Friday update

Yesterday I told you about the Pink Out the Pitch drive for Saturday, October 19’s final Memphis 901 FC home match of the season, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t also tell you about a couple of things happening at THIS Saturday’s (October 12) home match. First of all, all fans who attend the match receive a team photo, courtesy of Southern Security Federal Credit Union.

There are also a couple of specialty tickets for tomorrow’s match. One gets you an inaugural season scarf and the other gets you an inaugural season pin.

Loflin Yard will host a modern art market tomorrow at noon.

There will be an event called Cocktails and Cornsticks Thursday evening, October 17, at Felicia Suzanne’s. Suggested donation of $25 or more gets you tea sandwiches, cornsticks, and cocktails and supports the making of a documentary about the legendary Little Tea Shop restaurant.

The deal has been signed: Loews will open a convention center hotel on party of the Civic Center Plaza and in the former Memphis Police building at 128 Adams. It leaves out the 100 N. Main building, the tallest in the city, which once again finds its fate swinging in the wind. This is a big deal for Memphis’ ability to draw conventions to town, putting a significantly larger number of hotel rooms within a short walk of the convention center.

Memphis Symphony Orchestra celebrates the greatest hits of rock & roll tomorrow night at 7:30 at the Cannon Center. They will play tunes by Marvin Gaye, Earth Wind & Fire, the Commodores, Issac Hayes, Stevie Wonder, Outkast, and more.

I found a very cool link this week, quite by accident. Patrick always releases his categories for Blind Bear trivia a day or two in advance. This week, one of the categories was Whistleblowers. That would imply “people who expose corruption,” but one thing I’ve learned about Patrick is that he likes to throw curveballs on some of these questions and you have to think outside the box. Whistleblowers… whistle blowers… referees! I suspected, being football season, he might ask a question about referees. I found this link that explains what each official on the field in an NFL game does: referee, umpire, down judge, line judge, field judge, side judge, and back judge. It didn’t help me win trivia but was nonetheless interesting and I thought I’d share.

If any Daily Memphian staff are reading this, I have a suggestion for a Food Fight article: The meat and cheese plate at Belle Tavern vs. the meat and cheese plate at the Silly Goose. There are a lot of good meat and cheese plates Downtown (Blues City Cafe, Hueys, etc.) but these are two additions to Downtown dining that go above and beyond.

If you’re in the mood for a hot wing festival, you don’t have to wait until spring. The Bluff City Hot Wing Festival supporting Compass Community Schools will happen Saturday, October 26. The event will be at 61 N. McLean, admission is only $5, and there will be activities for the kids.

Next week is fall break for local schools and the Grizzlies Youth Basketball Program is hosting a fall break basketball camp for kids 6-16. For $75 you get 90 minutes of instruction and contests on the floor where the pros play. You also get a special T-shirt, two tickets to that night’s Grizzlies vs. Charlotte pre-season game, and courtside access pre-game to watch the players warm up. You also get two bonus tickets to opening night.

Carolina Watershed will host the Halloween version of Electric Watershed Friday night, October 25. Electronic dance music by DJ Ben Murray, Don Twan, Kelvin, Kaos, and more to be announced.

Buy a Brick for the Blues and become a part of Blues Foundation history, your name and message on a brick on the sidewalk outside the Foundation’s Blues Museum.

That’s it for now. Trying to decide whether it’s worth it to take an umbrella for my 20-second walk across Main Street that is my commute to work. After work I’ll stop at Blind Bear, and then (weather permitting) I’ll head down to Max’s Sports Bar to spread a little sunshine. Back tomorrow with more news.