12/21/2005

I'm Blowing My Mind Up...

Well I guess it is about time that I finally get to post about my trip to Howard's Rally and final show last Friday. I had a ball just soaking it all in and I'm very glad I made the trip.

Went with Dennis from work, met him at 11:10 (I was the one 10 minutes late) and hit the road for NYC. He has Sirius installed in his truck and we drove on down listening to the hype on Howard100 the whole way down. We ran into rain then freezing rain from the time we hit the Connecticut border. Saw an 11 car pileup somewhere around Exit 40. Despite the rain we made superb time and we were parking the truck at about 3:10am. In a rush to get everything I needed out of the backpack while the parking garage valet was waiting I failed to take my umbrella and gloves and probably should have taken another layer. The rain was not coming down all that hard when we were parking and I guess I was lulled into a false sense of security.

We headed over to the Howard Stern Building luckily the design of the building includes a corridor running right thru it so there were already a couple hundred people gathered waiting. It seems that bracelets were handed out in the early evening with no rhyme or reason. We figured we would be all good though. MaryAnne from Brooklyn was already there decked out in her homemade Sirius and Howard100 clothing. King of All Blacks was also in the house and he is as materialistic in real life as on the show. My buddy has a real nice Canon digi cam and King was all "Wow, look at that camera nigga, that is some tight shit" sort of equivalent to his, "My faucets is Moen nigga" rant he had a while back with Angry Black. Also ran into Joey Boots who I know from a Stern Message Board,as well as Kenneth Keith Kallenbach and Melrose Larry Green.

We were then ordered out of the hallway and into the sidewalk, sometime before 5:30 they let you start entering the barricades. They were checking for bracelets and you were only supposed to get into the first section if you had a bracelet. At least that is what seemed to be going on. But Dennis and I hopped over the railing along with a hundred other people and ended up in the front section. It is fucking pouring at this point, pouring rain in a major freaking way. At least in the coralls you could try to duck under all sorts of umbrellas since people were packed so tight. So the rain is coming down in a fierce way, everyone is packed in tight and the anticipation builds. Looking up to the right hand side you see the building before you, knowing that Howard is inside preparing for the final show. You are about to see history.

As 6:00am approaches the crowd begins to all turn on their various walkmans, mp3 players, mini boomboxes etc.... Everyone appears to have one earbud in and one out in an attempt to soak in the total experience. The show opens with a great song montage including "Imagine" and it was just great right at that moment. 6:00am Howard Stern's final broadcast on terrestrial radio, thousands of Stern Fans gathered in the streets below, Howard playing "Imagine" from his console in the building above. The whole crowd, thousands upon thousands, listening along and singing along. In the pouring rain! At 6:00am in the morning! I think that was the most poignant moment of the whole day for me.

With that I am imposing a 1:00am curfew and am going to bed. I might finish this story at some point! 4rilla out...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

tell more
:)

good stuff
heres my story:
normally I would be at work by the time howard made his speech but there was a major accident that made me take 2 hours to get to work so I got to listen the end of the show--- I felt like a sell out for not going ;)
it was a very special moment
-sigh

-shab---