Daily thoughts of a Downtown Memphis resident
Two ’80s icons, Pat Benatar and Blondie, perform at the Mud Island Ampitheater on August 1, and tickets go on sale at Ticketmaster locations this Saturday, May 30 at 10 AM.
If I’m doing the math correctly, Blondie would be 64 now. Wonder if she’s still got it?
Still waiting on the car to get out of the repair shop… nice to spend a morning Downtown though.
Just took the car in for brake service, so while I’m waiting to get it back, you get a post. By the way, I’ll mention the garage I use again – Quality Auto, on Jefferson just east of Third. They’ve done better work than the Saturn dealership, and have been a LOT cheaper too. Very happy with them.
Tonight Dr. Zarr’s Amazing Funk Monster plays the Peabody rooftop from 6 to 10. $5 cover, ladies free until 8, Mpact Memphis members free thanks to a one-night-only promotion.
The Daddy Mack Blues Band plays the Madison rooftop tonight starting at 5:30. $7 cover, cash bar, and tapas menu.
Super 5 plays the Red Rooster’s after-rooftop party tonight. Ladies get in free all night, drink specials, “You Got the Look” contest where the winning “Chicklette of the Week” gets a $200 Sephora gift card.
Much Is Given plays the Saucer at 9:30 tonight, $3 cover. (Note: I got this info from their website calendar, which has been less than 100% accurate)
Sole Restaurant in the Westin has Ladies’ night tonight with $6 mojitos and $5 specialty drinks.
I’ll probably do one Happy Hour beer at the Saucer tonight, then hit the Peabody rooftop a little after 7. Hope I get the car back soon… lots to do at work, as soon as I can get there.
Every summer, several of our career panhandlers do the “flower man” gimmick. They approach couples, handing the woman a “free” flower and then asking the man for a few dollars for a tip. Ever wonder where they get their flowers? This e-mail from one of my blog’s readers sheds some light on the subject:
I read your blog and really loved the photo of the “Flower Thief” several months ago. Miraculously, my garden was spared last summer, and perennials recovered this spring. Early Monday morning the “thief” was back. I did not catch him, but the pattern was exactly the same. The hydrangea bushes were “beheaded by about 20 heads…broken and cut with about 5 inches of stem. The pattern… is to continue to rape the garden as the flowers bloom, therefore a continuous supply of floral to sell to either tourist or restaurants downtown.
About 4 years ago, I caught him loading up an old suitcase with my roses. It was a good story…tracked him down, with the help of a couple of bicycle cops, and captured him at The Peabody. He was on the run!
I e-mailed her back and asked for a location where this is happening. She lives in the South Main district but closer to Beale than to G.E. Patterson and the art galleries (put it this way: if she wanted Gus’s Chicken she wouldn’t have far to walk). Panhandlers could run down there in 5 minutes and pick flowers from her garden and then be back on Beale, Union, and Second charging money for the stolen flowers.
I know quite a few people only check my blog from work, so I want to mention a couple of items I posted this weekend that you might have missed:
First of all, I have my own personal Twitter account now, @paulryburn. Feel free to follow me. I’ll warn you though, it will not be “Blog II.” Rather, it will be a typical personal Twitter account, a way for my friends to keep up with what I’m doing and where I am. In most cases I’ll save the juicy info for the blog.
Secondly, I’m looking for ideas for new fashion niches to build new web storefronts, to complement the highly successful Tube Top Boutique. If you have any ideas for new niches I’d love to hear them.
I reorganized the info on my left sidebar so it’s easier to find my e-mail address (it’s right under my picture) and find me on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. I removed the MySpace link because I’m pretty much finished with MySpace.
And now for new stuff:
Mpact Memphis is organizing a couple of outings this week. One is at this Thursday’s Peabody rooftop party, and if you’re an Mpact member or you join that night, you can get in free. You can also register for a drawing to win Peabody gift certificates and rooftop VIP passes. Dr. Zarr’s Amazing Funk Monster will be cranking out the disco and ’80s tunes this week, so it’s a good week to go.
Then there’s an outing to the Redbirds game on Saturday. It starts at 6:05 and as a member you get discounted ticket prices of $10 adult and $7 child (regular prices would be $20/10 for these seats). Ticket also includes dinner and the post-game fireworks display. Pretty good deal. Check out all the cool stuff Mpact is doing here.
Don’t forget that Kooky Canuck has their 34 oz. mixed drinks, regularly $9.99, on sale for $5 all day today and every Tuesday.
Pete the Trivia Guy will be calling the action tonight at the Saucer… free to play, begins at 7, chance to win $50, $25, or $10 gift certificates.
Blogging on my iPhone from the window at the Flying Saucer.
I forgot to mention in this morning’s post that there’s a luau at the Red Rooster tonight. Drink specials. Wear your beach or summer attire.
Bangkok Alley, the Thai restaurant going into the old Sawaddii location, has a website at www.thebangkokalley.com.
As of last night, Kooky Canuck had 1,999 people attempt the Kookamonga Challenge, where you get their 7 pound burger for free if you finish it within an hour. You could be number 2,000… few have succeeded though.
All right… one more Pint Nite beer, then it’ll be time for dollar cocktails at the Goose.
Here’s a look back at a long Memorial Day weekend in photos:
The Dempseys at Automatic Slim’s Friday night, with guest singer.
1970s “Polizei” BMW that was driving around Downtown on Saturday.
Not the first time I’ve seen someone walking the streets of Downtown with a trash bag slung over his shoulder, but it was the first time I’ve seen Bicycle Bobby do it. The Ques Brothers had an extra keg, and we borrowed a trash bag of ice from the Saucer to ice it down.
Sunday at the Saucer, my friend Chris requested a “really, really cold beer.” This is what they brought him.
Chris enjoying his extra cold beer.
You may need to click the image above to zoom in and see what I’m talking about here. These are the plates of the five newest members of the Flying Saucer’s UFO Club, including the very newest who had his plate party last night. From right to left the dates read
Looks like the Saucer doesn’t know what year it is. I love it when they do stuff like this.
Yesterday I got up too late for brunch, so I headed directly to the Saucer and met up with the gang for Sunday Fun Day, and enjoyed some Leinenkugel Sunset Wheats on Fire Sale. After that a few of us wandered next door to the Silly Goose for their Bloody Mary bar. Then the gang decided to cook out on a rooftop in South Main. I decided I wanted to remain in the core for Memorial Day Sunday, so I parted ways from them and wandered over to Kooky Canuck for their $2 beer day. Then back to the Saucer, then the Goose, then joined a friend for a burger at Huey’s which we managed to order 5 minutes before their kitchen closed. So I had a 15 hour day out at the bars Saturday, and a 14 1/2 hour day Sunday. Gotta love holiday weekends.
I won’t hit the double digits today, but it is Monday Fun Day. Soon as the laundry gets out of the dryer it’ll be time to get started. Mmmm… $2.75 Dos Equis Lager at Pint Nite prices. Of course, it’s also dollar Depression-era cocktail night at the Silly Goose from 5 to 7. If you work out east and get home too late most Mondays to enjoy dollar cocktails, today is your chance! Hope to see you there.
This is a drunkass post that won’t go up ’til morning because I have to wait for YouTube to process a video. I’m going to have to leave it overnight before I publish. But once it loads… here’s a video of Paula & Raiford’s Disco about 2 AM Saturday night.
She’s not seen in the video, but to the girl in the fuchsia tube top who was at Raiford’s: Thank you for all you do.
By the way: The only reason I can claim to be a heterosexual male and know what color “fuchsia” is, is because I run a store that sells tube tops in that color.
I heard that Calhoun’s has raised its PBR price to $2.
The Silly Goose has several new menu items, including lobster dip which I tried tonight… very good.
Dr. Herman Green celebrates his birthday tomorrow… well actually tonight by the time this gets posted… Sunday … his 79th birthday, performing with FreeWorld at Blues City Cafe at 10:30.
Off to bed, although I’ll be awake again by the time you read this. $2 34 oz. beers at Kooky Canuck all day Sunday.
Blogging from my new iPhone. Got the activation problems straightened out. One of the things I did today was create a personal Twitter account. Feel free to follow me at @paulryburn. I will still maintain @firesale for Fire Sale updates. Speaking of which, I have advance knowledge that tomorrow’s is Leinie Sunset Wheat.
Today is not off to a good start. I thought it would be. I ordered a new iPhone through AT&T. I charged it last night and connected it to iTunes this morning. So it was ready to activate.
I went to AT&T’s activation site. I got all the way through the activation process, and then on the last screen it said, “Sorry, due to an issue with our servers we weren’t able to activate you right now. Please call (some phone number) if you continue to have problems.”
So I tried to call the number with my old Verizon phone. That didn’t work. AT&T wasn’t able to activate my new phone, but they did deactivate my old one.
So I tried to register again. It said “This phone has already been registered. If you think this message is in error please call (phone number).” Which I can’t do because I don’t have service from either phone.
I tried to access their online chat support feature, but they wanted me to register first. After I did, they sent me a password – they texted it to my new phone, which doesn’t work. The only other option for getting me the password is U.S. Mail, which is not much help.
It gets better. Last night I tried to pay at the Saucer and my debit card was declined. I called the bank (my old phone still worked then) and they told me they had a threat of identity theft and had to issue a number of new cards. They told me to check my mailbox, that my new card should be there. It was.
But before I can use the card, I have to activate it with my home phone. Which doesn’t work right now.
The only reason this stopped short of being a total emergency is that I had a couple hundred dollars cash stashed away for a rainy day. So I can still live my life this weekend.
Gonna wander down to the Saucer or somewhere and see if I can borrow someone’s phone and get this mess straightened out. I may be unavailable by phone this weekend though.
After Memorial Day weekend, I’m going to get back to building new websites, specifically, Amazon.com storefronts. Related to that, I have a question for my female readers. I want to design some sister sites to Tube Top Boutique, where I focus on a very narrow niche of women’s fashion. What niche do you think my next storefront should focus on? If you have ideas, shoot ’em to paul@paulryburn.com.
It’s been a fulfilling week at work… I’ve spent most of this week setting up a WordPress blog that we’re going to roll out next month. As a result, I’ve gained a much better understanding of WordPress than I had before. I’ve added a lot of bells and whistles that are going to WOW the blog’s readers and keep them coming back. I’ve also learned a lot of tricks that I will eventually use on my own blog.
I feel like I’ve finally found my niche. I’m a marketing person with a very strong knowledge of IT, rather than an IT person. I enjoy creating things that will excite and motivate people. I don’t enjoy optimizing SQL Server stored procedures to reduce import and transformation time of large data files by 10%.
Got another question… those of you who work near the airport, where is there a place to pick up a Memphis Flyer in that part of town? It’s Friday and I haven’t read the Flyer yet. That’s completely unacceptable, especially since it’s one of my main sources for blog info. You just don’t see green boxes out by the airport like you do in Downtown and Midtown.
All right… had a friend call and say he was at the Saucer before I even left work… time to head up there and get the weekend started.