Month: May 2010

The Majestic Grille is having a special lunch with Buddy Guy this Thursday, May 6. Tickets are $75 and include an autographed Blues Music Awards poster, a meet & greet with Buddy, a buffet lunch, and a viewing of a “Buddy & the Blues” art show. Call 522-8555 if you want to make a reservation – they’ve said that space is limited, so this will likely sell out.

I’ve learned of another Cinco de Mayo party – the Silly Goose will have $3 margaritas and $2 tacos Wednesday night from 5 PM until they sell out. I went to their party last year and it was a blast… people loved the tacos, in fact they loved them so much that they ran out before I got to try one. Wow between this and the Kooky de Mayo party around the corner, I wonder if I’ll even make it to the Saucer for my daily stop. I wonder how you say “Brick” in Spanish?

The Goose will also have an event tonight – they’re celebrating the launch of Inocente Tequila, beginning at 7 PM.

This Saturday there’s a Super Saturday tour with historian Jimmy Ogle. Join him at 1:30 PM at Front and Union, and he’ll take you of a walk-around tour of Downtown, where you’ll tour the cobblestones, river, railroads, promenade, Cotton Row, Main Street, the Peabody and more. Tour lasts until 4 PM and is free of charge. It’s presented by the CCC. Check their website for a full calendar of lunchtime events happening this week.

Twitter quote of the day, from @watchdogon3: “Diane Hampton of MIM says she’s angry how newspaper predicted weather before it occured. THAT’S WHAT WEATHERMEN DO. It’s called a forecast.”

More to come later. Right now I’m going to make a run to Zaxby’s for some chicken. I’ve never eaten at Zaxby’s before.

This Thursday’s Peabody rooftop party is one of the most anticipated of the year: Get ready to boogie down with Dr. Zarr’s Amazing Funk Monster! Time for me to break out the disco moves.

The theme this week will be “Celebrate Europe.” Food buffet items will include Boeuf Bourguignon, Cheese Fondue with French Bread Squares, and French Fries with Assorted Toppings. If you’re in VIP, there will be a French Cheese Platter with Grapes, Strawberries, Assorted Crackers and French Bread, Artichoke Breaded with Boursin, and Assorted Open Faced European Sandwiches. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up. Featured beer this week in VIP is Blue Moon. Not sure what Blue Moon has to do with Europe, but I’ll drink it nonetheless.

I’m home from work and it’s time for Pint Nite.  The 11:30 poker game at the Silly Goose is starting to seem like a good idea, especially if Brick’s working.

Last night I had a great dinner at Bangkok Alley – a bomb roll and a Massaman curry which I told them to make extra spicy. I finished about 7:30, paid my tab, and walked out unto Union Avenue. There I found a truck with a dented fender, pulled over by 7 police cars. The truck had careened northbound up Front Street, smashing into a tree, then demolishing a light post, then swideswiping two cars. He turned eastbound on Union where the police finally pulled him over.

That incident pretty much summarizes why I hate Music Fest weekend… besides the weather issues, there’s the fact that it draws the biggest idiots from the entire region. This morning I walked to my parking garage to drive to work, and I saw how many people had left empty glass beer bottles in the parking space next to them when they pulled out. No regard for the fact that the car parked in the next space might get a flat when the driver pulls out without seeing the bottles.  Seriously, is it that hard to find a trash can?

People walking down Main Street going “WOOOOOOOO” at 4:30 in the morning, waking up residents and hotel guests.

I really, really, really hate Music Fest weekend. I’m glad I’m independent and don’t get paid to blog by some civic organization like some of my friends are, because I just can’t put a positive spin on this mess. The weekend completely sucked and I’m glad it’s over.

I guess it could be worse. I could have bought a ticket, not seen the bands I paid to see, and then been chased out of the park early, soaking wet. Not that I’m blaming Memphis in May or the performers… I think MiM made the decisions they needed to make. Had I gone, I’d have been given access to the Memphis Flyer tent with free food and beer. You know it’s a bad situation when I turn down free beer.

Or I guess I could have had a worse time if I worked in the service industry and had 12-hour days dealing with idiots.

All right, lunch break is over… hopefully I’ll post something more positive when I get home from work.

Okay, nothing much interesting to blog about this morning.  Well, several interesting things did come up yesterday, but “Paul, you’re not allowed to blog this” was involved in every one of them, so I’m not allowed to share.

I’m trying to use Twitter more effectively, to let people know about drink and food specials I see as I wander the streets of Downtown.  Follow me at @paulryburn to receive those tweets.  Of course, you have to put up with a lot of crap tweets too, stuff like my zillion Foursquare checkins at the Saucer, trash-talking #douchebags, commentary on what the Nuh-Uh Girl is eating, etc.  @DowntownMemphis is also a good Twitter account to follow.  They retweet a lot of restaurant and bar tweets about their specials.

One note about the @firesale account:  That’s not the Flying Saucer.  That’s my account.  I find out what the Fire Sale is and tweet it, either by getting the info from the Saucer’s official account (on days they remember to tweet) or from people who work Downtown who text me the Fire Sale.  I don’t get paid to do it or anything – it’s just something several Downtowners discussed doing for a while, to keep us all informed, and I figured out how to make it work via Twitter.  So if you don’t like the chosen beer of the day, it doesn’t do any good to bitch to @firesale about it.  The Saucer’s account is @FlyingSaucerMem.

Time to go out… not hungry, so not doing brunch this week.  Saucer doesn’t open until 12… what to do?  Hmmm maybe I’ll go by Kooky Canuck and see Magan and have a beer.

The International Mind Sports Association has declared that poker is a mind game.  That means poker will be played, along with other mind games including chess and bridge, in the World Mind Sports Games in London in 2012.  I think that’s very cool and maybe it will help change the perception that poker is nothing but a form of gambling comparable to craps and roulette.  Good poker players have to know expected value, pot odds, and implied odds.  They have to be able to count cards that are “outs” toward winning a hand and convert the outs into percentages.  They have to understand the importance of position at the table.  They have to know how to project a table image that misleads the other players.  Many of them master multiple games, including Hold’em, Omaha, Razz, Stud, Draw, and others.   Poker is most definitely a mind sport and I’m glad to see it getting recognition.

Last night I popped in Kooky Canuck for a quick beer, and Terry the GM came over to talk.  Earlier this week, I posted about Kooky’s upcoming Cinco de Mayo party, with one of the specials being $3 margaritas.  Terry filled in a detail I didn’t know… those will be $3 THIRTY-FOUR OUNCE margaritas.  Yep, I guess my Cinco de Mayo plans have been made.

I stopped and said hello to Shawn on the way out.  “You know how you’re always saying, ‘Let me know if you need me to reserve a table for you?'” I told him.  “Well, I’d like to reserve the floor in front of the jukebox as my spot to pass out about 8:30 Wednesday night.”

Take a look at Mississippi Mud, the coffee company Cockadoos will be using when they open on Second later this month.

If you’re looking for something different to do tonight, ELECTROCITY invades Beale Street tonight at the Hard Rock.  Here’s a flyer:

DJs Yo! Santos, b.thornburg, Hype Taylor, Matthew Ess, tag sets, and whatever else they feel like doing until 5 AM.  Show starts at 10 PM.  $2 Bud and Bud Light bottles.  $5 cover.  Check out Electrocity’s website here.

Mayor Wharton announced a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Memphis yesterday.  Way to go Mr. Mayor!  I wonder why King Willie never addressed the homeless issue when he was mayor?  Wharton’s done more in his first 6 months as mayor than Willie did in the last eight years of his reign.

I most definitely am NOT going to Music Fest today, or at any point this weekend… agenda for the day involves the Saucer, Beale Street, a quick stop by Kooky, maybe a trip to the Silly Goose to see if Brick is working.  Here’s a little inside info for you… the managers at the Saucer refer to the Silly Goose as “the duck” and the Red Rooster as “the chicken.”  Anyway, time to put on one of the Hawaiian shirts I bought yesterday and get out in the rain.