Old Dominick Distillery on South Front Street will have an open house this evening from 5 to 8 PM as part of South Main Trolley Night. There will be a live performance by Chris Johnson and a $5 specialty cocktail.
Also for South Main Trolley Night, Songwriter Night #55 happens at South Main Sounds. Justin Paul Bloss plays his farewell gig at the venue before he departs to Oklahoma. Sandie Lollis from L.A., local teen sensation Rose Ragsdale, and the debuting Richard Wilson will perform as well. 7-9 PM tonight.
Down the street from South Main Sounds at South Main Book Juggler, Aisha Zorelle Raison signs her book Fear of Enlightened Black Women.
My readers ask from time to time what my sources are for information for this blog, and there are many. One of the best, though, is the flyers left on the courtesy guard’s desk in my building. That’s how I learned that we have full-service ballroom dancing Downtown. Cat’s Ballroom offers lessons (including private and group lessons), parties, and special events. It has something for everyone, from people who trip over their own feet to highly competitive dancers. Dances include Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Quickstep, Rumba, Mambo, Cha Cha, Jive, Swing, Salsa, and Bachata. They’ve even been known to throw in a little hip-hop and country.
Another thing I didn’t know… Miss Cordelia’s offers pottery classes. The next one will be June 6th where the class will make candle holders.
The 2017 Memphis Zombie Walk happens tonight at Handy Park at 7:30.
Legendary Beale Street musician Dr. Herman Green turns 87 this week and he will perform with FreeWorld at his birthday parties this weekend. Catch him at Rum Boogie Cafe Saturday night or Blues City Cafe Band Box Sunday night.
Grace Askew and Tonya Dyson perform at Fourth Bluff Fridays tonight at Memphis Park, 51 N. Front. Food trucks, T-shirt truck, 10 beers on tap.
Downtown Yoga will host a workshop on running in the summer heat Sunday, June 11 from 1 to 3 PM. There will be a yoga class designed to build strength and stamina for summer running. You’ll also get hydration tips, tips on pace adjustments, advice on racing in the heat, and recovery strategy.
Downtown restaurant Catherine & Mary’s is hiring.
For Memphis wrestling fans: There is a new book out about Chrstine “Teeny” Jarrett, who worked in the Memphis wrestling promotion for 52 years. She was the mother of promoter Jerry Jarrett, who with Jerry “The King” Lawler co-founded the Memphis promotion that got so big in the 1980s. She was the grandmother of Jeff Jarrett. Another of her grandchildren, Jeff’s cousin, is the book’s author.
Okay, if you don’t want to read about politics you can stop here.
Several years ago, I read Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America’s Most Powerful Mafia Empires. From that book, I learned that if you engaged in a construction project worth than $2 million in Manhattan in the early-mid 1980s, you were paying off the Mob. Most likely, you were paying off a member of the Gambino family, headed by “Big Paul” Castellano, a cousin of the late Carlo Gambino by marriage; or the Lucchese family, headed by Anthony “Tony Ducks” Corallo, protege of the late Tommy Lucchese. When Donald Trump announced his candidacy, therefore, I thought, there is no way he has not been in contact with the Mob, given the structures he built on Manhattan in the ’80s.
This article suggests that he indeed was… but the Russian mob. Remember how he filed for bankruptcy, and then only a few years later, he was suddenly a wealthy tycoon again? He had some “help” with that.
Gonna be an interesting year.
That’s it for now. We get out of work at 3, so I should be at Silly Goose happy hour by 4. Undecided whether to hit Fourth Bluff, South Main Trolley Night, or something else later in the evening. Back tomorrow with more news.