Our buddy Max called in from the road to chat about his new single “Still New York” and next album, “House of Divine.” The LP title comes from a lyric in “Lights Down Low,” an song he wrote for and proposed to his wife with. The single is a love letter to Max’s hometown with a number of celebrity cameos in the music video, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, The Chainsmokers and yes – even yours truly.
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Dax Shepard recently revealed during an interview with my friend Leigh Blickley for AOL’s BUILD Series that he pitched Michael Peña to be his co-star in the movie “CHIPS” without even meeting, let alone consulting the actor first. That’s certainly a break from the Hollywood-norm; so were the comments Shepard made about Los Angeles while chatting in NoHo.
“No ma’am,” Shepard responded to Blickley when she asked if the two had met prior to filming the comedy. “But we did have a very romantic, blind date breakfast at Café 101 in Hollywood, if you’re ever there.
“I know you all hate Hollywood here in New York, but it’s a great place to woo an actor.”
I mean, it’s not that I hate Hollywood. It’s just that I’d rather have four seasons, more efficient public transportation, honest people, a faster pace, my bodega that’s open 24 hours on Seamless and the Yankees.
OK fine Dax, maybe I hate Hollywood too. But I appreciate your cognizance.
The week of Thanksgiving has turned in to one of my favorite times of the year. It starts in Los Angeles, covering the American Music Awards. A trip to In-N-Out Burger and red-eye flight later, I’m back east and for the next two days, my show airs at its normal time. Then Thursday morning, I’m up at 6 am so I can shower, grab a hot chocolate and walk over to the start of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I stay on the parade route until Santa passes me, which is usually about 10 am. Then I head back to my apartment, edit all of the celebrity interviews and videos I recorded from the morning and begin to figure out what the rest of my evening looks like.
Clearly, this week isn’t busy enough, so this year I added a new wrinkle: after the parade, I was going to fly home to Niagara Falls to see my family for Thanksgiving. It would be the first time in nine years that I was eating turkey in Western New York for the holiday.
This wasn’t my idea; my Mom was adamant on me returning home for the holiday. I think part of the reason is because she felt bad that for the first time in three years she and/or the rest of my squad wasn’t trekking to New York for Thanksgiving.
Back to my now-crazier day: I settled back in to my apartment and started to edit, (temporarily) wrapped at 11, finished packing at 11:30 and called a car to take me to LaGuardia.
There would be no editing at 30,000 feet because our Wifi wasn’t working. But there was this!
#InFlightSnackGoals achieved. Thanks for getting me home @delta! pic.twitter.com/OWgn7TQLY7
— Ralphie Aversa (@ralphieaversa) November 24, 2016
My sister picked me up from Buffalo-Niagara International Airport and drove me home. I spent the rest of the evening (sans a break for turkey) finishing the social media updates and editing necessary for both 95.5 PLJ and our sister station, NASH FM 94.7. A coffee and amaretto or three later and I was done for the night.
On Friday I slept in before running 5 miles through my old neighborhood and linking up with my cousin Anthony for some drinks and leftover antipasto at my house. Then I headed down to Buffalo, where I met some old high school friends at a spot called Buffalo Proper. It’s a dimly-lit cocktail lounge with a full kitchen and pretty fantastic vibe. I would recommend the Tatanka and this, the Smoke Break, served on an ash tray.
The trip home was a quick one, as I flew out Saturday morning because I wanted to catch Syracuse play South Carolina at Barclays Center, a game they would lose. But with friends in town for the weekend, I ended up having a fun Saturday night (slash Sunday morning) out, along with a solid Football Sunday that saw my Bills notch a win.
And then, in a new Thanksgiving week tradition (because it’s the second year it happened), my Christmas tree went up.
After all, I clearly didn’t have enough going on this week.
Paul Jason Klein, Les Priest and Jake Goss comprise LANY, a trio that formed in Nashville but is the namesake of combining the initials for Los Angeles and New York. Klein, in his other job as a model, lived in Brooklyn for 6 months.
The group stopped by to chat with me about how they met, the band’s headlining tour and what their plans are for a debut, full-length album.
Without further ado, the season one finale of “2 Slices & A Story” wherein I have a seat with… Chris Hansen, host of “Crime Watch Daily.” Thank you for all of your support with this project and stay tuned to find out what we have in store for season two!
East Brunswick N.J.’s JAX stopped by to chat about her new single “La La Land,” her trip to MSG to see Billy Joel, how she feels about her time on “American Idol,” and what she has planned for 2016!
Thursday marked the three year anniversary of Sandy devastating the tri-state area. Many people were affected in a number of different ways; some are still experiencing the aftermath. We remember.
I can’t thank Vinnie Politan and the crew at CNN Headline News “Prime News” enough for inviting me back for the second time within a week! Vinnie brings a new vibe to that show, one that I think is more conducive to having a younger guy like me on as a guest. Once again I helped to comprise a panel that gave it’s opinions on a number of different stories.
The topics ranged from the women pay gap to weight discrimination, and a new vodka/gym partnership.
