Here's the first half of all the random photos I took back in May of 2007
Monday, April 30th
GUITAR HERO IS THE NEW KARAOKE! Er, or at least it was for a few short weeks at Pianos! Late at night, after all the bands had finished playing, Jasper (the guy that books all the bands at Pianos) would bust out his Playstation and run the video to the bigscreen projector and the audio through the club's PA system! It was amazing.
On Thursday afternoon, Benjamin made the mistake of leaving his brand new camera out on his desk when he went to the bathroom, so Mike and I picked it up and took a bunch of "secret photos" for him to find later. This one made me laugh so hard that I took a picture of the picture so I'd have a copy of it on my camera. Meta!
Later that night I got a call from Matt asking me if I'd mind doing him a favor: His new girlfriend Elle was in town from Miami and Matt was taking her and her friend Paula out to dinner at Morimoto (the Iron Chef's restaurant that had recently opened up in Manhattan). Matt was worried that Paula was going to feel like 3rd wheel, so he asked if I'd mind coming along as her date. Boy, the things I'm willing to do for my friends! Who's a better friend than me? (And more to the point, who has a better girlfriend than me? "Honey, Matt wants to know if I'll play wingman and be his new girlfriend's friend's date at some fancy restaurant tonight...uh, is that cool?" "Sure, have fun!")
Keep in mind that this is kind of a fancy restaurant! At first we were a little worried that we were going to get "spoken to" by the staff. But I think after having to deal with uppity customers all night, the waitstaff got a genuine kick out of us. Because every time we finished a bottle of sake (in the classiest of ways)...
Which meant that we were free to use the table decorations as props in hand-job jokes without having to worry about offending other patrons! When our waiter came back out after clearing the table, we were certain that he was going to politely usher us out, but instead, he asked us if we were interested in dessert!
Right as we were leaving the restaurant (at 2am!), a white Cadillac strech-limo (that looked like it had just driven to Manhattan FROM THE 80s), pulled up to the curb and asked us if we wanted a ride! Out of habit, I waved him away with my hand, but Matt was intrigued and asked "How much to go to the Lower East Side?"
I missed out on the finer points of the negotiation (me = totally wasted, remember?), but the next thing I know, Matt's grinning from ear to ear and waving us all into the back of the limo.
By the time we got to the LES, whatever party we were supposed to have been attending, had long since ended. So instead we made friends with a bearded, black cowboy...
...and then headed over to Angels & Kings in the East Village to visit Sarah, Karen and Brandon. Right after I snapped this picture, I dropped my brand new camera and broke the lens-protector! So that the next time I took a photo...
...but eventually gave up and just ripped the broken part off the lens. And was over-joyed to discover that despite the fact that I'd just dropped the camera on its lens and then ripped half of lens-assembly off the camera, that the camera still took perfectly good photos! (Not to mention that this is pretty much my favorite photo of Karen of all time. I love how it looks like it was taking during a private, Undies-Only dance party! *gasp!*).
On Saturday night, Gina came over to our apt for a girl's night. So I decided to head out and leave the girls alone to "do their thing." (Incidentally, their "thing" turned out to be...
On Sunday, I rode out to the Meadowlands with Matt to check out the Bamboozle festival (because I'd had so much fun at the previous year's event). But this year the festival was waaay too hot and over-crowded and after about 90 minutes, I ended up giving up on fun and catching a bus back to NYC with Gurj.
After work on Tuesday I brought my bike to the bike shop to get some work done and ran into this baby squirrel sitting on the window ledge of the shop!
He let me get REALLY close before his burgeoning squirrel-senses kicked in and he realized that allowing himself to be touched probably wasn't such a good idea.
If you like metal, GO SEE THIS BAND! (Figured I'd throw that in there just in case the electric-cello and double-necked bass/guitar combo didn't pique your interest).
Inspired by the madness of the Priestbird show, a bunch of us decided to make some music of our own (er, sort of) at karaoke later that night. Here's the Fatty kicking some SUPER OLD SKOOL Jovi with "Runaway."
for some reason, I am not able to see any of your fabulous pics!
joe stlouisfebruary 27, 2012
Hey, Thanks for the giant update. 2010 is starting out strong!
凌march 11, 2012
This website is pretty cool! I will look back my days by this fantastic tech-way someday.
andreamarch 17, 2012
Hi Brian,
I've been reading your blog forever. Just thought I would tell you that I was eating lunch in Vancouver today and I met Grant! I felt like a total stalker when I told him I knew who he was from reading your site but he was really nice about my creepiness. He took a pic of us together that he said he was going to send to you.
(If you're reading, hi Grant! Hope you enjoyed your Meat and Bread.)
brian battjermarch 22, 2012
Hi Andrea!
Thanks for the note! Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to you - Mer and I were away in the Philippines for a wedding! Yes, Grant totally sent me the picture! Hahaha. Awesome!
jocelynmarch 17, 2012
Hi Brian, love this site...just found out about this, and I think I remember seeing stuff on here about how you and yours are fans. Kate's Joint on Ave B & 4th Street is dealing with some of the same bananas bullshit the Cabrini hospital next door on 5th street is. If you can donate to help, please do, and pass it on! Thanks!
Hi. Found nice pictures of Scott and Erika's wedding, June 30th 2007. Please send them my address, would be great to get in contact! Matt, Switzerland.
walter.matthias@bluewin.ch
alexmarch 23, 2012
Hello Brian,
About 5-6 years ago when I was working for a chemical company in Upstate NY, I spotted your girl on a poster in the cafeteria? Ring a bell? I even sent you a scan of her contemplative visage wondering how to manage sensitive customer data-- er some shit. Well, now I live and work in Germany for a different chemical company and I think I spotted your girl again on a corporate poster (actually, it's more like a banner!). I'm not sure if it's her at all, but maybe it is? Apparently she has a face loved by Chemists the world over. I guess that's good. ;)
brian battjermarch 27, 2012
Hi Alex!
I'll bet it's her! Many years ago Meredith did a photoshoot and the photographer sold a bunch of the pictures to a stock photography house. So we see her occasionally pop up on all kinds of random stuff! Haha.
andiemarch 27, 2012
Hi Brian,
Wow, you were here in the Philippines?? If I saw you here, I would definitely bug you for a pic or two as well. Anyway, I hope you two had fun here. Looking forward to the pictures! :) Take care!
brian battjermarch 28, 2012
We had an AMAZING time! The pics will be up eventually! ;)
cpschneidercpsapril 3, 2012
I recently watched the DVD "Coco Before Chanel" and saw what looked like Leigh in a bonus feature included on the DVD titled "Walking the Red Carpet: From Los Angeles to New York". Was it really her?
brian battjerapril 6, 2012
Probably! She is a Chanel brand ambassador and goes to a lot of their events.
Hi Andrea!
Thanks for the note! Sorry it's taken me a while to get back to you - Mer and I were away in the Philippines for a wedding! Yes, Grant totally sent me the picture! Hahaha. Awesome!