Wed update: South Main Trolley Tour, clean-up, Bands Not Bombs, Memphis Italian Festival, and more

The South Main Association e-mailed with a couple of updates.  This Friday, of course, is the South Main Trolley Art Tour, as happens the last Friday of every month.  Galleries and other shops in the area open 6 to 9 PM, with many serving wine, appetizers, beer, and some offering discounts and/or specials.  The South Main Association will have its own private area at the trolley tour next to Mode du Jour, where members can enjoy Boscos beer and grilled hamburgers.  If you want to be a part of it, you can join SMA on the spot, $25 for individuals, $35 two-person households, $80 businesses.  They’ll also be selling SMA and 38103 T-shirts and SMA cookbooks.

There will be a special event at this month’s trolley tour:  The Music Resource Center’s grand opening.  This will be at 431 S. Main #201 (across from the National Civil Rights Museum) from 7 to 9 PM.  More info on the Resource Center here, led by local musicial Lord T.

Saturday morning there will be another SMA event.  Help the association to neaten the neighborhood… meet up with them at Bluff City Coffee at 9 AM (you can get one of health guru AL’s favorite acai plus smoothies while you’re there).  Bring brooms, dust pans, and work clothes; garbage bags, water, and snacks will be provided.  Cleaning will last until 11 AM.  For more details about the SMA’s events go to southmainmemphis.org.

The Mid-South Center for Peace and Justice may disagree with me on panhandling, but they sent me an e-mail yesterday in which we found common ground: music and beer.

They’re having a fundraiser on Saturday, June 7 at 1015 S. Cooper, with over 10 bands, from 1 PM to midnight, $10 wristband admission.  Food, beer, drinks.

The annual Memphis Italian Festival runs from tomorrow through Saturday in Marquette Park (Park at Mt.Moriah in East Memphis).  Like BBQ Fest, this is an event where dozens of teams enter a cooking competition, and build booths which are basically private parties; so you have a lot more fun if you know people in booths.  However, as you can see if you click on the link, they have a pretty good schedule of bands, so it’s still possible to have a good time there if you don’t know anyone.

I don’t have the Italian Fest connections that I have at BBQ Fest (not on a team, nor do I even know a team) so I doubt I’ll make it to Italian Fest.  If I go at all it’ll probably be Thursday night.  If I know anyone on a team and don’t realize it e-mail me at paul@paulryburn.com.

As I posted yesterday morning, Calhoun’s Sports Bar is being forced to change its name.  I meant to get down there last night and get the full details, but heavy rain prevented me from making the trip.  I hear Max is passing around a sheet with suggestions for possible names.  If anyone has any ideas send them to me and I’ll forward to Max.  I’ll be sure to forward your name along with your suggestion (unless you want to remain anonymous) so you get credit if your name is selected.

No trivia money for the team last night… we finished tied for third, and then lost the tie-breaker.  Pete the Trivia Guy is out of town next Tuesday, so the evening will be guest-hosted by Mikey the Trivia Guy.

This morning’s CA has an article about Gus’s Chicken being named one of the top 100 inner-city businesses.  Congrats to Gus’s on that honor.  There’s also an article about girlie drinks around town.  Bartenders at Downtown restaurants including Encore, Cafe 61, Automatic Slim’s, and Blue Fin were interviewed about their female patrons’ tastes.  Oh and a bartender at Spindini explained what kind of drinks Cougars (older women who go after younger men) like to drink.

Speaking of the CA, I got my photo taken yesterday for an upcoming article on bloggers.  They did a really cool job… they took a pic of me on the Main Street Mall, then put that pic on the screen on my laptop, then took a pic of my laptop sitting on the bar at the Flying Saucer, with taps and Saucer matches and a beer in the background.  After the photo session was over I asked the bartender, “So… what are you going to do with that beer?”  I got to drink it.  I think she knew that would happen, because she poured Dos Equis Lager as the prop beer.  I’ve been told the article will run in the M section and will feature several other local bloggers as well.  I don’t have a definite date for it, but Sunday, June 1 is my guess, which would be way cool because that would send a lot of new people to my blog on the first day of Tube Top Month.

Started work on my latest Amazon.com storefront last night… a store related to another one of my guilty pleasures.  Should be live in about a week, just gotta add some more categories and pick a domain name.

Right now it’s time to go pay the bills though… off to work.