September 2000

The 27th was ROBIN's birthday. If you didn't know that, it's mostly because she didn't want you to; she hates her birthday. Nonetheless, we DID find a perfectly Robin-esque way to celebrate: by playing live music together. Me and Robin played with the TRIS McCALL group that evening, at a terrible yuppie-microbrewery in the "Hub City", New Brunswick, NJ. Several of Martin's archeologist pals, stationed in nearby Piscataway, showed up, as did a co-worker of mine. Beyond that, tho, it was playing for drunk college kids. Fortunately, most of them arrived after we played, to heckle (and dance to) the wimpy 80's band that played after us. At least the beer was good.

Viva, Hub City! - a dramatic photo series by Leslie Speaker
L to R - Mah-tin, RV, Mr. McC, Dan the Basque Cowboy, Carstensen

p.s. NJTransit trains are uncomfortable, and sketchy people hang around the stations at night. Avoid if possible.

"F*CK THA PO-LICE" - jc's run in with "the man", Part II:

Coming home 3 a.m. one night from Park Slope, B'lyn, we came in at the "turnstile only" entrance at the 7th Ave. F train station. The "turnstile only" entrances are great because two people can fit in the turnstile at one time, so you only have to pay one fare. I decided that, so late at night, no one would catch us, and decided to screw the MTA out of $1.50 (mind you, this was on the same day that we found almost $30 in unused MetroCards lying around our apartment). Sure enough, two seconds after we snuck in, out come two police officers.

"Any reason you only paid one fare?" they asked, and i was too discouraged, and too drunk, to even make something up.

"Nope..."

In spite of my protests that it was all my idea, they got both of our I.D.s and gave us both $60 tickets. Worst of all, as they were writing us up, our train came by and went, meaning we'd have to wait another 20 minutes for the next one. One cop even tried to hurry so we wouldn't miss it, to no avail. And, at least they were nice about it; i think they felt embarrassed for us. I know i did.

Moral of the story: when i put my mind to it, i can really be an idiot.

Part I, incidentally, was when i got pulled over for running a red light on my bicycle. Now THAT cop was a prick...

CARSTENSEN raves: "3 1/2 STARS!" - TRIS McCALL is also an accomplished playwrite. We went to a crummy 30-seat theatre in Times Sq. to see a production of his play The Particle, the Victim, the Carrier & the Host; a production he, strangely, had nothing to do with. It was staged as part of a "new authors" night, or something, sharing a bill with 3 other efforts. Anyway, Particle is a hilarious, philisophical farce about a world living in fear of a rampant brain-sucking virus, without knowing if it even actually exists. Pretty brilliant stuff. Tris warned us we might not like it, but we (me, RV, Mishka) did, a lot. Especially when compared to the other dreck (a too-long Tennessee Williams knock-off, an indecipherable play about two newspaper reporters with "a lot in common!", an insufferable character study worthy of the Lifetime Network) we had to sit through to see it. 3 1/2 stars
Coming home from the play, Robin expressed sadness over the fact that she didn't get a cake for her birthday. So, the following afternoon, while she was at TRIS McCALL practice, i made her one. It was the kind that has sprinkles in the mix, so it's all rainbo on the inside. I also bought some frosting that came with little candy flowers that you can sprinkle on. A very colorful affair.

"Before"

I chose '8' because the supermarket was out of 2's

Incidentally, i still have half a can of frosting left if anyone needs to borrow some.
R.I.P. ex-Cars bassist/singer, and fellow Leo, Benjamin Orr.
Who's going to drive you home tonight?...

1955-2000

A old junk shop is opening up in my neighborhood. As i was walking down Manhattan Ave. (Main St.: Greenpoint), i noticed a big tub of old board games for sale on the sidewalk. I bought both ($1 each) and then came back the next day, when there was 2 more on display (bought them, too).

Inspired by my recent 525% profit margin on the sale of my Guns N' Roses hat on E-bay, i put the above Parker Bros. CIVIL WAR game (c. 1961), and BATTLE OF THE BULGE (1965, Avalon Hill Co.) up for bids, in hopes some war enthusiasts will pony up a bunch of cash for them. As of this writing, CIVIL WAR is going for $26 (not bad); BATTLE OF THE BULGE has thusfar not been bid on. "NUTS!", says the American Commander. I guess this means i shouldn't even bother posting the RED STAR/WHITE EAGLE Russo-Polish War Board Game.

An age-old message of love and tolerance, spraypainted (twice!) by someone far wiser, and far more succinct, than myself.

"Let's play two..."

September 13th was the day of my first-ever Mets/Yankees doubleheader; the Mets played the day game against the Brewers, the Yankees, at night vs. Toronto.

I attended the Mets game solo after bicycling to Shea from my house (an unpleasant 40 minute trip, 30 of which was spent on the streets running underneath the screeching tracks of the 7 train). Upon my arrival, i scored a good $30 seat for $10 from an old, deformed-looking fellow outside. When i went to my seat, there was a retiree sitting by himself in the section.

"I think that seat's taken" he said. I showed him my ticket; it was in fact my seat. "Where did you get that?" he grunted asked in disbelief, and i explained.

"That sonovabitch! I gave him that ticket!"
"The pain is tremendous!..."
After that, tho, the guy (Ron was his name) was hilarious. He would call all the players by their first names, and say things like "letsgo, letsgo, hubba hubba hubba!" At one point, he yelled out to Mr. Met "Ahh, you big fat...baseball!" The best part was when he stunned the crowd by catching a foul ball with his bare hand, without even getting out of his seat! It was a shot, too. Amidst much applause, he shook his hand up and down and said with a grin "Wow! The pain is tremendous!"

The Mets, after being down 1-0 for 8 2/3 innings, rallied to win 4-1 in 10, one of the best baseball games i've ever seen.

As for the Yankee game, well i remember they played Toronto (two national anthems!). Roger Clemens, my least favorite baseball player, was pitching, as he had for every Yankee game i attended that year. At least Jeff came along, and the game did get exciting for a coupla innings, but the highlight, as usual was going for beers after the game at Ball Park Lanes, the run-down bar/bowling alley across the street from the stadium. Going there is my favorite part about going to Yankee games, mostly because i hate the Yankees. One of these days, i'll actually go bowling there.

My stepdad (Fred) and his wife were in the city from Denver, to attend a wedding. Over dinner, we made impromptu arrangements to visit my uncles upstate the next day. We split at 9 that morning, and had lunch at the old deli where Fred used to go in Scarsdale (i also saw his old house and school for the first time). We got upstate at about 2 p.m., with some corn we bought at a roadside market. We went on the lake in my uncle's new boat, had the big family dinner, talked about stuff, took some pictures, things like that. Uncles and cousins. It went by really fast.

Assorted family members

(Here's the "magic" part of this photo: it's actually two different ones. I took them
both from almost the exact same spot, and liked one half of each of them. Can you find the cut?!)

The following morning, we headed up to Schroon Lake, where i lived as a little kid, went on a short scenic hike, visited the "country store" (shucks), and ate breakfast at prestigeous Chestertown, NY, diner The Silver Star (rechristened "The Silver Chicken" by my late grandmother because of the 10' tall chicken in its parking lot). I made mention of this so i could put that chicken picture on my website.

I had French Toast.
We then headed into Ticonderoga, where the Amtrak station was, for me to head back into the city. 1/4th mile down the road from the depot (which is absolutely in the middle of nowhere) is the Ft. Ticonderoga Ferry, which goes across Lake Champlain to Vermont. Apparently the ferry was established in 1759. At least that's what the sign said. It was $1 round trip, and took about 19 minutes. I was tempted to go on, to experience the thrill of being in Vermont again (i can hear you laughing...), but since the Amtrak was due to come in 30 minutes, i decided not to risk it. As it turns out, i could've taken it 3 times before the train actually came.

I wasn't too upset, tho, as the weather was beautiful once again, and i ran around taking pictures of nearby things. Ok, a barn. And this...

I wanted to take a picture of a nearby sheep for Robin, but it ran away. F*ckin' sheep.

So, it recently occurred to me i never wrote about my first week of September, like i said i was going to. Fortunately, thanx to my assiduous note-keeping, i have distinct recollections of my activities from that time. And here they are:

- TRIS McCALL show in MAXWELL'S in Hoboken, where i finally got my free burger.
- Trip to Coney Island that ended up being overcast and kinda depressing.
- Visit from DAVE, incl. a Mets game, a walk over the Brooklyn bridge, some great pizza, all the usual NYC stuff. Come back, Dave.
- A visit to the TV & RADIO Museum, where i watched old episodes of Bullwinkle and The RAMONES on The Joe Franklin Show.
- COME ON trip to Connecticut, plus a show in NYC, somewhere.

There you have it. Oh, and i took this picture:

Here’s an incident i remember nothing of, but i wrote it down, so it must’ve happened...

I was at Mugs one evening, and some drunk guy at the bar kept getting singles for his $20s and giving them out to everyone at the bar. He did this at least 3 or 4 times. At one point, i was up $5, which i just left for the bartender. Before long, the drunk generous fellow walked up to me and said "you look sad (which i was kinda), maybe this’ll make you happy" and gave me $2, which i left on the bar with the money he’d previously passed to me. After which he says "oh, don’t just give it away!" to which i quickly responded "Why not? You are..."

What is COME ON doing in Connecticut?
Click above, even though i don't really have the answer to that...

Editor's note - This is as far back as we go, people. Thanks for reading ...

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