Archive for the ‘misc’ Category
2011 Rising Mississippi River and the Memphis Flood
Here are a few pictures I took Saturday, 5/7/11 of the rising Mississippi River waters. They show the intersection of Riverside and Beale Street, and Mud Island … or actually, a few landmarks on Mud Island, while the rest of the southern part is under water.
These photos were shot on Saturday about 3pm was at 47.15 feet.
Below is the National Weather Service’s, Advance Hydrologic Prediction Service for Memphis showing the Flood Categories in feet. Predictions are the Mississippi River will crest Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 48 feet.
Flood Categories (in feet)
| Major Flood Stage: | 46 |
| Moderate Flood Stage: | 40 |
| Flood Stage: | 34 |
| Action Stage: | 28 |
Looking north down Riverside Drive at Pyramid & I-40 bridge.
Looking south towards Beale St. and Riverside Drive intersection. The old Memphis bridge in background.
Looking west under the train and trolley tracks over Beale St. at Riverside Drive.
Looking north to the I-40 bridge over Mud Island landmarks. Most of the southern part of Mud Island is under water. The flags and tree tops are all you see.
Tags: 2011, Beale St., flood, Flood Stage, Memphis, Mississippi River, Mud Island, photos, pictures, predictions, rising waters, Riverside
Good Things in Memphis: Zach Whitten – Memphis Fast Fiction
Zach Whitten is committed to write a story about Memphis everyday in 2011. His collection of stories is called Memphis Fast Fiction. Each day, a new 200 word story about Memphis’ past, present or future is posted at memphisfastfiction.com. Here, you can submit titles, topics and keywords for Zach to consider using in his future entries. At year end, Zach plans to put the 365 stories into a book also titled Memphis Fast Fiction. The Commercial Appeal published a story about Zach’s writing endeavors which was written by Beth Okeon. Zach Whitten is an interactive web designer at Combustion, a Memphis design and advertising firm and Beth Okeon is the owner of ABO Marketing & Communications. Read more here.
Tags: 2011, ABO Marketing, ABO Marketing & Communications, Beth Okeon, book, Combustion, Fast Fiction, history, Memphis, Memphis Fast Fiction, one story each day, story, Zach Whitten
Good Things in Memphis: Young Frankenstein at the Orpheum
Video: Young Frankenstein
If you liked the movie, you’ll love the musical appearing live at the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis, March 8-March 13, 2011.
Young Frankenstein is a musical comedy inspired by the legend of Frankenstein and his attempts to create a monster. Three time Tony Award winner Mel Brooks, wrote the music & lyrics and is the genius behind this show. While on Broadway, Young Frankenstein won the 2008 Outer Critics Circle Award and the Broadway.com Audience Award for Best Musical.
Memphis is extremely fortunate to have so many good things happening at the Orpheum Theatre. It’s an historic downtown Memphis landmark bringing broadway shows, concerts, performing arts, movies and family entertainment to our community. Stay tuned for more good things at the Orpheum Theatre.
Tags: 2011, Broadway, Broadway Series, Comedy, Memphis, Musical, Orpheum Theatre, Young Frankenstein
July 2010 Memphis TV Household News Ratings
July 2010 sweeps are over and the preliminary household ratings and shares are in. The chart below compares the current 2010 overnight household news ratings to 2009 & 2008. These are the 4 major Monday through Friday news dayparts.
WMC & WREG are neck and neck at 6am. WMC wins at 5pm, 6pm and 10pm. Not only did they win, but also saw gains from 2009 to 2010 in every newscast listed. On the other hand, WREG shows losses from year to year, but still has a strong presence in Memphis news.
| Overnight Nielsen Ratings / Shares | |||||
| WMC | WREG | WPTY | WHBQ | WLMT | |
| NBC – Ch. 5 | CBS – Ch. 3 | ABC – Ch. 24 | FOX – Ch. 13 | CW – Ch. 30 | |
| Mon-Fri | HH RTG / Share | HH RTG / Share | HH RTG / Share | HH RTG / Share | HH RTG / Share |
| 6am News | |||||
| July 10 | 4.9 / 13.5 | 5.0 / 14 | 1.0 / 2.9 | 3.0 / 8.5 | |
| July 09 | 4.3 / 12.2 | 6.1 / 17.2 | .9 / 2.4 | 3.2 / 9.2 | |
| July 08 | 4.7 / 12.5 | 5.5 / 14.9 | 1.7 / 4.5 | 4.7 / 12.6 | |
| 5pm News | |||||
| July 10 | 7.2 / 12.7 | 6.6 / 11.7 | 2.5 / 4.4 | 4.0 / 7.1 | |
| July 09 | 7.1 / 12.7 | 7.1 / 12.8 | 2.7 / 4.9 | 3.7 / 7 | |
| July 08 | 8.0 / 14 | 8.1 / 14.2 | 4.5 / 7.9 | 6.2 / 11 | |
| 6pm News | |||||
| July 10 | 9.4 / 15.7 | 6.2 / 10.4 | 2.2 / 3.6 | ||
| July 09 | 9 / 15.1 | 7.1 / 11.9 | 2.1 / 3.6 | ||
| July 08 | 9.5 / 15/5 | 8.0 / 13 | 3.0 / 4.8 | ||
| 9pm/10pm News | |||||
| July 10 | 11.0 / 16.4 | 9.9 / 14.7 | 1.9 / 2.8 | 4.7 / 6.9 | 1.9 / 2.7 |
| July 09 | 9 / 13.5 | 10.1 / 15.1 | 3.2 / 4.9 | 5.2 / 8 | 3.2 / 5 |
| July 08 | 9.5 / 14.1 | 10 / 14.9 | 4.3 / 6.3 | 7.3 / 10 | 4.6 / 6 |
| Nielsen Media | |||||
Tags: 2010, household, July Sweeps, media, Memphis, news, nielsen ratings, Ratings, share, Television, TV, WHBQ, WLMT, wmc, WPTY, WREG
John Lloyd Young Debuts “Love Believes”
October, 2007, I became a fan of John Lloyd Young when I attended the Broadway production of Jersey Boys. His portrayal of Frankie Valli in Jersey Boys won him the well deserved Tony Award for Best Actor.
Fast forward two and a half years, John Lloyd Young released his debut single, “Love Believes” on Valentine’s Day. This new song is very different from the Jersey Boys CD where he sings lead vocals. Go to iTunes, give it a try and see what you think. I think it’s terrific, still a big fan.
Tags: Jersey Boys, John Lloyd Young, Love Believes, Tony Award Winner
Deidra Shores of Memphis Wins Today Show’s Kid Reporter Contest
Update 11/12/09 Deidra Shores was selected to become the Today Show’s Kid Reporter this morning. Congratulation Deidra!
Follow this link to her winning announcement.
Original Post 10/29/09 This morning on NBC’s Today Show, they announced Memphis Colonial Middle School student Deidra Shores has advanced to the finals of Today’s Kid Reporter Contest. She is one of 4 finalists competing for the top spot.
The Commercial Appeal writes, “All kid reporter hopefuls were required to submit a video of work. Deidra parodied Matt Lauer in a video she called “Where on Earth is Matt Lauer?”
She stopped at various places around Memphis, hoping to find Lauer and land an exclusive interview while her mother recorded the search.
When asked about her project, Deidra said, “Matt is a very unique and very cool type of person. He gets to play hide and seek around the world and gets paid for it, so I want to do that.” Amid laughter from Natalie Morales and Al Roker, Deidra continued, “I want to know where is there a permission slip or something where I can do that?”
“She now advances to the final round, which will air Nov. 5.” You can watch this on local NBC Memphis affiliate WMC-TV.
You can view the audition video submitted for the contest here.
Tags: Colonial Middle School, Contest, Deidra Shores, finalist, Kid Reporter, Memphis, NBC, Today Show, winner
FedEx Launches 2 New Advertising Campaigns: Fred Willard In Social Ad Series & Golf Sweepstakes
Memphis based FedEx has recently launched a viral online campaign featuring comedian Fred Willard. According to this Commercial Appeal story, “Fred Willard, star of offbeat comedies including “Best in Show” and “A Mighty Wind,” is FedEx’s celebrity pitchman in the age of YouTube and social media. Willard stars in a series of five videos that comprise FedEx’s first Web-based video advertising campaign, launched Monday.”
“FedEx executives said they’re targeting an office crowd that browses and shares videos and uses social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. “We’re certainly trying to be where our customers and potential customers are,” said FedEx director of advertising Steve Pacheco. “The at-work office audience is extremely important to us. If we’re top of mind present in that world, that’s where we want to be.”
“Pacheco said the lengthier pitch allowed by free Internet air-time presents distinct advantages over 30-second television spots. “It’s the regular office humor we’ve been famous for on TV,” he said. “We’ve been able to migrate that to the Web. “For us, this is a bold new platform to try to get some connectivity with our customers.” To create awareness, FedEx is blogging, Tweeting and Facebooking and placing online ads in publications ranging from CNNMoney.com to Morningstar to Kiplinger.com.”
“BBDO Worldwide, creator of FedEx’s memorable TV ads over the past 20 years, led the project.” You can see all of the FedEx Infomercials here.
Also beginning this week, “In its third year of a six-year sponsorship, Federal Express is backing the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup golf championship with an ad campaign and a sweepstakes promotion to highlight FedEx international offerings. The sweepstakes campaign, launching July 20 and running through Sept. 13, offers a grand prize of a six-day trip for the winner and three guests to one of five international golf destinations. The winner gets to choose among Scotland, Australia, South Africa, Canada or Spain, and the winner and each guest will also receive a new set of TaylorMade clubs.” According to this MediaPost story.
Steve Pacheco, advertising director, says the ads are classic FedEx humor, “similar to our core brand-building ad work. And we have succeeded very well in showing people a mirror of office life.” The effort promotes FedEx as an international service, but not explicitly. The global reach of the company is implied by the diverse locales offered as options in the grand prize, and within the registration page for the promotion at FedExCup.com.
Tags: ads, advertising, BBDO Worldwide, campaign, commercials, Facebook, FedEx, FedEx Cup, Fred Willard, golf, Infomercial, media, Memphis, social media, Social Networking, sweepstakes, Twitter, viral
Bruce Pearl Raps at Vols’ Award Ceremony
Check out this video of Bruce Pearl rapping at the Tennessee Vols awards ceremony. The story from The Atlanta Journal Constitution about Bruce Pearl rapping says, “wearing an orange-and-white checkered sport coat, orange tie and no shirt, Pearl performed a rap song with three Volunteer athletes Monday night at the “Volscars,” Tennessee’s athletic awards ceremony.” This video is destine to become another shirtless Pearl classic. Like this photo of the shirtless Bruce Pearl cheering at a Lady Vols basketball game.
Coach Bruce Pearl
Tags: Atlanta Journal Constitution, Basketball Head Coach, Bruce Pearl, Bruce Pearl Rapping, Shirtless, Tennessee Vols, Volscars, Volunteers
A Busy Week for Memphis Sports
For all of you sports fans, there’s plenty of live sporting events in Memphis this week. If you can’t get to the game, you can watch most on TV or cable.
Sunday 12/28 at 12 noon, stay home and watch the Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts on CBS.
Monday 12/29 at 8 pm, Memphis Tigers vs. Cincinnati Bearcats at the FedEx Forum. Or watch on ESPN2.
Tuesday 12/30 at 7 pm, Memphis Grizzlies vs. Phoenix Suns at the FedEx Forum. Or watch on Sports South.
Wednesday 12/31 at 1 pm, Memphis Tigers vs. Northeastern at the FedEx Forum. Or watch on CSS.
Thursday 1/1, a day to kick back at home and watch the games on TV.
Friday 1/2 at 4 pm, AutoZone Liberty Bowl where Kentucky meets East Carolina at the Liberty Bowl Stadium. Or watch on ESPN.
Friday 1/2 at 7 pm, Memphis Grizzlies vs. San Antonio Spurs at the FedEx Forum. Or watch on FSN South.
Saturday 1/3 at 7 pm, Memphis Tigers vs. Lamar at the FedEx Forum. Or watch on CSS.
Sunday 1/4 at 3 pm, Memphis Grizzlies vs. Dallas at the FedEx Forum.
If that’s not enough, Tuesday 1/6 at 7 pm, Memphis Grizzlies vs. Minnesota and Wednesday 1/7 at 8 pm, Memphis Tigers vs. Marshall both at the FedEx Forum.
And for you hockey fans, the Mississippi Riverkings will play at home on Wednesday 12/31 and Friday 1/2.
Tags: basketball, CBS, CSS, ESPN, football, Fox Sports, Liberty Bowl, Memphis, Memphis Grizzlies, NBA, sports, University of Memphis
Benefit for Memphis Songwriter Dennis Burroughs
Sunday, November 9th, a benefit event featuring great music and an auction of autographed guitars will be held for Memphis songwriter Dennis Burroughs, who is awaiting a liver transplant. The evening of entertainment begins at 7:30pm at TJ Mulligan’s, 6635 Quince (near Kirby) in Memphis. There is no cover charge, but donations will be gratefully accepted.
The Eric Hughes Band will be the house band for the evening with expected appearances by Gary Talley of the Box Tops, Larry Dodson of the BarKays and Gary Barnett. Rusty Graber, Jon Dillard and other Memphis Songwriters Association members will be featured as well.
In addition to great music, a silent auction will include numerous autographed guitars by artists such as Carlos Santana & Los Lobos, Willie Nelson, Naomi Judd, The BarKays, Bobby Rush, Ronnie McDowell, The Nelsons, DJ Fontana, Jerry Schilling and more. Also in the auction will be gift certificates for dinners and services. And there is a raffle for an ESP LTD Electric Guitar.
Tags: dennis burroughs, Memphis, memphis songwriter association, music