McSwells | johnozed

It’s Monday again. How that happened I’ll never know. Woke up to the sounds of the Rascals singing ‘It’s a beautiful morning…♫ and I searched for the snooze button while the Arif Mardin production went on. No fault of the Rascals and definitely not Arif’s fault. It was battleship gray outside once again and I just wanted to sleep. But no, work was waiting and I had to get out of bed. Made coffee, had cereal, showered and then I was out after getting dressed. I no longer hustle to get the 7:10 bus, instead I take my time and catch the 7:20 bus. Not as nice a bus, but usually less crowded.

Got to the city and for some reason I decided to play REM’s first album, Murmur on my iPod. I remember when I first got the record around the same time I got my first Walkman. It was the beginning of the cassette age for me. I wanted a Walkman for Christmas a few months before, but my father, figuring that I was mentally retarded said no. I would more than likely be crossing train tracks and playing music so loudly that I wouldn’t hear the oncoming train taking me to my death.

Instead of a Walkman I got a Sears cassette deck with an AM/FM radio. I was crestfallen that Christmas upon opening the box and instead of seeing Sony, I saw Sears. Still I had to show some gratitude and thanked both my parents for the tape deck before going up to my room and beating up my bed in frustration. I didn’t have a car at that time and still trucked around wherever it was I had to go with the tape deck cradled in my arm. It was 1983 so I was probably jazzy all the time. I walked to the 7 Eleven in the snow, just to get out of the house, just to get high.

Eventually I got a car and wound up driving the company van for the book company I worked for. On one lunch hour I decided to take my cash and go to one of the rip off shops by Grand Central where I bought a Walkman II for about $80.00. Soon enough I was putting everything on cassette and playing it wherever I would go. I wasn’t stupid enough to wear it while driving, I did have the Sears cassette deck for that.

One occasion, one of the last reunions of a sort while my mother was alive, had my parents and me with brother Brian and his then fiancée Karen driving down to Bordentown NJ. I was playing Murmur over and over, and loudly too. Loud enough for my mother to complain that I was going to go deaf playing it that loud. I grumbled and lowered the volume, staring out the window at whatever it was that we were driving past.

We made it to my cousin Eileen’s house, where we sat in her backyard and smoked cigarettes (everyone was doing it) and drank Budweiser (everyone was doing that too). Don’t remember much about going home but we made it all in one piece and didn’t get pulled over. All these memories came flooding forth while playing Murmur, which still stands up on it’s own, a near perfect record. Finally got to see REM at McSwells touring for Murmur.

It was one of the first shows that they sold tickets to, and I swear there were only about 30 people in the back room watching a shaggy Michael Stipe hang on the the microphone for dear life while tossing his curly locks to and fro. Won’t be seeing that again anytime soon. Michael Stipe with hair that is.

Here are some pics from an errand this afternoon in midtown.

Neighborhood with Slow Children

Gray Manhattan

Silver Cup Studios where Julio was working today

Well last night was pretty cool. I watched a documentary on Better Davis after Now, Voyager. I think yesterday she would have turned 100. It was entertaining and I watched the whole thing, winding up late meeting Rand for a few pints. I wisely ate beforehand, and didn’t mind being late since I hate waiting for other people at McSwells. Even when I worked there if I was supposed to meet someone it would be hell to wait for them. And it was usually my fantastically late brother Frank.

He’s still in the hospital and haven’t heard anything from his wife or daughters, or even Annemarie. I can only hope that no news is good news. I got to McSwells and found Rand sitting in the fishbowl where the owner after Steve Fallon put in massive tanks for a microbrewery. When the tanks were removed they made the space into a lounge. It was fun hanging with Rand. Catching up on what we’ve been listening to, TV shows, movies things like that. It was a man-date I suppose.

At one point we were able to move to the bar where it had gotten crowded soon after. I have no idea what bands were playing but six of one band were seated behind me. It was even louder at the bar and both Rand and I had to repeat just about everything we said, including each other’s dental histories. They treated us nicely when we got the tab and tipped them considerably. After all that gossip and whatnot Rand and I walked over to Hoboken Beach. An inlet that was recreated where one of the old Maxwell House buildings once stood.

It was a nice winding path, or maybe it was a straight path and both of us were winding. Regardless there is actually a sandy beach right on the Hudson River with a few geese honking at 10:30 on a Saturday night. Rand and I parted ways after that and I came home and watched most of Saturday Night Live, but couldn’t stay up past Weekend Update. Panic at the Disco were no great shakes either. Still it was good to see an actual band playing live.

Woke up feeling ok, not so great but not so bad either. Ran some errands, got a bagel for the parents to be on 3 and read the papers feeling like crap for most of the day. It was a crappy day outside anyhow so it seemed a perfect fit. Watched a DVD of Creature Comforts America which was fun and definitely low key. Then a short walk to the post office to drop off the Netflix and back home after all that. Still a bit tired, and I know I’ll probably sleep really well tonight.

Charlton Heston’s dead. His rifle has been pried from his cold dead hands. Besides the Ten Commandments, I always remember him as Ava Gardner’s husband in Earthquake, not to mention his bravura acting in the first 2 Planet of the Apes. ‘Take you filthy paws off me you damned dirty APES!’. He was a wing nut though so it’s one less vote for them, then.

And now, some pics