BikePedMemphis’s work on the Great Streets Project is underway, and they are putting out a call for volunteers. This project will create a bike path from the river to Midtown, create areas that protect cyclists and pedestrians from traffic, and create pedestrian promenades where people can lounge or eat. They are looking for volunteers for morning and afternoon shifts next week, June 19-23. Volunteers will be needed to assemble IKEA furniture, paint streets, and assist with litter pickup. If you want to volunteer, email Emily Rooker at erooker@urbanartcommission.org and let her know your hours of availability.
On Saturday, June 24 they will have a massive Great Streets Volunteer Build Day from 8 AM to 1:30 PM to put the finishing touches on the project. If you can’t volunteer during the week due to work, the 24th could be your day.
After the work is done, it will be time to celebrate with a Street Party for Great Streets on the Main Street Mall from Peabody Place to Gayoso on Tuesday, June 27. There will be live music, games, and sidewalk sales from businesses along that block. That same day, hundreds of pedestrian and bike experts will be in town for the conference of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals.
Rizzo’s is going Italian for an evening on Tuesday, June 20 from 6:30 to 10 PM. Everyone has that one Italian mom in the neighborhood who prepares delicious dishes from the old country. Pam Conte was that Italian mom for Chef Michael Patrick. Join Pam and Michael as they serve a four-course dinner made from recipes passed down through La Familia. Cost is $60.
Cruisin’ Heavy, with special guest Mike Posner, is the featured entertainment at tonight’s Peabody rooftop party. $15 to get in, ladies and hotel guests free before 7. Your admission includes a buffet of catfish nuggets with house-made tartar sauce and warm mini-pretzels with honey mustard. If you’re in VIP you have a second buffet of carved Jack Daniel’s glazed tenderloin, garlic mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, and watermelon wedges. Tonight’s drink specials will be a honey margarita and Backwoods blackberry moonshine.
It’s all-inclusive night at the Redbirds – a special $20 ticket lets you walk up to any concession stand and get burgers, hot dogs, chips and cheese, popcorn, and small sodas. It’s also Thirsty Thursday with select draft beers $2. First pitch is 7:05 and Colorado Springs is the opponent.
The Memphis Second Line Jazz Band will lead a parade from Memphis Park on Front Street to RiverPlay on Riverside Drive tonight at 5:30. Following that there will be a Heavy Metal Skate Party with DJ The Hook-Up from 6 to 8 at RiverPlay.
Trent Tomlinson kicks off the KIX (see what I did there) on Beale Concert Series in Handy Park tonight at 7:30. These concerts are all-ages and free to attend.
Clayborn Reborn is partnering with On Location: Memphis to bring a series of 15 films to Clayborn Temple this summer. The first is tonight. Fruitvale Station is a critically acclaimed film about a Bay Area resident who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family and strangers on the last day of 2008. Prior to the movies there will be block parties outside including local vendors, food trucks and a DJ. The block parties and movies are free and will include a discussion by an expert curator.
Louisville men’s basketball coach Rick Pitino has been suspended for five ACC games as a result of the investigation into an escort scandal involving his players. The school may also be forced to vacate games won 2010-2014, if it is shown that any ineligible player played in those games. That could endanger L’ville’s NCAA championship for the 2012-2013 season.
If anyone is interested in learning to become a web developer, this bundle currently being offered for $49 by Mashable looks like a great value. You’ll learn HTML5, the language of web pages; CSS3, the language of the look and feel of web pages; and JavaScript, the language of dynamic client-side web pages. You’ll also learn MySQL, a popular flavor of the SQL database query language. You’ll learn popular programming languages like PHP and Python. Plus there are extras like an intro to cloud computing. These are the very tools (except Python, which I have never used) I work with in my day job as a web developer.
Interesting… judges are starting to require convicted drunk drivers to install Uber or Lyft on their phones. Sounds good… easy way to help people make better decisions.
Former Memphis Tiger Austin Nichols has an interview with Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace. Probably unlikely Nichols would appear in a Grizzlies uniform this coming season, but he might get to do the Hustle. He’s got the size and the skills to develop into an NBA player, if he has the passion for the game.
Mainstream media is finally starting to report that President Trump is under criminal investigation. “Obstruction of justice” is what everyone is talking about, but read the last paragraph in the New York Times article I linked here. “Money laundering” is the real gold they’re going to dig up.
That’s it for now… I’ll be back at Silly Goose happy hour after work… back tomorrow.