Tag Archives: Brian

Don’t Believe the Hype

Well right now it’s 25 degrees and it’s supposed to be a major snowstorm, but I can still see Penn Plaza, I can still see Jersey City and Marineview Plaza in Hoboken. The streets are wet but it’s not really sticking.

The local news channels are on full alert, alarming people but so far there’s really no need. My brother Brian texted me and said that the supermarket up by his neck of the woods was a madhouse. Here in Hoboken it’s windy and cold but really nothing to be worried about.

I say that of course since I don’t drive. Walking proved to be no problem, and I even strolled to the end of Pier A in Hoboken and took a snapshot or two just to show that it isn’t so bad.

Julio is flying to Denmark tonight and that hasn’t been much of a delay. He did call to tell me Helena Christiansen was on his flight. We’ve seen her around the village, having dinner a few tables away from us at Benny’s Burritos on Greenwich years ago.

So they are saying the 15 inches are expected but so far less than an inch has fallen in Hoboken. Bill is in the city doing some theater stuff. Last night we watched 2 hours of Chris Noth in Lawn Hors d’œuvre on the Sleuth channel.

Bill definitely enjoyed it. I remembered who the bad guys were or bad chicks actually. Bill didn’t despite his claims to have the memory of an elephant. I told him he must have been right next to me when we first watched the show, since I don’t watch it on my own.

More weather hype with the Winter Alert in effect until 11:00 tomorrow morning. Bah!

The other night I had a dream where I had to drive around the Garden State Plaza in a car with Alexander Lopez as my passenger, not in a baby seat. The objective was to get him to 13 Riverview Avenue which I did, safely.

Last night’s cannabis free dream, I was in the Riverview Avenue neighborhood, this time as a passenger. The driver was President Gerald Ford. Nice guy. I told him I saw him speak in 1976 at the Garden State Plaza and almost shook his hand.

That was true. I was on the line outside of Gimbels after he spoke outdoors at the Plaza but the Secret Service caught off the handshaking a few people before me. He dropped me off across the street where I grew up and I walked into a house devoid of people.

I woke up at 7:30 and almost woke Bill up as well, thinking that he was late for work. Oh, I’m in the unemployment zone where the days blur into one another. Then I went back to sleep.

From that dream of Lodi, I wound up in Chelsea where I then had an argument with Bill. I wrote these down when I woke up. The last notes I wrote with regards to dreams were about me being in the Office and talking to Jim Halpert about coffee.

It didn’t go well and I felt slighted when awards were being given out. So I split that scene and wandered to a bar located in a empty lot at 16th Street between Park and Willow Avenues in Hoboken. Lot’s of commuters getting off their buses and passing through and sometimes sitting on rusty lawn furniture from the 1950’s. And it wasn’t that good a bar since there was no booze.

Oh these dreams go on when I close my eyes. Every moment I’m awake, I live another life.

Looking north, up Park Avenue, 3PM

Looking north, up Park Avenue, 3PM

12.17.09 Hoboken Daily News 002

12.17.09 Hoboken Daily News 005

Looking souht on Park Avenue

Looking south on Park Avenue

Not so bad, is it?

Not so bad, is it?

On NBC News, some guy with a tan is pushing the snow hype, live from Times Square.

Cherry Bomb

Well I know it’s Saturday because I wrote Friday’s entry earlier today. Obviously my powers of deduction are still functioning. It’s been a pretty good day despite intermittent rain. Been watching TV most of the day, including Bill’s favorite Lawn Hors d’œuvre.

The original series with Jerry Orbach.

Then we watched what is fast becoming another favorite of Bill’s The Closer. It’s our Saturday morning viewing lately. After that we started to watch Poseidon which is a remake of The Poseidon Adventure from the 1970’s.

My brother Brian and I went to see that when it first came out at the Century Theater in Paramus. It was a Saturday night and we bought tickets but as we tried to get into the theater we found that even though it was PG and we were of age, I was 10 and Brian was 15, we still needed an adult or guardian to accompany us to the evening showing.

If I recall correctly after we were dropped off at the theater by my father, we had to call home and ask to be picked up since we were turned away. We did see it another time at an earlier showing.

It was one of a few big Hollywood blockbusters with a few stars in the billing. Gene Hackman, Shelley Winters, Stella Stevens and the Ernest Borgnine, as well as the former child star of ‘Al Green Was My Valet’, Roddy McDowell.

This one had Kurt Russell and Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas. They were the only famous people I recognized. And Andre Braugher as the doomed ship’s captain and Fergie’s husband, oh and Richard Dreyfuss playing Dick Cheney.

That didn’t hold my attention that long so I wound up watching Woody Allen’s Manhattan. That I remember seeing with my sister Annemarie at the dollar movies a long time ago. Annemarie and I saw a few Woody Allen movies with her, starting with Sleeper when I was 11.

I distinctly remember 2 elderly women sitting behind us saying that Woody Allen’s feet (wrapped in aluminum foil) looked like baked potatoes.

Love and Death followed that, then Annie Hall when I was 14. We even saw Interiors, Woody’s first ‘serious’ movie, which I enjoyed. I think Manhattan was the last Woody Allen movie we saw together, the 2 of us misty at the end, Mariel Hemingway flying off to London saying, ‘You’ve got to have faith in people’.

I did see Stardust Memories opening weekend at the Century Theater. Sold out show and I found myself the only one laughing in the theater. I think that was when I started to realize that I was not going to live in Bergen County much longer.

I went with Ellen Schermerhorn and another girl and they didn’t laugh either. I heard a story about Ellen who was a sweet girl. A story designed to make her look bad but in hindsight she comes out quite admirable.

The type of girl any father would be proud of. Someone knows of what I write and I’m not going further into it.

That’s it. That’s my penance. I wrote over 500 words earlier today as well as 500 words now. Ta da!