Paul Ryburn's Journal

I give the Commercial Appeal a hard time in my blog now and then, but I have to hand it to them: Their excellent editorial Friday endorsing Herman Morris for Memphis mayor played a big part in my decision to vote for him. No longer is my strategy to pick the most promising of the “Anybody But Willie” candidates – I now believe Morris really is the best person for the job.

For one thing, the article reminded me that Morris led MLGW during the “Hurricane Elvis” windstorm of July 2003. I thought MLGW responded very well in what was a crisis situation, and it gives me confidence that Morris would be able to effectively manage the city should another crisis – “The Big One” earthquake, a race riot, or whatever – occur.

More than that, though, I see in Morris effective, quiet leadership. He doesn’t feel the need to draw attention to himself as Herenton and Chumney do – he just gets things done. As the CA editorial pointed out, when others disagree with Morris, he listens, looks for commonalities, and tries to build consensus – whereas Herenton and Chumney tend to argue with those who disagree.

Up until last week I was undecided but leaning Chumney… and yet, there was a lot of doubt in my mind about Chumney the entire time. I look at her record on the City Council the past year and I see a lot more grandstanding than accomplishments. That’s not to say I think she’d be a bad mayor – I think she is indeed qualified and would make a far better choice than King Willie. However, I believe that Herman Morris’ manner and his leadership experience make him the best candidate.

I encourage everyone to read the CA’s editorial and then decide for yourself. I plan to walk down to the Election Commission sometime this week and cast my early vote for Herman Morris for mayor.

Here’s a link to the Morris for Mayor website.

As expected, spent the entire day wandering the Cooper-Young Festival yesterday. That festival is like crack to me – for me it’s not so much the booths or the food, but the people. Mainly, getting to see people I haven’t seen in 5 or 10 years, as well as people who have seen me around town but who I’ve never actually met. Got a lot of “Hey, you used to be my math teacher!” and “Hey, aren’t you the blog guy?” and “Hey, you’re the guy who’s always at the Saucer” and “Hey, didn’t I used to see you at Six-1-Six back in the day?”

If you saw me at C-Y, you already know who I’m supporting for mayor. I’m make an official announcement on my blog tomorrow. Discussed political races with my friends Rich and Kaleigh for a few minutes, and it helped me realize that what I’ve done this past week in the mayoral race (turned away from one candidate and toward another) is also what I’m doing in the presidential race.

Dr. Bob had a booth there and I hung out there for quite a bit during the day with him and Pete from the Saucer and Laura (nice meeting you, Laura).

Brace yourselves: I’m about to say something positive that contains the word “Germantown.” This probably will never happen again. Germantown Commissary had a booth at the festival, and I’ve never tried their food but have heard good things about them for years. So I tried their BBQ nachos. Outstanding! Possibly even better than the nachos at the ballpark.

The beer prices at the official vendor booths SUCKED – $4 for a draft Bud or Bud Light. That’s beyond the upper limit of acceptable price – four bucks is gouging, plain and simple. So I didn’t buy beer from the official vendors. I discovered that Soul Fish Cafe had a beer stand and was selling 24 oz. tall boys of PBR for $4, so I did a couple of those. Later in the day I discovered that the convenience store at Main and Evelyn was open and had even better prices – got my third 24 oz. can of PBR for $1.30, tax included.

Good grief there were a lot of strollers there. I wouldn’t ever want to see strollers banned, because C-Y needs to remain a family event, but they sure did slow down foot traffic. Too bad festivals can’t designate a “stroller lane” kind of like some streets have bike lanes, to get them out of everyone’s way.

Got some good info at some of the booths, and I’ll probably mention a couple of the organizations here in weeks to come. Talked to a group that helps the homeless, and I plan to follow up with them to brainstorm ways to funnel some of the misdirected generosity Downtown (giving money to panhandlers) to their organization and others like them. Also talked to a group that had a good message about fighting crime. Once I put on the sticker showing support for my mayoral candidate, candidates for other races came out of the woodwork wanting to talk. I took their literature and will look it over.

In addition to the BBQ nachos, I had an Athenian gyro sandwich (gotta have at least one every year). Crepe Maker also had a booth at the festival, and I recommended it to a lot of people, but didn’t eat there myself, since I can walk four blocks from my front door Downtown and get a “creep” (to use a Mikeyism) anytime I want.

Pie in the Sky Pizza is back, now calling themselves “Lou’s Pizza Pie.” They’re the ones who have specialty pizzas like the Moon Pie, Sun Pie, and Bluto’s Revenge. They had a Downtown location at Front and Gayoso for a while but it closed. They’re now at 2158 Young and you can view their website here.

Total money spent this year at the festival: $8 for the first two PBRs, $1.30 for the third, $6 for the gyro, $7 for the nachos, $1.50 for a Mountain Dew from the convenience store, $1.50 for an orangeade from the convenience store. $25.30 – not too bad. Usually I drop at least 40 bucks there. Didn’t buy anything from the vendors this year.

And now it’s Sunday. Brunch at McGuinness, then on to the Saucer. Back tomorrow with mayoral pick.

COOPER-YOUNG FESTIVAL! Wooooooooo!

Apologies for not posting my mayoral pick yesterday as promised. I meant to have one beer at the Saucer and then come home and post, but you know how that “one beer” thing usually turns out. I’ll save my mayoral endorsement until Monday since I tend to have a couple hundred more readers on weekdays.

Almost forgot to mention a Downtown event happening tomorrow: The WWE Unforgiven pay-per-view. Allow me to type up a quick summary of what’s going on in the WWE these days:

• About a dozen wrestlers were suspended last week when they were found to have purchased drugs from an Internet pharmacy, in violation of the WWE’s Wellness policy. This messed up pretty much every storyline they had running, but they had no choice but to put the suspensions in place due to media scrutiny.
• One of the main guys on the Smackdown brand is Finlay (formerly Fit Finley in WCW), a tough Irish guy who likes to brawl. WWE wanted to emphasize his Irish heritage, so they gave him a leprechaun who hides under the ring and runs out to cheat and help him win matches. Last month the leprechaun won the WWE cruiserweight (220 lbs. and under) championship.
• WWE chairman Vince McMahon plays the evil “Mr. McMahon” character in storylines, and last month it was revealed he had a bastard son who was on the WWE roster. This was supposed to be the beginning of a big push for rising star Ken (“Mr. Kennedy”) Kennedy, who was going to be revealed as the illegitimate McMahon. But Kennedy was one of the dozen who got suspended for buying drugs online. So instead, the illegitimate son was revealed to be the leprechaun.
• The ECW champion was John Morrison (formerly Johnny Nitro, doing a Jim Morrison gimmick). They were building toward a long run of fan favorite C.M. Punk chasing him for the title for months and months before winning it. Then Morrison got caught in the Internet drug purchase scandal and had to drop the title to Punk only a month into their program, in order to serve out his suspension. Tomorrow, Punk defends against Elijah Burke, who no one gives a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the title.
• The Smackdown brand’s World title match was supposed to be champion The Great Khali (7’3″, 412 lbs.) vs. Rey Misterio (5’6″, 150 pounds, not much bigger than the leprechaun). Someone in the back had the good sense to realize what an ass-whoopin’ Misterio would take, and added Batista to the match, making it a three-way.
• The Raw brand’s World title match is John Cena defending against Randy Orton. Orton is a third-generation wrestler and potentially the most talented guy on the Raw roster, but he keeps doing stupid stuff backstage – recently he almost got fired for taking a dump in the purse of one of the female wrestlers. There’s no way WWE will take a chance on putting the title on him.

My verdict: This PPV is going to suck. Why anyone would waste time going to it is beyond me. Well, Undertaker’s entrance is kinda cool (he wrestles “World’s Strongest Man” Mark Henry) and possibly worth seeing live at least once, but the rest of the card is just awful. Don’t waste your time. Join us for brunch instead. We’ll be at McGuinness first and then the Saucer.

Heading to Cooper-Young in a little while and will be there ALL DAY.

I’ll be at the Cooper-Young Festival tomorrow practically the entire day. I’ll be there from about 10:30 in the morning until it wraps up at 7 PM, except for a brief trip away to stop by a friend’s party in the area. If you see me out there, please feel free to stop me and say hello.

I’m planning one more post before the day’s out… I’ve decided whom I’m going to support in the Memphis mayoral election. Will let you know who it is as soon as I run down the street and take a picture.

The “Boor & Hungry” from Elliott’s, a sandwich with smoked sausage, Swiss cheese and egg on Texas toast. Mmmm good.

Memphis stalls under Herenton

Ate at China Restaurant for the first time today, and had the Chef Special, Singapore Fried Rice and an egg roll for $5.99. It was a good-sized pile of fried rice with beef, chicken, shrimp, egg and vegetables, fried in curry sauce so it was spicy but not TOO spicy. I enjoyed it. Figured there’d be enough left to put in a to-go box for local homeless person Scratchy, but I guess I was hungry. Sorry, Scratchy, maybe next time.

They have two $5.99 Chef Specials every day, and in most cases you can choose an egg roll, fries, or fried rice as your side. Most days they have one special that’s spicy and one that’s not. They also have a $4.99 lunch menu where you can choose from about 10 items which are pretty standard at Chinese restaurants.

One thing though – it took 20 minutes for them to get the fried rice out to the table (they did bring the egg roll after only a few minutes), and I stood at the counter for another 5 waiting to pay. If you work for a boss who gets upset if you run over your alloted time for lunch, this may not be the best place to go.

You can tell they’ve had problems with the bums by the signs on the wall. There’s a sign saying that drink refills must be consumed within the restaurant. They also charge for to-go packets of soy sauce, duck sauce, and mustard. Only in Downtown do you see signs like this, but if you’ve spent any amount of time among the “locals” here, you understand why those signs are necessary.

Overall, a good meal. I’ll go back on other days of the week to try more Chef Specials.

Will be working from the Second Street branch office this afternoon.

Ate lunch at China Restaurant as planned. Will blog about that later today.

Here’s a link to the latest storm track for Hurricane Humberto, which just made landfall on the Texas-Louisiana coast. Seems like every year around Cooper-Young Festival time, we have to worry about remnants of a hurricane spoiling the fun. It looks like Humberto will move through northern Louisiana and then make a U-turn away from Memphis, and probably won’t bring rain to the area on Saturday. Still worth keeping an eye on though.

Starting to go into Cooper-Young preparation mode… making sure I have sunscreen in the apartment to put on Saturday morning… making sure the camera battery is charged, and so is the spare battery… making sure I have enough money in my wallet to buy food, beverages, and anything I want from vendors … making sure I have plenty of business cards for the Handling-Panhandling group, my Memphis Discount Dining site, and some of my own cards to give to people… making plans for a relatively quiet Friday evening so I can wake up well-rested and ready to go on Saturday.

Time to do about an hour’s worth of work on a real estate website, then I’ll head to China Restaurant around 11 to try their Singapore Fried Rice.

Last night I met fellow Sunday bruncher John D at the Peabody/Capriccio Corner Bar to check out the free appetizer buffet (free with alcoholic beverage) that they’re now doing. John D was already there when I arrived, and they had Bud Light bottles, so needless to say he was a happy man.

The buffet consisted of some breads, some nice imported cheeses, and one hot item, which last night was fried ravioli. I’ve been told they have other hot items on different days, including (according to a press release the Peabody sent me) fried calamari, chicken Parmesan strips, and meatballs.

Between the two of us, we had 4 beers and the tab was $17.48 before tip – that works out to $4.37 per beer. A little pricey for Bud and Bud Light, but it’s the Peabody, what do you expect. My recommendation: The happy hour is worth going to, but fill up on apps while you have one beer, then tab out and go somewhere where the beer is cheaper (like Frenchie’s bar across the street at the Holiday Inn).

John D and I then headed up to Court Square for “Bands, Beer and Bums: The Court Square Concert Series.” A guy walked up and started talking to John D: John had him immediately pegged as a panhandler, but I didn’t. He was clean and had all his teeth. I went to get a round of beers, and while I was away the panhandler asked John, “Do you think that guy (meaning me) will give me some money?”

“No,” said John D. “But what he will do is take your picture and post it to a panhandling site on the Internet that the cops read.”

The panhandler beat a hasty retreat to the other side of the park. When he saw me take my camera out of my pocket, he nervously ran over to another panhandler and pointed me out, and they gathered their belongings and left the area.

So I didn’t get a pic of him, but I did manage to snap a few other pics.

Giant Bear performing in the gazebo. They were outstanding.

Legendary Downtown street person Willie N. lights up some concert attendees with his sparkling conversation. That is, if you consider “Hey, lemme get a quarter” sparkling conversation. The Blue Suede Brigade told me he was in rare form last night.

The guy in the gray jacket approached John D and me for a cigarette. I don’t smoke, but John reluctantly gave him one. The guy walked away, then came back up about five seconds later. “Hey man, look here, I’ve got some VCRs I’m trying to sell,” he said, motioning toward a couple of bags on a bench. Couldn’t see the contents of the bags, but they looked like they very well could contain VCRs. After we turned him down he was nice enough to pose for the picture above, which has since been brought to the attention of MPD.

In the entire time I was there – about an hour, from 6 to 7 – I did not see ONE police officer actually in the park. Occasionally a police car would cruise the perimeter of the park, but there were no cops on foot or bike. This probably explains why the bums felt like they had free reign of Court Square.

Then I moved on to the Saucer where I had a few Left Hand Sawtooth Ales on Fire Sale. My friend Lee was there and, on the bartender’s recommendation, he got the Winter Solstice Ale, which came in a collectible porcelain bottle. “Yeah, that was left over from a past ‘buy the beer, get the glass’ night,” I told him. “Specifically, it was left from December 22, 2005.”

“This beer is almost two years old?” he asked me. “How much is it?”

“Hell if I know,” I said. “They took it off the menu 18 months ago, when spring ’06 arrived.”

He offered me a sip. I don’t remember Winter Solstice being a high-alcohol beer, but it seemed to have fermented into one after two years in that bottle.

Was going to head to Beale Street to catch The Dempseys, but Kings of the Delta were playing the Saucer and they were good, so I just stayed there. They played the Beatles’ “Rocky Raccoon” from the White Album… that’s a song you don’t hear a lot of bands cover.

Ever wonder which beers are most frequently consumed at the Saucer? I saw a list posted by the waitress station:

Memphis Saucer Most Popular

1. Blue Moon
2. Newcastle
3. Stella Artois (really? A draft that isn’t on Pint Nite made the top 3? Wow. It’s good beer, but still, I’m a little surprised.)
4. Paulaner Hefe-Weizen
5. Guinness (and they spelled it correctly this time! Good job on that!)
6. Shiner Bock
7. Dos Equis Amber
8. Sierra Nevada Pale
9. Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat (they misspelled “Leinenkugel,” but that’s a tough one for anyone to spell)
10. Woodchuck (they didn’t say if it was the Amber, Granny Smith, Pear, or bottled Raspberry cider – maybe they all count as one)

Hmmm… I wonder what the Cordova Saucer Most Popular would look like. Here’s my guess at their top 5:

1. Coors Light
2. Bud Light draft
3. Bud bottles
4. Miller Lite
5. Bud Light bottles

And I’ll take a shot at my personal top ten:

1. Dos Equis Special Lager (with lime)
2. Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat
3. Woodchuck Pear Cider
4. Franziskaner Hefe-Weizen (several waitresses told me this was better than the Paulaner, so I gave it a try – not bad)
5. Blue Moon
6. Foster’s (only because it’s the value drinking option at the Saucer – $5.50 for a 25-ounce “oil can”)
7. Warsteiner
8. Flying Dog Woody Creek
9. Bridgeport IPA
10. Stella Artois

Dogfish Head Midas Touch would’ve been on the list (at #1) but they’re currently out of it.

Time to get to work. Trying to decide if I’ll hit the Madison rooftop to catch Charlie Wood this evening. Probably will hit EP’s a little later on, around 9.