Four by Four

Work by Anton Weiss, Jared Small, Cathy Lancaster, and Demetrius Oliver.

• by Carol Knowles

Sprouted ... then Stomped

• by Mary Cashiola

What They Said

Comments from memphisflyer.com

• by Flyer Readers

Memphis Greenline to Become a Reality?

After four years in the works, the proposed CSX greenline trail is steps away from becoming a reality. Monday afternoon, the County Commission is scheduled to vote on the purchase of 7 miles of the former CSX railway. Members of Greater Memphis Greenline are asking supporters to fill the chamber at 1 p.m. ...

More at Mary Cashiola's In the Bluff blog.

• by John Branston

Babe Ruth in Memphis and Other Tales

In 1926, one of the highest-paid performers in vaudeville appeared on stage in Memphis. He certainly hadn’t made his name as a singer or dancer, and he couldn’t play a note, but it was standing-room-only when the Sultan of Swat -- yes, Babe Ruth himself -- stepped into the lights at the Pantages Theater downtown and chatted about his amazing career with the New York Yankees ...

More at Vance Lauderdale's blog.

• by John Branston

Leading Green

Bridges program pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

• by Bianca Phillips

Eight is Enough

Memphis Madness continues ... and our bracket -- in which we had Justin Timberlake and A C Wharton meeting in the Championships -- is broken.

Visit Harlem and Broadway Without Leaving Memphis

After the Memphis Tigers' shocking loss Thursday night, you might feel like getting out of Dodge. But save your plane fare and take a virtual trip to the Big Apple instead.

Start by catching a performance by the legendary Dance Theatre of Harlem Ensemble at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts tonight. The group celebrates their 40th anniversary with beautiful ballet choreography....

Fly on the Wall

• by Chris Davis

Flying United

County mayor A C Wharton advocates consolidation.

• by Mary Cashiola

"Nazi Scourge" in Memphis This Week

"The Nazi Scourge: Postal Evidence of the Holocaust and the Devastation of Europe," a collection of letters, postcards, receipts, and stamps from the Nazi era, makes its way to Memphis, where it will be displayed at three venues over three days: the National Civil Rights Museum, the Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art, and the University of Memphis' Ned R. McWherter Library. ...

Calipari: "I was just kidding about the Kentucky job."

He said the recent stories about his departure from the Bluff City to take the University of Kentucky coaching job were all part of an elaborate practical joke.

"Everyone was in on it," said Calipari ...

• by John Branston

Daily Conversation

The Commercial Appeal lays off 48 employees.

• by Chris Davis

Stupid Crooks, Saggy Pants, and Justin Timberlake

According to various reports, an armed, young male wearing dark clothing robbed the Trust One Bank on White Station by cutting a hole through the roof and lowering himself into the building before employees arrived. It's not known at this time ...

Read the punchline and more in Chris Davis' Fly on the Wall.

• by John Branston

Plane Talk About Memphis Consolidation

Blame it on FedEx or the aerotropolis idea, but when people talk about the driver of the local economy, planes are almost always mentioned ...

And at a Leadership Academy event last week, Shelby County mayor A C Wharton was no exception. Only, in his analogy, the area wasn't flying high: "Our government is, as I see it, the ice on the wings on our plane to success," he said ... More of Mary Cashiola's In the Bluff column here.

• by John Branston

Elect State Appeals Court Judges? One Attorney's Verdict is No

When Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper this week opined that July 1 is an absolute drop-dead date for keeping or amending the state's current system of judicial commissions to stock Tennessee's appellate courts, that intensified a debate which has seen calls for direct election of such judges. Memphis lawyer and GOP eminence John Ryder, in a Viewpoint written for the Flyer, opposes this solution, which is backed by several of his party-mates in the legislature. Go here.

Memphis Madness

The votes are in and our Memphians are one step closer to the Flyer Four.

In Round Two, there was an upset or two ...

Memphis Madness

For legal reasons, this isn't a Sweet 16 round.

Nonetheless, we have 16 Memphians who are one step closer to the Flyer Four.

"Romeo & Juliet" at Playhouse on the Square

There are two reasons to put Shakespeare's Juliet in a wheelchair: One might discover from a first draft of Romeo & Juliet that Shakespeare originally intended his perfect female lover to be rich, 13, and paralyzed from the waist down. Or a director might discover an actress who has everything it takes to play the part except for the use of her legs ...

Read Chris Davis' review of Playhouse on the Square's offbeat presentation of Romeo & Juliet.

• by John Branston

Fighting with Feathers

Memphians vent frustrations with a pillow fight.

• by Bianca Phillips

SXSW All Aboard

An unprecedented Memphis contingent invades Austin's SXSW Festival.

• by Chris Herrington

A Beer and a Shot?

"We already live in the Wild West," says restaurant-nightclub owner Todd Adams, concerning proposed legislation that would allow handgun owners with carry permits to pack heat in places where beer and liquor is served by the drink.

Adams, who runs Newby's, a watering hole on the Highland Strip, is a life-long sportsman and outspoken firearms enthusiast, so he's sympathetic to gun owners ...

• by Chris Davis

CA's Fontenay Going to Nashville as Aide to Constitutional Officers

Blake Fontenay, who for the last several years has served as an editorial writer and subsequently a business writer for The Commercial Appeal, has accepted a position as assistant in Nashville to newly appointed state constitutional officers Secretary of State Tre Hargett, Treasurer David Lillard, and Comptroller Justin Wilson.

Living on the River

Circa 1984 downtown condo.

• by John Griffin

Shelby Democrats Reorganize on Saturday

The contending chairmanship candidates are lawyers Jay Bailey and Van Turner.

• by Jackson Baker

It's No Contest for Shelby County Democrats, as Van Turner Wins Chairmanship Easily

Expectations had been high for a knock-down, drag-out, fight-to-the-finish Saturday between Van Turner and Jay Bailey, contenders for the Shelby County Democratic Party's chairmanship, as well as for the prospect of prolonged procedural battle over a rules change expanding the membership of the party's executive committee. In the event, neither of these showdowns happened. There was no fuss and bother over the rules change, and Turner won the chairmanship easily, by a vote of 49-32.

• by Jackson Baker

Republicans Get Set, Democrats Get Ready

The local GOP names a new chairman, while Dems prepare for a showdown.

• by Jackson Baker

Cal Gone: From Blue-Gray to Bluegrass

"The support I get in this town. People [in the media] must have been hard, because I'm getting hugged when I walk down the street, go to lunch, or walk in the gym, because they know I'm trying to do right. And then the mean people, who just try to make this an issue ...

• by Frank Murtaugh

A Sweet 16 Things to Do While You're in Memphis

• by Flyer Staff
• Tags: Feature, March Madness

Calipari's Departure Presents Opportunity for Grizzlies

With so many fans and potential fans tuning the Grizzlies out over the past few seasons as the team's on-court fortunes too a nose-dive, the at-least-temporary derailment of Tiger basketball could spur some people to give the local pro team a second look. Over at Beyond the Arc, Chris Herrington tells Mike Heisley that he can't afford to not take advantage of this situation.

• by Chris Herrington

NCAA South Regional: NC, OU Advance

North Carolina and Oklahoma -- the top two seeds in the NCAA tournament's South Regional -- left little doubt in their semifinal games Friday night at FedExForum in downtown Memphis. With the Tar Heels' 98-77 win over Gonzaga and the Sooners' 84-71 victory over Syracuse, the country will get the matchup CBS wanted most: 2008 Player of the Year Tyler Hansbrough vs. (presumptive) 2009 Player of the Year Blake Griffin ...

• by Frank Murtaugh

Kentucky and Calipari: A Dissent from Bluegrass Country

... In 2002, Kentucky found itself on NCAA probation in football. Yet UK went out and hired a new football coach (Rich Brooks) without even checking to see whether that coach had a history of NCAA violations in his past (he did) ...

• by John Branston

FROM MY SEAT: Tigers Win, Memphis Loses

Fact is, the 2008-09 Memphis Tigers are the most overachieving team seen in these parts in decades . . . and that's meant entirely as a compliment. Winners are selfish. They become entitled, in their eyes, to the glory that closes a campaign. For the 2008-09 Memphis Tigers, glory must be found in the campaign itself, in a body of work that was as unexpected as it was brilliant.

• by Frank Murtaugh

NCAA South Regional: North Carolina 72, Oklahoma 60

There have been some epic heavyweight bouts in the history of college basketball. Alcindor vs. Hayes in 1968 filled the Astrodome in Houston. Sampson vs. Ewing in 1982 introduced college basketball to cable television. Ewing beat Olajuwon for the 1984 national championship. Memphis got its own superstar matchup Sunday with North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough and Oklahoma's Blake Griffin in a quarterfinal.

• by Frank Murtaugh

Love Stinks

Playhouse's Romeo & Juliet sacrifices sense for sensibility.

• by Chris Davis

Of Male Bondage

I Love You, Man: prick flick.

• by Greg Akers

The Fake Charlatans

Julia Roberts bores me.

• by Addison Engelking

Bianca Helps a Long Distance Love

• by Bianca Phillips

Buying Time

• by Flyer Staff

Nix to Judicial Elections

Partisan hoopla is no way to pick the state's appellate bench.

• by John Ryder

The Over and Under

Who's worth it and not worth it in big-time sports?

• by John Branston

The Over and Under for Sports Salaries

We interrupt this recession to bring you the NCAA Sweet 16 and party like it's 1999. Welcome back to $6 beers, $200 hotel rooms, no-vacancies, and a 30-minute wait for a table. Thank you Ty Lawson, Blake Griffin, Jonny Flynn, Josh Heytvelt, and especially Roburt Sallie, who singlehandedly kept this tournament from being a bummer ...

Read the rest of John Branston's City Beat.

• by John Branston