Big Thursday update: Regatta, beer festival, and much more

Yesterday was a sad day, as we learned of the loss of former Tiger/Grizzly player Lorenzen Wright. His body was found in a field in Collierville, the victim of multiple gunshot wounds. He was the Grizzlies’ center during the years we made the playoffs. Sincere condolonces to Wright’s family and friends.

Boat racing returns to the Mississippi River this weekend for the Memphis International Riverfront Regatta. This is the professional league of powerboat racers. Should be fun to watch from the riverwalk or a nearby rooftop.

I am thrilled to see another beer festival popping up in Memphis, even if it’s not Downtown. The Cooper-Young Regional Beer Fest will be Saturday, October 9 from 1 to 5 PM at 1015 S. Cooper, corner of Cooper and Walker. Tickets will be on sale August 20 at www.cooperyoung.org. Mmmm beer… this may be worth a cab ride.

Here’s a CA article about the Green Beetle closing. It sounds like the owner is open to ideas for the place, so it might not be gone for good; he just doesn’t want to run it himself, and closing gives him an opportunity to do much needed repairs.

Bluff City Coffee on South Main has announced that they’re now selling sausage biscuits and chicken biscuits for $1.50 each.

A great Memphis band, Garry Goin and G3, plays the Peabody rooftop tonight. They were the house band for EP Delta Kitchen and they are very good. “Soul Food” is this week’s theme, with fried chicken, macaroni & cheese, cornbread, and summer tomato salad on the buffet. In VIP there will be fried green tomatoes with choice of toppings, chicken fried steak fingers with white gravy, and deviled eggs. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up. $10 to get in, price of admission includes first drink, ladies free until 7.

A few blocks away, the Madison rooftop hosts the Daddy Mack Blues Band tonight. $7 admission.

Of course, I know a lot of people are staying home from the rooftop parties tonight to watch the season 2 premier of Jersey Shore. Here’s an article about what to expect for the second season.

Twitter quote of the day, from @SustainableTips: “America could get rid of its need for oil in months if all women agreed to only hookup with guys who drive electric cars.”

In the news: YouTube increases its video time limit to 15 minutes.

Not going out for lunch today… using my lunch hour to type this longer-than usual post, and to vote in the Memphis Flyer Best of Memphis poll. Voting ends tomorrow, so if you haven’t gotten it done yet, you need to. After voting has ended, I’ll do a post about some of my votes… I don’t like doing it before voting has ended, could be seen as an attempt to skew the results.

I got nominated for best Twitterer? WTF? Foursquare check-ins and drunk tweets about tube tops are worth a nomination? Well, glad to know at least some people find my tweets entertaining. I didn’t even vote for myself for the Twitterer category. It’ll be damn funny if I win, though.

Happy birthday to KALMDF, who may be reading this post with her aunt sometime today. KALMDF’s name is too long so I’ll just use her initials as an acronym. 

50/50 on whether I’ll hit the rooftop tonight… if not I’ll probably be at the Saucer working on my 4th plate.