Month: February 2016

Vendor applications are being taken for the Memphis Farmers Market. The market, held at Front and G.E. Patterson Saturdays 7 AM to 1 PM, is considered one of the best farmers markets in the country. As everyone knows, I am a huge fan of fresh produce, and that is what the majority of MFM vendors sell. However, lots of other stuff gets sold too, including meats, seafood, eggs, pottery, dog treats, breads and tarts, cheeses, hot sauce, coffee, pre-prepared meals, popsicles, and a lot more. If you produce any of this stuff locally, there may be a spot for you at the farmers market; why not fill out an application?

The city has opened a new Office for Minority and Women-owned Business Development and Joann Massey has been appointed director. Nice move to make sure all in this city have a shot at opportunity, Mayor Strickland!

Future president Harry Truman wrote a letter to Mrs. Truman during his stay at the Peabody Hotel in 1941. He complained about being charged an outrageous 55 cents for breakfast.

The monthly Downtown Neighborhood Association meeting has been announced for Tuesday, February 23, and the speaker is a good one: Memphis Grizzlies president Jason Wexler. The meeting will be in the Horseshoe Lounge at FedExForum, 6 PM social, 6:30 program. Snacks and beverages will be available. Free to DNA members, $10 non-members.

If you want a livable Memphis, consider signing this petition against Tennessee bill SB1716-HB1650. If passed, the bill would prevent TDOT from using any gas tax money on non-vehicular projects. That would mean no funding for bike/pedestrian lanes. It is important for this bill to be defeated in the Legislature.

Not Downtown news but interesting: Printer’s Alley, the late-late-night bar on Cleveland, is now a VIP-only club. You must hold a VIP card, or accompany a cardholder and approved by management, to get in.

The MBJ has an article on the beer and Girl Scout cookie pairing coming to High Cotton’s taproom on March 24 to raise money for Troop901’s scholarship fund.

Heading out to happy hour. Since it’s Presidents Day, I’m under the assumption that Bardog is probably already packed. So I am going to take a week off from Melissa Monday there and lead off at Blind Bear tonight. Back tomorrow with more.

Love was in the air yesterday at the Blind Bear for a special Valentine’s Day Sunday Fun Day. It was a mixture of couples on dates and nearly every regular usually seen on Sundays. We had both Katie Mac and Katie (not Mac) in the house, We didn’t have the third Katie (my favorite vegetarian) but her name came up in conversation several times. Rahul and Tony, on their way back from Nashville, called the bar and Rahul asked to speak to me so he could wish me a happy Valentine’s Day.

B-RAD needed cheering up so one of the regulars went to Walgreens and bought him flowers. One of his Facebook friends unfriended him recently and he was very sad about it. I think he snuck into the back room and cried a few times.

The CA has a really good article about the flurry of activity in Uptown. Jimmy Carter will lead 3000 volunteers in the building of Habitat for Humanity homes there in August. St. Jude is expanding. A national grocery store chain may return to the neighborhood. There is an informal gathering spot for people who live in the area, The Office @ Uptown.

From PR Newswire: Krystal offers new SEA-sonal fresh tastes and a great escape. What does that mean, you ask? Krystal is putting a shrimp po-boy on the menu. Anyone else think this is a really bad idea? In other news, food poisoning cases seen at local hospitals are expected to rise by 33% in the months ahead.

A week from today, Monday, February 22, the Mid-South Fly Fishers will host a fly tying event at High Cotton Brewery at 6 PM. Of course there will be beer, along with an auction, games, and prizes. The event will benefit the Project Healing Waters program at the Memphis VA Hospital. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door.

Time to head in to work. If you’re south of I-40, there is heavy rain until mid-morning, so take it slow and watch out for pooling water. Possibly back at lunchtime or after work with more news.

Yesterday Antonin Scalia, one of the worst Supreme Court justices in American history, did the country a huge favor and died, creating a vacancy on the court. Within minutes Republicans were saying they would refuse to confirm any Obama appointment to the empty seat, saying that the American people should have a say in who becomes the next Supreme Court justice. They want to leave the seat vacant for a year, leaving the appointment to the next president.

Okay. Two things.

1. The American people have already HAD a say in who should be the next Supreme Court justice. They elected Obama in 2012, knowing that whoever became president would fill Supreme Court seats from January 20, 2013 through January 19, 2017.
2. So they’re going to leave the seat vacant for a year, giving us a year of 4-4 votes and earning the ill will of the American people, and then we get a justice most likely appointed by Hillary, Bern, or Trump? Yeah I see the logic there.

Amazing how, given the choice between doing the stupid thing and the right thing, Republicans choose the stupid thing every time.

Wonder if Dubya will give the eulogy at Scalia’s funeral. “Without Justice Antonin Scalia, there would have been no President George W. Bush.”

I started off at Bardog for brunch with Bloom yesterday. Bloom is 39 weeks pregnant and today is her last shift before going on maternity leave. I learned who will take over for Bloom while she is out: Panda on Saturday, and Suzy on Sunday. Suzy behind the bar? That could be entertaining. I may have to cheat on B-RAD a few Sundays and go see her.

While at Bardog, the Kansas game was on “Kansas is going down like my GPA,” read a sign in the student section. “Or going down like an Ole Miss coed in a sundress,” I thought.

There’s a joke going around that if you set your iPhone date to 1/1/1970, you’ll see a retro Apple ad. Don’t do it. 1/1/1970 is a special date to computers, the “beginning of time” as they know it. If you set your iPhone to this date, you will brick it, and even the people at Apple’s Genius Bar don’t have a fix. You will have to get a new phone.

Yesterday I had the tater tots at Oshi Burger for the first time:

They’re bacon and cheddar stuffed and topped with cheese, sour cream, and scallions. Delicious. I had an Oshi burger too but I’ve already posted a photo of that on the blog. A fantastic Saturday lunch.

After Oshi I went down the street to the Blind Bear, where a friend of mine ordered a shot of Jager with a pickle juice back. That made me want to invent a new word that meant, “Disgusting, but more than disgusting.”

Quote from yesterday (can’t remember who said it): “Getting drunk and handing out food is pretty much volunteering.”

I have no plans with anyone today, so I won’t be getting stood up the way I did on Valentine’s Day last year. It will be business as usual, D-RANKS with B-RAD at the Blind Bear. I wonder if people will bring their dates to the Bear for Valentine’s? Dark, intimate setting perfect for conversation… great brunch menu… one of the best bartenders in Memphis… excellent drinks… oh yeah, and then there are the regulars, who seem to set new standards for human behavior every week. Note that I didn’t say high standards.

The Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team lost in overtime to Tulane yesterday. As much as I like Josh Pastner personally and admire him as a man of principle and character (unlike Butch Jones), it may be time for the U of M to write a check. Losing to Tulane is not a good way to get the Tigers to that magic 6000 attendance number.

All right, time to get a few things done around the apartment and then it will be time for D-RANKS. Come join if you’re lucky enough to be single this Valentine’s Day.

The Flyer’s Hungry Memphis blog had some exciting news for Midtowners and Downtowners yesterday. Chef Shuttle is expanding to those neighborhoods effective next Thursday. The way it works is, you view menus from participating restaurants and then make your order with Chef Shuttle. They go and pick up your food and deliver it to you in about an hour. It will give Downtowners a lot more restaurant delivery options.

Miss Cordelia’s is holding a special sweetheart edition of their Saturday market today from 12 to 4. They have a dozen roses for $16.99, arrangements $14.99-$39.99, and elegant bouquet wrapping for $1. They also have gift baskets, sweets, treats, and some Valentine’s dinner for two choices.

The 2016 Memphis in May Fine Arts poster honoring Canada is out. Here’s a look.

Crazy story I read on Bleacher Report yesterday during my lunch break: The state of Louisiana is in the middle of a budget crisis, and if an agreement is not reached, state schools could be forced to shut down on April 30, before the end of the spring semester. Students would receive grades of Incomplete, many would not graduate on time, and LSU’s football team would be ineligible to compete for the 2016 season. Daaaamn. The SEC may be a 13-school conference for football in the fall.

In other SEC news, the sexual assault and gender discrimination allegations against the University of Tennessee football team continue to be in the news. The Nashville Scene demands an investigation into how our tax dollars have supported the rape-a-palooza culture of UT athletics:

UT owes us, the taxpayers who are apparently paying for rape-apalooza, a sincere and thorough investigation into just what the fuck is going on there. And then every employee who knew something but did nothing should be fired. If it turns out to be true that Drae Bowles was attacked twice by his own teammates, anyone still on the team who was on the team when that happened should no longer be with UT. If it turns out that the coaches knew or watched it happen, they all should be gone.

Remember how the Penn State board of trustees removed Joe Paterno when he wouldn’t step down as head football coach? The corresponding body at the University of Tennessee may need to look at taking the same action against Butch Jones.

Representatives of the Memphis Farmers Market attended the @PickTNProducts conference this week. They tweeted that they learned a lot there.

Barry Manilow was rushed to the hospital following Wednesday’s FedExForum show. He was suffering from complications from oral surgery he had earlier in the week.

The Land Use Control Board has approved three new Downtown hotels. Two will be across Union from AutoZone Park, and the third will be at Second and Vance. Total number of rooms added to Downtown will be around 375.

More on the Tigers attendance situation from CA columnist Geoff Calkins. Current average attendance at Tigers men’s basketball home games is 5889. If it does not get up to 6000 by the end of the year (3 home games left), the Grizzlies will not have to pay the U of M any of the expected $800,000. If attendance remains below 6000 average for two years, the Grizzlies can terminate the lease.

One of my favorite local writers, Skippy “Christopher” Blank, posted an 1866 map of the South Main area. There was a cemetery called Morris Cemetery bounded by Main, Butler, Calhoun (G.E. Patterson), and Causey (Second). Mulberry and St. Martin dead-ended north of Butler at the time. Next time you’re in Double J, or Scoops, or South Main Sushi, or Rizzo’s, you may be dining with ghosts. Hey, you remember when the owners of that courtyard across from Max’s Sports Bar dug it up a couple of years ago and then abruptly stopped? Perhaps we now know why.

Hmmm that cemetery would make a good Ask Vance question. I’m friends with him on Facebook, maybe I’ll hit him up.

From Distractify: A custom mold of your anus is the perfect gift to give your significant other on Valentine’s Day

Great night with friends last night. We started at the Silly Goose, our combined Moody Ques/Squeal Street group taking up the entire bar at one point. From there some of us migrated south to Max’s Sports Bar. I have been hanging out at Max’s a lot these past couple of months and have really been enjoying the place. I have always called it my “home away from home on the south side” but since about December it has felt more like a home than ever.

Today I will start of at the closest of my homes away from home, Bardog Tavern, for beers with my “DAWG” John D. For my second stop, I’m undecided between heading south for catfish Benedict at Rizzo’s, or going to see my favorite pair of librarian glasses at the Blind Bear. Plans after that TBD. Next week is a big week at work, so I better make the most of my time off while I can. Back tomorrow with more news and perhaps a Saturday recap post.

I was up early a year ago today, having heard the “ding” of Facebook Messenger from the other room. I made plans to meet someone for a drink at Blind Bear (“BB” as she abbreviated it) two days later on the 14th, then decided there was no point in going back to bed, having to be up in another 45 minutes anyway. I got on my MacBook and checked Twitter to see what was going on.

2016 has seen many musicians die, but in early 2015 we lost some as well. Steve Strange, frontman of the band Visage and leading figure of the New Romantic movement, passed away a year ago today. I had heard of Visage but never really listened to them much when Steve Strange was alive, but I pulled up the band’s most well-known song, “Fade to Grey.”

“This came out in nineteen EIGHTY?” I thought. “I would’ve guessed 1987, and surely no less than 1985. They were YEARS ahead of their time!” It’s too bad artists have to die before people discover their music.

Steve Strange lived a colorful life, operating a nightclub for “the weird and wonderful” for several years. Suffice to say that if you showed up wearing a polo and khakis, you probably weren’t getting past the velvet rope.

But, enough about dead musicians; let’s get on to the news. Michael Donahue of the CA has named Agave Maria’s Cubano sandwich a Best Bet. Manager Jeremy Malone said the Cubano is their most popular lunch item, and beginning March 1 it will be available for dinner as well.

Only in Memphis: A string of deadly shootings involving hair extensions

Monster truck show Monster Jam kicks off a weekend of shows at FedExForum tonight at 7.

Slavehaven Underground Railroad Museum on North Second celebrates its 160th anniversary tomorrow with “In Their Own Words,” a spoken word/poetry event with first-hand accounts of former slaves.

Yikes: 92.9 ESPN tweeted that the University of Memphis gets $0 from FedExForum if Tiger game attendance drops below 6000. Yesterday radio host Gary Parrish, in an appearance on the Chris Vernon Show, said that the Tigers are headed toward $0. And the only solution may be to spend $10+ million dollars to buy out Josh Pastner, followed by more spending on the salary of a new head coach.

In other basketball news/job news, the Grizzlies are seeking a Director of Development.

Thanks to Christ Community Health Services, thousands of people in Memphis get care they could not otherwise afford. The organization is having a fundraiser brunch Saturday, February 20 in the Peabody Skyway at 10:30 AM. This week CCHS demonstrated a recipe for veggie pasta on WREG Live at 9 recently.

Good High Ground News article on Signal Flow PR, an agency in the South Main neighborhood that does marketing for musicians and music businesses. The agency started out in the Emerge Memphis incubator before moving to its current location in 2014.

Washington Avenue will be blocked between 6 AM and 6 PM tomorrow between B.B. King Blvd. and Fourth. The reason is to repair A/C equipment on the roof of 201 Poplar.

Interesting read: Is the competition circuit turning BBQ into the WWE of meat?

More embarrassment for our state: The University of Tennessee football team sexual assault scandal/Title IX gender discrimination lawsuit has made People magazine’s website.

The CA reports that vice president Joe Biden will visit Memphis next Wednesday.

Science has proved that smart people are the most distracted at work. YES!!!!!!!! So true!

Possibly a second post about 5:30, so check back.

Havana Mix is presenting the first annual Cigar Love Affair this Saturday from 6 to 9. It will feature cigar and wine pairings featuring cigars from Cigar Aficionado’s Top 25 list (1 flight with $50 purchase, complimentary flight for additional guest). Chocolates by Phillip Ashley, sultry jazz, exciting raffles. Couples and singles are welcome.

Our Memphis Tigers are fierce. They are aggressive. They are killers. One Memphis tiger showed all of those traits after being transferred to the Sacramento Zoo. He was introduced to another tiger and promptly killed it. Perhaps the Tigers basketball team can channel the spirit of this killer tiger to win remaining games and go far in the AAC tournament.

I saw this for a brief moment on Facebook last night: Andy Griffith gives Cam Newton advice on winning and losing

Check out this Bleacher Report article on the Grizzlies’ Vince Carter. Kobe may be ready to hang it up, but Carter feels he still has some more big games left in him.

Gus’s is now serving chicken in Kansas City.

Police are cracking down on speeding on the interstates. It’s a directive by the new Interim Director of MPD. I personally have seen police cars all over I-55 on my way to and from Horn Lake. Fox 13 reporters drove the posted speed limits on the interstates, and very few cars did not pass them.

The sexual assault allegations and gender discrimination lawsuit against the University of Tennessee has made the news across the pond. The Daily Mail has a report which is worth a read because it has some additional details. Way to go, UT, you’re an international embarrassment now.

Valentine’s Day gift idea: Chocolate covered butter cookies from Makeda’s Cookies. 901-745-2667 to order.

Holly has a post about her recent visit to the Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art, an often-overlooked Downtown treasure.

That’s it for this post, possibly a second one later.

I’ve long said that the University of Tennessee athletics program is one of the douchiest in college sports, and yesterday afternoon there was news on that front. Six women filed suit against UT, alleging that they were sexually assaulted by UT athletes, mainly football players. The university uses an unusual adjudication system, the six “Jane Does” alleged, that is biased against the victims and is designed to protect the athletes. Among the school officials acting with indifference toward the allegations, it was said in the lawsuit, were the university’s chancellor, athletic director, and head football coach Butch Jones. The women claim that the university’s procedures violate the Title IX gender discrimination statute.

I hope the women get the justice they deserve, and I hope the university gets the NCAA sanctions it deserves. As for Butch Jones, I wonder if he’ll be trading one shade of orange for another. The University of Tennessee athletic department is just an embarrassment to the other 13 schools in the SEC. Perhaps the conference should dump UT and look to the other end of the Volunteer State for a 14th member.

(Updated: From the Washington Post: Tennessee football players are said to have beat up a teammate after he assisted a woman who accused two players of rape. Athletic coaches were said to be present during the attack. In a November 26 interview, it was said that members of the team had a “hit” out on that teammate.)

Damn, this could turn into the biggest scandal in college sports since Jerry Sandusky. I will monitor this story as it develops and post updates.

Not a good day for my other least favorite university athletics program either: Ole Miss received a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA listing 28 violations, 13 for the football program and 9 that occurred under current head coach Hugh Freeze.

Nor is there good news for my favorite NBA team. Marc Gasol is out with a broken foot indefinitely and could be out the rest of the season. This SUCKS.

There will be a sushi class at Memphis Made Brewery, 768 S. Cooper, Saturday, February 27 at 7 PM. $40 to sign up. Make your reservation here. Class cost includes sushi. Class will last 2 hours.

Former strip club king Danny Owens is out of federal prison. He is in a halfway house in Memphis and is expected to be released in a few months.

Early voting for the March 1 primaries begins today. Downtowners can easily early vote at the Election Commission at Second and Poplar.

I prefer to #FeelTheBern, but if you’re a Hillary supporter, her husband and former president Bill Clinton will be in town tomorrow night to campaign for her at Whitehaven High School.

The Memphis Black Restaurant Week (March 7-13) website is now live. Four Downtown restaurants are participating, including DeJaVu, Onix, the Office @ Uptown, and Scoops Parlor.

The annual Valentine’s Day glass goes on sale at the Flying Saucer tonight at 7.

The Hotties issue of the Memphis Flyer has hit the stands.

I will lead off at the Silly Goose after work. Some of the people who go there are UT fans, and my guess is that they will want to talk about anything other than college sports. I’ll drop by trivia at the Blind Bear later. With Charles getting done at 11:04 last Wednesday, my guess is my newly-employed trivia teammate won’t make it until the end. Neither will I; I’ll be heading out a little before 10 to catch Charvey at the Goose. Time to go brave the cold and run errands. If I learn of any more Downtown news or UT douchery I will do a second post after work.

A week ago, I posted about kale Caesar salad and lime garlic tofu.

This is an apology for that post.

No offense to LYFE Kitchen, because they prepared what I ordered to the very best of their ability.

But that was not me.

This is me.

Nacho chips, melted cheese, beef, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, jalapenos, sour cream.

Me.

Follow @downtownmemphis on Instagram to check out a great new series, the Daily Downtowner series, where you can meet people who live and work Downtown and learn all about their stories.

Copeland Coaching has a new podcast up, with David Williams, the president and CEO of Leadership Memphis. Williams discusses the benefits of something I have long suggested, volunteering while you search for a job.

I’ve posted a lot of Redbirds jobs to this blog lately. Well, in fact there are so many of them that the Redbirds are holding a Seasonal Job Fair Friday, February 19 from 3 to 7 PM and Saturday, February 20 from 9 AM to 2 PM. Positions open include Marketing Assistant, Media Relations Assistant, Sound Board Operator, Boardwalk Operators, Dakstats Operator, Emcees, Usher Supervisors, Box Office Ticket Sellers, Grounds Crew, Operations Assistant, Mascot, Video Board Operator, Boardwalk Supervisors, Public Address Announcer, Team Rockey, Ushers/Ticket Takers, Bat Boys & Bat Girls, and RBI Instructors & Umpires. Be prepared to interview with a member of the Redbirds staff. If applying for multiple positions, a separate application must be submitted for each.

Holly from the I Love Memphis blog has a list of anti-Valentine’s Day things to do. I absolutely HATE Valentine’s Day and Holly has composed a great list. In particular I have heard that the Elmwood Cemetery tour, with “tales of love gone horribly wrong,” is fantastic.

The first ever Memphis City Football Club schedule has been posted. The season runs May 21-July 2.

Mac & cheese lovers: Check out this recipe for PBR bacon mac & cheese. Yum!!! Thanks Stephen!

The Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau announced that Jeff Homad is the new Vice President and will assume duties formerly performed by John Oros. Homad was recently Executive Director of Sales at the Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, FL. He has 18 years experience in the hospitality industry.

The University of Memphis wants to renegotiate its FedExForum lease with the Memphis Grizzlies due to declining U of M men’s basketball attendance. As radio host Gary Parrish pointed out, it’s hard to renegotiate a contract when you have absolutely no leverage.

Heading out for PBR. Who knows, maybe there will be a fourth update before I go to bed!

Before I start with the news, I have a Moody Ques announcement. We previously announced that we were going to schedule a cookout and team mixer for this Saturday, February 13. We had hoped to be able to do it at 444 Monroe, the warehouse of our booth design sponsor, Holliday Flowers. However, somewhere in all the planning, we overlooked a couple of key facts:

1) Saturday is the day before Valentine’s Day.

2) Our booth design sponsor is a florist.

Do you see how this might be a problem? Yeah, we didn’t think that date and location all the way through. We are rescheduling the cookout/mixer for a later date. Lots of restaurants are celebrating Valentine’s Day both Saturday and Sunday, so if you wanted to take your Valentine out Saturday, go ahead, you won’t be missing any team functions.

And let’s face it, “HEY HONEY, I’M TAKIN’ YOU TO A BBQ COOKOUT FOR VALENTINE’S DAY” just isn’t all that romantic, is it?

With a forecast high of near 40 on Saturday, I don’t think anyone is going to mind postponing the team mixer too much. Waiting until March is likely to get us some better weather.

By the way, if you haven’t paid your dues yet, you can do so here. Paypal widget is on the right sidebar (web) or at the bottom of the page (mobile). Those who are not team members but are interested in joining for 2016, shoot me an email at paul@paulryburn.com. We have some spots open.

For those of you wondering, “Is he ever going to stop talking about his BBQ team and get on with the news?”, here you go. If you use Google Drive to store your documents in the cloud, you can get 2 gigabytes of free storage today.

The 2016 Memphis Tigers football schedule has been announced. It is looking good, with seven Liberty Bowl home games, seven opponents that played in bowls last year, several national television appearances, a Black Friday home game, and a trip to Annapolis to play Navy.

This yearly post by Downtown agency Red Rover is always worth a read: Winners and losers from Super Bowl 50’s advertising game

Memphis is featured in the L.A. Times. The article covers all aspects of visiting the city. I love how the author said every local rolled their eyes when she said she was going to the Rendezvous, and told her to go to Central BBQ or The Bar-B-Q Shop instead.

Next time you need to buy some electronics, keep in mind that Best Buy is the second-largest retail fundraiser for St. Jude, raising over $10 million a year for the children’s cancer research hospital.

Pro wrestling fan moment: THANK YOU Daniel Bryan/Bryan Danielson. The goat-faced WWE star was forced to retire last night (real life, not a storyline). Having suffered a number of concussions, WWE’s doctors refused to clear Bryan to compete. He leaves us with many great memories including Team Hell No, the “YES!” movement, and the fight against The Authority.

The National Peanut Buying Points Association winter conference comes to the Peabody Thursday through Monday. The association represents more than 400 points where peanuts are contracted, received, weighed, cleaned, dried, inspected, graded and prepared for re-selling later. All U.S.-produced peanuts must be inspected at one of these points.

Possibly a third news post this evening, so check back.