Labor Day, Then a Day of Labor

I'm a lifelong baseball fan.
Actually, my connection to the game extends beyond my life on earth, at least by a day or two.
Call it "womb with a view"--my essay on the heroic double play my mother turned four and a half decades ago, a day before giving birth to me. 

U2? Me Too.

Including their performance on July 31, I've been going to U2 shows for 30 years. That makes me old, and U2 older.
I wrote a little essay for Medium.com about some of those concerts, and what it all means.
One I left out by mistake: 1987, hitch-hiking after class on a Friday from Kingston, Rhode Island to Boston to see U2 at the old Boston Garden.
We made it to Boston; I recall riding in the back of a pickup truck. We got tickets off a scalper. It was pouring when we found the way to Boston College on the T, surprised a high school friend, and slept on his floor.

Rhythm & Brews in Pleasantville

My weekly "Notes From the Captain Lawrence Tasting Room" franchise went on the road this past weekend, as I conducted business from the Captain Lawrence beer tent and stage at the Pleasantville Music Fest.

People were fairly blown away by Lions on the Moon, a classic-rocking band of teens, and one pre-teen--the mind-blowing axman axkid by the name of Brandon "Taz" Niederauer. The 12-year-old, from Dix Hills, Long Island, could flat-out shred.

His was a tough act to follow. The main stage featured some bands you sort of, kind of liked 15-20 years ago, including Fastball and the Gin Blossoms. G. Love and Special Sauce had a surprisingly huge and rowdy contingent of hardcore fans in front of the stage, and G. gets either a thumbs-up or a demerit, depending on how you view things, for keeping it real with some lethal f-bombs from the stage--kiddos in the crowd be damned.

All in all, a fun day in Pleasantville, and people in the Captain Lawrence beer tent--many enjoying the O'de to P'ville saison made especially for the day--were more than happy to share.

Such as Luke and Laura from "General Hospital" Darien, Connecticut.

“Our daughter is at camp and our son is at work,” said Laura. “We are out!”

“We’re on the express,” added Luke. “And it just rolled in.”

Books & Beer Here!

You can access all 11 of my Books & Beer radio installments here, as well as on iTunes.
I suggest you do!
They are chats with local New York authors (Larry Kirwan, Marilyn Johnson, Emmy Laybourne), and the sampling of local brews (Keegan Ales' Bine Climber IPA, Ommegang's Scythe and Sickle Harvest Ale, Captain Lawrence's Effortless IPA, way too many others to mention).
What else do you really need besides books and beer?

Back When Being Bossy Was a Good Thing

I am always tickled to get a New York Times story published, and almost certainly will remain that way until the end of my days.
Most recently, it was an essay on my memories of moving to Long Island as a boy, where I found lots of Ground Round restaurants, and a local populace mad for the local hockey team. 
I took my son to Nassau Coliseum to see the Islanders before the Old Barn closed, and I'm glad I did.
My story, called "A Move Towards Islanders Mania," starts:

I left New Jersey, only to find a new jersey, a new sport and a favorite team on Long Island.

It would be hypocritical for me to fault the Islanders for departing for Brooklyn. I, too, left the island for a hip city neighborhood decades ago, as did many of my friends.

But years before that, I was a new arrival to the slim island east of the East River, and the wonderfully successful hockey team representing “the Island” almost immediately instilled in me a sense of civic pride.