Go Memphis

The opener of the ninth season of IRIS was a wild ride, from the traditional (a solid Beethoven's "Eroica" Symphony) to the roller-coaster boogie-woogie of Brahms.
Actually the boogie-woogie -- and blues, and stride piano and a rich mix of other jazz forms and invention -- were courtesy guest soloist Uri Caine, who took Brahms' "Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel" and gave it an expression that would have stunned the old composers.

The Arkansas Blues & Heritage Festival, formerly known as the King Biscuit Blues Festival, famously has its roots in the old "King Biscuit Time" radio program that broadcast the music of now-legends like Sonny Boy Williamson II, Pinetop Perkins and Robert Lockwood Jr. across the Mississippi Delta beginning in the 1940s.

“Closely Watched Trains,” a 1966 Czech film by director Jirí Menzel, won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language feature. According to the blurb on the Criterion Collection DVD release of the movie, “Closely Watched Trains” is an often comic coming-of-age tale about a young man in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia who remains “oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him” as he “embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery..."

Shock jock Howard Stern has embraced tradition. The radio talk show host known for hosting porn stars married his longtime girlfriend, Beth Ostrosky, on Friday.

Bobbie Johnston, a 61-year-old Cordova homemaker, was introduced to the "Twilight" series of books earlier this year by her daughter.

The “How Sweet the Sound” church choir competition is, literally, glorious. Still, there could be only one winner among the eight area ensembles, and New Direction Christian Church walked way with top honors Thursday night, earning cash prizes and a trip to Atlanta Nov. 8 for the finals against winning choirs in 10 other cities. The competition was held before an enthusiastic audience of almost 5,200 at FedExForum.

When Memphis-born jazz pianist James Williams passed away in 2004 at age 53, The New York Times and The Independent in London both marked the passing of the leading jazz educator, described as one of the “great pianists who played for Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers.” In the weeks after his death, Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where Williams taught for several years, organized two nights of concerts featuring a cadre of East Coast jazz talent to pay tribute to Williams.

Shakespeare, like you've never seen him performed before, is the least of Dan McCleary's ambitions. Sure, the play's the thing, and all that. But if it turns out that his new production of "As You Like It" in Germantown goes well -- really well -- Shakespeare could become another cultural feather in the city's cap, the same way classical music has bloomed through the acclaimed IRIS Orchestra.

Capsule descriptions by The Commercial Appeal movie writer John Beifuss.

Country duo Montgomery Gentry perform at 9 p.m. Saturday at Bluesville in Horseshoe Casino, Tunica. Other concerts:

Tuesday afternoon, several city of Memphis employees stood outside 2571 Broad Ave. in Binghamton, hard at work repairing a drainage collection box and pouring a new, wheelchair accessible curb. "They're busting their butts, trying to get it done by Art Walk," said 45-year-old painter Larry Patton.

Elfo's Restaurant in Germantown makes a bold statement long before the first plate of food arrives at your table. Located in the building where Three Oaks Grill used to be, on a cozy stretch of old Germantown Road south of Poplar, the design of the new Elfo's is glamorous and refined. It's a conspicuous contrast to its across-the-street neighbor, the down-home Germantown Commissary serving barbecue in a former general store.

With the presidential election closing in, now's a good time for a refresher course on American democracy. Michael Detroit plays an obstreperous John Adams trying to get Congress to vote on the Declaration of Independence in "1776." at Circuit Playhouse.

North Carolina painter Greg Decker has a show at Perry Nicole Fine Art, 3086 Poplar, through Oct. 31. Other shows opening this week:

It sounds weird to say so, but I have what might be called an affection for movies about natural disasters, the collapse of civilization and the end of the world as we know it. There's something perversely thrilling about these ritualistic rehearsals of doom and their embrace of annihilation as entertainment.

There's a bit of moving and shaking going on in Memphis' restaurant scene, so let's get to it: The management of Interim Restaurant and Bar has officially taken over the former Daily Grill spot inside the Westin, but don't get too excited yet -- it's still a few weeks before the real new restaurant is opened.

If celebrity purebred Tinkerbell sees "Beverly Hills Chihuahua," there could be a putsch in Paris Hilton's purse. This live-action Disney release isn't the heel-biting reboot of "Clueless" I'd expected; instead, it's an almost epic canine consciousness-raising comedy-adventure in which a pampered pooch sheds her designer doggiewear and recovers her ethnic identity -- and her ancient bark -- after a dognapping plot leaves her stranded in Mexico.

During its golden era, the Stax Records stable contained its fair share of larger-than-life stars and colorful characters. There was the "The Big O," Otis Redding; Isaac Hayes was "Black Moses"; Johnnie Taylor was the "The Philosopher of Soul"; Sam & Dave were "Double Dynamite." Singer William Bell may not have had a snazzy nickname or an outsized persona, but he had a niche all his own.

Neil LaBute's caustic two-person play "The Mercy Seat" opens at a terrible crossroad in American history -- an intersection that has changed all of our lives in many ways. In the cool, modern New York apartment that now sits on Theatre Memphis' Next Stage, a man is on a couch, watching the news unfold.

"Appaloosa" might be described as a routine Western, except that in the filmgoing culture of 2008, there's nothing routine about the pleasures of a well-made and entertaining movie about gunfighters, an evil rancher, a piano-playing saloon girl and hostile Apaches in the Old West. The movie was directed and co-scripted by its star, Ed Harris, working from a 2005 novel by Robert B. Parker (author of the "Spenser" detective series).