Month: February 2006

– The Rapscallions cruised to an easy first-place finish tonight at trivia at the Saucer. Questions included: What year did Delta start serving commercial passengers (1929), what state derives 30% of its income from tourism (Nevada), and what political/religious movement is named after Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie (Rastafarianism). After cashing in our stash of bar tabs at my plate party, we’ve since earned two new ones at $25 each. I guess we’ll win 4 or even more than that and then have a plate party without the plate.

– Remember when I wrote about the Soul Party at the Hi-Tone, with vintage 60s soul tunes and videos? Looks like they’re having another one Saturday, February 25. It was a great event last time but I’m only going back if I can find people to go with me. Last time it was packed and I knew almost no one there. If you want to go let me know… paul at paulryburn dot com

– NTN Trivia has arrived at Sleep Out’s, for those of you awaiting the announcement.

– Looks like the Happy Mexican at the corner of Second, St. Martin, and Huling is open. I need to get down there and try it in the next week…

– …

– Remember how I said “lots of” other news? I think I lied. I’m too drunk/tired to type any more. I’m going to go to bed and dream that I am being smothered by Romanian kisses. Good night… Yes, I know I still have Super Bowl pics to post.

It’s been a month since I got my iPod, and since I know several readers are considering buying the model I have (30 GB iPod Video) I thought I’d share my experiences.

First of all, even though I’m going to complain about it a little bit, overall I’m still really glad I got it. Despite whatever I write here, if you want an iPod I recommend one.

One cool feature about the iPod is that it’s a hard drive (only the full-sized iPods; nanos and shuffles are not). That means, not only can I use it for playing music, but I can back up files to it, and use it to move files between my desktop PC and laptop that are too large to fit on my 256 MB memory stick.

Another feature is that you can load text files into the iPod’s Notes folder and then read them onscreen. This feature appealed to me because it meant I could find ebooks on the web, save them as text files, and then read them on my iPod. This is really handy because I like to have stuff to read in bed before I go to sleep.

However, the first time I tried to save an ebook as a Note it didn’t work – Notes have a maximum size of 4K. (Why???? Who imposed this stupid limitation when there’s 30 GB of space?) But I found a free program called iNote that will process a large text file into 4K chunks. It worked like a charm, and now I’m currently using my iPod to read Centuries, The Complete Prophecies of Nostradamus.

That brings me to the subject of the battery. The iPod can seemingly play music forever and ever without running out of juice, but if you use it to read Notes (having set the backlight to stay on all the time, rather than turning off after 5 or 10 or 20 seconds) it will run down in about an hour. You can charge it back up by connecting it to your computer’s USB port, and it charges fairly quickly – mine went from almost dead to charged all the way up in less than an hour last night.

The iPod comes with iTunes software. I used it to buy a couple of songs, just to try it out and it worked very well. However, I recommend that you try out alternate software as well to get your computer and your iPod talking to each other – see Download.com and iLounge for recommendations. Two reasons for this: One, iTunes is a memory hog – I had it configured to start automatically when I plugged my iPod in, and it took well over a minute and a half for that to happen. Secondly, iTunes only copies one way, from your computer to your iPod. You can’t copy from an iPod to your computer. There are shareware and freeware programs that remedy this.

Another thing that irritates me is iPod’s Shuffle Songs feature. You can shuffle by song or by album (in this case it randomly picks an album and plays all the songs on it), but you can’t shuffle by playlist, which is what I’d really like to do. The thing is, in addition to my music, I load stuff on my iPod that looks like music but isn’t. Some of it may be instruction files for a foreign language I want to learn. Some of it may be files I’ve recorded myself, using my laptop and a microphone, so I can later “passively listen” to stuff I want to learn to get it into my subconscious mind (I wrote about this before). I’d like to exclude that stuff when I shuffle songs. Even if I didn’t have anything but music, I’d still want to be able to shuffle by playlist, though. I mean, when I’m in the mood for songs that rock hard, I don’t want some disco number that Leif Garrett recorded in 1976 popping up. (Yes, I actually have one of those – “I was Made for Dancin'” – it’s not a bad song IF you feel like hearing that type of music). As it stands now, I have to manually load and unload music from my iPod each time I want to listen to something different. I hope Apple corrects this in a future version of the iPod system software. I mean, even Windows Media Player on my laptop can shuffle by playlist.

The iPod’s screen scratches easily, so you need to get a case for it (one that provides access to the console, which disqualifies that crappy little excuse of a case Apple ships with the iPod). I went to Best Buy and got a Podfolio for mine. They have two entire racks of iPod accessories at Best Buy.

I’ve downloaded a few video podcasts and the quality is excellent. Haven’t tried a full-length movie yet. You can also subscribe to episodes of TV shows (I think I saw Family Guy, for example) for a fee, but I don’t see the point of paying when I have a DVR at home.

Most MP3 players in the iPod’s price range come with an FM radio tuner and built in voice recorder. The iPod does not come with either.

My only other complaint is that I now have a cell phone, digital camera, and iPod to carry around. How are the ladies supposed to be able to check out my nice, firm butt when my pockets are bulging with electronic equipment? Ideally I’d like to have one device that handles all of these, plus PDA/mini-laptop features and while we’re at it, GameBoy compatibility would be nice too. (The iPod comes with a few games but they suck – they remind me of games I played on my Atari 2600 in 1983.) I know that such things do exist, but the MP3 players on them don’t have a 30 GB capacity like my iPod. And the camera might have 1 or 1.5 megapixel capability at best, as compared to my digital camera’s 5 megapixels. Two years from now, I think we’ll be there, but not quite yet, so for now my pockets are full.

Once again, despite all the complaining I’m very happy with my iPod Video. I also feel like I have just begun to scratch the surface of what it can do. If I discover any other cool iPod tricks I’ll post them.

What was I thinking yesterday? After drinking god-knows-how-many beers at an all-day Super Bowl party that I left at 11:30, I went to Beale Street and stayed out watching FreeWorld until 2:30. I am exhausted. I have pics from the party that I will post sometime this week, but I’m simply too worn out to deal with it now.

For now I’ll just toss out a few kind words:

Chuck and Robin are awesome party hosts.
Mikey is a fantastic cook.
While FreeWorld was on, IQ got on stage and jammed with them for about 20 minutes, and DAMN that guy is talented.

Also heard some interesting gossip at the party: I learned where the outdoor party spot is going to be downtown this summer, and I heard who will be challenging Mayor Herenton in the next election. I need to check with my sources to see if I’m allowed to reveal these tidbits in my blog though.

Next time you find yourself in front of a magazine rack, check out the current issue of Memphis magazine. There’s a review of Caspian, the new Persian restaurant on Brookhaven Circle. Food looks really good – I gotta get out there and try it. The owner is a former student of mine from my U of M computer literacy teaching days.

TRIVIA TEAM: I’ll be there this week. Really. I think I may order Abita Root Beer though. I just can’t handle any more drinking for a while.

That’s all for now. I’m going to bed.

Last night I was walking to Peabody Place to get some money out of the ATM, and on the way there I ran into a friend of mine. She was working as a server for a new restaurant downtown, and was outside taking a smoke break. We talked for a few minutes, and as she started to walk back in, another server came out to smoke. “Why didn’t you come get me before going outside?” asked the other server.

“We’re not allowed to smoke together,” said my friend.

That seems like an odd rule. I’ve never worked as a waiter or bartender, but it seems to me that if I were a business owner, particularly in a business with a high turnover like restaurants have, that I would want my employees to socialize (provided their tables are taken care of first). That way, they’d develop relationships at work that they wouldn’t want to lose, and they’d be reluctant to leave and take other jobs.

Just curious, what’s the reasoning behind a rule like this? Anyone know?

So I went out tonight with no particular agenda in mind, and found an open barstool at Big Foot Lodge.

I couldn’t resist a 34 oz. Big Foot Beer. And after that, I couldn’t resist a second one.

So as I was almost done with the second one and about to leave, the owner comes up and tells the bartender, “Top that off for him.” At that point I had maybe 3 oz. left. But what was I going to do, say, no, I don’t want more beer?

So I sat there and continued to drink and watched their 6 TVs. And one of them was tuned to ESPN Classic and was showing footage of Nadia Comaneci scoring the first-ever perfect 10 in gymnastics.

Nadia Comaneci was from Romania.

And it reminded me of the evening of July 29, 2005. I was at the Saucer, throwing darts with my friend Ira. A new waitress, with an Eastern European accent, came up and asked if we needed drinks. And I asked her a question. I said, “Are you from Tennessee? Because you’re the only 10 I see”

She said, “No. I am not from Tennessee. I am from Romania”

Kinda funny, dontcha think, given Romania’s history of 10s?

~ drunk post

Recently, another blogger (Kat, is it OK to link to you? thought I’d ask before doing it) commented that she needs to find stuff to do other than hang out on Beale Street when she comes downtown. She said she scans my blog for ideas and refers to me as a Memphis Social Master. Whoa… that’s quite a reputation to live up to, but I’ll give it a shot. In this entry I will talk about stuff that goes on downtown that often flies under people’s radar. Some of this stuff I’ve been to, some I haven’t, but it’s all going on.

Halfacre Gunroom at Earnestine & Hazel’s, Wednesday nights

This band has been described to me as a combination of rockabilly and punk rock. I stumbled in E&H one time on a Wednesday and ended up seeing them quite by accident. I thought they were all right (found out later that only half the members of the band were there that night) but I have several friends who just love them. My advice? Give ’em a try and decide for yourself. If nothing else, you can get a Soul Burger while you’re there. On the downside, Nate’s upstairs bar isn’t open during the week.

Nancy Apple’s Pickin’ Party at Kudzu’s, Thursday nights

Normally I’m not a big fan of country music but Nancy Apple is cool, and Kudzu’s is sort of her home base. As I understand it this is a night when people can bring their instruments and get up on stage and jam with her. I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve never been to Kudzu’s, even though it’s less than a mile from where I live. It’s a neighborhood bar, but its neighbors are a bread factory and whatever the current incarnation of Six-1-Six is. I understand it draws a loyal regular crowd though. I’ve been meaning to check this place out for too long.

Dr. William “Bill” Hurd at the Best Western Hotel on Union, Thursday nights

I mention this one out of sheer novelty. Never been. I can’t imagine the Best Western as an entertainment venue, and for that reason alone, I’m curious.

The Speakeasy at Jack Robinson Gallery, Thursday nights

One of the most diverse offerings in the entire city, any night of the week. Go there on Thursdays and you’ll find rock music, neo-soul, folk music, spoken-word poetry, comedy, performance art, you name it in a very chilled out atmosphere. They tend to have several performers in one night. I’m sorry to say I haven’t made it to this one yet either; I need to go soon.

Di Anne Price at Cielo, Fridays-Saturdays

Chill out to some jazz with a sense of humor in one of the most beautiful venues in the city. If you’ve never been to Cielo, you need to go just to see the place (it’s on Adams Avenue in a 19th-century Victorian mansion). Great place to take a date for dinner. Bring money; this place ain’t cheap, but it’s worth it. By far my favorite of Karen’s restaurants.

The Prime Cut Band at Marmalade Restaurant and Lounge, Fridays

I’ve always been curious about the Marmalade, a lounge on G.E. Patterson just far enough down the street to be off the beaten track. Few of my friends have ever been in, and I’m wondering if it’s a treasure waiting to be discovered, kind of like Raiford’s and Wild Bill’s were 10 years ago. One of these days I need to give it a try. On the downside: Cover is $10, according to a flyer I was handed at a recent Trolley Art Tour.

Pam & Terry at Sleep Out Louie’s, Saturdays

This one is well-known to most downtowners, but I mention it for the benefit of people from other parts of the city. As much time as I spend at Sunday brunch at Sleep Out’s, I’ve only been there on a Saturday night twice. There’s a very simple reason for this. When I go out on the weekend, I tend to walk out of my apartment and down Main Street to Union, where I turn left, because that’s the path to all the action (Big Foot, Peabody Place, the Saucer, Beale). It never occurs to me to turn right and check out Sleep Out’s. But having said that, Pam & Terry is a damn fine band, and the place is often packed with my neighbors from Number 10 Main and even some of the Sunday brunch drinking crew.

All right… I also have a few that perform on Beale… these are well-known to downtowners, and have been mentioned in my blog before, but again, for the benefit of readers from other parts of the city I’m going to mention them anyway.

Barbara Blue at Silky’s, Wednesdays-Saturdays and on Sundays except in winter

Best blues singer in the city, hands down. A voice like you would not believe. You gotta hear her for yourself. If you make requests, remember that it’s “please” or money. She’s usually on in the early evenings, something like 5 to 8 or 6 to 9. They have good Hurricanes here and are not as expensive as Pat O’s. Order a Diver ($18) and you better plan on taking a cab home.

Richard Johnston, on the sidewalk usually somewhere near the New Daisy, weekend nights when it’s warm

Just look for a guy in overalls playing a double-necked combination guitar/bass made out of a cigar box (it’s called a diddley bow). He also sings, and plays drums with his feet, so he’s a one-man band. If you live in Memphis you gotta see this guy perform at least once. He has this song called “Shelby County Courthouse” about his experience getting arrested that is just hilarious. “Shelby County Courthouse… the whole goddamn building can kiss my ass!” As you can tell, he’s not shy about using colorful language. He also hates record companies. If you’re really lucky, some of the local bums will be dancing to the beat, which can be every bit as entertaining as Richard himself. I normally am not a big fan of the bums, but sometimes I’ll break down and buy them a beer to applaud their dance moves.

FreeWorld at Blues City Cafe, Sundays

FreeWorld performs at a lot of venues around town, but seeing them at Blues City is something special. It’s their home base, has been for many years (even before the place was Blues City) and they’re comfortable there. It’s also a very comfortable vibe, a lot of service-industry workers showing up to unwind at the end of a hard week. You’re not a true downtowner until you’ve been to this at least once. The band doesn’t come on until 10:30 PM. Stop yer bitching about Monday being a workday; just take a nap early in the evening and show up. It’s worth it.

… and that’s my list for now. If you know anything about these places that I don’t, let me know and I’ll edit this post and add to it. Or if you can think of anything I missed, let me know that too. And now, it’s the weekend, which means it’s time to go pickle my brain and my liver. See you later…

I can’t resist making a comment about today being Groundhog Day, the second-stupidest holiday of the year (the stupidest occurs 12 days from now). Longtime blog readers have heard me rant on this before, but since I’ve picked up significant new readership, I’ll do it again. Every year on this day in Punxsutawney, PA, a stupid man in a stupid top hat pulls a stupid groundhog out of a stupid air-conditioned burrow and puts the stupid groundhog on the ground, where the stupid groundhog either sees its stupid shadow or it doesn’t. Then the stupid man in the stupid top hat lifts the stupid groundhog high over his head so the stupid media can take pictures and run stupid feel-good stories in the stupid newspapers about the stupid groundhog.

Oh, how I wish the stupid man in the stupid top hat would find a pair of goalposts and kick a 20-yard field goal with the stupid groundhog. I wish for it every year and it never happens.

If a stupid groundhog is the best that stupid town can do to attract some attention, then Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania must have about as much going for it as Earle, Arkansas. Which, I can assure you, is not much.

Happy Groundhog Day. Over and out.

About 10 years ago, one of my hobbies was driving through the ‘hood (with windows up and doors locked) to look at gang graffiti. I’d see a lot of six-pointed stars, winged hearts, and pitchforks, signifying the Gangster Disciples; and five-pointed stars and canes, indicating the Vice Lords.

Somtimes the symbols would be more elaborate. A picture of a joint next to a dollar sign indicated “drugs for sale at this location.” The number 187 next to someone’s name was a death threat (187 is the California criminal code for homicide). A six-pointed star next to an exploding cane or exploding five-pointed star would indicate that the Gangster Disciples were declaring war on the Vice Lords (“6 poppin, 5 droppin”).

Well, Sunday I was talking with a friend at Sleep Out’s, and he told me that these days, gangs have a new way of identifying themselves: specialty license plates.

One gang apparently uses the Tennessee Walking Horse plate to indicate membership. My friend commented on seeing a tricked-out Caprice Classic with risers and spinner rims rolling down the street. “You know he ain’t got no damn horse,” he said.

Another gang uses the Tennessee Arts Commission Fish plate to mark their vehicles. Not sure which gang goes with which plate.

So the next time you see one of those plates, it may not indicate that the driver has a love for horses or the arts, but rather a love for crack cocaine, bling bling, ho’s, and 9 mm semiautomatic pistols.

LoLo’s Table is doing Wine Wednesday: Bottles of wine for half price. Throw in an order of mussels from the appetizer menu, and you have an evening out at one of downtown’s finest restaurants at a very reasonable price.

LoLo’s is located on Monroe between Main and Second.

I assume they’ll be doing it future Wednesdays as well.

– This blog broke the threshold of 100 visits per day for the first time this week, with 139 hits on Monday and another 110 on Tuesday. Recently I was looking at the entry where I posted pics of the Romanians, which would have been mid-September, and speculated that the pics of pretty girls might bump the visits per day to 30-35. This thing has really caught on for some reason…

– An organization called Diversity Memphis was featured Monday in the Commercial Appeal. Looks like a good group, providing a viewpoint that is much needed in a city that badly needs to embrace racial and cultural differences. Here’s a link to their site.

– A few weeks ago I posted a blog entry about downtown attorney Stephanie Calvert, and offered a memory trick – Lord Calvert is what the bums drink, and Stephanie Calvert is the person to go to for legal advice. Well, as it turns out there’s more of a connection there than I realized. The real-life Lord Calvert founded the colony of Maryland, and the Calvert family seal is Maryland’s state flag. Perhaps Stephanie should hand out miniature bottles of Lord Calvert with her business cards. Every bum in town would want her as their lawyer.

– Had a really good time at Drinking Liberally at Sleep Out’s last night. It made a few of us wonder if downtown is ready for its own chapter of Drinking Liberally, independent of the one that meets in Midtown. I mean, when I first heard about the organization, I meant to attend at least a couple of times a month. But how often have I actually been to the Midtown meetings? Once. It’s just a matter of logistics – if I drove my car there I’d have to limit myself to one beer so I’m not driving home drunk (and that’s no fun). I could ride my bike out there, but that’s an awful lot of work. If there were a chapter downtown I’d go all the time. A few of us are talking about it, we’ll see what happens…

– The latest news on planned upgrades for Sleep Out’s: New sound system, new big screen plasma TV (yes!), Guinness on tap (they better not get rid of the PBR to make that happen), new barstools (BADLY needed), and NTN Trivia. NTN Trivia is not like trivia night at the Saucer and Mulligan’s where there’s a human announcing the questions… instead, it’s computer-controlled, you get a keypad to play on, and a new game starts every half hour. When I was a corporate trainer traveling out of town, I played it a few times. It’s highly addictive. Sleep Out’s made a good move getting it – people will stay longer and run up bigger bar tabs.

– Speaking of Sleep Out’s… if you’re looking for a place to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, it would be a good choice. They’ll have beer specials and I think I saw a sign saying free hot dogs and popcorn. They will also be drawing for some AWESOME prizes. However, I won’t make it to Sleep Out’s for very long that day, because I’ve been invited to a Super Bowl party at Barton Flats. At some point I may take a break for half an hour to walk over there and enjoy one of Lisa’s bloody marys.

– Ow! I think I knocked out a filling eating fajitas Monday night. My tooth hurt a little Tuesday, and I shouldn’t have eaten anything (which I knew would make it worse) but I had leftover food and it was too good to throw out. Well, I paid for it today – the tooth hurt like hell and by 2:00 I had to tell the boss I needed to take the rest of the day off. When I’m in pain, there’s nothing worse than sitting in a cubicle counting the minutes until quitting time. So I came home and tried various attempts to make the pain go away. Advil (I now have Advil that’s not past the expiration date)… didn’t work. Anbesol… didn’t work. Ice… didn’t work. By late afternoon I was practically screaming in pain, and starving. But I realized ice cream was about the only thing I could eat (I really wanted Gus’s chicken but knew better), so I walked to Walgreens. Half an hour later I had finished a pint of chocolate mint, and the tooth pain was gone. Hopefully a good night’s sleep will put an end to the pain for good, and I’ll avoid an unwanted trip to the dentist.