Paul Ryburn’s Journal

I ran into Memphis’ poet laureate IQ last night and he told me about an event happening this Thursday, April 26, at the Memphis Theological Seminary (East Parkway at Union) from 5:30 to 8:30. Here’s a scan of the flyer:

Looks like they have an impressive lineup: Dr. Valerie Bridgeman Davis, a professor at the [...]

- Question for my male readers: Can anyone recommend a THIN wallet that they really like? Someone last night commented that I have a “George Costanza wallet” – about an inch and a half thick – and it occurs to me that sitting on that thing all day probably has a lot to do [...]

Just received word from someone who would know that Beale Street Wine Race is this coming Sunday, the 29th. Usually it runs from noon to 6. Sunday brunch crew: We may have to make a field trip down to Beale [...]

I’m dropping my other blog, the “Better, Bigger Deal” one… I simply don’t have time to update two blogs on a regular basis. What I’ll do instead is report on Deals here from time to time. A lot more people read this blog anyway.

From now until the end of the month, you can get [...]

Today, as a new employee I got to tour the city schools’ Central Nutrition Center out on Jackson. Pretty fascinating place… there they do as much advanced prep as possible to feed the schools’ 118,000 students every day. I got to see these enormous cooking vats, as well as systems that allow cooked product [...]

The Highland-Walker fest wasn’t as big a deal as I had hoped. I had heard they were going to block Highland off, but no, just one block of Walker. There were only about 15 crafts booths as opposed to the 300+ you find at Cooper-Young. I got there about 2, and they were [...]

This morning I was contacted by someone who will be moving to Memphis in July, and is thinking about moving Downtown. She has a dog – a 25-pound terrier mix who adores people – and is curious how dog-friendly Downtown is. I’ve never owned a dog, so I thought I’d post the question and [...]

One of the hassles my friends and I face is picture sharing. There will be four or five of us with digital cameras taking pictures at an event, and afterward it’s a challenge to get all the pics together in one place. Each person will have 20-100 MB of pics so they’re too big [...]

Tonight I met a friend at Spindini for a drink after work… first time I’ve ordered anything there, although I did walk through and check the place out right after it opened. I had heard the service was a bit “iffy” and was relieved when the bartender walked up within 10 seconds of my sitting [...]

Tuesday night I was walking down Second and I noticed this sign in the old Carabella’s location (99 S. Second I think):

Very cool. Wonder what their hours will be? In that location, directly across from the Peabody Hotel, there’s definitely justification for them staying open 24 hours.

Oh lord… this likely means there will be [...]