Tag: Personal stuff

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.

This group didn't have far to travel but spent a chilly and windy evening tending their fire. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Other groups come from farther away, and they have one thing in mind.

The Heavy Hitters sit and watch the world go by from their spot at Pork in the Park. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Obviously they didn't sit the whole time - their hard work garnered them a second place finish in the Whole Hog category. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Certainly slaving over a hot grill for hours on end can be demanding work.

Unfortunately, I don't recall who this competitor represented but it was a scene repeated all Friday night and Saturday. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

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:

I would have to presume a number of these outfits are going to follow a similar schedule which takes them into the fall. Pork in the Park serves as the kickoff.

It also takes some funding to buy the equipment necessary to compete at the level, like these special trailers.

Chix, Swine, and Bovine had this tricked out trailer to help with their equipment. I would guess it comes in handy for catering jobs too. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Other competitors used items which were more 'off-the-shelf' but still serviceable. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Part of the marketing involves the bragging rights garnered from previous high finishes.

Butts Up BBQ has been here before and done well. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Others have various wares to sell to grilling enthusiasts.

If you want to rub your meat, it's obvious 3Eyz BBQ has just the stuff you need. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

This is the first time I've seen shirts put out by a competitor tailored to the event. I guess we've arrived. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

There were a few outfits using these Big Green Eggs but the manufacturer came by to sell some as well. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Others chose their distinctiveness in different ways.

If these guys walked anywhere, you could pretty much tell who they represented. But doesn't sauce clash with tie-dye? Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

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.

The Reserve Champion for this year's event was the Serial Grillers. Clever name and obviously good work. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Considering they were both the Maryland State Champion and Grand Champion for the event, I believe Chix, Swine, and Bovine can afford the fancy trailer. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

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.

Skip Dixxon has played host to this event for the last eight years as part of his promotion of the local music scene. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Here’s a handy guide to the lineup. Unfortunately Kim and I were a little late and missed the Aaron Howell Band.

The nine bands participating in this annual event.

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.

The guy in the back was fixing sound as The Electric Company played. This was an issue at times early on but seemed to get better as the night progressed. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Next came the Joey Saah Band. This was the only one of the nine I’d not heard, and I was impressed.

The guys who make up the Joey Saah Band ripped it up, and you can tell they were into jamming too. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

Bet most of you wannabe guitar players can’t do this.

Playing guitar well is one thing. Playing it behind your neck like this is another.

Next came the brightly clad and original playing (for the most part) Crookedfinger.

These guys stood out both in attire and musically. Crookedfinger put on a nice show, I like them better each time I see them. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

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.

Marla and Agent 99 were slimmed down to a quartet from their previous five-piece composition and it affected their playing a little bit. Photo by Kimberley Corkran.

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.

This lady seems to sing the heavy stuff, and people seem to like to take snapshots of Witches Brew.

Gravy brought things back a little more to the mainstream but didn’t lose any of the energy.

One of the better cover bands around, Gravy takes an interesting set list and makes them all sound really good.

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 two guitarists of Phantom Limbs have a great way of playing off each other.

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.

One thing I can say about Semiblind is they constantly expand their playlist, so I heard a song or two I hadn't heard from them before.

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.

This was a fun little jam session between musicians who just wanted to bash out a couple Zeppelin classics.

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.

Pictorial posts

Well, we’ve hit a hiatus politically for a spell, so this post serves as a warning of sorts to expect a number of pictorial posts about life in this little corner of the world we call Delmarva.

I’m a bit backed up on Weekend of Local Rock posts and have batches of pictures from Pork in the Park. Next weekend is the Salisbury Festival and I’m sure to have my camera at the ready there. Add in Shorebird of the Week and some other outdoor events and there should be plenty of color to grace this page.

If I wrote about politics all the time, I’d be bored and it would show in my writing. Certainly there’s a lot of intriguing things going on in the political world but now that the General Assembly has taken a break and campaigns aren’t quite in stride yet it’s a good time to look at other aspects of life.

And that’s what I plan to do. It’s a good thing I had a couple prewritten posts at the ready over the last few days because, quite frankly, they’ve been a blur. This week should be a chance to regroup unless big breaking news comes across my desk.

Remarks to Salisbury TEA Party, April 15, 2010

As part of “open mike” I prepared these remarks for delivery Thursday:

Greetings to my fellow TEA Partiers!

My name is Michael Swartz, and as my life has evolved I’ve become a man of many hats (besides the Shorebirds one I’m wearing today) – by profession I run a website called monoblogue and am currently a freelance writer but – most importantly – by grace of God I’m an American!

There’s a sort of humorous irony today. At this place where I’m speaking, to a crowd who agrees with me that we’re taxed enough already, Mayor Ireton is revealing his FY2011 budget for the city of Salisbury as is County Executive Pollitt for Wicomico County. I’m certain their message is that we’re going to have to endure pain and sacrifice to balance these budgets.

Yet while some observers, those who are fed misinformation by what passes for the mainstream media, believe that we in the TEA Party movement stand for no government – well, they are mistaken. They assume that what we mean by limited government is a lack of government, and nothing could be further from the truth. To have no government would be anarchy, and the Founding Fathers were certainly just as interested in preventing anarchy through the rule of law as they were of stopping the tyranny of the rule of man.

They placed checks and balances on our political system, but most importantly their intent was to create a republic as opposed to the simple mob rule of a democracy. We stand here today to reclaim the republic for the average, hardworking American who’s fed up with government excess!

Our elected leaders tell us there will be sacrifice, and they are correct. For government to truly live within its means we may need to give up some of what we cherish. I’m not here to tell you things will be rosy, but the truth doesn’t necessarily lie in their dire predictions of doom and gloom either.

These elected leaders truly don’t need to have a lot of courage to stand up for what’s right; it’s only conventional wisdom which says that they do. Our job here in America is to properly vet those among us who want to serve as our leaders – needless to say, we’ve found that the press won’t do it for us and those we’ve elected to serve us have instead decided to serve the special interests who would weaken this great nation.

In 1964, before Ronald Reagan served as governor of California or as our President, he noted, “You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man’s age-old dream – the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order – or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism.”

Among my company today are those on the right – Republicans, those in the center as independents, and thoughtful members of the left who remain Democrats. As Reagan said, we have a choice to make and by removing the shackles of overbearing government we can rise once again to prominence.

It’s likely my short speech won’t be repeated on the lips of millions tomorrow, but if we can promote the attitude it exudes over the next few months as our republic prepares once again to choose its leaders, the message will resonate over the next decades as we lift ourselves from this slavery to our Beltway and Annapolis masters and regain control of our own destiny.

Thank you and God Bless America!

A new opportunity

Tonight I can announce that I’ve been blessed with another new writing opportunity, one which will hopefully grant me a larger audience – but one which may result in a slowdown of posting here.

A couple weeks ago, I was talking to Eric Wargotz about a post I’d done when he suggested I apply for this opportunity because he believed I have the talent to be a good writer in that venue. It’s something I’d thought about peripherally but in coming from someone who I only knew a little bit this was more impressive – certainly I have supportive people from my sphere of friends and acquaintances who think I have talent but here was someone who is a frequent subject (and who knows I may not necessarily support him politically) making the comment. So a week ago I applied to Examiner.com and Friday I found out I’ve been selected – later this week you can look for my first article to appear there as the Baltimore Political Buzz Examiner. (Or, how about right now?)

Obviously it means I’ll have to gain a little more of a local (that is to say, state government) perspective but it also necessitates some changes. In truth, it really leads back to something I tried awhile back but didn’t care much for.

For a short time, I truncated some of my longer articles by breaking them up and using the “more…” tag at the bottom of the excerpt. Personally I prefer having my articles on the front page in toto, but here’s the rub: I’ll make a little bit (okay, perhaps a lot bit) more writing for the Examiner than I do here – however, I have the freedom to post at both.

I may not be the shrewdest businessman to come down the pike, but I realize where my bread is buttered – it’s not too smart to cannibalize my own stuff! So look for just a teaser paragraph here on my Examiner articles, the better to lead you to my page there. (This will probably be three to six articles a week.) Other stuff I do will remain here, but I may not get out 2-3 posts a day like I do on good days – being a good Examiner means I have to read a little more!

This practice will be a little bit like my procedure for my op-ed columns, where I wait until other editors have a crack at them before posting them myself. (I’ve noticed more and more places have been posting my LFS op-eds, which is rather encouraging – the first step to success is being in the regular rotation at a news outlet.)

I’ve rarely been short on things to say, but I have a hard time sometimes expressing gratitude to those who support me – certainly there’s a few who have been fans of my writing since its humble beginnings. (On the web this will be five years early next month, with monoblogue’s fifth anniversary in December.)

So please support my Examiner page and tell your friends! While it’s not the most lucrative thing I’ve ever done, being a writer means I’m rarely bored! As long as that shows up in my writing, I think I’ll do just fine.

Weekend of local rock volume 30

I’m sure many of you come here in this timeslot and expect an op-ed from me as my normal practice is to repost my most recently cleared column from Liberty Features Syndicate at 10:30 on Sunday morning. But today I’m doing an op-ed of a different sort. (and no, it wasn’t syndicated.)

This was the scene when I walked into the bar area of Flavors of Italy Friday night.

The Permilla Project was jammed into this little area and jamming in a mix of rock, jazz, and asundry other elements - all original stuff insofar as I could tell.

My significant other and I had debated about dinner yesterday since we bowl on Friday nights, and I mentioned pizza might hit the spot. Yes, I knew The Permilla Project was playing so that was why I suggested Flavors of Italy.

When I peeked into that bar, I thought I saw every hipster, tripster, and anyone else who wanted to see and be seen within a 10 mile radius of the club.

My camera made the eyes match the sweater of the lady in red. Hope she doesn't mind.

We actually heard most of the first set before seeing them as we were seated in the restaurant portion enjoying a Continental-style dinner at 10:00 at night. A little dinner music, maestro?

A decent shot of The Permilla Project except Charlie turned his back just as I snapped the pic. It gets an award for best use of the mirror to see Sean the drummer.

If you take rock as a base, add some jazz influence and the willingness to extend the song to create the feel of perhaps a heavier version of O.A.R. you’d come up with The Permilla Project. The folks up front were certainly swaying to the music and a college town like Salisbury is a natural home base for such a band.

No, you can't see them dance because this is a still photo, but they were. You have to trust me on this one.

I can see why this is my blogger friend (afterthegoldrush) Ridgely Griffith’s favorite band, they are pretty good. Permilla isn’t completely my cup of tea but they are entertaining.

In the realm of photography this is called the money shot. Ok, I got everyone in the picture relatively facing me. But you can sense how packed the room was.

So next time The Permilla Project is at Flavors of Italy, I encourage you to come early, get a pizza, and grab a seat. You may not choose to stay in it, though. It’s a band and venue which will make you wish it was summer since you can stand outside and hear them (FoI has outdoor seating in the summer, but it’s limited.)

Then again, they may have to find a bigger venue before they know it.

A heavy heart (requiem for M.N.)

Through the grapevine I’ve found out one of the good guys in Maryland blogging passed away today.

While he blogged out of Anne Arundel County, I met Mike Netherland at the Tawes event in Crisfield two years ago, after I found out he was a fan of my site. In this we were a mutual admiration society; Mike wasn’t the most prolific blogger at his own site but he was an outspoken commenter in other venues and in all respects was a great spokesman for the conservative cause.

Most times death is unexpected, and judging by his last post Mike was looking forward to a lot more blogging. It reminds us again that we need to approach life by living it – little did Mike know that his version of “middle age” was several years ago.

In the space Mike had for his “about me” profile, he wrote in part:

Approaching middle age with not-so-quiet desperation, I find solace in my writing. I love trying to get people to think for themselves, thus I have a small but hardy band of friends who seem to tolerate me.

Hopefully he’s in a place where he can find out that he had more friends than he thought and we did a lot more than tolerate him. Perhaps he didn’t have the most well-read site but he held his little corner of Maryland’s blogosphere well and we’re all poorer for his loss.

Rest in peace, Mike.

Benefits with friends

This is a tale of two (actually, three) good events in one weekend – if circumstances permit I plan on being at two. Let’s start with next Saturday, February 20th:

You actually have two chances to attend, one during the afternoon and one during the evening. My guess is that the six bands (in alphabetical order they are Bluelight Special, Corey Franklin, Not My Own, Proof Of Love, Reconcile520, and The Permilla Project – someone who reads this may let me know the actual lineup order) will play about a half-hour set apiece with a few minutes set aside for setup, then do it over for show #2. It promises to be a long day for the performers but an entertaining day for the patrons.

One thing this doesn’t tell me, though, is a cost – apparently there is a freewill donation but there are special deals available, at least according to Reconcile520’s Facebook page.

However, you might need to be a little extra generous with your donations on this one. This is a comment from Progressive Delmarva, where “Reconciled1” is one of the contributors:

By the time the civic center added all their extra fees.. the room is costing us roughly 1800 bucks. We were originally told $758 then you add a 10% building improvement fee, .25 a chair rental and set up fee, security, event staff, stage manager, paramedic on site, etc… the room was waaaaayyyy more then first quoted. We had volunteers to do all of this but they refused and said it had to be through them. Our stage manager had an inside track in there and it was taken in front of the board to see if they would donate the room but the board turned it down.. The reason we aren’t selling tickets before the concert at the box office is because there is another added cost to do that. With all things considered, we have roughly $5,000 into the operating cost when you add in the sound and light company and the use of a back room for the bands to hang out during the concert.

We have a restuarant that is feeding us all but we have to use another building for that because the Civic Center wouldn’t allow them to cater in. We would have to us their catering if we want to eat. Live and learn…….. The next concert will most likely be held somewhere else.

This got me thinking back to the first Salisbury Skatepark fundraiser, which was also held at the Civic Center – but subsequent ones were held in other locations. Maybe that’s why.

As far as the bands go, the two I’m most familiar with are The Permilla Project (I’ve seen them at the Salisbury Festival) and Not My Own, which has been featured occasionally on 93.5 the Beach’s “Local Produce” show. So the show should have a fair dose of original music along with some cover stuff too.

Then Sunday brings another benefit show – this one benefitting a different cause.

We all know about the tragic death of Sarah Haley Foxwell late last year, and the Wicomico Child Advocacy Center is using her name (presumably with the permission of her family) to raise money and awareness for their cause. It’s a little different fundraiser for them than I am used to, since the last couple years they have auctioned off special gameworn items from the Shorebirds. Last year’s auction was a bit of a downer because of all the rainouts the team suffered, so this is a different opportunity to contribute to the cause and hear more local music.

(There’s also free food, a silent auction, and 50/50 raffle to help raise money beyond the $20 admission price.)

In this case the bands will be Wes Davis, Agent 99, and Vivid Season. (Yep, this is why I included the Vivid Season video last night.)

I’m more familiar with these bands, although I’ve yet to see Vivid Season live. Wes Davis is a frequent player at Salisbury area events, including the Salisbury Festival, and has performed a number of times on Ocean 98’s “Live Lixx at Six.” And many of the events featured in my Weekend of Local Rock series have been graced by the sounds of the ladies of Agent 99, so I’ve seen them at least a half-dozen times. With the possible exception of Wes Davis throwing in an original composition or two, expect to hear a wide range of classic and modern rock standards remade in each band’s image.

If you haven’t been able to get out this weekend to cure your cabin fever, next weekend may present an opportune time to do so.

Friday night videos episode 23

This will be a somewhat abbreviated version which focuses less on politics and more on other fun stuff. I just have to remember to set these up to the proper format for my revised site.

Jim Rutledge is among five Republicans running for the United States Senate seat in Maryland. This is one of several videos he’s placed on his website to explain his views. (In the interest of fairness, I looked on his main competitor’s website and he has no videos – if I find he has a Youtube channel I’ll put his up.) This is called “The Bankrupting of America.”

A much more famous former (and future?) candidate graces the spotlight here. After the commercial (since this comes from the CBS News site) you can watch the entirety of Sarah Palin’s address to the TEA Party Convention in Nashville.

Since Palin’s speech was so long, I’m going to shift gears and add a couple local music videos I stumbled across. Each week I make an effort to be near my radio at 9 p.m. Sunday to catch the show “Local Produce” (it’s on 93.5 the Beach.) One of the hosts is Bob Daigle and in replaying my Semiblind video I featured last fall (“Right As Rain”) I found they did the same song acoustically at the 93.5 the Beach studios. Here’s that video.

And the original, plugged version I had from last October. The sound’s not as good but it’s interesting to hear the difference.

The solo which comes in about 2:30 works much better plugged in.

Lastly, this band is a local band called Vivid Season who’s taking time to help a good cause (as you’ll see in a post tomorrow. This is called a “tease.”)

Since the song is from their website, I don’t think they mind sharing.

Hope you enjoyed the extra music after the politics. If I can find enough good stuff from local bands I may make that a larger part of future FNV episodes – I figure I deal with politics five or six other days a week (depending on time of year) so why not let my hair down – what little I have – on the weekends, right?

So…how do you like the new look?

Here is the new look. I had to reduce the names of the pages to make this look good. I may yet have to tweak the order around to put my General Assembly voting records into a hierarchy and allow myself to add a few more pages as needs arise.

Some other changes I’ll have to make is reducing the size of pictures and videos so as not to crowd the first column on the right-hand side in future posts. That’s all right, just have to remember this once I do new posts (no need to go back and reinvent the wheel.)

Now, though, I have to figure out just how to get some of the other elements into this setup like my Site Meter and other elements. But I have nowhere to go now so this afternoon I may be able to work this out.