Paul Ryburn's Journal

After trivia, hung out at the Saucer and built online stores using their free Wi-Fi til midnight.  Then I went with a friend to Big Foot Lodge.  The 34 oz. drink menu cards came out so I can now report on the ingredients of the two new signature drinks (no I didn’t have one tonight, I had a beer):

Flying Moose – melon vodka, citrus vodka, raspberry rum, sour, and Sierra Mist

Wobbly Mountie – banana, Irish cream, Kahlua, vodka, and milk with a chocolate drizzle.

Both 34 oz. and both $9.99 each.  They need to let me create a signature drink called the Falling Tube Top.  Or Slipping Tube Top or Tube Top that Won’t Stay Up.  Or something.

I’ve told you about our BBQ team head cook Willie and his restaurant Honky Tonk Barbeque in Chicago.  Winning 3rd place in shoulder at BBQ Fest was a huge deal for him and his restaurant.  Tonight I learned that Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley plans to come to Honky Tonk Barbeque next week to eat and to personally shake Willie’s hand.  Congratulations to Willie, Honky Tonk Barbeque, and the Ques Brothers!  Welcome, Mayor Daley!

I’ve heard a new coffee shop will be opening soon in the South Main Arts District area and it is going to kick ass.  More details to come soon.

I have to be at work in 6 hours, so I guess I should go to bed now.

Sitting here in the Saucer listening to Leo Lazarus the Tuesday night guitar player while working on my next online shopping site. Former waitress Darbi got up on stage and sang a few songs. Trivia: The first time I met Darbi, she had a tube top on.

Tonight Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination. One of my favorite sites, RealClearPolitics, has an electoral map projecting the outcome of a presidential election between Obama and McCain. As of tonight they project 228 electoral votes for Obama, 190 for McCain, with 120 electoral votes in toss-up states. If there were no toss-up states, Obama would win by the razor-thin margin of 272 to 266. Hopefully he’ll pull off a larger victory than that by November, but as I’ve said before, even if McCain wins it will be a tremendous improvement over what we have in the White House right now.

A couple of days ago I mentioned that the Peabody Rooftop now has a fan club on Facebook. Well, now Raiford’s (Hollywood Disco) does too. Search for “Raiford’s Hollywood Discotech Fan Club.” I joined today.  Raiford’s is a great place to see tube tops on the weekends.

One of Downtown’s best breakfast/lunch spots is now open on Saturday. Elliott’s Burgers, on Second between Madison and Monroe, started opening on Saturdays last month. They have some of the best burgers Downtown, as well as many other great lunch sandwich options. And I LOVE their breakfast – they have bowls, burritos, omelets, sandwiches. My favorite is their “Tribute to Bill Saba” which is sausage, bacon, ham, egg, and cheese on buttered Texas toast. My health guru AL definitely does NOT approve of this sandwich. If you live Downtown but don’t work down here, this is your chance to finally try the place for breakfast or lunch.

Cool website I found: Cooltext.com. This site will generate logos for you for free for your website. If you need a website cheap but lack graphic design experience, you can create a nice-looking logo and save it for use on the Web.

All right. Battery’s close to dying. Time to post. Trivia team took second.

The Center City Commission’s Downtown Alive! program is holding a corporate karaoke competition in Court Square tomorrow at lunch (11:45-1:15).  The winning team will get $100 and a cameo in the weekly Livin’ It Up In Downtown Memphis newsletter.  Heh… I’ve missed a lot of the Downtown Alive events but I plan on making it to this one.  Can’t pass up a chance to see corporate people looking like even bigger idiots than they normally do.  I hear AutoZone has entered… need I say more?

If you want to enter a team, it’s not too late… e-mail Stephanie at bennett@downtownmemphis.com.

Stephanie, by the way, pointed out something I totally missed… on the poster about the Orphum summer movie series I posted last night, there’s a pic of Meg Ryan in a tube top.  Good catch, Stephanie!

Last night I was at home building my latest online shopping site, when my new BFF Suzy called. “A couple of your neighbors and I are having a party on your rooftop,” she told me. “Come on up.” So I did. Here’s a pic of some of the party people:

Here’s a pic of me with my new BFF:

Not only did I score free drinks at the party, but my new BFF introduced me to cute girls as well (although none of them had tube tops on). Here’s a pic of me with cute girls:

While on the roof, I tested the 10x zoom on my new camera and took a pic of the rooftop deck on the newly opened Court Square Center/Lincoln-American Tower Apartments, a block and a half away:

After a couple of hours on the rooftop, they left to go watch the stupid Sex and the City movie, and I decided to head to Pint Nite at the Saucer. But as I walked past Big Foot, I saw my former BFF at a nearly empty bar (only one customer). I felt bad for her. She just hasn’t been able to develop any regulars, I guess. So I decided to stop in and have a Flying Moose (the ingredients of which I still don’t know, because they’re taking forever to get their new drink menu cards). While I drank my drink, my former BFF did a lot of important stuff, like text her friend Brittney (or as I call her, Lazy Do-Nothing Sit-On-Her-Ass-All-Day Brittney) and build houses out of straws. She used a lighter to weld the straws together. Here’s a pic of that:

She must have gone through an entire lighter’s worth of fluid building that stupid thing. Good thing there was nothing flammable around, like alcohol.

And here’s the completed house:

Tabbed out about 11:15, decided to do the late shift at the Saucer. But as I walked down Second, who did I run into but my REAL BFF, with the two cute friends pictured above. “We want vodka!” they said. The Saucer isn’t a great place to get vodka, so I suggested a return to Big Foot.

Oddly enough, my former BFF did not seem happy to see us. Funny… if I were bartending a near-empty bar, I’d probably be thrilled if a guy and three girls came in and sat down. But my former BFF’s mood turned sour… even more sour than usual. I ordered the ladies a round and we sat and talked. But when my real BFF tried to order round two, the former BFF said, “I’M NOT SERVING ANY OF YOU. YOU’RE ALL DRUNK. I CAN REFUSE TO SERVE ANYONE I WANT. Here’s your tab, Paul. Pay it.”  She seemed really angry. Odd because I’ve had way more to drink than that in the past and she’s served me, both at Big Foot and when she used to work at the Saucer. I wonder what was different about last night?

Since my former BFF ruined our good time, the three girls and I decided to call it a night after that. First Monday in a long, long time I didn’t make it to Pint Nite at the Saucer. I heard people were calling around, asking where I was, asking if I was okay.

My new BFF is awesome.

Much more to post about… if I can get a quick post in while a large file is processing this afternoon, I will. Otherwise, tonight or tomorrow.

Downtowners look forward to June not only because it’s Tube Top Month, but also because it’s the beginning of the Orpheum’s summer movie series. Today I was walking down the Main Street Mall and saw this poster for the summer schedule and shot a pic:

As always, they’ve loaded up the schedule with classic movies. This year they have “chick flicks” as well, so ladies, this summer you can dress up in your finest tube tops and have Girls’ Night Out at the Orpheum.

In other news of note… Wendy’s now has strawberry-flavored Frostys.  Two locations Downtown, both with employees waiting to serve you a Frosty, and bums waiting to panhandle you for change in the parking lot.

I’m pleased to announce that I have selected my BFF of the Month for the month of June. There were several strong contenders. However, after much deliberation I have decided to name Suzy (see picture below) my BFF of the Month for June.

I ran into Suzy Friday night at Itta Bena, and she presented a compelling argument why she deserved to be my BFF of the Month. “I drink. I cuss. I won’t blow cigarette smoke in your face. And you know I can totally rock a tube top, which is important since June is Tube Top Month,” she told me.

“Well, okay,” I said. “But so far, you’re only running even with my former BFF who works at Big Foot. She can claim all those things. And she didn’t work out.”

Suzy continued, “I won’t expect you to buy me drinks… I’ll just expect you to have a drink with me once in a while. And I won’t be mean to you, or insult you, or hit you, or cuss you out.” Okay, now she had clearly established herself as a breed apart from my former BFF.  Then she pointed out once again how she can rock a tube top.  That is an important qualification for the month of June.

So, Suzy is my BFF of the Month this month.  For the other candidates who were in the running, there’s still hope… a new BFF of the Month will be named July 1.

Lunch break is almost over.  Time to hit Elliott’s to grab a burger to take back to work.

If you answered yes to both questions above, you might want to get on Facebook and become a fan of the Peabody rooftop.

It looks like the Peabody is getting into the social networking thing… their Facebook page has a “Downtown Meets Midtown – the Mixer” event for this Thursday, June 5, which is actually the weekly Thursday night Peabody rooftop party, featuring The Plaintiffs this week.  From what I read, it looks like if you become a Peabody rooftop fan, then post the event to your Events page, you won’t have to pay cover.

Also, there’s going to be a photo contest that kicks off June 19 at peabodyrooftop.com.  It will run throughout the summer, with the winner to receive a weekend stay at the Peabody with dinner and brunch.

Hmmm maybe this will get me going to the rooftop parties again… still haven’t been to one yet this year.  I do have to admit, it’s a great place to do some tube top watching.

BFF of the Month post still to come.

Found this story from a Texas newspaper about a Kerrville high school student who was barred from graduation because of a tube top.  Scheduled to graduate on a Friday, she went on a trip with classmates to an amusement park the afternoon before.  While on the roller coaster, the tube top she was wearing inadvertently came down and someone snapped a photo.  The photo was brought to her high school prinicpal’s attention the next morning, and he decided to refuse to let her walk at graduation.

More tube top-related news stories to come all through the month of June.  For those of you who only read the blog from work and therefore missed Sunday’s posts, Tube Top Month has begun.

The crawfish boil at Calhoun’s yesterday was pretty good.  The place got packed, and the bad weather that threatened all afternoon went to the south of Downtown Memphis.  They’re still taking name suggestions and I contributed “J.J.’s,” suggesting they name it after the guy who hangs around outside and asks for money.  How many bums have a bar named after them?  Not many, I would guess.

The high point of my evening, though, came at Huey’s, where the Dempseys took the stage at 8:30.  It was so much fun not simply because they were playing, but because people from out of town came in, just looking for a bite to eat, and discovered that they had stumbled upon one of the most fun bands ever.  Met a software salesman from Portland and gave him advice on where to go for live music on Monday night (pickins are slim; I told him to check out maybe Blues City and BB’s).  He ended up talking to the band for a long time on breaks – they had a lot in common, since the band is from nearby Tacoma, WA.  On the other side of me was a flight attendant from Atlanta.  She said she planned to come back with friends on a weekend off and do some blues dancing.  I recommended Ground Zero and Mr. Handy’s Blues Hall downtown, the Blue Worm on Airways, and most of all getting in touch with the NewVoBlues group for lessons, club recommendations, and people to go dancing with.

That was fun.  Hanging out, talking to tourists.  I haven’t done much of that lately.  Think I may start hanging at bars that attract somewhat of a touristy crowd but are still fun (Huey’s bar, maybe Silky’s when Barbara Blue is playing) and just talking to people.  Need a change of pace from the same old places.

Other notes about the Dempseys show:  They announced “the most boring song ever” and then played a song which consisted of the word “straitjacket” over and over and over and over and over again; they played Led Zep’s “Rock and Roll,” something of a departure from rockabilly, all the way through including a guitar solo by Brad; when they played the “cities, states, counties, and towns” medley, my hand gesture to “Rocky Top” made them laugh so hard that they almost didn’t make it through the song; there was a French line dancing group in town that danced to “All Shook Up” and a couple of other Elvis numbers.

BFF of the Month to be announced later today.

Friday night I stopped by Itta Bena, after being told there would be a “Sex and the City” party there. I’ve never seen the TV show and have no intention of ever seeing the movie, but something about the way the party was described to me (I think it was “drink specials”) made me want to go.

I guess I need to read Wikipedia’s page on Sex and the City and figure out what the hell this TV show/movie is all about and why girls like it so much. The drink specials were named after characters I had never heard of, like “Carrie” and “Samantha” and “Charlotte” and “Mr. Big.” They were, needless to say, fruity girlie drinks. I didn’t care though; they contained lots of alcohol and were cheap, and besides I hate regular martinis anyway (they taste like something you’d put in a car to make it run better) and prefer the flavored ones. Here’s a pic of me drinking one of the girlie martinis:

Awww, isn’t that cute? They even gave me a coaster for the fruity-ass girl martini, designed to look like a pink high-heeled shoe. I wanted to shoot myself drinking this thing. Had a conversation with my friend Suzy about high heeled shoes… “I forgot to wear my FMPs,” Suzy told me.

“FMPs? What are those?” I asked.

“F**k Me Pumps,” Suzy replied. “Haven’t you heard about them? It’s all about the shoes.”

“Maybe for women it is,” I told her. “Guys don’t care about shoes. After all, June is not ‘Shoe Month’ in my blog.”

I hate to admit it but that is a pretty good pic of me… maybe I’ll make it my new MySpace/Facebook profile pic.

Couple more pics from Friday night:

The streamer from the balloons obscured bartender Sam’s face in the shot above, so he insisted on re-shooting it:

Coming soon: A new people-watching game I dreamed up last night while watching Aquanet’s performance at the Saucer.

I will announce my BFF of the Month for June tomorrow, so be sure to check back. If candidates for BFF of the Month want to do any last-minute lobbying, they’d better do it today.

Skipping brunch today. I’m going to start doing that every once in a while, just to allow myself to stay out later on Saturday night without being sleep-deprived on Sunday morning (because I’m already sleep-deprived five days of the week as it is). No offense to the Blue Monkey, which was on the brunch crew’s agenda for today. Looks like we’re going to continue doing the 2-and-2, with the Monkey getting us for two weeks then the Majestic Grille getting us for two.

You know how was complaining about file imports at work last week? Had a large file that kept bombing when I tried to insert it into a database. Sat at the damn desk all week and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. So when did I figure out a solution to the problem… while sitting at the Saucer drinking a beer. I wasn’t even thinking about the problem and the idea popped into my head. I’m starting to think work should let me just take my laptop to the Saucer and Remote Desktop into my office computer. I have a lot more good ideas at bars than I do sitting in a desk chair.

On the agenda for today: Crawfish boil at Calhoun’s (opens at 3:30; boil starts at 4; only 100 lbs., so if you want crawfish, you better be there not long after 4). I pretty much have to be there, as I have an open tab from last night. Not that I’d miss it anyway. After that, the usual stop by the Saucer to see my waitresses, then on to Huey’s to catch the Dempseys. Show starts at 8:30, so I’ll try to get there by 7:45 so I have time to get a good seat and eat a burger before they start playing.

It’s June, and that means it’s time once again for Tube Top Month.  All month long, every blog post will either mention tube tops or contain a photo of someone in a tube top.  This is the fourth year for Tube Top Month here on the blog, and it tends to be a whole lot of fun, so check back often.

This does not mean tube tops will be the only topic blogged about during the month of June.  Rather, it simply means that every post will refer to tube tops in some way, no matter how irrelevant they are to the rest of the subject matter.

Tube Top Month is a public service of this blog.  We here at paulryburn.com/blog feel that the tube top is one of the greatest fashion items of all time, and it certainly deserves a month in its honor.  (Some people have suggested I dedicate the entire summer to tube tops, but that might be taking things a bit far.)  We want to do whatever we can to promote the purchasing and wearing of tube tops here in Memphis and around the world.  Just our way of helping to beautify our surroundings.

So show your support… head out to your favorite clothing store, or visit the Tube Top Boutique online, and pick up a few tube tops.  Don’t forget, if you see me out and you have a tube top on, ask me to take your picture (I always carry the camera with me) and you can be famous in the blog.

Happy Tube Top Month everyone!