Paul Ryburn's Journal

Days away from the start of SEC football season, this notification popped up on my phone:

Just so @Paulryburn knows- I have TWO LSU tube tops and I am officially ready for football season to start.

— meghugs (@meghugs) August 27, 2014

If you want me to give up my love for the Arkansas Razorbacks and start cheering for LSU, this is the way to do it.

Tonight is the final regular season home game for the Redbirds, and they have several activities planned. A magnet listing the 2015 season schedule will be given to all attendees, and all attendees will also receive a voucher good for any 2015 regular season home game, excluding fireworks dates. Also, the date of the 2015 exhibition game against the St. Louis Cardinals will be announced. It will also be Fan Appreciation Night with giveaways every inning. First pitch is at 7:05.

(Edit: I had info here about the Beale Street cover charge here, but people from other bars are telling me it’s inaccurate, so I have removed it.)

If you plan to be outdoors at the Tiger football game or the Memphis Music & Heritage Festival this weekend, you might want to bring a rain jacket or disposable poncho. The MemphisWeather.net blog says this weekend may bring the best chances of widespread rain to the area in over a month, as tropical moisture that could become a short-lived tropical depression flows north from the Gulf of Mexico.

Beale Street Landing is launching Free Friday Flicks, a free movie series at the landing every Friday from August 29 to October 17. Riverfront Bar & Grill and Parker’s Concessions food truck will sell food and beverages. No outside coolers or picnic baskets will be allowed. This Friday’s film is Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Cheap flight alert: If anyone in Memphis needs to fly to Washington DC, Frontier has a flight for $14 on Monday, September 8. (Credit @JosephMiner for tweeting this)

Fun Twitter account I discovered yesterday: I am a bear

I’ll start off at Jessica’s bar at the Silly Goose after work for happy hour today. Perhaps later I will engage in Facebook banter with someone who consistently bests me puts her superiority complex on display for all to see. Right now, time to hit Publish, grab a quick bite of lunch, and get back to work.

The Downtown Local location is doing a SweetWater beer dinner next Tuesday, September 2. It will be a four-course dinner, each course paired with beer. It begins at 7 PM. Tickets are $35. Check the Facebook event listing for more information about the dinner and how to purchase tickets.

Ten Feet off Beale has a recap of last Sunday’s Downtown-Midtown sandlot baseball game.

Bands for Best Memphis Burger Fest have been announced: Seeing Red and Raymond’s Last Day. There are still a few competition spots left, so fill out an application if interested. The event is Sunday, September 21 on the Minglewood Hall parking lot.

The Peabody is holding a 145th anniversary dinner Thursday, September 4 at 6 PM. To salute the past, they are bringing back three former Chez Philippe executive chefs for the dinner: Jose Gutierrez (1982-2005), Reinaldo Alfonso (2005-2011), and Jason Dallas (2011-2012). These three men will work alongside current Executive Chef Andreas Kisler and Executive Pastry Chef Konrad Spitzbart. Tickets are $85 and there is an optional wine pairing. 901-529-4188 to make reservations. Here’s a link to the menu for the dinner.

CBSSports.com put together a fun list. It ranked all 128 FBS head coaches by their playing career, rather than their coaching career. Two Mid-South coaches ranked high on the list: Memphis’ Justin Fuente at 18, and Arkansas’ Bret Bielema at 14. Number 1 was Steve Spurrier of South Carolina, the only Heisman winner on the list.

Pro wrestling fans: Legendary manager Jim Cornette appeared on local radio show MemphiSport Live last weekend.

That’s all, going out for beer, back tomorrow.

The Center for Southern Folklore has posted the schedule for this weekend’s Memphis Music & Heritage Festival on the center’s home page. This Saturday-Sunday festival features nearly 100 acts on five stages, as well as cooking demos and more. It happens on the Main Street Mall between Union and Peabody Place, as well as in the Center’s Folklore Store and Folklore Hall. It’s free to attend. This is one of my favorite festivals of the year.

The Orpheum has announced Cirque Dreams Holidaze for December 26, 27, and 28. It’s a cirque-style event, Broadway musical, holiday spectacular and family show all in one, with over 300 costumes, 20 acts, and 30 performers. Tickets go on sale September 5.

Hattiesburg, Mississippi’s Southern Prohibition Brewery is launching its products in Memphis Thursday, and what better place to do it than Blind Bear Speakeasy? There will be a launch party that night with blackjack, a gangster/flapper costume contest, and more. Here are the details:

The MBJ has more information on Southern Prohibition’s debut in Memphis. The brewery’s beers will be available at Central BBQ and Flying Saucer as well, and the brewery will be at the Cooper-Young Regional Beerfest in October.

The Flying Saucer’s “Pigskin Pickin'” event for its UFO members is this Saturday at 1. Celebrate the beginning of college football with a whole pig and complimentary beer. Here are the details:

If you’re not a UFO Club member, you can join before or at the event. I think the fee is $18 and you get a T-shirt.

Billy Orgel’s developers are staying quiet on the subject of what will be done with the Tennessee Brewery during the 90-day due diligence period prior to the sale’s closing. However, one thing is for sure: There will not be another Brewery Untapped event in the building.

Tom Shelton’s Pink Pig Apparel brand is back online. You can purchase polos, T-shirts, and hats.

There is easily enough news for a second post today, so check back this evening for more.

Monday is certainly living up to its reputation. After a fine weekend Downtown, I walked out to the parking garage this morning to find my left front tire almost flat. I had put air in the tire Friday and had suspected it may have had a leak. I was right. The tire still had enough air in it for me to get the car to Firestone at 1055 Madison, right before I-240. They were fast! I was in and out in thirty minutes. They open at 6:30 on weekdays, so if I had known the tire was flat I could have got in there and got it fixed and made it to work on time. I would recommend them for sure.

Saturday was a better day. I was sitting at the bar at the Blind Bear mid-afternoon, and not one, not two, but three people told me they moved Downtown because of my blog. I love hearing that. It means that my blog has served its purpose and has made people aware of what a fun neighborhood I live in. You know, sometime I’d like to sit down and interview people who moved Downtown because of this blog – figure out who they are, what they do, and what specifically I said in this blog that influenced their decision. If anyone would be interested shoot me an email. paul@paulryburn,com

Pretty cool event happening at Kudzu’s tonight: Paint Nite. Here’s the description from the website: “Join Kudzu’s in their 2nd Paint Nite Event! Experience what drinking creatively is all about. Grab a drink. Grab a brush and get paint wasted we us! Paint Nite provides all materials. We take you step-by-step on how to create your very own masterpiece.This is not your average ‘Night-Out’;. Paint Nite is the New Night Out! Don’t be the one hearing about it, be the talking about it.” For those who have never been to Kudzu’s before, it’s on Monroe Avenue a couple of blocks east of the ballpark.

As of this morning 295 more pre-orders were needed to make the Memphis Grizzlies license plate a reality.

Wrestling fans: The legendary announcing team of Lance Russell and Dave Brown will reunite for the September 18 Memphis Wildfire Wrestling show at Minglewood Hall.

For my fellow Arkansas Razorback fans: Here’s a great article about head football coach Bret Bielema and the challenges he faces given the history of Arkansas football the past 10 years.

Speaking of Arkansas: Quarterback Brandon Allen’s truck was set on fire early this morning and arson is suspected.

That’s it for now. I’ll be out at Bardog for happy hour with Melissa after work.

We now know who has the contract to purchase the Tennessee Brewery, saving it from demolition this summer. The CA reports that cell tower developer Billy Orgel has the contract. As of yet it is not known what Mr. Orgel plans to do with the building.

Huge night at the Redbirds tonight for their 6:05 game against the Sacramento River Cats (gates at AutoZone Park open at 5). It will be a fireworks night, the last of the season. The fireworks will be set to superhero-themed music, because it is also Superhero & Comic Night. The Redbirds invite fans to come to the game dressed as their favorite superhero or comic character. Select players will sign autographs in the plaza from 5 to 5:30 – remember, these guys are only one step away from the big leagues, so you might very well be getting your merchandise signed by the All-Stars of tomorrow. There will be baby races as well.

The first concert in the River Series at Harbor Town Amphitheater is tonight.  Doors will open at 6 PM with the Memphis Dawls taking the stage at 7 and Robby Grant at 8. This is the first of three fall concerts at the amphitheater. A minimum $5 donation for the Maria Montessori School is requested. There will be food by Miss Cordelia’s and you are welcome to bring a cooler as well. The amphitheater is across from Miss Cordelia’s and behind the Montessori school.

The organizers of Food Truck Fridays at Emerge Memphis wanted to express their apologies to anyone who came by yesterday. There was a miscommunication with the food truck and it never made it down. Food Truck Friday will be back this coming Friday with the Mark’s Grill food truck at Emerge Memphis, Tennessee Street at G.E. Patterson, for lunch from 11 to 2.

The Orpheum Art Sale happens today at 1.  Your $10 ticket gets you the chance to buy art by the Memphis area’s top artists, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and live music. Artists receive 75% of sales with the remaining 25% going toward the Orpheum’s new Centre for Performing Arts and Education.

I need to write a blog post on how to motivate me to do something. Some people get it, some people don’t.

Time to head to Panda’s bar at Bardog for Saturday day drinking. Plans for later TBD.

I’d like to start off today’s post by apologizing to Start Co. and their startup founders for leaving the Demo Day after-party so early. I had planned to hang out and network with the entrepreneurs until at least midnight. That didn’t happen and I was out before 10 with an upset stomach.

Here’s what happened: Between Demo Day and the after-party, there was a cocktail hour at the Silly Goose. That’s normally where I’d be anyway on a Thursday evening, so I attended the cocktail hour. People from Start Co. came over and handed me three green tickets. “What are these for?” I asked.

“Each one will get you any drink you want here,” they replied.

“Anything?” I asked.

“Anything.”

Now, the Silly Goose is one of my neighborhood spots where I spend time with friends and drink cans of PBR. However, the Goose is also one of the best cocktail bars in the city, with a menu of hand-crafted cocktails. If I could trade a green ticket for anything I wanted, I damn sure wasn’t going to waste it on a domestic beer. “Make me your favorite drink from the cocktail menu,” I asked Jessica. “… that isn’t too girly, and that you think I would like.” She brought me a mojito. It was absolutely delicious, so I cashed in my remaining two tickets on mojitos as well.

Well, here’s the thing. I drink beer. I do shots, mainly Fireball. However, I almost never drink mixed drinks. It had probably been more than a year since I had more than one mixed drink back-to-back. My stomach couldn’t handle three successive mojitos. By the time I walked over to the after-party at 9, I wasn’t feeling well. By 9:45 I had to give up and go home.

The after-party venue, The Bradford at the Deluxe Arcade, was a beautiful space. I had never even heard of this venue until recently. It’s at 10 North Second, a block north of Paula & Raiford’s Disco. It was big enough for Start Co. to have two bars and two DJs. It can hold 300+ people and has 3000 square feet of space. It is a classy, elegant setting that I would recommend for parties and wedding receptions.

While at the Silly Goose I got to talk to one of the founders of Boosterville, a new mobile payment platform. It saves retailers 50-80% of fees that would go to credit card merchant services, charging a fee of only 1%. In addition, Boosterville allows merchants to offer a loyalty program, and Boosterville is cause-driven, donating a percentage of fees to local charities. I once worked in credit card merchant services, and I can tell you the status quo in that industry is a dinosaur. Nice to see a Start Co. startup working to make the dinosaur extinct.

The Daily News has a complete list of businesses that graduated from Start Co.’s accelerators.

Tonight is the weekly free Memphis Jams series at Handy Park at Third and Beale, kicking off at 6:30. This week’s live music will be Neosoulville presents an Isaac Hayes celebration,

Casablanca will be shown on the big screen at the Orpheum tonight at 7 PM. Come early for themed cocktails and movie-related activities.

Double J Smokehouse and Saloon will host an SEC kickoff party tomorrow from noon until 6. There will be drink specials and game day food specials. Wear your game day attire and look for your team’s tent station. Tickets are $10 plus an 89 cent fee, $5 of which goes to local charities. Your ticket gets you a wristband and two drink tickets.

That’s all for now. The last weekend before college football and fall festival season begins is almost here. I still have no definite plans, but I’m sure I will be out and about Downtown.

With the Memphis Redbirds trailing the Nashville Sounds by only half a game in the PCL American Southern Division, AutoZone Park is betting on the ‘birds overtaking the Sounds. Playoff tickets will go on sale at 10 AM Saturday. If the Redbirds win the division, they will potentially host Game 3 of the Pacific Coast League American Conference Championship on Friday, September 5 and if necessary, Games 4 and 5. Call (901) 721-6000 or go to the AutoZone Park box office to get your tickets.

If you used a credit or debit card at the UPS Store at 1138 North Germantown Parkway between January and August of this year, thieves may have your card info and you need to take steps to protect yourself.

Oshi, the new burger bar on Main Street that is across the street from Local Gastropub and is owned by the same people who own Local, will open soon and is hiring for all positions. Apply between 2 and 4 PM at Local on the Square (that’s the Midtown one at Madison and Cooper, not the Downtown one).

Job seekers: Has creating a sharp-looking resume been a challenge for you? Lifehacker has 275 Microsoft Word templates for just about every type of resume imaginable.

Start Co.’s Demo Day is about to begin. Here are Four damn good reasons to start up in Memphis. Due to work I won’t be able to attend Demo Day. However, since Start Co. is our BBQ team sponsor, they were nice enough to invite “Mr. Load-in” to the Demo Day after-party. I’m very excited to get to go not only to talk to friends who pitched to investors today, but because the party is in a space I have never been inside in all my years Downtown. I’ll lead off at Silly Goose as I usually do after work, then head to the party. Should be a fun, fun night. Looking forward to congratulate my entrepreneur friends on a job well done!

Years ago, I totally went off on this blog about a man who was walking around Downtown telling people he was collecting donations for St. Jude. He was not. He was scamming people and using the money to buy drugs. He was also one of Downtown’s most aggressive panhandlers, and was known to run the fake parking attendant scam, and really, every scam in the book. I hated him. I hated what he did to my neighborhood’s image. I personally had him arrested and thrown in jail twice out of the maybe 50 or 75 times total that he got locked up.

Today on my lunch break, I went to a grocery store near where I work in DeSoto County. As I approached the entrance, a man said, “Hey, man! I know you! It’s good to see you!” and reached out to shake my hand. It was him. He was sober. He told me that he’s thrown away his life time and time again on drugs. About three months ago, someone helped him find a program, a house he lives in near the grocery store with four other men who have led lives similar to his own. He has a full-time job now. He told me, “I could get an overnight pass to come back to Memphis, but I don’t want it because I don’t want to lose my life to drugs again. I know I have to be careful.” Over and over again, he said “God is good” and shook my hand and told me how good it was to see me. He was being genuine. It was not a scam. I’m not religious myself, but he found what works for him, so God IS good.

It was an uplifting conversation that reminded me that we can never completely give up on anyone. There’s always hope. Every human being has potential, no matter how many bad decisions they have made in the past.

On a lighter note, it was announced today that Johnny Manziel will not start for the Cleveland Browns. So does that make him Johnny Bench?

Start Co. has posted the official schedule for Demo Day 2014 at the Orpheum tomorrow. Find out when your favorite startup will make its pitch. Keynote speaker The Honorable Edward B. Montgomery takes the podium at 4,

The Church Health Center is hiring a director for The MEMPHIS Plan. This would be a very nice role for someone with a background in management in nonprofits.

The Westin Hotel just south of Beale is being honored for community service. Among the hotel’s efforts was an effort to help local career coach Angela Copeland turn Memphis to Moore from a small event into a major one that raised $34,000. The money raised went to rebuild Moore, Oklahoma, which was battered in a 2013 series of tornadoes.

Tube top alert: I mentioned in a previous post that I have been watching old episodes of Bar Rescue on Spike TV’s website. Full episodes are available until September 30 of this year. If you pull up the Brawlin’ Babes episode which originally aired December 8, 2013, there is a bartender named Keller who has on a very nice pink tube top in the first ten minutes of the show.

Home from work, out for beer. Back tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a big, big day for some entrepreneurs. Sixteen businesses have been in accelerator programs led by Start Co. The accelerator programs are 99 days of mentoring, business model development, user interface/user experience, and other key elements of taking an idea and building it to the point that it’s ready to pitch to investors. Tomorrow is that day, when the sixteen businesses’ founders make that pitch at Start Co. Demo Day at the Orpheum from 1 to 5 PM. If you want to see what some of Memphis’ brightest minds have been working on, come check it out. It’s free to attend but you must register on EventBrite.

These accelerators really do work. Screwpulp is a book selling business that developed through a previous accelerator program. It has since acquired funding and has grown to the point that its business model is seen as a threat to Amazon. Who of the 2014 class will go on to enjoy as much success as Screwpulp, or more?

Crosby, Stills & Nash play the Orpheum tonight at 7:30.

Want to learn about the new pocket park being created in the space of the former Burger King on Madison between Second and Third? Come to the Downtown Neighborhood Association meeting next Tuesday, August 26, in the lobby of the First Tennessee building down the street. The Brass Door will cater the event, and there will be information about how the Brass Door and First Tennessee are partnering to transform the space into a pocket park. In addition, County Mayor Mark Luttrell will speak. The event starts at 6 PM with cocktails and a tour of curated art, and Luttrell will speak at 6:30. Attendees are invited to attend a special happy hour at the Brass Door across the street afterward.

The Big Scoop Ice Cream Festival returns to AutoZone Park Saturday, September 27 from 11 AM to 4 PM. This family-friendly event features all you can eat ice cream and other tasty treats, live music, games, a character photo booth, face painting and more. Proceeds benefit Ronald McDonald House. Tickets are $12 at the door but you can get them in advance for $10 here. This is considered such a good event that one of my suburban readers made a rare trip north of State Line Road with a minivan full of kids to attend last year.

Two big shows are coming to the Cannon Center for Performing Arts this fall. Stevie Wonder will perform October 11 and Jerry Lee Lewis will perform November 7.

The men in the Union Mission programs play a little friendly softball from time to time. However, much of their equipment is worn out or missing altogether. They need bats, gloves (left-handed as well as some right handed) and softballs. Do you have extra softball/baseball equipment you could donate? If so bring it to 383 Poplar and say that the items are for Calvary Colony. They would like to collect enough equipment for two teams.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print. It’s Wednesday so I’ll lead off at Jessica’s bar at Silly Goose at 5:30 after work.

Today at lunchtime I posted about Beale Street’s new cover charge on late Saturday nights. The MBJ reports that Beale Street merchants suffered when the cover was charged for the first time Saturday, with a big drop in people coming onto the street between midnight and 2:30. As the article points out, Beale is normally very safe, but Saturday night is when the street gets the majority of its troublemakers: people looking to pick fights, catcall women, and bring their own alcohol onto the street rather than buying drinks.

DejaVu had a cooking demo on WREG Live at 9 today. Learn how to make the Creole restaurant’s Big Easy Pasta.

The Redbirds return home tomorrow for their final homestand of the season, in first place and very possibly playoff-bound. They play the Sacramento River Cats tomorrow at 7:05 and will be here through Wednesday the 27th. They will wrap up the season in New Orleans for five games.

Pat Halloran of the Orpheum is taking up to 30 people on a very cool trip December 4-7. It’s a trip to Manhattan for a tour of Broadway. Trip includes 4 days, 3 nights at a Times Square hotel, round-trip coach airfare, transportation to and from the airport, two Broadway tickets per person, and Sunday brunch at Sardi’s. $1,975 per person, double occupancy. More details here.

Fireball, a cinnamon whisky which is a popular shot among Downtowners, has added a line of sauces. There is an original hot sauce, a wing sauce, and a BBQ sauce. Get them here.

Home from work and it’s happy hour. I think I will kick things off at Panda’s bar at Bardog and then figure out the rest. I haven’t ruled out playing poker at Blind Bear tonight but if I do I will likely come in late.