This, That and Other Things

Windy and rainy is the forecast for NYC – with winds up to 60 mph. We’re going to by the end of the day which scaffolding has been built up to code and which hasn’t.

Meantime I’m on the 24th floor in my building – in high winds like this these buildings creak like the masts of sailing ships – while it is spooky they have to do that – if they didn’t shift a bit in the wind they fall right over. I remember when I worked on 3rd ave in the mid 50’s that building boomed in the high wind.

In addition to scaffolding – you have to watch for the more modern buildings – i.e. all glass – windows can get blown out in this kind of weather. I remember that with the John Hancock Tower in Boston (which natives say, with that weird New England pride, is windier than Chicago) this happened so often that one of the streets by the building was blocked off to traffic when the wind got to intense.

The building was designed by I.M. Pei who is one of the most, if not the most successful and famous architects in the world. One thing I’ve noticed about Pie’s work is that while the buildings look impressive, I keep reading reports of physical problems with them. The Pyramid in the Louvre leaks and water gathers on a section of the roof of the Rock and Roll hall of Fame, and in addition to the windows blowing out – the Hancock tower swayed so much in the wind people were getting motion sickness.

Looking forward to the weekend – and the colder weather –this warm dampness isn’t good – it’s unnatural and doesn’t feel good. It’s December dam it bring on the cold. I’ll bitch in February for sure but for now.

I’ve added Crossroads with Ms. Spears to my netflix queue – and now the happy machine is recommending things like “Maid in Manhattan” and “Raising Helen” and other chick flicks. Egad. I think after I see this thing I’m going to have to watch “Brides of Blood” “Mad Doctor of Blood Island”, “Lady Snow blood” and “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” just to feel clean again. Personally I have nothing against chick flicks – it’s just they are chick flicks. When I’m in the mood for a film that touches my more shall we say tender emotions (which doesn’t happen very often – what a shock that is) I’ll pop As Good as it Gets or maybe Casablanca.

I have a rather prickly relationship with romance anyway – given my relationship history I have the same response to any stirring of my romantic emotions as I would to a reoccurrence of lung disease. It won’t kill me – but I’m going to be pretty miserable while it lasts.

Reading The Book of Illusions by Paul Auster – I don’t read many novels these days – I think writing them (even unpublishable ones) has made me too damn aware of the process. I was having a good time with this one – it concerns a mysterious silent film star who vanished years ago, a man grieving over the death of the wife and children who ends up writing a book about said movie star who turns out to be not dead and summons the man to his house in New Mexico. There is a central mystery that about what is going on, that probably won’t amount to much in the end – they never do – but the process is interesting.

Or was – in the middle of the book the grieving man is confronted by someone who turns out to be the female lead of the book – after some melodrama and confrontation – there is a gun al la Casablanca and what not – then after this confrontation – where the grieving man had taken the gun from the female lead and tries to shoot himself (he doesn’t cause the safety is on) they decide to leave for New Mexico in the morning (he’s in Vermont). She sacks out on the couch – he goes to bed – later she climbs into bed with him and the book goes flying across the room. And I start cursing.

Jesus Auster you’re fricking better than this – obviously you need these folks together for something that happens later in the book – but come on! I’ve know a fare share of women in my time and dear lord – having a man consumed with self pity almost shoot himself with your gun and otherwise acting like a madman is not what any of them would consider foreplay. But the book needs them together so bang they go with all the grace and skill of Mr. Gumby bashing two bricks together.

It’s the moments like that destroy that oh so delicate suspension of disbelief to quote the old English drug addict.

Random Neural Firings:

Plans continue apace for the recording of our opus. Number of tracks and all that have to be finalized. Looking forward to it but nervous as well, for all my swaggering on stage I’m not so confident in the studio and what works on stage i.e. that I’m really a huge ham up there – won’t work in the studio. Well we shall see rabbit, we shall see.

In a small political note W and the President of Iraq meet briefly before W returned for home. It seemed to be nothing more than a photo op for W to reaffirm that no matter what anybody says, he is going to stay in Iraq until he is no longer president and let his successor clean up the huge mess. The pictures showed a great contrast W smiling and cheerful and the president of Iraq with the expression of a man who knows that when he comes to the end of his days, his charred and limbless body will be hanging from a bridge somewhere.

The US Heath and Human Resources is still planning to advocate abstinence for anyone unmarried who is under 30. Sweet mother it is going to take 25 years to undo the damage these stupid arrogant people have done.

Newt Gingrich is going to run for president on a platform that the only way to beat the terrorists is to take away our freedoms – like the ones they hate us for. Yeah makes as much sense to me guys. It’s embarrassing, we’ve gone from “give me liberty or give me death” to “don’t let the bad man hurt us”. It’s disgusting.

It looks like things have stabilized at work and while they are looking to cut staff – we are losing money – but it seems that my job is safe for the moment and that I don’t have to be concerned about that. Of course the way the world works that means I’m out on my ass looking for work on, say, Monday

Ah the power of positive pessimism.

Peace, love, Shonen Knife.