johnozed

It’s been a dreary wet Friday. I did not sleep so well last night and so waking up at the usual time was not going to happen. With the lack of a good night’s sleep and the rain coming down outside, it made getting out of bed a bit of a chore. Still I got it together a little after 9:00 this morning and heading to the kitchen I turned on the TV, surprised to see the dreaded Matt Lauer on around 9:15. There he was talking about a shooting as I made the coffee before jumping in the shower.

A few minutes later I was awake and drying myself off as the coffee maker did its thing. I turned up the volume on the TV, deciding to get my news from someone other than Matt Lauer and found out about the shooting in Aurora, Colorado. 12 dead, maybe 50, maybe 71 injured at a midnight showing of the latest Batman movie. Some nut job with not just one gun but a few including an assault rifle, went into a crowded movie theater, opened up a smoke canister and just started taking people out. Randomly and casually shooting people as they tried to make it to the exits.

Some bullets even went through the theater wall and into the theater next door. Some people thought it was a promotional thing, a guy all dressed up in armor and whatnot bursting through a door and causing mayhem. It wasn’t mayhem, it was carnage, a massacre. Terrible, just terrible. I hate guns. I have never touched a real gun in my life, I don’t like them at all. I have some police officer friends, one time hanging out with one in my Weehawken apartment, his gun on the table. I could touch it he said and I refused.

I did not even like it in the apartment. Bill has a prop gun here and it is so realistic, it freaked me out so much that I had to leave the room. Of course being in a four room railroad apartment I didn’t go far, but still I had to get away from it. I think prior to 1980 I was fairly ambivalent to guns. After the brutal murder of John Lennon in December 1980 I was steadfastly against guns, donating money to various gun control organizations. Things have certainly and steadily gotten worse since that horrible night almost 30 years ago.

I do have some friends that are gun enthusiasts, card carrying members of the National Rifle Association. Usually I am dumbfounded when I hear of my friend’s memberships since I consider them to be more often than not- intelligent. Now we have a 24 year old gun enthusiast/mad man who basically had an arsenal (6000 rounds bought over the internet) of sorts killing men women and children for no good reason. Already there have been murmurs of how it would have turned out differently is someone else had a gun in that darkened smoky movie theater.

Yes it could have turned out differently. There could have been more dead and more wounded. For some people the problem that there are too many guns and are too readily available can be easily solved by introducing more guns. I don’t know if that can be called logic, but it certainly escapes me. Unfortunately, I am somewhat inured to this type of news, hence my hearing about a shooting and going about my usual morning business. Gabrielle Giffords and those victims in Tucson, Columbine. There seems to be too many to mention actually. Everyday offers a new tragedy somewhere in the world and sometimes it is here on our own doorstep.

You send your kids to school, you don’t expect them to be shot.
You go to a midnight movie, you don’t expect to be shot.

America, so much to answer for…

05 Easy to Be Hard
11 Suffer Little Children

Yes once again it’s a Samuel Beckett kind of day. I can’t go on. I’ll go on. Nothing bad is happening, just an overcast day. Major storms broke out last night and it’s just as well I did not go to the really big supermarket since a little while after I finished the posting, I checked a local blog and there were pictures of flooded streets surrounding the really big supermarket. I did make it to the store today and there were signs of flooding. I spotted a woman headed in that direction about 40 feet in front of me, making a U turn with her stroller.

She walked past me and I asked her if the street was flooded and she said, ‘Yeah, I think so’ and scampered off. I thought something was a bit off about her response and proceeded to see for myself. Sure enough, there was no water, some mud, some sludge but that’s about it. I guess she did not know what a flood was and seemed to hurry off to the smaller supermarket. I admit it would have been a drag if I was unable to shop where I was, after walking all the way there.

I do love Hoboken and I am nostalgic for the time when a young family had a child and soon left town to raise their kid somewhere else. Nowadays they stay and clog the streets with their strollers. I must have passed a half a dozen strollers in a block and a half, opting to walk in the street rather than get hit by an oncoming mother pushing her kid in my direction. I suppose it’s nice that Hoboken is more child friendly but since I don’t have kids I really could care less. Off to the suburbs with them!

Another visit to the bibliothèque this afternoon, I picked up The Life Aquatic, deciding to give it another chance after seeing Moonrise Kingdom with Annemarie the other day. I do like the soundtrack, but after seeing The Royal Tenenbaums and absolutely loving it, whatever followed was bound to be a letdown at least for me. So another chance it is then. I do love the soundtrack. David Bowie songs sung in Portuguese by Brazilian actor/singer Seu Jorge. Bowie reportedly loved it as well. Too bad no one has heard anything from the Dame since his heart problem in 2005.

Today I sat by the river and read the latest Mojo, finished up reading about John Lydon and Public Image Limited as well as an interesting cover story on Brian Jones. John Lydon, easier to get along with sort of, Brian Jones, great musician, lousy human being. Almost got into the record reviews but held off for another day. I came home as it started to rain a bit and that’s about it for my day so far. Resumes still going out, job listings still being perused, emails and contacts resent and reestablished. Same old same old one would reckon.

So it goes.