Weyerbacher Echo has arrived.

Weyerbacher Echo (Easton, PA; $7/16oz). Echo, a limited release, is timed to coincide with Philly Craft Beer Week, but a tiny amount of kegs have made it up to New York City. This deep-copper ale combines the citrus kick of Simcoe and Centennial hops with the spicy twang that comes from 30% rye malt. A winter IPA to bridge the gap between now and spring. 6.8% ABV.

Next Chin Music Reading Thursday, March 12 at 7 pm.

Please join us for the next evening of Chin Music, the Pacific Standard Poetry Reading Series. On March 12th, we are featuring three excellent poets: Lewis Warsh, Cecily Parks, and Zachary Sussman. Other writers to be featured in Chin Music this season include Sophie Cabot Black, Major Jackson, James Hoch, Anna Journey, Rebecca Keith, Oni Buchanan, and David Baker. Series curated by Colin Cheney.

Please note our earlier reading time of 7:00PM.

FEATURED POETS

Lewis Warsh is the author of numerous books of poetry, fiction and autobiography, including THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD, TOUCH OF THE WHIP, AVENUE OF ESCAPE and TED’S FAVORITE SKIRT. He is co-editor of THE ANGEL HAIR ANTHOLOGY, editor and publisher of United Artists Books, and director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Long Island University in Brooklyn. A new book, INSEPARABLE: POEMS 1995-2005, was published by Granary Books in 2008.

Cecily Parks is the author of FIELD FOLLY SNOW (University of Georgia Press/VQR Poetry Series, 2008) and the chapbook COLD WORK (Poetry Society of America, 2005). She is a PhD candidate in English at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she is working on a dissertation about swamps and American literature.

Zachary Sussman is the host and creator of the OnEarth Magazine poetry podcast, a publication of the Natural Resources Defense Council. In addition to serving as Poetry Editor for Small Anchor Press, he works as the Coordinator of New York University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. He lives in Brooklyn.

March Madness at Pacific Standard.

For those of you wondering, yes, we've purchased the March Madness package from DirecTV, so all 64 games of the best postseason tournament in existence will be available to us on our two large projection screens. Our two-screen-ness does mean that during the first round, when CBS is often showing three or four games at a time, we won't have everything on at once--so if you plan on bringing a big group to see a certain game, contact us in advance. We'll probably bring back pitcher specials and so on for the tournament; more details to come.

And it's operational.

We've got the machine levelled and functional! For this weekend, we're offering three games for a dollar (50 cents for a single game).

Star Trek pinball is here!

We're getting it all set up now; hopefully, it'll be ready for play tonight, but if not it'll definitely be ready for our launch party on Monday. It's a really nicely maintained machine, and the game itself is very complex and interesting, with zillions of "missions" that you can complete. It should be fun for a long time to come.

Next Chin Music poetry reading Feburary 26.

Chin Music: The Pacific Standard Poetry Reading Series
Featuring Nick Laird, Jason Myers, and Austin LaGrone

Thursday, February 26th, 2009 @ 7:00 PM

Please join us for the next evening of Chin Music, the Pacific Standard Poetry Reading Series. On February 26th we are excited to present three poets: Nick Laird, Jason Myers, and Austin LaGrone. Series curated by Colin Cheney. Other writers to be featured in Chin Music this season include Sophie Cabot Black, Major Jackson, James Hoch, Anna Journey, Rebecca Keith, Cecily Parks and David Baker.

FEATURED POETS

Born in Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland in 1975, Nick Laird has received many awards for his fiction and poetry, including the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the Ireland Chair of Poetry Award and the Betty Trask Prize. His most recent collection, ON PURPOSE, published by W.W. Norton in 2008, received a Somerset Maugham award and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. His new novel, GLOVER’S MISTAKE, will be published by Viking Penguin in August.

Jason Myers was born in a small town. He has nothing against a big town. He went to Bennington College in Vermont where he was named Catherine Osgood Foster Scholar by poet Mary Oliver. This fall he will become a Master of Divinity student at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. His writing has appeared in Agni, Euphony, The Paris Review, Poet Lore, Tin House, and West Branch. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Born and raised in Louisiana, Austin LaGrone put himself through school bolting four hundred and fifty transmissions a day to Chevy S-10 engine blocks. He hiked the Annapurna Circuit in flip-flops before earning his master's degree in Liberal Arts at St. John's College in Annapolis. His poems have recently appeared in Brilliant Corners. He currently lives in Brooklyn and is pursuing an M.F.A. in Creative Writing at New York University.

Star Trek pinball is coming!

The time is finally nigh, pinball fans: next week, we are going to Madison, Wisconsin in a Dodge Caravan we hereby dub "Enterprise" to get the highly-anticipated Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball machine, and physically bring Riker, Data, Picard, and the gang back with us (I hope Worf doesn't mind riding in the middle seat, chortle chortle). On Friday, February 27, we move the machine in and set it up. It should be operating by that Friday night. But our official pinball launch party will be on Monday, March 2. We'll have Star Trek episodes on our projection screen in back, and will be giving you a free play on the machine for every beer you buy (in addition to our usual Monday happy hour and frequent drinker specials). So mark your calendars and commence developing subtle, subtle wrists.

Our first Iron Sampler

is our old friend Jef, who now claims that his last name, Samp, is an eponym for the challenge. He flew home with a handsome t-shirt. Who will be next to take up the gauntlet?

Anderson Valley specials!

We need to clear some room in our bottle storage area, so we're putting our Anderson Valley bottles on super-secret special. Until we run out, you can get either the award-winning Boont ESB or the classic Poleeko Gold Pale Ale for only $5 a bottle (as opposed to $7 usually). Just tell the bartender you want the blog special on Anderson Valley. The full details on these two beers, in case you haven't yet had them:

Anderson Valley Boont ESB (Boonville, CA). The abundant hopping in this multiple-gold-medal-winning Extra Special Beer creates a pleasantly bitter bite. 6.8% ABV.

Anderson Valley Poleeko Gold Pale Ale (Boonville, CA). Poleeko Gold is synonymous with California-style pale ale. 5.5% ABV.

Deschutes Hop Henge Experimental IPA

is in stock for a limited time. The details on this much-sought-after limited release:

Deschutes Hop Henge Experimental IPA (Bend, OR; $14/22 oz). Part of Deschutes’s small-batch Bond Street series, this IPA has extreme hop flavors from several new hop processes. 8.7% ABV.

Come by very soon to pour one of these big, fancy-lookin' bottles.

We now have two types of Cattaneo Bros. beef jerky...

regular and pepper flavor. The regular is what we've had for a while now; the pepper kicks it up a proverbial notch with some nice black pepper spiciness. It's our personal favorite, and definitely worth a try.

Our new cocktail menu

which we've been beta-testing over the past few weeks, but are now confident enough about to post it for your information. Some are old, but most are new or modified, and include our fantastic new Anchor, Rogue, and Hangar One liquors:

Blueberry Lemonade ($8): Blueberry and citrus vodka, muddled lemon and sugar, topped with soda.
Dark and Stormy ($8): Jamaican ginger beer topped with Myers dark rum.
Kaffir Caipiruski ($8): Hangar One Kaffir Lime vodka, muddled lime and sugar, topped with soda.
Negroni ($9): Anchor Junipero gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth, garnished with a slice of orange.
Rogue Mai Tai ($9): White and gold Rogue rum, triple sec, pineapple juice, lime juice, Grenadine.

Cal-Stanford basketball, February 14.

For those of you who'd much rather watch a good college basketball rivalry game than get all goopy with your significant other, we'll have the Cal-Stanford game Saturday, February 14 at 5 pm. Cal needs some more solid victories to strengthen its case for the NCAA Tournament, so come help them butterfly-effect style by making noise 3,000 miles away.

Creatures watching Fourth Avenue out of our front door, #3.

Topsham Pantsuit lineup for February 18,

to wit:

Wyatt Cenac (The Daily Show, new film Medicine For Melancholy)
Todd Levin (Writer for Conan)
Liam McEneaney (Wrote for Greg Giraldo, hosts "Tell Your Friends!" on LES)
Jason Reich (Wrote for The Daily Show)
Franklin Bruno (Songwriter, plays with The Mountain Goats)

And of course your host, Ritch Duncan.

Thanks to everyone

who made it out for the show tonight. The comics were great, the crowd was lovely, and we made it through our first comedy night in a long time without any major mishaps. Sorry about the minor AV problems--we're all still learning how to use our new system (which, on the good side, provided excellent sound). As we learn how to use the setup, we promise seamless Captain EO-style AV gloriousness. See you on February 18 for another show, with excellent funnypeople (final lineup TBA soon).

Dog watching Fourth Avenue out of our front door, #2

in an occasional series.