Month: September 2009

I’m at the Saucer and the Memphis-Ole Miss game just started. The Saucer is absolutely loaded with college age Ole Miss snatch.

Sorry for the vulgar language but there’s no other way to describe what I’m seeing up here.

The Memphis Music & Heritage Festival is going on this weekend at the two blocks surrounding the Center for Southern Folklore, at Main near Peabody Place.  Here are some pics from yesterday:

The Nestle Quik bunny was at the festival.

Sharon Fernandes of Stonehouse 27 did an Indian cooking demo.

Jamming to the tunes of Mr. White on the Gayoso Stage

Everybody was kung fu fighting…

There’s a Southern buffet inside the Folklore Hall this year.  Buffet?  The Nuh-Uh Girl is going to be so sorry she went out of town this weekend.

John Bragg of Circa demonstrating how to make crawfish beignets.

The Majestic Grille’s patio was a popular place to be.

If you like big cock, you should check out this art vendor.  They’ve expanded their vendor section and booths lined Peabody Place.

The people in this booth were inviting the public in to sing Christian karaoke.  Two things I don’t do are 1) sing karaoke and 2) go to church, so I steered clear.

Chef Michael Patrick of Mesquite Chop House displays the grouper he cooked for his demo.

An evening act I really enjoyed (right before the rain hit) was Jack Oblivian and the Tearjerkers.  First time I’ve heard them in years.

Our master of ceremonies.  Seemed weird not having IQ there.

The festival continues today, from 11 to 11.  Here’s the schedule. Below I’ve listed my tentative schedule, and recommendations for those not familiar with the festival or the area.

First of all, if you’ve read this blog before, you know how much fun the locals have at Sunday brunch at the Majestic Grille.  Why not give it a try, as long as you’re down here for the festival?  Here’s their brunch menu. They serve from 11 to 3.  They also have some festival specials this weekend – a coconut shrimp basket, a brisket sandwich, an Italian sausage sandwich, and chicken quesadillas.  Plus, $4 margaritas and mojitos.  You might even get to meet John D, namesake of “John D’s breakfast.”

Mr. White rocks out the Gayoso stage again at 1:30.  Wonder if the dancing bum will be back.

At 2:30 there’s the matter of a football game… the best place to watch it is right around the corner… the Flying Saucer.  Seven TVs (assuming they pull down the big screens) and they’ve told me they’re going to do better about putting the sound on for games this year.  70 beers on tap, another 125 in bottles, one premium beer on Fire Sale for $2.75, pool, darts, hot waitresses in miniskirts.  Go Tigers!  Ole Miss is one of my three most hated teams of all time (Tennessee and Texas are the other two).

Some evening band recommendations at the festival:

• 4:45 – Dani, rock, Folklore Hall Stage
• 6:30 – Bluff City Backsliders, jug band, Gayoso Stage
• 7:15 – Super Chikan, blues, Folklore Store Stage
• 7:30 – FreeWorld, jam band, Gayoso Stage
• 8:00 – Blind Mississippi Morris, blues, Verizon Stage
• 8:15 – Papa Top’s West Coast Turnaround, ArtsMemphis Stage
• 9:00 – Jason D. Williams, Verizon Wireless Stage (this one is an absolute must see)

If you want to stay out late past the festival, I have two late-night band recommendations:

• Jeffrey and the Pacemakers (’60s British Invasion rock) will play Huey’s tonight.  They take the stage at 8:30 and play until midnight.  I’m going to try to catch their second set after Jason D. leaves the stage.
• If you miss their 7:30 performance at the festival, FreeWorld performs every Sunday night at Blues City, 10:30 until close.

And if you want to make it an ultra late night, the Silly Goose stays open until 3.  They have $1 MGD during the festival.

Hope to see you down there… this is becoming one of the best festivals of the year and is growing larger and larger.  I love it!

It’s about 10:30 on a Saturday morning as I type this… I’ll start off with a link to what I used to do on Saturday mornings.

Found the video above on YouTube… classic match from Mid-South Wrestling which I used to watch every Saturday growing up. The Junkyard Dog had just beaten Bob Roop for the North American Heavyweight Championship. That meant he had to fulfill the champion’s contractual obligations to defend the title… unfortunately, that meant his first defense was against Ted DiBiase, who had requested a no-disqualification match with Roop and had stipulated that he’d leave town if he couldn’t beat the champion. At the time DiBiase was the only wrestler in Mid-South as popular as the Dog, and the two were best friends and the Dog had been DiBiase’s best man at his wedding. Pro wrestling being what it is, you can probably figure out how this one turned out even before watching the video.

Oh and one other note… Reesor Bowden was the best ring announcer ever.  R.I.P., Reesor.

I had a great time at the Rocky Horror Picture Show last night at the Orpheum.  Before the movie there was a costume contest, and there were at least 50 entrants in both the male and female categories.  I bought a package of props for $5 that were put to good use… fun to see rolls of toilet paper flying all over the Orpheum.  I feel sorry for whoever had to clean that mess up.  I noticed that a few typical Rocky Horror props were omitted from the bag… rice and confetti.  Probably a move that saved the Orpheum hours of cleaning time, although some people brought their own.

I had another question from a reader – “You posted about bars where Ole Miss people gather to watch games… is there an Arkansas bar Downtown?”  Absolutely there is… you will fit right in at Calhoun’s, where Max the owner is a huge Arkansas fan and even has a Hog Hat on display.

Getting ready to head out to the Memphis Music & Heritage Festival.  Some of the action I plan to check out today includes

• Mr. White – 1:30, Gayoso stage
• Greg Hisky & His Whiskey Dixie Flyers – 1:45, Folklore Hall stage
• John Bragg of Circa – 2:15, Cooking Stage
• Michael Patrick – 4:30, Cooking Stage
• Barbara Blue – 7:30, ArtsMemphis Stage
• Jack Oblivian & The Tearjerkers – 8:30, ArtsMemphis Stage
• Al Kapone – 8:30, Gayoso Stage
• Exodus – 9:30, Gayoso Stage
• Hope Clayburn and Soul Scrimmage – 10:15, Folklore Store Stage

Recommendation if you get hungry:  Ella Kizzie’s greens and hot-water cornbread.  You can get it at the kitchen next to the Folklore Store Stage.

I’ll have the camera and will take pics if I see anything interesting.

I had a good night last night… won the poker tournament at Calhoun’s. I got lucky at one point – called an all-in from my BBQ teammate Carl and he flipped over pocket aces. He was beating my pair of kings all the way to the river, when a third king showed up. Whew.

Some people should not be allowed out in public. Before the tournament started, this guy who I’ll call Sweaty McDrippy sat down next to me, ordered a premium beer and food, and started up his laptop. He fiddled around with it for a few minutes, then exasperatedly slammed down the lid and told the bartender, “You know what? Cancel the food order. Places shouldn’t lie about having free wireless.” Then he looked at the beer. “I haven’t touched the beer,” he said.

“Well, I poured it,” said the bartender. “You still have to pay for it. You can drink it or not, I don’t care, but you ordered it, I poured it and you’re going to get charged.”

He continued to pitch a hissy fit about Calhoun’s falsely advertising free wireless. I took out my phone, entered the code to access the network, and connected to Calhoun’s network just fine. Another regular at the end of the bar also connected. So it wasn’t a case of the wireless being down – either Sweaty McDrippy entered the code wrong, or was not capable of configuring his computer properly. Yet he still continued to argue. “You can run my card,” he said, having given the bartender his credit card when he opened the tab. “But I’m not going to sign the receipt. And I’m going to call Visa and dispute the charge.” So she ran his card, placed the receipt on the bar, and he stormed out without signing it.

Attn Sweaty McDrippy, on the chance you read my blog: You, sir, acted like a complete and total ass. If you had just asked nicely, “Hey, is something wrong with the wireless? I can’t connect” you would have had several people (employees and regulars) who would have been happy to assist you. And if the wireless truly had been down, you would have stood a much better chance of getting your beer comped if you’d had a better attitude. The bartender you yelled at won Best Bartender in last year’s Flyer poll, so clearly there are quite a few people who think she does a good job. You owe her an apology, and if you dispute the charge I will be happy to make a statement that I witnessed you order the beer, and that the wireless was indeed working.

Calhoun’s is going to be PACKED this weekend. They have the NFL and NCAA premium packages. They put sheets on each of their 10 TVs listing what games will be on that TV, so you have the information you need to pick the seat you want.

Here’s a link to the schedule for the Center for Southern Folklore’s Memphis Music and Heritage Festival. Darn, it looks like the puppet guy isn’t going to be there this year. He was my favorite. Plenty of good stuff going on though. There will be a cooking stage where well-known culinary figures will give demos, and at the end of each demo there will be samples. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up. Wait, I think she’s in Destin this weekend. John Bragg of Circa and Michael Patrick will have demos at 2:15 and 4:30 Saturday respectively… will have to make a mental note to show up for those.

I have some additional info about the VIP FolkPasses you can purchase for the festival. There will be premium seating and free beer for FolkPass holders, including Dos Equis. They’ll have wine as well, and food sponsors including Chick-Fil-A. There will also be bathrooms exclusively for the use of FolkPass holders.

There will be a River City Brewers Festival next month in support of St. Jude. You’ll be able to sample over 25 different craft beers while listening to live music in Handy Park. There will be two sessions, an afternoon session (12-4) and an evening session (6-10). Now, here’s the thing… it will be Saturday, October 17, the day of Downtown Olympics. That means a lot of Downtowners will be on teams and therefore occupied during the afternoon session and probably too wasted to attend the evening session. Oh man… bad timing. I’m not on a DTO team, so for me it’s an option, more likely in the evening.

I got an e-mail from a group called JP Just Parties (NOTE: You may want to read the rest of this paragraph before visitng this site on a work computer) that is planning an event at Hollywood Disco on Saturday, September 19. I was curious about the unusual cover charges… $20 for couples, $10 for single females, $40 for single males… hmmm… then I checked their website and saw that it was a swingers’ site. OK now the cover charges make sense. Apparently a lot of people are flying in from out of town for this party.

It’s Tom Shelton’s birthday weekend, and he’s decided to celebrate by marking his Pink Pig and Trolley 38103 lines down 20%. Polos, T-shirts, hats, ties. They’re closed Sunday, so make sure to get by there today or tomorrow if you want to pick something up. Shelton Clothiers is on the Main Street Mall at Peabody Place, so you can do some shopping while you attend the Memphis Music & Heritage Festival.

Going to Rocky Horror tonight at the Orpheum… haven’t been to a Rocky Horror event since college. Great way to kick off a 3 day weekend!

Silky Sullivan has filed a petition to run for mayor.  Details here.  The deadline to file was noon today.

Was planning to report on another last-minute candidate as well but it looks like that didn’t pan out.  Will probably see the non-candidate at Calhoun’s weekly poker tournament tonight.

See their full menu here.  Comes with crawfish redeye gravy.

We’ll start off today with a link to a Center City Examiner feature on Philadelphia socialite, DJ and model G-N Kang. Responding to an interview question about her most embarrassing fashion moment, she gave this response:

“I had one of those tube top summer dresses on (with no bra) one day for brunch. As I was getting up from the table, my dress came down to my belly button.”

NICE! That kind of thing is the reason why this blog spends an entire month of the year celebrating tube top fashion. Less than 9 months until Tube Top Month begins anew.

Yesterday I had a question from a reader, asking where Ole Miss fans are gathering to watch Sunday’s game. I got a response from another reader… looks like Alfred’s is the spot Downtown. Details here.

If you have the good taste to be a Tiger fan, I recommend Calhoun’s on G.E. Patterson. Max will be open early, there are 10 TVs, and I’ve heard they’re arranging some kind of setup where it will be possible to watch the game while playing cornhole outside. It’s a small bar, so you better get there early to get a seat. Or, if you want to stay closer to the Center for Southern Folklore’s Memphis Music & Heritage Festival, the Saucer is always right around the corner. One of the bartenders told me they’re going to do better about putting sound on for games this year. I hope that’s true.

The Majestic Grille will have some specials for the festival. In addition to the regular menu items, they’ll have a fried shrimp basket, a brisket sandwich, chicken quesadillas, and an Italian sausage sandwich. They’ll also have $4 mojitos and margaritas on the patio. Hmmm sounds like I’ll be there on Sunday again. Although, I’ll have to tab out at noon sharp… I don’t want to miss the puppet guy who sings the “I’m the top cat, I’m a saber-tooth cat” song.

I received an e-mail that Jeffrey and the Pacemakers will invade Huey’s Downtown, Sunday night September 6th, with the jingle jangle of all of your fave 60’s British Invasion hits from The Beatles, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, Manfred Mann, The Honeycombs, The Byrds, The Yarbirds, The Searchers, Dave Clark 5, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Donovan, Herman’s Hermits, The Hollies, Peter and Gordon, The Small Faces, The Troggs, The Zombies, Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders, The Who, The Swinging Blue Jeans, Johnny Kidd and The Pirates and many more. Details on the band here. Blast! Now I have to choose between the closer of the Memphis Music & Heritage Fest and a British Invasion cover band I’ve been wanting to hear for over a year. Why did Huey’s have to book them this week?

Next Tuesday is the South Main Association meeting at the Majestic Grille. Internationally known artist George Hunt will speak… you’ve probably seen his artwork on Memphis in May posters and in the D’Edge gallery on South Main. Social at 6, meeting at 6:30, cash bar, complimentary hors d’oeuvres. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

Wonder if I’ll show up? I hate to miss a chance to hear George Hunt speak at one of my very favorite restaurants. On the other hand, I hate to miss trivia… I really enjoyed it last night, most fun I’ve had in a while. The Rapscallions squeaked by with a 1-point victory for first place.

Diversity Memphis Walks at AutoZone Park Sunday, September 13, to raise money for a great organization that celebrates the differences among us. Details here.

Two houses on Mud Island were damaged by fire yesterday evening. Details here. 1030 and 1034 E. Island Place… yikes… a friend of mine lives scarily close to there. Major compliments to the Memphis Fire Department for containing the blaze to two houses… as closely packed as the houses are on the Island, that could have been a major disaster. Suggestion… if you happen to walk past any of the Downtown fire stations today and see the firefighters out, tell them “thank you” for all they do.

Time to prepare for a meeting… haven’t figured out what’s on my agenda for tonight.

The Peabody is celebrating its 140th anniversary today. The original Peabody opened in a different location on Sept. 1, 1869. It moved to the current location in 1925. The celebration will be from 4:45 to 6 PM today. Fifteen musicians from the Memphis Symphony Orchestra will play Big Band music created especially for the Peabody in the 1940s. I think I read somewhere that there will be cake too. Free cake? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

There will also be a celebration of September 1st at South of Beale. They will have “901 on 9/01,” for Justin Timberlake’s new 901 tequila. The bartenders have created some special cocktails using 901 which will be $5 all night long – the 901AM, the 901PM, the Matador, and the Love Stoned.

Just saw a tweet from Sole Restaurant in the Westin inviting everyone to their patio tonight… “Buy a burger and beer and we’ll give you a burger and beer for free!” Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up. She re-tweeted it almost immediately, so she definitely knows about it. I wonder if there’s a #freefood hashtag on Twitter.

Question from a reader – any bars running specials for Sunday’s Memphis vs. Ole Miss game? The reader wants to know if there are any bars that are predominately Ole Miss. I want to know too, so I can make sure to avoid those bars.

Congrats to Gary on his appearance in the Flying Saucer calendar, which I picked up last night. Didn’t know Gary’s nickname was “G-Rock.” Each month featured a different Saucer – the UFO member with the most plates posing with a few of the girls from that location. One of the Saucers had someone with 24 plates!!! That’s 4,800 beers! Wonder what color they use for plate number 24…

Here’s a pic of Gary with the calendar.

Tonight I’ll be back at the Saucer for team trivia. Really looking forward to it tonight.

And finally, here’s an Onion article to further entertain you – Unstable Relative, Toddler Compete for Attention at Family Get-Together. That’s all for now. See ya!