Monthly Archives: July 2008

Add Some Music to Your Day

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Damn it is hot out. Just past noon and it’s over 90 degrees inside, which mean it’s hotter outside. I just got back from the library and took a longer way home since it’s shadier. Right now I’m watching Aliens which is great.

The character of Vasquez kicks ass. She’s the tough Marine chick. I hate to see her go, she and Gorman in the vent, surrounded by oncoming aliens, blowing themselves up and taking out a few aliens in the process.

Of course it’s Sigourney Weaver’s movie and she rocks. It’s a good movie to watch. Most everyone is sweating. I did my best to hold off on putting in the air conditioner but I gave in. Right now it’s humming nicely, cooling off the bedroom.

Last night was a lot of fun. Brian Wilson at Brighton Beach. It was a free show, I met Bill there. Not too crowded at the beginning, though at the end it was a different story. Bill and I wandered around, me taking pictures of various interesting people.

One guy had a nice looking dog, the guy was a dick though. He started to complain, asking if I was taking a picture of him. I told the fat fuck, why would I do that? I said that if he gave me $5.00 I’d take his pictures before walking off telling him that his dog had better manners. That was the only trifling thing of the night and gave Bill and I something to laugh about for a few minutes.

Brian Wilson and his band were excellent. I had to explain to Bill, Brian’s story. Deaf in one ear, abused by his father, excessive drug use, overindulgence, weight problems and of course various mental problems. Bill was surprised by all that. I also explained that yes, Brian is sitting behind a keyboard, but no, he isn’t playing it. Just something Brian can hide behind.

Bill had no idea of the Brian Wilson stories, but luckily Bill knew most of the songs since it was nothing but hits. I also told Bill how the Beach Boys were the big American band for a while, top ten hits, then The Beatles hit these shores and all of a sudden there was competition that Brian was inspired by and vice versa.

It was fun to sing along with the band and the crowd to Help Me, Rhonda and California Girls among others. I gave Bill a capsule story of Good Vibrations and how it took six months to record. Also told Bill that part of the Dewey Cox story is about Brian Wilson. Bill didn’t know that but figured it had something to do with the goat.

Brian did two new songs, from his upcoming album Lucky Old Sun, one was called Southern California which seemed to be about the late Carl and Dennis Wilson. That was touching. I don’t know the name of the other song, so I guess I’ll have to wait for it to come out next month.

Bill knew some of the words to the set list too. Nice crowd too excepting the fat fuck with the nice dog which was good for a laugh. The train ride home was air conditioned, I lined up a few Beach Boys songs that the band played on the ride back, so Bill could hear them again for the first time.

Bill got off the Q train at Union Square and I rode on to Herald Square where I’d have a better chance of getting a seat on the Path train. It was interesting to give Bill a kiss good night on the train. Sometimes people disapprove, sometimes they don’t care. You can never tell. It’s a political act, kissing your same sex partner in public.

You really put yourself out there. If the wrong crowd sees it, there could be trouble. From a simple kiss between 2 men. Sometimes I’m nervous, sometimes I don’t care. I was prepared for trouble but it never happened.

I’m glad I wrote last night’s blog before since I was exhausted by the time I came home at 11:15.

It’s a beautiful yet awfully hot day. No need to go out into the world until later when it might cool off somewhat.

I was reminded of when I was growing up off from school during the summer, and my mother would have chores for my brother Brian and I to do during the day, telling us to do them in the morning before it got too hot. But being the dumb kids we were, we wouldn’t even get started until the afternoon, sometimes an hour before mom was due home from work.

And I do have to give a special mention to my brother Frank who was the biggest Beach Boys fan in our house. I wouldn’t have the appreciation or the knowledge of the Beach Boys if I hadn’t heard them so much, thanks to him when I was growing up.

Here’s some pics. Stay cool.

Brighton Beach residents

Fans queued up

Bill mid laugh. One of the things I love best about Bill is his laugh.

Brian’s in there somewhere

The Love Train over the years






Brian Wilson 2006

courtesy of wikipedia

One other thing, last night’s show was sponsored by Verizon among others(Verizon- always willing to tell the govt about what you’ve been doing). They encouraged the audience to send text messages and they were posted on screens through out the area.

Someone posted,
“We love you Brian, Love the Mansons’

Oh my god I thought that was hilarious.
Hopefully Brian didn’t see it.

Rapper’s Delight

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Well I am going to see Brian Wilson tonight at Brighton beach and I doubt if I’ll write when I get home. So I’ll write now, on the sneak while at work. Last night Olbermann (bring back Rachel Maddow!), Daily Show and the Colbert Report.

Then I started watching the Shining. So goddamned good. I saw it the first weekend it came out, in Totowa with my sister in law Elaine. We were both Stephen King fans then. She might still be, I know I’m not anymore.

But wow, still a fucking creepy movie. It gets creepier as I get older and with repeated viewings. And I could swear that the first weekend had a different ending than it did afterwards.

Hotels and motels scare me to the day. Walking down empty hallways with who knows what going on behind closed doors. I had a few dicey experiences at hotels and motels. One time when I was but a kid, my parents were invited to a cousin’s wedding out in Long Island.

My parents didn’t think it would be a good idea to leave my brother Brian and I alone so they took us with them. There was a miniature golf course near by and the motel had a swimming pool. I’m pretty sure we utilized them both.

But for me, it was the first time I saw a standing shower and I had the idea to plug up the drain to see if the water would collect high enough to swim indoors. I saw it on TV I’m sure.

I set the water on and clogged the drain and watched the water start to rise. I didn’t get in though. Oh did I get my head handed to me by my brother for that. It wasn’t my finest hour, and it was totally stupid.

I do think we had it all cleaned up before our parents came home from the reception. Maybe we didn’t and maybe we left the motel in the middle of the night in an attempt to escape paying any damage charges. I don’t remember.

The other hotel story takes place in the 1990’s. A friend of mine, (let’s call her Scratchy) was having a party at a hotel in Secaucus. Kevin Craughn and I went out there one night after working at McSwells, enticed by the concept of drugs and booze.

As we rode the elevator in the indoor atrium, I noticed a security guard eyeballing me. Kinky I thought. I made an appearance at the hotel room, partied and said I would be back in a few.

I saw the guard lingering about on another floor and we played a little cat and mouse on different floors before hooking up in a stairway. He knew what he was doing and so did I, or so I thought. I offered willingly, he wanted money.

I didn’t have any money and the whole thing started to go south. I started to leave the stairway when he said he was going to call the cops. I turned and said, ‘you’re going to call the cops on me when you were soliciting me for sex?’

He tried to turn up the figurative heat but I wasn’t having it. Unfortunately I had to play the race card. He was black, and I was white, much like I still am. I told him, ‘This is Secaucus. One of the most racist towns in Hudson County. You’re going to attempt to have me arrested for indecency? Who do you think they cops will believe? You? A black security guard or me a white patron at a hotel?’

He got the picture and let me go. Don’t fuck with me. That actually happened. Not a happy story (though it is- since I didn’t get arrested), but still a story that should hold you over until tomorrow.