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Was The Closer based on Mary Hawkins Butler? And will Mississippi be smart enough to elect Mary?
Dowager Soybean Empress, up in the Delta, watched a YouTube video about 'Fractals'. There was mention of Fractal Antennae, and so the Empress went straight to Google, and, owning much WalMart stock, typed in, "Fractal Antenna WalMart". A lady in a Jaguar has no business running out to a WalMart, in the middle of the Delta, in the middle of the night (the one in Madison, however, would be safe). But she did. And she came back with the biggest fractal antenna they had (they don't call 'em 'fractal', 'cause they don't want to scare folks, but that's what they are). Defying her butler's desperate pleadings to wait for an electrician, she plugged it in, and has been getting free TV from all over the place (atmospheric conditions permitting).
And that's how she discovered a show called 'The Closer'. After a few episodes, she rang-up Our Dear Babette, who's moved back to Madison, and is busy transforming a sizable-but-mingy 'Doctor's Wife Colonial' manse - exorcizing all the Martha Washington touches, and doing the place over in 'Le Style Bonaparte' ( https://victorianparis.files.wordpre...-of-france.jpg). Except for the part about getting half of France killed in his wars, I just adore Napoleon. Any emperor whose coronation outfit looks like my dining room curtains can't be all bad.
Babette pined for Madison the whole time they were out here. Where else can you go up in Steinmart and save money WITHOUT feeling poor? In Madison, you can go for the bargains, AND feel like you're hitting the best boutiques in Milan (http://madisonthecitychamber.com/files/354_gallery.jpg). And that's because of Mary, who's been taking bags of lemons (big box stores), and making them into Lemon Chiffon Pies, and Lemon Doberge Cakes (any other Mayor would have settled for lemonade - but Mary EXCELS. http://www.gambinos.com/Assets/Produ...Cake-Slice.jpg )
But I digress. Babette is a huge Mary fan, and so Dowager Soybean Empress called and said, "Have you seen 'The Closer'?" ( no ). "Well, watch it.I think somebody out in Hollywood knows your Mayor."
That's not such a stretch. During the filming of 'A Time to Kill', the stars rented houses in Madison. And, every time since then, when a movie's been made in Canton or Jackson, movie people have rented in Madison. Some of them would have to have been charmed - ENTHRALLED - by Mary. Who isn't enthralled by Mayor Mary?
And then, there are all the Mississippians who have made it out to LA, to write for Film and TV. William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams started it, and there's been a steady stream of Mississippians following in their footsteps ever since (Beth Henley, for example, and most recently, Kathryn Stockett, who wrote 'The Help'). Maybe there are TV writers from Madison?
Babette found this site, watched a few episodes, and then called ME: Watch Episodes of The Closer on TNT
(I can't make that link play the episodes. Me, I watched a few episodes in the cardio theatre at our club in the city. Maybe I'm missing something?)
"It's Mary. Brenda Johnson is a police chief, who's moved out to LA from Atlanta. She's smart as a whip, and crafty. But she's got a kind heart, and really cares about right and wrong. She's always figuring out how to help the good people. And she always gives the bad guys the whomping they deserve. She gives it every ounce of her energy, and sometimes it gets her down, having to fight so many factions at once: bad guys coming at her from all sides. But she just keeps on fighting - and WINNING."
"She's the classic Southern Lady, really shining in a position of authority."
Sure enough. Kyra Sedgwick even looks like a younger Mary - right down to the hair color. And the part she plays - this sweet, kind woman with a complex personality, battling for what is right - and prevailing.... Anyone who's seen Mary in action, risking her personal well-being for the good of her town, will see the resemblance. Then again, Mayor Mary has a fantastic sense of humor, which can defuse tense and dangerous situations: Chief Johnson, not so much.
I've called around Malibu and Aspen, and none of my buds there know anyone who wrote for the show. So does anyone in Mississippi know? Is Mary the inspiration behind Chief Johnson, 'The Closer'? Will fact and fiction merge, if Mary becomes State Auditor? Will she segue into the role? Or, will Mississippians do what they always do, and reelect "The Daddy Candidate"?
And do Mississippians know just what a powerful advocate for their well-being they'll be electing, if they choose Mary? Has that point been gotten across? Have her ads been good?
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 07-28-2015 at 03:06 AM..
I'm all for Mary, but I have to say the line about Napoleon made me laugh out loud. Good one.
I've seen the Closer and Mayor Mary seems more brash and outrageous, as in "the Queens Speech." Not exactly sophisticated, but effective. Picture Blanche from the Golden Girls if she had made her way up in the state Highway Department - and then suddenly ran for Mayor and began fighting for grocery stores and gas stations that have Corinthian columns. Truly a unique Mississippi story, and yes, something Beth Henley could have written.
I'm all for Mary, but I have to say the line about Napoleon made me laugh out loud. Good one.
I've seen the Closer and Mayor Mary seems more brash and outrageous, as in "the Queens Speech." Not exactly sophisticated, but effective. Picture Blanche from the Golden Girls if she had made her way up in the state Highway Department - and then suddenly ran for Mayor and began fighting for grocery stores and gas stations that have Corinthian columns. Truly a unique Mississippi story, and yes, something Beth Henley could have written.
It's all about Branding. Mary understands that. You attract the best PEOPLE, with the best aesthetics. Nothing new: the Medici did the same thing, when they developed parts of Rome and Florence, during the Renaissance (Arts & Crafts: Oltrarno - Florence with flair | Florence with flair). The Baroness de Pontalba did it, when she built her development in New Orleans (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...8/Pontalba.jpg). Half a MILLENNIUM later, Medici properties like the Ponte Vecchio still attract great tenants and consumers. They're iconic parts of those cities. And there has not been one moment, in the century-and-a-half since its construction, when the Pontalba has not gotten top rents. I've heard that there has been a never-ending waiting list, since before the last brick was laid. The Pontalba has anchored the French Quarter, and created a sense of place - a sense of importance. And notice those fancy capitals on the wrought iron columns at street level ('Temple of the Winds' style, which you see on some buildings in Madison).
The recently departed developer, Dick Ambrosino, once told me about how he got a prestigious bank's regional operations center, as a tenant for one of his Visconti office buildings in Madison (384 Galleria Parkway, Madison, MS, 39110 - Office Building Property - Off-Market on LoopNet.com). A scout, looking for office space for a (Giant multinational bank, behind a major credit card) expansion, was headed to Florida, to look at some buildings. She pulled into Madison to get gas. She saw the Texaco (railroad depot style, early Nineties) and then the Shell (Italian Mannerist, late Nineties). Then, she saw the station across the Interstate, at Colony Crossing, an Exxon, at the time (Orange County Tuscany-style - 'The OC' in California, that is... Mid 2000s). That last one is the one with the Corinthian Columns. They're in actual cast stone, on rustic stone bases, and really do make you feel as if you're in one of the best shopping venues in the OC (which, at that time, were leading the WORLD in aesthetics for the shopping experience). "If this is what the gas stations look like, then this town must be something special."(it is extremely special - probably offering the best lifestyle, per-Dollar, in America) One thing led to another, and suddenly, Dick had half the building leased. He was a brilliant structural engineer, and delivered more building for the money than anybody else. That's what SEALED the deal. But what started the deal was the architecture of those gas stations. Mary insisted that a building type normally ugly and reviled, be made beautiful. And the result (among many positive results) was that she managed to snatch a plum tenant right off the Interstate (literally) - business that would have gone to Florida, if not for her insistence on good design. Those stations are Madison's initial point of contact, for a great many people. They make us feel empowered. Such feelings are good for business.
I feel special and pampered, gassing-up at those stations. Thanks to Mary, that's one of many lifestyle upgrades in Madison, which residents get WITHOUT AN UPCHARGE. Maybe that's why Babette couldn't wait to move back: in Madison, you get so much pampering, for so little money.
And there is a bit of a history, in the Jackson Metro, concerning classical columns on gas stations. First, there was the Shady Nook gas station in Jackson's venerated Belhaven District. (http://jesseyancy.com/wp-content/upl...-1969-blog.jpg) Celebrated architect A Hays Town added the columns to the station, in 1933. It certainly contributed to the specialness of the area. They're only Doric. But they're not the plain, ugly "Coke Bottle Doric" you get at the lumber yard, to stick on a FHA house. They're the older Doric, with 'fluted shafts', like on the temples in Southern Sicily (https://www.walksofitaly.com/blog/wp...9/IMG_3458.jpg).
So, when the gas station became obsolete, the building was adapted, in the 'Post Modern Style' by an architecture firm which became famous. THAT attracted a young architect, who was working in Little Rock. The specialness of that building lured him to Jackson, to work for that firm. Later, founding his own firm, he began to achieve preeminence in the South, and totally raised the benchmark for design around Jackson (http://www.kentatearchitect.com/port...-stanford.html). I was not worthy of being his client, back then. And the Jackson Metro eventually proved unworthy of him, too. But many of Tate's former interns (http://www.scottmorganarchitect.com/...olk-residence/) ARE still in the area (others design in Palm Beach and the Hamptons http://www.architecturaldigest.com/A...ideshow_032001), and some of them have worked, under the direction of my Decorator, on MY projects, which means that, like the Baroness de Pontalba's, my buildings have waiting lists instead of 'vacancy rates'. This happened, because Hays Town put nice columns on a building, and that building eventually seduced a brilliant young architect into moving to a town that otherwise would not have been considered by someone of his ambitions. http://www.greaterbelhaven.com/documents/ShadyNook.pdf
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 07-28-2015 at 01:17 PM..
Yeah, because never mind that The Closer ended it's television run back in 2012, so there's no way the show would be modeled after Mary ... In fact, saying that the show's spin-off, which still produces new episodes, Major Crimes is modeled after Mary would've been more accurate! The show was created by James Duff, Michael Robin, & Greer Shephard.
Oh yeah, and never mind that Mary built Madison into what it is today on lies & racism. Sure, I applaud Mary's strifes to keep the history in Madison from disappearing at the hands of contractors & bulldozers, such as the Madison-Ridgeland Consolidated School complex, & the attempt to widen Main Street from 2 lanes to 4 lanes, but unfortunately, I said her bad outweighs her good.
She LIED to the people of the city of Madison, & it's like they don't even see it. When she was originally elected, Mary said that Madison was not for sell, years later, big box stores line the streets ... Certainly looks like she sold it. Oh yeah, and the fact that she targeted that Black family over off of Old Canton for having that peacock on their roof for Christmas that one year, & then throwing a fit when JSU announced they were opening up a campus in Madison! ARGHHH!!!! NOT THE BLACK COLLEGE, COMING TO A 95% WHITE TOWN! NEVER! THAT was a show of blatant racism.
Not to mention the suppression of crime in Madison, & the neglect of the weekly crime report by the police department. Madison has had several "media blackouts" during things they didn't want getting out. The tension in the air of Madison can be cut with a KNIFE. The police think that everyone is a suspicious character, & they are out to get anyone.
I'm sorry, but for Mary to say she's gonna "weed out" the corruption in the state of Mississippi & Madison County, she needs to start with herself to see corruption.
Yeah, because never mind that The Closer ended it's television run back in 2012, so there's no way the show would be modeled after Mary ... In fact, saying that the show's spin-off, which still produces new episodes, Major Crimes is modeled after Mary would've been more accurate! The show was created by James Duff, Michael Robin, & Greer Shephard.
Oh yeah, and never mind that Mary built Madison into what it is today on lies & racism. Sure, I applaud Mary's strifes to keep the history in Madison from disappearing at the hands of contractors & bulldozers, such as the Madison-Ridgeland Consolidated School complex, & the attempt to widen Main Street from 2 lanes to 4 lanes, but unfortunately, I said her bad outweighs her good.
She LIED to the people of the city of Madison, & it's like they don't even see it. When she was originally elected, Mary said that Madison was not for sell, years later, big box stores line the streets ... Certainly looks like she sold it. Oh yeah, and the fact that she targeted that Black family over off of Old Canton for having that peacock on their roof for Christmas that one year, & then throwing a fit when JSU announced they were opening up a campus in Madison! ARGHHH!!!! NOT THE BLACK COLLEGE, COMING TO A 95% WHITE TOWN! NEVER! THAT was a show of blatant racism.
Not to mention the suppression of crime in Madison, & the neglect of the weekly crime report by the police department. Madison has had several "media blackouts" during things they didn't want getting out. The tension in the air of Madison can be cut with a KNIFE. The police think that everyone is a suspicious character, & they are out to get anyone.
I'm sorry, but for Mary to say she's gonna "weed out" the corruption in the state of Mississippi & Madison County, she needs to start with herself to see corruption.
Mary's been Mayor since NINETEEN EIGHTY ONE. A Time to Kill, was filmed around '95. 'The Closer' debuted in 2005. That leaves plenty of time, I think, for impressions of Mary to gestate into a TV show premise.
Following 'A Time to Kill', Hollywood used the Jackson area for (as Norma Desmond would put it)"...another film, and another, and another!" -with all kinds of Hollywood people coming and going, and renting houses in Madison. Maybe that's what happened, and maybe it's not. Certainly, people in Mississippi were written INTO movies. Someone on the 'A Time to Kill' film crew went into a dive bar in Canton, and met a "Real Redneck Girl" named Roark - locally pronounced "Row-ark". This was considered so profoundly backward, mention of the pronunciation got written into the script, while the movie was being made. And it's in the movie, to this day.
"...said that Madison was not for sell" I believe you meant, "...not for sale". In any event, the big boxes were coming, and she had no power to keep them out. But she did make them build beautiful buildings, two of which are in an Urban Planning history book. Ones built after that book came out, are getting rave reviews, by people from far-distant states: Joniopolis: Gotta Love the South(I love her "Holy Hamptons!" exclamation. But really, there is nothing in the way of NEW retail architecture in the Hamptons, which can rival the scale and complexity of that magnificent Kroger)
Mary did not sell-out, and let the big box stores throw up the cheap, hideous boxes they construct in other towns. She also kept out the sort of insta-slum fire trap apartment complexes (Cause of fire that destroyed apartment building revealed | Local News - WAPT Home) which threaten to turn Pearl and Ridgeland into bad areas. It's the slum lord "Amenity-rich Apartment Community" developers, and developers of tracts of cheap little no-style crackerbox houses, to which she referred, with the "Not for Sale" motto. And, if you ask the people who cast that landslide of votes which kept Mary in office, this time, she has MORE THAN kept up her end of the bargain. What she delivered, turned out to be the nicest place to live, between Mountain Brook, Alabama, and Highland Park, Texas. That's how far you have to drive, to find a community as nice as Madison.
Fact is, she represents the interests and aspirations of the people who live in Madison (this includes the majority of people there, now - people who moved TO Madison because of Mary).
Anybody calling Mary "racist" is obviously someone who does not know her personally. THAT is so far off the mark, it can only mean that a person making such assertions is: one of the criminals seeking to discredit her, and get her out of their way, so that they may rape Madison with impunity; someone working for those criminals; or someone who has been led astray by the lies which those criminals cause to be broadcast. I am hardly the only person of color who was welcomed to Madison by Mary. It would take a BIG book, to even begin to list the instances of the warmth, kindness, and generosity, which she has shown, to people who are not white. Please stop believing the disinformation fabricated against her. Certain "interests" are paying big money on perfecting, polishing, and spreading those lies. It's easy to believe those campaigns of untruth, because they're big-budget productions: http://kingfish1935.blogspot.com/201...on-county.html (nice Frankie Goes to Hollywood reference. But I prefer Hocico's variant on that 'Big Media generating mind control for Big Business' Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmoTjK0sTYQ )
As for the "family" in 'The House of Peacocks', my little birds tell me that "family" was rather a nebulous term. 'Polymicrobial Infection' might be a better word for that bunch, if even half of what I heard was true. It may have even been a flophouse of sorts, with unrelated individuals exceeding code limits. In any event, the neighbors deluged City Hall with desperate pleas for something to be done about the brightly flashing neon Peacock(s). The Mayor responded, as quickly as she could. It turned out that Peacocks were "traditional" Christmas ornaments (in some foreign country, somewhere, hundreds of years ago, so obscure it had to be researched), and so, nothing could be done about the eyesore (in the end, and this happened over the course of a few HOURS: Mary didn't "force" anybody to do anything). But yeah: here in Portland, I read the same crock of lies about the "incident" that everybody else did. It got mentioned, nationally.
But in the meantime, while the Mayor was pondering what to do, a minor local "News Personality" decided to gain some fame, by taking the story national. This person is rumored to be of the "Early-elderly Swing Club hanging out at the Yacht Club", and to have, somehow, "ties" to the occupants of the house (Maybe they supplied that 'Personality' with something?). That Swing Club included, at the time, a developer who'd been stopped by Mary, from building some awful something (I don't know which one: there were so many slime creatures, trying to do so many awful things). I don't know if it was Frazier or not: he seems a bit young for that crowd (Jackson Jambalaya: Judge has a few things to say about Claiborne Frazier) but he was hardly the only hard-partying developer on the scene, back then. And plenty of those folks had it in for Mary. Anyway, by the time Big Media has thrown a few lies and distortions into it's 'spin', a story is out of control. That's what happened.
The 'crime situation' is just fine. Nobody is cooking the books. Yes, the police watch the town vigilantly. That's what it takes, in a town so close to a city perpetually on all the "worst" lists. Vigilance is what the residents want. As someone who owns a large homesite there, I want vigilant police, too. If they weren't so good at what they do, I would not feel safe in investing the money to have arborists groom the forest, a native plants expert restore the forest floor with plants native to the region, have the pond brought to equilibrium by another expert, the perimeter fences brought up to embassy standards - all in anticipation of building there, some day. I LOVE the way Madison's being run, and so do the people who live there.
Mississippi, as a whole, could benefit from a big dose of 'The Madison Strategy': it's called HONEST GOVERNMENT.
Last edited by GrandviewGloria; 07-28-2015 at 03:29 PM..
I believe she was pushing for Tulane, with an average ACT score of around 32, over JSU with an average around 18. I would assume the concern was that bringing in JSU might take away students causing Madison ultimately to lose Tulane. And how unfair, considering JSU receives extra subsidies from the taxpayers.
Government really shouldn't be interfering in private business, because this is what you get - a school receiving taxpayer subsidies with an ACT almost 50% of the other ends up taking over the market.
I think Jackson State should raise its admission standards and its academic standards, but also run a community college on its campus so that all the students are still served and no one is out of a job. This could go a long way towards improving JSU's academic reputation and would be so much better for JSU's highest-performing students who would have the opportunity to receive a much more rigorous education across the board (i.e. like Tulane students receive).
I believe she was pushing for Tulane, with an average ACT score of around 32, over JSU with an average around 18. I would assume the concern was that bringing in JSU might take away students causing Madison ultimately to lose Tulane. And how unfair, considering JSU receives extra subsidies from the taxpayers.
Government really shouldn't be interfering in private business, because this is what you get - a school receiving taxpayer subsidies with an ACT almost 50% of the other ends up taking over the market.
I think Jackson State should raise its admission standards and its academic standards, but also run a community college on its campus so that all the students are still served and no one is out of a job. This could go a long way towards improving JSU's academic reputation and would be so much better for JSU's highest-performing students who would have the opportunity to receive a much more rigorous education across the board (i.e. like Tulane students receive).
This just didn't make sense. JSU has not and is not taking over the market. They are providing people in the northern part of central Mississippi with choice. If Tulane experiences a drop in their Madison campus Enrollment due to JSU, then that means Tulane wasn't offering the best option for those students. It's then up to Tulane to decide what market they want to serve. It's absolutely not Madison's businesses to get in the way of those two schools. Madison should be setting a friendly business climate, and getting out of the way. Favoring one over another is never the right way.
Not to mention the suppression of crime in Madison, & the neglect of the weekly crime report by the police department. Madison has had several "media blackouts" during things they didn't want getting out. The tension in the air of Madison can be cut with a KNIFE. The police think that everyone is a suspicious character, & they are out to get anyone.
So.. The crime statistics show that Madison is a much safer city with a lower crime rate than its surrounding counterparts, so you claim they are suppressing the crime rate? Such as not reporting crimes to keep their number low? What evidence do you have to support this claim?
So.. The crime statistics show that Madison is a much safer city with a lower crime rate than its surrounding counterparts, so you claim they are suppressing the crime rate? Such as not reporting crimes to keep their number low? What evidence do you have to support this claim?
Add "claims crime not reported in Madison" to the list. He has a history of just making stuff up when it comes to life outside of Jackson.
1) claiming the Renaissance wasn't doing well financially
2) claiming that Germantown HS was built to only hold 300 kids
3) claiming Lake Caroline was closed the past 5 years
4) claimed lost rabbit development was dead
Add "claims crime not reported in Madison" to the list. He has a history of just making stuff up when it comes to life outside of Jackson.
1) claiming the Renaissance wasn't doing well financially
2) claiming that Germantown HS was built to only hold 300 kids
3) claiming Lake Caroline was closed the past 5 years
4) claimed lost rabbit development was dead
I still can't believe he said that the Renaissance was in financial trouble because 1 restaurant closed.
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