July | 2012 | johnozed

Saturday in Hoboken. Not much going on again. Summer weekend, plenty of parking. Been a slow kind of day, out and about. Phones not exactly ringing off the hook. Last night was alright, didn’t do much. I thought about walking through the feast but since everything was mostly damp decided to stay in and watch the DVD of George Harrison Living in the Material World. Bill came home after doing his stage manager gig and had his nose in his laptop editing over 100 photographs of the cast and crew of the latest production he is currently working on in Manhattan.

No bus driving for him for the next month, since this production is part of the Fringe Festival. Bill stayed up later than I did last night and slept better than I did since I had some difficulty staying asleep. The air conditioner was off most of the night and the window was open a bit so perhaps it was people going home and being loud on their way. Despite living on the fifth floor, the street is so quiet that I can hear most conversations as people stroll past my building. I suppose I did the same thing back in the day.

Since nothing else happened today, let’s look back at July 21 over the past few years shall we?

July 21, 2011- A Thursday, Working at the cigar shack with Jerry Vale and a hung over possum. The possum was somewhat humorous and Jerry Vale being new at that time made some mistakes I had to correct. Jerry Vale and I did not really get along on this day. Another hot day.

July 21, 2010- A Wednesday, Annemarie flew back to California that morning. Another cigar shack day. I spent the day working with Calvin, before I changed his name to Zack. Exactly! I also noticed I was losing weight. Shirts that were once tight around the neck were no longer so tight. Bill was watching Lawn Hors d’œuvre and dealing with a bottle of liquid soap that opened in his bag. A hot day again. It’s July after all.

July 21, 2009- A Tuesday and unemployed. Déjà vu! Watching Countdown with Keith Olbermann without Keith Olbermann. Still feeling the good vibes from seeing Macca at CitiField the week before. Bill’s hamstring was messed up and it was raining.

July 21, 2008- A Monday and a heatwave. Watching In His Life: the John Lennon Story, a drama about Lennon’s early years. Also watched Generation Kill which I have no recollection of. I wrote about my dear friend Miriam and working at Skyline Studios while being immersed in reggae thanks to Miriam and Marcus and assorted Rastafarians we were friends with.

July 21, 2007- A Saturday. The night before spent with Bill singing the National Anthem before the NY Liberty basketball game at Madison Square Garden. Bill sang phenomenally and looked fantastic as the NY Liberty lost the game. I even quoted a Laurie Anderson bit. I saw good old Roger Johansen and congratulated him on his July 7 wedding.

July 21, 2006- A Friday and working at McMann and Tate, unhappy enough that I went on an interview near Wanker Banker. I could have gotten the job but they would not cover Bill under the benefits. My network card was on the fritz and Rand was in San Diego so I didn’t have any immediate solution. I’m pretty sure that I wrote the entry on Bill’s mac. And Juan was worried that there was no entry, so worried that he had to check in before he went to bed that night.

That’s it. Let’s face July 21 is a boring day no matter the year. Unless Bill is singing the National Anthem.

Last Saturday

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Today

04 Sound And Vision

It’s been a dreary wet Friday. I did not sleep so well last night and so waking up at the usual time was not going to happen. With the lack of a good night’s sleep and the rain coming down outside, it made getting out of bed a bit of a chore. Still I got it together a little after 9:00 this morning and heading to the kitchen I turned on the TV, surprised to see the dreaded Matt Lauer on around 9:15. There he was talking about a shooting as I made the coffee before jumping in the shower.

A few minutes later I was awake and drying myself off as the coffee maker did its thing. I turned up the volume on the TV, deciding to get my news from someone other than Matt Lauer and found out about the shooting in Aurora, Colorado. 12 dead, maybe 50, maybe 71 injured at a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie. Some nut job with not just one gun but a few including an assault rifle, went into a crowded movie theater, opened up a smoke canister and just started taking people out. Randomly and casually shooting people as they tried to make it to the exits.

Some bullets even went through the theater wall and into the theater next door. Some people thought it was a promotional thing, a guy all dressed up in armor and whatnot bursting through a door and causing mayhem. It wasn’t mayhem, it was carnage, a massacre. Terrible, just terrible. I hate guns. I have never touched a real gun in my life, I don’t like them at all. I have some police officer friends, one time hanging out with one in my Weehawken apartment, his gun on the table. I could touch it he said and I refused.

I did not even like it in the apartment. Bill has a prop gun here and it is so realistic, it freaked me out so much that I had to leave the room. Of course being in a four room railroad apartment I didn’t go far, but still I had to get away from it. I think prior to 1980 I was fairly ambivalent to guns. After the brutal murder of John Lennon in December 1980 I was steadfastly against guns, donating money to various gun control organizations. Things have certainly and steadily gotten worse since that horrible night almost 30 years ago.

I do have some friends that are gun enthusiasts, card carrying members of the National Rifle Association. Usually I am dumbfounded when I hear of my friend’s memberships since I consider them to be more often than not- intelligent. Now we have a 24 year old gun enthusiast/mad man who basically had an arsenal (6000 rounds bought over the internet) of sorts killing men women and children for no good reason. Already there have been murmurs of how it would have turned out differently is someone else had a gun in that darkened smoky movie theater.

Yes it could have turned out differently. There could have been more dead and more wounded. For some people the problem that there are too many guns and are too readily available can be easily solved by introducing more guns. I don’t know if that can be called logic, but it certainly escapes me. Unfortunately, I am somewhat inured to this type of news, hence my hearing about a shooting and going about my usual morning business. Gabrielle Giffords and those victims in Tucson, Columbine. There seems to be too many to mention actually. Everyday offers a new tragedy somewhere in the world and sometimes it is here on our own doorstep.

You send your kids to school, you don’t expect them to be shot.
You go to a midnight movie, you don’t expect to be shot.

America, so much to answer for…

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