Live music will return to the Cavern, the underground music space inside The Brass Door, this Saturday. Local Irish band Big Betsy will take the stage around 9. This band has played the blessing of the kegs at Murphy’s for the past 15 years, playing mostly Irish songs with some drinking songs thrown in. Check out the Brass Door’s blog for more info. Do I spy a couple of Neighborhood Texture Jam alumni among the band members?
Also, the Green Beetle will have live music both Friday and Saturday nights.
There will be a poker run at South Main Trolley Night tomorrow night from 6 to 9. Visit the booth next to Earnestine & Hazel’s to sign up ($5). Then visit South Main businesses and pick up a card at each. Visit as many shops as you want, to get as many cards as you want, then hand in your best 5-card poker hand. Best hand submitted wins prizes. It will also be a Blue Hawaii-themed trolley night, extending the Elvis celebration. Chef cook-off, hula and fire dancers, live music and more.
There will be a big party at the Peabody next Thursday, September 1, for their afternoon duck march. Grizzlies owner Michael Heisley will be inducted into the hotel’s Duck Walk of Fame. Grizz will be the honorary duckmaster, and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra will perform. The action starts around 4:45 PM.
There’s a PlayDate Memphis tomorrow at the Doubletree Hotel. All kinds of games, from poker to chess, Twister to Uno, Monopoly to Taboo, and more, along with food and cocktails. 9 PM to 2 AM, must be 21 to attend.
Douchebag/scumbag Bruce Pearl, having just received a 3-year show-cause penalty from the NCAA, made this comment today: “I believe I should have gotten more credit for coming forward and telling the truth.” You mean, coming forward and telling the truth only after it was OBVIOUS that you’d been caught? I would say that the man has finally overtaken Calipari as the biggest douche in college basketball, but that would be incorrect since Pearl is no longer part of the game. And I hope he never is again.
Time to head south to Max’s Sports Bar for poker. Most likely Saucer afterward.
For years I’ve discouraged my readers from giving money to those who ask for it on Downtown streets. Most of the time, the people asking for it aren’t actually homeless, and your money will just enable a drug or alcohol problem. So, people have asked me, “I agree about not giving money, but what can I do that will truly help the homeless?” An opportunity to help is coming up next month.
The Community Alliance for the Homeless will host a huge, one-day event at the Cook Convention Center Downtown. Project Homeless Connect, to be held Friday, September 16, will target unsheltered homeless individuals in Memphis, and will attempt to provide all the resources and services they need to leave homelessness, all under one roof. Everything from medical/dental, to housing counseling, to employment opportunities, to Social Security and VA benefits and more will be provided. There will also be food, haircuts, and the opportunity to get ID and legal assistance.
An event this huge is going to need a lot of volunteers. There are tons of opportunities, so you can pick what appeals to you the most – street outreach, serving food, collecting data, pairing up one-on-one with a homeless individual. You can sign up here.
In other news: Foursquare has slain the 800-pound gorilla in the mobile checkin battle. Facebook announced yesterday that they are abandoning Places, their mobile checkin service. More and more businesses are getting on Foursquare and offering specials: In the last 24 hours, two of my favorite Downtown businesses, Shelton Clothiers and LUNCHBOXeats, have joined the party.
Facebook, besides abandoning Places, announced improved privacy settings in a blog post this week. Good for them. I think they’re seeing what Google+ has been doing really well and are learning from it. Now I wish FB would get around to improving its horribly slow and buggy iPhone app.
If you want to keep up with the path of Hurricane Irene, Intellicast does a good job. Wow this thing looks scary. Looks like New York City could take a direct hit. I hope my friends who live in the area stay safe.
Among things to do Downtown tonight, the biggest event will be Allison Krauss and Union Station. They play the Orpheum tonight at 8.
Over at the Madison Hotel, their weekly Sunset atop the Madison rooftop party features Elmo & the Shades. Doors open at 5:30, music at 6. It’s the second to last Madison rooftop party of the season.
Outta here… time to get gas and defend my Zaxby’s mayorship.
The Gibson Guitar plant was raided by federal agents this morning. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Agency conducted the raid. This may be related to a raid on the Gibson plant in Nashville a few years ago, when the guitar maker was accused of illegal cutting and shipping wood from Madagascar for use in its guitars. More details on News Channel 3’s website.
The Memphis Tigers have released their 2011 men’s basketball schedule. It’s loaded with top non-conference opponents, designed to get us a higher seed than the Number 12 we had this year. Great job, Coach P! Great move hiring current Laker player Luke Walton as an assistant too.
If you work in the Downtown core, you’ll have a new place to grab lunch starting tomorrow. Big Ono Bakery, at the corner of Front and Gayoso across from Barton Flats, will offer to-go lunches from Miss Cordelia’s. There will be sandwiches, salads and wraps and nothing will be over $7.
If you play poker in the Underdog Room of Bardog Tavern on Wednesdays, you have the night off. Poker Jon posted to Facebook that there will be no game this week.
There’s still a reason to go by Bardog though… one of their specials today is Ultimate Memphis BBQ Nachos. I got these last night, and there was a ton of Memphis pulled pork over tortilla chips with tomatoes and fresh jalapenos. What really made the nachos special, though, was the homemade cheese sauce. A real value at $7.95. Like most specials, these will probably only be on the menu for a day or two, so if you’re a nacho fan get down there.
The Downtown Blue Monkey is going to fill in the hole next door (the location of the old Blue Monkey that burned in 2005) to expand parking, according to a regular who spends as much time there as I do at the Saucer. That reminds me… the annual Mephit Furmeet, the meetup of “furries” who dress in full head-to-toe animal costume, happens over Labor Day weekend. If I run into any of the furries I’ll definitely recommend they check out the Monkey’s karaoke night on Saturday. Furryoke! For furries who need help finding the Monkey, here’s a map.
The results of the Breakaway-Bardog 5K have been posted, and you can view them here. Congratulations to Lance Jones and Kris Huff, the overall male and female winners.
A really cool thing happened Sunday after the race. Jessica Grammer, who spent countless hours organizing the 5k, was excited about the raffle at the alley party that followed. “I really want to win that Fat Tire bike,” she told me over and over. When the winning ticket was announced, it wasn’t hers – but the winners gave her the bike. Classy thing to do. No one deserves that bike more than she does.
Blogger/CA writer Richard Alley has a post about anonymous comments on the Commercial Appeal website that I agree with 100%. Back when I was growing up, my mother worked in the newspaper business, and she explained to me that letters to the editor would not be published unless they contained a full name and address. People had to be willing to back up what they were saying with their names. If the CA adopted a similar policy for news article comments, a lot of the race-baiting, negativity and stupidity would go away. The comments they have now detract from the overall quality of the site.
Sad news today: Tennessee Lady Vols coach Pat Summitt has been diagnosed with early onset dementia. She has no plans to step down in the immediate future. When the time comes, I hope she gets the biggest send-off since Lou Gehrig Day in 1939. She’s a legend and deserves nothing less.
This isn’t Downtown, but there’s a really good Groupon today: Maharaja Cafe, an Indian restaurant on American Way. When I worked by the airport, I ate there now and then and the food was outstanding. There’s an Indian grocery next door that is a good place to buy snacks to take home, too.
One of my favorite food bloggers, Wendy, reviewed Dejavu, the Creole restaurant on Florida Street. I agree with everything she said – outstanding food, but be prepared to have to get take-out because the seating is rather limited.
Just saw on Twitter that the Eastern seaboard has been affected by an earthquake, believed to be centered in Virginia. I hope Air Traffic Mike and all my friends who live on the East Coast are okay.
I’ll be at the Silly Goose at 8 for trivia night. Undecided whether I’ll pre-game at Bardog or the Saucer beforehand, but I’ll be out at one or the other.
Bardog Tavern threw itself a third birthday party in Center Lane (known to Downtowners as Scratchy Alley) yesterday. The day started with a 5K, then at noon it was party time. In case people couldn’t find it, they made this helpful sign.
Inside the alley was a dunk tank, booths selling Fat Tire and PBR, a band playing inside a garage, and John Haley cooking sliders on the grill.
We decided to go inside to get beer, because there was air conditioning and because there were no drink tickets to deal with inside. Enjoying the comfort of A/C, we remained inside all the way through our first beer until we ordered a second one. This turned out to be a huge mistake. While we were inside, two of the servers at the Flying Saucer, Whitney 2 and Stacey, got in the dunk tank. We missed it. DAMMIT!
Later in the day: Whitney 2 takes aim and fires
More dunk tank pics:
Each ball cost $1 for the dunk tank, and a lot of balls were thrown, raising hundreds for St. Jude. At the back of the alley, even more money was being raised with a raffle. Here are some of the prizes that were raffled off:
One of the most sought-after prizes in the drawing was this beach cruiser bike:
Meanwhile, plenty of people were partying inside the bar too. I made frequent trips inside to get beer, although after missing Whitney 2 and Stacey I was careful to never spend more than 10 minutes inside. I’ve got to give props to Amanda “Panda” Parks, who was bartending. Despite the total chaos of the party, she seemed to have a sixth sense for when I had an empty beer cup. Meanwhile, Brittany Bloom, who cut her hair for St. Jude last year, was on the bar with a bullhorn raising donations. Here’s a pic of Buddha and Chris at the bar. Have we had a few Fireball shots gentlemen?
I went back outside and ran into former Sleep Out Louie’s bartender Scotty the Body. He had on a BBQ Fest-themed T-shirt.
Scotty the Body and Uncle Ray
At 5:00 it was time for the meatball eating contest. Nine people entered, and each of them were brought 40 of Aldo’s Grandma’s balls. Aldo got on the bullhorn and announced the rules.
“When a contestant gets up and leaves the table, spectators are not to eat his leftover meatballs,” Aldo announced. Hey I wonder why THAT rule was added this year??? As it turned out, that rule was unnecessary: The Nuh-Uh Girl was in New Orleans this weekend.
The rules were different this year. No time limit, eat as many meatballs as you can. Contestants were eliminated when they either gave up or threw up, last man still eating wins.
By the 15-minute mark, contestants were starting to slow down, and the first few began to throw in the towel.
At the 23-minute mark, we had a winner.
Then it was time to move to the front of the alley for the last event of the day. It involved my landlord, Jay Hollingsworth, seen below with the ponytail.
If $2,000 was raised for St. Jude, Jay agreed to cut the ponytail off. By 5:30 we were still about $600 short. Brittany and Brooke got on the megaphone and encouraged last-minute donations. 100s and 20s stared pouring in.
As much as I love Bardog, I have to claim that a little false advertising occurred. “If we get $100 Brooke will take her shirt off,” announced Brittany on the bullhorn. Needless to say, $100 made its way to the collection bucket very quickly. So did Brooke take her shirt off? No, we got this instead:
“I’ll give $100 if he puts it back on!” yelled someone in the crowd. A few minutes later, the $2,000 goal was reached, and the tail came off.
A stylist was on hand to help Jay trim up:
Inside the tavern a little while later: Jay’s new ‘do.
I have to admit that my photos don’t adequately cover a HUGE part of the party and fundraising for St. Jude: The Breakway Running/Bardog 5K. At 9 AM several hundred runners gathered outside Bardog and went on a three-mile run, each runner’s entry fee going to St. Jude. I didn’t get there until 12, after they had already handed out the awards, so I didn’t get many photos of the runners. Their connection to Bardog started about two years ago, when a small group started calling themselves the Salty Dogs began meeting at the tavern. Every Monday they go on a run, then relax afterward with beer in Bardog’s Underdog Room. The group has grown to the point that they’re partnering with area businesses and sponsoring 5K events. If you run and want to meet people, the Salty Dogs are a great way to do it. Join them Mondays at 7 at Bardog.
I haven’t heard a final dollar number raised for St. Jude, but all signs indicated that they far exceeded last year. Thanks to Aldo and everyone at Bardog for a fantastic party, and for giving us such a wonderful place to hang out for the past three years.
I took so many photos that I had to break them apart into two photo albums on Facebook.
Last day of vacation. Going to relax for a while, eat lunch and then get an early start on Pint Nite. If anything comes up I’ll do a lunchtime news post before I go out.
Tomorrow, Sunday, August 21, is Bardog Tavern’s third birthday party. There will be a 5K at 9:30 AM, and then at noon the big party kicks off in Scratchy Alley (Center Lane, the alley next to the tavern). If $2,000 is raised, Bardog regular Jay Hollingsworth will cut off his ponytail. There will also be a meatball-eating contest, live music by The Evil West, raffles and a dunk tank. One of the best parties of the year! Don’t miss it!
One of my favorite bosses ever was a big soccer fan. We’d be in his office, discussing a SQL Server stored procedure, when he’d hit F5 and say, “hang on.”
“Reloading the football scores,” he’d tell me. “Arsenal is up, 1, nil.” Meaning, he was reloading the soccer scores, and Arsenal was up 1-0. (This is America dammit.)
This morning the Brass Door opened at 6:45 for the Arsenal-Liverpool match.
I wasn’t actually there at 6:45. About 8 my friend Lauren tweeted “where are you?” and the notification woke me up. I put on yesterday’s drunkass clothes (complete with beer stains) and walked down there. For 8 AM the bar was pretty full: All the bar seats with a view of the TV were taken, except one which I took, and two tables were occupied. I did a head count and 17 people were there, most in Arsenal jerseys. Glad I was on the right side. Unfortunately Arsenal lost 2-0.
Mad props to Katie, who was a cheerful bartender (can you imagine how bad the Saucer girls would bitch if they had to open at 6:45 AM) and to Seamus, who recognized that Downtowners would get up early in the morning to watch soccer.
I hung out at Brass Door til 1 then hit Bardog for Panda Manda’s brunch. It’s now 3:30 and I’ve done none of the three Ss. Time for a nap.
A friend of mine just emailed and asked if I’d get the word out about an employment opportunity Downtown. ALSAC, the fundraising arm of St. Jude, has created a new position called Regional PR Liason. They’re looking for someone who develop strategies to drive PR efforts at the local level. View the listing here. They don’t say it in the listing, but I’ve heard you have to have excellent credit to get on at ALSAC. Makes sense I guess, since their business is fundraising and they don’t want anyone skimming off a little for themselves.
I know people who work at ALSAC and say it’s a very good place to work. Plus it’s Downtown (and in a couple of years you’ll be able to walk to Bass Pro Shop at lunchtime), and you’ll be doing work that will help children get the care they need. Fantastic opportunity for someone with a background in PR.
Yesterday for lunch I decided to try another of the Flying Saucer’s new wing sauces. I like my food spicy, so the hottest variety, the Atomic wings, seemed like a natural pick. There was a warning on the menu about how hot these were, but I wasn’t scared.
The wings were slightly crispier than the average hot wing, which is just fine with me because it’s a sign that they’re well cooked all the way through. Like the Mojo wings I tried a couple of weeks ago, they were lightly sauced. That’s good too because you won’t go through an entire roll of paper towels eating them.
How hot were they? Well, they definitely stung, and three minutes after eating a wing it still stung. On the usual hot wing scale of mild-medium-hot-extra hot-suicide, I’d rank these as extra hot. They’re fiery, but not quite as much as the Holy Smokes wings down the street at Kooky Canuck.
The wings came with generous amounts of carrots and celery, and blue cheese for dipping.
Would I get these again? Yes, in the future when I’m at the Saucer and get hungry, the Atomic wings will be one of my go-to items on the menu. On the other hand, I don’t know if I’d make a special trip there just for these wings. The reigning champion of wings Downtown, for those who like the super-hot variety, in my opinion is still the Honey Habanero Wings at Max’s Sports Bar. Rich in flavor, and yet they set your mouth on fire at the same time.
One variety left to try: The Saucer’s new Asian wings. I’ll try to get to those in the next week or two.
