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Saturday, October
11, 2003 at 12:03:53 (EDT) |
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No Fun
M got robbed at gunpoint last night. He was coming home pretty late
and for some stupid reason the A train started going express, so he
got out at Nostrand Ave and started walking all the way home. Near
Franklin Ave, some kid followed him and produced a gun, demanding
money. M forked over his cash and apparently that was the end of it
(I'm a little fuzzy as he told me this all at 4 in the morning). I'm
glad he didn't get hurt, but it's a big-ass mindfuck either way. So
now I've been beaten up and he's been robbed. Does this mean our chances
for altercations are now nil? I wish, but we're probably just as likely
to run into trouble again.
So what do you do to avoid these pitfalls of urban life? Some people
have told me to carry mace, but I can't imagine that in a tense
situation I'd have the presence of mind to use it properly. It'd
probably only make the aggressor angrier, further escalating the
situation. Then I think about what it would have been like had M
been packing heat as well, but that quickly reveals itself as a
pretty bad idea. I guess there's the whole school of thought that
states, "Don't walk home alone in a bad neighborhood,"
but if we follow that advice we'd never leave the house, or venture
into pretty much any part of town. No place is immune to this sort
of thing.
In more pleasant news, today is the Time's
Up! Folding Bike Ride and Festival (and thematically marks the
one-year anniversary of this blog). For some reason I don't feel
up for the ride around the city, even though it's a really easy
course. But I may check out the festival, just to see a whole bunch
of folders in one place.
Plus when you get a group of bicycle enthusiasts together, it's
always a sight to behold. Some of these people are very serious
about their mode of transportation and express much vocal frustration
with the internal combustion engine-driven vehicles that congest
our streets.
Tonight, Stupid
plays the Luna
Lounge. As you may know, shows at the Luna lounge are free,
so if you've never seen Stupid,
this is a good opportunity to check them out. This is their last
show before they head to LA for a series of dates,
so they should be all pumped up on visions of palm trees, warm weather,
and fake, fake people. And after the show, head over to Stanton
Street and pick up some Korean BBQ or Kim Chi hot dogs at Sam's
pushcart.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Thursday, October
09, 2003 at 17:00:05 (EDT) |
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Sit still or I'll cut ya
Thanks to the crack team of techs at my place of business, I will
not have my regular computer until the middle of next week. Also,
I have to go back in the office tomorrow to pick up a loaner. What
that means to the financial world is that I am still unable to do
any regular work. Instead, I spent the day at Century
21, buying winter-weight clothes to replace the stuff that got
all mildewy and gross in the basement. Plus I got a pair of Skechers
because they were super cheap.
Oh, and I got my hair cut (this level of content is exactly why
people think blogs are self-indulgent tripe. Well, they're right.)
Here's my formula for a good haircutting experience:
- You must find a place that says "Barber Shop" and
has that pole that spins around
- Pick a barber who is balding; he'll be more sensitive to the
follically-challenged patron
- Pick a barber who doesn't speak English very well; no inane
chitchat means he can keep his mind on his damn job and not talk
about how big the zucchini was in his garden this year
I met all of these criteria, plus I demanded the barber use the
clippers on me, so now I'm shorn like a spring lamb.
 And
finally, Pinky is back. She shall never again bear offspring. Whew!
She's pretty subdued right now, but we'll have to wait until the
stitches are out to see if the spaying alters her behavior.
For the past day, the house was like it was before the Pinky tornado
came tearing through our quiet household. Even in her weakened condition,
the other cats have decamped for the relative dankness of the basement.
She's still got it!
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Wednesday, October
08, 2003 at 09:31:21 (EDT) |
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Now comes the moment of Great! Great! Decision!
I'm sure everybody else will be bitching about the recall election,
but why give it any more lipservice? It's become the Vice
Magazine of politics. So let's focus on weightier issues:
'Siegfried
& Roy' Co-Star Says Show Will Go On
BERLIN (Reuters) - The co-star of the Las Vegas duo "Siegfried
& Roy" said in an interview Wednesday their show would
go on despite his partner's severe mauling by a tiger.
Um, so has anybody asked ROY what he thinks about the show going
on? Maybe Sieggy ought to hold off the brash declarations until
the doctors know for sure whether his partner is ever gona walk
out of the hospital. Frankly, I hope this signals the beginning
of the end of all these "make big ferocious beasts do something
stupid" acts.
 In
other news, today is Pinky's date with the knife! I'm taking her
to the vet's in a little while to get her fixed.A prerequisitie
for this visit was not feeding her after midnight last night (hey!
just like Gremlins!). This also meant not feeding any of the cats,
all of whom were uncharacteristically attentive to me this morning.
I managed to feed them a little but Pinky is still running on empty.
So she's even more frantic than ever. I'd take her to the vet's
right now but I don't want them to have to listen to her yowl all
afternoon.
Pinky spent about 2 minutes wondering what happened to her kittens
before forgetting all about them and becoming a full-time pest.
So much for the maternal instinct. I'd like to think getting her
fixed will calm her down some but even if it takes her edge off,
she's still got a lotta edge left. Whatever happens, this procedure
means a good 24 hours without Pinky in the house!
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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Monday, October
06, 2003 at 10:35:08 (EDT) |
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Back to Ohio
I don't think I've driven a car since January 2002, so it felt a little
weird to be driving again, as I did over the past two days during
our trip to Cleveland. I didn't have the guts to drive from the rental
car garage in the city, so M drove us out of Manhattan. Then he just
kept going and took us all the way there, through nasty rain and annoying
roadwork. It's been a long time since I've seen the vast, tree-filled
abyss that is Pennsylvania on Route 80, but it didn't take me long
to remember why I don't live in the country. Don't get me wrong, I
like forests and hills and flora and fauna. Just not so much of it.
Our time on the north coast was limited so every interaction felt
pressed for time. We had to meet with M's family and friends, and
mine (turns out my sister lives a short distance from M's sister,
but I didn't have time to drop in). So my first driving experience
of 2003 began when I had to get from the east side to the west side
of the city. I'd been thinking, "Hey, it's just Cleveland.
And we'll have a car. We should have no problem doing everything
we wanna do." What I did not recall was how sprawling the Greater
Cleveland Area is. Even though there's a downtowny center to it,
most of the landscape of the area is a completely separate entity
from the layout of New York. There are highways, but all the stuff
we wanted was in the middle, far from 271, 480 and 90. The surface
streets aren't any help either, with their 25-mph speed limits and
stoplights. But I actually kind of liked it overall. If I could
be convinced that having a car wouldn't mean my fiery death within
a few months of purchase, I might be convinced to live in a place
like this. But as long as I can take a subway or taxi whenever I
want, I'll probably stay here.
I got to meet up with my old bandmates,
who were in town from Athens. With their kids packed in with Gramma,
we motored to the Beachland
Ballroom fro the Mogwai
show, where we met M and Barbus. My friends still needed tickets,
but the show was at that point sold out. Some weird Cleveland dude
came up and tried to sell us a ticket. We balked because we needed
two. He licked his hand-stamp and tried to apply it to my hand.
The ink did not transfer and I was left rubbing this guy's slobber
on my pantleg. I gotta hand it to the guy, he was tenacious. He
dragged J with him to the ticket counter and begged for them to
let her in. They refused. Then a minute later they relented. A show
always can use some more good-lookin' chicks hanging around inside.
With that, we had the win-win situation: my friend bought his ticket
from the slobber guy, the slobber guy made his money back, and we
all got to see the show.
I had no idea so many people were into Mogwai. I dunno if they
played NYC on their tour, but I'm glad I didn't go to that, cuz
the Cleveland show was packed. I can only imagine the zoo that a
New York show would be. The Ballroom itself is pretty cool, a big
space but not too big. It's the kind of place I'd like to see Shellac
play. Mogwai was cool, although I still think they would benefit
if they had an actual lead singer (I did, however, approve of placing
the vocalist all the way in the back as they did for the performance).
Somebody is gonna have to explain to me their amp setup: each of
the 3 (!) guitarists played through a Marshall head that appeared
to be attached to a Fender combo amp, all on top of some kind of
cabinet speaker. So it was like each guitar had two amps, for a
grand total a 6 loud-ass amps. And loud they were. Their never-ending
finale involved getting really really loud, leaning the guitars
against the amps and vacating the premises. Surprisingly enough,
it didn't send the audience running for the exits as you might think
piercing feedback at top volume would.
Our Sunday in Ohio involved much rushed hanging out with various
people. Between M and I, we covered most of the of the city, trying
to meet up with people, spending adequate visiting time with none
of them. Around 3, we finally got it together to head home. After
driving around Cleveland, I felt prepared to handle the drive back
to Brooklyn. The weather this time was decent and the traffic was
minimal. And absolutely everybody was driving really fast. So we
made it back in just about 7 hours. Driving all that way was not
as intolerable as I thought it would be. But I'm not anxious to
do it again any time soon.
Posted By Jimmy Legs
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