Author: paulryburn

Potential good or bad news for this weekend, depending on how you look at it: Channel 3 reports that Most of the rain from Hurricane Isaac is expected to go west of us. Little Rock will get hit hard, but according to Channel 3’s graphic, Memphis may see almost no rain at all.

That’s bad news for farmers, since we’ve been having drought conditions for much of the summer. However, it’s good news for those who plan to have fun Downtown this weekend. As I mentioned yesterday, the Memphis Music & Heritage Festival is this Saturday and Sunday, outdoors on the Main Street Mall between Union and Peabody Place. It would be nice to have it dry, so people will come out in numbers and enjoy the music, art, dance, and cooking demos. Saturday is also the first College Football Saturday of the season, and I’d like to make it south to Max’s Sports Bar for an hour or two without having to dodge thunder and lightning.

I’d also like the rain to be out of here for Friday night, which will be South Main Trolley Tour. Many businesses will be open from 6 to 9, and it would be nice if the skies were clear so a big crowd will show up and support the merchants of South Main.

You know what? I miss the beer stands at Trolley Tour though. Yeah I can go to Max’s and get a beer, but I thought it was kind of nice that the beer stands sold Ghost River, a true South Main product. Also, they were conveniently located, and I didn’t have to duck into a bar and stand in line.

In the news City Councilwoman Janis Fullilove and her husband were arrested after an alleged fight. Her husband alleges that she had been drinking when he got home, and she threw dishes at him and accused him of cheating on her. By the time the police arrived, it’s reported that Mrs. Fullilove passed out on the way to the squad car. MEMPHIS, WHY DO YOU KEEP VOTING FOR THIS WOMAN?????

Facebook users: If you get an email from Facebook with subject “Your friend added a new photo with you to the album,” with a ZIP file as an attachment, and a notification that you’re receiving the email because you’re a close friend, don’t open the attachment! It’s malware. More info here.

If you’re excited about the COCHON 555 Heritage Pork BBQ fest this weekend, the Eat Local Memphis blog would be a good one to follow. Thomas is posting a series of “Meet the Chef” articles, interviewing the chefs who will compete. The interviews really do a good job communicating their passion for heritage pork. Two are up already – Miles McMath and Harrison Keevil.

The monthly Downtown Neighborhood Association meeting is tonight at the Orpheum, 6 PM. Topics include Save the Chisca, the James Lee House, the Harahan Bridge Project, and the new Blues Trail. Free for DNA members, $5 for guests.

Other stuff going on tonight: “Super Tuesday” at Kooky Canuck with all their 34 oz. signature drinks only $5 (I recommend the Flying Moose); “Tie Tuesday” at Itta Bena with $2 off drinks for all men in ties (I think “Tube Top Tuesday” would be a better promotion); pint night at Bardog with all their drafts $3; trivia at the Saucer (7:30 and 10) and Ferraro’s (8:00); poker at Blind Bear (8:00); $5 spaghetti night at the Green Beetle; Redbirds vs. Omaha at AutoZone Park (7:05).

Fun day at work… I get to spend the afternoon tinkering under the hood with WordPress. I’ll be out about 6 tonight, most likely Saucer but maybe Aldo’s Pizza Pies. Later I’ll make the call on whether I feel like playing poker at the Blind Bear. Tonight is the beginning of a new 16-week league there.

Tropical Storm Isaac, soon to be Hurricane Isaac, looks to be a weather factor this week. Intellicast’s latest storm track has the storm making a direct hit on New Orleans, then passing over Little Rock Friday morning as a tropical depression. We will surely get some rain out of it. Hopefully the rain will get out of here by the start of the Memphis Music & Heritage Festival this weekend.

The Slider Inn, the Midtown bar which is the sister restaurant to Bardog Tavern and Aldo’s Pizza Pies, has a really good special this week. All food and non-alcoholic drinks are 50% off from 11 AM to 3 PM.

The About Foursquare blog has info on a question that’s been on my mind recently: Why can’t I see everyone who’s checked in anymore? In the new update of the app, if you pull up a venue on your phone, you can only see which of your friends are checked in at that venue. You can’t see everyone else until you check in yourself. I’m not crazy about this update, but About Foursquare explains why it was necessary due to privacy concerns.

The Memphis Connect blog has a good article about the Segway tours of Downtown Memphis.

Just a reminder that the gift card sale happens all day Wednesday at Kooky Canuck. They’ll be selling them at a 50% discount. I don’t know if they’ll run out of cards, but it’s probably a good idea to get there as early as possible. Kooky opens at 11 AM.

Yesterday we decided to take our double-elimination pool tournament to the Blind Bear’s pool table: Here are the results:

Pete: 0-2
Josh: 0-2
Bean: 0-2
Me: 6-0

So glad I won and did not have to listen to Pete run his mouth. This is what Pete’s saying today:

After pool I went over to Aldo’s Pizza Pies and got an 18″ vodka pie to go. I’m having a slice for dinner as I type this. It didn’t really fit on the 10″ paper plate I put in the microwave, but I did the best I could. After dinner, it’ll be time to hit the Saucer for Pint Nite.

Follow me at paulryburn.

Every bar has its off nights. Last night I started at the Flying Saucer around 6. By 7:30 I was bored out of my mind. It wasn’t that the bar was empty – it was actually fairly busy for a Friday night – but I didn’t know many people and was in the mood to go somewhere else.

I pulled up Foursquare on my phone, to see where people were. I discovered that I had several friends at the Silly Goose and Max’s Sports Bar. Being right next door, the Goose would be a natural choice for a place to relocate. However, I’d had a good time at Max’s Thursday night, and since the weather wasn’t stifling hot for once, I decided to walk down there.

It was a good decision. The entire gang was sitting at the patio tables outside. I went in, got a PBR in a plastic cup, and came back out. It was good catching up on what is happening in South Main. I’ve spent very little time there this summer, due to the heat and the fact that there are so many good places to go close to home in the core. Also, I didn’t renew my SMA membership this year, so I don’t have the meetings as a source of South Main news.

José, who had been training Thursday night, was back behind the bar and remembered my name and what I like to drink. Max is adding some new employees for football season and has made some awesome hires. He’s going to have Ciara from the Saucer working Saturday day during college football season. She is a perfect fit for the place because she’s such a big sports fan. Cayla from the Saucer will day-bartend on NFL Sundays. I hear there’s another new hire named Renee, who I haven’t met yet, but the regulars speak of her in the same light that they speak of Ciara and Cayla, which is a sure sign she’ll be a fine addition to Max’s. He’s not a hot girl, but after the past two days I’m a big José fan for sure. Then there’s Danny, the barback/cook who is the son of Chuck who used to run Harry’s Detour across the street. Super nice guy and hard worker. Max’s has hired himself a strong staff for football season.

After a couple of PBRs, my friends Mikey and Talley decided to go to “the loft bar,” and invited me to join them. I had seen people checking into “The Loft at the Double J” on Foursquare for the past three months, and couldn’t figure out what all the fuss was about. I thought they were referring to the balcony overlooking the stage at the Double J, where I took photos of a BBQ team board meeting back in March. “That little place?” I thought. “It seats maybe 12. How can it hold as many people as I’ve seen checked in there, and have room for a full bar?”

Turns out I was totally wrong about the loft bar’s location. When the place was Beignet Cafe, there was an apartment in the back, with its own patio facing north toward the Civil Rights Museum. That has been converted into the loft bar. Because it has its own separate address and entrance, it can allow smoking while the Double J itself remains nonsmoking and family-friendly. Country music is not emphasized in the loft bar to the degree it is downstairs, unless someone chooses to play it on the jukebox. The full menu from Double J is available, though. There are several TVs including a couple of 60-inchers. Some of my friends like to go there on Saturdays and sit on the sectional sofa and watch NASCAR. They also have the large patio outside. What a great bar! I can’t believe that it’s been open 3 months and I’m just now discovering it.

With the opening of new spots in the core like Brass Door, Blind Bear, and Aldo’s Pizza Pies, I figured my trips south would be extremely limited this year. But now it’s becoming clear that I will spend a significant amount of time in South Main this fall. I want to spend more time at the loft bar. Also, with Max’s stepping it up not only in terms of good hires, but also drink specials, dollar happy hour dogs, and a full liquor bar, there’s plenty of reasons to go there too. And, of course, I have not yet mentioned the most important reason to hang out in South Main – the people. Lots of good folks down there, who are good to have a beer with, good to talk to, very comfortable to be around.

Thanks to my friend Shawn for offering me a ride back to the core. “You going home?” he asked.

“Yeah. Second and Peabody Place,” I told him. He dropped me off at the Saucer, and I wrapped up the night with a couple of Dos Equis Lagers. I managed to get to City Market right before they closed for Paul’s Drunkass Food. This morning I got to vacuum up all the rice I spilled. I need to think twice about taking home rice dishes when I’ve been drinking beer all evening.

Plan for today is Panda Manda’s bar at Bardog at noon. After that TBD.

I want to start this post with a really good value I discovered last night. Max’s Sports Bar sells Dollar Dogs – hot dogs for $1 – during their happy hour from 4:30 to 7 PM on the weekdays. I ordered two of them, and Michele asked me, “Do you want them stuffed or puffed?” She had to explain. “Puffed” means you get the hot dog plain, cooked in their toaster oven, although you do get condiments of mustard, ketchup, and relish to add if you choose. “Stuffed” means that after the dog is cooked in the oven, it’s topped with cheese, jalapenos, and bacon.

Which did I choose? Well, I like my hot dogs the same way I like tube tops. And if you’ve paid attention to this blog the past 7 days or so, you know that I like tube tops well stuffed! Although I definitely didn’t confuse the hot dogs with cuisine from Felicia Suzanne’s – or for that matter, the Dog of the Day from Bardog – they were a filling evening meal for cheap, cheap, cheap. I had a PBR with my meal, and Michele had already taught new trainee Jose how to pour 17 ounces of beer into a 16 ounce glass.

A little after 7, Real 2 Reel Photography took a group picture for Max’s month of the 2013 South Main calendar. Glad I happened to be there for the photo, since Max’s is one of my favorite places to hang out. I haven’t been there much this summer, because I live so far away and the June and July weather was so freakin’ hot. As we move into fall, I plan to make more frequent appearances on South Main.

I have a reader asking for recommendations for a good Downtown day-care for his 1-year-old son. Since I don’t have kids, I’m not much help. Any suggestions? Send ’em to paul@paulryburn.com and I’ll pass on the info.

If you own an iPhone or iPad and haven’t updated your Facebook app in the past day or so, you need to. They released a new version and it’s much, much faster. For you computer nerds, it’s because they replaced the web-based HTML5 code with iOS native Objective C code. Huge improvement. When my friend from Mexico was in town, he would use Facebook to message me because texts on his phone were obscenely expensive. So I’d get notifications that I had a new message and refresh and refresh and refresh and it wouldn’t actually show the message until 10 minutes later. Glad Facebook has given up on HTML5 for mobile for now. I hear that the Android app still sucks balls and that Zuckerberg is making all his devs switch to Android so they can feel the users’ pain.

Sugarland plays the FedExForum tonight, with special guests Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics and Canaan Smith. More info here.

There’s a 40th anniversary party at Spaghetti Warehouse today. Chance to win fun prizes, live music, free samples. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

If you’re one of the first 3000 fans through the gate at AutoZone Park tonight, you get a free Redbirds hat. Game time is 7:05. Also, tonight will be the first of three days the Cardinals’ world championship trophy from 2011 will be on display. You can bring your camera and take pictures. Donations to the Redbirds’ RBI and STRIPES programs in exchange for the photo opportunity are encouraged.

The theme at the Memphis Farmers Market tomorrow is Don’t Worry, BEE Happy. At 10:15 you can meet a beekeeper, learn what it’s like to raise bees, and learn about the importance of bees to our environment. Live music will be provided by Ron McDonald (7 AM), Michael Joyner (8 AM), and Ashley McBride (11 AM). Some of the last tomatoes of the season will be for sale.

The Memphis Flyer has a good article on what will happen at the Cochon Heritage BBQ next weekend.

Also on the Flyer site, Bruce V published a horrifying image of Hurricane Isaac as it approaches the Florida coast.

I missed the Gatsby Soiree last night at Blind Bear. I just didn’t have the clothes to wear. Can’t wait to see the pictures though.

Four more hours until the weekend. No definite plan for tonight so I guess I’ll just use Foursquare/Facebook text to figure out an agenda.

Tonight is the Great Gatsby Soiree at the Blind Bear, from 10 PM to 2 AM. If you dress in character, you don’t have to pay the $5 cover at the door. Photographer Joey Miller will be there to take your photo for the Bear’s dining room wall from 10 to midnight. There will also be a blackjack tournament played on real tables, with your entry fee going to St. Jude.

There will be a benefit show for Radford Ellis this Saturday, August 25, at Alfred’s from 3 to 6 PM. Radford is an Elvis impersonator who works in Memphis year-round. When I first moved Downtown in 2002, his Elvis show on the Black Diamond patio was possibly the first outdoor show I saw on Beale. Since then he has performed regular gigs at Club 152, The Pig on Beale, and other venues in the area. The benefit show this Saturday is for health reasons, and there will be performances by Pam & Terry, Zeno, and Jim Wilson. James Alfred Wilson will be the MC and DJ. No cover, free appetizers. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

The Daily News has a great story about the redevelopment of the Chisca Hotel. They are going to retain the motor hotel that was added on to the south side of the Chisca in the 1960s. At first my reaction was, “tear that addition down, it’s an eyesore,” but now I’m glad they’re saving it. It will mean even more apartments in the Downtown community, and the apartments in the motor hotel can be rented at a lower rate than those in the main hotel. I’ve said for years that there need to be more affordable apartments Downtown, so artists, teachers, those in the service industry, and others who have chosen a different path than corporate life can live here. A more diverse Downtown is a strong Downtown.

The Peabody rooftop season has ended, but the Madison rooftop continues this week with Deering & Down for its Thursday night party. $7 cover, small plates and cash bar available.

The Rebel on Beale concert series wraps up this evening with Sonia Leigh performing in Handy Park. No cover, all ages.

If you prefer to do your partying indoors, John Williams and A440 will play smooth grooves and soulful sounds in the lounge at Bleu this evening.

If you go to the Redbirds game tonight, be on the lookout for the Krispy Kreme tour bus. They will be handing out free donuts. Free donuts? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

Winners of sports trivia tonight at the Green Beetle will receive a really cool prize: A Coors Light tailgating/patio bar. Trivia starts at 8 PM.

Beer news: A Freedom of Information Act has been filed for the recipes of the beer President Obama drinks. There are three beers: White House Honey Ale, White House Honey Porter, and White House Honey Blonde Ale. All three are made with honey from Michelle Obama’s garden.

Do you get messages on Facebook Chat that you don’t feel like responding to? Facebook has a creepy way of letting senders of messages know that you’ve seen them (so they know you’re purposely not responding). You can block this with the Chat Undetected extension for Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer.

That’ll wrap it up for now. I’ll be on South Main this evening.

Memphis will host the world’s largest Thunderbird convention this weekend. Friday from 11 to 4, 300 1955-1957 Ford Thunderbirds will be on display at the Cook Convention Center. The ‘birds will also be on display at Graceland Saturday 11 AM to 1:45 PM, and on Beale Street Sunday 2 PM to 5 PM. The Daily News has more details.

The LaunchMemphis Fall 2012 calendar of events has been released. If you are an entrepreneur, are interested in being one, or would like to support entrepreneurship in Memphis, there’s something on there for you.

The Best Memphis Burger Fest has announced an eating contest for the September 30 festival at Minglewood Hall. Two-person teams will compete each other. The team that eats the most of a 7 1/2 pound Kooky Canuck Kookamonga burger will be declared the winner. Winning team gets a $100 Kooky Canuck gift card.

The Redbirds return to town tonight for their last homestand, which runs through August 30. Tonight is Tooth Fairy Night. The Tooth Fairy will be signing autographs during the game, and after the game kids can run the bases with the Tooth Fairy. Sponsored by Delta Dental. When I was a kid in Little Rock I got autographs by Hall of Famers Brooks Robinson and Bob Feller at Arkansas Travelers games, but never the tooth fairy. Dammit I missed out. Maybe the fairy only works AAA and higher.

This week a federal court ruled that poker is a game of skill. The government, the plaintiff in the case, was given an opportunity to bring in an expert to testify that poker is predominately a game of chance, but could not find an expert who would say so. Read the Poker Players’ Alliance press release about the ruling here. The momentum continues to grow for online poker to be legalized and regulated in the U.S.

Speaking of poker, congratulations to Tim on his victory at the Blind Bear final table last night. He will be eating well for a while, with several hundred dollars in restaurant gift cards awarded as the prize. A new league with new point standings will begin next Tuesday at 8 PM.

Stuff going on tonight: DJ Superman at Bleu, 7 PM; Bikes on Beale; bingo with Diamond Dave at the Brass Door, 7:30; half price pizza and wine at Pa Pa Pia’s; glass night at the Saucer, 7 PM; trivia night at Blind Bear, 8 PM.

Before I went to the Bear, I stopped by Aldo’s Pizza Pies for the Slice of the Day. It was the Button Man with pepperoni added.

The Button Man consists of tomato sauce, mozzarella, onions, peppers, mushrooms, and black olives. It’s basically a supreme pizza without the meats, which is kind of cool because it allows you to add the meats you want – a “build your own supreme” in a sense. Alternately, you can order it without any meats and have a really good veggie pizza.

I like the Slice of the Day concept too. It lets me sample all of Aldo’s pizzas one by one, without having to invest in whole pies. Then, when I am ready to lay down some money for a 12 or 18 inch pizza, I know which one I like the best.

That’s the news for the day. Most likely I’ll be at the Bear for trivia tonight.

What an awesome night last night. I was walking south on Main Street, and found my friends Duck Finkley and Fireball Joe on the patio of Aldo’s Pizza Pies. I decided to join them for a PBR, and we enjoyed the unseasonably mild weather and the people watching and tube top watching. About 7 I moved on to Pint Nite at the Saucer, but when I saw Duck and Joe check in at Blind Bear on Foursquare, the temptation to join them was just too strong. Sure enough they were on the patio, and our friend Mikey joined us for a beer.

I went inside to take a break, and found Jamie watching the Food Network’s Drive-ins, Diners, and Dives. Guy Fieri was sampling a Chef Michael Patrick creation from Rizzo’s Diner, and he told Mike, “This sauce is just NUTS!” (That’s a good thing.) Very happy to see my friend get the publicity and national recognition he deserves. I went back outside, and Duck and Joe and I decided to hit the Silly Goose patio for another PBR and maybe a Fireball shot or two. One night, three patios, great weather, great friends, no driving. You just can’t beat that. Last night exemplified why I live Downtown.

There are still tickets available to the Jerry Seinfeld show at The Orpheum this Friday. Get them here.

If you go to the cooking demos at Miss Cordelia’s, tonight has been postponed due to unforseen circumstances. The demos will resume next Tuesday.

I found a good blog this weekend. Scott Bowden was a manager in the Continental Wrestling Association, more commonly known as Memphis wrestling, in the early to mid 1990s. Before that, he was a photographer at Memphis wrestling matches. He shares his stories in his blog Kentucky Fried Rasslin. You can follow him at @KFriedRasslin on Twitter.

Beatles, Burgers, and Beer: 1960s British Invasion cover band Jeffrey and the Pacemakers will play Downtown Huey’s this coming Sunday, August 26, at 8:30.

The Best Memphis Burger Festival is looking for volunteers. Action News 5 has the details.

The Daily News has a good article on how the renovation of the James Lee House into a bed & breakfast could spur growth in Victorian Village. Read it here.

Game show night is the trivia theme at Ferraro’s Pizzeria & Pub tonight. 8 PM, Kevin Cerrito hosting, $1 PBR and Rolling Rock draft during trivia.

It’s the poker league final table tonight at Blind Bear. I haven’t been coming much in recent weeks, so I didn’t make the final table of the top 10 point earners. The grand prize for the final table winner is several hundred dollars in local restaurant gift cards, including a hundred from the Blind Bear. I will probably stop by and watch since I have several friends sitting at the table. Most likely I’ll hit the Saucer before that, although perhaps I’ll do another patio if the weather is as nice as last night.

Kelly finally gets with the program and wears a tube top

Raffle prizes

Star & Micey

Boo & Gary

The wooden nickel Boo and Gary brought me entitles me to a nickel PBR

…And they even taped the nickel to the back. Friends indeed.

It was good to see Maddison but I’m disappointed she did not get in the dunk tank.

Pete seemed to enjoy the Bardog party. Most likely it was because it was a Sunday he didn’t have to worry about me whooping his ass at pool at the Saucer.

Bluff City Backsliders

Talley. Thankfully he didn’t wear a Speedo to this fundraiser.

Bob, Talley, and Bad Shane

Official T-shirt of the meatball eating contest. Yes, that is Aldo’s grandmother.

Ciara rocking out as she and Emily enter Scratchy’s Alley from Union

Aldo emceeing the meatball eating contest

Duck Finkley was outmatched in the meatball eating contest. Four bites per meatball? Come on. Swallow those bitches.

Kyla

Watching the meatball eating contest from the fire escape

Meatball eating champion Mike Muruako

Post-contest, Bob Rebecca’d a leftover meatball.

Tawni with hair

A minimum $2000 was required to get Tawni in the barber’s chair.

View full photo albums:

• Part 1 (192 photos)
• Part 2 (147 photos)

Massive respect for Tawni and for the other people who got their head/beard shaved for St. Jude. And massive respect for Bardog for putting this thing together, and for being the Downtown core’s neighborhood bar for 4 years.

 

Bardog Tavern has its 4th birthday party today in the alley next to the popular neighborhood bar (Center Lane, known to Downtowners as Scratchy’s Alley). The Bardog 5K run starts at 9, and the party kicks off at noon. Assuming it follows the format of previous years, here’s what will happen.

At noon the party will begin. Don’t forget your ID, because they check everyone at the entrance. There will be two bands, the Bluff City Backsliders and Star and Micey. There will be outdoor beer stands. In past years guests have had to buy tickets for the stands, and I imagine that will be the case again. You can also buy beer inside, but with Panda Manda and Jeannie in bikinis at the outdoor stands, there’s plenty of reason to stay in the alley. There will be sliders for sale as well. There will also be porta-potties in the alley so you don’t have to go inside and stand in line for the bathrooms.

The early part of the afternoon is the dunk tank. Aldo and some of the Bardog staff take turns in the tank, with James selling balls with the proceeds going to St. Jude. They also tend to have special guest VIPs get in the tank. I hear that some of the girls from Aldo’s Pizza Pies will be in the tank this year, and I will definitely be there with the camera. If Aldo’s Pizza Pies manager John Findlay goes in the tank, there will be a line around the block.

The raffle goes on throughout the day. There are numerous prizes, given away at various intervals. The last prize to be given away is the sweet Fat Tire bike that has been hanging from the ceiling. I can’t remember if the drawings are every 15 or 30 minutes. At any rate, it pays to find out what times the drawings are, and make sure you’re in the alley at those times.

Toward late afternoon, I think around 4, is the “I Busted Aldo’s Grandma’s Balls” contest. The first person to eat 40 of Bardog’s meatballs, which are Aldo’s grandma’s secret recipe, will be declared the winner. There is no time limit, and contestants are disqualified if any meatballs come back up. My friend Duck Finkley has said he is entering the contest this year. I will try to get a “DUCK! DUCK! DUCK!” chant going.

The last event of the day is the head shaving. Tawni Bell has agreed to have her head shaved if $2000 is raised for St. Jude. I had planned to donate $20 to Tawni’s baldness fund, but you know what? I’m going to double that to $40 in memory of Jay Hollingsworth, recipient of last year’s haircut who is no longer with us. Miss you Jay, the party won’t be quite as good without you here.

I always take a lot of pictures, and this year will be no exception. The iPhone camera won’t be enough today. The digital camera will be out, with both spare batteries.

This is one of those “all kinds of good things could happen” types of days. I’m going to hit the Majestic at 11 to get some food in me before I start on the beer. At 12 I’ll hit the Saucer for 1 beer and a quick mayorship defense, then Bardog about 12:30. Hope to see you at the party. It’s one of the best Downtown events of the year.