With little more than two weeks before Memphis in May‘s Beale Street Music Festival, ticket sales are going well according to MIM executive vice president Diane Hampton. “We’ve sold tickets in nine foreign countries and 48 states, all but Nevada and Wyoming, and that’s the largest spread we’ve ever seen,” Hampton says. As far as […]
Posted inOpinion, Viewpoint
A Civil Wrong
Thanks to anti-gay Republicans and many spineless Democrats in the state legislature, Tennessee voters next year will most likely approve an amendment to engrave discrimination against gay and lesbian couples into our state’s constitution. Eighteen states have already approved similar anti-gay-marriage amendments as part of a national effort by the Republican Party to divide and […]
Posted inFood & Wine, Food & Drink
FOOD NEWS
Tower Room American Grille opened last month in Clark Tower. The restaurant is on the 33rd floor of the Memphis landmark building and was once home to the Summit Club. The space has been completely transformed, and the only thing that remains the same is the spectacular view. In-Rel, the company that owns Clark Tower, […]
Posted inMusic, Record Reviews
Short Cuts :: Record Reviews
Guero Beck (DGC) With every album he’s released and every genre/style he’s adopted, Beck has also taken on a new persona: Bohemian Manchild Beck on Mellow Gold, Weirdo Bluesman Beck on One Foot in the Grave, White Hip-Hop Beck on Odelay, Circa-1982 Party Starter on Midnite Vultures, and “Sincere” Beck on Sea Change. Guero is […]
Posted inMusic, Record Reviews
Short Cuts
Arular M.I.A. (XL) The debut album from 28-year-old Sri Lankan refugee turned London hipster Maya Arulpragasam, Arular is in the James Brown tradition of great pop lyrics: all slogans and exhortations. (Typical sample: “Pull up the people/Pull up the poor.”) But where Brown survived the gauntlet of the Jim Crow South to become hype man […]
Posted inMusic, Record Reviews
Short Cuts :: Record Reviews
The Sunset Tree The Mountain Goats (4AD) For nearly a decade, John Darnielle, under the moniker the Mountain Goats, recorded his music solo and straight into a portable stereo, his agitated acoustic guitar, nasally bleat, and precise diction all alone with the tape hiss. He wrote hundreds of literate, witty, unpredictable songs about almost as […]
Posted inNews, The Fly-By
The Cheat Sheet
1. Huey’s celebrates 35 years. The little neighborhood hangout famous for its hamburgers — they’ve nabbed first place in Memphis magazine’s restaurant poll for the past two decades, it seems — now has seven locations. And after all these years, we still haven’t guessed the number of “frill-picks” shot into the ceiling. 2. The Tennessee […]
Posted inEditorial, Opinion
A Mockery of Mercy
So, after all the fuss and bother and showboating, after all the crocodile tears in high places, after all the wrenching of the national soul and the add-on stress and the false hopes inflicted on already suffering parties, the inevitable has occurred: The federal judge to whom the case of Terri Schiavo was remanded Sunday […]
Posted inFilm Features, Film/TV
As Usual
There is a law of diminishing returns with sequels, alas. The idea behind a sequel is potentially noble: If the first film was successful, then the things that made it successful are worth revisiting with new situations, challenges, characters, and ideas. But since the motive is usually financial, the return of beloved or captivating characters […]
Posted inNews, The Fly-By
Is there a doctor in the house?
I’m walking through an otherwise empty FedExForum Thursday when one of the uniformed ushers asks, “Do you do elbows?” I don’t, but it’s a good bet that at least one of the roughly 150 medical students in the UT College of Medicine class of 2005 does “do elbows.” The graduating class met in the FedExForum’s […]
Posted inNews, The Fly-By
Cases Closed
The Tennessee Supreme Court withdrew guidelines earlier this month that allowed people to view civil court case records. Open-records advocates said the court bowed to lobbying pressure.
