Certain Harbours

A very cold Sunday. Snowed a bit last night, but not enough to stick around this morning. I watched Hancock last night. It was alright. Not very good. Decent special effects. After that I watched the first half of Saturday Night Live and that was merely alright too.

TI was the mediocre musical guest, John Malkovich was the guest host and he was a bit out of step with the rest of the cast it seemed. Good to see Amy Poehler back. But it wasn’t enough to make me stay awake until the end, wound up going to sleep after Weekend Update.

I recorded it so I can always catch the rest of it some other time. Slept until 8:00 and was out at 8:30. No contact with the Lopez family on the third floor despite my efforts of texting and voice mail.

Had an easy breakfast and was reading the papers and watching Barack Obama on Meet the Press when my niece Corrine called, letting me know that she was playing volleyball at Stevens Tech.

She told me about it yesterday and I asked that she call me when she had a clearer time of when she was actually playing. With 30 minutes notice I was soon in the bleachers next to my sister in law, Elaine cheering Corinne on.

They were doing well and with the help of two other spectators we made a four person wave which ebbed and flowed and may have helped Corinne’s team win a game or two. Well that’s what the two guys said and I was prone to agreeing with them.

After that Elaine and I walked up to Starbucks where we waited for my brother Frank to pick her up and drive back to Garfield. Frank being Frank was late by 45 minutes. Luckily we were indoors since the wind was bitter and cutting like a knife. I rarely go to Starbucks and on those rare occasions that I do, I don’t stay there.

Today we needed to be there and I don’t understand the protocol of the store. If someone is sitting at a table with three chairs reading the Sunday Times with various sections of the Times on the 2 empty chairs, do you ask the person sitting there to move their papers so you can sit there?

It didn’t matter since we did find a table that was quite dirty since the people sitting there just decided to walk out and not clean up after themselves. This Starbucks is at 12th and Hudson Street, which isn’t the same Hudson Street it was when Betti Cola was living above McSwells.

It’s populated with newcomers to Hoboken who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for their condos, i.e., no one I know. Rude and self centered which seems to be the way of life up there.

The only contact I really have with these people is when they get on the bus in the morning upset that all the seats are gone and they have to stand.

Frank did show up I was dropped off in front of my building, Frank and Elaine heading back to Garfield. Nice to be in from the cold.

Back to work tomorrow. Blah blah blah.

I have taken some photos but since I am on Bill’s Mac still I can’t figure out how to post them to this blog. I can make them appear as wallpaper though which isn’t what I want. Someday, perhaps before the end of the year I’ll be back using my computer and writing and posting online. I’m not holding my breath.

Since You’ve Been Gone

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?