Friday Frolics, Volume 29: SCOTS

In honor of Southern Culture on the Skids' appearance today at the Roots 'N Blues 'N BBQ Festival, here's a SCOTS video from way back when.

Midweek Time Killers from the Midwest

Greetings from Kansas City. Seeing that I'm in the Midwest, I thought I'd post a few pieces on things out this way.

First off, today's USA Today has this article on federal flight subsidies that keep airline service to rural destinations afloat. Most of airports served through the program are in the midwest, although...go figure...four of the airports are in West Virginia. (Big Daddy Byrd at it again.)

Second, Kansas City was home to one of the great franchises in baseball history, the Negro League's Kansas City Monarchs. This MLB.com piece details the Monarchs 1942 championship. While reading the piece, take note of the different locations that hosted games in the championship series and the Homestead Grays attempted use of ringers.

Finally, this excerpt, from the book that accompanied the Ken Burns PBS series on the history of Jazz, explains a little about how the 1920s and 1930s were a wide open time in Kansas City.

Quickies...Well Not Really

Today's Quickies post comes to you from Austin, Texas, where yesterday, I started my 2nd Annual Beer, BBQ & Tunes vacation. With the vacation comes my 2nd Annual You Could Win a Prize at My Expense Contest where my friends take guesses at how much weight I'll gain or lose on my trip. All the proceeds go to benefit the Good Sports of Arlington scholarship Fund.

I'm beginning to think someone is trying to send me some sort of message during this trip. Yesterday morning, I was picked up by for my ride to the airport by a cab driver of Middle Eastern descent who blasting Christian rock in his cab. Then, when I opened the back cover AmericanWay, the American Airlines in flight magazine, to see a map of American's Dallas terminal, I found this article first. It's a story on the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Barbecue in Huntsville, Texas, and the Barbecue's founder, Annie Mae Ward. Finally, as a long day was winding down last night at the Mean Eyed Cat in Austin, I noticed the stone in the picture above in the floor of the bar. There's nothing like drinking a PBR in bar named after a Johnny Cash song that was built on the site of a church.

In between a large lunch at the County Line BBQ and that last PBR at the Mean Eyed Cat, was a lot live music and Shiner at the Continental Club. The show featured several bands. (The poster in the picture shows the line up.) Closing act Rick Broussard and Two Hoots and a Holler put on a great set mixing some classic country shuffles with original rockers and country shuffles of their own.

It's time to wrap up this post and head south to Lockhart for some more 'Q. Photos from Day 1 can be found here.

Friday Frolics, Volume 28: Getting It In The Can

This week's frolic comes courtesy of "J.D." in Richmond.

Quickies

When I first saw this sign Saturday morning I thought to myself "that sign could be taken three ways". Unfortunately, 7-11 intended it in the least interesting of the three, a free coffee sample.

A few weeks back, "J.D." sent me this link to RunPee's website. RunPee is an application for iPhones that tells the user the best time to use the restroom during movies. Here's "J.D."'s commentary on the application.

There's a site called runpee.com that can be downloaded on the iPhone that tells you the best point in a movie to run out for a bathroom break if that XXL soda is aching to be set free. Something like "46 minutes in when George Clooney gets out of the car, you have 90 seconds before he starts nailing the chick". And when you return, it will tell you what you missed. Pretty neat idea, but I was particularly amused today when I found out the app was created by Carson Palmer.

And finally, most D.C. area sports fans were all over the Washington Post pieces a couple of weeks back about the Washington Redskins suing club level ticket holders who had defaulted on their contracts and the mystery surrounding how tickets were leaving the Skins tickets office and going straight to ticket brokers instead of being sold directly to fans. Dave McKenna has some follow up here in a recent Washington City Paper blog entry.

Friday Frolics, Volume 27: Everybody's Doin' It

This week's frolic comes courtesy of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen featuring, among others, Billy C. Farlow on vocals, Bill Kirchen on lead guitar, Andy Stein on sax and the Commander himself on piano.

Midweek Time Killers: Three Politicians Who Wouldn't Go Away

What do a former Klan member, a man who wears toupees worthy of induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame, and a man with a master's degree in chemistry have in common? They all have political constituencies that unconditionally love them.

With the passing of Ted Kennedy, West Virginia governer Joe Manchin is considering how he'll choose the successor to the ol' Exalted Cyclops himself, Senator Robert Byrd. I'd think the first step would be to choose someone who hadn't been in the Ku Klux Klan. According to this article, Byrd made only two of 56 roll call votes in the months of July and August.

Meanwhile, former congressman Jim Traficant was recently released from prison. This Washington Post article tells all about his welcome home rally. If talking about passing gas is a qualification for being a member of Congress, maybe I should run. Then again, I don't need a toupee...yet.

Finally, how could I let this post wrap up without including some reading on Da Mayor for Life, Marion Barry. By now, everyone has heard about Barry's recent problems with one of his lady friends. But, this Washington City Paper piece from mid-July details some of Barry's other exploits with city funds. Oh yeah, Barry really does have a master's degree in chemistry. Insert your own joke here. (I recently watched the HBO documentary The Nine Lives of Marion Barry. I hope to have a post on the film sometime in the near future.)

Quickies

This week's Quickies post is all about flying objects.

First, Japan's first lady elect claims she was abducted by aliens. She also claims she knew Tom Cruise in a prior life. No joke, read it here.

Second, my friend "Barton Street" sent me the link to this site that tracks the real distance of home runs.

Finally, if you would really like to join the mile high club, you can do it in suburban Atlanta for $379 through the help of Mile High Atlanta. If the plane is rockin', don't bother knockin'

Friday Frolics, Volume 26: The Fabulous Black Beatles

I don't really know what to say about this.