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FREE SEX AND PORN!!

Hell for $4.99 you'll have enough money left over to buy some XXX, and you can use your penny that you receive in change to take the CTA home, as the city of Chicago only charges a penny to take public tranportation on New Year's Eve. It's a win win for all!!

Only $4.99 New Years Eve Show Saturday December 31st New Year's Eve Blow Out

I love this time of year. Why? Because I know that we are the only show in Chicago on New Year's Eve where people will actually get their money's worth.
Why spend a ton cash on New Years? Hell aren't we all broke from Xmas spending? Wouldn't we all like to have a fun night out and not have to spend an entire paycheck??
Look at these prices- ridiculous!

$107 to see The the Freddy Jones Band at Navy Pier?
$90 to see The Iguanas at FitzGerald's?
$75 to eat at bike-friendly cycle hub Handlebar?
$61 to see The New Pornographers at Metro?
$60 to see Local H at Double Door?
$30 to see Umphrey's McGee at Aragon?
$20 to see The Juan Maclean at Empty Bottle (who is he?)
$10 to see The Changes at Schuba's?

Aren't you sick of clubs raising their prices and gouging you and me?
That's why we LOWERED OUR PRICE TO $4.99!!

For less than $5 you can see The Polkaholics and actually have FUN and maybe walk home with your own BRAND NEW EPIPHONE ELECTRIC GUITAR and other PRIZES!! Think you'll go home with anything if you go to see any of these other shows on Saturday? I bet you'll just go home with an empty wallet!

Zakopane Lounge, 10pm til 1:30am
1734 W. Division, between Ashland and Wood,
phone 773-486-1559, Chicago.

The only better bet on New Years Eve are the Fireworks at Buckingham Fountain because that is free- then again you have to wait out in the cold and rain.

GET THERE EARLY. If you want to get in be there by 9:00p- as this show has SOLD-OUT every year.

Only $4.99 New Years Eve Show

Saturday December 31st New Year's Eve Blow Out
Zakopane Lounge, 10pm til 1:30am
1734 W. Division, between Ashland and Wood,
phone 773-486-1559, Chicago.
Celebrate at our annual NEW YEAR'S EVE blowout!  This year, we are going to lower our admission price to a mere $4.99 (that’s right – $4.99!), and we will be raffling off a BRAND NEW EPIPHONE ELECTRIC GUITAR!! That's right, while we play polkas on guitar, you could walk home with your very own brand new guitar!  Where else can you go on New Year's Eve, spend less than $5 at the door, get a chance to win a new guitar, and dance the polka all night long?  Nowhere but the Zakopane Lounge! Plus there will be party favors galore, so don't miss this great party.

Merry Saturday!!

First off- I do not care if I spelled anything wrong here- it's a holiday damn it.

OH YOUR GOD it's Christmas! And what does that mean? It means 24 hours of "A Christmas Story" on TBS, and most the kick ass horoor movies come out today! Whoo Hoo! It also means making a turkey- yes that's right Polkaboy himself, along with his lovely wife is making a turkey. Is that proper grammar? Hell after 6 Beam and Cokes who cares right?

Right. Hey I type pretty good for a drunk guy.

So the turkey- I love to cook but I've never roasted an entire turkey before, we were lucky to find an 8lb fresh one, so none of that 2 day defrosting mess! The giblets were a bit of a surprise...sort of like an episode of CSI only with birds. We put that bad boy in the oven about 2 hours ago so it will be ready soon! Ah the first Xmas as a husband and wife! Polkaboy is indeed happy!

Gabey (the cat) is snoozing on top of the unwrapped paper from the presents on the floor- yes we are freaks who buy our cat presents and then laugh as we drink the morning away watching him get all messed up on cat nip...he he has to party too, it's xmas for your god's sake!

Thanks to all of our friends and family that sent us cards and gifts- you all rock! We are still writing our "Thank You" cards from the wedding- we need those in the mail before the postal rates go up. Why don't they make it an even 50 cents and be done with it already!?

My family hopes that your family is having a great day- I sure am! Hell we have 9 bottles of wine to uncork today!!

Happy Chrisykwamzajhannakuramdanwhateverinthehellyoucelebratetodaymas!

Well I'll be....

Mr. Phoenix does a hell of a great job singing and playing Johnny Cash's songs in his new movie.
I'm very impressed! A coworker of mine was listening to, what I thought was Johnny Cash but something just didn't sound exactly right- she told me it was Joaquin Phoenix.
Well I'll be damned- what to go Mr. Phoenix- as you have impressed even me- and I'm a huge Cash fan!

In other news the DANK party was a HUGE SUCCESS! 11 kegs of beer were consumed- and the 600 capacity ballroom was filled to capacity. Hey do the math on that one kiddo, 140 beers per keg!
Wow.
Nuf said.

New Years Eve show- be there or feel like crap for missing it again if you are not there early. Mis Lis is working the door so be nice damn it! We're giving away a gee-tar again and lots of other stee-uff.

Our NEW ALBUM is ready for a release party at Martyr's - stay tuned! It will be in March.

Oh yeah happy whatever deity you pray to weekend.

Happy Hanukwanzhramadanmaschristy

Chewie sings!

The CMA Awards

The 25th Annual Chicago Music Awards were held on Saturday December 11th. The Polkaholics® were nominated for "Best Polka Entertainer" for the 2nd year in a row! We did not win but we had a hell of a good time!
We want to say CONGRATS!! To Eddie Blazonczyk's Versatones for winning this year! Eddie is one of the classiest guys around- and if anyone deserves to win, he does!
Now get out there and win the Polka Grammy Eddie- show the world that polka is alive and well!!

As a side note- in my post "Suck My Grammy" I'm not bashing anyone nominated- I'm bashing the organization itself. As a muscian I wholly support others who are making music for a living, I do NOT support others who leach off of a hard working musical artist.

Suck my Grammy

It's that time of year again The Grammy's!!

Field 17 - Polka
Category 74

Best Polka Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)
Under The Influence
Eddie Blazonczyk's Versatones

Time Out For Polkas And Waltzes
Walter Ostanek And Ron Sluga

Polka Pizzazz
Del Sinchak Band

Solecktions
Kevin Solecki

Shake, Rattle And Polka!
Jimmy Sturr And His Orchestra


The "mainstream" music circle jerk of the recording industry...where everyone swallows. I think that the folks who organize this award are both full of themselves and full of feces....either that or all of the voting members can rhyme "fashizel" with "purple".

You see in order to win a Grammy, or even be eligible for one you have to be voted in - by Grammy members only- in short it's like a country club for rich white people.

A GRAMMY is awarded by The Recording Academy's voting membership to honor excellence in the recording arts and sciences, not sales or chart positions (GRAMMY Awards Process). The annual GRAMMY Awards presentation brings together thousands of creative and technical professionals in the recording industry from all over the world.

Not sale or chart positions!? I'm sorry but this has to be a lie.
50 Cent, who had the year's best-selling album with "The Massacre," was nominated for six awards, including best rap album, and Mariah Carey's "The Emancipation of Mimi" has it sold more than 4 million copies, making it the No. 2 best-selling album of the year.
No sales or chart position?
Bullshit!!

The process begins with members and record companies submitting entries...well if a record did not have great sales or wonderful chart position it would never get submitted in the first place now would it!?
The Academy's voting members, all involved in the creative and technical processes of recording, then participate in (1) the nominating process that determines the five finalists in each category; and (2) the final voting process which determines the GRAMMY winners.

Who can vote?
Recording Academy voting members only. Record companies do not vote.
Hmmm They do not vote.
Really??
Would this be like not voting in the Middle East? The powers that be there may not vote- but they'll execute anyone who votes for the other party.

I really do not think that these members have any idea of the music that is currently being played, downloaded and sold in the country today. Do you know anyone who listens to Mariah Carey? Apparently 4 million people do but I've never met one of them. Then again do you think any of those people have ever heard of the Del Sinchak Band?
Maybe I live too far under the mainstream radar but not one of the groups that I listen to who released an album this year is up for, or been nominated for a Grammy.
Albums that have received critical acclaim by the "mainstream" press are not even mentioned. I guess this is a good thing--as if they were up for a Grammy then I've had to hear their song selling cheeseburgers or SUV's.

What is scary is that Spoon, the "hippest band of the year" has a song playing in the background in one of those Law and Order spin off series...but were they nominated?
No.

Crooked Fingers last release- Dignity and Shame- was not nominated.
There are several other bands out there who deserve the praise of their peers- but will never get it. It's the same cookie cutter music that is selected every single year. Music that is written by professional song writers and then sold to an "artist". What happened to "artists" writing and recording their own music?
To their credit U2 falls into this category but aren't we all sick if seeing Boner's smug face all over the place? I guess they have achieved commercial success but at what cost?

Xmas Show w/The Polkaholics

So it's that time of year again- the time of year when we give YOU something for FREE!! That's right polka pals, we have a free show on Friday the 16th and at our New Years show you could win a FREE GUITAR or a trophy or a...well who knows??

Friday December 16th, 7 pm
DANK Haus
4740 N. Western Ave. in Chicago (just south of Lawrence)
773.561.9181. 
FREE

And speaking of Xmas- we will be giving away lots of prizes at our New Years Eve Show at Zakopne
Zakopane Lounge
10pm til 1:30am
1734 W. Division (between Ashland and Wood)
phone 773-486-1559
Chicago.
This year, we are going to lower our admission price to a mere $4.99 (that’s right – $4.99!), and we will be raffling off a BRAND NEW EPIPHONE ELECTRIC GUITAR!! Plus a trophy to the best polka dancer of the evening, as well as medals fro 2nd and 3rd place. So brush up on those dance steps!

Hey do you need to get you rholiday ya-ya's for the entire month? Check out New City- they have something for every day from now until Christmas

Song of the day

Muppets and Porn and a great great song! Mah na mah na , from Piero Umiliani, the Italian genius's song from the 1969 Swedish Porn film Heaven and Hell.

In 1977 The Muppets, yes the Muppetts, covered this song and had a hit with it. See the Muppets perform Mah na mah nah

Thanks to DevilDucky.com.

It's No Joke- Donnie Baptiste

What started off on the wrong foot (read the post and Donnie's comments here) has turned out to be a great thing! Donnie and I have had some great emails going back and forth and I wanted to include some of them here.

Donnie Baptiste- aka Horn Man Don- is a polka musician who currently lives in Florida who actually played with Walt Solek during the 50's and 60's! He received his name because according to him, "I got that name because I took time off from Walt in 1957 to go to Europe for several months to play with the "Somerset Seven" out of Watchung, NJ.

"I'm now...working with the Gene Krupa Band out of Lauderdale. When I was 14 years old, I did the cuts on Columbia with Walt that are now combined with the Jimmy Dorsey polkas. I worked with Walt for seven years, and did all of his 45's, 78's, and albums from 1954 to 1961"

"I did the "Six Hicks" 45's for Walt Dana on which used Walt on drums, Henry (his brother) on violin, and Tommy Mudry (his step-brother) on bass. We traveled (I was from MA to Schenectady, Syracuse, Buffalo,Cheektowa, Hamilton, Toronto, Montreal, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Greensburg, Pittsburg, Kennywood Park, Phila, all of Jersey, Manhattan, etc. I used to stay at his house on Crown Street in Meriden, than at Crown Street extension, and Wanda used to make my favorite spaghetti sauce."

Donnie I want to thank you for taking the time to read my eXtreme Polka Blog and for writing to me! It's great to know that polka music is indeed alive and well!

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