Month: June 2023

The Craft Food & Wine Festival returns to the Columns at One Commerce Square this Sunday. Tickets include a glass and a souvenir tasting tray and guests get to sample Memphis’ finest foods from about 40 different vendors. There will be wine, beer, and cocktails as well. The event benefits Church Health. Like what you’re tasting? You’ll be able to purchase more of it from the food artisans, right then and there. This event is 21 and up, and you must show a valid ID at the door. Tickets:

• VIP ($125) gets you in the festival at 3 PM and gets you all-access, including a private VIP area downstairs.
• General admission ($65) gets you a souvenir tasting tray and glass. You get in at 4 PM and will enjoy unlimited tastings from chefs and food entrepreneurs, as well as wine, beer, and cocktails. Music by DJ AD.

The CA has a look at Memphis neighborhoods with the largest home price increases in 2023.

• Believe it or not, the biggest increase was in Frayser, up 24% from a year ago.
• Downtown is second, with average home prices moving on up from $251,500 to $294,900 for a 17% increase.
• Rounding out the top five: Whitehaven, Raleigh, and South Memphis.

Memphis Tigers basketball news: Chandler Lawson has entered the transfer portal. 12 of the Tigers’ 13 scholarship players from last season will now most likely be gone due to transfers, the end of their eligibility, or the NBA draft.

Just made a trip to Walgreens and came back with a beer recommendation. For $2.99 you can get a 25 oz. can of Bud Light at the ‘greens. Or you can get a 25-ounce can of this:

New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA. It comes in at a whopping 9% ABV. It’s time to reintroduce a measure I created in this blog in 2015, the Value Drinking Index.

A beer’s Value Drinking Index = (number of ounces) * (percent ABV) / (price including tax)

When out at a bar, you generally want to see a VDI of at least 15 (craft beers and imports) or 20 (domestics). When buying beer to take home, you want to see the VDI a little bit higher.

For the Voodoo Ranger IPA:

VDI = 25 (ounces) * 9 (% ABV) / 3.28 (Walgreens price incl. tax)

That works out to an enormous Value Drinking Index of 69. Wine me, dine me, 69 me! Or beer me, dine me, 69 me, I guess.

Today is National Ice Cream Soda Day, a good reason to visit the old-fashioned soda fountain at A. Schwab on Beale Street.

Well, that’s it for this not-terribly-newsy Tuesday. Back tomorrow.

I went back to the Memphis Public Libraries’ e-collection yesterday to find a new book to read – and I found one I’ve been meaning to read for years: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It’s about the intertwined lives of four men, all of whom wanted to be elected President of the United States in 1860:

• William H. Seward, full of joy for life, Senator from New York
• The pious Salmon P. Chase, governor of Ohio
• Edward Bates, elder statesman of Missouri politics
• The gangly and melancholy Abraham Lincoln from Illinois

Lincoln won, of course, and showed his wisdom by making his rivals his closest advisors as the Civil war began:

• He named Seward Secretary of State
• He named Chase Secretary of the Treasury
• He named Bates Attorney General

This is not a quick read – 944 pages in print – but if you’re into American history, I think you would love this book.

On to the news!

Disney’s Frozen kicks off an 11-day, 15-show run at the Orpheum this Thursday.

If you have kids, you might want to bring them to the Thursday, June 29 performance, when it will be Kids’ Night on Broadway. Starting at 6:30, there will be kids’ activities including an intro-to-the-theater packet, crafts, activities, and a photo booth. The performance starts at 7:30.

Happy Juneteenth everyone. On June 19, 1865, Union troops entered Galveston, Texas, where they informed thousands of slaves that they’d been emancipated.

Today is also Take Your Cat to Work Day. Yeah I’m sure that’ll go well.

Today is also National Martini Day. Just don’t order it “shaken, not stirred” as James Bond did – that’s a faux pas. Shaking dilutes the taste of the ingredients.

A 19-year-old was arrested Saturday night after gunshots were heard from the 250 Peabody Place parking garage near Beale Street.

St. Jude has been ranked the top trusted nonprofit for the second year in a row.

University of Memphis baseball has a new head coach: Matt Riser, who spent the last ten seasons coaching Southen Louisiana. Under Riser, that school made four trips to the NCAA tournament.

The Downtown Holiday Inn seeks a chief engineer.

The North American Grappling Association will hold its grappling championships at the Renasant Convention Center Saturday.

There’s free admission to the National Civil Rights Museum today for Juneteenth Community Day. Are you a museum member? Today is an Appreciation Day for you. Come by for your member gift, store discount, and express entry.

There will be a Tigers on Tour – Summer Social event at Grind City Brewing this Wednesday from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. Memphis Tigers head football coach Ryan Silverfield and women’s head basketball coach Alex Simmons will address the crowd at 6:30. There will be giveaways and lawn games.

MemphisWeather.net says this is the day this week Memphis is least likely to get rain. 87/71. Nice breeze coming in from the northwest.

That’s all I could round up for today. Back tomorrow with more news.

 

The NBA draft is this week. The DM has a preview of what Memphis might do with its picks in the Grizzlies podcast.

Memphis 901 FC drew Detroit City FC last night, 0-0, to pick up one point in the USL standings.

The folks at Forbes think Ja Morant’s 25-game suspension was not enough.

The folks at Oklahoma City newspaper The Oklahoman don’t think the University of Memphis is a good fit for the Big 12.

The Memphis Quartet Show comes to the Cannon Center this Wednesday through Saturday. This show is said to feature the leading quartets of gospel music. There are different artists every evening. Schedule

The Woodruff-Fontaine House presents Junebugs & Juleps, a night of summer nostalgia, this Friday at 6 PM. Chill out on the grounds of the 19th-century mansion with Old Dominick cocktails, hors d’oeuvres that are throwbacks to days long gone, and live music by East 2 West. 21+, rain or shine. Tickets must be purchased in advance.

DJ Soul Sister will play Eight & Sand, the lounge inside Central Station Hotel, Friday night from 10:30 to 12:30.

Miss Imagene Azengraber will host Drag Bingo at STIX this Friday from 6 to 8 PM. Try some of their Pride Punch, available the entire month of June.

The African Place at 581 N. Third hosts Freedom Through Food Monday at 10 AM. This event, held on Juneteenth, is about promoting food access, food justice, and food security.

Frankie Hollie and the Noise headline Thursday’s Peabody rooftop party. 6 to 10 PM, $15 general admission, $30 to go VIP.

That’ll do it for this morning. There may or may not be enough news to warrant a post tomorrow; we’ll see.

Tonight is Ladies’ Night at Pretty Taco at Front and MLK. DJ ICON (formerly DJ Decepticon) will supply the tunes.

• Free cover for ladies
• Drink specials
• Parking garage next door

The Facebook post restaurant management made said “Dress to Impress”… ugh… dress codes don’t work very well in this city. Especially not when it’s 90 and muggy outside and people are walking around to 4 different bars in one night. I wish Pretty Taco luck with it though.

The big Memphis news is that the NBA announced Ja Morant’s suspension for conduct unbecoming to the league in the form of waving a gun around on Instagram video for the second time. He got 25 games, a reasonable raise from his 8-game suspension for the first incident.

The 2023-24 NBA schedule is not out yet, but a look at last season’s schedule suggests that Ja will be out through approximately the first week of December. He won’t be able to play in Grizzlies’ preseason games either.

Morant’s suspension will put increased importance on Tyus Jones, considered by many to be the best backup point guard in the NBA. Just about any chance Memphis had of using Jones as a bargaining chip in a trade to fill the team’s small forward need is off the table now.

Now they’ll have to find a backup PG for Jones for those 25 games. Chris Herrington of the DM weighed in on the matter. Second-year player Kennedy Chandler is available but probably isn’t ready to handle a starting role should Jones have to miss games. Herrington thinks a more viable option is to field a squad without a true point guard and with Desmond Bane as the primary ball handler.

The suspension without pay will cost Ja a little over 7 and a half million. However, Nike, with whom he has an endorsement deal, has announced they will stand by him and will not drop him from the brand.

Pink pineapples at South Point Grocery!

Bonus points for South Point NOT saying these would make good pizza toppings. Pineapple does not belong on pizza.

From WREG: WKND Hang Suite employee allegedly hits server with glass hookah pipe

There will be a burlesque show called Seduction on South Main in the upstairs of IBIS, 314 S. Main, Friday, June 23 from 8 to 11.

Dads receive their first beer free tomorrow (when starting a tab) at Grind City Brewing Co.’s Father’s Day celebration. Tacos Mondragon and SnoJunt will be the food trucks on site.

The Smoke and Rolls food truck will have All Day Brunch beginning at 1 PM today at the Ghost River Brewing Co. location at Main and Crump.

If you missed Deep Roots at Blind Bear last night, you can catch them at Loflin Yard at noon tomorrow.

There will be a Father’s Day Backyard Style Barbecue tomorrow at the Terrace at Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid. Items from the grill, classic cookout sides, and of course burgers and dogs. $50 for adults, $25 for kids 3-12.

That’s it. Back tomorrow if there’s any news.

 

Usually on this blog, I mention any lesser-known holidays that occur on the day of the post. For example, today is National Flip-Flop Day.

However, the website I use as my source only reports on national and international holidays, and therefore misses out on an important but lesser-known holiday local to Memphis.

Today is 6/16, Six-1-Six Day.

Six-1-Six, located on Marshall Avenue between Monroe and Madison in what is now The Edge, was one of the most awesome nightclub experiences ever, lasting from approximately 1990 to 1999.

There was the main dance floor, where DJ David the Worm played alternative dance music hits on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was Disco Inferno with DJ Jive and later DJ Moses manning the booth.

There was the pool room with 5 coin-operated pool tables. Next to the bar was an aquarium holding a 5-foot-long caiman and whatever goldfish were unlucky enough to be in there.

There was the live side, which hosted national touring bands. My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and K.C. and the Sunshine Band were two of the bands I heard at Six-1-Six.

Finally, there was The Dungeon, located downstairs backing up to Madison. DJs in that room tended to play lesser-known, cutting-edge tracks. A lot of folks who became well-known in the early 2000s electronic dance music scene hung out in The Dungeon in the 1990s.

On Tuesdays only The Dungeon was open. Wednesdays were $5 beer busts. They told us the beer was Bud Light but I think it was actually Natty, a switcheroo that would be adopted by my BBQ team years later.

Thursdays bottled domestics were 10 cents from 9 to 10, 25 cents from 10 to 11, and 50 cents from 11 to midnight. You better believe I was waiting outside the door at 8:59 sharp every Thursday.

The club’s last 5 years, 1994-1999, overlapped my time as a faculty member of the math & computer science department at the University of Memphis. I’d often see my students there.

Six-1-Six was 18 and up. Since it closed in 1999, the youngest people who went there (legally) turn 42 this year.

Here’s something that makes me feel old… some of the girls I made out with on Six-1-Six’s dance floor are GRANDMOTHERS now.

On to the news…

Let’s start off with one more lesser-known holiday. Today is No Orange Clothes Day. That’s a holiday that needs to be observed weekly between the last Saturday in August and the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Deep Roots plays Blind Bear tonight at 10.

Wonky’s Sweet Treats at 315 N. Main has its soft opening this Saturday at noon. DJ Calypso will supply the live music. That space would be the storefront that shares a building with Alcenia’s just north of the I-40 overpass.

The Genre at 200 Poplar is celebrating its 2nd anniversary in June. Tonight from 6 to 8 there will be free hookah and 2-for-1 green tea.

Memphis 901 FC hosts its annual Pride Night this Saturday at 7:30 PM at AutoZone Park. Detroit City FC is the opponent. A specialty ticket gets you a sideline seat and a 901 FC Pride T-shirt. A portion of ticket sales will go to Mid-South Pride.

Wednesday, June 21 is The Longest Day, the day of the year with the most sunlight. It’s a day when people come together to fight the darkness of Alzheimer’s Disease. To that end, Old Dominick Distillery will release a single-barrel whiskey with proceeds going to the fight.

Birdie’s, the virtual golf bar at 493 S. Main, will have its grand opening today through Sunday. Play some golf, drink some beer, watch the U.S. Open, win prizes.

The Daily Memphian’s $10 Deal this week is the loaded fries from Red Bones Turkey Legs, the kitchen inside Carolina Watershed.

The city’s Independence Day fireworks show will happen at Liberty Park in Midtown the evening of Monday, July 3. The relocation for the second year in a row is necessary because work on Downtown’s Tom Lee Park is still being completed.

Many people have a 3-day weekend coming up with Juneteenth, America’s newest federal holiday, on Monday.

Grind City Brewing Co. will present a Summer Luau Party at Loflin Yard this Saturday. There will be beer specials and, at 2:00, a free-to-enter cornhole tournament. First place wins a $200 gift card to Grind City’s taproom.

Electric 30 plays Earnestine & Hazel’s Saturday at 9 PM.

Ted Horrell and MCN play The Central BBQ Sessions Saturday at 1 PM at Downtown Central BBQ.

Rowdy Franks plays at 9 AM and Natalie Hall at 11 AM at Memphis Farmers Market this Saturday.

Rachel Ross, Lina Beach, Joe Austin and Brian Sherwood will perform at South Main Songwriters Night, 550 S. Main, tonight at 7.

That’ll do it for now. Back tomorrow.

 

Since the Grizzlies have told Dillon Brooks in no uncertain terms that they will not bring him back for the 2023-24 season, the team is in need of a small forward. They will want to replace at least some of The Villain’s strong defensive skills, and if they can sign a player who provides some offensive power, that’s a bonus. Beale Street Bears takes a look at the top 6 Brooks replacements Memphis might sign in NBA free agency this summer. Number one on the list? The Charlotte Hornets’ Kelly Oubre Jr.

Bleacher Report has a preview of every NBA team’s offseason. Other than replacing Brooks, here are a few items that stand out for the Grizzlies:

• The team will be below the luxury tax line and will therefore have access to the NBA’s non-taxpayer mid-level exception. That will allow Memphis to sign a player for about $12.2 million even if they’re over the salary cap.
• Extending Desmond Bane is a priority. Another Bleacher Report article predicted the offer would come in around 4 years/$100 million.
• The Grizzlies have picks number 25, 45, and 56 in the 2023 NBA draft a week from today.
• The Grizzlies can offer up to four 2024-2030 first-round picks as part of trade packages. They can also offer a protected 2024 pick they acquired from Golden State.

The Grizzlies are looking to hire a manager of AVB operations. This person will manage all aspects of the scoreboards, video boards, and scoring system.

30 Minute Ego plays Slider Inn Downtown tonight beginning at 6. There will be yard games and the Slider Rider food truck will be on site.

Congratulations to Atomic Rose on being named by TimeOut as one of the 10 best drag bars/shows in the South.

Chris Vernon, of The Chris Vernon Show on Grind City Media, will join Peacock this weekend for 4 days of coverage of the U.S. Open. My recommendation for the best place to watch would be Birdie’s golf bar at 493 S. Main.

Easy Eye Sound recording artist Nat Myers will be at River City Records next Tuesday, June 20 at 6 PM. He’ll be stopping on his way to Nashville for his album release with Yellow Peril. Free to attend, but space is limited, so get there early.

Today is National Lobster Day. My recommendation to celebrate would be Slider Inn, home of the very first lobster roll in Memphis.

Break some wind in observance of Global Wind Day.

ALSAC, St. Jude’s fundraising arm, is laying off at least 26 employees, citing financial challenges.

From Action News 5: Redbirds celebrate Black history by changing to “Red Sox”

I have the most wonderful friends a person could ask for. I’m just going to end today’s post on that note. Back tomorrow.

 

Today is Flag Day. Today is also the Trumpster’s 77th birthday. He had a big birthday eve in court, where he was arraigned on 37 criminal counts related to retaining classified documents after he left the presidency. A summary of the afternoon’s events:

• Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges, of course.
• He was booked and fingerprinted but did not have his photo taken. The judge decided that there enough photos of Trump out there that people will have no trouble identifying what he looks like.
• Trump didn’t speak; his lawyers did all the talking.
• There will be no gag order.
• Trump will keep his passport and is free to travel, even internationally.
• Trump can continue to talk to people who work for him who might be witnesses – but he can’t talk about the case.
• A legal analyst talked to POLITICO Playbook and estimated Trump’s sentence at 10-12 years if convicted.
• But… if convicted, Trump’s lawyers plan to appeal, possibly all the way to the Supreme Court.

Would Donald Trump live all the way through an extended appeals process? Quite possibly. His father, Fred Trump, lived to be 93.

Today is also National Bourbon Day.

Today at Dos Hermanos Kitchen in the Cossitt Library:

The Pulpit Is Not a Playground – The Stage Play comes to the Cannon Center this Saturday.

Bishop, the French restaurant inside Central Station Hotel, is hiring a pastry cook.

That’s all for today. Back tomorrow, hopefully.

 

 

News from Momma’s, the trucker bar at Crump and Kentucky:

The Grizzlies are running a Father’s Day sale with deals up to 65% off through today. Visit their online store and use the promo code BackCourt at checkout.

I just finished reading Clarence Saunders & The Founding of Piggly Wiggly: The Rise & Fall of a Memphis Maverick by Mike Freeman. It’s a good read about one of the city’s most colorful (and stubborn) figures. I checked it back into the library’s e-collection, or you can buy it from Amazon (linked).

Little Bettie, the pizza kitchen inside the Wiseacre Downtown taproom, has a new menu beginning today:

Kimchi hushpuppies??? Yes, please! And I would definitely pay the dollar to add chorizo!

From ABC 24: Renasant Convention Center named best convention center in America two years in a row

Pat Sajak is retiring from Wheel of Fortune after the upcoming season.

Bluesman Eric Hughes plays The Central BBQ Sessions at Central BBQ Downtown today.

Did you know that Grind City Media has an app? Download it for iOS or Android to catch The Chris Vernon Show, The Gary Parrish Show, The Jessica Benson Show, The Odds Couple, The SneakFest Show, Grizz Beat, and tons more great content. If you download the app and turn on notifications, you’ll get a special in-app, limited-time announcement this Thursday.

Kobe Bryant almost became a Memphis Grizzly when he was a free agent in 2004.

Insomnia Cookies has a Father’s Day 12-pack of cookies that come in a special Father’s Day gift box sleeve.

Grind City Brewing will hold a tasting at Buster’s Liquors on Highland Friday from 4 to 7 PM. I just hope no one drives a car through the front of the building.

Dammit! Yesterday, less than an hour after I finished eating a big meal, I got invited to The Cove out in the Broad Avenue Arts District for tamale pie. I was too stuffed to go. I love tamale pie! From their menu, where it’s called Stoner Pie: “Two LaRosa Tamales baked in a casserole boat topped with cream cheese Rotel dip and fresh ground cumin; served with Fritos. For extreme heat, ask your server for red hot chili sauce.”

I took the laptop to the Blind Bear last night and typed this post. When I got home, there was disturbing news. I may need a few days to deal with it. And even after that, I may not be in the mood to post for a while. Close friends, please stay in touch.

Yesterday I was sitting at home watching The Love Boat on local channel 30.2. Harry Morgan (who played Col. Sherman Potter on M*A*S*H) was a passenger on the ship. He played Gopher, then Isaac, then Julie in gin rummy, and they lost hundreds of dollars to Morgan. Doc figured out the secret: Morgan was playing with a marked deck.

The crew devised an elaborate scheme to give Morgan his comeuppance: Gopher playing, Doc spying on Morgan’s hand with binoculars, Isaac broadcasting thinly-veiled hints over the PA system as to the cards Morgan held. Within minutes, I surmised I would see Morgan lose all the money he won from the crew, and then some.

Except, I didn’t.

At approximately 4:46, the lights flickered a couple of times. Then the power went out completely in my apartment.

The TV went black.

The clocks went black.

My MacBook kicked over to battery power. But my router was dead, so I couldn’t pass the time by getting on the Internet.

Even the toilet wouldn’t refill with water when I flushed it.

Worst of all on a June day in Memphis, my air conditioner shut off.

After enduring 10 minutes of darkness and boredom, I opened my apartment’s front door. The lights were on in the hallway, making me believe it was just my unit.

“Did MLGW mistakenly cut me off?” I wondered. I am current on my account with the utility company. I just got a new bill for $106, but it’s not due until the last week of the month. Besides, I didn’t think they did cutoffs on Sunday.

I decided to get on Twitter and see if there was any news of outages. I took my phone off Wi-Fi so it wouldn’t try to connect to the dead router. But it couldn’t get cell service. Now I was really confused.

I put sandals on and rode the elevator downstairs. In the lobby I ran into my building’s maintenance engineer. “It’s the entire building,” he told me. “The power’s out all the way to the Pyramid.”

Wow, that’s unusual. I’ve been told my building is on a double circuit, buried underground, and it’s the same circuit St. Jude is on. That circuit is priority-one for MLGW. In 20 years in my current home, I have lost power maybe three times. Even during 2003’s Hurricane Elvis, I never lost power.

I stepped outside in the rain onto the Main Street Mall. I looked north and the traffic lights were out as far as I could see.

Then I looked south. The light at Monroe was out, but the lights at Gayoso and Union were working. “That means Blind Bear is open,” I thought. “I’ll go there and use their Wi-Fi to get on Twitter.”

MLGW tweeted that there were many outages, but it was hard to tell the extent. Their outage map showed 10-100 customers in my area without power, but in my building alone MLGW has 112 customers.

By the time I returned home at 11 PM, the power was back on. Weird thing though… my AT&T service remains knocked out. Not sure what’s going on there. If you need to reach me today, might want to use Facebook Messenger as opposed to text. (EDIT: It’s fixed now. I can receive texts.)

On to the news…

The I-55 bridge is back open. It was closed over the weekend for construction.

MWN says we’ll have wonderful weather today! Light north wind, 81/65. As we get toward tomorrow morning there could be a shower or storm.

Today is National Jerky Day. I’d recommend a visit to DGX to celebrate. They have many varieties.

Things are looking good at The Peanut Shoppe!

The annual Juneteenth Festival happens in Health Sciences Park Saturday and Sunday.

WREG has the story behind Juneteenth and how it became a federal holiday.

A Downtown liquor store is for sale. $340,000 is the asking price.  The address is not listed.

Astronomers say there is a highly habitable planet just 4 light-years away.

FiveThirtyEight editors’ chat: Why the latest Trump indictment looks so bad for him

That’s all for now. Time for me to catch up on the stuff I didn’t get done yesterday. Back tomorrow with more news.

Congratulations to Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach Darko Rajakovic, who has been hired as head coach by the Toronto Raptors.

Memphis 901 FC improved its season record to 6-2-3 with a road win over Louisville City FC Saturday night, 3-1. The Memphis squad has not lost a match since March 29 and sits in fourth place in the USL Eastern Conference standings. Next up: at home vs. Central City Football Club at 7:30 PM on Saturday, June 17.

Today is Corn on the Cob Day.

Showers and thunderstorms are possible today after 3 PM into the early evening. MWN has the probability at 70%. High 86, low 65, both of which are a few degrees below normal for this time of year.

Want to own a retail storefront in the up-and-coming Edge District? There’s one for sale at 433 Madison. That’d be on the south side of the street, near the intersection of Lauderdale and a short walk from The Ravine.

Gia Welch Trio is the featured entertainment this Thursday at Live at the Tracks at Central Station Hotel this Thursday. 6:30-9:30 PM.

Bobcat will play at the Hard Rock Cafe this Wednesday from 5 to 8 PM.

Seeing Red headlines this Thursday’s Peabody rooftop party. 6-10 PM, $15 general admission, $30 to go VIP, hotel guests free before 7.

The South Main Association’s monthly South Main Social will be held this Tuesday at The Medicine Factory, an art gallery and event space that also hosts long-term studio spaces for artists, at 85 W. Virginia Ave. one block north of Crump. Free for SMA members, $20 for non-members. 6-8 PM with complimentary drinks, light fare, a DJ, and the following speakers:

• Joseph Lewis from The Medicine Factory/Dose
• Amy Carkuff from Parachute Investment Company
• Cori McCleskey from Remember Media

The Cossitt Library will hold 901 Kids Fest from 11 AM to 3 PM on Saturday, June 24. There will be a vendor’s market, food trucks and food vendors, an author’s corner, interactive stations, giveaways, performances, and screenings. Free admission. The first 100 attendees get free food tickets (must RSVP; your RSVP also gets you a swag bag).

That’s all the news I’ve got for today. Back tomorrow.