Halloween 2007/"I'm Too Fat"

My mom found this fat suit at a store and bought it. I wore it to a costume party and won first place - $50!



I did a cameo appearance with it on TV on Halloween morning...



For Halloween night my mom dressed as a witch and we had a smoke/fog machine set up at the house along with some flashing lights and loud spooky sound effects playing. But none of that scared the kids. What scared them was me in my fat suit...



The neighbors across the street kicked our ass with their Halloween display. They were sneaky about it and didn't set it up until Halloween afternoon so we had no idea they were going to do any of this. I guess now we have a challenge for next year...

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A couple of days later my mom suggested that I use it for a video to my old song "I'm Too Fat"...

Another movie and another play

Not much detail here but several weeks ago I did a few scenes in the movie Bachelor No. 2 starring Dane Cook and Kate Hudson. In once scene I was walking by them in a park while they were jogging and in another I was walking down the street while Dane was talking with Jason Biggs.

This week I did a couple of plays. I had the lead role in an episode of The Saint and a co-lead role in an episode of Our Miss Brooks.

I witnessed a crash, went to a radio show, and hit Hooters 74

This one is about two months overdue. So much happened and it was a really great trip down to NY with my friends Rascal, James, Leadbelly, and PMS. On the way down we saw a roll-over accident on I-95 in CT. We didn't actually see it flip but I saw it as it was settling into the woods in a ditch on the left. Lots of dust and dirt blew all around. I had seen things like that before so I knew what was going on right away and started to think about pulling over. Some of my friends had been smoking so they were paranoid and didn't really want me to stop, however as we got closer and I saw how badly crushed the car was, not pulling over was simply not an option in my mind.

Rascal called 911. I pulled over a few hundred feet past the car in case it caught fire as well as to keep far enough away from police and emergency vehicles who would be coming to the scene. And I opened the windows and sunroof so my car could air out and hopefully ease the paranoia.

As Rascal and I walked to the car and we could see the amount of damage, I stopped for a second - I was afraid that we could see someone dead or decapitated stuck inside, and that was not a vision that I wanted to have for the weekend. But I think we smelled a faint odor of gas, so we would have had to check inside just in case someone one was in there. Luckily no one was. Leadbelly went out to the back of the car where the young female driver was crawling out of the wreckage. She was disoriented and clearly scared and in pain but she assured us that she was the only person in the car. By this point some other cars had pulled over as well and some of these people were just with this girl at work so they confirmed that she was alone.

Leadbelly deserves a gold star. He stayed with her, comforting her, holding her hand, and telling her not to worry. He touched her legs and her arms so she could know that she wasn't paralyzed or anything like that. We waited until all the emergency vehicles got on scene and then we took off for the rest of the trip.

I don't remember what time we made it to Shadow's house in Queens but it was sometime in the wee hours of the morning. White Castle was closed. So we hung out at his house and drank some Jagermeister and played Guitar Hero for a few hours. I talked with his dad who told me about meeting JFK once. I eventually went to sleep around 4:30 and was woken up around 7:30 to start the day.

We hit the road and met some people along the way enroute to the second annual FBA softball game in Hartsdale, NY. It was a very fun ride up whatever parkway - a food-fight erupted between people in my car and people in Shadow's car. It started quickly and I was driving so I wasn't seeing everything unfold but I think it started because PMS had the munchies. He was in Shadow's car but all the snacks and stuff were in my car. So Leadbelly threw a couple packs of Goldfish out of the window of my car and into Shadow's car. Great aim. One thing led to another and more food and bottles of water were thrown back and forth between the two moving cars driving alongside each other. There was so much stuff thrown around and it went on for several minutes. I am surprised that the people behind us didn't call the cops (or maybe they did?) because to outsiders I am sure that it looked like we were at war with each other.

I paid little attention to the actual softball games. I was there to socialize and see a bunch of friends whom had traveled from all over the country. The high-point for me was meeting Sam from the Than & Sam Show and the Opie & Anthony Show. I had invited him to come to the game and was very pleasantly surprised to see him show up. I think we talked for a few hours. I was loving it. This is a pic of me and Rascal and Sam and me:

After the game most people went to an area hotel and went out for dinner and drinks. But I went down to Manhattan with Ace to visit the Than & Sam radio show. Coming from a background in broadcasting and being a huge fan of theirs, this was by far one of the best parts of my entire summer this year. It was soooooo much fun for me! This is a video that Ace took of me on the show: http://youtube.com/watch?v=s5K-dznFZaQ

Afterwards we drove around the city a little and drove by the Statue of Liberty and then headed out to Wayne, NJ so I could go to my 74th different Hooters:



After that it was time to pick up the others guys and head home. An awesome weekend.

The Traveling Virus Tailgate Party at the Tweeter Center

I think it was a great turnout (a couple hundred people!) and lots of fun. I really enjoyed meeting people - I'm sorry that I didn't get to meet everyone but I tried.

I was VERY bummed out that the police confiscated my beer ball and shut down our contests after the Rock Scream competition, but it was still a fun time anyway. And thanks to Danny and Travis for judging the Rock Screams. :)

I should also thank Rascal for getting the RV and thank Shadow for helping me organize stuff.

Here is a video of Opie signing our banner, courtesy of Ace Danger. Sadly I wasn't there when he came by (I missed him at my own party!! DAMMIT!) because I got recruited to work inside the venue at a baseball tossing booth.

Opie visits Rascal's RV

Rush - Mansfield, MA 6/27/07

It was a relatively boring show. It started off strong with Limelight and then an older obscure song or two and Free Will several songs later. That was followed by some new songs that didn't really go over very well and a few more obscure things.

About an hour into the show was intermission, after intermission was five or six more brand new songs. Ugh. All slow or midtempo. A few of them kinda grooved but not many people seemed extremely interested.

Then came Subdivisions which got everyone screaming and jumping for joy...I think probably because it was the first familiar song in almost an hour. Then more slow songs. People started leaving.

My buddies wanted to leave so I went online and looked up some recent setlists to see what would be ahead: a drum solo, more new stuff, Tom Sawyer, and YYZ for the encore. But that was another forty-five minutes away and not really compelling enough to want to sit through the other shit in between so they left. I held out another ten minutes to confirm the setlist was similar to the ones I had looked up. I left around 10:20 during the drum solo. It just wasn't worth it. And it was a boring drum solo from what I saw and heard on the way out.

A total of nine new songs was a bit much. Especially so many of them all in a row. That was just stupid IMHO. If it wasn't for that I would have enjoyed it more. I would have also enjoyed stuff like Working Man and 2112 and Distant Early Warning.

Here is a tip for the band: when the drummer looks like he is so unhappy to be there, don't aim close-up cameras on him. As fans we like to think that our favorite bands are having some kind of fun up there on stage, we don't want to see the guys looking like they're ready to cry or bored with us or whatever his problem was. Just don't bother showing them at all if they're going to be like that.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't all bad - the sound mix was pretty much perfect and I was very happy to see Geddy playing way more bass than keyboards as opposed to other times I've seen him play keys most of the show. There is never a substitute for him plucking the strings and rocking out. So at least I was happy about that.

RIP Hooters

Bankruptcy has claimed the life of all of the Hooters locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and Rhode Island. They were killed by some upstate NY locations that drowned the franchisee in debt.

I am extremely saddened by the news. The closest location to me is now 111 miles away from me in CT.

Another Movie, Airplanes, Another Play, Motorcycles, and a Helicopter

Three weeks ago I went to Providence ago for a scene in an upcoming movie called 27 Dresses. It stars Katherine Heigl from Grey's Anatomy and it should be out early next year. This is my fourth film in the post ten months and the second film in a row in which my car was used - my role in this is "Pedestrian With Car" which pretty much meant that I won't be seen at all because I drove around the block for about 3. 5 hours between a few other cars and several NYC taxis. At one point I wondered about those cabs - were they actually real NYC cabs or something created by the props department? If they were real cabs, how did they get up to Providence? Were they driven up separately or on a car carrier? I would think that a car carrier would have raised a few eyebrows along the way since it's not every day that you see a car carrier full of NYC taxis.

The Tuesday after that I went flying for the first time since November 2005. I flew down to the Cape and along the South Coast. I hope to get myself back into flying more often.


Last Wednesday I was in a play - an episode of "Duffy's Tavern". I was funny. This is our promo pic...

Last Saturday I went to Motorcycle Week in Laconia and saw some awesome bikes and rode in a helicopter around Weirs Beach. The first real standout was this Jägermeister bike. It has a Jägermeister machine on the back and Jägermeister stuff all over it. There were the typical assortments of Harley's and rice-rockets as well as a prototype of a bike that has a 10-cylinder Dodge Viper engine that supposedly get up to 400-something MPH! SICK! NO thanks! But this bike shaped like the back of a hot chick was cool:


Last Sunday I took my parents to the casino in RI for Father's Day. The slot machines were pretty stingy but my mom won $77 betting a simulcast horse race which almost didn't get bet because I had to use an electronic wagering system that I had never seen before with less than a minute to post time. I would have gotten so much shit if I blew the bet. We ate at the buffet which was plentiful and looked great, but aside from just a few items, pretty much everything was bland and almost tasteless. Even my parents felt the same way, and they never complain about eating in restaurants. But compared the full-service restaurants that had chicken wing appetizers for $11.50 and pasta with clam sauce for $21.50 and an Italian cold-cut sandwich for $11.50, the price was right I guess.

Yesterday started with a cooking contest at All Things Sicilian. After that I went to a ribfest in NH where I ate a few ribs and deep-fried Oreos, sampled some BBQ sauces, and saw an aerial stunt show. From there I went to a poker party. That was the second night in a row that I didn't get home until about four in the morning.

Today I am tired.

Hooters #73

In Manchester, CT I went to my 73rd Hooters location yesterday.

It was a spur of the moment idea while I was driving home from my cousin's graduation and commissioning at West Point.

My buddy Schnit lives in the area and came by to take this pic.

Now, keep in mind that I am not saying that that I've been to this Hooters location 73 times...no no no...I have been to 73 different Hooters locations at least one time each.

Here is a little background on some of my previous Hooters visits:

• 5 were in the Denver area in 2000
• 11 were in South Florida in 2001
• 7 were around the Houston area in a three-day trip in 2002
• My 45th was the Grand Opening of the Sugarland, TX location where I was first person served a beer on Opening Day
• I was at the Grand Opening of the Cape Cod Hooters in 2003
• 9 locations were during a four-day trip to southern California in 2003

While at Hooters in Daytona with my friend Chris in 1999, I saw a t-shirt: "Hooters World Tour". On the back it had a list of cities, just like a concert t-shirt would have. While looking at that list, I realized that I had been to a bunch of those locations already so I decided that I would embark on a world tour of my own.

In 2003 Hooters ran a contest where anyone who visited 20 different Hooters in one year would win a party for 20 people with 200 wings. They gave out little "passport" books that we had to have stamped at each of the different locations we went to.

Why have I done all this? Well, the last line of the menu at Hooters pretty much sums it all up: "Hooters makes you happy". :)

You can check out some other Hooters pics here.

The upcoming movie "21"

As I sit here writing this I am waiting for it to get dark so the movie shoot I am on can continue. I've been here seven hours (an hour away from overtime rate!) and I've worked about 90 minutes so far. The first 4.5 were really tough: snack-break followed by lunch. That was it. No work, just sit around and wait and eat (and get paid for it).

In the scene we did so far I walked past the main character over and over again. In the scene we are waiting to do I will be driving down the street in my truck. At least I will be warm and comfy.

Ooh, they just called me, gotta go...more later...

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This email came from my mobile device.

I can't believe I went to Pink and Justin Timberlake...after drinking a .8 gallon beer

The show was amazing. Seriously. Pink was a definite crowd-pleaser and Justin worked hard for his money. He either strummed guitar or played organ or piano for about half the songs. For the other half he was non-stop dancing and working the crowd. I got tired just watching him.

His band was rocking: two guitar players, two drummers, two keyboard players, a shitload of hot dancers and singers. The guitars and drums gave many of the songs a harder edge. Like Sexy Back and Cry Me A River, they each had kind of crunchy guitar parts to make them kind of rock. I didn't even recognize a couple of songs at first.

Justin's set was over two hours (I think about 2:20-2:25) including about a 15 or 20 minute intermission while DJ/singer/producer-extraordinaire Timbaland did some stuff. The show didn't end until around 11:30 which is usually curfew-breaking and into O.T. for union stage crews around here.

All for only an $85 highest ticket price.

I am glad that I didn't see him last month in Boston because I would have been compelled to go see this show in Manchester, NH as well. It was that good.

I can't remember the last time I was hit on by so many girls. Not just the wise-asses saying things like "why are you at a concert like this? I bet you can't even name two of his songs" and the underaged "can you buy beer for me?" girls. I mean like real girls with no agenda. I was actually desirable for some reason. :D

Before the show Matty and I went to a tavern in Manchester and had this beer tower that is over 101 ounces!

Aerosmith at Mohegan Sun, 11/29/06

For a bunch of old guys, they get the job done and never fail to entertain. Tyler and Perry in particular are at the top of their game, singing and playing like kids half their age.

It was nice to see Tom Hamilton return for a bunch of songs. He looked a bit on the tired side and perhaps a little weak when he played with the rest of the band at the Tweeter Center in September, but he seemed so much better this time.

He first came out to play for a special version of "Back In The Saddle" which was being filmed for a NASCAR thing and then he came back out to play the last three songs, including "Sweet Emotion" and "Draw The Line", and the encore of "Walk This Way".

Speaking of "Back In The Saddle", the lyrics were altogether different for this NASCAR thing. Even though I could see enough of the TelePrompter, I still couldn't follow along with it because I had the real lyrics going through my head clashing with what Steven was singing. And I noticed that the TelePrompter was used a LOT less than I've seen it used in the past several years. In fact after that song, I only noticed it was on for just two or three more songs including their new song "Devil's Got A New Disguise" and "Livin' On The Edge". A stark contrast from many past tours when the Prompter was on almost the whole show. Maybe Steven's memory is getting better with age? Maybe I am the only person who pays attention to or cares about frivolous little things like this but they amuse me.

A couple of other little things that amused me were Joe Perry playing piano for a few bars during "Stop Messin' Around" and a verse of "Hangman Jury" thrown in before the beginning of "Seasons Of Whither" which surely must have pleased the person holding up a banner asking for that song.

The overall setlist of the past few tours has been leaning more towards older songs and this night was no exception despite having a few obligatory 90's hits to keep the kids happy.

Here are some pics from the show.

Oh yeah, and to make the night even better, I won $100 after the show. :)

The Game Plan

That's the name of a movie that should be out sometime in 2007. I worked on it one day last week at the football stadium in Foxboro.

The first scene I was in, The Rock walked right past me from behind, but I wasn't supposed to notice him so I couldn't turn to look. There were only 20 of us in that scene and that's probably the only part I was in that won't get cut - when my back is in the shot. Figures.

All of the other scenes I was in, I was in the first or second row in the stadium crowd, but those shots were all much bigger/wider/longer so even if they're not cut, I won't be seen. But whatever...I got paid anyway.

Old-Time Radio Players of Seabrook

This Wednesday I'll be in an episode of the old show "Suspense". Also showing is an episode of "My Favorite Husband".

Show times are at 3:30 and 6:30 in Seabrook.

"Twisted Struff"

Rascal Helper apparently "found" this pic of me someplace...funny, but I don't remember posing for it...

I've been a fugitive from justice

While at a funeral yesterday I noticed that my front license plate was missing. Later on at home we found the license plate's bolts in the driveway where I was parked the night before. So it was obvious that someone had stolen my plate and it didn't just fall off by itself.

I called the local police and asked if it was anything to worry about and they told me to go downtown to file a police report. After filling out the report, the officer said I should go to the RMV for new license plates since my remaining plate was being invalidated.

I knew I would have to return the remaining plate so I took it off while in the parking lot of the RMV. I figured with my luck, I'd get a ticket while I was inside. Now in retrospect, I WISH it was something that simple!

So I went inside the RMV with the police report and my registration and remaining plate. Seemed like a simple enough task so far. That was until the woman behind the counter told me that she couldn't give me new license plates because I owed Excise Tax. Dumbfounded, I asked her to repeat herself. Several times. At one point I blurted out loudly, "I NEVER PAY EXCISE TAX". Which, realizing that could be a damaging statement, I quickly corrected to "I mean, it's a Lease vehicle and all taxes are paid for out of my monthly payment". But she printed something showing me that taxes haven't been paid for two years.

So I was in a pickle at that point. I couldn't just leave and put my old license plate back on because it wasn't any good anymore. But I couldn't get a new set of plates because of the unpaid taxes. We didn't know how much was overdue because the RMV's system doesn't say. But she suggested I pay the taxes for now and get reimbursed by the Leasing company later.

That sounded like a good plan so I went to the Tax Collector office. I had my checkbook out and ready to go. The Tax Collector handed me a paper with my overdue balance: $989! I about hit the floor. No way I was paying that.

I left, stunned and speechless, and went to the car dealer. Thankfully they love me there and the Sales Manager knows me by sight. He looked up my Lease Agreement and confirmed that I am indeed paying taxes in my monthly payment.

I went home and called the Leasing company. After arguing with a few people who were trying to point fingers at me, the RMV, and the Tax Collector, they finally conceded that they haven't been paying my taxes after all.

So this means that I have been driving my car illegally since 2005. If anything bad had happened, or even if I was stopped for something, I would have been screwed.

They said that if I had the Tax Collector send them a bill right away, they'll look into it and send payment if necessary. Thing is, how am I supposed to drive while all of this is going on?

I called the guy at the car dealership, who, out of the goodness of his heart and all of the business I've done with them for more than ten years, set me up with a rental car for the next few days. He didn't have to do that because it's not his fault at all but he felt badly.

It wasn't my fault the license plate was stolen but yet I'm still feeling like a bad guy anyway. I went out of my way to go to the Police Station and the RMV only to be told that *I* am a criminal!

So now we wait and see how long until payment gets processed and I can get back in my own vehicle.

Hooters #71 and #72

My 71st Hooters - Hackensack, NJ:

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My 72nd Hooters - Paramus, NJ:

You can read more about my other Hooters trips here.

Fractured ankle

Check out the swelling...it's like half a baseball on the side of my foot -- and this was after icing it for a couple hours to get the swelling down enough to pull my sock off over it...

Wayne Newton, Underdog, IHOP, and Mousetraps

Last week started off badly when I blew a hose in my JetSki after riding for only a few minutes. But it quickly turned around by Sunday afternoon.

When I got home from the river, my mom called to have me meet her and my cousins out for drinks. The place we went, Sal's, has a really nice deck along the river and it was a perfect day for something like that. After having a few cocktails we decided that we'd get tickets to a show that Wayne Newton would be playing there the following night there. I had heard him on the Opie & Anthony radio show a few days earlier and had been thinking about going to the show anyway. After all, he is a living legend and how many times in life does someone like him play practically in your backyard? I am glad that we did because it was truly one of the best shows you can ever expect to see. He kept the crowd excited and everyone knew every song. Read this review and this review and if you can deal with the crummy quality you can see a short video clip.

Thursday after work I went to Providence to be an extra for the upcoming Underdog movie. This particular scene will be used in the trailers for the movie but I was way in the back in a crowd scene of 75 people so I am not expecting to be seen at all. But it was still a fun thing to do (despite wearing long pants outside in 95 degree weather) and I am getting paid for it so that's not a bad thing.

Friday morning I went to WBCN for the Opie & Anthony radio show. I was supposed to meet some friends there much earlier than what I did but I was tired from the long day before so I slept longer than I should have. And then with my luck I got stuck behind a frigging garbage truck in Cambridge -- blocking all lanes while it emptied out a triple-decker. Assholes. But despite all that, I still caught up with them and a huge group of fans while they were walking to an IHOP where they bought everyone breakfast and broadcast live on WBCN and XM satellite radio. There are a couple of pics of me in the crowd here and here. And then after the festivities were done I got caught in a massive rainstorm while walking back to my car -- I got so soaked that I had to go out and buy some clothes so I could go to work.

Saturday I went to Hampton Beach to see Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood from the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway. This was my fifth time seeing them and they never disappoint. I especially like when they do a thing with mousetraps -- they are blindfolded and barefoot and walk around 100 mousetraps. Check out some video clips...

I still have to get my JetSki fixed.

Bill Burr -- 7/14/06

A regular on the Opie & Anthony show and seen on the Chappelle Show, Letterman, and HBO.

Extreme reunion in Boston -- 6/30/06

I saw the old Boston band Extreme last night.

It was ok...JUST ok. They played for close to 2.5 hours and didn't finish until 11:30 but I was bored for about a total of an hour. For most of the show, literally every other song was something I didn't want to hear. I would have preferred more "fun" stuff from their first two albums rather than the slow-trudging filler material they had on their lesser popular later albums. And I don't think I was all alone with that feeling.

For example their song "Tragic Comic". I don't think many people wanted to hear that song 14 years ago -- which is around the time when a lot of us stopped buying their albums -- and last night it certainly appeared that the audience wasn't interested it in hearing it too much now because out of the whole crowd, I could count the number of people dancing/grooving/getting into it on my fingers. And quite a few people sat down during such songs. A stark contrast to songs like "Little Girls" from their first album, where everyone was up and dancing and singing along, but yet they only did this song as part of a medley of other stuff from that first album. HUGE mistake in my opinion. They should have done these older more beloved songs in their entirety and pulled the filler songs out of the setlist.

However this medley sort of salvaged the night because they did it towards the end so anyone who was feeling sleepy during those sit-down songs became wide awake and ready to rock.

For the encore, Paul Geary came out from behind the drums to tell us how as a kid he used to look at a poster that he had hanging on his wall, wishing and hoping that some day he'd be as sucessful as that band and that they were his "heroes" at which point Nuno ran up to the mic and said "they were MY heroes, too". This brought out three members of the orginal band Boston -- Brad Delp, Barry Goodreau, and Fran Sheehan. They played Boston's "Rock And Roll Band" and Led Zep's "Rock And Roll". I love Brad Delp -- one of the coolest guys I've ever met -- but he didn't sound so great for the first song; a little rusty and straining to hit those highs at first, but he pulled it out by the end and then he hit every high note in the Zep song, singing in an octave that Robert Plant can't get to anymore.

These songs were the only time that Nuno wasn't playing his ass off -- he relaxed a little to let Barry Goodreau show off. The rest of the night, Nuno kicked ass. He is a solid non-stop rhythm guitar player and a smokin' lead guitar player all at the same time. Not to mention that he is the only member of the band who still looks and acts like a rock star, but not in an egotitistcal way. I mean, he has long 1976-Joe-Perry-blond-patch hair and wears black and silver nail polish. The other guys, well, they look like they just came from their day-jobs and I wouldn't have recognized any of them if they walked past me on the street. I've seen pics of Pat with short hair before but I don't think I have even seen Paul completely clean-shaven...I did't even think it was him at first. And Gary...OMG...WTF happened to him?!?!?!?!?! He had more wrinkles than Mick Jagger and looked like someone gave him a black eye! Seriosuly! Like, maybe he walked into a mic...or maybe he got into a fist-fight with someone before the show...whatever it was, he looked REALLLLLLLLY bad!!

Mike Mangini came out and drummed for two songs. Gary and Pat and Nuno were trying to be funny by saying stuff like "Paul wants to take a break" and "Paul has to take a call from Sully" and "does anyone in the audience know how to play drums?". Kind of lame but when Mike did come out, I would say that he did a better job than Paul. He had more feeling and was more heavy and powerful. But, I can't drum for shit so who am I to talk.

Oh yeah, and Charlie Farren was the opener...wow...if someone offered me a million bucks if I could pick him out of a crowd, there is no way I would be able to...no longer the tall skinny guy I met way back in the day. His voice still sounds good however he was just doing the solo-acoustic thing which didn't seem to interest people too much. I would say there was no more than a few hundred people in the seating area for his set.

It filled up a lot more for Extreme but there were still lots of empty seats. In my row alone, I think there were 13 or 14 seats all together, but there was only seven of us in the entire row.

Sammy Hagar & Michael Anthony -- 6/28/06

Went to the show last night in Gilford, NH. The night had the potential to suck for a lot of various reasons but the show itself was very good.

Especially the set-list. I've been seeing Sammy Hagar for like 20 years and this is the first time I can remember ever seeing him play his song from the movie Footloose. And he played a few songs from his early-80's "Standing Hampton" album that I haven't seen him do in years. He also did the Bob Dylan "everybody must get stoned" song and the song that Toby Keith wrote about the Cabo Wabo Cantina.

That was all the first half of the show with his band "The Waboritas". After a short intermission, the second half started out with Michael Anthony doing a bass solo {yawn} which turned into "Runnin' With The Devil" -- which surprised me a LOT, and then it was alllllll Van Halen from there, until the encore which was the Beastie Boys "fight for your right to parrrrrrty" song. In between, they did a lot of stuff from the Van Halen 5150 album -- stuff I haven't seen or heard live since VH did them on that tour.

I THINK Mikey may have had a drink or two too many during the first half of the show (when it was just Sammy and the Wabos playing). Funny.

So all in all, it was very cool and highly entertaining. Sammy works the crowd like NO ONE else in the biz -- he always autographs literally everything that anyone brings up or throws up to the stage, he high-five's or hugs everyone along the way, and walks through the audience of fans that are on the stage during the whole show.

I took a bunch of pics and I'll post them soon.

The O&A Motorcycle Run to Boston -- 6/21/06

About a hundred or so bikes started from NYC and wound up at Bill's Bar in Boston.

At Bill's Bar, I got to meet a few people who are heard on the show as well as some fellow fans from fullblownaids.com.

Among these people were the infamous "Stalker Patti", the lovely "Cara from MySpace", and Ziggy from myradiostore.com (the BEST place to get XM radios and accessories from).

Ziggy was buying drinks -- I didn't want to drink because I've been dieting and because I had to perform in a play that afternoon (which went VERY well; my best role ever!), but when he asked what I was drinking, I said "Diet Coke", he said "bullshit!" and took it away from me. So I had no choice. :D Thus by 1:30 in the afternoon, I was drunk-dialing my friends who usually get similar calls from me around 1:30 AM instead.

Here are a few of the pics. You can see the rest here and I have a small videoclip of the first batch of bikes arriving here.

"Stalker Patti"

"Cara from MySpace"

Montreal -- May, 2006

Just got back.

Lots of walking, shopping, eating $12 salads and drinking $4 bottles of water because I am trying to be healthy, and there may have been a stripper or two a few nights...

There was a visit to a big church one day, a trip to the Biodome, a trip to the casino, and an unexpected wrong turn onto the Montreal Grand Prix racetrack where we drove around the track a few times in shock and awe.

And of course a Hooters (my 70th!) in Vermont on the way home. :)

• Watch video from the church here and here.
• Watch video of the racetrack here.
• See the pics here.

Father Knows Best

I am playing the part of a kid who wants to get married to the oldest daughter.

Eagle-Tribune -- April 4, 2006

There has been a lot of violence in area nighclubs so I wrote this that appears in today's Eagle-Tribune:


Punish clubs that break the rules

I respectfully disagree with The Eagle-Tribune's opinion about closing all Lawrence bars and nightclubs early.

While it is obvious that violence is a problem and I certainly agree that something needs to be done, I do not feel that shutting down everything early is the solution. In fact it is quite unfair to the majority of bars and nightclubs that are consistently trouble-free and it effectively punishes the patrons of such establishments.

In the spirit of everyone being innocent until proven guilty, it makes much more sense to me to go with the preference of the Licensing Board and determine early closing times on a case-by-case basis for the so-called "problem" nightclubs.

If this can't be easily accomplished through their licensing and regulation, then it can be up to the discretion of police officers working inside of the bars and nightclubs — the officers should be able to shut down someplace early if and when they deem it to be unsafe or dangerous. I might even go so far as to say that some of these "problem" nightclubs may still be "problems" whether they close at 11 p.m. or 12 a.m. or 1 a.m., but the police on scene can make that determination as needed.

It may not be the best solution, but I do feel it is more practical than penalizing or punishing everyone in town for the bad actions of a few people at a few places. It is definitely much better than doing nothing at all.

DAVID STRUFFOLINO

The little play I am in

Several newspapers did a story about the play I'll be in. This is from the Atlantic News...

Scroll down to the bottom page:
http://www.atlanticnews.com/main/AN06/AN06-P16-16-17.pdf

It's continued here (they get my town wrong; oh well): http://www.atlanticnews.com/main/AN06/AN06-P05-28-05.pdf


EDIT:

This is a pic from play-day...all made up and ready for action...and wow, do I look like shit!

I thought I was going to watch myself crash like the people on JetBlue

I went to Orlando a few weeks ago to visit my mom, see the water-ski show at Cypress Gardens, and add a new Hooters to my list (I am up to my 69th different Hooters location now; you can read the background of my Hooters obsession here).

It was on Song Airlines (which will be absorbed by Delta soon) and it was a pretty fun flight because they have more than a thousand MP3s to listen to, games to play with other passengers (I made it to the #3 all-time high-score on a trivia game), and live satellite TV. And before the flight got off the ground, rather than the usual boring "...in the event of a water landing..." and "...this is how you put on the oxygen mask..." stuff, the Flight Attendants entertained us with a Christmas-like version that started out as " 'Twas Eight Days Before Christmas..." and had all of the safety instructions worked into the story. It took a long time but it was an amusing change of pace.

On the flight back home to Boston, I noticed that we seemed to be circling the area more than normal. I happened to look over at the people next to me who were watching CNN and I saw the caption that looked like "BOSTON PLANE TROUBLE" and it looked like an aerial shot of Logan Airport.

I thought, "Hmm...I'm on a plane, and I am going to Boston, and I thought we were circling anyway...uhhh...maybe I should put on the TV and watch the news". It felt like it took an eternity to change the channel. I was trying my best to remain calm but all I could think of were those people on the infamous JetBlue flight where they watched the news on TV for like three hours while their jet burned off fuel in preparation for an emergency landing.

Once I finally got the news on my TV I saw that it wasn't my flight that was in trouble this time (it was a flight from Milwaukee that ended up landing safely). But for those few minutes until I changed the channel, it wasn't a very good feeling.

There was only one month that I was not either on a plane or a train somewhere in 1997-1998

I finally got around to writing about this. During the calendar year 1997-1998, there was only one month that I was not either on a plane or a train somewhere. Literally.

I spent almost the entire first six months of 1997 on the road in Philadelphia and in Washington, DC. I was home for Easter and Father's Day but was away the rest of the time.

I spent 65 days at the Holiday Inn in Washington, DC. The bill from that hotel stay stretched more than 25 feet long across the lobby! And thanks to Eli, the CEO of Holiday Inn even sent me a Thank You note later that year (as seen below...you can click on it to blow it up).

While in DC, I did most of the typical touristy things such as the Smithsonian, the National Air and Space Museum, toured the US Capitol Building and got to sit in on a session of Congress, went to Arlington National Cemetery, saw the US Navy Band play at the Navy Memorial, and toured the FBI Headquarters. Went to the Pentagon but did not make it into the tour. Also missed out on the tour of the White House. Over in the Georgetown neighborhood, Old Glory was my favorite place to hang.

In November 1997, I went to Las Vegas and among other things, went on an airplane tour that buzzed the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. I felt like I was almost flying on the Manhattan Express at New York, New York and on the Big Shot at the Stratosphere...a ride that shoots you up 160-feet on a tower that's already over 1000-feet above ground-level, and you do it in only a few seconds at 4-G's! Had a very magical dining experience (literally) at Caesar's Magical Empire.

Went back to Vegas in 1998 for the opening of the Star Trek Experience, which is soooo cool...one second you're standing in a small square room, and the next second you find that you've been beamed into the Transporter Room of the Enterprise...truly amazing! I've been back there several times since then and still cannot figure how the hell they do that!

Flying

I dug out my pilot's license and went flying this morning for the first time in like five years (I was supposed to go a few years ago, but then the September 11th stuff happened and all flights were grounded).

A picture perfect day today and we could see the NH mountains from Boston! The straight-and-level flying was easy for me -- almost like riding a bike -- but I think I'll leave the landings up to the pros until I go back up at least a few more times. Hopefully it won't take me another five years to go back again.

Aerosmith at Mohegan Sun

While I wasn't a huge fan of Sunday's show, I wouldn't say it totally sucked, like a lot of other hard-core fans have said.

It was very cool to have classics like "Seasons Of Wither" and "No More No More" in the same show along with "Walkin' The Dog" and "Helter Skelter", and I am probably one of the only ppl who don't object to "Angel" especially since they don't beat it to death like some of their other songs from that era. The rest of the setlist could have been a bit better, though. I thought "Janie's Got A Gun" completely sucked, as I've thought just about every time I've seen them do it -- the beginning just drags on and never feels right to me.

I would have liked a little more interaction between the band members. To me it seemed like in the rehearsals, they worked on the songs, but not really on any of the choreography (for lack of a better word) -- almost like they need to be reminded that Joe and Brad typically do the catwalk stroll during the guitar interlude in "Dream On", for example.

But I am letting a lot slide based on the fact that it was first show of the whole tour and they haven't played out in a while. I am going again tonite so we'll see how that goes.

Lenny Kravitz kind of impressed me. I am not really a fan of his in general -- I don't dislike him at all, but I don't go nuts over him. But his performance was solid and he did a great job.

Pics (from my aging camera phone) are here.

Factory Of Terror & Witch's Woods

Just in time for the holidays, the Factory Of Terror is baaaaaack. I went there last year and it was definitely worth the drive, so Shannon and I went there last night. I liked it for the most part. There were a few spots that totally scared the shit outta me! And there were also a few spots that were just so-so. But the place is big -- lots of rooms, with lots of dark spots where "creatures" jump out at you. Some of them will walk alongside of you trying to spook you and freak you out.

Shannon thought the "creatures" were better at the Witch's Woods -- we went there Sunday. Two of their haunted-house things were about average, but they have one that has all 3D effects...you wear 3D glasses and you see stuff coming out of the walls at you. REALLY cool! Their Haunted Hayride was also fun and they have a nice display of carved pumpkins.

New Orleans

I first went to New Orleans while on a cruise in 1995 or '96 (it was long ago so I don't remember exactly when). It was the first time I had ever been to a Hooters and I had no idea that would become such a hobby for me.

I went back to New Orleans in 2001. My family drove from Florida to meet me there. Of course I went to two more Hooters restaurants, one of which is currently listed as "Closed indefinitely" on their website after the hurricane. I kinda figured something like that would happen because I saw that neighborhood in the news coverage and it looked bad. The other Hooters location I went to on this trip (currently listed as being re-built) was one of the worst times I've ever had at a Hooters. They were downright rude and refused to pose for pictures with me until I spoke with the manager and told him that I was so disappointed that I was going to call Corporate. I wound up settling for a picture with a waitress wearing a long-sleeve shirt over her "uniform". I only needed the photographic proof that I was actually there so that was good enough, but it was a huge hassle to get at all.

Anyway, you can read more about that trip here and see the photos here.

Speaking of the hurricane, I found that the Google Map page has satellite pictures of New Orleans after it hit. You can zoom in on the Superdome, for example, and see the damage to the roof. You can see highways that seem to just disappear into the flooding. And you can also look at the older satellite pictures and see what it all looked like before anything ever happened -- just click around the "Satellite" and "Katrina" buttons to see what I mean (since there is no way to know how long they'll keep those buttons up there, you should check it out soon).

Deep-fried Oreos

Had some at Old Orchard Beach yesterday...who woulda thunk that there would be such a thing. For some reason they seem especially good when chased by a Dr. Pepper.

I've always liked O.O.B. because there is much to do, especially if you enjoy drinking. ;-)
The epicenter is around the pier and everything else sort of spreads out from there.

The Aristocrats

Go see it before it's too late. It is one of the rudest, sickest, grossest movies -- I love it! Check out the South Park version of the story.

Eagle-Tribune -- June 29, 2005

I wrote this that appeared in today's Eagle-Tribune newspaper:

There are ways to ease gridlock

I have been commuting to and from Boston and Cambridge for 18 years. I have been fortunate that most of those years have been outside of a typical 9-to-5 schedule because my 32-mile trip would easily take more than an hour using Interstates 495 and 93 (and that doesn't count the extra 15 to 30 minutes it takes for the 2.5 miles between my office and the highway).

Highway delays can be attributed to many factors, not the least of which are accidents and the sheer volume during peak periods. For example, many people may be surprised at how a modestly-sized hill can help to choke rush-hour traffic. While there isn't anything that can be done to flatten hills, drivers can help each other by maintaining constant speeds on the inclines. If everyone used cruise control and kept an even steady speed, you wouldn't see other people jamming on their brakes because someone ahead of them is losing speed while going uphill (and let's not forget the better gas mileage you get when you maintain steady speeds).

Drivers can also help each other by staying out of each other's way. If you want to go 40 mph on a major highway, do not stay in the left lanes. Just as excessive speed kills, so can excessive slowness. I can't begin to tell you how many accidents and near-misses I have seen when someone was going too slowly in the left lane, causing everyone else to suddenly swerve right to avoid hitting them. I am not saying that everyone needs to go fast, I am simply saying that we all need to respect each other and use a lane that suits our speeds.

Unfortunately, even if everyone were to cooperate with each other in a perfect world, there are still many more factors that are beyond our own control. Roads designed with lane drops tend to create bottlenecks — and if the lane drop occurs in conjunction with a hill, such as the Leverett Connector/Storrow Drive exit off of I-93 southbound in Boston, you're basically doomed to be delayed. You're also doomed at many of the major interchanges where there is a lack of accelerate/decelerate and merge lanes like there are in other parts of the country.

I've traveled to almost every major city in our country and have spent considerable amounts of time in many of them (often up to several months at a time in some cities). I've seen solutions used elsewhere that could help our traffic troubles here. I've seen the median strips between highway lanes used for express rail service (with only a limited number of stops along the way so they would be quicker than standard commuter rail service). I have also seen median strips used for reversible express/toll travel lanes (again with only a limited number of entrance/exit points), similar to the reversible lane known as "the zipper lane" between Boston and Braintree. Since the governments of Massachusetts and New Hampshire already own or control the median strips and the land between the lanes, perhaps they can look into using them for similar solutions. Yes, they would require money to be spent for construction, but they can pay for themselves over time. I know I would not mind dropping a buck into a basket if it is going to get me in or out of Boston more quickly.

DAVID S. STRUFFOLINO

Orlando, 2005

Went to Orlando two weekends ago with some friends. It rained every day and it was hot as hell. I mean DISGUSTINGLY hot! REALLY nasty ugly weather! But I didn't let that spoil my fun riding the rides...

Went on Mission: Space at Epcot (where a four year old died earlier this week). That was AWESOME! They make you feel like you're really on a rocket blasting off into space. A VERY intense ride. I was a lil lightheaded when it was done and I was white as a ghost, but it was well worth the experience!

Over at Disney-MGM, the Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster kept breaking down so we never got a chance to go on that on this trip, which really pissed me off because I love that ride and it's one of two things I look forward to at that park. But at least the Tower Of Terror was working perfectly.

Up at Universal and Islands Of Adventure, the sign outside of the Hulk rollercoaster said it was a 30 minute wait. More than an hour later while we were still waiting in line, they finally made an announcement that the ride was broken, so that turned out to be a huge waste of time. We tried a few unfamiliar attractions -- things with short wait-times because of all the time we wasted at the Hulk, and they turned out to be great fun. There was a Poseidon thing in which we walked thru a cool refreshing tunnel of spinning water and there were a lot of special effects, a Shrek 3D movie that has added effects like blowing wind and water droplets and hydraulic chairs to enhance the realism, and a new ride based on the Mummy movie that is kind of like a rollercoaster except that it stops and drops and goes backwards and twists and turns. Some of the old Universal standards like Twister are still cool -- they do a great job of making you feel like you're standing in front of a real live tornado, and the Back To The Future ride is still fun but it's starting to show its age a little. The Earthquake ride is still a great idea, but I think they need to update it a bit.

I went to two new Hooters which bring my total up to 68 now (you can read more about Hooters here). There were two more that I wanted to go to in the area but I couldn't use the rental car that three of us split (and the ones with the car were avoiding the other two of us all weekend, so the car became kind of a waste for me) and I spent way too much money on taxis just getting around the amusement parks.

I wasn't a fan of the Disney resort bus system because buses were almost always late and a few times we were given misinformation by bus drivers that resulted in us going places we did not want to go. There was one exceptional bus driver, however, who told me about a huge pool party at a hotel down the street from ours one day, although I didn't enjoy it as much I would have if I didn't have blisters from walking around in the rain all weekend, LOL!

I didn't take a lot of pics but I do have some and I will add them soon.

New York Times

Several weeks ago I responded to something I saw somewhere and wound up getting in touch with a reporter from the New York Times. We exchanged a bunch of emails and a few phone calls and they even sent a photographer to take pics of me (the photographer has done portraits of celebrities and politicians and has had many magazine covers).

Yesterday the reporter said that they liked my pic but then I got this from her this morning:

------------------------------------
Hi, the story about people making fake cell phone calls is in the paper today, you can find it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/fashion/thursdaystyles/14cell.html?

I'm so sorry that it looks like your quote was cut at the last minute. I really don't know why that happened, last version I saw it was still in there. But thanks so much for participating, and I hope you still like the story...

best

Amy
------------------------------------


Oh well.

New York Times

Several weeks ago I responded to something I saw somewhere and wound up getting in touch with a reporter from the New York Times. We exchanged a bunch of emails and a few phone calls and they even sent a photographer to take pics of me (the photographer has done portraits of celebrities and politicians and has had many magazine covers).

Yesterday the reporter said that they liked my pic but then I got this from her this morning:

------------------------------------
Hi, the story about people making fake cell phone calls is in the paper today, you can find it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/fashion/thursdaystyles/14cell.html?

I'm so sorry that it looks like your quote was cut at the last minute. I really don't know why that happened, last version I saw it was still in there. But thanks so much for participating, and I hope you still like the story...

best

Amy
------------------------------------


Oh well.

Be Cool

Chris and I went to see the movie Be Cool, the sequel to Get Shorty this morning. We knew from the start not to expect the greatest movie ever, but it had its moments.

We had to see it no matter what because we are IN in the movie. We were at the Aerosmith concert that they showed in the movie (you can read more about that concert and see pics I took from the concert here). Despite what they tell us in the movie, the concert was not at the Staples Center in L.A. -- it was at the Tweeter Center last year, so it was kinda stupid of them to show such wide-angle shots because you can easily see that it's an outdoor amphitheater rather than the indoor arena as they were telling us. But anyway, there were at least 16-18 times when Chris and I were on the silver screen in crowd-shots somewhere -- we were right next to a part of the stage so we were in a prime location -- however all the crowd scenes went by too fast to see us without using a Pause button or a Slo-mo button.

But enough about us. There were some other good parts elsewhere in the movie. I especially liked the performances by the guy from OutKast and the wrestler known as "The Rock" -- and this opinion is coming from someone who completely dislikes wrestling and hates "The Rock" in particular! But I think he did a really good acting job because his character was nothing like how you'd expect a wrestler to be...verrrrry gay. It was amusing to me that big-headed maniacs like Fred Durst (from Limp Bizkit) and Gene Simmons (from Kiss) were both extras who had no lines and less than like 10 seconds of screen time combined.

One thing that seems kind of weird to me is that a character in the movie who was beaten up with a baseball bat died in real life almost exactly a year before the movie was released -- the movie came out literally four days away from the one-year anniversary of the day he died. If I were part of his family, I think I'd be kinda pissed at watching him get beaten up on screen while that anniversary date was fresh on my mind.

All in all, I'd give it about a C grade. Or maybe a C+ because Chris and I were in it with our favorite rock band. :) Chris may not be so generous with his grade because he read the book and found lots of flaws between the book and the movie.

Better than nothing

I went to Mohegan Sun and won about $380-ish before I gave some of it back. I guess I felt badly for the Indians and didn't want to take too much money away from them? hahaha!

I started off winning $80 on the big (upright) wheel that they spin and you bet on. I think they call it the Money Wheel or Wheel Of Fortune -- many casinos have different names for it.

After that was about a $50 win on roulette which was quickly followed by a $180 win on roulette! This part got kind of weird because I knew that I had won, but couldn't really tell how much...when I saw them push nine big stacks of chips at me, I started to get excited and pretty much forgot how to do any math at that point! I had to call my friend Matty over to count them for me because I couldn't do it myself because I was too excited at seeing all those stacks of chips coming my way (oh and by the way, I won this by betting his birthday date...I didn't get shit by betting my own birthday or my parents' birthdays, but Matty's was a winner).

After that was a few hands of blackjack and a few small wins but nothing big. Then we went to the nickel slots and I won another $120.

When all was said and done, after eating and drinking and putting gas in my car, by the time I got home around 6:00 Sunday morning I still had $200 more than what I started out with...better than nothing!

Cabo Wabo, 2005

Just got back from Cabo San Lucas again. Wow! Shitty flights both ways and horrible airport experiences in Cabo and Houston, but it was a great trip overall.



This is a view from the lobby of the hotel. See that little hut-like thing in the middle of the pic between the two pools? That's a swim-up bar where we spent tons of time. Gotta love those two-for-one drinks during happy hour!

There are a lot of fun stories to tell but since they're at least PG-13 rated, I won't get into them here just yet -- what happens in Cabo, stays in Cabo... ;-) But I will say that we met several really nice people down there. In particular, we met a cool couple from San Diego at the hotel. It turns out that Rob and this guy both went to the same college at the same time in Massachusetts, but they never knew each other back then. We went bar-hopping with them a couple of nights to El Squid Roe, the Cabo Wabo Cantina, and a few other places including the World's Smallest Bar where there are only six bar stools -- my house has a bathroom bigger than this place, but it's quite cool and it has a full bar.

Here are the pics from this year's trip and here are some pics from last year.

If you want to read about Cabo San Lucas in general, there is a good article at loscabosnights.com.

Oh, I almost forgot...one bad story to tell: one night we met some people at a bar at the marina. They had been eating a pizza and there were two slices leftover. After a while, the waiter came to clear off the table. Not even a minute later, I saw the waiter bring a slice of pizza to the table next to us. It looked like the same pepperoni/black olive pizza that he just took off of our table! To try to make a long story short, Karin (who speaks perfectly fluent Spanish) confronted the waiter about it and he admitted to it -- he took leftover pizza from us and served it to someone else!

Happy 2005. It pays to be a girl.

A few weeks ago, Shannon planted a seed... She said she's never been to NYC for New Year's Eve and since she is temporarily living near Boston now, she was thinking of going. I went there 10 years ago and had a great time despite miserable freezing rain, so I was due to go back.

She picked me up from work and we sped down to New Haven, CT to catch the train to NYC. Everything went well...that is, until we got to NYC. Once in Manhattan, it became increasingly obvious that it was going to be tough to get a good viewing spot. 42nd Street was gridlocked with pedestrians starting before 6th Ave. We fought our way thru the crowds up 6th Ave. towards 45th Street. Every street heading to Times Square was completely closed. I asked a cop where we can go to get into where the action is and he said to go up to 59th Street and they'd let us in there. We hustled our way up 14 more blocks only to find that we had become fenced in at Central Park. Completely trapped! They had successfully corralled us -- like a herd of cattle into a holding pen, and there was no way out except to go back where we came from.

By this point it was less than 15 minutes till midnight so it wasn't looking very good. We backtracked down 6th Ave., looking for spots where we might be able to sneak past the police barricades. Nothing. NYPD did a damn good job of keeping everything blocked off so no one can get thru. With about six minutes left before the ball dropped, Shannon went up to one of the cops as a last-ditch effort. Next thing I know, I see her inside of the barricade and running towards Broadway! She managed to pull-off a, "Hi, I'm a tourist from Ohio...please let me in?", and they did!! So now it was MY turn... I went up to the same cop and said, "I'm with that girl from Ohio who you just let in". He took one look at me and said, "get out!". I said, "no, really...that girl from Ohio who you just let in...we're together". He again told me to get out. I tried again..."officer, you don't seem to understand...I am with that girl from Ohio...we came here together...if I can't get in, we'll be separated and won't find each other afterwards". He didn't wanna hear anything from me. Just didn't care.

We wound up finding each other around 12:30 and by that point, they had opened up some of the barricades so I was finally able to get into Times Square. We thought about trying to get into some of the pubs and bars but we were mindful of the time and the train schedule so we headed back down to Grand Central Station instead.

On the way home from the New Haven train station, we stopped off at Mohegan Sun, thinking we can get a bite to eat somewhere in there. But those dumb-asses only had ONE restaurant open! The line waiting to get in was about 20 minutes long. You'd think that (A) being a weekend, they might have more than just one place open at like 5AM, and (B) it's a popular holiday for night-owls and drunks who may want to eat!! But nooooooo...only that one place open. Figures.

When I woke up New Year's Day, I watched the festivities on TV (recorded from the night before). A million people because it was the 100th anniversary of the whole ball-dropping thing and the weather was nice. Maybe I'll try again in 10 more years.

Here are the pics...they're not very good because they were taken with my cell phone.

Breaking a record

My buddy Chris and I participated in the breaking of a world record last week:

• 'Jingling all the way' to a world record
• Record-setting Carolers
• video clip from New England Cable News channel (at about 1:10 into this one, you can see me from the chin down, standing behind the woman in the Santa hat whom they are interviewing)

Hooters #66

A new Hooters opened about 10 minutes from my house so as of this month, I have been to 66 different Hooters in the USA. Now, that's not to say that I've been to Hooters 66 times...no no no...these 66 are different Hooters locations where I have been at least one time each.

A little background on some of my previous Hooters visits:

• 5 were in the Denver area in 2000
• 11 were in South Florida in 2001
• 7 were around the Houston area in a three-day trip in 2002
• my 45th was the Grand Opening of their Sugarland, TX location...I was served their very first beer on Opening Day
• I was at the Grand Opening of the Cape Cod Hooters in 2003
• 9 locations were during a four-day trip to southern California in 2003

While at Hooters in Daytona with my friend Chris in 1999, I saw a t-shirt: "Hooters World Tour". On the back it had a list of cities, just like a concert t-shirt would have. While looking at that list, I realized that I had been to a bunch of those places so I decided that I would embark on a world tour of my own.

In 2003 Hooters ran a contest where anyone who visited 20 different Hooters in one year would win a party. They gave out little "passport" books that we had to have stamped at each of the different locations we went to.

Why have I done all this? Well, the last line of the menu at Hooters pretty much sums it all up: "Hooters makes you happy". :)

Check out some Hooters pics here.

Whose Line Is It Anyway?

You know the TV show Whose Line Is It Anway? Shannon and I went to see two of the guys from perform live. Damn funny!

Aerosmith, 2004

Chris and I went to see Aerosmith and Cheap Trick at the Tweeter Center. Big surprise, huh?!? hahaha

We had a couple of the best seats in the house! Literally. We were barely 10 rows back from the main stage and right up against the runway/catwalk stage (whatever you wanna call it) that extended out into the audience from the main stage. Our seats were better than football star Doug Flutie who was about 10-15 rows behind us. :)

I took some really good pics with my camera-phone, one of which was published in the magazine Entertainment Weekly. You can see those pics I took along with pics that someone in front of us took here -- since they had a real camera, their pics are obviously much better than mine (but they didn't get any of theirs in a magazine, so there!!).

An extra cool thing about this show is that they were filming a scene for an upcoming movie that will be the sequel to the movie "Get Shorty". Since our seats were so great, I'm sure we'll be in a frame or two in the movie so I can't wait for the DVD to come out.

Bahamas, 2004

Lots of celebs on this quickie trip. James Caan has a son who is also an actor (who knew...?!?). He was staying at our hotel, in town filming a movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378109/). We saw Don Henley at the Atlantis casino. I missed it but Britney Spears was there the night before I got there as was country music guy Toby Keith. The owners of many of the Dallas sports teams were there, too (one of my buddies works for one of them and that's the reason I went on this trip).

The first day I got there, I was walking thru Senor Frog's (a bar like the Carlos N' Charlie's found in Mexico) and heard them playing pieces of some songs, followed by people shouting out the titles. After about a minute of this and hearing these Springsteen and Billy Idol riffs, I realized they were playing a "Name That Tune" game. Kewl! These people had NO idea what they were getting when I walked into the room!! Me + Classic Rock + Name That Tune? Forgettaboutit! Might as well send everyone else home. :)

Within the next 30 seconds, I quickly advanced to third place, jumped ahead to tie for first, and then held onto first for a long time. I would have won the entire contest if I didn't space out at the beginning of the last song. Unfortunately, the reason I spaced out was from consuming a little too much alcohol a little too quickly. Did I mention that the 'prize' for each correct answer was a bottle of something green poured into your mouth until it overflows? And upon correctly answering the bonus questions like "according to the song, The Heart Of Rock And Roll is located in which city?" and "how do you spell the 'Crue' in Motley Crue?", this 'prize' was doubled. Actually in the case of the last question, it was a triple shot 'prize' because the MC liked that I included the umlauts over the U. :)

I didn't go back to that place until two days later. This time was for lunch. They weren't playing any games but the MC was working the crowd to get people dancing and singing and stuff. Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" came on and the MC was walking around the room sticking the mic in front of people to have them sing "whoa, we're half-way there" from the chorus of the song. The MC walked past my table and said "hey, I remember you...you know all these songs, don't you", and then had me sing a full verse and chorus of the song. It wasn't a Karaoke thing -- there was no screen to read lyrics from -- so I got about a half bottle of that green stuff poured down my throat for this. :) I guess I must have done something right because this MC had to have seen at least several hundred people in the two days since he'd last seen me, but he remembered me right away. Like I said, they had no idea what they were getting when I walked into the joint... :)

Cabo Wabo, 2004

Details coming soon but you can see the pics.

Key West, 2003

Details coming soon but you can see the pics.

Italy/Sicily

See our pics here. We saw all the tourist spots around Rome such as the Trevi Fountain, The Pantheon, The Coliseum, and the Vatican. We also took a trip down the coast to Naples, Pompeii, and Sorrento.

We then spent a week at a villa in Sicily and checked out Palermo, Agrigento, Taormina, Mount Etna, and Trecastagni where my mom found some relatives that she never knew she had before.

(do a Google search if you want to find out more about the various sights and cities listed above)

The airline flight over there was horrible! I couldn't watch the movie because the headphone plug for my seat was broken. The overhead light for my seat did not work so I couldn't even read. And because I was in one of the last rows, they had run out of all the good meals and only had fish (which I don't eat). So I got pretty whiney and pissy about all of this. I mean, on a $1000 eight hour flight, I should at least be able to eat something or watch the damn movie! Most of the flight attendants didn't seem to give a shit, which pissed me off even more. But one of them could see I was upset and kept on giving me lots of alcohol which eventually put me to sleep so I finally left them alone.

We had mixed feelings about Rome. On one hand, the architecture and artwork were absolutely stunning! In every sense of the word. But on the other hand, Rome is WAY too overcrowded and noisy and somewhat dirty. Graffiti everywhere. Lots of litter.

Our hotel in Rome wasn't in a bad part of town but it was noisy and we had trouble sleeping because we had to keep our windows open because they don't use air conditioners and there was a bar across the street that didn't even open until sometime after midnight. Oh yeah, and because the streets are so overcrowded during the day, the only time they can pick up garbage is during the overnight hours...and everyone knows how much noise garbage trucks make!

The tour group operator left a bad taste in our mouths. For one thing, they literally left me at one of the stops! The whole group took off without me! Despite my family's pleading and begging the tourguide. But the tourguide insisted that she had a schedule to keep and they had to move on. RIDICULOUS!!!! They KNOW we're tourists so what did they expect, that I could find my way back all alone?!?!? I called the tourguide's office to try to explain that I was left behind, but they didn't speak any English and I only know like maybe 10 words of Italian so that was useless. To try to make a long story short, being the smart fella that I am, I figured there would be another tour coming thru at some point. So I waited and found the next tour group and told the tourguide what happened. He couldn't believe it so he took me as part of his group. I was separated from my family for the rest of the day but at least I knew that I would eventually wind up back at the tourguide's office.

There was also an incident involving a tourguide and a restaurant they selected for us that was part of a tour to Pompeii. It was a very nasty and ugly scene. It was first-come, first-served seating and we almost didn't get seated because some assholes stole our seats and we got into a little altercation with them. We then kept getting pushed around to different seats...it seemed that every seat we tried to sit in was wrong so we were beginning to get upset. When we finally found someplace to sit, we were almost not served anything -- it seems they were extorting us and wanted us to buy a bottle of wine (the food was included with the tour but beverages were not). Apparently, since we did not want to buy their wine, they did not want us to eat. By the time we got something to eat, almost everyone else was ready for desert so when we finally did start to eat, we were rushed and the waitstaff was reluctant to serve us. And the strolling musicians started to annoy us and get in our faces when we started to eat. After all the bullshit, we didn't want anyone bothering us by this point but they took offense that we wouldn't tip them so they would play for us; we just wanted to eat in peace by now, not be forced to pay for music we did not want to begin with. I know it's too late to make a long story short but we got into fights with a lot of people there because of the way we were mistreated.

But the trip wasn't all bad. Quite the contrary, actually. We saw some of the most beautiful and amazing things. Buildings and churches that are thousands of years old but look brand new. We were at places that we've read about and heard about in history such as the Coliseum. The Vatican's ceilings have such incredible and intricate works of art that I can't possibly put into words! You should look at the pics and see for yourself, although the pics don't even come close to seeing everything in person.

Sicily was all good. We hired a driver, Rosario, who took us all over the island and to many of the hotspots and to some of the best restaurants. I think the places I enjoyed the most were Taormina, Mount Etna, and Trecastagni. Taormina has what's left of an ancient amphitheater on top of a mountain next to the ocean overlooking the coast. The views are breathtaking! I really cannot say enough about it. If you look at the pics, you can see partially crumbled walls in the foreground, different sizes of hills and mountains in the mid-ground to the west, and the coastline down below in the background. I really wish the pics can be 3D so you can get a better idea of what I am trying to say.

Mount Etna was cool because it's an active volcano. You can see steam coming up thru the cracks here and there. You can look down into old inactive craters and even the active craters if you dare. In the pics you can see a lot of black soot and ash. What you can't really tell, however, is that some of the soot and ash is piled up for dozens and dozens of feet, thus making parts of the mountain slightly taller. For example, we were able to see where an eruption a few years ago completely buried the giftshops and restaurant -- we could see the difference between the old top of this part of the mountain compared to the new top by the different shades of soot and ash. I know that probably doesn't make much sense to you but trust me: it was interesting to see it in person.

Trecastagni was really special to my mom. Both of her parents were born there and she often heard stories about it but had never been there until now. And she got to meet her father's family that she never knew about before. We had nothing except for a photocopy of my grandfather's passport but our driver, Rosario, was able to find the family anyway. He was like a bloodhound tracking a scent! We started at Town Hall and got copies of my grandparents' Birth Certificates that had old addresses. When Town Hall closed for lunch, Rosario took us

walking around a park across the street and where he asked all the old-timers if they had ever heard of my grandparents or their former addresses. He also asked the Police chief and when Town Hall reopened after lunch, we went to talk to the town doctor. The doctor made a bunch of phone calls and next thing we know, we were told "ok, come with us", and he took us to a house a short distance away. This turned out to be the home of one of my grandfather's relatives and my grandparents stayed at that house when they visited the old country in the 1960's. When the she answered the door and we showed my grandfather's old passport pic, we were greeted with open arms and "oh, Cirino...si...si...". It was truly amazing that with only an old passport photocopy, we were able to find this family. Rosario was unbelievable! A few days earlier, he had tracked down some of Rita's family, too. But that was almost easy in comparison because Rita had an old letter with an address that Rosario was able to find, way out in the middle of nowhere up in some mountains. We were pretty impressed by that but then like I said, that turned out to be almost easy compared to finding my mom's family -- he had a LOT less to work with.

St. Louis, Hollywood, Las Vegas, and The O.C. in 2003

In the Spring of 2003, I went to St. Louis for a few days and visited some Hooters. My 50th Hooters was across the river from St. Louis in Illinois.

Several weeks later I went on a weekend trip to Hollywood, Las Vegas, and Orange County. I stayed at the infamous West Hollywood Hyatt, which is nicknamed "The Riot House" because it is where rock bands of the 70's wreaked havoc and rode motorcycles up and down the hallways. Oh yeah, and I went to more Hooters.

I have more to say about this trip and I will add that later. You can read more about Hooters or see some pics here.

G.M.A. media-whore

ABC's Good Morning America came to Boston to broadcast live on May 3, 2002.

I guess all the times I was on TV in Boston wasn't good enough for me and I felt the need to go national? (LOL!) I dunno. But I decided to go to the show and be annoying and see how many shots I can squeeze into. This was one of them, shortly after I called my mom in Florida and told her to turn on the TiVo...


That's me in the upper left.

South Florida "work" hehehe

I spent considerable amounts of time both in Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach from March to May of 2001. One of the coolest things to do in Lauderdale is the Water Taxi which will take you around town and drop you off wherever you want to go eat or drink or shop or whatever...all by boat. Very cool. In Miami Beach, I stayed a few blocks north of South Beach, where it's supermodels galore, and the parties and the night-clubbing do not end until 5am every day (after three weeks of that, I am almost surprised that I made it home alive).

I'll have a lot more to say about SoFLA eventually...I'm just too lazy to write about it now. In the meantime, you can see the pics.

New Orleans, 2001

Went to New Orleans in January/February 2001.

Stayed in the French Quarter.

Partied on Bourbon Street, where many happy-hours stretch from 11am until like midnight or so...and you can take your beer around with you from bar to bar in a to-go cup. Hadda have
Hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's.

Lunched at Emeril's restaurant, went to the Camellia Grill for breakfast, and had one of the best burgers in town at the Clover Grill.

No trip to New Orleans would be worth it without a stop at the Central Grocery and one of their Muffalettas...a sandwich that's almost as wide as a Frisbee and four times fatter, with three types of imported cheese, lots of Italian cold cuts, and a special olive salad spread...mmm...

Regis & Kathie Lee/Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

I took my mom to New York to be in the audience for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire and Live With Regis & Kathie Lee.

Regis is one of the coolest guys in the world! While at the taping of the Millionaire show, I told him that Mom & I wanted to see him in the morning with Kathie Lee, but we were unable to get in because it was Kathie Lee's last week and there was just too much demand. But Regis later came back to me and asked for my name and said he'd try to get us in the next day, even though it would be difficult. But it all worked out in the end and Mom & I got in the next morning. We also met Dianne Sawyer and Joe Thiesmann, both of whom are very nice people.


Kathie Lee didn't seem to like socializing much before the show. She was not pleased to sign autographs and squealed "no pictures, please" as I was taking this...



Mom on the set

I spent most of the first five months of 2000 on the road...

...mostly in the Minneapolis and Denver areas. There was also a week in San Francisco and some time in Daytona and Orlando.

In Minneapolis...

The steak at Manny's melted in my mouth. Dessert there was a brownie sundae thing that cost $14. The waiter described how big it was so I asked him if it was enough for me and my date to share. He said it would be enough for six people to share. When it came to the table I quickly saw that he was not exaggerating too much. This thing was HUGE. It was dessert that night, as well as breakfast the next day, and lunch, and a midday snack.

Also in Minneapolis is one of my favorite places for Sunday Brunch: the Pickled Parrot. They have all the typical breakfast and lunch stuff with carving stations and omelet stations, but the coolest thing about this place is the make-your-own-Bloody-Mary-bar! They give you the vodka and you do the rest. They have all kinds of mixers and ingredients and since you make it yourself, you can be as adventurous as you want.

No trip to the Twin Cities area would be complete without a visit to the Mall Of America, the largest mall in the USA. This place is enormous! If you spent 10 minutes in each of the shops, it would take more than four days to do everything.


In the Denver area...

I tried Rocky Mountain Oysters for the first (and last!) time. I had NO idea what they were!! (no, they are NOT seafood and no, they do NOT taste like chicken, and I have no desire to eat them again). I was told that they are a local delicacy, but my friend would not tell me exactly what they were until it was too late.

I went on several road trips while based in the Denver area. We drove up to Nebraska and Wyoming, went out to the real neighborhood of South Park, and in a 19 hour day I drove out to Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. There is a monument where Arizona and New Mexico and Utah all meet with Colorado, so you can literally be in all four states at one time. This whole drive was very pretty and scenic.

I went to the world's largest hot spring water pool in Colorado's Rockies. Millions of gallons of this spring water comes out of the ground at 122°F and they chill it down to 90-something for use in the pool. On the way back home from there, we stopped off and had a pizza at Beau-Jo's. Bring your appetite when you go there because their specialties include a five-pound pizza. But that pales in comparison to their "Challenge", which is 12-to-14 pounds! If two people order the "Challenge" and eat it in one hour, they get the pizza for free, $100, and a T-shirt.

You can see pics here.