Paul Ryburn's Journal

The Highland-Walker fest wasn’t as big a deal as I had hoped. I had heard they were going to block Highland off, but no, just one block of Walker. There were only about 15 crafts booths as opposed to the 300+ you find at Cooper-Young. I got there about 2, and they were having beer races (similar to the downtown wine race) and the security guy told me the band would start at 4. I didn’t feel like sticking around until then, so I ate a burrito at Blue Coast and then left.

I did get to stop by Buster’s Liquors on the way home and replenish my liquor cabinet. Unfortunately I didn’t have the wine recommendations all of you sent me (thanks everyone by the way, and I’ll post a summary later this week) so I played it safe – picked up a couple of bottles of Lindeman’s Bin 65 Chardonnay ($4.99 each!) which I know is good, and a bottle of Rosemount Diamond Label Chardonnay ($8.99). I went to a Rosemount tasting a couple of years ago at the downtown Blue Monkey and it was the only tasting I’ve ever attended where ALL the wines were excellent.

I also bought new bottles of Maker’s Mark and Ston vodka, which I’ve been without since February, when I donated a bottle of each to the Super Bowl party. So I’m fully stocked and ready to go now. Should probably get some cranberry juice in the apartment for mixers though.

Schedule for today:

11:00-11:59: Mimosas at the Majestic
12:00: Arrive at crawfish fest.
12:01: Walk past the “500 lbs. of crawfish free at noon” line (they give you a little styrofoam cup full – it really isn’t bothering with). Count how many of downtown’s panhandlers have shown up for the free handout.
12:05: Buy a bucket of crawfish. Will probably take them to Barton Flats’ rooftop to eat.
12:50: Decide I’m full with a third of my bucket of crawfish to go. Give the remainder away.
12:55: Get fussed at by the Nuh-Uh Girl for giving someone else besides her my leftover crawfish.
1:00-6:00: Back on the street all afternoon for the festival. I tend to be a wanderer at these things, not someone who stays in one location for very long.
6:00-?: At some point I’ll stop by the Saucer for at least one beer. Who knows though… my post-6:00 plans will probably be figured out between 1 and 6.

Weather forecast: High 81, low 64. Ladies, that sounds like tube top weather… don’t forget, I’ll have the camera on me, so if you want your tube top pic in my blog just ask me to take one.

This morning I was contacted by someone who will be moving to Memphis in July, and is thinking about moving Downtown. She has a dog – a 25-pound terrier mix who adores people – and is curious how dog-friendly Downtown is. I’ve never owned a dog, so I thought I’d post the question and let my readers respond. Particularly she wants to know

• For those who live in condos, where nearby do you walk your dog?
• Are there are any outdoor restaurant patios that allow a well-behaved dog to sit with its owner?
• What pet-sitting services and/or boarding services are available downtown? (She’ll be traveling a few times in the months after she moves here.)
• Anything else you can think of that a dog owner should know about downtown?

If you’ll e-mail me your responses, I’ll pass them on. I’d be interested in hearing from people who live in both the Downtown core and the South Main district.

One of the hassles my friends and I face is picture sharing. There will be four or five of us with digital cameras taking pictures at an event, and afterward it’s a challenge to get all the pics together in one place. Each person will have 20-100 MB of pics so they’re too big to attach to an e-mail message, and running around burning CDs or transferring files onto memory sticks can be a pain.

Couple of days ago I found a solution… there’s a site called MiHD.net that lets you upload files up to 2 GB in size. Once the files are uploaded, it gives you two links – a download link, and a delete link if you decide you don’t want the files there anymore. You can then mail the download link to whomever you wish.

I gave it a try and it worked pretty well – the only thing is, the interface is SO simple it almost makes you wonder if you’re doing it right. There are no logins at all, either for the uploader or downloader. Also, in Classic Upload mode (which it asks that you use for large files) there’s no status bar. It took me 45 minutes to upload a 100 MB test file (cable modem upload speeds are typically slower than download speeds) and I almost closed out of it because I didn’t think it was working… so give it some time, the “upload complete” message will eventually appear.

Give it a try. Looks like a good solution to our picture-trading problem.

Tonight I met a friend at Spindini for a drink after work… first time I’ve ordered anything there, although I did walk through and check the place out right after it opened. I had heard the service was a bit “iffy” and was relieved when the bartender walked up within 10 seconds of my sitting down. She offered me a wine list, and about 3 minutes later was back and filled my order immediately. Off to a good start. But…

Five minutes later, my friend arrived, and we decided to move to the comfy chairs by the front window. She hadn’t ordered yet and assumed a server would be right over. For the next 15 minutes we watched as a manager and two waiters stood by the computer and talked, occasionally looking over at us – but not one of them bothered to come over and see if my friend needed a drink, given that they could see she clearly didn’t have one.

Finally my friend walked up to the manager and asked who was serving the chairs/couches near the window. She told me that his reply was, “Well, I guess we could send someone over, but it isn’t much of a section.”

Okay.
1) At the places I frequent regularly, it’s the responsibility of EVERY employee to make sure the customers are well taken care of. If you see a customer without a drink, you go ask if they’ve been waited on at the very least.
2) We come to your restaurant/bar to eat, drink and have a good time. Not to fill your section. Downtowners tend to tip very well, but not when the servers cop the attitude displayed in the above response. The last time a server downtown got that snotty with me, she got $47 and the change in my pocket on a $48 tab. No kidding. And I normally tip 30%. If you expect the people who sit on the couches and chairs to go to the bar for drinks, fine, but say “I’m sorry, ma’am, but there’s no server for that section, but the bartender will be happy to take care of you.”

Seriously doubt I’ll be going back there.

Down the street, there’s better news. The Memphis Business Journal reports that the space next to The Cheesecake Corner on G.E. Patterson, most recently a convenience store, is being converted to a sports bar. The bar will seat about 80, will have pool and darts, and will be a place where they know your name when you walk in. They’re viewing the condo and apartment dwellers within walking distance as their clientele. Very good thing for South Main. I told one of my friends who lives there, and “ecstatic” would describe his reaction very well.

Early evening tonight. Had a couple of beers at the Saucer on the way home, regretted not being able to stay for more of Ten Mile Bayou’s show, but I really need a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow I’ll be at the Highland-Walker Festival out by the U of M. Should be there no later than 1. If it’s good I’ll stay all day; if it sucks I’ll stay a couple of hours. I expect to be there all day though. I think this could evolve into the spring equivalent of Cooper-Young if done right.

And of course Sunday I’ll be at the Majestic for brunch from 11:00 to 11:59, and the Rajun Cajun crawfish fest noon to 6. I tend to be a wanderer at festivals… some of the gang are planning a cookout on the rooftop of Barton Flats, but I plan to spend very limited time there. I want to be on street level, hanging out and talking to people I haven’t seen in a year, and talking to future good friends I’m just meeting for the first time.

Off to bed… I can barely keep my eyes open.

Tuesday night I was walking down Second and I noticed this sign in the old Carabella’s location (99 S. Second I think):

Very cool. Wonder what their hours will be? In that location, directly across from the Peabody Hotel, there’s definitely justification for them staying open 24 hours.

Oh lord… this likely means there will be microwave chili dogs available on my drunken stumble home from the Saucer. That’s bad news.

You can pimp yo ride, you can pimp yo MySpace page, but if you go to the Flying Fish the new cool thing to do is to pimp yo bass.

This, of course, is part of their Billy Bass Adoption Center where you bring in your unwanted Big Mouth Billy Bass, and the Flying Fish adopts him and gives you a basket of catfish. Recently people have started decorating their Billy Bass (as shown above) before bringing him in.

The adoption wall’s starting to fill up quickly, so if you want to pimp yo bass and score some free catfish, you better do it soon.

It’s warming up again, and that means rooftop weather – this time I mean MY rooftop, not the Peabody’s. It’s kind of a tradition at my apartment building to hang out with the neighbors on the roof and someone brings a bottle or two of wine and everyone shares it.

I haven’t kept up with recent developments in wine, so I’m hoping my readers can help me out. I’m looking for some summer wines in the $10 range that are easy to drink on a rooftop with friends – ones that I can find at a liquor store like Joe’s or Kimbrough on my way home from work. Any suggestions, please e-mail me. A few days from now, I’ll post reader feedback in a follow-up post.

Just checked the weather forecast for this Sunday’s Rajun Cajun Crawfish Fest and it’s looking good… high 82, low 62, 10% chance of rain. Ladies, this certainly sounds like TUBE TOP weather. Don’t forget my offer… put on a tube top, catch me around town, and I’ll snap a photo of you and publish it in my blog when Tube Top Month kicks off in June. Just want everyone to know that I’ll be at Rajun Cajun for the entire duration of the festival, and except for the first hour when I’m chowing down on crawfish, I’ll be wandering around. I should be easy to find and I will have my camera on me.

Last night the Nuh-Uh Girl’s sister wore a tube top to trivia night and had her picture taken. Daaaaamn she looked SMOKIN’ hot. It makes me wish I didn’t have to wait until June to post the pic, but those are the rules. The Nuh-Uh Sister told me it was the only tube top she owns, but if you ask me she needs to go buy about ten more of them.

We lost at trivia last night… there were two high-point questions where we narrowed it down to two answers, and then guessed the wrong one. If we had gotten both we would’ve had 101 points and tied for first place. I hate it when I feel personally responsible for a loss… one of the questions was, which TV show was the first to produce three #1 music hits? I was leaning toward Ozzie and Harriet, because Ricky Nelson was on the show. Some of the other team members said The Monkees, but I talked them into my answer, which turned out to be wrong. Sorry everyone. The Monkees just seemed too obvious for a 10-point question.

The team member who contributed the most correct answers was Skippy… I guess the sugar rush from his free Ben & Jerry’s cone went straight to his brain and made him smarter. The Nuh-Uh Sister walked down the street and got a free cone as well, and she came up with a correct answer (Andorra – the small country between France and Spain) that no one else knew.

The other downtown trivia team – known this week as Imus and the Nappy-Headed Hos, and formerly known as the Mormons for Gay Polygamy – swelled to 10 members this week. They must have been thinking, “We’re really starting to suck so let’s call every person we can think of and get them up here.” They had female members for the first time this week. I didn’t know they even knew any girls. Even with all those extra people, the team that once bragged about 8 first-places in a row only managed to come in second. Downhill slide, I tell you.

A few events to put on your calendar this weekend:

– There will be a street festival at Highland and Walker this Saturday. Bands, arts and crafts, the usual street festival stuff. Check their MySpace page for more details. They’ll be selling beer this year, unlike previous years – glad they’ve corrected that problem. In fact, they’ll even have a Beer Run this year, a race similar to Downtown’s Wine Race. (By the way – when is Wine Race this year – anybody know?) A lot of the area businesses will be offering food and drink specials, including MO’s, Blue Coast Burrito, and Garibaldi’s.

– There will also be a hot wing contest Saturday at Poplar Lounge, 2586 Poplar. Yummmm. Love me some hot wings.

– For my East Bumblefuck readers, The Dempseys will play the Huey’s on Germantown Parkway Sunday night at 8:30. Also, Get U Some will play the Cordova TJ Mulligan’s Friday night.

– The Dempseys will also play a rare Monday night show at Blues City Cafe at 7 PM. Not like I haven’t seen them a million times already, but seeing them on Monday night (and while the sun is still up) is something of a novelty, so I may go. Of course, they’ll be at the Saucer tomorrow night too.

Go pick up a copy of the Memphis Flyer… the cover story is about the Jerry Lawler/Hulk Hogan match that was scheduled for the FedExForum, and which is now Hogan vs. “The Giant” Paul Wight.

And that’ll do it for now. Apologies for not posting at lunchtime, but I had to sit through an all-day new-employee orientation today at work. Actually, it was pretty good. They had a lady from Risk Management who shared a bunch of tips about keeping people from breaking into your car, including a few even I hadn’t thought of. They also had the best sexual harassment presentation I’ve ever seen – most offices just show you a 10-minute video and that’s it, but the city schools had an attorney who presented 5 case studies and there was lively discussion. It was actually fun. I’ll say it once again, the city schools do a MUCH better job than most Memphians give them credit for.

I still hate all the B.S. and red tape I have to deal with in order to be employed there. Still haven’t had my physical yet – geez, I worked there for a year as a contractor, if I wasn’t physically capable of working at MCS you’d think they’d have realized it by now. And I had to sign – and get notarized – a statement promising to uphold the U.S. Constitution. In my position as a senior application developer I’m not sure what exactly I could do that’s unconstitutional, but whatever.

Dammit… this was supposed to be my quiet night at home but it’s just too nice outside… so off I go.

I recently came across a site that may be of use to those of you who program in ASP.NET, C#, and/or Visual Basic.NET. It contains 500 downloadable video tutorials that are easy to follow along. Would be a great tool to improve your skills, or to get started in .NET if you’ve previously programmed using other languages/platforms. Click the banner below to take a look.

Also, I’ve heard that there are some contract positions available here in town for Java J2EE programmers. From what I’ve been told, this will involve some very high-visibility work for one of Memphis’ largest companies, developing a high-volume application that will be used all over the world. Sounds like this one would look great on a resume. If you have J2EE skills and want to know more shoot me an e-mail and I’ll get you in touch with the people doing the hiring.

By the way… everyone thinks “FedEx” when they hear “one of Memphis’ largest companies”… it’s not FedEx. But from what I’ve heard, this company is a great place to work.

All right, I’m outta here for now, time to go sit in the cubicle some more.

The Memphis chapter of Net Impact will be showing the film Iraq for Sale tonight at the PowerHouse art gallery on G.E. Patterson Avenue. There will be networking with popcorn and wine at 6:30, and the film will be shown at 7:30. Event is free but donations will be accepted. They ask that you RSVP to rsvp@memphisnetimpact.org if you plan on attending.

About the film: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war. Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of corporate greed in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private security companies making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so. To learn more about Iraq for Sale please visit http://iraqforsale.bravenewtheaters.com/

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it to Iraq for Sale because it’s Tuesday trivia night. I have a feeling that this may be the week that the other downtown trivia team, Mormons for Gay Polygamy (or whatever they choose to call themselves this time), makes the transition from “serious competition” to “has-beens.” I predict that they’ll finish completely out of the prize money. Who knows though… desperation can be a powerful motivator, so maybe they’ll be able to prove me wrong. Meanwhile, my team the Rapscallions has stepped up their game to a whole new level, and should add to its gift-certificate stash of winnings this evening.

Hmmm… maybe I’ll have the chili cheese fries again while I play. The last time I ordered them the waitress brought them out and said, “Now be careful, the top plate’s really hot.” And I was tempted to reply “just like you.” But I didn’t.

One other news item: If you have a lot of documents you need to shred but you’ve never gotten around to buying a shredder, Cadence Bank can help you out, according to an article this morning in the Commercial Appeal. Cadence will offer free shredding (up to 5 boxes’ worth) at its East Bumblefuck location (7878 Farmington) tomorrow from 9 to 2 and at its Midtown location (1516 Union) Friday from 9 to 2. Their shredders can handle staples, paper clips and bindings, so you don’t have to take them out.

That’s all for now. Possibly a second post to come before lunch hour’s over.