Author: paulryburn

Grizzlies owner Robert Pera has challenged Michael Jordan to a game of one-on-one for $1 million going to charity. No word on if Jordan has accepted.

The Grizzlies play a home pre-season game vs. the Milwaukee Bucks tonight at 7. It’s also the first night of Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story at the Orpheum (runs through Sunday), so traffic will be heavy Downtown this evening.

Tickets for the 4th annual Cooper-Young Regional Beerfest have sold out. Not surprised since it’s such a great festival. Glad I bought my ticket last week. See you Saturday!

Once a year, there is free shredding in the parking lot of the Commercial Appeal at 495 Union, and Saturday is the day. From noon to 5 PM you can bring up to five boxes or bags of documents to be shredded, and you don’t even have to leave your car. Info here.

There ‘s a Groupon for Moscow Ballet’s performance of The Nutcracker at the Cannon Center Friday, November 22. Get tickets for 50% off. There are three seating options.

I got by Bardog last night and took photos of the hearse to be given away at 11:59 PM October 31, and details of what you have to do for a chance to win.

While at Bardog last night, my friends and I managed to run the place completely out of PBR. Not sure if they re-stocked this morning.

That’s the news for now. Back to training. I’ll be out at the usual spots after work.

Yeah I know today’s morning post had no title. I was getting some kind of database error so I just went with it.

The Ten Feet off Beale blog has a good review of the South Main outdoor movie nights. Next movie is Ghostbusters on Thursday.

Dishcrawl is holding a slider crawl on November 6. Four Downtown chefs will serve their best sliders. They keep the name of the restaurants secret until almost the time of the event, but you can follow them on Twitter at @DishcrawlMem to be the first to know. Sign up now, because there are a very limited number of spots. These crawls sell out VERY quickly.

eighty3 restaurant in the Madison Hotel is asking people to vote for possible Downtown Dining Week offerings on its Facebook page. People can vote through Wednesday on which two dishes they would like to try. The top two vote-getters will be selected.

Want to help a St.Jude Hero who is running in the December marathon? One of my neighbors will be having a public party on our rooftop of Number 10 Main (10 S. Main) on Saturday, October 19 from 8 to 10 PM. A live band, 3artists1yard, will be playing and there will be some sweets and drinks but you can bring your own. A bouncer will be at the front door for everyone’s safety, and there will be a sign out front so you don’t miss the building as you walk down Main. In case of rain the party will be relocated to the building’s lobby.

Heading out to Bardog for happy hour. Back tomorrow with more stuff.

Quick update before I head to work…

If you like beer and I haven’t convinced you to go to Cooper-Young Beer Fest this Saturday, read what Holly from the I Love Memphis Blog has to say. She listed six reasons why you should go to Cooper-Young Regional Beer Fest. Great article – she pretty much nailed it.

Memphis is known for BBQ, Philly is known for cheesesteaks… but what food is our neighbor to the west, Arkansas, known for? Cheese dip. The Huffington Post had a great article this weekend about cheese dip in Arkansas. Cheese dip was believed to have been invented in 1935 in Hot Springs at a restaurant called Little Mexico, which involved into Mexico Chiquito. There’s even a cheese dip trail.

The Daily News has a good article that foodies should read. It talks about the recent rise of food crawls in the Memphis area. It has coverage of the recent Battledish event and talks about the upcoming soul food crawl where participants will travel by bus to some of the city’s best soul food restaurants. It also has some coverage of Best Memphis Burger Fest.

If you can’t get enough of the fake @midtownkrogers account on Twitter, it’s on Instagram now too. I must say, they seem to be a big fan of hashtags at Kroger.

It looks like most of the Halloween celebrations at the bars Downtown are happening on the actual day, Thursday, October 31. That’s a good thing because it’ll give me an extra week to figure out a costume. Also, it allows RiverArtsFest to have the weekend of the 25th and 26th to itself. This week I’ll start compiling a list of Halloween parties open to the public.

Once again, a reminder that my daily update posts are more likely to happen before or after work than at lunchtime this week. I’ll be in training and I’m very excited about it. This may be the first time ever that I’ve wanted a weekend to hurry up and end so I can go to work on Monday. After work I’ll most likely start things off at happy hour with Melissa at Bardog, then head over to the Saucer about 7:30 after the crowd pre-gaming there for the Eagles leaves.

The Silly Goose is holding a Pink Party to raise money for the fight against breast cancer this Thursday, October 17, starting at 8 PM. Guests are encouraged to arrive all tricked out in pink. There will be music by DJ Cody. Your $10 ticket includes an entry into a raffle where you can win great prizes, including a Tito’s handmade guitar. All proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The Grizzlies host Israel’s Maccabi Haifa B.C. at the FedExForum tonight at 5 PM. I’ll say it again – arrive early, because the NBA has mandated hand-wanding for security at all its arenas for the preseason. Lines will be long.

The schedule for Memphis Madness has been released for Friday, October 18. You can view it here. This year it’s going to be one of the Madness events covered nationally on ESPN, with analyst Bruce “Douchebag” Pearl in town for coverage. Tickets will be available at Ashley Furniture HomeStore locations through the 16th, and at the FedExForum the 17th and 18th. PRO TIP: Sports writers I follow on Twitter believe all the tickets will be gone before the 17th, so best bet is to get out to Ashley ASAP. You know you’re in a basketball city when an open college team practice sells out an NBA arena.

If you’re looking for other college teams to pull for in addition to the Tigers, check out Kansas this year. I was listening to the Gary Parrish Show on the way home last week. Gary said that of all the bigs at Kansas, former Tiger Tarik Black is showing the most potential. I hope Tarik has a big year (although it’s OK if he has an off-night if Kansas and Memphis meet in the big dance) and makes it to the NBA.

Tomorrow is Columbus Day, so if you need to go to the bank or post office, you might as well forget it.

Fox News covered the monster owl that is terrorizing the High Point neighborhood this morning. The owl is said to weigh 20 pounds and have a 5-foot wingspan. This is probably the most credible news story Fox News will run all day. (Edited to add: Follow the owl on Twitter at @HighPointOwl.)

Programming note for this week: My update posts are more likely to go up before or after work than at lunchtime this week. I’m in training all week and I will probably be too sick of being in front of a computer to do much at lunchtime. The good news is that I’m getting the very best training on tools for the server-side and client-side programming languages I work with, and I have projects on the horizon to put those tools to good use. If I’m not a rockstar-level web developer by the end of 2014, it will be nobody’s fault but my own.

Oh and on a related note: I’m turning down all offers of Fireball shots until Friday. Sorry but I want to be at my mental best this week.

Sunday Fun Day will proceed as planned without the Fireball, though. I didn’t say I was giving up PBR. I’ll start it off at the Blind Bear at noon.

Most of you will skip right over this first link, but I’m a math nerd and it’s my blog so I’m going to post it. Yesterday I discovered a cool magazine called Plus, whose mission is “to introduce readers to the beauty and the practical applications of mathematics.” I flipped through the featured articles and found one that proves bluffing is a mathematically essential element in poker. How can I not like a math site that writes about poker? Other articles were about the puzzle of time, math during the Dark Ages, and a theatrical performance called X&Y that explores math. There’s another article entitled “Do Infinities Exist in Nature?” that I have not had time to read yet, but I’m intrigued that there’s a photo of a hot dog with mustard and relish next to the article headline.

If you’re a Canadian, you can get Canadian Thanksgiving dinner Monday at Kooky Canuck. If you’re an American, you can get the dinner and get started on Thanksgiving a month early. If you’re some other nationality, you’re out of luck… no, just kidding, they’ll serve you too. The restaurant will serve turkey and dressing, gravy, dinner roll, mashed potatoes and green beans and of course cranberry jelly. Lunch will be $6.49 and dinner $9.99.

In the news: Mayor Wharton wants to extend the Beale Street entertainment district all the way to the river.

This isn’t Downtown news, but in case you missed it, Fox 13’s Lauren Lee reports that Owlzilla is terrorizing joggers in East Memphis.

I bought my ticket to Cooper-Young Beerfest. It’s next Saturday at a new, larger location near Trestle Art at 795 S. Cooper. This is my favorite beer festival of the year. Most of the brewers are in the booths to talk about their product, and there’s an education tent where you can learn all about beer and what it’s like being a brewer. If you go to a beer festival to learn about beer, not to be seen and have your photo taken for RSVP Magazine, this is the beer festival for you.

And speaking of beer…

One of the most rewarding things about being Downtown is seeing friends have a dream and build it and live it. I saw my friends Patrick and Deni do it with the Majestic Grille seven years ago. Five years ago I got to see Daniel build a dream called the Silly Goose. Two years ago, Jamie, Jeannette and Colin built a dream called the Blind Bear. This year, two guys named Drew Barton and Andy Ashby built their dream, a local brewery on South Cooper called Memphis Made. Both of them are former bartenders at the Flying Saucer, and therefore they chose the two local Saucers as the first spots to roll out their new products. Drew bartended the Saucer on several different occasions, and although he’s not as easy on the eyes as the female bartenders, I always enjoyed coming in and seeing him behind the bar because of his vast knowledge of beer. Andy bartended before my time at the Saucer, but I enjoyed talking with him as a customer many times, and he was also in a couple of bands that played there. At 8 PM Kirk got them up on the bar and announced the official tapping.

Drew, Andy, and Saucer GM Kirk

The two beers that were introduced were the saison (5.6% ABV) and the pale ale (5.2%). You can get either for $4.75 at the Saucer. The saison is one of the tastiest beers I have had, and the pale ale is one I would gladly choose over nationally known pale ales like Sierra Nevada’s. They are off to a good start. The beers debut at the three Aldo restaurants (Bardog, Slider Inn, Aldo’s Pizza Pies) and Young Avenue Deli today.

Last night I realized how smart those guys were in choosing the name they did. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen tourists come in the Saucer and ask the bartender, “I’d like to try a good local beer. What do you recommend?” Now they won’t even have to ask. Those taps make it clear where the saison and pale ale are brewed. They’ve built themselves an immediate advantage over the other three local breweries (and I bet there will be more before long) with the name they selected.

Having an exciting morning around here pouring Drano Dual Foamer in the bathtub and taking the trash to the trash chute. Undecided whether I’ll lead off at Bardog or Max’s Sports Bar today. Arkansas hosts South Carolina with an 11:21 kickoff.

The Edge of the Village Dine-Around happens tonight. This Flyer article has more information on the dine-around, as well as the new French Crêperie that has opened in the former Neely’s BBQ space on Jefferson.

From The Daily Beast: How the iPhone 5s can contribute to trust issues in relationships. Do you allow your boyfriend’s/girlfriend’s fingerprint to unlock your phone? On one hand, it would be good for them to have it so they can access your data in case of an emergency. However, do you trust them not to use the fingerprint access to go in and snoop through your texts and recent calls?

While we’re on the subject of relationships, here’s some #dating advice from the @midtownkrogers Twitter account:

If youare having a #crush on our pretty cashers dont hold the line asking her on dates go outside and wait for her to leave work to #flirt.

RiverArtsFest is two weeks away, and the festival needs volunteers. Find out more and sign up here.

Beer news: There will be an Oktoberfest celebration at Wiseacre Brewery on Broad Avenue tomorrow from 1 to 8. Wiseacre Oktoberfest beer and food by Grawemeyer’s German restaurant. The Mighty Souls Brass Band will perform. If you dress in German attire, you get $1 off pints, and if you bring a stein with a clearly marked liter line, they will fill it for $8.

The inmate who walked off a Downtown work detail at MATA Wednesday is back in custody.

Soul singer Ann Peebles will get her brass note on Beale tomorrow at 3. More info here.

Pumpkin Perfect is the theme at Memphis Farmers Market tomorrow. You’ll be able to buy pumpkins at the market, while listening to live music by Steve Reid (8-9:30), Rob Halford (9:30-11), and Loveland Duren (11-12:30). Chef demo by Chef Scott DeLarme of Napa Cafe. Pumpkin carving for the kids from 8 to 12. The market is at Front and G.E. Patterson under the pavilion from 7 AM to 1 PM.

That’ll do it for now. I already have the beginnings of tomorrow’s Saturday Update post, and especially encourage math nerds and people who like to eat to check the blog tomorrow. I’ll be at the Flying Saucer tonight at 8 for the tapping of the new Memphis Made beers.

MemphiSport has published a complete list of Grizzlies giveaways for the 2013-14 season. Probably the best giveaway is the March 8 game versus the Charlotte Bobcats, when fans will receive a free Super Grizz cape with matching mask. I wonder if they plan the best giveaways when the teams that suck the most come to the FedExForum, to try and boost ticket sales?

I got an update from Kevin Cerrito who runs some of the Downtown trivia games. He said that Tuesday trivia at Ferraro’s has come to an end after a two and a half year run. The Wednesday game at Tamp & Tap and the Thursday game at Green Beetle are still going strong. There’s a different $3.50 pint every week at the Tamp & Tap game, and at the Beetle there’s football on TV with sound between rounds. It’s movie trivia all month long at both games, leading up to the second annual Halloween trivia at the end of the month.

There’s a free showing of Walk the Line tonight in the vacant lot between Earnestine & Hazel’s and Sache. The film is a 2005 documentary of the life of Johnny Cash. It’s presented by the SMA and show time is 6:45. In case of rain, the event will move to the Memphis Farmers Market pavilion.

If you haven’t been to the weekend Beatles brunch at Twilight Sky Terrace atop the Madison Hotel, you only have until the end of the month. They will be closing it down for the season on October 27.

An inmate walked off from work detail at MATA’s woodworking shop at 547 N. Main. Details here.

That’s it for now. I’ll probably hit the Silly Goose after work, then the Blind Bear. Will do a second Thursday post if more news comes my way.

Just wondering if any other Downtowners do this… every month, I make myself a calendar of times when Downtown will be busy. Grizzlies games, concerts, festivals, and the like. It’s not only to remind myself of events I might want to attend, but so I will know when my favorite bars might be crowded. So tonight, I look at the calendar and see “Grizzlies 7:00” and know that 6:00-7:00 might not be the best time to hang out at the Flying Saucer and other bars that get packed before games.

I’ll say this though… “bar too crowded with Grizzlies fans” is about as high-class as high-class problems get. Well, I guess “too many people wanting to buy me free drinks” would be an even higher-class problem, but the Grizzlies crowd would be right there in the top two or three.

Seriously, though… welcome back to the Grizzlies, and I hope not only for a win, but for Coach Joerger to collect a lot of data that will help him for the regular season. If you are attending tonight’s game, it’s a good idea to arrive early. The NBA has mandated hand-wanding for security purposes at all its arenas for the preseason. Game is at 7:00. We play the Bulls, featuring Derrick Rose who is known for his skills in shooting, ball-handling, and getting others to take standardized tests for him.

One of my favorite sports writers, CBS’s Gregg Doyel (@GreggDoyelCBS), tweeted the following link: Dog pees on reporter on live TV

If you missed coverage from the 37 other local media outlets this morning, discount airline Frontier is coming to Memphis. The company is based out of Denver and will offer four round-trip flights there a week. From there you can connect to Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Portland. Promotional fares will be as low as $69. Beer blog Fuzzy Brew (@FuzzyBrew) tweeted that this will make craft-beer trips out west a lot more affordable.

Speaking of craft beer, some bad news: The agency that approves new craft beer recipes and labels is shut down due to the impasse in Congress. If you didn’t get your craft beer approved by mid-August, you’re in limbo until the offices are back open. This is costing some startup breweries many thousands of dollars a month that they can’t afford. Thankfully no Memphis breweries (that I’m aware of) are affected.

Here’s a “guess who said this” for people who hang out in the same bars I do. A local Memphian was at the Saucer last night telling two British tourists about America. He mentioned the diversity of women’s sports in America, “like lingerie football.”

I’ll end this post with a Grizzlies pro tip: If you don’t feel like dealing with parking and traffic around the FedExForum, head half a mile south to G.E. Patterson Avenue and have a pre-game snack or drink at the Double J. There’s plenty of free parking around, and Double J has a limo that will shuttle you to and from the arena for free.

Plan for tonight: I’ll probably lead off at the Saucer for one quick beer before the Grizzlies crowd arrives. After that I’ll hit the Silly Goose for the remainder of happy hour. I hear that Blind Bear trivia could be interesting this week, so I’ll get there by the 8 PM start time, although I’m more interested in drinking the Cadillac of beers, PBR, than I am playing.

Easily enough news for a second post this Tuesday.

Bardog Tavern is once again giving away a hearse this Halloween. I drove by it this morning. It’s a white 1992 Cadillac hearse, a DeVille model I believe, the last year before they redesigned the DeVilles. I’ll try to get a pic of it and more details about the raffle in the coming days.

More info about the Memphis Made Brewing rollout here. As I reported at lunchtime, their first two beers will be sold at both Flying Saucers Friday night. If the Saucer’s not your cup of tea, you can get the beers on Saturday Downtown at Bardog and Aldo’s Pizza Pies, and in Midtown at Slider Inn and Young Avenue Deli.

Downtown Dining Week is coming back November 17-23. Many of Downtown’s best restaurants will offer a special menu for $20.13 that week. Restaurants participating can be seen on the website. Menus will be revealed October 20.

The Corked Carrot is closed for repairs and an MLGW project. They will re-open on Friday.

The annual Memphis Gay Pride Parade happens Saturday. It will kick off at Fourth and Beale at 1 PM.

If you went to the MIFA Feed the Soul event at The Warehouse last Thursday, or if you want to see who did, photos are here.

Very interesting quiz on the NY Times blog: How well can you read the mind behind the eyes? I scored 26/36, which is about average. My Facebook friend who posted this got 34/36, which is excellent.

Grizzlies single-game tickets go on sale Saturday at the FedExForum beginning at noon. The team will hold a open practice at 1.

DJ Cody, who provides the music at Silly Goose Thursday through Saturday, has announced that he is starting a new “Throwback Thursday” night beginning this week. He’ll be playing music videos from the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s on Thursdays, as well as a few new songs too. He asked for suggestions on Facebook. So far people have requested Salt & Pepa, Beastie Boys, and Kid ‘n’ Play, among other names from that era.

Memphis Made Brewing Company debuts its first two products Friday. The beers will be a South Cooper Saison, named for the brewery’s location on South Cooper, and a Parkways Pale Ale. Other beers including a red ale and a porter will follow soon. The brewery’s founders will be on hand to tap the beers at both Flying Saucers Friday night: Cordova at 5:30 and Downtown at 8:00.

The Lumineers play Mud Island Ampitheatre tonight. Show starts at 7:30.

More information about the fire at BB King’s has come in. The club will be closed an undetermined amount of time, which could be weeks, while repairs are being made.

The Hard Rock Cafe has three events coming up for Pinktober Breast Cancer Awareness Month, raising funds in local partnership with WINGS Cancer Foundation. On October 13, season 3 “The Voice” contestant Cody Belew will perform and host a meet-and-greet. On the 19th, the Pink Heals Bus Tour will stop at the Hard Rock. On the 25th, country/rock artist Joshua Paige with special guest Chris and Lolly will take the stage.

The Flying Saucer is having a month of decade-themed trivia this month, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and then Halloween trivia on the final Tuesday of the month. Tonight is ’70s trivia. They’re encouraging participants to dress up, which let’s face it, probably no customers will do. However, the servers and bartenders are allowed to dress up as well, and they’re excited about wearing something other than their work uniforms. Last night several of the Saucer girls, most of whom were not alive in the 1980s, much less the 1970s, asked me for fashion advice. “We want to dress up,” they said, “but we don’t know what people wore in the ’70s.”

“Well…” I replied, “tube tops were a big deal in the ’70s.” Normally I recommend Kevin Cerrito’s trivia night at Ferraro’s as the best Tuesday trivia option, but I think the scales may be tipped in favor of the Saucer this week. There are two trivia games, at 7:30 and 10 PM. Free to play.

I have Blind Bear poker at 8, but you can be sure a stop at the Saucer earlier in the evening is on the agenda. Sorry for the late post today, was getting some kind of server error.