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.

Coming Around Again

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It’s a snowy Tuesday, first real snow of the year. Looks nice right now, tomorrow it will be frozen and slushy making for treacherous walking. Safely inside where it’s warm I have a sudden pang for hot chocolate in a ceramic mug with a little ceramic bird on the rim of the cup that you can whistle through. Oh but those are long gone. Perhaps relics to be dug up in a couple of thousand years by archaeologists wondering exactly what type of ritual these chipped mugs served. Or perhaps they’re in some landfill somewhere, picked at by hungry gulls.

At work things have been very quiet. Most of the office has been attending a Bio-technology conference around the block at the Waldorf Astoria. That’s a relief, I’m actually able to get some work done without interference from Tom Chin. I spoke to Carla the former receptionist the other day, and she agreed that Tom Chin is really just a little old lady. She still hasn’t gotten her W2 and was wondering where it was, so she called me. We keep intending to meet up for a drink after work, but it won’t be tomorrow since tomorrow is my trip to the NYU Dental School, and Thursday is Valentine’s Day.

Bill called today and suggested going to Arthur’s for steaks. I told him it would depend on how my teeth are after tomorrow night. I’m obviously a bit apprehensive, not for the dental examination, but more for the fact that I fear they won’t see me since I’m not a New York City resident. I don’t mind students working on my teeth, I have faith in the school, for no real reason, just hope. Perhaps it’s will be like Scrubs, only for dentists. Last night was another night in front of the TV.

Watched a documentary on Malcolm X on PBS. That was good but I had seen it before. In the late eighties I was perhaps the only white boy wearing a Malcolm X T shirt in North NJ. I got into Malcolm after watching Do The Right Thing which closed with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. I never read Malcolm X until that point and everything I knew about him was that he was a bad bad man. He really wasn’t and most everything he said made sense. Once he left the Nation of Islam his vision widened, after his trip to Mecca where he realized that white people aren’t all devils as the knelt down next to one another praying to a rather large rock. Somewhere there is a Polaroid photo of me taken by Pedro with myself splayed out on the black and white tiles of a men’s room in Secaucus wearing my Malcolm X t shirt.

Since I had seen the documentary on Malcolm X before and I knew how it ended I decided to go to bed. No Advil PM, just straight sleep (if I can call it that). No dreams of me being chased through a beer hall/refugee camp by Siouxsie though my former room mate Jimmy Lee made an appearance apartment hunting in Hoboken. I heard he lives in Austria now with his Austrian wife. In case he’s Googling his name (and with a name like Jimmy Lee there must be thousands) and he probably is, hello to Jimmy Lee. And for other people Googling themselves, hello to Rae Guay, Maurice Menares, Bill Ryan, Isabelle Gonzalez, Ann Louise Boyles, and Catherine Cloud. Catherine just got a grant, Harpy discovered so congratulations to Catherine Cloud as well.

Gong Xi Fa Cai to Song and Ray!

Some snow pics

The other day with Chaz
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Tonight
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Sans flash
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From Rod2.0
An excerpt from Julian Bond’s opening plenary speech on Feb. 7 at the 2008 National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change, convened by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force

Partial transcript:

Sometimes it is the simplest of acts, sitting at a lunch counter, going to a new school, applying for a marriage license, casting a vote, that can challenge the way we can act or think. That’s why when I am asked if gay rights are civil rights, I say, ‘Of course they are.’ [Applause]

Civil rights are positive legal prerogatives. The right for equal treatment before the law. These are rights for everyone. There is no one in the United States who should not share these these rights. Rights for gays and lesbians are not “special rights” in any way. It is not special to be free from discrimination.That is an ordinary, universal entitlement. [Applause]

That man had to struggle to gain these rights are precious. It does not make them special in any way…. The more civil rights that are earned by others, the stronger the arm defending my civil rights. If my neighbor gains civil rights in any way, it does not dilute my rights. [Applause]

One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer

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It’s back to work for me and millions of other people today. It wasn’t so bad. Last night was a definite chill out time, came back from seeing Cloverfield, and I finished reading the days papers. Almost done with the latest New Yorker so I might be up to date next week when the new issue comes in. The tooth still acting up a bit, not haywire like it was Saturday night but I took precautions. Bill had a bottle of whiskey, Canadian Mist that has been on the shelf since we moved here, and I decided to numb out the tooth with a shot or two. It certainly did the trick, took the edge off my mouth.

I settled in for the night, watching the Grammy’s which is something I hadn’t done in years. Just because the music I generally listen to doesn’t make the cut. But being it was the 50th broadcast I thought something might be happening. Kanye West was amazing with his Daft Punk single, Stronger, was just really good, almost as good as Ricky Martin when he blew the roof off. Not that I’m a fan of Ricky Martin’s music, but he sure is easy on the eyes. He’s also the second musician that I had an erotic dream about. The first was Ruben Blades years and years ago. Kayne West also did a number about his mother. It was written before she passed away a few months ago but it was touching nonetheless.

The Wire came on at 9:00 and I switched over while recording the rest of the awards program. The Wire was once again, intense. Just waiting for it all to come down. Marlo should be getting his, but since this show is relatively true to life, Marlo might get away with it all. Omar, after jumping four or five flights to the ground wound up hiding in the same building in the janitor’s room with a busted ankle. And McNulty kept getting drunk while the reporter kept making up stories though the noose is tightening on his neck with each keystroke. After that hour long trip to the depths of Baltimore, I switched back to the Grammy’s.

I did catch earlier, The Time who were great, playing with Rhianna who sang Umbrella, her big hit single from last year. And Amy Winehouse was very good via satellite from London. I went to bed after watching Herbie Hancock win his Album of the Year, River: The Joni Letters which are his interpretations of Joni Mitchell’s songs. I guess. Fell fast asleep, thanks to the one Advil PM and slept quite soundly. I woke up around 6:30 which is a half hour later than I should. I was in the middle of a dream where I was being chased around a beer hall/refugee camp by none other than Siouxsie from Siouxsie and the Banshees. Normally I’d probably stop and chat but she was pissed off at me for some reason and every time I would close a door on her she would blow the door down with her singing. I woke up groggy and tried to get back to the dream after texting Linda the receptionist that I was going to be late.

Plus it was 10 degrees outside and I couldn’t deal with that right away. No more Siouxsie dream as I lay there trying to get back to the beer hall. I got out of bed fifteen minutes later and that’s when the day began for me. I told Bill about what was going on with my tooth and how I opened the bottle of Canadian Mist whiskey, all covered in greasy dust. Even through an online chat I knew something was wrong and there was. It turned out Bill was saving that bottle for a special occasion. I wondered what kind of special occasion would it take for someone who rarely drinks, his limit is usually one pint of Guinness, to open a bottle of whiskey?

I asked why the bottle was for such a special occasion and he said that some guy he was trying to date/get laid/whatever gave it to him at a Hope and Remembrance gathering and that’s when he wanted decided to save the Canadian Mist for a rainy day. He’s still upset and trying to forget it. There is still more than 2/3 left and I lit a candle, pouring wax over the top of it so he could reopen and break the new seal should he ever cross paths with the enabler of Hope and Remembrance.