From our load-in captain

Gentlemen-

Thank you all for volunteering to perform the heavy lifting for load in. The entire team appreciates your help.

We will plan to meet at the home of Joel Smith, the illustrious "E" (270 N. Rose Road, 38117, near the intersection of Goodlett and Graham) at 9am Saturday morning. We will need people to move items out of the attic E has so graciously allowed us to use for storage, and we will need several strapping lads to load all of this onto a flatbed trailer and make sure it's all properly secured for transportation downtown.

Our official load in time at the park begins at 11. Vehicles without a load-in pass are not allowed into the park, so plan to get as close as possible and walk in. Those of you with cordless drills and/or handy portable tool kits may want to bring them along.

Assuming the tent and flooring have been set, load in and set up in the park shouldn't take more than a couple of hours. You needn't stay the entire time, but as long as we can have you will be appreciated.

My cell is 901.496.0317 - call if you have questions, problems, bright ideas, etc. Else, I'll see you tomorrow. Pray for good weather.

R

From our Sous Chef/Meat Captain

I ordered 35 racks of ribs to be picked up next Tuesday. I also plan on picking up 7 racks from McNeil. Rachael said we could store the meat in her freezer, but will need someone to pick it up to bring to the fest.

For Thursday: I was not planning on picking up any of the Butts, because Tom? said he was going to pick those to smoke with John over the weekend. I will contact Chris to see if he needs me to pick up the chicken, but I believe he was going to pick this up himself.

I was going to post the sides schedule on the blog, but wasn't able to start my own blog. Jen, can you post this?

Wednesday:

- Jen O: Buffalo Mac and Cheese

- Rachael: Brownies

- Jeremy: Miss Cordelia's Special

- Richard: Cookies

-Johnny and Mega: Potato Salad

Thursday (Remember to make enough for 15 extra people):

- Danny: Chips

- Ben: Asian Slaw

- Jen O: Funeral Potatoes

- Chris N: Mac & Cheese

- Richard: Cookies

Friday:

- Mekeel: Beans (competition style)

- Michael B: Potato Salad

- Patrick C: Chips

- Rachael: Grilled Vegies

- Susan Mekeel: Mac & Cheese

Also, the sales training group said that they are going to be closer to 15 for Thursday night and will give me a final number today. Each of the 15 guys will be wearing white Smith & Nephew T-Shirts. Because of the increase in the number of people, I have asked him to pay $30 instead of $25. John S, can you guys throw on an extra butt for them?

I am prepared on doing both Beans and BBQ sauce for competition, as we entered both. However, Jack if you are planning on entering your sauce, I am totally cool with that. Mine is tomato based with a strong vinegar and honey flavor.

I hope that helps.

Thanks,

Dave

PS - If anyone wants author privileges, email me and I will add you. I sent invites to everyone from the list last year, but I guess most/all of them expired.

Viva la Coola,
J

Minutes 27April

Minutes pending. Basically we assigned everyone who was there a bunch of tasks. We still need people to sign up for load-in/out, and to sign up to bring different sides. It would be helpful if everyone brought at least one side on one of the days. Email Dave Mekeel with your preference.

Coola Forevah,
J

Minutes 24 March

We had a pretty good meeting, even though attendance was low. You guys can totally blame your officers, since we set this up at the last minute.

We've got a good crew this year. We are working on a final roster, but there are still some openings. So please, if you (personally) know someone who you like and think would like to be on the team and has $300, let us know about them.

The most important thing we need to know right now is how many tickets each team member is going to need. Included in your membership is either a) a 24-hour pass or b) a 3-day pass plus a Wednesday night ticket. 3-day passes do NOT include Wednesday night admission. 24 hour wristbands are given to members depending on how much they are going to be in the park outside of regular fest hours (the cooks, load-in people, etc).

So what I need from EACH MEMBER by the END OF THIS WEEK is:

- the number of 3-day passes you will need (let me know whether you are including the one that comes with your membership in your total). These are $18 each ($6 savings on per day prices at the park)

- the number of Wednesday night tickets you need. These are $6 each.

- the number of single day passes you need (if you have anyone who wants to come for only 1 or 2 of the days). $7 each ($1 savings, though the same as you can get by ordering them yourself if you do it online ahead of time).

Wednesday is "Friends and Family Night". The unwashed masses aren't allowed in the park, b/c the only way you can get tix is through a team. This means there are usually fewer people there, and it tends to be a bit more kid friendly. The menu for that evening is burgers and brats, cooked by John Stephany.

We have three new officers in the group:
Dave Mekeel (who is also the sous chef) is going to be the Food Coordinator. He is going to be in charge of making sure we eat during the week. He is going to need help with the leg work for this, because we eat a lot.
Jeremy Miller is the Wednesday Captain. Wednesday during the day several things happen at our site that need a team member, and in the past this has been hard to coordinate because of everyone's 9-5 jobs. Jeremy volunteered to be point man for this. He may need one or two helpers, mainly so he won't get lonely.
Megan Reynolds is the Co-Presentation Coordinator. Due to some miscommunication on my part, I was under the impression that the Reynolds were taking the year off. I stand corrected, and I eagerly inform you of Megan's retaining the post that she has done an outstanding job with since joining the team.

There are several jobs that will need filling as we get closer to the final countdown.
1) We will need 2-3 team members to be in charge of the main entree for each night (Wed burgers/brats, Thursday pork butts, Friday ribs, Saturday leftover ribs/crawfish boil). We are also going to need everyone to sign up for bringing at least one side on one of the nights; obviously you can bring more, but I think we'll be covered if everyone brings at least one. If you have something you (or your mom/wife/girlfriend) are known for, please let Dave Mekeel know what it is, and which night you prefer to bring it (though it would be better if you could keep that part open if possible). As we get closer, we will let you guys know if there are any vacancies that need filling.
2) Load-in/load-out: 4-6 people are needed for each one. They can be the same people, but not necessarily so.
3) Beer coordinator: this is a very important job. Traditionally 1-2 people have been in charge of getting the beer when we run out. You will need to have the ability to pull a metal cart with 2 kegs in it.
4) Probably 1-2 Wednesday people to help Jeremy, be available for Costco runs, etc.
Everyone will be asked to do at least one of these jobs, so you don't have the same 6 people trying to do everything and not having enough time for coola shots.

Our space is R-67; we are down towards the south end of the rib section. We've got a nice patch of open ground behind us that I'm hoping we can appropriate for baggo/cornhole.

Okay, I can't think of anything else. Please leave comments or corrections. If anyone has questions, he/she can email magicallypiglicious@gmail.com Our next meeting will probably be in mid-late April, and we are thinking about having it on a Saturday so Mekeel can cook the leftover ribs from last year. At that meeting we are going to finalize the different committees and hopefully set a menu for the week. Please send your dues to 2231 Madison Ave, Memphis, 38104 as soon as you can. Checks should be made out to Magically Piglicious (thanks Begonia!). Thanks to everyone who has already paid.

Viva la coola,
JenO

Meeting 24 March 2010

For those of you (if any) that follow the blog instead of email, we are going to have a meeting this Wednesday, March 24, at 6PM at Danny's house. Bring your checkbooks!

And don't forget - if anyone has questions, or speaks to someone w/ a question, you can direct emails to magicallypiglicious@gmail.com, and they will be forwarded to the appropriate person.

Abita Update

Good evening Piglicians,

I've told a handful of people and think it's time to officially unleash the news to the team. As many of you know, I have been trying basically for two years to get a little liquid supplementation for the team courtesy of Abita Brewery in Louisiana. I've sent numerous emails trying to sell our ability to provide them a little advertising in exchange for just a keg or two of beer. After about a month without any real contact, I got a call from the brewery and have learned that we are approved for 4 kegs of beer for bbq fest.

I got caught a little off guard by the call and I was cruising through the Lower 9th Ward at the time so when she asked what kinds we wanted I didn't really put in much of a request. Meaning it won't be anything overly extravagant, but hey; who's complaining about getting a few hundred bucks worth of beer for free? (yeah, these ain't the 50 dollar kegs of Beast. These are considered premium beers and typically run pretty high)

Hope y'all like Abita Golden and Amber because that's what's coming (2 kegs each). As a side note, I did subtly ask about getting Andy Gator, but was kindly steered off of that. It's probably for the best anyway, since The Gator will put even a grown ass man's dick in the dirt, and we still have to compete.

There is one important condition that I've already told Jen about. It's certainly not a deal breaker, but being a man of my word, I'd like to include their logo on our shirt somewhere since that was a selling point in my initial request. I have received a picture file so it shouldn't be hard to make it happen. It's entirely up to us as to the location and size of the logo, but I figure on the sleeve in place of the joint logo, or even a small logo on the top middle of the back, kinda like those life is good shirts would be nice. I'll leave it up to whoever is designing the shirts to take care of that, but please just make sure it happens and we make it reasonably visible. I don't wanna be a cheese dick about it since they are hooking us up with some good beer.

Lastly, and this is CRUCIAL: when I bring these kegs, they must go back to the distributor where I got them, otherwise, I'm getting killed by the deposit. If they make it back to their home, my card will never be charged and we will have dranked for free. I would like to get a chain and a lock for these bitches just in case some well intentioned, but overly inebriated plebeian goes on a beer run and tries to take my shells to exchange. I also don't wanna end up with one being snatched after hours either.

So there you have it, a keg of abita for every day of the fest. Who's house? Run's House.

Viva La Coola

A Gentle Reminder

Please call/email John Stephany soon to RSVP for the fest. Also let him know of any potential new members, and have those potential members also call or email. Make sure to let them know that the initiation is way easier than in years past - all they have to do is one shot in the coola!

J