Thursday. A pretty good day. Woke up solo, Bill at his folks due to some court date he needed to attend to with his mother. Juan came over last night and we watched some Monty Python and then Lost which was intense. Juan being cool and all, hasn’t watched Lost since the first season. But he agreed last night was as intense as the first season and it was. Sad to watch Charlie compile the 5 greatest hits of his life since he thought (as did most viewers) that he was going to die. Juan and I swapped theories which by the end of the episode didn’t really make much sense.
We also burned cd’s for each other for uploading into each other’s iTunes. I burned him the new Rufus Wainwright, Release the Stars (which I will burn for Annemarie of course) and Juan burned Amy Winehouse, Back to Black and Hot Chip, The Warning. Maybe I’ll rip those two for Annemarie as well. All she has to do is ask. All three are very good cd’s and I recommend them to all readers. I also communicated with another blogger, jockohomo about an article in the New Yorker about the artists Banksy from Bristol England. I enjoy jockohomo’s writings and usually get good music downloads from him. If I could figure out how to do it, I’ll share with you too!
I got the new Rufus Wainwright on Tuesday but wound up listening to Arcade Fire instead. It’s really good but there’s so much more out there. On the way to work I listened to Hot Chip. Green from Scritti Politti has played some shows with them so thats a stamp of approval. I can see where Green would be interested in them. Amy Winehouse is a great singer and Juan and I agreed that if she were American she wouldn’t be making it, she’s not American Midol pretty but has a great voice and presence. She’s from the UK too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Chip
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_winehouse
Yesterday as I was walking by the Waldorf Astoria I ran into Rob Jakacki. Today near the same spot ran into another former co-worker who works directly with Rob, Alex von York. Alex is another good guy and I asked him if his co-workers from Wanker Banker congregate on these four corners. Turns out that they do. So in case I’m feeling anti-social I will know to avoid these corners. I’m joking of course. I’m never anti-social.
What really made my day and had me smiling and laughing to myself through most of the day was running into Ray Vega. Ray is actually Pedro’s friend. If I’ve known Pedro for twenty years, I’ve known Ray for nineteen. I first met Ray at a private show for Boogie Down Productions at the World, a now defunct night club in the East Village. I had heard a lot about Ray from the Queens Posse and finally met him only to see him being dragged out later on, drunken Jesus style. He’s a great guy and I’m usually the one that runs into him in Manhattan. Sometimes street fairs, Central Park or today as I was outside of my building having a smoke.
It turns out he works in Hackensack as a courier and drives to my building every Thursday. I gave him my cell number and then called Pedro and put him on the phone with Ray. Lot’s of smiles and laughs abounded. Remind me to tell you about the time Pedro and Ray showed up at a Talent Show I was performing at for Bill’s church. That was the last time I saw him. Seeing him today made my day and gave me some well deserved clarity and a feeling of being grounded. Not that I was flying high in the sky or my mind, just that it was good to meet such a good friend after a long time.