I went to CannonFest and all I got was this lousy t-shirt

CannonFest IV came and went in the blink of an eye, and here I am a couple days later thinking back to all of the great things that took place. The crowd turnout was fantastic. I was there almost an hour before the event was scheduled to begin and many of the tables were already claimed. Fans showed up in droves decked out in Union Blue and brought with them their passion for this Blue Jackets team. It felt great!

Being a proud member of the DKM Hockey blog and podcast, we were quite pleased and excited to be asked to do a podcast during CannonFest. It turned out to be a great episode filled with a huge line up of great guests. Before the CannonFest episode, the Social Station Episode was the leader for star-studded guests, but just take a look at everyone that joined us for this one:

• Matt Souva (@Zekebud) the Hockey Writers
• Pete from Tilly Hockey
• Mike Galloway (@gallosdbj) Dark Blue Jacket
• Jordan (@theCBJArtillery)
• Mike Majeski (@mmajeski06) Union & Blue
• Dancing Kevin (@kschroeder1720) you know, this guy
• Aaron Portzline (@APortzline) the Columbus Dispatch
• Matt Wagner (@bzarcher) the Cannon
• Tom Larrow (@skraut_) amazing video guy
• Brett Ireland (@ROCKMANHALO) Full Mental Jackets
• Greg May (@gregin120) Full Mental Jackets

Thank you to all of you that came on the show, and also to all of you that stopped by to say hello.

Morgan and Joe following rule number 1 (drink while podcasting)

 For me, time was flying by way too fast, and I couldn't slow it down. We had guest after guest on, and then Blue Jacket General Manager Jarmo Kekäläinen payed a surprise visit.  This made the event even more memorable this year and has set the bar really high to try and top it next year.  I enjoyed seeing both the shock of the fans when Jarmo walked in, and the look on Jarmo's face when he realized that over 200 fans had gathered on a random Sunday in August!  That was certainly the highlight, but there were other great moments too.

One thing that comes to mind for us at DKM Hockey was showing a video we made as a tribute to Vinny, with lyrics and vocals by Morgan Langworthy. The song is a terrific parody, and putting images of Vinny pointing at things makes for a hilarious video. The Skraut videos were amazing as usual, but for us, having a venue to show that creation was special.

So all of these great things go through my mind as I reminisce, but on top of all of that, there is one theme that I reflect on and smile.  It's our super high quality really expensive DKM Hockey t-shirts that we gave away.  I know it sounds ridiculous to think giving away t-shirts would yield any sort of lasting memory.  Allow me to paint the picture for you.  I showed up that beautiful Saturday morning with 10 t-shirts in a box and fully expected to just hand them out to a few guests on the show.  We were certain to give some away to long-time fans and supporters of our podcast Lindsay Wilson (@zinzwCBJ) Mike Majeski (@mmajeski06) and Marc Humker (@UnionMarc).  They were all very appreciative and that made us feel all warm and happy.  

While I walked around to give away a few more, I spotted Alison Lukan (@alisonl) who not only asked for a t-shirt, but also had the DKM crew sign it, causing the shirt to go way up (or way down) in value!

Thank you Alison for your support, now we can just sit back and wait for the thousands of new listeners to pour in

As I handed out the first couple of shirts, I noticed many others sitting in nearby tables with their arms in the air.  They were all making eye contact with me, and it was very clear that they wanted me to throw t-shirts to them.  I was no longer some random dude minding my own business enjoying CannonFest, I was now an object in which could provide free articles of clothing.  I'm sure they were pretty bummed to open it up and see a DKM Hockey shirt and not a Blue Jacket shirt, but as the great John Belushi said in Animal House, "don't cost nothin!".  I've never aspired to be a Power Patrol guy to toss t-shirts to a begging crowd of humans similar to tossing pieces of bread in a pond, but I will have to admit, that was quite fun. Thank you to Mallory Mullenix (@MalloryMullenix) who caught a t-shirt and was kind enough to post a picture on twitter thanking us. You're welcome Mallory, enjoy!

Now if that wasn't enough, the real DKM Hockey t-shirt highlight came a little bit later.  Dancing Kevin made his 3rd appearance on our show, and he was as great as ever.  You know, "Kevin being Kevin". 

This is what the board looks like when Kevin Schroeder is on the podcast

I was thinking to myself while Kevin was on how perhaps I should have considered ordering a slightly larger t-shirt so we could give one to him. I made the joke to him that for being on the show, we would give him a "large" DKM Hockey t-shirt. Without hesitation, Kevin grabbed it from my hand.  He took his shirt off (shocker) and started to put it on.  Guess what (seriously, you're never going to guess), it's didn't quite fit perfectly. In fact, I think it made it half way down the Belly of Love.

 It didn't end there. Oh no, Kevin kept that shirt on the rest of the afternoon, and all the way to his car afterward (I left at the same time, I was not following him).  He walked around getting pictures with fans and smiling with that way-too-small shirt gripping his mid section for dear life (bit of a Jerry Seinfield reference there).

Good thing that wasn't Boomer, Kevin would have tackled him (psssttt)

CannonFest was great.  Everyone had so much fun, and there was much more to it than what I described here, but those of you out there that are fans of the DKM Hockey podcast segment "Being John Kempovich", that was a glimpse into my mind thinking about CannonFest. Wanna know what else I just thought of? "Wow, I was able to write an entire CannonFest blog post without typing'doldrums of august'."