Posts Tagged ‘Weeds’

Yalla Yalla

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

It’s been another quiet day, especially since Hoboken kids went back to school today. Even though there are 2 schools within 100 yards of my apartment I heard nothing.

I was so tired from going to the museum and walking downtown afterwards that I slept really well which may have helped not hearing the kids on their way to school.

Oddly enough, I’m not feeling the pit of despair that I would feel for the first week or two of September. That sinking feeling of the beginning of the school year followed me throughout my life.

But apparently not this year.

Last night I watched Weeds with Bill. Well he was partially awake and only watched part of it.

What a surprise ending. Blew me away enough that I might have ruined the season finale with my reaction of the Facebook.

I certainly would not have expected the HBO/Showtime crossover with Eric draining Esteban of his Mexican blood, and neither should you.

Then I watched Letterman and Conan, alternating during commercial breaks. The Dirty Projectors were on Letterman and Pitbull, a reggaeton singer was on Conan. I opted for the Dirty Projectors.

Today, like I said, was quiet. The streets of Hoboken were devoid of kids. I made tentative plans to go gallery hopping next week sometime. There will be different shows than those that were hanging in July when I went with Annemarie and Earl.

Juan has extended me an invitation to visit him in Trenton but with his schedule he will have to tell me when it would be good since I have no set schedule to speak of, really.

And Pedro mentioned a visit to Otisville again this Friday but I am waiting to hear whether or not that’s still going on.

And Billie in DC has invited me down to Washington DC, perhaps in October if I’m not working, and I might even be able to go down there for the march on Washington. But that, as most everything else remains to be seen.

So things are low key and percolating along nicely.

Bill is at rehearsal tonight, getting ready for a reading in a week or so. He’s also singing at a NY Liberty game a little ways down the way, I think on the 14th. The play is the 14th, NY Liberty is the 8th.

Weather permitting, it would be a good reason to doff the suit and tie. Believe it or not I’ve been jonesing for it.

When the weather gets cooler and things start happening, I’ll be going out on interviews wearing a suit and tie.

I don’t know how guys do it during the summer. I think they really don’t spend any time on the street. They go from air conditioned apartment or house to air conditioned Town Car to air conditioned office. Maybe an out of office air conditioned lunch and then back to the air conditioned office.

Me, I like to walk and that makes me sweat like a horse.

That is what you get for shank’s mare I guess.

Po’Boy

Monday, August 24th, 2009

I can only assume that the weekend is over in Hoboken by the fact that all the parking spots have been filled. A lot of people leave town, head down the shore of weekends, and Sunday nights is when they generally return.

And Sunday night is when True Blood comes on and last night was a pretty good episode, but ended at 46 minutes which left Bill and I all ‘what the fuck?’. 2 episodes left so I guess they might be leading up into a big 2 part finale.

Marianne vs Sookie! Bill and the Vampire Queen! Eric and his grief (and Sookie?) Jason and that peanut sized brain and well endowed cock! Lafayette and his attitude and mascara and Tara & her mom (and Sookie)! Oh it’s on! Lafayette is seriously becoming the most loved character on the show.

Bill and I forgot all about Mad Men being on, since we’ve ignored the first 2 seasons. We watched Hung and Entourage instead. Both were good, Entourage was better and Johnny Drama is a great character. An asshole with a heart of gold and a head full of rocks.

I stayed up a bit watching Ramones Raw, Marky Ramone’s DVD of life with the bruddas. Harrowing and fascinating but on VH1 Classics so filled with commercials. Some footage of the Uncle Floyd show as well which was fun.

The night before on WLIW Bill and I watched Jimi Hendrix at Monterrey. To my surprise Bill really dug watching Jimi play in concert which he had never seen before. That’s always a thrill for me, turning Bill onto music that he had never heard before.

And there is a lot he has never heard before. Classic rock & soul, Punk, Post Punk, New Wave, all unknown to him.

Today was a nice day, in the 80 degree range and not as humid as it’s been the past week or so. I was planning on heading into the city, perhaps checking out the Highline Park that was opened a few months ago.

Actually just to see if there were any live sex acts going on and encouraged by a hotel that straddles the park. It’s been reported that porn movies have been made as well as exhibitionists of both sexes putting on a show.

But I couldn’t seem to get it together and just stayed local in Hoboken which doesn’t have the appeal that it had last month when Annemarie and Earl were around.

C’est la vie, that’s just the way that it goes.

Tonight is the finale of Nurse Jackie. I think her house of cards and pills and extra marital affair will come crashing down. I don’t know if this will be the season finale of Weeds. But that’s winding up to something big.

I’m sure it will be twisted, especially if it involves the wonderful Andy, played to perfection by one of my favorite actors, Justin Kirk. Funny, another one of my favorite actors is Jeffery Wright and they’ve both starred in Angels in America.

Made a date with Harpy to check out the Francis Bacon show at the Met on Wednesday afternoon. That should be fun.

That’s it for me. Smell ya later.

Elvis?

Elvis?

Shapes of Things

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

It’s another hot day today, but not as hot as it was yesterday. Last night after writing I went for a Hoboken stroll with Julio. He certainly talks a lot, no getting words in edgewise for me.

I suppose that what friends are for, providing a forum just to listen. And that’s what I did. He has many things on his mind and can’t wait to hug Alexander again.

It will be about 2 weeks until he gets to do that again when Julio flies off to Copenhagen to reunite with Stine and Alexander, then it’s off to Spain for a week. Perhaps this weekend Julio and I will be able to make it the the beach.

Last week was a wash out, plus he had to attend a wake. Hopefully the weather will be cooperative and there won’t be any viewings to attend.

Came home Bill was watching I don’t know what on TV. It wasn’t Lawn Hors d’œuvre that much I know. He’s accused me on monopolizing the TV which I guess I do since I’m here more than he is, and I tend to watch other things besides Lawn Hors d’œuvre.

So to avoid the stepping on of toes I asked if we could watch Weeds & Nurse Jackie. He was fine with it and how could he not be? He watches and enjoys the shows as well.

Weeds was good, Andy was great as usual. It’s getting weird though and the bodies keep piling up in Nancy’s wake. Of course things were given away when they showed the preview for next week.

Nurse Jackie was good, but how long can she keep those plates spinning in the air? 2 shows about women with double lives and how they affect their families. Both top shelf, totally engrossing. Perfect for a summer night’s television viewing.

After the news and the Simpsons we watched a documentary on NYC in the summer of 1977. Son of Sam! Studio 54! Hip Hop in the Boogie down Bronx and punk rock at CBGB’s! I went to bed midway through, waking up an hour later to find Bill still awake and watching it.

I slept in today, waking up around 10:00. It was nice. I checked my voice mail, Greg Stevens was wondering where I was. I called him and told him I would stop by around 1:30.

I figured I would be later than that but of course I was early. There is nothing for me to do in the office anymore. Viveka who replaced me is handling things.

Not in a good way either. She’s overwhelmed, Vivek is losing his mind. I asked him how his wife was doing and he said it was a nightmare. She’s due to drop a baby any day now. He’ll be out of the office for a few weeks.

Viveka has a Sunday job working retail and she goes back to school in September. Who knows how that will work out? She doesn’t, I asked.

I’m going to help Greg out with a project that should take a few hours. I told him I will be in tomorrow, early so as to avoid Vivek. Greg said he would pay me for my time so that’s nice.

Hold On Loosely

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

OK, last night was alright. Just basically hung out, surfed the net, cleaned the fridge, watched TV and listened to music which I blogged about. Bill was off singing at Theater for the New City, just for six minutes. I obviously stayed home.

Watched Olbermann but didn’t really pay attention. Neither did Olbermann since he wasn’t on the show, David Shuster subbed. Just killed time until Weeds and Nurse Jackie. Weeds was good, definitely a notch of intensity than previous episodes.

Nurse Jackie seemed a little bit more subdued than previous episodes. A good focus on a favorite character, Dr. Ellie O’Hara. I guess some of Dr. O’Hara’s back story should be coming up soon. I think the show runs until October so there should be plenty of time.

The pairing of Weeds & Nurse Jackie is a good one. Makes getting Showtime worthwhile. We’ll see how long that lasts.

A little while after that I got a call from Bill. His leg/hamstring was hurting and he was having difficulty walking. He asked if I could get an icepack ready for him since that would be the only thing to get the swelling down.

I met him on the sidewalk with a bag of ice, since we don’t have an icepack. I followed him up the stairs, step by step and got him situated and comfortable. I’m still digging the speed of the computer so I stayed up a little while after Bill went to bed.

Bill had a fan going on his side of the bed and I had one on mine and I think it might have been a little too much since when I woke up I was dehydrated with a tremendous headache.

No, it’s not a hangover. Bill doesn’t drink, and I don’t drink alone. Plus it was raining quite hard.

I called off the collection of Cafe Press t-shirts for the day. I sent an email to Vivek, Viveka and Greg Stevens letting them know that I would be a no show. Then I slept for a few more hours after taking a generic Advil gelcap.

When I woke up it was still raining but not as badly as earlier. I watched the Daily Show and The Colbert Report from last night before heading out to get some groceries.

It wasn’t really raining when I went to the Shop Rite. The supermarket by my house is an A&P and it’s a bit more than Shop Rite, but Shop Rite is larger, has a more agreeable staff than the A&P making it worth the walk. And it’s not that much of a walk since Hoboken is only a mile square city.

Everything fit in my canvass bag as I strolled through the damp streets of Hoboken. Played the Fireman CD again, Electric Arguments.

Last night I had the iTunes on shuffle and today I played it straight through. Really McCartney’s best record in years, which is basically what I wrote as a post script last night.

Now it’s just gray skies and dampness and getting to be a little hummus as well. Bill is off doing the stage manager bit tonight, this time with a limp. I’m not doing much else.

Plus having written this already, I have nothing to do for the rest of the night.

Hi Hi Hi

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

It’s a Tuesday. Big deal, right? I know, it really isn’t that much of anything. I’m glad I made it through the day. Last night I was sitting on the stoop, having a cigar and reading The Last Gang in Town by Marcus Gray.

It’s an unauthorized biography of the Clash. So far I read about my buddy Mick Jones, Paul Simenon and just getting into Joe Strummer’s life which is the most interesting and conflicted. Nothing about Topper Headon or Terry Chimes yet.

As I sat, along comes Julio and Alexander from the park. It was fun to sit with the two of them and I was thrilled that Alexander is really recognizing me now. He loves it when I do a Chewbacca yell and he also loves to watch planes fly through the sky.

He really is an adorable boy and he really looks like Julio. I called him Julio’s Mini Me and Julio told me he had brought Alexander to work that day and that’s basically what everyone said.

We all went upstairs at the same time, stopping off on the third floor to chat with Stine and trying to figure out how we were all going to get to the new Mets stadium to see Paul McCartney on Friday night.

I recommended taking the 7 Train out to Flushing which really makes the most sense. I’m sure it will all be figured out by Friday night.

I came upstairs where Bill was watching a home run derby, part of the All Star festivities. I was hoping to watch True Blood but that wasn’t going to happen while the home run derby was on.

Bill did have to go to bed early so he could get up early and go to Brooklyn to take a drug test for the Hassidic bus company he’s trying to work for.

I started to watch a recording of True Blood but then Annemarie called midway through so I decided to watch the recording some other time.

I did watch Weeds which was good, set six months past the last episode with a bearded Andy. Nurse Jackie was even better. That just gets more and more interesting each week, Edie Falco is great as well as the rest of the cast.

The office was a little bit easier today. Came up with a new system for the conference rooms and I didn’t have to yell at anyone.

And the intern, who in real life has quite a similar name to Vivek is now named Viveka. They’re really taking advantage of her as well as taking advantage of me.

I keep thinking that I’ll be leaving the office around 1:00 or 2:00 but once again I stayed later than that, leaving the office at 3:30. Gotta collect those Sally at kinematics I suppose.

Just one more day this week, ending tomorrow on Wednesday. I hope to collect a note for the Susquehanna Investment Groups tomorrow and not have to go in on Thursday.

Guess I will have to ambush Vivek and not injure his ‘Sally’s T shirt shingles’ writing hand.

Jump In The Fire

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

And another day goes by, with me collecting Cafe Press T-shirts in the city. That’s code you know. Not working, but collecting Cafe Press T-shirts. It’s all I could come up with.

Do a search on this blog for Cafe Press T-Shirts and see what comes up.

That’s how I will be paid in the blogosphere for the work that I do.

Last night Bill came home and took a nap asking me to wake him up at 9:30. At 9:30 I went to wake him up. He had no idea what time it was or where he was it seemed. I decided to let him sleep, if he gets up he gets up.

I watched Weeds last night. Very good. And Justin Kirk is really great as Andy. The whole episode was quite good but Andy’s scenes were the best, very touching.

After that came Nurse Jackie which is also very good. Perhaps they are trying to cram a lot into 30 minutes, but they managed to pull it off.

One of the story lines on Nurse Jackie was about a Russian immigrant who had a stroke. That hit home. The actor was great, didn’t get his name though.

As his family bickered and attacked each other as well as Jackie who was actually the only who was able to get through and understand the effects of a debilitated stroke victim. I still think Brain Attack is a better way to confer what a stroke is.

In my younger days I would have written Brian Attack due to the antagonistic relationship I had with my brother Brian. Went to bed a little while after that and woke up with Bill who had slept the whole night kissing me goodbye at 7:00.

I got out of bed and showered and shaved and got myself ready for the days collection of Sally Maurice Kotex. Greg Stevens called as I was heading into the office. He was afraid his computer crashed since he was out in the Hamptons over the weekend and couldn’t receive any emails.

I reassured him that I would check out his computer as soon as I got into the office. And I did just that. Everything seemed to be operating normally and I figured the problem was Greg’s Blackberry. I don’t know anything about Blackberries, so Greg was out of luck.

I busied myself with whatever needed to be done and also watched the Michael Jackson memorial online. Saw Queen Latifah and Smokey Robinson make speeches and also saw Stevie Wonder sing, Never Thought You’d Leave in Summer and They Won’t Go When I Go.

That was something.

I left the office around 2:30, enjoyed a Saint Luis Rey cigar and walked over to Times Square where I watched the people watching a big CNN broadcast of the memorial service.

It was odd watching Usher sing with no sound, only subtitles. I didn’t mind though.

Times Square has two areas stretching a number of blocks of Broadway that are now pedestrian areas with folding beach chairs scattered about for mainly tourists to sit on. I wandered through the throngs, enjoying my cigar and headed to the bus terminal for the ride home.

the big screen

the big screen


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I just thought this was cool- 2 billboards connecting to each other

I just thought this was cool- 2 billboards connecting to each other