A dog and her beer

This is for UDN Dave, who inspired me to blog about beer. UDN Dave needs to get off his ass and blog about beer more often. Just my opinion.

I was in Hy-Vee the other day and bought a six-pack of New Belgium's Mighty Arrow Pale Ale. Yum! New Belgium makes Fat Tire and other awesome beers.

On the label description, it says: "This is our brewed tribute to Arrow, Kim's Aussie/border collie mix who ran "literally" New Belgium for 12 years. When she wasn't patrolling the brewery grounds, she was famous for her office visits. She never met a tummy rub she didn't like. Atta girl Arrow!"

So here is to Arrow and our own Aussie/border collie, Lucy Belle, the best dog ever and Queen of Calftown. Cheers!

Miller Time Rocked

Long work weeks mean long anticipated weekends, which are way too short ....

— Saw an awesome band called The Millers last night at John Wood Community College. First of all, the Mary Ellen Orr Auditorium is a fantastic place to see a show. Secondly, there were maybe 150 people there and that's a shame. It always amazes me how a few of the local blues guys in town bitch and moan about nobody supporting live music, yet when an event like this is put on, it doesn't get much of a crowd. Oh well .... the people who were there gave the band two standing ovations and I've never heard a harmonica player like LD Miller, he was mind-boggling good. It appeared the band of three brothers had a good time playing for us, and I hope JWCC books more shows in the auditorium.

— For your complete WrestleMania 26 breakdown, click here. We are starting to have some fun with the Herald-Whig blogs and I'll be very interested to see what kind of traffic develops.

— Anybody left in your NCAA pool? I have Butler going to the Final Four and will likely win the Hart Family Challenge of Doom if Butler wins today.

— Had an invite to play golf at 8 this morning and invoked the infamous Don Crim "55 Degree" rule. When DC was the sports editor at The Whig many years ago, he wouldn't cover a spring sports event unless the temperature was over 55 degrees. I'll play golf if it's a little cooler than that, but not when the mercury is struggling to get out of the 40s and rain is on the way. Hey - at least it's not snowing, and it's supposed to be 70 degrees by next weekend.

— Good luck to Herald-Whig copy editor Kevin Murphy, who leaves today after six years at the paper. We'll miss his Page 1 design skills and calmness under deadline pressure. Good luck, Murph!

Fielder Press Conference

We had to hire extra security, but we finally got some of the guys from Fielder to do a press conference promoting the HUGE show April 3 at Turner Hall. Lucky The Cat also makes an appearance ... as usual, big props to producer, camera operator, key grip and teleprompter Shey Fey for all her help ....

Billy Exterminates

New favorite show of all time .... Bill The Exterminator. Weds nights 9:30 Central on A&E, click here for more.

Fielder, New Band

Info the big Fielder CD release party here. We are playing at 5 p.m. and will have some surprises in store, more coming in a "press conference" shortly.

Really good blog here by Jess Martin from The Whig. I picked a bad weekend to be working, because I missed a good show at Turner Hall Friday. Then Saturday a new band in town The Balance, featuring our good friend Steve Buckman, played at the Blind Pig Saturday.

Lotsa good music in the Q-Town!

Golf, a beautiful thing

Got out for the first time this season today at Westview and it was glorious.

Good people to play with, good weather, the course is in great shape for the middle of march ... except for brain farts, the golf wasn't horrible either.

Just in time for snow tomorrow. BLECHHHH.

The Dog from The Jerk

If you can tell me the name of Steve Martin's dog in "The Jerk" I will let you walk Lucy and Bella The Destroyer on the next warm spring day.

WARNING: You can't say it out loud on this blog because we are kid- and burned out ex-sports writer-friendly.

Click here for more ....

"We're going to early Mass, too"

Huge interview here with Mighty One, Dirk Jr. and David Wilkins, my long-time friend from GR and a proud Michigan grad. David flew into the Loo Saturday and drove up to Q-Town for the big show.

I will say this about Saturday night's show. There was some initial concern about people sticking around and if they would like what we do, but they were awesome and there were still quite a few people left when we finished, and that was with the time changing the next day too. Fun fun fun and we are still recovering ....

Jack meets Keith Richards

Between sets at the World Parking Lot Tour 2010, Keith Richards (left) meets Funions sax player Jack Inghram in an emotional summit of musical greatness .....

Adam Gets His Funions Shirt

The Mighty One, Funions drummer, keyboard player, harmonica player and vocalist Adam Yates, is officially off Funions Probation ....

Great time at TH birthday party last night, now let's kick off the WORLD PARKING LOT TOUR 2010 tonight at the Elks!

Accidently paid

The Funions are playing a private party Friday night after the Mighty One, Adam Yates, lied and told his cousin we were a good band. This was thrown together late so the lineup tomorrow night is Mighty One on drums, Mark, myself and the incomparable Jack Inghram on keys and sax.

On Saturday Pat will hopefully be back from Colorado to play drums with us at the Elks, moving Adams back to keys, harmonica and vocals. The Elks show is $12 for dinner and the band, or $5 for the band only.

Should be a great rock and roll weekend!

Funions rubbed by India

Funions, Craig Ferguson, David Spade, Dog Attack

No explanation needed ....

Keith Richards at Funions Press Conference

Wow .... Keith Richards may be playing with the Funions Saturday night .... AND exchanging health tips with Jack Inghram!

More Press Conferences

So we are doing press conferences to promote the kickoff of the Funions 2010 World Parking Lot Tour, and I got Greg Ellery to help me out. Thanks Greg!

Gearing Up For Shows

It's been more than four months since The Funions have played a show and we are rarin' to go!

One week from tonight we debut the World Parking Lot Tour 2010 ensemble and let's just say extra security may be required. Our St. Patrick's Day show March 13 at the Elks is $12 for dinner and the band, or $5 at the door for the band only. It's gonna be huuuuggggeee ....

We had a great practice the other night in our old stomping grounds, Mark's basement, and it went really well.

Our band is not about playing songs exactly like the record or being super tight, but when we are prepared I think we do pretty well and people always have fun at our shows.

After the Elks show we play at Fielder's CD release party April 3 and Rock against Rape April 23. These shows will hopefully give us a chance to play a few more original songs and mix it up a bit.

Hope to see you in the Parking Lot this year!

KISS in Cadillac

I just watched the best ESPN piece every, about the rock band KISS appearing in Cadillac, Mich., many years ago.

Click here to watch it.

I drove through Cadillac a hundred times when I lived in Michigan and had no idea. HUUUUGGGGEEEE!

St. Patrick's Show

Our St. Patrick's show at The Elks is a dinner dance. Tickets are $12 and will be available at the door or in advance by calling 217 242-3423. More info later ....