Paul Ryburn's Journal

Lauren who bartends Calhoun’s sent me a message on Facebook. She’s going to be bartending Friday when they open at 8:30 AM for the USA-Slovenia World Cup soccer game. “If you come in, I promise I’ll wear a tube top,” Lauren wrote.

I, unfortunately, have to work. However, I think that all of Calhoun’s regulars, and anyone who might watch the game there Friday, should call the bar at 901-528-8604 and request that Lauren wear a tube top Friday morning. Let’s all work together to make South Main a more beautiful place!

In other tube top news… one of my regular readers e-mailed a suggestion. “You started Tube Top Month early, so it would include the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Why not go out with a bang as well? Why not extend Tube Top Month through the Independence Day weekend?” He thinks that schedule should be followed every year. I have to admit, this is not a bad idea. Let me know what you think – shoot me an e-mail at paul@paulryburn.com.

Mesquite Chop House will do a vegetarian wine dinner on June 23 featuring Canyon Road Wines. Here’s a menu. $45 per person.

1st Garbanzo & Edamame Salad
Mixed Greens, Tomatoes & Crispy Tofu with a Sherry-Walnut Vinaigrette

2nd Lima Bean Beignets
Green tomato chutney

3rd Hoppin John vegetable roll
Black eyed peas, bell peppers and onion wrapped in spinach

4th Banana Bread French Toast Fosters
Toasted Walnuts, caramelized bananas

If you’re looking for something unique to do for Father’s Day, and you want to do it the night before, on a Saturday night, check out the Madison Hotel. They’ll be grilling out on the rooftop with chef-prepared selections, cash bar, music, and Mississippi River views. $40 per person, includes tip and gratuity.

One of the things that makes FedEx a great place to work is that they give employees paid time off to volunteer. So today was a volunteer day for the Nuh-Uh Girl. Out of all the charities in Memphis, which one did she pick? THE FOOD BANK. Thus answering the question, “Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.” She probably asked them if she could take a few samples home.

Getting a load of laundry in the dryer, then will head out to trivia at the Saucer.

Lots of news today, so let’s get to it… first of all, GO BRAZIL! I hope they slaughter North Korea in today’s soccer match and send crazy Kim Jong-il completely off the deep end.

The Dining with Monkeys blogger paid a recent visit to Cockadoos. Take a look and see how Stacey, her husband, and the monkeys liked the place.

Starbucks is giving up on charging for Internet use… they’ll have free Internet for all customers starting July 1. With one nearby, this will change what I do in my lunch hour. Looks like the netbook will start coming to work with me.

Next Tuesday, there will be two watch parties to celebrate the premiere of the new show Memphis Beat on TNT. The show stars Jason Lee as a local detective who’s also in an Elvis tribute band. I have my doubts as to whether this show will be any good (it wasn’t even filmed here), but I guess publicity for Memphis is always a good thing, in a sense.

The first watch party will be at South of Beale. They’ll have giveaways, the show on the big screen, and more.

The other watch party option will be at Calhoun’s. There will be catering by the Squeal Street BBQ team, recent winners of a 4th place trophy for Patio Porkers.

This Thursday, June 17, will be the third of the spring Third Thursdays block parties, thrown by the businesses in and around Main and Peabody Place from 5:30-7:30. Live music by Mark “Muleman” Massey, Deering & Down, and Thrown Together. Retail discounts and participating specials by participating businesses, including Circa, Art on a Hot Tin Roof, Center for Southern Folklore, Majestic Grille, Shelton Clothiers, Christine by Shelton Clothiers, and Blue Fin. Art on a Hot Tin Roof will celebrate its first birthday with a wine and cheese reception. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

Grill 83 will kick off a new monthly wine dinner series next Tuesday, June 22. The evening will include wines from Oregon and Washington state to complement a three-course prix fixe dinner prepared by executive chef Chris Windsor. Visit the restaurant’s website for more details, or to make reservations.

All right, coming up on 1 PM… think I’ll drive up Airways to Buffalo Wild Wings for Wing Tuesday and some soccer watching… and if I’m lucky, some tube top watching as well. Maybe I’ll download the Virtual Vuvuzuela iPhone app and annoy everyone in the restaurant.

Calhoun’s sports bar on G. E. Patterson has announced that they will open early Friday morning, at 8:30 AM, for patrons who want to watch the USA-Slovenia World Cup soccer match.  $2 PBR all day, every day.

FAQ for this game:

What should I wear? Well, if you’re female, I suggest a tube top.

How should I act when the US scores a goal? Scream, cheer, and jump up and down.  Especially jump up and down.

It’s looking to be a “newsy” day, so check back around lunchtime.

Mashable blogged about a great site today:  NORC.  It’s like Google StreetView, but for the countries of Eastern Europe.  You can take a virtual walk down city streets in many of the region’s largest cities.

I’m going to take a walk through Cluj-Napoca, which is the city which the Romanians who came to Memphis in ’05-’06 were from.  Unlike Google StreetView, they don’t blur images of people, so maybe I’ll see some hot Romanian girls in tube tops.

I happened upon a very good site this morning… Schedule Memphis, a new community calendar which will list all the best events, conferences, meetings, and workshops in town. It’s just getting started, but hopefully Memphis organizations will get on board this week and make this calendar a valuable community resource.

Good lunch with friends yesterday at Texas de Brazil. My friend Lee is a member of their VIP club and purchased a half-off discount card… for about the price of one dinner, he purchased a card good for 10 half-price dinners. We went for brunch yesterday, so we got the usual meats, the salad bar, bacon, sausage, and other breakfast items. We also had the option of adding an “unlimited mimosa” for a few dollars more, and let me tell you, the server was not shy about refilling those things. With the half-price deal, my tab for all that food was only $30.89. Not bad at all.

I’ve come up with a new idea… there are a lot of Eastern Europeans who work at TdB. Don’t they make like 70 grand a year there? I need to marry one of them, and then I can quit my job and sit on my ass all day while she supports me. She has to be hot and look good in a tube top. If any TdB employees are interested in taking me up on this, let me know at paul@paulryburn.com. (Send photos)

After stops at the Saucer and Kooky Canuck, I ended up at Bardog Tavern yesterday, where I spent hours sitting at the bar talking. Very comfortable. I think I’m going to start paying more attention to Bardog. I met the creator of their Salty Dog Monday night (7 PM) and Wednesday morning runs (7 AM). People go on a run, at their own pace, then return to Bardog for beer, drinks and specials.

Of course, other Monday events include trivia at Local with Will (8 PM), poker at the Silly Goose (7:30 PM and 11:30 PM), and Pint Nite at the Saucer (all day).

Thinking about buying an extended battery for my iPhone… between Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, my Heads-up Hold’em app, and Words with Friends (to which I recently returned after a 6-month hiatus), I ran the iPhone all the way down yesterday.

Lunch time. I’ll be at Pint Nite after work.

Just a quick reminder that there’s a Tony Awards watch party tonight at the Westin, with free hors d’oeuvres and drink specials.  Party starts at 5, Tonys start at 7.  The people at the Westin really want to meet more of their Downtown neighbors, so stop on by.

I’m sure the Nuh-Uh Girl will probably stop by and hit the free food, but I won’t need it… going to Texas de Brazil for lunch.  I may snap a few pics, if I’m not too busy eating.

All right, it’s Tube Top Month so I have to dig up a pic before I can post… let’s see what I’ve got.

There ya go… tube top pic from Memphis Brewfest.  Happy Sunday Fun Day everyone.

Here are some pics from this weekend, taken with my new camera.

First pic ever taken with the new camera. Taken by Mikey the Camera Nazi.

Speaking of whom… here’s Mikey now.

Uncle Ray

Brick turning her best side toward the camera for this photo

Here’s a pic of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating.

Three of the few England fans downtown for the soccer match today.  The rest of Downtown (me included) was for the USA.  I was told we’d be lucky if it went zero-zero, but 1-1 is perfectly acceptable.

Hotness

Dinner tonight: Char-grilled oysters from Pearl’s

I need to have a talk with my subconscious mind.  This morning right before I woke up, I had a dream that the federal government was moving a few employees into office space at Target because of the bad economy.

Really?  That’s the best I can do?

I could have dreamed about removing the tube top pictured at left.

I could have dreamed that arch-enemy Meghan came up to me and said, “I just wanted to say goodbye, Paul, I’m moving to Tashkent, Uzbekistan and will probably never return to Memphis.”

I could have dreamed of taking a trip to Romania for some fun with the beautiful women of Eastern Europe.

I could have dreamed of winning the lottery and putting an end to this “having a job” thing.

But no.  I dreamed that the federal government was moving a few employees into Target.

Anyway.  On with the news.

If you’re proud that you made the choice to be a Memphian, you might want to bookmark this website.

So Nebraska is off to the Big Ten… and it looks like the Big 12 will be out of business by the end of next week.  I’m going to make a suggestion here.  They say football drives the revenue engine, and there’s no money to be made in basketball.  Let’s prove them wrong.  How about a basketball power conference of Memphis, Kansas, Kansas State, Baylor, Missouri, Iowa State, Butler, Louisville, Cincinnati, UAB, UTEP, and Gonzaga?  Tell me there would not be some money to be made in that conference.  Maybe add the University of Houston since it’s a big TV market.

Just a few hours until the USA vs. England World Cup match.  I’ve already decided I’m going to drive the sport’s purists crazy by saying “soccer” rather than “football” as often as possible, and “zero” rather than “nil.”

I want to try out different places for World Cup watching, so I think I’ll watch one period of the soccer match at Bardog, and the other period at Local.  Subject to change.  Those of you with my cell number, text me if anything particularly interesting is going on at other places Downtown.  (By “particularly interesting” I mean “tube tops,” as I really don’t care that much about soccer.)

Time to jump in the shower and get the day started.  GO USA!!!

Congratulations to Bill (pictured below), who with a little bit of coaching won the contest I ran in my blog yesterday.

I posed a hypothetical situation where the Nuh-Uh Girl walked into a restaurant owned by Jedi Master Yoda from the Star Wars movies.  She’d likely look at the menu and go, “Oooh, the Force Salad, I’d love to try a sample of that.  And I’d love to try a little of the Dagobah sea bass… and I sure would like to try a Jedi Slider… and I’d like to try a Lightsaber Dog too…”

What would Yoda say to her?  Bill guessed what I was thinking.

“Buy, or buy not; there is no try.”

Bill wins a beer from me next time I see him at Pint Nite.

I have more details on the Tony Award viewing party happening Sunday from 5-7 PM in the Westin lobby. There will be live music from the lobby bar piano, multiple TVs available for viewing, 2-for-1 wine and beer specials throughout the event, complimentary valet parking, and complimentary hors d’oeuvres. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up. Event is sponsored by the SMA. Everyone come root for Memphis the Musical and Million Dollar Quartet! They’re trying to get a headcount, so if you plan on attending, they’d really appreciate it if you’d RSVP to joan.robinson@westinmemphis.com. Joan tells me that the Westin wants to get more locals in their wonderful bar, and is really going above and beyond to make that happen.

The Nuh-Uh Girl is now tweeting pics of the food she panhandles. Here’s a pic she tweeted of the free samples she had at Schnucks yesterday – fish tacos and corn with tomatoes.

Two classic movies at the Orpheum this week: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is tonight. At 6:15 there will be a costume contest – dress like a character in the movie to win prizes. Movie starts at 7:15.

Tomorrow they will show Gone with the Wind. If you’re a Southern belle, come at 6:15 in a hoop skirt for a chance to win dinner at Texas de Brazil, because “as God is our witness, you’ll never be hungry again!” Movie at 7:15. If you don’t feel like wearing a hoop skirt, wear a tube top. Or wear a tube top and a hoop skirt, even better.

There will be an ’80s dance party in the upstairs of the Red Rooster, in the old Double Deuce space at Fourth and Beale, tonight starting at 9 PM. DJ Michael J. Foxx will spin ’80s, ’90s. and whatever else to make you shake a tail feather.

I have a big problem with this editorial. It says, “no one wants to discuss a mortgage with a banker in a tube top.” You know what? If I ever decide to buy a condo, and a mortgage banker in a tube top wants to talk to me, she’s likely got my business.

New camera has arrived.  Off to buy an SDHC card for it, so it can hold lots of tube top pics.