Fresh to Death

From the moment I made the decision to go, I had a feeling Fresh Fest would be my Essence, my All Star Weekend, my Honda (ok, Honda is always going to be my Honda)

However lofty my expectations were, it exceeded them.

I spent last weekend in Pittsburgh for Fresh Fest, the nation's first and only black craft beer festival. I got into town Thursday night, after driving up from Greensboro. I stayed in an Airbnb on the North Shore, situated such that I parked my car once and didn't move it again until it was time to go. I got in right around 8 and, since this was a beer-fronted trip, headed to the closest brewery, which was Allegheny City, mere blocks from where I stayed. Dinner came via the taco truck onsite, and I enjoyed a couple of their brews before heading back to my apartment for the weekend.

I spent Friday checking out the fair city of Pittsburgh. I started touring PNC Park, home of the Pirates (in a Pittsburgh Crawfords shirt as I had mentioned before) and then headed across the Roberto Clemente Bridge for a Pittsburgh culinary institution: Primanti Bros. That evening, I headed back out to catch a Steelers preseason game, where I of course had to catch the Pittsburgh Steeline.

Strictly Fresh Fest focused behavior began on Friday night with a meetup at Voodoo Brewery over in Homestead. There, I caught up with quite a few folks from a Facebook group I'm in for Black craft beer lovers and set the tone for the day to come.

Saturday was the day. My early entry pass got me in at 3 - two hours before the 5pm regular entry - and I began to realize the full potential of the event's vision and reality. The event was diverse by design, and as such was the most black folks I've ever seen at a beer event at one time, while still having an incredibly diverse crowd. There were a few breweries I made it a point to catch, but other than that I was trying to try as much as I could - and was relatively successful. The vibe was amazing. The courtyard - amazing on an 80 degree Pittsburgh afternoon - featured live bands, with a DJ inside. The breweries were in both locations, with food options in both places as well. I got to catch up with some of my folk from the night before, and check out what all was going on from each of the breweries and vendors. The event was extremely well run and all love. I got to shout passing thank yous at the two primary organizers, Mike Potter of Black Brew Culture and Day Bracey of the Drinking Partners Podcast, and dap up Mike. Musically the headliner for the night was Nappy Roots, and they sent us all off right.

Lord and schedule willing, this will become an annual trip. Fresh Fest's existence is to serve as a foil to the overwhelmingly white, male, and bearded world of craft beer, and it served as evidence that the rest of us are out there. I have a not-at-all unfounded fear of chasing that high at every brewery and beer event I attend in the meantime, but Fresh Fest showed us all what can be possible. As to its organization: With all due respect to Pittsburgh, a city I expected to like and had that expectation confirmed, Fresh Fest was born out of the organizers' locale, not necessarily the city's features. If you're looking to gather a critical mass of blackfolk, they easily could have gone with DC and Atlanta. Fresh Fest didn't seek a city that was already lit; they took their city and made it lit. What's more, from what I could see, the craft beer industry in Pittsburgh fully embraced the festival, partnering with collaborations and supporting the event. This year was only its second year, and I can't wait to see what's to come. One thing's for sure - it will be fresh.

Early Look

It's football season, y'all.

With all due respect to baseball, the start of the NFL preseason, coupled with the end of drum corps season, puts an even more singular focus on the football to come. Preseason football has a strange way of being just what the doctor ordered. It's meaningless, sure, but after the six month drought since the end of the Super Bowl, there's something about the familiar cadence of an NFL broadcast that brings it all rushing back.

I had the opportunity to catch the Steelers' preseason game while I was up in Pittsburgh this past weekend. Steelers' QBs battled for the right to backup Big Ben, while across the field, Jameis Winston put in some reps for the visiting Buccaneers. And, of course, because of who I am as a person, I kept an eye on the Pittsburgh Steeline, who were plenty entertaining before and during the game.

Of course, marching percussion isn't the only sports adjacent back in play. Once the games are back... the games are back. Much as the preseason offers a chance to get a first look at your team in action, getting in early is key. If you're keeping it interesting with the weekly action, find a sportsbook that posts lines early. The earlier the lines are up, the longer you have to analyze the odds and find the best value. When regular season starts, compare a few of the books to see which one publishes the lines the earliest. It gives you the chance not only to do your homework, but to either be ready to strike as lines move, or to have your horse back in the stable while the week is still young. I'm sure you've yelled at your favorite team's sideline about their clock management; those early lines can help you keep your own in check.

Pint of Order

Beer is on brand.

I'm in Pittsburgh this weekend for Fresh Fest Beer Fest, and I'm taking in quite a few things that will likely become #content. I toured PNC Park and attended a Steelers game yesterday, and while it needs no justification, the festival (and my adjacent beers) will make it to a post and respective social media as well.

For many, myself included, beer is a part of the Cadence of Game Day, from the tailgate lot, to the pregame/postgame pub stop, to the bottle or can in front of you while you watch on TV. In the context of 80 Minutes, beer has made a few features over the years, both in the context in and beyond sports and marching/athletic music. Fresh Fest is also a fully cultural experience that I'm looking forward to experiencing - and, in fact, already have in the time that I've been here in Pittsburgh. So when you catch this beer content, just know that like loyalty and royalty, it's in our DNA.

Is This Drum Corps?

I tweeted it, so I figured I'd make it.

[Anime meme with the butterfly in which the butterfly is Bluecoats' 2019 show]
"Is this drum corps?"
Who cares, it was AMAZING! #NightBEAT

— Curtis (@80mins) July 29, 2019

- or - how I learned to stop worrying and love drum corps

While I still have some curmudgeonly tendencies, I have in general made my peace with the way drum corps continues to evolve. Electronics, vocals, and amplification were once the new frontier, and as they have become commonplace, major multilevel setpieces on the field have made the activity three dimensional. There has been significant give-and-take not just between DCI, WGI, and high performing competitive high school bands, but also other facets of the performing arts.

Tlue Bluecoats' eponymous 2019 program that features music of the Beatles push past the limit of just about everything old school drum corps holds dear.

And. I. Love. It.

The costuming (can we still call them uniforms?) was exquisite. All of the props and staging were used well. And while there was a heavy electronic and sampled presence, everything done with analog horns and percussion was still top notch as we've come to expect from the corps. I don't know where they'll finish on Saturday night, but this show is the people's champion.

In evolving, this show has done one more thing that I'd love to see more of in drum corps. In doing the music of the Beatles Bloo has programmed a show that is instantly recognizable and supremely accessible to a large swath of fans. The corps returned to their hometown of Canton to perform halftime of the NFL's Hall of Fame Game, and I don't think I'm being hyperbolic when I say I don't think there's ever been a DCI show better suited to put in front of a football crowd. Drum corps shows tend to be built for DCI judges first, and DCI fans (a hopefully close) second. This year's program is honestly the type of show that may make a stadium full of fans there to see the Falcons play the Broncos show up in their respective home stadiums next year for DCI Southeastern or Drums Along the Rockies. I hope the activity will continue to deliver.

Worlds Colliding

If you've been to NightBEAT since it made the move to Winston Salem, you may have noticed a group in the stands or in the lots, usually clad in gold, taking in the show.

They were the Blue and Gold Marching Machine of North Carolina A&T State University, and this year, they'll be part of the show.

A&T sits across the Triad from the show's home at Wake Forest, and boasts the largest, most prominent marching band in the area. They'll be teaming up with the team from Carolina Crown who puts on the event to add value for all attendees, and the Aggies are sure to win some new fans from the drum corps-centric crowd.

Many will note the seeming incongruence of an HBCU band at a DCI show. Frankly, that's the beauty of it. Fans of any facet of the marching arts should be able to enjoy the entertainment that features A&T, 11 World Class corps, and SoundSport program Thunder of Roanoke. And pump the brakes if you're thinking the Aggies are a fish out of water. While unmistakably and undeniably an HBCU band, the Blue and Gold Marching Machine has shown that when they incorporate corps style elements, they're damn good at that too. There's no telling if the Aggies will give you what they do best, or switch their swag up for a feature to show that they can get down whichever way they please.

Searching For an American Hero

While UConn's move to the Big East wasn't driven by football, it won't be without gridiron implications.

For UConn, their football program becomes homeless, as the American Athletic Conference has already made it clear that UConn is not welcome as a football-only member. UConn may find itself in the same boat as its fellow New England flagship, UMass, who has been a Division I Independent since parting ways with the MAC in 2015. Since the MAC is the only other conference that makes geographic sense, there's a good chance UConn remains independent - if they remain FBS at all. UConn made the move to the FBS ranks 20 years ago - ironically, at the behest of the Big East Football Conference - but has an overall program history dating back to the late 19th century. If UConn returned to the championship subdivision, they wouldn't be the only recent program to do so. Idaho made a similar move after the dissolution of the WAC left them homeless, and at that point some wondered if the changing landscape of major college football, including the widening rift between the haves and have nots, would have others follow in their footsteps.

On the other side of the equation, the American is in a position to pick its next move, perhaps with some goading by ESPN. Unlike other defections from what was then the Big East, losing UConn doesn't leave the conference any weaker, and the die has already been cast with regards to access to the sport's power structure. The American has a few options: Stand pat at 11 football members, add a football only member (potentially complementing with a non-football member), or add a new member in all sports.

Keeping 11 members may be the strongest position, provided two things. The first is that their newly negotiated contract with ESPN remains in place for the schools that remain, ensuring each a larger piece of the pie. The second is that the American gets a waiver to host a championship game with fewer than 12 members, though this may simply be a formality. Should the AAC go divisionless, they can choose, as the Big 12 does, to match the two two strongest programs in the championship game, improving the resume of the victor. While this likely still will not result in a playoff berth, it can strengthen the AAC's case in the event they are in contention with any other Group of Five conferences for the New Year's Six spot.

Should the AAC seek to add a football only member, Army is the most viable option, if they'd consider it. Adding Army makes the Army-Navy game a conference matchup, allows the conference to beat its chest about truly being the American, and still operates within some semblance of geography. Air Force further spreads an already geographically expansive conference, and while they have their own planes, that Tampa to Colorado Springs road tilt has to be a doozie. BYU, while the strongest independent option, offers similar geographic challenges, and of course they made the active decision to go independent less than a decade ago. Adding a football-only member also calls the question if they also adda member in all other sports. While the AAC's position of the sixth best conference in football is pretty well cemented, their place in the pecking order in basketball is less firm. A successful basketball pairing would have to make sense for the American while also improving the fortune of the incoming member, something that poaching from the likes of the A-10 wouldn't do. Short of getting a team from the Missouri Valley - Loyola-Chicago's recent Final Four run made noise, but was an outlier - there's nothing that truly fits the bill. Further, I'm hesitant to once again sow the division between basketball schools and football schools that tore apart the old Big East.

If the conference chooses to expand, it will likely have its pick of the remainder of the Group of Five teams. Much as the Big East used Conference USA as a feeder program through a variety of realignments, The American comes from a position of strength over the rest of the non-power leagues, even without access to football's power structure itself. With all due respect to UConn, it wouldn't be difficult to replace them with a program of equal or greater value on the football side of the equation.

My choice - selfish, but also justifiable - would be Appalachian State. To some the move may seem premature. After all, the Mountaineers have spent just a half decade at the FBS level. Still, they bring the distinction of winning at every level, suffering no setback when changing subdivisions and winning the Sun Belt each of the past three years. They also bring a rabid fanbase in North Carolina, and through it the Charlotte media market, as well as a natural rivalry with ECU.

There are a number of other candidates that, for a Conference USA-era USF alumnus, feel like getting the band back together. UAB, Southern Miss, and Charlotte (this time with football) would all rejoin former conferencemates USF, Cincinnati, Houston, and Memphis, and Tulane, as well as UCF, Tulsa, and SMU from the conference's life immediately following. A couple of other current Conference USA members, notably UTSA, ODU, and the aforementioned Charlotte, have programs that are less than a decade old.

Losing its northernmost outlier tightens the conference up just a bit, keeping each of its teams at or below the 40th parallel. Still, if the American, which is also moving league offices from Providence to Dallas, wishes to maintain a New England outpost, UMass may be worth a phone call. The Minutemen rebuffed an "all in or all out" offer from the MAC to keep its other sports in the Atlantic 10, The American may offer a profile in all sports that meets their needs a bit more. The Minutemen would also bring with them the only Sudler Trophy in FBS outside of the Power Five leagues. Filling out an independent schedule for a number of years may make them long for the stability of conference affiliation, but it will also mean quite a few contracts to get out of in coming years.

UConn Go Home Again

There's no place like home.

The University of Connecticut recently announced they will be rejoining the Big East, a league they were a charter member of in 1979. When conference realignment tore the conference as we knew it asunder, UConn and the other football playing members splintered off in to what is now known as the American Athletic Conference, while the private, Catholic, basketball schools without FBS football retained the Big East name and forged forth a new path, picking up a few programs along the way.

This development is just the latest in the ongoing conference realignment saga, but it differs from previous moves significantly in that it is not driven by major college football or by media markets. To the latter, Hartford-New Haven ranks #33, a paltry addition to a conference that already boasts the top four markets east of the Mississippi in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. To the former, the Big East doesn't field football, leaving UConn's future football conference - even subdivision - uncertain.

To be clear, the return to the Big East isn't all wistful nostalgia for UConn. While they'll return to familiarity, it's a shrewd business move that brings them literally closer to home, with a critical mass of schools in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The expanded Big East will involve conference games as far west as Creighton, but the American's geographic footprint, with outposts in Tampa, Tulsa, and Houston, was far more daunting. They'll return to at least some of their traditional rivalries, rather than manufactured trophy games with C. Florida. Men's hoops will return to the venerated Madison Square Garden, and women's hoops might at least get some competition rather than a league in which they've never suffered a loss in six years.

UConn will be the odd school out - the only public school in the bunch, and one of only two non-Catholic institutions. It's also the only school with the major college football albatross to account for, but that's their problem, not the Big East's. Frankly, the conference has proven it gets along just fine without the F word wagging the dog, and UConn, with the acceptance of membership, has nodded assent.

So with all due respect to another place where basketball drives the bus, This time it's UConn saying there's no place like home.

This Is My Fight Song

Sometimes, you get to celebrate America as you celebrate America.

This week offered a Women's World Cup match (and victory, fittingly, over England) just days before the Fourth of July. Watching the game - and naturally, imagining marching bands in that context - got me thinking: Which of our national songs are analogous to school spirit songs?

I first shied away from the Star Spangled Banner as our fight song, mostly because its time signature makes it difficult to march or clap along to. But beyond that, in form and function, as much as I wanted to give the gig to Stars and Stripes Forever, the Anthem is it.

Our alma mater? America the Beautiful. It extols the beauty of our "campus," uses its thees and thys in all the right places, and borrowed its tune from an older hymn.

And don't worry, there's still a home for our national march. Stars and Stripes Forever can occupy that secondary fight song/spirit song spot like NC State's Red and White or Georgia Tech's Up with the White and Gold.

Home Team

This August, I'm headed up to Pittsburgh for Fresh Fest Beer Fest, the nation's first and only Black beer festival. Since making the commitment to go, I've been planning the trip and getting a general sense of Pittsburgh. From a sports standpoint, I'll be headed to a Steelers preseason game, as well as touring the Pirates' PNC Park. I've also considered a way to pay homage to the local streets without perping.

The trouble is, I don't mess with Pittsburgh like that.

I mean, all indications are that it's a city I will thoroughly enjoy. I've long thought that geographically and topographically, it's a city with a lot to like. I've only been once before, a trip during college where I spent precious little time outside of the hotel or the recital hall. But my ties to metro Philly, metro Baltimore, and even USF (former conference rival of the Pitt Panthers) have made it a city a generally disregard a good deal of the time.

My solution? Rep for the Pittsburgh Crawfords.

The Pittsburgh Crawfords were one of a number of  Negro League teams that called the Pittsburgh area home. They played in Pittsburgh from 1931-38, and had lineups that included quite a few Hall of Famers, including some of the most well known Negro League players, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Cool Papa Bell.

They also boasted William Julius "Judy" Johnson.

Judy Johnson grew up in Wilmington, Delaware, not unlike Yours Truly. When Minor League Baseball returned to Wilmington in the form of the Wilmington Blue Rocks in 1993, the field was named for Johnson. Johnson also spent part of his career with the Homestead Grays, perhaps a bit more of a Negro League household name, but he spent the bulk of his Western PA stint with the Crawfords. So when I rep for the "home team" in Pittsburgh, I'll be doing so on my terms.

Logo à Gogo

Courtesy of The Daily Stampede

The last year has been rebrand season at each of the universities I'm associated with. Both alma maters and my employer went through some sort of brand update, to either the athletic logo, institutional logo, or both, to varying success.

First my graduate alma mater, USF. I've already given both its original ill conception and its eventual coup de grace considerable time here, so no need to rehash that.

Thank U, next.

UNCG has new looks with both the institutional logo and the athletic/spirit logo. Full disclosure: I like the change quite a bit, and if I didn't, I'd probably keep my mouth shut - can't bite the hand that feeds me.

The institutional look has been termed a "brand refresh," and still features the tried and true Minerva shield. The colors have updated - slight changes to the shades of blue and gold used, and gray added - and the text emphasized the G, as it does in the athletic logo.

The athletic logo's new look Spartan is a fierce upgrade from an already strong look with the now retired rising shield. My favorite of the secondary marks is the G Spear. While it's not a standalone logo, it again emphasizes the primary logo with a spear that is unmistakably Spartan - the classical accuracy to include the sauroter on the back end of the spear is much appreciated attention to detail.

And then there's alma mater #1. They're not changing the athletic logo - that took place nearly a decade ago.  It's the institutional logo that got an update, and I love it. I was clued in to the coming change back in September, when I got to participate in a survey that presented two options. Of these, my preferred option incorporated the Calvert (black and gold) portion of the flag, rotated 90 degrees (which left me vexillologically vexed, as that's now how it would present on a properly hung flag) on an escutcheon like the one seen here. The end result was far better than I could have expected.

The UMBC wordmark has been a mainstay for decades; it's the shield that's being added. Having used only the Calvert portion as in the survey, they would have been at once right and wrong. On the one hand, our colors are black and gold, so it makes sense. That peeloff has been used plenty, including the Retriever Nation and Lot 17 (soccer supporters club) logos. I fly a Calvert flag at my tailgates these days. It's the primary element in the Baltimore flag, which is where things get interesting - UMBC's not located in Baltimore. In using both the Calvert and Crossland colors, they asserted our importance to the state, and reinforce at least the "M" for those who may not immediately recognize the acronym, even after March 16, 2018. It's even blazonable: An escutcheon, fimbriated cendrée and sable, the arms of Calvert and Crossland dimidiated. UMBC's got a great new look.