Monthly Archives: December 2009

Black Slacks

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Well it’s a pretty cold Thursday. But I enjoyed it. Been an Ian Dury & the Blockheads day. Spent some time wandering around Hoboken and listening to New Boots and Panties on the iPod. Also downloaded a few rockabilly tracks and several disco tracks since if you’re on my gift list, burned CD’s is what you’ll be getting.

It’s been fun. Some Link Wray, Robert Gordon, Bill Justis, Eddie Cochran and Sweet Gene Vincent on the rockabilly side. France Joli, Alicia Bridges, KC & the Sunshine Band and the Trammps on the disco side.

All promising a good time, some songs that I heard the other night at the McSwells Christmas party, some songs that I last heard on WPIX-FM at the end of the 1970’s. I enjoyed playing them all, loud this afternoon.

Last night was quite nice. Warm and cozy. Bill made it home in time to catch the Simpsons episode which featured Lisa on a bus.

Bill is currently driving me crazy since he has a Droid now and is texting like mad while riding the 126 bus.

It was one of my favorite episodes it involved Homer and Lisa breaking into the Isis exhibit at the Springfield Museum. It’s all about taking stupid risks. One of my favorites.

Bill hoped that Lawn Hors d’œuvre would be on but it wasn’t. I decided to show him something that I recorded the other night, Voices of the People with Howard Zinn. Oh it was as good as expected, as powerful too. Bill definitely was into it. Several actors that he admires were in it, Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman, Viggo Mortensen and Jasmine Guy to name but a few.

I recorded it, so it wound up being about 90 minutes rather than the 2 hours originally broadcast. Blip-verts! Bill went to bed soon after that and I of course stayed up and watched most of Craig Ferguson. I also started a Facebook group for Hoboken Daily News. An attempt to bolster their spirits since they’re a bit afraid now that 7 Eleven opened up across the street from them.

Slept soundly after that. Woke up and started the downloading. Walked around listening to Ian Dury, stopped by the Guitar Bar and picked up some mail from Jim for the post office. I was mailing some holiday cards so it was a nice thing to do.

I stopped by Hoboken Daily News and told the proprietor Andy about the Facebook group and he was thrilled even though he didn’t know what Facebook was. I took some more pictures and posted them to the Facebook group. Bought some CD’s at CVS for the burning I continue to do.

Came home and while burning some reggae CD’s for my nephew Earl I decided to watch Synecdoche, New York. It’s written by Charlie Kaufman who also wrote Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. Charlie Kaufman also directed. It’s really quite a movie.

Unnerving and unsettling and also very engrossing.

It’s funny, I’ve been told I look like Phillip Seymour Hoffman and since I also look like by brother Frank quite a bit, it’s safe to say that if A=B, and B=C, then A=C. The funny part and by funny I mean strange, was the fact that so much of the first part of the film reminded me of Frank and his current ailments.

Great cast including Catherine Keener, Dianne Weist, Samantha Morton, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Michelle Williams to name but a few. I definitely intend on seeing it again there is a lot involved in watching it and I probably missed some of it since I was also burning CD’s. It has so many layers involved, I highly recommend it!

12.17.09 Hoboken Daily News 010

Dracula’s Lament

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Well I was all set to start writing about a half hour ago but I started playing So It Goes by Nick Lowe on guitar, then wound up playing Stereotypes by the Specials and then I went into Give A Little Bit by Supertramp and then finally found myself playing The True Wheel by Brian Eno and I was in heaven.

So many changes but so much fun to play. A welcome distraction. My callouses are coming along quite nicely and my index finger on the left hand isn’t as cramped as it had been. I haven’t been playing as much as I would have liked to but apparently not playing had served me well.

This evening from Bill: You know baby, you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
Me: Aw I agree baby, I feel the same way. I AM the best thing that’s ever happened to you.

Last night I went down to Julio’s apartment and hung out. Like old times, we had a bottle of wine and talked. Stine and Alexander are in Denmark and Julio is flying out there on Saturday, not coming back until next year. And by next year, I mean in a couple of weeks.

It was good last night, we talked about McSwells and how he doesn’t ever want to go there again. Not even for a drink, but of course I am always game to hoist a pint or two with Rand.

We also talked about seeing Macca at both Madison Square Garden and CitiField. He felt the Garden was more intimate but the sound and sightlines at CitiField were much better.

Julio also had 2 Christmas presents for me, which was an awfully nice surprise.

One was a biography on Paul McCartney that just came out. I had read the reviews and they were quite good. It’s by Peter Ames Carlin and not a puff piece. I don’t think I’ve ever read a McCartney bio, except for the authorized one by Barry Miles, Many Years from Now.

That was good, but Paul was directly involved in it. The one that Julio gave me last night mentions how Paul has been rewriting the past to suit his needs, like saying that he basically wrote In My Life. Julio hoped I didn’t have it and I didn’t.

He also hoped I didn’t have the other book, John Lennon : The Life by Phillip Norman. I didn’t have that either but I did take it out of the library earlier this year and read it. Julio was dismayed by that but also to be on the safe side, gave me gift receipts for both books.

I did take a walk to Barnes and Noble in Hoboken this afternoon looking to exchange the Lennon book, but they had a meager selection. I could go to another Barnes and Noble in the city and exchange it there, but it’s such a lovely picture of John on the cover and not wanting to disappoint Julio, I think I will end up keeping it.

But I may go into the city and just take a look see. There is that Beatles book scheduled to be released in June 2010, You Never Give Me Your Money but I don’t think I can or should wait that long.

I came upstairs and stayed up to watch Craig Ferguson’s 1000th broadcast. I’m really enjoying his show and last night was very funny. No Craig Ferguson, he had puppets instead, interviewing the guests and also had Jason Segal and Nathan Danforth with The Broken West featuring Ferguson’s Dracula puppet singing Dracula’s Lament from Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

So sweet that I posted it on Facebook. Just something really nice and Jason Segal is cute too. And now I am posting it here too…