Esquire picks the best bars

I cannot believe Champs Corner in Hastings isn't on this list.

How many (if any) have you been to?

Esquire.com

Steve O should take some lessons

I've never quite ever heard "Hey Jude" performed this way. Very entertaining.

Thanks to Denny Giantomasi for the link.

Is American beer any good?

Now that's a great headline if I've ever seen one. The Canadians are feeling the love for American craft beers now. Cool beans!

From Toronto's thestar.com.

Great songwriter quotes

iSound has collected a bunch of quotes from great songwriters about the art (and work) of writing a song. It's funny and interesting and entertaining. Here are a few examples, and the full article is here.

Irving Berlin: "Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies."

George Gershwin: "Out of my entire annual output of songs, perhaps two, or at the most three, came as a result of inspiration. We can never rely on inspiration. When we most want it, it does not come."

Burt Bacharach: "Music breeds its own inspiration. You can only do it by doing it. You may not feel like it, but you push yourself. It's a work process. Or just improvise. Something will come."

Hal David: "I tended not to be concerned about whether a song was going to be a hit when I wrote it. Because it became evident that none of us knew what was a hit and what wasn't. So I thought if I just write what I like, why shouldn't people like what I like?"

Leonard Cohen: "I wish I were one of those people who wrote songs quickly. But I'm not. So it takes me a great deal of time to find out what the song is. I am working most of the time."

Neil Diamond: "Performing is the easiest part of what I do, and songwriting is the hardest."

Hank Williams: "If a song can't be written in 20 minutes, it ain't worth writing."

Gavin doesn't like labels

The term "singer-songwriter"” makes Gavin DeGraw cringe. "It makes you feel like a weakling the way all the singer songwriters are marketed, you know what I mean? ... It's not masculine enough for me. I don't feel like I fall into that category in a lot of ways."

MSNBC.com

The summer of beer is coming soon

There are lots of summer beer festivals around, and MSNBC.com gives you a six-pack of their favorites.

Road trip anyone?