A swathe of Rolling Stone staffers and special guests descended on downtown's Bowery Electric for an evening of drinking, dancing and of course holiday spirit at the magazine’s annual seasonal bash earlier this week. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately), no clothes were shed or awesomely bad decisions made – at least not in public view – (thanks to Svedka for the plentiful vodka), but we did have a few special guests: Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump, in town for a promotional blitz to support Folie a Deux, popped in to talk R&B and their failed impromptu performance at Washington Square Park earlier in the day.

Comedy duo Randy and Jason Sklar don't have a problem standing out in a crowd — they are, after all, identical twins. But the Sklars have carved out a niche for themselves, one that goes beyond their at-times-frighteningly omni-minded delivery: turning the wide world of sports into comedy gold. The brothers first gained notoriety with Cheap Seats, the late night ESPN Classic show that found them ripping into spelling bees and bass-fishing competitions with a steady stream of awesome one-liners. Their new project, the fantastically funny web series Back On Topps, tackles another aspect of sports fandom: baseball cards. As Layland and Leif Topps, heirs to the Topps fortune, the Sklars are charged with saving their jobs after their uncle sells them out and new management takes over. Think The Office meets Will Ferrell's "Funny or Die," and you've got a good picture of Back on Topps.

"I think we have, in general, a memory for very small things," says Randy. "Like there was a time when I could literally, at any moment, do for you the entire 'jive' scene from Airplane. And that's just knowledge that no person should have in their minds. Movie lines, lyrics to songs, stuff about baseball cards, even down to facts about our friends — we remember."

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Two years ago, the go-to "female empowerment" song for movies (The Devil Wears Prada's opening fashion-show montage) and TV shows (Ugly Betty, The Hills) was KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See." In 2008, that honor has to go to Duffy's infectious tune about sexual freedom, "Mercy." Now the Welsh singer-songwriter is doing her best to avoid the trap of being known as just the "Mercy" girl — a tall order due to the fact that, well, "Mercy" is one hell of a catchy pop song. But judging from her performance last night at New York's Webster Hall, it looks like she's up to the challenge.

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Photo: BELIZAIRE/AFP/Getty

I recently left Rolling Stone after three years as a writer for the magazine. In that time, I had the opportunity to meet and interview some of the most talented and important artists of our time and become a small part of the legacy of one of America's most iconic magazines. Upon reflection, I've come up with five highlights of my time at RS — and a dishonorable mention that I can't hold onto any longer…

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All hail the mighty Built to Spill, the world's most beloved purveyors of spaced-out cock rock. Too obscure to be famous and too famous to be obscure, Built to Spill are to connoisseurs of psychedelic mood music what an untapped case of Mad Dog 20/20 is to winos — a cache of treasures to be savored all night long.

"I can't get that sound you made out of my head." So goes the opening line of the opening song of Built to Spill's thoroughly genius Perfect From Now On — and if you're a fan, it's an apt statement. I was on hand to see them perform that album, the band’s 1997 major label debut, in its entirety at Terminal 5 in New York City last Thursday. And boy is my face melted.

With yesterday's alt-rock heroes Dinosaur Jr. and the Meat Puppets as openers, the bill was stacked with '90s-era comfort food. The entire evening could be seen as a testament to survival — the Meat Puppets survived drug addiction, gun shot wounds and prison to be here, Dinosaur Jr. survived retirement and Built to Spill have simply survived, by meeting and exceeding all expectations placed upon them by their zealous fans.

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The summer festival season is almost over (though RS.com will still be live at this weekend's Outside Lands event, as well as Austin City Limits, Bumbershoot and others down the road), and having attended two of the bigger events myself and edited much of the rest of the content on the site, I feel as though I've seen every set in every field in every city in America. There are a whole bunch of patterns that developed and observations I made on the ground that didn't have any room in the blog posts themselves. Luckily, all of my leftover thoughts can live here — think of them as the demos and b-sides of the actual posts. Enjoy!

• One of the most amazing moments of Lollapalooza was when I was walking to see the Black Keys and saw Jason Segal. Upon further inspection, I realized that it in fact was not Jason Segal, but clearly a gentleman who had decided that looking like Jason Segal was a good idea. He clearly wanted everybody to think he was Jason Segal. A strange choice.

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Tuesday night, as the sea of Rolling Stone staff headed out to see Bob Dylan in Brooklyn or Radiohead in Jersey, I took the road less respected to see Good Charlotte, Metro Station and Boys Like Girls at Roseland Ballroom. A band I once defended as "blink-182 with talent," Good Charlotte was a fun, dependable act that somehow earned a place in my heart through a childhood of budgetless but respectable Warped Tour performances and ambitious, borderline nonsensical tour couplings (Justin Timberlake's FutureSex/LoveShow Tour? Srsly?). But never in my 22 years had I seen GC like this.

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About three-quarters of the way into the Police concert at Madison Square Garden last night, I was thrilled to see that Sting’s management had finally received the countless text messages, voice mails and e-mails I had been sending since last Friday. You see, it was a week ago that VH1 Classic had broadcast the Hard Rock Calling festival – featuring a heavily bearded Police frontman.

I begged and pleaded with the management office to alert Sting to my dilemma. I had tickets to see the Police’s final show (ever) in a week, but I couldn’t bear to see the erstwhile Gordon Sumner perform his greatest hits while looking like Grizzly Adams. Could they please entice him to lose the hirsute look for the upcoming August 7th concert? To my grave disappointment, despite opening the show with a thunderous version of “Sunshine of Your Love” and following it up with an NYPD band-backed version of “Message in a Bottle,” Sting was still sporting the beard.

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There's a big event this weekend. Sure, Lollapalooza is in Chicago, but in New York my favorite wrestling promotion Ring of Honor is staging their "Death Before Dishonor VI" show on Saturday night at the Hammerstein Ballroom. I recently had the opportunity to talk to Jimmy Jacobs, one half of the Ring of Honor tag team champions and a guy whose character should be familiar to anybody who has ever shopped at Hot Topic or attended the Warped Tour.

When did you first get into wrestling? I can't pinpoint it down to one exact time. I know I was a big fan when I was in the 1st grade. I went to a WWF show and bought a pair of Brett Hart sunglasses and told everyone at school the next day that Brett gave them to me in the front row.

When did you decide to try to break into the business? My older brother broke into wrestling in about 1998. I was 14. I was always a follower, so I just hung around with him and helped do whatever I could at shows, like set up ring or set up chairs. After about a year, one of the guys trained me and I was all about it. I have no idea why, but here I am I guess 9 years later. I really have no idea why I thought it would be a good idea at 15 other than the fact that I was a fan. But, I guess we all want to make a living doing what you like. I'm fortunate to be one of the minority that actually does.

Have you had to hold down a lot of other jobs while you've been wrestling? When I started, I was still going to high school. Then I was moving furniture from about 16 to 19. Then I started going to college. And then, the day I realized I’d probably never have a real job or go to college again was a great day in my life.

What happened?

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Formerly known in the office as "the intern who can type really fast," I've since settled into the role of "the metal guy." This makes it all the more enjoyable to gauge people's reactions during "What was your first show?" conversations when I get to say "the Cherry Poppin' Daddies." The blank stares turn to raised eyebrows when I go on to declare that more than 10 years after Zoot Suit Riot, the Cherry Poppin' Daddies are still one of my favorite bands. Tonight, I'll be seeing the Eugene, Oregon-based eight-piece for the first time in four years.

It's always bummed me out that what drove the band to multi-platinum success is also what later knocked them down to "Remember those guys?" status. Zoot Suit Riot, with its ubiquitous title track, was released in 1997, as the swing revival was kicking into gear. The song was inescapable — high school marching bands across the country were playing it at football games, and the band rode the wave. But then it was over.

And the real bitch of it was this – the Cherry Poppin' Daddies weren't even really a swing band.

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