NIGHT & DAY: A New Voice For FilterD

My cell rang on a Monday afternoon. It was Concentrate’s managing editor, Jeff Meyers. I assumed he was calling to heap praise on me, like he does every Monday, but it turned out that he had a proposition for me.

“Rich,” Jeff said, “I need help and you are the only man for the job.” I nodded knowingly. I’ve never actually met Jeff, but I have Googled him a few times. He seemed like a man I would like to help.

“I have a proposition,” he continued. “I was wondering if you’d step in for me and write a feature I produce each week called FilterD. It’s a list of six events over seven days that the average person might be interested in checking out. Big events, small events, unlicensed boxing matches – the usual.”

I was intrigued.

“You can do it for six weeks, but no Chris Bathgate shows.”  

“Bathgate is popular enough,” we said at the same time, laughing for a good three minutes. When we composed ourselves, I agreed.

So here’s my first crack at things. Top of this week’s events? The Last Drag (aka The Last Day To Light Up In Bars) – not because I’m on Phillip Morris’ payroll or anything but because it’ll never happen again. Of course, I could probably say the same thing about Obama speaking at The Big House. Hey, given the president’s habit, maybe some of you will be able to combine the two events.

If you have upcoming events that you’d like covered, email me at richretyi@gmail.com and I’ll do my due diligence and see if it makes the top six. No event too obscure to warrant a Blackberry Google search!