Posts Tagged ‘Casey Chasm’

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I Can Help Too

Friday, June 24th, 2011

LATE BREAKING NEWS: Marriage Equality comes to New York State! The same-sex marriage bill was approved on a 33-to-29 vote.

It’s a Friday and everyone seems to be in a good, if not decent mood. And it was fairly busy at the cigar shack. Two special guest stars came in one was Casey Chasm who I hadn’t seen in a year or so. Good to see him, he was with a friend named Parik.

Casey looked good, clean shaven since the army frowns upon beards and whatnot. He’s probably going off to Afghanistan in a few months to do his Judge Advocate General routine. Luckily that doesn’t require being in the front, but still I worry.

And if I worry I can only imagine how Mrs. Chasm is feeling. And she now has 2 babies to look after, 2 girls named Annie and Clara. Casey wasn’t able to stay long, I was just one stop on his visit to Manhattan, he had a few other people to reconnect with. I was able to purchase a cigar for him as well as giving him a free cigar which was part of the promotion going on today.

And that promotion was what made the store extra busy. Quite a number of regulars and guys that hadn’t been seen in a while hanging out in the man cave smoking up a storm. The other special guest was Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam. He was in the other day and today he came back to buy some more items for his manager.

I don’t think Eddie Vedder is a cigar smoker but his manager seems to be, enough so to warrant a second visit. He was nice and trying to be incognito which explains the lack of photographs. I would be more impressed but I can’t say that I am much of a fan of Pearl Jam.

I spent my lunch hour once again on a bench near Central Park, smoking a cigar and reading Michael Azzerad’s entry on Mission of Burma. I totally missed out on seeing them, but did have Academy Fight Song which could be their most famous song.

Another story about a band too far ahead of their time. I did see a spin off band of Mission of Burma called Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. Almost as noisy and dissonant as Burma and I am pretty sure I saw them at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC with Jet during one of my sojourns down to the nation’s capital.

Bill is driving to Atlantic City tonight as well as tomorrow night so chances are I won’t be seeing him until Sunday which happens to be my next day off. He’s been busy at work lately so my occasional phone call with him has been a bit intense.

It’s all good, but today he was talking so fast that I could barely understand him and even though I asked him to repeat himself twice I wound up missing the gist of what he was saying. I told him so later which got a laugh. Just treading water now, it’s killing time. And now I am home and happy to be here.




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I Really Don’t Want To Know

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011

Today is Tuesday which means yesterday was Monday and tomorrow is Wednesday. And it was another day off for me. The next day off will be Sunday and the following Sunday I will be expected at the cigar shack to work inventory at the unholy hour of 7:00AM. But that’s then and not now so I am trying not to think about that.

Lately I have been getting messages from former customers at the cigar shack, asking me how I’m doing. They’re not coming to the cigar shack anymore, instead going to different cigar shops in Manhattan that have lounges. When I had that slurred meeting with Marcus & Calvin, I mentioned the name of one of the cigar shops, calling them our competition.

Marcus was adamant in saying that such and such a place was not our competition. No of course it wouldn’t be if you consider yourself the tobacco equivalent of Hermes or Louis Vuitton. Of course those are actual stores not a boutique that is shoe horned in between a pricey store to buy boots and belts and an eyeglass shop.

Today was a decent day, I did some laundry, ran some errands. A trip to the bibliothèque was in order, returning DVD’s. Last night I watched Annie Hall. I saw that in the cinema, at the Century Theater with my sister.

We made it a point back then to see Woody Allen movies together, starting with Sleeper, Love and Death, Annie Hall, Interiors and Manhattan. Manhattan we saw at the dollar theaters, possibly in Ridgefield Park or Leonia.

We’d travel for a cheap movie. I remember getting weepy at the end of Manhattan when Mariel Hemingway was telling Woody Allen to remember she was only going away for 6 months.

Annie Hall was great to watch last night and I was glad they included the subtitles, showing what Annie and Alvy were thinking when they were having wine on the terrace of Annie’s overpriced ($400.00!) apartment in midtown. With a terrace.

Harpy called in the last 20 minutes so the Los Angeles scenes were not seen, no Alvy crashing his car in the parking lot, no driving through plutonium and no play based on Annie and Alvy’s relationship. Still it was good to hear from Harpy, he calls so infrequently these days.

Bill came home from his writer’s workshop and he helped me out with my leg which had been causing me some discomfort the past couple of days. He helped me stretch it out somewhat as I lay on the floor, Bill holding my foot as my leg was fully extended and helped pull it back to me. It helped quite a bit, and so did the ibuprofen.

I slept really well last night and woke up early enough this morning to catch the Today show which I turned on before stepping into the shower. I need a shave, haven’t shaved since last week and the hair that is popping up is white. If I don’t do something I run the risk of looking like that idiot John Bolton.

The resumes continue going out and I received a call back an hour or so ago while I was in the supermarket. I completed the call once outside with the sounds of buses and other traffic going by. It seemed to have gone well and a meeting is scheduled on Friday morning.

I should be attending that before heading into the cigar shop that day. I also spoke with Casey Chasm who commented last night, mentioning that his phone was destroyed in training. It was a nice brief chat, Mrs. Chasm is due to deliver another child in May and then Casey is off to Afghanistan. I’m sure he’ll be alright.



New Order – Fine Time

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The Telephone Always Rings

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

Oh it’s been a big blue sky today. After the past couple of days of gray and rain, it certainly is nice to be out and about in sunlight. I made it a point to go out and walked over by the river, by Pier A and checked out things.

Lot’s of people out and about. The unemployed, the dog walkers, the stroller set, the runners & joggers and the employed out for their lunch break. I made my way up there after stopping by the Multi Service Center on Grand Street in Hoboken to pick up the papers from last week’s civil union thing.

I was told to look over to see if the info was correct and it was except for them having Bill’s birthday as June 26 instead on the 29th. If I didn’t catch that I would have been marrying a fraud and you know that would just be so wrong. What’s the point of having second class marital status if it’s a sham?

Such a depressing place to work, but it’s a job and I suppose it’s what you make of it, so who am I to talk? I ran into 2 Irish gents who were wandering around Hoboken looking for Piccolo’s, which is a cheese steak sandwich shop where they play all Sinatra, all the time.

I hadn’t been there since the 1980′s but I did give them the proper directions which the Hoboken natives sitting around outside the center were unable to do. I wished them well saying ‘Good luck Lads’ even though they were considerably older than me.

I saw Jim Mastro once again, annoyed the hell out of him I’m sure. We discussed a unique guitar that I saw the other day, not that I want to for myself but I had never seen a guitar like that before. It’s a Hanson Guitar, and it looks cool.

large-HansonCigno

Jim said he plays one, but I have yet to hear it for myself.

Then I wandered up to Pier A and took some snapshots, before walking over to Sinatra Park where I sat and read in Mojo magazine, articles about Judy Collins, Serge Gainsbourg and Roky Erickson and the 13th Floor Elevators.

I took plenty of pictures mainly through the cellphone which get uploaded to Facebook almost immediately, or as long as it takes to go from my phone to the satellite. Came home, read emails, read the New Yorker from weeks ago and spoke on the phone with Juan who was hilarious.

He may be up in this area on Saturday so it might be nice to see him. Also heard from Casey Chasm who wished Bill and myself ‘mazel-tov’ on our marriage. I had to correct him and thank him at the same time, telling him that it was just a civil union, not a marriage. Yet.

Last night, or rather this morning I had a dream that my brother Brian was singing at Lincoln Center. Annemarie flew in for it, a lot of relatives and friends were around. I was living in Lodi and could not get a ride to Lincoln Center.

I walked down to Route 80 and tired to hitchhike to no avail. Tried to get a ride on a coach bus but the driver wasn’t paying attention and smashed into a tree by the VFW Circle on Saddle River Road. I wound up yelling at everyone at the Saddle Brook Howard Johnson’s and in so doing I woke up angry.

Not the best way to start the day, upset at imaginary situations but some coffee and the beautiful day took care of all that.

3.16.10 Hoboken 002
3.16.10 Hoboken 008
3.16.10 Hoboken Rooftoppers 014

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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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Piggies

Monday, October 26th, 2009

It’s Monday. Back to work for some, not for me though. I wouldn’t mind working. I wouldn’t mind winning the lottery either.

Today was more resumes sent out and no replies in return. That seems to be the way things are lately. Sent a few out this weekend too. Nothing.

Instead of hanging around all day inside I decided to go out and walk around Hoboken again. On the walk I got a phone call from Casey Chasm. He’s doing well, not much has changed since I last spoke to him yesterday.

He said he was staring at his baby in wonderment. Nice to hear. He also said, what he’s said to me before, that Bill and I should have a kid. Adopt, get a surrogate. So strong is his belief that I would make a good dad that, that was the premise of his call this afternoon.

Never mind the fact that I don’t want any kids and I do not think I would be a good dad. The financial situation that I am in would make having a baby or a toddler or whatever an insane idea.

It’s nice that Casey thinks otherwise, but ultimately my take on the situation is no fucking way. That was one of the good things about being gay by the way. No getting drafted into the army, no kids, no marriage.

I can’t say that Bill and I will get married, the subject has never come up. But I do think if a same sex couple wants to tie the knot, then why not? It will have no effect whatsoever on those who are already married.

Unfortunately, enlightened thinking like that isn’t as accepted as I would have hoped.

Witness what is going on in Maine. What is going on in DC. What is going on in California. Massachusetts. How the religious right are mobilizing to fight the Iowa Supreme Court ruling that was in favor of same sex marriage.

Earlier this year, that is just what their Supreme Court ruled and not one bad thing happened. But that doesn’t stop pigs like Maggie Gallagher and her pet monkey Brian Brown from spreading lies and disinformation just so they can continue to draw a paycheck through contributions made from easily frightened and mislead people.

You know, the Fuck Snooze audience.

In Maine, catholic churches are being closed down after being open for over one hundred years. The church’s reaction? To fund the movement to revoke the rights of same sex couples with over $150,000. Some how they found the money to do that.

Benny Ratzi, aka the pope, just opened the doors of the church to disgruntled Anglicans who are upset with women priests and gay priests in the Anglican community.

Not enough hatred and loathing for you? Come to Rome, where they’ve been hating people for a long time. Married priests? Not a problem!

Perhaps it’s a good thing these catholic churches are closing. Maybe it’s just the first in the line of the domino theory coming to pass.

And they’re mobilizing to ‘protect marriage’ in NJ now as well.

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If Wishes Were Horses

Friday, September 4th, 2009

Today has been a more productive day than yesterday. I did the laundry, trying to do the wash while Bill got ready for his bus ride. Timing was a bit off, he needed to shower in between my white and color clothes cycles.

Soon he was off to hit the road, leaving me with the laundry hanging in the bathroom. Last night was a quiet night. Bill and I watched Let the Right One In, a Swedish vampire movie.

I would have preferred subtitles to the terrible dubbing. Casey Chasm said it was really good, but it was OK. Chris Repella, formerly of McSwells recommended it as well. Perhaps it was too much hype, leaving me somewhat whelmed.

Bill thought it would have been gruesome but it wasn’t really. I’d watch it again if it wasn’t dubbed. Casey Chasm was right last week about the ‘fuckitall’ though. Made a difference today.

Last night I did go out for a short walk and ran into another former McSwells employee, Larry Heineman. Larry has been the musical director of the Blue Men Group since the beginning.

It was a good talk, Larry telling me about his world travels and asking about various people from our mutual past. It was just a quick chat on the sidewalk, but I left feeling that Larry recognized me and seemed happy to see me, but didn’t know my name.

The reason I had gone out was that there was nothing in the apartment for Bill to eat so I offered to pick up his usual Subway sandwich. I called him from the store and he proceeded to tell me what he wanted on his sandwich.

Within a few seconds the guys behind the counter knew who I was talking to on the phone since Bill always gets the same thing several days a week. He greets them with a ‘Namaste’ and that’s how they refer to him. ‘Namaste’ means ‘Blessing’ in Hindi.

And with a Namaste from myself I was out the door, which is when I ran into Larry, who’s wife is named Nancy but I always think it’s Marianne.

Stayed up and watched TV with Bill. Billy Crystal and John Fogerty were the guests. After that I went to bed, leaving Bill to prepare for his bus drive today.

This morning I was up and out early enough to run some errands. It was weird though. It seemed most everywhere I went there was someone sneezing without covering their mouths. It was disgusting.

All within about 20 minutes. And with all the news about N1H1 Swine Flu it was alarming. At the supermarket, the cashier kept cleaning her hands with Purell. I told her to go easy on the Purell since it can reduce the body’s natural immune system.

She asked me how I knew that and I simply told her science.

Speaking of science, I read a terribly sad and infuriating article in the New Yorker about how the state of Texas executed an innocent man. The state said he committed arson, ultimately killing his 3 children.

He swore he was innocent and after years of appeals and pleas for clemency he was put to death by lethal injection.

The state of Texas rejected the scientific process that deduced how the fire started and spread in favor of folklore and 19th century thinking. So terribly sad.

What good is a death penalty when the risk of killing an innocent man can occur?

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