Seven years ago I was drinking a few beverages at the prestigious Elbo Room in Fort Lauderdale, Florida when someone in my group of friends got into a deep drunken conversation with a couple of men who happened to be Massachusetts transplants. I can hardly recall, but I think the guy had mentioned something about running away to Florida before his cheating wife could take him for all his money.

But that’s neither here, nor there. The one thing that stuck out in my mind was that he kept ranting and raving about this thing called the “Greasy Pole” in Gloucester, MA. I had never heard of it before, and today a friend of mine reminded me that I had never attended it either.

The premise of the Greasy Pole is simple. A 45 foot telephone pole extends from a platform over the water of Gloucester Harbor. The pole is covered in grease and a flag is attached on a stick to the end of the pole. You capture the flag and you’re the winner for that day. The winner of Friday and Saturday move on to Champions Day (Sunday) where all previous Greasy Pole champions (or their proteges) are entitled to compete.

But it’s not as easy as it might seem, as the contestanst spend most of the morning enjoying adult beverages and arrive at the Greasy Pole decked out in a humorous costume. In other words, bumps, bruises and the occasional broken bone come easily.

Also, the first round of the day is a courtesy round (practice) and you’re not aloud to capture the flag during this round. As legend has it, a man was once punched out by another contestant as a result of grabbing the flag during the courtesy round.

For those of you who can’t be in attendance this weekend, here’s a video of the 2007 competition.

Get more info on St. Peter’s Fiesta

Post from: Oh Concierge

Gloucester, MA Holding Greasy Pole Competition This Weekend

Well this is a last minute notice, but I couldn’t let this one slip by. Unfortunately “Politically Correct” is already going on at LeLacheur Park (Lowell, MA) tonight, however you can participate in “Politically Incorrect” night tomorrow with the Lowell Spinners.

Should you choose to partake in “Politically Incorrect” night, every attempt will be made to offend you. For instance, only woman will be working in the concession stands. Fat fans will be required to purchase an additional seat to the game, and this rule will be enforced by the airplane seatbelt rule (if you need two seats belts you don’t pass tubby). Fans arriving to the game in a gas guzzler will receive a gas card, and the creme de la creme, all Yankees fans will not be allowed entrance through the main gate.

So not only do you get to enjoy a ballgame, but you get to be a jerk while doing it. Something tells me that some fans are well seasoned at this.

h/t Ben’s Biz Blog

Event: Politically Incorrect Night with the Lowell Spinners
When: Wednesday June 23, 2009 7:30 p.m.
Where: Edward A. LeLacheur Park 450 Aiken Street Lowell, MA
Website: Lowell Spinners

Post from: Oh Concierge

Lowell Spinners Holding Politically Correct & Politically Incorrect Nights

If you’re like me, you spend a couple grand a year going to sporting events and concerts. Given our current economic crisis, I’ve cut back just like everyone else has. However, that’s not to say that I attend less events. Right now I’m just much more budget conscious and part of that means that I’m no longer willing to pay top dollar for the best seats on the market.

So what I’m going to share with you is a few easy tips that will hopefully land you some of the best seats in the house, at face value, through Ticketmaster. It’s not 100% fool proof, but I will say that I have only been shut out once in the past four years while using these techniques.

1) Log into Ticketmaster ahead of time and make sure all of your billing and mailing information is correct. Make sure that the credit card on file hasn’t expired since the last time you made a purchase. If it has, update it with a current card before the tickets go on sale.

2) Go by the official time on this site, and one minute before the tickets go on sale, start hitting the F5 button. This will refresh your browser. Repeatedly do this until you see that the tickets are on sale. Make sure that you let the page load before you hit F5 though, otherwise you might not see when the tickets are actually on sale.

3) Once you see that the browser shows that tickets are for sale, you’ll need to act quick. If you just want the best seats that are available, all you’ll need to do is select the number of tickets you want. If you want General Admission for a concert you will need to select it from the drop down menu before submitting the form.

4) Hope that you get an easy to read captcha and type it in.

5) Next you’ll be in the waiting room. Don’t refresh the browser, and don’t open another window hoping to have two shots at scoring tickets. Ticketmaster can detect that you have two windows open and will give you the boot.

6) Once you finally get through and see the hand that you were dealt, realize that this is the best that you are going to get. If you decline the tickets and search again, you’ll go to the end of the line and it will be sold out by the time you make it through the whole process again. Even if you are fortunate enough to get back into the system before the event sells out, chances are you’ll be left with seats that were much worse than the ones before.

7) If all this fails you, don’t panic. Typically, the week of the event more tickets will be released. It won’t be thousands of tickets, but if you’re planning on going in a group of four or less people you can probably score tickets by checking Ticketmaster a few times a day the week of the show.

Post from: Oh Concierge

How To Get The Best Concert & Sports Tickets On Ticketmaster