What’s it doing outside? | johnozed

Well today is a rather unimpressive Labor Day. It’s been cloudy and seems like it is going to rain at any time. I suppose that is how it should be the ones who feel that Labor Day is the end of summer though we know it isn’t really. Bill is down in Atlantic City, with no play to stage manage and no wakes to attend in Puerto Rico and no place to sing the Star Spangled Banner he is back to bus driving which is his true love, or at least one of them. I guess it’s a return to normalcy… whatever that is.

Saturday was a very nice day. I did post the videos of Bill singing. We had a few giggles when we got back home, specifically how Bill marches out of the frame, his chest all puffed up like someone is about to get duffed. We also discussed how we have to get Bill a new outfit for events such as this. Some nice new trousers would do, something more fitting since Bill has lost quite a bit of weight the past months. Overall though, the trip to Staten Island was a lot of fun, the ferry ride is always fun.

It was quite crowded in the Manhattan terminal, at least a few hundred of us standing around waiting for the ferry to arrive while an earnest busker played her songs, vocals and guitar over amplified where it was thisclose to being distorted. Still she has more nerve than I and I duly tossed a dollar into her case for which she thanked me. After each song she received a smattering of applause and when she covered The Police, Message in a Bottle I told Bill that I had been practicing that song a few days before.

We received wristbands that enabled us to ‘All You Can Eat’ only it was certain foods we were allowed to eat. We found that out getting on a line and ordering food and then showing the wristband. Then we were told we had to get in the queue about thirty feet away where the foods were hot dogs, hamburgers, bags of potato chips and Pepsi. So of course Bill and I ate what we could, occasionally getting back in the queue for more grub. It was ‘All You Can Eat’ after all and we were very hungry.

Bill’s voice teacher Susan joined us near our seats with her friend Laura. They set about doing box scores as Bill and I enjoyed the game and the antics that the Staten Island Yankees provide. Dancers, games and t-shirts thrown into the crowd. At the 7th Inning, Bill sang God Bless America and that went over very well. Staten Islanders all reaching out to sake Bill’s hand, telling him his version was the best ever. I was quite proud of Bill.

We left at the 8th inning, the Staten Island Yankees hadn’t scored. Another couple of hundred people all milling about waiting for the next ferry. Young people, all dolled up for a night in Manhattan. Girls and boys all tarted up ready to paint the town red. We were home around 11:30 and it was too late for me to go to Maxwells, plus I was very tired. My mood had lifted, probably from spending time with Bill. We watched Humoresque on Turner Classic Movies, starring Joan Crawford, John Garfield and Oscar Levant who impressed both Bill and myself. I enjoyed Levant’s humor and Bill enjoyed his piano playing. It was a nice end to a nice day overall, and I owe it all to Bill.

Susan and Bill

Eastwooding.

More Eastwooding

Ho Hum Labor Day

3 – What the World Needs Now Is Love

Yesterday was such a nice day. Nice enough that I don’t feel like writing today, but here I am writing again. If Truman Capote were around and reading blogs he might have said ‘That’s not writing, that’s typing’. That is what Truman supposedly said about Jack Kerouac. I can’t fill Kerouac shoes, he was a 10.5 and I am a 12. It would be painful and awkward and I would be in dire need of an orthopedic shoe. I just returned from busking again, not too busy a day though my guitar playing has improved somewhat. I hadn’t busked since last Thursday.

Like I wrote, yesterday was nice, really a top day. Pleasant weather, nary a cloud in the sky. I did some filing, my nails have gotten back to where they should be. I strolled the waterfront promenade once again, enjoying a cigar. I found a spot and sat and read Lucking Out by James Wolcott. I’m enjoying reading about his exploits with Pauline Kael, hanging out at CBGB’s and a fixation on porn. When I finished reading yesterday, AIDS was beginning to make its appearance. The grim reaper and it’s scythe taking out a generation of gay men and soon to spread to non-gay men.

I remember hearing about GRID- Gay Related Immune Deficiency, or the gay cancer as it was first known. It was the beginning of the paranoia of the pandemic and I was still deep in the closet, living the two lives that I led back in the day. One of the symptoms was a loss of appetite, a wasting away. I told someone that in the future, overweight men will be the desirable set following the death of the clones. It didn’t take into consideration that there would be two sets, the gym bunnies constantly fixated on chiseled abs and toned bodies and the other group being the bears, the hirsute, stocky men.

Having never set foot in a gym I lean towards the bear contingent though I consider myself to be a wolf, and a lone wolf at that. When smoking was permissible in Central Park, when I would have the time to check out the disco skate circle I would be either opposite the bears on Bear Hill or above the bears at the top of the hill enjoying a cigar and enjoying the tunes. Since the smoking ban I haven’t been in Central Park. In fact since I was dismissed from the cigar shack I haven’t gone north of 47th Street.

While sitting and reading I got a phone call from Billie in DC. It had been a while since we last spoke and we kept missing each other on various phone calls. He’s doing well, working and in good health thanks to the government of Washington DC. I told him the story about my dismissal, how the guy who claimed to have no ego was pissed off and his ego bruised by what I wrote exactly. Billie was great and laughed several times at my tale. He knew I was unhappy there and claimed it was god’s doing that got me out of there.

He mentioned that he was thinking about taking a Bolt Bus from Washington DC and having a day trip to Manhattan. That would be great and since I have the time it seems likely that it would happen. It would be easier for Billie to come up here than for me to get to DC since in DC we would need a car to get around where in Manhattan no car would be needed. Billie’s visit is something to look forward to and hopefully we will get together soon enough.

I walked around Hoboken afterwards, talking on the phone with Lois and running into my friend Roger with his wife Dina and their 3 month old son Kennedy. What a happy chubby baby. Dina looked great as did Roger. It was fun catching up with Roger for a while and I walked them back to their car before heading home. Bill was home when I came home, so happy to see me. He was in better spirits than he was earlier. He had gone to Philadelphia on Saturday and while there his wallet was stolen, pickpocketed.

He had enough to get to Manhattan but had to borrow some cash from the producer of the play he is working on. We watched the closing of the Olympics, annoyed with Bob Costas and Ryan Seacrest endlessly talking over whatever as going on. We surmised it was because Americans needed to have things spelt out for them, instead of just showing the images without comment. They cut out Ray Davies singing Waterloo Sunset, and also Muse while postponing the Who, who were mediocre. And still no Elton. What was that about?

And I am DJ’ing from home again at the local tavern right now…