I Can't Believe I Ate The Whole Hogg
May 30, 2005 at 08:05PM The Hoggards Rounded-up
Local artist and blogger Mary Layton was the first to weigh in on yesterday’s Hoggfest activities. Mary donated this painting to the silent art auction and someone bought it only to gift it to Jinni Hoggard for who the fund raiser was held. Great work, Mary. For those who may not know, Hoggfest was sponsored by Roch Smith Jr. of Greensboro101.com, and the Flat Iron Tavern located downtown Greensboro on Summit Avenue. Owner Mike Mullins, bartender Brett ("Best Bartender in the World" award winner) and I have all known each other for years. Brett helped out with the cheffing (Yeah, I just made-up a new word.)
Sam from Absolutely American said he especially enjoyed the performances by Logie (The best ad-lib lyricist in the world) and Bubba Clodfelter, AKA: Big Bump of Big Bump And The Stun Guns. Logie and Bubba have been local crowd pleasers since we were all right out of high school something over 30 years ago.
There were a lot of great local bands who all volunteered their services as did all the staff and bloggers who were in attendance. What did I do? Mostly I kept watch on Chewie, who was in charge of the money box at the main serving table. Tough job but someone had to do it.
The bands were Mudjunky, True Bothers, South Saturn Delta, Scarlot Harlot, Patti Benson, Bump & Logie, Reno Garage, SinTax, Swish Cup, Mike Roohan, Butter, and Stratocruiser. (If any of these bands have CDs they would like reviewed please have them contact me. Also, have them contact me with their URLs if they have websites.)
From over in the corner we spotted Michael who seemed to be having a very good time chowing down on slow cooked Carolina Pork Barbecue, hamburgers, and hot dogs. I promise you no one went away hungry and I had more than my share.
Charles Womack, publisher of Yes Weekly and owner of Womack Newspapers, Inc., was in attendance. While I can’t put my finger on when and where, I know Mr. Womack and I have met before. Yes Weekly Editor, Brian Clairy, his lovely wife, and wagon load of youngins were in attendance as well. Both Charles and Brian admitted to being huge fans of my Page 3 Girls. Thanks Ya’ll.
Woody and Sara were there working. (Sara’s blog displays somewhat differently than most, but you can read it by clicking on the links to the left.) Like everyone else, Woody promises photos later and praises Jay Ovittore who really worked his skinny butt off yesterday making sure everything kept working just like clockwork. Some more of the sponsors included Jagermusic who donated lots of prizes including a limited edition (1 of only 200 made) coveted Jagermeister Skateboards and Scully Travel who gave away three vacation trips for the raffles.
David Warton managed to capture many of us on film. (In case any of my readers care, David posted a couple of great pictures of yours truly.) While Hoggard might not have heard him, I did manage to hear David Warton on his banjo doing some fine three-finger picking. David Hoggard also did a vocal solo accompanied by Logie, Bump, and friends.
Ed Cone was in attendance. Ed watched the money before Chewie and I took over. So was Ann and family. Matt Gross and his wife were there. I only managed to speak with them briefly as we were loading-up the trucks in preparation of reopening Summit Avenue to traffic. For those of you who may not know, Matt ran the Howard Dean for President Blog (The official one) and his wife was recognized by Michael Moore (Yes, that Michael Moore) last year for her one post to Matt’s blog.
Jump-N-Fun Moonwalks kept the kids busy as did PattiCake the Clown who did wonderful ballon sculptures and face painting was provided by Denise Landi. A photography session was donated by VanderVeen Photographers who also donated to the silent auction as did many who don’t have websites or whose websites I couldn’t find.
Patrick Eakes was in attendance and very much involved in getting everything going. So was local artist, Louisa Lauver whose work I greatly admire.
I’m not going to out him but Gate was there. So was Stewart Pittman and his two lovely daughters. Ben made it by but Sue was sick and couldn’t make it. (Hurry up and get better, Sue) The other Don Moore was there shooting lots of pictures. I hope he manages to post them.
And finally, David Hoggard is keeping a running tab of all the stories told by all the Blogsboro bloggers in attendance yesterday. HoggFest organizer extraordinaire Mebane Ham estimated overall attendance at over 1000. Could it really be over 1000 people showed-up? No matter, it was a great time for a great cause-- to raise money towards paying off some of the bills incurred by Jini Hoggard’s bout with Breast Cancer.
Update 1: David just posted the final talley of $9,171.oo... Fantastic job, Blogsboro!
Update 2: David has pictures here. Roch has pictures here. And Woody and Sara should have theirs up tomorrow so do come back.
Update 3: Charlotte blogger Dave Beckwith, AKA: Anonymoses, has a great rundown on all the hundreds of links to Hoggfest in the last few days, documenting the true power of Blogs and the Internet. I also noticed that Hoggsblog.com is running a little slow tonight-- a big spike in traffic I suspect.
Update 4: Google is listing over 1200 references to Hoggfest and I'm sure not every site has been indexed by the search 'bots. I don't think I can link them all but I'll add as many as I can.
Update 5: The Music Loft was one of the sponsors, I think. LilteeDot was there. Laurie couldn’t make it but she sent her husband as her proxy. And finally, while I mentioned above that Sue was sick and unable to make it out, she was heavily involved in the planning process that made Hoggfest 2005 such a big success.
Update 6: We have the winner of the Stratocaster Guitar provided by Music Barn and Don Moore (the other one) has video. Via: David Hoggard.
Update 7: Ed Cone writes about Hoggfest in the Greensboro News & Record. You can also read the story at Ed Cone.com. Also, David Hoggard notes that donations are still being accepted as Hoggsfest is now a nonprofit designed to benefit not only his Jini, but other families with Breast Cancer.Besides, Jini still has another round of Chemo coming up.
Update 8: Via Hoggard, again. The Carolina Peacemaker-- a long time print publication here in Greensboro that was founded by some of the pioneers of America's Civil Rights Movement, has covered Hoggfest as well.
Did I miss you, make a mistake, or forget to mention you here? I’m sure I’ve left someone out. If so then send your link to idleblogs (at) yahoo.com (copy and paste to your e-mail, replace the (at) with an @ and remove the spaces) and I’ll be happy to update and add your link(s).
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Reader Comments (3)
This was such a wonderful thing you folks did for the Hoggards and I thank you for caring and organizing it...