Mar. 20, 2008 - Went to see The Pogues on sunday, 16 March at Roseland. They were Grand! Billy Bragg opened, as well as this guy from Iowa, whose name I forget, and they all sang at times with this woman from Australia name Kate something, who sang sonderfully, but whose voice was a bit too pretty for this show. Anyway the Pogues were excellent, I love them, though they did not sing White City, one of my favorites. They did sing Fairytale of New York with Kate the Aussie, which was quite a treat. Towards the middle, after a few beers and a Jameson's (the lines at the bar were horrendous) I began to be one with everything, and I started singing along at the top of my lungs. All Monday I was hoarse and my ears were ringing.
OK, another Dream Frangment ('Tomb Raider') - I am in a University setting. First I am walking among other students who are packing semi-rotten fruit off dead ornamental bushes suspended from a kind of trellis. The fruit is semi-rotten in a sort of poupourri way, and it is deep red beries, like cranberries only slightly larger. There is one woman I know, and I seem to also know her in real life, but can't quite place her (after waking up).
Later, my old college Asian History professer and I were walking and he waas giving me advice and/or lecturing, but I forget about what. The whole thing was collegial and warm.
Later I was a student archaeologist tomb raider, working with two other more senior people. One of them was telling me about this tomb which had been discovered largely intact, and then we were in the tomb perched at the top of this neat stack of what seemed to be coffins or sarcophagi, which were built like stome benches with top sections that were square in cross-section and polished like marble. It was a tall stack, the room was large and empty except for this stack or stone bench-like things, but I could see another stack of similar objects stacked in an alcove on the other side of the large room. The stack we were on was tall, we were very high up, and I wondered how we would get to the floor, but we never did. One end of the stack had each bench lined up, and the benches had one long side that was cut at an angle, maybe 45*-60* and the lined-up sides made a long slope almost to the floor. The benches were agqainst a stone wall that did not go all the way to the roof, and ended about shoulder level for us. At one point (I think after my companion lifted a bench) I became dizzy and had to hold on to the wall for balance. There were two other tomb raiders (academic) and the third entered the room by coming down a chimney-like structure to a hearth-like structure. He then was on the other side of the wall at the same height as us, taking these painted stone rosette-type things, about the size of two hands, and placing them on the wass for later removal. There was no measuring, photography, or cataloguing, we are just taking up stuff to remove. The other guys who is with me hoists a bench up onto the wall but I am too dizzy to help. At one point I wonder if the poeple of the civilization that all this stuff belongs, which still exists, resent that we are taking all thier antiquities.

Feb. 27, 2008 - So I check out Time Out New York, and see this feebie comedy show in my nabe. A licturing, but I forget about what. The whole thing was collegial and warm.
ttle late, but near where I live, so what the hell? Wendy Ho at some place like Vlad, or something. The name should have tipped me off.
So I get there and the place is mixed, tho heavily toward the gay boys, but that's par for the course in this nabe. And the drinks are $10.00, tho again par for the course. Wendy was just hilarious, beyond raunchy and straight into obscene, and just so damn funny. Perhaps the best part was watching the few straight girls in the room veer far from their comfort zone while cracking up. And by the way she can sing also. And somehow manages to be a white black girl, with an outrageous semi rap version of Cocaine, veering way out into Gospel riffs. And a Wendy Ho original - Bitch I Stole Yo' Purse! What a crazy surprise, Loserplatz recommends!

Dec. 5, 2007 - So the other day, I receive this package from this woman in Amesbury, Mass. It turns out to be a book, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. Oddly, I do not know this woman. Never heard of her. Seriously. And she up and mails me a book? Is it possible to be literarily stalked? Then I remeber that my older sister, she who has inherited the family's lack of boundaries, once tried to get me to agree to her setting me up with this woman, whose name I forgot as a matter of principle. And then some mention of Massachusetts, I think? So is it this woman, my sister's agent of boundary intrusion, who has sent me this book? Is this woman even aware that my sister is almost as wierd and fuckedup as my Mom about other people's boundaries? So odd, I'm a little creeped out. I'm going to tell my younger sister, and she will crack up and give me shit for years. Now HER shit I actually (usually) look forward to. This is the only way anything good will come of this.

Dec. 2, 2007 - So I get my alum. rag from Kenyon, and among all the usual chatting is a small paragraph advising the Village Inn, in Gambier, was purchased by the college. Isn't this odd, for the school to purchase the bar? As if it is not enough of a company town? The college/tavern relationship must be respected via separation of powers. This definetly has overtones of paternal control issues. Gosh, I would hate to think the college has become overly paternal. who really knows, perhaps it was triggered by some embarrasing incident?

Oct. 16, 2007 - So when my older sister came to visit this summer she said 'talk to me so I can hear you'. WTF is that supposed to mean?, I thought, I wondered if this was a way for her to just negate anything anyone says that she does not like. So I emailed her, and she replied she does not pick up on subtlety, and I have to be clearer. So I think this is a sort of copout on her part, but not as bad as I feared, so I think I can move forward, with some caution.
OK, I have a new feature. I will post a dream fragment, but only one at a time (I don't want strangers analyzing me!), and not any of the more incriminating ones!
Dream Fragment - 11 Oct. '07 - I lived with my gf (in the dream) on the 2nd floor of an old, large, really creaky building which I think had once been a [rivate mansion. I woke to find water flowing over the floor, we thought it was leaking from a floor above, so we went on the elevator to investigate (I think my gf was Danish or No. European). The elevator was little more that a large bucket-like structure, with architectural details (panels, etc), suspended in the middle of a large open atrium. We complained about the slow speed. We got to our landlady's apt. on an upper floor, it was full of sleek modern furniture in dark wood (our apt. was more budget shabby chic). The landlady was away but our roomate, who came with us, and was Kim Catrall (?) disturbed our landlady's husband or bf with our landlady's cousin (embarrassing) in a state of undress, and he hurriedly explained there was tenant on a lower floor who had these sculpture-like things that leaked water through some chemical process. They had tried to work with her but to no avail.
LAter, possible a different fragment, but with the same people, my gf, our roomate and I wre in a playground in a park by the river (no specific river) and I had a very strong sense of deja vu. I thought the person we were seeking was around us, but invisible, perhaps they had smeared themselves with something that made them invisible. So the roomate and I were standing by the river with a playground ride between us and I thought the invisible culprit by the river, so I told our roomate to hold out her hands and take my hands, and we would trap the person. I think we also sprinkled some water, and put a large block onf ice on the seasaw-like playground ride to detect the person, but with no success.
Later, a different fragment perhaps, but with the same people. We were back in our apt. and we had somehow got the invisible culprit into a room, or we thought they were in a room. We put a lamp that could not be turned off in the middle of the floor and made the room misty (perhaps with a smoke machine?) and we could see the person by the shadow she cast. She danced (fast) to try to put out the light. It turns out we knew her, she was a friend or neighbor and she gave us some BS excuse hurriedly as to why she had to do it, and complained that we had stopped her invisibility.

Sept. 10, 2007 - I have Jury Duty Sept. 12, and I am NOT looking forward to it. The last time I served I watched the saddest most unfortunate procession of homeless, crack-addicted, felonious creatures ever. Hopefully I will not be chosen.
OK, my neighbor with whom I have been chatting (he doesn't live in the area, but has many relatives here) told me about his method for dodging Jury Duty - turns out he is a convicted felon! He used to sell drugs out of a candy store fronted by an arab (10th Ave bet. 48-49 st - currently a pizzeria across from the park) to fund his coke & hooker habit, many years ago. He bragged that he bribed a security guard at the local hotel (currently a budget tourist place) to give him a cardkey (security anyone?) to hold coke-fueled hooker festivals. Seems somehow appropriate for this neighborhood.

July 16, 2007 - Had a great day with my nieces, my older sister's daughters (the two younger twins) today. We went to MOMA, saw some great Richard Serra installations. This is the first time i have been close to these huge steel plates, and they were surprisingly organic, and, really feminine. The rust on them was warm, and the weathering streaks from water, oxidation, and probably electrolitic action, was really very organic, not the cold, hard, shininess one might expect from steel. The curves, and sometimes compound curves (how does he get this effect?) is very feminine, in that it is curving, and sometimes bulging on the outside, and enclosing on the inside. It really was an experience, I'm new to Stella's owrk, so that's as far as I can go. The nieces went through the rest of Moma in record time, it seemed to me
So, we went to Alto for lunch nearby - luckily it is also Restaurant Week here in NYC, so it was merely expensive, for me. The service was lovely, the food was really terrific, except I though the turbo itself was rather unexciting (though the dish the turbo was in was very nice).

July 8, 2007 - A couple weeks ago, I volunteered for most of the day to help at the Clinton Comunity Garden, helping re-lay part of a brick path. Nothing serious, just passing bricks, and wheeling bricks around on a hand truck. That evening, getting up to go to bed, i was WRECKED, I could hardly get up, it like the advertisement 'I've fallen and I can't get up!', it was pathetic. It was like I was crippled. It took days of stretching to get back to normal. I couldn't believe how wrecked I was. Rewarding, though.
BAR BAZZAAR - Circus on 9th at 43rd st. now has Spaten. I love that beer, very nice and also light. I also love thier Optimator, and thier Octoberfest, but they are both too rich for this weather. Rufus on 10th at 44th has closed for some work, and this blue faced confection is taking its place. It's not open yet, I'll have to check it out later.

New Year's Day, 2007 - Happy New Year! I have totally and pathically neglected this site, which is just sad. I resolve to post more often, and I also think I am going to nix the film capsule revies, since they are also hopelessly out of date. I am also getting rid of the guestbook since it is nothing more than a spam receptacle. This is what passes for upgrades in my little world.
So, I made a point of doing Nothing this New Year's Eve. I stayed home and went to sleep early, almost as s ort of protest against the fact that NYE is almost reauired. I've had great NYE's, but I demand the right to just chill and sleep. Until my neighbors' drunken pals hit my buzzer by mistake at 3:48 in the am!, and then another group again a few minutes later! Samatha, you and your cousin have some messed-up friends! Now I'm going out with my kid sis and her bf for some rich, spicy hot shoco. I live a sedate life nowadays, no more mob after-hours coke joints, al least not lately.
Xmas was nice, even a small victory. I managed to keep Mom's insanity at bay to the extent that even I did not remeber it. And some morbid mind-fuck trip that Mom attempted on all was routinely deflected and snickered at, though not after some minor agonizing on my part. But a small victory overall.
I saw The Good Shepherd yesterday, with Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie and Robert Deniro. It was an excellent cold-war spy film, with lots of betrayals on every level, most of them deep and damaging on more than one level. Matt does very well as a smart, turned-in Yalie spook, cold and distant. Angelina Jolie plays against type, beginning as a spirited waspy chick, and finally ending as a patrician, betrayed and neglected wife, with only her son to love. Great performances by all, really. I especially liked the Russians, the definetly had character.
Not too long ago, I saw the Noble my cousin bought. It is not a sports car, so much as a street-legal race car. It is very small, and you can see that the whole thing is designed to move vast amounts of air around the radiators, engine, and spoiler. It was double a-frame suspension, and with 360bhp at 23,000 /lbs.. I'm told that a 10/1 ratio of weight/lbs. to bhp should generally result in a 10-second car - which means he needs 230bhp ... hmmm. Apparently the owners must do all the Dept. Motor Vehicles work themnselves, which involves details down to the tiny serial numbers printed inside the various lightbulbs - really impossible to read. So although he's has it for months, it is illegal on the road until he has completed this insanely detailed process. I guess they don't fully warn you beforehand...