Month: February 2010

The CCC has a new page describing the proposed panhandling and single-serve beer ordinances, listing steps you can take to show your support for these measures.

At the bottom right of the page, there is a petition you can fill out.  Please take a minute to fill it out if you support these ordinances.

I have an idea for a post describing some of the troublemakers the ordinances are looking to address, but it’s too long to type up in a lunchtime post… maybe after work I’ll do it.

Someone left a copy of the special Mardi Gras menu for Kooky Canuck in my building’s lobby, so I took notes.  This is their one day, Fat Tuesday-only menu.

For appetizers they’ll have crawfish egg rolls with red hot ranch, and catfish curls with spicy Cajun remoulade.

There will be a N’awlins Caesar salad with Cajun croutons and blackened crawfish, chicken, or catfish.

Two Cajun po’boys will be offered, fried catfish or fried crawfish tails.

If you like pasta, they’ll have a Kickin’ Cajun Pasta with blackened crawfish or blackened chicken with spicy alfredo sauce, peppers and onions.

They’ll have red beans and rice and jambalaya, and for dessert there will be bread pudding with bourbon sauce, and mini king cakes.

Wow that entire menu sounds good… wish I could eat both lunch and dinner there, but it’s too far to drive for lunch.  So I’ll hit Kooky after trivia, when I can enjoy their drink specials too – $2 34 oz. Bud Light, $2 12 oz. Hurricanes, $2 hand grenade shots.

Tonight was a rare night when I didn’t go out.  It was just too cold to bother with, so I stayed in an subscribed to PokerVT.com which I mentioned in a post earlier today.  I’ve been watching Daniel Negreanu’s small ball poker tutorial videos, and they are excellent.  Absolutely worth the activation fee for joining the site, which was not cheap.  Once I finish the lessons I’m going to abandon the assortment of poker games I’ve been playing lately, and get back to no-limit hold’em in cash games and tournament format.

Time for bed, although I could stay easily up until 3 watching these videos.

Hmmm.  It’s snowing.  Snow, where were you about 5 AM this morning, in time to possibly give me a day off?  Now I’m going to have to deal with this stuff on the 240 going home.

Air Traffic Mike, who will be back in town this evening, shared an interesting fact with me about the Winter Olympics’ host country, Canada. It was originally called “CND” by its inhabitants. It only became “Canada” after the new immigrants tried to spell it:

“C, eh? N, eh? D, eh?”

I’ve been asked to recognize some Downtown police officers who received awards recently: First of all, congratulations to Officer J.T. Duncan, who was named Officer of the Year for 2009 recently for the South Main Substation. Officer Duncan works the “Bravo” shift and this is the second year he has been nominated for the award. In the nomination, he was commended for still being a “beat the bushes” type of officer even after 18 years on the beat. Incidents were cited in which he prevented a number of burglaries and robberies Downtown. Much thanks to Officer Duncan for his hard work. With Downtown having more foot traffic than other parts of the city, “beat the bushes” type officers are much appreciated.

Also, congratulations to Gerald J. Tuznik (Alpha shift), Brian D. Hall (“Charlie” shift), and Darnell Gooch, Jr. (“EDU” shift), the other nominees for the South Main Substation Officer of the Year award.

Congratulations to Lt. William P. Woodard, who was named Supervisor of the Year for the South Main Substation for 2009. Lt. Woodard was cited as doing a great job planning manpower for large events such as Memphis in May, the COGIC convention, and the Fourth of July events. Lt. Woodard worked nearly every holiday when a major event was going on, and on most weekends during the busy April-October busy season Downtown. Lt. Woodard was also complimented for his cool-headedness during riot situations on Beale. Thanks to him and all the command staff at the SMS for the work they do deploying officers to keep Downtown the safest neighborhood in the city.

Want to be on TV? Stop by Circa Tuesday after work and grab some snacks. Andy Wise and his crew will be there filming a segment for Thursday’s 10 PM newscast.

I’m seriously thinking about signing up for PokerVT. It’s a poker training site featuring videos by Daniel Negreanu and other pros. There’s a course on Daniel’s “small ball” style of play. There are hours of videos of the pros playing each other online, and they explain what they are thinking as they try to put their opponents on hands. There’s also a course on poker math by a professor. I watched all the sample videos and they are really, really good. Joining fee is a little steep at $149, but if I joined the site, I’d definitely stay home from the bar quite a few nights to watch the videos. If I stayed home 6-10 nights, the course would pay for itself in terms of bar tabs I didn’t have. (Hopefully it will pay for itself in poker profits too.)

In fact, I’d probably stay home tonight, if I didn’t have knowledge that Air Traffic Mike will be back in town. I guess that’s my excuse to drink for today. See you at Pint Nite.

There will be a rally at the Center City Commission, 114 N. Main, at 5:30 PM on Wednesday, February 17, in support of two proposed ordinances. The first would restrict panhandling further than the current ordinance, and would create a panhandling-free zone in part of Downtown.  The second would ban the sale of single-serve beers by businesses like convenience stores in much of the Downtown core and Uptown; these beers have been found to be the link between panhandling and related crimes such as disorderly conduct and fighting.  Read more about these proposed ordinances in my post from Thursday.

If you support these ordinances, PLEASE attend this rally. They are facing heavy opposition from the beer companies and from well-meaning but misguided activist groups.  The City Council needs to see your support in numbers to understand how important these ordinances are to the future of Downtown.

If you would like to learn more about these ordinances before you make up your mind, I encourage you to attend too.  This is a special public meeting for Downtown businesses and residents, and it will be a good chance for you to discuss the ordinances with the people who crafted them.

Please pass the word to all who want Downtown to live up to its potential, and who are sick of seeing our neighborhood’s reputation sullied by the actions of a few troublemakers.

WOOOHOOO!  I just became the mayor of Downtown Walgreens on Foursquare!

Despite it being Valentine’s Day, there are actually several things going on Downtown today that don’t suck.  Here’s the rundown for today, and also some other events this week:

Kooky Canuck is celebrating Presidents Day a day early today.  99 cent Bud Light draft all day.  Hmmm I may just have to add Kooky as an additional Sunday Fun Day stop this afternoon.

Speaking of Kooky, they’re having a Mardi Gras party on Tuesday, with a special Cajun menu.  Canadian meets Cajun… interesting.  $2 Bud Light draft, Hurricanes, Hand Grenades.  Kooky will likely be on my agenda after trivia ends Tuesday night.

The Flying Saucer is having a Grizzlies watch party tonight.  $2.75 New Belgium Blue Paddle, and I think there are other specials and giveaways as well.  Sorry I don’t have details… usually I take pics of their flyers so I have all the info, but the only place this flyer was posted was the men’s room.  Taking out a camera in the men’s room and snapping pics is a way to get a really bad reputation, so I just had to rely on memory.

Tuesday, the Saucer has the drawing at 10 for the New Belgium Fat Tire bike hanging in the corner.  You have to be present to win, and I likely will have moved on to Kooky, so I probably won’t be the winner.  Oh well, I don’t see the point of replacing a $30 bike that never gets ridden with a $500 bike that will never get ridden.

Thursday, the Saucer is having a big event.  I think it involves the announcement of their new, improved UFO club, but not sure.  They’re being artfully vague about it.

Finally, tonight is the annual Anti-Valentine’s Day party at the Silly Goose starting at 8 PM.  Bring a photo of your ex to put on their “dart board of shame,” and win a prize if you hit a bullseye in three throws.

All right, time to jump in the shower, drink a bottle of Mountain Dew Throwback, and get the day started.

Hmmm I wonder if Brick knows who sings that song.  Probably not.

PROFANITY ALERT, but you should just assume that anytime I post about Brick.  Actually, this week I have not one but two “Brick” Quotes of the Week, not bad considering I was running on empty as of Friday evening.

The first one happened last night.  Bicycle Bobby was sitting at the bar, and he saw the Nuh-Uh Girl over by the dart board.  He asked Brick if she knew the Nuh-Uh Girl.

“Why, did she take your food?” Brick replied.  So I guess that’d be a “yes” then.

Okay, on to the second one.  Last week I learned that Brick is actually one of the top performers in terms of sales.  Friday night we asked Brick the secret to her success.  “Because,” she said, “men are fucking dumb as fuck.”

And now, on to other things… as is often the case on the weekends, I have pics to post.  First of all, here’s a pic of a pot.

Here’s a pic of a kettle.

Last night our trivia team cashed in our winnings at the Saucer.  It was probably our biggest party to date, with 22 people attending.  We had $425 to spend, and we managed to blow through the first $298 of it in just over an hour.  Damn this group can drink… I’m so proud of these people.  Here’s a pic of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating at the party.

Shawn and Joe decided the Nuh-Uh Girl wasn’t getting enough to eat, so they force-fed her in the pic below:

After the party money ran out, I hung out and listened to FreeWorld’s first set, then headed south to Calhoun’s where they were having their annual Mardi Gras party.  Here’s a pic of Mikey dressed up in Mardi Gras attire.

A good time, but an early night for me… home not long after midnight.  But that’s OK, because today I’m rarin’ to go.  Sunday Fun Day is just a few hours away.  Speaking of which, there are several special events going on today that I need to round up and post.  No, not a bunch of crappy, overpriced Valentine’s Day dinners – I’m talking about events that people would actually want to attend.  Look for a post about those events later this morning.

Sad news:  Side Street Grill in Midtown was destroyed by a massive fire last night.

If you like Milky Ways and shop at the Downtown Walgreens, look near the second cash register from the door as you go in.  They have a new kind of Milky Way called “Simply Caramel.”  Just caramel covered by chocolate, without the nougat found in regular Milky Ways.  Really good.

The Kindle App on my iPhone has ruined me.  A couple of days ago, I decided to order this book:

However, unlike the last several books I have ordered, this one was not available in Kindle version. That means I have to WAIT for it to be physically delivered, and it’s killing me! I want my book NOW!!!  I have all day Saturday with nothing to do, and my book is sitting in a FedEx delivery hub somewhere.

Actually, I probably would have ordered this book months ago if there had been a Kindle version, because Daniel Negreanu is my favorite professional poker player.  I wonder how much in royalties authors will lose this year because their books are not available in e-reader version?

I’m pleased to report that a Brick quote has been obtained.  When I came in last night, she said, “I’m going to avoid you so you can’t get a quote.  And I’m not working tomorrow or Sunday, so you’re going to be out of luck.”  Apparently, in Brick’s world, though, “avoid” means “come over and talk every 5 minutes.”  It wasn’t long before she provided a new quote.  There’s a lot of irony in this one.  It will be up tomorrow.

After 10 years of DJing, DJ Scotty B has announced that he has his first club residency.  He will be at Rehab Disco from 9 to 3 Fridays and Saturdays beginning March 5.  Kudos to Rehab on an awesome DJ selection.  I will definitely be in there to hear Scotty’s tunes.

One of the best food blogs in the city, Dining with Monkeys, has a new post about Abyssinia restaurant.  OMG that food looks delicious.  I have got to go there soon, or organize a group to go so we can share multiple dishes.

Local photographer Kyle Blair will have a show at South of Beale on Thursday, February 25 at 8 PM.  The title is “S. Main in Pictures.”  I’ve talked with Kyle about his work many times over beers at the Silly Goose, and look forward to seeing his photos.

That’s all for now.  Cleaning and playing poker during the daytime hours, then it’ll be time to meet up with my trivia team and drink some beer.

I’ve received reader feedback via e-mail about the post I did yesterday, asking everyone to support the proposed ordinances restricting panhandling and the sale of single-serve beer Downtown. Many of you told me you e-mailed Council members, and I appreciate that. Thank you.

I am still hearing some concerns that enacting these ordinances will disperse aggressive panhandlers, and their related behaviors such as open container violations and disorderly conduct, to other parts of town. I asked Larry Bloom, the CCC safety director, about these concerns.

Larry replied that similar ordinances are in place in Seattle/Tacoma. It was found there that for such a dispersion to surrounding neighborhoods to happen, three factors all have to be present in those surrounding areas:

1) Green spaces, like parks

2) High concentrations of people

3) Availability of alcohol

Without all three of these, dispersion of panhandlers and their troublemaking behaviors has been found to be minimal.

None of the areas bordering on the no-panhandling, no-single-beer zones have all three of these factors – in particular, high concentrations of people. As one of my readers who e-mailed pointed out, panhandlers would have so few opportunities in the surrounding areas, due to lack of foot traffic, that they’d probably be better off panhandling at a mall.

Once again, if you support these ordinances I strongly encourage you to call or e-mail City Council members and let them know.  The South Main Association has collected all the members’ e-mail addresses onto one page here.

I’m not as active in the Downtown Neighborhood Association as I am in the SMA, but I just received an e-mail about their February meeting, and it looks like a good one for several reasons:

1. The featured speaker will be none other than Mayor A.C. Wharton. Other city officials will attend as well.

2. The meeting will be held in the Center for Southern Folklore’s Folklore Hall, and prior to the meeting, Blind Mississippi Morris and Brad Webb will perform on stage from 6 to 6:30 PM.

3. Bardog Tavern will provide an assortment of great food. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

This meeting sure sounds like a winner. It’s Tuesday, February 23, social/music at 6, meeting at 6:30. Free for DNA members, $5 for non-members. If you’re not a member and want to purchase a membership at the door, February meeting is included.

Unexpected second lunchtime post.  These dogs are missing in Uptown.

If anyone finds these dogs e-mail met at paul@paulryburn.com and I’ll give you the owners’ phone number.