Monday, April 20, 2009

Somewhere, someone is writing a blog about sitting next to the fat guy and the crying baby...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how swell April was going to be. It didn't start out so great. I headed out to Connecticut to compete with my partner Joel "The Cannon" Podelsky at a nice little Bar and Restaurant called The Wood N Tap. We were in search of giving Joel his second year title of Munch Madness Burger Bites Champion and winning my first title with them.
Unfortunately, this was not to be. I held up my end of the bargain by performing in 30 seconds on each attempt. Joel had a little trouble with debris and in the end, it cost us the win. Joel had rough day and couldn't match last years performance. It wasn't a big money deal and the event went to charity, so in the end, it's all good and hopefully the winners will enjoy the game.
Things went back on track last week. After I wasn't able to take on the Hulk Burger challenge, and soundly defeating the Ice Cream challenge, myself and Paul "Pork Slap" Acaria made plans to get back into Harlem and take the Hulk down. My friend Jamal, who is not a pro eater, also wanted a shot at it. Jill and my girlfriend Jessica accompanied us.
Paul called up the owner and worked it out that we would be able to attempt the challenge outside of normal challenge hours (the general public can only participate Monday - Thursday during lunch time hours). Paul went first and was able to take the record, cutting it really close due to some pickle problems, with a time just under 5 minutes. Paul also says that meat products are not a good discipline for him which hindered his performance.


Here is his attempt...



After Paul, it was Champ time...


The new record of 2 mins and 18 seconds was established and will hopefully stand for awhile.

The record attempt was just a warm up the weekend to follow. It was time for the Alt Games. It's an event that showcases college students in X-Games style competition. The contest was being held in San Diego at The Wave House. The plane ride going there was ok. I had a connecting flight to Baltimore. I was lucky enough to be able to sit without someone next to me on the first flight but each flight thereafter, going and coming home, not so lucky. Or I should say, not so lucky for the poor girl next to me who not only had to deal with me, but the baby that started crying as soon as the plane engine got into gear.
It wasn't as bad as it sounds though because she was a tiny thing and had enough room and the baby wasn't crying the whole way through and in fact the parents were extremely nice people.
Once I touched down in San Diego, I was informed, not only that my ride wasn't coming, but also that my room mate to be, Rich "Big Rig" Brooking wasn't able to make his flight and I'd be chillin out solo for the night, which was great to have a room to myself but in the end was pretty boring. Arnie and I did get to talk over particulars of the event that night so I had a better idea of things to come, and other CE related things and I also got to meet the great Coondog O'Karma for the first time.
The next morning, we all went out to breakfast, now with Kevin "The Lion" Kordalski in tow and had a nice meal. I should have used my better judgement in breakfast choice however, because it definitely affected my performance later.
We had mucho time to kill between breakfast and the contest because we had to get there early to make sure the event went off without a hitch. This particular contest was not only streamed live for the Internet audience, but was also filmed for CBS Sports and will be making the regular CBS channel next month. "Big Rig" finally made it and after hanging out with "The Lion" for a bit, me and Rich did some hanging. From our brief conversation I figured we'd get on pretty well and I gotta say I was right. The kid's a decent kid with a good head on his shoulders. We share a lot of the same viewpoints and philosophy. I look forward to competing with him in the future.
It was finally time to get down to business. The last 3 contestants made it. They were all locals that attended the qualifiers with their frats. We lined up behind the big banner and were introduced one by one starting with Arnie, who was co-MCing, Coondog, the ref and the competitors.
I got out there and really wanted to put on a show. When the crowd saw the biggest dude pop out from behind the banner, they knew it was on and got pumped up. I got off to a quick start finishing my first basket in under 2 minutes or so, but for there it got harder. The food was Mac and Cheese Balls and were good, but the breading was killer. It was really scratchy and hurt the throat going down. I got my rhythm on but slowed down little by little. As I looked over, I saw that even though I had a tremendous lead but it was dwindling away while Kevin had a huge come from behind charge. With Rich, I could only imagine how he was doing because he wasn't really in my view and if anyone expected an upset, it would have come from Rich. But against all odds, Kevin "The Lion" roared his ass neck and neck with me. Damn you wonderful Denny's Slamwich Sandwich! As the clock ticked down to the last ten seconds, I took a moment to clear out all the remaining Mac And Cheese in my mouth and juuuust as a precaution, unsure of where I was at, downed one last Mac And Cheese Ball. Turns out that last one was the difference maker. I edged him out by just one. The kid was impressive and I definitely want to see him in competition again. Had this been any longer, I might have been in trouble keeping up with him, giving him a big upset. After the contest we all just chilled out for a bit and called it a night.
This was my first big contest and it was a great one. I've now earned more than half of last years winnings already and am a top 5 earner to begin the year. (Or at least I should be, for some reason the eatfeats site wouldn't accept my submission of the first $250 I won earlier in the year) It won't last long, but it's nice to see my name up with the big boys to start out the season.
The flight home was a pain in the ass, but I was glad to finally get home. Myself and Arnie did some philosophical chatting on the car ride from the airport and I can see a lot of our ideas and personality are pretty similar. This was my first time actually getting to know the "Chowhound" and he's a pretty solid dude. I look forward to working with all my new found friends.
Video, Pictures and Article of the Alt Games can be found by clicking HERE
Fast forward to about 18 mins into the video for the contest. It will also be airing on CBS on May 16th.




Thursday, April 16, 2009

The Champ's Competitive Eating Mixtape : Vol 1


I posted a list of music I was using during contests to get me pumped, back on my myspace.
Since then, my external hard drive that housed all my music got messed up and I lost about 500 albums. That sucked major.
Since my hard drive was so new, the warranty was still good and I got it replaced, sans albums.
Now I'm in the process of getting music again which sucks because I had a lot of shit that was "one and no hit wonder" stuff that nobody has. Meh.
Anyway, I'm building my eating mix back up. Every time I add 25 new songs, I'll post a new volume. Here is Volume 1.

1. Flyleaf - Cassie
2. G-Unit - I'll Whip Ya Head Boy
3. Jadakiss - The Champ Is Here
4. Busta Rhymes - Arab Money
5. 50 Cent - Life's On The Line
6. Ghostface Killah - The Champ (Remix)
7. Ghostface Killah - Be Easy
8. Johnny Cash - Get Rhythm (Remix)
9. Lupe Fiasco - Go Baby
10. 50 Cent - Wanksta
11. Gangstarr - Battle
12. Eminem - Run Rabbit Run
13. Eminem - Lose Yourself
14. Eminem - 8 Mile
15. Destiny's Child - Lose My Breath
16. Jay-Z - Roc Boys
17. Foo Fighters - This Is A Call
18. Flo Rida - Right Round
19. Fort Minor - Petrified
20. Linkin Park - One Step Closer
21. Linkin Park - Faint
22. Nas - Hip Hop Is Dead
23. Outkast - B.O.B. (Remix)
24. Teriyaki Boys - Tokyo Drift (Remix)
25. Tony Yayo - So Seductive




Sunday, April 5, 2009

One heck of a weekend....


  This was the big weekend. The Big Brother weekend!
My weekend started with an unexpected event. Jessica's sister Celia was excited about a pillow fight in Manhattan. I had no idea that this even existed and thought it'd be pretty lame. I got really lucky because I have this big heavy wooden chair that I was bringing to the audition and was going to have to carry it all around the city, to work and then the audition and home. Now that we were going to the event, the chair and I got a lift. The pillow fight, luckily enough, also was moved to Wall Street and Broad St. which was about 3 blocks away from work.
We get to the area as the event is just happening and it's madness. The area was quartered off and eventually spilled down the street where we were. It was a crazy spectacle. Finally, I yelled out "someone give me a pillow so I can split some heads open" and some kid says "here ya go" and throws me his. I jump in the crowd, throw my arms up in the air and yell out "300" style. A crowd of about 10-20 people form around me and all of a sudden it's war. I'm getting hit over the head hard and hitting back just as hard. It was like a giant mosh pit.
We finally got out of there and departed to Starbucks and got a drink and I made it to work on time, now lugging around the chair on my own.
With about two hours left, I was starting to get jitters and panicking. I got my food and a drink earlier so I'd be prepared and wondered what the crowd would be like.
When I got to the location on 43rd st and 8th ave, there was a group of hood looking kids hanging out, about 20 of them in all and I figured this was the line, and as they looked at me to say "who's this crazy white boy with the wooden chair" the cops came along and cleared the street. Turns out they weren't and I was the first and only person in line.
I attempted to read the rest of my book for school but I could not concentrate for the life of me. Also, with all the people coming in and out, I lost rational thought and was assuming that everyone passing was Big Brother personnel. The truth was that there were several events held in the building.
As I'm freezing my ass off, a guy starts talking about something and without hearing him, I just go "I don't know, I'm waiting for an audition" and he says "me too". Turns out, we were the only two crazy enough to get there so early. He introduces himself as Carroll. He's in his 50's but is dressed youthfully. He seems like a decent dude and we get to talking.
Carroll had arrived on a bus from Baltimore and was visiting NYC for the first time. He had came in at about 9 o'clock assuming a crowd would already have formed. He informed me that when he got there, the security guard let him in the building. He had gotten restless and left and my first thought was "wtf?? that's dumb". Thank god he left because when he came back, we both were able to sneak into the side entrance thanks to the maintenance workers. We went up to the 3rd floor where the audition was held. There was a bathroom and a water fountain. All my fears were now quelled and the worst of it was the wait. This guy Carroll was really like a freaking angel. He got me into the building instead of freezing my ass off in 30 degree weather for 12 hours and we talked for several hours on end about different topics. He's a little kooky, but cool as hell and I enjoyed his company. We took naps here and there but for the most part we were so wired that we couldn't rest.
We kept looking out the window and the line didn't form until about 7AM!!! I was a little disappointed that I could have went home the whole time and slept some but happy in the fact I had met a new found friend and I was there. This was it!
At that point, the morning security guard was doing his rounds and had to kick us out. We went downstairs and explained to the people waiting that we had been there for such a long time and were not skipping them. It was mostly all girls waiting and they were nice enough to understand the situation and time further passed quickly. Everyone was really cool.
Then 12 PM, the listed time of the audition hit. The producers began the set up and were getting the line together. Cameras came out to film the crowd and a past contestant, Alex, came out to greet people and give advice and info. He was a nice enough guy.
They lined us all up and brought us up in groups. I told Carroll to go ahead first and took my turn second.
I went in the room and I just did my thing. I told them my story and why I'd be good for the show and it lasted all of about 5 minutes. I feel like they talked to me longer than Carroll, so I think that's a good sign.
For now, the wait begins and hopefully all works out in my favor. If it doesn't, life moves on, but this is my dream. I've ALWAYS wanted to do Big Brother and The Champ is up to the challenge.

BIG BROTHER, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, CALL ME!!!