Hi Albany,
Wow. So today was Kegs and Eggs. Here's what I saw:
Now, allow me to "Quentin Tarantino" this, if you're not from the area.
Last night was my show - It was a whole lot of fun, partly because I had a killer playlist but primarily because Matt and I had a bit of an in-studio performance with our New Wave band, Live with Device. Our on-the-spot renditions of "Spring Wok" and "Spanish Fry" were astounding, in my opinion. The two station mics on our two amps were all we needed to jam out the Roland TR-505 drum machine and XP-50 synth sufficiently. Here's the playlist from the evening (kinda short because Spring Wok and Spanish Fry clocked in at 40 and 25 minutes respectively)
| ICEHOUSE | ELECTRIC BLUE (12") |
| BREAKIN' | BODY WORK |
| LIVE WITH DEVICE | SPRING WOK |
| SEONA DANCING | MORE TO LOSE |
| THE SUNDAYS | HERE'S WHERE THE STORY ENDS |
| THE SMITHS | I STARTED SOMETHING I COULDN'T FINISH |
| TIC TOC | CRITICAL PATH |
| THE PLIMSOULS | I WANT WHAT YOU GOT |
| DONNIE IRIS | DO YOU COMPUTE? |
| 'TIL TUESDAY | VOICES CARRY |
| INXS | LISTEN LIKE THEIVES |
VITAL IDOL
LIVE WITH DEVICE
| HOT IN THE CITY
SPANISH FRY
|
Whew! That performance was so intense. I'll get a copy of it soon, so E-mail me if you want a recording.
I then went to sleep, because the twentieth anniversary of an immensely popular SUNY Albany tradition was to take place in the coming hours:
KEGS
AND
EGGS.The definition of Kegs and Eggs, as given by the only website I could possibly consult for such a definition:
"Held on St. Patty's Day in
Albany N.Y. is the one day of the year that not only is it acceptable to set your alarm clock to wake up at 6am and begin drinking, it is expected! After you pound a few screwdrivers you make the hike down to the Branch on Lake St. where at 7am the line is over 100 people long waiting for the bar to open. It is completely acceptable for guys to piss in the snow banks in fact other drunks cheer you. You finally get in for a 15 dollar fee but don't worry it is all you can drink. But the catch is probably 350 plus people are in the bar and their is probably less than 80 pitchers. And those lucky enough to get pitchers don't drink the beer they rather dump it on everyone. the humidity level inside is 100% as water droplets form on the ceiling and every time the door opens a fog over takes the bar. If you have to piss it doesn't matter the bathroom is occupied most of the guys just let it flow in their pants. If you're lucky enough to live till 11am when the bar closes the festivities don't end all day and night long but beware you will feel what is known as double day syndrome in which you're up so early drinking the day will be so long it feels as though the night is a second day in itself."
-Urbandictionary.comI was never one for Kegs and Eggs, as I always viewed it to be some stupid made up drinking holiday where kids from Long Island can drink during the day without being labeled alcoholics (like they would if it were any other day). First two years of college, I thought it to be so stupid, I just skipped out on it. Last year, I forgot about it entirely, and happened to party the night before... When I left the party at 2am, I noticed other parties _starting_. Confused, I asked and found out today was the day. So, I went to another party at 2am and stayed 'til about 4am, then went back to go to sleep while the rest of Albany kept drinking 'til 2pm and ate eggs. Gross. But this is my senior year; this is the year to enjoy, relish, and experience all the shit I'm going to wish I remembered in twenty years.
I set the alarm to 7a. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it my way.
Woke up along with my room mate, Andrew, who said he was down. I called up another friend, Matt, who was interested, and the quest began. My chariot awaited: alas, since I'm graduating soon, my days left with my super-awesome 1989 Escort which started in 2003 number few...
Got downtown. No one is around. Where do we go? The bar, I guess... Michael's on Madison Avenue had a line akin to the Urban Dictionary's description, but no one seemed SUPER PLASTERED... I mean, it looked just like any other weekend night at the bar. Except... the sun was out.
We dug a little deeper after chancing to meet up with some friends that came downtown for the festivities. Apparently, 8:30a was too early for the bar! So, in usual SUNYA weekend time, it was kind of analogous to 9:00p or so. The solution to this waiting game? A house party:
Pretty cool, pretty packed... However. However. I noticed three major distinctions from your usual house party:
1) Everyone was wearing green (understandable)
2) The sun was out (weird, but not a surprise at this point)
3) MORE BEER WAS BEING POURED ON PEOPLE AND THINGS THAN BEING DRANK.
The third aspect of this party kind of bothered me, as beer is not something I like throwing around. Also, beer is not something I want thrown on ME or my fairly expensive brand new Nikon D80 I just got three months ago! It almost happened three or four times, but I was able to narrowly avoid it while snapping some decent shots. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, the clientele, everything associated with this party was covered in beer. POST SCRIPT: The aforementioned disgusting hardwood floor that was like a wading pool of beer... There was this girl walking around at the party.... wearing socks. Oh. My. God. Dude. It was so uncomfortable to witness. I took her aside because I had to ask why. Her response? Direct quote: "I didn't want my Uggs to get wet". That's correct.
After we left the party it was about 9:20 or so, which meant time for this behavior:
A challenger appears!
Yes, that's right, the streets were full of drunk college students, some of them half-naked. It got really fun at this point, as it contained all the drunken stupor of a typical weekend night in Albany coupled with the fact that I could see everything in plain daylight!
This guy showed up out of nowhere... A possibly homeless man in his mid-50s who wanted in on the action. As smashed as his constituents who were all thirty years his junior, he immediately began running amok in the streets, eventually procuring a pair of drumsticks which he then used to drum. On. Everything. Including this taxi, which began driving down the street:
This behavior was met with indirect approval, as seen in the following photo.
Well, needless to say, although 7 out of 10 people around me were too drunk to drive, nay, too drunk to RIDE in a car... The taxi driver wasn't. And he called the cops.
You can imagine where it went from there.
I got a whole mess of AMAZING photos from this experience, these are just a small portion of them. Plus, I know everyone who googles "OMG LOL KEGS AND EGGS" is going to find this story and waste no time in taking the photos and putting them on Facebook (Also known as: Taking my work and giving it to Facebook so they can use it in any way they please without any compensation or mention of the original photographer) SOOO I kind of don't want to put my favorite favorites on here. E-mail me if you want more.
Conclusion! - Kegs and Eggs is a wild and crazy SUNY Albany tradition that I immensely enjoyed, but it might be because I didn't actually get drunk. I just laughed at all the crazy shit that went down while taking photos the whole time. If I stayed up last night and drank until now... I would probably feel a whole lot more like death. So, while the campus sleeps tonight, I will be awake, working on my three midterms I have next week. Awesome. Not looking forward to that!
I feel like this post is a long time coming. I haven't treated the Kitchen like I should be lately. I'll have to try to do this more often as the semester progresses. Remember: Once it's May 19, I'm walking across that stage and walking out of this amazing four year experience that shaped who I am as a person. I'm also not going to be hosting the Kitchen anymore :-( So, see you all next Friday! Can't wait for the next installment of the radio show.
Goodnight Albany,
Leon
