Mid Summer Review

With July nearly through and very few blogs to show for it, I have some catching up to do. This month has been jammed with 40+ hour work weeks, and lots adventure packed weekends. The weekend following my Philly trip, I spent a good deal of time on Long Island. Went to Bellmore Cruise night with Mr. and Mrs. Baltstern, where we met up with every ones favorite New Orleans homeowner, K. Got a few good pics, but I really like this Ed Roth inspired rod.





Afterwards I was so hungry. The first few burger places we went to were closed, so we ended up at some diner in Freeport. Equipped with my appetite, and a Whoopie Cushion I picked up earlier that day, we went on to be one of the most obnoxious tables this place had ever seen.
Anytime the waitress, waiter, bus boy or other patron would walk by we would let out the "Bronx Cheer" with in the Whoopie Cushion. As immature as that sounds we had such a good time, K even said that he hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.



The next day Andy Kle and I went down to Jones Beach. Kinda uneventful. The ride down the Meadowbrook was great. Cruisin the Dart on the highways that were developed my Robert Moses is kind of a trip. The Long Island highway system was built post WWII for cars just like mine, not theses modern super-machines that you'll see around now, but for daily commuter shit boxes.



Sometime during the course of July Glen and I went fishing with my old man. It was killer. Boated a few stripped bass, and a few fluke that were not big enough to keep. After that we fed a whole family of Sea Robbins with fluke bait we decided to call it a day. For those of you who are out of the loop, a Sea Robbin is a pre-historical fish that has wings, spikes, and barks. What a pain is the ass that those things are. They eat your bait, and never get off your hook with out a a fight.



The highlight of the summer thus far was attending the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. My cousin came through with tickets, in a big way. He has always been what I refer to as a Yankee Stadium "Pirate". Ever since we were kids we have been going to games, and he has been getting away with shit. Autographs, good seats, more autographs, he's always been able to get away with what ever he wants. My grandfather calls it manipulation, I see it more as charisma.



Well charisma, manipulation, I call it 3rd row behind that National League dugout at the Home Run Derby. We even had better seats that Al Leiter, who sat a few rows behind us. The next night was even more unbelievable, if you could believe that. Due to legal ramifications I can't go into all the fun we had at the All-Star Game, but I'm telling you, it was killer.





Wouldn't you know it, after I had all that fun at the All-Star Game, I broke my camera. Same one that I had for almost 4 years, the good ol' Nikon 4200. It left me unable to take some great shots of me working in the office the following Saturday and Sunday. I worked on a real cool pitch with some higher ups, so I didn't really mind missing a weekend. Fortunately Glen came through in a big way and picked me up that Saturday afternoon and drove a van full of people to a swimming hole in New Jersey, then we sent to see The Dark Night at a drive in. Very ill.



The following weekend was partially spent back in Philly. Caught ANS, and Retard Strength. Didn't catch a staph infection, which was a concern because I got a fresh tattoo from Patt Attack, then went to the show at Disgraceland a few hours later. Like I said My camera is busticated, so Mia let me take pictures with her camera.



..."it's gonna be a big dick day".



Gotta a lot of of great stuff planned for August. Rumbler Car Show on the 23rd, plus I am trying to get a few '64 rides to roll over to Shea Stadium for a tailgate. More than likely to end up in Philly at some point before the end of the month as well. Can't afford to replace my digital camera right now, so looks like I might be shooting film. More cool shit to come.

July Phourth 2008

Oh man, what a bangin holiday weekend I had. In late March it was annouced that Party Time Records was going to throw a festival in Worcester, Massachusetts. I highly annticipated hanging out with kids I rarely get to see, releasing the long awaited Shred Bundy/ Rowdy One split 7", even getting a chance to reunite with The Shit. Due to venue problems none of this would happen 4th of July weekend. With some killer plans left for dead I decided that staying in New York was not an option. I would take my '64 Dodge Dart on it's maiden voyage out of state lines to Philadelphia where the "Punx Picnic" would take place. There is no one else that would appreciate a weekend of Blunts, Beer, Bands and BBQ, more than Mr. Mugs himself Matt D. It had been a while since I'd been out of town with Mugs, needless to say we had a great time.



First off we left New York Midnight of the 4th to beat the traffic getting down there. We had a rather uneventful drive, and to my car's credit, it ran like a champ all weekend. Special thanks to Brother Par for helping me change my oil and filter the day before. We pulled into a 7-11 in West Philly for a late nigh snack. We ended up buying a pack of Phillies and two Dijorno Pizzas. After arriving to Patt Attack's pad, we warmed up and consumed a french bread pizza and went to sleep. The pizza reeked a bit of havoc on our stomachs, as a result Patt's bathroom was occupied for most of the morning.

We arrived to the park that held the Punx Picnic. What a great sight it was. Beer openly being swilled, meat being devoured at a rapid pace. The punk kids swimming in a municipal pool reminded me of Caddy Shack when they let the Caddies swim in the club pool for 15 minutes. Unfortunately no one released a Baby Ruth into the abyss. My favorite part of the afternoon was playing softball. Jordan(Vinny) brought a garbage can full of softball supplies. He said that there a a weekly punk softball game in Philly. This motivated me to consider relocating for about a second. Instead I think I will just recruit a team of rag-tag ball players to take on the Philly kids one of these days.


So after yet another full summer day in the fun and sun it was off to South Philly for a show. I guess the original plan included the show taking place at the BBQ, but the kids organizing the event could not attain the proper permits. This could not have worked out better because the venue was fucking awesome. I am not just throwing f-bombs around for the hell of it, the show was held in what seemed to be a Unitarian Church. Everything was new and clean. No one who actually ran the place was there, it was kinda on loan to who ever booked the show. There were couches with passed out kids to draw on. Mugs and I even found a stair well to smoke blunts in, granted we were looking for roof access to shoot fireworks, but it wasn't a bad "door" prize. What kept on blowing me away was the lack of interest the Philadelphia police showed in a hundred kids drinking on the sidewalk and lighting fireworks. Granted they more than likely had bigger fish to fry, but I am so used to New York's Finest busting chops at the drop of a hat. I saw so many squad cars role by and not even look twice at what was going on. Meanwhile upstairs in the venue Hip Cops, Nothing is Over and Vexed Youth among others churned out a killer show. The mayhem outside found it's way inside for Partysaurus Wrecks. There was a lot of talk about this band while I was in Philly, I wanted to see if the band lived up to the killer logo Patt Attack designed for them. (Tyrannosaurus-Rex riding a Bones Brigade board, eating Dorritos, smoking a blunt and a bong, snorting coke while wearing a flip hat and Vans...epic)









Partysaurus Wrecks were real great. The energy and enthusiasm of the Philly kids was intoxicating. I think everyone in that room was into it, and a good majority of them made that perfectly clear. Musically they are a party punk band whose riffs, vocals and mentality follow those of Murphys Law, Municipal Waste and No Redeeming Social Value. No reinventing the wheel here, just getting it really drunk and making it go fast and hard.

The night eventually ran it's course and we ended up at Cassa de Patt for another night and another Dijorno Pizza, pepperoni this time. Patt could not partake in the Block Party out side of Disgraceland on day 2. He had to go make the doughnuts. On our way to South Philly we hit up a record store. Mugs got Anthrax's "Among the Living", I got "1960" from the "Cruisin" compilation series. Jordan and Andy went way above and beyond, smoking three pork shoulders for over 8 hours. Aside from that, Marco and a cast of dozens held it down on the grill serving up some real good steak, pork sausage and grilled pinapple. At some point a Red Bull car pulled up and started unloading cases of the stuff. In addition to general rowdiness that often mimicked a mosh pit there were several water balloon fights. Pictured bellow is Jordan at the very moment one of his water balloons struck a 6 year old girl. Look at how happy he is.



Finally, after eating a pile of pulled pork and sobering up from the few beers I had that afternoon, it was time to hit up Cheese Steak Vegas. I prefer to eat at Pat's Steaks, however my car was parked in front of Gino's, as you can tell. It started raining once we were on our way to 95. The fireworks had also ended around this time, and every Joe Jersey who can to Philly for the evening was clogging up 95 north and south. Between traffic, rain, and me going to wrong way a couple of times, it took over an hour to get out of town. All the while I am trying to figure how many miles we had till I needed gas(my gas gauge does not work), and why the hell in all this rain was my car heating up so bad(could it be due to lack of gas). Eventually the rain cleared, the roads emptied and we made it home. As Mugs kept saying while we were still in the middle of nowhere New Jersey, "It was a successful weekend". Of course I kept saying, "It'll be a successful weekend when my car is parked and I'm asleep".



Many thanks to Mugs for taking a ride, and Patt for putting us up. And of course to the organizers of Punx Picnic. Shit was sick.

Garage Sale Day

Sea Cliff's annual Garage Sale Day took place on June 8th. It was the first time in 3 years I was available to participate in this great tradition. For those of you who don't know my favorite Village in the whole world hosts an annual town wide Garage Sale Day the first Saturday in June. Last year I was in New Orleans, the year before that I was in Florence, Italy. GSD is typically good for some killer bargins, not to mention some priceless finds. Some of my personal treasures from GSD's pat include an early pressing of Black Flag's "Damaged", and a Black Sabbath 1983 World Tour shirt. I purchased the Black Sabbath shirt from St. Bonniface's Rectory Sale for 25 cents. Hell, I was baptized at that church, and I gotta a killer Black Sabbath shirt from it as well. The irony is tremendous.

This Garage Sale Day was different from years past. I wasn't going to run(drive) all over Sea Cliff's hilly terrain in order to attain a bargin. I suggest to my dear friend Lauren that we have a sale on her fathers front lawn. She loved the idea, so much that she invited a few other friends to participate as well.

Customers came in waves. Dozens of people picked up this Led Zeppelin mirror, but no one wanted to pull their wallet out of their pocket and pay up. I was asking for $25 in exchange for the privilege of owning this gem. Unlike most people in Sea Cliff who try to sell in bulk, everything for a dollar, I was trying to cater to the higher end shopper.

It got so damn hot that day. Wheelin and dealin with a bunch of bargin hunters made it fell even hotter. I even got a little sun burn. I did manage to sneak off to a few other sales. I got a Beach Boys tape, and some framed pictures of Dwight Gooden and Daryl Strawberry, circa 1986. Speaking of tapes, I had my car stereo(shitty boom box) playing all the hits. The Clash, Devo, David Bowie, all contributed to a real nice vibe.

I even got my Rat Fink Pizza Boxes in on the action. Lots of lookers, but no takers. Oh well there's always Mini Mart.