Pork in the Park 2010 in pictures and text (part 1)
On Saturday my significant other and I spent most of the day at Pork in the Park. It provides us the opportunity to enjoy good food, taking lots of pictures – which explains why I have two parts – and a chance to tell a story from perhaps a different angle from one you may have seen before.
During the awards ceremony, we were told that our humble little event has grown in seven years to be the second largest in the country and largest east of the Mississippi River. I guess that’s based on the number of participants, but it amazes me that something a lot of us guys take for granted has grown into a pastime which can take up most of a summer. Yes, leisure has become work for many, including what I presume is a local group called Smokin’ More Than Pork.
Other groups come from farther away, and they have one thing in mind.
Certainly slaving over a hot grill for hours on end can be demanding work.
I found this shirt worn by the folks at Mook’s BBQ interesting. If you didn’t think this was big business, check out this ambitious “Inaugural Tour” schedule:
It also takes some funding to buy the equipment necessary to compete at the level, like these special trailers.
Part of the marketing involves the bragging rights garnered from previous high finishes.
Others have various wares to sell to grilling enthusiasts.
Others chose their distinctiveness in different ways.
In the end, though, the competition was about the money. All those trinkets and toys cost some coin, and top finishes in the seven categories won up to $1,000. The Grand Champion, Reserve Champion, and Maryland State Champion also won additional prizes up to $2,500 – needless to say this hobby isn’t lucrative unless you do some additional marketing or have it as an adjunct to a main food service business.
But here were your winners from Saturday.
You may have noticed Kim took most of these pictures. I tended to look at the event as a whole for its newsworthiness and as a comparison to past events. Most of my photography will come with Part 2 tomorrow as will the later coverage of the music as another volume of Weekend of local rock.
Weekend of local rock volume 31
Damn, this is a post I’ve been meaning to get to for about 3 weeks now but I’ve had all kinds of other things take precedence. This concert happened way back on March 26th (I even put some of these pictures on my Facebook page 3 weeks ago and one video’s already been on FNV) but these local bands deserve their due and by golly I’m going to give it to them!
For the last 8 years, local promoter Skip Dixxon has put together a concert he dubbed the Spring Luau and 2010 was no exception. Nine bands took the stage and Pickles Pub in Ocean City even reopened a few weeks early to host the event.
Here’s a handy guide to the lineup. Unfortunately Kim and I were a little late and missed the Aaron Howell Band.
So we’ll start with the Electric Company, who played a mix of their stuff and others. Between them, these guys are in several other bands and solo acts so they have a pretty good list to choose from.
Next came the Joey Saah Band. This was the only one of the nine I’d not heard, and I was impressed.
Bet most of you wannabe guitar players can’t do this.
Next came the brightly clad and original playing (for the most part) Crookedfinger.
Agent 99 doesn’t have to be brightly clad to stand out among bands. This was one of their first efforts as a four-piece band.
I think Marla was a tad dismayed with how they played but the crowd still liked how it came out.
Another female-fronted band, Witches Brew, came next. They did a number of hard-rock covers in perhaps the heaviest set of the nine bands.
Gravy brought things back a little more to the mainstream but didn’t lose any of the energy.
An interesting and somewhat quirky trio is Phantom Limbs. They sound like a melding of surf rock with more modern stuff, with a dash of punk thrown in – not many bands cover the Dead Kennedys but these guys did.
The final band on the bill was my friends in Semiblind. If you pay attention to FNV you’d know they played here and they were the headliners.
But the rock wasn’t done yet, even though we were at closing time. Ryan of Lower Class Citizens wanted to belt out a couple Led Zeppelin tunes so the musicians who knew the parts to “Rock n’ Roll” and “The Immigrant Song” jumped right in to play.
Yeah, that’s how we roll. This was a good show in one of the rare places hereabouts I hadn’t seen one. Next up in the near-term future is another edition of Weekend of Local Rock covering this past weekend.
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