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Archive for February, 2012

I Hate Seagulls

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Last night was a bad night of sleeping. I went to bed with the best intentions of getting a good night’s sleep and woke up several times. The overhead light went on, a trip to the bathroom, and the need for some ibuprofen after all that.

There was the plan to go to the Eagle last night in Chelsea for cigar night and to drum up business for the cigar shack. With the tooth extraction and not smoking cigars yesterday it seemed like a better idea to just go home. I did make arrangements to come in late today since I had that plan but I decided to proceed as normal.

So as I groggily wandered around the apartment, having coffee and cereal after a shower I wandered out into the drizzle and waited for the bus. Uneventful ride of course and neighbor Deborah is nowhere to be seen. I just stared out the window and minded my own business. It is leap day, Sadie Hawkins day or whatever it is that you want to call it which could explain why things are a bit weird today.

And Davy Jones died today which is sad. I liked the Monkees and didn’t care that they were the PreFab Four. I enjoyed their music a lot, great hit singles and I also enjoyed their TV show. I didn’t catch the show the first time around but in the 1970’s I caught it in reruns on Channel 9, it seemed to be on everyday after school.

I did see Mickey Dolenz a few years ago when he played the Art & Music Festival in Hoboken and he put on a good job. A friend of mine does PR for Mickey Dolenz and told me that the last reunion tour ended abruptly and bitterly, but wouldn’t name names as to who did what. Lot’s of friends are posting Monkees videos on Facebook as a tribute to Davy Jones.

Overall it’s a bummer for a lot of people, those that grew up with the Monkees the first time around. I guess David Bowie can now go back to his original name, David Jones.

Now, at the cigar shack I am trying to kick someone out of the man cave which has been closed for the past half hour. He’s hemming and hawing and chatting with Angela who barely speaks English in an attempt to not leave. And Thomas has had a tide that once again lifted all boats.

The lucky stiff had a customer who came in a dropped a lot of cash on a sale in just under a minute. It almost repeated itself a minute later when the same customer came in to see what else was on sale. Then I guess reason entered the picture and he changed his mind and walked out the door.

I just got back from telling the customer that he had a half an hour longer than most people to finish his cigar and now he must go. I do not like this guy but apparently he must be tolerated since he does attend several of the big ticket events in the cigar shack world in Manhattan.

Just don’t mistake my kindness for weakness.

Spring is in the ground

15. A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You

Tags:Bill, Davy Jones, The Monkees
Posted in Interesting Things as of Late | 2 Comments »

I Hate Myself For Loving You

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

Back at the cigar shack. Thomas is playing his tunes on his iPad. I was usurped by a customer who always asks if he could play his iPod, always all over the place from Esperanza Spaulding to some Latin jazz to Earth Wind & Fire.

The customer knows I am not too keen on playing his stuff since I do spend my own time when I am home making play lists, tailored to the tastes of the customers or the staff. Of course Zack’s tastes take preference over anyone else’s since he is the manager.

I suppose that is a holdover from DJing at Maxwells. Knowing what bands were playing, I would try to bring records in that reflected what type of music the audience would be into or where the band was coming from music wise. It worked 99% of the time, but the last time I DJ’d it really didn’t work.

A year or so ago, I DJ’d a benefit for a local musician with Parkinson’s Disease, and had fallen in love with Shakin’ All Over by the Yardbirds earlier that week so I think I might have played that one too many times. No one said anything and it wasn’t until a day or so later when I realized that I probably should not have played that particular track, more than once.

I used to do the same when I carried my tape deck on the bus with me to school, always trying to play songs that my fellow students would be into. I didn’t really play Black Sabbath, mainly a little bit of Led Zeppelin and quite a few Stones songs, mainly from Some Girls which was hot at that point. Definitely could not play any ‘Punk’ or New Wave stuff since that would have caused a whole bunch of trouble for me.

When I started working and before I had a car I would troop up Rochelle Avenue to the Garden State Plaza to buy records at Sam Goody and then cross the cloverleaf at Routes 4 & 17 to go to Alexanders to buy records for $4.99, all the time with a boom box resting in the crook of my arm. I later found out I was known to people in Rochelle Park as ‘that guy with the boom box’. So music has always been a major part of my life.

If I go to a gay bar & I do not like the music I generally don’t enjoy myself. If I hear something I like or know I really light up. But I am not really hearing it right now. Actually I am since Thomas is playing The Postal Service so that’s nice.

A little under 40 minutes to go. It certainly was a weird day here in the cigar shack. Nothing too bad but was there really a need to have Bradley, Thomas, Jerry Vale & myself on all day today? Bad planning on someones part (hey Bradley). I just want to go home and chill out.

The ibuprofen that was given to me has done the job. 2 more tablets to go. The tooth or at least the space where the tooth was seems to be feeling okay & healing nicely. a couple of 100 years ago I would have my teeth pulled & my haircut by the same guy in the same chair.

I also saw Bill this afternoon for a few minutes it was quite nice. Inspired by the photograph of the Marine coming home and giving his partner a great big kiss, I gave Bill a great big kiss outside the cigar shack.

And my friend my friend Bruce stopped by and asked me to include him in tonight’s entry so here it is. Hello Bruce.

07 Aikea-Guinea

Tags:Bill
Posted in I Love Music, Love Love Love | 2 Comments »

I Hate Myself And Want To Die

Monday, February 27th, 2012

It’s been a day off and I am pretty much tired. A haircut in the morning and a visit to the dentist in the evening. I didn’t want to ‘do’ the dentist in the morning, and called up yesterday to try to move the appointment to later in the day. I really crave my sleep you see. But it was a Sunday when I called and the office was closed so I didn’t really know whether or not my appointment was changeable.

In hindsight I should have kept the original appointment since I was up waiting to hear whether or not the appointment could be moved. Instead I had an afternoon filled with the usual anxiety regarding going to the dentist.

I was able to get a haircut though. My barber Tony was available when I walked by with bags full of shirt hangers. When we have a lot of hangers in the apartment I usually get them together and drop them off at the dry cleaners.

So there was Tony, his left arm in an elbow brace. He’s not going to have the surgery done since it wasn’t guaranteed to make him move his arm any better since falling from the ladder a while back. Tony of course did his good job of making me look good, nice trim on my head of hair as well as my goatee, and ear hair, eye brows and nose hair.

Then it was a walk to the dry cleaners with the hangers, then to the supermarket. My favorite cashier Isis was at her register but there was a customer laden with many items and I just wanted to go home so I went to the other cashier who I thought at first was slow, but she’s more than likely simply dotty.

I came home and had a decent breakfast and then nothing. I should have kept the dentist appointment the way it was, and perhaps get the haircut later in the day. But no, that’s not how it works out. I cleaned the apartment a little bit, took a nap and checked emails for a few hours before heading into Manhattan at the beginning of rush hour.

The bus was not crowded at all and midway through the ride, I got a phone call from Bill. It was official, Bill has diabetes. Not the end of the world, it’s manageable and Bill has already taken steps in the right direction. Instead of going to the gym in the morning and binging when he got home at night, he’s going to the gym in the morning and that’s it. No carbs, no sugars and he is learning how to drink water. He never had a problem drinking water, he just didn’t like it.

Of course the bus I was on had a novice bus driver who got in the wrong lane in the tunnel and instead of making a left and going 100 feet once we were on the New York side of the tunnel, he was forced to make a right and going several blocks away from the bus terminal. Other buses in the same situation were letting their passengers get off their buses, but not mine.

It was me and an elderly lady who wanted off and the driver threatened to make me stay on the bus since I was ‘talking slick’. The elderly lady wasn’t having it and promptly chewed the driver out causing him to open the door so we could depart. Then a walk from 35th street to 57th street which was faster than waiting in traffic for the bus driver to make up his mind.

My broken tooth was removed and I have another appointment in 3 weeks for a follow up. I am pretty much beat. I should sleep well tomorrow. The Oscars were ‘meh’.

And just a reminder, the title of tonight’s entry is merely a song title from a list that I use. Sometimes it is in sync with what I write about, sometimes I bend the rules but tonight it has nothing to do with anything besides being a song by Kurt Cobain.

In the tunnel

going AWAY from the bus terminal

What is and What Should Never Be

Tags:Bill, broken tooth
Posted in WTF | No Comments »

I Hate Men

Saturday, February 25th, 2012

Another day at the cigar shack. The three days on, three days off shift continues. Tomorrow is Sunday then I am off on Monday. Zack returns from wherever he has been tomorrow. It should be alright, the numbers have been very good, the cigar shack is clean, the humidor has been worked on.

It has been a very windy day outside, so much so that I found myself being pushed along by strong winds and I weigh close to 200 pounds. Well maybe a hair under 200.

Last night I apparently talked Bill in off the ledge. He was understandably stressed with the borderline diabetes diagnosis. All I did was reason with him and let him know that he was getting stressed about things that he didn’t know about and had no control over. The doctor will talk to him on Monday and that’s when we now.

He was worried about his cousin’s sons, a 14 year old and an 11 year old. I told him that more than likely if he was in the room they would be concerned about him, but being a pre-teen and a teenager it’s out of sight, out of mind. Anyway, Bill thanked me for talking him in off the ledge. I didn’t know that was what I was doing, I was just talking to him the way Julio used to talk to me.

Also telling him to get out of his work clothes might have helped. When I get home the first thing I do is get out of the clothes I’ve been wearing all day. Helps to create a distance between my life and my work. Bill usually just wears the same thing he’s been wearing all day until he’s ready for bed. That would not work for me, unless I had no choice.

Saturday night and the area around the cigar shack is quiet and dwindling. Tomorrow night is the Oscars so that should be exciting. I am glad Eddie Murphy is not hosting it. I suppose Billy Crystal will do his shtick and it should work. I just want to get home, get out of these clothes and have a nice cigar and watch some Saturday Night Live.

Other than that it’s been an alright day. It started out to be annoying but as the day got better so did most everything. Lot’s of gay couples walking around. That’s nice to see.

Now I am back home. Bill is in the city. It has gotten colder out and the wind cuts like a cliche. I have walked through the door and changed my clothes, now I sit in tracky bottoms and a denim shirt. The last 15 minutes of The Grapes of Wrath is on TCM. Never saw the whole thing but once again I caught Tom Joad’s speech.

I wonder if Jane Fonda ever said those words to Henry Fonda. We do know that peter Fonda has gone off the deep end, training his grand kids to be armed militia men to fight the traitor, President Obama. More acid, Peter? Do you really know what it’s like to be dead? We know your career knows. Someday you’ll find out.

My Boo

09 53 Miles West Of Venus
One more day of work tomorrow, not posting. Be nice to each other.

Tags:Bill, Cigars
Posted in Shed a tear | No Comments »

I Hate Everything About You

Friday, February 24th, 2012

Back from work after a day off yesterday. It was quite a busy day, I hit the ground running. Thomas was in the midst of a big sale which caused his tide to lift all of the other boats. It took a few hours for the sale to be completed for Thomas which put things in a weird situation. Was this guy going to come back or was he going to leave Thomas in the lurch.

I busied myself with the usual mundane things. It was Bradley and Thomas and myself today and we all got along quite well. Some interesting discussions were had, especially one which was about the different types of gay bars. That came about since I mentioned that I might be going to cigar night at the Eagle, a leather bar in Chelsea, to drum up business for the cigar shack.

It was a funny chat which turned into a chat about ‘pride’. Why was there a gay pride parade? Why is Black pride so important? Why is there no white pride? Why is there no heterosexual pride days? I explained that every friggin’ day was white, heterosexual pride day and to his credit, Bradley explained that whites have not been marginalized like gays and blacks have been.

And also the concept of ‘white pride’ has some awfully nasty white supremacist connotations. It was a fun and interesting talk which actually does happen from time to time until a customer walks in.

On the home front, last night I had a funny phone call with my former roommate Kevin. I hadn’t laughed like that in quite a while. He’s always been a funny guy with a humorous view of things. And he is quite a gossip too. He always has been. After an hour I had to get off the phone though since Bill was off his conference call.

Today Bill had an appointment with his doctor and the word is that he is a borderline diabetic. I am concerned and not that surprised since he makes me look like a top shelf nutritionist when compared to what he eats. So he has to revamp his life, change his diet. He has always hated drinking water and now that is going to have to become his main staple as far as liquids go.

I do wonder can a diabetic or a borderline diabetic still enjoy a pint of Guinness every now and then? I guess we will find out soon enough. Bill will get the results from his blood test on Monday so we should find out more. He just went to bed with my prodding.

He’s understandably nervous and stayed up till I came home so he can unload. I listened and reassured him that whatever happens we will manage. We have good people around us, our friends and family who would be more than willing to share advice with us on matters such as this. We’re not in it alone.

I guess it does take a village, not just to raise a child but to get through life. Unless you’re a hermit or a recluse, in which case you turn your back on the village and go it alone which I guess is cool for some people. On the other hand, we will take whatever we can get.

05 The Great Pretender

Tags:Bill
Posted in uncategorizable | No Comments »

I Hate Everything

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

It has been a nice day off and it was as I expected, pleasant and productive. Bill was still getting out of bed, several times during the night. I was up late watching All The President’s Men. I originally saw that with my parents at the dollar movies in 1976.

My brother Frank saw it first and told me that the movie starts off with a drunk and suicidal Robert Redford as Bob Woodward, drinking with a rifle nearby when the phone rings. The caller telling him of a break in at the Watergate Hotel. Of course that is not how the movie starts but I have to admit it was a good start.

I was a precocious 13 year old and my parents who both voted for Nixon took me to see it. I admit a lot went over my head then but I think it did inspire me to write. So last night had some memories but since the movie is over 2 hours long I couldn’t stay up to watch the whole thing, but I did save it on the DVR. Nixon emerges unscathed, right?

Bill and I had an interesting chat while he was taking a break from his bathroom break. He ran into Bobby Risotto the other day and Bobby told him about how he felt bad that I didn’t get the job that he offered me. It was nice to know and I guess hearing it from Bill was good.

Basically it was a temp to perm position and that if I left the cigar shack job for the new position, I could be dismissed at any time for any reason and that would more than likely jeopardize any unemployment benefits that I might need. I didn’t know it was temp to perm but I did know it more than likely had a probationary position.

After that chat Bill went off to bed in between pee breaks. I woke up, Bill was gone for the day- to work and more visits to the urologist and other doctors. After a couple of cups of coffee I headed off to the dry cleaners and the supermarket. When I got back home I was eating breakfast and then doing laundry.

The plan to meet up with my niece Corinne was delayed about an hour. She decided to drive to Hoboken instead of taking the train and ran into traffic on Route 3. I was waiting at the train station when I found out she was driving, and was a little upset. Still, when I saw her that was all forgotten.

We rode the Path to 14th Street and had a nice adult chat about relationships. We waited for a few minutes on the line to see the Doug Wheeler show (which closes on Saturday) before deciding to check out other galleries rather than stand on line. Hard to believe it was less crowded the week after it was written up in the New York Times than it was a few weeks later with a queue outside with each attempted visit.

We did see a few other shows which were good but not necessarily overwhelming. It was great to hang out with Corinne though. She enjoys my company and I enjoy hers. It was something different for her, for both of us really. Just walking around the city on a really nice, 60 degree afternoon and seeing the work of various artists. I explained some art works to her, telling Corinne who Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat were. I think she enjoyed it.

We were back in Hoboken after a stop at Payless where I was able to finally get a pair of Airwalks. Slim choices but I bought a pair just like the sneakers I had on. I was worried for Corinne’s car since parking in Hoboken can be difficult and did not want her to get a ticket, or worse, a boot or a tow.

The car was alright though and we had a late lunch or early supper at the Malibu Diner where we enjoyed each other’s company some more before she headed back to the suburbs. We made plans to meet up again when our schedules permit. She’s a good kid and a smart and pretty woman.