wiggolation

dreams ltd.

the sky ripped open
over steel city:

sunsetting images
here and there static





We crossed the East River in most brilliant sunlight....

Dave just remembered the best personal profile we came across at Drip; it said: Education: Ivy Leauge (sic).

By the way--Happy New Year!!

My bro Brian has a blog! He's on his way to online stardom. I can tell from reading his first entry.

Don't watch Bottlerocket.

So much for photos of NYC.

Dave just had his first bagel and lox proper so he's happy. Today we're off to the Natural History Musuem, wherever that is. I think we'll have to put off our plans to rent a car and drive round NYC and all its boros till another day as we are getting such a late start today. I know, who'd rent me a car, right?

Later Anna took us to a sake bar in the East Village called Decibal. This was a very cool place to sample different sake drinks.



Sake to me!

Then we headed to the East Side and walked along the East River to the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. We must have walked six miles and were well on our way to slimmer selves.

Set out from Times Square on a sort of reconnaissance mission to see whether Dave could hack the place on a normal busy day as distinct from New Year's Eve.

A photo I dug up of my all-time fave gig with the Massive crew. This one's at the Roxy in Prague.

Dave arrived yesterday about noon. We walked round the hood here and round Columbia and got some great home cookin' at Harriet's Kitchen on A'dam. Then to Drip where we laughed at the personal profiles by singles looking for soul mates and such.

We later went to Greenwhich Village to return my DVDs where we then decided to go to see They Might Be Giants at Irving Plaza. I am not a big fan but they were rather fun, at least for a while. The opening act, whose name I forgot, played songs as they played slide shows complete with old photos of normal people doing normal things, probably '70s era. Anyway, they bored me, though they were said to be really good--?? TMBGs rocked some calssics out and a lot of tunes I just didn't know. We left a little early to avoid the crowds--and Dave had been up since 4:30 A.M. to get his early flight out of O'Hare. At least we didn't have to hear that song about building a little birdhouse.

Below is an old picture of me learning to write Latin verse under the loving encouragement of my alma mater, Daisy Duke from Hazzard County. Her looks change quite dramtically depending on which picture you look at.

Sitting in my day care....

The biggest crisis now is that my desktop is not burning CDs. It stops after about half the burning. What to do.

Got a great bootleg CD of two Massive shows in England and Germany on one disk called 'Light My Fire' which ends with a great cover of the song you're thinking of. Bought it at a blown up price in Greenwich Village at a cool little CD and vinyl shop in Bleaker St. I think. While making my purchase I informed the clerk and the woman he was talking to that the person they were talking about, Joe Strummer, had died the day before. They were floored with disbelief, and I walked out feeling a little weird cos they were talking about his upcoming (now posthumous i guess) album and had no clue.

Also found a great movie rental that specializes in foreign and art house flicks. Lots of DVDs too. I just had to open an account. My first rentals were 'Beckett on Film' which includes 'Waiting for Godot' and 'Mulholland Drive' which I am watching for a third time. The Becket DVD is one of four in a series, which I wouldn't mind owning mind you. If you're into Beckett this is a great film version of the play.

Dave, a.k.a, Skrub, arrives in about twelve hours from now. He's in town till January 3rd so we should have plenty of time to build up to and wind down from New Year's properly. Looks like Time Square for us. I wonder if Dick Clark will be there? Suppose I'll have to get some champagne and carry it in my backpack. Then again, I foresee a ton of security personnel and some mean person taking my drinks.

I should probably wash the dishes before my guest arrives.

i am not jesus
though i have the same initials

i am the man
who stays home and does the dishes

--pulp

by the way: check out 'dressed to kill' with comedian eddy izzard if you have not seen this guy. he's quite the clown and a lot of fun.

Am working on portfolio that is due tonight and studying for grammar final. Not bad though as I have a lot done and just need to work moderately for a couple more hours.

There's a new Massive CD due out in 2003. Can't wait.

The James Web site is pretty nice.

Two more days and then it's break time. Am looking forward to hanging out in NYC with Dave and others. Should be a good time to walk around and explore. Not to mention sleep a lot....

Am thinking of selling the desktop as it seems so clunky now next to my notebook. It's not even connected to the Net anymore. I could use the dough too. I might put some signs up in the elevator and around campus. Then I'd have more room to move in this little dwelling....

Tomorrow we watch The Red Pony video--if it arrives, that is--and have a Xmas party on Friday. Life is better this week.

Though I have some catching up to do on grading and that type of stuff once these damn finals are over.

Sunny and very cold..............

Out last night at Jabiz and Marian's place near campus. Had a fun time talking about our teaching experiences. Compared to a lot of other high school teachers I have a pretty good thing going I guess, though it does not often feel like that. There's a lot of violence at my friends' schools but almost none at mine. Knock on wood. I wish my admin was different though.


Cool Web of the day is at http://www.massiveattack.co.uk/. Turn up the speakers!

I'm now online at breakneck speed. It's quite different surfing when you don't have to wait more than split second to visit a site. Of course there are drawbacks. You might find you've been sitting and surfing so long you can't move your legs and can't get up. Use with caution I suppose....

Went to bed at four then got up at eight. The nice Time Warner man just popped in and installed my new connection. I'm glad he didn't ask about the current cable hook up I have as it is not something I am paying for. It was left on. The resident director said some units have that.

Would like to get out and ride but it's pissing on and off today. I still have this lingering cold too. Where is the sun? There is a lot to do at home this pre-finals weekend anyway.

2.13 A.M. and fully awake. Came home so tired I fell asleep 'bout five o'clock. At least the week is over and I can enjoy two days without bells. I hope to get through about 30 book reports (about 100 pages in toto) and then prepare for my grammar final and finish my portfolio for the practica. Then five days of classes and finally a long break, about twelve days free from teaching, studying, stressing. What could be better.

Looks like my new high speed internet will be hooked up tomorrow. That'll be sweet. I had ATT Broadband at NIU and I miss it. Dial up is one of the conservative things I would like to use with pride but at the end of the day (literally, that is) it plain sucks.

Like everyone else here I am eager and even a little anxious to know whether there will be a transit strike this coming week. If so next week will just fall apart for many, including me, my classes both at Queens and TC. I wait with open ears and Metrocard in hand. People at school were asking me how I was going to get to school in the event of a strike. I still don't know. They are OK as they drive and don't live in the city. I suppose I could ride my bike. That would suck though as the weather sucks these days. Mayor Bloomberg was out today to buy a bicycle in case he can't take the train to work. He bought a Cannondale F300. With his money you'd think he'd have bought a real bike though.... Just another example of how people don't respect human powered alternative transport and, when they do use it, use it as a pathetic political statement, not a serious means of travel. I can smell environmentalists' puke from bike shops everywhere.

Have to look into possible volunteering projects to do over the holidays. There must be something on the Web I can find. Worse case scenario I can go to the Reggae Christmas Party I saw being advertised on a local cable channel. Jah Jah City!

Was just looking over my entries--what bad spelling and copyediting for a former copyeditor!! I had to go back and correct some typos but I'm sure there are more out there. I just don't have it in me to write properly here. Does this mean I don't care about what I post? Not really. I do. I just can't devote much time to, shall we say, graceful, lucid prose. You get the idea, dear reader, I hope. Then again, who the hell really reads this anyway? I always get the impression that other people's blogs are cooler and more interesting and fun. Well, OK, they are: But the point is that, that, that. Well, come on power, go off...

Eh...the other terribly interesting thing I wanted to say is that I told you about the dental work I had done lately. Well, I just got a letter from the teachers' union telling me they shelled out almost 6,000 dollars on my lousy mouth and that I had to pay only twenty bucks of that. And should just remember that the next time I complain about grading papers on a lovely Sunday in New York City, yessiree!

Well.

The last thing to mention is that I have a fear that the wrong people might get to reading my blog one day. It's not like I worry much about it but I would not like to find that people at the school I teach at read this drivel. It's not like I write crazy lies or even talk about anyone in particular (really!), but I would not want to have to deal with any trouble of this sort, should there be any. Otherwise, I think I'd be able to write a lot more about the slightly more engrossing details of my life than I do here. Well, sure, they'd be made up, but at least you'd be more entertained, right? Really, I sometimes think this blog limits me a lot. I have not talked to my blog buddies lately but I wonder if they have the same worries or concerns. Bottom line is I know this blog is public--duh--but I often want to write things that are not really for public consumption. Again, the audience is like Elbow's, that is to say, a fiction. For no one in their right mind would read this.

So, what's your excuse?

Well, I was just in the middle of a blog entry when the power went out in my room. That's the second time in recent memory. I should get some power strips with surge protectors to protect my computers.

I was saying how Sundays are quite busy days for teachers though they are supposed to be days off. Ha! That's the scam, see? They tell you you will make such and such and work five days but actually you make less than such and such cos you gotta work Sundays too. I think of all the people I know out there who work five days and five days only and are this very night watching DVDs and drinking beer and eating ribs and joking with friends and farting and laughing about everything. They don't have to even think about work till five minutes before it happens. If you're a crazy teacher or a first year teacher, you may work on Saturdays too, but as a rule I never do. I use Friday nights and Saturdays to do my thing. I can't imagine life any other way. Could you? What other job asks so much of you and yet is so challenging in other ways? Well, sure, there are others. I just can't think of them now....

Am grading book reports on The Red Pony. I got only five back so far. But I should have rec'd about 35 for my two classes doing the book. Yes, easy work for me relatively speaking, but a sad indicator that my students are going to fail in big numbers unless they get more serious about the work they are supposed to be doing. I don't actually want to rant here so let me leave this for work.

Before I do though, let me just add that I learned last week that my school will cease to exist next year. So I will be teaching in another school next year. This is very sad news for many, not least the students who may have to go take the GED instead of their exams to graduate. All the non-teaching staff will be out of work and the teachers will have to go somewhere else. Needless to say no one is happy about this. The only nugget of goodness that comes out of this is that I may get to teach in a school that runs better and whose staff gets along better and one that doesn't require a two and a half hour freaking commute every day. Still, my expectations and plan and things are all changing now that I know I won't be seeing the same kids or staff in about six months or so. Very motivating. Not.

Have recently decided to do two things for myself--stay in NYC over Xmas break and do some more creative writing. I am skipping Chicago and a possible Euro trip as it costs too much to go away all the time and I am quite tired of always doing something. I'm "on" too often. On at school, on at Columbia, on in the city. It's just too much for my system. I suppose I should give up the heroin too but that would be too hard. Maybe I'll start with the cheeseburgers. And I have started thinking about getting into a writing routine again. I mean doing it on a daily basis. I used to get a lot out of writing. I think cos I have the personality I do I need to write. If that makes no sense I can't explain it. I just feel better with myself knowing I have taken the time to write, to do something creative and of my own volition. I used to get a lot of, well, not the proverbial inner peace, but something more satisfying than peace. More like perspective and contentment with being. This could easily start sounding stupid but this is how it makes writers feel. That's how I feel about writing anyway. Well, I may even post some of my writing to my blog, not because it'll be good writing, but because it'll make me feel I've progressed, however little. If I can work it out, I hope to compose something over break. Otherwise, it looks as if I'll be helping out at the soup lines or somewhere like that on Xmas Eve of the big overkilled day itself. That should be interesting. I recall reading Orwell's stuff on living among the homeless. That is some great writing if you happen to be looking for some. I think Penguin has a nice collection of his nonfiction and journalism. I got a copy somewhere if someone wants to read it. Not that I'll really be doing the same thing.

In other news my brother and his wife had a baby girl yesterday, Saturday. They have a little boy already so I know they were happy to have a girl, though I'm also sure they were happy to have a healthy baby most of all. They haven't come up with a name but are thinking of Sara. I always thought Claudia was a pretty name but Sara is a good one too. Then again, I think Claudia Schiffer is a whore so maybe I'll rethink that one.

I remember when I was living in the Czech Rep. that Miss Schiffer accepted ten thousand (or a hundred thousand) dollars to appear for a quick hello at a political rally for then Slovak Prime Minister Meciar. What a slut. Worse yet, she apparently had nothing to say to the press when asked why she was in the middle of freaking Slovakia. Ah, celebs. Such a useless species.

Well, there are some papers still staring me in the face. An hour on and still no power. Thank god for notebook computers.

A beautiful example of what the Web can be: luminarium