Sunday, February 03, 2008

My birthday weekend in NYC

I went to NYC for my birthday weekend.

Friday morning I went to see the Opie & Anthony show at XM with some friends. They had comedians Bob Kelly and Jeffrey Ross as well WWE wrestler MVP as guests.

We went out to lunch at the Heartland Brewery where I had a beer sampler and fell in love with their Indian River Light Ale. After lunch (for which I payed WAY too much because someone in the group must not have paid their share) we went back to XM to go to the Ron & Fez show.

I wanted to do something touristy while I was in Manhattan so after the show we went to NBC where I got this pic taken. It took me about an hour and half while I waited for some older southern gals to get their pics taken - they kept doing it over and over and over again. I am surprised that my friends stuck with me for so long. But I had to do this because my mom loves the show...



After that we went to Dave & Busters in Times Square. Why? I don't really know. But at least it was a place where we could hang and kill some time while some people left our group and others joined it. We had the worst plate of nachos ever. Literally eight chips topped with chicken and typical nacho stuff. That's right - EIGHT of them. For close to $10. Shadow complained and the manager gave us a lame bullshit excuse that nachos are meant as an appetizer, not a meal, and that in Times Square everything is expensive. Ridiculous. Shadow fought with her and we wound up getting a free appetizer combo platter that was still kind of lame but at least a step in the right direction.

This is a pic of what I usually expect nachos to look like. This is from a place where I go in Hampton, NH and this also costs about $10:



We eventually wound up in Greenwich Village with some more people and saw an eighties/hair-metal cover band and a Guns N' Roses tribute band. I have mixed feelings about the first band because I hated the way they looked in their stupid wigs and didn't care for some of the songs they played, but they did kick bigtime ass on many songs. The GNR band TOTALLY ROCKED! They had the entire look and sound down perfectly!! Well, the guy who played the Duff character could have been a little taller, but that is literally the only negative thing I can find to say about the band and that is being REALLY REALLY picky. Their song selection was perfect - mostly all older stuff and pretty much GNR's entire first album. And like I said they sounded perfect and looked really great. It was like seeing GNR back in their younger days, before things started falling apart and shit started happening with them. Check out this band on their MySpace page to hear how great they sound.

Saturday we went to FH Riley's (Opie's brother's restaurant) out on Long Island. I really liked it a lot. The whole menu looked really really good and I wished I could have gone back there the next night for a pasta special they had. We met Steve From Bayshore there and he and I commiserated about writing our respective Opie & Anthony show recaps.



After that Shadow and his girl and I went to my 75th different Hooters where I was made a fool of for my birthday...



At that Hooters I found out that they are doing a contest to get to 25 different Hooters locations this year and everyone who does gets a free party. They had a similar contest five years ago and I went to 20 of them and had a big party at the end of the year.



Later that night we went back to the XM studios for the Than & Sam show. They are my favorite weekend radio show and I have called into just about every one of their live shows - all except for one last summer when I went into the studio. This was a busy show and there were a lot of people hanging out. Opie and his wicked hot girl were among the many people hanging out. I mentioned to Opie that I had been to his brother's restaurant earlier that day and he seemed surprised that I hadn't been there before now: "you haven't been there before?" I reminded him that I am from Boston and he said that he knew that I have been down there in the past three years that the restaurant has been open. Fine. He got me. But I will definitely go again next time I go down there because I really did like it.

This is the only time during the show that Opie said anything on the air. Flea_Man is looking lovingly at Opie's crotch and I look like a child molester looking at Flea look at Opie. Ugh:



Than & Sam had WWE wrestler Matt Striker as a guest on almost the whole show. In the last 20 minutes of the show they called me into the studio. I figured it was just going to be something like a quick 'happy birthday' type of thing but it was much more. They totally surprised me by having an intern bring in an ice cream cake for me! I was shocked! All weekend before this I had been busting my buddies' balls about when I was going to get my cake and where we could do it. I had even joked a few times that too bad we couldn't do it at the radio studios since it was like a central meeting spot for all of us. But I had no idea that I was going to get it on the radio like that. That was so cool. My friends and the radio guys all did a great job of keeping it a secret. :) Listen to it here.





After the show I talked to Opie for a minute or two about the stuff I write for his show and he said that he checks out my stuff and likes what I do. And then several of us went to bar around the corner and Than & Sam came by.

BTW It was $50 to park in the parking garage for the show!

We drove around Manhattan for several hours the next day. I had to stop by Hooters to get my book stamped for the contest and then we had lunch at a BBQ place that is part of the brewery chain so I got to have some of my favorite ale again. We made it a point to be in and out of there in under an hour but it still cost $21 to park! Oh, and I almost got a ticket because Shadow had me do a last second left turn...right into a pair of New York's finest. When they saw that I was from out of town and when Shadow mentioned that he works for FDNY, they let us go. Shadow saved the day.

On my way home from NY I stopped off at two Hooters in CT to get my book stamped and at a third Hooters I hung out for a few hours with my buddy Schnit, where the waitress assaulted me for my birthday...