Tag Archives: Brian

Head

4 Replies

Well nothing much at all happened today. I had plans to see the Skatalites who were on the bill at Summerstage with Taj Mahal and Los Pinguos. I know who Taj Mahal is but I’ve never heard of Los Pinguos before, and it doesn’t seem likely that I will be seeing them today either.

Thunderstorms blocked my path today. No bike ride like yesterday, no bus ride into the city either. That was the plan, ride into the city and walk up and see what was going on.

Now I’ve been inside all day watching Shark Week on the Discovery channel. I’ve never watched it before and I’ve just been listening to it rather than watching it. Sure a good scream will get my attention, but more often than not my eyes are occupied with something.

I only really think about sharks when I’m at the beach in the ocean. I could be floating there trying to relax and suddenly the thought of a shark will pop into my head, courtesy of Senor Spielbergo. I saw Jaws in 1975 like everyone else.

I believe I went with my brother Brian on a Friday night that summer at the Hi Way Theater in Fair Lawn. The line was around the block and this was when theaters were mainly one big auditorium rather than it is now, several closets in one theater showing on a much smaller screen.

The movie scared the shit out of 12 year old me. Even the music was terrifying. It was Jaws everywhere that summer, on the radio with the novelty hit Mr. Jaws by Dickie Goodman, the book was on the top of the best seller charts, it was on the covers of magazines and the phenomenon was written up in all the papers.

With the kids in my neighborhood, with the ones that had pools where we would play ‘Jaws’ in the pool, thrashing about as if being attacked by a Great White Shark. Who gets to attack the raft first and who gets to be the shark, or worse yet, sharks?

Jaws was I guess the first blockbuster paving the way for the multi-million spectacles that people line up to see today. After Jaws came Star Wars, which I saw six times in the Stanley Warner Theater on Route 4 in Paramus.

I also saw Jaws 2 and maybe even Jaws 3-D. That was enough for me. By the time of Jaws 2, I knew how dumb things were getting by the time the shark ate the helicopter. Yeah, we knew it was dumb with the late Roy Schneider taunting ‘C’mon you bastard!’ towards the Great White to come at him while holding a insulated cable wide enough for the shark to electrocute itself.

With a flash of fire and sparks it was over for me and the movie. The 3-D gimmick is what got me in the final time. That fall coming back to school, I remember talking to my friends in the schoolyard, and saying that I thought Jaws was really scary. My friends called me a pussy for being scared and I never brought it up again until now.

My Squelchy Life

1 Reply

Well it’s Wednesday again in case you didn’t know that already. The last day of April. Tomorrow is May day. Fly the red flag. Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains! That used to inspire me, now I’m too busy. I waited for the revolution, but it never came so I moved on. I wouldn’t say I was impatient, but I was ready.

Bill came home last night and we watched the Olivia Show, aka Lawn Hor d’oeuvre SUV. It had the special guest star of Robin Williams who is really good at playing psychotic. He’s funny doing stand up but I really can’t think of any of his movies that were really funny from start to finish. At least any that I have seen. It was good throughout until the end which was completely flaccid. Stabler: He got away. Olivia: If he was cuffed and ran into the water he’s dead. That was it. They didn’t look, they just walked away from the waterside.

You know he’ll be back in the future such a devious villain. But the detectives walked away from the water, no calling in for back up or a search team. Extremely weak, and I even said so to Bill as the show ended. Such cheese. Robin Williams handcuffs outrunning Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay. Went to bed after that. Sleeping really well and waking up refreshed. Not questioning it, blind acceptance. Not hustling to get to the office either. I still get there before everyone and I’m in by 8:30 rather than 8:00.

Bill and I talked a bit about Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former Pastor. I saw Wright on Bill Moyers last Friday night and he seemed like a reasonable man, I agreed with a lot of what he had said. A little over 48 hours and I was convinced the man was a stark raving loon. I was put off on Monday morning’s clips of Wright imitating JFK’s Boston speech pattern, and then after watching the other clips on the Daily Show I was sure he was an asshole. I felt terrible for Obama.

Bill grew up with Pastor’s like that, foaming at the mouth types. My Pastor, Thomas Lennon had to be checked repeatedly to see if his heart was still beating. Always seen with a cigar except in church, Father Lennon would walk through my grammar school, St. Francis de Sales, smoking a stogie. No one minded or complained, that was when everyone smoked. Apparently there’s a David Sedaris article in the New Yorker about smoking. At least that’s what was written in the awful Gawker website. I call it awful since they never publish my comments, so fuck ’em.

I’m going to McSwells this Friday to see Nick Lowe. My pasts imploding. McSwells, Nick Lowe… I got the tickets for brother Brian and his wife Karen, I was going to give them to them as an anniversary gift, but since there is more trouble at home, Karen’s watching the delinquent and Brian is going out. I’m looking forward to spending time with Brian. We get along now, a lot better than we did when we were growing up together. But that’s a whole ‘nother story. A good one too!