Five Favorites for Friday

piemontescapes - tastes and textures of northwest Italy

Beyond the Frame - the Memphis Brooks Museum blog

Carbunkle Trumpet - he is healthy and doing well but would like for everyone to know his wishes for his funeral arrangements

Slow Food Memphis Blog - discusses food and love and has plans to post recipes that take under 20 minutes to prepare

Sicily Scene - lots of links in her Italy Magazine Roundup post and her thoughts on the Chilean miners

We've Got the Blues

No, not me and Poppy. We're past the ugliness of yesterday's morning walk and now approach our walks with a hyper-defensive outlook. We turned our attention today to happy thoughts and the Blues qualify in this case. Last year I did a long series of photos of the sidewalk markers around downtown that commemorate everything from an opera house fire to saloon shoot-outs to 19th century architecture. But there are also markers up and down Beale Street that pay homage to musicians, writers, photographers, DJ's and promoters whose work has highlighted Beale Street and Memphis music and has helped to define it and keep it alive. Installation of a few new Brass Notes on Beale Street include:

Oct 9 – Brass Note for Bobby Rush, was also concert in Handy Park
Oct 10 – Brass Note for Jim Dickinson
Oct 24 – Brass Notes for Sandy Carroll & Jim Gaines
Nov 14 - Brass Notes for Skip Pitts & Sleepy John Estes
Nov 20 – Brass Note for Jimmy Griffin
Dec 4 - Brass Note for The Steinberg Family
Dec 18 - Brass Note for Mike Glenn

Click the pink "Brass Notes" link above to go to the complete listing and scroll down near the end to see these latest artist's brief biographies.

Ode to the Woman Who Almost Ran Me Over Today

Please don’t kill me in the intersection you jerk
I don’t want to be ploughed down ‘cause you’re late for work
My pet and I stepped out with good vibes
We didn’t want to have to run for our lives

Your ominous Chevrolet grill
Came so close it gave me a chill
Poor Poppy was clearly knock-kneed
As I gave a reflexive tug on her lead

And the part that gets me the most
Is that though we were nearly toast
You breaked and gave us a glare of shame
As if we somehow were to blame

Let me explain so you understand
It’s not for myself that I reprimand
But for the other pedestrians on the street
Be they bipeds or hoofing it on four feet

When the light turns green and the walk sign is a go
You must wait to turn you know
For all the bothersome walking folk that sashay
Have something called the right of way

I hope you made it to work tout de suite
And that you parked your Chevy nice and neat
But just remember come lunch hour
You might have to walk to get your whiskey sour

And if you do and pass crossroads and such
I tell you that to some lights don’t mean much
So look all ways and be sure to see
That you don’t get smacked by an SUV

Little Ghouls and a Little Wing Necklace

The Ghouls at my door. I love Halloween.

One of my friends gave me the Lauren Haupt "little wing" necklace above from the new shop in South Main called Hoot + Louise. I haven't been in the shop yet but I've heard it's very cool and it's great to see new retail opening down there.

Downtown Is Taking Off

As Memphians know The Buzz this week has been all about Pinnacle Airlines moving their headquarters downtown. They will move into One Commerce Square, occupying 12 floors and bringing 600 employees. The Center City Commission organized a pep rally this morning and downtown rolled out the red carpet...

Pinnacle employees were bused in this morning, landed on Main Street and walked into their future office building.

The Beale Street Flippers welcomed them

The Redbirds and The Grizzlies welcomed them

Hey, Mr. DJ

The Peabody Duckmaster was on hand by the red carpet, naturally.

Downtown businesses showed their support, like Architecture, Incorporated above

Sue from the Little Tea Shop

Archer Malmo and Bardog were onboard as well

Five Favorites for Friday

Click [Daily] - interesting day in the life photos and a current one of a plucky family pet

Living in Florence - "an American moves to Florence and this is what happens..."

One Half Amazing is excited about Jay Z's new book due out this November. It's ok, OHA, I'm a huge rap fan myself. Inexplicable, but I love it. Also, ridiculous and obnoxious email signatures.

Whining & Dining has an Italian chili recipe.

The Manolo advises a reader on the perfect ankle boots to wear to a multi-event college reunion and predicts what will happen in hilarious Manolo speak.

"Huh" moments at lunch: Tree Trimming and a Hearse Giveaway

While driving back from lunch today the "huh" moment was this tree. Keeping tree branches away from power lines is a good safety measure but it makes for some pretty lopsided trees. We see this a lot but I had never seen a tree so perfectly de-branched on one side like this one.

And the perfect segue to tree trimming gone awry would naturally be about winning a hearse at Bardog...

And this is more evidence that October has set in and my other "huh" moment. Yes, Bardog patrons will have a chance to win this beautiful hearse, to be given away on Halloween. This reminds me of a guy in high school who drove a hearse around, I'm sure for a host of reasons that are lost on me now. It all made sense at the time. He stuck a mannequin's bewigged head on it for a hood ornament. Ghoulish. And how did he come across a beheaded mannequin anyway? Did he do the deed himself? There are still many lingering questions.

Side note:
Any reader looking for a steady theme or any kind of rhyme or reason to the photos and comments on this blog should give up. I have.

Sunday Detail

It's October, so...

Five Favorites for Friday

Try some nice Chilean Pinot Noir alongside your oxtails at Benito's Wine Reviews

At La Tavola Marche find out about the polenta festival and who is the Condoleeza Rice of the Ugly Club - from Marche, Italy.

Congratulations to Air Traffic Mike on his 400th post and the varied trajectory of his blogging.(I get it, ATM, I really get it!)

Get great Memphis music news at Area Code Greetings - recent posts about "The Summers" and Barcelona loves Memphis Blues!

Gilmour Girl Goes Memphis starts the 31 day yoga challenge today.

A Verbal Snippet

Yesterday, I was at a gathering of a couple of hundred people and there were a fair number of them from out of town. I met a guy who had been involved in some business a few years back in Memphis and this was the first time he had been back in a while. Please pay attention all you people who constantly bash Memphis. His comment was this, "Memphis is my favorite city. My wife was surprised when I told her that. She said you've been to Miami, New York, New Orleans and so many other places, why Memphis? And I said it's the people. You come here and you feel something you don't feel anywhere else. I just love it." By the way I heard two other people say more or less the same thing. I heart the love.