Paul Ryburn's Journal

Yeah, no lunchtime update today, sorry. Was just too cold to post. I don’t see how people live in places like Minneapolis where days like today are considered normal, or even warm. All I did on my lunch break was go to Wendy’s and try their new natural cut fries with sea salt. Meh. They’re fries. Nothing to get that excited about.

The big news Downtown today is that the Blues Foundation is coming to South Main. Their current office at 49 Union is not as visitor-friendly as they’d like it to be, so they’ve found a 4000 square foot showroom at 421 S. Main. Visitors will be able to experience interactive presentations with audio-visual elements, memorabilia, and artwork. The building will also have a retail store selling Hall of Fame recordings and literature and Foundation-themed merchandise. Congratulations to the Blues Foundation! The new space will help them get the word out about all they do to support the blues.

The Silly Goose has started opening at 3 PM on weekdays for happy hour. Specials include $2.75 Killian’s draft, $3 well drinks, and $4.50 house wine.

British Invasion cover band Jeffrey and the Pacemakers plays Downtown Huey’s Sunday night at 8:30. Lots of Beatles, Kinks, Animals, Yardbirds and other British rock from the ’60s, with a few covers from their favorite American bands of that era too. This band is a lot of fun, so come on down.

Kerry has an excellent 2010 Memphis Charitable Gift Guide on the I Love Memphis blog today. Check it out if you’re looking for a place to make a holiday donation. Twelve excellent causes. My personal favorite on the list is #6, the Hospitality Hub.

If you want to learn more about the Church Health Center, there will be a light breakfast and tour from 8 to 9:30 AM Thursday. To ensure your spot, RSVP to Hannah Newsom at (901) 272-7170 or newsomh@churchhealthcenter.org. The Center is located at 321 S. Bellevue.

A couple of days ago, I got an e-mail asking if I knew of anyplace Downtown taking Toys for Tots donations. At the time I didn’t, but now I have an answer… the Redbirds will take them. You can bring toys to their store on the first floor of the Toyota Center next to the ballpark, which is open 10:30 AM-2:30 PM Wednesday-Saturday. If those hours don’t work, you can drop off toys at the Redbirds office on the third floor of the Toyota Center 8:30 AM-5:30 PM Monday-Friday. They’ll give you a 2011 ticket voucher as a thank-you for your donation.

It’s Monday night, so I’m sure I don’t need to tell you where my next stop is… but I’ll tell you anyway. Pint Nite at the Flying Saucer. Most drafts only $3. Time to knock out numbers 95, 96, and 97 toward my next plate.

I found some more good Twitter accounts to follow, and wanted to share. First of all, I found another account that tweets Memphis jobs. @WorkInMemphis is a good one because it tends to tweet a lot more professional-level jobs than the accounts I’ve mentioned previously. Heck, if I wasn’t happy where I am, it would have already given me two leads since I started following it earlier this week.

Once you get the job, these accounts will tell you what’s in store for your commutes to and from work:
@TNInterstate240
@TNInterstate55
@TNInterstate40

Keep in mind that Interstate 40 spans the entire length of Tennessee, so I recommend only following that one if I-40 is an interstate you travel regularly.

Also, @idigmemphis is a good account to follow… its retweets have led me to the accounts listed above and other good ones.

Oh my goodness… I just found a great Daily News article about Judd Grisanti’s Trattoria at Poplar and Humes, and about the feuding going on within the Grisanti family. If you remember what Spindini was like when Judd ran it – he opened it in 2007 and ran it until forced out by investors in early 2009 – this article is a must-read.

A few highlights:

• Judd’s Trattoria has a major investor who wants it to be run differently. The investor is bringing Judd’s dad Ronnie back to the restaurant, “to bring the restaurant up to the finest of Tuscan cuisine in the old style.” Judd will work under his dad’s direction.
• “Judd is not a manager, and he won’t recognize it,” said Ronnie.
• In early 2011, the restaurant will revert to Ronnie’s name.
• “If Judd doesn’t want to be in the kitchen, I will get someone else to do it,” said Ronnie.
• The article also talks about Ronnie’s feud with uncle Big John back in the ’80s, and about the differences between Ronnie’s sons Judd and Alex. Alex cooks at Elfo’s down the street on Poplar. I’ve never met Alex but I’m Facebook friends with him and he seems like a super nice guy.
• Ronnie finishes the interview saying, “I hope this will help the restaurant, but, whatever…”

Simply a great article. Read it here.

Taking advantage of a break in the rain, I walked down to City Market, the new grocery and deli at Main and Union, for lunch. After looking over their menu, I decided to go with the Blazing Beale, a panini sandwich made with curry chicken, cucumbers, tomatoes and onions on naan bread. I love Indian food so this was an easy decision to make. It’s a little spicy, but not too spicy. It came with a side of potato chips and a pickle.

While I was waiting on my sandwich, I walked around the store, and Sunny, one of the owners, showed me some of the items City Market carries. I’m definitely going to try some of their snack mixes at a future date, with the wasabi mix looking to be a likely first choice. I tried the Mexican fire mix too and it was good. Sunny also showed me their selection of stuffed olives and their selection of different cheeses. I noticed they had some ready-to-heat to-go meals in a refrigerator case, with Cajun chicken and lemon pepper chicken dinners being today’s selections. They also had wraps, deviled eggs, slices of meatloaf, and those vegetarian Indian frozen dinners that are so popular. They had frozen bags of edamame (shelled and unshelled) too.

I decided to dine in, and not only did I enjoy my sandwich, but the view out the window.

They have a new glass counter set up facing Main Street, and you can sit there and watch people go by as you eat. Union and Main is one of the best people-watching corners Downtown. It reminds me of my early years down here, when I used to sit in the Map Room/Empire Coffee at Main and Madison and people-watch out the windows. Several friends passed by and waved. People walked by walking their dogs.

Then, as I was eating my sandwich – horror of horrors – the Nuh-Uh Girl walked by, and I had food! With the big glass windows, there was no opportunity to hide it before she saw me. Amazingly, though, she kept walking. I guess she realized that if she came in and asked, “Can I have a bite?” – which she was surely tempted to do – there would be 8 or 10 photos for this blog post rather than two.

I lingered at the counter for an hour, in no hurry to leave. I watched people come in and get coffee, and look at the five or six different types of cakes they had at the counter.

A good first experience dining there. I’ll be back at City Market soon, to shop and to eat.

Whew… my iPhone is back and 90% of the critical stuff on it I need – apps, friends’ numbers – has been restored. A couple of things I learned from this experience:

1) Sync your contacts. If you don’t back them up to iTunes, several friends told me that Google Sync is a good tool to use. I set up Google Sync on my phone yesterday, so I won’t have to send out “send me your number again” e-mails if anything happens to the phone in the future.

2) If you have to go in to the Apple Store for technical help, you need a reservation at the Genius Bar. I had no idea, and only because I mentioned it on Facebook did my friend Shannan advise me to get one. “They turned me away without one,” she told me. So I got on the Saddle Creek Apple Store’s page and went to “Make a Reservation” in the upper right corner. I got on there about 9:45 and got a reservation for 12:15. Thanks Shannan – thanks to you I have a working phone this weekend.

When I got to the Apple Store, I thought I was going to HATE it – so many people in there. But they met me right at the front door, and when I told them I had a reservation, they used an iPad to check me in. They then told me to go to the Genius Bar – I didn’t have to stand in line or anything, just hang around, and sure enough by 12:15 they found me.

All the Geniuses go to Cupertino for training, and know pretty much everything about the Mac, iPhone, iPod, and iPad. They were good too. By 12:28 I had a working phone, even though I lost my data (which is my own fault for not backing it up, not theirs). The Geniuses were easy to spot with their red Apple T-shirts and jeans on. Good dress code. I heard one of them say, “May I have permission to blow your mind?” to someone test-driving an iPad. Really enjoyed my Apple Store experience.

Caught a quick lunch at Zaxby’s on the way back, and re-installed the most critical apps as I ate. It’s not a big deal to lose my friends’ numbers, because I can get those again. But not being able to check into Foursquare is a tragedy indeed. I have the Saucer mayorship to defend. I don’t think anyone’s close to catching up to me, but just want to be sure.

Another tragedy is not being able to record the beers I drink on Beerby. I would’ve earned the “Regular” badger last night if I’d had my phone to track the beers I had Thursday. I’ll get it today, I suppose.

There were a couple of silver linings to the data loss. They put iOS 4.2.1 on my phone. I’d been terribly lazy about upgrading and was still on iOS 3.whatever. Also, it cleaned all the apps I never use off my phone. Now I’ve got the apps I use the most – Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter, Beerby, Kindle, WordPress, Shazam, Evernote, MarksMenus, and Dropbox – all on one page.

Oh – reminds me of another thing I learned. I had been keeping key pieces of data that I need once in a while – my mother’s mailing address and the Saucer’s Wi-Fi password, for example – in my Notes app on the iPhone. I should have been keeping them on Evernote instead, where they’re backed up and accessible from any computer. They need to be in the cloud! The cloud! The cloud! So sick of hearing about the cloud but in this case it would have come in handy.

So, that’s the story of getting my iPhone back online. Maybe what I learned will help other iPhone owners.

I got a word of thanks from one of my neighbors yesterday. Back in October I posted an article about 40 government and non-profit board positions that were open. My neighbor applied, and has been nominated for one of the boards by Mayor Luttrell. Congratulations, and glad my blog helped!

Off to a bad start this Saturday… played a Level 2 freeroll with $2000 in prize money on PokerStars this morning. About 20 hands in I was looking at Q-Q at 15/30. I put in a standard raise to 90, and someone re-raised me to 240. Against a conservative player I’d have just called and seen a flop, but this guy had already demonstrated very loose standards. So I went all-in, he called, and showed 9-9, making me a 4-to-1 favorite in the hand! Flop and turn cards were blanks, and then came the river… a 9! Argggggh. That’s poker, though.

Hmmm… if it wasn’t raining I’d head down to the Memphis Farmers Market Harvest Celebration, at the pavilion next to Central Station from 10 AM to 3 PM. I’ll keep an eye on MemphisWeather.net’s StormView Radar. Looks like it may be outta here in another hour or so. Just enough time to find another poker tournament.

If I had your number before, and you want me to have it again, either e-mail the number to paul@paulryburn.com or shoot me a text with your name in it.

Will write more later. Time for a meeting.

If you need to reach me, E-mail or Facebook me. Apologies for any calls or texts after about 7:30 last night that to which I didn’t respond.

Will try to get it fixed today at lunch. Probably no lunchtime post.

There was an article in the Commercial Appeal today about South Main being the most likely area for Artspace, a project that has been successful in other cities but has not yet made its way to Memphis. The goal of Artspace is to provide live/work spaces for artists in the community at affordable rents. With several galleries and Memphis College of Art already in South Main, the area would be perfect for this kind of development. Check out the article for more info about Artspace.

Shelton Clothiers has announced that they and Christine’s by Shelton Clothiers will be open both Saturday (10-6) and Sunday (1-5) this weekend. (Normally they’re not open on Sunday). If you come by either day, they’ll have Bloody Marys and mimosas for you, and Sunday they’ll be serving a light brunch. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up. They’ll have storewide specials and free gift wrap, so come on by and support a local business for your holiday shopping.

If you can’t make it, this weekend, call them with your shopping list and they’ll deliver. Number is 901-522-9995 for Shelton, 901-791-2192 for Christine’s.

If you have kids, the Redbirds have a good deal. Kids can join Rockey’s Kids Club for $10. That gets them bluff seating to 11 Sunday games for the 2011 season, a T-shirt, 5 Boardwalk tokens, and fun activities at each game. The club also gets to lead the Sunday post-game running of the bases. Some of the fun Sunday activities include an Easter egg hunt, free Popsicle day, and the chance to high-five the Redbirds players while running the bases. Click this link to sign up for Rockey’s club.

Wow I’ve posted a lot of stuff for kids lately… when did this turn into a family-friendly blog? Not sure I like that. Time to start drunk posting again I guess.

The Hungry Memphis blog posted this pic of brisket pizza at Frank’s Deli on South Main. $1.50 for that slice? That’s worth a walk down there, even in the cold.

YoLo out in East Memphis is donating 10% of its proceeds today to MIFA. If you’ve never tried YoLo before, this would be an excellent day to do it!

If you want a list of must-do Memphis venues and events composed by locals, there’s a #MemphisBucketList thread on Twitter right now.

Plans for tonight… hmmm really not sure. It’s a little cold to walk or trolley to poker at Max’s Sports Bar, and poker at Bar None doesn’t start until next week. Probably I’ll just hit the Saucer as usual to start, then go from there.

I saw a very interesting post by Bar None, the new chef’s pub in the former Downtown Circa location, this afternoon. Here’s what it said, with the most interesting part (to me, anyway), highlighted for emphasis.

“Happy hour from 4-7! Check our our terrific menu, too! $4 well drinks, $1 off all beers and $5 house wine.. Poker night in private room on Thursdays. See you there. More to come! Stay tuned!”

Poker night? Hmmmm really… I will definitely be checking that out in the near future. Not sure if it will become my regular Thursday stop, because I’m a big fan of the poker night at Max’s Sports Bar on Thursdays. I’ll give Bar None a chance though. It’s significantly closer to both home and to my other home (the Saucer), a good thing when the temperatures are too cold to be conducive for long walks.

It begins next Thursday… not tomorrow night, or tonight, depending on when you read this… but next week.

Damn. I just realized, that means the 30th is the earliest I’ll play poker at Bar None. May be some easy money for those who go on the 16th, because it’s new and because I have previous plans.

Home from the Saucer and Bardog on a cold Wednesday. Good night all.

Last night I walked in the Saucer and Lil’ Kim (pictured at left) was standing at the door. She stuck her arm out and blocked my entrance. “What’s the password?” she said.

Lil’ Kim and I had recently had a football rivalry. She’s an LSU fan; I’m an Arkansas fan. The Hogs defeated LSU in the final game of the regular season, propelling the Razorbacks into a BCS bowl – the Sugar Bowl vs. Ohio State.

So, in response to her password request, I said, “Go Hogs.”

“No. That’s incorrect,” Lil’ Kim said.

“Wooooo pig sooooieeeeee?” I tried again.

“No,” said Lil’ Kim, and she continued to hold her arm up.

I just walked past her, because by that point I’d been in the Saucer 56 seconds and didn’t have a beer yet. “You know what the password was?” said Lil’ Kim, “Meghan’s a douche.”

She said it, I didn’t. Whose side is Lil’ Kim on?

Sorry for those of you who didn’t get this inside joke. Informative content will be back tomorrow.

Unless I’m still drunk tomorrow. Then, Friday.