Have you ever looked across the table at your fellow barflies and wondered what you were going to talk about next? Well, at the Brewhaus we never seem to have that problem. But if you do, here is a list of topics recently pondered over many a basket of burnt popcorn:
Experiencing the world -- or at least my small part of it -- one minor diversion at a time ...
Jun 21, 2012
Things Discussed at the Brewhaus, No. 9
Have you ever looked across the table at your fellow barflies and wondered what you were going to talk about next? Well, at the Brewhaus we never seem to have that problem. But if you do, here is a list of topics recently pondered over many a basket of burnt popcorn:
Jun 18, 2012
Irish Days in Farmersville, Ill. (or one more reason to drink)
I’ll chalk this blog entry up to another in the category
of “What I did this weekend.” I’ve long
heard my mysterious and exotic Gypsy talk about what a great time it is at
Irish Days in Farmersville, a small farming community (go figure) about 30
minutes south of Springfield, Ill., just off Interstate 55. So, we made plans to meet friends who are
from there and check it out.
I have to be honest … I’m not sure what makes
Farmersville’s Irish Days Irish. Perhaps
the town was settled by a lot of people of Irish descent. We do know several Murphys from the
area. But if you’re looking for Celtic
music, highland games, Guinness beer and corned beef and cabbage, you’re
probably going to be disappointed.
What Irish Days does appear to be is your standard small
town homecoming festival/picnic, and like most of those are, it was very
entertaining for what it was. As you’d
expect, the festival was held in the center of town, on the square. When we arrived, we grabbed a quick bite to
eat from the food vendors set up in the park – a pork chop sandwich for me and
a cheeseburger for Gypsy. I added a
slice (actually more like a rectangle) of pizza from the Boy Scouts – always
nice to support a local cause.
With a food base to go on, it took us no time to find the
beer tent, where we met our friends (yes, the Murphys were among them).
I found it!! |
Jun 12, 2012
Art by day, wine by night
After a long weekend volunteering at the SOHO Music
Festival to start the month and a busy stretch at work, I’ve been suffering
from a little “blogger’s block,” as I like to call it. But I figure there’s no better way to get
back on track than recapping an eventful and extremely fun Saturday.
As fate would have it, I served as a roadie for a
mysterious and exotic Gypsy selling her wares at the MacART Fest just a few
blocks down the road. The festival is
part of a revitalization effort for the MacArthur Boulevard corridor in
Springfield, Ill. In addition to raising
funds for the effort, the festival helps brings people into the neighborhood to
see the recent surge of specialty shops and businesses taking roots in the
area. And since we live so close by, it
was a no-brainer for Gypsy to participate in the arts and crafts fair June 9.
Jun 3, 2012
Random observations from the 2012 SOHO Music Festival
Another weekend of volunteering at the eighth annual SOHO
Music Festival in downtown is on the books.
You may remember my post about last year’s event, so I won’t spend too
much time on setting up the festival, but I did want to put down a few thoughts
now that the festival has wrapped up what appears to be another highly
successful fundraiser for the Mini O’Bierne Crisis Nursery.
From Friday night, Tom Irwin and the Hayburners |
So, if you’ll indulge some extemporaneous babble, here
are some takeaways I had from SOHO 2012:
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