Posts Tagged ‘Lost’

Natty Dread

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

Well, it’s Thursday this time. For most it’s just a Thursday but for me it’s the last day of the work week. Still not used to it. I start thinking on Friday that it’s Saturday, then on Saturday I think it’s Sunday and on Sunday I have no idea what day it is.

I usually figure it out before I go to sleep, after I get the feeling in my stomach that there is homework that I hadn’t done and boy am I going to get it tomorrow.

Last night I watched Lost which was good. Sawyer/Le Fleur is calling the shots and there little or no Jack involved which was fine by me. I think it’s building up tot the reappearance of John Locke. The season finale.

Plus with Sayid taking care of little Ben last night, you know that it’s not the last we’ve seen of Ben. Last night was mainly about Sayid. He was dosed with a sugar cube of LSD, administered by William Sanderson. It made Sayid loosen his tongue and he almost gave away Sawyer’s identity.

It was a bit of a chore staying alert after coming down from the bourbon buzz. I found that Woodford Reserve is a very nice bourbon, a little bit sweet which helps it going down the gullet.

Bill was so tired that he didn’t pay any attention to Lost and didn’t stay up to watch Lawn Hors d’oeuvre, which was enjoyable. A little bit of the Madoff disaster, mixed in with an investigative TV reporter being killed and behind the scenes at a local newscast.

That was followed by the local news on Channel 4 and featured a celebration of Chuck Scarborough behind the desk for 35 years. I did think it was odd that the newscaster on Lawn Hors d’oeuvre resembled Chuck Scarborough.

On the news last night was an item about a proposed fare hike for the MTA. They had a guy complaining that he pays $272.00 a week already and the fare hike would cripple him. He said he wouldn’t be able to take his son to McDonalds or give him money so his son could buy extra tickets to the movies.

Whatever happened to parents saying, ‘No, we can’t afford it?’ I heard that often enough as my mother would buy sneakers for me at the A&P. Plastic soled sneakers that always got me unwanted laughs during gym class. I didn’t like it, but weren’t about to spend $40.00 on sneakers.

I know parents want their kids to have a better life that they did growing up but is giving the kid everything they wanted the way to go?

After that there was nothing to do but go to sleep. Woke up with Bill heading out and me getting out of bed at 6:30. Soon I found myself on the bus, finishing up the New Yorker from last week and starting on this weeks issue.

Walked across town and got to the office earlier than usual. I figured out that I am the office manager for 6 different companies. There are currently six companies working in my office and I support all of them though I’m only getting paid by one.

Maybe two if I count Vivek and his partner’s Cable box scheme, selling cable boxes to hotels and motels usually owned by Asian Indians. They’ve cut my work days to four from five and I figured I’d make up the money I lost with one company with hours worked for Vivek’s other company but I haven’t seen it yet.

One of my managerial duties is looking after the phone system. I had placed a call on Tuesday about a phone problem and hadn’t heard anything regarding it. No, that wasn’t the phone problem. My phone was working just fine, it was someone else’s phone.

I called the phone company today and they had no trouble ticket. They didn’t seem too concerned about it but I was, since I was going to be out until Monday. I got off the phone with them and asked the woman if she was still having phone problems and she said it was taken care of yesterday.

No, no one told me. I felt like an idiot. My old boss Risotto always used to say, ‘Communicate early and often’. It’s true, you do that and most problems can be avoided or solved. Just so frustrating. I called the phone company back and sort of apologized.

Their end was surprised that no one called me about the phone line being repaired. Bill always mentions that my astrological sign, Virgo, symbolizes communication so maybe that’s why I get hung up one communicating.

Today was also the day that Amy Sachs stopped by my office. She’s the woman who stopped me on the street last week to tell me how good I looked. She was nice enough to say that so I was nice enough to allow her to try to sell me a suit.

She was a bit new at the sales thing so she was accompanied by a supervisor, A Kristen Chenowith type named Brianne. I guess they were expecting a boy and were going to name him Brian. Surprise! It has a va-jay jay!

It was a nice pitch they threw and the fabric were incredible. Alas, a suit that usually goes for $1250.00 and now on sale for $950.00 is still rather expensive. Buy a suit? Or pay the rent?

I told them midway through their pitch that due to budgetary reasons, buying a suit is out of the question. My, how their faces fell. Still they took some information from me and asked me questions, like any golfing partners that might have the funds to afford such a nice bespoke suit.

Maybe my stockbroker? Fraternity buddies? No, no and no.

I love dressing up and looking like a million bucks with my off the rack suits, but no, I don’t have a million dollars and the bespoke suits are just a fleeting memory. I can always enjoy looking at the models though.

I overheard a conversation in the lobby of my office building today,
Guy #1: So are you bringing your girl to the bar tonight?
Guy #2: Dude, that’s like bringing sand to the beach!

Loved it.

Giant

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

It’s Wednesday again. An out of the ordinary day. One day left for me this week at work. Last night Bill was doing the sleep apnea test thing and it went well I suppose. I’m sure I’ll hear all about it later. More than likely during the last 5 minutes of Lost which will have steam almost leaving my ears. I do want to hear all about it, but not between 9:00 and 10:00.

Harpy is scheduled to go to the NYU Dental Clinic for dentures. He needs ‘em. He’s been getting a little too close to Shane McGowan’s dentistry as of late and this should improve his chances of getting a job and perhaps eating solid food again.

Don’t get me wrong, I love me my Harpy and only want the best for him. This morning I was out on an errand and saw in my building, at the Staples store a notice on the window for positions opening up downtown at Broadway and Vesey Street.

I only glanced and called Harpy to tell him. It probably wouldn’t be his thing so I asked him to forward the info to Susan, former co-owner of Farfetched. The news about Harpy’s scheduled dental visit was posted on Facebook and commented on by Susan and myself.

When I finished my errand I stopped and called Susan who immediately was in attack mode, thinking that I was calling up about the dentist. I had to raise my voice a bit to let Susan know that I was calling to let her know about the possible job info and to help her out.

Still she filled me in about Harpy’s problem which I knew all about from Harpy himself. She dutifully wrote down the info that I recited over the phone, where to log in and apply, where to go for the actual store. I just hope it doesn’t turn out to be a madhouse, with hundreds of people lined up around the block.

That’s how it’s been lately. I spoke with my former boss, present friend Risotto see how he was doing. He is in a human resources position and told me how he listed a job for sales and was inundated with a couple of thousand applicants, for one job.

Robert and I made plans to see a mutual friend, Fay Victor singing at 55 Bar on Christopher Street when the weather gets warmer and when Fay returns to the States from Holland.

Work was all deck chairs today. Steve, former co-worker who’s been lingering and using the office facilities to get a new job since he was released from his job in October when he came back from his honeymoon in Greece, came in again.

It seems that he has gotten a new job in Tarrytown, just finalizing the details. He asked me if I wanted to go have a cigar with him to celebrate and of course I said yes. We headed out around 2:30, no one really noticing that I was out of the office, but I left a note letting them know they could reach me on my cell.

He brought along a bottle of Woodland Reserve, a nice bourbon that went very well with the San Luis Rey cigar I picked out. We sat in the lounge at the Cigar Inn on Second Avenue and sipped and puffed with quite a few other men smoking cigars on a Wednesday afternoon.

A nice mellow scene indeed and quite aromatic. Of course that ended about an hour later, Steve was off to his wife and me back to the office, quite buzzed and wondering what the hell was I doing there.

After a half hour of bewilderment I got my stuff together and headed towards the bus terminal. Finally coming down from the cigar/bourbon buzz and not complaining at all, just wishing I had another cigar and more bourbon.

The fact that Steve was able to get a new job, really gives me hope for my other unemployed friends.

Touch Sensitive

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

It’s Thursday and a melancholy Thursday at that. Another co-worker has been given her walking papers. Well a subtenant actually. Trudy who I wrote about the other day as well as a couple of times before.

Through no fault of her own, just the economy. She was an assistant working Tuesday through Friday for a charitable foundation but since the donations aren’t coming in, they can’t afford Trudy.

On my front, my company is making sure that I’m getting paid but who knows how long that will go on for? Till March 2010 is what they told me but anything is possible.

Trudy had tears in her eyes as she told me her bad news and made me swear not to tell anyone and I’m sure I can count on the five or six of you that actually read this to keep Trudy’s secret.

Spoke with Harpy last night and it’s getting sadder each day at Farfetched. Susan and Lois did everything right for 28 years. The holiday season didn’t come through though, and even if they did spectacular, they’d still have to close the store since the landlord wasn’t going to renew their lease. So it’s quite gloomy at 110 Fourth Avenue. There was nothing they could do.

I bought a lottery ticket which I plan on winning so maybe I’ll be able to help everyone out somehow. That’s the only plan I have at the moment. Check with me on Saturday to see how it turns out and think positive people!

Last night I watched the Daily Show and The Colbert Report, both of them funny, but The Colbert Report was that much funnier since it was decidedly hilarious to see Stephen Colbert’s mascara running down his face and gross to see the snot running from his nose due to his being so happy about Barack Obama being sworn in as President.

After that was Lost. The TV show not the actual fact of being not able to find one’s way. It was a good two hours. No Olbermann and Rachel Maddow, just escapism. The second half was the more interesting part, the first half was all about the set up for the season.

And apparently this season will be all about time travel and it’s implications of what you can and cannot do. Since it’s science fiction they can do anything, bring people back from the dead, unleash smoke monsters or even travel through time.

After that it was the news and then bedtime which was earlier than it’s been, 11:45. I made sure to set the alarm a little earlier on the alarm clock so I can get the day started a little bit earlier. Bill texted me warning about a water main break at the Holland Tunnel and that traffic was piling up at the Lincoln Tunnel.

I took my chances and called Bill on the cellphone when I got on the bus. Two seats in front of me, some dork thought I was talking loudly, when I wasn’t and luckily for him, my death glare wasn’t working properly so he lived. It seemed there were assholes all over the place.

Almost saw a fight on an escalator when one guy wouldn’t step to the right to let people pass on the left. He was adamant about not moving, one of those people who just stand on the escalator and stand there. He got called an asshole and not by me. I can only assume there is a proctologist convention in town.

Maggot Brain

Sunday, January 4th, 2009

It’s Sunday, back to school for some, back to the working week for me. Not so bad, just that I’ve gotten used to staying up until 1:30. Last night I was up till then watching Lost. After Broadcast News came the local news and then since Saturday Night Live was a repeat, I found Lost. Back to back repeats.

I didn’t mind those repeats since I do enjoy the show so much. Not enough to log onto the computer and play the webisodes or what have you. Same with Heroes. I enjoy that show as well but I don’t follow it off the television set.

It was pretty much a mellow evening all around. I went to the memorial service for Bill’s friend, then walked up to 33rd street from 10th street and First Avenue enjoying a cigar. Walking up to 33rd street almost guarantees a seat. Lot’s of people heading back to the suburbs clutching large bags of candy from the M&M Store in Times Square.

I buried my nose in the John Lennon biography. He and George and their wives were just dosed with LSD, so that was an interesting part that I’ve read about a dozen times already. Philip Norman does put a good spin on the whole situation. Lot’s of Aunt Mimi stories that I didn’t know previously.

Today was a quiet day. I watched the morning shows up to a point. Couldn’t take any more news about Israel invading Gaza. It’s a mess and it’s only going to be worse. I had started watching The Last Picture Show the other night and finished watching it this afternoon. It was a good movie. Sad that Sam Bottoms died a couple of weeks ago.

If only Peter Bogdanovich didn’t make my skin crawl. It certainly was a beautiful movie though. Excellent cinematography. I watched some of the extras, Making The Last Picture Show and there was big head Bogdanovich, Orson Welles this, Orson Welles that.

I wanted to take a walk to the post office and drop the DVD off in the mailbox, but Bogdanovich just wouldn’t shut up so I ejected it and threw it in the envelopes. As far as I know, Bogdanovich is still flapping his flanged lips in a pile of mail.

Also returned the Doris Kearns Goodwin book, A Team of Rivals. I didn’t think I would have the time to actually read it from start to finish and my ardor for Obama has cooled somewhat.

I still have to finish the Lennon bio and there’s also the Sarah Vowell book, The Wordy Shipmates which I need to start, but that’s a book I can probably read in a day, as if I have a day to sit and read a book from cover to cover.

Had an enjoyable walk around Hoboken this afternoon. Around Pier A and then back on Washington Street. As I walked up Washington Street I walked past the Karma Cafe, an Indian restaurant that I have eaten at a few times. I was surprised to see it closed since they usually have a buffet on weekend afternoons.

I guess it was closed since hardly anyone was around this weekend, but I looked closer to see if they had gone out of business. As I looked in, I saw a pair of legs on the floor. On closer inspection, I saw the legs connected to a body on the floor. I wasn’t sure what to do, if to do anything, so I took a picture.

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What would you think? A closed restaurant, kitchen help lying on the floor…

Then I called the Hoboken Police Department and explained what I saw. I stood nearby and waited for the police to arrive about 15 minutes later. I explained to the officer who looked in the vestibule next to the restaurant that I was the one who called.

He said he looked and didn’t see anyone. I told him to check the restaurant, not the vestibule. He did and saw a kitchen worker lying on the floor. The police man asked if I tapped on the window and I told him I hadn’t.

He did and also jimmied the door somewhat which made the kitchen worker stir proving that he was alive. The officer laughed and thanked me and I said I probably watch too much Lawn hors d’œuvre .

He said he was a Canapés man himself.

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Love of the Loved

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

A beautiful Sunday. My My My, beautiful day, would you say say say say that you love me? Oh my my my it’s a beautiful day. How’s that for a trip back to the early 1970′s? Worked for me. It really is a beautiful day. Yesterday was quite humid in between thunderstorms. Before I get into what I watched last night, I neglected to mention how good Lost was the other night.

2 hour season finale and I have to say not only is Kate hot (on the island at least) Sawyer is really hot. Such a bad boy. A very good cliffhanger, worth watching again. It was probably the best episode out of all the dramas on television this past season. Do any of you watch Lost? Would you tell me what you thought?

Last night I watched La Vie En Rose, the bio-pic of Edith Piaf. Very good, harrowing. My only wish was that it was told more in a linear style rather than jumping to the recent past, the far past and then the present. But Marion Cotillard was very good, a remarkable performance worthy of an Academy Award.

After that I wound up watching a remake of The Andromeda Strain with Benjamin Bratt and Ricky Schroeder. It was hard to follow since Jordan from Scrubs and Gin from Lost had supporting roles and I kept expecting them to fall back into those characters. It was 1:00 in the morning and I was reading Beautiful Boy at the same time. Eventually I could barely keep my eyes open and fell into a deep sleep.

Woke up refreshed this morning, a bright sunny morning. I rustled myself out of bed and had a cuppa before heading out to get bagels and whatnot. Bagel store was crowded, all it takes are couples clinging to each other and a baby stroller and the line is out onto the sidewalk. Had a run in myself with a couple.

I ordered my bagels, asking them to put Julio and Stine’s in a separate bag which usually confounds the counter person. Next to me at the register were a couple and the girl was insisting that I had her bagels that she paid for. Her boyfriend was trying to calm her down as I was explaining that these were my bagels and I just paid for them.

Yes she was an idiot and since I had my coffee before going out, she was a very lucky idiot. I could have sworn she was going to follow me out the door but I guess her lackey boyfriend was holding her back as her bagels were in front of her after all.

After watching some of the Sunday morning news shows and getting upset with Clinton’s people saying that she should be the nominee after all, despite her agreeing with Obama that Michigan and Florida primary votes be counted. due to those states moving their primary dates ahead.

Then there are the Clinton supporters swearing that they would vote for McCain instead of Obama should the nomination justifiably go to Obama. This is what will give the presidency to McCain. I know if Clinton got the nomination, I wouldn’t be happy about it but would still give her my vote since I cannot ever vote republican. Bah!

I also watched I’m Not There this afternoon. I enjoyed that more than I expected to. Like La Vie En Rose, it was all over the place time wise, but with different actors portraying Bob Dylan. Cate Blanchett was the best Dylan, though they were all very good, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, but Ben Whishaw and Marcus Carl Franklin were both stand out performances as well.

Funny to see Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth and Julianne Moore (no relation to Thurston) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (daughter of Serge) each portraying women from the Dylan’s past. I only had disc 1 so I don’t know what disc 2 contained, I could only hope they were better than the extras on the disc I had, just text from articles about the film. Looking back, I think the dvd’s that I’ve watched this weekend all had people in it that were strung out on methamphetamine at some point in their lives.

Crazy!

And to finish on an Up note, here are some recent pics from an hour ago of the king of the third floor, Alexander Lopez!

\"Enough with the pictures\" said Alexander, \'Goo goo ga ga!\"
“Enough with the pictures,” Alexander muttered, “goo goo ga ga!”

and this…

Potholes In My Lawn

Friday, March 21st, 2008

Listening to De la Soul’s classic debut, 3 Feet High and Rising. This record was everywhere almost 20 years ago, now it’s incredibly difficult to get. I was at the Virgin Mega Store on Union Square a few weeks ago, and saw it, but didn’t get it. A few days ago I was in the Virgin Mega Store in Times Square, where they didn’t have it. So today, since I had off, I decided to head into the city and get something for my niece’s birthday at Farfetched and stopped off at the Union Square store again. They had it, but for $27.99. I know I saw it last for about $14.99, and sure enough, after digging through the rack I found one copy at $14.99. Double cd set too. The bonus disc is b-sides and remixes that I used to have in 12” form when I used to DJ.

I also picked up the latest Hot Chip cd, a band that Juan turned me onto which I really liked. Their cd was on sale for $10.00, including a version with a live dvd attached. Not a bad deal all around, though in hindsight I used to buy a lot more for the same price. And the cd’s I bought were both imports from Germany and Holland.

Last night I saw Chaz for a few minutes. Hes flying off to Milan on Tuesday. He won a contest. He’s always entering contests. He gave me a burned copy of Funplex by the B-52′s as well as the remix single of Funplex with remixes by Scissor Sisters, Peaches, and Cansei de Ser Sexy. So far it’s all good. I neglected to mention that at work yesterday I found out they have let go one of the 3 Stooges.

Moe is being let go at the end of the month. I guess he’s leaving with a nice package. I don’t think it has anything to do with the financial markets being shit lately. I think it was his attitude. He was a really off putting cynic. He was the one sitting next to me at the holiday luncheon, not eating just grumbling and drinking black coffee. He was also a fast talker. See ya Moe.

And yesterday on the way to work I gave a cab driver the finger as I walked in front of his car. I felt it was warranted but lacked imagination. You see, as I was waiting for the light to change so I could cross Park Avenue, one cab was partway through a right turn when the light changed. Immediately behind him was another cab, about to follow, going through a red light. I cross in front of him as he crept to a full stop and gave him the finger.

He probably didn’t even know why, since the habit lately for most drivers is to do whatever it is they want to do. So many cars going through red lights to turn. I can see if you can make a right on red, but you can’t in most of Manhattan. There is worse shit than that going on, but it’s a pet peeve and felt I should have given him two fingers instead of one, leaving him to wonder what it meant as I walked away.

Last night I watched Lost and it was, well, just ok. It featured mainly my least favorite character, Michael. I don’t know if it’s the character I don’t like, or the actor Harold Perrineau. First time I saw Harold Perrineau was in the movie Smoke, where he played a creep, so perhaps his performance colors everything I see him in.

Thought he was annoying in Oz as well. It’s sort of like when my brother Frank sees Bob Balaban in something and always remembers him as the guy who gave Jon Voight a blow job in Midnight Cowboy. I guess I would rather have seen Harold Perrineau give head than be a creep to Forrest Whitaker.

I did make a stop at Farfetched where I talked to Susan and manned the register as she was ill and needed to run to the drug store. It was fun talking to her, caught up on a lot of things. Also bought a nice crystal box with a slot for a photograph on top for my niece, Meghan, at a discount yet! Yoinks!