Go Memphis

NEW YORK -- Darin Riggio has a thing for older women -- he dated his first "cougar" when he was a 19-year-old college student. She was 43.

Giggles, energy, fellowship and creativity filled the dinning hall at Union Avenue United Methodist Church as the children enrolled in FirstWorks after-school program were challenged to a pumpkin-decorating contest the night before Halloween.

A reality show miniseries about the Jackson family will premiere Dec. 13 on A&E, the network says.

As the Internet turns 40 this year, one of its lesser — but still profound — successes has been the resuscitation of music artists that were once thought forever banished to the cut-out bin of history. One such musician saved from obscurity is Bob Frank, the Memphis-born singer-songwriter whose respectable music career ended in 1972 shortly after it began. Frank has at last found an audience for his distinct songwriting vision, and he performs Saturday at Otherlands.

The Fourth Kind” is a “found footage” horror movie with a few new tweaks, though not enough to escape a certain clunkiness. At the onset of Olatunde Osunsanmi’s film, actress Milla Jovovich addresses the camera to announce that she’ll be playing real-life Alaska psychologist Abigail Emily Tyler in re-enactments of actual events. These re-enactments, we are assured, are based on genuine video and sound recordings of Tyler and her patients in Nome.

A fun tone is undermined by disjointed storytelling in George Clooney’s “The Men Who Stare at Goats,” and it all starts with the disclaimer that opens the movie: “More of this is true than what you might imagine.” This wry comment serves as a nod and a wink from the filmmakers, a license to do what they will to Jon Ronson’s amusing nonfiction account of the U.S. military’s hush-hush research into psychic warfare and espionage.

M. C. Mack described his 2003 Macknificent album as more "stylish" and his new album Pure Ana Part 1 as "more on the street side." "I rap kind of fast," he said. That's 'pure ana' — pure animosity. I'm shooting my lyrics like a .38." Mack performs at 11 tonight at The Plush Club at 380 Beale.

Over a long, distinguished career as a folklorist and scholar, William Ferris has made innumerable contributions to the academic study of the blues and the Southern culture. But in his latest project, a sprawling multimedia effort that includes a new book, CD, DVD and Web site, Ferris reaches beyond the dry, impassioned cataloging of regional history and traditions. He will be in Memphis on Saturday to sign copies of "Give My Poor Heart Ease" at Davis-Kidd Booksellers and the Center for Southern Folklore.

Having exhibitions by two very different sorts of artists "helps educate patrons," said David Lusk, owner of David Lusk Gallery in Laurelwood. "They generally like it. The space is big, and they can always turn a corner and see something else." There will be a reception tonight, from 6 to 8, for the exhibitions "From Peace Mountain," by local artist Don Estes, and "Connected," by Anne Siems from Seattle.

Capsule descriptions and starred mini-reviews by The Commercial Appeal movie writer John Beifuss.

Pay close heed to Thomas Wilkins' first Memphis concert, for it has a message. "It's a look at how more recent composers look back at older composers or styles to reference or synthesize their styles," Wilkins said in a recent telephone interview.

New York photographer Jacob Blickenstaff had an epiphany of sorts in Memphis in 2006. He'd come to town to attend the Ponderosa Stomp, the New Orleans-based heritage music festival that highlights forgotten and overlooked greats of R&B, soul, country and rock and roll. For Blickenstaff, it was a crucial moment that would shape his work for the next three years. Now, his efforts are being collected in a new photo exhibit at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.

Once a month, dining reviewers Jennifer Biggs and Peggy Burch visit a long-established local restaurant and write about the experience. Biggs introduced Burch to Edo, and Burch is now a fan. "Thank you for introducing me to the Love Boat. Such a great range of tastes on that platter. I love the skewered beef and chicken. But I think it's made for at least four diners, right? After we finished, I felt like I would not float on water. Still, it didn't keep me from eating the orange gelatin."

When the movie ends with a brief sequence showing the now-celebrated French designer, Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel (Audrey Tautou), observing a lineup of models draped in her latest fashions, the sudden glamor and style appear to our eyes like a desert oasis to a man dying of thirst. We're made aware of just how tedious the movie had become in its slow, inevitable plod to Coco's triumph.

Irish rockers U2 returned to Berlin for a free mini-concert Thursday in front of the Brandenburg Gate, playing its classic singles and a duet with Jay-Z even as the show was obscured from public view by a nearly 6--foot high metal barrier.

Part of an executive chef's job is to teach, says Andrew Bryan, executive chef at River Oaks Restaurant. "The teaching aspect of being an executive chef is probably one of the most important things. I can't cook everything by myself. I can't plate everything for myself. So I for sure need the fellow brigade to kick in and help me out with it all. Unless I teach them and show them the way that I've been taught, it's not worth it."

It wasn't an assignment he would have chosen for himself. Steven McMahon, Ballet Memphis dancer, got word from his boss that his first big-time ballet as a choreographer would be "the great American fairy tale." The young Scotsman wondered if she'd made a mistake. He? Choreograph "The Wizard of Oz"? When his ballet adaptation of "The Wizard of Oz" debuted in 2007, it helped establish McMahon as the company's go-to guy for in-house choreography. McMahon has reworked "The Wizard of Oz" for its revival at the Orpheum this weekend.

You're not likely to happen upon The Pizza Shack, unless you're at Lowe's on Perkins and taking the side exit out to Summer. The little restaurant is in the parking lot of the home improvement store, facing the north side of the building. I checked it out when it first opened as another pizza place and liked the pizza, but worried about the location. About six months ago, it switched hands and became The Pizza Shack. Starved and tired one night last week, it was a good time to give take-out a try.

"I've been waiting for this film since the early days of the war," writes Roger Ebert about "Brothers at War," which he calls an "honest, on-the-ground documentary" about American soldiers fighting in Iraq. The Samuel Goldwyn Films release screens at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Malco's Stage Cinema, 7930 U.S. 64. Admission is $7, or $5 with military ID.

For some people, getting onstage and telling a personal story -- then having a troupe of actors play it out in front of them -- might sound like something out of a nightmare. And for others, it's a way to get in touch with the soul of a community. Playback Memphis, a new theater company staging one of its improvisational performances Friday and Saturday, is part town hall meeting, part group therapy, and part entertainment.