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MIAA Football: Westwood at BTW, Memphis

Memphis’ Booker T. Washington Stadium is arguably the second-oldest in the city after Crump Stadium, behind Central High School, although the latter has had a complete renovation in recent years. Much has changed in the surrounding neighborhood, including the demolition of Cleaborn Homes and Foote Homes, but crowds still turn out to support the Booker T. Washington Warriors, the oldest Black high school in Memphis. This year, BTW seems to have a decent marching band, with a first-rate drumline. Westwood, on the other hand, is a pathetic shadow of its former life, when, in the 80’s and early 90’s, it used to march over a hundred band members. Open enrollment, and outmigration from the neighborhood have devastated it. Still, the Longhorns have a small marching band that seems well-trained and which might become the foundation of a rebuilding. Only time will tell. 

Leonard Bernstein-“American Dreaming” from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Bernstein – 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. – American Dreaming (by Romanov76110)

Leonard Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner created the very operatic musical “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” as a celebration for the Bicentennial in 1976. With financial backing by Coca-Cola, fans expected a celebratory work, but instead encountered a somber and somewhat bitter work about the difference between America’s philosophy and its actual practice. Reviewers at the time proclaimed it a failure, and Bernstein soon withdrew it, using portions of it in the Slava! overture, the Songfest and the Divertimento for Orchestra. For many, little of the wonderful music of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue would be heard until the recording of the heavily-cut White House Cantata of the late 1990’s. But much great music was excised from the cantata, including this powerful and cynical excerpt, in which the characters playing the American presidents and the White House’s main servant express a disillusionment and bitterness that seems to be pulled right from this year’s electorate. Although the Bernstein estate does not allow performances of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, there are signs that this musical might not have been “impossible” or “problematic”, simply ahead of its time.

Whitehaven vs. Fairley at J.P. Freeman, Memphis, 2012

High school football (and the marching band battles that go with it) are a big part of the culture of Memphis, and there are few rivalries bigger than Whitehaven High School and Fairley High School. Their game this year, played at J. P. Freeman Stadium  because Whitehaven Stadium is being renovated, was a rare Saturday game and it drew a crowd as big as one might expect for a college game.The weather was perfect, the bands were great, and there were no fights.