The Cowtown Chronicles

Ryan Place resident John MacFarlane is coordinating a group trip to the Rahr & Sons Brewery on April 25th for Ryan Place residents. Meet him at triangle park at 12:30, bring your Rahr pint glass (if you have one), and $5.

The TCU Sustainable Futures Group is sponsoring a conference called “Urban Futures: Utilizing Green Technologies” this Thursday from 4PM until 7:30PM at the Omni Hotel in downtown Fort Worth.

Registration is $50 at the door, or $35 if you register online in advance. TCU students are now going to be allowed in for free, but Faculty and Staff will be charged $15.

Admission gets you free valet parking for your Prius (or your F350 Super Duty), beverages, and hors d’ oeuvres. There will be a cash bar, so if you want to get green around the gills while talking green tech, bring a grip of green. (I’M SO SICK OF “GREEN” EVERYTHING!)

1959 TCU grad Bob Schieffer will be hosting his annual Symposium, titled: “Obama and the Press: Is the media doing its job?”

Panelists scheduled to attend:

David Brooks, of the New York Times

Gwen Ifill, author of “The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama” (also moderator and managing editor of PBS’ Washington Week

Andrea Mitchell, chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News

Mark Shields, nationally syndicated columnist and commentator on PBS’ Newshour with Jim Lehrer

That’s a pretty bad-ass lineup of journalistic luminaries! I wonder if I can get them all into Scat Jazz Lounge after the Symposium? I’ll bet Andrea Mitchell could drink my buddy Steve under the table.

Dogfish Head Brewery, self-proclaimed home of “off-centered stuff for off-centered people” are hosting a vertical tasting at the Fort Worth (I double-checked this time) Flying Saucer on March 31st.

The tasting will be hosted by Claus Hagelman, Dogfish Head’s national sales director. (No, craft brewing rock-star Sam Calagione will not be there. Sorry to disappoint.)

Hagelman will conduct a vertical tasting, comparing current editions with vintage samples of four Dogfish Head beers. More specifically, they’ll be featuring some of Dogfish’s rarer brews — Fort, Immort Ale, 120 Minute IPA, and Burton Baton.

I’m not a big fan of the WAY over-hopped beers they produce, but Dogfish always makes quality beers. I enjoy most of their seasonal brews, and the really off-the-wall stuff like Midas Touch.

UFO Club members pay $35, regular schmoes will have to cough up $40.

Everyone’s favorite beer bar turns 13 this year — and they’re celebrating by throwing a party featuring a bunch of beverages that no 13-year-old should be drinking.

The party kicks off at 4PM this Saturday, the 7th. They’ll be tapping a new special keg every hour on the hour, starting with Avery Czar, and concluding with a cask-conditioned Avery Hog Heaven. (I’m excited to try the 2nd keg they’re tapping, the Avery Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest Lager.)

Maybe next year they can get JB at Rahr to brew them something special for their birthday…

Those of you who follow my Twitter stream know that I’m headed to San Francisco to attend Macworld Expo this week. It’s a business trip, inasmuch as a trip to Macworld for a Mac nerd can be a business trip and not a vacation.

Anyway, the reason I’ve squeezed my laptop into the space between my ample belly and the seat in front of me to write this post is to note that I always seem to meet the most interesting people on my travels. Once, I met a co-founder of the Samuel Adams brewery after striking up a conversation about her WGBH bag. I’ve flown with CEOs and celebrities, but this time I’ve gotten a special treat.

Today, I’m seated next to two members of Stanford University’s women’s gymnastics team, on their way back to Palo Alto from a meet in Cancun. This is rather fortunate for me, since being the large man I am, air travel is usually a frustrating and uncomfortable experience. Sitting by gymnasts gains you the same advantages of sitting by children, but gymnasts are less likely to cry or puke on you. (It should be noted that this is my first experience sitting next to gymnasts on a plane, but so far so good!)

I’ll post a few more times about my Macworld trip, but I expect to be pretty busy next week, so don’t hold your breath.

I’m braving the smoke and heading out to The Chat Room Pub for the opening of Brittany Elidemir’s photography exhibit “milk at dawn”.

Join me tonight at the Flying Saucer (Now with 100% less smoke!) for the BCS Championship Bowl Game at 7 PM. If the big screen TV is broken, or if can’t get a seat at the bar, we’ll move to a bar to be named later. I’ll try to update this post with details if you’re interested in following.

UPDATE 4:30PM: I just called the Saucer (they have a phone, who knew!?) and the TV is STILL broken. Seriously, guys, get a plasma already…

Anyway, let’s move the party to ummmm… Baker St. Pub on Camp Bowie. Looks like they have decent drink specials, and you un-Americans what don’t drink beer can get a girly drink there.

Look for the big bald guy in a red hooded sweatshirt. (I don’t have any Buckeyes gear at the moment.)

fort worth, personal, football, buckeyes

I have no plans whatsoever this weekend yet. Usually those start to solidify around Wednesday, if we’re planning that far ahead. I’m curious; what are YOU planning for this weekend, anything fun?

I HIGHLY encourage everyone who is interested to go to the Cowtown Rugby Tournament.

The Flying Saucer will also be hosting their annual Beerfest, featuring the best of the best from around the world (that they can get here in Texas). This event last year was so good I don’t remember half of it!

If you’ve never been to a rugby match before and would like some play-by-play, make a comment or e-mail me, and we’ll meet up at the pitch (it’s a pitch, not a field – you’ll be lost without me)!

Bernie, you should totally come out to the tournament so you can see just how different this level of rugby is than what you’ve probably experienced before.

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