Tag Archives: 2 Tone

I Stand Alone

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Another Saturday night and I ain’t got nobody. Well I do got somebody and that would be Bill but of course once again he is off driving to Atlantic City. He came home this morning, slept for a few hours and then after telling me about the general rudeness he gets from certain riders from certain quarters, he was packed up and ready to go. For me it’s been too cold to go out and do anything so I just mainly stayed in, sending out resumes and doing various things. I did go to the supermarket which wasn’t too traumatic like it has been.

It’s February, it’s the day after my brother in law Rex’s birthday as well as my neighbor Christine. On cable there has been a marathon showing of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day so that’s been on. It ends at 8:00 tonight so I guess I would have to find something else on to watch. In between all that there has been the resumes being sent out again and again. I do have a good feeling something good is going to happen so I just have to hang in there. Right now the 2 Tone movie Dance Craze is playing on YouTube.

I saw that at the Eighth Street Cinema back in the day with Jet. I of course was totally enraptured with it. Jet and I both liked it a lot but there was no dancing in the aisles like we had heard and I was too self-conscious to get up and start skanking with Jet. We both agreed that Dave Wakeling from the (English) Beat was very handsome, something I never really thought about with regards to any musician. I have maintained my 2 Tone roots through the years, listening to all that music and culminating in the faux Specials reunion in 2010.

I’m sure I wrote about it before but I remember the day I was in EJ Korvettes I bought the Specials first album, the same day I picked up the first Pretenders LP as well as a Stiff USA compilation of Wreckless Eric. Waiting at the Bergen Mall for the 44 bus to take me back to Lodi I struck a conversation with an elderly woman who inquired about the records I had purchased. She had never heard of any of the bands which came as no surprise. Those 3 records still loom large in my musical history, obviously if I am writing about over 30 years later.

So now Dance Craze is on audio wise and Groundhog Day is on with the volume off. I posted the YouTube Dance Craze linkage on my Facebook page and a few of my MiMB friends have expressed their pleasure with the 2 Tone thing. I can easily trace my later infatuation with reggae in the 1990’s to the 2 Tone days in the late 70’s and early 80’s. I read earlier today that The Selecter will be coming to the US this year and of course I will be there.

I saw an incarnation of The Selecter in the 1990’s but it did not have Pauline Black in their ranks at that time. Now she is back and I will definitely be there this time. Of course I hold out hope that the Specials would tour at the same time, perhaps sharing the bill but that could be too much chalice in the palace on my part if you know what I mean. An aging pseudo rude boy from the wrong side of the pond could dream can’t he?

I doubt if I’ll be wearing the shark skin suit like I did for the Specials reunion in 2010. That was something I had planned on doing since the beginning and having done it once there’s no need to do that again.
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Man At C & A

Limbo Rock

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It’s a Tuesday. It was rather cool this morning and thought I’d wear a suit. No tie, casual. I listened to some 2 Tone on the way to the office which made me feel like an extra from the movie, Snatch. Or maybe a ‘Westie’.

Bill often mentions that I could pass for a ‘Westie’. For those playing at home, the Westies were an Irish gang on the west side on Manhattan who often ran afoul of the police and organized crime.

They’re generally romanticized on TV and in movies, but they were gangsters and killers who may have loved their mothers, but would have no problem killing yours.

I suppose I could have passed for one. A spring in my step, Madness, the Selecter and The Specials playing on the iPod. I probably could have gotten the part, if I only applied myself.

Oh, how many times was that written on my report cards, ‘If only he’d apply himself’. Unfortunately, after reading the report card, my father would apply the back of his hand to my head which drove me further away from any applications of the sort.

And also drove me further away from my father.

Last night was a good night once again. Bill came home and there was no Lawn Hors d’œuvre to watch so before we watched Weeds and Nurse Jackie, we watched Kathy Griffin instead.

She was alright, sometimes funny, sometimes annoying. Reminds me of Susan Shed somewhat. Bette Midler was her guest and that was OK.

Bette Midler is a little old lady. Raunchy on stage, but a short grouch off stage. She’s really tiny. I know I met her when she recorded Bette of Roses at a studio I worked at. I had to monitor her daughter Sophie while Bette recorded, making sure Sophie didn’t play in the elevator.

Bill & I watched Weeds which was good, and Nurse Jackie which was excellent.

On Weeds it seems Nancy is figuring out that she may have gotten in too deep, she keeps pissing off the wrong people. On Nurse Jackie, she’s maintaining a balance of self medicating but whoops, something did go slightly awry with that.

Today at work a few people asked how the interview went. I explained it was a meet and greet and they suggested that I wear a suit just in case they sent me out for an interview. It was all a lie of course but they seemed to believe it.

At least I didn’t have to kill off a dead grandparent.

My situation changes daily. Perhaps one of the sublets will take me on, perhaps paying me in mad scrotums while I oscillate wildly.

In any event, if I am somehow still working, I will need some time off to spend with Annemarie and Earl when they fly east in a few weeks.

I am getting away from the movie box/ hotel deal. Vivek says he’ll make up his mind on July 4 and odds are he’s leaving that job too.

And when I left today it seemed like I’ll be gone by the end of June. Then again that could all change tomorrow. I

t’s a fucked up situation and all I can do is just wait it out. And I’m not stressed about it. At least not right now.

In an hour or so who knows? I may have a sip from the well of despair, but right now I’m fine thanks.