Monthly Archives: June 2008

No Words

Nothing to say today. Did some riding around Hoboken. It was a nice day. Ran into Julio, Stine and Alexander. Finally some pictures with Alexander and his eyes open. So here they are. Meeting Rand at McSwells for a few pints so maybe I’ll write later. In the meantime, here’s some pictures.

I actually wrote. See after the pictures

The view from 16th street in Hoboken

Laughing baby!

My Lotus

“we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds… ”

the soon to be 40 father with his 2 month old son

The remarkably non-plussed Alexander and me.

Ooojah boo boo!

making a point

Stine and Alexander

Un famile

Choochie time

Someone’s getting tired

Well I was supposed to meet Rand at 8:00 but I just called to let him know I would be a little late, he replied in kind so now we’re looking at 8:30-ish. Which should give me enough time to perhaps rub one out. Another entry, that is. Let’s see, last night watched TV, including a very good show on PBS about Arab satellite television, specifically a show for women.

Sort of like the View, but not. 3 women in modern dress, one woman in a head scarf. They get a lot of shit from the extremists, the 3 women for the way they dress, which is quite tasteful to my western eyes. They talked about the subjugation of women, of homosexuality and of masturbation, all taboo subjects.

Not just to the Imams and such, but also over here. It was like both the right wing christians here and the right wing muslims there both read from the same script. Of course it’s a bullshit script, but you can’t tell them that. It was engrossing and I watched the whole hour with heavily lidded eyes. Soon after that I fell into a deep sleep without any zombie dreams or Justin Long (tee hee).

Woke up at 5:00 with the sun already up, so I tossed and turned and tossed again finally awaking and getting out of bed around 8:00. Did my thing, bagels for the family on the third floor, some grocery shopping for myself including my dear Stevia. Hoboken Farm boy has been rather strange as of late, rather cold people behind the counter.

So I went to Basic Foods which had a sale, and they were nice behind the counter, so points for that. It makes a difference obviously. Did laundry and since it was a nice day out I decided to break out the bicycle. I inflated the tires and rode around Hoboken’s empty streets. Swung by the Hoboken Museum and looked through a photography book of Hoboken in the 1970’s.

What a run down place Hoboken was. I moved to the Mile Square City in 1984, when it started to crawl back to ‘respectability’. I thought the book would make a nice present for Julio for his upcoming 40th birthday next week, since he was born and raised here, he would remember how it was, places he used to play around.

I also bought 2 tickets to Xanadu for Bill’s birthday which is the day after Julio’s. I got 2 seats on stage, pretty cheap too. Below $50.00 which is cheap considering Broadway shows are over $100.00. It’s a matinée on July 6, so I told him to keep that afternoon open, but not telling him what for. I’m excited about seeing the show.

That’s the Theater Fag coming out of me I guess. I don’t think I really qualify since I only see a Broadway show once every 5 years or so. Sunday in the Park with George last weekend was the exception. I also heard from Donna Rinaldi, my girlfriend from 32 years ago and Andrea Voto again.

I’d love to see them again, find out how their lives are, but that remains to be discussed down the line I suppose. Still it was a thrill. Donna was surprised I remembered her, and Andrea was surprised I remembered that she once owned a Beatles lunch box. Time to go for a pint or two. Cheers!

Here Comes The Summer

For some reason, Everything’s Gone Green by New Order is a perfect morning song for me. I don’t know why but it really gets me going, or at least it did this morning. Last night was more of the same, Daily Show, Colbert Report, Keith Olbermann. All rather hum drum I’d say.

I did watch Fear Itself, a Night Gallery, Twilight Zone type of show, scary stories for a spring night. I tried watching it last week but I didn’t care much. Last night I watched and it was surprisingly good. Good story, murderer somehow switches bodies with an innocent guy during a car accident.

Murderer behind bars with the innocent guy’s mind while the innocent guy is with his family with the murderer’s mind inside. A very good twist at the end. It wasn’t perfect but it was pretty edgy, especially when you’re rooting for the murderer in the final showdown, then the twist which I didn’t see coming, hence it being a twist.

After the news, it was bedtime for me. I’ve been sleeping really well and getting up in a good mood, ok, a decent mood a little after 6:00. I found myself this morning leaving early rather than waiting for 7:00 to come rolling around. Bus ride was pleasant and uneventful, I was reading about Hugo Chavez in the New Yorker.

I played more New Order walking across town to work and found that it’s basically a six minute walk from 42nd Street and Third Avenue to 50th Street and Third Avenue. I timed it by listening to the Perfect Kiss by New Order. I had hoped to get out of work early today, I was aiming for 2:00. That didn’t work so I left at 4:00.

Walked back across town, listening to N*E*R*D* and enjoying a nice Padron 5000 cigar. Back to the nonsense of dealing with NJ Transit. Bus driver wouldn’t open the doors for ten minutes, waiting for a line to form behind me. I read Nic Sheff’s memoir of his drug addiction, knowing that he must be alright since he lived to write the book. Such a dark tale from a young man.

It’s graduation night at Hoboken High School, boys and girls in caps and gowns milling about outside the school. I congratulated them as I passed through the crowds. Last night as I was checking my email, I received a notice from Classmates.com. I sort of signed up for it, more interested in the kids I went to grammar school with than the ones I went to high school with.

The website was always after me to upgrade my membership but I never did. Last week they sent me a password so I went onto the site. I checked out a few friends, including Donna Rinaldi, one of my two girlfriends from the past. I also received a message from Andrea Voto, who was also a pal from back then.

It’s been 32 years since I last saw her and sent her a nice message in return, giving her a quick catch up on what’s been going on in my life. Who knows where that will go, if it goes? It would be interesting to see where our lives took us after our Bicentennial graduation, or it could be quite painful. I did mention that those days were some of the happiest days of my life. But you can’t go home again, and I ain’t never going back to my old school.

Can’t.

They shut it down.