Category Archives: So how’s band camp?

Since You’ve Been Gone

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A blasé Saturday and that’s fine by me. Stayed up last night watching Elvis Costello interviewing Elton John. It was quite good. Elton discussing Leon Russell, Laura Nyro and David Ackles and how much of an influence they were on him.

Some footage of each artist, each clip less than a minute though. Elton is so pudgy now. He looked comfortable with it, so good for him. Elvis opened the show singing Border Song with Allen Toussaint who may be his musical director.

They did release an album a while ago, singing songs about Hurricane Katrina. They also sand Working in a Coalmine, which is a Toussaint song. Elton sang a good portion of Burn Down the Mission, which was a favorite Elton song for me a number of years ago. It was worth watching.

After that I went to sleep waking up around 9:00 this morning. Pretty cold, temperatures in the low 30’s. Bill in Stuyvesant Town, we talked on the phone. I got the papers and some foodstuffs then started the laundry after breakfast.

Watched the Office and 30 Rock, recorded on Thursday night. Very very funny. 30 Rock was the funnier of the two.

Stopped by the Hoboken library to pick up a book I ordered a few weeks ago and forgot all about it. Turned out to be Frontman by Richard Barone. I was embarrassed and promptly put it in my bag.

I don’t know what made me order it in the first place, I think it was an online article from Popdose, an email I get daily. It was from an interview with Richard Barone and how great he is blah blah blah.

I used to think that, but as time went on I changed my feelings and now think Jim Mastro is great and Richard Barone, not so much. He’s genuinely nice that Jim, as are Rob and Frank. With Barone it seems like it’s phony.

Never got around to buying the Bongo’s Drums Along the Hudson on CD though I did take it out of the library and now it’s an mp3.

Decided to head into the city to visit Farfetched. Before that I went to Virgin and bought the latest Mojo and Uncut magazines. Big sale on cd’s. Guess they’ll be liquidating soon since the Virgin Mega-stores will be shuttered in the next year I think.

People roaming around but not really buying anything. That’s the case at Farfetched as well. No one has much money for anything this year during the holiday season and of course there is the worry about whether or not they will have jobs come Monday or the week after that or the week after that and so on.

It was good to see Harpy and Lois behind the counter. It seems pretty much definite that I won’t be working there this season. I’m pretty sure I would have heard something by now. But it’s cool.

I have a day job and this is Susan and Lois and Harpy’s main source of income. I’m not greedy.

Walked through Manhattan having a Padron and headed to the Path train. That’s about it.

The Vatican will NOT support a UN resolution to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. I’m so glad I have nothing to do with those ‘men’ in fancy dresses and hats anymore. Somethings are just too gay, even for me.

What did YOU do today?

Rhythm is a Dancer

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Another day, another night, another opening, another show. Last night was quiet. Juan was running late and decided to take a raincheck on stopping by which was fine by me. I spent sometime with Julio & Stine and Superboy.

Hung out, Julio burned some DVD’s for me so I might send them to the left coast as a Christmas present though I was told no Christmas presents, this costs mere pennies so that means I won’t hear ‘Oh you spent too much money, you shouldn’t have’ from Annemarie. This year it’s going to be a cheap holiday gift giving season.

So it was a quiet night and I wasn’t in bed by 11:30, but more like 11:45 which isn’t that big of a deal. Slept really well. Once again my pillows have gone bad and I’ve been waking up with an achy neck.

Since Bill is in Stuyvesant Town I decided to add one of his pillows to mine and voila! It worked and I slept really well. Still some difficulty getting out of bed when the alarm goes off but it wasn’t that bad and I was up and mobile at 6:30 and out at 7:15.

No Casey bus today, but progress is being made. It’s more than likely that when I eventually do catch the bus that I used to see Casey on, he won’t be there. Nothing on him, just the way the cosmic joke is on me, rather than being included on the cosmic joke.

Work was busy, the new subtenants were annoying. There was a new guy and so their discussions around the trading desk were political and had a tinge of anti-Obama feeling to it.

The other day as they were watching CNBC, there was an article on the TV about how investors are sweeping in on India and taking advantage of the chaos following the attacks in Mumbai.

This is the disaster capitalism that Naomi Klein writes about. Something happens, the people are in shock. Public companies are privatized, unions dismantled and occasionally brutalities occur.

Scratch that ‘occasionally’, brutalities happen quite often. Murder, displacement, rampant unemployment, government crackdowns in democratic societies, people going ‘missing’ all in the name of free trade.

That is The Shock Doctrine, as put forth by Milton Friedman and his gang from the University of Chicago. I mentioned it as the news was reported and got a few strange looks as I spoke. I guess a tirade against unregulated capitalism doesn’t go down that well when you’re dealing with traders in a financial institution.

I’ve been reading this book for months now, I read it usually on my way home since it’s generally so upsetting and it angers up my blood. I have less than a third to read and Naomi Klein writes about what happened and continues to happen in Iraq.

I guess I should have paid more attention to the misdeeds of Paul Bremer and his ilk, but I hope that I am making up for lost time and my ignorance.

Like yesterday, I got really tired after lunch, a salad. Sort of crashing. Maybe it’s because of the drop in temperature as the day goes on, it could also be the errands that I have been doing usually in the morning. If I could take a midday nap I would but I can’t so I ate a banana, which helped.

This evening I went to Steven’s Institute of Technology to attend a lecture by Dr. Oliver Sacks, whom I have written about before. The gist of the lecture concerned music and it’s relation to the brain.

I heard about it through Rand and once again I am in his debt. Dr. Sacks is personable and mentioned a few times that the paperback has some rewrites as well as additional case stories which made me regret purchasing the hardcover when it came out. Won’t do that again.

I was hoping to get a chance to talk about my brother Frank and his aphasia. His aphasia seems to go away when he’s talking about music and he’s just as passionate about music as I am. But the opportunity never arose and I was hungry.

I did thank Rand for telling me about the lecture and now here I am mere moments later writing about it. Still tired and a bit hungry now so that’s it.

I have photos from last week to today, but since I’m on Bill’s Mac I can’t figure out how to upload them.