Welcome, sunshines! Today is Tuesday, June 21, the first official day of summer. Of course, with this intense heat, it’s been feeling like summer for a while now. To celebrate the start of the season, we’re launching a new series today highlighting the best eats on Summer Avenue (more on that below). 

The Memphis City Council meets today, and they’re expected to take up the final vote on a referendum ordinance that would allow for primaries in city elections. 

THE NEED TO KNOW

Tom Hanks stars as Col. Tom Parker and Austin Butler is Elvis Presley in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Elvis,” which opens Friday, June 24. Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” is a lavish retelling of Presley’s life that has renewed hopes for a new era of Elvis interest. (Courtesy Hugh Stewart)

All shook up for Elvis again? Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis” biopic, the King’s biggest movie treatment ever, hits theaters this Friday, and The Daily Memphian’s Chris Herrington wonders if the film’s release will reinvigorate interest in Elvis’ music and legacy, creating a new generation of Elvis fans. Herrington compares the film to 2018’s Queen biopic, “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which elevated Queen onto the list of 2019’s best-selling musical acts, and he takes a look at a rather problematic character in “Elvis” (played by an otherwise lovable actor).

Judge Patrick Dandridge listens to testimony during a hearing in Environmental Court on Feb. 19, 2019. (Jim Weber/Daily Memphian file)

Blight fight: Shelby County Environmental Court Judge Patrick Dandridge will appear at a council committee meeting today to answer questions about what some council members see as a lack of action around blight cases. In its last meeting on June 7, the Memphis City Council approved a resolution calling for the creation of another division of Environmental Court. 

Mark Flanagan

Remembering Mark Flanagan: Irish Eyes of Memphis founder and local Democratic party executive committee member Mark Flanagan died last Wednesday. If you’ve ever attended a Midtown St. Patrick’s Day Pub Crawl, you’ve got Flanagan to thank. He started that event back in the early 1980s in Overton Square, and our own Bill Dries offers a remembrance beset with wild pub crawl antics (like the time pub crawlers threw rubber snakes at surprised Mud Island River Park construction workers) and reflections on Flanagan’s counterculture-inspired political life.

Sandra Brigham prepares “I Voted” stickers at Bartlett Baptist Church on Nov. 3, 2020. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian file)

Suburban politics: Monday was the first day for candidates to pull petitions for Nov. 8 municipal elections in Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown, Lakeland and Millington. Both Bartlett and Lakeland have pivotal elections as their respective mayors are not seeking reelection. Here’s a look at the candidates who have so far declared their intentions to run.

MEET MEMPHIS

Former Melrose baseball coach and longtime principal Leroy McClain retired after 33 years in the Memphis-Shelby County School system. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)

The recently retired Southwest Career and Technology Center principal Leroy McClain says he’s never met a stranger. The personable principal always knew the right thing to say to his students, and he greeted them at the door every morning. “I don’t go hide in my office. I go outside ... and say goodbye, have a nice day. And it means something. That human relationship is so important,” McClain said. He retired at the end of the school year, after 33 years with Memphis-Shelby County Schools, and he’s now planning to spend more time with his family and more time playing the sport he loves — baseball. 

THE NICE TO KNOW

Luula Halal Somali Restaurant co-owner and cook Saido Jama prepares a dish. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)

Street feast: Memphis’ Summer Avenue, with more than 70 independently owned food businesses, is a culinary emblem of both old Memphis and diversifying Memphis. And this summer, our resident foodies Jennifer Biggs and Chris Herrington take us on a tour of the best eateries on the street. In today’s first installment in the series, they visit Summer’s west end with stops at a Somali restaurant that’s popular with truckers, a Mexican homestyle eatery where the menu changes daily, a cash-only Memphis sub shop and several other favorites.

Daily Memphian columnist Chris Herrington is skeptical of Patrick Baldwin Jr., seen here in the 2022 NBA basketball Draft Combine. “Long, lanky shooter with questionable athleticism” doesn’t scream upside to me,” he said. (Charles Rex Arbogast/Associated Press file)

Feeling the draft: The NBA draft is this Thursday, and the Memphis Grizzlies hold the No. 22, 29 and 47 picks. Our Grizzlies writers Drew Hill and Chris Herrington speculate on which draft picks could be “home runs” and “safe bets” and what role — if any — Memphis-born Kennedy Chandler could play. And should the Grizzlies opt to move up late in the lottery, Hill suggests a player with a made-for-Memphis name. In other Grizz news, the team released its summer league schedule on Monday.

Derwin Sisnett (left) and Shamichael Hallman have been chosen to participate in the Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. (Lucy Garrett/Special to The Daily Memphian)

Harvard bound: Two Memphis men have been selected for Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design’s Loeb Fellowship. Derwin Sisnett, co-founder of Maslow Development Inc. and Gestalt Community Schools, and Shamichael Hallman, senior library manager of Cossitt Library, will join seven other fellows for a year at Harvard.

Between the NBA draft and the transfer portal, Tigers head coach Penny Hardaway has lost nine players from last season. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

What’s next for the Tigers? With the news that the Memphis Tigers have drafted Boise State transfer Emmanuel Akot, the team is closer to filling out its roster. That’s after having lost nine players from last season’s team to the NBA draft and transfer portal. So what’s next? The Daily Memphian’s Steven Johnson thinks the answer might be UTEP transfer Keonte Kennedy, and he looks into what Kennedy could offer the team if he comes to Memphis.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

After the Golden State Warriors won the NBA Championship last Thursday, guard Klay Thompson called Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. a “freakin’ bum” in response to a tweet Jackson made back in March (seriously, dude, don’t you have a win to celebrate?). Meanwhile, big man Jackson is literally being the bigger man by totally ignoring Thompson’s remarks. 

Happy summer solstice! It’s going to be a hot one today, so be careful out there. 

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