Zanedependence Day was a blast. Chicago, you are an amazing and hospitable city.

On Friday night, the rich folks joined me at the Ski Patrol dinner at Goose Island Brewery. We had some amazing food paired with some even more amazing beer. I'm pretty sure that the Matilda followed by the Bourbon County Stout put most people over the edge. We did some chugging contests, told some jokes, took some pictures and had an awesome time. Saturday morning came a little too quickly.

At 1pm, the VIP's lined up to get in an hour before the general admission for an extra hour of drinking and general merriment. They were a great group. We took photos on the FLN red carpet and threw back a couple of drinks to get this drink marathon started.

2pm came quickly and the rest of the party arrived. At the door each person received a nametag (courtesy of my buddy Wes) with an awesome, and sometimes inappropriate, new nickname. It was a great icebreaker. DJ Gusto started spinning and the venue started to fill up. Wes got on stage and introduced me. I brought Chad Youngblood, the head honcho at Fine Living Network and the most influential Three Sheets fan, who later became more of a celebrity than me, on stage. He let everyone know how much he loves me, and the show, and thanked all of you for helping to save Three Sheets. YOU SAVED THREE SHEETS!

Later Steve and his disgusting beard joined us on stage and I proceeded to shave him completely hairless. His wife might not have appreciated the racing strips I gave his eyebrows. We took a quick break to complete the transformation backstage and brought him back dressed as an American Bald Eagle. Wings, beak, yellow tights. It was a freakin' sight to see.

I mingled with the crowd, took a bazillion photos, and threw back some drinks. Steve proceeded to get McKenna'd and then DJ Gusto played Steve’s magic song. It's become kind of a tradition at these parties that Steve McKenna gets on stage to dance and mouth the words to Prince. I don't remember when Prince ever did a stage dive, but every song ends with that. Since he was wearing a leotard (seriously), the shirt didn't come off, like usual. But he did throw almost his entire costume into the crowd, like an amateur stripper, and did his token stage dive into a crowd that seemed happy to receive him.

After the "Steve McKenna show", we decided it was a good time to show the Three Sheets: Amsterdam episode. It was a special uncut version that will never be seen on the air and a super super sneak peek since it the made-for-TV cut won't air on FLN for another few months.

I then hopped back on stage and answered people's questions from the "Questions Box". We gave away a ton of swag, including FLN t-shirts, bottle koozies, Goose Island t-shirts and hats, and raffled off a beer-of-the-month club membership and some subscriptions to Mutineer Magazine.

We were having such a great time that the party went a little longer than planned. Everyone was dancing and as drunk as you can imagine for a 4-5 hour open bar party.

It was an epic party. Chicago has some of the most amazing people and I hope to be back there soon. Thanks to Fine Living Network, Mutineer Magazine, Goose Island Brewery, the awesome staff at Joe’s Bar on Weed Street and of course everyone who came. You're an awesome group. Let's do it again some time!

Cheers,

Zane

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