OK Go

I was recently telling someone about my few year stint as an usher at the Beacon Theatre (pre-renovations). While seating cranky church ladies for Tyler Perry plays and dealing with screaming children during three daily runs of Winnie the Pooh were mind melting, occasionally I was introduced to an enjoyable and unknown musical act.

Never was I more surprised and happy to discover a band than OK GO. These raw rock dudes put on a fun enthusiastic show as the opening act for...James Taylor. Now, the audience for JT is primarily white middle aged suburban types seeking a quiet listening experience. I couldn't quite fathom how the two acts had been paired on the same bill.

Neither could the band.

So, after a brief statement that the reason James Taylor's audience would like them was not their musical virtuosity but their ability to dance, the band closed the curtain and preformed this:

They became You Tube sensations and followed up with this a few months later:

Today when revisiting these old favorites, I found yet another amazing OK GO video:





I can not wait for their new album.

November Part II

In an effort to wrap up this month - more photos and less words. SO, the end of November brought us to the fair shores of Staten Island for Adopt A Neighborhood - Weird Trolley Tour.

For just $15 we were driven around and learned such facts as: Langston Hughes was once an onion farmer on Shaolin.

The only privately owned lake in the entire state of NY resides near the Staten Island expressway. It also has a carriage sunk at the bottom from a western movie.

The Staten Island zoo has more reptiles than any other zoo in the country. This is apparently due to a donation of 90 turtles given by our tour guide's weird friend.

The only self discovered fact: It's fucking cold near the Verrazano bridge in November.

I knew pizza was the real reason to travel to the weirdest borough with the largest Italian American population, so we hit up the local bus to Denino's. Their garbage pie was great, but as mentioned in my previous post, I'm still a Grimaldi's girl through and through.

Tasty hot greasy pizza located on the corner of Hooker Place....coincidence? I think not. Full set of photos here.

Kickball. Kickball. Kickball. How my liver hates you.

Everyone in this photo is a hot mess.

Which brings me to a glutton's favorite holiday. Trevor was not amused by our gift of Wild Turkey on his dinner plate.

God I love this holiday.

Gram gives us all cards each year. This time she obviously didn't think about her audience when choosing. This is Andrew before we all lost our shit cracking up.

This was his card. On the inside it said "God bless. Love Gram." and there was a $20 bill. I told him he better buy himself some giblet protectors!

Oh yeah, and my aunt had these creepy/cute little hand crafted owls all over the place. I like this photo. (Family, click here for the full set of photos.)

Around Town VI - November 18th

This is a series of photos I like to call "WTF New York?" taken during a night of heavy drinking and bitching with my friend Michael Lee.

I don't know about you, but I want 60 mins of "Body Work".

We were so confused photos of our feet started to look normal.

November Part I

This is going to be a quick November wrap up because it's already December 16th and my days are getting away from me faster than these guys ran the marathon.

So the first of the month consisted of a Saturday helping Beth and Ralph move to their new apartment while rocking a massive Halloween hangover. Sunday morning we all reconvened to watch our friends Brice and Nicole run past on 4th Ave in Brooklyn.

To celebrate their athletic achievement, the rest of us participated in the massive stomach stretching exercise of brunch. (I basically repeated my menu from PJ's birthday back in April. Needless to say, that whole diet thing isn't exactly working out.)

Later that night, my football team (The NY Vagiants) had a chili and beer night! Joining this random bunch of strangers was one of the best decisions I made all year long. It was a lot of fun!

Tuesday, November 4th brought most city folk (including me) a two hour wait to vote and expectations were running high. Thankfully, instead of mass suicide, all of New York was one giant fucking party! Cab drivers high-fived street celebrators and noisemakers, screaming, honking and general happiness abounded. Here's a video from my friend Adam that explains the vibe better than my meager silly blog words.

Also, this came to my email box the next day and I just loved it!

That weekend PJ came for a two day celebration and hang out. I finally got to check Lombardi's, America's first pizzeria, from my NYC list. It was pretty good, but I'm still a Grimaldi's gal.

After an evening with Kathleen Edwards at Carnegie Hall, PJ took Emily and I out for brunch at Dizzy's. (See what I mean about that diet thing?)

On the 11th I spent a night with The Devil's Rejects doing exactly what I anticipated.

Like playing "People Pong" against Team America.

And taking AWESOME photos like this! (Yes, some genius put crazy drunk kickball kids in the same bar as a mechanical bull!)

But that was the last bit of fun had for quite some time as my life was soon consumed with the unpacking, installation, and arguing with the artist of our upcoming exhibit. This is a photo I sneaked of his notebook (he's famous for filling journals) from the third day of installation.

Yeah, this about sums up my feelings on things too...

Food Hilarity

Hilarious Vintage Hungarian Sausage Commercial Sent By Funny Man PJ

Bacon Wrapped Turducken...or The Tubaconducken! God Bless you bacon. As Kelly said, "It's a Thanksgiving Miracle!"

Around Town V

30th Street Station, Philadelphia

Soho Deli Road Kill

Rod Stuart Loves The Hampton's?

Xu Han Wei History

4am Outside The Brazen Head

Whatever Tattoo II

October Part III

No, I'm not dead. I've just been in what can best be described as a blog funk. I have barely found mental time and physical energy for necessary things like grocery shopping, paying bills and laundry (just dropped off a staggering 35 pounds) let alone playing show and tell online. But since my demanding public pesters...

The end of October was a blur of costume related activities and travels, beginning with a random trip to Philadelphia to visit friends and eat fattening food. (October 24-26th) Friday night Sam, Tim and I had a few cheap beers at Dirty Frank's followed by an interesting meal at the Warsaw Cafe where the meat pirogies were crazy delicious.

This was followed up the next morning with a roast pork sharp provolone and broccoli rabe hoagie from DeNic's in Reading Terminal Market. While this sandwich is supposedly best at Tony's Luke's, this was pretty freakin good.

After a slow crawl through the infamous Philly traffic, I stopped in for a quick visit with some old buddies at a rainy Villanova homecoming tailgate. Ms. Piglet is ginormous, talking up a storm, and totally adorable!

That evening I threw on the only costume in my collection easily packed in a duffel bag and attended an early Halloween party in the burbs with Mr. and Mrs. Packman Lazorik. Good (and random) times.

Halloween (October 31st) fell on a Friday making for extra debauchery and hilarity. This year, political (and last minute) costumes were popular with my crowd. Here's me as Hockey Mom with Joe Six Pack and Joe The Plumber.

And this year, Martin wasn't THE Ugliest Betty, but he came damn close. Man, he makes one super ugly beeotch!

November update coming as soon as I get all my photos in order...