Tag Archives: Ruby

I Miss You- DeBarge

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This week is turning out to be quite a washout. Rain and threats of rain have kept me indoors more than I would like. I am not too happy about it, but what can I do? I have no say in the matter. At least I did go outside last night and I am glad I did. I went to the bibliothèque to pick up Me’Shell Ndegeocello release, aptly titled ‘Weather’ and the Carole King memoir, Natural Woman. While there I ran into my friend Lois and walked her over to the church where the Hoboken Fair Housing Association was having a meeting.

We had a good talk before she went inside and I enjoyed a cigar and walked over to Shipyard Park at 13th Street and Hudson Street. The Guitar Bar All Stars were playing and I could hear them a block away. Since the area was quite residential, it was only an hour long and was over by 8:00. Jim Mastro was running the show and Meghan was there with their daughter Ruby. Ruby had her nose in a book when I first got here while she was taking care of the Ukulele table and info on kids lessons.

Meghan looked great and it was good to see her. Karyn Kuhl was also there with her pretty girlfriend Christina. They make a nice couple. And it was all over with a ukulele version of Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones. There was a plan to meet up at Guitar Bar Jr. on 11th Street and they started packing things up as I wandered over to the river to enjoy my cigar some more. Then I realized I would have to let it die out since I needed to stop by Maxwells on my way to Guitar Bar Jr.

The Hoboken Fair Housing Association is hoping to have a benefit and they’re hoping that Maxwells could give them a night in late October before the election. I was asked to see if Todd was around and ask him myself or get him ready to be asked by someone in an official capacity. But Todd wasn’t there, it was Dave Post who told me that Todd does all the booking and is usually there on Wednesday and Friday nights. I left Maxwells and walked the 2 blocks to Guitar Bar Jr., just as they were unloading the car with equipment.

Meghan and Ruby made their way, Ruby carrying a bag of ice. Jim appeared with some Pabst Blue Ribbon as well as some wine and some pale ale. I didn’t have a drink though, I just talked with Meghan and a friend of hers, talking about politics and Facebook. I got a call from a frazzled Bill who asked me to get him some soy milk at the supermarket so I cut short my time at the party and did some grocery shopping. I didn’t mind since it was getting noisy and hot in the Guitar Bar Jr.

Bill was home when I got home and proceeded to tell me about his day and his headaches dealing with this cast, but mainly the director of the show. Lots of phone calls between Bill and the producer and the director as well as Bill’s assistant. After that he went to bed and I stayed up. Apparently the night before I started watching From Here to Eternity on Turner Classic Movies and went to bed soon after Donna Reed appears. Bill had never seen it before and stayed up to watch the whole movie to my surprise.

This morning I got a phone call from downstairs neighbor Deborah. She found out that Chief’s name was actually Spence and told me how he wound up talking to her the whole ride into the city. He was asking lots of questions about me and also telling Deborah that there was a woman who was very much into me and supposedly on her behalf he was pumping Deborah for information about me. Deborah told him that I was gay and he seemed surprised since I didn’t seem to act gay, whatever that means.

Something else I find interesting, I used to go to a website called song facts to get a list of songs that start with an “I”. A week or so ago Firefox deemed the website unsafe. No matter, I use Chrome mostly and had no problems logging in until yesterday. And now, as of today, the website is inaccessible, perhaps shut down. I never went for the lyrics just the song titles. So if anyone has a link to song lists, do let me know.







Rain

Darlin’

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Well it certainly has been an interesting 24 hours. I’ve been busy. I made it up to the Park Theater, riding with the proletariat in the mass transportation system here, this time using a bus. Got to Union City with enough time to treat myself to a Hamburger Deluxe and a chocolate milk shake at the Four Star Diner.

Had enough time for a cigar before the show. Hanging around outside the Park Theater on 32nd street. Meghan and Ruby were in traffic en route. I few sidelong glances from some father’s walking by wondering who this bloke was, smoking a cigar outside the theater.

I was glad I didn’t wear my raincoat. Humming Aqualung might have been a mistake though. Meghan and Ruby and 2 of Ruby’s friends showed up soon enough and we all headed into the theater. Meghan knew the sidelong glancing fathers and introduced me to them, causing them some relief.

They in turn whistled Locomotive Breath.

We found some good seats and soon Jim Mastro as well as Frank Giannini and his son sitting behind us. The Street Corner Mourners were as excellent as I had hoped, Tim having a mandolin strap malfunction seemed like it was all part of the show.

Six songs were their set, all covers, all nicely played. Lily has an incredible voice. If she keeps it up, in ten years she will sound amazing. The Street Corner Mourners are so inspiring. After their set Meghan, Ruby and the friends saw Frank Giannini and his son off and went across the street to the Four Start Diner.

I had a coffee and a slice of cake while everyone else had entrees. It was a fun group, we were served by Mo, short for Maureen who looked a it like Shirley Stoller. They all went back to the theater, I decided to walk back home to Hoboken.

I enjoyed a La Flor Dominicana Double Ligero 700 and listened to The Beatles, Revolver on the iPod. I walked down Palisade Avenue past Jane Street where I used to live. It was an enjoyable walk. I timed the cigar walk perfectly and finished it by the time I had gotten to my building in Hoboken.

I came upstairs and set about uploading the videos I had shot. It wasn’t exactly happening on my PC so I did the work on Bill’s Mac. I checked my Facebook messages and there was a message from Ruby.

Little did I know that after the show, Tim, the ace guitarist/Banjo & mandolin player was hit by a car outside the theater. Some driver had run a red light. Tim had done a flip over the car. The driver stopped, the police came and shut down that section of 32nd Street and it was decided that Tim go to the hospital in an ambulance.

They ran an MRI and had him overnight in the hospital to be on the safe side. Some short term memory loss but other than that he’s fine. Apparently 16 year old boys can bounce back like that. I hope he can still play his instruments.

All that walking from Union City to Hoboken had me tired but I think that last cup of coffee with Meghan and the girls kept me up while I tried to sleep. It wasn’t easy but I eventually did fall asleep.

Bill was soon in bed after coming home from Pecong, the play he’s been working on. He has a mouth apparatus which he wears with the sleep apnea mask. Still he snores and I wake him to let him know he’s snoring.

He says ‘Well you snore too you know. How do you know it isn’t you?’ I groggily try to explain that the sound was coming from his side of the bed.

I was up and out around 9:30, bagels and the paper. I got bagels for Stine & Alexander. Julio answered the door with Alexander on his shoulder as Julio was singing a lullaby to the baby. It was yet another beautiful day, the temperature was up to 73 degrees.

I walked around Hoboken a few times this afternoon, even taking my guitar out and playing along the river walk. I had seen Tariq earlier, playing a drum alongside an older hippie guy playing Melissa by the Allman Brothers.

I definitely could not get into it so later when I brought my guitar out I was about a quarter mile up the river walk. They were making some money but I didn’t feel up for that, not as confident as I was last summer and this being the first time out for me this year, I just played with the guitar case closed and didn’t do much singing.

I played for about 90 minutes until my right arm locked up a bit. I tried shaking it out but decided I had played long enough. I played Please Please Me, She’s A Woman, Love Shack, Surrender, Wild Horses, Maybe I’m Amazed and Kansas City among a few other songs.

Then I came home and finished an animation I had also been working on this afternoon.

I wrote over 800 words, shot and uploaded 6 video clips, created an animation and played guitar in public for 90 minutes. It’s been a creative day, and a good day at that.