Not much in the way of posts for a few days. The only excuse that I can offer was that I was out enjoying Labor Day weekend in Downtown Memphis! These were a few of the highlights:
– Walking around the Memphis Farmers Market. I don’t go to the Farmers Market a lot because I don’t cook and I’m not a morning person. However, every time I do go I’m just blown away by how fantastic it is. Veggies, flowers, jellies, coffee, locally grown meat, cooking demos, live music, food trucks. I saw several restaurant owners there getting locally produced food.
– Saturday at Max’s Sports Bar. I meant to just stop by for one or two quick beers, then hit the Memphis Music & Heritage Festival… but friends showed up and I ended up staying until 4.
– Listening to my neighbor’s band the Swamp Katz Sunday at Memphis Music & Heritage Festival. As I took in the music and drank a Bloody Mary, I thought about one of my Foursquare friends who checks in at “Da Front Porch Sippin” when she visits Hernando, Mississippi. Since I live on Main Street, I figured, the Main Street Mall is sort of my front porch, and therefore I was doing my own version of “front porch sippin.”
– Hanging out with the crew from the Majestic Grille (and Kyla from Aldo’s Pizza Pies) at the Blind Bear Sunday evening. It was the start of a long weekend for them – the Majestic closed for Labor Day and will be closed today and tomorrow to spruce the place up. Everyone was in a great mood and I had a blast.
– Monday turned into another of those “meant to just stay for a drink or two, ended up staying hours and hours” kind of days. This time the Silly Goose was the spot. I went there at 4 for a drink or two with a friend visiting from out of town. While there, I learned that the Goose had changed their Monday poker night: Only one game now, beginning at 9 PM, with regular player Muruako being promoted to host. I stuck around for the game and ended up coming in third. Congrats to first-time player Marty on his win. It’s a new 16-week poker league, with 5 points for first place, 4 for second, and so on.
All right, let’s get to the news. Tickets for Memphis’ best beer festival, the Cooper-Young Beer Festival, will go on sale Friday, September 7. They can be purchased on the festival website or at the Rock 4 Love festival in Midtown this weekend. The beer fest is Saturday, October 13. This ain’t no damn socialite party like a couple of beer fests that happen in late August/early September. Rather, it’s all about the beer – trying beers not usually seen in the area, learning about different styles of craft beer, getting to talk to the brewers in their booths. Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 the day of if there are any left. They cap attendance to keep the lines short.
If you take I-40 to and from Arkansas, there are going to be lane closings on the bridge this week. Crews will be conducting an inspection of the bridge.
Bruce V from the Memphis Flyer has a good blog post about the 17 Commercial Appeal jobs that are being outsourced to India.
My Hogs moved up to 8 in this week’s AP poll. Glad to see us above South Carolina this week.
That’ll do it for now. Hopefully it won’t be 3 days between posts for a while.