Tag Archives: Dave Bell

Black and White

Just got home a little later than usual. Stopped by Lovely Rita’s apartment and dropped off about 40 copies of her resume. I was there for an hour, just drinking diet Sprite and chatting. She has a cute little dog named Lulu.

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I had never met Lulu before, I’m usually standoffish around small dogs but Lulu was adorable and a perfect companion for Lovely Rita. After some quick catching up I had to head back to Hoboken. Lovely Rita and I made plans to check out some art galleries this Saturday, weather permitting.

I’ve known Rita for about 26 years. Her brother Rich was friends with my brother Frank. Somehow we met each other and got along great. We formed a band in the early part of that decade, called ourselves The Nift. Why the Nift? I don’t know. I named it, it’s merely a nonsense word.

Rita’s then sister in law Loren played guitar along with me, Rita played bass and Dave Bell, a friend of my brother Brian and myself played drums. We wrote maybe two songs, and rehearsed in Hoboken which was the best location. I was living in Lodi, Dave was in Wood Ridge, Loren was married to Rich and living in Newark and Rita lived in Chelsea.

We were all very much in love with the then vibrant music scene at McSwells We were big Bongos fans and we all liked the dB’s and fancied ourselves playing songs like theirs, though we weren’t as technically adept at our instruments. Dave was probably the best musician out of all of us.

Dave and I once cornered Peter Holsapple on the Path train and talked up The Nift to him. Unfortunately, he was in his heavy drinking phase and though offered words of encouragement to us, nothing ever came of it. We never played outside the rehearsal room.

Our repertoire was Anytime At All by the Beatles, Oh Boy by Buddy Holly, a song that I wrote the music for and Loren wrote the lyrics and a song that was more than likely about some guy that Rita went to high school, with, some guy named John Genzale.

You might know him by his later name, Johnny Thunders. I met Johnny Thunders through Rita when Johnny played a show at McSwells towards the end of his short life, it was fun to see Rita messing around with an old school chum who happened to be Johnny Thunders.

It was quite windy out and Rita, Lulu and I were going to walk halfway to the bus terminal but there’s a lot of construction going on in Rita’s present neighborhood and rather than fray Rita and Lulu’s nerves with the wind making loud noises on the construction sites, I insisted they go back home.

She really appreciated the resume copying and I was very glad I could help. I would have stayed longer but I needed to get some groceries since my cupboard was bare. Thursday night is still somewhat cruisy at the supermarket but as usual I was oblivious.

I saw the same guy who works there that Juan had a fling with a few years ago. I never have the nerve to say something like, ‘Juan says hello’. I think he’s a closeted fellow and might freak out. I just glance and think to myself, ‘I know what you like…’

On the work front, Vivek and his partner got on their plane to Pensacola, no complaints, at least so far. The right wing trading desk subtenants have taken to watching Fucks Business Channel, which had a speech the President was making.

The crowd loved Obama, even though it was a group that didn’t vote for him. One of the right wingnuts made a comment that it sounded like a high school pep rally.

He said it in a derogatory way to which I just had to mention that it wasn’t a pre-screened crowd like BushCo used to have at their rallies. It actually shut them up. I think they were used to having their outbursts go unchallenged.

Well not anymore.

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Learn to Learn

Ahh… just woke up from an hour long nap. It was well deserved after walking basically the length of Hoboken. Not the width mind you, just the length, which was enough. I wandered up to the Burlington Coat Factory and bought a new tie (pink) and some undershirts.

Nice cotton shirts by Nautica, I’ve been buying them up whenever possible. Very comfortable, thick cotton, not thin like Fruit of the Loom. Alas when getting jazzy a few weeks ago, a crumb burnt a hole in a shirt I was wearing so it needed to be replaced since that t-shirt is now a rag.

I’m also on the look out for microfiber boxer briefs so if anyone sees them on sale somewhere let me know. Also quite comfortable, I find microfiber more agreeable than mere cotton. I’m just saying.

It wasn’t as cold out as it was yesterday but there were not too many people out wandering about in Hoboken. I enjoyed a cigar after walking from Burlington to the main post office to drop off The Dark Knight DVD from Netflix.

I watched The Dark Knight last night and yes it was very good. Heath Ledger was great in it, actually he was the best thing in it. Definitely the best Batman movie, ever. Miles ahead of Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson which in hindsight looks like a crap movie almost 20 years later.

After that I watched Saturday Night Live which overall was sub par. Hugh Laurie was ok, the sketches were iffy, the digital short was lame and Kanye West sucked big time. It was disappointing about Kanye since he usually is quite a dynamic performer.

Off to bed after that and today was all about walking around Hoboken. Saw Julio, Stine and Superboy for a spell this morning. I did hang out with Julio for a few minutes last night. Stine was with the baby at Julio’s cousin’s house and I ran into him on Washington Street.

We had a seasonal shot of Aquavit. Obviously so much has changed for him in the past 9 months so I can’t really say it was like old times, more like a close approximation which was still good. The three of them are flying to Denmark on Wednesday and won’t be back until the first Monday in January.

I talked to Rita a couple of times today. An old friend of ours, who is also a friend of my brother Brian got in touch with me via Facebook, Dave Bell. I became Dave’s Facebook friend and told him of the plan for Rita and I to go gallery hopping on Friday and invited him to join us.

Dave couldn’t make it but suggested having dinner during the holiday break. So I called Rita and she was into it, so we just have to wait on Dave. Again. That was what we used to do. It should be good to meet up with Dave & Rita after all these years.

Back to work tomorrow, have to un-forward my phone from the fax machine. It was a deterrent for the Korean stalker to stop filling my voice mail with her screaming and crying and pleas for marriage.

Got my clothes all picked out, including the pink tie.

From the Daily News/Associated Press:
An Ecuadorean immigrant viciously beaten by men who yelled anti-Hispanic and anti-gay slurs at him and his brother has died, nearly a week after the attack, a family spokesman said Saturday.

Jose Sucuzhanay died late Friday at Elmurst Hospital as his mother was en route from Ecuador to see him, spokesman Francisco Moya said. Sucuzhanay, a 31-year-old real estate broker, had been listed in critical condition since the assault early on Dec. 7.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2008/12/13/2008-12-13_victim_in_hate_assault_jose_sucuzhanay_h.html