Author: paulryburn

Since I’ve posted a little less than usual this week, I figured I’d put some photos on the blog so you can see what I’ve been up to.

Last Saturday I started the day at Blues City Pastry getting some work done on the laptop. This is a Zebra Square, one of their pastries, and it’s as tasty as it looks.

The things you see downtown… later in the day I was having a beer at the Saucer, and I looked out the window and a giant burger was walking around.

Now we move on to Sunday Fun Day. After the usual stops at the Majestic and the Saucer, we decided to hang out on EP’s patio. This is bartender Ugly Steve, whose cocktail concoctions are responsible for some of the stuff you’ll see in later pictures.

This was one of the drinks we all had. It tasted like grape Kool-Aid but I nicknamed it “Halloween” because it reminded me of the color of a spooky night sky.

This was the other drink we had, which was named F.U.C.T. That’s an acronym for something but I never found out what. The other customers at the bar seemed somewhat disturbed when I strolled up with an empty glass and yelled out, “Hey Ugly Steve, I’m ready to get FUCT again!”

“Tastes like happy!”

A group photo of the gang at EP’s.

I was quite pleased with the grape drink. Have I ever mentioned that I love Romanian girls?

After EP’s it was time for some drunk Frisbee on MLGW’s lawn. Well, I ALMOST caught that one.

Memorial Day was the inaugural Downtown Night at the Westin lobby bar. Happy hour cocktails and hors d’ouevres for Downtowners the last Monday of every month.

The lovely Di Anne Price on piano. You can catch her every Monday at the Westin.

Special thanks to Joan – Downtown Night was her idea.

No pics were taken Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, but picture me sitting on a bar stool at the Flying Saucer and you have a pretty good idea of what happened.

Last night I finally made it down to Pearl’s Oyster House and found the gang sitting at the bar. In this pic: Ray (the owner of Pearl’s), me, Mikey the Camera Nazi, and Jessica. Pearl’s is a great place. I’m going to do a separate post about it later.

The downstairs bar at Pearl’s.

The downstairs has comfy couches where you can sit and listen to the band…

… or you can lean against the upstairs rail and watch them from above.

Here’s the entire photo album – 46 photos. I can’t believe I didn’t get one tube top photo the entire week.

Man those bourbon and cokes I had last night were good. I was almost drunk enough to be a state Senator.

(Edit: Due to problems with Blogger this lunchtime post didn’t get posted until after work)

I was late getting to work this morning and drove down Madison. At the Overton Square crossing right before Cooper, the police were conducting a seat belt saturation, pulling over all unbuckled drivers. Luckily I had mine on.

I have a feeling these seatbelt roadblocks are going to be all over the city this weekend. So, make sure you buckle up on your way home from work, and if you drive anywhere the next couple of days.

Does it bother anyone else that Memphis is seeing a record number of murders, violent robberies, home invasions, etc., and the police are wasting their time on “Click It Or Ticket”?

I don’t blame the cops themselves though… they’re just doing what they’re told. They’re spending a lot of time and resources on “Click It Or Ticket” because the governor and the state legislature are pushing them to do so.

Wonder why the government is pushing this program so hard? Because of the mom who lost her 24-year-old son in a car accident? Don’t kid yourself. She may be the poster child, but she’s not the reason… THE INSURANCE COMPANIES are the ones who want the government to make a big deal out of enforcing seat-belt laws. It’s not that they want to save lives; they want to save money. They want to “conserve human capital.”

All right. End of rant. Other notes: Yeah I know I need to change my template so it doesn’t read “Tube Top Month is only a few days away” now that it’s June. But Blogger’s publishing engine is misbehaving yet again, giving me an error every time I try to update. I hope they fix it soon.

Hmmm… I see that the Dempseys are playing the Cordova Huey’s on Sunday… maybe I’ll make a field trip out there to see them, considering that my favorite blogger will likely be there. MAYBE. We’ll see. I still can’t believe I missed a chance to see her in a tube top at Sunset Symphony. For those who don’t feel like driving to the land of strip malls and SUVs, the Dempseys will play Blues City Cafe tonight and tomorrow night.

Didn’t make it to Italian Fest last night… there’s a chance I may go Saturday, but not sure. The finish line is finally in sight for the new Amazon storefront I’m building, so I’d like to get that done this weekend, and may give it priority over Italian Fest.

Sitting in Bon Ton Cafe typing this. Putting in wireless was a great move on their part. Before they did I went there once every couple of years. Now I go about once a week. There were some Europeans in the booth behind me, but they just left. Would’ve said hello but they didn’t appear to be Romanian. The Romanians aren’t due back in town for another month yet, anyway.

Back to the rat race for the afternoon. Have a good weekend and don’t forget: Buckle up, it’ll make an insurance company happy.

Yesterday I posted this photo and asked readers to identify the best dressed person in it.

The correct answer, of course, is Mendi (far right), because she’s wearing a tube top.

Welcome to Tube Top Month, which has become a tradition on this blog. For the entire month of June, every post will contain a reference to tube tops, or a picture of someone wearing a tube top, no matter how irrelevant tube tops are to the content of the rest of the post.

The idea is to promote the buying and wearing of tube tops, in an attempt to make the world a more beautiful place. This year Tube Top Month has a sponsor – the Tube Top Boutique, an Amazon.com storefront where you can select from hundreds of tube tops, tube dresses, and related items.

June also tends to be the month when I drunk-post the most often, probably because it goes along well with the theme.

If you want your pic in this blog, put on a tube top and catch me when you see me around town… I almost always have my digital camera on me.

Last year I interrupted Tube Top Month for about a week and changed the topic to something else – that will NOT happen again this year. The theme will not be suspended for any reason.

Looking forward to a fun and exciting June!

I’ve heard from a source who’s in the know that speeding this weekend would be an extremely bad idea. Apparently MPD has a zero-tolerance policy for speeding that they’re enforcing this weekend. So if you go out to Italian Fest, be sure to obey the speed limits all the way out there. 35 on Union, 40 on Poplar, 40 on Walnut Grove (east of Highland).

From Amy’s blog: The Daily Grind coffee shop at Main and Adams, in the ground floor of the Claridge, will close June 30. It will reopen as a pizza and coffee bar. Sounds good…we haven’t had a pizza place downtown since Joey’s and Pie in the Sky closed.

– BREAKING NEWS: City Councilman Rickey “Re-” Peete, the City Council member who was indicted last November on federal bribery charges, has resigned his Council seat. Peete had previously done two years in prison for a 1989 extortion charge (hence the Re-Peete nickname). For more details, check the CA’s website. See ya later Rickey, been nice knowing you. Don’t drop the soap!

– Joan from the Westin e-mailed to let me know that Di Anne Price will be appearing there not only the last Monday of every month for the Downtown neighbors’ event, but EVERY Monday from 5 to 9, in the lobby bar.

– There will be fireworks tomorrow night after the Redbirds game, since the ‘Birds weren’t in town over the Memorial Day weekend. Also, the St. Louis Cardinals 2006 World Championship trophy is at the park and available for public viewing through June 3.

– The dance troupe Project:Motion presents Bouncing Off: New Directions in Dance this weekend and next. The show will be at Theatreworks (2085 Monroe) Fri-Sat June 1-2 and Thur-Sat 7-9, and Sun June 3 and 10. One of the choreographers has been collaborating with Memphis poet IQ, so it promises to be an interesting show. Tickets are $15 adults and $10 students and seniors, except for the Saturday show which is $20 and includes “Cocktails & Conversation” after the performance. Thursday the 7th is buy one, get one free night. For more info or to buy tickets visit their website.

– Rooftop parties tonight: Tom, Dick and Harry at the Peabody; Daddy Mack Blues Band at the Madison; Garry Goin & G3 at EP Delta Kitchen.

– Let’s finish this post with a quiz: Which person in the photo below is best dressed?

I’ll even give you a hint: It’s definitely not the guy, because he’s wearing a necktie, one of the stupidest fashion ideas of all time and one that needs to be retired permanently. So it’s one of the other three. You’ve got a 33% chance of guessing it right.

Answer to be posted tomorrow.
–

This is a drunk post. I planned to make it to Pearl’s tonight but ended up staying at the Saucer. Useful information: Tomorrow night there’s a band called Tangerine Panties playing. It will not be the first time I’ve seen tangerine panties there.

So I left the Saucer about 9 and remembered that the Not-Yo-Crawfish is now on EP’s dinner menu. Before, you had to wait until 11 to get it. The Lobster Pronto Pup and the Duck Quesadilla (which I’ve been told is da bomb, haven’t had it yet) have moved to the dinner menu as well. So I’m sitting here wiping Not-Yo-Crawfish (crawfish nachos over sweet potato tortilla chips) off my hands in order to type this. 8 bucks and it’s enough food to feed two.

– The annual Italian Fest at Marquette Park is this weekend, running from Thursday, May 31 to Saturday, June 2. Italian Fest is a little like BBQ Fest in that there are cooking teams, and it’s more fun if you know people on the teams and get invited into their booths. However, it’s still possible to have a lot of fun even if you don’t know the teams.

Pink Floyd cover band Pulse will play the festival Thursday night… but I just found out they won’t be taking the stage until sometime around 9:30 or 9:45. They tell me it will be a short set and they’ll be playing most of Floyd’s most recognizable hits. I know that’s a little late for people with 8-to-5 jobs, but if you can stay up that late, these guys are awesome. They’ve blown the crowds at Neil’s away this spring, and last month they played a blues fest at Helena, following Eric Burdon and the Animals on stage.

– The Starbucks in the Westin Hotel, on Third Street across from the FedExForum just south of Beale. Their door sign says they’ll stay open until 10 every night. So, you now have a place to get Starbucks downtown without being inside a noisy mall.

Of course, there are plenty of other places to get good coffee downtown – Bluff City Coffee in the South Main Arts District, Blues City Pastry at Main and Peabody, Memphis Coffee Exchange on Madison inside the Tobacco Bowl, and Cafe Francisco in the Pinch. All of these places offer free wireless Internet (unlike Starbucks, which charges for theirs).

– Plans for tonight: I’ll probably work on the online store I’m building for an hour or two after I get done with the rat race for the day, then I’ll head out. I’ve been wanting to try Pearl’s Oyster House, which I still haven’t been to since the official opening. I’ve heard that the owner and staff are super friendly and that lots of Downtowners hang out in the downstairs bar. So, I think I may stop by the Saucer around 7 to see who shows up for “Buy the Beer, Keep the Glass” night (it’s Sleeman Creme Ale) and see if I can recruit anyone for a drink at Pearl’s after they get their glass. If not, I’ll head down there by myself.

Tons of pics to post soon, but as usual, I have to find the time to download them from the camera.

Over the past week I’ve received a LOT of e-mails about the crime situation in Memphis – city-wide, not just downtown – and how it’s getting completely out of hand. People have asked me to post details of particular crimes, and use my blog to ask the people in power to do something.

I appreciate all the e-mails, and I sympathize with them. Only a few days ago I cautioned that the lax security on Beale Street was going to lead to problems, and sure enough there was an incident involving a gun down there this past weekend. I’m also aware of how bad crime has gotten in Midtown – friends of mine have been victims, and the situation there has definitely deteriorated over the past 12 months.

However, I CAN’T let this blog become “the crime blog” like it did for a couple of weeks last June. Some good results did come from it, but it took too much out of me and it felt like my blog wasn’t my own for a while. Besides, a blog isn’t the best way to draw attention to the issue on the Web – public forums/bulletin boards are, where everyone can post, not just one person.

I don’t have time to set up and administer forums (I’m swamped right now) but here are the basic steps if someone wants to pick up the idea and run with it:

1) Purchase a web hosting account – I use GoDaddy but there are many other good hosts out there if you have a different preference. This should cost no more than $7 a month. Make sure the account is capable of running PHP, a popular web scripting language. Register a domain name to associate with it.

2) Install phpBB on the new web hosting account. This is forum software which is very popular, easy to configure and free. There are other alternatives out there if you have different forum software that you like better than phpBB.

3) Once the forums are up and running, put the word out that the site is there. Encourage people to register for the forums and post their thoughts on crime in Memphis. Eventually the site will build a following and city leaders will have to pay attention to it – just like they did my blog last year – but this time they’ll be hearing MANY voices, not just mine.

If anyone decides to do this, a couple of recommendations: Don’t allow anonymous posting – require users to register and log in to post. Also, I recommend that you make it a policy to immediately remove any posts containing racist content, and to ban users who repeatedly make such posts. If you don’t see why this is necessary, pull up any of Thaddeus Matthews’ posts and take a look at what gets left in his comments section.

If anyone decides to do this, let me know – I’ll be happy to give you as much publicity as I can in my blog, and I’ll participate in the forums as a user/concerned citizen. That way everyone can have a say about crime, and I’ll be able to keep this blog as it currently is.

(Before I get started: Apologies for not posting at lunchtime today. Over the weekend I’ve received several e-mails about the crime problem in Memphis, and I spent so long trying to figure out how to respond that I ended up not posting anything. My response to the crime e-mails will be posted later tonight or tomorrow morning.)

Last week I ran across one of the most interesting job-search sites I’ve ever seen. It’s called Climber and it describes itself as being like “dating for jobs.”

(Click the banner to visit Climber’s site)

Here’s how it works: You, the job hunter, go to their site and fill out a profile in which you assess different aspects of yourself, your career life, and your ideal work environment. This is called your Career Fingerprint. Companies join the site and fill out a profile of their own, providing an accurate assessment of their corporate culture. This is called their Corporate DNA. Climber then matches individuals and companies who have compatible Career Fingerprints and Corporate DNA. Companies can then contact those individuals and request more information about them and/or an interview.

It’s said to be “like dating for jobs” because this is similar to how dating sites like eHarmony work: People fill out profiles, computers analyze the profiles for compatibility, and then offer compatible people the option of meeting.

The profiles are completely anonymous – your name is not revealed to any companies through Climber until you choose to give them that information. Also, it’s free for individuals to fill out a Career Fingerprint and see which companies they match.

Unlike most job-hunting sites, Climber positions its services toward “passive job-hunters” – people who are already employed and aren’t actively searching for work. It’s more for people looking to find a BETTER job than it is for people looking to find A job. It’s always been my opinion that everyone should passively job hunt (this is why I encourage people to keep a current resume online and make sure Google has spidered it). That’s how you see quantum leaps in your income in your income and job satisfaction in just a few short years, instead of settling for the rat race and 3% raises. I’ll have more to say about this in a couple of weeks.

Really cool idea… the founders of Climber thought way outside the box on this one. I like it.