Paul Ryburn's Journal

There’s a new phishing scam going around Twitter today. If you get a DM saying “Someone said this real bad thing about you in a blog,” do not click on the link. It will take you to what appears to be the Twitter homepage and ask you to log in… but if you look at the URL, it’s NOT the Twitter home page and it’s not a secure connection. If you type the username and password, hackers will have it. Anytime you log into Twitter, make sure the twitter.com URL appears in the address bar.

Fun night hanging out at the Saucer last night. A friend of ours who returned for a visit was told that none of our group hangs out at the Saucer anymore, now that they’ve gone non-smoking. Apparently the 8 or 9 of us who were there didn’t get that memo (or, did and recognized it for the manipulative BS it was). I was there until almost midnight and got three beers done for my 6th plate. After that I stopped by Huey’s for Paul’s Drunkass Food, which last night was a West Coast burger.

Yahoo! Sports did a story on the Redbirds recently. August 13 is Organ Donor Night at AutoZone Park. The ‘birds will wear special uniforms for the game, and you can see pictures here. Wow. Livers and kidneys on baseball uniforms. That’s… um, different, to say the least.

Warning: Be prepared to be hungry if you click this link. Thomas from the Eat Local Memphis blog went to Felicia Suzanne’s for lunch yesterday, and got the grilled cheese sandwich. OMG that looks good. I need to take a Friday off soon and eat at Felicia’s.

Speaking of food: Now and then I’ll spotlight a dish at a Downtown restaurant. Recently I went back through about March and categorized all my food posts. You can find them here in Paul’s Food Find. Now, keep in mind that I don’t claim to be a food blogger; I just write about what I like. Still, I think my posts are a good sampling of Downtown dining. If you’re new to town and are looking for Memphis dining info, I recommend you bookmark these blogs:

• Eat Local Memphis
• Dining with Monkeys
• Wendy Eats
• Whining & Dining
• Hungry Memphis

Probably a bad political move to be linking to a bunch of other blogs while the Best of Memphis voting is going on, but who cares.

In the news: UT self-imposes two years’ probation, in response to a bunch of NCAA violations, most of which were due to the fact that its former basketball coach was a huge douchebag. They’re hoping that with the probation in place, and having fired Douchey Brucey and spineless wussy AD Mike Hamilton, the NCAA will think they’ve been punished enough.

Great news: One of the best TV shows ever is returning this fall, after being off the air 14 years. Yep, Beavis and Butt-head are coming back. Can’t wait.

The Memphis Business Journal reports that New York Suit Exchange is outgrowing its current spot at Union and Danny Thomas. They’re considering a new location, either Downtown or elsewhere. I hope they stick around. I do most of my clothes shopping at Shelton, but they’re good to have around when I need an inexpensive dress shirt that I’ll only wear a few times a year.

Great editorial by Internet poker coach Chris Wilcox about the downfall of online poker and the innocent people who are now out of jobs. He gets to the root of why the government targeted online poker, and Tennessee’s very own ex-Senator Bill Frist was mentioned. Interesting read.

Playing around with Spotify this morning. Listening to Rush’s early albums and remembering how good they were. Pretty cool, to listen to music for free. I was going to buy and install OS X Lion, but I’m worried it will take a while and interfere with my afternoon beer drinking. Speaking of which, it’s time to hit Publish, then hit the bar…

WEVL’s Blues on the Bluff is tomorrow night at the National Ornamental Metal Museum from 6 to 11 PM. Music by Lightin’ Malcolm with Junior Kimbrough’s grandson Cameron, the Bo-Keys, and Blind Mississippi Morris and the Pocket Rockets. There will BBQ (including vegetarian BBQ) from Central BBQ, and there will be alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks for sale. The evening will end with a silent auction, which will include themed packages from WEVL volunteer DJs, and merchandise and gift certificates from Memphis restaurants and shops. Free guarded parking across from the event will be available. Tickets are $20 at the gate, but you can purchase them in advance here for the discounted price of $15 until 11:59 tonight.

Fire dance/belly dance troupe The Dancing Fire has a show at the Rumba Room tomorrow night at 7:30. It will be called “Ignite Your Night” and is the fifth in their series “The Hidden Art.” Dancers will perform as close to your table as safely possible. $10 admission, with half-price of admission for groups of two or more. Admission includes salsa night afterward. More info here.

Couple of events happening tonight that I’ve mentioned before, but just want to remind everyone:

• Memphis Heat plays at the Orpheum at 7:15. It’s the story of Memphis wrasslin’ from the Sputnik Monroe days to the era of Jerry “The King” Lawler. Memphis wrestling dignitaries will be on hand, including Jerry Jarrett, Lance Russell and Dave Brown.
• V3 Fights presents 10 fights tonight at the FedExForum, with a portion of proceeds going to the Officer Timothy Warren Fund. (Edit: Oops that’s tomorrow, had the date wrong, sorry.)

The Peabody Duckmaster did a little planking this morning. Nice!

Congratulations to Gus’s, which was mentioned on USA Today’s Great American Bites today.

Saw a rant on Twitter today about women taking their shoes off in public. My 2 cents worth: Leave your shoes on, and take your tube tops off instead.

My plans for tonight are TBD at this point. Still want to park myself at the Green Beetle and see what the crowd is like on a weekend night, but not sure if tonight will be the night I do that. I’ll start at happy hour at the Saucer around 6, then figure it out from there.

If you want to eat at Harry’s Detour in the South Main district, you better make your reservations soon. It will close on Friday, July 29, ending on a high note with Trolley Night. The restaurant’s staff will move to the Midtown location. Fellow blogger Ryne Hancock has more details about the closing on his blog Southern Times, Girls and Sports.

The intersection of Danny Thomas and Vance should be avoided for the next few days. Workers will be replacing a signal pole, and as they’re working, the traffic signal there will be a four-way stop. We all know how well Memphians understand four-way stops at flashing red lights (they don’t at all), so my best advice is to stay away from this intersection if you can help it.

The Center City Commission has officially been rebranded the Downtown Memphis Commission. Paul Morris can now say he runs DMC.

It’s Thursday party night. Four big outdoor parties will be going on. The Third Thursday party is tonight at Main and Peabody Place. Tonya Dyson & Green Onions, Soul Survivors, and Vic Reid Quartet will perform, with discounts and specials at restaurants and shops in the area. Free to the public, starts at 5:30.

Free Sol with Black Rock Revival and Matt Nathanson are the featured entertainment atop the Peabody tonight. Buffet theme is Pan-Asian tonight, with egg rolls, Pad Thai, and pork fried rice. In VIP the buffet will have spicy cashew chicken, spring rolls and fried dumplings. $10 to get in includes first drink, ladies free until 7.

If you have a VIP pass to the Peabody rooftop parties, there’s a pre-party for you in the Corner Bar from 5 to 6, with featured beer Michelob Ultra. You have to show your VIP card to get in.

There’s also an after-party, open to the public, in the Corner Bar from 10 to 12, with music by Eric “Scrappie” Hughes and Guy Jr. VIP card-holders get two-for-one drinks at this party.

Over at the Madison, rooftop party guests will enjoy funky rhythm & blues with Elmo & the Shades. Sophisticated drinks and distinctive tapas available. $7 to get in. Doors open at 5:30, sunset at 8:11.

Meanwhile, at Handy Park on Beale, Kix on Beale will have its final week of the year. Brantley Gilbert and Gloriana will perform, starting at 7:30. There will be a couple of after-parties, with Hollywood Disco hosting a beer bust and hottest cowgirl contest, and Rum Boogie having a Barenjager tasting at 10.

That’s all for now. I’ll be out somewhere tonight. Where, I’m not sure yet.

Tonight I started at Blue Fin for their sushi happy hour, which lasts until 6:30. $3, $5, and $7 rolls, all of which cost significantly more if ordered off the menu.

With my stomach happy, I made a brief trip by the Saucer, then on to Bardog for their 7:30 Texas Hold’em game in the Underdog. It’s free to play, just show up by 7:30 and grab a seat. This was one of their busiest nights ever.

There were four tables going, and when I say full, I mean overfull, meaning tables that were meant to handle 6 were seating 8. Futhermore, people were coming and going Tournament director Poker Jon estimated there were nearly 40 people there.

I had a good run and made it to the 7-person final table. Unfortunately I was the first one out. Poker Jon took my seat and dealt for the remainder of the tournament.

Thoroughly enjoyed playing with everyone tonight. Although I busted out one seat before points for Poker Jon’s 10-week final table, I still had a lot of fun.

Poker Jon’s league also plays at Bayou Bar & Grill (Sunday), Silly Goose (Monday), and Old Zinnie’s (Tuesday). Individual nightly prizes, plus points toward the league championship.

Sad news to start this Wednesday blog post. Mike Lenegar of Neola Farms passed away last night. Mike raised cattle on his farm in Tipton County, and did a lot to get the local farm-to-table movement going. Neola Farms beef has been sold at the Memphis Farmers Market, and is served at Trolley Stop Market and many other Memphis restaurants. Condolences to the Lenegar family. Dining in Memphis would not be the same without Mike’s many contributions.

Mac owners: OS X Lion hit the App Store this morning. Here’s a list of new features in Lion, and here’s a guide on preparing your Mac for Lion. If you use Parallels Desktop to run Windows on your Mac, you’ll need to upgrade to Parallels Desktop 6 in order for it to work with Lion. Here’s a LifeHacker article explaining the pros and cons of upgrading to Lion for those who are perfectly happy with Snow Leopard.

Want to work for one of Memphis’ best nonprofits? The Church Health Center has several positions open.

The Convention and Visitors Bureau published a list of free things to do in Memphis. It’s quite a long list!

GQ named the 10 douchiest colleges in America. UK should have made the list solely based on their head basketball coach.

The date has been announced for this year’s Beale Street Snuggie Pub Crawl: 11/11/11. Well that will be easy to remember.

“Memphis City Schools” is a trending topic on Twitter. Can’t we ever trend for anything positive? I thought we were done being the laughingstock of the nation now that Herenton is gone, but I guess not.

Time to grab some KFC, then back for an exciting afternoon of cubicle sitting.

Yeah no lunchtime update post. There just wasn’t a whole lot of news as of 1 PM today.

I’ll start with a couple of Grizzlies notes. First of all, the 2011-12 schedule was released today, and you can see it here. Good to see we’re at least getting a few appearances on ESPN during the season.

Also, one of my favorite Grizzlies-related groups is looking to add some new members: The Grizzlies Grannies & Grandpas. They are the 50-and-over dance team that performs hip-hop routines during breaks at home games. These grannies and grandpas can GO, and are every bit as exciting on the floor as the Grizz Girls. If you think you’ve got what it takes to be one of them, there will be tryouts tomorrow, Wednesday, July 20.

Great article in the CA about Memphis City Gardens at Central Station. If you live in an apartment or condo and don’t have a yard, this project will offer you space to have a garden of your own. Very very neat concept.

This Thursday, July 21 is the monthly Third Thursday party on the block of the Main Street Mall at Peabody Place. Live music by Tonya Dyson & Green Onions, Soul Survivors, and the Vic Reid Quartet. It starts at 5:30 and participating businesses will have food and drink specials and retail discount. This is a good party to do a little pre-gaming before you head to the Peabody or Madison roof, or to Country on Beale.

Want to buy a church? Historic Clayborn Temple, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave several speeches, is for sale according to the Memphis Business Journal. They’re targeting a foundation or nonprofit for a buyer. Before you jump at the cheap $1 million price tag, though, be aware that the church will cost another $4 million to renovate.

Plan for tonight: A couple of happy hour beers at Bardog, then over to the Silly Goose for their 8:00 trivia.

Good article in the Commercial Appeal today about Memphian Jonathon Plumley, who competes on the new season of Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen. The show premieres tonight at 7. Plumley has landed in the kitchen of the Green Beetle since filming the show. They’ll have a watch party tonight, with Plumley’s signature dish punch-drunk chicken being served. Best advice is to get there a little early to get a seat.

Speaking of the Beetle… I hate it when I look back at a weekend and think what I didn’t do, but should’ve done. I regret not hanging out there either Friday or Saturday night, between about 9 and 1, just to see what kind of crowd develops. They have PBR in 16-ounce cans, so I certainly wouldn’t have trouble finding something I like to drink. Given that they’re nonsmoking, a different locals’ crowd will develop than, say, the crowd at Bardog or Max’s. I need to check it out for sure next weekend. I’ve been looking for a regular Friday/Saturday night default hangout for a while and the Beetle could well be it.

Another good article in the CA: The Door of Hope writers’ group came to the defense of Memphis. The writers wanted to speak about their Memphis experiences, in response to the negative appearances the city has made on Forbes magazine lists lately.

The Peabody has a cool job listed today. It’s a concierge/assistant duckmaster job. You’d be a concierge 3 days a week, and duckmaster 2 days. Obviously you’d need to have excellent people skills for this one.

The CVB is giving away four Memphis vacation packages. View them here and fill out the form to enter to win the package of your choice. There’s a River package, a Family package, a Music package, and an Art & Culture package.

Kerry from the I Love Memphis Blog is assembling an all-star eating team. They will take the Kookamonga Challenge, attempting to eat 7.5 pounds of burger at Kooky Canuck on July 27 at 6:30 PM. She has three people for the team (including herself) but is looking for a fourth. If you’re interested in being on her team, details are here.

There was a #memphishoes hashtag trending on Twitter this morning. That’s “hoes,” not “shoes.” Yeah that’ll make our city look good.

Congratulations to the U.S. ladies on an amazing World Cup run. They may not have taken home the gold, but they made America care about women’s soccer the way the Grizzlies made Memphis care about NBA basketball. Just a fantastic job by the U.S. team.

My plan for tonight: I’ll probably drink a couple of happy hour beers at Bardog, then on to the Saucer for Pint Nite, then the Silly Goose at 9 for poker. Other stuff going on: Trivia night at Bar None (7:30), half-price pizza and wine at Spindini.

Lots of stuff being given away at Downtown bars this summer. So far we have

• Mich Ultra golf bag at Max’s Sports Bar
• Fat Tire bike at Bar None
• Yuengling kayak at Flying Saucer
• Abita Brewery trip at Flying Saucer (trivia prize)

And now, the latest giveaway is this:

Bardog Tavern is giving away this iPod speaker tower (fire hydrant not included). Buy a Bud Light through August 18 and get an entry to win.

There’s lots to be won this summer, so come on out and drink you some beer! Note to whomever distributes PBR in Memphis: Where are YOUR prizes? Time to step up!

I was cleaning the gigantimous junk-fest that is my kitchen counter yesterday, and I found this:

Wooden nickel redeemable for a free beer at Boscos. Now, the thing is, I haven’t been to Boscos in two years, and wouldn’t be surprised if I don’t make it there for another two. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great bar. It’s just that getting there involves driving a car.

So, I might as well give the free beer away. First person to find me after 12:30 PM today and ask for the wooden nickel gets it. No fair “calling it” via email or Facebook message or whatever; you have to physically find me and ask for it.