half delirious and short of breath

It feels like it’s been about three weeks since I last posted here instead of a few days. Went to New York on Friday afternoon, got to take care of some shopping and check out the General Slocum memorial fountain (above), which is about as tall as I am and was behind a locked gate since it was after dark. So much for getting a picture. Still, it was nice to check it out. My strange relationshipt with the city continues unabated. In any case, it was nice to get down there and I had a good time at the show. Eugene Mirman remembered me from when I saw him a year and a half ago, and I’m pretty sure I creeped him out enough this time to avoid the eastern seaboard in general. I talked to Todd Barry for a few minutes in the back, but I would’ve loved to see him perform, which would effectively make it the greatest comedy show I’ve ever seen, needing only Aziz Ansari, Louis CK and Steven Wright to round out my favorite living comedians all on one stage. I probably can’t complain about seeing the guys I got to, it was a great time. Afterwards we went with a new friend to grab a few drinks, thinking that we had until 1:41 to catch the train back to Metropark where the car was. Since I’m half retarded, though, I was using the Friday schedule instead of the Saturday one. We missed the train by a few minutes and as a result had to wait until the next one was leaving. At 5:14 AM. I figured we should probably just go and get drunk at that point, but I still had to drive the rest of the way home whenever we got to Metropark, so in the end Carrie took a nap while I stayed up and watched our stuff in the NJ Transit lounge, drinking cup after cup of coffee, going through my new music, and smoking half a pack of cigarettes. There goes that quitting kick.

Interesting, though, the things you get to see hanging around Penn Station for that long trying to give out more cigarettes than you want to smoke. I talked to some prostitutes for awhile and a homeless guy or two. I watched the rats under the planters out front put on their little show. I met a guy on the street who recognized my t-shirt, which was really strange because it’s one a friend of mine made, and probably no more than 50 of them at that. Funny, how that works out. Anyway, it was exhausting, but not altogether terrible.

Finally pulled in the driveway at 9:00 AM and went to bed until some good friends pulled into town a few hours later. I was trying to figure out how much rest I’ve been getting lately, and I figured that since Wednesday night I’ve gotten 16 hours worth of sleep. Add that onto my reviltalized smoking habit and the fact that I spent yesterday surrounded by 14,000 people that are much, much healthier than I am, and you’ve got a guy that feels like living death. Which was pretty cool. But I’m not gonna get into that right now.

Not surprisingly, I’ve made absolutely zero headway into that mix I promised, but hopefully that’ll be up by the end of the week. Right now I’ve got four days of news podcasts and what was apparently a classic Meet the Press to catch up on. I’ll post some songs tonight, and maybe even something that goes further into my weekend, but right now I have to get some work done and check up with some family members in the hospital. Oh, and sleep at some point. I’m going to buy 6 lbs of melatonin and conk out tonight at 5:30 in a bowl of cereal. It’s gonna be so awesome…

If you're bored though and are looking for something to do, go check out this database of cassette nostalgia, which I admittedly spend hours looking through the other day.

or this collection of vintage supermarket photos. These pics always make me nostalgic for a time when people knew their butchers behind the meat counters by name, despite the fact that a) I wasn't born in this era I'm recalling so fondly, and b) even though I hardly ever go to the meat counter, I actually do know the guy's name. Still no luck on the seafood guy though. What it should point out to me is how much different a place the supermarket used to be. People went to one supermarket (I currently trade off between FOUR) and probably didn't concern themselves with what wasn't on the shelf instead of driving another 8 miles for shiitake mushrooms.
Also, this was before the supermarket had been dissected and reorganized by marketability and product placement. Well, that's not entirely true, but it's certainly come a long way. I did a study once in college about why things go the places they go in supermarkets, and how companies pay to have their stuff placed at eye level, and how the sale items at the end of the aisle really just amount to what they fucked up in ordering too much of a few weeks before. There was also a great piece I read somewhere (I'll ty to find it later) about why the fruit and vegetable sections are always the first thing you see when entering the building so that the overload of colors and scents meant to overwhelm your senses and put you in a state more susceptable to buy stuff. But I'm rambling. Hope everyone had a nice weekend, I'll be back later I hope.