The largest irrigated crop in the United States is grass.

I went out to the Neptune Avenue stop on the F to pick up a guitar I bought. (I have a thing for $50 guitars.) I've never been right there, a stop before the aquarium. First thing I came across was a strip mall. I kinda love strip malls. They make me feel like I'm on the road. I didn't grow up around anything like that, so it's still a novelty. This one, and I can only guess it's a very New York trait, seemed more dense than others I've seen. The stores were narrower. There was a Radio Shack. Across the avenue were stores with Cyrillic writing on them. The Guitar was in what seemed like a Russian Jewish housing project. It was a nice complex, stuck in another era. The guy to open the door for me to find his whole family; young son on couch watching TV, wife at desk by the window, older son in the kitchen, extremely furnished. I expected more of an office/ebay business type of environment.

I tried to pay close attention to the neighborhoods the F train cut through. There are a lot of places to live in this city. I don't think I would mind living out there. No idea what it would cost, but, relatively speaking, it can't be too much, right? This question is consistently on my mind with the revolving corporate owners and upscale upgrades happening around me. There are two bushes in large pots, one on either side of the building entrance. They are putting a laundry room in the basement. The gas station on the next block was removed last month. The most entertaining of the recent changes is the metal trashcan enclosure with the hinged doors on top. I walked out that first night to find about a dozen rats on top of it wondering what the fuck happened, and how do you get to the trash now? I threw the small bag of trash I was taking out at them, and continued on my way. When I returned home late that night, I could hear all kinds of squeaking and banging in there. They had found their way inside.



I had UPS destroy a package of mine, and it has sent me on a little journey into the UPS customer service black hole. After a week of failed attempts to get someone here to either pick this thing up, or make an on-site inspection, or just do something, (one guy told me I could just leave it on my porch for the driver to pick it up. I told him I didn't have a porch, and if I left it outside, it would either get stolen or eaten by rats.) the 4th or 5th person I talked to told me that they probably wouldn't even need to inspect the package since it's only a $100 claim. But here's how it works: The claim is paid to the shipper, the package was shipped from a UPS Store, that makes the UPS Store the shipper since all UPS stores are privately owned, and if I don't hear from anybody in five or six days, the claim was probably issued, and I have to get the money from said UPS Store located somewhere in California.

We had a couple nights that may have spoiled us a little. Bands with people that can actually play. Actual trained musicians. All kinds of horns and bowed string instruments. At the end of the Beirut show, there were about 20 brass and reed instruments littered all over the stage. It looked really funny. The next night, The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra (I think there's more to the name, but that's all I can remember) lived up the their name, and the next day we wondered if their classically trained string section was the result of the Canadian government putting more into arts funding than the US.

UPS !

Click to enlarge.

Drown.

I don't know what happened in here. I think everything was okay about six months ago. Then everything grew. Or exploded. It's really too much stuff. I know I go on about it, but I'm really confused. I still haven't gotten anywhere on any of my lists of people to see and things to do. Nor things to see and people to do. I did get to have coffee/tea with KG, and that really needed to happen, and needs to happen more. Today, I just watched them rehang the PA. I didn't help because I wasn't on the clock, and who would have paid for my potential injuries? Then that was it. And they raised the price of postage again? Went to see the Josh and Fade experience last night. That place is actually okay. I love old New York basements. They're like uncovered ruins from another time, or just chiseled out of indigenous rock. A friend told me his father has given up on life. Told him just like that. My friend is now determined to get out of here. Both positives and negatives can influence you to do better somehow.

Recent picture.

What do I use?

What do I need?
What do I have that I neither use, nor need?
These are the questions I'm asking myself these days. There is way too much in here that just isn't necessary.
Does anyone want a Polaroid? Did they stop making film for them yet?
How about a sweater?
I missed my Solebury School 20 year high school reunion. I was going with K, but she couldn't make it in the end. There was that thought that some girl I had a crush on in 1987 would be there, and we'd live happily ever after, or at least until the end of the weekend, but I didn't lose any sleep over that admittedly unrealistic scenario. I really just wanted to drive around with K, though not exactly like the old days since she doesn't have any of the VW Beetles she owned back then.
There are a lot of theaters in this city. I went to one on monday that was really nice. It was a part of the French Institute on 59th street. Well equipped. Several levels under ground. (Cell phones didn't work.) You'd never know it existed if you weren't looking for it. Who knows how many more there are out there?
I'm not getting anywhere with those lists.

Okay, I made some lists.

People to see. People to call. Places to go.
I will now add my landlord to one of those lists because I don't have any hot water again.
Ah, fuck! It's Sara V's birthday. I was going to call her. Now it's 3am, and I lose.

I'm not writing much.

Let down. Letdown. I didn't support all the friends I could have supported tonight. Go out and show your support. My support. I will make amends by throwing out a whole bunch of junk I don't need. It's okay only if you use your time wisely. The new building super gave me his card. He seems way more competent than the last one. I need to go buy developer. I need to start making lists again. I'm not doing much. I'm not writing much. This is not a new picture.