Monthly Archives: March 2009

No Easy Way Down

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It’s Friday evening. Just had 2 slices of pizza which was ok. Don’t eat pizza as much as I used to, but I didn’t feel like cooking and there was a pizzeria on the way home. Who am I kidding? There’s a pizzeria on almost every corner in Hoboken as well as real estate offices and nail salons.

I had gone out for a walk late this afternoon, went and dropped off a Netflix DVD at the post office. On the way to the post office I went to Tunes, the local record store. When I was in the Village the other day after I took that photo of Farfetched (which was actually a photograph of a mirror on the other side of the window) I went to the Virgin Mega Store.

I checked to see if they had the EP of Bon Iver, Blood Bank. They did for $12.99. 4 songs, for $12.99. Very steep for me. I checked to see if they had it at Tunes and they did, for $10.99. Still a bit much, considering it’s on iTunes for $3.99.

I asked the girl working the floor, what was the deal with the price? Does it come with a poster? Bon Iver’s phone number? She said I could open the pouch it was in and I did. There was nothing extraordinary, nothing worth the high price for an EP.

She said there might be a used copy but there wasn’t. I bought the NASA CD instead. I find myself buying more CD’s than I have in a long time but reluctant to spend that much on a 4 song EP. Years ago I wouldn’t even have blinked. Now it’s a different story.

I put the EP in my iTunes shopping cart at home. NASA is pretty good, definitely funky. The guy behind the register at Tunes recommended it as I was paying for it.

He asked me if I knew anything about NASA and I told him friends had recommended it and I saw a couple of their videos on YouTube. I said they were on Anti Records so they can’t be that bad. He didn’t know anything about the Bon Iver pricing though.

After that I wandered over to Hoboken Cigars where they were having an event for a cigar maker. I sat and read a newspaper and enjoyed a cigar and listened to some local guys talk about men fist fighting with sharks and the economy.

Of course one of them was complaining about politics in general then he started ragging on democrats in particular, minutes after. I mentioned that he should check out the flip side of what he was saying and he went ‘Oh yeah, the republicans are bad too’.

He was also stunned to learn that there was a Communist Party in this country. I told him there was also a Socialist Party as well and he basically felt they were the same thing.

I knew better than to follow that line of conversation since they cigar store owners could be Cuban and you know how the majority of Cubans in the US feel about Communism and Socialism.

I just wanted to enjoy a free cigar in peace. And the Joya De Nicaragua 1970 Robusto Grande is a good, free cigar! Viva la revolucion!

Atomic Moog 2000

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Well So Happy It’s Thursday is an apt acronym. It fits. Last night, thanks to Harpy’s heads up, telling me that Lost was a repeat I watched part of Religulous, the Bill Maher documentary about religion. Maher is predictably snarky through out and I have to give him some reluctant credit, going up to people and asking them questions that I would love to ask but never have the opportunity.

Plus I’m too nice a guy to be so snarky. And I don’t have a film crew and or some security behind the camera. It was ok. Bill came home after seeing his mother in the hospital a little before 10:00 and asked to watch Lawn Hors d’oeuvre which was fine by me. I could easily jump back into the Bill Maher DVD whenever I want to.

It was a return to the old days with Bill and I watching TV together. It was an ok episode though. Still haven’t caught on to the current cast like Bill has. He went to bed after that and I watched the Daily Show which was funny as ever with Paul Rudd as his guest. Tonight though he has James Cramer as the guest.

Jon Stewart has been riffing on CNBC and especially James Cramer, deservedly so. Tonight Bill is staying in Stuyvesant Town after visiting his mother again. He has a stress test at 7:15 in the morning and doesn’t want to be late. He didn’t ask for me to go with him, though my sister Annemarie thinks that I should.

Bill is ok with the fact that I’m not going. He knows it’s way too early for me, that it would involve me getting up around 5:30 to hop on a bus and get to 59th street for the appointment. He’d rather go by himself. I didn’t put up any argument.

Work was the quietest it’s been lately. The right wing subtenants were all out at meetings, Vivek still out. I had to send info regarding flights back from Florida yesterday for him and his business partner and I hope he got the info. I haven’t heard otherwise, not that that eases my mind.

No email, no voice mail. And since I won’t be back in the office until Monday, if there is anything to be said I should hear it then.

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I did my best to look natty today. I wore my sharkskin suit and the Ben Sherman skinny tie I bought yesterday Sort of my Mad Men look. I think I looked nice. Bill said so this afternoon when I stopped by his office building and he came down for a few minutes.

I puffed on a Padron, Siouxsie & the Banshees with Monitor all queued up as Bill and I talked about the stress test. No big deal for him though he did appreciate Annemarie’s concern. He told me not to worry about it.

Pleasant enough bus ride home, reading David Sedaris “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” which is always a macabre chuckle. Tonight promises to be quiet, just TV. Bill in Stuyvesant Town, me in Hoboken.

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