Category Archives: the day after yesterday

I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper

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Saturday night, after I wrote I walked over to the river and enjoyed a cigar and sat reading Maggie the Mechanic, a Love & Rockets compilation by Jaime Hernandez. I started reading Love & Rockets soon after it came out in the mid-1980’s and loved it. It initially reminded me of a punk rock version of Archie Comics but I soon found it was a lot more than that. I really identified with the many stories written and drawn by Jamie and his brother Beto. Jamie’s stories took place in Dairy Town and Beto’s stories took place somewhere under the border in Palomar.

I think I wrote last week that I initially was drawn to Jaime’s stories a little bit more than I was to Beto’s. Jaime’s compilations ate softcover trade paperbacks whereas Beto’s is quite a heavy tome. But reading Beto’s stories I felt how he put so much heart into his work, so much so that I would just look at a page and then the next thing I knew an hour or so had passed. The same thing happened with Jaime and the Maggie the Mechanic stories. I know Harpy understands what I am talking about. And the stories, reread 25 years later were all so very familiar. Just sitting by the river reading reminded me how I used to envision the music and art scene in Hoboken back then as very similar to what was going on in Dairy Town with the Hoppers.

And as I sat and read, I started to think that it still resembles the Love & Rockets stories somewhat, only all the characters in Hoboken, myself included are just a little bit older and perhaps a little bit heavier. Children that I saw back then are now adults and some of those former kids have children now. It’s the nature of things and it can be unnerving a bit. One kid I used to babysit for in the 1990’s is now a young man with a website for his musical endeavors. He’s quite talented and a good singer. It also helps that this young man is quite a handsome man and the ladies just love him.

Yesterday was Gay Pride day and it was good. I didn’t make it to the parade, I stayed in the apartment waiting for Bill and once he got home I waited for him to wake up. Rand wanted to explore a bike path to Newark but I decided not to go, just staying local, and staying online. I posted a ton of videos of gay and lesbian musicians, starting out of course with the Tom Robinson Band’s Glad to Be Gay. Bill was up a few hours after sleeping and had an errand to run in Harlem. I stayed home and eventually took a nice nap. There is nothing like a Sunday afternoon nap.

We did make plans to see the fireworks on then Hudson for Gay Pride like we do every year. We watched News Radio and an episode of WKRP in Cincinnati on some cable channel that plays old TV shows like that. The WKRP episode was all about the fateful Who concert in Cincinnati where 11 kids were crushed to death outside the arena. Bill had a vague recollection of what happened but being a rock and roll fan I remember it vividly. In fact the next week’s issue of Time Magazine had the Who on the cover asking them what happened as if they had any idea.
It was a fun night out once we turned off the television and went outside. It seemed there were a lot more people out for the fireworks this year than previous years. I told Bill a few stories and as I was telling him I realized that most of my stories finish off with ‘And then we all wound up at Maxwells.’ The fireworks were nice but ended rather anticlimactically. Usually there’s a big finish but this year it merely seemed to peter out.

We made it home a few minutes before it started to rain. Bill went to sleep after that and I stayed up watching the west coast broadcast of True Blood and Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom. True Blood was good, since it was only the second episode of the season I can hope things will really kick in. The Newsroom was clever, Jeff Daniels playing a Keith Olbermann type, not that likeable. I enjoyed it the way I used to enjoy watching Lou Grant after the Mary Tyler Moore show ended. That was the first episode so I hope things will get better, though I did enjoy it.



Today


Saturday night



07 Cherish

I Like Dreamin’

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This is the sixth hour of a Mary Tyler Moore marathon. It’s been on that long and I still get a chuckle out of every episode. Saturday nights, 9:00PM, Channel 2, after All in the Family & The Jeffersons and before the Bob Newhart Show (tomorrow’s marathon) and the Carol Burnett Show.

A quieter day than the previous few and more humid it seems. There is plenty of parking available in Hoboken this weekend. It’s the unofficial start of summer so a lot of the locals have left town. The supermarket was fairly empty this morning though the streets were busy this afternoon.

Last night I went to Maxwells to see RoDa. I walked up around 8:30, had a pint of Stella Artois when I got there, chatted with RoDa for a spell and then headed home. I was home at 10:00 since it started getting busy and RoDa was running around. I didn’t know anyone there except for Handsome Dick Manitoba who was headlining in the back room last night. The one pint of Stella really got me buzzing and I probably could have stayed for another but opted to come home instead.

I came home and watched TV as the Stella buzz faded. I eventually went to bed at my usual time and about a half hour later I was sitting in front of the computer since I couldn’t sleep. Bill was driving to Atlantic City and I never sleep that well when he is away. He was due home this morning at 9:30 and remarked that I would probably be asleep when he came home. I told him I doubted that, but having taken 2 melatonin tablets I wound up being asleep when he walked through the door. I did get up when he went to bed and did the usual morning routine, only a bit slower.

I was able to find for a notebook of song chords that I used when I was busking frequently and for the past couple of days couldn’t find it though I did start throwing crap out as I looked. Now I have to sort the real crap from the questionable crap. Luckily Bill has a very good shredder so that made things a lot easier.

I was going to take the guitar out and play by the river but the clouds overhead seemed about to burst so whatever strumming I did, I did indoors. Some songs were easy to fall back into and others took some time to figure out again. If Rand and I are going to reactivate the Art Hams again, we’re going to need some songs. I have my suggestions, songs that I can play without difficulty and I am sure Rand has his songs, plus there are a few songs from back in the day, during one of the three times we actually played out.

Tonight I am going to Hoboken Cigars and will see Raymond my former cigar shack co-worker. I used to beg off attending his events since I was working at the cigar shack. Now that I am not, I have no excuse really.

And now I’m back. I do enjoy these early evening jaunts. I walked over to Hoboken Cigars through the hummus laden streets of Hoboken. It is so humid out, despite dousing my head with cold water before heading out I was sweating once again when I hit the streets.

I saw Raymond and it was good. He seems to have a Saturday night gig here and he introduced me to the owner. We talked about the cigar shack and how things were then and now. I’m almost tempted to write about the rumor that has Calvin heading off to work with the former genital massager but I’ve decided not to. A few cigar shack customers were there and that was all they wanted to talk about, as if I had any idea what goes on in Calvin’s mind.

A nice night out in Hoboken and I’m glad I made it out once again. Bill is driving down to Atlantic City once again and the Mary Tyler Moore marathon continues.

07 Rapture