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Shark-a-thon @ Largo

02 Dec 2007 Leave a Comment

by meganfinley in music, sharks Tags: aaron, largo, paul f tompkins, shark attack, sharkathon

A few days after we got back to LA from Maui, Aaron’s boss and friends at Largo threw him a benefit show to help pay the HUGE medical bills.

December 1st 2007 will now always be known as the most amazing night of our lives-

(All of these photos were taken by the amazing Ellen Tunney.)

Griffee and his shark. photo by Ellen Tunney

Michael Griffee not only created this life size tiger shark masterpiece for the show, but he also sang his ass off for the first time on the Largo stage!!! He sang Hall & Oats “Maneater!”

(Oh-oh, here she comes) Watch out boy she’ll chew you up
(Oh-oh, here she comes) She’s a maneater
(Oh-oh, here she comes) Watch out boy she’ll chew you up
(Oh-oh, here she comes) She’s a maneater
I wouldn’t if I were you
I know what she can do
She’s deadly man, she could really rip your world apart
Mind over matter
Ooh, the beauty is there but a beast is in the heart

And Dave “Gruber” Allen who has rapidly become one of my favorite people on earth, was the host for the evening.

Dave "Gruber" Allen. photo by Ellen Tunney.

“I GOT YOUR BACK, BRO”
by Dave “Gruber” Allen

Hey Shark! What’s your deal?
Picking on my friend, Aaron?
Get a life, fish. Fuck.

This one is amazing because the title is even an haiku!…

“WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE
(WHERE I ATTACKED BY A SHARK
WHILE IN HA-WA-II)”
by David “Gruber” Allen

Some freak fish bites me?
I’d go POW! BOOM! in it’s face
Yea, NOW what, shark-hole?

See what I mean about the brilliant?

Paul F. Tompkins. photo by Ellen Tunney.

Continuing the funny was Paul F Tompkins who made us laugh so hard my stomach was sore for 3 freaking days!!! Apparently now PFT has an entire shark bit added to his act because of this. And I wish I could remember some of it but I can’t! I was too busy laughing that it’s all a blur.

And of course there was this guy…

Jon Brion w his ukulele. photo by Ellen Tunney

Jon Brion opened his set playing the ukulele in the Hawaiian tradition.

Jon Brion and Benmont Tench. photo by Ellen Tunney

This was Aaron’s favorite moment of the show. Benmont and Jon both hammered out a song together on the piano, it was beautiful and fun at the same time.

Auctioneers Gruber and Griffee. photo by Ellen Tunney

Between acts both Michael and Gruber surprised us by holding auctions! They auctioned off things like dvds of Jaws and Deep Blue Sea, to really special items like bar taps from the Largo bar signed by all of the staff and performers! It was so touching, we were both in tears several times during the auctioning.

They even auctioned off Griffee’s shark which made us sad because we wanted to bring her home.

After the show everyone wanted to hear about the shark attack story, including Jon!

Aaron telling Jon the shark story.

Anyway, the Shark-a-thon was the most amazing experience that not only raised a lot of money for the medical bills, but also gave Aaron an idea of how much he means to his friends and co-workers, which completely took him by surprise.

Aaron’s shark attack NEWS CLIPS

19 Nov 2007 3 Comments

by meganfinley in sharks Tags: aaron, maui, news, shark attack, shark bite, videos

Here are some of the news clips from Aaron’s shark attack.
I wanted a place to store all of them, and also make it easier for people to find the news stories.

A month after the shark attack the Maui news did a special report on Aaron’s doctor- Dr Peter Galpin. (Aaron was his 9th shark attack victim.) This video is cool because it has some pictures of Aaron’s wound that we hadn’t seen before.

I’ll add more videos to this as I find them, and if you out there in blogland see clips that I haven’t please do me a favor and send them to me!

muchos gracias amigos.

Aaron’s Shark Attack!

15 Nov 2007 54 Comments

by meganfinley in freaky, sharks, travel Tags: aaron, hawaii, maui, ocean, shark attack, shark bite, vacation

Okay everyone, here it is in all it’s gory goodness… THE SHARK ATTACK BLOG!!!!

But before I get to all the bloody stuff, I’m going to bore you with some vacation photos…

Day 1: Arrive in Maui and party!

This picture is scary because of the foreshadowing, Here we are at the Four Seasons on our first day in Hawaii. We decided to have drinks at the Four Seasons while we were waiting to check into our condo…

Look how happy and drunk and bipedal we both were!

Crazy foreshadowing… right behind my right shoulder (your left) is where Aaron would be attacked by a shark two days later!

Day 2: My cousins took us out on their boat to swim with the turtles.

A view of my cousin's boat from the water.

Later on Aaron would say that this day made his shark bite all worth it. He would have gotten attacked all over again just to be able to have the amazing experiences we did this day.