Paul Ryburn's Journal

Big Foot Lodge is holding a kick-off party for the 8th annual Hollywood Casino/St. Jude Red Carpet Bash tonight at 8 PM.  No cover, $2 Bud Select draft all night long, DJ Tree spinning tunes.  Big Foot’s owners Shawn and Lana are the event chairs for the Red Carpet Bash, which happens on November 8 at Hollywood Casino.  If you’re interested in tickets or sponsorship for that event, talk to them tonight.

I just browsed their Facebook “who’s attending” list.  Damn there are a lot of hot babes who will be there.  I may have to change my plans and go to Big Foot rather than the Saucer after the mini-Goner Fest tonight.

Even more bad news for John McCain:  RealClearPolitics now projects a total of 313 electoral votes “solid” or “leaning” Barack Obama, with only 270 needed to win.  Florida and Colorado have now moved from “toss-up” to “leaning Obama.”  The victory parties may begin early in the evening November 4 if Florida really does break decisively toward Obama – without it, John McCain is completely out of options.  To add insult to injury, FiveThirtyEight.com’s statistical analysis now gives Obama a 94.9% probability of winning the election, and a 53.67% chance of an Obama landslide (375 electoral votes or more).

Just did a little web searching… I knew it had to be out there, and sure enough I was right.  Someone created a T-shirt with Che Guevara’s hair, beard, and beret Photoshopped onto Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s head.  You can see it here.  In case you don’t get the humor behind this, Bush and Paulson announced that the government was buying shares of 9 of the nation’s largest banks.  $250 billion worth.  Che was president of Cuba’s nationalized bank system in the early 1960s.

Happy birthday to regular blog reader Tom, who is having fun celebrating his birthday by painting a house today.

Mpact Memphis’ Mpact Maker Awards will be handed out this Thursday night, October 16, at Jack Robinson Gallery (44 Huling) from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.  These awards recognize young leaders in the community.  The event will be emceed by Maney from Q107.5’s morning show.  Free food and drinks.  Free for Mpact members, $15 non-members.

Thanks to all who have given me ideas for categories for my new Saving Consumers Time review site.  A few notes:  First of all, I tried to come up with a decent list of digital-to-analog converters for old “rabbit ears” TVs that otherwise won’t work after February 17, 2009.  I really couldn’t come up with a decent list from online sources.  The ones that were highly rated were just too expensive.  Those that were in the right price range (no more than $60) were pretty bad – only one had a 4-star rating on Amazon (out of 5), and then the list quickly went down into the dumps.  There’s no way I could make a decent review page out of that sorry bunch of converters.  My advice would be to go to Best Buy, and do not pay more than $60 before tax.

One other note:  I can’t review services on the site.  One reader asked which is best, Comcast cable or BellSouth DSL for Internet access.  Here’s the thing:  A product is the same product whether you live in Memphis or Maine.  Services, on the other hand, can vary.  When Time-Warner provided cable Internet in Memphis, I never had a problem at any place I lived Downtown or Midtown.  On the other hand, friends in East Memphis had all kinds of problems and eventually had to get rid of it.  I just can’t give consistent recommendations for high-speed Internet service, or any other service, such as cell phone carriers, for example.

It looks like my next review will be single-serve coffee makers, for people who are tired of driving through Starbucks every morning and want to save some money while still enjoying their cup of coffee (rather than sharing a pot of bland coffee with the rest of an office).  I’m busy this week, but it should be up within 3-4 days.

See you at the SMA meeting at Safari tonight at 6, and trivia at the Saucer after that.

Harlan T Bobo has been added to the lineup for tomorrow’s Mini-Goner Fest from 4:30 to 8:30 PM in Barboro Alley, the alley off the Main Street Mall next to Sauces.  The complete lineup is

Jeffrey Evans & Ross Johnson
The Limes
The Barbaras
Harlan T Bobo
Jack Oblivian and the Tennessee Tearjerkers

Check out this Commercial Appeal video on Earnestine & Hazel’s, in which Michael Donahue interviews people about the famous Soul Burger, and he also talks about The 5 Spot, possibly Memphis best-hidden fine dining secret.

OpenOffice, the suite of “office” software (word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, etc.) that competes with Microsoft Office, has just released its latest version, 3.0.  OpenOffice, over the past few years, has evolved to the point where it’s just as good as MS Office for most people’s purposes.  It has gotten so good so quickly because it’s open source – it has a community of volunteer developers constantly working to improve it.  Also, where MS Office costs hundreds of dollars, OpenOffice costs $0.  It’s free to use.

You can get it here.  Their server is so swamped that their homepage is down right now, but you can at least link to mirror sites where you should be able to download the office suite.

I never listen to the radio, so many of you may have heard this already…

But, word on the street is that AC/DC will play the FedExForum January 30.

Many years ago, someone asked Rudyard Kipling what he didn’t like about San Francisco, and he responded:  “‘Tis hard to leave.”

I found myself having the same problem at Bardog Tavern yesterday.  I took the laptop there about 1, and jumped on an open wireless network in the neighborhood.  Over the next 5 hours, I got a lot of work done – I wrote 2 articles for my new website Saving Consumers Time, and officially announced the launch of the site on my blog.  I did more than that though… I drank several glasses of PBR, ate a deluxe grilled cheese sandwich with ham and bacon, talked to various people who passed through.  You know, it was a weird experience… I skipped the “official” group Sunday Fun Day plans, and yet, sitting there at Bardog, I got a feeling I hadn’t had in a while, a feeling similar to my first couple of years Downtown doing Sundays at Sleep Out Louie’s.  It felt like a celebration of living Downtown, that I can walk right down the street to a place full of good people and good times.  It really reminded me why I moved down here in the first place.

So, my plan was to work until my laptop battery and spare external battery both died, which tends to be about 5 hours.  “So I guess I’ll do a venue change to the Saucer at 6,” I thought.  But 6 was shift change at Bardog, and the evening bartender, Melissa, came on, and I thought, “okay, I’ll have one more PBR and talk to Melissa for a few minutes, then go to the Saucer at 6:30.”  Then Air Traffic Mike came in, and I thought, “okay, I’ll have a beer with ATM then head to the Saucer at 7.”  Then the estimated departure time became 7:30.  Then 8.  And so on.  I had no real desire to go anywhere else – I was happy being there.  Finally, at 10 PM, I realized it was time to leave, in order to get a decent amount of sleep for work today (especially since my allergies are still driving me nuts).  So, if you’re wondering why “what’s the fire sale?” never got updated yesterday, it’s because I never made it to the Saucer.

Back to my website Saving Consumers Time – if you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a product review site.  I welcome suggestions for categories of products to review.  For example, a reader e-mailed me yesterday asking me to write about digital-to-analog TV converter boxes, so his old “rabbit ears” TV will continue to work after TV goes all-digital in February ’09.  That’s a great topic and I’ll probably work on it tonight.  I like topics like that, recommending items that solve a problem someone is having.  You can send me suggestions for topics to write about at feedback@savingconsumerstime.com or at paul@paulryburn.com.  My goal is “30 by 30,” to have 30 articles up (so far I have 5) on Saving Consumers Time by November 30.

I’ll probably research and write the converter box article immediately after work, then hit Pint Nite at the Saucer around 8.  Plans for the rest of this week:

• SMA meeting at Safari, then trivia at the Saucer on Tuesday
• Downtown Alive! mini-Goner Fest on Wednesday, then the presidential debate
• The Majestic, Circa, et al. block party on Thursday, then The Dempseys @ the Saucer
• SabaFest @ the Cadre Building on Friday

A full and exciting week… looking forward to it.

Sitting here at Bardog Tavern working on my laptop, mooching off someone’s unsecured wireless network nearby.  Just getting the feeling of being here on a Sunday afternoon… ahhh.  This is comfortable.  I may start hanging out here on Sundays more.  They tell me they’re going to start doing breakfast in the near future too.  I’m getting a lot of work done, enough that I’m going to go ahead and start calling this place the Monroe Avenue Branch Office.

I’m now ready to unveil my latest website, Saving Consumers Time.  This will be a site where I go out and find the best products and best values on Amazon and other well-respected retailers, and summarize the reviews I find.  So far I’ve posted four reviews:

• Robotic vacuum cleaners (these are a lot of fun, especially if you have a cat, and they do a great job)
• Turkey fryers.  Thanksgiving’s coming up, and there’s nothing like a fried turkey injected with Cajun seasoning.  Review includes oil-free and indoor options too.
• Little cameras with big zoom.  I love my 10x zoom Panasonic Lumix, so this was an easy review to write.
• Self-cleaning men’s shavers – shavers that come with a cleaning system for the ultimate in shaving hygiene.

I hope you find the new site useful.  If there are any product categories in particular you’d like me to review, let me know.

Last day for 70% off on Restaurant.com gift certificates.  As I explained Friday, many restaurants in the area (Circa, Stella, Majestic Grille, Big Foot, McEwen’s on Monroe, etc.) take them.  They’re normally $25 face value (some restrictions apply) for $10, but with the 70% off sale they’re $25 face value for $3.  Not bad.  Sale ends at midnight (not sure which time zone, so really, sometime between 11 PM and 2 AM) tonight.  Click the link through to their site, and use promo code SAVE to get the 70% discount.

This Thursday, October 16 at lunchtime, historian Jimmy Ogle will host a tour of the Civic Center Plaza, and of the courthouses and churches in the area.  This 45-minute walking tour begins at 11:45 AM.  Meet at the clock tower in front of City Hall on the plaza.

All right.  Time for lunch at Bardog – I’m thinking about their deluxe grilled cheese sandwich today, with ham and bacon added.  Sounds like a winner.  I’ll see how it stacks up against the Majestic’s.  Also, bartender Brittney (nice to have a bartender named Brittney who doesn’t suck) mentioned something about a Bloody Mary, and it sounds like I need to try one of those.  Logging off for now…

The South Main Association meeting is Tuesday at Safari Tapas, on South Main just south of Huling.  Lynn Sitler, Memphis Film and Television Commissioner, will speak about Memphis’ role in the movie industry.  Leslie Gower from the CCC and Fran Carpenter, Chair of the Memphis Holiday Parade, will talk about holiday plans for Downtown.  Marcy Siebert will talk about the SMA Food Drive to fill the Memphis Food Bank for Thanksgiving, culminating in a packing party on November 15.  Complimentary food and beverages.  Free for members, $5 for non-members.  ATTN TRIVIA TEAM:  I’m going to attend this one, because I’ve never been in Safari and want to see the place.  So I won’t make it to trivia until about 8:00.

The third presidential debate is Wednesday night at 8:00.  I know a lot of people plan on attending the mini-Goner Fest in Barboro Alley that evening, with Jack Oblivian, The Limes, and a couple of other bands; if you want a place nearby to watch the presidential debate afterward, the Flying Saucer has had the last two on their big screen, with sound, and I believe they’ll have the third debate on too.  It’s Woodchuck Cider “Buy the Beer, Keep the Glass” night, so if you’ve always dreamed of owning a glass with a large brown rodent on it, you can get one while you watch the debate.

Also – two good bands at the Saucer this week:  The Dempseys (Thursday, October 16) and Funk de Ville (Saturday, October 18).  Both start at 9:30.

A member of my trivia team visited Denver recently and e-mailed me this picture.  These meters are all over the streets of Downtown Denver:

Why can’t we get something like this all over Downtown Memphis?  Actually, we do have meters that take donations to help the homeless, but there are only like 3 of them, and they’re in obscure locations – I believe there’s one at Main and Jefferson, and one at the convention center, and one by Westy’s.  Plus, the ones we have look terrible – they’re not eye-catching and just look like ordinary parking meters.  Denver’s meters stand out and grab attention.  If we had these all over Downtown – I’m thinking especially on Peabody Place, Second, Main, and the part of Beale that is open to traffic – it would be a LOT harder for professional panhandlers to operate, and we’d get a lot more money to distribute to legitimate organizations that help the homeless.

Attn Mid-South Peace and Justice Center:  If you want to do something constructive to help the homeless, why don’t you campaign for these meters to be installed?

Plans for today:  I’ve finally got past a blocking point for a major new website I’m about to roll out.  So I’m going to work on it all day.  Most likely I’ll take the laptop to Bardog (they open at noon).  As far as I know they don’t provide Wi-Fi, but in that area I’m guessing someone has an open wireless network I can MoochNet from.  If I can get a few more things done on the site, I’ll announce its launch today.  In any case, I’ll probably find something else to post about later this afternoon.

This year William F. Buckley passed away.  In the 1950s he founded the National Review, a magazine which basically created the modern conservative movement.  Due to this movement, Barry Goldwater’s 1964 candidacy redefined conservatism, and Ronald Reagan swept to the Presidency in a landslide in 1980.

Today, though Buckley is likely rolling over in his grave, as his son Christopher has announced he is voting for Obama.  Christopher, who writes the back-page column for the National Review, says his main problem with McCain is not that he isn’t fundamentally a conservative; it’s that the trait that has distinguished him, his authenticity, has been completely lost in the campaign.  Obama, on the other hand, has exhibited a “first-class temprament,” and Christopher believes he has the foresight to consider solutions other than traditional left-wing solutions once he becomes President.

And, like every other reasonable person, he asks “What was he thinking?” in reference to McCain’s pick of Sarah Palin as vice-president.