Crazy Week, Great Weekend and Cool Stuff on the Horizon

Crazy Week

So the past week has been a whirlwind of work, play, cool suprises, new stuff here at 2old2play and making some cool plans for next week. The insanity started last Thursday Night when my girl and I went to go check out LA Guns at the Boston Hard Rock Cafe. Now if you were like me and went to high school in the 80's, there were three types of music you might have listened to 1) New Wave - Not my style, too much mascara and neon 2) Punk Rock - Definitely more my style, loved the aggression and HR was and stil is THE MAN in my book or 3) Heavy Metal - My second love musically. So when I saw a message posted via Twitter by BostonTweet (twitter.com/BostonTweet ) that LA Guns was playing, well I simply had to drag my better half out to check these guys out. Sure, they are fatter than than they were in the 80's, but these guys can still belt out a power ballad or hard rocking tune when they want to. It was a great concert and it was really fun to see the eclectic crowd, which ranged from old hair metal groupies (they don't age well - trust me) to young hipsters wishing that they were there the first time around.

Stacy Blades of LA Guns doing his thing with style, long hair and leather pants (of course)

So after the show on Thursday, I went into serious overdrive for work. I organize community events for my company and had a total of 7 events to plan and execute over the course of ten days. Let me tell you that it takes a ton of work to get just one event, with many partners and variables, to run properly. Just try 7 back to back. And Tara wonders why I am so anal with the P&W posting schedule It's a necessity in my line of work.

Friday comes and the sun finally decides to come out in Beantown after what seems like weeks of steady rain, wind and hard work. So I decide to pull out my bike and take the commute via human-power for the first time this year. I live about 13 miles from work and am what I would consider a casual cyclist. I ride a commuter bike that is beefy enough to handle the crappy Boston roads, but is a bit heavy and slow. It usually takes me about an hour to bike to work, but since this is my first outing of the year, the trip takes closer to 90 mintues. No worries, the ride was good and I got to work out some of the winter kinks. I hit the showers at the office and get down to it.

The biggest event of the whole series of events was to be held this past Saturday (that would be yesterday for the temporally impaired) and I was banging out phone calls and last-minute plans like a madman on Friday to make sure everything was in place and ready to go. Around 3:30, while doing some research regarding online media, I checked my Twitter feed and noticed that my friend over at BostonTweet was at it again, this time telling his followers about this madman named Will Porter (twitter.com/account/profile_image/wilporter ) who was walking around Fenway trying to give away a free ticket to the Red Sox/Yankees game to be played that evening. Now if you live anywhere near Boston, you know that there are two things that one almost never sees in our city, good drivers and someone willing to part with their Red Sox Tickets, particularly when they are playing the Yankees. So, seeing that my office is two blocks away from Fenway Park, and knowing that I had done my due dilligence for my weekend of work-related events, I decide to take a stroll down to Yawkey Way and see if I could score me a seat at the game.

Now it is important to know a few things at this point about me and my relationship to professinal baseball. I grew up in school in St. Louis, MO during the heyday of the Cardinals. The Redbirds won 3 of the 4 World Series championships during my time in high school. I never forgave my parents for dragging me away from Florida to Missouri (Misery as I called it at the time) when I was a kid. However, days spent a Busch Stadium watching the likes of Bob Gibson, Lou Brock and Ozzie Smith play baseball almost (ALMOST) made up for this horrible abuse of a child. I would go to the games with my dad and brother and would be able to head down to the dugout boxes to watch the players warm up. In those days (God I sound old sometimes) you could pretty much have your run of the park if you showed up early, particularly if you were a kid. So I actually got to talk to some of the players from time to time and even got a few pictures of these guys. So let's just say, I loved baseball as a kid. However, I lost interest in the sport (and pretty much all professional sports) during college when free agency and money ruined the concept of a team staying a team for more than a few seasons. So by the time I moved to the Boston area, I really couldn't care less about seeing the Red Sox play. I was happy for them when they finally beat the curse of the Bambino in 2004, but wasn't willing to pay the prices that people were getting for the tickets. Though I have been inside Fenway Park many times for events, I had not seen a game played there - until two days ago that is.

So, with Blackberry in hand and Twitter on frequent refresh, I walked down to Fenway to try and find this Will Porter guy. I got to the park around 4 pm and posted a tweet (twitter message for the uninitiated) to Mr. Porter asking where he was and if he still had the ticket. He would post clues about where he was, including a picture of the Ted Williams statue which stands just outside one of the gates. I went to the statue and did not see this guy. All I had to work on to recognize this guy was the photo of Will that was included on his Twitter homepage. A guy with a goatee and a red sox jersey, not exactly a sore thumb when outside of Fenway on game day, let me tell you. Will's next post stated that he was near the Bleacher Bar, which is a cool place that has a huge window that views the left field from ground level (great place to have a beer before the game BTW). I head around the park but no luck. Another tweet from Mr. Red Sox Ticket states that he feels like he stands out in the crowd, but not as much as the guy in the bowling pin suit. Knowing that there is a bowling alley/bar on Landsdowne Street, which is on the other side of Fenway, I head back that way. Next this guy posts a pic of where he is at. I recognize the spot around the corner and race over there, only to find it empty, except for this guy walking around in a bowling pin costume.

The spot and the Bowling Pin Man - but no Red Sox ticket

By this time, I am starting to get frustrated. It is getting close to 6:00 pm and time for the game to start. Mr. Porter posts that a girl is on her way to the park via the T (Boston mass-transit) and that she better hurry cause some guy named Waterborn is on his trail. I ask him what his jersey number is, thinking that I could limit my search using this bit of knowledge. He replies that he is not wearing a jersey, but is wearing a Hawaiin shirt. Cursing under my breath, I head back over to where the Bleacher Baris located, now looking for some guy in a Hawaiin shirt, when a pic comes across Twitter of this guy's shirt - which is really a patchwork of Red Sox emblems and player pictures, not really what I would call a "Hawaiin" shirt. So after walking around for a few more minutes, I spot the Red Sox Collage "Hawaiin" shirt and ask this guy "Are you Will Porter" and of course he says "Yes" Score! I am going to see my first Red Sox game - Schweet! I tell Will that I have to run back to office realy quickly to pull my bike out so it wouldn't be locked in by the time the game was over. I bolted back to work, told my boss and a few fellow employees the Reader's Digest version of my story and then high-tail it back to Fenway, hoping that Will had not left or given the ticket to someone else. Luckily he was still there and we went to check out the game. The seats were sweet, right on the third base line.

Our Seats - Not bad eh?

So now that the insanity is over, I sit down and take a few breaths and start to remember why I loved going to the baseball park with my dad. The fans, the music, the hot dogs and beer (well, maybe not the beer) - it all came back to me. Will was a gracious host and a really good guy. We chatted about our perspective jobs, the little treasure hunt that I had just been on and baseball in general. Then I decided to head to the snack bar for some dogs and a beer, cause a baseball game is simply not complete without these fine culinary treats. As I am standing in line for my grub and suds, I see that video games have even infiltrated the grand institution that is Fenway Park. They had two 360's and monitors set up by the snack bar with a 2K Sports baseball game on both of the machines. People could walk right up to these units and play them for free. I am not much into sports games, but I did think that this was pretty cool. It all comes back to video games folks.

Papelbon Checking out the 2K Sports Display at Fenway Park

I sat with Will and watched about 4 innings of the game and then had to beg my leave. Remember, I rode my bike 13 miles to work that morning and still had to ride those same 13 miles to get home. My girl was working the late shift, but I knew that I had to be back by the time she got home at 11:30 or she would be worried sick. She does not like my cycling after dark, and biking past Fenway on a game night is a whole new level of hazardous in its own right. I got home around 10 pm and crashed hard. I was beat but it was a great day to say the least.

My events on Saturday and Sunday went very well. Both involved one of my major outdoor passions, kayaking. I was even able to join my co-workers and participate in a leg of the Run of the Charles this morning. The ROTC is a 19 mile canoe & kayak relay race. I had to work a different part of the event in the afternoon, so I paddled the first 5-mile leg with one of my co-workers. The sun was shining again for the third day in a row and I had a blast. What a great weekend and a great way to end a very hectic 10-day stretch of work and play.

Start of the Kayak leg of the ROTC

Cool Stuff on the Horizon

So back to gaming news for a second. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I have been talking with Gary Vincent, Co-founder of the American Classic Video Arcade Museum about doing an interview with him regarding his work with the museum and Funspot in Wiers Beach, NH. the ACVAM was featured in the moive The King of Kong and will host the American Classic Video Game and Pinball Tournament in May. Tommorrow I will head up to Funspot to interview Gary and his partner Bob Lawton about thier experiences as founders and managers of one of the largest collection of vintage video games and pinball machines in the country. I will also be covering the tournament in May for 2old2play. So keep an eye on the Front Page for my interview and follow-up story on this great event. If you live in the NH, MA or VT region and would like to join me for the tournament in May, let me know. Who knows, maybe we will run into Billy Mitchel or Steve Wiebe - It could happen.

- STAY TUNED -