Author: paulryburn

Sad to hear of the passing of Windell Middlebrooks yesterday at the young age of 36. Windell was best known as the beer delivery guy in Miller High Life commercials. He and his staff would pull High Life out of places that he did not feel were deserving of carrying the beer. In 2011 Miller sent him on tour and I got to meet him at Max’s Sports Bar. He appeared at several other bars around Memphis as well. In addition to his work for Miller, Windell acted on Body of Proof and Scrubs.

The 42nd annual Silky Sullivan Beale Street St. Patrick’s Day Parade happens this Saturday, March 14, at 3 PM. Floats, marching bands, celebrity guests, beads, candy, the Raising of the Goat, green beer. I’ll give my usual pro tip: If you are not driving home from the parade and are at least 21, go to Wet Willie’s and get a large Call-a-Cab to drink as you watch the parade. Do not get a second large Call-a-Cab unless you want it to be a very rough Saturday night/Sunday morning.

One of my Facebook friends was complaining yesterday that the songs she grew up with are starting to show up on oldies radio stations. Here’s a link to the Wikipedia page for Even the Nights Are Better, recorded by Air Supply in 1982.

Congratulations to Memphis Tigers forward Austin Nichols, voted to the All-American Conference first team. Also congratulations to Shaq Goodwin on winning the AAC Sportsmanship Award.

The first shipments for Bass Pro at the Pyramid started arriving this week.

Flying Saucer has their St. Patrick’s Day glass for sale tonight starting at 7 PM. I saw a sneak preview on Facebook and this is a pretty nice looking glass, worth buying if you are a collector.

Tickets are now on sale for Sesame Street Live “Make a New Friend” June 20-21 at FedExForum.

That’s it for now. Out at the usual places after work.

The big news of the past 24 hours is that Memphis in May is retiring Sunset Symphony after this year. It will be replaced with a new event for the 40th anniversary of MiM in 2016.

The Memphis Business Journal reports that Sunset Symphony’s demise presents a challenge for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra will have to find a new partner to make up for the revenue and exposure it got from the Memorial Day weekend event.

Tonight is the first $2 local beer night at the Silly Goose, featuring the beers of Wiseacre, High Cotton, and Memphis Made, as well as $5 Memphis Mules made with local Pyramid vodka and the Goose’s hand-made ginger beer. Beers go on sale for $2 at 7:30, and at 8:30 there will be live acoustic music by Jeremy Stanfill, American Fiction, and Pat Fusco Jazz Trio.

The Majestic Grille is doing a “Ten ’til Ten” dinner series to celebrate the run-up to the restaurant’s 10th anniversary. The first of the dinners, prepared by Chef-Owner Patrick Reilly, will be on March 24 and will feature the estate wines of Cliff Creek Cellars. The menu will be

Scallop crudo, crispy greens, hot pepper, kumquat & lime
Rousanne/Marsanne 2012

Warm duck salad, hazelnut, goat cheese
Red Red Wine 2012

Roasted venison, root vegetable cassoulet, truffle reduction
Creek Cabernet 2011

Warm sticky toffee pudding
Claret 2008

Dinner is $65 plus tax and gratuity. Call 901-522-8555 to make reservations. Cliff Creek owner Ruth Garvin will make a special trip to talk about the wines, and Michael Hughes of Joe’s wines and liquors will also be on hand to share his knowledge of Oregon wines.

Bleu Restaurant has announced a new Social Hour every day from 4 to 6 PM, with drink specials and $5 social plates. See a list of the specials here.

The River Series of concerts at the Harbor Town Amphitheater has been announced for the spring. Dates are March 28, April 28, and May 30. Info here.

As an Arkansas fan, I am pleased to learn that Bobby Portis has been named SEC Player of the Year. I’d sure like to see the Hogs make a deep run in the NCAA tournament.

For those of you who travel to Little Rock, legendary BBQ restaurant The Shack is reopening in the River Market district. I ate there many times as a kid in the location just north of Cantrell and Mississippi.

Happy birthday to the Nuh-Uh Girl, who I’m sure is enjoying much free food out in California today.

I’ll be at the local beer night at the Silly Goose tonight, and no, I won’t be drinking PBR once the specials start. Time to go diagnose WordPress issues, outta here for now.

Before we get started with the news, I want to apologize if I did not seem like myself this past weekend. I’m worried about a friend who has been off the grid for a while. That plus excessive Fireball consumption led to some less-than-perfect behavior from me. Sorry.

You’ve seen Shorty’s pasta bar that the Silly Goose runs during weekday happy hours. They’ve now added a second build-your-own bar: A build-your-own omelet bar run by Dre for Sunday brunch. Same ingredients as the pasta bar, pick whatever you want and then Dre will cook it up for you.

Actually, I guess it’s their third build-your-own since they have the Bloody Mary bar on Sundays as well.

Goldcrest 51, the flagship beer made by the Tennessee Brewing Co. until it shut down in the 1950s, will be making a comeback.

Hungry Memphis has beer news about Ghost River and Memphis Made, as well as the second City Market location.

So You Think You Can Dance live auditions are coming to the Orpheum tomorrow. Tickets are free.

It’s normally Melissa Monday at Bardog but I need to drop off a BBQ team check (welcome to the team, Peter and Mary Ann) so I may have to make Silly Goose my first stop tonight. Later I may wander over to Blind Bear, where Dave who runs British Bingo is having his birthday. This has been a Monday for sure so far, but hopefully it will get better.

Yesterday my BBQ team the Moody Ques had our first full meeting of 2015. We did it at the Silly Goose, where one of our cooks Dusty was bartending and was kind enough to give us happy hour prices. We had butt and shoulder for the team to sample.

Frank and Erik preparing the food

Team members sit enthralled as the fountain of knowledge known as Otto speaks

Dusty and Frank

Shoulder (top) and butt (below). Both were very good but it was a team consensus that the shoulder was better, which is a good thing because we are a shoulder team.

On a side note – I am not usually a big coleslaw person, but Frank! Damn!!! Can we have that slaw every day? That may seriously be the best slaw I have ever had in my life.

My “DAWG” John D

Frank going over the menu for each day. I brought a notepad but due to excessive Fireball consumption it completely slipped my mind to take notes.

More menu discussion

They’re not our sponsor anymore but we still use WordPress to run the team website

Moody relaxing now that she’s handed over day-to-day operations to Clay and Frank

This was a great meeting. This year’s team is reminding me a lot of the 2008 team, when we operated on a shoestring budget but probably had the most fun of any year down there and won 3rd in shoulder. We had several really awesome people write us checks yesterday. It never fails to amaze me what a high caliber of people this team attracts.

I wrote in an earlier post that we are cracking down on liquor this year. Don’t take that the wrong way; if you are a team member or a personally invited guest of a team member, we will make sure you have plenty of access to liquor, and it will likely be a higher quality of liquor than we have had in previous years. What we are cracking down on is the 25-30 people who are friends with many of us, who don’t join the team, but who come in every night and set up their own personal BBQ Fest headquarters in our booth. Those people need to join the team unless they want to be drinking Coke and Sprite this year.

We will have off-duty MPD at the door once again this year. It should be easier to get guests in than in previous years, given that we don’t have to hold space for a large presenting sponsor.

We have a plan to three-peat as Best Booth winner. I can’t discuss the design since members of other teams read my blog, but believe me, it is going to be every bit as good as the previous two years if not better.

We’re also perfecting our BBQ sauce. It’s a sweet sauce that is different from most of what you see at BBQ Fest. It received many favorable reviews at the meeting. Earlier this week we had a member of Squeal Street (who, unlike the Moody Ques, didn’t win any trophies in 2014) try it and he thought it was good.

We have more team members who have paid their dues by this point than we have had in any previous year. That’s a very good sign. If you haven’t paid yet and would like to, you can pay on our website. If you don’t want to pay the PayPal fee, you can get a check to Clay. (Or if you see me out, you can give it to me and I will get it to Clay.) We’re going to cap the membership at 35 but are not quite there yet, so there are still a few spots open if you are interested in joining. Talk to me or whichever Moody Ques team member you know best if interested. (Stupid people and crazy people need not apply)

All right. That’s the recap. It’s Sunday Fun Day and I am wearing shorts today no matter how cold it is. IT”S MARCH DAMMIT and I am sick of being all bundled up. We should normally be well into the 60s this time of year and I am going to dress like it is no matter what. Brunch with Brooke at Bardog at 11 (NO BROOKE I AM NOT DOING FIREBALL) then over to Blind Bear for D-RANKS with B-RAD around 1. Undecided whether I will play poker tonight. There are a few poker players I wouldn’t mind recruiting for the BBQ team (already got one of them) so maybe I will play. Time to hit Publish and pop open a PBR. Back tomorrow with a news update.

The annual Phoenix Club Mardi Gras party is tonight at Central Station. (Guys. You need to click on that link. Just trust me. Boobs.) The Phoenix Club is an awesome group that raises money for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Memphis, and this is one of their biggest fundraisers. Project Pat will perform, and your $45 admission gets you beer and speciality drinks, or you can go VIP for $75 and get food and top shelf liquor. If you’re in the mood to gamble, there will be a charity casino with great prizes.

Ledisi: The Intimate Truth Tour with special guests Raheem DeVaughn and Leela James comes to the Orpheum tonight at 8.

Looking ahead on the Orpheum’s schedule, I see that there’s a Beatles tribute coming next month. That could be fun.

“An Evening with Almost Elton John” happens tomorrow at the Hard Rock at 9 PM.

Mark Cuban thinks we’re in a worse tech bubble than the dotcom days. I have to admit I’m a bit worried about this too. I need to consult with my BBQ teammate who works the financial markets and who is a huge proponent of the Value Drinking Index to get his opinion.

I always meet the most fabulous people at Bardog when I have snow days off work. Thursday I got to talk to Megabus drivers who got caught in town due to the snow. Friday I had a group of 7 lesbians to my left and a guy shopping online for guns to my right. Heading back up there at 11 today for some Panda time, then over to the Blind Bear at 1. Later in the day I have a BBQ team meeting. Time to live up to my reputation as the workhorse of the Moody Ques team.

If you came here to read about the things happening Downtown tonight, here they are: ice, sleet, and snow. It’s expected to start late afternoon and we could get 1-3″ of sleet and 1-3″ of snow. Leave work early if you can. I left at noon and am working from home for the rest of the day. BBQ Fest 2014 load-in is proof that I can get a great deal of work done from a remote location.

There’s already some flooding on 240 northbound at about mile marker 26.6, so be careful if you take that route home. Flooding was across all three lanes and I had to slow down to 35 to get through it.

Cozy Corner will soon be reopening across the street from its original location on North Parkway. Join this Facebook event for updates.

The Washington Post has a scientific explanation of why Indian food is so delicious. Pretty interesting. So nice to live a block and a half away from a market with Indian food in the grab & go.

Tony Allen was suspended by the Grizzlies for last night’s game with Utah. An altercation in practice with Nick Calathes is said to be the reason.

Decide what style of beer you want to drink with this flow chart. I needed to answer only one question to arrive at my beer of choice, PBR.

Watch a car get rammed by a bison in Yellowstone National Park.

Job news: The Redbirds are looking for a ticket seller for their box office.

The chorizo patty melt is back on the specials list at Bardog today. GET IT. I had one Monday and it is seriously good. It comes with pepper jack cheese, grilled onions, and mustard.

Keep up with the latest weather news here.

That’s it for now. Hitting the Silly Goose about 4:50 if anyone wants to meet up for dranks. May push it a bit late-night tonight since I suspect tomorrow will either be a snow day or a day when I go in late.

I’m hearing multiple reports that Downtown Memphis smells like vomit right now, particularly around the City Hall area.

Good news for those who have to drive on Memphis streets: The city is buying 10 snow plow blades to use on the streets starting next winter. Total cost will be about $100,000. The blades won’t be here in time for tomorrow’s predicted winter storm.

Some more good news, too: The MemphisWeather.net forecast extended outlook for March 10-16 shows temperatures above average, and precipitation well below average. In other words, not like the past three weeks! Normal temperatures for that time span are 62-64 highs and 42-44 lows. Maybe we’ll get some 70 degree temps.

Author Craig David Meek discussed Memphis’ most underrated BBQ spots with the First We Feast site.

This sounds yummy: Bake tater tots in peppers for a quick, delicious snack

The Grizzlies play Utah at FedExForum tonight, 7 PM.

You can volunteer with the Coast Guard for a Spring Emergency Response exercise Monday, April 22 4-7 PM.

The Church Health Center has a dental assistant position open.

The redevelopers of the Tennessee Brewery have been granted a variance to build 150 apartment units. The normal limit in the South Main area is 55.

Looking at the hourly forecast on WeatherBug to figure out my attire for this evening. Here is the Paul Ryburn Fashion Guide in case you didn’t know:

Temperature above 38 – Flip-flops
Wind chill above 48 – PBR hoodie and shorts
Wind chill above 60 – T-shirt and shorts
Shirt with collar – Only when absolutely necessary
Tie – Only for job interviews, Halloween, and Blind Bear speakeasy parties
Outfit a female tells me I am wearing – laugh and put on different outfit

The wind chills this evening, believe it or not, fall in the T-shirt and shorts category. Not sure if I believe it, so I may bring along one of my Pink Pig fleeces just in case. Out at the usual spots after work. I probably will play poker tonight at 8 at the Blind Bear.

When was the last time I had three in one day? It doesn’t happen very often. This time I had to do it, though, because there’s a piece of time-sensitive material.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 3 is National Pancake Day and IHOP will be giving away free pancakes from 7 to 10 AM. Free pancakes? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up. I had sushi I couldn’t finish Sunday evening at Bluefin and could have used her help.

Memphis Barbeque Supply is offering a class on burgers Saturday, March 21. It will be led by Seth Agranov, writer of the Best Memphis Burger blog and one of the founders of Best Memphis Burger Fest. Seth, along with Jimmy from the store, will teach you everything you need to know to grill the perfect burger, including meat selection, prep, seasonings, stuffed burgers, grilling on charcoal or gas, using a GrillGrate, and much more. There are only 25 spots open, so email store@mbbqsupply.com to grab yours.

Shen Yun, a Chinese dance performance with elaborate costumes, a live orchestra, and animated backdrops comes to the Cannon Center Friday, March 13. Tickets are $50-120.

In many inner-city neighborhoods, corner convenience stores are the only source of food within walking distance. In them you’ll see rack after rack of beer, soft drinks, chips, and processed foods, but rarely any fruits and vegetables. CityLabs explains why and explains what is being done in one city to get healthier snacks in the stores.

That’s it for now. Time for some PBR at Melissa’s bar at Bardog.

Second post today. I got up early this morning and made a post with several photos. Scroll down when you’re done with this one if you haven’t read it yet.

Running group The Salty Dogs is having a run to Mud Island tonight at 7 PM. The runners depart every Monday from Bardog Tavern, and after the run is concluded there are specials for runners in the Underdog Room. It’s free to join them and they are some really nice people, so it’s a chance to make some new friends. Look for me there – I will be the guy sitting at the bar sipping a PBR watching the runners depart.

The always excellent Copeland Coaching site has a Memphis Grizzlies job posted, for the position of Controller.

The Grizzlies have a new social hub, an app for both iOS and Android which lets you keep up with the team.

Did you realize that Sunday is the start of Daylight Saving Time? The sun will set at 7:02 PM on Sunday.

In the South Main Association meeting on Tuesday, March 10, you will be able to hear update plans for the trolleys. The meeting will be in the Riverfront Bar & Grill at Beale Street Landing, 6 PM social, 6:30 meeting. Free parking in the Landing’s lot, appetizers courtesy of the bar & grill and the SMA, cash bar. Free for SMA members, $10 non-members.

@highgroundnews tweeted that for the next 10 days, you can donate 12 meals a day to Mid-South Food Bank for FREE by texting “Hunger” to 35350 thanks to General Mills.

@JohnMartin929 reports that the MRI is in for Tigers forward Austin Nichols. He has a high ankle sprain and deep bone bruise, an injury he suffered in the second half of Saturday’s game. He’s likely done for 2014-15.

Good article for beer lovers: 10 important advances made because of beer

ioby has $50K matching funds available for neighborhood projects in Memphis. You have until Friday to apply. Details here.

That’s it for now. After work I’ll lead off at Melissa Monday at Bardog, then decide which of Pint Nite at the Saucer or British Bingo at Blind Bear strikes my fancy. Time to eat some junk from the vending machine then get back to today’s work task of sorting out WordPress permalinks. Back tomorrow or maybe even tonight with more news.