It's a simple idea. On Sunday, September 30th, at 9:00 PM Eastern, we're raising a glass to Michael Jackson, and raising money in his name for the National Parkinson's Foundation.Dunno if places in Portland are participating, but you could send Lew an email and find out howw to participate. In any case, mark the toast on your calendar. That's six, Portland time.
We hope to have a list up soon of bars and brewpubs that are participating; I know for sure that Monk's Cafe and the Grey Lodge are doing it in Philly. If you are a bar or brewpub owner, and would like to join in, e-mail me and I'll get you the information, and a template we've made for a flyer/poster.
Be generous, folks: this is for Michael, the guy without whom a lot of this would not have happened. As Tom Peters said to me, "I'd really like to be able to hand a check for $100,000 to the Foundation in Michael's name." (Tom's donating the evening's profits at Monk's, and will be passing the hat for direct donations as well.)
There will be other, ongoing opportunities to honor Jackson's name and legacy, but this one, as Sam Calagione said, is from the heart. Here's to Michael. See you on the 30th.
In other Jackson news, he did a video interview just three weeks before he died that you can watch here. Toward the end, he mentions that he was planning to write a book called I Am Not Drunk about his struggle with Parkinson's. "I know a lot of people were saying it, wondering whether I had a problem or not."
[Update: Belmont Station is on it. I'll update the post if I learn about more pubs that might be nearer you.]
Hi Jeff,
ReplyDeleteWe plan on participating in the toast at Belmont Station. We'll be getting a keg of something British, and a keg of something hoppy and (hopefully) cask-conditioned to put on tap that day. ALL the money generated from the special kegs will be donated to the Parkinson's Foundation, and we're working on some other things for the day as well.
Hopefully we'll see you there!
Cool, Chris. I think I can swing drinking a pint for Jackson. I recommend Coniston's Bluebird Bitter, if you can get it. He loved well-made smaller beers, and that one, which I had at PIB, was amazing. Maybe a Fullers ESB, too? Fullers was at the fore of the CAMRA movement, which begat Jackson.
ReplyDeleteI heard from someone that when Mr. Jackson was drinking at his local pub his beer of choice was Fuller's ESB, so that would be a natural. We'll have to wait until a little closer to the 30th and see what our distirubotr friends have available for imported kegs, but I'm sure we can find something that MJ would have approved of.
ReplyDeleteBTW, thanks for the link!
~Chris