Atypical Events

Party at America’s Swankiest Bowling Alleys

Posted by jessie under Amusement, Parties

One of America’s favorite pastimes is regaining popularity and coming back with an exciting new twist.

Trendy bowling alleys have been popping up around the country in recent that are more upscale and swankier than ever.

Here’s the rundown on some of the coolest bowling alleys in America.

1. Lucky Strike, L.A.

For the ultimate experience in “boutique bowling,” head to a Lucky Strike bowling alley. Lucky Strike is not your typical bowling alley, it’s more like an upscale club, and it even has a dress code. It is the place to go for “Hollywood chic,” and has 18 locations nationwide.

The swanky club first opened in Hollywood in 2003 and now has other locations around the country.

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Really Weird Food Events, Parties, and Festivals

Posted by jessie under Amusement, Parties, Restaurants

Since as far back as most can remember, people have always had a passion for two things: parties and food.

In many cases the two mix naturally and food helps to enrich the event or occasion that people gathered to celebrate. However, some specific foods are so revered that an event actually is formed for no other purpose than to gather and eat the special food.

Many such festivals like the Horseradish Festival or Crab Festival are well known and celebrated in many areas of the US. There are also some lesser known festivals that some might even consider a little weird.

Let’s take a look at some of the weird and strange food festivals celebrated around the US.
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Grape Stomp Festival

Posted by jessie under Amusement, News

At 3:00 PM on August 30th people will gather in Irvington, VA for the annual Irvington Stomp harvest festival.

The festival will be held at White Fences Vineyard, which is about three hours from Washington, D.C. and just over an hour from Richmond, VA. The “stomp” will feature both individual barrels and larger family-sized barrels.

Local officials and special guests will participate in a “stomp-off,” which will determine who gets to be the “King and Queen of the Stomp.”

There’s more than just grape-stomping at this festival, which will also feature farm animals and exhibits, a petting zoo, kite show and a corn maze.

If you decide to go, be sure to bring a blanket and chairs for the festival concert, which will have blues, rock and country music. This year’s Stomp will feature Virginia-based singer/songwriter Robbin Thompson, former lead singer for Bruce Springsteen’s band Steel Mill. Robbin also co-authored the unofficial song of Virginia, Sweet Virginia Breeze.

The event is a great chance for people of all ages to get a taste small town America. The cost is Adults $10, $5 kids 6-16, under 6 free. More details are available at www.irvingtonstomp.com.

All Points West Goes Green

Posted by jessie under Amusement, Music

The inaugural All Points West music festival concert took place last weekend, August 8-10 in Jersey City’s Liberty State Park.

Radiohead and Jack Johnson headlined the festival, which also featured performances from the Roots, Kings of Leon, Chromeo, Metric, Andrew Bird and the Virgins, just to name a few.

Over 40 acts played Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the historic 80-acre park, which offers striking views of the Manhattan skyline and Statue of Liberty.

All Points West was the first festival of its size to come to the Tri-State area in a long time. All Points West promoted itself as a “green” festival, taking precautions to lower the carbon footprints of the festival and its attendees, promoting recycling and mass transit.

One of the most notable ways the festival encouraged attendees to be green was by taking the ferry from Pier 11 at South Street Seaport in Manhattan to get to Liberty State Park, which was how most people got to the event.

Attendees were also encouraged to ride bikes, take the light rail or PATH train. People who wanted to drive to the event had to carpool and obtain a special carpool parking pass.

Large music festivals can generate a lot of waste. With this in mind All Points West used non-disposable materials in the backstage area, per request of the artists. It was an important priority of the artists to keep the festival green.

Radiohead, who headlined the festival on Friday and Saturday, even commissioned a carbon-footprint study of their tour. Jack Johnson, Sunday’s headliner, educated attendees on the importance of going green with an interactive eco-village that he brought along to the festival.

Eco-friendly art and environmental awareness booths were scattered throughout the festival, which also featured a “recycling store” called “TRASHed.:” Attendees could go around collecting plastic bottles and turn them in to collect merchandise like t-shirts, skateboards and beach balls.

People were also able to cut down on bottle usage by bringing their own water bottle that they could fill up for free at faucets throughout the festival grounds.

As a result of the greening efforts, the festival grounds were kept especially clean and over 70,000 people were able to reach All Points West by using mass transit.