Ice Buckets
The "Ice Bucket Challenge" fundraiser that has swept the nation over the last week has made it's way to the Independent tonight. Matt Katase of the Brew Gentlemen Beer Company challenged me in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54LWtBjQh-4
For those of you who haven't been keeping up with this awareness campaign and fundraising phenomena, the Ice Bucket Challenge requires the person challenged either to donate to the ALS Association or dump a bucket of ice water over his head, on video, and within 24 hours of the challenge. The IBC, with me as its proxy, accepts both challenges. Accordingly, (1) I will douse myself in ice water this evening while at the bar; and (2) a dollar from every beer that we sell tonight will be donated to the ALS Association.
Now with respect to the former component of my pledge, I don't want to oversell my performance. The Brew Gents opted to empty a mash tun, as opposed to a bucket, on Matt's head -- this is bad ass and way, way cooler than I can ever attempt to be. Putting aside the fact that I don't have a three barrel mash tun, I also don't have the cardiac strength to survive three barrels of ice water. As such, much like anyone who has ever slept with Tom Cruise, I'll be opting for something ... smaller.
Woodstock Anniversary
This weekend marks the 45th anniversary of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, and, unlike most of the 44 prior anniversaries, this one is special in that it happens to fall on the same weekend days on which the festival was actually held, to wit, Friday, August 15th through Monday, August 18th.
As a tavern that fancies itself a destination for good music, it feels like we should do SOMETHING to celebrate the anniversary of this great musical and cultural event. And while you're no doubt chomping at the bit to see me drop acid, roll around in the mud, and get naked (all the while sporting a belly considerably larger than that of the then six-month pregnant Joan Baez), I'm a father now, and I've moved on from that type of behavior.*
But the very least we can do is celebrate the music of Woodstock with an all-woodstock vinyl night. No, this doesn't mean that I'm picking up one of those terrible comps with live performances from that weekend on it. It means that I'm playing studio vinyl from the artists who performed that weekend. Think Jimi Hendrix, the Who, the Grateful Dead (but that LP will be cut-off halfway through when I overload the speakers), the aforementioned Ms. Baez, and a number of deeper cuts that have long-since been forgotten by all but those of us who collect music compulsively.
Free Beer at Orr's Jewelers
Don't like paying for beer? Then stop by Orr's Jeweler's on Forbes Ave. for some free tastes this Saturday between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. I'll be there myself, pouring samples of local beers from growlers and waxing poetic about things like yeast strains, hop varieties, and Breitling watches.**
Alright folks. See you at the Indie.
Pete K.
* Unless it is ice-bucket related nudity.
** I know virtually nothing about the last of these three things, but by the end of the afternoon, I'm sure I'll pretend to be an expert.
