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:

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.

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

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.