One of the things that I wanted to do with the PiercingKen blog site when I launched it was to showcase some of the photography that I found myself doing while on various travel or visiting adventures. I felt that it would be fun to present that sort of thing to the interested eye and since I have a few people that I communicate with from around the world, it couldn’t hurt to inspire their future visiting plans. Recently I was in Atlantic City, NJ for a couple of days – it was a family outing, and since I am not much for the gaming machines, I decided to wander the Boardwalk with my little snappy camera in hand and see what I could find. We were staying in a hotel not too far from the Steel Pier amusement park and this is exactly what it sounds like. A giant pier with an amusement part on it that goes right out over the Atlantic Ocean. It’s pretty awesome, so I snapped a bunch of images and will let you wander the pier with me. I won’t have much to say for this one since they speak for themselves in terms of what ride it is.
I’ll start this little narrative with a view from the hall of the hotel where I was staying. We were in Resorts in case you were wondering.
A slightly different view of the same vantage point.
If I had to think back to when I first went to Smith’s Bar, I will say that it was after a job interview from Hell and I was meeting a then friend for a cold beverage and to catch up. I was not anywhere close to having PiercingMetal.com yet, and as I reflect upon that day, I was not really writing for the website that got me started either. Anyway, I digress. At the time of this meetup, Smith’s was really a different looking place. They had a bunch of tables on the side and one of those hot meat counters that we used to see a lot in places like Blarney Stone. I loved those since you could get some corned beef, turkey or roast beef for a reasonable sum and a few cold beers and then go off to whatever it was you were doing.
Smith’s Bar NYC
I liked the bar and remembered it when I started doing my music scribe thing and began to use it as my own launching point for diner and beverage before going off to B.B. King Blues Club and the Nokia Theatre. Slowly but surely the word started to spread thanks to the growing Social Nets and many other Metal peeps began to use this space as well for their own pre-gaming. On the other side of Smith’s was a larger restaurant side and while you could get food on either of the sides, there were more tables and room over on the opposite side for larger groups. It was your typical NYC bar and had a certain sleazy charm to it. The crowd was a regular person crowd and when I was there with a Metal compliment of friends I never had an issue. The shot below shows off the new restaurant space look and I will explain that in the next paragraph.
Smith’s Bar NYC
Of course in time things do change and Smith’s eventually got a makeover that made the place look a lot nicer and I guess more appealing at the end of the day. They dumped the meat counter for standing tables and cleared a few of the other parts in the main bar that had become part of my memory and things I liked to see. Granted it was roomier now and while I didn’t snap any shots of that for this narrative I will say that they definitely classed it up a bit. Welcome tourists I reckon we should say. They often had music in the restaurant space and the players would be against the front window over there. Now there was a small stage that was a much better option in my opinion. They don’t seem to move the tables back at all when bands are playing and that can be a little annoying in my humble opinion. They changed the menu around and yeah prices went up a little bit too but it was still a good launching point for the Metal and Hard Rock gigs for sure. Now with tools like Twitter one is able to say where they are going before a show and reach numerous friends/fans. I have used it for this purpose a lot.
Smith’s Bar NYC
At the time of this writing I can safely say that this is probably the most visited bar in my personal record. One of these days I will snare one of their shirts because I like the look of them. You can see where Smith’s is exactly by clicking their website link below but please know its right on the corner of 8th Avenue and 44th Street. Mark it on your agenda items if you are going to B.B’s or Nokia.
Recently some friends and I participated in a cancer fund raiser for the St. Baldrick’s Organization. If you have never heard of them before, please know that they focus their energies on raising money to help get more research for Children’s Cancer. What makes them interesting and a little different, is that you are able to volunteer to be a barber or get your head shaved in solidarity with the kids that lose theirs during treatment or from the illness. A detailed play by play about the event and a ton of fun photos can be found by clicking the logo below. I loaded this particular narrative under my PiercingMetal Musings blog since I went into this event using my website brand and fellow Metal supporters as my teammates. It was one incredible and unforgettable night.
Should you wish to leave us a comment about this adventure, we ask that you leave it under the full narrative on the PiercingMetal Musings Blog as they have been disabled on this signpost. Thanks very much.
And now a word from our sponsor’s. OK, so that’s not entirely true but this past weekend I had adventured up to Coney Island, Brooklyn to see some friends doing a Metal “Fest” at the now only Peggy O’Neill’s space. If you’ve gone to see The Brooklyn Cyclones at Keyspan Park, oops I mean MCU Park then you have very likely walked right passed the place or even stopped in for a beer or three. Of course, this narrative is NOT about the bar or even the Metal gig. It’s more about the side trip I made while up there.
So the other day I was at a Metal Tribute show down at one of the neighborhood bars in Coney Island. While I was over there I just was compelled to visit the Nathan’s hot dog place since that is almost a “must do” kind of thing when in the region. Anyways, on my way back to see my friends who were playing some Black Sabbath down on the street, the fireworks display started to go off on the Boardwalk. Since I wanted to test the ability of recording video with my new Smartphone, I fumbled to get it rolling and share with you blog readers some of this happening.
This is only a portion of the display of course but it will have to do. I shot this with the Droid Incredible device aka my current mobile phone. Pretty cool. I should do more with this as it seems to work out really well. Oh, and in case you are wondering, my friends are the band Wicked World and you can hear them in the background playing Black Sabbath’s “N.I.B.”. It was a fun night of Metal for sure.
That’s all I got for now but as I wrap this up I will ask that you subscribe to the YouTube Channel that hosts this video. It’s my personal one and I guess I should look into creating a channel for the recently launched website which you are now enjoying. I will mark that down on the to do list. Keep rocking
