Bravo Memphis season kickoff party Thursday night

The Bravo Memphis group, the young arts branch of Arts Memphis, has its season kickoff at the Power House Gallery on G.E. Patterson (next to the train station) Thursday evening, September 20, from 6 to 8 PM. The event is free and open to the public and there will be free food and booze.

At the party, you’ll have the chance to join Bravo for the 2007-08 season, which will entitle you to attend at least 6 arts events – theater, opera, ballet, gallery shows, etc. throughout the year, usually one per month. Before each event there’s a social hour with appetizers and beverages.

I was a Bravo member from 2002-06 and highly recommend it as a way to expose yourself to the arts on a budget, and to meet some young professionals in the 21 to mid-40s range with similar interests. If you have a friend to go with, you can join with them as a couple and save some money. If you don’t have a friend to go with, join as a single and go by yourself to the event. You’ll meet plenty of people at the events’ social hours.

I’ve been looking forward to this event for a couple of weeks… then today, I got on the elevator and discovered that my apartment building has invited residents to a wine tasting at exactly the same time. Hmmm… free booze a mile away, or free booze a few floors up… and besides, I don’t know too many of my neighbors right now, and am looking forward to hanging out and getting to know some of them. So I’m probably going to miss the Thursday night Bravo event… but still, I recommend it for people who want to expand their social circle and understanding of the arts.

Pics: Sunday brunch

This past Sunday we returned to Dan McGuinness Pub for brunch, and discovered that in addition to their breakfast menu (until noon), they now have a special football menu, available during NFL games.

I got the nachos grande from the football menu. The menu also had chicken nachos, a couple of Philly sandwiches, hot wings, and potato skins.

They also have $10 buckets of beer during football games.

John D was excited about buckets of Bud Light. Bartender Amy got some gold foil and added some bling-bling to his beer.

Afterward we moved to the Saucer to celebrate our friend Chad’s birthday. Mmmm… cheesecake and beer.

Our Beer Goddess made sure our glasses stayed full.

Chad celebrates with the other Sunday brunchers at the Saucer’s window.

The Saucer’s cash register features motivational messages for the staff.

Irish car bombs for Air Traffic Control Mike and Yoko.

Patrick from the Majestic: “Where the hell were you guys today?”

A pic of Chad from 1987, when he was in a hair band that opened for Warrant at the Mid-South Coliseum.

We’ll be back at McGuinness for brunch next Sunday, then we’ll switch back to the Majestic for the two weeks after that.

My choice for mayor: Herman Morris

I give the Commercial Appeal a hard time in my blog now and then, but I have to hand it to them: Their excellent editorial Friday endorsing Herman Morris for Memphis mayor played a big part in my decision to vote for him. No longer is my strategy to pick the most promising of the “Anybody But Willie” candidates – I now believe Morris really is the best person for the job.

For one thing, the article reminded me that Morris led MLGW during the “Hurricane Elvis” windstorm of July 2003. I thought MLGW responded very well in what was a crisis situation, and it gives me confidence that Morris would be able to effectively manage the city should another crisis – “The Big One” earthquake, a race riot, or whatever – occur.

More than that, though, I see in Morris effective, quiet leadership. He doesn’t feel the need to draw attention to himself as Herenton and Chumney do – he just gets things done. As the CA editorial pointed out, when others disagree with Morris, he listens, looks for commonalities, and tries to build consensus – whereas Herenton and Chumney tend to argue with those who disagree.

Up until last week I was undecided but leaning Chumney… and yet, there was a lot of doubt in my mind about Chumney the entire time. I look at her record on the City Council the past year and I see a lot more grandstanding than accomplishments. That’s not to say I think she’d be a bad mayor – I think she is indeed qualified and would make a far better choice than King Willie. However, I believe that Herman Morris’ manner and his leadership experience make him the best candidate.

I encourage everyone to read the CA’s editorial and then decide for yourself. I plan to walk down to the Election Commission sometime this week and cast my early vote for Herman Morris for mayor.

Here’s a link to the Morris for Mayor website.

Cooper-Young wrapup

As expected, spent the entire day wandering the Cooper-Young Festival yesterday. That festival is like crack to me – for me it’s not so much the booths or the food, but the people. Mainly, getting to see people I haven’t seen in 5 or 10 years, as well as people who have seen me around town but who I’ve never actually met. Got a lot of “Hey, you used to be my math teacher!” and “Hey, aren’t you the blog guy?” and “Hey, you’re the guy who’s always at the Saucer” and “Hey, didn’t I used to see you at Six-1-Six back in the day?”

If you saw me at C-Y, you already know who I’m supporting for mayor. I’m make an official announcement on my blog tomorrow. Discussed political races with my friends Rich and Kaleigh for a few minutes, and it helped me realize that what I’ve done this past week in the mayoral race (turned away from one candidate and toward another) is also what I’m doing in the presidential race.

Dr. Bob had a booth there and I hung out there for quite a bit during the day with him and Pete from the Saucer and Laura (nice meeting you, Laura).

Brace yourselves: I’m about to say something positive that contains the word “Germantown.” This probably will never happen again. Germantown Commissary had a booth at the festival, and I’ve never tried their food but have heard good things about them for years. So I tried their BBQ nachos. Outstanding! Possibly even better than the nachos at the ballpark.

The beer prices at the official vendor booths SUCKED – $4 for a draft Bud or Bud Light. That’s beyond the upper limit of acceptable price – four bucks is gouging, plain and simple. So I didn’t buy beer from the official vendors. I discovered that Soul Fish Cafe had a beer stand and was selling 24 oz. tall boys of PBR for $4, so I did a couple of those. Later in the day I discovered that the convenience store at Main and Evelyn was open and had even better prices – got my third 24 oz. can of PBR for $1.30, tax included.

Good grief there were a lot of strollers there. I wouldn’t ever want to see strollers banned, because C-Y needs to remain a family event, but they sure did slow down foot traffic. Too bad festivals can’t designate a “stroller lane” kind of like some streets have bike lanes, to get them out of everyone’s way.

Got some good info at some of the booths, and I’ll probably mention a couple of the organizations here in weeks to come. Talked to a group that helps the homeless, and I plan to follow up with them to brainstorm ways to funnel some of the misdirected generosity Downtown (giving money to panhandlers) to their organization and others like them. Also talked to a group that had a good message about fighting crime. Once I put on the sticker showing support for my mayoral candidate, candidates for other races came out of the woodwork wanting to talk. I took their literature and will look it over.

In addition to the BBQ nachos, I had an Athenian gyro sandwich (gotta have at least one every year). Crepe Maker also had a booth at the festival, and I recommended it to a lot of people, but didn’t eat there myself, since I can walk four blocks from my front door Downtown and get a “creep” (to use a Mikeyism) anytime I want.

Pie in the Sky Pizza is back, now calling themselves “Lou’s Pizza Pie.” They’re the ones who have specialty pizzas like the Moon Pie, Sun Pie, and Bluto’s Revenge. They had a Downtown location at Front and Gayoso for a while but it closed. They’re now at 2158 Young and you can view their website here.

Total money spent this year at the festival: $8 for the first two PBRs, $1.30 for the third, $6 for the gyro, $7 for the nachos, $1.50 for a Mountain Dew from the convenience store, $1.50 for an orangeade from the convenience store. $25.30 – not too bad. Usually I drop at least 40 bucks there. Didn’t buy anything from the vendors this year.

And now it’s Sunday. Brunch at McGuinness, then on to the Saucer. Back tomorrow with mayoral pick.

Today’s the big day, and a preview of the WWE PPV in Downtown Memphis tomorrow

COOPER-YOUNG FESTIVAL! Wooooooooo!

Apologies for not posting my mayoral pick yesterday as promised. I meant to have one beer at the Saucer and then come home and post, but you know how that “one beer” thing usually turns out. I’ll save my mayoral endorsement until Monday since I tend to have a couple hundred more readers on weekdays.

Almost forgot to mention a Downtown event happening tomorrow: The WWE Unforgiven pay-per-view. Allow me to type up a quick summary of what’s going on in the WWE these days:

  • About a dozen wrestlers were suspended last week when they were found to have purchased drugs from an Internet pharmacy, in violation of the WWE’s Wellness policy. This messed up pretty much every storyline they had running, but they had no choice but to put the suspensions in place due to media scrutiny.
  • One of the main guys on the Smackdown brand is Finlay (formerly Fit Finley in WCW), a tough Irish guy who likes to brawl. WWE wanted to emphasize his Irish heritage, so they gave him a leprechaun who hides under the ring and runs out to cheat and help him win matches. Last month the leprechaun won the WWE cruiserweight (220 lbs. and under) championship.
  • WWE chairman Vince McMahon plays the evil “Mr. McMahon” character in storylines, and last month it was revealed he had a bastard son who was on the WWE roster. This was supposed to be the beginning of a big push for rising star Ken (“Mr. Kennedy”) Kennedy, who was going to be revealed as the illegitimate McMahon. But Kennedy was one of the dozen who got suspended for buying drugs online. So instead, the illegitimate son was revealed to be the leprechaun.
  • The ECW champion was John Morrison (formerly Johnny Nitro, doing a Jim Morrison gimmick). They were building toward a long run of fan favorite C.M. Punk chasing him for the title for months and months before winning it. Then Morrison got caught in the Internet drug purchase scandal and had to drop the title to Punk only a month into their program, in order to serve out his suspension. Tomorrow, Punk defends against Elijah Burke, who no one gives a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the title.
  • The Smackdown brand’s World title match was supposed to be champion The Great Khali (7’3″, 412 lbs.) vs. Rey Misterio (5’6″, 150 pounds, not much bigger than the leprechaun). Someone in the back had the good sense to realize what an ass-whoopin’ Misterio would take, and added Batista to the match, making it a three-way.
  • The Raw brand’s World title match is John Cena defending against Randy Orton. Orton is a third-generation wrestler and potentially the most talented guy on the Raw roster, but he keeps doing stupid stuff backstage – recently he almost got fired for taking a dump in the purse of one of the female wrestlers. There’s no way WWE will take a chance on putting the title on him.

My verdict: This PPV is going to suck. Why anyone would waste time going to it is beyond me. Well, Undertaker’s entrance is kinda cool (he wrestles “World’s Strongest Man” Mark Henry) and possibly worth seeing live at least once, but the rest of the card is just awful. Don’t waste your time. Join us for brunch instead. We’ll be at McGuinness first and then the Saucer.

Heading to Cooper-Young in a little while and will be there ALL DAY.

Say hello if you see me at Cooper-Young

I’ll be at the Cooper-Young Festival tomorrow practically the entire day. I’ll be there from about 10:30 in the morning until it wraps up at 7 PM, except for a brief trip away to stop by a friend’s party in the area. If you see me out there, please feel free to stop me and say hello.

I’m planning one more post before the day’s out… I’ve decided whom I’m going to support in the Memphis mayoral election. Will let you know who it is as soon as I run down the street and take a picture.

China Restaurant – Singapore Fried Rice review

Ate at China Restaurant for the first time today, and had the Chef Special, Singapore Fried Rice and an egg roll for $5.99. It was a good-sized pile of fried rice with beef, chicken, shrimp, egg and vegetables, fried in curry sauce so it was spicy but not TOO spicy. I enjoyed it. Figured there’d be enough left to put in a to-go box for local homeless person Scratchy, but I guess I was hungry. Sorry, Scratchy, maybe next time.

They have two $5.99 Chef Specials every day, and in most cases you can choose an egg roll, fries, or fried rice as your side. Most days they have one special that’s spicy and one that’s not. They also have a $4.99 lunch menu where you can choose from about 10 items which are pretty standard at Chinese restaurants.

One thing though – it took 20 minutes for them to get the fried rice out to the table (they did bring the egg roll after only a few minutes), and I stood at the counter for another 5 waiting to pay. If you work for a boss who gets upset if you run over your alloted time for lunch, this may not be the best place to go.

You can tell they’ve had problems with the bums by the signs on the wall. There’s a sign saying that drink refills must be consumed within the restaurant. They also charge for to-go packets of soy sauce, duck sauce, and mustard. Only in Downtown do you see signs like this, but if you’ve spent any amount of time among the “locals” here, you understand why those signs are necessary.

Overall, a good meal. I’ll go back on other days of the week to try more Chef Specials.