MADNESS!!!

Man, that was madness. I wish any of my out of town readers:

Like the PA boys http://www.blogger.com/profile/10905729 (Smokin)
http://www.blogger.com/profile/6988591 (Los).

Or my peeps at The Jammy (all 3 of ya) http://thejammy.blogspot.com/
Or even the chicks from AZ
http://www.blogger.com/profile/24410209 (Becka) and http://www.blogger.com/profile/24475865 (Superstar)

could have been in Brooklyn to experience 4th of July. It was vintage.

It was madness. My day started pretty early with a run to Key Food for some limes, fresh basil and a case of Corona. Then headed to Coney Island to watch the hot dog eating contest and to tan that sexified (made-up word alert) body of mine. So first I settled in for a spot and watched an epic battle between American Joey Chestnut and Japanese Kobayashi. Chestnut eats with his whole body, I mean he literally shakes every muscle to get those down. It's quite disgusting. Where as Kobayashi calmly snaps each dog in half and like a machine two bites and down.
Chestnut had the champ on the ropes, he was ahead by three dogs until one fell out of his mouth. He then seemed to sway a bit and kind of lost his way. Kobayashi took advantage like a champion would and threw down six more dogs in about a minute giving him a three dog lead. He held on to win his sixth straight Nathan's hot dog contest by swallowing 53 3/4 Dogs. A disappointed Chestnut fell short by 1 1/4 of a dog. He had 52. It was a thrilling event. Usually Kobayashi crushes the competition.

Next I met my crew over to where our spot on the beach was and like I said earlier, tanned that sexified body of mine. Of course this activity was accompanied by a six pack. After three hours of sunbathing we left and headed home to get ready for the family BBQ. I was bringing the skirt steaks and salsa so I needed to whip up a marinade for the steak. Hence the fresh basil mentioned earlier. That along with fresh parsley, shallots, sherry wine vinegar, garlic, olive oil, crushed red pepper, ground black pepper, salt and lime juice makes a mean skirt steak marinade. Then for the salsa I go with fresh jersey tomatoes, garlic, jalepeno, onion and lime juice. Good stuff.

Arrive at the BBQ and Unc already got some chicken kabobs and that excites me so down go a few of those. Then I whip out the Salsa and Tostitos are in the air. I take the little cousins down to the schoolyard for a ass whipping in spongeball and handball. By the time we get back dinner is in full swing, skirt steaks, kabobs, ribs, salads and a giant london broil.

After resting up by drinking beer I catch the last 15 minutes of Italy vs. Germany on TV. Now here is where it gets a bit maaaaddd. Grosso gets by the defense and squirts one past the German keeper and now the Italians are headed to the finals. They had another goal to make it official and then Bensonshurt Brooklyn erupts. I mean E-FUCKING-RUPTS. Since the neighborhood I live in is pretty much all Italian and since the Italians just advanced to the World Cup final and it's the Fourth of July it gets ugly. Cars roaring up and down the block screaming ITALIA!, ITALIA!

Giant flags being waved in the middle of the streets, people driving with these same flags unfurled hanging out sunroofs and windows. Old people dancing to music in the streets, banging pots and pans. Little kids coming out, re-enacting the Grosso goal just like I used to re-enact the Stark dunk against the Bulls. Trumpets and drums marching, MARCHING in the streets. I went by the Gelato Cafe on Stillwell Ave. to see how nuts they were and ended up celebrating a bit with them. Even though I'm not full bloodied Italian (I'm half) they were handing out Peroni and champagne like it was New Years eve. Plus the Gelato is excellent. So I had to partake. After that I head back to the BBQ to start the firework display I planned. Only the Italians started ahead of me.

They put on a show. It lasted hours. The celebrating, the fireworks, the honking of horns and just about every other way you can make noise they did it. It was great. I love seeing that because it really speaks to how proud they are of their fellow countrymen. I rooted for USA all the way and when they were out, I only watched a few matches. Never attaching myself to another team. But since I'm half Italian (dad) I couldn't help but pull for them. And now that France opposes them in the Final oh man, you know I won't root for those fairies. Anyway the fireworks were amazing. Colorful, loud and smokey. Just the way I like it. I couldn't wait any longer so I started lighting ours. Along with my cousins we lit almost everything at once until NYPD showed up. Luckily my brother in law was there and since he's a DEA agent he persuaded them to turn away. Once they left we had the whole block on our stoop watching us light fountains, cakes and mini-rockets. It was like old times, like pre-Giuliani times. I wish everyone is the world was there with me.