Wed update: Christine by Shelton, oil spill, Orpheum movies, CCC job, HUD grant to demolish Cleaborn Homes

The new women’s clothing store on the Main Street Mall, Christine by Shelton Clothiers, will have its grand opening this Saturday, June 5, from 5 to 9 PM. Food by Circa, wine and beer, music by the Jesse Smith Band. 10% of sales at the grand opening will be donated to LeBonheur to help fund its expansion. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up? Also, I wonder if Christine will be selling tube tops?

I found this site which lets you overlay the BP oil spill over any city to see how large it is. If centered on Memphis, the spill would extend nearly to Little Rock in the west.

By the way, I got an e-mail from a reader noting that just because a local gas station displays the BP logo, does NOT necessarily mean they buy gas from BP. A local station like BP Riverside, he said, would likely buy gas from local suppliers, possibly Valero. While I’m all in favor of getting revenge on BP for this disaster, we do need to be careful and not punish a good local station that is part of the community and which has one of the best delis Downtown.

The Orpheum has released its summer movie series lineup. Caddyshack and ET are among the films. Friday, August 20 is Rocky Horror night.

Need a job? The CCC is seeking a Development Project Manager.

City government has received a $22 million grant to demolish Cleaborn Homes east of Danny Thomas near Vance. Their plan is to replace the housing project with mixed-use, mixed-income residental facilities with early childhood programs. Some of the old residents will be able to move back in on completion. All of the current residents will get help finding a new place to live. The city has previously done this with Lauderdale Courts, Hurt Village, and Lamar Terrace with great success. They’re hoping to get money to demolish Foote Homes across Danny Thomas next. Many of Downtown’s panhandlers, crackheads and criminals live in Cleaborn and Foote. Glad to see the city cleaning that mess up.

Time for lunch.  I found a place near where I work that has chicken livers… my grandmother got me into those when I was a little kid.  Will probably be out somewhere tonight.  Anyone seen the Fire Sale yet?

Aimee’s last trivia night

Last night we celebrated the final night at trivia for team member Aimee.  Aimee, better known on this blog as The Nuh-Uh Sister, has accepted a job in California.  You may have seen Aimee on TV recently, jumping up and down after winning the Showcase on The Price Is Right.  (Too bad she didn’t have a tube top on.)

Aimee, Chaaaaad, and Eric enjoy cookies during the first round of trivia
Between the first and second rounds, Mikey the Trivia Guy snuck an Aimee slide into the trivia questions.
Aimee smiles as Mikey announces her move to Cali
The Nuh-Uh Girl helps her sister eat a celebratory pretzel

Aimee will most definitely be missed on Tuesday nights, and the other days of the week as well.  The Rapscallions took second last night… what a great crew we had there.  Wish it was always like that.  Across the room, our regular competition the Weiss Asses discussed buying matching “I Survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction Boundary” shirts to wear to trivia.

Wednesday… Corporate Karaoke Challenge in Court Square at lunchtime… Bikes on Beale… Poker night at Bardog.  Off to work, probably a post to come at lunch.

Bardog showing Easy Rider tonight to honor Dennis Hopper

Bardog Tavern just tweeted that they’re showing Easy Rider in the Underdog Room tonight in honor of the late Dennis Hopper.  Film starts at 7 PM.  It’s also Pint Night at Bardog, so you can have any beer on tap for $3 from 7 PM to 3 AM.

I won’t be there for the movie since I’ve got trivia down the street… however, I might stop by afterward to drink a pint and defend my mayorship… so ladies, if you go out to Bardog let’s see those tube tops!  If Dennis Hopper were still alive I’m sure he would want you to wear a tube top too.

All right… got a blog post done and did a little .htaccess tweaking… now it’s time for BEER!

Tue update: Rum Boogie 25th, Leadership Memphis, Slim’s vodka dinner, Trolley Stop Market, Facebook

Lots of news today. Let’s get to it…

The Rum Boogie Cafe’s 25th anniversary party is this Saturday, June 5. Music by John Lee Hooker Jr., Don McMinn with James Govan and the Boogie Blues Band, Billy Gibson with the Memphis Blues Society, and other Memphis musicians. General admission tickets available here. All musicians get in free.

Memphis again ranked low on another national survey… what to do? Ignore it and focus on the many organizations working to make Memphis even better. There’s the Shelby Park Farms Conservancy. The Memphis Healthy Common Table. Common Ground. This blog makes Memphis a more beautiful place by promoting Tube Top Month. And then there’s Leadership Memphis, who is looking for the next class of future city leaders.

Leadership Memphis is launching recruitment for its upcoming FastTrack Fall 2010 leadership program. The FastTrack program is for young professional and high-potential leaders who want to be fast-tracked as part of the next generation of community leaders. Participants gain a stronger understanding about how to take Memphis to the next level through experiential learning processes and exposure to high-profile community leaders. For more information about this program or to apply, visit www.leadershipmemphis.org or contact the Leadership Memphis office at 901-278-0016. To nominate someone (including yourself), send name and contact information to: admissions@leadershipmemphis.org. Application deadline for the Fall 2010 FastTrack session is Wednesday, June 30, 2010.

A personal note here: A lot of my friends have been through the Leadership Memphis program and have had wonderful things to say about it. Highly recommended if you can devote the time.

Automatic Slim’s is having a vodka dinner tomorrow night. Thanks to Libby for forwarding me the menu:

1st course: Breakfast
Hangtown Fry
Soft scrambled egg, oyster, bacon, shiitake mushroom
* Sobieski Vodka~ Bloody Mary’s and Mimosas

2nd course: Lunch
Gravlox
Vodka cured salmon, cucumber-herb salad, vodka vinaigrette
* Rain Organic Cucumber Lime Vodka

3rd course: Supper
Roast Chicken
Vodka Briend chicken, Thai green curry
* Hanger 1 Kaffir Lime Vodka

4th course: Late Night Snack
Root Beer Float
* Svedka Vanilla Vodka, Abita Root Beer, vanilla ice cream

Call 901-525-7948 for reservations or additional info.

Here’s a link to a Memphis Flyer story on the new Trolley Stop Market. The market is at 704 Madison, will soon be open for breakfast and lunch, and will feature products by local farmers and food makers such as Neola Farms beef, Peace Bee honey, and more.

Facebook continues to get worse and worse, with hackers finding new ways to use the social media platform as a delivery tool for malware. Here’s an article on a clickjack worm that installs malware via the ‘Like’ button. Here’s another article about malware that gets installed when you watch a “hilarious video.” I still find Facebook extremely valuable for keeping up with what’s going on around town – it’s probably my number one resource, as a matter of fact – but they better get a handle on this crap soon.

Tonight’s trivia night at the Flying Saucer, 7 PM.  Ladies on other teams:  Want to distract our team?  Wear tube tops.  And tell the Nuh-Uh Girl there’s free food down the street.