Vanillaafro.com Event log

I Vaguely remember all the Sixers, Phillies, Flyers, concerts and other events I've gone too, but I do have a scrap book of ticket stubs etc... so I should at least be able to piece together some funny stories and memorable events as well as other great moments from all the various things I've gone too. And the entries won't be limited to just sporting events, in fact I have some great pics from one of my best friend Smitty's wedding below. This will be my first log entry (that sounds like such a homo, only homos have Log entries, maybe it would be more homo if I called it a journal or diary entry). Ok so here is my first DIARY entry.

  • Afro Log 4/22 - Smitty's Wedding - ok I know I look like an egoist with all these pictures of me but it is my web site, and these are the only ones I have as of now, so fuck off...
  • Afro Log 4/22 revisited... - Added video and other pictures  for Smitty's wedding - fregin hilarious - Dancing with the stars is going to hire D the Sparks.
  • Afro Log 4/26 - Bruce Springsteen in Asbury Park at convention hall
  • Afro Log 4/29 - My Dad's retirement party
  • 5/7 - Boo Bonds night at Citizen's Bank Park all children under 14 get fake hypodermic needles...
  • 5/9 - Phils Win on Abreu ex---cuse me hit...
  • 5/10 - Stephen Stills at the TLA - one unknown part of CSNY
  • 5/11 - Phils again, Rowand hits the wall and we miss it..DOH
  • 5/13 - Jim Norton and Dave Attell in Atlantic City and I won money woohoo
  • 5/17 - I go to the Tool concert at the Tower Theatre in Philly...eh not really
  • 5/19 - Phils lose but a good time is had by all at Mcfadden's and trying to hit the giant Phillies sign in the parking lot
  • 5/21 - Full Moon 2 softball team improves to 4-6. Mckeever shows up at the bar afterwards in his uniform after not playing at all. He thought the game was in the mysterious Full moon backyard.
  • 6-3 - My Birthday celebration - fun was had by all - I went to the Capital Grille with my family. Visit the Capital Grille's site and listen to the real good Kenny G. Porn music they have on their front page. I had the Kona Steak while I was there which is really good, most people like their Filet Mignon. As a nice treat my boss from work took car of the bill which was awesome and my parents were really thankful too! Now later on in the night I went to none other than the Full Moon Saloon with friends....yeah that's the ticket
  • 6/9-6/11 - Fishing Trip 06' was a success or complete failure depending on which Quinn you talk to, angry surly Quinn or nice goofy Quinn.
  • 6-24 - Bruuuuce again at the PNC Arts Center similar show to the rehearsal show at Asbury but this time I went with my good friend MB which was a great time. Of course we also had to pick up tickets at the will call window which can be a nightmare but it turned out ok. The actress, Annabella Sciorra sat in like the 2nd or 3rd row in front of us, she looked pretty good in person and had some hot young stud with her, MB said she thought he was an actor too but I have no clue, maybe she will email me because the whole world is looking at my site LOL.
  • 6-27 - Dave Matthews show 1, highlight of the night was me and Fran drinking in the rain before/during the show and Fran insisting that he take his shirt off to show off to the high school chicks lol. Lie In Our Graves, The Dave Matthews tune was really good to see live and of course all the hot women walking around weren't bad on the eyes, Fran even knew some of them from his Temple days, it was a good time.
  • 6-28 - Dave Matthews show 2, highlight of the night was me and Matt G walking around in the lawn observing drunk people dancing and picking fights with each other. Besides that the concert was pretty good too, Tripping Billies and Crush were really good to see live and I think the set list was a lot better for this one then the night before.
  • 6-30 - 7-2 - New York Trip -

    On Friday I took the train up to New York to see some friends and people I do advertising with at work. It was a great time, and I actually didn't get totally lost which is always a plus. It's tough to get lost when you just take cabs everywhere though. My day started off pretty....pretty....pretty good, the train was no problem getting up there and the hotel I stayed at, The QT near Times Square was really nice. It has this sprockets feel to it, I was waiting for a monkey to jump out from under the bed after I hit the lights. The other bad thing is they have this awesome pool you can swim up to, but it was undergoing renovations =(.....But anyway, after getting a shower and changed and shit I met up with my friend Kev and we went out to eat at this pretty good Mexican place called La Palaba or some shit in the East Village, which is a real trendy part of town. So trendy in fact, that even the bums are wearing berets. The best part about this place was that they had margaritas that had enough tequila to kill a small horse and the service wasn't bad either. After hitting up the Mexican restaurant we went out to Coyote ugly with Kevin's friend Chris and played darts for awhile then they got the bright idea to buy me a body shot. A body shot is basically when they pour some shot all over a girl's stomach and you lick it up like a dog in heat, at least that's what they do there. I think in some other places you actually try to do the shot before it hits the girl/guy's stomach whatever....Now it seems fun because the bartenders at coyote ugly are really hot, and it was. But the only problem I had was after she poured the shot of tequila on her stomach and I licked it up feverishly (lol) she took my stinking belt off and hit me with it. Now she didn't swing the belt too hard on me but she kind of brought it up over her head afterwards and pulled on it hard, breaking the damn thing! I didn't realize it until the next day, but the front buckle on the belt is pretty much dangling off, I guess I bring that kind of anger out in the ladies...oh well I can't help it....After Coyote Ugly we went to a bar right near Kevin's apartment had a few more beers and actually probably the worst thing in the world after a long night, a shot of Jack Daniels, because this girl that Kevin had met wanted one (God knows why). After that shot I knew the night was pretty much over and we went outside hung out for a little while and I got a busted up cab back to the hotel.

    On Saturday, I woke up bright and early at noon and slowly got ready for the Yankees game at 1:15. That was probably a mistake as it took me about an hour to get to Yankee Stadium with the trains being crowded and me not even knowing how to get to the subway station. It wasn't too bad though because I met Kevin and Johnny G at Stan's by Yankee Stadium along with 2 of Johnny G's girlfriends. It was hot as balls outside and Johnny kept complaining about the tight ass jeans he had lol.....We didn't get in the game too late and we got in, in time to see the Mets destroy the Yankees 8-2, even with Randy Johnson the Yanks couldn't beat the Muts. The stupid thing about Yankee stadium is, it was like 95 degrees out and they are selling 24 ounce beers for 9 bucks. Now you expect the crazy prices, but unless you fregin pound the beer, 10 ounces of that is gonna taste like the hairy armpits of the beer guy who served it to you. The other pet peeve about Yankee Stadium is that because it's an old stadium the hallways are so goddamn narrow that if you run into a fat guy there's no way out, I hate to see a rush for the exits it would be like Apocalypse Now. It is a great stadium though and if you ever get a chance, check out the wall of fame out in centerfield or whatever they fregin call it. They have a nice row of plaques dedicated to all the great Yankees including of course the Babe, Reggie Jackson and Joe Dimaggio. Anyway, after the game we were going to head out to maybe a few bars etc...but we were all too tired, so i ended up going back to the hotel for a monster nap. After a good nap I talked with Kev and we decided to just go out to eat and see the new Superman movie. It was my first real gay date...joking of course...I only looked at his junk once...ok twice...Anwyay after we ate we headed over to the movie and I swear for the first 20 minutes or so I thought I was watching a remake of the first Superman. Kevin Spacey was pretty good as Lex Luther, but they tried to make it too much of a love story (i.e. a real movie which it's not). The special effects were just ok, most of which just involve Superman catching heavy shit. Also, a big time let down was Superman's new power, the ability to change from Clark Kent to Superman without a phone booth. Clark's nerdy clothes just fucking dissapear into thin air. I guess the makers realized that if Superman can lift 100 ton hunks of junk he can vaporize a neck tie. Ah well, it was still a good movie to see in the theatre and an awesome time.

    On Sunday, I checked out of the hotel and started to head back to Philly. But at around 12:30 I got a call from Smmmmmmmitty...He called me and talked me into to staying for the day and meeting up with him and a couple other friends at ESPNzone in times square. So I made the trek back to Times Square from Penn Station and hung out at ESPN zone talking to a bunch of out of towners and having a few beers. At about 1:45 or so I met up with Smitty and we hung out in the upstairs bar for a couple hours watching the Phillies and joking around. That's when I met huggie, their Limo driver. He was real funny talking about how the trick to driving in New York is just watching out for the guy making a left hand turn from the right lane. After ESPN Zone we went over to a bar right across from Madison Square Garden and at around 6pm when I thought I was going to fall asleep at the bar I decided to leave. Those guys ended up going to the Sunday Night game at Yankee Stadium, I would of gone there if I had taken off the next day but I was dead tired from the weekend and my car would of probably got some enormous ticket if let it expire in the lot.

  • BBQ 06' - The place, Quinny's, the time 3pm (2:30 for Shields...)...There isn't much to say about the barbecue I had at my place on the 4th of July, except that Shields busted my balls about not having enough ice for the beer. Besides that I actually didn't burn my parents house down or make a real big mess, so if you go just on that it was a complete success. Everybody who is anyone in Northeast Philly was there, except for maybe my neighbor, Weber. He was actually away I think so there were no calls to the cops or yells from his upstairs bedroom window telling me to knock off as he likes to call it, \"The racket\". JCa$$, of course, stayed the latest out of anyone, which is expected of such a faithful vanillaafro friend and colleague....The burgers were really good because I shelled out the big bucks at Trader Joes, not that stinking Acme shit, sorry Shelly. Sorry to offend anyone by walking around half naked, of course I'm only apologizing to the male audience of this site though, to the ladies I'm just sorry I didn't choose to go completely naked or give you a closer look. I will try to do it again sometime for all of those true Vanilla Afro mans who may have missed out. Expect cold beer, hot food, and sexy afros everywhere.
  • 7-19 - 7-23: Vanilla Afro in Vegas
  • 8-2 - Jimmy Buffett concert - Me and Frandingo
  • 8-18 - Tom Petty at the Tweeter. I went to the Tom Petty concert on Friday night with my boss, it was a really great time. The opening act the Allman Brothers was in sharp contrast with Petty. The Allmans play largely improvised versions of their songs and jam a lot, turning a song such as Melissa/Jessica or Midnight Rider from 5 minute songs into maybe 20 minute jam sessions with their guitarist Warren Haynes usually getting it started. Petty on the other hand comes out and basically plays his songs almost exactly like they are on his records, sometims maybe even skipping a spot here or there to make them even shorter. Nevertheless, both styles work and it was a real enjoyable concert. The highlight of the night for me for the Allman's was Jessica. And for Petty, Don't come around here no more is always good, but I thought his new song, \"Saving Grace\" was really good live and so was an alltime classic, \"Breakdown\", which is pretty much the only song that Petty improvises a lot on during his set. Anyway, he looks like a zombie but judging from the crowd, it doesn't matter, he still pleases every fan he plays for so rumors about him not touring anymore...well let's just say I'll believe it when I see it...
  • 8-19 - The cuervo gold,

    On 8/19 I got lucky and was able to pick up a single FRONT ROW ticket for Steely Dan at the Tweeter. As if Tom Petty and the Allman's the night before wasn't enough....Earlier in the night I went out with my parents, sister and her boyfriend. We at dinner at this place in Center city/Olde City (it should be Ye Olde City) called \"Jones\". It was pretty decent, it's like basically an upscale Boston Market, I think it ended up being $30 a person which isnt too bad, because it is trendy. After dinner me and my parents went to the Steely Dan concert. The opening act, Michael Mcdonald came on basically right after we got there and I sat in the 4th row with my parents until they kicked me out of my seat. After getting a beer I sat down and listened to Mcdonald sing some of his easy listening classics...LOL...such as Minute by Minute, What a fool believes, and It Keeps you running.. He encored with a bunch of motown songs (a slow version of second that emotion, ain't no mountain enough, and ain't nothing like the real thing), with a group of gospel back up singers that sounded really good. For the encore, he sang his famous Doobie Brothers song, Takin it to the streets. Michael Mcdonald has a big white head of hair, although not an afro, it is pretty big, and his head is possibly bigger then mine even...

    Steely Dan came on the stage about a half hour later and put on a really good show. Hey 19 was really good live, and Kid Charlemagne although a really goofy song, sounded awesome live. The only thing that stunk for at least me was the absence of Deacon Blues, but of course everyones a critic and is always missing a song they like the most. I mean Steely Dan has arguably about 25 good/great songs, at least in my book. Fagen sounded exactly like he does on even some of their oldest albums, and the one song he may not be able to sing anymore, Dirty Work, he had his 2 really good female back-up singers sing the main parts and it sounded awesome. The other cool thing about the concert was that Michael Mcdonald came out about half way through and sang backup on \"Peg\", and the main part of \"Josie Comes Home\". They encored with \"My Old School\", which is ridiculous live with all the brass. All and all it was a really great show, I think that even people that don't know any of the songs I'm talking about would even enjoy the concert.

  • 9-5 - Phillies Double header - I went to the Phillies double header with a couple of friends
  • 9-6 - Phillies again with my dad
  • 9-9 - The Opie and Anthony comedy show
  • 9-12 - The Who...or The Two
  • 9-25 - Phillies lose and with that their wild card hopes are shattered
  • 10-11 - Vanilla Afro hacked more on this later
  • 10-17 - James Taylor, yes I swear I'm not gay.
  • 10-20 - 10-23 - Berns then Mons then Eagles losing again in Tampa
  • 10-26 - Alice, who the fuck is Alice? in chains
  • 10-28 - Halloween at Big Mike's - check out the Halloween pictures here
  • 10-30 - Picking up my Stones tickets for the Beacon Theatre show
  • 11-1 - Stones at the Beacon Theatre in New York - The Stones played a great set at the Beacon Theatre which included the seldom played (at least for me) song Some Girls. Mick also sang duets with Jack White and Christina Aguilera (weird combo eh?). The show was one of two shows used by Martin Scorcese in a film/dvd he is making about the Rolling Stones. They are some really old farts, but they still put on a better show than almost any new band out there. I mean who would you rather see, The Killers or The Rolling Stones??
  • 11-12 - Lionel Richie at the Tower - Lionel sounded really good. He may not be my favorite artists because a lot of his songs are almost easy listening music, the kind of shit you hear in dentist office. But it was about as cool as a dentist office could be listening to Lionel sing such great hits as Easy Like Sunday morning, and The Commodores hit, Brickhouse
  • 11-14 - St. Joes game - St.Joes wins their first game against Fairfield
  • 11-24 - Warren Haynes and Gov't Mule at the Tower
  • 12-4 - Eagles Monday night game is a complete success. Great times, great food, great friends and probably too much to drink.

The Captain's retirement party (my dad) was a great time.  

My sister's speech was one of the best retirements or party speeches I think I've ever heard.  The food and free drinks of course weren't bad either!My dad is a great father and just a great all around guy, so to thank him for being so great we busted his balls LOL. Me, my sister and mom got up and did....

The top 10 reasons the Captain Quinn was the most influential police man in the city...

10.) Several police department units have lost funding since Captain Quinn left them including Sex Crimes & Highway Patrol…what does that tell you???

9.) Although in the Detective Bureau for many years, Captain Quinn still needs help locating everyday objects like wallets, keys, shoes, etc.

8.) In his early years on the Department, Quinn had so many commendations that he was promoted just so they wouldn’t have to issue him any more awards.

7.) At Central Detectives, Quinn was so good at delegating authority, he would often sneak out on the Parkway and play a simulated round of golf.

6.) Captain Quinn has been known to use his super powers to get his children out of all kinds of scrapes, including tow-jobs, parking tickets, speeding tickets, and jury duty. We can park wherever the hell we want to in the airport too. Well, not anymore.

5.) On Captain Quinn’s first day of work as a new police officer, he walked up a flight of stairs, opened a door, and a dead body knocked him down the steps. Now I don’t know about you, but that would have made me change careers….38 years later…um

4.) Captain Quinn’s has a not so secret life as a cabaret artist. He once sang Sweet Caroline in front of 1200 drunk cruise-ship passengers to thunderous applause. And yes, we do have the video to prove it.

3.) Channel 6 news supposedly pulled the plug on him because more people were saying perpetrator or brutal slaying then where’s that news van again.

2.) Karaoke bars everywhere have proposed a citywide 2 song limit because of Captain Quinn

1.) And finally, Captain Quinn has found a secret loop hole in the Police Department’s Comstat program using forensic mumbling.

I'm also going to add pictures to this one but for now I don't have any so deal with it...

On Wednesday night 4/26/06 - I went to Asbury Park Convention Hall to see Bruce Springsteen and The Seeger sessions band. The boss wasn't singing Born In the USA, Rosalita or any of his big hits, but rather folk songs and some Lousiana Bayou music that at first seemed corny, but it ended up actually being really good. If you love music you should see this show. Any show with a Tuba and Banjo involved can't be bad, there's no fucking way.  The only bad part about going to Asbury to see the show, was that I couldn't really find anyone last minute to go with, so I ended up going solo, which actually wasn't that bad considering I almost always go with someone to a concert or Phillies game or whatever. The only problem is you look like some kind of gay weirdo Bruce Springsteen stalker when you're sitting or standing there alone LOL. Here is the setlist from the concert which I stole from backstreets.com, a Bruce Springsteen fan site. The best thing about any Bruce Springsteen concert is idiot fans yelling BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUCE.......

 

Bruce Springsteen set list from his concert on 4/26/06 in Asbury Park, NJ - Asbury Park convention hall
  • Long Black Veil - didn't hear it
  • O Mary Don't You Weep - folk
  • John Henry - old school folk
  • Johnny 99 - doo wop song
  • Eyes on the Prize - slow song
  • Adam Raised a Cain - who knows it had a banjo I hope
  • Old Dan Tucker - yeehaw knee slapping
  • Cadillac Ranch - talk about a rehearsal song, Bruce fucked up several times but he was funny about it and the song was a twangy bluesy song which was good
  • My Oklahoma Home
  • Mrs. McGrath
  • How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? - my favorite really good guitar and Bruce sounded great in it, supposedly a 1930's depression era song about you guessed it, the depression
  • Jacob's Ladder
  • We Shall Overcome
  • Open All Night
  • Pay Me My Money Down - really catchy tune
  • If I Should Fall Behind
  • Buffalo Gals - a nursery rhyme song you've probably all heard or that has been changed several times with other lyrics
  • You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) - Chuck Berry sounding song pretty good
  • Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze - didn't hear it, left to beat traffic, the great fan I am....

Picture from the 4/20 concert at Asbury

\"Bruce


Another photo of Bruce Springsteen and the Seeger sessions band

\"Bruce

"Been Friends a long time" - Johnny Shields (send me pics of Shields)

You should of seen before I darkened this picture me and Cassidy looked about 50 years old...And BTW is it me or is Cassidy touching my right nip?

\"Cas

Here I am at the rehearsal dinner with my now infamous Jealous shirt.

The shirt was given to me by my good friend Smitttttty.

Aren't you jealous ?

\"Me

Here I am putting the young lady in front of me in a trance, at the wedding...Doing the best a white vanilla-afroed man can do...and that's good enough...really good


\"paly

"like a blind man in an orgy I would have to feel my way around". How hilarious is Dina in this pic too btw...

\"garter

Yeah man yeah, get after it....I look like I'm doing some sort of mexican hat dance in this one...Who the hell is that guy in the background to your right? Doesn't it look like as soon as I get off the dance floor, Guido back there is going to shoot me ?

\"la

And what would a wedding be without the man, the myth, the legend...EL Capitan..My awesome dad =). The pinstripes are killer.

\"The

Me and Cassidy again, this time very jovial.....perhaps too jovial...perhaps drunk, perhaps really drunk....Actually to the casual observer this could look like me smiling but really inside thinking get the hell off me get the fuck off me you sonofabitch...

 

\"stop

 

Ah, yes me and Mildred go way back, hahahahahaah........SO HAPPY TOGETHER......

\"so

Smitty's Wedding video clips - awesome and now they are on the internet for everyone to change to Paris Hilton sex tapes.....

NOTE: on these clips below you may want to RIGHT click then click Save as... rather than stream them...

WARNING: ladies this will make you very very hot

  1. Short clip of D Sparks and Elder Sparks dancing
  2. Basically the best dancing ever by 2 white guys at a wedding....
  3. More awesome white guy wedding dancing...can you really get enough of this shit?
  4. Smitty taking off the garter belt
  5. And Finally yours truly making an ass of myself...but I was forced I swear by a Radio voice DJ guy....LONG DOWNLOAD AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Hot Ladies

\"Hot

anymore wedding pics or afros spotted at any wedding, even satanic ones email me info@vanillaafro.com. Please no sheep.

Johnny Shields looking sharp as hell....OOOOH

\"sexy

Hot gentleman (yeah...).After a hard fought game of boner tag.

\"hot

 

Beginning of the trip - Wednesday

I left for Las Vegas on Wednesday evening on a trip for work, things started off right on the departure flight. My boss sat across from me and threw his pillow at me, exciting the guy next to me, who thought that my boss was trying to start a fight. Now, what made this even funnier was that the guy next to me was about 6'6 and 275 pounds and was ready to fight. Luckily we both reassured him that it was just a joke between me and my boss and he had nothing to be angry about. After this we started talking to the guy (Randy) about where he was from and other bullshit etc....This led to him getting really comfortable with us. Randy really wanted food, but since there was no in-flight meal (even in first class), we had to settle for shots of jack. We started doing shots before the flight even took off, not to mention cans of Heineken, and I think I might have been drunk before takeoff. After the plane got in the air things got even funnier as Randy started to get a little obnoxious. He flirted heavily with the flight attendant and called my boss a loser just because he didn't like some stupid Vegas restaurant lol.... After about 5 shots of Jack and several beers I passed out until the plane was hitting the runway. This drinking bonanza made me really tired and surly as we waited for our luggage at the baggage claim. The bags seemed to be delayed about a half hour or so but we did finally get them and get in to Vegas at around 12:30am or so. A couple of our friends who were already there, Sam and Steve had a limo to pick us up and steak dinners waiting for us at the Wynn, which we could tell by walking in was one of the nicest casinos in Vegas. So obviously we started things out right with limos and steak....


Day 1 and 2

We got to our rooms at around 3:30 and I slept straight through until the buffett in the morning. After eating, we took a look around the Wynn, The Venetian and outside of the hotel. We ended up also running into a booth that had info on all the different shows and attractions etc.... We picked up a brochure on the Grand Canyon helicopter ride and after reading a little bit of it, knew it was probably the best thing we could do besides lose all our money gambling. So we scheduled a helicopter ride and got to the airport at around 2pm. The chopper took off at around 3:30 or so. It was a pretty big chopper, it fit 7 people and everyone was miked up to hear everyone else which was pretty cool. Especially when cheesy music like Danger Zone is playing in the background, so you can say shit like, \"SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY....YOU BETTER BE DEAD....OR IN JAIL.....TO MISS SPRINGFIELD AIRFIELD'S WAR PLANES IN ACTION...\" Not to mention the view of the Hoover Dam, desert, Lake Mead and the Las Vegas strip is gorgeous. The chopper also after about a 75 minute flight, landed inside the Grand Canyon where the flight company (Maverick) had picnic tables set up with champagne and cheese available...mmmm cheese. The flight back was really cool, but since it wasn't dark yet, the Las Vegas strip wasn't lit up, and for anyone who goes out to Vegas and wants to do the trip, the pilot recommended getting the evening one so you can see the strip all lit up. One light for every million dollars they've taken from every sucker tourist (yours truly included). On Thursday night we ended up eating at the best restaurant in the Wynn, Steve Wynn's steakhouse (God this guy really has an ego doesn't he?....naming everything after himself. Steve Wynn's shoe polish remover, now with diamond crusted banana docksiders included. Anyway, guys from another ticket agency joined us for dinner and drinks and we had a great time. After dinner we went to the House Of Blues Foundation Room, an exclusive club at Mandalay Bay. My boss got us into with his membership. It was kind of dungeony inside, including the people who looked like they had gone on some enormous heroin trip. Actually it wasn't that bad, and because of it's location it has a great balcony where you can see all of the Las Vegas strip, in all it's neon infested glory. Of course being a total moron I didn't get any pictures from the balcony. I didn't even bring my digital camera, which I have collecting dust in my house. Ah well, I'm sure I can find some pictures online of the view and say I took the picture. Later on in the night I played a little black jack, actually winning a little bit of money. So I decided to head over to the poker tables. I ended up giving it all back and playing like a complete donkey in 1/3 no limit. The funniest thing about the poker at the Wynn is in 1/3 no limit there's no maximum bet, so you can actually sit down at a 1/3 no limit table and be against people with $10,000 in front of them or something stupid like that. Ah well, it was still a fun time and at about 3:30 or so I went to bed. On Friday, I got up at around 10 again and me and my boss ended up going down to some of the ticket broker meetings including a panel discussion featuring various ticket agencies talking about things related to the business etc... It was pretty informative but had nothing to do with food or gambling so we left rather quickly. After losing another $100 or so at poker I met up with my boss and we went to the NATB cocktail party. We got some free drinks I talked to some people in the business and we met up with a guy from another company who we had prearranged to see Elton John with.


Friday Night - The Elton John concert

We had planned a couple days before the trip to go see Elton John and we scored some great tickets, the least you would expect from a couple knuckle head ticket brokers. So, on Friday night we went over to Caesars to see the show. Elton came out at around 7:45 with Benny and the Jets. Definitely one of his most catchy songs and above his piano he had a huge screening showing some really weird and interesting stuff, including you guessed it borderline gay porn. Some of the videos were actually cool too though. For Rocket Man, Elton had a video made with Justin Timberlake portraying him walking to the stage in the 70's, giving chicks and guys smooches and his manager, Pee Wee Herman (no lie, it's Pee Wee in the video) keeping the riff-raff out. I know that if I was backstage and had to get ready for a big performance I would want Pee Wee ripping up contracts, beating up bikers and getting the nasty whores away from my gay cape. What a good choice, it was definitely a funny video, and Rocket Man is definitely one of his best songs. The gayest and most colorful video of all had to be that Philadelphia Freedom. In this one he showed some cool pictures of some freaky ass people in the 70's with psychedelic type stuff behind them. It was definitely neat. His video for Candle in the Wind had a Marilyn Monroe look alike in it and he also had ballet like videos for some of his other songs. Someone Saved my life tonight was really interesting too, as he had kind of a gay arch angel and nude devil/angel women doing something out of a Calvin Klein commercial.....Some weird stuff but it worked with the music and he sounded good. The only song that disappointed me a little was Daniel, only because he can't really hit the high notes anymore on it, but it still sounded awesome. Other highlights included hundreds of beach balls being thrown out into the crowd during I'm still standing and he also let the first 3 rows of the crowd go to the stage and sing a long. Overall it was a really entertaining show and I'd recommend it to anyone going out to Vegas. Only problem with the show is that it's $275 for the really good seats, so unless you don't care about the money I'd recommend with the seats maybe one price down, you can still see the stage really good. After Elton we went to arguably the best restaurant in Vegas, The Prime at the Bellagio and had some really great food and drinks before going back to the Wynn. Friday and Saturday at the Wynn was mobbed and as the weekend got closer the amount of hot women at the hotel increased 10 fold. Friday night, me and steve hung out playing slots and watching gorgeous women walk by one after the other.


Saturday afternoon

On Saturday we went to the trade show to check out the various ticket computer systems and saw some pretty interesting stuff. We also went to the biggest meeting of the trip where various agencies discussed ticket laws and other bs that i'm not going to bore you with. I also lost again at poker bringing my losing streak to 3 straight days. During the day I also hung out with my friend Steve at the sportsbook eating lunch and playing the horses, just betting all kinds of stupid races that we knew nothing about, sharpening our skills for future losses and basically just hanging out bullshitting with people.

Saturday night - Cirque Du Soleil Beatles

After getting beat up at the poker tables and sports book we met up at the Mirage to go see the Cirque Du Soleil Beatles show. We got to the box office and were able to pick up some 3rd row seats right at the window. The show was really good, probably not as good as Elton John, you can't really beat live music. But the Beatles songs were acted out by the Cirque Du Soleil cast in colorful costumes including Elenor Rigby, Hey Jude, Baby you can drive my car, with you guessed it a beat up VW bug, Day in the Life (one of my all time Beatles favs), Magical Mystery Tour, and the encore All you need is love. The Cirque Du Soleil acrobats weren't as unbelievable as other Cirque shows, but the sound was unbelievable. Mostly because they had a speaker in back of every seat and the volume was just right etc....After the show we ate at the Carnegie Deli inside the Mirage and went back to the Wynn. We got back to the Wynn pretty late and we headed to the black jack tables. I ended up putting up like $100 with Steve at a $15 table and we played for hours, long enough to cash out up about $150, which was great. Of course I had to go back over to the poker tables afterwards and blow another $85 or so, but what are you going to do. The trip ended up going really fast with the two concerts, meetings, and the helicopter ride but it was good because instead of just gambling money away, we did a lot of cool stuff, and gambled money away too...hehe..


Sunday at the Hard Rock

The next day I got up at around 8:00am got changed and went downstairs to get my first massage ever, it was really relaxing, I almost fell asleep while the girl was massaging my back, and it was only a half hour massage! It was real disgusting though because as I was laying on my fat stomach I drooled a little bit on the cushion thing lol....Oh well a little drool never hurt anyone, except the next guy who gets a massage haha. After getting a nice massage, I packed up all of my things and got a taxi over to the Hard Rock Hotel to meet up with Chris and his friend Karin. Chris had booked the Hard Rock the night before so that we could get passes for the ultimate Vegas party, Rehab....Rehab is basically like a MTV spring break party that all the Vegas dancers, strippers and guys who work out every day go to in Vegas, mixed in with out of shape tourists like me. The party is held at the Hard Rock pool which is a huge lagoon like pool that wraps around most of the outside of the hotel and has sand on it's floor rather than concrete. People actually wait outside for hours just to pay $50 to get into to this damn party and it's probably almost worth it. There were tons of hot women parading around in almost nothing, and it's actually probably even better for women because they actually turn away ugly guys, only allowing guys with nice tans and shaved chests in. We had a nice view of the pool, we got a nice spot early and took in the whole party which really started to get going at around 1:30 or so. You can see some pictures of Rehab online here. It was a great way to end a great trip. I think I would of won the award for the whitest guy there not having any kind of tan because I never take my shirt off. I'd definitely recommend to anyone going to Vegas to make sure they come back on Monday as opposed to Sunday so that they can stay until 6pm or so at this party. The only problem with the whole party is when you sit on one of the beach chairs they have you literally sweat uncontrollably becuase it's about 120 degrees in the Vegas sun. I guess the best time to go to Vegas is probably like Mid-September or late April so that you avoid the death valley like heat. So that was my Vegas trip, I tried to make it somewhat funny but it was really just a great time, I guess you had to be there for it to be funny....

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