Month: August 2005

– Interesting fun fact to start off this journal entry: Hammond, Indiana once had an NFL team. No kidding. Look it up on the history section of the NFL’s site if you don’t believe me. I can’t even place Hammond on a map. Hmmm, where’s the road atlas… still don’t see it… oh, there it is, it’s a ‘burb of Chicago. I believe that’s where Hammond organs, which are played at ballparks across the country, are made.

– Been catching up on all the Little Rock news while I’m here. Little Rock may have its own Beale Street soon. They’re toying with closing off two blocks of President Clinton Avenue on weekend nights, and if the experiment is successful, they may make it permanent. If they do that, I wonder if they’ll sell drinks on the street and let people walk around with them as they do on Beale. I find it amusing that a street named for Bill Clinton is probably the hottest spot in the city to go pick up women.

– Then again… most big-town entertainment districts are places where people spend beyond their means, act stupid, and line the pockets of the big corporations that manage the bars and clubs… sounds like a good place for a George W. Bush Avenue.

– Why people read this blog… food, apparently. Last Monday at the Mpact board meeting one of the members stopped me. Said she had a friend in town, and the friend wanted to go to the Flying Saucer because she saw a recommendation for their wings on my blog. And I already know that Blue Coast Burrito has some new regulars because of my blog mention. Hopefully I. Siegel Culinary Productions will pick up some new catering customers because of me too.

– I’ve also been informed that I need to do some more research. I failed to take Black Diamond, King’s Palace, and TJ Mulligan’s into consideration when I did the wing report. Perhaps I’ll update it at a later date. Before the unexpected trip to Little Rock, I did some research at Black Diamond Friday night on the effects of PBR on the human body.

– I feel old: Also on Friday night, I was walking onto Beale Street when this group of 18-year-old girls approached me. “Will you walk in with us?” they asked. “If you say you’re our dad, the security guard will let us on the street. Otherwise, he won’t.” Ouch!

– Our poor troops: While sitting in my mother’s hospital room today, I was reading the Little Rock paper, and turned to the Weather section. Forecast for Baghdad: High 118, Low 93. Really gotta feel sorry for the U.S. troops over there, in full combat gear with no A/C.

– Also read the weather for my former home of San Diego: High 70, Low 67. What was I thinking when I moved back to Memphis?

– In the following bullet point I will give the controversy over renaming three Memphis parks the attention it deserves.

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– And we’ll wind up this journal entry with another interesting fact: This was the first Sunday since February 22, 2004 that I did not set foot in a bar. Next week the streak begins anew. Although, since Christmas falls on a Sunday this year it will probably be broken again.

– That’s it for now. Most likely I’ll be back in Memphis late tomorrow afternoon.

I’m writing this from Little Rock. My mother had a mild stroke Saturday morning. I received a frantic, confused call for help from her about 10:00. Luckily two of her friends who live nearby rushed over and called an ambulance. Looks like she’s going to be okay. She’s experiencing a little confusion, trouble finding the words she wants to say, but there’s no paralysis or other serious complications. She can walk and eat and do everything she could do before the stroke. They’re keeping her in the hospital for observation for another day or two but it looks like she’s going to be just fine. I’m taking the day off tomorrow to be with her, but if she continues to improve I’ll return to Memphis tomorrow night.

I know a few of her friends read this (I see Little Rock addresses on my tracker from time to time), so let me reiterate – she’s fine, don’t worry – but you can e-mail me if you want.

Back tomorrow with the usual stupid crap that attracts readers to this blog.

I have to take a few minutes to brag about the latest website I have created, as well as the business behind it. Over the past few months in this blog, I’ve mentioned my neighbors who are caterers several times. This past Sunday they invited me up to the roof for a dinner of flank steak and linguini and clams, and as I ate I thought, this dinner matches up with any of the four-star restaurants downtown.

So, last month when they approached me and asked me to put a website together for them, it was my pleasure. I tried to come up with something that was as elegant as their food. Check it out: I. Siegel Culinary Productions of Memphis Great menus! It was hard to do this site without getting hungry.

(If anyone is viewing this with a Mac: does their site look okay? I couldn’t get a hold of a Mac for testing)

Learning about their business as I built the site was fascinating. I learned about their experiences catering for the stars, including Elton John, Celine Dion, and David Spade. I also found out that they didn’t even intend to stay in the city – they were just passing through on vacation earlier in the year. But, they fell in love with Memphis and decided to make it home. Not long after they opened their catering business they landed the Court Square re-dedication and events with several other well-known clients.

It’s been a pleasure working with them on this site (especially since they bring food with them to the meetings). They’re going to be a force on the Memphis catering and event planning scene for some time to come.

Friday night I’ll be going to the Center for Southern Folklore to attend a dance performance by Breeding Ground. My neighbor “Carmen” (mentioned in a recent journal article) will be one of the dancers. Her training is in ballet, but this, as she explains it, is a modern dance piece. That’s okay, I like all kinds of dancers – ballet dancers, modern dancers, belly dancers, flamenco dancers, table dancers, pole dancers, lap dancers… I like all of them.

Here’s a summary of the performance: “Six local musicians are collaborating with five modern dancers from an emerging dance organization, Breeding Ground, for a one-night only performance entitled Shapes of Blue. The performance will feature music from a wide variety of genres, ranging from blues and jazz to bluegrass and classical, including original compositions by well-known local pianist Gerald Stephens. Mr. Stephens will be joined by a cellist, fiddler, guitarist, drummer, vocalist, and the dancers to create what promises to be an exciting, dynamic evening of dance improvisation and music with Breeding Ground.”

After that: I may head to Midtown for a friend’s going-away party at the Beauty Shop, or I may just stay downtown and get drunk.

Saturday: No idea. The Corkscrew is having a wine tasting next door at Alice’s in the afternoon. Other than that, no clue. Wonder if my neighbor from the second floor will be on the rooftop in a bikini.

Sunday: Champagne brunch at Sleep Out’s, followed by who knows what. Probably I’ll end up at the Tap Room at some point to play that stupid video game with the polar bear and the fish.

Other than Friday night, it doesn’t sound like much of a weekend, does it?

Modern Drunkard << click the link, lots of good stuff to read online

Reminds me, one day a couple of years ago I was sitting around Sleep Out’s on a Sunday with my friends Kit and Kelly. We had an idea for a REAL magazine for downtowners – not the kind of fluff Downtowner publishes, not a bunch of ads like the Downtown Merchant Guide, but a magazine covering the issues that downtowners truly care about.

We were going to call it “Three Sheets to the Wind.” Articles proposed for the first issue included:

Drinking on a Budget: Happy hours, pint nights and other ways to get drunk downtown without breaking the bank

Open containers: Recommended ways to hide your alcohol as you walk around downtown

Trolley Tour: Which art galleries serve the best free booze

Bum of the Month: Profile of a Downtown Resident

Escape Routes: Best ways to get home without getting a DUI or Public Intox charge

This is one of these great ideas that never quite made it to fruition. Publishing a magazine takes a lot of time and money, and all of us had other jobs to tend to. But I’d love to see someone take this idea and run with it. I think it has potential.

One of my neighbors at No. 10 – I don’t want to use her real name so we’ll call her Carmen for the purposes of this post – had an office on the 28th floor of the SunTrust (formerly NBC) building. Her window faced north; therefore, she had a view of No. 10’s rooftop.

One day at work, Carmen looked out the window and saw a cute girl in a bikini sunbathing on the rooftop of No. 10.

She could have taken out a camera with a high-powered zoom lens and snapped some pictures, had them developed and slid them under the door of my apartment. But did she? No.

She could have called my cell phone and suggested I take a long lunch break, come home and go up to the roof. But did she? No.

She could have taken her lunch break and walked over to No. 10. She could have ridden the elevator up to the roof, taken some pictures of bikini girl using her cell phone’s digicam, and then used the Send To –> Paul option. But did she? No.

She could have called me, and said, “Paul, why don’t you come downtown and meet me for lunch? Come up to my office – the view is spectacular today, and I have high-powered binoculars for you to use.” But did she? Again, no.

Carmen did none of these things.

A couple of weeks later, she got reassigned to her law firm’s East Memphis office. So, instead of having a half-block walk as a commute to work, she now has to get up 30 minutes earlier, get in her car, fight rush-hour traffic, and stop-and-go her way to East Memphis.

I think this is karma. She failed to properly utilize her resources when she lived downtown, and therefore the universe took her resources away.

Perhaps one day Carmen will have another chance to work at the downtown office. Hopefully if she does, she will have learned her lesson how to be a good downtowner and good neighbor.