Jumpin' At The Woodside

I'll always remember 2011 as the year I woke up. My divorce was final in 2009 and I dated other women on and off since. Although I was looking to meet someone with whom I could share real feelings and a serious relationship, I never had more than casual relationships. For awhile I wasn't sure if it was the fact that I didn't have chemistry with the women I dated, or that I wasn't ready yet... or maybe a little of both. The closest I came to a serious relationship was with a woman who I felt very comfortable with and we became good friends. We had a lot in common and had great times together, but no matter how intimate our relationship became I didn't feel love for her. This grew difficult over time as I saw her growing closer and closer to me. Finally, I had to tell her how I felt. We tried to remain friends and still spend time together, but that didn't work. While daily life went on and snowstorms became a regular occurrence in the early part of this year, I s...

Happy Veterans Day and thank you to all those who served and who are serving in our Armed Forces. Hope this Friday evening finds you well. Enjoying a very fine Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale . Opted not to take a photo even though it's a perfect brew for this chilly night - going down to 29! Yesterday was our quarterly "All Hands" meeting at work. They started holding these at the EpiCentre Theaters downtown, may be the nicest movie theater I was ever in and every chair in the theater is a big comfy lounge chair with big armrests for holding drinks and snacks. The meetings are to give everyone an update on how our region is doing and provide an informative Q&A with our senior leadership. Won't bore you with the details, but afterwards the work day was over and all were welcome to mingle at the open bar. Of course I had a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, but then that was about as "crafty" as their taps got. While sitting with friends and enjoying our libations, w...

Good evening and Happy Friday! Tonight's beverage of choice... Wow, an unfiltered IPA from Ipswich Ale Brewery . I haven't had one of these since I left Boston. Not sure why, but I have this memory of IPAs from Mass. and Maine having this unfiltered "gritty" taste that you don't seem to find in other craft brews around the country, or at least the ones I've tried. I found this beer last night at the funky Common Market next door to the Whiskey Warehouse following an impromptu "team building" session at the Whiskey's rooftop bar, known as Top Shelf. It has a great view of the city skyline and seemed perfect for celebrating International Stout Day . I had the Carolina stout from Duck-Rabbit , their Milk Stout. Believe it or not my first one ever. Self proclaimed "dark beer specialists," they're "lightest" beer is an amber ale. The stout was good, but would love to try it on draft. While the Whiskey is very cool, we probabl...

Good evening, Friday! It's the end of a fine October day when Sierra Nevada's Northern Hemisphere Harvest arrives! I look forward to it every year and it never disappoints. "Wow, have you ever tasted a hopped ale so smooth, mama mia!" The Woodside Halloween Mix is spinning on The Woodside LIVE page tonight. With only one more weekend to go before Halloween, will leave it going continuously throughout this weekend and the next. Last year's Woodside Halloween Mix , saw a full CDs-worth of new tracks added. There have been some additions to the mix this year, but there has yet to be a set line up of new tracks. You'll just have to listen in. In Other News... Have you seen those links on the Web with information about finding out if you have unclaimed money in any of our 50 states? So one day I did some clicking around and discovered I had some money in PA, an insurance premium refund, that I didn't know about. I found out it was under $100, so my expectatio...

Evening and Happy Friday! Long time no blog. I'm enjoying a Sierra Nevada Estate Ale on this cool autumn's eve... "From our fields comes a remarkable homegrown ale, made with organic wet hops and barley grown at our brewery here in Chico and one of the few estate-made ales produced anywhere in the world!" I was in New York City this week, but only for a couple days for work meetings. Hit the usual spots... Tuesday night after we got in hit the The 5 Napkin Burger , and across the street from there the Mercury Bar (they have Goose Island IPA on draft), and then Wednesday night took a cab down to The Garage in the Village for live jazz. I like that place. They have live music no matter the day of the week and the food is pretty good too. Had the seared jumbo sea scallops and risotto, was really good and paired well with my draft Harpoon IPA. Thursday we took the subway down to the World Trade Center site from Midtown. We were hoping to see the memorial, but ...

I wrote much of this post a couple months ago, but seems appropriate to revisit on this weekend's 10th anniversary of 9/11. Until I encountered some media programming memorializing the events of 9/11, I wasn't aware how close my feelings were to the surface even after all these years. I recently heard the replay of the Howard Stern Show from 9/11, and then a few days later watched the Saturday Night Live special about the 2000-2010 era that included clips of the first few shows after they returned to the air following the tragedy. It was like experiencing it all over again... the sadness, the anger. I remember feeling a sadness or maybe a heaviness that I feel like the whole country felt for at least a year or more following that day. Reminded me of a time when I was very young. I found a book about JFK and the assassination at my grandparents' house. As I paged through it with my grandmother, we saw photos of the funeral procession and she started to cry. I asked her...

As Hurricane Irene bore down on the Carolina coast, thankfully all we saw here in Charlotte were some clouds on the way to the sold-out Grace Potter & The Nocturnals show at The Fillmore. Last week I was lucky enough to make the acquaintance of the enchanting Jennifer, who I invited to the show. She's from Chicago, naturally a Bears and Cubs fan, but originally hails from Buffalo, NY. We had dinner at Hawthorne's and then made our way over to The Fillmore , which is part of the NC Music Factory . On the way we encountered a nice arrangement of the aforementioned clouds. Not much has changed at The Fillmore since my last visit a couple years ago to see Gov't Mule. Still long bar lines as some patrons ordered mixed drinks instead of just grabbing a quick beer. We found a spot in back while the opener finished up their set. When Grace and the boys came on, we moved up and got a spot on the floor. The crowd was well behaved and everyone seemed excited to ...

Last weekend, I drove up to Richmond, VA, and the home of Lazy Acres North (LAN). We had tickets to see the Warren Haynes Band in Charlottesville on Saturday night, but not for the Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds acoustic show beforehand. We hoped they would make a guest appearance at our show, and we were not disappointed. Friday evening, we hit the Capital Ale House for some pre-dinner brews. Had my first-ever cask conditioned Victory Hop Devil IPA . Dinner at the LAN is always good and the marinated grilled skirt steak and corn was no exception. The next day we hit the road due west for Charlottesville, but not before a stop at the Blue Mountain Brewery for lunch in Nelson County, VA. Afterwards we checked into the hotel and then hit the Charlottesville downtown mall where we hoped we might be able to hear the Dave & Tim performance at the outdoor pavilion. Unfortunately due to the cicadas and distance, this proved to be minimal at best. Finally, we decided to s...

Sunday morning got up feeling excited for another day of the festival. The Monkey was headed home that morning and dropped me off at the same breakfast spot near the house to meet up with the LAN crew. While he wanted to see the performances scheduled for that day, he also wanted to spend some time with the fam. After breakfast, which included pork roll as my protein, we headed back to the Trump Plaza for a repeat festival prep - thankfully sans weird dude in mankini. Since the water and Coronas worked the day before, Ol' Lazy Acres and I stuck to the same plan. This time there was no DJ and the music mix left a lot to be desired. We suffered through, and then made our way over to the festival with the taxi dropping us off once again at the bridge. This day's line up for us began with Fitz & The Tantrums at the Atlantic Stage. I had only started listening to their music earlier in the year. They had a great old-school Motown sound. From DMB Caravan - June 24-26, 2011 The c...

I woke up around 5:00 a.m. Saturday morning feeling tired and a little sore. I thought how am I going to make it through another full day of the festival. I've seen DMB two nights in a row before , but that's just DMB performing at night not an entire afternoon and evening of performances. Let's face it I'm not getting any younger. I fell back asleep and woke up later around 8 a.m. I started thinking about all the artists I was looking forward to seeing that day. Before I knew it I was thinking "who's tired?" and was ready to go for another day. Each morning that weekend felt like Christmas morning. Great shows, DMB each night and we had great weather too. We met the LAN crew for breakfast around the corner from the house. They had pork roll on the menu, score! Good to see some "northern flavor" on the menu. After breakfast, we decided to gather up what we needed and then headed over to the Trump Plaza where Tom and Tracey were staying. While Tr...

While still basking in the glow of an amazing three-day festival that was the Dave Matthews Band Caravan in Atlantic City, NJ, on June 24-26, I'm a little jealous of the fans lucky enough to attend the DMB Caravan in Chicago this weekend. Wish I could do it all over again. Below is a link to a gallery of all my photos from the weekend in chronological order with captions. DMB Caravan - June 24-26, 2011 I had a great time, and thanks again to Donna and George for letting us stay with them for the long weekend. Hopefully I can get back that way again soon when I'll have more time to hit the beach and pool and see everyone. I flew up to Allentown, PA, on Thursday, June 23. Pops picked me up at the airport. We picked up some beer for the weekend, Yards Philadelphia Pale Ale , then I had lunch and drove down to Atlantic City. Thanks again for letting me borrow the car Dad and ML. I drove down on the Jersey side to avoid the end-of-day rush hour traffic in Philly. I took 78 east to ...

Happy Friday and Happy Birthday to my Pops... and one week 'til the DMB Caravan ! Tonight's brew is Sierra Nevada's special release - Best of Beer Camp... Double IPA (Camp # 29). Good stuff, this should be a regular release. Is it crazy to already be looking forward to their winter seasonal Celebration Ale ? Speaking of beer and questions... will Charlottesville, VA-based brewery and concert promoter Star Hill have their products available at the the three-day Caravan festival? I haven't see any mention in the news or on the Caravan site. Regardless, I want to thank George and Donna for letting friends and I stay at their house for the upcoming weekend - Thank You! Looking forward to heading up north and seeing everyone, maybe even Pops will join us for the weekend and do some fishing :-) Also, want to send good wishes out to Walter who had his knee operated on today. Good luck, and hopefully you'll be back on your feet soon. Dave Matthews Band - " One Sweet ...

Evening and happy Friday to all y'all! It's that time of year again... spring here means it's fall down under, which of course means it's hop harvest time in the southern hemisphere! Tonight's brew is the 2011 installment of Sierra Nevada's Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale . Yep, and it tastes as good as it looks. Last week I returned from a trip up north that I planned... first, when I heard DMB wasn't touring this summer, and second when I heard about the Elvis Costello Revolver Tour. I've been a fan of Elvis Costello since the 1980s. During that decade, he went on a tour that featured a giant spinning wheel on stage. Elvis invited fans up to spin the wheel, which featured classic song titles. Whatever song the wheel landed on, he and the band played. A couple friends went to see him that tour, but I wasn't able to go. Try as I might, I never got to see Elvis Costello live and he never broke out the spinning wheel again. Fast forward 25 years or so...