Catching up

I guess all I'm behind is pix from Ribberfest, really. They have made some giant improvements to the park with real bathrooms and terracing kinda like Wheeling and they're working on more riverside sidewalks. I'm going next year. You should, too. We stayed at the Country Hearth Inn which was just fine for $65 and they had the free continental breakfast and it takes about 3 minutes to get downtown. It was Madison's Bicentennial so we got free cake and ice cream right when we got there. Damn, it's a great festival.

Here's Ronnie Baker Brooks playing the guitar with his tongue. That's all I'm saying about that.


He had come out into the crowd and they got a chair for him to stand on. He was worth the price of admission, as Amy said. Which is not saying much as it cost $20 for 2 days, and for that you got $10 in food/drink tickets and all the meat you could eat.


We stopped in Osgood on the way home and took pictures of these iron sculptures in a restaurant parking lot. Click to see a bigger version.





Here is the Amy Swinehouse pig I voted for in the pigmania contest at Ribberest. She has a tattoo that says Daddy's Girl.


Amy and I point out to Rolly that he could be in the rib eating contest so here he is waiting to start.

He was just happy to get some more free meat. He didn't win but he got a lovely apron for a souvenir.



Madison has a riverboat restaurant now. The menu was not very interesting but it would have been good to have a bev on their boat patio. That Tugboat bar place has been reopened as Mumbles but they didn't have their liquor license yet at Ribberfest. That walkway is STEEP.








Although this pic doesn't really bear it out, the crowd on Friday was much larger than in previous years we thought.

If we had been voting, these guys woulda won. One of these guys told us there are so many competitions, there aren't enough judges. You can learn to be one.


The music was overall very good although Watermelon Slim was very disappointing, possibly tanky. And both nights the headliners, Robben Ford and the Hollywood Blue Flames, were lackluster and we left early. The first band Friday had canceled so we got to see Big James which was a bonus.

Tonight Amy and I went to the ClaZel for the inaugural Weds. night film series which you can see a schedule of here. They showed the first movie ever seen at the ClaZel, Irene from 1926. It's of course a silent and Michael Peslikis played piano accompaniment. Which he learned to do back in the 70s when they were living in Greece and some international touring company was bringing a series of silent films to European capitals and he answered an ad in the newspaper to play along with them. He has more stories.

Weds. of Swamp week is the original A Star is Born. And Night of the Living Dead Oct. 7!

I have announced the Labor Day party which is Monday Sept. 7. Starts at 3, eat at 6, I provide meats and fixins and chips. Please attend.