Blue Dog Visits the Home of the Blues

Memphis is home to at least two world class art galleries, the Dixon Gallery and Gardens and the Brooks Museum of Art. From July 29 to October 14, the Dixon Gallery and Gardens will have a display of the work of George Rodrigue who is best known for his Blue Dog painting. The Dixon is a great venue to appreciate fine art and its gardens are beautiful.

While I'm not someone who regularly takes in fine art, I am someone who appreciates the Dixon and the Brooks. I've seen a number of shows at both that have brought world class art to Memphis. Certainly if you travel to New York or Paris or Rome fine art is widely available. For most of the rest of America, that's not the case. Memphis is lucky in that a number of the prominent cotton families from the last century used their wealth to purchase fine art and then left those collections and in some cases their homes to the public for their education and enjoyment. I have heard from others that do know fine art that Memphis has as fine a collection of art as any museum in Atlanta, Dallas and St. Louis. For a city of our size (approximately 1.3 million) we are blessed to have the art collection of somewhere much larger. Go check out the George Rodrigue exhibit at the Dixon and show the art world that we really are the home of the blues . . . or at least the Blue Dog!

Check Out the Orpheum Summer Movie Series

If you've been to Downtown Memphis you've undoubtedly been by the Orpheum Theatre. The Orpheum is best known for hosting broadway musicals such as the Lion King. But the Orpheum hosts a variety of other events such as concerts and movies -- that's right, movies! In fact, the Orpheum originally opened as the first Malco movie house. It opened in the era when movie houses were opulent, ornate buildings with balconies and taking in a movie was an event. If you take in one of the summer movie series, it still is.

Each year, the Orpheum runs a summer movie series. I recently had the pleasure of taking my children to the Orpheum to see Raiders of the Lost Ark for the first time. It was great. They showed an old black and white serial before the main attraction. They had a trivia contest and the Orpheum looked as beautiful as ever. We had a lot of fun.

If you haven't seen a movie there or haven't been there in awhile, it's definitely one of those really cool and essentially Memphis things that you just have to do. Go to www.orpheum-memphis.com for a list of the coming attractions including the movies. Some of the movies yet to play this summer are the Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Godfather, the Sound of Music, Goldfinger, Caddy Shack and the Wizard of Oz.

If you have a family, this is a great way to spend some time together. If you're single or don't have kids, go check out one of these movies and then head on over to Beale Street.

Memphis is Home to Two of America's Best Places to Live

The list of America's "Best Places to Live" is out and according to the July 17, 2007, edition of the Commercial Appeal Bartlett and Olive Branch, two Memphis area cities, made the list. Bartlett came in at number 95. Olive Branch made the list at number 89.

Bartlett was the only city in Tennessee to make the list. One other Mississippi city made the list, Ridgeland, at number 80. There were no Arkansas cities on the list.

Having two of its suburbs make the list is just a broader recognition that the Memphis area is a great place to live. While Bartlett and Olive Branch officially made the list, we know that there are a number of other cities and neighborhoods in Memphis that are great places to live as well including: Arlington, Lakeland, Germantown, Collierville, East Memphis, Chickasaw Gardens, Central Gardens, Vollentine-Evergreen, Cooper-Young, South Bluffs, Downtown, Harbortown, Marion, Hernando and parts of Tipton, Tunica and Fayette Counties.

Memphis is a great place to live, work, play, worship and raise a family.

Memphis is Home to One of the 50 Most Influential Churches

As reported in the Memphis Commercial Appeal on July 17, 2007, Bellevue Baptist Church was rated as one of the 50 most influential non-Catholic churches in the United States. Bellevue ranked 38 on the list which looked at 2,000 such faith communities.

This survey just recognizes what we've known for a long time in Memphis -- that Bellevue is a positive influence in this community and many other communities. The good (spiritual, social, charitable and otherwise) that Bellevue does for Mid-Southerners cannot be understated or fully appreciated. The political influence that Bellevue exerts in the Mid-South also cannot be understated.

Memphis is a better place to live because we have Bellevue. I can say that without bias because I'm not Southern Baptist and do not attend church there. It's just easy to see the good that they do. We're glad to have Bellevue and we congratulate them on their recognition.