All hail the Tiki!

Mike and Becky gave me these very cool tiki waterfall thingy last night. It was a Christmas present (thanks guys! I love it!). We all (Mike and Becky, Christine and Aaron, Kim and I) went to Riverbank Lounge after Becky's fun gig at Stumpjack. We had a great time and lots of laughs. Riverbank is the cat's pajamas...love that place!It's a desktop waterfall and he's got a candle atop his noggin'.

Stumpjack art from Jesse

Here's a very cool set of linocut prints that my 13 year-old daughter Jesse made for me for my birthday last month. Click to enlarge. Yes, my kids are very talented artists.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Marty and Lori gave me a cool birthday card today. It has a rendering of Clint Eastwood from his spaghetti western days on the cover and when you open it it plays the opening bars of the theme song from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly," one of the greatest westerns (and movie theme songs) of all time.

I found this very cool video on youtube tonight...The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain...this is awesome.

More mermaids

Here's an image of a small painting that my 16 year-old daughter, Cheyenne, made for me for my birthday yesterday. Dig the stumpjack fish swimming at the top.

Cheyenne also has a sculptural piece presently being shown at the JM Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan.

Two tasty treats

It's been a super-chaotic last week or so, but then this year that has been more often the case than not. Mix together a few music event reschedulings, a new tastings schedule (see Kim's Wine All You Want blog), updating our menu, the new Stumpjumpers Club developing, more online ventures than you can shake an empty coffee mugs at...toss in a couple of foolish individuals with more ego than common sense trying to rattle the Stump cage, even more uninvited equipment repairs, the downturn in the economy...measure in few handfuls of new, exciting projects, including a couple of significant writing projects besides my bi-monthly coffee column for the newspaper, and some preliminary work on a couple of very cool projects with our friend Dave from Lakeside Apparel.

That's an extremely long-winded and clunky intro for what is really just a post about a couple of good cigars.

Slow-Aged Lot 826 by Perdomo

There aren't going to be too many days left for sitting out by the campfire without being fully bundled in wool and Thinsulate, so I gotta take advantage of the evenings now while I still can. The first little beauty (pictured here) was a Perdomo Slow-Aged Lot 826. It's a moderately robust smoke, smooth and easy to draw from beginning to end. This one was a gift from my pal Bill Granger and I had it with a Leinies Fireside Nut Brown Ale. Excellenté!

No picture of the Angry Joe cigar, so I went with this image of a guy rolling a cigar. He looks kind of angry though.

Next up was a neat little number from our friend Joe Donati of Lakeshore Cigar in Manitowoc. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died before I could take a good picture of this cigar that he calls Angry Joe's (or In Angry Joe We Trust!...I'm not exactly sure which is the true name). This is an as-yet bandless smoke that Joe says he spent some time working on, until he found just the right combination of tobaccos to satisfy his discriminating palate. In my opinion, he did a great job, because this is a lovely cigar...smooth and hearty. I enjoyed Angry Joe's with a little glass of Apple Pie Liqueur, an apple cinnamon liqueur from the Missouri Tavern in Springfield, Wisconsin. The sweetness of the liqueur contrasted nicely with Angry Joe. You can, of course, get Angry Joes at Lakeshore Cigar in Manitowoc on Washington Street (and you should! This is a great shop and Joe always has something tasty in the humidor and plenty of warm conversation...it's a place where no-one is a stranger, even if it's your first visit).

Marina ROCKS!

Marina sent this awesome photo of herself drinking Stumpjack coffee underwater (try that sometime!) from an authentic Stumpjack mug.
WE LOVE MERMAIDS!
She also said,
"This Mermaid LOVES her Stumpjack Mug!
Seriously- I use it every mornin' before my swim~
Your Coffee Lovin' Fire Eating Mermaid.
~Marina~ "

Check out her very cool MySpace site here.

Pat Dinizio appreciates the classics

Last month Pat Dinizio, leader of the still-awesome and hardest working band in America, The Smithereens, emailed this message and the image that follows it:

My old friend, the artist/painter Christine Peloquin, who painted the wall murals in my house, is working on this backdrop (a work-in-progress, not nearly finished!) for our Winter 2009 Tour, which is an exact replica of the backdrop/banner that Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye are seen performing in front of while entertaining WW II troops in the middle of a battle at the very beginning of the classic holiday musical "WHITE CHRISTMAS".

Best wishes and love,

Pat D.
I did a little online digging and found the following two images, one of the opening title credit to the show, "White Christmas," that Pat was referring to, and one with Bing actually standing in front of that original backdrop. This is the coolest...I love that Pat tips his hat to this classic broadcast, and in such a subtle manner.
In a follow-up email Pat indicates that other images will follow as the piece progresses. I'll post those images when he forwards them. Don't forget, Pat Dinizio is gonna rock Stumpjack sometime in early 2009 (Jan or Feb I believe...will let you know as soon as he forwards his itinerary). It's going to be the event of the year folks, guaranteed fantastic.

This is a great pic of Bing Crosby in front of the original backdrop painting.