Tag Archives: Liberty

Octopus’s Garden

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Ahh the day after Thanksgiving. A quiet day, stress free relatively and a bit nippy. Whereas yesterday it was in the 60 degree area, today it’s been halved into the 30 degree area. I did have some ambition, enough to go out and walk around a bit, and also had a good mid afternoon nappage. That’s basically all that I did today. Oh, and some laundry. Last night was cooler, with Juan making an appearance, it’s been awhile since we hung out. Well not really. We did meet up a few weeks ago, one Saturday night. Last night we watched The War, which I have from Netflix. I was surprised he would be into but he watched most of the dvd before it was time for him to get some rest for his Black Friday shopping that apparently does each year. Crazy! Not for me. I’m a sleeper. And I’ll do my shopping online or on the fly. Depends on whats in my wallet at the time.

Juan was quite familial last night, even going so far as to be mocking, much like a sibling does, to my dismay. That would have given me license to beat him much like the way a sibling does, but I decided against it, what with it being Thanksgiving and all. I did watch Sweeney Todd today on dvd, with George Hearn and Patti LuPone. It’s the concert version, no props, just the cast, including Neil Patrick Harris, on stage, singing alongside the orchestra. The opening number still gives me goosebumps. I got the dvd out after watching a commercial for Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, directed by Tim Burton. I’m excited and also hesitant, having seen it on stage several times, mostly with brother Frank who took me initially to see it at the New York State Opera House at Lincoln Center about 25 years ago.

Since then I’ve seen it every chance I could get when there was a performance in this metropolitan area, sometimes with Frank, sometimes with Bill and one time with the both of them, sitting way up in the nose bleed seats at Lincoln Center. I did see it at some church on the upper east side where Sweeney sang like his mouth was full of lumpy oatmeal. I think one of the best ensembles was in Bergenfield at a former firehouse turned theater with Frank, Elaine, Meghan and Cory for a birthday present. That was really tops, and it was such a small theater that the cast couldn’t help but mingle with the audience as the show went on.

I’m sure during light fare the cast mingling with the audience is a treat but during such a macabre show like Sweeney Todd, it is rather edgy. Not that I minded. Gave it a nice flavor. So no new plans tonight, more laying low which is fine by me, though I may go out and take a walk in the night time, maybe have a cigar and stroll down Washington Street. Or I might just stay in. Either one is fine with me. And I do have to get the mail anyway. So that settles that. After I finish watching Imagine…The Beatles in LOVE on the Sundance Channel. That’s a plug.

And here are some pics
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Bill

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Me

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Me again

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Me Smiling!

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Hoboken Sunset

An hour or so later. Went out, took a walk, had a cigar. Quite nice out, 33 degrees, but comfortable, if you’re dressed properly. Not many people out which was nice.

Bye and Bye

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Thursday. Not bad at all really. It’s been another cold and rainy day, but now it has stopped raining and it’s just cold. Last night was TV night. Bill came home as I was watching Pushing Daisies. I do like the show. It just seems so cute and Jim Dale’s narration is spot on. I can even abide seeing Chi McBride on the screen. It’s not that I dislike him, I am always reminded of his first TV show, The Secret Diaries of Desmond Pfieffer. In that he played Abraham Lincoln’s butler. It lasted four episodes and I never saw any of them, but that’s what sticks in my mind. It was universally panned.

After that Bill and I watched the absolute final episode of The War. This one had some amazingly terrible footage. The European theater on both the eastern and western front, as well as Okinawa with kamikaze pilots flying their planes into whatever ships they could find. Some soldiers had cameras and shot some scenes never seen before. And the soldiers that lived to tell their tales, admitted the difficulty they had adjusting to life when they came home, after seeing what they saw in war, including killing other soldiers. How can you actually adjust to that? By moving to the suburbs I suppose and joining various VFW’s and American Legions. At least that’s what my father did. Still it would have been nice to find out what he went through during the war. Anyone have a Ouija board handy?

Of course, they finished after dropping the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, changing the world forever. Yeah, the human race signed it’s death warrant on those days in August 1945. I’m sure if the United States didn’t drop the bomb, the Soviet Union would have eventually. Such were the times. Now a handful of countries have the bomb, and a few smaller nations are angling for their shot at annihilation. And for what, really? I have no clue. Seeing footage of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, how can any sane person decide to pursue such an insane course of action? It didn’t make for an easy night of sleep.

This morning Bill was running around the apartment, and since I slept uneasily I got up a little bit earlier than usual. Didn’t hit the snooze button, so I was fresh a full ten minutes sooner. Headed out into the damp, read the New Yorker, about Steve Coogan which was entertaining. Walked across town to the office where to my surprise Greg Stevens was in before me. He got back from Arizona last night. He also had a conference call scheduled for this afternoon which I had been preparing for all week. Last time Greg had a meeting I messed up the conference call so I made sure it wouldn’t happen again, not on my watch.

Clients in the office and I had to arrange the catering which was easy since Mary Tully, the pregnant Uma Thurman lookalike was helping me out with that. She’s nice, but not too much on the ball. She blames hormones and I believe her. Her temp position ends December 14 and I don’t mind carrying most of the workload. I was grateful that I was busy. It made the day go faster and didn’t give me a chance to suffer my self doubt. And I’m finally used to the new glasses.

Alberto Gonzales has set up a legal defense fund.