Tag Archives: Hoboken Library

I Can’t Tell You Why

New day, new document. It’s amazing how a good night’s sleep can decide the kind of day you will have. Since I slept soundly last night, the day has been going on an alright level. No dark moments of despair while waiting for the bus. No looking for reapers happy or grim or whatnot.

Weather wise I think the day can be described as splendid. An enjoyable lunch hour spent on a bench near the park, reading a book about 1970 by David Browne, in which I found a few errors. It was a decent summer read but ultimately as boring as it sounds.

It was about The Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel breaking up, the disarray that Crosby Stills Nash & Young found themselves in along with a lot of cocaine and the rise of James Taylor who was doing a lot of heroin.

I met and worked with James Taylor in the the 1990’s and he was clean and took it upon himself to lecturing me about my then Gauloises habit. Apparently he had a French tobacco monkey on his back as well at some point.

It was back to the cigar shack for me today and it wasn’t bad at all. It was Calvin & Thomas and me, a good team. Things worked effortlessly. Thomas is the great white shark of course and Calvin plays the role of Black Friday admirably. Me, I’m like Gilligan I suppose. Things happen somewhat awkwardly and a few laughs are had. As long as nobody gets hurt it is alright I suppose.

45 minutes left in the shack and I am ahead in sales which puts me in a good mood. Bradley stopped by the cigar shack, his wall hitting hand no worse for wear. Jerry Vale also made an appearance picking up something that he had delivered to the cigar shack.

I am happy to report that as of now, all systems are go for Monday. Bill, my niece Corinne and I are headed to the beach. Plans are to leave early enough, like maybe on the road at 11:00 in the morning. Bill even texted me telling me that he’s looking forward to some relaxation on the beach.

I myself am looking forward to Bill being relaxed and just spending as much time as possible looking at the horizon. And I am pretty sure that Corinne is feeling the same way. Can’t bring Brady the dog with us though. No dogs allowed where we’re going until after Labor Day.

Two more days after today before I get two days off. A goal to reach and attainable. I just made Thomas blanch with my use of an MLK comment that Juan used on me a number of years ago. 34 minutes to go and I’m felling alright. Bananas help.

I watched Stardust Memories again last night. I saw that on it’s opening weekend at the Century Theater in Paramus. A full house on a Saturday night and I was the only one laughing. That sums up my life in Bergen County. Good to watch again and interesting to see how many jokes have made it into my day to day life.

And the establishment that I wrote about previously, where I interviewed in June with the woman with a European accent, well it was the Hoboken Library. They turned me down. I knew it was a 50/50 chance and I also knew that one needed to have an ‘in’ to actually land the job.

I got a poorly written letter from Pina Lodles, the library director. Now as much as I like the Hoboken Library, I was actually hoping to work there and make it something that is not so badly run. The audio visual room is atrocious. Not that I was gunning for Pina Lodles job, but as a director Pina Lodles has surely dropped the ball.

And this bullshit of sending out letters, a waste of money and paper. If you’re going to notify people they did not get the job, then email or a phone call would be more economical. I suppose that isn’t the library director’s concern, then again, neither is writing a letter that is grammatically correct. It’s a shoddy, poorly run operation.

It’s just as well. I suppose that BCCLS doesn’t need a literate person in their employ.

Their loss!



He Ain’t Give You None

Today has turned out to be quite a nice day. 62 degrees said the thermometer on Washington Street. A bit windy but that was OK by me. Had a nice walk around Hoboken, visited that socialist institution and dropped off some DVD’s.

One of the DVD’s, Sleeper- turned out to be unplayable thanks to some cracks in the center of the disc. I seem to be the one who discovers things wrong with the DVD’s at the bibliothèque. No one else seems to even after they return them.

Maybe they’re the ones who break the discs and don’t say anything for fear of having to buy a new one. I’ve never been accused and then again I’ve never broken a CD or DVD from the library.

Yesterday I took out Taking Woodstock and Hippie, a book by Barry Miles. I watched Taking Woodstock last night. It was cute, it was fun. Wasn’t the worst movie I saw and not the greatest Ang Lee movie but it wasn’t as bad as the critics made it out to be.

No footage from the Woodstock movie, but some of the same techniques were used. No music from the movie either, probably kept costs down. A version of Going Out to the Country which may or may not have been by Canned Heat was the only song I can remember being in the both movies.

I enjoyed it. Demitri Martin was good and I could have sworn Andy Samberg was in it, but it turned out to be Jonathan Groff. So it wasn’t by the book as some Woodstock memoirs would have it, but it was still enjoyable.

I didn’t watch the extras since I have quite an extensive waiting list at the bibliothèque and I needed a copy of The Scottish Play for this Sunday’s Open Reading of Shakespeare at McSwells this Sunday. I do like the Scottish Play, having read it in high school.

After the library I wandered over to the river and read the January 25 issue of the New Yorker. Man I am behind. Since I’m not commuting anymore I don’t read it as often as I did, I’ve fallen behind. And my behind might have gotten a bit bigger since I’m not walking all over Manhattan like I used to.

Been a gray and wet couple of months so I’ve mainly been inside. I hope to change that soon enough now that the weather is getting better.

Stopped by the local record store, Tunes just to see if there was anything special about the latest album by The Bird & the Bee, their tribute to Hall & Oates. They didn’t have it in stock, claiming they sold it out. I doubt if they even ordered it since it came out yesterday. They said it should be in on Friday.

Instead I was able to snag Bang Masters by Van Morrison. A collection of his tracks for Bang Records from 1967. It was a used copy at $2.99 and since it had T.B. Sheets on it, a song that I’ve been playing once a day lately I had to have it. It should make for a nice burned CD for someone in August.

I’ve also become friends with Chris Frantz and Pat Irwin on Facebook. Chris Frantz was the drummer for Talking Heads, as well as for the Tom Tom Club and married to one of my favorite bass players, Tina Weymouth.

And Pat Irwin was in the Raybeats on guitar, keys and saxophone and also played guitar and keys for the B-52’s. A nice guy, I met him by the rock outside of Summerstage a few years ago. Answered my questions about the Raybeats and the B-52’s.

Chris Frantz is supposed to be a nice guy as well. I saw him at a Television show at the Academy theater in the 1990’s but was too nervous to go up to him and say anything.

I guess Facebook is the way to go then.
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