by Christopher Parks and Tam Tran

Commentary
by Bill Hyden

Well, I had my first time and it’s over. I have finally put my brown clothes in the washer and dried off and warmed up long enough to give my impressions about the Beale Street Music Festival held at Tom Lee Park in downtown Memphis. First, let’s start with the positives from this weekend.

Matt Nathanson opened the festival with a neat and intimate, or at least as intimate as you can expect on the Cellular South Stage, set of his acoustic tunes.

Commentary
by Bill Hyden

Although Tom Lee Park was once again the location where this year’s Beale Street Music Festival took place, first-time attendees and people unfamiliar with downtown Memphis might have thought they standing on nearby Mud Island after rain fell virtually uninterrupted on the final two days of the festival.

Fortunately for those who ignored a dreary forecast, the musicians they wanted to hear also had no reason to concede their acts due to the elements.

by David Wayne Brown
MemphisMojo.com

Here’s a question for the city: what is the most important virtue a mayor should have?

More than a few of you would say, “Compassion.”

The kind of compassion that led Mayor Bloomberg of New York City to hold a press conference soon after the ill-begotten jet chase through the Manhattan skies for a White House air photo op and declare himself furious at the hollow-headed stunt.

*read on*