My blog n'at

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What an incredible evening! Tuesday night a lot of the work I’ve done on SIDT paid off when I was invited backstage to hang out with Zane Lamprey (and a few beverages) before his Drinking Made Easy show started at Mr. Smalls Theater. I was contacted a couple weeks ago by Zane’s PR people asking if we would be interested in talking with Zane. They knew of the podcast and thought we would be a great fit. Were we ever!

As we walked up to the door we were greeted at the door by Steve McKenna who was already downing some beers. Incredibly nice guy but that may have had to do with the fact I was carrying a box of  presents.

• 1 growler of East End Monkey Girl
• 1 growler of Erie Derailed
• 1/2 gallon of Rebel Yell whiskey
• 750ml Brookside whiskey
• bag of misc. swag from Bocktown whom also provided the growlers
• 1 Gray Kangaroo personal alcohol filter
• 6 pack of SIDT hangover preventer – a.k.a. Pedialyte

The “green room” I think it’s the old sacristy which is where we chatted up Marc Ryan. That’s right, Mr. Smalls is in an old church. Pittsburgh likes to convert old churches into venues for mass consumption of alcohol.

The interview with Zane turned out amazing and will be posted shortly. He was very welcoming and we really appreciate that he took time to hang with us 10 minutes before he went on stage. The man was in the zone. If his name sounds familiar, Zane was the host of a show called Three Sheets which aired on MOJO, FLN and, as he announced at the concert, Travel Channel will be airing all episodes. Zane said he’d be in touch again to give us an update on everything.

This was my first time seeing a comedy act on stage since I won my Comedy Central private party with Lewis Black so I forgot what it was like until that front row was blasted by the acts. LOVED it! People, when are you going to learn not to heckle the talent. You’re gonna get burned.

The tour is called Drinking Made Easy which is also the name of his show on HDNet this fall. In fact as he tours around America he is recording episodes. Unfortunately Pittsburgh got snubbed but we do hope he returns soon.

Zane gives you an education on the basics of alcohol which you may not know. From a craft beer angle I have to say he covered us rather well and showed what goes into beer and how its made. Afterwards we hung out with some SIDT fans which I do have video of and will get on You Tube shortly. It goes along with the EP we recorded for so you’ll need to sit tight for this week.

I’m not a fan of books and in fact I hate reading but after picking up Zane’s book “Three Sheets: Drinking Made Easy! 6 Continents, 15 Countries, 190 Drinks, And 1 Mean Hangover!“ I finally found something I can get into and not get bored outta my skull. Once I finish the book I’ll write a review.

Its been almost a week and I’m still geeking over it. It’s good to be the SIDT.

Thanks for all of the support in the walk this year! The 3 mile walk started at North Shore park by Heinz Field, passed through PNC Park, to and across the 16th St Bridge, through downtown, across the Clemente Bridge and finishing at PNC Park.

4 years ago today sickpuppy and I launched SIDT. We figured that it would last 10 shows and maybe a couple hundred downloads from friends. This evening we’re releasing EP63 and are pushing 700,000 downloads.

I thought about doing a “state of SIDT” address for today but realized that required a lot of work and I have beer to drink. I know we say this every year but we’ve kept our promise, wait till you see what we’re gonna do next. 2010-11 has already shaped up to be unreal and we will be doing more with our social media sites getting you guys even more involved.  iphone/droid apps are in the works, more with the DD hotline and goodies I havent even told sickpup about.

I will say this, our 5th anniversary is going to be a freaking bash

Thanks everyone for the support and don’t forget to call…

cheers!

Since the Pittsburgh Magazine article came out I’ve had quite a few notifications of new followers. Most times I’ll follow back because I’m always up for a good conversation and try to keep up with everything going on through the day but lets be honest, you can’t follow all the time (just like it can’t rain all the time).

This morning I tweeted that I was psyched to see Anthony Bourdain was coming to Pittsburgh to talk. This is a must for me so I told Lushie we need to make plans for it. Shortly afterwards I had a reply from TwinmamaTeb saying “@douglasderda clearly you missed all my tweets about the presale and gettting 8th row seats. heh.”. That’s when I thought, how many conversations am I missing?  Granted most tweets are people spewing random nonsense (I’m guilty myself) but what else have I missed out on? I decided it was time to checked my stats.

As of right now I have 1,250 followers, I’m following 987 back and I’m on 112 lists. Those 112 lists can be summed up in the following categories: beer, hockey, Pittsburgh.  If I were to die right now that is how I could be summed up in 3 words. I love craft beer, I love hockey and I love Pittsburgh.

The most popular question I get from people obsessed with Facebook is “Why do you tweet?”  I gave it some though and here’s the deal on how/why I use Twitter. I’m connected to every user. Because of tags such as “craftbeer” I have been introduced to a community of people that I may have never had the chance to meet besides the degrees of separation on FB. I use Twitter because it’s about the conversation. Over the past day I finally started watching the #craftbeer tag on Twitter with TweetDeck and have met some incredible bloggers, fans from all over the world and a few brewers.  I’m able to buy and sell hockey tickets and chat with other Pens fans during games. I have been invited to events I may not have known about before and helped plan a few of my own. All in under 140 characters. I can ask questions and people, while sometimes smartasses, answer. I can get traffic updates from not just the networks but from people out on the roads.

From the 1250 I’m not following 263. Odds have it you’re selling me a service I don’t want, you’re a spammer or I really have no clue what your deal is. Now there is the margin of error since Twitter is notorious from un-following people without warning and if you’re one of those let me know.

So now I’m reaching out to you. If you’re in the rest of the 987 and read this blog (which hopefully you do because you follow me on twitter and obviously wanna get to know me ) leave me a comment. I can say that I know MAYBE 2/5 of you personally from beer events or social media but if we’ve never met before I want you to say hi. If you wanna keep it personal then shoot me a message on my contact form.  Spoon wants know who you are! If you’re in the Pittsburgh area and want to meet others check out Pittsburgh tweetup!

I should probably tweet this…

15 years ago was my first formal dance in college and what would turn out to be the last at this venue. It was on this night that UPT will be slapped with a lifetime banishment from any future events and can only be describes as “Semi-formal 1995 – We Destroyed the Holiday inn Oil City”.

I can’t recall much from this night besides a few details that I get to relive in photographs so if any of you have pics from that night let me know. There wasn’t much to Oil City and quite frankly the Holiday Inn was about as nice as we were going to get.

I went with my friend Stacy from Erie and had a corner room double bed. Why? Her boyfriend was bringing my girlfriend Michele down from Eire. Make sense? Yeah I dont really remember why either. The dance and dinner wasn’t bad but no one cared since the 4 of us spent most of the night in the room playing drinking games along with Drew whom joined us with a bottle of Citron.

At some point the state police showed up and stood guard outside our room with guns drawn. They were searching rooms (apparently someone tried jumping into the pool from the 3rd floor) and when they arrived at ours everyone hid in the bathroom except for me and Chele (we acted like we were sleeping). Being the clean freak that Drew was our place was spotless so that helped in our alibi.

I did post these on Facebook along with a few others and stories are starting to trickle in. Like the reason why our room was suspect would be due to the 2 cases of empties the guys next door planted.

Now I was hoping to share all of these great pics with you but a few parties involved are now professionals so out of respect I wont put them on here but I will share this one.  I give you me and Stacy on that fateful night.

In case you’re scratching your head, grain alcohol was still available then and was indeed involved that night. We may have been a prime example why it was banned in PA. Probably a good thing, kids today wouldn’t be able to handle it.

If you can finish that lyric of who I’m mocking you are one bad mofo and we should have drinks.

Last night was the crazy insanely hugely successful Tweet-up organized by Uncle Crappy at Vietnam’s Pho. In attendance (christ I hope I get all these right from what I remember on where people sat) – @Techburgh and his lady, @Beth910 and The Boy, @psylum, @douglasderda, @Bobtv and his girlfriend, @colindean, @illyrias, @ilikesleep, @pgha, @jamilbroom, @mrscrappy, @unclecrappy, @andreadisaster, @shanlin1022, and  @shadow.

The Dinner – Don’t even ask me what everyone had cuz that’s not happening. However I do recall @shadow taking a bath in the chili sauce. You know he was shooting fireballs about later, he just wont admit to it. You know you have a friend like that. No matter what they eat its not hot enough? That’s @shadow.  One of these days I’ll make him cry from heat. Lushie may need to break out her home made wing sauce that cleared a high rise with tears.

The Pho - I dined on an appetizer of Goi Cuon (Spring Roll w/shrimp, pork, vermicelli and fresh veggies rolled in rice paper with a peanut dipping sauce) and finally caved for the Pho Dac Biet (Beef Round Eye, Flank, Tendon, Tripe, Brisket, Beef Balls and noodles). You read that correctly, tendon and tripe. The tough band of fibrous connective tissue that usually connects muscle to bone and the first three chambers of a cow’s stomach. Thankfully the Beef Balls were these and not these as I feared.

The tendon was a mess as always so I just picked most of it out but the tripe was mind blowing. You have to get past the mental fact that you’re eating part of a cow’s stomach and dig in. It takes on the flavor of what its in so it consumed the beefy goodness of the broth. The Beef Balls were an odd texture but tasted decent. Kinda chewy and what i would expect heart to be like. Everyone else around me seemed to have been won over on their dishes which secretly really made me happy. I think more people need to open their minds and give this a try as you can order a simple dish of broth, meat and noodles to enjoy. Work your way up to the big boy stuff !  Our final bill, $170.  that’s right, 20 people ate full meals and drinks for $170. You can figure the math

Highlight was also finding out that it is BYOB and with a few growlers of East End beverages in hand I think a Pho-king-beer tasting will be coming up shortly.

Dare I say the Pho was spiritual? On the drive home I thought I saw God and he was eating a bowl of Pho also and drinking a beer.

Here are a few other pics

cheers!

The Pho jokes just never stop around here. You may recall that back in July I had my first bowl of Pho while contacting in the Strip. Since then it’s grown to an addiction that finally consumed my dear friend Uncle Crappy and spawned what will be my first official “tweet-up” attendance… I think. There’s a good chance I was a part of a tweet-up and didn’t know it.

If you’re in Pittsburgh, join us for a PHO-DOWN!
1. Show up at Vietnam’s Pho.
2. Eat.
3. Go home happy.

I never said these things were difficult. Complete details are at http://pittsburghtweetup.ning.com/events/pho-down

Would a fluffy guy like myself says something is good, you should probably listen.  Come be one of the Pho-king cool kids in Pittsburgh tonight!

July
Began the month with recording at the BeerDependence Day celebration at Bocktown. Attended the Penguins Stanley Cup DVD Release Party. Started a contracting job at EDMC that would become the longest month of my life and that’s all I’m going to say. Enjoyed my first ever bowl of Pho. Rocked the Beer on the Bay festival in Erie which the videos are epic and may never be released. End the month being interviewed by KDKA for the Craft Beer Summit.

August
Won a 2009 Mustang! Bees invade our bathroom (landlord still has yet to remove the dead bodies). I got a full-time job in social media/web dev that has turned out to be freaking cool plus I’m on a rockstar team. Threatened Lushie with divorce after she gets rid of the Back to the Future marathon channels.

September
Attended “Best of the Burgh” at the Warhol with sickpuppy, PittGirl, Woy and Rachel. Go big time and hosted Beer School at the Cabaret downtown to a sold out crowd. Teaspoon hits 17lbs.

October
Hosted 2 sessions at Podcamp Pittsburgh 4. Should I Drink That passed 500,000 download mark. Pens start defending the Stanley Cup. Revised Google Maps errors. Celebrate 4 years of marriage with Lushie. Lay the smackdown on poor fact checking by the Post gazette about Erie. Teaspoon goes pumpkin farming.

November
I blogged the whole month. Seriously. Bought a X-box. Teaspoon’s first Thanksgiving. Wonders of fatherhood and a kid who grows like a weed. Craft Beer Dinner with Lew Bryson, Education on the Pittsburgh Potty. Making your own Bacon. BEER AT GIANT EAGLE! Yinz Bowl 2.o

December
Still living it for 5 more hours. Remembering dad on his anniversary. Hosted a Christmas beer sampling at Bocktown. Saw KISS in concert. Teaspoon’s first Christmas. Finished the school year with a 3.65GPA. SNOW!

So what do I have to look forward to in 2010?  Come back tomorrow and find out!

I have to admit that this has been the most life changing year of my life. Some good, some bad and some mind blowing kickass. Here’s a quick recap as I reflect before tonight’s festivities start. I’m splitting this up into 2 sections because lets be honest, no one will scroll through 12 months.

January
Reflected on the first beer I EVER drank and yes, I kept the bottle. Prepare for the end of my 10+ year employment at ForeSystems/Marconi/Ericsson. Bitched about the weather and yinzers inability to drive in snow plus dumb ass snow removal by my neighbors. Both of those still hold true today. Got ready for an unbelievable run to the Super Bowl

February
Steelers won the Super Bowl and became the first ever 6 time champ thus giving every knock off t-shirt maker starry eyes at the potential of “6 pack” shirts. Punxy Phil said 6 more weeks of winter. I was officially laid off, was interviewed for a Post Gazette story on unemployment moments after i was laid off (that never was published), Pens started to turn it around and the biggest shock of them all… Teaspoon arrived 2 months early making me the happiest and most terrified dad. Came in at 4.1lb, dropped to 3.2lb and would leave at 5 in March.

March
It was the month of Teaspoon. Lushie and I spent every minute we could at the Mercy NICU while he got healthy in an incubator. 28 days later he came home. Also witnessed the stupidity of some Hill District parents who think its a hotel in there and the joke that is unemployment system in PA.

April
Went to my first ever Rugby match and got addicted to watching Claire and the girls kick ass. Missed my first opening day of Pirates baseball since 1984 (watched it on TV with Teaspoon and started a new tradition with my boy). Bought a Wii. Enjoyed the greatest comeback in Pens Playoff hockey that I have witnessed as the Pens turned the series around with 1 fight and the Max Talbot shhhhhhh! Saw Beer Wars the Movie with hundreds of other craft beer fans around the world and baked an incredible beer ham for Easter.

May
Should I Drink That turned 3. Pens defeated Washington and Carolina to earn a second trip to the Stanley Cup Finals for a 2nd year. Bought a Blackberry. Joined Sadie’s Soldiers and took some Great Strides. KDKA reads my “tweet of the day” which I WISH they would bring back. The great personalized jersey debate. Meatshield welcomed his first child (i swear it was the year for kids to be born) and we had a cookout with some family. Bowling league ended and we were the undisputed champs.

June
Teaspoon’s first trip to the ER. Coming out of golf retirement after 3.5 year for a day with Yinz Teamer’s Woy, Lokay and Shireman at Cranberry Highlands. The Clarks release Restless Days after 5 years. Pens win the Stanley Cup in 7 games vs Detroit. Pittsburgh floods… again. Unemployed Utensil makes his first appearance as a way to help me get through not working. My first Father’s day and Pirates waste of talent Ian Snell cant take negative people.

up next… July through December.

(photo from onlyinpgh.com)

I’ve heard rumors of this existing but have never seen one myself. If I have then I blocked it out for obvious reasons. While house hunting today I came across the following amenity listed “walk out basement with pittsburgh commode”.  You’re reading that right, they’re showcasing a toilet in the basement.

Why would there be a toilet in the basement? Is there a problem with the water pressure up stairs? Are the people too lazy? Do you sometimes get the urge and say “you know what, I’m droppin pants right here!” Do they even wear pants? Do they have a thing against walls. bwwahhhhhhhh I need to know!

Don’t think to hard about that or your ears will start to bleed.

So I went to the one place that I knew an answer could be found… The Twitter!

Within minutes I not only had the answer to my “WTF is a Pittsburgh Potty” quest but I was sent pictures, the history and even a video!  One thing is for for sure, Pittsburgh love their history especially when its as unique as a toilet.

Here were some replies

I love yinz. Everyone who entered to take my free stuff I say thank you and hope yinz get good use out of it. I’ll ping you about pickup/shipping.

Mrs. Crappy is the new owner of the entertainment table IKEA thing

I expect something Ohio State to be painted on it next time I see it.

The wine/liquor decanters goes to reader Sunshine!

I know you’re going to use it for your plants because an innocent boy like yourself doesn’t drink. Oh wait, don’t give them to your dad as a gift either because where they originated would make it an all too funny story.

More stuff coming soon and we continue to clean out the basement. Anyone need old computer parts (kbd, cables, SIMMS. DIMMS). I have a boatload of those too. Even an old ZIP drive.