Author: paulryburn

Last night I met one of my regular blog readers as I was walking down South Main, and he told me a very interesting rumor: Raiford is planning on having one last big party, to say good-bye. The party would NOT be held at his old building, but at another location downtown.

I’ve been given a date and location, but I’d like to get it confirmed before I post it to a blog that several hundred people read. Also, will the event be open to the public? If not, can an invitation for a certain downtown blogger be arranged?

More details to come after I get confirmation on this.

– Next weekend is your chance to become an expert at dancing to the blues in only two short days. Local dance group NewVoBlues is holding EvoBluesion, a two-day dance workshop, July 14 and 15. In those two days you’ll get to attend 7 classes held by Candace and Reuel, two award-winning dance instructors. You’ll also get to go out dancing with the group at clubs on Beale Street, at the Blue Worm, and wherever else they find. It’s a real bargain at only $60 for the whole weekend, $55 for NewVoBlues members.

– If you live Downtown and own a pet, be sure to check out this article in today’s CA about the new branch office of the Berclair Animal Hospital to open at 668 S. Main. Says they’ll have a play area, as well as an area in the back for exotic animals like birds and reptiles.

– Tube Top Month officially ended several days ago, but the wearing of tube tops through the rest of the season is still encouraged (in a warm climate like Memphis, it’s tube top season ’til mid-October). Here’s an article from the Toronto Star that shows you how to convert a pillowcase into a tube top. Now you have no excuse not to have a tube top – everyone has a spare pillowcase lying around.

– I don’t talk to her much anymore, but I still have former Flying Saucer/Blues City waitress The Romanian Sensation on my Yahoo Messenger contact list. Noticed this morning she had changed her profile pic to one of her in a cap and gown. So it looks like she graduated and got her M.D. I guess I’ll have to refer to her as Dr. Romanian Sensation in the future. And fellow blogger Ptolemy Kat will have to start referring to her as “Dr. Shorty.” Sincere congratulations to the Sensation, if she still reads this blog – becoming a doctor at age 24 is quite an accomplishment.

– Speaking of Ptolemy Kat, she posted a really cool photo album last Monday. The photo descriptions are set up to look like title cards from old silent movies. She used Slide.com to create it.

– Speaking of silent movies… a few months ago I posted that I found some old Our Gang/Little Rascals episodes online. They were so good that I ordered an 11-DVD set of 55 of the best Rascals episodes, and the set contains some silents, made in the 1922-1929 period before the studio was converted for talkies. I’ve only watched a couple of the silents but they seem to be as good as the ones with sound.

The DVDs are also an interesting sociology lesson. I had heard that some of the episodes had been heavily censored when they appeared on TV, and in a few cases outright banned, due to racial dialogue which was acceptable in the ’20s and ’30s but was not by the time of TV syndication in the ’70s and ’80s. The DVDs contain the full, uncensored episodes, and really, the dialogue isn’t that bad. The worst I’ve seen so far is Stymie referring to his dad as “a crap-shootin’ fool,” Farina licking his lips at the thought of eating watermelon, and Buckwheat walking into a dark room where you could only see the whites of his eyes. True, I wouldn’t want to see that kind of stuff in a TV show made in 2007, but can’t the episodes be viewed in the light of “this is how things were 75 years ago and thank goodness they’re not that way now”? It makes me mad that TV censors cut out a lot of the best work of the African-American kids, who were three of the most talented actors in the entire series. Then again, I’ve only viewed about a third of the DVDs, maybe there’s worse stuff I haven’t seen yet.

Trouble is, I don’t own a DVD player, which means I have to watch DVDs on my laptop. Which means I can’t watch the DVDs while I work. I need to get with my friend Dr.TV and get his advice on buying a DVD player. You’ll be hearing more about Dr.TV in the weeks to come… look for a new website with his name on it to roll out by month’s end.

– Otto had a great post on Thursday which is worth a bookmark: All the current Amazon.com deals, by product category and % off. So, for example, you can get a list of all books which are 90% or more off. It’s a virtual bargain bin!

– Hungry. Think I’ll mosey over to Blue Plate Cafe and get some meat loaf. Not sure what the rest of the day holds… meeting some friends on my rooftop, but that’s not until 3 AM. I’ll probably spend some time at either Earnestine & Hazel’s or EP’s at some point tonight.

In this print edition of this week’s Memphis Business Journal, there’s an article about plans for the space formerly occupied by Prince Mongo’s Planet, a nightclub of the 1990s where 14-year-olds could go to get a beer and mingle with belligerent Navy recruits. A developer has a contract on the building and plans to renovate the building (56-60-62 South Front) into an upscale boutique hotel with 34 rooms. It will be called the Grade Hotel.

Furthermore, there will be meeting rooms, a restaurant, a coffee shop and a BOOKSTORE(!!!!) on the ground floor. The developer is hoping to attract students from the U of M law school, which will be moving downtown in 2009, as well as students from nearby medical, dental, and optometry schools, to the coffee shop. He hopes to have clean-up crews in the building by September. The hotel’s grand opening could happen as little as 18 months from then, with the ground-floor businesses open sooner.

Great news for Downtown! Unless you’re a freshman in high school and were hoping Mongo’s would reopen so you’d have a place to drink.

For months I’ve been carrying around a big, bulky wallet – nicknamed the “Costanza wallet” in honor of George’s wallet on Seinfeld. I’ve been considering options for a slimmer, lighter replacement. Well, today I finally found one at Shelton Clothiers.

Bought a brown leather Brighton billfold which seems to weigh about a quarter of what the old wallet weighed. It has enough pockets to hold my cards – especially after I cleaned out my old wallet and found a bunch of junk that didn’t need to be in there, like a Chili’s gift card I received as a Christmas present in 2001. There’s a money clip in the middle. It’s so thin I can’t even tell it’s in my back pocket right now.

Still at the Second Street branch office. The waitresses are walking around. I love it when they do that. Will probably be here until about 5.

Yesterday I had lunch with a friend at Cafe Francisco in the Pinch, and as I walked up there I noticed a new street sign at the corner of Main and North Parkway:

North Parkway is no longer called North Parkway. It’s now known as Shadyac Avenue. Not sure what the reason was for the rename – never heard of a famous Mr. Shadyac or Mrs. Shadyac in Memphis. (Edited to add: Several readers have informed me that the street is named after Richard Shadyac, CEO of ALSAC until 2005 and a very successful fund-raiser for St. Jude.)

I do know that they have been planning a re-alignment of the streets in that area due to the St. Jude expansion. I remember reading that North Parkway (now Shadyac) would be closed from Third to Danny Thomas, and North Parkway east of Danny Thomas would be re-routed to flow into what is now Auction.

I assume that the street is still called North Parkway east of Danny Thomas. If anyone has details on this change let me know. The new name has not shown up on any of the major mapping sites yet, so it must have happened fairly recently.

Just arrived at the Second Street branch office for my afternoon work shift. Noticed that one of the best beers ever served there, Lienenkugel Sunset Wheat, will be the beer for “buy the beer, keep the glass” night next Wednesday, July 11.

Sunset Wheat is a wheat beer with a flavor of orange and blueberries. If you like Blue Moon, you’ll like Sunset Wheat even better.

Looks like Rachael Ray will be coming to Memphis soon. She has a show on the Food Network where she visits a city and dines on $40 or less for the whole day. I’ve never been a big Rachael fan – she’s a lousy tipper, and since I have a lot of friends in the service industry, that annoys me. However, this is great publicity for the city of Memphis and the restaurants she chooses to visit.

If you have suggestions for Rachael, you can give them to her here. Be sure to uncheck the boxes before you submit, or you’ll be subscribed to about a bazillion of her newsletters.

Hmmm… where in Downtown Memphis would I suggest…

– Breakfast at the Arcade… mmmm… haven’t had their Western omelet with ham, cheese, and green peppers in a while. Oldest restaurant in the city, lots of character, lots of stories to be told.

– Maybe Dyer’s on Beale for lunch… some of the best burgers in town, and that’s a place with a lot of history… 90-year-old grease. She could walk across the street to Handy Park and listen to the house band afterward, maybe buy a Big Ass Beer.

Alternate for lunch… Cozy Corner on North Parkway. I’ve heard a lot of people say that’s THE place to go downtown for ribs – not the Rendezvous or the Beale restaurants. Doesn’t have the nearby entertainment that Dyer’s does though.

(edited to add: Another alternate for lunch – Gus’s Chicken. How could I forget Gus’s?)

– Peabody lobby for the 5 PM duck march (free)

– Dinner… that’s a tough one… a lot of my favorite places downtown would be out of her budget. Maybe Pearl’s Oyster House… their enormous po-boys are inexpensive. Can’t remember the price but under $10 I’m pretty sure. Wonder if she’d go for Pearl’s… great place but Memphis is not known for seafood. If she wants to stick to stereotypes Pearl’s might not make it. It’s still my suggestion though.

– Late night… partying at EP Delta Kitchen. She could try the Lobster Pronto Pups, Not-Yo-Crawfish nachos, or the Duck Quesadilla, all under $10. Great house band for her to dance to, it’s on historic Beale, and the building used to be Elvis Presley’s club.

Those are my thoughts… hey, if you like my suggestions, I guess you could get on her site and post a link to this blog entry.

Will be working from the Second Street branch office this afternoon. Happy weekend everyone.

Raiders of the Lost Ark is showing tomorrow night (Friday, July 6) at the Orpheum at 7:15 pm. After the movie, the Westin will have a post-movie party in their lobby. Cocktails, appetizers, and you can register to win a night at the Westin.

– After an absence of a month or two, Sharp Dressed Bum is back on the streets of Downtown Memphis. Last night I was sitting in the window of the Flying Fish, eating grilled tilapia (“Make it snappy!”) and I saw SDB on the sidewalk in front of the Peabody, conducting “business.” I grabbed the camera and took the pic shown on the left (click it to see the image in a larger size).

As you can see, SDB dresses better than most panhandlers (hence the nickname) – lately he’s had on a khaki golf shirt with dark collar, white casual pants, and leather sandals. He’ll walk around Second, Union, Monroe, and Beale, trying to be all friendly, especially to tourists, offering to show them around. But, at least in my experience, when you turn down his requests for money, his demeanor changes – he’ll start cussing and threatening you, even physically acting like he’s going to come at you. Several of my readers have reported similar encounters with Sharp Dressed Bum.

Now you have a face to put to a name. If you see this guy coming, I recommend crossing the street, ducking into a store, or whatever you can do to avoid having to talk to him.

– You know, this gives me an idea, since I’ve got a digital camera… perhaps I need to make a photo album of all of Downtown’s street people. I wouldn’t necessarily post it publicly, but I’d let people know it’s available by request, if they have been the victim of harassment or a crime Downtown and are trying to find a pic to show to the police.

– The Memphis Business Journal reports that Memphis may soon have a local brewery. A Germantown resident has started a company called Naked Lion Brewing. A former Coors brewmaster, the CEO is currently brewing the company’s first offering, Copper Flask, out of a brewery in Wisconsin, and has distribution contracts all over the South and Northeast. Although he’s currently making the product out of state, he hopes to eventually have enough volume to build a brewery here in the Memphis area. So if you see Naked Lion Copper Flask in stores or bars, please buy it and support the home team.

– Lantana Projects will have an open studio visit with guest resident artist Eric Knoote Friday night, July 6 from 7-9 PM at Marshall Arts, corner of Marshall and Monroe. Knoote is the artist who recently put up an exhibit at the empty building space at Jefferson and Main.

– Thursday night party options:

Gabby Johnson on the Peabody rooftop, 6-10
Symbiosis on the Madison rooftop, 5:30-10
Garry Goin and G3 with Q107.5 at EP’s, 8-mid

Looks like KIX 106 is taking a week off from its Thursdays on Beale concert series to promote a Trace Adkins concert at Snowden Grove Ampitheatre.

Not sure where I’ll end up tonight, but I can pretty much assure you it WON’T be the Trace Adkins concert.

Time to get some work done, so I can afford to go out tonight. May be back with more entertainment options once I see this week’s Memphis Flyer.

The new non-smoking law won’t be enforced until October 1, but businesses are already starting to implement it. The first sign I saw of the new law was last night, when I went to the Saucer for our weekly trivia match. A team member showed up and started looking for an ashtray… and found that there weren’t any ashtrays in the inside room.

He asked a manager about it. “The indoor room is nonsmoking until 8,” the manager told him. (8 PM is when they stop admitting people under 21.) “You can still smoke in the Garden, as long as all the garage windows are up.”

I hadn’t noticed any difference until my friend inquired about smoking… but afterward, I did. For one thing, I noticed that I wasn’t coughing every few minutes. I also noticed that the air in the room was clear for a change, instead of a smoky haze. I kind of liked it.

As more team members showed up, a discussion arose about the smoking ban and whether government is going too far intruding into people’s lives. Hmmm. I’m not 100% in support of the new law, but on the other hand I wouldn’t characterize it as “going too far.” I mean, we pass laws to prohibit corporations from releasing chemicals, toxic chemicals that kill people, into our rivers and streams. Is it really that different to prohibit individuals from releasing chemicals, toxic chemicals that kill people, into our air?

Anyway, the new law is what it is, and it appears to be here to stay. I still wonder what smokers at the Saucer are going to do in January – they’ll want the garage windows raised so they can smoke, but then everyone who sits in that room will freeze to death.

The Rapscallions took third place last night, bringing our gift certificate stash to $290. We’ll cash them in before the next trivia night.