Author: paulryburn

Before I get to the local news in this post, I have to file this one under the “people never cease to amaze me” department: Man creates GoFundMe account to pay to travel go on spring break with his girlfriend, to make sure that she doesn’t cheat on him while she is away. Why would he even bother being with someone who he is so sure would cheat? And why would the girl stay with a man who thinks so little of her that he assumes she cheats? I don’t get people. If I didn’t trust someone, I wouldn’t be in a relationship with her, no matter how hot she is.

This Saturday, the Metal Museum will have a Cosmic Trunk show from 10 to 5. The artisan market will feature an array of jewelry, housewares and sculpture by artists affiliated with Tennessee Craft-Southwest. The Stick’em food truck will be on hand, and there will be a cash bar. Free to attend.

Bikes and Beers, a fundraiser for Cystic Fibrosis, will depart from the Flying Saucer Sunday, April 12. For $10 you can join a bicycle ride along the Mississippi River and Main Street. There will be a poker run with great prizes, and afterward you can have a pint at the Saucer. Registration at 11, departure at 12. The event is sponsored by Yazoo Brewery.

Another meeting has been set to discuss the future of Riverside Drive. None of the options to be discussed include a return to four lanes.

There’s a job opportunity at Youth Villages for a Family Intervention Specialist.

High Ground News reports that four of the University of Memphis’ graduate programs rank among the best in the nation.

I found an article about the tech support scam I told you to warn elderly relatives about. Someone from India calls, claiming to be a Microsoft employee. They say they will “fix” (actually, install malware) on your computer if you will Western Union them $99 (actually rings up as $207). Don’t fall for this.

Related, here’s another good anti-scam article: Five things banks will never ask online

Home after work. Just ran into my former leasing manager on the elevator, and she told me I haven’t been very active on Facebook lately. I haven’t???? I’ll try to do better. Maybe I’m more active in the summer months, when it’s tube top weather. Anyway, I’m out, heading to the Goose for some happy hour PBR.

I came home to a nice surprise yesterday. Someone had left a green shamrock PBR headband and wristband on my front door. THANK YOU! I wore them last night.

I was quickly reminded why St. Pat’s is not exactly my favorite holiday: The bars get way too crowded. I led off at Bardog, where Panda had apparently taken an old Flying Saucer schoolgirl skirt and washed it in scalding hot water to shrink it. I had a couple of green PBRs.

From there I walked over to the Silly Goose. It was almost 7 by this point and the bar, while I would not yet call it packed, was too busy for one bartender. They probably should have had their 7:30 person come in at 6. Besides, all the seats at the bar were taken. Never knew Bob had a human bobblehead for a twin. I moved on to Blind Bear, where Hanin and my favorite pair of librarian glasses were dressed up in green outfits. The librarian glasses put a Jameson necklace on me, but I felt it diluted my PBR brand so I took it off after a while. They moved poker back to 6:30 so it could get done before the live music started. It was hard for the poker players to get to the restroom quickly after folding an unwanted hand because Bob’s twin kept getting in the way in the aisle. I left before the live music started because it got too crowded. Early night and I’m fine with that.

On to the news. The Rolling Stones are said to be coming to Tennessee this year, although not Memphis. They will play LP Field in Nashville.

Redbirds single-game tickets for 2015 will go on sale beginning this Saturday. Box office hours are 10-6 weekdays, 10-3 Saturday, closed Sunday. Tickets for all regular-season games will be on sale, as well as for the April 3 exhibition against the St. Louis Cardinals. Tickets for that game are $40 for Club Level seats, $35 for Dugout, $25 for Field Box, and $15 for Bluff seating. First pitch at 6:05.

The Weather Channel published a list of cities to avoid if you have bad allergies. Memphis is number 2. Number 1 was Louisville. I have never been to Louisville, but I went to Lexington frequently when I had my traveling corporate trainer job, and let me tell you, my allergies have never been worse than when I was there.

Spot, the most famous and adored dog in kids’ literature, is coming to the Orpheum Friday, April 10 at 6:30. Come early for Spot-inspired pre-show activities. Recommended for kids 3 and up.

Usual spots after work. Undecided whether I will play Bardog poker this evening.

From FiveThirtyEight: Why 5 seeds are jinxed. Not good news for my Razorbacks. I have seen a lot of brackets that have Wofford picked to upset the Hogs tomorrow night. I really hope there is no upset, because I really feel like Arkansas can beat the winner of North Carolina/Harvard.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day and the weather should be beautiful for celebrating this evening. The biggest celebration Downtown happens on Beale outside of Silky’s, with The Raising of the Goat at 5, the Blessing of the Kegs at 5:30, and the Beale Street Pub Crawl at 6. Not sure if they are still operating on “Silky time” now that Silky is no longer with us; if they are, expect these events to actually begin 40-50 minutes after the posted start time.

If you’re looking for other events going on, here are a few. Bardog will have its annual Erin Go Braghless celebration with drink specials and giveaways. Last Saturday Panda described the outfits she and Maddison will have on for happy hour, and it doesn’t sound like there’s much to them.

Kooky Canuck will have $3 34 oz. green beer all day.

Local will have Jameson drink specials.

Flying Saucer will have an Irish menu and drink specials. The Real McCoys and the Memphis Bagpipers will perform.

I don’t have a list of specials, but Irish pub The Brass Door on Madison would be a good place to celebrate St. Pat’s.

Blind Bear is in day 3 of its St. Pat’s Speakeasy Style celebration, with specials on green beer (actually regular beer in a green bottle) and Jameson specials. One of the servers just messaged me that they will be dressed up.

Pam & Terry play Double J tonight from 5 to 7:45.

Out in the Edge, Kuzdu’s will have an Irish sing-a-long starting at 9 PM.

On to the other news. If you like documentaries, you can watch thousands of them for free.

Meet the Internet’s hottest new domain: .sucks.

Behind the Headlines: Paul Morris who runs DMC on the state of Downtown Memphis.

Have you seen this man? He has been caught on camera burglarizing cars in Downtown Memphis.

I’ll be out for St. Pat’s after work. No planned schedule tonight, just going to go with the flow.

The last words of my post yesterday were “No Fireball today.”

Famous last words.

I got to the Blind Bear a few minutes after 11, and B-RAD and Jamie were there. Before 11:20 I found myself doing a shot of Grand Marnier. Then Jason and Joeybagadonuts showed up and ordered breakfast shots. “And get Paul a shot of Fireball.” Geez. Then Rahul and Tony showed up. Rahul asked me to rub his shoulders. I said no. Then he asked me to dance and asked if I wanted to make out. I needed another shot of Fireball to put that conversation out of my mind. Rahul, I’m not easy. You have to at least take me out to dinner first. And if you take me to someplace like Chili’s, forget about it. Put some thought into it.

Selection Sunday came on at 5, and my Hogs were rewarded with a 5 seed in the NCAA tournament in what looks like a rather soft region. Overrated North Carolina is the 4 seed the Razorbacks could potentially play on Saturday. The Hogs are having their best season since the Nolan Richardson/Corliss Williamson/Scotty Thurman years, and I think they could take down the Tar Heels. Then again, North Carolina may not even make it to Saturday: They have to play Harvard in a game many are seeing as a potential upset.

The only school in the West bracket with Arkansas that truly scares me is ‘Zona, although I have to admit I am not much familiar with Wisconsin.

Heh. Ole Miss has to play in the “First Four” play-in game. They play BYU tomorrow at 8:10. I will be rooting for the Cougars in this one.

For those schools in the same bracket as Kentucky: I truly feel sorry for you. Kentucky manhandled the Razorbacks in the SEC tournament finals yesterday.The NCAA tournament is really about seeing who the second-best team in the country is, because it looks like a foregone conclusion that Kentucky will win. In that region, Valpo over Maryland is an upset I expect to happen.

As for the Memphis Tigers, they didn’t even make the NIT.

FiveThirtyEight has posted their statistical predictions for the NCAA tournament bracket, giving Kentucky a 41% chance to win it all.

Here’s a US map of where you can legally drink alcohol on the streets. I will file this map under “Places I want to visit one day.”

After saying the trolleys wouldn’t be back anytime soon, MATA is once again shooting for a May deadline to have some kind of trolley service up and running.

Memphis was named as one of tour cities offering one of four cities offering the best work/live/play environment for millenials by the Wall Street Journal. The others were Nashville, Brooklyn, and Portland.

If you missed the Beale Street St. Pat’s parade, the Memphis Flyer has pictures.

Sometimes you have to listen to what’s not being said. That’s the lesson I learned this weekend. I just wished I’d learned it Saturday afternoon rather than Monday morning. I have a feeling that although I meant well, I made life more difficult for a friend than I meant to. Friend, if you’re reading this check your Facebook messages. The last one I sent (meaning, the one where I wasn’t drunk or hung over) is radically different from the others.

I’ll be out after work. Not sure if I will do Melissa Monday at Bardog or shake up the schedule a bit.

How many times in this blog have I said I am definitely, positively going to go to an event and then not gone? Quite a few, I think. Add one to the list as of yesterday.

I said I was going to go to the Beale Street St. Patrick’s Day parade. However, the Arkansas-Georgia game started at 2:25, 35 minutes before the parade. I was at the Blind Bear and dammit, Bobby Portis and Michael Qualls are just so much fun to watch. I decided I would watch until halftime, then walk down to the parade. So I ordered another PBR from my favorite pair of librarian glasses, who talked me into a couple of Fireball shots as well. And then my fangirl showed up. I haven’t seen my fangirl since January 3, but we’re Facebook friends and she is one of the coolest, most interesting people I know. And she’s beautiful. And single, although she wouldn’t be if I had anything to say about it. Once my fangirl showed up, I had little interest in the parade. I hope it went well and I hope Bones didn’t get hit in the head with a cabbage this year.

Arkansas beat Georgia to advance to the SEC tournament finals. The Hogs play Kentucky at noon today, and that is going to force a change in my schedule. Blind Bear is my preferred place to watch sports in the Downtown core, so I am going to lead off with D-RANKS with B-RAD at 11. I don’t think Colin, Jeannette, and Jamie intended to own one of the best sports bars in the city when they opened their speakeasy, but that’s what happened. By the way, 3 days of St. Pat’s drink specials begin today at the Bear at 11.

There’s a restaurant called Twisted RAnCh opening in St. Louis in which every menu item is either served with ranch dressing on the side, tossed in ranch dressing, or spread with ranch. Menu items are as diverse as lasagna, mac & cheese, and flatbread. Also, the restaurant has 18 different varieties of homemade ranch.

There’s a Groupon for custom bobbleheads going on right now. If you are a Silly Goose regular, go up there and ask to see the bobbleheads made of Daniel, Backey, and Jeff. The Backey one is particularly on point, even the hat.

Last night I had a BBQ teammate hand me dues for the team, and I didn’t want to be carrying it around all night so I walked home. I had the pleasure of riding up the elevator with two awesome Downtowners who got engaged minutes before I ran into them. He showed me her left hand. “I like it, so I put a ring on it,” he said. Good job, and congratulations to both of you.

Reading a bio of Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and am so incredibly embarrassed for my home state. When I was growing up, we elected statesmen like Dale Bumpers and David Pryor, and of course a guy who went on to spend 8 years in the White House. Now Arkansas his this fool representing them. What the hell happened?

Time to get started on those D-RANKS. No Fireball today.

Because, you see, it’s 3/14 and the mathematical constant pi is 3.14 when rounded to two digits. People on Facebook are clever.

Prepare yourself for 5/4 and “May the Fourth Be with You”… it’s coming…

Yesterday I went to the Blind Bear to watch Arkansas put a well-deserved beating on the Tennessee Vols, getting off to a 13-0 run. The Vols attempted a comeback near the end of the game, but the Hogs held on to get the win and eliminate the Vols from the SEC tournament. Smell ya later Vols! Have fun watching the NIT on television and wishing you were there!

I went to the Bear because I didn’t think the bar where I led off, Silly Goose, had the SEC Network. Later I learned from Jeff that I was wrong. They do have it, and I will keep that in mind for future SEC games.

Arkansas advances to play Georgia, and damn it I hate the start time… 2:25 PM. The Beale Street parade is at 3. I was really hoping the game would start around 6, so I could walk down to Max’s Sports Bar after the parade. Now I have a decision to make. The parade will probably win out, but I hate missing the Hogs. If Bobby Portis and Michael Qualls play the way they did yesterday, I can see Arkansas making the finals, taking Kentucky to overtime, and moving up to a projected 4 seed.

I was texting a friend of mine who is a fellow Razorback fan during the game, and he gave me a tip. If you visit New York City, there’s an Arkansas bar called Hurley’s Saloon on 48th Street between Broadway and 8th Avenue. He texted me a bunch of photos and it looks like a pretty cool place. Nice to see the Razorback logo on the bar’s home page.

Moody Ques: Team meeting at 6 PM next Saturday at Brent’s house in Midtown. We’ll be cooking more shoulders and working on our BBQ sauce. There will be a keg. Those who attend are asked to RSVP to moodyques@gmail.com and bring $10 to help cover the cost of the shoulders. A team email went out yesterday. If you are on the team and didn’t get it, let me know and I will take care of it. Needless to say, your faithful Moody Ques workhorse “Mr. Load-in” will be there to handle the heavy lifting. And by “heavy lifting” I mean I will be lifting a 16 ounce cup of beer.

The Memphis Chamber blog has a very nice article about the birth of the Madison Growler shop inside Cash Saver.

First 5000 people in the FedExForum for the Grizzlies-Bucks game tonight get a free Marc Gasol growth chart.

Well damn. That’s all the news I can find to post. Try not to get hit in the head by a cabbage if you go to the St. Pat’s parade on Beale Street today. It’s Saturday and my first two stops are as usual, Panda time at Bardog at 11, then over to the Blind Bear by 1. I’ll walk down to the parade a little before 3. Not sure what I will do after that. Max’s still sounds like a possible plan, although I have a Flying Saucer certificate that expires today. All right, outta here for now, back tomorrow unless I’m too hung over to post.

I’ve had a few people ask if I am going to the St. Pat’s parade on Beale tomorrow at 3. Yes. I will be there. I’ve missed some years previously but this year I plan on going. I will pre-game at Blind Bear a couple of hours before if anyone wants to meet up. (Also, I’ve fine-tuned my tourist radar so there will be no more false positives, which was a problem when I pre-gamed for a previous parade)

It’s the third crappy Friday the 13th I have had in 16 months. Folks, if you have an elderly parent or grandparent who uses an Internet-connected computer, please make them aware of this scam. If someone calls and tells you your computer has viruses, even if they say they are from a reputable company like Microsoft, do not grant them access to your computer and especially do not give them a credit card number or bank account information. I had this happen to a parent this morning.

Like wine? Want to support an awesome nonprofit? Then put That’s the Spirit, a wine tasting at Jack Robinson Gallery 5:30-7:30 Thursday, April 16, on your calendar. Hospitality HUB is a wonderful organization that helps the homeless get back on their feet. It helps them get legal documents they need in order to obtain employment. It also provides bus passes, shelter vouchers, and counseling finding housing,

Want Amazon pricing without shopping on Amazon? Here’s a list of stores that will price match.

The Grizzlies are the last bastion of bully ball, according to Sports Illustrated.

Authentic Chinese dance show Shen Yun is tonight at the Cannon Center.

Historian Jimmy Ogle is hosting one of his historical tours/bridge walks Sunday at 2. It will cover the Memphis-Arkansas bridge. Meet at Crump Park. Free to participate.

That’ll wrap it up. I’m working from home today so I will be out about 45 minutes earlier than usual this evening.

Today has functioned more like Monday++ than it has Thursday for me. Here’s a post before I go out for a badly-needed PBR.

Former Sleep Out Louie’s regulars, mark your calendars. On Thursday, March 26, Pam & Terry will perform at the Blind Bear Speakeasy from 8 to 11 PM. The duo entertained Sleep Out’s patrons many a weekend night. The 8 PM start time is two hours earlier than usual for the Bear on a Thursday.

The Commercial Appeal reviewed Cafe Pontotoc and described the restaurant as “adorable.”

Cozy Corner will start serving BBQ out of Encore Cafe across the street starting Tuesday. The Cozy Corner location is being rebuilt after a fire. Much of the menu, including ribs and Cornish hens, will be available.

The next in a series of special beer tasting nights happens Saturday at the FedExForum when the Grizzlies play Milwaukee. It will feature the beers of local brewery Wiseacre. You must buy a special ticket for this in advance, which includes the beer tasting and commemorative Grizzlies glass in addition to your seat. Deadline to order the special ticket is tomorrow. You can choose from $85 Club or $40 Terrace IV.

There’s a Change.org petition asking Memphis in May to continue Sunset Symphony. The event is scheduled to end this year and be replaced by a different event in 2016. Let me be clear that I am merely putting the petition out there as news; I myself have not signed it. Several of us had drinks on a patio with a Memphis in May board member last year and the board has some good, outside-the-box ideas to rejuvenate Memphis in May.

That’ll wrap up an unusually frustrating day for me in what has been a frustrating 2015 so far. Now for that PBR…

I will lead off this post with a couple of trivia facts involving the number 7000.

The first one will get you in the mood for BBQ Fest. FiveThirtyEight’s Significant Digits newsletter reports that the average American will eat 7000 animals in his or her lifetime.

Secondly, if you’re sick of email spam and wonder why spammers do it, here’s why: The average email spambot earns $7000 a day. Saw that on Twitter.

The Peabody has announced the first half of its 2015 Thursday rooftop party schedule. Cover is $10 unless noted below.

April 16: Hollywood with special performance by Shaggy ($15 cover)
April 23: Walrus
April 30: The Brad Birkedahl Band with special performance by Cash Cash ($15 cover)
May 7: Twin Soul with special performance by Andy Grammar ($15 cover)
May 14: Ghost Town Blues Band
May 21: The Molly Ringwalds
May 28: Swingin’ Leroy
June 4: Frankie Hollie & The Noise
June 11: Seeing Red

Felicia Suzanne’s has a few tickets left for its annual Duck Wake on Monday. <href=”http://www.feliciasuzanne.com/ecommerce.php/mode/view/cat/4/product/15″>Info and ticket sales here.

Memphis in May now has tickets and VIP tables for sale for the Sunset Symphony finale.

Prime job opportunity: Copeland Coaching reports that there is a Senior Media Relations position open at St. Jude.

The Silky O’Sullivan’s St. Patrick’s Day Caravan happens today. The caravan travels from Silky’s to the airport to pick up Irish dignitaries coming to town for Saturday’s parade. Meet at 5 at Silky’s, caravan leaves at 6:30. Please have a designated driver if you plan to participate.

There will be a planning meeting for April’s MEMFix Pinch event tomorrow at 3:30 at Westy’s. Topics discussed will include volunteer acquisition, vendor selections, and event scape planning.

The Blind Bear kicks off their three-day St. Patrick’s Day Speakeasy Style celebration Sunday at 11 AM. There will be drink specials and green beer. I will definitely have to stop by for D-RANKS with B-RAD (or whoever fills in for B-RAD if he isn’t back from Florida by then) around 1 that afternoon.

Is your website mobile-friendly? If not, better get it mobile-friendly by April 21 or Google will penalize you in search rankings. If you’re on WordPress, the wp-mobile plugin will do the trick for you. It’s what I use on this blog. There are also many mobile-friendly themes you can choose from.

I had a good time at Bardog poker last night. Just a good group of people with a lot of mutual respect for each other playing some cards. No players who bring a lot of needless emotional drama and who are so rude and insulting and horrible that others ask to be moved to a different table. That kind of player is bad for business. Come play Bardog’s friendly, laid-back style of poker every Wednesday at 7:30 in the Underdog Room. Free to play and you can win some nice prizes including Grizzlies tickets.

That’ll do it for now. I’ll be out at the usual spots after work.

Bad news: MATA’s president says the trolleys will not be operational anytime soon and that they are going to have to start from scratch with the trolley system. They desperately tried to get it operational for Memphis in May but couldn’t.

The Tigers play Temple in the AAC quarterfinal at 1 Friday. Here are game notes.

The excellent High Ground News released a new email issue, with a feature article about innovative organizations in the Mid-South that promote volunteering. From time to time I have people ask me how to get hooked up with volunteering gigs here in town. These are the organizations you want to talk to.

High Ground also has a small gallery of cupcakes and other goodies sold by that new vegan cupcake shop in Crosstown. Probably not something I would ever go to – especially since it would involve driving when I don’t have to – but I know I have readers who might be interested.

You can now play Cards Against Humanity, the card game for horrible people, online for free. It’s browser-based, not an app, so no additional software installation is required.

On my way to the Silly Goose for a PBR. May play poker at Bardog tonight.