Category Archives: So how’s band camp?

The Ghost In You

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It’s back to work and back to reality for me today. Yes I am back on planet Earth. Last night’s entry was difficult. I posted, Harpy commented, I unpublished it, then Harpy pointed out the typos which I corrected and republished. I used to do that sort of thing back in the 1980’s, a lot of acid. Jet and I had a sheet with Conan the Barbarian on it, which Jet called magic.

We’d nibble at the magic for what seemed like weeks, I would get a kick out of going to McSwells and hanging out with friends most of the time tripping. I definitely enjoy the experience with Juan over the weekend, a little ego destruction. Really cleared the deck of hang ups and whatnot and I feel more clear headed and reasonable now.

It was ironic after being with my brother Frank this weekend, him telling me tales of his wayward youth, mainly with him tripping a lot of the time. And here I was, hours after being dropped off by Frank, getting on the bus and taking another trip. No regrets on my end and as far as I know, Juan had none either.

As I was wandering the omniverse Saturday night/Sunday morning I was thinking about what I would write for the blog, but it didn’t exactly come out as planned. I didn’t want to be too obvious, not that there are children reading this and then telling their parents, that they want to do acid since they read about it on a blog.

That would be funny to me at least, a child reading this blog. Now if I produced some bomb making instructions, that would be cause for concern. There was the experimental influence back in the day, The Beatles, William S. Burroughs among others who dabbled becoming addled.

Also in the early 1980’s there seemed to be a resurgence in the use of hallucinogens. The Rain Parade, The Three O’Clock and others from LA while other bands from all over seemed to be making psychedelic music. And there were a few other people at McSwells who indulged in such substances then so I was in good company.

Eventually the supply ran out, only reappearing from time to time. I think the last time I had done it was with Roda in Central Park when we had gained backstage access to a spoken word performance hosted by Tricky.

It was a nice night, Roda and I thought we bonded with Tricky and exchanged phone numbers, which days later Tricky changed his number. Roda and I wandered around Central Park, laying about in Strawberry Fields and the Sheep Meadow, tripping out on the electric trees at Tavern on the Green.

We even used the restroom in the restaurant, since it’s on public property, public access to the bathrooms are required. I remember it was at the end of a hall of mirrors and that the little man who used to tour with Kid Rock was thrown out of a party for Kid Rock for being too drunk.

So now I am back in the present, feeling good and refreshed. I was even able to walk through the crowds of tourists and didn’t wish any of them ill will. All very pleasant.

Head

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Well nothing much at all happened today. I had plans to see the Skatalites who were on the bill at Summerstage with Taj Mahal and Los Pinguos. I know who Taj Mahal is but I’ve never heard of Los Pinguos before, and it doesn’t seem likely that I will be seeing them today either.

Thunderstorms blocked my path today. No bike ride like yesterday, no bus ride into the city either. That was the plan, ride into the city and walk up and see what was going on.

Now I’ve been inside all day watching Shark Week on the Discovery channel. I’ve never watched it before and I’ve just been listening to it rather than watching it. Sure a good scream will get my attention, but more often than not my eyes are occupied with something.

I only really think about sharks when I’m at the beach in the ocean. I could be floating there trying to relax and suddenly the thought of a shark will pop into my head, courtesy of Senor Spielbergo. I saw Jaws in 1975 like everyone else.

I believe I went with my brother Brian on a Friday night that summer at the Hi Way Theater in Fair Lawn. The line was around the block and this was when theaters were mainly one big auditorium rather than it is now, several closets in one theater showing on a much smaller screen.

The movie scared the shit out of 12 year old me. Even the music was terrifying. It was Jaws everywhere that summer, on the radio with the novelty hit Mr. Jaws by Dickie Goodman, the book was on the top of the best seller charts, it was on the covers of magazines and the phenomenon was written up in all the papers.

With the kids in my neighborhood, with the ones that had pools where we would play ‘Jaws’ in the pool, thrashing about as if being attacked by a Great White Shark. Who gets to attack the raft first and who gets to be the shark, or worse yet, sharks?

Jaws was I guess the first blockbuster paving the way for the multi-million spectacles that people line up to see today. After Jaws came Star Wars, which I saw six times in the Stanley Warner Theater on Route 4 in Paramus.

I also saw Jaws 2 and maybe even Jaws 3-D. That was enough for me. By the time of Jaws 2, I knew how dumb things were getting by the time the shark ate the helicopter. Yeah, we knew it was dumb with the late Roy Schneider taunting ‘C’mon you bastard!’ towards the Great White to come at him while holding a insulated cable wide enough for the shark to electrocute itself.

With a flash of fire and sparks it was over for me and the movie. The 3-D gimmick is what got me in the final time. That fall coming back to school, I remember talking to my friends in the schoolyard, and saying that I thought Jaws was really scary. My friends called me a pussy for being scared and I never brought it up again until now.