Tag Archives: Bill

Candela

A day off. Didn’t want to back to work with a bunch of people, miserable from a holiday weekend. Plenty of time for that tomorrow. It was an authorized day off, but still an occasional feeling of guilt and apprehension. It passed. Today was a scorcher though and since they’ve been working in the street on the water pipe coming into my building, I had no water.

I did ask Bill to wake me up when he was leaving so that I’d be able to take a shower before they shut off the water. The No Parking sign was posted in front of my building over the weekend and the hours posted were from 8AM to 4PM. That’s when I figured they’d be shutting off the water, but it was actually 11AM.

I did my thing, went out for the papers, fed the birds. Did some work on my computer. The wireless connection kept kicking me off. It was easier than I thought it would be, all I had to do was tighten the antenna on the back of the tower. I was surprised and happy and sweaty.

Last night Juan came over before he headed back to Trenton. We watched Weeds and then watched Buena Vista Social Club, which I hadn’t seen in a few years. Juan had never seen it before. He has the advantage of not needing the subtitles. I explained that I saw it 5 times in the theaters, getting misty at the end with the late Ibrahim Ferrer walking around midtown Manhattan.

I saw it with Annemarie, Julio and Bill on separate occasions and twice on my own. That was when living was cheap in Weehawken and movie going was cheaper, cheap enough to see the same movie 5 times. I think while I was in the throes of Buena Vista Social Club mania, that’s when I started wearing suits.

I explained to Juan that I guess I usually dressed like the musicians I’ve been listening to. Wearing the red, gold and green when I was deep into reggae, and generally indie rock throughout most of my adult life. The musicians from Buena Vista Social Club were generally snazzy dressers, and since that was basically all I listened to for a while that is how I started to dress. Couldn’t get the Cuban cigars though but I prefer Padron cigars from Nicaragua anyhow.

I also started looking for a job with benefits and figured wearing a suit and tie would get me those benefits and a better job. It worked. It also helps that I have a fetish for wearing a suit and tie. I prefer men in suits and ties too. Some guys are leather queens, I’m a pinstripe queen I guess. What can I say?

I dragged Julio to a few shows back then when the various members of BVSC were touring in Manhattan. We saw Compay Segundo at Town Hall, Ibrahim Ferrer and Ruben Gonzales at the Beacon Theater and Orlando Cachaito Lopez at BB King’s Nightclub.

Cachaito was originally scheduled to play a sold out show on September 14, 2001, but things being what they were then it rescheduled for a later date and Julio, Bill and I saw the sold out show with about 15 other people in attendance.

Each time I went to those shows, I was dressed to the nines. Julio, jeans and t-shirt, and a terribly loud orange down vest. Go figure.

Juan said he enjoyed BVSC and for me it flew by faster than I remembered. Juan left a little while after that. Now Bill and I have water again, and it’s at the same pressure it was a few months ago which is quite good.

Back to work tomorrow, which according to the weather soothsayers, will be a scorcher again.

Outside my building today

The ditch at the foot of my stoop

The tools

Columbus Park, Hoboken 2:00PM

Magic

Well I just got back from Xanadu and yes it was a lot of fun. So silly, great songs, so tongue in cheek and a classic send up of a crap movie, which was acknowledged in the play. Bill and I tried to watch the original movie from 1980 but couldn’t get past the first 10 minutes. Perhaps we can watch it later.

It’s a nice, funny musical for families as well as the large percentage of gay men in the audience. And a mention that most of the jokes would only be understood by gay men in their 40’s which of course is our demographic.

As well as the demographic of the contingent of bears seated right behind us on the stage. I got on stage tickets, in my usual fashion of not doing things the ordinary way, I do extra ordinary mostly. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. This afternoon it worked out perfectly.

I got to the theater after an average Sunday morning of bagels and newspapers. Last night was quiet. Juan was supposed to come over at 10:30 to hang, but didn’t call until 11:30 and by that time I was headed to sleep. I wanted to be rested and fully aware for the show, so it’s just as well that Juan didn’t come over.

I watched a travel documentary on The New Europe, with Michael Palin, meaning Michael Palin was on the dvd, not on the couch watching the documentary with me. Unfortunately, there was a glitch in the dvd making it unwatchable. I watched the third episode of the season from Weeds but distracted by the internet.

I watched some of Grindhouse which was good but bad. Tarantino and Rodriquez went out of their way to make the movie look like it was showing on 42nd street in the 1970’s. Scratches on the print, bad editing, skipped frames.

I only watched part of Planet Terror and Rose McGowan was good but Freddy Rodriquez was excellent. Never saw him act like that before. I found it sexy. Woof. Really ferocious zombies.

But it was late and I needed to sleep and so I did. Texted Julio again and got no response. He claimed he hadn’t gotten any texts from me, and that Stine checked the door to see if there were bagels awaiting.

I told him I thought Stine was pissed with me because of the photos and told Julio that. He called me paranoid and I sort of agreed with him, but decided to go with the more fanciful term, ‘writer’s imagination’.

I hopped on a bus around 1:30, anticipating the traffic that I had in June when I went to a Sunday matinée of Sunday in the Park with George with the Field of Gar contingent. But it was smooth sailing. I got to the theater 20 minutes early but I didn’t mind.

I saw Tony Roberts show up. He went unnoticed by the crowd as he walked through the stage door. Bill then showed up early, looking handsome and crisp and his usual effervescent self which is a nearly perfect compliment to my snarky ennui.

I told Bill about Tony Roberts and Bill remembers him from The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, I mainly remember him from Woody Allen movies. I’m sure we’ve seen him in other things, but nothing comes to mind.

It was great watching the show on stage, though you can’t see what’s going on since the cast is playing to the house and we seated behind the action. And there’s a lot of action and dancing. Very flirty cast, Bill had his chest rubbed by someone’s hands and then had a paint roller applied to his scalp.

He of course, loved it. No playbills until after the show and cellphones off of course, but some people still have to be reminded. We were given glow sticks to wave at the end of the show for the big number and we were also encouraged to dance which didn’t take much encouragement.

We danced as if no one was looking, in front of a full house.

After that, a pleasant stroll through midtown to the Path, me smoking a Padron and dropping off the damaged Netflix dvd at the big ass Post Office. Though my ass isn’t that big, they took my mail anyhow.

Last night’s moon

The view from where we sat, after the show

Outside the theater, taken by a stranger.

Big computer screen outside bus terminal needs reseting.
The giant Ctrl/Alt/Delete keys are just out of frame.

And now, the Larch.