Month: September 2011

The Brass Door has announced their music lineup for their alley party this Saturday:

• Forklift will open for Myla Smith at 3:00
• Jeremy Stanfill at 5:00
• The Candy Company at 7:00
• WALRUS at 9:00
• Irish band Big Betsy to close

Uh oh… I have a scheduling conflict. The Arkansas-Alabama game is at 2:30 and I can’t miss my Hogs. Most likely I will watch the game at Max’s Sports Bar then head north to the alley party, which would put me there about 6 I suppose.

The Spaghetti Warehouse saw that I posted a coupon of theirs yesterday. They emailed to tell me it’s Warehouse Wednesday, where you get spaghetti with a choice of meat sauce, tomato sauce or marinara, along with a garden salad and bread for $5. No coupon needed and this is a weekly special.

The Metal Museum will have a free day from 10 to 5 this Saturday, September 24.

Memphis’ own Jerry Lawler was legitimately injured in a spot on WWE Monday Night RAW this week. The new World champion Mark Henry attacked Lawler during an in-ring interview, and performed his signature move, the World’s Strongest Slam, on the King onto the announcer’s table. The table, however, was not a gimmicked table designed to break easily. It was a standard hard table. Neither Lawler nor Henry knew this and went through the spot with full impact. Lawler had to be taken to a hospital after the show. That’s gotta suck, to be 61 years old and get slammed onto a hard table by a 400-pound man.

Breaking news: R.E.M. just announced that they’re calling it quits after 31 years.

Plans for tonight: No idea, but I’ll be out somewhere on this beautiful fall day. Skipping lunch so I can have something good for dinner Downtown tonight.

There’s a coupon on Facebook for Spaghetti Warehouse, good today only for $5 off spaghetti and meatballs or any other original recipe spaghetti. You can get it by going to their fan page and “Liking” the restaurant.

Tickets will go on sale next Friday, September 30, for the American Queen’s maiden riverboat voyage in April. The CA has the details here. Wow those river cruises are not exactly cheap, but I guess you get first-class treatment like you would on any cruise ship.

Christine by Shelton Clothiers will stay open late this Thursday, and from 6 to 9 PM you’ll get 30% off everything in the store. For every purchase of $50 or more, you’ll get an entry into a drawing for a print by local artist David Lynch. Wine and appetizers will be served. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

This morning, the city council passed an ordinance requiring carriage drivers to clean up urine. They’re already required to clean up manure.

That’s all the news I’ve got… the only other piece of news is that the Muppets will host WWE Monday Night RAW on Halloween night. Maybe the Flying Saucer will show it on the big screen, with sound. I mean, heck, nothing else will be on, just some football game nobody cares about.

All right, time to go to Fazoli’s and try to steal the mayorship back… outta here for now. Not sure if I’m going to go to trivia tonight. If any of the team decides to go, shoot me a text.

Something I’ve been thinking about recently… I last changed my blog’s profile pic (and on Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare) in December 2007. Since then I have not come up with anything that says ME as much as the current image. Last week, though, I dressed up as “PBR Man” for the Silly Goose’s superhero party. That may be a winner. What do you think? Time for a change?

There will be those who object, “But Paul, don’t you think ‘PBR Man’ will make a bad first impression on new visitors to your blog?” Those people fail to realize that I’ve had a Santa hat and I Love Romanian Girls shirt on my profile pic for almost 4 years now. Clearly I’m not too worried about first impressions.

The Saucer showed the Charlie Sheen roast, with sound, tonight. They could have showed Monday Night Football with sound but chose not to.

You know what? It’s time for a quick rant. They want to be an “American restaurant” ala Gordon Biersch. That works for most of their locations but the Memphis Saucer is a block from Beale. It’s a huge venue unlike most of the other Saucers. It’s a bar not a restaurant. It’s time they realized that and stopped doing stupid shit like Charlie Sheen night.

How was the crowd? Well, the past three Mondays I’ve constantly had to maneuver to get out of people’s way so they could order. Not this Monday. It was deader than an doornail.

Saucer corporate: Not all your venues are the same. Take maximum advantage of each, instead of expecting them to all conform. Want profit? Show MNF. At least at the Downtown Memphis location.

I want to open this post with a huge CONGRATLUATIONS to my friends on the Squeal Street BBQ team. They competed in the Smokin’ Aces regional BBQ championship this weekend in Tunica, and took home numerous prizes, including FIRST PLACE in People’s Choice! They also got 4th place for the Exotic category (they cooked alpaca), 5th for beef, 5th for mustard, and 10th for ribs. Great job!

Very, very important announcement, so important that it deserves bold type: Bardog Tavern is selling all the beers in the house for only $2, all day today until 3 AM. Although they had their birthday party at the end of August, today is their actual third birthday. I will be late getting to Pint Nite at the Saucer this evening, because I will be at Bardog after work enjoying some $2 beer! The lovely Melissa will be at the bar for happy hour tonight. Now the only question is what to drink – do I stick with my usual (PBR) or mix things up a little?

The Green Beetle sent me an update with their activities for the week. Here’s the list:

• Monday: Monday Night Football with $10 domestic buckets, $13.99 import buckets
• Tuesday: Steak Night 12 oz Ribeye, 12 oz Fatty Natty $12.99 w/ Blake Ryan Acoustic Set 6-10
• Friday: Fish Fry Friday Catfish plate $7.99 w/ The Dave Experiment 8-12
• Saturday: Klint Kilmore 8-12

The Beetle has $2 Fatty Natties all day, every day. Personally, I’ll pay a dollar more for a PBR, but if value drinking is your goal, the Natties are the deal for you.

The Peabody will have $3 martinis in the Corner Bar tonight 5-7. Four martinis to choose from: Caramel Swirl, Blue Coconut, Berry Bliss, and House Gin.

The Flying Saucer will have a Roast of Charlie Sheen watch party tonight at 8. Heck if I understand why they’ll turn on the sound for that, but not for football. Most drafts $3 all day today for Pint Nite.

Long Sunday Fun Day yesterday. I started with brunch at the Majestic as usual, then moved on to the Saucer and played pool with our inspirational leader/father figure. After that we went over to Local, where his daughter was working, and enjoyed drinks and shots on the patio. Later I was back at the Saucer for round 2, then finished the evening with a Dapper Dan Dog (chili + cheese + bacon bits) at Bardog.

Majestic was super crowded with people dining before the Les Miserables matinee. I think from now on, when there are major shows at the Orpheum with a Sunday matinee, I’m going to take the week off from brunch.

I have to rant for a minute on a disturbing trend I’ve been noticing: Two of the past three Sundays, someone has walked into the Saucer carrying a murse, a purse designed for males. This is a disturbing trend. It’s worse than fanny packs. I don’t care if they do it in Europe, I don’t care if hipsters think it’s cool… it needs to STOP. Death to the murse.

That’s all for now. I’ll be at Bardog around 6 for some $2 beers.

Before I get started on this post, I want to wish a very happy birthday to our inspirational leader/father figure. He doesn’t like having his name published on the blog, but if you’ve spent any amount of time around our group, you know who I’m taking about. It’s been a pleasure to hang with him at Sleep Out’s, to shoot pool with him at the Saucer, and just to know him in general. In recent years his girlfriend has become a mother figure to the group as well. Happy birthday!

Just wanted to let everyone know about a couple of new things going on this Sunday. First of all, Max’s Sports Bar will be open early today and will have all the NFL games on. This will be the first NFL Sunday with Whitney behind the bar. Whitney worked at the Saucer from 2006 until recently. Here’s a pic from Rajun Cajun Fest ’10:

Geez… not my best pic. Apparently I forgot to use sunscreen and drank about 32 beers before this was taken. Note that Whitney has a tube top on. Anyway, she’ll be there to open, and then about 4:30 Michele will take over as usual.

Another new thing going on is the bottomless mimosa at the Silly Goose. According to info I got from one of the servers, it will run from noon to 3 today and cost $15. Since a bottle of champagne + OJ costs about $14 at most bars that do Sunday brunch, this is a good deal if you can put away more than one bottle of champagne in three hours. When I went to Sleep Out’s, I’d sometime run through two bottles in that amount of time. One Sunday years ago I went through 4 bottles at the Monkey, but it took me 10 hours.

If mimosas aren’t your thing, the Goose also has a make-your-own Bloody Mary bar for $3 per glass. Try my recipe: Zing Zang, sriracha, a dash of horseradish, and generous shakes of celery salt and black pepper, garnished with a celery stalk, olive and piece of okra.

In other news: Good CA article about R.C. Johnson’s current situation. Time to retire, R.C. Then you’ll have more free time to buy hair spray and hang out at your beloved Memphis Airport.

I got 6 PBR koozies at CY Fest yesterday. If anyone wants one let me know.

Time to get the day started! With perfect weather and a birthday in the group, this should be a good one.

Yesterday I was walking around Cooper-Young Fest with some friends, and we happened to see this sign in an artist’s booth:

Not the same John D as our friend who has a breakfast named after him at the Majestic, but we still thought it was funny.

Later in the day we ran into the man himself.

Hey, now!

This was the first Cooper-Young Fest in nearly 20 years that I’ve hung out with a group of friends the entire day, rather than wandering around from one group to another all afternoon. One of my friends commented, “Probably the most fun Cooper-Young Festival ever,” and I’d tend to agree. Perfect weather, fantastic art for sale, great food (I had to have my Athenian gyro or the festival wouldn’t be complete). Good to have my friends at the festival the entire day – that usually doesn’t happen.

I got to try two new bars yesterday: Sweet Grass Next Door and Slider Inn. I was really impressed with Sweet Grass Next Door. TVs all over the place with all the games on. I enjoyed a $2 PBR tallboy while watching Vandy kick Ole Miss’s ass. I didn’t get a chance to try the food but it looked outstanding.

As for Slider Inn, given that Aldo owns it, I knew it would be good. After the festival, we sat on a large bench on the patio and continued our drink-a-thon. I had the mushroom swiss silders which were delicious.

One of the others in our group got the Double Deuce, massive double-decker sliders.

Although we sat outside, I went inside to check out the interior. Small but comfortable. It reminded me of a bar that I went to last year on my trip to Savannah, a little bar called Pinkie Master’s which was described to me as “the ultimate dive bar.” I was told it was where the locals drink. Many celebrities and dignitaries including Jimmy Carter have been in the place. I went in there wearing one of my club shirts that I got from Shelton Clothiers, which was way too much. When I walked in, I could feel several of the regulars looking at me and thinking “who told this tourist douchebag to come here?” But I sat at the bar, watched TV, chatted with the bartender, and eventually the regulars must have figured out, “oh okay, this guy gets how to hang out in bars” and by the time I left I must have met half the people in the place, which meant I met about 15 people (small bar). Anyway, I see similar “ultimate dive bar” potential in Slider Inn.

Only downside was Brooke wasn’t working. She had the day off. I miss sitting at her bar.

As we were chatting, we commented, “We need to take a road trip to Midtown one Saturday to do some day drinking.” (Yes, Downtowners consider Midtown a road trip.) We could hit up Slider Inn, Sweet Grass Next Door, Celtic Crossing, the Deli and wherever else we feel like going. One of our group is a student and he takes the #2 bus from the Downtown core to Cooper-Young all the time. He said it’s on time and dependable, which is good to hear. If no one wants to be DD we could take it down there.

A fun fall Saturday. Congrats to the Hogs on beating Troy. Time for Sunday Fun Day!

Don’t forget to chant this every time Austin Peay scores on us:

FIRE R.C.!
FIRE R.C.!
FIRE R.C.!
FIRE R.C.!

Facebook, in an effort to be more like Google+, has upgraded their friend lists. Now you have more control over who sees which status updates, links and posts that you put on the site.

That’s nice and all, but you know who really needs friend lists? Foursquare. The fact that all your Foursquare friends can see all your checkins (unless you check in off the grid, and then what’s the point?) can lead to problems. Let’s look at a few examples where friend lists would be useful:

1) Friends who live in South Main invite me to a cookout on the parking lot of their South Main condo. When I check in, I’d want my “Close Friends” list to see it. However, out of respect to my hosts, I might not publish the checkin to my “Acquaintances” list, to prevent people from thinking it’s a public party and showing up.

2) If you go out and meet your buddies on a Saturday afternoon at the bar for a few beers, you might choose to publish that checkin to the “Close Friends” and “Acquaintances” list, but not to the “Wife” or “Girlfriend” list.

3) Suppose you and your friends plan a long weekend in New Orleans, but you don’t have any vacation time left. So you call in sick on Friday. When you get down there and check in at a bar on Bourbon at 3 PM, you could publish it to your “Close Friends” and “Acquaintances” lists, but you’d sure want to hide it from your “Co-Workers” list.

4) When someone you know friends you on Foursquare, it can put you in a difficult spot. You don’t want to hurt their feelings by refusing their request, but if you accept it, then that person knows where you are. That’s not a good thing, if you don’t want them showing up wherever you happen to be. Lists would eliminate that problem. I could check in at the Saucer, and my “Close Friends” and “Acquaintances” lists would know I’m there if they want to meet up. However, I could hide it from my “Guy Who Follows Us Around” list.

5) A female in a relationship gone bad, knowing the guy would flip out if she went as far as to de-friend him, could create a “Stalker” list and not publish checkins to it.

I hope friend lists are in the works at Foursquare. They’d add value to the service, just as friend lists and circles have added value to Facebook and Google+.

Not enough news to merit a “Friday update” post today. I was going to post a link to a hilarious Wikipedia entry about R.C. Johnson, but someone went in and changed it. The only other thing I have is that I discovered an additional bar that has the NFL all-games package: The Russwood Park Grill, inside the Holiday Inn on Union. Probably not as much fun to watch games there as Max’s Sports Bar, but if you’re in the core and looking for something close, it’s an option.

Going to take it easy tonight to rest up for Cooper-Young Fest. If anyone wants to split a cab out there from the Downtown core about 11 tomorrow morning, hit me up.

Sixteen mini-parks will appear tomorrow on Peabody Place, in spaces usually reserved for metered parking. The parks will be open to the public from 11 AM to 6 PM, and will have various themes such as a desert oasis with belly dancing, a mini-bike trail, and a human library. The CA has the entire list of all the parks. This is a celebration of International Park(ing) Day.

The Flyer’s Hungry Memphis blog has some photos of the yummy food on South of Beale’s new lunch menu. Dammit, one more great Downtown lunch spot that I’ll rarely get to enjoy because I work in Horn Lake. Even a hardcore carnivore like myself has to admit that their hummus plate looks really tasty.

Okay, this is simply awesome. If you’re concerned about the University of Memphis football program, take a minute and 25 seconds to listen to this audio clip. This is the caller who called in immediately after athletic director R.C. Johnson had been an on-air guest on the Chris Vernon show. R.C. had been saying that people were overreacting to the loss of two football games. The caller said that R.C. did not deserve to be fired for losing two games. However, he deserves to be fired for firing Larry Finch in front of a hot dog stand, hiring Tic Price, allowing Calipari’s NCAA violations to go unreported, allowing Cal to take his recruiting class with him when he took the job at Kentucky, allowing a number of bad contracts and buyouts, not capitalizing on the success of the football team 2003-05, not even coming close to getting a BCS conference invitation, and not quickly addressing the problems Tommy West had recruiting after 2005. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. The caller accused R.C. of “coasting until the end” and that is exactly what he is doing.

The Peabody’s new promotions in the Corner Bar continue today. On Thursdays, from 5 to 7 they will sell “Duck Flights of Jack” for $20. The flights will include shots of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7, Gentleman Jack, and “Peabody Select” Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel. There will also be an appetizer bar with Jack Daniels flavored apps, and music from Memphis Music Foundation artists.

Plans for tonight: With the weather cooled off, I think I’m going to skip Thursday night poker at Max’s Sports Bar and hit the Main Street Block Party instead. Weather would be near perfect, if the wind would die down a bit.