Posts Tagged ‘La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero’

Slip Kid

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

It’s Friday but in this week, at this time of year the days seem to blend into each other and if it weren’t for the TV shows I wouldn’t know if it’s a weekday or a weekend. Well I could look at the new calendar I bought or the watch on my wrist or even my cellphone.

Those are actually better than TV to determine the day since regular viewing has been preempted by end of the year shows or football games named after flora.

Last night, or rather yesterday was pretty good, an excellent way to start out the year. Bill and I just sitting around the apartment alternating between the Twilight Zone marathon and a Looney Tunes marathon.

It was all timed quite nicely, after an episode of the Twilight Zone, we’d watch a 10 minute cartoon, preferably from the 1940′s-50′s. We saw the episode with Jack Klugman and Jonathan Winters in a Billiard Parlor and the Art Carney Santa Claus episode.

Couch surfing didn’t require much interaction with the remote control, I just kept hitting ‘last’ on the device. Yes, we were that lazy. Or at least I was since Bill did put my computer in order once again which was great.

He was planning to head out and catch the 8:30 bus after all that, but when he saw the Bucket List on he stayed and watched it. I watched it too and there wasn’t as much dreck as I expected. It was only slightly cloying.

Bill left after the movie and watching him descend the stairs I had started to miss him. I was going to walk with him to the bus stop but it was 20 degrees outside and I was wearing slippers.

Instead I continued watching the Twilight Zone, finishing up with ‘It’s a Good Life’ featuring Billy Mumy and Cloris Leachman and ‘A Penny for Your Thoughts’ starring Dick York.

‘It’s a Good Life’ was even creepier than I remembered. I guess little Billy Mumy destroyed the rest of the world, saving his hometown for his own amusement.

Went to bed after that. Woke up and puttered around. It sucked not having Bill around. I didn’t even go out to get the papers. Too damn cold out. I made some coffee and read the news online which is what I usually do.

Still I was bored and decided to head into the city and check on the office. As expected there was some mail to deal with, which I dealt with. Had a slice of pizza which was ok and soon I was walking towards the Path train, smoking a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero.

I was wearing Bill’s hat which according to Bill makes me look like a real old school gangster. All that was missing was a violin case. A walk through Hoboken followed. Not too many around just like how it was in Manhattan, only in Hoboken there are very few tourists.

Now I am just hanging out at home, taking it easy. Spoke with Pedro on the phone. I was worried since I had heard from the monkey king in a few days and he almost always calls on New Years Day.

All is well in Otisville and he told me he loved Gran Torino, the new Clint Eastwood movie. I told him I watched a documentary that he recommended called Bigger Faster Stronger about steroid use. Not something I am into but he has flirted with them a few years ago.

It was actually a pretty good documentary, much better than I thought it would be. I do like to look at those bodybuilders and even though there were very few of them in this I still enjoyed it.

It’s mainly about 3 brothers who get into the steroid world, one wants to be in the WWE and even though it seems he won’t make it (too old and not the type they wanted) he still dabbles in steroid use. Really a well made documentary.

And here’s some after party pics from this afternoon….

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Connected

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Happy New year to one and all, excepting spammers and haters. I do get a lot of spam that does not make it to the comments. Usually it’s mostly from Russia and almost always written on gobbledygook. So my good wishes for them are non-existent.

Last night was off to a wobbly start. First off I started drinking around 4:00, hitting the Bushmills which made writing fun. Don’t know if it made reading as enjoyable as writing but it wasn’t my concern last night.

I expected Bill to be home around 6:00 but I didn’t hear from him until around 8:00 by which time I was quite buzzed and hungry and borderline cranky. Still I got my act together and headed out to meet Bill at Arthur’s Steakhouse.

I was a bit annoyed with the fact that Bill never called to let me know what was going on on his end. I got over it as I inhaled my steak and potatoes. I had two pints, Bill couldn’t finish his, he said it tasted funny and I tasted it and it seemed fine. After he ate he felt queasy and ran to the bathroom. Nothing happened but he did feel a bit odd he said.

We headed back home and he promptly lay down for a little a while. I enjoyed my La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero and had some more whiskey. After an hour or so of Beatles Christmas messages I woke Bill up to see if he still wanted to go to Rand and Lisa’s as we had planned.

He said he was even though I did give him a few chances to back out. The walk from Park Avenue to Bloomfield Street was mostly quiet in the bone chilling cold. I was slightly inebriated so I wasn’t feeling much of anything weather-wise.

Made it Chez Rigoux-Hoppe safe and sound and climbed the two flights of stairs to their abode. Lois and Fred as well as John Figueroa and his wife Arianna and their daughter Luna were throughout the apartment.

Lois and Bill

Lois and Bill

Rand was staving off a cold and doing an admirable job at that. Lot’s of snacks and we got there in time to help hand out champagne before the midnight hour. Lot’s a laughs and chit chat ensued. I continued drinking with some Guinness I brought. Bill had another pint for himself.

Rand with his pots and pans at midnight

Ran with his pots and pans at midnight

We all settled down after the clanging of pots and pans on the fire escape and watched the Steven Colbert Christmas Special that I had recorded for myself but let it erase itself on the DVR. Good thing that Rand saved it.

Everyone loved it of course, how could they not. Both Rand and I were somewhat surprised at how agreeable it was for Elvis Costello to dress up as a Jack in the Box as well as other things. I think Elvis had fallen out of favor with Rand as well as myself.

John Fig

John Fig

And the version of What’s So Funny (About Peace, Love and Understanding) with Willie Nelson, Feist, John Legend and Toby Keith as well as a grizzly bear was outstanding.

Gigglepuss and Me

Gigglepuss and Me

The party wound down after that, with everyone heading to their respective homes and leaving Rand and Lisa with the brownies.

El Jefe and Lady Gigglepuss

El Jefe and Lady Gigglepuss

Slept really well, nice to have Bill in bed again. How I missed his snoring. I was up and out on the street at 10:00, getting bagels and newspapers. That was the last of the outside world that I saw for the day. It was enough.

Bill eventually got out of bed and we had a great time together. He even went the distance and finally was able to hook my computer up to the wireless network so once again, I am back on my own computer.

A major accomplishment for which I merely sat on the couch reading and making some hot chocolate. A very nice way to start the new year.

And I once again wish each of you a very Happy New Year!

Me with my La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero for New Years Eve

Me with my La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero for New Years Eve

Bill sleeping off his queasiness

Bill sleeping off his queasiness

New year's Bill

New year's Bill

Cindy Tells Me

Monday, December 22nd, 2008

It’s brutally cold out. No, really, it is. Last night it started to drop, the temperature that is. I watched Into the Wild last night.

It was directed by Sean Penn and starred Emile Hirsch, Catherine Keener and Hal Holbrook with William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as the parents. It was very good and a few times I had to rewind it and watch due to being distracted.

I like Emile Hirsch, he was quite good as Cleve Jones in Gus Van Sant’s film, Milk. It has a sad ending though. A few characters in the movie seem to know where Chris/Alexander (played by Emile Hirsch) is going to end up.

Those were quite touching scenes, especially with Hal Holbrook. It’s recommended if you feel like being bummed out, which I try not to be. I wasn’t expecting a laugh riot though, I sort of knew what I was getting myself into.

Though if I didn’t already see Milk, I probably wouldn’t have made it a point to see Into the Wild.

After that I watched the last hour of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars on VH1 Classics. Not my favorite Bowie period but he certainly put on a show. I know my brother Frank saw him at Radio City on that tour, and so did Chaz and William Charas as well as my friend Jet.

I know 3 out of 4 left that concert changed beings. For me, David Bowie was way too outré for my simple tastes then. Elton John was the one for me. More accessible, more pop.

On Keith Olbermann is a recap of the year, mainly about Obama. It is Olbermann, so it’s the election basically. I’m still upset with the Rick Warren choice, but that’s merely a bump in the road. A mistake no doubt, and a mistake he wouldn’t have made, or at least change but that ain’t gonna happen.

So he’s not the Superman I had on my t-shirt. I still have hope for him and our country. And like the great Bayard Rustin said, “When an individual is protesting society’s refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.” And Bill and I conveyed dignity upon ourselves on Saturday night.

Listening to Obama’s speeches, he is still inspiring. A much better choice than John McCain, that’s for sure.

This morning I woke up late. Too cold to get out of bed. I knew I was going to be late as I puttered about the apartment.

I dressed in layers, which meant a suit and tie with vest. And thermal underwear. I had some rubber soled shoes all ready to go and when I tightened the laces they broke. So I had to find another pair, which weren’t as warm as I had hoped.

My little piggies were freezing when I got to the office at 9:00. No one was in yet, the cold making everyone late.

No bonus this year, no holiday luncheon and that’s fine by me. I’m glad to still have a job.

Still chilly in the apartment right now but it’s getting warmer so I’m not complaining. It would be good if Bill were here, he emits body heat.

I thought I was going to meet Ann Boyles at McSwells tonight, but now it seems like I’ll head out to Glen Ridge, maybe on Friday if that’s alright with them. Ann is supposed to be around until Sunday so that might work out just fine.

Now I have to say hello to Ann Louise Boyles Paterson for bhikkhu and Harpy.

It’s a burden, such a burden, oh what a burden, to be so relied on… That was by Brian Eno.

Ready for the Floor

Sunday, December 21st, 2008

It’s all overcast and gray today. My brother Brian is going to the Giants game tonight, which to me is madness. According to the NY Times, it’s 34 degrees out. Intermittent rain, slush and ice most everywhere.

Not an ideal situation for fun. I doubt if alcohol would make it work. Then again, I don’t really enjoy football (though some of the players I do like to enjoy watching) so no matter what circumstances I probably wouldn’t have a good time.

Bill has never ever been to a professional football game so he probably wouldn’t mind despite the fact that he hates the cold.

I’m watching The Cleaner on cable. It’s a show with Benjamin Bratt as a former junkie/meth head whatever. It’s ok, though a bit annoying with the actors all ‘doing drugs’.

And occasionally they use a split screen for the same shot, which is a foolish attempt to be edgy. I liked Benjamin Bratt on Lawn Hors d’œuvres. Anything else, not so much. I just don’t see him as being as ‘street’ as the role needs but overall it’s dumb. Characters stitched with cliché’.

The sun came out for a little while and I took advantage of it with a stroll to the post office, listening to Hot Chip on the iPod and smoking a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero.

Ran into Eddie Lopez, a former chef at McSwells. He was looking svelte. He always was a good guy, quite nice and agreeable. I’m pretty sure he had a thing for me, something that Julio noticed, which was confirmed after hearing that Eddie and I made out at a wedding years ago.

I barely remember but I guess it’s true. Neither Eddie nor I ever brought it up. Not many people around on the streets this afternoon. It wasn’t that cold out either. It was a balmy 34 degrees, which was quite comfortable.

Other than that, it’s just hanging out at home. Not watching anything in particular. Two days of work this week, which is probably one day of work, meaning 2 half days and that depends on the weather. We may have another snowstorm in this metropolitan area.

I did watch Get Smart earlier. The remake with Steve Carrell. Actually I was on in the next room as I am still on Bill’s Mac. And obviously I have figured out how to post pics like I did on yesterday’s post.

Also I have been communicating with a commenter named JohnsonTech in the Times of Your Life posting. I don’t know who he or she may be but I was sort of reprimanded for thinking Barack Obama was more than he actually is.

Also accused of acting like a teenage girl over something regarding David Archuletta who I looked up online and found that he was on American Idol. When I stated that I don’t watch American Idol I was labeled a sophisticated obscure pretentious art gallery patron, which I thought, was pretty funny. I was never called sophisticated before.

My ignorance of gay pop culture was thrown into question too. Anyone know who this JohnsonTech might be?

This afternoon on Pier A
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Across the Universe

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

A Saturday night and a later posting than usual. It’s after 9:00 and I’m only just getting started. It’s been a busy day for me. Last night wasn’t. Didn’t go to McSwells with a holiday hug for Roda. Way too ugly out, snow, sleet and rain. I was content to stay inside and watch TV.

O & RM again, followed by the second half of the DVD of Stop Making Sense, the live concert film of Talking Heads. Been a while since I saw it and started watching it the other night when Bill was here.

He knew right off the bat that it was Talking Heads, just from looking at David Byrne’s sneakers as he performs Psycho Killer by himself. I had stopped it that night as they were about to do Life During Wartime and that’s where I jumped in again.

Still a great film, they were a great band that will probably never get back together again, which may be a good thing (no pun intended).

After that I did watch the news and the Simpsons following with Scrubs and then I went to bed. Woke up to the sounds of people digging out their cars and shoveling sidewalks. Soon enough I was outside walking past them with trepidation since it was quite icy outside.

Came home after some early errands, walked by Mr. L’s. Tony, my barber was busy with customers and it promised to be a busy day for all concerned in the barbershop. Last weekend before the holiday.

After a few more errands I saw Tony’s chair unoccupied and walked right in. There were a few other guys waiting but they didn’t want Tony’s expertise so I jumped into his chair.

About 45 minutes later he was done, my goatee trimmed nicely, he does a great job of snipping out whatever gray hairs he sees. He doesn’t like gray hairs. His hair is white naturally but every month he dyes it, sometimes magenta, sometimes a reddish brown like today.

He’s about 70 something and lives with his wife in South Hackensack. His son, Nick also cuts hair in the barbershop. I did some laundry at home then had to run out when the wooden clothes rack I use snapped and I lost few rungs. The story of my life.

Bought a new clothes rack as well as a flashlight for the Same Sex Marriage/Anti Rick Warren Rally in Manhattan. Around 4:30 I hopped on the Path train and rode to 33rd street where I was supposed to meet Bill at 5:45. I was there at 5:15 and needed to pee.

Ran into the Manhattan Mall where I found there were no bathrooms due to reconstruction. I had no choice but to go into a pub and have a pint and relieve myself in their facilities.

After the pint I went out and had a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero and waited for Bill who was in great spirits despite the cold. I too was in a good mood and we walked to the staging part of the rally at 35th and Sixth Avenue.

After standing around for a long time in the cold, a few hundred of us chanted and marched up to 42nd st and Seventh Avenue where we chanted some more shone our flashlights and lit our candles and listened and cheered to a succession of speakers.

A good friendly crowd, LGBT people well represented as well as some of our straight supporters. It really made a difference for me, to have Bill at my side marching for equal rights. It made all the difference in the world actually.

He walked me back to the gate at the bus terminal where a bus soon pulled up. We kissed goodbye and he was heading back to Stuyvesant Town as I settled into a seat on the bus and read the New Yorker, which I am practically finished with.

Ran into Chris, who used to be a waitress at McSwells back in the day. She was in the Jersey Journal the other day protesting the 47% tax hike that homeowners in Hoboken received due to the tragic ineptitude of the Mayor, Dave Roberts who basically screwed the Mile Square City raw.

I did see Jim Mastro who told me Ann Boyles will be in town on Monday or Tuesday and we might just meet at McSwells for all those people in Hoboken who would love to see Ann Boyles once again and it will give me a chance to say hello to her on behalf of bhikkhu.

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Dead Flowers

Monday, December 15th, 2008

Wow it certainly has been one of those days. It’s a Monday which makes it perfect for a crap day. It didn’t start out that way and last night wasn’t so bad. Watched TV of course, but didn’t pay much attention.

On MSNBC there was a documentary on the Manson Family which should have been scary and chilling but actually was so so. Manson is still an fucking asshole. Shouldn’t he have died already? Then after that I watched the news which was boring.

It was just a boring night. Read some parts of a Beatles bio which was a welcome distraction from the humdrum even if I do know the story inside and out.

Lot’s of footage of Bush under attack from a pair of shoes thrown by a justifiably angry Iraqi journalist. Lot’s of discussions on that online today. Some angry about it, some feel it’s justified.

Not like the shoes hit Bush anyway. And he was able to make jokes about it. I feel Bush should do a walk of shame when he leaves the White House in January. Not that he feels any shame about the damage he has done.

I’m almost finished with The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Still makes me angry but now that I’m near the end, it’s almost hopeful. I highly recommend it.

Heard from Roda who told me about the McSwells holiday party tonight. I’m not in the mood and plus it’s an awkward thing, being there with employees that I don’t know and have disdain for people that don’t work there. I guess that might be how it used to be when I worked there. I told him thanks but no thanks.

Also heard from my brother Frank who was surprised I didn’t think Saturday Night Live was as funny as he thought. He also liked Kanye West which was weird. He was surprised that I didn’t like him or the show but then again there wasn’t much that I liked today.

I heard from Casey Chasm via email. He was just checking in to see how Bill and I were doing. Comme ci Comme ca basically is what I told him.

Work was crazy and once again no one communicates with each other, nor do they communicate with me, which is what they’re supposed to do.

It was in the 60-degree temperature range today which made for a sweaty errand. I needed to get milk and whatnot for the office. Of course as I come in all sweaty, Tom Chin appears needing my attention in his office.

I didn’t even take my coat off and left the groceries in the bag on the floor as he proceeds to ask me questions about last week. He was out Thursday and Friday and I was out Wednesday which made Tuesday the last time we saw each other.

He was being a jerk and Vivek was almost as bad. They both thought I was out today and Vivek had no idea that I am generally in the office by 8:30 every day.

His silent partner who really isn’t so silent had asked me 2 weeks ago to get some business cards made. Of course there was a glitch and instead of me running back and forth on the phone with the printer and the not so Silent Partner I gave them both each others numbers so they could hash it out.

Did they? No. And when does he need his cards? Tomorrow. The printer says he can do it by 4PM tomorrow, the not so Silent Partner says he needs them by 3PM.

And of course I’m supposed to book the conference rooms and a few weeks ago I printed a memo telling people if they need a conference room to contact me. Do they? Some do, most don’t.

So when a room is booked, another group has decided to take it forcing the group that booked it to find another conference room. So I have to go in and kick people out.

On the plus side, I did get to see Bill for about 15 minutes after work. I mentioned that we should have lunch some time and he agreed. We didn’t say when though. We stood in the balmy evening rush hour, me smoking a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero which was bigger than I anticipated and would take longer to finish. Hanging out with Bill helped that out.

He was worried about my state of mind after work and he starting to get my modus operandi. I told him years ago that both Pedro and Julio know that if they ask me what’s wrong and I say “nothing“, if they wait 10 minutes they’d hear all about it.

And so with Bill, after asking me how I was doing and me saying, I don’t want to talk about it, ten minutes later I was telling him all about it. Apparently he has days like mine all the time.

Just saw that the wonderful Pat Longo is DJing at the McSwells holiday party and for an instant I thought that I would like to go. Then I realized that I was home and didn’t want to deal with anyone at all.

One more thing…I brought my camera to work, thinking that I would simply upload the pics that I’ve taken the past week or so, but couldn’t upload anything due to Word Press, the program I use to post this blog. So blame them, you know I do.

Oh, I’ve taken to commenting on the comments with each comment, much like they do in magazines. In case you haven’t noticed.

Like tonight! Thanks to bhikkhu.