Tag Archives: Ian Dury and the Blockheads

Uneasy Sunny Day Hotsy Totsy

Well today it was in the 90’s again, temperature wise, not decade wise. Last night was back to routine of watching Keith Olbermann followed by the Daily Show and The Colbert Report. After that, it’s all a blur. Maybe it was a documentary on the Who. That seems likely. Then it was the news and then it was off to bed. Been sleeping ok, missing Bill sleeping next to me.

Pillows don’t make for good spooning. I toss and I turn and I miss his snoring. He’ll be back in a week or two since he’s looking after his mother until the housekeeper returns. This morning, was more of what you’ve read before, showering, shaving, breakfast and no power outage.

Just don’t like that new morning team and though Otis Livingston is phoine, there’s not enough of him to get me to stay until 7:00AM. So I headed out early and caught what I thought would be a less crowded bus. Two stops later, 25 people got on making it instantly crowded. I sat there and counted each head that got on the bus.

I was reading Stuff White People Like, a book I won from The Onion. Juan hipped me to the blog, Stuff White People Like a few months ago. I was reading it, a handsome guy, could have been a bear, sat next to me. He looked sort of like Andrew Sullivan, but didn’t have the cloven hoofs.

As I read I noticed this guy trying to see what it was I was reading. I started to show him when he asked. He laughed and was familiar with the blog. I told him I won it from the Onion and went about explaining how you can win things from the Onion. I get a few newsletters each week.

If something interests me I usually enter the contest. Just send an email, with the contest listed in the subject line and voila, you too can win. I was hoping to win tickets to see Ricky Gervais live in concert, and I was going to take Harpy, but no go. Sorry Harpy.

It was a good ride, nice chatting with he who’s name turned out to be Curtis. He had a claddagh ring on which made me think he might play for my team. We parted ways and I wished him a good day. I got to work about 15 minutes early. Listened to Nick Lowe on the way.

I was busy working with Tom Chin today. We’ve been getting along lately. I wouldn’t say we were buddies, but we’ve been getting along. I sent an email, reminding everyone that I would be out on Friday. Bill and I are going to a free concert at Brighton Beach tomorrow night. Brian Wilson.

That should be fun. I was surprised Bill readily agreed to go. It promises to be a sweltering evening and it will be the first time I see the ocean this year. I was a bit bitchy this morning to various customer service people on the phone as well as the guy who makes bagels and spent some time trying to flirt with girls from Japan who don’t speak too much English.

For some reason I was singing The Bitch Is Back by Elton beforehand, so maybe I set things in motion.

I had run a few errands and soon enough the day was over. Then I walked across town, smoking a Padron and listening to Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Do It Yourself, one of my desert island discs.

That will be the subject of a future blog, like it or not. And you all better get ready to respond. 10 discs and why you would bring them along to a desert island. Not yet though, I’m giving you advance notice.

I stopped by Bill’s office, he had somethings for me and I had somethings for him. Good to see him. He looked tired though. He doesn’t sleep well on a sofa bed designed by the Spanish Inquisition.

Got on the bus as it filled up and who do I see but Curtis. Deja vu of sorts. He pulled out a copy of High Times, a bit concerned that I would turn up my nose at it. I told him I’d probably be listed in there somewhere. So we have that in common.

Curtis is a lawyer, works downtown. We talked politics. We’re on the same page, in fact he was saying most of the things that I would be saying. JFK/Obama connection, taxes, education, health care, the slow death of the middle class and of course the war.

He’s married but that didn’t matter I wasn’t into him like that. He doesn’t like being a lawyer and fancies himself a writer. I told him I had a blog and that I too fancy myself a writer. I wound up giving him advice, courtesy of Louis Lapham who gave me some advice three years ago.

So I might have a new friend, or at least a bus buddy. Not like the bus buddies I had when I lived in Weehawken. They don’t play like that in Hoboken.

Ugh. McCrazy at an NAACP convention today. Previously the NAACP gave him an F grade. Voting against the MLK Federal Holiday seven times and definitely not supporting it in Arizona. Generally not a friend to black people. Ugh.

This jerk off pulls right over the crosswalk & forces pedestrians to walk into oncoming traffic.

Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick

Back to work today and today was hotter than yesterday. Oh it was a real scorcher. I did my best to stay in, but having been away form the office, things needed to get done. So it was off into the sweltering sun, bank deposits needed to be made. I wandered over to Syms where they’re having a big sale non suits.

I checked it out, didn’t see anything to my liking though I did buy a nice set of braces which I look forward to wearing when autumn rolls around. They are autumnal looking. Oh and by the way, braces is another name for suspenders.

Suspenders usually conjures up jokes regarding firemen and red suspenders.

Yesterday I went to Burlington Coat Factory and bought some nice trousers and a nice shirt which I wore today. Unfortunately they were dark colors, and for all the jokes I have made about people wearing dark colors on days like today, I wore dark colors on a day like today.

And I wore some nice looking loafers, but they were the wrong type of shoe to wear while traipsing around midtown in 90 plus degree weather. Now my feet are killing me. Actually they were.

Now I’m ok. Also took a shower when I came home from work which felt great. Basically I am toast right now. Just burnt out from the heat and the sun. Not sunburned though which is a very good thing.

Work wasn’t bad at all. I was told how lost all the people in the office were without me and it showed. No one makes coffee like me. No one could figure out the coffee machine.

I think they will need someone to fill in for me when I take some days off in August. I have to start the ball rolling on that soon enough.

I did have to stop off and pick up coffee for the office so I stopped in at Empire Coffee in Hoboken. I get along really well with Jeff who’s always trying to impress me with the music he plays in the store.

Today he made a point to play the new Beck cd. I had read that it was his best since Sea Change. The thing is, I hated Sea Change. I think I played it once and filed it, never to be heard again. Such a downer.

Jeff explained that it was produced by Danger Mouse, who I like and that the beats were up beat, while Beck’s lyrics were downbeat. Doesn’t seem likely that I would be buying that cd anytime soon.

Jeff is going to see the Vaselines at McSwells tomorrow night and he was super psyched. I wished him well as I walked out the door.

Right now, it’s twilight, the sun sinking over North Bergen and Jersey City in the west. A nice breeze comes in through the window, Rachel Maddow is substituting for Keith Olbermann. She rocks.

I prefer her much more than bellowing Keith Olbermann. She’s nice and very smart and witty. I guess the country isn’t ready for a woman hosting a news program, much less a lesbian hosting one. Their loss is actually, our loss.

Now, Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick. It’s nice to be a lunatic.

Just been thinking about Ian Dury lately.