Let's Talk About Fate Baby- Hollywood Gardens, Rochester, PA

Below is the post I wrote after the Olga Watkins Band's very first show at Hollywood Gardens just over 2 years ago. I was clearly enamored of the place immediately. I think the feeling was mutual to some degree (or some of the time, anyway) because I now make the 45 minute one-way commute to Rochester, PA three times a week to cook and/or tend bar and/or annoy people at Hollywood Gardens.
My regular employment there is a somewhat recent development. But the band has played several shows at HG since March, 2010 and we've loved and enjoyed it very much. The boys (men, whatever) in the band decided independently of me that this is the ideal venue for the live CD recording of "Truth and Trouble" and here we are one week away from what promises to be an amazing night for all involved. This band and this bar have each made such remarkable progress in the last 2 years; some of it obvious to the casual observer and some of it not so obvious.
Either way, I'm proud to be a member of both teams. My band and the whole staff at HG have all of my gratitude, love and respect for helping me make this CD recording possible and for making Hollywood Gardens a place that I am honored to represent. Whew! That's enough of that gooey bullshit. Suffice it to say that I am really looking forward to next weekend. And if you can't be there, I'll be posting an update after the event. I'm sure it will be just as glowing a review as was the first.

Check it out: Posting from March 21, 2010 "Hollywood Gardens, Rochester, PA"
Rochester, Pennsylvania may not be the first place you think of while making your weekend plans, but if you live in or around that part of Beaver County, perhaps it should be. Well hidden at 169 Pinney St. in "beautiful" downtown Rochester, (I think it was downtown) sits a little gem of place where my band was lucky enough to perform last night.

Hollywood Gardens Bar is a family owned establishment for more than fifty years, passed from father to son and recently renovated. The space is contemporary but casual and welcoming and offers an impressive selection of twelve craft beers on tap as well as hundreds of bottled micro and craft brews in their beer library, the latter available for take out in the form of mix and match six packs. (yum) The menu is simple and ideal for the setting and includes a gorgeous fruit and cheese platter, fried ravioli, pot stickers and a hand full of other appetizing drinking partners.

Frank, the owner and quite the dancing machine, who has neither his first nor last name listed on any piece of marketing material or advertising, is modest, laid back, friendly, knowledgeable about his product and exactly the kind of guy with whom you will want to share a quality beer. A music lover, Frank included a bandstand in his initial renovation which he is planning to expand and is working on building a deck for outdoor seating that is due for completion sometime around Memorial Day.

In addition to my band, Hollywood Gardens has hosted Harold Betters, the Blues Society of Western PA's Blues Night Out, and has dates booked for local favorites including Dave Iglar, Slim Forsyhte, the Mystic Knights and the Jay Wiley Band, among others. We are also planning to return for another show in the not too distant future. If you're looking for a relaxed, pub style, neighborhood spot( in a most unexpected neighborhood) with friendly service, great food and excellent music, Hollywood Gardens is patiently waiting for you.

Below are the hours and address. Here's a tip for the other dummies out there like me who rely too heavily on Google directions. If you're headed north on route 65, the second exit for 18S is 18S/68E to Rochester. At the bottom of the ramp go straight to the next intersection where you'll see a giant American Flag on your right. Take a sharp right there and Hollywood Gardens will be immediately on your right. Plenty of parking is available. If you're coming from any other direction, you're on your own.

169 Pinney St Rochester, PA 15074 724.728.2227

Bar: Mon - Sat - 4pm - 2am Kitchen: Mon-Thur - 5pm-Midnight Fri & Sat - 5pm-1am

A Snow Story

Today marks the 17th anniversary of the blizzard of '93. Saying things like that makes me feel old. My best buddy (we'll call her Woody after a Woody Woodpecker sheet she wore to a toga party in our youth resulting in an equally ridiculous and funny story) and I were in our early 20's and signing a lease for an apartment on E. Carson St. South Side, Pittsburgh.

We were, of course, typical twenty somethings in that we were oblivious to the weather forecast and unprepared. We were making our decorating plans when we noticed how much it was snowing. "Wow! It's really coming down out there." "Yeah...let's get some more champagne."

Needless to say, we got stuck on south side with no more than a bag of clothes in the back of Woody's car, a radio and some champagne. Fortunately, the apartment was recently vacated and the power and heat were still on. When we ran out of booze, MUCH later that day as one of our favorite watering holes was now at our back door, we made a bed and "blankets" out of Woody's stash of extra clothes and huddled together on the floor in front of the radio to sleep.

When the snow stopped the next day and we had no way to dig ourselves out, we layered all the clothes we had into what I'm sure were absurd but hilarious impromptu snow ensembles and hiked the 14 blocks to the apartment of one of my ex-boyfriends. (20 years older than me and in retrospect, a real ass wipe.) We then proceeded to eat all his food, drink all his booze and reduce his stash of contraband to zero before we returned to our new apartment where Woody dug the car out with an ice scraper.

Ahhh...the good old days. I'm surprised I remember them at all.

Open letter to our government leaders-forwarded email

This email was forwarded to me. It's an open letter to our government leaders from a woman in Arizona.

"I am a home grown American citizen, 53, registered Democrat all my life. Before the last presidential election I registered as a Republican because I no longer felt the Democratic Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. Now I no longer feel the Republican Party represents my views or works to pursue issues important to me. The fact is I no longer feel any political party or representative in Washington represents my views or works to pursue the issues important to me. Instead, we are burdened with Congressional Dukes and Duchesses who think they know better than the citizens they are supposed to represent.

There must be someone... Please tell me who you are. Please stand up and tell me that you are there and that you're willing to fight for our Constitution as it was written. Please stand up now.
You might ask yourself what my views and issues are that I would feel so horribly disenfranchised by both major political parties. What kind of nut-job am I? Well, these briefly are the views and issues for which I seek representation:

One , illegal immigration. I want you to stop coddling illegal immigrants and secure our borders. Close the underground tunnels. Stop the violence and the trafficking in drugs and people. No amnesty, not again. Been there, done that, no resolution. P.S., I'm not a racist. This is not to be confused with legal immigration..

Two, the STIMULUS bill.. I want it repealed and I want no further funding supplied to it. We told you No, but you did it anyway. I want the remaining unfunded 95% repealed. Freeze, repeal.

Three: Czars. I want the circumvention of our constitutional checks and balances stopped immediately. Fire the czars . No more czars. Government officials answer to the process, not to the president. Stop trampling on our Constitution, and honor it.

Four, cap and trade. The debate on global warming is not over. There are many conflicting opinions and it is too soon for this radical legislation. Quit throwing our nation into politically-correct quicksand.

Five, universal healthcare . I will not be rushed into another expensive decision that will burden me, my children, and grandchildren. Don't you dare try to pass this in the middle of the night without even reading it. Slow down! Fix only what is broken -- we have the best health care system in the world -- and test any new program in one or two states first.

Six, growing government control. I want states rights and sovereignty restored. I want less government in my life, not more. More is not better! Shrink it down. Mind your own business. You have enough to take care of with your real [Constitutional] obligations. Why don't you start there.

Seven, ACORN. I do not want ACORN and its affiliates in charge of our 2010 census. I want them investigated. I also do not want mandatory escrow fees contributed to them every time on every real estate deal that closes -- how did they pull that one off? Stop the funding to ACORN and its affiliates pending impartial audits and investigations. I do not trust them with taking the census with our taxpayer money. I don't trust them with any of our taxpayer money. Face up to the allegations against them and get it resolved before taxpayers get any more involved with them. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, hello. Stop protecting your political buddies. You work for us, the people. Investigate.

Eight, redistribution of wealth . No, no, no. I work for my money. It is mine. I have always worked for people with more money than I have because they gave me jobs -- and that is the only redistribution of wealth that I will support. I never got a job from a poor person! Why do you want me to hate my employers? And what do you have against shareholders making a profit?

Nine, charitable contributions. Although I never got a job from a poor person, I have helped many in need. Charity belongs in our local communities, where we know our needs best and can use our local talent and our local resources. Butt out, please. We want to do it ourselves.

Ten, corporate bailouts. Knock it off. Every company must sink or swim like the rest of us. If there are hard times ahead, we'll be better off just getting into it and letting the strong survive. Quick and painful. (Have you ever ripped off a Band-Aid?) We will pull together. Great things happen in America under great hardship.. Give us the chance to innovate. We cannot disappoint you more than you have disappointed us.

Eleven, transparency and accountability. How about it? No, really, how about it? Let's have it. Let's say we give the buzzwords a rest and have some straight honest talk. Please stop trying to manipulate and appease me with clever wording. I am not the idiot you obviously take me for. Stop sneaking around and meeting in back rooms making deals with your friends. It will only be a prelude to your criminal investigation.. Stop hiding things from me.

Twelve, unprecedented quick spending. Stop it now .
Take a breath. Listen to the people. Slow down and get some input from nonpoliticians and experts on the subject. Stop making everything an emergency. Stop speed-reading our bills into law. I am not an activist. I am not a community organizer. Nor am I a terrorist, a militant or a violent person. I am a parent and a grandparent. I work. I'm busy. I am busy, and I am tired. I thought we elected competent people to take care of the business of government so that we could work, raise our families, pay our bills, have a little recreation, complain about taxes, endure our hardships, pursue our personal goals, cut our lawn, wash our cars on the weekends and be responsible contributing members of society and teach our children to be the same all while living in the home of the free and land of the brave.

I entrusted you with upholding the Constitution. I believed in the checks and balances to keep from getting far off course. What happened? You are very far off course. Do you really think I find humor in the hiring of a speed reader to unintelligently ramble all through a bill that you signed into law without knowing what it contained? I do not.
It is a mockery of the responsibility I have entrusted to you. It is a slap in the face. I am not laughing at your arrogance. Why is it that I feel as if you would not trust me to make a single decision about my own life and how I would live it but you should expect that I should trust you with the debt that you have laid on all of us and our children. We did not want the TARP bill. We said no. We would repeal it if we could. I am sure that we still cannot. There is needless urgency and recklessness in all of your recent spending of our tax dollars.


From my perspective, it seems that all of you have gone insane. I also know that I am far from alone in these feelings.. Do you honestly feel that your current pursuits have merit to patriotic Americans? We want it to stop. We want to put the brakes on everything that is being rushed by us and forced upon us. We want our voice back. You have forced us to put our lives on hold to straighten out the mess that you are making. We will have to give up our vacations, our time spent with our children, any relaxation time we may have had and money we cannot afford to spend on bringing our concerns to Washington . Our president often knows all the right buzzwords like unsustainable. Well, no kidding. How many tens of thousands of dollars did the focus group cost to come up with that word? We don't want your overpriced words. Stop treating us like we're morons.


We want all of you to stop focusing on your reelection and do the job we want done, not the job you want done or the job your party wants done. You work for us and at this rate I guarantee you not for long because we are coming. We will be heard and we will be represented. You think we're so busy with our lives that we will never come for you? We are the formerly silent majority, all of us who quietly work, pay taxes, obey the law, vote, save money, keep our noses to the grindstone... and we are now looking at you.
You have awakened us, the patriotic freedom spirit so strong and so powerful that it had been sleeping too long. You have pushed us too far. Our numbers are great. They may surprise you. For every one of us who will be there, there will be hundreds more that could not come. Unlike you, we have their trust. We will represent them honestly, rest assured. They will be at the polls on voting day to usher you out of office.
We have cancelled vacations. We will use our last few dollars saved. We will find the representation among us and a grassroots campaign will flourish. We didn't ask for this fight. But the gloves are coming off. We do not come in violence, but we are angry. You will represent us or you will be replaced with someone who will... There are candidates among us who will rise like a Phoenix from the ashes that you have made of our constitution.

Democrat, Republican, independent, libertarian. Understand this. We don't care. Political parties are meaningless to us Patriotic Americans are willing to do right by us and our Constitution, and that is all that matters to us now. We are going to fire all of you who abuse power and seek more. It is not your power. It is ours and we want it back. We entrusted you with it and you abused it. You are dishonorable. You are dishonest. As Americans we are ashamed of you. You have brought shame to us. If you are not representing the wants and needs of your constituency loudly and consistently, in spite of the objections of your party, you will be fired. Did you hear? We no longer care about your political parties. You need to be loyal to us, not to them.. Because we will get you fired and they will not save you.

If you do or can represent me, my issues, my views, please stand up. Make your identity known. You need to make some noise about it. Speak up. I need to know who you are. If you do not speak up, you will be herded out with the rest of the sheep and we will replace the whole congress if need be one by one. We are coming. Are we coming for you? Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming."

29 Days and Counting

I am one week and three days into an alcohol-free lent and I want to punch my husband in the face. I've learned that my eight year old can channel Satan and realized that I'm eternally grateful for maintaining some of the party supply "connections" of my misspent youth. My body, lacking the essential pro-biotic nutrients of a post shift beer, is only now recovering from some functional state of shock, out of balance and refusing to function normally; making me the only person I know to quit drinking and gain four pounds in five days.

It seems that my eight year old daughter has chosen this time to begin exhibiting signs of multiple personality disorder. One minute she is just as sweet as pie and I'm patting myself on the back for my parenting skills. The very next minute and seemingly without provocation, she has morphed into a trash talking, head swinging, eye rolling, teeth sucking, evil prepubescent version of herself. She is an alien. She should be captured and studied but not left to her own devices, free to wander amongst the civilian human population.

My husband, admirably determined to get into shape, has shown remarkable focus in maintaining his new diet and exercise regime. So much so that I'm consumed by jealousy at his ability to find the time for his two hour daily visits to the gym. It can be a little tricky to hold onto that lovin' feelin' while working on joint tax returns and realizing your other half is probably sitting in the gym's steam room before he takes a relaxing twenty minute shower. Don't get me wrong. I'm actually really proud of his progress and resolve. However, as I sit aside a giant pile of paperwork that demands my immediate attention and is getting the best of me, with a shoulder that's been injured most of the month of February and a digestive system that is just beginning to succumb to its new, booze-less existence, his occasional raise of the eyebrow or deep sigh at the sight of a few dirty dishes in the sink or kids' snow gear scattered in the foyer is doing nothing for my patience OR libido. Adding to my angst is the fact that on some level my husband actually believes that he has the organizational and housekeeping skills of Martha Stewart. Would Martha Stewart lug some ugly, unfinished wooden shelves down three flights of stairs and set them up in a narrow hallway to make room for a bunch of new diet related pantry "necessities" RATHER THAN just clean out a damn kitchen cabinet? I think not. This is a man who wasn't able to complete a to-do list of about ten things over twelve months in the course of planning our wedding; including reserving OUR hotel room. The man that dug out a concrete step in front of the house without a plan to replace it until I hired someone to do so a mere nine months later. The man that has effectively ignored a hole in the wall on the first floor landing that he opened to repair plumbing three years ago when we moved. (Martha would have made her own drywall from excess dog hair, dust bunnies and rainwater long before now.) I do appreciate his other household contributions, strengths and talents. I've just exhausted the minuscule amount of patience I'd reserved for other people in the first ten, more like the first two days of the Lenten season and sometimes want to punch him in the face. (Of course, I haven't yet.)

So the experiment continues. My family is alive and well despite their best efforts to push me over the edge. I fear we have several more school snow days to manage before the arrival of Good Friday and that challenge alone may be the straw that breaks the camel's sanity. Now that it seems my body has finally adjusted to the shock, I can only hope my mind will get with the program.

A No-Booze Holiday for the Vodka Dieter

Well, the vodka dieter is taking a break from booze for Lent. I'm not Catholic. I don't generally observe Lent aside from the thousands of pounds of fish & chips I'll prepare at the pub over the next forty days. I don't even go to church anymore. (Even with parents who were both former ministers.) I know, I'm a heathen and a horrible person all the way around.

I don't believe I've ever deliberately given up drinking, or much else, for ONE day in a row, let alone forty. My no-booze status is not religiously motivated, rather by a desire to expedite some weight loss and test my self discipline. So far, it's been no problem at all although I feel like boiled shit and I'm not any less bitchy; both the opposite of the side effects I'd hoped for as a result of this experiment. I think that not feeling well is a coincidence.

As to not being any less bitchy, I may just have to try another approach. Maybe Buddhism. (We'll see if it works for Tiger first.)

I've had a few of my favorite party girl friends ask, "What about St. Patrick's Day?!" In my Irish pub chefs world, this day of unapologetic drunkenness for many an Irish-American and Irish-American-for-a-day means little more to me than record sales, long hours in the kitchen and an aching back.

In fact St. Patrick's Day AND St. Patrick's Day Parade day in Pittsburgh can both be counted as challenging, less than fun-filled days for the restaurant workers in our city. Nothing says "Tabhair pog dom, taim Eireannach" like vomit on the sidewalks and urine soaked public bathrooms. Woo hoo!! I can hardly wait. It's one day of the year for me that NOT drinking is the most appealing approach to tolerating the festivities. (I have not yet ruled out the possibility of sedatives as my St. Patty's Day therapy.)

With thirty-five days left, I'm sure there's a life lesson or two ahead for a girl who's been partying pretty much non-stop since adolescence. Wish me luck.