- Issue Archive for
- Aug 21-27, 2008
- Vol. 1, No. 1017
News
Urban Canvas
Neighborhood group partners with University of Memphis for public art.
John Elkington and Birmingham's Dome Stadium
From the Birmingham News: The developer behind a planned downtown entertainment district told Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex board members today that knowing the location of a proposed domed stadium could help him finalize bank financing for his project ...
Keeping Up with the Joneses
Judge keeps bond set at $500,000 for Windjammer Restaurant shooter.
Compromise Concerns Cash
MCS, council members try to meet in the middle at Bridges.
What They Said
Comments from memphisflyer.com
City Gets State Grant to Beautify Graceland Area
Governor Phil Bredesen announced today that the state will provide a Tennessee Roadscapes Grant in the amount of $76,396 to the city of Memphis to assist with improvements to an important gateway in the city ...
Bass Pro President Talks Up City Council
Three years after taking a first look at Memphis and The Pyramid, Bass Pro Shops is ready to move ahead, but it will be at least another three years before a new store opens for business.
Jim Hagale, president of the company, met with a handful of members of the Memphis City Council Monday morning. His presentation was part sales pitch and part apology. He thanked Robert Lipscomb, the city's point man on the project, "who took most of the arrows for me." He also apologized for delays in moving the project forward, but said "there has never been a point where Bass Pro became disinterested in the Pyramid project."...
At Risk
Researchers pinpoint neighborhood decline in an effort to stop it.
Stage Night
Hollywood character actor Chris Ellis comes home to host the 25th Ostrander Awards.
What to Do This Weekend in Memphis
Not sure what to do with all your free time this weekend? Here are a few suggestions.
Local artist Niki Johnson's work will be featured at the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center Friday night in a show titled "Consumer Content ..."
And the Ostrander Goes To ....
The 25th annual Ostrander Awards, recognizing the best of local theater, was held last night the Memphis Botanic Garden.
And the winners are ...
Real Estate
An Evergreen Anomaly
Post-war Colonial ranch.
We Recommend
Music
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Labor of Love
Makeshift Music and the Church Health Center take "Rock for Love" to year two.
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Jay Reatard Does Beck
Memphis punkster Jay Reatard has teamed up with Beck to release a double-sided take on Beck's new tune, "Gamma Ray," in Europe. Beck's version is the A-side, while Reatard's interpretation is on the B-side.
Reatard is currently touring the West Coast. Beck will tour the U.S. in September with Memphis-linked MGMT, to further narrow the Beck degrees of separation ...
Politics
The Audacity of Hopelessness
As genuine and touching as Michelle Obama's words may have been it's difficult to know where they fit in an angry America that seems to have abandoned the vision and ideals of activists past—an America where winning your fight is worth destroying the prize. To borrow a phrase from John McCain, that's not hope we can believe in. Chris Davis goes to the streets of Denver to see for himself. Read his take and watch his video.
MemphisFlyer.com Offers the Most Complete Convention Coverage!
Senior editor Jackson Baker, staff writer Chris Davis, and "Mad As Hell" columnist Cheri DelBrocco will all be posting regularly at MemphisFlyer.com during the Democratic convention this week.
Check in often for news and all the inside dish from Denver. No other publication or news outlet in Memphis will top our coverage. Guaranteed!
Sealing the Deal
The County Commission backs into a new ordinance for the November ballot.
"Hillary Watch" in Denver
This afternoon, just outside Denver's Pepsi Center a group of Hillary Clinton hard-cases gathered, sporting posters with supportive slogans painted in red drippy letters that would have looked more appropriate outside a Halloween haunted house ...
Council Candidates: Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Something Old, Something New
A veritable grab-bag of candidates will be vying for the District 9, Position 1 city council seat being vacated by current council chairman Scott McCormick, who is leaving to take the helm at the Plough Foundation. Among those qualifying by Thursday’s deadline to run in the November special election to replace McCormick were (clockwise from top left): Antonio “2-Shay” Parkinson (here with daughter); Kemp Conrad; Paul Schaffer; and John Willingham. But there are more, more, more....
Teddy Says Hello... and Maybe Goodbye
In the minds of the American public, Kennedys do not grow old. Or sick and infirmed. John and Bobby are forever young. But last night, we saw the youngest and last of the Kennedy brothers slowly totter to the podium to deliver an emotional farewell, for he is quite possibly dying.
Getting Started: The Democrats Convene in Denver
All eyes and all expectations are on the man from Illinois (by way of Hawaii and Indonesia), and, as the Tennessee Democratic chairman Gray Sasser got the first meeting of the state delegation to this year's party convention under way on Monday morning, that sense of hopefulness (or simply "hope," as the candidate himself likes to say) was palpable among the delegates.
Onetime Hillary Rival Jim Cooper Wants Love for Clinton Delegates
On Tuesday,just hours before Hillary Clinton was to speak to the Democratic National Convention Denver, 5th District congressman Jim Cooper addressed the Tennessee delegation at lunch. His main call was for party unity, as he held out hope that Tennessee, which has gone Republican in recent years, might end up in Obama’s column in 2008. He had nothing but praise for Clinton, his former bitter rival in the health-care debate, and predicted she'd have "a great career as a senator."
MAD AS HELL: Hillary Guerilla Fight? What Hillary Guerilla Fight?
If you believed the pundits on the national networks and in the conservative blogosphere, you would think the Democrats here in Denver were ramping up to enter the Pepsi Center on Monday night for a session of WWE Smackdown. B.S.
Live From Denver ... It's Chris Davis
Here's a taste of what's happening at the Democratic Convention through the lens of Flyer writer Chris Davis:
Sports
From My Seat: Memphis Football ‘08 -- A Higher Standard
As Year Eight of the Tommy West era at the University of Memphis kicks off this Saturday, the words "Tommy West era" seem more appropriate than they once did. Now the dean of Conference USA coaches, West has three more seasons under his belt at Memphis than any of his 11 C-USA counterparts can claim at their current institutions ...
"Penny" Gives a Million to the University of Memphis
A Penny has never had greater value to the University of Memphis.
In a hastily called but heavily attended press conference at the U of M's Athletic Office Building, Tiger athletic director R.C. Johnson announced that Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway has donated $1 million to the athletic department ...
Film
Location Shooting
Ben Stiller's war-film satire produces big laughs but could have hit harder.
Opinion
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Letter from the Editor
Last week I wrote that another name for "low-information" voters was "dumbasses" ...
Flat World, No; Flat Field, Yes
Councilman Lowery was kidding, but conventions really are a joke.
Bianca Knows Best ... And Helps Save the Earth
Dear Bianca,
I'm afraid my carbon footprint is huge! I've been in a long-distance relationship for several years, and that means driving several hours a few times a month. In the past four months, I've put 8,000 miles on my car ...
More On Dumbasses ... and Smartasses
Last week I wrote that another name for "low-information" voters was "dumbasses." I added that I wrote those lines without fear of retribution because "dumbasses don't read this column."
Never let it be said that I don't admit it when I'm wrong ...
Traffic in Memphis Has Always Been Scary
"The alarming increase in automobile accidents everywhere during the past few years has rendered the correction of traffic conditions one of the most important municipal problems of the present day. The motor car has become the greatest menace to human life, and has made the streets of the cities places of real danger."
Except for that quaint phrase "motor car," you might have thought this was written yesterday, because then as now, Memphians have always been bad drivers ...
A Giant Is Lost
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: political dissident, Nobel laureate, devout Christian.
"Chicken Journalists" Fear the Jews
The letter began: "Chicken Journalists are absolutely afraid of the Jews." It went on to cite "Bruce VanWyngarden, Karanja Ajanaku, Chris Davis, Susan Ellis, Wiley Henry, Wendi Thomas, and Jackson Baker," among other local journalists, as being too "chicken" to take on the Jews in regards to their "hatred" of Jesus ...
Foreclosures, Section 8 Housing, and Memphis Crime
What Blue Crush has done to crime is what criminologist Richard Janikowski hopes new data will do for the city's growing number of transitional neighborhoods.
The Blue Crush initiative, which began in 2005, uses crime data to target hot spots. Janikowski, along with wife Phyllis Betts, hopes data on foreclosures, Section 8 vouchers, and vacant homes can help the city identify vulnerable neighborhoods ...
Read Mary Cashiola's latest here.
War. It's Not Pretty.
The International Herald Tribune recently published an article about a new Army medical book on trauma wounds. The reporter said that "the gruesome photographs illustrate the grim nature of today's wars, in which more are hurt by explosions than by bullets, and body armor leaves many alive but maimed."
Read the rest of Charley Reese's Rant.
Beijing Bores Me. I'm Ready for Football.
Myron Lowery is not running for president.
As a gag, the Memphis city councilman sent out an e-mail purporting to distance himself from an upstart "Myron Lowery For President" movement at the Democratic National Convention, which starts Monday in Denver.
Food & Wine
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Wild Oats Starts "Locally Grown" Program
Wild Oats has taken on a project that's very important to the company's overall philosophy: supporting local farmers, food vendors, and artisans by selling their products in the store.
Late last month, Whole Foods invited local vendors to a low-key fair held at the Memphis Botanic Garden. The turnout was small, but Emily Broad, associate marketing coordinator for the company's Southern region, says that the Memphis store is still in transition and that the fair was only the first step toward incorporating more local products. ..
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Corn Dogs & Cakes
When food and theater meet, drama can ensue.
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