My blog n'at

*Programming note: Humpday happiness will return August 27th*

Saturday we woke up to a picture perfect day. Blue skies, sunny and a nice breeze. All of these along with stellar organization came together for what has been dubbed as the best beer fest of the summer. Erie Brewing, with the help of countless volunteers and staffers Becky, Jim and Bruce, knocked the ball out of the park. Hands down this was one of the best times I’ve ever had at a beer fest of the many I’ve adventured to. We were attending on press passes so we had to make sure we lived up to our names.

*click here for the photo gallery*

Overall we hit 20 brewers before the afternoon session ended. Each brewery was very generous with their time (except Sierra Nevada who said they don’t do interviews. *pttthhh* you’re at a public event, jagoffs). Liberty Park was an incredible place for the event as the horseshoe of brewers opened to a view of Lake Erie.

The memorable moment came when we finally met the winners of our “Trip to Erie for Beer of the Bay”! Emilie was the big winner and as a treat to her boyfriend, The Drunken Polack, drove them 9 hours from Virginia Beach to Erie for the weekend. Great people and it really felt good knowing that someone who appreciates craft beer won the prize.

Also for me it was great to finally meet Tony the Beer Guy. His passion for the craft beer industry is amazing and reminds me why I do the show. He’s towards the end of our show so check him out.

For a full review of the day check out EP41 – Beer on the Bay.

We head to the Avalon to check in for the night and get ready for dinner.  Wouldn’t ya know it, we’re on the same floor as the brewers from the fest.  This is gonna get ugly. More on that later.

We make the 4 block walk from the hotel to the BrewErie for a couple beverages and food. For the next 6 hours my ass stays planted at the bar socializing.  I knew it would happen. When you’re in great company you never wanna leave. Ailyn, Mo, Davin and Chris made sure that we were well taken care of. At one point some of those less experienced intoxicated beer fest stumbled in and we had to keep the peace as guys were throwing themselves over the women working. When Chris’ shift was done he joined us on the other side of the bar for shots of Jameson. yes, shots. you can guess where that lead to… where am I again?

The band for the night was Sting Theory and I have to say that it’s been 7 years since band that I didn’t know was playing in a bar and blew me away. They ended the night with a version of Comfortably Numb that was as good, if not better than Floyd!

The bell rang and it was time to head out of the BrewErie. Closed one place so why not another! We were told that the after party was at Docksider which we promptly made the voyage to.  I had never been there before and I must say I was pleasantly surprised. Very cool bar and nice beer selection. Flaming Dr Peppers were ordered while Matt from VooDoo revisited the joys of hanging with SIDT

Night ended and all were told to go to room 637 which was where the next party was. Apparently no one told the brewers there as we were the ones to break the news upon arrival. Main Street guys treated us to some of their kegs which were chilled in the bathtub by filling our water bottles. The rest of the night is sealed. Maybe some other post.

Sunday we hit one final token of a trip to Erie and had meatball omelets at Dominick’s on E.12th Street. Most locals know this is THE place to go for food either after drinking or the morning after. Meatball might sound foul but trust me that it is the only thing to ease your pain.

The trip was a complete success and Erie Brewing did a fantastic job playing host. I’m all ready for next year to come around!

It’s 2am and I’m off tomorrow so of course, I’m still awake. Updating some web code and watching… hockey. Yes it’s 2am and I’m watching the Winter Classic for the 3rd time. I have the Pens 10 greatest games on DVD which I got for Christmas so I may pop one in. So as the title suggests here’s my random thoughts.

1. Sid f’n Bream – Tonight was the first night at the gym we joined and who do i see but Sid f’n Bream. Why do I say that? If you’re not familiar with the 92 NLCS allow me to show you (go to the 3:40 mark) or read the story here *sigh*

2. As I said I’m watching the Winter Classic for the 3rd time. God I *LOVE* hockey. My cable provider cant work fast enough to get me the NHL package. I’m geeked for when NBC starts broadcasting games because I can watch it in HD.

3. Tomorrow, err I guess later today actually will be the first day that I have completely to myself since my vacation started 12/20. My plans, work on the basement and watch hockey… or my KISSology DVDs

4. I love stuffed olives. It’s an addiction.

5. I really need to find a Curling league on Sundays. I absolutely love the sport

6. The only thing sweeter than the *tink* of a puck of a goal post is a 3 martini lunch

7. My wife wants to go see the Vagina Monologues. riiiiiiiiiight…

8. I can’t get enough of Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy and Gorillaz’s Dare

9. I can’t imagine life without Google Reader. I use it all day and follow more blogs/podcasts than I probably should.

10. Kim Reed is the most talented photographer I’ve ever met and you’ll ever see. Seriously.

FINALLY I can get back to blogging and enough has happened this past week I have enough to say for the next 2 weeks easy. Lucky you eh?

Finals and my first year back at college wrapped up on Saturday night. Not sure of my overall GPA yet but I didn’t finish lower than 85 in any class so I’m pretty psyched for next year. The color theory class I just finished up kicked my ass but I pulled out a B.

For the first time ever, well besides my honeymoon, I’m taking a vacation from work that’s more than a 4 day weekend. 2.5 weeks to be exact starting tomorrow. Am I going anywhere? hell no. Well I may road trip but for the most part it’s so I can chill, get caught up on Studio B, visit some friends, drink good beer, eat many meals at Fat Heads, bowl some frames, watch hockey until my eyes bleed, work on concoctions in the kitchen and maybe write. I may record a couple voice overs but nothing is planned for SIDT.

I like to call it a “me” vacation. Now I’m sure that my wife will have plans for me and that’s fine but unless it’s meeting up for happy hour don’t expect me to be around (Well of course unless you want an interview). If I say no don’t take it personally

I wonder what ever happened to DTiP anyways?

Woy inspired me to add this after reading his post for today. He’s uber obsessed with All 4 One so I thought I’d share the bestest greatest dog gone video ever made.

Ladies and gentlemen… Tommy Seebach’s Apache!

This coming Monday will be our 2nd wedding anniversary so it was only fitting to take a 4 day weekend for ourselves. Our plans are to have no plans. We’re going to do what we want with minimal planning and just enjoy our weekend.  Usually we travel but since we just finished moving we decided to stay in PA this year.

Today started with a trip to First Watch in Cranberry for breakfast. Honestly, I’m not a breakfast person. I could do without it but someone was hungry   Amazing food that made me reconsider my stance on breakfast.  We then headed to town to pick up our passes to the Good Taste Pittsburgh which is happening tomorrow at the Expo Mart. It’s a full day of cooking toys and foodie goodness (thanks Norm!).

Realizing that we had to go grocery shopping and that we were close to the Strip District a trip to Wholey’s was in order.  Stocked up on meats for the freezer and some chicken.  The pic above is the Delmonico with Cajun rub that I made for dinner. Shopping on a Friday is a must if you don’t want to be tackled by aggressive shoppers on the weekend. Plus you have time to talk to the butcher which I love to do.

I had order a CD back in late August from Record Rama and honestly just forgot to pick it up. Since we had today off we drove to McCandless to pick up Patricia Barber’s Cafe Blue. Yes, some people still buy CD’s.  Record Rama is hands down the best music store in Pittsburgh and probably PA based on the selection in store and online.

One last stop was to 3 Sons Dogs n Suds for beverages this weekend. If you listen to the show you already know of this place. We spend quite a bit of time there so it was a no brainer where I was going for my beer. I had a taste for Stone so I picked up the Smoked Porter (pictured above), 11th Anniversary and Russian Imperial Stout. I swear it’s a candy store for me. I was able to spend a couple minutes talking to owner Bill Sr. before he was bombarded with lunch time customers.  They have a free beer sampling every Thursday night and last night the store had over 130 people for the Pumpkin Sampling. I had a family function last night otherwise you know I would have been there!

Tonight we cooked a great dinner (again, pictured above), I’m doing homework for my class and we’re watching the Pens/Cans game.  OK, I’m doing homework in between periods and commercial breaks

I may need my rest for tomorrow!

I have been a die hard XM supporter for a few years now and can’t imagine my life without it. I have only hit a couple dead spots when I was in the WAY deep hills of PA. In other words I am extremely satisfied with it.

Today something odd happened. I’m sitting at an intersection on my way to work and listening to the home ice (hockey) channel when all of a sudden my signal wasn’t just interrupted but air hijacked by someone with Sirius radio. I use the FM signal to connect to XM via a little black node that sits on my roof. I’ve had some static before but this was full blown Sirius. I looked around and the only car next to me was an old lady. I HIGHLY doubt she was into Pantera. Light turned green and the signal was gone.

Some of you may think “well maybe it was another car?”. There is no way a signal from another car at least 100 ft away from me could cause this problem when there’s less than 4 ft from my node and antenna.

Very odd… well at least I didn’t have to listen to Stern.

btw, EP27 Wailing your Wench Offshore is now online. We’ll be recording EP28 tomorrow night. Hooray for 4 day weekends!

Oh damn I’ve been waiting to blog about this. My week has been swamped since I finish up classes for this semester on Saturday. Enough excuses, time for the review!

Another reason why I had waited on this is due to the fact we had to finish up editing EP26 Steel City Big Pour for release yesterday. I swear every show there is more and more work to do online. I don’t mind as long as you keep on listening

First off I want to say that of all of the beerfests I’ve been to in my day this one was… *AHEM* THE BEST ONE EVER! Yes, I have no problem slapping that label on it. I’m confident. The people at Construction Junction did an absolutely fantastic job of throwing this event. Unlike other beer events I’ve attended this one wasn’t boring aesthetically. Vibrant colors, amazing decorated kegerators, live band that wasn’t old men playing drinking songs, various food booths set up by local vendors, live art being created out of scrap metal. The warehouse wasn’t crammed and was perfectly vented unlike previous elbow to elbow events around town. Honestly, if you come up and ask me about this I’ll rave for hours.

Now for the beer. What you think I’m REALLY going to talk about it? Listen to the damn show you slacker! I will say this, I did have my favorite Pittsburgh beer. I did not have one bad beer. I met some great people and SIDT was interviewed by Mike Pound, The Beer Guy, from Go Magazine which should hit shelves in early October. Want an autographed copy? Heh yeah, doesn’t everyone   Just find me at the bar and bring a sharpie. I’ll even draw for you.  Mike was a very cool guy and I can see all of us sharing more fine craft beverages in the future.

Photos from the Steel City Big Pour

Once the final session ended we had roughly over an hour to kill before the after party at Bossa Nova so a group of us headed to the Grille on 7th for a beverage. It was right across the street so we didn’t care about the food, just the beer. I had a Victory Hop Devil and as an added bonus hop leaves were placed on the head. nice move and even more deliciousness

Following last year’s tradition we had one of the upper seating areas at Bossa Nova reserved for PodCamper and dinner was provided by Jason Cable’s GLBT Podcast (thanks man!). If you click on the link for the Bossa Nova website you’ll have an idea of the place. From a craft beer guy’s point of view it’s over priced and has a poor beer selection. From someone who was ready to kickback with a few drinks and socialize with all of my new friends it was perfect.

One thing I found out I had in common with many of the podcampers was being cynical. I don’t make it a habit of mocking people in public unless I think you deserve it. This night the gods were smiling on us as a group of ladies walked in that appeared to be a whored up version of the Spice Girls (1998 Spice not 2007). Of course we couldn’t let this go. Each of us decided to play a game and see if we could either 1) figure out their conversation based on the fact that 3 of them had on dresses so tight they spent half the night picking wedges 2) figure out the reason why they were all together. After a couple more drinks I came up with the conclusion that they were “Practice Squad Girlfriends” or women dating football players. 3 of them got up to use the restroom so we sent Dawn in to investigate. Sure enough while in the restroom Dawn heard them talk about their football player boyfriends.

As the night carried on a drinking challenge was brought to us Should I Drink That guys. Tommy Vallier from Talkshoe (and a canadian citizen) came over and asked if we could step up to a Canadian tradition. The shot is called a 649 and is based on the Canadian lottery. The Bartender stands facing the bar and counts off the bottles. 6th from right, 4th from left and 9th from right. Pour 1/3 of each and shoot. Since we never back down we stepped up to the bar as did some other challengers. The shot for this time was Sambuca, stoli vodka and Jose Cuervo 1800 tequila. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds.

Thanks to the shot you could see the love forming around the room and questionable pictures being filmed. Kim Reed, the unofficial photographer of all things rockin around Pittsburgh, did a great job documenting the night. I say that because her pictures are on Flickr and you can see them here. One of my favorites is this one that she took of myself and Mike Woycheck. She’ll go to any lengths to take a picture, even piss off Mike

One final act of our podcast for the night was to convert Dawn. She was not a beer fan but after one glass of a Lambic we had her sold. In fact, to the point she may be joining us for some beer reviews. Mission accomplished. Don’t believe me? Watch the video!

A small group of us decided to head to Bellevue and have an after-after party at Affogato and after-after-after party at Perque. Everything that happened from this point on shall remain with those of us who went. Beer, the largest bottle of Jager I’ve ever seen and rum were involved until the wee hours of the morning. You can find pictures of some events by looking on Flickr and go from there.

Tomorrow: Day 2 and the advent of bacn!

For those who haven’t figured it out yet here is how you find the pictures and video from Podcamp. Use the tag “pcpgh2″ in Flickr and/or You Tube or search for Podcamp Pittsburgh 2. Now I know there are some photos/videos that will never make it public. If you’d like to share those with me leave me a comment

That would be the beverage of last night for Griff and myself (I love my camera phone). Heather and I decided to bump up the moving process by 1 weekend since we had some new trucks available. The old place is 95% empty. All we have left are some small things and a deep freeze so one more trip and we’ll be done. Thanks to Griff, Dan and Carl for being our moving bitches yesterday

Last night Griff and I had a guy’s night (so Heather and I wouldn’t kill each other from all the joys of moving) and spent it with Metal Mania, Hot Fuzz and a variety case of Bell’s. Today we put up a couple of shelves and are kicking back from 2 weeks of non stop moving. It’s been raining so now it’s muggy and I have the windows open. Nice breeze coming through while I type this in the living room and listen to the latest My Life as a Foodie podcast. Still have to get my wireless working but that can wait until tomorrow.

Most people will be watching the Steelers pre-season game tonight. I’m not ready for football yet so we’ll have Big Brother 8 and some dinner.

Every Sunday morning from 12:30am-4am (EST)  VH1 Classic has the best programming on TV.  Classic videos from the Metal and hair band era from WASP and DIO to Poison and GnR. Ladies and gentlemen… Metal Mania.

Griff and I  started watching this last year when we’d get back from a night at the bowling league. We were both on chat while having a couple of beverages when we found this gem. This is what Headbanger’s Ball was in the late 80′s/early 90′s. Riki Rachtman music, not that Adam Curry crap. Here are some things you can expect with every show.

1) Slaughter’s “Fly To The Angels” will be on.
2) If there is a band that has a special preceding Metal Mania, they will have the first video.
3) Metallica will be played twice.
4) Only Motley Crue vids are from Theater of Pain and earlier. On the rare occasion it’s from Girls, Girls, Girls.
5) 1/3 of the videos involve the desert and/or fire.
6) The only video Danzig apparently ever made was Mother.

That’s pretty much all you need to know when watching the Mania. Oh, and have plenty of beverage on hand!

Today is the mrs. birthday so to go along with other gifts (I had to suck it up and actually buy a Bon Jovi cd/dvd combo in public) I picked up Collective Soul’s 7 Year Itch which is a collection of their greatest hits from 1994-2001. It’s been a running joke with us for years since we saw it on our first trip to Record Rama in 2002. Everytime we’d see it in a store I’d think about buying it and then forget about it.

Last year my brother added to the humor when he said “I just picked up this great CD from this new band named Collective Soul!” I said “Um, they came out in 1994 but thanks for catching up.” We both got a good laugh out of it.  Now whenever a song from Collective Soul comes on my wife and I joke “hey, there’s that new band!”

I’m really diggin this CD.  You can play it in the background and groove or really listen for the sweet small details they put into this. Since I’ve started podcasting I pay more attention to small details and refuse to listen to anything new unless it goes through my Sony headphones first. 7 Year Itch is a prime example of music that needs to heard for the first time this way. Think of it as the closing scene to Dazed and Confused when Mitch kicks back in his bed and puts on the enormous 70′s headphones. Not saying you have to go THAT far but even the $20 Sony’s (MDR-V150) from K-Mart do a quality job.

Also just read that Chris Benoit killed himself and his family in a murder/suicide according to cnn.com  I can only image what the Wrestling Mayhem Guys will be saying about this tonight on their live calling show.