Tag Archives: Booker T & the MG’s

What A Wonderful World

A new week, a new day, a new entry for johnozed. Isn’t life grand? Today was the first day since last week that I had actually walked around Hoboken, besides the supermarket and Washington Street. Oh and the library. Nothing has changed it’s still the same. And as usual I’ve got nothing to say but it’s OK.

I got a nice St. Patrick’s Day card from my cousin Theresa. That was nice. I would have sent her one in kind if I had known and it’s not too late to do that I suppose. It just won’t get to her by Wednesday.

That is what actually got me out of the apartment and into the damp streets of Hoboken. I bought a St. Patrick’s Day card for Bill and wanted to get it to his office, hopefully by tomorrow. He won’t be in on Wednesday since he has something MAJOR going on, something that he asked me not to talk about.

So getting it in the mail to be delivered across the river within 24 hours is the goal. Then again you hear of people mailing letters decades ago and never making to the receiver, and I hope that’s not the case this time.

But if it doesn’t get there by tomorrow I take comfort in the fact that he’ll have something nice on his desk when he returns on Thursday.

I also stopped by the Guitar Bar and said hello to Jim Mastro. I hope he doesn’t think I’m a nuisance. I just pop in for a quick chat, say hello and I’m out of there. If I’m headed to the post office I usually ask him if he has any mail to be dropped off, but today I was going in the opposite direction.

He was playing Booker T & the MG’s McLemore Avenue, which is their take on Abbey Road. I bought it last year from iTunes and hadn’t played it since so when I came home I made sure to play it, as well as burn it so some people (maybe you) might get a copy somewhere down the line.

Despite the gray day, overcast skies I’ve been enjoying myself somewhat. Posting a lot onto Facebook. Found a hero and friend to LGBT people in young Will Phillips.

He’s the young man from Arkansas who got into trouble at his school when he refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance sine gay people are not afforded liberty and justice. 10 years old and he recognized that liberty and justice was only for some, not all.

Posted a video from YouTube and commented on his YouTube page. Of course there are the usual wankers who wrote, people will marry their dogs, their children or have many wives. You know, the usual ignorant bullshit.

In a retaliatory move, I posted a clip of Mandy Patakin singing ‘You Have to be Carefully Taught’ from South Pacific on Facebook. I tried posting the video on the YouTube page but was unable so I posted the lyrics instead.

Last night I posted an interview from the Village Voice with Henry Rollins. Ol’ Henry’s a great guy, and quite a few people dug the interview. In the interview it’s mentioned that Henry is friends with RuPaul and will be a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, which is a fun show in itself.

Well according to Joe Jervis of JoeMyGod, that show is on tonight so I will be watching that.

Last night I watched The Pacific, the story of the battles in the Pacific theater of World War II. As I watched it I couldn’t help but think of the men that my father drank with at the VFW when I was growing up.

Like I’ve written previously, I spent a lot of time, perhaps too much time at the VFW. I didn’t mind then and looking back I still don’t mind. Gave me insight on how these men were.

Like how they saw atrocities, perhaps performed atrocities then came home and didn’t really say anything about it. Going to a psychiatrist or psychologist was a sign of weakness.

And don’t forget, men don’t cry.

Which is bullshit.

I know this is a Hollywood version and nowhere near as horrible as it actually was, but it’s a glimpse nonetheless. It was well made and when it was rebroadcast at 11:00 Bill and I watched it together and Bill was blown away as I was earlier.

Will Phillips is my hero!

Will Phillips accepts the award for Outstanding TV Journalism Segment at the 21st Annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York on March 13, 2010. Phillips appeared in the award winning segment “Why Will Won’t Pledge Allegiance” from CNN’s American Morning.

From Rogers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific: Carefully Taught

You’ve got to be taught/To hate and fear,You’ve got to be taught
From year to year,It’s got to be drummed In your dear little ear
You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught to be afraid Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff’rent shade,You’ve got to be carefully taught.

You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late, Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate, You’ve got to be carefully taught!

Bony Moronie

Wow it’s chilly out today. Been in the 30’s most of the day. No way was I going out to play guitar. No way, uh uh, not me. Julio came up last night after seeing Stine and Alexander to the airport. They were en route to Copenhagen where they eventually arrived safely.

Julio was of course feeling lonely, no little guy excited to see him and I’m not the guy excited to see him anymore either. Sure it’s good to see him but it’s not like how it used to be. I told him he was welcome to come up to watch a movie on the provision that he does not criticize the shape of the apartment.

Apparently he has a problem with rectangular apartments, the rail road style even though he lives in almost the same type of apartment. I asked if he had seen Snatch, to which he asked if that was the one with Brad Pitt, where you can’t understand a word he says. It was and he didn’t want to see that again.

He’s always had a problem with seeing a movie more than once, so that meant the Dark Knight was also out of the picture. We agreed on The Lives of Others which takes place in East Berlin in 1984. I had taken it from the library a few weeks ago but wasn’t in the mood for a subtitled movie after all and returned it unwatched.

I have to say it was totally engrossing and an interesting view on East German lives while the wall was up. Bill came home midway through and it was too late for him to get into, plus he was driving a bus to Atlantic City today and had to plan his routes, so he set himself up in the kitchen while Julio and I sat in the darkened media room/living room- room where the couch and the TV are and were both taken by the film.

The film was really quite good and I can’t recommend it enough. Julio also brought up the rest of the Galician wine we had the night before in his apartment and we polished it off. When the movie was over, Julio went home and fell asleep, Bill moved into the now lit media room and continued plotting his course.

Soon he too went to bed, and I went out after not really watching Saturday Night Live to get some money to lend to Bill since he’s broke at the moment. I also chatted on Facebook with a grammar school classmate, Donna who asked if I knew if another classmate had died. Jimmy Murray did overdose a few years ago, from what my brother Brian told me. On August 21, 2011 I heard from another classmate from St. Francis de Sales that Jimmy Murray is still alive.

Brian worked with Jimmy on a job a number of years ago. Jimmy grew up faster than I did, was groping girl’s breasts in 6th grade and probably smoking weed around the same time. After 6th grade he left parochial school and went to public school which was the last I heard of him.

Donna also mentioned another classmate, Steven Bronder also passed away, likely from an overdose as well. When I went to my high school reunion for the first and only time, I ran into another former grammar school classmate Jimmy Bartoli who told me that Steven was a crackhead who was busted for lurking about the elevators in an apartment building across the street from the Lincoln School on Main Street in Lodi.

Donna made overtures about an informal reunion of my grammar school classmates after the holidays which made me think that informal meant that black tie was not required. I told her that it would be in the timing since I was presently unemployed. She remarked her boyfriend was also out of a job.

I also told Donna that I don’t drive, not because of a DUI or DWI or anything like that, just that I got burnt out on driving and after having not driven for over 20 years now, I certainly have no desire to do so again. Having been a pedestrian all these years I see how horrible drivers are these day and plus, I wasn’t that good a driver to begin with.

Donna’s still in Lodi, raising her 2 boys, one is looking at college now. She asked how long Bill and I have been together and yes, it’s been 9 years. She was impressed by that and happy that I was happy. She was OK with my being gay since her older brother was gay as well. I sort of figured that out in 1976 since all her older brother listened to was the soundtrack to A Chorus Line nonstop.

It was a fun chat and it lasted longer than I anticipated. At 1:00 I told her I needed to get ready for bed and thanked her for the chat. It should be nice to see her again. I haven’t seen her or most of our classmates for over 30 years. Maybe that was enough, maybe not. It remains to be seen.

I did have a nice walk around Hoboken today, running from health food store to health food store, pricing Stevia. Decided to forgo the Hoboken Farmboy since they were about $4.00 more. Stopped by the Guitar Boy where Jim Mastro was busy. Just saying hi and took his picture.

Tim, the teenage ace guitarist popped in. His banjo needed new strings. I asked him how many instruments did he play and he wasn’t sure so he rattled off guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo and maybe one or tow others which my older graying mind forgot.

I told him he was an inspiration and I think that made him uncomfortable. I did see him and Lily Mastro playing on video at St Peter’s Prep school and I told him how good it was. Then after wishing him a Merry Christmas I was out of there, to smoke a cigar and wander around Hoboken on my own for a little while.

When I got home, I picked out my suit and polished my shoes for an interview tomorrow morning. It was a decent day today and I hope yours was as well.

What is it?

What is it?

Mister Wonderful Jim Mastro

Mister Wonderful Jim Mastro

from Times Sq 12.2.09- courtesy of Joe Jervis/Joe.My.God.

from Times Sq 12.2.09- courtesy of Joe Jervis/Joe.My.God.