Tag Archives: Jenny Lewis

Creeque Alley

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Well I hope you are all having an enjoyable 4th of July. Independence Day. It’s been a lovely day here in the Hoboken area. Sun is shining brightly and there’s a nice breeze.

Some streets are closed in Hoboken since the fireworks will be on the Hudson River and the city of Hoboken is expecting huge crowds. At 8:00 it will be very difficult for cars to drive into Hoboken.

I don’t know how the other waterfront towns are dealing with it, but Hoboken does have it’s sometimes exaggerated self-importance.

I went for a ride today, solo. Rode into Manhattan and checked out Jenny Lewis who was opening for Conor Oberst. It was crowded but not like it was for the Feelies and Sonic Youth show last year.

I did see Meghan Taylor for a few minutes. She was in the guest area with her super girls, courtesy of Jim Mastro. I wasn’t on the list and didn’t want to lock up my bike. Jenny Lewis sounded good at some points in the park, I kept moving around and found the sound to be dodgy in some areas.

There was a hole in the fence which various hipsters were going through, but you had to have a 28” waist to get through.

I decided not to watch Conor Oberst and rode around downtown. It was fairly crowded with tourists on this holiday weekend. Caught the Path to Exchange Place in Jersey City and rode back into Hoboken from there.

Did about 15 miles all together. Last night I went up to McSwells where I met Eddie Narucki and his wife. Eddie used to work at McSwells back in the day.

Rand and Lisa showed up as well as Lois. Roda was managing the club. It was a good time, lot’s of laughs and a few rounds which we were only charged for one round. Quite nice. My brother Frank showed up with his friend Rusty as well.

Didn’t get a chance to talk with Frank much since he was often around people that wanted to talk to him and I was with people that wanted to talk to me.

I saw Guy Beard, former McSwells DJ who I never really got along with and his wife Zena whom I did get along with. She was friends with Arif Mardin’s family so that was why we got along so well. She’s a bubbly spirit when compared to Guy’s dour personality.

The night ended when it should have and I decided to walk home and enjoy a cigar. As I got to my building I noticed I didn’t have my keys.

I retraced my steps to McSwells, contacted Roda and asked if anyone turned any keys in. They didn’t. I came home and called Bill who was sleeping.

He let me in where I found my keys hanging on the hook where I always leave them. All I could do was laugh at that. Bill went to bed and I soon joined him there.

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hipsters (sans hats)

hipsters (sans hats)


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Wild Turkey in Battery Park

Wild Turkey in Battery Park

Beautiful Boy

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OK, so it’s Monday and it’s a soggy Monday. Nothing but rain. Much like yesterday. It’s supposed to rain every day except for Wednesday, at least that’s what the meteorologist says.

It’s funny, I’ll watch the news to get the weather, then when the weather comes on, I totally blank. I think it’s because of their voices. I hear the voice and I am a million miles away.

Since we have digital cable, I usually wind up rewinding a minute or two to get that five day forecast. That happened last night but I didn’t care since I would catch the weather on the Today show.

And the forecast was rain.

Last night I didn’t watch TV, just played music. I played music instead. Started out playing Bob Dylan’s latest, Together Through Life. I really like it. It’s a fast 45 minutes and quite good.

Then I listened to Jenny Lewis ‘Acid Tongue’ and that is quite good as well, perhaps even better than Bob Dylan. The last song on Acid Tongue is ‘Sing a Song for Them’ and it ended with a familiar string section that reminded me of Old Dirt Road by John Lennon off of Walls and Bridges so I played that.

That set me on a John Lennon kick, through most of his catalog, a few things from Plastic Ono Band, Imagine, the Acoustic album and the Lennon Anthology. I played Beautiful Boy, the studio version and the acoustic version.

Bill was home by that time and he really only knows Beautiful Boy through Mr. Holland’s Opus, one of Bill’s favorite movies. A few more Lennon songs, finishing up with ‘Sean’s Little Help’ where 5 year old Sean Lennon is singing ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ which provided a perfect closer with the Beatles version.

Then it was time for the news and for me to blank out on the weather. Bill had his sleep apnea mask on and I soon fell asleep next to him and his buzzing apparatus. I woke up a little before 8:00 this morning, surprised to see Bill still in bed.

I nudged him and asked if he was going to work and he said he was taking a day off. That through me off a bit but I recovered and found myself in the shower getting ready for work. Donned a suit and headed out into the rain.

Caught the bus and buried my face in the New York, reading about Rwanda. Made it to the office, a few people out today making it very quiet.

Quiet enough that I was able to catch a crosstown bus and walked over to Studio 54 to see if I can join the Roundabout Theater’s Usher Program for the latest production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot.

The guy in charge of that is a guy who sits in a chair all day with binders. I asked to sign up for the play but he told me it was all filled up for the season. So I signed up for the waiting list.

It’s probably not going to happen and if it does happen it will probably be on a date that is inconvenient for me. Oh well.

I came home from work, and got a letter from my bank.

Out of 4 illicit charges on my card, 2 were disputed in my favor. The other 2 which were the items that were actually shipped to me, according to the bank, seemed authorized.

So I was on the phone for an hour dealing with 2 different customer services.

One issue has been resolved after getting on ‘Mary Jo’s’ nerves, the other I will have to deal with tomorrow during daylight hours, as per ‘Vern’s’ suggestion.

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flip-wilson

Beefcake!

Beefcake!