TN Day 6- Chinese Art, Civil Rights, and Ceremonial Ducks in Memphis
Today I started my first and only full day in Memphis by getting coffee at Otherlands Coffee Bar. The aesthetic certainly lived up to the name as everything seemed to come from another planet. I loved seeing all the weird art and fish tanks. The coffee was pretty darn good as well.
After coffee, I tried to participate in a Memphis Tradition by seeing the march of the Peabody ducks. Every morning at 11 am a bunch of very spoiled ducks are led by their Duck Master down from their rooftop penthouse (no joke) and down a red carpet to the hotel fountain where they play for the day until 5pm when they march back down the red carpet and up to their penthouse. Apparently it all started as a joke in the early 1900s, but the hotel guests liked the ducks so much the tradition has persisted. I was all set to arrive in time to see the morning processional, but I did not account for the fact that there was a charity marathon happening in Memphis that morning and many of the roads were closed off for runners. Somehow even when I'm not doing it myself, exercise manages to foil my plans. I just missed the march but I got to see the pampered little fowls playing in the fountain, and it was still super cute.
After visiting the duckies, I decided to make peace with my former nemesis, exercise, and walk a mile to see the giant Bass Pro Shop pyramid. Yes, there is a Bass Pro Shop Pyramid. It is spectacular.
My friend, Sam, told me I would not be disappointed by a visit to the pyramid and he was absolutely correct. I've been to a Bass Pro Shop before, and they're all a little bit nuts, but this one just upped the ante in terms of size and grandeur. I didn't pay the $10 to take the elevator up to the top of the pyramid, but between the live fish, the animatronic shooting galleries, and stuffed bears I was still pretty satisfied with my visit. There was also a fudge shop and complete restaurant inside. It was truly fit for a pharaoh, a fishing and hunting loving pharaoh, but a pharaoh nonetheless.
After my sojourn in the Egyptian underworld, I went to visit the Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art. A small museum right in the heart of downtown memphis, it houses the collection of the Belz family and is comprised of two wings, one of mostly ancient Chinese art and one of mostly contemporary Israeli art. The two wings aren't really linked in any thematic way other than that the works are pretty impressive and that the family liked them.
I started out in the Judaic wing. The big highlights were the religious artifacts made of beautiful silver and a set of massive bronze friezes by an artist named Daniel Kafri depicting different scenes from the Torah. There was also a small but powerful gallery dedicated to holocaust remembrance. It featured portraits and testimonials of survivors and a few other artifacts and photos from the concentration camps. It was really moving, but it did just make me even more astounded that there are people out there today who deny it actually happened in the face of both photographic evidence and people who were literally there.
The Asian Art wing actually housed the bulk of the total collection, but it was truly awe-inspiring. For me the most amazing part was absolutely all the art carved into mammoth tusks. Entire scenes from ancient texts would be carved with every minute detail and facial expression in tact out the old ivory. The time and craftsmanship involved would be impressive alone even if the works weren't as stunningly beautiful as they were. There was also a bridal carriage made entirely out of jade, and lots of earthenware, jewelry, and paintings as well. I'd say between the two wings and the low admission cost, I'd put this on my must do list.
The Belz happened to be near the Center for Southern Folklore so I took a peek. It was a lot of folk art and Elvis, and there was also a cafe attached where you could hang out and chat with the woman who helped found the center. She was really sweet and fun to talk to and was even nice enough to point me toward a different cafe because she didn't have iced coffee.
The coffee place the Folklore Center Curator recommended was called Tamp & Tap, and I was grateful for the recommendation. The cafe was super sleek and hip, and they had a huge selection of sandwiches, espresso drinks, beer and wine. I kept it simple and just got a nitro cold brew, but it was really good.
After I got my caffeine fix, I went to Central BBQ, which I was told had the best BBQ ribs in Memphis. Similarly to Hattie B's in Nashville, I clearly wasn't the only one who had heard good things and there was a line around the block. Again I figured, I'd just order to go and not deal with the whole big line. The cashier was super nice and friendly, and they let me sit at the bar while I waited. I got a local stout called the Gotta Get Up to Get Down Coffee Milk Stout from Wiseacre Brewing. I really liked it, and I especially liked that all the taps were over what looked like a big bath tub.
When I got my ribs, I went and sat outside the old Lorraine Motel where MLK was staying before he got shot and which is now the National Civil Rights Museum. It was a kind of surreal place to have a picnic, but it was the first place I was able to really sit down at. The ribs were dry-rubbed and marinated overnight and then slathered with BBQ sauce. It was incredible. I only ordered a half slab, but I don't know how anyone could eat more. It was fall off the bone tender, and brought new meaning to finger licking good. It was one of the best lunches I've ever had.
After cleaning the sauce off my face and fingers, I made my way into the Civil Rights Museum. Immediately upon walking in I was greeted by a massive bronze sculpture of people slowly marching up a mountain called Movement to Overcome by Michael Pavlosky. It was stunning, and set a good tone for the museum to come. It's got to be one of my favorite museums I've ever been to, and it's curated to really create a truly powerful experience.
The first exhibit was the temporary special exhibit and the only one that didn't allow photography. The exhibit collected photographs by Lee Friedlander of the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom an earlier Civil Rights march led by MLK on Washington D.C. The photos were really beautiful capturing famous protestors like Harry Belafonte and Mahalia Jackson as well as everyday people. My favorite part though was all the children, brought by impassioned parents, who couldn't help just being little kids, looking grumpy, tired, and bored at a grown ups event. It gave everything such a timeless and human feel to it, like even at huge cultural points in our nation's history kids are always just gonna be kids as they are now, will be in the future, and always have been. Plus it just made for cute photographs.
The main exhibit of the museum was a chronological walk through the history of the Civil Rights Movement beginning with the very first slaves brought to the colonies up to the modern day and culminating with the actual room MLK stayed in before he was shot. By the time you make it the motel room, there literally isn't a dry eye in the house. It's just got such a stark and powerful mundanity to it, but that's literally where greatness lay. The walk up is really cool, decked out in factoids, historical artifacts, and life sized recreation of key moments such as the first soda fountains where sit-in protests occurred or Rosa Parks' bus to create a really immersive and engaging experience. The thing I was most embarrassed to learn was that West African countries where slaves were taken from had thriving cities and civilizations and that princes got enslaved as well as commoners. The embarrassment stems not from the fact itself, but that I didn't know it earlier. I guess I always just assumed the countries were primarily rural and tribal, which I didn't realize was stupid and a little bit racist until I read the real truth. It's really hard to underestimate how horrific and destabilizing the slave trade was. The one vaguely positive takeaway was that there was little revolutions every step of the way right from the beginning, so it was never something people took lying down. I remember reading an interview with Chris Rock where they asked him how he felt about recent strides in Black progress with the rise of more Black professionals in high positions. His response was: "That’s not black progress. That’s white progress. There’s been black people qualified to be president for hundreds of years...there have been smart, educated, beautiful, polite black children for hundreds of years. The advantage that my children have is that my children are encountering the nicest white people that America has ever produced" I thought that was really insightful when I first read it, and I think so even more now reading about all the smart, talented Black people who didn't stop being smart and and talented in spite of being enslaved. When you think of what all some people, like Frederick Douglass or George Washington Carver were able to accomplish when they had every odds stacked against them, I can't help wondering what they and others would have been able to do if they'd been supported from the start. Beyond just the inherent cruelty of any kind of discrimination, I always think it's a great tragedy for society at large to lose the potential insights of great minds from whatever group is being unfairly marginalized. When you close off any one group, we all lose.
Across from the main museum was a smaller exhibit all about James Earl Ray and the different conspiracy theories around the MLK shooting in the building where the shot was fired from. It was all very interesting, but I was probably a little too emotionally spent from the main exhibit really give it my full appreciation.
To counteract some of the heaviness, I got some ice cream at the Scoops Parlor. They had a Tennessee Whiskey flavor, that was as smooth and delicious as the real thing. Totally refreshing.
After my ice cream, I started to make my last rounds before heading out of Memphis. My last touristy thing I had to do was make a pilgrimage to Sun Studios, where everyone from BB King to Elvis to Johnny Cash to Howlin' Wolf recorded and essentially helped invent Rock and Roll. I was shocked at how small the actual studio was for how big its impact was, but it was definitely a cool place to visit even if everything they were actually selling was marked up for tourists.
After that, I went to Tops Bar-B-Q which is a perfect no frills BBQ joint. I got a pulled pork sandwich to go and then drove to nearby Cafe Eclectic to get some coffee to complete my meal on the run. The coffee was pretty good, and the pork was insanely tasty.
Fueled up, I drove through the night and across a time zone to end up in Chattanooga.
Favorite Random Sightings: Buff City Soaps, Blind Bear Speakeasy, Paula Deen's Southern Cooking BIBLE
Regional Observations: I love that so many world renowned BBQ places look just like dingy drive ins on the outside.
Albums Listened To: Liquid Swords by GZA (frequently regarded as the best Wu-Tang Solo Album); A Little Bit of Mambo by Lou Bega (just Mambo #5 five, a stupid stupid classic); Little Plastic Castle by Ani DiFranco (Just Gravel); A Little Touch of Schmillson in the Night by Harry Nillson (All old standards, initially derided for being schmaltzy, but really a stellar showcase of Nilsson's voice and some excellent orchestral arrangements)
People's Favorite Jokes:
Benjamin Franklin said that there are only two things in this world that are certain death and taxes. I'd like to add booty burn from hot cheetos.
Songs of the Day:
