Paul Ryburn's Journal

Sitting here at the Flying Saucer on my new Wi-Fi enabled phone. Testing whether I can post. Here’s some actual useful content for ya:

– FreeWorld Unplugged @ the Saucer, Friday 11/3 9:30

– Ken & Robyn Greene @ Sleep Out Louie’s, Sat 11/4 7:30

– The Dempseys @ DOWNTOWN HUEY’S!!! Sun 11/5 @ 8:30

– The Dempseys @ the Flying Saucer, Thur 11/9 9:30

Not bad for a phone post.

(Edited to add: Attn Amelia: Your MK friends are here asking about you)

…this could be an event to put on the calendar. I was flipping through the Memphis Flyer yesterday and noticed an ad for “Fried Glass Onions 3 – Memphis rocks the Beatles,” to be held next Friday and Saturday, November 10 and 11. Artists involved include Zack Mack, Dani, David Brookings, FreeWorld, Matt Isbell & Adam Levin, Van Duren, Charles Ponder, Jackie Johnson, Charlie Wood, Billy Gibson and Steve Selvidge. Backing band will be Dave Smith on bass, Gene Nunez on guitar, Greg Lundy on drums and Charlie Wood on keyboards/organ.

Now that is truly an all-star lineup of Memphis musicians. Event is at Heartsong Church at 800 N. Houston Levee Road, and this being the unofficial “downtown blog” I usually don’t write about events in East Bumblefuck, but this one sounds like it’s worth the drive. The ad says tickets are $15 and food will be available from a Memphis-themed menu. More info available here.

Come down to the Gibson Lounge and hear some of the best bands in town this Saturday, November 4. Makeshift Music is putting on a showcase to show off their acts – Augustine, Blair Combest, Brad P and the Makeshift Mafia, The Glass, The Coach and Four, and Two Way Radio (formerly Walkie Talkie). These are bands that tend to play Midtown more often than downtown and it’s a pleasure to have them down here. Admission is free.

Apparently I’m now a “vital part of the Memphis music scene” because I have a fairly popular blog… Makeshift sent me two tickets to their upstairs VIP area with access to the bands, food buffet, and the two words I love to hear most of all – OPEN BAR. Dammit… I was gonna cut back on drinking once Halloween was over, but I guess I’ll have to wait until after the 4th. But then, my birthday is the 18th, so I doubt there will be any cutting back that weekend either. Maybe in December… but Christmas parties are in December.

Anyway… I have an extra ticket to the VIP area and as of yet no one to go with… was so busy with Halloween that this slipped off my radar. If interested in going with me as my guest let me know.

(Edited to add: It took me ELEVEN tries to get the flyer below uploaded. photos.blogger.com is absolutely getting killed with everyone uploading their Halloween pics. Although, even on a normal day uploading photos is hit or miss. Now that Google owns Blogger, they need to drop some $ for better servers.)

Finally, Halloween weekend has come to an end (and finally, I got my pictures posted). Here are a few of my favorite costumes:

First United Methodist Church (right), with talking fire barricade (“Everyone stand back from the church.”) The burning church won several costume contests this weekend.

Greek gods? Roman gods? I should’ve asked them. Anyway, they were contest winners as well this weekend.

When this person came up to say hello, I at first thought it was a man. But I was wrong – it was my neighbor, Mary Jo. Great costume.

This guy had on one of the most original costumes I saw – Sudoku.

Edward Scissorhands, one of the finalists in the Flying Saucer’s Halloween contest. I have more to say about that contest in a moment.

Here’s a pic of me with Pam from Pam and Terry.

For the entire photo album (75 pics covering the No. 10 Main party, the Flying Saucer, Sleep Out Louie’s, Big Foot, a few drunken pics from McGuinness, etc.), click here to view. I may add more later as I receive photos other people took. I originally thought there were closer to 90 but after I threw out pics of my thumb, pics where it was too dark to see anything, and one photo where you can see up a friend’s skirt, I was down to 75.

Now. Let’s talk about the Flying Saucer’s Halloween costume contest. It was an absolute mess. The categories advertised in their Memphis Flyer ad were not the ones that were actually in the contest (“Funniest Current Event,” for example). They did have “Best Saucer Chick,” which I won, and the prize was a tanning package. I talked to one of the managers and he said something like, “Um, yeah, we don’t actually know what the exact prize for that will be, let me take down your number and we’ll call you.” For Best Overall, five finalists were selected, and the audience was told that the finalists’ pictures would appear on gomemphis.com and voting could be done online. But then the following day (Sunday) the Saucer put the five finalists’ pics on a poster board near the door and started telling people that you could vote with each beer purchase. The pics never appeared on gomemphis.com or on the Saucer’s website.

Finalists were told to be at the Saucer Tuesday 10/31 at 7 pm for the announcement of the grand prize winner (who would get a trip to the Bahamas). They were told that voting-via-beer would run up until the announcement. Then on Tuesday management decided to cut off voting at 5:30. Then they decided that they would announce the grand prize winner at 9 rather than 7, causing all the finalists and their friends to have to rearrange their schedules (and miss other Halloween parties) to accomodate the Saucer.

The burning church, who I campaigned everyone to vote for, actually didn’t win – in fact, he wasn’t even in the top two. Edward Scissorhands, pictured above, was the winner – but wait, he was in the bathroom when management hastily made the announcement. They then said “Wellhe’snothereandyouhavetobepresenttowin Goingoncegoingtwicegone Andthegrandprizegoestothesecondplacecontestant.” All of maybe 15 people were aware that the grand prize announcement was going on.

For a place that usually delivers a consistently quality experience, the Saucer totally dropped the ball on this contest. If they do it again in ’07, they need to write down in advance exactly what is going to happen and when, and distribute a copy to every manager, bartender, waitress, doorman, and radio station co-sponsor. And then they need to stick to what they wrote down and not change it. Otherwise, it’s going to be a repeat of this year when no one seemed to know what the hell was going on.

Down the street, I wrapped up Tuesday night at Big Foot, where I expected to find one of the best Halloween parties of the season and they didn’t disappoint. Frosty the Snowman was getting down on stage and everyone was drinking 34 oz. Big Foot Beers.

I took the day off work today, and had intended to stay out until the wee hours last night (I remember telling people that I wanted to close down the Black Diamond, which would have meant staying out until 5 or later). But, about 11:30, I just got a feeling of, “You know what? It’s over.” And I walked home and got a good night’s rest.

Now I need to start thinking about what to do for Halloween next year. I could dress up as legendary Downtown homeless guy Scratchy (if you’ve spent ANY time at all in the downtown core, you’ve seen him). Or, I could bring back the Beer Goddess for one more year, and partner up with a charity with all the tips the Goddess receives going to that charity. Or, I could do something else. I’ve got 360 days to think about it, I guess.

Now that I don’t have to wear my hair in pigtails anymore, I have a haircut appointment scheduled for tomorrow at 5:30.

Don’t forget, Halloween candy goes on sale for 50% off today at many stores around town. So stop by Walgreens, Rite Aid, or wherever on your way home and pick some up, so they can get the candy off the shelves and make room for Dancing Santa, Chia Pets, and other items that tend to show up around Christmastime.

Mr. Roboto, the Thursday Night Fever blogger from Nashville, apparently has problems with a lot of Halloween costumes this year. He has problems with people who wear Western wear as a costume. That’s fine, I can live with that. He has problems with me dressing up as the world’s ugliest pretty woman. That’s fine too. But he also has problems with women who dress up in only a bra and panties and call it a costume. Roboto, that kind of opinion is just plain un-American. A bra and panties as a Halloween costume is perfectly acceptable, and in fact I think it should be encouraged. Besides, the girls he has pictured as an example are not wearing ONLY a bra and panties; one has accessorized her outfit with black and white stockings, the other with fairy wings.

And with that, I’ll bring the Halloween post to a close. I have plenty of non-Halloween topics to post about as well, so check back often.

STILL wrestling with Blogger to get pics posted. In the meantime, here are a couple of news stories to check out:

FM100 fired Steve Conley yesterday. He’s been at the station since 1979 and part of a team with Ron Olson for 13 years.

Bob Barker is retiring from The Price Is Right. I’ve been watching that show since I was a little kid.

I’m transferring the Halloween pics to the server now. After that I’ll create the photo album, then create the blog post pointing to the photo album. There are about 90 photos at 600K each, so this is going to take some time, but they should be up by noon.

(Edited: Blogger’s shitty publishing engine isn’t cooperating – I can’t get the photos in my post to upload, and I keep getting an “error: cannot connect to Blogger” message as I type my post. Photo album will be up by 5. I hope. In case you missed it, I did make a post this morning about a new 20-30-something group interested in Memphis architectural heritage – see below.)

While you’re waiting on the Halloween photo album (and I’m waiting for the photos to upload), here’s something to put on the calendar:

Tomorrow – Thursday, November 2 – will be the kickoff for a new group called Young Heritage, 20- and 30- somethings interested in promoting and preserving Memphis’ architectural heritage. In addition to meets-and-greets, the group will sponsor events like 5K runs past historical buildings in the city. Kickoff party will be at Howard Hall at 2282 Madison at 7 pm tomorrow night. Stop by for music and refreshments and a showing of the “Then and Now” photo exhibit, showing photos of famous landmarks by photographer Don Newman, paired with current photos of the landmarks by Gary Walpole to create a before-and-after feel.

See this article from the Memphis Daily News for more info. Thanks to regular blog reader More Cowbell for letting me know about this. Most likely I’ll be there.

Last week I bought a new can opener – The One Touch Can Opener.

It’s one of the As Seen On TV products, and yep, I saw it on TV and was intrigued. You simply put the AA-battery-powered opener on top of the can, and it does all the work. It knows when it has traveled all the way around the can and shuts itself off automatically.

I was a little skeptical when I bought it, but I gotta say, it works exactly as promised. I placed it on top of a can and it went right to work. Opened it perfectly and all I had to do was throw the lid away.

I highly recommend it. Downtown Walgreens has them, or you can order one from the As Seen On TV website. At $19.95 it’s a little more expensive than traditional can openers, but worth it.

This lunchtime post is brought to you by the free wi-fi at the Flying Saucer. I came down here for lunch so I could get in an extra vote for the guy who dressed up as the First United Methodist Church (which burned earlier this month) in the Halloween contest. Don’t forget to come down to the Saucer tonight and vote (and drink cheap beer – it’s Pint Nite). Get a receipt for each beer you order, and write “Burning Church” on the receipt and hand it back in to vote. Contest winner will be announced at 7 pm Halloween evening.

It’s not often I ask a favor of my blog readers, but I’m asking one now. Please, I beg you, go to Pint Nite at the Flying Saucer tonight (either the Downtown Memphis or Cordova one) and vote for the fire barracade standing in front of First United Methodist Church for Best Halloween Costume. The way it works is, EVERY TIME YOU ORDER A BEER (not every time you tab out, but every time you order) you can vote for best Halloween costume, with the winner to be announced at the downtown Saucer on 10/31 at 7:00.

Write “I vote for Burning Church” on the receipt. Tab out after every beer to vote multiple times.

Thanks.

You know what the difference is between the Downtown Flying Saucer and the Cordova Flying Saucer?

Well, both of them are having Halloween parties tonight. And at both locations, it’s a pretty good bet that you’ll see at least one guy who’s humping a sheep.

The difference is, at the Downtown Saucer that’s a costume.