It’s Thursday and it’s been a Raphael Saadiq kind of day. I’ve always love Raphael Saadiq, ever since his days with Tony Toni Tone through Lucy Pearl. He’s got one of the best voices out there today, just a pure soulful voice that transmits joy when he opens his mouth to sing. I played his gospel-delic Instant Vintage cd on my way into work and despite being groggy, it made the commute that much better. It really made my morning. It set me off on a soul tip, and since they don’t frown upon listening to music at work, I had a hankering for Aretha Franklin, You’re All I Need To Get By. So the afternoon belonged to Aretha. Luckily for me, I didn’t have the song that has been floating through my head, For Your Eyes Only, by Sheena Easton. Ghastly!

It was a weird day at work. Greg Steven is flying out to Taos, New Mexico with his wife for ten days. He has property out there and this is what he does. I can’t blame him. If I had property on the upper east side, the Hamptons and new Mexico, I’d be going whenever I could and if I was president of the company I go whenever I damn well pleased. Vivek was out again too. Shades of heaviness abound with him. He was supposed to go to an important luncheon, but he phoned me from the hospital, saying that his wife had to go to the emergency room. A few people rolled their eyes at this news and I found out that Vivek sometimes backs out of situations like this by saying things like his wife being ill or whatnot. I was the only one in the office that knew that he was supposed to take a Broker/Dealer test yesterday, but didn’t. Well, I told Greg Stevens about it, and Greg was none too pleased.

But Greg was off to Taos so that took care of that sort of. Since today was Thursday, that meant Penne, Pesto and Chicken for lunch. I work on 50th street and the pasta place is on 57th. They don’t deliver to my area so I have to go and get it myself which is fine with me, I enjoy the walking. As some of my pictures have shown I like to walk up Park Avenue, better looking men in suits you see. It’s also near where Wanker Banker used to exist. I ran into Sean, someone I used to work with. He owns property in Hoboken and lives down the Jersey shore. I ran into him one drizzly Saturday afternoon a few years ago when I was quite jazzy. He noticed but said nothing.

Then I ran into Craig, a super cutie that I had a man crush on. But I’m gay so do I need to qualify it as a man crush? Being gay, wouldn’t a crush imply that it’s a man? Yes johnozed you are so correct once again. Craig’s a nice guy and good looks are to his advantage. We chatted briefly, then he went off to get his lunch and I went off to get mine. The afternoon got a little busy which sped things up and soon enough I was out the door.

I decided to take the Path home since the going home bus has been quite crowded. It was good, I had a seat, no pregnant women standing around me, almost done with Grand Illusion, the Guiliani expose on what an asshole he’s always been. I walked up Washington Street and it was almost like old times. I ran into Tommy King, former Weehawken neighbor. He’s still up there on the cliffs, looking good, dropped maybe 100 pounds and he got his teeth fixed, which is inspiring to me. Also ran into a friend of Julio’s who invited me to a comedy night at the Elks club on Saturday. I think I’ll pass, but I didn’t tell him that. I did say that I would tell Julio about it though.

Here’s some pics…..

Ouch

Looking for a date

Nice suit next to hands up guy

‘Yeah, I got a place around the block…’ ‘AWESOME!’

another free range cutie

toilet paper delivery

sporting wood and rocking the cellphone

It’s Halloween. Halloween used to be quite a day when I was a kid. The first costume I remember having was when I was dressed as Laurence of Lodi, a twist on Laurence of Arabia, the fact that my never used middle name is Laurence, and the actor, Peter O’Toole who starred as Laurence of Arabia.

At least that’s what I gathered since no one actually came out and told me so. I got as far as the bottom of Riverview Avenue, to Trudy Drive. That’s all I can remember. I think I was about 3 or 4 years old. Still relatively adorable with a penchant for pinching girls asses. Precocious they called me.

Years later I was able to go out on Halloween night with my friends. Mainly we all had burnt cork on our faces, trying to pass as hobos. We would go up and down Riverview Avenue, Blue Ridge Road, Calvin Avenue, down Wilson to Main Street where we’d hit the garden apartments.

That was the jackpot. We didn’t want to get there too late, it was all in the timing. Once people ran out of candy that was it. Some people, the Manzo’s mainly, would leave a dish out with a note to take only one piece of candy per hobo.

Occasionally if we felt our candy hunting ground was thinning out, we would cross over to the next town, Rochelle Park and try to get whatever candy we could find there. Sometimes there would be bigger kids with eggs chasing us from Rochelle Park, but I don’t think they had any aim at all, since none of us ever got hit by eggs.

I stopped trick or treating when kids a year or two older than me mocked me for going trick or treating. They were in high school, I was in my last year of grammar school.

Years after that, it became adult parties. I went to a party at McSwells once, dressed as Darth Vader, had the official helmet back then, I thought I was cool when I walked into McSwells, but everyone else had home made costumes, mine was bought.

Someone made Steve Fallon a Mr. Peanut costume which was possibly the best costume ever. He looked good dressed as a big peanut, monocle drawn around his eye. I had a cape that my sister in law, Elaine made for brother Frank back in their hippie days. I believe my niece Meghan has the cape now, the mask has been lost for years, a victim of moving over and over.

One of the last times I got dressed up was in the eighties. My friend Rita and I were going to the Peppermint Lounge to see REM, billed as It Crawled From The South secretly opening up for the Cramps. Rita is a makeup wiz and we decided to dress me up as Andy Warhol.

Rita applied the right pallor to my face, I was clean shaven then (singular chin you know) and we spray painted my hair white so I could go as Andy Warhol. I don’t remember what Rita dressed as, and there are no photos from that night.

Unfortunately Andy was slight of build whereas I can be described as husky. I remember going into the club with Rita and not hearing people say, ‘Oh wow, Andy Warhol.’ No, instead I heard, ‘Oh look, Phil Donahue!’ Maybe Rita was dressed as Marlo Thomas.

Pics
Look out, Superman!!

Halloween stuff?

Haunted Street corner! Boo!

Saving souls on all hallows eve……mwahahaha!!!

Have a happy and safe Halloween! And though no one has ever been killed by razor blade apples or pins in candy, you should still check it out.