A Diamond Dave 4th of July


Instead of going out to Brooklyn like last year, this year we stayed in Manhattan and went to Sarah's for a Fourth of July rooftop BBQ.

fatty, grant, me
Grant, the Fatty and me. We made it up to Sarah's rooftop just in time to catch the start of...
...the fireworks!
No sooner had the second set of 'works gone off when Grant was like "Dude! You HAVE to get a picture of me doing a David Lee Roth kick with the fireworks going off behind me! It'll look like STAGE PYROTECHNICS!" I was going to go downstairs to get my bigger camera, but Grant was worried that I'd miss all the fireworks. I was like "Well, we can use my small camera, but the batteries are shot and it's really hard to get the shutter to fire at exactly the right time. I'll give it my best shot."
grant
Each time, the shutter fired early. So while I didn't magage to capture Grant in all of his fully-spread glory (it really is glorious, by the way), I did manage to capture him making three of the best worst faces ever.
grant
Hey, when did Bobby DeNiro show up at the party? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin' to? You talkin' to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? Huh? Ok.
grant
"Oh! So solly! Robbah Deniro nah here. Only me: Chinee Grant!" BWONG!
Hey look, another firework. Except this time, it's red.
grant, susan
Grant and Susan.
scott m, susan
Susan, Scott and Karen. We were reminiscing on the INCREDIBLE photos from Karen's birthday a few nights prior and Grant suggested that Susan and Karen mix things up and pose with...
grant, susan
...his balls for a change! Hahahah. Here's the co-operative happy version.
grant, susan
And here's the re-enactment of Karen's birthday complete with Susan playing a traumatized onlooker. Let's get a closer look at this pic, shall we?
grant, susan
Oh my god. Sofa King funny. This pic actually gives the original a run for its money.
grant, james iha
And then, just because he was there, Grant decided he wanted a photo of James Iha and his nuts together. Oh, the indignities of post-celebrity. Sorry, James.
andy
A shell-shocked (ball-shocked?) Andy.
lizzy, niki
Niki and Lizzy make me want to become a Mormon (just so I can make both of them MY BRIDES!).
fatty
After the fireworks (and brainings) were finished, we headed back down to Sarah's apartment...
adam m, grant
...to hand out and shoot the shit.
me, sarah
Oh, and to do re-enactments of the Chinese face Grant accidentally pulled. Mmm....racist.
fatty, grant
Oh, so I forgot to mention. On the walk over to Sarah's, I ran into my friend Emily on the street who pointed out David Lee Roth's new two-storey apartment to me. I won't give away his exact address, but suffice it to say, one of the floors has a prominent balcony that overlooks a heavily foot-trafficked area of the Lower East Side). Anyway, she told me that according to rumor, DLR was having a huge Fourth of July party on his balcony. When I relayed this info to Grant and the Fatty, we all decided that we had no choice: we had to round up a group and attempt to crash it.
grant
We got to the building in question and fucked around pressing all the apartment buzzers until someone finally buzzed us in (Holly Golightly style, boyeeee). We weren't positive the intelligence we'd gotten was accurate until we got into the lobby and saw this sticker on one of the mailboxes (I shit you not!). He even calls himself DLR. Fucking amazing.
We got up to 3F and then spent the next two minutes furiously arguing over who should knock. We were starting to doubt that it was even his apartment until fellow member of the tribe Adam Mandell noticed the second indication that our intelligence was accurate...
adam m
...a fucking mezuzah on the doorjamb!
grant, me
After a few knocks, it was clear that no one was going to answer. We figured that maybe everyone was out on the balcony deck with DLR and they couldn't hear us. We decided to head up to the roof and see if we'd be able to get a vantage point of the party from there.
Well, the roof did give us a great view of DLR's balcony, but alas, no party was taking place. (We learned a few days later that Dave was actually up in Boston playing a gig on the fourth. Bah!).
grant, steve hayes
In a totally crazy coincidence, later that night we ran into Steve Haise who is hands down the BIGGEST Van Halen fan we know (and maybe even in the world). He almost creamed himself when he heard where we'd been earlier that night.
me, scott m, susan
I ended the night at Max Fish with Susan and Scott. (Oh, and if David Lee Roth's lawyer reads this...these photos were all faked in Photoshop. I, uh, swear.)