Last night got a little weird. Ron left early to hang out with his family while we were recording guitars on Adam's Song (still untitled). We took a chicken tikka masala break around 9pm and flipped on the tv in the lounge of the studio. Somehow, we landed on the Manhattan Cable Access station.
Whatever was on the screen attracted us because it was so lo-fi, amateur, and chaotic. Some guy with a "ROBOSHITHEAD" t-shirt was holding a microphone and yelling into the camera "It's a Party! It's a Party! We're having a party! Come to our party!" There were like 15 people in the room with him, hanging out awkwardly. The microphone was feeding back and cutting out. The cameras kept cutting back and forth between the guy on the mic and the people in the room. They had imposed the words "You're at a Party!" on the bottom of the screen in yellow type along with a 212 phone number.
We kept watching and thinking "what the hell IS this?" Then we decided to see if it was actually live, so we called the number. And we all were shocked to hear Ryan's voice through the TV when he called. They'd put him on the air instantly. Our tv started feeding back and I turned it down. Ryan told the guy with the microphone to put the camera on some other guy in an orange shirt because he looked like Morrissey. It was pretty bizarre. Our phone call got disconnected amidst the noise in their room. But as we kept watching we heard them say the Manhattan Cable Network was on 59th Street. Eleven blocks north of us.
I put on my jacket and left the studio.
When I got to the station there was a security guard at the front desk. I knew I had to avoid eye contact and not break a stride if I was to get past him. I pretended to sign in and mumbled "which way's the studio?" as I cruised by him. He told me to take a left at the end of the hall. And there everyone was. Lights, cameras, and the fifteen strange people we'd been watching on screen through dinner. I knew I had the home team watching and cheering me on from the studio, so I walked right on camera and announced that I was "there for the party."
Ryan got some digital shots of the tv screen and they watched as I took the microphone and talked to callers. Everyone there was kind of surprised that someone *actually* came to their party. I stayed for a half an hour, had some soda and cookies, met some people, worked the camera for a while, and then left. Cable access television is a beautiful thing. Ryan kept calling into the show and trying to get the girls at the party to make out with me, but they weren't having it. I was a creepy interloper and not a legendary conguero to them. Not that they would have made out with me if they'd known I was a legendary conguero. Nevermind.
note: the camera adds fifteen pounds
