Tag Archives: HBJ

Daft Punk is Playing at My House

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Well I am back on my own computer, thanks to the good graces of Rand. He texted me around 1:15, suggesting I bring my computer over so at around 2:00 I did just that.

It was a nice visit with Rand and Lisa. Lisa spent most of the time caulking the bathtub which is another thing I should do. Rand hooked up my computer and after some razzle dazzle it was up and running once again.

We also listened to Daft Punk, and Goldfrapp as well as a Chemical Brothers compilation. I’ve known Rand since about 1982 I think. Or 1983.

I do know I spent New Years Eve with Rand and assorted other friends and woke up to watch Laurie Anderson and Peter Gabriel on a Nam June Paik special on PBS for that 1984 New Years Day. Woke up on the floor of Rand’s sisters apartment on Willow Avenue.

One of my first DJ experiences was that New Years Eve at Lois, Martha and Jane’s apartment on Garden Street. I first met Rand when I was driving for HBJ, from the warehouse in Saddle Brook NJ to the offices at 757 Third Avenue.

My job was to distribute interoffice mail and as I walked on the office floor I saw two guys about 100 feet away from me, acting like I did, or do. It turned out to be Rand and Jose who had just graduated from Colgate University a few months before.

Wound up having a conversation with them and when I found out they lived in Hoboken our fates were sealed. I had been going to McSwells and asked if they did too. They said they did every now and then but I think after our meeting they wound up going more often.

It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

As we got to know each other, Rand and I would drive into the city. I would do whatever it was I had to do at 757 Third Avenue, and then head down to St. Mark’s Place where we would visit St. Mark’s Sounds and St. Mark’s Comics directly across the street.

I had commercial plates by then and would park on the street with no problem. Before I had the commercial plates we would drive through Central Park, listening to music and getting red eyed. Many laughs would ensue of course which cannot be remembered all these years later.

Rand and Lisa make an excellent couple. A nice balance between the two. Lisa is Lady Gigglepuss to Rand’s El Jefe. That’s what I used to call them when I wrote about them in a previous entry on an old web page of Rand’s. That’s how that started.

And I am indebted to Rand for fixing my computer in just a few hours, all the while being as entertaining as he could be as well as getting the inspiration to caulk my bathtub.

Tonight I’m going to McSwells, have a drink with Rand hopefully, as well as Meghan and also seeing my brother Frank before he goes in to see the Feelies. And Bill might join us too!

Of course, thanks to Bill for letting me use his Mac while my computer was on the fritz.

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Stranger In Moscow

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Once again, tonight’s entry is brought to you by Bill’s Mac, for when your own computer just won’t do what you want it to do, use Bill’s Mac.

It’s Thursday again. Been raining on and off for the past 5 hours. And it’s been raining hard. Bill just texted me, apparently he was on a bus with the bus driver from hell. A short message with the bus number, driver’s ID number and how many passengers.

He thought he was going to die in a bus accident and wanted me to have the information in case the worst happened. It’s not often that Bill will complain about a fellow bus driver, so you know that this was probably a white knuckle ride in the rain speeding down slick ramps into the Lincoln Tunnel outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

I’m in that netherworld after taking a nap and waking up and it’s just muggy inside with the windows being closed because of the rain.

Right now Bill is repeating from a TV commercial whatever they are asking him to repeat.

I had a strange dream with me driving a car I parked in the intersection of Riverview Avenue and Essex Street. I was doing something not far from where I grew up.

Juan was in the dream as well, oddly silent. We were heading into Manhattan for some reason. And the car was one of my broken down jalopies or the van I used to drive for HBJ.

It kept changing. It was a dream after all.

And I wasn’t too keen on driving. I don’t miss driving at all. Being a pedestrian I see bad, terrible drivers all the time.

This afternoon crossing Washington Street, a driver just couldn’t bear to wait at the red light and felt it was alright to inch out into the intersection and make a left turn.

I can understand a right on red, but a left on red just is bad news. Nothing happened though it should have. I see it a lot on my way to work, especially at the corner of 49th Street and Park Avenue.

A few months ago when Vivek and Sanjay were all hot and bothered for their movie box scheme, one of their plans were for me to drive around the tri-state area and visit various hotels and motels, such was their belief in me as a salesman.

That dream was dashed when I showed my incredulous face, telling them I don’t drive. That was ok with them, they would pay for driving lessons.

I explained to them that I knew how to drive, I drove back and forth to California, to Texas and Florida as well as to Washington DC, and driving back and forth from Saddle Brook NJ to 757 Third Avenue, about 100 yards from where I was sitting with Vivek and Sanjay.

I guess they never met anyone in the United States who did not want to drive. I guess I’m an urbanite. If it’s not within walking distance or available via public transportation, why bother?

The last car I had went up in flames and I had a premonition that the next car I owned would be the car I died in. So in order to achieve immortality, I don’t drive anymore.

I took a quiz on Facebook, What Michael Jackson Song are You? I was told my song was Stranger in Moscow, which was a song I wasn’t familiar with and I wrote that in the comments section.

An online friend said it was a really good song, no hiccups or yelps, which were sometimes distracting in Michael’s songs so I sought it out. It turns out it really is a nice song, beautiful even and I since purchased it via iTunes.

A decent song that isn’t overplayed and is a good song to remember Michael Jackson by. I can’t say that I was a major fan but I did have a few of his songs online, had Off the Wall and Thriller like everyone else, but I did mention to a few friends months ago that Michael Jackson’s songs where more enjoyable to me than Prince’s were.

Of course I am disappointed in Prince lately and took all his songs off my iPod. Not so much because of his music, but because of his latest Jehovah’s Witness beliefs about gay people.

Well, John said ‘Enough’ and that was that.

It didn’t help that he hasn’t released anything worthwhile since Sexy MF and that was 17 years ago. I would be interesting to hear what the Purple Imp would have to say about Michael Jackson though.