Paul Ryburn's Journal

Fellow blogger Philip has a great guide-to-BBQ-Fest post on his blog. If you’re coming down to Tom Lee Park this weekend, you definitely need to read it. He created it last year and updated it for 2007.

Tonight will be my first experience as a BBQ Fest team member. Tonight is “Friends and Family Night,” for team members only, and you have to have a special ticket to get in.

It will also be my first time to see my team’s booth. Well, sort of – I saw it from the riverwalk, about 100 feet away, on Sunday, when it was being built, but I didn’t dare go into the park. I knew if I did, someone would hand me a hammer and give me chores to do. Part of my deal when I agreed to join the team was that I wouldn’t have to do any construction work.

Ya know… I wouldn’t have blamed them if they had charged me $100 more than everybody else to be on the team… because I really have done nothing. Most of those guys have been toiling away in the hot sun all week, while I’ve been sitting in the Saucer drinking beer. Then again, I’m the one who’s making sure all the Saucer waitresses and bartenders get invited to our booth, so I guess that’s a valuable contribution in a sense. And I’m loaning the team the disco ball that hung in my office when I taught at the U of M. Unfortunately I don’t have a motor for it – the piece-of-crap motor that came with the thing died about midway through my teaching career. If anyone has a spare disco ball motor that we can borrow, let me know.

Congrats to my trivia team The Rapscallions, who took second place last night, bringing our total gift certificate stash to $195. It definitely helped that Clay’s team, which in recent weeks has been our stiffest competition, was not there. I’m partly responsible for that – I took a couple of our trivia team members aside a couple of days ago, and asked them to find Clay (who is a member of our BBQ team) something to do Tuesday evening. Heh. Bet he hates it that he missed last night… he would have come up with a lot of good team names related to Jerry Falwell’s death. There’s always next week though.

Here’s an idea for anyone brave enough to do it… find a place that rents Teletubby costumes, dress up as Tinky Winky, and show up at Jerry’s funeral.

All right, that’s all for now. Gotta drive downtown and drop off that disco ball.

Rev. Jerry Falwell, the TV evangelist who founded the Moral “Majority” and who brought the so-called religious right to political power, passed away today. He was 73.

Jerry, every time alcohol touches my lips tonight (and believe me, it will, plenty of times), I’ll be drinking in your honor.

And if I convince some beautiful young lady to come home with me and fornicate tonight, I’ll be doing it in your honor.

And if I accidentally knock her up, when I write a check to pay for the abortion I’ll write “in honor of Jerry Falwell” on the check.

I don’t smoke weed, but for my readers who do, I encourage you to light one up for Jerry tonight.

I’m not into guys, but for my male readers who are, pack some fudge for Jerry tonight.

I’m not a woman who’s into other women, but for my readers who are, munch some carpet for Jerry tonight.

R.I.P., Jerry.

“Work is the curse of the drinking class.”

Amen to that, brother. Amen to that.

– Now and then I wander the halls at the Board of Education, and look at the art created by MCS students that has been chosen to hang there. Some of those kids are REALLY talented.

Just curious… I know some of the South Main artists read this blog… has there ever been a program where local artists identify the most talented kids in the district and mentor them? Not talking about going in and doing an art class project with 25 kids, where 20 of them are just going through the motions to get a grade. I’m talking about finding the ones who are truly into it and show signs that it could be a career option, and then having local artists mentor them on a one-on-one or small-group basis. Maybe something like that has been attempted, don’t know. Just wanted to toss it out there, maybe plant a seed in some artists’ heads.

– Here’s a link to a WMC-TV story about Raiford’s closing. They have about a 2-minute video where they interviewed Raiford… he just decided it was time as he closed up shop last Friday night. They have video of the inside of the place without all the couches, which is kind of sad to see.

– Interesting site I found this weekend – The National Organization of Professional Athletes & Celebrities. They arrange speeches and public appearances, and they have thousands of big names. Just browsing through I saw Tony Dungy… Troy Aikman… Barbara Walters… Alice from the Brady Bunch… Jimmy Carter… Donald Trump… as well as his sidekicks George and Carolyn… and Bill who won the first season of The Apprentice… and Omarosa from the first season. They also have business speakers, diversity speakers, cancer survivors and lots of other categories.

Some of these people ain’t cheap though. You gotta be prepared to pony up six figures if you want The Donald at your event. On the other hand, if you want retired professional wrestler “Boogie Woogie Man” Jimmy Valiant, you can get him for a much lower price (it says “call for fee” on his entry – I have a feeling the “the change in your pocket” is in the ballpark for his fee).

– From the Daily News – Sauces, the new restaurant in the New Main block, is suing its landlord.

– Early voting for the Tennessee House District 89 primary is going on right now. In the Democratic primary, my friend Kevin Gallagher is running. I’ve known him for 11 years and I can say he’s a man who will put the public good first at all times. Steve Cohen has also issued a statement in support of Kevin Gallagher. So if you’re in 89 and are a Democrat, please stop by the polls and cast a ballot for Kevin.

– And that’ll do it for this post. I’ll be at Pint Nite at the Saucer tonight for a little while, probably 5:30 to 7:00 or thereabouts.

Picasa is the best and simplest photo software I’ve ever used. It can catalog all the images on your hard drive and manage them for you. Its photo editing tools have allowed me to take digital photos that I thought were unusable due to darkness/contrast issues, and turn them into images that look pretty darn good. The program can upload your photo albums to the Web for your friends or the public to view.

The only problem I had with Picasa is that Google only offered 250 MB of free Web space to store images – after that, you had to pay. Since my camera takes photos that average 500-900K in size, that meant I would run through the free storage in no time. So, although I used Picasa for a couple of photo albums (my birthday party, Rapscallion Party II) I didn’t see it as a long-term solution and went back to Coppermine which I was using before.

Well, the space problem is now less of an issue… Otto told me that Google has significantly increased storage space for Picasa web albums. I checked it out and yep, they’ve increased it to a gig, 4 times the former size. That’ll be enough for a while. Good thing too, because by the end of next weekend I’m going to have a huge BBQ Fest photo album to post. Last year I took 125 pics – this year I’m thinking there will be more like 400. Mikey the Camera Nazi: If you see me at the fest and aren’t satisfied with the job I’m doing snapping photos, feel free to take the camera away from me.

Anyway, if you don’t have Picasa and want to download it, Otto has a link on the right-hand side of his blog. It is indeed the software that should have come with your camera.

Sitting here at the Second Street branch office. It’s been an eventful weekend (and tomorrow will be an eventful day as well) – will have to tell you about it later though.

Saturday morning I woke up about 11:30, planning a trip to the mall, and then my phone rang. “Paul, Raiford’s is closed,” my source said. “They’re moving everything out.” So I grabbed the camera and headed down there. As you can see in the pic above, they were hauling out the white vinyl couches, and the sign had been taken down and the outside walls were painted over.

I’ve heard the rumor that Raiford’s would be closing since last October. Raiford, from what I hear, is ready to retire. I’ll miss the place but Raiford brought a lot of happiness to Downtown Memphis for almost 30 years. He’s earned the right to retire and live his life however he chooses. I wish him nothing but the best. My only regret is that I didn’t discover the place until 1998.

Mark Richens has more info on his blog about Raiford’s closing.

Rumor has it the place will be turned into a condo development. I’ve also heard some more rumors about the future of Downtown:

• A. Schwab’s on Beale has been bought by developers and will be turned into a mall;
• Earnestine & Hazel’s has been bought. It will be torn down and an Applebee’s will be built at the corner of Main and G.E. Patterson;
• Gus’s Fried Chicken has been bought by the YUM Corporation and will be turned into a combination KFC/Taco Bell.
• Sleep Out Louie’s has closed and will turn into a steakhouse – oh wait, that one’s actually true.

Sale on a lot of popular name-brand shoes at up to 60% off from 7 AM to midnight today:

One of my readers e-mailed to remind me that the Big Fat Greek Festival is going on today and tomorrow at the Orthodox Church on North Highland. I don’t have the address but it’s between Summer and Walnut Grove I believe.

This afternoon I was wandering the MCS Board of Education’s hallowed halls, and I saw a sign saying that all Memphis teachers and school staff get 50% off at Costa Vida this month. That’s a great deal – they have really good tacos, enchiladas, and burritos in a fast-casual atmosphere. Fredric Koeppel reviewed the place in the CA today. The way the sign was worded, it said “Memphis teachers and staff,” which I’m assuming would mean ANY school in the Memphis area – not just the city schools, but county and private schools as well. I’m definitely going to be showing up with my MCS ID a few times between now and the end of the month.

Just got a few hours of consulting work done. Time for a beer!

– Today’s post is brought to you by the Wi-Fi at the Midtown Starbucks. Note that I did not say FREE Wi-Fi. I actually paid for their stupid T-Mobile wireless plan. When there’s free wireless blocks away at High Point, Otherlands, Java, etc. But none of those places make a Strawberries & Creme Frappucino.

– That brings me to my first news item… this morning I came across a site where you can download software to turn your wireless router into a Wi-Fi hotspot, and you can charge people for access. Even if you don’t want to do that, the software allows you to protect your wireless network from moochers, even if they crack your router’s security key. Here’s the link.

– This morning there was a story in the Commercial Appeal about a news website based in Pasadena, California, that has hired news reporters in India to cover local Pasadena stories. Man… they’re outsourcing EVERYTHING these days. They got two full-time reporters in India, one with a journalism degree from UC Berkeley, for just over 20 grand a year total. Anyone think the CA itself will be doing this in a couple of years?

Hmmm… this blog takes a lot of time to write… maybe I should outsource my blogging. Maybe not to India, but to one of the other countries where outsourcing jobs are commonplace… Romania. Y’know, former Saucer waitress The Romanian Sensation is still on my Yahoo Messenger buddy list, maybe I should shoot her a message and see if she’d be interested in getting paid to write my blog. If it happens you’ll be reading blog posts titled

“Memphians need to tip better”

“Wolfchase Galleria: the greatest place on Earth”

“1 BR Downtown apartment needed, rent no more than $400 a month, to house 17 Romanians who will be here for three months this summer”

Wait, I just remembered, she graduates medical school in a month, so she probably won’t be available. There’s no doubt in my mind she’ll be every bit as good a doctor as she was a waitress.

– Speaking of Wolfchase, I’m probably going to head out that way tomorrow afternoon and buy some new summer shirts, Hawaiian shirts in particular. I have some work to get done on the laptop as well, so I may stop by the East Bumblefuck Saucer to use their Wi-Fi.

– Otherwise, a boring weekend coming up. The weekend between Music Fest and BBQ Fest is always a nothing-happening period. The only event on my calendar is Sunday brunch at the Majestic Grille.

– Speaking of BBQ Fest… my BBQ team is probably going to receive more coverage than the other ~300 teams combined. Not only will I be blogging about it, but CA writer “Skippy” Blank is on my team and will be covering our booth. Our inspirational leader Uncle Paul will be in town early next week for the festival. Much beer and liquor will be consumed.

– Coming soon: I have a Deal to post, a one-day only 60% off shoe sale, with lots of name brands. But it doesn’t kick off until 7 AM tomorrow, so no point posting it yet. I’ll try to remember to put the link up before I go to bed tonight. I damn sure ain’t getting up at 7 on a Saturday to do it.

– Back to the cube farm. On the agenda this afternoon: Someone in one of the other cubicles will heat up a bag of microwave popcorn. Someone else will shout out, “I smell popcorn! Who’s got popcorn?” If I go to hell when I die, (and according to the religious wackos on Beale Street last week, I will), I bet there are cubicles there. Have a good weekend everyone. If anyone knows of anything interesting or fun going on, let me know.