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Shortly before 3 PM, Bardog hit $10,000 in donations for St. Jude. Panda got her head shaved.

I will be back tomorrow with a full recap and photos.

The most that has ever been raised in previous years for a head shaving at Bardog’s alley party has been $4500. When I left Bardog last night about 11, $5468 had been raised to have Amanda “Panda” Parks get her head shaved at 3 this afternoon. The goal is $10,000, so there’s still plenty left to be contributed. Come on out to the alley party, in Scratchy’s Alley adjacent to Bardog, and give. There will be food, beer, a raffle with awesome prizes, a dunk tank, motorized cooler races, a beer garden, a meatball eating contest, and more.

Before I get started on today’s post, let me share a pic from last night of my favorite librarian glasses.

 

I haven’t ordinarily been a TV person the past few years but I have a new addiction: Bar Rescue on Spike TV. Damn there are some f’d up bars out there. Makes me appreciate how smoothly things run at the places I go.

Emerge Memphis is bringing back South Main Food Truck Friday for another week. This week Fresh Gulf Shrimp will be parked on Tennessee Street near G.E. Patterson Friday from 11 AM to 1:30 PM.

Thanks to my strategic shit-talking, Squeal Street members made a $500 donation to the #shavethepanda fund yesterday. Congratulations guys, you get to keep the trophy for another year. And by “trophy” I mean “food blogger with anger management issues.”

Last year I did a piss-poor job taking photos of the Bardog alley party. That will not be the case this year. I will be out with the Tube Top Cam at noon, and plan to run through at least two camera batteries. Come join and bring money to #shavethepanda.

“There are only three times it’s acceptable to start drinking before 11 AM. When you’re at a casino, on spring break, or at BBQ Fest.”

I started drinking at 10:45 yesterday at Bardog. Oops.

Nice to have a bar around the corner that opens at 8 AM weekdays though.

So, I hung out there from 10:45 until about 5:30 yesterday, making excellent use of my vacation day. Then I decided to take a “halftime” nap and make it a late night, which I rarely do on a Friday. About 9 PM I woke up, got dressed, and went back out.

I live on the Main Street Mall just south of Madison. I walked out the front door and headed south, planning to go back to Bardog to see who was there, then hit the Flying Saucer and Blind Bear. I was even considering a late-night Purple Haze trip.

As I approached Monroe, though, I noticed something. South of Family Dollar, about a half a block south of Monroe, it was pitch black. The light at Union was out. The light at Gayoso was out. The light at Peabody Place was out. All the lights in the buildings were out. All the employees at DejaVu, next door to Family Dollar and the northernmost business on Main to have lost power, were out on the patio looking around like, “WTF do we do now?”

I went in Bardog, which had power, and checked Twitter. There had been some kind of explosion near Second and G.E. Patterson apparently, which had blown manhole covers off, and which had cut power from the South Main district all the way to Monroe. MLGW did not expect to have power restored for several more hours. The city closed Beale Street about 10. People were stuck in elevators at the Peabody and the Westin. Must’ve sucked to be driving Downtown last night, since Memphians treat broken traffic lights more like NASCAR than a four-way stop.

So, Bardog was the place to be last night. The staff was working the #shavethepanda movement. In case you missed it, bartender Amanda “Panda” Parks will have her head shaved if $10,000 is raised for St. Jude by tomorrow afternoon at 3 PM. Aldo started a leader board for those who contributed $100 or more to #shavethepanda.

 

The Moody Ques BBQ team is already represented on the board by the team president and “Mr. Load-in.” Any other Moody Ques want to step up and get in on this? Also, I notice Squeal Street is only represented once on the board. I guess they only care about sick children half as much as we do.

With no place to go but Bardog, we all hunkered down and proceeded to get crazy drunk. Stuff like this happened:

 

Okay, let’s get to the news. If you like craft beer, there’s a new Twitter account you should follow: @GrindCityCraft. This account tweets about craft beer in Memphis.

The Orpheum has announced an addition to the 2014-15 schedule. RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles will run at the Orpheum for two nights only, April 11-12, 2015. RAIN features the Beatles’ full discography onstage, including the songs they recorded after they quit doing live concerts in August 1966. Some of their most challenging works to reproduce onstage were recorded after they stopped doing concerts, but they are successfully performed in RAIN. Tickets go on sale Friday, August 29.

The Woodruff-Fontaine House sale is going on until 3 PM today in Victorian Village.

There are three Elvis Week events happening Downtown today. An Elvis bus tour departs from Econo Lodge (Third at Court) at noon today and it costs $35 to take the tour. The champions’ reception for “Images of the King” happens at Jerry Lee Lewis Cafe today at 3. At 8 the Orpheum will show “Elvis: That’s the Way It Is,” a remastered film of Elvis performances with outtakes that have never been seen before onscreen. Terry Blackwood and the Imperials will perform live along with Elvis on the screen. Elvis artifacts will be on display in the lobby. Tickets are $35 or $89 VIP.

Dionne Warwick’s show at the Cannon Center tonight has been cancelled. She has been placed on vocal rest by her doctors.

WREG has a photo gallery of last night’s Downtown blackout.

Great match I saw recently on the WWE Network: WCW Bash at the Beach 1999. Chris Kanyon, Diamond Dallas Page, and Bam Bam Bigelow defended the WCW tag team titles against Chris Benoit and Perry Saturn. Excellent match. Don’t ask me how three men can defend tag team titles against two men, because there was pretty much no logic in the way WCW was booked that year. Check it out if you’re a subscriber. Ba da bing, ba da bang, ba da bam.

Plans for today: As usual, I will lead off at Panda’s bar at Bardog at 11. This may be the last time we see Panda with hair on her Saturday shift. But will she really shave it off? She’s requiring a minimum of $10,000 to shave her head. To put this in perspective:

• $4500 was raised to shave Brittany Bloom’s head at the first Bardog alley party
• $2500 was raised to cut off the late, great Jay Hollingsworth’s ponytail the year after that
• $1500 was raised to shave Tawni Bell’s head the following year

So Panda is requiring more than twice as much as has ever been raised. She purposely set the bar that high, figuring she’d keep her hair. But it looks like people with deep pockets are going to be getting out their checkbooks, so it is likely the panda will be shaved.

Time to take a shower and get ready for Saturday at Bardog.

Amanda “Panda” Parks, Tuesday-Friday happy hour and Saturday day bartender at Bardog Tavern, has agreed to have her head shaved at the Bardog alley party in Scratchy’s Alley this Sunday. After unsuccessful attempts by the bar to recruit others, Panda stepped up late yesterday afternoon and agreed to do it. However, she will only agree to have her head shaved if $10,000 is raised for St. Jude by 3 PM Sunday.

The donations raised for St. Jude will be divided into two pots: “Shave it” and “Save it.” If no less than $10K is raised and “Shave it” prevails, Panda’s head will be shaved.

Kudos to Panda for stepping up for the KIDS! If you can’t make it to the 5K or alley party Sunday, you can stop by Bardog today or tomorrow to drop off donations.

The alley party, by the way, is FREE to attend. I got asked that last night and just wanted to make sure everyone was aware it is free. Of course, if you want to support St. Jude by contributing to Panda’s fund or buying some balls for the dunk tank, they certainly won’t mind. Bring ID because they will be checking everyone at the entrance. If you plan on running a tab inside, bring plastic. They require a credit card from everyone, no matter how often you come in, the day of the alley party. Noon to 6 Sunday. I will be pre-gaming at Kaylea’s bar at Blind Bear 11 to noon if anyone wants to join.

South Mainers: Don’t forget that Millie’s Garden food truck will be parked outside Emerge at Tennessee and G.E. Patterson from 11 to 1:30 today.

Chinese Connection Dub Embassy performs at Handy Park, Third and Beale, tonight at 6:30. It’s part of the free “Memphis Jams” concert series.

There are a couple of Elvis Week events Downtown today. The finals of the “Images of Elvis” contest happens at noon at the New Daisy. Robert Washington, the “Black Elvis,” performs at Blues City Cafe at 5. Why are the Downtown Elvis events so early today? Because tonight is the candlelight vigil at Graceland, the main event of Elvis Week.

Damn, I didn’t realize that there was a championship belt that the winner of Bardog’s meatball-eating contest gets to wear! There are still spots open. Call the bar if interested.

Tomorrow’s Memphis Farmers Market theme reminds me of Romanian girls. It’s Hot! Hot! Hot! However, you won’t be hot as you shop, because the market is under a covered pavilion with ceiling fans. In addition, you can stop by the Dixon Gallery & Gardens booth to decorate your own paper fan to stay cool. At 10:15 there will be a cooking demo by Salud, the new cooking school inside Whole Foods. Looking for a specific product at the Farmers Market? You can search for it here. Live music by Tori Anito at 7, Bean at 8:30, JoJo Jeffries at 11. Pet adoptions by Streetdog Foundation. 7 AM to 1 PM tomorrow and every Saturday through the end of October. Front at G.E. Patterson.

The Farmers Market’s blog has results of the recently-run Crop Hop 5K as well as photos. Hey, there’s Frank with a bullhorn!

First day of a four day weekend. I guess Walgreens is my first stop this morning because I only have enough shampoo to last four or five more days. After that, day drinking. Could be a second news post today, so check back.

 

Wow. I’ve had a “number two” every day this week after work. Referring to blog posts, of course.

PRO TIP: If you need to have a “number two” at Memphis in May BBQ Fest, the porta-john at Squeal Street BBQ is a good place to do it. Find Squeal Street in the Patio Porker section.

IMPORTANT PBR NEWS: On August 20, Mellow Mushroom at 5138 Park and 3075 Village Shops Drive will have 75 cent PBR as they roll their menu prices back to 1974 prices for the day. Yeah I know that’s not Downtown, but 75 cent PBR is news even if you have to travel to less desirable parts of the city.

From the Flyer: Amtrak would like to add an additional route running from Central Station to Chicago. Yay for more transportation options that don’t involve driving!

Couple of basketball stories to round out the day:

Dominic Woodson is transferring out of the Memphis Tigers basketball program. He seemed to have a lot of potential but there also were behavior/maturity issues.

The Bleacher Report has a great article on former Memphis Grizzly DeMarre Carroll and his unlikely rise through the NBA ranks to become starting small forward for the Atlanta Hawks. With so many setbacks in his life, the odds were against him getting there. Happy to see that he made it.

Four-day weekend starts NOW! I am off tomorrow and Monday. Jessica has already texted me a pic of the Fireball bottle that awaits me at Silly Goose, so I better get down there.

Runners: The Breakway-Bardog 5k is only three days away. Have you registered yet? Proceeds benefit St. Jude so it’s for an awesome cause. Today and tomorrow, race organizers will draw a random person registered to win a pair of Brooks Running shoes from Breakway Running.

As of this morning, Bardog only has two people signed up for the meatball eating contest that will take place at the alley party following the 5K. If you want to sign up, give the bar a call.

Tonight is the final Peabody Thursday evening rooftop party of the season. Ingram Hill is the headline act, with special guest Christian Seay. $15 cover, with ladies and hotel guests free until 7 PM. Admission includes a buffet of egg rolls with sweet & sour sauce and hot Chinese mustard and pork fried rice. If you’re in VIP there’s a second buffet of coconut shrimp, baked brie, beef Wellingtons, hummus and pita chips.

There’s Disney trivia at the Green Beetle tonight at 8. Winner gets tickets to see Mary Poppins at Playhouse on the Square.

There are a couple of Elvis Week events happening Downtown today. Todd Martin’s Elvis Show is at Wet Willie’s at 4. Elvis and Call-a-Cabs, can’t beat that! At 7 the finals of the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest get under way at the Orpheum.

Taking another 4-day weekend with both Friday and Monday off. I’ll kick off the weekend at the Silly Goose a few hours from now.

Today I posted about the ceremony at the site of American Studios, Thomas at Chelsea, which got its historical marker today. That was the studio where Elvis recorded the Elvis in Memphis album. Here’s an NPR article with the forgotten story of American Studios.

AOL still has 2.3 million dial-up Internet subscribers. This FiveThirtyEight article pretty much lays out who is in AOL’s target market. Here’s a hint: The basic service plan comes with two free wills and an AARP membership.

If you’re a fan of the @midtownkrogers parody Twitter account, check out @FreshMraket. It parodies the Midtown Fresh Market that opened today. I hear there were a lot of free food samples at the opening. I bet the Nuh-Uh GIrl regrets moving to California sometimes.

Photographers are invited to come take photos of Elmwood Cemetery for one night only, Wednesday, August 20 from 6 to 8 PM. You must email kmccollum@elmwoodcemetery.org in advance to register.

Want to volunteer for Best Memphis Burger Festival on Sunday, September 21? You can get on Volunteer Spot and see what opportunities are available.

Home from work and on my way out for beer on what for me is an effective Thursday after work.

Today is National Filet Mignon Day. May I recommend my favorite filet? It’s at the Majestic Grille, on the Main Street Mall just north of Peabody Place. The Majestic’s filet comes in 8 ounce and 12 ounce sizes and is cooked to perfection. In addition to the basic filet cooked with Majestic butter, you can get Filet Oscar with lump crab and bearnaise, Filet Au Poivre with peppercorn crust and Jameson sauce, or Filet Gorgonzola with gorgonzola and a balsamic glaze. You can add bearnaise sauce, sauteed scallops, or sauteed shrimp to your filet if you choose. Here’s a link to the Majestic’s dinner menu.

The MBJ reports that LYFE Kitchen, one of the hottest restaurant startups in the country, is moving its headquarters to Memphis and will open two restaurants here, including one in the Chisca. Check out LYFE’s full menu here.

Memphis in May has announced Poland will be its honored country for 2015. My Facebook friend The Polish Princess must be very, very happy right now. I guess the Moody Ques can start researching booth ideas now. Let’s make it three in a row for Best Booth!

Here’s a video of The Dempseys getting their note on Beale Street. Congratulations again Brad, Joe, and Ron!

Elvis Week is in full swing, and there are many events happening in or near Downtown today. Let’s have a look:

B.B. King’s will have Elvis trivia, from noon to 6 PM on the hour, this afternoon. Show off your knowledge of the King and have a chance to win some free food.

At 2 PM today there will be a marker unveiling for American Studios, at the corner of Thomas and Chelsea. Over 120 hit records were recorded at the studio, including Elvis’ “Suspicious Minds.”

“Matt Joyce: An Evening with Elvis” happens at Club 152 tonight at 7.

The Flying Saucer puts its 2014 Elvis pint glass on sale tonight at 7. There is a limited supply of glasses available, so best bet is to get there by 6:45 and let your bartender or server know in advance that you want one when the time comes.

Brad Birkedahl and the Burnin’ Love Band play Blues City Cafe at 9:30. This isn’t really a special Elvis Week event. Brad’s band is the house band at Blues City most weeks Wednesday through Saturday. However, if you’re in town for Elvis, believe me, this is a show you will want to see. (Brad, by the way, used to be lead guitarist for the Dempseys who I mentioned earlier in this post.)

I didn’t play poker last night, but I got a real treat: The final table of the Big One for One Drop ($1 million buy-in) Texas Hold’em tournament was on ESPN, and in my opinion the best poker player in the world right now, Daniel Negreanu, was playing. It was so interesting to watch him call with hands that didn’t appear to have much potential – and to think through the reasons he might be calling (pot was offering him good odds, stack sizes, ability to out-play an opponent post-flop). He was looking for good situations more than good cards. It was an excellent learning experience and I am glad I watched it. Daniel made it to heads-up and won more than $8 million for second place. Another Daniel, Daniel Colman, took the $15 million first prize.

It’s Wednesday, so I’ll lead off after work at Jessica’s bar at the Silly Goose. If it’s like most Wednesdays, weird creepy guy will come in about 20-50 minutes after I do, and pull out a bar stool about 3-4 seats down from where my friends and I are. He won’t sit though; he’ll turn sideways toward us, standing, leaning against the bar, staring at us intently as we talk. If we mention any subjects of particular interest (like either of the two BBQ teams we are on) he will twist his head this way and that and lean in and try to hear what is being said. Not exactly sure what satisfaction he gets from that, but whatever floats your boat, weird creepy guy.

It’s looking very probable that there will be enough news for an after-work post, so check back.

If you read my lunchtime blog post, you saw that I had the pleasure of talking to some of Start Co.’s startup founders last night at the Blind Bear. I’d like to start off this evening’s post by mentioning another company I learned about. Phase is an app for people who play games of all types. Its motto is “Never miss a game.” You can set up your game, giving it a name, location, date and time, and list of friends to alert. Your friends get notifications with one click. There are reminders so you and your friends don’t forget game times. Phase will recommend games, and will help you find events, tournaments, and LAN parties in your area. It hasn’t been rolled out yet, but you can get early access by subscribing on Phase’s site.

The MBJ reports that a new Subway will open Downtown soon – at 201 Poplar. For those not familiar with “Club 201,” that’s the Shelby County Jail.

Tamp & Tap has announced a special drink for this week only, Elvis week: The Velvet Elvis mocha. It’s a frozen peanut butter and banana mocha, in honor of Elvis’ favorite sandwich.

Big news for wrestling fans: Longtime Memphis wrestling host Lance Russell will be on MemphiSport Live on AM Sports 56 and FM 87.7 Saturday. The show is from 11 AM to 1 PM. “Ol’ Banana Nose,” as Jerry Lawler used to call Lance, is considered one of the greatest wrestling announcers of all time.

From the MBJ: Staff writer Ryan Poe interviews developer Lauren Crews about the redevelopment of the French Fort neighborhood. The full interview will be out in Friday’s issue, but a few interesting snippets are in the linked article.

Home from work and out for beer. I was planning to lead off Flying Saucer but it looks like I’m being talked into Silly Goose instead.

Before I get to the news, I want to start off with a quick story. Last night I was in the Blind Bear. Around 9 Eric Mathews brought in some of the entrepreneurs participating in Start Co.‘s accelerators. They’re less than 10 days away from Demo Day and no doubt they had been putting in long hours at the office up the street, practicing their pitches and doing other preparation.

I have an unspoken understanding with Eric that he’s welcome to send his entrepreneurs over to talk. It’s good for them to practice talking about their businesses in casual conversation, and they might get a mention on the blog. So, Eric sent a few people over. There was one entrepreneur I talked to for about 30 minutes. We got to talking about where she was from, how she started her business, how she found Start Co.

“I’m from Brooklyn,” she told me. “There were accelerator programs in New York that I could have joined. But I really liked what I saw in Memphis. So I decided to come here.” What a huge compliment for our city and for Start Co. Not many cities can compete with New York in that respect. Not many cities offer startup businesses the resources that Memphis does. We really have something special going on here.

Her business is called Play-tag. Play-tag is a smart tag for your dog. It lets you set a roaming range of 0-150 feet. If your dog gets outside of that range, you get notified via mobile app. Also, when the dog is out of range the tag activates a highly visible LED paw print, so people can see your dog and know it is missing. The tag stores vital information about your pet, and you can set an in-app monetary reward. There’s no monthly fee, and since Play-tag does not rely on cell phone networks it works almost anywhere.

Sounds like a pretty useful invention. I have two friends whose dogs went missing for a week this year, and I wonder if they’d have recovered their pets more quickly if the dogs were wearing Play-tag.

I learned about another startup last night as well and will mention it in a future post.

Speaking of entrepreneurship, it will be discussed at the South Main Association meeting tonight. Carlton Crothers, the CEO of Emerge Memphis, will speak. Where Start Co.’s startup businesses are just getting off the ground from the idea stage, Emerge is an incubator for startups that have grown to the point that they can pay rent for office space. The meeting will be at Cafe Pontotoc, 6 PM social, 6:30 presentation. Free for SMA members, $10 non-members.

From the Daily Beast: Meet the beer bottle dictator, the one man who approves every beer label in America.

The social media, smartphone era version of Kitty Genovese. (Look her up on Wikipedia if you don’t know who Kitty Genovese is)

A couple of friends of mine went to Midtown last night to try the new Robata Ramen and Yakitori bar, and I thought I’d pass along a tip they shared: Get the king mushroom skewers. “I didn’t even know there was a such a thing as a king mushroom,” my friend said. “But they were delicious. They taste like butter.”

Out-of-towners considering traveling to Memphis in the next two weeks: Might want to check out this deal at the Doubletree. You get two tickets to the Redbirds (who play across the street) and a bucket of four local beers.

Couple of Elvis events happening Downtown today: Ben Portsmouth: Acoustic Elvis is about to start playing right now (1 PM) at Jerry Lee Lewis Cafe. The semifinal round of the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest happens tonight at the Orpheum at 7.

IMPORTANT PBR NEWS: The Madison Growler shop inside Cash Saver on Madison has growlers of PBR for $4 today.

Getting a lot accomplished at work today. I will lead off at Flying Saucer today around 5:30, with Silly Goose as a backup location if needed.