Month: February 2011

Feeling tired and out of it today, which I guess is to be expected for the day after the Super Bowl. Apologies for any spelling/grammar errors that I’m too tired to catch.

The Center for Southern Folklore is asking for help matching a $30,000 grant to be given by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Center does a lot to preserve the region’s artistic and musical heritage and deserves our support. Go here to learn how you can support the Center.

The Memphis Library is running a vote to pick the design for their new library cards. Artbutcher has the details on how you can vote.

If you’re a dog lover, you ought to head over to Air Traffic Mike’s blog and read the touching “Chain of Life” series Mike just completed.

Fun Super Bowl party last night at Barton Flats… I took over 100 pics, but it may be a few days before I can download them from the camera and go through them. Congrats to the Packers on their win.

Bleh. Sorry for a rather boring post but I’m just not with it today. Pint Nite at the Saucer is on the agenda tonight, of course. May play poker at the Silly Goose at 10.

Anti-Karaoke shirt on CafePress

Up unusually early for a Sunday. Guess I’ll start a long Super Bowl day with mimosas at the Majestic Grille.

Speaking of which… The Majestic Grille has a new poll online. They’re asking their customers to vote (it takes literally seconds) and tell them what is their favorite Majestic appetizer or flatbread. The winning appetizer or flatbread will be on sale for $5 the week of February 20-26. They will announce the winner on Facebook and Twitter on Sunday, February 20. Follow them on Twitter at @MajesticGrille.

Vote here.

Yesterday I headed south to Max’s Sports Bar, where the Tigers-Gonzaga game was on many of the TVs with sound. Here are some pics:

Tigers won a close battle, 62-58. Good non-conference win, but we’re still probably going to have to win the Conference USA tournament to be invited to the big dance.

On the way home, I stopped at the Saucer, where I got proof that my blog can be used to effect positive social change. For the past month I’ve been writing how no one wants to be “that guy” who shows up to a BYOB party empty-handed and then mooches everyone else’s beer. Well, I overheard the person I was talking about say he had stopped at the store to buy beer for our Super Bowl party today. He’s learning! I made sure to mention very loudly that a bunch of people were going to karaoke at the Blue Monkey, and named off some of his favorite people, in the hope that he’d go down there and annoy the crap out of everybody. I do not mind being called a hater where karaoke is concerned.

Got a favor to ask of my fellow Downtown Tiger fans… throw your Tiger blue gear in the laundry and get it ready… I’m going to ask everyone to wear Tiger Blue Tuesday night to show how much we love our West Tennessee home team. More details on the blog tomorrow.

Today is our annual Super Bowl party, but that doesn’t start until 4. What to do in the meantime? Oh yeah, I know… it’s PINT NITE!!!!! The Flying Saucer is starting Pint Nite a day early to celebrate “the big game.” From the moment they open the doors at noon until the time they close tomorrow night, most draft beers will be only $3. What’s very interesting is that I’m at 190 beers toward my fifth plate. I have nine Pint Nite beers left, and there are three Pint Nites in the next eight days. That means I only have to drink one more expensive beer that I don’t like to finish the plate and become a Master of the Universe (5 times through the Ring of Honor).

I went to bed early to get ready for a long day today… checking Facebook and Twitter to see what happened last night that I missed… WHOA, did I see a 3 AM Foursquare checkin from John D? That’s what, six hours past his bedtime? …The Nuh-Uh Girl took the Raiford’s limo to Beale and then lost her keys… and there are photos people tweeted from karaoke at the Monkey. I love karaoke as much as I love Bruce Pearl, cubicles, Cordova, Abita Turbo Dog, and Ole Miss. You will NEVER see me there on a Saturday night. Seriously thinking about getting on CafePress and creating a line of “Hell No We Won’t Go” anti-karaoke merchandise.

Keep your browser pointed at MemphisWeather.net this week… looks like we’ve got the potential for a snow day or two.

Time to ice down the PBR and get ready… there will probably be a photo album from the Super Bowl party, up tomorrow or Tuesday, depending on how hung over I am after tonight.

One of the good things about social media is that I can share things I’ve learned from my years as a web developer. For example, last night about midnight, as I was midway through my second Stone beer at the Saucer, I tweeted the following:

“I disagree with web design experts who say content is king. Content isn’t king, Jerry Lawler is.”

See, if you don’t follow me on Twitter (@Paulryburn), you’re missing out on important nuggets of knowledge like that.

Speaking of which… if you’re a fan of the King, you might want to order the WWE Elimination Chamber pay-per-view on Sunday, February 18. On a recent episode of Monday Night RAW, Lawler won a 7-man battle royal to become the number-one contender for the WWE title. He will main event the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, challenging The Miz for the championship.

I had a good time at MMHLA Trivia last night, where I played on team Kooky Canuck with several people I recognized from Wednesday night poker at Bardog. We finished in the top quarter, a strong showing but not good enough for a prize. There were actually two Kooky teams. Our table was “LLL” and the other table was “KKK.” Wow. Might be a good idea to omit certain table letters next year. Thanks to Shawn and Lana for inviting me to play on the team.

On the way home, I stopped at Rite-Aid in Midtown and picked up a 12-pack of PBR for our Super Bowl party. One thing I’ll say about Downtown – you pay for the convenience of walking to the store. I paid $7.99 for my 12-pack at Rite-Aid. Anyplace walkable from my apartment in the Downtown core, I bet that PBR would be at least $10, maybe more. I thought about buying 24-ounce PBRs from the cash & carry, but those big cans are such a novelty that they’re very moochable. Bringing run-of-the-mill, nondescript beer is usually a good idea at BYOB parties. (I don’t mean that as an insult to PBR, which I consider the Cadillac of domestic beers.)

The Tigers play Gonzaga at 3:00 on ESPN.  You know, I feel like watching this game at a sports bar, and by its own admission, the Saucer isn’t a sports bar, so I guess I’ll head south… plenty of time to stop by the Saucer later in the day.

Reminder to friends who don’t like karaoke – don’t let people drag you there tonight if you don’t want to go. JUST SAY NO. Karaoke is Satan’s way of proving to us via music that he does indeed exist. People who try to get you to go to karaoke are preaching the word of Satan.

Congratulations to the Grizzlies, who improved to 27-24 last night and moved into 8th place in the Western Conference. We are now officially a contender for the playoffs!

I guess I’ll hit Publish and go on my way for now. Coning soon: A new Majestic Grille poll that will lead to a discount later this month, and details about this month’s SMA meeting.

For those of you who just got home from Krystal’s drive-thru with a bag of Chili Cheese Pups, or who are heating up a Jose Ole Bean & Cheese Burrito as you read this, this is what you could have had.

The Shag is a fried peanut butter & banana sandwich topped with syrup, whipped cream, blueberries, and powdered sugar. You can get it at Cockadoos.

Enjoy your burrito.

Max’s Sports Bar will open at 2 PM tomorrow for the Tigers-Gonzaga game, which comes on TV at 3. They will be raffling off Southern Miss tickets and doing “keep the glass” deals, as well as giving away other prizes. They’ll have prize giveaways on Sunday during the Super Bowl as well.

The Folk Alliance kids’ concert that I posted about yesterday is Friday, February 18, not Saturday the 19th. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Tonight I’m going to be playing in the MMHA/Skal International 6th Annual Trivia Night at the Kemmons Wilson School of Hospitality & Resort Management at the U of M. A few weeks ago Shawn texted me and asked me to play on Kooky Canuck’s team, and of course I happily agreed. The theme is “Sports Night,” and it’s a good thing the questions will not be all sports-themed, or I’d be mostly useless. Geography, history and Presidential trivia are more my strengths. Looks like I may be driving out there in snow, which I’m not crazy about, but I believe in honoring commitments. Should be a fun time. Maybe I’ll bring the camera and get some pics for the blog.

Semi-finals of the International Blues Challenge are tonight on Beale Street. Check the Blues Foundation home page for a list of who made the semis and where they’ll be playing tonight. $15 wristband gets you in all the clubs; buy the bands on the street on Beale.

Kerry from the I Love Memphis Blog had a good post about the Talbot Heirs guest house. If you want to stay in the Downtown core, it just doesn’t get much more Core than Talbot Heirs, and the room size and amenities are surprising for the price. Check them out if you’re coming to Memphis. In particular, check out the 360-degree panoramas of their suites! Those things look huge, and I even see exercise equipment in some of them!

This morning Texas de Brazil tweeted that for a limited time, they’ll be offering seared tuna on their salad bar.

Lunch break… gonna pick up some PBR for Sunday’s Super Bowl party, then give Burger King’s new burger with the cheese and peppers cooked-in a try. Then it will be back to work for 3 more frustrating hours of Constant Contact stripping all the formatting out of my e-mails every time I save, then the weekend.

I stayed home tonight, watched TV, and took notes on a poker training site I subscribe to. I caught the tail end of a commercial from Hooters, saying something about every location giving away a 42″ TV on February 6. Now, Hooters is not my favorite restaurant Downtown, but some people like it, and I figured it was another Super Bowl option to tell my readers about, so I pulled up their web site in my Firefox browser on my MacBook. I saw this:

To see the content I’m supposed to be seeing, I have to install a plugin.

No. I don’t care that much. Don’t make me work to see your content.

Just for kicks, I tried pulling the page up on my iPhone. Guess what. It can’t view the content either.

Idiots. Why build a site that a substantial portion of your market can’t see?

In other news… I tried out that link that lets you see all of The Daily content without paying for it or owning an iPad. Wow. Glad I didn’t waste 99 cents a week plus the cost of an iPad on that. After reading a few of the articles, I closed The Daily and switched to the AP Mobile app on my iPhone, which I thought had much more interesting, better written news.

Guess I’ll make it an early night and go to bed… my brain needs to be sharp for tomorrow. I’ll tell you why in a future post.