Hurricane Ida came ashore yesterday, knocking out power to New Orleans, catastrophically flooding Louisiana and Mississippi, and knocking barges loose on the river. Complete Weather Channel coverage
Ida is now a tropical storm centered south-southwest of Jackson, MS and it is headed this way. The MemphisWeather.net super-regional radar is the best way to monitor the storm until it gets closer to the Memphis metro. The MemphisWeather.net forecast has the strongest winds tonight, when we will see 20 MPH with gusts to 35.
I want to start off with a band recommendation: Saturday night I caught the Mario Monter0sso Band at the Blind Bear, and they were phenomenal. This is a Sicilian band that described the music they play as “speakeasy music,” and they were on point down to the very last note. They play Hernando’s Hideaway a lot and also do a good bit of touring with Jason D. Williams. If you get a chance to catch them live, you will not be disappointed.
The bartenders at Bardog told me they may close the week of September 6-12 for maintenance. I don’t have that officially confirmed but you might want to have a Plan B in mind if Bardog is your Plan A for that week.
Memphis Tigers in Forbes: Emoni Bates and Jalen Duren could each earn 7 figures this season due to NIL (name, image, likeness) opportunities at Memphis. The courts have ruled that the NCAA can’t prevent its athletes from profiting off their name, image, and likeness. FedEx and other large Memphis companies provide some enticing NIL opportunities for players. If not for the new NIL rules, it’s unlikely Memphis would have landed either Bates or Duren – they would have gone to the G-League, overseas, or to a college with a system in place for paying players under the table (“I’ll take states that begin with K for 1000, Alex.”)
The Grizzlies have waived Rajon Rondo. Rondo was acquired in an earlier trade and was in no way a good fit for Memphis. Bleacher Report indicates that the L.A. Lakers are the favorite to sign Rondo to a new deal.
Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis will speak at the September Downtown Neighborhood Association meeting. The location is TBD.
That’s the news for now. Back tomorrow with more.