Posts Tagged ‘Pier A’

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I’m Too Tough for Mister Big Stuff (Hot Pants)

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

It’s Wednesday and it’s a day off. And it’s actually a pretty good day too. I did not go to the Cigar Night at the Eagle. Too much trouble, bringing a change of clothes and then a schlep from the 8th Avenue train to 28th Street and 11th Avenue.

Not worth my time. If they ask at work I’ll think of something to say. And I also had an interview of sorts this morning.

I applied for a position online and was under consideration for a few weeks. It was a tease mainly but today the agency had me in to meet with me to see if I passed muster.

Bill was able to print out the resume for me and I met him on the corner of 43rd Street and Broadway as he made the hand off. I walked right up to him and gave him a great big kiss (mwah!), then headed up to 56th Street.

I was dressed business casual and therefore did not sweat as much as I usually do. I sat in a sleek lobby and waited for Marisa to meet with me. I heard the click clack of high heels approaching and figured that it was my recruiter.

It was.

She was nice and looked at my resume as we chatted about previous salaries and bonuses, all the while she would complain every couple of minutes about the problems the keyboard was giving her. She left after about 15 minutes and in came Erica who also posted a similar job.

I met with Erica for just a few minutes and thanked her while wondering if there was any info regarding my status. Nothing I could do about that. I walked down to the Path train in the shadows of the skyscrapers on Sixth Avenue. Barely anyone headed back to Hoboken, leaving me to sit in an empty car that was fully air conditioned.

Came home, sent a thank you email and had a decent lunch before running out and dropping off clothes at the dry cleaners for Bill & myself and also picking up Bill’s laundry. After that I just chilled out at home for a few hours, watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report which I rarely see anymore.

It was too nice a day to stay indoors and walked over to the river where I read the news and New York magazine. Also talked on the phone with Meghan Taylor Mastro, whom I might see on Monday when she starts painting the new Guitar Bar which will be on 11th Street in Hoboken.

I was out long enough to meet up with the UPS guy parked outside the post office and picked up a toaster over that Annemarie’s friend Audra has been trying to send me for a couple of weeks. It’s a lovely toaster oven.

For some reason ‘He’s Got the Whole World In his Hands’ and ‘The Way We Were’ have been playing endlessly in my head today. I know ‘Whole World’ is in my head after reading the lines in an article about an English footballer, but Barbra Streisand?

“Can it be that it was all so simple then, or has time rewritten every line? If we had the chance to do it all again, tell me would we? Could we? Memories, may be beautiful and yet, what’s too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget. So it’s the laughter, we will remember, whenever we remember…the way we were.”

Oh Alan & Marilyn Bergman and Marvin Hamlisch, what have you wrought?

I’m looking forward to watching Macca from his White House Gershwin Prize tonight on PBS.

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It

Monday, May 31st, 2010

Well I am better today. Still a little bit nervous about tomorrow and the return to school. Last night was a bit of a low until I took half a Xanax and then things got mellow. The melancholy edge was gone but it still didn’t help me enjoy (500) Days of Summer.

It simply wasn’t as good as I had hoped it would be and I do like both Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon Levitt. I just didn’t care for it, the story or the characters. I watched the news after that then a repeat of the last episode of last season’s True Blood. Now that was good.

After that I was off to bed where I slept quite soundly. I don’t recall any specific dreams from last night but the night before I did have a dream involving the family dog, Bojo, from when I was growing up.

Bojo was quite a neurotic dog and the only person in my family that he actually liked was my mother. That was because she was the one who fed him all the time. In the dream he was quite a friendly dog and living with Bill and I in the apartment and he would slip and slide on the tile floors.

I made a note of it, waking up and writing it down in the notebook I keep next to the bed.

I woke up this morning with Bill walking into the bedroom after returning home from yet another bus driving gig to and from Atlantic City. He was checking in on me since I seemed so morose when we last talked.

I woke up and showered as Bill sat on the couch and watched Wacky Races in the Cartoon Network. I woke up in my usual crabby mood, but still it was better than last night. Bill went to bed and I was out on the street after a couple of cups of coffee to get some milk for my cereal.

On my way down I saw the door to Julio & Stine’s apartment slightly ajar. I knocked and Stine came out and told me Julio and Alexander were at the park. I headed there and talked to Julio and pushed Alexander on a swing which is something I always wanted to do, push Alexander on a swing and talk to Julio. Or vice versa.

Got the milk and the paper and came home and had a nice breakfast. For some, the Memorial Day weekend is the start of summer, for me it’s like the end of summer and I’m going back to school tomorrow. And by school I mean work.

Bill woke up a few hours later when I had Zoolander on. Bill had never seen it before and loved it. Really loved it, so much that he was howling. It is a silly movie and enjoyable. I suggested we take a walk around Hoboken which is something we should do more often.

I gave Roda a call since he mentioned he was having a cookout today and he invited us over. Lot’s of people and family there and we were most welcome. I had two and a half spiked punches and was feeling a nice buzz.

After an hour or so we said our goodbyes to Roda and his family and had a nice dinner at Arthur’s. We would have eaten at the cookout but Bill wasn’t particularly hungry at that time. After walking around Hoboken some more he was hungry.

It rained a bit while we were in the restaurant but had stopped after we ate so we continued our walk around Hoboken, on Pier A. I spotted the dreaded Mister Softee and had to express my feelings somehow. It seemed most apt.

Now we’re home. Lawn Hors d’œuvre Criminal Malcontent is on so Bill is happy. Me? I’m anxious about tomorrow and the new job. Perhaps a cigar will be relaxing.

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Posted in Abstract Absurdist Otherness | 3 Comments »

It Was a Pleasure Then

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Well I just got back from strumming the guitar by Pier A in Hoboken for what may very well be the last time. In the 6 months I’ve been doing that, I think I have gotten somewhat better playing the guitar. I made about $6.00 the whole time I’ve been doing that.

It’s a good thing I wasn’t in it for the money. It does get discouraging though, being ignored. Each time I would strum by the pier, I would post my intentions on Facebook, holding out the hope that someone that I know would stop by.

Rand and Lisa stopped by and Juan Melli. No one else as far as I can remember. And no one stopped by today. Maybe they’re out of town or doing something fun.

Before I headed out this afternoon, I asked Bill to walk by when he headed back to the train since he’s driving a bus again tonight but not even he stopped by. I wasn’t expecting him to sit down, just a passing by, a hello would have been nice. He was somewhat groggy from napping so it more than likely did not register.

It was a beautiful day for playing and I had a good 20 minutes before that bacteria ridden spawn of Satan, Mister Softee pulled up about 15 feet behind me with it’s diesel engine drowning me out. Moving wasn’t an option since I had settled in, so I stood my ground, or rather sat on a bench.

For me, when I am walking around with my iPod on I usually take the ear buds out when I see a busker playing. If not giving them money, some respect should suffice. But that’s me and in the time I’ve been strumming in public, hardly anyone else does it.

Walk by, stay plugged in and do not look at that guy playing guitar. Not very encouraging. I don’t know what I’m looking for and I suppose playing guitar in public is not it. It’s safe to guess that my public performance career is over.

The anxiety I’ve felt with regards to the new job has waned, replaced by the feeling of ‘at least it’s something to do’.

Of course on the way home I see notices for a Tom Waits evening at a local pub. It’s a benefit and people are encouraged to sing Tom Waits songs. That’s something that would be right up my alley but now I have a job and I don’t know what the hours would be so it’s likely that I wouldn’t be able to attend much less perform.

And the performing thing is iffy since I do require a modicum of physical encouragement, and by physical I mean having a friendly face there for reassurance.

Today wasn’t all bad playing by the pier. I did make fleeting friends with a bloke named Dave who was with his toddler daughter. The toddler was transfixed and also terribly shy with my guitar playing.

If a toddler is fascinated by the guitar I usually hold it out for them to give it a strum while I make a chord formation but she was hiding behind her father as I played So It Goes by Nick Lowe which Dave knew.

We talked for a few minutes about vinyl records and Maxwells before he and his daughter were on their way.

Maybe I’m just grouchy from not eating. I just ate and I do feel a bit better. But I am still discouraged with my guitar playing.

Perhaps it will be best that I stay inside and play from now on, like I’ve been doing for the past 25 years. I think I’d rather be alone at home than alone with people around. I can safely say that I’ve gotten over my fear of playing guitar in front of people.

Bill just called to check in. My suggestion that he walk by on the way to the train did not register as I suspected. I didn’t bring it up and neither did he. He did note the melancholy in my voice and asked what was wrong.

I told him my disappointment with playing today and in general. He tried to be supportive but for me it was too late. I explained (like I did above) that I’ve gotten better with my guitar playing and my fear of playing in front of people has largely subsided.

To Bill that wasn’t enough, not enough of a reason to play in the first place and how I hoped for a friendly face to stop by and say hi did not make sense to him at all. My feeling of loneliness escapes him as he drives down to Atlantic City, leaving me alone once again.

I think the lack of encouragement for playing guitar throughout my life was a major factor in my hesitance to play outside my apartment. The feeling of not being good enough, from showing someone a song I had learned and playing it for them and then hearing, ‘That’s not how it goes’ even though it sounded just fine to me. And my exclusion from some friends projects was also a contribution.

That’s how I feel right now. Maybe in an hour I’ll feel better. Maybe tomorrow. In any event I wouldn’t mind this weekend being over.

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Keep Quiet

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

It’s a Saturday and that’s alright. For fighting I guess but for relaxing as well.

Bill made it to Atlantic City and back safely. We spoke last night, he asked if I was feeling better. I’m sure he said better and not bitter. I said I was fine. He was headed to catch a couple of hours of sleep before he headed back to North Jersey.

Last night it seemed like time was crawling. A quarter of an hour took forever to pass. I don’t know why it was. I wasn’t going anywhere, wasn’t rushing. Nothing really caught my eye or held my attention for long.

Watched Mr Smarmy, Bill Maher on HBO and as usual he was meh. I mainly stayed up to watch the Simpsons at midnight before I turned in. Melatonin to the rescue, slept well and found it difficult to wake up.

Bill came home with bagels and the paper saving me a trip outside.

It was a beautiful day, 80° range. Before Bill went to sleep he asked me if I was going cycling. I hadn’t even considered that but no, no cycling. He asked if I was busking and I was more than likely going to do that.

I don’t make money from it so I don’t call it busking. I call it ‘strumming my guitar’ nowadays.

Wrote down the chords for Life on Mars before heading out.

Stopped by the bibliothèque where I returned the CD’s from yesterday as well as returning The Rutles 2: Can’t Buy Me Lunch. That was a stinker. I can’t believe how bad it was.

Was Eric Idle that strapped for cash? Was there such a demand for it? Just clips and outtakes from All You Need is Cash, no participation from anyone else from the original. I didn’t even watch the whole thing. Stopped midway through and dropped it off.

I did pick up a collection of Bowie covers by Seu Jorge. I had a few of the tracks from a few years ago and was glad to have them all in one collection. Also picked up the CD of the Original Broadway Cast of In The Heights, which Bill and I saw last year.

I walked over to Pier A and strummed my guitar. Instead of using my guitar case like I usually do, I used a guitar bag, the kind you carry on your back. I was wary since I figured it would go out of tune easier than it would in the case and I can’t tune a guitar without an electronic tuner to save my life.

A pitch pipe is useless to me. I remember when I received my first guitar years and years and years ago I also received a Mel Bay how to play guitar book and a pitch pipe. That basically ended any interest in guitar playing for about 30 years. That was it.

No one showed me how to play a guitar until years later. And the guitar I originally got just collected dust.

I did buy an Epiphone guitar from some former friend and bought a Fender Super Bullet 3 electric guitar from Sam Ash and a Fender Acoustic 210 from We Buy Guitars on 48th Street, from the one & only Jim Mastro himself. I wound up selling the Epiphone to my ex-roommate, Jimmy Lee.

Eventually I got some guitar lessons from Mike Carlucci who was in a local band, Winter Hours/Ward 8 years ago. He had the right approach, teaching me songs I wanted to learn, Velvets and Television instead of Old Brown Jug (which I still don’t know how to play). Mike is one of the better guitar players out there and genuinely nice guy.

And as I thought, when I got to Pier A my guitar’s tuning was a bit off. Nothing terrible but I noticed. I was there about 15 minutes doing my best when the Mister Softee truck pulled up about 50 feet away. That was irritating.

Usually people complain about the Mister Softee theme that plays ad infinitum, but that was silent. What drove me crazy was the sound of the diesel engine keeping the ice cream cold and the bacteria fresh.

I tried tuning my guitar to the standard tuning but I was overpowered by the sound of the engine, which happened to be in the key of B.

It’s a good thing I don’t depend on money when I play. Lot’s of people out on Pier A, sunbathers and dog walkers and babies in strollers. All ignoring me. I couldn’t say they could even hear me over the sound of the diesel engine anyhow.

No one to play against so after an hour I conceded victory to the bacteria machine on wheels. I just sat and read the New Yorker and smoked a cigar until 3:45.

I asked Bill what time he wanted to get up from his sleep and he said 4:00PM. I made my way home and found Bill wide awake, getting ready to drive to Atlantic City again.

Yet another entry that I had great reservations about writing.

Tomorrow is the Hoboken Fart & Mucus Festival. Fountains of Wayne are headlining. I don’t know if I’ll go. I usually go with Rand but he’s in Lucerne, Switzerland on some Jack Kirby type business.

May Day.

Found this pic last nite online. Never saw it before. I think it's a beauty.

Found this pic last nite online. Never saw it before. I think it's a beauty.

Photo-0174

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Posted in What's it doing outside? | 2 Comments »

Hold On Hold On

Friday, April 30th, 2010

Well it’s a Friday today and it’s a gorgeous day. Last night wasn’t so bad either. When I was home alone I meant. It was all good, watching TV, comedies on NBC Community, Parks and Recreation, The Office and 30 Rock.

And actually I think Community was the funniest last night. Parks and Recreation was so so as usual. The Office would be in second place I think and 30 Rock in third place. Sometimes they just try too hard.

Not enough Jack Donaghy and way too much Tracy Jordan. I think the opening photo during the credits of Tracy Morgan is too much. He is truly the weak link on the show. Then again he is the luckiest guy in show business since he generally sucks. I sometimes wonder if Tracy Morgan has something on Tina Fey hence his being on the show, because it certainly can’t be talent.

After all that I wound up watching some clips of director Kevin Smith talking about spending a week out in Paisley Park with Prince. Got the link from Harpy and watched all four installments. I thought it was hilarious.

The news came on after that and as usual I watch until the weather report is finished then I change the channel generally if I am home alone and I was up to a point.

Bill came home from wherever it was he was at. He was in a pretty good mood, happy to be home. He loves the fact that I’ve shaved the goatee. I hate not having a goatee. I think I look like a lesbian without it.

I mentioned to Bill that I was planning to grow the goatee back but wary that it might come back with white hair. Bill was quite exuberant when he came through the door and his exuberance carried over in the manner of him chanting ‘White hair white hair’.

It was all fun and games then. I faux protested and threatened to drop the H bomb on him, ‘H’ meaning hair. He’s thinning on top and the sides are speckled with gray hairs. It went on like this for a few minutes, Bill would say something and then I would refute whatever it was that he said.

Apparently he was hurt by each successful refutation, so much so that he snapped at me saying that he was trying to work on his laptop, when only a minute before he was joining in on the fun.

It’s similar to some words we had a few months ago, where were were having a heated discussion about something and Bill lost it, saying that he can’t argue with me since I am always right. Or words to that effect.

I just happen to use reason when I argue something. Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be much use for reason on the other side sometimes. So whatever boisterousness that was happening quickly deflated leaving me with hurt feelings and resentment.

Sometimes one vibe is better than two vibes and I was having a much better time when Bill wasn’t home last night.

Yes he drives me crazy and last night he drove me crazy again. I spent time and energy avoiding him whenever possible. He went to sleep as usual and I couldn’t have cared less.

I’m still resentful and maintained no contact with him today. He did apologize this morning as he was leaving for work but to half asleep me it made no difference. Even if I was fully awake this morning it would have made no difference.

The time for the apology would have been last night. And last night, or rather yesterday, the reason for my ambivalence about most things was because I took a Xanax in the afternoon, so I was definitely in quite a mellow mood last night.

He’s driving to Atlantic City tonight and I am relieved.

I think I had some good guitar playing going on today by the river. Ran into a Facebook friend, Juan Melli with whom I share mutual friends. Never met him before in the flesh.

Nice guy, took the picture below. He’s also a bicycling enthusiast so perhaps a ride will be underway this summer. Juan asked for a song so I played All My Loving which is committed to memory and Instant Karma.

He rode off after a little while and I played Sweet Little Sixteen and Maybe I’m Amazed among others.

Picked up Hot Chip- One Life Stand and MGMT Congratulations from the bibliothèque today as well as The Rutles DVD- Can’t Buy Me Lunch, the sequel to All You Need is Cash.

An evening alone is what I am looking forward to.

photo by Juan Melli

photo by Juan Melli

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Posted in STFU | 2 Comments »

Hold Me Tight

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

A beautiful day today. A bit blustery though. An ambivalent day for me as well. Just feeling meh. No word from the interview yesterday but I wasn’t expecting that.

In the back of my mind there was the hope of them calling me up and saying, ‘You! John Ozed! It is you that we want! It is you that we need! So much so that we want you to write for us! We’ve seen your blog but we don’t care!’

Of course the phone didn’t ring. It did notify me that I had some texts coming in. I decided to take advantage of the beautiful day and head out with the guitar and play by Pier A.

After tying up my newspapers (which broke open of the third floor leaving me to sit on the floor and retie them up) I wandered over to the Guitar Bar where I found that Jim Mastro was en route to England to do a short tour with Ian Hunter.

No matter though when he gets back I would like to ask him to show me how to play a song or two. I just can’t figure some songs out, despite YouTube, despite watching Stine play it. I think having Jim or one of his associates show me how to play would do the trick.

I wandered over to Pier A where there weren’t too many people out. There were some on the grass and of course there were clusters of cigarette smokers outside the Wylie building. I practiced my repertoire, All My Loving, Instant Karma, Don’t Play That Song.

Tariq showed up but didn’t take his guitar out. He was just hanging, encouraging me to keep playing. I tried Visions of Johanna, Panic by the Smiths, Gangsters and Do Nothing by the Specials, and my tour de force, Hercules by Elton John.

Also trying to figure out and commit to memory, (Love is Like a) Heatwave by Martha and the Vandellas.

I’m trying to get 10 to 15 songs that I know inside out that I can perhaps play for tourists in Central Park. That’s for the warmer weather and also depends on whether or not I have a job.

Once the sun went behind the Wylie building it got a lot cooler out so I just packed up and walked to a bench that was a it sunnier and sat there, staring at the Carnival Miracle luxury liner cruising down the Hudson while I smoked a cigar.

Went to the supermarket, bought juice and picked up Bill’s laundry and dry cleaning. So while the day has been mired in the humdrum I’ve been keeping myself busy. Last night I picked up a CD from the bibliothèque, Big Star .#1 Record / Radio City.

I’ve heard it in bits and pieces over the years but never got my own copy. So the bibliothèque came through and toady I returned that and took out the latest Madness release, The Liberty of Norton Folgate. Both are good CD’s.

I also ordered the latest release from MGMT and Hot Chip as well as a boxed collection of Big Star (which was Alex Chilton’s former group). Promises to be another quiet night, not much going on. Comedy on NBC which is something to look forward to.

That’s about it on this end, how are things on your end? I know besides Harpy and Annemarie responding it’s unlikely anyone else will.

Friggin’ lurkers.

ambivalance

ambivalance


a sunny ambivalance

a sunny ambivalance


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Posted in I Love Music | 5 Comments »

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