Author: paulryburn

The Memphis Business Journal has posted a photo gallery of the One Commerce Square office space formerly occupied by Pinnacle Airlines. As you can see, it is premium space and would be a great place to relocate a business. Someone should send this gallery to Governor Haslam, since he is looking to relocate 900 state employees.

Undecided where to watch the Super Bowl? Action News 5 has a list of bars and restaurants that will be showing the big game. Many of the venues listed will have specials. One venue not mentioned in the list is the Flying Saucer, which will have Pint Nite all day.

Speaking of the Saucer, it will be one of two Downtown bars that will be doing a “Tap Takeover” by Brooklyn Brewery. Starting Monday, both the Saucer and Bardog Tavern will have 10 Brooklyn beers on tap.

I took the photo of the image above at the Saucer. Not sure if Bardog will carry the same ten beers but I imagine so. Bardog only has 10 taps total so the PBR tap will be among the ones “taken over.”

One of the most entertaining characters on Twitter is retired pro wrestler The Iron Sheik. Sheikie Baby was interviewed recently, and you can read what he has to say about the Super Bowl, life after wrestling, and more. The interview had to be cleaned up a good bit since every sixth or seventh word the Sheik types is the f-bomb.

Time to get Sunday Fun Day started. I’m skipping brunch at the Majestic this week since the Super Bowl will keep me out until 10 or later. I plan to start with a quick mayoral PBR at the Silly Goose, then over to the Saucer for bonus Pint Nite, then to the Blind Bear at 3 for Hung Over Like a Bear brunch. Undecided where I will actually watch the game, but it will likely be one of those three.

Every Monday at the Flying Saucer is Pint Nite, when almost all of the drafts on their 75-handle tap wall go on sale for $3. It’s just about the only thing that makes Monday tolerable.

This week, it gets even better. There will be TWO Pint Nites. Monday will be Pint Nite as usual, but tomorrow, Sunday, will be as well. From noon ’til midnight you’ll be able to get $3 drafts. Some of the mixers are $3 as well, including the Black & Tan, Half & Half, and my favorite of the mixers, the Blue Velvet. If you haven’t been in a while, come on down and see why the Saucer wins Best Beer Selection in the Best of Memphis poll year after year after year.

The finals of the International Blues Challenge are at the Orpheum today. Show up if you want to hear the best blues in the world. Band finals at 2, solo/duo finals at 7:30. More info here.

There’s a slate of events to benefit the Special Olympics on Mud Island today. Chili cook-off with People’s Choice tasting from 10:30 to 3. Donut eating contest at 2. Polar Bear Plunge, costume contest at 2:30 and the actual plunge at 3. Awards ceremony at 4.

The Memphis Tigers host the Tulsa Golden Hurricane today at 1 at the FedExForum.

Bean plays the Blind Bear tonight. That means a band named Bean will be playing music. As opposed to tomorrow night when a horrible poker player named Michael Bean will be going all-in with 8-3 offsuit every hand.

Looks like we had some freezing rain/sleet this morning. I totally missed it, but as I scrolled backward on Twitter I saw there were a number of wrecks. I-240 northbound was closed between South Parkway and Lamar, and a bunch of roads I don’t care about in East Bumblefuck were closed too. High is expected to reach the low 50s today, so the ice shouldn’t be a problem much longer.

Today is one of the stupidest holidays of the year, when a stupid rodent crawls out of its stupid hole and either sees its stupid shadow or not. The town of Punxsutawney, PA makes an all-day celebration of it, which is even stupider than the “Hernando Water Tower Fest” that happens not far from here in the fall. Hey, you have to do something to get attention I guess.

I’d rather celebrate February 2 with pandas than rodents, so I’ll be at the bar at Bardog at 11 for PBR and Saturday brunch.

The best fried chicken in the world, Gus’s Fried Chicken, is coming to Little Rock. The new restaurant will be in Downtown Little Rock, in the River Market district. For those familiar with the city, the location will be at 300 President Clinton Avenue. More details here on InArkansas.com.

As a Little Rock native who still goes over there from time to time, I couldn’t be happier about this news. I’m also happy to hear that when I get done with my fried chicken, all I’ll have to do is cross the street and I’ll be at the Little Rock Flying Saucer.

I know I have some Little Rock friends who read this blog. You must go and try this chicken. ASAP.

Home from work for the weekend! Every day around 5:00, the geese come up out of our pond at work and sit by the parking lot. I think they like watching us get in our cars and drive away. I wonder if they notice that there are two days a week when no humans are around, and wonder where we are.

The Commercial Appeal has a good article today about the changes coming to A. Schwab, the dry goods store on Beale Street that has been there since the 1870s. They plan to have speakers and presentations during major Memphis musical events, including Memphis in May and this week’s IBC. They are planning cultural programming as well. They plan to add an old-fashioned ice cream parlor and soda fountain later this spring.

Lansky 126, one of the clothing stores in the Peabody Hotel, is having a sale this weekend. 40% OFF Select Southern Tide, all True Religion for men, all French Connection for men, select TOMS for men and women. Select sale from Karlie, Luii, Michael Stars, Judith March, and more for women.

There was a very good article on Mashable today about 10 essential tools for the web developer. When it named two of my very favorite tools, Evernote and Dropbox, as number 1 and 2, I knew I was going to find some good stuff. Check it out if you do any kind of coding. I can already tell that I will find uses for 7. DiffChecker and 10. Dabblet at work.

A lot of articles have been written about the Rudy Gay trade, but this one is a good read because they interviewed someone who has personal knowledge of Rudy’s motivations and the culture that exists within the Grizzlies. The “Who are the real leaders on the team?” question is particularly enlightening.

In other Grizzlies news, new owner Robert Pera plans to bring Wi-Fi to the FedExForum. He wants it to be scalable to 10,000+ fans with acceptable performance. Very cool!

That’s all for now. Heading out for beer. The Grizzlies host the Washington Wizards tonight, and we’ll get a first look at our new players.

Google StreetView tour of the Grand Canyon

And here’s an NBC News article on how the tour was created.

Forbes.com has a good article on how to host a Super Bowl party without getting sued. The NFL is protective of their trademarks, but not as protective as they were a few years ago.

Six new Seed Hatchery teams have been chosen for 2013. Seed Hatchery is an intense 90-day program where startup businesses go through a variety of tasks to learn how to succeed, and get mentoring from those who have been there. Congrats to the chosen teams.

Local will have new specials beginning tomorrow evening, February 1. See them here.

The Flying Fish just got its first shipment of crawfish for the season.

Official Memphis Grizzlies watch party at the Blind Bear at 7.

Outta here for now… my buddy Duck Finkley wants to hang out with the new mayor of the Silly Goose. Grizzlies watch party after that.

The biggest news of the day is that the Grizzlies have finally pulled the trigger on the Rudy Gay trade. Gay and Hamed Haddadi are off to Toronto. We will get several players and a second-round draft pick in return. Grantland has an analysis of the trade and its effect on all three teams involved.

The Commercial Appeal reports that car sharing may be coming to Downtown Memphis through a company called ZipCar. This kind of service would be perfect for people who live and work Downtown, who don’t need a car every day but occasionally need to make trips to other parts of the city to buy groceries, meet friends, etc.

The International Blues Challenge is in full swing, and a band was playing at the Flying Saucer last night when I walked in. Bands are in nearly every club on Beale as well. Quarterfinals continue tonight. Don’t forget there’s an International Blues Challenge smartphone app that you can use to plan which bands you want to see.

There’s a new Social Fitness Club for members and friends of the Downtown YMCA. The goal is to increase awareness of the Y as a community organization, and not just a gym. Their meetups are the first Tuesday of every month at the Brass Door from 5 to 7 PM. They sent me the following information:

Social “Fitness” Club Meet-Up
Memphis Grizzlies Ticket Giveaway!
Join us Tuesday, February 5, 2013 at
5-7 p.m. at the Brass Door, 152 Madison
Open to Y Members and Guests

Everyone who shows their Y membership card will get a chance to win a pair of Grizzlies tickets for the February 22 game.
Must be present to win!

Don’t Forget! Y-Night with the Grizzlies on February 10 and 22, buy your tickets today!
See our Facebook group for details www.facebook.com/groups/YMCAFogelman

Follow us on Twitter @YMCAFogelman
Share your #socialfit Healthy Living, Social Responsibility and Youth Development

That’s all the news I have time to post right now. There will be a second post tonight, unless I forget. And now, back to a fun-filled afternoon of software training.

Bad news for Downtown this morning: Gov. Bill Haslam wants to close the state office building on the Civic Center Plaza between Poplar and Adams. I understand the state’s desire to save money, but the last thing we need is a large vacant office building on the Downtown Memphis skyline. The good news is that the governor intends to keep the 900 employees working in the building Downtown. Hey Gov. Haslam, there’s about to be 13 floors of premium office space available in One Commerce Square at Main and Monroe. Why not relocate your employees there?

Plans are moving ahead for Downtown parking meters to accept credit cards. A lot of people don’t have change when they park, and simply don’t pay, choosing to take their chances that they’ll get their business done before being written a ticket. With an additional method to pay, the city hopes that fewer people will make that gamble.

A move is underway to fix Tennessee’s beer taxes. The tax reform would make it easier for craft breweries to operate within our state. Memphis will have three craft breweries by this summer. Let’s fix the tax and encourage a dozen more to open!

The Tigers play an away game at ECU tonight at 6. There’s no TV.

Looking for a King Cake for Mardi Gras? Miss Cordelia’s has them in a limited supply.

That’s all, apologies if any spelling/grammar errors, still on a very short lunch break. Will be out about 6 tonight, probably Silly Goose first stop.