BIG NEWS for trivia fans this morning. Buzztime Trivia, formerly known as NTN Trivia, will return to Downtown Memphis in 3-4 weeks. Last week I mentioned that Calhoun’s sports bar on G.E. Patterson was adding more TVs… the reason why is that some of those new TVs will become monitors for Buzztime Trivia.
Buzztime Trivia is played against the other people in the bar, using blue boxes with a keypad (affectionately referred to as “crack boxes” because the games are addictive) to answer questions that appear on the monitors. Most of the games are general knowledge, but there are some that are specific to movies, sports, TV, music, etc. There are also other channels where you can play Texas hold’em poker, racing games, and more.
For a long time Buzztime was easily accessible to Downtowners, available at Sleep Out Louie’s and TJ Mulligan’s. However, Mulligan’s decided they didn’t want to spend the money, and Sleep Out’s closed down to become a steakhouse that would attract “a different clientele.” So, since February 2007, Downtowners have had to travel to Buffalo Wild Wings at Poplar and Highland to get their Buzztime fix. Within a month they’ll have a local option again. I’m sure the trivia game will draw in many new Calhoun’s regulars, as people discover the $1.50 PBR, the many TVs carrying sports, the great bartenders, and the friendly crowd.
There’s more Calhoun’s news as well. Comcast will be out there today installing feeds to all the TVs. That means Tiger games carried on CSS, which is a Comcast-exclusive channel, will now be on TV at Calhoun’s. Hmmm I bet the Saucer never sees Mikey for a Tiger game again.
Also, HD receivers have been hooked up to all 8 TVs, which means there will be no more annoying delays on the game feeds.
News elsewhere Downtown… tonight’s “buy the beer, keep the glass” beer glass at the Flying Saucer is the Lazy Magnolia brewery out of Mississippi, so you’re supporting a semi-local business if you buy one. I watched one of the bartenders write this week’s glass listing on the chalkboard, and after she wrote “Lazy” I thought, “Cool! They’re putting a picture of Brittney [one of the other bartenders] on a glass!” But no, it’s a brewery, not a bartender.
Good article on George Hunt, the artist who exhibits at d’Edge Gallery on South Main and who usually designs the Memphis in May posters, in the Commercial Appeal today.
My new College Logo Shopping stores are off to a great start… the Big 12 schools in particular seem to be producing lots of sales, especially Kansas, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. All together they sold 23 items yesterday, not bad at all for websites only a few days old. One of the items in my sales report was a Texas Longhorns recliner. “That sounds expensive,” I thought, and clicked through to take a look. It cost $699! I’ll make $50 commission from that one item alone. Needless to say, this motivates me to get more BCS school stores done. I almost have the Big Ten conference ready to roll out.
Speaking of Texas… I watched Arkansas beat #7 Texas last night at the Saucer. The Hogs are having a great year – record of 12-1 and they’ve beat the last 7 Top 25 teams they’ve played. I can’t believe they didn’t crack the Top 25 this week. Surely they will next week. Freshman Courtney Fortson seems like he’s going to be a star point guard, as soon as he gets a little more disciplined. He had the moves but was turning the ball over a lot last night. Hopefully coach John Pelphrey can work with him.
Time to create some more stores, and do more work on the personal finance program I’m rewriting. I need to do a post on lessons learned from it soon. Done for now, not sure if I’ll be going out anywhere tonight.