Thursday I worked late or something then went to Carolyn’s for dinner.

Friday I had to wait around my apartment all morning for the gas man to come. The window of time was 8am to 1pm. So the dude shows up at noon. I can use my stove top again. Went on to work. Went to the book fair. Went for tacos with Willow, Aug and Mike. Kept running into people that didn’t recognize me on account of my specs. Went to Karyn’s to meet up with her and Jeff and Molly. Ate and drank more. Mike and I went out after and drank too much.

Saturday was the Hit Book party for October. I was tired after that so I went home and read the newspaper and listened to the radio.

Sunday I went back to the book fair to network and purchase books. It was too crowded! Afterwards I went to the movies and got some food. I was gonna grow a beard, but it’s too itchy!

Film
Dr. Zhivago — really long. Suffering Russians. I’m not so sure why everyone went apeshit for the main actress… she was beautiful, but other than that they don’t say what was so special about her. I guess that’s all it took back then. And everyone in Russia had English accents back then.

Bed and Board — old French movie. Man cheats on his wife but seems to be ok in France. At least it did in the 60s.

Synecdoche, New York — New Charlie Kauffman movie. Seemed long. PS Hoffman really miserable. Really reminded me of the book Remainder by Tom McCarthy.

On Monday I felt like getting a beer so I met Ryan C for 2 after work. Then I went and purchased some groceries. Then I went home and made dinner and did dishes and read a newspaper. And I wore a long jacket and a scarf that day as well. I really felt like a grown up mover and shaker.

Last night I met up with Carolyn and her friend Rebecca. We ate food then saw a rock show. This thing called CMJ is going on. Which means there are around one thousand musical shows happening in one week. Lots of people who do boring jobs in the offices of big record labels get to wear VIP laminates and get into shows for free and talk to other music industry people and hardly pay attention to the bands playing. Anyhow, we watched this group Shearwater which apparently has something to do with Yo La Tengo. They took a lot of chances and had a lot of different instruments. Then Ponytail came on. I’d seen them before I think. I liked their show. They were young. Seemed to have some kind of tribal instinct. Their songs are pretty insane and the audience responded well. But I had to wonder what their practices are like considering that no one is there to validate them. It seems like a lonely thing to be creating this totally weird stuff and having no idea how it will be received. Towards the end the lead singer was totally stoked and said “this is awesome” then wiped her eyes. I’m not sure if it was sweat or tears or both. Then some other dancey rock band played but I didn’t watch them. Then Jens Lekman came on as a singing DJ. He sang a song and DJ’d about 4-5 dance tracks, and then I left.

Then today I wore glasses.

Friday I met Isom and we went and saw some art in Chelsea. Some highlights include very funny art from Olaf Breuning and some nice stuff from Rita Ackerman. It was nearing closing time so we didn’t hit too many galleries. Went for a couple beers at a crowded place and split. I met up with Carolyn to poke around EFA open studios. Enjoyed talking about Best Show with Scott Teplin (in addition to seeing his great drawings). Also really liked Sang Ah-Choi’s work. Overall high quality work from all the artists in there. We went on down to Alphabet City and had dinner at Max. Really carbed up.

Saturday had some doughnuts and saw the Elizabeth Peyton show. She’s really into people that look like David Bowie. Shopped for a jacket, but ended up making an impulse glasses buy. Got an exam on the spot and picked a pair out. I expressed my concern over the thickness of my lenses but they assure me it won’t be so bad. I am not sure if I believe them. Went to a Boston dude birthday gathering that night. There were crepes and we watched the baseball games and people made a lot of jokes.

Sunday there was brunch. Then we up and went to the Queens County Farm Musuem to the “pumpkin patch” — I put that in quotes, cause it was more like a patch of dirt with some straw laid out and every 20 yards there was a crate of pumpkins (shipped in from who knows where), that someone was distributing back onto the ground. There were tons of people there to go through the corn maze. I don’t like getting lost in corn so I just watched pigs smash and eat pumpkins, looked at horses that appear to be on sedatives, and little kids maliciously chasing chickens. Went to DMP and Molly’s later that night to gut and cut the pumpkins and watch the comedy film Big Business. Hot cider with whiskey and mulled wine were served.

I may very well be one of the first folks to blog about the Nader rally that took place on Wall Street just an hour ago here in New York City. Let me set the scene: Wall Street. People milling about. Some barricades filled with people filming and recording the event with various digital devices. Outcasts and people wearing sweatpants holding signs. One particularly vocal fellow screaming about his hatred for “Mickey Mouse [politicians]” and claims every one working on Wall St. is doing cocaine. He’d occasionally yell things like “black panthers!” and “cocaine!” and other various ooga booga sayings that distracted folks. Nader and his running mate wore cheap suits and discussed how both parties are crooks (I agreed) and how the media doesn’t report on things that matter. Anyhow, it was pretty lackluster and we cut out early and went to Chipotle, but the line was too long. That long line was a blessing cause we got some incredible soup! Soup ’08!

Last night we watched the ole debatahon here at the office. There was some issues with the antennae. We bought a bunch of beer and snacks. Drank all the beer and ate most the snacks. Everyone had a good time. The Z-Trip Obama mix was a hit. This group thought Obama was the clear winner. I am sure there are groups elsewhere in a different office that thought McCain was the clear winner.

The Jesus screamers that were at the Nader rally were also in the intersection in front of the WTC site yesterday as well. We really like their giant sign and want to make one.

Wednesday — Poker night. August won. I made a menu of snacks curated by Jenny.
Thursday — Dinner at a restaurant.
Friday — Minnesota themed party at Nick J’s.
Saturday — Stormville Airport flea market. Very successful pot luck at Mike & Nick’s.
Sunday — Lunch in Ft. Greene. Lazing in Prospect Park. Soup & Uno for dinner.
Monday — Liz birthday drinks.
Tuesday — M Shanghai. Beers.
Tonight — Debates.

Friday. Met up with A&W to get some Rai Rai Ken ramen noodles. Then went to their place to drink a few beers, listen to some records and talk about why people throw trash on the ground and smash things instead of throwing trash into trashcans and not smashing things. Went on to meet Carolyn and Co. at Bonita in Ft. Greene. I’d never been there, but it resembles the W’burg one closely. Hopefully they don’t have a clone of the one stupid waitress that has caused me to boycott the Bedford one. Walked about that neighborhood looking for a place to get a drink but ended up not cause something just didn’t feel right.

When I woke up on Saturday I’d figured it out, I’d caught a cold. I barreled through and went to w’burg for the afternoon, shopped, ate at Relish (good food, poor service), went home and slept a lot. Felt better by Sunday. Back in the Ft. Greene area we gave a man $4 for a coconut, which he lopped the top off of and stuck some straws in it for drinking. Coconut milk tastes like milk with some water added. Then went to see some French cinema at BAM. Good shows, most of them kind of dark. Had some fancy pizza after that. On Monday I accidentally stole some soap from Whole Foods.

I been listening to a lot of podcasts about this financial crisis. I can listen no more. Well, I keep saying I can’t, but then I do. In time I think we’ll get back to sort of normal, I’m leaving my investments as is. Now, I’m pondering what our government could have done with that $700,000,000,000.00 — yeah, we’re supposed to get it back, but do you really think that the govermnent is effecient enough to keep track of all this shit they’re buying? If you’ve ever been to the post office, you’ve seen the level of ambition they’ll put into keeping everything straight.

Well, I never got that burrito I was thinking I was gonna get. I probably went to Whole Foods instead. Tuesday night I went up to the planetarium after work. It was like being inside but looking outside. It made me tired cause I thought it was night. It also made me want to go lay down on a dock on lake in the middle of nowhere and look at the stars. Wednesday I met up with Gino and drank beers and forgot to eat dinner. Regretted that on Thursday. Was totally in space all day yesterday and really wanted to go home and go to sleep, but I couldn’t on account of the not-as-important-as-it-was-built-up-to-be VP debate. DMP and Molly had everyone over and had a full spread as usual. I was really hoping to see a big gaffe on Palin’s part, but she delivered pretty well. I especially liked when she was all, “dog gone it” “darn it” “you betcha” on us. My favorite moment was when Biden delivered his line on being a single father. That was probably the only moment that no one saw coming. I can’t really say that either one won, I think that people on both sides will have good things to say about their candidate. I’m selling my wacom tablet on ebay. I haven’t even turned my computer at home on in about a month. Eased up on the coffee this week. Ramped up soup consumption.

Suppose I should say that I’m in this big group show in London. Although I am pretty sure that no one anywhere near London reads this blog.

Had an action packed weekend. The gang came over here to the office to have snacks and watch the debates, kind of surreal to hear the candidates talking about “the 9-11” and looking out the window seeing the construction site at the same time. Everyone went their separate ways and I crawled around lower manhattan with Carolyn looking for a place to have a beer. Slim pickings. Saturday the rain continued, did a bit of walking about in DUMBO, looked at art and bookstores. Went to a birthday party and then to the midnight movie. Saw Wild Combination, which is about this musician Arthur Russel. I’d been anticipating seeing this film and had downloaded some of his music beforehand. Very ahead of his time, combination of Eno, Talking heads… many more. Great stuff. Sunday went and spied on Jenn working at the new restaurant in Greenpoint. Enjoyed the homefries. Crispy, not greasy and reminded me of fast food. Bought a record and worked on a puzzle all afternoon. Sarah G had a party that evening. I was thinking there’d only be a few snacks, but I should never underestimate the foodie friends again. I was wishing I hadn’t eaten prior. The sun is shining today. I’m thinking burrito for lunch.

Consumed
Diet Ginger Ale. This was pretty much undistinguishable from ginger ale. Maybe actual ginger ale isn’t so bad for you in first place…an enthusiastic review. I also got a Key Lime soda from Whole Foods. It was their own house brand. They don’t do other sodas or anything that has any “stuff” in it. Anyhow, this Key Lime soda had a boat load of sugar. Key Lime soda — too sugary! Also, quite a bit of coffee. KR brought in a coffee pot and we got us some beans ground up. Blammo! We got hot coffee in here folks. We been drinking the hell out of that stuff. I got the jitters a few times even. Yesterday I didn’t drink no caffiene and then I went home and made my dinner and phone calls and fell asleep at 8:30pm. And I slept the whole night through. I also have a new favorite breakfast; a couple spoonfuls of some plain ole yogurt, sliced up banana, and a dash of granola. Man, it really feels like your eating something special. Work has been pretty busy, but it’s so hard when there’s all this news to consume. The news and the politics and all of that seem so transparent to me, gaaah — it makes me so crazy. My main complaint, people’s alliance with the parties. Everyone is so hung up on us versus them bullshit to even remember what the issues are. Anyways…