Monday, November 17, 2003
Gripes: Cops, Coffee, My Birthday
Gripes:
Whoever was directing traffic tonight for the Kenny Rogers concert at the Arts Center in Rahway ought to have his police whistle shoved up his butt. Either an auxiliary cop or a regular in very foul mood. If you blow the damned thing 15 times per minute for half-an-hour nobody knows what you're trying to get them to do. & it irritates me plenty on a Sunday evening.
85 cents for a Dunkin' Donut! & face it, they really aren't that good - mostly air - you need to eat three just to make your stomach feel like it's got something to do - mainly generate gas. & anyone who believes Dunkin' Donuts coffee is "the best" (many do) has a degraded sense of taste. DD's real competition is Quick Check & Wawa, both of which have OK coffee, cheaper, & you get to put your own cream in. If you don't scream instructions at the counter person in DD, he or she will half fill your cup with milk & dump in four teaspoons of sugar before pouring in the coffee. & don't you wonder what makes DD coffee taste like DD coffee? I sure do.
My birthday was this past Tuesday 11/11 - I'm fifty jive five, & thanks to Rosemary Conte for the scat "happy birthday" on the answering machine & Edie Eustice for inviting me over for an early T-day dinner with Charlie & Rona Mosler, Michael Redmond & Loretta Jankowski, Wayne Smith, Rosemary, Derwin Holder. That's a lot of talent, mostly musical. Two of them were surprised I knew who they were & some of their accomplishments.
But for four years in the early Nineties, my adult life has pretty much sucked. Yes I've been blessed with a number of excellent friends & creative opportunities & an (occasionally painful) gift for seeing beauty in the oddest places. But the life itself - the day-to-day existence - itself has not been graced with much contentment. Why the early 90's? I finished off a college major in Lit, the ease of which gave me a good deal more confidence than I'd had previously; My underpaid job at Pearl Arts & Crafts was tolerable, especially as I met & worked with interesting & likable young people & learned a great deal about all sorts of arts & artists; I met & fell in love with a delightful woman half my age, & felt more fully loved & accepted in that imperfect relationship than I ever had before or have since. & my art - writing & radio - how I go about being a poet - became increasingly clear - that there really was something experimental in it. Unfortunately, my periods of depression lengthened & became deeper while the "up" cycles became lower & briefer - thus less productive - maybe a hormonal thing - I don't know.
Listen to my most recent radio program at WFMU.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Whoever was directing traffic tonight for the Kenny Rogers concert at the Arts Center in Rahway ought to have his police whistle shoved up his butt. Either an auxiliary cop or a regular in very foul mood. If you blow the damned thing 15 times per minute for half-an-hour nobody knows what you're trying to get them to do. & it irritates me plenty on a Sunday evening.
85 cents for a Dunkin' Donut! & face it, they really aren't that good - mostly air - you need to eat three just to make your stomach feel like it's got something to do - mainly generate gas. & anyone who believes Dunkin' Donuts coffee is "the best" (many do) has a degraded sense of taste. DD's real competition is Quick Check & Wawa, both of which have OK coffee, cheaper, & you get to put your own cream in. If you don't scream instructions at the counter person in DD, he or she will half fill your cup with milk & dump in four teaspoons of sugar before pouring in the coffee. & don't you wonder what makes DD coffee taste like DD coffee? I sure do.
My birthday was this past Tuesday 11/11 - I'm fifty jive five, & thanks to Rosemary Conte for the scat "happy birthday" on the answering machine & Edie Eustice for inviting me over for an early T-day dinner with Charlie & Rona Mosler, Michael Redmond & Loretta Jankowski, Wayne Smith, Rosemary, Derwin Holder. That's a lot of talent, mostly musical. Two of them were surprised I knew who they were & some of their accomplishments.
But for four years in the early Nineties, my adult life has pretty much sucked. Yes I've been blessed with a number of excellent friends & creative opportunities & an (occasionally painful) gift for seeing beauty in the oddest places. But the life itself - the day-to-day existence - itself has not been graced with much contentment. Why the early 90's? I finished off a college major in Lit, the ease of which gave me a good deal more confidence than I'd had previously; My underpaid job at Pearl Arts & Crafts was tolerable, especially as I met & worked with interesting & likable young people & learned a great deal about all sorts of arts & artists; I met & fell in love with a delightful woman half my age, & felt more fully loved & accepted in that imperfect relationship than I ever had before or have since. & my art - writing & radio - how I go about being a poet - became increasingly clear - that there really was something experimental in it. Unfortunately, my periods of depression lengthened & became deeper while the "up" cycles became lower & briefer - thus less productive - maybe a hormonal thing - I don't know.
Listen to my most recent radio program at WFMU.
