Tuesday evening, the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City’s Times Square hosted Les Paul’s 100th Anniversary Celebration. Numerous people from the music industry were on hand. Too many to count.
Danny Count Koker (Count’s Kustoms/Pawn Stars/Vamp’d) and his band, Counts ’77, were there to perform. However, Danny went above and beyond by donating a custom bike to the Les Paul Foundation.
We’ve identified as many people as we could below.
Ran into Zakk Wylde getting lunch
Les Paul Interactive Exhibit
Les Paul Interactive Exhibit
Les Paul Interactive Exhibit
Les Paul Interactive Exhibit
Les Paul and Eddie Van Halen
Les Paul Interactive Exhibit
Les Paul Interactive Exhibit
Les Paul Interactive Exhibit
Jackie Martling
Jackie Martling and owner of Iridium club Ron Sturm
Today consisted of random things from the offices, rubber chicken signed by David Letterman, baseballs, party supplies, pool inflatables, Late Show coffee mugs (which were too far to reach), gumball machines. The remaining pieces of office furniture were brought to the street and crushed by a garbage truck.
The offices were completely empty including the BYE signs that had been put in the windows.
Highlight of my day was the megaphone used by Bill Murray in the April 2014 show with Lady Gaga and Martha Stewart. Bill was a surprise guest who brought Gaga down 53rd street.
Late Show Marquee Sans Attached CBS, Ed Sullivan, Paul Shaffer Signs
Late Show Marquee Sans Attached CBS, Ed Sullivan, Paul Shaffer Signs
Today (Tuesday) marks day 3 of the teardown of David Letterman’s set at the Ed Sullivan Theater. There was speculation that the marquee would be taken down today, but it was not. Possibly, later this week. I’ll keep a lookout.
The demo crew instead worked on removing the spiral staircase (as seen on tv), emptying the basement and offices. Most, if not all, of the office furniture was trashed.
The security was pretty tight. They yell at everyone that stops too long at the dumpsters. Some items I spotted…box of prop body parts, random lighting, a list of all employees (including David Letterman and Vinnie Favale as heard on the Howard Stern Show) and their extensions taped to one of the desks, brand new unused towels with tags, whiffle balls. In addition, there was a laundry cart full of prop sports equipment. One security guard was nice and gave a cue card to a guy that been hanging out there for days. Same guy had witnessed valuable antique furniture being trashed.
This past Friday night the demolition crew members were seen loading up their cars with items they had set aside. The pieces are fetching a crazy high premium on eBay.
Late Show Marquee
Spiral Staircase from the Set
Random Stuff from Basement
Office Equipment
Late Show Employee List + Phone #s
Some Random Polaroids Taped to Desk
Box of Body Parts
Sports Equipment from Wardrobe Department
Random Couch
Guy Getting Head
Office Furniture
Office Furniture with People’s Personal Items Still Attached
On Friday, the aggressive teardown of the David Letterman set at the Ed Sullivan Theater continued. In the morning, Paul Shaffer’s Late Show Band’s set was been sliced into pieces using a jigsaw so it could fit in the dumpster. Meanwhile, crews started bringing in building supplies to begin work on Stephen Colbert’s set.
By late afternoon, the studio was empty. You couldn’t even tell the Letterman show once filmed there. Employees were still packing up their keepsakes. Very sad.
Late Show band’s set.
Lighting equipment.
Photographer taking photos of demo-d theater.
Late Show band’s set.
Late Show band’s set.
Late Show band’s set.
Late Show band’s set.
Late Show band’s set.
Late Show band’s set.
Demo crews slicing up Late Show band’s set.
Removal of signage.
Demo crews slicing up Late Show band’s set.
Part of Late Show set. Blue lighting.
Storage cabinet of dishes from kitchen.
Employees with boxes of keepsakes waiting for car service.
The David Letterman show wasted no time dismantling Dave’s set. Some items were packed up and put on Moishe moving trucks. Shockingly, they threw out the city scape that was seen behind Dave every night. Why didn’t they donate it to charity or to a museum?
They also threw out every seat in the Ed Sullivan theatre. I guess there will be new seats for Stephen Colbert. I hear Joey Boots fetched one.
Businessmen in suits spent the afternoon dumpster-diving.
Friday night, Sayreville, New Jersey’s Starland Ballroom hosted That Metal Show Live. It’s not televised. It’s a chance for Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine to perform stand-up and for Eddie Trunk to tell stories, as well as for fans to Stump the Trunk.
All three of them interviewed Jesse James Dupree (Jackyl frontman). Afterwards, Jackyl was scheduled to perform a full show.
During the interview, they mentioned that a special guest who lives nearby will be coming out to perform with Jackyl. Shortly after 11PM, Jesse welcomed Darryl McDaniels, DMC of RUN DMC. DMC has recorded at Jesse’s recording studio and has performed at the Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis.
DMC and Jackyl busted out awesome, super-rocked-out versions of the RUN DMC classics It’s Tricky and Walk this Way. Who knew Jesse could rap?!?!
Jackyl performed past midnight. This was a great show!
Shortly after lunch today, NYPD got a report that someone spotted a body behind the ‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not’ billboard on New York’s 42nd street. I gathered my facts from bystanders on the street, as well as facts from the Daily News.
The Daily News claims that on Tuesday someone saw a person jump, hit the Ripley’s sign and fall behind it. They also claim they’ve been looking for the jumper for two days. I suspect they got their facts wrong.
Story I got was that someone spotted the body behind the sign today, the Hilton hotel checked the security camera, saw that the person had jumped Tuesday.
Police offers draped a black sheet to block the view from onlookers.
In October, a man tried to jump from this very same observation deck, but ultimately negotiators talked him off the ledge. No idea if this is the same person they found today.
The lights are up and the music is pumping at Christmas on Manhattan. No, not Manhattan, New York. Manhattan Ave in Waldwick, New Jersey.
Every year, the family sets up an awesome Christmas light display. It’s probably the best in Bergen County. Tune your radio to their home pirate radio station and enjoy watching the lights blink in harmony.
Here are photos I took at Pie Face on 7th Avenue in New York City on March 25th 2014. It was super cold out, but it didn’t affect Gilbert Gottfried’s humor. He entertained the crowd for hours. Lots of famous and/or rich people showed up to donate money.
In the photos and videos, you can see most of these contestants.
Jamie Anderson
Johnny Damon
Vivica A. Fox
Leeza Gibbons
Brandi Glanville
Kate Gosselin
Gilbert Gottfried
Sig Hansen
Kevin Jonas
Shawn Johnson
Lorenzo Lamas
Kenya Moore
Terrell Owens
Keshia Knight Pulliam
Geraldo Rivera
Ian Ziering