It’s Not the Heat… Wait, Yes It Is.

We’re in for a scorcher.  Again.  Triple digits expected all week. It’s no surprise that it’s hot again around here. Or that it happened so quickly. If you’ve spent more than a few minutes in Memphis, you know that the heats hits harder than a juiced-up Barry Bonds.

Hot Hot HEAT!

Air conditioners are working overtime.  Whenever I walk into my office building, I expect my glasses to fog up as I go from sweltering heat to freezing cold.  It’s not just here.  I lived in Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina and Georgia.  When summer comes to the South, everybody feels it.

There are ongoing efforts to help people cope with the heat.  I see that the county has activated its “heat hotline.”  Volunteers are giving callers information on fans, air conditioners, as well as other ways to beat the heat. Interesting that the volunteers are actually inmates at the Shelby County Corrections Center at Shelby Farms.

Whew!

I’ve done my share of how difficult it is for some people to deal with the heat. There are often unfortunate situations of people succumbing to the pressure brought on by extended high temperatures.  I don’t quite understand why this continues to be a problem. Every year, communities distribute hundreds of free fans and air conditioners to people. The next year, they do the same thing. And so on. But there always turn out to be people found in hot, stuffy homes or apartments, with nothing to cut the heat.  How is it that hundreds more elderly or poor end up victims of the heat if there are so many continuing efforts to help? I mean, communities aren’t going back and picking the fans up after summer ends, are they?

Crossroads of the World…

Hey Buddy!

While running an errand for work Tuesday, I managed to run into not one, not two, but three former co-workers from WREG… all at WMC-TV!

I had a quick chat with Action News 5 assignment editor Brad Sessel, then Joe Incardona (who reads the blog… thanks, Joe) came through the lobby and a couple of minutes later, I had a nice visit with consumer reporter Andy Wise, who, like Brad, is an excellent addition to the staff at 5.

No Rest for the Wicked…

Oh Yeah?

Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Friends, or acquaintances? Time together suddenly forgotten or completely ignored?

Trivia controversy creates blog hits, I know that much. Tuesday’s page visits were double Monday’s. Seems to happen whenever I go down this road.

It was suggested that I “give it a rest.” My two cents, Leslie? It came across sounding like a lecture. That’s your gift. Too many victims in this little morality play; but no one’s taking responsibility.  Okay, if that’s the way it’s gonna be, I guess I have wash my hands and my feet of this entire megillah. If someone’s not talking to me because of the side they think I’m on, I’ll live with it.

Sooner or Later…

First — I’m never blogging on art again.  Either that, or the oppressive heat kept most of you away from yesterday’s post.

Second — I was going to skip posting tonight — yes, I was going to pass on posting for the first non-holiday weekday since I started.  Work is picking up and I’ve got an early call Tuesday.  However, I was witness to an interesting event Monday evening and thought I’d touch on it briefly.

Well Whaddya Know?

I’m sure you’ve heard the old cliché “even the sun shines on a dog’s ass some days.”

Earlier in the blog (May 1), I posted about some silliness connected to my team trivia play.  There were some hurt feelings over who was on the team and who wasn’t, and the woman who actually started the group outings stopped attending… actually pretty much stopped talking to me and another guy in public.  During the run-up to the city-wide tournament, she told the other guy on one occasion that she was playing with another group because they were playing for fun and didn’t take it as seriously as we did. Certainly within her rights to say so.

So, our group is playing Monday night when she shows up at the bar, along with another woman who used to play on our team.  They sat on the other side of the joint with someone they knew and got in the game… using a name that was a take off of the name of my team used in the tournament.

Well, we were leading into the final question (which we usually do), but we missed the final question and lost points.  Who won?  Our former teammates. And one of them laughed so loud you could have heard her in the parking lot.  I’m assuming that was because of all the fun they were having… not because they beat us.

You're #1!

Okay.  Congratulations to “Interior Design.”  You did good and won.  We had six people at our table and you still beat us.  I’m glad you feel comfortable enough to share the space with us… as well as take home the $50 in prize money.

One thing.  Keep in mind that splitting up was your idea, not ours.  I’m content to share the table with whoever wants to play… and the tournament issue could have been dealt with if we had talked it over as a group… which you didn’t want to do.

So, I’m looking forward to seeing your team again next week.  It’s cool if it’s at our table. It’s cool if you’re sitting at the bar again.  But either way, you’re not going to beat us two weeks in a row (and yes, that’s a challenge).

I Know It When I See It

Had the bike out Sunday.  I decided to venture off my usual 3-mile circuit through Downtown Memphis.  I headed down to Martyrs Park, where I got a look at the river side of the Horizon.  That side of the building has the same not-quite-done look as it does on the Riverside Drive side I pass in the morning on my way to work.  I took the pedestrian bridge into South Bluffs to see what the old neighborhood looked like.  When I was in the apartments there in the 90s, there were hardly any houses.  It’s just so different now. I thought the classic Bentley I saw parked on one of the streets was pretty cool.

Crime Scene?

Back over the bridge and down to Tom Lee and once around the park.  I crossed Riverside and carried my bike up the steps to Vance Park and saw this (left).

I hate to be the smart mouth my ex-wife always accuses me of being, but my first  thought was, “finally, someone saw that thing as being a crime!”

The piece is described by the Memphis Riverfront website as “a pleasing piece of public art which doubles as a park bench.”  It proves I don’t particularly appreciate abstract art, even though having a bench at the top of those stairs is a good idea.

There wasn’t a sign explaining the tape, so I have to assume the thing is busted somehow.  But with abstract art, how can you tell?

Bob & Abe

It reminds me of something I saw in 1986 in Casper, Wyoming.  I had my first paying TV job there, doing weather and feature reporting at the CBS station.  I had gone to the Natrona County Public Library for a card and saw an abstract by noted sculptor Robert Russin.  If you’re ever on I-80 east of Laramie, you may see a giant bust of Abraham Lincoln.  The late Mr. Russin sculpted it to mark the highest point on the old Lincoln Highway.

Anyway, a quick shout out to my late father and my mom, who’s retired and living in Florida.  Thanks for giving me a love of reading! So, the area around Casper had been flush with oil money in the years before I moved there, and there had been a spate of public building… city hall, county building, community center, library… and the attendant art that goes with it when the money’s there.

On His Head

So, it’s the spring of ’86 and I’m at the library and I have one of my first experiences with Mr. Russin’s work.  It’s Prometheus reaching for the flame, or some such.  You can kind of see it, I guess.  But that wasn’t the only Russin piece that graced downtown Casper at the time.

Glub

“The Fountainhead” is in front of City Hall.  I don’t know who the kids dancing in the water as supposed to be, or whether the piece has anything to do with Ayn Rand’s book.  She’s an author I haven’t worked my way around to yet.

Shocking!

A third Russin piece, “Man and Energy,” was in front of the Chamber of Commerce (although I understand that a couple of years back it was moved to the campus of Casper College).

Anyway, I did a little tongue-in-cheek piece on how odd I tended to find abstract art… and that three very abstract pieces by the same guy ended up in within a few blocks of each other.  By contrast, I think I stumbled across a more standard statue of a cowboy (not hard to find in that part of the country) and showed that.

When talking about abstract art in Memphis, I suppose I could have ridden the bike up to the convention center and grabbed a picture of the MLK piece on Main Street.  I still don’t get that.  Anyway, I’m not trying to get the art community up in arms.  Do what you do.  If people enjoy it, fine.  I’m just saying that if I have to use my imagination to figure out what it is, then to me, the artist didn’t do his or her job.  I’m okay with art making you think… I just didn’t think that included thinking about what it is… I thought you were supposed to be thinking about what it means.

End of the Tunnel?

Since this whole blogging thing (for me) started off as an adjunct to my recent bout of unemployment, I remain interested in things associated with the topic.  That’s why an Associated Press story in Thursday’s New York Times caught my eye.

Turning Around?

According to the article, “the Labor Department said Thursday that the total unemployment insurance rolls fell last week by 148,000 to 6.76 million, the largest drop in more than seven years and an indication that layoffs may be easing.”

That’s good news, especially if that means the people who fell off the rolls are working again.  There are still way too many people not working in this country.  It’s unrealistic to assume that everybody will be able to find a job doing exactly the same things they were doing before; but there’s also the fact that it seems that the businesses in this country just don’t make things anymore.  I doubt the country will survive if the only jobs available are service jobs.

Manufacturing is cheaper outside the U.S., and companies do have a responsibility to their stockholders to make money, so that has led to a lot of jobs going away.  But isn’t there a responsibility to the towns, cities, states and areas that helped those American-based companies grow into what they’ve become?

Anyway, I put my last unemployment check in the bank a week ago.  I hope it’s a process I never have to deal with again.

Delivering Bad News

Moving Boxes

I don’t talk much about my former employer.  Part of that is due to a legally-binding agreement that prohibits me from saying much about them, particularly their internal operations.  Still, there’s no restriction on commenting on public information.  And since I’m already talking about the economy, I’ll mention the fact that the delivery company I used to work for just released its quarterly financial information.  It’s on the front page of the business section in the Commercial Appeal and in the Memphis Daily News.  The company lost $876 million in Q4, but still managed to earn a profit for the year of $98 million.

I don’t own stock in the company, and I don’t work there anymore, so my financial well-being isn’t tied to how well it does.  Still, as someone directly affected by its previous cost-cutting efforts, I have to say I’m happy for the people still working there that no new cuts were announced along with the losses.  Stay safe guys.

Open Season?

No Bullets on Beale

I kinda have plans to hit a party on Beale Street Saturday night.  “Kinda,” because the host is kicking things off around 10pm… and many of these fêtes he holds run well into the morning.  When I was in my 20s and 30s, that wasn’t such a big deal, but now that I’m a card-carrying member of the AARP, I find that I fade a lot earlier than I used to.

Anyway, I don’t worry too much about crime in the entertainment district (there are cops everywhere).  Still, I was pleased to see the story that the businesses on Beale are banning firearms, even though the geniuses in the Tennessee Legislature think it’s a good idea to allow firearms in establishments serving alcohol.

Pistol Packin'

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not one of those people who think all guns should be banned.  I know a lot of hunters and a few crime victims.  There are legitimate reasons to own guns.  It’s just stupid to allow them in certain places.  If the lawmakers who think it’s a good idea to buy the NRA line and expand where guns can be carried, they should put their money where their mouths are and allow firearms inside the Tennessee State Capitol — during legislative sessions.  There are already bullet holes inside the building from previous shootings (it’s history, look it up!).

Where Credit is Due…

Blog You Very Much

And finally, a little housekeeping.  John Branston’s City Beat blog looked at the problems downtown Memphis is facing because of the economic bust, which is similar to the middle section of my blog from yesterday.  I commented on his blog, and included a link to my blog, to demonstrate that others shared his view.  It caused a huge spike in visits to this blog, so I want to thank everyone who clicked through.  I also had a number of visitors come over from Joe Larkins’ blog, so thanks to all of you too.

Businessman’s Special

Take Me Out...

I don’t usually do requests, but in this case, I don’t really mind.  I spent much of the afternoon at AutoZone Park, watching the Red Birds drop one to Albuquerque.

photo by Joe Stuber

It wasn’t a situation where I was skipping work, it was actually work-related.  As part of a team-building exercise, the folks from Running Pony Productions enjoyed the afternoon together.  Somewhere around the 3rd inning, one of my bosses asked whether my previous job had done anything like this.  No, they hadn’t, I answered.  Put that in your blog, he said… Okay, consider it blogged, Rod.

AutoZone Park is an excellent Triple-A baseball park.  It had never progressed beyond a hole in the ground during my first go-round in Memphis, but it’s much nicer now.

For the sake of full disclosure, I have to say that I did enjoy a similar perk when I worked for CNN.  At one time, it, the Atlanta Braves, Hawks and Thrashers were all owned by the same company.  So employees were given 10 passes to each team every season.  The NBA and NHL teams played next door to CNN and Turner Field wasn’t that far away.

Still, I’d say that AZ Park is every bit as nice as “the Ted,” only smaller.  The best part about Wednesday’s game is that the company rented out a suite, with catering, which is always a super sweet way to watch any sporting event.

Team & Home Building

It wasn’t all about a 9-inning “daycation.”  We had spent the morning working on a Habitat for Humanity house.

photo by Rod Starns

All of the really hard stuff was already done, but we knocked out some painting and other cleanup before the electricians and other skill work was done.  Of course, we got to do it on one of the hottest days of the year so far, but the prospective home owner was a nice young lady who will be able to move into a nice new house with a low-interest loan, so it’s something that leaves you feeling that you really accomplished something.

It wasn’t part of the build, but the Habitat folks did ask our help in loading an ice cooler on site onto a truck.  I’m in the blue shirt in the middle.  They needed to move it to Germantown Municipal Park for the annual Exotic Italian Car Show this Sunday.  It’s from noon ’til 5pm, $10 for adults, $5 for kids 10 and under, and it benefits Habitat for Humanity of Greater Memphis.

On the Horizon

Big Plans

Three or four years ago, the future of South Main musta’ seemed pretty bright.  New condos going up, buildings being rehabbed, big plans for shopping, mixed use and other construction.  My place was brand new when I moved in a year ago.  Unfortunately, the economic crash has done a number on all those plans.  The highrise condo development One Beale Street was put on hold months ago.  Now, the news folk say the Horizon may be going on the auction block.  The developer’s site on the project is… down.

There’s also a problem with a lot of the contractors on the job worrying about whether they’re going to get paid… or if they’ll be able to retrieve their gear from the job site.  I was walking to the BP station on the corner of Riverside and Carolina for lottery tickets a few minutes ago, and noticed a security guard at the locked gate with somebody in a pickup.  Don’t know what that means.  I know someone who had money down on a unit in the building.  They’d made plans to flip it back in the good days.  None of the reporters have dealt with the question of what happens to prospective buyers if the site gets sold.  All I know is that it takes away the view of the sunset on my street.

Lost & Found

Found: One Mayor

Good news… the mayor has been sighted.  I was watching the Watch Dog on News Channel 3 this evening (Mike Matthews didn’t have a nickname when I worked with him, but whatever…).  Anyway, various media folk have been making hay of the fact that the mayor of Memphis has not been seen much since the storms hit on Friday and Sunday.

Right in the middle of Matthews’ live shot on the CAO of the city resigning, the camera swings to show the mayor hopping into his SUV, which was parked on the plaza (where cars are not supposed to be).  Hizzoner seemed to be in good form, smiling and waving at Mike, who generously offered to share his camera time with Dr. H.  As the live shot ended, Mike was going to see if he could get a comment from the formerly scarce city official.  Did he?  I’ll be watching.