Up until now I’ve been pretty neutral in the debate over whether to remodel Tom Lee Park. As a member of a BBQ Fest team it’s natural for me not to want the park to change. On the other hand, I understand that the park needs to be something that can be enjoyed by all Memphians – not just music lovers, not just BBQ team members, not just Downtowners – all year. I’ve wanted a win-win for everybody, and yesterday I saw a suggestion that was so good that I support it.<\/p>\n
Memphis River Parks Partnership is responsible for developing the entire riverfront, from Mud Island to MLK Riverside Park as I understand it. Why not redevelop Tom Lee Park last<\/strong><\/em>? Imagine if MRPP redeveloped the other parks first, and had smashing successes turning them into desirable and highly usable public spaces (we’re already seeing this with River Garden). Let MRPP rack up some wins, and eventually Tom Lee would stick out like a sore thumb and the public would want something done with it too. Memphis River Parks Partnership has only existed under that name for under a year. Let it build up a fantastic reputation and earn the trust of the people of Memphis.<\/p>\n The Mixtape Tour comes to FedExForum tonight at 8. Bands from the early ’90s, headlined by New Kids on the Block, will perform. Also on stage will be Debbie Gibson, Salt-n-Pepa, Tiffany, and Naughty by Nature. No Milli Vanilli though. Wonder what they’re up to these days?<\/p>\n Calvary Episcopal Church at 102 N. Second will have Feast and Follies: A Choir Cabaret<\/a> tonight at 7. This is a Friends of Music fundraiser and $25 gets you drinks, heavy hors d’oeuvres, and a show.<\/p>\n Lots going on at the Redbirds tonight. There’s a specialty ticket that gets you a buffet of tacos, fixings, Mexican rice, hot dogs, and soda\/water (2 per person) from 6:00 to 8:00, and you get a Dave & Buster’s gift card as part of the deal. Another special ticket gets you a St. Louis Cardinals vest for $29 club\/$25 dugout\/$22 field box. Yet another specialty ticket gets you 4 field box tickets, 4 hot dogs, 4 sodas, and one bottomless popcorn at the game, plus 2 coupons for large Papa John’s pizzas that you can redeem at a later date. A fourth special ticket gets you all-inclusive access to the Budweiser Bowtie Bar (free food, beer, and wine) for $45, a $15 savings off the usual price. $2\u00a0 beer specials at the left field bar until the 6:35 scheduled first pitch.<\/p>\n Bluff City Coffee has revised their lunch menu<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mike Wilson, longtime HVAC service veteran and rescuer of Pipe Kitty<\/a>, has launched a direct-to-consumer air conditioning e-commerce site<\/a> with the help of LAB Digital Creative. In the model of services like Casper, this site sells directly to the customer with the potential of big savings.<\/p>\n Cheez-It has hidden a secret snack bunker<\/a> somewhere in the U.S. The bunker contains a year’s supply of Cheez-It Snap’d, a flat-screen TV, and a year of streaming service. Clues to find the bunker will start appearing on Cheez-It’s Twitter account next Tuesday, May 14. Free Cheez-Its? Wonder if the Nuh-Uh Girl will show up.<\/p>\n The Daily Memphian has added an app for Apple and Android devices.<\/p>\n Margarita Fest by the Memphis Flyer won’t be Downtown this year after all. They’re moving it to the Creative Arts Building by the Liberty Bowl. 3 PM start time tomorrow. I have to think that Lyft and Uber drivers will make a lot of money tomorrow afternoon.<\/p>\n Silly Goose is looking to hire a barback\/busser. If interested email me at paul@paulryburn.com and I will put you in touch with the hiring manager.<\/p>\n Natty Light is looking to hire an intern<\/a> with “party skills” (and really bad taste in beer).<\/p>\n Eddie Izzard brings The Wunderbar Tour<\/a> to the Orpheum tonight.<\/p>\n Chris Hill<\/a>, who has been in Nashville lately, returns for a performance at The Vault on G.E. Patterson tonight at 8.<\/p>\n That’s it for now. Programming note: Blog posts will be irregular for the next 10 days. BBQ Fest is almost here, and Senior Deputy Director of Public Relations Perjorie T. Roll and I are in charge of team bag handout Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. After that we’ll be down in the park. I will post when I can. Back tomorrow or Sunday with more news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Up until now I’ve been pretty neutral in the debate over whether to remodel Tom Lee Park. As a member of a BBQ Fest team it’s natural for me not to want the park to change. On the other hand, I understand that the park needs to be something that can be enjoyed by all … Continue reading “Friday update”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22325"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22326,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22325\/revisions\/22326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}