Paul Ryburn's Journal

A lot of people have been waiting for this one… tonight’s theme on the Peabody rooftop is “Jersey Shore.”  Dress up like The Situation, DJ Pauly D, JWoww, Snooki, or just do your own interpretation of what Jersey Shore might look like if it came to Memphis.

There will be a Jersey Shore themed menu including

– Coney Island dogs
– Cheddar popcorn
– Onion rings

If you’re in VIP, these additional items will be on the buffet there:

– Fried clam po’boys
– Fried fish fingers with tartar sauce
– Wheel of cheddar cheese w/crackers

Featured beers will be PBR and Sparks.  Not sure how I feel about the world’s greatest beer, PBR, being featured on a night that honors people like Snooki.

$10 cover, first drink free with paid admission, ladies free before 7.  Entertainment will be the Mudflap Kings.  Get out on that dance floor and battle to their tunes!  And remember, in Jersey, we don’t pump our gas, we pump our fists!

After a stop at happy hour at the Saucer last night, I went to Bikes on Beale, where there were countless Harleys and three scooters.  Here’s Sally of the Blue Suede Brigade on a scooter.  Yeah, I know it’s June and this isn’t a tube top pic, but Sally’s pretty popular Downtown so hopefully my readers will let it slide.

In other news:  The Silly Goose is doing a pasta bar from 5-9 Monday-Friday.  It’s $10-13 depending on what you order, and they have a wide array of sauces and toppings.

The CCC tweeted this last night: “Joey’s NY Deli & Pizzeria opens 2morrow at 99 N Main. Smoked prime rib po-boy, NY Dog on baguette, beef brisket sandwich, pizza. 523-0116”

Got another post coming this morning, about this week’s Peabody rooftop party.

The new women’s clothing store on the Main Street Mall, Christine by Shelton Clothiers, will have its grand opening this Saturday, June 5, from 5 to 9 PM. Food by Circa, wine and beer, music by the Jesse Smith Band. 10% of sales at the grand opening will be donated to LeBonheur to help fund its expansion. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up? Also, I wonder if Christine will be selling tube tops?

I found this site which lets you overlay the BP oil spill over any city to see how large it is. If centered on Memphis, the spill would extend nearly to Little Rock in the west.

By the way, I got an e-mail from a reader noting that just because a local gas station displays the BP logo, does NOT necessarily mean they buy gas from BP. A local station like BP Riverside, he said, would likely buy gas from local suppliers, possibly Valero. While I’m all in favor of getting revenge on BP for this disaster, we do need to be careful and not punish a good local station that is part of the community and which has one of the best delis Downtown.

The Orpheum has released its summer movie series lineup. Caddyshack and ET are among the films. Friday, August 20 is Rocky Horror night.

Need a job? The CCC is seeking a Development Project Manager.

City government has received a $22 million grant to demolish Cleaborn Homes east of Danny Thomas near Vance. Their plan is to replace the housing project with mixed-use, mixed-income residental facilities with early childhood programs. Some of the old residents will be able to move back in on completion. All of the current residents will get help finding a new place to live. The city has previously done this with Lauderdale Courts, Hurt Village, and Lamar Terrace with great success. They’re hoping to get money to demolish Foote Homes across Danny Thomas next. Many of Downtown’s panhandlers, crackheads and criminals live in Cleaborn and Foote. Glad to see the city cleaning that mess up.

Time for lunch.  I found a place near where I work that has chicken livers… my grandmother got me into those when I was a little kid.  Will probably be out somewhere tonight.  Anyone seen the Fire Sale yet?

Last night we celebrated the final night at trivia for team member Aimee.  Aimee, better known on this blog as The Nuh-Uh Sister, has accepted a job in California.  You may have seen Aimee on TV recently, jumping up and down after winning the Showcase on The Price Is Right.  (Too bad she didn’t have a tube top on.)

Aimee will most definitely be missed on Tuesday nights, and the other days of the week as well.  The Rapscallions took second last night… what a great crew we had there.  Wish it was always like that.  Across the room, our regular competition the Weiss Asses discussed buying matching “I Survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction Boundary” shirts to wear to trivia.

Wednesday… Corporate Karaoke Challenge in Court Square at lunchtime… Bikes on Beale… Poker night at Bardog.  Off to work, probably a post to come at lunch.

Bardog Tavern just tweeted that they’re showing Easy Rider in the Underdog Room tonight in honor of the late Dennis Hopper.  Film starts at 7 PM.  It’s also Pint Night at Bardog, so you can have any beer on tap for $3 from 7 PM to 3 AM.

I won’t be there for the movie since I’ve got trivia down the street… however, I might stop by afterward to drink a pint and defend my mayorship… so ladies, if you go out to Bardog let’s see those tube tops!  If Dennis Hopper were still alive I’m sure he would want you to wear a tube top too.

All right… got a blog post done and did a little .htaccess tweaking… now it’s time for BEER!

Lots of news today. Let’s get to it…

The Rum Boogie Cafe’s 25th anniversary party is this Saturday, June 5. Music by John Lee Hooker Jr., Don McMinn with James Govan and the Boogie Blues Band, Billy Gibson with the Memphis Blues Society, and other Memphis musicians. General admission tickets available here. All musicians get in free.

Memphis again ranked low on another national survey… what to do? Ignore it and focus on the many organizations working to make Memphis even better. There’s the Shelby Park Farms Conservancy. The Memphis Healthy Common Table. Common Ground. This blog makes Memphis a more beautiful place by promoting Tube Top Month. And then there’s Leadership Memphis, who is looking for the next class of future city leaders.

Leadership Memphis is launching recruitment for its upcoming FastTrack Fall 2010 leadership program. The FastTrack program is for young professional and high-potential leaders who want to be fast-tracked as part of the next generation of community leaders. Participants gain a stronger understanding about how to take Memphis to the next level through experiential learning processes and exposure to high-profile community leaders. For more information about this program or to apply, visit www.leadershipmemphis.org or contact the Leadership Memphis office at 901-278-0016. To nominate someone (including yourself), send name and contact information to: admissions@leadershipmemphis.org. Application deadline for the Fall 2010 FastTrack session is Wednesday, June 30, 2010.

A personal note here: A lot of my friends have been through the Leadership Memphis program and have had wonderful things to say about it. Highly recommended if you can devote the time.

Automatic Slim’s is having a vodka dinner tomorrow night. Thanks to Libby for forwarding me the menu:

1st course: Breakfast
Hangtown Fry
Soft scrambled egg, oyster, bacon, shiitake mushroom
* Sobieski Vodka~ Bloody Mary’s and Mimosas

2nd course: Lunch
Gravlox
Vodka cured salmon, cucumber-herb salad, vodka vinaigrette
* Rain Organic Cucumber Lime Vodka

3rd course: Supper
Roast Chicken
Vodka Briend chicken, Thai green curry
* Hanger 1 Kaffir Lime Vodka

4th course: Late Night Snack
Root Beer Float
* Svedka Vanilla Vodka, Abita Root Beer, vanilla ice cream

Call 901-525-7948 for reservations or additional info.

Here’s a link to a Memphis Flyer story on the new Trolley Stop Market. The market is at 704 Madison, will soon be open for breakfast and lunch, and will feature products by local farmers and food makers such as Neola Farms beef, Peace Bee honey, and more.

Facebook continues to get worse and worse, with hackers finding new ways to use the social media platform as a delivery tool for malware. Here’s an article on a clickjack worm that installs malware via the ‘Like’ button. Here’s another article about malware that gets installed when you watch a “hilarious video.” I still find Facebook extremely valuable for keeping up with what’s going on around town – it’s probably my number one resource, as a matter of fact – but they better get a handle on this crap soon.

Tonight’s trivia night at the Flying Saucer, 7 PM.  Ladies on other teams:  Want to distract our team?  Wear tube tops.  And tell the Nuh-Uh Girl there’s free food down the street.

Sorry, no tube top hotties in this video.

ChaaaaAAAAAAaaaaAAAAaaaaddddd!!!!!!

Just found a few pics I took yesterday.  Let’s see what we’ve got on the ol’ camera.

Technically, I satisfied the tube top requirement in this post, because the Nuh-Uh Girl has a tube top on in the pics, although it’s kind of a tube top fail because it’s being used as a cover-up for a bathing suit.  One or the other, not both!

Just hit Preview… nice to have a WordPress template that does captions properly!

About to head out and the camera will be with me.  Possibly more pics to come.

I found out what caused those two explosions/fireballs at the end of Sunset Symphony fireworks Saturday night.  I was told that they were caused by two 55-gallon drums of unleaded gasoline, and it was not an accident.  Someone thought it would be a good idea to do that on purpose?  Geez.  I guess they wanted something different than the usual ending of a fireworks display.

Good article in the CA about how more businesses are making the move to South Main.  Affordable rents, charming neighborhood, friendly locals.

Just read my early-morning post… man I must have been drunk last night.  I’m still damn proud to get the mayorship of Bardog last night.  It was totally unexpected – I wasn’t really even trying for that one.

And finally, we’ll close this post with a little tube top education.  Tube top dresses, such as the ones pictured below, are acceptable attire for Tube Top Month.

Traditionalists would argue that these don’t really count as tube tops.  I disagree.  Tube dresses weigh more than tube tops, and therefore, there is a stronger pull against gravity and a higher probability that they won’t stay up.  So in a way, tube dresses are better than tube tops.

No big plans for the day… going to set up a new test site so I can play with the WordPress 3.0 release candidate.  After that, probably beer somewhere.

New mayor of Bardog Tavern on Foursquare.

Not so many tube top hotties tonight but I know a commando tube top hottie makes it her regular place. Let’s see that hot pink tube top.