Category Archives: So how’s band camp?

Shakin’ All Over

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Oh that Kenny G. He’s on TV right now playing his horn on some ice skating program. He’s the butt of a lot of jokes but I talked with him a while ago on the phone while working for Arista Records and found him to be quite a nice guy.

So I have no beef with him. I won’t run out and buy his records or anything like that but I really have nothing bad to say about him. I wish I knew him better so I could recommend Harpy working for him.

I just got home from Manhattan. Nice day to walk around the city. I headed into the office and cleaned some vases with bamboo shoots in them and roots and rocks covered in algae. I try to clean them once a month but I’ve been lax in that department.

I was also able to take care of a few things that occurred during my absence yesterday. It’s true, these people I work with and support can’t do anything for themselves. They are spoiled. I’m not complaining since I’m the one who’s spoiled them and it keeps me busy. The smallest thing I do makes me look good I think and I intend to keep this up until the lease runs out in March 2010.

Last night I watched a little bit of Factory Girl (The Edie Sedgwick story) which had a bit of the song, Shakin’ All Over. I loved the version and went to iTunes to find out who had done it. Of course it’s a classic and covered by dozens of artists. I found a version I really liked by Iggy Pop and downloaded it. But still- who did the classic 1960’s version?

I enjoyed a Padron as I walked back to the Path train. I wasn’t going to take the bus home since it took forever to get into the city on the bus. One lane going in through the Lincoln Tunnel, plus the bus had a slight collision with a truck. Nothing bad happened and we only stopped for a few minutes.

I was reading about Caroline Kennedy in the New Yorker and a woman next to me asked what I thought about the article I had just finished. We would up having a nice chat about the Kennedy’s and politics. I mentioned that it’s sometimes confusing and infuriating that being so close to New York, we get all the information about New York politics, like Caroline Kennedy thinking about becoming a Senator for the Empire State.

Ultimately it wouldn’t concern me one way or another, but I was drawn into it due to the Kennedy myths. My seat mate felt the same way. She’s an Irish Catholic and I’m a Irish Atheist, formerly catholic. It was a nice chat. She was chubby cheeked enough that she could have passed for one of my cousins. And we both still feel bad about John F. Kennedy Jr and his untimely demise.

I talked with my sister on the phone as I puffed on my Padron and walked down Fifth Avenue towards the Path train. She and her husband, Rex are enjoying the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss CD I got Rex for his birthday this past week, Raising Sand.

Annemarie is going to burn it for me since I was pretty much intrigued by the song that I had heard. I, in turn promised to burn a copy of Raphael Saadiq, The Way I See It. I posted the 100 Yard Dash on my Facebook page page and Annemarie liked it.

It promises to be another quiet night tonight. No plans really. Got the new Mojo and Uncut magazines which I will likely peruse while perhaps watching Renee Fleming on the Elvis Costello show, Spectacle. That’s it on this end. Hope all is well with you and yours, as it is with me and mine.

Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

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Well if Monday was mentally ugly today was even worse weather wise. This morning, on the way to work it was snowing, then it turned to freezing rain and now it’s just rain, coming down quite hard. It was a mess no matter which way you looked at it. If you had an umbrella it didn’t matter you were going to get wet.

Huge puddles, through which cars would splash making a wave onto sidewalks. I wisely avoided those streets were I knew there would be major puddles. Smart like that, I am, sometimes.

Last night was mellow. Watched O, no RM. Instead watched The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Both very funny of course. And then I watched Scrubs which is now on ABC. It definitely has a different feel to it.

Maybe because they characters are a little bit older, and it’s also Zach Braff’s last season as JD. They say the show might continue without Braff, but that all depends on the ratings. Tonight is Lost though and I am looking forward to it.

Work was very quiet today. Tom Chin was out due to the weather, Vivek mentioned that he would be coming in, in the afternoon. He wasn’t there when I left a little early at 4:10. It was just me and Greg Stevens.

It seems that I’ve become Greg’s computer guy. At least once a week I’ll hear Greg calling my name and I walk in there and he mentions that his computer is slow, or how do you do one thing or another. I don’t mind, he’s a good guy and with my limited knowledge of computers, I know more than Greg does and that in turn makes me a valuable asset to him at least.

At one point during the afternoon, 3 firetrucks were stopped in front of my building. It turns out there was an underground fire on the next block. There was an foul odor in the air, which was probably the smell of insulation burning. I

n the winter so much salt is thrown on sidewalks and streets that eventually seeps into the pavement corroding whatever wires and pipes lay beneath. It doesn’t happen instantly, it’s a process. Rust never sleeps and neither does corrosion.

A year or so ago a major explosion happened on Lexington Avenue in the middle of the street just as a truck was passing over. Truck went flying and the driver was hospitalized with major burns, the steam melting away skin and clothes.

You can never tell where something like that will happen since the infrastructure is old and in need of maintenance and repair. To make these repairs, rates would have to go up and since no one wants to pay higher rates, nothing really gets done and these underground fires and explosions happen more and more.

Now I’m watching the news and they’re saying there are a million people without power. So I’d better hurry up and finish tonight’s entry just in case the power goes out.

Today’s scenes

Park Avenue, Hoboken

Park Avenue, Hoboken

Washington Street, Hoboken

Washington Street, Hoboken

Bryant Park NYC

Bryant Park NYC

Firetrucks at 50th Street and Third Avenue

Firetrucks at 50th Street and Third Avenue