Tag Archives: Brian Eno

Stay Hungry

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And it’s Friday again and it’s been a bear of a day. I’m back to a four day work week, this week at least, but somehow I was in the office five days. It’s a fucked up situation and these Indians are driving me crazy with their careless disregard of other people’s time.

Since I’m not working for the company that hired me three years ago and as of three weeks ago I’m working for another company, my payroll wasn’t done in time, missing this term. Vivek had to come in and cut me a ‘live’ check.

He said he’d be in at 11:30, he was in at 12:30. Said he’d cut the check in 5 minutes, an hour later I got the check. Then I tried cashing the check at the bank it was drawn on, but my official NJ State ID was not in their book of recognized identifications.

This was after getting a spiel about how much I would benefit opening an account with Chase Bank. A total waste of my time.

Then I schlepped across town to find my branch. I was trying to do this before 3:00, you know, banking hours. What a friggin’ hassle it was. Still I was able to deposit the check and my head is somewhat above water, at least for today.

Getting my check today was only one reason I went into the office. The other reason was to help out Greg Stevens. He’s also working for a new company and his IT person came in from Los Angeles to help him out.

Help him out with things that were done by our former IT guy last month, but he didn’t tell anyone. That IT guy, and perhaps most IT guys have bad communication skills.

I explained to the new IT person that I’m not an IT guy, that I only know a little bit more than Greg Stevens, who then said that I knew a LOT more than he does.

It’s something like 75 degrees out, quite nice and sunny. I have been home so far for about a half hour.

It’s funny, when you’re growing up, they hint at the pressures of life, but when you’re actually an adult, that is when you feel the pressure. Still I am home, decompressing.

Tonight Bill and I are off to the movies. Bill bought tickets to see Star Trek and it does look exciting. Bill is a Trekkie, I am not. He loves all that. I did enjoy Star Trek: The Next Generation somewhat but never watched it religiously.

I also enjoyed the occasional episode of Deep Space Nine and Voyager, and the Star Trek movies that I had seen. Never went out of my way to watch these shows though.

I saw some of the Star Trek movies, but not all of them. So while it’s nice to be home and relaxing, I will be headed back into the city in a little over an hour.

I’ll bring a book and I’ll have my iPod since I anticipate sitting in traffic outside the Lincoln Tunnel.

I just got a phone call from Abby. We shipped a TV set and a Movie box out yesterday via FedEx.

Before I left the office, I checked the tracking on the two boxes. Both were delivered at 10:04AM this morning to the Ramada Inn in North Brunswick. The guy who was supposed to get them said he only received the TV. I told Abby, reassuring him and talking him in off the ledge that both boxes were delivered at the time I mentioned.

It is nice to have some time home. I’m writing this and doing laundry while the news spews forth more news of Swine Flu. My hackles are raised with every strangers cough or sneeze that I hear. I pass by holding my breath and exhaling with force in hope that the virus passes me by.

Makes sitting in a dark theater with a hundred other people that much more exciting.

Happy Birthday to Brian Eno! 61 years old today.

Close To Me

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Yes, it’s Thursday again. Last night was a fun time with Bill. We went over to the city to see Pre, De, Quay & Inter aka The Ludes. We got there in the middle of the first Carpenters cover, Close to You.

It sounded great, Donna singing and playing drums, Lois on back up vocals and tambourine, Dave on Bass and John on guitar.

John and Donna’s sons were there, Jasper and Henry. Apparently there is one more show scheduled in June at an East Village venue. I couldn’t recall the last time at Kenny’s Castaway’s but I do know that it was probably in the 1980’s.

A slew of Carpenters songs came by, Superstar, Rainy Days & Mondays, Top of the World among them.

I grew up on these songs. I love them dearly. They finished the set with Sing which everyone sang along to. Then for an encore they did some King Crimson song which I didn’t know since there is only one King Crimson records I liked, Discipline.

That’s the one where they sounded like Talking Heads. The last song was a dodgy cover of Rock & Me by the Steve Miller Band, another song I grew up with.

AM radio! Whatever happened to it?

It was good to see Scott Harbison and Sheilah Scully. We all chatted on the sidewalk outside of Kenny’s while Bill and I made sure no one ripped off the car with the band’s equipment in it.

There were also a few of John’s students lingering about, seemingly surprised that their language professor was an ace guitarist. Bill and I walked over to 9th Street and caught the Path train home, in a car with no air conditioning.

It was surprising that the Village was so dead, except for tourists on Bleecker Street. 8th Street was totally deserted, most of the stores shuttered for the night, except for the head shops and Gray’s Papaya.

I was telling Bill how much I’m enjoying the Brian Eno biography. We share a similar touchstone in John Cage, specifically Cage’s book, Silence.

My former roommate Jimmy Lee gave me a copy years ago and I have to say it changed my life somewhat, or at least made me realize that I wasn’t crazy, you can see ‘art’ everywhere.

Of course, back then a lot of hashish helped, but still to this day I can look at the world around me and if I’m in the right frame of mind I see art.

It’s also a way of thinking from Marcel Duchamp. I explained to Bill John Cage’s most famous composition, 4’33. The one that either people enjoy or are totally infuriated by.

The pianist opens the lid over the keys and for 4 minutes and 33 seconds, the piece comes alive. The environment is the composition. Someone coughs and it’s part of the piece.

Someone yells, ‘This is a crock of shit’ and that too is part of the composition. I love it.

Work was weird again. I think I make progress and then something happens and I feel it turns into 2 steps forward, 3 steps back. I just have to hang in there.

Since my payroll hasn’t been set up yet there’s also a chance that I won’t get paid tomorrow, which is payday. I can only hope that Vivek will cut me a ‘live’ check until my direct deposit comes through.

On a side note, I had a feeling that 2 married people that work in my office were being a bit flirty with each other. Today, both of them were out.

I can only wonder if the ‘hotel no tell’ they checked into had a movie box like the ones I’m going to be working on.

And here’s a picture of some band hired to play outside the Seagram’s Building. The Ludes had a better turn out, but then again it wasn’t drizzly inside of Kenny’s Castaways.

park-52

And The Ludes didn’t play ‘Frankenstein’.