Category Archives: moldies but moodies

Brandy

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The Looking Glass sang ‘Brandy’ in 1972. A New Jersey band from Rutgers. A great song. I’ll always remember hearing it for the first time in Wildwood Crest in 1972. Some daughter of a VFW conventioneer and I riding the rides on the Boardwalk in June and ‘Brandy’ were playing quite loudly and lovely. The song went to number one in August of that year. Kudos to the Looking Glass.

http://www.superseventies.com/1972_9singles.html

This morning, after loading the Ipod throughout the night. Loaded 5000 plus songs manually and set it off going to sleep expecting the best. It didn’t take, all the Ipod would do is list each and every song. And there were only 1700 and change anyhow. But it was frustrating. It worked yesterday morning, and I could have sworn I did everything all right. Frustrating as hell. And speaking of hell it’s where I was off to.

Lacking my Ipod, I was deprived of any psyching up music before getting to my desk. It was a disadvantage. It was bagel day so that made it a bit easier to start up the day. That and a lot of coffee. It was a dragging day. I wasn’t in a suit and tie so that covered the drag part of dragging. It was just a Really. Slow. Day.

The good feeling that I had from the day before with the interview Part deux with McMann and Tate had dissipated somewhat. I didn’t give up hoping for it, but I didn’t think I would get it either. A diet of bagels and a sour outlook on things didn’t help and I crashed. Hard.

Everything was bleak. I was so upset about it all. Told Bill I didn’t even care to go to DC next week. Just sad and despairing. Then I ate a banana. Felt better real quick. Total duh. Walked around midtown exploiting the excuse from Helen Devilakos to just take a walk if I’m not feeling so good about things. Though I had started to feel good, I used the opportunity to just get the hell out.

I walked around smoked a La Gloria Cubana Hermoso. Very nice, very mellow. Ten years ago I would’ve smoked a joint. Now, a cigar. One legal, one not. I walked by a mosque where my friend Ahsen prays. Told him about it when I saw him. There were a lot of guys. People actually stood across the street and watched about a hundred men pouring out onto the street. Strange, though I have seen the same effect when Saint Patrick’s Cathedral spills out on a Sunday morning.

Came back to work after having been gone an hour and it was still slow slow slow. Then my cell rang. It was Matt from McMann and Tate calling with the job offer. I called him back on a landline. The job was mine if I wanted it and I do I really do want it. He was emailing me the official offer over the weekend and told me today, Friday so that I would have a good weekend. I stuck to the script and told him I wanted to review the offer, but the answer was 99.9% yes. I would call him back on Monday with the ‘official’ answer.

I told one or two coworkers who hugged me and said while it was sad to see me go, they wished me the best. My last day will be Thursday, the 13th. I’ll start the day after Bill and I come back from DC.

A few hours’ earlier nothing but dark clouds, suddenly blue skies. Felt so good that I walked down to Tek Serve, an Apple store, where Bill bought the Ipod before Christmas. Like she was a few months ago, there Brandy stood. She is a fine girl indeed. She was startled that I knew here name but said she remembered me from my previous visit.

Once again, she hooked it up and loaded it with Lucy Pearl as we discussed how we both loved Raphael Siddiq’s voice. She mentioned how tight his body was, but I didn’t go there. Sure enough it worked. I started to walk up Sixth Avenue when Julio called. I told him the job news earlier and he was happy for me and looking forward to celebrating tonight.

Bill came in on the call and he was exceedingly happy. He most of all knew of the hell I had been in at Wanker Banker. He was happier than he would be if he owned his own bus, which is really saying something. I love this guy.

Touch Me I’m Sick

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Woke up again this morning. A hard habit to break. Felt a bit odd, and gave serious consideration to calling in sick. Totally out of sorts. If you read last night’s posting you can see why my heart might not have been in it. But I rallied my self and got it together, suited up and out the door. No hustle, couldn’t if I tried. Subwayed again and got to work on time and promptly started to disintegrate.

Nose wouldn’t stop running and a feeling of being two or three steps behind myself. Didn’t feel like a cold or anything, felt more like allergies. With the allergies, a section of my head gets congested, a quadrant gets all stuffed. I could barely last 2 hours before I headed back to the subway.

Got to the Path after hopping off the N train and found an empty car to veg out in. Back in sunny and cold Hoboken I walked home after buying some Advil. Came home, and crashed for about 3 hours. Very deep sleep. Best sleep I’ve had in days.

Woke up and went outside to get some fresh air, wandered around. It was a lot warmer. There is anticipation about a Nor’easter approaching this weekend. I don’t plan on going anywhere. I am not operating at 100%. More like 75%.

Bill’s good. He’s being very caring. The shoe is now officially on the other foot since I was doing the same for him only a few weeks ago. He leaves for Detroit on Tuesday, stage-managing the ‘Monk’ play about Thelonious Monk, not the detective with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

That’s about all I can muster this evening, me feeling the way I do.

Here’s something from the past in lieu of anything else. I am on the mend.

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Heaven is Waiting. Waiting is Hell.

Memorial Day weekend, 2003. In Hoboken the Memorial Day parade was Wednesday 5/21. They like to get a jump on things here it seems. It was like a race what with the commuters walking down the sidewalks of Washington Street, racing the aging Veterans walking slowly, or in slow Cadillac convertibles, followed by the men on horseback.
Various shop owners leaning outside their doorways, looking at the parade. Commuters walking neck and neck, veterans, arm in arm. Racing against the rain that was sure to come.

Called El Jefe to see if he was watching the parade, but called at home. Turns out he and Lady Gigglepuss were out watching the parade. He called back after they had gotten home, Gigglepuss loving a parade. I myself had marched in too many parades when I was a kid; Memorial Day Parade was the specialty in Saddle Brook. I marched with the Junior Rifle Squad, wearing spats and epaulets and a big gray Calvary hat with a yellow kerchief around my neck. A wooden dummy rifle draped over my 10-year-old shoulder, walking in left right left formation.

I didn’t join the Junior Rifle Squad, I was drafted. An Al-A-Teen of sorts, we were the children of alcoholic parents at the VFW Post 3484, giving the kids something to do while the fathers and occasional mothers got soused to Sousa on Sunday afternoons. We would march in the large hall above the dark bar, where the vets could drink drafts for .25 cents a glass. We would learn to twirl rifles, and smoke cigarettes.

So we marched mostly on Memorial Day weekend. Usually Sunday. It never seemed to rain. My brother Brian, Susie Schaffer, Donna Bessemer, Lila Czwaska, her cousin Mark Traina, Sharon Mullins to name a few, were my comrades. It was a drag. Both literally and figuratively.

On Memorial Day itself, I would go with my father and head up to the VFW circle by Saddle Brook High School for the laying of the wreaths. I would scoop up the empty rifle shells after the 21-gun salute.

Anyway, I basically felt a tinge of guilt for not staying and watching the parade go by, applauding the veterans who made it this far. Or at least to 4th and Washington street where I cut across the parade and headed home through Church Square Park. The sirens faded in the distance as the parade got further and further away.

It rained later after the parade was over, I hope. Never had to march in the rain but I bet it sucks.

The atmosphere at work is edgy. Thursday couldn’t seem to be over soon enough. Any plans that I did have for the weekend had fallen by the wayside. Miss Gurl wasn’t coming up to Hoboken due to a friend returning from Iraq, and Miss Gurl wanted to spend time with him after not seeing him for so long. Can’t fault Miss Gurl for that. Harpy did invite Triple-5 and myself to his manse in LaGrangeville but with Triple-5 being super allergic to cats, and Harpy having cats he wasn’t going. I thought I was going to go, not having been since I left on 9/9/01, risking the fate of mankind, or a major catastrophe. Harpy phoned and put a kibosh on it. It was going to rain all weekend. Since I would be house bound, I decided to be housebound at home. Plus there was a futon that was being suffocated and desperately needed resuscitation.

Like I said the atmosphere at work is edgy. Each week the company sheds one more person. And with the current employment climate, it certainly is not a good time to be unemployed. My paranoia pokes its head up from time to time. I feel like my head is next on the block.

Like I had said weeks ago, I wasn’t this paranoid while I smoked weed everyday. Now that I don’t, it’s scary. Couldn’t if I wanted to, since the Rastas have moved on to Legitimacy.

Friday came, finally. At work people would ask what I was doing for the weekend. I planned on staying in, drinking wine and watching DVDs. Triple-5 came over and we watched TV, didn’t venture out, rain rain wasn’t going away. Watched ‘ A Hard Day’s Night’. Triple-5 liked Paul, I preferred George, as cutest Beatle. Loved the songs, it made me happy to see Triple-5 being able to watch the whole movie from start to finish, and liking it.

Saturday watched ‘Spirited Away’ on loan from El Jefe while Triple-5 was at his folks place. Quite nice, must watch it with Triple-5. Then we rented ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ starring Triple-5’s fave, a bus. My man has a fetish for buses. He doesn’t drink, doesn’t do drugs. Just has a thing for buses. Whatever revs one’s engine I suppose.

(My fetish? Well I’ll reveal some other time. I have more than one. Perhaps I’ll have a contest to see who can guess the most fetishes I have. Of course Triple-5 would be excluded from the contest. )

Sunday we watched ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ which was amazing. Made tears come to my eyes. And a great score by Peter Gabriel. The great Julio made an appearance for dinner and we all watched ‘24Hour Party People again while we ate dinner. Julio was thrown by the fact that Mark E. Smith was in it for a second. Julio’s roommate at the time was friends with Mark E. and allowed him to stay in Union City with them for a time.

‘Far From Heaven’ which was a melodramatic throw back to the 50’s. Good acting all around. We love Julianne Moore and could watch her in almost anything, including the Steve Seaport story, which will be made one day if someone could write a proper script.

Monday, in lieu of going to the VFW Circle, we watched ‘Muriel’s Wedding’ which kept up the Australian theme of the weekend. “Priscilla’ and ‘Rabbit’ being the others, all we needed was some Fosters and vegemite, eh Bruce? We also watched ‘Swimming to Cambodia’ which I had seem umpteen times, even saw it at the Mitzi Newhouse theatre in the 80’s with sundry people from McSwells. Triple-5 said I Spalding Gray reminds him of me. That’s interesting. I think.

Finally watched ‘Amelie’ which I had given Triple-5 for Valentine’s Day. Really good movie. Made me want to get Triple-5 to see ‘Delicatessen’ and maybe even ‘City of Lost Children’ which I had never seen. ‘Diva’ is another one which features Dominique whathisname who was in ‘Amelie’ and ‘Delicatessen’ That’s it for now. Must return the rentals.

G’day Mate.