Paul Ryburn's Journal

Lots going on to blog about, so let’s get started…

Garry Goin and G3 will play the Peabody rooftop party tonight. They’re the group that used to be the house band at EP’s. Food theme will be German/Austrian this week, with buffet (included in price of admission) of bratwurst, rolls, German mustard, sauerkraut, German potato salad and dill pickles. The buffet in VIP will have knockwurst with rolls and German mustard, sliced sausage and cheese, and deviled eggs. $10 to get in, ladies free before 7.

VIP pass holders get admission to a pre-party from 5 to 6 in the Corner Bar. Yuengling and a food buffet of chili glazed chicken wings, calamari fritti, and an antipasto platter. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

There’s also an after-party in the Corner Bar from 10 to 12 that is free for everyone. Josh Crosby and Nick Redmond from Star and Micey will play. Drink sales will benefit the Memphis Music Foundation.

Over at the Madison, Joyce Cobb will be the featured entertainer this week for “Sunset Atop the Madison.” Doors open at 5:30, sunset at 8:13. $7 cover, cash bar and tapas available. At 10:30 a DJ takes over for “Moonlight Atop the Madison,” free for Sunset attendees, $5 otherwise.

Meanwhile, over in Handy Park, David Allan Coe and Brad Kessler will play tonight. Free with $10 food/drink purchase.

And across the street at Alfred’s will be the “Play for Jay” event, with casino games, cash bar, live music and food. Proceeds will benefit the Jay Uiberall Legacy Fund scholarship. More details here.

A group of my friends ate, or I should say attempted to eat, at Happy Mexican last night. The waiter told them that an ID and credit card were required before they could even order. Manager said this is a requirement for parties of six or more. They got up and left and ate at Spaghetti Warehouse instead. What the hell? It’s been discussed on Twitter this morning and a Commercial Appeal columnist has been notified about the experience. I hope she does a column on it. That rule is ridiculous.

Ferraro’s is doing the $15 all-you-can-eat pizza and all-you-can-drink PBR night for Thursday karaoke night. I’ve heard a rumor – and this is as of yet an UNCONFIRMED rumor – that the $15 deal may be coming to Tuesday trivia night soon. The Nuh-Uh Girl will never miss another Tuesday there again if that turns out to be true!

Next Tuesday is the monthly South Main Association meeting. It will be at Earnestine & Hazel’s and the speaker will be Veronica Sally-Garner. She is the coordinator of the South Main Precinct neighborhood watch program. 6 to 9 PM, happy hour prices on beer, free soul burgers for members. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

On Saturday, you can meet TNA wrestlers and get free tickets to TNA BaseBrawl that night at AutoZone Park. Go to Direct Auto Insurance from 2:00-2:45 PM to meet “The King of the Mountain” Jeff Jarrett. Get an insurance quote, and you’ll get a free autograph and a ticket to BaseBrawl. Watch out if he picks up his guitar!

From 11 AM to 1 PM, “The Blueprint” Matt Morgan and Velvet Sky will be at Direct Auto Insurance at 2552 Covington Pike. Same deal – get a quote, receive an autograph and ticket. Velvet Sky is HOTTTTTTTTTT. She looks amazing in a tube top. I would marry her!

There’s a Memphis Blogging Boot Camp to be held on Saturday, June 25 from 10 AM to 2 PM. It’s for new and intermediate bloggers. Learn about topics like how to set up a blog, integrating social media, themes, moderating comments, finding your niche, blogging for money, keywords, and understanding SEO (search engine optimization). I haven’t heard of the company presenting the seminar before, but they’re using WordPress, which is far and away the best blogging platform, so I’m going to recommend this. Seminar will be at Jason’s Deli conference room. Register here.

Plans for tonight: I was leaning toward going to the rooftop, but photos I’ve seen on Facebook are now swaying me in the direction of Bardog. What the hell did I miss there last night? Shouldn’t have left right after poker. Maybe I’ll get more texts from someone telling me how “gangsta” she is. Geez. Right now, though, it’s time to make a quick run to Target, then back to an afternoon of website updates in my air-conditioned office. Later!

Last night I had a few warm-up beers at the Saucer, then headed to Bardog for the Wednesday night poker tournament in the Underdog. The potential opponent I tried to invite decided to be antisocial, but that was fine, I ended up having someone to pick on. Look who made a surprise guest appearance:

Yep it’s the one and only BRICK!!!!! As far as I know this was her first appearance at Bardog. Here she is modeling the PBR suspenders Poker Jon brought me.

Brick brought her BFF Kalista, who ended up winning.

I made an early exit from the tournament, after shoving my 1600 chips in under the gun with 10-8 unsuited, with the blinds 200/400 and about to go up. What can I say, I’m a maniac who will play any two cards!

Afterward, I hung out with Uncle Ray upstairs.

Bardog was once again tube top deficient, which was kind of surprising considering Suzy was there.

It’s Thursday… I need to do a Peabody rooftop post at lunchtime… plus whatever other news comes along. Once again I’m in decision mode between rooftop and poker at Max’s Sports Bar. Right now though, it’s time to get dressed and go to work in my air-conditioned office!

This morning, I attended a Public Relations Society of America workshop about Twitter. Speaker was Sandra Fathi, president of Affect, an agency in New York City, and also president of the NYC PRSA chapter. Her talk was excellent and I got a lot of good ideas about connecting with journalists that I will take back to work this afternoon.

She discussed hashtags, and people mentioned how well the #memflood hashtag has been used on Twitter. So she pulled it up in HootSuite. Among the tweets that appeared was this one:

And the #memflood is gone RT @Paulryburn ousted @clay1278 as mayor of Flying Saucer Draught Emporium on @foursquare! http://4sq.com/7TIbp6

So there was one of my drunk tweets/Foursquare checkins, right there for the professional community of Memphis to see.

And who was sitting right next to me, looking at it as well? My boss. Yep. Fantastic.

Back Downtown for lunch, eating one of my favorite comfort foods, chili with jalapenos, onions and cheese from Court House Deli. Was tempted to eat outside because there was a hot MILF in a tube top dress out there, but I decided to bring it home and do a blog post. The owner of the place said, “Hey Paul. Here. Try these,” as I was walking out and handed me three of their new blackened voodoo wings. I thought about telling him I already tried a full order last month when I was on vacation. But then I thought, the Nuh-Uh Girl wouldn’t turn down free food, why should I?

In other news: Bar None is planning an ’80s party Saturday night. I’m short on time so I’ll just paste the description from Facebook. Sorry about the caps (theirs, not mine):

WE’RE GONNA PARTY LIKE IT’S 1985!! BRING ON THE AQUA NET, ACID WASHED JEANS AND NEON LEG WARMERS. SO FOR ALL YOU GIRLS WHO WANNA HAVE FUN AND GUYS WHO LIKE IT HOT JOIN US AT BAR NONE FOR A TOTALLY RAD 80’S BASH. $100.00 GIFT CARDS FOR BEST GUY AND GIRL 80’S OUTFIT. WE WILL BE ROCKING OUT TO AWESOME 80’S MIXED TAPES. JELLO SHOTS AND DRINK SPECIALS ALL NIGHT.

A friend of mine texted me from Tuesday night steak night at the Downtown Blue Monkey last night. He said the steaks are fantastic and they use only meat from Charlie’s Meat Market. See, I can say good things about the Monkey, just not about their karaoke night. I’ll have to check out their steak night sometime soon.

Harp is the Fire Sale today. Since it tastes exactly like a beer I love, PBR, I’ll be there at the Saucer at 5:30 to enjoy a few. I’m about 50/50 on whether I’ll do poker in Bardog’s Underdog Room at 7:30 tonight. I’d said I was only going to go if a potential opponent decides to stop being a no-fun crybaby and go out, but you know what? $2 Coronas mean there’s a very good chance I’ll show up regardless.

Time for a sweaty drive back to Horn Lake in a hot car. I need to go to more of those PRSA workshops. It really was informative and worth whatever my company paid for me to go.

Last night I started out with a walk down Madison to the First Tennessee building to use their ATM. Snapped a couple of pics along the way.

Then I moved on to Bardog…

My only complaint about Bardog was that it was tube top deficient last night. C’mon people get it together!!!

I then moved on to the Saucer and watched the rest of the basketball game. They left the news on afterward and there was video from Rudy Williams’ music memorial. They had a trumpet made of flowers and his straw hat and I was fighting back tears as I watched it.

I have a PR meeting at the U of M this morning and will eat somewhere nearby, so probably no time for a lunchtime post for today. Plans for tonight: Not set in stone but leaning toward poker in Bardog’s Underdog Room (7:30). I thought I was going to have a new person to beat, but it looks like someone is having trouble putting her big girl panties on and coming out on a weeknight. We will see.

The PR meeting is about Twitter. If I learn anything interesting I’ll recap it later…

I just received the “Bark & Herald,” the email newsletter Bardog Tavern sends out. In it I found a great June special: $2 Corona bottles, with or without lime, all day long, all month long. What a sweet deal! Now I’m going to be torn as to whether to drink Corona and PBR when I’m there. Which I’m about to be in a few minutes!

Tube tops and Corona will keep you cool this hot June!

I’ll start off today’s lunchtime blog post with an item of interest to men, and no, it has nothing to do with tube tops. If you like wearing ties, Tom Shelton just scored a bunch of antique tie bars. He sorted out the best ones and is selling them at Shelton Clothiers. Not an item I have any use for (I hate ties and never wear them, except on Halloween), but for others it’s a chance to wear a piece of history.

There will be a music memorial for Beale Street ambassador Rudy Williams tonight at N.J. Ford and Sons funeral home from 5 to 7 PM today. Rudy’s funeral will be at Greater Mt. Moriah Baptist Church on S. Wellington tomorrow at 11. There will be a procession down Beale from Second to Handy Park at 1 tomorrow. Family, friends and musicians who want to participate are asked to meet at 12:30. Burial will be at the West Tennessee Veterans Cemetery at 2.

I know a lot of people are thinking about buying season tickets to the Grizzlies next year, after they electrified Memphis with a 2011 playoff run. On Saturday, June 18 they will have an open house where you can test-drive the seats you want. They’ll have free headbands for the first 200 attendees, and from 12 to 1 you’ll have the chance to meet a Grizzlies player. Season ticket holders get merchandise discounts, exclusive event invitations, and playoff ticket priority, so if you’re on the fence there are a lot of good reasons to go ahead and make the purchase.

For the second week in a row I didn’t make it to poker at the Goose. I hung out at Pint Nite at the Saucer until about 9. Around that time I started to get tired, and knew I didn’t have it in me to stay up until 1, which would be required to win poker. So I went to Bardog and defended my mayorship there instead. Got to hang out with the Salty Dogs in the Underdog Room for a few minutes, which was a treat. I like their runners’ group and like to think I’m with them in spirit on their runs. I also got some wooden nickels good for 5 cent PBRs.

Plans for tonight: Don’t know. Trivia at Ferraro’s? Trivia at the Goose? Saucer is a definite NO after management made a smartass comment on Twitter about us not being able to win without our friends calling trivia. (Actually, we won it the first three weeks in a row after David took it over.) Another option is to just skip all the trivia nights and hang out at Bardog for happy hour and then pint night. I guess the gang will exchange texts this afternoon and figure it all out. Going to grab a quick sandwich, then start climbing the mountain of web updates awaiting me at work!

Yesterday evening after work, I was surfing DowntownMemphis.com’s Events page for things to blog about, and I found this:

Karaoke
Ferraro’s Pizzeria & Pub. 111 Jackson. (901) 522-2033. 8pm. $15. With a pizza buffet and all-you-can-drink drafts.

Now, as you all know, I normally HATE karaoke. However, I will recommend this one for several reasons:

1) The all-you-can-drink drafts are most likely PBR;

2) Ferraro’s pizza is awesome!

3) Thursday night is a good night to do karaoke. It’s not worth wasting a weekend night, but a Thursday, sure.

4) There tend to be a lot of hot girls who are customers at Ferraro’s (maybe even a few in tube tops), especially compared to that place “down south” that does Saturday night karaoke.

5) The Nuh-Uh Girl does the Peabody rooftop parties on Thursdays, so you don’t have to worry about her showing up and eating all the pizza.

For $15 this is a bargain. I’d be willing to put up with bad singing for all-you-can-eat pizza and all-you-can-drink PBR. Never thought I’d be recommending a karaoke night, but this one is good to go.

The Salty Dogs, the runners’ group that meets at Bardog Tavern every Monday, is doing a pub crawl tonight. They will meet at Bardog at 6:30, and then embark on a pub crawl/run to Silky O’ Sullivan’s, Earnestine & Hazel’s, and the Flying Saucer, before ending back at Bardog. Theme is Hawaiian luau, and I hear a prize will be awarded for best outfit. They’re an open group and are always happy to see new runners, so show up at Bardog if you’re interested in running. A tube top and a grass skirt would be my recommendation for attire.

Happy to finally take part in a Salty Dogs event, although I’ll miss the Bardog, Silky’s and E&H stops on the pub crawl. Well, a Bardog stop is not out of the question, but I won’t be running there.

By the way, why is the Michelob Ultra bike still hanging at Bardog? I thought they were going to give it away the last weekend in May, after people bought Mich Ultra to enter to win. Doesn’t anyone like shitty, watery beer?

In other news, Bob Dylan will play Mud Island on July 30. Opening act will be Leon Russell. Tickets go on sale on Ticketmaster at 10 AM on Friday.

WWE Raw’s world tour will be back at the FedExForum August 27. That’s a Sunday, so it will not be a televised show.

All right, that’s all I’ve got for today. It’s lunchtime, not hungry, don’t feel like getting in a hot car. Not sure what I’ll do the next 45 minutes…

This weekend, most of my friends were out of town on a canoe trip. Many of them like to spend their Saturday nights, when they’re in town, at karaoke night at the Downtown Blue Monkey. While I think the Monkey is a great bar, I can think of nothing more boring to do on a Saturday than listen to bad singing. So I’ve been steadfast in my refusal to go, up until yesterday.

However, with the gang out on a canoe trip, and with big-time karaoke supporter Robo late getting there because he went to the ZZ Top concert, I decided to have a little fun. I got on Twitter and teased that I was considering going. I said I even had a song picked out, “I Was Made for Dancing” by Leif Garrett. Leif Garrett was to 1979 what Justin Bieber is to 2011. Well, except Leif had about 10,000 times more talent. Which still isn’t saying much.

About 9:45 I put the following on Twitter:

“Karaoke! (@ Blue Monkey w/2 others) http://4sq.com/hLnofu”

People saw the Foursquare checkin and assumed I was there. A little later, my friend Frank tweeted that he’d been there 40 minutes, and no one had sung yet, “not even @paulryburn.” I waited about an hour, then the following went to Twitter:

“Back home where I belong, in a karaoke-free zone! (@ Flying Saucer Draught Emporium w/ 5 others) http://4sq.com/lwVSsc“

So it looked like I went there, had a boring time, and returned back to my home away from home. That’s the story I told Twitter Saturday night.

Look at the first checkin. Particularly, the last part of the 4sq.com URL. Sound it out and you’ll see my true reaction to karaoke night.

To make things even more fun, I was posting to Facebook throughout the night as well. Except, on Facebook I was posting what I was really doing – listening to people with actual singing talent (West TN Wife Swappers reunion show) and checking out tube tops at the Saucer. Most of the karaoke supporters are active on Twitter though, and I fooled several into believing I really was briefly there. I’m a karaoke ninja! Maybe I’ll bring a karaoke machine to the South Main Ninja Parade on April 1 of next year.

Up early today, so I’m going to do something different and try South of Beale‘s brunch. After that it’ll be Sunday Fun Day business as usual at the Saucer.

(Edited to add: Holy crap, it’s amazing what you can find on YouTube. Here’s the video.)