Introduction

First, I would just like to say I am super excited to be involved with The One Love!!  I thought I would introduce myself since I am new to the blog.  My name is Chris Stahl and I will go ahead and answer the question that many of you are already wondering.  Yes, my parents named me after the expensive bottle of Champagne.  Now that that is pushed aside and out of the way…

I wanted my first entry to be about how I have met everyone involved with The One Love.  It is very Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon-esque. 

I met Cassie Petrey on May 23rd, 2004, in a Target Parking lot under a shady light.  I pulled up in my Blazer (RIP) and she was in a Jeep with several other people.  I had never met any of them before but we had spoke on the phone.  I was only meeting them there to follow them somewhere else, so I asked if anyone wanted to ride with me, and they all declined.  Cassie is fascinated with Strobe Lights and El Nopal. 

I met Jade going to Cincinnati to see The Click Five in spring of 2005.  We were both really loud and after that night, a picture of her and I with Ben Romans appeared on the Internet.  The photo had been cropped and cut everyone else out of the picture.  I don’t know who is responsible for this.  In lieu of the photograph that I cannot locate, I will show a picture of Tic Tac’s instead, because they remind me of Jade, and sometimes Cassie.

This is the night I met Ben Romans.  For some reason, he remembered me years later.  Maybe it’s my name, or the mystery cropped photo.  For whatever reason, Ben and I were reunited after The One Love show in NY only to share something we like to refer to as “Brain Damage”.  Ben can rock a Fanny-Pack, and I have one he can borrow anytime. 

Luke Luke Luke.  Luke and I have a criminal past together.  We were once both caught going through a NYC MTA Subway turnstile on one swipe.  Granted he had a monthly metrocard, and I had a limited swipe card, and we used mine, the NYPD decided to bring us in for questioning.  I want to state for the record that the city of New York did not lose any money on this minor infringement, so we didn’t look at it as stealing, but they didn’t seem to care.  After going through the turnstile, and turning a corner, two officers dressed to the nine (and carrying one too) approached us and took us into the station.  I wish I could say we were handcuffed, but we weren’t.  After sitting for a bit, he returned with our ID’s and gave us tickets in the amount of 60.00 each.  We have been more careful since this night.

I met Nate Campany at my 21st birthday party in NY.  His beard was bigger then than it is now.  As for our first formal meeting (one on one time I like to call it) we had lunch at the Chip Shop in Brooklyn.  This is an English-pub type setting.  Nate enjoyed the Bangers’n’Mash while I had the fish and chips.  To finish, we both shared fried candy bars/twinkies.  It was a heart healthy meal to say the least.  Then I typed a lot of things for him really really fast.  I believe you can read about it in one of his blogs.  I hope to one day stump Campany on a history-related question at one of his shows.  I never am able to think of one fast enough when he puts the pressure on while tuning his guitar for the next tune. 

I met Chap Stique with fellow One Love Bloggers at a restaurant in Little Italy in New York.  I’m pretty sure it was meant to be.  We both ordered the Cheese Tortellini with cream sauce, and both share a love for chap stick (the lip moisturizing product), however, we use different brands.  We then shook our napkins.  Afterwards, I held up, and waited a minute, and then I put a little love in it, at his show following dinner.  It was a night to be remembered. 

Eric Angelo and I share a common love for S’Mac.  I won’t be able to express the true greatness of this restaurant, so I recommend reading his recent blog about the stuff.  This is actually what our first conversation was about, when I saw his band Atomic Tom open for The Click Five in NYC recently.  I would love to go to this place one day with everyone. 

My first meeting with Danny Roselle was him being called upon in the middle of the night to drive everyone to Kellogs diner in Williamsburg.  He rolled up minutes later in his minivan, and 11, yes 11 people fit in it.  It was a very tight squeeze.  Cassie used my hand as a pillow whilst lying across of Jade and myself.  At the diner we talked about our love for The Gin Blossoms and flatirons. 

I met Gia Farrel at the after party of The One Love show.  I started singing “A whole new world” which is not uncommon for me to do, and I think she chimed in when Jasmine normally would.  I could be wrong, but this is how I like to think that it happened.   

As for the other bloggers, we haven’t officially met yet, but I am sure we will in the future.  There are a lot of great people involved with this website all for the same reasons.  Again, I am very happy to be apart of this.  I picked the American Cancer Society as my charity of choice because I lost my mother to cancer last year to a long 8 year battle with cancer. 

In real life I am often referred to as “Stahl” because my band has had a total of three different people named Chris, so it was easier to call me by my last name to avoid confusion.  Some people call me strictly by “ChrisStahl” like it is one word.  Some people call me Chris (rare).  Anyone related to me, mostly immediate family, call me Christopher.  I am okay with any of these.

This is a long first blog, but I had alot of corners to cover.

Thanks for reading and supporting The One Love!!!

- Stahl