So I don’t want to turn my back on the Hunters, but how presh are these?

Buy me a pair here.

This guy will be in Motherlode next year ... anyone need a partner?

Want to watch some seriously awesome vball this weekend? Here’s the scoop:

Thursday Sept 2: Men’s Seniors and Women’s Masters play, with the finals at 6pm at Koch Lumber park.
Friday Sept 3: Men’s Masters play at Koch Lumber park. Co-ed divisions play, with the finals at 6pm at Wagner park.
Saturday Sept 4: Men’s and Women’s Open begin play at 8am. Men’s A, BB and B, and Women’s A, BB, B begin play at various locations in Aspen at 9am. Men’s Masters final rounds begin with finals scheduled for noon Koch Lumber park.
Sunday Sept 5: Men’s Open, A, BB and B, and Women’s Open, A, BB, B continue play at various locations in Aspen. *Grass start times contingent on player check-in and park conditions.
Monday Sept 6: Amateur finals at Koch Lumber Park grass court; Men’s and Women’s Sand Open finals at Koch Lumber Park Sand Courts

Amateur Championships – Koch Lumber Park Grass Court

• 9am – Women’s B
• 10am – Men’s B
• 11am – Women’s BB
• noon – Men’s BB
• 1pm – Women’s A
• 2pm – Men’s A

Beach Championships (Pros) – Koch Lumber Park Sand Courts

This is some seriously awesome volleyball, sand and grass, so make sure if you’re around you at least stop by for one game!

I want to be good enough to play …

Scott Perry puts out the New Music Tipsheet, an incredible resource I started reading back in 2007 when this musically-challenged girl was named the editor of an Austin music magazine.

Along the way, Perry has produced more notable insights on the way BUSINESS works than many of his peers who proclaim to study business, whereas Perry is a music man.

Anyway, his latest post contains some gems. Click here to go to the full article. Here’s just a taste:

“Fans will still pay filet mignon prices for a filet mignon, but they ain’t gonna pay filet mignon prices for a hamburger.”

“NOTHING is a must-buy, must-see, must-do anymore — nothing. But if you take the time to cultivate a quality audience and provide quality goods at a reasonable price, YOU CAN MAKE MONEY and continue to make a decent living doing what you love.

The only way any band or brand is going to make it moving forward is by providing quality goods at a reasonable price. You offer VALUE, you offer CONVENIENCE, you offer QUALITY, you offer a PREMIUM PRODUCT, you offer STATUS, you offer COMMUNITY.”

“If you wanna make it in the music business, you gotta be freaking big, or you gotta be freaking small — but either way, you gotta be freaking GOOD. Audiences and outlets have zero room for mediocrity, which is why you see so few acts making it in 2010.”

I think this applies to any number of businesses trying to make it today. To my own blog, to EndlessBeauty.com, to the restaurants struggling to make it in Aspen, to the food trailers in Austin, to the garage gyms, to my brother’s band Achachay. You just gotta be GOOD.

Fine Line Bar & Grill is a new bar, restaurant, grill, hangout in El Jebel/Basalt that’s reasonably-priced, has GREAT happy hour food and drink specials from 3-6pm daily ($2 Bud & Bud Light Drafts , $3 New Belgium Drafts, $10 Bucket Of 6 Coronitas, $5 Tuaca & Soco Lime Shots), plus special deals for each day and even serving up karaoke Tuesday nights!

Totally Tuesdays: Half Price On All Appetizers
Wine Wednesdays: Buy One Glass Of House Wine Get One Free / Free Chips & Salsa
Tequila Thursdays: Gingeritas & Margaritas $5 / All Nacho Plates Half Price
Fired Up Fridays: Free Chips And Salsa / Tuaca & Soco Lime Shots $3
Smokin’ Saturdays: Rib Platter $10 / Fat Tire Drafts $3
Sunday Bloody Sundays: Absolut Peppar Bloody Marys $5

This is the Gingerita: A Simple Margarita With A Twist. Equal Parts Fresh Lime Juice, Grand Marnier, & Ginger-Infused Corzo Tequila. At $8, a good price for a great, creative margarita. The drink menu is top-notch–all of the drinks are creative and delish!

The food is mostly outstanding. The salad was not good–but the menu calls their salad menu “Rabbit Food,” so maybe I should have known they aren’t really salad fans. Get into the heavier dishes and you’re golden. The Lobster Ravioli was as good as you’d find anywhere, and reasonably-priced at $15.95. Menu reads: Ravioli Stuffed With Fresh Maine Lobster And Served With Vodka Marinara Sauce And A Side Of Garlic Bread.

The best thing Fine Line serves is probably its pizza. This stuff was GOOOOOOD. Menu says: Veggie Garbage Pizza: Spinach, Black Olives, Red And Yellow Onions, Artichoke Hearts, Mushrooms, Fresh And Sun Dried Tomatoes, Roasted Garlic, And Feta Cheese. $14.95/$18.95 (this is the $14.95 size and was HUGE)

Overall, all four of the people in my party loved the For Locals By Locals experience of Fine Line Bar & Grill. I only wish such a reasonably-priced, laid-back place was in Aspen! Also check out their 50″ flat screens for football this season!

Also, in more it’s-a-small-world-after-all news, the owner’s fiancee works with the Vermonster, and the owner went to school with the Vermonster in Vermont, where the Vermonster was the MAILMAN for the owner’s dorm. Awesome.

The First Annual Big Aspen Barbecue Block Party takes place at the base of Aspen Mountain this Saturday and Sunday, August 28 – 29, 2010, from noon – 7pm. The sister event of New York City’s much-beloved barbecue extravaganza that includes food, music, seminars, and more.

There are a bunch of big names serving up the ‘cue, including, because it’s so Austin up in here, Mike Rodriguez from Salt Lick BBQ. He’s serving up brisket & sausage. Other heavy hitting pitmasters:

• Jim Butchart, Sam’s Smokehouse, Aspen, CO
• Kenny Callaghan, Blue Smoke, New York, NY
• Ryan Hardy, Montagna Restaurant at The Little Nell, Aspen, CO [HAPPY MEAT!!]
• Mike Mills, 17th Street Bar & Grill, Murphysboro, IL & Memphis Championship Barbecue, Las Vegas, NV
• Ed Mitchell, The Pit, Raleigh, NC
• Drew Robinson, Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q, Birmingham, AL

Admission to the event is free. Plates from across the country are available from top pitmasters for only $8 per plate.

Proceeds from the Big Aspen Barbecue Block Party support the Aspen Community Foundation, which builds philanthropy and supports nonprofit organizations throughout the Roaring Fork Valley.

Despite the fact that I’m from Texas, I don’t love barbecue. People hate to hear this, but it’s true. I don’t like sickly-sweet barbecue sauce, I don’t like the sides for barbecue (potato salad? gag me), I don’t like smoke off the grill. That said, I do love me some grilled meat sans all that other junk, which I’m hoping to get this weekend. YUM!!

Everyone loves the Bachelor Bars (an article I wrote in 2007!): Molotov, The Marq, Chuggin’ Monkey, Dizzy Rooster, and Thirsty Nickel. In the old Mother Egan’s spot next door to Molotov, the brothers bachelor (Brad, Chad, & Wes Womack) and partner Jason Carrier have reinvented the pub with a distinctly Southern flare. They’ve been open for a few weeks now–and they’ve already hosted a Maxim party–and have gotten rave reviews on yelp, with people very excited about the laid-back but slightly upscale atmosphere.

The GRAND OPENING of The Dogwood Austin kicks off at 4pm today, Wednesday August 25th!

Free apps from 6-8pm (or maybe 10? reports vary) and the first 250 guests will receive a complimentary gift (rumored to be a free T-shirt stuffed in a mason jar they’ll fill with free Sweet Tea Vodka all night long)! $4 featured drink menu.

Perhaps the best thing about Dogwood? An only-in-Austin tap of frozen Deep Eddy Sweet Tea Vodka, surrounded by metal and ice so it’ll always be freeeeeezing cold. Graham’s Texas Tea may be better than Deep Eddy, but it doesn’t come out of frozen tap (except maybe at your house). Also, four sangrias (one made with whiskey!), 6 local beers on tap, and a “Skinny Menu” for summer lovers watching their calories.

Southern boys are just so thoughtful, aren’t they?

Lecturer Eric Dufresne wants to know how things work. His laboratory investigates the physics underlying materials and biology. On a given day, you could find him studying the motion of a tiny plastic ball suspended in water, filming a grasshopper jump with a high-speed camera, watching paint dry (it’s actually really interesting!), or studying how immune cells fight off infectious disease. Eric is excited to be sharing his current research on how birds and other animals use physics to attract mates. hosted by Aspen Center for Physics at 6:30p, Wednesday August 25 in Paepcke Auditorium behind the Music Tent.

Free dating advice? Always a win.

flb

This is my plate at TnT.That’s ceviche, salad, fruit salad, mushrooms and yellow squash, polenta, migas, guacamole, and teeny-tiny homemade flour tortillas (heaven).

These are the homemade sweet potato chips. Yep, sweet potato chips, thin and crispy, and much healthier than tortilla chips. DELISH green and red salsa too. And my dad’s thumb, because he couldn’t stop eating for the five seconds it took for me to snap an iphone photo

This is my mom’s plate. My mom has been raving about brunch since she first went–and, she’ll proudly tell you, she was one of the FIRST people to go to TnT, because it’s right next to her Bikram Yoga studio. She loves the make-your-own-omlette station, where they’ll use egg whites and make you a lil omlette so there’s room for everything else.

There’s also a waffle bar, tons of meat and chicken (unhappy, for now, so I can’t report on it), and desserts, which include a huge bowl of fresh fruit, ice cream, and mini churros! I love how they make everything mini, so you can try a lot of food without wasting or stuffing yourself. Since I was with my parents, I didn’t indulge in Sunday Funday, but a mimosa comes with brunch, and there’s a delicious blueberry aqua fresca available to all that I can only imagine combined with champagne would make me want to sing. Even on a hungover Sunday morning.

Our service was incredible–the waiter topped off our water and coffee every time it got to half-full, they brought the made-to-order omlettes and eggs to the table, and the people manning the buffet were smiley and sweet.

Sunday brunch 10a-3p … tntgrill.com

Glass of Vodka

Add what you want from this:

Bentley's Bloody Mary Bar

And you get:

Oh, there’s no photo. Because I ate too many pickled things (Dilled brussel sprouts? Texas pickled okra? Pickled garlic? Spicy pickled pickles?) and drank just one Bloody Mary and got tipsy.

The Vermonster has been telling me I shouldn’t go to Bentley’s since I moved here. Now I think I know why. It’s an Aspen locals joint, so that means mostly boys, and they like their drinks strong. I mean, who doesn’t? But it’s no wonder my boyfriend doesn’t want me in a den of men drinking heavy pours.

Also. How does Bentley’s, an English pub in the historic and beautiful Wheeler Opera House building, four steps up from the sidewalk, manage to feel like a dingy basement when it has windows OPENED TO THE STREET? It makes no sense to me. And even though I’d pay $8 for the Bloody Mary Bar just to fill my glass with pickled things and serrano tomato juice, it was the oddest-looking Bloody Mary Bar I’ve ever seen. Wooden shelves of condiments?

Nonetheless, an Aspen recommendation. Only in Aspen.

Also. Add mustard to your next Bloody Mary.