March | 2008 | johnozed

Watching Revolution Rock: The Clash Live, something that was on PBS over the weekend. It was part if a pledge drive and of course that means it’s interrupted with pleas for donations. They have some hipsters on, hipsters from Long Island since this is PBS on the Guyland. But the thing that struck me were the personalities saying what their favorite Clash album is, how did they get into them, why do they like them.

It’s interesting for me, because in the late seventies it didn’t seem like many people my age were into The Clash or punk / new wave, and here, are my age group saying they loved London Calling. I know in my high school years I was cut off from a lot and didn’t have many friends outside of school. Didn’t really bloom socially until I started working. I thought it funny that these personalities don’t look like they’ve ever liked the Clash, except for maybe Rock The Casbah.

Then again, the way I look most of the time, professionally at least, I don’t look like a Clash fan. It’s a shame I never got it together to see the Clash, I always figured they would be around and our paths would cross one day. I got the short end of the stick on that one. I did meet Mick Jones which was a very big deal to me. And Paul Simonon was a better bass player than I realized.

Now it’s a day later. I slept well last night, difficult to wake up though. Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones didn’t do it. I kept on sleeping. Got up in time to remember I had a dental appointment at NYU Dental School. I wished I didn’t have to go but then again I wished I had good teeth. Or in my case, good gums. But I don’t and this is what I have to do. I had rescheduled an appointment from two weeks ago for today and on my calendar I thought it was for 1:15. In reality it was for 2:00. I wrote 1:15 as the time I had to leave the office, but instead thanks to my miscalculation I left at 12:30. Didn’t realize the wrong time until I got to the school.

I was ok with it though, I was reading Hotel California about how Jackson Browne was desired by a few in Warhol’s circle, after he ran from Nico crying, how David Crosby was a real jerk and he and Cass Eliott dabbled in heroin in Laurel Canyon. It’s fun it’s gossipy and the shit hasn’t even hit the fan yet. Joni and Neil have just moved on the scene, David Geffen pushing everyone around while squiring Laura Nyro, stuff like that.

Sometimes when I go to the dentist I just get really drowsy and feel like I could just fall asleep in a minute. Maybe it’s the stress, maybe it’s Lite FM. It happened once before a few years ago when I fell asleep while they were working on me for a few minutes, long enough to feel totally refreshed. I thought that was funny.

But today was not about going under the knife. This was more about measuring the space between the teeth and the gums and it doesn’t look good. Next week is a cleaning and from there it will all begin. I do think the price will be reasonable and will have a payment plan while I file the insurance paperwork myself. It was over in about an hour, pricking my gums with some pointy thing. Melissa Goodman was my dentist studying to be a periodontist. She was nice enough. I could probably beat up her father.

Walked to the Path train down 23rd street, past the student artists at the School of Visual Arts. I used to know a few graduates from there, or at least students. I occasionally wonder where they are now. I don’t see any of their artwork anywhere. Maybe they gave up and joined the workforce. My sister in law, Elaine had a successful angiogram which is definite good news.

That’s about it for now. Just taking it easy. Anything else, I will let you know., so deal with it, yo. Oh and Snoop got shot dead on the penultimate episode of the Wire, Marlo and his crew behind bars, and McNulty’s house of cards is crumbling despite the indictments from his shady dealings in the name of the law, which could all fall apart thanks to Kima telling the chief what McNulty has been up to.

Oh, one more thing. Bats are dying in record numbers in the northeast. Some type of fungus has been found on their noses as they hibernate for the winter. This is not good, not just for the bats. The ecosystem is fucked. Frogs, Bees all gone missing, and now Bats are dropping dead. This summer, we might be saying ‘Hello insect invasion’.

Sunday, back to work. Ho hum, hum drum. Not such a bad day, things weren’t messy this morning. I guess most of the party goers last night, refrained from vomiting or smashing bottles on the sidewalk. Don’t know how bad it was in various parts of town but where I walked it was merely a plastic green bowler hat crumpled in the gutter. Didn’t hear much of a racket as I went to bed around 1:30. Bill came home last night and that was good. He didn’t drive me crazy, and hopefully I didn’t drive him crazy either. I doubt that I ever do, except for being a pain in the tuckus every now and then.

Before Bill came home last night I watched Night At The Museum and I couldn’t believe how bad it was. It got ok towards the end but man what a stinker. Much better was Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire. Finally saw the last half and it was pretty good. I do enjoy the Harry Potter movies, ever since seeing the first one in 2001 with Annemarie, Rex and Earl in Eureka. Haven’t read the books yet, not sure if I will. Maybe if someone lends them to me, maybe if I’ve read everything else I have to read.

What I’m reading now, courtesy of the Hoboken Library is Hotel California by Barney Hoskyns, a British writer who has written for Q, Mojo and Uncut among others. I’ve always enjoyed his writing, and met him once when he was interviewing Metallica at Right Track Recording in the 90’s. It was good having Bill home last night, it enabled him to let his walls down. He’s doing his best to be strong for his mother, but here he was able to cry like he hadn’t for a few days. I was able to give him a hug and make him feel better.

No Grimaldi’s Pizza though since all restaurants were packed with revelers and deliveries were slow going. We watched George Carlin on his latest HBO special last night. George, now 70, is a humorous curmudgeon. He doesn’t try to be funny, he just rants on stage and there’s usually something funny in the truth that he says. He also riffed a lot about death which Bill was able to laugh about much to my relief. We watched Saturday Night Live after that and that was ok. Not rip roaring, but generally funny. They still have to figure out how to end a sketch though, they do run too long. Sometimes they’re just stretched a bit too thin.

I went to bed after watching the last half of Bill Maher. Bill hadn’t seen that in a while. After that I went to bed, Bill falling asleep next to me about a half hour later. Woke up, shuffled about, Bill out cold in bed, looking like a big mocha angel bear. I ran out and got some bagels, and the papers, Bill woke up a few hours later as I was watching The Namesake. He joined me as I watched that and he got somethings out of that, which I won’t get into in case you haven’t seen that movie yet. Bill headed back into the city to tend to his mother, his weekend visitation coming to an end.

Julio called after that and needed my help moving some Ikea things from his truck to his and Stine’s apartment. Hung out with them for a while, Stine has gotten bigger than last week when I last saw them at the bistro in midtown after Bill’s father’s wake. Then I walked around Hoboken, noticing the lack of people on the street compared to yesterday’s festivities.

Here’s some more pics.

Soup Man