Thursday, April 30, 2009

The Great Ping Pongathon!


People! Listen UP! The Great Ping Pongathon is just about upon us. Or should I say upong us? Anyway, check it:

24 hrs of ping pong to benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Saturday, May 2, beginning at 12 noon, until Sunday, May 3 at 12 noon.
@Pure Austin Fitness
907 W. 5th St.
( across 5th from Whole Foods, above Office Max/Copy Max. )
Free parking on the gym level of the parking garage behind Office Max.
There will be door prizes donated by local businesses. Anyone can play.
It's free to attend, but a donation of any amount is suggested to play.
For more info or questions pocarmokid@yahoo.com or 512-698-3331 or 228-8888

This is going to be so fun and it's going on for TWENTY FOUR HOURS. So get your ass down there and pick up a paddle and pong for the cure, eh?

A Real Romance Cooler (in the best sense)

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Office of Good Deeds Update


I just emailed this note out to everyone on the Office of Good Deeds mailing list. But in case you're a good deed doer not on the list, here's an update. If you want to be on the mailing list, just drop me an email at spike@spikeg.com. thanks, spike

OFFICE OF GOOD DEEDS UPDATE

Hey Everyone!
Lots of good news from the Office of Good Deeds and a couple of little requests. I think I'll include a table of contents here so you have an idea of what's in this note and can skim to the parts you want to read. So we have:

*A Thank You re: the clothing drive
*An Announcement about the Great Ping Pongathon
*A Whimsical Request re: grilled cheese
*A Personal Request re: Spike's workshops

***So, here we go. First the Thank You. A while back I asked y'all to donate women's and kids' clothes for a drive to help low income families. Boy did you come through. I got a note today from Michelle, who headed up the drive, and here is what she said:

[ Hi Spike,

Myself and the Austin Bar Association and the Austin Young Lawyers Association wanted to extend a special thanks to you for all of your amazing work collecting clothing for the Women's Resource Fair. Thanks to you we were able to collect approximately 3,500 pieces of clothing. We provided unlimited amounts of clothing to 300 women and 100 children.
Thank you again!
Michelle]

WOW-- 3,500 pieces of clothing. Nicely done. Thank you very very much.

***Next: Ping Pongathon. When I started the Office of Good Deeds in 2006, my friend Kris Schultz threw a Ping Pongathon to raise some dough for a good cause. She and her twin sister Kirsten are awesome athletes and rock out pretty hard on the ping pong table. Well, they're gearing up for another Pongathon, and here are the details from Kris:

[ Just wanted to let you know The Great Ping Pongathon 2009 is happening May 2-3, at Pure Austin Gym 907 W 5th St. Proceeds will go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  As always, we're accepting pledges and donations ahead of time, and there will be donation boxes on site, as well.  Kirsten and I will both be playing for 24 hours this year, and there will be two tables, so people can challenge either of us, or challenge other people.  We're also having an hour where people bring or suggest odd objects for us to attempt to play ping pong with, which ought to be interesting. So far, people have suggested everything from books to top hats, and one person even hand-made ping pong paddles out of duct tape. We're also going to have a drawing every hour for door prizes.  The gym will be open for the full 24 hours for anyone who wants to drop by and play, donate, etc.    We'd love to see you there, and if you feel so inclined, please feel free to forward the info to your friends/good deeds list, etc.  It should be a lot of fun. It's a difficult time to be asking people to give money, but I think it's a time when organizations like The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society could use all the help they could get, too.  We're hoping to have a great time and help them out.]

Please mark your calendars and go challenge the ladies.

***Now, the Whimsical Request. My friends Garreth and Kristine won a local Grilled Cheese competition, which entitles them to go to LA to compete in the national competition. They need to raise some funds to cover expenses. Some of you have already sent in a little dough. I'm asking, in the name of pure whimsy, that everyone send in a one dollar bill and together we help represent Austin in the extremely important competitive sport of cheese grilling. You can send donations to;
Office of Good Deeds
C/o Spike Gillespie
P.O. Box 4843
Austin, TX 78765

***And finally, my personal requests. Y'all, I am hosting one adult writing workshop (I mean, a workshop for adults not "adult writing" as in XXX stuff). I am also hosting two weeks of kids' writing camp in June and two weeks of kids' fashion camp in July. I am still taking enrollees for all of these workshops/camps and I could really really used help getting the word out. Here are links with info. Would you be so kind as to tell your friends?

Adult Writing Workshop Link:
http://spikegillespie.blogspot.com/2009/02/finding-your-voice-writing-workshop.html

Writing Camp Link:
http://spikegillespie.blogspot.com/search?q=writing+camp

Fashion Camp Link:
http://spikegillespie.blogspot.com/2009/02/announcing-fashion-camp-2008.html


Thanks y'all. Hope you are digging this unbelievably awesome spring weather. Happy good deed doin',
Spike

Friday, April 10, 2009

Saturday Music Festival with Matt the Electrician and ME!


Hey Y'all,

I think/hope you know by now how much I adore Matt the Electrician. In addition to his solo gigs and gigs with his band, Matt also plays weekly, on Thursdays, with Southpaw Jones, whom I also adore. Henry and I have been going to see Matt & Paw for years and years, first at Cafe Mundi, then at Flipnotics in the Triangle. Now the residency, still on Thursdays, has moved to the Flipnotics on Barton Springs Road. But that's not what I'm here to tell you about actually. No, what I really want you to know is that Matt is Hosting a very kick ass event tomorrow. And I am going to emcee. Yay! Here are some details (The venue is real close to Spider House):

Matt the Electrician's Island of Lost Souls

a one day music festival

Starring-

Freedy Johnston-10:15pm
Sean Hayes-8:45pm
Libby Kirkpatrick-7:15pm
Danny Malone-6pm
Lee Barber-4:55pm
Ethan Azarian-3:50pm
Matt the Electrician-3pm

Saturday April 11th, 2009
2pm-Midnight

United States Art Authority
2906 Fruth St
Austin, TX 78798
unitedstatesartauthority.com

Art Show featuring Lee Barber and Ethan Azarian

Tickets-$20adv./$23 day of the show
Advance tickets available at Waterloo Records and Spider House

Sponsored by www.relaytunes.com and www.forgealliance.org

Monday, April 6, 2009

Me and Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones, Mr. Jones...



We got a fundraiser.... going ooooooooon!

Hello People,
TONIGHT! TONIGHT! TONIGHT! I am psyched down to my Jersey girl marrow! Southpaw Jones invited me to emcee this incredible Springsteen tribute night at the Cactus Cafe. He did one of these two years ago and it just tore the roof off, packed beyond SRO, with Austin's finest singer songwriters offering up interpretations of Bruce that even I, born and raised on the guy's lyrics, was stunned and amazed by. And there is no set cover charge. This is a fund/food raiser for the Capital Area Food Bank, a pet cause of Mr. Sprinsteen's. And also, Southpaw might not tell you, so I will, it's also a birthday party of sorts for my favorite singer songwriter, yes, that's right, Southpaw himself. So put on you birthday suit and come on out to the Cactus TONIGHT, Monday, April 5, 2009. More details below:

Monday, April 6, 2009
7:30 pm
Songwriter Tribute to Bruce Springsteen
Cactus Cafe
Texas Union Bldg. UT Campus
Austin, TX
Join several of Austin's best performers for a night of pure Bruce Springsteen music. A benefit for the Capital Area Food Bank and a sort of birthday party for Southpaw Jones. Featuring Spike Gillespie, Jud Newcomb, Matt the Electrician, Nathan Hamilton, Nakia, Jess Klein, Graham Weber, Craig Marshall, Lee Barber, Brian Kremer, Raina Rose, BettySoo, Ricky Stein, and Southpaw Jones.

From http://austinfoodbank.org:

What food should I donate?
* Healthy, non-perishable food
* Items with intact, un-opened, consumer or commercial packaging
* Items with non-breakable packaging (no glass please)
* Food within the expiration date on the packaging

What are the most requested food items?
* Canned meats like tuna, stew and chili (pop-tops preferred)
* Canned vegetables
* Pasta & pasta sauce
* Beans
* Rice
* Healthy cereals
* Peanut Butter
* Baby food & baby formula

Friday, April 3, 2009

Photographic Proof of How Wrongly Cold It is Here

How cold is it in Nebrrrraska? Well, they don't call inns 'B&B's... they call them 'Brrr&Brrr"s!
How cold is it in Nebrrrraska? So cold that even the salt and pepper shakers huddle together for warmth. Check it out-- I witnessed this event with my own eye's yesterday at a cafe called Maggie's: