I'd decided prior to this halloween that I was not going to let myself get excited for halloween. The past couple years it's been a dissappointment of New Years like proportions and I decided that I was going to treat it like any other weekend night, you know, with costumes. On this particular halloween night, however, we were asked to play a set of Screeching Weasel cover songs at the Charleston in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in front of a roomful of pop-punk dorks and semi-celebrities. Jim Testa from Jersey beat was nice enough to document each of the bands here. He was also nice enough to up to me after the set and tell me we didn't suck, which was awesome. Truth be told, it was some of the most fun I've ever had playing music. Everyone knew the words, we played pretty close to the originals.. and everyone was drunk, in costume, dancing, and stealing the microphone to sing along. I mean, Hallie Unlovable, who's very lovable, was chief microphone stealer.. who'd a thunk it? Role reversal much? So, it ended up being the best halloween in a long time. The best thing about not having high hopes is the rare occasion when something kicks your ass with awesomeness. And Saturday night certainly did that and more. --

I prefer Wired News' quick video game reviews to the PR crap that IGN and Gamespot kick out, and highly recommend giving yourself a minute or two to check out this review of Shadow of the Colussus... the game that essentially cost me about $160 because I had to buy a used Playstation 2 to replace my broken one just to play it. Funny thing is, I haven't even played it yet after owning it for over a week. I haven't even opened it, in fact. These past few weeks have been dizzying and the only thing I've managed to do that was the least bit constructive was fold the monstrous pile of laundry I've had piling up forever (let's just say that when I got to the bottom of the pile I found bathing suits). Regardless, once the smoke clears I will be playing the shit out of this game. **

This weeks time eater is the Hot Cops show on Saturday in Brooklyn. It's a halloween show in which all 9 bands performing will be covering an entire set of another band. We opted to do Screeching Weasel and at this point have three more days to learn about 8 or so songs. We've been pretty good at picking them up thus far, but knowing that Mr. Larry Livermore will be in attendance at the show certainly makes it a bit tougher to settle for "pretty good". I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that our opener is I Wann Be a Homosexual and that I'll be dressed up, literally, as a Hot Cop... short shorts and all. My mom would be very proud. **

So, it goes without saying that in.circles pretty much sucks. After six years, the thing is finally going to be killed off. I'll provide more details when I have them, but I'll be moving my whining, fuzzy cell phone pictures, and whatever the hell else it is that this thing is, elsewhere. Paul's coming, too, even if he doesn't know it yet. --

Thus far I've watched the Devils ugly loss to the Rangers and the slightly less ugly victory over the Panthers. I have no doubt that hockey will pleasantly supplement the lack of baseball in my life these next few months. If you're offering up chips, Paul, I'm thurr. I'll bring the balloons, crackers, Orange Juice, soda bottle bongs, etc. **

While moving along at a dizzying pace, these past two weeks have been pretty awesome. Lots of fun, friends, booze, music, ringing ears, etc. etc. Fall is indeed living up to the hopes I had for it. **

The Hot Cops pictures from last weekend can be found here, courtesy of Miss Toni:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/toniluca/sets/1178392/

I think the pictures make the performance seem a whole lot better than I remember it being.**

We also played a party on Saturday night at my friend Oliver's house in Queens. I had really, really good time both playing and partying there. Dr. Frank from the Mr. T Experience was in attendance, which kind of rattled my nerves a little bit prior to doing our set. Four Budweiser's in about an hour calmed that down with the quickness, though. It ended up not mattering, he left before we went on.

Here are a few pics:


Clock-wise, from the top left:
Chadd as Wario and the Slaughterhouse Four, Some metal dude passed out on a couch, Carla giving a thumbs up that looks more like a punch, and Janelle and Anya almost making out. Sort of. --

hay guys

ugh. bag of hell and such.

so chris, dive into the nhl. i got the info you need. personally, im a fan of the devils, cause i gotta be. but above and beyond im just a fan of the sport. and when i think of all that hockey is and the teams that know that and understand it, i dont think of the devils.

the exciting teams to watch, in my opinion, are (so far) the nashville predators and the minnesota wild. the predators. they are a young and new team. they made it pretty far along last season. most of all they have an eskimo on their team. his name is jordin tootoo. hes 5'8" 198 lbs. thats a pretty big boy for that size. he likes to dance with the big boys and he throws the body around like hes a whole foot taller and a couple waist sizes bigger. unfortunately he isnt playing with the team much as of yet, but they are having a good early season so i wont say shit. the wild, on the other hand, are coached by ex-devils coach jacques lemaire. this guy is impressive, he coached the devils team that everyone remembers. he also runs a good game. he knows who to put on the ice. case in point hes playing this guy boogard, from saskatoon canada, who dials in at 6'7" 270. hes had 3 fights so far this year, in the two games hes played, 2 in 1 and 1 in another. in his first 2 fights he knocked one guy out and took on an ex-philly player, used to be called the fridge, fedoruk. an absolute beast. he hasnt lost any fight. thing is hes just a good rookie and he works well with lemaire's little empire. on the ice when they need him.

more or less the other teams i usually watch are vancouver or toronto. i watch em all but you know, everyone has favorites. toronto ruined their team with a bunch of veterans, and also liquidated most of the players i came to love last season. i dont think we'll be seeing owen nolan, joe niewendyk, brian leetch or alex mogilny with them anymore. instead they opted for eric lindros. the guy with all the concussions on the rangers. hes doing better with the leafs, but, you know, i used to put them as my priority, now i have other priorities. oh, im pretty sure ill always watch X vs philly, because i want everyone on philly to be injured and their coach, ken hitchcock, who looks like alfred hitchcock, should be hit with a puck in the jaw. hes a prick. i do not like them. basically there are two teams that are undefeated so far, nashville is the surprise, and ottawa is pretty much a given. once we get later into the season i promise everyone that hockey will be very exciting to watch. i have to hold this as an evident truth because i invested alot of time (just now) and alot of money into this season. so if you ever want to watch a game you can be sure ill be watching. let me know. ill get chips.

It's channel seventy-two. But perhaps I should stay away as I clearly jinx whatever sports franchise it is that I choose to follow these past few years. Brodeur's slow start should probably be more attributed to my desire to follow hockey intently this year than anything else within his power. Sorry, dude. **

Saturday night the Hot Cops played a show. All told it was kind of a let-down, as far as the performance goes. 75% of that let-down can be attributed to factors out of my/our control, though. We'd been led to believe that we'd be going on at either 11:30 or 12, but didn't actually get going until 1:40am. I can't remember ever, ever going to see band that went on at 1:40. During the band before us, The Terrible Friends, whom I genuinely enjoy hearing and watching which is a rarity for local bands, the one microphone on the stage stopped working. After 20 minutes of playing with wires, etc.. they got it working again.. but that was just the initial snowball that started the avalanche to follow. The mic they gave me was the same one I've seen at Radio Shack for $19.99. The monitor speaker was shot so I couldn't hear my singing at all. The PA speakers sounded like they were emitting sounds from the bottom of the ocean so pretty much no one else could hear my vocals, and the bartender / sound guy (oh yes, he was pulling double duty) was hell-bent on keeping everything as quiet as possible. Those little frustrations multiplied by the fact that I spent that extra two hours waiting time at the venue nervously pounding Budweisers led to a pretty sloppy over-all performance. I tried to ease the tension with self-deprecating stage banter... but I think that probably just made it worse. I guess they all can't be winners. It didn't really bother me too much except for knowing that a lot of people had given up their evenings to come see us and that it probably wasn't much fun for them.

It's worth noting that I was incredibly happy to see so many different people from so many different parts of my life all together. Old Wayne friends, current Wayne friends, Boston friends, New York friends, Internet friends. While that warmed my heart for sure, it also made the poor performance all that much more embarassing. However, most people have said they enjoyed themselves and I even read a review of the show from someone who has no clue I've seen their blog and it was 100% positive. I really am very happy to have the friends I do although I probably don't do a great job of helping them realize it.

Friend and photographer extradionare, Toni, will be uploading some pictures from the show tonight. I'll be sure to link 'em here.**

Two cell phone pics, one of Grandpa from earlier Saturday from dinner at my grandparent's house... and one of Jimmy just prior to us taking the stage, which I don't remember taking:


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I still haven't watched hockey. I should probably start with tonight's Devils/Rangers game. Paul says Devs are on channel seventy-something. Bitchin'. **

A few nights back I had one of the creepiest dreams I've ever had. I was lying in bed and all of a sudden felt a decent amount of weight on my body, like something way laying on top of my covers. Without opening my eyes I instantly thought that it might be my cat. I then remembered that my cat is no longer at my house... My second thought was to turn over and see if it was the person sleeping next to me. I then remembered that I was sleeping alone. At this point I started getting an uneasy feeling that someone had come into my room and was crawling up my bed slowly towards me. At this point I opened my eyes, became fully awake and saw that no one was there. The only thing I'm unsure about is whether I was awake the whole time or didn't wake up until I actually opened my eyes. I've had a tough time sleeping since then... **

I lost my cell phone a week ago today. It surprisingly hasn't really affected me all that much. --

Out like a lamb and back like a tree falling in the forest with no one around to hear it, hockey's back. I, for one, am excited. But am still yet to figure out whether or not Devil's games will even be televised in my neck of the woods. I believe I need to locate the Outdoor Life channel... or something... which makes no sense to me considering hockey is a decidedly indoor sport. **

Terrorists are trying to blow up the NY subways today. Methinks I'll be walking this evening, za? **

Hot Cops (who soon may change their name to Laundry...? or The Casual Ties...?) had their first practice in their new practice space last night. Cable TV, DSL line, guitar stacks, drum sets that sound good, a refrigerator.. if we weren't paying for it ourselves I'd say I felt like a rockstar. We were able to conceive, pretty much from beginning to end, an entirely new song in just a few hours time last night...which is incredibly rare for Los Coppos Hottos. I think that practicing outside of Jeff's basement will be beneficial for cranking out new material and I'm pretty excited about it. Here's a picture of Jeff, drummer and part-time bassist, slinging back a cold one prior to getting started:

**

Last day of summer is tomorrow, the cold cometh this weekend according to weather.com. I'm breaking out my scarves... it's my favorite time of year.

Where were we when I left off? Ahh, yes. Staring down at the prospect of a relaxing weekend. That didn't quite happen. Friday night was a drunkin' romp throughout Hoboken watching various innings of the Yankees / Sox game at various bars, houses, etc. There was also an accidental trip into the bedroom of the girl that grew up across the street from me (i was looking for the bathroom and drunkenly looking for a non-existent light switch while swearing under my breath) and a three hour night of sweaty / shaky sleep on a stranger's couch. I think I went to Jimmy/Toni/Dan's pad, the Hot Cops/Mitsuko/some other dudes practice space, and The Loop Lounge on Saturday night, but it's all a bit blurry. As are the pictures that lead me to believe that these things happened...




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