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SHARA CLARK Editor-in-Chief
ALEX GREENE Managing Editor, Music Editor
BRUCE VANWYNGARDEN Senior Editor
TOBY SELLS Associate Editor
KAILYNN JOHNSON News Reporter
CHRIS MCCOY Film and TV Editor
MICHAEL DONAHUE, JON W. SPARKS Staff Writers
KIMBERLY HAM Calendar Editor, Copy Editor
JESSE DAVIS, EMILY GUENTHER, BUDDY JONES, COCO JUNE, PATRICIA LOCKHART, FRANK MURTAUGH, LINDSEY D. RHEA Contributing Columnists
SHARON BROWN, AIMEE STIEGEMEYER Grizzlies Reporters
GRACIE DRIVER, NANDINI KONDISETTI, ALLIE MAURY Editorial Interns
CARRIE BEASLEY Senior Art Director
CHRISTOPHER MYERS Advertising Art Director
NEIL WILLIAMS Graphic Designer
KELLI DEWITT, CHIP GOOGE, SHAUNE MCGHEE Senior Account Executives
JANICE GRISSOM ELLISON, KAREN MILAM, DON MYNATT, TAMMY NASH, RANDY ROTZ, LEWIS TAYLOR, WILLIAM WIDEMAN Distribution
KENNETH NEILL Founding Publisher
THE MEMPHIS FLYER is published weekly by Contemporary Media, Inc., P.O. Box 1738, Memphis, TN 38101 Phone: (901) 521-9000 Fax: (901) 521-0129 memphisflyer.com
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Chief Executive O cer
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Combining mental health with a love of fashion, creativity, and sustainability, Mended Therapy was born. Ashley wants to show that although things may seem like they cannot get better, there is hope. Just like a mended piece of clothing is brought new life, the same can be said of us. She is here to walk with you through this journey with laughter, creativity, and challenging your beliefs about yourself. She is MENDED (and constantly mending). She hopes you will let her join you as you MEND.
Ashley specializes in working with LGBTQ+ populations and mood disorders.
For more information or to book an appointment, visit mendedtherapypllc.com.
She currently accepts most insurance plans. Self-pay is $125 for individual sessions
Memphis on the internet.
Memphis’ Independence Day meme hero
Back Up Terry was made into an action hero a year ago by creator Dano Brown. Even his repost of his original Reel about it last week got tens of thousands of views.
By Flyer staff
Edited by Toby Sells
A new drug trial, a new felony, and a one-day tra c enforcement push sees 408 pulled over.
Six law enforcement agencies joined forces on Wednesday, June 17th, to make sure we were all out there following the rules of the road. Vehicles were stopped. Tickets were written.
As for the action gure itself, the creator made one, it got the OK from Terry’s family, but “it’s long gone,” and he “won’t be making any more.”
Brim’s Snack Foods gave a cool, sevensecond, behind-the-scenes peek at their popcorn process in a Facebook Reel last week.
“Just another day of making the best popcorn in the U.S.A.,” the Memphis company said.
Wiseacre Brewing Co. hopped on the Empire State Building meme that went around the world recently. at meme shows a Russian daredevil couple who climbed the Empire State Building and got engaged at the top. e ag they ew has been changed to every kind of phrase for the meme.
“Drink Wiseacre Beer,” reads the Wiseacre version.
Last month’s “Arrive Alive on 385” tra c enforcement campaign was a one-day event focused on Highway 385 from Millington to Collierville. O cers pulled over 408 vehicles. See the infographic for more details.
INFOGRAPHIC: TOBY SELLS (SOURCE: MEMPHIS POLICE DEPARTMENT)
Violations included speeding, distracted driving, not wearing a seat belt, tinted windows, driving with no insurance, and others.
A global trial on HIV prevention could give Memphis-area residents more options when seeking treatment.
Residents as young as 16 can enroll in a study taking place at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. e study examines a “once-monthly oral Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP)” medicine. e results will determine if the drug can be submitted for government approval.
Data from the Tennessee Department of Health showed that the rate of people aged 15 to 24 being infected by HIV in Shelby County increased by 50 percent from 2022 to 2023.
A pop-up reworks shop in the Crystal Palace parking lot recently expected a boom during the Independence Day holiday but got busted instead.
Memphis Police Department’s (MPD) Organized Crime Unit found two men — Robert Cobb, 23, and Daniel Betts, 23 — unloading a U-Haul stacked with reworks with visible price tags. e two were detained, questioned, and given citations. With help from MPD’s TACT unit — the elite SWAT and tactical team — the reworks were con scated.
Spiking drinks (or food or even medication) became a felony in Tennessee at the beginning of the month.
e Tennessee General Assembly passed the law this past legislative session, and Gov. Bill Lee signed it into law in late
May. Anyone caught spiking someone’s beverage, food, or medication could face anywhere between two to 12 years in prison, plus nes up to $5,000.
Prior to this legislation, Tennessee law only penalized adulterating consumable products if the perpetrator’s direct intent was bodily injury or death.
National surveys show that young adults — particularly college students — face some of the highest risks of drinkspiking.
A 2016 study by the University of South Carolina found that 462 of more than 6,000 college students reported being drugged in the previous year. e largest majority of them (79 percent) were female.
Leaders from the Hospitality Hub told Memphis City Council members last week that changes in the federal budget have impacted ways it serves unhoused individuals. Cuts led to the closure of the Salvation Army Family Center and the Family Safety Center of Memphis and Shelby County, said a leader for the organization. Cuts and other factors have also reduced occupancy at the Single Women’s Lodge, among other consequences.
is comes just as the extreme heat has increased the need for resources. e Hub’s cooling center is operating at over 200 percent occupancy, with 70 women and 44 children sheltered as of last week.
Visit the News Blog at memphis yer.com for fuller versions of these stories and more local news.
Wednesday, July 15
Ty March w/ Zane Neale and Trey Delton @ Growlers - 8pm
Thursday, July 16
Little Big Town @ Radians Amphitheater - 8pm
Friday, July 17
Elmiene @ Graceland Soundstage - 8pm
Saturday, July 18
The Revival @ The Green Room – 7:30pm
Sunday, July 19
Rodell McCord @ Tin Roof - 7pm
Monday, July 20
Yella P @ Hernando Hideaway - 8pm
Tuesday, July 21
Denver Massey @ Tin Roof - 7pm
@memcity @citymemphis memphistn.gov/occeengage
Professional women’s tennis returns to Memphis. See top WTA players fresh off of their Wimbledon appearance.
By Toby Sells
e Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is reviewing shooting deaths by the Tennessee National Guard and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Acandlelight vigil, anger, sadness, and calls for transparency all followed a week of deadly gun violence as members of the Memphis Safe Task Force killed two Memphis men.
Tennessee National Guard soldiers shot and killed 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson in the early morning hours of Sunday, July 5th, near AutoZone Park, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).
e following Wednesday morning, agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) shot and killed 47-year-old Alfonso Ivy in an East Memphis hotel.
e week of deadly violence culminated in a candlelight vigil Sunday with Johnson’s family and those working with them asking for the release of any and all video related to the shooting. As of press time, no agency had released any statement following the request.
“Our National Guard should not be shooting U.S. citizens to death on U.S. soil,” Memphian Lj Abraham wrote on Facebook last week. “Black and Brown people are being terrorized while our elected o cials sit back and ‘wait for the results of the investigation’ and it’s time they stand with the community and #End eOccupation!”
e Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) is investigating both killings at the request of the Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy.
Last week, state Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) called for an investigation into every Memphis shooting by Memphis Safe Task Force agents (not just the two from last week) “who treat our city like enemy territory.”
“My worst fears have been realized,” Pearson said in a statement. “Two Memphis residents are dead in four days. at’s not public safety. at’s a tragedy playing out on our streets.”
Here is information on the incidents that agencies released last week on both killings.
Johnson: Memphis police o cers pursued a man armed with a handgun at nearly 4 a.m. Sunday. e man had reportedly red shots in the area.
“National Guard soldiers, on assignment as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, were nearby and joined the pursuit,” the TBI said. “For reasons under investigation, the situation escalated, resulting in two National Guard soldiers ring upon Johnson, striking and killing him. No law enforcement o cers were hurt in the incident.
“ e TBI does not identify the ocers involved in these types of incidents and instead refers questions of that nature to the respective department to answer as it sees t.”
e Tennessee Military Department wrote that “immediately following the incident, two Tennessee National Guard medical specialists provided rst aid, however, the armed male was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
Ivy: “Earlier [Wednesday], members of the Memphis Safe Task Force were involved in an o cer-involved shooting in the 6500 block of Poplar Avenue,” according to a statement from the U.S. Marshals Service. “Federal and local law enforcement o cers were attempting to serve a warrant on a wanted fugitive facing felony drug charges out of Shelby County.
“A er issuing numerous verbal commands for the individual to surrender, o cers made a forced entry into the building. Additional commands were given for the individual to exit. During the encounter, the individual pointed a handgun at members of the Memphis Safe Task Force. Task Force members responded to the immediate threat by discharging their rearms.
“O cers immediately rendered rst aid until emergency medical personnel arrived on scene. No law enforcement o cers were injured during the incident.
“ e Memphis Safe Task Force will remain in Memphis since dangerous criminals are still on the street. Attempted violence against law enforcement will never be tolerated. President Trump’s Memphis Safe Task Force has made the city of Memphis safer by arresting criminals, driving down crime, and locating missing children.”
The Hot Tamale Capital of the World invites you to
an eclectic collection
» MAY « Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Festival, including Frog Fest and Leland Craw sh Festival LelandChamber.com
Future Tour Golf Championship
» JUNE « Delta Soul & Celebrity Golf Event facebook.com/DeltaSoulGolf
Lake Washington’s “Straight O The Lake” Music Festival
Snake Grabbin’ Rodeo facebook.com/GrabUOneOut tters
» JULY « WWISCAA Food Festival wwiscaa.com
» AUGUST « MS Delta Duck Boat Races at Lake Washington
» SEPTEMBER « Delta Blues & Heritage Festival deltabluesms.org
Gumbo Nationals greenvillespeedway.net
Sam Chatmon Blues Fest facebook.com/SamChatmonBlues
Stephone Hughes Old Time Gospel Fest
» OCTOBER « Delta Hot Tamale Fest mainstreetgreenville.com/ delta-hot-tamale-festival
Highway 61 Blues Festival highway61blues.com
Monuments on Main Street Historic Greenville Cemetery Tour deltacenterstage.org/events
YMCA Cotton Classic 10K/5K Run racesonline.com/ymca-cotton-classic
» NOVEMBER « Roll’n on the River Car Show facebook.com/redwinecarshow
» DECEMBER « Christmas on Deer Creek LelandChamber.com
LARGE By Bruce VanWyngarden
e same old game plan returns.
Those of us of a certain age will remember when the epitome of wit was reading your fortune cookie fortune aloud to your friends a er a Chinese restaurant meal and adding the words “in bed” to the end of it. at was some wild, wacky stu ! For example: “Be slow to speak and quick to act … IN BED!”
You get the idea. Try it yourself with the following actual fortune cookie fortunes:
“An exciting opportunity lies ahead …”
“Your talents will be recognized and rewarded …”
“He who contains himself seldom does wrong …”
“Experience is the best teacher …”
See? Funny stu , eh? No? Well, you probably had to be there … in bed. Har.
I bring all this up because fortune cookies made the news in the Mid-South last week — and even got some national coverage — thanks to Tennessee gubernatorial candidate (and current U.S. Senator) Marsha Blackburn’s rst campaign commercial, which quickly went viral.
Unless you’ve been living in, oh, CHINA, you’re probably familiar with the ad. It begins with Marsha smirking smirkily as she ercely enunciates and crumbles fortune cookies with her hands at a restaurant table. Marsha assures us she will be one tough cookie and will stop the CHINESE COMMUNISTS from taking over Tennessee’s precious farmland.
It’s like an SNL skit gone rogue. And it seems an odd way to start a campaign, especially given that o cial USDA data report that no Chinese-owned farms are o cially registered as operating in Tennessee. And that’s probably because a couple years back, the Tennessee legislature passed a law that completely prohibits entities (and citizens) from countries tra cking in the international arms trade (which includes China) from holding property in the state.
only will I get rid of Chinese sister cities,” she said, “but I will also make certain that there are zero Confucius classrooms in Tennessee. … When I’m governor, China won’t be able to get their hands on one blade of grass in Tennessee.”
What a relief! Marsha will protect us from the Red Menace, and that includes “Confucius classrooms,” which haven’t been a thing for six years, since Marsha’s previous Chinese fear-mongering spree.
Given the current economic situation, one could reasonably expect Blackburn would announce plans to deal with increased healthcare costs and hospital closures, high gas prices, una ordable housing, and public school funding being shuttled to private academies — concerns Tennesseans might rank a tad higher than an invasion of Chinese real estate brokers.
Fun fact: Fortune cookies were invented in the early 20th century by a Japanese restaurateur in San Francisco, not by the Chinese. And then there’s this little bit of irony: Wonton Foods, located in La Vergne, Tennessee, produces two million fortune cookies a day, one of the largest such manufacturing plants in the world. So, those cookies Marsha was ragecrumbling in that Nashville restaurant were likely made just down the road.
e ad ends with the sound of a gong (of course) and a waving “Lucky Cat” gurine, which is also Japanese in origin, not Chinese. But hey, if you’re going to go full Asian-cliché to try to appeal to racist morons, who needs to know that?
But Marsha is not deterred by those alternate facts. She goes on to assure us that as governor she will “hunt down communists!” Really? Good luck nding a bunch of communists to hunt down in Tennessee, babe. And if you do catch a couple of those dirty Marxists communing out in Skeeter Falls, you should know it’s not illegal to be a communist. at darn First Amendment still kicks in.
When asked by the Nashville Banner what policies she would utilize to back her claims, Blackburn upped the ante: “Not
Does the senator really think Tennesseans are that stupid? Yes. Blackburn’s betting that a majority of the state’s voters will fall for the “furriners and colored people are taking your stu ” line one more time. And why not? Xenophobia has worked great for the current president, and Marsha proudly brags that she has “worked with President Trump to take on China,” so the game plan is pretty obvious — and has been since the Civil War. e old saying was never more accurate: Politics makes for strange, uh, bedfellows.
Lindsey D. Rhea
Even
if
you don’t think you have enough to start, a nancial planner can be your best friend in building for the future.
friend of Alia’s, in her mid-50s, is doing well, saving for retirement, feeling hopeful about her future.
Invariably, however, she’ll look at me and say, “If only I had started sooner.” We both know what she means. If only she had started saving and investing earlier, making nancial planning a priority in her 20s and 30s, well before she thought she had enough money to.
I’d love to rewind the years and assure her younger self: You don’t have to have “enough” money to work with a nancial planner. In fact, nancial planning works best when you start early, even before you think you’ve built enough wealth.
Say you’re in your early to mid-20s, at a rst “real” job with a 401k o ering. Or you receive an inheritance that creates unexpected assets. Or your savings that took years to accrue now goes beyond the three to six months of emergency savings, and you don’t know how to best invest it.
student loan debt sits at about $39,075. What’s more, 20 years a er entering school, half of student borrowers still owe on outstanding loan balances. For 20-somethings coming out of college and landing their rst job, a nancial planner knows the strategies to best manage their debt and pay it o while also creating a budget and prioritizing payments.
4. Encourages saving for the stu of life. It’s more rewarding to buy a rst home with a healthy down payment or plan your dream wedding with savings that earned a healthy interest. A good nancial planner asks questions to de ne and account for life’s big moments, so your long-term nancial goals stay on track. A er setting goals and strategy, your planner will monitor your investments and suggest adjustments based on evolving life events and circumstances.
For young people or anyone who thinks they don’t have enough wealth, the wisest thing to do is realize this fact: Everyone deserves to feel secure, hopeful, and optimistic about their nancial future. Any time is the perfect li o for young people and others to begin — even if they think they don’t have enough money.
Creating a plan with a nancial planner:
1. Calms fears. Financial challenges and stress feel less overwhelming a er gaining a clear assessment of your situation and what it will take to get you on the right path. It’s also reassuring to know that a trusted professional is in your corner, guiding the way and showing you that solvency is not only possible, but it is progress, starting with the rst meeting.
2. Builds healthy saving and investing habits. Creating the right habits when you’re young builds the foundation for a healthy, secure, and dream- lled life when you’re older. Even if you can only contribute small amounts, get started.
3. Eliminates debt. e average
My advice for young people looking for a nancial planner? Find one you trust. e money you have holds worth — and so do you. Both deserve to be treated accordingly. Whether you come to the table with $1,000, $10,000, or $100,000, you must feel con dent about your advisor. Why? You’ll likely have a few discussions along the way related to the money you’ve made, the assets you’ve accumulated, and the decisions you made about spending or saving them. ese chats might make you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed. at’s okay. Be honest and your returns will be greater — and you’ll probably feel a lot less stress.
Do some homework. Talk to friends, family members, and colleagues for recommendations. Make sure your planner is held to the duciary standard, a legal and ethical commitment that requires advisors to act in their clients’ best interests. Find out their fee structure. Strive to work with duciary, fee-only advisors. Check out their quali cations, registrations, and licenses. Ideally, they should have a CFP (Certi ed Financial Planner) a er their name. Once you’ve identi ed two or three promising candidates, meet with them to gauge their experience levels, credentials, service o erings, and demeanors.
Your nancial planning journey is unique to you. It’s exciting to think of the possibilities! e best part? You don’t have to go it alone when a professional helps prepare the way with what you have.
Lindsey D. Rhea, CFP, is owner and wealth strategist at Alia Wealth Partners, connect@aliawealth.com.
e’re great ones for brainstorming here at the Flyer, and we recently focused our superpowers on cooking up a few fun things to do during “ ose Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” now already upon us, without driving too far. Luckily, we spell Memphis Flyer “F-U-N” around here, and within a few minutes, or maybe days, but certainly well before the heat melted our brains, we had this intriguing grab-bag of quick excursions ready for you. Tack it on your wall!
ey’re all sure re — and nearby — cures for the summertime blues.
If you’ve ever wanted to get a proper look inside the entirety of the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid, Big Cypress Lodge is the place for you. I’d visited the ground oor before to explore the shops, marvel at the live alligator, and gaze at the enormity of the tall building, but the hotel experience gives you access to so much more.
In your room, chips, popcorn, and candy await you, as do two queen beds and a balcony just outside. You can also relax in their third- oor lounge, called e Den, complete with rotating activities to do with fellow lodgers.
Yet the biggest attraction has to be the view from the top oor. Both a restaurant, e Lookout at the Pyramid, and a balcony are suspended 300 feet in the air, accessible only by elevator. And that ride,
the car going ever-slower the nearer it gets to the top while an audio recording of the building’s history by Bill Dance plays on, is a comical experience, to say the least.
By Flyer Staff
Once you reach the top, it’s like a breath of fresh air. e décor, newly renovated in April, mimics the beauty of the ocean. e whole room is surrounded with glass and allows for a full view of Downtown and the Mississippi River.
My mom and I were eager to explore the balcony a er ordering our food.
Our ideas for keeping your summer jaunts close to home.
e view was beautiful, of course, but we were absolutely dying of laughter over the windy day. Our hair blew in every direction, making it almost impossible to get a photo of the two of us. en our food arrived. e braised short ribs with mashed potatoes were divine. e rich sauce, full of red wine and aromatics, made every bite wellbalanced, the beef so tender you didn’t need a knife, the potatoes chock-full of butter, all complemented by roasted Brussels sprouts with toasted almonds.
e big nish was the warm vanilla butter cake and ice cream.
A er a couple of hours of exploring, we made our way to the Mississippi Terrace, a full bar with two re pits, oversize furniture, high-top tables, a stage for live music, and, best of all, a balcony with an unobstructed view of the bridge and the river. Whether you’re playing cards with friends or toasting s’mores with your family, this relaxed space is the perfect way to decompress a er a busy day. We settled in near one of the re pits and ordered the charcuterie board. Fresh fruit, two kinds of cheese, smoked sausage, salami, spicy mustard, and toasted bread made for the perfect snack. ey also serve wings, atbread, salad, and more — which made the experience all the more comfortable and cozy as we were immersed in the radiance of nighttime Memphis. Big Cypress Lodge in the Bass Pro Shops Pyramid is handsdown the best place to see it in all its glory.
— Gracie Driver
Summer’s so bright, it’s a great time to get dark. For a break from the season’s gleam and glare, why not walk on the city’s dark side?
Dark tourism is a thing, and it’s on the rise. Dark tourists simply want the dark stu — ghosts, cryptids like
PHOTO: HISTORICAL HAUNTS MEMPHIS
Bigfoot, alien sites, or true crime. More broadly, dark tourism can also include visits to any site of human tragedy, human su ering, or natural disaster. ink Ground Zero in New York or Alcatraz in San Francisco. e Memphis equivalent of this would be the yellow fever tours at Elmwood Cemetery.
“I think that folks are looking for sort of the underbelly of the city,” said Stephen Guenther, co-owner of Historical Haunts Memphis and e Broom Closet, South Main’s spiritual supply shop. “Every city — large or small — has these curious stories, whether it’s murders, kidnappings, ghost stories, whatever it might be. But I think there are people who are looking for the unusual, the dark.”
If your Memphis staycation needs a break from sun-drenched days of fruity cocktails and splashing around the pool, don’t be afraid to take a walk on the dark side. Memphis has plenty of it.
Here are a few good ways to be a dark tourist here this summer:
• Take a ghost tour
ere are a host of these in Memphis. Local ones (the ones we’d recommend) include Backbeat Tours and Historical Haunts of Memphis.
Backbeat’s tour will take you by e Orpheum eatre to visit Mary, Memphis’ most famous ghost, and to the John
Alexander Austin House, a Victorian-era mansion haunted by star-crossed lovers.
Historical Haunts has a haunted pub crawl on South Main that ends at the notoriously haunted Earnestine and Hazel’s. Its Dark Memphis Walking Tour features hauntings, murders, and dark history.
• Visit Elmwood Cemetery Cemeteries don’t have to be dark places. Elmwood Cemetery says it is simply “Memphis at rest” and a place full of history. Elmwood also realizes the draw of such an old cemetery with an array of amazing people from across the city’s past. For this, they o er tours. A lot of them.
For starters, tour maps and booklets for $5 facilitate self-guided exploration around the grounds. Or, with a $10 digital audio tour, you get a CD or digital download and a map to explore from your car.
Elmwood also o ers a free scavenger hunt download that you can print and discover as you walk or ride.
• Explore Memphis’ Hoodoo history Memphis’ Hoodoo history might not be well known yet but the Beale Street Hoodoo History and Folklife Museum hopes to change that. It opened last year and is located right above A. Schwab. It celebrates “the vibrant traditions of Hoodoo, root work, and the lives of the people who carried and preserved these traditions in the African American community.” Expect to see authentic herbal remedies, amulets, and photographs of legendary Memphis spiritual workers.
Hoodoo — at its core — is an African American folk spiritual tradition that blends folk magic with deeply held religious beliefs. While Hoodoo itself isn’t
“dark” in the sinister sense, its mystical traditions and spiritual practices o en intersect with the same curiosity that draws people to dark tourism and the supernatural.
Free, self-guided tours are available Sunday through Friday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Just alert the person working the front desk at A. Schwab before you head upstairs to the museum. — Toby Sells
Call it Stockholm Syndrome, but at a certain point every summer, realizing we Memphians are utterly captive to the heat, I just want to revel in the sheer convection oven-ness of it all. Enough with this infernal AC! Knowing I can return to my refrigerated life any time, of course, I head out to touch grass. I don’t seek the full-on sun of, say, a boating adventure but the forest’s many dappled shades of green, just a hop, skip, and a jump away at MeemanShelby Forest State Park.
On my most recent visit, I was reminded as soon as I arrived that it’s always a few degrees cooler than the city, way out there in the woods. And so, shaking o my summer doldrums with that cool hint of hope, I resolved to become a bird watcher right then and there. Maybe I would even start a “life list” of species I identi ed.
continued on page 12
e ranger at the visitor’s center made it easy for me. “You should check out the Memphis chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society,” she chimed in helpfully. “ ey have meetings every third Wednesday of the month. ey’re a really nice group of people. Every year, around the middle of December, they do a bird count, which they’ve been doing since the 1800s.” And, as it turned out, the park had just hosted a wild butter y count last Saturday.
I, on the other hand, had resolved to become an audio-ornithologist, by way of an app called Merlin, which identies birds by their calls as well as their photographic images. Indeed, it can cut out the visual dimension completely, which made sense amid the dense weave of sunlit greenery and shadowed deadfall surrounding me that day, where all birds were reduced to mere eeting blurs.
As soon as I’d parked at the head of the Woodland Trail, a three-mile loop over undulating forest terrain (with some challenging uphill sections for your cardio), Merlin was identifying birdsongs, opening up an invisible world to me. I always appreciate the general clamor of avian cacophony on a hike, but this time was di erent. Suddenly, each chirp and chatter had a speci c performer. “Ah, so that’s a cardinal’s song,” I thought for each spe-
cies identi ed, as unseen feathered divas, from red-bellied woodpeckers to Carolina chickadees to white-breasted nuthatches, broadcast their oratorios.
It should be noted that some birders nd Merlin to be less than infallible, and consider adding a species to your life list simply because it was identi ed by the app to be bad form. Still, in all my naïve ignorance, I was happy to be learning a thing or two while I decompressed from city life, and comparing the recorded sounds with archived birdsongs in the app seemed to verify what it was telling me.
Meanwhile, I could take in more miniature views of the forest, including toads, owers, and those ever-present “leaves of three.” ey were an important reminder that, while indulging in a staycation, it’s not just about the life lists we complete by day’s end, but the poison ivy we avoid along the way. — Alex Greene
Memphis is well into the dog days of
summer, when you either sweat through “feels like” 109-degree weather, or admire the squiggly lines in the air during your drive down Poplar while tumbleweeds roll by and an eagle screeches overhead. In times like these, the best getaway is the coldest place you can nd. And for Memphians, there’s no place colder than the Mid-South Ice House.
Missing the feel of an ice rink a er watching Alysa Liu and the U.S. men’s and women’s hockey teams dominate at the Olympics earlier this year? A trip down to Olive Branch will take you back to that vibe.
As you enter, you pay admission and rent skates (unless you’re a pro bringing your own). A er lacing them up, you enter a rink decorated with the ags of various hockey teams and di erent states. e middle of the rink is reserved for gure skaters practicing jumps and spins. For the less impressive among us, stands are available to help with balance issues.
As the only NHL regulation-sized rink in the area, the Mid-South Ice House is home to several child, youth, and adult hockey teams as well as some camps and clinics. It also houses the Figure Skating Club of Memphis and the Mid-South Curling Club. ose looking for lessons can nd private options or participate in Learn-to-Skate USA, group skating lessons taught by professional instructors.
Whether you’re hobbling like a baby
deer on stilts as you make a slow lap around the rink or swerving around small children like a speed demon, the MidSouth Ice House presents a fun opportunity to practice your balance and motor skills, solo or with friends. Public skating hours are held on Mondays, Wednesdays, ursdays, and Fridays from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and weekend skating is Friday and Saturday nights from 7:15 p.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday a ernoons from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
e Mid-South Ice House also hosts “Cosmic Skate” on Friday and Saturday nights (which involves disco lights and loud music), Saturday Fun and Games on Saturday a ernoons, and Friends and Family Skate on Sunday a ernoons. And if you’d rather watch your friends skate than risk it yourself, there are rows of benches surrounding the rink, not to mention a concession stand. Either way, in dog days like these, how can you resist hanging out in a room full of ice? — Allie Maury
Hotel Pontotoc
You’ve got vacation time coming up. You want to go somewhere, but you don’t want to spend a ton of gas money traveling hundreds of miles away. Yet it would be nice to experience somewhere di erent and learn something new. e simplest solution: Go Downtown and check into the Hotel Pontotoc at 69 Pontotoc Avenue. You’re getting history, but also luxury and proximity to places you may never have been.
Kyla Kennin, the hotel’s reservation and events manager, explained why someone should spend their staycation at Hotel Pontotoc. “One, because we’re locally owned,” she says. “Our owners are very much invested in our day-to-day operations.” And, Kennin says, “It’s been around since 1906. We’re on our 120th anniversary this year, so it’s rich with history.” Originally opened as a Europeanstyle hotel, it came to have a basement club sporting glitter-ceilinged red booths, and was allegedly where Elvis lost his virginity. “It’s de nitely a really cool property with lots of cool history that you wouldn’t normally nd out about unless
you stayed with us.”
e impressive hotel in the heart of Downtown looks like it belongs on a “Wish you were here!” postcard, and the current owners enhanced that look with just the right touches a er buying the property. e Jacobean-colored, sapele mahogany woodwork from the back bar all the way up the stairs was shipped over in a container from Ireland. An Irish woodworker gave them a good deal on the woodwork because he was intrigued with the stories about the Pontotoc.
e rooms were designed by Ann Parker of Parker Design Studio. “Every room is named a er a signi cant year from the hotel’s history,” Kennin says, “and every room has a little bit of that year or the theme of the room in the inspiration of the design. So, no one room looks quite like the other.”
Take Room 1953, the Elvis room. “I believe Ms. Parker was going for the Jungle Room at Graceland with this Elvis suite and its jungle wallpaper all around the dark green headboard,” says Kennin. Of course, there’s a king-sized (or “King,” if you prefer) mattress on the bed.
Hotel Pontotoc’s bar and lounge, e Dame, has “small-plate appetizers and desserts,” Kennin says, “but we mainly specialize in Prohibition-style cocktails. So, it’s kind of a speakeasy bar and lounge.” Meanwhile, e Lobbyist, Catherine & Mary’s, Amelia Gene’s, Tonica, and other restaurants are within walking distance.
And if you want to do some sightseeing, Hotel Pontotoc is close to Beale Street and e Orpheum eatre. Old Dominick Distillery, which includes a bar, is a great place to visit, Kennin says. e National Civil Rights Museum, AutoZone Park, and FedExForum aren’t far away.
“We’re conveniently located between South Main and South Front, which are both loaded with tons of Memphis’ best restaurants and bars. So there’s plenty to do that’s walkable.” — Michael Donahue
By Kimberly Ham
ere are just a few days le to experience Catherine Erb’s exhibition, “Lit,” at the David Lusk Gallery before it closes July 18th. e exhibition rewards lingering attention, revealing how a split second can unfold into a sustained meditation on memory, wonder, and light.
e title arose naturally. “Light plays a big part in everything that I do,” says the Memphis photographer and mixed-media artist. Yet “Lit” soon came to signify more than illumination. It came to embody the awareness and joy that animate the work itself. Several pieces grew out of playful experiments with reworks that rekindled Erb’s childhood excitement. “My adult met my child,” she re ects. e resulting images are unmistakably contemporary, yet grounded in nostalgia and a renewed sense of awe.
at spirit of discovery is central to the exhibition. Fireworks vanish almost before the eye can register them, but Erb’s camera captures astonishing forms hidden within their brief eruptions. Each successful image felt, she says, “like a gi .” e photographs suggest a broader truth: If we could pause life’s upheavals, we might uncover unexpected beauty and meaning within them.
Erb extends those eeting instants through a meticulous studio practice. She prints her photographs on watercolor paper, mounts them to birch panels, and enriches them with pigments and translucent layers of encaustic wax. In several works, her own paintings serve as the backdrop for the photographic image, creating luminous objects that hover between photography and painting, memory and presence. e labor-intensive process slows time, allowing a millisecond-long event to become an experience of contemplation.
A native Memphian, Erb credits the city’s “authentic and generous” creative spirit with sustaining her artistic voice. She hopes visitors will bring their own stories and recollections to the gallery rather than seek a prescribed interpretation. “I always want my work to draw someone in,” she says, so that each image becomes a vessel for personal re ection and wonder.
ere is still enough time to accept that invitation. Before “Lit” closes this Saturady, step into the gallery, slow your pace, and discover the radiance hidden within moments that might otherwise pass unseen.
“LIT,”
DAVID LUSK GALLERY, 97 TILLMAN ST., THROUGH SATURDAY, JULY 18, 10 A.M.-5 P.M.
VARIOUS DAYS & TIMES July 16th - 22nd
Mary Shotwell: e Romance Loop
Novel, Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m
Romance fans are invited to Novel for an a ernoon with author Mary Shotwell celebrating the release of her new romantic comedy, e Romance Loop. Shotwell’s genrebending novel follows romance writer Lacy Travers, whose life takes an unexpected turn when she nds herself trapped inside the very kind of love story she once poked fun at. Filled with laugh-out-loud moments, unexpected twists, and playful takes on romance tropes, e Romance Loop explores what happens when the stories we create begin to change us. Join Novel for a chance to meet the author, hear about her latest release, and celebrate the arrival of a fresh, imaginative rom-com.
Memphis Urban League Community Health Fair
e Greensward at Overton Park, Saturday, July 18, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Come to the Greensward on Saturday, July 18th for a day of free health screenings, wellness resources, family-friendly activities, and opportunities to connect with local organizations and community members. Designed to support the Memphis Urban League’s mission of empowering communities and changing lives, the event highlights the importance of accessible health education and advocacy as part of overall community well-being. Attendees can explore resources focused on health, wellness, and support services while joining neighbors in working toward a healthier Memphis. Admission is free and open to all.
e Gravity of Hello: When Strangers Become Stories Raleigh Library, Saturday, July 18, 3:30 p.m. is event invites participants to explore the power of unexpected connections through guided storytelling with writer and healer Victoria Johnson. is re ective session encourages attendees to uncover the meaningful moments that begin with a simple “hello,” revealing how encounters with strangers can deepen understanding, inspire authentic relationships, and spark personal and collective healing. rough writing and re ection, participants will explore the stories that emerge when we open ourselves to connection.
By Alex Greene
Stax Music Academy students shine in latest video from Snooknuk.
overs of kids’ music served with a hefty dollop of soul will marvel at the new single and music video that popular singer Snooknuk dropped earlier this month, “Do Re Mi,” filmed around the Stax Museum of American Soul Music and the Soulsville campus. Significantly, the track is more fully credited to “Snooknuk feat. Stax Music Academy, Kwamè & Pierce Freelon,” and the first name in that features list should tip you off to the track’s soul bona fides. Indeed, Stax Music Academy (SMA) students are getting used to rubbing shoulders with celebrities as they are increasingly called in to recording and videotaping sessions for major artists.
“We also have a documentary we did with Morgan Freeman that should be coming out hopefully sometime soon,” says Isaac Daniel, SMA executive director. “Then we have several other initiatives we’re working on right now. There have been a lot of students getting opportunities to record.” And since SMA aims, as Daniel says, “to be the number one educational institution in the world to teach rhythm and blues,” its students bring a sense of the city’s soul to every project they’re featured on.
Which is not to say that Snooknuk, aka Cheri Moon, aka Cheri Jacobs, doesn’t bring plenty of Memphis soul to everything she does as well, having grown up here herself. After beginning a career in gospel, chasing her dreams of music led her to work with the likes of Timbaland, Jimmy Douglass, and Missy Elliott, and she’s built a Los Angeles-based life in R&B as well as kids’ material. She’s also down for collabs: In addition to her two albums as Snooknuk, Once Upon a Day: A Little Less Tears (2013) and Once Upon a Day: A Lot More Fun (2014), her most recent bout with fame was the 2022 Grammy nomination for All One Tribe by 1 Tribe Collective, to which she contributed.
All of which is to say that when the producer and co-writer of “Do Re Mi,” two-time Grammy winner Lucy Kalantari, was looking for someone to collaborate with on this track, Snooknuk was an artist who she knew could deliver. Having already sought out the SMA chorus specifically for this project, she was delighted to discover that Snooknuk was also a Memphis native, and that sealed the collab. Then Kalantari brought hip-hop pioneer Kwamè into the project, not to mention
PHOTOS:
“One thing we’re doing now is teaching kids how to create their own music, their own product, and put it out there.”— Isaac Daniel
the Grammy-nominated artist, beatboxer, and educator Pierce Freelon. Somehow, the video weaves all of these disparate elements into a dynamic narrative with an inexorable rise in musical energy over its four minutes. Beginning calmly enough, it features young vocalists Dianna and Ella Waddell (daughters of local music mover and shaker Gebre Waddell) innocently asking Snooknuk, in the role of a Stax Music Academy teacher, how to sing. The resulting lesson may be the most irresistible “Do Re Mi” you’ve ever heard.
Furthermore, as Daniel sees it, it perfectly expresses the blend of learning and fun that SMA aims for. “Initially, it was just a collaborative piece between us and Snooknuk, something that would engage the kids, that they could relate to. But it really shows the progression of how you fundamentally learn. So the ‘do re mi fa so la ti,’ that kind of stuff, is the solfège method that is at the heart of learning how to perform. What we found was that if students bypass that, don’t learn that, as they get older in their progression, they end up missing pieces, right? And the thing is, at Stax, one of the things that we have
undertaken the last three or four years is, we want to make sure students are having fun creating music, making music, the whole nine yards, as well as learning fundamentals, so they can flourish or thrive in any musical environment.”
And so the video works on two levels: On one, it’s a message and music track that educates and entertains; on another, the song’s form reciprocates the way SMA itself has grown to encompass the complexities of the modern music industry. “As the song progresses, at the very beginning, they’re using solfège, and as it goes on, it takes on more and more of a contemporary sound, which aligns with what we’re doing,” says Daniel. “Because one thing we’re doing now is teaching kids how to create their own music, their own product, and put it out there, right? And so in the video, the song ultimately goes into a hip-hop beat with Kwamè rapping on it.”
Meanwhile, when recording the song and making the video, the more tech-oriented SMA students were able to learn the nuts and bolts of the trades. “The kids not only got to go behind the scenes, record, and make a product, but they also got to see the
whole process. They got to see how you storyboard and how that shapes the project. During the video shoot, they also helped with things like playback, all those different technical tasks. They were working with Brandon McCoy, the videographer, and also assisted with all the lighting. The experiences that Lucy and Snooknuk were able to give to those kids were irreplaceable.”
And, Daniel points out, there will be more of that as SMA’s new partnership with Live Nation Entertainment begins in earnest, just in time for the opening of Live Nation’s Satellite Music Hall. “We always knew Live Nation was coming, and now we’re going to partner with them and give our students opportunities in conjunction with them. Students are getting certified on stuff like Pro Tools, Dante, Logic, and behind-the-scenes stuff, and then working directly with professionals in the field.”
Just as the kids did on “Do Re Mi.” Snooknuk, for her part, was deeply moved by the encounter. “It’s incredibly special to come back to Memphis and create with these young artists at Stax,” she said in a press release. “This city gave me my voice — and now I get to help pass that on.”
Take Twelve
Friday, July 17, 7 p.m.
TIN ROOF
Ashton Riker & The Memphis Royals
ursday, July 16, 8 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB MEMPHIS
Baunie and Soul
Bringing soulful rhythms of music to life. Tuesday, July 21, 7 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
The B.B. King’s Blues Club Allstar Band
Friday, July 17, 8 p.m. | Monday, July 20, 8 p.m. | Tuesday, July 21, 8 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB MEMPHIS
Brad Birkedahl
Friday, July 17, 7 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Buddy Albert Nemenz Playing tunes on guitar. Monday, July 20, 7 p.m.
SILKY O’SULLIVAN’S
Computermane
ursday, July 16, 9 p.m. | Friday, July 17, 8 p.m. | Saturday, July 18, 8 p.m.
TIN ROOF
Cowboy Friday, July 17, 3 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
David Ingle
One man piano show. Sunday, July 19, 6 p.m.
SILKY O’SULLIVAN’S
DJ Bori
Keepin’ the dance oor movin’.
Friday, July 17, 10:30 p.m.
TIN ROOF
Emily Laveigh
Friday, July 17, 10:30 p.m.
TIN ROOF
Eric Hughes
ursday, July 16, 7 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Flic’s Pics Band
Leroy Hodges of Hi Rhythm leads his band of all stars through classic soul and blues.
Saturday, July 18, 4 p.m.
B.B. KING’S BLUES CLUB MEMPHIS
Frankie Hollie
Saturday, July 18, 3 p.m.
TIN ROOF
FreeWorld
Sunday, July 19, 7 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
FreeWorld
Friday, July 17, 8 p.m. | Saturday, July 18, 8 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Ghost Town Blues Band is critically acclaimed American blues and bluesrock band has “a shoot-fromthe-hip Memphis attitude, and a Stax-busting explosion of modern blues vision” according to Living Blues magazine.
ursday, July 16, 7 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Red Thomas
Sunday, July 19, 3 p.m.
RUM BOOGIE CAFE
Rockin 88’s
Monday, July 20, 7 p.m.
BLUES CITY CAFE
Rodell McCord
Sunday, July 19, 7 p.m.
TIN ROOF
CJ Williams
Sunday, July 19, 6 p.m.
ARRIVE HOTEL MEMPHIS
Saturday Sunset e Peabody invites you to start your weekend with the best roo op party in the city.
ursday, July 16, 6 p.m.
THE PEABODY ROOFTOP
The Swingtime Explosion
Saturday, July 18, 7:30 p.m.
RUMBA ROOM
The Chaulkies
Sunday, July 19, 3 p.m.
HUEY’S EAST
The Debbie Jamison Band
Tuesday, July 21, 6 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
Elmo & the Shades
Featuring Eddie Harrison.
Wednesday, July 22, 7 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
John Williams & the A440 Band
ursday, July 16, 8 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
Live at the Garden:
Little Big Town
Little Big Town, one of Nashville’s most popular vocal groups, sporting the same members that founded the band in 1998, performs live at Radians Amphitheater as part of the Live at the Garden series, with special guest Ingrid Andress opening the night.
ursday, July 16, 8 p.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Trouble No More
(Allman Bros. Tribute)
Experience a powerful live music show featuring the songs of the Allman Brothers performed by the Memphis musicians in Trouble No More. Friday, July 17, 8 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
Wendell Wells
Discover the stories behind songs that made Memphis famous as Wells sings and plays hits plus his own brand of honky tonk, cow jazz, and barnyard blues. Sunday, July 19, 9 p.m.
NEIL’S MUSIC ROOM
Zazerak Soul Jazz Trio
Saturday, July 18, 8:30 p.m.
BOG & BARLEY
The Amber McCain Band
Saturday, July 18, 5 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Anna Rose Baker
With Abigail and the Starlings. Friday, July 17, 8 p.m.
THE HI-TONE CAFE
Coey Redd
Saturday, July 18, 9 p.m.
GROWLERS
Deborah Swiney Duo ursday, July 16, 6 p.m.
THE COVE
Devil Train
Bluegrass, roots, country, Delta, and ski e. ursday, July 16, 9 p.m.
B-SIDE
Fresco Trey
Part of Trey’s Numb Tour. Friday, July 17, 8 p.m.
GROWLERS
Jazz Jam with the Cove Quartet
Sunday, July 19, 6 p.m.
THE COVE
Justin Alan Payne
Based in east Nashville, Justin Alan Payne strives to entertain audiences with his powerful and moving live performances, bringing equal parts angst, fearlessness, and vulnerability that never fails to capture a room. Wednesday, July 22, 9 p.m.
LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
Katywentmissing
With Get Me the Knife, Tourniquet Girl, and Righteous Backhand. ursday, July 16, 7:30 p.m.
THE HI-TONE CAFE
Laser Rock: Metallica is one-of-a-kind show will take you on a journey through sound in a way you’ve never seen before. Don’t miss your chance to experience this
CJ Williams
music in the most unique venue in the city. Friday, July 17, 7 p.m.
PINK PALACE PLANETARIUM
MusicBoXx
1980s and 1990s classic rock. Friday, July 17, 6 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Night of the Cancer: DJ Event
Featuring DJ Larry, DJ Rhinestone, DJ Nico, DJ Brilli, and Jayxavaire. Saturday, July 18, 9 p.m.
BAR DKDC
Owen Gooch Band Friday, July 17, 6 p.m.
BAR DKDC
Patrick B Ray
With Alexis Jade and Conan Callahan. Sunday, July 19, 6 p.m.
GROWLERS
Pleasant Valley
With Abusements, Renob, and Motark. ursday, July 16, 8 p.m.
GROWLERS
Pulse (Pink Floyd Tribute)
Sunday, July 19, 5 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
The Revival
Get your joy, peace, strength, praise, dance, and shout back at e Revival. Saturday, July 18, 7:30 p.m.
THE GREEN ROOM
The Rolling Bones Sunday, July 19, 3 p.m.
HUEY’S MIDTOWN
known for their soulful harmonies, poetic songwriting, and freewheeling improvisation. Billboard says their sound “melds Southern and Californian Americana.”
Friday, July 17, 8 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
Holy Roller e Richmond, Virginiabased group is quickly proving that they intend to be the new face of Southern rock. ursday, July 16, 8 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
Live In Studio A
Summer Series:
Featuring Memphis
Talent
From soul and R&B to contemporary sounds, this series o ers a unique opportunity to discover the artists carrying Memphis music forward. Tuesday, July 21, 2 p.m.
STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC
Men At Work With Toad the Wet Sprocket and Shonen Knife. Wednesday, July 22, 7 p.m.
BANKPLUS AMPHITHEATER
Sounds for Someone Tour: Elmiene
A poet-turned-accidentalartist initially, it was Elmiene’s very rst song attempt that sparked the whirlwind start of his career. Friday, July 17, 7 p.m.
GRACELAND
Yella P
Seeing Red
Saturday, July 18, 9 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Sex Mex
Friday, July 17, 9 p.m.
THE HI-TONE CAFE
Shara’s Songwriter Showcase
ursday, July 16, 6 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Side Street Steppers
Saturday, July 18, 6 p.m.
CENTRAL BBQ MIDTOWN
Slumdog and Melinda
Friday, July 17, 8 p.m.
BAR DKDC
The Subteens ese rock and roll lifers still have the ery energy they began with in the ’90s. With Recent Future, Ryan Kidd, and Armed Spider. All proceeds go to Alive Rescue Memphis.
Saturday, July 18, 7 p.m.
THE HI-TONE CAFE
Thumpdaddy
Friday, July 17, 9:30 p.m.
LAFAYETTE’S MUSIC ROOM
Tequila Mockingbird
Sunday, July 19, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S MILLINGTON
Cordovas
Cordovas are a Nashvillebased Americana rock band
Known for his ery harmonica playing, powerful vocals, and genre-crossing style, Yella P blends hill country blues, southern soul, funk, gospel, rock, hip-hop, and everything in between into a sound that’s uniquely his own. Monday, July 20, 8 p.m.
HERNANDO’S HIDE-A-WAY
Bob Nelson & The Bobcats Sunday, July 19, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S GERMANTOWN
The Double Ds Sunday, July 19, 6 p.m.
HUEY’S COLLIERVILLE
North Mississippi
Allstars
A collective of musicians by design, the North Mississippi Allstars have never had a set-in-stone lineup. Instead, as their name suggests, they’ve always welcomed anyone who might push music in new directions. Saturday, July 18, 8 p.m.
GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Richard Wilson
Smooth and relaxing soulful jazz, blues, and bossanova. Saturday, July 18, 9 a.m.
CARRINGTON OAKS COFFEEHOUSELAKELAND TOWN SQUARE
Truck Patch Revival
American to the core, country to the bone. Saturday, July 18, 6 p.m.
A. KEITH MCDONALD PAVILLION
INGMAR
AUGUST
ARTS AND SPECIAL EXHIBITS
Bartlett Artists Association Exhibit
Featuring work by local Bartlett artists. Free. rough July 29.
ST. GEORGE’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH
“Black Joy, In Spite Of ...”
Curated by Memphis native Brigette Janea Jones, the exhibition brings together 25 historical photographs and contemporary artworks exploring how Black Tennesseans have created lives of joy, connection, and purpose across generations of adversity. rough Aug. 14.
NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM
“Blues Power!
Celebrating the Legacy of Albert King”
A limited-time photo exhibit honoring one of the most inuential voices in blues history. rough Aug. 6.
STAX MUSEUM OF AMERICAN SOUL MUSIC
“Café Society: Art and Sociability in Paris, 1855 – 1914”
is exhibition examines the development of the French café, a crucial and accessible site for artistic discussion, and, ultimately, how cafés became the subject of works of art themselves. rough Sept. 6.
DIXON GALLERY AND GARDENS
David Uzochukwu:
“Bodies of Water” 22 photographs present hybrid beings, part human and part animal, who inhabit surreal, dreamlike landscapes. Adorned with ns, scales, and
other features, these gures are equipped to survive and thrive in challenging waters. rough Sept. 27.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM
“Land and Sky”
Susan Maakestad utilizes her decades-long fascination with highway webcams alongside a passion for vast landscapes to create compelling abstract paintings. rough Aug. 15.
SHAPESHIFTER ART SCHOOL & GALLERY
“Lit” is exhibition shows artist Catherine Erb’s ongoing exploration of light, presence, memory, and the transformative qualities of photography. rough July 18.
DAVID LUSK GALLERY
“Living in Layers”
Enjoy art by Debbie Likely Pacheco. She works in mixed media, combining digital and analog methods to create layered images that straddle a line between naturalism and abstraction. rough Sept. 27.
DIXON GALLERY AND GARDENS
Made in Dixon | Hecho en Dixon
Celebrating a half-century of growth and learning, this year’s exhibition o ers an intimate look at the programs that have inspired the Dixon’s onsite visitors and reached deep into the heart of the Memphis community. rough Sept. 6.
DIXON GALLERY AND GARDENS
“Memphis College of Art, 1936-2020: An Enduring Legacy”
As an exhibition of works by 90 faculty, administrators, and graduates, this show re ects on the school’s historical
impact and celebrates its continued legacy regionally and beyond. rough Sept. 30.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM
“Nurses and Doctors” Margaret Coleman made these drawings of Memphis healthcare workers in the late 1990s. Coleman is a self-taught artist whose drawings and paintings are inspired by her life experience and surroundings. rough Sept. 2.
TOPS GALLERY
“Our Wild Kin”
New paintings and monoprints by Angi Cooper exploring ecosystems around us and within. Free. rough Aug. 1.
PLAYHOUSE ON THE SQUARE “Ratgirl”
Nick Canterucci’s 21st solo exhibit and h show at the Medicine Factory. rough July 19.
MEDICINE FACTORY
Summer Art Garden: “Wax Print Wonderland”
Samilia Pelshak presents an enchanting installation of her vibrant African wax print designs. rough Sept. 27.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM
Summer Exhibition ree summer exhibitions at Crosstown Arts, featuring works by Barbara Penn, George Edward Walker, and Romain Collin in collaboration with lmmaker Matthew Palmer. rough Sept. 6.
CROSSTOWN ARTS GALLERIES
Tennessee Craft Southwest’s Fine Craft Showcase is exhibition encompasses a wide range of media including
Send the date, time, place, cost, info, phone number, a brief description, and photos — two weeks in advance — to calendar@memphisflyer.com. DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, ONGOING WEEKLY EVENTS WILL APPEAR IN THE FLYER’S ONLINE CALENDAR ONLY. FOR COMPREHENSIVE EVENTS LISTING, VISIT EVENTS.MEMPHISFLYER.COM/CAL.
weaving, wood turning, clay, glass work, jewelry, quilting, painting, sculptures, and much more. Some of the artists collaborated with each other to create something truly unique. Free. rough July 31.
WKNO DIGITAL MEDIA CENTER
“What We Surround Ourselves With”
A love letter to the evolution of the cra , work, and stories shared through the Metal Museum’s community. rough July 31.
METAL MUSEUM
Heart and Soul Book Club
Beat the summer heat with a discussion that ranges from the heights of musical stardom to the depths of a rural nightmare. is month, explore two very di erent types of “entanglements” — one heartwarming and one harrowing. Saturday, July 18, 3 p.m.
RALEIGH LIBRARY
Mary Shotwell: The Romance Loop
Author Lacy Travers’ career is atter than the champagne at her last pity party. So when a disgruntled fan accuses her of “ruining love” at a sad little book signing, it’s just another weird chapter in her life. Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m.
NOVEL
Rockstar Connect is event is a free, laid-back, no pressure event that simply introduces business owners
to other business owners.
ursday, July 16, 6 p.m.
FIREBIRD’S GRILL
Memphis Urban League Community Health Fair
Join a day of free health screenings, wellness resources, family-friendly activities, community connections, and more. Free. Saturday, July 18, 10 a.m.
OVERTON PARK GREENSWARD Midsommar Blót
e Fellowship of Yggdrasil celebrates the Midsommar Blót — a time to honor the midpoint of the year and pay tribute to the Norse deities of summer. 21+. Free. Sunday, July 19, 7 p.m.
THE BROOM CLOSET
Sunday Funday Bingo with Brinka Honeydew
A delightful Sunday a er-
Meet author Mary Shotwell as she talks about her new book e Romace Loop.
noon, full of bingo and performances by your host Brinka Honeydew along with Hunny Blunt, e Magical Miss Mothie, Imagene Asengraber, and Juicy Massacre. Free. Sunday, July 19, 3 p.m. LAMPLIGHTER LOUNGE
CLASS/WORKSHOP
Essence of the Ages: Exploring a Story of Fragrance
Join this fun workshop and delve into the story of fragrance, iconic smells worn by the greatest celebrities, and its place in culture over the years. ursday, July 16, 1:30 p.m.
TOWN OF COLLIERVILLE MORTON MUSEUM
Hobby Kick-Start:
Beyond the PapierMâché Magic with Rafael Figueroa is workshop guides you through the foundational techniques of papier-mâché, from cra ing the perfect paste to building complex, lightweight structures. ursday, July 16, 6 p.m.
DIXON GALLERY AND GARDENS
Country Swing Dance Lessons
It’s never too late to start and a partner is not required to join the class. Friday, July 17, 7:30 p.m.
WHISKEY JILL’S
Christmas in July Tree Design Class
Get festive early with a fun, Christmas tree design class hosted by T. Burkley Design Co. $320. Saturday, July 18, 3 p.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
The Gravity of Hello: When Strangers Become Stories
Join writer and instructor Victoria Johnson as she guides you through the stories that start with reaching across a divide, leading to unexpected connections and revealing buried truths. Saturday, July 18, 3:30 p.m.
RALEIGH LIBRARY
Houseplant Pests 101
Urban Earth’s houseplant manager Brooke will be sharing her knowledge and experience on the most common houseplant pests and how to address them. Saturday, July 18, 10 a.m.
URBAN EARTH GARDENS
My Ancestors, Myself: Reflective Collage with Lurlynn Franklin Franklin will offer a look into her creative practice and guide participants in using photographs and mixed media to reflect on their own families. Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM
Summer Abundance Flower Arranging Workshop
Farmer-florist Marisa Mender-Franklin leads this beginner-friendly, 90-minute flower arranging workshop. You’ll learn the basics of flower arranging — how to choose stems, build structure, and create something that feels alive and intentional. Sunday, July 19, 3 p.m.
GHOST RIVER BREWING
Studio Courses with Creative Aging: Fabric Collage with Cari Participants explore personal memories through fabric in this hands-on textile art course. 65+. Tuesday, July 21, 1 p.m.
DIXON GALLERY AND GARDENS
The Rated R Comedy Show
A journey of laughter, heart-warming moments, and joyful melodies. $28. Saturday, July 18, 4 p.m.
EVERGREEN THEATRE
Open Mic Comedy Night
Come for the laughs, stay for the laughs. Tuesday, July 21, 8 p.m.
THE HI-TONE CAFE
Reading Rhythms with Collage Dance Collective
Memphis River Parks is excited to bring early literacy and joyful dance together with this program for families with children all on the beautiful riverfront. Free. Friday, July 17, 10 a.m.
BEALE STREET LANDING
GPAC Summer Arts Camp - Play
That Guitar
Led by Memphis musician Josh Threlkeld, this camp is perfect for beginning and intermediate players ready to level up their skills. $200. Thursday, July 16-Friday, july 17, 9 a.m.
GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Mixed Media Camp
Designed for middle school artists, this camp invites students to experiment, combine, and layer a wide range of materials to create bold, one-of-a-kind artworks. $395. Thursday, July 16, 8:30 a.m. | Friday, July 17, 8:30 a.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM
Summer Camps at the Garden
These nature camps are dedicated to inspiring a love for the natural world in kids of all ages. Each week, campers ages 6-12 will enjoy nature crafts, games, and explorations led by expert Garden Guides. Thursday, July 16-Wednesday, July 22, 9 a.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Toddler Time
Bring your toddlers ages 1-3 to read and do crafts. Thursday, July 16, 1 p.m. | Wednesday, July 22, 10 a.m. | Wednesday, July 22, 11 a.m.
BARTLETT LIBRARY
CALENDAR: JULY 16 - 22, 2026
Family Fun Day
There will be fun for all ages, including games, music, bounce houses, and more. Plus, PYP Bucks will be there. Friday, July 17, 6 p.m.
MLK PARK
Story Time
At Story Time, kids can enjoy stories, songs, art activities, and creative play that connect with Collierville history. Friday, July 17, 10:30 a.m.
TOWN OF COLLIERVILLE MORTON MUSEUM
Novels After Naps
Have your kids, from babies to 5 years old, enjoy a calm and cozy story session that fuels imaginations and encourages active time together. Saturday, July 18, 4 p.m.
GERMANTOWN COMMUNITY LIBRARY
Special Story Time
Recommended for children up to 5 years, Story Time at Novel includes songs and stories, featuring brand-new books in addition to wellloved favorites. Saturday, July 18, 10:30 a.m.
NOVEL
Tales at Tea-Time … with a T-Rex?
Dress in your finest apparel and lift your pinkies as we enjoy delicious servings out of a tea pot, crafts, special songs, dance, and story time with a dinosaur. Ages 2-6. Saturday, July 18, 1 p.m.
GERMANTOWN COMMUNITY LIBRARY
GPAC Summer Arts Camp: Cardboard Creations
Get ready to build, design, and imagine! In this hands-on creative camp with Germantown’s own Little Lemon Art Studio. $210. Monday, July 20-Wednesday, July 22, 9 a.m.
GERMANTOWN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Mudpie Mondays
Come to the Guest House Patio in My Big Backyard for a mud-tastic time this summer. Children can dig in and craft their own mudpie using natural materials. Free. Monday, July 20, 10 a.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Teen Artist Painting Intensive Camp
Painting and drawing from observation, like still lifes and portraits, remain key standards colleges use to evaluate portfolio skills, but this fun camp pushes beyond the basics. $395. Monday, July 20-Wednesday, July 22, 8:30 a.m.
THE MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM OF ART
Storytime and Sign
For babies through 5 years old, sing a song, learn a sign, dance a little jig, and sit for a story during this interactive, weekly story time for little ones and their caregivers. Tuesday, July 21, 10:30 a.m. | Wednesday, July 22, 10:30 a.m.
GERMANTOWN COMMUNITY LIBRARY
Kaleidoscope Club
Each week, kids ages 5 to 9 will enjoy an art or horticulture project that sparks creativity and
1 Medal of Honor recipient
5 Leonardo’s “The Last Supper,” e.g.
10 Go ___ (lose it)
13 Sunburn cause
15 Part of the eye that a fish doesn’t have
16 Verse ender in “My Country, ’Tis of Thee”
18 “Me too,” formally
19 Color of most Solo cups
20 Great Plains tribe
21 Magnavox competitor
23 Strokes in miniature golf
24 Things to keep tabs on
28 Scottish Highlander
29 Old-time actress Le Gallienne
30 Trapped
33 Firecracker that doesn’t go off
34 Thumbs-down
35 “That’s just ter-r-rible!”
37 Go-between
39 Under the weather
40 Kept a bead on
41 Give the right
43 When dinner may be served
45 “Of course!”
46 “Coming ___” (store sign)
47 Early Chinese dynasty
50 Symbol of resistance
54 “Here’s hoping” … or a hint to 16-Across/ 10-Down and 37-Across/ 14-Down
57 The works
58 Sold off, as assets
59 Key chess piece, in Spain
60 “True”
61 The “m” in the equation “F = ma”
DOWN
1 Dance with a lot of hip movement
2 Nights when kids have a hard time falling asleep
3 No longer active: Abbr.
4 Alma mater for J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis
5 “The Simpsons” bartender
6 Pusher’s customer
7 Inconsiderate
8 Half of a celebrity couple with J.Lo starting in 2017
9 Moon lander, for short
10 Somewhat
11 Cab alternative?
12 Beats by a small margin
14 Bureau of Labor Statistics statistic
17 City in which Joan of Arc died
critical thinking. Wednesday, July 22, 4 p.m.
DIXON GALLERY AND GARDENS
Rhythm & Roots
Each week, students explore drumming, dance, teamwork, and creative expression in a safe and inspiring environment led by experienced instructors and mentors. Wednesday, July 22, 6 p.m.
MEMPHIS YOUTH ARTS INITIATIVE CENTER
Totally Rad Vintage Fest
This festival brings together vintage vendors from across the country, featuring curated collections of 1980s, 1990s, and Y2K clothing, accessories, toys, records, memorabilia, home goods, and more. Saturday, July 18, 8:30 a.m.
RENASANT CONVENTION CENTER
FILM
Cries & Whispers
Set within a decaying estate bathed in crimson light, the film examines suffering, love, resentment, and mortality with extraordinary emotional intensity. Thursday, July 16, 7 p.m.
CROSSTOWN THEATER
continued on page 20
Egg
“Men not allowed”
Hold on to 28 Did very well on the test
22 Matthew ___, English poet who wrote “Dover Beach” 23 2010s NBC drama that revolved around three generations of a family 24 What banks look to when setting interest rates, with “the”
31 Command to Rover
32 Kaiser ___
36 Shout after a score, maybe
Like a phone down to 1% 42 2001 Sean Penn movie 43 To the same extent 44 Fabric with a repeated design
Certiorari, e.g.
48 Bar members: Abbr.
49 Places for post-op patients
51 “Cómo ___?”
Throws in
continued from page 19
Feast & Film: Matilda
PHOTO: COURTESY CROSSTOWN ARTS
SPORTS
FIFA World Cup Watch
Parties
Join this magical Feast & Film experience and watch Matilda while enjoying delicious treats inspired by the movie. Your child will laugh, snack, and create unforgettable memories with all the sweet goodies and fun. Friday, July 17, 5 p.m.
SWP & CO.
Newport & The Great Folk Dream
Before Coachella and Woodstock, there was Newport. From 1963 to 1966, the Newport Folk Festival catalyzed America’s youth, creating a forum for the protest song to grow, for a generation to nd its voice. Wednesday, July 22, 6:30 p.m.
CROSSTOWN THEATER
FOOD AND DRINK
Sunday Trivia
Gather your team and put your collective knowledge to the test in downtown’s most engaging battle of wits.
Sunday, July 19, 5 p.m.
MFS BREWING
HEALTH AND FITNESS
Open Water Swim
Build con dence and improve your open water skills at this swim program held in Hyde Lake. ursday, July 16, 7 a.m. | Friday, July 17, 7 a.m. | Sunday, July 19, 7 a.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
Get Outside Fitness: Meditation
Meditation Mondays is a safe space for anyone seeking self-regulation and a peaceful pause from the demands of daily life. Free. Monday, July 20, 6:30 p.m.
SHELBY FARMS PARK
LECTURE
Art and Aperitifs:
Samilia Pelshak
Fashion designer Samilia Pelshak speaks on fashion and culture. ursday, July 16, 5:30 p.m.
MEMPHIS BROOKS MUSEUM
Munch and Learn: Listening to Music in the Parisian Café
Je rey H. Jackson is a sought-
e lm Cries and Whispers is Ingmar Bergman’s haunting chamber drama.
a er public speaker and commentator who has appeared in documentary lms, on television, and has also been interviewed on radio and podcasts. Free. Wednesday, July 22, 12 p.m.
DIXON GALLERY AND GARDENS
PERFORMING ARTS
Kooler Kids Showcase
From soul-stirring music to powerful poetry, hilarious sketches to heartfelt moments, these talented kids from the Kooler Kids
Performing Arts Camp have spent two weeks learning, growing, and creating and now it’s their time to shine. Friday, July 17, 7 p.m.
MINGLEWOOD HALL
Beauty N The Beast & Friends “Snaps & Soul”
Snaps & Soul is a night of grown and sexy vibes with live band, poetry, comedy, drinks, and Soul food. Come in with your Western attire.
$60. Sunday, July 19, 5 p.m.
KING PALACE EVENT CENTER
SPECIAL EVENTS
Black Bridal Expo
Weekend is expo focuses on Black brides who are planning their big wedding day. It’s a one-stop shop to nd your wedding planner, wedding dress, orist, hair stylist, and so much more. Saturday, July 18-Sunday, July 19, 1 p.m.
MEMPHIS BOTANIC GARDEN
Memphis TCG Con
Built for players, collectors, and fans, the convention brings together some of the biggest names in trading card games, including Pokémon, Magic: e Gathering, One Piece, Dragon Ball Z, Disney Lorcana, and Yu-Gi-Oh. Friday, July 17, 4 p.m. | Saturday, July 18, 10 a.m. | Sunday, July 19, 10 a.m.
RENASANT CONVENTION CENTER
e FIFA World Cup 2026 is the largest and most ambitious World Cup in history, bringing together 48 national teams from around the globe in a tournament co-hosted by the United States, Mexico, and Canada. ursday, July 16-Sunday, July 19, 11 a.m.
BROOKHAVEN PUB & GRILL
Dude Perfect: Squad Games Tour is brand new tour is lled with larger than life battles, and unexpected twists and for the rst time ever. e entire oor will be the battle zone with full 360° seating. $30-$300. Friday, July 17, 7 p.m.
FEDEXFORUM
901 Wrestling Live
Taping Watch epic bouts and wild fun at 901 Wrestling Live during this special matinee event. $10-$18. Saturday, July 18, 3 p.m. GROWLERS
THEATER
Your Romeo
It’s 1847, and actress Charlotte Cushman and writer Matilda “Max” Hays are a sensation playing Romeo and Juliet while carrying on a romance o stage. When their relationship ends, Max sues Charlotte for alimony, leading up to a nal confrontation. Friday, July 17-Saturday, July 18, 7:30 p.m. | Sunday, July 19, 2:00 p.m.
THEATREWORKS @ THE SQUARE
Disney’s The Lion King Jr.
Disney’s e Lion King Jr. comes to life through the talents of our Young Actors Guild summer camp performers. Come along with Simba, Nala, Timon, Pumbaa, and unforgettable characters on a journey of friendship, courage, and self-discovery. Saturday, July 18, 6 p.m.
CANNON CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
About 20,000 attended this year’s Hole in One Charity Festival at St. Louis Catholic Church. Only about a dozen, perhaps, made holes in one during the event, but nobody made the hole in one to win a cool million dollars or the car.
Each year, the St. Louis church campus is transformed into a 41-tee box range. For a week, beginning on Father’s Day, (which, this year, was on June 21st, the rst day of summer), golfers try to win cash and prizes for getting holes in one or close to the hole. Certain golfers compete for an automobile from City Auto. Points are accumulated all week. e top 10 golfers get to shoot out for a million dollars on Saturday.
e St. Louis Men’s Club Culinary Institute prepares the food, including the devastatingly delicious shrimp and pesto pizza.
PHOTOS: MICHAEL DONAHUE
above: Owen Tisdale, Connor Sutherland, Sam DeStefanis, Lucas Tansey below: (le to right) Brett Wright, Jonathan Edwards, Alex Kenner holding Eleanor Kenner; Josephine Lorraine Ticer, Bradford Spinosa, McCall Jamieson; Caitlin and Jason Motte with their child, Parker Motte; Elaine Kraker Neblett, Casey Tansey, Bonnie Grosshans bottom row: (le to right) Tina and omas Kovacs; Chris Newsom, Greg Gaston, Rushton Cox, Eric Brown, Alan Pendleton
above: Kathryn Mosteller, Pepe Palazola, Andrew Mosteller, and Lauren Morgan circle: Charlie S.
right row: (top and below) Chuck and Amy Weirich; Bud Harris and Seth Young below: (le to right) Wes Kraker and Jim Colloredo; Allese Lewis Johnson, Millie Johnson, Becky Lewis, and Toby Rollheiser; Tom and omas Hill; Curt Soe er and Luke Spencer bottom row: (le to right) Mark Duggan, Michael Hudman, Andy Ticer, Austin George, Dave Collie, Keith Crump; Noel, Jason, and Ramsey Peck
FOOD By Michael Donahue
New bar slated to open in the Edge District in early August.
ussied Up, a new nighttime bar/restaurant, will soon open as the other half of what’s so far been known as Hard Times Deli, a sandwich shop at 655 Marshall Avenue in the Edge District. e two establishments, both owned by Harrison Downing, Cole Jeanes, and Schuyler O’Brien, are in the same building. ey’ll share the same kitchen, but will be open at di erent hours.
Hard Times Deli is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.
Gussied Up will be open from 5 until 11 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday with a 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. brunch.
Their sandwiches are takes on drive-through classics. “We give nods to nostalgic fast-food,” Downing says.
Simply put, “Lunch is Hard Times. Dinner is Gussied Up,” Jeanes says.
Opening Gussied Up in the rear of Hard Times Deli is “a way to utilize this space for 40 more hours a week,” Downing says. Meanwhile, Hard Times will soon begin serving beer and drinks for the rst time. Gussied Up will serve beer, cocktails, frozen drinks, and wine.
Gussied Up will be an “elevated neighborhood bar,” Downing says, that will serve “more re ned bar food,” Jeanes adds.
It’s aimed at the people of the Edge
District, at the intersection of Marshall Avenue and Monroe Avenue. “We want people where our neighborhood is,” Downing says. at means everybody from lawyers to construction workers. “We want a dude in a suit sitting next to a guy covered in grease having a beer and a shot before going home.”
“Gussied Up” was chosen as the name because Downing’s mother used to say she was going to get “gussied up” when she was going out with the girls. “We’re big on Southern hospitality,” Downing says. “And ‘gussied up’ is a very Southern term.”
Also, Jeanes says, “I don’t think you can say those words without having a Southern accent.”
Hard Times Deli opened in February 2025. It was always the plan to expand in the back, Downing says. “We think the neighborhood needs something like that.”
Gussied Up will have its own menu. “Really, all of our thoughts are into it, but Harrison is the operator and he’s driving the menu,” Jeanes says. “ at’s his personality.”
e menu also will include Hard Times Deli sandwiches, which are gussied-up takes on familiar drive-through classics. “We give nods to nostalgic fast-food we grew up eating,” Downing says.
Jeanes describes the fare as “things that we would love to eat at a bar.” For instance, “Ourby’s” is their version of the Arby’s roast beef sandwich. eir Filet O’ Phish sandwich is their take on McDonald’s Filet O’ Fish, but they’re using a six-ounce piece of panko fried cod, and a tartar sauce made out of green tomato chow chow instead of the standard pickle relish. It also includes a Kra cheese single and is
enclosed in a Martin’s potato bun. ey also will serve their Smashburger, which was made popular at pop-ups held by the owners’ Secret Smash Society. All of their beef and pork is from Home Place Pastures in Como, Mississippi.
Gussied Up’s “Kinfolk Sunday brunch” will feature items from Jeanes’ soon-tobe-relocated Kinfolk restaurant, and their cocktails will be created by bar/general manager Max Braverman.
e drink menu is geared toward what people in the restaurant industry tend to favor, Braverman says, like using FernetBranca, an Italian digestif that restaurant workers use in mixed drinks. “ e idea is to be really playful with it. I think about these cocktails in the way these guys have thought so deeply about making [the food]. Really well executed, but very accessible,” Braverman says.
e drinks are “for everybody,” he says, but they’re also “the things we want to drink.”
Braverman was working for chef Lucas McKinney at Josephine’s Gulf Coast Tradition in Houston, Texas, before he moved to Memphis and sought out Downing. “He just walked in one day and asked for Harrison,” Downing says. “He had his resume with him.”
And, Downing adds, “His style is a lot like ours. We’re throwing these crazy ideas at him and he’s bringing them to life.”
Collums Construction is doing the build-out of Gussied Up, which will include a wrap-around bar with booth seats in the middle. Patrick Brown from
cnct. design did the interior design. Red will be the primary decor color, including red neon lights and chairs with tu ed lipstick-red leather.
e ooring tile will be black, blue, and white like at Hard Times Deli, but the back bar tile will also include yellow, the color of the deli’s walls.
When it gets dark, they’ll turn on the ceiling neon lights as well as their collection of neon beer signs. “Old, wavy glass blocks” will be used to separate the booths, Downing says. “When neon hits that, that will be crazy looking.”
Pizza Hut-inspired chandeliers will hang over the booths. All the wooden bar tops will be made from old bowling lanes.
Gussied Up also includes a patio with more seating. And the owners plan to hold parking lot parties with live music. Hard Times Deli is de nitely a “neighborhood spot” in the Edge District, O’Brien says. And Gussied Up “seemed like a natural progression.”
As for the bar’s growing neighborhood, O’Brien says, “I’m excited to see what it’s going to become in ve or 10 years.” e Edge District is hot, Jeanes says. “A lot of activity happening within the next year or two. If you think about a date night or something like that there will be so many great places to go to — walkable — once they do everything.”
ey’re looking forward to when the Edge District will be “a place you can come spend the whole day,” Downing says, adding that, while the Edge isn’t just one place, “we want it to be a unity.”
By the editors at Andrews McMeel Syndication
Class of 2026
Jericho High School in Nassau County, Long Island, had not one, not two, but 21 valedictorians to represent the 300 seniors who graduated in June, UPI reported on May 18th. The school determines valedictorians based on unweighted letter grades. “It shows a lot of success,” co-principal Brian Cummings said. “Historically, this is the way we’ve done it with letter grades. The difference between a 99.8 and a 99.83 is insignificant, so letter grades really capture what we represent.” With such a large number of valedictorians, not all of them would be able to give a commencement speech, so school officials had to get creative. “We’re going to put them at the front of the procession,” Cummings said. “We’re [also] creating a video that we’re going to share with the community about their accomplishments.” [UPI, 5/18/26]
A man who purchased a bag of greens from a Woolworths in Western Australia found more green than expected inside, reported 102.5 ABC Perth on May 17th. The Australian man, unnamed in the report, opened the lettuce and discovered a small frog among the leaves. “He’s the most casual Australian ever, and he’s like, ‘Bro, I’ve got a lettuce, like a frog in my lettuce,’” his roommate Laura Jones, a native New Zealander, said. Jones shared a video on TikTok, where millions of viewers caught a glimpse of the amphibious stowaway. “It’s quite a decent-sized frog for a big adventure,” Billie Le Pine, another roommate, said. “The bag of lettuce does have holes in it to keep the produce fresh, so he had a snack and some air on his way over.” The trio named the frog Greg and released him at a nearby dam. Woolworths said the incident is under investigation and called it “an isolated event with no other reported cases.” “I’m just glad Greg is back in his natural habitat,” Le Pine said. [ABC, 5/17/26]
owl’s feathers were damaged in a way that would have kept it from flying silently, a survival necessity for great horned owls. “That led the Wild Friends team to take a training course about a procedure they had never done before: Imping, which requires using donor feathers and adhesive to replace the raptor feathers,” the sanctuary said in a news release. “A wildlife rescue in Northern Utah gave Wild Friends feathers from a great horned owl of similar size who had passed away.” Four staff members worked for 90 minutes to reconstruct the feathers, replacing 10 primary feathers and one secondary feather on the bird’s right wing. “The first few feathers were extremely nerve-wracking, but as we got into the groove, the imping became more comfortable, and everything went smoothly,” supervisor Bart Richwalski said. After the owl came out of anesthesia, Richwalski used a decibel reader to measure the sound of the owl’s flight. With all looking good, staff released the owl and it flew away on its own. “I didn’t know that my heart was beating until I saw him leave. I was beside myself, knowing that after all this time, he was healthy and back in the wild,” Richwalski said. “It was such a good feeling.” [UPI, 5/19/26]
Round and Round They Go
An owl in Utah is soaring to new heights after undergoing surgery to repair its concrete-damaged feathers, UPI reported on May 19th. The owl was found inside a concrete mixer in St. George, Utah, back in November, and taken to a rehabilitation center at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab. Workers gave the owl a series of 20-minute baths to remove the concrete, which covered 25 percent of its body. Despite the team’s care, the
An Atlanta neighborhood has an unusual kind of pest: Empty Waymo vehicles — autonomous, driverless cars owned by Alphabet Inc. — circling cul-de-sacs, ABC News reported on May 15th. “I think yesterday morning, we had 50 cars that came through between 6 and 7,” one resident said. “It’s almost every little cul-de-sac in our area, so I think it’s a problem,” said another. The glut of robotaxis worries residents. “We’re families, we have small animals and pets, got kids getting on the bus in the morning and it just doesn’t feel safe to have that traffic,” a resident said. One neighbor even tried putting up their own sign to deter the vehicles, but it caused a traffic jam of Waymos turning around to get out. Residents have attempted to reach out to local and state officials, as well as to Waymo. In a statement, Waymo said it is “committed to being good neighbors” and “we take community feedback seriously and have already worked with our fleet partner to address this routing behavior.” [ABC News, 5/15/26]
NEWS OF
WEIRD © 2026 Andrews McMeel Syndication. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.
ARIES (March 21-April 19): In honor of the intensive homecoming phase of your astrological cycle, I have homework for you. 1. Make a prediction about how old you will be when you know precisely who you are. 2. Forecast the day when you will look in the mirror and recognize your face as an intricate portrait of every experience you have ever loved. 3. Imagine the dawn when the boundary between your own longing and life’s longing will dissolve, revealing they’ve always been the same current. 4. Predict when your heart will be as wild and free and brave as you have always wanted it to be.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Ornithologists studying migration know that some birds don’t fly directly to their destination. They follow “leading lines.” These are geographical features like coastlines and mountain ranges that provide orientation. Even when this means taking a longer route, the certainty of having a guiding landmark outweighs the efficiency of a straight line across nondescript terrain. I recommend the birds’ approach to you in the coming weeks, Taurus. Follow your own leading lines: practices and intuitions that provide lucid orientation even when they don’t offer shortcuts. The indirect path offers the surety you need.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): What’s an important truth you keep forgetting about? Maybe it’s a promise you once made to yourself, or an understanding that your younger self knew, or a wisdom your body keeps trying to communicate while your mind ignores it. What truth returns again and again in different guises: through synchronicities, seemingly random comments from friends, recurring dreams, or the same lesson repeating in new situations? What crucial insights about life do you remember during crisis or ecstasy, only to abandon them once normalcy returns? Now is a favorable time to fully recover this lesson and install it firmly at the heart of your life.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): According to neuroscientists, the “default mode network” is the area of your brain that lights up when you’re daydreaming, drifting through thoughts and feelings, and letting your imagination roam around. This is when your deep self does crucial work: weaving memories into stories, making creative connections, rehearsing possible futures, and forging your sense of identity. I mention this, Leo, because the coming days will be prime time for you to indulge lavishly in this healing and restorative activity. Don’t let a task-obsessed world shame you out of your reveries. Your genius will bloom from their slowly swirling flow.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Here are three gentle nudges: 1. One of your trusty tools or assets still seems to be working fine,
By Rob Brezsny
but I suggest you look into the possibility that it will soon need repair. 2. Unless you act proactively to ease the strain on your system, a mini-breakdown could be on the horizon. 3. The monster hiding in your closet is hibernating, which makes this the perfect time to summon an exorcist before it rouses. Here’s the very good news, dear Virgo: Because you are reading this oracle, you are now armed with all you need to stave off turmoil and head in the direction of an exciting renaissance.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Researchers who study improvisational jazz have found that master musicians often anticipate each other’s ideas milliseconds before anyone actually plays the notes. Their brains become exquisitely synchronized through deep listening rather than rigid planning. Maybe more than any other sign, you Libras possess a similar aptitude in managing your intimate alliances and social connections. In the coming weeks, this superpower will be even more necessary and available than usual. I’ll provide a reminder: Pay less attention to what people claim to mean and more attention to the rhythms beneath their words. Let your intuition guide you. The subtly shared timing will generate elegant cooperation.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “It’s bad luck to be superstitious!” is a delightful paradox that I enjoy playing with. It makes fun of our tendency to believe that invisible forces are constantly keeping score on our behavior. On one level, the phrase pokes at the way superstition multiplies anxiety instead of easing it. If you really believed it’s bad luck to be superstitious, then your belief about bad luck would itself be a superstition. So you’d have to avoid the very thinking pattern you’re using to feel safer. It exposes how easily the mind can tie itself in knots trying to control the uncontrollable. On another level, “it’s bad luck to be superstitious” is an invitation to examine which of your little rituals are entertaining and nourishing and which are cages. Keeping a lucky stone in your pocket is fine if it amuses you, but believing you’re doomed if you don’t carry the stone isn’t so fine. My advice: Notice when your charm or taboo is no longer a quirky companion, but starts being a tyrant that shrinks your freedom.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Are you the type of Sagittarius who pushes open doors with “pull” signs on them? Do you get a secret kick out of opening boxes from the end that says “open other side”? Maybe you even yack on your phone in designated quiet zones. If so, I’d like to suggest channeling your rebellious spark into grander acts. In the weeks ahead, you will be carrying some potent renegade energy. Used wisely, your radiant defiance could
CANCER
(June 21-July 22): Make a list of your five greatest pleasures. These are experiences that stir your senses, steady your pulse, and remind you why love being alive. Write them down as if they were sacred prayers. Sing a spontaneous song of praise of them. Then set out on a quest to discover pleasure number six. This is a delight you have never tasted, touched, or imagined before. Maybe it will come from saying yes to a possibility you usually decline. Treat this experiment as a form of worship and a way to boost your devotion to your healing life force.
topple a stagnant situation that’s overdue for change.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Many healers favor the slow-and-steady path. They often meet with people once a week, trusting that even stubborn issues must be unwoven with patience and gentleness. But there are also bold experimenters who work differently. I know an acupuncturist who invites clients to live at her clinic for six days straight, offering a new treatment every two hours during the waking hours. She creates a healing immersion chamber. That’s the spirit I recommend for you in the coming weeks, Capricorn. You’re at the threshold of resolving a longstanding imbalance. What will serve you best isn’t dabbling at it but offering it focused, sustained, wholehearted attention until the shift activates.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): You can refresh and boost your ambition if you give it a firm, precise adjustment sometime soon. Your raw vitality will surge back if you refrain from indulging in a careless habit that has been draining it. Your willpower and determination have been weakened by the fallout from an old misstep, but you now have the clarity needed to repair that error. Your libidinous energy is not as clear and potent as it could be, but it will become so once you get more honest about what truly excites you.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You’re like an arrow that has been shot from a bow and is three-quarters of the way to the target. You’re a delicious meal still simmering on the stove, or a pregnancy at seven months, or the last two weeks before a major election. When I tuned my inner vision to you, I glimpsed a honeybee wriggling a dance to show its coworkers where a stand of blooming lilac awaits. Have you ever been on the verge of speaking a new language with ease? That’s where you are now, Pisces: just before true fluency clicks.
FILM By Chris McCoy
hen I posted my glowing rst reaction to e Invite on Bluesky, my friend Randy from New Orleans replied that he was going to see the lm the next night on a rst date. at sparked a long conversation between my wife and myself. Sure, Olivia Wilde’s new comedy is a good movie, possibly even a great movie. We had a blast, but we had our rst date a long time ago. Is e Invite good rst date material for 2026?
It depends. It’s certainly not the worst choice for a rst date movie. at distinction goes to my college Latin professor who, while he was a classical studies graduate student, took a rst date to a Roman epic called Caligula, thinking he knew all there was to know about early Imperial Roman history, and that novelist-turnedscreenwriter Gore Vidal and a cast like Malcom McDowell, John Gielgud, Helen Mirren, and Peter O’Toole would lend a touch of prestige to the picture. What he didn’t know was that the lm was produced by Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione, who added extensive hardcore pornography sequences without the knowledge or consent of director Tinto Brass. Needless to say, my professor didn’t get a second date.
Wilde shoots her actors in their limited space with relentless creativity.
I think you and your date could potentially learn a lot about your mutual compatibility, or at least your relative tolerance for and/or enjoyment of raunchy sex jokes, by observing each other’s reactions to director Olivia Wilde’s comedy. It’s based on a 2020 Spanish play and lm e People Upstairs by writer/director Cesc Gay, so it’s got some of those Euro sex farce vibes, like early Pedro Almodóvar. It’s also an example of what we lm critics call a comedy of remarriage, where a couple’s relationship is put into crisis for laughs, hopefully resulting in a renewed commitment.
e relationship in question is between Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Wilde). We meet Joe rst, at his job as the worst high school band teacher ever. We soon learn he is a hipster gone to seed. His indie rock band had a single hit 20 years ago (which, not coincidentally, was about Angela), but he never thought to prepare for life post minor pop stardom, so now he’s washed
up and bitter about it. But what does he really have to be bitter about? He’s got a great apartment in San Francisco, a beautiful wife, and a lovely tween daughter named Maggie. e apartment was inherited from his well-o parents, so that doesn’t make him feel like less of a failure. As for Angela, she’s a stay-at-home mom with a seething core of anxiety that no amount of Xanax can quiet.
When Joe gets home a er yet another frustrating bike commute, he discovers that Angela has sent Maggie to a friend’s for a sleepover, and she’s got an elaborate dinner prepared, including a sou é. Did he get the wine? No, he did not. Well, she texted him about it, and now they’re not going to have anything to drink when the neighbors arrive. is is the rst Joe’s heard about dinner with the upstairs neighbors, Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pína (Penélope Cruz) who, let’s face it, are kinda weird. Plus, their late-night sex noises have been waking up the whole building. No, Angela says, they talked about it last night, and if he would ever listen to her, he would know about the dinner. Well, Joe couldn’t be expected to pick up a bunch of wine while he’s on his bike, could he? It’s literally a cargo bike, Joe. And please don’t confront them about the sex noises. We’re trying to make friends here.
You get the feeling that most of Joe and Angela’s conversations have been like this for a while now. But when Hawk and Pína arrive, it’s a di erent vibe. Instead of weird and stando sh, they’re relaxed and welcoming. He’s a widowed, retired re ghter; she’s a recently divorced sexologist. ey found each other just last year,
and the relationship has been very healing for both of them. And hey, about those sex noises … Wilde’s direction is immaculate. Practically the entire lm takes place in Joe’s apartment, which is big for an apartment in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world, but not huge by any stretch. Wilde shoots her actors in their limited space with relentless creativity, including a rarely seen Double Reverse Citizen Kane Shot. e pacing ranges from fast to frantic, despite the lack of anything resembling an action scene. But where Wilde really excels is working with actors. Norton, Cruz, and Rogen have never been better. Norton e ortlessly sells Hawk’s eccentricities, and watching Cruz nally sit down to try to work out why Joe and Angela are so screwed up, I wished she could be my therapist. Rogen serves up rapid- re sarcasm, but you can see Joe
ghting to keep his pain below the surface. As for Wilde, she channels the great Lucille Ball, all wide eyes and dgety limbs. Crucially, she could make herself the star, but when she’s not behind the camera, she’s always supporting the ensemble. Ultimately, e Invite is all about what makes a good relationship, and what goes wrong in a bad relationship. It’s a great date movie, and if you’re brave enough, it can be a great rst date movie. If your date doesn’t like it, maybe they’re not the one for you.
e Invite
Now playing Multiple locations
Our critic picks the best films in theaters. The Odyssey
Director Christopher Nolan tackles the Greek epic which has confounded filmmakers for generations. Odysseus (Matt Damon) is the king of the Bronze Age city-state of Ithaca. After Helen (Lupita Nyong’o) is kidnapped, Odysseus raises an army and leads his fellow Greeks into battle against the rival city-state of Troy. The siege drags on for years, until Odysseus lands on a plan to smuggle soldiers behind the walls of Troy inside a giant wooden horse. The gates are flung open, Troy is sacked, and the Greeks head home, where Odysseus’ wife, queen Penelope (Anne Hathaway) is beset by palace intrigue, led by chief schemer Antonius (Robert Pattinson). But Odys-
seus’ trip home is complicated by storms and poor navigation. Despite the help of the goddess Athena (Zendaya), he and his crew are attacked by a cyclops (Bill Irwin), bewitched by sorceress Circe (Samantha Morton), kidnapped by the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron), confronted by the twin perils of Scylla and Charybdis, and generally have the worst trip home in the history of humanity. This is the first narrative film to be shot entirely in IMAX.
Moana (2026)
The other film about an epic sea voyage this week is the live-action remake of the 2016 Disney animated musical starring Catherine Laga’aia as the titular heroine and a bewigged Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as the demigod Maui.
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LAST WORD
By Nandini Kondisetti
Cultivating critical thinking in the age of AI.
“Class, we’ll have an essay analyzing the rhetorical choices the author uses to develop her argument due tomorrow.”
A melancholic wave of groans utters across the classroom as my English teacher turns toward the whiteboard. e classmate next to me opens a blank Word document, then immediately split-screens it with the latest Al technology. And a reccurring process begins: paste prompt, generate ideas, copy text, substitute a few words here and there, and submit. What could have been a genuine struggle with a text, a moment of grappling with meaning, became a jargon- lled analysis of something never even read. But this is more than simply a classroom annoyance; it’s a symptom of a more complex issue. is dilemma is emblematic of the paradox of e ortless information access; the easier thinking becomes, the less we learn to think. And this is precisely why we must re-implement the humanities in our school system.
Students today are being brought into a world where Al can generate thoughts, arguments, and analyses for them, while concepts like creativity, innovation, and collaboration are being downgraded in favor of convenience and accessibility. e College Board recently released statistics noting a surge from “79 to 84 percent between January and May 2025” of high schoolers using some form of generative AI for schoolwork. But this issue goes far beyond AI. Our ability to thoughtfully engage, think critically, and meaningfully debate abstract concepts is diminishing. Understanding other diverse cultures around us, familiarizing ourselves with our nation’s history and faults, and pursuing general knowledge of contemporary issues are skills that are all fading. We must be able to acknowledge and re ect upon the consequences of human innovation and ambition, and obtain the basic skills to think for ourselves that are so essential to the progression of humanity.
Renowned philosopher Martha Nussbaum once wrote: “ e humanities teach us critical thinking, how to analyze arguments, and how to imagine life from the point of view of someone unlike yourself.”
e pursuit of education should be guided by the values of seeking to understand the world around us and the people within it while also revisiting ideas and beliefs of those before us, including the ancient philosophers, artistic masters, and writing virtuosos. What truly shapes thoughtful citizens are o en the disciplines that are ignored by the current education system. We must shi our focus to literature, history, philosophy, and culture. Reviving these arts in schools would not in ict a nancial burden or require grand reinventions. Schools should implement productive seminars throughout the school day, structuring discussions during class time on current issues and prioritizing genuine interpretations of material over AI regurgitation. We must return to reading before summarizing, thinking before searching, and forming an argument before asking technology to create one. ese changes are the rst step to cultivating students who can critically and independently think rather than conveniently and super cially conform.
Inevitably, an education centered on the humanities faces predictable objections, from parents wanting “practical” majors to administrators prioritizing test scores and students trained to equate rigor with quanti able answers. However, employers across industries o en seek critical thinking, communication, creativity, and problem-solving, all core aspects of the humanities. Journalist Melissa Russell notes that the top 10 skills job employers seek, according to a World Economic Forum report and a LinkedIn survey, “have nothing to do with technology” and that “human intuition, relationships, and decision-making are crucial” even in today’s workforce. While standardized tests like the ACT o er quanti able certainties, they cannot measure ethics, empathy, and moral character. Humanities cultivate these qualities not by providing a single “correct” answer but by inviting multiple interpretations and perspectives. eir very subjectivity is their rigor: One cannot simply Google one’s way to a universally accepted truth about justice, identity, or historical memory. One must think one’s way there without the continuous dependence on AI. And this is what society urgently needs most: a generation capable of wrestling with “it depends” rather than defaulting to “generate response.” Introducing a curriculum encircling arts, music, culture, and literature is pivotal to developing a generation of critical thinkers, e ective communicators, and informed citizens. ese roles embody the very principles that teach us how to face a blank page, how to listen, how to build arguments, and how to empathize with people whose stories di er from ours. But most importantly, such virtues teach us to experience satisfaction and genuine curiosity within the fundamental process of obtaining information and developing a well-informed character. is is why we must revive the humanities in schools, as they remind us not to resist advancing technology but to remain human in the midst of it, both improving and preserving the educational experience. Nandini Kondisetti, a rising high school junior, is founder and editor-in-chief of the 901 Law Review, the student representative on the Town of Collierville Environmental Commission, and Concertmaster of the Collierville High School Orchestra.
