Monthly Archives: June 2006

Tomorrow People

I am naked. My watchband broke and I don’t have it on and I feel naked. Also entranced by my wrist. I hoped it was Saturday when I woke up, but alas, it was Friday. Need to remember that from now on, the Village Voice cannot be read before Wednesday. I puttered about the apartment, routine routine routine. Bill was puttering about as well so we kept bumping into each other, two bears in their forties.

Nice walk to the Path, it wasn’t raining anymore and the floods had basically dried up, at least on my route. Not many people walking to the train, seems a lot of them got the jump on a four day holiday weekend. Good idea, to stretch it into five, or more since with vacation time and a two day office holiday. Damn, I wish I had some vacation time. In a few weeks I should have accrued enough time to take time off, but my sister and her family will have come and gone by then.

Work was slow today, not much at all going on. Phones weren’t ringing off the hook, they were barely ringing at all. Not too many people in the office today or on the street, not exactly 28 Days Later, but noticeable. I sort of knew that the office was closing early, I found out the other day. I couldn’t really say anything because it wasn’t definite though I did put the idea out there.

It became official around noon that we were closing at 3:00. Since I knew that beforehand Bill and I had an arrangement to see Phillip Beansprout a little bit earlier, like 5:00. I took the train uptown and met Bill in Bryant Park. We sat and talked a bit, as if checking to see if we did our homework before class. ‘What did you get for question number two?’

We walked up Sixth Avenue, a really nice afternoon. I smoked a Padron while we walked and talked. We had plans to go to Prospect Park after the session to see TV on the Radio a Brooklyn band that’s been getting a lot of hype these days. They’ve been around for a few years, and signed to 4AD in the UK (which was the home of the Cocteau Twins)

We got to Phillip’s office before Phillip did so Bill and I stood outside. We were early and Phillip was on time. We walked in and got very deep very quickly. Deep enough that I’m not going next week because Bill could use a session by himself. I’ll be able to see Annemarie & Co. that much sooner.

It was an intense session so I suggested that we just go home. We walked back down Sixth Avenue, past the subway we were going to take to go to Brooklyn. It was ok, Bill kept saying how tired he was yet he was willing to go. I thought with the session going the way it did, perhaps the comfort of home would be best.

Juan will tell me all about TV on the Radio.

You’re All I Need to Get By

Rain rain and some more rain. Torrential stuff. It didn’t start until 6:00 when I was leaving work. Looking out the window at work it wasn’t raining. When I got out of the elevator and walked out the revolving door it was sheets of rain hitting the street. Everything flooding. The town where Bill and I had Thanksgiving dinner is presently underwater, Yardley, PA. I hope Hiram and Chris are ok.

Things have gotten quiet at work. I might have hit a groove. I realize what my job is and it’s a good thing since both Linda and Felicia will be out next week, and next week is only a three day work week. It’s been a very slow week otherwise. It’s taking all week for Friday to get here and it still isn’t here yet. It could be because that I got the Village Voice on Tuesday when I usually get it on Wednesday.

Today is Bill’s birthday. He’s now 42. Born in 1964, June 29. Good for him I say. Juan is over and we just had some cake and some Guinness for Bill’s birthday. Very low key. Mellow. Which is more than fine by me. I’m exhausted from all the rain and exhausted from the work situation and still somewhat sad about Arif. I’ve been playing a lot of his stuff the past couple of days. Chaka Khan and the Rascals.

On the way to the Path I was playing Chaka and ran into Glenn Morrow, an old friend of Frank’s from McSwells days when Glenn was in the Individuals. Now I think he’s the president of Bar None Records. I’m pretty sure he is. When I walk down the street and run into him he always asks what I’m playing on the iPod. Told him it was Chaka. We talked about Arif. He didn’t know I worked with him for a spell.

I wrote a letter to the Daily News about Arif’s passing but it wasn’t published. The only New York paper that covered it was the New York Times, which is fitting since Arif was an avid reader.

Now the three of us are sitting in the humidity of the night. It’s no longer raining yet there’s no breeze. Coincidentally a slight breeze wafted over my shoulder as I wrote that. Mother Nature proving me to be a liar.

We’re watching a documentary on Langston Hughes. I’ve never read anything by him but his story is quite an interesting one. A major player in the Harlem Renaissance in the twentieth century. I’ve never seen Isaac Julien’s ‘Searching for the Young Soul Rebels’, which is also about Langston Hughes or at least references Langston somehow. Or maybe I’m going off on a tangent. I do know there’s a film called ‘Looking for Langston’ which I’ve never seen either. Actually I looked it up on IMDB. They’re both directed by Isaac Julien, but Young Soul Rebels has nothing to do with Langston Hughes. So that’s –5 points, but +10 somehow.

Bill had a part on ‘Rescue Me’, not the part he was told he was going to get, that of a bus driver, but he still worked nonetheless.

Happy Birthday baby.