Tag Archives: Juan

Breakfast in America

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Well back to this again. I don’t mind. And I was happy that some people commented last night. It was good to see people taking my question and answering it, though it would have been more appropriate if it was for the previous entry, but I guess I’ll take feedback whenever I can.

I did find out that I’m younger than bhikku. One or two years but all this time I thought he was the same age as me. So once again I am the youngest, unless Juan posts and I know I am older than Juan. It’s been that way most of my life, the youngest in the room.

Of course I spent a lot of time at senior centers so that made sense. I wonder how it will be when I am in the senior center, not visiting but actually residing there. Though tonight I wasn’t the youngest when I went to get coffee beans from Empire Coffee in Hoboken for the office.

Jeff was there and Jeff is younger than me. He’s also dazzled by my tales of McSwells and the music business. I asked him how the Vaselines were and it turned out he got there too early, had a few beers too many.

It wasn’t crowded so he took a walk and when he came back it was crowded. He wound up behind the pole in the back room and not seeing much of the band. He heard Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam and one other song when he felt he heard enough and drunkenly weaved his way back home to Jersey City.

He’s a good guy and I enjoy regaling him with stories of the bands I saw in the heyday that was McSwells. At least the ones I can remember. Work was work was work. Need I say more? You know I eventually will.

Last night I watched Weeds which was hilarious. Best episode this season so far. Nancy kicked Celia’s ass and knocked a tooth out of Celia’s mouth. Andy accidentally shot a coyote (someone who sneaks illegal immigrants into the country) in the knee. Andy got his Foghat belt buckle back and his $6.00 from the coyote. Justin Kirk rocks by the way.

After that I watched Diary of a Call Girl which is very good but I usually have to be in the mood for it. Like sex I guess. I don’t go out of my way to watch it, but if it’s on I generally enjoy it. I can’t wait for Juan to see the latest episode of Weeds.

This morning I am happy to report that there were no power outages as I got ready for work. Though it promised to be in the 90 degree area, I wore a long sleeved French cuff shirt and my pinstriped trousers. The trousers used to be cuffed but I had the tailor remove the cuffs so I have an extra inch or two at the bottom of my pant leg.

Still throughout the day, I worry that they’re too short. I wear a 34 length pant, and this is like 32.5 or 33. I constantly need to check through the day.

It’s just as well that I don’t have cuffs on my trousers, since when I do wear them cuffed, as I walk one foot gets snagged and I stumble, and me, being big and goofy, I look like a real doofus when that happens. Usually I look like an unreal doofus, which is what I’m comfortable with.

Ran some errands today which was nice to get out of the office. Ran into Vinnie a guy I used to work with. He’s doing well and looking good. He said to tell you he said ‘Hi’.

Downer

This car runs red lights. Be on the look out.

Whats in the pocket?

This possibly didn’t end well.

Punked tattoos

George Bush, our idiot at the G8 Summit closing last Friday:
“Goodbye from the world’s greatest polluter!”

cut n’paste

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4305290.ece

also related

cut n’paste again
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/antarctic-ice-shelf-collapse-imminent-866504.html

Candela

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A day off. Didn’t want to back to work with a bunch of people, miserable from a holiday weekend. Plenty of time for that tomorrow. It was an authorized day off, but still an occasional feeling of guilt and apprehension. It passed. Today was a scorcher though and since they’ve been working in the street on the water pipe coming into my building, I had no water.

I did ask Bill to wake me up when he was leaving so that I’d be able to take a shower before they shut off the water. The No Parking sign was posted in front of my building over the weekend and the hours posted were from 8AM to 4PM. That’s when I figured they’d be shutting off the water, but it was actually 11AM.

I did my thing, went out for the papers, fed the birds. Did some work on my computer. The wireless connection kept kicking me off. It was easier than I thought it would be, all I had to do was tighten the antenna on the back of the tower. I was surprised and happy and sweaty.

Last night Juan came over before he headed back to Trenton. We watched Weeds and then watched Buena Vista Social Club, which I hadn’t seen in a few years. Juan had never seen it before. He has the advantage of not needing the subtitles. I explained that I saw it 5 times in the theaters, getting misty at the end with the late Ibrahim Ferrer walking around midtown Manhattan.

I saw it with Annemarie, Julio and Bill on separate occasions and twice on my own. That was when living was cheap in Weehawken and movie going was cheaper, cheap enough to see the same movie 5 times. I think while I was in the throes of Buena Vista Social Club mania, that’s when I started wearing suits.

I explained to Juan that I guess I usually dressed like the musicians I’ve been listening to. Wearing the red, gold and green when I was deep into reggae, and generally indie rock throughout most of my adult life. The musicians from Buena Vista Social Club were generally snazzy dressers, and since that was basically all I listened to for a while that is how I started to dress. Couldn’t get the Cuban cigars though but I prefer Padron cigars from Nicaragua anyhow.

I also started looking for a job with benefits and figured wearing a suit and tie would get me those benefits and a better job. It worked. It also helps that I have a fetish for wearing a suit and tie. I prefer men in suits and ties too. Some guys are leather queens, I’m a pinstripe queen I guess. What can I say?

I dragged Julio to a few shows back then when the various members of BVSC were touring in Manhattan. We saw Compay Segundo at Town Hall, Ibrahim Ferrer and Ruben Gonzales at the Beacon Theater and Orlando Cachaito Lopez at BB King’s Nightclub.

Cachaito was originally scheduled to play a sold out show on September 14, 2001, but things being what they were then it rescheduled for a later date and Julio, Bill and I saw the sold out show with about 15 other people in attendance.

Each time I went to those shows, I was dressed to the nines. Julio, jeans and t-shirt, and a terribly loud orange down vest. Go figure.

Juan said he enjoyed BVSC and for me it flew by faster than I remembered. Juan left a little while after that. Now Bill and I have water again, and it’s at the same pressure it was a few months ago which is quite good.

Back to work tomorrow, which according to the weather soothsayers, will be a scorcher again.

Outside my building today

The ditch at the foot of my stoop

The tools

Columbus Park, Hoboken 2:00PM