Archive for the ‘uncategorizable’ Category

I Know A Place

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

777-9311 by The Time is playing right now. I remember having an in depth discussion with Peter Holsapple of the dB’s when he was working at the Music Maze at 23rd and Third in the city and when I was totally enamored with the dB’s. He explained what sounded like a drum machine was actually Jimmy Johnson and here we are 30 years later and it still sounds incredible.

Yesterday was a day off and it went well. I did my usual shuffle about Hoboken, Bill came home from his reading and it sounded like a very good reading, something I should have attended if only I was invited. He stayed up for a little while before going to bed and I watched the Daily SHow, followed by The Colbert Report.

I usually watch the Daily Show in the morning but I was planning on being busy this morning. I had a meeting with a company that liked what they saw when they came into the cigar shack a week ago. I would like to think the meeting went well but I really couldn’t say since it was up to them and not me.

It lasted about 45 minutes, met with 2 representatives from a well placed cigar manufacturer. I think they are trying to pick my brain about how the big cheeses run things and since Zack is unavailable for somethings and Bradley being a possum at times, they asked me and how could I refuse? It was eerily close to the cigar shack anyhow so I had to watch who I saw when I entered and exited the building.

Beautiful loft space where the meeting was held, so much so that I felt the view warranted a picture. I left feeling pretty good about myself, no trade secrets given away. A slow and easy walk to the cigar shack was had afterwards, heading in the opposite direction, then turning around and retracing my steps.

There was Bradley, sitting on Zack’s throne since Zack was off doing a public access radio show downtown for most of the morning. Bradley of course felt like he was the big man and Thomas and I let him think that he was. He’s not that tall so opportunities like this don’t come around too often.

Lunchtime came at the right time for me so I was able to sit on a bench near the park once again and read Retromania while smoking a damaged cigar. It wasn’t unsmokable but you realy can’t sell a $20.00 cigar with such obvious defects on it. And Retromania is entertaining though a bit dry. It’s rare that I read a book that you have to meet halfway where most of the other books just open up and fall into your lap.

I did hear about a dirpy program that allows you to convert videos into mp3’s. My niece mentioned it last summer but never came through on the details. Now I have the details and I was going through my favorites on YouTube but it turned out I have just about everything I want (a major subject of Retromania), so I downloaded Robert Wyatt singing Shipbuilding which it turns out I had 3 downloads of it already.

C’est la vie. The hope thing is springing eternal and the waiting game goes on.





06 When You Dance I Can Really Love

I Knew I Loved You

Friday, April 27th, 2012

Ceremony by New Order is playing. I originally had Joy Division on but once again I realized I don’t really like too many Joy Division songs. Probably because of Ian Curtis’ voice. I like maybe 5 Joy Division songs. A sacrilege to some I am sure. Love Will Tear Us Apart, Transmission, She’s Lost Control…and that’s all I can think of. Atmosphere is way too much of a dirge for my liking. Good friends of mine love them still but I don’t get it. Too depressing which my friends don’t see or hear.

It’s back at the cigar shack again. I thought it would be Zack, Bradley and Jerry Vale with myself, but there was no Jerry Vale today. That’s a bit a of a disappointment. Nick, someone from McMann & Tate just walked in. He remembers me and I always think of his as Scott which is not his name, but could be the pseudonym that I gave him 6 years ago. NIce guy, I think he has a thing for me.

So the cigar shack did quite well today. I had a nice chat with Bradley about me and Thomas which helped me sweep the bad feelings under the rug. And Thomas came in for a few minutes. It’s his birthday weekend and he has a few buddies from Connecticut in town for drinks and carousing. 26 years old now, and still incorrigible.

A little over 30 minutes left in today at the cigar shack and I am working both Saturday and Sunday. I did arrange to have off on May 6 so I could attend the Fartin’ Mucous Festival in Hoboken and also took off May 12th and 13th to perhaps go down the shore with Rand and Lisa. In order to do that I have to work a 5 day stretch which is murder, but those 2 days off at the end of the week is a pot of gold of sorts.

ANd Bill is driving tomorrow, not tonight. Of course when I come home tonight he will be out cold. I will speak to him as he sleeps and he will mutter incomprehensible things back to me. WHat it means I don’t know.

Last night, I did not sleep that well, woke up with New Order’s Temptation in my head which is never played on WCBS-FM so it was in my head and stayed there. I shouldn’t have watched that 1981 Live from the Ukrainian Home video last night. And I had a dream. I was back in Lodi on Riverview Avenue to deliver a message to old neighbor from around the block, Jeffrey Telep about his dog Tramp.

Tramp was alive and well in the dream though more than likely dead for about 30 years. As I walked through the neighborhood, I saw the Merlino’s house, the Serpone’s house all with new, yet invisible residents. The Bello’s house, now owned by the horrible Debbie Natale was like a clearing house filled with kitchen appliances, all tagged and ready for sale.

Debbie was berating an employee, making them cry and I threw the message for Jeffrey Telep away, deciding to go back home to my parents.






Bedsitter

I Just Wanna Party

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

Well today was quite a long day. Zack and Bradley and Thomas all on deck. And it has not been easy for anyone doing sales, despite the new limited edition whatchamacallit cigar that was just released. We all emailed our clients letting them know that the best thing since sliced bread is out, the second coming of second hand smoke has been set out into the world.

Zack of course, with 7 or 8 years of building a client base easily makes his sales, Bradley with a lifetime of working in retail makes his sales, Thomas does well with his people and my emails get ignored. Out of 30 emails, three responded, two were sales, another was a question that went answered but went no farther than that. And I just checked my work email again and it is still the same. No responses. I’m not sweating it, at least not until Friday since I am off tomorrow.

No Jimmy Seltzer sighting this week. He usually comes in on Thursday and since tomorrow is Thursday and I won’t be in, chances are I won’t be seeing him until next week, which is too bad since I do enjoy the fleeting chats I do have with Jimmy Seltzer. He offers insight that I am usually blind to, such as yes I do have a job that I am none too fond of, but still I do go in day after day and generally do a good job.

On Friday, Zack and I have a tentative plan to review my performance review. I agreed with most of the things he wrote on the report, but do I tell him that my heart isn’t in it? That I have grown disheartened as the second anniversary approaches much to rapidly for my tastes? No, it will be best to keep it to myself and just say ‘yes sir’ or ‘no sir’ as he goes down the list of my faults. Best not to mention the disdain that I have for most of the customers. No I leave it to him to express his disdain, his name calling and his curiosity that some of these customers are more than likely closet cases.

I did have a good bus ride into the city this morning. I ran into neighbor Deborah, been a week or so since I last saw her. I neglected to wish her a happy birthday on her Facebook page but she didn’t mind. She almost had a good day if not for an argument with her boyfriend which could not be good. An argument on your birthday is not a good thing.

It’s so odd to come home and not find Bill fast asleep in bed like he has been for the past couple of days. He is scheduled to sing before the Mets game on Sunday and I’ve made arrangements to have the day off to videotape him once again, but the forecast for Sunday is rain which would be a drag. I guess we’ll find out on Saturday, whether or not Sunday at CitiField will come to pass. I hope it does, he’s been practicing frequently lately. But if it does not, I hope a reschedule could be worked out. And I hope I can rearrange a day off so I could attend.




Rocket Man

I Invented Sex

Thursday, April 5th, 2012

Yes, today has been a day off. And it’s been alright. No need for pharmaceuticals since there was no despair at hand. I had a doctor’s appointment this morning and I wasn’t stressing it. It was merely a physical, a check up. This doctor is so much better than the one I had been seeing.

I held back on commenting on the old doctor when the new doctor asked who I had been seeing. When I mentioned the old doctor’s name, the new doctor mentioned that he was a friend. But it wasn’t really since the old doctor was a twin who shared his practice with his identical brother. I mentioned that it was Michael, not Joseph I had been seeing and the new doctor mentioned that all these years he had never met Joseph’s brother.

It was all very Dead Ringers by David Cronenberg. I was glad they were not gynecologists.

I was surprised my weight hadn’t gone down but I am trimmer. I guess the fat is turning to muscle. No, I still don’t have a six pack abdomen, and I don’t look like I swallowed a keg. My blood pressure is still low, 110 over 60 which isn’t that bad.

And the rest of the exam went well. I do have to go get some blood work done. Apparently the law dictates that general practitioners cannot take blood and leave it in the boxes outside their offices. Also the new doctor mentioned that kids had a habit of breaking into the boxes and throwing the contents onto the street, causing a lot of money in clean up.

Since I work in the city, I could get the blood extracted from Duane Reade which is a bit scary but since I trust the new doctor I will more than likely do it in the next few days.

After the doctor’s visit I was off running errands in the early afternoon of a spring day. It was bright and cool outside and I ran into RoDa as I wandered around. We chatted for awhile, talking about how we are both getting older as we stood on the street corner.

I’ve known RoDa for over 20 years and here we were in our 40’s talking about ailments and aging. He went his way and I went mine, home to some more coffee before returning two PG Wodehouse books to the bibliothèque.

Jimmy Seltzer had recommended reading Wodehouse and I did take them out, but since I was distracted by Mojo & Uncut magazines, as well as the New Yorker and my smartphone as well as the internets. Yes, the internets- where I saw a clip of Kurt Vonnegut talking about the firebombing of Dresden which got me interested enough in getting some Vonnegut from the American Classics selection via the bibliothèque.

Yes, I am reading Slaughterhouse Five. So it goes. And I did pick up the latest Mojo & Uncut magazines today. Have to schedule my reading habits so I can keep reading Vonnegut while reading about Steve Marriott & Jack White. Still haven’t gotten the latest New Yorker so I guess I will be calling the subscription department on Monday. So it goes.











06 Looking For Clues

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

I Got You Thompson Square

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

Well I slept fairly well last night but I woke up feeling rather crappy. Head stuffed with snot and mucous. At least a quadrant of my skull felt that way. It took me by surprise as I lay in bed, reaching for the box of tissues nearby so I could blow my nose. I wasn’t sure if it was allergies or a head cold and I am still not sure.

I am dragging ass today that much I know. I got it together and headed out of the apartment as usual, wishing I could have taken the day off. By the time I got to the street I realized I left my hat upstairs and rather than climb four flights back up, I opted to walk to the bus stop. It was colder than I anticipated and I regretted not having a hat.

A quiet bus ride into the city, me sitting in the last seat on the bus. I was tired enough to fall asleep but I didn’t. A walk up the avenue , avoiding the subway to save some money left me cold and sweaty and quite out of it by the time I got to the cigar shack. Zack and Thomas were in the cigar shack when I got in.

I hadn’t seen Zack in a few days and he was ready to shake hands but I opted for a fist bump since I was feeling a bit ill. The day progressed nicely with Thomas grabbing big numbers and Zack behind, with me carrying up the rear. It had nothing to do with how I was feeling, it had more to do with connecting with customers and Thomas had connected with his and Zack’s people always get in touch with Zack.

Me, I took the laid back approach and obviously that was not the way to get big numbers on the board today. Throughout the day I’ve been feeling crappy and sometimes feeling alright. Not 100% but in 90% range. I had a decent lunch and felt OK after that. I even went to a few shops to buy a hat but all they had were baseball caps and the shop has a few of those as promotional items so I wasn’t about to spend $20.00 on one of those.

When I came back after lunch I was feeling alright but that didn’t last. I am pretty sure I will sleep well tonight though. And tomorrow being a day off will likely be spent in bed. No plans on going anywhere or doing anything. Probably best that I stay in and get my rest, especially since Sunday promises to be a long day what with the super bowl, more than 12 hours that day and then Monday which will be the usual day followed by a staff meeting.

Bill is in full nurse mode, getting everything ready for me when I come home so I will not have to do much of anything. All I have to do is get on the bus and then walk home. Thomas is closing the cigar shack so that gives me a 10 minute head start. And now I am home. Bill is worried about me of course which I find unnerving.

I am usually the one who worries and I am not used to being worried about though I am sure it happens from time to time with people I know and love. A blessedly uneventful ride home on the bus, listening to Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians. I climbed the four flights and there was Bill greeting me at the door. I changed out of my suit into my tracky bottoms and relaxed. Now I look forward to doing nothing at all.

Rest in peace Linda Wolfe.




03 Acid Bird