Tag Archives: Computer

Daft Punk is Playing at My House

Well I am back on my own computer, thanks to the good graces of Rand. He texted me around 1:15, suggesting I bring my computer over so at around 2:00 I did just that.

It was a nice visit with Rand and Lisa. Lisa spent most of the time caulking the bathtub which is another thing I should do. Rand hooked up my computer and after some razzle dazzle it was up and running once again.

We also listened to Daft Punk, and Goldfrapp as well as a Chemical Brothers compilation. I’ve known Rand since about 1982 I think. Or 1983.

I do know I spent New Years Eve with Rand and assorted other friends and woke up to watch Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel on a Nam June Paik special on PBS for that 1984 New Years Day. Woke up on the floor of Rand’s sisters apartment on Willow Avenue.

One of my first DJ experiences was that New Years Eve at Lois, Martha and Jane’s apartment on Garden Street. I first met Rand when I was driving for HBJ, from the warehouse in Saddle Brook NJ to the offices at 757 Third Avenue.

My job was to distribute interoffice mail and as I walked on the office floor I saw two guys about 100 feet away from me, acting like I did, or do. It turned out to be Rand and Jose who had just graduated from Colgate University a few months before.

Wound up having a conversation with them and when I found out they lived in Hoboken our fates were sealed. I had been going to McSwells and asked if they did too. They said they did every now and then but I think after our meeting they wound up going more often.

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

As we got to know each other, Rand and I would drive into the city. I would do whatever it was I had to do at 757 Third Avenue, and then head down to St. Mark’s Place where we would visit St. Mark’s Sounds and St. Mark’s Comics directly across the street.

I had commercial plates by then and would park on the street with no problem. Before I had the commercial plates we would drive through Central Park, listening to music and getting red eyed. Many laughs would ensue of course which cannot be remembered all these years later.

Rand and Lisa make an excellent couple. A nice balance between the two. Lisa is Lady Gigglepuss to Rand’s El Jefe. That’s what I used to call them when I wrote about them in a previous entry on an old web page of Rand’s. That’s how that started.

And I am indebted to Rand for fixing my computer in just a few hours, all the while being as entertaining as he could be as well as getting the inspiration to caulk my bathtub.

Tonight I’m going to McSwells, have a drink with Rand hopefully, as well as Meghan and also seeing my brother Frank before he goes in to see the Feelies. And Bill might join us too!

Of course, thanks to Bill for letting me use his Mac while my computer was on the fritz.

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Computer World

Jeez, I have a blank page in front of me, and nothing to write about. I never really have anything to write about, just my day which is tedious. Can’t say if it’s entertaining though on occasion I have gone back and read thing’s that I’ve written and found what I had written enjoyable.

That’s something that I never used to be able to do. I would write and immediately put it away. Editing was something I was totally unfamiliar with. And I would write in various states of mind. Sometimes drunk, sitting at the bar at McSwells and checking ID’s. Instead of me standing by the door, I was situated at the end, next to the brick wall.

I would get more than drunk sometimes and would wind up at someone’s apartment trying to be the DJ. I have several notebooks filled with drunken observations about the people drinking around me. Those are too strange to go back and read.

Still I have them in the closet. Perhaps one of these days I’ll use one of the entries after I tidy it up for public consumption. All for $50.00 and a burger. Oh and Guinness. Actually I think I was drinking mimosas. A pint of cheap champagne and just a dash of orange juice to give it color.

I don’t think I started drinking Guinness until I moved to Weehawken.

I was thinking today, yes I know, how’d that happen? But there I was thinking about the fact that I have been online for about 10 years. Roger Johansen lent me his Mac book and I just plugged in and immediately started surfing.

The first time I went anywhere really, was to Gay.com. I just went to the browser and typed in Gay.com. It was a different site than it is now and I did wind up spending a few years there. I made some friends and met a couple, the only one that I connected with was Juan, but not 10 years ago. I didn’t meet Juan online until about 4 years ago.

I think I took to the Internet naturally and couldn’t understand why people would take courses to lean how to surf the net. There was a point in the 1990’s when my then downstairs neighbor knew of some office computers that were being sold for $30.00.

Those weren’t as user friendly as the computers around today. Only a black screen with green fonts and the only communication was through a BBS, on which I offended some queen down the Jersey shore when the night before the Fourth of July I wished the group a happy co-dependence day.

Soon Harpy gave me my first computer actually, his used Packard Bell which was fun and did the job. Rand and I drove up to LaGrangeville in Rand’s hatchback one morning and of course Rand fixed it all up for someone like me.

I’m still grateful and plan on taking Rand and Lisa as well as Bill to dinner. I got a nice gift card for a few restaurants in Manhattan and would like to use it. An adult dinner, something that one gets dressed up for. That’s the plan.