One day after signing with the team, Grizzlies rookie Rudy Gay made his NBA debut with the Grizzlies’ summer league team in Los Angeles yesterday, scoring 21 points in 24 minutes to help the Grizzlies to a 121-117 overtime win over the Dallas Mavericks’ summer squad. For links to how the young Grizzlies have faired this summer and other news, notes, and analysis, see Beyond the Arc, the Flyer’s Grizzlies blog.
Posted inNews
Mahmoud Mawaad Sentenced
Mahmoud Mawaad, the University of Memphis student whose unusual interest in pilot gear attracted the attention of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, was sentenced Friday to 13 months in prison on fraud charges.
Mawaad was indicted on federal charges on September 29, 2005 and plead guilty on June 5, 2006. He used a fraudulent social security number to open a checking account and enter school. He also had an expired immigration visa.
Federal prosecutors took a special interest in Mawaad because he ordered several items from Sportys USA, a pilot equipment and training material distributor. Mawaad was not a licensed pilot, but ordered information on “how to talk like a pilot” and the layout of Memphis International Airport.
Read previous coverage of the case in the Flyer.
Posted inBook Features, Books
News from Sides
“Facts are the low-hanging fruit,” writer Hampton Sides recently told Jerome Weeks of the Dallas Morning News.
Author of the bestseller Ghost Soldiers, Sides was in his hometown Memphis when Weeks called, but he was about to meet with his fact-checker on his latest book, Blood and Thunder. It’s about Kit Carson, Navajo chief Narbona, and the winning of the American West (for the white man.) Look for the book in October.
In the meantime, if you’re in Grapevine, Texas, this weekend, check out the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Writers Conference of the Southwest. Sides will be there on Friday and addressing the issue of fact versus fiction. Read more about it here.
Posted inNews
David Gest Likes the Ladies
In response to the harrassment lawsuit filed earlier this summer by a former assistant to local music impresario David Gest, his bodyguard has got some stories for you. One involves how his boss likes to use whipped cream and cherries on his ladyfriends. Read all about it in The New York Post.
Posted inNews
Spin Cycle
The City Council parks committee discussed Tuesday where the Grand Carousel — once a mainstay of the now-defunct Libertyland — should be located. The Riverfront Development Corporation wouldn’t mind seeing it on Mud Island. Other people have suggested moving it to the zoo, but the zoo already has a carousel. City attorney Sara Hall told council members the city is still trying to find a site where it would add value and interest.
Which got us thinking: Where would be the perfect place for the carousel? Near Winchester and the Statue of Liberation? On the Main Street Mall? Right where it is?
Let us know — email the Flyer — and we’ll run the best ideas in the paper.
Posted inNews
Exhibit on Gun Violence
It’s been a violent summer in the Bluff City. More than 70 people have been murdered and many more wounded by gun fire, left to live with the constant physical reminders of their encounter with a gun. After enduring violence in their own Chicago neighborhood, writer Stephanie Arena and photographer Robert Drea decided to chronicle the stories of shooting survivors. Their work, “Wounded in America,” will be on display at the National Civil Rights Museum August 4th. To see the stories they’ve collected, go to WoundedinAmerica.org.
Posted inNews
Snap To It
Participants in this year’s Stax Summer Music Camp salute Soulsville, USA, the area that was the stomping grounds of artists such as Al Green, Memphis Minnie, Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire, Aretha Franklin, and many others. The kids will dance, sing, play instruments, and more. To get more info on the event, check out the Flyer’s searchable online calendar.
Posted inLetters To The Editor, Opinion
Letters to the Editor
Lady Liberty I knew it would only be a matter of time before someone from the Flyer started whining about World Overcomers’ revised Statue of Liberty, and Bruce VanWyngarden did not disappoint (Editor’s Note, July 6th issue). Ah, the irony of it all, when liberals are offended by a piece of sculpture. VanWyngarden summed it […]
Posted inWe Recommend, We Recommend
We Recommend
thursday July 13 “I Heard It at the Movies” Theatre Memphis, 7:30 p.m., $20 An evening filled with cocktails and your favorite songs from Hollywood movies, directed by Bennett Wood with performances by Anna Lise Jensen, Chuck Hodges, Debbie Litch, and others. friday July 14 Summer Reading Series National Civil Rights Museum, noon Author Peter […]
Posted inMusic, Record Reviews
Record Reviews
Rather Ripped Sonic Youth (DGC) Aging art stars jam and groove with their most tuneful album in ages. Sonic Youth is the world’s greatest jam band. Or is that the world’s greatest jazz band? Can’t possibly be the world’s greatest groove band, right? As an avowed song fan, I’m strictly a dabbler when it comes […]
Posted inNews
Blogstorm
Former Memphian Gina Cooper, organizer of the YearlyKos bloggers’ convention in Las Vegas, will be the guest of honor at the weekly progressive chatting/beer-guzzling session, Drinking Liberally, this Thursday at Dish in Cooper-Young.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for local bloggers and political wonks to come brainstorm with a homegrown expert on the growth and future of the local political blogosphere,” says Sarah Rutledge, founder of the local Drinking Liberally chapter.
Posted inMusic, Music Features
Hold On! We’re Coming
MTV reports that American Idol judge Randy Jackson wants to go all Carlos Santana with Stax’s Sam Moore.
Santana’s 1999 Supernatural LP, on which he collaborated with more contemporary artists such as Rob Thomas and Lauryn Hill, was the biggest hit of his career and won eight Grammy Awards. For the upcoming Moore album, Jackson has recruited Mariah Carey, Fantasia Barrino, Sting, and Jon Bon Jovi to collaborate.
“The phone has been ringing off the hook from artists wanting to get involved with this project,” Jackson is quoted as saying. “Everyone wants to sing with Sam.”
To read the full story, go to MTV.com.