Welcome to the weekend, Memphis! If you’re doing Dry January, congrats, you have made it, so let’s toast to that. But maybe wait until tomorrow. It’s Friday, Jan. 31, and you can see playwright Tennessee Williams’ paintings — some of them NSFW — at Rhodes College, beginning tonight. Speaking of playwrights, Anne Chmelewsky’s “Through the Looking Screen,” a play about online dating, opens at Germantown Community Theatre. Maybe take your Tinder match.

Saturday is opening day of an exhibition that brings six larger-than-life trolls to the Memphis Botanic Garden, and it’s also the first day for Good Fortune Co.’s month-long Lunar New Year bar crawl. The latter event gives you a good excuse to check out the new Bao Toan at Crosstown Concourse. As for sports, the Memphis Tigers women’s basketball team will play East Carolina at home.

Sunday is Groundhog Day, and here’s hoping for a repeat of the Memphis Grizzlies’ Martin Luther King Day win over the Minnesota Timberwolves when they play them again on their home court. The Tigers men will be ballin’ too, against Rice in Texas. Plus, the Memphis Restaurant Association’s annual food fest is on Sunday, and you can see if GloRilla gets a Grammy at a Dru’s Bar watch party. For even more weekend fun, go here.

THE NEED TO KNOW

Memphis police officers directed traffic before a Memphis Tigers game at FedExForum on Jan. 5. (Brad Vest/Special to The Daily Memphian)

Oh so quiet: Memphis City Council members and Shelby County commissioners have been getting private tours (“quiet tours,” as The Daily Memphian’s Samuel Hardiman calls them) of FedExForum over the past week, and they’re being briefed on the details of the arena’s planned renovations. This is happening as the city is considering spending $80 million for the first phase of renovations, part of a $550 million, multi-year project. Because these small tours are hosting just a couple of elected officials at a time, they’re allowed to be briefed on the expenditure of public funds without violating the Tennessee Open Meetings Act (hence the “quiet”). Here’s a look at what we know about the first phase of renovations though.

“The only silver lining is that we have more people now paying attention to what is happening in our education system and also what is happening with our superintendent,” said Shelby County Commissioner Mickell Lowery of Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins’ recent removal. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

More county control over MSCS? Currently, the Shelby County Commission has no line-item control over the $427 million in funding it gives to Memphis-Shelby County Schools. But following the proposed state takeover of MSCS, Shelby County Commissioner Mickell Lowery says the commission could explore taking more control of how MSCS spends its county funds. State Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, proposed the state takeover after MSCS board members fired Superintendent Marie Feagins, despite her widespread public support. 

Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Anthony Buckner said the doors at Shelby County Jail began failing in March 2024. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

Jail break: It seems some of the cells at the Shelby County Jail have an, um, open-door policy. More than 600 cell doors at the jail have failed repeatedly over the past year, and now it will cost more than $6 million and take two years to fix. Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Anthony Buckner said the broken doors have resulted in a rise in inmate-on-inmate assaults and assaults against jail staff. (Yikes.) The doors began failing in March of last year after 201 Poplar started experiencing power surges on the floors of the jail where the most violent offenders are held. 

The Tennessee House of Representatives passed an immigration bill, 77-22, on Thursday, Jan. 30. (George Walker IV/AP file)

Immigration bill, school vouchers pass: An immigration bill that passed on Thursday is headed to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk. It creates a state office that would coordinate with federal immigration policies. This comes as President Donald Trump has pledged to carry out one of the largest mass deportation efforts in U.S. history. The state bill also creates new rules around lawful residents’ driver’s licenses and makes it a felony for local officials who vote to adopt sanctuary city policies. In other news from Nashville, the General Assembly approved Gov. Bill Lee’s school-voucher bill on Thursday. Public funds will go toward 20,000 scholarships that students can use to pay for private school tuition. New in this version of Lee’s plan: one-time bonuses for teachers. 

QUOTED

Memphis Mayor Paul Young gave his State of the City speech on Thursday, Jan. 30. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

“There’s a lot that’s going on at all levels of government. But this is the time for us ... to drive our own destiny.”

— Memphis Mayor Paul Young
At the annual State of the City speech, Young addressed the anxiety some Memphians may be feeling in the first month of President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. He also revealed his goals to decrease crime, issue business permits more quickly and fix the city’s troubled transit system, among many other topics.

THE NICE TO KNOW

Houston Rockets forward Dillon Brooks shot against Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. and center Zach Edey on Thursday, Jan. 30. (Brandon Dill/AP)

Grizzlies finally did it! They beat the Houston Rockets, 120-119, for the first time this season. And it was a win that stretched beyond a single W. The haters have been saying the Grizzlies couldn’t beat good teams, so they had something to prove with this one. And though they trailed until the end, star (ahem, All-Star) Jaren Jackson Jr. changed that with his game-winning free throws in the final seconds. Jackson learned he’d been selected as an NBA All-Star reserve just as the game was starting Thursday. One notable absence from Thursday’s win: Ja Morant. He was ruled out at the last minute for shoulder soreness, and that has our own Chris Herrington worried. In other Grizz news, we’re less than a week away from the NBA trade deadline, and as usual, Herrington is gazing into his crystal ball to see what might happen. 

Memphis guard Colby Rogers shot a 3-pointer against Tulane forward Kaleb Banks in New Orleans, Thursday, Jan. 30. (Matthew Hinton/AP)

And the Tigers finally did it, too! Speaking of teams our guys can’t seem to shake, Tulane has traditionally been that for the Memphis Tigers when they play them in New Orleans. But the Tigers finally beat the Green Wave, 68-56, on the road, for the first time since 2020. It didn’t look like a win would happen though, until sharpshooter Colby Rogers nailed a triple on his eighth try. That turned a one-point deficit for Memphis into a two-point lead, and the Tigers never trailed again. It seems we can likely thank a Coach Penny Hardaway pep talk for that. New Orleans is where last season’s AAC collapse began, and as columnist John Martin says, Hardaway finally got his revenge. 

The new event venue, Grind City Amp, in Uptown Memphis will open in spring 2026. (Courtesy Wilson Public Relations)

Can’t stop the music: Another new music venue is coming to Memphis. On Thursday, Barbian Entertainment and Grind City Brewing Co. announced a 4,500-capacity outdoor venue to be built at the brewery. Called Grind City Amp, the venue is expected to open in spring 2026 and will host eight to 12 major concerts and comedy shows per season. (If you’ve ever attended a large event at Grind City, you know parking is an already an issue, so where will 4,500 people park? Here’s hoping there’s a plan!) Grind City Amp is the second large music venue to be announced recently: Crosstown Concourse and Live Nation are opening a 1,300-capacity venue.

Comeback Coffee is relaunching its lunch menu through a partnership with Groovy Gratitude. (Courtesy Hayes McPherson/Comeback Coffee)

Groovy news: Now you can chase your morning latte from Comeback Coffee with a green juice. Memphis-based Groovy Gratitude, a purveyor of healthy juices, salads and grain bowls, is partnering with Comeback on a new lunch menu. Read more on that, plus news of a bakery serving Chinese-style bread, in Food Files. And for something that’s basically the opposite of green juice, check out this week’s $10 Deal, where native New Yorker Joshua Carlucci tells us about a Bartlett pizza joint that finally meets his very high expectations for New York-style ’za. And with two slices and a drink coming in at $10, you’re truly getting a deal.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

It seems our old governor, Bill Haslam, and his wife are trying to get the WNBA to Nashville. The couple, along with an ownership group that includes country music stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, have put in a bid for a team they plan to call the Tennessee Summitt. 

Most of the commenters on X were supportive of the idea. But someone needs to tell @JRun_6 that you can pry the Grizzlies from our cold, dead hands. @LoganDrums23 has the right idea though!

Cheers to you, whether you gave up booze for January or not! See you next month!

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