I'm going on vacation this Wednesday, so there's going to be a post on Monday and Tuesday and then the blog will be on break until Friday, June 30th. I'm going to take a trip to New York City and I'm really getting excited about it. I started looking at some of my old New York blogs and found several Ramones related entries. I thought in honor of the upcoming trip I'd post some photos from them and links to the entire blog posts. To me The Ramones were a real New York band. They all came from Queens and they got their first break at the legendary Bowery club, CBGB's. Below are photos, memories and links to five Ramones posts from New York City!

Vera Ramone King—Poisoned Heart Book Signing—2009

Vera Ramone King was married to Dee Dee Ramone for years and wrote a book about the experience. She was doing a book signing at a Barnes and Noble in midtown Manhattan and I went there. I met her before her talk and I had seen in the credits that we had a mutual friend in David Dalton and we had a nice chat.

After she did a reading from the book, she did autographs and here I am getting my book signed by Vera.

I had her do a special autograph and that’s my card next to her. Always be promoting!

And what did she sign on my book?

“Hi Asshole!” Ha ha ha! She said it was her strangest request ever. And she lived with Dee Dee Ramone for over ten years, so I took that as a compliment! That was a fun evening and she was really a cool person. The book is good too! Click here to see the entire original post.

Joey Ramone Birthday Bash—2009

Here’s the poster for the annual Joey Ramone Birthday Bash at Irving Plaza in New York.

This is John Holmstrom who was the founding editor of Punk Magazine along with Legs McNeil and Ged Dunne. John is also a talented artist and did the artwork for The Ramones, “Road To Ruin” album. He was the host for the show and I interviewed him when he was the publisher for High Times. Check that out here.

This was the coat check girl and yes, I’m checking out her tits. Like you’re not!

Here’s John on stage starting off the show.

This is Bebe Buell’s band. I got to know Bebe because she married a friend of a friend of mine.

The original drummer, producer and guy who really was the visionary behind The Ramones, Tommy Ramone played at this show. He showed his musical virtuosity by doing a folk set playing a mandolin. I got to talk with him a little bit after his set and he was a real nice guy. He was impressed that I had an apartment on 16th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. In New York it’s location, location, location! Click here to see the original post.

Ramones Auction at The Local 269—2010

On the 145th evening of my 365 bar crawl blog, I went to a Ramones auction at a bar called The Local 269 which was on Houston Street. The auction was hosted by Joey Ramone’s brother, Mickey Leigh who had just published a book about his brother called, “I Slept With Joey Ramone.” That’s Mickey, second from left with his friends in the bar. Check out the woman on the far right, what’s she so pissed about?

That’s my friend Jason taking a photo of Mickey. Jason told me about this auction.

This was a photograph of Joey Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone that was going to be auctioned off.

Here’s a photo of Legs McNeil and Marky Ramone with Legs’ book, “Please Kill Me.” I really wanted this photo because I’ve interviewed both Legs and Marky. Here’s links to those interviews: Legs McNeil and Marky Ramone.

And here I am with the photo! I got it for 75 bucks and somehow it got lost when I moved back to Peoria. Oh well, I still have this memory and that’s priceless. Click here for the original post.

53rd & 3rd—2011

One of my favorite Ramones songs of all time is 53rd & 3rd, so I went and did a blog on this famous corner for my Marty After Dark blog.

While taking photos, I met this guy who was running a food truck on the corner. His name was Abraham and he posed for this photo, even though he had no idea what the fuck I was doing.

I had a photo of The Ramones with 53rd & 3rd and had Abraham pose for a picture with it. The light fucked up this shot...

So I took one from here but it was a little too far away...

This one was just right! I ended buying a gyro from him and gave him a five dollar tip for his troubles. The gyro was delicious! Click here for the original post.

Joey Ramone Birthday Bash—2011

Another year, another Joey Ramone Birthday Bash. Here I am with John Holmstrom who was hosting the show again this year.

Here’s John onstage introducing the first band of the evening...

The Indecent. They were so good! Sadly, they’re no longer a band, but you can check out their facecrack page here.

Here’s Bebe with her husband Jim. Jim played guitar in Das Damen along with my friend Alex.

I ran into Clem Burke in the crowd and said hi to him. Clem is the drummer for Blondie and we have a mutual friend in Brad Elvis and we had a nice chat about music and New York. Click here for the original post. We’ll see you all tomorrow!

Hey, ho, let’s go...

Surprise Link, click on It...I dare you!