Friday update

First of all, a very happy 52nd birthday to Bret “The Hitman” Hart. Damn I spent too much time watching wrestling in the 1990s.

The big event going on Downtown tonight is the New Kids on the Block concert at the Mud Island Ampitheatre. Hmmm I wonder if that will draw a similar crowd to recent Justin Timberlake concerts, when Downtown was loaded with hot girls dressed in really sexy outfits. Hope so.

The Red Rooster is having a New Kids after-party tonight with $2 “The Right Stuff” sippies, $1.50 longnecks, and $5 NKOTB bombs. I have no idea what significance “The Right Stuff” has as far as getting a drink named after it. I’ll have to ask Sam if I see him at the Rooster tonight. For some reason I have a feeling that Sam is a big NKOTB fan.

Rooftop party action tonight: Artists from MTV’s $5 Cover on the Peabody rooftop tonight, $5 cover, ladies free until 8; the Memphis All Stars on the Madison rooftop, $7 cover, cash bar and tapas menu.

I found out via Twitter yesterday that my Peabody rooftop VIP passes get me into the special rooftop party they’re having Saturday, July 4, with a buffet of summer picnic food and Ingram Hill. Cool, that’s a $20 cover I’ll beat if I go… not sure what I’ll be doing that night… a lot of my crew will be out of town in Chicago this weekend. Anyone going to the Peabody? If I go I’ll have an extra VIP pass to get someone in. Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl, who also has VIP passes, will be going… she’s not one to pass up a free buffet.

Still trying to figure out FriendFeed. I added my blog, my Twitter account, my Picasa account, and my Facebook links and notes as part of my feed, but it won’t let me add my Facebook status. Weird because I see other people’s Facebook status as part of their feed… anyone know what’s going on?

Once again, if you use Facebook and Twitter I highly recommend you sign up for FriendFeed. One added advantage… a lot of businesses started blocking Facebook when it got hit with KoobFace and other viruses and malware a couple months back. FriendFeed may allow you to get around that filter and see what your Facebook friends are doing.

There’s an opening reception at the Power House gallery on G.E. Patterson tomorrow night, Friday, July 3, for “Everywhere, Nowhere, Somewhere,” their first Director’s Choice group exhibition looking at the oddity of humanity with pieces that border on the bizarre, the compulsive, and the beautiful. The works will be displayed through August 10.

There’s a group on Facebook called “Guns and Alcohol Don’t Mix.” Please join it in protest of the ridiculous and dangerous new Tennessee law that allows people to carry guns into bars.

Tonight is an early weekend night for many people, me included… I can stay out late tonight without paying for it on Friday for a change. Probably Peabody rooftop party for me and who knows after that.

Into social media? Get FriendFeed

My friend Otto posted to Facebook and Twitter yesterday about FriendFeed, a service that aggregates all your friend’s social media posts into one feed – Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Flickr, etc.  I signed up a few hours ago and am very glad I did.  Everyone on those services would benefit from FriendFeed.

If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook, please consider signing up on FriendFeed and friending me there.

Dash Rip Rock to play Slim’s Friday night, July 3

If you’re looking for something fun to do Downtown this weekend and want to hear some live music, check out Dash Rip Rock at Automatic Slim’s this weekend.  They’re a Louisiana swamp band that has been tearing it up at college bars in the South for 25 years.  For more info on them check out their website and Wikipedia page.

If you’ve never been to Slim’s before, or if you haven’t been since last fall when the restaurant changed ownership, be sure to try some of Chef Michael Patrick’s outstanding food.  One of the best chefs in town, for sure.

Wed update: Happenings at Bardog and the Peabody rooftop

Bardog Tavern is starting a “Bikes, Brunch, and Beer” event every Sunday from noon to 3. You’re encouraged to ride your bike to Bardog – motorized or not, but they prefer motorized because they like the rumble of the engine. There will be steak and eggs, French toast, omelettes, and more. Complimentary Bloody Mary, Screwdriver, or Mimosa with brunch purchase, and they will have $2 Schlitz cans and $1.50 PBR.

They are also still holding their Texas Hold’em tournament on Wednesday nights in the Underdog Room. Win prizes, and build points toward the grand prize of a cruise… from the e-mail Aldo sent out, it looks like it’s still anybody’s game, and a new contestant could still come along and win enough points to get the cruise 9 weeks from now.

The Peabody rooftop party this Thursday, July 2, will feature music by the artists on MTV’s series $5 Cover – Valerie June, Muck Sticky, and Al Kapone. Appropriately enough, there’s a $5 cover to get in. Ladies free before 8.

The Peabody will through a bonus rooftop party Saturday, July 4 for the viewing of the Downtown fireworks. Party buffet of summertime picnic favorites and drinks from MillerCoors. Ingram Hill will perform, and Maney and Riley from Q107.5 will host the event. 6 to 11 PM, $20 cover, ladies free until 7 PM.

That’s it for now.  Gotta get back to work.

Tue update: Soul party, Shelton Clothiers, Hard Rock

There’s an event at Stop 345 this weekend that sounds pretty interesting… it’s a soul music revue called Soul of America ’09, to be held Saturday, July 4 from 10 PM to 2 AM. It features local talent including Don Valentine and the Hollywood Allstars, Willie Covington, Tonya Dyson, Nate Dogg, and Joyce Henderson, with DJ The Hookup spinning classic and rare 45s. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door. Advance tickets available at Shangri-La on Madison in Midtown, or online at boomhaus.com.

Shelton Clothiers just announced their summer sale, with all suits 30-50% off (alterations extra). Also, all remaining sportswear is now 50% off. Shelton may be putting their summer merchandise on sale, but it’s warm enough to wear summer items here through at least the first half of October, so you have plenty of time left to show off your new purchases.

The Hard Rock Cafe on Beale Street will have post-Country on Beale entertainment on Thursday nights this summer. This week they’ll kick it off with Frankie Hollie & the Noise at 9:15. Friday night they’ll have The Rickets & Butcher Jones, and Saturday the lineup is Blackberry Wednesday and Stiff Kitty.

In other news: Two people frequently mentioned on this blog, the Nuh-Uh Girl and Meghan, have become friends. Apparently they hang out at the same pool on the weekends. I can imagine how that conversation must have gone:

Meghan: (Huge sigh) Four more hours until I have to go to work. Maybe no one will come in, and I’ll be able to sit on my ass and do nothing the entire night.

Nuh-Uh Girl: Hey, when are you guys going to have another party with a free buffet? And what kind of food do you think you’ll have? Can you ask them to get bigger plates? When I come back to the table with 7 of those little plates full of food, it looks kind of bad.

Meghan: I don’t know when we’re having another party, but when we do, I hope I have the night off. It’s hard to stand there behind the bar and carry on a text message conversation with my mini-me when I have 30 people screaming drink orders.

Nuh-Uh Girl: Has Shawn said anything about adding any new dishes to the menu anytime soon? If he needs a taste tester, I’d be happy to volunteer!

Oh well.  At least they wear tube tops.  Off to trivia… our team spent our stash of winnings recently, so it’s time to rebuild.

Tube top wedding dress hottie

Congratulations to my friends Chris and Katie, who got married yesterday at the Cadre Building.  Since it was June, Katie went with a tube top wedding dress.  Good choice!

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The Cadre was a beautiful venue, perfect for a combination wedding and reception.  Here are a few pics of the facility:

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Guests wait to go through the receiving line

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We enjoyed booze and finger food on the mezzanine while the wedding party took photos.

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The reception area, as viewed from the mezzanine.

And now, the usual pics of us eating and drinking:

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I guess just this once I’ll be nice and post a pic of the Nuh-Uh Girl NOT eating.

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Chris and Katie had their guests seated at tables named after significant experiences they’ve had together with their friends.  Stephanie holds up the “Rapscallions” sign.

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Best man Imran toasts the happy couple.

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The flower vase at our table provided lots of entertainment.

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Me with the bride

Absolutely a fantastic wedding.  They had a cute “wedding gazette” that told the guests about experiences Chris and Katie had together.  Food was great.  Toasts and tributes by the wedding party were excellent.  Full photo album here.

Woke up with 101.8 fever this morning, called in, chugged NyQuil, fell back asleep.  I feel better now.

One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble

Walked by Bangkok Alley in the old Sawaddii location today and noticed they were open. So I went in and ordered the red curry. I like spicy, so I asked them to kick it up a notch.

“We can do anything from 1 to 10,” replied Raj the manager, who used to work at the Saucer. I ordered a 9.

I’ll never do that again. It took 7 glasses of water, a beer, and an extra bowl of rice to get through that curry. They don’t mess around.

Even though there’s a beer permit application in the window, they’re already serving, thanks to a temp permit. Liquor possibly as soon as next week.

Blogging from my phone at the Goose. There are several tube top hotties up here.

Sat update: Wrestling book, new fitness club, new web stores, tube top dress pic

I scored a free book last night at Trolley Tour.  A guy came up an identified himself as an author and said, “What’s your mailing address?  I want to send you a copy of my new book when it comes out in September.”  He handed me a card.  The book is titled Sputnik, Masked Men, & Midgets: The Early Days of Memphis Wrestling.  Cool!  It covers the era from Sputnik Monroe to Jackie Fargo to the early days of Jerry Lawler, and contains a bonus CD with music by Fargo, Monroe, Len Rossi, and “The Boogie Woogie Man” Handsome Jimmy Valiant.  Can’t wait to read it.  Says it will have over 400 images of the golden years of Memphis wrestling.

It’s too bad it was so incredibly hot last night, because the trolley tour otherwise would’ve been one of the best of the year.  The Music Foundation had bands and free burgers, and the SMA had burgers and hot dogs and Boscos beer.  There were a number of smaller bands playing out on the street, and the preview for Daylight Fades was playing at 506 S. Main.  The heat got to me though… by 8:15 I couldn’t take it any more and headed north.  Later in the evening I headed to Paula & Raiford’s, where Raiford pulled out some Michael Jackson tunes I haven’t heard him play in years. All the staff had “Michael Jackson Lives On 1958-2009” shirts on which was a nice touch.

Attn frat guys:  The combination of button-down shirts, long khaki pants, and flip-flops looks really, really stupid.

As I was walking down the Main Street Mall yesterday I saw this sign:

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New fitness club on the top floor of the Cadre Building at Second and Monroe.  Go to envisionmemphis.com and click “Enter Site” at the bottom of the page to see what they’ve got.  Good to have a fitness club so close to home… I’ll enjoy walking by it on the way to the Saucer every day.

Trying to get a game plan together for tomorrow… I think I may actually slot Kooky Canuck in the lead-off 11 AM position, because it’s their Canada Day celebration and a 34 oz. Molson for $3 ($3.01, including tip for Meghan) sounds like a great way to start the day.  I’m also real curious about this “Montreal Steamie” they’re offering as a special, topped with mustard, onion, cabbage, and cayenne with a side of fries for $4.99.

Then at 4 I have a wedding to go to at the Cadre Building… Been thinking, this is a great weekend to be single.  If I had a wife or girlfriend, we’d argue all weekend about whether I’m wearing a tie to the wedding (I most definitely am not) and whether I’m going out drinking beer at the Saucer in the early afternoon before the wedding (I most definitely am).  I guess I’ll hang at the Saucer until about 3:15-3:20ish then go put the stupid monkey suit on, minus the tie.

I unlinked my Twitter account from my Facebook account last night.  From now on I’ll do personal status updates primarily on Facebook.  Having used Twitter for a month I have yet to see the point… mostly it’s Stephanie, Susie, and the Nuh-Uh Girl chattering back and forth, and the Nuh-Uh Girl panhandling Downtown restaurants for free food.  I’ll still maintain my @firesale Twitter account which posts the Fire Sale on my blog as well as Twitter.

Today is not going to be a fun day.  Amazon announced a change in the way they do web services, and I have to get all my Amazon storefronts in compliance by August 15 or they’ll stop working.  Groan… I have about 110 stores to update.  That’s going to suck.

By the way… I’ve rolled out 5 new stores in the past week… sister sites to Tube Top Boutique… been too busy to blog about them.  They are

I have two more stores under development that I’ll add soon.  You know the story on these by now… Amazon handles checkout and shipping, I never see your name or credit card number, just a notification that items were bought and how much commission I made.

And finally, I’ll wrap up this long Saturday morning post with a pic of Ruchee in a tube top dress.

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Fri update: Trolley Tour, Downtowners in the CA, etc.

For once I actually got a good night’s sleep on a Thursday night, so tonight is definitely a going-out night. And a good going-out night it is, with the Trolley Tour happening in South Main. The SMA will grill free burgers and Boscos beer for members – if you want to become a member and get into fun events like this one, just bring $25 to join as an individual. Down the street the Power House will have the opening of “Girls, Grillz, and Dolls,” a photography exhibit by Sheila Pree Bright. More details on that here.

In the CA today: Onix, the chicken and waffles restaurant at South Main and Huling, got reviewed. Also, one of the true icons of Downtown, the Little Tea Shop’s Suhair Lauck, was featured in “Meet the Chef.”

Watched the draft last night at the Saucer and at Bardog. Welcome to Memphis Hasheem, and congrats to Tyreke Evans on being picked 4th by Sacramento. It sounds like that’s where he wants to be. Congratulations also to Robert Dozier on getting picked #60 by the Miami Heat. Antonio Anderson didn’t get picked. If any colleges out there have an assistant basketball coaching position open, they would do well to give Anderson a serious look.

I know some of you got on here this morning hoping to see pictures… sorry. It’s hard to find time to do all the things I need to do and still conform to an 8-to-5 schedule. Hopefully I’ll download them this weekend. However, I have to do mandatory software upgrades to my Amazon stores, and I have about 115 of them… ouch. Gonna be in front of the computer a lot this weekend.