v8n26 - Trust In Me

The Little Bank that Can Crow, p 10

To TIF or Not to TIF? Eco-Devo, p 11

Caroline in Full Bloom Nolen, p 30

Vol. 8 | No. 26 // March 11 - 17, 2010

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jacksonian

C

olin Blanchard loves cycling so much that despite being hit by a car twice, he rides his bike every morning from his Belhaven home to his job at The Bike Rack on Lakeland Drive where he does bike repair and maintenance. Blanchard, 23, says that cycling is a huge part of his everyday life.

“About 90 percent of my transportation is via bicycle,” Blanchard says. “I ride pretty much everywhere. I ride to work; I ride for fun; I ride all the time.”

Recently, a driver hit Blanchard as he was crossing Jefferson Street on his way home from work. He says he was unharmed, but upset that the driver left the scene. The incident fueled his efforts to promote bike safety, but hasn’t detoured him from riding.

“It’s a lot of fun to ride bicycles. I don’t think you should let someone take that away,” he says. “I’m still going to have fun, but I’m going to be more cautious.”

Blanchard works closely with the Jackson Bicycle Advocates and helps organize community rides on the last Friday of each month. As a group, the advocates ride down major streets in Jackson, making a statement to local drivers.

“We don’t do it to be annoying,” Blanchard says. “We ride slowly so that drivers will see that they need to respect cyclists’ right to be on the roads.”

MEREDITH NORWOOD

colin blanchard Blanchard says he prefers riding in downtown Jackson.

“Lots of people like to ride on the Natchez Trace,” he says. “I don’t think the Trace is the best place to ride. State Street is pretty good, and you’d be surprised how nice Lakeland is to ride on.”

A native of Detroit, Mich., Blanchard moved to Alexandra, Va., when he was 7.

As a homeschooled student, his mom encouraged him to pursue his own interests, which consisted of all things mechanical.

When he was 15, he met his wife, Anna, at a home-school social. He worked in sales at a bike shop in Washington, D.C., but moved to Jackson in 2008 to pursue Anna, who is a dance major at Belhaven College. The couple married in the summer of 2009.

Although he owns six bicycles, his bike of choice is one with a few special qualities—no brakes and no gears—allowing him to ride backward and slowly coast to a stop. Blanchard is also one of the few riders in Mississippi who participate in a style of riding known as trials, which are competitions involving obstacle courses for bicycles.

“The idea is have your bicycle tires touch objects (in the course) and not your feet,” he says.

—Will Caves

Cover photograph by Charles Smith Mar c h 11 - 17, 2 0 1 0

VOL.

8 NO. 26

11

22

34

To Charter or Not

TIFs & PIDs, Oh My

It’s My Party

Mindful Food

Mississippi politicians debate the pluses and minuses of charter schools while others just make them happen.

Confused about how your tax money figures into economic development projects? The Eco-Diva sorts it out.

Tired of the same old, same old when it comes to bachelor/ette parties? Brent Hearn gives you the alt versions.

Do you remember what you had for dinner last night? If not, it’s time to bring your soul to the table.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 4 Editor’s Note 22 Hitched

4 Slow Poke 24 8 Days

26 JFP Events

6 Talk

12 Zuga

28 Music Listings

12 Stiggers 30 Music

34 Body/Soul

12 Editorial 36 Astro

COURTESY BARKSDALE READING INSTITUTE; FILE PHOTO; KRISTIN BRENEMEN; JACI BERKOPEC

8

jacksonfreepress.com

contents

3

editor’snote

Ward Schaefer JFP reporter Ward Schaefer came to Mississippi to teach middle school, and is now a journalist.

His hometown of Chevy Chase, Md., was not named for the actor.

He is slowly learning to play banjo. He wrote the cover story and talks.

Charles A. Smith Charles A. Smith attended Tougaloo College and is operations manager for the Arts Alliance. He is also a busy freelance photographer, shooting for The Associated Press and other clients. He photographed the cover.

Daphne Nabors Daphne Nabors is a freelance photographer with a home and studio in the Belhaven Heights area of Jackson. She plays in two local bands, Overnight Lows and the Party Dots. She photographed the Hitched fashion shoot.

Greg Williamson Greg Williamson is a Florida native who worked in state government in Wisconsin and North Carolina before relocating to Mississippi. He enjoys puns, improvising on the piano and making movies on his Mac. He wrote the Body/Soul piece.

ShaWanda Jacome Assistant to the editor ShaWanda Jacome was born in Jackson and raised in California. Family is everything to her and in this past year, she rediscovered her passion for writing. She wrote a Hitched piece.

Chris Nolen Chris Nolen is an art director and writer living in Belhaven. Music is his favorite thing in the world, but his talents are questionable at best. So he decided to write about music instead. He interviewed Caroline Herring.

Christi Vivar Production designer Christi Vivar is a native Jacksonian and honors graduate of Hinds Community College. She loves cooking, illustrating and playing video games with her hubby. A master of the art of sarcasm, she helped design pages for this issue.

March 4 - 10. 2010

Brent Hearn

4

Brent Hearn is a freelance writer, actor and production assistant. He shares a house in Fondren with two super-cool chicas. If you enjoy his writing, he politely suggests sending chocolate in lieu of compliments. He wrote a Hitched piece.

by Donna Ladd, Editor-in-Chief

Ain’t That Something

N

ot long ago, Todd and I were downtown to see “Groovaloo” at Thalia Mara. As we walked to the car, an obviously homeless man walked up and respectfully asked us for money. Todd did what I’ve watched him do so many times when we lived in New York City and when visiting San Francisco and other cities. He paused for a split-second in decision and then reached into his pocket. He pulled out a $20 bill, glanced at it and handed it to the man who was holding the bucket he uses to wash windshields. The man looked surprised.

“Thank you so much!” he said as we walked away. Todd looked at me and shrugged; it wasn’t our richest month, but he always gives whatever he pulls out when he makes that decision. It’s a rule that serves us well.

And it is one of the many reasons I share my life with Todd Stauffer.

Neither Todd nor I give money every time we’re asked by someone on the street.

There are no hard-and-fast rules; we often don’t have any money on us, or we just don’t choose to at that moment. Or the person is rude, which never makes sense when you’re asking someone for a gift. But we are never disrespectful to the person who believes they need to walk up and ask us for money, and we don’t worry too much about what they are doing with the gift. Giving and compassion aren’t about that. If we don’t choose to give, we say, “I’m sorry,” and keep walking.

My lessons in homelessness came during the late 1980s in New York’s East Village. The Reagan years were a time of horrid homelessness in the city and a rapid rise in poverty across the country. I was slap-dab in the middle of a battle between developers trying to drive poor people out and turn the East Village into, well, what it is today. Like now, I was working for local newspapers and had friends on all sides, so to speak. In fact, I became close to the police commander charged with kicking the homeless and their mattresses out of our local park (the same cop who would come back late at night and give them foam pads to sleep on once the TV cameras were gone).

When I started my work there, I leaned toward collective pity rather than collective disdain (most people choose one or the other with homeless people). But even within my more biblical approach, I would soon learn that I was naïve—like most people—about one simple fact: “The homeless” are not all the same. Some are kind and gentle; some mentally ill; others addicted to drugs; still others lazy and shiftless; others work hard and are still poor; others are downright jerks. Many are a combination of those factors—kind of like most non-homeless people we know, or family members, or even ourselves. Ahem.

It took many hours in the park for me to learn to look at them as individuals. And do I have memories: There was the guy who always walked up and said in a fake British accent, “Pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?”

(Everyone thus called him “Grey Poupon,”

and he made scads of cash.) There was the guy who stole our free newspapers from racks to sell until I chased him down one day, grabbed him and told him to bring his sorry ass to my office to get papers to sell because we worked too hard to distribute the damn things.

And then there was Terry Taylor.

I most certainly did not like Terry T, as everyone called him, when I first met him. He was a tall man who liked to drink 40-ouncers and yell at “yuppie scum” like me who came to the park. He had rippled muscles under his sweaty dark skin, and he seldom wore a shirt if it wasn’t freezing out. He would stare at me with what one might call hate in his eyes, saying stuff like, “What is a rich white girl like you hanging out with us pitiful losers for?”

I didn’t flinch. I could see something in his eyes beyond the taunts, and I talked back.

“It’s my park, too, Terry T. Back off.”

“Well, ain’t that something,” he’d respond, shaking his head.

Soon, his anger turned into affection.

“Hey, Lil Sis!” he would call out as I walked into the park with my iced coffee. He became one of many friends I made there (which turned into a posse one night to look for a dude in a fur coat who had mugged me, hit me in the face and taken my wallet. Rumor is they found him and kicked his ass back to the Bronx, but I never confirmed the story).

Over the months, Terry T told me his story. He was from a Carolina and fell out of luck in New York. He started hanging out in the park, which was like its own little town, for better or worse. None of the homeless guys liked the shelters because they were dangerous, they said, and clearly they wanted a little patch of earth to call their own. He also liked being in the middle of the East Village, among a

fairly accepting group of residents and artist types (many of whom stood with the homeless when developers and the police tried to kick them out to parts unknown and undeveloped). And he liked witty repartee.

During the time I knew Terry T, my mother died in July. The next Mother’s Day, I was feeling very alone and went to the park just as it was getting dark. It was Sunday, and quiet, and I felt like no one cared about or understood what I was feeling.

As I sat on a bench, Terry T walked up to me with one hand behind his back, flashing his toothy grin. “Hey, Lil Sis!” I nodded and half-smiled. Suddenly, he swung his hidden hand out and thrust a slightly wilted carnation toward me. “Happy Mother’s Day, Lil Sis!” My eyes teared as I hugged the one friend who realized the crappy day I was having.

I wish I could report a happy ending to Terry T’s life. It almost happened. He got into a rehab program, and was so proud that he had quit “drankin’ and druggin’,” as he put it.

He’d wear an ironed shirt and a crisp vest covered with little AA badges when we’d meet at the diner across from the park. He taught me the phrase “stankin’ thankin’,” which I use to this day when people devolve into negativity.

Then one day at the diner, Terry T tearfully told me he had “the disease”—AIDS— probably from sharing needles in the park.

As he withered away in St. Vincent, I would visit, and we’d re-tell old stories. One day, not long before he passed, he was so thrilled he couldn’t keep still. Our police-commander friend—then a top-level NYPD chief—had visited him on my suggestion, in full uniform, hat in hand. Terry T was awestruck.

“Ain’t that something, Lil Sis. Ain’t that something,” he said, shaking his head.

5

jacksonfreepress.com

news, culture & irreverence

Thursday, March 4 The United States House of Representatives approves a $15 billion measure giving tax breaks to businesses that hire workers. … The Mississippi Supreme Court formally removes imprisoned judge Bobby DeLaughter from the Hinds County bench.

Friday, March 5 U.S. Rep. Henry A. Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce demands more information from Toyota, saying information provided so far on the faulty accelerator is not convincing for exoneration. …

In Mississippi, a bill giving local counties the authority to regulate strip clubs passes the Senate.

Saturday, March 6 White House officials announce that an analysis by New York investment banking and securities firm Goldman Sachs will be the centerpiece of their campaign for health-care reform. The analysis recommends that investors buy shares in Cigna and United Health Group because rates are high and competition is down. … Several Jackson Public Schools get a makeover during Great American Cleanup when hundreds of volunteers from community and church groups participate in local beatification projects.

Sunday, March 7 Pakistani officials arrest Adam Gadahn, an American spokesman for Al Qaeda who is wanted in the United States for treason. … University of Mississippi Medical Center admits state Sen. Jack Gordon in critical condition.

One of former-President Ronald Reagan’s enduring legacies is homelessness, according to urban policy experts. During his eight years in office, Reagan cut federal spending to local governments by 60 percent, slashing public programs and assistance to the poor, including affordable housing.

Voter ID Goes On 2011 Ballot

M

ississippians will vote next fall on a constitutional amendment to require photo identification at the polls. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann announced Monday that voter ID proponents collected more than 131,000 petition signatures supporting a ballot initiative for the November 2011 statewide general election. State law requires at least 89,285 signatures to place an initiative on the ballot.

Hosemann called the ballot initiative “an important part, but not the only part” of reforming state elections.

“It would not be correct to say that voter ID is the answer to each and every one of our voting problems,” Hosemann said. “We have absentee-ballot issues, we have affidavit ballot issues, we have irregular numbers in those kind of transactions. This is one part of an overall picture of an overall puzzle to ensure the integrity of our ballot.”

“It’s pretty amazing,” Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, told the Jackson Free Press.

“I was never in serious doubt that we would make it, but I had no idea we’d make it as huge as we did.”

Fillingane, who supports the group Mississippians for Voter Identification, voted during last year’s legislative session to kill a bill that would have required photo identification from all voters born after 1945. Joined by three other Republicans and a Democrat, Fillingane surprised many voter ID support-

ers by voting against the measure, which originated in the House.

The move raised speculation that Fillingane and others hoped to delay a vote on voter ID until the statewide elections, when it could prove a politically useful wedge issue.

Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Sam Hall has called the move “a political stunt.”

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said he would increase voter registration efforts if voters approve the photo ID requirement.

Fillingane said that he opposed the House bill in the Senate Elections Committee not for political reasons, but because it had several weak points. The exemption on voters born before 1945 was counterproductive, he argued, because elderly voters were the most vulnerable to voter fraud.

“Most of the voter fraud, I find, that goes on is elderly people being taken advantage of,” Fillingane said. “Someone will try to vote for

March 11 - 17, 2010

6

John Doe because they know he’s at home sick or can’t get out of the nursing home.”

Fillingane also objected to the House proposal’s provision for early voting, which he said would introduce a greater possibility for election fraud unless county voter rolls were first purged of deceased voters and outof-date entries.

Asked to provide an example of voter fraud that could be prevented with a photo identification requirement, Fillingane described incidents from the 2007 Democratic primary election for circuit clerk in Jefferson Davis County.

“You had charges of voting by dead people, voting by people that were out of the county,” Fillingane said.

The losing candidate, Clint Langley, challenged the election results in court. After reviewing the allegations, Circuit Court Judge Forrest Johnson threw out the original results and called a new election, which Langley won. Johnson found 26 voting irregularities in the original results, including one instance of a vote recorded in the name of a dead man and another in which a person hospitalized in another county cast a vote.

Opponents to voter ID argue that election fraud is hardly pervasive and that any evidence is minor and anecdotal. Conversely, they maintain, a photo ID requirement could discourage voter participation, espeVOTER ID, see page 7

by Ashley Hill BUTT

COUNTRY

B OY

With the recent crime that occurred in Fondren, and the meeting that followed, what else needs to be done to lower crime?

“If everyone wore glitter there would be no crime. You always have to watch your back, and as long as people are communicating and keeping their eyes open, it will be fine. Don’t be stupid; get to know the police in the area and your neighbors.” —Ann Kosa “The best thing I got out of the (community) meeting was getting the phone numbers of the officers. … [O]n Monday I am going to start packin’ behind my counter.

It’s legal.” —Chane

Monday, March 8 A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hits eastern Turkey, killing at least 51. … The Jackson Police Department bomb squad successfully disarms a hand grenade found in the back of a garbage truck.

Tuesday March 9 The Kemper County Sheriff’s Department arrests a 56-year-old woman for disorderly conduct after finding 75 to 100 dogs on her property in inhumane conditions.

by Ward Schaefer

WARD SCHAEFER

Wednesday, March 3 Washington, D.C., legalizes same-sex marriage, becoming the sixth state to do so. … The Mississippi Senate approves a plan to restore one fifth of the money Gov. Barbour cut from the budget.

Locally owned Peoples Bank looms large for small farmers, p. 10

“He loved baked chicken and vegetables. He really does,” Bruno said. “He’s a good ole country boy, but he loves to eat his baked chicken and baked fish.” — Hilton Jackson Chef Louis Bruno to WAPT in response to criticism of Gov. Haley Barbour’s weight following a visit from first lady Michelle Obama promoting healthy eating.

Bruno was Barbour’s personal cook for five years.

“You certainly have to be aware of your surroundings.

You could also learn self-defense—Tai Kwan Do would be good—and buy Mace.“ —Ashley Jackson “I think it’s our job as Fondren residents (to say to) somebody new: ‘Look. You just left your Dolce Gabana purse on the rear seat of your car and your iPhone’s inside of it, and you can see both of them. Don’t do that.’” — Niles D. Puckett

news, culture & irreverence

VOTER ID, from page 6

cially among older African American voters with a keen memory of segregation-era voter intimidation tactics like poll taxes.

“This is all about disenfranchising voters, not cleaning up voting,” Mississippi NAACP President Derrick Johnson told the Jackson Free Press in August 2009.

In a 2007 report, the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice noted, “Allegations of widespread voter fraud … often prove greatly exaggerated.”

Voter ID only prevents would-be voters from impersonating other, registered voters on the rolls. This type of fraud, the Brennan Center report noted, is “an occurrence more rare than getting struck by lightning.”

During the 2008 general election, the Secretary of State’s office received 66 reports of alleged voter fraud. Post-election analysis

verified only two instances of voters voting twice, however, a type of fraud that voter ID would not prevent.

The ballot initiative will ask Mississippi voters whether the state constitution should be amended to require that all voters submit a government-issued photo ID before voting. The Constitutional amendment would also provide that voters could receive a free photo ID from the Department of Public Safety. The amendment would exempt “religious objectors” and “certain residents of state-licensed care facilities.”

After Monday’s announcement, Hosemann said that his office would ramp up voter registration efforts if voters approve the ID requirement. “We have zero tolerance for people not being eligible to vote,” Hosemann said. If the ballot initiative passes, his office’s employees will be “hitting the streets to get people eligible,” he said.

Council Steps Sideways on Civilian Review

by Ward Schaefer

T

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BRYANT HAWKINS

he Jackson City Council approved a Deputy City Attorney James Anderson resolution Tuesday that represents an told council members. “At this time, the intermediate step toward establishing ordinance as it’s written has some serisome form of civilian oversight of the ous problems. I would suggest that it be Jackson Police Department. After months amended to a resolution, then (you) could of deliberation in committee, the resolution put together some specificity as to whatever calls for the creation of a “an independent the entities involved would want.” community advocacy review The city’s legal departprocess for police matters.” ment did not have input in Jackson State criminolwriting Stokes’ proposed ogy professor Jimmy Bell, ordinance, Anderson said. who has served as an expert “If we’re not going to have on models of civilian overanother roadblock, if we’re sight for the council, said doing this in good spirit and that the resolution enabled with clean hands, then ... I a more formal conversation have no problem (amending about what form of oversight The City Council the resolution),” Stokes said. would work best in the city. approved a proposal At the council’s work

by Councilman “It’s a process of getting to Kenneth Stokes to session Monday, Police whatever kind of vehicle the begin developing Chief Rebecca Coleman mayor or (police) wants,” a form of civilian expressed doubts about the oversight of police.

Bell said. proposed ordinance. ColeIn committee meetings, Bell has man said she wanted to know how the resuggested that city leaders might prefer to view process coincides with internal police create a single paid position of indepen- investigations. dent police auditor, rather than the civilian “If this (ordinance) is to be adopted review board favored by advocacy groups by the council, I believe some plan should like the Mississippi ACLU and Malcolm X be put in place so that we will know who Grassroots Movement. this police monitor will answer to, where’s At Tuesday’s meeting, Missis- that level of supervision for them. Will this sippi ACLU Executive Director Nsombi person be responsible for overseeing the Lambright said that her organization’s prior- outcome of an investigation, or will this ity is ensuring community participation in person be on the front end of the investigathe review of complaints against police.”We tion?” Coleman asked the council. “Those want some type of community process cre- answers have not been given to me or any ated,” Lambright said. “It doesn’t matter if members of the police department.” there’s (also) a (police auditor) position.”

At today’s meeting, Yarber urged Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes, council members to keep in mind the who has pushed for a civilian review “spirit” of Stokes’ proposal, which was to process for almost two years, originally move the city closer to some form of civilproposed an ordinance on the issue, but on ian review, he said. the advice of the city’s legal department, he “This is cranking the car up, if you amended his proposal as a resolution. will,” Yarber said. “It’s saying everyone get “Looking at the document, it’s more in the car, and we’ll have a conversation akin to a resolution than an ordinance,” about where we’re going.”

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THANK YOU FOR THE VOTES!

by Ward Schaefer

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COURTESY BARKSDALE READING INSTITUTE

Charters and Quasi-Charters

The Barksdale Reading Institute is expanding its work from teaching literacy to paying principals’ salaries.

A

s the Mississippi Legislature weighs the merits of charter schools in heated committee meetings and floor debates, a similar attempt at education reform is making headway in the state without requiring the approval of lawmakers.

The Senate passed a charter-school bill Feb. 9, but the House appeared poised to pass only a pale imitation of a charter-school bill, if any. Opposition to charter schools is stronger in the House, especially among African American legislators who remain wary of changes to school governance.

Charter schools are public schools that receive public funds but are operated by private, non-profit entities. Charter operators have greater freedom than traditional public schools in personnel decisions, curriculum and other aspects of management, such as school-day length. In return, they pledge to reach specific academic performance targets or risk losing their charter.

Proponents of charters argue that they free schools from bureaucracy, increase competition, and offer parents choices beyond the local, under-performing school. Opponents and skeptics question whether charter schools actually improve students’ academic performance and worry that they may increase segregation or undermine local control.

Education research, including a 2009 Stanford University study, has found that charters do not consistently outperform traditional schools, although some individual charter school organizations have documented more

favorable results.

The House approved a revision of the Senate Charter bill March 9 that strikes the term “charter school” entirely and presents an alternative model: the “innovative school.”

Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, author of the House amendment, told the Jackson Free Press last week that the Senate bill was inferior. “The Senate (bill) is not good language,” Brown said. “There a bunch of holes in it. I also just don’t think it’ll pass.”

Brown was most concerned that the Senate bill’s provision for “conversion” charters— existing public schools whose faculty and parents voted to become a charter school—was too vague on issues of governance.

Under Brown’s proposal, parents at a chronically under-performing school can petition the state Board of Education for an innovative school designation. If a majority of parents support the transformation and the state Board approves it, the parents can then elect a five-member board from among them to handle all personnel decisions and day-today operations at the school. The new board can contract with an organization to run the school, in the manner of a charter school, or hire a principal itself.

Brown’s proposal faced fierce opposition from some House lawmakers, though. In debate over his amendment, some representatives questioned turning schools over to parental control, while others seemed skeptical of any attempt at reform.

“We keep coming in this room, pouring our hearts out, and before anyone knows whether it’ll work, you try to reinvent the wheel,” Rep. Billy Broomfield, D-Moss Point, said. “I’ll bet you a fat man to a hot dog that before this goes into effect, we’ll be back in here trying something else.”

Whether or not the Senate approves Brown’s charter-like proposal, four Mississippi schools will start next year with a similar experiment.

The four school districts have reached agreements with the Barksdale Reading Institute, a Jackson-based literacy organization, to recruit elementary-school principals. Under

the plan, the Institute will pay the principals’ salaries for three years.

Founded by former Netscape CEO and philanthropist Jim Barksdale, the Institute provides literacy coaching in schools across the state. Jim Barksdale’s brother, Claiborne Barksdale, the executive director, said the principal-recruiting program expands the organization’s scope from improving individual classrooms to transforming whole schools.

“For several years, (we) have talked about what greater impact could we have, how could we maximize impact,” Claiborne Barksdale said. “We’ve talked about charter schools, but we’ve never thought that we wanted to be a charter school. The scalability issue with charter schools has always been daunting. (With a charter) you’re in control of the budget and so forth, and that’s quite a different challenge.”

“Practically speaking, there’s not that great a difference,” he acknowledged.

The director aims to hire top-notch principals. The Institute is recruiting candidates from as far away as Boston, Mass., and aims to finalize hiring by mid-March, he said. He would not give a specific salary figure but said that it would be competitive.

In return for the high-quality principal, participating school districts will give the Institute’s principals more authority over personnel and curriculum at their schools.

The particulars of the Institute’s agreement with each school district will be settled in a memorandum of understanding that the district superintendent, school board and state department of education must approve.

Four districts have agreed to participate in the program for next school year: Quitman County, Holmes County, North Panola and Hazlehurst school districts. BRI will hire and pay one elementary principal in each district.

In North Panola, currently in its second year under state control because of low performance, the Barksdale program offered an opportunity to save money on a principal’s salary, which starts at $60,000. ““It’s certainly a new process,” said state conservator Bob Strebeck. “It’s something we’ve never done.”

LAUGHTER IS A GIFT FROM GOD

Come be a part of a Community of Joy!

Services: March 11 - 17. 2010

10:30 am

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6:00 pm 650 E South St. Jackson, MS 39201

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Legislature: Week 9

by Adam Lynch

Appropriations and Pole-Dancing version of the bill also allowed the state Ethics Commission or a chancery court to nullify or void decisions made in meetings conducted in violation of state open meetings laws.

House members watered down the bill when it got to them, however. The House Judiciary A Committee removed language allowing the Ethics Commission or chancery courts to nullify decisions invoking fines, and removed language putting responsibility for paying fines from individual wrongdoers, which means they would be paid by the public body in violation—and, thus, paid by taxpayers.

Blackmon, who presided over the House Committee that removed both the personal responsibility language and the nullification power, held the bill on a motion to reconsider after the House passed the watered-down version.

Among the bills that met their death last week is SB 2623, an animal-cruelty bill that proposed making it a felony to torture dogs or cats. The bill included fines of up to $1,000 for killing animals through starvation or water deprivation, and delivered fines of up to $10,000, depending upon the degree of torture or mutilation delivered upon the victim.

The bill died in the Judiciary B committee.

The House Transportation Committee

also killed SB 2595, a controversial bill banning texting on a mobile communications device while driving.

The Senate offered plenty of its own committee death last week, killing HB 853, a bill that would have created the “Early Voting Act.” Supporters of HB 853 argued that early voting would increase voter turn-out by improving convenience, while Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Republican, argued last year that early voting would create chaos at voting areas.

A Senate bill expanding the definition of domestic abuse still lives in the House.

Senate Bill 2923 expands domestic abuse to include incidents of non-fatal strangulation, and includes children of the parties as possible victims of domestic violence. The bill also mandates a 24-hour “cooling-off period” for both involved parties and requires a minimum one-year sentence before a person convicted of aggravated domestic violence is eligible for parole. The bill currently sits in the House Judiciary B Committee.

Also alive is a bill creating a flood and drainage control joint legislative study committee to inspect the effectiveness of flood and drainage control districts throughout the state.

House Bill 1548 author Rep. Mary Coleman, D-Jackson, said she’s targeting the Rankin-

Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, is holding a watered-down ethics bill in committee on a motion to reconsider.

Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District, even though the resulting study committee will scrutinize multiple districts in the state. The committee will report its findings and recommendations to the Legislature early in the 2011 seession. Coleman says she is irritated at the Rankin-Hinds District’s decision to go with a plan to expand levees over a lake plan for flood control, and questions how much flood control the district is delivering for its cost to taxpayers.

After passing in the House, the bill sits in the Senate Environmental Protection, Conservation and Water Committee, unlike another bill by Sen. Lee Yancey, to put property held by flood and drainage control districts under local zoning laws. Yancey’s bill died in the House Appropriations Committee last month.

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She not only handles all the event catering for the Mississippi Museum of Art, but has molded many of the menu favorites from the ground up. Pieces of art are created in the form of delicious gourmet sandwiches, salads, daily specials and homemade soups.

“Everything is original recipes of my own and everything is made from scratch,” says Burgess.

The Plantation Sandwich is made of Southern cornbread split and layered with smoked turkey and asparagus, more cornbread, and topped with hollandaise sauce and crumbled bacon. The biggest seller, according to Burgess, is the Palette Café Chicken Salad, made of their very own chicken salad served on toasted sourdough or wheat berry bread with crispy romaine lettuce. The White Palette Sandwich boasts grilled chicken topped with a piquant white barbeque sauce, tangy slaw and a smidgen of Alabama goat cheese served on toasted bread.

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Crunchy romaine lettuce tossed with heirloom cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced red onions, peppered Applewood smoked bacon, black-eyed peas, fried okra and fresh corn. It’s served up with crispy cornbread croutons and comeback dressing on the side.

Daily specials range from fried chicken and mashed potatoes and milk gravy to red beans and rice and French bread. Call for daily specials because they occasionally change, or email kkern@msmuseumart.org to receive weekly specials via email. Much like fine art, there is not one item on the menu that is the same.

Palette Café by Viking at the Mississippi Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sundays noon to 2 p.m. Add a little color to your lunch hour, and visit them at 380 South Lamar Street in downtown Jackson’s museum district.

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T

he House and Senate agreed on a major appropriation bill last week, when negotiators came to terms on appropriations bill SB 2495, which restores $82 million to the Fiscal Year 2010 budget, including $37 million slated for K-12 public education. House and Senate negotiators reached an accord after Gov. Haley Barbour sliced more than $450 million from the 2010 budget. The House and Senate will have to approve SB 2495, but will likely agree consider Barbour said he would not veto the bill.

The House and Senate must still deal with budget shortfalls in fiscal year 2011.

The Senate sent a bill to the governor late last week that would allow counties to write rules governing strip clubs in rural areas. The Senate opened debate on the bill last Friday with a discussion on a strip club called The Pony, near West Point, which features a distracting statue of a well-endowed horse—that prompted locals to complain to legislators.

Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, may have single-handedly killed a bill that would have made politicians individually accountable for violations to the state’s open-meetings laws. Senate Bill 2373 originally increased fines for violations of public meetings laws up to $1,000 and put the responsibility of paying those fines on individual violators. This Senate

9

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J

oe Magee, 59, is a third-generation poultry and cattle farmer. His farm, located just outside Mendenhall, produces a little more than half a million chickens and around 100 head of beef cattle a year. Magee operates the farm with the help of his son and one employee.

Recently, electrical, equipment and credit-card bills began to pile up faster than Magee could pay them, and he began to worry he might lose his family’s farm. “(My bills) went all the way back to Katrina. I had to go to Louisiana to buy diesel fuel. They wouldn’t take a check, but they would take your credit card. I probably ran up six or seven thousand dollars worth of fuel,” Magee said.

“Utilities are really killing us. Electricity has doubled since Katrina. And I’m on natural gas, which used to be cheaper than propane, but it’s not anymore.”

Magee used to rely on selling cattle in the winter to pay his gas bill, but hasn’t been able to make enough money to do so in recent years because of a decrease in demand.

His bank officer at Peoples Bank of Mississippi suggested he apply for an America’s Recovery Capital, or ARC loan, and helped him through the application process.

Magee’s farm was one of the first businesses to receive an ARC loan from Peoples Bank.

Small businesses that demonstrate financial need qualify for ARC loans of up to $35,000. The loans are interest-free, have a deferred payment of 18 months and can only be used to pay existing debt.

“The purpose of the program is to help small businesses improve their cash flow during the tough times by not having to make loan payments,” Peoples Bank President and CEO Dennis Ammann said.

“We feel like it’s a loan that can make a difference in a small business being here in a month from now or not.”

Peoples Bank, based in Mendenhall, is the fifth largest lender of ARC loans in the nation. It has four branches, including a second Mendehall location, one each

in Magee and Collins, Miss., and one in Puckett in Rankin County. As of Feb. 19, Peoples Bank has made 168 of the loans more than half of all ARC loans made in Mississippi.

The fourth largest lender, Zions National Bank, has made 175 loans as of Feb. 19. Zions is based in Utah and is 100 times the size of Peoples Bank. SunTrust, the third largest lender, made 180 ARC loans as of Feb. 19.

Ammann thinks Peoples’ relationship with their customers is what made them a leading ARC lender.

“We don’t feel it’s a profitable loan on the front end, but it’s just such a good deal for our small businesses who are having trouble with cash flow right now,” Ammann said. “We felt it was too good of a program not to help our customers take advantage of.”

Peoples Bank has made the bulk of its ARC loans to poultry farmers like Magee.

Based on their location in Simpson and Covington counties and their customers’ ties to Sanderson and Tyson Farms, Peoples is one of the two largest poultry lenders in the state.

Ammann added Peoples Bank also made loans to hospitals, retail stores and veterinarians, to name a few.

“I think small businesses are the primary driver of our economy. I think especially in our areas, in small rural towns in Mississippi, your small businesses are your primary employer, after the state government with schools,” Ammann said.

“Small businesses create the vast majority of private-sector jobs. There’s no bailout for small businesses.”

Ammann is surprised more banks have not participated in the ARC loan program, which will be in effect until Sept. 30 or as long as funding lasts. The loans require a hefty amount of paperwork and time to process, but Ammann believes the mutually beneficial relationship between the customer and the bank makes the loans worthwhile.

MATT JIGGINS

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Peoples Bank, based in Mendenhall, is the fifth largest lender of America’s Recovery Capitol loans in the nation. Most of its ARC loans go to poultry farms.

“Our mission statement says we’ll only do as well as our customers over time.

So if it’s something bad for our customers or if we do something that is not in our customers best interest, it’s going to hurt us long term,” Ammann said. “If we do things that are in our customers’ best interests and are going to help them succeed, they’re going remember who did that, and they’re going to be loyal to us, and that’s in our best interest long term.”

Magee’s farm is doing better financially because of the “wiggle room” the ARC loan created for him.

“When I sold some calves, I could put that on feed bills and not have to pay equipment notes and credit card notes, and that’s what really helped,” Magee said. “All farmers are struggling. It’s really helped me and I think it would help a lot of farmers.”

“I’ve been here three generations, and I’m gonna do everything possible not to lose the farm,” said Magee, with determination in his voice. “I’m gonna keep hanging in there.”

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eco-devo

by Ronni Mott

We Do It All!

PROPERTY TAXES TO GENERAL FUND (FROZEN AT PRE-TIF BASELINE)

PROPERTY TAXES TO BOND DEBT TO REPAY DEVELOPER (NOT FROZEN > BASELINE)

TIF

NON-TIF ALL PROPERTY TAXES

GENERAL FUND (GOES TO SCHOOLS, POLICE, FIRE, MAINTENANCE, ETC.) Property taxes going to the general fund from TIF developments are frozen until taxpayers repay the bond debt, shifting cost increases to non-TIF areas.

I

f Mississippi hadn’t provided $15 million in bonds and another $20 million in loan guarantees last January to Schulz GMBH to build its pipe factory, some other state would have. In today’s economic market, “tax incentives” is the game state and local governments must play to lure big corporate players to put roots down within their borders.

For real estate developers, one incentive game worth playing is TIFs, or tax increment financing. It’s a wholly unsexy moniker for incentives designed to lower or eliminate certain development costs, and they’re completely sexy if development is your business. When a developer’s property is TIFed, taxpayers reimburse him for costs incurred to make “public” improvements to his property—roads, sewer and water lines, parking lots—any projects that become part of the public domain.

“It was basically designed to do something to increase the property values, and take a tax base that’s eroded and improve it,” said Lucien Bourgeois, a partner in the law firm of Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada, PLLC in Ridgeland, and a specialist in economic-development incentives.

Since the first TIF legislation in the mid-1950s, 49 states have adopted TIFs for development financing. They have morphed from a tool for revitalizing blighted inner cities to a big, fat, multipurpose development wallet, providing financial resources to everything from historical rehabilitation to shopping centers, and from high-end suburban residential properties (such as Reunion in Madison County) to multi-million-dollar developments like the proposed Two Lakes, all coming from taxpayer dollars.

Here’s how TIFs work: Prior to a project’s start, a developer enters into an agreement with a city or county government. The government promises to reimburse a developer for infrastructure—public domain—improvements on his property by issuing bonds.

The whole deal hangs on a couple of premises: First, that a private developer can make improvements faster and cheaper than the government can. The second premise is that the developer’s improvements will increase property values and, therefore, generate increased property taxes. Those increased taxes are collateral for the bonds the governmental

body issues to repay the developer.

“The bottom line is that the developer builds (the infrastructure), and then the city ... buys it from the developer,” Bourgeois said.

Tax revenues from a TIFed property divide into two streams: The first, pre-TIF baseline stream remains static throughout the life of the bonds. The second stream goes to service the bond debt, and is defined by the difference between the baseline and any additional revenue created through increased property values. That’s the “increment” in tax increment financing.

TIF properties are generally held by one owner and are limited to infrastructure improvements. Many states, including Mississippi, have statutes on the books to define multi-owner districts and to expand the types of projects eligible for TIF-like financing. In Mississippi, those districts are called PIDs, or public improvement districts. Until 2007, PIDs were limited to one city/one county, and the financing time limit was 30 years.

Since 2007, Mississippi PIDs can include multiple counties, and financing can go for as long as 40 years, an amendment added specifically for projects like Two Lakes or the now-dead airport parkway project.

Public improvement districts operate as quasi-governmental bodies. They are managed by a board (whose members cannot have a financial stake in the district), can buy land, are able to condemn property and exercise eminent domain, borrow money, charge fees and enforce collections.

It’s a good deal for developers, who are virtually guaranteed to recoup costs as defined in their agreement with the local government.

That is, unless the bonds don’t sell, a distinct reality in today’s economy, Bourgeois said, or if he can’t sell his properties, in which case he’s stuck with the property taxes himself.

“The whole idea is that it benefits the landowner. … You’re lowering the cost for that developer because he’s getting reimbursed for that infrastructure. He’s lowering the cost to the potential homeowner, and you and I pay it back over time,” he said.

Even if it takes 40 years, developers are not completely dependent on sales; local taxpayers are picking up some of the tab. After all, they reason, if they had not developed the

property, the increased tax base would not have occurred.

Opponents of TIF financing disagree.

In 2002, the Neighborhood Capital Budget Group of Chicago made a study of 36 of the city’s TIF projects. It looked at property assessments for the five years before the properties were TIFed to project the tax increases that would have occurred anyway, and then compared the projections against the bonds’ payback of $1.6 billion during their 23-year life span. What they projected was that the taxes would have increased by $1.3 billion even without TIFs. “The experience in Chicago is important,” wrote Reason magazine in 2006. “The city invested $1.6 billion in TIFs, even though $1.3 billion in economic development would have occurred anyway. So the bottom line is that the city invested $1.6 billion for $300 million in revenue growth.”

A larger 2006 study by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy compared Chicago’s TIF districts to municipalities around the city.

The study found that “property value in TIFadopting municipalities grew at the same rate as or even less rapidly than in non-adopting municipalities.” The same study also found that TIF districts “cannibalized” businesses and development from the surrounding community, amounting to “a significant negative impact on growth” and reduced property values outside the TIF districts.

More important, opponents argue, TIFs are not a good deal for taxpayers. Property taxes going to everyday city and county expenses within TIF districts, and PIDs in Mississippi, are frozen for the life of the bonds. No increase in property taxes go toward anything but debt service, regardless of inflation, increased school enrollment, the need for additional police or fire protection, or higher labor and material costs. Increased public costs within the TIF/PID district have nowhere to go but to taxpayers outside the district.

“A city or county government may have its hands tied by its (TIF) commitments, unable to meet its future expenses for basic police, fire and school service funding,” wrote Brandt Milstein in “Developing Real Influence: Real Estate Developers and the New Mexico Legislature,” in 2007.

It’s a risky game for taxpayers, especially the poor, wrote Ben Joravsky in the Chicago Reader. “As taxes rise, a lot of people will have to choose between borrowing to pay their taxes, selling their property or going into foreclosure.”

In opposing a bond issue to finance the Reunion Parkway interchange in 2008, Madison County Supervisor D.I. Smith estimated that $33 million in bond indebtedness would raise taxes by 2.4 to 3 mils of tax levy.

For a home valued at $100,000, that increase translates to an additional $240 to $300 in property taxes. On a Mississippi PID property, all of that increase would go directly to the developer, for up to 40 years.

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KRISTIN BRENEMEN

Public Works, Private Profit

11

jfp op/ed

opining, grousing & pontificating

EDITORIAL

Bring Development to Earth

T

ea-partiers and fiscal conservatives make a lot of noise about how much citizens pay in taxes—income, property, sales and so forth—decrying any effort toward increased spending on health care or social programs.

It’s a black-and-white world to these folks, where the only option for lowering taxes is lowering spending and vice versa.

Economics are more complex than that. Many parts of the conversation are missing, including how to shift expenses from one type of activity, such as federal defense expenditures, to another, like health care or public education. Our collective tax burden is skewed heavily toward corporations, with even the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that corporations have the same rights as individuals.

When we value corporations over people, huge amounts of taxpayer money simply slip through the economic cracks, landing in the pockets of corporate shareholders and Wall Street middlemen. We seem to have decided that this behavior is OK, bailing out multinationals at the expense of the American people.

Corporations are taking America by the short and curlies. With unemployment in double digits, when a big company wants to expand, they have their choice of states to expand into, playing off tax incentives from one against the other. And when a developer wants to build out his property, he has his choice of government-sponsored financing.

But virtually all of the great deals our city, state and federal government hand out have downsides, and all the downsides affect taxpayers—and not necessarily in a good way.

In this issue, in her new eco-devo column, Ronni Mott investigates one type of popular financing vehicle for developers: tax increment financing. In parallel to the glory days of creative financing for mortgage holders, TIFs became golden geese for developers all over the country. But like the interesting mortgage schemes that collapsed the housing market, taxpayers are finding that TIFs aren’t the panacea some developers promised, either.

Cities, counties and states all over the country now find themselves unable to provide services to their constituents, partly because they are indebted to developers through TIF bonds. Like the mortgage bubble and the credit bubble, the concept of “buy now, pay later” seems too good to pass up in a booming economy. The problem, of course, is that economies don’t always boom, and post-boom we still have bills to pay. For TIFs, those bills can extend for up to 40 years, passing development debt on to our children.

We need to come to our senses about economic development, remembering that all that glitters isn’t gold. Let’s not mortgage our kids future for the sake of pretty pictures and high-falutin’ promises.

KEN STIGGERS

Whooty Whoot Time

March 11 - 17. 2010

M

12

r. Whooty Whoot Man: “Good morning!

And welcome to the ‘Mr. Whooty Whoot’ television show. This program is brought to you by a tiny grant from the Poor Ghetto Children’s Television Network. Additional funding is brought to you by the Ghetto Science Team’s Community Stimulus and the Let Me Hold Five Dollars National Bank (L.M.H.F.D.N.B.).

“Boys and girls, it’s time for our word of the day: cope. It’s something older people suffer with when things seem to be really bad. It’s like when your mommy or daddy must cope with being unemployed. They must cope with eating at the dinner table in shame, but thankful for the little bit of food they have. They must cope with paying bills. They must cope until the politicians make things better.

“But why must poor children cope with the plight of their parents? I don’t have the answer, but I do hope that I don’t have to cope with any more foolishness from mean, selfish and greedy people.

“That’s my rant for today, children. Sometimes one must deal with the hand he or she has been dealt. Like the lady from the ‘Romper Room’ show, I have my mystical magic ‘Whooty Whoot’ mirror. Let’s see what we must cope with.

“Magic mirror, please tell me. Magic mirror, what will I see? Magic mirror, what’s happening today? Will we poor folk survive this day?

“The magic mirror says, ‘No news is good news, and have a Whooty Whooooooot day!’”

YOUR TURN

by Matt Kozar

A Yankee Reporter in the Bible Belt

I

drove 19 hours to get from New York to Mississippi. Nearly a dozen cans of Coke kept me from falling asleep and drifting into oncoming traffic.

The only company in my Volkswagen was a bamboo plant sitting on the passenger seat. Each time I shifted gears, the plant’s green leaves jolted forward.

“Do they have bamboo in Mississippi?”

It was one of a dozen odd questions I had about a place I knew very little: Is the Ku Klux Klan still active there? What do cotton fields look like? Does everyone have thick southern accents?

My knowledge of Mississippi was limited to movies that shine an unpleasant light on the state’s checkered racial past: “Ghosts of Mississippi,” “A Time to Kill” and “Mississippi Burning.”

I’d come to work as a reporter for Jackson’s CBS affiliate, pursuing a dream cultivated as a young boy.

My parents and I religiously watched Dan Rather and Peter Jennings every evening. TV news had become my passion, and I made the decision to follow it, even if it led this Yankee reporter to the Bible Belt.

But when I got there, I was shocked—not at what I found, but what I didn’t find.

I didn’t see the racial tension I expected. I didn’t find slack-jawed, tobacco-chewing, shotgun-toting sheriffs. I didn’t hear the anti-northern sentiment I read about in textbooks and newspaper articles.

Despite being more than a thousand miles apart, Mississippians aren’t all that different from New Yorkers. Both have funny accents. Both have suburbs, work hard and save money for their families. Both value education, respect authority and have great pride for their country.

Like Alexis de Tocqueville, I became entrenched in learning about a different way of life I had ignorantly labeled as backward. Southern food, music, his-

tory, cuisine, art and literature offer a glimpse into a rich and unique culture.

However, there are a few obvious differences: Roe vs. Wade Civil War vs. War of Northern Aggression Church once a week vs. Church twice a week Stuffing vs. Dressing “Forget About It” vs. “Appreciate Ya” Mississippi’s news stories are no less exciting. I covered a mayor indicted by the federal government, a crooked crematorium owner accused of co-mingling ashes, a school bus driver charged with molestation, lawyers bribing judges, judges accepting bribes, and the list goes on and on.

Sadly, my shameful ignorance of the South is reflected in some southerners’ perception of northerners. Rude, arrogant, stuffy and unfriendly are just a few of the adjectives used to describe those “Yankees” above the Mason-Dixon Line.

Highlighting our differences further accentuates the tensions percolating across the county because of a sour economy, two expensive wars, a shrinking middle class and a hostile political climate in Washington.

It might do the country some good to realize that despite our differences, we’re all Americans. We’re proud of our country’s history, and we care deeply about our country’s future. We hope to see the United States remain the epicenter for scientific advancement and social change.

After months of being playfully heckled by an elderly man for being from New York, he pulled me aside one afternoon and said, “During World War II, the Brits called all Americans Yankees. So, I guess in the end, we’re all Yankees.”

Matt Kozar will be leaving Mississippi in a couple weeks to work for KVBC in Las Vegas.

E-mail letters to letters@jacksonfreepress.com, fax to 601-510-9019, or mail to P.O. Box 5067, Jackson, Miss., 39296. Include daytime phone number. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

NATALIE A. COLLIER

The Sweetest Taboo

EDITORIAL Managing Editor Ronni Mott News Editor Lacey McLaughlin Senior Reporter Adam Lynch Reporter Ward Schaefer Events Editor Latasha Willis Music Listings Editor Herman Snell Assistant to the Editor ShaWanda Jacome Writers Andi Agnew, Lisa Fontaine Bynum, Rob Hamilton, Carl Gibson, Deirdra Harris Glover, Anita Modak-Truran,Will Morgan, Larry Morrisey, Chris Nolen,Tom Ramsey, Doctor S, Ken Stiggers, Valerie Wells, Byron Wilkes, John Yargo Editorial Interns Will Caves, Jesse Crow, Eileen Eady, Ashley Hill, Kalissia Veal Consulting Editor JoAnne Prichard Morris

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T

his past Valentine’s Day I got two things: a single white rose—which every woman older than 18 received at church that day—and a card from my mother. That’s it. No more. It’s virtually impossible for it to have been less. That’s the way things work when you’re unattached.

I keep trying to think back to the last time I had the “couples” kind of Valentine’s Day. If I’m counting to save face, it’s been three years. Doing the real math, it’s been five. I’m not a huge Valentine’s Day fan, but it’s the principle of the matter.

I’ve decided next year should be different, but the numbers don’t seem to be on my side. Over the past couple months, I’ve seen and read numerous reports saying that because I’m black, educated and have standards for any potential partner, there’s a little less than a 50 percent chance that I will ever find myself entertaining any real male companionship.

Because so many black men are incarcerated, homosexual, undereducated or think all black women are combative, they—you know, “they” — have basically told me to give up hope for a long-term relationship unless I’m willing to hook a guy who’s at least 10 years my junior, date outside my race or become a lesbian.

My dating history has been spotty.

Every time I meet a man I think is the one with whom I’ll enjoy companionship for a while, he turns out to be … an ex-con, gay, undereducated (formally or otherwise) or married. But I don’t trust “they.” They’re the same ones who have bumper stickers that read: “Rush is right.”

I have a confession to make: I have created a profile on an online dating site.

People don’t talk much about online dating unless it’s to disclose their friends’ horror stories, or until they’re engaged to their computer love and finally get tired of telling the “we ran into each other in a coffee shop” lie. But despite any stigmas that may henceforth follow me, I’m conducting my own social experiment, and I’ve decided to share some of the adventure with you.

Finding the site that fit me best was a bit confusing. Chemistry.com has quirky commercials, which I love, but I questioned whether I was cool enough for it.

Match.com, where actress Essence Atkins met her husband, says I’d probably meet the love of my life in six months, but after

that “I’m just a goof looking for ball” commercial, I just can’t.

ChristianCafe.com seems like it’s more aptly suited for people who’d rather “marry than burn.” While I do want to eventually marry, and I definitely don’t want to burn, I don’t know that the man for me would choose a wife with his desire for legal sex outweighing compatibility. That left me with eHarmony.

If you’ve ever filled out an eHarmony profile—which I’m pretty sure none of you reading this has—it takes forever. After filing out that form, if I ever applied for a job to work with the federal government, I’d kindly point them to all the hoops I had to jump through to find a mate online, and they’ll shake their heads in the affirmative with understanding. I suppose this should give me comfort when I see dreadful online dating scenes flash in the theater of my mind. After all, I could meet a sicko in Rainbow just as I could meet someone normal (as normal as I am, at least) online, right?

Filling out an online profile will tempt even the person with the most integrity to lie. Yes, there are the basic questions: How old are you? Where do you live? Do you smoke or drink? Do you hurt babies? But then there are the questions that make you wonder if telling the truth will limit the communication requests you’ll actually get. To questions like, “How do you typically spend your leisure time?” or “What are your eating habits?” do you respond truthfully and say, “Every now and then I sit down in front of the television with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s and …” or “Veggies are my friends!”

But now the do is finally done. I’ve filled out a profile. So far, eHarmony— which urges me to “fall in love for all the right reasons”—sucks. And so do the men they’ve matched me with. Men who are (and I quote) “passionated (sic) towards people who are least thought of in the world who are in need of help because I am deep,” are looking to “not hurt wen (sic) I fall in luve (sic)” and warn in the additional-information-you’d-like-to-add section: “If you don’t like sex, don’t send me a message.”

Valentine’s Day 2011 is 11 months away.

I think I’ll give eHarmony three months to find me a date for next year because, honestly, it’s expensive. I’ll keep you posted. Hmph.

And they say love don’t cost a thing.

ChristianCafe.com seems like it’s more aptly suited for people who’d rather “marry than burn.”

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13

Trust in David “Twin” Womack has lived in a campsite underneath a South Jackson highway overpass for nearly 20 years.

CHARLES SMITH

March 11 - 17, 2010

I

14

t’s bitterly cold and almost 11 p.m. when the white van stops under the highway bridge in South Jackson. Fifty yards from the road, there’s a small campsite lit by the flames rising from an oil drum.

For nearly 20 years, David “Twin” Womack has lived here, with a tent, a sleeping bag and a pair of shopping carts that he used to use to collect aluminum cans in the daytime.

Every Wednesday night, members of the Jackson Street Ministry, a joint project of several metro area churches, visit Twin at this camp, and he has been expecting them.

When the group arrives, he is burning pants and sweaters in the barrel. Two other men are sleeping next to the barrel in layers of blankets. One, Ricky, sits up to greet us. Malt liquor bottles are piled on another side of the barrel. Twin stands up and puts on a prosthesis. He lost his right leg two years ago in a hit-and-run as he was trying to cross the street.

“Is your leg clean?” scolds Kelli Irby, a fitness instructor from Madison. She and another Street Ministry member, Mike England, recently took it from him while a knot on his knee healed.

A self-confessed “beer-holic,” Twin laps up the attention, posing for pictures and making jokes. He is eager to tell his story and delivers it quickly, broken by wheezing that is a symptom of his emphysema.

Born in Hazlehurst, Twin, 50, moved to Jackson in 1975. He studied auto mechanics at Utica Junior College, now Hinds Community College, but alcohol and crack cocaine left him on the streets, where he has lived for most of the past 26 years. He spent four years in jail for burglary, getting out in 2002. While he was in prison, his twin brother, Daniel, had two children by Twin’s wife. Daniel died of lupus two years ago.

“Since I’ve been back out, the only thing they’ll catch me with is an open container or public drunkenness,” Twin says.

He asks Irby about a pair of reading glasses she gave to “Red,” another homeless man in the area. He needs his own pair, he says. Irby hands him hers and asks him to read the label on a pair of gloves.

“Fifteen-ninety-nine,” Twin says.

“You need a 2.5,” Irby tells him.

“You’re good to go.”

As before, the group leaves several bags of sandwiches for the men and prays with them. Then they board the van, ready to drive home.

Prayers and Sandwiches The members of the Jackson Street Ministry have homes in Ridgeland, in Madison and Rankin County. Some live in Jackson, too. Every Wednesday night, they visit the homeless in Jackson, traveling in two white vans, dispensing prayers and sandwiches in brown paper bags.

The group stops first in the parking lot of the Opportunity Center, a day shelter run by Stewpot Community Services, where they unload boxes of food. Ordinarily, there might be 40 or 50 people waiting, but it’s close to freezing the night that I join them, and there are about ten people.

The two vans take separate routes through the city. I hop in one with England, an affable 60-year-old with glasses and a white goatee, a baseball cap pulled low over his head in the cold.

England joined the Street Ministry six months ago, when another member of Jackson’s Trinity Presbyterian Church told him about it. The work bears a special significance for him, as he spent two years homeless himself. A native of Jackson, he started drinking at 14. Disowned by his family, he found work as a riverboat engineer in Greenville, but his drinking and, later, drug use ruined a burgeoning career.

“Those last couple years, I discovered cocaine,” England says. “It took me places I’d never been before. I had a pretty sizeable 401(k) that cocaine got.”

England lived in a car in the woods, alone with his paranoia, for two years before an out-of-body experience in 1989 compelled him to get help. Now, England works as chief engineer for the Fairfield Marriott and lives in Northeast Jackson, in his father’s old home.

“Twenty years sober, and he put me back in his will,” England explains.

Routes to the Street The last official count of homeless in the city, conducted over one day in January 2009, found 695 homeless people living

Me: Reaching the City’s Homeless

by Ward Schaefer

The Street Ministry van heads to South Jackson, down Terry Road, stopping under highway overpasses and in front of gas stations. We stop on a wooded access road where a woman is sitting in a gray sedan. She opens the passenger’s door as the group approaches. They clasp hands with her, and she bows her head, the overhead light from her car illuminating her

is partly the result of law enforcement.

The Jackson Police Department originally formed its mobile precinct, Precinct 5, to address crime downtown. As part of its policing, the precinct enforced city ordinances that prohibited homeless people from loitering in Smith Park after dark or from panhandling downtown.

Occasionally, though, police officers would treat homelessness itself as a crime, telling homeless people—or those who looked homeless—that they could not sit in Smith Park in the daytime and otherwise harrassing them. Complaints from homeless people led the Mississippi ACLU in March 2009 to contact JPD and urge restraint on the part of its officers.

Since then, the pressure has been soft more than forceful: Last year, Downtown Jackson Partners hired a team of “ambassa-

help each other out.”

Still, Downtown Jackson Partners’ emphasis on making residents and visitors feel safe from unwanted contact with the homeless is clear. In a Jan. 25 post on Downtown Jackson Partners’ blog, Jackson NOW!, Downtown Jackson Partners President Ben Allen warned about a new cohort of “aggressive” panhandlers who were frequenting the stretch of Capitol Street near the newly re-opened King Edward Hotel.

“To be sure, we know most of our ‘local homeless population,’” Allen wrote.

“They are for the most part harmless, kind individuals with sets of circumstances many of us can’t fully appreciate. A brand new group, however, has arrived, and (is) not known (nor) are we familiar with them.

They can be worrisome and unsettling.”

This new group is probably not home-

A Part of the Neighborhood The Jackson Street Ministry started six ago at Broadmoor Baptist Church in Madison but now draws members from several metro area churches. The project has moved along with the homeless population, as downtown development pushes them further west and south. The group started feeding the homeless at the city bus depot on Mill Street. The bus depot was an ideal location, Woody says, because it was centralized and provided shelter from the weather. The group then moved to Smith Park, but two years ago Jackson police began running homeless out of the park, and the feeding program moved to Farish Street. Last year, the program started delivering further west, at Poindexter Park and the Opportunity Center.

Before its re-development, Jackson’s downtown offered shelter and open park space to the city’s homeless. When tenants and investment move in, however, the homeless often move out. That migration

Twin talks to Kelli Irby, a Madison fitness instructor whom he calls “an angel.”

dors” from the security company Block by Block, outfitted with bright yellow shirts, to conduct clean-up and low-level security patrols. DJP Associate Director John Gomez believes downtown businesses have begun to see the value of a more cooperative approach to dealing with homelessness.

“With all the social-service providers around downtown, you have to figure out a way to coexist, or it becomes a conflict,” Gomez says. “I think now people are more open to the idea of trying to find ways to

less, Ivery said. After dark, especially in the winter, most homeless would seek shelter, not panhandle downtown.

By any measure, Raymond Quarles would qualify as part of downtown’s local homeless population, except that he’s not currently homeless. Quarles, 48, has lived in and out of homelessness around the downtown area since 2005, but he currently rents a room on Church Street.

“Raymond was just a little different,” says Michael Rejebian, a consultant who HOMELESS, see page 17

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Prayer and Sandwiches

gray hair.

A path winds roughly 30 yards downhill through the woods to a permanent-looking camp. This is the home of “Cowboy.” Tonight, though, Cowboy is not in the mood to play host and stays in a tent that he’s draped with a blue plastic tarp. Clothes, some on hangers, hang from clotheslines strung between thin saplings.

There’s a fire going, ringed by cinderblocks, but it’s wet and putting off more smoke than heat. There’s a half-finished bottle of Cobra Malt Liquor and a can of Steel Reserve sitting on a bucket near the fire. Two of Cowboy’s campmates are standing near the fire, and they pray with the group.

Like most people the Street Ministry visits, the residents of this camp are wary of outside attention and do not want to share their names with reporters.

“Everything we do is predicated on establishing a bit of a relationship first,” Malcolm Woody tells me later. “Until trust is established, it’s really hard to get it going on. They’re on guard for the most part.”

Woody, 43, has led the Jackson Street Ministry for two years. He fell into the work unexpectedly, feeling a compulsion.

“It’s hard to quantify that,” Woody says. “It had salt. It tasted right.”

CHARLES SMITH

in Jackson. It is nearly impossible to get an accurate count, though, and the city’s homeless program coordinator Heather Ivery says that a more accurate estimate would include an additional 100 people in shelters or simply out of sight. The homeless are hard to reach, and the population is inherently transient, with people moving in and out of homelessness as they find permanent shelter, receive medical treatment or become incarcerated.

Research by the Urban Institute—including, most recently a 2009 study—has consistently found that the primary cause of homelessness—aside from aggravating factors like mental illness, addiction and health costs—is a lack of affordable housing. The ongoing economic recession has exacerbated that need in Jackson, which has never had a glut of quality affordable housing.

“When I have someone who gets a $600 disability or Social Security check, and we have to find them somewhere decent and affordable to live, their entire check is gone,” Ivery says. “They still have to pay their utilities and go to Stewpot for food. They still have a roof over their head, but it’s taking everything they have to do that.”

Whatever the initial cause, homelessness is often intertwined with other problems, especially mental illness. Drug and alcohol addiction are often the result of self-medication for mental illness, England says. Getting mental-health treatment is difficult, even for those with more resources, England knows. His wife suffered from bipolar disorder, and he had to pursue lengthy civil commitment proceedings to get her institutionalized.

“These people that live on the street— who’s going to push them into a home?”

England asks.

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HOMELESS, from page 15 buildings on the west side of Gallatin Street and on Farish Street. But those buildings were dangerous places.

“They would kill you over there— other folks, other people on the street, poverty,” Quarles says. “Then you’ve got drug dealers over there, and they’re just about like the ones living in poverty, just peons out there trying to make a dollar to pay their bills. They end up killing somebody about six or 12 dollars.”

Beyond violence, there were the dangers of accidents and neglect. During cold months, homeless people regularly light fires in abandoned buildings to keep themselves warm. This year, a 21-year-old homeless man, Jeremy Smith, died in a Jan. 17 fire that destroyed an abandoned warehouse on Capitol and Lemon streets. It took Jackson firefighters nearly two weeks to discover Smith’s body in the rubble.

Quarles took up residence behind St. Peter’s Cathedral on West Street. With the tacit blessing of the church’s rector Rev. Jeffrey Waldrep, Quarles lived there for almost two years, cleaning up the church grounds and keeping an eye on it at night.

Rejebian moved downtown in 2008, and he met Raymond soon afterward, at a neighborhood party one Thursday night.

Plaza residents had organized a small gathering with live music outdoors.

“Raymond stopped by, and he started singing gospel songs,” Rejebian told me. “It just made an impression on everybody, that this was someone special.”

Rejebian and other downtown residents began to pay Quarles to wash their cars and occasionally offered him money, when they felt they could. Quarles reciprocated, watching out for his new friends. He warned downtown residents this fall when another, mentally unstable homeless man shattered a window at Tye’s Restaurant.

“Raymond knew right off the bat,” Rejebian says. “He even told us before it happened, this person is not ‘one of us,’ so to speak.”

Quarles also began doing the same with the police and downtown security, informing them when he saw unusual behavior in the area.

“Raymond also has a motivation do-

WARD SCHAEFER

lives downtown. “Raymond has a good feel about how to develop relationships being a homeless person.”

Quarles does not have regular telephone access, yet, so Rejebian arranged for him to meet me on a rainy Monday afternoon recently. Raymond arrived clutching a plastic bag—lunch from Two Sisters Kitchen, donated from another downtown resident. We sat in the lobby of the Plaza Building on Congress and Amite streets, where Rejebian lives. As we spoke, Quarles broke the conversation periodically to greet anyone passing through.

A tall, thin man prone to biblical turns of phrase, Quarles is especially familiar to residents of the Plaza, where he has offered to wash cars for money since arriving.

Because of the city’s anti-panhandling ordinance, Raymond had difficulty earning the trust of residents, police and others downtown at first. He estimates that he has been arrested between six and eight times for soliciting.

“From day one, when I came to Jackson, I had a bucket,” Quarles says. “I always tried to clean somebody’s car, or clean up around their business. I always worked, earned my wages by the sweat of my brow.”

Before arriving at the Greyhound bus terminal in 2005 without a place to live, Quarles had lived in Brookhaven. He worked at a body shop until he got married and, feeling the pressure to earn more, took a job with an offshore oil operation. He started as a roustabout and made his way to floor hand.

“One morning, a cable line broke, wrapped around a rail, and the rail hit me,” Quarles says. “It knocked me about six feet in the air up against another railing that was going over the rig into the ocean.”

The impact ruined two vertebrae in his lower back. He lost his job and his marriage. Almost immediately after his divorce, his mother died, on Christmas Day 2004.

“When I’d gotten her buried, it took everything I had,” Quarles say. “I didn’t have no more means, couldn’t pay no bills.

So I thought I could find some place to sleep here in Jackson.”

He spent six months in abandoned

Raymond Quarles built friendships with some downtown residents while he was living homeless in the area.

ing that, because he doesn’t want to be lumped in with those people who are causing trouble, who are breaking the law,” Rejebian says. “What you realize is that there is a certain core of homeless folks who are not here to cause trouble, that are certainly not here as a criminal element. They’re just here to survive. They want to be part of the neighborhood.”

At their Christmas party this year, the Plaza residents collected money for Quarles and presented it to him with a new camouflage-patterned bucket for his car-cleaning supplies. “I would lay my life down for them,” Quarles says. “The love that they showed me, it’s not an amount of money that could repay it.”

Money Matters On the individual level, giving money to the homeless can be the foundation for a fuller relationship, as it was for Quarles and Rejebian, but more often, it’s a superficial exchange, unlikely to improve anything beyond the giver’s self-regard.

“When it comes to individual people, I never give money to people asking,” Iv-

ery says. “I carry around snacks in my car, because I run into people a lot. If I’m near a restaurant and I feel compelled, I’ll buy them something, but that’s often not what they want.”

On a larger scale, though, addressing homelessness in Jackson, as in every city, requires money.

As west Jackson businessman Bill Cooley sees it, homelessness may be a problem requiring money to solve, but solving homelessness can actually bring money to the city.

Cooley is a former professor of management at Jackson State University who now fosters small-business development in west Jackson through his Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Long focused on the revitalization of west Jackson businesses, Cooley became increasingly aware of homelessness and its effects on economic development as downtown Jackson’s rebirth coincided with a migration of the homeless population westward.

Small businesses like Koinonia Coffee House cannot thrive in the middle of a large transient population like the one clustered around Stewpot Community HOMELESS, see page 19

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HOMELESS, from page 17 CHARLES SMITH

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of a general trend in the United States during the 2000s, toward long-term strategies to address homelessness. In the 1980s and 1990s, when homeless populations across the country increased dramatically, cities responded by creating emergency shelters and temporary housing. More recently, though, homeless experts and groups like the National Alliance to End Homelessness have advocated an approach that emphasizes permanent housing options along with rapid re-housing efforts.

Cooley and Goree have begun to enlist the help and input of Ivery and other city officials. Cooley thinks that the city should be ready to apply for a permanent housing grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development this spring.

The city is also preparing to conduct a review of progress on its 10-year homelessness plan, Ivery says. That review will include a particular focus on permanent housing.

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Building Relationships “I love Heather Ivery, but to us, her goal of ending homelessness—I don’t know that you can do that,” Street Ministry leader Malcolm Woody tells me. “Let’s say that you tried, that you round them all up and institutionalize them all. That would end homelessness—they’d all have a roof over their heads—but it would also cede their freedom.”

The Street Ministry’s approach is so granular, so individually focused, that it forgoes the policy or politics of homelessness entirely. From this perspective , homelessness isn’t the problem to be solved, so much as the suffering and isolation that so often accompany it. As Woody sees it, the routes that lead to homelessness are so varied that broad policy solutions cannot succeed.

“There’s so much gray area,” Woody says. “There’s a bazillion reasons that a guy HOMELESS, see page 20

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Services, Gateway Rescue Mission and the Opportunity Center, he realized.

“We can never get small businesses in west Jackson without managing the homeless population,” Cooley said.

A former professor of management at Jackson State University, Cooley began thinking about the homeless population in Jackson a couple years ago. What he realized was that “it wasn’t a west Jackson problem; it was a major issue that impacts institutions all over the city.”

“There are a large number of stakeholders who should be concerned,” he said.

Jackson’s homeless population places strain on emergency rooms, on city government, on businesses and on law enforcement. Why couldn’t representatives of every group help coordinate their efforts?

Cooley wondered.

Cooley enlisted the help of Jason Goree, a young business developer he has mentored, to contact the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the Jackson Medical Mall and Downtown Jackson Partners.

Out of conversations with these groups, an idea is emerging for a permanent housing facility, complete with a health clinic, located near the existing network of services in west Jackson around Capitol Street and Poindexter Park.

Unlike transitional housing or shelters, permanent housing programs have no rigid system of deadlines and goals to meet. Occupants do not have to quit using drugs or alchohol immediately; they just cannot use them in the building. They take life-skills classes, but there is no deadline for self-sufficiency looming ahead for participants.

As a result, permanent housing frees up homeless participants to work on building relationships that are more likely to ensure that they stay employed and healthy.

Permanent housing is an element of the city’s 10-year plan to end homelessness, which it adopted in 2006. The plan is part

distributed by

In January, fire destroyed an abandoned warehouse on Capitol Street regularly used by homeless. Two weeks later, firefighters found the body of a homeless man, Jeremy Smith, in the wreckage.

19

HOMELESS, from page 19

March 11 - 17, 2010

or a lady goes homeless. You can’t put them all in the same pile.”

While focused on individual relationships, Woody’s group does provide material help, though. For the homeless people they meet who sincerely want to shake addiction, the Street Ministry will sometimes pay $50 for a bus ticket to send them to Mercy House, a Mobile, Ala.-based treatment center. If that first round of treatment is successful, Broadmoor and other churches will commit more money to send them to Teen Challenge, a yearlong, evangelical Christian recovery program that, contrary to its name, serves people of all ages.

Indeed, the Street Ministry’s focus

20

on building trust over the long term is an essential part of reaching the chronically homeless, Ivery says.

“For a lot of our chronically homeless, it becomes a lifestyle,” Ivery says. “You can’t walk up to somebody and say, ‘Let me provide you everything you need.’ Without that support, that relationship-building, you close off to folks.”

Yet, paradoxically, that kind of longterm commitment often seems more expensive to potential benefactors than a generous donation. Initiatives like the permanent housing project Cooley and Goree are proposing are effective precisely because they allow time for the previously homeless

to develop positive relationships.

‘This Is My Home’ Two weeks later, Twin is subdued, sitting on a mattress. He has a large supply of firewood, thick branches that England delivered to him earlier that day. He still seems grateful for visitors, but less for the audience and more for the company. After our last visit, he tells us, Ricky, his campmate, was attacked and stabbed six times.

Twin pulls back the blankets on Ricky’s bed to reveal the mattress, with dark bloodstains on the blue plastic.

“Been trying to burn everything I could

that had blood on it,” Twin tells us—quilts, clothing. Still, he tells us, “I’m sleeping in this bed for a reason. He’s my partner.”

Ricky’s attackers mistook him for “Red,” a man who lived across the road, in the narrow space between the overpass and a concrete embankment. Red owed them money, Twin thinks. Now Red has fled to Alabama, and Ricky, after four days in the hospital, is staying with family in Magee.

“That night, Rick called to me, (but) I had my leg off, so I couldn’t get to him,” he says.

Twin stayed with Ricky while he was at the UMMC, and the solitude back at his camp has him depressed. Life under this bridge is hard, he admits.

“What God wants me to do, I can’t find out,” he says. “I’ve helped more people than I’ve helped myself.”

Twin plays protector in the area, welcoming anyone to sleep at his camp and keeping any eye on the prostitutes in the neighborhood. He has thought about helping himself before, though, Woody says.

“At one point, Twin was all fired up and ready to go (to rehab),” Woody said.

“We were excited. We told him we were going to get him on that bus. Then the next day, he doesn’t show up.”

On March 19, Twin has a court hearing in Magee. He’s been denied repeatedly for Social Security disability payments, and Mike England is determined to take him this time. But England worries that a steady income alone won’t get Twin out of his campsite.

“My goal is to get him convinced to go to treatment,” England says. “Money is not good for us. When you’re still drinking and using, if somebody gives you an income, you’ll just keep doing the same thing.”

Twin, for his part, seems ambivalent about leaving. He’s lived under this bridge for years—through snow, through summer, through snakes. During hot months, he has rigged an electric fan in his tent, powered by a car battery. For a while he had a waterbed, which he found on the street, patched, filled and crammed in his tent.

“This right here is a blessing, because no shelter—Brumfield House, Gateway, or Salvation Army—when you’re kicked out at 5 in the morning, you’re back on the streets again,” he says. “You come back, your stuff could’ve been broken into. That’s why I sleep out here. I can get up when I feel ready all the time. This is my home.”

He points across a drainage ditch.

“Over there, across the creek—I stayed there seven years. I’ve stayed here 10.”

He points in the opposite direction.

Across the road, there’s a steep concrete embankment leading up to the highway bridge. When he tries to climb it now, he has to use his hands for balance. Where the embankment meets the overpass, there’s a small flat space strewn with bottles that amplifies, like a resonating chamber, the thundering cars and trucks overhead.

“My old rocking chair is still up there,” he says. “I have a heart here.”

21

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Clothing designs by Chrissy Valentine | Photography by Daphne Nabors

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“I started out making pillows, which, as you know, is basically sewing a square. I bought a dress pattern, and now I’m making my own patterns,” Valentine says.

She has always been into art and has several pieces around town, most of them at the Ink Spot Gallery.

Valentine describes her art as “morbidly beautiful,” and while she’s a dabbler in all kids of media, she likes to work with acrylics, wood burning and shadow boxes.

“I try to put a little “hard” and “soft” in all of my

pieces with some rock ‘n’ roll inspiration,” she says. “I don’t want them to be too feminine, and I love patterns. I like mixing them and putting colors together that you usually wouldn’t.”

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Contact Valentine at 601-503-6655, or e-mail vessellchrissy@gmail.com.

—ShaWanda Jacome

It’s Your Party ther than the props, traditional bachelor or bachelorette parties are essentially the same for men and women. Women have tiaras and tacky boas, and the guys have … well, the guys have dollar bills. All the rest is pretty much the same: barhopping, clubbing and carte blanche to make an idiot of yourself, none of which you’re likely to remember the next morning.

There’s a good chance that those in attendance have been to multiple lush-fests just like that. Why not buck the trend and do something everyone will remember and won’t end in awkward, drunken, tearstained “over-sharing” looking into a bar toilet? (And that’s just the guys.)

I’ve listed several alternatives for bachelor and bachelorette parties.

Have fun, be safe and remember: It’s your party; don’t be afraid to try something different!

March 11 - 17, 2010

O

22

by Brent Hearn For the Ladies Kicks Mix You know that pair of shoes you have in your closet that you just had to buy because it was BOGO time, but you’ve never actually worn? And that other pair you bought that is two sizes too small, but you bought because they looked slammin’ on you? You know, the ones you force-fed your feet to that time and, one gi-normous blister later, vowed never to do again? Well, rummage through your closet and find those babies. Get everyone else to do the same and have a shoe exchange.

Buy a gift card to a swanky shoe store (get everyone to bring $10 or $15 to pay for it), and have a drawing for a shoe-pping spree. Throw in some rom-coms, set up a dessert bar, and you’ve got yourselves a bachelorette party Carrie Bradshaw would be proud to attend.

“Bachelor” Party Why should the guys have all the fun? Get all the ladies to dress up in their favorite manly man clothes

(think stereotypically macho: gangsta, trucker, plumber, etc.) and have a “guys’ night” in. Why? Because chicks dig pizza, beer and cards, too.

School’s In Always wanted to learn to roll sushi? Knit? Belly dance? No time like the present! Buying a group lesson defrays the cost of private instruction and can make this a fun, affordable way to learn something new. Don’t want to go out? Consider hiring an instructor to bring the party to you. That way there’s still plenty of opportunity for pillow fights in your underwear after the lesson.

Right, ladies? Right? Oh, well, I tried.

For the Guys Poker Night Themed parties aren’t just for the ladies. You have several options here. You could have everyone wear their tackiest poker/casino wear. Or, if you prefer

the real deal, get them to go the hoodie/ shades route, and pop in a DVD of the poker show of your choice (I recommend “High Stakes Poker” or “World Series of Poker” reruns) to play in the background. Then, of course, there’s the slick Vegas mobster theme.

If you can’t feel manly with cards, Scotch and a pinstripe suit, then why even bother with a bachelor party in the first place?

Video Game Marathon Everyone brings their favorite games, and you play until your eyes bleed, stopping only to relieve your bladder and refill your beverage. ’Nuff said.

Paintball Be a real man and leave the kiddie toys at home, opting instead to celebrate the impending demise of your bachelorhood with a high-powered splatterfest.

Don’t think of it as war games. Consider it brutality as performance art.

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BEST BETS March 11 - 18

by Latasha Willis events@jacksonfreepress.com Fax: 601-510-9019 Daily updates at jfpevents.com

THURSDAY 3/11

COURTESY LARRY MORRISEY

The JFP Lounge is at Sal & Mookie’s Pi(e) Lounge (565 Taylor St.) 6-10 p.m. This week, meet CNN Money producer Amy Haimerl. Free; call 601-362-6121, ext. 11. …

“God’s Architects,” a film about divinely inspired builders, is at the Southern Heritage Cultural Center in Vicksburg at 6:30 p.m. Free. The Boston Camerata performs at Millsaps College, Ford Academic Complex (1701 N. State St.) at 7: 30 p.m. in recital hall. $20; call 601-974-1422. … Belhaven University Center for the Arts (835 Riverside Drive) features the Belhaven Voices Gospel Choir and the Voices of Praise Gospel Choir of Wartburg College-Waverly at 7:30 p.m. Free; e-mail dacomposer1980@hotmail.com. … Blues at Sunset Challenge Band will perform at F. Jones Corner from 8 p.m.midnight. Free. … Dead Irish Blues is at Fenian’s, 9 p.m.

at Actor’s Playhouse (121 Paul Truitt Lane, Pearl) begins at 7:30 p.m. Two encore shows are March 13 and 14. $15, $10 students and seniors; call 601-664-0930. ... The Furrows’ CD release party is at Sneaky Beans, 7-10 p.m. ... Singer/ songwriter Caroline Herring is in big room at Hal & Mal’s.

Duling Ave.). Call 601-981-9222. … The Central Mississippi Blues Society Jam at Hal & Mal’s is from 8-11 p.m. $5. … D’mar is at Fitzgerald’s, 8 p.m. Call 601-957-2800.

SATURDAY 3/13

TUESDAY 3/16

“Zoo Day” at the Jackson Zoo (2918 W. Capitol St.) is from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Call 601-352-2580. … The crawfish boil at Shucker’s features Rhythm Masters (1 p.m.), Bits & Pieces (5 p.m.) and Big Daddy (9 p.m.). $10. … “Cross-Pollinate” continues with Shahid Buttar’s spoken word at North Midtown Arts Center (121 Millsaps Ave.) and music from Loki and DJ Os Chavez from 8-11 p.m. Free. … Gospoetry at Koinonia Coffee House begins at 8 p.m. $5. ... Good Paper is at Martin’s. ... Kamikaze & Yardboy are at Cultural Expressions, 9 p .m., $5. ... The Colonels are Pop’s Saloon.

The National Cutting Horse Association Eastern National Championships continue at the Kirk Fordice Equine Center (Mississippi Fairgrounds, 1207 Mississippi St.). Free admission; call 817-244-6188. … Scott Albert Johnson performs at Kathryn’s in Canton at 6:30 p.m. Call 601956-2803. … Rock out with Weatherbox and All Get Out at Sneaky Beans, 8 p.m. $7.... Open mic at Ole Tavern.

SUNDAY 3/14 Listen to the Howard Jones Jazz Trio during brunch at the King Edward Hotel, then catch the last day of the “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World” exhibit at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). $12, $10 seniors, $6 students; call 601960-1515. … Syrah wine tasting at Bravo! (4500 Interstate 55 N.) $56; call 601-982-8111 to reserve spot. … The second day of the crawfish boil at Shucker’s features Andrew Pates (noon), Mojeaux (3 p.m.) and Easy Eddie and the Partyrockers (7 p.m.). $10. … “Jazz, Blues and More” at the Atwood Elks Lodge (3100 W. J.R. Lynch St.) is from 6:30-8:30 p.m. $5.

MONDAY 3/15 The “Home Sweet Home” exhibit continues at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (2148 Riverside Drive). $3-$5, free for members and children under 3; call 601-354-7303. … Sherman Lee Dillon performs during the blues lunch at F. Jones Corner at noon. Free. … Today is the deadline to enter the art contest at Fondren Art Gallery (601 Louis “Gearshifter” Youngblood plays blues at Hammontree’s R.J. Barrel Co. in Canton March 12 at 7 p.m.

March 11 - 17 , 2010

The Home and Outdoor Living Extravaganza at the Mississippi Trade Mart (1200 Mississippi St.) is from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and through March 14. $5, $7 weekend pass, free for 12 & under; call 601-969-3446. … The spin basics workshop at Body Benefits (Odyssey North Shopping Center, 731 S. Pear Orchard Road, Suite 30) is from 5-8 p.m. $50; call 601-991-9904. … “Cross-Pollinate: A Speaker Series” with guest speaker Shahid Buttar at the Jackson Community Design Center (509 E. Capitol St.) is from 5:30-8 p.m. Call 415-425-9291; e-mail mpriester@gmail.com. … Louis “Gearshifter” Youngblood plays blues at Hammontree’s R.J. Barrel and Co. (111 N. Union St., Canton) at 7 p.m. Call 601-667-3518. …

24 The play “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”

The 2010 Global Connect Lunch and Learn at the Mississippi World Trade Center (175 E. Capitol St.) begins at 11: 30 a.m. $10; call 601-353-0909. … “History Is Lunch” with Delta State professor Elizabeth Sarcone at William F. Winter Archives and History Building (200 North St.), noon. Bring lunch; call 601-576-6850. … MyChildren MyBride, Acaro, Legend, Through Fallen Skies and At Cliff’s End play Christian metalcore/rock at the Warehouse at Genesis Food Bank (435 Hiawatha St.) at 6 p.m. $12; call 601-291-6194. ... The Rounders are at Underground 119, 8-11 p.m., free.

THURSDAY 3/18 Jesse Robinson performs the blues lunch at Lumpkin’s from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. … Radio JFP is noon on WLEZ 100.1 FM; visit wlezfm.com. Guest Malcolm White. … Sweet Potato Queens descend on Hilton Jackson (1001 E. County Line Road); festivities begin 4 p.m. Visit sweetpotatoqueens.com. … Reception for artist Alice Hammell will be held at Southern Breeze Gallery (1000 Highland Colony Parkway, Suite 5005, Ridgeland) from 5-8 p.m., 601-607-4147.

See and add more events and details at jfpevents.com.

The indie-rock band Weatherbox performs at Sneaky Beans with All Get Out March 16 at 8 p.m.

COURTESY REY ROLDAN

FRIDAY 3/12

WEDNESDAY 3/17

www.thepizzashackjackson.com

(BUDWEISER & BUD LIGHT) Stop by and watch Basketball on the flat screen

Dine-In / Carry-Out Mon - Thur: 11am-10pm

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CATERING AVAILABLE

2010 THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES MARCH 25 at 7PM and MARCH 26 at 9PM AT HAL & MAL’S DOCUMENTARY SCREENING: “WHAT I WANT MY WORDS TO DO TO YOU”

MARCH 26 AT 7PM AT HAL & MAL’S crossroads film society

JFPTICKETS.com or call: 601.362.6121 ext. 11

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Proceeds will benefit The Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence and The Women’s Fund SPACE LIMITED! EARLY BIRD TICKETS - $20 FOR PLAY & FILM SCREENING, $15 FOR PLAY ONLY

25

jfpevents

THIS WEEK COMMUNITY

LOCAL GIRLS II Works by Cleta Ellington, Kit Fields, Pryor Graeber, Lucy Mazzaferro, Melissa Neville, Roz Roy & Miriam Weems.

Gallery 119, Weekdays 10am-3pm 601-969-4091, www.gallery119.net CULTURE

BACKYARDS & BEYOND A traveling exhibition of over 80 paintings and sculptures by well acclaimed Mississippi artist H.C. Porter, presented by Bankplus.

Through April 1st at the Arts Center of Mississippi 601-960-1557, www.jacksonartscouncil.org MUSIC

GOOD PAPER Martin’s, March 13th, 10pm 601-354-9712, www.martinslounge.net DINING

MILLER’S DOWNTOWN GRILL Come by Miller’s Downtown Grill for the Philly Cheese Steak or the Miller’s Double Cheese Burger.

JFP SPONSORED EVENTS Radio JFP on WLEZ ongoing, at WLEZ 100.1 FM. Join Donna Ladd and Todd Stauffer every Thursday from noon-1 p.m. This week, CNN Money’s Amy Haimerl and Cross-Pollinate’s Melvin Priester Jr. are the special guests. Listen online at wlezfm.com. Free; call 601-362-6121, ext. 17.

JFP Lounge at Pi(e) Lounge March 11, 6 p.m., at Sal & Mookie’s (565 Taylor St.). Enjoy a special JFP “Creative Class” martini, free munchies, and lots of fellowship with Jackson creatives and progressives.

Free admission; call 601-362-6121, ext. 11.

“Cross-Pollinate: A Speaker Series” March 12, 5:30 p.m., at Jackson Community Design Center (509 E. Capitol St.). Shahid Buttar will discuss government accountability as it relates to the war on terror. Call 415-425-9291.

V-Day 2010 March 25-26, at Hal & Mal’s (200 Commerce St.). The two-day event includes “The Vagina Monologues” by Eve Ensler, a groundbreaking play about women’s experiences, and the film “What I Want My Words to Do to You.” The play starts at 7 p.m. on March 25 and 9 p.m.

March 26. The movie starts at 7 p.m. March 26.

Proceeds benefit the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Women’s Fund. $20 for play and film, $15 for play only; visit jfptickets.com; call 601-362-6121, ext. 11.

COMMUNITY

Visit www.downtown-jackson.com for a complete calendar.

Call 601-353-9800 for calendar information.

Children’s Health Fair March 11, 10 a.m., at the Jackson Medical Mall (350 W. Woodrow Wilson Ave.), at Center Stage and in the Community Meeting Room. Elementary students and others will have access to health screenings. Adults can participate in a “Lunch and Learn” focused on children’s mental health. Free; call 601-366-8309.

ACLU Lobby Day March 11, 10 a.m., at Mississippi State Capitol (400 High St.). Spend the day meeting with your representatives about issues that are important to you. Free; call 601-354-3408.

Precinct 2 COPS Meeting March 11, 6 p.m., at Jackson Police Department - Precinct 2 (711 W. Capitol St.). These monthly meetings are forums designed to help resolve community issues or problems, from crime to potholes. Call 601-960-0002.

Alpha Kappa Alpha’s 78th South Eastern Regional Conference March 11-14, at the Jackson Convention Complex (105 E. Pascagoula St.). Events includes a public meeting and reception March 11 and a step show on March 13. $20 for step show; call 601-366-8309.

Financial Assistance for Organic Farmers through March 12. The USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has over $900,000 to help Mississippi farmers produce organic products and to introduce growers to high tunnel structures that extend the growing season for crops. The deadline to apply is March 12. Free; visit offices.usda.gov.

March 11 - 17, 2010

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“The Legacy of Timbuktu” Teacher Training Workshop Series through March 13, at the International Museum of Muslim Culture (201 E. Pascagoula St.). The museum will host workshops on educating students on the Timbuktu exhibition.

Lecturers and locations will vary. CEU credits are available. Call 601-960-0440.

Home and Outdoor Living Extravaganza March 12-14, at the Mississippi Trade Mart (1200 Mississippi St.). See the latest in indoor and outdoor living. Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. March 12-13 and 12:30-5 p.m. March 14. $5, $7 weekend pass, free for children under 12; call 601-9693446 or 800-898-4226.

Reproductive Justice Training March 13, 9 a.m., at the Jackson Enterprise Center (931 Highway 80 West), in the second floor conference room. The Mississippi Reproductive Coalition will provide training with a focus on human rights. Meals will be provided. Free; call 601-354-8601.

Girl Scout Reunion March 13-14, at Farish Street Baptist Church (619 N. Farish St.). The special guest speaker is Karen Livingston-Wilson, the first African American CEO of Scouting in Mississippi.

Free, open to the public; call 601-981-9199.

Zoo Day March 13, 9 a.m., at the Jackson Zoo (2918 W. Capitol St.). The zoo has prepared special activities such as live music, crafts for sale, cartoon characters and much more. The zoo will also open its new Sumatran tiger exhibit. Call 601-352-2580.

Serious Syrah Wine Tasting March 14, 4 p.m., at BRAVO! (4500 Interstate 55 N.). Learn about Syrah from sommelier Kelly Boutwell and Norm Rush, and taste samples from France and California.

Reservations are required. $56; call 601-982-8111.

Mississippi Development Authority/World Trade Center Luncheon March 15, 11:45 a.m., at Capital Club (125 S. Congress St., Suite 19).

Both organizations will provide information about doing business with Israel and the Middle East.

Register by March 12. $20 (includes lunch); e-mail aatkins@mswtc.org.

“Queen of the Natchez Trace” March 16, 11 a.m., at the Old Capitol Museum (100 S. State St.). Dot Ward, president of the Natchez Trace Parkway Association, will discuss Mississippian Roane Fleming Byrnes’s work to preserve the Natchez Trace Parkway. Free; call 601-576-6920.

“History Is Lunch” March 17, noon, at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building (200 North St.). Delta State English professor Elizabeth Sarcone talks about poet Pearl Rivers. Bring your own lunch; coffee/water provided. Free; call 601576-6850.

National Cutting Horse Association Eastern National Championships through March 20, at the Kirk Fordice Equine Center (Mississippi Fairgrounds, 1207 Mississippi St.). Contestants compete for $450,000 in cash prizes. Horse cutting classes offered daily at 8 a.m. followed by a team cutting exercise. Free; call 817-244-6188.

Historic Preservation Awards Call for Nominations through April 5, at Jackson City Hall (200 S. President St.). The City of Jackson Historic Preservation Commission will issue awards in May to outstanding historic preservation projects that have been substantially completed between January 2007 and January 2010. The deadline for nominations is April 5 at 5 p.m. Free; call 601-960-2006.

MUSIC Gospel Choir Concert March 11, 7:30 p.m., at Belhaven University Center for the Arts (835 Riverside Dr.). The Voices of Praise Gospel Choir of Wartburg College-Waverly of Iowa will perform with the Belhaven Voices Gospel Choir. Free; e-mail dacomposer1980@hotmail.com.

STAGE AND SCREEN Poetry Out Loud State Finals March 11, 1 p.m., at Mississippi Public Broadcasting (3825 Ridgewood Road), in the auditorium. The winner of the statewide competition for high school students will advance to the National Finals in Washington, D.C., on April 26-27. Free; call 601-359-6030.

“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” March 12-14, at Actor’s Playhouse (121 Paul Truitt Lane, Pearl). The play is a hilarious tale of six adolescent outsiders vying for the spelling championship of a lifetime. Show times are 7:30 p.m. on March 12-13 and 2 p.m. on March 14. $15 adults, $10 students and seniors; call 601-664-0930.

CREATIVE CLASSES Jewelry Making Class ongoing, at Dream Beads (605 Duling Ave.). This class is offered every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. Free; call 601-664-0411.

All Writers Workshop ongoing, at Pearl Public Library (2416 Old Brandon Road). The workshop, which is held every 2nd and 4th Tuesday each month, will focus on inspiration, tips, exercises, and member critique. Margie Culbertson is the instructor. Free; call 601-985-8011.

Events at St. Dominic Hospital (969 Lakeland Drive).

• Adult HeartSaver CPR Class March 11, 9 a.m., at The Club at St. Dominic’s. Learn basic CPR techniques. $40; call 601-200-4925.

• Senior Adult Computer Class March 13, 10 a.m., at St. Dominic Education Services. Learn about advanced computer techniques. Registration is required. $25; call 601-200-6698.

The Art of Fashion March 11, 7 p.m., at Easely Amused, Ridgeland (Trace Harbor Village, 7048 Old Canton Road, Suite 1002, Ridgeland). Elizabeth Fowler will give tips on organizing your closet and getting the most out of your wardrobe. $26.75; call 601-953-9786.

“Mississippi Queen” March 11, 7 p.m., at Easely Amused, Flowood (2315 Lakeland Dr., Suite C, Flowood). Learn to paint a contemporary magnolia. $26.75; call 601-953-9786.

Spring Figure Drawing Class March 15-May 17, at Gallery 119 (119 S. President St.). The 10-week class will be held Mondays from 6-9 p.m. Space is limited. $275; call 601-668-5408.

LITERARY AND SIGNINGS PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest through March 31, at Mississippi Public Broadcasting (3825 Ridgewood Road). Children in kindergarten through 3rd grade can submit stories with illustrations and the official entry forms. Applications are available online at mpbonline.org/mpbkids. Free; call 601-432-6565.

“The Weeb Book” March 13, 12 p.m., at Lemuria Books (202 Banner Hall, 4465 Interstate 55 N.).

Robert W. Maxwell signs copies of his book. $20 book; call 601-366-7619.

“Uptown: A Novel” March 14. Virginia DeBerry and Donna Grant will sign copies of their book at two locations. Free events; $14.99 book; call 212698-4384.

• 11:30 a.m., at Books-A-Million (4950 Interstate 55 North).

• 1:30 p.m., at Eudora Welty Library (300 N. State St.).

GALLERIES Art Contest through March 15, at Fondren Art Gallery (601 Duling St.). The juried contest with cash prizes is open to those 18 and older. The deadline for submissions is March 15. The finalists’ work will be displayed during Arts, Eats, & Beats in April.

Free; call 601-981-9222.

“Working Bird” Exhibit through March 26, at Hinds Community College, Raymond Campus (501 E. Main St., Raymond), in the Marie Hull Gallery. See ceramics and graphics created by Ashley and Virginia Chavis. Gallery hours are MondayThursday from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. and Friday from 8 a.m.-noon. Closed during spring break, March 1519. Free; call 601-857-3321.

“Local Girls II” through April 2, at Gallery 119 (119 S. President St.). See new works by Cleta Ellington, Kit Fields, Pryor Graeber, Lucy Mazzaferro, Melissa Neville, Roz Roy and Miriam Weems. Hours are 10 a.m.-3 p.m. MondayFriday and by appointment. Free admission; call 601-969-4091.

Sandra Murchison Traces the Mississippi Blues Trail through April 2, at Fischer Galleries (3100 N. State St., Suite 101). See Murchison’s recent mixedmedia prints and encaustic paintings which depict remnants of the Delta portion of the Mississippi Blues Trail. Free admission; call 601-974-1431.

EXHIBITS AND OPENINGS Events at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.). Museum hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Tuesday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. on Sundays.

Call 601-960-1515.

• Jim Henson’s Fantastic World through March 14. Presenting original artwork, including drawings, cartoons, puppets and movie props. $12 adults, $10 seniors, $6 students.

• Power APAC Exhibit of Scholastics through April 18. Artwork by winners of the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards will be on display. An awards ceremony will be held on April 18. Free.

Annual Belhaven Student Exhibition through March 22, at Belhaven University - Bitsy Irby Visual Arts and Dance Center (1500 Peachtree St.).

This annual exhibition of student works highlights a wide range of styles and media. Free; call 601965-7026.

“Backyards and Beyond” through April 1, at the Arts Center of Mississippi (201 E. Pascagoula St.).

The post-Katrina exhibition of over 80 paintings and sculptures by H.C. Porter is paired with audio recordings. Proceeds benefit Backyards and Beyond.

Hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.5 p.m. Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Donations welcome; e-mail tomjohnson14@comcast.net.

“Home Sweet Home” Feb 13-May 13, at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (2148 Riverside Drive). Smokey the Bear and Woodsy Owl come to life in the interactive exhibit. Museum hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. $3-$5, free for members and children under 3; call 601-354-7303.

“Petitions, Protests, and Patriotism: Mississippi Women in Preservation, 1900-1950” March 16May 9, at the Old Capitol Museum (100 S. State St.). This exhibit features influential women in Mississippi. Free; call 601-576-6920.

Check jfpevents.com for updates and more listings. To add an event, e-mail all details (phone number, start/ end date and time, street address, cost, URL, etc.) to events@jacksonfreepress.com or fax to 601-510-9019.

The deadline is noon the Thursday prior to the week of publication. Or, add the event online yourself; check out jfpevents.com for instructions.

BE THE CHANGE Cut-A-Thon March 12, 9 a.m.-7 p.m., at Colorize Hair Studio (105 N. Central Ave., Ridgeland). Volunteer hairstylists will cut and style hair to raise money for Mississippi cancer patients. Proceeds benefit Hope House of Hospitality in Jackson. Walk-in customers only. $30 minimum donation; call 601-259-6645.

Art for Haiti! March 12, 4:30 p.m., at Wired Espresso Cafe (115 N. State St.). Proceeds from TAB Photography’s picture sales will benefit the American Red Cross Haitian Relief Fund. Donations welcome; call 256-509-0649.

Footsteps in Hope Walk Fundraiser through March 28. The 8K walk/run on March 28 at Old Trace Park (Post Road, Ridgeland) at 2 p.m. is in support of HIV/AIDS projects such as Grace House in Mississippi and Old Mutare Voluntary Counseling and Testing Center in Zimbabwe. Participants can register online and create a fundraising page. Sponsorship options available. Donations welcome; call 901-338-7011; visit footstepsinhope.org.

BANDS/DJS FOR HIRE Disc Jockey (DJ) Service Professional DJ - 20 Years Experience - Holiday Parties/Weddings/Birthdays/Private Parties, Lights/Fog/Etc available, Photography Services Available, Live Band Availble (601) 850-4380

GEAR Bach stradivarius trombone Bach Stradivarius professional trombone w/ F -rotary valve, Excellent condition. Dynamic tonal quality. $1,600.00 Call:- 769 232 2415 Bass gear Quality professional gear. Swr Silverado combo.

350 watts RMS. $400. New aoustic 200 watt bass head $200. Two Swr 1 15’ and horn cabinets $250 ea. Loud and Clean Sold seperately or together.

(601) 214-4412 Professional Sound Engineers Need sound equipment or just a couple of engineers at your next event call Daniel 601.488.0436 any venue large or small anywhere in the south.

Complete PA Huge carvin pa for sale, all accessories, cables, processors, mics, stands, lights, amps, etc. Over $20,000 in gear to sell for best offers. Equipment is in as new condition. (225) 341-9391 Guitar Gear - Must Sell!!

Vox AD120VTH Valvetronix Stereo Head $400, 1x12 and 2x12 cabinets- $80-$125. (601) 540-1739 Need extra sound?

Need sound or just an engineer at your next event call Daniel 601.488.0436 or Mike 601.291.9713.

1 - 1604vlz 1 - pmp-5000 - powered mixer 10 - b1520 pro - speaker cabinets 6 - b1800x pro - sub cabinets 4 - f1520 pro - monitor cabinets 5 - ep1500 - power amps 2 - ep2500 - power amps 1 - 266xl - compressor limiter 2 - s - 3-way crossover 2 - ew165g2 e865 - wireless mics 6 - pr99 - mics.

Lighting also available: 6 - Scanners 12 - Par Cans 1- Lazer

MISCELLANEOUS Need A Few Good Musicians Interested in helping to set up music non-profit organization (centered around the blues) for disadvantaged youths in the jackson metropolitan area?

If so, i am looking to talk to you. Need musicians who can teach everything from banjo, guitar, dobro, mandolin, fiddle, accordion, harmonica, piano, etc., Etc. Come be a part of this great project! (601) 924-0210.

MUSICIANS AVAILABLE Drummer Available Mature/seasoned drummer available. Have played everything from country to Christian Contemporary. Would like to join existing band or form new one with seasoned musicians ONLY...no beginners please! Would like to play classic rock, blues and/or contemporary. Call if interested. (601) 613-5835

Drummer Looking For Band I’m an experienced drummer looking to form/join a band. I have mostly played metal, but I am open to rock/hard rock/metal, etc. Call Dave at (769) 226-0845.

Looking to Start Band I am a bass player new in town and looking to start a band in Jackson area...need guitarist..drummer...and lead vocals.......no specific genre preferred but will be based on rock and metal.(no death or black metal)...ive played in several bands and played out hundreds of times.....i can get gigs...if interested or for more info please call Chris @ 386-365-2944 Drummer Available 41 Year old drummer looking to play with existing group or start one. Great love for the instrument and really want to put something together for fun and profit (gigs 1-3 month). Rock, classic rock, pop, jazz, and swing. Good chops and attitude, no ego, just want to play. Call bill @ 601-955-7924 or e-mail at wricha2796@aol. Com. (601) 955-7924 Female Vocalist Seeking Band I am a 16-year-old female vocalist seeking a synthpop or rock band. Ages of band members preferrably 25 years or younger due to parental objections. Contact by email at freezepopforever10 29@hotmail.com.

OLD DRUMMER AVAILABLE! DRUMMER AVAILABLE: Most recently, I have played with The Veterans of Foreign Bars band.

Interested in playing Blues, Funk, Soul, maybe Country. I am an older guy and settled in for the duration. I would be interested in a steady band, fill-in, and, possibly, a new start-up. Let me hear: mcdrum89@yahoo.com or call 601832-0831 Musician Available 25 Years experience playing Drums, Guitar & Bass.

Recently relocated to Jackson from Memphis, TN. All genres of music. Contact Tim at 601-665-5976.

Or email: reeves@cgdsl.net Serious inquires only.

MUSICIANS WANTED Bass player needed Looking for bass player to join weekend band.

Classic Rock, Classic R&B, a little blues and a little country. (601) 856-3107 Deathcore guitarists Metal band looking for 2 exp’d guitarists. Influences include WhiteChapel, Carnifex, Opeth, etc.

Call David for more info (601) 201-3815 Metal Singer & Bassist Wanted AnnX is looking for a Experienced Energetic METAL Vocalist and a Bass Player to play shows and write new material. (601) 383-4851 Become our Next Instructor Major Scales Studio is accepting applications for a classical or rock or jazz guitar teacher. Must have professional appearance. Please email your resume to Majorscales@aol.com.

Cellist Needed For Album/tour Cellist needed for my album and possibly to tour shortly after. I am signed with South City Records. I need to start recording ASAP! Must be reliable and dedicated. Please contact me at scorpiano31@gmail.com Drummer/Bassist needed - Metal We are in need of a drummer and a bassist. Experience in metal (death, black, etc.) is preffered, but not completely necessary. Call Buddy at (601)5025647. Thanks for reading. -Buddy

Looking for band mates? Wanting to sell your gear?

Advertise here for free! Visit JFP Classifieds.com.

If you are interested in sponsoring the Musicians Exchange call JFP Sales at 601-362-6121 ext. 11.

jacksonfreepress.com

Belly Dance Class ongoing, at Lumpkin’s Restaurant (182 Raymond Road). The class is held every Saturday. Monique Davis is the instructor. $5; call 601-373-7707.

27

livemusic 8

around S A Lthe O Ocorner N

Country and Rock Music OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK - 4 P.M. ‘TIL

HAPPY HOUR 5-7, MON -THURS

WEDNESDAY - MARCH 10

Karaoke

LIVE MUSIC CALENDAR

with

Mike Mott

ALL SHOWS 10PM UNLESS NOTED WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY - MARCH 11

LIVE BAND 3/10

LADIES NIGHT

LADIES NIGHT (FREE DRAFT CUP 9-11) FRI. & SAT. - MARCH 12 & 13

THE COLONELS

LADIES DRINK ALL YOU CAN 8PM-12AM FOR $5 - NO COVER THURSDAY

3/11

OPEN ‘TIL 2AM FRIDAY

3/12

PASSENGER JONES

- Voted Best Country Band 2010 SUN. & MON. - MARCH 14 & 15

2 for 1 Domestics TUESDAY - MARCH 16

Pool League Night 2636 S. Gallatin Jackson, MS 39204

601-961-4747 www.myspace.com/popsaroundthecorner

MARCH 11, THURSDAY Millsaps’ Academic Complex Recital Hall - Miss. Academy of Ancient Music: Boston Camerata presents Le Roman de Fauvel 7:30 p.m. $20 bostoncamerata.com Fire - Pop Evil (Rock 93.9) 9 p.m. $12 myspace.com/popevil Lumpkins BBQ - Jesse Robinson (blues lunch) 11:30-1:30 p.m. free Soulshine, Township - Fingers Taylor & friends 6:30-9:30 p.m. free The Auditorium - Virgil Brawley (blues/solo) 7:30-9 p.m.; Eddie Cotton (blues) 9:18 p.m. $20 Underground 119 - Howard Jones Jazz Trio 5:30-7 p.m. free; Tom Fitzgerald 8-11 p.m. free 930 Blues Cafe - Jackie Bell, Norman Clark & Smoke Stack Lightning 8 p.m. $5 AJ’s Seafood - Hunter Gibson 6:30-10 p.m. free Fenian’s - Dead Irish Blues (Irish Folk Blues) 9-12 a.m.

F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dillon (blues lunch) free; Blues at Sunset Challenge Band 8-12 a.m. free Shucker’s - Rhythm Masters 7:3011:30 p.m. free Bonnie Blairs Irish Pub - Shaun Patterson 7-10 p.m.

Footloose - Karaoke 8-12 a.m.

Cherokee Inn - D’lo Trio 6:30 p.m.

Regency Hotel - Karaoke 7 p.m. free Poets II - Karaoke 10 p.m.

Castaways - Karaoke 6-10 p.m.

Electric Cowboy - DJ Cadillac (country/dance/rock) 9 p.m.

McB’s - Karaoke 7 p.m. free Eli’s Treehouse, V’burg - Karaoke 8 p.m.

MARCH 12, FRIDAY

ROCK 93.9 and FIRE present: SATURDAY

3/13

GOOD PAPER SUNDAY

3/14

KARAOKE MONDAY

3/15

OPEN MIC JAM TUESDAY

3/16

MATT’S LATE NIGHT KARAOKE $2 MARGARITAS $1 HIGHLIFE & PBR WEDNESDAY

3/17

March 11 - 17, 2010

LADIES NIGHT

28

LADIES DRINK ALL YOU CAN 8PM-12AM FOR $5 - NO COVER 214 S. STATE ST. • 601.354.9712 DOWNTOWN JACKSON WWW.MARTINSLOUNGE.NET

MAR 11 - POP EVIL MAR 18 - SAVING ABEL APR 22 - SICK PUPPIES MAY 4 - SMILE EMPTY SOUL

TOPTEN SONGS THIS WEEK 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

ALICE IN CHAINS – Your Decision CHEVELLE – Letter From A Thief CAVO - Crash JANUS - Eyesore MUDVAYNE – Scream With Me SLIPKNOT - Snuff BREAKING BENJAMIN - Give Me A Sign (Forever And Ever) 8 HALESTORM – It’s Not You 9 THOUSAND FOOT KRUTCH- Fire It Up 10 SICK PUPPIES – Odd One

Hal & Mal’s Big Room - Caroline Herring Hal & Mal’s Red Room - Newmatic w/Brian Fuente, Halo Stereo, Merriwether Hal & Mal’s Restaurant - Vernon Brothers (Bluegrass) 7:30 p.m.

Sneaky Beans - Furrows 7-10 p.m.

Martin’s - Tooz Co. 6-9:30 p.m.; Passenger Jones 10 p.m. www.myspace.com/passengerjones Underground 119 - Chris Gill & the Soleshakers 9-12 a.m. $10 The Auditorium - Shaun Patterson 7:30-9 p.m.; Eddie Cotton (blues) 9:18 p.m. $20 F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dillon (blues lunch) free; Sherman Lee Dillon’s Miss. Sound w/Jesse “Guitar” Smith 11:30-4 a.m. $5 Ole Tavern - Gravy 10 p.m.

Freelon’s - Akami & Key of G (R&B) Shucker’s - Hunter Gibson & the Gators 8-1 a.m. $5 Touch Ultra Lounge - DJ Libra+ (electronica) 9-2 a.m. $5 Pop’s Saloon - The Colonels McB’s - Rainmakers 8-11:30 p.m.

Fenian’s - Mike & Marty 9-12 a.m.

Soulshine, Township - Steve Chester 8 p.m. free Soulshine, Old Fannin - Ben Payton 6:45 p.m. free Two Rivers - DoubleShotz 9 p.m. free

Regency Hotel - Fade 2 Blue 9 p.m. $5 Sam’s Lounge - Legion X 10 p.m.

930 Blues Cafe - Blues/Jazz 5:30-8 p.m.; Jackie Bell, 9 p.m. $10 Electric Cowboy - DJ Terry 9 p.m.

Footloose - Karaoke 9-1 a.m. free Dick & Jane’s - Show Night/DJ Allen 9 p.m. $6; 18+ $10 Cultural Expressions - Reggae/HipHop/Old School Night 10 p.m. $5 Reed Pierce’s - Back 40 - 9 p.m. free Ameristar, V’burg - The Beat Daddy’s (blues) 8 p.m.

MARCH 13, SATURDAY Hal & Mal’s - Horse Trailer The Auditorium - Larry Brewer 7:30-9 p.m.; Eddie Cotton 9:18 p.m. $20 Martin’s - Good Paper 10 p.m. $5 myspace.com/goodpaperband Fenian’s - Troubaduo (Americana) 9-12 a.m.

Underground 119 - Jesse Robinson & the 500lb Blues Band 9-12 a.m. $10 Ole Tavern - Jarekus Singleton & His Band 10 p.m.

930 Blues Cafe - Blues/Jazz 5:30-8 p.m.; Jackie Bell, 9 p.m. $10 Cultural Expressions - Kamikaze & Yardboy 9 p.m. $5 F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dillon’s Miss. Sound w/Scott Albert Johnson (roots/juke) 11:30-4 a.m. $5 Shucker’s - Crawfish Boil: Rhythm Masters 1-5 p.m.; Bits & Pieces 5-9 p.m.; Big Daddy 9-1 a.m. $10 Electric Cowboy - DJ Terry 9 p.m.

Sam’s Lounge - Third World Abortion 10 p.m.

Kathryn’s - Emma Wynters Duo 7-10 p.m. www.myspace.com/ emmawynters Crawdad Hole - Fulkerson/Pace 7-10 p.m. $5, BYOB Regency Hotel - Faze 4 w/Hunter Gibson 8:30 p.m. $5 Dick & Jane’s - House Party/DJ Allen 9 p.m. $6; 18+ $10 McB’s - Fade 2 Blue Pop’s Saloon - The Colonels Club Clarion - DJ Time Out - Fallen X 8:30 p.m.

Koinonia Coffee - Gospoetry 8-12 p.m. $5 Petra Cafe, Clinton - Karaoke 8 p.m.

Reed Pierce’s - Kacey Swift 9 p.m. free Ameristar, V’burg - The Beat Daddy’s (blues) 8 p.m.

R.J. Barrel, Canton - Karaoke Ace of Clubs, Meridian - Unfair Intentions (all ages) 8:30 p.m. $3 www.myspace.com/ unfairintentions

MARCH 14, SUNDAY King Edward Hotel - Howard Jones Trio (jazz brunch) 11-2 p.m.

Warehouse - Mike & Marty Open Jam Session 6-10 p.m. free Fitzgerald’s - Andy Hardwick (brunch) 11-2 p.m.

Sophia’s, Fairview Inn - Knight Bruce 11 a.m. (brunch) Cultural Expressions - Open Mic Poetry 8 p.m. $5

Mid-Town Arts Center, 121 Millsaps Ave - Shahid Buttar Spoken Word Show/ Loki & DJ Os Chavez 8-11 p.m. free shahidbuttar.com Roberts Walthall Hotel - Spoken Word in the City w/ DJ Scrap Dirty/Young Venom 7-12 a.m. $10 Shucker’s - Crawfish Boil: Andrew Pates 12-3 p.m.; Mojeaux 3-7 p.m.; Easy Eddie & the Partyrockers 7-11 p.m. $10 Atwood Elks Lodge, Lynch St - Jazz, Blues & More: The Musicians 6:30-8:30 p.m. $5 The Hill - Open Blues Jam 6-11 p.m.

Footloose - Karaoke 7-11 p.m. free

MARCH 15, MONDAY Hal & Mal’s Restaurant - Central Miss. Blues Society Jam 8-11 p.m. $5 F. Jones Corner - Sherman Lee Dillon (blues lunch) free Martin’s - Open Mic 10 p.m. free Fenian’s - Karaoke 8-1 a.m.

Dreamz - Marley Mondays/DJ (world) 6 p.m.

Fitzgerald’s - D’Mar 8 p.m.

MARCH 16, TUESDAY F. Jones Corner - Amazing Lazy Boi (blues lunch) free Sneaky Beans - Weatherbox, All Get Out (indie rock) 8 p.m. $7 myspace.com/weatherbox Hal & Mal’s Restaurant - Pub Quiz 8 p.m.

Fenian’s - Open Mic 9 p.m.

Martin’s - Karaoke Shucker’s - The Extremez 7:30-11:30 p.m. free Kathryn’s - Scott Albert Johnson (roots/juke) 6:30 p.m.

Ole Tavern - Open Mic 10 p.m.

Time Out - Open Mic 8 p.m.

McB’s - Karaoke 7 p.m. free Final Destination - Open Mic

MARCH 17, WEDNESDAY Fenian’s - Fatman Squeeze (speed grass) 12-3 p.m. & 8-11 p.m.

Hal & Mal’s Restaurant - Hal & Connie O’Jeanes (St Paddy’s) 7:30 p.m.

F. Jones Corner - Stevie J (blues lunch) free Underground 119 - The Rounders (mountain jazz) 8-11 p.m. free Kathryn’s, Ridgeland - Emma Wynters Duo 6:30-9:30 p.m. www.myspace.com/emmawynters Shucker’s - Ronnie & Cathy 7:3011:30 p.m. free Bonnie Blairs Irish Pub - Shaun Patterson 7-10 p.m.

The Auditorium - Karaoke 9-12 a.m.

Warehouse/Genesis Food Bank, 435 Hiawatha St - MyChildren MyBride, Acaro, Legend, Through Fallen Skies, At Cliff’s End (Christian metalcore/rock) 6 p.m.; $12, 601-291-6194 Regency Hotel - Snazz 8:30 p.m. myspace.com/snazzband2 Footloose - Karaoke 8-12 a.m. free Electric Cowboy - Karaoke

3/13 Moody Blues - Beau Rivage, Biloxi 3/13 George Thorogood - Horseshoe Casino, Tunica 3/15 Rogue Wave - One Eyed Jack’s, New Orleans 3/15 Air - Center Stage Theatre, Atlanta 3/16 RX Bandits - House of Blues, New Orleans 3/18 Spoon/Deerhunter - Republic, New Orleans; 3/19 WorkPlay, Birmingham

venuelist Wednesday, March 10th Fusion Coffeehouse Highland Colony Parkway, Ridgeland, 601-856-6001 Garfield’s Restaurant & Pub 6340 Ridgewood Court, Jackson, 601-977-9920 Gold Strike Casino 1010 Casino Center Drive, Robinsonville, 888-245-7529 Grand Casino Biloxi 280 Beach Boulevard, Biloxi, 228-436-2946 Grand Casino Tunica 13615 Old Highway 61 North, Robinsonville, 800-39-GRAND The Green Room 444 Bounds St., Jackson, 601-713-3444 Ground Zero Blues Club 0 Blues Alley, Clarksdale, 662-621-9009 Grownfolks’s Lounge 4030 Medgar Evers Blvd, Jackson, 601-362-6008 Hal & Mal’s 200 S. Commerce St., Jackson, 601-948-0888 (pop/rock/blues) Hamp’s Place 3028 W. Northside Dr., Jackson, 601-981-4110 (dance/dj) Hard Rock Biloxi 777 Beach Blvd., Biloxi, 228-374-ROCK Hat & Cane 1115 E. McDowell Rd., Jackson, 601-352-0411 Hauté Pig 1856 Main St., Madison, 601853-8538 Here We Go Again 3002 Terry Road, Jackson, 601-373-1520 The Hill Restaurant 2555 Valley St., Jackson, 601-373-7768 Horizon Casino Mulberry Lounge 1310 Mulberry St., Vicksburg, 800-843-2343 Horseshoe Bar 5049 Hwy 80 West, Jackson, 601-922-6191 Horseshoe Casino Tunica, 800-303-7463 The Hunt Club 1525 Ellis Ave., Jackson, 601-944-1150 Huntington Grille 1001 E. County Line Rd., Jackson, 601-957-1515 The Ice House 515 S. Railroad Blvd., McComb, 601-684-0285 (pop/rock) JC’s 425 North Mart Plaza, Jackson, 601-362-3108 James Meredith Lounge 217 Griffith St. 601-969-3222 Julep Restaurant and Bar 105 Highland Village, Jackson, 601-362-1411 Kathryn’s Steaks and Seafood 6800 Old Canton Road, Ridgeland. 601-956-2803 Koinonia Coffee House 136 S. Adam St., Suite C, Jackson, 601-960-3008 LaRae’s 210 Parcel Dr., Jackson, 601-944-0660 Last Call Sports Grill 1428 Old Square Road, Jackson, 601-713-2700 The Library Bar & Grill 120 S. 11th St., Oxford, 662-234-1411 The Loft 1306 A. Washington St., Vicksburg, 601-629-6188 The Lyric Oxford 1006 Van Buren Ave., Oxford. 662-234-5333 Main Event Sports Bar & Grill 4659 Hwy 80 West, Jackson, 601-922-9987 Manda’s Pub 614 Clay Street, Vicksburg, 601-638-6607 Martin’s Lounge 214 S. State St., Jackson, 601-354-9712 (rock/jam/blues) McB’s Restaurant 815 Lake Harbor Dr., Ridgeland, 601-956-8362 (pop/rock) Mellow Mushroom 275 Dogwood Blvd., Flowood, 601-992-7499 Mississippi Academy of Ancient Music 103 Magnolia, Edwards, 601-977-7736 Mississippi Coliseum 1207 Mississippi St., Jackson, 601-353-0603 Mississippi Opera P.O. Box 1551, Jackson, 877-MSOPERA, 601-960-2300 Mississippi Opry 2420 Old Brandon Rd., Brandon, 601-331-6672 Mississippi Symphony Orchestra 201 East Pascagoula St., Jackson, 800-898-5050 Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium 2531 N. State St., Jackson, 601-354-6021 Monte’s Steak and Seafood 1855 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-362-8182 Mugshots 1855 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-713-0383 North Jackson Pockets 109 Culley Dr., Jackson, 601- 362-4939 Okasions 1766 Ellis Avenue, Jackson, 601-373-4037 Old Venice Pizza Co. 1428 Old Square Rd., Jackson, 601-366-6872 Ole Tavern on George Street 416 George St., Jackson, 601-960-2700 Olga’s 4760 I-55 North, Jackson, 601-366-1366 (piano)

One to One Studio 121 Millsaps Ave., in the Millsaps Arts District, Jackson One Blue Wall 2906 N State St., Jackson, 601-713-1224 Peaches Restaurant 327 N. Farish St., Jackson, 601-354-9267 Pelican Cove 3999A Harborwalk Dr., Ridgeland, 601-605-1865 Pig Ear Saloon 160 Weisenberger Rd., Gluckstadt, 601-898-8090 Pig Willies 1416 Washington St., Vicksburg, 601-634-6872 Pool Hall 3716 I-55 North Frontage Rd., Jackson, 601-713-2708 Pop’s Saloon 2636 Gallatin St., Jackson, 601-961-4747 (country) Proud Larry’s 211 S. Lamar Blvd., Oxford, 662-236-0050 The Pub Hwy. 51, Ridgeland, 601-898-2225 The Quarter Bistro & Piano Bar 1855 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-362-4900 Que Sera Sera 2801 N. State St., Jackson, 601-981-2520 Red Room 200 S. Commerce St., Jackson (Hal & Mal’s), 601-948-0888 (rock/alt.)

Reed Pierce’s 6791 Siwell Rd., Byram, 601-376-0777, 601-376-4677 Regency Hotel Restaurant & Bar 420 Greymont Ave., Jackson, 601-969-2141 Rick’s Cafe 318 Hwy 82 East, #B, Starkville, 662-324-7425 RJ Barrel 111 N. Union 601-667-3518 Sal and Mookie’s 565 Taylor St. 601368-1919 Sam’s Lounge 5035 I-55 N. Frontage Rd., Jackson, 601-983-2526 Sam’s Town Casino 1477 Casino Strip Blvd., Robinsonville, 800-456-0711 Schimmel’s Fine Dining 2615 N. State St., Jackson, 601-981-7077 Scrooge’s 5829 Ridgewood Rd., Jackson, 601-206-1211 Shuckers on the Reservoir 116 Conestoga Rd., Ridgeland, 601-853-0105 Silver Star Casino Hwy. 16 West, Choctaw, 800-557-0711 Soop’s The Ultimate 1205 Country Club Dr., Jackson, 601-922-1402 (blues) Soulshine Pizza 1139 Old Fannin Rd., Brandon, 601-919-2000 Soulshine Pizza 1111 Highland Colony Parkway, Ridgeland, 601-856-8646 Sportsman’s Lodge 1220 E. Northside Dr. at I-55, Jackson, 601-366-5441 Steam Room Grille 5402 Interstate-55 Frontage Road. 601-899-8588 Stone Pony Oyster Bar 116 Commercial Parkway, Canton, 601-859-0801 Super Chikan’s Place 235 Yazoo Ave., Clarksdale, 662-627-7008 Thalia Mara Hall 255 E. Pascagoula St., Jackson, 601-960-1535 Thirsty Hippo 211 Main St., Hattiesburg, 601-583-9188 (indie/ alt.rock/jam/world) Time Out Sports Bar 6270 Old Canton Rd., 601-978-1839 Touch Night Club 105 E. Capitol St., Jackson, 601-969-1110 Two Rivers Restaurant 1537 W. Peace St., Canton, 601-859-9979 (blues) Two Sisters Kitchen 707 N. Congress St. 601-353-1180 Two Stick 1107 Jackson Ave., Oxford, 662-236-6639 Tye’s 120 N. Congress St., Jackson, 601949-3434 Under the Boardwalk 2560 Terry Rd., Jackson, 601-371-7332 (country/ classic rock) Underground 119 119 S. President St. 601352-2322 VB’s Premier Sports Bar 1060 County Line Rd., Ridgland, 601-572-3989 VFW Post 9832 4610 Sunray Drive, Jackson, 601-982-9925 Vicksburg Convention Center 1600 Mulberry Street, Vicksburg, 866-822-6338 Walker’s Drive-In 3016 N. State St., Jackson, 601-982-2633 (jazz/pop/folk) The Warehouse 9347 Hwy 18 West, Jackson, 601-502-8580 (pop/rock) Wired Expresso Cafe 115 N. State St. 601-500-7800

Ladies’ Night w/ Snazz 8:30 pm - Guys’ Cover $5

BUY 1 GET 1 WELLS Thursday, March 11th

Bike Night w/ Krazy Karaoke

Weekly Lunch Specials Parking now on side of building

7:00 pm - No Cover

$2 MARGARITAS! Friday, March 12th

FADE 2 BLUE 8:30 pm - $5 cover

Saturday, March 13th

LIVE MUSIC Exquisite Dining at

The Rio Grande Restaurant

Open for dinner Sat. 4-10pm UPCOMING EVENT:

St. Paddy’s Party March 20 @ 7pm!

Dixie Nationals, The Peoples, Furrows, The Drinking Shoes Jam

thursday MARCH 11

LADIES NIGHT with MR. NICK! 400 Greymont Ave., Jackson 601-969-2141 www.regencyjackson.com

LADIES DRINK FREE WELLS & PONIES 9PM-2AM

friday MARCH 12 DIRECT T.V. MEGA MARCH MADNE SS PKG. SEC TOURNEY & NCAA TOURNEY

lunch specials $7.95 - includes tea & dessert

Smoke-free lunch

weekdays 11am-3pm

WED. LADIES NIGHT & KARAOKE

$10 Buckets of Beer during Tournaments

THURS. $1.50 BEER (BUD, BUD LIGHT, BUD SELECT & ULTRA)

FRI.

WILL & LINDA 9:30PM - 1:30AM NO COVER CHARGE

COLLEGE NIGHT BRING STUDENT ID

SAT.

NCAA

BASKETBALL

MON. S.I.N. NIGHT TUES. JACKPOT TRIVIA $2 DOMESTICS

ON SUNDAY, BLOODY MARYS $4 & MIMOSAS $3 THURSDAY 2-FOR-1 MONDAYS, $1.50 PINTS ON

Gravy saturday MARCH 13

The Jarekus Singleton Band tuesday MARCH 16

OPEN MIC with Cody Cox

*DOLLAR BEER* wednesday MARCH 17

Kick Ass Karaoke WITH KJ JOOSY FREE WiFi Open Mon-Sat, Kitchen open Mon-Fri 11 am-10 pm & Sat 4-10 pm

jacksonfreepress.com

61 South - Rainbow Casino 1380 Warrenton Rd., Vicksburg, 800-503-3777 88 Keys 3645 Hwy. 80 W in Metrocenter, Jackson, 601-352-7342 930 Blues Cafe 930 N. Congress St., Jackson, 601-948-3344 Alamo Theatre 333 N. Farish St, Jackson, 601-352-3365 Alley Cats 165 W. Peace St., Canton, 601-855-2225 Alumni House Sports Grill 574 Hwy. 50, Ridgeland, 601-855-2225 America Legion Post 1 3900 W. Northside Dr., Jackson, 601-605-9903 Ameristar Casino, Bottleneck Blues Bar 4146 Washington St., Vicksburg, 800-700-7770 Beau Rivage Casino 875 Beach Blvd., Biloxi, 800-566-7469 Belhaven College Center for the Arts 835 Riverside Dr, Jackson, 601-968-5930 Bennie’s Boom Boom Room 142 Front St., Hattiesburg, 601-408-6040 Borrello’s 1306 Washington St., Vicksburg, 601-638-0169 Buffalo Wild Wings 808 Lake Harbour Dr., Ridgeland, 601-856-0789 Capri-Pix Theatre 3021 N. State St., Jackson, 601-981-9606 Central City Complex 609 Woodrow Wilson Dr., Jackson, 601-352-9075 Cerami’s 5417 Highway 25, Flowood, 601-919-2829 Char Restaurant 4500 I-55, Highland Village, Jackson, 601-956-9562 Cherokee Inn 1410 Old Square Rd., Jackson, 601-362-6388 Club 43 Hwy 43, Canton, 601-654-3419, 601-859-0512 Club City Lights 200 N. Mill St., Jackson, 601-353-0059 Club O’Hara 364 Monticello St., Hazlehurst, 601-894-5674 Club Total 342 N. Gallatin St., Jackson, 601-714-5992 The Commons Gallery 719 N. Congress St., 601-352-3399 Couples Entertainment Center 4511 Byrd Drive, Jackson, 601-923-9977 Crawdad Hole 1150 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-982-9299 Crickett’s Lounge 4370 Hwy 80 West, Jackson, 601-922-0500 Crossroads Bar & Lounge 3040 Livingston Rd., Jackson, 601-984-3755 (blues) Cultural Expressions 147 Millsaps Ave., Jackson, 601-665-0815 (neosoul/hip-hop) Cups in Fondren 2757 Old Canton Road, Jackson, 601-362-7422 (acoustic/pop) Cups in the Quarter 1855 Lakeland Dr., Jackson, 601-981-9088 Davidson’s Corner Market 108 W. Center St., Canton, 601-855-2268 (pop/rock) Debo’s 180 Raymond Road, Jackson, 601-346-8283 Diamond Jack’s Casino 3990 Washington Street, Vicksburg, 1-877-711-0677 Dick & Jane’s 206 Capitol St., Jackson, 601-944-0123 (dance/alternative) Dixie Diamond 1306 Washington Street, Vicksburg, 601-638-6297 Dollar Bills Dance Saloon 103 A Street, Meridian, 601-693-5300 Edison Walthall Hotel 225 E. Capitol St., Jackson, 601-948-6161 Electric Cowboy 6107 Ridgewood Rd., Jackson, 601-899-5333 (country/ rock/dance) Executive Place 2440 Bailey Ave., Jackson, 601-987-4014 F. Jones Corner 303 N. Farish St. 601983-1148 Fenian’s 901 E. Fortification Street, Jackson, 601-948-0055 (rock/Irish/folk) Fire 209 Commerce St., Jackson, 601592-1000 (rock/dance/dj) Final Destination 5428 Robinson Rd. Ext., Jackson, (pop/rock/blues) Fitzgerald’s Martini Bar 1001 E. County Line Road, Jackson, 601-957-2800 Flood’s Bar and Grill 2460 Bailey Ave., Jackson, 601-713-4094 Footloose Bar and Grill 4661 Hwy 80 West, Jackson, 601-922-9944 Freelon’s Bar And Groove 440 N. Mill St., Jackson, 601-353-5357 (hip-hop)

29

music

by Chris Nolen

Talent in Full Bloom COURTESY CAROLINE HERRING

church choir at age 12. Years of playing, touring and four albums later, her beautifully textured voice sounds like a cross between Emmylou Harris and Joni Mitchell.

Her talents are in full bloom.

Originally from Canton and a former Roman and medieval history teacher at St. Andrews Episcopal School in Jackson, she released her latest record, “Golden Apples of The Sun,” to national acclaim in 2009. The recording is a work of maturity and beauty that calls upon her life experiences and her many influences. It is a work of love.

Now living in Atlanta, Herring has returned to folk music, where she first gained inspiration. She spoke to the Jackson Free Press by phone.

Caroline Herring will perform songs from her album “Golden Apples of The Sun” at Hal & Mal’s March 12 at 8 p.m.

C

aroline Herring labored to be heard over the garbled intercom chatter of an Atlanta lawn and garden store. It seems that she has a green thumb, and it’s time to get seeds in the ground.

Gardening, she says, is a treasured respite from the requirements of her career, the pressures of motherhood, and the hectic cycle of recording and touring.

Herring has carefully tended her musical talents, like one of the plants she now nurtures, since she began singing in her

There is maturity to the songwriting themes on “Golden Apples of The Sun,” especially on a song like “Abuelita” (a song about Herring’s grandmother) where appreciation and respect of family is so evident.

Does that maturity come from motherhood?

Being a mother has made me grow up a tremendous amount. But I don’t know if this is an album I could have done only now. Being out of (Austin) Texas for a long time, I suppose, has been helpful because I’m a folk singer and have been traveling around a lot by myself, and doing that sort of “folk” thing. This is an album that

reflects that, whereas when I lived in Texas, I was influenced by that band sound and by country and alt country. And the separation from those circumstances has perhaps pushed me in that folk direction.

Do you have any favorite memories from growing up in Canton?

The bones of Canton are beautiful with the courthouse and the square, but it’s a town that struggled like most other Mississippi towns, and I remember lots of hardships there. But I remember going to my mom’s library a lot, and I loved being amidst all of those books.

That explains all the literary references in your work. Where did your music education come from?

My parents had me in the church choir from seventh grade on, and I took piano from kindergarten onward. And I played flute at Canton Academy ... but I didn’t start playing guitar until my early 20s, and didn’t start writing until my late 20s when I played with the Sincere Ramblers in Oxford for a radio show.

“Thacker Mountain Radio” is where you had the opportunity to work with some legends like Gillian Welch as they came through Oxford. That must have been a time

of amazing growth and inspiration.

As you were discovering who you were as an artist, who most inspired your music?

Very much the artists that I recognized in this latest album. I listened to a ton of Joni Mitchell and Kate Wolfe in college.

And Nancy Griffith was a big inspiration.

And then as I started playing bluegrass, (it was) Bill Monroe and all the bluegrass legends. And certainly the Carter Family, Hank Williams, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn ... but it was folk, then bluegrass, and then country. So it made sense for me to do this folk record.

As you come back to Mississippi, is there a little pride that swells up within, like a conquering hero?

No. Every time I come home, well, I have a real love/hate relationship with Mississippi as most people do. ... It’s really weird how many Mississippi ex-pats I meet who long for it and miss it, and are troubled by everything. But it was the culture of Mississippi writers and the musicians that gave me confidence to go out there. But no, I come home quite humbly, to be perfectly honest with you. (I’m) grateful to be from there. Very grateful.

See Caroline Herring perform March 12, 8 p.m., at Hal & Mal’s. Visit carolineherring.com for more information.

Growing Prince’s Sound

March 11 - 17, 2010

P

30

rince recently released his newest single, “Cause and Effect,” which is predictably tame and in keeping with the trend of his singles in recent years. It is appearing more and more that Prince’s glory days are behind him. We haven’t gotten a signature catchy, ribald single in the vein of “Little Red Corvette” or “Sexy MF” in years.

Luckily, the market for Prince imitators remains ripe. It seems every year an album comes out striving to be the great, lost Prince album.

While these imitators’ albums generally capture the raunchiness of Prince’s lyrics, they rarely venture out of the guitar and synth-based pop sound that made Prince so huge in the early ’80s.

What these records are doing is imitating Prince’s sound without trying to grow it.

These artists, while offering us fleeting

hope that they may represent the next step in this sound’s evolution, inevitably leave us retreating to our copies of “Dirty Mind.”

Dan Black, a British import, is the latest to vie for the “Heir to Prince” title. He demonstrates an ear beyond just the synthguitar sound on his debut LP “Un.” It is a surprisingly assured and ambitious effort for a debut album. While keeping everything grounded in his electronica/hip-hop comfort zone, Black displays a deft incorporation of R&B, rock and even disco.

The album opens with “Symphonies,” a near flawless pop song. It is a perfectly titled track with lushly orchestrated strings, a choral background and multilayered harmonies. The instantly recognizable “Umbrella” drum sample gives the song its hip-hop edge, and, indeed, rapper Kid Cudi contributes a verse on the reprise at the end of the album. It is the most unique-sounding song on the album and also the best.

This is not to say there is a massive drop-off in song quality, though. Black successfully draws in elements of disco and hip-hop, giving a fresh edge to the record.

If he weren’t singing over “Yours,” then any number of rappers would be lined up around the block to take a bite out of the beat. “Pump My Pumps” has a bass line that could have easily been pulled from one of Chic’s hits.

The most interesting development on the album comes in its second half with “Cigarette Pack” and the gorgeous “Life Slash Dreams.” With both these songs, Black crosses into U2/Coldplay territory.

The fact that Black’s chameleonic voice is able to smoothly make the transition between hip-hop and rock should not be understated. Music is littered with artists who have tried unconvincingly to make that switch (Coldplay’s own Chris Martin is one); their voices simply don’t translate to the other genre.

Dan Black’s “Un” is as impressive a debut album as you are likely to

HISE RISE PR

by Rob Hamilton

Dan Black’s debut album “Un” is reminiscent of Prince’s early, better days, combining R&B, rock and even disco.

hear this year. While there is room to grow—specifically in truly finding his own voice—Black demonstrates the chops needed to achieve this growth.

Should he find it, he could have a home on the pop charts and critics’ best-of lists for years to come.

Express Tokyo Fresh • Sushi • Fast

Sushi & Habchi

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DAILY HAPPY HOUR 2-5

Ding How Asian Bistro

Free beverage with the $5 purchase

(601-9561717, 6955 Old Canton Rd, Suite C, Ridgeland) Familiar name, new menu! Authentic dishes from Thai; Chinese; Japanese and Korean. All the dishes are prepared with healthy ingredients, offering low oil, low salt, no MSG cooking. Hong Kong-style dim sum on weekends!

ASIAN

DINE IN OR CARRY OUT

Cozy Bar Inside, Covered Patio Outside

TAKE- OU T AVAIL ABLE

OEC (Ridgeland 601-853-4188 and Madison 601-853-8288) Dine in or take out Japanese-style hibachi orders, friend rice, salads or sushi. Hibachi options range from veggies to jumbo shrimp. And it ain’t Japanese in Mississippi without the crawfish roll, right?

5050 I55 N Ste. D Jackson (Located in Deville Plaza) PHONE 601.957.1558 FAX 601.957.1368

971 Madison Ave. in Madison 601.605.2266 | Open 7 Days a Week www.kristosofmadison.com

Tokyo Express (5050 I-55N 601-957-1558 and 900 E County Line 601-899-8838) Lunch or dinner hibachi orders (chicken, shrimp, steak, scallops) and cooked sushi rolls (snow crab, philly, crawfish, dynamite, titanic) along with fried rice and appetizer.

STIX (109 Marketplace Lane off Lakeland Dr Flowood 601-420-4058) Enjoy the quick-handed, knife-wielding chefs at the flaming teppanyaki grill; artful presentations of sushi; the pungent seasonings and spicy flavors of regional Chinese cuisines.

Nagoya (6351 I-55 North #131 @ Target Shopping Ctr. 601-977-8881) Nagoya gets high marks for its delicious-and-affordable sushi offerings, tasty lunch specials and high-flying hibachi room with satisfying flavors for the whole family.

Ichiban (153 Ridge Drive, Ste 105F 601-919-0097 & 359 Ridgeway 601-919-8879) Voted “Best Chinese” in 2010, cuisine styles at Ichiban actually range from Chinese to Japanese, including hibachi, sushi made fresh with seafood from the Coast, and a crowd-pleasing all-youcan-eat buffet. Two locations in Flowood, Grill at 153 Ridge and Buffet at 359 Ridgeway.

COFFEE HOUSES Cups Espresso Café (Multiple Locations, www.cupsespressocafe.com) Jackson’s local chain of coffeehouses offer high-end Arabica beans, a wide variety of espresso drinks, fresh brewed coffee and a selection of pastries and baked goods. Free wi-fi!

Wired Espresso Café (115 N State St 601-500-7800) This downtown coffeehouse across from the Old Capitol focuses on being a true gathering place, featuring great coffee and a selection of breakfast, lunch and pastry items. Free wi-fi.

LUNCH: MON.-FRI., 10AM-2PM 2003-2010, Best of Jackson

See Us Come kfast! a e r For B

7AM -10AM

168 W. Griffith St. • Sterling Towers Across from MC School of Law

707 N. Congress Street Downtown Jackson • (601) 353-1180 Open 11am-2pm, Sunday thru Friday

601-352-2364 • Fax: 601-352-2365 Hours: Monday - Friday 7am - 4pm

Telephone:

BAKERY Broad Street (4465 Interstate 55 N. 601-362-2900) Hot breakfast, coffee espresso drinks, fresh breads and pastries, gourmet deli sandwiches, quiches, soups, pizzas, pastas and dessert. A “see and be seen” Jackson institution!

Crazy Cat Bakers (Highland Village Suite #173 601-362-7448 & Fondren Corner Bldg) The amazing lunch sandwiches include: Meatloaf Panini, Mediterranean Vegetarian, Rotisserie Chicken to gourmet pimento cheese. The outlandish desserts are: to die for. Now open in the Fondren Corner Building on North State Street.

ITALIAN Basilʼs Belhaven (904 E. Fortification, Jackson, 601-352-2002) The signature Paninis are complimented by great Italian offerings such as spaghetti and meatball, tomato basil soup, cookies and cupcakes. Dinner menu includes fresh tilapia, shrimp and risotto, seafood pasta, generous salads—and don’t forget the crab cakes. Party menu includes a “panini pie.” BYOB.

BRAVO! (4500 Interstate 55 N., Jackson, 601-982-8111) Wood-fired pizzas, vegetarian fare, plus creative pastas, beef, and seafood specials. Wonderful atmosphere and service. Voted Best Wine Selection and Best Chef in 2009, Bravo! walks away with tons of awards every year.

601-665-4952 For the sizzling taste of real hickory smoke barbeque -

THIS IS THE PLACE! B.B.Q., Blues, Beer, Beef & Pork Ribs Saturday & Friday Night Blues Band Coming Soon!

Lunch & Dinner Hours: Tuesday - Thursday 11a.m. to 8p.m.

Friday & Saturday 11a.m. to 10p.m.

932 Lynch Street in Jackson (Across from the JSU Baseball Field)

Come see Why We Were Voted One Of Jackson’s Best Mediterranean Restaurants

Ceramiʼs (5417 Lakeland Drive, Flowood, 601-919-28298) Southern-style Italian cuisine features their signature Shrimp Cerami (white wine sauce, capers artichokes) along with veal, tilapia, crawfish, chicken and pasta dishes. Now with liquor license!

“Authentic, homey, unpretentious” that’s how the regulars describe Fratesi’s, a staple in Jackson for years, offering great Italian favorites with loving care. The tiramisu is a must-have!

BARBEQUE

Mediterranean & Lebanese Cuisine

jacksonfreepress.com

Fratesiʼs (910 Lake Harbour, Ridgeland, 601-956-2929)

Lunch starting at just $6 .99

Hickory Pit Barbeque (1491 Canton Mart Rd. 601-956-7079) The “Best Butts in Town” features BBQ chicken, beef and pork sandwiches along with burgers and po’boys. Wet or dry pork ribs, chopped pork or beef, and all the sides.

DINE LOCAL, see pg. 32

Hours of Operation: Everyday 11am-until

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Paid advertising section.

Lumpkins BBQ (182 Raymond Rd. Jackson 866-906-0942) Specializing in smoked barbeque, Lumpkin’s offers all your favorites for on-site family dining or for catered events, including reunions, office events, annivesaries, weddings and more.

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Rib Shack B.B.Q. & Seafood (932 J.R. Lynch Street, Jackson, 601-665-4952) Hickory-smoked BBQ beef or pork ribs, BBQ chicken, giant chopped BBQ beef or pork sandwiches. Fried catfish, pan trout, fried shrimp, po boys. Tues-Thurs (11-8pm) Fri-Sat (11-10pm).

ART FOR HAITI BENEFIT.

BARS, PUBS & BURGERS “Now Dats Italian”

March 12th at 4:30 - 7pm

A metro-area tradition since 1977 Dinner Hours: Lunch Hours: Tues-Fri 11am-2pm

Tues-Thurs 5pm-9pm Fri & Sat 5pm-10pm

601-919-2829 5417 Lakeland Drive ~ Flowood, MS 39232

BAKERS

Serving: H OT P ASTA D ISHE G RILLED F ISH P ANINI S ANDWICH

Now with TWO locations to better serve you

En

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from the Belhaven bakery

Mon. - Thurs., 11am - 8:30pm | Fri. & Sat. 11am - 9pm 904B E. Fortification St. - English Village

Call Us: 601-352-2002

still need help paying off our student loans

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NEW! FONDREN CORNER | 11AM - 2PM HIGHLAND VILLAGE | 10AM - 6PM 601.362.7448 • CRAZYCATBAKERS.COM

Alumni House (574 Hwy 51 Ridgeland 601-605-9903, 110 Bass Pro, Pearl, 601-896-0253) Good bar food, big portions and burgers (with “blackened” as an option) known for their sweet buns. Televisions throughout, even small tubes at your table. Po-boys, quesadillas; good stuff!

Fenianʼs Pub (901 E. Fortification St. 601-948-0055) Classic Irish pub featuring a menu of traditional food, pub sandwiches and beers including Guinness and Harp on tap. Free live music most nights; Irish/Celtic bands on Thursdays.

Cool Alʼs (4654 McWillie, 601-713-3020) A standard in Best of Jackson, Al’s stacked, messy, decadent, creative burgers defy adjectives.

Or try pineapple chicken, smoked sausage...or the nationally recognized veggie burger.

Fitzgeralds at the Hilton (1001 East County Line Road, 601-957-2800) Bar favorites with a Gulf Coast twist like Gumbo Ya Ya, Shrimp Cocktail and Pelahatchie artisan sausage and cheese antipasto. Plus grilled oysters, tournedos of beef, chicken pontabla and of course the fried stuff—oysters, catfish, shrimp, seafood or chicken. Did we mention the bar?

Hal and Malʼs (200 S. Commerce St. 601-948-0888) Pub favorites meet Gulf Coast and Cajun specialties like red beans and rice, the Oyster Platter or each day’s blackboard special. Repeat winner of Best of Jackson’s “Best Place for Live Music.”

Last Call (3716 I-55 N. Frontage Road 601-713-2700) Burgers, sandwiches and po-boys, plus sports-bar appetizers and specialities. Try chili cheese fries, chicken nachos or the shrimp & pork eggrolls. Pay-per-view sporting events, live bands.

Martinʼs Restaurant and Lounge (214 South State Street 601-354-9712) Lunch specials, pub appetizers (jalapeno poppers, cheezsticks, fried pickles) or order from the full menu of po-boys and entrees. Full bar, massive beer selection and live music most nights.

Shuckerʼs Oyster Bar (116 Conestoga Road, Ridgeland 601-853-0105) Serious about oysters? Try ‘em on the half shell, deep-fried, charred from the oven or baked in champagne. Plus po-boys, pub favorites, burgers, mufalettas, pizza, seafood and steaks!

Sportsmanʼs Lodge (1120 E Northside Dr in Maywood Mart 601-366-5441) Voted Best Sports Bar, Sportman’s doesn’t disappoint with plenty of gut-pleasing sandwiches, and fried seafood baskets. Try the award-winning wings in Buffalo, Thai or Jerk sauces!

The Regency (400 Greymont Ave. 601-969-2141) Reasonably priced buffet Monday through Friday featuring all your favorites. Daily happy hour, live bands and regular specials.

Time Out Sports Café (6720 Old Canton Road 601-978-1839) 14 TVs, 1 projector and two big-screens. Daily $9 lunch specials, pub-style appetizers, burgers, seafood and catfish po-boys, salads, and hot entrees including fish, steak and pasta.

Ole Tavern on George Street (416 George St. 601-960-2700) Pub food with a southern flair: beer-battered onion rings, chicken & sausage gumbo, salads, sandwiches and weekly lunch specials. Plus, happy hour 4-7pm Monday through Friday.

Pelican Cove Grill (3999A Harbor Walk Drive 601-605-1865) Great rez view! Shrimp and seafood appetizers, soups, salads, burgers and sandwiches, plus po-boys, catfish baskets, and dinners from the grill including mahi-mahi and reggae ribs.

Underground 119 (119 South President St. 601-352-2322) Jumbo lump crabcakes, crab quesadillas, beef tenderloin parfaits, orange-garlic shrimp, even “lollipop” lamb chops. Add a full bar and mix in great music. Opens 4 p.m.-until, Wed-Sat.

March 11 - 17, 2010

SOUTHERN CUISINE

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!

Best Butts In Town! since 1980

601-956-7079

1491 Canton Mart Rd. • Jackson

The Auditorium (622 Duling Ave. 601-982-0002) Sweet Potato Crawfish Cakes, shrimp & grits, fried green tomatos, creole seafood pasta, catfish, shrimp and combo platters, Mississippi cavier salad, babyback ribs with sweet potato fries and cole slaw. Even a veggie plate! Full bar, movie nights and music on the Peavey Stage.

Julep (1305 East Northside Drive, Highland Village, 601-362-1411) Tons of Best of Jackson awards, delicious Southern fusion dishes like award-winning fried chicken, shrimp and grits, blackened tuna and butter bean hummus. Brunch, lunch, dinner and late night.

Primos Cafe (515 Lake Harbour 601-898-3400 and 2323 Lakeland 601-936-3398) A Jackson institution featuring a full breakfast (with grits and biscuits), blue plate specials, catfish, burgers, prime rib, oysters, po-boys and wraps. Save room for something from the bakery.

Sunioraʼs Sidewalk Cafe (200 South Lamar Street 601-355-1955) Homecooking, soul food, buffet and pizza for lunch in downtown Jackson. Soup and salad bar every day, plus daily lunch specials. “Mama’s in the kitchen!” Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm.

THANK YOU FOR THE BEST OF

Paid advertising section.

JACKSON AWARDS NOMINATIONS

Sugarʼs Place (168 W Griffith St 601-352-2364) Hot breakfast and weekday lunch: catfish, pantrout, fried chicken wings, blue plates, red beans & rice, pork chops, chicken & dumplings, burgers, po-boys...does your grandma cook like this?

The Strawberry Café (107 Depot Drive, Madison, 601-856-3822) Full table service, lunch and dinner. Crab and crawfish appetizers, salads, fresh seafood, pastas, “surf and turf” and more. Veggie options. Desserts: cheesecake, Madison Mud and strawberry shortcake.

Two Sisters Kitchen (707 N. Congress St. 601-353-1180) 2010 Best of Jackson winner for fried chicken offers a sumptious buffet of your choice of veggies, a salad bar, iced tea & one of three homemade desserts. Lunch only. M-F 11-2, Sun. 10:30-2.

FINE DINING Huntington Grille at the Hilton (1001 East County Line Road 601--957-1515) Chef Luis Bruno offers fresh Gulf seafood, unique game dishes and succulent steaks alongside an expansive wine selection; multiple honors from Best of Jackson, Wine Specator and others.

Schimmelʼs (2615 N. State St. 601-981-7077) Creative southern fusion dishes at attractive prices make the atmosphere that mush more enticing. New appetizer menu, “Martini Night Football” and others bar specials for football season!

Steam Room Grille (5402 I-55 North 601--899-8588) Great seafood featuring steamed lobster, crab, shrimp and combo patters. Grilled specialities include shrimp, steaks, and kabobs. Fresh fish fried seafood, lunch menu, catering, live music.

Home-Cooking T BUFFE- Friday

$8 Monday & only $10 Sunday

Italian Done Right.

“HOME OF THE BEST BRISKET IN JACKSON”

Remember you can buy our lasagna by the pan!

HOURS: Monday-Friday, 11am-3pm 182 Raymond Rd. | Jackson, MS 39204 Telephone: 601-373-7707 lumpkinsbbq@comcast.net

910 Lake Harbour Dr. Ridgeland | 601-956-2929 Monday - Saturday | 5 - until

MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EASTERN Aladdin Mediterranean Grill (730 Lakeland Drive 601-366-6033) Delicious authentic dishes including lamb dishes, hummus, falafel, kababs, shwarma and much more. Consistent award winner, great for takeout or for long evenings with friends.

Jerusalem Café (2741 Old Canton Road 601-321-8797) Yes, it’s a hookah bar in Jackson, which also happens to have a great Meditterean menu, including falafel, lamb shank, feta salad, kabob, spinach pie, grape leaves and baba ghanouj.

Kristos (971 Madison Ave @ Hwy 51, Madison, 601-605-2266) Home of the famous Greek meatball! Hummus, falafel, dolmas, pita sandwiches, salads, plus seasoned curly fries (or sweet potato fries) and amazing desserts.

Petra Cafe (104 West Leake Street, Clinton 601-925-0016) Mediterranean and Lebanese cuisine in the charm of Olde Towne Clinton. Stuffed grape leaves, spinach pie, shrimp kabobs, greek salads, hummus and more. Lunch and dinner served seven days a week.

PIZZA The Pizza Shack (1220 N State St. 601-352-2001) 2009’s winner of Best Pizza offers the perfect pizza-and-a-beer joint. Creative pizza options abound (“Cajun Joe, anyone?”), along with sandwiches, wings, salads and even BBQ. Sal & Mookieʼs (565 Taylor St. 601-368-1919) Pizzas of all kinds plus pasta, eggplant parmesan and the local favorite: fried ravioli. Voted Best Chef, Best Kid’s Menu and Best Ice Cream in the 2009 Best of Jackson reader poll.

CARRIBBEAN

TWO FREE DRAFT BEER MUGS When you buy any menu item over $8 after 8pm every Fri. and Sat.

Daily Lunch Specials - $9 Happy Hour Hour Everyday Everyday 4-7 4-7 Happy

Every Sunday 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

LIVE MUSIC Every Tues. thru Sat.

Weekly Events & Specials

LATE NIGHT HAPPY HOUR Sun. thru Thurs. 10pm - 12am Two-for-One, YOU CALL IT!

* Happy Hour * Monday-Friday 3-7pm

“BADGE SPECIAL” Military, Fire, Police, & Emergency Personnel 2-for-1 drinks all day, everyday!

Taste of the Island (436 E. Capitol, Downtown, 601-360-5900) Jerk chicken or ribs, curry chicken or shrimp, oxtails, snapper or goat, plus bok choy, steamed cabbage and Jamaican Greens, Carry out, counter seating or delivery available. 11a-7p.

VEGETARIAN High Noon Café (2807 Old Canton Road in Rainbow Plaza 601-366-1513) Fresh, gourmet, tasty and healthy defines the lunch and brunch options at Jackson’s vegetarian (and vegan-friendly) restaurant. Wonderful desserts!

NEW ORLEANS JAZZ BRUNCH

601.978.1839 6270 Old Canton Rd. Jackson, MS 39211

* Biker Monday * * Wasted Wednesday * * Karaoke Thursday * * Live Entertainment * Friday & Saturday

6340 Ridgewood Court

601-977-9920

Reflections on the Old Thoughts on the New

free wireless internet Photo courtesy of a proud mom

jacksonfreepress.com

Thank you for entering our doors over the past year

33

“I’ve worked as a nurse for nearly 15 years.

Massage offers another path for our bodies to heal.”

read more Body&Soul stories and the blog at jacksonfreepress.com

by Greg Williamson

E Massage for healing and wellness.

Gilly MacMillan, BSN LMT #1500 PREGNANCY SWEDISH SHIATZU THAI YOGA REFLEXOLOGY

ating healthy means different things to different people. My wife and I, for example, cook nearly every meal using as many fresh ingredients as possible. For us, this is ideal, but it can’t work for everyone. People who travel a great deal, have large families or crazy work schedules have to make choices, and a larger portion of their foods will come from restaurants, processed foods and other quick alternatives.

So many things crowd our schedules that sometimes eating becomes an afterthought. Everybody has their priorities, but food may be the biggest part of our consumption and lifestyle patterns. What and how we eat becomes the support for our bodies, minds and spirits.

To me, fresh food tastes better than pre-cooked foods, organic produce tastes better than standard produce, whole foods taste better than refined foods. But nothing tastes better than something just picked from the garden. But even a foodie like me has to compromise when short of time. We can make time an ally instead of an enemy when it comes to food, but it takes preparation and mindfulness.

JACI BERKOPEC

Eating in the Moment

Many people eat absentmindedly, not thinking of where their food comes from, how it was prepared, what it contains or even what it tastes like. Even worse, we eat while we are doing other things—driving, watching TV, working or surfing the web.

Eating without thinking makes it easy to forget that what we are eating is crap, and we can eat too much if we don’t slow down and pay attention.

Time savers

Express Lunch STARTING at $7.50 Entree, 2 Sides, Bread and Tea

It’s Fast or It’s Free!

March 11 - 17, 2010

TINA DIAMOND

34

March 10 $3 MARGARITAS 5402 I-55 Frontage Road Jackson MS stea m r oo m g ri l l e . co m

• Cook ahead on weekends to make foods you can eat throughout the week. In the winter I am mad for homemade soups, and in the summer I love salads made with veggies and grains such as rice, quinoa or couscous.

• Cook enough for leftovers and have something already made when you get home late. Or bring leftovers for lunch and reduce your food costs.

• Plan meals in advance and shop accordingly. You cook faster yet more calmly when you know what you are going to cook and have all of the ingredients.

• Prepare slow-cooking foods like dried beans or brown rice in advance, or use a crock-pot or other slow-cooking technique.

• Have a store of quick-to-prepare foods. Pasta and spaghetti sauce will do in a pinch (Note: Barilla Plus pasta has much more protein, fiber and omega 3 than regular pasta and stays firmer once cooked—excellent for soups). Black beans (canned) and salsa (jarred) heated and ladled over cheese grits (polenta) is yummy and fast. Or

heat tasty, ready-to-eat soups from Pacific Foods or Imagine brands.

• Instant foods are handy for very fast meals: Just add hot water.

Fantastic Foods make a good instant black bean soup. Look for instant versions of whole-grain hot cereals, and who can forget Ramen noodles? Just watch out for hydrogenated oils.

• Use frozen foods in a pinch. The USDA says that many frozen vegetables are nutritionally equal to fresh. Some frozen meals by companies striving to use natural whole food ingredients (Kashi and Annie’s, for example) are tasty enough.

• Some foods are really convenience food in disguise. Couscous is a grain that just needs a few minutes in boiling water before serving.

Miso soup? Just add miso to boiling water and drop in scallion slices and a bit of tofu. Warmed bread and a green salad are easy and quick side dishes. Fresh fruit is ready to eat, delicious and good for you.

Nuts add quick protein and texture to salads and grains.

• Cook with friends. Many hands make light work.

How do we balance the need for speed with healthy eating habits? How do we find the time to make healthy meals and appreciate eating them? How can we fully savor the flavor? There isn’t one simple answer. It is a balance between the practical and the philosophical: We should regard food as something to enjoy instead of something to rush through.

Before you eat, make a point of remembering that many people’s labor was necessary to bring you the food you are about to eat. People prepare the soil, plant the seeds, cultivate the fields, harvest, clean, sort, process, pack, transport, store and sell the food you buy. Remember that the food came from the earth, from the soil, the sun and the rain. There is a grace to the bounty of the earth. Eat with humility, knowing that the earth and many people contributed to your meal. Feel your connection to the web of life and the people who support you, and be thankful. As you eat, put the fork down between bites. Try not to pick it up again until you completely chew and swallow your previous bite.

Cooking and eating can be an opportunity for reflection and rejuvenation, even if you don’t have a lot of time. Here are some of my work-arounds to maintain a sense of quality food and a pleasant eating experience.

Meal Enhancers • Add something fresh to your quick meal: A splash of lemon on vegetables; a sprinkling of toasted sunflower or sesame seeds on your take-out fried rice or teriyaki; fresh tomato slices on frozen pizza before baking.

• Start an herb garden and add fresh oregano, thyme, parsley, cilantro, rosemary or basil to your dishes.

• Add fresh garlic, fresh herbs and a splash of red wine to jarred spaghetti sauce.

• Complement spicy or fried take-out food with ice-cold watermelon.

• Have a special beverage for the occasion.

It can make the meal, be it fragrant jasmine tea with Asian food or beer with pizza.

Mood Enhancers • Live a little. Try new foods, recipes, restaurants and ingredients.

• Eat by candlelight.

• Sit quietly by a body of water or under a tree while you eat.

• Put flowers on the table.

• Play relaxing music in the background.

• Eat with people you love.

• Don’t rush the meal. Savor every bite.

Join Scotta for Spring Break in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida!

Anusara Yoga

®

with Scotta Brady E-RYT 500

March 12 - 14 DRAGONFLY YOGA Downtown Ft. Walton Fri. 6-8:30pm: Standing poses, twists, hip openers - $35 Sat. 11am-1:30pm: Standing poses, abs, backbends - $35 Sat. 4-6pm: Nectarean inversions, forward folds - $30 Sun. 9am-12pm: Flight school - Abs & arm balances - $40

Entire Weekend $125

Contact: Laura Tyree 850-244-0184

www.butterflyyoga.net 3025 North State Street - Fondren District - 601.594.2313

BEFORE:

Kristen H., 33 years old from Mississippi Body Transformation: 103 lbs & over 70 in.

AFTER:

Body Benefits changed my life in so many different ways. I have lost a total of 103 pounds and now wear a size 2/4! My waist is now smaller than what my thigh used to measure!

I have completely changed my life in each and every aspect by combining a healthy, nutritiously balanced diet with regular daily exercise.

I don’t know what my life would be like now if I had not found Body Benefits classes and Barbara Nobles, my Personal Trainer!

601-991-9904

731 Pear Orchard Road • Ridgeland Odyssey North Shopping Center • Suite 30      www.body-benefits.com

JFP Editor-in-Chief DONNA LADD

Please join Jackson Free Press Editor-in-Chief Donna Ladd at the Medgar Evers/Ella Baker Lecture Series where she will discuss Women and the Movement for Social Justice.

To suggest features, e-mail: ronni@jacksonfreepress.com + To advertise, e-mail: kimberly@jacksonfreepress.com

March 24 at 6:30pm Jackson State University Dollye M.E. Robinson Liberal Arts Building E-mail hamer.institute@jsums.edu or call 601-979-1562 for more information

jacksonfreepress.com

Other Panelists Include: • Dr. Beverly Wade Hogan, President of Tougaloo College • Dr. Susan Glisson, Executive Director of William Winter Institute • Dr. Tiyi Morris, Ohio State University • Dr. Michelle Deardorff, Professor of Political Science at Jackson State University • Angela Stewart, Curator, Margaret Walker Alexander Research Center • Nsombi Lambright, Executive Director of the ACLU

35

sports

by John Yargo

Records, Records, Records

Special All Week Corned Beef & Cabbage

WEDNESDAY 3/17

ST PATRICK’S DAY Fat Man Squeeze (Bluegrass/Speedgrass)

l 2,400 Sq Ft of Additiona !

Outside Space All-Day THURSDAY 3/18

Beth Patterson (Irish Folk/Humor) FRIDAY 3/19

“I HARRISON DIAMOND

St. Paddy’ss Week Events

always turn to the sports section first,” Earl Warren, the 14th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court once said. “The sports page records people’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.”

As Warren acknowledged, sports are often cast in the narrative of accomplishment. The mystique of the “unbroken record” ensconces most athletic competition. These records offer a quantifiable method to weigh achievement and frame moments in historical sequence.

But then the records themselves gain a foggy mystery and an academic remoteness.

The Peoples

(Rockin’ Blues) SATURDAY 3/20

ST PATRICK’S BLOCK PARTY!

Soundwagon, Captain Mackey’s, Cary Hudson & St. Adonis

Florida coach Urban Meyer is a successful recruiter, so his players are automatically rated higher from the start.

SUNDAY 3/21

Traditional St. Patrick’s Celebration Captain Mackey’s, Spirit , of the House, St. Brigid’s cy ga Le & Jim Flanagan

WEDNESDAY 3/10

Virgil Brawley & Steve Chester (Blues) THURSDAY 3/11

Dead Irish Blues (Irish Folk)

FRIDAY 3/12

Mike and Marty (Classic Rock) SATURDAY 3/13

Troubaduo

(Blues/Rock) SUNDAY 3/14 Brunch 11am-3pm

Open until Midnight MONDAY 3/15

Karaoke w/ Matt March 11 - 17, 2010

TUESDAY 3/16

36

Open Mic w/ a Guy Named George

In terms of mystique, the last three years have been a revelatory period in speed sailing.

In October 2008, a French kite surfer, Sebastien Cattelan, cracked an unprecedented 50 knots at the Lüderitz Speed Challenge. Within a month, the 50-knot threshold became the equivalent of a four-minute mile: once undreamt-of, now attainable.

The fall of a record can liberate a sport.

Suddenly, we recognize that while the record stood, the mystique of sports figures had begun to dim beside the solemnly collected and assiduously studied data. Then, another Frenchman, Alain Thébault, a defiant, selfproclaimed “Icarus of the sea,” pushed the record to 51.4 knots in September 2009.

By this summer, the NBA might see a different barometer of “unprecedence” forged.

Last summer, the Boston Celtics brought in power forward Rasheed Wallace to bolster the team’s already stout defensive prowess. Celtics fans hoped his diminished playing time would keep his intensity high, and his ejections and technical fouls low.

When introduced, Wallace said that he would accept any role that coach Doc Rivers would assign him, as long as it led to victories.

Mostly, that’s exactly what he’s done for the aging Eastern Conference contender. This NBA season, Wallace has averaged almost 24 minutes, but with an astonishing 14 technical fouls. For every five quarters he spends on the court, Wallace gets a technical foul.

Likely, he will fall short of his own regularseason record of 41 technicals in a season. But, if he remains on pace (and on the floor), Wallace will set a new, and dubious, record for most technical-fouls-per-minutes-on-the-floor.

In the first week of February, the University of Florida set a precedent for monopolizing ESPNU-150 recruits, bringing in 15 of them, including four in the top 10.

Aside from the garden-variety moral qualms I have about the insulated and upsidedown world of college recruiting (it’s creepy; it’s overhyped; it’s deranged; it’s damaging for student-athletes), the mania around National Signing Day is especially misplaced. Florida's Urban Meyer’s recruiting achievements illustrates the problems with record-breaking.

Collecting talent does not ordain winning seasons. Since Pete Carroll’s arrival, the USC program has dominated recruiting, but has never matched the successful period from 2003 to 2005. Those days are more than a half-decade past. The real significance of accumulating stud high-school players or home runs or sailing records might pale beside the popular furor that “stat-tracking” raises.

More importantly, you have to consider the “Michael E. Mann Factor.” In 2001, Mann, a celebrated climatologist and professor at Penn State University, crafted “the hockey stick graph” that gave powerful visual weight to environmentalists’ polemical position of global warming, featuring prominently in Al Gore’s "An Inconvenient Truth." Last year, though, private e-mails sent by Mann seemed to give credence to the fact that he (and perhaps other climatologists) had distorted evidence to verify the existence of climate change.

This discovery does not shake the scientific foundation for climate-change research, but it does illustrate how even someone invested in objectivity might distort evidence to fit a widely held professional consensus.

In college recruiting, a program will establish a consensus around itself, or around a coach as an evaluator or developer. Since the evidence on a recruit’s ability is weak, recruits rise and fall depending on how their stock is graded by those coaches and programs. Threestar athletes are transformed into five-star guys, and five-star players slip into mediocrity.

Recruiters form consensus around a recruit and even a region (Florida is talent-rich, Connecticut is not). Since Florida coach Meyer is a great recruiter, the ESPNU and Rivals.com recruitniks will always rate his classes highly, even when their previous estimations had those same athletes rated low.

Because the recruitniks will always rate him highly, the legend of coach Meyer as a great recruiter grows.

(It also helps that he lauds his recruits like a gushing mother hen. Meyer has suggested this 2010 crop is, to a person, the finest individuals, the brightest academic stars, and the best football players available, before they ever play a meaningful down or attend a college class. The last time he brought in classes this talented, 2006 and 2007, those athletes accumulated a collective rap sheet of about 20 arrests and two national championships.)

Ironically, this is how great programs are brought low: hubris. Just ask Bobby Bowden.

Doctor S sez: Unless there are a lot of surprises on the basketball court this weekend, college baseball will be in full swing by Monday.

THURSDAY, MARCH 11 MLB baseball, exhibition, Atlanta vs. N.Y. Yankees (6 p.m., CSS): The Braves battle the defending champ Yankees, who should implode any minute now.

FRIDAY, MARCH 12 Men’s college basketball, SEC Tournament, Ole Miss vs. LSU or Tennessee (2:15 p.m., Nashville, Tenn., Ch. 12, 97.3 FM): The Rebels will play the Vols in the quarterfinals: trust me. … Mississippi State vs.

Auburn or Florida (6:30 p.m., Nashville, Tenn., Ch. 12, 105.9 FM): The Bulldogs and the Rebels both need to win a game or two to get into the NCAA Tournament.

SATURDAY, MARCH 13 College baseball, Belhaven at Tungaloy, 2 (noon, Jackson): The Blazers battle the Bulldogs in an intracity GCAC showdown.

SUNDAY, MARCH 14 Men’s college basketball, NCAA Tournament Selection Show (5 p.m., Ch. 12): Will any of our state teams be going to the Big Dance? And if so, where will they play?

MONDAY, MARCH 15 Women’s college basketball, NCAA Tournament Selection Show (6 p.m., ESPN): Mississippi State appears headed for the show but where will they go?

TUESDAY, MARCH 16 College baseball, Spalding at Mississippi College (1 p.m., Clinton): The Choctaws wrap up their series with the Spaldings.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17 Movie, “Drumline” (8 p.m., VH1): A band geek must have dreamed up this 2002 pseudomusical, because only a band geek could believe that the marching band is so important.

The Slate is compiled by Doctor S for both print and online. So don’t get any funny ideas. Read all about it at JFP Sports on www.jacsonfreepress.com.

BY MATT JONES

SCES (Feb. 19-March 20) used to have an acupuncturist who, as she poked me with needles, liked to talk about her understanding of Chinese medicine. Once she told me that every human being needs a “heart protector,” which is a body function that’s “like a holy warrior who serves as the queen’s devoted ally.” But the heart protector is not something you’re born with. You’ve got to grow it by building your fortitude and taking care of your body. I think the heart protector will be an apt metaphor for you to play with in the coming weeks, Pisces. It’s going to be an excellent time for you to ltivate any part of your life that gives your heart joy, strength, peace and integrity.

Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) was called “the most famous actress the world has ever known.” She did a few films in the early days of the cinema, but most of her work was in the theater. At age 70, she played the role of the 13-year-old Juliet in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.” I commend her on her refusal to act her age and recommend that you make a comparable effort in the coming weeks. For example, if you’re in your twenties, try something you thought you wouldn’t do until you were at a very ripe age. If you’re over 50, be 25 for a while. It’s an excellent time to do this kind of time traveling.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20) You might have to use primitive means to accomplish modern wonders. It may be necessary to hearken back to what worked in the past in order to serve the brightest vision of the future. Take your cue from Luis Soriano, a saintly teacher who carries a library of 120 books on the back of a donkey as he meanders around the back country of Columbia, helping poor kids learn how to read.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20) Humans have been baking and eating bread for at least 5,000 years. But it wasn’t until the 20th century that anyone figured out a fast and easy way to cut it into thin, precise pieces. Then Otto Rohwedder, who had been working on the project for 16 years, produced a machine that cut a loaf into individual slices. I bring him to your attention, Gemini, because I think you are in a phase of your life when you could very possibly create an innovation that would be as intimately revolutionary as Rohwedder’s was for the masses. In fact, why aren’t you working on it right now?

if you’re not scared to discover who you are when you’re turned on all the way.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) If you were living in Greece in the fifth century B.C., I’d urge you to bathe in the healing spring at the shrine of Asklepios in Athens. If you were in 19th-century France, I’d recommend that you trek to the sacred shrine at Lourdes—being sure to crawl the last half-mile on your hands and knees—and sip from the curative waters there. But since you’re a busy 21st-century sophisticate and may have a limited belief in miracles, I’ll simply suggest that you visit the most interesting tree you know and spill a bottle of pristine water over your head as you confess your sins and ask the sky for forgiveness and sing songs that purify you to the bone.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) It’s quite possible that the nature of consciousness is in the midst of a fundamental transformation. The human race seems to be getting more empathetic, more compassionate and even more psychic. Many of us are having experiences that were previously thought to be the province of mystics, such as epiphanies that give us visceral perceptions of the interconnectedness of all life.

Even as some traditional religions lose members and devolve into cartoony fundamentalism, there are everincreasing numbers of intelligent seekers who cultivate a more discerning spiritual awareness outside the decrepit frameworks. If you haven’t been on this bandwagon, Scorpio, now’s a good time to jump on. If you’re already on board, get ready for an accelerated ride.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

In order to heal deep-seated problems, people may need to engage in long-term psychotherapy, patiently chipping away at their mental blocks for many years.

But some lucky sufferers get their neuroses zapped virtually overnight, either with the help of a monumental event that shocks them out of their malaise or through the work of a brilliant healer who uses a few strokes of kamikaze compassion to creatively destroy their deluded fixations. I think you’re now a candidate for this type of correction, Cancerian.

This week you’ll be working overtime while you sleep.

Your dreaming mind will be playing around with solutions to your waking mind’s dilemmas. Your ally, the wild conjurer in the ramshackle diamond-encrusted sanctuary at the edge of the deep dark forest, will be spinning out medicine stories and rounding up help for you. So of course you should keep a pen and notebook by your bed to record the dreams that come. I suggest that you also try to keep the first part of your mornings free of busy work so you can integrate the full impact of the nights’ gifts. And don’t despair if you can’t actually remember any of your nocturnal adventures. Their tasty after-images will remain with you subliminally, giving your logical mind an intuitive edge.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22)

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19)

CANCER (June 21-July 22)

To discover the most useful truths, you will have to peek behind the curtains and root around to see what’s cloaked in the dark and maybe even explore messes you’d rather not touch. What complicates your task is that the fake truths may be extra loud and shiny, distracting you from the down and dirty stuff with their relentless come-ons. But I have confidence in your ability to outmaneuver the propaganda, Leo. You shall know the hype, and knowing the hype will set you free.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) The evil geniuses of the advertising industry are hard at work in their labs dreaming up seductive new mojo to artificially stimulate your consumer lusts. Meanwhile, the media’s relentless campaign to get you to believe in debilitating fantasies and divert you from doing what’s really good for you has reached a fever pitch. And here’s the triple whammy: Even more than usual, some of your relatives and cohorts are angling to convince you that what pleases them is what pleases you. So is there any hope that you will be able to hone in on what truly excites you? (It’s especially important that you do so right now.) The answer, in my opinion, is a qualified yes—if you’re willing to conduct intensive research into the idiosyncratic secrets of what makes you happy; and

“That Bowls”—-football overload!

Across 1 Begins to like, with “to” 6 It goes with you after a sneeze?

11 Harley Davidson’s stock ticker symbol, appropriately 14 Sound covering an expletive 15 Get ready for a bodybuilders’ competition 16 Bruins great Bobby 17 Party in San Antonio?

19 ___-tzu (Chinese philosopher) 20 Palindromic precious metal in Panama 21 Roll-on places 23 Let the moon show?

28 “The Dude ___” (“The Big Lebowski” line) 29 Eerie glows 30 House of Commons figs.

32 ___-Locka, Florida 33 Pitt who played Benjamin Button 34 Michael Jackson video set in a pool hall 36 European designer’s monogram 39 Put an embargo on 40 Gives refuge to 41 ___ Speedwagon 42 Math class with equations: abbr.

43 Play opener 44 Flour mixture used to thicken soup

45 Ltr. holder 47 5th or Mad., e.g.

48 “Siddhartha” author 49 Sarah Palin et al.?

52 Nervy quality 54 State at the “Heart of Dixie” 56 “Burn Notice” channel 57 Tater ___ (lunchroom nugget) 58 Carnival food, as you might as well call it?

64 “___ Trippin’ “ (2008 Snoop Dogg album) 65 Gives it a “go”?

66 Go straight to the courthouse to wed, perhaps 67 Damascus’s country: abbr.

68 George of “Cheers” 69 Throat bacteria, for short

Down 1 Ring org. with a “Minimumweight” category (less than 105 pounds) 2 The whole shootin’ match 3 Actor Stephen of “V for Vendetta” 4 It’s for scribbling 5 Newscast segment 6 “Sk8er ___” (Avril Lavigne hit) 7 Detector detection, ostensibly 8 Lanchester of “Bride of Frankenstein” 9 Kama ___

©2010 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jo nesincrosswords.com) For answers to this puzzle, call: 1-900-226-2800, 99 cents per minute. Must be 18+. Or to bill to your credit card, call: 1-800-6556548. Reference puzzle #0451.

Last Week’s Answers

BY MATT JONES

There will be an abundance of unambiguous choices for you to make in the coming days. I’m not implying they’ll be easy, just that the different alternatives will be clearly delineated. To get you warmed up for your hopefully crisp decisions, I’ve compiled a few exercises.

Pick one of each of these pairs: 1. exacting homework or free-form research; 2. pitiless logic or generous fantasies; 3. precise and disciplined communication or heedless self-expression; 4. grazing like a contented sheep or rambling like a restless mountain goat.

Last Week’s Answers

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) Among Eastern religions, some traditions preach the value of getting rid of your desires. To be righteously attuned to current cosmic rhythms, however, I think you should rebel against that ideal, and instead cultivate a whole host of excellent desires. Use your imagination, please! Here are a few I highly recommend: a desire for a revelation or experience that will steer you away from becoming more like a machine; a desire for a fresh blast of purity from a primal source; a desire for an imaginary pet snake that teaches you how to be more playful with your libidinous energy; and a desire for a jolt of unexpected beauty that reminds you how important it is to always keep a part of your mind untamed.

Starved for good news? Weary of the nonstop barrage of misery foisted on you by the media?

Check this out: http://bit.ly/PronoiaNetwork.

“Kakuro” Fill in each square in this grid with a digit from 1 to 9. The sum of the digits in each row or column will be the little number given just to the left of or just above that row or column. As with a Sudoku, you canít repeat any digits in a row or column. See the row of two squares in the upper-middle of the grid with a 8 to the left of it? That means the sum of the digits in those two squares will be 8, and they won’t repeat any digits (i.e., be two 4s). A row or column ends at a black square, so the four-square row in the upper-right with a 14 to the left of it may or may not have digits in common with the 8-row to its left; theyíre considered different rows because thereís a black square between them. Down columns work the same way. Now solve!!

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ARIES (March 21-April 19)

10 Automated programs that send junk e-mail 11 Flower given on Mother’s Day, perhaps?

12 Speak to one’s countrymen 13 “Disgusting!”

18 In support of 22 “Great Expectations” boy 23 “Yabba ___ doo!”

24 Far from the city 25 Chomper with a peachy hue?

26 Code of silence in Puzo novels 27 Location in “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” 31 High on the ganja 34 Anti-___ hand soap 35 Indignation 37 His 1960 best-seller had only 50 different words 38 They’re usually cut thin at the deli 40 Sweat big-time over something 44 French automaker currently allied with Nissan 46 Stunted end 48 Bad sounds from the house 49 Motel postings 50 The end of studying?

51 “Up in ___” (Cheech & Chong movie) 53 Derringer, e.g.

55 ___ impasse 59 The ___-Bol man (classic TV ad character) 60 East, in Germany 61 “Tarnsman of ___” (sci-fi book that launched an ongoing series) 62 Tarzan raiser 63 Sales agt.

37

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Police arrested a 17-year-old boy in College Station, Texas, for trying to pass a counterfeit $5 bill. Officials said the bogus bill had an “overwhelming number of imperfections,” appearing to have been made by gluing two sheets of paper together with images of the front and back of a $5 bill printed on either side. Further evidence that the bill consisted of two pieces of paper cropped and glued together was the observation that the front of the bill was longer than the back. (The Eagle)

Homeland Insecurity Department of Homeland Security officers lost 289 firearms—handguns, M-4 rifles and shotguns—from 2006 to 2008, according to the department’s inspector general. The report blamed officers entrusted with the weapons for failing to properly secure them. One was left unsecured in an idling vehicle at a convenience store where the gun and the vehicle were stolen while the officer was inside. Other officers left their firearms at fast-food restaurants, parking lots and a bowling alley. Local law enforcement organizations recovered 15 DHS firearms from felons, gang members, criminals, drug users and teenagers. (USA Today)

Puzzling Evidence Police who raided the home of South African drug lord Fadwaan “Fat” Murphy,

37, reported that while they were searching him, his strap-on penis fell off. Charged with possessing stolen property, Murphy disclosed at a bail hearing in a Cape Town magistrate’s court that he was technically a hermaphrodite named Hilary. He explained he was born with both male and female sexual organs but had surgery to remove the female parts. “I stand firm as a man, as a husband and as a father,” Murphy declared under oath, calling his condition “God’s decision.” He noted that at least he hadn’t “been born with two heads.” After Murphy’s admission, his mother said she tried to raise him as a girl, but “he wanted to wear pants.”

(U.K.’s The Times)

Arrest Resister of the Week When two city police officers found Jack A. Seabright Jr., 23, passed out in his vehicle in Washington, Pa., they tried various ways to rouse him. When they did revive Seabright, he took a swing at one officer, who blocked the punch and ordered Seabright out of the vehicle. He refused and kicked and punched at the two officers until one Tasered him. As soon as they pulled him from the vehicle, Seabright ran off up a snow bank, only to be stopped when he slammed head first into a steel pole, fell over and was taken into custody.

(Washington Observer-Reporter) Compiled from mainstream media sources by Roland Sweet. Authentication on demand.

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