Paul Ryburn's Journal

Lots going on Downtown tonight. The weekly rooftop party happens at the Peabody, with Seeing Red providing the live music. $10 to get in, with ladies free until 7. Doors open at 6.

The Orpheum will show Breakfast at Tiffany’s starring Audrey Hepburn on the big screen at 7. This is part of the summer movie series.

Meanwhile, over on Felicia Suzanne’s patio, there will be “Tacos & Tunes” from 7 to 10 tonight. Come down for fiesta specials & a performance by Jeremy Stanfill & Josh Cosby. Any lady who invites me to this and tells me it’s “tacos, tunes, and tube tops on the patio” would be someone I would consider marriage material.

The 6th Annual Uptown BBQ Cooking Contest happens this Saturday, June 7, in Uptown Park at Greenlaw and Uptown Streets. Prizes for best overall, best in pork, anything but, and best display for those who can’t cook but can decorate a tent. There will be celebrity judges and free hot dogs for all.

From Gizmodo: Scientists have built a robot that lets you feel virtual breasts

There will be a food truck roundup and classic movie tomorrow evening in Court Square. Event starts at 6 PM; the movie Purple Rain will be shown at 8:15.

Also, tomorrow night is the debut of “Memphis Jams on Beale,” free concerts in Handy Park at Third and Beale. Memphis Music Foundation presents Chinese Connection Dub Embassy and Lil Rounds.6:30 PM start time.

Been busy launching a new website but wanted to take a minute to get a post up. Assuming everything runs smoothly with the new site, I will be out at the usual places after work.

Even though she moved to California, the Nuh-Uh Girl has not forgotten what month this is. She wore a tube top to the crawfish boil she held this past weekend.

It looks like the Mississippi Senate Republican race is going to a runoff. Why do I care about that, and why am I mentioning it on what is normally a Downtown blog? Because I found this tweet too funny not to share:

@yorkspork: “At a ceremony held this morning in Jackson a rat crawled out of a dumpster and saw its shadow signaling three more weeks of political ads.”

The Huffington Post has an article about the James Lee House bed and breakfast at 690 Adams that is worth a read: $1 Memphis farmhouse gets a makeover you have to see to believe. Nice photos of the accommodations at the B&B.

Congratulations to the Memphis Flyer on its 25th anniversary! Be sure to pick up a copy of the 25th anniversary issue from a Flyer box this afternoon.

Southwest Airlines is having a three day sale on flights from Memphis to Chicago for $45 one way/$95 round trip if traveling between late August and mid-December. There are also discounts on flights to Houston and Tampa. Hmmm maybe I should hop on a plane this fall and go have a meal at Honky Tonk Barbeque and see my former BBQ teammates Chuck and Willie and Imran.

Bosco Hogan, star of The Tudors, The Borgias, and In the Name of the Father, will be at the Brass Door next Tuesday, June 10 from 6 to 8 PM for a special presentation called “Of Ireland Born.” He will read from a sampling of works that helped create The Republic of Ireland including Yeats, Synge, O’ Connor, and O’Casey. There will be live music by Robert Johnson and John Albertson as well.

12-year-old fashion entrepreneur Moziah Bridges of Mo’s Bows is this month’s guest on the I Love Memphis podcast with Holly Whitfield and Kevin Cerrito. Listen here.

That’s it for now. I will be out at the Silly Goose after work, but it will be a rather early night for me because I have to be back at work at 7 AM to launch a website.

Here’s a photo from the final night of Brewery Untapped. Misty wanted me to take a tube top dress photo for the blog. Actually, I had to take two photos because Misty said “I look hotter with my hair down.” This is the hair-down photo.

Just a couple of news items today. The Memphis Business Journal reports that plans for a giant tower at One Beale are back on the table. The plan for the tower called for a 30-story structure with office space, condos, and a hotel. A company in Memphis is in talks to pre-lease the office space, making the building a viable project once again.

My friend Craig David Meek’s book Memphis Barbecue: A Succulent History of Smoke, Sauce & Soul will be released next Tuesday, June 10, and there will be a launch party and signing at the Booksellers at Laurelwood at 6 that day. Downtowners who want to talk with Craig will have their chance on July 10, when he will appear at a signing and BBQ tasting at the Cotton Museum. The Memphis Flyer has more info. Be sure to check out his blog Memphis Que as well.

That’s it for now. If more news pops up between now and the end of the day I’ll do an evening post.

About 6 last night, Trucker, the lost dog from yesterday’s blog post, was found and returned to Panda and her daughters. He was at Poplar and Goodlett, so he was probably trying to return to Midtown which was the area where he grew up.

Back at lunchtime with a news and tube top post.

A couple of random things I learned this weekend:

1) There are people who get paid to travel the country and have medical students give them prostate exams. That has got to be the worst job ever. I think I would sleep under the I-40 bridge and push a shopping cart full of aluminum cans around before I would do that.

2) There is a Christian rock remake of “Baby Got Back” called “Baby Got Book” (meaning, the Bible). That would probably convert some people, for sure… but to atheism.

That’s the great thing about being Downtown, that I have a large group of friends that I can get together with and discuss ideas. Of course, they’re mostly really stupid ideas, but still, ideas.

A second Aldo’s Pizza Pies will open soon in Midtown. The new restaurant will be at 752 S. Cooper in the former Two Way Inn building. According to the MBJ, the restaurant will have only six beers on tap, as opposed to the 30 at the Downtown location, and will probably serve personal pizzas rather than the Downtown pizza-by-the-slice option. Midtowners, get ready… GOOD pizza is coming your way!

The weekly trivia night at Tamp and Tap will have a special theme this week: The TV show Friends. Trivia is hosted by Kevin Cerrito at 7 on Wednesdays.

The Flying Saucer kicks off a five-week campaign to raise funds for Pints for Prostates this Wednesday. For the next five Wednesdays, the Saucer will tap a special German brew with a special glass. Those who purchase the glass will be entered into a drawing to win the trip of a lifetime to Bavaria and Franconia in Germany to tour breweries and other sights. This fundraiser happens at both the Memphis and Cordova Saucers, as well as the 14 other locations. Last year the Saucer raised $32,000 for Pints for Prostates.

Thanks to everyone who helped make Brewery Untapped happen. It was awesome. I hope yesterday was not my last time in the brewery.

Thanks to everyone who posted and shared this morning’s post about Trucker. He has possibly been sighted a couple of times in the Perkins area.

I’ll be out at Bardog for Monday with Melissa after work today. It’s possible we may have a special guest…

 

My friend Panda who bartends at Bardog and who sometimes wears tube tops has lost her dog. She recently moved to East Memphis, in the area of Perkins and Princeton right off Sam Cooper. The dog’s name is Trucker, and he has spent most of his life in the Annesdale Historic District area (Sledge Avenue) and he may have headed back there. Green collar with see, hear, and speak no evil monkeys and a Harley Davidson dog tag with correct phone numbers on it. Chocolate and peanut butter in color, Katahula breed, 60-70 pounds, loves to run, very fast. Panda’s daughters miss this dog very much, so any help you can provide to get him back would be greatly appreciated.

This is it. The last day that the Tennessee Brewery will be open for Brewery Untapped. If you love the brewery and hate it that it may be torn down in August, GET DOWN THERE. Let’s pack the place. Let’s have so many people standing outside on Tennessee Street waiting to get in that the trolley has trouble getting through. Let’s make a statement. It may not work but let’s make it anyway.

If you’ve never been, there is a beer garden serving local and regional craft beer, there are food trucks, there is a game room and there is a large outdoor patio that is perfect for good times with friends. It is the ultimate social space.

If you buy beer between 12 and 6 today, you get a $1 token refunded to you. You can place that token in a donation box for the charity of your choice. Today’s charities include Peer Power Foundation, Mid-South Food Bank, Grow Memphis, the Mid-South chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the New Ballet Ensemble and School.

You will have plenty more days to watch baseball. You will have plenty more days to lay out by the pool. You will have plenty more days to hang out at Bardog or the Goose or the Bear or wherever. You only have one day left to be at the brewery. GET DOWN THERE. If it rains, deal with it. I’ve been soaked twice in the past 15 days and I survived. You will too. GET DOWN THERE.

The brewery is open from 11 to 9 today. I have to admit I may need a tube top snuggle bunny to deal with the sadness when it closes if anyone wants to help with that.

GET DOWN THERE.

I almost went to Italian Fest yesterday. I had an offer to split a cab, and at least one booth I was guaranteed to get into and several others I probably could as well. I met my friends at the Silly Goose after work. I kind of wanted to go. A lot of my friends talk about how much fun they have at that festival, and believe it or not I’m not opposed to the idea of going to East Memphis if there’s something that interests me out there. The rain situation looked iffy, though. Two rounds of rain had already moved through, and I had heard that Marquette Park gets even more muddy than Tom Lee Park. It was clearing out at the time but a look at MemphisWeather.net radar showed a huge cell over Tupelo and Oxford. “That bad boy is probably going to hit Memphis in about two and a half hours,” I told my friends.

Two things were the deciding factors. My friends got texted a photo of the ground outside the booth we had been invited to. There were at least three inches of mud. Then there was another text. “If you cab down here, don’t get dropped off at the gate. Have the cab drop you off at Target to buy rain boots.” Well that did it. There would be no Italian Fest for me. I hated to miss wet tube tops but I just could not deal with the mud. I had a relaxing evening with a few BBQ teammates at the Blind Bear then called it a night.

In the news: A flight from Los Angeles to Boston had to make an emergency landing in Kansas City because of a large dog pooping in the aisle. The dog pooped as many as three times and the crew on the plane ran out of paper towels to clean it up. Passengers nearby were getting physically ill because of the smell.

If any of my readers live in the St. Louis area, 18 Redbirds games will be broadcast on KTRS 550 AM this season. Here’s a list of the games.

The Belz Museum of Judaic and Asian Art is showing the movie Gandhi today at 12:30. Admission to the museum is included in the price of the movie. The museum is inside Pembroke Square on the Main Street Mall.

There’s a “Memphis in Gay” burlesque and drag show hosted by Julie Wheeler tonight at 8 at Earnestine & Hazel’s.

One of my neighbors in my apartment building reported that a bachelorette party fought and puked outside Paula & Raiford’s last night. See, this is the kind of free entertainment you just don’t get if you live in a cookie-cutter neighborhood in Collierville or Southaven.

It looks like the joint BBQ team takeover of Brewery Untapped is set for tomorrow. I got a text last night that nearly all of Squeal Street will be there, and quite a few of the Moody Ques will be as well. If you’re on or are a friend of either team, come on down.

Off to Panda’s bar at Bardog to start the day. Rest of the day is unplanned after that, although I don’t see Italian Fest happening for me today.

 

 

We’re thinking about getting a large Downtowners/Moody Ques/Squeal Street group together to do a takeover of Tennessee Brewery Untapped on its last day, Sunday, June 1. I put it out there on Facebook a little while ago but wanted to mention it here too for those who aren’t on Facebook or don’t check it often. If you want to meet up shoot me a text. It looks like we will be starting fairly early, with some of the group getting there right at opening at 11. I doubt I will get there THAT early (after all it would be rude to not stop at Bardog for a beer) but I should be down there by 1.

It’s South Main Trolley Night, with excellent shopping, dining, and entertainment in the South Main District from 6 to 9 tonight. There will be entertainment by Yancy and Yancy @ D’Edge, Joe Sanders & Friends @ Art Jamn, Joe Guyton @ Charlotte, Mara Danielle @ Sache, Eric Crays & 30 Paces @ Chapman Furniture, Ashlee K. Thomas & Ashlee Wilson @ Memphis Thing, Swampkatz @ Bocce Ball Court, Pistol & the Queen @ Earnestine & Hazel’s (9 p.m.), Savannah Long @ Green Beetle, Chelsea Chandler @ Douglas & Associates, and Isis Dance Academy @ Ghost Lot. There will be a reception for Inspired by Marisol: A Sculptural Response at Cafe Pontotoc. Vendors will include Pink Pig Apparel, Kingfish Metal Works, Art by Meredith Wilson, Kari Fieskes Jewelry. The weather is looking beautiful for tonight and spring Trolley Nights always get packed, so why not throw on a tube top and come on out? Or, if you don’t have a tube top, you can buy one at the shops on South Main.

There’s going to be a new Friday night outdoor concert series called Memphis Jams on Beale, presenting free outdoor concerts at Handy Park (the pavilion at Third and Beale) Fridays at 6:30 PM. Here is the lineup so far:

June 6: Memphis Music Foundation presents Chinese Connection Dub Embassy
June 13: United States Navy Band Showcase
June 20: Goner Records presents Jack Oblivion & The Sheiks, The Nots, Tyler Keith & The Apostles
June 27: Shangri-La Records presents Marcella and Her Lovers
July 11: Memphis Music Foundation presents Dead Soldiers
July 25: Shangri-La Records presents The Grifters
August 1: Nancy Apple’s Rhythm & Roots Revival

There’s a Development Officer position open at MIFA. Details here.

That’s it for now. Unsure whether I am going to Italian Fest or Trolley Night tonight, so the idiot who follows me everywhere (except to my BBQ team booth) will have to deal with incomplete information. Happy weekend everyone.

Tonight is jam-packed with fun stuff to do Downtown. The event I will be attending, weather permitting, is the Start Co. Lounge at the Tennessee Brewery. This is a chance to connect with creative types, innovators, tech enthusiasts and others who appreciate the entrepreneurial spirit that is brewing in Memphis. This weekend is also last call for Brewery Untapped. The Start Co. Lounge happens from 5:30 to 7:30 and the brewery is open until 9. Start Co. was our BBQ team sponsor this year. If any of my fellow Moody Ques want to join me, bring it on!

Tonight is also the first Peabody rooftop party of Tube Top Month, and from what I have been hearing a lot of people are really excited. A lot of ladies plan to have their finest tube tops on tonight. The band Hollywood will provide the entertainment. Doors open at 6, $10 to get in, ladies free until 7. Admission includes a buffet of pasta salad, deviled eggs, and fried chicken legs.

It’s a big night at AutoZone Park too. The game tonight vs. the Iowa Cubs (7:05 first pitch) is the CBS Sports Network nationally televised minor league game of the week. The Redbirds organization want to pack the park and show how much Memphis loves baseball. They are enticing fans to come with $3 Bud and Bud Light drafts, $2 popcorn, and $1 hot dogs.

There will be a Crop Hop 5K on Friday, June 20 at 6:30 PM to benefit the Memphis Farmers Market. Race will begin and end at the market pavilion. Details here.

Outta here for now. I hope the weather holds up this afternoon so I can get to the brewery.