and if anyone wants to know why i’m not on this, there are 2 reasons:

1. someone has to shoot the video, cause i don’t see YOU doing it.
2. i shot my vocal chords within 10 minutes. a little thing i like to call “18 and life”

and then i went out to SF to look for apartments and my once and future roommate micah ruined it by asking me how it was a good week before it happened. this was of course not his fault, because he wasn’t going to the party so he only looked at the email once.

but, because i rule (see title), i decided that i would throw HIM a surprise going away party because he’s going back to NY, and i wouldnt’ even give alex and karen the chance to ruin it by telling them about it. though i will admit that the idea occurred to me and i giggled about it for a few hours at work one day.

so with Ali and Tricia’s (and everyone else’s) help, we did this last thursday. All these photos are Aubreys, but i’m stealing them anyways:

you can see the rest of the photos on Aubs flickr set

Originally uploaded by mloco.

so, because it’s 2000, i went to the Paul Oakenfold show last wednesday. a few notable things about the show:

1. it was on a wednesday night
2. it started at 9PM but no one showed up till 11.
3. you had to literally slide down a tunnel to get to the bar
4. the place was packed
5. the restrooms weren’t near each other, so i went towards what looked like both restrooms and ended up being only the ladies room. then i had to work my way back to the other side of the bar. well planned.

other than that the show was fun. seriously, it was. I love that he’s still using the same synth keyboard sound he used back in tranceport. it’s nice to see that someone sticks to their principles.

1. Snowboarding. i went up to our cabin for the first time last weekend. the house is great, the snowboarding is great, i will be going back up there this weekend to get a few days in, though the conditions aren’t awesome, they’re much better than what i’m used to back east. my goal remains to get 25 days up this season. right now i’m at 2, but it still seems like it’s achievable. i hope. i might be making that up.

2. CES. i spent sunday-wednesday of this week at the Consumer Electronics Show, doing demo’s for the products that i built last year, and generally wandering around, gawking at huge tv’s. my main takeaway from CES is that everyone seems to be hawking HD camcorders, to let more of us make video blogs. maybe i’ll start doing a video blog on manlio rules, though i think i would lose almost 100% of the eloquence y’all have come to expect from me. but at least i could always have def leppard playing in the background.

3. Football. the pats are in the playoffs! go playoffs! i’m nervous about the SD game this sunday, but if anyone can stop LDT, it’s the Pats. I hope.

4. Trivia. Trivia nights have been pretty much my only social outlet since the start of the year. we keep winning, so that’s good. last week we somehow rolled with like 12 people. Lyandra and Amy were there as well, so my SF friends got to meet some of my NY friends, and vice versa.

and that’s pretty much it. seems awfully boring. i’ve got some shots of trivia 2 weeks ago that you can peruse, if you so desire. i’ll make sure to take ski cabin shots this weekend so everyone can drool at the awesomeness of wintering in Tahoe. wintering!

on the plus side, there were plenty of cabs (are you listening San Francisco? cabs are useful! i hope you asked santa for some).

I arrived at Derek and Mary’s apt and met Scott. this is the place:

yeah i know. nice, right? thanks guys for letting me stay there, sorry i threw all those candy bars in your dryer. i’m a terrible person.

thursday night i met up with Alex Naro and crew, and went out to sammy’s noodles for a great dinner. then i dball stalked stephen and got to meet his new girlfriend in bburg, before staying up all night playing the Wii with scott. Wii = awesome. i will have one soon.

Friday i met neil and matt at 12:30 for a little lunch, which ended up being somewhere i don’t remember, but i think it was good. then we wandered around the city for an hour or so. one thing i’m not used to anymore? walking everywhere. my feet are killing me and my toe hurts (that’s probably more from the booze than the walking). we ended up down at Lotus Lounge, where we ran into Luke and Lyandra, not uncommon since Lyandra seems to pretty much live there.

So, then i went to brie’s house for a little dinner party. it was delicous, and super classy, as evidenced by the table setting:

from there i went to see Gabe’s show.

it was great, i’m not a huge folk country fan, but this stuff i like. then we went to Bouche bar, which i’d never been to before, but is a very underappreciated little spot on 5th between a and b, a little down from ace bar. we tried ace bar first, but it was douchetastically crowded by the doucheoise. terrible. we drank till i hit my wall at around 2:30, and had to get the hell home.

saturday morning i met nicole (ok, so it was 1PM, i guess that’s technically saturday afternoon), and we wandered around the city most of the day, meeting up with Katie for a bit before meeting Michael, Neil, and Matt for dinner. Scott caught us a little later and we headed over to hangar bar to see the penn girls club,

who were all a few sheets to the wind, especially lyandra, who was wearing fall down shoes yet somehow managed to not fall down, at least not that i could see. after they all went to Crif dogs, we headed to Bouche bar for one more drink. ran out of steam around 3.

Sunday i woke up and called Jody for a little UES breakfast. Jody’s new apartment is sensational, and i convinced him not to go clean his old one before moving out. i uh, hope that worked out. raced back home and put together my DJ set list for the gig that night. This is the original untouched setlist:

1. Hours – TV on the Radio
2. This Modern Love – Bloc party
3. Comfortably Numb – Scissor Sisters
4. Boy from School – Hot Chip
5. Let’s make Love – CSS
6. Close to Me – The Cure
7. Lazy Eye – Silversun Pickups
8. Title and Registration – Death Cab
9. The bleeding heart show – New Pornographers
10. Higher and Higher – Jackie Wilson
11. When you were Young – The Killers
12. Mr. November – The National
13. Monkey Gone to Heaven – Pixies
14. Pour some Sugar on Me – Def Leppard
15. Maps – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

I thought this was a great list. what i actually played left out 8, 9, and 15, moved 13 up to the top, and added a ton of other stuff like Blondie, more CSS, Billy Idol, the Arcade Fire, Gnarls Barkley and a bunch of other stuff i can’t remember.

so i burned me some CD’s got all dressed up like a rockstar, and headed down to Park Slope to meet Alex, Karen, Matt, Freya, and Kevin for Hibachi dinner.

Hibachi dinner? awesome. where else is there this much fire??

we went for 4-6 on catching food in our mouths.

So we hit union hall at about 8:30, and it takes us awhile to figure out how the system works, but we get it going and Karen gets on the tables around 9:30. She played a great set, but most people hadn’t shown up yet, which is their loss, losers. I got on at about 10:45, and immediately discovered 2 things about DJing

1. it seems to make you about 400% hotter to women.
2. Most of the people who come up to talk to you are annoying.
3. if you think your set will go the way you planned, you’re kidding yourself.

thats not to say that all of them are. 23 year-old Hofstra film school graduate working for MTV, your unconditional support and encouragement was the best part of the DJ process.

oh, and woman who wanted me to play “just like heaven”? i’m sorry, it turns out no one had it. apologies.

and just for fun, here are some random conversation quotes from the booth:

woman: what kind of stuff do you play?
me: umm… i dunno, indie electronic rock?
her: what about 80′s?
me: uh, maybe.
(she goes through my ipod)
her: do you have any New Order?
me: no
her: how can you say you spin 80′s and not have any new order?
me: I didn’t actually say that i spun 80′s
her: well, someone said it.
me: yeah, that was you.

——————–

brit woman: thank you so much, you’re saving my night
me: uh… thanks
her: i can’t find anyone who plays the pixies around here
…
(the hour goes by and she comes back about 5 times. we chat about shows, music etc… then, near the end of my set)
her: what are you playing next?
me: Def Leppard
her: seriously?
me: yeah, and i like Journey too

at which point she exited stage left and was never seen again.

————————-

woman: I want something to dance to. do you have any Jeff Buckley?

————————–

guy: do you have any CSS?
me: this is CSS.
guy: oh. well, can you play alala?

————————–

after I got off the tables Alex and Kevin put on great sets,

I got hit in the head with a coyote by a drunk dancing girl, Nikki apparently got punched in the face (and if anyone saw what the hell happened there, i’d love to know who did that, i have a bone to pick with them, as does Stephen),

Marisa and Karen made out with the coyotes,

Jocelyn almost got me to wear the lampshade on my head,

Briehan, Maureen, Megan and crew rolled in and hopefully had fun (sorry i didn’t see you guys much),

Theresa made a cameo with her friend who once saw my apt and thought i lived like a pig, which i immediately brought up (classy).

and then there was the general party craziness

and we finally closed the place down at 3:30 with a little geese of beverly rose.

if you’ll remember, back in May i put up a list ranking all my NYC New Years. Even though it’s recent, i think i can safely say that this one is the new reigning champion. soooo much fun!

and this morning i woke up, packed, and generally felt like a rockstar. i miss New York, and it was super great to see everyone. i can’t believe i have to work tomorrow.

Accordingly, i attended Sean and Aubrey’s “White Elephant Xmas” party on Monday night. For those of you who don’t know what a White Elephant is, basically everyone brings a wrapped gift, then draws numbers out of a hat, and you pick gifts one at a time. except, you can choose to “steal” a gift from someone who has chosen before you. So, if i have number 5, i can either take a new gift, or steal one of the gifts from 1-4. Then they get to choose if they want to steal a gift or pick a new one. And so on.

The first problem i had is we were supposed to “re-gift” something and bring it to the party as our gift. Now, i have a lot of crap. A lot. but i couldn’t really figure out what to give away, so I decided to do a charcoal sketch of something xmas related and bring that. here’s what i ended up with:

i know, not my best work, but not bad for an hour or two on a sunday afternoon. The problem was that as the party approached, i got nervous that no one would actually want this sketch, except for me. So i quickly scoured my junk box for something else to give away. i ended up taking micah’s snow globe, because he opted out of the party. and something else, but i can’t say what that was, because someone who reads this blog gave it to me last year and i feel a little guilty at giving it away. Suffice to say, the person who ended up getting these things was very very excited, so i think it all worked out.

oh, and i got a little meditation fountain that has water and LED’s. which is pretty sweet. Other presents included:

- a purse made out of jean pants
- a sex book (3 guesses as to who brought that)
- a nice piece of art
- a talking homer simpson (i almost stole this, but Kevin seemed so happy with it that i couldn’t do it)
- a hula girl (no, not a real one.)
- a series of plastic hats

and that’s all i remember. i was pretty drunk at this point, thanks to Eris’s egg nog, which was both delicious and somewhat addictive. and i probably didn’t need to have 3 cups of it on a monday night.

last weekend i decided that it would be fun to go to the Live 105 “not so silent night” featuring the Killers, Modest Mouse, the Shins, the Raconteurs, etc… I was incorrect. don’t get me wrong, the Killers played a really solid set for what you KNOW is a “phone it in” show for them. i would say they did like 40 minutes, no encores, goodnight Cleveland. Oh, and apparently i hate Modest Mouse. who knew? Also, that venue (the bill graham civic auditorium) is maybe the worst place i’ve ever been to see a show that wasn’t called “the Siren Festival”.

saturday was silly. if you’re ever debating between going to something (in this case my company’s holiday party) and sitting home on the couch eating pizza, and it’s even a little bit difficult to make the decision, then chances are the party must really suck. this is similar to when i was having trouble in philly making it to improv because i kept wanting to stay home and watch wrestling (to be fair, this was 2000, when wrestling was going through it’s Neo-Renaissance). and i decided that if i was having trouble getting to rehearsal because of wrestling, then maybe it was time to quit the group. and that guy Dennis from that group still owes me $600. I will take it from him in souls.

Sunday i was introduced to a great little beer tasting place, and bought myself some blueberry beer. Which is delicious.

oh, and if anyone knows why i can’t seem to get a clean mic signal into Live, that would be very helpful. anyone?

If there’s one thing i learned at Floyd, it’s that 4 whiskeys on an empty stomach is usually a recipe for a long, brilliant night.

Last night i put the same theory to the test, except i replaced whiskey with vodka, and Floyd with Mezzanine. the verdict? well, i’ll let you decide.

Forsaking dinner, I met up with a few people at 111 Minna, where they where having an opening for that new book on small scale sustainability of the environment (what kind of mint?), and how that can translate to larger scale sustainability for the world as a whole. At least i think that’s what the book is about. You can see it on Amazon.

After that we rocked on over to Mezzanine, where the Faint was playing with Ratatat. I’d never seen either band live (i skipped out on a Ratatat show a few years ago in NY), and i was very impressed by both bands. if you haven’t seen either of these bands live, do it. seriously, right now… i’m waiting… ok fine, do it later.

Now, i’m not one to tell stories about other people getting too drunk, but one of my friends got a little extra sauced at the show. In truth, it was probably my fault, because she kept saying: “i need to go home soon”, and i kept smiling and nodding, assuming that when she was ready to go, she’d go home. Then i noticed that she was having trouble standing, and i realized that i had casually ignored the “umm… i’m drunk” warning signs. No problem, i’ve had years of experience with this. I grab our coats, maneuver her out and into a cab, and head for Russian Hill, figuring that i’ll take the cab back to the Haight after i make sure she gets inside ok. She insists that we stop for Pizza, wherein the following things are said (in no particular order)

her: I’ll have a slice with lots of meatballs.
me: I’ll have a plain slice
her (to pizza guy): He’ll apparently have a pu**y slice.

her: we need one bottle of water
me: we should get two
her: one!
me: seriously, let’s get two
her (hitting me repeatedly in arm): ONE!

her: why are we still sitting here?
me: because we haven’t gotten our food yet.
her: we got food?
me: yes, we got pizza.
her: well, where is it? make them get it faster!

her: what are these?
me: this is the garlic bread you ordered.
her: i ordered garlic bread?
me: yes
her: well, you’ll have to eat most of it.

and i will just say that her slice of pizza, after she was through with it, looked as if it had been eaten by a bear with poor fine motor control.

I got home and decided that 1AM was the perfect time to lay down a solo to the song i’ve been working on. and you know what? it was!!

Last wednesday Sean, Micah, Jess, and myself went and won trivia at Tonic. To be fair, there wasn’t a ton of competition, and the score we ended up getting usually ends up a 3rd place victory, but hell, we all need a little 1989 world series now and then. If you don’t know what i mean by that, then don’t worry about it, it’s really not that interesting.

the post victory fun-fest:

Then we headed down to the Hemlock and met up with some people. i didn’t stay out too late, or at least i didn’t think that i did, but thursday was much tougher than i wanted it to be.

thursday was a pretty blah day all around. work was blah, i didn’t have bunches of fun at the bar that night. practically the definition of blah.

Friday I went home to watch my netflix, only to discover that the CD was cracked and broken. this is the 2nd time in 2 weeks that this has happened to me, and while i understand, it’s definitely a blah experience. oh, but i did go shopping on Friday and bought some new clothes. so that was good. better than blah.

Saturday i… hmm… i don’t know what i did saturday. certainly nothing exciting. blah.

and yesterday I worked on my music a little bit, wandered Haight St., and lounged. all of which was better than blah.

this week in the adventures of blah, our hero goes to a few shows, hopes to successfully defend his trivia throne, and debates till the last second whether to even to go his company xmas party.

Friday I left work early and did the WFH thing in the afternoon. Micah and I were supposed to head down to mezzanine and check out Hot Chip, but he wasn’t feeling so well. I took his bank card to pick up the tickets (and drinks were on micah all night!!), and headed down to meet up with Ali, Willo, and Harry.

We tried to go somewhere for dinner that was closed, so willo coyly suggest Chevy’s.

Chevy’s has great margaritas. I had 2 of them.

Hot Chip was very good. I texted Mike back in NY and said: “i have a new band for you. Hot Chip”. he texted back: “yeah, check my fm playlist, i’ve been listening to them a ton lately”. you gotta wake up pretty early in the AM to find an electronica band before mike.

The show was great, afterwards we went to Ryan’s for a party. I had one drink and realized that i was just about to fall over, so i went home.

the next day i was supposed to get up and do things, but was so ridiculously out of it that all i could manage was a few phone calls (happy birthday mom!), and a few naps. I finally made it out for dinner in Cole Valley, then passed on the Laughing Squid party (lame of me), to go to bed early.

Sunday i watched football and worked a bunch. good times good times.