Paul Ryburn's Journal

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.

I never met Bill Saba while he was alive, but I heard he was a super great guy, well known and liked Downtown.  My favorite breakfast sandwich at Elliott’s is named after him.  Unfortunately, he passed away due to a brain aneyursm at age 37 in 2006.  His friends and family have honored his memory by setting up a fund in his name at St. Jude Children’s Hospital.  You can read more about the fund here.

Sabafest is an annual event to raise money for the fund.  This year it’s at the Cadre Building, and your donation of $15 or more will go to a patient treatment room that was sponsored in Bill’s name.  Walrus and Punching Nicholas will play.  I’ve heard Walrus before and they are outstanding; I missed Punching Nicholas at the Tap Room last month but heard great things about them as well.  Food by the Notorious P.I.G. BBQ team.  Details of the event are below.

Sunday afternoon, October 12, there’s a tour of 12 churches in the neighborhood from 1 to 5 PM.  If you want to explore Downtown churches, many of which are more than 100 years old and have beautiful architecture, this is your chance.  More info on the tour available in this CA article.

I’ll probably miss this one, because touring 12 bars from 1 to 5 PM Sunday (or drinking 12 beers at one bar, maybe) sounds like more my speed.  I’m sure it will be a great event though.

The Grizzlies have a blog now.  Check them out to get all the latest news and updates about the team.

Restaurant.com has a new sale from now through Sunday that is even better than the one I previously blogged about.  Enter coupon code SAVE at checkout to get 70% off your total.  A lot of restaurants Downtown (Big Foot Lodge, Stella, McEwen’s, Majestic Grille, and many more) and all over town participate in this program.  The $25 face-value certificates normally sell for $10, but with the 70% off coupon code you can buy them for $3.

Please note that some restrictions apply – in many cases they can’t be used to purchase alcohol, and many restaurants require to spend at least $35 to redeem the $25 face-value gift certificates.  Still though, they’re a great deal – you can get $22 worth of food for free if you get in on the sale.  You can buy more than one certificate for the same restaurant, but can only cash in one per table per visit.

I’ve blogged about these for over a year now, and many of my readers have bought the certificates and successfully used them.  The program is totally legit.  So, if it sounds like something you’d be interested in, now is the time to take advantage of the sale.  Happy eating!

I’ve referred y’all to the site Hot Chicks with Douchebags numerous times now.  After 2 hours at the Saucer from 9:30 to 11:30, I’ve decided to ask the question:  What makes a Memphis douchebag?  It’s slightly different than the national average.   I have thoughts on the subject (one brand of shirt in particular) but want to hear from my readers.

E-mail your thoughts to paul@paulryburn.com.  I’ll post on this approximately next Wednesday, give or take a day.  The gloves will be totally off profanity-wise for this post.  It’s time to put some people in their place.