Tag Archives: March on Washington

Saturday Gigs

It’s 5:55PM on Bill’s Mac and I’m tired. It’s been an out of the ordinary day. But first a recap of what happened before. Watched Bill Maher last night, he was very good, Lincoln Chafee, Cornell West and Richard Belzer were the panel, Bill Frist (intelligent jerk) was the opening interview and Sarah Silverman was the final guest with the panel.

Her video on how to solve world hunger was the tops. A simple idea. Sell the Vatican, make the Pope super popular. He would be a superhero of sorts since he already has the cape and any Vatican involvement with the Holocaust would be forgiven.

With the proceeds of the Vatican sale all the billions of dollars could be spent solving world hunger. It would be the christian compassionate thing to do. Sell the house which is a city, take some of those proceeds and make a condo for the Pope and his friends.

It was as irreverent as only Sarah Silverman could be.

I recorded it so Bill could watch it, it was that good. I stayed up watching Craig Ferguson who really is the funniest guy in late night television. Then I went to bed, Bill sleeping under his apnea mask. At some point he took the mask off and started snoring, but by then I was pretty much far gone in slumber land to really notice.

I slept really well, woke up to find Bill about to go out and get the paper and some bagels. The laundry I did yesterday was still damp which required another day of it hanging around the kitchen.

He came back and hurried about trying to get ready for his stage manager gig for Amiri Baraka’s birthday event tonight. Not being much of an Amiri Baraka fan, I just made myself a nice breakfast and read the paper.

Bill was soon on his way into the city. I farted around, ran some errands and argued with strangers online about Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize. A lot of people are against it, but mainly these people who were against it, never gave two shits about the Nobel Peace Prize before.

In fact one of them brought up how Nobel invented dynamite and what an odd fact that is. Of course anyone with an inquisitive brain knew this ages ago. But there they were arguing their ‘Obama wasn’t born here’ ‘the Socialist president’.

I had read somewhere that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex in Soho was free yesterday and today for John Lennon’s birthday yesterday. That’s seemed like a fun thing to do so I got my act together and headed into the city on the Path.

Swung by The Guitar Bar where the ever lovin’ Jim Mastro was back from England. He was the guitar tech for the Mott the Hoople reunion shows, having played with Ian Hunter on his solo gigs here and abroad.

The shows were a success, and Jim met both Jimmy Page and Mick Jones from the Clash backstage. Page was a contemporary and Mick was a Mott the Hoople fan from way back in the day.

I anticipated that the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex might be jammed since it was free but it was only a 15 minute line outside and a 10 minute wait inside. Overall the experience was underwhelming.

The main exhibition was John Lennon: The New York Years and seeing his personal items was nice but no photography was allowed. And I thought that to be very odd. The final part was a paper bag behind glass, containing the clothes John was wearing when he was brutally murdered 29 years ago. But then again it was free so I really shouldn’t complain.

Now I’m back in Hoboken, tired and a little bit hungry despite having just eaten a bagel from this morning.

I have to get up early in the morning, like around 4:30 to be at 7th Avenue and 33rd Street at 6:00 for a 7:00 bus to Washington DC. It’s Bill’s suggestion that I get there an hour early since it’s sometimes a mess queuing up for the Bolt Bus.

And since Bill is almost always spot on regarding matters involving buses I’m taking his word. So a nap is out of the question. I’ll figure something out I’m sure.

Since I’ll be en route tomorrow and without internet access, you might expect a very late posting, which will more than likely be done on Monday.

one illegal photo

one illegal photo

two illegal photo

two illegal photo

three illegal photo

three illegal photo

the last illegal photo before they stopped me. James Brown live.

the last illegal photo before they stopped me. James Brown live.

I think Bowie is right. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is bullshit. There are tons of great, fantastic bands that will never make it into the Hall since it’s mainly all about who sold the most. And that’s not Rock & Roll!

And tomorrow is National Coming Out Day, so come out of the closet whomever, wherever you are!

Hallogallo

10.4.09 Hoboken 038

Yesterday turned out to be quite an alright day. I wandered around Hoboken, which is more crowded on weekends now that no one leaves for the Jersey shore on weekends after the summer. That makes the waterfront which is usually not that crowded, densely populated on weekends.

And with the piers falling into the river, a quiet spot to sit and read the New Yorker and have a cigar isn’t as easy as it is Monday through Friday. But I persevered and found a bench in the shadow of Steven’s Tech, across from Sybil’s Cave and sat there.

I talked to Billie from DC for a while and midway through our conversation, a couple walked by, the guy in the couple said, ‘That looks like John Ozed’. That caught my attention and told Billie I would call him back.

The couple walked closer and I said, ‘Hey, what’s going on?’. The guy knew I didn’t know who he was, the woman had no clue. He came up and introduced himself. It was Jason Stasium. Jason was a guy I worked with at Right Track Recording in the 1990’s.

We were friends then, I brought him to a taping of the Letterman show back in the day. Elvis Costello and Toshi Reagan performed. I liked Jason and used to make fun of him. He was a Deadhead then, following Jerry & Co around the country.

But after Jerry died, Jason settled down in New York and started working as an assistant engineer. It was funny the other day I was walking down Garden Street and saw someone who looked like Jason in the 1990’s and I thought about his then girlfriend who worked at Angelica’s Kitchen in the East Village.

She was nice too and got me some discounted gift certificates that I gave to my vegetarian roommate William and Julio who was a vegetarian at the time.

We did some catching up, Jason introduced me to his wife, who’s name escapes me at the moment. Where was so and so that we worked with? What’s going on with Right Track? Where is Joe Lizzi? Gian East?

Those are the only 2 I know and that was via Facebook and Jason doesn’t want to join Facebook.

I remember a few years ago I sent an email to him, congratulating him on either winning an award or being part of a Broadway show that won an award. His response was ‘who the hell are you?’ So I dropped the subject and expected never to hear from him again.

I wasn’t hurt or anything. Just felt that door had closed.

It wasn’t like on September 11, 2002 when I contacted a former co-worker Derry Jelaney who witnessed the previous years events next to me. I called her to see how she was doing that first anniversary and basically got ‘Why are you calling me?’.

Now that was awkward. Awkward enough, especially on that raw anniversary to cut contact. A few years later she somehow got my name and called me when I was working on the Titanic. It was all, ‘Hey! How’s it going/Let’s have drinks’ I was noncommittal and did write her number down before eventually losing it.

I did see her once when I was walking out of Grand Central Station and she was entering it. I was in a suit and tie so I looked like most of the other men passing through and she didn’t make the connection and that was fine by me.

Just a few weeks ago, while waiting for Brenda, yet another former co-worker, I stood around waiting when who walks by but Derry Jelaney. This time I could have sworn she saw me, even passed by looking at a menu near by, so as to steal a second glance. I just turned and looked the other way.

I did exchange phone numbers with Jason so perhaps we will meet up for dinner like he mentioned. I also made plans and bought tickets for a trip to Washington DC this weekend. Just a one day trip, get on bus, March on Washington, listen to speakers, get back on bus.

I should be seeing Billie, if only for a few hours so that should be fun.

10.4.09 Hoboken 039