Where was I? Oh right, drinking. In Pittsburgh. On the weekends.

This weekend is the always enjoyable, always exciting, always humid under the tents (that sounds sorta filthy, yar? “Hey baby, let’s get humid under the tents.”) Oktoberfest at Penn Brewery, 5 to Midnight Friday and Saturday, and the more family-friendly 4 to 10 p.m. on Sunday. Git Aht recommends this event highly. Why? Not just for the beer, which is plentiful, delicious, relatively cheap, and plentiful (Yes, twice, ’cause it’s important), but also because the Hardest Working Polka Band In Show Business Alpen Glow will be performing. If you’ve never heard them, you’re doing a great disservice to not only yourself, but your family, your city, your country, and possibly your liederhosen. (God, I want some liederhosen, but do you have any idea how expensive those damn things are?) If you love the chicken dance in the same way I do, which is to say when you hear the first melodic strains of it you’ll gladly spill your rigs, pigs, and bird to get to the fire hall dance floor at any wedding you attend in Western Pennsylvania, you simply must hear Alpen Glow with, oh, let’s say, a half-gallon of beer in your hand.

Pictured (l to r): Das Hornenplayer, Das Birdensqueezer, und Das Buttonboxentek

Here is an example of their important work, and may I say it brings a tear to my eye, and a sort of dull yet lovable ache to my liver:[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-TYqKIoeUk[/youtube]

If you can’t make it this weekend, fear not because they’re making enough beer for next weekend too.

More on this situation as it develops, or rather, more on this situation as I wake up Saturday morning somewhere in an alley on The North Side wondering where the hell my pants and/or dignity might be, and asking the Aviary if I can use their phone to call a cab.