Paul Ryburn's Journal

Civil rights movement landmark Clayborn Temple has burned to the ground. Firefighters were called to MLK Avenue and Hernando Street about 1:30 this morning. The building is said to be a total loss.

The building was a key gathering place in the sanitation workers’ strike of 1968, a strike which brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Memphis.

Wikipedia: Clayborn Temple

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The Grizzlies’ season is mercifully over. OKC completed the 4-0 sweep yesterday. No first-round draft pick for Memphis this year, with the 18th pick conveying to Washington.

I got to try a breakfast parfait, one of the relatively new items on Bardog’s weekend brunch menu, yesterday. It was yummy!

The CA lists 5 must-see acts at next weekend’s RiverBeat Music Festival.

That’s all I have. Short post today.

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You’ve probably heard of the Downtown Memphis Commission’s Open on Main initiative. The DMC gives small retail businesses the chance to have a storefront on or near Main Street, with rent covered for a period of time. Well, there’s a new incentive program called Table Ready, designed to provide similar help for restaurants.

Boycott Coffee on Madison in the Commonwealth Building appears to be back open to the public. For a while they were only doing corporate delivery orders.

Ja Morant is listed as doubtful for the Grizzlies’ Game 4 today vs. OKC (2:30 PM, TNT). The Grizzlies’ prospects of winning are also on the doubtful list.

Round 4 of the NFL draft begins today and Shedeur Sanders is still available.

Today is National Static Cling Day.

Tonight is Soul Babies Songwriter Series at South Main Sounds. Featuring Gerald Morgan Jr. and D’Vonna Taylor.

There will be monster movies and discussion today 1-4 PM at A. Schwab on Beale.

Jeff Hulett plays the front porch of South Point Grocery noon to 2 today.

I wonder if Neptune Street which runs by Elmwood Cemetery was named for Neptune the planet… it was a newly discovered planet at the time the street grid in that area was laid out. In the 1850s that neighborhood was considered a suburb to the extent Eads, Oakland, and Piperton are today.

One of the games you can rent (or play for free if a member) at Memphis Chess Club is called Happy Salmon. I feel as though my life is incomplete because I’ve never played it.

That’s all I’ve got.

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Tonight is South Main Night Market (Trolley Night). Most shops in the area will be open until nine or later. Some will offer discounts or specials. Some will put out free appetizers or booze. Great opportunity to meet your neighbors.

Lauren Freebird, Leah Grams Johnson, and Wayne Alexander play South Main Sounds tonight at 7.

Beale Street Bears puts in print what has been on the minds of many Grizzlies fans lately: Is Ja Morant in his current state good enough to be the number-one guy on a championship team?

MPD has opened a new command center at 250 Peabody Place.

Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s son, surprisingly did not get picked in the NFL draft first round last night.

Hot Wing Fest is on Riverside Saturday.

There will be a magic show in Mud Island River Park Saturday at 2:30.

Ghost River South Main will hold a Plants & Pints yard sale Saturday at 1.

The fourth Friday of the month is one of my favorite days at the Union Mission. We have a guest speaker who drives all the way from Branson, Missouri to preach morning and evening chapel. He doesn’t lecture us. He never raises his voice. He simply delivers a Scripture-based life lesson we can apply immediately. Then, after 20-25 minutes, he closes his Bible and says, “That’s all I’ve got.”

That’s all I’ve got.

I gratefully accept tips:
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Sunday is Beale Street Wine Race, but this year I find myself wondering, what’s the point in going? With the demise of the Blind Bear, we no longer have a neighborhood hangout to cheer for. As far as I know, the participating bars and restaurants are all either suburban corporate entities or Beale Street tourist traps.

Renasant Convention Center will host a Street Beats Block Party May 5 (Cinco de Mayo) from 4 to 7 PM. Live music, games, drinks, tacos. Free tickets on Eventbrite.

Through May 31, it will cost only five dollars to park for three hours at one of 10 downtown garages. Don’t expect a break on weekend parking, though; the rate applies Sunday through Thursday 5 to 9 each night.

The MBJ reports that the building at 18 S. Main has been foreclosed on, and is now listed for sale.

18 S. Main

Get a free lemon or coffee granita with any purchase Saturday at Zio Matto Gelato is they celebrate their first birthday.

It’s NFL draft weekend. The first round is on ESPN tonight. The second and third rounds are on ESPN2 Friday. Rounds 4 through 7 will be on ESPN beginning at 11 Saturday.

Momma’s holds its first Performers & Pints Songwriter Night Tuesday at 6. Sponsored by the DMC and South Main Sounds.

Grizz host OKC in game 3 tonight, 8:30, TNT.

Some of the men at the Memphis Union Mission got a real treat Tuesday night at dinner. A church brought 100 smoked turkey legs. The legs were dark, almost black, on the outside and a beautiful reddish pink on the inside, wrapped in aluminum foil. They smelled heavenly. Unfortunately, the church only brought 100 legs and I was about number 107 in line. I got leftover Easter ham, which still wasn’t bad, but still, a far cry from a turkey leg.

Back tomorrow.

I gratefully accept tips:
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Apologies for no posts the past two days. Xfinity Internet has been down specifically in the one block of downtown where I go to post on weekday mornings. This morning I’m at Memphis Chess Club, where the Internet is working.

Dance to your favorite ’80s hair band songs Thursday night as Aquanet plays the Peabody rooftop. DJ A.D. will spin between sets. $15 general admission, $40 VIP. VIPs get a buffet of pork tenderloin skewers, veggie phyllo cups, and short rib pot pie.

It’s German Beer Day.

Malco’s movie trivia is tonight at 6:30 at Grind City Brewing. Free popcorn for all who attend.

Barry Bostwick, the original “Brad Majors,” will be at the Orpheum October 3 for a 50th anniversary screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Meet & Greet ($170), costume contest, audience participation.

Memphis Made Brewing will host Puzzles & Pints Sunday at 1. Swap your gently used puzzles and games. A portion of beer sales go to Autism Resources of the Mid-South.

Congratulations to Crave Cheesecakes on South Main on its recent 100 on its health inspection.

Billy the Kid is the burger special this week at Momma’s. Half-pound Angus beef burger topped with pepper jack, bacon, avocado, sun-dried tomato & roasted red pepper aioli. Available through Friday.

The pope died. What happens next?

That’s it, back tomorrow.

Make my Easter a happy one!
Venmo: @Paul-Ryburn (8113 if it asks for digits)
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Grizzlies versus Thunder playoff round 1 dates, times, and TV:

• Game one in Oklahoma City, Sunday, April 20, noon, ABC
• Game two in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, April 22, 6:30, TNT/truTV/Max, FanDuel Sports
• Game three in Memphis, Thursday, April 24, 8:30, TNT, FanDuel Sports
• Game four in Memphis, Saturday, April 26, 2:30, TNT, FanDuel Sports
• Game five in Oklahoma City, Monday, April 28 if necessary, time and TV TBD
• Game six in Memphis, Thursday, May 1 if necessary, time and TV TBD
• Game seven in Oklahoma City, Saturday, May 3 if necessary, time and TV TBD

Glad to see there’s not a game scheduled for next Sunday, the day of Wine Race and Rajun Cajun Crawfish Fest. If there’s a Game 7 it’ll conflict with day 2 of the Riverbeat music festival.

ESPN BET has the Grizz +13.5 on the spread and a +750 moneyline for today’s game. In other words, Memphis is expected to lose pretty bad.

Not only is today Easter, 4/20, and Wrestlemania day 2… it’s also National Cheddar Fries Day. Huey’s is the place to celebrate.

Storms are possible between sunset and midnight tonight.

Slow news day as I expected. Back tomorrow. I’m headed to Bardog to watch Game 1.

Make my Easter a happy one!
Venmo: @Paul-Ryburn (8113 if it asks for digits)
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Zelle: paul@paulryburn.com
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Our Memphis Grizzlies locked up the 8 seed in the Western Conference playoffs with a 120-106 win over Dallas last night. Memphis heads to Oklahoma City for game 1 of 7 vs. the Thunder, the West 1 seed, at noon Sunday. TV: ABC

I’m sitting here at Memphis Chess Club typing this. Remember I told you a couple of weeks ago that they have a full bar? They now have a drink special board:

Riverside Drive is closed for this weekend, and Tom Lee Park will be closed for more than a month. WREG explains why.

Lifehacker lists the best cheeses for a grilled cheese sandwich.

Stage play The O’Kays, set in the 1970s R&B scene, comes to the Halloran Centre today.

Cossitt Library is having a kids’ day today.

Ghost River at Main and Crump hosts a book fair today from noon to 3 PM.

Not sure if there will be a post tomorrow. Easter is typically a slow news day.

Make my Easter a happy one!
Venmo: @Paul-Ryburn (8113 if it asks for digits)
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PJ Haggerty and Dain Dainja will not be playing basketball for the Memphis Tigers in the fall. They have entered the transfer portal.

Thanks to rising egg prices, some kids are going on Easter potato hunts this year.

The DNA will have its April membership meeting at Loflin Yard next Wednesday. City councilman JB Smiley will speak. Free food and wine for members.

The Ducks Unlimited Expo comes to Memphis August 1–3 at the Memphis Renasant Convention Center. 225 vendors from 42 states will exhibit.

A penthouse unit is available at the Shrine Building.

Memphis Magazine looks at Jerred Price’s rescue of a Victorian home on Poplar.

That’s all for today. Back tomorrow.

Make my Easter a happy one!
Venmo: @Paul-Ryburn (8113 if it asks for digits)
Cash App: $PaulRyburn1
Zelle: paul@paulryburn.com
Apple Pay: paul.ryburn@gmail.com

In my fourth grade Sunday school class at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock, Lent was a big deal. We were promised a certificate of achievement if we did certain things. We had to collect an offering of money in a box. We had to give up something we liked – I gave up Coca-Cola. We had to attend every Sunday church service.

Oh, and we had one more requirement. We had to come to church on Maundy Thursday.

I earned my certificate, but I never learned why Thursday was a
“Maundy” day.

I attended Rhodes, a Presbyterian-affiliated college, where I had the privilege of taking three religion classes from the late great Dr. Milton Brown. But I never learned what “Maundy” meant there either.

Checkiday to the rescue. “Maundy” means “washing of feet.” Jesus washed the disciples’ feet on Holy Thursday before the Last Supper.

For those of you who prefer secular holidays, today is also National Cheeseball Day.

The Grizzlies now know their opponents for Friday’s play-in game at FedExForum for the Western Conference 8 seed: the Dallas Mavericks. 8:30 PM, ESPN. Dallas defeated the Sacramento Kings last night to advance in the play-in.

Jaren Jackson Jr. will give away 250 tickets to tomorrow’s game this afternoon at 4 PM in FedExForum’s lobby.

All Memphis public libraries will be closed tomorrow for Good Friday. Those libraries will use any excuse to close. I’m surprised they didn’t close today for Cheeseball Day.

First Horizon is hiring an intern for their Memphis Trust Department.

History of the Internet, part one

MLGW‘s downtown offices were evacuated yesterday afternoon due to a foul odor.

Rest in peace, Wink Martindale. The game show host got his start broadcasting here in Memphis.

Wiseacre is hiring a bartender.

Don’t forget, Monday is 50% off candy day at Walgreens. Go get you some Cadbury Eggs and Marshmallow Peeps and a chocolate bunny.

Make my Easter a happy one!
Venmo: @Paul-Ryburn (8113 if it asks for digits)
Cash App: $PaulRyburn1
Zelle: paul@paulryburn.com
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