Author: paulryburn

1:16 AM:  One of my drinking buddies does purchasing for a very large shipping company headquartered here in town.  So tonight I got to the Saucer about 7 and he was sitting on the rail.  “My suppliers are an hour and a half late,” he told me.  His suppliers, because he has control over huge contracts, kiss his ass.  They take him to Texas de Brazil, buy him the $30 beer at the Saucer, send him cases of steaks, and so on.

An hour later they showed up, apologized for being late, and got a round of beer.  Then they closed their tab, because they wanted to take my friend out to eat.  “Paul, you come too!” they said.  “Do you like ribs?  We’re going to the Rendezvous.”  DO I LIKE RIBS???  So I tagged along with them and ate ribs and drank beer while they negotiated the purchase of mechanical parts, using the word “fuck” on average twice per sentence.  About once every 30 seconds my friend threatened to take their contract away.  It was fascinating.

The high point of the evening, though, occurred after I thanked them for the dinner and walked back to the Saucer.  I was standing at the bar, and over at the server station, one of the waitresses was feeling another waitress’s boob.  It appeared she was measuring her for something.  There seemed to be a towel involved.  I’ll leave the rest to your imagination, it’s better that way.  Saucer was deader than a doornail despite a very good band (White Noise Theory).  As I left, the waitress who got groped and her mini-me flipped me off.  Nothing like a kind send-off from the staff of the bar where I just spent $23.

On deck:  Information on how to order SilverWear.  That’s what I’m talking about!

Want to smash stuff and get away with it?  The First United Methodist Church is looking for volunteers to help them with demolition, beginning this Saturday at 9 AM.  The church was destroyed by fire in 2006 and unsalvageable parts of it need to be torn down before rebuilding can begin.  Work will begin on the Pepper Building at Second and Exchange, and tools will be provided.  Questions, call Sharon Ammons at (901) 260-1160.  The church will save $75,00 by doing the demolition themselves.

One of my media contacts told me that he’s now hearing late February-early March as the projected opening date of the Blue Monkey Downtown. February-March of what year? I think Memphis Limelight has the best projected time for the Monkey’s reopening – perpetually two months from now.

The Downtown Neighborhood Association has its first meeting of the year tonight at TJ Mulligan’s. There will be a State of DNA address, introductions of the 2008 board and music by Nora & Guy. Free for members, $5 nonmembers. Social at 6:30, program at 7.

Just received an e-mail that Itta Bena, on the third floor of BB King’s, will start a happy hour beginning today. Happy hour will run from 5-7 PM Monday-Friday and will feature $5 well drinks (Absolut, Tanqueray, Jim Beam, Johnnie Walker Red, Bacardi Light, and Zapopan Tequila) and $10 martinis. The Citrus Raspberry Martini and Green Tea Martini were mentioned as particular standouts.

A couple of times a week I get e-mail from out-of-towners and people who live in other parts of the city, asking for restaurant recommendations Downtown. Lately I’ve listed Itta Bena as my top choice for those looking for a quality meal in a place with a cozy, unique atmosphere. I also list the Majestic Grille, Circa, and LoLo’s Table as other top recommendations, along with EP’s if you get there early enough to avoid the nightclub crowd. For seafood I send ’em to Pearl’s; for sushi I send ’em to Bluefin; for casual dining I send ’em to Big Foot Lodge, or possibly Huey’s if they’re from out of town and have never been to a Huey’s. That’s basically my response to all of those queries.

I’m meeting friends for a double birthday dinner at Pa Pa Pia’s on Union tomorrow night and will give it a fair and honest review. Many of you know I’m not a fan of a nearby restaurant owned by the same management company, but I won’t let that influence my review of PPP’s. Honestly, most of the feedback I’ve heard from others about PPP’s has been positive – they’ve liked the food and said it was surprisingly inexpensive. I look forward to trying it myself.

Not sure what I’ll get into after work.  The Fire Sale at the Saucer today is Old Scratch, which doesn’t exactly send me running down there.  Circa’s Thursday happy hour special is the least appealing of the entire week to me – $2 off single-barrel scotch – and besides, bartender extraordinaire House has the night off.  No Grizzlies or Tigers game to watch.  I’ll find something to do, I’m sure.  It’s a safe bet that I’ll stop by the Saucer to say hello to my waitresses and have at least one beer at some point.  On Thursdays it’s always a good possibility that I’ll put in an appearance at Hoop’s Bar/EP’s too.

Debating whether to pick up food from Court House Deli or make a return trip to McAlister’s for food to take back to my desk.  Most likely the length of the line at Court House will be the determining factor.

The Memphis Chamber of Commerce is holding a ribbon-cutting ceremony today at 5:30 to commemorate the grand opening of Hollywood Disco, the club most of us know as Raiford’s. I wonder if 40s have ever been served at a Chamber event before.

The 9th annual Polar Bear Plunge will happen February 2 on Mud Island. Dozens of brave swimmers will jump in freezing-cold water in support of the Special Olympics. Kennedy from Q107.5 is participating, and if you’d like to sponsor her swim you can do so here. Or, you can take the plunge yourself and find sponsors to donate in your honor.

If you’re interested in getting some expert analysis on the ongoing presidential primaries, make plans to be at Rhodes College on the 23rd. Charlie Cook, founder of the Cook Political Report and named by the New York Times as one of the best political handicappers in the nation, will speak in room 051 of the Paul Barret, Jr. Library from 7:30 to 8:45 that night. The lecture is presented by Rhodes’ Political Science department and is free and open to the public.

Circa will start serving lunch again February 1st.  Their patio will be open as well.  Unlike many upscale restaurants, Circa will not cut its lunch off at 2 and close and reopen at 5.  Rather, they’ll do lunch 11-4, bar snacks 4-5, and the dinner menu from 5 to close.

The Nashville Business Journal reports that the Nashville Metro Council unanimously passed an ordinance against aggressive panhandling last night, and it now goes to the mayor to be signed. The ordinance for the most part is similar to the one in Memphis – no panhandling after dark or at bus stops – but there are a couple of provisions that seem like great ideas. The main one is, NO BEGGING WITHIN 25 FEET OF BUILDING ENTRANCES. If we had that one here, we could pretty much run the bums off the Main Street Mall – it’s hard to stand anywhere on the pedestrian mall without being within 25 feet of a building entrance. It would clean up Beale Street too for the same reason. Great idea. Also, the ordinance makes it illegal to panhandle at ATMs, which happens all the time on Beale Street.  Of course, no matter what is in the ordinance, it’s worthless without a police department that aggressively enforces it.

Looks like Atlanta’s bums use a lot of the same gimmicks as the bums right here in Downtown Memphis. This Street-People.com article reports about an Atlanta bum doing the Sharp Dressed Bum gimmick (wearing neat casual attire, rather than dressing like a homeless person as many professional panhandlers do). He also did the Tour Guide gimmick, pointing out restaurants in the area and then asking for a dolla as a tip. When it started raining, he switched to the Bum-brella gimmick, running up to people and holding an umbrella over their heads, and then asking for a tip. All of these gimmicks can be seen every day on the streets of Downtown Memphis.

Even cartoon characters are being panhandled these days. Check out this Blondie cartoon.

How many times is North Carolina going to barely escape with a win and still hold on to their #1 ranking?  They held off Georgia Tech 83-82 last night.  Meanwhile #2 Memphis continues to dominate ranked and unranked teams alike.

Time for the long commute to work…

Here are a couple of links pertaining to The Nuh-Uh Sister’s $47,500 win on Wheel of Fortune last night:

WMC-TV 5 interview with The Nuh-Uh Sister

The Nuh-Uh Sister’s Contestant Diary on the Wheel of Fortune’s site

One of the RSS feeds I subscribe to is “How-To of the Day.”  Some of these How-Tos are pretty unusual and interesting.  Here are a few recent ones:

How to drink absinthe

How to respect a transgender person

How to make a laptop bag from cardboard

Here’s a photo gallery of the new MacBook Air which made its debut at the annual MacWorld Expo this week.  It weighs three pounds and is 3/4 of an inch at its thickest at the rear hinge, 2/10 of an inch in front.

#2 Memphis plays Rice tonight at 7 PM.  The Rice basketball team is in a shambles right now and this looks to be an ass-whoopin’ of mammoth proportions.  The Flying Saucer has been handing out “free pizza if the Tigers score 100” coupons at recent games, and if they do it tonight I have a feeling they’ll be serving up a lot of pizza.  I have a feeling this could be the highest score in Tiger history.

Speaking of the Saucer, don’t forget, it’s Stella Artois glass night at the Saucer tonight at 7.  That may or may not be where I go to watch the game; it depends on my opinion of their $2.75 Fire Sale beer.  I don’t need any more Stella glasses so that won’t be a factor in my decision.

It’s $8 wine flight happy hour at Circa tonight, so I’ll probably stop by there for a flight sometime between 5 and 7.  I usually request three wines of a particular variety, such as dry red, sweet white, etc.  But their bartender House does such a good job selecting wines that this week I’m not going to give him any parameters at all – just “pick ’em.”  I’m not a wine expert yet but I’m learning.  Last time I was there on a Wednesday I learned the difference between pinot gris and pinot grigio, which I previously thought were the same thing.  Since my phone has Wi-Fi capability, I’ll hop on Wikipedia and read about the wines as I drink them.

Circa, by the way, will be featured on this month’s Definitely Downtown! TV show, hosted by “That Other Downtown Guy,” Lee Warren.  Show will run at 11:05 PM on WPTY-ABC 24 on Sunday, January 27.

The Memphis Daily News reports that Barack Obama’s campaign has opened a campaign office in East Memphis and there will be a grand opening party tomorrow night.

Think I’ll do McAlister’s Deli for lunch today.  I was in there yesterday and saw a meatloaf parmesan sandwich on the menu.  That sounds perfect for a cold January day.

… the winner of tonight’s Wheel of Fortune in a TUBE TOP!!!!!!!

The Nuh-Uh Sister won $47,500 tonight in cash and prizes on the Wheel.  Part of her prizes included a trip to Maui for two.  To the Nuh-Uh Sister:  I know you’re not Romanian or anything, but, what’s up,  baby?  How you doin’?

The entire Nuh-Uh Family – the Nuh-Uh Girl, the Nuh-Uh Dad, the Nuh-Uh Mom – ran on camera at the end for an appearance.

After WoF, the Rapscallions took third out of the eligible trivia teams, to bring our stash to $305.

Only 137 days until TUBE TOP MONTH 2008!!!  Yes, it’s coming back for another year!

Yesterday I heard that tables and chairs were being loaded into the Downtown Blue Monkey, so they’re getting real close to opening.  I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to fit the Monkey into my already busy schedule… I’ll be there enough to be considered a regular, although the Saucer will remain my main base of operations.  Probably the Monkey will be my back-up plan for when the Saucer has a bad beer on $2.75 Fire Sale.  It will get a place in the Sunday brunch rotation as well.

I saw on a MySpace bulletin that Calhoun’s WILL be showing the Memphis Tigers vs. Rice game Wednesday night.  They are working on arrangements to be able to show all the Tiger games.  Up to this point they have not been able to promise that, because they have satellite rather than Comcast cable, and their satellite connection doesn’t carry one of the stations that shows Tiger basketball.

I kicked a band off my MySpace friends list just now for sending 3 MySpace bulletins in one day (they’ve had as many as 6 on previous days).  That’s borderline spamming, even from a “friend.”  I want to see everyone’s bulletins, not just yours.  I would’ve missed the Calhoun’s announcement had I not kicked them.  If you have a lot to announce to the world, gather it all up and do it in one bulletin.

Gonna grab lunch and take it back to work and eat at my desk.  Been using a tool called Instant C# this morning that converts VB.NET code to C# code and gets it right about 99% of the time.  The other 1%, it inserts a TODO comment saying it couldn’t convert the line and why.  It’s pretty cool.

Ya never know, there may be yet another post today, check back.

Be sure to tune in and watch Wheel of Fortune tonight, as Memphis’ very own The Nuh-Uh Sister will be spinning the wheel for cash and prizes.  There wasn’t enough room on the name tag for “The Nuh-Uh Sister,” so she used her real name, Aimee, instead.  The entire Nuh-Uh Family flew out to L.A. last month for the taping.

We’re planning a watch party at the Saucer immediately prior to trivia.  Probably the first time in the bar’s 11-year run that Wheel of Fortune has appeared on a TV there.  It’s going to be extremely busy Downtown tonight, with a Grizzlies game and some musical at the Orpheum that’s supposed to be a big hit with the Hannah Montana crowd.

Recap of last night:  Started at Circa for $5 martini night.  Had the Wild Strawberries and Avalanche martinis (you can view their martini list here), both quite good.  They had the news on TV, and I saw that George W. Bush is on a tour of the Middle East.  He got a look at one of his hosts’ prized bird collection, and even held a falcon on his arm.  I can just hear him saying, “Well, this sure is a funny-looking chicken!”  371 more days and counting.

Then I moved on to the Saucer for Pint Nite, where they RAN OUT of Dos Equis Special Lager!!!!  Totally unacceptable guys.  I switched to my #2 choice, Sunset Wheat.  With cold weather and no basketball game, the Saucer was pretty dead.  There was a cameo appearance by former Saucer waitress Zebra Hair, who amazingly didn’t try to get me to buy her a drink or run across the street to McGuinness for ranch dressing.  Irritated that I was deprived of my favorite beer, I left the Saucer and walked down to Big Foot with my friends Chuck and BBQ Clint, where I enjoyed a delicious 34 oz. Big Foot Blue Moon.  I contemplated trying their $10 mixed drinks but common sense prevailed.  Not at 10 at night on a work night after I’ve been out drinking since 5.  Not the right time.

I’m all set for BBQ Fest this year.  I paid the team membership fee this weekend, and yesterday I was granted vacation time for Thursday and Friday of BBQ Fest weekend.  Here’s a shout-out to team member Willie who did most of the cooking last year.  Since then he’s opened a new restaurant, Honky Tonk Barbeque, in his home town of Chicago.  If you visit the Windy City be sure to check it out!  He also has a mobile BBQ kitchen for catering in the Chicago area.

I’m hearing on the news reports how we could be facing a winter storm Wednesday night/Thursday morning, but with predicted highs in the 40s both days I don’t see how much damage it could do.  Dammit… the bad thing about my 1-block walking commute is that I can’t use icy roads as an excuse to stay home from work.

Speaking of which, it’s time to head there now.  They keep the heat turned up so high at work that I have to wear short-sleeved shirts.  Check back, there will probably be another post today.

There’s a good article on the Memphis Daily News website about Dr. Divine Mafa, who this month opened Divine Rags, a boutique selling high-end Italian women’s fashions, at 300 S. Main.  Next month he plans on opening Divine Rags Gentleman, a men’s store, and in March a second women’s clothing store for average-income makers.  After that he plans to open Safari Tapas Bar, a bar with world tapas, small samples of food.  All of his shops will be on Main.

The article says Dr. Mafa is very interested in developing Main Street as the hub of Downtown, and he’s very concerned with his customers’ safety, and plans to work with other business owners to ensure safety of those shopping in the area.

Full article available here.

The Center City Commission has an account on MySpace, and I have them added as one of my friends.  This allows me to receive MySpace bulletins from them.

This morning they sent one out telling their friends “Think there’s nothing to do on Mondays?”  They listed cocktails at the Westin with DiAnne Price from 5:30-9:30, Pint Nites at the Flying Saucer and Double Deuce, and the Minivan Stream Band at the Buccaneer.  To that I’d add $5 martini night at Circa, which will probably be my first stop tonight, followed by the Saucer.  If I get bored at the Saucer, MAYBE I’ll wander down to Double Deuce to check out their pint nite for one beer.  Never been there.  Although, with its location at the far end of Beale (at Fourth) that means I’ll have to navigate bums.

MySpace bulletins have become a valuable source of information for my blog (although a few people and bands abuse them – come on, sending out more than two a day is overkill).  If you like to have fun Downtown, and you’re on MySpace, it’s worth it to befriend the CCC, and check your MySpace home page frequently.

This morning I figured out who will get my vote in the February 5 primary.  I realized there was a variable I hadn’t considered – which party will likely control Congress next year and how Congress will relate to the President.

If we were likely to have a Republican-controlled Congress next year, my choice would be Hillary Clinton.  She has the most experience building compromise and working with members of the other party, and her closest advisor, Bill Clinton, is a master of compromise.  With a Republican Congress, I believe Hillary would be the most likely to get things done.

However, I believe that what this country really needs is massive change – change in the way we relate to each other as citizens, change in the way the U.S. relates to other nations as a member of the world community, change in the way we relate to our environment.  The candidate who I see as best embodying the kind of massive change I’m talking about is Barack Obama.  With a Democratic-controlled Congress, he would be able to use the Presidency as a bully pulpit and push his programs through.

According to projections, the Democrats will not only maintain control of both houses after the fall election, but may in fact be able to hit a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate.

Therefore my choice in the February 5 primary is Barack Obama.  I could be quite happy with either Clinton or Edwards as President, but I believe Obama is best equipped to bring about change, not only in laws and policies but in the way we see ourselves as Americans.