Memphis Flyer 12/09/2021

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OUR 1711TH ISSUE 12.09.21

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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Holiday and Home Shopping

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

When the stars align, usually on a rainy Sunday in late autumn or early winter when he’s still a little punch drunk from the end of Daylight Saving Time and the end-of-year blurring of the calendar, the editor sleeps in.

After a Saturday spent writing and then helping a friend move, he sleeps in on Sunday.

After tumbling out of bed and stumbling to the kitchen, he sets coffee brewing, opens the blinds, and watches as the rain dimples the surface of the creek next door. He and his fiancée sit and watch their cats watching the birds sitting on still-leafy branches, their feathers fluffed against the rain.

Later, the couple bundle themselves against the late-autumn cold and leave the house.

After realizing that the Memphis weather is being Memphis weather again — it feels more like April than December — they clomp back inside and shed a layer.

The editor drives, and the two go out on the town for a day of Christmas shopping.

They don’t often have days off together, so it’s An Event.

At a local bookstore, they buy a book about bees, a stack of car magazines, a sweater, and the fourth and final book (translated from French) of a fantasy series. The editor sees an old friend, and she says nice things about the newspaper. He says he hopes her sister is well. They recognize each other despite wearing masks and, in her case, big sunglasses.

After a brief diversion — stopping at a grocery store for dinner ingredients, dropping said supplies off at home — they go to a plant store and nursery. The editor picks out more gifts, and his fiancée coos over the shop’s resident cat, Bunny. More businesses should have a cat, the editor thinks. They pile their gifts-to-be on the counter and pay for them, chatting with the friendly clerk about science-fiction films and cats. The clerk’s cats, it turns out, are named after characters from sci-fi films.

Their last stop for the day is an antiques store on Summer Avenue. The editor’s father is planning on moving back to Memphis early next year. The father will need some furniture, and the editor believes in practical gifts. The editor’s not worried about including that in his column because his father, for the moment at least, lives outside the newspaper’s circulation radius. The editor, for the time being at least, could include an itemized list of gifts, and his father would be none the wiser. The father doesn’t use the internet and still owns a flip-phone, so the editor figures there’s no chance of the surprise being ruined via social media either. It’s the perfect crime.

In the antiques store, the fiancée finds some gifts, along with a burnt-orange sweater and a wooden desk tray, the kind one might use to hold correspondence. She’s a fiend for fall colors; she’s mad about organization. She also finds a corner shelf, the exact kind the editor has been on the hunt for, to be a new home for some houseplants. They must be kept out of his cats’ reach. They murder houseplants with extreme prejudice.

The editor dusts off the corner shelf, examines it from every angle, and checks the price tag. They’re here to buy gifts, not furniture for themselves, he reasons. As he’s vetting the shelf, the editor sees someone he recognizes — above the face mask, that is. He’s a local musician, drummer for a half-dozen Bluff City bands. They say hello. The editor invites the drummer to examine the shelf, which the drummer judges to be a fine shelf indeed. The editor caves. He buys the shelf. He finds his fiancée and helps her carry her purchases to the car.

Back home, the editor wraps presents while his fiancée cooks soup. Usually soup is a meal they prepare together, but they don’t mind slight variations in their habits. Most days, they wake early; today they slept in.

The editor puts on a playlist of tunes by The Beatles. He’s been on a Fab Four kick, N E WS & O P I N I O N courtesy of the Peter Jackson documenTHE FLY-BY - 4 tary Get Back.

NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 6 If he were Paul McCartney, he thinks, he POLITICS - 8 SPORTS - 9 could turn today into a little third-person COVER STORY story song. “Penny Lane, the barber shaves “SCHOOL GROOVES” another customer,” he sings to himself. “On

BY ALEX GREENE - 10 Summer Ave., the salesman sells another SHOP LOCAL FEATURE - 15 antique shelf.”

WE RECOMMEND - 16 It’s no “Yesterday,” he thinks, but it’s a CALENDAR - 17 FOOD - 19 nice song to live.

FILM - 20 Jesse Davis C LAS S I F I E D S - 22 jesse@memphisflyer.com

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THE

fly-by

MEMernet Memphis on the internet.

B E H I N D TH E C U RTAI N Here’s how it works: Memphis Zoo researchers issue a paper in the journal Conservation Science and Practice titled, “Post-release comparisons of amphibian growth reveal challenges with sperm cryopreservation as a conservation tool.” The zoo issues a press release headlined, “Memphis Zoo Research Team Finds Out How to Build a New Wild Population.” We present it here like, “Heh. Look. Frogs doin’ it.”

CREDIT: MEMPHIS ZOO

O R AN G E YA?

December 9-15, 2021

POSTED TO NEXTDOOR BY MARTIN ROSENBLUM

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Martin Rosenblum caught this display of mandarin oranges at the Sanderlin Kroger last week.

WE LL, AR E YO U? “Hi,” Diane Martin said on Nextdoor. “Are you missing this duck?”

POSTED TO NEXTDOOR

BY DIANE MARTIN

TWE ET O F TH E WE E K “If you think 3 floors of a swinger’s convention at the Little Rock La Quinta is a sight to behold, you, dear sir or madam, have not seen the side show of wonder and grotesquerie that is checkout time at aforementioned La Quinta,” tweeted Cory Branan.

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Questions, Answers + Attitude Edited by Toby Sells

C ITY R E POTE R B y To b y S e l l s

Money Bail Groups threaten lawsuit to push bail reform.

Several groups called Shelby County’s money bail system unconstitutional in a letter issued last week and urged leaders to meet with them about the practice or face a lawsuit by year’s end.

The letter is from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLUTN), Just City, and The Wharton Law Firm. It paints a picture of a broken system that favors those with money to get out of jail and disproportionately affects poor, Black, and disabled detainees.

“Jailing people simply due to their inability to afford a sum of money is an unconstitutional and harmful public policy,” said Andrea Woods, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project. “Shelby County officials should embrace this PHOTO: DAN BANNISTER | DREAMSTIME.COM opportunity to remedy the Groups argue that Shelby County’s money bail system is unconstitutional. county’s discriminatory, wealthbased detention practices. We would rather see smart systems fixes now than be forced to worked in other cities just like Memphis to reduce crime, save bring these issues to court.” money, and help people. These methods work, but they require The letter says pre-trial release is a fundamental right under leadership.” the state and federal constitutions. Tennessee law requires The letter threatens litigation and demands reform for the judges to treat money bail as a “last resort,” it says. Except for county’s bail system. It says the groups “prefer to work with “extreme circumstances,” all criminal suspects have the right to you to resolve our concerns but stand ready to explore other some sort of conditional release from jail before their trials. options” if the county does take action. That action — an Shelby County’s system, however, keeps “hundreds of answer to a meeting request from the groups — needs to take people” detained because they cannot afford bail. “This can place before December 31st. If not, “we have no choice” but to lead to loss of employment, housing, education, [and more],” file a lawsuit. the groups said.

“We cannot and will not sit idly by and let this easily The county’s current pre-trial system can hold a person corrected problem persist,” reads the letter. for “weeks or longer” without a bail hearing with counsel, Instead of the current system, which the letter says “does according to the groups. Ability to pay is not considered when not promote court appearance,” the groups want (among other bail is set, “leaving those who cannot afford to pay detained things): indefinitely, even if they are not a flight or safety risk, while • bail hearings no later than 24 hours after a person’s arrest those who face the same charges but can afford to pay money • no money bail set unless proof exists that the person will bail are freed until trial.” not return for trial without it “Because of this community’s dependence on money • a consideration of ability to pay for bail before it is set bail, the Shelby County Jail is full of people who cannot pay • affordability for bail, meaning the person can pay the bail for their freedom,” Josh Spickler, executive director of Just amount within 24 hours without borrowing money City, said in a statement. “There are proven alternatives to Visit the News Blog at memphisflyer.com for more local news. this counterproductive system, tools and policies that have

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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 Tuesday, November 6, 2018

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Walking horse image on new state building called “shameful.”

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Y E L L L E N N Y N Y S E door 42

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December 9-15, 2021

MUSIC ART DINING CREATING HEALING SELF-CARE LIVING

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S TAT E W AT C H B y To b y S e l l s

Find more ways to celebrate this season at CrosstownConcourse.com/visit

An enormous engraving on a new state building glorifies animal abuse, according to an animal advocacy group.

The Washington, D.C.-based Animal Wellness Action (AWA) said the Tennessee Walking Horse engraving on the side of the new state archive building in Nashville went largely unnoticed until locals contacted the group.

The image shows a horse with one hoof raised high in the characteristic “big lick” gait of the animals. Walking horses have a natural, smooth gait but to get their hooves up higher in a competition, trainers have “sored” the horses, intentionally harming the animals’ hooves and ankles. To do this, trainers will pour irritating chemicals like diesel fuel or mustard oil on the horse’s ankles, fit them with high-stacked shoes, link heavy chains around their ankles, drive nails into their hooves, or train them with trimmed hooves, exposing sensitive tissue.

“It’s shameful to see the state of Tennessee double down in support of the pain-based ‘big lick’ gait that’s now displayed on the walls of its new archives building,” said Marty Irby, executive director at AWA and a past president of the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders’ and Exhibitors’ Association. “This exaggerated movement of the horses’ front legs is induced by driving nails into the sensitive part of the horses’ feet or by applying burning chemicals onto their pasterns and then putting giant, stacked shoes and ankle chains on their feet. This image should be archived only

PHOTO: ANIMAL WELLNESS ACTION

Tennessee Walking Horse engraving at the Tennessee State Library & Archives as a historical footnote about this animal cruelty that runs rampant in the state.”

In 1970, Congress declared the soring of horses to be cruel and inhumane with the passage of the Horse Protection Act. The law prohibits anyone from entering a sored horse into a show, sale, auction, or exhibition. Breaking the law comes with a jail sentence of up to two years and a fine up to $5,000.

The law also disqualifies any trainer and horse from a competition if the horse is found to be sored. To do this, the walking-horse industry polices itself. Irby says enforcement of the law is “intermittent at best with just a handful” of criminal prosecutions. An investigation by the Animal Wellness Institute (AWI) found 956 warnings for soring violations in 2016. In 2018, there were none.

The AWA and AWI are pushing lawmakers to approve the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act. It would ban the use of stacked shoes and ankle chains in competitions, get rid of the walking horse industry’s self-monitoring program, and increase penalties for those found soring horses.

AWA has been pushing the PAST Act since 2012. The legislation passed the federal House in 2019. AWA said opposition from senators from Tennessee and Kentucky killed the bill in the Senate that year. But the legislation was reintroduced in the Senate this year.

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NEWS & OPINION

INCUBUS

Hound dogs, heartbreak, harps and french horns.

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POLITICS By Jackson Baker

Weirich Bites the Bullet

December 9-15, 2021

GOP incumbent faults bad legislation by her party-mates in Nashville.

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The outlook for As she reminded her auditors, “When a hotly contested guns-in-cars legislation passed in 2014, 2022 district atit enabled people to travel around with torney general’s guns in their cars without a special race was intensipermit. And that meant more guns in fied this week by cars on the street. an announcement “It’s susceptible to theft. And people from former Shelby that are stealing guns are not doing so County Comto do anything altruistic with it, correct? missioner and University of Memphis They’re doing it to continue to victimize law professor Steve Mulroy that he citizens in our community, to continue to very likely would seek the Democratic prey on innocent people. So that’s kind of nomination to oppose the re-election of what the landscape is right now.” incumbent Amy Weirich, a Republican.

Moments later she dilated further, Mulroy would thereby become the “One of our senators a few weeks ago second Democrat in the race, along with made the comment about how far we’ve the already declared Linda Harris. come economically as a state because Much of the contest, in either everybody in the former governor’s eventuality, would hinge on party-line [Haslam’s] administration was focused issues. But in a on turning that luncheon address economic engine last week to around. members of the “And it occurred Rotary Club of to me just like if we Memphis, Weirich had that same focus demonstrated why for public safety, just she is credited with think what we could having substantial do, if everyone crossover potential. in Nashville and She bit the beyond was focused bullet on an issue on victims of on which her GOP PHOTO: JACKSON BAKER crime and doing party-mates in state Weirich at Rotary luncheon everything we government can be can to respect — and have been — seriously faulted. the victims of crime, to hold offenders “Gun crime is top-of-mind accountable, and to treat public safety as everywhere we go,” said Weirich to the the number-one priority that it should be.”

Rotarians. Referring to figures on a When audience members raised PowerPoint slide, she noted, “We are up concerns about potential gun massacres probably over 21 percent.” occurring in Tennessee, Weirich said, She continued: “Now as we sit here “The answer to everyone’s nightmare today as compared to when that chart is yes, it could very well happen here, was made, but gun crime is prevalent particularly since the governor [current and of great concern. One of the GOP Governor Bill Lee] signed into law contributing factors is legislation that permitless carry. was passed in 2014.”

“And so now it takes away the ability This was the guns-in-cars bill, passed in law enforcement to come up and ask to by the General Assembly’s Republican see your permit, if you are openly carrying majority and allowed to become law by in this restaurant or walking down the Republican Governor Bill Haslam. “Back street or going into Home Depot. And that in 2010, we had less than 300 guns stolen is an issue for law enforcement and will from cars,” Weirich said. continue to be an issue.”

Referring again to the slide, she She would add, on the prospect said, “You can see, as of October 20, of corrective action by the General 2021, we’ve had 1,286. Now that it is Assembly, “I don’t know of any common November 30, I would imagine that the sense legislation that’s floating around.” figures are probably close to 1,400 guns Credit Weirich, on that issue, for some stolen from cars.” nonpartisan candor.

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P

enny Hardaway had the table popular basketball presence acknowledge set for a winter of feasting on shortcomings long enough to improve the the hardwood. To take the atmosphere surrounding his team? These metaphor further, the Uniare big questions for the winter ahead. versity of Memphis basketball coach had a Patience. This seems counterintuitive. pair of top-five recruits to serve as the meat A quarter of the Tigers’ regular season is and potatoes for his 2021-22 team, enough history. If a 5-3 team aspires to play in the veterans to provide vitamins and minerals, NCAA tournament, it needs to get better and for dessert, a Hall of Fame assistant right now. But here’s the catch: Memphis coach to sweeten Hardaway’s game-day will not play its best basketball of the tactical skills. Year four of the Coach Hardseason this Friday when Murray State away Era merely needed to seat the guests. visits FedExForum. And that shouldn’t be Then along came Iowa State. And Georexpected. The assignment from the coachgia. And Ole Miss. In a matter of nine days ing staff must be to play better basketball — and not yet officially winter — the Tiger than they did in last Saturday’s loss at Ole table was toppled.

Miss. Steady improvement will bring wins, How bad are things, truly? How close not every game, but in several games … to the panic button should Tiger fans have if the improvement is steady. And this is their fingers? There’s no where the Tigers face their getting around it: Losses PHOTO: LARRY KUZNIEWSKI largest mental challenge. to the Cyclones, Dawgs, Jalen Duren Young men are impatient. and Rebels shouldn’t Performance equals reward have happened, not if — that’s the world young you look at the respecbasketball stars know and tive rosters “on paper.” understand. But that’s not reIf Memphis can’t beat ality for the Tiger team curteams like Georgia (2-5 rently taking the floor. This and missing its point is a group that must climb guard), the Tigers will a ladder toward success, not be playing on the toward its best group effort. second weekend of the We won’t see it in December, NCAA tournament … but might we in March? the minimum expectaResolve. The Tigers’ tion for this year’s team. next three games — Murray Forget tactics and strategy, though. Here State, Alabama, and Tennessee — will be are three intangibles the Memphis Tigers more challenging than the last three. Yikes. must confront and consider if their season Memphis could enter conference play is to be salvaged.

(December 29th at Tulane) with a record at Ego. Every member of the Tigers’ or below .500. The Tigers will not likely rerotation was the star of his high school (or appear in the Top 25 until they reel off a few AAU) team. And every member of the wins against American Athletic Conference Tigers’ rotation is not as good at basketball rivals. And this is the key to everything. If as he thinks he is right now. Same goes for Memphis can win the AAC (regular season the head coach, or he wouldn’t be examinor tournament), the Tigers will play in the ing film from a three-game losing streak.

Big Dance. Coaches picked them to finish Among this group of nine or 10 men, who second (behind Houston). The way they’ve can suppress his ego over the next three looked of late, a top-three finish would be months for the better of his team’s mission? a surprise. So surprise the world. No one Can Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren forget relishes being overlooked — the dis, the their current NBA stock (it’s falling) and snub — more than a Memphis Tiger. It’s work at being more valuable to the Tigers’ part of the culture that sticks to this team, cause when no one besides their teamone season or coach after another. Can mates and coaches is watching? Can senior Penny Hardaway and his band of talented DeAndre Williams give up playing time for players keep their eyes on the AAC prize? a freshman (Josh Minott)? Can fundaThe Tiger basketball program has yet to mentals — crisp passing, floor spacing, raise AAC hardware. However painful their moving without the ball — take priority last three games may feel, this Memphis over “highlight plays”? Can the city’s most team can still make history.

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NEWS & OPINION

After three losses in a row, can the Memphis Tigers still make history?

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December 9-15, 2021

COVER STORY BY ALEX GREENE

School Grooves THE ONCE AND FUTURE GLORY DAYS OF MEMPHIS HIGH SCHOOL MUSIC. (ABOVE) PHOTO: JUSTIN FOX BURKS

Paul McKinney, director of student success/alumni relations at the Stax Music Academy (TOP RIGHT) PHOTO: JUSTIN FOX BURKS

Kellen Christian, band director at Whitehaven High School (RIGHT) PHOTO: YUKI MAGUIRE

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Paul McKinney with his father Kurl, a retired music teacher, and his brother Alvin, a saxophonist

Mighty Manassas The big bang that caused the Memphis school music universe to spring into being is easy to pinpoint: Manassas High School.

That was where, in the mid-1920s, a football coach and English teacher fresh out of college founded the city’s first school band, and, right out of the gate, set the bar incredibly high. The group, called the Chickasaw Syncopators, was known for their distinctive Memphis “bounce.” By 1930, they’d

recorded sides for the Victor label, and soon they took the name of their band director: the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. They released many hit records until Lunceford’s untimely death in 1947.

Nearly a century later, Paul McKinney, a trumpet player and director of student success/alumni relations at the Stax Music Academy (SMA), takes inspiration from Lunceford. “He founded his high school band and took them on the road, with one of the more competitive jazz bands in the world, right there with Count Basie and Duke Ellington. And I’ve tried to play that stuff, as a trumpet player, and it’s really, really hard! And then one of the best band directors in Memphis’ history, after Jimmie Lunceford, was Emerson Able, also at Manassas.”

Under Able and other band directors, the school unleashed another wave of talent in the ’50s and ’60s, a series of virtuosos whose names still dominate jazz. One of them was Charles Lloyd, who says, “I went to Manassas High School where Matthew Garrett was our bandleader. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!

We had a band, the Rhythm Bombers, with

A four-time winner of the High Stepping Nationals, W Whitehaven High School’s marching band plays at a recruiting rally.

Mickey Gregory, Gilmore Daniels, Frank Strozier, Harold Mabern, Booker Little, and myself. Booker and I were best friends, we went to the library and studied Bartok scores together. He was a genius. We all looked up to George Coleman, who was a few years older than us — he made sure we practiced.”

Meanwhile, other talents were emerging across town at Booker T. Washington High School, which spawned such legends as Phineas Newborn Jr. and Herman Green.

It’s no surprise that these players from the ’40s and ’50s inspired the next generation, like Booker T. Jones, Maurice White, or, back at Manassas, young Isaac Hayes, yet it wasn’t the stars themselves who taught them, but their music instructors.

Although they didn’t hew to the jazz path, they formed the backbone of the Memphis soul sound that still resounds today. As today’s music educators see it, these examples are more than historical curiosities: They offer a blueprint for taking Memphis youth into the future.

Making the Scene And yet the fact that such giants still walk among us doesn’t do much to make the glory days of the ’30s through the ’60s within reach today. For Paul McKinney, whose father Kurl was a music teacher in the Memphis school system from 1961 to 2002, it might as well be Camelot. And he feels there’s a crucial ingredient missing today: working jazz players. “All the great musicians that came out of Memphis in the ’50s and ’60s were a direct result of the fact that their teachers were so heavily into jazz. The teachers were jazz musicians, too. We teach what we know and love. So think about all those teachers coming out of college in the ’50s. The popular music of the day was jazz! And the teachers were gigging, all of the time.”

Kurl, for his part, was certainly performing even as he taught (and he still can be heard on the Peabody Hotel’s piano, Monday and Tuesday evenings). “Calvin Newborn played guitar with my and Alfred Rudd’s band for a number of years,” he recalls. “We played around Memphis and the surrounding areas.” That in turn, his son points out, brought the students closer to the world of actual gigs, and accelerated their growth. In today’s music departments, Paul says, “there are not nearly as many teachers who are jazz musicians. As a jazz trumpeter and a guy who grew up watching great jazz musicians, that’s what I see. Are there a few band directors who play it professionally? Yes. But there aren’t many.”

Trombonist Victor Sawyer PHOTO: VICTOR SAWYER

Trombonist Victor Sawyer, who works with SMA and MMI

works with SMA but also oversees music educators for the Memphis Music Initiative (MMI). Both nonprofits, not to mention the Memphis Jazz Workshop, have helped to supplement and support public music programs in their own ways — SMA by hosting after school classes grounded in local soul music, MMI by helping public school teachers with visiting fellows who can also give lessons. Sawyer tends to agree that one important quality of music departments past was that the teachers were working jazz musicians. “All these people from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, and before have stories of going to Beale Street and checking out music and having the opportunity to sit in. I feel like the high schools in town today aren’t as overtly and intentionally connected to the music scene. So you’re not really seeing the pipelines that you did. When you don’t have adults who will say, ‘Come sit in with me, come see this show,’ you lose that natural connectivity. So you hear in a lot of these classes, ‘You can’t do nothing in Memphis.

I’ve got to get out of Memphis when I graduate.’ That didn’t used to be the mindset because the work was here, and it still is here; it’s just not as overt if you don’t know where to look.”

Music Departments by the Numbers A sense of lost glory days can easily arise when discussing public education generally, as funding priorities have shifted away from the arts. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities calls the years after the 2008 recession “a punishing decade for school funding,” and Sawyer contrasts the past several decades with the priorities of a bygone time. “After World War II, there was a huge emphasis on the arts. Every city had a museum and a symphony. Then, people start taking it for granted, and suddenly you have all these symphonies and museums that

are struggling. The same for schools: There’s less funding. When STEM takes over, arts funding goes down. The funding that the National Endowment of the Arts provides for schools has gone down dramatically.”

Simultaneously, the demographics of the city were shifting. “Booker T. Washington [BTW], Hamilton, Manassas, Douglass, Melrose, Carver, and Lester were the only Black high schools in the late ’50s/early ’60s. So of course people gathered there,” Sawyer says. “You’d have these very tightknit cultures. Across time, though, things became more zoned; people became more spread out. Now things are more diffuse.”

Not only did funding dry up, enrollment numbers decreased for the most celebrated music high schools. Dru Davison, Shelby County Schools’ fine arts adviser, points out that once people leave a neighborhood, there’s not much a school principal can do. “What we’ve seen at BTW is a number of intersecting policies — local, state, and federal — that have changed the number of students in the community. And that has a big impact on the way music programs can flourish. And more recently, it’s been an incredibly difficult couple of years because of the pandemic. Our band director at Manassas, James McLeod, passed away this year. So we’re working to get that staff back up again, but the pandemic has had its toll on the programs.”

Davison further explains: “The number of the kids at the school determines the number of teachers that can work at that school. So at large schools like Whitehaven or Central, that means there are two band directors, a choir director — fully staffed.

But if you go to a much smaller school, like BTW and Manassas, the number of students they have at the schools makes it difficult to support the same number of music continued on page 12

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The Culture of the Band Room Even if music programs are brought back, the disruption takes its toll. One secret to the success of Manassas was the throughline of teachers from Lunceford to Able to Garrett and beyond. Which highlights a little recognized facet of education, what Sawyer calls the culture of the classroom.

“When you watch Ollie Liddell at Central High School or Adrian Maclin at Cordova High School, it’s like, ‘Whoa! Is this magic?’

These kids come in, they’re practicing, they know how to warm up on their own. But it’s not magic. These are master-level teachers who have worked very hard at classroom culture. The schools with the most thriving programs have veteran teachers who have been there a while, so they have built up that culture.”

In fact, according to Davison, that band room culture is one reason music education is so valuable, regardless of whether or not the students go on to be musicians. “I’m just trying to help our teachers to use the power of music to become a beacon of what it means to have social and emotional support in place. As much as our music teachers are instilling the skills it takes to perform at a really high level, they’re also creating places for kids to belong. That’s been something I’ve been really pleased to see through the pandemic, even when we went virtual.”

Thus, while Davison values the “synergy” between nonprofits like SMA or MMI and public school teachers, he sees the latter as absolutely necessary. “We want principals to understand how seriously the district takes music. It’s not only to help students graduate on time but to create students who will help energize our community with creativity and vision.”

And make no mistake, the music programs in Memphis high schools that are thriving are world-class. By way of example, Davison introduces me to Kellen Christian, band director at Whitehaven High School, where enrollment has remained reliably large. With a marching band specializing in the flashy “show” style of marching (as opposed to the more staid “corps” style), Whitehaven has won the High Stepping Nationals competition four times. (Central has won it twice in recent years.) Hearing them play at a recruiting rally last week, I could see and hear why: The precision and power of the playing was stunning, even with the band seated. Christian sees that as a direct result of his band room culture.

“Once you have a student,” he says, “you have to build them up, not making them feel that they’re being left out. So we’re not just building band members; we’re building

good citizens. They learn discipline and structure in the band room. That’s one of the biggest parts of being in the band: the military orientation that the band has.”

Lured into Myriad Musics But Christian, a trumpeter, is still a musician first and foremost, and he sees the marching band as a way to lure students into deeper music. “Marching band is the draw for a lot of students,” he says. “When you see advertisements for bands from a school, you don’t see their concert band, you don’t see their jazz bands.

The marching bands are the visual icons.

It’s what’s always in the public eye.” But ultimately, he emphasizes, “I love jazz, and marching band is the bait. You’ve got to use what these students like to get them in and teach them to love their instrument. Then you start giving them the nourishment.”

As Sawyer points out, that deeper nourishment may not even look like jazz.

“Even with rappers, you’ll find out they knew a little bit about music. 8Ball & MJG were totally in band. NLE Choppa.

Drumma Boy’s dad is [retired University of Memphis professor of clarinet] James Gholson!” Even as Shelby County Schools is on the cutting edge of offering classes in “media arts” and music production, a grounding in classic musicianship can also feed into modern domains. True, there are plenty of traditional instrumentalists parlaying their high school education into music careers, like David Parks, who now plays bass for Grammy-winner Ledisi and eagerly acknowledges the training he received at Overton High School. But rap and trap artists can be just as quick to honor their roots. “Young Dolph, rest in peace, donated to Hamilton High School every year because that’s where he went,” notes Sawyer. “Anybody can do that. Find out more about your local school, and donate!”

Reminiscing about his lifetime of teaching music in Memphis public schools, Kurl McKinney laughs with his son about one student in particular. “Courtney Harris was a drummer for me at Lincoln Junior High School. He’s done very well now.

Once, he said, ‘Mr. McKinney, I’ve got some tapes in my pocket. Why don’t you play ’em?’ I said, ‘What, you trying to get me fired? All that cussin’ on that tape, I can’t play that! No way! I’m gonna keep my job.

You go on home and play it to your mama.’

“But I had him come down to see my class, and when he came walking in, their eyes got as big as teacups. I said, ‘Class, this is Gangsta Blac. Mr. Gangsta Blac, say something to my class.’ So he looked them over and said, ‘If it hadn’t been for Mr. McKinney, I would never have been in music.’” Even over the phone, you can hear the former band director smile.

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Saturday, December 11 at 2:30 & 7:30pm Cannon Center

Robert Moody and Kalena Bovell, conductor Memphis Symphony Chamber Chorus, Dr. Lawrence Edwards, conductor A holiday collage concert celebrating Memphis’s rich and beautiful artistic community.

NOV 20 - DEC 23 ARROWCREATIVE.ORG JEWEL RY, PAI NT I N G S , HAND M AD E G I F TS 653 Philadelphia St. • Near Central BBQ on Central Ave.

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Tuesday, December 21 at 7:30pm · Germantown United Methodist Wednesday, December 22 at 7:30pm · Lindenwood Christian Church Thursday, December 23 at 7:30pm

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JENNA BUSH HAGER & BARBARA PIERCE BUSH Join us for lunch and an inspiring conversation with sisters, former First Children, best-selling authors & health equity advocates

Maples Memorial United Methodist Church (Olive Branch, MS)

December 9-15, 2021

Robert Moody, conductor Memphis Symphony Chamber Chorus, Dr. Lawrence Edwards, conductor

Jenna Bush Hager Award-winning daytime TV host and correspondent, bestselling author, and women’s and children’s health and rights advocate

Friday, December 10 • 11:30 a.m.

Peabody Hotel Memphis

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Celebrate the holidays with Afternoon Tea at 17 Berkshire.

Reservations can be made online.

For more information, please call: (901) 729-7916 • 17berkshire.com 2094 Trimble Place - Overton Square

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Barbara Pierce Bush Co-founder and board chair of Global Health Corps, passionate voice for health equity issues, entrepreneur and best-selling author

Winsor Newton Cotman Watercolor Field Plus Set

12 half pan of color, a sable brush, and a water bottle in a compact case.

MSRP $52.99 Sale $36.95

EAST MEMPHIS This holiday season, we’re asking readers to support local and consider these and others for their gift-giving needs.

Bluff City Toffee Stephanie Upshaw turned her candymaking hobby into a business in 2016 and creates madefrom-scratch treats for Memphians to savor.

We love the classic Milk Chocolate Pecan Toffee ($10.95/4 oz.). Available at the Bluff City Toffee storefront (5160 Sanderlin #5), Buster’s Liquors & Wines, High Point Grocery, and other local retail locations, as well as bluffcitytoffee.com.

Kuretake Gansai Tambi Watercolor Set

36 Japanese high-density pigment watercolors that dry with a glossy sheen.

MSRP $60.00

Sakura Pigma Manga Comic Pro Set Ideal for Manga and comic illustrators.

MSRP $25.95

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Cretacolor Wolf Box Drawing Set 25 pieces of the finest Cretacolor pastels and charcoals for drawing and sketching.

MSRP $49.95 Sale $34.95

FT. RADIOMAZE AND ALMOST FAMOUS

276-6321 1636 Union Ave • Memphis, TN 38104 Open Every Day

Novel Novel offers a book for every taste, including the latest cookbook by local authors Justin Fox Burks and Amy Lawrence. You don’t have to be an herbivore to enjoy Vegetarian Cooking for Two: 80 Perfectly Portioned Recipes for Healthy Eating ($16.99). The dishes are easy to make, with simple ingredients and instructions that don’t require the skills, equipment, or time of a professional chef.

Visit Novel at 387 Perkins Extended or novelmemphis.com.

Cotton Row Uniques With home decor, apparel, artwork, antiques, bath and body products, pet toys, and so much more, this is a one-stop-shop for your gift-list needs. We think these honeycomb planters, available in three sizes ($14.50-$24.95), are adorable — and perfect for those with green thumbs. Visit Cotton Row Uniques at 4615 Poplar, Suite 3, or cottonrowuniques.com.

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Memphis TN 38104

Birds of a Feather

By Abigail Morici

If you weren’t lucky enough to spot the hawk at the Cash Saver the other week or if you prefer to see birds sitting over a nest of eggs rather than on top shelves of egg cartons, the park rangers at T.O. Fuller State Park can point you in the right direction (and they can teach you a little bit about the birds you see, too).

This Thursday, Park Ranger Jessica Gossett is hosting the park’s third session of her birding series, during which birding beginners can learn about bird conservation, common birds in the Mid-South, and seasonal changes in bird populations, behavior, and appearance. This session is all about winter birds in the wetlands.

After learning the ins and outs of the birding life, birders will get a chance to do some birding of their own, documenting the waterfowl and other wildlife in the wetlands along Riverport Road.

PHOTO: JASON ONDREICKA | DREAMSTIME.COM “At this moment, I know we have a bunch of starlings, and we do have some Carolina wren, some eastern bluebirds but those are hard to find because they are small and huddle up,” says Park Ranger Decoda Muller. “But mostly right now what you’re gonna find is birds of prey.”

Muller, for his part, is hosting an event of his own this Saturday: the park’s first ever Winter Camporee. The park has already had its annual Camporee, but this one is a bit more tailored to the season, so guests can bundle up and gather around the campfire to roast s’mores and hot dogs and sip on some hot cocoa. Muller has also teased that he will be giving each guest an outdoor-related gift. “It’s going to be a surprise,” he says.

Fees for both the Mid-South Birding 101 and the Winter Camporee will go toward the park’s conservation, programming, and projects. To register or for a schedule of even more upcoming events, visit tnstateparks.com/parks/t-o-fuller. (Next week, the park is hosting a class on making healthy treats for birds.)

MID-SOUTH BIRDING 101: WINTER IN THE WETLANDS, T.O. FULLER STATE PARK, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9TH, 9:15-11:15 A.M., $10-$20; WINTER CAMPOREE 2021, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11TH, 4:30-7 P.M., $10-$25.

VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES December 9th - 15th Porter-Leath Toy Truck WMC Action News 5, 1960 Union, Friday, Dec. 10, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.

Drop off new, unwrapped toys as well as cash, check, or credit card donations for children, ages birth to 5 years, served by Porter-Leath.

Horns Aplenty!: Christmas Carols for Charity The Green Room at Crosstown Arts, 1350 Concourse, Friday, Dec. 10, 5-6 p.m.

Toot your horn this weekend with the Delta Horn Club, the University of Memphis Horn Studio, and more.

Horns Aplenty! is calling for French horn players of all ages and abilities to join in the carols for a free holiday performance, and possibly a recordbreaking one if enough horn players stop by.

“FADED” Open House David Lusk Gallery, 97 Tillman, Sat., Dec. 11, noon-3 p.m.

Jared Small presents an exhibition of intricate, ethereal paintings of flowers and houses that evoke fleeting moments and lasting memories.

Painting from photographs and his imagination, Small brings an element of magical realism to each composition.

Drive-Thru Caroling Opera Memphis, 6745 Wolf River, Sat.-Sun., Dec. 11-12, 2-4 p.m.

Experience a bit of Christmas magic from the safety and comfort of your car as a costumed quartet of carolers spread Christmas cheer.

Book Signing with Local Authors Memphis Listening Lab, 1350 Concourse, Sat., Dec. 11, 3-5 p.m.

Memphis Listening Lab and Burke’s Book Store host local authors of fiction, poetry, music history, thrillers, and more: Robert Gordon, Tom Graves, Ron Hall, Charles Hodges, Charles Hughes, David Less, Corey Mesler, and Sheree Thomas.

Early Risers Shopping Arrow Creative, 653 Philadelphia, Wed., Dec. 15, 8:30 a.m.

The popular event, once run by the Memphis College of Art, is opening its door a bit early on Wednesday.

Stop by after you drop the kids off or before work for coffee and mimosas, and get the day started off right shopping from more than 80 local artists.

CALENDAR of EVENTS:

December 9 - 15

ART AN D S P EC IA L E X H I B ITS

“Everything That Rises” Photography by Jenn Brandt.

Through Dec. 29.

OFF THE WALLS ARTS

“The Photographer’s Shadow”

Exhibition of work by David Harper. Through Dec. 11.

CLOUGH-HANSON GALLERY

“Tight Register, Loose Change”

Exhibition of work by Kara Hamilton. Through Dec. 31.

TOPS GALLERY

Victorian Yuletide

Enjoy old Southern Yuletide customs and decorations. Through Jan. 9.

WOODRUFF-FONTAINE HOUSE MUSEUM

ART HAP P E N I N G S

“FADED” Open House

Exhibition of intricate, ethereal paintings by Jared Small. Saturday, Dec. 11, noon-3 p.m.

Send the date, time, place, cost, info, phone number, a brief description, and photos — two weeks in advance — to calendar@memphisflyer.com.

DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, ONGOING EVENTS WILL APPEAR IN THE FLYER’S ONLINE CALENDAR ONLY. FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVENTS LISTINGS, VISIT EVENTS.MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL.

B O O K EVE N TS

FAM I LY

Book Signing with Local Authors

Maria Montessori School Winter Bazaar

Memphis Listening Lab and Burke’s Book Store host eight local authors. Saturday, Dec. 11, 3-5 p.m.

Games, food, and shopping for adults and kids. Saturday, Dec. 11, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

MARIA MONTESSORI SCHOOL

MEMPHIS LISTENING LAB

“The Impossible Sleepover” Book Signing

F I LM

Blood and Black Lace

Book reading and book signing for a just-published children’s book written and illustrated especially for the zoo. Saturday, Dec. 11, 10 a.m.-noon.

If you loved Last Night in Soho, head to the Crosstown Theater to catch Blood and Black Lace.

Thursday, Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m.

MEMPHIS ZOO

CROSSTOWN ARTS

C O M E DY

H O LI DAY EVE NTS

Kenny DeForest

Breakfast with Santa

Kids and parents can sit down with Santa and have breakfast, get their picture taken, and play with the dalmatians. $16.

Saturday, Dec. 11, 8 a.m.

Kenny DeForest is in town from L.A. and will headline a fun lineup of Memphis’ best.

Sunday, Dec. 12, 7:30-9:30 p.m.

LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE

FIRE MUSEUM OF MEMPHIS

Top Comic

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m.

B-SIDE

Jared Small brings an element of magical realism to each composition in his exhibit now on display at the David Lusk Gallery.

DAVID LUSK GALLERY

continued on page 18

Bene�iting Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

WWW.MOSHMEMPHIS.COM

Holiday Movies & Planetarium Shows Get your photo made with Santa.

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

Nov. 20 - Dec. 31

17

CALENDAR: DECEMBER 9 - 15

LIVE! WEDNESDAY

DEC 29 7:30 PM

ROBERT EARL KEEN’S THE ROAD TO CHRISTMAS

Stand-up comedian Kenny DeForest headlines at the Lamplighter Lounge.

continued from page 17

OPENING THE SHOW IS BRENT COBB

Brunch with Santa

A balloon twister, pictures with Santa, and a familyfriendly brunch menu. Saturday, Dec. 11, 11 a.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

MAKE YOUR CLOSET HAPPY, MANE.

Enchanted Forest Festival of Trees

Explore a forest of awe-inspiring trees, the Gingerbread Village, and model trains. Through Dec. 31.

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

Festival of Lessons and Carols

Music by Victoria, Brahms, and others, with traditional carols. Sunday, Dec. 12, 3 p.m.

ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Graceland Christmas Tours

Enjoy limited-time holiday tours. Through Dec. 20.

GRACELAND

Holiday Spirits

Sip cocktails, listen to music, and wave to the big man in red himself. Each ticket includes 12 sample-sized yuletide cocktails. Food and full-sized drinks will be available for purchase. 21+. $39-$44. Friday, Dec. 10, 6-9 p.m.

CADRE BUILDING

December 9-15, 2021

Holiday Wonders at the Garden

Outdoor holiday fun. Visit memphisbotanicgarden.com/ wonders for schedule of specially themed nights. $8-$12.

Through Dec. 23.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

SATURDAY

MAR 19, 2022 8 PM

On Sale Now!

Box Office (901) 751-7500 GPACweb.com 18

Porter-Leath Toy Truck

1801 EXETER ROAD GERMANTOWN, TN 38138

VISIT US AT

MEMPHISFLYER.COM/ FLYERMERCH TO PLACE AN ORDER.

Drop off new, unwrapped toys as well as cash, check, or credit card donations for children, ages birth to 5 years, served by Porter-Leath. Friday, Dec. 10, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday, Dec. 11, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.

WMC ACTION NEWS 5

Santa and Snow at Chimes Square

An evening of Santa, snow, letters to Santa, and other fun holiday activities. Friday, Dec. 10, 5-7 p.m.

OVERTON SQUARE

Sippin’ with Santa Paws

Features photos with Santa Paws, a silent auction, and raffle giveaway. Benefiting Streetdog Foundation. Sunday, Dec. 12, noon-4 p.m.

LOFLIN YARD

Starry Nights at Shelby Farms Park

Experience the magic of the holidays at Shelby Farms Park’s largest event. Open on select nights. Through Jan. 1

Memphis Grizzlies vs.

Philadelphia 76ers Monday, Dec. 13, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Memphis Tigers vs.

Alabama

Tuesday, Dec. 14, 8 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Memphis Tigers vs.

Murray State Friday, Dec. 10, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

SHELBY FARMS PARK

Winter Wonderland at CMOM

Lively pop-up activities and everyday fun. Through Jan. 2.

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF MEMPHIS

Zoo Lights

Light displays and some of your favorite holiday activities. $12/members, $14/nonmembers. Through Jan. 1 MEMPHIS ZOO

P E R FO R M I N G ARTS

Drive-Thru Caroling

Experience a bit of Christmas magic from the safety and comfort of your vehicle. Saturday, Dec. 11-Dec. 12, 2 p.m.

OPERA MEMPHIS

Fall-Back Fall Dance Series

Get old-school in the park!

Free. Saturday, Dec. 11, 4-5 p.m.

FOURTH BLUFF PARK

S P EC IA L EVE NTS

For the Shell of It

Closing out the year with a get-together at Crosstown Brewing Company. Free.

Thursday, Dec. 9, 6-8 p.m.

CROSSTOWN BREWING CO.

S PO R TS

Memphis Grizzlies vs.

Houston Rockets Saturday, Dec. 11, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

Memphis Grizzlies vs.

Los Angeles Lakers Thursday, Dec. 9, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

T H EAT E R

A Christmas Carol

See all the great Dickensian characters take the journey with Ebenezer Scrooge as he goes from disgruntled miser to joyful benefactor. Through Dec. 23.

THEATRE MEMPHIS

A Holiday Juke Joint

A montage of dance, singing, music, and acting. Through Dec. 19.

HATTILOO THEATRE

The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Musical

The live musical that has captured the hearts of families everywhere. $32.95. Tuesday, Dec. 14, 6 p.m.

CANNON CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

The Toymaker’s Apprentice

Sweet holiday show celebrating hard work, fair-mindedness, and the joy of artistry.

Through Dec. 22.

CIRCUIT PLAYHOUSE

To All A Good Night: A Holiday Cabaret

Honor the songs and talents of Black artists. Through Dec. 22.

CIRCUIT PLAYHOUSE

Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory

A fun and festive mix of a reading of every word from Capote’s “Christmas Memory,” as well as readings of excerpts from “One Christmas” and “The Thanksgiving Visitor.” $15-$27. Sunday, Dec. 12, 3 p.m.

TENNESSEE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

FOOD By Michael Donahue

THANK YOU MEMPHIS FOR VOTING US

Best Chinese

Foodies’ Favorites

9 YEARS IN A ROW!

Chefs remember their most fave dishes.

BHOFACK2 | DREAMSTIME.COM

Reuben Skahill, veteran Memphis bartender/server: “I had a bender of goat cheese pasta with blackened chicken from Amerigo [Italian Restaurant] five days a week for three years and was always satisfied … warm pasta that makes its own creamy sauce from the goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes as you mix all the flavors together.”

Karen Barrett, chef/owner of The Happy Belly Company of Memphis: “One of my favorite food memories is when I was learning to cook with my great-grandmother, and she literally made the best sweet potato pie I’ve ever had in my life. The crust was perfect and her pie filling was so rich and deeply colored you’d almost think it was

pumpkin. … I won’t share the secret to her pie, but I will tell you there’s nothing wrong with adding a little bourbon in your recipe. Trust me on this one.”

Josh Steiner, MealMD executive chef: “My grandma Jacqueline’s lasagna. It has all kinds of cheeses like whipped ricotta mixed with fresh herbs. It also has a lot of fresh marinara. And I like to add lots of black pepper to it.”

Jimmy “Sushi Jimmi” Sinh, chef/ owner of Poke Paradise food truck: “The tomahawk [steak] from Folk’s Folly. It’s a lot better ’cause the bone adds more flavor to the meat. And they just make it the way I like it.”

Justin Hughes, assistant pastry chef at The Peabody: “One of the best things I’ve had was from The Crazy Noodle.

It was the cucumber salad and spicy Korean ramen they serve. The ramen is well-balanced with flavor.”

Nick Scott, chef/owner of Salt|Soy: “My friend Mitsu Isoda ran Jewel Bako in New York. He did a dry-aged bluefin tuna nigiri. It was the absolute best piece of fish that I’ve ever tasted. He now runs Omakase Room by Mitsu in New York.

He dry-aged it for around 25 days in a very cold temperature.

It compounded the flavor and tenderized the meat. It melted as you ate it. He brushed soy on it and put a small amount of wasabi underneath the fish. It didn’t need anything. It was easily the best thing I’ve eaten.”

Miles Tamboli, chef/owner of Tamboli’s Pasta & Pizza: “Artesano pizza bar, town of Lagoa da Conceicao on the island of Santa Catarina in the city of Florianopolis, Brazil.

This place used to be way less fancy.

When I went there around 2005 they had this burger they called the X Burger that had everything you can imagine on it. Two patties, peas, corn, a hot dog, special sauce, a slab of ham, all kinds of shit. It was incredible.”

Schuyler O’Brien, founder/creator of Over Yonder ice cream: “The best meal I ever had was a 13-course tasting menu at The Barn at Blackberry Farm. The most memorable thing I’ve ever eaten were the Pig Face Parker House rolls from Odd Duck in Austin — classic yeast rolls stuffed with braised pig face on house Dijon mustard.”

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

y Favorite Things,” which has become a holiday classic song over the years, triggered the idea to ask Memphis chefs and food aficionados what memory sticks with them as one of the best things they’ve ever eaten anywhere.

They might not be able to fit it into a stocking, but it ranks up there with “bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.”

Kelly English, chef/owner of Restaurant Iris, The Second Line, Panta, and Fino’s from the Hill: “There is one dish that really made my mind up to jump in and try to be a chef — the gnocchi and gulf crab meat with truffle at the restaurant August in New Orleans. On a flavor and texture level, this was a mindblowing dish. But it was simple. It’s a bite I will never forget.”

Keun Anderson, head chef at Texas de Brazil: “I love anime and Naruto is one of my favorite animes. So, when it comes to the best food I ever had, I can’t help myself. I love ramen. And Flame Ramen is the best.”

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FILM By Chris McCoy

Gucci, Mane Lady Gaga is toxically seductive in House of Gucci.

B

December 9-15, 2021

efore he became Noted Auteur Ridley Scott, the English director made a big mark in advertising. In the late ’70s, Scott was hired to revamp the visual brand of Chanel No. 5 perfume. The commercial he made in 1979 would go down as an all-time classic: As a model lounges by a pool, the shadow of a private jet briefly darkens the Mediterranean sunlight. “I am made of blue sky and golden light, and I will feel this way forever,” intones the husky female voice-over. Then a hunky man magically appears and dives into her pool — no sexual overtones there.

Chanel No. 5 is just a perfume, but Scott’s visual magic is used to associate the brand with an intoxicating mix of power, lust, and wealth. You’ll never be as sexy as Catherine Deneuve, but you can go out on the town smelling like her, and that’s kind of like being made of blue sky and golden light, I guess?

It’s perversely appropriate that one of the people responsible for creating the visual language of luxury brand capitalism helms House of Gucci. “We’re not aristocrats,” says Maurizio Gucci (Adam Driver). In the late ’70s, the Gucci fortune was only a couple of generations old, but patriarch Rodolfo (Jeremy Irons) is instantly contemptuous when he finds out his son’s

20

new girlfriend Patrizia Reggiani (Lady Gaga) comes from the petite bourgeois.

Maurizio is in law school when he meets Patrizia at a party, and he has no intention of entering the chaotic family business. Rodolfo and his more competent brother Aldo (Al Pacino) believe Maurizio will be the future of the company, mostly because Aldo’s son Paolo (Jared Leto) is an idiot, which is why Rodolfo instantly pegs Patrizia as a gold digger. When he insists on marrying her, the groom’s side of the church is conspicuously empty, and Maurizio is forced to take a job at the Reggiani’s trucking company. (“Trucking?

Mafia!” hisses Rodolfo.)

Patrizia’s not a gold digger, in that she sincerely loves Maurizio, but she’s not not a gold digger, either. Once she has the ring on her finger, the steel starts to show behind the velvet. Maurizio would be content with a fairly normal career, but Patrizia pushes him to be more ambitious. When Aldo calls to reconcile the Gucci rift, she’s adamant they return to the fold.

Then she promptly starts maneuvering to put Paolo out of the picture.

Patrizia is an infamous figure in Italy, known as “the Black Widow” for ordering a hit on Maurizio in 1995. Lady Gaga plays

Lady Gaga stars in House of Gucci as Patrizia Reggiana, the “Black Widow” of Italy, who ordered the assassination of her husband Maurizio Gucci. her with what I can only describe as gusto. She and Scott know this is melodrama of the highest sort.

When Patrizia and Maurizio have a tryst in his father’s office, it starts out sexy but devolves into a kind of slapstick ferocity. Driver seems to understand exactly the level of soap opera acting this story needs and delivers it nonchalantly. I suppose it’s hard not to wink into the camera when you’re doing a GQ cover shoot scene. Pacino, Leto, and Irons go full Dark Shadows.

I wouldn’t call any of the Italian accents “great,” but they’re at least fun, like when an unrecognizable Leto bleats, “She shake-a my hand while she knife-a me in the back!”

It’s corny as all hell, but it’s also pretty entertaining because you can tell these folks are having a good time.

Scott’s lighting design is off the charts good, especially in an early Italo-disco sequence where he goes gaga with a light-up dance floor. His foreshadowing of the climactic murder is constant. When Patrizia confronts Maurizio’s mistress at a ski lodge, she barrels into the shot in a blood-red, skin-tight ski suit. Thanks to the ’70s Italian characters smoking like very fashionable

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FILM By Chris McCoy chimneys, House of Gucci uses the mister as much as Blade Runner.

Ultimately, House of Gucci falls victim to the same problems Ridley Scott films have been having since Gladiator. There are a lot of good scenes that work on their own, but they never gel together into something greater than their sum. For example, Maurizio doesn’t drift away from Patrizia; he just seems to see another woman he likes and jumps ship. After luxuriating in Italian villas for two hours, the life-or-death drama at the end seems perfunctory. Like Leonardo DiCaprio

in The Wolf of Wall Street, Lady Gaga’s portrayal of the antihero Patrizia is so charismatic and seductive that it undermines the film’s supposed deeper themes of the corrupting power of greed. The whole package comes across a little like The Godfather, if everyone involved were just a little stupider. I guess there will always be an appetite for watching awful people behaving awfully.

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Voodoo and Rage

THE LAST WORD

Everyone knows that Memphis has a rich history. And its history of voodoo runs deep. From Voodoo Village1 to spiritual shops nestled in neighborhoods all around (if only you know where to look), the name Mojo City still rings true. This night, I partook in voodoo of a sweeter variety.

But my rage, well, it was an unexpected surprise.

Voodoo Cafe, located in Bartlett, has been serving up sweet little beignet voodoo dolls for over a year. I opted to get a traditional beignet first. It was sprinkled with sweet powdered sugar. Well, sprinkled isn’t the best word. They are absolutely avalanched in powdered sugar. I took a quick look around, just to survey the other practitioners. Some people were eating their beignets with a fork. It brought me back to a time in high school biology class when I dissected a little piglet.

Shaking the image out of my head, I picked up my little man, stretched my mouth wide, and took PHOTO: COURTESY PATRICIA LOCKHART a bite. Viciously and without mercy, I ripped the head off with my teeth. Why? Well, because that’s just the type of girl I am. But I must warn you: When you bite down on a traditional beigFrom powdered sugar to net, do … not … breathe. If you allow one tiny exhale to escape your lips, you are guaranteed to smashing things down to get powdered sugar everywhere. Not that I care, but in case any “professionals” don’t want to get a powder their hands dirty.

And if powdered sugar doesn’t tickle your fancy, they have a variety of flavors that are sure to delight even your darkest pleasures. While I thoroughly enjoyed the traditional beignet, I couldn’t say no to the Witch Doctor. It’s a beignet topped with spiced apples with a caramel drizzle. This treat is truly hypnotizing. (Yes, I ate two. Who in their right mind would eat only one?)

One day, I might be brave and try the Dead Elvis (peanut butter, banana, honey, and bacon), Grave Expectations (marshmallow fluff and crushed Oreos), The Yeti (sweet cream and shredded coconut), and Black Magic (Nutella). Not all in one sitting. I plan on standing up to reset between each beignet.

Coffee apparently pairs well with beignets. My Drank2 was the Guji Mane Remix. It’s brewed with the Guji Mane coffee from Memphis’ own Cxffeeblack. Trust me, this is a collaboration you must experience. Although the Guji Mane coffee is delicious served black, I can appreciate Voodoo’s Remix. They add chocolate and raspberry to it! Yum. After getting a tasteful alignment from Voodoo Cafe, I was ready to release a little bit of rage. The Rage Room, Craze, is located conveniently close to Voodoo Cafe in Bartlett.

(Suspish.) We signed in and slipped on our protective gear. They had rap music bumping through the speakers. I was getting hype, hype! I was talking to myself like, “Yeah! I’m finna break some stuff.” I legit thought I was about to “Set. It. Off.” up there. But I knew I was in trouble when I picked up the sledgehammer. Y’all! It’s heavy. The movies and home renovation channels make it look so easy.

So I decided to switch tactics. I gently laid down the sledgehammer and picked up a bat. This junt was heavy, too! It was nothing like the bat that my son used in his peewee sports. This was a metal bat, and it felt suspiciously like it was filled with concrete. I looked around for something lighter. There was nothing. My hubby reminded me that the goal was to break stuff, not play around, so I picked up a glass mug and I swung. Have you ever heard something metal colliding with glass? It’s loud. Like really loud. I jumped and thanked God that I had already peed before. (Or else my night would have ended then.) While my husband wielded the sledgehammer and broke stuff like a mad man, I secretly wondered, “Who has this much rage?” I began to doubt my decision, until my husband brought out a typewriter. It was so very satisfying to watch the keys fly through the air as the sledgehammer landed. I shattered it into a million pieces. Then I demolished a TV, a monitor, a glass bowl, some plates, and more glass trinkets. My hubby turned a metal file cabinet into scraps and broke a desk in half with just one swing. Huffing and puffing, I looked at my watch. It had only been 13 minutes! We raged until we couldn’t rage anymore. And I smiled the entire time.

This is just one of the reasons why I love my Boyfriend Memphis. I can regale in Memphis’ history while eating a sweet treat and end my night safely releasing some stress. Gotta love it, mane!

Book the Craze Rage Room at crazememphis.com; learn more about Voodoo Cafe at voodoocafebartlett.com.

Definitions: 1 Voodoo Village (n.) — Saint Paul Spiritual Holy Temple in Southeast Memphis 2 Drank (n.) — It’s like a drink, but better and with more emphasis and respect Patricia Lockhart is a native Memphian who loves to read, write, cook, and eat. Her days are filled with laughter with her four kids and charming husband. By day, she’s a school librarian and a writer, but by night … she’s alseep. @realworkwife @memphisismyboyfriend

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

Memphis is My Boyfriend, Episode 2: In which a Witch Doctor is consulted and a typewriter is smashed.

23

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