June | 2012 | johnozed

Oh it has been one of those days. Once again it has been quite hot, 98 degrees. I spent most of the day inside, fighting the blues mostly. The past two days have been fairly active what with bicycle riding on Tuesday and hitting the galleries in Chelsea yesterday. Today there was none of that. Too damn hot basically. I kept busy, I did some laundry and shaved. I think this weekend I will go and get my hair chopped off since it is so damn thick it’s like wearing a fur hat and makes for a sweaty night of sleep.

According to Bill I have been quite chatty as I sleep at night. He keeps saying that he will record what I say and I do want to know what it is that I say, but on the other hand perhaps I don’t. Last night I had a long conversation with myself apparently as I lay under a fan. And it was so hot that I woke up before the alarm clock after Bill gave his farewell kiss to me. I stumbled about the hot apartment, finding the cool water to be just as good as a cup of coffee which was brewing in the next room.

I did some laundry and where it sometimes takes 24 hours for it to dry on the racks, today it was merely a few hours before the clothes were wearable once more. A trip to the supermarket, (the closer one) and the dry cleaners have been my only excursions outdoors today. That is going to change in about a half hour when I go see a few bands with people that I know playing in them, by the Hudson River as part of the summer series that Hoboken has each year.

I expect that there will be a few people I know watching the bands play. A Thousand Pities, East of Venus and Yung Wu are playing and my former guitar teacher is in two of the bands. The other band features some of the Feelies including everyone’s favorite drummer, Stan. It should be fun and believe me, I will be more than happy to be outside, hoping it will be cooler by the river. I finally started reading the Los Bros. Hernandez books. I was going to return them on my way to the show, but I glanced inside the Maggie the Mechanic book and was immediately drawn back in.

I do have to stop at the bibliothèque anyhow. A DVD of the Elephant Man is waiting for me as is the latest Me’Shell Ndegeocello CD. I was reading about John Hurt the other day, Chesterfield John Hurt, not Mississippi John Hurt and figured The elephant Man might be good for the soul. I had seen it already and also saw it on Broadway when David Bowie played the title role. We had first row seats for that and during the curtain call the fans behind us gave David a bouquet, which David was kind enough to thank us for, to the dismay of the fans who actually gave him the flowers.

I may write more later after the show but for now, this is it.

A Gallon of Gas

Man it’s a hot hot hot day. Quite a scorcher. And I woke up at a very good hour this morning without the sound of the street being torn up. It was the alarm clock that did the job. And I knew that I had better get it together in case they turn off the water again. So it was a jump in the shower after making a pot of coffee and getting a bowl of cereal all set. After that it was the usual thing, watching the Daily Show and The Colbert Report and then alternating between Gilmore Girls repeats & The View. I try to catch the news at noon before going out.

Of course I would be willing to give up the news at noon should the need arise. But it hasn’t arisen as of yet, so I watch the news until the weather report then I generally head out for the afternoon. And today I had decided to check out the art galleries in Chelsea once again. It had been a while since I had last been and since it was going to be quite hot, in my mind I mapped out the streets that would have the most shade.

It didn’t really matter since I still sweated like a horse. I did have the foresight to take the bus to the Path train, getting as much air conditioning as I could. It worked out so much that I was out in the hot air for merely a moment before jumping on the Path train where I once again sat in air conditioned comfort. I was definitely cruised on my ride to 14th Street by a guy who was falling asleep, then he’d wake up and give me the once over before drifting off. So it goes.

I walked on the south side of 14th Street as did everyone else and their Aunt Tillie. Still there weren’t that many people out and I finished a cigar that I started on the other side of the Hudson River. I had only one show on the agenda, since I missed the Cindy Sherman show which closed two weeks ago. I think there is still a retrospective of Cindy Sherman at MoMA but that isn’t exactly my favorite museum so I keep putting it off. And on a side note there is a plan to see the Keith Haring exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum with RoDa before it ends July 8.

I wanted to see the Richard Avedon show at the Gagosian gallery and was relieved at how air conditioned it was, but put off by the security the show has. No need to ask if I could take photographs since that was why there was a guard on every mural. There were big murals of Allen Ginsburg, The Chicago Seven, some Military bigwigs and the Warhol Factory crowd. I had never seen Candy Darling’s cock before, I didn’t even think she had a cock. Everyone has seen Joe Dallesandro’s cock before so that was nothing new. And everyone including Aunt Tillie has seen Allen Ginsburg’s cock already.

After Gagosian is was just wandering around. I walked into the 40OWLS Gallery and liked what I saw there, three exhibitions. The woman who worked there was quite nice and outgoing which is a change from the usual gallery scene, where they just sit at the front desk looking at computer screens. Most galleries don’t mind if you take photographs and sometimes I just start shooting, sometimes I ask. I saw a fun Claus Oldenburg which screamed to have it photo taken but after two snapshots I was told that it wasn’t allowed. I was tempted to sneak a photo of a large Swiss Army Knife for Jimmy Seltzer, but decided not to, lest the effete gallery person get all huffy.

After a few hours of that it was time to go home so I walked up to the bus terminal once again walking on the shady side of the street. And that’s about it. It is still quite hot out, and I am not doing much moving or anything else. Bill has come and gone to his physical therapy and I am looking forward to a low key evening.

Again.