The rest of September 2001

It sure has been a busy couple of weeks. Where do i start? Well, the aforementioned GIRL HARBOR had a show a couple of weeks ago at LUXX, a fine rock venue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It happened to fall on Robin's birthday, so we surprised her with a birthday song: "Know Your Product", an obsure track by late '70s Australian punk band the Saints (one of her favorites). The best part is, since the original song has a horn section, i got to play saxophone! I think this was my first ever public saxophone performance, and i think it went well, other than my nice shirt getting way too sweaty, as you can see.

It wasn't long after the show that i headed up to my old home town of Brant Lake, NY to see my uncle and his family. Just like last fall, only this year, my uncle was performing as the heavy in a stage production of Dial M for Murder that weekend, and he was playing the lead part. As you might be able to discern below, he pretty much nailed it, but the highlight for me was the old man who played the detective (not pictured) who forgot roughly half of his lines. "LINE!" he would say every time he got stuck, and then a stage hand would tell him his next line and he would be momentarily back on track. It sort of reminded me of what Ronald Reagan would be like now if he appeared in a stage production. Also, the girl on the right is someone i went to elementary school with. I spoke to her after the show, which was kind of a trip. I'm pretty sure it's the first time i've ever spoken to someone i hadn't spoken to in 20 years. This will happen to you someday, too, if it hasn't already. Come to think of it, i never really spoke to her in elementary school either, probably because she was a girl! Ew!

l. to r.: my uncle, some guy, girl i used to go to school with

I was also lucky enough to be upstate for the "World's Largest Garage Sale", which took place in Warrensburg, NY. Warrensburg is a small town, so it wasn't surprising to see it covered from one end of town to the other in people selling cheap crap for a buck or two. It also wasn't surprising to see that most of it wasn't worth buying (although my cousin Poul did get those googles he's wearing in that above picture). As for my shopping, i walked away with a few glasses and a few c.1984 baseball pins for my friends, including a Mookie Wilson pin for Robin (modeled, kinda, below), a Rusty Staub pin for myself, a Chili Davis pin for Tris McCall, and a Tom Brunansky pin for an old co-worker of mine, that i still have to send. JIMMY SPOILER of Girl Harbor didn't get a baseball pin, but did get a "NIXON'S THE ONE" pin, which looks quite sharp on the lapel of his polyester jacket.

Beyond that, it was hanging out with the family, making fun of the TV, drinking aquavit with my uncle and eating steak while sitting in the hot-tub on a crisp autumn night. Good times.

Incidentally, i still owe this library a book from 1980 ...

I might as well tell you about an interesting encounter i had at a local neighborhood pub, Teddy's. It was Friday nite, and i was in to grab a burger and watch part of the Mets game. I took the only empty seat at the bar, next to a big bald fellow in probably his late 50s, smoking a cigar, drinking some red wine and watching the Mets game, even though he "hates the Mets." He was instantly one of those friendly and talkative, but conversation-dominating and overly opinionated, fellows you come across in Brooklyn, and a former professional football coach at that. He had quite a few tales of granduer, including:

- How he co-founded the European Football League
- How he used to room with Oakland Raiders legend John Matusak, and how their first encounter entailed him telling John off on the practice field while John was holding him off the ground by his jersey
- How he was with John when he once drove the coach's car into the school cafeteria
- How he volunteered down at the World Trade Center site, until he got in a fight with the "donut eating" cops
- How Mets pitcher John Franco thanks him for getting him out of football and into baseball
- How Ball Four author Jim Bouton is a "sick f*ck" who he nonetheless respects for "telling it like it is"
- Etc.
- Etc.
- Etc.

As of yet, i've been unable to find anything on Nexis to determine on the veracity of his yarns - i mean, he may have been telling the truth. Who knows? Regardless, he was a likable character, and he did say two memorably, unintentionally funny things:

A) While in the middle of describing how he went to a small town college (Adams St. in Alamosa, CO, incidentally) and there wasn't much to do there, he described it as being a "sedimentary life."

2) He spoke about his affinity for maps, and how he "really should have been a calligrapher."

Priceless. He's at Teddy's every Thursday and Friday, sitting at the bar, griping about life. Ask for Buck if you want to chat.

My downstairs neighbor surprised me by leaving me a stack of records that he was getting rid of. Most of them are pretty crappy, but he did have a copy of the Pink Lady record (which is actually pretty crappy, too), and a compilation record named A La Carte. It was released in 1979 and featured "Rock Lobster" among others, but is most notable for it's cover - 6 busty women in cocktail dresses, smiling and holding trays of hors d'ouvers. I was pretty psyched until i realized they weren't the band. But i digress ...

I attended a Giraffes show recently,
and i encourage you to do the same
if you live in NYC and like to f*ckin' ROCK!

Christ, i should probably go to bed now, but before i do, here's a picture of Jersey City's own Kevin Dailey, enjoying a cosmopolitan at 7B on a Sunday night. I'll have more for you this weekend; after all, i haven't even gotten to Josh Johnson's visit yet ...

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