Hunting for Witches

.Going to see Bloc Party tonight.

Bazooka!!!

We went last night to Lit on 2nd ave to see my friend from college, Todd Martin play with his band the Star Spangles. I don’t know too much about the band itself I was more planning to go out and support and spend sometime with David and Caitlin and Jeff since I have been very bad at time management to get a chance to see them. Well I did some Internet searching and found some info:
Star spangles Pre-Todd martin (Photo_Dustin Pittman)


Star spangles with Todd

http://myspace.com/thestarspangles (info and pictures obtained from)
“Formed 1998 New York City........many ups and downs-
2000 signed to Munster Records
2002 Signed to Capitol, Album Bazooka!!! Released following year, got out of the deal- less headaches!
2006 reformed with new Rhythm Section”

Hey why not. So we just hung out and watched them and a few other bands at Lit. I was under the preconceived idea that the band would be total lower east side cock-rock, but they actually were good to go listen too, not really my style but I am glad I checked it out. It was funny being there, when I first moved in NYC I think I got very caught up in the social scene, and I spent way too much time there. I was looking around last night (a little older and a little wiser) to see a lot of kids with bad tattoos and hair trying very hard to keep the LES punk rock look alive. It was very entertaining people watching with Eric and David to say the least. We didn’t stay of the whole set, we figured we were old and sleepy and had to work in the morning. We headed to the F waited for a little bit, you have to love the late night F cause you never know if you get lucky and it comes right away or if you have to sit there for an hour like I ended up doing on Monday after meeting Henrick in the west village. It wasn’t too bad of a ride home; we got home and got into bed and then the alarm to get up went off way to soon. I think I could have slept all day.

Tonight I am going to have some dinner with Cate and Becky since its Becky’s birthday and she is coming in to town to celebrate. Then I want to go home and clean up the apt a bit and then do nothing but get in the bath tub with one of these (even though its pricey I am definitely a LUSH fan, although I do my best to get in and out of the store without talking to any of the employees...they can be a little too customer service oriented). I think I might make a stop before next week end, I was thinking some bath bombs would make a nice Easter basket present for my mom (and maybe I should get some more for me!).

Finally!!!

Last night i sold this....
So that now i can afford to buy this...


I am so excited to finally have a camera again! I am a little bummed that I won't have a bike anymore but in all honesty i never rode it, and when i did i was very uncomfortable riding with the cars on the streets. I think a little bit of me just keeps thinking of what happened to my friend Brandie. I really only rode my bike with Matty when he was here, and now that he is in Atlanta its kinda far to get together to ride bikes. Also I thought that if i really missed having a bike there are about 10 of them at my mom's house in delmar that i am sure i can "adopt" and bring back to the city. There is this great one that looks like and old school schwinn and its green, I took it to college with me in Rochester and used to ride it all over with the ladies of South Ave. I've alwasy had my eye on it, I'll just have to make sure it didnt disapear from the house. My brother was very good a borrowing the bikes to go to friends houses and then some how he came home but the bike never did.

.5.8.5.

For some really strange reason I am really “home sick” for Rochester even though it was really only my home for 4 years. I never know if I miss the place or the people and the specific time that we were all there. When I think about it I miss the old friendships that just don’t really keep in touch anymore, and also think of the ones that I have now that do. I get nostalgic for relationships I had when I was there and the fun that I had when I was in college. I loved my friends, I loved all of my jobs, and I loved school. It really was good times.

I guess I am just looking forward to my trip in May.

New Bed for Murphy Dogs

monday morning

It was a pretty busy weekend even though I had done my best to keep it low key.

Thursday: Had a Grey’s Anatomy date with Cate and Kristen, then headed home and went to bed early.

Friday: Got out of work and rode back on the train with one of my Coworkers Mary chatting, ran into my friend Melissa’s husband (well I suppose he is my friend as well, we all go to book club together, nerds!) I met up with Eric and headed back to the city and had a very delicious dinner at red bamboo. I haven’t gone there in a long time. Part of my eating better is to try to cut out fake meats, I never ate a huge amount but I did frequent Red Bamboo and Food swings a fair amount in the past. So now they are special occasions to go to. I saw Colette and was re-met/introduced to Marina whom I had seen around before but never really got a proper introduction. So that was a good dinner, BBQ “Beef “ Sandwich with a soy strawberry shake and no room for dessert.

We then stopped by Boarders and I picked up “the history of love” the next book club book I am reading, actually someone stopped me on the train this morning when I started to read it and told me how good it was.

Eric and I went to Death and Co. Unfortunately Dave wasn’t there. It was a very cool experience to go to though. I chatted with one of the bar tenders and asked if he thought the drama with the neighborhood boards was over and he said he was pretty sure they would remain open. I’ll have to go back and check it out when Dave is there, and when I am less full since there were some things on menu that sounded like they would be good.

Then we were on our way home to have a quiet night when I got a call from Tommy that he was in town this weekend before he left for California again on Monday for school. So we went out to Southpaw and just chatted a bit with him, Eric ran into his friend James (who is very sweet indeed and I always enjoy seeing him). We were probably only there an hour before we headed home, but I am so glad I got a chance to see Tommy for a minute before he headed back west, California really seems to suit him. He seems to be very happy out there, when I get a chance to save up for it I would like to hop a plan and go visit him in San Fran for a weekend one of these days.

Saturday: Work up a little late, which was very nice to sleep in. Got up and dressed and met Cate for some Brunch at Café LuLac, I really enjoyed spending most of the day with her. It was like old times, again just wish I had a healthier ban account to buy all the cute things we came across while wondering around soho. We met up with Krissy (a friend from high school who was there on a teaching conference) and had a late lunch with her. I was pretty disappointed in the food where we went, but we were by Times Square and the choice was little to none. It was nice to see her nonetheless. Then we headed back to Brooklyn I went and took care of walking and feeding Murphy and spent a little bit of time with him on the couch so he wouldn’t feel lonely. Went to Cate’s and met up with another friend from high school, Megan, who was in town for her cousin’s bridal shower. We ate some sushi and headed up to Williamsburg to Barcade for my friend Gino’s birthday party. I think everyone was in a quiet mood so we didn’t stay long and came back to the neighborhood and met up with Megan’s brother (who lives across the street from my old apt). And then went to bed.

Sunday: Had brunch with Eric at our usual place, then headed into the city and ran some errands. I had mentioned that Murphy was on his way through eating the second bed I have bought for him in the past 4 months and Megan had recommended looking at TJ Maxx for a bed, I would have never thought to look there but she said she found a great one for her puppy, Tucker. So we stopped by and we found exactly what we have been looking for and it was so cheap! Everywhere on Ebay or anywhere else the bed was at least $40 to 70 but we found it there for $20! Awesome deal. We walked around a bit more and we tried to go see a movie but the choices out right now didn’t seem like they would be worth paying $11 to go see. So we headed home and got some groceries to make lunches for this week, took a nap, and then got ready to go to an Organic Vegetarian Eatery called Siggy’s in Brooklyn Heights, it was very good other than the fact that the artichokes in my pasta were a little undercooked. Came home exhausted and got ready for bed.

My week is busy here and there but for the most part I am just going to relax and do some spring-cleaning and organizing.

Complete Nerdity

Tonight is my one night a month where I nerd the fuck out at a coffee house with 2 people my own age and the rest of the demographic: Lesbians and housewives, sometimes you can count on one maybe two dudes showing up (I think they get easily scared off though be the aforementioned make up of the group). I really enjoy going and getting completely different perspectives on books, It also is helping me with the massive affliction I have carried with me most of my life, the inability to choose a decent rental movie and/or book from any store such as Barnes and Nobel, boarders, take your pick. I just always choose (never on purpose mind you) the worst book or movie you could bare to sit though and/or give your attention to for any period of time. I convinced myself that instead of a 12 step program I only needed a 1 step one that only consisted of the rule that I am never to choose either on my own, so far its working. So this works out really well for me that I have an opportunity to read really great books and then talk about them, its also nice since I took predominately British based English courses though high school and because I chose a lucrative career (right!) of an artist and plunged deep into art school which would you believe was not so heavily depending on a English course at all to get you though the degree? Don’t get me wrong it was difficult and time consuming (and sometimes emotionally consuming…although that usually depended on the severity of your seasonal depression in Rochester NY) but it was very light on having any introduction to what most people would refer to as classic books.

This one was a strange book. It tool me a while to get into it and then it takes off in a very intense way, I think I would definitely recommend.


Amazon.com
A wild, often horrifying, novel about freaks, geeks and other aberrancies of the human condition who travel together (a whole family of them) as a circus. It's a solipsistic funhouse world that makes "normal" people seem bland and pitiful. Arturo the Aqua-Boy, who has flippers and an enormous need to be loved. A museum of sacred monsters that didn't make it. An endearing "little beetle" of a heroine. Sort of like Tod Browning's Freaks crossed with David Lynch and John Irving and perhaps George Eliot -- the latter for the power of the emotions evoked.

PoP Music

All right. I’ll admit it. I really like Lily Allen, I listen to it on my ipod, and I am slightly secure enough to actually admit this over the Internet. If you are my friend (if any read this) and you are willing to go jump around like a 14 years old with me April 11th at Irving plaza please let me know because right now all I can think of is no one in their right mind who I am friends with would go with me. That is a sad prospect and I KNOW I am NOT secure enough to go on my own.

Other than this statement it is a quiet start to the week. I had my class for work last night and then came home and went promptly to bed. I think it might take all week to catch up from the weekend sleep wise. Tonight going to go home and finish tax stuff, new medical care stuff, clean the apt and meet Kristen at tea lounge for a chat.

I would really like to try to get myself to the point of affording a digital camera so that I can start including my own picture online instead of stealing them from Goggle image search. But we all are not Rockefellers and with and art degree and an assistant position its going to take a little bit of time to get there.And I have been buying plane tickets to Rochester and paying what I owe for taxes so the finances are not flowing very well as is and if I can live with out it that might need to be the motto for just a little bit of time until I come upright with the dollars.

is easter the new april 20th?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A high school senior's 14-foot banner proclaiming "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" gave the Supreme Court a provocative prop for a lively argument Monday about the extent of schools' control over student speech.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/03/19/scotus.bonghits.ap/index.html

RIP STEVE

I had a rough morning today more than likely a result of little to no sleep this weekend. As I was getting ready I took a book from our bookshelf sending all the other ones that were behind it crashing forward and knocking off picture frames and almost everything off the shelf. Worst of all it also knocked over one of my dinosaurs! Months ago I was just looking around on ebay.com typing in odds and ends to see if something cool might come up that I would be interested in (yes I actually do this when I have run out of internet nonsense to read and keep me entertained). So I decide: Dinosaur. Then I see the odd compartments that have come out from EBay’s sorting machines will come up with... Kitchen and home., what kind of Dinosaur stuff can there be for the kitchen!? So I look though many postings for cookie cutter and cake pans and come across the most amazing set of salt and pepper shakers ever… Fitz and Floyd shaker set of the Polka Dot Dinosaurs, named Steve and Eydie. This morning I killed Steve. I was very upset and told Eric that Steve was no longer and it would just be lonely Eydie. I was kind of upset mainly because I really liked them when I first found them and it was so sweet how they fit together, sometimes you have to find simple pleasures in little things such as regular old salt and pepper shakers. But I realized they were just things and you can’t get too bummed out about a silly thing you fund on eBay once. Even though Steve and Eydie were a pair I was happy to at least still have the pink dino to keep on the bookshelf.
So he surprised me and found them again and got them for me. He told me that he was going to get them and surprise me but since I was having a bad day to start with he figured that he would let me know to make me happy that they were on their way. I never expected him to go find them I was just letting him know that we were one dino shaker down. It so nice to have a very sweet boy.

deep thoughts

Last night was quiet the evening. First of all its been getting warm lately which is absolutely perfect, it makes me remember summer in NYC which is probably my most favorite feeling ever. So it was nice walking to the movie theater after work and stopping into pick up some dinner snack so that I wouldn’t end up eating a big bad pf popcorn, which i have recently read is pretty damn awful for you to eat. Which is terrible since I used to enjoy huge bag fulls of the stuff when I was in high school and had friends who worked at the local artsy theater bring me the left over stuff in a huge garbage bag and I would just eat it for days. Come to think of it that was all pretty gross. So I have to continue on and add that to my list of stuff to try not to eat. I have been doing very well eating healthier. Unfortunately I still have some secret down falls (French fries and mayo), which are filthy filthy habits, and those are the hardest to break.

The movie was absolutely wonderful. It was just amazing to watch everything looked like an hdr photograph and the visual details were perfect. Zach Snyder is definitely a very talented individual. So I definitely enjoyed seeing the film, there really wasn’t many times during the movie where I would kind of stop and feel like it was inconsistent of unnecessary. Although I did read something over the web that there was a strong feeling that the movie was to be interpreted as pro war in regards to the Iraq conflict. Even in understanding he historical significance of Ancient Greece and their philosophies of freedom and democracy I did have a slight feeling from time to time that G.W. was going to pop up on the movie and encourage us to fight for freedom against the bad terriorists, since the term was uttered more than a few times in battle scenes. I was dicussing it this morning with my co-worker mary, ithas alot to it and it makes me want to go back and study that time in history all over again. I am not that old but old enough to have filtered out some of that history that i learned in school and that is nothing but really depressing to think the older you get the more you forget and then what do you have left. Other than that I loved it.

I love it a lot more than going home and going over my taxes to realize that instead of getting any money back I actually owe money. Very frustrating. I have done my best to pay my credit cards and be good with money and I can’t help but feeling like I get taken pretty much for a ride. I would love to understand what the hell I could do to not get taken advantage of. My co worker Frank and i were walking the other day and he was asking me if I planned to go to grad school, I said I didn’t see what I would go for. (We of coarse were speaking in regards of going back for something having to do with visual arts and design) Maybe the more I think about it the more I will consider going back to be an accountant, this would probably be the most ill fitting title for me but at least I could understand things better. Sometimes I feel like everyone else under stands and can benefit from the system except for me, the can tell you what stock to buy and how to make a million dollars in investments and have a big portfolio or something important sounding and how to pay back all your loans with out interest (I cant tell you how frustrating it is for me to figure out how I can still keep a good credit score and adjust my school loans so that I am not losing close to a thousand dollars a year in interest), buuuuut... I can tell you how to work your F-stops. But how absurd would that be an accountant with a background in photography, I can do your taxes and then take a beautiful picture of them afterwards. So so frustrating, but its grown up life I suppose, thank god I don’t have kids or anything serious like that.

That brings be to another idea I have had lately, I have really fallen into the “Grass is Greener” mentality that I would really like to snap out of. It have not been a very positive mind space to be in, I think it might just be a result of the massive changes I went through last year. Its been a though few years when I sit back and think about the major events, but I have had a good time though them as well that i have to remember. I think I have just not been accustomed to changing where I live, changing my family situation, and the shift in friendship relationships to the grand scale that it has been on and during all of this trying to maintain my own changing identity. I know it’s very deep and profound, but it really isn’t meant to be. I just am tired of adjusting I think even though I know I have a lot more to do. Also I think I read about other people’s lives and only see surface and read into it that they don’t have the same doubts and troubles that I have to try to remember everyone has. Its not an awful thing I do see the end to a tough time I just have to focus on me rather than letting myself believe that its better to be on the other side, see because it has always been the best to be on my side.


I said it to my mom once and Cate said it to me once “ she is ordinary” I have been nothing but far from ordinary and I have to stay that way, you just cant get lost in the hustle of the city. Just have to do some personal spring cleaning which I have been thinking about doing for a while, just needing to find the time. I am in a city of endless possibilities with a competitive edge that just needs sharpening. I can’t get comfortable when I have no good reason to.


All in all is probably just a funk I have been in during the past few days that I will snap out of and then feel silly it bothered me in the first place. Ending on an up note, bob got a job and I am almost done with Geek Love which has to be one of the strangest books I have ever read, Katherine Dunn writes in a very similar way to the ideas of chuck Palahniuk but in an even better manner she is very smart in her detail and description, I find that I have to go back and reread how she has worded something to understand what is actually going on. I kind of want to read something else that she has written but I am afraid to fall into the same trap that I did with chuck Palahniuk and read 5 of his books in a row only to be very disappointed at the blatant obvious writing and character styles that did not change other than maybe sex and name and different dire situation. It just got boring after a while.

3.14.07

Still keeping the ball rolling. I am going to go see 300 tonight, which I am very excited for, we had tried to see it when it came out over the weekend while we were in Nashville but it just didn’t work out. So Eric and I (maybe Bob) will be making a great trip to the big fancy theater (even though it is playing in the cobble hill neighborhood) to see it on the giagando screen with 6 million other people. I have only heard good things and visually if anything else it just looks awesome.

Photo: Ben Ritter

I have also been trying to go visit this that is owned by a friend from RIT called Death and Co, which opened in the east village in January. We went by and checked it out with him a few weeks ago when they had closed down for the weekend and I promised I would come back and check it out. They seem to be getting good reviews from the people that go there, but mixed from the city offices. I have heard that they are having some major problems with the licenses and the city boards so I am really hoping to get a chance to check it out before it closes down. It is such a beautiful place, and all of the intricate design work is done by Scott Campbell, which is pretty incredible. The tables are laser etched with his designs and so are the water bottles for food service.

Other than that it's been pretty quiet. Work is insane, closing the may issue and having a lot of web requests! Last night I just had a quiet night chatting with Kristen. Having dinner with Geoff tomorrow, which will be nice since I haven’t seen him in a long time. I called him last night just to make sure he was still alive since I had not seen much of him on the world wide internets.

Promises Promises

So like I said I was going to make a better effort to keep up on this, it gets bad I know but when you skip from November to March and don’t even think about it then that’s pretty bad. I think I just felt like no one really read what I was writing, still could be the case but what the hell. I have that surge of motivation.

We’ll just start from this weekend so it doesn’t turn into 1,200 pages of catch up.
(this is the INSIDE of the hotel. all the windows on the sides are all the room windows)

Eric and I went to Nashville to one of his brother’s weddings over the weekend. He is one of 4 brothers and one sister so it was a little overwhelming family wise, but it was also a ton of fun. Nothing like going out and (attempting to) line dance at a place called the Wild horse Saloon, it was hilarious hanging out in down town Nashville at the honkey tonk bars. Unfortunately I am not quite the country connoisseur so I really only recognized the Johnny Cash songs that were played. The hotel we stayed at seriously was like a delusional Disney land for convention people. There was something insane like 3,000 rooms, which basically meant we needed a map just to meet everyone for breakfast and even with map we continually got lost.


Last night even though Eric was sick (he has an eye infection that he thinks he must have picked up at the hotel in Nashville) we went to see Aqualung. I was pretty excited to go even though me excitement level hit an all time low after 2 hours of waiting for the warm up performer to go on. Luckily she only did a few songs and after about 45 minutes of the rodies bring out the equipment and water bottles piece by piece they finally played. I really enjoyed it but I have to say I was very happy to leave and sit down on the train ride home. There is a possibility that I have gotten too old for the concert. Hopefully I will regain my stamina in a few weeks to go see block party. Although I am sure that is a much better more lively show than the sometimes-crushing lyrics from aqua lung about falling out of love. Which I have to comment standing next to your boyfriend trying to enjoy a ballad of having your heart mashed it a very surreal experience.

Here’s one update down, hoping to keep up with others. My plan is to sell a bike I bought a few years ago that I never really rode since I was extremely uncomfortable on the streets of this city after losing a very sweet friend of mine just after I had taken up permanent residence in this place. Hopefully the profit from the bike sale will be enough to get myself a fancy new camera I have had my eye on for sometime. OR hopefully I will get more than $60.00 from the government this year on my taxes, we can always hope. So with new camera I would very much like to put myself back into the creative frame of mind by posting a picture a day with the updates. So much motivation and so many promises!