Monthly Archives: December 2008

Love Reign O’er Me

Last night I inadvertently watched a repeat of Keith Olbermann, or at least I think it was since it was playing in the next room as I was on Bill’s Mac. It certainly sounded like a repeat, lot’s of Saturday Night Live and David Letterman clips.

That followed into Rachel Maddow which I did sit down and watch up to a point. I remembered the Kennedy Center Honors were on and I did want to see what they were doing for the Who, who received some of the honors that were doled out.

I turned in just in time to see Joss Stone do an adequate job of My Generation, the same with Dave Grohl on Who Are You, when out walked Bettye LaVette who I had read about several times before but never went beyond that.

Well she came out and basically stole Love Reign O’er Me from Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey who just sat there gobsmacked as I was on a couch in Hoboken.

A moving enough performance that I called Rita who was a Who fan from back in the day when they were doing 7 shows a day at the Paramount with Murray the K. She too was blown away.

I also called up California to tell Annemarie to keep an eye out for it. I posted it on my Facebook page and quite a few people were turned onto it and seeing it for the first time.

After Bettye LaVette came poor old Rob Thomas who did an ok job of Baba O’Riley saved by the participation of a choir comprised of members of the NYPD and the FDNY which was oddly rousing to see these uniformed representatives shouting ‘They’re All WASTED!’

But Pete and Roger loved it and it seemed like a thank you from the New York City departments for that Concert for 9/11 all the way back in October 2001.

So here we are, at the end of a calendar, ready to start a new one within hours. I had originally planned on doing a recap of the year, as I do every year. I have been doing this since October 2005 mind you.

This and a certain other thing that I do every day are about the only constants in my life and both probably lead to blindness.

I tried going back to January of this past year but just found myself reliving the feelings (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) that I had while I was writing it plus who wants to read recaps of my sometimes maudlin writing? Not me, that’s for sure.

Tonight Bill is returning to Hoboken for the night. Ending the year and starting a new one together. It’s been a rough year for the both of us, him more so I might add. He lost his father in February so his loss is that much greater.
I lost mine already so it’s a proper win for him on the sad scale for the year. Like Oscar Wilde wrote: To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

And that is the first time I have ever used a semicolon on this blog. It all stems back to what started this blog, or at least the concept of it. Bill and I attending An Evening of American Satire at the Society for Ethical Culture that October night in 2005.

It featured Art Buchwald, Barry Crimmins, Paul Krassner, Lewis Lapham (who said those magic words that motivated me to write every day) and Kurt Vonnegut who stated that semicolons should never be used under any circumstances and on that point I held up my end until tonight. Blame Oscar Wilde.

I also had the plan to go to work today, just to check in and see if there was anything I needed to put in order. But Janice Huff the weather forecaster said it should be a treacherous morning and since I didn’t really have to go in I decided not to, expecting to wake up to snow drifts and glaciers creeping down Washington Street.

It didn’t happen and whatever motivation I might have had slipped away while I slept away the morning. I did wake up and turned on the TV just so I wouldn’t drift too far away in slumber.

But I did anyway. The snow started around the time Janice Huff said it would end so I tidied up the apartment a bit and did some laundry.

Stopped by the liquor store and picked up some Guinness for Rand and Lisa’s New Years Eve get together. The Latino kid from the shoemaker was there too and I wished him a happy new year.

He remembered the last time I saw him, the day before Thanksgiving trying to pick up Bill’s shoes which weren’t ready a month after they were dropped off. He wished me a happy new year as well and mentioned that he read what I wrote online about the service that day.

And he agreed with the review, at least that’s what he told me as he walked back to the shoe makers store in a brand new Michael Vick football jersey.

So tonight, Bill and I plan to go to Arthur’s for a steak dinner, then maybe a walk around smoking cigars, coming home and then heading over to Rand and Lisa’s to ring in the New Year.

I hope you and yours have a very happy New Year and I wish you all only the very best wishes for the New Year.

Now strap yourself in, cause it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Here is the Hoboken twilight sky on a New Years Eve.
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Look Alive

Just got off the phone with Bill. It’s 11:37AM. Bill’s at work, I am not. He was just going off about how lucky I am to be able to go to work when I feel like it this week. My eyes rolled as I heard him say that and I needed to tell him what was what.

Yesterday while at work I sent him an Outlook invitation that I had posted in November and as a note on the invitation I wrote, ‘SEE? I am supposed to be out until Friday’. He got the invite but didn’t read it.

So technically I am off of work this week, as planned, as approved over a month ago by the managing director, the president of the company and the chief financial officer. Those are the other three people in the company- Vivek, Greg Stevens and Tom Chin.

I also explained that yes I am off and yes I am stopping by the office to take care of whatever odds and sods there might be, and no- I don’t have to do it.

I do it because I don’t want a pile of crap to deal with on Monday January 5. Plus it looks good that I am showing up when I don’t have to. So a few hours yesterday, maybe an hour tomorrow, maybe an hour on Friday…I wouldn’t say that I have the week off, would you?

A week off would be nice, but what would be nicer is a week off with someone to spend a week off with. I don’t have that.

Sorry but I was crabby when I talked to Bill about having the day off.

I am amazed sometimes at how I can change my mind. This afternoon I was all set to head into the city, just to wander around. I was all set, had the Lennon bio in my bag, some water, my bus pass and the latest New Yorker and my camera.

As I walked up towards Washington Street I realized that there really isn’t any good reason to head into the city, especially since I’m planning on going into the office tomorrow and anything that I wanted to do today, could be done tomorrow.

So I walked down Washington Street, talked to my sister on the phone, letting her know that her brownies and cookies arrived finally.

There’s also a gingerbread man in one of the containers. The gingerbread man looks horrified, as if he knows how it will end for him. As soon as you open the container, there he is under the wax paper with a look of anguish.

I walked over to Barnes and Nobel and farted around in there, bought a new calendar and walked home listening to the Kinks.

I really hope next year will be an improvement but I also think that it’s going to be tougher than it’s been this past year. Prices gone up, products shrinking and now I have a few friends out of work.

It seems inevitable that I will join their ranks but according to Vivek that won’t be until March 2010, and that will be here before you or I know it. Anything is possible of course. Gotta save some money this year while I still can!

I think everyone should take a nap at some point in the day. We can call it, ‘Siesta!’