Monthly Archives: May 2011

I Almost Told You That I Loved You

That’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang. In this case it’s the sound of the men working in the cigar shack. And in that case, it’s the sound of the man (me) working in the cigar shack.

Thomas and I are closing and the brain dead Bradley has headed home. It’s been a long day and I guess I can safely say the bloom is off the rose. The Good will and good feeling that I had from last Sunday (Ian Hunter/Hyman Gross) to Bill singing the national Anthem at CitiField before the NY Mets/San Francisco Giants game on Tuesday has all but dissipated.

Mainly it was from dealing with the weekend bus riders this morning, truly a misbegotten class. I was dissed twice today by a customer who shook both Thomas’ and the brain dead Bradley’s hands but not mine.

He did the same thing a few hours later when leaving the man cave in the cigar shack. Shook two customers hands there, Dexter and Sherman and once again did not offer his hand and to tell you the truth I didn’t offer mine either. Don’t really care for that Luke character.

And judging by the way he treated his pregnant wife, he’s probably a tiny terror at home as well. Not my problem but I do look forward to when it’s just me manning the fort one night and he will come in all full of himself and I will be standing there with a pin to prick the overinflated ego of the little prick.

Tomorrow is Sunday and so I will not be writing which is nice I think. Looking forward to Saturday Night Live tonight, to see how they will handle the whole Osama Bin Laden thing.

Laundry tomorrow, which I may start tonight when I get home. That actually seems doubtful since I will just finishing writing this and then watching the telly. Though my intentions are good, my follow through is crap. That’s the story of my life, so far at least.

Now I am home after quite a long day. Thomas and I had a few laughs, he is proving himself to be a good comic foil. He does have a good sense of humor and he gets along with the brain dead Bradley and me.

I’ve been training him on closing so perhaps one day down the line, he will be actually closing and I will be able to leave the cigar shack at 9:00 which would be very nice. He did well tonight, a lot better than I did when I was closing.

Perhaps I am a better teacher than I thought, at least better than the teachers I had when I was being trained. The bus ride home was fine until we got to Hoboken, young good looking twenty somethings getting on board the 126 heading to downtown Hoboken and hitting the bars.

Good looking yes, but really dumb. I do not like most of the riders of the bus on the weekends, or anytime really. But that’s behind me now, now that I am home. That’s it for me. No writing tomorrow. Not doing laundry tonight. Cheers.

that's my Bill







weekend weakend bus riders

I Am Not A Robot

It’s been a pretty good day so far. Hopefully I am not rushing things. I didn’t sleep that well last night and neither did Bill. Lots of tossing and turning, no funny stuff on our end. Bill was up and out at 6:30. I know that because I asked him what time it was when he was leaving after kissing me goodbye.

I was out of bed a while later, puttering around and doing my usual breakfast routine. Soon I was on the street and headed to the bibliothèque to pick up the special edition of what may be David Bowie’s finest work, Station to Station, the album he doesn’t remember making, so strung out on cocaine he was reported to be.

And it’s a fantastic six song selection. The special edition is remastered from analogue tapes and also has two extra discs of a live show from the Nassau Coliseum in 1976, which is also supposed to be one of his finest sets.

After the bibliothèque, I made my way to the bus stop, once again letting the 10:15 bus go by as I waited for the 10:30 so I could finish the cigar I had started last night. At the next stop my neighbor from the fourth floor came aboard, as she’s been doing frequently the past couple of weeks.

She told me that she saw Bill’s video on YouTube and was very impressed. I gave her the rundown of how it was behind the scenes. Then somehow we got onto the subject of meeting celebrities.

I told her my David Bowie stories, my Mick Jones of the Clash story and how I would keep an eye out for Paul McCartney, occasionally walking by his lawyer’s offices, Eastman & Eastman on my way to work some mornings.

Of course I never met Macca, you would have probably heard my scream if I did. I told her of meeting Davey Johnstone from the Elton John band a few years ago and Deborah told me of seeing Elton on the street a week or so ago.

We also discussed Bruce at length, I told her of my brother and sister in law’s story of the night at the Bottom Line and how years later my brother Frank and I inquired about purchasing a copy of the photograph, which was described by the Bottom Line staffer, ‘The one where Bruce is eating out that chick’.

To which Frank replied ‘Hey that’s my wife’. Needless to say we did not buy the photograph. It did turn up in a Dave Marsh book years later, Bruce’s ass sticking in the air and my sister in law Elaine with a look of near orgasmic ecstasy on her face.

We got to the bus terminal and Deborah went her way and I went mine. I made my way to the cigar shack area, getting a coffee and picking up the latest Uncut magazine, I picked up Mojo earlier in the week.

As I neared the cigar shack I was talking to Bill on the phone and I passed someone who looked familiar. I asked Bill to hold on a second and then said loud enough for the familiar guy to hear me say, ‘Abe’. The guy stopped and it was Abe Laboriel Jr., the drummer for Paul McCartney.

Super nice guy, we shook hands and chatted and he posed for a picture with me. He also told me that he and Paul and the band were off to Peru tomorrow. We parted ways and I told him to keep rockin’ and he replied that he would try.

It’s been a pretty good day I think.




Abe Laboriel Jr.

Abe Laboriel Jr & some geezer


Abe Laboriel Jr & some geezer