If you are one of the winners of our haiku contest, and I haven’t contacted you, please send me an email directly.

Since my bike is my primary mode of transportation, I’m constantly getting lines like, “I wish I could ride my bike everywhere I needed to go.”

My usual reply: “You can.” Which is then met with myriad excuses, “But I have a kid. And I do a month’s worth of grocery shopping at a time. And I buy lumber frequently. Blah, blah, blah.”

Anyway, for this year’s Panther City Bicycles PrairieFest display, I decided to show people just how much stuff you can really carry on a bike… if you want to. I packed the entire “booth” on my new bike, the Surly Big Dummy, and rode from the Near South Side over to Tandy Hills Nature Area.

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Ever imagine what it looks like from the cockpit of a passenger jet landing and taking off from DFW? The Airliner blog has the videos, Captain.

No guarantees this is exactly legal or even moral, but this here blog has links to bootleg recordings of Jimi Hendrix at the Memorial Auditorium in Dallas on Feb 16, 1968 and the Will Rogers Auditorium here in Fort Worth on Feb 17, 1968. Tom Huckabee talked at length about Hendrix at Will Rogers in our comments a few months back. I wonder if there was ‘l’amore’ in the bushes that night?

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We had a great time today out at Tandy Hills Nature Area, talking to fans and hopefully new readers. Don Young has created an amazing thing with this festival, and we were thrilled to be a part of it!

Today’s podcast was recorded live at Prairie Fest, and the usual crew was joined by new friend of W&C, Brad Newman. We hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it.

 

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And a good time was had by all at PrairieFest 2008. There is much more to write, but for tonight, I leave you with this. It’s a little bit of video of Brave Combo, which would have been pretty awesome on its own. But when a guy in a tie-dye shirt starts dancing with an iguana, it really reaches a whole other level. Baby, that’s magic. Enjoy!

Just a quick reminder that we’re having a haiku contest Saturday at Prairie Fest. Stop by the West & Clear tent and say hi, give us an earful, a hug, whatever. While you’re there, drop some Japanese poetry on us and you might win a sweet prize!

OK, perhaps you’ve heard there’s going to be this PrairieFest shindig at Tandy Hills Park on Saturday. The West and Clear posse will be out in full force to support this wonderful park, and to help spread a little more beauty in the Panther City, we’re sponsoring a Haiku Contest at our booth.

It was either that or have Pete Wann wrestle a bobcat, and this just seemed more earth friendly.
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West and Clear reader Jose Juan brought this video with PrairieFest highlights to our attention… this should whet your appetite for the 2008 edition:

Don’t forget to seek out the West and Clear booth when you’re there, and bring a sharpened pencil for our Haiku Contest!

Editor’s Note:At about 5 minutes into the show, the air compressor kicks on in the bike shop. Turn your speakers down. It only lasts about 15 seconds.

This week’s guest is Don Young, the man behind the Friends of Tandy Hills and lead organizer of Prairie Fest, which will be held on Saturday, the 26th from 11AM to 7PM.

Also this week:

Don’t forget to get out and vote on Tuesday in the Democratic Primary runoff for Railroad Commissioner.

There will be a $60 buy-in charity poker tournament benefiting the Euless Trinity Trojans Football team this Friday at the Rahr & Sons Brewery. The tournament starts at 7PM. I have no info on prizes.

If you’re looking for a way to spend your morning on Saturday the 26th, you could do worse than to start at Dane Fest in Keller. (Why NOT hit two Fests in one day?) Normally we don’t plug things outside the city limits, but this is a good cause.

Special thanks to this episode’s sponsor: Rahr and Sons Brewing. They tell me that Summertime Wheat is in the works and should be out within the next two months, just in time for 100 degree weather. The Monk tells me that local beer is the best no matter the style, because it’s as fresh as it can be without drinking directly from the bottling line hoses. (He also says that the “local is better” rule only applies if your local brewery makes good beer.)

 

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