Quinnebaug River Canoe Trail

We put the kayaks in the water for the first time this year on Sunday. We took a leisurely 4 hour paddle and finished up the trip with a stop at Friendly's! Oh yeah!

4rilla Approved Daytrip -- Portland ME

We started the long weekend off a day early. On Friday Crystal and I took a drive up to Portland, ME. We opted for the scenic route by traveling up the main drag known as Route 1 as opposed to just driving up 95.

We parked the car right in the heart of the Old Port district and in 2 minutes we found ourselves outside Vignola. Crystal has read about them in Yankee Magazine, their menu is changed weekly and they try to source all their foodstuffs thru organic Maine growers and farmers. Crystal was hoping for fiddleheads but they weren't on the menu.

We settled on a cheese plate to split and Crystal had a vegetable panini which was stuffed with every veggie under the sun and cooked just so, while I had Maine Brisket Hash with potatoes, parsnips and carrots with two poached eggs on top. Served up in a mound on a smoking hot skillet. Oh boy! That was a late breakfast spectacular.

From there we did some walking around checking out the shops before heading into Sebago Brewing Company to taste the wares. There were only two stools at the bar as it was the Friday lunchtime rush, but as luck would have it these two stools were next to the VP and Brewmaster. So within no time he was talking beer with us a pouring us a full flight of samplers. I was a big fan of the Lake Trout Stout and Crystal was all about the Barleywine.

Plenty of funky little shops that aren't totally touristy to keep the jaded occupied for the afternoon, before getting beers at Gritty's. Then a quick trip up the road to LL Bean and back home.

As they say, "Maine The Way Life Should Be"


Vignola
Sebago Brewing Co.
Gritty's

The 12 Best Household Uses For Vodka

I just saw this on apartmenttherapy. There is always vodka in the house and now when I don't feel like drinking it I use it to clean my shower grout and remove hairspray from mirrors!!

If you are looking for alternate uses for the vodka in your liquor cabinet check out the full list of best uses here:


12 Household Uses For Vodka

Bird Steals The Ball

In honor of tonight's Eastern Conference Division Final between Boston and Detroit.

You Trip I Trip Road Trip!!!

About two weeks ago I found out about an arts event that was taking place last weekend in Beacon NY. Beacon features the art museum Dia: Beacon which features art from the 60's through the present and opened in 2003. Dia: Beacon and is housed in an old Nabisco factory which was then used by International Paper before being donated to the museum.

But we didn't even make it to Dia: Beacon since we headed there to check out the live painting for Electric Windows which is a street art installation that will hang in the windows of an abandoned and derelict factory for the next year. Last weekend 20 street artists headed to Beacon to paint their own 8' x 12' canvas live on the street while people milled about and djs, bands and spoken word sessions went down on the other sidewalk. Main St. is a thriving arts scene with at least 8 to 10 art galleries, plenty of interesting independent and ethnic restaurant choices side by side with hair salons, convenience stores and cutesy tea rooms and candle stores that look like they would fit right in on Cape Cod.

From talking to the locals the town (with a 2000 census population of just under 14,000) had all the same issues facing them that we see here in Worcester. Of course they have the advantage of being one hour by train from from New York City and sit at the base of a mountain on the shore of The Hudson River and we here in Worcester sit in The Heart of The Commonwealth.

Walking around the downtown area from gallery to doggie treat shop to coffee shop Crystal and I got nothing but a good vibe from the town. And it is easy to see that they are in the process of leveraging their past, their urban blight, the hand that they were dealt over the years and using the bones of unique features of their old buildings to create something that is viable for today. After all this is an event that made Crystal and I drive 3 hours each way to pump our small disposable income into their town's economy just because they were getting street artists to come and install pieces of work on an abandoned building.

Bubba The Love Sponge's Unsigned Band Review & Podcast Willy

Since Worcester has plenty of unsigned bands as well as some podcasts I thought this would be some good information to throw out there to my local readers.

Bubba The Love Sponge and his crew are the afternoon drive radio show on Howard 101 on Sirius Satellite Radio and they also do a live morning show on terrestrial radio that is syndicated on Florida radio stations. I had never listened to Bubba prior to him joining Howard Stern on Sirius, but in the past two and a half years I have become a big fan of Bubba and the gang. Their sensibilities are wilder and crazier than even Howard's and Bubba's show has seemed to pick up the torch of the everyman, now that Stern has more money than God.

The Bubba show has been featuring the unsigned band review for about a year or so. Once a week they feature two different unsigned bands and listen to two tracks off of a cd. After each song they go around the room and basically give the track a thumbs up or thumbs down. More bands fail than pass, but even if you fail you get some Carson's Ribs for your trouble.

In the Podcast Willy segment the crew listens to a submitted podcast and critiques it from a radio professionals point of view. They have only been doing this bit for a few weeks and the couple podcasts I have heard have been lackluster at best but the bits have been funny.

It would be pretty cool if some of Worcester's finest submitted their material here.


Unsigned Band Review
Podcast Willy

Electric Windows- Beacon, NY 5/17-5/18

Cross your fingers for nice weather next Saturday. There is a street art throwdown in Beacon, NY and if the weather seems favorable I think Crystal and I will be heading on a road trip. I think the day will be well worth the 3 hour drive each way and $40.00 (eek) in gas.

Electric Windows will be a street art installation in an abandoned electric blanket factory. The building currently has 24 empty window bays that measure roughly 8'x12' and 24 street artists will be on hand over the weekend to create a piece to fill one window. The completed project will stay in place for 12 months. One of the funniest aspects of this project is how similar in style the building is to The University Park Lofts here in Worcester which doubles as 4rilla Worldwide HQ.

And the artist lineup is top notch, including:

Rene Gagnon
Ron English
Michael DeFeo
Elbow Toe
+ 20 more

A gallery show accompanies the installation along with bands and dj's all day as well as an afterhours party at a BBQ joint! Other events in Beacon NY on the same weekend include open studios at both Beacon Studios and Spire Studios and launch of Habitat for Artists.

This sounds like the perfect recipe for a road trip!!!

Check out the links below:


Electric Windows
Beacon Studios
Spire Studios
Habitat For Artists