Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)

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Scrubs is on, so I must be writing. It’s Tuesday, not such a bad day. Things are slow going for me at work, but it’s cool. I did get the bonus but a chunk of it went to Bill’s father’s funeral cost. What could I do? Bill was stressed, looking for money and I had some coming my way. I was able to take care of that and gave him the money hoping that I would get it back when he would be able to pay it. I’m not going to go crazy over that. I bought Nick Lowe’s Jesus of Cool the other day after the parade. In the UK it was known as Jesus of Cool, but here in the US it had to be called Pure Pop For Now People. I must have been on a kick, since the next day I bought Blondie Eat To The Beat, and a Madness single, Michael Caine.

All three were as good as I remembered, but didn’t give me the thrill I once got, but that was about 30 years ago. Things that thrilled me 30 years ago, just don’t cut it like they used to these days. I’m sure you can relate, if you’re over 30 at least. Last night was very mellow. Mellow enough for me to go to bed before 11:00. Not much on TV, I watched some more of the Clash Live: Revolution Rock which was cool. Even picked up the bass and tried to figure out some Paul Simonon bass lines. That also set the stage for me to play Big Audio Dynamite on the way to work this morning.

I also read some more of Hotel California. Manson is on the fringes of the scene, Buffalo Springfield broke up, Stills is a jerk, Gene Clark of the Byrds is slowly losing his mind and Jackson Browne is still a cute teenager. That’s where I’m at on that. My brother Frank recommended the book to my sister Annemarie much to her chagrin. I thought that was interesting, that he had read the book. Very similar to me writing about listening to the Electric Light Orchestra and Harpy commenting that he was listening to them at the same time, and it happened once again with Harpy, me writing about watching The Namesake, when he was watching it himself. Can somethings can be too much in sync?

Now it’s Tuesday night, not planning on doing much. Had a turkey sandwich for dinner which was filling. Not a Dagwood sandwich, but better than what I had for lunch when I was growing up. Some turkey, some mayonnaise on white bread, and it usually wound up in the bottom of my book bag to be tossed at the end of the week. Did I eat lunch in grammar school? I remember some dodgy Chinese lunches, every few months, sponsored by the school. Some Chop Suey which was really horrible and put me off eating Chinese food. Still not too keen on Chinese food to this day and I haven’t eaten Chop Suey since. I’d be so screwed should I find myself over in Asia. Maybe I just haven’t found the right place.

Here’s a funny video sent to me from Betty Colatrella.

Keep On Loving You

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Watching Revolution Rock: The Clash Live, something that was on PBS over the weekend. It was part if a pledge drive and of course that means it’s interrupted with pleas for donations. They have some hipsters on, hipsters from Long Island since this is PBS on the Guyland. But the thing that struck me were the personalities saying what their favorite Clash album is, how did they get into them, why do they like them.

It’s interesting for me, because in the late seventies it didn’t seem like many people my age were into The Clash or punk / new wave, and here, are my age group saying they loved London Calling. I know in my high school years I was cut off from a lot and didn’t have many friends outside of school. Didn’t really bloom socially until I started working. I thought it funny that these personalities don’t look like they’ve ever liked the Clash, except for maybe Rock The Casbah.

Then again, the way I look most of the time, professionally at least, I don’t look like a Clash fan. It’s a shame I never got it together to see the Clash, I always figured they would be around and our paths would cross one day. I got the short end of the stick on that one. I did meet Mick Jones which was a very big deal to me. And Paul Simonon was a better bass player than I realized.

Now it’s a day later. I slept well last night, difficult to wake up though. Start Me Up by the Rolling Stones didn’t do it. I kept on sleeping. Got up in time to remember I had a dental appointment at NYU Dental School. I wished I didn’t have to go but then again I wished I had good teeth. Or in my case, good gums. But I don’t and this is what I have to do. I had rescheduled an appointment from two weeks ago for today and on my calendar I thought it was for 1:15. In reality it was for 2:00. I wrote 1:15 as the time I had to leave the office, but instead thanks to my miscalculation I left at 12:30. Didn’t realize the wrong time until I got to the school.

I was ok with it though, I was reading Hotel California about how Jackson Browne was desired by a few in Warhol’s circle, after he ran from Nico crying, how David Crosby was a real jerk and he and Cass Eliott dabbled in heroin in Laurel Canyon. It’s fun it’s gossipy and the shit hasn’t even hit the fan yet. Joni and Neil have just moved on the scene, David Geffen pushing everyone around while squiring Laura Nyro, stuff like that.

Sometimes when I go to the dentist I just get really drowsy and feel like I could just fall asleep in a minute. Maybe it’s the stress, maybe it’s Lite FM. It happened once before a few years ago when I fell asleep while they were working on me for a few minutes, long enough to feel totally refreshed. I thought that was funny.

But today was not about going under the knife. This was more about measuring the space between the teeth and the gums and it doesn’t look good. Next week is a cleaning and from there it will all begin. I do think the price will be reasonable and will have a payment plan while I file the insurance paperwork myself. It was over in about an hour, pricking my gums with some pointy thing. Melissa Goodman was my dentist studying to be a periodontist. She was nice enough. I could probably beat up her father.

Walked to the Path train down 23rd street, past the student artists at the School of Visual Arts. I used to know a few graduates from there, or at least students. I occasionally wonder where they are now. I don’t see any of their artwork anywhere. Maybe they gave up and joined the workforce. My sister in law, Elaine had a successful angiogram which is definite good news.

That’s about it for now. Just taking it easy. Anything else, I will let you know., so deal with it, yo. Oh and Snoop got shot dead on the penultimate episode of the Wire, Marlo and his crew behind bars, and McNulty’s house of cards is crumbling despite the indictments from his shady dealings in the name of the law, which could all fall apart thanks to Kima telling the chief what McNulty has been up to.

Oh, one more thing. Bats are dying in record numbers in the northeast. Some type of fungus has been found on their noses as they hibernate for the winter. This is not good, not just for the bats. The ecosystem is fucked. Frogs, Bees all gone missing, and now Bats are dropping dead. This summer, we might be saying ‘Hello insect invasion’.