I’m doing Ed Sullivan On Acid in Freddy’s Backroom at 9 PM. It’s hosted by the hilarious Pat O’Shea who holds quite a good standing in my respect. He recently came out with a CD (Not Friendly) and he is from Boston, Massachusetts, which does put you in my favor. He also has a great looking headshot and show that has been going strong for over five years.

Also, Transcendentalist Television is this Friday in Brighton, Massachusetts at Castlebar at 9 PM! Can you believe it?! We’ve got Daniel M. Solomon back with the segment Make Me A Movie and our house band is going to be outstanding! Dan and I have a lot of special things planned. Don’t you worry. You don’t have to make any plans except plans to come! Isn’t that perfect? Did I mention that there are really cheap pitchers of beer? And not a ‘Light’ or a ‘Pabst’ but something with a ‘Boc’. Wow.

I have been trying to keep the exporting of funds from my account to a minimum the past few months, which has meant drinking only one or two beers a week. That’s not very many. In fact it’s practically nothing. My tolerance for alcohol has gone way down. Which can be kind of cool since if I have two beers in a night now I’m feeling pretty happy with a nice little buzz instead of pouring down eight shots of whiskey and getting angry, “I’m still not fucking drunk yet!”

Last night I got drunk. I met up with some people while they were finishing up a pub crawl for the Saturday before St. Patrick’s Day, that oh holiest of alcoholics. I started with whiskey ’cause they’d all been drinking for hours. Some people already were calling it a night at 6:30. We bounced around too a few more bars, saw loads of different people and I’m gonna say I enjoyed myself. There was a quick smoke of marijuana at one point and that always puts me on Cloud 9. I got shitty. And it doesn’t matter; I’m in a bar, I know most everyone in it, whatever. I’ll just be drunk in a bar and not worry about gathering my shit until I’m sober enough to make my way home.

I got caught up in a few good conversations and then someone asked I wanted to smoke some more pot. Dun Dun DUN! Of course. Have I ever said no to that drug? Maybe once since I was 16. Now where is my jacket?

I couldn’t find that fucking thing for the life of me. I knew it was just me being drunk and having misplaced it. People kept saying, “I’m sure no one stole it.” Me too! I’m sure it’s just that I’m fucked up right now and can’t get my shit together to keep track of an article of clothing that will keep me warm once I leave this establishment, Goddammit! It took forever. I was highly embarrassed, because I’m a human and I lost my opportunity to bond of over a hit. C’est la vie. I waited for the place to clear out a bit more and made some inquiries as to whose jackets were whose and eventually around 2:35 I finally got my hands on it. A big thank you to Neal Stasty for knowing how much it would suck to lose your jacket in a bar and therefore helping me find it.

Maybe I should start drinking more. Get my tolerance back up. That or stop wearing jackets.

Monday.

Julie said she wanted to get Matt and I some real New Orleans food instead of what we thought was real New Orleans food and turned out to just be Popeye’s. Although I have been told by multiple sources that Popeye’s is in fact better in New Orleans. Maybe Zattaran’s is too. So we went to Mandina’s and I was jonesing for gumbo. I got a bowl of it, which was a meal itself! Boy howdy. I also got a roast beef po’boy and found out the original po’boy was french fries between to be pieces of french bread. Wikipedia doesn’t have that story up, but maybe the fat guy wearing twenty-seven beads is right.

We went back and rested up. This is very important. Matt and I were flying out on Fat Tuesday very early in the morning. I was planning on getting in a half night of sleep before having to head to the airport and Matt was most likely go from partying to the airport. It is, after all, Mardi Gras.

Julie, Sarah, Matt and I went downtown, drank, watched the parade and began to despise everyone around us. A couple fun costumes and hats being worn out there, which is nice to see. Lundi Gras on Monday is when a lot of people get dressed up for the parades on Fat Tuesday. We were getting no bead love for almost an hour, but started to make up for it by the end. A bunch of the floats had very B List actors. Jim Belushi, Joan Rivers, some guy from American Idol, the cast of Reno 911. Matt grabbed two beads from Lt. Dangel. We wanted to stay for Harry Conick Jr., but ended up not even bothering. Sorry Harry!

We walked down to Bourbon Street just to see what it was like. It was crazy. Obviously. Kind of annoying. More protesters than I thought. On the way there Julie went to the bathroom in a strip club she didn’t realize was a strip club until I told her after and Matt went to piss on the street and then about a trip of 80 13 year olds walked by that never seemed to end. We walked around the French Quarter for about 45 minutes talking with strangers, watching hilarious people, singing “Amazing Grace” and checking out anything weird. Julie and Sarah danced “Get it Ready, Ready” with some kids that were from 40 minutes outside the city.

Then we went to some bars on Frenchman Street. Frenchman is officially my favorite place to go in New Orleans. Great live music, great big bars, lots of people. If Bourbon Street is Times Square then Frenchman is Bedford Ave. or MacDougal Street although it seems like an unfair arguement. Truthfully I kind of like the feel of Frenchman more than Bedford or MacDougal. R Bar was fun, but packed. Sarah and Matt had been playing these great characters for over an hour. Sarah was a hick and Matt was a real Jersey goomba. Basically both playing a combination of some of their relatives. Either way they were both on and kept me blissfully entertained. It was like watching a FOX sitcom from the early nineties.

The night ended watchin live music and running into Erin Patton and her friends at dba. Let me say I’m a fan. We danced and I tried Andygater, which I tried to be generous with. I don’t know if it’s still being generous if I’m trying, but I spread some love and good cheer.

All in all I’d say that Mardi Gras was a complete success this year. If I were New Orleans I’d keep doing them. It’s like the best parade, party and tailgate all rolled into one. It’s simply what everyone is doing that week. Why wouldn’t you be there?

Total Mardi Gras Beadage: 40 +/- I’m proud of this range, but some people were making a killing out there. Walking away with 100 beads a night, easy.