BBQ Festival

So I haven’t gotten around to writing in a while, but I have an excuse. I’ve been extremely busy.

Last week was the Memphis in May World Championship BBQ Festival. This year, I joined the Ques Brothers team instead of just going to their tent and mooching off them. What this meant was a fair amount of work building the booth/tent/location, eating a lot of BBQ, drinking a lot of frosty beverage, and even bartending for a night.

While I didn’t manage to get the quality of pictures that Paul did, I did manage to snap a few shots on my cell phone here and there. You can find them on my Facebook page. For Paul’s large, large number of pictures, check his PicasaWeb page. You’ll find several of me drinking, dancing, and debauching the nights away.

The important news is that the team won third place in the shoulder competition. I tasted a bit of this prize winning shoulder, and it was easily the best pork I’ve ever had. Amazing stuff. Our head cook, Willie, got 12th last year in his first year in the festival, and then moved it on up to 3rd in only his second year. This is basically unheard of. Many teams go for 10 or more years without breaking into the top ten. So, major props to the cook. And if you’re in Chicago, go try his restaurant and tell him the Ques Brothers sent you, and congratulate him on his victory.

Whole body pain

Is this some sort of consequence of being 30 again? This post-drinking weekend whole body pain thing? Because if it is, then I’m going to have to start researching high quality medications again. My ankle is hurt, the muscles in my back are strained, I can’t turn my neck… all because of the music festival.

To make it even more fun, my A/C and icemaker both chose this weekend to stop working for no appearant reason. So it was like 85 in my apartment all weekend. That tended to drive us outside and drink, though, so in that respect it wasn’t so bad. I’ve fixed the icemaker now, they’re fixing the A/C today.

Anyway, it was a good show. I enjoyed Cake and Blues Traveller a lot. Yellowcard was surprisingly good when they did a Weezer cover. I sat around the Blues Tent for a few hours on Sunday and enjoyed some beer and blues from several artists as well. Also ate a lot of BBQ. So it was good weekend in that respect. Beale Street was fun and had a lot of interesting characters. One dude we saw walking around dressed up as Gene Simmons ended up on the front page of the Sunday paper. )

So it was fun. But I still need to find drugs.

Memphis in May

Okay, so MiM is coming up soon, and the Beale Street Music Festival is calling out, crying out for recognition. As usual, I will be having over any of my friends who care to come for a weekend of music, ribs, and debauchery, albeit not necessarily in that order.

So, all the information you want can be found on the Memphis in May website, and I’ll be emailing everybody soon with details on my discount. It will not be much, but considering that the single day price at the gate will be $25 this year, it’s better than in the past.

The band lineup is also available on their website, but if you’re not up for web navigation, here’s a direct link: (PDF)

Dates are May 5th, 6th, and 7th. There is one other good thing this year. In the past couple years, they always saved the best for last, as Mandy can testify to. This year, that doesn’t seem to be the case. Sunday’s lineup does have some quality bands, however, IMO, the best music is going to be on Friday and Saturday. Including B.B. King, who’s right at the top of Friday.

Anyway, come one, come all.

Edit: I sent out an email to several people with the details. If you didn’t get that email, and you want to come, email me for those details.

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