my night with Bob Ross

just in case you're wondering... yes, that's my reflection in the mirror.

If you’re sitting in front of your computer right now wondering how I spent my evening last Thursday night my answer would have to be this: I spent it at a lower east side bar at a Bob Ross Tribute Party.

Don’t act so shocked since I posted the invitation here on therilla and if you thought I did it for comic effect you would be wrong, sir.  I was serious.  I RSVP’d.  I went.  I drank the free beer.  I saw trees.  They were happy and little just as I expected.

My apologies in advance for the poor photo quality I uploaded, but at least I have some sort of physical proof that I went to this event other than the free plastic pint glass I acquired at the PBR open bar (class all the way).  I’m sure Mr. Ross himself wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.  Gallery Bar is really a decent spread and I’m sort of interested in seeing what that place is like during a non-event sort of night. 

Anyway, I must say that being punctual is a plus when it comes to an open bar that occurs for only an hour.  After some “security” issues involving letting randoms into the event and not checking IDs because they didn’t “anticipate so many people coming” (maybe you shouldn’t have told your publicity manager to have it mentioned on MSNBC and DailyCandy?) the free beers spilled out just a few minutes late of it’s schedule ETA and things got flowing.  Although I stayed there for a little over 60 minutes, the fun was as impactful as I ever expected it to be… thanks to the cheerful woman who showed us that she can paint just like the tributee and making us all believe that we, too, can do that on our own!  (and yes the crowd roared in delight once we saw the first swift stroke of the paintbrush mark a smooth green line too). The look alike contest was sub-par and generally involved a man sporting a  2 1/2 foot afro and 17-inch fake beard.

All in all, the night was fantastic.  To conclude, I’ll leave you with a quote from Mr. Bob Ross himself who once said: “You know me, I gotta put in a big tree”.

-jg

April 7, 2009. Tags: bob ross, gallery bar, happy little trees, lower east side, pbr. 'Rant, 'Review, nycity blogging. 3 comments.