Month: April 2008

Being a big fan of Hawaiian shirts, I can’t resist linking to Midtown Ryan’s blog post about the current exhibit at Memphis College of Art.  It’s called “Vintage Hawaiian:  The John McIntire Aloha Shirt Collection” and features 700 shirts McIntire has collected over the last 50 years.  The shirts are not only on display, they’re on sale.

Hmmm… maybe I’ll take the car to Midtown Crawfish Fest tomorrow and stop at MCA on the way there and take a look.  Al Gamble’s band is playing the crawfish fest, and I’ve been meaning to check them out because his wife is VP of Marketing at my company.  On the downside, if I drive my car, that means no beer.  But that’s OK I guess, because there will be beer aplenty to drink once I return Downtown.

Looking forward to hopefully buying a few new Hawaiian shirts to wear to work.  Heh… maybe one day MCA will have an exhibit called “Really Boring Red, Gray, and Black” and people who work at AutoZone will be able to purchase work clothes.

Several people have e-mailed me asking for the new security/public safety patrol’s phone number.  It’s (901)281-9146.

Please keep in mind that for right now, the patrol’s coverage area only extends from Front to Second, from Adams on the north to Linden on the south.  Streets outside that area may be covered later if the 3-month pilot program is extended, but are not included during this initial testing phase.  Patrol runs from 8 AM – 9 PM Sun-Wed and 8 AM – 11 PM Thur-Sat.

Please consider adding this number to your cell phone’s contacts.  I’d especially like to ask for your help reporting panhandlers who run parking scams in the Peabody Place/Beale/Front/Second area.  If you see them standing by an unattended metered spot, you know why they’re there.  Just call the security patrol, give as good a description as possible, and they’ll likely be there in 2 minutes.  We’ve all got to work together to run these hustlers out of that area, so that people who visit Downtown can safely exit and enter their cars without being hit up for money.

It’s Thursday night party season once again. Here’s a list of stuff that’s going on tonight that I’ve heard about:

• Dash Rip Rock at the Peabody rooftop, 6-10 PM, $5 cover.
• Amy LaVere at the Madison rooftop, 5:30-10 PM, $7 cover I believe.
• Garry Goin and G3 at EP Delta Kitchen patio party
• Gabby Johnson at the Flying Saucer, 9:30, $3 cover.
• Mudflap Kings play “Rock Out With Your Cock Out” night at the Red Rooster. Not sure what the cover is, in the $6-7 range I think. $1.50/$2.50 discount prices on draft beer.
• Itta Bena on the 3rd floor of BB King’s will be open for those who want to have a mellow place to hang out, talk, and drink after the rooftop parties.
• Bimbos who want free drinks and horny wannabe pick-up artists at Atlas, the club inside Jillian’s

For those of you who haven’t been to the rooftop parties, the Peabody is younger, wilder and bigger; the Madison is older, smaller, and more relaxed. I’m in my thirties, and most weeks am in the oldest 25% of the Peabody crowd and in the youngest 25% of the Madison crowd, if that gives you an idea. I had a lot of fun at EP’s Thursday parties last year and they attracted a diverse crowd. After the rooftop parties end, highest recommendations for the Rooster if you want to party, Itta Bena if you want to chill, and Hoop’s Bar if you want something in between.

The party season is definitely in high gear… I have 4 private parties to go to in the next 8 days. Just shot out an invite to the first of the 4 to my trivia team’s list and had a “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus” moment. The hostess asked for cocktail attire, and the guys on the list were like, “Cocktail attire? That sucks!” and the girls were like, “Come on, it’ll be something fun and different, we don’t have to put on jeans and go to a bar every night.” Really, I don’t have a problem with it. As long as they don’t ask me to wear a tie. I only wear ties to job interviews and funerals. Wait, scratch that, just job interviews. And I like my current company so hopefully I’m done with job interviews. (Edit: Yikes, I just looked it up. Looks like “cocktail attire” means a suit according to definitions on several sites. Hmmm, this puts my attendance in question.) (Edit 2: Okay, read through the sites some more and most of them say “suit, tie optional.”  That I could probably live with.)

In addition to the private parties, I have two crawfish fests to attend in the next 10 days, as well as the usual brunch (Majestic week 1) and Sunday Fun Day and Tuesday trivia. Full calendar. Reminds me, I got an e-mail from Porter-Leath saying there are still tickets available for The Swamp for the Rajun Cajun Crawfish Fest on Sunday, April 20. The Swamp is a VIP area and your $45 ticket gets you all-you-can-eat crawfish, beer, soft drinks, and water in your own private, shaded area with no lines. Couples tickets are $80. To buy them call Emily at 577-2500 or e-mail eketner@porterleath.org.

Plans for tonight: I had fun at Itta Bena last night, so I’ll probably start there. Then the Saucer to do my plate beers, then probably “Rock Out With Your Cock Out” night at the Red Rooster. Not going to the Peabody party tonight since it looks like rain and they’ll move it indoors. Plans are subject to change though. If my BFF is working at her new bar, she’ll probably text every mutual friend of ours and ask them to mention to me that she’s working. But she’ll ask them to do it in a way that makes it sound like she hates me, e.g., “Are you going to go annoy your BFF tonight?” Geez. Like she can’t just text me “Hey, I’m working, come visit” like a normal person would do. Or even better, “Hey, I’m working, if you come visit I’ll buy your first drink.”

Time to pick up to-go food from somewhere and head back to the office.

It looks like Tigers parade I mentioned in the previous post won’t happen.  Several Tigers had previous plans to visit their families this weekend, with the season over.  Some of them haven’t seen their families since September.  It’s understandable.  Parade has been postponed with no makeup date in sight.  Shame we won’t get to give the Tigers their very-much-earned appreciation and respect, though.

Started at Itta Bena tonight for the Wednesday Downtown night.  The free appetizer was crab dip and it was excellent as always.  I ordered shrimp scampi off the menu and it was superb.  And, of course, $5 well drinks on Downtown Night from 5-8.  $5 not may sound like a bargain at first glance, but Itta Bena’s wells are better than most bars’ calls (e.g. Absolut is considered a well vodka there).

Great time at Itta Bena as always.  They will see me again soon, perhaps within 24 hours.

After that, I took a walk down the part of Beale on which cars are allowed.  Noticed that EP’s is doing a happy hour now, offering half-price appetizers and drink specials from 4:30-6:30.  REALLY?  Half-price Not-Yo-Crawfish (crawfish nachos with sweet potato chips)?  EP’s may start seeing me hours earlier than usual.

Watched the new security patrol chase off a bum.  They are great.  They got him to admit he had been parking cars and selling free magazines in recent days.  What an idiot.  I took a second loop around Beale and he reappeared, and would you believe he was standing next to an unoccupied metered parking space.  Wonder what he was doing there?  Actually, I asked him, and he says he helps out the carriage drivers, and needed to have a good view of the carriages.  The nearest carriage was a block away.  I ran him off.  He said, “I’m going to tell a whole bunch of guys you’re the one who has been calling the security patrols on us.”  I may have to start carrying mace.

From there it was on to the Saucer.  Ran into a friend of mine who celebrated her birthday today.  She told me she had been taken to dinner at Grill 83.  They asked if they could have a couple of drinks before dinner on the rooftop, and the staff said sure.  They then came back down for dinner about 9.  The staff started stacking chairs on nearby tables while my friends ate dinner.  They were the only ones in the restaurant, but Grill 83’s posted closing time is 11.  That’s pretty unprofessional.  I could put up with that at Taco Bell.  When I have a three-digit tab, not so much.

Beer report:

Previous total:  $1,141.00

Beers 191, 192 and 193 by my count (184, 185 and 186 according to the Saucer):
Weihenstephaner Hefe-Weizen bottle $7.00
Rochefort 6 (they were out of the 8 and 10) $12.00
Westmalle Dubbel (they were out of the Tripel) $10.00
Tip:  $29.00 x ~ 30% = $10.00
Total:  $39.00

Grand total:  $1,180.00

Monday will be my 200th beer (Saucer count) and will be REAL glad to be done.  I’m tired of having to go there every day.  Never in recent memory have other bars had such a good chance at stealing away my drinking dollars.

Thanks to Otto who installed various WordPress plugins today to make this blog run a lot better and load a lot faster.  Otto was one of the main people who contributed to the WP 2.5 codebase.  Although, I do have to take exception to his “branch out, folks” comment in a recent post.  Yes, I go to the Saucer a lot, but since last Wednesday I’ve also been to Itta Bena (4 times), Big Foot Lodge (3 times), Calhoun’s (twice), Red Rooster (twice), McGuinness (twice), and Hoop’s Bar (once).  All of those places, plus the Downtown Monkey if it EVER opens, are in position to steal away my drinking $ as mentioned in the previous paragraph.

I actually made it all the way through a drunk post.  And it seems to make logical sense and basically be grammatically correct (yes, Skippy, I understand the irony of saying that within a sentence starting with a conjunction).  Yay me.  Time for bed now.

(Edit:  My contact at the U of M is now sending me word that this may have been cancelled.  Will post more details as I learn them.)

A reader just sent me this and I wanted to pass it along.  It’s a letter from U of M president Shirley Raines to the University community:

“Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:
 
We are very proud of the Men’s Basketball Team of the University of Memphis for their historic appearance in the final game of the 2008 Final Four.  Thank you for the thrills of the season and for the most wins of any basketball team in the NCAA!  We know your victories renewed the spirit and the enthusiasm for our University and for our city.
 
To the student-athletes, Coach Calipari and the coaching staff, thank you for the “team” you created by playing together, for capturing the hearts of many with your unselfish play, and for the magnificent feat of competing in the final game of the Final Four.  We are very proud of you!
 
To everyone on campus, we appreciate your extra efforts to hold the pep rallies, the watch parties, create the decorations and banners and find numerous ways to show your Tiger pride.  To the UofM Alumni Association, thank you for organizing events in all of the cities along the road to the Final Four, as well as watch parties throughout the United States and several countries.
 
Now that we have the nation’s attention, it is our hope that future students will visit the University of Memphis on our website and in person.  As Coach Cal said in numerous media interviews, he was drawn to the University because of the beauty of our campus, but he has now learned about the greatness of our programs.
 
Come join us to celebrate with the Tigers with the parade in downtown Memphis at 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening, culminating on the steps of the FedEx Forum.  More details on the parade will be placed on our website.
 
Sincerely,
Shirley Raines”

I mentioned in this morning’s post that WordPress 2.5 was kind of screwing up.  I know one of the people who contributed to the WP 2.5 codebase and am going to have him take a look.  It’s possible this blog may look funny or even disappear for a little while, as he investigates.  Don’t worry, if that happens it’s very temporary.

Here’s a poster for the Africa Center Stage performance happening at 11:45 on the Civic Center Plaza (unless it’s still raining):

As I was walking to the Saucer last night, I decided to make a loop around Beale and see if there were any bums running parking scams.  Sure enough, there was one standing by a meter across from the Orpheum.  Metered parking is free after 6, but as a couple pulled in, he told them, “This here lot charges $10 to park (gesturing to the lot on the other side of the sidewalk).  Can I have $10?”

I told the couple not to pay him, then said to him, “You’re about to make some new friends,” then called the Downtown security patrol number.  2 minutes later they arrived on bike and chased him off.  The new security patrol is great.  “Call us a lot,” they told me.  I have a feeling that will happen.

The Rapscallions took second at trivia, bringing our gift certificate total to $375.  While there, Otto told me about a funny website called Garfield Minus Garfield.  It’s the original Garfield comic strips with Garfield removed – really, with everything removed but Jon.  So it’s basically Jon talking to himself, which makes him look like a complete nut case.  Whoever came up with this idea has a twisted sense of humor.  I like it.

Next up was a visit to Calhoun’s, to see Best Pool Partner Ever Lauren.  Max the owner brought me behind the bar to show me the Bad Beer Cabinet:

That’s a keg of PBR, random cans of Old Style, and a case of Busch Light.  Ah, memories of college.

Calhoun’s ended up closing down early so Max could do beer research.  I rode with Lauren and Itta Bena bartender Sam to McGuinness, where Max met up with us and I helped him research Woodchuck Cider.  Then I decided it was time to get some sleep.  So I started the walk up Second toward home, but I encountered EP’s chef Michael Patrick leaving Big Foot with take-out food.  We talked about bums for a few minutes, then he told me, “Your BFF is in there at the bar.”  Oh, REALLY?  I decided I had time for one more beer.

So I went in, and sure enough, she was at the bar drinking with her roommate.  You know, I’ll say this, my BFF may be an industrial-grade pain in the ass, but she does have cute roommates.  We hurled our usual insults at each other, and I decided to give her an opportunity.  I handed her a piece of paper.  “Write whatever you want,” I told her, “and I’ll take a photo of it and blog it.”  So she took out a pen.  This is what she came up with:

I know the pic is a little fuzzy… the camera has trouble with document mode in dim light.  In case you can’t read it, it says, “PAUL = (equals) DOUCHE BAG.”  It’s nice that she put “equals” in parentheses for those of us who never made it past first-grade math and don’t know what “=” means.  And seriously, I gave her open season on me and that’s the best she can do?  What a loser.

Beer report:

Previous total:  $1,123.25

Beers 188, 189, and 190 by my count (181, 182, and 183 by the Saucer’s count):
Carlsberg $4.75
Heineken $4.50
Avery Ellie’s Brown Ale $4.50
Tip:  $13.75 x ~30% = $4.00
Total:  $17.75

Grand total:  $1,141.00

I’m not totally happy with WordPress 2.5.  It lets me do bulk uploading of images, which would’ve been really nice for this post, since there were 3 images… except it sits there and says “crunching” for 10 minutes.  It thinks it’s doing me a favor by compressing the images, I guess.  Really, I have close to unlimited server space and don’t care if the images are compressed or not… on the other hand, I do care about them hitting the server and getting onto my blog in a timely fashion.  Worse, once the images were uploaded to the media gallery, I couldn’t pull them onto my post because I got a Javascript error.  I had to go in and figure out the URLs to the images and manually link to them.  That’s really annoying to have to do that.  Also, I couldn’t center-align two of the images in the editor and had to edit the HTML to get it done.  That’s not a problem for me, but what about the thousands of WordPress users who don’t know HTML?  This thing should’ve stayed in beta testing a while longer.  Perhaps I’ll be able to mess with the settings and improve its performance.  If things don’t get better, though, I may downgrade to 2.3.3 until they test 2.5 a little better.

All right, time to go earn some money.  Plans for this evening:  Downtown Night at Itta Bena around 5:30, followed by a move to the Saucer to do my plate beers 7:30-8ish.

A reader e-mailed to contribute her two cents’ worth on the discussion whether chicken and waffles is a Southern dish.  Here’s what she had to say:

” Hi Paul!

I recently read your blog about Chicken and waffles and I must put in my two cents that you were infact correct the first time in your belief that chicken and waffles are NOT southern. If you will look at your wikipedia source that claims chicken and waffles became a favorite among African americans in the south you will see that that article is from los angeles and it is quoting a man from compton! In that same wikipedia source you will see that anothe source says chicken and waffles was not included in original southern soul food cookbooks! The very first soul food cookbook infact written by a slave makes no mention of it!

I have a lot of family in the south and I was born in Charleston SC. Since then I have lived in many different places around the world and I have always wanted to keep my love for Soul food. The chicken and waffles thing has always gotten to me because I don’t ever remember even hearing about it and most of the people I know in the south first heard of it when Roscoe’s opened up in Georgia. As far as people can tell it started in Harlem so it would not be a southern dish!

I just thought I would put my two cents in incase you cared for your blog!”

In other news:  If the blog gave you errors or looked funny the last time you checked it, it’s because I’ve been upgrading to WordPress 2.5.  I hear it’s pretty cool.  Uploading of multiple images at once will certainly save me time on some of my photo posts.

Off to the Saucer in a little while to kick ass at trivia.  I printed out 20 more scorecards for the Window Game and will leave them in the drawer where they keep the extra pool balls and chalk.

After the Saucer, I’ll head to Calhoun’s.

(Edit:  That Africa Center Stage performance is tomorrow, Wed 4/9, not today as I originally posted.) 

What a heartbreaking loss for the Tigers last night.  When Dorsey fouled out and Kansas hit that three to send it to overtime, I knew we were going to lose.

We had a good time watching the game at the Saucer though.  We had seats at the window right by the pool table, as we had for the previous two games.  That way we could yell “TIGERS!” at passersby and call the security patrol when we saw bums.  The patrols are great.  We had a guy aggressively panhandling at the Saucer window, and Mikey called the patrol and they were there in two minutes and shooed him off.  Peabody Place security responded too.

Beer report:  I did three beer mixers last night for Pint Nite while watching the game.  My beer total is still 7 off what it should be, and I want three more beers credited back, but it was way too busy to talk to a manager last night.

Previous total:  $1,112.00

Beers 185, 186, and 187 by my count (178, 179, and 180 according to the Saucer):
Snake Bite – pale lager & hard cider $2.75
Half and Half – Guinness and something else (Bass? Harp?) $2.75
Black Czech – Guinness & Pilsner Urquell $2.75
Tip:  $1 x 3 beers = $3.00
Total:  $11.25

Grand total:  $1,123.25

After the game I stopped by the Rooster for a beer.  The gang who had opted to watch the game there had already gone, but my BFF was there, and once again I couldn’t find a reason to kick her to the curb.  She was actually downright nice.  We seem to get along a lot better now that she’s no longer at the Saucer.  She told me when she’ll be working next.  Awww, she wants me to come see her.  Makes me wonder if she and I will finally stop picking on each other and end up being good friends.

The Center City Commission is launching a new series called Downtown Alive!, bringing arts and culture to public spaces Downtown.  The first installment in the series is (Edit: tomorrow, Wed 4/9, not today), called Africa: Center Stage, a mini-festival featuring African drummer Epe, vocalist Earnestine Bytnum, African musicians Junknu, the U-Dig Jookin’ Dance Academy and poet One Love.  It will be on the Civic Center Plaza from 11:45 to 1:30.

The next in the series will be Friday at Court Square, featuring Alf Leyla We Leyla We Layla Middle Eastern Dance.

Looks like the Midtown crawfish fest will once again have some sucky weather.  The Weather Channel predicts high 57, low 43 for Saturday.  If it really is that cold on Saturday I probably won’t go.  I need to do my taxes anyway.

Back later today with another opinion on the “where did chicken and waffles originate?” argument.

The Tigers may not have brought home the championship trophy, but still, we are all so proud of them.  First team in history to win 38 games in a season, and they have established beyond a doubt that Memphis is a big-time basketball school, which will help Coach Cal recruit in future years.  Congratulations to the team on the best Tiger basketball season ever.

A couple of days ago I posted a story about a bad experience a friend of mine had with a trolley driver.  Yesterday another blog reader e-mailed me these comments:

“Paul,
In response to your post about the trolley drivers, I have had 3 confrontations with 3 different trolley drivers, which doesn’t count the couple that have passed me while standing at a stop.  The first was on a very hot summer day or I wouldn’t have wanted to ride the short (2-3 blocks) distance I was going.  The male driver asked me where I was going before I got on, as if that determined whether he would let me on.  He told me it was only a few blocks away, and when I said “So?”  he proceeded to yell at me.  Ironically, he was huge, and I can’t imagine him walking half a block in that heat.

The second was with another male driver, who is just generally rude and bitter all the time.  I recently saw him at Calhoun’s and asked him why he’s so mean on the trolley.  He told me the women in his life are bringing him down.

The third was with a woman whom I bet is the same one your friend had a run-in with.  She tried to pass me at a stop that I had been waiting at for a while.  I had to yell for her to stop, and I asked her why she tried to pass me when I got on.  She said it was because I had a drink, to which I replied that there was a trash can at the stop.  The next time I got on her trolley within a few days, she shut the doors on me.  I’m not kidding.

The SMA had a meeting a few years ago, at which we addressed some issues, mostly timeliness and the fact that the drivers are ambassadors to the city, with a MATA spokesperson.  She agreed to the need for improvement, while also stating that it’s difficult to fill the positions with the right people.  Since then I have seen some gradual improvement.  More of the drivers now shout out the stops and points of interest, but some of them are very rude.  Personally, I called MATA and reported the behavior on every occasion, and one of those drivers is gone while the woman seems a little more polite.  I recommend that everyone report such incidents, but it is important to note the time, have the trolley # and know if it was Main St., River Loop, etc., and at least a good description of the driver.”

This is an issue I’ve wanted to bring up for a while – I too have witnessed some trolley drivers being VERY rude (although there are plenty of very nice ones too).  My friend is right – the trolleys are a symbol of Downtown and of Memphis as a whole, and the drivers need to realize they are ambassadors for the city.  If they can’t behave in a courteous manner, MATA should reassign them to a bus route.

Back later today with recap of last night, beer report, and whatever else I can find to write about.