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.

Now it’s a Tuesday and even less is going on. Some of it on purpose, some of it beyond my say in the matter. It’s been raining intermittently, a few drops here and there, no thunderstorms like it was announced. I haven’t been outside much today and didn’t play the guitar at all. I felt maybe a day away from the guitar would give me a different approach to playing since yesterday was alright but not like I had hoped. I just called the Guitar Bar and the show is going on as scheduled. Not going to make the other meeting though.

That’s more of a meeting for door to door canvassing and I am not feeling that at all. When I did go out I met my friend Mike who lives up the street. He is playing a show at DC’s in Hoboken next Monday and I will more than likely attend that. Last night I was DJ’ing at Louise and Jerry’s while sitting at home. It went well for a few hours. Rand was also DJ’ing and even showed up at Louise and Jerry’s and DJ’d via his smartphone. My smartphone is incompatible with the app that is required.

I was asked to join Rand and Lisa but going out requires money and money is something I am doing my best to hang onto lately. Plus I really don’t go out anymore. Some people think it’s a bad thing, but after years of going out almost every single night, I don’t think I am missing anything except for the company of some dear friends. They understood that I am an old fart so I was okay with that. But it seems I am going out tonight so I guess I am not such an old fart, just particular in when and where I go.

Already the boots are on to head out and I will be heading out in about an hour. Last night I stayed in and when Bill came home we watched True Blood and the Newsroom. Both shows are ending the season in a week or two and we enjoyed both of them, though Bill did feel a little squeamish with the gore on True Blood and there was plenty of gore to go around. He stayed up and I went to bed first, falling asleep and thinking how comfortable I was in my own bed.

Looking west, it looks cloudy and ominous, looking south it looks cloudy and quite nice. I suppose whatever front will get here first will determine the evening’s plans. And like I wrote the boots are on, and I have shaken off the dust from the Xanap I just had. Bill is at a rehearsal with the dreaded cast from hell. They intruded on the TV watching last night with countless phone calls. A wacky bunch indeed. Bill kissed me goodbye this morning but was filled with apprehension with regards to what he was going to have to go through tonight.

Bill is usually excited about having me seeing whatever show he is involved with but this time, for the first time he is rather ambivalent about the whole thing. Of course my opinion is tainted on the issue and if and when I do go to see the show I will know about who’s who and the stress they put my spouse through, for I am especially loyal to Bill of course.

Now I am already to go out, the boots are on, I just had a sandwich and after a stop at the bibliothèque it’s a walk to the Shipyard Park to see the Guitar Bar All Stars. No idea if the funniest girl alive will be there, so I will have to wait and see.

02 Come Down In Time

Yesterday was such a nice day. Nice enough that I don’t feel like writing today, but here I am writing again. If Truman Capote were around and reading blogs he might have said ‘That’s not writing, that’s typing’. That is what Truman supposedly said about Jack Kerouac. I can’t fill Kerouac shoes, he was a 10.5 and I am a 12. It would be painful and awkward and I would be in dire need of an orthopedic shoe. I just returned from busking again, not too busy a day though my guitar playing has improved somewhat. I hadn’t busked since last Thursday.

Like I wrote, yesterday was nice, really a top day. Pleasant weather, nary a cloud in the sky. I did some filing, my nails have gotten back to where they should be. I strolled the waterfront promenade once again, enjoying a cigar. I found a spot and sat and read Lucking Out by James Wolcott. I’m enjoying reading about his exploits with Pauline Kael, hanging out at CBGB’s and a fixation on porn. When I finished reading yesterday, AIDS was beginning to make its appearance. The grim reaper and it’s scythe taking out a generation of gay men and soon to spread to non-gay men.

I remember hearing about GRID- Gay Related Immune Deficiency, or the gay cancer as it was first known. It was the beginning of the paranoia of the pandemic and I was still deep in the closet, living the two lives that I led back in the day. One of the symptoms was a loss of appetite, a wasting away. I told someone that in the future, overweight men will be the desirable set following the death of the clones. It didn’t take into consideration that there would be two sets, the gym bunnies constantly fixated on chiseled abs and toned bodies and the other group being the bears, the hirsute, stocky men.

Having never set foot in a gym I lean towards the bear contingent though I consider myself to be a wolf, and a lone wolf at that. When smoking was permissible in Central Park, when I would have the time to check out the disco skate circle I would be either opposite the bears on Bear Hill or above the bears at the top of the hill enjoying a cigar and enjoying the tunes. Since the smoking ban I haven’t been in Central Park. In fact since I was dismissed from the cigar shack I haven’t gone north of 47th Street.

While sitting and reading I got a phone call from Billie in DC. It had been a while since we last spoke and we kept missing each other on various phone calls. He’s doing well, working and in good health thanks to the government of Washington DC. I told him the story about my dismissal, how the guy who claimed to have no ego was pissed off and his ego bruised by what I wrote exactly. Billie was great and laughed several times at my tale. He knew I was unhappy there and claimed it was god’s doing that got me out of there.

He mentioned that he was thinking about taking a Bolt Bus from Washington DC and having a day trip to Manhattan. That would be great and since I have the time it seems likely that it would happen. It would be easier for Billie to come up here than for me to get to DC since in DC we would need a car to get around where in Manhattan no car would be needed. Billie’s visit is something to look forward to and hopefully we will get together soon enough.

I walked around Hoboken afterwards, talking on the phone with Lois and running into my friend Roger with his wife Dina and their 3 month old son Kennedy. What a happy chubby baby. Dina looked great as did Roger. It was fun catching up with Roger for a while and I walked them back to their car before heading home. Bill was home when I came home, so happy to see me. He was in better spirits than he was earlier. He had gone to Philadelphia on Saturday and while there his wallet was stolen, pickpocketed.

He had enough to get to Manhattan but had to borrow some cash from the producer of the play he is working on. We watched the closing of the Olympics, annoyed with Bob Costas and Ryan Seacrest endlessly talking over whatever as going on. We surmised it was because Americans needed to have things spelt out for them, instead of just showing the images without comment. They cut out Ray Davies singing Waterloo Sunset, and also Muse while postponing the Who, who were mediocre. And still no Elton. What was that about?

And I am DJ’ing from home again at the local tavern right now…