Chris Herrington has some thoughts about last Saturday night’s International Blues Challenge.
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Tag: Beale Street
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Mid-South Pride Parade Moves to Beale Street
The 2011 Mid-South Pride Parade is moving from the cozy confines of Cooper-Young to downtown Memphis. See the video announcement at the Memphis Gaydar blog.
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Gay Pride Parade Moves Downtown
On October 15, 2011, the city’s annual Mid-South Pride parade will kick off on historic Beale Street, ending in a festival at Robert R. Church Park (corner of Fourth and Beale).
The venue change was announced over the weekend at a Mid-South Pride fund-raiser at Club Spectrum. The move marks a major shift in Pride parade tradition. For years, the annual march route began at Cooper-Young’s First Congregational Church and ended at a festival in Peabody Park.
Here’s Mid-South Pride’s video announcement:
- Main Street at Night
I like this old postcard view of Main Street, showing how it looked at night in the early 1900s. There’s no date on the card (the postmark is smeared), but no automobiles are visible in the image — just empty streetcar tracks and some horse-drawn buggies.
The caption at the top of the card says it was taken from the roof of the Randolph Building, which stood at the corner of Main and Beale. The postcard artists took some license, I think, when they painted in some of the signs, but certain landmarks stand out. The cluster of buildings in the left foreground is the old Gayoso Hotel. Illuminated signs for many long-gone businesses are dimly visible, especially the one for Brennan’s Stag Hotel, which would have stood just a few doors down (if not right next door) to the Gayoso, and Goodman’s, its huge sign mounted on the rooftop at the right. I’m not sure what Goodman’s was, and yeah, sure I suppose I could look it up, but I don’t feel like it.
Because …
I’m mainly intrigued by the penciled notation scrawled across the front of the card (this was before you were allowed to write messages on the back, which was reserved for the address). Somebody has written, “Della, Grandma says for you to take good care of Grandpa’s face.”
Oh gosh, what was wrong with poor Grandpa’s face? And why couldn’t Grandma take care of it herself? Has she gone off on a vacation, and left the poor man in the care of Della, who might have forgotten to “take care” of his face if not for this postal reminder? And who was this Della, anyway? She sounds very unreliable, if you ask me.
I’ll never get to sleep now …
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Beale Street
Legendary as the birthplace of the blues, today Beale Street thrives as a center for entertainment, dining, shopping, and culture. Nightclubs and restaurants, such as Alfred’s, the New Daisy, King’s Palace Cafe, Rum Boogie, Club 152, the Pig on Beale, Blues City Cafe, and B.B. King’s Blues Club, draw thousands from all over the world for tastes of local cuisine and live music. Beale Street also features A. Schwab, a century-old dry-goods store, and W.C. Handy’s home.
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James Cotton “Superharp”
As a boy, James Cotton “Superharp” got his first 15-cent harmonica for Christmas. He taught himself “the chicken” and “the train” before learning a handful of Sonny Boy Williamson songs by listening to the radio show King Biscuit Time. When Cotton came to Memphis, he was underage and couldn’t go inside the juke joints, so he played his harp on Beale and shined shoes for tips. At 15, Cotton recorded four songs at Sun Studios and went on to play with Muddy Waters for 12 years. He still tours today and is honored with a brass note on Beale’s Walk of Fame.
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Cab Ad
With the recent dip in the economy, several Beale Street businesses hope to drive more customers into the area with local taxicabs. Figuratively speaking, that is.
Taking a cue from NASCAR, Blues City Café, Club 152, and Blues City General Store are the first merchants to try the “AutoGlove,” a fabric cover that stretches to fit the hood of any car.
Unlike other vehicle wraps, it is not permanent and it does not damage the car’s paint job. In a partnership with Nashville-based AutoHood Media and local taxi company Kumar Transportation, the AutoGlove will be placed on 30 to 50 taxis.
Jeff Goss, director of operations for Blues City Café, Club 152, and Blues City General Store, says that most of their previous advertising was in print products. With the taxi ads, they hope to reach people who may not pick up a local paper.
“We’re targeting airport and hotel clientele,” Goss says. “If those people who are in town for one or two nights get picked up in a Blues City Café cab, chances are, we may get them.”
Prior to last week’s launch of the new advertising campaign, one Blues City Café cab already was roaming the streets.
“Within three days, I had people coming in saying they’ve seen us on a cab, and that was with one cab, so we’ll see how it goes,” Goss says.
Co-owner and marketing officer for AutoHood Media, Devin James, says the AutoGlove is a perfect outdoor advertisement medium. The ads, which run $300 per taxi per month, are interchangeable, low-maintenance, and highly visible.
“[The ad] goes on in five minutes and comes off in 30 seconds. It’s water repellant and heat resistant, and it won’t damage the paint on your car,” James says.
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Beale Street Tonight
Steve Cropper, a legendary Blues Brother, moved to Memphis at the age of 9, and over the years, he has become an influential musician, producer, and songwriter. As a founding member of Booker T. & the MGs, Cropper had much to do with the early success of Stax Records and co-wrote a number of enduring tunes, including “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” and “In the Midnight Hour.” Today, Cropper still strums his guitar with the best of them, including Paul Simon, Ringo Starr, and Buddy Guy. Cropper is honored with a brass note on Beale’s Walk of Fame.
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Gutting It Out
Let’s hear it for the chitlin’, the humble scrap of pig offal that’s being celebrated on Saturday, August 9th, with a cook-off on Beale Street in W.C. Handy Park during this weekend’s Jus’ Blues events. All afternoon, Dr. BBQ will give away pig-tail samples, while crack teams of grillers, boilers, steamers, and fryers will try to impress a panel of judges with their best chitlin’ dishes.
Oh sure, when you’re cooking off a freshly cleaned batch of chitlin’s, they reek like the nasty little poop tubes they are. And woe unto the poor chef who doesn’t scrub his pig parts squeaky clean, for he will fight with his family over limited bathroom space for days to come. Chitlin’ dishes are a stinky holdover from harder, more odoriferous times, when slaves were given only the nastiest pig parts to consume. And yet, in spite of so much obvious ickiness and for consuming a load of mostly digested pig food, chitlin’s continue to be a beloved staple of American soul food. Oh well. Without the fetid intestines, we couldn’t make delicious and delicate Cajun-style andouille sausage. And without andouille sausage, Memphis’ springtime gumbo cook-offs wouldn’t be worth the effort. So one more time: Let’s hear it for the chitlin’.
The Big Chitlin’ Cook-Off and Blues Fest, Saturday, August 9th, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., at
W.C. Handy Park on beale street