Go Memphis

, the area's most active Web site and collaborative network for the promotion and production of local art, music and film, launched or revived several projects recently that document the work and personalities of artists in the Mid-South.

"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" expands into Memphis and other cities Friday after breaking per-theater box-office records the past two weeks in limited release. What "Precious" does well is to create sympathy and understanding for its unique title character. The movie functions almost as a public service announcement for the need for social service agencies, bootstrap initiatives and public education programs.

Sarah Palin isn't the only gun-toting, conservative Christian sports mom back in the news. This week also gives us Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, the no-nonsense, git-'r-done, steel magnolia Memphis mother whose rescue of inner-city gentle giant Michael Oher provides the real-life inspiration for "The Blind Side". The movie is peppered with calculatedly memorable exchanges, which emphasize that this is more Leigh Anne's than Michael's story.

Two of the more eagerly awaited movies of the year open today: "The Blind Side," inspired by the real-life story of Memphis couple Sean and Leigh Anne Touhy and their adopted son, current NFL right tackle Michael Oher; and "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," which has generated a lot of local interest (judging from my phone calls and e-mail messages), thanks in part to the endorsements of Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry.

"Planet 51" is a trite compendium of everything that's wrong with non-Pixar computer-animated feature films. The voice actors (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jessica Biel) mostly were chosen for their name recognition, not their mellifluousness. The soundtrack is burdened with inferior covers of familiar rock and pop tunes. (Because the title planet is presented as an alien version of America in the 1950s, these songs include "Be-Bop-A-Lula" and "Long Tall Sally.")

This is stay-in-school week at the movies: "The Blind Side," "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" and "An Education" all counsel young people to hit the books, not the streets or the sheets. In the first two movies, school offers the hope of not just salvation but survival. The stakes aren't as high in "An Education," but this impeccably mounted and acted BBC Films production is more successful at achieving its less-ambitious aim.

After a bumpy start in the business, country singer Chris Young is riding high on the success of his sophomore album, The Man I Want To Be, which was released in September. The native of Murfreesboro, Tenn., was the first contestant from the USA Network's music competition show "Nashville Star" to have a top single. He plays Minglewood Hall on Wednesday.

"I love the hunt," Memphis artist Jeri Ledbetter says about the thought process that goes into her boldly abstract canvases. "When I go anywhere, I look for the interesting part of where I am," she says. "And it's never the whole. There's always a corner or something hidden, especially places that most people don't go to look for beauty." Her solo show at L Ross Gallery runs through Nov. 30.

South of Beale is not a restaurant, not a bistro, not a cafe and not a bar. It's a gastropub, and apparently that's difficult to define. But after a few visits to South of Beale, we forgot such quibbles. The food chef Nick Ragazzo produces here is fanciful, skillfully executed and consistent from night to night. We tried a third of the plates on South of Beale's imaginative current menu, and all but one of the dishes were delicious and cleverly presented.

Michael Moyer didn't do much talking the first seven years of his life. "I never would use my words," said Moyer, 20. "I had to take these classes to learn how to speak. I used to just point at things." But by the time he was 13, things had changed. His sister, Tristan Moyer, who goes by the name Nancy Whiskey in the Vegas-based-band, Darby O'Gill and the Little People, bought Moyer his first guitar and took him to punk rock shows.

The Box (PG-13, 116 min.) Director Richard Kelly follows the modern cult classic "Donnie Darko" with another implausible yet compelling science-fiction mystery about the hidden dark forces that control "reality." The first half is a brilliantly realized exercise in sustained tension, as mysterious stranger Frank Langella tells married couple Cameron Diaz and James Marsden they will earn $1 million if they only push a button and cause the death of a stranger.

When I first moved to Memphis from Florida, I arrived in a city of wonderful accents. I gleefully began studying them, learning that there was no such thing as a generic "Southern" accent. One would think that this knowledge of variable accent acquisition would have aided my viewing of "The Seafarer" at Circuit Playhouse, a darkly comic play set on a Christmas Eve in Dublin, Ireland.

The executive chef at Blue Fish restaurant learned a lot from a fellow chef while in culinary school. "He took me under his wing and he taught me work ethic. That's the biggest part of this business. You've got to have a good work ethic to work six, seven days a week, 80, 90 hours a week and still have a smile on your face at the end of the day. He taught me the passion behind the food."

Winfrey plans to announce the final date for her show during a live broadcast on Friday. She is widely expected to start up a new talk show on her OWN cable network.

Here are restaurants that will be open on Thanksgiving. Visit whiningdining.com and click on "Holiday openings" on the right side of the page to see if others are added before Turkey Day: Barnhill's Buffet, 6196 Stage Road (377-1826) and 1204 W. Poplar, Collierville (854-5660), is offering a traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.; $10.99; drinks, tax and gratuities are extra.

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon,” also known as “Twilight: The Squeakquel,” is actually pretty good — a tick better than the first “Twilight,” which wasn’t bad either. These are hardly superlatives on the order of “shattering” and “beautiful,” but compared to the film versions of “The Da Vinci Code” and “Angels & Demons,” the only two movies ever made with less sex than the first two “Twilights,” they’re matchless.

Sushi for dinner can be both economical and, if you order correctly, healthy. A-Tan at Poplar and Highland offers a selection of rolls from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday that fits the bill on both counts. The rolls are $3, a savings of anywhere from 75 cents to about $2 off the regular menu.

Film star Nicolas Cage has visited a Kenyan prison holding suspected Somali pirates awaiting trial to highlight the problem of piracy in the Indian Ocean.

This weekend’s Memphis Symphony Orchestra engagement offers a diverse trio of hefty works by John Adams, Beethoven and Dvorak. It’s also a chance to check out guest conductor Mei-Ann Chen, the third of three candidates to audition for the job held by retiring music director David Loebel. The popular Dvorak Cello Concerto, to be performed by guest artist Julie Albers, was already set when Chen got the guest conducting assignment.

Mei-Ann Chen sees great things ahead for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and would like to be the one who helps shape its future. Chen, 36, is one of three candidates for the job of conductor and music director to replace the retiring David Loebel. This weekend, the assistant conductor with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra leads the Memphis Symphony through a diverse trio of hefty works in concerts Saturday and the Sunday.