Tag Archives: Alan Bennett

All The Young Dudes

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Well the past 24 hours have been quite nice. Yesterday I went into the city and met up with Bill in Bryant Park. We caught the 7 train to Flushing, to Shea Stadium. I wanted to go since it’s due to be torn down and it was a chance to say farewell. The ride was entertaining since I’d never taken the train to Shea Stadium before.

Bill

Pretty crowded with Mets fans who are a quiet sort. Bill noticed that. The Yankee fans are louder and more rambunctious. Mets fans are more well behaved and loyal but not rabid. We walked off the subway with hundreds of Mets fans. We missed the National Anthem as we climbed the escalator to our seats. Got some 2 hot dogs and a beer and the total was $20.00/ $8.50 for a Budweiser and $4.50 for each hot dogs.

Vendors now expect a tip. Give them a twenty and they ask how much do you want back. I suppose they earn it for lugging beer and hot dogs around so an extra buck or two is a nice gesture. It really makes a difference to see a baseball game live as opposed to watching it on TV. The excitement of the crowd, the whole atmosphere beats watching a game on a box.

Our seats weren’t bad, we were in the upper tier. It was cramped in our row and since no one was sitting behind us we climbed back and were able to stretch out a bit. The Mets were playing against the Houston Astros and they won 3-0 which definitely made everyone happy.

I took a snapshot with my camera phone and sent it to a few people who basically all asked the same question, ‘Where are you?’ I sent a pic to Pedro who couldn’t believe that I was at Shea Stadium. He said he was at Shea too with some corrections officers (CO’s) he works with.

After the game we wandered around trying to find him and his buddies but to no avail. He jokes around like that with me from time to time and after a while we gave up at my insistence. We did talk on the phone but he kept hanging up and thats when I gave up.

CO’s

He sent me 2 pics that could have been anywhere and it wasn’t until I saw them on my computer did Bill tell me that he was in the parking lot as Bill could see the 7 train behind the CO’s. I didn’t believe Pedro and he called me a jackass and a jerk.

Oh well.

It would have been a strange scene anyway since the CO’s are mainly right wing reactionaries. And Bill and myself are, well… Bill and myself. I told Bill that we might have been shanghaied to a strip club if we met up with the CO’s.

Took the bus home, happy and cozy with each other and made it to Hoboken safe and sound were we both slept really well. I woke up around 8:00, went out got papers and bagels and had breakfast while waiting to hear from Chaz.

Chaz

We planned on going down the shore to Sandy Hook. Chaz called around 9:00 and by 9:20 I was in his car headed down the shore. Wide range of topics we talked about, no music, but talk about music.

Some traffic but not too bad and we were on the beach itself a little after 11:00.We found an area with not too many people around but as the day progressed more people showed up and sat around us.

Whoops!

Chaz made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches which were perfect and brought some baklava that his Aunt made last night. Played some Frisbee and I have to admit Chaz is a very good Frisbee thrower, and considering it had been over a year since I last threw I wasn’t so bad either. I did take a spill in the sand which I thought was rather humorous.

After getting sweaty we jumped in the ocean which was a little bit dirty with some trash that Chaz had collected and gave to me to toss in the trash. Every litter/little bit helps. An enjoyable ride home, listening to music on the radio, singing along to I Am The Walrus and Superman by the Kinks on the progressive modern classic rock station.

Stopped off for way too much ice cream, yes there is such a thing. I followed Chaz’ lead and got the double hot fudge brownie sundae with whipped cream. Ugh. A meal in itself.

Trimester!

Now I’m home, watching the History Boys again since I chatted it up with Chaz this afternoon. If I see him tomorrow I should make sure to have it on me so I could loan it to him, with the latest Mojo magazine that I just finished. Also finished 2 short stories by Alan Bennett and promptly started his autobiography, Untold Stories.

So far so good.

Strange Overtones

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It’s Tuesday again. It was like this last week and the week before that and it goes on further and further from here. Last night was Monday night, Bill and I watched Keith Olbermann who had some righteous indignation towards John McCrazy. Bill got very much into it, not going ghetto but politicized in a way. Then some Olympics then he was off to bed.

I’ve been playing DJ during the commercial breaks, going from roots reggae to the Stones to The Coasters to who knows where, finishing up with Les Paul and Mary Ford singing How High The Moon. Still sounds amazing over 50 years later, miles away from Mahwah where I believe Les Paul still resides.

Right now my computer is pissing me off. Very slow. I’ve been trying to burn some cd’s for Annemarie’s birthday but it’s been impossible. Keep getting some stupid code error. Pisses me off. Had to resort to plan B. Oh I am getting upset.

Presently running some spyware which is doing what it’s supposed to do I hope. More than anything the inability to burn cd’s is definitely pissing me off. I will have to work on that and send Annemarie the cd’s at a later date.

It’s a nice night for sure. Bill called to tell me that Rachel Maddow is getting her own show following Keith Olbermann. I’d like to think that the head of programming reads my blog but I doubt it.

Still no Casey in the morning. Maybe I’ve been leaving earlier, or he’s leaving later or on vacation. I remembered to bring something to read and of course, it’s Alan Bennett. Two short stories, The Clothes They Stood Up In and The Lady In The Van. The first story is funny, in a subtle English. I chuckled a few times reading it on the way in.

So far, a married couple have come back from seeing Cosi Fan Tutti and find their home has been burglarized with everything gone. Furniture, beds, phone, stove, every thing. The husband is a solicitor and the wife is a house wife.

They’ve lived a very sheltered life. No kids, no neighbors, no friends really. And they don’t interact with anyone in their town, in fact when he goes to use a pay phone at the laundromat, it was the first time he had ever been to one.

Of course there’s a lot more than that and I do Alan Bennett no justice in trying to describe his writing. So I’ll stop there. My copy is from Ramsey courtesy of the BBCLS, the cooperative system that Hoboken is a part of.

I am taking Juan to Girl Talk for his birthday in November. That promises to be a real good time. And next month is My Bloody Valentine as well as the B-52’s playing a free show by Kean University in Union, NJ September 6..

Here’s a thought I felt I should write down last night. Some straight people don’t want gay people around kids. The ‘official’ line is the skewed pedophilia fear, despite the fact that most reported pedophiles are straight men.

But perhaps on a deeper, unconscious level it’s fear of gaydar. The unspoken knowing that someone else is gay. It’s there, I have it. It’s defective but it works. Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

I think that some straight people are afraid of the gaydar coming from a child and picking up the vibe that that certain adult is different from what the child has come into contact with, and might identify more with the gay person rather than the straight people they might have been accustomed to.

What do you think of that? Comments please.