the rix mix

So where have I been? In the hospital, from the 10th until the 19th. Then a week recovering from that experience.

Today's Horoscope: It will be as though you're in a new and hopeful world today, dear Scorpio. The people you meet will be cordial and caring, and the future will seem like a bright, attractive place to live. In other words, it's like a fabulous dream, and the alarm clock is bound to wake you up soon. True, the glorious feeling won't last long, so take advantage of the day ahead. Reality is sweet at times. -

Well, I did have a not unpleasant (recurrent) dream about working at Pearl Arts, tho I barely recognize the place, don't know what my job is there, & always forget to punch in. Then I woke up. It's been this way ever since bazaar-raja Shaleesh Shah sold his stores, the large book dept. I built dismantled, the art paper section moved, & the whole place spiffed up. About a year ago artist Jim Coleman & I took a quick stroll around the store & I haven't been back since.

If you sold Shah a truckload of horseshit for $100, he'd call it "organic modeling clay" & retail it at $5 per shovel-full. I had a grudging respect for the man, he was so strange, with the worst haircut I ever saw & no interest in art. I couldn't stand his second-in-command, Beverly Aiello.

Today's Horoscope: Speak your mind clearly, dear Scorpio. Other people aren't mind readers the way you are. If you keep waiting around for someone else to figure out what you are thinking, you may be dead before the truth is ever brought out into the open. Give people a break and let them know what is going on inside your head. Communication is extremely important, and today it begins with you, so feel free to take the first step toward opening up the door.

Sent a note to Dr. K today ending our counseling relationship, following up with a phone message. Clearly, taken overall - since late 1999 - it has failed. Four years during which I've slowly sunk into a swamp of debt, lawsuits, lethargy, deeper depression, broken familial relationships, my world shrinking down to a convergence of downtown Rahway streets. Two weeks ago Dr. K lectured me on the example of "brave" elderly Russian immigrants working the system to their advantage. Let me tell you about these immigrants. Their grown children come here first & get settled, then send for their parents - people who spent their lives working to "bury" the United States. But we buried them. When their "nation" collapsed, so did the security of their socialist worker's retirement. But America offers SSI, subsidized housing & much more to these old comrades, if they can get here & survive for a few years. Yes, it takes bravery to jump off a sinking ship. But the greatest problem they face here is culture shock, for which they are counseled at Trinitas, by .... yup, Dr. K.

Well, sez I to meeself, maybe I wanna be hanging out with old Russians; already experienced at working the stubborn, graft-ridden old Communist system, the American bureaucracy must be a piece of cake.

Constantly reassured things will get better, supplied with all the Zoloft, Ambien & Welbutran I can eat, I've turned into a listless zombie who sleeps 12 hours a day & can't even bring himself to fill out & deliver a food stamp application, so hopeless do I feel about a future I have rendered hopeless while being in counseling at Trinitas. Is this a psychiatric emergency? Probably. If I said "let's go" they would lock me up for two weeks, feed me, let me read poetry & watch plenty of TV, then dump me out in the dead of winter, back into the cesspool I've made of my life. That part never seems to change. It just gets deeper.

Here's the CBSNewsradio graphic for the storm, from the Viacom stash, for use of which I'll probably be tracked down & sued.

Looking at regional radar I could tell - even before reading weather forecast - today's snow would be lighter than yesterday. The second storm had obviously shifted over the ocean, all heavy bands headed toward eastern Long Island. Out walking, snowfall moderate, roads not great but plowed & passable - the assholes driving on them are more dangerous. I wouldn't go to the mall today. But then, I wouldn't be going there anyway. Some young blonde bitching at the milk delivery guy parked in front of dunkin' donuts/Shell store. He was in an amiable mood despite running hours late - dug me a fresh 1/2 gallon of whole out of his crates - & this shrew starts jawing at him for blocking a couple of gas pumps - "I work in New York as a blah blah blah & I have to yadda yadda...." Those of us in the store were stunned into silence. "Everyone's entitled to their opinion," the guy says as he heads out the door. The woman buys coffee, goes outside, pulls her sporty white car up to a pump, gets out & brushes all the snow off it into the lane the Sikh gas jockey had just shoveled.

But it's not especially cold, although the wind is starting to kick up. & no major panic buying of anything except gasoline. Across the street at Demblings Market, I didn't pick up anything extra - only a large can of pineapple chucks in juice because I've been fancying them.

Oddly, at this very moment the storm center seems to be pivoting on Point Pleasant.

Coming Soon: DJ Rix 2003 Favorites List for WFMU

Groucho / Tonight Show Host

20 Aug 1962 - The Tonight Show
NBC, 11:30 pm, 105 min
Groucho Marx hosts E.G. Marshall, Joanie Sommers, Charlie Mann, Harry Ruby, Gale Del Corrall

21 Aug 1962 - The Tonight Show
NBC, 11:30 pm, 105 min
Groucho Marx hosts Lillian Roth (from "Animal Crackers"), Barbra Streisand, Buddy Greco, Henry Gibson, Adele Kenyon

22 Aug 1962 - The Tonight Show
NBC, 11:30 pm, 105 min
Groucho Marx hosts Martyn Green, Barry Sisters, Sonya Cordeau, Bobby Breen.

23 Aug 1962 - The Tonight Show
NBC, 11:30 pm, 105 min
Groucho Marx hosts Salvatore Baccalone, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Joe Twerp, Chester the Chimp

24 Aug 1962 - The Tonight Show
NBC, 11:30 pm, 105 min
Groucho Marx hosts Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Della Reese, Max Gordon, Barbara Hunt, Lillian Briggs, Al Stevens and his talking dog
color

1 Oct 1962 - The Tonight Show
NBC, 11:30 pm, 90 min
Groucho flies in to introduce new host Johnny Carson, and also guest-hosts for 15 minutes

***

27 Jul 1964 - The Tonight Show
NBC, 11:30 pm, 90 min
Groucho Marx, guest-host; Pearl Baily, guest

28 Jul 1964 - The Tonight Show
NBC, 11:30 pm, 90 min
Groucho Marx, guest-host; Bill Cosby, Melinda Marx, guests

29 Jul 1964 - The Tonight Show
NBC, 11:30 pm, 90 min
Groucho Marx, guest-host; Victor Borge, Phyllis Diller, Linda Bennett, guests

30 Jul 1964 - The Tonight Show
NBC, 11:30 pm, 90 min
Groucho Marx, guest-host; Sam Levenson, Roger Miller, guests

31 Oct 1964 - The Tonight Show
NBC, 11:30 pm, 90 min
Groucho Marx, guest-host; Phil Foster, Nancy Itwan