I live in Memphis and have a few suggestions for you.posted by taz at 10:37 PM on July 23, 2012 [2 favorites]
There's an exhibit showing at Brooks Museum that sounds really interesting, "Soul of a City: Memphis Collects African Art." Brooks Museum is on Poplar Avenue, where it intersects Tucker Street, in Midtown Memphis. The Museum is located in Overton Park, which is located in an old-growth forest near Rhodes College (an architectural landmark in its own right).
If you're interested in singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, he lived less than a block from Overton Park, at 91 North Rembert Street. Supposedly he loved this house so much he tried to buy it from the landlord.
The Soul of a City exhibition looks interesting to me especially because it features artwork of Wash Harris, who built a bizarre, legendary temple in South Memphis that is called St. Paul's Spiritual Holy Temple (nicknamed "Voodoo Village"). Apparently it is Masonically inspired, but there may actually be elements of other faith traditions reflected in its structures. (If you're really brave and have a car it would be worth going to the temple to peer over the wall. I've been; it's worth it.)
Brooks Museum info about the Soul of a City exhibition
Memphis Flyer article about the exhibition
The Cooper-Young area is a good place to find hip coffee shops and restaurants, plus there's a good bookstore (Burke's). Central Gardens is a Midtown neighborhood with nice old homes/mansions. If you're interested in seeing the poorer parts of Memphis, it's worth driving down Lamar, Hollywood, Jackson Avenue, Park Avenue. Those streets tend to be time capsules of Memphis' past -- they haven't changed as much as other areas, because they are not redeveloped, but they also call for some basic safety precautions. I like Summer Avenue, as well, between East Parkway and Perkins Extended.
Orange Mound is an area of Memphis that is interesting because it is the first neighborhood to be built by African Americans for African Americans. I find Orange Mound to be a world of its own, with lots of shotgun houses that you don't see in other areas. Its residential streets just feel different from other areas, perhaps because of smaller lots. You'll see some very interesting makeshift conversions of homes into businesses. Some of the streets in "the Mound" are very well-tended, others are blighted by poverty, abandoned properties, and drugs.
If you watch Jim Jarmusch's "Mystery Train" or the movie "Hustle and Flow" (can't remember the director), you will get two fairly accurate glimpses of Memphis life. I particularly like Jarmusch's depiction ... I think it's pretty accurate even thought it's a romanticized, gritty, noir look at Memphis. "Mystery Train" is set mostly down in the South Main area (right by Earnestine & Hazel's and the Arcade Restaurant). The Arcade Hotel that figures in the movie has been torn down. That particular spot of South Main is also a central location in Wong Kar-Wai's film "My Blueberry Nights"; in fact some major scenes are set in Earnestine & Hazel's and I believe the Arcade Restarant across the street).
For blues, I hear that a pretty authentic spot to go is Wild Bill's. (I've never been but it gets discussed a lot by people in the know.)
Here's a video of a performance there.
Here's the Yelp listing for Wild Bills.
For live indie-type music, check the listings for the Hi-Tone lounge.
If anyone is plugged into the local live music scene, it is this guy Bully Rook. I'm linking to his Flickr "sets" because that's the only good way to navigate his enormous number of photos, and seeing the various venues where he goes to see shows, you'll get a sense of what's out there on the Memphis music scene.
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The Civil Rights museum is built on the site of where Dr. King was shot. I'm not sure if the $13 admission qualifies as "big ticket" but it was worth it IMO.
Food-wise, the Germantown Commissary was the highlight of my trip.
posted by QuantumMeruit at 7:13 PM on July 23, 2012