Mood Mambo | johnozed

A day off. Didn’t want to back to work with a bunch of people, miserable from a holiday weekend. Plenty of time for that tomorrow. It was an authorized day off, but still an occasional feeling of guilt and apprehension. It passed. Today was a scorcher though and since they’ve been working in the street on the water pipe coming into my building, I had no water.

I did ask Bill to wake me up when he was leaving so that I’d be able to take a shower before they shut off the water. The No Parking sign was posted in front of my building over the weekend and the hours posted were from 8AM to 4PM. That’s when I figured they’d be shutting off the water, but it was actually 11AM.

I did my thing, went out for the papers, fed the birds. Did some work on my computer. The wireless connection kept kicking me off. It was easier than I thought it would be, all I had to do was tighten the antenna on the back of the tower. I was surprised and happy and sweaty.

Last night Juan came over before he headed back to Trenton. We watched Weeds and then watched Buena Vista Social Club, which I hadn’t seen in a few years. Juan had never seen it before. He has the advantage of not needing the subtitles. I explained that I saw it 5 times in the theaters, getting misty at the end with the late Ibrahim Ferrer walking around midtown Manhattan.

I saw it with Annemarie, Julio and Bill on separate occasions and twice on my own. That was when living was cheap in Weehawken and movie going was cheaper, cheap enough to see the same movie 5 times. I think while I was in the throes of Buena Vista Social Club mania, that’s when I started wearing suits.

I explained to Juan that I guess I usually dressed like the musicians I’ve been listening to. Wearing the red, gold and green when I was deep into reggae, and generally indie rock throughout most of my adult life. The musicians from Buena Vista Social Club were generally snazzy dressers, and since that was basically all I listened to for a while that is how I started to dress. Couldn’t get the Cuban cigars though but I prefer Padron cigars from Nicaragua anyhow.

I also started looking for a job with benefits and figured wearing a suit and tie would get me those benefits and a better job. It worked. It also helps that I have a fetish for wearing a suit and tie. I prefer men in suits and ties too. Some guys are leather queens, I’m a pinstripe queen I guess. What can I say?

I dragged Julio to a few shows back then when the various members of BVSC were touring in Manhattan. We saw Compay Segundo at Town Hall, Ibrahim Ferrer and Ruben Gonzales at the Beacon Theater and Orlando Cachaito Lopez at BB King’s Nightclub.

Cachaito was originally scheduled to play a sold out show on September 14, 2001, but things being what they were then it rescheduled for a later date and Julio, Bill and I saw the sold out show with about 15 other people in attendance.

Each time I went to those shows, I was dressed to the nines. Julio, jeans and t-shirt, and a terribly loud orange down vest. Go figure.

Juan said he enjoyed BVSC and for me it flew by faster than I remembered. Juan left a little while after that. Now Bill and I have water again, and it’s at the same pressure it was a few months ago which is quite good.

Back to work tomorrow, which according to the weather soothsayers, will be a scorcher again.

Outside my building today

The ditch at the foot of my stoop

The tools

Columbus Park, Hoboken 2:00PM

Today is the fourth of July. The country is 232 years old. Or at least the Declaration of Independence was stated on this day. Actual independence didn’t happen until a number of years later. In 1976 was the bicentennial. A major event. My father was working in the World Trade Center at the time and a few months before, there was a plan to have a party in the offices so we could watch the tall ships and the fireworks from on high.

That was the plan until rumors started floating around about how gangs were going to be roaming the streets mugging the deep influx of tourists. That scared my father enough so that we spent July 4th in the backyard of 13 Riverview Avenue in Lodi, which despite what you may have heard is not the same thing.

My brother Frank had promised to take me to see the fireworks that night. He was at a party with his wife Elaine though and didn’t show up. There were plenty of firecrackers to keep me amused. My brother Brian wound up with me in the back seat of his car while him and his buddy Eddie drove around River Road in Fort Lee that night where I heard the fireworks going off overhead, not actually able to see them due to the tree tops blocking the view.

It wasn’t that bad, I still got back home and met up with my friends. I stole a pack of Marlboro’s from my mother and got caught but was let go when I explained it would be easier to light a firecracker with a cigarette rather than using matches or lighters. Somehow that worked and I walked away with a hard pack of Marlboro’s in my pocket. That’s probably when I started smoking.

Me and my friends whiled away the remaining bicentennial hours blowing up whatever we could. My sister Annemarie worked in a hospital at that time and gave us all warnings about people in the emergency rooms due to playing with fireworks, so we were careful, though a firecracker did go off in my hand, leaving my thumb and index finger numb for a few hours.

My brother Frank tried to make up for his absence the next day and gave me a copy of Abbey Road which is the first Beatles album I ever owned. I forgave him and soon got every much into the Beatles.

This year, it’s been overcast and muggy. Rained a bit today. Hoboken is like a ghost town today. I rode around, wound up by Battery Park. Bill was spending time with his mother, didn’t make it down there. I rode around, the streets crowded with tourists everywhere as well as Statues of Liberty.

The Feelies sounded great, but I couldn’t see them. I wound up outside the park and listened. Brenda was saying thank you after each song, I wonder if her mother asked her to. I was bored and decided to ride back to the Path train, taking it to Exchange Place and riding home from there.

Not much else going on today. Bill’s staying at his mother’s apartment since the fireworks will be going off 100 yards from her bedroom window. Here’s some pics.

The fans