Paul Ryburn's Journal

We’ll start off today’s lunchtime post with a bunch of flood news. Volunteers are needed to fill sandbags in the Pyramid’s parking lot. If you can help out, join them between noon and 6 PM today, and 9 AM and 6 PM tomorrow. If you have a shovel, bring it.

Flood waters have reached 46′ and have lapped over Riverside onto Beale. See a photo in the Memphis Flyer’s City Beat blog. For those worried the Downtown core is in danger, don’t. The crest is expected two feet higher at 48′. The intersection of Front and Union sits at 78′.

MPD has closed Island Drive on Mud Island to non-resident traffic. The reason was because flood tourism was clogging traffic on the island. With parking lots under water, people were parking right on Island Drive and getting out to take photos. Question: What about non-Island residents who want to shop at Miss Cordelia’s, eat at Movie & Pizza or Little Cafe Eclectic, etc.? Are we allowed to come over?

My favorite weatherman, Erik Proseus, is the featured Memphian on Kerry’s I Love Memphis Blog today. Erik runs the excellent MemphisWeather.net website, Facebook and Twitter accounts, and iPhone and Android apps.

Bardog has announced specials for Cinco de Mayo tonight. $5 margaritas and $6 mojitos. The chef will be cooking up something special in the kitchen as well.

The Silly Goose will have a Cinco party as well. $2 tacos (and if memory serves, their tacos are really good). $5 32 oz. margaritas in buckets you can keep. At 8 PM, there will be a taco eating contest. At 8:10 PM, the Nuh-Uh Girl will swoop in like a pigeon and eat the leftover tacos from the contest.

The Flying Saucer has changed their happy hour pricing. Up until this week, most draft beers cost the same during happy hour as during other times of the day, but were served in a 22 oz. glass rather than the standard 16 oz. pint glass. Now, beers are served in a 16 oz. pint glass all the time, but most drafts are $1 off during happy hour.

So, is this a win or a loss for customers? I got out a piece of paper and did the algebra. If the beer you drink sells for less than $3.67 full price, you’ll get more for your money with the new happy hour. If your beer’s full price is more than $3.67, you’ll get slightly less for your money than before. So, the moral of the story is, drink cheap, shitty beer like Coors Light.

Really, the price difference is almost negligible. The Dos Equis Lager I usually drink ($4.50 full price) is about a penny per ounce more expensive with the new happy hour. That’s not exactly a budget-buster. I bet the true profit for the Saucer will come with not having to deal with those 22 oz. glasses anymore. They’ve got to be more expensive than standard pint glasses, and they’re easier to break too.

Tentative plan for tonight: A Dos Equis Lager with extra limes at the Saucer, then Kooky de Mayo, then rooftop. Silly Goose may very well end up in the mix too.

I heard last night that the West Memphis Walgreens has Breckenridge Beer in bottles. $10.99 a six-pack, and they have four different varieties.

To shorten their instructions, 1) pick your yogurt(s); 2) pick your topping(s); 3) weigh and pay.

Dream Berry is between Union and Gayoso on the Main Street Mall.

Margaritas that make you “kooky”

Kooky Canuck has announced that they will celebrate “Kooky de Mayo” all day tomorrow, Thursday May 5. Here are the details and specials:

*** $3.00 34oz Margaritas ***
$3.00 Corona Bottles
$3.00 34oz Bud Light Draft
$4.00 Tequila Shots

Kooky de Mayo Menu
South of the Border Eggrolls
Quesadillas (beef or chicken)
Taco Salad (beef or chicken)
Tortilla Soup
Refried Beans and Rice
Sopapillas

6:00pm Pinata Party
7:00pm Chihuahua Costume Contest
8:00pm World’s Smallest Chihuahua Kookamonga Challenge

Those 34 oz. margaritas are massive and are definitely the deal of the day. I seriously doubt you’ll see a better Cinco de Mayo value anywhere tomorrow. I may have to stop in for a margarita before I hit the Peabody rooftop.

You may have seen the Tony Allen “All Heart, Grit, Grind” shirt produced by the Chris Vernon Show. There’s now a second shirt, and this one features Z-Bo. Zach Randolph’s image is on the shirt in full color (with yellow headband), along with his quote “Just a blue collar player in a blue collar town.” You can order the image on Verno’s blog, or you can buy one outside the FedExForum, where he’ll set up shop prior to games Saturday and Monday. I’m going to go down there Saturday and get one.

If you’re a fan of Kerry’s I Love Memphis Blog, keep an eye on it this afternoon, or on her @ilovememphis Twitter account. She’s been working on a big secret project, and she says she’ll be ready to talk about it later today.

WordPress Memphis has announced its monthly meetup. It will be tomorrow in the EmergeMemphis building at 6 PM. The topic will be BuddyPress, the open-source social networking tool that is a companion to WordPress. Emerge is on Tennessee Street, at the corner of G.E. Patterson.

It’s Wine Down Wednesday tonight at Bar None, with half price bottles of wine. I’ll be spending some time at Bar None, our BBQ team sponsor along with WordPress.com, in the next week.

Had a good chat with one of the head Ques Brothers last night. We’re putting together alternate transportation to get team members to Tiger Lane and back home, as a backup to the shuttle service Memphis in May is arranging with MATA. I saw the team T-shirts for this year and they look great. Everything is coming together nicely and I can’t wait for next week.

Time to grab some Mexican food, then back to fun with SQL for this afternoon. No definite plans for tonight, but I’ll probably be out.

The next Peabody rooftop party is tomorrow night, May 5 – hey, that’s Cinco de Mayo! The Peabody is celebrating with a Cinco de Mayo-themed party. The buffet (included in the price of admission) will feature a nacho bar with seasoned ground beef, shredded cheese, guacamole, diced tomatoes, sour cream, salsa fresca and jalapenos. There will also be chicken empanadas, Mexican rice and refried beans on the buffet.

For those with VIP passes, there will be an additional buffet with tamales topped with chili and cheese, and a make-your-own fish taco bar.

It will be a Crown Imports fiesta featuring Corona, Corona Light, Modelo Especial, Negra Modelo, and Pacifico. Entertainment will be Kevin & Bethany Paige, along with house DJ Mark Anderson, and party hosts Maney, Drex and Riley from Q107.5/96.1. $10 cover includes first drink, ladies free before 7.

Due to weather and friends in town, I missed the first three rooftop parties, but this week I intend to be there. I’ll drink some Mexican beer and see if I can make a fish taco as good as the ones I used to eat in San Diego. I plan on being there fairly early, because by 8 or so, the Nuh-Uh Girl will leave the buffet in the same state of devastation that the tornadoes did to Tuscaloosa.

What other Cinco de Mayo parties are going on Downtown? Let me know (paul@paulryburn.com) and I’ll try to do a follow-up post tomorrow.

This Saturday, May 7, the Flying Saucer will have its 14th birthday party. Rare beers will be tapped throughout the day, and Kings of the Delta will play. With BBQ Fest load-in delayed until Sunday, Saturday is a day of rest, so if you’re on a team come on down and drink some beer.

Here are some pics I snapped at Riverside Drive between Monroe and Union tonight.

Within days Riverside itself will be under water.

I need a perch high up to take pics. My rooftop at Number 10 is not the best for river pics because the Madison Hotel blocks it. Anyone know of a good photo-taking venue from above?

Lots of flood news to start off the lunchtime post today. On Twitter, the @MemFlood account posted this map, showing areas of Shelby County that will likely be/will possibly be under water by May 10 when the Mississippi crests. OH MY GOD. I didn’t realize how serious this is going to be. Large chunks of Memphis under water, especially around the Wolf River and Nonconnah Creek.

Another good link is this chart that shows the current Mississippi River stage, and the forecast for several days out.

If you saw the I-40 bridge last night and wondered why it was not lit up, that’s due to the flood as well. They removed the transformer until the water recedes.

So, the flood will move BBQ Fest to Tom Lee Park. Participants now have two options: 1) They can make themselves miserable complaining about a situation they can’t change; or 2) They can laugh it off and resolve to have a good time anyway. Air Traffic Mike says it well in this post. BBQ team members who think they have problems because the festival was moved need to open the link in the first paragraph above, and see REAL problems.

So, tonight the Grizzlies play Game 2 at Oklahoma City at 8:30, game on TNT. Besides of the trivia night/watch party at Ferraro’s which I posted yesterday, I’ve learned of four other watch parties Downtown:

The Flying Saucer is canceling their weekly Tuesday trivia night this week so that full attention can be paid to the game. They’ll have the Grizzlies on 7 TVs, including two big screens, with sound.

South of Beale is having a watch party as well, with $3 Grizz Shots.

Spindini will have a watch party with happy hour prices during the game, and Grizzlies memorabilia giveaways.

Of course, the Grizzlies will host their own free watch party as well. Doors to the FedExForum will open at 7:30, an hour before game time.

If I hear of more watch parties, I’ll try to do an update after work. Once I get home, I’m going to wander down to the river and snap some pics. Undecided where to watch tonight. I agree that full attention on the game is necessary – trivia takes a back seat – so will end up at Saucer, Max’s, or possibly a friend’s house.

In other news, Christine’s by Shelton Clothiers has announced a Mother’s Day sale. If you can’t figure out exactly what to get her, buy her a $50 gift card to Christine’s and receive a $15 gift card free. Limit two per customer, with gift cards not valid on sale items.

That’s all for now. Off to eat a quick burger, then I’ll spend the afternoon figuring out which of 72 parameters is crashing my SQL statement. Next week, the only SQL I’ll see will be INSERT INTO paul VALUES (beer, bbq).