Paul Ryburn's Journal

Eyewitness News 24/30 reports that the last three concerts of the Court Square Concert Series will be forced to move due to the extensive fire damage in the area. The new location will be Jefferson Davis Park on Riverside Drive, across from the Tennessee Welcome Center.

The last three concerts will be The Memphis Allstars (October 11), Jim Dickinson and the North Mississippi Allstars (October 18), and the Reba Russell Band (October 25). You know, the morning of the fire, I ran into Stephanie Ziemba of the Center City Commission who coordinates the concert series, and she said people had been coming up to her all morning asking, “Is this going to affect the North Mississippi Allstars show?”

A grassroots effort is underway to inform all the downtown bums and pigeons of the venue change, so that it will seem as much as possible like an authentic Court Square concert.

If you missed this weekend’s debates – the Senate debate between Harold Ford Jr. and Bob Corker, and the 9th District Congressional debate between Steve Cohen, Jake Ford, and Mark White – WREG has them available on their website. Click on the link and scroll down until you see “Featured Videos.” They also have a lot of good footage of Friday morning’s fires in Downtown Memphis.

One page I visit almost every day is the New York Times’ map of the Senate and House election races. Having hit this page over a period of several weeks, I can definitely see a trend – more and more seats are moving from “leaning Republican” to “toss up”, and more and more seats are moving from “toss up” to “leaning Democrat.” This is especially true in their analysis of the House races – when I first found the page the Republicans had a significant advantage, but that has completely eroded and now it’s a dead heat for control of the House. The Times also has a map analyzing the governors’ races, although I don’t see the point in that one since governors as a group don’t pass any laws.

Another good site is RealClearPolitics, a clearinghouse of commentary for both the left and the right on the upcoming elections. They also have the latest poll data for the Senate and House races, and approval ratings for President Bush and for Congress.

There will be a free screening of Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers Thursday night, October 12 at 7 PM at Neil’s in Midtown. The movie introduces you to people whose lives have been changed forever as a result of the war in Iraq – soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children. It also exposes the connections between the corporations making huge profits in Iraq and the politicians who allow it to happen.

Early voting starts soon, so if you haven’t made your mind up about the Congressional races, it’s a good time to get informed.

Today would have been John Lennon’s 66th birthday.

You know, something I wonder is, if Paul McCartney had been the Beatle to die at a young age, would there be “Paul’s birthday” observances all over the world on June 18? I tend to think not, at least not nearly to the extent that there are “John’s birthday” observances on October 9.

John was never afraid to speak up, to use his celebrity status to try and make the world a better place. He staged bed-ins to protest the war in Vietnam. He wrote songs that got people thinking what the world would be like if we all lived in peace. He used the mainstream media (some would say, manipulated the mainstream media) to get his message across. He managed to get a gig hosting the Mike Douglas Show for a week in 1972 (using the promise to perform 3 songs a day to deliver big ratings) to introduce America to “alternative”/”radical” viewpoints from people like political activist Jerry Rubin, comedian George Carlin, and consumer activist Ralph Nader. He embedded a political message (“War is over if you want it”) in a Christmas song that was so simple that children could sing it.

Not everyone agreed with what he had to say. In fact, the Nixon government tried for years to get him deported. But that never stopped him from expressing himself.

Paul, on the other hand, always tried to please everyone, always tried to say what he thought other people wanted to hear. And that’s why, even though I have tremendous respect for both John and Paul as musicians, I have a lot more respect for John as a human being.

Since it’s nearly impossible for me to get through a post without mentioning the bars downtown, I’ll point out that Wednesday is John Lennon Glass Night at the Saucer (and this is one of the few times you won’t hear me refer to as “buy the beer, waste money on the glass” night). The glasses go on sale at 7:00 and this is definitely one night when you don’t want to show up late, or they’ll be all gone. For this one I recommend getting there by 6:30 and letting the waitress know you want to pre-order a glass.

Reminds me… since I’m a member of the UFO Club at the Saucer, every week I get e-mailed an “Important Beer Goddess Video Message” about the Wednesday night glass. Usually those messages go straight to the trash, but I watched this one, and it was hilarious. They had a Saucer girl dressed up as Yoko, announcing the glass in an irritating, high-pitched voice, and then closing the message by shrieking as Yoko herself does in her “performance art.”

I’ll be back later today with some good links about the upcoming elections.

Blogger keeps cutting the photo off but you get the idea. Tower Records in the Peabody Place Mall is closing. If there’s anything you want from there, stop by – you may be able to get it for 30% off.

Wonder what will go in that location. Can’t help but think it would be a perfect place to put a nightclub.

The high point of my weekend was catching Crash Kole, Bobby Durango, and Josh Lemons at Sleep Out Louie’s Friday night. I snapped a couple of pics; let’s post ’em.

In this second pic, they’re joined by an additional guitarist and Sleep Out’s regular, Brian. Thanks to Mikey the Camera Nazi for snapping this shot:

Aside from that, my weekend has been pretty boring. I took off after their first set to head to the Architects’ Party in Midtown, having been set up with a free ticket thanks to my friends at TradiantCAD.com. It seemed like it was a great party, but you know what? I didn’t know a soul there. I guess from living downtown I’ve gotten used to the concept that I can show up anywhere, anytime by myself and know people. Well, that apparently doesn’t work outside of downtown. I think I got there too early, and I should’ve called friends and coordinated with them. Anyway, I stood around for about half an hour, feeling out of place. A couple of times I pulled out my cell phone and pretended to be talking on it, to try and look like a little bit less of a dork. After about 30 minutes I gave up and left.

The next day, I talked to several people who said, “Yeah, that’s why I didn’t go, because I was afraid I wouldn’t know anyone there.” If all those people had gone, we all would have known someone. Oh well. At the next one (in April) maybe we can make plans.

Saturday I went to the Pink Palace Crafts Fair. Didn’t buy anything, but they had some really cool stuff. I decided that I’d get business cards from the 5 artists I liked best, and post links to their websites on my blog, to give them some free publicity. Well, you know what? Of the 5 artists, one didn’t have business cards, and four didn’t have websites. I don’t get that. I mean, I know it’s a creative undertaking, but it’s also a business. In the world of 2006, they’re potentially costing themselves a LOT of money by not having a website. People will walk through the crafts fair and say, “Oh, this person’s work is really cool, I want to show it to my friends who aren’t here with me” and a website would allow them to do that. If not a full-blown website, at least set up a MySpace page with pics of your work.

Anyway, here’s a link to the one of the five artists who did have a site: Bernie Thomas’ Segmented Wooden Bowls and Lamps. He sells really beautful nut, candy, fruit and salad bowls, and also lamps, made out of segmented wood.

I also want to mention an artist who wasn’t there, but who makes digitally enhanced photos that are as good as or better than anything I saw at the Crafts Fair: Shane Paris. Check out his MySpace page; he and I are collaborating on getting him a complete website. His work has a Memphis/N’Awlins/Alabama/Southern feel to it. Good stuff. If you see anything you like, you can contact him through MySpace.

Anyway, back to yesterday. I went to the Saucer to see my waitresses, then headed to Earnestine & Hazel’s. At the time I got there, the crowd was just starting to transition from the frat/sorority crowd that had been there early to the crowd coming in from Blues Ball. I was leaning against the wall, by myself, drinking a Budweiser. A sorority girl came over and wanted to know who I was – she seemed to be giving off “interested” vibes. I had on a black button-up shirt and dark jeans and my hair is extra long because I’m growing it out for Halloween and I guess I looked mysterious leaning there. Unfortunately she asked the one question that blew it – “How old are you?” – and since I don’t believe in lying I told her “36.” Without another word she turned her back on me and went back to her friends.

Around this time I got a text message from Fluffy, letting me know that the Fluffy/Shorty party had been cancelled. (See the “Not gonna go there” post from Friday night for details.) Which was fine because I had already decided I wasn’t going to go. But I wonder if Shorty heard I’d be attending and flipped her lid and called the whole thing off. Heh. That would be kind of funny if she did.

So anyway, after a while I got bored with the downstairs of E&H, and decided to head upstairs to see what was going on at Nate’s bar. As I maneuvered through the crowd, I nearly bumped into a well-dressed woman and we both said “Excuse me.” And then, as I slid past her, I tripped.

I tripped over a LEASH. The woman had a white toy poodle, about the size of a large squirrel, with her, and she was walking it through E&H on a leash. If I had moved half a foot in the wrong direction, I would’ve stepped right on the damn thing.

The woman gave me a look like, “How DARE you not get out of my dog’s way.” I guess if you’ve spent $250 on a Blues Ball ticket, that gives you the right to abandon common sense and health department regulations and walk your teeny-tiny dog through a crowded bar at midnight. People never cease to amaze me.

And that brings us up to today. I’m going to go buy a Sunday paper (which reminds me: attn Commercial Appeal: it really wouldn’t kill you to throw in a free Sunday subscription as part of my deal) and get Deal of the Week done early so I don’t have to take the laptop with me to Sleep Out’s for Sunday brunch. Guess I can’t get too trashed at brunch today; the Romanians are going home on Tuesday, and at some point today I have to go get the furniture and extra laptop I loaned them.

There’s an article in the Commercial Appeal about the great job the Memphis Fire Department did Friday morning, patrolling downtown and putting out embers that threatened to set blocks and blocks of the city on fire. I agree – great job everyone and I cannot thank you enough. I’m sitting here in my apartment typing this post on Sunday morning because of you.

Congratulations to the Arkansas Razorbacks on their 27-10 victory over #2 Auburn! And on the road, too! Suddenly the Hogs are looking like they have a real chance to take the SEC West this year.

All right… this has turned into a long post. Time to get outta here.

Yesterday I was browsing the Commercial Appeal’s website, and noticed that Fredric Koeppel had written about Stella in his weekly dining review. So I clicked the link to see what he had to say.

The first sentence started off: “At the risk of sounding tendentious…”

Okay. In high school I scored 1430 on the SAT. I went on to a liberal arts college where I had to spend a lot of my time reading books with big words. Since then I’ve spent a fair amount of time reading for personal pleasure. And yet I have no idea what “tendentious” means. I don’t think I’ve even seen the word before. I wonder if even 1% of Koeppel’s readers actually knew the meaning of that word.

tendentious also tendencious adj (1900): marked by a tendency in favor to a particular point of view: BIASED – tendentiously adv – tendentiousness n

Now, that definition may possibly be outdated, as I pulled it from the dictionary I got in 1987 while still in high school. But I think we’ll be okay, because Koeppel is probably the first person to actually use that word in a sentence since 1987.

When I read the first line of his Stella review, this is the thought that came to my mind:

“Well, I don’t know if he sounds tendentious, but he certainly sounds pretentious.”

I didn’t bother to read the rest of the review. Instead, I pulled up Stacey Greenberg’s excellent Dining with Monkeys blog to read some restaurant reviews that are a lot more fun, accessible, and interesting.

Looking at the reader comments section of Koeppel’s Stella review, it’s clear that I’m not the only one who feels this way about his writing style. I remember reading last year that the Commercial Appeal is interested in doing more to appeal to the common Memphian. Sorry guys, but this is one area in which you ain’t getting it done.

(If you’re looking for the downtown fire pics, they’re the next post down. If you’re looking for info about the house in Cooper-Young, it’s two down.)

This post is going to be a little different from most I’ve done recently. It’s going to reflect that this is indeed a personal blog, even if most of the time it serves as “the downtown blog” for a lot of people.

One of the main lessons I’ve learned in recent years is that we are constantly choosing who we want to be. We make that choice with every action. We can choose to give off (and receive back) positive energy, or we can choose to give off (and receive back) negative energy. Put another way, at any moment we can choose to act out of either love or fear.

Tomorrow there is going to be a party for two girls… I don’t want to use real names so let’s call them Fluffy and Shorty. Now, I’m on good terms with Fluffy. She’s always been friendly to me, and she’s one of those people who just seems to be liked by everyone – I don’t think I’ve heard anyone speak a bad word about her in the entire time she’s been in Memphis.

So, a mutual friend told me about the party today. Fluffy was nearby and said, “Yes, the party is tomorrow, you can come as my guest.” Cool, a party to go to, always a good thing, right?

Well, maybe not… because, you see, I’m on pretty bad terms with Shorty. I’m angry with her for a number of reasons, and she’s angry with me for a number of reasons as well. I’m not going to go into specifics because, again, I don’t like to air personal dirty laundry in my blog. I’ll just say that in our own minds, we each feel that our grievances with each other are justified.

So here’s the thing… when I was first invited to the party, I was excited about it. But tonight, as I was driving around Midtown, I realized something. The reason I was so excited was that I knew my presence would upset Shorty and make her feel uncomfortable at her own party. So I’d be giving off negative energy. I’d also be receiving it back from her, as well as from her friends who are aware that we haven’t been getting along. And as I thought about that, I asked myself, is that who I choose to be?

I’ve come to the conclusion that it is not. I want to be positive. I want to give off positive energy and receive it back from the people around me. So, I have decided not to go to the party. And it has nothing to do with Shorty. I’m selfish and in this case, it really is all about me. My Saturday is too valuable to waste on negativity; I want to do things that make myself and other people happy. Specifically, I plan to

• stop by Sleep Out’s early in the day and say hello to Josh, one of the best bartender/managers ever and a good friend as well
• head out east to the Pink Palace Crafts Fair for a little while, walk around, see people I haven’t seen in a while, possibly buy some new toys
• come back downtown, stop by the Saucer, and see my waitresses
• head over to Earnestine & Hazel’s and watch people roll in after Blues Ball
• probably end up at my happy place, Raiford’s, late Saturday night.

Now that sounds like a good day. I truly hope both Fluffy and Shorty have fun at their party. I think Fluffy will understand why I’m not going. As for Shorty, this should not be taken as an apology or a sign that my reasons for being upset with her are not valid. I just choose not to dwell on it, for the sake of my own personal mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

Sorry for getting a bit New Agey in this post, but typing it was therapeutic for me, and I’m hoping maybe it will inspire others.

I’m home from my Friday evening out. I have a couple of pics that I’ll post tomorrow or Sunday.

I’m hoping I don’t have nightmares about the Court Square fire tonight. I’ve been seeing images of it in my head all day.

I got a call about 5:30 this morning from my neighbor Carmel. “Paul, get up to the rooftop! Downtown is on fire! You gotta come see!” So I threw some clothes on and raced up there. This is what I found:

This is the old Jolly Royal building, next door to the Lincoln American Tower on Court Square. I was told that the First United Methodist Church at Second and Poplar (which is several blocks away) had burned, and embers from that fire had blown over and caught this building on fire. I can believe it; embers were blowing all over the place, and we’re lucky my building and many others downtown didn’t catch on fire too. For a while we had to remain in the glassed-in part of the rooftop because of the embers.

A few minutes after I arrived on the rooftop, the burning building collapsed, sending a fireball nearly the size of the 20-story Lincoln American Tower into the air. Here’s what the building looked like afterward:

Here’s a pic of what it looked like in the morning. Several small fires started in the Lincoln American Tower, but were confined to the wood window frames and some paint on the roof.

About 7:30 I walked up to Court Square. The sidewalks were covered with ashes, as shown in the pic below. I talked to Tom Shelton of Shelton Clothiers, and he said the sidewalks were covered with ash as far south as his store, about 5 blocks south of the fire.

The firefighters were on the ground, inspecting the damage.

Then the Lowenstein Building, on the other side of the Lincoln American Tower facing Main Street, caught on fire.

The shell of the building that burned and collapsed looks like it may fall on the law office next door. When I left Court Square, the firefighters were discussing the best way to safely pull it down.

A view of the shell of the building from the other direction:

A close-up of the corner of the destroyed building:

Firefighters and Red Cross representatives survey the damage.

Whew. What a mess. But like I said, we’re lucky that all of Downtown didn’t go up in flames, and we’re lucky that no one was injured.

I was flipping through the new issue of the Memphis Flyer this afternoon, and I noticed a house in Cooper-Young which appears to be selling for an incredibly good price. I’m too attached to Downtown to consider moving, but if you’re house-hunting and are considering Midtown, this might be something you want to look into.

It’s a 2BR/1BA bungalow at 2061 Evelyn for $109,500. You can see a pic of it at the bottom left corner of p.61 of this week’s Flyer (October 5-11 issue). The ad says it has a bonus room, all appliances stay, hardwood floors, separate living room and dining room.

This house, on a corner lot at Evelyn and Tanglewood, is a one-block walk from Cooper. You’d be able to walk to Celtic Crossing, Young Avenue Deli, Dish, Do, The Beauty Shop, Jasmine, Casablanca and all the other hotspots in the area. You’d be able to walk to Black Lodge Video to rent DVDs. You’d be able to walk to Square Foods and pick up dinner at their deli. You’d be able to walk to Java Cabana for coffee, and to Goner Records for some tunes. If you go to church at First Congo, you’d be able to walk there too. And of course, you’d have Cooper-Young Fest a block away every September. And you could walk to Tiger football games. This is in a great location and is in the most desirable quadrant of Cooper-Young – it’s not too close to the ‘hood in any direction.

It’s been a long time I’ve seen a house in such an ideal location at such an affordable price. Someone ought to jump all over this. The only negative mentioned in the ad is that the house needs some painting. At this price, I think I’d hire an expert to take a look and verify that there is nothing else wrong with it. But assuming it passes your expert’s inspection, this looks like a heck of a buy.

I’m not affiliated with the seller or realtor or anything, just saw what looked like a good buy and thought I’d bring it to the attention of my readers – kind of like I do with my Deal of the Week column but on a much larger scale.

(Disclaimer: I have no real estate background and am basing this post on nothing but my own intuition. If you buy this house and something turns out to be wrong with it, I’m not responsible. Consult experts before you buy.)

If you live or work downtown, you gotta check out this site: Street-People.com. It’s a website that takes a different tactic to draw attention to the homeless problem in Memphis, by turning the homeless into celebrities via the Internet and fighting homelessness with humor. In addition to a photo gallery and special features on the homeless, it also contains “Bum Finds,” where they auction off items the homeless have found around town. The site also allows street people to make money by creating their own clothing lines. This site is starting to get attention (both positive and negative) in the local media. Check it out and decide for yourself. Personally, I applaud them for thinking outside the box in dealing with this issue.

Here’s another event to add to an already jam-packed calendar for this week: Josh Lemons, Bobby Durango, and Crash Kole perform at Sleep Out Louie’s this Friday, October 6, at 7:30 pm. You may remember Bobby from the ’80s band Rock City Angels. You may remember Josh as the guy behind the bar at Sleep Out’s. You may remember Crash as the guy who frequently sits at the bar at Sleep Out’s. No, not me, the other guy.

Speaking of Sleep Out’s – I’m sitting at the bar right now as I type this. The lunch special is chicken alfredo pasta, which I got with a side of broccoli. Yummy. On the downside, there doesn’t appear to be any Romanian representation among the staff this morning.

Regular blog reader Mallory writes, “Hi, I hate to be selfish and take the fire out of anyone else for Halloween. So, with my encouragement, I would like to extend the invitation for Paul Ryburn Halloween costumes. You have become so diverse over the years, and it will be interesting and beneficial to see which ‘Paul’ different people may come up with!” So there ya go. Carmel and other readers, you’re free to be me for Halloween without stepping on Mallory’s toes. Although, Carmel told me last night she has an alternate costume in mind, an ultra-tight outfit with very short skirt. Can’t remember who she was going to be exactly, but who cares. I encourage her to continue on with that costume instead of dressing as me.

Can’t believe I didn’t get an “Oh Paul, I wish you wouldn’t drink so much” e-mail from my mother after last night’s drunk post.

Semi-Charmed Kat has posted a pic of herself with Elmo and the Cookie Monster. She needs to upload a video of herself doing her Microsoft Excel dance with her big boss and her mini-boss. That would be entertaining. Well, not really, but I’d still watch it.

Back to the rat race. Although, I have to say, the City Schools are not a bad place to work at all. They’re sending me for three days of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 training next month. First programming/web development job I’ve ever had where management saw the value in spending money to train employees on the latest technologies. And, I suggested they might want to send us to a class on Visual Studio 2005/ASP.NET 2.0 as well, and it looks like they’re going to take me up on it. Cool.