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Walking in Memphis – and in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr…

23 October, 2015 By Anna S E Lundberg Leave a Comment

As is often the case these days, I’m ashamed to say, I hadn’t really done any research about Memphis ahead of touching down in the land of the Delta Blues. Of course, I had been focused on the main part of my journey, which was the paddling down the Mississippi River – but if I had stopped for a moment I would have realised what an iconic place I was really coming to.

Full moon on Beale Street
The full super blood moon, not yet eclipsed, rises above Beale Street. [Photo credit: Dave Cornthwaite]
“Then I was walking in Memphis
I was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel?”

Beale Street! That’s where it all started. We had a big barbecue dinner on our first night in town at Silky O’Sullivan’s – an unlikely choice among all the blues bars that the street has to offer, but with plenty of Memphis magic in the form of blues artist Barbra Blue. It was a pretty magical night anyway, what with it being the night of the full super blood moon eclipse as well as our first night as a group ahead of our paddling adventure.

Having now read up on Beale Street on Wikipedia, that wondrous source of information, I’ve discovered some of the rich history of this street, which created “the first black millionaire from the south” in the late 19th century, became populated with many clubs and bars that were owned by African-Americans in the early 1900s, and over the years played host to such renowned artists as Louis Armstrong, Muddy Waters and B. B. King. Today, of course, it’s the most touristy area of the city, but that doesn’t detract from the amazing music booming out of the clubs.

At this point, I can’t help but fast-forward in time to our first night back on land after our river adventure, when we spent the evening in Clarksdale. In his series Stephen Fry in America, Fry refers to Clarksdale as “one of those magical and inexplicable places, rather like… Salzburg,” along with a less complimentary description of the town as a “frankly rather desolate, dirt-poor place… seems like the middle of nowhere”. It’s true that it did seem quite an unlikely place to serve as the birthplace of the blues. Clarksdale is also home to the myth of blues musician Robert Leroy Johnson who is said to have sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads in exchange for success (though it seems he didn’t meet with a lot of success during his lifetime and died at the young age of 27).

Red's, Clarksdale
“The King is alive!”, as one of the audience members said. What a dude. What a soul.

After dinner (where we had a bit of a pizza debacle and I was given both a birthday shot and a birthday brownie – but that’s by the by), we headed for Ground Zero, the club co-owned by Morgan Freeman. A $10 cover charge, a lack of atmosphere, and a personal recommendation from our friend River led us to continue on to Red’s. And wow were we glad we did. What a place.

Red's, Clarksdale
In the room we also had Mr Red himself, as well as this gentleman, who with the utmost of class walked up to the microphone, put down his cane, and started rocking out. YES. That’s how I want to be when I’m ‘old’.

Performing that night was B. B. King’s oldest son, Marvin King (one of 15, as it turns out!).  Such a small, intimate club – they don’t even seem to have a website – and yet such a legend playing there. The drummer was impressive, 100% on the beat and 100% connected with the singer. The bass player had the opposite technique and was completely spaced out while still managing to play along. The best part was how informal it all was. We spoke to Marvin afterwards – he’s on his way to the UK to hang out with Eric Clapton – as well as the band members and the owner of the club. VIP treatment in the most authentic way.

Lorraine Motel balcony
The National Civil Rights Museum is housed in what was the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr was staying and where he was assassinated on 4th April 1968, while standing on the balcony of Room 306. He had come to Memphis in support of the ongoing strike by the black sanitary public works employees. “If you stand up straight, people can’t ride your back. And that’s what we did. We stood up straight.” – Taylor Rogers, sanitation worker

Anyway, back to Memphis. And, in fact, that’s exactly where we headed after Clarksdale. Most of the group left for their flights back home but I stayed on an extra day to at least get a bit of a taste for the city. I would have loved to stay for longer as there was so much more to do! There’s Graceland for starters, home of Elvis Presley, as well as Sun Studio, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, the Memphis Rock’n’Soul Museum… Instead, a friend and I spent almost the whole day at the National Civil Rights Museum. There was so much to see, so much to take in, that we even left for a lunch break and then came back for more.

Slaves being brought over the the US
The transatlantic slave trade lasted 366 years and moved 12.5 million Africans across the Atlantic Ocean. It was the largest forced migration in human history. [From a sign at the museum]
We don’t learn about the history of slavery at English schools; nor about the American Civil War, or the civil rights movement. I had some vague idea that slavery had been ‘justified’ intellectually with the argument that there were lesser races that deserved, or even desired, to be enslaved, and that blues music had emerged from the subjugation of blacks in the south – as B. B. King said, the melancholy tones of the blues were “an expression of anger against shame and humiliation”. I must also admit, naively, that a lot of my very limited knowledge comes from Hollywood, most recently from The Butler (in which I learned about the freedom riders), along with films like Gone with the Wind, Forrest Gump, A Time to Kill, and The Help, or from books like Huckleberry Finn and The Color Purple.

Burned-down bus
The Freedom Rides were a series of bus trips organised to protest segregation in the south. A small group of activists tried to use “whites-only” restrooms and cafés along the way. They met with violence that came to its head in Alabama, where a bus was set on fire and the riders were beaten as they escaped. In September 1961, segregation in bus and train stations became prohibited.

I was most touched by the courage shown by the men and women, black and white, who stood up for what was right, choosing to become freedom riders or to protest in other ways. Just listen to the maturity of 14-year-old Washington Booker III, speaking in 1963: “It was courage. It was Black people standing up saying… ‘I’m a human being, I have a right to go and to be treated like a human being,’ even more so than the jobs… I heard… that the leadership didn’t want to use the children… but as soon as the idea got around among the kids… we moved on it. [O]ther folk had already gone to jail and we knew what to expect. I think that we have never been powerless since that day.”

Would I have had such integrity and spoken with such eloquence at that age? Would I have taken action to push for other people’s human rights? Or would I have been one of those ignorant white people who I saw in photographs at the museum, the people who filled the seats of cafés and bars with self-righteous grins on their faces as they prevented blacks from coming in and sitting down? What am I doing about the blatant injustices that exist in the world today?

What about you?

It makes you think.

“If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don’t want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long…
I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr tried to give his life serving others.
I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr tried to love somebody.
I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question.
I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry.
And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked.
I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison.
I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.
If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.”

– Dr Martin Luther King Jr, 4th February 1968

Filed Under: North America, Travel, United States Tagged With: clarksdale, ground zero, marvin king, memphis, mississippi, Morgan Freeman, stephen fry in america, tennessee, USA

The Bucket List: 100 things to do before you die

5 July, 2013 By Anna S E Lundberg 24 Comments

before I dieSo I’ve realised that I’ve watched 18 films so far on this trip, most of them forced upon me during long-haul bus rides, a couple in a hostel, and three that I actually chose to watch at the cinema. One of the good ones was The Bucket List, in which a selfish capitalist Jack Nicholson finds himself sharing a hospital room with loveable family man Morgan Freeman. Both suffering from terminal cancer, they are each given a matter of months to live; so they decide to go off together and experience the world. Their bucket list (a list of things to do before you ‘kick the bucket’, as I’ve just discovered – duh) includes a mix of each of their ideas, from the more material skydiving, getting a tattoo, kissing the most beautiful woman in the world on the one hand, to the more poetic, like witnessing something majestic, on the other.

The film is poignant and sweet though all the time heading towards the inevitably sad ending. But if there’s one thing we can learn from this film, isn’t it that it’s better to write such a list, and most importantly to start ticking things off that list, long before you actually expect to kick that proverbial bucket? I’ve started this list in the past, in the form of ‘100 things to do before you die’, never getting further than about 40 – it’s harder than you think! You need to be quite creative. But it’s also an ongoing endeavour, as you tick things off, mature and change your priorities, and get new ideas. Some of my great achievements from previous versions of the list include running a half-marathon, growing mermaid hair, wearing red lipstick out, trying a Bloody Mary, visiting a porn shop, and of course, visiting Machu Picchu.

Travelling alone, and now even without my iPhone (SNIFF), has given me a lot of time to think. So here it is, my 100 things, varying in how easy they are to achieve. I’m baring part of my soul here, revealing things that are important to me, so try not to be too critical! We all have different things we want to do. And you should know that I have actually done some things in my life already – skydiving, bungee jumping, whitewater rafting, swimming with dolphins… But any constructive builds or new ideas are very welcome, and if you want to do any of these things with me, just let me know 😉

Here goes, not in any kind of order of priority, though it starts with lots of travelling ones, which is inevitable given the context in which I’m writing the list:
1. Visit the Great Wall of China
2. Visit the Taj Mahal
3. Visit the Victoria Falls
4. Visit the Niagara Falls
5. Visit Iguazú Falls *DONE July 2013*
6. Fly over the Grand Canyon *DONE June 2015*
7. Visit Mount Rushmore (“Oh, and by the way: There is no Count Rushmore!”) *DONE July 2016*
8. Go on a romantic trip to Venice. WITH A MAN. *DONE in July 2015 – not with a man, though, SNIFF*
9. Visit Moscow
10. Visit St Petersburg
11. Witness the Northern Lights *DONE March 2015*
12. Take the Orient Express
13. Visit Slovenia
14. Eat sushi and sing karaoke in Japan *DONE April 2016*
15. Visit Pompeii *DONE September 2015*
16. Go to Hobbiton and visit Weta in New Zealand *DONE November 2014*
17. Do a Thelma-and-Louise style US road trip. Without the suicidal ending. *DONE November 2014 – sort of! In New Zealand… and DONE again June 2015 in California/Nevada/Arizona*
18. Visit Nepal
19. Visit Tibet
20. Go on a yoga retreat in India
21. See the Pyramid of Giza
22. Visit Wat Phra Si Sanphet in Thailand
23. Visit Petra in Jordan
24. Visit Mexico
25. Go to Rio de Janeiro
26. Dance salsa in Cuba
27. Visit Mongolia
28. Travel to Timbuktu
29. Eat pizza in Naples *DONE September 2015*
30. Cycle across Gotland, Sweden
31. Take the boat down Göta Kanal, Sweden
32. Go to Alton Towers
33. Go back to Jorvik (the rotten fish smell on the museum ride!) *DONE October 2018*
34. Climb Kilimanjaro
35. Go hiking in Switzerland (still haven’t been after nine years in Geneva!)
36. Visit the reconstructed Amber Room
37. Visit Jerusalem
38. Visit the glowworm caves in Waitomo *DONE November 2014*
39. See the Panama Canal
40. Sleep in a Scottish castle
41. Sing Evita songs in Buenos Aires *DONE July 2013*
42. Go driving in Tuscany
43. Leave the gun and take the cannoli in Sicily
44. Spend Christmas in New York, Home Alone 2 style (minus the criminals)
45. Visit Iceland *DONE January 2016*
46. Travel on the Trans-Siberian railway
47. Travel to 100 countries
48. Visit NASA
49. Learn to identify and name all 88 constellations
50. Drive an Aston Martin
51. Go on a Harley Davidson
52. Ride a jet ski
53. Go paragliding *DONE August 2013*
54. Fly in a hot air balloon *DONE June 2015*
55. Gallop across a field (on a horse. Not with coconuts à la Monty Python) *DONE July 2013*
56. Climb to the top of a climbing wall
57. Run a marathon
58. Walk on hot coals
59. Learn archery
60. Get my sailing licence *DONE September 2018*
61. Do a watercolour course
62. Learn to knit
63. Have a garden *DONE December 2018*
64. Have an ocean view
65. Kiss a Swedish man *DONE August 2015*
66. Learn to ice skate
67. Go kayaking in the Stockholm archipelago
68. Meet Andrew Lloyd Webber
69. Meet Cameron Mackintosh
70. Meet Leonardo DiCaprio (yes, I know, but the teenage me would be really happy)
71. Read the Bible
72. Read the Quran
73. Watch all three Lord of the Rings films back to back *DONE January 2016* (over three days! I decided that 12 hours is too much to watch in one day…)
74. Watch all eight Harry Potter films back to back *DONE September 2018* (over a week! Again, I’m too old and wise now to make myself watch TV continuously without a break…)
75. Attend a film premiere (on the red carpet, not from behind the fence)
76. Have a walk-in wardrobe
77. Learn to juggle with three balls
78. Learn to salsa (important for #26)
79. Learn to swim properly!
80. Learn to dive (as in, off the edge of a pool. Nope, can’t do it)
81. Receive a bunch of roses *DONE February 2017*
82. Get a tattoo
83. Reach 1,000 Twitter followers *DONE May 2015*
84. Get 1,000 subscribers to my blog
85. Learn the names of all the countries in the world, and their capitals
86. Own a hammock
87. Fall in love *DONE June 2017*
88. Learn to play guitar
89. Learn to play Somewhere over the Rainbow on the ukulele *DONE December 2015*
90. Speak fluent Spanish (I’m getting there!) (update: oops I’m forgetting it all…)
91. Learn Japanese *This was work in progress ahead of my trip but not such a priority now*
92. Learn Latin
93. Have an article published in a known publication *DONE January 2016*
94. Have a book published *DONE June 2016 (co-author) and October 2018 (sole author)*
95. Have a lead role in a musical *DONE directed and starred in Starlight Express in Geneva October 2013*
96. Do a French cooking course
97. Find a snow globe of St Paul’s Cathedral like the one Mary Poppins has *DONE October 2014*
98. Voice a cartoon character
99. Have a dog
100. Watch a tennis match at Wimbledon *DONE (centre court!) July 2017*

20130704-222130.jpg
#55 achieved today. No, sorry, I don’t have one mid-gallop…

Filed Under: Bucket List, Life Tagged With: 100 things to do before you die, bucket list, dreams, Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman, planning your trip, travel

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Anna Lundberg is a success coach and business strategist who helps experienced corporate professionals reimagine success outside of the 9 to 5.

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