my brother in law is awesome.

Went and saw Josh's band play at the Bug Jar.

Goons rock.

This is one of my favorite pictures I've taken with the Hipstamatic. Oh you little iPhone gem, you.

auld lang syne.

Of all the New Year's parties we've thrown, I think last night was one of the best. This is probably for a couple of reasons:

• We have the coolest friends in the world, therefore success is guaranteed.

• Tuesday night's trip to Party City yeilded a bounty of decorations, hats, noisemakers and other party-enhancing accessories.
• There was an insane amount of awesome food. From mini burgers for the carnivorous crowd to some spicy vegan chilli, there was something for everyone.
• Sweet, sweet playlist put together by Matt.
  
• There was an equally crazy amount of adult beverages. Anna invented and in the same night perfected her recipe for Peppermint Dickables (frozen peppermint martini mix + vodka + chocolate milk). My drink of choice was Diet Pepsi with UV Cherry Vodka. It was amazing and at the same time it was dangerous because I couldn't taste the alcohol at all.
• Pick up games of party balloon volleyball.
• The start of a brand new challenge: Pass the Hot Dog Toaster. Check your mailbox, it may be headed your way.
• Another year of laughter when the exploited Dick Clark falls off the countdown by at least a second or more.
• Anna's Party Crackers which produced paper hats and weird, small toys that included butterfly balls, a frog and a pink over-sized paperclip.

It was a freakin' fantastic night. We did Oxford University Christmas before the party which includes the annual "Dollar Store Secret Santa Stocking Stuffer Extravaganza" followed by present opening. That's the third Christmas Matt and I have done this year and we still have two more to do this weekend when we go to Kingston to see my folks for the holiday. This was a trip that was supposed to happen the weekend before Christmas but that got snowed out. So we're heading down after work tomorrow for the weekend.

2008 is gone and long live 2009! This past year had it's ups and downs. Getting married and getting laid off seem to be the best examples of each of those respectively and we've enjoyed the good and worked through the bad. It's worked out, more or less.

2009 is going to be packed with awesome:

• Tim & Eric at the Town Ballroom in a few weeks
• Updating the bathroom this winter
  
• Louis CK in Verona in Feb
• Williamsburg with the fam in June
• Three weddings (so far) to come
  
• Everything's booked for Comic Con in SD this July
• All the awesome stuff that's just not plotted out yet

As for resolutions, I just have one. It's kind of all encompassing. I'm calling it my Superman resolution. It isn't based completely on comic nerd-itry. I figure if I have to Clark Kent it for eight hours a day, five days a week I need to really make something out of the rest of the time. My office/studio is coming together and I want to get back into all the fun, creative stuff I used to do on my own but fell out of. My print Gocco is dying (they stopped making the supplies), so I want to learn to screen print. I need to be creatively challenged and I think that and some other things will sate that need. I want to do more things with my friends and family. They keep me sane and the time spent with them are the best times I have. I want to focus on what's truly important to me. Getting healthier, happier and overall enjoying the ride by not forgetting that it is just that.

the best night of my life.

It's hard to imagine a story titled as it is above that involves Panic At The Disco in any way, shape or form, but please bear with me. Last night was spectacular.

The Honda Civic Tour rolled into Rochester, boasting the names of such bands as Panic At The Disco, The Hush Sound, Motion City Soundtrack and Phantom Planet. The first three bands I would not cross the street to see normally, but I forked over my thirty dollars for the chance to see one of my all-time favorites, Phantom Planet. I've waited years for them to come to this part of the state and I wasn't going to miss that show for the world.

The only drawback was that PhanPlan was opening and not the headliner. They were actually the first band on stage. Alex went out and did 1.5 songs solo before the rest of the band joined him (there was something about Sam holding everyone up). Then they did the following set:

• All Over Again
• Dropped
• Geronimo
• Big Brat
• California

Yeah, just five songs. I was initially disappointed, but when Alex mentioned he and the guys would be at the merch table to meet fans, I was feeling pretty good. Matt and I got in line and waited. I had absentmindedly left my pre-order copy of the new CD in the car, so I bought a second one to get their signatures. When I got to the table, I gave the insert to Alex first and mentioned that I was excited to see them and that they were the only reason I came to the show at all. He asked if my favorite songs were played and I said that some of them had.

Then the coolest thing in the world happened.

Alex said to go out to the tour buses at the end of the Panic set and he'd take requests on his acoustic for the Phantom Planet fans. I looked at him and said, "Seriously?". Apparently he was. So despite earlier plans to leave after PP, Matt and I hung out through the rest. The Hush Sound was okay, Motion City gets a solid "meh" and Panic At The Disco was really nothing. I don't get the draw, I suppose.

Anyway, when Panic went to their encore, Matt and I headed outside. We wandered around the buses and I noticed two women knocking on bus doors. I asked if they too were looking for Phantom Planet and I got a grumbled answer. Why so friendly? Well, when we did find the Phantom Planet bus, all these girls tried to do was get Alex to say he'd go to their house and use their hot tub. It was painfully pathetic. But I digress, I piped up and asked if he was still going to play and he confirmed he would, when Panic was totally through. So Matt and I wandered back and waited. The show inside the field house ended and the crowds dispersed. About 20-25 people were hanging on the sidewalk out by the buses, near this flight of stairs that leads up to the fieldhouse. About fifteen minutes after the show let out, Alex and Jeff came out (Alex with his guitar and Jeff with a video camera) and Alex gathered us by the stairs. He sat down and started taking requests in a campfire sing-a-long fashion.

Amazing. I still can't believe this whole thing happened. I was sitting by Alex Greenwald, listening to him take requests and organize audience participation in two part harmonies! Some of the older tunes required him to pull out his own lyrics via the web on his iPhone. But that was oddly cool. He likened it to trying to remember what you wore on some random Thursday while you were in high school. Some of the songs are that old. After he played 5-7 more songs, he was kind enough to sign more stuff and pose for pictures. All we had was Matt's cellphone, so the picture is fuzzy -- but I have a photo keepsake of me and Alex. It's cliche, but he's so nice in person and very real.

Phantom Planet is in my top five bands of all time and I got to sit on the steps outside the Gordon Field house with their lead singer and listen to an impromptu acoustic set.

And that's the story of the best night of my life.

And here are some crappy cell phone videos.