Wednesday update: Touch-a-Truck and more

There’s a big event for the kids coming to the Civic Center Plaza, 125 N. Main, this Saturday, June 10 from 10 AM to 2 PM: Touch-a-Truck. The model cars kids have at home will come to life. MPD will have police cars and other vehicles there, and MFD will be there with engines. There will also be farming implements, construction trucks, a school bus, and a storm tracker. There will also be music from a DJ, the Grizzlies’ Claw Crew, Amurica photo booth, the I Love Memphis photo mural, face painting, Makeda’s Cookies and outdoor games.

Want to get in shape this evening for free? Come to Envision Memphis’ bootcamp tonight at 6 PM at RiverPlay. Meet at the RiverPlay Gear Shack. No RSVP is required, just show up.

Seeing Red is the featured entertainment tomorrow night at the Thursday Peabody rooftop party. Admission is $10 with ladies and hotel guests free until 7 PM. Your admission fee includes a buffet of popcorn shrimp with cocktail sauce and bacon wrapped scallops. Those in VIP get a second buffet of tempura shrimp with sweet Thai chili sauce, mahi mahi bites with homemade tartar sauce, and crab dip with pita bread. Drink specials will be mango margaritas and Firefly cherry cola moonshine.

Around the corner, The View, the rooftop patio atop the Residence Inn by Marriott at Main and Monroe, will have life music by Shufflegrit every Thursday in June 6-9 PM.

Grrls Night, a benefit for Alive Rescue Memphis, will happen at Stock & Belle tomorrow evening from 6 to 9. Women who attend this event will enjoy cruelty-free pampering and fashion. First 50 will get a cruelty-free goody bag with everything from socks to lip balm. In keeping with the theme, the food served will be vegan. There will be raffle items and a silent auction too.

There will be a Timeout for Fitness Saturday in the FedExForum lobby and the Grizzlies Built Ford Tough training facility. $15 gets you in to participate in as many as you want of the following:

  • 9:00-9:45 AM: YOGA! Improve health and happiness with breathing techniques, exercise and mediation
  • 10:00-10:45 AM: Beach Flexing with Total Body Treatment
  • 11:00-11:45 AM: Zumba. Aerobics routines themed to Latin and International music

Your $15 admission also includes a Grizzlies themed yoga mat and two tickets to a 2017 Grizzlies pre-season game. $5 of the cost will be donated to the Methodist Healthcare Foundation.

There’s a lot of concern about the gutted out former Benchmark hotel at Third and Union from neighbors and from those who run businesses nearby. It looks like a bombed-out building, something you might have seen in Cologne or Dresden in 1945. The GM of the Redbirds says he has people asking about it, and the people who run the Rendezvous feel it is a detriment to the neighborhood. I agree! Union is the main entry point into Downtown and it is terrible that the building has remained in that condition for so long. If you don’t have the money to develop it, sell it and give someone else the chance!

Longtime basketball rivals the Memphis Tigers and the Louisville Cardinals will meet at the Gotham Classic in Madison Square Garden on December 16.

That’s all for now. Back tomorrow with more.