Darlin’

Well it certainly has been an interesting 24 hours. I’ve been busy. I made it up to the Park Theater, riding with the proletariat in the mass transportation system here, this time using a bus. Got to Union City with enough time to treat myself to a Hamburger Deluxe and a chocolate milk shake at the Four Star Diner.

Had enough time for a cigar before the show. Hanging around outside the Park Theater on 32nd street. Meghan and Ruby were in traffic en route. I few sidelong glances from some father’s walking by wondering who this bloke was, smoking a cigar outside the theater.

I was glad I didn’t wear my raincoat. Humming Aqualung might have been a mistake though. Meghan and Ruby and 2 of Ruby’s friends showed up soon enough and we all headed into the theater. Meghan knew the sidelong glancing fathers and introduced me to them, causing them some relief.

They in turn whistled Locomotive Breath.

We found some good seats and soon Jim Mastro as well as Frank Giannini and his son sitting behind us. The Street Corner Mourners were as excellent as I had hoped, Tim having a mandolin strap malfunction seemed like it was all part of the show.

Six songs were their set, all covers, all nicely played. Lily has an incredible voice. If she keeps it up, in ten years she will sound amazing. The Street Corner Mourners are so inspiring. After their set Meghan, Ruby and the friends saw Frank Giannini and his son off and went across the street to the Four Start Diner.

I had a coffee and a slice of cake while everyone else had entrees. It was a fun group, we were served by Mo, short for Maureen who looked a it like Shirley Stoller. They all went back to the theater, I decided to walk back home to Hoboken.

I enjoyed a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero 700 and listened to The Beatles, Revolver on the iPod. I walked down Palisade Avenue past Jane Street where I used to live. It was an enjoyable walk. I timed the cigar walk perfectly and finished it by the time I had gotten to my building in Hoboken.

I came upstairs and set about uploading the videos I had shot. It wasn’t exactly happening on my PC so I did the work on Bill’s Mac. I checked my Facebook messages and there was a message from Ruby.

Little did I know that after the show, Tim, the ace guitarist/Banjo & mandolin player was hit by a car outside the theater. Some driver had run a red light. Tim had done a flip over the car. The driver stopped, the police came and shut down that section of 32nd Street and it was decided that Tim go to the hospital in an ambulance.

They ran an MRI and had him overnight in the hospital to be on the safe side. Some short term memory loss but other than that he’s fine. Apparently 16 year old boys can bounce back like that. I hope he can still play his instruments.

All that walking from Union City to Hoboken had me tired but I think that last cup of coffee with Meghan and the girls kept me up while I tried to sleep. It wasn’t easy but I eventually did fall asleep.

Bill was soon in bed after coming home from Pecong, the play he’s been working on. He has a mouth apparatus which he wears with the sleep apnea mask. Still he snores and I wake him to let him know he’s snoring.

He says ‘Well you snore too you know. How do you know it isn’t you?’ I groggily try to explain that the sound was coming from his side of the bed.

I was up and out around 9:30, bagels and the paper. I got bagels for Stine & Alexander. Julio answered the door with Alexander on his shoulder as Julio was singing a lullaby to the baby. It was yet another beautiful day, the temperature was up to 73 degrees.

I walked around Hoboken a few times this afternoon, even taking my guitar out and playing along the river walk. I had seen Tariq earlier, playing a drum alongside an older hippie guy playing Melissa by the Allman Brothers.

I definitely could not get into it so later when I brought my guitar out I was about a quarter mile up the river walk. They were making some money but I didn’t feel up for that, not as confident as I was last summer and this being the first time out for me this year, I just played with the guitar case closed and didn’t do much singing.

I played for about 90 minutes until my right arm locked up a bit. I tried shaking it out but decided I had played long enough. I played Please Please Me, She’s A Woman, Love Shack, Surrender, Wild Horses, Maybe I’m Amazed and Kansas City among a few other songs.

Then I came home and finished an animation I had also been working on this afternoon.

I wrote over 800 words, shot and uploaded 6 video clips, created an animation and played guitar in public for 90 minutes. It’s been a creative day, and a good day at that.



Mr. Blue Sky

Wow. Another beautiful day. Quite nice. In the 70’s. Bell bottomed pants, polyester shirts. Chuck Taylor Converse. Norman Lear sitcoms. Yes that is how it is outside.

I don’t mind, I’ve been there before and now I have a little bit more knowledge about things so it seems to be working out to my advantage.

I decided to watch The Invention of Lying today. Someone had it on their want list so I decided to take the time and watch it. It was cute. Nothing to run to go see. If you can get it from a Socialist institution for free then I would definitely suggest doing that.

Just return it in time so your comrades could watch it as well.

I slept really well last night, so much so that I’ve been groggy most of the day. In a good mood though. Not much walking around Hoboken today but I have been out a few times and got some thing accomplished.

One of those accomplishments involved the Socialist institution. One of the politburo chiefs inside recommended a movie to watch, My Life in Ruins. Since getting on the politburo chief’s good side is a goal in life I took her suggestion out.

It was a Nia Vardalos movie, My Life in Ruins. She made My Big Fat Greek Wedding which was somewhat funny if I recall, and it also got good reviews. I heard Rachel Maddow liked it. That was printed in the TV Social Guide, published by Pravda.

My Life in Ruins got lousy reviews and lasted about a week at the cinemas. What do the bourgeois know about such things? I hoped to get another video saying to myself that if I can find something else I would merely return Nia Vardalos to the shelf, but no that wasn’t to be.

Still I could be pleasantly surprised. The reviewers aren’t always right.

Another item I received from that Socialist institution was Robert Crumb’s The Book of Genesis. Yes it’s exactly that. Robert Crumb decided to illustrate the book of Genesis. Surprisingly no mention of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

Still it has many graphic images of the entire book, showing things like Lot offering his daughters to be raped by a mob, as well as those same daughters getting their father drunk so they could be impregnated by his seed.

Nice.

They never bring that up these days. It’s always Sodom this and Gomorrah that. It’s a dense read nonetheless. Fortunately I am entertained by mythology. I do wonder if most of the people that read such a dense book as well as the other books that follow aren’t a bit dense themselves. They surely seem to behave that way.

I’m writing this earlier than usual. I’m off to Union City tonight to see the Street Corner Mourners at the Park Theater. It was rescheduled from a snowed out date in February. I’m going to take a bus up there and walk back to Hoboken like I used to way back when I lived in Weehawken.

It’s a beautiful night for it or at least promises to be. I plan on recording the Street Corner Mourner Set and also have Bill’s card from his camera as back up. So that’s my plan. An early posting.

Hope you have a good night.

3.16.10 Hoboken Rooftoppers 012