Old Bob & Barbara's Art/Benefit for Howard Candie

I was going through my files these past few days and found a lot of old stuff. I have posted on here many times about my love of Bob & Barbara's at 15th & South. The place has always been a neighborhood bar that Center City grew up around. The place precedes the gentrification of that area, and has been run like a neighborhood bar with affordable drinks for decades.

I don't spend nearly as much time there as I used to. But I still feel awfully welcome when I walk in the door. The bike messengers and hipsters may not know me. Neither do the kids who pack the place on the weekends, but the barkeeps and the locals do. I will always feel comfortable sitting and drawing cartoons at that bar. I found this piece from 2001 that was drawn at the bar while rocking cans of Pabst and shots of Jim Beam:


It was a flier for the bar. Frank, the manager at the time (and the guy responsible for scoring most of that vintage PBR swag way back when) wanted to do something nice to pay pack the bar's steady patrons. So he created "The Big Payback", a weekly event where he brought in free home cooked food. Sadly, the event started to draw a lot of starving addicts who popped out of the woodwork and disturbed steady patrons. So the Big Payback was a short-lived event in Bob & Barbara's history. But it was great that Frankie wanted to do that for his customers. Bob & Barbara's has always been diverse and experimental with their nightly events, from Bingo to Ping Pong to Pictionary to the Drag Show to live Jazz every week.


Above is a photo I took back around 2001 or 2002. I've sung the praises of Nate Wiley & the Crowd Pleasers many many times. They are my heroes. Nate and Cliff have passed, but Howard Candie, the greatest organist the band ever had, is still around. Lately, he has been having some health problems. So once again, Bob & Barbara's Lounge is giving back. Tonight, September 14, from 8 PM to 11 PM, there will be a fundraiser to help Howard and his family with their medical bills. Anyone who has ever heard Howard play has been amazed. He makes that Hammond B-3 shake the room like no other. If you know Howard's music, please come out and help him and his family out. They're great folks.

If you've never heard Howard, you can CLICK HERE to hear him on this documentary short made by local filmmaker Jim McGorman.

Star Wars Fan Art - Mos Eisley Bar Swarm

Chris Patchell asked me to post this original black and white ink drawing:

Not sure what's going to become of this piece. I think I posted here a while back that my favorite parts of the Star Wars movies are the monster scenes. I get kind of bored after the bar scene in the first movie. I also get kind of bored after Jabba the Hutt's court scene in Return of the Jedi. But those scenes are very captivating to me, and I believe they had a profound influence on me as a kid. I would play for hours with my Star Wars toys. My Godmother and Aunt Gerry gave me Greedo, Walrus Man, Luke Skywalker, R5-D4, and the Landspeeder for my 5th birthday. I was blown away, and I don't think I ever remember being so excited about a gift. I also have very vivid memories of getting my allowance and my folks driving us to the Toy Store for Star Wars action figures when I was a kid. At that young age, like many kids of my generation, I lived for my toys. And I think this is what led to my early fascination with monsters.

My fascination with bars and barflies came much later. I have done a lot of bar drawings since my college years. But as I look back, I realize they were all just a rehash of the Mos Eisley Cantina scene from the first Star Wars movie. So I wanted to do a drawing where all these creatures were just hanging out having an awesome time at the bar. Anyway, I did this initial drawing on 14" x 11" bristol board in ink. The colors I did in Photoshop and Illustrator. The font is just my own shaky, hand-drawn version of the Star Wars lettering. Maybe the colors will change. Maybe the text will change. I am not sure. But I finished this draft last night, so I am posting it.