Monthly Archives: July 2009

Dig It

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Well this is the second attempt. Lost the first set. Word Press being difficult. Last night watched Bananas by Woody Allen with Bill.

It was ok, I had seen it a few times already. Bill liked it a lot, having seen it only for the first time. It left me wondering if a movie that was funny in 1971 be funny almost 40 years later?

It did have it moments but overall it doesn’t hold up. I can see why Woody Allen wanted to make movies that were different than that.

After that I went to bed since I had to get up early for a trip to Sandy Hook with Annemarie. I made arrangements with Julio to get my beach gear back. I’m sure Julio would have liked to go but he has familial duties for the next 20 years.

Anne and I were on the road after I made some sandwiches and it was smooth sailing until we got to the bridge on Route 36. They’re making a new bridge and everything stopped for major merges.

We did make it into Sandy Hook at 11:00 after leaving Hoboken at 9:00. We would have been earlier if it wasn’t for the traffic.

It wasn’t too crowded when we got to the last beach, but it soon started filling up. All day long people were trickling in.

We had plans to see Bill sing at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan at 7:00 so we left the beach at 4:00. We certainly did not expect the traffic on the way out of the park. For an hour, we inched towards Route 36.

We were soon on the highway to the Parkway to the Turnpike. Approaching the Holland Tunnel it was more bumper to bumper so I navigated Annemarie through the streets of Jersey City.

We were going to get back to my apartment, change clothes and take the Path train in, but by 6:30 that seemed highly unlikely. I suggested we just head right into the city.

Anne was a bit mortified at wearing the beach clothes to a nightclub but I assured her that it would be ok, and it was. She followed my directions for driving across town on Canal Street and then up Lafayette Street.

We found a spot on Lafayette a block away and found a cozy corner in the club just as the compère, Rome Neal was making his introductions.

There were a few excellent singers, but of course we were there for Bill who sung 2 beautiful songs. Anne and I split some brushetta and I had 2 Stella Artois to Anne’s 1.

We even made it to the party after the show, enjoying some banana pudding that Rome Neal made and satisfied our hunger.

Now Anne is back in Garfield, Bill is in bed and I’m writing this for the second time. I’m at least glad I was able to take a shower and change out of the bathing suit I had been wearing for the past 15 hours.

Now it’s time for sleep. No pics tonight, no time. I will post the beach pics tomorrow and also post 2 videos I shot from the show tomorrow on YouTube under the log in johnotoole99.

Big Sister’s Clothes

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Well this is a first. I’m writing and my sister is about four feet away from me. She’s watching the first episode of True Blood from this season. Of course she’s hooked. It’s quite good.

Earl isn’t here. He went upstate with his father Rex, to see Rex’s mother and sister. It’s been a nice day. Almost went bicycle riding, nothing too much, just local.

I arranged for Annemarie to borrow Stine’s bike, but it looked like it was going to rain so we just walked around Hoboken.

Basically covered the waterfront from 14th Street down to the train station. A nice walk with a balmy breeze. Lot’s to talk about too.

My sister is just great and one of my closest friends. Hard to believe but I’ve known her all my life. It was a lot like when I was growing up, Annemarie and I would go out for long bike rides, not telling anyone where we were going, just riding through Rochelle Park, Saddle Brook and Paramus.

This was before cellphones so there would be no way for anyone to get in touch with us if they had to.

Other times during the summer, Anne would take me for a day trip to Darlington County Park up by Mahwah. She’d drive in her red Volkswagen Beetle and we’d spend the day just swimming, paddle boating and listening to music.

Anne moved up to New Hampshire a few years later and I would sometimes take a bus trip up there for a week. We would go blueberry picking, or a trip to Maine to go swimming in the ocean or a nearby lake.

Sometimes we would drive to Brattleboro, Vermont which was the cultural hub of the area. We saw the movie Annie there as well as the Wrath of Khan.

Sometimes I get the two confused.

Wrath of Khan features a space orphan having some sort of insect being inserted into it’s ear, didn’t it? Great songs too. In Brattleboro, I would also stock up on used vinyl records, buying Beatles records with the original Capitol Records label, with the rainbow around the edges of the label for $1.00 a piece.

Annemarie would drive me back to Lodi, a long drive with me playing the DJ which is probably where I got that started. I was just discovering a lot of the music that Annemarie, Frank and Brian were playing when they were growing up.

Not so much Emerson Lake and Palmer though, sorry Brian.

It was a great day yesterday and today was just as good except for Earl being away from us with his dad. But Annemarie, who spends so much time with Rex and Earl in Arcata, welcomes the time apart and I was glad she chose to spend that time with me.

I’m quite lucky to have such a great sister and a good friend. And I’m not writing that because she’s sitting four feet away from me.

Well now I just walked her to her rental white Volkswagen Beetle and I could wright just about anything that I want to. And I will.

Best. Sister. Ever.

Annemarie!

Annemarie!


Me!

Me!