Posts Tagged ‘Lost’

Day After Day

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Well a week from today I will start working for the Symbionese Liberation Army. I’m understandably nervous. Tomorrow I am going in to see Cinque who has some paperwork for me to fill out and also a photo session of me wearing a beret and standing in front of a poster of the Hydra.

I’m sure there is really nothing to be nervous about, I’ve worked retail before. There are some routine things to do when opening up the store, things that I’m sure I’ve done before. I will find out more tomorrow.

Last night I didn’t do much of anything. I made sure Lawn Hors d’œuvre was being recorded for Bill, but Bill had set the timer beforehand. And Sure enough, just as the show was starting Bill walked through the door, saying it was a coincidence that he was home just as it was starting.

Yeah, right.

Whatever he wants to believe but I have a pretty good idea that Bill hustled to get home in time. It was a good episode, the series finale. It really did not seem to be a good idea to pull the plug on it when if they had one more year they would have broken the Gunsmoke record for longest running show.

But that’s the way they did things. And the Lieutenant got a positive message from her oncologist at the end.

I spoke with Harpy a little while ago. He loved the Lost finale whereas I loved all of it except for the last 5 minutes. Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?

And I could not help but think of Mary Provost when Vincent appeared in Jack’s last moments. It’s the natural order of things. Sooner or later that smell of blood will overcome the Labrador’s hunger pangs.

What else is going on? I’m not participating in whatever performance will be taking place in Hamilton NY like I was asked months ago. It was the impetus for my playing guitar every day. But even though I think I’ve gotten better on guitar, there will be no performance.

I sort of found that out the other day when I decided to talk to one of the friends that was really bumming me out and making me feel resentful. This friend kept making plans for me to act in a movie, or lend my voice for a voice over or perhaps even join me when I would play by the river.

All three situations, I made myself available. Things fell apart on their end and I did not appreciate not hearing about it, just basically leaving me twisting in the wind.

And so goes the performance in Hamilton. No Art Hams reunion. C’est la vie. I’m just glad I practiced.

Today being a gorgeous day, I went out to the Pier A area with my guitar and strummed for about 3 hours. I have about 10 songs under my belt that I know inside out, though singing those songs is a different story.

Like I’ve written before, when I’m alone (and I’m alone 99.9% of the time) I just strum and do not sing. If Tariq is there I sing, if Rand is there I sing. But solo, no singing.

The plan was to strum and perhaps even busk, once I was good enough, in the vicinity of Central Park. Now with the weather getting to be splendid, I won’t be doing that. Or maybe I will on my days off.

At this moment, 18:56 on May 25 2010 it doesn’t seem likely but then again, anything is possible. Last autumn, it was that kid Tim that lit the spark and got me outside with the guitar, perhaps there will be someone else to inspire me once again.
NJ Governor Chris Christie: "Where's my CAKE?"
NJ Governor Chris Christie: ‘WHERE’S MY CAKE?’

Day-O (Banana Boat Song)

Monday, May 24th, 2010

The day after. The first day of the week. As Bill put it last night, my last week of freedom. Oh I hated to hear that, but then again it wasn’t like it was a sweet freedom. Nae, far from it.

Stress upon stress and the occasional depression. And working at the Scientology Center seems like the way to go. Got my E-Meter all set and I have the Dianetics book and audio book.

I played guitar for about an hour or so before it got drizzly. Tariq stopped by, he was on his way back to his studio. He hung out after playing a song for a young hottie from the Wiley building. The song was Staind. Or by Staind. I don’t know. He did a good job of it though.

After young hottie moved on Tariq asked me to play some songs so I did. Each time I finished one he would ask for another. We wound up leaving together, I left him at 7 Star Pizza as I walked around the park instead of through it. Too many kids just out of school.

HERE BE SPOILERS.
Last night was the Lost finale. I am of two minds of the show. There were some truly touching scenes, tear inducing segments. Jin & Sun, Charlie & Claire, Sayid & Shannon. Juliet & Sawyer was the reunion that gt me misty as well as having me applaud at the commercial break. The separation of the two of them was truly heartbreaking and it was so emotional when they met again.

I think it was even more resonant than Jack & Kate. Their sad farewell on the cliffs was quite nice, better than their own reunion in the alternate universe.

The look on Jin & Sun’s faces when Sawyer walked into the hospital room was humorous. The best though was definitely Jack & Hugo. The anguish of Hugo when he realized that he would probably never see Jack again was so sad.

The bond, the love between them for each other was palpable. And even the scene between Hugo & Ben was nice, in both universes, sadder outside the hall. Ben staying outside, Hugo going back in. With all the shit Ben threw on the Lost people, there’s no way they could justify having Ben in there, even though Ben had a few changes of heart the past season.

The score reminded me of Lord of the Rings, specifically the ending of Return of the King. Maybe that’s just me, but it seemed quite similar though the emotions the music conjures were certainly very close.

I read on JoeMyGod, a comment that mentioned it was 6 seasons of Our Town. For me, it was An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, the longest nano-second. Chris Stein of Blondie wrote on Facebook that it was a cop out, using The Sixth Sense plot line.

Did anyone notice Sawyer & Miles on the plane, when Sawyer boarded as they were escaping the island?

Miles: Way to wait till the last second.
Sawyer: Good to see you too Enos.

Sawyer called Miles, Enos in the alternate universe and as far as I know on the island life, Miles was always Miles.

With all the good performances from the cast, the ending was rather flat. I would give the acting an ‘A’, but overall it gets dragged down to a ‘B’ with the ending.

I’ve seen it twice and I appreciated it a little bit more today than I did yesterday but then again once again I was moved by the performances.

I never saw Star Trek: generations but it was remarked that Locke’s death resembled Kirk’s passing. I will have to ask Bill about that.

What did you all think?
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SO, when does the movie come out?

Your Blue Room

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Well here we are again. May 12. Not my favorite day. A gloomy day and the battleship gray sky adds to it. I’m in a better mood than I was yesterday though. No hangover you see.

Also just saw Julio, Stine & Alexander for a few minutes. Stine texted me about some meatballs she just made and I stopped by to get them. Alexander is definitely going for the laughs, imitating his father’s eye movements.

He noticed my laughing a few weeks ago and knows he’ll get me laughing again. And he did. He also calls my name to get my attention. And he did.

He got a toddler scooter for his birthday and was showing me how he skates on it. He also got a tricycle which was out in the hallway. Both were presents from his grandparents. I came upstairs and ate everything.

Been quite cool lately, I think the highest the temperature has been for the past few days is 50 degrees. I did take the guitar out yesterday and played by the river for about an hour but that didn’t last long. Too cold and damp.

Today I mainly stayed inside and did laundry. I also watched Where The Wild Things are which left me merely whelmed. I mean, the puppets or rather muppets were good, but they probably should have gone with the voices of unknown actors.

Hearing James Gandolfini, Catherine O’Hara and Lauren Ambrose et al made me think of Gandolfini, O’Hara and Ambrose et al.

I returned it to the bibliothèque and got in return, Gomorrah, the Italian film about the mob. It’s supposed to be very good and I am happy to disprove the fact that Americans are watching less and less foreign films these days.

I’m not going to watch it tonight though. Wednesday nights, I’ve been watching Modern Family and Cougartown. Last night I watched Lost which was good. The story of Jacob and his twin brother, who’s name we were never told.

Allison Janey played their mother, or rather the woman who raised them. It was a fast hour which left some questions. Only two episodes left, next Tuesday and then the three and a half hour finale on May 23rd. I was invited to Rand and Lisa’s to watch the finale which I may do.

Tomorrow I am going to the Barclay Rex store in the midtown Manhattan. Barclay Rex is a high end cigar store and I used to go there when I was working for Wanker Banker. Nice place to get away from the inhuman cauldron sisters, Maggie Angelakos and Helen Alexandre.

I was there around the holidays and inquired about employment. One of the sales people suggested I send my resume to the manager Megan, so I did. The manager got in touch with me via email, saying that she was busy but will get back to me soon enough.

Last week, her assistant Clara sent me an email, wanting to meet with me but making sure that I knew that it wasn’t an interview. So tomorrow I’m meeting Clara to discuss why I would want to work in a high end cigar shop. I have a few ideas on what to tell her, being fairly knowledgeable about cigars and whatnot.

So that’s what’s happening tomorrow. It’s a lead and the first thing I’ve had since that other interview a few weeks ago. I thought that went well but haven’t heard from them since so I guess that’s not happening.

Working in a cigar shop sounds good to me though. I am sure I will tell you all about it tomorrow, after it happens. There’s always the Susquehanna Investment Group I suppose.


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Battleship Gray Skies

Battleship Gray Skies

Keep on Moving

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Well so far it’s been a sad week for television and I’m not even talking about the reporting on the oil spill which continues to this day. Drill? What the fuck? It’s nothing but bad news on that front anyhow.

I wrote about The Pacific the other day, which was mainly about John Basilone and his last days on this plane of existence.

SPOILER ALERT! Last night’s sad thing was Lost. Yes, Lost. 3 characters from the beginning of the show bit the dust. Redemption, reunification and ultimately death.

2 episodes left in the series and Sayid and the Kwons are now gone. Sayid has been a shell of himself the past few weeks and the Kwons have been searching for each other through time and space.

Sayid came out of his zombie persona and stepped up to save the lives of the group. Sun and Jin were reunited last week and this week they died together. Very sad.

And Jack will be Jacob and Locke or rather Fake Locke will be the Smoke Monster, the Man in Black. At least that’s how I see it.
END OF SPOILER This has been a test of the Spoiler Blogger Network.

I get a daily email from Popdose, which covers some aspects of Pop Culture that I enjoy. Yesterday’s email had a review of Sports Night which was an Aaron Sorkin show on ABC about an ESPN type channel and the two anchors on it.

One of the anchors was Peter Krause, Nate from Six Feet Under, the other anchor was Josh Charles who’s been on a few things. Last night after watching Lost and instead of watching V I usually watch Parenthood.

But last night I decided to watch the Good Wife. I like Julianna Marguiles and Bill was on his way home and I know he likes Chris Noth. Funnily enough the show also has Josh Charles playing a recurring character.

I just thought it was weird after reading the Sports Night DVD review and opting not to watch one of the former actors on the show, changing the channel to see the other former actor from the show. Maybe it’s just me. Probably is.

And also Parenthood has Lauren Graham and The Good Wife has Matt Czuchry who played Rory’s boyfriend Logan.

Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy and Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln.

Today I was in Manhattan, saw Bill for a few and decided to sit in Bryant Park, read the New Yorker and enjoy a cigar.

As I sat there, a guy walks up to me and starts talking. His story was about how he’s been out of work for 6 months. He was angling for something.

I had to stop him right then and there, telling him that I’ve been out of work for 10 months, and with that he walked away with a blessing from his god. They always throw that in as a guilt trip.

Lot’s of people on the streets asking for change and when I tell them I can’t help them, I sometimes get a ‘god bless you’. Does that work? Are people guilt tripped into giving money because some god is being asked to bless them?

This Saturday Bill and I may or may not be a part of Pride Magazine’s article on interracial gay couples. It was actually one of the reasons why Bill and I got civil unioned. I learned about the whole thing from Joe Jervis of JoeMyGod.

Now we are just waiting to hear from Joe about the Saturday thing. But some guys on Joe’s Facebook page are complaining that it seems like these interracial couples are being in the spotlight and it’s unfair.

I almost posted the following on Joe’s page but decided to only post the first sentence.

I’ve always felt left out of most gay things so to be possibly included with my partner with regards to interracial relationships is a thrill.

Some of this does sound a bit like when straight people complain about gay pride parades, saying ‘when will straight people have a pride parade’, not realizing that every fucking day is a straight pride parade day.

It’s for an article in a monthly magazine. The other 11 months can be dedicated to non interracial relationships.

That’s about it for me on this end.

The Hoboken bibliothèque called and my reservation of Black Dynamite has finally come in. I asked for it a month or so ago but BCCLS sent me messages that it was too new to be sent out.

Now I have the Hoboken copy.
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jamesbaldwin1

Behind Blue Eyes

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

Well last night was discomfiting somewhat. Hadn’t had a night like that in a long time. After I posted I settled down (settled down means moving the swivel chair from the right to the left) and watched TV. Lost was on and I was looking forward to it.

Harpy called before 9:00, usual rants, usual tirades. You can set you watch by Harpy sometimes. The time would be incorrect but you could try. I had one eye on the clock when 9:00 approached. At 9:01, I had to ask, ‘Why am I still talking to you? Lost is on’ Harpy said good bye and hung up.

I recorded the show and was able to rewind back to the beginning. Very good episode, Hugo centric. The series is starting to come together as it creeps towards the finale.

Bill was in an awful mood. I spoke to him exactly twice yesterday on the phone and I knew that he was pretty much rotten. The first time I called was to tell him that I heard from a recruiter about a job that is very close by. He wasn’t too impressed or encouraging.

I also asked him if he knew where my black suit jacket might be. I noticed it missing on Monday, and sometimes Bill takes my stuff to be cleaned at the dry cleaners which is very nice. He didn’t know anything about it and hadn’t taken anything to the cleaners.

I hadn’t heard anything since about the job either. Still my spirits rose somewhat.

The day progressed, went to the Soviet bloc building and had my little pas de deux there and called up Bill again to let him know that I got the certificate. Remarkably nonplussed.

He has a lot of work, his boss was going to the home opener at Yankee stadium and people who ordered tickets backed out at the last minute leaving Bill with more work that he needed to deal with. And then there were my two phone calls which were probably the icing on the cake.

Bill comes home with 15 minutes left in Lost. At the commercial break I ask him how he was, how did his rehearsal go. Bill grunted. I asked if it was anything I did and he said no, then he said yes. He asked if I really needed to call him about my suit jacket?

As calm as that might read he was smoldering in the manner in which it was said.

I reminded him that I called to share some good news about a possible job lead and I asked if he dropped off my suit jacket. He said he would have told me if he did. I tell him that he would have told me that he did if he was asking me to pick up his dry cleaning. Sort of like an enticement- ‘Your shirts are at the cleaners with mine, could you pick them up? They’re paid for.’

I actually said I was sorry for trying to share some possibly good news, but I really wasn’t sorry. And I brought up the other call about the Civil Union certificate. That was it. Both calls lasted about 4 minutes total.

I explained my side and he was silent and went into the room where his Mac is. After Lost I put on Lawn hors-d’œuvre Criminal Malcontent figuring that Bill might enjoy that somewhat now that Jeff ‘Chestnut Brown’ Goldblum is now the regular detective. As far as I know, Bill didn’t notice.

Midway through the show I hear a bang and I yell ‘is everything alright?’ I didn’t get any response so I walk in there and see Bill’s Mac screen on it’s side. Turns out it didn’t behave the way Bill wanted it to so he punched it.

I walked away and he punched it again. He enjoyed it. I think perhaps Bill is in a constant struggle to suppress the rage that he feels all the time and this is a way for him to deal with it. Better the Mac than me or anyone else I suppose.

He took a Fukitall and a little while later came out and explained the day he had.

Crap. It was all crap. And on top of that, more crap. I listened and didn’t say anything. It had been two hours since he came home and finally he unloaded.

Then he comes up to me with a dark suit jacket and asked if this was the jacket I was talking about. It was navy blue, the jacket I was looking for was black. The navy blue is what I wore instead.

I tell him it’s about 10 years old, a Today’s Man jacket. He shows me the jacket that he’s worn to work the past two days. A black Today’s Man jacket. It doesn’t fit him, yet still he wore it.

He insisted it was his, until I reached into the inside pocket and pulled out a receipt from Sunday when I last wore it. He wondered where his dark jacket was and I opened the closet and pulled out his jacket. Almost the same but his has metal buttons. I loathe metal buttons.

Ah, love. Can’t always be sunshine and rainbows, can it?

Previously on LOST

Previously on LOST


Me having a nap and looking like a Powers.

Me having a nap and looking like a Powers.


My niece in Ireland a week or so again...

My niece in Ireland a week or so again...

In the Pines

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010

Another day. Another Wednesday. Right now, the sun is shining. It hasn’t rained today. At least not since I’ve been awake. It was a pleasure to get out of the apartment without an umbrella. Last night was a monsoon though.

I stayed in and watched Lost which while good, was not as good as the previous week which was all about Richard Alpert and not Baba Ram Dass. It was enjoyable. I think Jack will become Jacob and Locke will be the Smoke Monster.

It certainly isn’t a comfortable show, not that it ever was, but with Sayid being an automaton, Sawyer double dealing, Kate hanging with the wrong crew, the Professor & Mary Ann getting it on, it seems a bit much.

6 more episodes left so I guess things should bet getting tied up soon enough. I did read somewhere, the Jacob and the Smoke Monster could be Cain & Abel. Or Thor & Loki. Or some other mythological characters.

After that instead of watching what I’ve usually been watching I watched Lawn Hors d’œuvre Criminal Malcontent. That was odd since Bill wasn’t around when it started at 10PM. It was one of the last episodes with Katheryn Erbe and Vincent D’onofrio.

Quite a surprising turn of events as well. I’d love to write about them here but I don’t want to be a spoiler. For once. Bill came home when there was 15 minutes left. Surprisingly though, Bill did not know that D’onofrio and Erbe would only be on for a few episodes this season, then it’s adios for them.

Off to bed for Bill and I joined him after watching Craig Ferguson. It was cold last night and I had to turn on the heater. We’ve been trying to keep things down. Slept better once it warmed up.

Bill was adorable as he kissed me good bye. I think he asked me what I was doing and all I could say was ‘sleeping’. In other words, ‘I love you but you had better leave me alone right now.’ I did get up a short while later and though the skies were gray I knew it would get better.

I walked around Hoboken, stopped by the Guitar Bar and made some arrangements with Jim to officiate the vows that we will do, more than likely on Saturday morning. In the Guitar Bar. I don’t have anything written and I don’t know if Bill does.

If need be I will have to wing it. Perhaps a belt of Irish whiskey will loosen my tongue beforehand. I could be like my Grandfather and just pour it in my coffee in the morning. Bill’s friend Tom will be our witness and maybe Tom’s wife.

After the Guitar Bar I walked along the riverfront and ran into Tariq, who was playing guitar. We talked for a while, and when he ran off to the bathroom I played his guitar, strumming quick versions of Please Please Me, All My Loving and So It Goes. Tariq was impressed.

I told him since tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day I might bring my guitar out there. He was going to be busking in Central Park with his pal, Steve who was the guy who was singing Sweet Melissa a few weeks ago. They make good money at 59th and Fifth.

Nice tourist spot and with the salt & pepper musicians, the Euro tourists will more than likely drop some cash on them.

I also heard from Pedro today. Always good to hear from him. He was complaining about his hillbilly neighbors and the fact that since he’s been on disability he has cabin fever. I thought I had it bad, but at least I’m in an area where if I needed to or wanted to I could head into the city for whatever.

He’s out there in the sticks and with the weather being what it was the past week or so, he was climbing the walls. So he’s going back to Riker’s Island just to get out of the house.

I think I figured out that when I see guys going home in the mid-afternoon, dressed in a suit & tie, they;re probably coming back from an interview.

Tariq

Tariq


Construction, a few building down the street

Construction, a few building down the street