Birthdays, Goodbyes & Beergarden

Now that the stresses of finding an apartment are over (I'm moving to Brooklyn!), I can finally enjoy my weekends in the way I know best--gin+tonics, beer games and UNHEALTHY amounts of fried food.  Last Saturday, I was up by Columbia celebrating Chanel's birthday at her bar 1020.  Fun fact, Will Ferrell and Mark Whalberg's The Other Guys filmed at this Upper West Side joint and Ferrell apparently pukes on the same pool table that Chanel blew out her birthday cupcakes on.  How awesome is that?

The rented Karaoke machine went to good use, as Chanel had her rock star debut to No Doubt's Spiderwebs

It is mid-August and that can only mean one thing--interns are starting to leave.  The media operations team said goodbye to its dear intern Damon as he heads back to Brown for his last year of school.  Conveniently, Midori--the kryptonite-looking green melon liqueur--was promoting its new drink Midori Melon Aid (Midori+Skyy Vodka+Sprite...pretty nasty) by giving out lime green shades and test tube shots.  You can't complain about free lime shades and test tube shots.

In my head, 'beer garden' is synonymous to 'good weather' and Saturday was beautiful out--sunny, low 80s, not humid, gorgeous.  We ventured to Astoria around 5pm (Saturday was a slow start, probably due to the night before at Ace Bar) and luckily found a table pretty quickly at the packed Bohemian Hall.  Signs around the beer garden say 'No Beer Games Allowed', however, laying conspicuously on our bench was a laminated sheet of beer games instructions to Asshole and FOTCH (Kings).  If this is not an invitation to play beer games, I don't know what is.

It's a good thing Hannah and I came prepared with two decks of cards (two is key if you plan on incorporating a beer game within a beer game... explain that Christopher Nolan).  And so the 3-hour game of FOTCH begins!  FOTCH is basically Kings (possibly King in German?) but the difference is you have to say 'FOTCH' before you drink, meaning this game is way cooler than Kings (by the way, King in German is Konig, not FOTCH).  Maybe because it sounds like another commonly used curse word or is one syllabic making it easier to scream/yell or just sounds great when yelled at a beer garden, FOTCH proved to be an awesome drinking game. 

My rule: Face card = Ben takes photo with woman older than him ("Is the joke on me?")

Best part about Bohemian Hall is the beer--Staropramen, Frankenstein, Krusovice, Oktoberfest--great choices for beer games

Somehow we managed to top FOTCH with probably the most successful game of Thumper ever (It was during this game that a security guard reminded us there are no beer games allowed).  That didn't stop the rave, utter milking, money shot, cougar, percussion hands, dive, dead robot, patty cake, elbows and palm tree from continuing.  Guess who had what signal in the photo below.  I want to say Sean & Noah's are pretty obvious.

I think the night was officially over when we ordered 75 soy garlic korean fried chicken wings in K-Town and had about 30 left.  A sign we had lost our game.

Time To Open Up About Icing

I wanted to wait a while before addressing the 'bros icing bros' phenomenon because to be honest, I wasn't sure how I felt about it.  My inner bro who loves any excuse for drinking and public humiliation thought 'Wow, who can I ice this minute!' was dominated by my advertising pysche who can sense blatant marketing schemes and thought 'Smirnoff is totally behind this!'... but after watching how things unfolded, I have made up my mind:

'Bros Icing Bros' IS AN AWESOME GAME and major bro props to the founders of 'Bros Icing Bros' for creating an accidental marketing phenomenon, something that has been long overdue in this industry.  I am happy that some bored college student made moves to stir things up, but a sad week for all, as Diageo, the parent company of Smirnoff, has forced the 'Bros Icing Bros' site to shutdown.

Reasons why this was NOT a smart move:

1. Search volume for Smirnoff has increased as a result of 'Bros Icing Bros'.  Increased curiosity and interest in your brand is invaluable.  Silly Smirnoff for shunning the phenomenon.

2. Photo taking concept lives beyond a website and is taken viral with Twitter and Facebook.  Power in numbers, especially numbers of Bros.  Once your homepage or wall is showered with photos of ices, you know its about time to avoid your friends or have an Ice ready on you (JESS SCOTT I'M ON TO YOU).

Photo Courtesy of Jessica Scott, probably the most avid Icer I know

Photo Courtesy of Larissa Hayden, probably the second most avid Icer I know

3. My boyfriend, the biggest hater of all things hatable, has adopted Icing as a way of life.  Schemes and elaborate plans involving icing underwater, at a wedding rehearsal dinner, etc. has got me believing that 'icing' is surely a phenomenon of epic proportions.  

In the end, the creators of 'Bro Icing Bros' has changed the perception that Smirnoff Ice is no longer the gateway drink for underage girls or choice drink for French dudes but the ultimate humiliation for the machoest men out there.  Smirnoff should be thanking the 'bros' for the recent skyrocket in sales and for reviving the brand in the best way possible.