PoW!.....................

Selecter70
2nite

River Gods
9pm

60's Mod- Soul- Pop- Garage

125 River Street-Cambridge

Portsmouth VI

bad photo of a great place...

Friendly Toast

mmm...brunch!

late night salvation!

Gilley's
yup...

READ ME !!!

late night @ the ever-loved

Coat of Arms

(the manager remembered me by name!)

ain't it though...

Daniel St. Tap

Portsmouth V

Portsmouth 2008 Crit pint!

not that anonymous, I'd say

Portsmouth IV

Old North Church

the Press Room

where newspapermen used to quaff

great pints. warm people. bands upstairs

portsmouth III

oops, dark in this corner of the State Street Saloon

time for dinner @ Fat Belly's

ah, back to the pool & hot tub after a fine jaunt about town

Macro-Polo's fine shopping

ah, the Rusty Hammer...a fine establishment. It's nice being the youngest people in a pub!

Portsmouth II

tattoo you

remember when they were illegal in MA?

you went to places like this if lucky, trailers outside Hampton Beach if you were desperate

in the barber shop window

-not meant as hip or ironic-

I think they still only give crew-cuts!

happy Hanukah Portsmouth!

Portsmouth I

the bridge over the mighty Piscataqua

downtown

ploughman's lunch

Portsmouth Brewery

This past weekend, Skye & I went on our annual pre-Christmas trip up to Portsmouth, NH with Mike & Dawn. I made a map to guide our pub-crawl, which is mostly local dive bars full of flannel-back townies, old folks & young fishermen. Upon our arrival at the luxury of the Hilton (! crazy cheap compared with Boston, NYC &c), we hit the local packie for local beers & sampled some great Shipyard winter ales before heading out for lunch at the Portsmouth Brewery. Skye & I shared a fantastic ploughman's lunch and couple pints before considering our 'battle-plan.'

Thursday. The Cellar. 9-ish. Dinner & drinks.

Well, Jenni had wanted to get a drink last week with us & they missed the Abbey, so she checked in with Skye to meet up. It was agreed slap-dash to meet at the Cellar. As I left work late, I was told to go to Plough & Stars instead, as the Cellar was packed. So I did & met up with Skye, Pete, Jenni, Lane, Amy & the soon to depart southerly Moo & Carolyn. Home by 11. Quiet night out but great klezmer-punk band had just started up as we left, the Klezwoods. We shall return.

Haik-owski

So, after some confusion regarding free beer at home, Haik and I met up at Bukowski to sample fine draughts and discuss "apps"....my mug was sadly downstairs, so I drank from a non-"God"-stencilled replacement. Oh well...At least it was a good time: not too loud, Clash tunes, great beer (Cambridge Brewery Porter for me & Anderson IPA for Haik)....

more on that...

more oddities...Well, back at the Dwarves show, we were introduced to 'another Stefan', Stephan from Germany, the "Uber-Stefan", "Doppel-Stefan." Stephan was wandering outside the Spitzz practice area, when Mark, out for a smoke, left the door open. Stephan peeked in & inquired if they needed a drummer (hah, Tommy...). Tom & Vic noticed that he looked just my brother, Caleb and had my name (more or less), and his bandname in his German ska band, was Sky. Oh too strange. So...they invited him to the show. Upon meeting him, everyone noted the Caleb resemblance as well, to the point that I had t email him photos to send to his mother. All agreed. Creepy. Anyhow, he has hanging out as well at the Independent, and becoming part of the scene. Photo to come.

...&, the heat is finally on.

gettin' chilly

snap!

SNAP !.....Lately out of weariness, I've just been bringing the same 2 cases of 45s & a bag of lps; which has been quite sufficient to say the least. So in order to mix it up & get back to the roots of my nights, I've been including more reggae, be it rocksteady or Jamaican funk/soul covers. Pow! has not happened for awhile, but will re-surface soon.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!

Happy Thanksgiving !

Skye & I travelled out to yonder Mendon for a fine home-cooked dinner with my folks, sister, her friends & parents' acupuncturist. Yummy and not too painful.

...saddest day, evah!

too many good memories & foul smells emanating from places unseen...alas! The poor old dear Abbey was not allowed a lifespan beyond 76 years...bastard health-care system! What, is this the "change" we hear about? More death to the beloved? Granted, I no longer attended Abbey shows as religiously as I had down for a decade, due to changing life priorities (read: leaving the life of a debauched bachelor)and because the quality of shows, to my mind, had declined. Nevertheless, the Abbey was wicked awesome, a great drunk hole for ancient townies that had briefly opened its doors in the early 70s to the folk scene and at one time had food. By the time my friends & I had made the Abbey ours, the staff was willing to take the closed-off storage room (former eating area) and allow a local band, Schnockered, to use as a practice space. Pretty soon, they started to allow in-house Schnockered shows, opening up the left side as a stage. The layout still included a small foyer that led left to the now open band room, or right, into the pub proper. Thus, you had for years, shows on the left & townies on the right. This allowed you to visit & check out a band without paying, unless they were good enough that you wanted to travel over. The front bathrooms were truly some of the utmost vile ones in existence in the Western world; there always seemed to be blood in the urinal or sink. Thus, it was better to use the 'hidden' bathrooms in the back hall by the other closed room, the old kitchen (where Z-Bar moved). The Abbey felt like family, with a close music & beer scene of good friends; so much that when Tom & Victoria moved from their old haunts in Allston, the Abbey was an amenity that they wanted nearby, which made it easy for Spitzz to play (in fact, more than once was equipment just rolled down the street). One of favorite memories, was the Halloween show of 2004 (I think...the 2nd Spitzz as Cramps show). The Abbey was packed beyond capacity with everyone in costume (even a 40s-style robot duel between Luke & Vu!), fake blood everwhere that spilled Schlitz was not. Mully & I had set up an awesome Halloween room for a post-party and grabbed a keg, just to be 'safe.' I left the show during the last show to tap the keg & sat on the stoop (gettin' stoopid @ Stoodio53) awaiting perhaps a few dozen folks. Nope, I saw an army exude out from the Abbey, in full costume, into the street...coming straight for my apartment. At least it was great!...Fast Foward: Sadly, the Abbey will remain in memories and photos, which makes me wonder why our resident Abbey photographer, Vu was not in attendance! Mully likewise was not to be seen! (granted, he stayed in Chicago for thanksgiving). Nevertheless, anyone who was part of that old crew, was there if they could, and it really felt like the best Irish wake possible. I will post photos once they are developed (yeah, I used film, like the old times)....

...RaZZy's...!!!

Razzy's on 21st...we did not win; only came in 3rd...drat!...we must blame the Limey!!! Better luck next time, perhaps Haik will wow us with his deep knowledge of 70's NFL stats!

...work...

just when things seem bland @ work, I fear for my life!

dreary...

at least Christmas is coming

well, a dreary wet November week before Thanksgiving. Rain put a bit of a damper on things, but otherwise nice warmer than average weather. Work has been busy, dj'ing a bit like work these days...a bit un-enthused. At least Christmas is a-comin', hurrah!