It’s back to work for me and back to school for some. Earl in particular went back to school today, starting his Junior year of High School. Class rings and cars. Annemarie is glad he’s going and not driving her (with a learning permit) up the friggin walls in Arcata. Tears were shed and I think they were belonging to Annemarie. The wheel in the sky keeps on turning. I remember high school, it was ages ago and a little bit painful at school and at home. But I don’t want to go there. It was a different world then.

Last night didn’t do anything. Didn’t do anything during the day so why should the night be any different? Bill came home earlier than expected. He immediately went to work trying to clean things up a bit and I sat at the computer, watching ‘Oliver!’ in fragmented form on Netflix. You can watch movies directly on your computer and for some reason I chose ‘Oliver!’. Maybe it’s because it was one of the first movies I saw. It’s about two and a half hours, I’m surprised it held my attention for that amount of time. ♫ ‘Consider yourself, at home! Consider yourself, part of the furniture. We’ve taken to you so strong, it’s clear, we’re, going to get along!’♪ That’s about all I could remember.

Watched The Big Lebowski again. It was on cable and I got drawn in and once again, I got confused. There are moments in the movie I like but overall, I lose the plot. It’s not as good as Raising Arizona, or Fargo, or Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. Those are the best of Joel and Ethan Cohen. I do like their movies, I just don’t go to the cinema to watch them. Such a bad cinephile.

Work was ok. Nothing home about. Carla the receptionist had a second interview somewhere, so she has one eye on the door. I’d hate to lose her, and I do know that Tom Chin, Greg Stevens and Vivek don’t want to see her go, but I’ve discussed this with Tom and Greg, and they were supposed to discuss it with Vivek but summer vacations and all made it impossible for that to happen and so Carla goes out on an interview. The plan was to get her to stay until the end of the year, then let her go in January when her prospects of getting into the fashion industry might be that much better than they are now. But no one is talking and Carla is balking.

Carla’s friend Millie, might fill Carla’s shoes should Carla leave. I met Millie on Saturday on Governors Island and she seemed good enough though I wasn’t thinking about Carla leaving then. I left work at the usual time, having a Padron 500 natural and grooving to Blonde on Blonde. Great record to walk around Manhattan to, which is cool since parts of it were written in New York City. Speaking of that decade, it was 40 years ago today that Brian Epstein died while the Beatles were in Bangor, Wales with the Maharishi. Poor sad fucked up Brian. A month later homosexuality was legalized in Great Britain.

Here’s some gay related news from 365Gay.com

Veddy interesting stuff I think….

A lazy Sunday. It’s 4:33 in the afternoon and I obviously didn’t go to the beach. I don’t think Stine likes to go to the beach. I’m disappointed. I did have a feeling that a trip to the beach wasn’t going to happen so my hopes were up at all. I was up around 7:30 just in case Julio was going to call. No call. A trip was made to buy rings of dough and some print media. Thats it. Oh and a trip to Shop Rite was the high point of the day. Once again it’s too humid out to do anything. (except to sit under an umbrella in the sand) When I got back from Shop Rite I was drenched. Thunderstorms did not arrive making the atmosphere thicker than before.

Watched Serpico last night. Actually, it was on TV last night but I wasn’t really paying attention. Just hung out and read while the TV provided background noise. Started to drift off while watching SNL Best of the 2006-2007 season.

Shuffle Time!

Ba Ba Boom- The Jamaicans
From the Story of Jamaican Music boxed set. Perfect music for a humid day like today. A jazz cigarette, a ice cold bottle of beer and something to read would be perfect….sand on the beach…Bah!
Old school reggae, or rather, rock steady.

This Is My Story- The Jewels
From the James Brown’s Funky Divas collection. Before James Brown would go on stage, there would be a few acts before him under his aegis, Bobby Byrd, Tammi Terrell and here, The Jewels. I think Tammi Terrell was the only one who made a new for herself, albeit briefly with Marvin Gaye and in life.

This Is Pop- XTC
From BBC Radio One Live cd. I was lucky enough to see them live twice on their Black Sea tour. After that Andy Partridge developed severe stage fright when his then wife threw out his Valium prescription that he was on constantly since he was a teenager. He was fantastic on stage when I saw him at the Capitol theater and the Palladium, always moving and running all over the place. Some people should stay on drugs is the moral of the story.

Monkey Man- The Specials
From the Specials first record. Live track from an album that changed my life on many levels. Black and white, personal politics were all introduced musically to me. They were great and I never got a chance to see the original band. A reconstituted version in the 1990’s but it wasn’t the same thing.
Two live tracks in a row (XTC/Specials).

Maria Novarro- Was (Not Was)
From Are You, Okay? The interesting David Was and Don Was project. A lot of fun to listen to, extremely well produced, perhaps a little too well produced. They have the wit and it could use some grit. Tainted by the fact Steve Saporito turned me onto them.

I Can’t Stop Loving You- Frank Sinatra with the Count Basie Orchestra
From It Might As Well Be Spring cd. A very cool cd to have in case one is feeling loungey. And it’s mandatory that if you want to live in Hoboken you must own at least one Sinatra cd. It’s true, it’s in the Town Charter as well as my lease.

Modern Love- David Bowie
From the Best of Bowie. This was used in the eighties for a commercial supporting the Coffee Growers Association. Bowie drinks coffee, you should too! Originally from the Let’s Dance album, this is the edited single. It’s definitely an upbeat song from the Dame.