new york and shovel-love
Let me start off by saying that my trip to New York/Boston to see my friends/the Shovelhead show/check out the Gawker offices was both long over due and extremely necessary. I hadn't been amongst my people in nearly a year and I hadn't left LA since July, so it was very important for me to get away and go on a booze-binge.
When I was in NYC, I stayed in Long Island City, one subway stop out of Manhattan. George and Kevin put me up at their place, where I passed out face first a fully clothed on their futon every night.
The first night I was in the city the entire Shovelhead gang met up one by one until we were all together. Then we went to a bar.
When we were there, we randomly ran into Katie Hagen, who was the entire class of '06 out of My Mother's Fleabag, Boston College's improv group. We tried to explain that it was absolutely insane to run into her considering that we hadn't all been together in a full year, but I think that we were a lot more impressed by the coincidence.
I spent a lot of time reading the newspaper, lazing about in coffee shops and shopping. I saw my girl Karyn, my former HBO-er Jeff, went to Greg Johnson's comedy show... I took some pictures of things I liked, too.
I really missed being able to actually walk around to different places and explore the world on foot. I liked taking the subway, even though I'm afraid I'd have trouble understanding it (I know, I'd probably be fine). The food was amazing. As I've said, I ate pizza nearly every day. I also had some delicious avocado roll (avocado tastes completely different on the East coast, BTW. Almost like a completely different vegetable.)
I liked being in SoHo most. Canal Street was both offensive and wonderful. I refused to shop there, but it was really interesting.
Oh! Also! I went to Bootie NY! Bootie LA, but in NY! It was awesome. A much smaller crowd, but what you could expect-- chill people, awesome music (we heard Tender Umbrella!) and great vibes. Kevin, Deborah and I went together, and while we were there we met up with Kendall and some of her high school friends who I've known for a few years now. It was great to see everyone. After we met up with Lauren from Shovelhead '04 and one of her girlfriends for another quick drink. Kevin and I went to get hot dogs after that and I demanded two pickles from the counter boy, who Kevin says I called "Pickle Man".
My boss, the scandalous Blakeley, took me out for drinks the same night as Bootie. I drank four mojitos within an hour and a half. We went back to the office to chase those down with Bud Lights while I put on eye liner, rolled a joint and grabbed my camera bag. I was easily the drunkest I managed to get the entire time that night. Blakeley came to Johnson's show and while we were walking through the E. Village, he tripped over a homeless person who he thought was a pile of trash. The homeless dude was all "HEY!" and Blakeley was all "Woah, that trash just talked" and then I was like "Dude, that was a person". And then we laughed and laughed and laughed and I went on a drunk rant about how I'm trying to avoid herpes more than anything else in my life. Don't you guys feel like if you get genital herpes, you're kind of fucked really bad? Like, if you get AIDS, I feel there's an automatic sympathy and understanding level you receive from the general population. Everyone feels pretty bad about AIDS. No one really feels all that bad for you if you get herpes, even though you probably did something on the same level as an AIDS patient to acquire it. For some reason, theres nothing worse/dirtier than genital herpes. It's not like you're gonna die... you're just banned from having carefree sex/a normal relationship forever. Maybe that's on the ignorant side, so I'll take it back and say that you've significantly increased the awkward factor by picking up herpes, and you're going to have that terrible "I have herpes" conversation any time you want to get ass for the rest of your life. Even if you don't have an outbreak, you still need to tell people. Can you imagine that being your one-night stand? I told a guy recently that if someone gave me herpes, they'd have to marry me as punishment, because there's no reason why I should have to walk around the rest of my life defending my vagina's worth.
After our marathon night we all woke up the next day to take the bus to Boston. There's a long story here about how my friends almost left me in New York by accident, but I'm not even getting into it. (George almost left me in NYC. If Kevin hadn't been in Dad mode, I'd still be in Long Island)
When I got to college, this is the first picture I took.
Video games and pot. Pretty much sums it up.
The Shovelhead show that night was amazing. I am blown away by the show that those kids were able to put together. No one missed a beat, every sketch was on point, every topic they covered was fresh. I was so fucking proud of those kiddos. Here are the pics:
I liked being in SoHo most. Canal Street was both offensive and wonderful. I refused to shop there, but it was really interesting.
Oh! Also! I went to Bootie NY! Bootie LA, but in NY! It was awesome. A much smaller crowd, but what you could expect-- chill people, awesome music (we heard Tender Umbrella!) and great vibes. Kevin, Deborah and I went together, and while we were there we met up with Kendall and some of her high school friends who I've known for a few years now. It was great to see everyone. After we met up with Lauren from Shovelhead '04 and one of her girlfriends for another quick drink. Kevin and I went to get hot dogs after that and I demanded two pickles from the counter boy, who Kevin says I called "Pickle Man".
My boss, the scandalous Blakeley, took me out for drinks the same night as Bootie. I drank four mojitos within an hour and a half. We went back to the office to chase those down with Bud Lights while I put on eye liner, rolled a joint and grabbed my camera bag. I was easily the drunkest I managed to get the entire time that night. Blakeley came to Johnson's show and while we were walking through the E. Village, he tripped over a homeless person who he thought was a pile of trash. The homeless dude was all "HEY!" and Blakeley was all "Woah, that trash just talked" and then I was like "Dude, that was a person". And then we laughed and laughed and laughed and I went on a drunk rant about how I'm trying to avoid herpes more than anything else in my life. Don't you guys feel like if you get genital herpes, you're kind of fucked really bad? Like, if you get AIDS, I feel there's an automatic sympathy and understanding level you receive from the general population. Everyone feels pretty bad about AIDS. No one really feels all that bad for you if you get herpes, even though you probably did something on the same level as an AIDS patient to acquire it. For some reason, theres nothing worse/dirtier than genital herpes. It's not like you're gonna die... you're just banned from having carefree sex/a normal relationship forever. Maybe that's on the ignorant side, so I'll take it back and say that you've significantly increased the awkward factor by picking up herpes, and you're going to have that terrible "I have herpes" conversation any time you want to get ass for the rest of your life. Even if you don't have an outbreak, you still need to tell people. Can you imagine that being your one-night stand? I told a guy recently that if someone gave me herpes, they'd have to marry me as punishment, because there's no reason why I should have to walk around the rest of my life defending my vagina's worth.
After our marathon night we all woke up the next day to take the bus to Boston. There's a long story here about how my friends almost left me in New York by accident, but I'm not even getting into it. (George almost left me in NYC. If Kevin hadn't been in Dad mode, I'd still be in Long Island)
When I got to college, this is the first picture I took.
Video games and pot. Pretty much sums it up.
The Shovelhead show that night was amazing. I am blown away by the show that those kids were able to put together. No one missed a beat, every sketch was on point, every topic they covered was fresh. I was so fucking proud of those kiddos. Here are the pics:
There were many memorable moments, like when Jim did a hit and run on a midget's car or when the kid from Fleabag passed out on the toilet with his pants on. There was also Kevin and I drinking in an office chair and a wheel chair in the basement of a Foster St. house and Tom still being a huge virg. Oh! And our cab broke down on the way to the show... but these stories will be for another day. Right now I'm exhausted from loading all these pictures.
