It’s later than usual. And the desire…the need…the urge to write is persistent. I just had a nice phone call with my dear friend Billie, from Washington DC. We’ve known each other for about 40 years now and a few phone calls do the trick of reconnecting. Lots of laughs.

I sent a video of Malcolm McLaren’s Madame Butterfly via texting and was going to text him a bit about the song. I realized that he had the phone in his hand and I should call him instead of texting. Old school Alexander Graham Bell style.

He had long dreadlocks for about 30 years and in the past April, decided it was time for a change. Chopped off the dreads and shaved his head. Quite a change but he felt it was necessary. And also being the age he is, just a couple more than me means you really don’t care what other people think.

I told Billie about two friends of Bill and me who did mushrooms at the beach one night a while ago. One of them was feeling some intensity which led the other more experienced tripper to alleviate the situation and did his best imitation of the B-52’s Fred Schnieder singing Junebug from the Cosmic Thing LP.

It seemed to work so he then sang bits of Malcolm McLaren’s Madame Butterfly. From what I was told things chilled out considerably.

I also brought up a story from my past, from when I was hanging out with Guyanese Rastas in the nineties. I decided to try and grow my own dreadlocks and for a few days, twisted my straight blondish hair with beeswax. I thought I looked cool but really? No one told me otherwise.

I also developed a rash all over my body. One day I was in midtown Manhattan during the summer. It was feeling like 100 degrees. The beeswax in my hair was melting. I had enough and went to a Korean barber that I went to every now and then.

It was a front for a massage parlor or what is called today, sex trafficking. When you walk through the door, if you make a right, you’re in the barbershop. If you go left, you see women in bikinis on a couch. I of course went to the barbershop. The barber did not know much English so I pointed to a photo on the mirror and said ‘This please’.

I felt better. The rash went away within 24 hours. It led me to believe that I was more than likely allergic to beeswax. But then again what do I know, besides cutting off the hair with beeswax and the rash going away?

It is a nice summer night tonight. A documentary on John Lennon and Yoko Ono is being DVR’d on PBS. Of course, it’s during the pledge drive, so it’s a money beg. If I had the dough I would but all things considered, I really shouldn’t. You should though. Be my guest.