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Bardog Tavern has its 4th birthday party today in the alley next to the popular neighborhood bar (Center Lane, known to Downtowners as Scratchy’s Alley). The Bardog 5K run starts at 9, and the party kicks off at noon. Assuming it follows the format of previous years, here’s what will happen.

At noon the party will begin. Don’t forget your ID, because they check everyone at the entrance. There will be two bands, the Bluff City Backsliders and Star and Micey. There will be outdoor beer stands. In past years guests have had to buy tickets for the stands, and I imagine that will be the case again. You can also buy beer inside, but with Panda Manda and Jeannie in bikinis at the outdoor stands, there’s plenty of reason to stay in the alley. There will be sliders for sale as well. There will also be porta-potties in the alley so you don’t have to go inside and stand in line for the bathrooms.

The early part of the afternoon is the dunk tank. Aldo and some of the Bardog staff take turns in the tank, with James selling balls with the proceeds going to St. Jude. They also tend to have special guest VIPs get in the tank. I hear that some of the girls from Aldo’s Pizza Pies will be in the tank this year, and I will definitely be there with the camera. If Aldo’s Pizza Pies manager John Findlay goes in the tank, there will be a line around the block.

The raffle goes on throughout the day. There are numerous prizes, given away at various intervals. The last prize to be given away is the sweet Fat Tire bike that has been hanging from the ceiling. I can’t remember if the drawings are every 15 or 30 minutes. At any rate, it pays to find out what times the drawings are, and make sure you’re in the alley at those times.

Toward late afternoon, I think around 4, is the “I Busted Aldo’s Grandma’s Balls” contest. The first person to eat 40 of Bardog’s meatballs, which are Aldo’s grandma’s secret recipe, will be declared the winner. There is no time limit, and contestants are disqualified if any meatballs come back up. My friend Duck Finkley has said he is entering the contest this year. I will try to get a “DUCK! DUCK! DUCK!” chant going.

The last event of the day is the head shaving. Tawni Bell has agreed to have her head shaved if $2000 is raised for St. Jude. I had planned to donate $20 to Tawni’s baldness fund, but you know what? I’m going to double that to $40 in memory of Jay Hollingsworth, recipient of last year’s haircut who is no longer with us. Miss you Jay, the party won’t be quite as good without you here.

I always take a lot of pictures, and this year will be no exception. The iPhone camera won’t be enough today. The digital camera will be out, with both spare batteries.

This is one of those “all kinds of good things could happen” types of days. I’m going to hit the Majestic at 11 to get some food in me before I start on the beer. At 12 I’ll hit the Saucer for 1 beer and a quick mayorship defense, then Bardog about 12:30. Hope to see you at the party. It’s one of the best Downtown events of the year.

 

The New York Times has published its best article ever. Who Made that Tube Top? is the story of an Iranian immigrant who arrived in New York in 1971 with less than $100 in his pocket. When a manufacturing error resulted in a pile of fabric tubes, the immigrant bought them and proceeded to re-sell them as tops. They caught on in the East Village, and by the 1990s he had a $500 million empire. Folks, this is truly entrepreneurship at its finest. The people at LaunchMemphis should keep copies of this at the Launchpad to hand out as inspiration.

You can show your support for entrepreneurship by wearing a tube top to Bardog’s alley party tomorrow afternoon. The party is a fundraiser for St. Jude, so you’ll also be supporting medical research and care for children by wearing a tube top.

The Little Tea Shop has announced plans to re-open Tuesday, August 21. The popular Downtown lunch restaurant has been closed since Mr. Lauck passed away last month. I know a lot of people who work Downtown will be happy to have it back.

Downtown business owners: If you want to make improvements to your storefront, the Center City Development Corporation will match you dollar-for-dollar on money spent. Improvements can include lighting, signage, awnings, canopies, patio railings, painting, cleaning, and accessories like planters. Details in this MBJ article.

Now that Aldo’s Pizza Pies is open for lunch as well as dinner, “Like” the pizzeria on Facebook to have Slice of the Day announcements show up in your News Feed. Today’s Slice of the Day is Mr. T-Rex, with tomato sauce, mozzarella, pepperoni, sausage, and meatballs.

By the way, I’d like to thank Aldo for motivating me to have a cleaner apartment. This morning I pulled some years-old pizza boxes out of the refrigerator and rode them down the elevator to the dumpster. That way the refrigerator is ready for future pizza boxes.

Local Gastropub is hiring for both the Downtown location and the Overton Square location which will open next month. They are looking for front-of-house people at the Downtown location, including bartenders. For the new location they are hiring for front-of-house and back-of-house. If interested, apply in person at the Downtown location Monday-Thursday 2 PM-4 PM, and bring a resume. You must have experience in the position you are applying for.

eighty3 is having a Farm to Fork dinner to celebrate the end of summer a week from tomorrow, Sunday, August 26. Cost is $59 per person plus tax and gratuity. Call 901-333-1224 to make a reservation. Here’s the menu

Salad: Local lettuces topped with poached farm-fresh egg, ricotta cheese and peach white balsamic reduction
Soup: Grilled watermelon gazpacho
Starter: Peach and ginger catfish escabèche with green tomato
Entrée: Grass-fed local beef short ribs served with “Grit Girl” Johnny cakes
Dessert: “Tomate du Saltambique” local beefsteak tomato braised in crème du caramel, stuffed with local nuts and fresh fruit and served with a spiced white peach sauce

Yahoo! Sports blog The Dagger reports that Adria Gasol, younger brother of Pau and Marc, will walk on at UCLA this year. Although 6-10 and from a famous family, the youngest Gasol has not shown much interest in basketball until this year. Never count him out… remember, people would have laughed if you’d predicted 9 years ago that Marc would be an NBA All-Star.

Sid and Sabrina Vicious will be on AM 560/87.7 FM at 11:30 AM this morning on MemphiSport Live to discuss how their son Frank is doing on Big Brother. You can listen on TuneIn Radio if you don’t live in Memphis.

All right. Time to go do important stuff, like play Zynga Poker on my iPad. No definite plans for tonight, but I may hit Max’s Sports Bar at some point.

Breaking news about the Bardog alley party this Sunday: The lovely Tawni Bell has agreed to shave her head if $2000 can be raised for St. Jude. You can bring donations to the bar between now and Sunday in an envelope marked “Tawni Bell Baldness Pledge.” Of course, I’m sure they’ll be taking donations at the party as well.

The MPD South Main Station is accepting enrollees for its Citizens’ Police Academy. This 9-week program is an inside look at how MPD works, and how you as a citizen can partner with MPD to keep your community safe. People I know who have been through this program have praised it highly. Classes will meet Tuesday nights starting September 4 from 6 to 9 PM. If you’re interested in signing up, call the South Main Station at 901-636-4099 for more information.

Bleu is starting a 3-4-5 happy hour. Monday-Friday from 4-7 PM, they will have drafts for $3, wine for $4, and liquors for $5.

Saw this on Twitter: Action News 5 broadcast from August 16, 1977, the day Elvis died.

There’s a site called Free the Helmsman where you can donate toward the operation of the Daily Helmsman, the campus newspaper of the University of Memphis. The newspaper makes some revenue from ads, but up until now they’ve depended on the university for funding as well. They want to be fully funded without having to depend on money from the people they report on. You support the concept of the free press when you make a donation on this site.

There will be a Spirit of the King concert tonight at the Cannon Center at 11 PM. It will feature past winners of the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist contest. This year’s tribute artist contest seminfinal, round two happens at the Cannon Center at 7 tonight.

Over at the Hard Rock Cafe, it will be Movie Night with Elvis. Elvis tribute artists will sing songs from Elvis’ movies. Start time is 10:30 PM. $5 cover will benefit MIFA and Presley Place.

My top non-Elvis live music recommendation for this evening: ’80s hair band cover band Aquanet plays Club 152 at 9 PM. This is most definitely worth a trip through the security line on Beale.

The Godfather II is the Summer Movie Series movie tonight at the Orpheum, 7:15 PM. More info here.

The Redbirds are having Organ Donor Awareness Night tonight at AutoZone Park. First 2000 fans will receive a replica Organ Donor Jersey. This night was named the best theme night in Minor League Baseball for 2011. Game time 7:05. Block party in the plaza for the two hours prior to game time, with $2 Coors Light.

The theme at the Memphis Farmers Market tomorrow is Chunka Hunka Grillin’ Love. When you think farmers’ market, you think vegetables, but MFM has fish, seafood, pork, red meat and poultry vendors who make grilling delicious. Kids can make their own lunch bag from 9 to 10:30, and there will be music by Efron White at 8 and BEAN at 11.

Quick lunch then back for a few more hours of fun with clip art. Fun fact I learned this week: Microsoft Internet Explorer won’t display CMYK images. Thanks to IE for adding hours and hours to what should have been a simple project. Anyway, I’ll be out somewhere after 6, no definite plans for tonight.

The big event happening Downtown tonight is the Elvis 35th Anniversary Concert at the FedExForum. Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley will be there. Elvis will sing on the big screen, backed by members of his band as well as other music notables including Brad Birkedahl and Joe Fick, former members of The Dempseys. Tickets are still available at the $65, $85, and $95 levels.

Speaking of Elvis, our trivia team called ourselves “The Elvis Aaron Presley Candlelight Vigilantes” last night and won second place. I think we should have won best team name too.

A couple of days ago, I blogged a Craiglist post that suggested Dream Berry Yogurt is for sale. Today this was confirmed in a Daily News blog post. The owner of the building is terminating Dream Berry’s lease.

The Brass Door starts a new night called “Trivia & Troubadours” tonight. At 7:30 Seamus will host trivia. At 8:30 there will be live music by Ruthie Shaffer, Kris Acklen, and Kim Garmon.

Jobs are available at the Church Health Center. Positions open include child life education & movement associate, dental assistant, and medical assistant.

Several South Main businesses were tagged with graffiti earlier this week. Tagged businesses are between the Orpheum and Spindini. A South Main deli owner caught the tagger on video and police are searching for a suspect. The graffiti does not appear to be gang-related.

Ingram Hill will play the last Peabody rooftop party of the season tonight. The opening band will be American pop-rock band Boys Like Girls. $15 cover tonight, with first drink included in the price. Ladies still get in free until 7. 6-11 PM.

The Memphis All-Stars headline Sunset Atop the Madison tonight from 7-11 PM. They play everything from R&B to soul to rock.

Like fast food? Tonight would be a good night to go to the ball game. If you show a Subway receipt, you get in AutoZone Park for half-price tonight (up to 4 people). If the Redbirds win, Subway coupons will be distributed upon exit. Also, the first 1500 fans will receive a card with special discounts from Sonic.

If you want to hear more about the city’s plan to renovate the James Lee House at 690 Adams, there will be a public meeting at the house tomorrow from 2:00 to 3:30 PM. An investor wants to redevelop the property as a bed & breakfast. The house is located at Adams Avenue and Orleans Street in Victorian Village.

Bardog Tavern has announced that the meatball eating contest will return this Sunday at the alley party, 12:30-5:30 PM. The first person to eat 40 meatballs without any coming back up will be declared the winner. If you want to be a contestant, get there early and find Aldo and tell him you want to do it.

Here’s a pic from the 2010 meatball eating contest. After it was over, the Nuh-Uh Girl swooped in and started eating the leftover meatballs.

Outta here for a quick lunch. I became the mayor of the Taco Bell on Church Road yesterday on Foursquare, prompting a “REALLY??????” from my food panhandler. I guess I’ll be getting a text soon that I failed to interpret her comment as a request for a Doritos Locos taco. Anyway, outta here for now. If I get a meeting wrapped up in time, I’ll play poker at Max’s tonight at 7.

The regulars at Max’s Sports Bar did some redecorating recently. Max left the country to marry his fiancee Cayley. When they returned, Max found that his sports bar had been turned into “Cayley’s Sports Bar,” a wine and spa bar. There were pink menus with items like watercress sandwiches. Lovely pink decorations and ferns were everywhere. The TVs were tuned to Lifetime and the O Network. The beer taps were changed out and new selections included Cayley’s Blue Ribbon and Max’s Last Damn Beer. There was even a Foursquare checkin for Cayley’s Sports Bar. Robo has the recap with lots of photos here. Robo is a much better writer than he is a singer.

Don’t worry, the pink stuff is gone, the school lunchroom pizza is back, and the TVs are on ESPN. Next month the bar will start opening early for college and NFL football season, and let me tell you, they’ve made some excellent hires for the day bar staff.

Seth posted top reasons to come to the Best Memphis Burger Fest at Minglewood Hall on Sunday, September 30. Everyone pay special attention to reason number 3. Also, let me point out that the normal high for Memphis on September 30 is 80 degrees, still easily warm enough to wear a tube top to the burger fest.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan brings “The America Tour” to the Orpheum tonight at 7. Gaffigan has had many successful appearances on Conan and Letterman, and he has sold a comedy series to NBC that he will star in and write. Details on tonight’s show and ticket info here. The America Tour is sponsored by Comedy Central.

Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and Professor of Public Policy, said that Americans deserve more time off, as quoted in this MBJ article. I completely agree with this. The average of two weeks off is absurd, as Reich himself says. It’s even more absurd that many companies don’t even grant that, expecting new employees to work for an entire year before they get even one week vacation. Three weeks ought to be the absolute minimum.

Need a job? The Peabody will host a job fair tomorrow to fill 30 housekeeping positions. Open positions include room attendants, public space attendants, house persons and housekeeping supervisors. Benefits, parking, meals and uniforms are included in the employment package. Details here.

Our Downtown group is fortunate to have a cast of “guest stars” who don’t live in Memphis anymore but make visits now and then. Our friend Air Traffic Mike should be here next month. Now and then our buddy Lee stops in town to hang out. BBQ teammate Kao from Monclova, Mexico just wrapped up an 8-day visit here. Pete from Jersey is in town right now; he lost two games of pool to me Sunday. And then last night, our friend Duck Finkley returned to town, fresh off 3 months on a boat on the Mississippi River. Good hanging out with Duck at the Goose, and also the “mayor” Clay. Later in the evening we went over to the Blind Bear. I’m really starting to like the Bear’s BLT.

Nothing like remembering I have a 1:00 meeting at 12:25, when I haven’t been to lunch yet. I guess a Frosty from Wendy’s will be all the food I’ll get until after work. I’ll be out about 6, either at Aldo’s Pizza Pies or the Saucer probably.

Is the fro-yo place on the Main Street Mall next door to Aldo’s Pizza Pies for sale? See this Craigslist post.

Saturday night was the Stumbling Elvis pub crawl. About 9:45 we wandered south on Second from the Peabody Hotel to Beale Street. Because one of our bars, Silky’s, was within the entertainment district, we had to go through the security line. Each person who comes on Beale after 9:00 has to show ID and be wanded for weapons.

We groaned as we saw lines of about 30-40 people deep at both entrances at Second and Beale. It would take us at least 15 minutes to get onto the street. However, one of the pub crawl’s leaders knew a secret. We continued south on Second past Beale, and cut through the alley behind BB King’s. We came out of the alley at the Third Street entrance to the entertainment district. There was NO LINE AT ALL and security was able to ID and wand us in very little time. Entering the district from the south side of Third is the way to go on busy Friday and Saturday nights.

One important note: Unless you’re with a large group, don’t take the alley as a shortcut like we did. Go another half-block south to Lt. George Lee Ave. and use it to cut over to Third instead. Much safer.

Elvis Week has arrived, and I spent a significant amount of time this past weekend helping tourists find where to eat, shop and explore Downtown. As I did I realized something: People are no longer using paper maps. They’re using the map feature on their phone to get around. They’re also using their phone’s web browser to plan their day.

What I saw leads me to ask the following questions:

Venues that book live music: Could someone with no prior knowledge of your business or website pull up Google on their iPhone or Android phone, type in your business name, and “drill down” to what band is playing tonight in less than a minute?

Restaurants: Could someone with no prior knowledge of your business or website pull up Google on their iPhone or Android phone, type in your business name, and “drill down” to your menu and hours of operation in less than a minute? If there are multiple menus (lunch, dinner, brunch, dessert, wines, etc.), could they find the one in use right now in under a minute?

If the answer to whichever question above applies is “no,” then you might want to consider a redesign to make your website more mobile-friendly. I know that a lot of businesses simply never thought about mobile users the last time they redesigned their site 2, 3, 4 years ago. From what I saw this weekend, though, businesses whose key information is easily found on a phone enjoy a significant advantage getting foot traffic through their door. You could be leaving tourist dollars on the table if your site hasn’t kept up with the times.

In the news: Aldo’s Pizza Pies is open for lunch, starting today. I hear the place is crowded, not surprising for the first day. Going early (11ish) or late (closer to 2) might help you find a seat more quickly this week.

Once again, my hopes for Romania as the Memphis in May honored country have been dashed. For 2013 it will be Sweden. Not a bad choice.

Election statistical analysis blog FiveThirtyEight says that Mitt Romney’s VIP selection Paul Ryan is the most conservative VP candidate since 1900, on an ideological scale.

Today is turning out to be a good first day back to work, after my 5-day weekend. I’ll be at Pint Nite at the Saucer about 6. Possibly poker at Goose for the 7:30 or the 10:00 game.

Trying something new this afternoon… I’m typing this post from my iPad while sitting at the bar at Bardog drinking a PBR. Since I’m here, I might as well start with news about the Bardog 5K and 4th birthday party, which will happen 8 days from today on Sunday, August 19.

The 5K will happen at 9 AM that morning. Registration and race info can be found here. $30 if you pre-register, $35 day-of.

At 12:30 the party starts. There will be live music by the Bluff City Backsliders and Star & Micey. The dunk tank will be back to raise money for St. Jude, and they will raise even more money by raffling off a sweet Fat Tire bike…

Hey, wait! I’m at Bardog! And the bike is here! And the iPad has a hi-res camera! Let’s give this a try.

I’d take a pic of Panda Manda too but she doesn’t have a tube top on. FAIL

Anyway, lots of other prizes besides the bike will be up for grabs too. The party will be in the alley next to Bardog (Scratchy’s Alley). Kids are welcome in the alley, but they can’t come in the bar because it allows smoking and is therefore 21 and up. There will be plenty of beer and sliders.

In other news, former 90210 star Jennie Garth has been rocking a tube top. Good for her. She recently starred in an Old Navy commercial with Dylan and Brandon.

If you’re a vegetarian, might want to hit the Green Beetle today. They have a black bean and chipotle burger special that sounds really good. Sweet potato fries on the side.

Metta World Peace just tweeted, “I just got my salad tossed with extra jalapeños and raisins.” Whatever floats your boat, Ron.

Lansky at the Peabody was Elvis’ clothier for many years. In honor of Elvis Week, they have decorated the store with vintage Speedway Jackets, Jailhouse Rock Sweaters, and sport coats that were worn by the King himself. They invite the public to come by and see the history and heritage of Lansky at its fullest this week. The clothier is in the Peabody Hotel at Third and Union.

That’s all for now. Hope to see you at the Flying Saucer at 7 for the Stumbling Elvis pub crawl. Don’t forget your cash or canned good donation to the Food Bank!