Posts Tagged ‘Obama’

« Older Entries

Rise and Shine

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

Well today was a weird day for sure. I was fine, Tom Chin was out after having words with Vivek (who has the flu). A 2 day work week for Tom Chin, sitting at home in a form of protest. Vivek is a screamer. He never screamed at me, but he is a bit of a spoiled brat.

Rich family you see. Never really had to struggle for anything. He phoned this afternoon, telling me he wasn’t coming in until after 4:00 since the market was tanking and he feels like he should see all of his stocks. And also I could go whenever I saw fit.

In the office today, it was Greg Stevens and myself for my team. The right wing nuts were in again though. They love to listen to the psychotic voice mails my stalker leaves me. This morning it was about how she hates my father and my brother and how I should fire that evil French guy.

So Frank, Brian and Henri (or Pierre or Alain or Jacques), be on guard. Crazy Korean chick is on the loose and she’s gunning for you!

I was finished with whatever it is I had to do around 1:30, then I just surfed the next 2 hours. Believe me, I would rather have had something to do. I did finish Sarah Vowell’s The Wordy Shipmates.

It was ok. Couldn’t get into it as easily as I did her other books. She seems like someone I’d like to have a pint with though. And it was a day late, so I was out $0.10. It was a good book, not her best.

I think I’ll take out David Sedaris’ last book, What to do When Engulfed in Flames next. I enjoy his essays more than his non-fiction. I hated most of Holidays on Ice. Just felt so forced. His life story is more entertaining.

Myself, I can’t tell a joke to save my life, but I could tell you about something that happened to me and more than likely you would be laughing.

Oh that damned liberal media, tearing apart President Obama’s mortgage plans. Let the people lose their homes! Let empty houses stand in neighborhoods! Why should there be a safety net? Who are we? Our brother’s keeper?

That was the lead on NBC News with Brian Williams announced by Michael Douglas, a financial reporter in the Chicago Mercantile exchange spurting angrily about the economic plan.

Damned liberal media! Nothing should be done! Let things correct themselves! After all Wall Street did such an excellent job of policing themselves thanks to Reagan and his deregulation initiatives. And no one complained then!

Sure someone would have to pick up the tab, isn’t that why there are children’s children’s children? I know it’s convoluted and perhaps a bit Swiftian.

Something has to be done immediately and what I believe Obama is doing is what is best at this moment. I work alongside some of these Wall Streeters who are vehemently anti-Obama, but they offer no solutions, just towing the republican line, tax cuts.

Tomorrow’s Friday which is something to look forward to, I hope.

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Mood Mambo | 2 Comments »

Rhythm is a Dancer

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008

Another day, another night, another opening, another show. Last night was quiet. Juan was running late and decided to take a raincheck on stopping by which was fine by me. I spent sometime with Julio & Stine and Superboy.

Hung out, Julio burned some DVD’s for me so I might send them to the left coast as a Christmas present though I was told no Christmas presents, this costs mere pennies so that means I won’t hear ‘Oh you spent too much money, you shouldn’t have’ from Annemarie. This year it’s going to be a cheap holiday gift giving season.

So it was a quiet night and I wasn’t in bed by 11:30, but more like 11:45 which isn’t that big of a deal. Slept really well. Once again my pillows have gone bad and I’ve been waking up with an achy neck.

Since Bill is in Stuyvesant Town I decided to add one of his pillows to mine and voila! It worked and I slept really well. Still some difficulty getting out of bed when the alarm goes off but it wasn’t that bad and I was up and mobile at 6:30 and out at 7:15.

No Casey bus today, but progress is being made. It’s more than likely that when I eventually do catch the bus that I used to see Casey on, he won’t be there. Nothing on him, just the way the cosmic joke is on me, rather than being included on the cosmic joke.

Work was busy, the new subtenants were annoying. There was a new guy and so their discussions around the trading desk were political and had a tinge of anti-Obama feeling to it.

The other day as they were watching CNBC, there was an article on the TV about how investors are sweeping in on India and taking advantage of the chaos following the attacks in Mumbai.

This is the disaster capitalism that Naomi Klein writes about. Something happens, the people are in shock. Public companies are privatized, unions dismantled and occasionally brutalities occur.

Scratch that ‘occasionally’, brutalities happen quite often. Murder, displacement, rampant unemployment, government crackdowns in democratic societies, people going ‘missing’ all in the name of free trade.

That is The Shock Doctrine, as put forth by Milton Friedman and his gang from the University of Chicago. I mentioned it as the news was reported and got a few strange looks as I spoke. I guess a tirade against unregulated capitalism doesn’t go down that well when you’re dealing with traders in a financial institution.

I’ve been reading this book for months now, I read it usually on my way home since it’s generally so upsetting and it angers up my blood. I have less than a third to read and Naomi Klein writes about what happened and continues to happen in Iraq.

I guess I should have paid more attention to the misdeeds of Paul Bremer and his ilk, but I hope that I am making up for lost time and my ignorance.

Like yesterday, I got really tired after lunch, a salad. Sort of crashing. Maybe it’s because of the drop in temperature as the day goes on, it could also be the errands that I have been doing usually in the morning. If I could take a midday nap I would but I can’t so I ate a banana, which helped.

This evening I went to Steven’s Institute of Technology to attend a lecture by Dr. Oliver Sacks, whom I have written about before. The gist of the lecture concerned music and it’s relation to the brain.

I heard about it through Rand and once again I am in his debt. Dr. Sacks is personable and mentioned a few times that the paperback has some rewrites as well as additional case stories which made me regret purchasing the hardcover when it came out. Won’t do that again.

I was hoping to get a chance to talk about my brother Frank and his aphasia. His aphasia seems to go away when he’s talking about music and he’s just as passionate about music as I am. But the opportunity never arose and I was hungry.

I did thank Rand for telling me about the lecture and now here I am mere moments later writing about it. Still tired and a bit hungry now so that’s it.

I have photos from last week to today, but since I’m on Bill’s Mac I can’t figure out how to upload them.

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in So how's band camp? | 2 Comments »

52 Girls

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

Sunday evening, dark at 5:30. Daylight savings y’all. Nice to get that extra hour of sleep, not as harsh as the clocks moving forward in the spring. Last night was a splendid evening. I thought I would be lat but as usual I was early.

A ton of people headed into the city on the Path train around 7:15. Rode in a crowded car feeling good. Some people were in costumes heading to various bars and parties, still carrying on the Halloween spirit. I was wearing my Obama as Superman shirt. Rode the train to 33rd Street and once on the street lit up a Padron and walked over to The Hammerstein Ballroom on 34th between 8th and 9th Avenues.

It was a beautiful evening as I puffed and avoided the Black Israelites on the corner of 7th Avenue. Sat on the steps of the ballroom when Bill showed. We sat and chatted, Bill telling me about his day and his friends. I suggested going for a pint before we went in and wound up at an Irish pub around the corner.

We sat and talked and drank our pints. A guy named Tom Gallagher came up to me and told how great he thought my shirt was. He was supporting Obama and we all toasted to Obama’s hopeful success on Tuesday. Tom was off to the show and we told him we’d hope to see him inside.

Bill was off to the loo and a woman asked me if Bill would be back as she was eying his seat for her boyfriend. I mentioned that we would probably be going soon. She too was going to see the B-52′s with her boyfriend and had the inside scoop that the band wouldn’t be on until 10:30.

It was 8:30 so Bill and I had one more pint, as well as shots of chilled Absolut Limon. Bill was analyzing the effect of the shot as he hadn’t had one in quite sometime. By the time we hit the street he was well lit. 2 pints and a shot did the trick as we queued up outside the ballroom.

After a wait of about 20 minutes we were inside, right in the middle of the dance floor. Hercules and Love Affair were the opening act and they were mediocre at best. No Antony thankfully, but not much in stage presence and the 2 dancers voguing at each end of the stage were fast becoming annoying. Still pockets of the crowd liked them.

The DJ was James Murphy from LCD Soundsystem and also Pat Mahoney of DFA Records which is LCD’s label I think. They played a nice selection including Pylon, Danger (Dub) and Soft Cell’s Memorabilia.

The B-52′s hit the stage with Pump, the first track on their newest album Funplex. High energy for sure. Everyone was dancing and the floor was going up and down. It was non stop energy with the strongest points being songs from Wild Planet and Funplex.

Could have used a bit more Funplex and I hate to say it but Cindy’s tour de force, Give Me Back My Man slowed the show down considerably. It was a quick recovery though and there definite moments like Pete Townshend once said about how a great rock and roll show will take you somewhere else.

Songs that were 3 minutes or so felt a lot longer and the grooves were quite infectious. It was good to see Fred and Kate flanking Cindy as they sang.

The band was tight and Keith made it a point to tell everyone to go out and Barack the vote. More comments from my shirt happened throughout the show and by the time Bill and I left we were quite spent.

Nice Path ride home and we were back in the apartment by 1:00 which wasn’t so bad for 2 geezers like Bill and myself. It was really a wonderful time and I hadn’t danced like that since we last saw the B-52′s indoors at Irving Plaza in 2002.

The set list was: Pump, Mesopotamia, Ultraviolet, Private Idaho, Give Me Back My Man, Strobe Light, Funplex, Juliet of the Spirits, Roam, Party Out of Bounds, Hot Corner, Love in the Year 3000, Love Shack, Planet Claire, Keep This Party Going On, and Rock Lobster.

The shirt was designed by Alex Ross and I found that this Alex Ross is a popular guy, at least with some bloke I wound up talking to for about 20 minutes this afternoon while walking around Hoboken. It was a fun chat with the man named Lee.

He said if Alex Ross saw my face he could probably draw me as Green Arrow. I said ‘Oh great. I would be Oliver Queen. But at least he would be half right.’ I waited a beat and then said, ‘My name is Oliver.’ which got a bemused chuckle from Lee.

I wound up referring him to check out the Kirby Museum for info on Jack Kirby who he wasn’t sure of who he was, but if he was into comic books and around the ballpark of my age group, he’d more than likely would at least recognize the work of Jack Kirby.

Tags:, , , , , , ,
Posted in Wonderful World Beautiful People | 4 Comments »

I’m A King Bee

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

It’s Thursday and it’s a good sign that I’ve made it this far. Last night was the big Obama infomercial which Bill and I watched on MSNBC. It left me whelmed, but then again I’m not the audience that it was aiming for since I’m already a supporter/volunteer.

It was made for the undecideds, the wishy washy and the fence sitters, as well as the people who constantly carp that Obama hasn’t said anything, he has no plan. Well that’s bullshit and you and I know that.

For the past 20 months he’s been spelling it out but those deaf ears certainly weren’t listening. Perhaps he should have been spelling it out using American sign language. As far as I’m concerned he would only need to use one finger anyway.

Like I said Bill and I watched it on MSNBC so we watched the entire 30 minutes. According to Harpy who called me soon after, he only was able to watch 28 minutes since the last 2 were cut off, meaning the transition from tape to live rally in Florida went unseen.

Harpy mentioned it was like that on the other broadcast channels as well. Strange doings indeed. The segue from tape to live event was very smooth and the perfect high energy finish.

This morning on the Today show, Matt Lauer called the Obama infomercial sappy. Yes that hard hitting news show, co-hosted by Kathy Lee Gifford in it’s last hour knows what sappy is. Sappy is the moronic conservative Baptists Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar with 18 kids and their home schooling. Sappy is the Family Ties reunion.

Sappy is tomorrow on the Today show with Matt Lauer dressing in costume as befits a hard boiled newsman like himself. Sappy is draining John McCain’s ball sack which Matt Lauer has been known to do when interviewing. So yeah, I guess Matt Lauer, the former newsreader and host of PM Magazine would know what sappy is.

I’m sure he sees it every time he looks in the mirror. It’s what comes before his ever expanding and worrying bald spot.

Work was busy and productive today which made the day go that much faster. I saw Dominick Dunne who lives next door to my building. He’s a bit frail and quite short. This weekend is the B-52′s at the Hammerstein Ballroom on 34th street. Bill and I are quite psyched about the whole thing.

I think beforehand I’ll put in some volunteer time at Obama headquarters, either working the phone bank of doing data entry, whatever is required for a few hours. I donated money to No on Prop 8 in California again.

Fucking mormons as well as national reich wing christianists are pouring in a ton of money and spreading disinformation. I really hope the people of California are smart enough to see through this, but then again they’ve voted for Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor.

Many thanks and credit to Jeremy from Good As You, a very fun and informative blog that has been intensely focused on this very important issue.

If anyone wants to buy me a present and they have $3000 to spend, I’d really like this suit. Just a suggestion that’s all. 46 Long.

Tags:, , ,
Posted in Mood Mambo | 7 Comments »

Busy Bodies

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

Oh what a day it’s been. And by that I mean what a long day it’s been. Hopefully you’ve seen what I had posted last night. For me it was a labor of love, and hearing Bill sing the national anthem a few times today made me realize how much I love him.

Sure he drives me crazy like no one else, but when he’s not around I miss him a lot. I guess that’s what love is, in case you wanted to know what love is and you wanted me to tell you. Slept really well last night, and woke up reluctantly. Bill still asleep beside me.

Nope, he wasn’t getting up first. That left it to me, to make my own coffee. By the time I was ready to go Bill was stirring. Got to the office, did the usual bullshit. Now there are 4 people I work with in my company.

Though I’ve written that I would stay until the end if something came up I would be a fool to let it pass me by. And Tom Chin is really making it easy to think about leaving. Today’s foible from Tom Chin was him asking me if I had made a photocopy of a check from June 30. I told him I wasn’t sure.

He was upset with that answer. He poured through the files, I checked my email regarding the check and sure enough on June 27 I sent him an email asking him if he wanted me to deposit it to which he responded that he would do it himself the following Monday.

So it was on him to make a copy of the check as well as the deposit himself. Yes, Tom Chin is a fucking idiot who will turn 60 at the end of the month if he’s lucky. As the afternoon passed I was getting more and more tired.

I was supposed to meet Lois this evening, for a walk around Hoboken but now that I am home, home is where I want to stay. At this moment I feel like I could go right to sleep. Bill and I were supposed to go to a Mets game tonight, but I found out that he didn’t get the tickets after all which was fine by me.

I spent a good part of the afternoon bubble wrapping various artworks that were the property of the latest partner in my firm to be shown the door. It’s a glass door and you can see right through it. The city, or at least midtown is overrun by tourists and fashionistas.

Big fashion shows going on around town, way too thin girls on too high stilettos trying to walk on sidewalks. A good bet could be placed that one of them will take a spill. I have no need to see this so I keep walking.

Right now on the news is the news about Obama talking about McCrazy, saying ‘if you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.’ The republicunts are up in arms, saying that Obama called Sarah Pallid a pig.

No, he didn’t called her a pig, but it is refreshing to know that when you say ‘pig’ the republicunts immediately think of Sarah Pallid.

Can’t believe it is only Wednesday but then again this is the first full week of work in a couple of weeks. I was talking to Trudy, a very nice woman who works for a company that sublets space from my company.

September 11 came up in the conversation and I started to tear up when I was telling her about calling my brothers and sister, leaving messages telling them I loved them, while unsure whether or not I would be able to get out of the city. Tears took me by surprise, but then again tomorrow is the anniversary of that horrible day.

Here’s some pics from last night from the dressing room.

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Mood Mambo | 1 Comment »

I’m Only Sleeping

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Last night mellow. My evening routine was askew since I wrote before I came home. Nothing to worry about. I was home by 8:00, Bill was watching the convention on MSNBC. I planned on watching Weeds at 10:00 but neither of us wanted to miss Michelle Obama’s speech.

Ted Kennedy was pretty good, with his swan song. The fat lady off stage, waiting to sing for Ted’s political career. I mentioned to Bill that as Ted had gotten older, he became a great statesman. Though the grumbling about windmill generators off Hyannis Port was a bit troubling.

I told Bill that Caroline will probably become the head of the Kennedy family once Ted moves on. Bill went to bed soon after Michelle Obama and I watched the news, eventually going to bed around 11:45, which is a bit late for my ass.

Slept like a rock or so I thought. I woke up tired and slept a little later than usual. I saw Casey on the bus yesterday but since I was late, no Casey today. Walked across town, still a bit groggy, figured once I had a few cups of coffee I would be alright. Well it didn’t turn out alright as I kept getting more tired as the hours crawled by.

Bill was feeling quite the same way. Today I left work early. Yesterday the other two left early, but today was my day. And I’m still taking off Thursday and Friday. Juan’s in town today but since Bill and I are fatigued for no reason at all, it’s probably best that he stays away. Plus it promises to be an early night for the both of us.

I’m still pretty much out of it even though I came home and napped for two hours. I did finally get my hair cut from Tony at Mr. L’s down the street. I walked by and he was free so I popped in for a quickie. My hair grows thick and at a certain point it can be too much.

So a trim was in order. Tony always does a good job and mentions most times that a lot of guys would love to have my hair. He’s a 60-70 something Italian immigrant who lives with his wife in South Hackensack by Lodi, not the South Hackensack by Teterboro.

Uses a color rinse on his hair every month and a half and cuts hair next to his 50 something son. He goes the extra mile, trimming nose hair, ear hair and selectively removing gray hairs from my goatee earning a decent tip. So now I feel a lot cooler physically and mentally but still pretty much tired.

I’m sure a good nights sleep would do me good as well as doing Bill good. I got an email from Pedro with a pic of 30 fellow CO’s tailgating in the parking lot at Shea. He was there, I was wrong. We cleared it all up on Sunday on the phone so that’s good.

Pedro 5th from right

Still reading Alan Bennett which is slow going. Right now he’s talking about his Aunties. All well and good but for me it’s been dragging. Maybe it’s my fatigue. It just reminds me of the boring visits to my Aunt Diddy in Flushing.

She was my father’s sister and her house was not child friendly. There was nothing to entertain a 10 year old boy and I could only get some money from my mother so often to go get comic books a few blocks away. But obviously I’m veering into Alan Bennett’s style and I’m very tired.

I’m surprised I got this far tonight.

Tags:, , , , , , , ,
Posted in So how's band camp? | 3 Comments »

« Older Entries