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I Heart NY

Saturday, March 24th, 2012

Well last night was somewhat different from my usual routine. I got out early since I opened up the cigar shack and avoided the theater crowds by taking the subway to the bus terminal. Then after climbing a few escalators I thought I would catch the bus, but 3 scheduled buses did not appear making the one bus that actually did show up extremely crowded.

I rode past my usual stop and got something to eat. Since I usually get home too late to eat a full meal, I was afforded enough time to have something substantial. I watched Bill Maher where I enjoyed Charles Blow’s interview with Bill Maher regarding the Trayvon Martin tragedy. After that it was all downhill. I once again dislike Andrew Sullivan. Fred Armisen was entertaining but why do they have him on besides to remind people that Bill Maher is ‘funny’.

I watched the news and spoke to Bill who made it to Atlantic City. Around midnight I was fading fast and thought it was time to turn in. I wasn’t sure if I would actually be able to fall asleep an hour earlier than usual, and I found out 8.5 hours later that I was able to fall asleep.

Been a while since I had 8.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep and even though I usually don’t sleep well when Bill is not in bed, I was able to sleep quite soundly. Waking up refreshed I was ready for work. Bill came home a few minutes before I headed out and it was nice to spend some fleeting minutes with him before he went to bed and I was able to head to the cigar shack. He’s driving to Atlantic City again tonight.

At the cigar shack there was Bradley and Jerry Vale. Things were going well, still selling the unveiled cigar from the other night as well as a few other choice cigars. Mainly the numbers were for all cigars, no big ticket items. For lunch I was able to have some Shepherd’s Pie once again.

I was going to enjoy a cigar in the man cave but it was too crowded so I opted to roam the streets which had gotten considerably cooler than the near 80 degree weather that’s been occurring lately. The day was alright, nothing special. I wrote another blog entry for the cigar shack’s blog, including some decent photos.

Of course things were going so smoothly that there was bound to be some head butting and sure enough Bradley and Jerry Vale were at it. Nothing major, a miscommunication, a misunderstanding with some hurt feelings. It was odd to be witnessing it, usually I am one of the participants.

Whether or not they resolved it, I couldn’t say. I doubt that they did. The hatchet is buried somewhere though. Now it’s a Saturday night at the cigar shack, things are slowing down considerably, 33 minutes to go which won’t pass fast enough.

Not that I have any say in the matter.

a failed escape





Comical Israelites


03 Picture Book (mono)

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I Hate The Way

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

A Thursday at the cigar shack. It’s me and Zack right now, Jerry Vale was in earlier but went off to represent at a cigar function somewhere in midtown. It’s been a slow day, not many customers coming in. Certainly no Saudi royalty, at least not yet.

I’ve been busy doing extracurricular things, taking photographs and doing some writing on behalf of the cigar shack. I am the official blogger for the cigar shack and will be maintaining a blog for the shack as well as photographing events all while selling cigars and accessories.

I just achieved my daily bread, I mean daily goal, so that’s a relief. With Zack in the cigar lounge, having a smoke I’ve decided to play some reggae in honor of Mr. Winston Rodney’s birthday, that’s Burning Spear for those playing at home.

I’m sure I’ve seen Burning Spear somewhere, but with red eyes back then, the memories today are somewhat cloudy. One specific memory I do have involved Burning SPear at the late, lamented Wetlands, a club in Tribeca. My friend Miriam and I along with her friend Andre went to see Burning Spear and we got there early enough to be 2 feet from the stage.

It was perfect, none of us had been that close to see a reggae legend like that before. Unfortunately Andre got himself smoked out causing us to abandon the show before it even began since homeboy couldn’t hang.

So we went from being thisclose to the stage to being out on the street making sure Andre had something to eat. Now Black Uhuru is playing and I certainly remember an excellent show with Black Uhuru and King Sunny Ade at the Dr. Pepper Festival on the Pier at 42nd Street, in the shadow of the USS Intrepid.

That show seemed to go on forever, maybe 3 or 4 hours, with quite a few friends hanging out and sharing things that get passed around. It is a little blurry, the memory that is, but I do recall being there with Andrew Feldman and Rand Hoppe and possibly the one and only Jose Blackorby as well as other friends I am sure.

Now there is 45 minutes left in the day and I am off tomorrow and that makes me happy. Bill was up early, doing his volunteer work for WBAI, getting up at 4AM. I could not be roused when he left, he told me he tried kissing me a few times but I would not be moved. I did sleep a lot better than I did the night before so it was probably me making up for lost sleep the night before.

So I am off tomorrow and I have no plans whatsoever. Maybe some laundry but that could wait until next week. No art galleries to go to and the weather might be crappy so staying in might be the thing to do. I do have the movie Beginners which won Christopher Plummer the Academy Award last week, so that might be the highlight of the day.

And the last customer of the cigar shack this evening dropped quite a pretty penny, causing my high tide to lift all boats. Nice start for the month of March.



Burning Spear – The Sun

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I Gotta Know

Wednesday, February 15th, 2012

And so it was back to work for me today after a day off which was quite productive, or at least somewhat productive. Today there was some difficulty waking up more than likely from the fact that it was raining outside and who really wants to get out of bed on a rainy day?

Bill had off today, he had an audition for a TV show this afternoon and also wanted to continue on his progress with regards to cleaning the apartment. SO Bill and his buddy are doing just that, cleaning the apartment. Bill said it would be all Spic & Span when I get home. I do have my reservations though.

My day at the cigar shack started in the red though. Last week I sold a few items totaling over $700.00. It was a good sale, the customer was nice and I enjoyed helping her. Unfortunately between that day and this morning, she found the same items online at a considerably lower price.

So she returned them for a refund and I can’t blame her for that but that put me in the hole. I spent the day trying to get out of the hole, bit by bit, cigar by cigar. A little over an hour ago, I was finally out of the hole and content to be in the low 3 figures. Back in Black should have been the theme song.

Slowly my numbers increased and soon I was hovering around $500.00. In the past 45 minutes thanks to 2 customers from far away lands I am now over 4 figures. I am happy about that and so is Zack. It’s been a busy kind of day, Zack, Bradley and Thomas and myself. Bradley and Thomas have done stellar work today.

There was an event that no one really wanted to have a part of. The cigar shack rarely has sales but the head cheeses insisted so we had no choice but to do what the head cheeses ordered. Food was ordered, whiskey distributor arrived, but unfortunately no one who said they were coming, came.

There was disappointment from the manager and the assistant manager but when the time came for them to leave, they left with whiskey on the breath.

This afternoon as I was coming back from lunch, before I headed into the cigar shack I was outside having a smoke. I saw this gent standing outside the cigar shack on the sidewalk holding up a pamphlet titled ‘TRY THIS!!!’. I figured he was handing out samples of something so I asked the gent what it was he wanted people to try.

It turned out he was looking for work as a personal assistant. His name is L. Jay Walker and he thinks of possibilities and getting them done as well as trying to find a cure for snoring. He claims to be big, strong, smart, compassionate as well as being a humorous guy with a calm and peaceful demeanor.

He can guarantee your safety and he’s quite handy as well as a great listener. So if you are looking for a personal assistant or know of someone who is, send an email to ljaywalker54@gmail.com. I figure it wouldn’t take much of anything for me to post his info and it would sure beat handing out pamphlets outside of a shopping area. He seemed like a nice guy anyhow.


Photo by 'Thomas'




Christine's house of LOVE


Groove Is In The Heart

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I Got Mine

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

OK, the other day my day started (and ended) with Melody of Love by Bobby Vinton in my head. That made me think of Bob Dylan covering Dean Martin’s ‘Return to Me’ from the Sopranos soundtrack. Probably because of Bobby Vinton’s refrain, ‘Return to me, and always be, my melody of love’ before he breaks out into a Polish singalong.

In 1975 while attending St. Francis de Sales grammar school, we had to learn that song and then trooped over to a convent by Felician College to sing the song to a group of old Polish nuns. And here I am later, over 30 years later still thinkng about that song.

Another song from 1975 that popped into my head via Wikipedia was Please Mr Postman by the Carpenters. This time in 1975 it was the number one song and I remember being in the Boy Scouts at Camp No-Be-Bosco in the winter listening to this song on Music Radio 77 WABC. I always liked the Carpenters, well I always liked Karen Carpenter’s voice. I still do. I find it to be quite warm and rich.

Lucky Thomas, he just picked up the phone for a nice order. He’s done well today whereas Bradley and myself were nickle and dime’ing up the numbers. No hard feelings but I am harboring feelings of resentment and have doubts about throwing him some sales in the future whenever I hit my personal goal.

The customer just phoned in an order, sending his daughter to pick up the cigars, so things might change. Not expecting it to happen though. Thomas was in a weird mood in the beginning of the day though he did get better and not bitter. It’s after 7:00 so things have gotten considerably slower in the cigar shack area.

Not expecting sales to improve, in fact after Thomas’ sale that will probably be it. I did have some nice sales today, though not enough to get to my personal goal. It is so friggin dead here I almost expect George Romero to remake Dawn of the Dead in this area.

That brings me back to 1980 where after I saw the Exorcist with Henry Venegas and his girlfriend, we drove to the Paramus Drive In where we caught some of Dawn of the Dead on the sly, using the AM radio to pick up the audio broadcast at 2:00 in the morning. Life sure was simpler then.

Like most of my high school classmates I never saw Henry Venegas after 1980. And don’t even get me started on my fumbled seduction regarding Henry. And attempting to seduce a straight classmate was not the smartest idea anyhow. I was 17 and knew as much about seduction as I do now. What was I thinking? I know what I was thinking about. He was a good guy that Henry Venegas was. I wonder if he ever married his girlfriend?

About 30 minutes left in the cigar shack today. 30 long minutes no doubt. Rand and Lisa stopped by this evening. It was wonderful to see them. They were celebrating Lisa’s birthday and went to the movies and had some dinner out. Lisa of course looked fabulous and Rand was quite the fashion plate himself. They were just passing through, headed back to the bus terminal. I’ve known Rand 30 years and happy to be his friend, as well as Lisa’s friend.

Thomas, it turned out, was closing the store allowing me to leave a few minutes early. I hoped I would catch Rand and Lisa on the bus but they didn’t make it. But it was wonderful to see them nonetheless, as it made my day.






Is THIS your card?


11 Crosseyed and Painless

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I Don’t Deserve You

Saturday, October 1st, 2011

A wet Saturday and it wasn’t so bad. Of course I to work but at least that got me out of the apartment. I watched Bill Maher last night, Bill was rehearsing with his buddy Tom who is playing trumpet in the production that Bill is managing so Bill did not get home until after midnight.

I greeted him at the door and he immediately rested his head on my shoulder, he was so tired. I helped him take off his backpack, so heavy it felt like it was filled with rocks. We talked for a while then Bill went to bed and I stayed up for a little while after that.

Then it was bedtime for me, and I fell asleep almost immediately then was startled when I thought I felt something crawl across my shoulder. That kept me up for a short time before I went to sleep again only to wake up an hour later with an extremely itchy foot.

It drove me crazy, enough so that I had to get out of bed and do something about it. All I could think of was Purell and that seemed to do the trick. I was able to sleep soundly after that and woke up a few hours later. The temperature had dropped considerably making me not want to get out of bed to paddle across the cold ceramic tile that constitutes the floor of the apartment.

Bill was gone by the time I had breakfast, doing office work that he wasn’t able to do during the week. I headed out to the bus stop and was soon walking up an avenue to the cigar shack. It was the weekend so that meant an egg sandwich. Different guy behind the counter and he charged me a different price.

It was only a quarter and I think the cashier was trying to get some more out of me asking if I had one or two eggs. It was one but still he gave me the hairy eyeball. I really couldn’t say how many eggs since the fry cook has all the eggs in a pitcher and when he needs to make a product with eggs he just pours some out of the pitcher onto the grill.

It was Bradley, Thomas, Jerry Vale and me working today, another sign of scheduling ineptitude. No need for a full staff on the weekend and no one did that well in sales today, though Thomas got the top spot and I was a close second.

The possum Bradley (a name given to him by Thomas) and Jerry Vale came in third and fourth place respectively. Surprisingly enough the possum was in a decent mood, actually communicating and making jokes.

The day took it’s time getting to the end, Thomas and me manning the boards. We had a good talk about art, I didn’t know that Thomas was artistically inclined. We also talked about age, Thomas figuring out how old I was and saying that I didn’t seem like I was almost 50. It didn’t seem like I was almost 40 either. It was a nice thing to say I think, so I took it as a compliment.

Tomorrow is Sunday, so no posting. You can do what you want.




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I Can’t Wake Up

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Another day, another doofus again. I am the doofus, the day is the same yet somehow different. I am cigar shack bound, yesterday flew by- today not so much. Still somehow I did better than I expected sales wise. I was dragging ass, not through anything of my own doing, circumstances dictated how things went.

I had a customer and was walking into the humidor when it turned out to be an old customer of Calvin’s so that meant the customer went with him. I was fine with that, content to do half of what I did yesterday. But things being what they are, and leaving just Jerry Vale and myself in the shack, somehow I caught up on things. A flurry of customers helped as well as an out of state shipment.

Just had a nice chat with my favorite customer, (or one of them (sorry my friend my friend- you’re still top ranking) Jimmy Seltzer who said that I was a good writer which made me blush and flustered. Still a good thing to hear. As I was writing about my friend my friend, my friend came in, back from Southern California. Not a good trip, close relative passed away.

Good to see him, and though he and his close relative weren’t THAT close, I still offered my condolences. It can’t be easy even if there is distance between 2 people.

Now I am home again, Bill is at Le Poisson Rouge in Destinations tonight. That means he won’t be getting home until late, and then he has to wake up and go to work again. He’s done it before so we know it can be done, but sometimes he does it so often, perhaps too often that he has a physical breakdown and winds up crashing and having to spend a day or two in bed.

The other night as we were driving home, we drove past one of Hyman Gross’ haunts and I mentioned to Bill that I missed Hyman. Bill agreed and said he did too. Tonight as I waited at the gate at the bus terminal I found myself missing him. And now with Patrick Morrissey possibly dead as well, well I suppose that this is how the future will be.

Remember so & so? Well they’re dead. And wakes become social events. I wrote the other night how seeing a flamboyant bird like Patrick walking down Washington Street unmolested made me decide that Hoboken was the place for me.

About a year after that, I was a living on the floor above Patrick and his then boyfriend Alphonso Portillo. I had a car at the time and in early 1985 or 1986 I was driving home on a winter evening and slid on black ice through a stop, hitting a car driving up Adams Street. I hit my head, and my car conked out.

I restarted the car and a huge flame shot out from under the hood. I got out of the car and ran to the fire station a block away. It was all within sight of my apartment building, two blocks away. The firemen put out the fire and of course the police arrived on the scene.

My paper work was a mess. My license, my registration and my insurance had three different addresses on each one. The police officer started giving me a hard time until Patrick showed up. Patrick told the officer to knock it off, to leave me alone.

The cop turned and said, ‘He’s a friend of yours Patty?’ And Patrick said I was. The cop backed off and Patrick walked me home after my car (my last car) was towed away to the junk heap. Patrick invited me down for dinner, meat loaf with a cream cheese filling (the only time I ever had that) as well as possibly the first time I had white wine. It was certainly a bonding experience.

Patrick and I had further adventures and escapades which I will write about some other time. If the news is the worst about Patrick, I certainly hope he is at peace. If not, I hope to see him again. I figure if someone living in Peru can read about Hyman Gross on this here blog, then someone in this world might be reading about Patrick Morrissey.




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