The day after St. Patrick’s day and I don’t have a hangover. Actually really haven’t had a post ST. Pats hangover for years. It is amateur night anyhow and it hits Hoboken twice. Once is the first weekend in March, the other is the actual feast day, March 17. I will admit to being suckered into the spirit of the holiday or at least the stereotype of being Irish. I went out and bought some Guinness which I drank with Juan last night as we watched nothing in particular. Bill was home too so the three of us started at the tube.

Before they were here I did some laundry, ran some errands and got a haircut that I think makes me look like Jean Seberg as Joan of Arc in Saint Joan. I’m sure you would disagree with me, but it’s my head and my hair and my impression. I’ve got a lot at stake. I finally got around to watching For Your Consideration. I actually enjoyed it somewhat though I did think it was sad. I find that I don’t really like Christopher Guest movies. Didn’t like Best in Show much, didn’t care to see Waiting for Guffman and A Mighty Wind was a flat ok.

Maybe it’s a prejudice against a member of the British House of Lords. Just find that there is a subtle cruelty to his humor. Does he insist that certain actors camp it up and mince and lisp in every movie he makes? And I’d rather mock and belittle the powerful than to attack people who are attacked and downtrodden frequently. Like I said it was worth watching though ultimately sad, but Catherine O’Hara was great. I’ve always liked her since SCTV days in the 1970’s. Lola Heatherton and also the Brooke Shields Show with Catherine as Brooke, Rick Moranis as Brook’s mom Terry Shields and the late John Candy playing Tip O’Neill. Classic.

It was just too downbeat to watch again and I’d rather watch something else. We watched most of a repeat of SNL, then we watched an episode of I, Claudius before I remember the rebroadcast of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame thing from the other night. We caught Patti Smith’s acceptance speech and Juan asked me why she looked like a homeless person. I wouldn’t say homeless myself, she’s a natural chick. No make up or anything like that. Clean shirt, black jeans and a suit jacket is Patti’s uniform for a number of years now, I just guess Juan had never really seen Patti Smith in action before.

Bill went to bed before Patti sang Rock and Roll Nigger which is more about her being outside of society in her art than about it being anything racial. Still a great song. She also sang Because the Night which was her big hit co-written with Bruce. After Patti came Van Halen, or at least two of them who could make it and they were ho hum. Finally REM closed the show. They’ve certainly came a long way from McSwells to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Keith Richards came out with everyone as they all sang Patti’s People Have the Power. The we watched the latest SNL for a while before I once again kicked Juan out of the apartment. I miss him already. He went back to school today now that his break had ended.

Well it snowed quite a bit last night. It was treacherous when I came home around 6:30 yesterday and on top of all the snow was a freezing rain making everything, including walking, dicey. I hung out and watched television last night while Bill chewed my ear off. Sometimes he’s just like child who has had way too much sugar. Last night he had a pound of sugar. The funny thing is he mentioned how tired he was and how he wanted to sleep all night. By 8:30 I was asking him if he was planning on going to sleep soon.

Around 9:15 he finally went to bed. At 9:30 I walked into the bedroom and he was out cold and snoring. I read my magazines and watched some more TV including a dvd of one of my favorite bands Wire. It was a live show on German TV Rockpalast from 1979. They used to be one of my favorite bands. I can’t say I dislike them, but I think I’ve outgrown them. They were a major influence on my music back in the day. It seemed like Wire fans were few and far between. As far as I knew, no one else in Lodi liked or even heard of Wire except for me and my brother Frank.

Frank gave me a copy of their album 154 for Christmas in 1979. I didn’t know who they were really, just that they had a couple of songs I liked, namely ‘I Am The Fly’ and ‘Dot Dash’ that I heard on WPIX FM. WPIX was a major radio station in New York that played disco, then went New Wave for about a year and a a half then went to Love songs, nothing but love songs. But for that year and a half there was suddenly a station that played new and exciting things.

That Christmas evening while itching to get away from my family I decided to go to the movies with Dave Bell a friend of mine and my brother Brian. I picked Dave up and as we headed to the theater Dave asked to pick up his friend Stan. A slight detour to Wallington and then we were off. I tape recorded some of the 154 songs and was playing it on my boom box. Stan chirped up and asked if that was Wire that I was playing. It sure was and that established a friendship with Stan that exists to this day, if only marginally.

I loved Wire enough that when they reunited after breaking up (hiatus/we can’t stand each other) that I cut short a pretty decent vacation in Kitty Hawk, NC in 1987 to take a six hour bus ride to Philadelphia. They were great and as expected they didn’t or wouldn’t (or perhaps couldn’t) play their older material. You know, the stuff that made them what they were, semi-legendary underground legends. I had the opportunity to interview them a few days later while they were in New York, playing at the Ritz as well as McSwells.

I wasn’t the gushing fan boy and they were not exactly fun or anything like that. I have the cassette somewhere but never transcribed it or really listened to it.