Paul Ryburn's Journal

I haven’t.  I’ve been monitoring Twitter, and all I’ve seen is talk about LeBron, and whether a CVS should be approved for Midtown.

Quick list of stuff to do tonight:

• Tom Schlafly of Schlafly brewery at the Saucer, 5 PM
• Hip Kitty and “Christmas in July” on the Peabody rooftop
• Elmo and the Shades on the Madison rooftop
• Backstage tour of the Orpheum, 5:30 pm, $25
• Kooky Canuck to give away a cruise at 8 PM.  $2.50 34 oz Bud Light.
• Country on Beale
• Country on Beale after-party at Hollywood Disco

Ratt and Scorpion play the Mud Island Ampitheatre on Sunday!  Nice!  ’80s hair bands!

The Memphis Grizzlies have invited the public to a press conference at noon to make a “special announcement.”  I’m wondering what this could be?  Didn’t Iverson recently say he’d be willing to play for any team, in any capacity?  I hope they didn’t make the same mistake twice.

Lotsa news that I didn’t have time to post at lunch… let’s get started…

Max has announced that Calhoun’s will open at 12:30 PM Sunday for the World Cup final.

Rusty Lemmon will perform live at the Silly Goose next Wednesday, July 14.

Hip Kitty will perform at tomorrow night’s Peabody rooftop party.  Food theme will be unusual – “Christmas in December.”  Turkey and dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and cheese display on the buffet.  In VIP they will have a platter of sliced smoked turkey and ham with bread, mayonnaise and mustard, baked brie in Chafer, Waldorf salad, and a bowl of mixed nuts.  Sam Adams will be the featured beer in VIP.  Free food?  I’m sure the fact that she’s Jewish won’t keep the Nuh-Uh Girl from showing up for this Christmas celebration and eating everything in sight.  $10 cover includes first drink, ladies free until 7.

You’ve heard of meetups, you’ve heard of tweetups, now it’s time for an eat-up.  Next Monday, July 12 from 5:30 to 7:30 PM, MarksMenus will hold their first Eat-Up at South of Beale.  Show your MarksMenus app on your phone for 50% off SOB’s “bites” menu.  Happy hour will extend to 7:30 for everyone.  If you’re one of the first five people to find Mark and show him that you brought a friend or two, he’ll give you a MarksMenus T-shirt.

Circa is open for lunch again from 11 to 2 PM on weekdays.  Reservations not needed for parties smaller than 10.  John Bragg has been invited to be a “celebrity guest chef” on a cruise by Holland Cruise Lines to take place in January 2011.  It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it!

Thanks to Kelly from the Peabody for sending me links to a couple of blogs about all there is to do in Memphis:

• Heading to Memphis? Visit these pop culture spots
• Memphis shows off its hip side

MPACT Memphis will hold several MPACT Chats, which are the peer-to-peer part of its Feedback Project.  It’s a chance to discuss what you’re doing and what can be done to build Memphis into a City of Choice for young professionals.  There will be a different topic each night – diversity, the greening of Memphis, technology, jobs, government, etc.  Check their Events page to learn how you can participate in these discussions.

If you have kids, Sunday would be a good day to take them out to the ball game… you’ll be able to play catch on the field afterward.  Game is at 1:35 PM at Autozone Park.  If you want value out of your baseball experience, Friday there will be a doubleheader – two games of 7 innings each.  Gates at 5:30, first game at 6:05, second game approximately 30 minutes after the first one ends.

At home resting tonight… may go out for a little while, but it won’t be a long night out.

Voting for the Memphis Flyer’s Best of Memphis poll takes place in a few weeks, and they’re looking for nominations in four categories where there are many contenders:

Best Bartender
Best Server
Best Local Singer
Best Local Band

You can make one nomination in each category here between July 6th and 9th. The top nominees in each category will go on the ballot when the Best of Memphis voting goes live on the 14th.

Lots more news but no time to type it… playing catch-up at work, and I’ve got to make a Target run while on lunch break.

Last night at trivia, Mikey the Trivia guy made an announcement:  He wished Lil’ Kim a happy birthday.  Her birthday is today.  Here’s a pic.

So there ya go, that’s Lil’… wait, where is she?  Must’ve gone a little too far cropping that image.  Let me grab the pic off the camera again.

Okay, there she is.  Happy birthday Lil’ Kim.

Good Lord. #suzy #yellowtubetop

I took the day off today.  Wanted to get the car in the shop and get it looked over.  I’m driving to New Orleans in a couple of weeks and want to be sure the car is road-worthy.  Let’s see what I can find to write about…

Ferraro’s Pizza has announced that starting next Monday, July 12, they will have a happy hour from 5 to 7 PM with a dollar off beer.

The Smoking Up High series continues next Monday, July 12, on the Madison Hotel rooftop.  There will be a selection of fine cigars from Havana Mix for you to buy, or you can bring your own.  There will also be a rooftop tapas menu to complement the cigars, and a cash bar.  Reservations are recommended because space is limited – 901-333-1224.  The series continues through September and is normally held the first Monday of every month, but was moved in July due to the Fourth.

The World Cup final will be Sunday afternoon at 1:30 PM.  Are any Downtown bars doing specials for this event?  Let me know at paul@paulryburn.com and I’ll post a list.

It looks like AntiDuckface.com is going in alphabetical order for their “50 states of duckface” extravagnza.  Last I checked they were on the K’s, so it will probably be a day or two before they make it to Tennessee.  I have it on good authority that at least one TN duckface pic has been submitted.

The Peabody has tweeted that it’s hiring for the following positions: bell captain, bell person, cocktail server, banquet bartenders & servers, banquet beverage captain, front desk supervisor, front desk agent, Corner Bar bartender, room service server, room service cashier, Capriccio Grill cook.

Today is National Fried Chicken Day.  Lunch/dinner recommendations:  Gus’s, Miss Polly’s on Beale, Alcenia’s.

After I get the car back, may meet a friend for lunch and some pool… will be at the Saucer at 7 for trivia.  Don’t forget that it’s also Bardog Tavern’s pint night, with all pints $3 from 7 PM to close.

Last week someone asked me how to develop good websites using Front Page 2003.  The only answer I could come up with was, “Stop using Front Page 2003.”

Over the weekend, one of my favorite sites, Lifehacker, did a round-up of free WYSIWYG web design tools.  WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get, meaning the way the page looks as you design it is the way it will look on the Web.  In other words, you don’t have to know HTML to use these tools.  One in particular, is free and highly rated, and worth a look if you need create a website.  It’s called KompoZer and it lets you switch back and forth between design mode and HTML mode, which is nice because if you know a little HTML you can tweak the design.

While I’m discussing site design, I want to rant on a few things:

– It’s almost never a good idea to include Flash.  iPhones and iPads can’t see Flash, and neither can search engines.  There would need to be a compelling reason for me to include Flash in the design of a website in 2010.  “It looks really cool” is not a compelling reason.  Maybe Flash could be used to show a demo of how a product works, but even then, why would you not just upload a video to YouTube and embed it instead?

– It’s almost never a good idea to include animated GIFs.  I would only say include them if it’s a “picture is worth a thousand words” type situation that helps your website tell a story.  Including animated GIFs simply for the sake of “I have animation on my site, how cool is that!” makes a site look amateurish.

– Scrolling news tickers should also be avoided unless there’s a compelling reason.  If the news ticker is well integrated into a site’s design, and is used to direct a reader’s eyes to important, can’t miss items, that’s fine.  However, many of the ones I see on websites seem to be included simply for the purpose of “I have a scrolling news ticker on my site, how cool is that!”

The problem with FrontPage 2003 is, it encourages the use of these animated GIFs, scolling tickers, and other garbage to make really bad websites.  I can’t tell you how many websites I’ve seen in 2010 that were made with FrontPage 2003 and look like they were designed in 1997.

One more comment… consider a content management system rather than designing a website from scratch.  WordPress just released its version 3.0.  It’s completely free and it has caught up with other CMSs like Drupal and Joomla.  It allows you to create web content using an editor similar to Microsoft Word, and you can apply templates known as “themes” to display the content the way you want on your site.  Thousands of free themes are available for you to use.  You can download WordPress from wordpress.org and host it on your own site, or you can have them host it for you at wordpress.com.  (Disclaimer:  WordPress.com sponsored my BBQ team, how cool is that!)

Yesterday I went to Kooky Canuck for their Independence Day celebration, and I saw this banner on the door:

They’re giving away a cruise on Thursday, July 8 at 8 PM!  Better run out and buy a tube top bikini in case you win.  Even more importantly, they will have 34 oz. Super Cold Bud Light for $2.50!!!  I honestly don’t care that much about winning a cruise, but cheap beer will get me in the door every time.  See you there!

The Salty Dogs, a group that meets at Bardog Tavern every Monday night for a run, will be meeting even though today is a holiday for many people.

The Salty Dogs meet outside Bardog at 6:50 every Monday and go on a run, usually about 3-5 miles, sometimes shorter or longer depending on the weather.  The run ends back at Bardog, where the group enjoys discounted PBR and food specials.  If you’re looking for a way to get in better shape so you can rock a tube top, you’re welcome to join them.  You’re 100% guaranteed not to see me on the run (exercise? no thanks) but there are a lot of good people in this group.  Good way to make some friends and stay healthy at the same time.

For those who really want to torture themselves, the Dogs also have a 7 AM Wednesday run.