Paul Ryburn's Journal

IMPORTANT NOTE: At work, we’re moving to a new office in Horn Lake this weekend. Our computers were packed today, and we won’t have access to them until Monday. My iPhone will be my only means of communication with the outside world while I’m at work Thursday and Friday. I have the WordPress app, so I still may do a lunchtime post, but it’ll likely be a short one. Anything you send me that you want posted, I can’t guarantee it’ll go up sooner than Monday, maybe even Tuesday because I’ll have lots of pics to post from the weekend. I’ll still have limited communication Thursday and Friday via Gmail, Facebook, and Twitter apps, but I probably won’t be typing any responses of more than a line or two.

The Peabody sent me details about their first rooftop party, happening tomorrow night, April 15. Each party will have a theme, and the first one will be “New Orleans – Saints & Sinners.” The food buffet will consist of andouille sausage, red beans and rice; jalapeno hushpuppies; and mini mufaletta sandwiches. In VIP they’ll have chicken and sausage jambalaya and white rice, and also shrimp remoulade shooters, and crawfish tartletts. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up. I already know for a fact that she has a VIP pass.

April 22 theme will be “Latin Nights” and the week after will be “Cowboy week – Texas.” I’ll post menus for those a day or two before. There will also be a “Jersey Shore” theme at some point this season. Hmmm I know someone who should be comped into VIP that night… can anyone guess who I’m talking about? Hint: Not someone I’d normally recommend for VIP. The Peabody also told me they have 40 cases of Resurrection, the anti-hangover drink, and will be handing them out as people arrive on the 15th. The VooDoo buckets will be back, and new to the party are Suck N Blow Jello shots. The VIP section will be larger this year, with umbrellas for shade. Don’t forget that you get buy a VIP pass for $50 which gets you in all the rooftop parties and in VIP for the entire season, a $350 value. (Disclosure: They gave me a VIP pass, but I’d have bought one for sure if they hadn’t.)

Don’t forget about the block party at Main and Peabody Place before the rooftop. Shelton Clothiers has announced that they will have some specials that night: 25% off all suits and sport coats, 20% off all sport shirts, and $25 off any shirt and tie combinations (excluding custom orders, specials, and sales). Ladies, you’ll be able to meet Merry Mitchell, the buyer/sales manager for the new store Christine by Shelton Clothiers, soon to open on the same block. Give Merry your e-mail address, and she’ll send you a $25 gift certificate toward your first purchase at the new store.

Here’s a link that shows you what kind of geniuses they have at the University of Tennessee, or “Tennesssee” as they call it.

South of Beale is getting a basketball goal in their parking lot, and there will be a 3-on-3 charity tournament this fall. My goodness, with basketball at SOB and cornhole at Calhoun’s, South Main is getting fit while they drink!

Lifehacker had a good post on beers to drink with lunch. Just don’t drink a beer with lunch if you work at Autozone corporate HQ, because apparently they frown on it.

Here’s another Jersey Shore pic for you: JWoww jumping rope in a tube top. JWoww is kinda gross. I need to find better tube top pics to post.

B.B. King’s restaurant/club on Beale Street and Kooky Canuck are starting a Thursday night Redbirds mug club. For $30, you get a Club Level seat to the Redbirds game, an exclusive Redbirds Mug Club mug, two vouchers for draft beer, and discounted beer after your vouchers run out. Bring your mug to B.B.’s or Kooky after the game for drink specials. First meeting of the Mug Club will be April 22. More details here.

The CCC is holding a new “Beats in the Street” program this spring. It will highlight some of our city’s best artistic assets, with “Tuesday Tunes” with local musicians and Fridays with dancers, artists and poets that have been featured on the Live From Memphis web site. There will also be interactive events including yoga lessons, corporate karaoke, trivia contests, and more. The series kicks off this Thursday, April 15, with Ballet Memphis’ open rehearsal of “Sleeping Beauty.” It will be from 11:45 to 1 PM inside the Lowenstein Building at Main and Jefferson, and chairs will be provided. On Friday, April 16, there will be a “60 Second Showcase” in Court Square from 11:45 to 1, featuring songwriter Lauren Strange, spoken word performer Darren J, and songwriter Jeff Pruitt.

Hollywood Disco will have a graffiti party on Saturday.  They’ll hand out white T-shirts to the first 50 people, and give you glow in the dark markers.  All their blacklights will be on high, and you go around writing on people’s shirts.  The writing gets more creative as people get drunker.  If you don’t plan on being one of the first 50, you can wear your own white T-shirt.

Looks like I’m going to make it to “Buy the Beer, Keep the Glass” night tonight after all.  It’s the 4:20 and is a very cool “The Dude Abides” glass (I saw it last night).  Fire Sale is Franziskaner – Danny must think he’s died and gone to heaven today.  Anyway, outta here for now.

I have way too much stuff to write about to get it done in the remaining 10 minutes of my lunch break, so the “Wed update” post will be delayed until 6 PM.  Check back.  Topics include more info about the Peabody rooftop parties this month, a Redbirds/BB King’s mug club, performances on the Main Street Mall at lunchtime, a tube top pic, and tons more.  I just need about an hour to type it all, and I won’t have that until I get home.

I didn’t have time to write a lot about the passing of the panhandling ordinance last night, because I was at my weekly trivia night (we won, by the way). Now that I’ve had half a day to process it, here are my thoughts. I’m just typing as it comes to me, so this may not flow as well as some of my blog posts.

There was a very good comment left in response to the Commercial Appeal article about the ordinance. The commenter pointed out that most of the people we see panhandling Downtown every day are not poor and they are not homeless. They are professional bums who have been standing on the same corner, running the same scam, for years. Many of them are smart enough to get a regular job (and some of them would actually be quite good at sales), but that would require adhering to a regular schedule and not doing drugs and booze all hours of the day, not to mention paying taxes.

The commenter made another good point… if someone who was truly impoverished and/or homeless tried to ask people for money Downtown, he wouldn’t last long. The regulars would tell him to stop panhandling in their territory, and drive home the point with a beating if necessary. I remember when a reporter for one of the TV stations posed as a panhandler in Court Square, and that was exactly what happened. He was told he was working someone else’s turf and he needed to move on.

There were people who accused me and other Downtowners who supported the ordinance of “classism” and of being “rich Downtowners who are trying to push the inconvenient homeless into poorer neighborhoods.” Let me ask you something. If that were the case, how come I’ve never complained about the Hospitality Hub? It’s a place on Jefferson where the homeless can relax for a few hours, and can get the paperwork they need in order to apply for jobs. That place is two blocks from my building. But you know what? I’m glad it’s there. It needs to be where it is, because it’s near enough to the Union Mission and the nearby churches with soup kitchens that it’s easily accessible to those who need it. Do I mind the homeless coming into my neighborhood to use these services? Not at all. And in fact, I shouldn’t say “my” neighborhood because it’s “their” neighborhood too.

I’m glad Joe Brown’s proposed ordinance passed along with the panhandling ordinance. We do need to determine how to get nonviolent panhandlers with mental and/or substance abuse problems the help they need. However, let me point out something… in the case of substance abuse issues, it’s got to be the help they WANT as well. I’m sure there are some who would be ready to give up booze, crack and panhandling if they were shown a path to a more stable life. However, some of our professional bums down here seem to enjoy their lifestyle – boozing at 1 in the afternoon, hanging out with their buddies, intimidating passersby, making lewd comments to women. They’re only going to want a change if we make it clear that their current lifestyle won’t be tolerated any longer.

I’m also happy to see that Brown’s ordinance calls for strict prosecution of repeat offenders. One of our regular parking scammers got picked up three times in recent weeks for criminal trespass. He likes to go on the Tri-State Bank lot at Main and Beale and pose as a parking attendant. Premier Parking who runs the lot has filed an Authorization of Agency against him, making it trespassing if he’s there. In each case he was merely cited for the trespass and not taken to jail. He showed up for two of the court dates, and the charges were dismissed “nolle prosequi,” which means “the judge and the prosecutor didn’t feel like being bothered with it.” He forgot to show up for the third charge, and a bench warrant was issued and he was caught last night. I’m keeping a close watch to see if that one gets thrown out too. Judges have got to lose the attitude of “don’t waste my time with this” when it comes to these types of charges.

As for the things the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center pushed for… I AGREE WITH MOST OF THEM. We need increased access to mental health and substance abuse services for those who need them. There needs to be a free shelter for the homeless in the city. I’ve never disputed those things. But we need to do those things AND crack down on the aggressive panhandlers. The MSPJC, until their alternative proposal yesterday, had always presented the issue as an EITHER/OR, not an AND. E.g. “Instead of funding the Downtown safety patrol, put the money toward a homeless shelter.” Let’s find ways to DO BOTH.

Gonna cut myself off because I need to get a “Wednesday update” post done on my lunch break too. If I have more thoughts I’ll post ’em later.

The panhandling ordinance passed tonight. Beer ordinance delayed 2 weeks. The MSPJC supporters had on shirts that said, “Jesus was a panhandler.”

Air Traffic Mike: “I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t spend the money on crack and a big 4-0.”

Congratulations to everyone who played a role in the ordinance passing. Bye bye bums!

I have more information about the proposed panhandling ordinance.  It will be voted on by the full City Council at 3:30 PM today at City Hall.  It is very important that those who support the ordinance, and who can get off work, show up outside City Hall around 2 PM today to visually/verbally show their support.  Signs have been created and will be handed out, or you can make your own.  A group that opposes the ordinance will be outside demonstrating at 2:30.  It’s important that Council members see plenty of people who support the ordinance, as well.

Enough is enough!

The final reading of the panhandling and single beer ordinances is tomorrow at 3:30 PM at City Hall, 125 N. Main. If you support these proposed ordinances and can get off work or are off work, please show up. The City Council needs to know that large numbers of its constituents support these measures. Enough is enough! We’re fed up aggressive panhandling projecting a bad image of our neighborhood.

Lifehacker had an article this morning on GoodReader, an iPhone app that can handle large PDFs without crashing. I own this app and have used it many times. It’s 99 cents and is one of the few times I’ve paid for an iPhone app. Worth the money if you need to read PDFs on the go.

Trivia with Will is at Local Gastropub tonight at 8 PM. If you’ve been staying away because they didn’t have liquor and wine, stay away no longer… they now do.

Good Groupon Memphis deal today – $20 for a Family Four-Pack of Field Box Tickets to a Memphis Redbirds Game, up to a $52 value. Good idea for an affordable family night out.

If you’ve been voting in the Google Fiber poll, you may have noticed that the Carolinas were doing extremely well, with two cities leading the others by far. They’ve now determined that bogus votes were cast and they are considering restarting the poll. The GoogleFiber.com site, by the way, is not a property of Google. It’s registered to a company in India. So, while it’s worthwhile to vote, because Google may consider the results, don’t think you’re communicating directly to Google when you do.

In any case, don’t forget to click on the link in the upper right sidebar of my blog to vote for the Binghampton skate park.

Back to work… I’ll be late but I’ll be at Pint Nite at some point this evening.

This isn’t Downtown-related… in fact, it concerns a restaurant pretty far away.  However, since PBR is frequently mentioned in this blog, I figured I’d pass on the info.

One of my friends on Facebook messaged me to say that her mom’s restaurant, Cajun Catfish Company on Sycamore View, has 2 for 1 PBRs for $2.50 all day, every day.  $2.50 for two 12 oz. PBRs has to be one of the best deals in town.  So if you’re out in that neighborhood, check it out.

Off to work.  Probably another post at lunch.  Will be late to Pint Nite tonight because I have GOT to get my taxes filed.

This morning I plugged in the camera and downloaded some random pics from this weekend.  Let’s see what we’ve got.

Friday afternoon: Band playing at Handy Park for the Spirit of Memphis pep rally

Friday night: Fire pit at Robert & Gloria’s cookout

Saturday afternoon: I tried Miss Polly’s Soul City Cafe on Beale for the first time.  I had the 3-piece white chicken meal with taters & gravy and white beans & ham.  Very good!  Kudos also to doorman Mark, who got me from “hmmm it’s an option” to “I’m going to try this today.”  Mark is the talkative guy who used to be at Frank’s Deli on South Main.

Saturday evening:  Hannah models the Saucer’s newest beer, created by brewmaster Bicycle Bobby.  Hang on, let’s zoom in on that label and see what it says…

“Brittney Ale.  Poison.”  It will probably be the Fire Sale today.

Saturday night: Mikey drinks beer from the trophy Calhoun’s gave him for being at the bar 90-some-odd consecutive days.

There was one more pic I wanted to post, but couldn’t get it to turn out right.  Christy (previously seen on this blog chowing down on cheese fries) was getting down with her bad self at Calhoun’s.  Sensing a photo opp, I whipped out the camera from across the bar, set the zoom to 6x, and snapped a pic.  Unfortunately the camera focused on the bar’s tap handles and there was no way I could edit the photo to anything decent.  So Christy escaped the blog this time.  There will be other opportunities, I’m sure.

Forecast is sunny and around 80 all week… looking good.  Going to take a shower and then head to Sunday Fun Day.

The fountain of knowledge known as Brick celebrates a birthday today.  Happy birthday Brick!

I’m sure someone will ask me, how old is Brick?  I honestly don’t know.  She stopped counting when she turned 20.  Not because she’s afraid of getting older, but because she ran out of fingers and toes.

If you’re a fan of menu website MarksMenus, there’s now a MarksMenus app available for the iPhone.  Check out this Commercial Appeal story for details.

I mentioned earlier that @jameshutto is a good person to follow on Twitter for social media tips.  He posted a good one yesterday – a link to an article about 52 social media sites that every marketer should know.  Great article and there were several sites I was not even aware of.  Thanks!

Prediction:  In the next year, companies that serve the public will start banning employees from checking in on Foursquare.  I mean, it’s one thing when people check in at Medtronic or FedEx World HQ – those are office buildings.  But it seems like bars and restaurants lose a valuable chance to get to know who their best customers are when employees check in every day and claim the mayorship.  Wouldn’t you want to know who keeps coming to your bat/restaurant because they want to, not because they’re required to?

(And no, I didn’t lose my mayorship of the Saucer, in case anyone’s wondering.  Not even the managers are there enough to steal my mayorship.  It’s other places where I check in Downtown where I see it being an issue.)

Have you voted for Google Fiber and the skate park today? Links at the top of my right sidebar.

Great Groupon deal today:  One night at the Inn at Hunt Phelan for $99. It’s up to a $299 value.  Folks who live in other parts of Memphis, this would be a great way to experience Downtown as a local for one night, at one of the neighborhood’s finest places to stay.

Fun night last night.  I attended the “Spirit of Memphis” rally at Handy Park, where I heard some great music and got to see two musicians inducted into the Beale Street Walk of Fame.  I really am thrilled about the Spirit of Memphis rallies.  For years it’s been perceived as cool to put Memphis down because the person next to you does too… it’s time people started getting together and speaking up and saying that Memphis is GREAT!  The Downtown Download blog has a new post about the rally.

After that I stopped by the Saucer for a beer… I managed to choke down Schlafly Coffee Stout, one of the nastiest beers on the menu, because it was on Fire Sale and I needed it for my plate.  The repulsiveness of the stout was enhanced even further by Otto sitting next to me and running his mouth about what a great beer it is.  Yuk!  Better than Turbo Dog though.

After that I headed south to Robert & Gloria’s for their cookout.  They were testing wing recipes for Hot Wing Fest next weekend, and we were happy to provide feedback.  The 24 oz. PBRs never materialized but the 12 oz. cans were just fine with me.  Thanks for a great evening.

Speaking of Hot Wing Fest… the wing/BBQ team I’m on, The Ques Brothers, will be competing as well.  We’ve got an awesome sponsor lined up and it should be a great day.  It starts at 10 AM, which means I’m gonna have to go to bed at a reasonable hour next Friday night so I can be there.

Time to set up some more affiliate marketing stuff, so I’ll hit Publish now.  Hmmm this is work that could be done at the Second Street Branch Office, perhaps I should pack up a computer in the backpack.