This looks fun, and it’s directed by a Memphibian.
Available for Netflix streaming on October 25.
Julie Newmar In Memphis
This is an old TV show called Route 66, “Give the Old Cat a Tender Mouse,” season 3, episode 14. Original air date December 21, 1962!
Tod meets Vicki Russell again (from “How Much a Pound is Albatross”). She is again riding her motorcycle and this time has a boyfriend Frank pursuing her.
This is the spot where Tod chases Vicki out of the hotel parking lot.
Union Row
THIS IS HUGE! An epic, historic game-changer for Memphis, one requiring all the stars to align for a project of this magnitude to even be considered. According to The Daily Memphian …
Supporters believe Union Row, the massive, $950-million office, retail and residential project in downtown Memphis’s blighted east edge will be a catalyst for enormous additional investment.
“That’s a Cinderella story,” Mark Billingsley said in December after he and fellow Shelby County Commissioners voted to pump $100 million into the project.
Developers contend Union Row will create 4,300 jobs and generate $16 million in annual property, sales and hotel taxes. If all phases are completed, the project will be among the largest, if not the largest “mixed-use’’ real estate development in Memphis history.
The project will be built in stages. Phase One, with a construction price tag of about $512 million, represents about half of the overall $950-million venture.
Developers spent $25 million this year — much of it with cash — snatching up an array of parcels where Phase One will rise: Collectively, a 10.8-acre site roughly bounded by Union on the north, Danny Thomas on the east, Beale on the south and Fourth on the west.
Developer J. Kevin Adams believes Union Row will reshape downtown.
“This is the gateway to our downtown,’’ he told a gathering in April at East Memphis’ Crescent Club. “And it’s been blighted for a long time.’’
The site is in decay. Vacant or overgrown lots surrounded by razor wire line the streets amid bits of broken glass. Now out-of-place businesses have agreed to move, including auto repair shop Powerhouse Motors and Lit Restaurant Supply, housed in a repurposed car dealership first opened in 1935.
Demolition is set to begin in October or late fall.
Full article here.
The Mother Lode
Check out this guy’s YouTube channel – TONS of Nineties Memphis rawk videos, a bunch from The Antenna, Barristers, and the old, broken-down Overton Park Shell.
Go! Now!
P.S. – I think I was at this Chilton show.
It’s On
Why Should I Care?
This Kickstarter campaign for an Alex Chilton documentary is a long way from being funded with only eight days to go.
So let’s give till it hurts, you bastards!
This feature length documentary explores the remarkable story of Alex Chilton, whose instant fame with a #1 hit record at age 16 was followed by a long and winding journey through works of neglected genius, darkness and obscurity before he was gradually discovered and rediscovered by fans, fellow musicians and critics. As the influence of his music continued to grow, he became a reluctant cult figure while staying true to his own eclectic and unpredictable muses. His is the story of a true artist – one whose life and career plainly present us with the question: what is the difference between fame and success?
Read all about it and check out those pledge rewards over here.
Liz Brasher
We’re sharing a bill with this lady Saturday.
I’ve never heard of her (I’m so out of the loop these days), but damn.
We’re Full
New Hold Steady!
New Hold Steady album, featuring the guitar stylings of Memphis’ own Steve Selvidge, coming out August 16! Like Springsteen without the melody is still my favorite HS description.
Well Are You?
I had this poster when I was a kid, only recently discovering that it was created by Tom Shadyac, the director who now lives in Memphis. We ran into him at [REDACTED] when we were buying tile for our bathroom remodel. Small fucking world.
Remember the poster Are You A Preppie? It was printed in 1979 by University of Virginia undergrad Tom Shadyac, who went on to film school at UCLA and later directed Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Evan Almighty. The poster was wildly popular when it came out. I have to wonder whether it might have inspired Lisa Birnbach’s more in-depth anthropological treatment in The Official Preppy Handbook, which appeared one year later.