Author: paulryburn

The Redbirds are in the AAA championship game tomorrow night, Tuesday, September 22.  It will be nationally televised on ESPN.  I had a blog reader e-mail and ask if any bars will have the sound on, or will run specials.  If you know of any let me know at paul@paulryburn.com and I’ll blog them.

Yay vacation.  I’m at the Second Street Branch Office with the laptop.  Going to get these pics posted then fire up PokerStars.

Aldo getting dunked

Ashley couldn’t hit the side of a barn.  Funny thing is, her boyfriend is a professional baseball player.  A PITCHER.  Maybe she can get some lessons before Bardog’s second birthday.

Happy bartenders

Amanda in the dunking booth

Amanda in the dunking booth, part 2

Nice pic, but it would have been better without the tank top.

Terry’s happy about having a big bone in his mouth.  Free ribs?  Where was the Nuh-Uh Girl?

Jean and friend in the dunk tank

Amanda, all dry, gets ready to dunk Jean.

Jean and Bicycle Bobby

Emily came down to the party after her day shift at the Saucer ended.  A little birdie told me that Emily got pretty wasted last night.

Meatball eating contest

Jeremiah won.  No one was able to finish all 40 meatballs, but Jeremiah was declared the winner, having finished 37 when everyone else had either puked or given up.  Post-contest, Aldo interviews the winner.

Complete photo album (145 pics) available here.  Note:  There are 9 pics and and 2 videos I’m not posting publicly, but they will be made available to a few select friends.

Outstanding party.  Thanks to Aldo and all the gang at Bardog.  Can’t wait for next year.

I sure am sick of posting this guy’s picture, but here we go again.

This is “Jumper Cable Guy.”  He’ll pretend to be talking on his cell phone, then will approach passersby, telling them that his truck has broken down and he needs 7 dollars and some odd amount of change for jumper cables.  If you have jumper cables to offer him, he’ll tell you that he has a heavy-duty truck and needs cables that are more powerful than the ones you have.  Then he’ll repeat his request for money.

I’m not saying it’s a scam or anything, but his truck seems to break down many times a day, and has been breaking down for several years.  JCG has been known to be nasty/threatening to people who tell him no.  He’s currently working the Downtown core, but he’s also been seen in other parts of town, particularly Midtown and in South Main.

This is at least the fourth time I’ve posted his pic.  JCG knows about this blog and has even stopped and introduced himself to me.  Last week as I was walking down Main Street, a trolley passed by and he yelled out the window, “Hey, shaggy haired white dude!  Remember me? Jumper Cable Guy.”

He was seen hitting up customers on Sole’s patio for money yesterday.  He’s lost quite a bit of weight since this photo was taken.

If he hits you up for money, call 545-COPS.

So yesterday I was hanging out in the alley next to Bardog Tavern for their birthday party, when Aldo said, “Paul, come with me.  I have something for you.”  I followed him to the side downstairs entrance, and once inside he went into a closet and dug around for a minute, then handed me this:

PBR HOODIE!!!  I normally hate cold weather but now I can’t wait for it to get down to about 50 so I can wear this thing.  Starting around November 1 you’ll probably see me in this hoodie almost daily.

The day is off to a good start… I’m off work until Wednesday and I’ve discovered that Downtown Walgreens has started carrying liter bottles of Mountain Dew again.  This afternoon I’m going to take the laptop to the Second Street Branch Office and go through the 160 photos I took at Bardog’s party yesterday and see which ones are worthy of posting or including in a photo album.

Wow I have 73 e-mails in my Inbox, and almost all of them are notifications that people bought stuff from my online stores… that’s a good thing.

Coming this week, in addition to Bardog photos… news about historian Jimmy Ogle’s Downtown tours, and a review of a new book about Memphis wrestling.

Getting ready for a super-sized Pint Nite.  It’s going to be a good day.

Photos to come… I ran through 2 camera batteries taking pics and videos. I’m off work today so I actually have time to go through them and get them online.

Another Cooper-Young Fest has come and gone… thank goodness the weather held up.  Let’s see… what all happened…

Got down there about 10:45.

Saw a booth selling “Mud Island needs a skate park” shirts.  If I bought one of those, do you think people would mistake me for a skater?  I’m not, but Mud Island does need a skate park.

Best T-shirt I saw on a festival attendee this year:  “I like my president the same way I like my coffee – black and strong.”

Southland Greyhound Park had a “spin the wheel” promotion and I spun and won two free buffets.  The coupon expires in two weeks though, so I’m not sure I’ll get to use it.  They told me the best night to go is Saturday, when they have a surf and turf buffet.

Black Lodge Video earned massive respect points from me, because they set up a wrestling ring in their front yard and had matches all day.

Speaking of which, Jerry “The King” Lawler was there talking to the crowd.  Wow the guy is in great shape for 59 – if I didn’t know his age I’d probably put him at no more than 40.  His supporters were wearing “Lawler. Mayor. Serious.” shirts.

Best Dressed award for the festival was a three-way tie between Ruchee, Lee Ann, and Brooks, all of whom were sporting tube tops/tube top dresses.

Hung out for a little while in the courtyard of those apartments on Cooper just up the street from Young.  You know how some people have a second residence?  If I could have my apartment in the Downtown core and one of those apartments on Cooper, I’d be set.

I ran my iPhone’s battery down almost all the way keeping up with scores of games yesterday.  Thanks to my friends Shawn and Joe for turning me on to two very good apps:  Sportacular, which does a great job tracking all the College Football Saturday games, and iHog, which keeps track of everything related to the Arkansas Razorbacks – schedules, scores, latest news.

I also used my iPhone to talk trash to Tennessee fans – as I’ve said before, nothing sucks like a big orange.  You know, I’d like to go off on a little rant here.  My last semester in college, I took an Eastern Psychology class.  The main reason I took it was I needed a 2-hour class, and those are hard to come by.  It turned out to be one of the best and most interesting classes I took, though.

One of the subjects the professor covered was the subject of attachment – if you allow yourself to get attached to something, then you’re likely to get thrown off kilter (or “go on tilt” as we would say in the poker world) when things don’t go your way.

One of my friends gets very attached to the outcomes of Tennessee games.  So I was texting him “chomp chomp chomp” all afternoon long during the Florida-Tennessee game.  It drove him nuts.  Later in the evening when we were both at the Saucer watching the Georgia-Arkansas game, he did the dog bark every time Georgia scored.  But you know what, I didn’t mind.  I wasn’t attached to the outcome of the game.  Yeah I’d have preferred that Arkansas won, but if they didn’t, no big deal, I’m still drinking a beer and watching hot waitresses walk around.  By the time the game ended and Georgia won, he’d moved on to the Monkey, where he texted me “Go Dawgs!” something like 7 times.  That didn’t bother me either, except that my phone’s battery was down to 10% and I didn’t want to waste its remaining power on that.  Next week I’ll remember to stick the power cord in my pocket.

I do have to say, though, I REALLY enjoyed watching football at the Saucer yesterday evening.  What a great group we had there.  Everyone was able to chill out and relax and enjoy good conversation with good friends, without anyone barging in and interrupting.  Yeah there were the usual arguments about football teams but they were fun arguments.

Some of the gang headed to the Blue Monkey after the game.  I’ve heard that their Saturday night karaoke is turning into quite the weekly event.  By the time the game was over, I was feeling tired though and didn’t feel like walking all the way to Front and GE Patterson and then back home.  So I had a couple of beers at Bardog and called it a night.

Today:  Bardog’s birthday party.  I’ll probably have one beer at the Saucer right when they open, just to see who’s working and what the Fire Sale is, then head to Bardog by 1 and spend the rest of the afternoon there.  Our friend Nick is in a meatball-eating contest late in the afternoon – first person to eat 30 meatballs wins a prize.  The party will be outside from noon to 6, then will continue inside until they close at 1 AM.  Hmmm late night… which is a good thing because I TOOK TOMORROW AND TUESDAY OFF!  Yay.

All right, it’s 10 AM as I type this and the fun starts at 12… that means I have time to get on PokerStars and possibly win a little money.  Happy Sunday everyone!

Looks like Cooper-Young Fest is on – they’re not postponing it to the rain date.

I’ll be there sometime between 10:30 and 11, and I’ll be at the festival all day until it ends at 7.

I said I wasn’t going to go out last night because I wanted to rest up for Cooper-Young Fest, but my buddy Chad’s birthday provided an excuse to go have some beer.  Here are a few pics.

Birthday cupcake tray

Despite his advanced age, Chad is still a messy eater.

Here’s a pic of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating.

Later in the evening, we went to Kooky Canuck.  Chad got the maple flank steak, an excellent choice.

More photos here.

Arkansas has a chance to knock off a top 25 team tonight at 6:45, when the #23 Georgia Bulldogs come to Fayetteville.  The game will be on ESPN, which is a good thing because it means you don’t have to find a bar with the NCAA package to watch it.  If I get back from the Cooper-Young Fest in time I’ll head to whichever of the Saucer or Calhoun’s appeals to me more to watch the game.

There’s also the Florida game at 2:30, but I’ll be outside so I’ll have to keep up with that one via my ESPN mobile app.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO PIG SOOOOIIIEEEEEEEE!!!

Check out this WREG report posted at 12:26 PM today if you plan on driving Downtown… many roads are flooded.  The I-40 underpass under Danny Thomas appears to be a problem, as does Third and Exchange.  Another report said there were two people trapped in a car in high water at Lauderdale and Exchange, which I believe would be the entrance to Uptown Square.