I usually go to Jimmy’s Bar for the Karen and Phil New Year’s Eve afternoon party and then retreat home for more drinks while the year wears out and watch episodes of The Twilight Zone.
This year since I can’t go there, I thought I’d have a live blog party here at MBIP World Headquarters. I’ve decided to pick a post from each month of the year to highlight from every hour from noon to midnight.
I’ll also be cooking a New Year’s Eve dinner and I’ll be featuring photos from that as well.
Okay, I’ve got to go and start getting shit ready for this spectacular live New Year’s Eve posting!
See you in an hour!
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It’s 2021! Hooray! Happy Fucking New Year, everyone! We made it!
MBIP Post: The Official MBIP 2020 Xmas Card!
This year I wanted to make a special Xmas card that would really be representative of this foul year of 2020.
I looked and looked for what would be a proper image and finally I found it in the MBIP World Headquarters parking lot while taking out the garbage.
It was posted it last week on Xmas Eve. If you missed it, click on the link above and if you saw it and want to revisit it, just do the same!
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As I mentioned in the second post at 1PM, I did a Marty Monologues show at the end of January at Bradley University. I was all excited to try and get into some other colleges and do more shows.
Then the pandemic happened! I put the Marty Monologues on hold and I hoped by fall it would be a thing of the past somehow and maybe I could do a show in September or October. I was really hoping that in the summertime it would fade away.
Well, summer came and I realized it wasn’t going anywhere until there’s a vaccine. I realized we’d probably be dealing with this shit through the year and probably into next year.
I decided I’d do a Marty Monologues show to have something to do and have something to look forward to.
I decided I could do three stories from my book, The Boy Who Would Be A Fire Truck. I thought I could have it at The Apollo Theatre and just invite about six people to come and that was they could be socially distant and there would still be an audience.
When I contacted someone from the theatre, they said they weren’t sure about doing a show and that they’d get back to me. Well, I never heard back, so I started to think of another place we could have the show at.
Then I thought of my friend Greg Owens who owns and operates Owens Design Group in Chillicothe. They have just remodeled a room at the top of their building for banquets, wedding receptions and parties. I thought I could do the show there and maybe have a few of the people that work there come to it and they could be the audience.
So I got hold of Greg and he was happy to let me rent the room out and do the show there.
Then about two weeks before the show date, the Covid-19 numbers spiked and we had new mitigation rules. I spoke with Greg and he said that he hated to do it, but I couldn’t do the show there now because of the new restrictions. I totally understood but was really bummed out about it. I had been rehearsing the show for a couple of months and really wanted to do it. I didn’t want 2020 to fuck this up.
My friends Amber and Joe, who you’ve seen in previous posts were going to be the DJ’s and play the opening and closing songs and the music in between stories while I make a candy dish. I told them that it looked like there wasn’t going to be a show and they generously said we could do the show in their basement!
So that’s what we did and we invited our friend Clare to be the single guest at this socially distant Marty Monologues.
That’s Amber and Joe at their basement DJ booth pictured above. I want to thank them for saving the day and for being such great friends!
Surprise link, click on it…I dare you!
(Obligatory notice that the next post will be up at 11PM!)
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MBIP Post: Shopping Locally - This Week @ Anne’s Anteex.
Last October I saw a post about Anne’s Anteex on facecrack and decided to stop in for a Shopping Locally post, since I had never been in there. I went in and was amazed at how big it was and how much inventory was inside of this unique shop.
The owner of the shop is Greg Rosenak I met him and he told me reads the MBIP blog. He said he was happy I came in and that he had a surprise for me before I left.
So I dutifully went around and took photos of the wonderfully weird and unique items to be found in Anne’s Anteex, while wondering what this mysterious surprise was going to be.
I finished the photos and asked about the surprise. Greg reached under the counter and grabbed something with a big grin on his face.
Then Greg presented me with the surprise: It was a specially made bottle that Hiram Walker’s had made for my Dad back when both he and I worked at Fleming Potter. I had forgotten it even existed!
You can read all of the details at the post. That’s the bottle in the photo above which is now proudly on display in the center of the MBIP Entertainment Center!
This was a magical day and it even made me forget about the rotten year we were having for a little while!
Funny how the circle turns around…
Surprise link, click on it…I dare you!
(Obligatory notice that the next post will be up at 10PM!)
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Six years ago, my friend Amber had a birthday party and I brought a crazy amount of microwave food and we had a fun microwave buffet. That started a fun tradition of doing something special on Amber’s birthday every September.
Last year we had an Amber Monologues party and it was so much fun. I remember wondering back then how we could top. Then the pandemic hit us in March and I remember saying to Amber and Joe sometime in June, “What the hell can we do for your birthday this year?”
We didn’t come up with an answer that night but sometime that summer it hit me, we could rent a party bus! While that sounds like a crazy idea to do in the middle of a pandemic, it’s not so crazy if the only people on the bus were Amber, Joe and me
We decided to go to three different places and have them bring food and drinks outside to us on the bus.
We got a birthday cake at Trefzger’s Bakery, Chelsie Tamms designed a special poster and we rented a party bus from Aaron’s Party Bus & Limo Service. Our driver was Terry and he drove us to Kenny’s Westside Pub, Blue Duck Barbecue Tavern and Agatucci’s.
Oh, and the icing on the cake was that we all wore Hazmat suits!
This was the most fun I had all year and it proves that you can have a blast in the middle of a pandemic!
You just have to sit six feet apart on the party bus! Happy birthday, Amber!
Surprise link, click on it…I dare you!
(Obligatory notice that the next post will be up at 9PM!)
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MBIP Post: Saturday Night @ Biaggi’s - Special Chuck and Diane 50th Wedding Anniversary Edition!
I hadn’t been inside a restaurant since the all the shit went down in March. The last week of August was my friend Amber’s parents, Chuck and Diane’s 50th wedding anniversary. They decided to venture out to a restaurant for a celebration and they were nice enough to invite me to the party.
I felt kind of weird going to a restaurant even though we had our own back room. It just felt strange and it hit me how this pandemic had changed our world.
Pictured above, clockwise from left are, Chuck, Diane, Joe, Amber and Yours Fooly in a private room at Biaggi’s.
We had a nice dinner and heard some great stories about how Chuck and Diane met and got married. I’m really lucky to have all of them for friends and I consider them a second family. I’m lucky to have them in my life.
I was really happy to have spent this wonderful occasion with them, but I made a mental note that this would be the last restaurant I’d eat in until there was a vaccine and the numbers of cases were really low.
This is when it totally sunk in that we were going to be living with this shit for quite a while.
NYE Dinner Update
I realized it’s going to be too hard to cook the dinner I was thinking about doing tonight, so I’m going to cook it tomorrow and present it as a rare evening post on New Year’s Day.
Instead of cooking the meal, I zipped over to Huck’s and got this Red Baron frozen pizza. I’ll post a photo of it after I eat it later.
Surprise link, click on it…I dare you!
(If you’re still with me, the next post is going up at 8PM!)
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MBIP Post: Taking A Break.
My Dad died on July 8th. We knew it was coming but I learned that even if you do, it hits you just as hard. I put the blog on hold for a few days to deal with it.
I was lucky that I got to say goodbye to him. He went peacefully and pain free, so I’m grateful for that.
He and my Mom were the best parents in the world. They helped me out so much and were so supportive of all my crazy schemes and ideas.
Nine days later I wrote this tribute for them.
You can close your eyes, it’s alright…
Surprise link, click on it…I dare you!
(The next post will be up at 7PM and I promise it won’t be as sad as this one.)
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MBIP Post: Shopping Locally - This Week: Relics Gift Shop.
By this time retail shops were back open and I started a Shopping Locally series on the blog to support local businesses and to encourage people to shop local, especially during this pandemic.
I went and shopped for some gifts for my Dad. Father’s Day was coming up and my Dad wasn’t in the best of health.
I kind of new that this would be my last Father’s Day with him and it just made this sad year a little more gray and depressing.
I was also kind of hoping that the virus would somehow go away in summertime, but it was appearing that it wasn’t going anywhere soon.
2020 began to really sink in this month as the year was officially half over and there was no end to this nightmare at all!
But my Dad liked his gifts and we had a nice time and some laughs on Father’s Day in 2020.
NYE Dinner Photos: Part One!
Okay, I’m going to be starting my NYE dinner soon and here’s some of the ingredients, from left: White wine, two kinds of white cheddar cheese, a ribeye steak, heavy whipping cream, mushrooms and honey mustard.
Plus I’ll also be using some spices and ingredients already stored in the MBIP World Headquarters Kitchen and Tasting Area.
Surprise link, click on it…I dare you!
(For those of you still following along, tune in at 6PM for the next NYE post!)
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MBIP Post: Saturday Night Half-Baked Pizza From Agatucci’s.
This post marked the first time I went out to get a take-out dinner.
It may sound funny now, but back then I was a little freaked out to even do a take-out dinner and had been doing my frozen pizza series while quarantining in the MBIP World Headquarters.
But I saw that Agatucci’s was doing a special half-baked pizza take-out deal and decided to venture out and be part of that.
Pictured above is Heather who delivered the pizza and I took it home, baked it and it was delicious!
This day broke the ice for going out to get take-out dinners on Saturday night and I put an end to the lonely frozen pizza posts!
This was a big 2020 step for me!
MBIP Post: A Few Photos From Main Street.
Less than a month after that post in March, it was starting to get challenging doing a daily interactive blog when everything was closed and you really weren’t supposed to be interacting with anyone.
I remember feeling really depressed and wondering if I was going to have to shut the blog down. Luckily, that hasn’t happened so far and thanks to all of you who keep on reading! I truly appreciate it!
That photo above was a sign on The Nut House’s front door. I remember feeling really sad taking that picture and wondering how long this shit was going to be going on.
Looking backwards, it’s probably for the best that I didn’t know the answer to that question!
MBIP Post: Saturday Night Frozen Pizza @ MBIP World Headquarters (MBIP Social Distancing Edition).
Sometime in February, we all started hearing more about a virus that started in China and was spreading to other countries.
I really don’t need to explain it to you, we all have lived through what happened later on in this foul year of 2020, well some of us have. Others weren’t as lucky.
The virus ended up being called Covid-19 and it started to get scary here in America in mid-February. Here’s a timeline of events up to the end of November of this year.
On March 11, The World Health Organization declared it a Global Pandemic. Things started escalating at an alarming rate after that.
People started asking me if I thought the virus might fuck with the blog and my standard answer was, “When we get a case here in Peoria, I’m going to pull it back a little.”
On Saturday, March 14th, it was announced that the first case in Central Illinois had been diagnosed.
I started to freak out a little and decided I would play it safe and just get a frozen pizza at the grocery store and eat it here at MBIP World Headquarters. This was the beginning of the announcements to start social distancing.
The above photo is just one of the many empty shelf photos I took as I walked around the grocery store that Saturday night and started to feel pretty scared seeing that people were hoarding food and other items including toilet paper!
I put this post up on the following Monday and the last sentence read: “Be safe everyone and hopefully we’ll be back to normal soon!”
Little did I know…
I’m havin’ a nervous breakdown…
Surprise link, click on it…I dare you!
(The next post is at 3PM for those of you counting down!)
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MBIP Post: The Marty Monologues @ Bradley University In The Marty Theatre - Presented By Olli! Photos By Amber Bohannan.
This was an exciting night for me and it was the night I became a professional paid entertainer!
Bradley’s Olli group booked me for a Marty Monologues show on Wednesday, January 28th and they paid me! So I can now put on my resume that I am a professional entertainer!
The show was one I had performed in the past about growing up in the ’60’s called, “I Was A Pre-Teen Hippie - Sweet & Savage Childhood Memories From The ’60’s.”
Sarah Marie Dillard and Brandon Moberry from Sarah & The Underground provided the live music and they were fabulous as always!
My friends Amber and Joe were the story editors, roadies and Amber even introduced me! The show went over great and I got a nice review in the Bradley Scout.
My plan was to go to other nearby colleges and see if I could do a live show at other campus theatres and venues.
Speaking of theatres, the show took place in The Marty Theatre (pictured above), how perfect was that?
See the man with the stage fright, just standing up there giving it all his might…
Surprise link, click on it…I dare you!
(Tune in at 2PM for the next post!)
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MBIP Post: Suddenly…It’s 2020…Happy New Year!
Every year my friends Karen and Phil Luciano host an early afternoon New Year’s Eve party at Jimmy’s Bar. This is how I rang in the new year exactly one year ago.
I always wonder what the new year will bring but even with my wild imagination I had no idea as to what the fuck was lurking around the corner!
Pictured above are Karen and Phil on the left and to the right are Paul and Karen. I hope to see you all in a year when hopefully we can do this live again!
All is quiet on New Year’s Day…
Surprise link, click on it, I dare you!
(Next post is up around 1:PM for those of you keeping track!)
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