Category: Uncategorized

The Peabody and its four Lansky stores are running a contest and there are lots of prizes to win. To enter, you have to go here between now and December 16 at 2 PM. You have to do four things:

• “Like” the Peabody Ducks on Facebook
• “Like” Lansky 126 on Facebook
• Give your first and last name
• Give your email address

Prizes include a one-night stay in a Peabody Suite (on a night between December 17 and 29), a pair of TOMS shoes from Lansky 126, a Peabody Duck tie and cufflinks from Lansky at the Peabody, a Vera Bradley tote from Lansky Lucky Duck, and Dinstuhl’s candies from Lansky’s Newsstand.

If you go to the Peabody, don’t forget about their 25% off Foursquare checkin special at Capriccio Grill (excludes alcohol, tax and tip, $25 maxmium savings). They tell me that if it goes well, they’ll consider doing other specials – perhaps a mayor’s special at the restaurant, or a checkin special at Corner Bar.

I heard about a couple of Downtown tourism marketing jobs that I wanted to pass on. The first is a Graphic Designer position with the Great American Steamboat Company. This is the company that will bring overnight riverboat cruises back to Memphis, docking at the soon-to-be-finished Beale Street Landing. They recently acquired office space in the Downtown core. They’re looking for someone with web design and online marketing skills, in addition to graphic design.

There’s also an online content and PR specialist position open with a travel/tourism firm. If you want to get into tourism marketing, including social media and mobile apps, this sounds like a good job for which to apply.

The Fuzzy Brew blog has a good article on the Flying Saucer’s beer and dessert pairing Thursday night. Five beers, each paired with a dessert, and speaker Will Mestayer from Lazy Magnolia brewery.

Another chance of snow in the forecast tonight. MemphisWeather.net’s blog has the details. Just a dusting in the early AM, with temperature likely to stay 33 or higher. Dammit snow if you’re not going to fall in amounts/temperatures that will close office buildings, don’t bother!

On my way to the Saucer for a beer. (Edit: Oops, I posted we have a home game vs. Miami. It’s actually AT Miami.)

Two days until the Trans-Siberian Orchestra performs at the FedExForum. This musical spectacle appeals to people of all generations, and is a great place to take a date or to take the family. Get tickets here. I did a longer post about TSO a couple of months back, but if I had to describe it in one sentence, how about “sort of a holiday rock opera with amazing light show.” It’s really a one-of-a-kind spectacle that will get you in the holiday spirit. Go see it.

Insider tip for those coming to the show, and for everyone else too: Kooky Canuck would be a good place to stop before or afterward. They will be celebrating National Brownie Day all day Thursday with three special deep dish brownies cooked in skillets. You can choose from Triple Fudge, Peanut Butter Swirl, or Mint Brownie.

Looking for a unique backdrop for a holiday pic with the family? AutoZone Park is offering its facility for photos this Saturday. Families can have their photo taken by a professional photographer between 1 and 4 PM, and photos will be delivered via email. Families will also have the opportunity for their name to be put on the park’s marquee sign. Call 901.722.0298 or e-mail allison.rhoades@memphisredbirds.com to schedule a family photo for Saturday.

(Geez, that’s three family-friendly items in a row. What is this blog turning into? Maybe we need to start Tube Top Month six months early.)

The Little Tea Shop, which has been closed for a month, is reopening. Details here on the Memphis Daily News blog.

The Brass Door unveils its new menu today. New items include Shepherd’s Pie, Pimento Macaroni and Cheese Fritters, and Smoked Salmon on Boxty.

So, it looks like San Diego State will be invited to the Big East. You know, because nothing says “East” like San Diego. Meanwhile, Memphis will still be on the outside looking in. Thanks a lot, R.C.!

Sorry for no meaningful new content on the blog since Saturday… haven’t been feeling well and have spent a lot of time in bed reading books on the Kindle Fire. If you’re a pro wrestling fan, there’s a biography of Bruiser Brody that is really, really good. I’m about two-thirds of the way through it now.

Reminds me, I mentioned the TuneIn Radio app that I installed on my Kindle Fire that lets me listen to radio stations all over the world. If you don’t have a mobile device, you can listen on the TuneIn website. I told a friend who just got back from an Australia trip about this, and he was excited to be able to listen to one of his Brisbane radio stations on the Web.

So, I figured out what I’m going to do with my old iPhone 3G, which has sat on my coffee table for the past three weeks since my iPhone 4S arrived. I’m going to give the old phone to a teacher who still has a non-smartphone flip model. Ive been told the 3G will still fetch money on eBay, but I’m too lazy to list and sell the thing. And besides, it’s a good way to support our teachers who don’t get all the appreciation they deserve. Normally I wouldn’t waste blog space on this, but maybe it will inspire others to do nice things for teachers, and besides, she asked, “Are you going to put this on your blog, Paul?”

All right, time to eat some crap at Quizno’s and then spend a fun-filled afternoon with Microsoft Access. I’ll be out somewhere tonight, no idea where.

Yesterday I was standing at the bar, and a woman came up and ordered two glasses of orange juice. “Do you want anything with them?” asked the bartender.

“No, just the orange juice,” the woman said.

“If she’s a Downtowner,” I smiled and thought, “she’s concealing a flask.”

The St. Jude Marathon is taking place as I type this. I looked out my window this morning and saw the runners lined up down Fourth Street. Then, when I went on my Mountain Dew run to Walgreens, I looked down Madison and saw them running up Third Street. Best of luck to all the runners!

It’s a big day down here. This morning you’ll see runners all over Downtown. Tonight it’ll be Santas. Stumbling Santa starts at the Flying Saucer tonight. Hundreds of pub crawlers dressed as Santa will stumble from bar to bar over the course of the evening. If you want to participate, show up at 6:30 in a Santa suit with a toy to donate.

In between, there’s the SEC championship game. LSU vs. Georgia, on CBS at 3 PM. I guess I’ll show up early at the Saucer to watch. I’ll be cheering for LSU in this one. That’ll make my friends Zane, Air Traffic Mike and Lil’ Kim happy… not so much a certain MILF who I’m not sure still reads my blog.

There’s also a Tigers game tonight. Memphis hosts Austin Peay at the FedExForum, 7:30 PM. If you’re coming Downtown for this or any other event today, I’d allow a little extra time to get down here. Streets will be jammed.

Marathon runners: The Brass Door, the Irish pub on Madison across from the First Tennessee building, has happy hour prices for you all day, as well as free hot tea and coffee.

There’s another gift card sale coming to Downtown Memphis that is an incredibly awesome deal. On Monday, December 12, Kooky Canuck will sell $50 gift cards for $25 each. The format is very similar to the sale at the Majestic that happened last Wednesday: You have to be there in person to buy them (no phone orders), so if you can’t make it, find someone to go buy the cards for you. Cards can’t be used until after the first of the year. Sale starts at 11 AM. Well, I guess the Nuh-Uh Girl will be driving people crazy on the 12th, calling everyone she knows, going, “Can you buy some cards for meeeee?”

Insider tip: Kooky has a lot of menu items kids like, such as s’mores you make at the table, skillet cookies a la mode, and giant ice cream sundaes. You could spend $25 on one gift card and be able to take the family out for a fun dinner!

Tickets for the Red Hot Chili Peppers February 3 concert at FedExForum are now on sale. Get ’em here.

Resting up and hydrating this morning and early afternoon. According to the weatherman’s forecast, the probability of a shitshow is quite high tonight. Gotta get ready.

Multiple sources have confirmed that the Grizzlies will play one pre-season game at home, prior to the start of the shortened regular season on Christmas. On December 16 the Grizzlies will host the New Orleans Hornets at the FedExForum. The team will then travel to New Orleans for a pre-season road game on the 21st.

News you can use: Here’s a list of holiday shipping deadlines for many major stores, broken down into regular, express, and fastest shipping. I found the list in this post on Lifehacker, an excellent site to bookmark or subscribe to.

The Plaintiffs Trio will play a free concert in the Cavern, the Brass Door’s underground live music space, tonight at 9. However, don’t show up fashionably early: The Irish pub will be closed from 4:30 to 9:00 tonight.

One of the few vacant buildings left in the South Main Arts District was 498 S. Main. It’s a one-story building that had black finishing on the outside. I used to peek in the windows, and in between the blinds I could see a collapsed ceiling, and elements of a nautical theme. I always kinda hoped the owners of the Cove would buy the building and open a second location, but it’s not to be. The Memphis Business Journal is reporting that architecture firm UrbanArch has purchased the building. They will make it their office after repairing the ceiling and making other renovations. Always good to have more people working Downtown! Insider tip: After work, walk around the corner to Max’s Sports Bar to watch sports and enjoy one of the 10 beers on tap. May I recommend the PBR?

If you plan on driving Downtown tomorrow, keep in mind that it’s the St. Jude Marathon/Half Marathon and that many streets will be blocked. Expect delays.

Speaking of the race, if you’re running, there are a lot of “carb up” restaurant specials going on tonight. Here’s a list. If I had to make one pick from this list, it would be the Mardi Gras Pasta from King’s Palace Cafe. That is one of the best dinners on Beale. For value carbing, you can’t beat the deal at Kooky Canuck: $5.99 all you can eat spaghetti. (Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up for that special, claiming she’s running the race.)

This is the only day of the weekend for which I don’t have plans; nevertheless, I’ll be out somewhere. Time to grab a quick lunch and count down to the weekend.

So, I had the date wrong on that Twitter interview I mentioned yesterday. It happens today at 2 PM, not yesterday as I’d posted. It’s with Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay, presented by the Redbirds. Follow @memphisredbirds and @jonjayU to see the interview.

Big news from a radio station headquartered Downtown: Sports talk radio station AM 730, with studios located on Beale Street, will become Yahoo! Sports 730 next Monday. Several weeks ago, the station had its Fox Sports affiliation pulled out from under it, leaving 730 with exactly one program, the Chris Vernon Show. Determined to fight, Vernon looped his show (live 3-6 CST) night and day, giving advertisers and sponsors additional exposure. There was so much support for Verno that Yahoo! Sports saw an opportunity. AM 730 will benefit from the network’s programming, and Verno will keep his afternoon slot. Congratulations to all involved with the show – looks like things have worked out and the station will be stronger than ever! More info about the change on Verno’s blog.

The Memphis Business Journal reports that the Riverfront Development Corporation is making changes to Beale Street Landing to meet budget. Among the changes: Planned concrete terraces will be changed to grass. Glad to see they’re finding a way to get this done, so we don’t have a half-finished project sitting on the Mississippi welcoming visitors.

APG Office Furnishings, in the ground floor of Barboro Flats, has its grand opening and ribbon cutting party from 5 to 7 tonight. Always good to see new businesses opening Downtown! Now if only a certain bar owner would hurry up and open his pizza joint in the other half of Barboro’s ground floor!

I get to attend a mandatory benefits meeting this afternoon. Woohoo. I’m trying to look at the positive side: Could be worse, at least it’s not a mandatory karaoke meeting. Getting my hair cut after work (when’s the last time I had a haircut? July I think?), then will be out at the bars.

If you’re a Grizzlies fan, this blog post by Flyer writer Chris Herrington is a must-read. It spells out what the changes to the NBA collecting bargaining agreement will mean to the Grizzlies. In short, the CBA seems to be a good thing for our team. It will better enable us to compete against large-market teams like the Lakers, Dallas and Miami who don’t mind spending to the sky.

Speaking of the Grizzlies, Kerry from the I Love Memphis Blog has a new project where people read Tony Allen’s tweets aloud. Grizz guard Allen has one of the best Twitter accounts in the city (follow him at @aa000g9). Tony is a happy-go-lucky guy who is more concerned with putting his stream of consciousness on Twitter than about things like capitalization and punctuation. He loves his life and shares it with his fans through his tweets.

There’s a Digital Copywriter position available at Downtown firm archer>malmo. Read the description here. I have several friends who work or have worked there, and without exception they have told me it’s a great place to be. Office is right in the middle of the Downtown core, where you’d be able to walk to places like Majestic Grille, Front Street Deli, Bardog, and City Market for lunch. Free Cokes? That’s a perk I’d love to have.

Just want to remind everyone that the Stumbling Santa Pub Crawl is three days away. If you plan on participating, better find yourself a Santa suit (Party City has them). You also need to pick out a toy to bring with you, to donate to Porter-Leath. Details of the stops on the crawl have not been made public yet, other than it will start at the Flying Saucer at 6:30 PM Saturday, December 3. Follow the Stumbling Santa event page on Facebook to see the list of stops once the organizers get it figured out. One word about the pub crawl – it’s best to bring cash to buy drinks. Big delays can happen at the bars when 250 people, all of whom look like Santa, all try to tab out via credit card at the same time.

If you can’t make the pub crawl but still want to donate a toy, I imagine you could probably drop it off at the Saucer during the day Saturday, and they’ll make sure it finds its way to Porter-Leath with the others.

There’s a Twitter interview with Cardinals outfielder Jon Jay at 2 PM today, presented by the Memphis Redbirds. To participate you need to follow @memphisredbirds and @jonjayU. If you have questions to ask, tweet them to @memphisredbirds with hashtag #twinterview.

Got unpaid parking tickets? Better get them cleared up within the next month. If an ordinance passes City Council next week – and it’s expected to – the city court clerk’s office will start booting cars with 3 or more unpaid parking tickets. If the booting and ticket fees aren’t paid within 48 hours, cars will be impounded. The license plate scanning boxes on top of MPD cars will be used to identify violators. The Flyer has more details here.

All right time for a quick lunch then an exciting afternoon creating web photo galleries. I’ll be out somewhere tonight, Saucer or Goose I would imagine.

If you wanted to own the Bardog hearse, but didn’t win it in the Halloween night raffle, you have a second chance. The hearse’s winner is selling it on eBay. It’s a 1987 Cadillac Brougham hearse. I know the owner personally and he’s an honest guy, so contact him if you have questions about it. Auction ends 5 days from now.

The Daily News had an excellent an excellent article on MemphisWeather.net and meterologist Erik Proseus yesterday. Eric has become my favorite Memphis weatherman because of his knack for explaining technical weather terms in layman’s language. On rainy/snowy days I keep an eye on StormView radar on MemphisWeather.net. His @MemphisWeather1 account is a good one to follow, and he also has apps for iPhone and Android.

Just a quick reminder that the Majestic Grille half-off gift card sale happens tomorrow starting at 8:30 AM. You have to buy them in person, and usually they sell out by about noon. If you can’t get down there tomorrow morning, better make arrangements for someone to buy the cards for you. This is one of Downtown’s best deals of the year.

Eastman & Beaudine has been named as the firm that will search for the next University of Memphis head coach. Here’s a link to their “What We Do” for Collegiate Sports page.

I had fun playing poker at the Goose last night, even though I didn’t win. Shout-out to eventual winner Josh, who had an excellent read on me last night. After playing fairly tight all evening, I shoved all my chips in after missing a flop. Josh correctly guessed I didn’t have anything and his lowly pair of Deuces held up to eliminate me. Well played sir! I love that new 7:30 game, because even if I win, I’m done by 10 and can get a full night’s sleep.

All right, off to lunch. Thinking Quizno’s today. If more news comes in, I’ll do a second post after work.

Today Kooky Canuck announced a new special: Two hours before Tigers men’s basketball home games, until two hours after the end, they will sell 34 oz. cold BLUE Bud Lights for $3.00. Pretty good deal. There’s a home game tonight at 7, so the special is happening now! Might want to get there early and eat too – great food!

BREAKING NEWS: R.C. Johnson is retiring at the end of the fiscal year! Best news for Memphis Tigers athletics in a long, long time!

Well, a wonderful four day weekend has come to an end. I prefer sitting at a bar to sitting in a cubicle, but being back at work is not a bad thing… got to make that money so I can write a check for December rent in three days!

I guess the first thing I’ll do is recap my Saturday night. Get ready for a shock… I LEFT DOWNTOWN MEMPHIS.

And get ready for a second shock… I went to a COUNTRY bar.

Yep, I was hanging at the Saucer with my friend Joe, and he said a group was going out to the Electric Cowboy off Sycamore View. Since I didn’t have plans, I figured, “why not,” and wandered over to Barton Flats to meet up with Joe and my friends Chad, Nikki, Mardoqueo, Robin and the Mad Hatter. Nikki lost a bet as a result of my showing up, and had to do a shot of tequila.

The club was actually very nice. Huge space, clean, reasonable beer prices, lots of pool tables. People were line dancing and two-stepping early on, but later in the evening it was mostly just regular dancing. I was impressed with Joe’s line dancing abilities; I did not dare get out there, since I don’t know any line dances. Was perfectly content to be a wallflower and drink beer. I checked in on Foursquare, which prompted a number of “what the hell?” reactions. Country music is not really my scene but it was a perfectly enjoyable Saturday night nonetheless. Thanks to the manager who came over and talked and told me all about the place. To steal a quote from Raiford, they made me feel more than welcome.

On to the news… Christine by Shelton Clothiers is closing. They will be closed Monday-Wednesday of this week, and then will open Thursday, December 1 with a 50% off sale. Good clothes buying and gift buying opportunity! By the way, men’s store Shelton Clothiers down the street is not closing, and in fact is still going strong.

Hollywood Disco at Main and Vance has been sold. They are getting rid of all the lighting, sound system, appliances, electronics and memorabilia to make room for the new owner’s plans. If you want to buy anything that was in Hollywood Disco, give Anthony a call at 901-692-7042.

The Tigers’ men’s basketball team hosts Jackson State tonight at the FedExForum. Game time is 7 PM. Go Tigers! That should produce a good crowd at Pint Nite before and after the game. Undecided whether I’ll stay at Pint Nite all night, or go next door to the Goose to play the 7:30 poker game.