Category Archives: Interesting Things as of Late

isn’t it all?

Artists Only

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Today being Saturday means I get to sleep in. I slept until about 9:00 which wasn’t too much of a stretch considering I went to bed at 1:00AM. I watched Bill Maher last night, he was ok, definitely needed his writers, and he even said so towards the end of the show. After that I watched Ringo Starr on VH1 Classic, Ringo being the subject of the Storytellers show. He was ok, an enjoyable hour spent. Of course the Beatles songs had stories I had heard before.

Mainly Ringo saying that the White Album is his favorite album but it’s also the one during which he left the band for two weeks. Perhaps it was a pretty good fortnight for Ringo. He wrote Octopus’ Garden while out of the group. Obviously he came back, then George quit for a couple of days, followed by John nine months later. Paul was the only who actually left, telling the press he quit to the dismay of the other three. Ringo didn’t get into that mess though.

Last night’s blog was a way for me to let off steam. I’m back to what passes for normal when I’m concerned. Today was a nice day. Went out, got the usual, did some shopping, dropped off dry cleaning. Came back, had breakfast, read the papers and started on some laundry. I had a sketch of a plan to head into the city and see the last day of a Warhol exhibition. Time Out NY had the gallery on 57th Street so I hopped on the bus and walked up to 57th street. At 20 west 57th, I walked in and asked the guard for the Susan Sheehan Gallery. He tells me it moved. I call up the gallery and they tell me they’re on west 22nd street now, and she told Time Out that fact, but they haven’t changed it.

I was annoyed but thanks to some transcontinental prodding from Annemarie, I hopped on a train to 23rd Street. Made it to the gallery, saw some very old Warhol drawings from the 1950’s and two early 60’s silkscreens. It was good to see Andy’s stuff and it made me glad that I went out and did something. I wandered around 22nd street and looked at some other artists in different galleries. Good stuff, a good day to look at some art. It was getting dark out and I was getting hungry so I walked over to 33rd street and caught the Path train back to Hoboken.

Made a burger and it was good. I may watch Inland Empire tonight. I don’t know what to expect but I’m sure to get something out of it. David Lynch can do that to you. I heard from Juan yesterday, he’s having a gay old time in Costa Rica. All the young men have faux hawks in Costa Rica, so he’s probably standing out with his New York City style by way of Seoul. He was planning on heading tot he beach, the Pacific Ocean, and surprisingly enough, I’m not jealous.

I took some pics but having difficulty with my editing program so I’ll post them tomorrow hopefully. That is if you want to see them.

And Through the Wire

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It’s Thursday, this much I know. Vivek returned to work, quite happy. The office was buzzing. Told Larry Stooge that I wrote a diary everyday. He asked if it was a blog and I said no. Really no need for him snooping. Trying to keep it on the down low. It was a productive day. I found out that Lydia is an illegal worker. She really shouldn’t be working in the office, but she is. She’s getting paid off the books so no one is the wiser. It’s an interesting folly. I didn’t hire her, so I’m not going to get caught in the sweep, if there is any sweeping to be done.

I heard from Juan who is in Costa Rica. He instant messaged me while I was away and since he only had internet access for about 10 minutes I missed him. I hope he’s having a good time. He’s been gone for almost a week I think, but it seems like he’s been gone for a longer time than that. Probably because when he’s at school or nearby we still communicate via email, instant messages or phone, so it’s like he’s around one way or another.

I haven’t heard from Song who from what I gathered was in Taiwan last I checked. Perhaps he’s on his way back to Sydney. I totally missed him when he was in the area. I think I was supposed to call him back, but I never did, being in such a foul mood and Song being such a nice guy, it might have been all for the best. I hope Song is the forgiving type. I know Juan isn’t. Juan is the condemning type, hence his charm.

Thanks to Bill involving me in Facebook once again, as John Ozed in case you’re interested, I found an old friend, Kelvin Joyner. I’ve known Kelvin on and off about 10 years. He used to work for a cartage company when I was working at Right Track Recording. He’s a real sweetheart, he’s had his troubles as have we all. He had a band back in the nineties, I think the working name was All Mighty. He asked me to play keyboards for them and I explained that I don’t play keyboards, but that was why he asked.

He knew I had a musical ear and with the right instrument I might be able to bring it out. I was game so I sat in on a few practices. It was perhaps the height of my Brian Eno infatuation so wearing the hat of a non-musician I played admirably, dispensing clavinet sounds as well as Eno-esque philosophies like, ‘it’s not what you play, it’s what you don’t play that matters’. Pretentious, yes? Well the band lasted about a month, I played with them a few times, before they disbanded or just kept playing and not telling me what was going on.

Still years later, I look back with fondness on Kelvin giving me the chance to sound like Jerry Harrison on certain Talking Heads tracks. I have some tapes somewhere, and I think I sounded pretty good, not great. They did cover one song, Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix, which I didn’t know at all then, but thanks to Kelvin’s enthusiasm, I eventually got into Jimi. Kelvin does have a band again, a three piece from what I could tell from his myspace page. Look him up, Kelvin Joyner, and give a listen to his songs. So that is where it’s at today, January 10, 2008. Crazy innit?