Monday, June 30, 2008

Looking for a new career

I have an interview today at Scholastic, and frankly I am dreading going back into an office. Not even working there, but just setting foot inside an office environment with it's cubicle toys, late lunchers, superfluous meetings, ennui. Yuck.

I am thinking of applying for a job as a singing waiter instead:

http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/fbh/730583462.html

Saturday, June 28, 2008

One Post Wonders

A collection of blogs that only lasted one post. Happily I passed that threshold.

http://1post1der.blogspot.com/

Friday, June 27, 2008

Pilates kicked my ass

I took a Pilates class at Sixth Street Pilates. I feel older than Grampa McCain. Good stuff though. Lots of layabouts like me young and old doing this sort of medical/scientific yoga. I like it better than yoga because you don't have all the pseudo spirituality crap that you get in American yoga. In India yoga is exercise. People don't go to their exercise class to gain higher consciousness. They go there to stretch and work out. Yoga classes in America are too long and waste too much time on visualizations and relaxation and all that. In Pilates class you show up, you exercise, you leave. I think I will go back.

Please stop giving internet riches to twentysomethings

This is what it does to people:

World's Saddest Millionaire Quits Internet
http://gawker.com/tag/jakob-lodwick/?i=5019948&t=worlds-saddest-millionaire-quits-internet

Dibs and the summer punks

So as per usual this morning I walked with Cherie part way to her job with the dog, then I turned on 10th Street to walk the dog back home (that's one of my jobs now). Ran into my old locksmith friend Dibs who lives on Ave. B between 9th & 10th in an old storefront. He has been fighting his landlord since the 1980s (seriously), but he still hangs on to his storefront with it's inset front that he uses as a little porch. It could be a really nice apartment with a little work, actually.

He bought me a coffee and we chatted on the porch about how to replace window gates with those kind you can put an A/C into, Williamsburg and the summer punks.

The summer punks are in full bloom right now, by the way. They start arriving with their dogs and leather jackets with dated band references and drug problems around May. By now there are about 6 of them who sleep on 6th Street every morning and dozens of them that sit in Tompkins Square Park who probably sleep out in the East River Park. They generally make a mess and bother people, but they have become a seasonal fact of life in the East Village, like pollen in the spring. I wonder why no one told them that the East Village is totally gentrified and yuppie now and that the cool kids moved to Williamsburg then Bed Stuy years ago. Nothing ever really changes for the summer punks though. They have listened to the exact same music, worn the exact same clothes and done the exact same drugs for as long as I can remember.

It's funny what Dibs had to say about them. "I like those kids, except that they are all drug addicts." Ya think?

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Dusty's doing great! Support the troops.

Hello dear reader (there must be one, right?). No more kitty diarrhea to deal with. Dusty's eating everything put in front of him and it's coming out fine (thanks Yesterday's News!) Our Jack Russell Ollie is slowly getting her head around the idea of a kitten in the house. She snapped at Dusty a little this morning, but all seems to be forgiven. Dusty isn't fazed by much.

By the way, the Net Roots people are going to be assembling a bunch of care packages for the US troops consisting of stuff that the goddam Republicans in the White House are too cheap to give them (or are they just outright evil? I don't know).

You can help here:

NetRoots for the Troops
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/6/23/113647/348/687/540375

Monday, June 23, 2008

Sleep deprivation

Had to set my alarm for 4am this morning because Dusty's been having diarrhea in the bathroom where he sleeps. Sure enough, I found myself cleaning up kitten shit in the middle of the night. Taking care of a kitten has got to be as hard as looking after a baby...they're worth it though, kittens.

Welcome to New York, Dusty

So we came back from a week in Fire Island with an extra piece of luggage containing a five month old kitten. "Dusty" they call him. He had been abandoned by some people, which seems to be, um, bad karma.

He's the cutest little monster in the world. Reminds me of good old Hank. So far so good.

Too many choices though! Should I go for the non-hormone, flax seed fortified kitten food? What about the litter? Is flushing the "flushable" litter really bad for the environment? I kind of don't want the answer to that question because like seriously who wants cat litter in their garbage all the time?

Went down to the little pet shop on 7th Street and Avenue A (the one with the big white cat they call Pretty Boy). Mikey (?) the owner was really nice and helpful, steering me to the appropriate kitty litter (Yesterday's News - oh, I get it, like recycled paper).

I had been tempted to this the PetCo or PetSmart or whatever it is up on 17th Street, then to just order everything online, but the prices are pretty low over on 7th Street, it's around the corner, and to my surprise it much easier to just ask someone who knows something than to wade through search results and spend lots of time balancing the conflicting answers you get.

All in all, life is good. Kittens are a lot of work though.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Layabout Blog

Everyone is after me to write more on this blog, but truth be told I have very little to say. The gig was awesome! I realize though that I need to have a few reserve beers ready if we are going to do 10 songs straight through. I ran out of gas a little at the seventh one but the finish was big.

Currently out on Fire Island lazing around, half-assedly trying to fix the sound system, with little success. We still have the outdoor speakers working though, so we're not jonesing yet. Um, uh, I made some decent tuna sandwiches for lunch today. Probably going for a swim then some light tennis later. Probably going to hit the Inn for a few pints after the store is closed.

All in all I am totally relaxed, fat and happy. Of course I dropped my camera like the first day I was here so no pictures. Don't buy the Nikon Coolpix, or at least don't buy it if you drink. It's too goddam fragile.

Okay that's it for now. I need to go lay down.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Time to rock

My band is playing tonight. I have all of this nervous energy, so I am nursing beers and nicotine lozenges. Downloaded Iggy Pop's "Sixteen" so I can finally try to learn the real words instead of drunkenly bullshitting my way through.

This is our first full club set and I think a lot of people are coming down. Fuck it, we are going to totally rock. Now I just have to kill an hour, get over to the the equipment rental place (on fucking 10th Ave. and 38th St.) and get down to the club.

Do we rock? Do we suck? What will the semi-disinterested fans of the other bands think? Do the other bands have fans? Whatevs, bitch. We are going to kill it.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

I Quit!

I had done a year working at WeightWatchers.com full-time, staring at my 19" flat screen monitor from 9:30-6 every day, drenched in ennui.

My shoulders and arms hurt. I was irritable. My nicotine gum habit was spiraling out of control. My neighbors were probably calling me "that yelling guy." I was a mess. So I took my bonus and decided to buy the thing I needed most: time.

Thus began the Layabout Summer.