Monthly Archives: January 2006

The Listening Wind

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I need to discipline myself to go to sleep earlier. The day was bookended by crabby feelings. A charming neuroses. There is the ongoing struggle with the people next door throwing their garbage in our cans. Now for some that is nothing, one should be glad they throw things in cans, but it does make the moving of the cans that much heavier.

This morning, after bottle recycling the night before, I reached in the garbage and removed a bunch of bottles and placed them in their driveway. I then scurried away after making sure I didn’t get any crap on my suit. I have to admit my fire is sometimes fueled by my neighbor, Claire’s antagonism towards the residents next door.

At work there was class in the form of Carla visiting NYC from London. Always a pleasure to speak with her, the accent is such that I would basically do anything she asked. She’s been encouraging me to visit London this year, saying she’d show me around. Basically I want to do a Beatles tour of London and visit the galleries and museums.

I have to ask Chaz about places to stay. He is closer to my budget than an English office manager and could probably recommend some decent cheap flat to stay in. Everyone tells me I should travel and I am starting to listen. Bill has even gone to London and wants to take me. Meaning accompany me, not necessarily buy me a ticket.

I would definitely love to go experience another culture though there would be the head start of knowing the language. Denmark would be swell too. Amsterdam seems to be a real destination. Bill had planned on going there years ago, but needed to cancel his trip when he jacked up his knee.

Today I downloaded Mellow Man Ace ‘Mentirosa’ the extended version, Mad Lion ‘Take it Easy’ and Lisa Stansfield “Change’ and ‘All Around the World’. Listened to deep deep DUB from Tappa Zukie. Been a while since I played some Blood and Fire Dub plates, and even longer since I played it without red eyes. Dub on headphones still affects my equilibrium, where I lean while walking in whatever direction the bass is pushing me.

Now Jamie Foxx is on NBC. Catching the last few minutes. I forgot all about it. I like Jamie Foxx, he is really talented. Funny man and decent singer. I got a few emails from some Afro centric groups I subscribe to stating that NBC isn’t promoting it, scheduling it against American Idiot. That is nonsense. I doubt there is a conspiracy to silence Jamie Foxx. And if there was it wasn’t successful since it’s being aired right now anyway.

From what I see it’s a throw back to 1970’s variety shows that were quite commonplace.
Like Flip Wilson or even Andy Williams or Cher. Jamie’s emoting and humming as he sings about his grandmother who raised him. Nice. He seems like a nice guy. I could hang with him. But could he hang with me?

Well I caught the last 5 minutes of the show. It was nice. He’s really a fortunate man to be able to have an Oscar, the number one record in the country and a special on TV.

Shout out to Julio for reminding me about crunch time.

It’s a strange world Jeffery.

Seen and Not Seen

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The Costanza rule works. Just look frustrated and everyone will think you are busy. I constantly look frustrated, thereby creating the illusion that I am constantly busy. But I am busy despite what it may look like. Today was relatively busy with quite a few activities that kept me away from the office. Lot’s of running around midtown, and I timed it well enough to be able to do whatever it was that I wanted to do within the proper time frame.

The sun was out, the Ipod plugged in and I was boppin all over the place. I even had to go back to the same place twice due to a mistake that I had made and was able to mosey on over. Plenty of friendly glances that I am getting better at returning. I always look people in the eye if they’re looking at me. Straight men avert their eyes, gay men will look right back at you.

Lot’s of eye candy out there today. Nice shirts and ties and exceptional suited men. A wonderful Manhattan afternoon that I was able to use fully to my advantage. I had a hankering for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles singing Tears of a Clown, but it somehow never got loaded into the Ipod over the weekend.

I settled for the English Beat covering Tears of a Clown and that set me off on a 2 Tone binge. Perfect. Great stuff. Thought about Miriam and thought about Susan Sher. Two women I know who were both into Ska almost as much as I was. And when I say Ska, I mean 2 Tone, meaning The Specials, The Selecter, Madness and the English Beat. The British Ska Revival of the late 1970’s.

The Special were it for me man. Interracial, singing about politics, violence and having babies at too young an age. I sent my nephew Earl a cd of the Specials first record, hoping that it would make an impression. Whether it did I don’t know. I even turned Julio onto the Specials. For me the Specials were amazing. I never saw the original band, just a reconstituted line up in the 1990’s. No Terry Hall or Jerry Dammers, but the rest were there with a room full of mainly guys singing as nasally as they could to sound like Terry.

Some of my personal politics can be traced to the Specials first record. It made an impact on a lot of people of my generation. I even remember the day I bought it at Korvettes in 1979 the same day I bought The Pretenders and Wreckless Eric, all records I treasure to this day even if I have no idea where they physically are.

I even sat waiting for the bus at the Bergen Mall talking to an elderly woman about the records I had just purchased. I was so enthusiastic and I guess it was noticeable. I started dressing in tight peg legged pants that I paid someone at work, Emma Fairnot, 5 dollars a pair to hem. She did the best she could and I didn’t know any better.

Most everything started to get 2 Tone, black and white checkerboard in my life. Even turned a metal head at school onto the Specials. Turned him onto PiL and the Clash as well. Whatever happened to Tom Pressey?

It was just great to walk around sunny Midtown Manhattan grooving and bopping to 2 Tone. I should’ve done it 25 years ago, but things don’t always work out as planned, even in hindsight.

Walked down to Chelsea after work to see if the guys who told me about the Gauloises coming in today, were telling the truth. He seemed sincere and was mad cute, but didn’t have them in. He told me to try tomorrow and he’s cute enough to warrant a walk for 45 minutes to stand in front of a counter for a minute or two.

I opted for a phone number instead.