Author Archives: johnozed

About johnozed

I'm 50+ years old, 210-ish#, 6'2", reddish blonde, blue eyes with glasses (and without) masculine, funny, relatively intelligent, enjoy the company of assorted friends and family especially sordid friends and family. I love music, reading, writing, conversing, laughing, going to films, shows, concerts and smoking cigars. And I also enjoy looking nice in a suit and tie. Looking more like Lewis Lapham than Tom Wolfe. I'm sure there is more, but we'll just have to find out when I write about it. In a lifetime relationship with partner Bill Vila.

Tone Zone

Leave a reply

I think I set myself up. Yesterday, I was feeling rather upbeat and positive, today was the test. Last night Bill actually stayed up and watched Weeds. Well he was watching the Olympics and at 10:00 he switched over to Weeds, which was a bit gross yet funny. And Shane is creepy. Bill was grossed out.

Then it was back to the Olympics, Bill caught what’s his name win another gold medal then he was off to bed, me following not too long after that. Woke up a little before 6:00 this morning, and definitely did not want to get out of bed, but still I mustered and headed into the shower.

I continued with the latest routine of heading out before 7:00. Haven’t seen Casey on the bus the past two days, so I’ve just been reading the New Yorker. Headed across town listening to the Raybeats. I was in a decent mood and got to the office a little before 8:00.

Yesterday the phones were a bit fucked up and today was the same. I left work early yesterday and headed to the NYU Dental School and picked up my X-rays and charts to resubmit to Oxford insurance who denied my initial claim. The phones were working when I left.

I made the phone calls on my cellphone to find out what exactly is going on with the phone system. Luckily the company I work for doesn’t do stock trading, they work in mergers and acquisitions so the phones weren’t interfering with the job, calls could still be made on the phones.

Some drama going on with a former partner of Vivek, the managing director and various visitors were showing up, with me only finding out about a minute before. That was nerve wracking and the phones kept crapping out and causing an adverse effect on access to the internet. I could feel whatever positivity draining from my body.

I got through it though, no blood on my hands. Walked across town, had a Padron and listened to the Raybeats again. Nice bus ride, almost finished with Rip It Up by Simon Reynolds. It’s gotten to the point of New Pop, Culture Club, Flock of Seagulls and Spandau Ballet. Just as well since I have those 2 Alan Bennett books waiting for me. Not to mention the countless books I have collected over the years.

Saw Jeff at Empire Coffee which was pleasant. We both chatted about not going to All Points West and had a laugh at the holding pen for drinkers. The allotment of 5 beers over 10 hours seemed ridiculous. It was also a lot better than the last time I was in Empire Coffee.

I interrupted the workers hanging out and I ordered my usual, Brazilian French Roast. The girl said, Brazilian American Roast? I said no, the Brazilian French Roast. ‘So, 3 pounds of the American Roast?’ This went on for a minute or two. I knew I didn’t have aphasia, she was merely daft.

Good to be home now, but I didn’t exactly get a chance to rest since I got a phone call from the office IP, about having to shut down the system for some tests. I tried calling to no avail and finally gave the go ahead to shut it down so they could do what they had to do.

Should make for an interesting morning I think.

The Ghost In You

4 Replies

It’s back to work and back to reality for me today. Yes I am back on planet Earth. Last night’s entry was difficult. I posted, Harpy commented, I unpublished it, then Harpy pointed out the typos which I corrected and republished. I used to do that sort of thing back in the 1980’s, a lot of acid. Jet and I had a sheet with Conan the Barbarian on it, which Jet called magic.

We’d nibble at the magic for what seemed like weeks, I would get a kick out of going to McSwells and hanging out with friends most of the time tripping. I definitely enjoy the experience with Juan over the weekend, a little ego destruction. Really cleared the deck of hang ups and whatnot and I feel more clear headed and reasonable now.

It was ironic after being with my brother Frank this weekend, him telling me tales of his wayward youth, mainly with him tripping a lot of the time. And here I was, hours after being dropped off by Frank, getting on the bus and taking another trip. No regrets on my end and as far as I know, Juan had none either.

As I was wandering the omniverse Saturday night/Sunday morning I was thinking about what I would write for the blog, but it didn’t exactly come out as planned. I didn’t want to be too obvious, not that there are children reading this and then telling their parents, that they want to do acid since they read about it on a blog.

That would be funny to me at least, a child reading this blog. Now if I produced some bomb making instructions, that would be cause for concern. There was the experimental influence back in the day, The Beatles, William S. Burroughs among others who dabbled becoming addled.

Also in the early 1980’s there seemed to be a resurgence in the use of hallucinogens. The Rain Parade, The Three O’Clock and others from LA while other bands from all over seemed to be making psychedelic music. And there were a few other people at McSwells who indulged in such substances then so I was in good company.

Eventually the supply ran out, only reappearing from time to time. I think the last time I had done it was with Roda in Central Park when we had gained backstage access to a spoken word performance hosted by Tricky.

It was a nice night, Roda and I thought we bonded with Tricky and exchanged phone numbers, which days later Tricky changed his number. Roda and I wandered around Central Park, laying about in Strawberry Fields and the Sheep Meadow, tripping out on the electric trees at Tavern on the Green.

We even used the restroom in the restaurant, since it’s on public property, public access to the bathrooms are required. I remember it was at the end of a hall of mirrors and that the little man who used to tour with Kid Rock was thrown out of a party for Kid Rock for being too drunk.

So now I am back in the present, feeling good and refreshed. I was even able to walk through the crowds of tourists and didn’t wish any of them ill will. All very pleasant.