Wednesday update

Saturday’s American Athletic Conference championship game vs. UCF won’t be a home game, but you can watch it at the home of the Tigers thanks to University of Memphis alumni and Mayor Jim Strickland. Bring your lawn chairs and blankets to the Liberty Bowl Saturday and sit on the field to watch the game. This event is free and open to the public, and although outside food and beverages won’t be allowed in, there will be food trucks and concessions. Gates at 1:30, game starts at 2:30. From 1:30 to 2:30 they’ll have Tigers men’s basketball on the video board. Note that the same clear bag policy they had at home games will be in effect at the Liberty Bowl for this event.

The Memphis Flyer has confirmed it now – Midtown bar Old Zinnie’s is closing.

There will be a vigil on Friday for a homeless man who passed away at the MATA North End Terminal:

Attn: St. Jude runners who like beer:

Memphis Made Brewing Co. is bringing back Board Game Night at their taproom tomorrow night, November 29, from 7 to 10. The game night will feature Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate and they will also have 5 Minute Dungeon, Rick and Morty Anatomy Park, Azul, King of Tokyo, Scott Pilgrim, Clank! In! Space!,Smash Up, and Lotus. Feel free to bring board games from home, and if you don’t know how to play a game, that’s fine, they will teach you.

South Main Trolley Night is back this Friday, November 30 from 4 to 9 PM. Stuff to do will include

  • Holiday market at 409 S. Main (more on this in a moment)
  • South Main Sounds Songwriter Night #103 at 550 S. Main 7-9 PM – Byron Earnhardt, Rebecca Almond, Kaatie Bug, Tim Stanek, Leo Lazarus
  • Live music by The Moon Glimmers at 409 S. Main, 7 PM
  • Live music by Grape, The Vault, 124 G.E. Patterson, 8 PM
  • Live music by the Earnestine & Hazel’s House Band, 531 S. Main, 7 PM
  • Live music at the Arcade, 540 S. Main
  • Ollie Rodriguez Black Writer opening reception, Jack Robinson Gallery, 44 Huling, 6-9 PM
  • Sue Layman Designs set up inside Obsidian Public Relations, 493 S. Main, 4-9 PM
  • SMA member area, weather permitting, next door to Primas

If you can help decorate for the Holiday Market and Trolley Night, the SMA needs you. Meet at 409 S. Main  on Thursday, November 29 4:30-6:30, to put up holiday decorations; and/or meet on Friday, November 30 2-3 PM in front of the new Slider Inn (former bocce ball court at Main and Talbot) to help with luminaries.

As for that holiday market at 409 S. Main, here is a list of vendors you will find there Friday evening.

Somi Decor
Stoerger Art
Artwork by Tonya Pearce
Artwork by Dedrick Rogers
Meet Maple Jewelry
Gifts from Nature
Retrotherapy Vintage Jewelry
Vitalant Mid-South Regional Blood Center
Memphis 901 FC
Lemon Pop Vintage Shop
Memphis Express
Pendants by Sarah Bishop
South Main Hemp
Troy Glasgow Photography
Cat’s Ballroom
MEK Designs
AT&T Mobile Retail

The Union Mission has a rare opportunity for a group to provide and serve lunch three days before Christmas:

Catching up on reading

I’m on the next-to-last chapter of The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene. Up until this point, the book has largely felt like a review of things I have already learned, observing people having been a hobby of mine for my entire life. It seemed like there were fewer ah-ha moments then I had reading Greene’s earlier books. However, in Chapter 17, which is about riding the spirit of the times like a wave, I had one.

Greene hypothesizes that although world events, fashion, music and culture are quite different each time, there tends to be a cycle that lasts four generations and then repeats itself. He said to consider the last four generations:

  • The Silent Generation (born 1925-1945) were children during the Great Depression and World War II. Times of crisis having been impressed upon them, when they came of age in the late 1940s-1950s they were drawn to stability, order, and security.
  • The Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) were children during this period of stability and order, which they found rather sterile. When they came of age in the mid 1960s-1970s, they rebelled against this order, embracing freedom and radical ideas.
  • Generation X (born 1965-1981) were children during the Vietnam War, the hippie era, and the let it be era of the 1970s. When they came of age in the 1980s and 1990s, they rebelled against their parents’ idealism and were more individualistic and materialistic, the “me generation” as opposed to the “we generation.”
  • Millennials (born 1982-about 2000) didn’t really rebel against Generation X as much as previous generations. However, they can be compared to the Greatest Generation (born 1901-1924) as coming of age in a time of great uncertainty. The Greatest Generation came of age between World War I and World War II, a time of great instability in the world. It can be argued that the cycle is repeating itself with challenges like new electronic currencies, how to deal with a quickly-changing world economy (leading to Brexit for example), climate change, and cyber-warfare.

Thinking about things this way helped me understand something about myself. A Generation Xer, I came of age in the 1980s, but I always felt a bit out of step with the times. The idealism, the music, and the culture of people who came of age about 10 years before me seemed more like who I was than the individualism and the totally-tubular culture of the 1980s. Now I get it… I was a Gen Xer who was the son of a Silent Generation mother, because of an unusually large difference in our ages. I can’t tell you how many times my mom said, “I like stability,” whereas my reaction was, “Slaving away in an office and coming home miserable every day, with only a couple of weeks to yourself a year is what you live for? Is stability really worth it?” I was reacting to a different generation than my peers were, which is why I always felt a bit out of time in high school and college.

Another takeaway I had from reading the chapter: The U.S. had presidents from the Greatest Generation for 32 years, 1961-1993 – Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, and Bush 41. The Silent Generation never put a president in the White House. Since 1993, a period of 25 years, we’ve had Baby Boomer presidents – Clinton, Bush 43, Obama, and now Trump. I wonder if my generation will get a turn at the presidency?

That’s all for now. Back tomorrow.