London. Ah, what to say about London? I was going to do a day to day type of blog, but when you’re drinking 12-15 pints a day.. they all kind of blend together.. so i’m going to go with a list format. If only half of these make sense to you, that’s about right. Ryan, John and I made the best of not the best trip we could have taken. Here’s what I remember
• A hazy first day walk across the Thames.
• Giggling at every mention of “Cockfosters” or “St. John’s Wood”
• The worst fish & chips ever.
• 7 AM McDonalds Breakfast
• Lots of Museums
• Television (Tele) + Trashcan (Bin) = the Telebin
• Sad drunk after only night 2.
• Awkward night without a private room
• That’s what happens when people stop being polite and start to get frank. Frank World.
• Nowhere to watch the Arsenal game
• Q: When do places open around here? A: Breakfast Time
• Camden Town with Ryan where we saw bootleg photos of Banksy pieces printed on canvas with “no photos please” sign.
• POACHED!
• Gene = John’s new nickname
• “Here’s the Rosetta Stone. Here it is. Oh no, here’s the Rosetta Stone… Here it is”
• Touristy Abbey Road photos.
• Snowcones
• Female conversion rate for Europe +2 points
• Amstel. Not Amstel Light. Amstel
• Getting lost then finding the pub we were looking for.
• I snapped and beat up John for trying to ruin my vacation photo
• Great Hold Steady show at KoKo with Dexter.
• Ryan kissed the British girl i thought was cute so I went to the dark side.
• “That’s why you make out with chicks and I call my Grandma, drunk” - Ben Goetting
• The Tube runs every 2 min, which is awesome
• Vacation ads everywhere because nobody wants to be in London.
• Our second hostel was self proclaimed “England’s premier party hostel!” and the interior decorating looked like a low budget 90’s sci-fi shows vision of the future where nobody lives past 30. Lots of purple and sheet metal.
• Babe-rhood
• New terms for drunk - “Lashed” Sad - “Gutted” and puking - “Chundering”
• “It got messy” “I had a bit of a nap” - Dexter
• Realizing you spent 100 dollars on drinks.
• Making London kids jealous I’ve seen Jawbreaker
• Ryan and I freaking those same kids out by moshing to Andrew WK song.
• Gene gets action in Parliament = Gene Parliament
• Ryan taking a massive dump in the Floor 2 showers in revenge for an asshole hostel worker. (we were on floor 5)
• Slovenian girls surprising me by singing “Happy Birthday” Karaoke style on my birthday was absolutely amazing.
• Kissing a very cute Slovenian girl in the basement of the hostel was also amazing
• Terrible Indian food, Chinese food, burgers, etc. etc etc.
• Great burger from Haché, great breakfast from a gay restaurant that we didn’t realize was gay at first but weren’t about to leave.
• Realizing Europeans have the worst music taste, it’s all bad dance music and hits you haven’t heard in years. The whole bar freaked out for “Cotton Eye Joe” and that Chumbawumba song
• “I’m doing this for YOU. BEN. FOR YOU!”
• Ryan yelling at Brits at 4AM “Please to being quiet now” which angered them and escalated into “Suck Cromwell’s dick” which lead to threats and “Arsenal’s fags” pushing them over the edge. Hysterical laughter turned to fear pretty quick.
• Seeing how much we could pile on Gene’s face to stop him from snoring = more hysterical laughter. Thinking we might have smothered him = more fear.
• Cinemas = bagged popcorn, warm soda, and screens the size of a home entertainment center. for $30 dollars.
• Couldn’t play poker because of the dress code “No white sport trainers”
• “The One Burger” is not just a clever name
• RYMAN! The Stationer!
• Fun rooftop antics = amazing. Dropping new Arsenal scarf in someone’s puke = not amazing.
• Sick and totally over London on Ryan’s birthday.
• “I blew all over this mattress. Stick it up your Bumwaz!” written in sharpie on my mattress.
• Finding out my grandpa was in brain surgery =(
• A long long trip home.

That about sums it up.

And links to our photos:
Ryan’s Photo Set
My Photo Set

If you blink you might miss me, but I make a breif Cameo in Jonah Ray’s new episode of “The Freeloader’s Guide To Easy Living” over on Super Deluxe. Check it.

When I was a little kid the first comedy “bit” I remember LOVING was “Who’s On First” by Abott & Costello. I first heard it on a plane on their in-flight comedy station. I probably listened to it 100’s of times. So seeing this updated version using movie titles cracked me up. Check it.

Here’s the original:

And the updated version:

Today Moneen and Alexisonfire came into the offices for lunch. After lunch the boys in Moneen decided to play a little prank on Wayne Pighini. Kenny went into the bathroom and put on a toilet paper diaper and we told Wayne to go into Rich’s office to discuss business. Little did he know he was about to get taped to a half naked man. Well, I suppose the video speaks for itself.

We also took a group photo:

Just a collection of some of the cool/funny/amazing videos I’ve seen on the net.
I think i’ll periodically do one of these posts. too amazing

Zappa on Crosfire 1986
Few people remember how hard we had to fight against censorship in the 80’s and how much Frank did to fight for our rights.
Chips Ahoy
New music video from the Hold Steady
Edie (Warhol’s Greatest Superstar)
with “After Hours” by Velvet Underground
Anarchy In The UK
The Sex Pistols changed my life at 14 years old
Johnny Cash
“Hurt” Directed by Mark Romanek. Probably the saddest video ever.
Ping Pong
Amazing Shots Ridiculous Soundtrack
Sierra Freak Out
My friends Blake and Jen have psycho dogs.
Silly Cats
I could watch AFV cat videos all day.
Evan Dando
Evan Dando acoustic (That’s my album art in the background)
Little Superstar
By far the most amazing video ever
So True
How “Star Wars” should have ended.
Skittles
My favorite commercial ever

Had a little bit of a Hold Steady weekend this weekend. Started off Saturday we had Sushi with Tad, Franz, the film crew, and Sean-Michael before the show. Beer and Saki flowed like water, it was pretty amazing. The show, well the show was probably one of the best shows I’ve been to in a really long time.

Here’s a clip I shot during “The Swish” when Galen just opened a wallet (I still dont know if it was HIS wallet) and started throwing cash to the crowd.

Back to the hotel with everyone afterwords and we spent the rest of the evening drinking and talking about music.

Tad Showed off the tattoo that Henry of Chunklet Magazine paid for…

…. then Franz and my buddy Ryan had a Moustache competition. Franz won.

Sunday was the in store at Fingerprints. I was really tired and hungover so I’m glad this one was early in the evening. I grabbed this video of “Your Little Hoodrat Friend” It’s not the whole song unfortunately. But man their acoustic set is awesome.

Tonight is the sold out Troubadour show, and then I say goodbye to the Hold Steady until October 30th in Boston. Can’t wait.

This video has been making the rounds this morning, it’s pretty amazing.