Holy Shit, I Finally Saw The Police, Or La Policia, RUN!

So, I haven't written in a long time, mainly because I haven't really felt like I had anything to say. I could also use the excuse that I have been really busy at work, which I sort of have. If things weren't piled on me, I would have other things that I had to take care of first before writing this blog. But of course, as I have always said, I am a master of procrastination when it comes to myself. So what brings me back here. I dunno, maybe I just wanted to record my thoughts on this so I can remember it one day while rereading this. Basically I wanted to talk about seeing the Police again during there reunion tour.

I went to see them on Aug.1 at Madison Square Garden. Now you have to understand, back in the day, I was/am a huge Police fan. I loved these guys from the minute I first heard them and own every album, a bunch of the 45s. This all serves for a ridiculous irony in my life. Because you see, on Aug.1, 2007, I saw the Police live for only the second time in my life. I find it hilarious, and until they reunited a bit embarrassing considering how much I loved them and loved seeing live bands back when I was younger. But the facts are that I never saw them live except once. Every time they came to America, it was inconvenient for me to see them, or I had something else happening that night. The last time I had a chance to see them, they were playing Giant stadium and the Go-Go's, another band I love, was opening for them. I kinda had something else I had to do, plus it was a bitch for me to get out to Giant Stadium in Jersey, so I figured I would just catch them the next time they came to the Garden. Then they broke up. Sucks for me. The only time I ever saw them live was in 1978. I was 13 and already a degenerate drunk. Clocking in at about 5'10" and around 220 pounds, I already pretty much looked 20-22 years old. So I had some bad friends back then that already were hanging out at clubs so I went with them On one such occasion, at CBGBs, I saw this new group from England called, The Police. I thought they were pretty cool, with this new sound that was underlying the new wave punk sound they were playing. I asked my friend about it and he said that was a reggae back beat. My first exposure to reggae oddly enough. I loved it and they caused me to go and seek out more reggae later on at the Bitter End (another club long gone now (boo hoo)), and the Bottom Line. They were crazy energetic, as most young bands were, but their lyrics and the sheer energy and intelligence in them made me take notice. I loved them from that point on, and when they said they were releasing an album here. I couldn't wait to get it.

And ironically, you know the rest, nearly 30 years later I got to see them live on stage again. I had heard that when the tour started, they sucked. They didn't sound cohesive enough, and Sting was allowed to change the arrangements and his vocals to reflect his solo work which is significantly jazz based. But everyone basically reported the exact same thing, after the negative reactions, they tightened up their arrangements and basically returned to form, after the first month, the reports were that they were sounding incredibly good and almost like the old Police. A few weeks later, the reports were that they were fantastic.

I was incredibly anxious to see them I was wondering about the reviews for the concerts. At the Grammys when they performed "Roxanne", they started great, but then Sting went into his drawn out jazz vocal solo and the song sort of sagged there. I've seen a bunch of their live performances on bootleg tapes. The Police were a great band live, one of the best kind that believe that they should play a song live, live, which means that you change the arrangements around so they don't bore yourself or the audience. You get the chance to make the song sound fresh and when you have amazing musicians as they are, you want to add and make the music grow when you play live. And the Police have always done that, they would take their songs, and not draw the song out so that it was like the Dead or Zeppelin and when you walked away and came back 15 minutes later, they were still jamming on the same song. They would take one of their songs, keep much of the basic rhythm and then change it up a bit, juice up the reggae or the rock, fill out the bass more, mess with the percussions, and most importantly, Sting may change the inflections of his voice. Sting's voice being the actual fourth instrument in the second best power trio that ever lived. The best being Rush of course. (We were joking and someone said that Geddy Lee, like Sting, still sounded exactly the same. I said, yeah, but Sting actually still looks like himself with less hair, but Geddy went from looking like an ugly little girl to an ugly old woman.) But I digress. The best example is, of course, "Every Breath You Take". It's well known that when you seriously read the lyrics, the song is the stalker national anthem. And Sting meant it, half of Synchronicity is dedicated to his divorce and him both wanting and hating his ex. Unfortunately, the by product of Sting's weird falsetto and his love of using big SAT words and phrases is that people don't hear or understand most of his lyrics. ("How my poor heart aches" becomes "I'm your pool hall ace". Sad but true, don't lie, you know you thought it was that or something similar.) And when you listen to the studio version, it's a dark, tension filled song. But because it is an amazing song and the chorus is the only verse that is completely understandable, ridiculous amounts of people thought it was a serious love song about dedication. I read that Sting couldn't stop laughing about that, but realized people loved that song so much, they couldn't see it for what he originally intended. So, in concert, Sting changes the song completely. The basic beat is there, but he speeds the arrangement up a half beat, tones the bass down and he sings the song with a smile, completely different inflections and a lighter tone, so that it is now a love song with slightly weird lyrics. (I believe he's smiling and laughing because he still loves the irony of an angry stalker song being a love song at a wedding.) So my point is that The Police live, from the tapes I've seen, are a different experience live. I've always contended that if you want to hear the song the way it was played on the record, just stay home, put the record on, and take the album cover and move it from side to side. You'll save money.

So when my friend Stephanie and I finally went to see them, the opening band was Fiction Plane. Who is Fiction Plane you ask. Fiction Plane is Sting's son, Joe Sumner's band. I just wanted to note this because I read about an interview with him, where he didn't want to be associated with his father, he didn't want to use that as a way to get noticed. Unfortunately, when you play bass in a power trio and your live voice sounds like Sting with a bit more bass, well........ you might want to learn piano and add some more guitars. Their songs also sound like the lost Police songs. Police songs if they didn't have the reggae influence and more rock. Anyway, just wanted to mention that.

When the Police did finally come on, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. It was almost everything I waited for. They were so far from that raw little punk band that I saw playing the shitty stage of CBGBs, where they looked like three blonde chicks hopping around. They were a tight cohesive unit. And of course the arena was filled by just the three of them. You can literally go on about just what amazing musicians these three men are. Sting's voice and his bass filled every nook and cranny of the songs. Andy Summers played the guitar as well as any of the rock gods out there. (Amazing for a man that will be collecting Social Security in December. Yes, he's a year older than Keith Richards. Or as Steffa would say, amazing until you see the neck flap under his chin. (wince) You wouldn't have known that he had only been putting out jazz, fusion and progressive guitar albums out for 15 years with Robert Fripp.) And Stewart Copeland. His performance should remind everyone that he is pretty much one of the most influential drummers in the last 25 years. (Unfortunately, when I went to see them on Friday, someone pointed out that he looked disturbingly a lot like John Kerry.) I don't say much about Sting because, well, he's Sting. Every song was a subtle or not so subtle rearrangement of most of their classic songs and some of their lesser heard early songs. They only played 2 hours, and there was at least one or two songs that they didn't play that they could have. But by the time they finished, every 40+ year old there was tired from screaming and singing along. (Hilariously, Sting wouldn't finish verses for some songs because the audience singing along filled the ends out nicely.) But they really gave you everything that you wanted. I'm not going to go on much more, just that the chance to see them is worth it. Below, you'll find the set list from Aug. 1, 2007 at MSG. Some songs will surely surprise.

My final thoughts are that I'm retarded for having waited so long to see them again. But unlike Zeppelin, where Bonham died, so there was never a chance, I at least got to see the finally and I at least found a little happiness. Something actually went my way for once.

ODD SIDE NOTES:
I went again on Friday, Aug.3, I didn't have tickets but my friend Ernesto, whom I am eternally grateful, had an extra ticket for the Cablevision suite in the Garden, so I saw them from a Skybox eating chicken wings, chicken quesadillas and drinking beer. The energy was different in the Skybox, in the arena, everyone is together and feeling the same energy. In the box, you are high and detached somewhat. A few of us still really got into it and enjoyed the hell out of it, but a number of the jaded sales guys in there were going on afterwards about how they had no energy, no chemistry, you could tell they hated each other, everything every person that has seen them recently has not said. Of course, they were all too busy trying to drink as much of the free alcohol as possible and hitting on these two blondes that they found in the hallway. I noticed that one of the sales guys' wedding ring was conveniently missing and that he was staying at his friends place that night.

My friend Stephanie and I were desperately trying to get tickets when they were first announced. We couldn't get tickets for our lives. We were so angry and sad. The company then had their lottery for the two shows. Steffa and I both threw our names in the lottery and I asked my friend Marilyn also to throw her name in. They then announced that the Police would be performing on Oct. 31 at the Garden for one more show. The day those tickets went on sale, Stef and I tried and she got through and we got seats for Oct. 31. The company then sent out the winners of the lottery (with the great prize that you get to the chance to buy seats for the concert, at no discount but only a slightly lesser service charge than Ticketmaster). Everyone won. Stef got seats, Marilyn got seats, I got seats. We went from no seats to 4 sets of tickets. Marilyn ended up selling her seats to one of the sales guys and I sold my seats to one of our friends, Jeff. Stef and I agreed to go together on Wednesday, their first show in NYC and we would hold on to the Halloween tickets and see if we wanted to go. On Wednesday, at dinner, Stef said that she really wasn't sure about Halloween and probably wouldn't go. I was pretty sure that I would go, so she said that I could have the ticket and take someone else. I tried to convince her, joking she had to come whether she liked it or not. After the show, during which Stef actually zoned out and I think she fell in love with Sting, she claims Stewart, she said she was going to the Halloween show. I said, no, you didn't want to go, I'm taking the ticket. She would probably smack me if I try to keep that ticket from her.

Finally, after seeing all the fans at the concert, Stef and I each had a good comment.
Stef: Look at that sea of bald heads.
Me: I can honestly say I'm one of the best looking 40 year old here.


MSG, Aug.1 Set List
Intro Song Over PA - Get Up, Stand Up (Bob Marley)
1. Message In A Bottle
2. Synchronicity II
3. Walking On The Moon
4. Voices Inside My Head/When The World Is Running Down…
5. Don’t Stand So Close To Me
6. Driven To Tears
7. Truth Hits Everybody
8. Bed’s Too Big Without You
9. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
10. Wrapped Around My Finger
11. De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
12. Inivisible Sun
13. Walking In Your Footsteps
14. I Can’t Stand Losing You
15. Roxanne (end set)

First Encore
16. King of Pain
17. So Loneley
18. Every Breath You Take

Second Encore
19. Next To You

Happy Happy To Me or Good God Man, You Look 62

Today, Feb. 6, is my birthday. I figured, if anything, let me mark it with a small entry, just so I can have something that actually shows I existed. I'm the age where I am the answer to life, the universe and everything. I'm 42. Unfortunately, as someone said, it's all how you feel. Which puts me at 62. Nonetheless, for some reason, even though it's my birthday, a day I usually do not particularly like or celebrate, it falling during my unhappy depressed time, I feel oddly serene. Not happy, but not as depressed or disgusted as usual. Which is odd because I don't have a lot of good things to look forward to at the moment. I have to break up with my girlfriend that I haven't seen in 4 months and have spoken to a total of 2 times in that period because after she basically treated me like nothing more than a distant friend for a month and then like a person that owed her money and shot her dog on our last date, I had to re-evaluate whether I should continue seeing her. Unfortunately, I can procrastinate with the best of them, and mulled over the decision for the last 6 months where I came to the realization that she doesn't really love me for who I am, she just wants someone to be with and for me, probably the same. She wanted to change me to be the person she wanted, I can't do that, I'm too old. I can be very accommodating but when you want me to be someone I'm not, well, yeah, that's the end. Maybe I should have said something sooner and let her know that this is the way I am, take it or leave it, but I was smitten at the time, maybe just a little happy to be with someone again. Basically, all the wrong reasons. Looking back, other than we kinda enjoyed each others company and a few things like traveling and food, we really didn't have a lot in common. Basically, a lot of things I enjoy in life, she could have cared less for. Her interests, although I could be interested in a lot of things, were just peripheral for me. I would make myself interested in the things she liked, like shopping, smoking weed all the time, shopping, plays, shopping, smoking more bad weed, shopping, going to the beach, smoking more bad weed, shopping, you get the idea. Meanwhile, she kinda blew off my interests. She also demanded her own independence from me while needing me to follow her like a puppy dog. Um, no. Like I said, I am an exceedingly accommodating person, but I can also be the biggest bastard and asshole in the world. Probably why I stopped calling her for a month, and not returning her call. She caught me about 4 months ago, I was thinking of completely breaking then and I thought I detected the same in her voice, like I said, there had been absolutely no affection from her for over 2-3 months. I agreed to dinner. Unfortunately, I had a birthday gift for her, and in the true tradition of my utter stupidity, I wanted to give it to her, because, of course I bought it for her, I wasn't going give it to someone else, so give it to her and then dump her. It was pearl earrings and a string of pearls. Well, idiot, of course she was going to love it, she did. Of course she would think she you still wanted her, she did. Of course she was so happy you couldn't bring yourself to break it off with her and ruin her evening, I didn't. Take a seat 'tard in the back of the short bus. I spoke with her maybe twice, briefly, the last 4 months. I just wanted to avoid the situation, in the great tradition of procrastinators and assholes everywhere. She called me today, I was really busy, but she wanted to have dinner to celebrate with me, I told her I was having dinner with my mother, she said how about Friday, I said maybe, had to go. I'm terrible person, I don't want her to waste anymore time with me, I just can't bring myself to tell her, I don't want to hurt her. I'm usually the one that gets dumped, I think I dumped one girl and that was because she was truly a crazy bitch. I usually date horrible women because I often make terrible choices when it comes to women. One of the reasons I stopped dating for so long. Can't take being beat up all the time. So, have to do that.
What else is wrong, actually, other than the usual, need more money, need to get out more, etc., everything else is not too bad. Just tired from my trip and a lot of work since I've been back. I wanted to say more in this post, or maybe not so much, just different things. But that is the horrible that is consuming my conscience right now. But oddly, other than that, I feel kinda calm and serene today. I was thinking I should count myself more fortunate than I accept myself to be. I feel things could be a lot worse and that I should be happy with some of the good things in life. Like, and this is kinda an odd one that came to mind, I'm not dead and my mother didn't have to bury one of her children. Not that I haven't almost died, once to her knowledge, and twice not to her knowledge. So she never had to suffer that, and that makes me a little happy. Weird huh? Also, I was thinking, I believe the expression is that if you have 5 good friends, you can count yourself fortunate in life. This thought came to me also while walking home. I decided to count it off and found, if I count the two or three friends that I haven't spoken to in quite awhile, but know me and know that I naturally live the life of a hermit, but that can count on me, I have at least 6, and maybe working on 2-3 more. That makes me more than fortunate. Makes me a goddamn party animal y'all. So maybe life ain't that bad. Now I just have to get my ass out of the house.

Here's a picture of me actually smiling and not making a funny face to cover my ugly mug. I took it as a hoot while waiting for my plane at Lindbergh Airport in San Diego. I wasn't happy, but not sad. Just sort of there. Hope you guys can feel the same way sometime.

Addendum to a previous post or what the hell will I do now

I just wanted to say one short last thing. A friend reminded me when she mentioned howmuch she liked my story about the closed stores. This will be a short entry, I have abigger pice of crap coming soon.
It became a sort of tradition with me, especially when I stopped going out on New Year's Eve because I just couldn't deal with people anymore, for me to go out on New Year's Day and shop at Tower Records. Their claim was that they would only close on one day of the year, Christmas, and open late only twice a year a, Thanksgiving and New Year's. So since I wasn't trying to sleep on New Year's Day, I started going to Towers and wait for it to open. Because I thought, "Hey, the only way for me to try and start another dreadful year would be to go and spend some money on one of the few things I love to do and that's listening to music." So I would go to Tower Records, wait for it to opena nd then bang, stroll my ass in and just walk up and down every aisle and floor, looking for something funky, cool, rocking, different, magical. As usual, I would walk out with a bag load of CDs, just chomping at the bit to get home and unwrap the shrink wrap, get the damn tape off the CD and pop it into the player. I would just play one new CD after another while doing things around the house, letting the CDs fulfill the hope I had for them when I stared at the packaging or heard the sample clips at the listening stations.
Guess what, the balloon really popped this year. I got up on New Year's Day, looked outside and said, eh, I'll get the paper, get something to eat and come home. Maybe I'll surf the internet a little, read old e-mails, find a little porn. Just another day. The magic was gone with Tower Records closing. Sure I could have gone to Virgin or an FYE, but it wasn't the same. The selection just doesn't compare. So another little dream dies. All I can think is that that's the way it goes. Now where is that remote?

This is not me, I just like the picture of these guys letting loose in the store.

The worst time of the year or put the knife down and back away from the bunny

WARNING: Don't continue reading if you are not prepared for me to be a complete whiny bitch. Thank you, you have been alerted.

I gotta lot of problems with you people and I ain't afraid to talk about it.

I used to hate the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and finally segueing into Valentine's Day. I stated previously, a lot of this had to do with being forced to spend time with my family. We, maybe just me, used to hate spending time with each other, even now, I don't particularly like spending time with them, I love them to death and would do anything for them, but I would rather work Christmas day rather than spend the day with them. Like I said, it's better now, but back then, when the cold hit, it was one long dark time for me. The irony is I love the winter, the cooler weather was more comfortable for the big man, I didn't sweat my ass off working or doing anything else. I love wearing my leather jacket and overcoat, they were comfy. No, my problem was the holidays, in so many different ways.
First was spending time with my family, yadda yadda yadda, I hate them, yadda, don't want to see them, yadda, would rather pull my eyes out. Then it was what they kinda meant. The holidays are supposed to be a time of good cheer, be kinder to your fellow man, be good, give gifts, celebrate a new beginning. BULLSHIT. I say BULLSHIT. I love getting together and eating until your sick as much as the next guy. I love getting presents as much as the next guy. (Well, maybe not, I have a sort of guilt complex when it comes to receiving things, nonetheless, it's the concept of giving.) And the fresh start of things. What fresh start, with a hangover? I found it hypocritical to get together as a family to give thanks, we never gave thanks to being a family, all my sisters and I couldn't wait to get away from each other. Sentimentality was bullshit to us when we were younger. So that thought goes right out the window. The gift of giving? More bullshit. This one is kinda my own, I find it hard to swallow the thought of giving gifts on only one day out of the year, to celebrate a holiday. What's the point? I much prefer to give people things when I think they may like them. Sure, I unfortunately give in and on the holiday, buy everyone a gift. But during the year, if I see something for someone that I think they may lie, and I can kinda afford it and get away with buying it without hurting my wallet too much, I just do it, why wait until a birthday or a holiday to give someone something and make them happy? It's my own weird little philosophy and as far as I can tell, it comes from a karmic need to make up for being such an asshole to people. Then celebrating a new year? It just bites me, that it's just the beginning of the same old bullshit, just a year later. I just find it all hypocritical to only be nice at one time of the year. Be nice all the time or don't, don't let mythological gatherings dictate how you should behave. This goes for Valentine's Day too. Which I am reminded now, barely a week after New Year's, thanks to all the cards and crap chocolate and pink in the stores now. As with the other holidays, do we really need a holiday to show someone that we care/love them? Shouldn't you be doing that anyway if you care about someone? It shouldn't take a single cold miserable day of the year for you to send the person you love some flowers and $2 chocolates. You should be showing you care for them whenever you get the chance. Not smother them, but acknowledge they make you happy. I have both benefited and been cursed by this attitude. Usually I am such a curmudgeon, or Grinch as my friend Tammi likes, at this time that traditionally I have been without a girlfriend at this time. That doesn't mean I haven't had a girlfriend when Valentine's rolled around, but I always felt oddly compelled to try too hard to do something on that day because again, I often don't mind already buying her little gifts and flowers. But since I usually am alone, sometimes that day is even harder to deal with, having to see these people buying their girlfriends and boyfriends "special gifts" for that one day, only to get their asses kicked the very next day when their respective mates go back to treating them like shit. I almost don't want someone to be with me at this time because of all the bullshit expectation. I always would care for someone no matter what, I don't need a holiday to tell someone I care. More Bullshit.
But let me get to the root of my problem, and I don't mean my insecurities, my paranoia, or my OCD, it's the fuckin' tourists. Where the fuck do these people come from? Who walks around in a group down the side walk, ten across, not expecting anyone to come walking the other way. Good God, when would that ever happen in a city of 10 million? Why in the world would there ever be people behind you, when you decide to just stop suddenly in the middle of the sidewalk and look around? Where you come from, are there even other people? You sure act like you live in a fuckin' desert. Do you even get that this is a city where people live and have to get to work? I'll bet when you drive to work in whatever podunk city you live in and there is a traffic jam, you curse and scream. Do you think there is any difference when there are 10,000 people walking down a sidewalk and you decide to stroll and criss cross the sidewalk? Get the fuck out of the way. My blood pressure never rises higher than when I'm trying to get to work of go home during the holidays. I have to walk to work and home, there is no convenient mass transit, I work near where I live, unfortunately it is all in midtown, the most hellish place during the holidays. Tourists just make it so much worse. I literally barrel my way back and forth. I don't even feel bad when I shoulder my way past these idiots, basically lowering my shoulder and smashing into them. And I do damage, I'm a big guy who knows how to hit other people in every way conceivable. I've only been knocked back by one other guy, a guy almost twice my size who was doing the same thing. I don't feel good about this, I do it out of anger which is not good for me. In fact, I feel upset about these people. But they just piss me off. The other little thing I do to take revenge on these people is something only a New Yorker can do. If you live in the city, you develop a sort of timing based on how fast you can walk and how fast the car is coming at you. When you are good, you can gauge exactly when a car is coming and walk across the street without going any faster than normal. I like to do this when crossing the street at a red light, time it so I walk normally and the car coming will just go past right behind me. Tourists follow the lemming effect. If they see one person walking, they think they all can walk, so when they see me go, the 2 seconds after they start right after me. And then the car is coming, and if it is a cabby, wooooo, nothing more fun than seeing a cabby still speeding, honking his horn, not bothering to slow down. The tourists shit their pants and start running all over the place, complaining that the car is driving when it's their light. Freakin' idiots. I hate them. It's the only time I really truly want to move the fuck out of the city.
Anyway, that's my rant, I'm sorry if I have offended any of you, but to truly know me is to truly know the depths of my anger. I don't like being this angry, but sometimes I can't help myself. I'm a kook, what do you want from me?


These people need to have a giant boulder dropped on them if they don't get out of my way.

Read a book you moron or if reading is fundamental, then why aren't you born knowing how to read?

I used to love to read. I'm not saying I don't love to read now, it's just that for some reason, I used to read a lot and now I don't. I still read, just not books anymore. I read the newspapers everyday, two different ones usually. This I have done virtually everyday of my life. Even when I travel, I will buy the local paper and a USA Today to get the national news. And I read magazines, a bunch of them actually, but that doesn't really qualify, it's sports, entertainment and gaming. And I even still pick up and read the occasional comic book, although what they have done by collecting multiple issues to make "graphic novels" has been the easiest way to read comics lately. No, what I have basically completely cut out of my life have been good solid books. And I wonder why.
I was wondering when I stopped reading books and I think it was when I had to stop traveling and I finally was able to sleep. Let me explain. I used to have to take the train to school a lot. First in the Bronx (from Manhattan) and then to Brooklyn (again from Manhattan). There was about an hour to and hour and half ride. Sometimes I would sleep, but more often than not, I would read. So if you start adding the hours up, that's a lot of hours to just read for 5 days. Plus, I would read on the jobs after school and the weekend, driving and delivering stuff, I didn't drive so sometimes I would read if we were stuck in traffic or when we were just hanging out. So that was nice chunk of reading. Now, I work in the city, pretty close to home, about a 25 minute walk, so I walk, it's inconvenient to take any transportation, sucks ass in a snowstorm I can tell you that, but at least I'm getting some walking in. This of course cuts the reading, unless of course I want to smash into the idiot tourists, wait that may not be a bad idea, no I digress, I would more likely walk into an on coming taxi cab. Nonetheless, no reading while riding.
Now, more importantly, I also sleep slightly better than I used to. I've sort of had insomnia since I was about 13. Just couldn't sleep much at that point. I would lay down and not sleep. I would finally drift off somewhere around 3-4AM and inevitably wake up at 6AM whether I liked it or not. To this day, I still wake up at or around 6AM, sometimes I make it to 7AM, but somewhere in between is where I stand now. This is no matter what time I go to sleep unless it is really really late like 3 or 4AM. But again, that is now, back then, it was about 3AM or worse everyday. At first I would watch TV and hope boredom would put me out. Wrong, Cher and her beauty products were so damn fascinating, come on, you know what I'm talking about, admit it. After I had seen everyone of those and had to stop myself from buying every Ronco product on the market, I started to take walks outside. This didn't do anything to make me more tired but scared the hell out of my family when I would be opening the door at 3AM and they would hear it. And no, I wasn't afraid to go out, when I started to do this, I was probably about 15, where I clocked in at 5' 11" and 220. Also I was already staying out late at clubs and drinking heavily at this point. So, that wasn't working so I started reading at night also, figured I would at least be entertained. The added hours of reading allowed me to plow through a lot of books. I read everything, fiction, science fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror, history, science no poetry, but Greek tragedies. I read The Iliad and The Odyssey in one week. I read every Stephen King Book from Carrie to Different Seasons, in order, in about a month. I enjoyed it all. Bad or good. I would have my phases, from science fiction, to mysteries, to adventure, to horror, to biographies. This kind of lasted past college. Sometime after I finished my second college and finally got a degree, I actually started to sleep. Not great sleep, but sleep nonetheless. I would actually close my eyes at about 12Am and not really feel like waking up again, minus the pee breaks, oh come on, we all get up and pee at night, unless you're wearing depends, until about 6AM, see about 3 inches above for why if you forgot. Then even more, whenever I felt tired and laid down, I was finding it easier and easier to sleep. So, I would have to say that was when I was about to really start falling asleep normally. About 15 years of insomnia slowly went away. With it, since I was working all day and out drinking at night, the reading fell to the wayside. And eventually, I don't believe I read more than one or maybe two books a year. Oddly, I still bought a number of books, with the full intention of reading them. There are a few piles of unread books in the house. But I basically stopped reading whole books.
Recently, I have started to miss reading, mostly because I miss the thrill of books and what they do for you. There are more and more movies based on books rather than original screenplays. 9 out of 10 times the books are superior to the films. Not being a snob, I love films more than anything else, it's just that, reading the books helped you understand more of what was going on in the film. But more importantly, reading fuels the imagination. You have to picture what is occurring in the book, based on the descriptions and in that way you are your own director and film maker in your mind. What someone's vision of something in a book may differ from yours, not by much, but ever so slightly so you can make it yours. But you play the book out in your mind as you read, you become the creator of what is happening by reading. Like I said, it stirs the imagination and I find myself duller and duller lately. Not that I was ever all that exciting a person before, but I find myself staring at the TV and laughing at some of the worst things, and surfing the Internet for way too much porn, more and more. My time would be better spent picking up a book and reading a chapter or two. But then I'm afraid I won't be able to find the time to finish the book, what with my busy schedule of watching crap every night on TV. Freaking Rockstar and American Idol suck my soul.
Anywhos, I just wanted to say, read a book, it betters your mind. I wonder if wrestling is on?

Happy Festivus and Happy Non-Secular Holiday

I've already aired my grievances, feats of strengths to follow.

All the old places are gone like me or I remember when dinosaurs walked the earth...

Tower Records officially closed on December 22, well the stores anyway. They are now an online service only. I heard from someone at work, that Coliseum Bookstore is also closing now. Another fucking crying shame. It's kinda sad when you see stores that you have been going to all your life closing. You always wonder why. Well the reasons are usually really obvious, but you just wonder why because you can't understand, you went there, they got your business, wasn't that enough. Apparently enough. Tower Records is closing because, officially, online music downloading has cut into there music sales. That is completely true. They fail to accept that they are also closing because they have been in bankruptcy court for the last ten years because they thought they were so popular they could compete with all the other huge entertainment stores and open stores nationwide. Too many stores, not enough demand. But most importantly, they failed to accept that they didn't need to discount their stock like every other store. Only in the last few years did they start to discount new releases, still not as much as Best Buy, Circuit City, etc., but at least they started to. Not enough, no one would buy unless they happened to be there a new release for full price when you can go to a Best Buy and get it for 8 bucks cheaper. The truly best thing about Tower was that it was the place you could find almost everything you were looking for, and that is the feature of the store I will miss more than anything else.

I didn't even think about it until I read it in an article a few days ago, but the first Tower didn't open until the around the late 70's or early 80's in the village. Greenwich Village to you non-New Yorkers. A lot of the smaller record stores downtown threw a shit fit, and rightly so. Tower downtown, although small and very homey, looked like a shiny conglomerate run type store. They had the Wal-mart fear before the Wal-mart fear became a nationwide phenomenon. You know, big store comes in and all the small ma and pa stores get shutdown, not being able to compete with the steep discounts the big store can offer. Tower did it, they didn't exactly offer discounts but neither did anyone else back then. But again, they did what became my most favorite feature of the store, have virtually everything I was looking for. When I was kid, long, long time ago, I used to buy 45's and albums at the Woolworth's. (How many of you even know what the hell I am talking about?) When I was a little older and because of circumstances beyond my control, began to spend my massively misspent youth hanging out downtown, I got into a lot of kinds of music, rock, punk, metal, reggae, jazz, blues, international, etc..., all at clubs like CBGBs, The Bottom Line, Continental (Divide), The Bitter End, etc. (All gone now too, except TheBitter End) I think I was 15 when I saw The Police play CBGBs, loved them ever since, fell in love with Blondie there, heard Jimmy Cliff on reggae night at The Bottom Line. I wish I saw a lot more, but I saw a few big bands start there and make it big, so many, many more not. I was always scrambling around looking for a 45 or an album if I liked the band. Then cam Tower. After that, if they put out a 45 or an album, I didn't have to search around whatever store to find it, Tower had it all. (One of the features of the downtown store that all the other stores didn't have was they would carry the music of local bands.) Over the years, whatever music suddenly caught my interest, I knew I would be able to go to Tower and find an extensive collection of the artist, so if I wanted to start with the first album or the newest, chances are they would have it. I will be the first to admit, lately when there has been a new release, I just go to Best Buy, or even FYE. You get the CDs far cheaper there. But I would go to Tower at least once every month or month and half, and spend nearly $200 dollars there. I love all types of music and I read about music online all the time, see the links on the side, a bunch of them are too music sites that help you here good stuff playing today. But I also love music that is not exactly popular, so finding those CDs in your local Best Buy are pretty much a dream. Not at Tower, biggest collection of Blues CDs you will ever see in your life. Full collections of Buddy Guy, the greatest blues guitarist ever, solo and with Junior Wells. Albert Collins, Robert Cray, Albert King, Debbie Davis, Jon Bonnamasso, Paul Butterfield and the Paul Butterield band in all it's incarnations, everything you could dream of. Every punk band I could barely remember from the haze that was my youth, from The Ramones to Cyanide to Vulcan Death Touch.

The same can be said of Coliseum Books. It is a local bookstore like no bookstore I ever saw. I remember it being near me forever, it was the biggest, shiniest book store, that literally had everything. Classics, recent bestsellers, children's books, text books, adult, everything. And they weren't some big chain, they were only local. Which I guess allowed them to buy 1 every book ever published. They closed about 3 years ago, a victim of high rents. They actually re-opened in another location, unfortunately smaller, so they weren't as comprehensive. But I still went to them. They too announced they were closing, right after Christmas, I believe. Barnes and Nobles ain't bad at all, but this place was special for me.

I ramble, my point being that, two places where you could find anything are/will be gone and I am sad. I don't mind buying music online, but I like buying music that I can hold. I lamented the loss of the big 12" album, with it's glorious cover art and extensive liner notes, shrunk down to the size of a large coaster and a booklet that looks like it is telling me how to operate my blender. I got over it, and now I have to start getting over holding a CD in my hands. And I like the fact that Coliseum was different than Barnes & Nobles, like Scribbners, B. Dalton were different, but better. I would never leave without at least 2 books.

Anyways, there is no lesson here other than, go to the places you like as much as you can, because, they may go away without warning. Like a bad cold or my dignity.

Here's some pictures of some of these places. Bye Bye stores, I loved you the most Scarecrow.


I loved this place, full of different music every night. Taught you how to not be a snob when it came to musical taste.


This the new store, couldn't find any pics of the old store, it was impressive though.


i really don't have to write about this, but one day, I will try and remember all the young acts that became famous there and tell you about them.


nuff said true believer.