Category Archives: So how’s band camp?

Love Reign O’er Me

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Last night I inadvertently watched a repeat of Keith Olbermann, or at least I think it was since it was playing in the next room as I was on Bill’s Mac. It certainly sounded like a repeat, lot’s of Saturday Night Live and David Letterman clips.

That followed into Rachel Maddow which I did sit down and watch up to a point. I remembered the Kennedy Center Honors were on and I did want to see what they were doing for the Who, who received some of the honors that were doled out.

I turned in just in time to see Joss Stone do an adequate job of My Generation, the same with Dave Grohl on Who Are You, when out walked Bettye LaVette who I had read about several times before but never went beyond that.

Well she came out and basically stole Love Reign O’er Me from Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey who just sat there gobsmacked as I was on a couch in Hoboken.

A moving enough performance that I called Rita who was a Who fan from back in the day when they were doing 7 shows a day at the Paramount with Murray the K. She too was blown away.

I also called up California to tell Annemarie to keep an eye out for it. I posted it on my Facebook page and quite a few people were turned onto it and seeing it for the first time.

After Bettye LaVette came poor old Rob Thomas who did an ok job of Baba O’Riley saved by the participation of a choir comprised of members of the NYPD and the FDNY which was oddly rousing to see these uniformed representatives shouting ‘They’re All WASTED!’

But Pete and Roger loved it and it seemed like a thank you from the New York City departments for that Concert for 9/11 all the way back in October 2001.

So here we are, at the end of a calendar, ready to start a new one within hours. I had originally planned on doing a recap of the year, as I do every year. I have been doing this since October 2005 mind you.

This and a certain other thing that I do every day are about the only constants in my life and both probably lead to blindness.

I tried going back to January of this past year but just found myself reliving the feelings (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) that I had while I was writing it plus who wants to read recaps of my sometimes maudlin writing? Not me, that’s for sure.

Tonight Bill is returning to Hoboken for the night. Ending the year and starting a new one together. It’s been a rough year for the both of us, him more so I might add. He lost his father in February so his loss is that much greater.
I lost mine already so it’s a proper win for him on the sad scale for the year. Like Oscar Wilde wrote: To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.

And that is the first time I have ever used a semicolon on this blog. It all stems back to what started this blog, or at least the concept of it. Bill and I attending An Evening of American Satire at the Society for Ethical Culture that October night in 2005.

It featured Art Buchwald, Barry Crimmins, Paul Krassner, Lewis Lapham (who said those magic words that motivated me to write every day) and Kurt Vonnegut who stated that semicolons should never be used under any circumstances and on that point I held up my end until tonight. Blame Oscar Wilde.

I also had the plan to go to work today, just to check in and see if there was anything I needed to put in order. But Janice Huff the weather forecaster said it should be a treacherous morning and since I didn’t really have to go in I decided not to, expecting to wake up to snow drifts and glaciers creeping down Washington Street.

It didn’t happen and whatever motivation I might have had slipped away while I slept away the morning. I did wake up and turned on the TV just so I wouldn’t drift too far away in slumber.

But I did anyway. The snow started around the time Janice Huff said it would end so I tidied up the apartment a bit and did some laundry.

Stopped by the liquor store and picked up some Guinness for Rand and Lisa’s New Years Eve get together. The Latino kid from the shoemaker was there too and I wished him a happy new year.

He remembered the last time I saw him, the day before Thanksgiving trying to pick up Bill’s shoes which weren’t ready a month after they were dropped off. He wished me a happy new year as well and mentioned that he read what I wrote online about the service that day.

And he agreed with the review, at least that’s what he told me as he walked back to the shoe makers store in a brand new Michael Vick football jersey.

So tonight, Bill and I plan to go to Arthur’s for a steak dinner, then maybe a walk around smoking cigars, coming home and then heading over to Rand and Lisa’s to ring in the New Year.

I hope you and yours have a very happy New Year and I wish you all only the very best wishes for the New Year.

Now strap yourself in, cause it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Here is the Hoboken twilight sky on a New Years Eve.
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Prodigal Son

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Well I just got back from an excursion to the wonderful wastelands of Secaucus. Juan drove me out to Syms where I wanted to check out their sales and man what a pitiful selection they had to offer. Definitely a better selection in midtown Manhattan.

The only things I liked were suits that I already owned and I was glad to see that they weren’t on sale. I bought a French cuff shirt instead, with a tab collar, which I could never find in NYC. Surprisingly it was made by Sean John.

P. Diddy himself. I can easily picture him drinking Cristal, puffin on a stogie and frantically sewing into the wee hours of the night. He’s that hands on. I don’t care for his music but his clothes I don’t mind.

And I don’t mean the t-shirts with his signature on them, or the jeans or the bandages. I do own two of his suits which I think are quite nice.

I almost bought a silk scarf to go with an overcoat that used to belong to my late cousin. It was specially made for him and even says so on the inside. And since we shared the same name, it’s perfect.

My brother Brian was hanging onto it for a few months since he got two other coats that fit him better than this overcoat. I can’t wait to wear it to work. I think it looks snazzy. I’ll try to post a pic of myself wearing it.

I did have a nice phone chat with my brother Frank. I mentioned that when we meet, the first five minutes are generally tense. Like a chemical reaction. When you mix baking soda with vinegar there a chemical reaction for a moment, lot’s of foaming going on and after that it generally calms down. That’s how it is with Frank and myself.

He complimented me on my guitar playing yesterday which was a first. I’ve been intimidated by him when I would play guitar in front of him. I told him that I often tried playing in front of him, maybe a Beatles song I practiced and when I payed it for him he would tell me it was wrong and nothing like the number I was trying to play. That happened a lot so I eventually stopped playing in front of him.

Now he said he enjoyed my playing and wouldn’t mind jamming sometime. Which is something I always wanted to do, but generally got shot down. But still I’m willing to give it a go.

Last night Bill was here for a few hours and Juan stopped by too. It was like old times and by old times I mean, September. That was when Bill was still staying here mostly and Juan hadn’t started school yet.

A lot of laughs, some jazz and some beers added to the festivities while we watched The Onion DVD which was a gift to Bill and myself from my niece Meghan and her husband Rob. It was a lot funnier than we expected. Many laughs out loud and a few, ‘Oh no’s!’

Bill had to go back to Stuyvesant Town so he left around midnight and he took most of the energy with him, leaving Juan and myself to watch Scrubs before Juan leaving at 12:30. After all the Guinness I had had sleeping was incredibly easy.

Bow Tie Juan at Syms

Bow Tie Juan at Syms

Woke up around 9:00 this morning, no hangover, and no sluggishness. Ran some errands, had breakfast and did laundry. Now Juan is off to the mall at Wood Bridge, Bill is in Stuyvesant Town and I’m here again.

It was great being with Bill the past couple of days. It was actually the first time in a long time that we were able to spend hours together. And now I miss him. He gave me a pair of really nice braces that weren’t easy to find and weren’t cheap either.

I gave him some cufflinks, some braces and a tie with buses on it. Those things weren’t easy to find either. He liked them. Juan may be back later.

Ann Boyles might be in Manhattan tomorrow, which would make it so much easier for Ann to meet Bill. She said she wanted to meet him and he said he wanted to meet her after hearing me talk about her. Of course it’s all up in the air, nothing really set in stone.