Links to Memphis

'Modernist Cuisine' author recalls Memphis in May barbecue lessons from John Willingham

2012-05-17T01:16:33Z

On modernistcuisine.com, the companion blog to the stunning four-volume cookbook set "Modernist Cuisine" (just $456.09 on sale at Amazon!), author Nathan Myhrvold recounts "My First Memphis in May." His story involves learning the finer points of competition-style barbecue from one of the masters: multiple-time Memphis in May barbecue champion, former Shelby County commissioner and local political gadfly and sometime-restaurateur John Willingham. Keep in mind that "Modernist Cuisine" explains the "molecular gastronomy" phenomenon in which food preparation seems to involve as much chemical engineering and conceptual art as actual cooking. It turns out that technology -- here in the form of Willingham's patented smoker -- is as important to a perfect slab of smoked pork ribs as it is to flavored foams and powdered oils.

We had about a three-hour phone interview in which I had to justify that I was worthy of acquiring a cooker. He also had concerns about the rainy weather in Seattle, and how that would affect the cooker. In the end, I did get my cooker, and with it I made the best ribs I'd ever made. But they weren't as good as John's. So I tried again, and I tried again, and I called him on the phone. Clearly, I was not quite getting all the elements together.
Exasperated, I said, "John, why don't I just come down to Memphis and maybe you can teach me."
He said, "Oh, that's great. Why don't you come down in May. We have a little contest coming."
On my way there I thought, okay, I'm going to have a couple hours of barbecue instruction, and then I'm going to go over to Beale Street and hear some jazz, and then maybe I'll tour Graceland, and then I'll go home. It'll be pretty straightforward, a fun weekend. Well, it turned out his little contest was the Memphis in May World Championship of Barbecue Cooking Contest.
John handed me an apron and said, "You're on the team; it's the only way you'll learn."

Washington Post: Memphis in May barbecue contest 'returns to its watery home'

2012-05-15T22:29:51Z

The Washington Post's All We Can Eat food blog notes today that the Memphis in May World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, set for this weekend, is returning to its rightful home after last year's move to the fairgrounds due to the flooding:

Launched in 1978, the MiM barbecue contest is widely regarded as the granddaddy of 'cue competitions. It has grown from 26 teams its first year to around 250 teams now, with an attendance upwards of 100,000.
Last year, massive flooding forced the contest from its longtime home at Tom Lee Park on the banks of the Mississippi River to the higher ground of the Mid-South Fairgrounds. The festival is back at Tom Lee Park this year, along with its fabled Ms. Piggie Idol Contest, featuring men in dresses and plastic pig snouts performing barbecue-themed songs.
"It's wonderful," MiM Vice President Diane Hampton told Smoke Signals about being back at Tom Lee. "This is where it's supposed to be: on the river. People come from all over the world to eat Memphis barbecue. The river is part of the Memphis experience."

Project SAFEWAYS showing success in Memphis' Autumn Ridge complex, consultants say

2012-05-14T23:31:18Z

The Huffington Post is running a series of blog posts focusing on the success of the Project SAFEWAYS initiative in cleaning up the once notoriously crime-ridden Autumn Ridge apartment complex in Hickory Hill in Memphis. Today's first part was written by Melody Barnes, former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, along with consultants Willa Seldon and Jennifer Mrowka:

There, 95 percent of the people stayed put and signed a lease agreement as part of a community-wide change effort and have seen an 80 percent overall decline in crime, along with the emergence of a true and growing community.

The people most responsible for crime moved. In place of gangs, after-school programs are now available to children. Mothers helped form a Girl Scout troop. And the complex, once 30 percent vacant and teetering on foreclosure, has attracted hundreds of engaged new residents. Meanwhile, throughout Shelby County, where Autumn Ridge is located, a related effort has reduced robbery by 42 percent since 2006 and burglary by nearly 22 percent, also making Autumn Ridge safer.

The story of Autumn Ridge is a classic example of a "community collaborative" -- a coordinated effort among many stakeholders to tackle big, complex social issues. These collaboratives aim for significant change; engage residents as well as business, community and political leaders; use data to improve over time; and are committed long-term.

The essay goes on to mention the Memphis Police Department's data-driven policing strategies as well as the contributions of a host of other parties, some public, some private, but all with a stake in creating safe communities in Memphis.

University of Memphis historian Susan O'Donovan featured on John Legend segment of PBS' 'Finding Your Roots'

2012-05-14T22:23:01Z

A University of Memphis history scholar was a featured expert on this past Sunday's episode of the PBS celebrity genealogy series "Finding Your Roots," hosted by well-known Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Susan O'Donovan, a specialist in antebellum history, spoke during an episode exploring the roots of comedian Wanda Sykes and R&B singer-songwriter John Legend (pictured), both of whom discovered in the show that they are descended from free black Americans. One of Legend's ancestors who had been freed by his master sought out his still-enslaved children and bought them himself, putting them on their own path to freedom. O'Donovan explained that this was common practice before the Civil War, when free black Americans sought to protect their loved ones who were subject to being kidnapped and sold back into bondage.

I have done my best to transcribe the first of O'Donovan's segments. View the entire program on the embedded video player below. The first segment with O'Donovan comes on around 19 minutes in:

GATES: To understand why a former slave would buy his own relatives, we headed to the University of Memphis, where historian Susan O'Donovan studies antebellum American history.

O'DONOVAN: Free people of color sometimes find it in their best interest to own their families. I mean, for starters, this is, you know, they're living in a system that's structured around the protection of slave property, so you've got to have law on your side.

In buying one's family, you have control over that family, and then you can, you know, free them.

Watch John Legend and Wanda Sykes on PBS. See more from Finding Your Roots.

'Always give your mother the best' -- like brunch at Paulette's, says Memphis CNN iReporter

2012-05-11T00:21:04Z

Ahead of Mother's Day, CNN invited its iReporters to share their memories of their mothers and of celebrating the special day. Memphian Nicholas Pegues called me to let me know about his iReport, which recalled Mother's Day 2010 when he and his brother Aaron Davis took their mom, Marilyn Hegman-Davis, to Paulette's, the long-running Memphis restaurant that has been a favorite for special-occasion dining for decades. Pegues' iReport happened to selected for CNN.com's "8 ideas for a memorable Mother's Day." Here's what CNN wrote:

The National Retail Federation reports that about 54.3% of Mother's Day celebrants say they'll be going out for brunch or dinner.
When iReporter Nicholas Pegues and his brother took their mother, Marilyn Hegman-Davis, to brunch in 2010, they didn't choose any old pancake spot. They surprised her with a trip to Paulette's, a Memphis institution for nearly 40 years. Even more special, Pegues said, was that his mother often spoke fondly of dining there when she was younger.
"I'm a college student. Even if you're on a tight budget, you can still give your mother a quality gift," Pegues said. "Paulette's means something -- it's a trademark. She was real surprised. 'You're listening!' "

As Pegues points out, that Mother's Day dinner was significant furthermore since Paulette's moved last year out of its longtime Overton Square digs to a new location Downtown in the River Inn on Harbor Town Square. Now all those Mother's Days, proms, Valentine's Days and after-concert desserts at Paulette's can fade into memory along with so many other good times on old Overton Square.

NPR talks to Memphis' Wooddale 'Fly Boys' ahead of rocket contest

2012-05-10T01:06:59Z

NPR follows up today on one of the true feel-good stories out of Memphis so far this year. Recall the Wooddale High School "Fly Boys," two top-notch students in the school's aviation program who won the chance to compete in the elite nationwide Team America Rocketry Challenge, which takes place this weekend in Washington. Darius Hooker and Wesley Carter beat out thousands of other hopefuls to earn a berth in the competition, but they and their school lacked the money to pay for the trip to Washington and back in time for graduation. Sure enough, though, Memphis came through with donations to support these two impressive young men, their sponsors and classmates on their quest.

Here are some excerpts from Hooker and Carter's chat with NPR's Michel Martin; transcript and audio available here.

MARTIN: I'm imagining that being in the rocket club, particularly when you were younger guys, was probably like being in the glee club, not the coolest. I don't know. So I just wanted to ask - did you ever have that experience and how did you, you know, overcome the usual?
HOOKER: My ninth and 10th grade year, to be honest - yeah. We were counted like the outcasts of the whole thing. My 11th and 12th grade year, me and Wesley kind of turned that around 100 percent. We were like the guys on campus. We are what's happening and, I mean, people see that we have things going for ourselves, so everybody wants a piece of what's going on. I didn't let anybody's worries get me down. I always knew what I was waking up to go to school for at the end of the day.
MARTIN: Wesley, what about you?
CARTER: We came in our ninth grade year and we would sit in class and, you know, everybody would be like, oh, hey, Darius - or hey, Wesley, can you give us the answers to this, this, this? And we would be completely nice about it, but once we got out of class, we had no friends at all, so me and Darius had to keep each other up.

PICTURED: Wooddale High School seniors Wesley Carter (left) and Darius Hooker, show off the rocket that qualified their team to go to Washington DC for the finals of the Team America Rocketry Challenge.

Elvis hologram duet with Justin Bieber? That 'would be a cool thing'

2012-04-27T20:33:53Z

Years before the towering "hologram" of Tupac Shakur sat in with Dr. Dre a few weeks ago at Coachella, there was "Elvis in Concert '97" at the Pyramid, with The King checking in from beyond via massive video screen to perform with former sidemen and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra on the 20th anniversary of his death. That concert launched a subsequent tour as well as a similar 25th anniversary show in 2002 at the Pyramid. Now the company behind the Tupac stunt is considering other celebrities to bring back larger than life. From NME:

From Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix right through to Michael Jackson and even Whitney Houston - who only passed away in February - the eggheads from Musion Technology Ltd claim they've got a number of dead stars in their sights.

Speaking to NME, Head of Music at the firm Sanj Surati said that seeing Elvis onstage with Justin Bieber "would be a cool thing".

Yes, Justin Bieber. With Elvis. As someone on Fark commented in linking to MTV's story:

Team behind Tupac hologram consider a Bieber/Elvis duo. In other news, entire state of Tennessee being powered by spinning grave

PICTURED: Fans greet pop star Justin Bieber on Friday at London's Heathrow airport ahead of his album launch event.

Jeff Stachyra releases 'The Sultana: April 27, 1865' album tribute to Memphis disaster

2012-04-26T23:17:48Z

With the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and the 100th anniversary of the Titanic converging this year, it's a perfect time to remember the wreck of the Sultana, still the deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history. (We last remembered the Sultana on this blog back in December.) On April 27, 1865, the steamer, recklessly over capacity, exploded just a few miles from Memphis on its way to Cincinnati. Two-thirds of the 2,400 passengers crammed aboard the doomed steamer were killed, most of them Union soldiers freed from Confederate prison camps.

The Sultana never became a cultural and historical phenomenon on the scale of the Titanic. We in Memphis know something about it as it took place on our doorstep and hundreds of the dead are buried at Memphis National Cemetery. Now, a singer-songwriter from Binghamton, N.Y., has recorded a concept album dedicated to the disaster. "The Sultana: April 27, 1865" will be released at a "reunion" of scholars and Civil War buffs this weekend in Cincinnati. Jeff Stachyra was inspired to do the project to keep alive the lore of the Sultana and the memory of those who died, not Astors and Vanderbilts, but hundreds of common soldiers, emaciated from disease and crippled by wounds.

The whole thing with the Titanic versus the Sultana, where the Titanic gets all the attention and the Sultana gets none, I'm for the man on the street, the average Joe, the 99 percent," Stachyra said in an interview last week.

"Here are the poor guys who are coming home from the war after serving their country and creating the freedom we have today, and they don't get any recognition for that. In our world of fancy and glitzy, we're all driven toward the glamorous story."
Stachyra learned the full story on and off over four years -- as long as the Civil War lasted, he realizes now -- by reading every book on the Sultana and also doing his own research in St. Louis, Memphis, New York City and elsewhere.
Many elements of the sorry tale resonate today. War profiteering may have played a role: The Sultana's legal capacity was only 376, but more than 2,400 were crammed onboard in Vicksburg, allegedly because the captain had taken bribes to transport as many
soldiers as possible. Also, one theory posits that poorly repaired boilers were sabotaged by a Confederate agent getting one last act of revenge on the North.

In addition to his original song cycle, Stachyra recruited an orchestra to record a forgotten 1879 piece called "Sultana" that he discovered at the Library of Congress. A few groups have approached him about developing a "Sultana" musical based on his songs.

Off hand, other musical tributes include the early-'70s funk-rock track "Sultana" by a band incidentally called Titanic, and Son Volt's 2009 song "Sultana," written by frontman and Belleville, Ill., native Jay Farrar (I wouldn't be surprised to hear that one when Son Volt performs next Saturday at the Memphis in May Beale Street Music Festival.)

Eric Bana says he won't play Elvis in 'Elvis & Nixon'

2012-04-25T01:57:49Z

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Eric Bana is no longer attached to the in-development "Elvis & Nixon" film. The directorial debut of "The Princess Bride" actor Cary Elwes, "Elvis & Nixon" was to star Bana, an Australian known for doing a good Elvis impersonation, as The King and Danny Huston as Nixon. Bana also had signed on to executive produce the project.

As with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. movie projects, a fistful of Elvis projects are in various stages of development, but there's no telling when or if any of them will ultimately make it to the screens.

PICTURED: Eric Bana attends the world premiere of his new film, "Deadfall," on Sunday at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Former Memphian Wink Martindale remembers late friend, rival Dick Clark

2012-04-20T01:39:54Z

Josh Levin at Slate caught up with an old Memphian for reaction on last week's death of TV and pop culture icon Dick Clark. Wink Martindale, host of TV game shows including "High Rollers" and "Tic-Tac-Dough," grew up in Jackson, Tenn., and got his start in TV here in Memphis after graduating from then-Memphis State. His career basically paralleled Clark's (TV dance shows, game shows), and the two men were friends and business rivals for decades.

Martindale got his start in Memphis hosting a show called "Top 10 Dance Party." A personal friend of Elvis Presley--the King dated Martindale's future wife Sandy before he married Priscilla--the Tennessee native made his name by conducting an extensive early on-air interview with Elvis. Though Martindale has heard that he was under consideration for hosting duties onAmerican Bandstand in 1956, that job went to Clark, who held on to it for more than three decades.

"He was all powerful," Martindale says. The best examples of Clark's star-making ability, according to Martindale, are Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and Bobby Rydell, all of whom became overnight teen idols after being shepherded onto the air by Clark and his producer Tony Mammarella. "Before cable, there was American Bandstand," Martindale says. "That's where Justin Bieber--is that his name, Justin Bieber?--that's where he would [have gone]."

Premiered in Memphis, J. Taylor Wallace's metal Palin smoker now showing in Chicago

2012-04-19T22:34:53Z

Remember the Sarah Palin's-head-shaped smoker that Chicago artist J. Taylor Wallace used to cook a pear-stuffed suckling pig at last spring's Art Cookers 4 "Taste/See" at the National Ornamental Metal Museum? I thought it rang a bell. Anyway, the metallic visage of the Pride of Wasilla has found a new home these days. From Complex via Chicagoist (which has a bunch of pics of the Palin head):

Two years ago, Chicago-based sculptor J. Taylor Wallace created this statue in the image of Sarah Palin, and it's quite accurate--it has a big mouth and it takes up space. After unveiling it in Memphis, the piece has found a new home on the South Side of Chicago.

According to Wallace, Palin's decision to thrust herself into the debate about health care reform was the trigger for the piece. Its arrival will be celebrated at the Bridgeport Sculpture Garden, and Bridgeport Art Center will roast a suckling pig inside of the sculpture (it can be used as a stove) on Friday.

The Los Angeles Times, which mentions the Metal Museum, has this statement from Wallace:

The artist told the television station that the statue "was kind of in response to the political climate at that time, when the healthcare debate was going on. I thought she was a distraction from what was important, and it was cathartic to spend three months doing it.... It helped me out a lot."

PICTURED: J. Taylor Wallace with "We're havin' a Tea Pear-ody," his Sarah Palin-shaped metal smoker, at the Art Cookers 4 "Taste/See" show on May 20, 2011, at the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis.

'Is This Racist?' Conservative bloggers ponder University of Memphis piñata-gate

2012-04-19T00:33:02Z

The controversy over that photo of a group of black schoolchildren hitting a piñata shaped like a hula dancer during a University of Memphis-sponsored luau party made it this week into the indignation chambers of the conservative blogosphere. Recall that the photo taken last week sparked controversy on social media amid the racially and politically charged atmosphere of Trayvon Martin season and electoral silly season. On Wednesday, Glenn Reynolds posted on his Instapundit blog a link to an item on National Review Online called "Is This Racist?" That post in turn linked to a conservative college website called The College Fix, which at least had included some perspective in its commentary.

At worst, this seems like a bad case of multicultural confusion. (Hawaiian luau + Mexican-style piñata = what cultural tradition exactly?)
Luckily, in this case, the racial dynamics were not reversed, with white students and a black piñata strung up to a tree. Imagine the controversy that would have generated!
Nevertheless, the university was compelled to explain itself after the picture started generating backlash after it was posted online.
It's a sad thing when a few kids can't swing at a piñata without unleashing an avalanche of racial grievances. But that's the reality we live in.

Study: Memphis has largest racial disparity in breast cancer mortality of largest U.S. cities

2012-04-17T21:44:58Z

At the Nashville Scene's Pith in the Wind blog, while lamenting Tennessee's prominent ranking on a number of "worst-of" lists for quality of life (we Memphians know all about that), Rachel Walden points out something I hadn't seen, either:

And I missed this last month, but the blogger at Lavender and Cheese writes about another embarrassing finding that got basically no media attention here: Black women die more from breast cancer than white women, and that's more true in Memphis, Tenn., than in any of the nation's other largest cities. In Memphis, a black woman is more than twice as likely to die as a white woman.

Lavender and Cheese links to the study from the journal Cancer Epidemiology and lays into the local media for missing the story (After searching the archives, I'm pretty certain we did not cover it in any way at The Commercial Appeal.).

This is according to a study (pdf) released this week examining racial disparity in breast cancer mortality rates. Of the twenty-five largest cities in the country, Memphis topped the list with the greatest racial disparity: the ratio of black women to white women who die of breast cancer in Memphis is 2.09. The study was conducted by Sinai Urban Health Institute in Chicago with funding from the Avon Foundation.

The results were published on Wednesday. It's now Friday.

The Washington Post published a story about this study on Wednesday, and DC wasn't even on the list of cities surveyed. The Denver chapter of Susan G. Komen tweeted a link to a Denver Post article, which is how I found out about the study.

You know where this study didn't make news? Tennessee. Not in Memphis, not in Nashville.

Digging through the study itself, I found some facts that should underline why this study should concern us in Memphis. "RR" is the rate ratio, in this case the racial disparity in mortality; "NHB" is non-Hispanic black; "NHW" is non-Hispanic white.

In Memphis the RR is so high (2.09) because the NHB rate is high (44.6) and the NHW rate is low (21.3). The very low RR in San Francisco is due to the NHB rate (19.6), which is the lowest of all the cities.

As this shows, poor health outcomes in Memphis compared to cities like San Francisco are even worse for minorities and women. Table 2 lists median household income among other correlates, and Memphis is among the very lowest of the 25, just more than half that of San Francisco.

Study: Memphis has largest racial disparity in breast cancer mortality of largest U.S. cities

2012-04-17T21:44:58Z

And I missed this last month, but the blogger at Lavender and Cheese writes about another embarrassing finding that got basically no media attention here: Black women die more from breast cancer than white women, and that's more true in Memphis, Tenn., than in any of the nation's other largest cities. In Memphis, a black woman is more than twice as likely to die as a white woman.

This is according to a study (pdf) released this week examining racial disparity in breast cancer mortality rates. Of the twenty-five largest cities in the country, Memphis topped the list with the greatest racial disparity: the ratio of black women to white women who die of breast cancer in Memphis is 2.09. The study was conducted by Sinai Urban Health Institute in Chicago with funding from the Avon Foundation.

The results were published on Wednesday. It's now Friday.

The Washington Post published a story about this study on Wednesday, and DC wasn't even on the list of cities surveyed. The Denver chapter of Susan G. Komen tweeted a link to a Denver Post article, which is how I found out about the study.

You know where this study didn't make news? Tennessee. Not in Memphis, not in Nashville.

In Memphis the RR is so high (2.09) because the NHB rate is high (44.6) and the NHW rate is low (21.3). The very low RR in San Francisco is due to the NHB rate (19.6), which is the lowest of all the cities.

Mike Brown crawfish festival photo makes ABC's Pictures of the Day

2012-04-16T23:53:46Z

The Commercial Appeal photographer Mike Brown's extraordinary action shot of a young woman bobbing for mudbugs at this weekend's City Auto Rajun Cajun Crawfish Festival made the top spot on ABC News' Pictures of the Day blog. See more of Brown's Crawfish Festival images here.