Happy Thanksgiving!

Stumpjack will be closed tomorrow for Thanksgiving. We have a lot to be thankful for, in spite of the downturn in the economy and the usual small business challenges: we're doing business in a beautiful little city, and we've made a great many wonderful friendships (so many of you are truly grand people). We are most definitely thankful for you all, and wish you all a restful, rejuvenating and peaceful Thanksgiving. God bless.

I tried to find a picture of a turkey and coffee together, but no luck.
The closest I could come is a picture of Turkish coffee...get it?

FYI: Kim has updated her Stumpjack's Wine All You Want blog with a brief note on wine for the holiday. Also, this Friday night Becky Markvart will be performing here at the Stump.

Ethan Keller kicks butt!

Last night Ethan Keller again made it clear that he is one of the most gifted and interesting musicians around. Watching him build a song with his looping gizmos, doing his versions of unusual cover tunes (like Michael Jackson or Thomas Dolby...I'd show you his cover of Dolby's "She Blinded Me with Science" on video here, but he warned that a brick might drop if I did. lol.), and his own beautifully funky compositions is such a gas. Next time Ethan performs here you owe it to yourself to come check him out. I feel safe in saying that you won't find anyone else like him performing in this neck of the woods. I guarantee you will be duly impressed.

Here's a couple videos from last night's gig. The video and audio quality that my Flip Video records is pretty weak and hollow compared to the fullness of sound that Ethan produces while playing...you lose a lot of the little complexities of his performance. But it'll do.

We all shouted for an encore, and Marty hollered for "Christopher's Sister" off of Ethan's Face Light CD. So, this is his final tune from last night. I've placed a few others onto the Stumpjack Coffee YouTube site...check 'em out.
Here's the link to Marty's Flickr set of images from Friday night. The top two images are from Martys camera...some by him and some by me.

Friday night jazzification

ETHAN KELLER

FRIDAY, Nov. 21 (that's tonight!), 8pm

Need to warm up your cold self on this frosty day? Come on down to the Stump tonight to see and hear one of the most talented cats in the cheese state right now...Ethan Keller. I can't say enough about Ethan...he's been here, what, three or four times now, and it has always been a night of super-fine music and energy. We got our start times a little confused, so we're going with 8:00pm. I think we're going to have some hot cider with apple-cinnamon liqueur on hand too...guaranteed to warm both your spirit and your innards.

Thursday Wine Tasting - South Africa!

Wines of South Africa
Thursday Nov. 20...6:30-8:00pm
members $15
non-members $20
Call, email or stop in to reserve your spot. Seating is limited.

My ever-so-lovely and too-smart-for-her-own-good wife, Kim, has arranged to Mr. Andrew Hilliard of the Beau Joubert South African Winery conduct a tasting of their wines this Thursday at Stumpjack Coffee. Mr. Hilliard is the Managing Director of the winery and will be able to answer any questions you might have about the Beau Joubert operation and their fine wines. Kim will also have some very tasty antipasti/tapas available as part of this special event.

And if you are a wine lover don't forget to check out the Stumpjack Wine All You Want blog. Kim's blog is starting to take off and will no doubt be a valuable resource for those of you who enjoy wine.

Tonight: NOT A DARN THING!

Just received a comment on the blog asking about tonight's event. There is no event going on at the Stump tonight, folks. It's the first weekend in a long time that we have no live music on tap. John and Jeremy of NineDays were scheduled to perform but we have to reschedule that one. Didn't do a fill-in gig for tonight because if it ain't gonna be John and Jeremy it ain't gonna to be anyone! Seriously, we just decided to enjoy a quiet evening...closing early tonight (sometime between 4:00 and 5:00) to enjoy what's left of my birthday.

Becky Markvart and Bill Martell (Six Degrees) will be performing at Courthouse Pub tonight around 10:00 I think. We're probably going to head over there to relax and have folks wait on us for a change.

Cheers!

Beers in the house

Marty with a Fiddler's Elbow from the Wychwood Brewery

We've been asked a few times why we don't regularly provide a beer list of the brews we have in the cooler. The main reason is because we rarely keep the same beers in stock. We mix it up pretty regularly, bringing new beers in and not reordering others. There's really no method to the madness, and we do it this way for no other reason than because we enjoy trying new beers (and there's only so much room in the case). One thing you can usually be sure of, you'll find a fairly eclectic mix of beer when you visit...and most of them will be brands that you won't normally find in most other pubs or coffee shops.

There are, however, a few that I make a point of trying to keep in stock, just because they are on my favorites list so consistently (and I'm being entirely selfish here, because if I personally don't like the beer it won't be back).

















Having just said all that, I did take a little time yesterday to put together a list for the beers we had delivered to the shop this week. Here's part of what's in the case at the moment (images only, not adding the text for each beer):

Thursday Night's Tasting: Beer & Sausage

You need to let us know (call or email) ahead of time if you want to join the fun.

Beer and Sausage Tasting

(several craft beers matched with
salami, sausage, cured meat)
Thursday, Nov. 13th
6:30pm-8:00pm
Members: $15.00
Nonmembers: $20.00
Please call 553-5282 to register or email stumpjack@gmail.com

Dangit! Lost in computer wasteland.

As I write this I'm uploading the last of the videos onto YouTube of JoAnn, Jeannie and Chelsea from Saturday night's performance. Those gals are just the bee's knees! Really strong songwriters and very raw and elemental in their performances. When they perform it's about as close as you can get to the feeling of hanging out at a home party or around a campfire, drinking beer, your pals bringing out their guitars and everyone just having a great time...it's loose and relaxed, a good deal of fun chitchat and laughs, and some truly awesome music.

JoAnn Riedl

YouTube sucks for image quality in the transfer (everything seems to blur a bit), but the sound is pretty good. I'm using a Flip Video camera for everything, a great little gizmo I got from our friend Rob who's down in Texas. The image quality and sound coming off the Flip is excellent; it's on the YouTube end that the image gets fuzzy.

Jeannie Mayotte

I also had some great video of Matt Davies from Friday night and of Greg Pagel from Saturday's noon show. But something happened as I was uploading...everything froze up on the computer for several minutes and when it finally kicked in again all of my videos had been erased. All of them, not just the ones of Matt and Greg, but all of them. Fortunately, the ones of JoAnn, Jeannie and Chelsea were on the camera yet, and not in the Flip files like the others. I'm bummed but what can you do.

Chelsea Z.

Today and Tonight

Saturday, Nov. 8
Live music with Greg Pagel - keyboard and accordion demon.
12:00 noon
Saturday, Nov. 8
Live Music with JoAnn Riedl, Jeannie Mayotte and Chelsea Z. - a trio of rockin' Milwaukee artists.
8:00pm

TONIGHT: Art and Music

Just saw this drawing by Steph on her myspace site...YES!

Friday, Nov. 7
Art Opening: Drawings and works by Steph Davies
7:00pm
Steph's drawings are quite wonderful...delicate, spontaneous and joyful.
Folk Musician Matt Davies
8:00pm
Matt will be providing live music for Steph's art opening. He's a fabulous folk guitarist and songwriter, very much in the spirit of Woodie Guthrie or early Dylan.

Halloweeny pics

Brian & Darla - the devil and her air freshener

Got the Halloween pics up on Flickr now. Brian and Marty are way more efficient than I, and got theirs up straight away.
Go here for my set.
Go here for Brian's set.
Go here for Marty's set.

Here's a short video of everyone raising their glass and saying Happy Birthday to Nic from Red Bank Coffee here in town. Plus it was Marty & Lori's anniversary and Becky & Mike's anniversary. Pretty cool that they spent them with all of us at Stumpjack.

a motley crew

a gypsy rose

Darla & Brian win the big prize, dinner for two at Courthouse Pub!

queen bee and here favorite flower

three cuties

dark angel and that hipster from the late 50s

Connie, more lovely than ever

we look sooooo awesome!

A very busy week

There are many people going around today with smiles on their faces and calling this "a great day for America." I agree, because we're finally done with all those political ads!

We have a very busy week here at Stumpjack. Here's the itinerary:

Thursday, Nov. 6
Wine and Cheese Tasting
6:30-8:00pm
members $15
nonmembers $20
Call (553-5282) or email (stumpjack@gmail.com) Stumpjack Coffee to reserve your spots. It's going to be an enjoyable and yummy couple of hours.

Friday, Nov. 7
Art Opening: Drawings and works by Steph Davies
7:00pm
Steph's drawings are quite wonderful...delicate, spontaneous and joyful.
Folk Musician Matt Davies
8:00pm
Matt will be providing live music for Steph's art opening. He's a fabulous folk guitarist and songwriter, very much in the spirit of Woodie Guthrie or early Dylan.

Saturday, Nov. 8
Live music with Greg Pagel - keyboard and accordion demon.
12:00 noon
Saturday, Nov. 8
Live Music with JoAnn Riedl, Jeannie Mayotte and Chelsea Z. - a trio of rockin' Milwaukee artists.
8:00pm

I'll also be uploading images and video today from this past weekend's Halloween party. Check back later today.

Wine All You Want blog

Kim's new Stumpjack's Wine All You Want blog is now up and running with her first post! Please check it out, make a comment on there for her, let her know what you think of it, what you might like to have her talk about, etc. Bookmark it for sure, but you'll also be able to go to it from the "Stumpjack Scat" side links here anytime too.

WINE & CHEESE TASTING this Thursday Night...go to the Wine All You Want blog post for more information.