Category Archives: NARTH

I Remember- Fay Victor

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Well it is considerably colder outside. It was quite a cold day today and right now it is 60 degrees in the bedroom. I was out most of the afternoon. Not outdoors but actually at the smoke shop here in Hoboken. At around noon I received a message from Shlomo, asking if I could come in and sit in the store while he ran errands. I didn’t mind doing that since I was planning on paying them a visit this afternoon anyhow. I got myself together and headed over there about 30 minutes after I got the initial message.

There was Shlomo with a few other people. Apparently he had something to attend to and I didn’t know how long he would be gone for. I’ve offered my services, free of charge should he need someone at the store. So if he wants to throw me a free cigar, why not? No harm done and it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble. Laundry could wait for a few hours I guessed. About five minutes after I got there Shlomo and company were in the Shlomo mobile and headed up Washington Street.

I was smart and took the book about Yo La Tengo with me so I could have something to read. There were a few errors that I read and I knew they were errors since I was at a few of those events. I guess I should be glad that I wasn’t in the book. I had no idea that things were so difficult with Ira and Georgia and the quest for a steady, permanent bass player. I remember getting a cassette from Ira asking me if I wanted to play guitar with them, but my self-confidence was even worse than that it is these days.

I’m still on good terms with them and when we see each other on the street there is usually a warm and friendly greeting going back and forth. I last saw Ira a few months ago and I mentioned the rent control benefit at Maxwell’s. He told me they would be out of town and when I mentioned that I was going to be playing he joked that he was disappointed that he wasn’t going to see that. We had a laugh about that, then he was off on his way and I was off on mine.

Now I am back home. Between the last paragraph and this sentence I remembered Bill asked me to pick up his dry cleaning so it was on with the sneakers and a run down the stairs before they closed. I was worried they closed at 7:00 but when I called I was told it was 7:30. It was good to know and I will probably forget it. And now I have finished hanging the laundry on the racks as well on hangers in the bathroom.

For some reason Cabaret was playing in my head the past few days so that is what I am listening to right now. It’s too bad they never recorded the Alan Cumming/Natasha Richardson version. I’d love to see it. I did see it with Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh, but on the soundtrack it is Natasha Richardson, so that is the one I am most used to. It’s also helpful that it is the version I own.


13 Tonight

I Need You Tonight- ZZ Top

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It’s a rainy Tuesday. I can’t really say what kind of day it is since I haven’t really done anything. I slept really well last night, I did not remember Bill kissing me goodbye this morning even though he said I was very chatty. I woke up with the alarm clock, actually after hitting the snooze button a few times. I did eventually get out of bed and started the routine once again. Made coffee, poured cereal, jumped into the shower. About an hour after that, after cereal and 2 cups of coffee I found I was quite tired.

So I went back to bed. Normally the coffee would have prevented that, but it didn’t this time. I didn’t have to be at the new job until 3:00 so I set the online alarm clock for 1:30 figuring that would be enough. Apparently all I needed was a half hor. I did sleep a deep sleep, awoken by students at the nearby school applauding something. Then I heard it start to rain so I got out of bed to make sure the windows were closed. All the time I left the TV on as a way of not drifting off too far to sleep.

I did get back into bed once again intending to get some more sleep but it seemed I had enough. I walked through the apartment, and watched the rain fall steadily upon Hoboken. And the rain still falls an hour later. The new job is a good job. It’s similar to the first job I ever had in some ways, at least elementally. I do hope the schedule is set soon though. I would like to see Bill in the staged reading of 8, a play by Dustin Lance Black about the Proposition 8 trial (same sex marriage in California) on October 11.

I don’t know what’s what with regard to that and Bill is somewhat resigned to the fact that I might not be there. I think it would be the first time (or the first time in a long time) that I won’t be able to see Bill onstage. I will definitely have to put in a request to have December 7 off since that is the date that Bill and I are going to see Sinbad at the Apollo Theater. It’s what I got Bill for his birthday. But I am still in a probationary period so who knows?

Despite my efforts to not look backwards, I do have to say that if it weren’t for this here blog being found out by Michael Herklots, who in turn informed Zack/Calvin/Hot Sauce/Whatever who got his feeling hurt, I would likely still be toiling away at the cigar shack having to put up with a marsupial and his snortish ways. Sure I was prepared to jump, just waiting for the right time. But too much time was spent on the plank and so instead of jumping off, I was pushed. And I don’t regret it, since if I was still there I would likely be filled with regret and despair.

The cloud did have a silver lining. I still have some anxiety about the new gig, but that should be expected since I am about to start my second day. And the second day went well. Trying my best to do things correctly, to show I have a handle on things and perhaps I am trying to hard. Then again there are the inner demons and doubts that occur from time to time, more often than not, when I am alone. At home with Bill I am fine, at work I am fine. It’s the in between moments that do my head in. I guess this happens to everyone at some point, doesn’t it?




John Riley