the hat that solicited the randomness.

so this hat garnered a random compliment from a starbucks drive-thru attendant, who wasn't even serving me.

bought it saturday at the mall at steamtown. both the gf and i are in agreement with its "flyness."

maybe daughtry's right about idol...

on the heals of arguably one of the more popular alum's criticism of american idol - tv week reports that last night's ai premiere turned in the lowest premiere ratings since 2004.

ouch.

timbaland - scream music video.

thoughts?

ralphie, lifehouse, mtv...

mtv's "you-r-here" blog once again selected a story written by ralphie to feature on it's blog. click here to read the thread.

katie couric - uncensored.

you've been warned...

lifehouse - you & me - the mall at steamtown.

lifehouse - whatever it takes - the mall at steamtown.

lifehouse - first time - the mall at steamtown.

travis barker gets low!

the man is sick - the video is golden...

sunday night, friday's on kidder, and lifehouse...

the following is an excerpt from "the ralphie report" that will be printed this wednesday in the weekender.

---

Thank goodness for BlackBerry’s, Google, and Sunday nights in Wilkes-Barre.

Afternoon-ace A.J., Midday-mogul Marino, and I all ventured to T.G.I. Friday’s on Kidder Street. Marino and I sought out reduced prices on spirits and greasy appetizers. In the act, we simply coaxed A.J. into joining in.

The three of us bantered about a number of subjects, with Monday’s acoustic performance of Lifehouse inside The Mall at Steamtown dominating the discussion. Coincidentally enough, we heard First Time blaring over the bar speakers as we discussed the Malibu, California-based band.

Immediately after that – the group’s latest track – Whatever It Takes – played throughout Friday’s. I observe two guys on my right, whose attire doesn’t exactly scream, “NEPA.”

My BHT cohorts vehemently deny that there’s any possibility rock stars are drinking amongst us. I dissent, and decide to end the matter in a twenty-first century manner.

Google Image Search via BlackBerry led us to Bassist Bryce Soderberg and Drummer Rick Woolstenhulme, Jr., who were flattered we recognized them. The men comprise two-thirds of Lifehouse - lead singer and guitarist Jason Wade decided to rest in his hotel room.

For the record – national recording acts play their own music on jukeboxes in bars.

A couple rounds, boneless wings, and games of music trivia later – Rick retired to bed, while Bryce rolled with us to Mohegan Sun – offering up the “rockstar” moment of the night.

“Wait, I thought I was betting $10, not $50. Oh well,” the bassist nonchalantly stated in between hands of video Blackjack.

Bryce confessed earlier in the night that he and Colbie Caillat engaged in a summer fling while the two acts toured with headliner Goo Goo Dolls. According to Soderberg, Caillat broke his heart.

I guess the former tanning salon attendant doesn’t leave everyone feeling Bubbly.

holy whoa.

so much happened since we last spoke.

i took a train into new york city that rode directly through ground zero.

my girlfriend and i spent the day in scranton, and watched juno at the endless mountains movie theater.

i drank and gambled with lifehouse.

97 bht brought lifehouse to the mall at steamtown.

so many stories to come... plus your regular doseage of celeb news!

ralphie.

yup, way.

In the back of a cab... Driver is rockin' a hardcore mullet. He's also in possession of the most conservative cabbie driving skills ever.

Passing madison square garden right now. Impressive.

Having lunch with a friend from mtvizzle, and heading back to wilkes barre - britneyless.

:(

britney fools ralphie.

ralphie's current location : starbucks on the corner of broadway and reade, manhattan, ny.

britney's current location : mexico.

http://www.tmz.com/2008/01/10/brits-ultimate-fake-out/

let me sip on this coffee and i'll get back to you.

on my way to nyc to seek out britney spears.

you read the title correctly.

tmz with the story here.

updates via blackberry from manhattan later this morning.

this should be real fun.

feliz cumpleanos dave matthews.

the guitarist/singer turns 41 today. i don't think "over 40" when i think of matthews, but i've been known to be wrong on occasion. and the most viewed dmb music video is...

happy belated birthday elvis presley.

the "king" would've been 77 yesterday. he passed away at age 42.

could amy winehouse have more fun as a blond?

i suppose we'll soon find out...

the intervention of dr. phil...

a spokesperson for britney spears's parents spoke with meredith vieira this morning on the today show. the popwreck's rents aren't thrilled about all of dr. phil's "public statements"...

ralphie and the red cross - mad tight now yo.

no, i did not give blood. if you remember, i haven't slept much, and consequently don't feel well. combined with the fact that tonight i'll be here long after my midnight signoff, and i didn't think needles and losing blood were factors needed in the forecast.

but here's a few pictures from my perspective. i will be giving blood in the near future. and you should too. afterall, you could save three lives with one donation.

the top 10 WORST dressed...

posh spice tops blackwell's list this year, and this picture isn't helping her case...

the entire rundown of those should not be dressing themselves can be seen here.

not too much going on...

it ended up being a convienient day to stroll in a little tardy to the bht world headquarters, as there isn't too much going on - period. after throwing in a 15-hour haul yesterday, working on a top-secret project that we hope to announce later in the week, i decided to simply take it easy and catch a little shut eye before tonight's show.

but what really happened? for starters, no sheep were counted. i ended up with a nap at best. i didn't mind too much, because my sleep schedule spoils me these days compared to my ruckus college schedule. also - there's excellent morning tv. i flip between the today show, morning joe, and mike & mike. as if my attention span wasn't tested enough, i also called the gf, keeping her company while en route to her job.

later in the day i finally mustered up strength to jog throughout downtown wilkes-barre. there certainly was no lack of motivation - besides my usual reasons of staying slim and healthy, weather.com informed me that we were approaching a new high today. at the time of my jog, downtown clocked in at a balmy 65 degrees.

for once - my four mile run was uneventful. whenever i sprint through public square and over the market street bridge, i encounter atleast one heckler. "NICE SHORTS!" "WOOOOOOO!" and of course, who can forget the original, "RUN FOREST RUN!"

it doesn't bother me. when you work in entertainment, you develop relatively tough skin (despite everyone commenting on my soft hands). still, it doesn't go unnoticed or unnoted.

but you really couldn't ask for a better january 8... no hecklers, no snow, and i still have a job.

not that i'm in jeopardy of losing it - but hey, it's the entertainment business right?

happy birthday screech.

the former child star-turned pornographer is 31.

tonight on the ralphie radio show...

7pm - pa lottery tickets!

7:30 - dr. phil sets the record straight on his hospital visit to a troubled britney spears over the weekend...

8pm - the gallery of sound top 8 @ 8

8:30 - $25 gift card to the shoppes at montage!

8:45 - miley cyrus tells a radio station in new york that she's not happy about the leakage of these photos... hear for yourself tonight...

9pm - a new segment - "metro monday's" ... how do you feel about guys who straighten their hair?

10pm - more free pa lottery tickets...

10:30 - the death of a comedic legend...

the.ralphie.radio.show.with.ralphie.aversa. weeknights 7-12a. online @ 97bht.com.

hillary clinton needs to be informed that...

THERE'S NO CRYING IN POLITICS!

you can find la lohan in da aisle.

not da club. lindsay picks up groceries for what could presumably be her entire nuclear and extended family yesterday.

maybe they were celebrating the orthodox christmas?

holy heidi montag.

lc is in cali somewhere crying her eyes out! heidi will grace the covers of this month's maxim.

dr. phil on britney...

boy he sure is getting some mileage out of this...

according to the new york post - new years eve saw "the king of crunk" dethrone "the mother-fuggin princess"...

"PUNK starlet Avril Lavigne was on the verge of tears New Year's Eve when she lost the spotlight to 'Lil Jon. The rude rapper was deejaying a countdown party at Prive, where Lavigne was slated to call the countdown. But before the stroke of midnight, onlookers saw 'Lil Jon "grab his own mike and steal the show" from Lavigne by "holding his own coundown." The pop princess was said to be "visibly upset" and clung to her hubby Deryck Whibley, crying "I wanted to do the countdown!" Only when servers brought out Dom Perignon did she calm down."

who couldn't picture lavigne crying and whining about this? but more importantly - would you have flipped a lid if lil jon stole your spotlight?

britney spears = psycho, literally.

i'm so over this chick. if you still care, tmz covers the popwreck like no other, so ch-ch-check it out...

spanky shops at walmart.

tmz discovered this... it's travis tedford, aka "spanky" of "little rascals" fame. why just save at wal-mart when you can also work there?

wal-mart: home to falling prices and failing careers...

here's an idea for the backstreet boys...

instead of releasing music to make money, why not just endorse a makeup line?

mischa gets her prayer on...

if only we could hear what god's response was... here's barton leaving a church in lala land...

she sure cleans up nice...

tonight on the ralphie radio show.

michael hundgen from tmz tonight - just before 8 and around 9:30 - with the latest on lindsay lohan's relapse and britney's court appearance...

club x guest list just after 7!

the gallery of sound top 8 @ 8!

and... why did i fight last night with a friday's waitress? find out during the countdown...

the ralphie radio show w. ralphie aversa. 7-12a est - online at 97bht.com.

how i spent my new year's...

BIG thanks to the radisson, coors light, tink's and bht!

yeaaaahhh buffalo (and chad michael murray)

wait, a sabres logo on tmz.com? it's my fellow western new yorker chad michael murray, with 19-year old fiancee in tow, watching our buffalo sabres lose to the penguins on new year's day.

murray grew up about forty minutes away from me, in good 'ole wny. holler.

ps - what a downgrade from sophia bush!

fergie went south on the new years...

the "fergalicious" singer and fiance josh duhamel rung in 2008 on the beach in cabo san lucas...

a new year's eve to die for, sopranos style...

my last sign-off of the year inside the bht world headquarters came just before 3 in the afternoon on the 30th. after unplugging my headphones and scampering down the back steps, i hopped in my car and headed off to scenic stamford, ct to spend a night with the girlfriend. upopn arrival, i b-lined to the kitchen. three dishes of homemade sauce and pasta later, and i was 24 hours away from the new year.

my girlfriend is an early riser - she usually leaves for work around 8. many would be surprised, but there were no issues in waking up with her to leave. as she headed to the office, i drove to new jersey. with the day off, i decided it'd be an opportune time to visit my friend patrice in wayne. patrice and i worked endlessly on launching "msnbc on campus" at syracuse university. anywho, she received a couple new gadgets for christmas that i would help her become accustomed to. plus her dad promised homemade italian omlets.

after stuffing our faces and configuring the electronics, patrice and i set off north to partake in a little sightseeing - sopranos style. as you might know, i adore the sopranos. as you may not know, pretty much all of the scenes filmed throughout the series were on location at real-life jersey hotspots - or atleast as hot as one's spot could become in the dirty jerz. we only had a few hours, but three key locations were only a half-hour away. off we went, digital cameras and appetites in hand.

first stop - pizzaland in north arlington. the pizzeria is shown in the opening credits for the show - only garnering a couple seconds of camera time. despite this, fans flock to the pizza shop on a weekly basis. the owner, al, informed me that to this day, he still ships pies across the globe to sopranos supporters. another interesting tidbit - the owner said that he shut down the store front for two days leading up to the finale, due to the volume of orders he received.

mama mia. after all of this though, the guy was nice enough to chat for a half hour and offer patrice and i slices on the house. we obliged and were delighted. the pizza is homemade, from the dough to the toppings, and cooked to perfection inside an oven. the crust contains the perfect amount of thinness, and the slice sizes lend themselves to one-hand devouring.

as if we hadn't eaten enough, our next stop brought us to one of the more infamous soprano landmarks - holsten's brookdale confectionery in bloomfield. garden state residents knew the diner for it's chocolate cake, not it's onion rings - until this past summer.

yes, the diner that meadow couldn't quite park in front of, and tony didn't quite get wacked in, really does exist. patrice and i avoided the spots in front and parked around the corner, walking inside without the anxiety that we held while watching cast members and extras enter during that last episode.

THE booth was already inhabited by a couple of regular patrons, so we settled on a spot directly across, two rows to the right. as if we needed a menu? an order of onion rings went to the back, and we waited while checking out the surroundings with our wide eyes.

i can safely say that until the food reached our table, the only impressive trait of the diner was the intangible - that the final scene of the sopranos was filmed there. take that away, and there's no way i would've driven a half hour for breaded circles of a vegetable that i despise.

the onion rings were satisfying, as were the milkshakes we ordered for no other reason than we were craving milkshakes. after paying the bill we spoke with the owner, who says that he still gets sopranos tours coming through the diner atleast twice a week - the busses stopped daily during the week between christmas and new years. in the interest of the people waiting behind us to pay and leave, we said our goodbyes and headed to the final desitination of this impromtu trek across sopranos-friendly real estate.

come to find out, one of patrice's friends in cedar grove knows the exact location of the house that "tony soprano" called home. joey, patrice, and i sped up this mountain and cedar grove, passing the houses of wendy williams, wyclef jean, and goodness knows who else on the way. finally we arrived, that all-to-familiar winding driveway, the house perched up above lots of green, and the endless woods that tony scampered through while attempting to evade the feds at the end of season five.

of course i snapped a few pictures. i wish i had brought the new white robe the gf gave me for christmas, along with a copy of the star-ledger... i could've reenacted a scene very familiar to sopranos fans - tony waking up, throwing on the robe while half asleep, and stumbling down the drive in an effort to retrieve the paper.

the day of adventure had come to an end, so patrice and i retreated back to her house. i jumped back in my car and drove back to wilkes barre, where i would meet my lurver and commence the new year's celebration.

nonetheless, i finally experienced jersey first hand, and it really isn't as bad as one would think, or for that matter, as one would witness on television.

welcome to the new year!

i feel like i've been on vacation all of december.

for me this is a lot of time off in one short period - i took my actual vacation from the 20-26, worked the 27 and 28, off the 29, worked the 30, and siesta'd these last two days.

not complaining at all though. the rest came at a great time, after an assiduous year. i finished up classes at syracuse university, called four different locations in three different cities "home," - made multiple appearances on national tv, and landed my first full-time gig (or atleast, full-time gig that paid full-time money).

nonetheless, it's great to be back, and welcome to 2008.

new years eve saw me travel through four states in less than 12 hours. the photographic and first-hand account is on the way...

ralphie.

here are your plans for new years...

The BIGGEST New Year's Eve Party happens at Tink's Entertainment Complex in Downtown Scranton! $15 gets you unlimited drinks (beer and middle shelf), a hot buffet, and a champagne toast at midnight! Plus live music downstairs!

chris brown - special delivery.

my, what a holiday package you've brought along there, chris.

awkward.

ashlee simpson - just like you.

so a reader e-mailed "wwtdd" the following...

"okay, so, I was hanging out the other night when Ashlee Simpson and Pete Wentz and some friends sit down next to us. Ashlee got completely wasted and gave Pete a lap dance, pulling up her shirt and everything. Then she gave another girl a lap dance and tried to kiss her. She doesn't eat, she just takes diet pills and drinks, but she told one girl that Jennifer Love Bacon isn't fat at all and that girls should have curves! Meanwhile, she's 5'5 and weighs about 100 lbs. What bullsh*t."

and you thought you stood alone in the demographic of women who get wasted and make a fool of themselves in public and in front of their boyfriend.

tipsy topenga...

yesterdays, she made news by making moves on cory matthews. these days, she makes news by spilling the beans on her relationship with now gay lance bass.

but when that route becomes exhausted, you gotta think of something new!

danielle fishel, the latest hollywood actress to sucomb to the dui...

and now, a few words from jaime lynn spears...

HILARIOUS!

lilo's ex needs to pay some christmas bills.

why else would riley giles sell pictures he took of lindsay lohan? this comes about after news that giles already leaked a ton of 411 on the dirty dirty regarding their sex life.

"Lindsay's definitely a nymphomaniac," he said. "She's wild in bed. We'd have sex a couple of times in the day and then go to it through the night. We once did it four times in a row straight. That was crazy. Lindsay was insatiable. She'd demand sex again and again. We'd go at it for hours."

what would you do if your ex told the world about intimate moments and sexual exploits?

mischa barton ends 07 on a drunk note.

getting an e-mail from tmz this morning regarding this pretty much made my day.

please, i really am not one to take joy in other people's misfortunes. but clearly ODing on drugs at nicole richie's memorial day party along with the countless other number of starlets to fall victum to the DUI weren't enough to stop mischa barton from driving a little tipsy.

maybe misha is infatuated with the OC lifestyle? she should be careful, because art does have a tendancy to imitate life...

yup, alive, and back, and kicking, and blogging.

greetings ya'll.

hope you had an excellent holiday, whatever you celebrate. over at the aversa household we partook in christmas festivities. christmas eve brought the tradition italian seafood dishes - bacala (no relation to bobby), smelts, crab meat, shrimp, pasta with fish sauce.

on the 25th we cut up a ham, and mom served it up with her trademark rice pilaf - melts in your mouth, not your hand. the fried potatos glazed in feta cheese also served as a crowd pleaser.

the entire week home brought about more food favorites - from jim's steakout chicken finger subs at 3am to western new york pizza and wings at various locations - with truck loads of homemade italian cookies enjoyed in between.

i left western new york this morning, a bunch of fun gifts in tow. but the items and gift cards pale in comparison to the time spent with loved ones. not to mention the one-year anniversary celebrated between my girlfriend and i, along with the delicious dinner we enjoyed atop the skylon tower in niagara falls, on, ca.

that being said - so much for kicking my starbucks addiction. i now HAVE to spend $50 there. plus my new travel mug earns me a discount.

and don't get me wrong, i like the cds sold in the coffee shop, but there's only so much johnny cash and etta james i need in my life.

big shouts to d-dubs for holding down while i was away... now back to your regularly scheduled blogging.