Tag Archives: Bill

Run For Your Life

Well it’s Sunday again, and it’s been a pretty nice one. Yesterday the temperature almost reached 80 degrees, today it was in the 60’s and noticeably cooler. I was going to go for a bike ride but the bike needs some work so perhaps next week?

I wound up walking around Hoboken, reading the New Yorker near the soccer pitch on the river for about an hour, thats when it started to get a little too breezy for my oh so delicate self.

Last night Bill was around and that was good. Watched 2 back to back episodes of House which I never really watch. It was good, as good as people like my brother Frank says.

After that I decided to do my bit and visit Tunes, the only record store in Hoboken. It was Independent Record Store day. I had problems with Tunes in the past but I got over them.

I wandered around and picked up Mott the Hoople’s Greatest Hits and Me’Shell Ndegeocello’s latest, ‘The world has made me the man of my dreams’. Mott was good, proved to me that they had a few other good songs besides All the Young Dudes (which is an all time fave) and All the Way to Memphis.

Me’Shell was merely ok, venturing further into avant jazz territory than I would like to go. I used to really like her. Peace Beyond Passion is probably her best and worth owning.

As I was browsing, the store’s PA system was playing some music that was really a lot of fun, especially when played loud. As I was checking out at the register I asked what was playing and they told me it was MGMT.

I immediately turned around and picked up a copy. That turned out to be the best purchase of the evening and since Mott and Me’Shell were used CD’s they were cheap. MGMT was full price, but since it was Independent Record Store day, every thing was a dollar less than listed which turned out to be a nice deal.

Came home around 10:00 after spending an hour in Tunes. Plenty of people roaming the streets last night, out strolling Washington Street and enjoying the nice weather.

Came home, Bill was watching Southland which I watched on Thursday night. He walked in on it halfway through then so he was catching up.

After that we gave up on the late news and watched Grey Gardens on HBO. That was in the news all week, interviews Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore played Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, an aunt and cousin of Jackie Kennedy. It was good.

I never saw the Maysles documentary of the same name all the way through. Drew Barrymore was outstanding and stole the movie from Jessica Lange. Ultimately a melancholy movie but worth watching.

That was about all for the night.

My niece Meghan is running in the Boston Marathon tomorrow, in the front groups, not among the hoi polloi. Yes, she’s that good. Her number is 7629 if you feel like tracking the marathon. It kicks off at 9:00AM. Go Meghan! Yeah!

Here are some pics from this afternoon.

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Your Sister Can’t Twist (But She Can Rock & Roll)

Well today was an even more gorgeous day than it was yesterday. No Juan today though he did stop by last night. We watched Vicky Christina Barcelona which was good. Not his best and the movie does brighten once Penelope Cruz comes on screen.

Funny how she basically eclipsed Scarlett Johansson. And I had never heard of Bridget Hall before. Don’t know where she’s from. Juan pointed out that Rebecca Hall’s fiancé in the movie was Ted who was Claire Fisher’s boyfriend in Six Feet Under.

The great Patricia Clarkson was in Vicky Christina Barcelona as well as Six Feet Under and I think there were one or two other actors in the movie who also had small parts on Six Feet Under. It was good, but not one of Woody Allen’s best. Bill came in on the second half of the movie, but it didn’t really matter and there was no need for him to be caught up.

After that ended Bill was off to bed and Juan was heading back to Union City. I was soon fast asleep I woke up early, around 8:15 and did my Saturday morning thing, bagels and newspapers. Got Bill some bagels as well. He likes to toast them in the oven until they are almost charred.

Whatever works I guess.

I decided to head into my office and clean the bamboo shoots. They’re contained in vases by the windows in one of the conference rooms and after a month and a half they start to get covered in algae. I like to come in on a Saturday since it’s a messy thing, cleaning the vases, scrubbing the rocks and cleaning the shoots.

An added bonus is the fact that no one is in the office on Saturdays. As I was scrubbing who should appear but Vivek. He and his business partner were in for a conference call at 1:30. Vivek phoned the other day when I was in my blue mood and wanted to know what was wrong.

I didn’t want to talk about it with him, not then at least. He saw the opportunity to talk to me today after their conference call which should have been over at 2:00. At 2:45 I left a note saying that I had to get back to Hoboken.

Nice walk across town, enjoying a cigar and taking surreptitious photographs of various people. I had a nice call with Annemarie while I rode the bus. I never have phone conversations on the bus but this time I simply didn’t care.

Anne recommended seeing the Love Guru which I was surprised to hear her recommend. She liked it enough, telling me how it was really funny in some scenes. I told her if it was on cable I would watch it, but I wouldn’t rent it.

It looked terrible and even the giant poster that advertised the movie in Times Square was another deterrent to seeing it.

Bill and I met up in Hoboken and we checked out my friend, Hiro Takeshita’s art exhibit at the Hoboken Historical Museum. I’ve known Hiro for about 25 years. He lives on the second floor of my first apartment building at 2nd and Madison.

His latest medium is/are cut outs which are quite intricate and beautiful. Nice turn out at the museum, lot’s of familiar Hoboken faces that I’ve seen for a long time but never knew their names. Still don’t mainly though I did get the name of one familiar busy body, Marion who used to be the court clerk.

I sort of remembered her from when she rented videos from a video store I worked at. That’s how I remember a few faces, from the video store. ‘Oh that’s the guy who rented Butt Bongo Fiesta’, ‘She’s the woman who rented Ghost every weekend for six months.’

Can’t put a name to the face but I do remember their viewing habits and fetishes.

Here’s some pics of Hiro Takeshita’s art exhibition

click to embiggen

click to embiggen

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Me, Hiro Takeshita, & Bill

Me, Hiro Takeshita, & Bill