A beautiful Sunday, sunny day, sweeping the clouds away. Washington Street started putting up its vendor booths. Many people out and about either fleeing town or coming in for the Art and Music Festival. The street was blocked off already at 9:00 AM so traffic slowed on every other street. Despite the fact that Juan and I had quite a few Stella Artois last night I didn’t wake up hurting or hung over.

Juan and I tried watching Junebug, which my sister suggested, but it required too much attention so we watched Mystery Men instead. A daffy movie with Ben Stiller and William H. Macy amongst others. Pretty funny. Juan enjoyed it and we both laughed while Bill sat at the kitchen table mapping out his routes for his bus trip to Foxwoods in Connecticut. He had to pick up people in Mount Vernon and Yonkers and a few other places and he has to be prepared.

Occasionally he’d laugh from what he heard from the TV. It was definitely fun to have Juan back hanging around. His latest music for me is by Cake Bake Betty who he saw sing at his school. He downloaded the cd for me and from what I’ve heard so far she’s pretty good.

Juan left around midnight and I went to bed not long after, since Saturday Night Live wasn’t hitting it like it sometimes does. I even missed Tina Fey saying fuck on live TV.
Red Hot Chili Peppers were the usual mediocre stuff. It’s hard to believe they’ve been around for 20 years.

I wanted to see 2 members of the Feelies play and they started at 1:00 this afternoon. My brother and sister in law were coming to town to see Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. Elaine, my sister in law came with 2 people she works with and Frank was driven down by his daughter Corinne who definitely didn’t want to stay.

I met up with Elaine and her friends on the street before I headed down to see Glenn Mercer play. He used to be in the Feelies. The other guy was Vinny De Nunzio who was the original drummer. They sounded great, like the Feelies never split up. Of course they weren’t as frantic as they used to be and Glenn Mercer is as anti-social as ever. Not in a mean way, just doesn’t really speak with anyone. I think he misses his ex-partner, Bill Million.

I liked the Feelies, but can’t say I was madly in love with them. It’s funny though because my rhythm guitar style is very similar to the Feelies. Very fast and choppy. Caffeine is the usual culprit behind that. A few faces I hadn’t seen in years, including Clara Korman, nee Suarez. I ran into her husband Mike last week on the street who told me she always talks about me, after fifteen years. So I walked up and said hi. She was happy to see me, as was Mike. They introduced me to their child who’s 16 months old, Harrison. Good looking lad, likes his animal crackers.

Oddly enough I talked to Mike for longer than I ever did in all the time I’ve known him. We talked about Gutbank, his old band and how good they were. I told him he had such a cool presence onstage back then and he seemed surprised. He told me he liked Tia, their 16 year old drummer. So did Karen, the leader of the band, but Tia liked Heroin more. Stupid kid.

Mike said he was starting to play guitar again and he had jammed with a friend. I mentioned that I had jammed yesterday, but stopped short of offering to jam again. I think he would be too intimidating and I’m one for no clear rules with regards to jamming, whatever happens happens and keep it simple. A few riffs, see where it goes from there.

They split and I caught up with Frank and Elaine and their friends. A few faces from McSwells drifted past, Michael Hill, Guy Ewald, Glenn Morrow. Nice guys all. They see me all the time on the streets of Hoboken, and since they don’t see Frank too often, they chewed his ears off.

Me and oldest brother

I also ran into Mike Natoli who used to change the lightbulbs I at Wanker Banker. He quit working a few months before I did. It was good to see him again. Also met his wife Maria, who he always used to complain about. She seemed nice. Mike is such a cutie. And also a little guy, maybe touching 5 feet evenly. Maybe. He took my number and suggested meeting up for a drink, to which I amost receptive.

After Majorette, a band from Brooklyn played, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes started up with ‘Happy’ by the Rolling Stones, a very cool song by the way, followed by ‘Gin Soaked Boy’ by Tom Waits. Hipster cache.

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes

I’ve never seen Southside live and he is quite the entertainer. A lot of fun, a dynamic presence. A good set finishing with his three sort of big hits, ‘The Fever’, ‘I Don’t Want to Go Home’ and ‘Talk to Me’. For an encore it was Sam Cooke’s ‘We’re Having a Party’.

Still a good bar band in the classic sense, with R&B and Rock and Roll. Nice job if you can get it.

After Southside and the band finished it cleared out fast. Not too many people sticking around for Cyro Baptista and Beat the Donkey. Bad scheduling I guess. I was going to stay and see some of it, but it was shady and chilly, me with high beams. Frank and Elaine split with their friends and I ran into Charlie Charas and talked with him for a while.

I wound up walking up the street on the sidewalk since there were a lot of people in the middle of the street. I did buy a nice piece of art for 15 dollars in front of city hall. After that I was hungry and decided to go indoors. All in all, a pretty good day.