Memphis Flyer 12.15.2022

SHARA CLARK Editor

SAMUEL X. CICCI Managing Editor

JACKSON BAKER, BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN Senior Editors TOBY SELLS Associate Editor

KAILYNN JOHNSON News Reporter CHRIS MCCOY Film and TV Editor ALEX GREENE Music Editor

ABIGAIL MORICI

Arts and Culture Editor

MICHAEL DONAHUE, JON W. SPARKS

Staff Writers

GENE GARD, COCO JUNE, FRANK MURTAUGH

Contributing Columnists

SHARON BROWN, AIMEE STIEGEMEYER Grizzlies Reporters

ANDREA FENISE Fashion Editor

KENNETH NEILL Founding Publisher

CARRIE BEASLEY Senior Art Director

CHRISTOPHER MYERS

Advertising Art Director NEIL WILLIAMS Graphic Designer

JERRY D. SWIFT

Advertising Director Emeritus KELLI DEWITT, CHIP GOOGE, HAILEY THOMAS Senior Account Executives MICHELLE MUSOLF Account Executive

CHET HASTINGS Warehouse Facilitator

JANICE GRISSOM ELLISON, KAREN MILAM, DON MYNATT, TAMMY NASH, RANDY ROTZ, LEWIS TAYLOR, WILLIAM WIDEMAN Distribution

THE MEMPHIS FLYER

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ANNA TRAVERSE FOGLE

Executive

“Alexa, thank my driver.”

ese words rubbed me the wrong way last week when Amazon announced a campaign to allow customers the opportunity to say “thank you” and send a $5 tip to their delivery driver. Not that giving thanks is a bad idea. We should all show more gratitude more o en. It’s just that coming from one of the most pro table companies in the U.S. — and on the heels of reports of a lawsuit launched against it, for withholding employee tips of all things, in addition to impending layo s which include jobs in its Alexa division — it sounds like a bit of a joke.

For the 12 months ending in September 2022, Amazon exceeded $502 billion in revenue and $11 billion in net income. Billion. In a society where instant grati cation has become the norm, and where with a few mouse clicks or screen taps, we can have just about anything we’d ever need or want delivered to our front doors in a matter of hours or days, the irony of asking a robot to say thank you to the humans doing all that work does not escape me.

According to Amazon’s announcement: “Starting December 7, any time a customer says, ‘Alexa, thank my driver,’ the driver who delivered their most recent package will be noti ed of the customer’s appreciation. And, in celebration of this new feature, with each ‘thank you’ received from customers, drivers will also receive an additional $5, at no cost to the customer. We’ll be doing this for the rst 1 million ‘thank yous’ received. And, the ve drivers who receive the most customer ‘thank yous’ during the promotional period, will also be rewarded with $10,000 and an additional $10,000 to their charity of choice.”

Okay, sounds good. But what’s $5 million to Amazon — a corporation that netted $33.3 billion in pro ts in 2021? While this year thus far has shaped up to be the rst in recent past that the company has shown a decline in pro ts (2021 showed a 56.41 percent increase from 2020; 2020 an 84.08 percent increase over 2019), that amount is but a drop of water in the ocean.

According to ZipRecruiter, the average national salary for Amazon delivery drivers is $43,794, depending on location, with an average of $41,050 per year in Tennessee. ere are also a slew of Amazon Flex drivers — a program that launched in 2015 as the uptick of services like Uber, Ly , and the like saw more people using their own cars to make extra cash. ose Flex workers are independent contractors who do not receive reimbursement for gas, mileage, parking fees, etc. — and who, Amazon reports, earn $18 to $25 an hour, again depending on location and how quickly they complete their deliveries. Not bad for an hourly rate, but factor in gas, vehicle wear and tear, and physical demands, and you’ve gotta wonder what that balances out to. Of course, people choose to work at Amazon and could seek employment elsewhere at any time. But that’s not the point. Folks who work in the warehouses and in shipping and delivery are among the most integral parts of the business. Do consumers need to log on to an app or ask an electronic device to ensure they’re appreciated or properly compensated?

e “thank my driver” campaign hit its limit just one day a er the launch, with Amazon announcing December 8th, “We have received more than 1 million ‘thank yous’ concluding the promotion o ering $5 per ‘thank you’ to eligible drivers. You can still share your appreciation by saying, ‘Alexa, thank my driver.’ We are thankful for the enthusiastic response to the promotion and the appreciation shown to drivers.”

NEWS & OPINION

THE FLY-BY - 4

POLITICS - 8

SPORTS - 9

AT LARGE - 10

FINANCE - 11

COVER STORY

“FROM THE ARMY TO ARBO’S”

BY MICHAEL DONAHUE - 12

So yes, of course, continue to thank your driver. (Although I’m curious if they’re being inundated with constant, now-annoying noti cations.) Maybe put a little care package out with snacks or a gi card. But this whole thing reeks of a PR stunt to show Amazon as a company that cares for its workforce. And maybe it does. It could be a great place to work; I wouldn’t know. But I do know that its founder, Je Bezos, is reported to be the fourth-wealthiest person in the world, and that doesn’t happen without a certain level of smarts — and, I dare say, greed.

WE RECOMMEND - 16

MUSIC - 18

AFTER DARK -23 CALENDAR - 24

NY TIMES CROSSWORD - 25

BOOKS - 29 CANNABEAT - 30 FOOD - 33

NEWS OF THE WEIRD -34 ASTROLOGY - 35 FILM - 36

CLASSIFIEDS - 38

LAST WORD - 39

While we’re in the spirit of gratitude, if the opportunity arises, be sure to express thanks to your other delivery drivers, postal workers, restaurant servers, retail associates, and everyone else who keeps the ships a oat, especially this time of year. And consider stopping in a locally owned shop for some of your holiday giing needs this season. ey could use the support much more than Amazon. Shara Clark shara@memphis yer.com

PHOTO: WICKED MONDAY | UNSPLASH

THE fly-by

MEM ernet

Memphis on the internet.

MAKE IT HAPPEN

{WEEK THAT WAS

By Flyer staff

Questions, Answers + Attitude

Edited by Toby Sells

MLGW, Lick Creek, & Brian Kelsey

Board votes against “never-ending” contract, an alleged milk spill, and a lost law license.

MLGW AND TVA

Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) rejected Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) 20-year rolling contract last week but will continue to be a TVA customer “for the foreseeable future.”

e post o ce says a package containing these bears was delivered to Memphian Bethany Rose late last month. But they weren’t. e hunt for the bears now spans nearly every MEMernet social channel with tons of folks pitching in. Why?

“My dad recently died and I had teddy bears made for my kids out of his most loved shirts,” Rose wrote.

No bears as of last week, but Rose said she was “overwhelmed with the kindness of everyone trying to help my kids get this last Christmas gi from my dad.”

TREE-TROVERSY

Whitehaven leaders replaced Southland Mall’s old tree with a new one recently a er individual donations and a $25,000 gi from the SchoolSeed Foundation. Critics said the old tree had seen better days.

Over on the Where Black Memphis Gets It! Facebook page, Marie Spring eld said the new tree “steal[s] the style” of a tree standing at Bellevue and Walker in South Memphis and said the money getting it was wasted. An amazing comment thread erupted from the post with drama, comedy, and one who said, “Mane, it’s a fucking tree!”

12 DAYS OF MEMPHIS

It’s time to break out the Memphis Christmas music. If you have some, send a link to toby@ memphis yer. com. For now, give a spin to Star & Micey’s classic “12 Days of Memphis.”

e board members ultimately rejected TVA’s now-standard, 20-year rolling contract, which most of its other local power companies have signed. e down vote was based mostly on the length of the term. Board chairman Mitch Graves said, simply, the 20-year deal was “too long of an agreement.”

MLGW began evaluating its nearly 80-year relationship with TVA in 2018. Others (including Siemens) claimed MLGW could save between $130 million-$450 million each year if it le TVA.

Locals from Overton Park to the Vollintine-Evergreen neighborhood have raised concern over an alleged milk spill in Lick Creek.

e Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) responded to complaints from locals. However, investigators did not nd much.

MLGW is not leaving TVA, however. It will remain with TVA “for the foreseeable future,” according to an MLGW statement. But it can more freely keep its options to other power suppliers open a er voting down the contract.

TVA said the decision “is a reinforcement of the longstanding relationship with TVA in delivering a ordable, reliable, and clean energy to the people and communities across Memphis and Shelby County.”

Other groups, like the Southern Environmental Law Center, saw the decision a little di erently.

“Big news out of Memphis as the city’s utility rejects a restrictive, never-ending power supply contract with TVA, looking for more renewable energy sources and lower bills for residents,” the group tweeted a er the meeting.

MILK SPILL?

State and city o cials are monitoring an alleged milk spill from the Prairie Farms dairy facility a er complaints that Lick Creek was running white.

Locals from Overton Park to the Vollintine-Evergreen neighborhood posted photos, comments, and questions online about the creek. Some neighbors said the cause was a milk spill from the Prairie Farms dairy facility on Madison. One commenter said Prairie Farms contacted him to say the spill was from a clogged sewer drain and that the problem would not happen again.

Prairie Farms did not respond to a request for comment.

“TDEC investigated Lick Creek last week a er receiving complaints of discolored water,” TDEC spokeswoman Kim Scho nski said in a statement. “TDEC sta did not observe any abnormal conditions on their site visit. However, TDEC will remain in close communication with the complainants and the city of Memphis regarding this location as our investigation continues.”

City o cials said the city’s Storm Water team was investigating but would not give any information about it. When asked if any more information was available or to speak with someone, Arlenia Cole, a spokeswoman in Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s o ce, said, “ is is an active investigation and we are unable to add more context.”

Milk spills can upset ecosystems as it sucks oxygen from the water and can kill wildlife.

KELSEY’S LICENSE

Former state Senator Brian Kelsey’s law license was suspended last ursday by the Tennessee Supreme Court, a move that comes a er he pled guilty to two election nance charges last month.

For each of these charges, Kelsey faces ve years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in June 2023. As for his law license, the court is mulling “the nal discipline to be imposed upon Mr. Kelsey.”

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

POSTED TO FACEBOOK BY BETHANY ROSE

POSTED TO YOUTUBE BY STAR & MICEY

PHOTO: CHRISTINA ROSS | NEXTDOOR

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

{LGBTQ+

By Kailynn Johnson

Protected Respect

Locals “ecstatic” a er passage of LGBTQ+ marriage bill.

Alocal said the passage of the federal Respect For Marriage Act last week was a “step in the right direction” while another was “ecstatic,” especially a er November nuptials.

Legislation was passed last week, by the United States House of Representatives that protects same-sex and interracial marriage. e next step is for President Joe Biden to sign the bill into law.

e bill was passed by the Senate in November. It provides “statutory authority for same-sex and interracial marriages.” It requires all states to recognize “valid marriages,” and it repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, which was signed in 1996 by former President Bill Clinton.

According to Congress, the “bill replaces provisions that de ne, for purposes of federal law, marriage as between a man and a woman and spouse as a person of the opposite sex with provisions that recognize any marriage between two individuals that is valid under state law.” e bill also “replaces provisions that do not require states to recognize same-sex marriages from other states with provisions that prohibit the denial of full faith and credit or any right or claim relating to out-of-state marriages on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or national origin.”

e House voted 258 to 169, with 39 Republicans voting in favor of the bill. All Democrat representatives voted to pass the bill. No members from the Tennessee GOP voted to support the bill. When the bill was passed through the Senate, Tennessee Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty were among the 36 Republicans who voted against the bill.

e future of same-sex marriages was questioned a er Roe v. Wade was overturned in June. is speculation was heightened a er Supreme Court Justice Clarence omas wrote in the concurring opinion that “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell.”

Congressman Steve Cohen voted in favor of the act. Cohen released this statement regarding his vote:

“ e Respect for Marriage Act simply says each state will recognize other states’ marriages and not deny a person the right to marry based on race, gender, or sexual orientation. e only reason to vote against it is if you believe people shouldn’t have the right to choose their partner and marry who they love. I do and was proud to vote for them.”

Representatives from local LGBTQ+ organizations and establishments in Memphis voiced their excitement over this news.

Keleigh Klarke, the entertainment director of Dru’s Place (Dru’s Bar), said, “We are ecstatic! For myself, having just gotten married on November 12th, and with the current attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, this is an amazing bit of peace to carry through our days. We have multiple Dru’s family members that the passing of this bill will be a huge comfort to and others that it will give a brighter and more hopeful outlook to the future!”

Phillis Lewis, CEO and founder of Love Doesn’t Hurt, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, said, “ e recent passage of the bill is de nitely a step in the right direction to help provide protections for marriages involving not only same-sex couples but interracial ones as well. We hope this momentum continues to create a country that is equitable and does not and shall not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression or identity, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations.”

SANDY MILLAR /UNSPLASH e bill would codify a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

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POLITICS By Jackson Baker

Seasonal Circumstances

Both winners and losers have their problems.

To vary that old TV shibboleth about the thrill of victory vs. the agony of defeat, sometimes there are a fair number of agonies associated with victory. As one example, many a victorious politician has had to grapple with resultant nancial di culties. O en enough, the pay the winner receives for his newly acquired public responsibility is less than the income source he le behind.

is is true, for example, in the case of newly installed DA Steve Mulroy, who upon assuming o ce basically had to take a pay cut from his former job as the Bredesen Professor of Law at the University of Memphis. And, like numerous other electoral winners, Mulroy nds himself saddled with a sizable campaign debt. Fundraisers during the course of a campaign are fundamental to the process of election. Equally commonplace these days is the post-election fundraiser designed to help retire the aforesaid campaign debt.

One was scheduled for Mulroy on Monday night of this week at the Tennessee Brewery by helpful angels Billy Orgel and Craig Weiss. And, as is typical when the bene ciary is a new o ce-holder, the number of good-willed benefactors can constitute something of a Who’s Who, politicalwise. e co-hosts for the Mulroy a air included 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, state Senator Raumesh Akbari, former Shelby County Mayor Bill Morris, the several Byrd brothers of longtime Democratic provenance and the Bank of Bartlett, and J.W. and Kathy Gibson.

• ’Tis the season for feasts aplenty, but for some in the political world, the menu is replete with humble pie and side dishes of crow. One such unfortunate is former state Senator Brian Kelsey, who, as was noted last week in the Flyer, had his law license suspended by the Tennessee Supreme Court as a consequence of his having pleaded guilty in November to two felony charges stemming from a campaign nance case. Further action on the law license could be forthcoming from the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility, the state’s formal disciplinary body for such matters.

A er asking for and receiving

several postponements of a pending trial, Kelsey had resolved upon a plea agreement in the wake of co-defendant Josh Smith’s entering a plea of guilty.

e o ense involved essentially a conspiracy to illegally recycle funds from the state senator’s state-government campaign fund into a fund to fuel a federal campaign — what turned out to be an unsuccessful race for the District 8 congressional seat in 2016. Both Smith and Kelsey face sentencing on June 9th. According to the Tennessee Journal, “Kelsey would face at least 18 to 24 months in prison under calculations included in the plea agreement. His penalties are enhanced because he was the ‘organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor’ of the criminal activity.”

Kelsey could be eligible for a reduction upon a proper assumption of responsibility for his actions. But prosecutors have indicated that if Kelsey is insu ciently contrite in his allocution and other conduct before he is sentenced, they would seek to tack on an additional nine months in prison.

Interestingly enough, the American Conservative Union, which was involved in the channeling of Kelsey’s campaign funds but was not itself subject to indictment, recently rated the Tennessee legislature as the secondmost conservative in the nation and Kelsey, while still in o ce, as the third most conservative member of the state Senate.

• Karen Camper, an announced candidate for Memphis mayor in 2023, has evidently decided not to relinquish her duties as state House Democratic leader next year, having accepted a vote of reelection to that post from her Democratic caucus members.

PHOTO: BRIAN KELSEY | FACEBOOK Brian Kelsey in happier times.

SPORTS By Frank Murtaugh

MSEC: Game Changer

To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, the Mid-South recreation community took a giant leap Saturday when the Memphis Sports & Events Center (MSEC) opened its doors in the heart of Liberty Park. Where Memphians once rode the Zippin Pippin during a visit to Libertyland, they’ll now dribble basketballs, spike volleyballs, and compete in futsal tournaments. Drive by the facility and you can virtually hear the squeak of sneakers.

“Sports tourism and Memphis youth, that’s what this is about,” said Mayor Jim Strickland at a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by dozens of supporters and o cials, but also, signi cantly, dozens of young volleyball and basketball players. “My kids played youth sports, and rarely could we play in Memphis. We didn’t have a facility. Hundreds of thousands of people will come to Memphis every year because of this facility, spending money, creating jobs. It will be a national destination. All Memphis kids will be welcome here. Nothing builds quality young people like team sports.”

Zone (TDZ) classi cation, with $10 million contributed directly by the state of Tennessee. Designed by local architecture rm brg3s, the complex is shaped also for cheer and competitive dance tournaments, with a scarcity of vertical beams to allow the necessary air space for such events. (If you’ve seen cheer tournaments, you know such space is a premium.)

e MSEC immediately becomes the centerpiece of Liberty Park. (You’ll show your age if you call this area “the Fairgrounds.”) Along with Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium (now home to both the Memphis Tigers and USFL’s Memphis Showboats), the Kroc Center, and the Children’s Museum of Memphis, the facility breathes new life into an area that has seen activity decline since the closures of Libertyland and the Mid-South Coliseum. And there’s more to come, Strickland highlighting an 18-acre private development that will include a hotel.

“We were missing opportunities in the emerging and growing youth-sports market,” said Kevin Kane, president of Memphis Tourism. “For indoor sports, we used various facilities throughout the community. But we’re [transitioning] to huge youth sports, thanks to this facility. It’s a game changer. Everybody will bene t. Memphis is the big winner today, the tax base, and from an economic development standpoint.”

At 227,000 square feet, the MSEC has a footprint the size of four football elds. Each of two wings features eight basketball courts that can convert into as many as 32 volleyball courts. e north wing includes stadium seating to accommodate 3,500 spectators, along with four VIP suites, and boxes for media and recruiters. It’s the kind of space — enormous but buzzing with activity — that makes you wish you were 13 years old … or the parent of a 13-year-old.

Remarkably, the MSEC was completed in 18 months, the heavy li ing under the guidance of Turner Construction. It cost $60 million and was paid for under a Tourism Development

e MSEC is not only for kids. Adult leagues for basketball and futsal will begin play in January. (Futsal is a form of indoor soccer played on a “ eld” the size of a basketball court.) ere are multipurpose rooms that can host birthday parties, anniversary celebrations, and other such fun. And two dining areas. You could spend all day at the MSEC and leave wanting a little more.

Fittingly, local sports-media legend Jarvis Greer greeted the crowd for Saturday’s grand opening. To no one’s surprise, he seemed like the most excited man in the place. And Jarvis gets it. Youth sports matter, as much for what comes a er youth as during our playing days. If exercise is good for the body, mind, and soul, Memphis just got considerably healthier. And without a pill.

PHOTO: FRANK MURTAUGH Memphis Sports & Events Center

If exercise is good for the body, mind, and soul, Memphis just got considerably healthier.

Call Me

Rikki, don’t lose that number You don’t wanna call nobody else Send it o in a letter to yourself …

I still remember it: 581-3457. No, that wasn’t Rikki’s number. at was my family’s phone number when I was growing up. In those days, I could tell you the phone numbers of all my close friends, plus those of my grandparents, plus the local pizza joint. I never thought about having to look them up. Everyone had tons of numbers memorized. It was essential. It’s not like you could carry a phone book around with you.

Now? Well, I know my wife’s phone number, mainly because I have to use it in lling out various forms. And I know Jenny’s, of course (867-5309). But I couldn’t begin to tell you my children’s numbers. ey’ve all moved around and their area codes are weird now and, well, I don’t have to know their numbers because I can just tell my phone to “call Mary.” is is a good thing. I’ve got four kids and stepkids, meaning I’d have to memorize 40 rando digits with my dwindling brain cells, and who needs that?

Speaking of my brain cells, indulge me please as I ponder for a moment the ancient days of landlines — only we didn’t call them landlines. We called them “telephones.” ey were big, clunky plastic things that were plugged into walls or placed in little booths around town. Most families had a single phone shared by everybody, usually in the living room. Later, people began to get “extensions,” so you could get some modicum of privacy, unless your pesky brother in the other room stealthily picked up and listened. College dorms had a single phone in the hallway, shared by every resident living on that oor. You want to sweet talk your girlfriend? Good luck.

Times were tough, I tell ya. If you’re over 40, you can probably relate to much of this. e greatest evolutionary steps of the telephone have happened within our lifetimes.

Remember when voicemail was introduced? What a revelation that was. Everyone le those stupid explicit instructions. “You have reached 901-111-5554, the residence of George and Brenda Caldwell-Williams. We can’t answer the phone right now, but if you’ll leave your name and phone number a er the beep, we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Have a great day!”

You had to listen to that bilge all the

way through every time you called before you could leave a message. Kill me. And lots of people did cute or “funny” answering machine messages, like reading the script together or making little jokes. Kill me again. Faster.

And caller ID? What a game changer that was! I remember with great pleasure the day we got that device on our home phone. at very night our teenage daughter called and said, “Hey, Mom, I’m at Kathryn’s and I think I’m just gonna spend the night out here, okay?” My wife responded: “Huh, that’s interesting. Our new caller ID says you’re at Brad’s house. You get your butt home right now, young lady!” It was so delicious. Good, good times.

Now caller ID, voicemail, cameras, maps, phone books, and the entire collected knowledge of the human race are built into the noisy little computers we carry with us everywhere. Today that Steely Dan song I cited above would be called, “Rikki, Yo Here’s My Digits.” You’d just airdrop her your number and start sending inappropriate texts.

And it’s not just songs that have had to be reinvented. All of modern ction and screenwriting have changed to accommodate the new reality of constant interconnectedness. Plots involving letter writing? Nah. Heroine driving a car and can’t be reached? Nah. Hero needs to go to the library to look something up and then meets girl of his dreams? Nah.

ese sorts of changes aren’t unprecedented, of course. Art and literature have always evolved to accommodate the modi cations imposed by humanity’s inventiveness. e World According to Garp and Casablanca beautifully exemplify the era of their creation, and their truths stand the test of time. Bogart standing on a rainy Moroccan tarmac growling, “Here’s looking at you, kid,” over a cell phone just wouldn’t have the same magic.

PHOTO: STOKKETE | DREAMSTIME.COM Don’t lose my number.

A brief history of the telephone.

Bruce VanWyngarden

2022 U.S. Dollar Review

Fish in the ocean probably don’t have a sense that they’re underwater, just as we don’t think much about being surrounded by air all the time here on the surface of earth. Nevertheless, those environments are critical to everyday life for sh and people, even if they are easy to ignore.

Similarly, everything we do economically is tied to the U.S. dollar, and it’s easy to forget how important it is to our daily lives. Americans have to think even less about other currencies than most global citizens because oil and a great deal of international trade is priced in dollars. Nevertheless, the U.S. dollar is not a xed measure but uctuates in value frequently — against other currencies, commodities, and anything else priced on a large scale worldwide.

U.S., since oil is critical to almost every aspect of production and transportation in global trade. Smaller countries feel even more pain, since they o en issue dollardenominated bonds, which become more expensive to service and ultimately pay o .

Several phenomena can cause dollar strength. e demand for the dollar is uniquely strong, since it is required to settle so many sorts of international payments throughout the world. Also, when geopolitical tension rises, investors tend to buy up dollars and U.S. treasuries as a safer place to park money. But perhaps most importantly, demand for the dollar is driven by interest rate di erentials, since currency traders prefer holding currencies that generate the most “carry,” or net interest on investment in the currency.

e Fed has quickly and consistently hiked interest rates in 2022, and the carry created by these rising interest rates means that demand for the dollar went even higher this year. e Fed’s actions pushed USD up almost 20 percent at one point in 2022 alone, which is a startling move for an asset class that is typically much less volatile.

e natural swing of the dollar up and down over time suggests you probably want some exposure to non-dollar assets like international stocks at all times. If the status of the dollar as the reserve currency or treasuries as the reserve asset is meaningfully challenged then non-dollar assets can do some real work in your portfolio.

e dollar was up 20 percent in 2022, but since the peak it has fallen about 10 percent on expectations the Fed will pause or cut rates in the future (reducing the carry). As one consequence of this, the international indexes we follow are dramatically outperforming U.S. markets in Q4 of this year.

e best-known index of the dollar’s value is the DXY index, which compares the dollar against six other major currencies. According to the DXY index, the dollar has appreciated by about 30 percent over the last ten years and is up 10 percent this year alone. A strong dollar might seem like a good thing, and it does make imported goods cheaper and international vacations more a ordable. However, dollar strength can create problems throughout the world, including here in the U.S.

When the dollar rises, exports from the U.S. are less a ordable, which hurts U.S. businesses. e price of oil becomes less a ordable for the world, as global oil trade is still almost always priced in dollars. is makes goods more expensive even in the

Fish may not be able to diversify out of water and we can’t diversify away from air, but we can de nitely diversify our investments. As Nobel Laureate Harry Markowitz once said, diversi cation is the only free lunch, and it’s likely that international exposure could be increasingly important to your secure nancial future in the years to come.

Gene Gard CFA, CFP, CFT-I, is Chief Investment O cer at Telarray, a Memphisbased wealth management rm that helps families navigate investment, tax, estate, and retirement decisions. Ask him your questions or schedule an objective, no-pressure portfolio review at letstalk@ telarrayadvisors.com. Sign up for their next free online seminar on the Events tab at telarrayadvisors.com

PHOTO:

REYNALDO #BRIGWORKZ BRIGANTTY | PEXELS

In high demand

Demand for the dollar went even higher this year.

Editor’s Note: is story includes frank discussion of trauma and PTSD.

ndrew Arbogast has a continuing nightmare in which he crashes his helicopter while on military duty in Afghanistan.

“It’s usually at takeo or landing,” he says. “ e blade stops spinning and I go upside down and crash the helicopter. at never happened. Right? But it’s a

recurring nightmare that, in a way, kind of reminds me that life is not guaranteed.”

A former Army Apache helicopter pilot, Arbogast, 39, was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014. “ ere were some very traumatic moments in combat. I have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. And I have to live with demons that, unfortunately, will never go away.”

Arbogast is owner of Arbogast Foods LLC, which includes Arbo’s Cheese Dip. Since hitting High Point Grocery May 15, 2021, the dip, which comes in original,

From the Army to Arbo’s

spicy, and queso blanco, is in about 300 stores. “We’re rocking and rolling with Kroger. ey’ve been ordering and selling out nonstop.”

He plans to add more products. “I don’t know if it’s because of the Army or the military or if I’m cut from a di erent cloth, but I’m so disappointed if I don’t have something to look forward to.”

But while Arbogast has successfully created a line of dips that are growing in popularity, an unsettling memory from his Army days continues to haunt him.

TAKING OFF

A native Memphian, Arbogast grew up with his dad’s spicy cheese dip, a family gathering essential.

He loved to cook and thought about going to culinary school but ended up switching his major from food service to psychology a er getting an ROTC scholarship to nish his education at Northwest Missouri State University.

He then spent 10 years in the Army, which included a stint in Iraq. Instead of asking his mom to send him fresh

A CHEESE DIP CONNOISSEUR’S JOURNEY FROM COMBAT AVIATOR TO CULINARY CREATOR.

PHOTO: COURTESY ANDREW ARBOGAST From posing with an Apache helicopter in Afghanistan to holding his own cheese dip

socks, Arbogast asked her to send a George Foreman grill.

Arbogast was then deployed to Afghanistan, where he was air mission commander. Still all about food, he remembers sitting down with his soldiers and “breaking bread” with them, slicing a foot-and-a-half summer sausage and smoked Gouda cheese, while planning their mission to Afghanistan. “Food is morale,” he says.

When he got out of the service, Arbogast went to work as a category manager at International Paper. But in November 2020, he decided he wanted to do something with his dad’s cheese dip recipe.

He got thumbs-up during cheese taste-testings with friends. e dip is smooth, has character and body, but chips won’t break during dipping, Arbogast says.

A year a er the business began, Arbo’s dip was in local grocery stores as well as non-grocery stores. In August 2022, the dip became available in major Texas cities. ey’re sold at H-E-B Grocery Company’s Central Market stores. On October 22nd, 100 Kroger stores in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi

began carrying his dips.

Everything happened fast.

Arbogast’s cheese dip business sounds like a sweet dream. But, he says, “With as many good things that have happened, double have been failures through all of this. Which is what people don’t really see. ey see success, but they don’t understand or are not privy to how much of a struggle this has been to grow this quickly and reach Texas, for example, or Kentucky. It didn’t come overnight.

to get through the day, the week, the month.”

His days include trying to meet the demands of Kroger and other retailers while striving to come up with new product ideas. “I’m still at that point where I’m managing everything as a single person. I’m managing the orders, the purchases of raw materials, bookkeeping, operation, and, most importantly, the sales. at’s one of the biggest struggles.”

Like the time an order of $25,000 worth of cheese had to be disposed of because it wasn’t put in a cooler. “I never have a day that goes as planned.

Or, what I would refer to in the Army, when you’re task-saturated: ‘You’re hanging on to the stabilator.’ It’s the most rear part of the aircra . You’re hanging on to the tail of the aircra , basically.

“It’s hard not to treat every issue as an urgent priority. I’m still learning. And it feels like I have a long way to go. I’d love to sit down and just relax and take a deep breath. I haven’t gured out a way to do that. But I want to do it all, and I want to do it now.”

“Going into this I was just so naive with, ‘Oh, all you have to do is make cheese dip and people will buy it.’”

Not so, he says. “I’m tired. I’m constantly stressed. But there is a key component that I’ve acquired from my time in service, time in combat. When things are at their worst, you have to remain resilient and positive in order

“At this point, I’m still running with it, but I need to hire someone, even if it’s an administrative assistant, to help me with some of the ordering or some of the logistics. Or a bookkeeper. It’s very hard to keep up with all of it e ectively.”

Since Pancho’s Cheese Dip was bought by Minnesota-based food distributor Sabrosura Foods in 2021 and is no longer made in Memphis, Arbogast also has had to contend with competition from other local cheese dip makers.

“I’m kind of hanging on by a thread.

But, he says, “I’m afraid of losing control. I’m afraid at the end of the day.” en there are the nightmares. “It’s stu unrelated to cheese dip,” he says, adding, “I don’t know if some of this stems from PTSD from the military or are just those things that continue to resurface.”

NOT JUST A DREAM

e helicopter nightmare harkens back to a real incident that involved Arbogast on March 6, 2014. “I was responsible and at the trigger of what we call a blue on green attack. What that means is ‘blue’ being the United

With as many good things that have happened, double have been failures.

PHOTO: COURTESY ANDREW ARBOGAST (le ) Arbogast and his wife Erin selling cheese dip; (above, below) Arbogast on duty in Afghanistan

States, the Army, our military, against the ‘green,’ allied forces or Afghan forces. Where we have mistaken them for the enemy.

“I took the lives of our allies. I think about it every day. And I still don’t know if I will be forgiven on judgment day.”

Recounting that incident, Arbogast says, “We were cleared to do what we were supposed to do in order to prevent loss of American lives. e guys were just at the wrong place at the wrong time and weren’t wearing uniforms. We had cleared it through our headquarters that these were supposed to be enemy bases where they were and where they were positioned. What we perceived as the enemy position was on a small ridge line. At the top of the ridge line was a heavy machine gun, a DShK, which is a threat to our aircra .”

Arbogast later found out the “enemy” they were looking at was actually “an Afghan army.” But, he says, “ ey were out of uniform and their location was not plotted on a map that was current.

“Because of that we were cleared to engage because we saw that as an immediate threat. Once we had expended every bit of ammunition from our Apaches, we went back to

re-arm.”

en, he says, “ ere was a call over the radio that an Afghan army was being attacked at that location.” is took place at night. “ ey didn’t know what was going on when they were being destroyed.”

Arbogast hasn’t forgotten the slightest details. “I remember everything vividly from that night. What I had for dinner: It was cold pork chops, carrots, and peas. We went out to just do our jobs.

“I don’t know how the other guys feel. It’s not something we talk about.

Morally, I think it’s easier for some of them to believe that they were truly Taliban.”

A technical investigation took place, and Arbogast and the other soldiers were cleared. But in the report, one of the Afghan soldiers said they radioed into their headquarters and said, “We are being attacked. But we are not in fear. e Apaches are here to save us.” ose words still haunt Arbogast.

“Half a dozen were killed or maimed when they were trying to ght for their country. And I have to live with that.

“You push it down and you go on about your day. What do you do? Until it bubbles to the surface. No matter how many pills you take, how many hours of therapy or group sessions, it’s something that will continue to haunt you.

“What would have been the alternative? If our helicopter were shot down? As hard as it is to live like this, that would be even worse to imagine.

“War is hell. People don’t come back the same. And what you do with yourself will de ne you.”

A POSITIVE TURN

Arbogast didn’t tell the story to his wife, Erin, for four years. “I didn’t see the good in discussing it. It’s just something you suppress. I don’t want anyone to worry about me. I just have to have a way to overcome it. So, talking about it or even just doing something that makes me happy will continue to bring progress. So, cheese dip it is.

“I turned all that moral injury, anger, and aggression toward something positive. e cheese dip. It’s almost one of those things that if I didn’t experience anything like that, would I have the courage to start this business?”

At one point, Arbogast thought he

PHOTO: COURTESY ANDREW ARBOGAST Erin and Andrew Arbogast

might retire and “live a boring life.” But, he says, “You have nothing else to live for if you’re not continuing to hustle.

“This is the biggest thing I have ever done in my life. Even my time in the service, 10 years. This feels bigger than that. This is something where I put the onus on me to be successful for my family, and for my community. I don’t want to let myself down. And I don’t want to let others down. Because what I have is a good thing. And it would be a terrible waste to let this go at this stage.”

“We work with Folds of Honor, the organization that supports and raises funds to hand out to the family and children of fallen and wounded soldiers. He’s part of that.”

Arbogast is a newly appointed Folds of Honor board member. A portion of Arbo’s Cheese Dip sales proceeds go to the organization. “I can continue to serve outside of the uniform,” Arbogast says. “The mission has a direct impact on the families of service members that made the ultimate sacrifice. It’s better for me to devote my life to making sure the families of those that didn’t make it back are not forgotten.”

Arbogast wants to add more dips, salsa, and maybe Arbo’s seasoned pretzels to his business.

Arbo’s dips are a popular item at Grind City Brewing Co., says event director Ian Betti: “We sell a ton of it. It’s one of those snack-y, communal types of meals that work out really well.”

And, Betti says, Arbo’s dips are also a great way to support Arbogast. “He’s a casual, down-to-earth, genuine person. But also knowing he is a former Army aviator is super important to us, too, because we love supporting vets.

“One day I do have a dream of selling this brand. It’s not just the money I’ll earn, but it’s going to allow me to do something else with this short speck of time that we have. I feel like this is just one chapter and I have more chapters and I will continue to build.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get content in this life. When I do, it’s time to hang up the helmet and gloves. That’s what one of my flight instructors would tell me. The minute you think you’ve got it all figured out and you don’t need to learn and develop, it’s time to hang up the helmet and gloves. Because you’re done.”

I feel like this is just one chapter and I have more chapters and I will continue to build.

steppin’ out

We Recommend: Culture, News + Reviews

A Cowboy Christmas

By Abigail Morici

He was a Ponyboy; she was a Ponygirl. Can I make it any more obvious? Well, to be fair, I could probably elaborate. You know Tommy “C. omas” Howell, the guy who played Ponyboy in e Outsiders? He’s released a single “Ponygirl” last week. Sadly, Howell says, “ ere’s no relation to Ponyboy, apart from the fact that Ponyboy wrote it. It’s a lullaby that’s about a young cowboy looking for his love.”

And though you might also recognize Howell from his roles in E.T., Red Dawn, and even Criminal Minds, channelling the story of a cowboy within his music hasn’t been much of a stretch for the actor. “I grew up in a rural community,” he says. “My father was a professional cowboy and I rodeoed my whole life.” Music, however, is a relatively new creative outlet for the artist.

“I picked up a guitar for the very rst time [when Covid hit in 2020] with the thought of wanting to write and star in a movie about a cowboy who had success with one album and walked away from the business,” Howell says. “So I started to pluck at the guitar hoping to fake my way through a movie production and I absolutely fell in love with it. I started playing and writing songs, and one thing led to another and all this just turned into a big old mess on accident.”

With three singles under his belt and an album set to release in 2023, Howell is ready to get back on the stage. “I went through kind of a quickening, I’d say, a little speed course over the past year and a half. I feel like I’ve been doing it for 10 years. It’s exciting to reinvent yourself and be open to something new.” is ursday, Howell will bring his Cowboy Christmas Show to Memphis, where he will perform his original country music and classic Christmas songs. Plus, he’ll share a tale or two about his life and career in Hollywood. Admission to the show is free, but a toy donation for the Salvation Army is strongly encouraged. “We’re just trying to put smiles on faces and hearts, including our own,” he says.

e moon just might hit your eye, like a big pizza pie, at Izzy & Adam’s. Food, p. 33

of Change: Taking It to the Streets”

“Men

National Civil Rights Museum, on display through December 16

e National Civil Rights Museum highlights the contributions of notable Black men with this outdoor exhibition, based on the Smithsonian’s ne art exhibit of the same name.

is exhibit showcases the pro les of 24 signi cant Black men across the decades — from Duke Ellington and Muhammad Ali to Kendrick Lamar and Alvin Ailey. In turn, the exhibit highlights parallels between the past and present, while telling stories of historical, cultural, political, and creative signi cance.

Velveteen Rabbit: e Musical Hattiloo eatre, performances through December 18, $30-$35

e Velveteen Rabbit was the boy’s favorite birthday present. But when the party started the Velveteen Rabbit was forgotten. He lived for a long time in the toy cupboard, dreaming of becoming real. When the boy rediscovers his favorite toy, the Velveteen Rabbit embarks upon the best summer ever. But when the boy gets very sick, the Velveteen Rabbit learns what it means to be a loyal friend and what it really takes to become real.

Performances run ursdaySaturday at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.

12 Hours of Christmas Adoption Event

Memphis Animal Services, Saturday, December 17, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.

MAS will extend its hours to o er adopters $12 adoptions, a $50 pet supply gi card, a present under the tree for every pet that gets adopted, a holiday photo for each adoption, and hot chocolate (for humans only) while supplies last.

All adoptions at MAS, regardless of adoption fee, include spay/ neuter, microchip, vaccines, collar, leash, customized ID tag, heartworm testing and treatment medications if needed (dogs), and FeLV testing (cats).

Tis the Season … To De-Stress Arkwings, Saturday, December 17, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., free Arkwings shares ways to deal with holiday seasonal stress through creative arts, mindfulness, and self-care.

Guests will engage in a variety of creative activities, from painting to sound to moving your body around, re ection, and hands-on make-n-take items that you can enjoy at home, plus fresh and healthy tastings.

All activities are free of charge, and registration is encouraged via eventbrite.com. Email questions to info@arkwings.org.

Jamie Harmon’s Memphis Quarantine captures the early pandemic days. Books, p. 29

COWBOY CHRISTMAS SHOW, LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 7 P.M., FREE WITH A TOY DONATION.

PHOTO: JUDD SATHER PHOTOGRAPHY Tommy Howell

PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE

PHOTO: JAMIE HARMON

Such a Doll

By Abigail Morici

Amid the political unrest spurred from the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s, a little girl named Marisol immigrated to the United States, only allowed to bring a single dress and a single doll. That dress — a simple white dress with heirloom lace and hand-stitched sewing — stayed in Marisol’s family, passed down to her daughter and then to her granddaughters. Now, it’s the subject of a children’s book, written and illustrated by her daughter Emily Ozier.

“I wrote this little story when my oldest was the same age as Marisol in the book,” Ozier says. “And it was the first time that I really realized what my mom had gone through. I wrote it just to help my own child understand, build empathy, but it also was an exercise for me in understanding my mom. I didn’t know if anything would ever come of it.”

By trade, Ozier is an impressionist artist, known as EMYO professionally, but in late 2021, she was approached by an editor about doing a children’s book. Marisol’s Dress happened to be the perfect fit. With refugees consistently arriving in the U.S. and in Memphis, Ozier says, stories like Marisol’s can help readers understand the immigrant experience on a human level. “This is something from the past, but it’s also very much something from the present.”

With the story green-lit, all that was left was for Ozier to illustrate the pages. “What’s interesting about the creative process is that this was the time for that story to be told because my art needed to develop over all these years,” she says. “When I write, I try to distill down to the very fewest number of words possible to say what I wanna say. And I do that in my paintings. I try to paint in such a way that I’ve distilled the information down to the most necessary.”

The original canvas paintings within the book are now on display at the Dixon, and this weekend, Ozier is hosting a Paper Doll Party for adults and teens to embrace their inner child and creativity, just as Marisol does in the book.

Copies of Marisol’s Dress can be purchased at Novel, with a portion of sales going to World Relief Memphis.

music at

36

Goner In-store Reading with Tyler Keith and Tim Lee

Goner Records, Saturday, December 17, 5:30 p.m.

Goner presents a festive evening of exquisite readings from a couple of rock-and-rollers, with refreshments and books on hand.

Tyler Keith, the songwriter and guitarist behind such bands as The Neckbones, The Preacher’s Kids, and The Apostles, has just published his first hard-boiled Southern noir novel, The Mark of Cain.

Meanwhile, Tim Lee, who played Southern jangle pop with the Windbreakers, details stories of the independent music scene in his recent release of I Saw a Dozen Faces

Unsilent Night

Cooper-Young Historic District, Saturday, December 17, 6 p.m., free

The Cooper-Young Community Association presents composer Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night, an outdoor participatory sound sculpture played through a roving swarm of boom boxes. Participants of all ages bring their own boom boxes (Bluetooth speakers and phones are fine, too!), press play together, and walk through the Cooper-Young neighborhood, beginning at the Cooper-Young Gazebo and ending at Memphis Made Brewery.

Participants 21+ can bring a canned good donation that will entitle them to one free beer.

Apocalypse Fest

Black Lodge, Sunday, December 18, 6 p.m., $20

Presented by Louise Page, this live music event promises to prioritize health and safety and to be welcoming to all and accessible as possible to immunocompromised and high-risk individuals. The lineup includes Page, Rosey, Runi Salem, and Oakwalker.

Precautions that will be taken include enforcing masking, using HEPA filters, and having registered nurses administer Covid rapid tests to all performers and employees.

The concert is pay-what-youcan, with a recommended $20 cover.

“EMILY OZIER: MARISOL’S DRESS,” DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS, ON DISPLAY THROUGH JANUARY 8. PAPER DOLL PARTY WITH EMILY OZIER (AGES 15+), DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 10 A.M.-NOON, $15-$20.

In White Noise, an Airborne Toxic Event inconveniences a Midwestern family in a tale that is eerily familiar. Film, p.

PHOTO: COURTESY PINKSTON/COURTESY EMILY OZIER Emily Ozier, aka EMYO

Outerspace

Ihad heard talk of a new project from the Unapologetic collective, so I called IMAKEMADBEATS out of the blue. No texting. We’re both aware that this is a dying art. “I’m actually pro-‘just calling,’” he says. “I want to take it back to years ago, when you just called people.” Still, it’s not every day you can ask someone you phone where they are and hear them say, “I’m in outer space right now.”

Of course, by “outer space,” MAD (as he’s called) really meant Outerspace, the new recording studio recently opened by Unapologetic. If that alone doesn’t sound too noteworthy, just take a look inside, as a few of us were able to back in August. e rst public event at the facility on Central Avenue was a listening event for the new album by Aaron James, Nobody Really Makes Love Anymore. Back then, many rooms were still under construction, but the main control room and live tracking room were nished. To all of us gathered there, MAD said, “I wanted a space that, when I walked into it, could remove all the stresses I had to go through to get here. Just kind of wipe them o my shoulder as I enter the space. at’s why when you walk in here, you’re immediately slapped in the face with a vibe. Because that’s what I need, is to get slapped in the face with a vibe. It’s perfect for me and for us.”

at vibe is in a colorful, electric, semi-science- ction vein, practically daring you to innovate. And such an environment was of the upmost importance as the collective created their rst standalone facility. MAD recalls its genesis in the pandemic. “I look back and think, ‘Wow, we did all of this [recorded work before Outerspace] from spare bedrooms in my house. at’s kinda crazy.’ But when 2020 hit us, my son was almost 3. He was growing up and needed more space. e pandemic sent us all into our own caves, in isolation. I began to consider, ‘How do I interact with so many people, yet keep my family safe and separated?’ e obvious answer was to nd a new space.”

But why call it Outerspace? As MAD explains, “I’m a big comic book guy,

and I love Watchmen. ere’s a classic image from that graphic novel, of Doctor Manhattan on Mars. When he needed to silence his mind and get some peace, he would just go and sit on Mars by himself. So when I thought about putting a place together, I wanted it to be for me what Mars was for Doctor Manhattan.”

As the Unapologetic team progressed, the logic of their chosen motif unfolded. “So if you go to Outerspace, you y into Andromeda, the main control room,” explains MAD. “And then maybe you end up on another planet. So we call our live room Another

Planet. And if there’s life there, you expect to see water and vegetation. So our two isolation booths in the live room are called e River, for the water, and e Garden, for the vegetation.” True to its name, e Garden is festooned with roses.

But there’s more, all designed with considerable care by the group’s various members. As MAD noted on his Facebook page, “I felt like most studios were designed by engineers, for engineers. I just wanted mine to be overwhelmingly for artists.” And that’s what the various rooms convey. Butter y, the smaller studio, is named a er the colliding Butter y Galaxies. en there are the hallways, the dressing room, the bathroom, and e Shuttle. “ e Shuttle is the room I’m most excited about,” says MAD. “Our room dedicated to visual media and visual arts. It’s stocked with high-end computer equipment, microphones, cameras, GoPros. It’s acoustically treated, but you can take o the treatment if you want bare, white walls.” At last, Unapologetic can integrate all their output under one roof.

“One day, just for fun, we tried to exercise this new assembly line,” says MAD. “You can record here, mix here, and shoot the video here. So PreauXX cut a song in Butter y, then I began mixing it in Andromeda, and we bounced out a rough mix so they could shoot a music video for it in the Shuttle. ree or four hours later, PreauXX had a new song mixed, mastered, and lmed.”

PHOTOS: G. DUFFIE (above) Outerspace “Butter y” studio; (below) Outerspace hallway

MUSIC By Alex Greene

Unapologetic aims for the stars with new studio.

“It’s Dolph”

Paper Route Frank Cements Dolph’s Legacy

Paper Route Frank succeeds in part because it never overstays its welcome. At 13 tracks and clocking in at a little over a half hour, this is all killer and no filler with unadulterated Dolph at its center. Dolph’s voice and delivery are two of his best attributes. They sound sharper than icicles from the album’s opening notes until its closing moments. His vocal instrument can reverberate just as much as Bandplay and Dun Deal’s 808s or, like on the lead single “Get Away,” he can turn down his boisterous baritone as he laments the toll his endless hustle has taken.

While Paper Route Frank finds the titular Frank talking about tried and true topics like scandalous women, neighborhood drama, aspirations, and familial ties, “Get Away” digs beneath the surface. Rappers often present themselves as superheroes in their life stories, and Dolph is no different. But he makes sure fans understand the person behind the persona has fears and regrets and even gets lonely “sitting in his castle.”

Moments like that are why people love Dolph as much as they do; he never neglects his humanity to look like the toughest or coolest cat on the block. Few rappers with Flipper’s success say they wish for an eraser for their past or “fuck a fame, fuck a Grammy.” If only for a few moments, Paper Route Frank continues a theme found in several 2022 Hip-Hop albums: everything that glitters is certainly not gold.

But don’t get it twisted; Paper Route Frank ultimately lauds the lifestyle afforded through rap. On “Blindfold,” he’s as slick as ever, dodging Memphis potholes in his new drop after counting a million dollars blindfolded like some sort of trap superhero. This is where Dolph is at his best, rapping with the confidence of a man with the best hand at the poker table and the highest stack of chips. Still, he always devoted as much time to helping others as he did to helping himself to the spoils of fame and fortune. The topic is one of the recurring threads Dolph weaves throughout the album. It’s in that light where a track like “Love for the Streets” becomes layered.

The passion for the concrete on which he grew up affected what he did with all that money once he got his hands around it. It’s no secret Dolph gave back to his community in ways measurable and immeasurable. He doesn’t pat himself on the back at any point on Paper Route Frank - because his grandmother Ida Mae Thorton raised him better than that, but his love for Memphis is palpable (Corry Middle School gets a shoutout on “Woah”). His devotion and the motivation birthed from it are clearer than white crystal.

This album avoids feeling like a “best of,” which is excellent. Dolph recorded the album in full before his passing. It shows coherent verses over beats he rapped to rather than someone synching his voiceover beats after the fact. Sticking as close to his vision as humans possible keeps the album genuine. That also means it’s free of blatantly commercial attempts or watereddown rhymes. No matter how many new fans came into the fold, Dolph sticks to what brought him to the proverbial dance.

That’s important when thinking about how Flipper talks about things rather than what he mentions. He still speaks for the guys currently living the life he used to lead; this album is for them and about them. Rappers go off track when they conform to the audience’s world rather than bringing that audience into theirs. Either as a product of where he came from or how he got into the game, Dolph’s music shows he thoroughly understood that. It might sound like a minor deal, but MCs with much more experience under their belts don’t even comprehend the fundamental truth. But Dolph did at an early age.

The guest stars make a difference when dealing with only 13 tracks. Not just when they show up but where. Key Glock, Gucci Mane, 2 Chainz, and Big Moochie Grape join the fun but never overshadow the main attraction. Key Glock and Dolph illustrate their chemistry from Dum and Dummer on “That’s How.” Key also shows Paper Route Empire is in good hands. Longtime collaborator Gucci talks pimp sh*t on “Roster,” perfectly complementing Dolph’s love of boogie women who may or may not need replacing on his roster. And 2 Chainz shows why he and Dolph worked so well together on “Beep Beep (Squeeky)” with their voices and different approaches to the same subject matter, creating a compelling contrast. The guest spots leave lasting impressions while fitting into Frank’s world while sticking to the album’s “less is more” approach. On the real, that’s all one needs from any guest verse on any album.

Paper Route Frank returns to the simplicity found in Dolph’s early albums. There’s no bonus content or padding for streaming numbers, as it’s mostly one man, a microphone, and a few producers providing choice beats. The album etches Dolph’s stardom in concrete while showing that fame never changed him; it just made him wiser and gave him perspective. Some posthumous albums drop the ball because they make their financial machinations obvious. Paper Route Frank goes a different route—no pun intended—in that it’s not only cohesive but feels honest. The project never feels slapdash or done for the love of money. Instead, the album lives in service of a man who never stopped making paper and kept honing his skill.

Dolph Day, hosted by the Ida Mae Foundation

On November 17, 2022, the states of Georgia and Tennessee formally recognized “Dolph Day,” in honor of the late Castalia Heights rapper and entrepreneur Adolph “Young Dolph” Thornton, Jr. In addition to his charisma, hard-hitting lyrics, and inimitable style, Young Dolph was well known for his commitment to his Memphis community, so it’s fitting that Dolph Day was a day of service.

Record label Paper Route Empire and The IdaMae Family Foundation, both founded by Dolph before his passing, sponsored community-enriching events in Georgia, Tennessee, and beyond on “Dolph Day,” encouraging people across the country to use it as an opportunity to help others. “On behalf of The IdaMae Family Foundation and Young Dolph’s family, we will continue the legacy of charity, philanthropy, and helping those in need as Adolph Robert Thornton Jr. did,” said Thorton’s sister Carlisa Brown.

The IdaMae Family Foundation is named for Thornton’s beloved grandmother, Ida Mae Thornton, who raised him and his brothers in Memphis since he was a toddler. The foundation was created to honor its namesake, who passed on in 2008, by continuing her legacy of giving back to the less fortunate.

The Dolph Day of Service included the distribution of free winter supplies to families in need at select locations across the country and free haircuts and mental health resources provided in barbershops nationwide by The Confess Project of America. Participants located in other parts of the country were also encouraged to do their own acts of service and post pictures to their social media accounts using the hashtags “#DolphDay” and “#DolphServiceDay.” Dolph’s fans and other engaged citizens flooded their timelines with images of the fallen rapper and of community service big and small.

Thinking back to the day of his tragic murder in 2021, Thornton took time

out of his busy touring schedule to come back home to give back to others and was scheduled to give away hundreds of turkeys to needy families in Castalia Heights as he’d done the previous six years. Two days later, his still-grieving Paper Route Empire artists kept the tradition going instead of canceling the event. Dolph Day is all about that sense of responsibility and perseverance despite all odds.

So on the first Dolph Day of Service, friends, family, and fans across the U.S. pushed through feelings of sadness and mourning and took the time to put others first. Dolph’s longtime partner Mia Jaye said in a statement commemorating the day, “It is truly therapy and healing in helping others while you hurt. In your season of suffering, take on the spirit of Dolph, pay it forward, and watch a blessing or two come your way.”

Dolphland Museum to Launch in 2023

Only a handful of artists have museums honoring their lives and legacy. Young Dolph will soon join their ranks.

Dolphland is a pop-up museum that will travel the country and give fans more insights into the Memphis legend’s career. But Dolphland won’t just be a few pictures on a wall and a stuffy guided tour.

Visitors will witness physical recreations of meaningful locations in Dolph’s life. The famed Castalia Heights corner store featured in his music and music videos? Check. His early apartment where Dolph burned his albums onto CDs and effectively started his career? Of course. And there’s even a room designed like the Suburban he drove during his Bulletproof campaign.

Dolphland not only ensures Young Dolph remains permanently fixed in everyone’s imaginations but shows the entire country how much he meant to Memphis while authentically capturing his story. The curators recreated locales from Dolph’s life down to minor details. The convenience store aisles, the floors, and even the items on the shelves represent a specific period.

The apartment effectively conveys the “bottom” of Dolph Gabbana’s “started from the bottom” narrative, showing visitors why he worked so hard in those early days to get his music to the world. The small couch, which might be a futon, the floor littered with dozens of pizza boxes and scattered bottles. There’s even a tiny dinner table propped in a corner with barely enough room for one plate, let alone two. There’s also a recording booth, which takes visitors behind the scenes of Dolph’s ingenuity during his career’s early days. Dolph attached a microphone to a laptop and placed it on a small table, with another laptop across from him sitting on a shoebox while the box stood on top of a stool. By any means necessary, right?

A museum isn’t complete without a shrine. Dolphland has that covered too. With walls adorned in Young Dolph artwork and a bust in the center, Dolphland’s shrine honors the multiple looks the rapper brought to the forefront. Dolphland, in conjunction with Dolph Day, conveys a man who was

more prominent than music. The pop-up nature makes it a once-in-a-lifetime event, much like the man himself. And, of course, there’s plenty of Young Dolph merchandise for fans as they leave the museum.

Paper Route Empire combined forces with Trap Music Museum, the group known for recreating key pieces of Southern rap music history, to bring the concept together. Hip-Hop keeps honoring its history in different ways, ensuring our legends are more than faces on t-shirts and slogans. More importantly, cultivating that history falls to people who love the culture and the music. Who better to tell Dolph’s story than the people who knew him best? Dolphland is a labor of love for everyone involved.

No firm dates on when you can expect Dolphland to arrive, but stay tuned because it’s coming soon. If you’re a fan, it will only strengthen your devotion. And if you’re not? It might just make you a new one.

Paper Route Empire Plotting

To be clear, Young Dolph is irreplaceable. He meant so much to his Castalia Heights neighborhood and the entire city of Memphis. Beyond that, his music and influence made their way around the globe. PRE and the world are forever changed without his presence.

But Dolph and his business partner and friend Jeremel “DaddyO” Moore founded Paper Route Empire to establish a roster of artists who would become stars and bosses in their own rights. “Every artist on the label – Key Glock, Jay Fizzle, Moochie Grape, Kenny Muney, Joddy Badass, ChiTana, Big Unc, Snupe Bandz, and Paper Route Woo – were all hand-picked, because beyond talent, (Dolph) saw in them the same hunger and determination he saw in himself,” said DaddyO in a statement.

In January 2022, PRE started the year by paying tribute to its fallen leader with the compilation Long Live Dolph. The EP is a

blend of heartfelt tributes to the man who brought the crew together (“Always had my back and everybody know I wanted to be like Dolph/The way I talk, the way I walk, the way I act, the way I dress/The way I do my thang up in the booth, I learned it from the best,” Jay Fizzle spits on the title track) and street level tales that would have made Dolph smile his million-dollar smile (see: PaperRoute Woo on “Fully Equipt”).

Brooklyn native Joddy Badass, the first woman to be signed to PRE, connected with SNUPE BANDZ for the Long Live Dolph single, “I Like.” Chicago’s own ChiTana also expanded the Paper Route Empire into the Midwest, blending his melodic flow with Flipper on another LLD single, “Love For Me.”

Following the tribute EP, South Memphis’s Kenny Muney released his sinister sophomore album Time Is Muney, anchored by production from Tay Keith and PRE mainstay Bandplay. The momentum kept rolling for the rest of 2022. Big Moochie Grape came with East Haiti Baby, a project full of hard-hitting hustlers’ anthems. Jay Fizzle dropped Donnafizzo to keep the summer hot and followed up with a deluxe

edition later in the year. Big Uncc, who Dolph immortalized as the hardest before his passing, released Young Rich Villain, and PaperRoute Woo & SNUPE BANDZ joined forces on Boyz N The Hood. Key Glock continued to establish himself as one of the biggest up-and-coming stars in Hip-Hop in 2022, dropping the deluxe edition of Yellow Tape 2, headlining a 33-city tour, and ending the year with the PRE5L EP in preparation for an even bigger 2023.

Dolph’s first posthumous singles, “Hall of Fame” and “Get Away,” prove once again that he was ahead of his time. When asked in a 2021 interview about the biggest lesson he’d learned running PRE, Dolph replied, “Never stop working. Never stop. Never get satisfied.” In 2022, Paper Route Empire’s artists carried on that legacy of hard work and independence while further establishing themselves as stars and stars in the making. In 2023 each one will shine even brighter.

Drew & Ellie Holcomb’s Neighborly Christmas Drew and Ellie Holcomb are a husband and wife Americana duo from Nashville, TN. $34.50-$89.50. Wednesday, Dec. 21, 7:30 p.m.

THEATRE

ORPHEUM

Eric Hughes ursday, Dec. 15, 7-11 p.m.

RUM BOOGIE CAFE

GOOD VYBEZ

Dance to the nest blends of Afrobeats, R&B, dancehall, and reggae. $20/General Admission, Free. Saturday, Dec. 17, 8 p.m.-2 a.m.

CLOVER CLUB

MEMPHIS

Jason Da Hater Rappin

$10. ursday, Dec. 15, 7:049:52 p.m.

CAROLINA WATERSHED

Keith Paluso, Phillip Beasley, Mark Wiklund Friday, Dec. 16, 7 p.m.

SOUTH MAIN SOUNDS

Reggae for the Holidays

Live reggae music by e Skitch, Black Cream, and Chinese Connection Dub Embassy. $10. Sunday, Dec. 18, 3-8 p.m.

CAROLINA WATERSHED

The Holiday Jam

Featuring multi-platinum recording artist Johnny Gill and the Sensational Vocalist and musician Stokley. Sunday, Dec. 18, 7 p.m.

CANNON CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

All the Colors of the Dark: Goth/Industrial

A night of dark dance music, with a focus on goth and industrial from days past and a smattering of new music. 21+. Saturday, Dec. 17, 9 p.m.

BAR DKDC

Apocalypse Fest

An accessible event prioritizing health and safety. Masks and Covid tests are required. Featuring performances by Louise Page, Rosey, Runi Salem, and Oakwalker. $20/ pay what you can. Sunday, Dec. 18, 6 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Basketcase

Sunday, Dec. 18, 8 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Bluff City Bandits

Saturday, Dec. 17, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Brimstone Jones Sunday, Dec. 18, 3:30 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Christmastime is Here: A Concert of Traditional Carols and Jazzy Holiday Standards

A fabulous program of traditional carols and jazzy holiday arrangements $10. Sunday, Dec. 18, 3 p.m.

EVERGREEN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

“A Lifting of the Veil”: A Winter Solstice Celebration with The Pop Ritual and Corrina Repp

A live retrospective in celebration of the Winter Solstice. $15-$20. Wednesday, Dec. 21, 7:30-10 p.m.

THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS

Chris Travis ursday, Dec. 15, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Cowboy Christmas ft. Tommy “C. Thomas” Howell

Bring a new toy for children in need this holiday season. ursday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Dandelion Williams, Jason Cooper, Sam Raines

$10. Saturday, Dec. 17, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Devil Train ursday, Dec. 15, 9:30 p.m.

B-SIDE

GonerTV Christmas Spectacular

Featuring live music from e Sheiks with super special musical guests Bennett, Jack Oblivian, and Michael Donahue … and maybe even a visit from Santa himself. Friday, Dec. 16, 8 p.m.

LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE

JD Westmoreland Monday, Dec. 19, 9 p.m.

B-SIDE

Joe Restivo 4 Saturday, Dec. 17, 11 a.m.; Sunday, Dec. 18, 11 a.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Kevin & Bethany Paige Friday, Dec. 16, 10 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Kortland Whalum

Holiday tunes, classic covers, and original material, shared with dear friends and special musical guests. ursday, Dec. 15, 7:30-9:30 p.m.

THE GREEN ROOM AT CROSSTOWN ARTS

Noisy Cats Are We Saturday, Dec. 17, 8:30 p.m. B-SIDE

Ostraca, .Giffromgod, Lachance Sunday, Dec. 18, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

Rice Drewry Collective Friday, Dec. 16, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Roxi Love ursday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Royal Blues Band Jam Tuesday, Dec. 20, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

School of Rock Teachers Tuesday, Dec. 20, 7 p.m. B-SIDE

Scotty ATL “Show Ya Grill” Tour Saturday, Dec. 17, 8 p.m.

GROWLERS

Seeing Red Saturday, Dec. 17, 10 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Southbound Wednesday, Dec. 21, 6 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Steve Hopper Saturday, Dec. 17, 2 p.m.

LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM

Stinson’s Industrial Christmas Party Hosted by Josey Scott and Mike Glenn. Featuring Roxy Blue, Every Mother’s Nightmare, Shotgun Billy’s, and Aquanet. Saturday, Dec. 17, 6 p.m.

MINGLEWOOD HALL

Sunday Jazz with David Collins & Friends Sunday, Dec. 18, 6-9 p.m.

THE COVE

The Backroads Tour Choose which of your local/ regional artists to perform at the 2023 Backwoods at Mulberry Mountain music festival! Friday, Dec. 16, 8 p.m.

HI TONE

The Second Annual Blast Habit Holiday Bash

Featuring Alicja Pop, Turnstyles, So Gung Ho, Graham Winchester Band, and e Sheiks. $7-$10. Friday, Dec. 16, 9:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m.

B-SIDE

Tyler Keith and the Apostles, Bark, Drip Edges

$10. Saturday, Dec. 17, 9 p.m.

LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE

Wild Pink & Trace Mountains with Rachel Maxann

$13-$15. Friday, Dec. 16, 7 p.m. GROWLERS

Christmas with the HamilTones ft. Bird Williams, Jonte Mayon, and J Lake $60. Saturday, Dec. 17, 7:30 p.m.

PERIGNONS RESTAURANT & EVENT CENTER

Martin & Taylor Friday, Dec. 16, 6-10 p.m.

SIDECAR CAFE MEMPHIS

WALRUS Down Under First set will feature songs by bands from Australia and New Zealand. Saturday, Dec. 17, 9 p.m.

SWANKY’S TACO SHOP EAST MEMPHIS

Ho Ho Ho Show with Reba Russell and Susan Marshall

A twinkling evening of extremes from sincerely sweet to bawdy and naughty (and EVERYTHING in between). $20. Friday, Dec. 16, 7 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

Natchez Tracers Saturday, Dec. 17, 7 p.m. HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

Handel’s Messiah

Handel’s Messiah is nothing short of a miracle, and Maestro Moody’s devotion to this beloved oratorio has made it a “can’t miss” event of the Holiday season. $35. Tuesday, Dec. 20, 7:30 p.m.

GERMANTOWN UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

#LetsGetLoud: Season 5 Finale

Memphis’ original beat battle league is back to close out Season 5. Saturday, Dec. 17, 10 p.m. ORIJENNAL ART

memphisflyer.com

PHOTO: GINA MARTINEZ e Pop Ritual

CALENDAR of EVENTS: December 15 - 21

ART AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS

Bartlett Association December Showcase

A wide array of works in media ranging from oils and acrylics to photograph and digital art. Through Dec. 30.

GALLERY 1091

“Beyond, Part IV”

Featuring Pam Cobb, Pamela Hassler, Sam Red, and Julie Schumer. Through Dec. 31.

JAY ETKIN GALLERY

“Drawing the Curtain: Maurice Sendak’s Designs for Opera and Ballet”

Exhibition dedicated to children’s book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak’s set designs and clever costumes.

Through Jan. 8.

MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART

“Emily Ozier: Marisol’s Dress”

Emily Ozier’s series of paintings based on her mother’s experience as a refugee fleeing Cuba in the 1950s. Through Jan. 8.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

“Evicted”

An immersive experience bringing visitors into the world of renter evictions and

its impact on the family and community. Through Jan. 21.

“Fun and Games”

Exhibition of work by John McIntire. Through Jan. 21.

TOPS GALLERY

“Josef Albers: Opening Eyes”

A collection of paintings and prints by Bauhaus master Josef

Albers and his colleagues. Through Dec. 17.

ART MUSEUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MEMPHIS (AMUM)

“Les Paul Thru the Lens”

A collection of rare photographs that reveal the behindthe-scenes life of the father of modern music, Les Paul.

Through Dec. 30.

STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC

“Looking Back”

Exhibition of Lynda Watson’s work, creating a detailed 3D scrapbook of her memories. Through Jan. 29.

METAL MUSEUM

“Mending in a State of Abundance”

Exhibition of work by Katrina Perdue exploring the emotional and physical labor of

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 WEEKLY EVENTS WILL APPEAR IN THE FLYER’S ONLINE CALENDAR ONLY. FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVENT LISTINGS, VISIT EVENTS.MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL

“Simple Pleasures: The Art of Doris Lee”

Rediscover one of the most popular figurative artists in American art history. Through Jan. 15.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

repair, offering an alternative response to the modern realities of material excess.

Through March 5.

CROSSTOWN ARTS

“Men of Change: Taking It to the Streets”

Outdoor installation presenting the profiles of 24 significant Black men across the decades. Through Dec. 16.

NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM

“once a river, once a sea” Recognized widely for her gouache paintings on stitched paper of ephemeral landscapes, Maysey Craddock examines growth and decay along the Gulf Coast in relation to space and time. Through Dec. 23.

DAVID LUSK GALLERY

“Plein Air Exhibition” Exhibition of diverse visual works of a wide range of MBG glimpses from over 30 different artists. Through Dec. 30.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

“Summer in Shanghai” A three-part video series of reflections and meditations during the hottest time of the year in China’s biggest city. Through March 5.

CROSSTOWN ARTS

“Those Who Hold Dominion Here”

Exhibition of work by Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo takes inspiration from serpents in Incan mythology and Southern snakes. Through March 5, CROSSTOWN ARTS

“Tripping Through Your Orbit”

Exhibition of large abstract paintings by Amy Hutcheson. Through Jan. 9.

GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

ART HAPPENINGS

Artists’ Link Winter Show

Artistic works in a variety

BENJAMIN L. HOOKS CENTRAL LIBRARY

PHOTO: BILL SIMMERS Your favorite first-grader Junie B. takes over the Circuit Playhouse stage, through December 22.

of styles and mediums by local artists. Free. Through Jan. 13.

ST. GEORGE’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH ART GALLERY

COMEDY

Arnez J

Hobby Kick-Start:

Painting by Numbers (ages

21+)

Looking for a relaxing new hobby? Painting by numbers is a great opportunity to explore paint in a meditative way. Get your first set and learn some tips from a painting by numbers enthusiast. $15-$25. Thursday, Dec. 15, 6-7:30 p.m.

DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

THE

Holiday Craft Night

Make your very own game-inspired ornaments. $20. Saturday, Dec. 17, 7-10 p.m.

BOARD TO BEERS

Memphis Arts Collective Holiday Artists Market 2022

The Memphis Arts Collective Holiday Artist Market is back for their annual holiday show. Through Dec. 24.

CORNER OF POPLAR & HIGHLAND

Munch and Learn

The lecture series features presentations by local artists, scholars, and Dixon staff sharing their knowledge on a variety of topics. Wednesday, Dec. 21, noon-1 p.m.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

Paper Doll Party with Emily Ozier (ages 15+)

Explore color, pattern, and texture to create your own set of paper dolls from a historical time period of your choice. $15-$20. Saturday, Dec. 17, 10 a.m.-noon

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

Pet Painting Workshop: Christmas Edition

On the day of the workshop, each participant will receive a hand drawn canvas of their pet(s) to fill in with paint using the supplies provided! RSVP through scott.draws@gmail.com. Tuesday, Dec. 20, 6 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Tis the Season … to De-Stress Engage in a variety of creative activities, from painting to sound to moving your body around, reflection, fresh and healthy tastings, and hands-on make-n-take items that you can enjoy at home. Free. Saturday, Dec. 17, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

ARKWINGS

WE Holiday Market

Holiday decor and consignment gift shopping for everyone on your holiday list. Features handmade art, cards, ornaments, wreaths, home decor, fiber wearables, edibles, and more. Through Dec. 22.

WOMAN’S EXCHANGE OF MEMPHIS

WinterArts

The South’s premier holiday artists market. Through Dec. 24.

PARK PLACE CENTRE

BOOK EVENTS

Book Signing for Malia Bryant & Mary Lucus

Authors will discuss and sign their children’s book, The Package — What could it be? A part of the Twin Paws Adventures Series. Thursday, Dec. 15, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 16, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

WOMAN’S EXCHANGE OF MEMPHIS

Goner In-store Reading with Tyler Keith and Tim Lee

A festive evening of exquisite readings from a couple of rock-and-rollers! Saturday, Dec. 17, 9:30 a.m.

GONER RECORDS

Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes

Two-time Peabody Award-winning writer and producer Ira Rosen reveals the intimate, untold stories of his decades at America’s most iconic news show — 60 Minutes — in his new book. $5, $7. Thursday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m. MEMPHIS

Arnez got his start on the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, before devoting himself to stand-up comedy. Friday, Dec. 16-Dec. 18.

CHUCKLES COMEDY HOUSE

Memphis vs. Atlanta Comedy Battle $20. Saturday, Dec. 17, 8 p.m.

THE COMEDY JUNT

Ugly Christmas Sweater Comedy Show

Featuring Josh “Hollywood” Walker, Chustnutt, Wild Beal, Cowboy, Big Mickey, Lotus B, and Adam Nickson. $10-$15. Saturday, Dec. 17, 7 p.m.

PREMIERE PALACE BALLROOM

#WC2D Funny Comedy Show

A night of Memphis comedy. $25-$30. Thursday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m.

HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY

COMMUNITY

12 Hours of Christmas

MAS will stay open for 12 hours to offer adopters $12 adoptions, a $50 pet supply gift card, a present under the tree for every pet that gets adopted, a holiday photo for each adoption, and hot chocolate. Saturday, Dec. 17, 9 a.m.-9 p.m.

MEMPHIS ANIMAL SERVICES

Pick Up for a Pint!

Meet up at Memphis Made, where you’ll

receive a trash bag; volunteers will disperse across the neighborhood to pick up trash and meet back at the brewery to receive free beer. Saturday, Dec. 17, 12:30-1:30 p.m.

MEMPHIS MADE BREWING COMPANY

Porter-Leath Toy Truck at IKEA Drop off new, unwrapped toys as well as cash or check donations. Bring puzzles, dolls, balls, blocks, and other toys that promote early childhood learning. Saturday, Dec. 17-Dec. 18.

IKEA

FILM

Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin performing Suspiria

This year, Simonetti’s Goblin celebrates the 45th anniversary of Dario Argento’s iconic picture, Suspiria, with a live performance of the score set to a screening of the film. $35-$65. Friday, Dec. 16, 7 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Holiday Horror Movie Marathon

Screening Anna & the Apocalypse, Krampus, Black Christmas, and Christmas Evil. Free. Wednesday, Dec. 21, 5:30 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Holiday Movie Screening

A triple feature of Rankin-Bass holiday legends: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town; Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer; and The Year Without a

Santa Claus. Free. Tuesday, Dec. 20, 4:45 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Kids Holiday Movie Marathon

Screening A Charlie Brown Christmas, Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas, Ernest Saves Christmas, The Santa Clause, Jingle All the Way, and Gremlins. Free. Saturday, Dec. 17, 11:30 a.m.

BLACK LODGE

Losing Ground

Sara Rogers, a Black professor of philosophy, is embarking on an intellectual quest just as her painter husband, Victor, sets off on an exploration of joy. $5. Thursday, Dec. 15, 7-9 p.m.

CROSSTOWN THEATER

TCM: It’s A Wonderful Life 75th Anniversary

Embraced as a cherished holiday tradition by families around the world, Frank Capra’s heartwarming masterpiece now celebrates 75 years with this big-screen event. Sunday, Dec. 18, 3:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Dec. 21, 7 p.m.

MALCO PARADISO CINEMA GRILL & IMAX

FOOD AND DRINK

Fire Pit Fridays

Enjoy free s’mores, fire pits, and holiday lights. Listen to your favorite holiday tunes and

continued on page 26

ACROSS 1 Henson who created the Muppets

Tibetan monks

Actress Winger

Ambient musician Brian

University of Maine’s home

___ wrench

“Scarecrow thinks the only thing one needs is a brain. Not so!”

Big displays at natural history museums, informally

Mah-jongg pieces

Step on it!

Where the Marx Brothers famously spent a night

Defeat

“If we let our kids go sledding, what’s next? Extreme skiing?”

Ooze

How Odysseus traveled

View from behind the Lincoln Memorial 38 H5N1, by another name 41 Eponym of a U.S. Open stadium

Choice in orange juice

“As you can tell from these few examples, Bings are better than maraschinos” 49 Cigarette ingredient 50 Goods for sale 51 Elvis’s middle name

Appliance company acquired by Raytheon in 1965 56 Head in a classic Hasbro toy

“Expanding the bleachers isn’t enough. We need to relocate the whole stadium”

Like Brie vis-à-vis Gruyère cheese

memphisflyer.com

NEW YEAR’S

EVE IN GRAND Style

from page 21

celebrate the season. Friday, Dec. 16, 4:30-6:30 p.m.

RIVER GARDEN

Park + Cherry Dinner Series

If you ever wanted to try Chef Phillip Dewayne’s menu but can’t get away during the day, Park + Cherry’s Dinner Series is for you! Take a stroll through the galleries and have dinner in the cafe.

Thursday, Dec. 15, 5:30 p.m.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

Shake the Night Away Learn how to make some great cocktails to add to your holiday menu! There’ll be games, great food, and a photo booth. $65. Saturday, Dec. 17, 1-9 p.m.

FANCYSTUDIOS

HOLIDAY EVENTS

34th Annual Christmas Run

A free fun run followed by a party with carols, lights, costumes, and reindeer. Thursday, Dec. 15, 6:30 p.m.

CROSSTOWN BREWING COMPANY

Christmas with CoroRio A family-friendly concert centered around Frozen! The event starts well before the curtain goes up with activities and opportunities to take pictures with Santa and other Frozen characters. Saturday, Dec. 17, 3 p.m.

CANNON CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Dive with Santa Wear your swimsuit to dive with Santa and his elves in Hickory’s heated pool! Saturday, Dec. 17, 2-4 p.m.

HICKORY HILL COMMUNITY CENTER

Enchanted’s 5th Annual Winter Wonderland Exhibit and Toy Giveaway

Children get to experience our Candy Cane Lane, Enchanted Forest, Inflatable Zone, Grinch Liar, Gingerbread Village, Nativity scene, photo ops with characters, games, raffles, and more. Saturday, Dec. 17, 1 p.m.

HICKORY HILL COMMUNITY CENTER

Hanukkah with Never Again Action Games, a variety of latkes, and learning. RSVP on Facebook @ neveragaintn to be sent the location. Sunday, Dec. 18, 7 p.m.

MEMPHIS

Holiday Cheer Dance Party

Wear your tackiest sweater or dress as your favorite holiday character. Play in the snow and pose for photos with Santa and the Grinch. Warm up with hot chocolate and holiday-themed adult beverage. Saturday, Dec. 17, 6 p.m.

OVERTON SQUARE

Holiday Wonders

This season offers approximately eight acres of lights and cheer and features the larger-than-life “Alice’s

Adventures at the Garden” sculptures aglow. $10-$14. Through Dec. 23.

MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN

Jingle Jam

Jingle Jam is a holiday hallmark for Memphis, bringing live music and the most popular DJs under one roof with one focus: an “adults only”, festive, holiday party! Saturday, Dec. 17, 9 p.m.-2 a.m.

RENASANT CONVENTION CENTER

Season of Delight at Crosstown Concourse

Live music, free photos by Amurica photo booth, a screening of Gremlins, and more! Friday, Dec. 16, 5-7 p.m.

CROSSTOWN CONCOURSE Starry Nights

Experience the magic of the holidays at Shelby Farms Park’s largest event, complete with dazzling displays featuring millions of lights. Through Dec. 30.

SHELBY FARMS PARK

Tacky Sweater Party

Get down to the sounds of The MD’s (Booker T. & the M.G.’s tribute group — two sets!) and listen to some favorite childhood Christmas stories, read by Mom and Dad Bartosch and the boys. Free. Saturday, Dec. 17, 6-9 p.m.

WISEACRE BREWERY

The Enchanted Forest Festival

Visitors are invited to explore a forest of festive and aweinspiring trees decorated by professional designers, individuals, and local organizations. Through Dec. 24.

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

Ugly Sweater Decorating and Contest

Never found the perfect ugly holiday sweater? Bring a boring sweater or shirt with you and decorate it at the ugly

holiday sweater station and then show it off in the crazy holiday costume contest! Followed by a screening of Elf Friday, Dec. 16, 7 p.m.

MUSEUM OF SCIENCE & HISTORY

Unsilent Night

A free outdoor participatory sound sculpture of many individual parts played through a roving swarm of boom boxes. Free. Saturday, Dec. 17, 6 p.m.

COOPER-YOUNG HISTORIC DISTRICT

Winter Wonderland at CMOM

Trees, twinkling lights, dancing snowflakes, and all the seasonal trappings like snow flurries, sock skating, and snowball tosses. Through Dec. 31.

CHILDREN’S MUSEUM OF MEMPHIS

PERFORMING ARTS

Eleanor’s Winter Wonderland

Go walking in a winter wonderland with Eleanor Kay Rigby and kickoff your holiday season! Friday, Dec. 16, 10 p.m.

DRU’S PLACE

Flo Unleashed

A poetry showcase. Sunday, Dec. 18, 6 p.m.

CURRY N JERK

How the Poets Stole Christmas Poetry Slam

What happens when Memphis poets gather around the mic just in time for the holiday? Saturday, Dec. 17, 7 p.m.

BUTTERIFIC BAKERY & CAFE

Nutcracker

Experience the tradition with Ballet Memphis. $13-$78. Friday, Dec. 16-Dec. 18.

ORPHEUM THEATRE

The BIG RED Rumble

In remembrance of those lost and all the progress gained in ending AIDS and HIV, Moth Moth Moth and Demonte

Knight host a show in vibrant red. $15. Saturday, Dec. 17, 8 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo’s serpentine sculptures are on display at Crosstown Arts, through March 5.

The Nutcracker Ballet

This production of Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet features dancers from Singleton Community Center’s Esprit de Corps dance troupe as characters like Clara, the Nutcracker, the Mouse King, and more. $10-$15. Friday, Dec. 16-Dec. 18.

BARTLETT PERFORMING ARTS AND CONFERENCE CENTER

SPECIAL EVENTS

Memphis Official Silent Headphones Party

When you arrive you’ll receive a pair of wireless headphones. You can adjust the volume and choose between up to three DJs with a flip of a switch. $7. Friday, Dec. 16, 10 p.m.

360 SPORTS AND CIGAR BAR

Shrek Rave

It’s dumb. Just have fun. 18+. $15-$35. Thursday, Dec. 15, 9 p.m.

BLACK LODGE

SPORTS

NBA Memphis Grizzlies vs. Milwaukee Bucks Thursday, Dec. 15, 7 p.m.

FEDEXFORUM

THEATER

A Christmas Carol

The return of Ebenezer Scrooge and the three Spirits who visit him in this adaptation of the Charles Dickens’

novel that follows the journey of the miserly businessman from childhood to redemption. Through Dec. 23.

THEATRE MEMPHIS

Junie B.’s Essential Survival Guide to School

The Circuit Playhouse’s favorite first-grader is at it again in this hilarious, whole-hearted show about owning up to your mistakes and how no one is

ever done learning. Through Dec. 22

CIRCUIT PLAYHOUSE

One Man’s Christmas Carol/All is Calm: the Christmas Truce of 1914 Act one is a one man’s retelling of the classic Charles Dickens’ story, A Christmas Carol. Act two brings a special retelling of the true life story of the opposing World War I soldiers

who put down their weapons to celebrate the holiday together. Monday, Dec. 17-23.

GERMANTOWN COMMUNITY THEATRE

Peter and the Starcatcher A Peter Pan origin story Through Dec. 18.

GERMANTOWN COMMUNITY THEATRE

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr.

Experience the classic Christmas musical of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Jr! Thursday, Dec. 15-Dec. 18.

THE SALVATION ARMY KROC CENTER

The Wizard of Oz

Based on the classic motion picture, young Dorothy Gale and her dog Toto are swept

PHOTO: TAYLOR DAVIDSON

Boom boxes and speakers will roam through Cooper-Young for Unsilent Night.

away in a tornado to the magical land of Oz. Through Dec. 22.

PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE Velveteen Rabbit the Musical

The Velveteen Rabbit was the boy’s favorite birthday present. But when the party started the Velveteen Rabbit was forgotten. $30, $35. Through Dec. 18.

HATTILOO THEATRE

Who’s Holiday!

In this adults-only rollick through the land of Dr. Seuss’s classic tale, return to Mount Crumpit to find Cindy Lou Who … living in a trailer? A lot has happened to the little girl from Whoville. Through Dec. 22.

PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE

TOURS

Tours at Two Meet in the Catmur Foyer for a tour of a current exhibition with a Dixon docent or staff member. Sunday, Dec. 18, 2-3 p.m.

THE DIXON GALLERY & GARDENS

memphisflyer.com

Memphis Quarantine

he Memphis Quarantine Project started on March 13, 2020,” writes photographer Jamie Harmon in the opening lines of his new book, Memphis Quarantine (Amurica), and noting the date only heightens the new volume’s sense of time travel. By that Friday the 13th, the World Health Organization had declared Covid-19 a pandemic and area schools were transitioning to remote learning or extra time o . With the city’s o cial lockdown more than a week away, most of us were already radically rethinking our routines — and at that point, many feared contagion from just touching groceries. ere was but one suggestion of increased safety: the great outdoors.

And so Harmon hit the streets. “I asked a friend if I could photograph them from outside their home,” he writes. “ is led to

In each shot, Harmon puts himself into what anthropologists call liminal space, a realm betwixt and between di erent states of being. e photographer keeps his pandemically correct distance, yet simultaneously peers across it, illuminating those interior safe spaces to which we all retreated. Harmon occasionally keeps his spot ash in the frame, throwing light from just outside the window into the spaces where humans live. ese pictures capture both how people de ned a safe distance in those dark days, and how they de ned the interior space of their bubble.

As Harmon was taking images and posting them on social media, just glimpsing them in a scroll was somehow hopeful, albeit ephemeral. Others rst saw these portraits in Memphis magazine, or when exhibited by Crosstown Arts in February. But it takes the more contemplative space of a book in your lap to bring it home: Here was someone seeing all of us, bearing witness, even as we bore witness to the friends and neighbors we saw through Harmon’s work. In pairing strangers with more familiar faces, this book forges an allembracing, democratic vision of who we were.

Writ large, the expressions lean toward the grim, the anxiety-ridden.

posting an open invitation on social media and the project quickly grew to over 1,200 dwellings.” Luckily for Memphis and the world, Harmon is a photographer with a keen eye for ashes of character in the moment; his bio says he’s a visual anthropologist, and that’s closer to what he does with a camera. With it, he casts a wide net to capture the culture of Memphis in all its diversity: a multitude of porches, windows, apartments, garages, pets, and various states of parenthood reveal themselves from more or less the same zone — between the inside and the outside.

From only a few yards away or through double-paned glass, the distance is always there, looming in every image. A family crouching on a screened-in porch; young housemates gathered with their instruments just inside the door; a couple represented by two heads framed in separate windows; someone playing a guitar solo in green graduation robes; a porch-sitter obscured by the Memphis Flyer she’s reading, her dog alert. Yet all of them also feature another silent subject: the distance itself.

ey’re not unlike digni ed 19th-century portraits where subjects presented themselves before the lens in stillness, with the gravitas of the ages. Yet others defy such seriousness of purpose, determined to keep some fun or beauty to their lives, through funny ears, pets, or mugging for the camera. Or, as with that person wearing a tyrannosaurus rex suit in their living room, through all of the above.

It’s a credit to the inventiveness of both Harmon and his subjects that the book presents hundreds of variations in setting, color, lighting, and mood. Some, like Ben Siler, Andria Brown, or Flyer alum Chris Davis, o er writings from or inspired by the time. But most of these portraits are resolutely anonymous, all of us reduced to that stalwart everyman or everywoman bent on survival. In a nod to the many who agreed to have their portrait published (some didn’t), Harmon lists the 814 folders of images in the order he shot them over two and a half months. ey’re not meant to identify the subjects; they’re just another artifact of this anthropologist’s journey, from the outside to the inside in the click of a shutter.

PHOTO: JAMIE HARMON Grayson Oberg

Jamie Harmon’s eye, betwixt and between our bubbles.

Alex Greene

the MSEC newsletter,

Tenne-Snooze

Sluggish legalization e orts here contrast with the red-up feds.

DMITRY TISHCHENKO | DREAMSTIME.COM

It’s slow going on Tennessee’s cannabis legalization front.

Tennessee state law will not allow any more cannabis legalization here until the federal government moves, which may happen soon-ish (more on that below). But until then, don’t expect Tennessee cannabis news to be very exciting.

Consider the sober, sometimes droning, sometimes arduous December 1st meeting of the Tennessee Medical Cannabis Commission. at group was established by the Tennessee General Assembly in May 2021 to study “federal and state laws regarding medical cannabis and the preparation of legislation to establish an e ective, patientfocused medical cannabis program in this state” but only if the drug was removed from the federal Schedule I.

But those proposals came and went. And while Tennessee shelved any action on cannabis, every state that borders it has enacted some sort of legalization e ort. So, instead of laying solid groundwork for a Tennessee program, the cannabis commission has quietly studied, and studied, and studied, and watched the growing pains other states have experienced while starting and building their own programs.

e commission is slated to meet this week to nalize its second report to the legislature. So sleepy is the material for the report this year, commission members spent much of its early December meeting trying to jazz it up to get the attention of lawmakers.

Commissioner Cari Parker said lawmakers should be handed a onepager because that’s “the attention span we have to plan for to at least incite a little bit of interest.” Ray Marcrom, a pharmacist, said he does not want lawmakers to get the report and say, “‘Well, that’s nice.’ Because that’s kind of what we got last year.”

ucts (like Delta 8) separate from any medical cannabis program here and be regulated from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.

On the federal side of cannabis news, though, things got pretty hot this year. Joe Biden, the president of the United States, said words every college sophomore (of a certain stripe) has wanted to hear a global leader to say:

“No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said in an October statement. “Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit.”

Biden then outlined three steps in a plan to “end this failed approach” to cannabis law in the U.S. First, he pardoned all prior federal o enses of simple possession of marijuana. Second, he urged all governors to do the same with regard to state o enses. (Guess what Tennessee Governor said no to this.

Hint: It rhymes with Bill Lee.)

In its rst report, published in January, the commission o ered the legislature at least some recommendations on potential laws for such a program here. Back then, some hints were available at even just the prospect of new legalization laws that might pull the commission from the sidelines.

Two facts stuck out from the commission’s meeting, though. One was the reminder that Tennessee has, indeed, stuck the tiniest toe past federal cannabis laws, as it allows products with 0.9 percent THC, instead of the federal 0.3 percent. Another is that there is a desire from lawmakers and businesses to keep hemp-derived THC prod-

Biden also asked the secretary of health and human services and the attorney general to review cannabis’ place in federal law. Now, as Biden said, it is up there with “the most dangerous substances” like “heroin and LSD, and even higher than the classi cation of fentanyl and methamphetamine — the drugs that are driving our overdose epidemic.”

BRIAN

Tennessee allows products with 0.9 percent THC, instead of the federal 0.3 percent.

CANNABEAT By Toby Sells

PHOTO:

That’s Amore

If you want a Chicagostyle pizza and to eat like the true Chicagoans do, head on over to the pizza joint Izzy & Adam’s.

“ e novelty Chicagostyle pizza is ‘deep dish,’” says owner Ryan Long, 33. “ at’s how they did it originally in Chicago. What everyone knows.”

However, according to Long, the real Chicago style is “tavern style. in crust that you cut into squares.”

Beginning December 14th, Izzy & Adam’s will also start o ering thin-crust pizza.

e restaurant, which opened last September, has been exclusively selling deep-dish pizzas. Its motto is “Windy City Flavor in the Mid-South.”

Both types of pizzas are available in “all the same avors. Just di erent portions,” Long says.

e two-inch-or-so deep-dish pizza is “a cheese-lover’s pizza. ere’s a lot of cheese on it. It’s kind of a di erent pizza. ere’s more lling. And it’s just unique to Chicago because it was invented there.”

e thin-crust pizza is similar to the New York-style, which most people are familiar with. “Big, wide slices you could fold.”

But with deep dish, “you put ingredients on top of the sauce and the cheese goes on top of it all.”

ey use “raw Italian sausage” on both pizzas. “We put on quarter-size pieces and it cooks in the oven. e grease from that pork gets released into the sauce. at’s what makes it damn good.”

Long knows a thing or two about Chicago pizza. “I grew up in Chicago in the Northwest suburbs. Rolling Meadows.”

His whole family cooked on weekends. “We would do Greek burgers — half lamb, half beef. Lasagna was a big thing.”

ey grilled outdoors all year — even in the snowy winters. “In the wintertime you shovel a pathway to the grill. at’s a Chicago thing.”

Long became fascinated with the restaurant business when he worked at Olive Garden in college. “ e majority of people you cook for, you’ll never see

them. But you still have that ability to change their day for the better.”

He was more into sports than cooking. “Football was always my primary sport growing up. I started when I was 6 and played until I was 21 in college. University of Texas at El Paso. Linebacker.”

But, he says, “I saw the competition level in college and realized I was probably not going to the NFL.”

Rosati’s Pizza in Chicago is where he learned the restaurant business. “I, essentially, learned everything from there and just took it all over here and opened up.”

Long planned to open a restaurant in Chicago, but his wife, Estefania, got a job with a pharmaceutical company in Memphis. “We brought all the

equipment down here. We already had our oven, our assembly units. I had a dough mixer. We had a dough roller. We had quite a bit.”

And, he says, “We got pretty lucky nding a spot on Summer Avenue.”

He named the restaurant a er his two sons, Isaac and Adam.

Long will never forget opening day. “We had 60 orders in the course of two hours. We had to close up early during our grand opening. It was nuts. We were only open for about three hours.” e explanation? “We ran out of dough.”

His pizzas quickly became popular. “ ere were not a lot of deep-dish pizzas, if any, in Memphis.”

Long also discovered there were “a lot more people down here from Chicago than we expected.”

And those people “do miss the pizza.”

Pizza is his number-one seller, but his Italian beef sandwich, a “Chicago version of a French dip,” is number two.

Other items include wings, salads, and zeppole Italian doughnuts. “Very similar to beignets. Small little squares. And we just drop them down in the fryer for a couple of minutes, toss with powdered sugar, and serve with chocolate sauce.”

And, of course, Izzy & Adam’s sells a “Chicago hot dog,” Long says. “You have to have a Vienna beef hot dog. It’s a Chicago all-beef hot dog. With mustard, pickle relish, tomato, onions, pickle spears, and sport peppers — little yellow peppers.”

FOOD By Michael Donahue

Izzy & Adam’s brings real-deal, Chicago-style pizza to Memphis.

PHOTO: MICHAEL DONAHUE Ryan, Adam, Isaac, and Estefania Long

STAY IN

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

By the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication

Look, Up in the Sky!

Dustin Procita lives in rural northern California among cattle ranches and farms. On the evening of Nov. 4, Procita “heard a big bang. I started to smell smoke and I went onto my porch and it was completely engulfed in flames,” he told KCRA-TV. Procita saved one of his two dogs from the fire, which he believes was caused by a meteorite landing on his house. Video taken by people nearby shows a bright ball of light falling from the sky; the Taurid meteor showers were happening in that area when the fire occurred. Firefighters battled the blaze for several hours before getting it under control. Procita said he might have to buy a lottery ticket: “They said it’s a 1-in-4 trillion chance.” [KCRA, 11/5/2022]

Least Competent Criminals

Two unnamed thieves stole merchandise from the Ross Dress for Less store in Springfield, Missouri, on Nov. 5, KY3-TV reported. They apparently then hopped into two separate cars to make their getaway — and crashed into each other. Police said the suspects tried to flee on foot but were quickly apprehended; they’ll face misdemeanor theft charges. [KY3, 11/5/2022]

A man caught running out of a Vons supermarket in La Verne, California, on Nov. 8 with a cart full of Tide liquid laundry detergent turned out to be a murder suspect, KTLA-TV reported. Police arrested the unnamed man, who had 20 bottles of the soap, and then realized he had a $2 million warrant out for his arrest. The detergent was returned to the store. [KTLA, 11/8/2022]

Cute

Farmer Richard Nicholson of Cannon Hall Farm in Barnsley, England, wondered why his sheep were gradually turning pink, the BBC reported on Nov. 5. He thought farm workers were using spray markers “too enthusiastically,” but eventually realized the ewes were rubbing against a new, red feeder, and the color was bleeding onto them. “Visitors to the farm certainly do a double take when walking past,” Nicholson said. “They’re starting to look like a bunch of old ladies who’ve had the same hairdo.” His sheep get sheared only twice a year, so they’ll be “pink ladies” for a while. [BBC, 11/10/2022]

But Why?

Stouffer’s, of TV dinner fame, has a new offering sure to appeal to … Garfield. Stouffer’s Lasagna Inspired Bloody Mary Mix, the company’s first foray into drink mixes, claims to sport a “bold and savory” flavor, Food & Wine magazine reports. “For decades, Stouffer’s Lasagna has had a special place at holiday tables,” said Megan McLaughlin, the company’s brand marketing manager. Really? [Food & Wine, 11/1/2022]

The Tech Revolution

Talk about taking your gaming seriously. Palmer Luckey, a defense contractor and, according to Vice, the father of modern virtual reality, has invented a VR headset that literally presents a life-or-death outcome. Inspired by the NerveGear VR headsets in the anime Sword Art Online, Luckey’s headset features three explosive charge modules that detonate and instantly destroy the user’s head if the user dies during game-play. “Pumped-up graphics might make a game look more real, but only the threat of serious consequences can make a game feel real to you and every other person in the game,” Luckey said. He admits, though, that he needs to keep tinkering: “There are a huge variety of failures that could occur and kill the user at the wrong time. This is why I have not worked up the [nerve] to actually use it myself. At this point, it is just … a thought-provoking reminder of unexplored avenues in game design.” [Vice, 11/7/2022]

Money To Burn

A pair of “well used” Birkenstock sandals once worn by Steve Jobs has sold at auction for almost $220,000, the Associated Press reported. The brown suede sandals, which date to the mid1970s, retain “the imprint of Steve Jobs’ feet,” the auction said in describing the listing. The buyer was not named. Jobs’ home in Los Altos, California, where he and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple, is now a historic landmark. [AP, 11/14/2022]

Send your weird news items with subject line WEIRD NEWS to WeirdNewsTips@ amuniversal.com.

NEWS OF THE WEIRD

© 2022 Andrews McMeel Syndication. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Aries painter Vincent van Gogh was renowned for translating his sublime and unruly passions into colors and shapes on canvas. It was a demanding task. He careened between torment and ecstasy. “I put my heart and soul into my work,” he said, “and I have lost my mind in the process.” That’s sad! But I have good news for you, Aries. In the coming months, you will have the potential to reach unprecedented new depths of zest as you put your heart and soul into your work and play. And hallelujah, you won’t lose your mind in the process! In fact, I suspect you will become more mentally healthy than you’ve been in a long time.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “The soul is silent,” writes Taurus poet Louise Glück. “If it speaks at all, it speaks in dreams.” I don’t agree with her in general, and I especially don’t agree with her in regard to your life in the coming weeks. I believe your soul will be singing, telling jokes, whispering in the dark, and flinging out unexpected observations. Your soul will be extra alive and alert and awake, tempting you to dance in the grocery store and fling out random praise and fantasize about having your own podcast. Don’t underestimate how vivacious your soul might be, Taurus. Give it permission to be as fun and funny as it yearns to be.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): The coming weeks will be an excellent time to expand your understanding about the nature of stress. Here are three study aids: 1. High stress levels are not healthy for your mind and body, but low to moderate stress can be good for you. 2. Low to moderate stress is even better for you if it involves dilemmas that you can ultimately solve. 3. There is a thing called “eustress,” which means beneficial stress. It arises from a challenge that evokes your vigor, resilience, and willpower. As you deal with it, you feel hopeful and hardy. It’s meaningful and interesting. I bring these ideas to your attention, dear Gemini, because you are primed to enjoy a rousing upgrade in your relationship with stress.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Long before he launched his illustrious career, Cancerian inventor Buckminster was accepted to enroll at Harvard University. Studying at such a prestigious educational institution was a high honor and set him up for a bright future. Alas, he was expelled for partying too hard. Soon he was working at odd jobs. His fortunes dwindled, and he grew depressed. But at age 32, he had a pivotal mystical experience. He seemed to be immersed in a globe of white light hovering above the ground. A disembodied voice spoke, telling him he “belonged to the universe” and that he would fulfill his life purpose if he applied himself to serving “the highest advantage of others.”

How would you like a Buckminster Fullerstyle intervention, Cancerian? It’s available if you want it and ask for it.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Leo-born Judith Love Cohen was an electrical engineer who worked on NASA’s Apollo Space Program. She was also the mother of the famous actor Jack Black. When she was nine months pregnant with Jack, on the day she went into labor, she performed a heroic service. On their way to the moon, the three astronauts aboard the Apollo 13 spacecraft had encountered a major systems failure. In the midst of her birth process, Judith Love Cohen carried out advanced troubleshooting that helped save their lives and bring their vehicle safely back to Earth. I don’t expect you to achieve such a monumental feat in the coming days, Leo. But I suspect you will be extra intrepid and even epic in your efforts. And your ability to magically multitask will be at a peak.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): When you’re at the height of your powers, you provide the people in your life with high-quality help and support. And I believe you could perform this role even stronger in 2023. Here are some of the best benefits you can offer: 1. Assist your allies in extracting bright ideas from confusing mishmashes. 2. Help them cull fertile seeds from decaying dross. 3. As they wander through messy abysses, aid them in finding where the redemption is. 4. Cheer on their successes with wit and charm.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): A blogger named Daydreamydyke explains the art of bestowing soulful gifts. Don’t give people you care for generic consumer goods, she tells us. Instead, say to them, “I picked up this cool rock I found on the ground that reminded me of you,” or “I bought you this necklace for 50 cents at a yard sale because I thought you’d like it,” or “I’ve had this odd little treasure since childhood, but I feel like it could be of use to you or give you comfort, so I want you to have it.” That’s the spirit I hope you will adopt during the holiday season, Libra — as well as for all of 2023, which will be the year you could become a virtuoso gift-giver.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In 1957, engineers Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes invented three-dimensional plastic wallpaper. No one bought the stuff, though. A few years later, they rebranded it as Bubble Wrap and marketed it as material to protect packages during shipment. Success! Its new use has been popular ever since. I suspect you are in a phase comparable to the time between when their plastic wallpaper flopped and before they dreamed up Bubble Wrap. Have faith in the possibility of there being a Second Act, Scorpio. Be alert for new applications of pos-

SAGITTARIUS

(Nov. 22-Dec. 21): I applaud your expansive curiosity.

I admire your yearning to learn more and more about our mysterious world as you add to your understanding of how the game of life works. Your greed for interesting experiences is good greed! It is one of your most beautiful qualities. But now and then, there come times when you need to scale down your quest for fresh, raw truths and work on integrating what you have already absorbed. The coming weeks will be one of those times.

sibilities that didn’t quite make a splash the first time around.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Better than most, you have a rich potential to attune yourself to the cyclical patterns of life. It’s your birthright to become skilled at discerning natural rhythms at work in the human comedy. Even more fortunately, Capricorn, you can be deeply comforted by this awareness. Educated by it. Motivated by it. I hope that in 2023, you will develop your capacity to the next level. The cosmic flow will be on your side as you strive to feel the cosmic flow — and place yourself in closer and closer alignment with it.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Anne, a character in a book by L. M. Montgomery, says she prefers the word “dusk” over “twilight” because it sounds so “velvety and shadowy.” She continues, “In daylight, I belong to the world … in the night to sleep and eternity. But in the dusk, I’m free from both and belong only to myself.” According to my astrological assessment, you Aquarians will go through a dusk-like phase in the coming weeks: a time when you will belong solely to yourself and any other creature you choose to join you in your velvety, shadowy emancipation.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): My Piscean friend Venus told me, “We Pisceans feel everything very intensely, but alas, we do not possess the survival skills of a Scorpio or the enough-is-enough, self-protective mechanism of the Cancerians. We are the water sign most susceptible to being engulfed and flooded and overwhelmed.” I think Venus is somewhat correct in her assessment. But I also believe you Fishes have a potent asset that you may not fully appreciate or call on enough. Your ability to tune into the very deepest levels of emotion potentially provides you with access to a divine power source beyond your personality. If you allow it to give you all of its gifts, it will keep you shielded and safe and supported.

memphisflyer.com

FILM By Chris McCoy

Scenes From the American Death Cult

White Noise is a black comedy that feels all too familiar.

In 1985, when Don DeLillo wrote his acclaimed novel White Noise, it was considered an absurdist comedy. When you’re watching Noah Baumbach’s 2022 lm adaptation of White Noise, you will have moments of startling deja vu. What was considered over-the-top crazy in 1985 is now just stu that happens in everyday life.

DeLillo’s “hero,” if you want to call him that, is Jack Gladney (Adam Driver), a prominent professor of “Hitler Studies” at a Midwestern liberal arts college. Both he and his wife Babette (Greta Gerwig) are on their fourth marriages, so their four children live in an extremely mixed family. Luckily, the kids seem to get along well, bonded by their shared love of televised disasters. Plane crashes, oods, res — the deadlier the better, says this household of typical viewers.

But disasters are only fun to watch at a safe remove. When they’re actually happening to you, it’s a di erent story. A few miles from the Gladney residence, a drunken trucker accidentally rams his tanker into a train full of chemicals. At rst, Jack doesn’t believe the “airborne toxic event” is going to be a problem. Desperate evacuations to grubby refugee camps is something that happens to people in Haiti, not a uent Midwesterners. Even the frantic call from a National Guard truck to “evacuate immediately!” is an annoyance because it comes in the middle of dinner.

For those of us who just lived through the pandemic, the Airborne Toxic Event feels like prophecy. e authorities can’t even agree on what to call it at rst, and the name they settle on is comically ambiguous. e ever-changing signs of exposure to the toxic cloud include vague things like “unexplained deja vu”

— when Ste e (May Nivola) experiences tingling in her extremities, Heinrich (Sam Nivola) accuses her of experiencing “outdated symptoms.” Even the anticlimactic end of the event seems familiar. One day, everyone is just allowed back to their homes, and not much else is said about the whole a air.

For his 11th lm, Baumbach has taken on an extremely high degree of di culty in adapting a beloved, but prickly, literary masterpiece. He leans heavily on Driver, who delivers with his usual intensity. You might not think “team teaching a college class on the parallels between Hitler and Elvis” sounds like good fodder for a cinematic experience, but Driver and Don Cheadle, who plays Jack’s frenemy professor Murray, make it riveting.

Gerwig and Baumbach are a couple,

Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, and Don Cheadle deliver performances that hit a little too close for comfort in this absurdist comedy.

and judging from Lady Bird and Little Women, she is every bit his equal as a director. (Her $100 million Barbie movie drops next summer.) Babette gets pushed aside, in favor of Jack’s comically exaggerated narcissism. During her big scene, in which she confesses her drug addiction and a air, a stunned Jack can only repeat, “ is is not Babette’s purpose.” DeLillo intended Jack to be an a ectionate parody of the many “white guys who teach college” protagonists of literary novelists like Raymond Carver and John Irving. But a er the Trump era, his unexamined sel shness seems uglier, and less funny.

Even though Jack and Babette’s lives continue to become more surreal and more complex, the lm never really matches the energy of the A.T.E. I o en quote the Hitchcock adage that mediocre books make the best movies. Works of literary genius that depend on wordsmithery usually get lost in translation.

(Paul omas Anderson’s Inherent Vice is the exception that proves the rule.)

Baumbach’s White Noise is dense and wordy. He creates some unlikely thrilling moments. I’m not sure what it all means, or if it holds together, but I do know that I’m still thinking about it, and I want to watch it again.

White Noise

Now playing Multiple locations

What was considered over-the-top crazy in 1985 is now just stuff that happens in everyday life.

Our critic picks the best films in theaters this week.

Avatar: The Way of Water

Twelve years in the making (and eight years after its first announced release date), James Cameron’s sequel to his groundbreaking 3D film Avatar finally drops this week. If the reports of the film’s $400 million budget are true, it would be the most expensive film ever made. The former title holder is Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides at $379 million, which proves that money can’t buy quality. But a lot of people have gotten burned betting against Cameron, and the early word from preview screenings has ranged from positive to ecstatic. Either way, expect a film that presses the bounds of what is

visually possible.

Mindcage

Who is foolish enough to try to open opposite the biggest cinematic event since Avengers: Endgame? Director Mauro Borrelli’s serial killer drama starring Martin Lawrence as a detective in his first non-comic role, and John Malkovich as “The Artist.” Yeah, sounds great.

Violent Night

Imagine the Christmas classic Die Hard, only instead of Bruce Willis as no-nonsense cop John McClane, it’s David Harbour as … Santa Claus? Like, the real Santa Claus? It’s so stupid, it just might work! If you’re in the mood for some alternative to holiday cheer, this one’s for you.

Personals

I Saw You

Hottie Buying Beer,

You were at the Madison Cash Saver last weekend picking up a six-pack of Meddlesome. Great choice! I was the dark-haired chick in the Spacer shirt eyeballing you from across the aisle. You had on a Memphis Tigers tee and were wearing socks with sandals. Weird flex, but okay! Would love to grab a pint with you.

Have you spotted a hottie around town? A missed connection been bugging you? Are you the one described in this ad?

For more info on how to submit your missed connections or replies, email isawyou@memphisflyer.com.

HOME OF THE TIME WARP DRIVE-IN SERIES

By Chris McCoy

2006 BLACK CHEVY MALIBU VIN #1G1ZS51FX6F209066. Abandoned vehicle. If you have any claim on this vehicle please contact Gregory at 901-503-3583 within 10 days of this notice.

FRESH START ACT OF 2022

H.R. 6667

I am asking that the House passed Congressman Steve Cohen bill H.R.6667 - Fresh Start Act of 2022 because If a measure is not considered during one Congress it dies. The measure will need to be reintroduced in the subsequent Congress (January 3) and which time it will be referred to the appropriate Committees and the process starts anew.

EMPLOYMENT

Signage

knowledge and skills including Microsoft Office excel, etc., as well as fluent skills in Adobe Illustrator and design layout are required. Our office is fast paced, fun and is suited for someone that is quick thinking, and can multitask in a changing environment. We offer competitive compensation, good benefits package plus working with people that appreciate and support your efforts. Please call Dale at 2723889 and/or Email your resume to dale@signworksmemphis.com and lsouthern@commtrans.com

SIGNWORKS

SHARED HOUSING

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AUTO

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2002 TOYOTA CAMRY VIN #JTDBF32K220004173

Dancing on the Edge of Hell

I fear that war remains the logical terminus of collective human consciousness.

Two dogs walking. One of them says to the other: “I bark and I bark, but I never feel like I e ect real change.”

is is the caption of a New Yorker cartoon by Christopher Weyant from several years ago. It keeps popping up in my head — I mean, every day. Like everyone else, I want what I do to matter, to “e ect real change.” What I do is write. Speci cally, I swim in the in nity of possibility. Humanity can kill itself or it can learn to survive. Most people (I believe) prefer the latter, which is all about discovering how we are connected to one another and to the rest of the universe. is is what I try to write about.

en Congress passes another military budget. And once again, there’s the New Yorker cartoon.

“An emerging compromise on annual defense policy legislation will endorse a $45 billion increase to President Joe Biden’s defense spending plans,” Politico reports. “… e deal would set the budget topline of the scal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act at $847 billion for national defense.”

You know, more than the world’s next nine defense budgets combined. We have more than 750 military bases around the world. We’re sending billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Ukraine to keep the war going, in the wake of our two decades of war in the Middle East to rid the world of terrorism … excuse me, evil. As a result, the planet is bleeding to death. Not to worry, though. We still have nukes. How safe and secure can we get?

And here’s Northrop Grumman, presenting to the world the B-21 Raider, an updated nuclear bomber, aka the future of Armageddon. No need to worry. When Armageddon is ready to happen, it will happen smoothly, at the bargain cost of $750 million per aircra .

Northrop Grumman itself puts it this way: “When it comes to delivering America’s resolve, the B-21 Raider will be standing by, silent and ready. We are providing America’s war- ghters with an advanced aircra o ering a combination of range, payload, and survivability. e B-21 Raider will be capable of penetrating the toughest defenses to deliver precision strikes anywhere in the world. e B-21 is the future of deterrence.”

We’re dancing on the edge of hell.

Is it possible for humanity to evolve beyond this? Prior to Armageddon? Advocating that humanity’s collective consciousness must transcend militarism, and an us-vs.them attitude toward the planet means lying on a bed of nails. Consider the weird and mysterious act of violence that took place recently in Moore County, North Carolina, which may — or may not — have been triggered by a drag show. Somebody opened gun re at two electric substations in the central North Carolina county over the weekend, causing multi-million-dollar damage to the power grid and leaving some 40,000 households without power for half a week. While the perpetrator and motive remain a mystery to law enforcement o cials, one person wrote on Facebook: “ e power is out in Moore County and I know why.” She then posted a photo of the Sunrise eater, in downtown Southern Pines, along with the words “God will not be mocked.” e theater had a drag show scheduled that night, which, prior to the power grid attack, had been vehemently opposed by many right-wingers.

e Facebook claim that the power outage was meant to stop the drag show may have been totally bogus (and also a failure, by the way, with spectators lighting the show with their cell phones so it could go on). Maybe we’ll never know for sure. But even if the poster, furious about the scheduled show, had simply co-opted a motive for the criminal act, essentially ascribing it to God, it’s still indicative that there’s a lot of poison in the air. If you hate something, don’t try to understand it. Go to war. ere was, a er all, a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs several weeks ago — indeed, mass shootings directed at multiple targets are, good God, commonplace.

I fear that war remains the logical terminus of collective human consciousness. Indeed, war is sacred, or so surmises Kelly DentonBorhaug, citing as an example a speech delivered by George W. Bush on Easter weekend in 2008. She noted that W. “milked” the Easter story to glorify the hell the country was in the process of wreaking in Iraq and Afghanistan, throwing a bit of Gospel into his war on evil: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

She writes: “ e abusive exploitation of religion to bless violence covered the reality of war’s hideous destructiveness with a sacred sheen.”

But perhaps even worse than war’s pseudo-sacredness is its normalcy, à la that never-questioned trillion-dollar budget that Congress tosses at the Pentagon every year without fail. And the total pushes up, up, up every year, bequeathing us, for instance, that Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider, ready to deliver Armageddon on command.

Short of Armageddon, we simply have armed hate-spewers, ready and ever so willing to kill an enemy at the grocery store or a school classroom or a nightclub.

Understand, love, heal … these are not simple words. Will we ever learn what they mean? Will we ever give them a budget? Robert Koehler, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. He is the author of Courage Grows Strong at the Wound

PHOTO: NORTHROP GRUMMAN

B-21 Raider