Oh Concierge

I’m not a fan of Michael McDonald, and this is just a petty excuse to post one of my favorite Michael McDonald spoofs from Youtube. However, for those of you in the Boston area, Yahmo Be There at the Bank of America Pavilion on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are still available here via Live Nation.

Now, onto an out of season (Halloween) spoof of Michael McDonald that’s good for a laugh all year round.

Well this is a last minute notice, but I couldn’t let this one slip by. Unfortunately “Politically Correct” is already going on at LeLacheur Park (Lowell, MA) tonight, however you can participate in “Politically Incorrect” night tomorrow with the Lowell Spinners.

Should you choose to partake in “Politically Incorrect” night, every attempt will be made to offend you. For instance, only woman will be working in the concession stands. Fat fans will be required to purchase an additional seat to the game, and this rule will be enforced by the airplane seatbelt rule (if you need two seats belts you don’t pass tubby). Fans arriving to the game in a gas guzzler will receive a gas card, and the creme de la creme, all Yankees fans will not be allowed entrance through the main gate.

So not only do you get to enjoy a ballgame, but you get to be a jerk while doing it. Something tells me that some fans are well seasoned at this.

h/t Ben’s Biz Blog

Event: Politically Incorrect Night with the Lowell Spinners
When: Wednesday June 23, 2009 7:30 p.m.
Where: Edward A. LeLacheur Park 450 Aiken Street Lowell, MA
Website: Lowell Spinners

I’ve done my fair share of world traveling, and the best piece of advice I can give to anyone is to travel lightly. After you’ve packed your suitcase, pull five things out. I’m not talking about the essentials, but thinks like the three extra pairs of jeans, orthe five extra t-shirts that are “just in case”. No matter where you are in the world, you can always buy what you didn’t pack.

Just as an example of bad traveling, I lived in Guangzhou, China for a few months. For so stupid reason I thought that the country of China just exported all of their goods to the United States and didn’t keep anything for themselves. So naturally I packed two huge bags of clothes. Toting this stuff through customs, airports, trains, taxis, etc. was an absolute nightmare, and in reality I could have gotten along with one normal size suitcase full of clothes.

Nothing says class like an exotic limo right? Check out this collection of limousines that people actually pay money to rent. I’m not even sure where you would take these limos other than for a cruise down the Vegas strip.

Out of all of these, my favorite has got to be the tank limo. After all, if the driver can’t find you a good parking spot, he can just make one!

This weekend I was in New York City attending a conference. When all was said and done and the after party had wound down, I found myself with two buddies (from the South) in Times Square. One of them had never been to New York City and he wanted the “best pizza in New York”. Right from the get go I knew that nothing in Times Square was going to come close to being the “best pizza in New York”.

After he spoke to a few New Yorkers (police) regarding where to find such a slice of pizza, he realized that we weren’t going to walk that far, or jump in a cab just for a slice of pizza. So the choice was narrowed down to Sbarro’s, another place with pizza that looked like it was a day old sitting under a heat lamp, and the “World Famous” Roxy Delicatessen.

We settled on Roxy. We made a mistake.

The staff was very courteous. As we decided to order a round of beers and to split a pizza, our waitress recommended an order of fries to go with it. As it turns out, this girl wasn’t kidding when she said the pizza was small. It was basically a $20 personal pan pizza, and it was straight up disgusting.

Yes, disgusting as in we hate half of it and thought better of finishing up the other $10 worth of pizza. The bottom of the pizza was burnt, and toppings, cheese and sauce formed some sort of a soupy mixture on top. When my friend complained about the pizza the manager stated “this isn’t Pizza Hut, it’s deli pizza!”.

Note to self. Deli pizza is gross.

Overall I’d say our experience at Roxy was a rip off, but then again what more could you expect from the tourist trap that is Times Square? Considering all that New York has to offer, I wouldn’t recommend this eatery to anyone. Don’t let the location of the cheesy celebrity caricatures fool you, David Letterman and his entourage won’t be walking through the door to order a sandwich.

Roxy Delicatessan
1565 Broadway
New York, NY 10036
(212) 921-3333

Unfortunately the A-Team limo service is based out of the United Kingdom, so it doesn’t look like you’ll be rolling up to your prom in this bad boy anytime soon. However, once someone is smart enough to pick up this business model (hello Las Vegas?), here’s what you can expect on the inside…

• Plasma TV wall
• 6 plasma TV’s
• Mind blowing sound systems
• State of the art digital fibre optic light show ( over 2 million different colors )
• Sequenced strobe lighting effects
• Lightening Plates
• Full bar with either Bubbly or Beer for adults and soft drinks for kids !
• Digitally Color changing ceilings
• Illuminated leather seating
• Luxurious interiors
• Headlight strobes and special effects

They had me at headlight strobes and special effects. If you throw in an out of shape ex-high school wrestler dressed as B.A. Baracus I’d probably rent this thing for a week. It’s perfect for grocery shopping, proms, going to the airport, or even just trying to intimidate someone at your next business meeting.

A-Team Limo

This weekend I had a chance to check out The Times Irish Pub & Restaurant in Boston. I was with a fairly large group and everyone was in need of a decent meal after having stopped at six different pubs in the downtown area. We were fortunate enough to land a table outside on the patio, or “Times Square” as their website refers to it.

Besides having great weather, we were also blessed with a couple HD flat screen televisions broadcasting the Red Sox game. Even though the outdoor patio is adjacent to the busy Rose Kennedy Greenway, we had no problem being able to hear the call of the game (they have a solid speaker system).

Now to the best part, the food. Since we had such a big party, I had the chance to samples a few items from the menu. The nachos were so good, that the table ended up reloading after the first order was inhaled. I also had a chance to sample the Roast Turkey Club (Hand-carved oven roasted turkey with cranberry mayonnaise, bacon, lettuce and tomato on ciabatta bread), and it was nothing short of delicious. The bread was fresh, and the cranberry mayonnaise made the sandwich as they use real turkey and not deli cuts for the sandwich.

For my meal, I ordered a burger (I think it was called the Rodeo Burger) and it was cooked to perfection, topped with cheese and a few onion rings. Not that a burger is the most complex meal to make, but I’ve been to plenty of places that will serve you a hockey puck regardless of how you asked for it cooked. That’s just not the case with The Times, I ordered my burger medium-well and it was exactly that.

As for the intangibles, the prices were moderate (average item is probably $10), the waitstaff was fast and courteous, they had a nice selection of beer on tap to accompany the usual top shelf liquors that you’d find at a bar, and they have a few dart boards in the back. The only downfall to The Times is the fact that their restrooms are small and awkward. It’s the type of thing you can’t really fault a pub for, given that the building was constructed so long ago.

Overall, I thought The Times was great, and will definitely be adding it into my local pub rotation. I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a place to grab a beer and some great food at a reasonable price.

The Times Irish Pub & Restaurant
112 Broad Street
Boston, MA 02110
(617) 357-8463
Website

The Times on Menuism

After completing their current tour of Europe, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band will play at least two shows at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA. Tickets go on sale Tuesday June 9th at 10 a.m. through Live Nation.

This isn’t the first time the Boss has played the Comcast Center (formerly the Tweeter Center and Great Woods). In 2006, Bruce and the Seeger Sessions Band played one show before a vibrant Boston crowd.

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – Live Nation

Show dates:

Saturday August 22, 2009 (7:30 p.m.)
Sunday August 23, 2009 (7:30 p.m.)

Here are just a few highlights from the city of Boston, Massachusetts.

If you’re like me, you spend a couple grand a year going to sporting events and concerts. Given our current economic crisis, I’ve cut back just like everyone else has. However, that’s not to say that I attend less events. Right now I’m just much more budget conscious and part of that means that I’m no longer willing to pay top dollar for the best seats on the market.

So what I’m going to share with you is a few easy tips that will hopefully land you some of the best seats in the house, at face value, through Ticketmaster. It’s not 100% fool proof, but I will say that I have only been shut out once in the past four years while using these techniques.

1) Log into Ticketmaster ahead of time and make sure all of your billing and mailing information is correct. Make sure that the credit card on file hasn’t expired since the last time you made a purchase. If it has, update it with a current card before the tickets go on sale.

2) Go by the official time on this site, and one minute before the tickets go on sale, start hitting the F5 button. This will refresh your browser. Repeatedly do this until you see that the tickets are on sale. Make sure that you let the page load before you hit F5 though, otherwise you might not see when the tickets are actually on sale.

3) Once you see that the browser shows that tickets are for sale, you’ll need to act quick. If you just want the best seats that are available, all you’ll need to do is select the number of tickets you want. If you want General Admission for a concert you will need to select it from the drop down menu before submitting the form.

4) Hope that you get an easy to read captcha and type it in.

5) Next you’ll be in the waiting room. Don’t refresh the browser, and don’t open another window hoping to have two shots at scoring tickets. Ticketmaster can detect that you have two windows open and will give you the boot.

6) Once you finally get through and see the hand that you were dealt, realize that this is the best that you are going to get. If you decline the tickets and search again, you’ll go to the end of the line and it will be sold out by the time you make it through the whole process again. Even if you are fortunate enough to get back into the system before the event sells out, chances are you’ll be left with seats that were much worse than the ones before.

7) If all this fails you, don’t panic. Typically, the week of the event more tickets will be released. It won’t be thousands of tickets, but if you’re planning on going in a group of four or less people you can probably score tickets by checking Ticketmaster a few times a day the week of the show.