Tag Archives: Julio + Stine

Oliver’s Army

Well I just came back from a walk to the Post Office and I find an email telling me I won the Rufus Wainwright: Prima Donna contest. I win 2 autographed posters, a playbill from the opening night in Manchester, England and a Sundance Channel tote bag!

They won’t ship these out until after the holidays so any re-gifting will have to wait until next year. Thems the breaks I suppose. It’s not the Mega Millions.

Someone won the whole $160 million. One person. Not me. But the Sundance channel tote bag is nothing to sneeze at though it might be good to wipe your nose with after the sneeze.

What? Too soon?

Last night I watched the Miracle Worker which I had never seen before. I did read the play ages ago in either Annemarie’s or Brian’s Literature book from Lodi High School. They had to read it, I read it for fun.

I enjoyed it, great performances from Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. There were some scenes where Annie Sullivan who had terrible vision squints into the distance when Helen Keller goes off in the distance with her mother.

The squinting, accompanied by the wringing of hands makes it look like Annie Sullivan is scheming. It is also ripe for satire and I wonder if SCTV ever did a sketch based on it.

It would seem to be a perfect match. There’s probably so many episodes of SCTV that it has to be in there, along with Ben Him and the story of Natalie Ringneck, the girl who was raised by geese.

Right at the buildup for the climactic finale, Harpy called. ‘What is it with Tyler Perry’ ‘What is it with hat hair?’ ‘What is it with…’ blah blah blah. Oh Harpy was in his ivory tower playing the snob. If he didn’t get it, if he was who it was aimed for, he deemed it inferior as are the people who enjoy such things.

He also had a ton of advice for me and this blog and what I should do about it. He did mention one thing and it struck a chord/ Basically this blog is like one of Harpy’s favorite books, The Andy Warhol Diaries.

And it’s true, that’s just one of the influences on this here blog. Andy was an influence on me and how I look at things, and I did get the Diaries when they first came out, and even have the Spy Magazine unofficial index yucked away inside. I just missed being included in page 689 of the hardcover, arriving after the incident happened and the books being sold out. I don’t write about it again so, I wrote about it here:

Here She Comes Now

Harpy droned on and whatever momentum I had gained while watching the movie soon petered out. I did watch some of the Paul McCartney: Good Evening New York City, a DVD and CD and book of Macca’s shows at Citifield back over the past summer.

It was a wonderful gift from Annemarie, Rex and Earl. As sweet as the cookies and brownies she sent. I offered to get a copy burned for her but she already got her own. I only watched the first 10 songs and want to watch the rest with Bill sometime soon.

2 pairs of eyes will come in handy trying to find Annemarie & Earl, Julio & Stine and Bill & myself in the stands.

What? It could happen.

Apparently they handed out flip cameras to people in the audience for the recording and you never know, maybe somebody was walking by and caught the six of us doing whatever it was we were doing that night. I honestly don’t remember.

I heard from Casey Chasm, calling with holiday greetings and an update on his life. He seems to be going ahead and joining the army. For the insurance, for he and the missus and the baby. To me it seems drastic, but it’s not my life. I’d rather he didn’t need to enlist, but I support his decision. So good luck to him, Pvt. Chasm.

You’ve Got A Friend

Well I am thisclose to writing on my own computer, but right now Bill is trying to get me access to his wireless network. Rand has graciously hooked me up with another new computer, new meaning, new to me.

A lot more disc space which is a good thing and everything has its place once again on the PC. So if you haven’t guessed by now I am writing this on Bill’s Mac. Today has been a beautiful day and a productive day at that.

But first off let me say in case you were wondering, Annemarie & Earl have made it safely home to the other side of the continent- Arcata, California. And she says she had a great time, so maybe, I’m not the terrible brother I envisioned myself to be.

I was up around 8:30 this morning after Bill was off to collect his mother and go to church. A bright and brilliant morning and definitely a beach day.

But there was no beach in the day planner for me.

I ran around Hoboken, got Julio & Stine bagels, even though picked up bagels last night from H&H in Manhattan. Also got the Daily News which was the usual terrible stuff.

I folded the laundry and put it away and also got rid of hundreds of pictures that I had printed out, mainly of musclemen.

I still dig looking at the bodybuilders but there’s really no need for those pictures anymore so I camouflaged them and got them ready to recycle this week.

I should put them in front of someone else’s building when the sun goes down just to be on the safe side.

I made a promise to myself and also to Bill that I would like to have this apartment cleaned up so that the next time Annemarie comes out here, she could stay in Hoboken which usually worked out for the best in previous years that she has come west.

Recycling photos of bodybuilders is a step in the right direction. Rand has been working on the new computer and was almost finished with it this afternoon. We texted each other and he and Lisa were wandering around Hoboken, visiting various tag and gate sales.

I passed one or two gate sales and snapped up Un-Ledded by Robert Plant & Jimmy Page for a buck.

Also met up with the funniest girl alive, Meghan Taylor as she was going to help out at hubby Jim’s Guitar Bar. It was fun to stop by and see Jim with Rand & Lisa & Meghan. Our daughter Lily also showed up for her drum lesson.

A nice walk around Hoboken after leaving the Mastro’s in Mastrodamia. I certainly enjoyed a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero 700 as I strolled with Rand & Lisa.

Sat in Elysian Park and talked for a while then headed to Casa de Hoppe where I read comic books while Lisa surfed the net and Rand ably got my computer functioning with all the info on my old computer.

Now Bill is here and was able to complete the wireless situation and now I am back in business and dizziness.

On a sad note, Frank McCourt passed away at 78. He wrote Angela’s Ashes, Tis, and Teacher Man. Angela’s Ashes was his memoir about living hand to mouth or worse in Limerick, Ireland.

Some people called him a phony saying (Richard Harris, my cousin Jackie) and that it was all made up, but for some reason I believed his story.

The movie version was OK, but for me the better book is Tis, and that’s probably because it takes place in Manhattan mostly. Teacher Man was good as well but by that time I had moved onto other things.

The reason that I am writing about Frank McCourt was because he was an inspiration to me. He didn’t start writing until late in life and won a Pulitzer Prize first time up at bat.

Not that I’m going to win a Pulitzer Prize, but that believing that the time had passed to start writing was a ridiculous idea.

So rest in peace Frankie. You did well mate. Hopefully someday I can come within a country mile of writing as wonderful as you did.

Ta.