Author: paulryburn

Another Code Orange Ozone Alert has been issued, this time for tomorrow. That means that MATA bus and trolley rides will be 25 cents tomorrow, as well as the remainder of today.

MemphisWeather.net is seeking a nowcaster/social media intern to start work in late summer. It’s a volunteer internship, but you’d get to work with a very sharp meterologist who has a real knack for using social media effectively and explaining weather in layman’s terms. If I were an undergrad or graduate meteorology student, I would jump at this chance. Hours must be somewhat flexible, depending on weather. Applications are due by July 1 and position will run August-December.

Fox 13 reports that Desi Arnaz used to hang out at the Green Beetle all the time. His band would play the Chisca, but the hotel had a policy that if you played there, you couldn’t hang out there. So he’d go down to the Beetle and get a steak. Desi, of course, went on to star in I Love Lucy with his real-life wife, Lucille Ball.

A panel of airport officials and local economic experts presented a forum about high airfares this morning. Memphis is said to have the third highest airfares in the country, and citizens’ groups such as Delta Does Memphis have popped up in protest. To sum up what was said, Memphians are screwed, and there’s not much we can do about it for the foreseeable future. Want an affordable flight? Hope you enjoy driving to Little Rock.

The @RealTimeWWII Twitter account is getting really good. It’s now up to June 1940. The French have abandoned Paris and are days away from asking the Germans for an armistice. Really interesting to see a war unfold on this medium.

As a pro wrestling fan, I feel the need to make a couple of comments about WWE Monday Night Raw.

1) They have a new guy named Ryback who is being built as an unstoppable monster, kind of like WCW did with Bill Goldberg back in the ’90s. On last week’s show he won a handicap match vs. Arthur Rosenberg and Stan Stansky. This week he beat William Fillmore and Rutherford “P.S.” Hayes. One of my favorite things about Raw now is tuning in to see the names of the jabronis that Ryback destroys.

2) They brought back (Big Van) Vader this week! When I heard he was back – and apparently main eventing – I thought to myself, “wasn’t he 40 when he had his last run in the WWE in the mid-90s?” I looked him up on Wikipedia and sure enough, the guy is 57. Wow they are getting desperate for main-event talent if they’re bringing back a guy that old.

Today marks the halfway point of Tube Top Month. The good news is, you still have tonight and then 20 more days to rock those tube tops! Let’s see ’em! If you’re going to the same party Downtown that I am tonight, may I suggest a tube top as party attire!

The party of which I speak does not start until 8. No better place to pre-game for it than the Saucer! I’ll be there by 6.

One of the Peabody rooftop series’ most popular bands, Aquanet, plays the Thursday night rooftop party tonight. Aquanet performs covers of ’80s hair band songs in full costume. $10 admission, but that includes your first drink and an American buffet with popcorn, grilled cheese sandwiches, dill pickles, and potato chips with onion dip. Ladies free before 7. If you’re in the VIP section, there’s a second American buffet with spinach dip, sausage and cheese with crackers, pepperoni pizza, mushroom and onion pizza, and chicken fingers. 6-11 PM. They’ve announced they will have a 52″ TV in the Skyway for those who want to watch Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Over on the rooftop of the Madison Hotel, the King Beez will be playing soul, blues, and R&B. 7-11 PM. $7 cover, cash bar and small plates available.

In other Madison Hotel news, they will host a Summer Truffle Wine Dinner on Sunday, June 24. Here’s the info, from the press release they sent me:

eighty3 executive chef Connor O’Neill will prepare a five-course menu featuring the tantalizing truffles from the Tennessee foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Each course features truffles and is paired with select wines for a dinner unlike any other. Cost is $75 per person, and reservations are limited. Reserve online at www.eighty3memphis.com or call 901-333-1224. Menu:

amuse-bouche
Truffle BBQ duck with smoked Gouda on cornbread

appetizer
Grilled oyster with truffle butter and Parmesan, plus a vanilla vodka and truffle oyster shooter

first course
Napoleon of smoked trout and sweet potatoes with truffle lemon vin

second course
Crispy lobster and leek mac-and-cheese

main course
Center-cut rib eye with truffle butter and sweet potatoes

dessert
Truffle bacon ice cream and beignets, plus homemade chocolate truffles

Back to things happening tonight: Felicia Suzanne’s will have live music in the courtyard tonight. Two Mule Plow performs from 7 to 9, and there will be drink and food specials during the show.

Donnie Darko plays tonight as part of the Orpheum’s Summer Movie Series. 7:30 start time. $7 adults, $6 for kids 12 and under.

The National Civil Rights Museum is about to undergo its first major renovation of the Lorraine Motel building since the museum opened. Construction will begin in November, and the old Legacy Building boarding house across the street, which is now part of the museum, will remain open. The public is invited to a sneak peek at the final design plans on Tuesday, June 26 at 6 PM in the museum’s auditorium.

More news on the police substation planned for Beale Street. ABC 24 reports that the substation will be located at 340 Beale, which I believe would be the building that housed the Red Rooster most recently. That’s right across Fourth Street from Club Crave (formerly the Plush Club). PERFECT location to put a police substation. It will cost $50,000 over a 5-year lease and I cannot think of a better use of the money.

Seth from the Best Memphis Burger blog was interviewed on “a girl, a fork, and a spoon” and listed his five best Memphis burgers. Two of those burgers are Downtown – The Uptown Burger at Roxie’s Grocery on North Third, and the Four Cheese Burger at Kooky Canuck. I haven’t made it to Roxie’s yet but I wholeheartedly agree about the Four Cheese Burger.

Lots going on tonight – rooftop parties, as well as another party nearby. Ladies, I would suggest a tube top for tonight’s attire. Gonna go grab some chili cheese fries from Dixie Queen, then back for a fun afternoon of trying to get a CMS to do things a CMS was never meant to do. Will be out about 6 tonight.

Real quick update before I head out to the bars…

MATA has announced that tomorrow will be a Code Orange Ozone Adivsory day. Due to the high levels of air pollution, bus and trolley rides will be only 25 cents, in an effort to reduce the number of vehicles on the road.

Aldo’s Pizza Pies is hiring pizza cooks. Open interviews will be held this Friday, June 15 at Bardog Tavern from 2 to 5 PM.

WordPress 3.4 is out. Get it here or use the automatic update feature if you’re running a previous version. The release is said to include significant improvements to theme customization, custom headers, Twitter embeds, and image captions.

I’ll be at trivia at the Blind Bear tonight. Jeannette (pictured below, with husband Jamie) has confirmed that trivia will start on time at 8 PM. If teams show up late, that’s just too bad, they’ll miss questions.

I read somewhere (may have been on my own blog) that beer is brain food. So, I guess I better head to the Saucer and pre-game for trivia!

The Memphis Redbirds and Nashville Sounds have announced the creation of The I-40 Cup, sponsored by the Tennessee Education Lottery. The cup will be awarded annually to whichever AAA team has the winning record against the other for the year. The losing team will have to donate 25 tickets to the winner’s charity of choice. The Redbirds would have taken home the two-foot-tall cup had it existed last year, with a 10-6 record against the Sounds.

The Flying Saucer is teaming up with Pints for Prostates to promote men’s health. Each Wednesday from June 27 to July 21, the Saucer will have glass night featuring a Belgian beer in that beer’s signature glassware. 144 glasses will be available each week. The price of the glass will go toward the support of Pints for Prostates. In addition to the glass, your purchase gets you a raffle ticket toward a drawing for a special beer trip for two to Belgium, September 7-15 of this year. Guests can also purchase extra raffle tickets: $10 for one, $25 for three, $50 for seven. Both Saucers (Memphis and Cordova) will participate in the drawing.

Mayor Wharton has promised that a police substation will return to Beale Street. There used to be one in the location that is now Superior Bar, but it and a police museum moved out about six years ago. Having a substation back on Beale will go a long way toward the perception of safety on the street.

There’s also been renewed discussion of a cover to get on Beale Friday and Saturday nights – perhaps, something like a $10 cover, but you get 10 “Beale Bucks” in return to spend at clubs, restaurants, and shops on the street. It would help cut down on the people who just come there to hang out without spending any money. Sounds good to me. The Parks & Recreation Department is responsible for places where people can just hang out. Beale Street is not the Park & Rec Department; it’s a business.

Tube Top Tuesday at Bardog didn’t happen yesterday. Amanda forgot to wear a tube top to work. She commented on Facebook that she needs to set a reminder on her phone for Tuesdays, and I agree. I decided to switch my first stop of the evening back to the Saucer, business as usual. Lots of good pre-Chappelle concert people watching there, including some tube tops and tube top dresses.

Poker at Blind Bear was well attended again this week, with about 20 people at 3 tables. I didn’t play well for the second week in a row and was out before the fourth blind level ended. I’ve decided I’m going to take a break from poker for a few weeks, until I get excited about playing again.

Will probably do trivia tonight at the Bear. Time to hit Publish and grab lunch.

So, the Grizzlies have a new owner. Or so they say. 34-year-old Robert Pera has given Michael Heisley an 8-figure deposit toward buying the team for $350 million. Of course, Pera doesn’t actually own the team yet, because there are other steps involved – mainly, approval by the NBA, which will take at least 60 days (and probably much longer).

My prediction is that Pera will never own this team.

Pera is being called a billionaire, based on the percentage of stock he owns of the company he founded, Ubiquiti. Ubiquiti sells wireless Internet products to emerging markets. After the stock went public, it hit a high point of almost $36 a share, making Pera worth about $2 billion. However, it has since fallen to about $12. Pera is no longer a billionaire.

In fact, if the stock price halves again, Pera won’t even be able to afford to buy the team. And there’s a lot of reason to believe the stock will drop by another 50%. As someone who self-manages stocks in a Roth IRA, I see a lot of signs of disaster in this company. For one, I’ve been taught that it’s bad if a company has more than 3% of its stock sold short – in other words, more than 3% of investors believe the price will go down in the future. Ubiquiti has 54% of its stock sold short right now. Its accounts receivable days are on the rise. Its business model is to sell to distributors, but somehow these distributors are selling equipment to Iranian companies and possibly North Korean companies too. That’s a big no-no. Then there’s the fact that they book revenue when equipment is sold to distributors, rather than end users. That’s a very aggressive accounting model that could be used to push a lot of equipment to distributors that they know they will never be able to sell, in order to prop up profit margins in earnings reports (“channel stuffing”).

This CNBC article says it all. Pera needs to devote 100% of his energy to running the company. He got rich quick and decided to buy himself a toy. It’s not time for toys yet.

My prediction is that Michael Heisley just got an eight-figure payday and will still own the Grizzlies when all is said and done.

Yesterday, a few hours after the “sale” was announced, @MemphiSport asked its Twitter followers what is the first thing they would do after buying the Grizzlies. I responded that I’d add a Grizzlies tube top to the merchandise line. That was good enough to get retweeted.

In other news: B.B. King’s is doing a “dollar deal” for ribs Tuesday-Thursday 2-5 PM. A dollar a rib bone, minimum order 4, maximum 8, with reorders of 4 bones at a time. No to-go orders or boxes, and not valid with any other promo. More info here.

The FedExForum has lost the 2013 Conference USA tournament. To punish Memphis for leaving, C-USA has voted to move the tourney to Tulsa. As nearly every sports commentator in town has pointed out, instead of packed houses, now the tournament will be shown on TV with a mostly empty arena, showing C-USA to be the crummy conference it is.

Congratulations to the Arkansas Razorbacks. They defeated Baylor to advance to the College World Series. Go Hogs!

An iPhone app called Beer Buddy, normally $3.99, is free in the App Store today. It lets you scan bar codes on beer bottles and get info about the beer.

Plans for tonight: Tube Top Tuesday at Bardog, poker at Blind Bear, then Saucer.

This weekend there has been a 48-hour launch going on at the EmergeMemphis building. Four new businesses are being started up from scratch, developing business plans, marketing strategies, websites and social media presence, etc. Tonight at 6 PM they’ll present their new businesses at a reception, and the public is invited. The new businesses (with their Twitter handles) are

– Happy Potty (@happypotty), a toilet discovery engine

– Lost Petcast (@lostpetcast), a means to broadcast your lost pet to Craigslist, the CA, the Flyer, Twitter, Facebook, and local vets and hospitals.

– ScrewPulp (@screwpulp). It isn’t immediately clear what they do from their Twitter profile (need to work on that, guys), but their website indicates it will forever change the way you read books.

– Yadoog (@yadoog), a way to tell your daily story in 24 pics or less.

The EmergeMemphis building is at 516 Tennessee Street. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be provided at the reception. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

This has nothing to do with the content of the post, but, in keeping with this blog’s monthly theme, here’s a pic of Mary Pat in a tube top.

One thing I want to do to celebrate Tube Top Month is create a tube top buying guide. Where are the best places to buy tube tops? Email me at paul@paulryburn.com. Downtown locations preferred but I’ll list anywhere in Memphis. Tube tops are worth traveling.

I posted the tube top question on Facebook yesterday. Originally I wanted it to be a “Shop Local” guide, listing only locally-owned businesses, kind of in the way that Seth has stated he will only review locally-owned businesses for Best Memphis Burger. However, after seeing the responses, I’m convinced that won’t work for my buyer’s guide. American Apparel and Urban Outfitters are just such powerhouses in the world of tube tops that they can’t be ignored. Besides, there are chain stores and “cool, hip” chain stores, and both of the ones I listed qualify as the latter. They’ve earned places on the list.

Friday night I had a question which is probably worth answering on the blog. Someone came up to me and said, “Paul, I know you do a lot of work in social media. I have a Facebook question. One of my friends posts a lot of really stupid stuff, and it shows up on my News Feed. Is there a way I can not see his stupid posts, without unfriending him and hurting his feelings?” Yes. Pull up his page on Facebook. Click the button in the upper right that says “Friends.” It should drop down a menu. One of the menu options should be “Show in News Feed.” Uncheck that option and voila! You’ll still nominally be friends on Facebook, but he’ll have no idea you’re not seeing the stupid crap he posts. (These instructions are for the web version of Facebook, rather than the mobile version.)

If only it were that easy to mute people in real life.

So, I started the day yesterday at Panda Manda’s bar at Bardog at noon. She confirmed that Tube Top Tuesday will indeed happen – for the summer months, every Tuesday during happy hour she’ll be wearing a tube top behind the bar. Attn Saucer: You won’t see me before about 10 PM on Tuesdays for a while.

Bardog has really become the place to be Saturday days. Nearly the entire gang has shown up the past two weeks. We watched the Euro 2012 soccer matches on TV, and I had a view out the window and watched Scratchy cross Monroe Avenue about 30 times. It’s amazing he never gets hit by cars.

About 3:30 the crowd started to dissipate, and I realized I needed to eat soon. I walked down Main and Union and Second, trying to decide. “Sushi sounds good but I’ll have to wait until the restaurant opens… Majestic is always good… hmm there’s chicken, but I’d rather have Gus’s and don’t know if I feel like walking that far… the Fish is good, but I just ate there the other day… hey, there’s the Saucer! Think I’ll have a beer!” So much for eating!

Harp was the Fire Sale yesterday. Now I think I have a better idea why the Memphis Saucer is reluctant to carry PBR. Why should they, when they can sell a beer that tastes exactly like PBR for $4.50, and occasionally discount it to $3 for Fire Sale and Pint Nite?

By about 7 the need for food was getting critical. By this point I had made up my mind to just stick with one of the classics – the Majestic Grille. I got there and ordered two of their appetizers, the calamari and the onion rings. Marla could see I was starving and brought me a basket of their yummy focaccia bread and butter while I waited on my food. Really, really good.

These were the onion rings. That’s a standard-sized plate they are sitting on. Look how big they are! Hiding behind them is a cup of horseradish dipping sauce.

I didn’t take a pic of the calamari, but I’m a big fan of it too. They use a cornmeal breading that adds a lot of flavor to the dish, and they cook it with cherry peppers for a little extra zing.

I watched the Celtics-Heat game as I ate my food. By early second quarter I was stuffed – even though I’d eaten maybe 25% of my food. I did something I rarely do, and asked for a to-go box. “If I don’t feel like taking it home, I’ll leave it in the alley for Scratchy,” I reasoned. The bartender asked if I wanted anything else. “You know, I guess I’ll watch the rest of the second quarter here,” I told her. “I think I’ll have a strawberry basil martini.”

One of Downtown’s hidden secrets – or, maybe it’s not so hidden because a lot of people already know this – is that the Majestic has a martini menu that can hold its own against cocktail bars like Alchemy or the Silly Goose. My favorite is the Strawberry Basil Martini, with pieces of strawberries right there in the glass. I hadn’t had one in over a year, and it was every bit as good as I remembered.

(For those who don’t think this drink is manly enough, let me point out that I also did a shot of Jameson with the chef.)

I finished my martini right as the third quarter was starting. Again, the bartender came over and asked if I wanted anything else. I thought to myself, You know, I could go to the Saucer or the Bear to watch the rest of the game. But honestly, I’m having just as good a time right here. So I ordered another strawberry martini, and that took me through the end of the game. The Heat won, so they’ll face the OKC Thunder in the NBA Finals, first game Tuesday. You know what? At first glance, it seems easy to want the Heat to lose, but I can’t totally hate a team that has Shane Battier on it. He’s just too good a guy. So I guess either way, a good guy gets a ring this year (how can you not like James Harden?)

Apologies to those who were wondering where I was at Mollie Fontaine’s for ’80s night, after I said I might cab it out there. By the end of the game, I was thinking to myself, “You know, I am going to get a really good night’s sleep if I just go home now.” After the amazing REM dream sleep I had last Monday morning, I kind of wanted some more. Plus the price of that plan (free) was appealing vs. the price of cab fare + drinks. Sure enough, I had several vivid dreams, although this time I didn’t levitate or create alternate versions of Downtown. I did dream I was back in the job I had 2004-06 programming rebate websites in VB.net. For some reason I dream about that job more than the current one or any past one. Not sure why. Anyway, I feel great this morning and am rarin’ to go.

Skipping brunch at the Majestic this morning, as I always do when there’s a big show at the Orpheum (Mamma Mia! today). Most likely I’ll hit the Saucer at noon, then evaluate plans for the rest of the day.

On weekend nights I tend to surf social media on my phone a good deal, to see what my friends are up to. However last night, my friends’ activities were not the main reason I kept checking Twitter. A kitten, 6 to 8 weeks old, was found stuck in a vertical drain pipe about 2 inches in diameter. It had been there since Sunday, and early reports indicated that the kitten might not be able to be rescued. By mid-evening the kitten had its own hashtag on Twitter, #PipeKitty, and the main person rescuing it created a @MyPipeKitty account to update everyone. At the time I last checked Twitter (more on that in a minute), they had lowered a camera into the pipe and determined that the kitten was still very much alive.

This morning, the first thing I did after waking up was check the Twitter account, and there was good news. About 4:00 in the morning, the kitten was rescued. It’s said to be in good spirits, very vocal and playful, and the man who rescued the kitten is going to talk to the Humane Society about adopting it. The kitten was dug free thanks to Greenway Home Services, who had their equipment there until 4 AM. If you need plumbing, HVAC services, or major appliances, please consider doing business with them.

Anyway, after about 12 I couldn’t get updates on #PipeKitty because my phone’s Twitter app froze on this picture. Well, if you must freeze up, that’s a good pic to do it on. It’s a pic of Double J Smokehouse and Saloon’s new Wagon Wheel appetizer sampler platter, with hot wings, fried pickles, onion rings, cheese sticks, a sampler of their sausage and cheese plate, and BBQ nachos. I count NINE cups of dipping sauce on this thing. It’s $25, but the restaurant’s “mayor” on Foursquare, Mikey, told me last night that it’s easily enough food to feed five people. I hope to try the Wagon Wheel soon – but, not when I’m dining alone.

Also while checking social media, I saw that my friends Katie Mac and the Nuh-Uh Girl went to the lake this weekend. Katie took the Nuh-Uh Girl to a bar, and conveniently forgot to tell her it was a karaoke bar until they got there. Ugh. The Nuh-Uh Girl usually isn’t into karaoke bars, unless they happen to have an all-you-can-eat buffet. So glad we don’t have to deal with karaoke on the weekends in Downtown Memphis anymore.

On with the news… the Peabody is doing a Sunset Happy Hour on the rooftop on select Fridays and Saturdays from 4:30 to 8:30. Today is one of those select days. If you’ve never enjoyed a relaxing sunset on a Downtown rooftop with a cocktail in your hand, this is your chance. More info here.

Police, firefighters, EMTs, and Civil Service are invited to have 71 cent hamburgers at the Hard Rock Cafe on Thursday, June 14. It’s their Founders’ Day Celebration and all are welcome, no cover. This will be the music lineup:

12PM – Chad Nordhoff
1PM – Tori Tollison
5PM – Amy Hart
6PM – J.W. Williams
7PM – The Mike Dees Band
8PM – the Near Reaches
9PM – Pengea
10PM – Shive

All proceeds from the day will benefit the Church Health Center. The Hard Rock has a made-from-scratch kitchen, so civil servants, those 71 cent burgers will not be frozen burgers from SYSCO – they’ll be the real thing. More info about Founders’ Day here.

There will be an “I ♥ the ’80s” party tonight at Mollie Fontaine Lounge from 11 PM to 3 AM. No cover, 21 and up. DJs will spin your favorite ’80s and early ’90s tunes. Costumes are highly encouraged. More info here. The only problem I have with the ’80s-early ’90s is that it was the era when tube tops were out of fashion.

Gizmodo has a post on how to make absinthe pops, the summer treat that will melt your face. Oh my goodness. This is Trouble with a capital T.

Time to hit Publish, get dressed, and hit Bardog at noon for brunch and some $2 Coronas with Panda Manda. Later tonight I’ll decide if I feel like taking a cab over to Mollie’s for the ’80s party.

Facebook and Foursquare have made some pretty significant updates in the past couple of days. Last night I tried them out.

Yesterday Facebook told me I could “star” friends. This lets Facebook know that I’m especially interested in seeing those people’s updates. It suggested friends to star, based on who I’ve interacted with the most lately. It also told me that friends won’t know I’ve “starred” them. So, okay, I went with it and starred about 10 people. Those people then went into my “Close Friends” group. I discovered that I got a notification any time a friend I starred updated their status, uploaded photos, etc. That’s pretty cool. I’m not on Facebook 24/7 and this way I don’t miss out on what my friends are doing.

Then there’s Foursquare, which has changed the way it works both on the website and on smartphone apps. Overall I like it except for a couple of minor things. You can “Like” your friends’ checkins, and you can see more of your friends’ checkins than in the past. I also see that you can “Like” venues. I’ll probably have “Liked” most of the bars Downtown within a week or two.

They’ve simplified the process of checking in, so you don’t have to go to the venue’s page to do it. I understand why they did it – fewer clicks, less time to check in. But there are a couple of drawbacks. First of all, if people don’t have to go to the Flying Saucer’s page or Blind Bear’s page to check in, they won’t see “Paul R. is the mayor.” I want my recognition dammit!

Another thing is, while it takes less effort to check in now, it takes more effort to pull up a venue’s page and see who is currently checked in. This is something I actually do a lot. The main rule that dictates where I go Downtown is, “I like good situations.” If I’m bored at the Saucer, I might pull up Bardog’s page on the Foursquare app. If I see that four of my friends are checked in there, I’ve found a good situation and am likely to go over. I can still access this information; it just takes longer in the revised app.

If you have Foursquare hooked up to Twitter, then tips you leave at venues will be tweeted now. That’s pretty cool. So if I leave a tip at the Peabody to wear a tube top to their rooftop parties, my ~1250 Twitter followers will see it.

Soccer news: The Brass Door will have all of the Euro 2012 games on its giant screen in the Cavern.

I’ll Have Another has been scratched from the Belmont Stakes tomorrow. That changes my attitude toward the race from “couldn’t care less” to “still couldn’t care less.”

Festival season is over and we’ve entered the dog days of summer, where not much is on the weekend calendar. If you want to hear live music tonight, Jeremy Stanfill and Pat Fusco at the Blind Bear wouldn’t be a bad call. I’m currently evaluating that and Max’s Sports Bar as possible best plans for tonight. Right now, it’s time to hit Publish and grab lunch.

It’s Thursday rooftop party night. At the Peabody, Seeing Red will headline tonight. $10 cover includes your first drink, ladies free before 7, 6-11 PM.

Hmmm… I see ’80s hair band Aquanet is the headliner next Thursday. That may very well be my first Peabody rooftop party of the year.

Over at the Madison, “The Boogie Man” Don McMinn will perform tonight, with gritty singing and wicked guitar licks. 7-11 PM, cash bar and small plates available.

If you use Foursquare, today would be a good day to update your app. They’ve released version 5.0. It takes a little getting used to, but I like it better. The timeline of your friends’ checkins is easier to follow and more photo-centric. Also, you can “Like” your friends’ checkins now. The “Explore” feature tells you which of your friends are nearby. Mashable has more info on Foursquare’s makeover here.

One thing that hasn’t changed is that users can add tips to venues. I need to pull up The Peabody and leave a tip: “Wear a tube top to the Thursday rooftop parties.”

Tip I learned from one of my readers this morning: If your company blocks Facebook, you may still be able to access it by going in through a publicly-shared Facebook photo album. Feel free to use my BBQ Fest album for this if you want. I don’t understand why companies block Facebook. People will just surf it from their phones anyway.

The Flaming Lips will perform at Handy Park Wednesday, June 27 at 5:45 PM. They are attempting to break the record for most concerts in a 24-hour period. After they get done in Memphis, they will make several stops in Mississippi, then Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

GiveCamp Memphis needs developers, designers, DBAs, and content writers to volunteer their time for the upcoming June 22-24 camp. This camp will allow you to use your talents to help local nonprofits reach their full potential. You can sign up to volunteer here. Besides helping to make the community better, this would look great in the “Interests/Activities” section of a resume.

There will be a Mo’s Bows trunk show this Saturday at Shelton Clothiers from 2-4 PM. Come meet 10-year-old entrepreneur Mo and buy some of his bowties.

IMPORTANT NEWS FOR DOWNTOWNERS: Yesterday I attended trivia at the Blind Bear, and between rounds Charles announced what is happening at the Bear the rest of the week. Something new has been added to the calendar: $3 Fireball shots after 6 PM on Sundays.

Our trivia team grew to seven players last night. We ended up losing to Team Nuh-Uh after disastrous second and third rounds, but it was still good to have everyone together. I got on the Bear and Charles for not starting on time. It was 10:35 before he wrapped up. They promised they will start on time next week at 8 if there are teams waiting to play.

Time for lunch. I found a new Mexican restaurant I want to try. If more news comes in I’ll do another post after work.