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OUR 1706TH ISSUE 11.04.21

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

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CARRIE BEASLEY Senior Art Director CHRISTOPHER MYERS Advertising Art Director NEIL WILLIAMS Graphic Designer

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CONTENTS

JESSE DAVIS Editor SHARA CLARK Managing Editor JACKSON BAKER, BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN Senior Editors TOBY SELLS Associate Editor CHRIS MCCOY Film and TV Editor ALEX GREENE Music Editor SAMUEL X. CICCI, MICHAEL DONAHUE, JON W. SPARKS Staff Writers ABIGAIL MORICI Copy Editor, 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

Welcome to November. The temperatures are dropping like autumn leaves, Mariah Carey is singing to department store shoppers, and many Memphians will be heading indoors for the gatherings that make up the holiday season. So it makes sense that the Tennessee General Assembly, in another special session, last weekend voted to roll back a number of Covid restrictions across the state. The state usurping the power of local government seems like a textbook example of “government overreach” to me, but I don’t want to get hung up on pointing out instances of hypocrisy. I have my word count to think of.

To appease businesses like Ford Motor Co., after spending $728,000 on a special legislative session to debate an incentive package for Ford (a stunning display of fiscal responsibility), the bill has a number of exemptions. So what was a relatively clear-cut way of dealing with matters of public health is now a convoluted method rife with exemptions and special caveats. Time will tell what happens when the antimandate mandate goes up against the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate.

State Senator Jeff Yarbro said, “We’re putting every business in Tennessee in the middle of a fight where they have to choose between violating federal law or state law.” Setting aside the rampant hypocrisy on display, this is hardly a practical choice.

According to a 2021 study by WalletHub, Tennessee is the 14th-most dependent state on federal aid. That’s down a few notches from 2020, when the conservative news site The Center Square reported, “Federal grants-in-aid to Tennessee comprise 37.7 percent of the state’s general fund budget, the 11th-highest rate among the 50 states, according to a new study from the Tax Foundation.”

Maybe we should cool it on the “we don’t need no stinkin’ Feds” rhetoric. How long can we thumb our collective nose at the federal government before they cut off much-needed funds to our state? It’s as though our elected leaders are pushing for a soft secession, testing the waters before they declare the Volunteer State a sovereign entity. But aren’t these the same folks who think it’s base tyranny to have to show a vaccine record card to attend a concert? How will they react when they have to flash their passport just to cross a border and go fishing in Arkansas?

Look, these are not serious people. The Republican supermajority is out of touch with reality, pandering to a radical minority who have decided empathy is a weakness and minority rule is a healthy system of government. Consider this — last week’s Covid-edition special session was all about the freedom to not do anything. It wasn’t a special session about reducing gun violence, funding the healthcare system, or anything else people on both sides of the aisle can agree we so desperately need.

So, yes, I think I’m being generous when I say they’re frivolous people, obsessed with hanging onto power and privilege. How else can I describe them?

They’re like a band on a reunion tour playing the greatest hits. When you shell out the big bucks to see The Rolling Stones, you expect to get some satisfaction.

You want to hear “Paint It Black” and “Honky Tonk Women.” With these Tennessee Republicans, the hits are “Small Government (State Trumps Local Somehow),” “Gimme Tax Breaks,” “Sympathy for the White Man,” “Can’t You Hear Me Reloading (Permitless Carry),” and “Jumpin’ Caravan at the Border.”

It’s the same old set list, year after year, and nothing ever gets done. But that’s the point — they don’t need to deliver on any promises because they’ve set themselves up as the last bastion protecting simple, God-fearing Tennesseans from lawlessness, sex-crazed liberals, and science. They conjure nonexistent bogeymen to frighten voters, and smugly pat themselves on the back when they succeed in keeping these imaginary monsters at bay. At re-election time, they play the hits, ask if you still N E WS & O P I N I O N have your job (not how well it pays, THE FLY-BY - 4 though, of course), if you still have your NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 6 guns or if they were confiscated by a POLITICS - 7 globalist.

AT LARGE - 8 I don’t want to secede from the United CARS - 9 COVER STORY States, nor do I want some chucklehead “SWISH: BLUFF CITY BASKETS” who represents Sweet Lips, Tennessee, to

BY FRANK MURTAUGH, have more power over my life than, say, SHARON BROWN, the Memphis City Council and Shelby AND AIMEE STIEGEMEYER - 10 County Commission. I would wager that WE RECOMMEND - 14 few of my fellow Tennesseans disagree MUSIC - 16 CALENDAR - 17 with me on these points.

FOOD - 19 So let’s raise our expectations and ask FILM - 20 a little more from our public servants.

C LAS S I F I E D S - 22 Jesse Davis LAST WORD - 23 jesse@memphisflyer.com

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MEMernet

W E E K T H AT W A S

By Flyer staff

Mask Mandate, Kellogg, & Faking It

TR I C KS FO R TR EATS

New Covid rules, company urges negotiations, and a CEO popped for faking lab tests.

“I can’t believe someone actually had the gall to steal my entire candy bowl I left out for trick-or-treaters, even with my Ring camera being right there,” Evan Savage wrote on Nextdoor. “Be wary of the tricksters, the ghouls are out tonight :/”

POSTED TO NEXTDOOR BY SHEA GABRIELLESCHI

Same thing happened to Shea Gabrielleschi’s candy bowl.

P I LF E R E D TH E PAC K AG ES

November 4-10, 2021

Edited by Toby Sells

Memphis on the internet.

POSTED TO NEXTDOOR BY EVAN SAVAGE

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Questions, Answers + Attitude

POSTED TO NEXTDOOR BY KATHERINE RYAN

Similarly, Katherine Ryan posted Ring-camera footage of a porch pirate pilfering packages.

H OW TH EY SAW IT Tennessee House Republicans (@tnhousegop) tweeted Saturday, “The General Assembly has outlawed Covid-19 mandates in Tennessee. Last night, we chose FREEDOM over MANDATES. It’s a great day to be a Tennessean.”

STR I K E C O NTI N U ES National Kellogg Co. officials called union leaders to the negotiation table last week as the strike in Memphis entered its third week.

Company officials said they were willing to “consider any proposals.”

“At the end of the day, we have a responsibility to these employees, which is to engage in good-faith bargaining toward a replacement agreement that gets them back to work,” read a statement from the company.

Strikers were back on the Memphis picket line last Sunday.

One worker, Kevin Nino Bradshaw, said on Facebook the situation was “war” and vowed to “turn the pressure up!”

PHOTO: MEMPHIS RESTAURANT WORKERS UNITED

Strikers were back on the picket line last Sunday at the Memphis Kellogg’s plant C EO F I N E D FO R FAK ES after Kellogg Co. officials called union leaders to the negotiation table.

The co-owner of a Memphis water-testing consulting firm must pay a six-figure fine after pleading guilty to fabricating waterfrom the indoor mask mandate comes “due to the decline in quality results for state environmental permits.

Covid-19 cases reflecting that Shelby County is currently not DiAne Gordon, 61, of Memphis, was the co-owner and a high transmission area,” according to the SCHD. Masks are CEO of Environmental Compliance & Testing (ECT). The still required, however, for indoor school settings, with some environmental consulting firm offered sampling and testing of exceptions for teachers for certain teaching purposes. stormwater, process water (from manufacturing activities, for “[The new rules are] due in large part to many businesses example), and wastewater. and schools who have been providing a safe environment Court papers say Gordon fabricated at least 405 results for customers, students, and employees by requiring masks,” and reports and forged documents from a reputable testing reads the directive. “Due to the decline in the numbers, the laboratory. Gordon will pay $201,388.88 in restitution and department highly recommends that businesses continue to faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. require masks in indoor, public settings.”

“By fabricating these reports, Gordon betrayed her position The seven-day rolling average of new cases hit a milestone of trust and violated her responsibility to provide information last week. That average fell below 100 for the first time in many critical to evaluating water quality for residents in Tennessee weeks to 90 on Friday. and Mississippi,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of Another interesting data point published last week was the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources the rising number of vaccinations in the county. The daily Division. average of vaccines here rose by hundreds (to 1,853) over the week, likely pushed higher by those getting a third dose of the MAS K MAN DATE LI F TE D shot or a booster. As of Monday morning, 502,463 had been Masks are no longer mandatory indoors at businesses, vaccinated in Shelby County. That is 71.8 percent of the total according to the latest health directive issued from the Shelby county goal of 700,000.

County Health Department (SCHD) last week.

Visit the News Blog at memphisflyer.com for fuller versions of Instead, masks are now “highly recommended.” The new these stories and more local news. rules will continue until the end of November. The move away

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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 Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Edited by Will Shortz

Crossword CELEBRITY CROSSWORD This puzzle is a collaboration by the philan-thropist Melinda Gates, of Medina, Wash., working together with Joel Fagliano, the digital puzzles editor of The New York Times. This is Joel’s 61st crossword for the paper.

More information about the making of today’s puzzle appears in the Times’s daily crossword column (nytimes .com/column/wordplay).

ACROSS 1 Deg. for a museum worker 4 Loll 8 Elapse 14 Dashboard part 16 Musical run with four sharps 17 Part played by women and girls?

18 Have hot cocoa on a winter day, say 19 U.S. president with a Nobel Peace Prize 20 Take a breath 22 Had for dinner 23 Blue ___ (Duke mascot) 25 Use a lot?

27 Overhaul 29 Area below “To:” in an email?

32 Land in a Beatles song 35 Tide alternative 36 “Ghost” psychic Oda ___ Brown 37 Ones on set with 2009’s “Star Trek” director?

40 Any one of the 12 steps?

42 Grant with the 1991 #1 hit “Baby Baby” 43 Battery size 45 “This round’s ___” 46 Group of buildings housing a King?

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37 Nasty comments

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21 Jewelry designer Peretti 24 Obsolescent TV attachment 26 Place to bounce a baby 28 “___ House,” 1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young hit

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Stripped Tennessee Republicans limit many tools to fight Covid-19.

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39 Island group in the Aegean Sea 41 Spike who directed “BlacKkKlansman” 44 Smart fellow?

45 Tic-tac-toe loser 47 Bewhiskered mammals

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48 ___ College, liberal arts school in St. Petersburg, Fla. 50 Subject of a New York Times column until 2015 51 Study, informally 52 Chest bones 55 Feminist writer Audre 56 Giant furniture stores 59 Tempo 60 Hoppy mediums?

62 & 63 Distant 65 What’s found in the French rivière?

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49 Recedes 27 28 29 30 53 What Lot’s wife became 32 33 34 35 54 Common 37 38 39 40 bacterium 57 Go bad 42 43 44 45 58 Group in the 46 47 48 original “Ocean’s 11” movie 53 54 55 61 “Sure, that works” 63 Harrowing 58 59 60 61 experience 63 64 65 64 Lover of Cummings’s 66 67 poetry?

66 Sasha ___, 68 69 Beyoncé’s alter ego PUZZLE BY MELINDA GATES AND JOEL FAGLIANO 67 Speedster’s undoing 10 Libretto, for 30 Panache 68 Owns (up to) example 31 Quahog or 69 Money to belong 11 “Spider-Man” geoduck director, 2002 70 Green-minded 33 Where clothes org.

12 Horse with evenly often rip mixed black-and34 Trade white hairs DOWN 1 Freight train part 2 Dwell (on) 3 Bruce Wayne’s butler 4 Intertwined 5 Eccentric 6 “Million Years ___” (Adele song) 7 Irony?

8 Places for parishioners 9 “Now!”

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No. 0926

S T A T E WA T C H B y To b y S e l l s

Tennessee Republicans limited many pandemic-fighting tools health officials have used to slow the spread of Covid-19 for the last 20 months.

A special-called meeting of the Tennessee General Assembly last week ended early Saturday morning with GOP-led legislation against mask mandates, vaccine requirements, and the powers of some county health departments (like Shelby County’s).

The new law largely bans mask mandates for government entities and public schools. Mandates can only be considered for each in “severe conditions,” if an area has more than 1,000 cases per capita.

Then, mask mandates could only be in place for two weeks.

Vaccine requirements were largely banned for governments, schools, and some private companies. Businesses across Tennessee, including Ford Motor Co., asked lawmakers to vote against the bill saying the rules were a government interference. So, lawmakers exempted certain private businesses, like Ford, from the law.

Lawmakers received a letter about the legislation last week from a long list of Tennessee businesses, nonprofits, and chambers of commerce, including the Greater Memphis Chamber and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“We oppose any proposals that outright remove the ability of an employer to determine their own vaccination and mask policies,” read the letter. “We believe that any legislation of this kind is unnecessary government intrusion into the operation of our businesses. Tennessee’s strong busi-

PHOTO: TENNESSEE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Rep. Kevin Vaughan talks about puppies. ness climate is based on this fundamental principle, including the state’s employment-at-will law.”

The new law also allows state unemployment benefits for employees who quit or are fired from a job for not getting a Covid-19 vaccine.

The Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) and five others like it were stripped of pandemic-era mandate powers, including masks and restaurant restrictions. The new law gives those powers to local mayors.

Rep. Kevin Vaughan (R-Collierville) said these health departments are overloving Tennesseans, like a child with a new puppy. The child “squeezes and that puppy starts squealing.” Finally, the puppy “runs from the child from then on.”

“We’re being overprotected in some places,” Vaughan said. “We’ve seen a situation to where people are — in the name of good intentions — are creating consequences that may either create ill intent or create an environment for noncompliance, which then undermines the entire system.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee tweeted, “I commend members of the General Assembly for working to address the Biden Administration’s overreach into our state, our workforce, and our schools. We are evaluating each piece of legislation to ensure we push back on harmful federal policies and do right by Tennesseans.”

POLITICS By Jackson Baker

Carol Chumney Remembers Former state legislator and City Council member looks back on public life in The Arena: One Woman’s Story. of the sort advanced by Chumney for conversation rather than completion.

(Exceptions acknowledged for memoirs and studies relating to the undeniable and profound importance of Memphis as a roots locale of the several streams of popular music that have changed the world.)

Yet there are stories of the public sphere here, Chumney’s being a case in point, that need a larger telling, and the new age of social-media opportunities is making it possible to give them proper scope.

Chumney has done it! — telling her tale in a self-published 608-page volume available from Amazon in hardback ($31.95), paperback, and an instantly accessible Kindle edition. Entitled The Arena: One Woman’s Story, it reviews with admirable specificity her own life and times (with equal emphasis on both of those terms). Chumney believes, with considerable included evidence, that she

NOVEMBER 14

MARSHALL TUCKER BAND

NOVEMBER 12

she came within 7 points of unseating longtime mayoral incumbent Willie Herenton, and might have done so had there not been a third candidate in the race, lawyer and NAACP eminence Herman Morris.

Nor does she overlook the warp and woof of public policy, which she examines at great length — ranging from her genuinely groundbreaking efforts in child-care reform as a legislator to abuses and oversights in city government that she made her focus on as a municipal figure.

Much, of course, is ex parte, but all of it is revealing. Chumney soldiers on, currently on the issue of voting reform.

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

DWIGHT YOAKAM

has stood for genuine advances in democracy and in the transparency of public business and in the responsibility of public figures to further such advances.

She also sees herself as the exponent of the long imminent, but still incompletely achieved, shattering of the “glass ceiling” that, until our own semi-woke times, has prevented women from achieving their full potential in public life. She does her share of taking and telling names in this narrative — involving the whole roll call of important contemporaries. A great deal of her focus is on her races for office, including the one for Memphis mayor in 2007 in which

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For some years, Carol Chumney, the former state legislator, City Council member, and, perhaps most memorably, city mayoral candidate, has been reminding all and sundry that she was compiling a book that would, in the parlance, tell all.

Talk of that sort is common among members of the public class, but the awkward fact is that this is not New York or Washington. Memphis is a smaller market.

This is not even Nashville, with its key location at the nexus of state government and its ready point of reference to state figures who go on to make national reputations.

These have been facts of life that have rendered publishing ambitions

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AT L A R G E B y B r u c e Va n W y n g a r d e n

Let’s Go, Brian!

A top-secret operation to bring down a Tennessee state senator.

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t was October 15th and President Joe me out because I’m conservative and I’m Biden was pissed, fuming, from the the number-one target of the Tennessee soles of his shiny brogans to the tips Democratic Party.” of his little white mullet. He looked Really? This presumes that a) Joe Biden around the White House Situation Room has actually ever heard of Tennessee state at his gathered political team and growled: senator Brian Kelsey, which is doubtful; “We have an issue, people.” and b) that even if he had heard of him, “Yes sir, several,” said press secretary Jen he would have been able to launch an Psaki, brightly, “and we’re tackling all of investigation in 2017, when the FBI began them today, as you’ll see. First, of course, looking into Kelsey’s case and when a we need to figure out what the heck to do certain orange-haired former president about Joe Manchin …” was in charge of the Justice Department. In “Eff Joe Manchin,” said the president. short, Kelsey is spewing horse puckey.

“Well, yes sir. Sure. We can come back His case stems from 2016, when to that. And we have to determine what Kelsey was making a run for Congress concessions we can get on climate change and attempted to switch funds he’d raised from …” for his state races to an account for his “Eff climate change.” federal race, which is a federal crime. The “What? Sir, please … What about grand jury that indicted Kelsey alleges that your trip to Europe in two weeks? You’re he laundered the money by using state meeting the pope.” campaign funds to “buy” a membership “JEN, you’re not understanding me. into a Nashville supper club, which then There is only one issue we need to deal conveniently made a like donation to with right now … and that’s Brian Kelsey.”

Kelsey’s Congressional campaign fund.

“Who?” Slick, if true. And I’m “Brian Kelsey, the guessing it is, since a number Tennessee state senator of Republicans are facing who lives in Nashville and similar allegations regarding represents Germantown. He’s this “supper club.” the key to everything. If we And, as is usual for can bring down Brian Kelsey, Republicans these days, it all falls into place! We’ll Kelsey immediately played be able to get full socialism, the victim card, claiming at last — gun bans, knife persecution by the current bans, in-utero vaccinations, Target of Operation GOP whipping boy, $50-an-hour minimum President Biden. Let’s go, Let’s Go, Brian wage for Black people, forced Brandon! healthcare for the sick, the teaching of facts It’s really bad timing for Kelsey. He’ll and science in public schools, required face be distracted from the “Right to Get masks for pets, all of it.”

Sick” special session currently going on “I had no idea,” said Psaki. in Nashville, in which Republicans are “Oh yeah,” said the president. “Kelsey’s attempting to pass every possible measure the head of the snake. That’s why I’m they can think of to stop local health announcing today the launch of a topdepartments, private businesses, and secret federal plan to take him out. It’s government officials from mandating called ‘Operation Let’s Go, Brian.’ That little any precautions against any pandemics, rat bastard’s going down like the Titanic.” current and future.

I can’t imagine anything stupider, but I may have made up some of the above then again, I could have never imagined material. Or all of it. But after seeing Brian a major U.S. political party intentionally Kelsey’s overwrought, self-righteous reaclinking itself to the Dark Ages, eschewing tion to the announcement that he’d been science and reason and spreading indicted on five federal felony counts of ignorance and divisiveness — from the top campaign fraud last week, it’s clear he’d love of the party to obscure state senators from us to believe it.

Tennessee.

“Look, this is nothing but a political Brian Kelsey says he’s innocent, and that witch hunt,” Kelsey said when the President Joe Biden is out to get him. We indictments were announced. “The know the latter statement is a lie. The jury Biden administration is trying to take is still out on the former.

For purely scientific reasons, we set out to answer the question “What’s it like to drive a spaceship down I-40?”

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emphis is a medium-sized city with a small-town car culture. Our car scene mostly consists of modern and classic American metal with a few imports thrown in there. As the fourth-poorest city in the USA, the 901 has pretty dull traffic. You aren’t likely to come across much more than a Corvette on your commute. Although small, Memphis does have a growing exotic car scene most Memphians don’t even know about. Thanks to a very generous friend, I was allowed to drive one of Memphis’ elusive exotics for a week. The car was a McLaren 570S Spider, and it was awesome.

PHOTO: JON LUKE CAVE

McLaren 570S Spider

I live in Germantown and commute Downtown five days a week. It’s a boring ride to say the least. We all know a McLaren will be fun on a good twisty road, but would it be able to make a dreary commute delightful, or will it just be stressful and hard to see out of? The answer is yes! It’s a little stressful to be driving something that costs more than the average house price in Memphis, but wow what an experience!

Just seeing the joy this car brought to the faces of fellow commuters was so great.

Some cool cars only appeal to car people; this car appeals to everyone. It’s like driving a spaceship while everyone else is in a carriage.

A little more about the car itself: It’s a 2018 McLaren 570S Spider. 570 horsepower from a 3.8 liter twin turbo V8 running through a seven-speed dual clutch to the rear wheels. Zero to 60 mph happens in around 3 seconds and it can hit 204 mph.

All that to say, it’s quicker than the 2004 Lexus SUV I usually commute in. Just to

give you an idea of how crazy the people at McLaren are: This is their slowest car.

Kinda hard to imagine.

Is it rough and loud on I-40 in a supercar? Nope. The engine is tame when you want it to be and the suspension is likewise calm and compliant. It’s no RollsRoyce Phantom, but it’s quite civilized. I left it in the softest suspension setting and usually kept the engine in sport. I got on I-40, set cruise control at 70, and it drove just like a normal car. This car masks speed, and it’s easy to find yourself well over the 65 mph limit, so I kept the speeds down and pretended like I wasn’t champing at the bit to put my right foot down. Every now and again some space would open up and I would drop a couple gears and give it 3/4 throttle, and the numbers on the dash reached … some numbers.

A coworker asked, “I have a really dumb question. Is it any different to drive than a normal car?” And that was a very undumb question! That’s what I wanted this article to address. Are these cars really all that different? Are they really worth twice as much as an already expensive Porsche 911 Carrera S? Oh yes. This was one of the best weeks of my life, and the only thing that was different was the car I commuted in. It definitely transforms a boring drive into a fun drive, a normal commute into an exceptional commute, and a mundane grocery run into a momentary escape.

The amount of smiles this car brought to the faces of Memphians used to Altima after Altima was a joy to watch. I didn’t see people filled with jealousy or anger at the rich; I saw people whose days were made just by seeing this spaceship pass them on Poplar.

Yes, you can get quicker acceleration for less money, but those cars don’t offer anything like the supercar experience.

Numbers tell only a tiny piece of the story.

You can even get something like a brandnew Porsche 911 Carrera S for half the money or a C8 Corvette for even less than half the money, yet they don’t scratch the same itch even though the numbers are similar. I love this car and Memphis loves this car. So, if you need me, I’ll be in Tunica trying to turn $23 into $200K. Wish me luck!

Jon Luke Cave runs Cars on Main Memphis, Memphis Driven Exotics, and Memphis Offroad Excursions. Find him on Facebook and Instagram @cars.on.main.

FREE Baby CRIBS! Call the Shelby County Health Department at 901-222-9263, A, B, C’s of Safe Sleep Babies should sleep Alone, on their Back, and in their Crib.

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McLaren in Memphis

NEWS & OPINION

CARS By Jon Luke Cave

THIS PROJECT IS FUNDED UNDER A GRANT CONTRACT WITH THE STATE OF TENNESSEE

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Senior guard Alex Lomax will play his 12th season for Penny Hardaway in search of his first NCAA tournament appearance.

Buckets of Abundance

A roster thick with nationally acclaimed talent fuels the Memphis Tigers in year four of the Coach Hardaway Era.

By Frank Murtaugh

November 4-10, 2021

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COVER STORY

BY FRANK MURTAUGH, SHARON BROWN, AND AIMEE STIEGMEYER

he cross-generational parallel is impossible to ignore. In 1990, a slender, ultra-quick, do-everything high school basketball player with national accolades chose to play his college ball in Memphis. Thirty-one years later, a slender, ultra-quick, do-everything high school basketball player with national accolades has chosen to play his college ball in Memphis.

When the 2021-22 Memphis Tigers tip-off their season at FedExForum on November 9th (against Tennessee Tech), the 2020 Gatorade National Player of the Year (Emoni Bates) will be coached by the 1990 Parade National Player of the Year (Penny Hardaway). And that’s merely the headline act in what has become a star-studded Tiger roster — and coaching staff — for year four of the Coach Penny Era. “There’s a lot more pressure on [Bates], at 17, than there was on me,” notes Hardaway in reflecting on his own first season as a Tiger. “As far as the game, he’s more of a Kevin Durantstyle player. He does some things like I did. He has a high IQ. He understands the game, is very coachable, and just wants to win. We both just want to do whatever it takes to win.”

As though Bates couldn’t fill a marquee on his own, the Tigers will feature another top-five recruit in Jalen Duren, a 6’11” interior force, that rarest of jewels in modern, positionless basketball: a center. The American Athletic Conference’s preseason Rookie of the Year (as named by the league’s coaches), Duren has a wingspan of nearly seven and a half feet and averaged 14.5 points and 9.3 rebounds last winter for Montverde Academy in Florida. Best of all for Tiger fans with memories going back a dozen years, Duren chose to play for Memphis over John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats.

Hardaway embraces the challenge of doling out playing time with a loaded roster, internal competition being the greatest stimulant toward maximizing potential. “It’s really going to be chemistry over talent,” says Hardaway, “when it comes to our starting

Swish: Bluff City Baskets

PHOTOS BY LAWRENCE KUZNIEWSKI

AS BOTH THE TIGERS AND GRIZZLIES GEAR UP FOR THE 2021-22 SEASON, MEMPHIS BASKETBALL FANS HAVE PLENTY OF REASONS TO ROOT FOR THE HOME TEAMS.

five. It will be the top nine or 10 guys [in our rotation]. We don’t have time to be playing around. The guys who are able, for a larger majority of the game, to be effective in the things we’re trying to do. It may not be the most talented [player]. It could be the guy who understands his role and stars in his role by doing all the little things.”

THE TIGERS GET READY ou can be forgiven for flashbacks to this time two years ago. Hardaway’s second Tiger team suited up the nation’s top recruiting class, headlined by a pair of five-star studs: James Wiseman and Precious Achiuwa. The 2019-20 season went south fast, though, when the NCAA ruled Wiseman ineligible for having received funds from Hardaway in 2017 to cover his family’s move to Memphis (where he played for Hardaway at East High School). Among the seven members of that recruiting class, precisely two remain on the Tiger roster: guard Lester Quinones and center Malcolm Dandridge (another East alum). Wiseman is now a member of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, and Achiuwa, the 2019-20 AAC Player of the Year, plays for the Toronto Raptors.

Presuming — hoping? — the Tigers’ heralded class remains whole for at least the 2021-22 campaign, Hardaway will be armed with a team so deep, his only problem may be minutesmanagement. In Freshman Emoni addition to Bates Bates was the and Duren, two Gatorade National four-star recruits — Player of the Year 6’8” forward Josh as a high school Minott and 6’11” sophomore. center Sam Onu — will compete for those precious minutes. On a team of highflying players, Minott won the team’s dunk contest at Memphis Madness on October 13th. Then there’s Johnathan Lawson, a skilled wing from Houston High School who, along with his older brother Chandler (a junior transfer from Oregon), will make it four Lawson brothers to have suited up in blue and gray at FedExForum. If you’re counting, that’s six players so far — with 200 player-minutes per game — and we haven’t introduced the Tiger veterans.

Leading those veterans — 2020 National Invitation Tournament champions, remember — will be junior guard Landers Nolley II, along with Duren, a member of the AAC’s preseason all-conference first team. In his first season with Memphis after

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round last season served as a motivation for this young team, which will face a tough uphill struggle in the Western Conference.

The Grizzlies have four questions to be answered heading into the 2021-22 season, and the Flyer’s special Grizzlies correspondents Sharon Brown and Aimee Stiegemeyer will examine them.

What do you feel are the most pressing questions for the Memphis Grizzlies heading into the upcoming season?

Sharon Brown: There was a general belief among the players following their playoff series against the Jazz that they’d return to the postseason. The organization does not have a win-now mentality, but the players are confident that they can compete with any team in the league and will not back down from a challenge.

The most pressing questions for me right now are: Can they live up to expectations, whether they will take a step back and finish at the bottom of the league, and will they be able to stay healthy?

Averaging 28.3 points through the Grizzlies’ first seven games, guard Ja Morant appears bound for his first All-Star Game. but he may find it hard to match the 22 minutes of playing time he’s averaged over his first three seasons as a Tiger. Lomax led Memphis with 4.2 assists per game coming off the bench last season.

“For A-Lo, it’s the leadership role,” stresses Hardaway. “Understanding everything we’re trying to do, on both sides of the ball. Every day. And holding other guys accountable for understanding the same things. The more guys we have on the same page, the better we’re going to be. He knows what we want, what we need.”

Fifteen players expecting to make an impact with only 200 minutes per game for Hardaway to distribute. Abundance is healthy, right? The Tigers will start the season ranked 12th in the Associated Press poll. AAC coaches picked them to finish second behind Houston (a 2021 Final Four team). And speaking of coaches, Hardaway has a Hall of Famer (Larry Brown) and an NBA champion as a player (Rasheed Wallace) on his staff to help steer this team to a finish as memorable as the preseason

projections suggest. Neither Brown nor Wallace came to Memphis to finish second in the AAC. They came here to teach the game of basketball, and Penny Hardaway has packed the classroom with students.

“I don’t really have expectations, with [so many] freshmen playing,” emphasizes Hardaway. “I just want to see how they respond to the teaching.”

All Heart in Hoop City

We ask four questions about the next season for Hoop City’s hungriest team.

By Sharon Brown and Aimee Stiegemeyer

A

fter overcoming all odds and outperforming expectations while facing adversity, the Memphis Grizzlies have written a fascinating story about their ability to overachieve. Coming off their first playoff berth since 2017, the young guns are still hungrier than ever.

The loss to the Utah Jazz in the first

Aimee Stiegemeyer: We are heading into year three of a complete roster rebuild, and over that time, the Grizzlies have become a team that has consistently exceeded the expectations placed upon them. Now that they have one playoff series under their belt, they are going to be hungry for more.

The ceiling for this team keeps getting higher every year and ultimately the limit for a squad led by Ja Morant is nothing less than an NBA championship — it’s not a matter of if at this point, it’s a matter of when.

All that being said — for me the most pressing questions for the Grizzlies to answer this season will be whether or not last season’s success was just a fluke, and if not, can they continue playing at the level they were on last year? Will this be the year the young core makes the leap from up-andcoming team to keep an eye on and moves on to being a Real Problem for other teams around the league?

What should fans be most excited about as the new season begins?

SB: The Memphis Grizzlies have never had a player as talented as Temetrius Jamel Morant, better known by his nickname, Ja. With his jaw-dropping, “WTF?!”-inducing, and “how did he do that?”-inspiring plays, he should be on everyone’s watch list every game. Morant definitely is must-see TV. With his ability to slide through defenses with ease and linger in the air while contemplating his next play, Morant is a legit threat on the offensive end. What happens next will almost certainly cause you to stand up and leave your seat!

Fans should be enthusiastic about the continued on page 12

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

transferring from Virginia Tech, Nolley led the Tigers in points (13.1) and minutes (27.4) per game on his way to earning Most Outstanding Player honors at the NIT. Another 2020 transfer, forward DeAndre Williams from Evansville, infused the Tigers with new energy at both ends of the floor upon gaining eligibility last December. (The Tigers started the season 4-3 and then went 16-5 with Williams in the rotation.) He was a stat-stuffer as a junior — 11.7 points per game, 5.8 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.2 steals — but may actually see his allotment of minutes (26.1 per game) reduced this season.

This brings us to eight players expected to make an impact on the court for Hardaway, a typical rotation number for a collegehoops team. If each player received precisely the same playing time in such a rotation, he’d spend 25 minutes per game on the floor.

But the abundance of talent at Hardaway’s disposal leaves what amounts to another starting five (four veterans and yet another freshman among the country’s top 150) plus two.

The aforementioned Quinones has started 51 of 54 games over his two seasons as a Tiger and averaged 9.5 points and 5.8 rebounds a year ago (the latter figure stellar for a guard). He’ll be challenged for playing time — and possibly a starting spot — by Earl Timberlake, a sophomore transfer from the University of Miami. Timberlake struggled with injuries as a Hurricane last season but averaged 9.3 points and 5.0 rebounds in seven games.

Senior guard Tyler Harris — a transfer from Iowa State — will look familiar to Tiger fans because he played his first two college seasons for Memphis. Tennessee’s 2018 Mr. Basketball at Cordova High School, Harris is 159 points shy of 1,000 for his college career.

Freshman John Camden, like Harris, will provide a three-point threat off Hardaway’s bench, while Dandridge (6’9” and 250 pounds) will spell Duren and/or Onu inside. And don’t discount Hardaway’s son, Jayden. The coach hasn’t been timid about describing his junior swingman as the team’s most improved player.

Finally, there’s Alex Lomax, the lone four-year senior on the Tigers’ roster. A two-time Tennessee Mr. Basketball at East High School, Lomax will be playing his 12th season for Hardaway, having first suited up for the coach as a 5th-grader. (He will appropriately become the first college player to spend four years under Hardaway’s watch.) Lomax hasn’t just been shaped as a player — and young man — by Hardaway.

“A-Lo” has been molded into a do-what’sneeded, defense-first guard as comfortable off the ball as he is starting the offensive attack at point guard. Lomax’s senior season may be both rewarding and challenging.

He’s yet to play in the NCAA tournament,

11

continued from page 11 season just because of Morant, but his teammates can also be entertaining to watch as well. Will he become an All-Star, or will he become a serious MVP candidate?

November 4-10, 2021

AS: The continued evolution and growth of Morant, the return of Jaren Jackson Jr., and a healthy Brandon Clarke.

Morant is everything that the team needed Mike Conley to be and more. Full stop. Memphis has never had a player of his caliber, and if we are ever going to raise a championship banner in the Grindhouse, it will come on the shoulders of Morant with Jackson Jr. Both Jackson Jr. and Clarke struggled during the 2020-21 season to return to true form after injuries. If healthy, expect to see Jackson Jr. looking like he did during the Bubble in 2020, and Clarke to look more like he did in his rookie year.

Another exciting thing for fans is the safer return of live basketball. FedExForum announced that they would be requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination to attend Grizzlies and Tigers games this season, which is fantastic news.

In Jaren Jackson Jr.’s fourth season, what should be expected of him?

SB: For the Grizzlies, having Jackson Jr. in

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good health is beneficial on both ends of the court.

Some people have negative opinions of Jackson Jr. since he has a history of injuries, but he was named the most likely to have a breakout season in the annual NBA general managers preseason survey.

In addition to having elite-level attributes, his ability to stay on the court is critical for the team to have a high chance of winning.

With that considered, he must avoid getting himself into foul trouble.

However, Taylor Jenkins must better position Jackson for him to be successful on offense. There should be specific set plays designated for him on offense to get him going. My expectation is for him to have a breakout year to complement Morant to be the one-two punch the Grizzlies front office envisioned. He put in the effort during the off-season to improve his game.

AS: With the departure of Jonas Valanciunas this summer, there is no question he’s going to have some big shoes to fill offensively.

Jackson Jr. needs to be more aggressive on collecting rebounds, and he needs to do it while staying out of foul trouble, which is easier said than done.

But if he is going to eventually take on the role of starting center, he’s going to have to avoid getting benched with too many fouls

during crunch time.

Rebounding and avoiding foul trouble are probably the two most important areas of growth for him this season, but becoming an above-average shooter from behind the threepoint line would be a welcome bonus.

Which player on the squad, excluding Ja Morant and Jackson Jr., will have a breakout season for Memphis?

SB: My pick is Desmond Bane. During his first season, the only thing he was known for was his ability to catch and shoot from beyond the arc. According to my observations, his confidence can be traced back to Game 1 of the playoffs against the Utah Jazz, when he exchanged words with Georges Niang after scoring a three-pointer at the buzzer.

As the Grizzlies’ point guard in Summer League, Bane acquired greater confidence in his abilities. He was both producing his own shots at the rim and creating shots for his teammates. That same confidence has carried over into the new season.

Bane, along with De’Anthony Melton, will have more time on the court since Grayson Allen was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks in the offseason.

AS: I’m going to have to pick two because they appear to be improving in tandem — Desmond Bane In his second season, Desmond and De’Anthony Melton. The season Bane has moved into the Grizzlies’ is only a few games starting lineup and old, but Bane and Melton’s respective almost doubled his scoring average elevation into the starting lineup has from 2020-21. thus far allowed them to thrive in a way they weren’t able to off the bench.

Melton has earned his Mr. Do Something nickname by consistently coming up big for the Grizzlies when they need it most; Bane has shown talent and drive that is above and beyond what is to be expected from a player with only one year in the league.

2021-2022

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Based on the iconic movie & classic game, CLUE is a comedy “whodunit” that leaves you in stitches while they try to figure out WHO did it, WHERE did it happen, and with WHAT!

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

Friday, December 31st

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Live music at

steppin’ out (& stayin’ in)

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

Field Day of Dreams November 4th - 7:00pm Joey Fletcher

November 5th - 7:00pm Your Academy

11/3 - 7pm

Lisa Nobumoto Jazz Orchestra

11/3 - 6:30pm

Duwayne Burnside Blues Hour

By Abigail Morici Slowly but surely, we’re getting out of this pandemic-induced daze, where days and weeks and months blend together with little to look forward to, little to break up the monotony of routine. This weekend, though, Discover Memphis Naturally is launching its first Fieldaze to break us out of that stupor.

“I’m mostly looking forward to just seeing people excited to be out,” says Kellan Bartosch, whose job title at Wiseacre Brewing Co. is “Captain of Industry/Teller of Tales.” “Even though there’s still reason to take precautions, there’ve been very few times in recent PHOTO: DCA months where I’ve personally gone out and seen a group of people I Head to Wiseacre between races and hikes. don’t know laughing and smiling.”

Like any decent field day, the festival schedule is packed with outdoor activities, the biggest ones being the Peer Power Big River Crossing Half Marathon +5K, the Huzzah! On the Harbor Kayak Race, and the Grit & Grind Gravel Grinder bicycle race — not to mention a scavenger hunt with Envision Memphis, Zumba taught by David Quarles of Quarles IV fame, kayaking tours, TikTok- and line-dancing lessons, and so much more.

“We [Wiseacre] are the home base,” Bartosch says. “And we’re obviously excited to be a part of the event and what it could mean for Memphis in the short-term and long-term.”

Fieldaze also coincides with the Downtown Memphis Commission’s Downtown Dining Week, where restaurants like Little Bettie at Wiseacre will be offering specials priced at $20.21. “We’re gonna do a pizza and two beers as our special,” Bartosch says.

For a full schedule of Fieldaze activities or to register, visit memphisadventures.com, and for a full listing of restaurants participating in Downtown Dining Week, visit downtownmemphis.com.

11/4 - 7pm

FIELDAZE, VARIOUS LOCATIONS, FRIDAY-SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH-7TH.

11/5 - 7pm

VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES November 4th- 10th

Joey Fletcher Your Academy

11/6 - 8pm

November 4-10, 2021

Lucky 7 Brass Band

11/7 - 1pm

Mighty Souls

11/10 - 6:30pm

Duwayne Burnside Blues Hour

11/11 - 7pm

Max Kaplan and The Magics

railgarten.com

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2 1 6 6 C e n t r a l Av e .

Memphis TN 38104

Crosstown Arthouse Presents: No Ordinary Man Crosstown Arts, 1350 Concourse, Thurs., Nov. 4, 7:30-9:30 p.m., $5 Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt’s No Ordinary Man seeks to correct the misrepresentation of trans culture icon, American jazz musician Billy Tipton. The screening will feature a live score by The Pop Ritual.

“A Come Apart”: Opening Reception Medicine Factory, 85 W. Virginia, Fri., Nov. 5, 6-9 p.m., free Join Nikii Richey in the opening reception for her latest show. The show’s sculptures, made of fabric and wire, explore her relationship with her mother and the societal demand for beauty.

That Golden Girls Show!

The Halloran Centre, 225 S. Main, Fri.-Sat., Nov. 5-6, 7:30 p.m., $45 A brand-new show that parodies classic Golden Girls moments with Sophia, Rose, Blanche, and Dorothy as puppets. Sunday matinee at 2:30 p.m.

True Crimes of Bygone Times: A Cemetery Tour Elmwood Cemetery, 824 S. Dudley, Sat., Nov. 6, 2:30-4 p.m., $20 Follow volunteer Sheena Barnett through the cemetery as she weaves true crime tales of decades past. Who was accused of lacing her cookies with arsenic? Who married seven times and was accused of offing at least three of her spouses? How were tamales involved in one Prohibitionera murder?

2021 Buffalo Run 5K and Bison Day Celebration Shelby Farms Park, 6903 Great View, Sat., Nov. 6, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., $25 Observe National Bison Day with a 5K through scenic areas of Shelby Farms Park. The celebration will include music by 88.5, food trucks, a local market, tethered hot air balloon rides, and more. All proceeds help maintain Shelby Farms.

Memphis Japan Festival Memphis Botanic Garden, 750 Cherry, Sun., Nov. 7, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., free with garden admission Celebrate Japanese history and culture with a full day of music, dance, martial arts, and a roving Japanese Candyman.

Plus, festival-goers can check out Japanese merchandise, artwork, anime, a “Taste of Japan,” and much more.

W E D N E S D A Y, N O V E M B E R

17 • 7PM

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CROS STOWN A RTS M U S I C S H OW S • N OV E M B E R 2 0 21

MEMPHO presents

THE WOOD BROTHERS CROSSTOWN THEATER Friday, November 12 Doors 6pm | Show 7:00pm $30 – $45

GARRISON STARR & MATTHEW MAYFIELD

THE GREEN ROOM Friday, November 12 Doors at 7pm | Show at 7:30pm $20 advance / $25 day of

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First Home Game

Nov

06

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16

Nov

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

MARC RIBOT

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

With a one-year subscription to Memphis magazine, we'll include this magical print by photographer Jamie Harmon (from last winter).

An 8 x 10 treasure to remind you, year round, of the many beauties our city presents.

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MUSIC By Alex Greene

PHOTO: SHAM HINCHEY & MARZIA MESSINA

Six String Serenade Kaki King and Tamar Eisenman — two guitarists dance.

November 4-10, 2021

Is there any instrument more beguiling than a guitar? Some may scoff at the idea, given its role in 1,001 rock cliches, and yet the guitar itself transcends cultural markers if one can see it afresh. Jimi Hendrix undoubtedly did so, and so have others, but none have reimagined it quite like Kaki King.

The Atlanta native has made a career out of it since 2002, developing a percussive style drawing on flamenco, open tunings, and traditional Russian approaches — and getting a nod from Rolling Stone magazine as one of “The New Guitar Gods” in 2006, the only woman and youngest artist to make the list. This Friday, she’s bringing a show to the Buckman Performing Arts Center that pushes her inventive approach even further. “For me, this show will be a way to see, yet again, what the guitar can do,” she says. “How can it touch us in a different way as musicians, as audience members?

Instead of holding it and playing it traditionally, what can be done if it’s on a stand or if there are many of them?”

She’s not kidding about that last point: The show she’ll be premiering with fellow guitarist Tamar Eisenman, titled SEI (Italian for “six”), will feature 16 guitars, all configured in different ways. That’s more than she’s used in any previous show, yet playing multiple instruments is not entirely foreign to her. “The core idea began with a song called ‘Frame’ on

stuff. But because of Covid and because of her pregnancy, we thought, ‘Okay, maybe this is not the best idea,’ and I just did that recording on my own.”

Still, King’s drive to continue the collaboration was still there. “Tamar is much more of a songwriter and a far better soloist. All the solos in the show, she takes. I’m terrible at soloing, so we complement each other. SEI would not exist without Tamar. She pushed me: ‘Let’s do it! Let’s keep going!’” But beyond being a way to continue working with Eisenman, the show has also been a chance for King to bring her performances back down to the basics, after many years of exploring multimedia presentations and treating her guitar with effects and enhancements.

“I just wanted to play music with a friend in a different kind of way without the heaviness of media and production.

And it turned into this show,” says King. “I think of it as an antidote to working with a lot of computers, a lot of media, a lot of lighting. This was a much more organic and acoustic thing. It’s just myself, my friend Tamar, and our guitars — 16 of them. What you see is just as important as what you hear. We mirror each other; we explore different kinds of relationships: antagonism, hatred, love, motherhood. It will be a sort of dance.”

Kaki King’s SEI, featuring Tamar Eisenman, premieres at Buckman Performing Arts Center at St. Mary’s School, Friday, November 5th, 8 p.m., $40.

For your appointment call (901) 361-1403 www.edharrisjewelry.com

November 4th

WWW.MOSHMEMPHIS.COM

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my second album,” she explains. “If you listen carefully, there are only four chords in that song, coming from four different guitars that are tuned differently. And I just played them in different patterns, one after the other, and it somehow made an entire song. It’s actually quite difficult for me to travel with four guitars, so I only performed it a couple of times, but I always had this idea of many, many guitars on stage, and people moving around them. The way you have to move in order to play the music can be a beautiful kind of choreography.”

King’s latest album, Modern Yesterdays, features the song “Sei sei,” which was originally planned as a collaboration with the Israel-born Eisenman, a songwriter and guitar virtuoso in her own right. “The full show is a very expanded version of what you hear in that song,” King says. “The first performance of that song was in February 2020. It was right before quarantine. Tamar was pregnant, and we filmed the concert. Two days later, I went into the studio to start making the album, and Tamar was supposed to come and perform part of ‘Sei’ with me, so we could have this dual guitar

Kaki King

Enjoy fine wine and food from Memphis's top restaurants.

Tickets available online.

CALENDAR of EVENTS: Nov. 4 - 10 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.

Dollar Dalmatian Day

For a $1 donation, per person, tour the museum and visit the Memphis Fire and Life Safety Dogs.

Saturday, Nov. 6, 9 a.m.-noon.

FIRE MUSEUM OF MEMPHIS

Memphis Grizzlies vs. Minnesota Timberwolves

S P E C IA L E V E N TS

Party on the Plaza

Church Health’s annual fundraiser, featuring live music, wine pull, and a “taste of Crosstown” event. $100. Saturday, Nov. 6, 7-9 p.m.

CROSSTOWN CONCOURSE

F I LM

Fall Movie Series: Hidden Figures

An evening of entertainment under the stars.

Thursday, Nov. 4, 7 p.m.

The Science of Wine

Try wines from some of the best regions in the world. $40-$125. Thursday, Nov. 4, 6:30-9 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles at Memphis Tigers Mens Basketball

Village Creek Star Party

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m.

Astronomers will guide you across the sky. Saturday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

VILLAGE CREEK STATE PARK

T H EAT E R

OVERTON SQUARE

FOOD AN D DR I N K

Monday, Nov. 8, 7 p.m.

Shockheaded Peter

S PO R TS

Memphis Grizzlies vs. Charlotte Hornets Wednesday, Nov. 10, 7 p.m.

A musical adaptation of an 1845 German children’s book. $25. Through Nov. 7.

THEATREWORKS

Urinetown, The Musical

FEDEXFORUM

A musical satire of capitalism. Through Nov. 7.

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

THEATRE MEMPHIS

ART AN D S P EC IAL E X H I B I TS

“47 Rockets”

Work by Raina Belleau and Caleb Churchill.

Through Nov. 19.

2021 PROJECTS

“A Come Apart”

New work by Nikii Richey. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5-Nov. 28.

MEDICINE FACTORY

Claudia Keep

Exhibition of paintings. Through Nov. 6.

TOPS GALLERY

ART HAP P E N I N G S

Crosstown Arts Resident Artist Talk

Anthony Wilson, Tm. Prudhomme, Sharon Havelka, and Melissa Dunn will present artist talks. Free. Tuesday, Nov. 9, 5:30-6:30 p.m.

CROSSTOWN ARTS AT THE CONCOURSE

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Reader Meet Writer: Gayle Forman

A virtual discussion with the author of the middle-grade coming-of-age novel, Frankie & Bug. Free. Thursday, Nov. 4, 6 p.m.

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FOOD By Michael Donahue

Talking Turkey

PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE

Tony Westmoreland and FreeSol And Red Bones will be moving into a new brick-and-mortar location in the future.

FreeSol, lead singer of the alternative band also called FreeSol that was formerly signed to Interscope Records, knew his turkey legs business would be a success. “I just saw the vision of it. I cook food for myself and my family.” He comes “from a family full of” cooks. “All these recipes we’re using are family recipes.”

Most of the recipes, including the stuffing, came from his late grandmother, Sarah Harris. His mother came up with the seasonings. “My dad is the one who has the recipe for the falling-off-the-bone turkey legs.”

FreeSol, who was always “a little hustler,” says his family members “cooked for the love. I see the business opportunity, and that’s what I’ve been doing. I always felt my family’s food should be out in the world. I knew people would like it when

they tasted it.

“My dream has always been to own a restaurant chain, even when doing music.

That was always the plan.”

FreeSol equates food with music. “I was an entertainer. I know what people want.

I’m very passionate about that.

“I think things need to be flavored certain ways. There needs to be layers of tastes.

And I’m confident with my taste buds.”

Westmoreland gave him “the freedom to create whatever I want to create,” he says, “whatever menu I thought would work.”

Everything is “mostly turkey-related.”

They sell turkey cobb salad, turkey barbecue pizza, and turkey bowls. “We have a turkey barbecue sandwich that tastes just like pork.”

The menu includes greens, mac and cheese, and corn bread. They sell a range of turkey legs, which are served by themselves or flavored with buffalo, garlic Parmesan, Cajun Alfredo, or Tennessee whiskey sauces, and stuffed with dirty rice, mac and cheese, spinach casserole, or a mixture of all the toppings.

“I feel like the turkey leg is a spin on steaks. My stuffed turkey legs start at $12 and go up to $37. I feel like it’s its own steak.

The way we do turkey legs is not the oldschool way. … It’s a fall-off-the-bone, sitdown-and-eat-it kind of thing. It’s similar to a steak house.”

Future plans include maybe adding a vegan black bean chili that he and his wife make at home to the menu. But, he says, “The idea is to build a franchise, so we’re keeping the menu somewhat controlled and realistic and easy.”

FreeSol describes himself as a businessman and entrepreneur. In addition to flipping homes, he also has an interest in Sweet Cali Candies, an edible cannabis business.

In the future, he’d like to open “more bars, more music-related venues, not just in Memphis, but around the world.

“I want to be in the cannabis world, music world, and food.”

As for his turkey legs, FreeSol says he sees melt-in-your-mouth Red Bones Turkey Legs “all over the world, an international brand.”

FreeSol believes turkey leg restaurants are “the new wave” of the culinary scene. “My goal is to get it established and branded before everybody catches on.”

Carolina Watershed is at 141 East Carolina; (901) 207-6172.

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

F

reeSol is drumming up business with his Red Bones Turkey Legs.

“It’s been non-stop steady growth,” FreeSol says. “We were doing 15, 25, 30 a day at the beginning and then 60 to 80 and now 80 to 100 a day. Maybe more.”

Since he began selling the turkey legs last May at Carolina Watershed, FreeSol has a new business partner: Tony Westmoreland of Tandem Restaurant Partners. The Carolina Watershed kitchen now features the Red Bones Turkey Legs expanded menu that includes salads, loaded fries, sandwiches, and pizzas — just about all with a turkey twist.

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

FreeSol’s drumsticks are music to your taste buds.

19

FILM By Chris McCoy

The Swinging Ghosts of London Last Night in Soho is a spooky treat from director Edgar Wright.

T

here’s no such thing as “the good ole days.” The past was just as full of horrors as the present.

You just forgot how bad it was, or nobody wrote the bad parts down — or maybe they did, and you just didn’t read it.

That’s the ultimate theme of Edgar Wright’s new thriller, Last Night in Soho. It’s a case of an artist trying to have their cake and eat it, too, as Wright both luxuriates in nostalgia and undercuts it at the same time. For a popster like Wright, the director of Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Baby Driver, examining the dark side of his obsessions has led to the deepest work of his career.

The film’s object of nostalgia is London of the 1960s, soundtracked by the slick pop of Dusty Springfield and Sandy Shaw. That’s the music Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) is listening to in the film’s opening sequence. Wright immediately reveals the essentials of her character by whipping his camera around her room. She wants to be a fashion designer; she lives in a small town, where her ’60s obsession marks her as a girl out of time; and her mother is a ghost.

About that last bit. Ellie has visions, often of dead people, and Ellie’s grandma (Rita Tushingham) reveals that

her mother did, too, and these visions became so disturbing and uncontrollable that Ellie’s mom killed herself. When Ellie is accepted into the London College of Fashion, grandma is supportive.

Ellie’s idealized version of London is dispelled as the cab driver taking her from the train station to her dorm creeps on her. Things get worse when she meets her roommate Jocasta (Synnove Karlsen), a cokesnorting mean girl who calls herself “Hurricane Jocasta.”

These living arrangements aren’t tenable for the studious, mentally fragile Ellie, so she finds a cheap room in a boarding house run by Ms. Collins (Diana Rigg, in her final role).

In order to pay for it, and clothes from the fashionable West End shops that surround the college, Ellie gets a job in a dive bar called The Toucan, where she serves drinks to an old barfly (Terence Stamp) who takes an interest in her.

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Ellie does get more sleep in the new room, but it comes with vivid dreams of the West End in the mid-’60s featuring a girl named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), an aspiring singer who falls for Jack (Matt Smith), a manager with an eye for new talent. The beautiful, confident Sandie represents an

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Matt Smith (above) in Last Night in Soho

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FILM By Chris McCoy misdirection. While in the visions of the past, Ellie and Sandie can only see each other in mirrors, even as their identities are merging. This presents endless opportunities for Wright to pull some boffo visual gags. But even as the director is emptying his trick bag all over the screen, the story keeps humming along at a brisk pace, which helps later in the film, when it gets harder to keep all the plot plates spinning.

Last Night in Soho is a pop confection that’s not just empty calories.

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ideal self for the mousy small-town girl, and when Ellie dyes her hair blonde like Sandie’s, boys start to notice her. But Ellie’s dreams take a dark turn as Sandie falls deeper into the seedy side of London. The 1960s produced great music and fashion, but it was a man’s world. Young women like Sandie put up with brutal misogyny, even from men who professed to love them. The mystery of Sandie’s fate starts to weigh on Ellie, as her visions invade her waking life.

Wright’s one of contemporary cinema’s most inventive visual stylists, and this film is a feast of in-camera effects and plain old

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TH E LAST WO R D By Wim Laven

PHOTO: MAGGYMEYER | DREAMSTIME.COM

Letting the lion win

The Oxen and the Lion

THE LAST WORD

About 2,700 years ago, a storytelling slave named Aesop told tales of political, religious, and social themes. They have been popularized for their ethical dimensions and utilized as children’s stories for the morals and wisdom they deliver.

In “The Four Oxen and the Lion,” Aesop tells of a powerful lion who prowls a field in search of a hearty meal. The four oxen who live there stand tail to tail and offer the lion horns regardless of the direction of the approach. One day, however, an argument causes the four oxen to go their separate ways. On their own the oxen do not stand a chance against the lion, who picks them off one by one with great ease.

The moral of the story: United we stand, divided we fall.

Issues of collective security are timeless. In the United States, collective security was so important that a Three-fifths Compromise (officially counting slaves as three-fifths of a person for purposes of the census and political power), which inflated the power of slave states; a prohibition against the abolition of slavery (Article I Section 9 of the Constitution prevents Congress from banning the importation of slaves before 1808); and the electoral college were established in order to create “unity.”

Sudan is currently in headlines because the military has dissolved the alliance between military and civilian groups, effectively blocking the power-sharing Sovereign Council and agreed-upon transitional government. To be clear, the transition to democratic civilian rule from the brutality of Omar al-Bashir’s three decades of power, which ended in a 2019 nonviolent grassroots insurrection, was on shaky ground because the Sovereign Council was unelected.

The excitement with ousting al-Bashir has faded and conflict over power has increased tensions between both sides; the future of Sudan is uncertain, the coup was not a surprise, but neither is the resistance; the streets are full of peaceful pro-democracy protesters, but while the efficacy of nonviolence is clear, the outcome remains to be seen.

Al-Bashir’s loyalists have initiated the military coup d’etat, which bears some parallels to Trump’s illegitimate power grabs and the criminal efforts of his loyalists. But the similarities are limited; where most of the officers pushing for al-Bashir in Sudan last month were arrested, the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol say they will get justice, yet nine months later no officials, nor Trump himself, have been charged for their efforts intended to overthrow American democracy.

Al-Bashir’s loyalists in Sudan chanted “down with the hunger government,” just as Trump’s scream “Stop the steal!” The former demand reforms to the Forces of Freedom and Change coalition, the replacement of the cabinet in power, and a coup overthrowing the government. As for the latter, a recent poll found that 66 percent of Republicans believe that “the election was rigged and stolen from Trump,” while only 18 percent believe “Joe Biden won fair and square.”

The rule of law is under attack in both countries. And just as Aesop delivers a lesson on standing together, the people of Sudan present reminders on the importance of people’s power and the role of nonviolence safeguarding democratic institutions.

It is easy enough to hope that Trump loyalists will not make a repeat attempt at an insurrection, but the evidence suggests otherwise and the political threats and violence of 2020 and 2021 should be a wake-up call.

There have been too many plots to list and at seemingly every level of government; there have been plans to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, who, in June, said: “Threats continue, I have looked out my windows and seen large groups of heavily armed people within 30 yards of my home. I have seen myself hung in effigy. Days ago at a demonstration there was a sign that called for ‘burning the witch.’”

The National Association of School Boards has asked President Joe Biden for federal assistance to investigate and stop threats in a letter outlining 20 cases of threats, harassment, disruption, and acts of intimidation in California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio, and other states.

The board argues that: “As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

The U.S. and Sudan showcase different stages of division. The people of the U.S. are well served to learn and get involved in Sudan through solidarity. People of the world can all push for frozen assets and travel bans on those responsible for the coup and thank President Biden for his swift action in suspending $700 million in aid to Sudan. Nonviolent but coercive measures like these can pressure the military to yield to the people’s demands. We can also make strong condemnations to the use of political violence and the detainment of political prisoners — who should be immediately released.

When we watch what is happening in Sudan we become better global citizens. We learn about other cultures and struggles, and we increase our empathy for others. We live up to the moral demands that we respond to the injustice that others experience and they gain strength through the increases in unity. But we also learn valuable lessons for the protection of our own fragile democracy. As long as there are people who threaten a violent takeover there must also be people prepared to use the power of nonviolent struggle — to amplify the voices of the people — in resisting them.

Trump and al-Bashir may be the lions. But we are the many oxen who can thwart their attacks.

Wim Laven, Ph.D., syndicated by PeaceVoice, teaches courses in political science and conflict resolution.

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

The crisis in Sudan is a lesson for the U.S.

23

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