Paul Ryburn's Journal

Friday night I was at the Beer-Tron-a-Ton, the computer at the Flying Saucer that records what beers you’ve purchased. I’m down to the last 20 beers toward my fifth plate, and around that point it gets really hard to find anything good left to drink that isn’t massively expensive. I remembered that one of the bartenders had told me I should try RJ Rocker’s Buckwheat (After Dark.) So I printed out a ticket for that one, handed it into the bartender, and they gave me a beer.

Usually I’m not a big fan of dark beers, but this one wasn’t bad. I reasoned that it was the addition of buckwheat as an ingredient, although I really have no idea what buckwheat tastes like. Anytime I drink an unfamiliar craft beer, I like to examine the bottle’s label to see what information I can gather.

Wow. Anyone who’s ever watched episodes of The Little Rascals/Our Gang knows why there are two eyes staring at you on the bottle. It’s a reference to the many times the lights would go out with Buckwheat (pictured above) on the screen. All you could see would be the whites of his eyes. In 1936, when the episode I screen-capped the image above was produced, that kind of racial humor was accepted in society. Putting it on a beer bottle in 2011, though, is an odd choice.

Further examination of the bottle revealed that the beer was brewed in Spartanburg, South Carolina. It figures the Buckwheat After Dark label would come from the heart of the Old South. When I was a corporate trainer in 1999, I taught a couple of week-long classes there, and can confirm that it is every bit as much of a shithole as you might suspect.

Taste of the beer was not bad, but man… I just don’t know about that label. Wonder if they sell it at stores near Ole Miss? Bet it would be a big hit there.

Just got up. Time to catch up with Twitter/Facebook and see what happened last night that I missed. After an excellent dinner at Bangkok Alley, my body was just screaming at me, “You must sleep… NOW.” So I went home and went to bed at 9. If I’m going to waste a Saturday night, I’d rather it would be in January than in a nice-weather month like April or May. Got 11 hours quality sleep and feel like a million dollars now. Bring on Sunday Fun Day!

Every day I check Wikipedia’s main page and read the featured article. Today it happens to be a Memphis article. Congratulations to Temple Israel on being featured.

Last night I had the good fortune to attend the 10th birthday party for the Live from Memphis web site. The party was conveniently located across the street from my building, at site founder Christopher Reyes’ loft. LFM has done an incredible job spotlighting Memphis music and all that is good in this city for the past decade. If you want to know what’s going on, it should definitely be in your bookmarks. Congratulations to Christopher and all who contribute to LFM.

I was going to post about the stuff going on in Egypt, but this is more important.

Bardog Tavern has increased the price of a pint of PBR to $3, as shown on the image above which was texted to me this afternoon. Also note that Yuengling has gone up 50 cents as well, to $4.50.

Still a damn good place to hang out, it’ll just cost you a bit more if you drink certain beers.

Couple of pieces of good news for beer lovers in Memphis. First of all, Ghost River Brewery at Main and Crump is spending $750,000 on an expansion. That will allow them to bottle beers and sell them at retail locations. Pretty soon you’ll be able to pop open a bottle of Ghost River Golden, and people who come to visit from out of town will be able to take some fine Memphis beer home with them.

If you’ve ever thought about brewing your own beer at home, this weekend would be a good time to give it a try. Groupon has a deal with weekend for a $40 beer brewing kit from Midsouth Malts for $20. There are two different kits to choose from.

It’s South Main Trolley Night from 6 to 9 tonight, with many of the galleries and shops on South Main open, and some will put out free appetizers and wine. Couple of insider tips if you go down there:

1) Stop by 431 S. Main, where the Memphis Songwriters Association will have a CD release party at the Memphis Music Foundation headquarters. Live music by local artists, and you’ll be able to buy the new CD full of performances by MSA members. 6-9 PM. Light snacks provided. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

2) If you’re looking for something to do after Trolley Night, check out the Prime Cut Band at the Marmalade Lounge on G.E. Patterson. They perform from 9 to midnight.

Couple of events for the kids tomorrow. First of all, there’s a skateboard competition at Greenlaw Community Center at 190 Mill Avenue. Get the details in this Memphis Daily News article.

Secondly, there’s a dance party tomorrow at the Rumba Room from 2 to 5. Kids 7 and under are invited to come get down to kid-friendly dance tunes at “The Little Disco.” There will be healthy snacks, stroller parking, and changing stations. Adults not allowed unless accompanied by kids 7 and under. $10 adults, $10 kids, free for non-walking infants.

The Grizzlies host the Washington Wizards tomorrow night at the FedExForum. O.J. Mayo will serve the first game of a 10-game suspension for testing positive for over-the-counter substance DHEA. Ironically, tomorrow is O.J. Mayo bobblehead night with an O.J. mini-bobblehead for the first 5,000 fans.

I’ll be out at a couple of parties tonight. Will bring the camera in case anything blog-worthy happens.

Running is probably the last thing you ever expected to see discussed on my blog, but since a lot of my readers run with the Salty Dogs, I figured I should mention this: Popular iPhone/Android app RunKeeper Pro is now free. Before, it sold for $10, and a one-month trial period as a free app convinced them they should make it free permanently. Several people I know use it. They tell me it’s a GPS program that keeps stats on your run and it’s really cool. I don’t have first-hand experience using it though; I’m too busy recording beers on Beerby.

By the way, if you don’t know who the Salty Dogs are, show up at Bardog around 6:45 on Monday in your running gear. You’ll meet some cool people.

In other news… it’s poker night at Bar None, at 7:30. Wonder if attendance will increase, since I posted pics of the swanky Grizzlies seats and free buffet and beer I got for winning last week. I’ve heard the Nuh-Uh Girl say “I need to check out poker” a couple of times this week.

I won’t repeat my win, though… I’ve stayed out past midnight the past three nights, and it is imperative that I catch up on sleep to get my batteries re-charged for the weekend. I actually probably will play some poker tonight, but at home, on PokerStars. Good luck to all who play at Bar None tonight.

After our disastrous showing in trivia last night, some of the gang decided to head down the street to Bar None. We relaxed on the couches, drank PBR, and ate crawfish dip. The Nuh-Uh Girl, who protested that she was on a diet and didn’t want to eat, soon dived into the crawfish dip and finished off about half of it by herself.

Then our friend Joe decided to order the pub’s signature one-pound burger. They warned him it would take 25 to 30 minutes to cook, understandable for a burger of that size.

One pound is a lot of burger, but given who was standing to his immediate left, Joe was aware that he would have “help” eating the burger.

Good times. Live music with Kirk Smithhart there every Tuesday night. Tonight they have karaoke, and tomorrow night is poker.

Circa by John Bragg re-opens tonight. It closed its Downtown location in October (which has since turned into Bar None) in order to find a place out east to be closer to its customer base. Yesterday a co-worker asked me how to get to the new Circa. I replied, “I think you take Poplar out past the 240 and then turn left or something.” That’s pretty much how I give directions to anything in East Memphis. Actually the restaurant is at 6150 Poplar.

Speaking of Bar None, I was in there last night and took a photo of the 1-pound Bar None burger. I don’t have the camera with me to download pics, though, so it will have to wait for tonight. The Nuh-Uh Girl, supposedly on a diet, was all over an order of crawfish dip, and of course she had to have a bite of the burger.

Speaking of the Nuh-Uh Girl… she’s really, really hoping that February 2 is a cloudy day. That’s because Memphis-area Chick-Fil-A locations will give away free spicy chicken biscuits if the groundhog does not see his shadow. A portion of all sales that day will be donated to MIFA.

Interesting event I just found on the Downtown Memphis events page:

Servant or Sucker? Wise and Compassionate Ways to Help the Poor
First United Methodist Church. 204 N Second. (901) 527-8362. Dinner: 6pm; program: 6:45pm. $7 per person; $15 per family. In this five-part series each Wednesday evening, First Church member, Larry Chitwood, leads the discussion concerning appropriate, Christ-centered actions addressing poverty on a personal or organizational level. Participants will learn steps to take to be an effective servant without getting suckered.

Sounds like a good way to learn how to serve those truly in need, without supporting the lifestyle of some of the scam artists who operate Downtown.

(Edit: Oops, I posted that the Peabody wine club starts today. It’s actually next Wednesday, February 2.)

Also don’t forget that the Silly Goose’s second birthday party is tonight at 9. Live music from Jeremy Stanfill and shot specials. Other events going on tonight: Tiger home game vs. UCF at 7, FedExForum; poker night at Bardog, 7:30; Pint Night at South of Beale.

Yesterday I wrote about Valentine’s Day gifts delivered by Grizz. If baseball’s more your sweetheart’s game, you can arrange a Rockey Redbird delivery. For $75 Rockey will deliver two Dugout level ticket vouchers, a $20.00 gift card to Pugh’s Flowers, $10.00 in Redbirds bucks and a single rose ($100.00 value). He will deliver either Sunday the 13th or Monday the 14th. Only 10 Rockey deliveries are available, so if you want to reserve one call 901-722-0295 now.

If you want the package but don’t need the special delivery, you can buy the package for $40 and pick it up at the Union, Poplar or Whitten Road Pugh’s Flowers location.

This isn’t a Downtown thing, but I know some of my blog’s readers (one in particular) like to hear about free food. Pei Wei is adding Korean BBQ to the menu, and they’re offering a deal to get people to come in and try it. Go by Pei Wei this Wednesday or Thursday, and they’ll give you a card good for a free order of Korean BBQ the week of January 31-February 6, dine in or take out. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

Big night for TV: City Schools consolidation debate on Channel 3 from 5:30 to 7:30, then President Obama’s State of the Union address at 8:00.

A recruiter friend of mine has several Java and .Net positions open. If you’re looking for this type of work shoot me an e-mail at paul@paulryburn.com and I’ll get you in touch with her.

I’ll be at trivia tonight at the Saucer at 7. Guess I’ll either DVR the schools debate and State of the Union, or just read transcripts later. Very fun day at work… finally getting to set up our Intranet installation in WordPress after months of discussing it! Going to grab a quick bite to eat then get back to it!

ESPN, in their Bracketology column, now has Memphis projected as going to the Big Dance. They have us as the favorite to win the C-USA tournament and earn an automatic bid, getting the #12 seed in the West. Thanks to sports writer Doc Hancock (@DocHancock) for mentioning this on Twitter earlier today.

Hey, you know who I don’t see in those projections? Tennessee. It’d be awesome if we made it to the NCAA tourney while Bruce Pearl was sitting at home watching it on TV… you know, like he’ll be doing for the next four SEC games.

Envision Fitness and Mona Spa, on the third floor of the Cadre Building at Second and Monroe, are having a Wine, Cheese, Reflexology & Massage Night tomorrow night, Tuesday 1/25, from 5:30 to 8:30. Meet Gail, Mona’s new addition, and enjoy learning about reflexology from her and get chair massages from Nathan. Chilean wines from North Berkeley imports and cheese. Free cheese? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

MemphisWeather.net has blogged that we have another possibility of winter weather Tuesday night. Models indicate this one will happen after rush hour Tuesday evening. One model predicts 3″ of snow, the other (which MemphisWeather.net tends to believe more) predicts less than 1″. I hope the 3″ prediction is the accurate one, so we can get a SNOW DAY on Wednesday!

Grizz, the Memphis Grizzlies mascot, is personally delivering Grizz Grams on Valentine’s Day. Grams include Grizz items, two tickets to an upcoming game, and a night’s stay at Harrah’s Tunica. Call 901-205-1416 to order. Keep in mind that Grizz can only be in one place at a time (he’s not Santa, after all) so there’s only a limited number of these he can deliver. If you want one, order now. (and hope that you and your significant other don’t break up between now and V-Day)

Bar None has started a Monday trivia night. Specials are $2.50 pints and $5 half-yards of beer. Starts at 7:30.

I’m now hearing that the Silly Goose poker night is starting at 10. Heard that from one of the bartenders on Facebook, haven’t confirmed with Poker Jon.

Hmmm. 10:00. That gives me four hours at Pint Nite. Just about right.