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.

A day of pathos or dedication? I haven’t figured it out yet, but leaning towards dedication. It started out with a phone call from Pedro. He was fleeing Otisville, couldn’t deal with his girlfriend Connie’s inaction. Actually it started as it usually does on a Saturday, sleeping later than usual. I got my act together around 9:00, headed out for bagels and newspapers asking Julio if he and Stine wanted bagels, which they did. Got to the bagel shop and dealt with the guy I can’t stand, everyone else was busy. Got the newspapers, headed to the supermarket to get what I needed to get.

It is the unofficial start of summer so most of the Hobokenites made their way to their beach houses though it was a bit too cool to go to the beach, still nice to get out of the mile square city. Parking aplenty and no one in the market. Came back home, saw Alexander who is now a month and one day old. He’s a charmer, a diamond, a little boy, still an infant.

Alexander is able to focus if you’re a foot directly in front of his line of vision, and I did my best to get in that line of vision. He’s adorable and I regretted not having a camera to take some more snaps of his lovely self. They were getting ready to go to a brunch so I didn’t stay much longer than I needed.

Came home, had breakfast, coffee and read the papers. Started the laundry when I got Pedro’s call. Sounded like a good time and I could never resist a call from Pedro, asking me to hang out with him. I told him after the laundry I’d meet up with him in Manhattan. He had the idea of going to the Third Avenue Street festival.

For some reason I thought it would be in midtown around where I work. It wasn’t… it was downtown. I made arrangements to meet him at Farfetched where I bought a baby shirt for Miriam’s baby Mareah who I will meet tomorrow.

Susan was as charming as usual, running the show solo since Harpy was ill and didn’t make it in, she was extra sweet. Pedro met me there, and found that he was hot for Susan while I bought a shirt designed ala Google, but said instead Goo Goo. We then wandered over to the street fair and merely walked through. Pedro wanted a margarita so we wound up at BBQ on 2nd Avenue and St Marks Place.

The first one with an accompanying shot of cheap tequila went down with little difficulty, as did the second one which I thought would be the last. It was the third one that proved to be the last since I basically lost contact with planet Earth, sitting in the bright sun and not doing well.

Until Pedro showed me a camera photo of himself, fully nude. That actually brought me back to Earth fast enough, really. It wasn’t the first time I saw his cock. The first time was about 20 years ago when he showed me a Polaroid of him getting a blow job from a former girlfriend. I asked him to send the cellphone snapshot to me, but he refused, probably knowing that it would wind up here online. It really did sober me up though. After that Pedro wanted to go to the Pleasure Chest to get some toys. For whom, I didn’t ask.

He confessed to me that I was his best friend which was awfully nice, and I feel the same way. I’ve known him for over 20 years, my Superman. The Turk to my JD. Superman dropped me off a block away from the bus terminal and here I am now,at home, no worse for wear and glad to be home. A light supper helped the both of us, bringing us back to terra firma. A return to Otisville is in the works once he gets back to having a weekend off from fighting with crooks at Rikers Island. That’s it. Hope Harpy feels better.

Here’s some snaps.

Hoboken Afternoon sky

First of three

The start of slowly losing it

The man with the toys

and again

the last thing some crooks see before passing out

what it’s all about

old pic (why does he send me these pics?)

Hoboken evening

Finally Friday arrives in all it’s glory. A bit cool outside as compared to previous Memorial Day weekends. Well at least as much as I can remember. Last night was last night, 4 pints of Guinness and I was done. A pleasant buzz definitely and a strong urge to have a cigarette, but I resisted. Alcohol and smoking seem to go hand in hand, and by seem, I mean that they belong together, at least in my squared circle.

Bill came home again last night, 4 nights in a row which was something he hadn’t done in a while since his father passed away. He came in midway through my watching a Classic Albums DVD of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. They usually show them on VH1 Classics, but this just came out and I thought it would be worthwhile to give it a go. It was interesting, entertaining and informative. Interviews with Dr. Arthur Janov, Jann Wenner, Klaus Voorman, Yoko and Ringo among others. Some video unseen by me before.

I enjoyed it, though I haven’t played Plastic Ono Band in a while. Just not necessarily the feel good-let’s dance record that one would play on a Friday night. I mean, if I heard someone playing it before going out on a weekend I’d be concerned. They had various engineers and studio people playing back tapes from the original sessions and it was cool to hear John Lennon’s voice unaccompanied. I explained to Bill that Lennon wasn’t too keen on the sound of his voice which is why it double tracked or touched by effects on most of his recordings.

Also gave Bill some back story on Lennon’s growing up without his parents, being raised by an Aunt, and having his mother killed by a drunken policeman driving a car just when John was reconnecting with his mother. Or so the story goes. Who really knows? All the players in the story are dead, John, his mother Julia and his Aunt Mimi. They also had a brief snippet, rather than a full snippet of Yoko’s accompanying record, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band which sounded like late 1970’s post punk which is what thrilled John after not recording for five years and sort of fired him up to start recording again.

I remember the hype surrounding John Lennon’s return. I’m sure there were a number of people like me who figured, John Lennon living in New York City, lot’s of interesting, cutting edge records coming out every week, he’s going to sound so fresh and exciting. The thing was it wasn’t really. I mean, Double Fantasy was ok, but it didn’t live up to my hopes, and why should it though? It’s his statement about life at 40, which looking back 5 years later at 40 makes me realize he was in a good spot after all. Me, being 18 in 1980 wanted some thrash and roll, skinny ties and all, now I’m more interested in chillin’ out. And that’s alright with me.

Today at work was Lydia’s last day. She was sweet enough to give me a gift, a photo book of her native country, Estonia. She was a real sweetheart, so pretty and definitely a help around the office. I’m certainly going to miss her and I know my workload will increase which is good, though I think they might realize their mistake in not getting a receptionist since I may be out on errands and they might actually have to do something physical. By they, I mean the people who decided not to get a receptionist, in case you hadn’t figured it out.

Here’s some snaps of Lydia, who’s real name is Linda. And some other various snaps.