Archive for December, 2009

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Purple Snowflakes

Friday, December 25th, 2009

Well I hope this finds this in good health and safe wherever you you are. I’m pretty lazy right now, but here am, writing this on the birthday of Jesus of Nazareth. Possibly a good guy, just getting through the people around him would be a chore.

In any event, on this day of Solstice celebration and what have you, I found myself wondering, was Jesus delivered by a midwife? I mean when you look at, where any of the other participants qualified or even able to deliver a baby?

And with living under Hebraic law, would the messy parts of a woman’s vagina, even Mary’s, be an abomination in their god’s eyes?Yes that was one of the thoughts that floated through my over stuffed mind and belly.

No shame in going back for seconds, or eating just about everything on the table. Last night and this afternoon I ate least had seconds of most everything. Not a gavone but the potential was there. Bill and I arrived in Hillsdale where we promptly sat down and had dinner.

Brian and Karen and Cassie with Hillary and her beau Chris were quite hungry and caution was thrown to the wind regarding the Garfield contingent having had dinner. I hadn’t had homemade lasagne in a while and it was quite good. Even though I rarely eat sausage I indulged myself much to my liking.

That’s where the second helpings came in. Gifts exchanged, everyone satisfied and happy. Ride back to Hoboken where Bill and I exchanged gifts. A few ties and cufflinks from me collected over the year and an excellent electric pickup for my Fender acoustic.

All very nice and pleasant. Bedtime for both of us and I woke up first this morning to see if there were any presents under the tree from Santa, but then I realized we don’t have a tree. No room for it anyway. No tree, no gifts, but that was OK.

Went in the kitchen to make some coffee, and turned on the heater. No heater again. It went out last month on the 25th and now it’s out again. I made an online appointment for the PSE&G maintenance for tomorrow morning between 8AM and 12PM.

That’s fine with me, they’re generally show up in that time frame. Like around 11:55AM.I hope they won’t charge. Last month it took about 5 minutes and there was no charge, so I hope it will be the same situation.

Right now, we got a big pot of water on the stove, getting things warm and damp, but it beats being cold.

This afternoon we had the trip to Garfield to Frank and Elaine’s house. Nice and mellow there, Elaine’s dad on the couch watching everyone have a turn playing Wii which they got for a Christmas present. Corinne, Meg & Rob and I tried my hand at boxing and bowling as did everyone else. More food and gifts and then we were back on the road to Hoboken since the Zipcar needed to be returned by 5PM.

We are now watching the Stephen Colbert Christmas Special. It was originally broadcast last year but I remarkably had some foresight to check it out at the library a week or so ago. Hey, you snooze you lose.

We just watched Iron Man which Bill hadn’t seen. After catching bits and pieces of A Christmas Story, it was fun to point Peter Billingsley in his cameo in Iron Man. So that about sums up Christmas 2009. See ya tomorrow. Happy Crimble!

Me, Frank & Brian

Me, Frank & Brian

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Posted in Interesting Things as of Late | 2 Comments »

I Wanna Be Sedated

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

Well here we are, Christmas Eve 2009. An early posting for me. Won’t have time later since Bill and I are expected in Hillsdale, the home of the Relatives of the Powers. Brian, Karen, Hillary & Cassie. Little Brian is away at the moment. Frank, Elaine & Corrine are expected as are Meghan and Rob.

This has been going on I guess, since my mother passed away in 1991. The house in Lodi was more like a tomb at that point and I was no longer welcome in the house where I grew up. I guess we went up to Montvale for that first haunted Christmas without Mom.

My father and I weren’t speaking to each other and I started the first of several years of putting out my hand and wishing him a Merry Christmas only to have him look the other way. One year I stopped and at both Brian and Frank’s insistence I put my hand out once again and once again I was rebuffed.

I then had to chastise both of my brothers, saying in effect, ‘how many times do I have to show that I am the better man?’ . My father came around the year before he passed in 1999. Just a handshake and a hug. No apologies were expected and none were given.

I used to go up with William when I lived in Weehawken. He was welcomed in by my family, but looking back I have to wonder if they thought William and I were an item. I know a few people mentioned they thought we were, but no we weren’t. We certainly weren’t each others type, that’s for sure.

When I started going out with Bill in 2000, Bill replaced William as my companion of choice. And he’s been welcomed with open arms, with a provision that signs of affection between Bill and myself were to be kept to a bare minimum, or better yet, invisible.

That was no problem since relatives of the Powers aren’t known for open displays of affection anyhow.

This year is a bit tighter, tightest since the 1980′s. I tried my hand at homemade presents which over 20 years later I am embarrassed by but find that the original recipients trot them out each year, not to embarrass me, but for sentimental reasons.

Earlier this year when I heard about the Bob Dylan Christmas album I thought it would be nice to get a copy for my siblings. I shopped for the best present and with the fact that all of Dylan’s royalties were going in perpetuity to Feeding America it seemed like the best gift for a tight budget.

I didn’t expect the difficulty I would go through in getting people to merely accept it and perhaps just saying thanks, rather than a lecture and the browbeating that came along with it. Annemarie & Frank have both been told what the gift was so the only one who doesn’t is Brian. Unless he reads this before I get there.

In any event what’s done is done and I’m over it. It is the Christmas spirit to forget and forgive and move on so having written that, I am gone already.

Already did whatever I had to do today, wrapped Bill’s gifts, a walk to the post office. Stopped by the Guitar Bar where I saw Jim Mastro of course, but also Lily & Ruby. Meghan was home, baking cookies and dinner. Or maybe cookies for dinner. I

t was a nice afternoon. Bill should be home soon, he worked today and then I guess we will be off to Hillsdale.

Last night I watched the Paul McCartney performance on the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater from July, when Macca was the guest on the Letterman show. So exciting. I really enjoyed the Fireman album so hearing it live in that situation was pretty cool. Wished I was there, but I wasn’t.

This has been my 1500th posting. Yay Me!

Cranberry Sauce.

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Posted in Shed a tear | 2 Comments »

Oliver’s Army

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Well I just came back from a walk to the Post Office and I find an email telling me I won the Rufus Wainwright: Prima Donna contest. I win 2 autographed posters, a playbill from the opening night in Manchester, England and a Sundance Channel tote bag!

They won’t ship these out until after the holidays so any re-gifting will have to wait until next year. Thems the breaks I suppose. It’s not the Mega Millions.

Someone won the whole $160 million. One person. Not me. But the Sundance channel tote bag is nothing to sneeze at though it might be good to wipe your nose with after the sneeze.

What? Too soon?

Last night I watched the Miracle Worker which I had never seen before. I did read the play ages ago in either Annemarie’s or Brian’s Literature book from Lodi High School. They had to read it, I read it for fun.

I enjoyed it, great performances from Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. There were some scenes where Annie Sullivan who had terrible vision squints into the distance when Helen Keller goes off in the distance with her mother.

The squinting, accompanied by the wringing of hands makes it look like Annie Sullivan is scheming. It is also ripe for satire and I wonder if SCTV ever did a sketch based on it.

It would seem to be a perfect match. There’s probably so many episodes of SCTV that it has to be in there, along with Ben Him and the story of Natalie Ringneck, the girl who was raised by geese.

Right at the buildup for the climactic finale, Harpy called. ‘What is it with Tyler Perry’ ‘What is it with hat hair?’ ‘What is it with…’ blah blah blah. Oh Harpy was in his ivory tower playing the snob. If he didn’t get it, if he was who it was aimed for, he deemed it inferior as are the people who enjoy such things.

He also had a ton of advice for me and this blog and what I should do about it. He did mention one thing and it struck a chord/ Basically this blog is like one of Harpy’s favorite books, The Andy Warhol Diaries.

And it’s true, that’s just one of the influences on this here blog. Andy was an influence on me and how I look at things, and I did get the Diaries when they first came out, and even have the Spy Magazine unofficial index yucked away inside. I just missed being included in page 689 of the hardcover, arriving after the incident happened and the books being sold out. I don’t write about it again so, I wrote about it here:

http://johnozed.com/?p=213

Harpy droned on and whatever momentum I had gained while watching the movie soon petered out. I did watch some of the Paul McCartney: Good Evening New York City, a DVD and CD and book of Macca’s shows at Citifield back over the past summer.

It was a wonderful gift from Annemarie, Rex and Earl. As sweet as the cookies and brownies she sent. I offered to get a copy burned for her but she already got her own. I only watched the first 10 songs and want to watch the rest with Bill sometime soon.

2 pairs of eyes will come in handy trying to find Annemarie & Earl, Julio & Stine and Bill & myself in the stands.

What? It could happen.

Apparently they handed out flip cameras to people in the audience for the recording and you never know, maybe somebody was walking by and caught the six of us doing whatever it was we were doing that night. I honestly don’t remember.

I heard from Casey Chasm, calling with holiday greetings and an update on his life. He seems to be going ahead and joining the army. For the insurance, for he and the missus and the baby. To me it seems drastic, but it’s not my life. I’d rather he didn’t need to enlist, but I support his decision. So good luck to him, Pvt. Chasm.

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Posted in Iron my Shirt | No Comments »

Wet Job

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Last night was quiet. No Juan showing up. Apparently he was sick. Bill came home and he was sick. He had a nasty cold. Quite miserable. I was glad to help him with his coat and hat and back pack. He settled down and then was off to bed where he didn’t sleep comfortably.

A stuffed up nose and an apnea mask do not make for a good night’s sleep. I didn’t stay awake much later than that and soon settled in for an uncomfortable sleep myself. Many crazy dreams which I wrote about for your annoyance or amusement.

The first dream I wrote about concerned my mother and my brother Brian attending a function that involved President Barack Obama. In the dream there were a few dozen Americans all picked to attend an event in New York City.

Buses were called for and my mother, brother and I were assigned to Michelle Obama’s cousin. We sat with her through the event and found her to be most pleasant and very pretty.

That was one of the later dreams before Bill kissed me goodbye for the day and after I woke up for some water and aspirin since I had a terrible dehydrated headache that wouldn’t go away.

After Bill split I fell asleep where I dreamed I was working at the now closed Virgin Megastore in Times Square. Martin Kelly showed up with some cash for the box as we were about to sell tickets for The Cure which were going on sale for $185.00 a pop.

I checked the voice mail and heard a message of Ann Boyles listening to a voice mail of her husband Pat Paterson. Then I was behind the customer service desk when up comes the late German artist Joseph Bueys. He was surprised that I recognized him.

He was carrying a large stuffed banana and asked me if the book he was buying would be allowed on his flight back to Germany. It was a book about Animal House and he remarked that German television could probably learn a few things from the book.

Then I tossed and turned and found myself in a different dream, a different part of Manhattan.

It seemed I was a back up dancer for Wham, George Michael’s former band. How that happened I don’t know but I do know I was not that good a dancer and spent most of my time offstage chatting with other stage personnel.

I eventually walked off stage and went to the lobby which turned out to be the Knitting Factory which moved to 52nd Street and Third Avenue. Jane Scarpantoni was there singing along to Scritti Politti’s Cupid & Psyche ’85 while sitting next to Rand.

I then woke up and had some more water to rehydrate myself. I didn’t have that busy a day and wandered around Hoboken again, taking my time to walk around various lakes of slush that appeared at various corners.

I saw Todd from McSwells and said hello to him. He said something in return but I couldn’t say what it was he was saying. Maybe I’m banned from McSwells, maybe he wished me some Happy Holidays.

I also saw Ira from Yo La Tengo and chatted with him on the street. I commended him on the song Quiet Hours from the Dark Was The Night compilation. He gave me the lowdown on that, telling me it was originally from Snapper, a guy from New Zealand.

Yo La Tengo just returned from a tour of Asia which went well. I also told him I enjoyed Adventureland and that Yo La Tengo’s music was fitting, especially since the male lead, Jesse Eisenberg looked like Ira Kaplan from back in the day. He giggled and then we parted way, each of us wishing a very happy holiday to the other.

I would like to thank Andy Savva for sending me the mp3 of Fingerprintz ‘Wet Job’ last night. He’s a Prince that Andy, cheers to him!

I played the track several times last night and walked around Hoboken with it on repeat on my iPod. Nothing like a song about espionage and murder sung in a Scottish burr to make a walk enjoyable.

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Posted in So how's band camp? | 1 Comment »

The Hangover Strikes

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Well here we are, the first day of Winter. I came home last night before Bill, leaving him at the game so I could start the blog and uploading the video which was a chore.

The initial attempt rendered the video split in two. I attempted to rejoin them but there was a drop out of a second or so. So I decided to tack on the sound check but still I wasn’t satisfied.

Midway through Bill made it home, the Knicks won leaving us to believe that Bill was their good luck charm. We stayed up and watched some TV while I continued working on the video.

I was finally able to get the video up in one piece which was a relief. The only problem was that I was only able to shoot the video between the heads of two guys on the basketball court. Still it was a good performance by Bill.

Something different than the previous times when Bill sang the National Anthem before the NY Liberty games. The set up for those games were a lot different and there was no Steve Schirippa or Spike Lee to be seen. Schirippa is not as heavy as he was when he played Bobby Bacala on The Sopranos, he must have dropped 100 pounds or so.

I went to bed once I figured it all out with the video. Bill had a doctor’s appointment so he was sleeping in a little later than usual. I of course stayed in bed groggy. Didn’t sleep as late as I had been and was up before 9:00.

I had a hangover but it wasn’t from drinking, it was more from familial frustration and also resentment on the lack of job front. I’ve been searching all hours of the day, after midnight whenever seems right.

Nothing is happening and I wasn’t expecting anything to happen despite the New York Times saying that looking for a job during the holiday season is the smart thing to do since employers are generally in a good mood.

Of course I have to wonder if the recently laid off employees of the New York Times took comfort in that tidbit.

I was generally cranky and went about my daily routines. Coffee, cereal, shower and sit in front of the computer. Most of the day I was irate.

Made it to the post office to drop off a package to send to Annemarie in California. The line was long and I left my iPod home so I had to listen to various people complaining about how long the line was. What did they expect? It’s the last days before Christmas for goodness sake.

I saw Bill Ryan at the window but he didn’t see me so I didn’t say hello or anything like that. Nothing against Bill Ryan, but like I said I was irate.

I walked around a bit, tried to enjoy a cigar but it was too windy and didn’t light it properly. Just came home from all that, nothing worth taking pictures of.

After surfing around for a little while I decided to take a nap which was nice.

A winter’s nap, the first of the season seemed to dispel whatever it was that was bugging me. Woke up hungry and finished off the penne pesto and chicken that I set aside for Bill yesterday.

Decided to make more for the rest of the week. I enjoy it, and chicken has been on sale lately. I’m not complaining and neither should you since you’re not eating it, I am.

Now I’m doing laundry.

Juan called earlier in the day, he’s coming up to this neck of the woods. I was fairly distant on the phone, explaining that I was somewhat depressed and I was. I told him he could stop by but chances are I wouldn’t be good company.

Now I think I would be good company but if he doesn’t show up, that’s fine. If he does show up, I would hope he doesn’t show up with one arm longer than the other. It doesn’t have to be anything big, something that could be concealed in a cigarette pack would suffice.

I love this song. Anyone know where I could find it? It’s by lene Lovich’ former backing band, fronted by Jimme O’Neill, Fingerprintz, Wet Job. A WPIX-FM classic which makes it 30 years old….

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Posted in Mood Mambo | 2 Comments »

Basketball Jones

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

This is one of those moments in life where a joint would be most nice. But of course I am lacking in that department. What started as a fine day almost degenerated into crap and it wasn’t my fault. I do have to thank the makers of Xanax for taking a major edge off the trouble I found myself in this afternoon.

I suppose it’s true, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In that case, to quote AC/DC I’m on the Highway to Hell.

Last night was quite pleasant enough. Bill came home and we watched The Baroness of Jazz, about a woman, an heiress to the Rothschild fortune who left England and wound up being a major supporter of Thelonious Monk and a few others in that Jazz scene.

I recorded it since Bill has a connection to Thelonious Monk in some regard. Right now, my patience is sorely being tested by the sound card I guess on my computer.

Right now I’m trying to listen to some Kate Bush on iTunes, while also trying to upload the videos I shot of Bill tonight. Unfortunately with every keystroke on the computer the sound goes to shit.

Apparently I cannot do more than one thing on the computer without something going wrong. You get what you paid for I guess. Be ru-un-nni-i-i-nn-ggg u-u-u-p-p t-hhhhaaa-tttt hi-ll-ll is not how Kate Bush is supposed to sound. A 5:01 song gets stretched to 6 and change.

And the one clip I had shot of Bill was somehow turned into 2 clips, so I decided to add the sound check making it a 2:36 clip. I know I would be feeling a lot worse if it weren’t for the Xanax which is merely making me frustrated rather than angry.

Anyhow, The Baroness of Jazz was good and Bill really enjoyed it. After that, Bill and I watched Saturday Night Live. I generally enjoy the holiday episodes of Saturday Night Live. I often wondered if it was Lorne Michaels generosity that lets some truly strange sketches go on air.

I loved the digital short, it was hilarious and definitely weird. No more pajamas for me. Bill went to bed during Weekend Update, I stayed up to watch the rest. Muse were the musical guests and I thought they were alright.

Soon I went to bed as the snow continued falling. I woke up around 8:30, Bill was off to church for the first time in weeks, delivering the liturgy. I soon had my boots on, walked up to Washington Street where the bagel shop was empty. Yesterday the line was out onto the sidewalk.

In and out in under a minute, I made my way through sloppy streets to the supermarket. Cute cashier, reminded me of Karen Kuhl from Gutbank, 20 years ago.

The rest of the day was OK, until I responded to matters regarding Christmas presents. Where I planned and saved to get these presents I was left feeling foolish for getting these meager presents. Whatever good feeling I had was soon gone.

Bill was home by then and taking a nap, I had an early supper. That’s when I had the Xanax which couldn’t activate fast enough for my nerves. Eventually it did and talking to Bill about it certainly helped.

Things will have to be done differently and certain plans will be changed within the next five days. C’est la vie, that’s just the way that it goes.

Bill and I ran into Rand and Lisa as we walked to the Path train, good to see them. They wished Bill good luck with his singing. We also ran into Kathe Charas who is leaving New York and heading to Florida to help out some relatives. Glad to be able to see her on the day she was leaving though it was quite inadvertent.

We were set up nicely at the Garden, had dinner in the Press Room and Bill had a small dressing room. We had passes that allowed me to walk through the bowels of the Garden and shoot Bill’s sound check and the pass came in handy during the actual performance.

Unfortunately, someone bumped into me during the actual performance which left the video slightly disjointed. I posted it on YouTube as johnotoole99 as well on Facebook and also here.

Our singer

Our singer

'Just the facts, ma'am'

'Just the facts, ma'am'

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Posted in Wonderful World Beautiful People | No Comments »

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