October 21, 2004

Back in NYC

Towards the end of October, I flew from San Francisco to NYC to visit everyone, but more importantly, witness Grant, Fatty, Frank and Amanda's new band, Fiasco, play their very first show on Saturday night (too bad that Rothko, the venue they were supposed to play the gig at got shut down due to fire-code violations the night before the show! Doh!)

Thursday, October 21st

The overnight red-eye from San Francisco to JFK found me on Orchard Street just shy of 6am. Oof.

Rather than bother with trying to wake Meredith up (her apartment doesn't have a buzzer and baby-girl sleeps like a tank) she devised a sneaky "I'll hide my key" plan.

A-ha! The old, tape the key in the Chinee Menu trick!

me, meredith — After a good day's sleep and catching up with M-deth (ha!), she and I went out to Brooklyn to say hi to...

me, sarah — Sarah and Karen who were DJing at Red and Black.

fatty — The Fatty chatting up a double-fisting Karen.

fatty, me, meredith — Fatty and Meredith work on their impressions of my hair.

fatty, meredith — "No Meredith, this is what it looks like when doves cry."

fatty, meredith — Only Fatty can look lost in a bar.

grant, me — A little after 2am, we came back into Manhattan and I was reunited with this guy! Hahahaha.

amanda, devin, grant, meredith — Meredith, Grant, Amanda, Sarah and Devin (who we all met through this site! Devin did all the design-work for the first incarnation of the Fiasco site and as a thank you, the band flew he and his wife up to NYC to see the first show!)

grant — We took them to some divey bar in the East Village where Grant and I immediately went into "dancing bear" mode struggling to convince Devin that we're as funny in person as we are on this site.

devin — Guh-reat Success!

amanda, grant — Amanda and Grant.

Then, with a stroke of luck, we were all blessed enough to witness a truly rare NYC treat. A purple sateen As Four "circle bag"!

devin — Oh my God! We love As Four!

Saturday, October 23rd

me, sarah — On Saturday morning we headed over to St. Marks Place for some Thai brunch at Why Curry? (right across the street from Fatty's house!).

grant, josh m — Where we all got to meet Sarah's new friend Josh for the very first time.

Check out the hairdo of the dude on the left. Ha!

grant, michael jackson — Creepy Michael Jackson pumpkin at Chelsea Market.

me, meredith — With Fiasco's very first gig cancelled because of Rothko temporarily getting shut down, we decided to eat a ton of pizza at Lombardi's and then dance our sadness away over at Misshapes. Meredith stopped at her corner bodega on the way over to Lombardi's to get our brown-bagged Sparks on.

devin — Sarah and Devin get ready to enjoy their first real pizza.

Fatty and Meredith pose with 2/3 of Le Tigre. This photo is only funny because the girl on the left is Johanna Fateman - who is David Fateman's (aka - The Fatty) cousin. And JD, the girl on the right (yes, the one with the moustache) is Meredith's high school sweet heart. Hahahah.

grant, vin — After pizza we headed over to Cherry Tavern and met up with Vinay...

amber, me — ...and even long-time-no-see Crazy Amber!

nissa — Then I got a call from Nissa, who I'd recently met out in San Francisco! She was in NYC on business with her friend Emily-Betty and wanted to meet up!

amanda, fatty, grant — 3/4 of Fiasco lament their cancelled first-show. After a few Cherry Tavern specials to numb the pain, we all headed over to...

...MisShapes.

leigh, me — Where I was re-united with lil' Leigh (aka - The Tinny) who I hadn't seen for almost 14 days. Hahaha.

leigh — Leigh shows off how to stop a run in your stockings while looking like a bloody-kneed goth at the same time.

sarah — And we celebrated Geordan's birthday!

geordon — Happy Birthday!

geordon, me — Hey, if the birthday boy wants to lick your face there's not really much you can do about it other than smile.

meredith, nina — Meredith and Nina.

gina bonjersey, me — Smellsgood Gina (looking all goth in this photo).

meredith, sarah — Sarah and Meredith getting their Star O' David on.

And, uh, their scissor-kick on too. (Sarah looks less happy about this one).

charlene, leigh, sarah — Leigh, Sarah and Charlene.

josh m, sarah — Josh and Sarah.

gina bonjersey, michael, sarah — Smellsgood, Michael, Sarah and Karen.

leigh — Camouflage Tinny.

I was trying to snag a shot of Emily-Betty giving her brand-new underaged friend a lil' luggage rubbing through his jeans but I mis-fired and only managed to get a hint of what was going on in the frame. By the time my flash re-charged, she was privy to what I was doing and stopped her naughty behavior. Scandalous!

leigh, susan — Hairtwins Susan and Leigh.

louise — Louise is shocked by more scandalous behavior.

Backwall mirror.

me, meredith — Mer and me.

nissa — Emily-Betty and Nissa got totally crunked and out of control. Not wanting to be outdone by Emily-Betty almost making some teenage boy jizz his jeans on the couch, Nissa decided it was time to show off the...

...the gnarly, terror-tastic lower-boob hickey she'd received the night before. Sweet Maria!

leigh, me — Tinny's face pretty much says it all.

Sunday, October 24th

chris a, frank, grant — The band had planned on having a huge post-show brunch party on Sunday at APT to celelbrate their first gig, but when the gig got cancelled with less than 24 hours notice, no one was sure what to do about the brunch. In the end, the band decided to press-on and have it. Here's Grant, Chris the Greek and Frank!

devin — Sarah and Devin.

amy k, grant, meredith — Amy K. (in a "I just got back from a Bat Mitzvah" dress!) Meredith and Grant.

grant, me — Me and Tha Grizza.

candy, grant — Candy and Grant.

ellen s, meredith — Ellen and Meredith.

josh m, sarah — Sarah and Josh.

grant, lori, mark bibbins — Lori, The Notorious B.I.B. and Grant (making an awesome face).

jenny and lauren, leigh — Later on Sunday night I met up with Tins and Lauren (one of "The Twins") so that Leigh could give me...

jenny and lauren, leigh — ...a bunch of prints she made from the photos she took when she was out visiting me in San Francisco.

leigh — Who's got autographed Tinny originals?

leigh, me — A smooch goodbye...

leigh — ...and I left a very pouty nun standing on the street.

Who gave me back the stolen homeless man's stuffed squirrel that I'd hidden in her bags last time she was in town. Hahaha.

me, meredith — Afterwards, I went back to Meredith's to say goodbye and tried to pretend I wasn't super-sad about having to go back to San Francisco all by my lonesome.

Five hours later I got landed in SF and went straight from the airport to meet Alysha and Brian at the Interpol show at the Warfield. (Nothing like feeling sad about New York and going to see a band from New York sing sad songs about New York).

When I got home, Chandler the Dog was there to console me. I let him play with the stolen homeless man's stuffed squirrel...

...and laughed myself silly when he chewed its head off. Hahaha.