2012 Champions of Tour Torch

"Pass the Torch!" Central Part of Town Pins is proud to present: The Tour Torch.  Throughout antiquity the torch has stood as a symbol of the illuminated mind. In times of revolution it has stood as symbol of the light that leads the way to Freedom. In this modern era it has been adopted as a symbol of peace between nations in the Olympic games. As we trek through the Summer Tour season we carry this symbol to remind one another of the freedom we find on road, and the illumination that the music brings to our spirit. It is also a reminder that we are passing the tour-torch on to the next group of friends and family with every show and every tour. The Rings symbolize all of us connecting over the culture (and Cheese hoops).  Inside the hoops left to right are: a Phish-eye, A Golden Biscuit, the Jedi Order (for all the Masters past and present), Allman Brothers Band Mushroom, and a Lightning bolt for the Band that has taken us this much FURTHUR.  "Pass the Torch!"

The Festy Season has Begun. We bring you Nugs and new Tourmalines!

We at Central Part Of Town are happy to announce

2012 Nug and Tourmaline pins are in stock!

 We have the rabbit ear tourmaline in frosty gold and silver also. The nugs are black light reactive. All have the 2012 CPOT backstamp.

- Right now on-line we are asking 20 shipped for individual pins and

5 packs for 80. Also 6 packs for 90.

-Shipped first class confirmation.

-We would also like to respectfully cap orders at 3 of any one style pin.

So even at six or more the price is 15 with a limit of 3 pins per style per order to give every one a chance at these little beauties.

Please contact centralpartoftownpins@gmail.com  with any questions.
or send orders directly via paypal to centralpartoftownpins@gmail.com please indicate the pins you would like and confirm your mailing address in the details.
thanks you guys!

2012 Update Spring Pins are here and almost gone

We are very excited because we just got some of the new pins in. 2012 Scarabs and Mocking Birds in Gold or Silver are here. We now have Hailey's Comet 2.0 in Gold (first printing since 2010 release) and 2012 Berthas. All with our "2012 CPOT PINS" back stamp on them.

The Tweezer Reprise (New crystals of snow.... see several kinds ) are here (April 14). Every one knows that Tweezer Reprise is heavier than Tweezer, and so are these. Built to last this time the tweezers are stronger and they have a rivet to hold them together. (Seazed in the Tweeze are Six crystals on snow.... with the seventh below). Four styles: gold or silver, silver with black and gold with black. One for 20 or Four pack with one of each for $67 shipped.

We will be releasing 2012 Nugs and gold Tourmaline pins on 4/20.

New tour pins are right around the corner!

Right now on-line we are asking 20 shipped for individual pins.
5 packs for 80 (1 silver, 1 gold scarab, 1 silver, 1 gold fmb, 1 Hailey's or your pick).
Also 6 packs ( your choice of designs) for 90.

Shipped first class confirmation.

We would also like to respectfully cap orders at 3 of any one style pin. So even at six or more the price is 15 with a limit of 3 pins per style per order.

That does still leave room for plenty of twenty pack mix ups, which seem to be very popular.

There are only 50 each of the first run of Tweezer Reprise pins. So judging by how fast everything has gone just through instant messaging, things will be gone soon.

We will have a more streamlined way to order soon. Sorry it has taken us awhile to get back with you.

To order from us right now we just ask that you:

send us a payment through paypal. our account name is: centralpartoftownpins@gmail.com

Please include the details of which pins you would like and your mailing address.

Thank you so much.
Please let us know if you got any questions.
Also if you have got any good pin stories we love to hear them.

David Caroline and Conrad Heins

From Here On Blue Cover art

Thought ya'll would like to see some new art and design. I just finished this for the Charlottesville based group we work with "From Here On Blue". This was a cover I put together from the vibe of Mark Coffman's songs and what the band liked. We Collaborated well and this is how the cover work turned out.

GREAT MOMENTS IN PHISHTORY

Sometimes it can be hard to be a die-hard Phish fan when the boys aren’t touring because it seems that everyone is a critic. Between Fantasy Tour, phish.net and other online fan forums and podcasts, not to mention articles and other fan based reviews, there can be a great deal of negativity about the band and the Phish scene from fans turned critics. It starts to feel like you need to defend your favorite band from its own fans, which is why it is important to remember why we LOVE this band and why it is still worth going to as many shows as you can possibly attend!

With this goal in mind, I am proud to introduce a new forum for Phish fans called Great Moments in Phishtory! GMP will be a place for us to share stories about being on the road and seeing the boys in all their glory. Not only will there be stories about how great they played, but about the moments when the world disappeared and all that was left was the music and everything just made sense. There will also be stories about the Phish community and how we make tours work for each other -- that time when someone was broken down on the side of the road and was miraculously saved by another touring stranger, or that time when you were completely broke and someone gave you a miracle ticket for the best show you ever saw, better yet, the day you reunited with your long lost best friend right when your favorite song began. Great Moments in Phishtory will be a regular feature on my blog: centralpartoftownpins.blogspot.com and I hope that people will contribute more stories and participate in the discussion so that we can come together and remember why this is not only the best band ever -- but an amazing community of nomadic music phanatics!

Phish Pheeding Phrenzy

Ever since the Phish Reunion at Hampton Coliseum in March of 2009, I’ve had a dear friend who works for the ticketing company that makes all of the mail order lottery tickets. He has been very generous with me and makes sure that I get the returned and unused mail order tickets that are left over after tours and runs. It is a fun collection to have and has grown to be an impressive size at this point.

At the Halloween show in Indio during Festival 8, I brought the collection out with me for trick-or-treats; I had over 100 unused mail order tickets by that point. For Halloween I was dressed as the Bride of Frankenstein with a thrift store wedding dress and my large hair twisted up on top of my head that night. Of course the dress had no pockets so I tucked the large pile of tickets from Hampton and Summer 09 tour into my cleavage for “safe keeping”.

Now, I don’t need to tell all of you fans out there that the boys went as the Rolling Stones that Halloween and played Exile on Mainstreet with Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings as a backup that night. The show was absolutely stellar, with a particularly awesome Lovin’ Cup during the Stone’s set. I was so excited to be there and was just having a grand time all night long! Still, the costumed set paled in comparison to the last set of the night with all of pyrotechnics and a setlist I will remember for the rest of my days. One of the best parts of the last set was that Sharon Jones and her gorgeous diva backup singers stayed on and just wailed our favorite Phish songs.

When the setlist got to Suzie Greenburg, I don’t think I was prepared to have my mind blown. Suzie is always a fun song, but a regular rotation song, far from that “Holy Grail” category of rare songs we Phans are always seeking. Still, there it was: The sickest Suzie the boys have ever played (in my humble opinion). Right in the middle of the song, they stepped back and handed the mic to Sharon Jones and her backup and they tore Suzie to shreds. It was a soulful scat jam that would have made even the great Ella Fitzgerald shake her hips and I just got lost.

When the boys stepped back up to the mic, the anticipation was almost painful. We were all waiting for that big SUZAE-SUZAE-SUZAE-SUZAE!!!! and when we got it, I leaped up into the air with my hands above my head -- I was thrilled! The big leap caused the huge stack of mail order tickets stashed in the front of my dress to fly up into the air and flutter back down in a huge spray over the crowd. All of a sudden someone yelled, “TICKETS!!!!”.

Tickets for the Hampton reunion and first summer tour back were expensive and hard to get; I think people thought the tickets were for upcoming shows. One way or the other people were diving to the ground and shoving people out of the way to get at the tickets as they came slowly down over the crowd. I don’t think even cash money would have gotten that big of a reaction at that moment. It literally was a Phish Pheeding Phrenzy as people all around my section dove and scrambled to get their hands on the scattered tickets and all the while Suzie was raging in the background.

It was a Phish moment I never will forget. The image of a huge section of people just hitting the ground and scrambling for tickets was like something out of a movie and it still gives me a belly laugh to this day. I still have a good friend who gives me tickets after tours and runs are over so I usually bring them to shows to share with people who want to fill in the gaps of their tour ticket collection. Stop me and ask to see them if you ever catch me in the lot!

POLL: What was the BEST Suzie Greenburg ever played? (you already know my vote)
visit centralpartoftownpins.blogspot.com to cast your vote -- and don’t forget to include your reasons why!

TWEEZER SPINNER PIN DROP

We are very excited to release our latest design. This 3D pewter Spinner pin is under two inches.The two posts will be on the back of the life size 3D tweezers. The spinning frozen water molecule has six endogenous and exogenous molecules, from the tryptamine family, represented in raised metal. Now accepting pre-orders ready before Memorial day weekend shows. Wont you step in to the Freezer?????!!!!

spring update

CPOT SPRING NEWSLETTER

It is shaping up to be a great spring and summer and we at CPOT are getting excited about upcoming shows and tours! We have exciting pin designs coming up as well as completely new collectibles and memorabilia. To kick off the spring season, we released a new pin for the String Cheese Winter Carnival. The pin was well received and the shows were fun. They got us excited for music and hitting the road again.

As we climbed into the car exiting the first night of winter carnival in Broomfield Colorado, news was just breaking about earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan. We were deeply saddened to learn about this news and our hearts reach out to our friends in Japan. As a way to help out, we have decided to dedicate our upcoming meatstick design to earthquake/tsunami relief efforts in Japan. Our goal is to raise at least $1111 from the sales of the new “Shocks my Brain”

( 頭がショック ) pins to be donated to Red Cross Japan.

We already had the pin design with Japanese lyrics in the works when the quake hit, but we immediately put the brakes on production because we were not sure how to proceed and if it would be taken the wrong way. After some careful consideration we knew what we had to do, and we went ahead with it. We only have the best of intentions. We are sure that those of you who know us, and get our pins, know that we are in no way making fun of the disaster in Japan, even though Meatstick is a funny song. This is just a way for our community of Phish fans to reach out to a country that we have a strong connection to as fans. There have been so many awsome Japanese Phish fans that we have met over the years. Some we have only been able to communicate through the language of Phish and the Lot and then later online with computer translation. We have even been lucky enough have Japanese Phans stay at our house while on tour.

We just feel that if we put our "Meatstick Brains" together we can help out. This is the least that CPOT can do.

The pins will be 15 dollars a piece with the option of donating more to the cause.

We are accepting orders now. We really hope you guys like the design. Here is some of the original Pen & Ink Collage work for the rough

draft on the pin. (With the digita-Proof on the way). Weird? Yes! but I'm sure you get it...if you get it that is....

We do have a limited stock of pins leftover from Phish New Years Eve in New York City as well as Winter Carnival pins. The “Train” (Back on the Northbound Train) is a collaboration with the live artist Crazy Red Beard and has the date 1111 written on the front of the iron steam engine. Our “Carnival” pin (above) has a big-top circus tent with the backdrop of a snowflake made up of a spread out "Spirit Molecule". It says Winter Carnival 2011 and is based on Winter-Olympics-Style pins from the seventies. We will be offering these pins 2 for $15 dollars through the month of May – so get them now before we sell out!

We are also announcing the release of the “Nug” pin for April of this month. The pin’s official release will be at the Hampton Furthur show, but we hope we will be able to keep carrying the pin throughout the tour season. (Look out though, because April 20th festivities and the way people have been buying these ten at a time may wipe us out of the first batch before we know it!)

We look forward to seeing you out there and be watching for something ENTIRELY NEW!

Peace and Much Love from the CPOT Crew