Soup Sunday and other weekend news

Youth Villages’ annual Soup Sunday fundraiser is this Sunday at the FedExForum. Your ticket lets you walk around the concourse and sample soups, breads, desserts, and other goodies from 50 area restaurants and caterers. You also get unlimited soft drinks to wash it all down. They give you a holder that holds four bowls of soup at once, although one former Memphian who now lives in Redwood City, California managed to modify the soup holder at a previous Soup Sunday so that it held nine cups of soup at once. Online ticket purchases are closed but you can buy tickets at the door. $30 for adults 11 and up, $10 for children 6-10, children under 6 free. There’s also a VIP Souper Party ticket for $75 if you want to go big.

I will repeat my annual advice for Soup Sunday attendees: This is NOT an event to which you want to show up fashionably late. Lines will get long within 15 minutes of opening time, and by noon a few of the best restaurants will start running out of soup. Best advice is to be in line at 10:55, ticket in hand. The event runs from 11 AM to 2 PM.

A New York-based casting company is searching for “real people” in Memphis to use in commercials, videos, and print advertisements. They are currently involved in a marketing campaign for a major financial institution, and are looking for people who are undergoing a change in their lives: getting married, caring for an aging parent, having a baby, relocating, changing careers, retiring, etc. If interested in being a part of the campaign, fill out this form. If you qualify, they will arrange a quick phone interview with you and a video chat using Skype.

Here are the 2015 International Blues Challenge semifinalists. There’s a $15 wristband to get in to see all the acts at all the venues this evening.

Memphis Tigers coach Josh Pastner will be the subject of the NCAA Men of March special on CBS Saturday at noon. Great comment from @CubsTigersGrizz on Twitter: “Probably should be ‘Early March.'”

Congratulations to Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol, elected to start in the NBA All-Star Game on February 15. He will tip off against his brother Pau, starting for the Eastern Conference.

A new 7-week trivia league has started at the Green Beetle (Thursdays at 8) with the team that racks up the most points getting a trip to Tennessee Brew Works in Nashville. VIP tour of the brewery, beer samplings, hotel and gas card included in the grand prize. The more you play, the better chance you have: Each week, the 1st place winner gets 3 raffle tickets, 2nd place gets 2, 3rd place gets 1 and Best Team Name winner gets 1. Teams must be present to win on Thursday, March 5, the night the raffle is drawn. Free to play. Weekly prizes as well as points toward the grand prize.

From SI.com: College football’s next hot coach, Justin Fuente

For those in the service industry: Lifehacker has recommended a calendar app called Shifts that might fit your needs better than Google Calendar.

Good news for Blind Bear poker players: They re-felted their tables this week, so dealing the cards should be smoother.

That’s it for now. I’ll be out at the usual spots about 5:30 to kick off the weekend.