January, 2004

The January Roundup

Here they are: All the pics from the random days of January that don't merit their own entry but still deserve a lil' love.

Saturday, January 3rd

sarah l — On Saturday night I went over to Il Bagoto in the East Village to wish the lovely, lovely Sarah a happy birthday and say hi to her new and rad boyfriend Chris (seen here making the best disco smile face ever).

emily, me — Afterwards I met up with Emily and we headed over to Nolita Tavern for a little late night Sid and Buddy karaoke which we arrived to find in full effect.

candy — Oh, and by "full effect," I mean shirtless. Check out kooky Candy getting caught up in the karaoke moment and whipping off her shirt and swinging it over her head...

candy, matt l, sid and buddy — ...and then treating the crowd to a bra-clad duet with a red-faced Buddy.

ed, emily — Ed makes sexy for the cam while (creeeeepily) stroking Emily's face. Aw yeah.

candy — No! It's says "Hussy!" With an "H!" An "H!"

emily — I tried to capture Emily's custom-made rhinestone beltbuckle that says "EMILY" in sparkling capital letters, but it didn't really come out so well...so um, just use your imagination.

Emily's roommate Kara drinks up to help ease the nervousness of popping her karaoke cherry (her cherryaoke, if you will).

emily — But in the end, optend for a much less nerve-wracking duet.

genie lee, matt lesser — Matt's left eye and Genie.

emily, hulk fist — Emily dons our good, dear friend, the Hulk fist.

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that early January in NYC was unseasonably warm. This bank theremometer hangs right outside my window and I snapped this pic right before going home. 55 degrees at 4:30am on January 3rd??? Insanity.

Monday, January 5th

Monday night I went with Sarah Lewitinn to her friend's going away party in the East Village.

sarah — Here's Sarah with the sister of the girl who was moving away.

sarah — And here's Sarah with the girl who's movingi away (up to Boston to attend the Berkeley School of Music).

sarah — Sad! The small text that you can't read in the pic says "Please call before March 2004!" Anyone up for calling and finding out what they ended up naming the baby? Email me.

matt l, matt lesser, sid and buddy — After we finished making up stupid babynames, we headed into Soho to try to catch the Monday night edition of Sid and Buddy karaoke, only to arrive and find Sid and Buddy (aka - Matt & Matt) packing up all of their karaoke stuff and leaving Nolita Tavern in the middle of their set after having a fall out with the management there. We retreated to Dan and Corrie's nearby apartment to reflect on the tragic, sudden end of Sid and Buddy's year long reign at Nolita Tavern (on a side note, I'm writing this in July of 2004 and Nolita Tavern is completely gone. The bar wasn't doing well so Howard, the owner, ended up selling it to John Lombardi, and Lombardi's pizza expanded their restaurant into what used to be Nolita Tavern. So if you ever eat at the famous Lombardi's on Spring Street, and you hear the haunting strains of Laura Brannigan's "Gloria" echoing through the halls, now you'll know why...)

ed, me — Ed and me.

corrie, dan cassanova — Corrie and Dan.

sid and buddy — Thursday night, a mere three nights after their sudden demise at Nolita Tavern, I walked around the corner from my apartment (literally) to witness the rebirth of Sid & Buddy karaoke, rising from the ashes of mishap like a beautiful golden, um, singing Phoenix.

Oh how sweet it is to be back.

This was also the night I met Alexis' friend Jesse, who was visiting her hometown NYC from London.

Me and J.

sid and buddy — Matt (aka - Buddy) and dances with a friend of Alexis and Alexis.

This picure's missing something, no?

Ah, an inflatible sheep. There we go.

While taking pics of Alexis and Jessie dancing, I noticed something...

...that the flash on my camera caused Jessie's shirt to become transparent (which long-time diary fans will know is not really a new phenomenon. Bonus points for the pierced nip action, digitally enhanced here for your viewing pleasure using the Boobatron-2000 Tittilicious Photoshop filter.

Hahaha.

matt lesser — Feigned shyness.

david w — Nah-nah-nips! (check out David's face on the right. Hahah). The best part about Jessie's see-through shirt? The other girls there saw all the attention she was getting and ran home to change into their very own...

...see-through shirts. Awwww, yeah. Hopefully the trend will continue to catch on. Woooo!

Friday, January 9th

eric gillin — Friday night I walked 3 short blocks over to Pioneer Bar on Bowery to attend The Black Table's winter party. Here's Amy Blair with Black Table founder (and former college classmate of mine) Eric Gillin.

andrew k, lindsay r — Ah, the bloggerati were out in full effect that evening, yes there were. Here's Krucoff and Lindsay.

lindsay r, me — And after months of online correspondence, all the NYC webdork finally got to meet the mysterious, and very tall, JD Stone.

lindsay r, me — Oh, fuck, there he is.

Seriously, he's like 6'7". This girl came from across the bar to peep him in his suit and say hi.

Saturday, January 10th

hue, me, sarah d, tiffany — Saturday night I went over to the (god awful) Hogs and Heffers to wish the Sarah D a happy bday.

When they pulled her up on the bar to dance, I made a break for it. (Only because the crowd there was making me totally clausterphobic - I gotz nothing but love for Sunny D).

josh, vin — Then afterwards I walked all the way down to the Bloodbucket in Chinatown to meet up with (long time no see) Josh Teixeira, Vinay and Marco.

Sunday, January 11th

herman the cat — The only thing that happened on Sunday was the disturbing discovery that my roommate's cat apparently gets some sort of gay-cat thrill from watching me shower. How fucking freaky is that? I all closed my eyes and leaned back to shampoo and when I leaned forward and opened my eyes, there was Herman all staring at me; I totally almost screamed. (No, I don't shower with my cam - it was on the floor inside my pant's pocket).

amber, vin — On Tuesday night I went over to Lit for Amber's birthday. Here's the birthday girl with her newfound housemate Vin.

amber, vin — Yep, Amber moved in with Vin and Marco. Get a load of this fucking group of roomies. Jesus.

Me with faux septum ring.

amber, vin — Then we went downstairs for the commencement of birthday toasting...

amber, vin — ...birthday drinking tricks...

amber, vin — ...birthday hugging ("YAAAAAY, roommates!")...

amber — ...birthday dancing.

amber — ...and ultimately, the cermonial, birthday freaking of strangers on the dancefloor. Happy bday, Amber!

Wednesday, January 14th

Wednesday night I went to CBGB's (also on Bowery, wooo!) to see Chrisina Alessi's band, Hey Tiger. I went to HS with Chris and ran into fellow Roxbury High School alumnus, Megan Mee and Gary Chase. (That's 2 points for me!)

While peeing, I found a sticker for a band called "The Limit" (that was made-up of all kids from my high school circa '92). Holy shit.

By now, January's unseasonably warm weather had gone away and the month had turned into one of the coldest that NYC had seen in years. This particular night was like 10 degrees and snowing so the place was practically empty. So all of us that were there to see Chris' band were sort of hanging out in the back waiting for them to come on. The band playing before them wasn't about to let us ignore them, so their guitar player walked 40ft off stage (let's hear it for wireless, woooo!) to walk right up to us and play some hot guitar lixxx all up in our faces. It fucking ruled.

bev, christina alessi — Chris with Bev and Gary Chase (not married, siblings. Ya, heard?)

In not even being ironic here. This hat was actually necessary to survive the arctic five-block walk back to my apartment.

emilie, me — And...this is so exciting...after almost two years of super-nerdy "we're CYBERFRIENDS!" online correspondence...I finally managed to meet up with (the smoking hot...hooo-ah!) Emilie Elizabeth.

Saturday, January 17th

amanda, serena — Saturday night a whole bunch of went to Plaid (the superclub formerly known as SPA) to see Bastion play. Here's Serena and Amanda.

emilie — The only thing worse than digicam webdorks is phonecam webdorks! Hahaha. Emilie caught in the act of taking pics for her uber-nerdy site. Nerd!

Bastion.

caitlin — I also ran into Caitin and her then-boyfriend Phil.

sarah — Latenight I went over to Sarah's apartment for some latenight drinks and was treated a very special...

sarah — ...piece of performance art starring Sarah and a pair of zip-up crotchless underwear.

bridget, lindsay r — And it was also the very first time I had the pleasure of meeting Bridgette and Karen+1! Wooooo! Soooo goooooooo! (Pictured here with Lindsay.)

tara — And on the walk home from Sarah's back to my place I snapped this pick of the door to Tara's old apartment in the LES (she's since moved back to Texas). Big ups to my babydoll. I miss you girlygirl.

Sunday, January 18th

Sunday I was summoned by Emily to help Rachael (my high school sweetheart, awww) move from Hoboken to her new apt in the East Village! Yay!

rachael — Here's a hooded Rayray, incognito.

After we finished unpacking, we locked the girls in the back and drove to Kate's on B for some lunch.

Later that night, I was walking around the Lower East Side with Sarah and for some reason I was in the middle of telling her about how last year when I was backstage at an ACDC concert in London, Keith Flint from the Prodigy mistook me for a guy named Crispin Mills, who used to be the singer for a UK band called Kula Shaker. Anyway, right after I had finished telling the story, we walked into some shop, and the girl behind the counter waves to me and says "Hi, Crispin." Apparently, her sister used to date him and she was convinced I was him. Random, random, randon.

Monday night I was invited by Sonya (pictured here on the left, hi Sonya!) to attend the infamous Monday Night Social Club at HiFi (formerly Brownies).

Me and Laura.

Laura gives Bruce some "tough love" while Sonya goes in for the lick. (This monthly round up ends on the 19th because I spent the rest of the month in...ARUBA! Woooooo!