I’m not sure if I believe the weather forecast this week. It looks awesome outside right now, and it’s just about 100 degrees, but they say it’s going to storm all weekend? Ridiculous. Anyway, this weekend preview is so late that it’s already calling me about child support. Time to stop chit chatting and get this thing did.

Check out the weather and shows below the break!

Friday – 7/16 – Isolated T-Storms – 99/74

Saturday – 7/17- Isolated T-Storms -88/71

Sunday – 7/18- Isolated T-Storms -93/74

Friday

The Hogwaller Ramblers – Fridays After Five – 5:30PM – Free!

-I know I’ve picked on this sort of behavior in the past, but now I just kinda think it’s awesome. The Ramblers are playing 3 days of shows this weekend, and I think that’s just great. I also like the Hogwaller Ramblers, so I may be biased. I can’t not approve of a person that can make music with a washboard.

The Love Language & Drunk Tigers – The Southern – 8PM – $8/advance – $10/day of show

Saturday

The Hogwaller Ramblers  & Rose’s Pawn Shop – The Southern – 8PM – $8

-Rose’s Pawn Shop is actually the headlining band here, but screw it. It’s a Hogwaller Rambler’s weekend.

B.B. King – The Pavilion – 7PM – $33-$82

-You should go to this. If you haven’t seen B.B. King before, you need to see him once before he kicks off. I had this same theory about James Brown the last time he came to town, and he was dead within months. I’m not saying that I’m the angel of death, but I’m not not saying that either.

The Brian Patrick Band – Rapunzel’s – 8PM – $5

-A friend of mine plays pedal steel and guitar with this group, and it’s a sight to behold. Pedal steel is awesome, and you don’t find it very often. If you’re anywhere near this show, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Sunday

The Hogwaller Ramblers – Fellini’s #9 – 10PM – Free!

Lady Antebellum – The Pavilion – 7PM – $35-$45

-So… if I’ve got this right… this band is famous for a song about a booty call? Ok, maybe that’s not so bad. But still, that song is on the radio every five minutes and is a summary what’s wrong with popular country music. Meh.

Secretly Y’all: Secret Shame – Random Row Books – 7PM – $5 (suggested donation)

-Go. To. This. It’s the last SY for a couple of months, and everybody’s favorite MC may be retiring. Monday looks like it’s going to be a sick day.

What else is going on this weekend?

Ok folks, it’s time for yet another Secretly Y’all. They’re taking a month off after this one, so if you’ve been thinking about participating… the time to get your attention whore fix is now. The details are all the same: Sunday (July 18th), Random Row Books, 7PM, $5 donation, Bring a chair. I’m not exactly sure what the ‘Secret Shame’ theme means, but I’m hoping that it means we’re going to hear a bunch of really embarrassing stories. Sometimes these stories can lean to the emotional side, and I think it’s just super that everyone gets to talk about their feelings…. but I’ll tell you; I’m not sneaking in the finest bourbon $6 can buy for all that. The real gold at these things is in the embarrassing stories. The more I think about it… they’ve timed it perfectly. The theme almost guarantees all hilarious stories, and the impending hiatus adds a little bit of pressure on the folks that have been shy about participating. I’d expect this to be one of the best SY events yet.

We’ll probably be pre-gaming at W. Main, Zinc, or Continental Divide. Sunday is the last day of restaurant week, so dinner and then Secretly Y’all makes for a pretty awesome datenight. If you can get in at l’etoile, your whole night is easily within walking distance.

So, come on out and catch the Secretly Y’all crew before they break for a month. I’ve got inside info that one of the best story tellers is about to skip continent for a couple of months, so there’s a little extra pressure to catch her before she goes. And remember to bring a chair!!

This summer has been pretty awesome so far. It’s been all flipcup tournaments, truck pools, and barbecue. My favorite party of the year has yet to come, and hopefully I’ll actually pull it off before we run out of summer. I’m building an enormous slip n’ slide, and to be honest… there’s absolutely nothing safe about it. A friend of mine has volunteered his farm for the project, and the slide and ramp are dead in the middle of a huuuuge hayfield. Unless you want to walk a few hundred feet every time you want a beer, it’s going to require several coolers. That’s fine.. but a pain in the ass to maintain.

<Insert Segue Here>

Sooooo….. that brings us to yesterday, where we were all sitting around the smoker and salivating over the idea of delicious baby back rib goodness. My friend with the farm, got a call from someone trying to unload a couple of miniature donkeys. He was a bit apprehensive at first, but after a bit of crowd persuasion…. he agreed to take them on.

You see…. we have lucked our way into a solution for our little cooler versus distance problem. I propose to you…. the minibeerdonkey. It’s as easy as a couple of 5-gallon buckets and some modified saddlebags. I’m not sure if two 5-gallon buckets full of beer are too much to load onto a single mini-donkey, but we’ve got a full size donkey for proof of concept and design scaling. The next step, and possibly the more difficult one… is training the donkeys to come when you call them. I’m sure that it’ll be a couple of weeks worth of training, but donkeys are pretty smart. I have faith in them. They will help me to realize my Utopian vision of a mobile beer cooler. I long for the day that I can stand in the middle of a field, and a single whistle will bring me two coolers full of beer. I’m so excited. Like, Jesse Spano excited.

I’m also excited, because I might have to walk one of these things on the downtown mall. There are way bigger dogs on the mall, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to bring a donkey. If nothing else, it will be a lot of fun driving around town with a donkey leaning his head out of the Jeep windows.

I guess that was only really one, maybe two uses for a miniature donkey. What else can you guys think of?

Ohhhhhh Thank God, it’s the weekend! This week has been craziness. Unfortunately, there won’t be much time to slow down, because things are finally coming back to life in this town. There are no less than 3 great shows this weekend, and at least one awesome thing to do each day. The weather looks a little iffy, and I checked at least 3 different sites to try and find a forecast that didn’t potentially suck. As it turns out, all of the other sites use words that are more complicated than ‘Isolated T-Storms’ and ‘Sunny’, so weather.com saves the day yet again. On the upside, I checked out the hourly forecast and it looks like it’ll mostly be stiflingly humid all day, and the rain should only last an hour or two. I know we need the rain, but I’m willing to stick out one more blistering weekend just for the sake of being outside. I’ve spent the last two weekends baking in the sun while participating in flipcup tournaments, so I don’t see any reason to break that pattern now. I’m predicting much barbecuing and cup flipping.
So… check out the weather and shows below, and let us know what awesome things you’re getting into this weekend!

Friday – 7/9 – Isolated T-Storms – 94/73

Saturday – 7/10 – Scattered T-Storms – 80/66

Sunday – 7/11 – Sunny – 91/67

Friday

Trees on Fire – Fridays After Five – 5:30PM – Free!

-These guys are awesome, and this show is bound to be a lot of fun. Definitely worth checking out.

The Groove Train – The Jefferson – 8PM – $8/advance – $10/at the door

-Check out the link for this show. This looks amazing. I need bell-bottoms, a silk shirt, and an afro wig, STAT!

Ted Pitney Band – The Southern – 8PM – $8

Saturday

Southern Culture On The Skids – The Jefferson – 8PM – $15/advance – $17/at the door

-Yet another show that the promo picture alone is enough to sell me.

The New Best Recipe – The Southern – 9PM – $5

Sunday

Final Match of the World Cup – Netherlands vs Spain – ABC/The Paramount/Any bar with a TV – 2:30PM – Free!

-Ok, so it looks like there may be some ‘Supporters of the Paramount’ membership thing needed to get into that venue for free, but if you’re in that club, congrats. We don’t really have a horse in this race anymore, but I guess I could get behind the Netherlands. Those people in Amsterdam really seem to have their shit together.

Man.. things around town are getting kinda slow.  There aren’t too many events other than the standard weekly gigs at bars. It’s 4th of July weekend, so there will at least be plenty of drinking and exploding of things. But yeah… that’s about it. On the upside, the weather is going to be pretty awesome and there are a lot of private parties for the 4th. On the downside, we’re getting into the part of the summer where bars start closing for a week or more. Ventana is closed next week, and I’m sure there will be more to come.  But, getting back to the upside of things… it’s the weekend!!

Look below for the two things happening this weekend and some half-assed guesses at the weather!

Friday – 7/2 – Sunny – 81/55

Saturday – 7/3 – Sunny – 88/62

Sunday – 7/4 – Sunny – 95/69

Friday

Down Til Now – Charlottesville Pavilion – 5:30PM – Free!

Saturday

Last night before shutting down for a week – Ventana – 4PM-~3AM – $Allofyourmoneys

-This is going to be a drunkfest. Michael gets super generous on weekends like this, and everybody ends up super drunk. Get a seat. Stay late. Stumble home. Welcome to my usual weekend’s 3-step plan.

Sunday

McIntire Park Fireworks

-The city usually puts on a pretty awesome fireworks show. This year I’m going to be in a place that isn’t surrounded by 100-foot tall trees. Also, being minus one dog, I won’t have to spend the entire night consoling an animal in an extreme state of panic. I love having a dog, but the 4th of July is one of those weekends that can make it a chore. This year, it’s just me and the liquor bottle getting jiggy with it. Monday is going to be life-endingly terrible.

It’s a post-apocalyptic weekend! The town still looks like mayhem, and a lot of folks are still without power. Dominion is claiming that up to 60,000 people in the Charlottesville/Albemarle area were in the dark at one point, but now the numbers have been reduced to about 13,000. The UVA Hospital ran on backup generators all night, though I’m not sure if they’re back up and running by now. I have witnessed hundreds of people reduced to deer in the headlights when faced with a powerless stop light, and even resorted to directing traffic at a couple of intersections myself.

There’s not a ton going on this weekend, but the good news is that you’ll never have an awkward pause! Everybody that I’ve spoken to has had some crazy storm stories. You’ll never find yourself short of topics of conversation and anxiety drinking yourself into oblivion. Check out the weather and event info after the break, and let us know what kind of crazy stuff you saw in/after the storm!

!!Break!!

Friday – 6/25- Partly Cloudy – 89/68

Saturday – 6/26 – Mostly Sunny – 96/73

Sunday – 6/27 – Isolated T-Storms – 97/78

Friday

The Kings of Belmont – Fridays After Five – 5:30PM – Free!

-This is going to be one of the best FAF of the year. The band is actually worth hearing, but the acoustics suck over by the beer truck. This one might call for a path through the crowd that isn’t straight from the ticket counter to the boozemobile. The only thing that anyone is going to be talking about at this thing is the storm.

Invisible Hand – The Southern – 8PM – Free!

Saturday

Zombie Jello Wrestling – Check FB event for location – 9PM – $5

-I don’t know a ton about this event. I don’t even really know where it is, but I hear they have a location on the fb event. It should be entertaining at the very least. I fail to see the charm of the ‘zombie’ part, but I’m totally down to watch a bunch of  girls do some jello wrestling. If there is not a betting pool in place, I hope to create one.

Sunday

Jimmy Cliff – The Pavilion – 7PM – ~$35

-This is the rescheduled show, and a lot of people are pretty excited for it. I’d love to check it out, but I have other engagements.

Ladies FlipCup Tournament – 2PM – Location TBD – Free!

-I’m helping a friend of mine to coordinate this, and we’ve all been too drunk to finalize things. There is a location in mind, but we’ve still got to nail things down. Keep tuned here for location details. Per the team rules, it’s going to be 4 people per team, and your team captain HAS TO BE FEMALE. If the weather holds out, this thing could be bigger than the World Cup.

This weekend is going to be bananas. A good friend of mine is getting hitched, and I made sure that there would be shuttle service to and from the festivities. It’s a designated driver weekend. It’s going to be crazy hot, so things are bound to get real good and drunk/interesting at the wedding. I had to promise not to ice the groom during the walk down the aisle, so I can’t guarantee that the ceremony won’t be boring. The best part is that everyone in the wedding party is bound to go out later, so late night at the Box is going to look like a Billy Idol video. Anyway, there are a few fun looking shows out there this weekend, and the weather is going to be conducive to very little clothing. I predict that James River will look like a floating subsection of West Virginia.

Check out the weather and shows after the break!

Weather Forecast!

Friday – 6/18 – Sunny – 87/65

Saturday – 6/19 – Mostly Sunny – 92/73

Sunday – 6/20 – Sunny – 96/70

And the shows!

Friday

SGGL with Mariana Bell – Fridays after Five – 5:30PM – Free!

Anders Osborne – The Southern – 7PM – $15

-Looks like this will be a short show, because the Comedy Roundtable is coming up right afterward.

The Charlottesville Comedy Roundtable  - The Southern – 10PM – $6

-Just get a seat. That’s all I can tell you. I don’t know if this place will be shy of seats like some of the other comedy shows have been, but there is no confusing a comedy show with a concert. Standing up the whole time sucks, and is not hip in any way.

Saturday

Thao and Mirah with The Most of All – The Southern – 8PM – $12

-One of these girls looks kind of like an asian Bjork. That’s kinda hot.

Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Paramount – 8PM – $?

-If you were going to this, you would know exactly how much tickets cost because your fan club sent you an advance ticket order 6 months ago.

Sunday

BIG CATS: An Afternoon with Nat Geo Photog Steve Winter – The Paramount – 4PM – $12-$50

-Oh man.. I don’t think it’s this guy.. but one time I got stuck at a bar talking to one of these National Geographic photographer guys. Being out in the wild must really fuck up your social skills, because that dude was a really special combination of boring and asshole. I eventually dumped him off to Mz Fitz, and she had to deal with him for the next half hour. Hopefully, this guy will be a lot cooler, but if not… you were warned.

Father’s Day!

- Ok people, this is not a drill. This time, it’s the real thing. Call your dad. Thank him for that time that he talked the officer out of giving you a DUI.

Weekend Preview Time!!! Better late than never?

The weather is a little unsure for this weekend, but there’s still a lot of fun stuff going on. If nothing else, you can stay in and watch the USA tear shit up in the World Cup. Our first game is against England tomorrow, 8:30PM (South Africa Time). Tonight’s weather is supposed to be great, so I hope to see everybody out on the mall with a drink in hand. Paper bags are encouraged. I’m working on something pretty awesome towards the end of this month, so if you’ve just about given up on us by now, be sure to at least check back before the end of the month. For now, check out the weather and event listing below the break!

Weather Forecast!

Friday – 6/11 - Sunny – 87/67

Saturday – 6/12 - Isolated T-Storms – 91/73

Sunday – 6/13 - Scattered T-Storms – 92/73

And on to the events!

Friday

Kathryn Caine – Fridays After Five – 5:30PM – Free!

The Honey Dewdrops and The David Wax Museum – The Southern – 7PM – $12

Saturday

This Will Destroy You, A Cosmonaut’s Ruin, & Chiaroscuro – 8PM – $8/advance – $10/at the door

Sunday

Harry Connick, Jr – The Pavilion – 7PM – ~$33-$98

Secretly Y’all: Consumed – Random Row Books – 7PM – $5!

-Go to this. I didn’t have much time to boss you guys around when I did the event write up for this month’s SY, so I’ll take a moment to do so now. Go to Secretly Y’all. They’re so much fun, a great place to meet a lot of neat folks from around town, and very conducive to drinking. I’m predicting West Main for the pre-game.

Have an awesome weekend!!

It’s Secretly Y’all time again! I know this is what I say every month, but these things really do get better with each event. The details are all the same: Sunday (6/13), 7PM, Random Row Books, $5 much-needed donation, bring a chair. The theme this go-round is ‘Consumed’. I was trying to figure out how to explain that, but Lauren beat me to the punch:

me: so

Consumed is about….?

food?

Lauren: passion

things you buy

things you eat

things that eat you


So, join us for pre-gaming on Sunday and be sure to bring a folding chair for the event. It runs from about 7 to 9, so if you come out, definitely stick around until the end. By the second half, the audience usually has a buzz going and the show gets even more fun. I heard a rumor that there may be popsicles for this event, so for once they will actually be ambient temperature appropriate. I’m also told that there’s going to be a special surprise, but they won’t give me any details. My bet is on midget strippers.

See you on Sunday!

So… this weekend I did the usual and put off going to the grocery store as much as possible. That comprised of some delivery, some carryout, and a little bit of a la carte from the counter. The problem is… I’m losing track of how much you’re supposed to tip for each service.

Like most of you, I used to work in food service and I understand how valuable tips are. By that rule, I think I tend to err on the heavy tipping side. While dining in a restaurant, I believe that 20% is the absolute minimum… unless the server did something to dictate otherwise. I realize that food taking a long time to come from the kitchen is typically a kitchen or expo issue, and not the fault of your server. Mis-timed food (some hot, some cold) can be the fault of the server, but can equally fall to the back of the house. Things like terrible drink service, repeatedly forgetting to bring requested items, or likewise tends to fall directly on the server. There are extenuating circumstances such as that person being brand new to the job, but they tend to be easy to spot and I’m pretty lenient on those folks. Honestly, even for a bad server it would be extraordinarily rare for them to see less than 15% from me.

But… that’s not really the issue. Sit-down dining is easy to tip out.

I want to know how you guys handle the rest of food service. How do you tip on delivery? How about carryout/curbside pick-up? And what about just ordering from the counter (a la Michoacana or Durty Nelly’s)?

For delivery… I may be behind the times… but I dunno. For instance.. this weekend.. I ordered $40 worth of chinese food from Asian Express. That place is less than one mile from my house, and I know it to be fact that they take multiple orders out for each run. That being said.. I usually just tip the guy $4, as I’ve been scaling my delivery tips up since the old days when $2 was cool (what… 10 years ago?). I bumped it up to $5, but still I don’t know where that stands. Should I be tipping a percentage on delivery? Why? The guy just drove a Honda .7 miles from the resto (or his previous drop). I don’t suspect that he did any of the food prep, so I’m not sure why a percentage would be appropriate?

And what about curb-side pickup? To me, this just seems like a glorified expo. I’ve been told that the person assigned to curb-side pickup for the night gets paid a different wage (not exactly back of the house, but not exactly front of the house). So… I feel obliged to tip them something for carrying my bag of food out the door and to my car (where I’ve been waiting for 10 minutes). I know that they are supposedly the ones that are packing the food into a bag, and making sure you get that sweet plasticware…. but does that deserve the same level of gratuity that a server bringing you drinks and being attentive deserves? How would you guys tip out a $40 order of curb-side pickup from Outback?

And from the counter a la carte… this one is particularly tricky.. and I feel like I’m in the minority here, for sure. I tend to tip for over the counter orders. This is likely because I frequent local restaurants that I’d like to see succeed. I’ll personally finance La Michoacana if I have to, just to keep them in business. So, for instance at Durty Nelly’s…. I order a $7 sandwich, and I tend to drop a couple bucks in the tip jar. You wouldn’t tip extra at McDonald’s or Wendy’s, so why do so at a deli? I do so for the reason mentioned above… but I’m not sure that the majority works that way.

I’ll be honest that I think I know what got me started tipping on a la carte orders. I pay for EVERYTHING on my credit/debit card. By that rule, I see a lot of blanks where you are supposed to write in a tip. Leaving a tip blank empty just feels like bad karma for me. I ordered breakfast from Italian Villa this weekend, and it was just $16. By the time I got there to pick it up, the place was such a zoo that I felt bad for the girl at the register. After she cleared the six tickets in front of me out of the register, I decided to tip a few dollars just because she was working so hard. After leaving, I realized that I had tipped over 20% on a take-out order… and that seemed great for the karma… but perhaps a bit much?

How do you guys handle tipping around town? Feel free to add advice on tipping for drinks as well. I definitely overtip at the bar, because I have a sick infatuation with bartenders. However, that one tends to work to the favor of all parties in the end.