“Hanging With Henry Hill”
“I Am the Chauncey Gardener of Radio”
“Just a Few of Many Reasons Why I Am Infinitely Cooler Than Joe”
L-R: Henry, Lisa, Lowell, and George. After this photo was taken, they all broke out into a rendition of the Minutemen song "There Ain't Shit on T.V. Tonight".
Last weekend I was at a dinner party at Henry Hill (You remember Henry Hill… character from the movie “Goodfellas”, right? Of course you do) and his fiancée Lisa More’s house in the LA area. Also at the party were legendary punk rockers Jack Grisham from the band T.S.O.L. and George Hurley from the band Minutemen. I’ve been pimping out some of the pictures on Myspace to promote my wicked cool site ZZZlist.com (Henry, Jack, and George are featured there – click on the “celebs” tab), and people have been asking me how this odd group got together and how the evening turned out. Read on and I’ll tell you everything!
A few months ago after I interviewed Jack Grisham for my awesome site (I may have mentioned it earlier… ZZZlist.com) and the conversation turned to Henry Hill. It turned out that Jack and Henry’s fiancée Lisa have mutual friends. So later when I interviewed Henry and Lisa for Reverend Bob Levy’s Miserable Men website (“Miserable Men” is Levy’s show on one of radio jock Howard Stern’s Sirius Satellite Radio channels) , I mentioned Jack to Lisa, and we set the date to get together. Lisa said that Henry would cook because, just like in the movie “Goodfellas”, Henry really does love to cook! (Watch for Henry’s organic “Sunday Gravy” in stores soon!)
Jack was driving from Huntington Beach, and I was coming from the San Pedro area, so we drove separately. My entourage consisted of Lowell Niles (an engineer/filmmaker from San Diego) and George Hurley (Drummer for the bands Minutemen and fIREHOSE), both relatives of mine. In case you didn’t guess, that’s where George fits in.
George, Lowell, and I got to the house first. We got to the door and the house was open and we could hear music in the living room. We were knocking and no one came to the door so I called the house and we could hear the phone ringing. We started to get nervous and were thinking things like “What if we were walking in on some crazy mob shit?” and “Good thing we brought the camera”. After a few minutes, Lisa’s good friend Michele came and hung out with us. She told us that Lisa and Henry were making a quick run to the store. We were relieved that no one was hurt.
A few minutes later, Henry and Lisa returned followed by Henry’s brother Joe. Soon Jack and his adult daughter Anastasia checked in. Finally, local celebrity Mickey Bush arrived. Everyone seemed to hit it off. I’d tell you about some of the conversations but I like to respect people’s privacy so I’ll tell you about the food instead!
Dinner was a garden salad tossed with a tangy Italian dressing, followed by penne pasta and Italian sausage covered in Henry’s signature Sunday Gravy and accompanied by garlic bread. Dessert was fresh cut watermelon and a variety of pastries that Lowell brought from a Japanese bakery in San Diego. This message brought to you by Henry Hill’s Sunday Gravy.
After dinner, Henry was committed to spend an hour live on a radio show, so I ended up interviewing him on air in the studio that Nate Caserta set up in his house. Henry gets ants in his pants and can't sit still, so when he took a break I interviewed Anastasia and George. Jack came in later and I took a break but I think that George and Lowell interviewed Jack. Henry spent the evening answering live questions, and the audience loved him. Eventually Lisa came in and did a wrap-up.
A few notable items:
- For awhile there were actually helicopters flying around overhead. Henry looked nervous, but it turned out that they live near an LA County Aerial Firefighting Fleet station. Luckily no one was arrested.
- Mickey Bush was hilarious. At one point he said, “Tonight I feel like a teenager. I don’t think I could get one, but I feel like one”. Say it aloud with a British accent and you’ll understand why I cracked the fuck up. Think Austin Powers.
- Lowell and Lisa really hit it off, and promised to get together and make a movie. It was a true Hollywood moment.
- It’s weird but I’ve been on the radio a lot lately… sometimes live, other times recorded audio of my interviews. I feel like Forrest Gump sometimes when it comes to radio shows… the opportunities just fall in my lap.
- We got to see a lot of Henry’s artwork… I love his paintings! Check them out at his eBay store.
Here are some photos from the evening:
One dog goes one way, the other dog goes the other way, and this guy's sayin', "Whadda ya want from me?' 
Lowell and Boogie. It wasn’t supposed to be “that” kind of party, but there actually was a love connection.
The infamous Mickey Bush – he lives like a rock star but without the booze, drugs, or groupies. And instead of a Lamborghini, he drives a scooter.
Nate Caserta… sound engineer, producer, beat-dropper 
3 comments:
Henry Hill rocks
[IMG]http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii71/syndicateradiotv/henryhill.jpg[/IMG]
It's funny when Ro says “Just a Few of Many Reasons Why I Am Infinitely Cooler Than Joe”, because it almost seems sincere.
I see that "someone" *cough Joe cough* is jealous of my coolness.
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