Test Drive a Scion, Drink Coffee, Support UrbanArt

Morning, sleepy heads. I would have mentioned this earlier, but I was unfortunately delayed by a blockwide power outage here at beautiful sunny 460 Tennessee Street. Phones were down, people were cussing, and those brave souls venturing into out already cavernous restrooms had to use their cell phones to illuminate the way.

At any rate, the point is that today and tomorrow, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. (and yes, I know it is already after 11 today. Like I said: Power outage.) you can stop by Otherlands on Cooper and test drive a Toyota Scion.

For doing so, you will receive a free $15 gift card, "with the option of donating a portion towards producing UrbanArt's series of community murals this summer."

I think I may have mentioned recently about UrbanArt director John Weeden's war on ugly landscapes and his feelings about the transformative power of murals.

I completely agree. There's one mural I always notice when I'm in Fort Worth. It's really simple — just a zipper across the building, unzipping to reveal blue sky and a feather — but it's in the middle of ugly buildings and surface parking lots, and it completely transforms the nature of the block.


Apparently the building used to house a Dickies factory. Whenever I see it, it just makes me laugh and I think that goes a long way in diminishing any ugliness around it.

Flyer 3.0

If you're wondering why the Flyer site hasn't been updated in, oh, about 24 hours, it's because we're in the midst of a change. A new leaf, if you will.

Sometime today, our new website will be uploaded. I'm not sure what change you, the reader, will see immediately. But suffice it to say, there will be changes.

In addition to all the things you already know and love — our online content, our Justin Timberlake updates, our breaking news — we'll be adding several blogs (like this one, hint, hint. But more on that later) and social networking components. (More on that later, too.)

So I guess just stay tuned. And if you dial up the Flyer site and it looks super-awesome (or wonky), now you know why.

Memphis Madness

Can't get enough of brackets?

We have another one for you. A toe-to-toe match-up of all of your favorite Memphians.

Following the lead of American Idol, we pit Alexis Grace against Lil Rounds. Will the result be the same as it was last night?

In other battles, Al Green takes on B.B. King; Steve Cohen takes on Steve Gaines; Drake goes up against Zeke.

You pick the winners. First round begins today — and it's split into four separate surveys, just FYI, so you'll need to click on all four — and second round will begin Saturday.

I don't have a picture of the bracket, but by looking at the order of the competitions, you can tell who will be facing off (winner permitting in the second and subsequent rounds).

We begin with entertainment — Click Here to take survey

Then move on to media — Click Here to take survey

politicians — Click Here to take survey

and all the rest. Click Here to take survey

Have fun! Voting begins ... now!

Super Thursday

I'll be in and out all day (no, I'm not sneaking off to watch basketball somewhere) but watch the Memphis Flyer site for our Memphis Madness bracket.

All Wet

A few days ago, I promised that my column would contain an interesting term for a torrential downpour.

Well, I had 14 pages of notes to weave into 800 words about the proposed detention basin in Overton Park and that one phrase — no matter how much I liked it — simply did not make the cut.

But, luckily, someone invented the internet, and now we have unlimited room to say whatever we might have left out elsewhere.

So I was talking with George Cox, senior design engineer at the city, and he said that the proposed basin would drain within eight to 10 hours of a hard rain. Then he followed it up with this:

"Who's walking their dog when it's raining like a frog-strangler?"

If this is already part of your vocabulary, I just have one question: Why haven't you said it in front of me?

Cox also explained that the term "100-year storm" means there is a 1 percent chance in ANY year of a storm that heavy occurring. A 20-year storm has a 5 percent chance of it occurring any year; a 5-year storm has a 20 percent chance of happening each year. So you could, conceivably, have two 100-year storms two years, or even two weeks, in a row.

But that's enough math for today.

For those who want more info, there is a new Save the Greensward website. Or you can look for your brand-new Flyer — it's got a gun on the cover and should be on the Memphis streets by this afternoon — and read my column.

Flood Waters

I didn't know the term "gulley-washer" until I moved to Memphis. The first time I heard it, I was in my car, driving down a four-lane Poplar Avenue (the two outside lanes were flooded), and someone on the radio said "this is a real gulley washer."

I thought, that is exactly what this is. (I learned another term for it today that is even better but you'll have to read the Flyer next week to hear that one.)

Several years ago, when the city enacted the storm water fee, I wrote about flooding in several areas of the city.

And I've been following the proposed Overton Park detention basin since it was announced/came out on CPOP's blog a week or so ago.

The more I talk to people about it, the more I think this city needs to have a serious conversation about storm water and how it should deal with it.

I've talked to concerned citizens, park advocates, homeowners who have had thousands of dollars of damage to their homes because of flooding, and city engineers, and the one thing that keeps coming up — sometimes into people's basements — is that there is nowhere for the storm water to go.

The city seems to be trying to fix the problems, but we can't just keep making creek channels larger and creating detention facilities on every large piece of vacant, public land. We need to stop the problem where it starts.

As the Sierra Club's James Baker said at Wednesday night's VECA meeting, the Overton Park project is, at best, "a bandage that covers a festering wound, not anything that heals it."

We need to start looking at impermeable surfaces and how to limit them. Chicago and Portland both have green-street initiatives to helf manage storm-water run-off. In Palo Alto, California, the storm drain utility offers rebates to residents who use rain barrels, cisterns, vegetated roofs, and permeable pavements, all of which reduce the amount of run-off.

Ha!

I have one of the company video cameras in my possession. Be afraid, be v. afraid.

TERRA House Tour

So, I'd just like to mention that I'm a print journalist, first and foremost. And frankly, I've always considered myself better with the writing end of things than the reporting end of things.

That being said, the world is multi-media and we're trying to do our part over here at 460 Tennessee St.

Below you'll find a link to a virtual video tour of the University of Memphis' TERRA House project. DPC's Eric Criswell was nice enough to take me on a tour of the house last week to show me all its environmentally friendly features. And there are a ton so, especially if you can't get to one of the tours in March, you should check it out.

But before you watch it, I think I have to also say, in my defense, that:

1. I am something of a spaz.

2. I have not used any movie editing software before.

3. Next time I will try not to say as much, seeing as how my mouth was right next to the video camera (since I was holding it and all). And I might try to get a professional voice-over person/coach.

4. I was filming at — essentially — a construction site. Not only was there a lot of background noise, sometimes workpeople had to move past me to get where they were going. And it is hard to move your feet without moving your arm.

But as they say, it's a poor carpenter who blames his tools (or, alternately, my dad's favorite, "Excuses, excuses").

So, roll 'em. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Fairgrounds Update UPDATE

Yesterday, I wrote that council members Barbara Swearengen Ware and Kemp Conrad had called the funding plan for the fairgrounds redevelopment project "pie in the sky" and "half-baked," respectively.

Conrad asked me to clarify his position on the fairgrounds proposal, saying he thought the plan half-baked because the process isn't working:

"I like the idea of private development paying for public improvements. I like the development team and their vision for the project, their track record and their diversity.

What is 'half baked' is a project totally predicated on $100 million in retail sales – yet we have just now receiving the retail study (which I recommended months ago) that

A) will confirm or not if this level of retail sales is even feasible – especially in this economy, and

B) where will these sales come from? I.e. Are we cannibalizing existing retail dollars that are being spent in Memphis? Or are they net new dollars that are currently being spent in Mississippi or Arkansas?

One has to look no further than the Winchester corridor – a carcass of once vibrant retail – now dead due in large part to retail spending migration to Wolfchase once it was built.

Also, if the majority of the $100 million are Memphis sales tax dollars now – the sales tax dollars these sales generate will then be diverted from the general fund (and we have a deficit as I’m sure you know) to be plowed into the public improvements."

The council is expected to hold a three-hour evening meeting in the near future to discuss the project.

Mitigating the Mortgage Crisis

The city is still pursing a lawsuit against national mortgage lenders as part of its response to area foreclosures, says city CFO Robert Lipscomb.

Lipscomb and a team of public/private partners went before the City Council yesterday to update them on local plans to mitigate the mortgage crisis.

Co-chairs of four committees presented several strategies to the council, including job fairs, a sort of monster.com for Memphis residents, and asking the Postal Service and MLGW for information on vacant homes.

(Inside baseball alert: My colleague John Branston and I talk a lot about how many foreclosures and vacant homes there are, exactly. County assessor Cheyenne Johnson, who is co-chair of the committee looking to MLGW, has one number. RealtyTrac and other data services have others, and it's very confusing, b/c it just doesn't seem like anyone really knows.

Johnson's committee, the IT and fiscal planning committee, says that the postal service knows when a house is vacant and MLGW knows when they get a cut-off notice and they're trying to collect as much data as they can.)

The city and county also are expected to receive a combined $14 million in Neighborhood Stabilization Funds from the federal government.

Housing and Community Development deputy director Beverly Goines said the city expects the neighborhood stabilization contract to come from HUD within the next 30 to 60 days. Within 30 days of getting the contract, the city will execute its program.

I think we might have talked about this program before. More than once.

Council member Barbara Swearengen Ware asked Goines if the program is going to help homeowners whose houses have been foreclosed on: "[If] they desire to be back in their homes, is that money available to them?"

"They would have to be able to qualify for a 30-year fixed-term loan and it would probably be difficult to do if you already had a foreclosure," Goines replied.

"So this program will not help a person who has lost their home?" Ware persisted.

"It might help them in terms of a rental property, but not home ownership," said Goines.

The money is really intended to shore up neighborhoods (thus the name). It's not going to help Joe Schmoe who just got kicked out of his house.

I'm not sure this was the way to go. It seems it might be a good idea to try to keep people in their own houses instead of letting them get kicked out under a foreclosure procedure, buying the house, renovating it, and reselling it. I mean, first question: Reselling it to who?

But under the federal guidelines, the city and county are only allowed to use the money in very specific ways. They're allowed to use the funding to acquire land for a land bank, for instance, but they're not allowed to use it to maintain the land in the land bank.

The city plans to acquire and rehab about 145 vacant homes with help from local community development corporations.

Mollie Fontaine is Hot

This year, the hotties photoshoot was supposed to look like a party with ridiculously, ridiculously good-looking guests.

You know, eating, drinking, chatting ... just having a good time.

I was initially kind of worried that we'd get our assorted group of hotties (and some spouses, partners, etc.) together and they'd look at each other and it would be


*crickets*





BUT it totally wasn't. At all. We set up shop at the unparalled Mollie Fontaine Lounge around 5 p.m. and the hotties started getting there a short time later.

We had the upstairs pretty much to ourselves, which was good, b/c I think we would have been disruptive to any other diners.

We got everyone drinks and Melissa started shooting and we started talking and some people actually knew each other and, suddenly, it didn't just look like a party. It WAS a party.



Seriously, people who didn't know each other an hour before were suddenly laughing like they were old friends. I felt like I had known them all forever (and not just because I knew all of their favorite colors).

So, first off, thanks for everyone who nominated someone for the issue. It was extremely hard to choose, b/c everyone was so darn good-looking, and we couldn't have done it without you.

Secondly, thanks to all of our hotties and Melissa and Chip for showing up, smiling pretty, working hard, being nice, and just generally making all the magic I plan to take credit for around the office.

And last, thanks to Mollie Fontaine's for letting us soak in their atmosphere and to the wonderful staff who were pleasant and helpful and made pretty drinks. We had a great time and, by the way, the mac&cheese is really quite excellent.

The issue will hit stands tomorrow morning — look for it!

We're also having our now annual Hotties Party at the Red Rooster Thursday night from 5 to 8 p.m. I hear the drink special is the Rooster Booster and that we'll have free appetizers. I'd love to see you there!

Memories of the Negro Leagues

"Joe Scott: Memories of the Negro Leagues," a documentary in which Memphis Redbirds vice president Reggie Williams interviewed the former baseball player, was recently nominated for a regional Emmy award.

Scott played for the Memphis Red Sox from 1944 to 1949 and was the first African American to play at Wrigley Field. Last summer, the Memphian was "drafted" by the Milwaukee Brewers in a special draft for the surviving Negro League players.

From the Redbirds media release:

"Scott played during a time when some of the baseball’s greatest names graced the Negro Leagues.

'I can’t imagine the impact of meeting or playing against such baseball greats as Satchel Page, Cool Papa Bell, and Double Duty Radcliff,' Williams said. 'It had to have had a tremendous influence on Mr. Scott’s life and his ever present positive attitude to each day that he lives. He is truly a Memphis treasure.'"

Joe Scott: Back in the day

I met Joe Scott one Sunday at church years ago and was instantly charmed. I don't know if he still does this, but at the time, he used to carry around laminated copies of his baseball cards and give them out. I wish I could find the card he gave me — I think it said something about him swinging a big stick and he explained to me that meant he was a good batter.

A Commercial Appeal story from last year says that he had a .714 batting average one season, so I guess so.

The Mid-South Regional Emmies will be announced Jan. 24th.

Green Fees

Justin Timberlake's Millington golf course is going to be a little greener than most.

During our morning meeting today, Flyer editor Bruce VanWyngarden mentioned that the golf course was going to be ecologically friendly when it re-opens. The buildings, for instance, will meet the highest LEED standards.

From a PGA interview with the singer last September:

"We said why don't we refurbish it and make it even nicer for the community. Then I asked questions about what we could possibly do, and we found out we could actually make it a 'green course.' So when it's finished this summer it will be a Platinum LEED certified green course. The first in the United States of America, so that's pretty exciting that you could take all that land and make it eco-friendly."

History

Things are a little crazy around the Flyer today, what with the Monday holiday, company-wide computer problems and, I don't know, a historic presidential inauguration!

But I should be back later. Just wanted to let the internets know what was up.

Retail, Robotic Pets, Revamping the Work Week

Sorry, internets, I know I've neglected you today. Over here at the Flyer, we've been working like little elves to get our various year ends/year begins issues out and ready to go before the office closes for the holidays.

It is exhausting.

At any rate, here are some interesting stories that you've probably already read, but if you didn't, here you go:

— The NYT had a story about Emeryville, California, yesterday, a town across the bay from San Fran that built its economy on being a retail mecca:

"It is also one of many American cities that hitched its wagon over the last several decades to what seemed like the limitless ability of American shoppers to spend money. Now that faith in the retail engine is being sorely tested. Consumer spending dropped 7.8 percent in November, according to the federal government, and many economists think it will fall further as consumers are buffeted by losses in the stock market, declines in home values and the unsettling fear that they may lose their jobs."

The town was once steel mills and factories and reinvented itself with retail after those industries left for other countries. The town banded together with a redevelopment agency, tax incentives, and a plan that basically gave land to developers. It was successful until this latest downturn, which has seen area businesses post declines and the city thinking of raising taxes.

— Slate has a story about the best robotic pet for Christmas. Now, to be honest, I don't really see the point in having a virtual pet when you could have a real pet, but between mountains of dog hair, crazyloud barking at anything more than dust, and, oh, crazyloud barking, I am beginning to come around to the idea of taking the batteries out of your pet when you're tired.

Writer Daniel Engber got the chance to petsit and realizes his membership "in a sad demographic that includes shiftless magazine editors, small children and senior citizens. We're the sorry lot that adores animals but is too lazy, uncoordinated, or inform to take care of them."

Engber surveyed a wide spectrum of robot/pets and had this to say:

"As much as I enjoyed the exercise, it soon became clear that at every price point, a robot pet can be described by its signature combination of essential robot qualities: It's annoying, disturbing, offensive, pathetic, or scary — or some mixture thereof. In the end, though, one fake animal whirred and purred his way into my heart."

It was the Pleo, which is an 8-inch-high, automated Camarasaurus. (Just to cut to the chase.)

(If you're looking for more of a robot doll — the kind for kids! — than a robot pet, click here.)

— More employers are looking to the four-day work week to cut costs. From BusinessWeek:

"Like many companies, Pella is looking to cut expenses because of the economic downturn. But instead of laying off more workers, the Iowa manufacturer of windows and doors is instituting a four-day workweek for about a third of its 3,900 employees. Chris Simpson, a senior vice-president at the company, acknowledges it's an unconventional move. But Pella believes the economy could turn around faster than most people expect, and it doesn't want to be caught short of experienced workers. "Our contention is, consumer confidence will rebound," says Simpson. "If there's a [government] stimulus package of some kind, we think people are going to respond."

Nothing But the Truth

The NYT has a review of "Nothing But the Truth," the Kate Beckinsale/Alan Alda/Angela Bassett journalism movie based loosely on the Valerie Plame/Judith Miller situation and partly filmed in Memphis, most notably, perhaps, in the CA's newsroom.

Unfortunately, review Manohla Darvis is disappointed:

"It is evidently impossible to make a movie about two adversarial women without dragging in their families, because without needy children and angry, fed-up husbands — David Schwimmer plays Rachel’s mewling husband, while a barely present Jamey Sheridan plays Erica’s — these two female characters and their desires, successes and rages apparently wouldn’t rate screen time. That’s too bad for all sorts of reasons, including this one: when not cooing inanities at pipsqueaks, the actresses are pretty good, both together and individually. There’s pleasure in watching them go Manolo a Manolo against each other, particularly Ms. Farmiga, who fills out her size 0 with macho swagger. Despite a shaky start, Ms. Beckinsale does eventually look the part of the harassed and haggard heroine, if largely by not wearing any eye makeup."

Does this soccer field look familiar?

I'll probably still see it, if not for the journalism connection then for the inside peek of the CA newsroom.

I think I posted some clips from the movie a few weeks ago on memphisflyer.com, but then again, maybe I didn't. If you're interested in seeing them, click here.

The Hotness

Now that it's Thanksgiving — Happy Turkey Day, btw! — Christmas is right around the corner. Then there's New Year's, MLK, and Valentine's Day.

They'll be here sooner than you think.

I mention Valentine's Day now because every so often, someone will contact me and say, I have a person who would make a great hottie. And I usually respond, "That's great! Where were you last January?" or if I'm less grumpy, "That's great! Remind me in January."

One of last year's hotties, Lux owner Tadd Feazell

This year, we're getting a jump on things. We're soliciting nominations for our annual Hotties issue, which coincides with Valentine's Day each February, beginning now and running until mid- to late-January.

Please email hottienoms@memphisflyer.com with your nominee's name, a little bit about them, a way to get in touch with them such as their phone number and email address, as well as, and this is very important, a picture. Of them.

We're not trying to be all superficial, but the issue is called The Hottie Issue ...

What's in it for you?

Well, the Hotties will be the Flyer's special guests at our annual Hotties party and if you're the one who nominated them, maybe they'll bring you as their plus one?

Spotlight Suspension

I haven't been a journalist all that long — certainly not compared to some of my colleagues — but the fairly recent addition of internet analytics and user comments makes it very easy to tell what kind of stories have traction with readers.

Case in point, Bianca Phillips Q&A with former "First 48" detective Caroline Mason in April 2007.

Fans of the true-crime show loved Caroline Mason (before the MPD decided to cease working with A&E on the show). Even though we ran that story more than a year ago, it seems that every few months someone would find it and comment on how much they liked Caroline Mason. (And I'm using the word "like," but the feelings seemed a lot stronger than that.)

I was reminded of all this because Mason was in the CA again yesterday. It seems she received a one-day suspension for participating in the paper's "Spotlight on Mom" section without getting proper authorization from the police department to do so.

I'm not going to second guess the MPD, but it seems that they'd want someone like Mason — someone who people feel so positively about — out in front of the department.

For instance, after Phillips wrote about MPD suspending filming with "The First 48," one of the Flyer's commenters said this:

"Caroline Mason, along with all the other officers, have made Memphis proud, and regardless if the MPD decides to resign a contract with 'The First 48,' the MPD will always have my respect."

Fall Fashion, Flyer Style

True to my word — if you want to see the movie posters that inspired the Flyer's (my) fall fashion issue, side-to-side with our homages, of course, click here.

Silver Screen Style

The Flyer's Fall Fashion Issue hits the stands today. If you haven't seen it, well, A — you should make a point to, and B — we took inspiration for our photos from classic (mostly) movie posters.

Fittingly, we shot the whole thing on the South Main sound-stage that MGM used to use for screen tests (it's now Flyer favorite photographer Justin Fox Burks' studio). It is a rad building, tho I don't think the renovations are completely done.

A behind the scenes shot with our Marilyn. (I do wear other things besides black shirts and jeans,
but not, apparently, in photos that make it to this blog.)

Also, if you're interested in seeing a little animation of the Marilyn shoot or the original movie posters (along with our images), please visit the Flyer's website.

TEENY, TINY CORRECTION: It appears the web-only fashion features aren't quite up on the website yet, so don't click there yet. But I'll let you know when. Promise.