February 26, 2004

Welcome Back Grant Party

If you're like me, you've gone through the last few months of entries and thought to yourself, "These entries are sort of funny...but I dunno, they just seem to be missing something." Well, my astute friend - that certain something you've been missing has bee....GRANT STODDARD! If you remember correctly, Grant left NYC back towards the end of September to first go to LA to work on a TV pilot, and then spent the next several months living on a ranch in upstate CA working on a book.

On Thursday night a bunch of us gathered at Remote Lounge to welcome back the one, the only, Grant Stoddard!

big ray, ryan k — Time out! On my walk up Bowery to meet Grant and the boys for a little pre-karaoke Thai dinner, I saw a white, 40ft Hummer limo parked outside of CBGBs. As I passed the open door, I was almost blinded by bling. A white Hummer stretch limo? Vision-restrictive amounts of bling? There could only be one human responsible for that - That's right, y'all, it's BIG RAY. Ray was an "investor" in a studio we built when I was a partner in on online music start-up. Turns out one of the bands he manages was playing CBGBs that night and it gave us a chance to catch up.

ryan k — Ryan hopped out of the limo to pose for a pic with WarGoth, his girfriend (now fiance, right?) of several years.

colin, fatty, grant, me — "Yes, three beers. Oh, and the lady will have a glass of Merlot." Bwahaha.

grant, matt l, me — After making sure our breath was nice and spicy, we headed one block east to Remote Lounge for the "Welcome Back Grant Karaoke Spectacular!"

grant, me — Here's the dramatic hi-five that led to the night's anthem, Thin Lizzy's The Boys Are Back in Town.

frank, grant — Speaking of the boys...Frank Picarazzi!

chris a, frank, grant, me — Grant, Grant's lil' hat, Chris, Frank and me.

caitlin, grant — Caitlin "HoseHound" Krisco and Grant.

cynthia, katie, siege — When Siege leaves his little "SiegeLair," you know something special's going on. Here's the legend in the flesh with Cynthia and Katie. You don't even want to know where that finger's been...but more on that later.

beth n, grant, jen gerard — It's not even midnight and already Jen and Beth are acting up.

david k, grant, me, siege — If you talked to any person from each of our respective high schools they wouldn't believe that these days girls actually let us touch them (Hell, Siege even gets paid to take pictures of him touching them!) If someone had managed to harness our combined adolescent sexual angst, we could've powered New York City for several days.

caitlin, grant, me — Caitlin looks for a lil' manwich action.

grant, jen crowe — Jen Crowe.

grant — Grant's first solo song of the night (Maybe Superfreak? Maybe I Believe in a Thing Called Love?)

chris a, frank, steve hayes — Steve Haase (yep, the guy with the fucking sunglasses on his head. At night) and Frank.

caitlin, grant — Fon Lin and the Grizza.

sarah — Even Sarah got on the mic to pay a lil' welcome back homage.

grant, sarah — And Grant couldn't help but snuggle up.

frank — Anytime you're lucky enough to see Mr. Frank Picarazzi head for the karaoke stage, take a seat. You're in for a treat.

david k — Check out the crowd: rapt and awaiting to be entertained.

frank — Not only did Frank steal Grant's funny lil' hat (Big guy in a leeeetle hat!), he even pulled up a lass from the crowd to help him on backing vocals.

frank — Take a bow!

frank — You too, sweatheart. You deserve to temporarily bask in the wattage of Frank's karaoke glory.

pud — Philip and Jillian swung by to say hi.

matt lesser, me — Somebody snagged my cam and managed to catch Matt and I making really stupid faces.

But not nearly as stupid as the face I managed to catch this guy making just a few short moments later. Hahaha.

bryan c — Alcohol, the only social lubricant endorsed by Bryan Carlin.

amanda, grant — Amanda and Grant (Hey! These guys are in a band together now!)

siege — Siege holds up his fingers and tells us how he just...

Aw, heck, as a parting gift to my main man Grant (I since moved to San Francisco, remember?) I won't caption these next few pictures. See if you can figure out what Grant paid Siege for. Please post your theories in the comments section!

Hmmmm....

caitlin, grant, siege — Money changing hands...interesting...

caitlin, grant, siege — Uh-oh, this one might be a giveaway (note Caitlin's eyes).

caitlin, grant, siege — Transaction complete! (Note Caitlin pulling another great expression of astonishment)

caitlin, grant — Who's a dirty little monkey?

amanda, grant — Exactly. (Please post your theory in the comments section! Woo!)

"And another thing, homeless people have feelings too!"

colin, heather — Oh look, Colin's going home. That must mean it's around 11pm.

jamye waxman, me — Jamye Waxman and me.

grant, me — Awwww, what's cuter than this? Reunited and it feels so good...

grant — Uh-oh! Solo!

Ummm...Fon Lin wearing a radioactive jumpsuit and Native American style wig.

beth n, jen gerard — Hahaha. Rebecca, Jen rocking the fuck out.

jamie k, jen c — Jamie, Mark and little Jen Choi!

amanda, grant — Amanda and Grant smooching! Scandalous! (He saw this photo a few weeks ago and was like "I kissed Amanda?" Which would mean this is the second time they kissed where he was drunk enough to not remember it when confronted with photographic evidence).

chris a, david k, grant, me — Me, David K, Grizza and Chris the Greek.

jen gerard, matt l — Jen cozies up to Buddy, er, I mean Slash for her trademark Sweet Child O' Mine.

amanda, grant — "Hey, Grant - I'm going to head home now. What are you doing? You going to stick around much longer?" Amanada so busted trying to take Grant away from his own party for a little "private" welcome back party.

grant — Grant Presents: An Ass!

caitlin — Caitlin Krisco tearing up the karaoke mic. (Yo, this girl can sing).

grant, jen c — A stranger who joined the festivities, Grant and Jen.

siege — Siege.

cynthia, grant, katie, me — Grant says goodbye to the two girls partially responsible for Grant spending $20 earlier on in the night. So much awesome.

beth n, fatty — Speaking of awesome, after saying goodbye to Cynthia and Katie - I made my way back over to the karaoke stage to find Mr. Fatty in the midst of...

beth n, fatty — ...ummm, trouble. (Watch out for those girls in anchor shirts!)

david k, grant, jen c — David, Grant and Jen.

fatty, hulk fist, jen gerard — Fatty and Jen (and the return of the infamous "Karaoke Hulk Fist.")

david k — Right before leaving, David finally got up the nerve to chat up the super-cute cocktail waitress he'd been eyeing all night.

david k — Check him out - when she agreed to give him her number, he actually licked his lips. Look at his expression. You can't even make that shit up.

david k, grant, me — Grant gives David the classic "Get a load of this clown" point.

jamie k — Jamie "Two-Prop" Kirkpatrick took everyone to Karaoke College when he played a solo on the Flacid Air Guitar with the Hulk Fist!

caitlin, fatty — Caitlin and The Fatty.

beth n, jen gerard, me — Ok, at this point karaoke was winding down and everyone started getting a little "frisky." Uh-oh!

beth n, jen gerard, me — Hahaha.

beth n, grant — Then everyone got in on Beth's boobs.

beth n, grant — Holy moly! Well then! Welcome back to NYC, Grant. We missed the hell outta you.