We at the Flyer have considered all the outdoors options for summer fun. We’ve jumped in the pools, kayaked the rivers, and taken those early morning walks in shady Overton Park. Sure, all of that was great, but what we really wanted was some honest-to-god air conditioning. So we fanned out over the city in search of those spaces where not even a whisper of the heat could be heard. Spaces where, when entering them, you feel like you’re diving into the coolest pool on earth, immersed in a frigid world all its own, even while staying completely dry. And, we learned, there are plenty of places to do just that, even as you learn a thing or two about golf, crafts, books, movies, and outer space. Come with us, then, as we journey into the heart of the great (and very chill) indoors.
Birdie’s
Don’t sweat your golf game — just take it indoors.
Sweat rolls into your eyes as you focus on not hitting your ball into Poplar on hole seven at Overton Park 9. Your weather app shows a 110-degree “feels like” temperature with 100 percent humidity. You can just hear the infomercial guy saying, “there’s got to be a better way!”
Now there is. Memphis golf has moved into The Great Indoors.
If you don’t play golf, you may not be aware of the meteoric rise of golf simulators. But if you’ve walked the new concourse at Memphis International Airport, you’ve probably seen one. You’ve probably also seen new golf places pop up in your favorite shopping center.
There’s HighTee in Laurelwood. Or GOLFTEC on Poplar, close to I-240. Or Birdie’s on South Main. Or maybe you’ve caught a television snippet of people playing golf in an arena — TGL Golf — and that’s a golf simulator, a big one.
Golf simulators bring the game indoors. You swing indoors with your own clubs, just like you do on the course. You hit a real ball but you hit it into a giant hanging screen. Onto that screen, computers project a virtual golf course. Computers also measure the speed and angle that you hit the ball. So, right after the ball gives a satisfying thwack into the screen, it shows you — kind of like a video game — where your ball goes on the virtual golf course.
If you are a golfer, you’ve probably played on a golf simulator by now. (I chunked a ball at HighTee and put a hole in the ceiling. I am still so sorry, y’all.) If you golf, you’ve already seen simulators take over the golf YouTube landscape with lessons, how-tos, and simulator build videos. In short, they are everywhere.
When Birdie’s opened on South Main in 2023, Top Golf and Let It Fly already had simulators in the area. But Birdie’s was the first Memphis brand. Owner Bryan Duffel said he and his team built the bar from the ground up “for the neighborhood, for Memphis.”
Birdie’s is a destination bar for any Memphis golfer. Full bar. Great food. (See the pimento cheese sandwich called Magnolia Lane.) Multiple televisions. Golf touches everywhere. Not to mention the bar’s three huge, dark simulator bays in the back. That’s where Memphis golfers beat that heat.
“It’s always 72 degrees and sunny in here,” Duffel said on a recent tour. “It’s never rained in here.”
Also, at Birdie’s you can play anywhere you want. Pebble Beach? Done. Torrey Pines? OK. Aronimink? You bet, pal. Duffel said Birdie’s has about 2,000 courses to play. You can play them from the tips, or you can play every hole as a Par 3, and all degrees in between.
An hour in the Birdie’s simulator is $40, same as HighTee. Birdie’s has memberships, summer and winter leagues, tournaments, and more. It’s also 21 and up.
“Our bar space really kind of caters to the people that live here in the neighborhood,” Duffel said. “For safety reasons, we don’t want little kids running around in here with people swinging clubs and that sort of thing. It just makes for kind of a fun date night, a place for adults. That is one thing that kind of makes us a little bit different than everywhere else.” — Toby Sells
Classes and Workshops Galore
I love a good craft. One of my favorite parts of summer as a child was the free time I’d have to “focus on art.” I’d fawn over the fan art section of M Magazine and try my hand at portraits of Miley Cyrus and Avril Lavigne, filling our house with countless sketchbooks. I’m incredibly grateful that my parents and grandma embraced and encouraged my artistic side ever since I was a child. Though this manifested with tons of bracelet making kits and endless packs of Crayola Supertips, it also meant signing me up for any and every art class during the summer. Thanks to my local 4-H in Clarksdale, I learned the art of interior design, sewing basics, and how to knit a scarf (or a square that aspired to be a scarf!).
When I moved in the seventh grade, I became a fervent student of YouTube, which in turn enrolled me as a perpetual student of TikTok University. Though I’ve picked up many crafts and skills like making my own press-on nails via the internet, there’s nothing quite like an in-person class.
Not only does it foster community and satisfy nostalgia, but there are just some things I can’t master with a video, even at half speed, like using a sewing machine. I can fix a hole or two in leggings with a needle and thread, but that’s about it. This summer I hope to break out my grandma’s old sewing machine and learn a few machine basics through an in-person class. My main goal is to learn how to take a few inches off the legs of my jeans, and up-cycle a few of my graphic tees. I’d also like to learn how to crochet!
There are a few adult-friendly sewing classes in the area that I’m looking to attend. The Cordova Library hosts a Sewing Basics-Learn to Sew class, while the Cherokee Library hosts a Cherokee Sewing Club as well. The local Memphis designer, Samilia Pelshak, also offers an Alteration Academy, group sewing workshops, and private sewing lessons both in-person and online.
Tapping more into my DIY side, I’d also like to make my own perfume at The Olfaction Lab at the Wolfchase Galleria Mall.
I hope to not limit my in-person classes to arts and crafts though. For the past few years fitness has become a huge part of my life. Though I work out with my trainer weekly and go to my local Planet Fitness, I haven’t tried a new fitness class in a minute. In 2024, my best friend and I went to Novel for a Gilmore Girls-themed ballet/barre class and I had a really fun time. While I can’t go to Miss Patty’s School of Ballet, I can take classes at Pure Barre. It’s one of those things that I always say I’ll make time for, but I haven’t gotten around to. So I’m pushing myself to book the class and actually go, leaving this as a paper trail for accountability! — Kailynn Johnson
Stay Cool at the Movies
Movies and air conditioning were both developed around the turn of the twentieth century, and movie theaters were some of the first public spaces to be equipped with AC.
“Come in and cool down” has long been a winning pitch for theater owners. It’s one of the reasons summer has long been known as blockbuster season, when studios roll out their biggest entertainments of the year.
Star Wars helped define the summer blockbuster when it became an unexpected hit upon release on Memorial Day weekend in 1977. So it’s appropriate that the summer movie season officially kicked off last weekend with the franchise’s first theatrical release in seven years, The Mandalorian and Grogu. Based on the hit Disney+ series and helmed by Iron Man director John Favreau, the film stars Pedro Pascal as bounty hunter Din Djarin and Sigourney Weaver star as New Republic officer Ward.
If you’re looking for something a little more heady, try Boots Riley’s surrealist shoplifting comedy I Love Boosters, starring the great Keke Palmer.
On May 28th, get yourself to Crosstown Theater to see 2022 Best Documentary Oscar winner Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), in which drummer supreme Questlove uncovers the lost history of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, featuring some truly incredible musical performances. Then on Friday, the much-anticipated debut of Backrooms, the A24 horror film by Kane Parsons based on the 21st century equivalent of a folk tale, message board creepypasta.
The first weekend in June, you can choose between a new Masters of the Universe movie, if you want to see that for some reason, or Carolina Caroline, an erotic thriller starring Samara Weaving which earned raves after its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. June 12th looks like a marquee weekend, offering both Steven Spielberg’s UFO epic, Disclosure Day, and Stop! That! Train!, an over-the-top disaster movie parody starring RuPaul and a who’s who of drag performers. And if you can’t get enough Spielberg, The Orpheum’s summer film series is screening Close Encounters of the Third Kind that weekend and Jaws the next weekend. Meanwhile, Pixar’s Toy Story 5 reunites Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as everyone’s favorite sentient toys, and Hugh Jackman stars in The Death of Robin Hood.
June 26th is absolutely stacked with 10 new releases, led by Warner Bros. Supergirl and Paramount’s Jackass: Best and Last. The sleeper that weekend is Olivia Wilde’s first directorial effort in four years, The Invite, a comedy starring Wilde, Seth Rogen, Edward Norton, and Penelope Cruz which sparked a bidding war when it premiered at Sundance last January.
By contrast, the July 4th weekend looks pretty slack: Minions & Monsters, the seventh installment in the franchise that refused to die, will torture parents worldwide. July 10th brings us the live-action Moana starring Dwayne Johnson’s wig, and Evil Dead Burn, which seems like it could be either really good or really awful. Christopher Nolan has July 17th to himself with The Odyssey. I find Nolan to be an uneven filmmaker, but Greek myth seems like a good fit for him. July winds up with Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with IRL married couple Tom Holland and Zendaya as Peter Parker and MJ.
Looking ahead to August, when you’re sure to want some of that sweet AC action, the most exciting thing on the marquee is Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma by Jane Schoenbrun, a slasher movie riff starring Gillian Anderson, whose festival run earned boffo word of mouth. On August 29th, Coyote vs. Acme, the animated/live action hybrid that Warner Bros. tried to kill, rises from the grave to bring big laughs. — Chris McCoy
Library Luxury
I remember those lazy summer days when our mom would take us to the old Highland branch of the Memphis Public Library. It was a place like no other. I can still remember the color scheme — blue and tan, I believe. And I can still smell the books. They smelled like, well, a library book. We left with armfuls.
I confess I haven’t been to the library much over the years. I used to go all the time to get the librarian to search the stacks (does anybody use that word anymore?) for esoteric books by some long-ago author I’d just discovered.
When we were talking about indoor places to go during the year’s hottest months, I thought of the Memphis Public Library. They have air-conditioning. You can stay there for hours and hours. And you don’t have to pay for a latte or a Quarter Pounder to keep your seat.
In fact, you can stay as long as the library is open, says Memphis Public Library director Dr. Eric Harris. “You’re welcome to sit and spend the day,” he says.
Most of the 19 branches are open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Some branches are open until 8 p.m., and all branches except one are open six days a week. The Central Library, aka the Benjamin L. Hooks branch, is even open on Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m.
“Every branch has free Wi-Fi. You’re welcome to use that as well,” says Harris. “There’s also a computer if you don’t have your own computer device.”
I ask Harris what he would tell somebody who hasn’t been to a Memphis Public Library in years. “It’s not your father’s or your mother’s library,” he says. “We’re not just about books and quiet studiers. It’s about community involvement.” The library offers something for all ages. “Honestly, we are an entity that can serve people from birth to the day before death.”
Kids, teenagers, and young adults come through the doors. “You have parents bring in what my grandmother would call ‘arm babies.’ All the way up to seniors.”
Library branches offer many free events, including the upcoming MPL Comic Con on May 30th at the Raleigh branch. There will be a lot of adult participation at the event, which will include graphic artists and vendors, Harris says.
There are cooking classes at the Frayser and Raleigh branches. “You can learn how to make various dishes,” says Harris. And the Cossitt Library downtown features a podcast program that not only teaches people how to podcast, but also the business of podcasting. Branches offer arts and crafts, book clubs, computer production and design classes — and soft chairs for people who just want to flip through magazines. All for free. Go to memphislibrary.org for more information.
The Memphis Public Library is “a lot more organic,” Harris says. “A library is living. It’s breathing. And it serves. That’s what we do. We serve the public. We serve whoever needs it.”
And did I mention there’s air conditioning? — Michael Donahue
Journey to the Stars
Outer space is very, very cold, and that’s just how I like it. When I hear that temps in interstellar regions approach absolute zero, I assume that’s referring to chilling vodka in the icebox. So it’s fitting that, as I step into the Memphis Museum of Science and History (MOSH), aka The Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium, on my way to their AutoZone Dome at the Sharpe Planetarium, I first savor the impeccably air-conditioned ambience. Leaving behind the stickiness of a Memphis summer day, I quickly relax into the inviting coolness, even more so once I enter the planetarium itself. It’s no wonder that MOSH has begun hosting bands there in their Laser Live series (with Lukah opening the season on July 11th). Or that the reliably fun laser shows set to classic albums continue to draw crowds.
It makes sense: the seats are angled back and extra cushiony, the acoustics are hushed, and the walls are round. They could host yoga or meditation classes in there, given the room’s mood of serenity.
Yet there’s a different sort of meditation in store for me when that day’s planetarium show actually begins. Under the dome, one is led to contemplate the vastness of the cosmos, the smallness of humanity, and, as the presentation Dark Side of Light makes clear, humanity’s hubris. Even before the show begins, when we’re asked to turn off our cell phones — because their screens would contradict the whole point of planetariums in the first place — we get a hint of how humanity’s illumination has made its impact. That’s even more apparent when we’re dwarfed by a projection of Earth’s dark side as seen from space: our species has filled most of the land mass with 24-hour light. And thus are all organisms’ biological rhythms of day and night disrupted, even as artificial light disrupts our view of the night sky’s grandeur.
Humans, the narrator says, have largely forgotten what it’s like to see the belt of the Milky Way (the glowing center of our own galaxy) stretching from horizon to horizon. Indeed, city dwellers may never “remember” what that looks like until they visit a planetarium, which can simulate a perfect moonless night in the country, or even time-travel to reveal the darkness of a world before electricity.
Dark Side of Light completes its run by press time (returning again in the future), but there’s always the upcoming Mars: The Ultimate Voyage. Each presentation also includes a “star talk,” a walk through current highlights of the night sky over Memphis, like Jupiter dancing with Castor and Pollux, or how to find the constellation Boötes, which you can pronounce any way you like, but really looks like a giant ice cream cone in the sky. Mmm, ice cream at absolute zero … now that’s a fun summer escape! — Alex Greene