Celebrate a decade of the Maybe Sump’ms!
or just donate!
This year marks a decade of Pete Hayes’ brainchild, the Maybe Sump’ms. We’re hoping to get as many people who have participated in some way over the years to be part of it again! It’ll be fun!
bikeMS
On Roddy, Wrestling, Rock and MS
If you’re friends with musicians, look around your social media feed(s) right now. Chances are good that you’re being swamped with photos and memorials for Rowdy Roddy Piper, the original pro wrestling Bad Guy. He was instrumental in the Rock and Wrestling thing that exposed many of us to the over-the-top wrestling characters. Piper was a big influence in my life as well, and quite possibly the reason I was able to survive a near daily barrage of threats and violence that today get lumped neatly into the word “bullying.” I had a jacket airbrushed with his logo and it became armor in a way for me. People left me alone, rather than try to figure out why I suddenly was sporting jacket that said HOT ROD! in lightning script on my back. Later on, some of my very best friends were made based upon my ownership of a Piper T shirt. Roddy Piper had a lot to do with how things panned out for me…
More influential (especially on my pick of sun protection) was They Live, which featured this classic scene:
News of Piper’s death hit me hard, and last night, The Night Ridah and I started looking up some of the classic Piper clips online. Eventually, we came across the infamous “whack Captain Lou over the head with an award” clip.
What was the award for?
Fundraising for Multiple Sclerosis.
Captain Lou’s brother died of MS and Lou became very involved in fundraising, getting Cyndi Lauper involved as well. At the time of the whack, it was announced that they had raised over 2 million dollars for MS. In the 1980’s.
So, yeah. That was a time when there were no MS medications. None. The best a patient could hope for would be some IV steroids every so often for flairs and a sympathetic physical therapist. (Go ahead and make that steroid and wrestling joke.)
All of this comes on the heel (ha) of the first official lineup announcement for Crash Safely- 10/17 at the Midway Cafe.
The Midway, last night, hosted B.L.O.W.W.- the Boston League of Women Wrestlers.
The Midway, where I used to write music reviews with fellow Roddy Piper fan Joe Coughlin.
Here are the details for 10/17:
$10, 21+. Tickets: http://midwaycafe.com/our/details?id=101710 Le Facebook event
Starring:
Maybe someone will be cheeky enough to cover this tune:
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got some answers to alter. Someone changed the questions again.
Prepping already!
Coming back from the BikeMS awards dinner is always energizing, as is MS awareness week month. We’re still in awe of how much better we did this past year! Things are rolling along, and we already have some stuff in the works with places and people, but as always, we need to know what you’d like to see! Because this poll doesn’t allow you to choose multiple things, we’re allowing you to vote as many times as you wish, so if you’re still really bummed you missed out on last year’s Les Paul Future Tribute, here’s your chance to speak up and let us know to ask vendors for more things like that.
Know of any companies that you think would be a good match for us? Comment on this and let us know!
Thank you for your help!
2015 BikeMS Awards Dinner!
We finally made it! The BikeMS NYC awards ceremony was rescheduled from January, owing to the snowstorm that was far worse in Boston than it was in New York. Managing to climb the snow mountains that now occupy my sidewalk (at 8.5 feet high), making a trek in a southern direction was exactly what was needed.
That, and a buffet 35 floors above Park Avenue.
Spot the Maybe Sump’ms team members! (Hint: the only guys in the photo wearing t shirts).
This dinner felt a lot quicker than years past- perhaps owing to having no real speakers and just getting right into the big reveal- team and individual fundraising achievements. Now, everyone who was invited to the event was part of the top 200 fundraisers for BikeMS NYC. Considering the ride attracts tens of thousands of participants each year, it takes a lot to get to the top 200!
No individual participant knew their rankings before this evening. Pete and I had an idea where the team would end up, but we ended up shooting up almost 10 places from our prediction! The Maybe Sump’ms combined efforts landed us at #18 out of over 500 teams. We made the top 20!
We can dream, right?
Here’s where it even better! Pete’s fundraising earned him a ten position jump this year- he came in at #60!
What about Crash Safely? Thanks to all of the bands, venues, companies who donated awesome prizes and our even sponsors, we hit #20!
Crash Safely was the #20 fundraiser for the entire BikeMS NYC ride- and we didn’t even get on a bike!
I’m a bad liar.
Needless to say, Pete and I supremely excited and we’d like to up the ante this year!
First- do you want to join the team? You can ride New York sans cars on 10/4!
Don’t want to ride a bike, but want to help with fundraising? You can be a virtual rider! That’s what Crash Safely technically is- an amorphous blob on top of an invisible bike.
Maybe with less hair.
Not so into bikes, but still wanna help out? Be part of Crash Safely! We can use help in a variety of ways, including getting your input as to who you think should play the shows this year!
NYC (we hope) and planning for this year’s shows
So… the snow in Boston seems to never end. We’re hoping that this won’t mean another delay/cancellation in our trip to New York for the BikeMS awards dinner, in which we find out how Crash Safely fared against the others who participated in the ride last year.
While we wait, the harsh Hothscape of Boston’s streets is keeping us occupied…
As are streaming episodes of MST 3k.
In order to keep from going crazy, we’re starting to get things up and running for this year’s Crash Safely! We already have one venue ready for us and one brand new band! As always, we invite you to get involved in whatever way you’d like! Comment on this on or Facebook page or email Amanda and we’ll include you!
It’s our fifth anniversary this year, so it’s probably worth celebrating, don’t you think?