RSVP reminder.

Just a little reminder to RSVP for my Bay area readers (all 4 of you.)

From the folks at iDR.

itsdesignrelated.com
request the honor of your presence at
art unlimited
an evening of art, design, music,
photography and fashion
on saturday, the second
of august, two thousand and eight
at eight o'clock in the evening.
at
the fatlace store in japantown
1630 post street
san francisco
rsvp is required at itsdesignrelated@gmail.com
artists include:
Steve Ha, Phil Mamuyac, Marcus Ubungen, and Samuel Rodriguez
*
celebrating courtney's 27th birthday
after party to follow
itsdesignrelated.com

Frank151 advocate.

Video courtesy of thenewpop.com

Donuts!

JAY! Where you at son?!!

Another Frank production.

If ya'll will be in the city tonight...

3-way birthday aka Stony Brook PUSO Alum reunion.

Birthday girl Christine, me and Michele.

Cindy, Eunice and Lorraine.
Spud and Pudgie.
Pandanggo sa ilaw.

Bling!

I think I should make a carreer switch. Since everyone trusts me to recommend venues and make reservations, I think I can handle being an event planner. Lately, I've been getting requests to help plan parties and use my contacts and connections to get things poppin'.

Me plan a poppin' party? Sure. With my best friend's 25th birthday party coming up soon, I, along with his wifey, have formulated a plan to surprise the heck out of him for his big 25th. This will involve a stretch Hummer, a 40 oz. in a brown paper bag and a midget stripper. Theme? "Hood rich." After all we're from Elmhurst aka Da 'Hurst. Streets is tough, son.

We'll see how this goes...

East meets West: 2 turntables and a mic version.

Thanks to Courts...
I now have my first party of 2008 planned out. And best of all it's at the place where everyone knows my name; best DJ in the tri-state is spinning and I'll be catching up with my best college buddies.

"The ultimate sausage-fest."

Two hours late for the reservation. Check.

Cuban cigars from DR. Check.

All of the guys in one place at the same time, all in suits. Check.

30th Birthday boy yakking at the end of the night. CHECK!

"When are you girls coming? We got 11 dudes and one girl!!! COME!"

"Take me home, JD..."

After all is said and done...I'm still a 25 year old that parties hard and makes fun of his boys at their most vulnerable moments. Work hard, play hard!

Hulkmania, 40 oz., and the Hamptons.

My first week as a 25 year old man has just concluded and it has been one helluva roller-coaster. Las Sunday night I was a bit in the dumps for various reasons even though I had an excellent opportunity arise from my GILAS project. I just felt like hating the entire world and I had nobody to blame for any of my problems, not that I had any. That Monday I turned 25, I really had no reason to celebrate other than the fact my famz took me out to dinner at one of my favorite Cuban restaurants in Queens. That was all I wanted, a nice dinner with some good drinks and awesome food. If you ever have the chance, the chuletas at Cabana on Austin St. are top notch.

I had the big parties and had the elaborate foreign trips for my previous birthdays. Something about this year just made me want to lay low and have my birthday quietly pass by. Everyone said that 25 was a milestone and kept prodding me to plan a big shindig like I did for my 23rd birthday when my party got raided by the cops (for being too wild?). Anyway, I couldn't be bothered with planning a party because I was too busy with work and side projects and balancing all of that with my daily routine of the gym and social life. It was just another day to me.

But what I did plan was a weekend back in the Hamptons because of my previous experience earlier this summer. I had to make my way out at least once more and soak in the experience while ballin' on a budget. Endless e-mails, several reservation changes, almost everyone dropping out or changing their minds last minute...I could have just planned a party and told everyone to show up at one place at one time on one night and it would have been easier than a weekend out on the beach.

So that's what I had expected. Dinner with my family and a weekend in the Hamptons with a handful of friends. That is until Mo and Danica wanted to take me out to dinner for my birthday. I told them I'd be free the Wednesday after my birthday and even planned to go see Swizz Beatz spin in SoHo after dinner. They refused to tell me where they were taking me but they told me to dress up. At this point, I was already suspicious but I played along.

Hmm. There were signs but I started to piece it together. I was accidentally included in an e-mail planning "something" for me. It could have been a gift or the actual dinner itself, I had no clue but I took it as it was and put it in the back of my mind. Then the Saturday before, drunken Mike spilled the beans and said he'd see me on Wednesday at dinner. DING! The guys were going to be at the dinner. Drunk Mike just spills everything, it's the best.

HA! I caught them... but as Wednesday rolled around, I decided to "test" the boys and ask them what they were doing that night. I had all sorts of answers and diversions. It even crossed my mind to "cancel" because I was "sick" and see what they'd say to cover up the secrets. Well, they played the game well and even had Lats call me after I left the office to invite me somewhere Midtown for drinks. I smartly declined and told him I had dinner plans and wouldn't be free until after that. Sneaky sneaky...

Surprise me they did. I knew the guys would be there, but I wasn't expecting the Stony heads to be standing there too. They had some of my closest college friends come and surprise me for my 25th!! So my jaded, sarcastic, smart-alecky self was actually surprised after all that.

As for the dinner itself... There was a LOT of sangria, mojitos, double shots of horsemen, wisemen and everything in between. As people started leaving dinner, the fellas made it a point to keep me out all hours of Wednesday night and keep it gangsta by drinking 40s on the sidewalk in the middle of SoHo. Talk about throwback. I haven't sipped on a 40 in a long ass time. At one point in the middle of the night, I got paid back with all the slappin' I handed out the past few months...I managed to walk around the village shirtless after ripping off my tanktop Hulk Hogan style...and I stepped up to a very pretty girl as she was having dinner with her very big bulk of a man she called her boyfriend. I don't call it liquor, I call it liquid courage.

I will let the pictures do the talking.

SURPRISE!
The face I was practicing for when I get surprised.

Scrapbook reading.
Nancy's gift.
Yes, that is a candle.

Lats and me, the Elmhurst boys.

Danica, Mo and Annie, the organizers of the whole night.
Stony girls.


That wasn't a candle, that's a firecracker.
40s.
Almost all my boys. Can we photoshop LJ, Vince and Marty in here?


"I know Kenny Choi and I can prove it."
Kung Fu fighting.
I apparently lost to the Korean.
Hulk SMASH!

All that was just one night of last week. We'll get into the other nights another time, but you can see the rest of the pictures (these aren't even the embarrassing ones.) on my MySpace.

Troublemaker.

Why do I always get into trouble whenever all the boys are out at one time?

Off the wagon and Jesse's bbq.

Once again, the boys and I were out causing trouble, this time for Vince's birthday happy hour at NYU bar, Off The Wagon. Beer pong, a fus-ball table and lots of $10 pitchers of various beers made for a good time that DID NOT end up with one of us getting inked or pierced. I stated that I was going to be in charge of the camera this time around, but I ended up just as bad as the birthday boy. All this on a Thursday night. Friday at work was not fun at all for any of us.

Fast forward to Saturday afternoon, we gathered again for Jesse's bbq. It wasn't even the official start to summer but it seems like we've been at this whole summer party mentality for a few months already. Fire grilled meat, good people, sappy mp3's and more beer pong! It was great to see some of the old FIND heads in one place after graduating from it years ago...

BHF kickoff party.

Dope music, free booze, great people. Just the beginning of my crazy night.

I either man-hugged you, bitch slapped you or both this weekend. While sweating profusely of course.

For the most part, I slept all of Memorial Day weekend...after passing out from the insane, but safe, amounts of alcohol I drank. It wasn't a bad weekend at all. Started on Friday at the show, then hopping around the Lower East Side, ending up at my favorite bar (where everyone DOES know my name!) STAY. I re-enacted Kenny's engagement on Eileen...then proceeded to bitch slap him. I don't know where any of the slapping came from, but it started with Kenny this weekend. From what I was told, I yelled "I love you man" and then hit him. After I bitch slapped the boy, I told onlookers, "he's already gonna kill me next time, so I might as well slap him while I'm at it."

On Saturday, I headed to my mom's place in Jersey where I rested and relaxed until the night began again, but this time at Opus 22. The DJ here...amazing. He had us up all night, mixing and mashing the most insane beats. Check him here.

As Sunday came upon us, I had a full performance schedule at PhilExpo 2007 in Edison, NJ and then Santacruzan in Jersey City with the crew. After two nights of partying, I was feeling heavy and lazy and it definitely showed on stage. I was uninspired to say the least. But the most important part of it all was that I had some fun. Of course, because of the three day weekend...I was able to go out Sunday night and head to Aura for JayZuno's white themed birthday. Saw some of the Stony heads and was even shouted out by Roli Rho as he spun from the DJ booth. It does wonders for the ego to seem important.

It turns out, on the subway ride back to the car, LJ and I had a brawl. Spoke about the random seriousness of life's mysteries and he kicked me in my knee on Park Ave.

You would think I'd have enough of my boys this whole weekend but as I type this, I'm trying to get rid of the buzz from the Mets game we all went to tonight.

Big ups to Vince for the crazy pix...he's available for bookings!

The fun lately.

The dinner at Mojito with some old faces.
Michele's birthday with her NYU Dental classmates. Cheese all around...I was a terribly happy camper that night.