Are you an Achiever?

A web site has been established to promote the Lebowski Fist Event.

It contains a map of the bicycle ride route and the flyer that's being posted up around the city.

I hope to see you there!

The Post Comes Around

My friend Mike Camp called me today and invited me to his house this evening for a few beers. Of course I accepted and rode Mr. Plow over the few short miles to his home. We sat in his garage, surrounded by bikes and beers, listening to music. The best part was he picked up two cd's the other day using the techniques I outlined in my Scout Niblett post from May 25th. Both were "buck" cd's costing only a dollar. And gems they turned out to be. I'm listening to one now. A band called the National Lights. CD title is "The Dead Will Walk, Dear". Of course you can see why he picked it up. Turns out there's a great picture of the band inside. Sitting on a fallen tree over a creek. All that's mising is the bikes. The instruments are another clue to the quality. It's a good cd. And for a buck. We listened to others. It was a joy to listen to a cd that wouldn't have been picked up had I not discovered Scout.

This is the way life goes. Will the circle be unbroken.

Dream on...

Memories and Dreams

I read a quote a few days ago. "When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near". A childhood friend of mine died a few weeks ago and I found this quote very relevant to his life. Jeff possessed an incredible talent for remembering quotes, emotions and details from our childhoods. I found this both amazing and disturbing. I was amazed he could remember so many things and yet, so disturbed that he had very few dreams and aspirations with which to balance the memories. He was, unfortunately, always like this. He was an incredibly smart, understanding and compassionate man. And yet, he achieved very little success in either his personal or professional life. I think much of the reason for this relates back to the quote I mentioned earlier. Jeff was obsessed by memories and not by dreams. I think it's better to be the opposite. I'll miss Jeff. I hadn't seen him much recently, but I thought about him often. He was a good soul. He made me laugh. Now, if I could just erase the memory of the $50 he owed me, I could dream well of him again. He'd laugh at that. I hope he just did. Goodnight sweet prince.

Scout Niblett

One of the best perks of working in downtown Pittsburgh is CD shopping at the local record stores. We don't have anything small independent record stores in Beaver County any longer. But in downtown, there's still Dave's Music Mine in the South Side, Paul's cd's in Bloomfield and Eide's Entertainment in the Strip District. I know there are others, but these are the ones I frequent. Since working in downtown again, I've probably picked up at least 40 Cd's. Not spending more than $10 on a one of them. I personally want to support the artists and discover new music, but I don't want to spend $18 at Best Buy taking a flyer on an unknown artist. Well, truth be known, I don't want to spend anything at Best Buy. These are still locally owned record stores. I want to do my part to help them survive. And don't even mention on-line music shopping. I'm proud to say I've never purchased a single song online. On-line music shopping leaves me cold. There something about riding my bike after work to the South Side or Bloomfield and sniffing through the bins, finding something that looks interesting, slapping down some cold hard cash and walking out with an unknown artist and going for a celebratory beer somewhere.

On Thursday of this past week, during lunch hour, I walked down to Eide's and perused the "buck bin" as I like to call it. This bin mostly contains promo CD's for upcoming releases and since I'm always promoting music to people, I figure it's there for me. Anyway, this past week I scored three great cd's for a total of $5. Well, I'm here to do some of that promoting.

Now, I use lots of triggers to decide which cd's I will pick up and look at and which ones I'll pass over. The first trigger for me is the artist's name. I'll usually pass over an artist named "Vomiting Death Clowns" (only one of of those words would cause me to skip it, can you guess which word?), but one named "Honky Donkey Ponies" will probably be in my hands pretty quickly. The second pick-up trigger is the cd's title. This one's a little more tricky, but again, if I like these sounds of the title, I'll pick it up. Once I pick it up I look at the cover art and see if there's anything interesting there (Hey, is that Jesus on that Donkey Pony?). Next I'll flip it over and give a look at the song titles. After that I'll open it and check out the inside cd booklet. At this point I'm looking at instruments used (Banjo=good, Vibes=bad, although, believe it or not, I actually found a cd one time that had a banjo and vibes on the same songs. It was Pete Wernick's "On a Roll" and, being an optimist, I let the good outweigh the bad and so I bought it. It's a pretty good cd, but as I suspected, the songs with the vibes suck! But it wasn't every song and he can play the banjo quite well... but I digress.). After instruments I'll see if there are any cover songs on the cd. This is important. A Tom Waits cover usually indicates good things. Even a Madonna cover can be good if it turns out it's a bluegrass band or something (Yes, The Meat Purveyors (great name) did an inspiring blue grass Madonna trilogy). So use your own judgement on this one. Next, I'll go to the end of the booklet looking for "thank you's" and other notes as to who inspired the artist or perhaps worked them or toured with them, etc. If the cd passes these tests and it's $10 or under, I'll usually take a stab at it. Of course, the closer the price to my upper limit, the more criteria it has to pass.

Anyway, back to the reason for this post. One $3 cd I spied last Thursday was by an artist called Scout Niblett. This was good. The cd title was "This Fool Can Die Now". That stretched the single to a double. So I pulled it out but found no cover art as there was no cd booklet inside. Promo cd. So I turned over to the back and read the promotional verbiage. First good sign, recorderd by Steve Albini. Contains duet's with Will Oldham (aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy) keeps this cd heading towards third. Words like "emotive vocals duel with country infused harmonies, bluesy guitars, crashing drums and soaring strings" make this recording look like a potential stand up triple". Now looking at the song list shows the first track called "Do You Want to be Buried With My People". Hey, that's a might big lead out there. Another track called "Kiss" and another called "Elizabeth (Black Hearted Queen)" and one called "Dinosaur Egg", with the last song titled "Fishes and Honey" and this one' showing all indications of stealing home.

So of course I buy the cd and once I get back to work I promptly google "Scout Niblett" images and I'm immediately presented with this image...

Yes, she's riding a bike. And not just any bike, a beautiful old Schwinn cruiser with coaster brake, a fender and a rack. No helmet, sensible footwear and an infectious smile makes this appear to be a home run for me. Then I put the cd in my computer and headphones on my head and immediately realize the bases were loaded. My apologies for the baseball metaphors, but Ladies and gentlemen...

we have a winna!!!

Enjoy...

More "Fist" Details...

More details on Lebowski Fist '08 on Saturday, June 28, 2008

Some changes this year...

• Earlier start time to allow for more imbibing and "take it easy" time.
• Longer ride Better showing of the movie on a large projection screen at Wooly Bully's in New Brighton
• No tickets to buy, just show up and have a good time

Here's the tentative schedule of activities for the day. If you can't make everything, feel free to Meet us at any point to join in on the fun.

3:00pm - Meet at Beaver Valley Bowl in Rochester for White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat sodas

3:30pm - Begin Bike Ride, White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat Sodas

3:45pm - Kelly's by the Riverside for White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat Sodas

4:30pm - Back Door Tavern for White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat Sodas

5:30pm - At Wooley Bully's for some good home made pizza pies, White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat Sodas

6:00pm - Showing of Big Lebowski on the large projection screen, White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat Sodas

8:00pm - Head back to Beaver Valley Bowl for bowling, White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat Sodas

9:00pm - 12:00am bowl, White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat Sodas

Midnight - Parking Lot events including "Ringer Toss" and "Knock out the Nihilist", White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat Sodas

Also, I'm working on getting us some space to crash for the night for those that would prefer not driving home after the event. I'll keep you posted on that.

Costumes of your favorite movie characters or objects from the movie is encouraged.

The inspiration for our event... http://lebowskifest.com/

***NOTE: There will be White Russians, Sarsaparillas, and Oat Sodas

Call me with any questions, or email babeclub@comcast.net

Frank

BABES Get Results!

Well, just a few weeks after I posted my Whiskey Daredevils lament here, June 20th will mark the Whiskey Daredevils triumphant return to the warm and welcoming confines of the 31st Street Pub in the lovely Strip District of our dear Pittsburgh.

Both the band and the venue are long time BABE favorites and I'm scheduling a city bike ride to Arsenal Lanes for bowling, then to the 31st Street for the show. Come on, let's lynch the landlord! Let me know if you're interested and I'll reserve some lanes. Email me at babeclub@comcast.net

We can discuss details at our BABE meeting on May 24th. Details in next post.

Lebowski Fist ' 08 - 6:28

Bigger. Better. Longer. More what have you.

More specific details to come, but the "high" plans include a bigger event. A longer ride. A better showing of The Big Lebowski, and on the actual day of the "Fist". More what have you extra-curricular activities and trivia games too. Also, no tickets this year. Just show up for the event. In other words, abide.

June 28, 2008

Beaver Valley Bowl

and

other fine Beaver Valley locations.