Jumpin' At The Woodside

My 26th Dave Matthews Band show was here in the Carolinas on a very hot and humid Wednesday evening in July. Jimmy Joe Pete and I left work early to do some tailgating before the show. It was hot out there! But, not too hot for kickin' back with a couple Lagunitas IPAs . We probably should have brought some portable shade in the form of a canopy or umbrella, but we stuck it out. At least my beer was cold in its Philadelphia Phillies beer cozy I picked up on my road trip to Pa. earlier in the month. Once inside the venue, we happened upon a few good people watching occurrences. This girl ( below ) was killing a chin-up competition as a balloon drifted away from its owner. This couple ( below )... well I really don't know what to say about them except to note that the kilted dude had a second Miller Lite hanging around his neck. I guess that's how they do it in Scotland. I was a little discouraged about our seats. They were in the center, but farther back than what I've c...

Happy Friday and welcome back to another Friday in the Queen City! I need to update the blog with my travels from the past week or so. In the meantime, I got in from NYC late last night after a work trip. No surprise that my flight was delayed getting out of LaGuardia. It's been awhile since I travelled up to the big city, but some things never change like delayed flights home. I'm still feeling tired and run down this evening after a long week, but at least I have the weekend to recharge. Tonight I'm enjoying an Olde Richmond Batch No. 11, an IPA brewed by the St. George Brewing Co. of Virginia that I picked up in the River City last weekend. Guess I have a lot to catch up on, but in the last 10 days I saw the Dave Matthews Band here in Charlotte (my 26th show), then in Washington, D.C. (my 27th show), enjoyed a fine meal with the Lazy Acres crew at their new abode, and spent a few days in the Big Apple. As a preview of posts to come, here's a photo of me enjoying a B...

I wanted to share one of my favorite scenes from a film script I wrote awhile back. I tried to present it here in proper script format. The blog has some display limitations so it's not perfect, but it'll do. A portion of the film is set in 1987, and the following scene takes place after a group of friends have been up all night after driving from Orange County, Calif., to watch the sunrise in Joshua Tree National Park. Two characters sit outside a small house in a community not far from the park. I really liked the dialogue here between Paul and Webber, and very proud of how it turned out. Paul is a NJ transplant struggling to find his way in the world, while Webber, a transplant in his own right from Oklahoma, speaks with a slight twang and isn't afraid to preach his own brand of cowboy religion and common sense. EXT. BACK PORCH - DAY Paul slumps in a chair at a table with an umbrella. Webber sits down and pours a margarita for each of them. PAUL Where are the other two? ...

Good evening and Happy Friday to all y'all! Had a big storm blow through this afternoon and the power was off for a couple hours this evening. All good now and have the air conditioning chilling things back down. Tonight's brew is an IPA from The Pike Brewing Company of Seattle, Wa. Just in case anyone wanted to look through all 90 photos I took at Eastern State Penitentiary , I posted them in an online album you can click on below. Click the image below to view all photos . Eastern State Penitentiary - Phila., Pa. A couple more DMB shows coming up next week!!! - Salud!

We had a pretty laid back day planned, mostly grillin' and chillin', and my sister Linda ( below ) and her daughter Cienna were stopping by for dinner. After two DMB shows and a ball game , I was more than happy with the easy-going agenda. That morning, Ol' Lazy Acres posted a photo on FB of some pork roll in a grocery store display along with a message if he should try it or not. Of course, pork roll is common place in my hometown area of the Lehigh Valley. Coincidentally, my Pops had picked up some primo thick-sliced pork roll that we had planned on having for lunch. I thought this was an excellent opportunity to show Ol' Lazy Acres what pork roll was all about, at least what it looked like nestled all snug on its bun, fixins included. Get up on that dawg - that's a pork roll sammy with a slice of pepper jack cheese, raw onion and mustard on a poppy-seed onion roll! Booyah ! Dinner was courtesy of Pop's grill, garden and culinary talents. We had burgers, ki...

Friday, July 1 After getting back from Philly that morning, I still had a full day and evening planned in the Lehigh Valley that included cold drafts at The Legion, and an Iron Pigs ball game with my Pops, my sister and The Monkey. After stopping in The Legion, a Friday afternoon ritual for my Pops and his old pals, we went down to Shruty's to pick up my sister. There I had a ribeye steak sammy for dinner and then we were off to pick up Rob on our way to the ball park. The home of the Phillies' AAA team the Iron Pigs is only a couple years old and a great place to see a game. There isn't a bad seat in the house. Pops and I at the ball game. After one of the innings, an outfielder threw a ball into the stands. They usually toss them to a kid down near the field, but this one flew right up to our section. I don't think any of us knew it was coming until it was right in front of us, and it was too late. The ball careened off my Pops knee and into a kid's hands a few ...

After breakfast at Ihop and a visit to one of the Ghost Hunter's favorite haunts, Eastern State Penitentiary , Monkey and I made our way over to Rittenhouse Square for lunch at Smith & Wollensky . I had gift cards totaling $200 from my Amex points for years. Mostly because every time I went somewhere with a Smith & Wollensky location I forgot to put the cards in my wallet. Well, not this time! Monkey had a sirloin steak and whipped potato, and I had a Cajun ribeye and creamed spinach. They didn't have one of my favorite reds, the Clos Du Val Cabernet, so I settled for their Merlot. It was actually quite tasty and at that price it better be! The cards paid for the meal and wine, and I only had to pay the tip. Traffic was crazy going to Eastern State. It took us about 20 minutes to go 1.75 miles, but was easier going back to the hotel. Night #2 We called Joe Cab and he took us over the Walt Whitman Bridge to NJ. Before we knew it we were back at the Susquehanna Bank Cent...