John Lennon | johnozed

It’s Sunday, back to school for some, back to the working week for me. Not so bad, just that I’ve gotten used to staying up until 1:30. Last night I was up till then watching Lost. After Broadcast News came the local news and then since Saturday Night Live was a repeat, I found Lost. Back to back repeats.

I didn’t mind those repeats since I do enjoy the show so much. Not enough to log onto the computer and play the webisodes or what have you. Same with Heroes. I enjoy that show as well but I don’t follow it off the television set.

It was pretty much a mellow evening all around. I went to the memorial service for Bill’s friend, then walked up to 33rd street from 10th street and First Avenue enjoying a cigar. Walking up to 33rd street almost guarantees a seat. Lot’s of people heading back to the suburbs clutching large bags of candy from the M&M Store in Times Square.

I buried my nose in the John Lennon biography. He and George and their wives were just dosed with LSD, so that was an interesting part that I’ve read about a dozen times already. Philip Norman does put a good spin on the whole situation. Lot’s of Aunt Mimi stories that I didn’t know previously.

Today was a quiet day. I watched the morning shows up to a point. Couldn’t take any more news about Israel invading Gaza. It’s a mess and it’s only going to be worse. I had started watching The Last Picture Show the other night and finished watching it this afternoon. It was a good movie. Sad that Sam Bottoms died a couple of weeks ago.

If only Peter Bogdanovich didn’t make my skin crawl. It certainly was a beautiful movie though. Excellent cinematography. I watched some of the extras, Making The Last Picture Show and there was big head Bogdanovich, Orson Welles this, Orson Welles that.

I wanted to take a walk to the post office and drop the DVD off in the mailbox, but Bogdanovich just wouldn’t shut up so I ejected it and threw it in the envelopes. As far as I know, Bogdanovich is still flapping his flanged lips in a pile of mail.

Also returned the Doris Kearns Goodwin book, A Team of Rivals. I didn’t think I would have the time to actually read it from start to finish and my ardor for Obama has cooled somewhat.

I still have to finish the Lennon bio and there’s also the Sarah Vowell book, The Wordy Shipmates which I need to start, but that’s a book I can probably read in a day, as if I have a day to sit and read a book from cover to cover.

Had an enjoyable walk around Hoboken this afternoon. Around Pier A and then back on Washington Street. As I walked up Washington Street I walked past the Karma Cafe, an Indian restaurant that I have eaten at a few times. I was surprised to see it closed since they usually have a buffet on weekend afternoons.

I guess it was closed since hardly anyone was around this weekend, but I looked closer to see if they had gone out of business. As I looked in, I saw a pair of legs on the floor. On closer inspection, I saw the legs connected to a body on the floor. I wasn’t sure what to do, if to do anything, so I took a picture.

1409-hoboken-021
What would you think? A closed restaurant, kitchen help lying on the floor…

Then I called the Hoboken Police Department and explained what I saw. I stood nearby and waited for the police to arrive about 15 minutes later. I explained to the officer who looked in the vestibule next to the restaurant that I was the one who called.

He said he looked and didn’t see anyone. I told him to check the restaurant, not the vestibule. He did and saw a kitchen worker lying on the floor. The police man asked if I tapped on the window and I told him I hadn’t.

He did and also jimmied the door somewhat which made the kitchen worker stir proving that he was alive. The officer laughed and thanked me and I said I probably watch too much Lawn hors d’œuvre .

He said he was a Canapés man himself.

1409-hoboken-001

1409-hoboken-006

1409-hoboken-008

1409-hoboken-014

1409-hoboken-017

Saturday night. Things are getting back to what could only be described as relative normalcy. Last night was quiet. Juan was out gallivanting, Bill back in Stuyvesant Town.

I watched Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, which was actually the first Charlie Chaplin film I had seen from start to finish. Also the first Chaplin film that I had seen where he actually speaks.

I never knew that he spoke in his later films and often wondered how long he would have done silent roles. Apparently in 1940 he was speaking in films. According to Wikipedia it was Chaplin’s first talking picture.

It was a daring movie that he made, since the US was at ‘peace’ with Germany at the time and it certainly pissed Hitler off which was an added bonus. A year later we were at war with the Axis powers.

After that I basically started reading a book that I had gotten from the library, John Lennon- The Life by Philip Norman. Supposed to be the best biography of Lennon so far. It is pretty good.

Philip Norman wrote an excellent biography on the Beatles in the 1980’s called Shout! The Lennon book was written with Yoko Ono’s blessing and she asked her son Sean and Paul McCartney to cooperate with the author, which they did.

But as luck would have it, once Yoko and Paul read the galleys they both did some furious backpedaling and denounced the book.

So far the only dodgy thing was John accidentally touching his mother’s breast and wondering what else he could get away with.

That would raise some eyebrows, but Yoko did give access to Lennon’s diaries and journals and as great a songwriter and musician Lennon was, he was also a flawed individual and he would probably be the first to admit it.

It’s a weighty tome and carried some heft as I had it in my shoulder bag and wandered around Manhattan en route to the Guggenheim Museum where I was meeting Bill and Meghan Taylor Mastro with Lily and Ruby, as well as Pat Paterson and his wife, the one and only Ann Boyles Paterson.

I do prefer going to art galleries instead of museums but the Guggenheim was on the agenda so it was off to the Upper East Side. Bill got there a minute or two before me and as we were waiting for the others Juan called wondering what was going on.

It was around 3:00 and he had just woken up. Nice life, which Juan has. I would have invited him along but this was the first I had heard from him since yesterday. He was cool with it, he had to go back to Trenton anyhow.

The Glen Ridge contingent arrived and soon we were inside the Frank Lloyd Wright designed building. I’m always reminded of the roller skating joke from Hannah and Her Sisters regarding the rotunda of the Guggenheim.

After walking around being nonplussed at the exhibitions we were on the street again, $18.00 lighter in each of our wallets. We could have gone to the Bergen County History Museum and looked at the mastodon bones, that would have been cheaper.

I used to go there with Annemarie when I was growing up. It was cheap then, but could be about the same price as the Guggenheim nowadays.

We decided on a bus downtown so we would roll past the Rockefeller Christmas Tree. Unfortunately it was stop and go traffic for about 40 blocks which screwed up my spine somewhat.

Still the company made all the difference and we had shared some truffles and other chocolates and had many laughs as well as taking snapshots of each other. Bill and I got off at 14th street, the others continued onto the West Village to meet up with Jim Mastro.

After parting ways with Bill I stopped by Farfetched to try to persuade Harpy to come with me to see Ann and Meghan but he just wanted to go home after working retail in a shop that’s taken quite a beating this holiday season.

Nothing that Farfetched has done, just that no one is buying anything anywhere these days.

So now I’m home, just had a nice dinner, watched a decent documentary on Groucho Marx and here I am sitting at Bill’s Mac and writing this.

What have YOU been up to?