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Downtowners look forward to June not only because it’s Tube Top Month, but also because it’s the beginning of the Orpheum’s summer movie series. Today I was walking down the Main Street Mall and saw this poster for the summer schedule and shot a pic:

As always, they’ve loaded up the schedule with classic movies. This year they have “chick flicks” as well, so ladies, this summer you can dress up in your finest tube tops and have Girls’ Night Out at the Orpheum.

In other news of note… Wendy’s now has strawberry-flavored Frostys.  Two locations Downtown, both with employees waiting to serve you a Frosty, and bums waiting to panhandle you for change in the parking lot.

I’m pleased to announce that I have selected my BFF of the Month for the month of June. There were several strong contenders. However, after much deliberation I have decided to name Suzy (see picture below) my BFF of the Month for June.

I ran into Suzy Friday night at Itta Bena, and she presented a compelling argument why she deserved to be my BFF of the Month. “I drink. I cuss. I won’t blow cigarette smoke in your face. And you know I can totally rock a tube top, which is important since June is Tube Top Month,” she told me.

“Well, okay,” I said. “But so far, you’re only running even with my former BFF who works at Big Foot. She can claim all those things. And she didn’t work out.”

Suzy continued, “I won’t expect you to buy me drinks… I’ll just expect you to have a drink with me once in a while. And I won’t be mean to you, or insult you, or hit you, or cuss you out.” Okay, now she had clearly established herself as a breed apart from my former BFF.  Then she pointed out once again how she can rock a tube top.  That is an important qualification for the month of June.

So, Suzy is my BFF of the Month this month.  For the other candidates who were in the running, there’s still hope… a new BFF of the Month will be named July 1.

Lunch break is almost over.  Time to hit Elliott’s to grab a burger to take back to work.

If you answered yes to both questions above, you might want to get on Facebook and become a fan of the Peabody rooftop.

It looks like the Peabody is getting into the social networking thing… their Facebook page has a “Downtown Meets Midtown – the Mixer” event for this Thursday, June 5, which is actually the weekly Thursday night Peabody rooftop party, featuring The Plaintiffs this week.  From what I read, it looks like if you become a Peabody rooftop fan, then post the event to your Events page, you won’t have to pay cover.

Also, there’s going to be a photo contest that kicks off June 19 at peabodyrooftop.com.  It will run throughout the summer, with the winner to receive a weekend stay at the Peabody with dinner and brunch.

Hmmm maybe this will get me going to the rooftop parties again… still haven’t been to one yet this year.  I do have to admit, it’s a great place to do some tube top watching.

BFF of the Month post still to come.

Found this story from a Texas newspaper about a Kerrville high school student who was barred from graduation because of a tube top.  Scheduled to graduate on a Friday, she went on a trip with classmates to an amusement park the afternoon before.  While on the roller coaster, the tube top she was wearing inadvertently came down and someone snapped a photo.  The photo was brought to her high school prinicpal’s attention the next morning, and he decided to refuse to let her walk at graduation.

More tube top-related news stories to come all through the month of June.  For those of you who only read the blog from work and therefore missed Sunday’s posts, Tube Top Month has begun.

The crawfish boil at Calhoun’s yesterday was pretty good.  The place got packed, and the bad weather that threatened all afternoon went to the south of Downtown Memphis.  They’re still taking name suggestions and I contributed “J.J.’s,” suggesting they name it after the guy who hangs around outside and asks for money.  How many bums have a bar named after them?  Not many, I would guess.

The high point of my evening, though, came at Huey’s, where the Dempseys took the stage at 8:30.  It was so much fun not simply because they were playing, but because people from out of town came in, just looking for a bite to eat, and discovered that they had stumbled upon one of the most fun bands ever.  Met a software salesman from Portland and gave him advice on where to go for live music on Monday night (pickins are slim; I told him to check out maybe Blues City and BB’s).  He ended up talking to the band for a long time on breaks – they had a lot in common, since the band is from nearby Tacoma, WA.  On the other side of me was a flight attendant from Atlanta.  She said she planned to come back with friends on a weekend off and do some blues dancing.  I recommended Ground Zero and Mr. Handy’s Blues Hall downtown, the Blue Worm on Airways, and most of all getting in touch with the NewVoBlues group for lessons, club recommendations, and people to go dancing with.

That was fun.  Hanging out, talking to tourists.  I haven’t done much of that lately.  Think I may start hanging at bars that attract somewhat of a touristy crowd but are still fun (Huey’s bar, maybe Silky’s when Barbara Blue is playing) and just talking to people.  Need a change of pace from the same old places.

Other notes about the Dempseys show:  They announced “the most boring song ever” and then played a song which consisted of the word “straitjacket” over and over and over and over and over again; they played Led Zep’s “Rock and Roll,” something of a departure from rockabilly, all the way through including a guitar solo by Brad; when they played the “cities, states, counties, and towns” medley, my hand gesture to “Rocky Top” made them laugh so hard that they almost didn’t make it through the song; there was a French line dancing group in town that danced to “All Shook Up” and a couple of other Elvis numbers.

BFF of the Month to be announced later today.

Friday night I stopped by Itta Bena, after being told there would be a “Sex and the City” party there. I’ve never seen the TV show and have no intention of ever seeing the movie, but something about the way the party was described to me (I think it was “drink specials”) made me want to go.

I guess I need to read Wikipedia’s page on Sex and the City and figure out what the hell this TV show/movie is all about and why girls like it so much. The drink specials were named after characters I had never heard of, like “Carrie” and “Samantha” and “Charlotte” and “Mr. Big.” They were, needless to say, fruity girlie drinks. I didn’t care though; they contained lots of alcohol and were cheap, and besides I hate regular martinis anyway (they taste like something you’d put in a car to make it run better) and prefer the flavored ones. Here’s a pic of me drinking one of the girlie martinis:

Awww, isn’t that cute? They even gave me a coaster for the fruity-ass girl martini, designed to look like a pink high-heeled shoe. I wanted to shoot myself drinking this thing. Had a conversation with my friend Suzy about high heeled shoes… “I forgot to wear my FMPs,” Suzy told me.

“FMPs? What are those?” I asked.

“F**k Me Pumps,” Suzy replied. “Haven’t you heard about them? It’s all about the shoes.”

“Maybe for women it is,” I told her. “Guys don’t care about shoes. After all, June is not ‘Shoe Month’ in my blog.”

I hate to admit it but that is a pretty good pic of me… maybe I’ll make it my new MySpace/Facebook profile pic.

Couple more pics from Friday night:

The streamer from the balloons obscured bartender Sam’s face in the shot above, so he insisted on re-shooting it:

Coming soon: A new people-watching game I dreamed up last night while watching Aquanet’s performance at the Saucer.

I will announce my BFF of the Month for June tomorrow, so be sure to check back. If candidates for BFF of the Month want to do any last-minute lobbying, they’d better do it today.

Skipping brunch today. I’m going to start doing that every once in a while, just to allow myself to stay out later on Saturday night without being sleep-deprived on Sunday morning (because I’m already sleep-deprived five days of the week as it is). No offense to the Blue Monkey, which was on the brunch crew’s agenda for today. Looks like we’re going to continue doing the 2-and-2, with the Monkey getting us for two weeks then the Majestic Grille getting us for two.

You know how was complaining about file imports at work last week? Had a large file that kept bombing when I tried to insert it into a database. Sat at the damn desk all week and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. So when did I figure out a solution to the problem… while sitting at the Saucer drinking a beer. I wasn’t even thinking about the problem and the idea popped into my head. I’m starting to think work should let me just take my laptop to the Saucer and Remote Desktop into my office computer. I have a lot more good ideas at bars than I do sitting in a desk chair.

On the agenda for today: Crawfish boil at Calhoun’s (opens at 3:30; boil starts at 4; only 100 lbs., so if you want crawfish, you better be there not long after 4). I pretty much have to be there, as I have an open tab from last night. Not that I’d miss it anyway. After that, the usual stop by the Saucer to see my waitresses, then on to Huey’s to catch the Dempseys. Show starts at 8:30, so I’ll try to get there by 7:45 so I have time to get a good seat and eat a burger before they start playing.

It’s June, and that means it’s time once again for Tube Top Month.  All month long, every blog post will either mention tube tops or contain a photo of someone in a tube top.  This is the fourth year for Tube Top Month here on the blog, and it tends to be a whole lot of fun, so check back often.

This does not mean tube tops will be the only topic blogged about during the month of June.  Rather, it simply means that every post will refer to tube tops in some way, no matter how irrelevant they are to the rest of the subject matter.

Tube Top Month is a public service of this blog.  We here at paulryburn.com/blog feel that the tube top is one of the greatest fashion items of all time, and it certainly deserves a month in its honor.  (Some people have suggested I dedicate the entire summer to tube tops, but that might be taking things a bit far.)  We want to do whatever we can to promote the purchasing and wearing of tube tops here in Memphis and around the world.  Just our way of helping to beautify our surroundings.

So show your support… head out to your favorite clothing store, or visit the Tube Top Boutique online, and pick up a few tube tops.  Don’t forget, if you see me out and you have a tube top on, ask me to take your picture (I always carry the camera with me) and you can be famous in the blog.

Happy Tube Top Month everyone!

On my Google homepage I have a widget called “Today’s reason to drink.”  Here’s what it says for today:

“Show your IT professional you care by buying him or her a drink. It’s IT Day!”

Have I ever mentioned that I work in IT?

Been out at Otherlands most of the afternoon, cussing up a storm as I tried unsuccessfully to add an Amazon.com search box to the right sidebar.  Their stupid “widgets” (different from Google’s widgets) won’t let me do it.  Sorry, I tried to make the blog more useful, but today just wasn’t my day.  I also made some changes to another site that I’ll wait ’til tomorrow to tell you about.

While out there, I perused the flyers that people had dropped off… one item of interest was that Memphis Roller Derby has moved locations.  They are now holding their matches at the fairgrounds’ youth building at 940 Early Maxwell.  So if you want to catch the ladies of roller derby in action, you no longer have to drive all the way to East Bumblefuck to do it.  That’s precisely the reason I haven’t gotten out to see them… glad they found a venue closer to home base.  Their next showdown is Saturday, June 7, Hustlin’ Rockers vs. Rockin’ Renegades, 7 PM, doors at 6, $10 to get in, kids $5.

Gonna do some more website work, then hit the Saucer at 9:30 for Aquanet.

So, last night I went to South Main Trolley Tour, where the South Main Association had a members-only party with free burgers and beer.  I thought to myself, “You know, it’s time I joined.”  The few SMA meetings I’ve been to have been great sources of information for the blog, and technically I do live on South Main (although just barely – I can walk from my building’s front door to North Main in about 20 seconds).  So I ponied up 25 bucks and became a member.

The meetings are once a month on Tuesday nights.  From now on, that means I’m going to be showing up late for trivia once a month so I can go to SMA.  It’s just too valuable an opportunity to get the latest news and to network.  The team will be fine without me, considering on a slow week we have 10 people show up to play.

The next SMA meeting will be Tuesday, June 10 at the Downtown Condo Connection in the 420 South Front building (suite 107).  The Center City Commission will speak on plans for Downtown redevelopment and the CCC’s new plan for retail, and will include presentations by Andy Kitsinger, Vice President of Planning and Development, and Lisa Brumleve, Manager of Business Recruitment and Retention.  With recent talks of re-opening the Main Street Mall to vehicle traffic, this should be a very informative meeting, as well as a chance for residents to talk with the CCC representatives and voice their opinions.  6:00 social, 6:30 meeting.  Also, the 420 South Front building is one of the finest condo redevelopments in South Main, with tons of character.  I have a couple of friends who live there, and if you haven’t seen it, you really should check it out.

More info on the meeting and upcoming events on the SMA website.

After Trolley Tour I hit Itta Bena for their Sex and the City party.  Details to come on that… I took some pics, but after reviewing the content of a couple of the photos, I decided it would be more appropriate to wait until tomorrow to post them.

I’ll be laptopping all afternoon, so possibly more posts to come today.  May also add some stuff to the left and right sidebars of the blog.

Thursday after work the crew and I decided to check out Ground Zero for their happy hour.  Domestic drafts on tap for 2 bucks 4-7 PM, 7 days a week.  Not bad at all.  I also had their “Dixie” chili cheeseburger with sweet potato fries, which was really good.

While there, I took out my new camera and snapped a few pics of the place, for the benefit of those of you who haven’t been by yet.  The place was relatively empty for happy hour, but it got busy by the time I left at 7:15.  The camera appears nearsighted in these shots – sharp up close, blurry far away.  Looks like I’ll have to figure out which of the 20 or so different picture modes on the camera is best for interior shots like these.  It was brand new so I just shot on “auto” mode for the initial round of photos.  A little blurry, but you can at least get an idea what the place looks like:

They did a good job of the place, making it feel like a nice restaurant while at the same time giving it the feel of an authentic juke joint.  Like Huey’s, you can write on the walls with markers.  Large, open dance floor right in front of the stage.  I had a good time there and bartender Angie took good care of us.  I doubt I’ll be there for happy hour every day, but it’s an alternative for days when the Saucer puts something nasty on Fire Sale.

More pics and posts to come today.  I have some stuff I need to get done on my laptop, so I’m considering getting in the car and driving out to a Wi-Fi coffee shop in Midtown, maybe Otherlands.

Okay, talked to my friend at Itta Bena and she e-mailed me the details of tonight’s Sex and the City party:

“The party is actually being sponsored by skyy vodka. Starts at 5pm and goes till we close! We have all kinda of cool trinkets.  And a  special Sex in the City drink menu, featuring the OH-SO-Famous Cosmo of course, and a Bunch of drinks named after all the characters in the show/movie. And the staff will be decked out in pink. should be fun… Sex in the City parties mean lots of ladies, which means  if your single and your looking or if you’re just looking’  its prob. a good ides to show up… :-)”

Itta Bena is located on the 3rd floor of BB King’s, entrance off Second St. (look for the valet parking stand).

I’ll probably do the South Main Trolley Tour then hit Itta Bena afterward.

Gotta go, extremely busy day at work.