Whats for lunch? | johnozed

A Thursday at the cigar shack. It’s me and Zack right now, Jerry Vale was in earlier but went off to represent at a cigar function somewhere in midtown. It’s been a slow day, not many customers coming in. Certainly no Saudi royalty, at least not yet.

I’ve been busy doing extracurricular things, taking photographs and doing some writing on behalf of the cigar shack. I am the official blogger for the cigar shack and will be maintaining a blog for the shack as well as photographing events all while selling cigars and accessories.

I just achieved my daily bread, I mean daily goal, so that’s a relief. With Zack in the cigar lounge, having a smoke I’ve decided to play some reggae in honor of Mr. Winston Rodney’s birthday, that’s Burning Spear for those playing at home.

I’m sure I’ve seen Burning Spear somewhere, but with red eyes back then, the memories today are somewhat cloudy. One specific memory I do have involved Burning SPear at the late, lamented Wetlands, a club in Tribeca. My friend Miriam and I along with her friend Andre went to see Burning Spear and we got there early enough to be 2 feet from the stage.

It was perfect, none of us had been that close to see a reggae legend like that before. Unfortunately Andre got himself smoked out causing us to abandon the show before it even began since homeboy couldn’t hang.

So we went from being thisclose to the stage to being out on the street making sure Andre had something to eat. Now Black Uhuru is playing and I certainly remember an excellent show with Black Uhuru and King Sunny Ade at the Dr. Pepper Festival on the Pier at 42nd Street, in the shadow of the USS Intrepid.

That show seemed to go on forever, maybe 3 or 4 hours, with quite a few friends hanging out and sharing things that get passed around. It is a little blurry, the memory that is, but I do recall being there with Andrew Feldman and Rand Hoppe and possibly the one and only Jose Blackorby as well as other friends I am sure.

Now there is 45 minutes left in the day and I am off tomorrow and that makes me happy. Bill was up early, doing his volunteer work for WBAI, getting up at 4AM. I could not be roused when he left, he told me he tried kissing me a few times but I would not be moved. I did sleep a lot better than I did the night before so it was probably me making up for lost sleep the night before.

So I am off tomorrow and I have no plans whatsoever. Maybe some laundry but that could wait until next week. No art galleries to go to and the weather might be crappy so staying in might be the thing to do. I do have the movie Beginners which won Christopher Plummer the Academy Award last week, so that might be the highlight of the day.

And the last customer of the cigar shack this evening dropped quite a pretty penny, causing my high tide to lift all boats. Nice start for the month of March.

Burning Spear – The Sun

And so it was back to work for me today after a day off which was quite productive, or at least somewhat productive. Today there was some difficulty waking up more than likely from the fact that it was raining outside and who really wants to get out of bed on a rainy day?

Bill had off today, he had an audition for a TV show this afternoon and also wanted to continue on his progress with regards to cleaning the apartment. SO Bill and his buddy are doing just that, cleaning the apartment. Bill said it would be all Spic & Span when I get home. I do have my reservations though.

My day at the cigar shack started in the red though. Last week I sold a few items totaling over $700.00. It was a good sale, the customer was nice and I enjoyed helping her. Unfortunately between that day and this morning, she found the same items online at a considerably lower price.

So she returned them for a refund and I can’t blame her for that but that put me in the hole. I spent the day trying to get out of the hole, bit by bit, cigar by cigar. A little over an hour ago, I was finally out of the hole and content to be in the low 3 figures. Back in Black should have been the theme song.

Slowly my numbers increased and soon I was hovering around $500.00. In the past 45 minutes thanks to 2 customers from far away lands I am now over 4 figures. I am happy about that and so is Zack. It’s been a busy kind of day, Zack, Bradley and Thomas and myself. Bradley and Thomas have done stellar work today.

There was an event that no one really wanted to have a part of. The cigar shack rarely has sales but the head cheeses insisted so we had no choice but to do what the head cheeses ordered. Food was ordered, whiskey distributor arrived, but unfortunately no one who said they were coming, came.

There was disappointment from the manager and the assistant manager but when the time came for them to leave, they left with whiskey on the breath.

This afternoon as I was coming back from lunch, before I headed into the cigar shack I was outside having a smoke. I saw this gent standing outside the cigar shack on the sidewalk holding up a pamphlet titled ‘TRY THIS!!!’. I figured he was handing out samples of something so I asked the gent what it was he wanted people to try.

It turned out he was looking for work as a personal assistant. His name is L. Jay Walker and he thinks of possibilities and getting them done as well as trying to find a cure for snoring. He claims to be big, strong, smart, compassionate as well as being a humorous guy with a calm and peaceful demeanor.

He can guarantee your safety and he’s quite handy as well as a great listener. So if you are looking for a personal assistant or know of someone who is, send an email to ljaywalker54@gmail.com. I figure it wouldn’t take much of anything for me to post his info and it would sure beat handing out pamphlets outside of a shopping area. He seemed like a nice guy anyhow.