Month: November 2010

A Downtown tradition happens this coming Sunday afternoon at the Flying Saucer… Funny Hat Day. The second week of November, up until last year, was traditionally the week of the COGIC convention in Memphis, and “saints” would arrive in suits and dresses and gaudy hats. So about five years ago, some Downtowners decided to buy funny hats of their own, and sit in the window of the Saucer as the COGIC people passed by. We’d watch them, and they’d watch us, and sometimes we’d have our picture taken together.

This year COGIC has moved to St. Louis, but Funny Hat Day lives on. Get a funny hat and join us in the window of the Saucer around 1 PM Sunday. Not sure where to find a funny hat? Go to A. Schwab on Beale Street, which has tons of them. Some of the other Beale gift shops have funny hats too.

It has been announced that the usual Thanksgiving night party will happen at Earnestine & Hazel’s from 8 PM to 3 AM. $5 cover benefits CASA of Memphis. Jello shots, punch, DJ. I’ve been to this for a couple of years now, and it’s one of the best parties of Thanksgiving weekend.

Couple of good Lifehacker articles I want to share today. Some people have told me that they work at companies that heavily restrict the amount of Web surfing they are able to do. Well, here’s a workaround. Lifehacker posted about a service called Web2PDF. You e-mail the service, requesting a web page, and it e-mails a copy of the requested page to you. Very useful for getting around content filters… I understand why workplaces ban access to specific sites, but banning web browsing in general seems ridiculous and counterproductive.

Another good Lifehacker post discusses a Chrome/Firefox extension that prevents you from making drunk status updates. Heh… there have been a few times when I could have used that one.

And finally, some very sad news in case you haven’t heard… the Bookstar at Poplar and Highland will close in January. I will miss that place. I’ve spent many days there browsing the shelves and working on my laptop in their coffee shop. I imagine there will be some good clearance sale prices in the weeks to come.

About to head to Downtown Night at the Grizzlies… very excited about my awesome club-level seat and the opportunity to chat with my neighbors and Grizzlies staff! Also, a lot of my friends are excited about seeing Levon Helm tonight at the Orpheum. It’s a big night in Downtown Memphis!

Click here to print out a gift card good for $50 off any purchase of $150 or more at Lansky at the Peabody or Lansky 126 through November 15.

If you prefer to shop online, you can go to www.LanskyBros.com and use coupon code LANSKY10 to get the discount through the 15th.

Attn Lee: Hmmm, sounds like we need to do some Robert Graham shirt shopping this weekend.

This afternoon I was checking out the proposed list of topics for Saturday’s BarCamp at EmergeMemphis, and this one caught my eye. Pay special attention to the last sentence:

You’re Boring and You Suck at Social Media.
Fail hard and fail often. That’s the unwritten rule of Social Media for most people. In this presentation we’ll walk you through the various levels of stinking up the joint when it comes to Facebook and Twitter. From the most basic mistakes of not using spell-check, we’ll navigate through the more intermediate failures, finally ending on the most glaring social media errors, such as why it might not be a good idea to tweet about having diarrhea. – Ian Lemmonds

The sad thing is, I actually know people who need to attend this session. Not only will they hopefully learn not to tweet about diarrhea, but constipation, indigestion, flatulence, and other bodily functions as well. Then there needs to be a part 2 of this seminar, where they learn that those things are inappropriate in face-to-face conversation too.

Then again, there’s an app for everything these days. Yesterday I talked about Beerby, the app that lets you share information about beers you’re drinking. Maybe there should be an app for people who want to share information about their bodily functions.

Know what it could be called?

“iBM.”

Two popular Downtown restaurants will be closing temporarily for renovations. Circa will be closed this week as it undergoes a transformation into John Bragg’s new concept, a chef’s pub. It will be called Bar None – “Best Bar Food, Bar None.” Chef Antony Feld will be in the kitchen. Menu will be previewed next week during Downtown Dining Week. If you have Circa gift cards, they will be honored at both Bar None and the soon-to-open East Memphis Circa location. Menus both both locations will be posted on Circa’s website in a few days.

Huey’s Downtown location will also be closing for renovations. It will be closed November 14-21, and reopen for lunch on the 22nd. The place will still look like Huey’s, but a newer Huey’s, and improved facilities for servers will be installed. I’m sure the renovations will be nice, but it means I have to make alternate arrangements for Paul’s Drunkass Food as I stumble home at night.

There’s an article in the Commercial Appeal today about the planned redevelopment of the Pinch neighborhood near the Pyramid. With Bass Pro moving in, planners want to purchase land within the boundaries of Front and Third, Jackson and Shadyac and redevelop the area with a mix of restaurants and retail. This sounds very cool… I frequently “head south” to the shops, restaurants and bars on South Main, but rarely do I “head north.” Looks like I’ll have a new direction to wander in the coming years.

Lifehacker article of interest to Downtowners: What alcohol actually does to your brain and body

I want to clarify something about tomorrow’s Downtown Night with the Grizzlies: You can’t walk up to the ticket booth at game time and ask for the deal. You need to call Carl Rosen in advance to purchase your tickets. For $50 you get a $99-value club level seat to watch the Grizzlies vs. Mavericks, food and beverages, and an hour and a half to mingle with your neighbors in Opus Restaurant. Carl will be taking orders for Downtown Night tickets until noon tomorrow, and you can reach him at 901-205-1445.

Congratulations to Division II school Indianapolis on their 79-64 victory against the Tennessee Vols basketball team last night. Yet another embarrassment for Bruce Pearl and his team. I’m guessing Tennessee will be out of the Top 25 for a long, long time beginning next week. Wonder if UT is a step closer to showing the Bruchebag the door after last night. By the way, this reminds me, does anyone want to purchase an orange blazer that’s only been worn three times?

I had fun recording my beers on Beerby last night, and I’m well on my way to earning the Conquistador badger (that’s not a typo – you earn badgers, not badges) for drinking a lot of Mexican lagers. My frequent consumption of PBR will get me the Hipster Superstar badger fairly quickly, too. This is a game I can rule! I already have several Beerby friends and I get to see what beers they’re drinking.

Unfortunately I won’t be able to check in my beers tonight, since it’s trivia and I can’t have my phone out. We have $350 accumulated toward our next party and hope to make it to the 400 mark tonight.

I just read Kerry’s I Love Memphis Blog and saw that the Majestic Grille has set the date for their annual half-price gift card sale. It will be Wednesday, December 1, and they’ll start selling at 9 AM and continue until they run out of cards.

Note that these cards do have a couple of minor restrictions you need to know about. You can’t buy alcohol with them (that’s a major ABC no-no), and you can’t use them until after the first of the year.

These things tend to sell out pretty quickly. If you work far from Downtown, you’d do well to arrange to show up late so you can hit the restaurant right at 9. If you want to buy gift cards on your lunch break, I’d look to take that lunch break closer to 11 than to 1:30.

Can’t recommend these highly enough… there are so many good things on the Majestic’s menu. The filet is at the top of my list, of course, but the whole chicken, the flatbreads, the salads, the brunch menu… you pretty much can’t go wrong.

People have been reading about my trip to Geekend last weekend, and I’ve received a couple of “wish I were there” comments. Well, there’s an event coming up this Saturday which will have some of the same flavor and content. There won’t be bands playing Wii instruments or huge after-parties like I experienced, but there will be a lot of discussion of social media and web 2.0 topics.

That event will be BarCamp Memphis, which will happen this Saturday, November 13 at EmergeMemphis on Tennessee Street. BarCamp is a little different from the event that I attended in that topics are not determined in advance. Rather, it’s an un-conference where a list of topics are proposed at the beginning of the day – topics that may be of interest and which have someone ready to present. All the attendees then vote on which presentations they’d most like to hear. After that, the group breaks up into smaller groups for 30-minute presentations. Usually several of these run simultaneously, so for each period you can pick the presentation that appeals to you most. A list of possible topics can be found here.

There’s also time built in for networking and breaks. Last year they did “PowerPoint Karaoke” at lunch.

Here’s a link to a MemphisConnect post with more info about BarCamp.

One other conclusion I drew while listening to the presentations at Geekend last weekend… audience behavior during presentations has changed. Presenters much recognize that it has and change with their audiences.

Five years ago, if you were giving a presentation, and you looked up and saw many in the audience typing away on their phones, you had a right to be upset. It would be safe to assume that they were being rude, that they were bored with your presentation and were texting their friends to entertain themselves.

However, in 2010, if you see many people typing on their phones as you talk, it’s a good thing. It’s a sign not that they’re bored, but that they’re engaged. They’re taking notes, they’re tweeting, they’re Facebooking, they’re blogging to share what they learned in your presentation. Embrace that. The best presenters at Geekend did. In fact, they encouraged it.

Let your audience tell the world about the great things you have to say, and next time you find yourself speaking, you’ll probably have a bigger audience.

This morning, a new iPhone app was recommended to me. I downloaded it from the App Store and can’t wait to try it out tonight. It’s called Beerby.

With it you can track what beers you’re drinking and share with your Beerby friends. You can take notes on beer, and find good beer to drink near your current location. You can discover bars that have your favorite beers. You can also compete with your friends to win “Badgers,” similar to Foursquare badges.

Oh, speaking of Foursquare… you can connect it to Foursquare, and if you choose Beerby will check you in at a bar when you let it know you’re drinking a beer there. Beerby can also be integrated with Facebook and Twitter. May leave those turned off… I doubt my friends/followers want to see 9 “Paul is drinking a Dos Equis Lager” notifications in one night.

Beerby has a database of over 40,000 beers with ratings.

Can’t wait to try it tonight for Pint Nite, as I work on beers for my 5th plate!

If you don’t know what to do with this…

 

…you better learn. These things are going to be all over the place in 2011.

Hint: If you have an iPhone, download QRReader from the App Store. It’s free. Other smartphones, look for an app with a similar name.

I’ve been busy with my conference and have been forgetting to remind people about this fantastic event Wednesday night… I will be there and hope to see many of my neighbors. The Grizzlies are offering us an excellent deal!

Downtown Night with the Grizzlies

Grizzlies vs. Mavericks

DATE: Wednesday, November 10
TIME: 6:00pm
LOCATION: Opus Restaurant/FedEx Forum

Pre-Game Mixer at Opus Restaurant 6-7:30pm
$50 per person package includes:

Food & Beverages
First Tennessee Club Level tickets valued at $99 each
Music, Grizz, Grizz Girls & a representative of the Grizzlies Basketball Operations Staff in attendance.

For More Information contact Carl Rosen
(901)205-1445 or
crosen@grizzlies.com