Monthly Archives: April 2010

Touch

It’s a bit cooler out today. Not necessarily attitude wise but temperature wise. As in degrees, meaning °. Gray skies, supposed to rain the next couple of days.

I took Tales of the City on DVD from the bibliothèque. In a strange way, I was hoping to use this blog the way Armistead Maupin used his San Francisco newspaper column to create the characters of Barbary Lane.

I loved the mini series when it was on PBS. I was living on Jane Street in Weehawken when it was originally broadcast. Such happy times on occasion there and I sometimes thought that there was the potential for the Jane Street residents to live a life akin to Tales from the City.

We were interesting enough and creative enough. The landlady’s daughter working for Penthouse magazine, her undiagnosed Autistic brother being a mail room drone downtown somewhere. There was me and William, he being super creative, me working in the music studios and People magazine.

Could have been something. But I moved out (after 11 years) and within a year later William, his brother Chaz and Chaz wife Kathe, all tossed out when the landlords, Ms Penthouse and Mr Autistic decided to sell without even offering it to William or Chaz who would have bought it.

I could still write about that place, and with the passage of time I could make it a semi fictional account which would have been my original modus operandi.

I did wander around Hoboken for a while and ran in Tariq who did not win the lottery. Living his life the way he sees fit, the temperatures were in the 60-70° range, today being around 50° he decides to come out.

I showed him 2 new songs, Instant Karma and Don’t Play that Song and he was impressed. But it was cold and he wound up walking me towards the library before he headed off to his girlfriend’s studio.

Tonight I plan on going to Maxwells (yes Maxwells. I am being nice) to see Chris Repella’s band Glass Trees. They played last month in Jersey City, but Maxwells is so much closer.

And they’re going on between 9:30 and 10:00 so that means I will be home at a decent hour. Plus I’ve never seen Chris play, even though she’s been in a few East Village/Pyramid Club bands. So it should be nice to get out and about.

Tomorrow is Record Store Day so go out and pay your local record store a visit. I went to Tunes this week where I bought the Pretenders The Isle of View CD for $1.99. Sort of The Pretenders Unplugged.

And tomorrow I am planning on going to Thompson Street to see the Budos Band play a set at a local record store,.Generation Records which I think is between West 3rd and Bleecker St at 2:00PM. Of course it will depend on the weather.

For now, for me, it’s all about the laundry.

Bill is driving to Atlantic City this weekend, so he’s happy and I’m happy. So it’s all good.

Instant Karma

What a difference a day makes. 24 little hours. Yesterday I went out to play guitar and it didn’t go as well as usual. Just couldn’t connect. Everything was a bit off with my playing.

Frustrated was the operative word. After 90 minutes I gave up and came home.

Today I was out for over 2 hours and it went well. I was very comfortable playing ‘Don’t Play That Song’ by Aretha Franklin. Mainly the verses, not so much the break. Would have been fun if there was someone to sing with but there wasn’t.

No sign of Tariq this week either. Guess he won the lottery. Shirley Jackson anyone?

I also played Instant Karma and Blue Moon of Kentucky. I was a hit with a few toddlers and made myself a buck. Also made the acquaintance of the drunken Angel who tried to accompany me on harmonica. He insisted he was more of a drummer and had only been playing the harmonica for a month now.

Quite a few men walking around smoking cigars too.

And Bill’s mood had greatly improved from the night before. He came home and said he was feeling a lot better than the previous evening. He was much more pleasant to be around. Things had definitely turned around for him somewhat. We all have our days like that. I know I have.

He was puttering about while I watched Modern Family & Cougartown. He asked me to record Ugly Betty while he went and worked on his computer. I asked that he didn’t beat up the Mac like he did the other night.

And Ugly Betty was sweet. A nice series finale. All loose ends tied up. Betty was a stunner with her braces off and everyone made nice at the end. Sad to see it go, even I lost interest when ABC moved the around over and over.

When I realized it was going to end I made sure to catch the remaining episodes. Justin coming out of the closet was sweet last week, incredibly well done, funny and touching. Of course the week before I applauded when he kissed Austin, the boy he liked.

Betty moved on, taking a job in London. She didn’t make it with Daniel, but he did follow her to London, leaving Mode magazine in the hands of Wilhelmina. It all ended happily ever after. Bill was up late doing whatever it was he was doing.

He went to sleep and wore his sleep apnea mask which while nice was making the sound of mewling kittens. The air escaping through the gel seal between his face and the mask. Kept me up and I even pleaded with him to take the mask off.

After a half hour I finally fell asleep. He was gone this morning, leaving me with a good bye kiss. He called earlier, I think he figured out that I wasn’t about to call him. Not going to take the chance of him having a bad day at work.

Plus I really didn’t have anything to say, so that would be a waste of time for the both of us. Just playing it safe.
4.13.10 Hoboken folks 003
4.13.10 Hoboken folks 005
4.13.10 Hoboken folks 006
4.13.10 Hoboken folks 009
guitar

pre haircut

pre haircut