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.

Loudmouth

Well it’s Monday yet again. Not thrilled about it but I feel I have a new lease on life job-wise. And I’m also convinced Tom Chin is a stupid asshole. But that’s neither here nor there. Last night, came home after wandering aimlessly around Fun City. Had some ravioli and watched a few seconds of the Super Bowl. Scrubs was on and I decided to watch that instead. Though I’ve probably seen most of the episodes, I preferred it to watching football.

Never enjoyed watching it, though I used to play in the street on Gunther Avenue in Lodi. Just touch football, counting Mississippi, and no clearly defined boundaries, as well as an occasional timeout so that cars could pass, but besides looking at big men in tights, there was little else to hold my interest while watching a game on TV or at Giants Stadium where I was often dragged to. And I always hear about the commercials during the Super Bowl but they’re never on when I watch, or they’re on, and the fact that they are commercials, I tune them right out. I’m sure they will be repeated ad infinitum, though I did try watching a few of them online, but they were pulled off whatever website I was attempting to watch.

I did watch Pioneers of Television a series of shows about the history of television. It’s been very entertaining, and a good way to lead up to The Wire. That was good, things are falling into place or falling all over the place, depending on what plot you are following. I was surprised that throughout the show, my sister Annemarie called me up with, ‘Did you see that play?’ I told her that I was watching The Wire. That didn’t stop her from calling every time something happened during the big game. It was a big deal around these parts since this is Giants country and Annemarie comes from a family of Giants fans it was justified I guess.

I tried watching via the Picture in Picture program on the TV screen but it was too distracting, especially when Omar got caught and almost killed if it weren’t for his sudden leap from a balcony 5 stories up. Somehow he got away, so we’ll see what happened to him next week. Watching the show you do hope Omar kills Marlo and soon since there’s only a handful of episodes left. After The Wire I finally tuned into the last 10 seconds of the Super Bowl.

The Giants were winning, the coach of the New England Patriots left the field and was headed to the locker room. A bunch of congratulatory speeches were made, a god was thanked a few times, because it would not have been possible if the god didn’t favor a football team from East Rutherford New Jersey, though labeled a New York team over a football team from Massachusetts. Yes, some god was on the side of the Mara family, not smiting the opposition, just sending them to the showers earlier than they had hoped. Then it was off to bed, falling asleep and waking up 6.5 hours later to go to work.

I was busy all day trying to find restaurants near the Hamptons so Greg Stevens could host a business lunch near one of his homes. It took a while since I don’t know the difference between Nassau and Suffolk counties, not that there is much difference between them. Found a few for Greg, did some inane tasks for Tom Chin and was hoping to get out early today only to have Vivek ask me to help him out with something that I offered to help him out with last week.

I didn’t leave the office until after 6:00, in time to get on a long line at the bus terminal. I didn’t mind much. The bus had only fifteen people on it when the driver was told to leave the gate. That made for a comfortable ride home, which is where I am at now. And I’m happy.

Yes We Can Can

Ca Plane Pour Moi

It’s a Sunday and it was nice and sunny. Nice and sunny enough for me to head into the city. I wandered around 14th Street after riding the Path train. Not too crowded, a pleasant ride. Read the New Yorker. I got off the train and first walked over to Entertainment Outlet to see if they had a copy of My Left Foot. Such a dismal dusty store. You have to wash your hands after going through the racks of DVD’s they are that dusty and grimy. Of course they didn’t have it. Had every movie Jackie Chan made but no Daniel Day Lewis.

So I headed east on 14th Street. Went into Payless shoes since they’re about the only shoe stores that carry Airwalks, my sneaker of choice. They had a decent selection but nothing that made me want to buy a fresh pair of kicks. I then wandered over to the Virgin mega store to see if they had My Left Foot, but no. Everything else was on sale, a lot for $10.00. I almost bought Boogie Nights, such a good movie, watched it a week or so ago. But couldn’t be motivated to purchase that either.

I stopped by Farfetched to see Harpy. That was fun for a short while but even Harpy didn’t have the zest for life, the joie de vivre that I had hoped for. I left Farfetched and walked over to Broadway where I looked for a new Eagle Creek bag, since the one I have is still functional, but looking a little beaten up. Not impressed at their selection but looking back I think I should have bought the bag that was on sale. Perhaps I’ll go back this week.

Came home empty handed after wanting to buy things. Once I got back to Hoboken I stopped in the T Mobile store for a hands free headset, only to find the girl behind the counter just sold the last one. The gods of commerce must have had a good chuckle. I was able to got to Ben and Jerry’s and bought a pint of Chocolate Therapy which they had in stock.

Now I’m home, hanging out after a ravioli dinner. Last night I watched Pride starring Terence Howard and Bernie Mac. Classic Cinderella story, underdog beating the odds. Cliché after cliché, but with handsome young black men in Speedos, which made it all worthwhile. I love Speedos. Diana Ross’ son Evan Ross was in the movie, playing a stuttering Speedo clad swimmer. Unless you like watching young men in Speedos, you might want to avoid this movie. I plan to catch it again though.

Before I headed into the city I watched a documentary called before the Music Dies, all about the state of the music business. A few famous musicians mentioned Bob Dylan and how he wouldn’t get a contract today if he was starting out, the same for Jimi Hendrix. An interviewer asked some girls outside an Ashlee Simpson concert if they had ever heard of Bob Dylan. They giggled and laughed and said no, but that Ashlee Simpson is a great singer.

I agreed with much of what was said in the documentary, including Erykah Badu with her crazy wig. They did touch on a point that the record companies had it easy of the past decade or so, most people buying catalogs of artists they had previously on vinyl or cassette. I know this for a fact since I’ve done it. And they’re doing it again with mp3’s, The Beatles being the big fish coming down the stream soon enough this year. Will I buy their catalog again? After owning vinyl, tape, and cd’s? That would depend on whether or not there would be something different or extras and also whether or not I have the cash to buy something I already had over and over and over again.

Here’s some pics. Joie de vivre! Have a good week.

Last night’s dinner
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Sunlight reflected through green tumbler on a dirty floor
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Valentine’s rack
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Harpy makes a wish
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Where I live
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