Craig Brewer to Direct MTV Series on Memphis Scene

I’ve never considered myself to be on top of trends, to the extent that I’ve always been sure that by the  time I heard about anything as “hip,” its time had already passed. Everything I’ve ever heard hyped I assume has already jumped the shark.

I passed on Beck’s “Odelay” until about three years ago. I still haven’t heard Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” in its entirety.

And when I first heard murmurs of MTV backlash, I had assumed that it was just a trend, and I paid it no mind (except when they finally cancelled “120 Minutes” and the Janeane Garafalo-hosted “Indie Outing” - which introduced me to Yo La Tengo - those losses still smart).

So why am I so disappointed to hear that Craig Brewer, who directed “Hustle and Flow” and “Black Snake Moan,” and who genuinely loves the city of Memphis, is coming here with MTV to film some internet TV?

I came downstairs the other morning to find my girlfriend standing over a copy of the Commercial Appeal and gasping, “No, Craig Brewer! Why?!”

Is it because they’re using the Young Avenue Deli and the Java Cabana for a lot of shooting? Or is it because those places are two blocks from my house?

Is it just because the world will see decent musicians trying to act at Otherlands coffee shop? Or is it because I’m sitting at Otherlands right now, enjoying the relative quiet? (I say ‘relative’ because though the place is largely empty, I’ve got Plastic Bertrand’s “Ca Plane Pour Moi” playing in my iPod.)

It makes my heart ache to know that even though I’ve lived here for barely three months, MTV is already coming into the place that I’m just beginning to love and is taking musicians I’m growing to love (Harlan T. Bobo most notably) and using them in an online series described as being about “people who are in each other’s bands and in each other’s beds.”

Gah - Craig Brewer, why?!

I’m terribly anxious about this, beyond the questionable series description. The series will include interactive maps of Midtown. I live in Midtown. They’re using the Deli. I am a block from the deli. Will my house be part of the series? Will low-rent hipster tourists clog my street more than the low-rent hipsters already doing so?

I do have a combat readiness plan, though. They’re casting extras this week. I think I’m going to audition. Sabotage from the inside. Because I don’t know from where else you can sabotage something.

They’re looking for people with “That Midtown Look” to be extras.

“That Midtown Look?” My girlfriend and I are wearing nice t-shirts and jeans. There’s a bunch of middle-aged women in white tank-tops and capri pants. Ill-advised rope sandals and cheap flip-flops abound. There’s a dude in a polo shirt with a very nice haircut.

Maybe they’ll tell me how to look in the Commercial Appeal. I’ll get my hair cut sharp.

I’m going with black jeans, black polo shirt. Because black is the official color of hipster sabotage.

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