Welcome to Memphis!
 Page 21 of EF 2019.4 | |
| Author | Greg Cravens |
|---|---|
| Subject | Memphis, Tennessee, ISCAcon28 |
| Genre | Travel, ISCAcon28 Extras |
Publication date | Fall 2019 |
| Media type | Digital, |
| Pages | 21-24 |
| Website | caricature |
Article Description. Should include author, brief description, issue number and page number(s).
Contents
Article Transcript
Random Memphis
Memphis, TN (Host city of the 2019 ISCA Convention) has some offbeat things to do. Caricaturists, offbeat sort of people, might like a quick rundown of a few things to engage with when you are here.
Paintball. My dreams of wild hordes of caricaturists, firing wildly through brightly painted fields of glory can now be realized. Paintball Park is out East of Memphis just off I-40.
Bicycles. Shelby Farms Park has mountain bike trails, paved trails and bicycles for rent.
Q. How many ADHD/OCD caricaturists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
A. “Wanna ride bikes?”
Actually, Stanky Creek Trails in Nesbit Park in Bartlett are better for Mountain Bikes, but…they’re kinda stanky. Bit of a drive to get there.
Running. There are always those who come to Memphis and, instead of lying around and eating too much, wish to stay in shape and get their usual exercise. Better you than me, pal. Some really nice places to run: Tom Lee Park downtown is good. Shelby Farms Park is better. Overton Park is really nice. The vicinity of The Guest House at Graceland is hightraffic and crowded.
Tours. You might cozy up to Memphis and see what’s around. You could take the Memphis Mojo Tour, where you get to join in with the music played on the bus. You could do the Historic Memphis Walking Tour, see some old Memphis buildings and learn how and why Memphis got where it is. Or, there’s always the Memphis Ghost Walking Tour. See and hear about The Orpheum Theater, Voodoo Fields, and some cool places downtown with sketchy pasts.
The Pyramid. There’s this 300 foot steel pyramid in town. “Memphis.” Egypt/Tennessee… Get it? Anyhow, it was a music and sports venue, then wasn’t. Now it’s the wildest looking Bass Pro Shops you’ve ever wanted to see. It’s got a swamp in there, fish and alligators, and stuff swimming around. There’s an elevator dead center inside that goes up to a restaurant/bar in the pointy little top.
Schwab’s. Famous Beale Street! There’s music, alcohol, happy crowds, and kids that do amazing backflips for pocket change. And there’s a store that opened, like, 140 years ago. It’s called Schwab’s and if you’re short on mustache wax or need a fedora or whatever, you go there. If you just need to see what old stores used to look like, and tell the kids that when grandpa was young THIS stuff was what people saved their pocket change for, this is the place. And the hotel has a shuttle that will drop you off there and even bring you back. A small fee applies.
Memphis Skate Park. St. Jude Hospital draws staff from around the country, if not the globe. One of the doctors, arriving fresh from a childhood on the West Coast, was horrified to discover that Memphis had no public skatepark. He fixed that. We now have a very nice outdoor concrete skatepark. Bring Helmets.
MEMPHIS ___________.
Word association! When I say “Memphis,” what’s the first thing that pops into your head? I’m not evaluating you. I’m preparing you to visit Memphis. Maybe around November, say.
Did you respond “Elvis?”“Blues?” “Incalculable humidity?” Those are good answers. Some of us respond “barbecue.” People travel to Memphis both to eat and to make barbecue. (Or “BBQ.” Either is acceptable, along with “Bar-B-Q,” “Barbeque,” “Bar-BQue” and others.)
First, let me explain something basic. If you now refer to your grill as “The Barbecue,” stop it. Stop that right now. Your grill is a grill. Barbecue is meat. It’s meat that has been lovingly smoked in a big, old, well-seasoned, greasy smoker for many hours by people who love that meat and know exactly what makes it the finest, most perfect sort of meat there is.
And no two of those people do it the same way, or even with the same kinds of meat. That’s why this article is longer than three sentences. Visitors to Memphis who have an inside man (I’m your inside man, by the way) always ask, “Where’s the best barbecue?” and the answer is not “At BBQ Bob’s on Main Street.” Sorry.
In fact, that average visitor is asking only half a question. The second part of the question is very personal, and therefore, every person needs a considered answer.
My friend Craig Meek wrote a whole book about this. It’s called Memphis Barbecue — A Succulent History of Smoke, Sauce & Soul. In the introduction of the book he explains that, what with everyone’s recipes being different because everyone’s tastes are different, there is never an easy answer to “What’s the best?”
More proper questions might be “Where is the best barbecue sandwich?” and “Where are the best barbecue ribs?” But those lead to more questions: “Do you prefer pork shoulder or Boston butt?” “Do you like vinegar or tomato-based sauce? Will you want slaw on your sandwich? (Slaw is a condiment in a BBQ restaurant.) Did you want “wet” or “dry” ribs? Depending on your own proclivities, there are different answers.
We can make the answer simpler by making the question more complex. “Can I go to The Rendezvous and have their ribs so when I go home and people ask if I went to the famous Rendezvous and had ribs, I can say ‘yes’?”
Yes, absolutely you can do that. Piker.
Or how about “Can you tell me where to find the most hole-in-thewall, down-home, ‘real’ barbecue joint where I can get a big ol’ sloppy pulled-pork sandwich with hot sauce and cole slaw dribbling out of it put together by an old guy everyone knows only as ‘Ol’ Dub’?”
Yep. I can name three places offhand. Pick one. Hell, pick two. Or how about those clever folk who are in it for the authenticity? “Which BBQ restaurant has been in service at the same location with the same owners the longest, and what’s the absolute best-selling item on their menu on the average Sunday?”
Couple of places I can mention.
And I haven’t so much as mentioned BBQ beef (that’s more of a Texas thing, but whatever floats your boat, Festus), or BBQ chicken (“e’rybody like chicken.”) And I refuse to mention that, a few decades ago when my father was stationed in The North, he ordered a BBQ sandwich he was surprised to see on a menu. He was served a grilled bologna slice with barbecue sauce on it between bread slices. I’ve been told that those in The North have learned better now, but I’m skeptical.
So if you don’t live in Memphis and you’re coming here in November, well, I have a little cheat sheet for you. Pick your best bet and check it off during your visit. Or catch ’em all, gaining weight and wisdom with every mouthful.
MU-SEE-‘EM
You’re the museum type, and you’re coming to Memphis for the ISCA Convention. Right? Oh, but where should you, specifically, visit? Here. You pick:
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
1934 Poplar Avenue
www.brooksmuseum.org
Their collections of sculpture, painting,
photography, furniture, and glass
will keep you busy for hours. I like
the painting by Jacques-Louis David.
You pick your favorite. We’ll discuss
why mine’s better.
The Pink Palace.
9 miles away at 3050 Central
www.memphismuseums.org
Originally the Memphis catchall
museum, locals donated a wide and
startling variety of things ― stuffed
polar bear, actual shrunken head,
child’s metal sarcophagus, giant handcarved
animatronic circus, and the
building itself, which was to have been
the home of the founder of Piggly
Wiggly till the Great Stock Market
Crash cost him his fortune. There
are dinosaur bones and Mastodon
bits, too. There’s a redesigned
Planetarium and IMAX theatre. Also,
you can see a re-creation of the first
Piggly Wiggly, showing why it was so
groundbreaking. They don’t say why it
was named “Piggly Wiggly,” though.
Probably they don’t know.
The National Civil Rights Museum
450 Mulberry Street
www.civilrightsmuseum.org
Built around the old Lorraine Motel
where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
was shot and killed. The fight to
support Civil Rights isn’t just history, it
continues here. Come see, re-created
for you, the lunch counters, the buses,
the marches, and the protests of the
past and discover the fight to extend
the promises of the Constitution
to all Americans regardless of the
color of their skin. Try to avoid being
trampled by the rush of impassioned
Editorial Cartoonists.
Children’s Museum of Memphis
8 miles away at 2525 Central Avenue
www.cmom.com
Hands-on fun for the whole family. Play
and learn and touch and climb. If you
have young children with you on your
Memphis trip, this is a safe bet. Bring a
towel. Trust me.
Memphis Zoo
2000 Prentiss Place
www.memphiszoo.org
A little over 110 years ago, the
Memphis Zoo was opened to house
a single black bear. During the
depression, WPA workers built what
was then a modern and respectable
facility. For the past twenty years,
the Zoo has spent tens of millions of
dollars becoming a premier attraction.
They’ve got pandas, grizzlies, Komodo
dragons and probably at least one
of every animal that’s ever been in a
Far Side cartoon.
National Ornamental Metal Museum
374 Metal Museum Dr.
www.metalmuseum.org
On the bluff overlooking the mighty
Mississippi River. Aside from the
building housing the exhibits and the
little shop (which is really good) is
the Blacksmith building. They have a
forge! Hot Iron! Swords! Coathooks!
Twisted glowing metal in various
creative shapes! Yow!
Center for Southern Folklore
119 S Main Street
www.southernfolklore.com
Not necessarily a “Museum,” more
a sort of place where you go to
learn how to gush about all the
totally cool heritage, culture, and
music of the region.
Art Museum of the
University of Memphis
3750 Norriswood Avenue
www.memphis.edu
Includes the Egyptian collection
(Egypt/ Memphis, get it?) and if I
remember rightly, there’s a 3000-yearold
loaf of bread. And a dead guy.
The Cotton Museum
65 Union Avenue
www.memphiscottonmuseum.org
Most of downtown used to be cotton
offices and warehouses. Cotton was
King, as they’ll show you.
Fire Museum of Memphis
118 Adams Avenue
www.firemuseum.com
Do your kids like fire? Mine did. Well,
not FIRE, but fire engines, firefighters,
and interactive displays about getting
the heck away safely from fire.
Lichterman Nature Center
5992 Quince Road
www.memphismuseums.org
Arboretum, three miles of outdoor
trails, interpretive museum… blah,
blah, blah. They used to take in
sick or wounded animals. They had
this HUGE opossum named Mickey
that some family had fed as a pet
till it was too fat to walk around
anymore. Awesome.
Victorian Village
671 Jefferson Avenue
www.victorianvillageinc.org
Lots of old houses built by rich people
when “downtown” and “way out
east” were still a carriage ride apart.
There you go. Memphis Museums. See you in November.
See Also
External Links
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