Category: Uncategorized

Back from the Midtown crawfish fest.  It was all right, not the greatest festival ever but not the worst either.  I didn’t get crawfish, because they were charging $10 for the same size Styrofoam box of crawfish that the Flying Fish sells for $4.99.  I’ll wait for Rajun Cajun to get my crawfish.

Started out last night at the Saucer, and here’s the beer report.

Previous total:  $1,197.75

Beers 197, 198, and 199 by my count (but 190, 191, and 192 by the Saucer’s count):
Blanche de Bruxelles draft $4.75
Mendocino Red Tail Ale $6.00
(*)Irish Car Bomb $7.50
Tip:  $18.25 x ~30% = $5.00
Total:  $23.25

Grand total:  $1,221.00

Blanche de Bruxelles was a particularly good value for the money.  The (*) is to note that I didn’t actually pay for the car bomb – Air Traffic Mike bought it for me.  The $7.50 is for recording purposes only.

Today I start my “bonus beers” – bonuses for the Saucer, that is.  The second and third beers will begin the beers I should not have to drink because I should already be to 200, but will have to drink because the Saucer lost so damn many of my beer tickets.  I guess that’s what the managers refer to as “profit.”  They should give my BFF’s mini-me the Employee of the Month Award for losing as many of my tickets as all the other waitresses combined.  With 8 beers left to go by their count, that means I’ll finish number 200 on Monday, and on one day between now and then I only need to drink 2 plate beers.  My plan is to only do 2 tomorrow, as Dos Equis Special Lager is rumored to be the Fire Sale, and that’ll allow me to enjoy more Special Lager on Sunday and push an additional plate beer back to Monday for Pint Nite prices.

I also need to find out if my BFF really is banned for life from the Saucer, and if so see if I can get her un-banned so she can attend my plate party.  Usually “banned for life” lasts about a week in the case of former employees, so I doubt it’ll be a big deal.

After doing my 3 at the Saucer (plus a couple of Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat Fire Sales), I hopped the trolley, took it all the way north, and walked across the Auction bridge to the River Inn on Mud Island.  It really wasn’t a long walk at all.  Not counting the trolley ride it was probably no more of a walk than it is from my front door to the Saucer.  I also noticed Tug’s, the casual restaurant/neighborhood bar across the street on Harbor Town Drive.  I’ve been meaning to try that place for a while.  I would’ve stopped in, but all the bar seats were taken and and I was already running late besides.

So I headed up to the rooftop of the River Inn for my friend Kacy’s birthday party.  It was a little chilly but an elegant affair nonetheless.  Everyone was dressed well, but thank goodness, no ties.  I posed for a pic with Kacy and her friend Christina, both of whom were wearing tube top dresses.  As soon as she sends it to me, I’ll post it, and it will probably make a second appearance during Tube Top Month.

Hung out there until 10:30, met several people who read the blog.  Then Kacy announced a venue change to Swig.  I told her I’d catch up in a little while.  With Tug’s so close, I couldn’t resist the chance to check it out.

This time I got a seat at the bar.  They have two long bars, with every bar seat in view of a large HDTV.  The bartender was someone I knew (she used to work at McGuinness), so things were off to a good start.  I counted the bar seats – there were 22 of them, lots of room to camp out.  The decor reminded me a little of Fox and Hound, and while that may sound like a slam on the place it’s not – it’s the crowd at the Cordova Fox and Hound that sucks, not the place itself.  Bar menu was reasonably priced.  Didn’t get a look at their full food menu.  I had a pint of Blue Moon, which was $4.75, slightly high but still acceptable.  At least they don’t charge $5.50 for a pint of Blue Moon like the Westin does.

Overall I liked the place and will go back.  Probably won’t go back much, though, since there are so many places I like in the Downtown core that are more convenient to get to.  But if someone who lived on the Island wanted me to meet them for a drink there, I’d have no problem with it.  Mud Island now has a locals’ bar, which is one of the things I always thought it was missing.

Walked back across the Auction bridge, and as I did I realized I really wasn’t feeling a late night of partying, not after staying up extremely late several weeknights.  So I decided to head home.  There was no trolley in sight going my way (it figures), so I started walking.  Stopped in Westy’s for Paul’s Drunkass Food (one of the wild rice dishes, with shrimp and mushrooms), then went home and went to bed.  Hated not to be there to party with Kacy, but I knew if I stayed out late I’d wake up cranky and put off doing my taxes.

…and that’s the Friday recap.  Time to go out and start gathering information for the Saturday recap.

Tuesday is April 15, an important date for two reasons:

1. It means there is only a month and a half remaining until Tube Top Month; and
2. It’s the 2007 income tax filing deadline.

So, it’s time to do my taxes.  This year I’m really not messing around.  I worked as a self-employed consultant for part of 2007, and even when I was a full-time employee I spent a significant amount of my free time doing affiliate marketing sites that produced income.  That means I’m entitled to write off a number of business expenses, including my Internet access, a portion of my cell phone bill, my hosting bills, books I bought that were related to my profession, and a portion of my rent for the months when I worked from home.  In past years I haven’t done that and it was just plain stupid of me.  It was like handing the U.S. Government a multi-thousand-dollar check.  This year, I’ve decided that it’s my money and I want it back.  People often don’t claim everything they could because they’re afraid of being audited.  But you know what?  I have a receipt for everything I plan to claim, and if the IRS wants to audit me, fine.  They’re in the same building as my office, so I won’t have far to travel if it happens.

Gmail is great for finding business expenses.  I use my paul@paulryburn.com address as my main e-mail address, but for the past year it’s been nothing but a forward to my Gmail account.  Gmail is so superior to Outlook, Thunderbird, or any other stand-alone e-mail client that I’ve seen that I’d rather just funnel my domain e-mail there.  So this morning I got on the search feature and searched for “receipt,” “order confirmation,” and “payment,” and found about $1,500 worth of business expenses I would have otherwise missed.

I’m going to pay for TurboTax’s online home and business edition, and get this thing filed and over with.  Then I’m going to head to Midtown for the Overton Square crawfish fest.  People have e-mailed me asking for details, so here ya go:  It’s noon to 6 today, in that huge parking lot behind the old TGI Friday’s building.  Take Cooper to Monroe and you’ll see it.

Last night I was talking to a blog reader who brought up an interesting point:  Maybe I should pay for a Swamp pass for Rajun Cajun Crawfish fest, the other (and better) crawfish fest which will be held Downtown next Sunday, April 20.  The Swamp is a VIP area with all-you-can-eat crawfish and other cajun food, and all-you-can-drink beer, soft drinks, and water.  I’m glad to mention it on the blog, but at $45 I never seriously considered buying a pass to the Swamp.

But thinking about my expenses at the festival, maybe I should.  I’m not going to use last year as a guideline, because I made a lot of side trips to a nearby rooftop and to the Saucer.  At the 2006 festival, I ate a bucket of crawfish and drank 7 beers.  At $15 a bucket and $4 a beer, that’s $43, nearly the cost of a Swamp pass.  Also, there are no lines in the Swamp, and not having to stand in the long, long, long lines at Rajun Cajun is easily worth $2 more.  Hmmm maybe I should do it.  I’ll think about it this weekend, and decide Monday.  Rajun Cajun is my third favorite festival of the year, behind Cooper-Young and BBQ Fest.

Hmmm… another reason why maybe I should get the Swamp pass… there will be people from Porter-Leath there, one of the most worthy charities in town.  I’d like the chance to get to talk to them and find out more about what they do and how Memphians can help.  I’d probably get a good blog post out of it.

Back later today, with a recap of last night (got to hang out on the rooftop of the River Inn at Harbor Town, and I finally got to try Tug’s, the new bar on Mud Island.  I’ll have a beer report as well.  Right now though, it’s time to pay Uncle Sam, or rather, it’s time for Uncle Sam to pay me.

Being a big fan of Hawaiian shirts, I can’t resist linking to Midtown Ryan’s blog post about the current exhibit at Memphis College of Art.  It’s called “Vintage Hawaiian:  The John McIntire Aloha Shirt Collection” and features 700 shirts McIntire has collected over the last 50 years.  The shirts are not only on display, they’re on sale.

Hmmm… maybe I’ll take the car to Midtown Crawfish Fest tomorrow and stop at MCA on the way there and take a look.  Al Gamble’s band is playing the crawfish fest, and I’ve been meaning to check them out because his wife is VP of Marketing at my company.  On the downside, if I drive my car, that means no beer.  But that’s OK I guess, because there will be beer aplenty to drink once I return Downtown.

Looking forward to hopefully buying a few new Hawaiian shirts to wear to work.  Heh… maybe one day MCA will have an exhibit called “Really Boring Red, Gray, and Black” and people who work at AutoZone will be able to purchase work clothes.

Several people have e-mailed me asking for the new security/public safety patrol’s phone number.  It’s (901)281-9146.

Please keep in mind that for right now, the patrol’s coverage area only extends from Front to Second, from Adams on the north to Linden on the south.  Streets outside that area may be covered later if the 3-month pilot program is extended, but are not included during this initial testing phase.  Patrol runs from 8 AM – 9 PM Sun-Wed and 8 AM – 11 PM Thur-Sat.

Please consider adding this number to your cell phone’s contacts.  I’d especially like to ask for your help reporting panhandlers who run parking scams in the Peabody Place/Beale/Front/Second area.  If you see them standing by an unattended metered spot, you know why they’re there.  Just call the security patrol, give as good a description as possible, and they’ll likely be there in 2 minutes.  We’ve all got to work together to run these hustlers out of that area, so that people who visit Downtown can safely exit and enter their cars without being hit up for money.

It’s Thursday night party season once again. Here’s a list of stuff that’s going on tonight that I’ve heard about:

• Dash Rip Rock at the Peabody rooftop, 6-10 PM, $5 cover.
• Amy LaVere at the Madison rooftop, 5:30-10 PM, $7 cover I believe.
• Garry Goin and G3 at EP Delta Kitchen patio party
• Gabby Johnson at the Flying Saucer, 9:30, $3 cover.
• Mudflap Kings play “Rock Out With Your Cock Out” night at the Red Rooster. Not sure what the cover is, in the $6-7 range I think. $1.50/$2.50 discount prices on draft beer.
• Itta Bena on the 3rd floor of BB King’s will be open for those who want to have a mellow place to hang out, talk, and drink after the rooftop parties.
• Bimbos who want free drinks and horny wannabe pick-up artists at Atlas, the club inside Jillian’s

For those of you who haven’t been to the rooftop parties, the Peabody is younger, wilder and bigger; the Madison is older, smaller, and more relaxed. I’m in my thirties, and most weeks am in the oldest 25% of the Peabody crowd and in the youngest 25% of the Madison crowd, if that gives you an idea. I had a lot of fun at EP’s Thursday parties last year and they attracted a diverse crowd. After the rooftop parties end, highest recommendations for the Rooster if you want to party, Itta Bena if you want to chill, and Hoop’s Bar if you want something in between.

The party season is definitely in high gear… I have 4 private parties to go to in the next 8 days. Just shot out an invite to the first of the 4 to my trivia team’s list and had a “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus” moment. The hostess asked for cocktail attire, and the guys on the list were like, “Cocktail attire? That sucks!” and the girls were like, “Come on, it’ll be something fun and different, we don’t have to put on jeans and go to a bar every night.” Really, I don’t have a problem with it. As long as they don’t ask me to wear a tie. I only wear ties to job interviews and funerals. Wait, scratch that, just job interviews. And I like my current company so hopefully I’m done with job interviews. (Edit: Yikes, I just looked it up. Looks like “cocktail attire” means a suit according to definitions on several sites. Hmmm, this puts my attendance in question.) (Edit 2: Okay, read through the sites some more and most of them say “suit, tie optional.”  That I could probably live with.)

In addition to the private parties, I have two crawfish fests to attend in the next 10 days, as well as the usual brunch (Majestic week 1) and Sunday Fun Day and Tuesday trivia. Full calendar. Reminds me, I got an e-mail from Porter-Leath saying there are still tickets available for The Swamp for the Rajun Cajun Crawfish Fest on Sunday, April 20. The Swamp is a VIP area and your $45 ticket gets you all-you-can-eat crawfish, beer, soft drinks, and water in your own private, shaded area with no lines. Couples tickets are $80. To buy them call Emily at 577-2500 or e-mail eketner@porterleath.org.

Plans for tonight: I had fun at Itta Bena last night, so I’ll probably start there. Then the Saucer to do my plate beers, then probably “Rock Out With Your Cock Out” night at the Red Rooster. Not going to the Peabody party tonight since it looks like rain and they’ll move it indoors. Plans are subject to change though. If my BFF is working at her new bar, she’ll probably text every mutual friend of ours and ask them to mention to me that she’s working. But she’ll ask them to do it in a way that makes it sound like she hates me, e.g., “Are you going to go annoy your BFF tonight?” Geez. Like she can’t just text me “Hey, I’m working, come visit” like a normal person would do. Or even better, “Hey, I’m working, if you come visit I’ll buy your first drink.”

Time to pick up to-go food from somewhere and head back to the office.

It looks like Tigers parade I mentioned in the previous post won’t happen.  Several Tigers had previous plans to visit their families this weekend, with the season over.  Some of them haven’t seen their families since September.  It’s understandable.  Parade has been postponed with no makeup date in sight.  Shame we won’t get to give the Tigers their very-much-earned appreciation and respect, though.

Started at Itta Bena tonight for the Wednesday Downtown night.  The free appetizer was crab dip and it was excellent as always.  I ordered shrimp scampi off the menu and it was superb.  And, of course, $5 well drinks on Downtown Night from 5-8.  $5 not may sound like a bargain at first glance, but Itta Bena’s wells are better than most bars’ calls (e.g. Absolut is considered a well vodka there).

Great time at Itta Bena as always.  They will see me again soon, perhaps within 24 hours.

After that, I took a walk down the part of Beale on which cars are allowed.  Noticed that EP’s is doing a happy hour now, offering half-price appetizers and drink specials from 4:30-6:30.  REALLY?  Half-price Not-Yo-Crawfish (crawfish nachos with sweet potato chips)?  EP’s may start seeing me hours earlier than usual.

Watched the new security patrol chase off a bum.  They are great.  They got him to admit he had been parking cars and selling free magazines in recent days.  What an idiot.  I took a second loop around Beale and he reappeared, and would you believe he was standing next to an unoccupied metered parking space.  Wonder what he was doing there?  Actually, I asked him, and he says he helps out the carriage drivers, and needed to have a good view of the carriages.  The nearest carriage was a block away.  I ran him off.  He said, “I’m going to tell a whole bunch of guys you’re the one who has been calling the security patrols on us.”  I may have to start carrying mace.

From there it was on to the Saucer.  Ran into a friend of mine who celebrated her birthday today.  She told me she had been taken to dinner at Grill 83.  They asked if they could have a couple of drinks before dinner on the rooftop, and the staff said sure.  They then came back down for dinner about 9.  The staff started stacking chairs on nearby tables while my friends ate dinner.  They were the only ones in the restaurant, but Grill 83’s posted closing time is 11.  That’s pretty unprofessional.  I could put up with that at Taco Bell.  When I have a three-digit tab, not so much.

Beer report:

Previous total:  $1,141.00

Beers 191, 192 and 193 by my count (184, 185 and 186 according to the Saucer):
Weihenstephaner Hefe-Weizen bottle $7.00
Rochefort 6 (they were out of the 8 and 10) $12.00
Westmalle Dubbel (they were out of the Tripel) $10.00
Tip:  $29.00 x ~ 30% = $10.00
Total:  $39.00

Grand total:  $1,180.00

Monday will be my 200th beer (Saucer count) and will be REAL glad to be done.  I’m tired of having to go there every day.  Never in recent memory have other bars had such a good chance at stealing away my drinking dollars.

Thanks to Otto who installed various WordPress plugins today to make this blog run a lot better and load a lot faster.  Otto was one of the main people who contributed to the WP 2.5 codebase.  Although, I do have to take exception to his “branch out, folks” comment in a recent post.  Yes, I go to the Saucer a lot, but since last Wednesday I’ve also been to Itta Bena (4 times), Big Foot Lodge (3 times), Calhoun’s (twice), Red Rooster (twice), McGuinness (twice), and Hoop’s Bar (once).  All of those places, plus the Downtown Monkey if it EVER opens, are in position to steal away my drinking $ as mentioned in the previous paragraph.

I actually made it all the way through a drunk post.  And it seems to make logical sense and basically be grammatically correct (yes, Skippy, I understand the irony of saying that within a sentence starting with a conjunction).  Yay me.  Time for bed now.

(Edit:  My contact at the U of M is now sending me word that this may have been cancelled.  Will post more details as I learn them.)

A reader just sent me this and I wanted to pass it along.  It’s a letter from U of M president Shirley Raines to the University community:

“Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:
 
We are very proud of the Men’s Basketball Team of the University of Memphis for their historic appearance in the final game of the 2008 Final Four.  Thank you for the thrills of the season and for the most wins of any basketball team in the NCAA!  We know your victories renewed the spirit and the enthusiasm for our University and for our city.
 
To the student-athletes, Coach Calipari and the coaching staff, thank you for the “team” you created by playing together, for capturing the hearts of many with your unselfish play, and for the magnificent feat of competing in the final game of the Final Four.  We are very proud of you!
 
To everyone on campus, we appreciate your extra efforts to hold the pep rallies, the watch parties, create the decorations and banners and find numerous ways to show your Tiger pride.  To the UofM Alumni Association, thank you for organizing events in all of the cities along the road to the Final Four, as well as watch parties throughout the United States and several countries.
 
Now that we have the nation’s attention, it is our hope that future students will visit the University of Memphis on our website and in person.  As Coach Cal said in numerous media interviews, he was drawn to the University because of the beauty of our campus, but he has now learned about the greatness of our programs.
 
Come join us to celebrate with the Tigers with the parade in downtown Memphis at 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening, culminating on the steps of the FedEx Forum.  More details on the parade will be placed on our website.
 
Sincerely,
Shirley Raines”

I mentioned in this morning’s post that WordPress 2.5 was kind of screwing up.  I know one of the people who contributed to the WP 2.5 codebase and am going to have him take a look.  It’s possible this blog may look funny or even disappear for a little while, as he investigates.  Don’t worry, if that happens it’s very temporary.

Here’s a poster for the Africa Center Stage performance happening at 11:45 on the Civic Center Plaza (unless it’s still raining):

As I was walking to the Saucer last night, I decided to make a loop around Beale and see if there were any bums running parking scams.  Sure enough, there was one standing by a meter across from the Orpheum.  Metered parking is free after 6, but as a couple pulled in, he told them, “This here lot charges $10 to park (gesturing to the lot on the other side of the sidewalk).  Can I have $10?”

I told the couple not to pay him, then said to him, “You’re about to make some new friends,” then called the Downtown security patrol number.  2 minutes later they arrived on bike and chased him off.  The new security patrol is great.  “Call us a lot,” they told me.  I have a feeling that will happen.

The Rapscallions took second at trivia, bringing our gift certificate total to $375.  While there, Otto told me about a funny website called Garfield Minus Garfield.  It’s the original Garfield comic strips with Garfield removed – really, with everything removed but Jon.  So it’s basically Jon talking to himself, which makes him look like a complete nut case.  Whoever came up with this idea has a twisted sense of humor.  I like it.

Next up was a visit to Calhoun’s, to see Best Pool Partner Ever Lauren.  Max the owner brought me behind the bar to show me the Bad Beer Cabinet:

That’s a keg of PBR, random cans of Old Style, and a case of Busch Light.  Ah, memories of college.

Calhoun’s ended up closing down early so Max could do beer research.  I rode with Lauren and Itta Bena bartender Sam to McGuinness, where Max met up with us and I helped him research Woodchuck Cider.  Then I decided it was time to get some sleep.  So I started the walk up Second toward home, but I encountered EP’s chef Michael Patrick leaving Big Foot with take-out food.  We talked about bums for a few minutes, then he told me, “Your BFF is in there at the bar.”  Oh, REALLY?  I decided I had time for one more beer.

So I went in, and sure enough, she was at the bar drinking with her roommate.  You know, I’ll say this, my BFF may be an industrial-grade pain in the ass, but she does have cute roommates.  We hurled our usual insults at each other, and I decided to give her an opportunity.  I handed her a piece of paper.  “Write whatever you want,” I told her, “and I’ll take a photo of it and blog it.”  So she took out a pen.  This is what she came up with:

I know the pic is a little fuzzy… the camera has trouble with document mode in dim light.  In case you can’t read it, it says, “PAUL = (equals) DOUCHE BAG.”  It’s nice that she put “equals” in parentheses for those of us who never made it past first-grade math and don’t know what “=” means.  And seriously, I gave her open season on me and that’s the best she can do?  What a loser.

Beer report:

Previous total:  $1,123.25

Beers 188, 189, and 190 by my count (181, 182, and 183 by the Saucer’s count):
Carlsberg $4.75
Heineken $4.50
Avery Ellie’s Brown Ale $4.50
Tip:  $13.75 x ~30% = $4.00
Total:  $17.75

Grand total:  $1,141.00

I’m not totally happy with WordPress 2.5.  It lets me do bulk uploading of images, which would’ve been really nice for this post, since there were 3 images… except it sits there and says “crunching” for 10 minutes.  It thinks it’s doing me a favor by compressing the images, I guess.  Really, I have close to unlimited server space and don’t care if the images are compressed or not… on the other hand, I do care about them hitting the server and getting onto my blog in a timely fashion.  Worse, once the images were uploaded to the media gallery, I couldn’t pull them onto my post because I got a Javascript error.  I had to go in and figure out the URLs to the images and manually link to them.  That’s really annoying to have to do that.  Also, I couldn’t center-align two of the images in the editor and had to edit the HTML to get it done.  That’s not a problem for me, but what about the thousands of WordPress users who don’t know HTML?  This thing should’ve stayed in beta testing a while longer.  Perhaps I’ll be able to mess with the settings and improve its performance.  If things don’t get better, though, I may downgrade to 2.3.3 until they test 2.5 a little better.

All right, time to go earn some money.  Plans for this evening:  Downtown Night at Itta Bena around 5:30, followed by a move to the Saucer to do my plate beers 7:30-8ish.

A reader e-mailed to contribute her two cents’ worth on the discussion whether chicken and waffles is a Southern dish.  Here’s what she had to say:

” Hi Paul!

I recently read your blog about Chicken and waffles and I must put in my two cents that you were infact correct the first time in your belief that chicken and waffles are NOT southern. If you will look at your wikipedia source that claims chicken and waffles became a favorite among African americans in the south you will see that that article is from los angeles and it is quoting a man from compton! In that same wikipedia source you will see that anothe source says chicken and waffles was not included in original southern soul food cookbooks! The very first soul food cookbook infact written by a slave makes no mention of it!

I have a lot of family in the south and I was born in Charleston SC. Since then I have lived in many different places around the world and I have always wanted to keep my love for Soul food. The chicken and waffles thing has always gotten to me because I don’t ever remember even hearing about it and most of the people I know in the south first heard of it when Roscoe’s opened up in Georgia. As far as people can tell it started in Harlem so it would not be a southern dish!

I just thought I would put my two cents in incase you cared for your blog!”

In other news:  If the blog gave you errors or looked funny the last time you checked it, it’s because I’ve been upgrading to WordPress 2.5.  I hear it’s pretty cool.  Uploading of multiple images at once will certainly save me time on some of my photo posts.

Off to the Saucer in a little while to kick ass at trivia.  I printed out 20 more scorecards for the Window Game and will leave them in the drawer where they keep the extra pool balls and chalk.

After the Saucer, I’ll head to Calhoun’s.