Drunkin Pumpkin w/ dinner @ Coles

A Drunken Pumpkin tonight. My second one this season at Coles. This is a 1/2 pint of Southern Tier Pumpking Imperial Ale topped off with a 1/2 pint of Guinness Stout. What a tasty Black and Tan. 

We had a wonderful dinner tonight at Cole's on Elmwood. One of our favorite go-to restaurants. I started off with a cup of soup... chicken and rice. It was delicious.

Then I had their meatloaf sandwich cooked in rich French onion, topped with mozzarella, finished with roasted garlic aioli, and served on a soft pretzel bun. Their tasty fries too.  Absolute comfort food heaven. Becky had a chicken parmesan sandwich. I started off the evening with a pint draft of Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale, a seasonal IPA annual treat. 

Another Yucky Winter Day

What made today particularly yucky was the mix of snow and rain. The morning started off with snow and there was about 2 to 3 inches on the ground. It was going to rain so I went out around 9:30 am and cleared the snow off around the house, the sidewalk and the car. It was a very heavy snow and then a little later it started raining. A cold wet rain. It is supposed to start snowing again later this afternoon.

It's trash day tomorrow so I'll be putting out our trash container, the recycle bin and compost box but later after the rain stops and the snow starts up again.

Then it's going to snow all night.

Mickey 17 - The Film

I watched the movie Mickey 17 over the past couple of days. It was pretty much a waste of time. It was billed as a science fiction comedy but I really didn't find anything very funny. There was some good sci-fi effects with the alien life but overall the plot and the story was boring.

I think perhaps the movie was made from the story line of the two Mickey7 books of which I read the first one. I guess I should read the second book too and maybe the movie will make more sense. 

In the meantime I give it 3 stars.

Glass of Beer - DDH Attitude

I'm not sure what DDH attitude means besides the name of a very tasty and satisfying New England IPA from Long Live Brewing from Providence, RI. Lewie and Lizzie gave me a pint can of this beer when recently visiting us while on their way to Cleveland for the holidays.

I enjoyed this beer a lot. Thanks Lewie!

10,000 Maniacs @ The Pastime Lounge

After posting some flyers from my time at the Pastime Lounge someone asked me about the 10,000 Maniacs playing there back in the 80's. As I remember they played there many times in 1983 and 1984 and they were some great shows. I remember hanging out with the band members a lot between sets while I played songs from the sound booth. I would often put on a cassette tape of mixes that I made for between sets of bands.

So I looked through the box of "stuff" on the 3rd floor for flyers supporting gigs of the 10,000 Maniacs at the Pastime and found a few. These are flyers that I made. I'm sure there were more out there from Marshall who was booking them at the time. I've collected a few of the ones I made here. They show six different concert dates but do not have the years on the flyer. I found confirmation on the date shows from this Natalie Merchant concert site and another setlist site.

I'm going to post this group of flyers on Facebook.

Here are the dates of the Pastime Lounge shows:

• May 21, 1983
• July 9, 1983
• Sept 10, 1983
• Nov 12, 1983
• Feb 23, 1984
• Apr 7, 1984
• June 30, 1984
• Aug 13, 1984

 

A Bills Shootout 39 - 34

The Bills played a rare 1 pm Sunday afternoon home game to today and won a very exciting and entertaining comeback victory over the Cincinnati Bengals 39 - 34 in the snow. Bills were behind the entire game until late in the 4th quarter scored 21 points to take the lead and keep it. Josh Allen did it all again including a 40 yard rushing touchdown.

74... Just a Number

Now I'm 74 years old and it's just another number. But it did get me thinking about the year 1974. Looking back that was one of the most important years of my life. I just finished four years in the Navy in late December 1973. I was a civilian again in 1974 and ready to party. 

I bought a house in my old neighborhood of Germantown in Philadelphia where I grew up. I got the house from my great aunt's estate. The house had been in the family since 1909 when my great-grandparents Thomas Keegan and Bridget McDevitt Keegan moved there. Now I was making it into a college party house. Three of my friends from the neighborhood moved into the house with me. We each had our own room.

I think I went the whole year of 1974 without a haircut and shave. Something about getting out of the Navy I guess. I was working a real job, part time and not something military. I was living in the neighborhood I grew up in and I was going to college at Temple University on the GI Bill. I was going to rock concerts almost every week and buying lots of albums trying to catch with what I missed over the past four years. It was a good year.

Here are some of the concerts I saw in 1974. The last part of the list were from the 3 day Philly Folk Festival. Lots of others too. 

• Eric Clapton
• Neil Young
• Hall & Oates
• Bob Dylan and The Band
• David Bowie
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
• Joni Mitchell
• Grateful Dead
• Little Feat
• Badfinger
• Tom Waits
• Al Stewart
• Mahavishnu Orchestra
• Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention
• Gordon Lightfoot
• Sandy Denny
• Tim Buckley
• Leo Sayer
• Average White Band
• Buddy Miles
• Emmylou Harris
• Fairport Convention
• Hawkwind
• Sun Ra
• Incredible String Band
• String Driven Thing
• Dave Van Ronk
• John Prine
• Bruce Cockburn
• David Bromberg
• Arlo Guthrie
• Tim Hardin
• Leon Redbone
• Tom Rush
• John Hartford
• Norman Blake

Another number... 51. 1974 was 51 years ago and I was born in 1951. I was 23 in 1974 and had just experienced the world. I would meet Becky in 1975 and we would start living together in 1976. I would graduate from Temple University in 1978 and we would move to Buffalo in 1979. We got married in 1980. Now it's 2025 and I'm getting towards being an old man. We went to a friend's birthday party the other day and I was the oldest person there. The only place I don't feel old is going to the Buffalo Chamber Music concerts.

Mickey7 - Sci-Fi Novel

Mickey7 by Edward Ashton, 2022. Now a science fiction movie titled Mickey 17. Why the different title... I guess I'll need to go see the movie. 

Anyway, I just finished this book last night. It was a quick read and took me a week to finish. It had an interesting plot and some amazing backstories that led to the current situation in the novel. I enjoyed the book.

There is a follow-up book... Antimatter Blues which I'll need to read since this book leads everything hanging. The movie is being promoted as a science fiction comedy. I didn't think the book was particularly funny.

The movie is now on Prime and HBO Max. 

Glass of Beer - Uncanny Valley Hazy IPA

Another can of beer from Lewie. Very tasty. A birthday treat.

Got that robot thing on the can.

Started re-reading that crazy book of pulp fiction mystery stories too.

Eileen's Birthday Party @ JT's

We had a wonderful time tonight at Eileen's birthday party at JT's. We went over there around 6:30 pm. Becky had received a text from Eileen saying they would be there at 6pm at the bar. Well, when we got there the bar was very crowded and we could not find Eileen. We hung around for about ten minutes but we were really just in the way. We had eaten dinner earlier so we didn't want to sit at a table and wait.

Then I found Eileen. She was sitting at a table in the very back of the restaurant with her daughter Bonnie and a few friends. She was very happy to see us as we approached the table. We sat down and then had about 2 hours of a very good time.

I had a lot of conversations with several people I had just met and a few others I've known for years but hadn't seen in awhile. Enjoyed the party very much. There were some wonderful snack foods and I had a couple Peroni's on tap.