Author: paulryburn

For thirty years, guests at Graceland have been able to see two jets that were once owned by Elvis, the Lisa Marie and the Hound Dog II. However, Graceland plans to remove the planes by spring and a lot of people are not happy. There’s a Keep Elvis’s The Lisa Marie at Graceland Facebook page you can “like” for updates.

Possible good news: Brewery Untapped may be back this fall. Keep in mind that this is a big MAYBE. A Halloween event there would be very cool.

A building I’m less happy to see occupied again is 380 Beale. The space formerly occupied by Club Crave is being redeveloped as, you guessed it, another nightclub. It’s said to be “a very different type of club” than what Crave was, but haven’t we heard that before? I think a wrecking ball and some bulldozers would do a fantastic job remodeling 380 Beale.

WWE is sending a film crew to Memphis on Thursday, July 10. They plan to film a day in the life of Jerry “The King” Lawler, probably for content on their new WWE Network. Lawler will be main-eventing Memphis Wildfire Wrestling that night at Minglewood Hall, facing opponent “Big Poppa Pump” Scott Steiner. I’m a big fan of “The King” and he and I share an appreciation of 20-year-olds in tube tops.

I’ll have the review of Craig David Meek’s book up tomorrow, so check back.

The weekend is drawing closer. Friday-Sunday three-day weekends are much more rare than Saturday-Monday. I’m getting excited although I don’t yet have much of the weekend planned out… perfectly okay with that, because the spontaneous weekends are often the best. The one thing I do have planned is finding out if some friends of mine cook burgers as well as they cook grilled ribs with mustard sauce.

I polled my Facebook friends on whether they thought locals will go to Hard Rock Cafe more often once it opens in its new location at Second and Beale (former EP Delta Kitchen building). The response was a resounding YES. Downtowners seem to be very excited about Hard Rock. The times I went to the old location, the food and service were both well above average.

You probably already know that there will be fireworks following the July 4 Redbirds game. However, a lot else will be going on too. The first 1000 fans in the park will get a red rally towel. Before the game (4:00 to 6:00) there will be a block party in the plaza with live music and $2 Coors Light. There will be an all-you-can-eat dinner buffet ticket package, and there will also be baby races sponsored by Fertility Associates of Memphis.

There’s a Groupon for Sunset Walking Tours’ Historic Downtown Memphis Walking Tour. $29 for two ($58 value) or $49 for four ($116 value).

From Gizmodo: Why countdown clocks for pedestrians cause more car crashes. You may have seen the newly upgraded crosswalk signals Downtown, which tell pedestrians how many seconds they have left to get across the street. These signals also tell drivers how long they have, which can lead to tailgating as drivers try to make it through. I have to admit I’m guilty of this at the last light before I get home from work, the one at Second and Madison.

High Cotton has announced its plans for the weekend for its taproom at 598 Monroe. On Thursday, Taco Shack will be there. On Friday, there will be special Fourth of July hours of noon to 7, with fresh gulf shrimp. Saturday the taproom will once again open at noon, with food trucks in the afternoon, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of Sun Studio around the corner.

From Lifehacker: Use Google Image search to match unmatchable clothing. Of course, you don’t have this problem if you wear tube tops. Tube tops match everything!

The Brooklyn Nets are said to be close to signing a deal with Lionel Hollins to make him head coach. It didn’t work out with the Grizzlies but I’m happy to see Hollins get another opportunity to be a head coach. He’s a fine coach and a fine man.

Way too much news to post in a lunch break, so check back. There will be an evening post. Topics will include Graceland, the possible return of a beloved social space, the possible return of a not-so-beloved social space, Jerry “The King” Lawler and possibly more.

Good news for South Mainers: Paul Morris who runs DMC tweeted “I love the smell of a new sidewalk in the morning,” along with a photo of the Main Street sidewalk between Butler and G.E. Patterson being reconstructed. I know a lot of South Mainers had complained about the raggedy condition of the sidewalks for a while. This should make them happy.

For those of you into soccer: FiveThirtyEight’s crib notes for World Cup Day 19. The statistics are not looking good for the USA team. Also from FiveThirtyEight: Chart to predict winner of penalty-kick shootouts

Hard Rock Cafe opens to the public in its new 126 Beale location Thursday. The MBJ has video of the new location.

The FuzzyBrew beer blog has a good post about High Cotton’s new taproom.

The Nuh-Uh Brother is in town speaking to the startups of our BBQ team sponsor Start Co. today. When you’re starting up a business, money is tight. I’m sure the Nuh-Uh Brother will have many valuable tips on how his sister the Nuh-Uh Girl saves money by bumming free food from grocery store samplings, tastings, and friends’ plates all over Silicon Valley. He will also speak on his time at Facebook and the current startup scene.

Speaking of tastings: City Market is having tastings for gourmet salad dressings for its new salad bar that is coming very soon. Stop by today, tomorrow, or Thursday and have a taste.

In case you missed my earlier post: Here’s a link to the cooking application for this year’s Best Memphis Burger Fest.

Melissa had a tube top on last night at happy hour at Bardog, but I didn’t get a pic. Sorry.

I’ll be out at the usual places after work. If more news comes in I’ll do a second post.

The Blind Bear will open at 1 PM today for people who want to watch the USA-Belgium soccer thingy. There will be a food special: A $4 Nathan’s hot dog on a toasted Belgian waffle. They will also have $3 moonshine/Fireball and $2 Bud and Bud Light.

If you’re looking for an outfit to wear to support the USA, here you go. Let’s all hope our soccer people kick the ball down the field and into the net at least one more time than Belgium’s soccer people. Because that would be awesome.

The Memphis Police Association and fire union have advertised a peaceful rally for tomorrow. They are asking those who support Memphis police and firefighters to gather at City Hall from noon to 3 PM tomorrow, before the City Council meeting.

USA Today has an article called Romantic Memphis, discussing all the romantic things there are to do in our fair city. Almost all of the locations mentioned were Downtown, including Paulette’s, Chez Philippe, and Itta Bena. PRO TIP for the ladies: Make your date extra romantic by wearing a tube top.

MemphisWeather.net has a blog post recapping Sunday’s flooding, calling it a “once-in-a-generation rainfall event.”

Do you drive a GM car? Better click this link. Over 7.6 million of their cars have been recalled due to faulty ignition switches, dating back as far as 1997 and including discontinued brands Oldsmobile and Pontiac as well as current brands.

Former Memphis Tiger Joe Jackson will play for the Grizzlies in Orlando Summer League starting next week. Nice pickup by the Grizzlies.

In other Tigers news: Current Tiger basketball player Dominic Woodson was involved in an altercation with a football player. Memphis AD Tom Bowen is addressing the situation with coaches Pastner and Fuente.

Grabbing a wooden nickel (to cash in for 5 cent PBR) and heading to Bardog for Melissa Monday. Pint Nite at Saucer still my planned second stop.

Days like yesterday make me think I live a sheltered life in my Downtown high-rise apartment building. I woke up yesterday morning, did a blog post, looked out the window and thought, “Oh, it rained?” I didn’t know how bad it rained until I got to Bloom’s bar at Bardog, got bored, and started surfing Twitter and Facebook on my phone. Several of my friends posted images of their flooded houses, and MemphisWeather.net posted that we got more rain Saturday-Sunday than we normally get in the entire month of June. Yikes! My sincerest sympathy to those of you dealing with water damage or who were otherwise affected by the flooding yesterday.

The Peabody is having a special edition of its weekly rooftop party this Thursday, July 3 to kick off the long July 4 weekend. A popular band on the college party circuit, The 17th Floor, will play high-energy dance music, hip-hop, and R&B. The party lasts from 6 to 11 that evening, and your $15 admission includes a buffet that is a tribute to the all-American backyard barbecue, with fried chicken, hamburgers, potato salad, deviled eggs, pasta salad, and potato chips.

From AP News: The Liberty Bowl is moving up to December 29 this year. For the past four years it had been played on December 31.

There’s an excellent Thrillist article about BBQ Fest. It’s a very detailed look at how a hog team competes, and it’s a fun read too.

The Silly Goose has announced an early opening time for tomorrow’s USA vs. Belgium soccer match. The match begins at 3:00. I would imagine that all the other Downtown bars that opened early for last week’s USA-GER game will follow suit. In case you haven’t heard the breaking news, Jozy Altidore will be available for tomorrow’s match.

You know, I watched soccer both Saturday and yesterday, with temps in the 80s and heat indexes in the 90s, and I did not see even one tube top in the stands. What’s wrong with Brazilians? Go to an NFL game at similar temperatures and I guarantee you will see some tube tops. One more reason why American football is better than soccer football.

Holly has a really good post about The Ernest Withers Museum and Dorothy Mae’s on Beale Street between Third and Fourth.

I had a good time watching WWE Money in the Bank on the WWE Network last night. Here’s a fun fact for you wrestling fans: Terry Funk turned 70 today. I was too young to be watching wrestling during his NWA championship reign, but I saw his feud with Ric Flair in 1989 which was one of the best ever, and he went on to be ECW World Champion in his mid-50s. He was also a mentor to an up-and-coming Cactus Jack/Mick Foley.

That’s all for now. I will be bringing my wooden nickel to Melissa Monday tonight at Bardog after work, followed by Pint Nite at the Saucer.

We’re in the middle of a rarely-issued flash flood emergency this morning. If you don’t have to drive, don’t. Quick reminder of a couple of things going on today: Canada Day at Kooky Canuck, all day long. Canadian beer and whisky specials, Canadian menu, and a $100 gift card to the person who dresses the most Canadian. This is always a fun, fun day at Kooky. Crawfish boil at the Green Beetle. Crawfish will be out about 3. $10 per pound and they come with corn and taters. Live music.

here’s a Romanian gymnast.

A marriage certificate and tube tops await you, Catalina.

… but before I get to the news, I have to share a dream I had last night.

From June through December 2000, I lived in San Diego as kind of an escape from Memphis and the South in general. The neighborhood where I worked, a couple of miles inland from the coast, was called Hillcrest and it was the predominately gay area of the city. During my lunch breaks I would take walks (since the weather there is nice pretty much 365 days a year) and would walk past this bar where all the servers were drag queens. On Wednesday nights they had “Bitchy Bingo.” So I dreamed that the 2014 Downtown Memphis crew went to Bitchy Bingo. It was a celebration of our friend Nikki’s birthday (which happened in real life last night at Blind Bear).

One of the drag queens who was working came up to our table and said, “I want my photo taken for Tube Top Month.”

I replied, “Well… this won’t exactly qualify for Tube Top Month…”

He/she said, “Why? Because I have on a corset top and not an authentic tube top? I didn’t think you straights gave a shit about that. I thought all you cared about is that it doesn’t have straps.”

“Ummm… well, that’s not the reason it wouldn’t qualify…” I replied.

He/she stared at me for a minute and then gasped. “It’s because I’m a MAN isn’t it??!!?!? See if I EVER put extra ice cubes in your glass of Coke again! BITCH!!!!!!” and then stormed off indignantly.

I have awesome dreams and we need a bar Downtown with drag queens. The rest of Memphis would hate it but Downtowners, Midtowners and tourists would keep it in business.

Okay, on to the news. I have some very important news to report this morning.

Last night I got home and was making a minor change to our website at work, and trying to decide whether Bardog or Flying Saucer would be my lead-off point for the night. Then I got a text message that changed my plans. “The Silly Goose has $4 mini-pitchers of PBR,” the message said. Well, that changed everything! I certainly wouldn’t want to deprive my readers of very important PBR news. I changed clothes and walked to the Goose.

I got two and a half pint glasses out of the pitcher, leading me to believe it holds 40 ounces. It kept me going for a solid hour without having to ask Nancy for a refill. So, when should you order this as opposed to ordering one pint at a time?

• When you plan on being around for a while. Obviously it takes longer to drink 40 ounces of beer than it does 16.
• When it’s not happy hour. You get 40 ounces of beer for $4, as opposed to 32 if you ordered by the glass. During happy hour, ordering by the glass is a better value.
• When the bar’s busy and you don’t want to wait on refills.
• When sharing with someone.

Really, I’m happy to see inexpensive PBR no matter what it’s served in.

There’s more news in my “Friday update #2” post. Keep scrolling down if you haven’t seen it. I’ll be at Bardog at 11 as usual. Panda is on vacation so we’ve got Bloom this week.

Do you know your I.M.s?

I.M. is an abbreviation for Instant Message. Example: “I.M. me if you want to meet up tonight.”

I.M. Pei is a famous Chinese-American architect.

I.M. Allaboutthetubetops is a blogger who writes about his life in Downtown Memphis.

Grizzlies controlling owner Robert Pera stopped by the Chris Vernon Show today on 92.9 ESPN Radio. Verno thought he only had Pera for one segment, but Pera was incredibly cool and said “I’m here as long as you want” and “let’s take some phone calls.” The result? 1 hour and 42 minutes of Pera opening himself up to the public. I haven’t heard it myself yet (was busy at work) but from everything I have read, this is a must, must, must listen if you’re at all interested in the Grizzlies.

Cordova is about to get a Kooky Canuck. The MBJ reports that a second Kooky location is planned for 1250 N. Germantown Parkway. A quick Google Maps search reveals that this would be near the intersection of Cordova Road, near Bonefish Grill and Party City. The original Downtown Kooky Canuck location has been open nine years.

On Tuesday, July 1, Chez Philippe in the Peabody will host a special dinner celebrating the 200th anniversary of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” composed by Francis Scott Key in 1814 and which became our national anthem later. Guests will gather around the Peabody’s antique mahogany piano, owned by Key himself two centuries ago, for a champagne toast. The dinner menu will feature cuisine from Key’s home state of Maryland. $85 per person with an optional wine pairing upgrade available.

The Memphis Flyer has photos of Beale Street Landing, which opened today.

Also from the Flyer: Uber and Lyft not allowed to pick up fares at the Memphis Airport.

Week is done and it’s time for beer. Based on a post Jeannette just put on Facebook, it looks like Blind Bear is in my plans tonight.