My buddy Rob and I recently celebrated our birthdays. He’s fucking old and turned 30. I turned 28. We originally planned on having our party at The Delancey like last year, but his dad came through and helped us rent out an entire bar on the lower east side for the evening and we even had full control of the music. Knowing it was our party, there was going to be some good tunes all night long.
This party was going to be so epic that it needed it’s own flyer. It could have used it’s own medical team, too.
Having a party at this time of year can be a bit tough. The seasons are changing and the weather is unpredictable, so a lot of people come down with colds. Maybe 50% of the people invited who RSVP’d that they’d be there actually made it. I can’t tell you how many phone calls I got that night with people coughing up their lungs on the other end. It was a shame that so many people couldn’t make it, but we still packed the joint for most of the night.
We put together a great play list that kept the party going all night. Rob made sure LTJ, Streetlight and Goldfinger were on the playlist, and I couldn’t let anything happen without a good amount of Big D and the Kid’s Table, The Specials, English Beat and Reel Big Fish. We had a crazy mix of ska, reggae and punk from the past 40 years, and blasted it all for 6 hours. Good times.
There was a bar minimum that had to be met and we were a bit concerned that we wouldn’t hit it, so we had the bouncer let the public in after 2AM or so. We hit the minimum without a problem.
I spent a decent chunk of time in the DJ booth making sure that things went smoothly and was suprised with how many times random folks came up to me to see if I did parties with the same music anywhere else. While I never really do this sort of thing, it does have me thinking…
Anyway, everyone that did make it had a good time. A bunch of close friends came through, and several coworkers came to show their love too. Kat and Chris (pictured below, in the middle) took me out to dinner before the party in Astoria and we had a great time. It was the same Japanese place as last year, except we didn’t need to rush this time.
Cameron and Luis a.k.a Jose Canseco, best buddies forever.
These two need to start some sort of racially-themed comedy show. If you didn’t know them, you’d swear that a fight was going to break out. “Oh, look, it’s Toby! Good to see that they let you out for the evening!” “Oh hey, it’s Jose Canseco! Shit man, you’ve really let yourself go in retirement!” There’s some serious hetero man-love between these two.
The party ended around 4AM at which point Rob, a friend of his, Luis and I got some food, caught and episode of The Office and called it a night. That was the first time I ever saw an episode of The Office Luis headed back uptown, probably to a White Castle before heading home (thanks for filling in for me this year), and I passed out on Rob’s couch. I finally made it home around 6PM the next day.
This is going to be a big year.
