Paul Ryburn's Journal

Sorry for the lack of a lunchtime post… was away from the computer.

The April meeting of the South Main Association has been announced! It will be next Tuesday, April 13, at Boscos/Ghost River brewery at the corner of Main and Crump. Terry Lynch, president of The Southland Companies, will speak on the topic “Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?” Social at 6, meeting at 6:30, with food and Boscos beer compliments of the brewery.

Free food? Wonder if the Nuh… WHOA! FREE BOSCOS BEER??? Never mind the Nuh-Uh Girl, wonder if I’LL show up!

While we’re on the topic of South Main… the CCC is inviting all South Main residents and stakeholders to a meeting to discuss streetscape improvements to the area. Specifically, the blocks of Main between Linden and St. Paul will be considered. Ritchie Smith Associates, the project consultant, will present preliminary designs, answer questions, and document your comments and concerns. Meeting will be Thursday, April 8, in the meeting room on the ground floor of Central Station (use the G.E. Patterson entrance).

This Is A Great Idea Dept: Today KFC announced that they will roll out a new sandwich, using pieces of chicken as the “bread.” What will be in the middle? Bacon, of course! And cheese and sauce. Yum yum… can’t wait to have one! I can hear my health guru groaning already. Here’s a USA Today article with more info.

Sign that I spend too much time at the bar: I just typed “And cheese and saucer” in the paragraph above. Glad I caught it before hitting Publish.

I didn’t know I could find any more reasons to hate Karl Rove, George W’s advisor, but I got one today. He was in Knoxville signing his new book, and he commented, “Any place where they play football and wear orange is fine by me.” That must mean he likes Texas too – wow TWO more reasons to hate Rove, now that I think about it. Maybe I should buy a copy of his book. Might come in handy, since I’m running low on toilet paper.

It’s Super Tuesday at Kooky Canuck, with their menu of 34 oz. mixed drinks on sale for only $5. Terry who bartends there posted on Facebook that a new Signature Cocktail will debut tonight. “It tastes like summer,” he wrote.

If you’re into opera and you work Downtown, head to the Main Street Mall in front of the Belz Museum at lunchtime tomorrow, April 7. At 12:00 Opera Memphis will perform a piece from Madame Butterfly. Show opens April 17.

Oh I cannot believe I have forgotten to mention this… CONGRATS TO THE RAPSCALLIONS ON FINDING THE EASTER KEG!!! It was a team effort. I kept up with the clues and figured out where the keg was located, Air Traffic Mike let us know when they put the keg out, Frank went and got it, and Clay brought it in. That won us a $100 bar tab, which we’ll probably throw in with the rest of our trivia winnings for our next party. That gives us $325 and we still have well over a month before any certificates expire. Go team! I want to break the five hundred mark for a party – we’ve come close but have not yet hit it.

Time to head to trivia and earn another 50 to throw into the party tab!

I’ve had several people admire my little netbook, and say they’re thinking about getting one for themselves.  I just saw this sale on OnSale.com:

Gateway LT2032u Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz 10.1″ Netbook with 7 hours of battery life (6-cell Li-ion)- 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD ONLY $274.99

It’s $75 off list price for a limited time. With a 7-hour battery, this is a really good deal.

(Disclosure:  That there is an affiliate link.  You buy through that link, I get paid commission.  Still, though, I wouldn’t blog about it if I didn’t think this was a great value.)

Friday night I stopped by Circa for a snack with my friend Air Traffic Mike…  I got the prosciutto-wrapped asparagus, pictured below.  $8 for 6 of them, not a bad deal at all.

While we were there, John Bragg brought out a sample of a new halibut dish that he’s considering putting on the menu.  I didn’t get a pic of it but Air Traffic Mike has a pic on his blog.  I agree with Mike, it needs to go on the menu IMMEDIATELY.  If it makes the menu, be sure to ask for advice on a wine pairing with this dish.  Thanks to John for a fantastic dinner.  When the Nuh-Uh Girl found out about it, she said, “You got to try the halibut?  Where was MY phone call???”

Mike has some pics of the Warehouse party and the Squeal Street fund-raiser on his blog too.  He did a better job than I did taking pics this weekend.

It’s 5:30 and I’ve decided I am going to make it to Pint Nite.  Will probably stay there through the championship game.

I’ve had a couple of people tell me that Cafe Beignet on GE Patterson has a great happy hour.  They have $2 drafts and $3 Long Islands.  I believe the times are 3-7 PM Tuesday-Friday.  Really nice fully stocked bar, New Orleans-style atmosphere.  I’ll have to give it a try this week.

I had a great time at a fundraiser for the Squeal Street BBQ team yesterday.  They’re a new Patio Porker team that some of the South Main crew started, and they cooked up ribs, hot dogs, and other goodies.  I’m remaining on the Ques Brothers, but I’ll definitely stop by the Squeal Street booth a couple of times during BBQ Fest.

Dead tired today from a long weekend of partying.  About 50-50 on whether I’ll make it to Pint Nite tonight.  The bar will surely be crowded with people there to watch the NCAA championship game.

Just sayin’. Happy Easter.

Last night I had the pleasure of going to The Warehouse for Kris Kourdouvelis’ 50th birthday.  The Bar-Kays, Jason D. Williams, and Al Kapone played.  Here are some pics.

Fire dancers on the patio

Kris put out a BBQ buffet for his guests. He must have thought to himself, “Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.”  Which of course she did.

Joe and Mama Joe

BEER!

Billy & the gang

Hot babes

Max walked over from Calhoun’s to check out the party

Gary tries to grab some food before the Nuh-Uh Girl eats it all

You know what I forgot to do, and what Mikey forgot to do when he confiscated the camera?   Take a pic of the birthday boy.  At least I learned how to spell “Kourdouvelis” this year.  Happy birthday to one of the most generous souls Downtown and a key supporter of the Memphis music scene.

$2 beer at Huey’s? Win. I assume this applies to all their locations, since it’s not the Downtown location’s 40th birthday.

Whew.  Up late last night.  I was at church celebrating our Lord Jesus Christ.  Oh wait.  No I wasn’t.  I was at The Warehouse.  And Calhoun’s.  And the Flying Saucer.  And the Silly Goose.  And Paula & Raiford’s.  And The Shadows.

Damn bunny didn’t bring me any marshallow peeps.  I’m going to connect the camera and see what happened at the Warehouse last night when Mikey the Camera Nazi confiscated the camera.  Saucer is closed until 5 for Easter.  I’m going to try to throw a brick through the window and break in early.  (Attn Brick: Meet me outside the Saucer at noon.   You might want to wear a helmet or hard hat.)  If that doesn’t work, I’ll probably spend the afternoon at Calhoun’s.

Here’s a one-paragraph synopsis:

Jackson Pritchard is a wanted man. Wanted by his clients, by an ex-lover, by a new love interest…and now by the police for questioning. His clients have begun to turn up dead. Jessica Young wants to live her own life for a change. Now that her second life is ready to begin, her path crosses Jackson’s. Follow them across the country and further as their adventures culminate in an explosive and surprise ending. Pepper Jack is a thriller much in the style of James Patterson. Set predominantly in Memphis, it is filled with rich Southern character and characters. The dialogue is fun and fast and the characters are memorable and enjoyable, even the bad guys! Let yourself be swept in the story and see the pages turn themselves.

You can buy it at the publisher’s site.  Jon will be in town May 8 for two signings, 4 PM at the Midtown Blue Monkey at 7 PM at Mollie Fontaine’s.

There will be a ceremony tomorrow at 1 PM to name the alley between Front and Wagner for Jack Tucker. Tucker is an architect and is one of the pioneers of living in Downtown Memphis. After the ceremony there will be a walking tour, led by historian Jimmy Ogle, of some of Tucker’s achievements.

Chef Michael Patrick now has the Mesquite Chop House open for lunch on Fridays only. Menu includes soups and salads; sandwiches in the $8-11 range with choice of fries, soup or salad; and “meat and two” plates in the $8-12 range.

Seen on Facebook: “_____ became a fan of Yelling at Inanimate Objects.” Is Scratchy on Facebook?

I have a problem with this fashion article. They did a good job recommending a red-and-white striped tube top, but then they had to go and say that it’s “easily layered under cardigans or hoodies.” NOOOOO! Tube tops are not meant to be “layered!” They are meant to be shown off! See, this is why I have to devote an entire month of the year to tube tops on the blog, to educate the public.

It’s gonna be a busy weekend for me… my affiliate websites have reached the point that I’m having to upgrade from the Deluxe hosting package to the Premium package on GoDaddy. This is the right kind of problem to have. I have so many exciting ideas to expand my sites… where were these ideas when it was 38 and raining outside? Or when I was unemployed for five months and had unlimited time to build sites? Anyway, I’ll be out this weekend, but I’ll likely have the MacBook or netbook with me, and will be working part of the time.

After I get everything in place, I’m going to teach it to my friend Danny who loaned me the book that inspired this recent round of ideas. Danny: “You mean there’s more to the Internet than forwarding 3 megabyte joke e-mails to everyone in my address book?” Yes, there is.

I wish Foursquare would do a better job removing duplicates in their system. I flagged “flying saucer dtown” as a duplicate two weeks ago, but it’s still showing up. There’s also “Kooky Canuck,” “kooky kanuck,” and “Kooky Camuk.”

@jesus just tweeted, “Not the kind of Friday morning I was expecting.” It’s going to be an interesting weekend to follow him on Twitter.

Plans for tonight: I’ll kick it off at happy hour at the Saucer, but after that, no idea.

The Redbirds will have an open workout at AutoZone Park next Wednesday at 11 AM.  If you work Downtown, this would be a fun way to spend a lunch hour.  They’ll have free hot dogs and sodas.  Free food?  Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

Beale Street is throwing a party April 22 to welcome its newest tenants, the Red Rooster, Ground Zero, and Lil’ Anthony’s Cafe.  More details here.

Looks like the city won’t put up any money to repair Downtown sidewalks.  Details here.

Tall ladies, check out this article.  The second paragraph has lots of useful information on looking good in a tube top.  60 days until Tube Top Month.

Short post this morning because I have to get to work.  Possibly more at lunchtime.