Center for Southern Folklore music festival recommendations

Last night I was hanging out at the Tap Room, and I ran into my friend IQ, who is one of the main organizers at the Center for Southern Folklore’s festival. I had my schedule of events for the festival with me (if you don’t have one you can see the lineup here) and I asked him to recommend some good bands to see this evening. Here are the ones he highlighted:

FreeWorld, 6:00, Verizon Wireless stage
Renardo Ward and The Promise, 6:15, Folklore Store
Kavious, 7:45, Trolley Stop stage
Kattawar Brothers, 9:00, Verizon Wireless stage
Joyce Cobb, 9:00, Folklore Hall
Domingo Montez & Los Cantadores, 9:15, Trolley Stop stage
Nathaniel Kent & Exodus, 10:00, Verizon Wireless stage

I also recommend stopping by the Center and trying Ella Kizzie’s greens and hot water cornbread.

What I’ve been up to this week: Well, Wednesday night I went to the concert series at Court Square. Thursday morning it occurred to me that I only talked about Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis to one person, out of a park full of people. “If we had shirts, I bet lots of people would come up to us and want to talk,” I thought. So Thursday evening after work, my co-founder Mike King and I met at the Second Street branch office and managed to get two shirts, a white golf shirt and a yellow T-shirt, designed online in an hour and a half. We have them ordered and they should arrive by midweek next week.

Once we get the first shirts and verify that they look OK, we’re going to put up a storefront so other people can buy Residents for a Safer Downtown Memphis shirts. We’re doing it through CafePress and we’re going to sell them at cost – we’re not looking to make a profit, we just want to get the word out.

There are 18,000 people in town to audition for American Idol. They had to be here early Friday morning to get wristbands, and the auditions are early Sunday morning. So there are a lot of extra people partying on Beale this weekend.

That’s all for now… I’m giving a Romanian a ride to the mall at noon, and after that I’ll be back downtown at the festival.

Oh. It’s. Been. Broughten. and other notes

Before we get to the main topic of this post, a couple of announcements:

Ken & Robyn Greene will be playing The Pig on Beale tomorrow night, Saturday, September 2, from 7 to 11 pm. If you haven’t heard them, you’ve just got to. I’ve written about them before – Ken’s vocal range is incredible, doing perfect renditions of Elvis, The Smiths, classic rock, ’80s pop, you name it. And Robyn can really play a violin. If you’re downtown for the Center for Southern Folklore’s festival, this is worth taking an hour and making a side trip to Beale Street to hear them.

– The Center City Commission’s Lee Warren, known as “That Downtown Guy,” (or, as some of my blog readers call him, “That Other Downtown Guy”), will have a new episode of his Definitely Downtown TV show on WMC channel 5 tomorrow at noon. He’ll be touring the penthouse of the Claridge House, and he’ll also take a look at new condos at 415 S. Front. Lee is definitely the man to keep you in touch with what’s going on downtown, so be sure to set your DVRs/VCRs/Tivo/etc.

All right. Let’s get down to business. Last night I went to the Flying Saucer to hear The Dempseys. While there, I ran into my friend Mendi. Hang on, let’s post a pic of Mendi.


There ya go. That’s Mendi on the right. The one who isn’t wearing a tube top. Now, on Mendi’s MySpace page, she says, “I am currently co-captain of the Sunday Drinking Team. We are undefeated.” So we were talking last night, and she started bragging about her Sunday drinking team. Finally I couldn’t take it any more.

“Mendi, I have great respect for you and your team,” I told her. “And that’s why I want to challenge you. I have a Sunday drinking team too. And when we beat your team, I’ll be able to say I’ve beaten the best.”

“Oh, you think you can beat us? How about we do 10 versus 10? I’ll bring Meredith (pictured above, in tube top) and Jessica (who asked to be mentioned in the blog, so there ya go) and…” She continued to name off team members. “There’s no way you’ll beat us. No way!”

“Mendi, do you have any idea who you’re talking to?” I responded. “One Sunday I drank three bottles of champagne and six duck farts, and went on to get number 1 in the nation on the NTN Trivia game at Sleep Out’s. I have a guy on my team who drank SIX large Call-a-Cabs at Wet Willie’s on his birthday, and then walked to another bar to drink some more. We’ll destroy you.”

“Bring it,” Mendi said.

Taking a page out of my friend Chad’s book, I told her, “Oh. It’s. Been. Broughten.”

We haven’t set a date for the challenge yet, but it’s going to happen. And it’s going to be an old-fashioned Tennessee ass-whoopin’ for Mendi and her crew. She really doesn’t understand what she’s walking into. I almost feel sorry for her a little.

(Edited to add: I posted the following comment to Mendi’s MySpace page: “I predict that September will be the month your Sunday drinking team’s undefeated streak comes to an end. Remember the 1992 Olympic basketball Dream Team with Jordan, Magic, Bird, etc.? Well, my team is like that, except we’re drunks instead of athletes.”)

USC vs. Arkansas, tomorrow night at 7:45 on ESPN. I’m sure Charly will be watching. Not sure what I’ll do since that conflicts with the Center for Southern Folklore’s fest and Ken & Robyn’s performance. Maybe a TV at The Pig will be tuned to the game.