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Archive for July, 2008

Pressure Drop

Thursday, July 31st, 2008

Jeezy creezy it’s hot. 90 degrees in the apartment, windows open with a slight breeze. Barometric pressure is falling. I sweat a lot. I change undershirts a few times a day. It’s pretty bad, but what can I do? It’s my body’s cooling system I don’t sweat and it’s ‘hello heat stroke’.

I get some strange looks from people on my way into the office. I guess most of them take the subway whereas I walk across town. I saw West Indian Tony who sweats behind a grill all day, he always gives me a bunch of paper towels to mop up my sweat.

I always keep an extra t shirt in the IT room which is very air conditioned all day and night. In fact I spend a few minutes in there throughout the day. Part of the challenge in walking across town is trying to avoid touching anyone.

There’s a lot of people and occasionally there are people heading towards you and vice versa. That’s when the mirror effect sometimes comes into play. It happened this afternoon, only instead of face to face I was turning a corner as some roly poly guy was walking straight ahead. I was in his path and he was in mine.

I moved, he moved. I hesitated, he hesitated. Fed up in 90 degree heat I decided to move ahead and thats when roly poly decided to do the same. Outwards went his gut and my right forearm was practically engulfed by his belly.

I was wearing the iPod so I didn’t hear his expected curse. Is a curse effective if it goes unheard? I’ve rubbed one or two bellies in my lifetime and this was nowhere as pleasant as that. It was an disconcerting experience and since it happened on a course I usually take, we will probably cross paths again, though it’s doubtful that I would remember what his face looked like, but that belly would not be forgotten anytime soon.

I put in notice that I would be out of the office next Thursday and Friday. I suggested getting a temp to work in my place but good old Greg Stevens replied that there was no one who could do my job, that I was irreplaceable. I responded that since he wrote that I would definitely be back the following Monday.

My brother Frank and his wife Elaine have rented a house on Long Beach Island and I plan on going down on Thursday and coming back on Saturday with them. It should be nice to get out of this metropolitan area for a day at least.

And I may or may not go to the beach with Julio on Sunday. Stine and Alexander have flown to Denmark to see her family and it was actually Stine’s idea that we would be able to go to the beach while they’re away.

I miss Alexander, I haven’t seen my little buddy in a couple of weeks. It’s amazing how I worry about him. Julio is going over to Denmark in a week or two, so if he wants to go to the beach that would be the time to go.

He was a bit wishy washy about this Sunday though, but left it open ended which gives me hope.

I also stopped by Barnes And Noble today and saw a book about Sonic Youth. I picked it up to see if anyone I knew was in there, and while there was no Bill Ryan there were a few entries for Maurice Menares.

here’s a link, courtesy of BettiCola with regards to my entries earlier this week
cut n’paste

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=96741&provider=top

and here’s something that is just silly.

Tags:Bellies, Heat, Hot, Julio + Stine = Alexander, Long Beach Island, Maurice Menares, Roly Poly, T Shirts
Posted in the day after yesterday | 5 Comments »

I Got The News

Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

Busy Busy, that’s me. It’s been great having Bill back here in Hoboken and of course he’s been driving me crazy. Good crazy though. I missed his talking to the tv, his wonderful laughter and the little things we do together. There are other things that drive me crazy but I’m not getting into them since they’re such old pet peeves, I just don’t want to open that can of worms and come off like a nag.

We watched Keith Olbermann again, Bill’s turning into quite the fan of Olbermann then watched Daily Show and the Colbert Report and then at 10:00 Bill went to bed. I wound up watching some documentary on The Who, which was ok. Roger Daltrey definitely doesn’t have the voice he used to have and Pete Townshend certainly doesn’t jump around anymore, but still does the windmill guitar bit from time to time.

That killed an hour, then it was the local news. I was surprised that hardly any news outlets reported on the Knoxville shootings. I mean, it’s a juicy story what with the killer having Michael Oso Savage, Sean Halfwitty and Bill O’Screechy on his bookshelf. Books that advocate the end of liberals.

I’m surprised Ann C***ure was not included since she wished that Timothy McVeigh (another wad who took his cues from the reich wing) would blow up the New York Times building.

So much for the liberal media. Of course there is no liberal media since it’s owned by multi-national conglomerates.

My sock puppets were active online today. Last Friday in Times Square, the organization, Critical Mass had their last Friday of the month bike ride, effectively taking over the streets with bicycles. It pisses off drivers and the police and occasionally pedestrians.

Last Friday as hundreds of cyclists pedaled through midtown, one police officer named Patrick Pogan singles out one cyclist and shoulder checks the rider, causing the rider to fall off his bike onto the curb and sidewalk. Officer Pogan claimed the rider tried to run him over, and resisted arrest as the cyclist lay there dazed.

10 years ago, this would have gone unreported, but now, there are cameras everywhere (say cheese!) and the cop has been taken off the streets and charged with perjury by filing a false police report since the incident has been caught on tape and shown on YouTube since then. My faithful sock puppets went to battle with various ‘NYPD could do no wrong’ types.

One of the puppets even sent an email to fat ol’ Andrea Peyser (former columnist of the year) of the NY Pest. She of course condemned the cyclist. I commended the former columnist of the year on being able to write 372 words on the subject. Actually it was more of congratulating her on her sausage fingers being able to hit the proper keys on the keyboard.

She writes 372 words about twice a week and pulls a six figure salary.
What is her technique? Does she swallow or does she spit?

In all fairness her colleague Steve Dunleavy who sleazed upon our shores in the 1970′s around the time of Son of Sam trying to link Jimi Hendrix songs like Hey Joe to the Son of Sam murders ala Manson and Helter Skelter by the Beatles. It didn’t work.

Dunleavy uses less words than Peyser and probably makes more money. But not for long since Dunleavy is said to be fading fast and about to shake off his mortal coil. A first class souse he is, usually found falling off a barstool at Langans on 47th Street. At least Jimmy Breslin gave up the drink and he’s a much better writer.

Tourists

Gurls on the go

Blowing bubbles

Three guys are called in court.
The first guy stands before the judge.
Judge: Why are you here?
Guy: I was in the park. Blowing bubbles.
Judge: Blowing bubbles in the park? Get out of here! Case dismissed. Next!

The second guy appears before the judge.
Judge: And why are you here?
Second Guy: I was in the park blowing bubbles.
Judge: What? Another guy in court for blowing bubbles? Case dismissed! Next!

The third guy appears before the judge.
Judge: And you? Why are you here? What’s your story?
Third Guy: I’m Bubbles.

Here’s a link to a quick chat with Greg Gillis aka Girl Talk

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/07/girl_talks_greg_gillis_on_his.html

Tags:Critical Mass, Daily Show, Girl Talk, Joke, Keith Olbermann, Knoxville, News, The Colbert Report, The Who, YouTube
Posted in Abstract Absurdist Otherness | 2 Comments »

Rock Your Baby

Tuesday, July 29th, 2008

Well I got a lot off my chest last night and thank you for your comments. The reaction to the events in Knoxville from the right wing were particularly heinous. Michelle Malkin who so successfully led the charge against Dunkin’ Donuts for Rachel Ray wearing an Arabesque scarf in a television commercial. Writes about how she doesn’t believe the misbegotten jizz was a conservative, that the gun owner was more than likely a liberal trying to get attention.

Of course her chorus of like minded simpletons chimed in saying that if this guy wanted to take out ‘libtards’ why didn’t he shoot up a college? Yes, why didn’t he shoot at students rather than churchgoers? Oh these people deserve Steely Dan up their holes. And I’m not talking Becker/Fagen, I’m talking Burroughs.

And bhikkhu reminded me of something Burroughs wrote about how gays should act like the Mossad and wipe out someone who attacks one of our own. Thanks for the memory.

Last night I had a nice phone call with Harpy who didn’t sound like talk radio for once. A wide range of issues but what stood out for me was talking about bicycles. I remembered when I was a kid, I sort of figured that I wouldn’t have a car and I would have a bicycle to get around.

I don’t know what made me think that then, perhaps it was an early indication of my penchant for going left when everyone else is going right. I used to ride a lot back then in my Bergen County days. Occasionally my sister and I would ride together, up to a Saddle River county park in Paramus. We wouldn’t tell anyone where we were going, just hop on our bikes and ride, even insanely rushing across Route 4 to get from Saddle Brook to Paramus.

NJ wasn’t bike friendly then and it still isn’t. I rode a lot then, not as much as I do now, but still for an adolescent it was enough. I was doored once in Elmwood Park by the father of a friend of my sister. Luckily all I wound up with was a nasty cut on my leg even though I went flying across the street into the opposite lane of traffic. It’s a great way to get around if you’re not being doored and I would do it year round if I could. I would ride to work if I didn’t have to dress so nicely.

I ran into Curtis, I mean Casey on the bus yesterday and today. I wrote about him a week or so ago. Really nice guy, intelligent and opinionated which is somewhat rare these days. He’s been concentrating on writing scripts. I told him about this blog (which is fast approaching a milestone) and also mentioned a script that I found a week or so ago.

I wrote it about 10 years ago when Julio and I had an idea to write a script and see if former Phosphene Tim Sherry would be interested in producing it. Well I took the whole thing seriously, Julio didn’t take it seriously at all. I wound up feeling like a schmuck and shelved the whole thing. Having found it again, I read it and still think it’s not bad. Of course it could use some work but I would have given it a B.

I mentioned to Casey that I also collaborated on a script with someone (John Bruce), called This Is My Plus One. That was supposed to have Maurice Menares and Bob Mould’s then boyfriend Kevin in it. John and I stayed up all night working on it. A few days later John called me up telling me what I had written moved him to tears, it was that good.

Well that’s what I heard at least. Maybe John actually said that he cried because it was such crap and he couldn’t believe I wasted his time working with him. I think it was the former. Anyway I offered to collaborate with Casey at some point down the line, telling him that dialog was something I was good at. At least thats what the voices in my head tell me.

Listen!

Tags:Annemarie, Bicycling, Steely Dan, This Is My Plus One
Posted in moldies but moodies | 3 Comments »

God

Monday, July 28th, 2008

It’s back to work today. Yesterday was spent mostly indoors, deleting hundred of jpg’s from my computer. Really a lot of pictures as well as deleting music files from iTunes. Do I really need Madonna? No, not at all. The Abyssinians? I love them, but no, they have to go as well. I have the cd’s and they were taking up space on the computer so they gotta go.

Last week I meant to post this: Greenville, SC -Stephen Moller, who murdered Sean William Kennedy on May 16th 2007, was sentenced June 11th to a 5 year suspended sentence to 3 years with 3 years probation after he gets out of jail. He will spend approx. 10 months in jail.

After which he is then entitled to parole. If granted he will be on probation for 3 years. He was also sentenced to 30 days community service and ordered to take anger management classes. In addition he was ordered to have alcohol and drug counseling.

This is what happened: On May 16, 2007, at about 3:45 am, Sean was leaving a local bar in Greenville when a car pulled up beside him, a young man got out of the car, came around the car approached my son and called him fagot and then punched him so hard that it broke his face bones, he fell back and hit the asphalt.

This resulted in his brain to be separated from his brain stem and ricochet in his head. Sean never had a chance. Sean’s killer got back into the car and left my son dying there. A little later he left a message on one of Sean’s girlfriend’s phone, who knew Sean saying: “You tell your fagot friend that when he wakes up he owes me $500 for my broken hand”.

10 months in jail for murdering a gay man.

Cut n’paste

http://www.seanslastwish.org/

Then yesterday in Knoxville TN, a psycho (who should have been stopped at pre-conception with two condoms) goes to a Unitarian Church which was putting on a musical, ‘Annie’ and starts shooting. Why? According to reports, ‘it has been confirmed that the Tennessee shooter unleashed on his victims because of the church’s liberal and gay views’.

The misbegotten jizz had ‘books’ by Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Bill O’Reilly on his bookshelf. And if that’s not bad enough the fucking christian pieces of shit that comprise the right wing feel it was justified because it was Unitarian. Scumbags mainly claiming that since they weren’t of a particular denomination they were satanists. I wonder how many months the crazed gun-twat will get.

Cut n’paste

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jul/28/church-shooting-police-find-manifesto-suspects-car/

and also

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=6293

Newsweek magazine a week or so ago had an article on 14 year old Lawrence King who was murdered earlier this year by a fellow classmate, because Lawrence was out of the closet. Good old Newsweek basically blamed the victim Lawrence King for being out of the closet.

Cut n’paste

http://www.newsweek.com/id/147790

A principal at the school, an out lesbian supported Lawrence King and was smeared by Newsweek as promoting her ‘agenda’ through Lawrence King. This may disgust you but to a gay man like myself it makes me feel like if I was murdered, whomever did the foul deed could easily claim ‘gay panic’ saying that I had come onto them and thus justified in their actions.

Or they could just kill me because I am gay.

A fellow blogger, Blabbeando writes of “a friend had been assaulted on the streets of Queens in August of 2001 and subsequently passed away from the injuries a few days before 9/11. 35 year old Eddie Garzon had apparently been the victim of a brutal gay bashing.”

The star witness for the second trial has gone missing, thereby jeopardizing the chance that Eddie Garzon will find justice.

Cut n’paste

http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19858038&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568864&rfi=6

and

http://blabbeando.blogspot.com/2008/07/key-witness-vanishes-as-2nd-eddie.html

It’s just disgusting. And these are the murders that make it to the press (sometimes). A lot more don’t make it to the press. Transgendered men and women are assaulted constantly, and sometimes they too are killed.

From Blabbeando
cut n’paste

http://blabbeando.blogspot.com/2008/07/update-police-say-murder-of-transgender.html

Do the assailants act out of a primal fear? Is it because god tells them to? Because it’s an abomination, it says so in the bible and you know that dusty rag supposedly written by morons in the desert is claimed to be the word of god and if god says it’s ok, then it must be ok. Is it the fear of someone else’s ‘lifestyle choice’?

Stupid god. Stupid followers. Stupid people. Douche bags I renounce thee. I used to hope that they would evolve, but now, fuck them. Stay where you are, do not evolve. Fester and rot.

Effeminate men and butch women are some of the bravest people out there today. They are heroes.

Tags:Gay, Gay bashing, Lawrence King, Stephen Moller, Thousands of LGBT people assaulted
Posted in WTF | 10 Comments »

Head

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

Well nothing much at all happened today. I had plans to see the Skatalites who were on the bill at Summerstage with Taj Mahal and Los Pinguos. I know who Taj Mahal is but I’ve never heard of Los Pinguos before, and it doesn’t seem likely that I will be seeing them today either.

Thunderstorms blocked my path today. No bike ride like yesterday, no bus ride into the city either. That was the plan, ride into the city and walk up and see what was going on.

Now I’ve been inside all day watching Shark Week on the Discovery channel. I’ve never watched it before and I’ve just been listening to it rather than watching it. Sure a good scream will get my attention, but more often than not my eyes are occupied with something.

I only really think about sharks when I’m at the beach in the ocean. I could be floating there trying to relax and suddenly the thought of a shark will pop into my head, courtesy of Senor Spielbergo. I saw Jaws in 1975 like everyone else.

I believe I went with my brother Brian on a Friday night that summer at the Hi Way Theater in Fair Lawn. The line was around the block and this was when theaters were mainly one big auditorium rather than it is now, several closets in one theater showing on a much smaller screen.

The movie scared the shit out of 12 year old me. Even the music was terrifying. It was Jaws everywhere that summer, on the radio with the novelty hit Mr. Jaws by Dickie Goodman, the book was on the top of the best seller charts, it was on the covers of magazines and the phenomenon was written up in all the papers.

With the kids in my neighborhood, with the ones that had pools where we would play ‘Jaws’ in the pool, thrashing about as if being attacked by a Great White Shark. Who gets to attack the raft first and who gets to be the shark, or worse yet, sharks?

Jaws was I guess the first blockbuster paving the way for the multi-million spectacles that people line up to see today. After Jaws came Star Wars, which I saw six times in the Stanley Warner Theater on Route 4 in Paramus.

I also saw Jaws 2 and maybe even Jaws 3-D. That was enough for me. By the time of Jaws 2, I knew how dumb things were getting by the time the shark ate the helicopter. Yeah, we knew it was dumb with the late Roy Schneider taunting ‘C’mon you bastard!’ towards the Great White to come at him while holding a insulated cable wide enough for the shark to electrocute itself.

With a flash of fire and sparks it was over for me and the movie. The 3-D gimmick is what got me in the final time. That fall coming back to school, I remember talking to my friends in the schoolyard, and saying that I thought Jaws was really scary. My friends called me a pussy for being scared and I never brought it up again until now.

Tags:Brian, Dickie Goodman, Fair Lawn, Jaws, Paramus, Sharks, Skatalites
Posted in So how's band camp? | 4 Comments »

It’s A Sunshine Day

Saturday, July 26th, 2008

It was a beautiful day yesterday and it continues today. Last night was so nice I actually left the apartment and walked around for a spell. I smoked a Padron and wandered Washington Street. Cafes and restaurants were bustling.

20 years ago I would always bump into someone I knew, nowadays I don’t know anyone. People moved, sobered up or overdosed I guess. Some of you who’ve I known have done that.

I enjoyed walking around by Pier A, a few fishermen, some couples and various groups of friends. I’m basically a shut in, I go to work and I come home. That’s about it. I forgot about the social scene that exists in Hoboken.

Big doormen checking IDs from various vapid 20 somethings that I could have sired if I was so inclined. I probably fit the bill, walking around smoking a cigar whereas everyone else was wearing the branding that they pay a lot of money to promote.

I strolled by Church Square Park on my return, disappointed that the regional basketball games weren’t happening. I hope I didn’t miss them entirely. I could hear the referee’s whistle from where I sit in my apartment, but never heeded the call.

The walk lasted an hour and I was soon back home, not watching anything in particular and going to bed not too long after that. That’s my Friday night in Hoboken.

Woke up around 8:00 this morning, taking my time before I headed out to do some shopping. I needed to get some more Stevia, some lettuce and of course bagels and the newspapers. Came home, had a nice breakfast and tried to think of something to do.

I watched SCTV: The Early Years and while it’s still funny, it really hasn’t aged too well. Plus after watching current comedies without laugh tracks, it’s unnerving to hear one from 30 years ago.

I decided around noon to go for a bike ride. Nothing planned really, just seeing where the bike would take me. I wound up riding to the Ninth Street elevator and rode it to Congress Street in Jersey City. Up Palisades Avenue, down Hudson Street in Weehawken through my old neighborhood. Some new buildings have gone up since I was last up there.

I also found that some drivers are terrible when dealing with a bicyclist on the road, but the ones talking on their cellphones are the worst. Really dangerous to everyone. And I was almost doored twice. New Jersey is so NOT bike friendly.

I’ve heard talk for years of a path from Bayonne up to the George Washington Bridge but it’s just talk. The right palms aren’t being greased. I take the side streets which are generally wide enough but still one has to maintain strict attention to everything that is going on. That’s a basic rule when riding a bicycle and no, I don’t wear an iPod when cycling. I have enough songs floating around my head and they provide an ample soundtrack.

I had enough water and made it to Fort Lee safely. Then it was over the bridge which still intimidates me. I’ve been riding across it for years but still it freaks me out. No stopping, just getting from point A to point B, from New Jersey to New York City.

On the bridge I get passed by, by various ‘serious’ cyclists with more branding. US Postal Service Lycra and spandex gear, and various other bicycle companies on $1,000 bikes. I’m a bike rat. I wear the bike shorts but keep them underneath whatever shorts I happen to be wearing, and the usual collared shirt with a back pack on. And my bicycle helmet.

There’s a lot more dumb riders than previous rides, who stand at the bottom of steep hills and decide that would be the best place to have a chat as you’re barreling towards them going 35 miles per hour. Or the two blondes who decide that even though that certain bike path is narrow, why not stop and discuss hair tips right then and there?

I made it to Central Park unscathed, and rode over to the rock by Summerstage where nothing was going on, at least not at 3:00. I then rode over to the skate circle which was just starting up. Some of the same characters that I’ve seen over the past dozen or so years.

Roller Granny, The schizo man who was on some news magazine a few years ago. Great at his job but he occasionally winds up somewhere and has no clue how he got there, but still he winds up roller skating around and around. The buff brutha who’s been there for years. Even some of the same spectators I’ve recognized over the years.

I usually sit in the same spot which is opposite the unofficial Bear Hill. I found that out via Joe My God’s blog. I read that everyday and comment occasionally on it. Perhaps if I met Joe without his group I would say hello, but there were a few bald, heavy set guys and I couldn’t tell which one was Joe anyhow. I’m more of a wolf than a bear anyway and my lycanthropic instincts told me to keep away.

It was a brief visit in the park and I was out of there maybe 90 minutes. I decided to go back to the bike path via 59th Street. No problem getting out of the park despite all the bicycle taxis driven by utter and complete morons. I was on Broadway behind one of these twats when he decided to make a U Turn in the street.

He sort of apologized and I told him was an idiot on a tricycle who didn’t know what the fuck he was doing. That’s when he decided to hit my back tire. I didn’t stop I just kept going flipping him the bird as he yelled Fuck You in a Russian accent.

I decided to do something on the way back. Instead of catching a Path train from the World Trade Center station to Exchange Place, I took it easy and treated myself to a ferry ride to Hoboken. I don’t think I’ll be doing that again anytime soon. $8.75 for a one way fare that takes 10 minutes to cross the Hudson River.

I know that it’s the fuel costs as well as paying the salary of everyone involved in the operation, but it would be cheaper if I had a car and drove into the city myself. But it was an exorbitant amount for my cheap ass. A single passenger without a bike is $7.75. That’s not bad since once you get to the city you get a bus that takes you in the general direction of wherever you want to go.

Me? I have a bike, I would get there myself thank you. Shanks mare. Next time the Path train for sure. And I wouldn’t have to listen to these newcomers to Hoboken prattle on about where the best nightclub is on 14th Street. I enjoyed today’s bike ride despite other people being around.

26 miles roughly. Not bad for the first time since last year. It would have been further if it I didn’t take the ferry.

The Hudson River