Libby Anderson. Sun., Sept. 13, 3-5 p.m.

750 CHERRY (636-4100).

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

Author Event: Aimee Nezhukumatathil and J. Drew Lanham

Author and naturalist discuss World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments via Zoom. Free with registration.

Mon., Sept. 14, 6 p.m.

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

Belly Dance and Paint Class

Learn the opening sequence to a favorite choreography and take home a one-of-a-kind henna-inspired canvas made by you. Light snacks and art supplies provided. $60. Sun., Sept. 13, 6-8:30 p.m.

INDIE ACTING STUDIO, 6757 STAGE, KARSILAMADANCE.COM.

Crosstown Arts Residency Program 2021

Multidisciplinary residencies to visiting and Memphisbased artists and curators working in any creative discipline including visual and performing arts, music, film, and writing in all genres.

Through Sept. 15.

CROSSTOWN CONCOURSE, 1350 CONCOURSE, CROSSTOWNARTS.ORG.

“Doodling Around”

Download art by gallery artists to print out and color. Post on social media and tag the artists and gallery. Brighten your day and stay connected through art. Visit website for art to color. Free. Ongoing.

L ROSS GALLERY, 5040 SANDERLIN (767-2200), LROSSGALLERY.COM.

PINK PALACE WWW.MEMPHISMUSEUMS.ORG

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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.

Crafts Fair Pop-Up Shop at the Pink Palace, Fridays-Sundays, through December 27th Doubt: Virtual Scene Study and Discussion

Author John Patrick Shanley and guests discuss his book about faith, ambiguity, and the price of moral conviction via Zoom. Free with registration.

Fri., Sept. 11, 7 p.m., and Sun., Sept. 13, 2 p.m.

MEMPHIS BLACK ARTS ALLIANCE, 985 S BELLEVUE BLVD, MBAAFIREHOUSE.ORG.

First Brush of Fall: Plein Air Season at the Garden

chance to be in the December Gallery Show and Contest.

Saturdays. Through Oct. 31.

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

Memphis Flyer Coloring Book

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

Orpheum Mini Golf

Putt on nine socially distanced Broadway-themed holes, including Hamilton, The Phantom of the Opera, The Color Purple, Memphis, and more. $10. Thurs.-Sun., 10:30 a.m.10 p.m. Through Sept. 13.

THE ORPHEUM, 203 S. MAIN (525-3000).

MEMPHISMAGAZINESTORE.COM.

Metal Museum Online

Peruse the art and craft 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).

Set up your easel through October. Enter your art for a

create

C O M E DY

Graceland Soundstage

Greg Gutfeld, political satirist brings live show with a night of laughs and special guest Tom Shillue. Sat., Sept. 12, 8 p.m. gracelandlive.com.

3717 ELVIS PRESLEY.

LECT U R E /S P EA K E R

A History of Yellow Fever and Elmwood Cemetery: Zoom Presentation

Learn how Memphis was devastated by an opportunistic vector, a terrible lack of sanitation or good hygiene, and a stagnant bayou in this online presentation. $10. Thurs., Sept.

10, 6 p.m., Fri., Sept. 11, 9 a.m., Sat., Sept. 12, 3 p.m., and Sun., Sept. 13, 3 p.m.

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

Memphis Heritage Virtual Preservation Series

Caroline Carrico, supervisor of exhibits and graphics services at the Pink Palace

CRAFTS FAIR POP UP SHOP Opens Friday, September 4th, 2020 Curated by Memphis Modern Market

CALENDAR: SEPTEMBER 10 - 16

“Understanding White Privilege: A Key to Dismantling Systemic Racism”

Diane J. Goodman, Ed.D. explains white privilege, how it operates, ways it is experienced, and how it can be used to create more racial justice.

Register online. Wed., Sept.

16, 3-4 p.m.

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

Communities in Conversation Series: “We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast”

Renowned author Jonathan Safran Foer discusses his new book, We Are the Weather: Saving The Planet Begins At Breakfast followed by a Q&A. Free with registration. Thurs., Sept. 10, 5:30-6:45 p.m.

RHODES COLLEGE, 2000 N. PARKWAY (843-3000), RHODES.EDU.

TO U R S

Central Gardens: Home Tour Detour

Self-guided virtual retrospective of more than 100 homes from the past 20 years of CGA Home Tours. Walk, drive, or bike while using interactive map. Take selfies for prizes. Sept. 13-27.

CENTRAL GARDENS, ALONG CARR AVE., CENTRALGARDENS.ORG.

E X POS/SALES

Crafts Fair Pop-Up Shop

Lunchtime Meditations with Amy Balentine

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

DIXON.ORG.

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.

OUTMEMPHIS.ORG.

S P EC I A L EVE N TS

Birds of Prey Program

Meet some of Tennessee’s native birds of prey. Registering guarantees a spot. Adding a donation helps provide food and care for birds. Free with registration. Saturdays, Sundays, 3 p.m.

MEEMAN-SHELBY FOREST STATE PARK, NATURE CENTER, NATURE CENTER, TNSTATEPARKS.COM.

DIG Memphis Mysteries While at home, do some investigative work to solve a mystery from a collection of images in the digital archives.

New photo posted weekly.

Ongoing.

BENJAMIN L. HOOKS CENTRAL LIBRARY, 3030 POPLAR (415-2700).

Grind City Designs and Dixie Picker T-Shirt Benefit

Local businesses have put together vintage finds and fresh designs for T-shirts.

Each shirt sale provides 24 meals provided through MidSouth Food Bank. $25-$29.

Ongoing.

GRINDCITYDESIGNS.COM.

Featuring 30-plus artists and brands from Memphis and the surrounding areas. From paintings and home decor to jewelry and candles, in a safe and socially distanced pop-up experience. Fridays, Saturdays, 10:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m., and Sundays, 12-5 p.m.

Through Dec. 27.

Herbal Work Study

MEMPHIS PINK PALACE MUSEUM, 3050 CENTRAL (636-2362).

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

F E ST IVALS

Virtual Latin Fest 901

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month featuring Latin dance classes, artistic presentations, and conversations with experts on topics relevant to the community. Sept. 15-30.

(846-5640).

M E ETI N G S

Churches from the Presbytery of the MidSouth: Sunday Worship Livestream Combined livestream worship. Visit website for more information and livestream link. Sun., 11 a.m.

IDLEWILDCHURCH.ORG.

Novel Virtual Book Club

For more information on

The first two hours will be spent weeding, grooming, thinning, planting, or whatever else needs doing in the herb garden. The last hour will be spent learning about weekly gardening subject.

Second Saturday of every month, 8:15-11:30 a.m.

“Just for the Health of it Bingo Challenge”

Each participant will receive a bingo card with challenges to complete. The activity will be posted on Facebook.

For prizes, take a picture completing the activity and email it to ocantre1@utk.edu.

Tuesdays, Thursdays.

EXTENSION.TENNESSEE.EDU.

Legends of the Night Sky: Perseus and Andromeda

A lighthearted and imaginative retelling of one of the most famous constellation stories using a colorful laser light system. $9. TuesdaysSaturdays, 5:30 p.m., and Sundays, 4 p.m. Through Sept. 20.

AUTOZONE DOME PLANETARIUM, MEMPHIS PINK PALACE MUSEUM, 3050 CENTRAL (636-2362).

Explore a variety of meditation practices designed to help you find balance and reduce stress. Join live or enjoy past meditations online.

Fridays, noon.

Memphis Flyer Home Delivery

Have Memphis Flyer delivered to your home bi-weekly. Call or email to subscribe. $5 per month. Ongoing.

(521-9000), MEMPHISFLYER.COM.

Nominations for the Quarterly Pick Award

Nominate a hospitality professional for outstanding customer service. Quarterly winners receive a cash prize and trophy. Nominations from all four quarters are considered for annual award.

Through Oct. 20.

WELCOMETOMEMPHIS.ORG.

FOOD & DR I N K E V E N TS

Memphis Dawah Association: Mobile Food Pantry

A weekly mobile food pantry organized by Memphis Dawah Association and MidSouth Food Bank. Volunteer opportunities available.

Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

MEMPHIS DAWAH ASSOCIATION, 837 CRAFT (601-672-0259).

Enroll Your Child in Pre-K Pre-K will help give your child the basic skills they will need later in school. Plus some programs provide extra support, like devices, for home learning. And, depending on your income, it’s all free.

High-quality early childhood programs benefit the whole community. First 8 Memphis coordinates services for kids birth through third grade.

To enroll your child in Pre-K, visit:

PrekMemphis.com

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Harlem Nights

During the 1930s, a New York City illegal gambling house must deal with strong competition, gangsters, and corrupt cops in order to stay in business. $8. Fri., Sept. 11, 7 p.m.

THE ORPHEUM, 203 S. MAIN (525-3000).

Indie Memphis Movie Club

Weekly virtual screening opportunities (for brandnew films and classics), plus online Q&As on Tuesday evenings between programmers and special guests. Visit website for more information and schedule. Ongoing.

INDIEMEMPHIS.ORG.

Oxford Virtual Film Festival

Presentation includes 24hour rental period and filmmaker Q&A. New releases until the end of the year. $10, $40-$175 virtual passes.

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Looking for a fun, relaxing activity to pass the hours at home? Want to support local journalism and local artists while you’re at it?

OXFORDFILMFEST.COM.

Take Me to the River

Documentary follows the recording of an album featuring legends from Stax Records and Memphis mentoring and passing on their musical magic to stars and artists of today. $10. Wed., Sept. 16, 5 p.m.

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

The Memphis Flyer has created its first-ever coloring book filled with work by local artists and illustrators. Proceeds will be split 50/50 between the Flyer and the artists.

visit bit.ly/flyercoloringbook or call 901.521.9000.

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MEMPHIS HERITAGE, 2282 MADISON (272-2727), MEMPHISHERITAGE.ORG.

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Museum, will discuss the history of the Pink Palace. $10.

Wed., Sept. 16, 6-7 p.m.

17

FOOD By Michael Donahue

THIS WEEK AT

Dino’s Ravioli There’s no beef in this tasty take on ravioli.

D

SPREAD OUT WORK OUT EAT OUT FIND SOME B R E AT H I N G ROOM CROSSTOWN

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CROSSTOWNCONCOURSE.COM/EVENTS

ino’s Grill owner Mario Grisanti and his dad, Rudy Grisanti, gave basically the same answer to my question: “Is Dino’s the only Italian restaurant in Memphis that puts chicken and spinach in its ravioli instead of ground beef and cheese?”

“As far as I know, we’re the only ones doing it,” Mario says.

“To be honest, as far as I know we’re the only ones that make a chicken ravioli,” Rudy says.

“To my knowledge, that’s the way we’ve always done it,” Mario says. “Even going back to my great-grandfather Frank Benedetti at the State Cafe at Beale and Main. Everybody else’s, it seems, is beef and cheese.”

Dino’s doesn’t make beef raviolis. “It’s not an option,” Mario says.

That can surprise people. “I had a lady call me. She had a to-go order. About 30 minutes after she picked up her order, she called and said, ‘I just want you to know everything was great, but the inside of my raviolis were green.’ I just started laughing. ‘It’s chicken and spinach that makes it green.’ She said, ‘Okay. I feel so much better.’”

“We have a lot of people who come in and say, ‘Well, we want beef ravioli,’’’ Rudy says. “I tell them, ‘I’m sorry. Our ravioli has spinach and chicken in them.

Try them.’”

The response is, “These are great. These are fantastic.”

“It really is lighter, for one thing,” Rudy says. “Since we make our own pasta for it, it makes a lighter dish because sometimes raviolis can be pretty heavy.”

And, he says, “In a sense, it’s better for you because it’s less cholesterol and stuff like that. The chicken is really a better choice than trying to add a lot of beef to your diet.”

They’ve made other raviolis, Rudy says. “I’ve made seafood raviolis, and I put a tarragon cream sauce on them. We’ve made salmon raviolis with saffron sauce.

But, traditionally, when we make ravioli, it’s always chicken and spinach.”

“We used to make a cheese ravioli with parmesan, ricotta and eggs, and seasonings, but there was just no real call for it,” Mario says. “It’s labor-intensive to make.

We’re making probably 20 dozen a day. I don’t have the time to make several different fillings and put them all together.”

Asked how chicken ravioli came about, Rudy says, “I guess it was because beef was a lot more expensive during the Depres-

sion than chicken was. That’s just his old recipe, and that’s the way we’ve always made it.

“The main ingredient is the chicken, and then we add spinach to it,” Rudy says.

“The spinach naturally makes it greener.

But he never really said why, and I never questioned him about it.”

Benedetti added pork brains as a binder to the raviolis, but after he retired, Rudy began using eggs because he couldn’t find decent pork brains.

Unless a customer orders marinara sauce, Dino’s meat sauce includes ground beef, tomato sauce, water, garlic, Italian seasoning, onions, and celery, Mario says. “Marinara is the exact same thing minus the ground beef. And we add diced tomatoes.”

Mario Grisanti and Dino’s ravioli

They make ravioli every day, he says.

“We’ve done a lot of frozen ravioli, lately.

It’s the exact same ravioli, just fried at a boil, with a side of meat sauce.”

Frozen raviolis were very popular when the pandemic began, Mario says.

“When all of this first started, we sold a lot of frozen raviolis because one, people can make their own sauce. A lot of people felt more comfortable cooking their own food at their house.”

They’re still popular. “We sell them year-round frozen. I had three dozen go out yesterday, and four dozen tomorrow.”

Simplicity — in addition to flavor — might be one of the keys to the popularity of the food at Dino’s Grill. “None of the stuff we make here is real fancy,” Mario says. “Just good quality, simple, homemade stuff.”

Note: Dino’s still offers its all-youcan-eat spaghetti for $8.95 on Thursday nights.

Dino’s Grill is at 645 N. McLean; 278-9127.

BREWS By Richard Murff

Mass is Minus A pint of inefficiency is a better way to go.

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RICHARD MURFF

In a world swamped by data metrics, we’ve developed a fetish for efficiency.

In a lot of ways that’s a good thing — engineering in modern cars leaps to mind. It’s also a tricky thing. Consider the American beer industry after prohibition, where a few large players dominated the market, determined to grow not on quality but efficiency.

Each brewery chased the other’s market share by tasting more like the competition, which basically left America with two choices of fabulously cheap and nearly identical beers. For most of the 20th century, good ole American know-how made the United States the most efficient beer industry in the world. It was also the worst place in the world to live were you a beer-lover. Murffbrau’s heroic run in Tuscaloosa when I was an undergrad was not because I knew how to make good beer. The stuff was terrible, but it was different. I was also giving it away.

I was also insane.

My point still stands — embracing

a bit of inefficiency in order to make something a little different is what transformed the U.S. beer market from the worst place to be for a beer-lover to arguably the best in less than a generation.

I know more people who head to North Carolina’s beer tours than to Napa Valley these days. Sure, wine snobs can be insufferable, but because they were always going on about terroir and starlight and a bunch of other imaginary metrics, no one ever expected them to be efficient. Winemakers are just expected to be vaguely French at heart.

Craft beer is a delicious monument to inefficiencies: small batch, jerryrigged distribution, and you might see the person who made it at the gas station.

Yes, beer people can get as snobby as the wine crowd, but just ignore them. And sure, you get the odd swingand-a-miss, but that’s part of the fun. Besides, a miss isn’t always a miss. I’ve definitely softened my stance on gose beer. For this week’s suggestion, I had a High Cotton Scottish Ale, because the unseasonably cold and cloudy weather (it was 88 degrees) put me in the right state of mind. The stars lined up here; it’s a great Scottish Ale, what can I say? It just tastes inefficient. It’s malty, with a bit of caramel and toffee, but clean. This is important because the mid-80s isn’t really all that cold. I’ve been in the back room of High Cotton. You could eat off the floors back there, but it is not a monument to economies of scale.

Even the distribution of craft beer is wonderfully slipshod if you go by the offerings of the local growler shops around town. And that’s the fun part: Put on your gas mask, secure a sixfoot perimeter bubble, and say in a loud, clear voice: “Hey, guy, gimme the weirdest thing you’ve got!” Then say it again because chances are he didn’t hear you because your mouth was covered.

Go home, pour a pint, and read a book or listen to music, written by someone who actually thought it out.

Or think something out your own damn self. No, it’s not very efficient, but beer is a pretty inefficient way to go about getting gassed. If that’s the goal, you’re better off quaffing vodka.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

J

eff Bezos, owner of the world’s largest bookshop, famously defined a book as paper and binding. Then he made a fortune on the position that there is no good reason to actually pay a writer: The time involved to think up, write, and polish a book until your brain goes numb has no place on a spreadsheet.

Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, helpfully suggested that a constant stream of singles, rather than carefully crafted albums, would generate more pennies for the musicians whose careers he’s wrecked. Twitter and Facebook have made communication so efficient that we can’t stand each other anymore.

19

FILM By Chris McCoy

Tenet Christopher Nolan’s latest is a mind-bending spy thriller.

E

September 10-16, 2020

ntropy increases. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the ironclad rule of physics that most defines our universe. Entropy is a slippery concept. It’s much more complex than “disorder” or “energy flows from hotter objects to colder objects” or just “things fall apart.” The constant, incremental increase in entropy is what defines time itself. Einstein told us that time and space are inseparable, but how come you can move in two directions in the three physical dimensions — forward or backwards, up or down, left or right — but only one way through time — from past to future? Because entropy increases.

Throughout human history, our perspective was trapped in time’s relentless advance. But the invention of the film camera changed that. Very soon after the Lumiére Brothers and Thomas Edison figured out how to simulate motion by quickly flipping through sequential still images, someone had the bright idea to see what it would look like if you ran the pictures backwards. What they saw was

something that never happens in nature: entropy decreasing.

Broken shards of glass strewn across a floor suddenly rush toward each other, form a vase, and then leap into the air, landing in a waiting hand.

Ashes sprout flame and re-form into a log. Waves rebuild sandcastles. Effects come before causes.

Movies have always been obsessed with time.

What we film folk refer to as “structure” is really just the order in which events happen in a screenplay.

But few filmmakers have been as obsessed with the increase of entropy as Christopher Nolan. His breakthrough film (and, for my money, still the best thing he’s ever done) was 2000’s Memento, a story told backwards to illustrate Guy Pearce’s lack of long-term memory. He loves playing with the rate of time’s passage, as in Inception and Dunkirk. In Tenet, he takes his temporal obsession to new heights.

Tenet begins with a literal overture. An opera house in Kiev, Ukraine, is taken hostage, and a group of CIA special ops troops, led by John David Washington, who is known only as Protagonist, effect a rescue.

The bravado sequence is a direct reference to Hitchcock’s famous climax of The Man Who Knew Too

(above) John David Washington (center) and Robert Pattinson (right) are well-dressed secret time agents in Tenet; (below) as above, so below — Pattinson and Washington are too cool for time Much, and it’s just the first in a movie comprised almost entirely of bravado sequences.

While in the opera house, the CIA team recovers a mysterious artifact. But things go sideways for our meta-named Protagonist, and he ends up the prisoner of a mysterious terrorist group. Rather than talk, he chomps down on a suicide pill, and quickly loses consciousness. Then, he wakes up. The suicide pill was fake, and the operation was part of a test to see if our Protagonist was worthy of joining a super-secret organization called Tenet. Physicist Laura (Clémence Poésy) briefs him on their mission. The mysterious artifact recovered at the opera house is part of an increasing number of objects uncovered worldwide that seem to be moving backwards in time. In other words, their entropy has been reversed. This is as unnatural as it gets, and Protagonist’s mission is to figure out what’s going on.

The search will lead Protagonist and his partner Neil (Robert Pattinson) on a worldwide hunt.

Tracing the bullets from a reversed gun leads them to an arms dealer in Mumbai, India, named Priya (Dimple Kapadia) and a Russian oligarch named Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh). Sator, it seems, is in communication with people from the far future who are understandably pissed off about climate change, and have a twisted time travel-based plot that is not so understandable. If said plot comes to fruition, it will be the end of everything — or maybe

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the beginning of everything. It’s complicated.

Tenet mashes up the jet-setting glamor of James Bond with the hard science-fiction of Interstellar. Nolan’s script is as high-concept as it gets, and it uses the premise to stage insane sequences like a chase with half the cars going forward in time and half going backwards in time. But clarity is not Nolan’s strong suit, and by the time we get to the Bond-inspired, climactic paramilitary raid on an underground nuclear test site, I was hard-pressed to figure out who was fighting whom, and which direction we were traveling in time.

Nolan’s visual mastery is undeniable, and he gets brownie points for not leaning on CGI. The vast majority of

what’s on the screen is staged in real life, and if there was an Oscar for backwards acting (an underappreciated skill that goes back to the silent era), Washington deserves it. But Tenet’s bloodless worldview is best illustrated by the name “Protagonist.” It’s a too-clever in-joke that covers up an active disinterest in the messiness of human emotion. Tenet addresses some important themes, such as the dangers of technology concentrating world-shattering powers in the hands of unaccountable individuals, but it treats the world as an abstraction of physics, not as a real place where real people live. It feels like an essay with explosions.

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THE LAST WORD by Jesse Davis

It never fails. About this time every year, I start to hear the grumbling: “Not a single shop on Summer Avenue for Best Mexican.” Or, “Wait, they think who has the best pizza in town?” Or maybe, “I don’t even know who that is! How come they got nominated?” I’m speaking, of course, about the Flyer’s annual Best of Memphis contest. Really serious high-stakes stuff.

In a year full of uncertainty and surprises, the consistency is almost a comfort.

Almost, but I can’t help getting a little frustrated. We don’t pick the nominees! You do! Or at least, you’re supposed to, if you’d just vote.

So to these people, these complainers after the fact, I always say, “This is what happens when you ignore the primaries.” My guess is most folks don’t pay attention until the BOM candidates start making serious pleas for votes, but there is a nomination phase every year. You can write in anyone you want. (That, incidentally, is how “Dickins Cider” — say it out loud — very nearly won Best Strip Club last year. Cheeky.)

In college, I worked at a local pizza place, and the owner used to make everyone with an email address take turns filling out the BOM ballot. Other people make daily social media posts asking you to nominate them. None of that is cheating — it’s just grassoots campaigning. But the point is, if people don’t throw themselves into working to support their favorite taco shops, local singers, and whathaveyous, the folks with the campaign machinery in place are always going to win nominations and make it to the final ballot.

I’ll say it again: This is what happens when you ignore the primaries, when you get engaged only every four years, and then, only if the candidates really motivate you. Gee, it’s almost like I’m not talking about BOM anymore.

Okay, in all honesty, I know that centrists and far-right candidates benefit from low voter turnout. I know that much of the system is overly complicated, that districts are gerrymandered, and there is both active and passive voter suppression.

Hell, we’re in the South — there’s a long, disgusting history of Jim Crow-era hoops and hurdles baked into our election history. So I’m not so much speaking to the people who try their damnedest to effect change despite generations of obstacles put in their way.

No, I’m taking aim at my more progressive friends, those who get frustrated and feel boxed out. Well, duh. If you want to bring about real, systemic change, you’re going to have to work quite a bit harder. Because if the party in power can, metaphorically speaking, tell all its employees to nominate it for Best Pizza, it’s damn well going to.

So yeah, here we are. I’ve got some progressive buddies who equate Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump. Different sides of the same coin, they say. To which, naturally, I do a film-worthy spit take and sputter out something like, “Well, one of them condemned the extrajudicial murder of protesters by a teen insurgent, and the other can’t seem to bring himself to do that.” We’re ruled by the minority who has built a coalition of the most wealthy, ignorant, racist, and greedy among us. What happens if we take back even a little of their power?

This is an issue that seems, to me, to plague Tennessee particularly. Thinking back to the Senate race in 2018, I remember former Governor Phil Bredesen name-dropping Memphis in one of the debates. He talked about fixing roads, funding our rural hospitals. It wasn’t exactly awe-inspiring stuff, but at least he sounded like he had a plan. Then-Representative Marsha Blackburn, however, took a different approach. If I’d taken a drink every time she said “NRA” or “Obama,” I’d have died of alcohol poisoning. I don’t really believe that a majority of Tennesseans want assault weapons and hate Obama more than they want drivable roads and access to healthcare. But who knows?

We all know how that election turned out. Senator Blackburn took a page out of the Trump playbook and inflamed people.

Now, two years later and in the middle of a pandemic, we haven’t done anything about our rapidly closing hospitals. And I call her office every week to demand she cool it on the “China virus” talk and do something to actually help Tennesseans.

So if you missed the nomination phase in the Flyer’s BOM contest this year, maybe the best thing to do is just hold your nose and vote for the taco shop you think sucks the least. And next year, campaign for your favorite small, family-owned taco truck. Vote in the nomination period. Text your friends and remind them to vote, too. But whatever you do, for democracy’s sake, don’t withhold your vote in protest. That only helps preserve the status quo. Just vote, dammit.

Jesse Davis is the Flyer copy editor, book editor, and a staff writer.

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

Participatory democracy only works if we participate.

Democracy tastes as fine as Dickins Cider.

THE LAST WORD

Vote, Dammit!

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