Next American City is holding an URBANEXUS salon tonight at Stax Museum (926 E. McLemore). This will be a discussion of civic engagement in moving Memphis forward, and what various organizations around town are doing to accomplish this. Presenters will use 4 slides per minute for 4 minutes to illustrate what’s going on with their organizations. Presenters include
- Eric Matthews, Launch Memphis
- Dr. Charlie Santo, Coalition for Livable Communities
- Tim Sampson, Stax Museum
- John Weeden, UrbanArt
- Cardell Orrin, New Path
- Derwin Sisnett, Power Center CDC
- Gwyn Fisher, MPACT Memphis
Audience Q&A and reception will follow the presentations. Event starts at 6 PM. Good chance to learn about the positive things going on in Memphis, and learn about ways you can be an active citizen.
There was an article in the paper yesterday about Paula & Raiford’s Disco, set to open April 3. Says the new club will be 4 times the size of the old one – NICE! While it will resemble the old Hollywood Raiford’s, it will have Paula’s unique decorative touches. Can’t wait to see the place.
Calhoun’s will open early for the NCAA tournament this week, and they have the March Madness package. After sunset their 120″ projection HDTV will be tuned to the games on the back deck. They are also the latest bar to get into the crawfish boiling business – they’ll do boils every Sunday at 6 PM for $4.50 a pound.
Orleans on Front will have crawfish every Thursday (that’s tonight!) in addition to the boils they have on some Sundays. Don’t forget about their $4 happy hour!
I was downstairs in their Voodoo Room last night, where they were showing a Led Zeppelin concert on TV. It looked like it was their 1975 tour and was just amazing. They played songs I’d never seen on concert video before – “In My Time of Dying,” “Trampled Under Foot,” “Bron-Y-Aur Stomp,” and a few others, and of course “Stairway.” Jimmy Page was just amazing. It was amazing how much he improvised during the songs, and yet it all sounded like perfection. I gotta start collecting Zep concert DVDs. My only complaint is that Bonham wasn’t featured more. They cut to him occasionally, but he looked like just another drummer. The video didn’t give him the credit he deserved. Page and Plant were clearly the stars. I think I saw shots of John Paul Jones maybe twice in the hour of footage they showed.
Sitting at the Saucer watching the Tigers vs. Cal State-Northridge game. The Tigers apparently left their “D” back in Memphis and are down by 1 as I type this, with 12 minutes left in the first half. Hope they turn it around. Haven’t watched a game here in a while. There are a lot of different bars Downtown that show the tournament games, but the Saucer is home. Not sure where I’ll go to watch Saturday’s game (assuming we put CS Northridge away), but I definitely plan on watching the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight at the Saucer, because there will be a lot of people around for the tournament games held here.
Go Tigers! Gonna try and build a website while I watch the game. Tigers have turned it around and are up by 4 now.