Author: paulryburn

For those of you who are not friends with me on Facebook, I’ll share a little rant I posted there yesterday. I was sitting at Panda’s bar at Bardog. In an hour and a half, there were four Russell Stover commercials pimping Valentine’s Day candy.

Guys, don’t be one of “those people” who buys Russell Stover candy for your girl. If you aren’t familiar with “those people” I’m talking about, Germantown exists for those people. Chevrolet Suburbans exist for those people. Applebee’s and Red Lobster exist for those people. And Russell Stover exists for those people. Don’t be those people.

There’s a locally-owned, family-run store in the heart of Downtown where you can choose from a huge selection of candy, nuts, and other treats for your Valentine. The Peanut Shop is a little shop on the Main Street Mall, halfway between Madison and Monroe. The friendliest people you will ever meet will help you pick out a custom selection for your Valentine and they have beautiful tins and other gift packages in which to put your candy. They will remember you by name years later and ask how your sweetheart is doing. It’s a little store but it’s a big part of what makes Downtown the community it is.

The Tennessee Equality Project Gumbo Contest and Mardi Gras party is this afternoon at BRIDGES at 4:30. Your ticket (purchase here) lets you taste gumbos from some of the best cooking teams in Memphis, vote in the People’s Choice Award, and enjoy live music, beer, and soft drinks. Those under 21 are welcome, and there’s a special ticket they can purchase that gets them everything but the beer. They released the list of gumbo judges on Wednesday and I am pleased to see my friend Tawanda Pirtle on the panel. She certainly knows a thing or two about food. I don’t believe I will be able to make it to this event, but I am proud to be a straight person who fully supports equality for Tennessee’s LGBT community.

The Metal Museum is having a special Champagne Sunday today where you can sip champagne while looking for artist-made Valentine’s Day gifts.

Two of the best teams in the NBA collide today at FedExForum when the Memphis Grizzlies take on the Atlanta Hawks at 5.

Ever thought about being a teacher? There will be a teacher job fair at the Downtown Central BBQ at 5 Tuesday afternoon, hosted by Teach901. More than 20 organizations will be there to talk to those interested in pursuing a career as an educator.

Sunday Fun Day time… brunch with Bloom at Bardog at 11, D-RANKS with B-RAD at Blind Bear at 1 and then I’ll figure out the rest. By the way I’ve written a D-RANKS with B-RAD theme song that you may hear later today…

Big news: Tennessee Brewery Untapped is returning this spring as Revival.

Also, Billy Orgel, the new owner of the Tennessee Brewery, will speak about speak about his plans for the brewery’s redevelopment at a public meeting at Emerge Memphis, down the street from the brewery Monday at 7:30 PM. Q&A will follow his presentation and refreshments will be served. Orgel’s 22-year-old son Benjamin will be project leader for Revival.

There’s a new Tennessee Brewery Facebook page that you can “Like”.

Google Chrome now allows you to establish a remote desktop connection to any PC over the Internet. Chrome makes you set up a PIN so that people can’t establish unauthorized remote connections to your computer.

Next Wednesday, February 11, Central BBQ Downtown will host a Grizzlies/Thunder watch party with Ghost River Brewing. The restaurant will have the brand new Ghost River Grindhouse Ale for $3 a pint all evening.

Radio Shack filed for bankruptcy this week. Here’s a look at Radio Shack’s 1981 catalog, published in an era when Radio Shack produced the world’s most popular personal computer.

A $2 million building permit has been filed to finish development of The Horizon, the tower on Riverside that has sat unfinished for most of the past decade.

Now this is pretty cool… an external power pack that will not only recharge your phone, but also jump-start your car.

From Toyland: Build your own Pac-Man ghost-chomping clock

The WWE’s Daniel Bryan was in town today doing promotional appearances for the Fast Lane pay-per-view two weeks from Sunday. He was on the Chris Vernon Show and Verno got a photo. Hey, I just noticed that Daniel Bryan and I have pretty much the same hair.

Work week is over, time for a PBR. Back tomorrow or Sunday with more news.

Usually I don’t post until about 1, but one of my co-workers just showed up with freezza (free pizza, someone gave him 4 pies). That changes lunch plans considerably! Early post today.

There are several events happening relatively early in the day Downtown tomorrow. The annual Polar Bear Plunge and Chili Cook-off will happen tomorrow on Mud Island. Notable times to keep in mind if you plan on attending: There will be a People’s Choice judging of the chili from 10:30 to 3. The chili teams will have their showmanship judging at 11. There will be a donut eating contest at 2, a Polar Bear Plunge costume contest at 2:30, the plunge into the freezing Mississippi River at 3, and an awards ceremony at 4. With an expected high of 62 tomorrow, the plunge won’t be quite as brutal as it is most years.

Chili teams: Feel free to contact me if you want advice from “Mr. Load-in” on the showmanship competition.

At 10 tomorrow, the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum will have a “Spirit of Harriet Tubman & African music & spirituals” program. There will be poetry, spoken word, slave narratives, readings, and guest writer Calentine Thompson. The museum is at 826 N. Second just north of Chelsea Avenue.

At noon, the Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team will host Temple at the FedExForum. Following the men’s game there will be a women’s game.

Today is “First Friday” at the Woodruff-Fontaine House at 680 Adams. These are monthly gatherings of 20-30 guests from 6 to 9 PM that focus on a particular facet of Victorian history. This month’s theme is “Victorian Valentine”. Guests will get a spread of chocolate treats, a look at Tom Shelton’s collection vintage Vanity Fair “Spy” prints, and a look at the refurbished men’s tower room with the mansion’s men’s archival collection. $15.

Memphis Beer Week has a new website. It’s April 18-25 this year.

Here’s an app that was recommended in an email newsletter I receive weekly: TinyScan. It turns your iPhone’s camera into a portable scanner. You take pictures of documents, TinyScan transforms them into PDFs, which you can then send to Dropbox, Evernote, or Google Drive. That could be very useful.

The Memphis Redbirds unveiled a new birds on the bat logo yesterday.

Yesterday at lunch I got on Bleacher Report and one of the featured articles was Secrets to being the NBA’s premier star stopper. I thought to myself, “I wonder if this is about Tony Allen?” Sure enough it was.

The police sweeps that were used for crowd control on Beale a couple of years ago have been ruled unconstitutional and now a federal judge will decide how the city of Memphis will be punished.

May be a second post later today, so check back.

Important Moody Ques BBQ team information: We have to submit our application to Memphis in May on February 20 and write them a fairly sizable check. Since we lost the sponsor we had last year, we have less money in our account than we normally do this time of year. We have some good leads on new sponsors but we probably won’t get money from them by the 20th. Therefore, we need 8 members to pay their dues by February 20 or it may not be feasible for the Moody Ques to exist as a team this year, which would be a shame after winning Best Booth in 2014. You can pay via PayPal here or get a check to one of the team leaders (since I’m out and about a lot, you can give checks to me and I will make sure they get passed along).

If you were on the team any time in the past three years, you should have received an email from the team. If you did not, shoot me an email at paul@paulryburn.com and I will forward it to you. You can also email me if you have never been a member of the Moody Ques but are interested in joining. We still have spots open for sponsorship too.

The Downtown Kooky Canuck location will be the location for filming of a currently-airing Food Network show next Sunday, February 15 from 11 AM to 8 PM. They are looking for 15 people to be part of the episode. If you want to be one of those 15, post a 30-second video to Kooky Canuck’s Facebook wall explaining why you love the restaurant. You are encouraged to be wild, crazy, and of course, kooky in the video.

Even if you’re not selected as one of the featured guests, there will be an opportunity to be in the background. They will be filming all day.

One more Kooky fact: Co-owner Lana posted that their kitchen is open until 2:30 AM every night. Good to know. I did not realize they served food that late.

Job hunter alert: Inferno is hiring an account executive with 3-5 years experience.

Grizzlies majority owner Robert Pera is on the roster for the NBA Celebrity All-Star Game, which will happen next Friday, February 13 at 6 PM. Game to be televised on ESPN. Here’s the entire roster.

From High Ground News: Driving transit reform: New leadership at MATA may be just the ticket. I too have hope for the future of our city’s public transportation after reading this articles and others. It’s just that the new leadership has a giant mess to clean up that was left by the old, incompetent leadership. It will take years to get everything the way it needs to be.

The private Ride the Roo shuttle that connects Overton Square and Cooper-Young is pet-friendly. You can use it to travel between places on the route that have dog-friendly patios, such as Chiwawa and Slider Inn.

That’s all for now. BBQ teammates, PAY YOUR DUES! I’ll be at the Silly Goose from 5:45ish to 8:00ish if anyone wants to drop off a check.

Plans for One Beale are back on the table. Carlisle Corp. tried to start on this massive project eight years ago, but had to abandon it when the recession hit. Now they are ready to take another shot. One Beale is proposed to consist of two towers, one 30 stories tall, that would include 300 hotel rooms and 280 apartments, as well as office space and space for meetings and retail. It will be located at the corner of Riverside and Beale.

I don’t normally post a lot of Valentine’s Day-related events on account of the fact that Valentine’s Day sucks, but for beer dinners I will make an exception. The downtown Central BBQ and Wiseacre Brewing Co. are hosting “LoveMeatBeer: An Almost Valentine’s Day Dinner” on Thursday, February 12 at 6:30 PM. Seating is limited; call 901-672-7760 or email JC@cbqmemphis.com to reserve your seat.

Live music recommendation: The Eric Hughes Trio plays the Blind Bear Saturday night at 10. Great band, great venue. Note to self: My “halftime” nap on Saturday cannot last until 8 AM Sunday morning as has happened the last two Saturdays.

Bluff City Coffee is going to start doing “Bake Sale Fridays” starting not this Friday but next, February 13. The sale will start at 6:30 AM and last until they sell out.

Also on February 13, the Say Cheese gourmet grilled cheese food truck will make its debut, parked outside the High Cotton tap room from 4 to 9 PM. More info here.

If you go to South of Beale and like the art you see on the wall, their artist is giving away a painting. Go here for details on what you need to do to enter to win.

From Thrillist: Bad decision bars in Memphis. This is awesome even though a couple of my favorite Downtown joints made the list. I’d suggest that the author go to Silly Goose about 12:30 AM on a weekend night; she might have a 15th item on her list if she did. By the way, to clarify, going to these bars are not bad decisions in and of themselves; it’s that you tend to make a lot of bad decisions once you are inside.

Google is close to launching a ride-hailing app that would compete with Uber and Lyft.

Be careful if you’re out driving late tonight, because rain will fall early evening and it could turn into snow. No late-night driving for me, just some PBR. I’ll kick the evening off at the Silly Goose (where I hopefully won’t make any bad decisions) about 5:30 this afternoon.

On Monday, February 23, there will be a fundraiser for Cozy Corner. The popular BBQ restaurant on North Parkway caught on fire early last month. It will have to be rebuilt to meet current codes, and not all of the costs are covered by insurance. So, some of the city’s best chefs are stepping in to lend a hand, preparing delicious food to help Cozy Corner get its doors back open.

The Lion King begins its 4-week run at the Orpheum tonight.

Another day, another call for artists: The DMC is looking for artists to design new banners that hang from lamp posts on the Main Street Mall. Deadline to submit application and proposed sketches is March 3.

Chez Philippe will host a 5-course wine dinner on Wednesday, February 23 featuring food by Chef Andreas Kisler paired with wines from Silverado Vineyards in Napa Valley. Here’s the menu.

A judge in San Francisco has ruled that Lyft and Uber drivers should be treated as employees, not independent contractors, in what could be a setback for ride-sharing services.

Congratulations to Bleu on winning the Best Dessert award at Soup Sunday.

Libertyland’s Grand Carousel will reappear in 2017, at the Children’s Museum of Memphis.

Here’s a “You’re so Memphis if you…” story from the Memphis Flyer website: A new business called Chicken and Checks will offer payday loans and, presumably, sell chicken.

You just can’t make this shit up (pardon the pun): Mashable has an article about how to know if you’d be a good poop donor. No kidding, this is a thing. Donors are paid up to $13,000 a year.

That’ll do it for now. There may be enough news for an after-work second post today. We shall see. On the fence about whether I’ll play Blind Bear poker tonight at 8. Not really in a poker mood, but then, what else is there to do on Tuesday. Once again, we shall see.

This is awesome: Jimmy the groundhog bites the mayor of Sun Prarie, Wisconsin. Stupid mayor. Enjoy those rabies shots you’ve got coming!

From the Onion: Depressed groundhog sees the shadow of the rodent he once was

Capriccio Grille in the Peabody is doing a “Lion King” pre-theatre dinner tomorrow through March 1 from 5 PM to 7 PM. The menu features upscale cuisine from the African continent, served prior to the beginning of the shows at the Orpheum. You can view the menu here. $40 per person.

Several hundred people showed up for the first day of Bass Pro’s three-day job fair.

There’s a Groupon going on for Memphis Magazine subscriptions. You can get 50% off for one, two, or three years.

This month’s South Main Association meeting will be next Tuesday, February 10 at 6 PM, It will be at the new Rizzo’s Diner at the corner of South Main and Butler. Historian Jimmy Ogle will be the speaker, talking about the history behind the walls of South Main buildings. Rizzo’s will provide appetizers and there will he happy hour drink prices. Free for SMA members, $10 for non-members.

Artists are wanted to paint the kiosks on Main Street. Details here. You have until Tuesday, February 17 to apply.

FiveThirtyEight has a Super Bowl version of Significant Digits that is pretty interesting.

If you missed the Grizzlies Live pre-game show on Saturday night, you missed a special guest: THE NAIT’CHA BOY was stylin’ and profilin’. However, the show is on YouTube if you want to catch Ric Flair’s appearance.

Sorry there was no post on my lunchtime break. We had construction people in the office re-configuring cubicles and there was so much banging around and noise that I couldn’t hear myself think. Better late than never I guess. Back tomorrow with more news.

I had a nice long post ready to go yesterday at lunchtime, but I never moved my hosting off GoDaddy and the server was being a little bitch so I couldn’t post. Is it time to make the move? GoDaddy is bad. They’re not Comcast/Xfinity bad, they’re not Delta Airlines bad, they’re not MATA bad, but they’re not good. Plus a lot of my friends who are dog owners are pissed off about their Super Bowl commercial. I don’t have any pets so I have no dog in this hunt (probably a poor choice of words there) but it’s not good that so many of my friends are upset with my hosting provider.

By the way, if you want a permanent canine companion or even a temporary one, talk to the folks at Streetdog Foundation. They do good work.

Here’s yesterday post as is. It should have had a 1 PM 1/30/15 timestamp, so “today” means yesterday and “tomorrow” means today.

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The Grizzlies game tomorrow night will have more than just wrestling belts for the first 3000 fans in the door (doors open 5 PM, no early entry for MVPs this time so everyone has an equal chance to get a belt). There will be wrestling luminaries in attendance. Dave Brown tweeted that the longtime hosts of Memphis wrestling, himself and Lance Russell, will be in attendance. Also there, Dave said, will be Jerry “The King” Lawler and 16-time NWA, WCW, and WWE champion “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.

Wait, what?

The kiss-stealin’, wheelin’-dealin’, Lear jet-flying, limousine-ridin’ son of a gun is going to be there?

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There’s a “Baby Hold on to Me” musical tonight at the Cannon Center at 8 tonight, celebrating the life of soul singer, songwriter and producer Gerald Levert.

Garden Path at 597 Madison will host a workshop on mosaics tomorrow from 1 to 4. Learn about cutting tile and glass, as well as about adhesives, grouting, and substrates. You’ll be given everything you need to create a small project, and you can buy enough to make a larger project if you wish. $50 fee for the class.

If you want to be a mentor, here’s a link where you can sign up for the Grizzlies’ TEAM UP program.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has a civilian deckhand position open.

The Church Health Center is hiring an audit and control specialist.

The Brass Door is going to have a $15 tailgate buffet and $12 buckets of Bud and Bud Light Sunday for the Super Bowl.

Ghost River Brewing’s dock at Main and Crump is open until 6 today and 3 tomorrow for your Super Bowl needs.

From Choose901: Plans have been revealed for renovating the historic Toof Building at 195 Madison.

This 5-day work week feels like it has lasted about 9 days. Ready for the weekend. No significant plans but I’ll be out somewhere after work.

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Saturday 8:44 AM: Okay, that’s the “Friday update” post. I just woke up and went to City Market for a sausage biscuit and liter Mountain Dew. Let me look around and see if there’s enough news to warrant a Saturday post.

Happy birthday to Grizzlies All-Star Marc Gasol, who turns 30 today.

For Memphians who have moved away, you have a rare opportunity to see your Grizzlies on TV tonight. The Grizzlies’ home game vs. the Denver Nuggets will be broadcast on TNT tonight at 7. You’ll want to tune in for the pre-game, though, because the All-Star reserve players will be announced. Both Zach Randolph and Mike Conley have a chance at making the team, with Conley being more of a longshot not because of a lack of talent, but because there are a lot of good point guards in the Western Conference right now.

If you didn’t make it to Soup Sunday four days ago, you can still taste one of the winners. Chicken Velvet Soup is Bardog Tavern’s Soup of the Day today.

Central BBQ is selling 6- and 12-packs of ‘que for Super Bowl watch parties. $22.99 for the 6, or $38.99 for the 12.

John Mellencamp’s Plain Spoken tour will make a stop at the Orpheum Tuesday, June 23.

Voting was delayed on the issue of whether to take away the Pinch District’s National Historic Register status. Losing the status could make development easier in the neighborhood, which will boom once Bass Pro opens in May.

More bad publicity for everyone’s least favorite cable company: Comcast apologizes for changing customer’s first name to “Asshole”

I’m not a gamer, but nevertheless, I have a game recommendation: Resident Evil 3. In this game, a character named Jill who has a tube top on gets chased by zombies. If I ever become a zombie, I hope I get to chase some hot women in tube tops.

Note for my fellow pro wrestling fans: Starting Sunday, February 1, if you sign up for the WWE Network they’ll give you February for free, including the Fast Lane pay-per-view to be held here in Memphis and the next of the awesome NXT Takeover specials.

I hadn’t played the Wednesday night poker game at Bardog in two years, but for some reason yesterday seemed like the right day to check it out. It’s a good game and Joe has come up with two innovations that really help: First of all, the blind clock is on the big-screen TV, where everyone can see it, and it shows not only the current blind level but the next. That’s really helpful in figuring out how aggressive you need to be. Also, Joe has two decks at every table, so the person in the small blind can shuffle and have the cards ready to cut and deal by the time the button moves and they become the dealer. That allows more hands to be played per blind level, which makes the game more likely to be decided by skill rather than luck.

I won’t become an every-week regular at Bardog poker, because I have a bartender at Silly Goose who would not be happy if I left her bar early every week. However, I will go back from time to time. It was an enjoyable Wednesday night. As a bonus, last night they had their Rancher’s Pie on special – beef brisket covered in chipotle mashed potatoes, carrots, onion, and cheese.

The same bartender works at the Goose tonight, so I will lead off there after work. Plans for the rest of the evening TBD.

Friday night is a chance for you to relive your childhood in Downtown Memphis. Remember when you were little, and you played “let’s pretend”? Well, Friday night you can pretend there’s a trolley for South Main Trolley Night. Many shops and galleries in the area will stay open until 9 or later, with some having special discounts and some putting out appetizers, beer, or wine for their guests. As I mentioned earlier this week, there will be a singer/songwriter night at 550 S. Main, and there will also be live music at the Green Beetle, Double J, Grawemeyer’s, and Cafe Pontotoc.

Update on the Grizzlies wrestling championship belt giveaway happening at Saturday night’s game: The FedExForum will open at 5 PM, TWO hours early as opposed to the usual one hour. There are only 3000 belts, so if you want a belt plan your schedule accordingly.

Thrillist, the useful and informative list site that covers many large cities, has come to Memphis. The first list is a list of the 14 most essential restaurants in Memphis. Downtown restaurants mentioned include Central BBQ, Chez Philippe, Gus’s, the Rendezvous, and Alcenia’s.

There’s a fundraiser for ArtsMemphis called “A Dollar Goes a Long Way” at the James Lee House this evening. However, if you want to attend the event, you will have to part with 225 of those dollars. More info here.

The Memphis Tigers host the ECU Pirates tonight at the FedExForum at 8.

ApplePay is coming to thousands of vending machines. If you have an iPhone 6 or 6 Plus, it will be easier than ever to get that bag of Cheetos.

Seen in my Facebook news feed: Crocheted man shorts are sure to be all the rage this summer. If you ever see me in a pair of these, you totally have permission to punch me in the face.

Poker news: The World Series of Poker is changing its Main Event payout structure this year. In recent years, the $10,000 buy-in event had a guaranteed first-place payout of $10,000,000. This year first place will pay less but 1000 players will be guaranteed to finish in the money. If the number of entries remains consistent with last year about 15% of the field will be paid.

Speaking of poker, I came in third in Blind Bear poker last night, earning a $10 gift card and an extra point in the race to the final table in April. Fact I learned last night that I’ll share with poker hosts/tournament directors who read this blog: Cougars don’t like to be seated next to me at poker tables.

After work, I’ll lead off at the Silly Goose as usual on Wednesday, but to borrow a phrase from my friend Neal “you neva, eva know” where else I might pop up later in the evening. Weather will be warm enough for me to wear my favorite winter outfit of PBR hoodie, shorts, and sandals. Fun afternoon ahead at work (I get to configure a WordPress installation!) then out about 5:30 for dranks.