Paul Ryburn's Journal

Hmmm I wonder if Brick knows who sings that song.  Probably not.

PROFANITY ALERT, but you should just assume that anytime I post about Brick.  Actually, this week I have not one but two “Brick” Quotes of the Week, not bad considering I was running on empty as of Friday evening.

The first one happened last night.  Bicycle Bobby was sitting at the bar, and he saw the Nuh-Uh Girl over by the dart board.  He asked Brick if she knew the Nuh-Uh Girl.

“Why, did she take your food?” Brick replied.  So I guess that’d be a “yes” then.

Okay, on to the second one.  Last week I learned that Brick is actually one of the top performers in terms of sales.  Friday night we asked Brick the secret to her success.  “Because,” she said, “men are fucking dumb as fuck.”

And now, on to other things… as is often the case on the weekends, I have pics to post.  First of all, here’s a pic of a pot.

Here’s a pic of a kettle.

Last night our trivia team cashed in our winnings at the Saucer.  It was probably our biggest party to date, with 22 people attending.  We had $425 to spend, and we managed to blow through the first $298 of it in just over an hour.  Damn this group can drink… I’m so proud of these people.  Here’s a pic of the Nuh-Uh Girl eating at the party.

Shawn and Joe decided the Nuh-Uh Girl wasn’t getting enough to eat, so they force-fed her in the pic below:

After the party money ran out, I hung out and listened to FreeWorld’s first set, then headed south to Calhoun’s where they were having their annual Mardi Gras party.  Here’s a pic of Mikey dressed up in Mardi Gras attire.

A good time, but an early night for me… home not long after midnight.  But that’s OK, because today I’m rarin’ to go.  Sunday Fun Day is just a few hours away.  Speaking of which, there are several special events going on today that I need to round up and post.  No, not a bunch of crappy, overpriced Valentine’s Day dinners – I’m talking about events that people would actually want to attend.  Look for a post about those events later this morning.

Sad news:  Side Street Grill in Midtown was destroyed by a massive fire last night.

If you like Milky Ways and shop at the Downtown Walgreens, look near the second cash register from the door as you go in.  They have a new kind of Milky Way called “Simply Caramel.”  Just caramel covered by chocolate, without the nougat found in regular Milky Ways.  Really good.

The Kindle App on my iPhone has ruined me.  A couple of days ago, I decided to order this book:

However, unlike the last several books I have ordered, this one was not available in Kindle version. That means I have to WAIT for it to be physically delivered, and it’s killing me! I want my book NOW!!!  I have all day Saturday with nothing to do, and my book is sitting in a FedEx delivery hub somewhere.

Actually, I probably would have ordered this book months ago if there had been a Kindle version, because Daniel Negreanu is my favorite professional poker player.  I wonder how much in royalties authors will lose this year because their books are not available in e-reader version?

I’m pleased to report that a Brick quote has been obtained.  When I came in last night, she said, “I’m going to avoid you so you can’t get a quote.  And I’m not working tomorrow or Sunday, so you’re going to be out of luck.”  Apparently, in Brick’s world, though, “avoid” means “come over and talk every 5 minutes.”  It wasn’t long before she provided a new quote.  There’s a lot of irony in this one.  It will be up tomorrow.

After 10 years of DJing, DJ Scotty B has announced that he has his first club residency.  He will be at Rehab Disco from 9 to 3 Fridays and Saturdays beginning March 5.  Kudos to Rehab on an awesome DJ selection.  I will definitely be in there to hear Scotty’s tunes.

One of the best food blogs in the city, Dining with Monkeys, has a new post about Abyssinia restaurant.  OMG that food looks delicious.  I have got to go there soon, or organize a group to go so we can share multiple dishes.

Local photographer Kyle Blair will have a show at South of Beale on Thursday, February 25 at 8 PM.  The title is “S. Main in Pictures.”  I’ve talked with Kyle about his work many times over beers at the Silly Goose, and look forward to seeing his photos.

That’s all for now.  Cleaning and playing poker during the daytime hours, then it’ll be time to meet up with my trivia team and drink some beer.

I’ve received reader feedback via e-mail about the post I did yesterday, asking everyone to support the proposed ordinances restricting panhandling and the sale of single-serve beer Downtown. Many of you told me you e-mailed Council members, and I appreciate that. Thank you.

I am still hearing some concerns that enacting these ordinances will disperse aggressive panhandlers, and their related behaviors such as open container violations and disorderly conduct, to other parts of town. I asked Larry Bloom, the CCC safety director, about these concerns.

Larry replied that similar ordinances are in place in Seattle/Tacoma. It was found there that for such a dispersion to surrounding neighborhoods to happen, three factors all have to be present in those surrounding areas:

1) Green spaces, like parks

2) High concentrations of people

3) Availability of alcohol

Without all three of these, dispersion of panhandlers and their troublemaking behaviors has been found to be minimal.

None of the areas bordering on the no-panhandling, no-single-beer zones have all three of these factors – in particular, high concentrations of people. As one of my readers who e-mailed pointed out, panhandlers would have so few opportunities in the surrounding areas, due to lack of foot traffic, that they’d probably be better off panhandling at a mall.

Once again, if you support these ordinances I strongly encourage you to call or e-mail City Council members and let them know.  The South Main Association has collected all the members’ e-mail addresses onto one page here.

I’m not as active in the Downtown Neighborhood Association as I am in the SMA, but I just received an e-mail about their February meeting, and it looks like a good one for several reasons:

1. The featured speaker will be none other than Mayor A.C. Wharton. Other city officials will attend as well.

2. The meeting will be held in the Center for Southern Folklore’s Folklore Hall, and prior to the meeting, Blind Mississippi Morris and Brad Webb will perform on stage from 6 to 6:30 PM.

3. Bardog Tavern will provide an assortment of great food. Free food? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.

This meeting sure sounds like a winner. It’s Tuesday, February 23, social/music at 6, meeting at 6:30. Free for DNA members, $5 for non-members. If you’re not a member and want to purchase a membership at the door, February meeting is included.

Unexpected second lunchtime post.  These dogs are missing in Uptown.

If anyone finds these dogs e-mail met at paul@paulryburn.com and I’ll give you the owners’ phone number.

Typing this while I eat a sausage & black olive pizza from Domino’s.  Nice to have a location next door to work.

Got two pieces of very good news this morning from the Memphis Business Journal. First of all, the Red Rooster is coming back Downtown! The MBJ reports that they’ve signed a lease for the space at 340 Beale, formerly the Double Deuce. The Rooster was a great place to hear live music, dance, and watch sports. Thrilled to hear they will be back.

Also, good news for those of us who live in the Downtown core – we may be getting a new grocery and deli. City Market has applied to the CCC for a retail forgivable loan. If they get it, they’ll sign a lease for the ground floor of Radio Center Flats at Main and Union, and open a grocery/deli. According to the MBJ, the market will sell grocery and specialty foods, as well as prepared dishes, and will have a small dining area for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

I really hope that works out. Not only will it be nice to have an upscale deli and grocery less than two blocks from my front door, but it will fill one of Downtown’s most visible street corners. That will lead to increased foot traffic and the perception that Downtown is booming.

The beer dinner at the Saucer last night was fantastic. It was fun to sit with people who’d never been to a beer dinner before, some of whom were undoubtedly thinking, “Yeah right, you say beer pairs with food better than wine does, but you’re a beer bar, you’re supposed to say that.” I thought the same thing when I attended my first beer dinner there in 2007. The courses came out, and everyone tasted how well the Yazoo Dos Perros complemented the bacon potato soup; how the Orval trappist ale enhanced the flavor of the cheese on the salad. The pork tenderloin, eaten with a bite of apple and a sip of the beer served with it, was amazing. I could tell some of my table-mates were beginning to see beer in a whole new light. Thanks to Drew from French Broad brewery for hosting, and to the staff at the Saucer. We want more dinners!

Kooky Canuck has rescheduled their “Stetsons and Stars Kick-Off Party” which got messed up due to bad weather a couple of weeks ago. New date will be Friday, February 19. Starting at 8 PM, you can join Brian Elder of KIX 106 for $1.06 Bud Light drafts until 2 AM. There will be no cover, and the headlining band for the upcoming Stetsons and Stars event, The Mulch Brothers from Nashville, will take the stage at 10.

Di Anne Price and Her Boyfriends will perform in a special “Love and All That Jazz” service Sunday at 11 at the First Unitarian Church of the River. In addition to the music, there will be special V-Day readings.

Wow did I just recommend a church service in my blog? Hell truly has frozen over. Well, I don’t know about hell, but Mississippi is frozen over today, and that’s pretty damn close.

This isn’t a Downtown event, but I know Downtowners who have attended it in the past, and they’ve said it’s really neat: Chinese New Year celebration tomorrow at the Rose Theatre at the U of M. Performances at 2-4 and 7-9.

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Calhoun’s will have their annual Mardi Gras party Saturday night starting after the Tiger game (around 8ish). Gumbo cookoff where you can pay $5 to judge the entries, and for every $5 beer you buy (note: this means PBR does not count) you get an entry to win prize packs full of shirts, beads, gift certificates, and Mardi Gras stuff. These will be given away every 30 minutes. Also a “king and queen of Calhoun’s” will be selected based on who is wearing the most festive Mardi Gras attire.

I’m in the same precarious situation as last week… it’s Friday already and I do not yet have a BQotW for Sunday yet. Anyone got any suggestions for conversational topics that could lead to a quote from Brick? I think we’ve pretty much exhausted the topic of the moon.

Air Traffic Mike is coming home. Cool. See you at trivia Tuesday, ATM. Hope you have safe travel home.

John Calipari’s Kentucky Wildcats host Bruce Pearl’s Tennessee Volunteers tomorrow night. People are calling this game the Jersey Shore of college basketball because both coaches are such douchebags. Up until this year I rooted for Kentucky to win this matchup, but I just can’t cheer for Coach Cal after what he did to our Tigers. Nor can I pull for a team led by the Bruchebag. So I’ll be neutral for this game and make a prediction: Arkansas will upset the winner of this game in the finals of the SEC tournament, to win an unlikely bid into March Madness.

Winter Olympics start today.  Good TV watching for the rest of February.  Hope this doesn’t lead to the creation of a winter version of DTO.  Go USA (because that’s us), go Canada (because they’re the host country), and go Romania (because the girls there are hot).

Plans for this evening:  Don’t know.  Beer will be involved though.

You may have heard that two ordinances will be proposed to the City Council that will affect the experience people have in Downtown Memphis.  One will increase panhandling restrictions and declare part of Downtown a no-panhandling zone, except for designated areas where passive panhandling will be allowed.  The other will eliminate the sale of single-serve beers by convenience and similar stores in much of the Downtown core and Uptown.  The sale of these single-serve beers has been found to be the link between panhandling and crimes such as disorderly conduct that occur frequently Downtown.

Please take a minute to follow this link to read what the Memphis CVB has to say on the subject.

(Edit:  I’d posted about a breakfast here, but I’ve since learned it’s not a public breakfast.  Sorry for the confusion.)

I want to reinforce what’s being said here:  These ordinances are not meant to chase the homeless out of Downtown.  Rather, they are intended to curb the behavior of a few troublemakers who come Downtown every day to scam and hustle people.  These troublemakers get drunk, aggressively panhandle, get in fights, and generally create a horrible perception of Downtown.  These people are generally not homeless and have made a career of hustling people.

Activist groups would mislead you to believe that enacting these proposals would simply diffuse the troublemakers to surrounding neighborhoods – North Memphis, Med Center, South Memphis.  Other cities that have enacted similar ordinances have found that this does not happen.  Surrounding neighborhoods simply do not have the necessary combination of heavy foot traffic and tourists to be profitable to the panhandlers.

These ordinances are also facing heavy oppositions from the beer companies, who are bringing in lobbyists and lawyers from Washington, real heavy-hitters, to pressure the City Council.  We cannot allow outsiders to determine the fate of our neighborhood.

Please take the time to learn about these proposed ordinances, and if you support them, please do the following:

1) Take a few minutes to e-mail or call the members of the Memphis City Council and let them know how you feel.  It is imperative that they see widespread public support for these measures.  Here’s a link to bios of each council member.  The bios contain e-mail and other contact info.

2) We need as many people as possible to show up for the City Council meeting on Tuesday, February 23 at (Edit: Time TBA, I’d posted 3:30 but that’s the full Council meeting, see below) at City Hall, 125 N. Main.  Again, it is imperative that they see our support in numbers.  The ordinances will be considered by the public safety and homeland security committee chaired by Myron Lowery.  Proposals can die in committee at the Council just as they can in Congress.  We need to do everything we can to encourage them to move forward and take these proposals before the entire Council at the next meeting.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard feedback from out-of-towners or people from other parts of Memphis, saying, Downtown has so much to offer but I’ll never come back.  So many stories of people being followed, aggressively panhandled, cussed out, lewd comments made to women, etc.  I love my neighborhood and want people to come down here and enjoy it as much as I do.  If you feel the same way, please take the time to voice your support for these measures.

The Majestic Grille has rescheduled its event ‘Student & Teacher’ The Art of Blas Blanco Cuenca & Paul C. Clements, originally scheduled for this Monday but postponed due to inclement weather. New date will be Monday, February 22, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM, with the artists in attendance and cash bar and hors d’oeuvres. However, the artwork is already up in the Majestic’s Innovators Room, so come on by if you want a sneak peek.

Don’t forget to stop by one of the Memphis Flyer’s green boxes today and pick up an issue. The annual “Hotties” issue is now on the streets. I haven’t seen it yet because Flyers are hard to come by in the neighborhood where I work.

Good site to bookmark if you like deals: Memphis Groupon, which uses collective buying power to offer its followers a discount at a local business every day. The way it works is, if enough people agree to buy at the discount price, then everyone who signed up gets it. If not enough people sign up, nobody gets the discount and nobody is charged. Kind of a cool concept. Today’s deal is for Seize the Clay ceramics studio.

Shelton Clothiers just got some new Visconti shirts in. They’re offering a Valentine’s Day special: $25 off any two sport shirts, or $25 off any shirt and tie combination.

For those of you who enjoyed Dynaflow as the post-Downtown Olympics band or at Calhoun’s on New Year’s Eve, they’ve got an upcoming gig at Earnestine & Hazel’s on Thursday, February 18 at 9 PM. I’ve been wanting to catch their show for a while and it looks like this just may be the opportunity… perhaps I’ll show up at Calhoun’s Thursday night poker game beforehand and win another gift certificate before I head over to E&H.

Tonight, on the other hand, I’m not sure what I’ll do… should stay home for a night of laundry and poker, but I have a feeling I’ll go out instead.

Just got home.  As of 5 PM there was ice on the Second/Third exit ramp off westbound I-40.  There’s also ice on the underpass under I-40.  If you take that route home be careful and slow down on that ramp.

The temperature did not get above freezing all day, so whatever ice patches were there this morning are still there.  Be extra careful on the drive home.

Skipping the SMA meeting and going to trivia tonight.  Should be there by 6, trivia starts at 7.

The monthly South Main Association meeting is tonight at See the Difference Interiors at 431 S. Main.  Jodie Vance of Downtowner Magazine will be the featured speaker, with social at 6, and program at 6:30.  They’ve announced that the March meeting will be at Local Gastropub, featuring top cop Larry Godwin.

Otherwise, if you were expecting a long, newsy post… sorry, that’s it for today.  Stupid temperatures yesterday… if it had been 5 degrees colder outside, all that rain would have fallen as snow, and we likely would have had another day off.

Shocked to hear that Pierre Henderson-Niles is no longer a member of the Memphis Tigers team.  It sounds like it was not due to any kind of NCAA or team rules violations, but rather a mutual decision between Henderson-Niles and Coach Pastner.  Best wishes to both the team and to Pierre… I always enjoyed watching him play.

Kind of leaning toward skipping the SMA meeting and just going to trivia tonight… more in the mood for a low-key night with friends.  Besides, it’s our last chance to win another gift certificate before we cash in.

That’s all for now… I think I have stuff on the camera to post, but the camera’s at home and I’m at work.