When the made-in-Memphis series "Bluff City Law" premieres on NBC on Monday night, it will be the first time the city plays itself, in the present tense, in a television series. 

Mediation at Tom Lee Park hasn't quieted public debate about the future of the Memphis riverfront. Here are a series of observations on what we talk about when we talk about Tom Lee Park. 

As the confused reader response to “not … anti-racist” underscored, this is not a widely familiar term. Sawyer is seeking the mayor’s office, not tenure. That means persuading voters who haven’t sat in a college sociology or cultural studies class in a while, or ever. 

Thoughts on Willie Herenton's attempt to make the Memphis mayor's race a two-man affair, the influx of scooters and the Memphis story at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. 

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee seems to have shifted his thinking in recent months on state-sponsored emblems of the Confederacy. If he's willing to go a little further, he could find a real leadership opportunity. 

An ongoing spat involves two Memphis institutions, one legacy (Graceland), one a modern creation (Grizzlies), and both central to the city’s identity.

The Memphis 10 this week covers basketball, barbecue and Johnny Cash; school vouchers, pedestrian safety, and the prospect of impeachment; and a voice of Memphis already missed.

This week the Memphis 10 takes an early look at the Memphis mayor's race, sifts through some Nashville-related nonsense, and more.

In this week's Memphis 10: Johnny Football says farewell, Memphis comedy gets a showcase, and the city's future is as contested as ever.

For decades now we’ve treated Tom Lee Park – 30 precious acres linking the heart of Downtown to the Mississippi River – as a kind of Liberty Bowl West: a venue to be fully used a few days each May, a de facto fairgrounds.

Sifting through Grizzlies issues on the day after the worst loss of the season, including Marc Gasol's frustration, trade-deadline notes, the Grizzlies' precarious place in the lottery race, the impending arrival of former prospect Bruno Caboclo, and more.

Years are arbitrary units of time, and a lot of what was most interesting in Memphis in 2018 are ongoing changes or trends that don't stop because a calendar flips. With that in mind, this year-in-review often doubles as a kind of year-in-preview: A Memphis 10 look back at some of the most significant Memphis stories and developments (often literally) of 2018, and beyond. 

This past weekend, the Hallmark Channel premiered “Christmas at Graceland,” a made-for-television feature film where country star Kellie Pickler offers key support to the film’s real star: Graceland.

My first reaction when I saw Elvis Presley was getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom was puzzlement: This hasn’t already happened? And, why now?

Two quotes in the closing days of this year’s midterm election, both on the subject of the “migrant caravan” as a political motivator:

Some nights begin with a bang. The 2018 Memphis Music Hall of Fame induction ceremony started with a ball of fire.

One of the more memorable Memphis cultural moments of the past several years was Justin Timberlake’s 2015 induction speech for the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.

There’s a bit early in Primary Colors, Joe Klein’s written-as-Anonymous 1996 roman a clef on the 1992 Bill Clinton campaign, that comes to me from time to time.

Two weeks ago in this space, I suggested The Memphis 10 would be taking a two-week hiatus, one for some fall break family travels and a second for an NBA/Grizzlies opening-week workload.

If you want to really know your country, Memphis is a good place to start. Artists such as Howlin’ Wolf and Elvis Presley brought American culture together and sent it around the world from a studio only steps from where a slave trader was celebrated in a city park. Martin Luther King Jr. marched for economic justice, climbed to the mountaintop, and was taken by an assassin’s bullet, all within a triangle separated by a couple of miles.

It was a week of sobering news and a news-making Presidential visit. Because the opening items underscore reckonings that came, alternately, from us and to us, I kept it light on the rest of this week’s 10.

Welcome back to The Memphis 10, the only place where you'll find Marsha Blackburn and the Oblivians hanging out together.

The heritage of Hi Records brackets this first weekly list, with the sound of Al Green and the image of guitarist/songwriter Teenie Hodges making unexpected appearances. Elsewhere, our criminal justice system bears watching, next year’s mayor’s race gets weird, and our food trucks get some pub.