It was another successful year at the Monroe Avenue Fest. Great music, some super raffle prizes, good food, lots of craft beer (thanks to Eagle Distributing for their sponsorship). I don’t have an exact dollar total for the amount raised for St. Jude but I will try to get that number and post it when it is available. Fundraising is still going on for a couple of months (and you can still donate online) so the total won’t be available for a while yet. Congratulations to Bardog on its 10th birthday and to Aldo, Melissa and everyone involved in the planning on an awesome event that makes Downtown a fun place to live.
Longtime bartender Panda is leaving for Colorado next week. I said goodbye by dunking her twice in the tank. James, you still owe me a ball. I’ll collect on that at the 2019 party.
Breakaway-Bardog 5K results are up. Hmmm, very interesting… the AGES of the runners are listed. If you know someone who ran the race and are curious about how old they are, you can search for their name and look it up. Hope no one who ran the race yesterday has been lying about their age!
Excited about the new USL soccer team in Memphis? Maybe you should join @BluffCityMafia. They’re not soccer hooligans, but they are people who plan to root for our city’s team in the most loud and obnoxious way possible.
Medium has a good article about the Memphis River Parks Partnership’s grand reopening of the Mississippi River Museum.
Wondering what’s on the menu of the Wok’n in Memphis pop-up brunch that happens at the Silly Goose every Sunday 11 AM-3 PM? I snapped a photo of the menu yesterday (click for a larger size).
Not sure if it changes from week to week, but this will at least give you an idea what to expect. Don’t forget that there’s music by DJ Maverick at brunch too.
November 10 has been announced at the Howl at the Moon fundraiser for Streetdog Foundation. I have been several years and it is a fantastic party.
The ever-popular beginner sushi class run by Birmingham Sushi returns to the Memphis Made taproom on Sunday, September 9 from 3 to 5 PM. These classes fill up fast, so if you want to take the class I recommend you sign up ASAP.
The MBJ has an article about the future plans of Hive Collective, the pop-up co-working an retail space at 100 S. Main.
Remember my “love my life but at the same time deeply depressed” post from a couple of weeks ago? I experienced that again yesterday. This time, though, it wasn’t career-related, but with regard to the social circles in which I run.
I had multiple people – including Aldo himself – come up to me and thank me for all I do for the alley party and Downtown in general, both through my blog and through just being a good listener and good friend. Thank you. Those words mean the world to me. My friend Neal said the other day, other cities don’t have what we have Downtown with this large and wonderful group of friends, and that is absolutely true. I am lucky and honored and privileged to be a part of this. In that sense, I love every day of my life.
There was also a group of people there, supposedly long-time friends, who couldn’t even be bothered to come up and say hello. They have heard and apparently believed things that have been said about me that are not true, without ever coming to me and asking my side of the story. They’ve had 3 years to do this but apparently can’t be bothered. As someone I confide in regularly told me, “At some point you have to question whether those people are really your friends.” I am deeply disappointed and hurt by those people.
(By the way – two from that group have come to me and talked about it. It means a lot to me that you did, and I want you to know you’re not included in the paragraph above.)
That’s it for now. I’m going to get back to my non-blog writing project and then get out mid-afternoon. Back tomorrow with more news.