The Memphis Quartet Show comes to the Cannon Center this Wednesday through Saturday. This show is said to feature the leading quartets of gospel music. There are different artists every evening. Schedule
The Woodruff-Fontaine House presents Junebugs & Juleps, a night of summer nostalgia, this Friday at 6 PM. Chill out on the grounds of the 19th-century mansion with Old Dominick cocktails, hors d’oeuvres that are throwbacks to days long gone, and live music by East 2 West. 21+, rain or shine. Tickets must be purchased in advance.
DJ Soul Sister will play Eight & Sand, the lounge inside Central Station Hotel, Friday night from 10:30 to 12:30.
Miss Imagene Azengraber will host Drag Bingo at STIX this Friday from 6 to 8 PM. Try some of their Pride Punch, available the entire month of June.
The African Place at 581 N. Third hosts Freedom Through Food Monday at 10 AM. This event, held on Juneteenth, is about promoting food access, food justice, and food security.
Frankie Hollie and the Noise headline Thursday’s Peabody rooftop party. 6 to 10 PM, $15 general admission, $30 to go VIP.
That’ll do it for this morning. There may or may not be enough news to warrant a post tomorrow; we’ll see.
Tonight is Ladies’ Night at Pretty Taco at Front and MLK. DJ ICON (formerly DJ Decepticon) will supply the tunes.
Free cover for ladies
Drink specials
Parking garage next door
The Facebook post restaurant management made said “Dress to Impress”… ugh… dress codes don’t work very well in this city. Especially not when it’s 90 and muggy outside and people are walking around to 4 different bars in one night. I wish Pretty Taco luck with it though.
The big Memphis news is that the NBA announced Ja Morant’s suspension for conduct unbecoming to the league in the form of waving a gun around on Instagram video for the second time. He got 25 games, a reasonable raise from his 8-game suspension for the first incident.
The 2023-24 NBA schedule is not out yet, but a look at last season’s schedule suggests that Ja will be out through approximately the first week of December. He won’t be able to play in Grizzlies’ preseason games either.
Morant’s suspension will put increased importance on Tyus Jones, considered by many to be the best backup point guard in the NBA. Just about any chance Memphis had of using Jones as a bargaining chip in a trade to fill the team’s small forward need is off the table now.
Now they’ll have to find a backup PG for Jones for those 25 games. Chris Herrington of the DM weighed in on the matter. Second-year player Kennedy Chandler is available but probably isn’t ready to handle a starting role should Jones have to miss games. Herrington thinks a more viable option is to field a squad without a true point guard and with Desmond Bane as the primary ball handler.
The suspension without pay will cost Ja a little over 7 and a half million. However, Nike, with whom he has an endorsement deal, has announced they will stand by him and will not drop him from the brand.
Pink pineapples at South Point Grocery!
Bonus points for South Point NOT saying these would make good pizza toppings. Pineapple does not belong on pizza.
There will be a Father’s Day Backyard Style Barbecue tomorrow at the Terrace at Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid. Items from the grill, classic cookout sides, and of course burgers and dogs. $50 for adults, $25 for kids 3-12.
Usually on this blog, I mention any lesser-known holidays that occur on the day of the post. For example, today is National Flip-Flop Day.
However, the website I use as my source only reports on national and international holidays, and therefore misses out on an important but lesser-known holiday local to Memphis.
Today is 6/16, Six-1-Six Day.
Six-1-Six, located on Marshall Avenue between Monroe and Madison in what is now The Edge, was one of the most awesome nightclub experiences ever, lasting from approximately 1990 to 1999.
There was the main dance floor, where DJ David the Worm played alternative dance music hits on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was Disco Inferno with DJ Jive and later DJ Moses manning the booth.
There was the pool room with 5 coin-operated pool tables. Next to the bar was an aquarium holding a 5-foot-long caiman and whatever goldfish were unlucky enough to be in there.
There was the live side, which hosted national touring bands. My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and K.C. and the Sunshine Band were two of the bands I heard at Six-1-Six.
Finally, there was The Dungeon, located downstairs backing up to Madison. DJs in that room tended to play lesser-known, cutting-edge tracks. A lot of folks who became well-known in the early 2000s electronic dance music scene hung out in The Dungeon in the 1990s.
On Tuesdays only The Dungeon was open. Wednesdays were $5 beer busts. They told us the beer was Bud Light but I think it was actually Natty, a switcheroo that would be adopted by my BBQ team years later.
Thursdays bottled domestics were 10 cents from 9 to 10, 25 cents from 10 to 11, and 50 cents from 11 to midnight. You better believe I was waiting outside the door at 8:59 sharp every Thursday.
The club’s last 5 years, 1994-1999, overlapped my time as a faculty member of the math & computer science department at the University of Memphis. I’d often see my students there.
Six-1-Six was 18 and up. Since it closed in 1999, the youngest people who went there (legally) turn 42 this year.
Here’s something that makes me feel old… some of the girls I made out with on Six-1-Six’s dance floor are GRANDMOTHERS now.
On to the news…
Let’s start off with one more lesser-known holiday. Today is No Orange Clothes Day. That’s a holiday that needs to be observed weekly between the last Saturday in August and the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Deep Roots plays Blind Bear tonight at 10.
Wonky’s Sweet Treats at 315 N. Main has its soft opening this Saturday at noon. DJ Calypso will supply the live music. That space would be the storefront that shares a building with Alcenia’s just north of the I-40 overpass.
The Genre at 200 Poplar is celebrating its 2nd anniversary in June. Tonight from 6 to 8 there will be free hookah and 2-for-1 green tea.
Memphis 901 FC hosts its annual Pride Night this Saturday at 7:30 PM at AutoZone Park. Detroit City FC is the opponent. A specialty ticket gets you a sideline seat and a 901 FC Pride T-shirt. A portion of ticket sales will go to Mid-South Pride.
Wednesday, June 21 is The Longest Day, the day of the year with the most sunlight. It’s a day when people come together to fight the darkness of Alzheimer’s Disease. To that end, Old Dominick Distillery will release a single-barrel whiskey with proceeds going to the fight.
Birdie’s, the virtual golf bar at 493 S. Main, will have its grand opening today through Sunday. Play some golf, drink some beer, watch the U.S. Open, win prizes.
The Daily Memphian’s $10 Deal this week is the loaded fries from Red Bones Turkey Legs, the kitchen inside Carolina Watershed.
The city’s Independence Day fireworks show will happen at Liberty Park in Midtown the evening of Monday, July 3. The relocation for the second year in a row is necessary because work on Downtown’s Tom Lee Park is still being completed.
Many people have a 3-day weekend coming up with Juneteenth, America’s newest federal holiday, on Monday.
Grind City Brewing Co. will present a Summer Luau Party at Loflin Yard this Saturday. There will be beer specials and, at 2:00, a free-to-enter cornhole tournament. First place wins a $200 gift card to Grind City’s taproom.
Electric 30 plays Earnestine & Hazel’s Saturday at 9 PM.
Ted Horrell and MCN play The Central BBQ Sessions Saturday at 1 PM at Downtown Central BBQ.
Rowdy Franks plays at 9 AM and Natalie Hall at 11 AM at Memphis Farmers Market this Saturday.
Rachel Ross, Lina Beach, Joe Austin and Brian Sherwood will perform at South Main Songwriters Night, 550 S. Main, tonight at 7.
Since the Grizzlies have told Dillon Brooks in no uncertain terms that they will not bring him back for the 2023-24 season, the team is in need of a small forward. They will want to replace at least some of The Villain’s strong defensive skills, and if they can sign a player who provides some offensive power, that’s a bonus. Beale Street Bears takes a look at the top 6 Brooks replacements Memphis might sign in NBA free agency this summer. Number one on the list? The Charlotte Hornets’ Kelly Oubre Jr.
The team will be below the luxury tax line and will therefore have access to the NBA’s non-taxpayer mid-level exception. That will allow Memphis to sign a player for about $12.2 million even if they’re over the salary cap.
Extending Desmond Bane is a priority. Another Bleacher Report article predicted the offer would come in around 4 years/$100 million.
The Grizzlies have picks number 25, 45, and 56 in the 2023 NBA draft a week from today.
The Grizzlies can offer up to four 2024-2030 first-round picks as part of trade packages. They can also offer a protected 2024 pick they acquired from Golden State.
The Grizzlies are looking to hire a manager of AVB operations. This person will manage all aspects of the scoreboards, video boards, and scoring system.
30 Minute Ego plays Slider Inn Downtown tonight beginning at 6. There will be yard games and the Slider Rider food truck will be on site.
Chris Vernon, of The Chris Vernon Show on Grind City Media, will join Peacock this weekend for 4 days of coverage of the U.S. Open. My recommendation for the best place to watch would be Birdie’s golf bar at 493 S. Main.
Easy Eye Sound recording artist Nat Myers will be at River City Records next Tuesday, June 20 at 6 PM. He’ll be stopping on his way to Nashville for his album release with Yellow Peril. Free to attend, but space is limited, so get there early.
Today is National Lobster Day. My recommendation to celebrate would be Slider Inn, home of the very first lobster roll in Memphis.
Today is Flag Day. Today is also the Trumpster’s 77th birthday. He had a big birthday eve in court, where he was arraigned on 37 criminal counts related to retaining classified documents after he left the presidency. A summary of the afternoon’s events:
Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges, of course.
He was booked and fingerprinted but did not have his photo taken. The judge decided that there enough photos of Trump out there that people will have no trouble identifying what he looks like.
Trump didn’t speak; his lawyers did all the talking.
There will be no gag order.
Trump will keep his passport and is free to travel, even internationally.
Trump can continue to talk to people who work for him who might be witnesses – but he can’t talk about the case.
A legal analyst talked to POLITICO Playbook and estimated Trump’s sentence at 10-12 years if convicted.
But… if convicted, Trump’s lawyers plan to appeal, possibly all the way to the Supreme Court.
Would Donald Trump live all the way through an extended appeals process? Quite possibly. His father, Fred Trump, lived to be 93.
News from Momma’s, the trucker bar at Crump and Kentucky:
The Grizzlies are running a Father’s Day sale with deals up to 65% off through today. Visit their online store and use the promo code BackCourt at checkout.
Did you know that Grind City Media has an app? Download it for iOS or Android to catch The Chris Vernon Show, The Gary Parrish Show, The Jessica Benson Show, The Odds Couple, The SneakFest Show, Grizz Beat, and tons more great content. If you download the app and turn on notifications, you’ll get a special in-app, limited-time announcement this Thursday.
Grind City Brewing will hold a tasting at Buster’s Liquors on Highland Friday from 4 to 7 PM. I just hope no one drives a car through the front of the building.
Dammit! Yesterday, less than an hour after I finished eating a big meal, I got invited to The Cove out in the Broad Avenue Arts District for tamale pie. I was too stuffed to go. I love tamale pie! From their menu, where it’s called Stoner Pie: “Two LaRosa Tamales baked in a casserole boat topped with cream cheese Rotel dip and fresh ground cumin; served with Fritos. For extreme heat, ask your server for red hot chili sauce.”
I took the laptop to the Blind Bear last night and typed this post. When I got home, there was disturbing news. I may need a few days to deal with it. And even after that, I may not be in the mood to post for a while. Close friends, please stay in touch.
Yesterday I was sitting at home watching The Love Boat on local channel 30.2. Harry Morgan (who played Col. Sherman Potter on M*A*S*H) was a passenger on the ship. He played Gopher, then Isaac, then Julie in gin rummy, and they lost hundreds of dollars to Morgan. Doc figured out the secret: Morgan was playing with a marked deck.
The crew devised an elaborate scheme to give Morgan his comeuppance: Gopher playing, Doc spying on Morgan’s hand with binoculars, Isaac broadcasting thinly-veiled hints over the PA system as to the cards Morgan held. Within minutes, I surmised I would see Morgan lose all the money he won from the crew, and then some.
Except, I didn’t.
At approximately 4:46, the lights flickered a couple of times. Then the power went out completely in my apartment.
The TV went black.
The clocks went black.
My MacBook kicked over to battery power. But my router was dead, so I couldn’t pass the time by getting on the Internet.
Even the toilet wouldn’t refill with water when I flushed it.
Worst of all on a June day in Memphis, my air conditioner shut off.
After enduring 10 minutes of darkness and boredom, I opened my apartment’s front door. The lights were on in the hallway, making me believe it was just my unit.
“Did MLGW mistakenly cut me off?” I wondered. I am current on my account with the utility company. I just got a new bill for $106, but it’s not due until the last week of the month. Besides, I didn’t think they did cutoffs on Sunday.
I decided to get on Twitter and see if there was any news of outages. I took my phone off Wi-Fi so it wouldn’t try to connect to the dead router. But it couldn’t get cell service. Now I was really confused.
I put sandals on and rode the elevator downstairs. In the lobby I ran into my building’s maintenance engineer. “It’s the entire building,” he told me. “The power’s out all the way to the Pyramid.”
Wow, that’s unusual. I’ve been told my building is on a double circuit, buried underground, and it’s the same circuit St. Jude is on. That circuit is priority-one for MLGW. In 20 years in my current home, I have lost power maybe three times. Even during 2003’s Hurricane Elvis, I never lost power.
I stepped outside in the rain onto the Main Street Mall. I looked north and the traffic lights were out as far as I could see.
Then I looked south. The light at Monroe was out, but the lights at Gayoso and Union were working. “That means Blind Bear is open,” I thought. “I’ll go there and use their Wi-Fi to get on Twitter.”
MLGW tweeted that there were many outages, but it was hard to tell the extent. Their outage map showed 10-100 customers in my area without power, but in my building alone MLGW has 112 customers.
By the time I returned home at 11 PM, the power was back on. Weird thing though… my AT&T service remains knocked out. Not sure what’s going on there. If you need to reach me today, might want to use Facebook Messenger as opposed to text. (EDIT: It’s fixed now. I can receive texts.)
Congratulations to Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach Darko Rajakovic, who has been hired as head coach by the Toronto Raptors.
Memphis 901 FC improved its season record to 6-2-3 with a road win over Louisville City FC Saturday night, 3-1. The Memphis squad has not lost a match since March 29 and sits in fourth place in the USL Eastern Conference standings. Next up: at home vs. Central City Football Club at 7:30 PM on Saturday, June 17.
Showers and thunderstorms are possible today after 3 PM into the early evening. MWN has the probability at 70%. High 86, low 65, both of which are a few degrees below normal for this time of year.
Want to own a retail storefront in the up-and-coming Edge District? There’s one for sale at 433 Madison. That’d be on the south side of the street, near the intersection of Lauderdale and a short walk from The Ravine.
Gia Welch Trio is the featured entertainment this Thursday at Live at the Tracks at Central Station Hotel this Thursday. 6:30-9:30 PM.
Bobcat will play at the Hard Rock Cafe this Wednesday from 5 to 8 PM.
Seeing Red headlines this Thursday’s Peabody rooftop party. 6-10 PM, $15 general admission, $30 to go VIP, hotel guests free before 7.
The South Main Association’s monthly South Main Social will be held this Tuesday at The Medicine Factory, an art gallery and event space that also hosts long-term studio spaces for artists, at 85 W. Virginia Ave. one block north of Crump. Free for SMA members, $20 for non-members. 6-8 PM with complimentary drinks, light fare, a DJ, and the following speakers:
Joseph Lewis from The Medicine Factory/Dose
Amy Carkuff from Parachute Investment Company
Cori McCleskey from Remember Media
The Cossitt Library will hold 901 Kids Fest from 11 AM to 3 PM on Saturday, June 24. There will be a vendor’s market, food trucks and food vendors, an author’s corner, interactive stations, giveaways, performances, and screenings. Free admission. The first 100 attendees get free food tickets (must RSVP; your RSVP also gets you a swag bag).
That’s all the news I’ve got for today. Back tomorrow.
Moneybagg Yo has been announced for a September 30 concert date at FedExForum. He’ll bring his Larger than Life Tour featuring Finesse2Tymes, Big Boogie, Sexxy Red, Luh Tyler, and YTB Fatt. There will be a ticket pre-sale Monday, June 12 from noon to 10 PM; use code MOTION to get in on it.
Ever thought about starting a podcast? Check out this series at the Cossitt Library:
Variety magazine recently spoke to the host of my favorite reality TV show, Bar Rescue. Jon Taffer explained what happens behind the scenes when he and his team save a business in 96 hours.
Huge news! The commissioner of the Big 12 conference reportedly visited Memphis this week to conduct due diligence. Rumor has it that the Big 12 will add two more teams to replace Oklahoma and Texas, who will depart for the SEC in 2024. Memphis’ competition for one of the two spots is said to come from current Pac-12 members Arizona, Colorado, Mountain West member San Diego State, and Big East member/football independent UConn.
Blind Bear has announced its weekend entertainment:
The Memphis Police Department is hiring, and they’ll have a hiring expo tomorrow, Saturday, June 10, at 170 N. Main. They’re looking to hire for basic police officer positions as well as Police Service Technicians. If you want to apply tomorrow, be sure to bring a valid driver’s license. MPD is offering a $15,000 sign-on bonus and up to $10,000 in relocation assistance for new recruits.
Mini assorted baklava trays and pistachio-stuffed phyllo dough roll-ups are coming to The Peanut Shoppe on June 24. The treats are made fresh and imported, and complimentary herbal tea will be served with them in-house.
A Code Orange Air Quality Advisory has been issued by the @ShelbyTNHealth for Friday, June 9. Fare will be reduced to 25 cents onboard all modes of travel. pic.twitter.com/gVdIUjLOcF
— Memphis Area Transit Authority (@RideMATA) June 8, 2023
On My Way – A Concert by Moriah Eckel happens Saturday night at 7 at Visible Music College. Moriah is putting on this free concert as part of completing her Master’s degree, and all are invited.
I went through a LinkedIn Learning tutorial yesterday and it was really good! LinkedIn Learning is normally part of a paid package, but if you have a Memphis Public Libraries card, you have access to that tremendous resource for FREE. I brushed up on my skills in Adobe InDesign for a job for which I plan to apply today or this weekend.
Game 4 of the NBA Finals is tonight at 7:30 on ABC. Denver leads Miami two games to one.