My feet 10 feet off the Beale

If you've known me for long, you've probably heard me talk about the Leadership Academy, the Fellows Program, how it took me 3 years of living in Memphis before I began to appreciate it (thanks to the Leadership Academy), or something related to those. I will freely admit that there is a lot in Memphis that I still would like to take advantage of more frequently. And, yet, I still have my opinions.

But I was recently at a function intended to help interns from out of state, to get to know Memphis better. One particular intern got to hear quite a bit of my unsophisticated list (i.e. kids can be involved as well). We spoke about the simple things such as:
• Beale Street
• The Zoo
• The Memphis Botanical Gardens
• The Metal Museum (okay, so the function was actually there, but it did get mentioned)
• Museums (Civil Rights Museum, Brooks Museum, Dixon Gallery of Art, and, yes, I did mention the Fire Museum...can I help it if I have a 3 year old boy!)

But he followed up the next day with a couple of questions regarding places to eat. I love to eat. Perfect! Two pages later, I was done with my e-mail response which is copied below this paragraph. Lindley and I like to get the boys out to do something Memphis whenever possible - typically Saturdays. So, get out and enjoy Memphis!

"... This could be long. So, let me summarize in bullet point what we discussed plus add a few more. Your mention of downtown made me realize that I hadn’t really told you about what I like in the heart of downtown yet. (I’m also leaving off of the list any fancier restaurants. If you’re ever looking for that, let me know as well because I have my opinions on those too.)

Midtown
• Zoo – great place. I’d plan on a couple hours your first time there. You could go straight from the zoo to Café Ole which is only 5 or 10 minutes away
• Café Ole – Tex Mex indoor or outdoor dining in the fun Cooper-Young district
• Dish – A nice change of pace meal with tapas-style food in Cooper-Young Honestly, the food for me is hit or miss, but it’s good for something a bit different.
• Boscoe’s – One of my favorite restaurants in Memphis. This local microbrewery has great food, good beer, live music (sometimes), and a relaxed atmosphere
• Studio on the Square – Fun place to catch a movie. You can often catch the Indie Films here. Get your popcorn and milkduds, or forgo the standard and grab a sausage and cheese plate with a beer for the movie
• Otherlands – Cool coffee bar where a lot of U of M students get together for study groups, read, etc. Great place to get together with friends or co-workers from different parts of Memphis.

Downtown
• The Arcade – A top breakfast joint in Memphis. I would argue that Brother Juniper’s is right up there for breakfast as well, though. (South Main area)
• Beignet Café – Actually make and serve fresh New Orleans style beignets. It’s the only place in town that makes them that well. They serve breakfast, lunch, dinner, and drinks. (South Main area)
• The Farmers’ Market – Open Saturday mornings currently (through early to mid-Fall). There is live music and a big crowd on cool days. The setting is an old train depot, and people from all over Memphis seem to show up. (South Main area)
• The Flying Fish – downtown, downtown (near the Leadership Academy). The restaurant is directly across the street from the Peabody Place. Awesome place to grab fish tacos. Great food, great atmosphere. On Second Street.
• Café 61 – The best macaroni and cheese I’ve ever tasted. This crawfish mac and cheese beats out any lobster-based comparison I’ve tried. Also on Second Street just a few doors down from the Flying Fish.
• Rendezvous – A great place to bring tourists to show them the real flavor of Memphis. Though the atmosphere does more for me than the food, many consider their ribs the best dry rub barbecue in town. You could go see the ducks waddle from the Peabody Hotel’s lobby fountain (they hang out there all day) into the elevator at 5:00 one night, and then walk across the street to beat the crowds at the Rendezvous. You let them know it’s your first time and you need some help deciding what to get – the waiters will treat you right. I also hear that if you say “I don’t want any of them tourist ribs” they’ll treat you right too, but I’ve never tried it.
• Anything on Main Street – the trolleys only section where traffic isn’t allowed, this is not South Main, but again in the Leadership Academy’s area:
o The Majestic Grill has great food and I believe is owned by two Leadership Academy Fellows
o Sauces has a great reputation for food and atmosphere
• Automatic Slims is a great place to grab an appetizer and a drink before catching a play at the Orpheum, or a concert at the Cannon Center. The food is eclectic, but good.
• The Orpheum is a great place to catch a play, but, during the summer, they show classic movies on the big screen in a really fun atmosphere beginning at 7:15 on TR’s and FR’s. This week is Funny Girl and Mamma Mia, respectively. Cool Hand Luke (my all-time favorite movie) and Butch Cassidy are showing as a double feature on 8/21. Their website can give you a better idea of what is coming and when.
• The Cannon Center is my single favorite venue in town, but I don’t get to use it as much with the young children now. I can’t imagine my 3-year old sitting through 2 or 3 hours of the Canadian Brass or the Memphis Symphony Orchestra!
• An easy and very fun outing is a Redbirds game. The local minor league team that feeds the St. Louis Cardinals has an amazing ballpark in Autozone Park. Fireworks after home runs, cheap seats on the lawn or close seats for reasonable prices. You can grab a dog at the game (or some BBQ nachos for that matter), or go to the Rendezvous and fight the crowds before / after the game.

Age-Old Debate Settled
To settle the age-old debate regarding the best barbecue in Memphis, I have to list those that qualify for typical consideration:
• Interstate (aka Neely’s, but the original is Interstate, and is the one you should try)
• Rendezvous
• Corky’s (many would argue that this chain shouldn’t be considered, but it is Memphis-based, and very good)
• Germantown Commissary
• Central BBQ
• Just missing the cut: Three Pigs and Tops

If you haven’t tried each of the above 5 in the next 4 – 6 weeks, you are doing yourself a great disservice. All have their good side. There is nothing like the Rendezvous’ atmosphere. Three Pigs is a consistent place where you can find the same 10 couples every Sunday morning at 8:30 am. Germantown Commissary recently was named in the top 10 BBQ restaurants in the nation by Playboy magazine – yes I got that out of the Commercial Appeal. Interstate is and will always be a staple in the Memphis BBQ arena. It has history and class and good food. Corky’s clearly has the best wet ribs in Memphis, and I argue that their dry ribs are more consistently great than the Rendezvous’ (as awkwardly as that is worded, it is what I mean).

But, if you really want the best, you must try Central BBQ. The fact that the BBQ nacho plate is as big as my computer monitor is only one reason (by far the best BBQ nachos in Memphis). This is a good atmosphere with good bbq where you can eat inside or out. ..."

Empire Falls

After completing 3 books in about 10 days, and 4 in 3 weeks, it became clear that I was not reading the most intellectually stimulating books. (That said, Dean Koontz's Relentless was gripping.) So, Lindley decided to find a good, challenging book for my next read. I'll admit that after 4 pages of not changing chapters in Richard Russo's Empire Falls, I considered calling it quits. Thank you, James Patterson. But pride kept me from actually closing the book, and now I'm beginning to see the novel's purpose.

Yes, it turns out that my lovely wife tricked this Big Brother / How I Met Your Mother television watcher into reading a 2002 pulitzer prize winner (distinguished fiction by an American author). So the author portrays American life through the eyes of a town that is falling apart as much due to the poor management of those with money as it is to the blue collar workers stuck in a static life without power or influence.

So, this conflict brings to mind what amazing and distinct paradigms people can have. For example, the family that used to run Empire Falls (the town set as a background to the novel) seems to believe that it is the less-educated townspeople that are the reason the town is in economic decline. The author appears to disagree with his antagoists' theory, and instead faults that same wealthy family as well as corporations that, thusfar, are embodied by undeveloped characters stepping in and out of limousines who could just as well be seen as unnamed minions of the evil corporation. This begs to my never-ending theory that success is a difficult definition. Okay, so no one ever gave me marks for brilliant, profound theories.

Our protagonist, Miles Roby, appears both despised for his mediocrity and respected for his morality and convictions. Well, which of these perspectives is correct? Russo is currently indicating that the latter view is his. But what do you think?

That's my question today. What do we believe defines success in a person? Is it material wealth? Is it influence? Is it power? Is success not being any of the above 3? It's funny how the 1980's and early 90's movies thrived by the rags to riches (or in the "Arthur" movies riches to rags to riches) theme. Anyone could achieve wealth! How great is America for giving everyone opportunities at material wealth! Today, though, conventional wisdom seems to be moving toward the idea that financial success (influence, power, etc.) must make you a bad person.

Well, potentially both paradigms, or in the same respect neither of the paradigms, are correct. I wish that we could look across socioeconomic statuses to see that people are not bad solely because they are different. Unfortunately, it is difficult to get to know someone because they speak differently, or because they have different ways to entertain themselves, or because they don't have easily defined commonalities for discussion.

So, it turns out that I've posed a question I can't answer. I'd like to say success for me will be serving the Lord, having his light shine through me, loving my family (and them knowing it), raising Godly children, and being content in the life God has given me. But, unfortunately, there are times when I will continue to define myself by my job, or by how many friends I have, or what my wife and children think about me. I guess this may be why my favorite verses elude to the fact that I will not ever achieve full success, but that it doesn't matter in Christ:

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phil. 3: 12-14