Category Archives: Interesting Things as of Late

isn’t it all?

I Me Mine

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Friday in Hoboken. The streets are clearing out, plenty of parking once again. And hardly any money to be made busking. I should have known but still I enjoyed myself and came home with fifty cents more than I did when I left earlier. A meager profit for this meager prophet. Still it was somewhat productive. I try to learn a new song every now and then and last night I taught myself Blondie, Heart of Glass. Of course not a synthesizer in sight and none of Clem Burke’s excellent drumming. Just me on my trusty Fender F-210 acoustic guitar.

There was hardly anyone around on the riverside promenade. My trusty toddlers with their guardians made their way past me and of course they jumped up and down and clapped their hands as I played the Modern Lovers, Roadrunner. Tariq was nowhere around though his woman Francine walked by and I chatted with her for a few minutes. She left and a little while later I started to get my stuff together as Tariq walked up. I was playing for two hours and sweating quite a bit. Tariq hit me up for a smoke and once he got his another friend of his showed up and asked me for a smoke, offering me a swig from his bottle.

I declined and made my way home after showing Tariq the chords to Heart of Glass which I am certain he has forgotten by now, instead focusing on whatever everyone else plays when busking. That’s a reason why I don’t play with other buskers generally. I will not lay Sweet Child of Mine by the ultra-horrible Guns and Roses. Oddly enough, other buskers don’t play the Beatles at least not while I am around. I guess I don’t play well with others.

Last night I attended a meeting of Hoboken Fair Housing Association. The local developers are trying to get rid of rent control here in Hoboken like they’ve done in a few other towns. Hoboken being the jewel in the crown for New Jersey is now in the crosshairs. Last year a provision was on the ballot in November with a slippery wording included at the last minute, changing that if you were for rent control you should vote NO. So a lot of people voted YES and hobbled the rent control laws inadvertently. I would have been involved anyway, and a friend of my brother Frank is involved and has gotten me involved as well.

There were a few people from the past at the meeting, some people I had seen around town for years, others I knew like Fred and Lois. They made an appearance before going out for an anniversary dinner. Things are planned, things need to be done. I was reminded by one of the speakers that there are more tenants in Hoboken than there are landlords. If people can be reminded of this as well there might be a chance that rent control could be stabilized.

Unfortunately I also learned that no one on the city council is a renter, they’re all property owners so we can’t really expect much help besides empty words from our local government. Half the council seems sympathetic to the rent control cause and the other half sides with the developers. I remember Jim Mastro organized a protest in the 1980’s against overdevelopment of the waterfront.

I went with some Maxwells people including Julio, who out of the Maxwells people was the only one born and raised in Hoboken. The protest march started at 14th & Washington Streets and at every cross street we would stop as a bell tolled and we decried the death of the waterfront. As we got closer to midtown Hoboken we passed a stronghold for the then mayor, Steve Capiello. They recognized Julio and gave him shit for marching with us, these interlopers. How could Julio betray them in such a way?

You’d think with the internets it would be easier to get people involved, since in the 1980’s it was mainly through fliers and word of mouth. There were I guess maybe 30 people last night. Word is getting out, some people planning on guerilla tactics on putting up fliers to educate people. Others making plans for more civilized things. Less than three months to go. Baby steps last night, hopefully we will be walking fully in a week or two with more people!





07 Maybe Tomorrow

I Love New York

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Yes having the air conditioner working at night while Bill and I sleep makes a difference. It was cool enough that we didn’t sweat. That’s about it. It wasn’t cold, it was just right. Bill was fast asleep once more as I got into bed. And soon I too was fats asleep. It’s a good thing having the AC going, but on the other hand with the windows closed I won’t be hearing my mockingbird friend singing me to sleep with its birdsongs. Tomorrow is supposed to be the highpoint of this heat wave we’re sweating through and after that it is supposed to cool down so maybe the windows will be open once more if that happens.

Today was busy once again. No feeding of the cats since Lois & Fred returned from their sojourn. Some running around Hoboken was in place. I stopped by Hoboken Daily News where my friend Andy told me that it was true, Delite Market is going full scale liquor store and maybe be expanding into the Subway sandwich shop next door. That would be distressing for Bill since he eats Subway food a lot and has been putting the guys in the shops children through school.

A few years ago, Julio’s wife Stine gave Bill and I some curtains for our four room rail road apartment. There is a door that separates the apartment leaving two compartments on each side of the door. The bedroom is on the street and for the longest time the air conditioner would do its best to cool off two rooms even though it’s a small air conditioner unit best suited for one room. So I decided to finally after all these years to get that curtain up. No it’s not an iron curtain thankfully. It’s not even a Jane Curtain.

I knew I would need a drill and I asked Julio if he had one I could borrow. I also asked him last year if I could borrow one but he seemed to blow me off. This year I asked and felt my chances would be better for some reason. I texted him and he was working but answered that he could lend me one. He seemed skeptical since he knows that I am absolutely inept at doing things like that. If there are tools involved it is usually for the best that I am not around.

I was always the gopher when helping out my father around the house growing up, my father being the king of unfinished projects. He had the regal title for a number of years when I was growing up when there was no electricity on the second floor of our Cape Cod styled house. Any electricity was supplied via extension cords snaking up the stairs to where me and my brothers Frank and Brian slept. The thought of it being a fire hazard never entered his mind. Finally after thirty years he finally got a friend to hook up the second floor.

By then both Frank and Brian married their wives and moved out of the house and I would soon be out of there a year or so later. As I was sweating and trying to figure out what to do, it became a comedy of errors. All I had was a ladder from the hallway and an estimation on where to screw in the screws. Things were dropped and nearly lost but I persevered. An hour later I was done. Of course if Julio did it, it would be done in about twenty minutes with no blood spilled. I certainly hope it cools off the room, I will find out tonight. Tomorrow promises to be an interesting day which you might read about then.

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