Mayorships are back + Tuesday news

Swarm by Foursquare, the app where you check in at your favorite places, has brought back mayorships. They were removed about a year ago and there was a huge protest. The person who checks into a venue the most in the past 2 months (only one checkin a day counts) becomes the “mayor” of that venue. Swarm has been accumulating checkins for the past month and has awarded mayorships based on that period of time.

Once I found that out, I updated the app, viewed my history, and discovered that I have done something I never managed to do when we had mayorships the first time. I had become mayor of 4 of the 5 bars I refer to as my “Big Five,” the five places I go the most. I am the new mayor of Bardog Tavern, Blind Bear (where they never stopped referring to me as mayor), Flying Saucer (a little surprised I got that one back), and Silly Goose. The only bar that eludes me is Max’s Sports Bar. I’ve been spending time in South Main more but I will never catch Otto and steal that one.

I’m not going to work to try to defend mayorships this time around, though (except for Blind Bear). I’m going to go where I want, and if I lose mayorships, so be it.

John Mellencamp plays The Orpheum tonight at 7:30.

Meanwhile, over at Beale Street Landing, Monsters Inc. will be shown on the big screen tonight at 8:30.

The Redbirds begin a homestand vs. Nashville tonight at 7:05. There are $1 King Cotton hot dogs at Tuesday games.

Live music alert: There will be another Charvey Mac appearance Downtown this week. The talented singer will play Beale Street Landing once again Friday from 6 to 8.

Congratulations to the Memphis Zoo, ranked as one of the top 10 zoos by Fodor Travel.

MemphisWeather.net is looking to hire a contract web programmer. They’re looking for HTML, mobile, Perl/PHP, and RSS/XML experience.

While we’re on the subject of MemphisWeather.net, they explained a partial cause of the haze we experienced yesterday: Dirt from the Sahara desert in Africa was in the atmosphere! Also, MWN reported that the aurora borealis was seen as far south as Iowa last night.

Bars can program their point-of-sale system touch screens so that they have their own button. That way, when someone orders, say, a margarita, the bartender doesn’t have to waste time typing M-A-R-G-A-R-I-T-A into the system; they just hit the button and get on with making the drink. Last night I was in Blind Bear for happy hour, and Mary showed me the newest button on their screen: “Duck Fart.” It’s official: My blog has brought the duck fart back. Now I need to spread it to other bars.

The inventor of the pink plastic yard flamingo has died at 79.

Well damn. Chevrolet is bringing back the Chevelle for the 2016 model year. Everything old is new again.

Tomorrow is the beginning of a rather odd 10-day period for me. Many of the crew I run around with are heading out of town. We have several people flying to Mexico for a wedding, and one person in Spokane for a training. I will get through it fine though; I enjoy hanging out by myself at times. Plus, I have a birthday party to attend at a venue I love, and a new friend to hang out with one day this weekend.

As for tonight, I have no idea what my plans are. One option is head south and lead off at Max’s Sports Bar; that would be a sure winner if it wasn’t so damn hot outside and so far away from home. Another possibility is to stop by Silly Goose and see if any of my friends are there for one last happy hour in Memphis before they leave town. Then there’s always a little bonus Panda Time at Bardog. It’ll be a game-time decision. Time to hit Target to see if they still carry bacon jerky, then back for a few more hours of work before I get out.