Tomorrow is a very important day

Tomorrow is a big day. It’s load-in for the BBQ teams. Now, in past years I’ve had a very important and unique role on the team. “Paul, we need one team member to stay behind at the Saucer, and handle anything that comes up,” the team captains told me. Here’s a recap of what I did last year. On Saturday, first day of load-in, I had a key meeting with fountain of wisdom John D; I checked world financial news and thought how it might impact the Ques Brothers; and I met with a beverage consultant and ordered nine of her recommended beverages in 16-ounce amounts. I also gave advice to the captain of a new team. All of this could not be done anywhere but the Saucer.

When I heard that BBQ Fest had been moved to the fairgrounds, I talked to the our captains. “Surely you don’t need me to hold down the fort at the Saucer, when load-in is 5 miles away,” I protested. “I never get to have any fun at load-in. I’m ready to sweat, I’m ready to lift, I’m ready to get my hands dirty. I’m ready to work.”

The captains wouldn’t hear of it. “NO, Paul,” they told me firmly. “It is just too risky to leave the Saucer uncovered the entire day. We need you there. Now, you don’t have to stay the whole day. If you want to walk over to Bar None and show our sponsor some support by drinking a half yard of beer, that’s fine. Or if you want to spend a little time at Max’s gathering inside infomation on how to beat Squeal Street at cornhole, that’s good too. But most of the day, it is imperative – I can’t stress this enough, Paul – absolutely imperative that you be at the Saucer for load-in Sunday.”

The team has spoken, and I must obey.

On another note… where are my manners? Fourth post of the day and I haven’t mentioned the GRIZZLIES yet??? I have tickets, and the Grizzlies expert who doesn’t get invited to parties has confirmed that the start time is 4 PM. Going to make a stop by the Chris Vernon Show booth outside, and pick up a Z-Bo shirt, as well as Tony Allen shirt if they still have any left. For those not going, game will be broadcast on ESPN.

You may notice a different look to the blog this morning. I’m playing around with Google web fonts. There’s a plug-in for WordPress, giving bloggers over 100 font options, instead of just the dozen or so Web-safe options we’ve had for the past 15 years. Hope you enjoy the new look once I get it tweaked; for a while today it will be under construction.

High schoolers: Don’t forget, there’s a Jersey Shore party for you at Hollywood Disco tonight

For people like Meghan who are too old to get in, there's an event not far away that will be just as big a shitshow: Karaoke at the Blue Monkey.

If you’re in high school and are looking for a party tonight, stop by Hollywood Disco at 115 Vance (just east of Main). From 7 to 11 PM tonight they’ll have a Jersey Shore theme party. Get your gear on and do your best Situation, Pauly D, Snooki, JWoww or whoever floats your boat. Bust out your Ed Hardy, your Affliction (IT’S T-SHIRT TIME!!!), your Axe body spray, your poof hairdos, your foobs. Bring it!

The club will open to 18+ at 11:30 PM. If you show them a Grizzlies ticket stub they’ll give you half off cover and $1 off 32 oz. beers.

 

Video: Rep. Steve Cohen rips Attorney General Eric Holder about online poker

This week, Steve Cohen questioned Attorney General Eric Holder about the prosecution of three online poker sites. Given all the other priorities we have, Cohen asked, should we really be spending taxpayer money going after sites that millions of Americans enjoy?

For his part, Holder said that he wasn’t sure whether poker was a game of skill. When Cohen asked holder whether Phil Ivey is just lucky, Holder replied that he didn’t know who Phil Ivey was.

Good job, Steve. Proud to have you as my Congressman.

A challenge has been issued

I have to hand it to our friends at Squeal Street. They made a good move this week.

As a poker player, I can tell you that a good strategy is to make bets when you think you have an advantage. Especially when you think you can give your opponent(s) a compelling reason to accept the bet, even knowing they’re at a disadvantage.

Earlier this week several of us were discussing BBQ Fest plans on my Facebook wall. One of the Squeal Street members suggested, “One of the afternoons when it’s slow, how about a friendly Ques Brothers vs. Squeal Street cornhole tournament, for a keg of PBR?”

Now, this is a problem because most of the members of Squeal Street hang out at Max’s Sports Bar. When the weather is nice, they get out the cornhole boards and spend hours and hours playing down there. Most of the Ques, on the other hand, play only occasionally if at all.

Yet we can’t very well back down from the challenge without looking like wussies. And besides, we’d really like to get our hands on that keg of PBR!

Ques Brothers: Who’s good at cornhole?

(By the way, if anyone is looking to buy cornhole boards, my Amazon store Mid-South Alcoholic Supply sells them.)

Fri update: Free headbands, flood, Spamalot, cleanup day tomorrow, Pa Pa Pia’s on Groupon, new Seinfeld website

You can pick up a free “Believe Memphis” yellow headband at the FedExForum Grand Plaza today until 7 PM. They’ll also have window clings and other goodies. I’ve heard that you have to fill out a form to get your free stuff. More info here.

The Great Memphis Flood of 2011 now has its own blog. Today’s post lists items needed at local flood shelters.

To answer a question I posted yesterday, the business at Harbor Town are open. Miss Cordelias, Tugs, Paulette’s, Lil Cafe Eclectic, Movie & Pizza, and River Inn are open for business, and if you don’t live in the island they invite you to come over and shop. They just ask that you not come to the Island for the sole purpose of taking flood photos.

Monty Python’s Spamalot is at the Orpheum this weekend. Details and ticket information here. They had a spam cookoff, which was won by Chef Patrick Reilly at the Majestic Grille. Patrick has an interesting John Cleese story here.

Clean Memphis will hold a clean-the-city day tomorrow. The city will be divided into 31 cleanup zones. Click through to their website if you want to sign up to help.

A Downtown restaurant is the Groupon deal of the day: Pa Pa Pia’s.

If you’re a fan of Jerry Seinfeld, he’s put up a new website. The site will be a warehouse of comedy routines he’s done the past 30 years. He’ll add three new clips a day, so there will always be a reason to check back for new material. He’s hoping his work will inspire young comedians.

Finally made it to a Peabody rooftop party last night… felt a little embarrassed that, after they gave me a pass, it took me until week 4 to get up there. Due to other Cinco de Mayo festivities, I didn’t get to the rooftop until 9. I was starving but expected their Mexican buffet to be picked over at that hour. “Maybe I can scrape up enough guacamole for one chip,” I hoped as I rode the elevator up. I was pleasantly surprised to find the buffet still stocked, and I made myself a Nuh-Uh Girl-sized plate of nachos and refried beans. I was full by the time I got to VIP but it looked like the fish taco bar was still going strong too. Kudos once again to the Peabody on going above and beyond on the customer service.

Vacation starts at 5 PM! Ready for 9 days of relaxation and BBQ. No definite plans for tonight yet, but I’ll be out.

Switching to “vacation mode” tomorrow at 5 (this means more posts, not less)

Starting 5 PM Friday, this blog and my @paulryburn Twitter account will switch over to “vacation mode.”

What does that mean? No posts or tweets for nine days?

NO! It means just the opposite! There will be more posts and tweets than ever, as I cover BBQ Fest all of next week. It does mean, however, that you can’t count on me posting on a schedule. There will likely be several posts a day, at whatever random hours I get around to doing them. From Thursday-Sunday of next week I’ll post BBQ Fest photo albums. I have a new camera and three batteries, so there shouldn’t be any shortage of pics.

I’ll be posting the regular Downtown news too. It won’t be all BBQ Fest by any means.

I considered taking the netbook to BBQ Fest and posting live, but with the move to the fairgrounds that is absolutely not going to happen. However, I will be tweeting live from my @paulryburn Twitter account. BBQ Fest week tends to be my most active week of the year on Twitter, with about half useful info and half photos and drunk tweets. I’m bringing my iPhone charger to BBQ Fest, because I will almost certainly run my battery down.

I’ll be on Facebook too, although to a lesser extent than Twitter.

You can also follow my BBQ team, the @quesbrothers, on Twitter. I’m one of several people who has access to post on that account.

Right now, it’s time for a little Cinco de Mayo action, but the real party starts tomorrow!

Thur update: Flood news, Erik Proseus featured on I Love Memphis Blog, Cinco de Mayo parties, Flying Saucer changes its happy hour

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.