Bad Luck City Blog

Local beer geek Jack Curtin was invited to attend the Dixie Brewing Company’s 100th year anniversary and reopening party today. Turns out the New Orleans brewery was devasted by Hurricane Katrina. It was initially under 9 feet of water, then was almost completely looted of everything of value in the aftermath.

Dixie beer brands, including the popular Blackened Voodoo have been contract brewed in the interim. I had no idea the brewery was out of commission until I read Jack’s site and did some research. Turns out NPR even noticed their plight.

I had the opportunity to “tour” the brewery back in 2003. I was in the Big Easy for the amazing annual Jazz & Heritage Festival (confusingly shortened to “Jazzfest” by most people) and ran into a guy who worked at the facility. He invited me to a private tour the next day but never showed up. So my friends and I entered the wide open building and took our own tour. (I had little reservation about it since I’d already been invited, and I had already “toured” many breweries in the past, my first a vacant brewery in Flint, Michigan as a teenager, and later, every vacant brewery in Philly). We never came across a soul even though the place was wide-open and we went through the whole thing. I snapped the above shot of one of the kettles, then rode my bike up Tulane Avenue to check out the wonderful but vacant Falstaff building, which ceased production in 1978.

A quick search of the Internets found a lot of images of the brewery post Katrina, and I have to admit, they don’t look much worse than it did back when I visited!

New Orleans, unlike the rest of the almost dry South, has quite a brewing history. Before prohibition they boasted 13 breweries.

The Jackson Brewery (brewers of Jax) which closed in 1974, has been converted into a nice shopping mall and condos. I had no clue about the city’s rich brewing history until I arrived there and literally stumbled into all three of them.

Dixie opened it’s doors on Halloween day, 1907. We’ll keep an eye out for pictures and reports of today’s party. I’m sure it’ll be a good time.

More pics here

MP3: Dr. John- (Everybody Wanna Get Rich) Rite Away

Well actually 105th, but I just realized it.

Bad Luck City also reached an even bigger milestone this weekend. Here’s the story:

I’m at a birthday party and my friend MK was next to me talking to this guy Tommy, whom I’d never met. They were talking about upcoming shows at the North Star, and I shit you not, he says to her, “I never get out to shows, but I always read up on them at this guy’s site called Bad Luck City”. She turns and hits me and yells, “that’s his!”

Tommy and I shot the shit and he even knew the origins of the name (I think that’s how he stumbled upon it, him being a big R.L Burnside fan). And he didn’t just view it a couple times- he actually checks it regularly, and wasn’t blowing smoke cuz he mentioned quite a few of the posts.

I’ve been linked from a few sites now, including Brooklyn Vegan, which was pretty exciting, but most of the time I wonder why I bother writing posts that in my mind, only my family and maybe my friends are reading. I lamented how I wished I was able to do this when I was younger when I was out and about every night, and he said someting encouraging which never occurred to me: He reads BLCB because I’m older (and wiser?) and he can relate to it a bit more than if it were written by some young snot-nosed punk.

So now I have motivations to write this drivel. Thanks Tommy!

Now all I need is a stalker.

5 weeks in and there’s finally a standalone.
I feel like a regional sports fan whose team has finally played well and won.
The medium of weird standalone with subtle bits of exposition works well. 4 consecutive hour-format serials is too much. It’s a freggin mini-series. And I need to be able to miss a week here and there, yo.
NBC please do not spoon-feed us again… that was an awful way to start a season.
The Office is back!

A travelandLeisure.com survey placed Philly at the very bottom of yet another list.

My favorite quote from the article on yahoo.com: “Farley pointed out the results don’t mean people in Philadelphia are ugly or the city is a bad place to visit…We were asking people to vote on attractiveness, not unattractiveness.”

Philly’s slowly getting to be more cosmopolitan so I often hear foreign accents, especially Irish and French. But it was really surprising to hear some guys with thick Southern accents when I was out and about last Friday night.
I connect more with rednecks than I do with East Coast city folk, so we hit it off right away. These two long-time friends, one surprisingly a life-long Eagles fan, the other a Bears fan, decided to spend the weekend in the big city and hit the game on Sunday.
They arrived on Friday afternoon and after checking into their hotel in Center City immediately hit the bars. We crossed paths at about bar #5 and it was still happy hour. After too many beers I offered to take ‘em out the next day and show them some sights.
We got a cheesesteak then spent less than an hour touring historic Old City. By about 4:00 we were already bellied up to the bar at Eulogy. I don’t remember much what we talked about after that, mostly because their drawl got thicker and thicker the more they drank! Luckily I snapped some pictures to remember them by.

By the way, they loved Philly. They thought it was clean (!?) and they said the people were friendly (double !!??) … at least I thought that’s what they said.

Was looking for a beermeister on craigslist today and came across this.
Most stuff on craigslist is junk, but this is a REAL find.

Some underage kid must’ve stashed it away from his parents back in the 1940s or 50s and forgotten about it.

The Adam Scheidt Brewing Company in Norristown was bought by Schmidt in the early 60s and closed in 1975.

If I was closer to Limerick PA I’d be all over that!

First the bad news. More homogenization of the brewing industry:

The number 2 and 3 brewers in North America, SAB Miller and Molson/Coors are merging. The new company can now put the same pisswater in both Miller Lite and Coors Lite. Lite beer drinkers won’t have such a hard time deciding between the two since they will no longer taste exactly the same, they WILL be the same. Its WIN WIN!

Across the pond, there’s news that Carlsberg and Heineken are in talks to form a consortium to buy the UK’s largest brewer, Scottish & Newcastle.

Why is this bad news? Lew Bryson can explain it better than me:

Seriously, does this really matter to any of us? Yes, it does. These massive consolidations mean even more deracination (look it up) of beer and beer culture. They cost jobs in the beer industry, and the benefit is what — a slight increase in profits that is lost in the cost of the consolidation and increased costs of advertising. Some smaller brands will inevitably disappear.

And then what? A race to make the cheapest light beer they can sell for the most profit? Maybe. For sure, you’ll see a lot less options, and many of the options you will get will be meaningless. God, I’m feeling bleak this morning.

More from Lew here.

The good news?

Seems Tom Kehoe has found a location for his new Yards brewery building. I’m really happy to report that he’s staying in Philly (there was some speculation that he’d move to Jersey) and even happier to report that it’ll be in Northern Liberties. Joe Sixpack has more. More here.
I really do wish Tom good luck, even though some readers took my older post to the contrary.

In related news, I finally got a chance to hit the new Tom Peters/Fergie Joint the Belgain Cafe and was surprised to see a new Yards tap by the name of Chateau Kenso. I REALLY liked this 9%(!) Belgian strong white ale, but unfortunately, I don’t remember much more of the night!
More descriptive reviews at beer advocate.

Pictured: a few of the offerings (among over 200!) at the Belgian Cafe. (no, I didn’t drink all these, but close.)
Chateau Kenso is second from the left.

Got convinced into driving 7+ hours this past weekend down to the Gauley River Recreation Area to celebrate the end of my buddy Brian’s single life. A group of us rafted the Upper Gauley River with the North American River Runners outfit. If you think back a few days you’ll remember that it was one of the colder weekends of the year and it was definitely cold on that river, even with a wetsuit. That’s why I said I had to be “convinced”. I’m not really afraid of drowning, even though someone WAS killed there the previous week… I’m just a pussy when it comes to cold.

After rafting ALL day, including 5 class five rapids and staying up late into the night I played paintball next day for the first time in my life. Now, anyone who knows this guy (pictured) will warn you he is NOT someone you want on the other team when guns are involved. Let’s just say he likes to bend the rules a bit. I got nailed in the neck on bare skin and had never felt pain in that magnitude in my life. And that hit happened AFTER I motioned that I was out of ammo. Dick!

All in all it was a good trip. This was my third trip down there and I stayed with a different outfit every time. They all do a really great job of organizing EVERYTHING: rafts, gear, guides, transportation, lodging, supplies, other activities, parties, beer, food etc.

This coming weekend is Bridge Day which brings in hundreds of thousands of people to the top of the New River Gorge Bridge (pictured) to view rapellers and parasailors (but no more bungee jumpers).

Some pics of one of the tougher rapids here. (Yes, we hit the same rock but managed to stay in the raft. Lots of people weren’t so lucky). There are also LOTS of videos of the river on youtube.

First it was these geese, shittin all over the place. Next, their currency rises on par with ours for the first time in my life. THEN they invade the music scene with a ton of amazing indie bands.

Now what have they done, you ask? They stuck their neck into the hallowed afrobeat genre by giving birth to the SoulJazz Orchestra. Not to be confused with the reggae reissue label of the same name, the Souljazz orchestra is straight up African funk ala Fela/Femi Kuti, Antibalas and the Budos Band, and they give the latter two a BIG run for their money.

I realize I’m a little late to the game since their debut LP came out last year, but I first heard them on this excellent Paris DJs afrofunk podcast.

Check out the keyboard solo at the end and the round of “hooa!” at the break. Pure funk.

No word on when they’ll be hitting the States, but I’ll let you know when they do.

MP3: The Souljazz Orchestra-Mista President

More here

…and while posting music, I MUST share some other stuff:

MP3: Santogold-Youll Find a Way (Switch and Sinden Mix)

Forget M.I.A. This chick is the shit. Bjork even asked her to open her NY show. More Santogold here.

And since it was my birthday yesterday, I HAVE to add this gem from an artist by the name of Example. Courtesy of Electric Zoo

MP3: Example- Birthday Card

and also a nice remix with a Carpenters vocal sample:

MP3: Example- So Many Roads (Herve Remix)

Example on myspace

I can’t believe it just might happen: The state of PA is close to repealing its archaic and completely ridiculous beer sales law. According to the front page article in the Inquirer, both houses of congress are in line to amend the laws, and if they do, it’ll happen by Sept. ‘08. The only problem is the beer distributors and tavern owners lobby. From the article:

But before beer mugs are raised in celebration, a warning: The bill could be amended again, and it faces opposition from organizations representing beer distributors and tavern owners that believe it could force many of their members out of business.

That’s the same damn argument made time and time again but most experts beer geeks agree that this is a win win situation.

Imagine PA, catching up with almost EVERY state in the union. Could it happen? Maybe the proposed Whole Foods at 16th & Vine St. will dedicate an entire section to craft beer, and a dining area where I can sit down and drink the brew I just bought, just like the one in Austin I visited this year.

Boy. Just think: some day soon when I get a hankerin for a Dogfishhead 90 minute IPA I won’t have to drop $50+ for an entire case or drive to New Joisy or Delaware to get a sixer.

Lets all keep our fingers crossed. Cheers!