So, there I was, reading The Hobbit on the G train, coming back home from Bensonhurst (where I had a lovely sushi dinner with Nell at Fontana) and looking forward to tucking in at my nice warm apartment. We were at the Bergen stop and I noticed a bit of commotion just outside the doors right in front of me. Maybe a bunch of party guys in the midst of a bar crawl, I thought. Just as the doors were closing, somebody held them open and a skinny guy with headphones was pushed into the car, followed by three big, burly guys. The big guys were wearing sneakers and baseball-type jackets. Some warehouse of stereotypes deep in my brain whispered Italians, though I really have no idea if Italians typically dress like that.

The skinny guy said something, or was about to, when one of the burly ones waved something in his face--a badge. Then I noticed that the guy waving it looked remarkably like Andy Sipowicz from NYPD Blue. It was uncanny--the belly, the hairline, the funny mustache, and of course the attitude. He started giving the skinny guy some shit. Skinny boy, wisely, clammed up. From what I could tell from their conversation, he jumped the turnstile, unaware he was being watched by three undercovers. Sipowicz shoved Skinny Boy closer to the other two cops and they were all hassling him. One guy asked him how old he was (22) and if he'd ever been arrested before (no). The cop chuckled and said "There's a first time for everything." The kid started absent-mindedly putting his hands in his pockets and one of the cops slapped them away, saying "keep your hands where we can see them." The kid looked scared. I mean, wouldn't you be? Sure, jumping the turnstile is wrong but being busted is just no fun for anyone (except of course me, who gets to tell you all about it).

The cops cuffed the kid, and at the next stop (Hoyt-Schermerhorn), they all got off the train. The End!

This is turning out to be one of the best mixes I've come up with in a while. In the CD changer today:
"Aggro Mix" compilation by my friend James . It's chock full of great stuff: Johnny Cash, Joan Jett, KISS, handfuls of fun punk. Plus, since James is a music engineer type person, the sound quality does not suck.

Van Halen: Van Halen
Ain't talkin' bout love today!

House of Large Sizes: my ass-kicking life
Really, the title says it all.

The Lovemongers: battle of evermore [Maxi CD Single]
I got this because I liked their cover of the classic Led Zep song, but their "unplugged" version of "Crazy on You" proves that Anne Wilson still has the best fucking rock pipes this side of Freddy Mercury.

Inclined: Bright New Day
I imagine that this is how the Chili Peppers would have turned out if they had gone to college and majored in philosophy.

And what does the plastic mechanical fortune cookie say today? Ah! The largest room is room for improvement. Sounds like another trip to IKEA!

After writing late into the night, I awoke to a rainy day. Thus, today's (or rather, yesterday's) soundtrack. For those of you just tuning in, I'm making it my goal to go through my entire CD collection at the rate of at least five a day, without repeating any:

XTC: Skylarking
One million teacups/I bet couldn't hold all the wet/That fell out of my eyes/When you fell out with me

Mercury Rev: Yerself Is Steam
Raise her head and things get warm/Hold on to its leg, before it flies away/Sun lit walks, I feel no harm/My primitive words match my primitive heart

Built to Spill: there's nothing wrong with love
When my mind's uncertain my body decides/What it will do to get through the hell of the night/As I trip on the ocean that leads through your eyes/Well my eyes can't wait til they finally see through you

The Wedding Present: Seamonsters
We don't have to do anything/We don't have to do anything except watch the leaves/Turning in the wind

Autocrash: Moonraker
[Sorry, don't know the lyrics, but if someone out there wants to let Robin S. know that I need them, that would be fine with me.]

I did in fact make it out of the apartment today. I went to go see The Holy Ghost play the last of their "Thursdays in January" shows at the Luna Lounge. Free shows are hard to miss when you suddenly realize you're BROKE and your unemployment has run out--sigh. Kendall and CJ (the "band wives") were there, and it is always good to see them. They took me to Katz deli (I think that's what it was called) on Houston and Ludlow, which was a trip. You have to take a ticket when you go in, whether you're getting something to eat or not. As you get your hot dogs or fries or whatever, they write down on your ticket what you got, and you present the ticket to the cashier when you leave. The kicker is that if you don't have your ticket at the end, they'll make you pay! It's like a parking garage--weird.

I just hung out for the company, didn't eat anything. I've done really well this week (since Sunday night) making all of my meals at home, and all of it super-healthy. I've eaten more fresh fruits and vegetables in the last five days than I have the last four months, and the sad thing is I'm really not exaggerating about that. So this was the real test, going right into the Land of Sin with CJ and Kendall after five days of whole grains and raw spinach. And you know what, I wasn't even interested. They offered me fries, and I have to say the hot dogs looked good--in a sick sort of way--but I really had no desire for a taste. It helped that I had dinner before I left, but even so, I was pretty proud of myself. I'm not into deprivation or "dieting"--if I really wanted anything I would have had it. I just knew that if I ate some fries I'd feel shitty afterward, and I wasn't hungry, so why bother? It's not like I'll never have a hot dog again, but the intent is to break the "bacon every day" habit I developed after moving here and hopefully save a little money in the bargain. Wish me luck.

Pat, Nell and Lara were at the Holy Ghost show also. A reg'lr Nebraska reunion, it was. Nell has been talking for a while about getting the gang together for an annual "Nebrooklyn Brunch" in Park Slope, so I guess we've taken it on as our personal project to make it happen sometime before THG goes on tour, and before Liars goes to Europe. I don't s'pose some pancakes will kill me, in the name of social harmony.

Oh, in sad, bizarro news, my former housemate Malika got DEPORTED! I made jokes about her being illegal but I didn't think they'd really send her back. I didn't even think she was really illegal. They didn't even let her go home and get her stuff, she just got picked up at the Canadian border and shipped back to London. Jiminy... So, Pat moved back into the house, and it's a bachelor pad again. This just adds to the whole creepy feeling I have about the INS.

[CD stuff moved to Obsessive-Compulsive Dance Party 2002

One line from another song keeps going through my head all day:

“My anaconda don’t-want-none unless you've got buns, hon!”

God bless Sir Mix-a-Lot!

In the CD player, a friends-and-relations mix:

Mercy Rule : The Flat Black Chronicles
"Overjoyed by the simple thing that I see/Somebody gives a damn and they're sharing it with me"
Ron is one of my favorite people. He was the drummer for this now defunct and highly respected Nebraska band. He now lives in the room I just moved out of, in Brooklyn, and drums for a popular New York band, Liars. He’s also an artist—a very good one.

Bobby Conn : The Golden Age
“If I could change the world/I’d be a girl”
I’ve known Colby since he was a plucky nineteen-year-old. He plays drums on several tracks, tours with this band, and never responds to my e-mail. I am not resentful.

Peter Parker : Semiautobiographical
“Section 8 or migration/To a more familiar nation/Where the words remember/What they mean”
I had a dream about Matthew last night. I wanted to buy him an amber ring that I thought would go well with his hair, and wondered if he’d wear it, since he doesn’t seem much of a jewelry person. Then I got a letter from him (in pencil, on notebook paper), in much worse handwriting than he has in real life (which is actually quite tidy), which presented some sort of “contest” he invented – if I won, it meant I could come back to Seattle and hang out with him. I have no idea what any of this means.

Left Orbit Temple : Prolusion
[I don’t know any of the lyrics on this one yet]
Trippy CD-cum-art-project by James, whom I met online three years ago. Shockingly, we’re even friends in real life. He likes Star Wars, I like Star Wars--what else do you really need to get along?

Infinite Monkeys : Freaknik Fun
“Blippity Bang Bang”
I wish everyone could have this CD. It’s very good, and I’m the only one who has one, which seems unfair. My daddy made it.

I'm still alive, I apologize for those of you checking here for updates (anyone? hello?) and not finding anything. The great irony being that when enough is going on to write about, you tend to lack the time or energy to write about it. Actually it's not tremendously exciting--just apartment stuff and various around-town-loony-new-yorkers types of things. I'll get to it. It is interesting that I've been getting into more of a literary mind these days. I mean that even when I'm not physically writing, I'm continuously taking experiences or observations and turning them over in my mind, creating phrases, descriptions, trying to make funny things funnier, or interesting things more interesting. Whether this makes my stories better or just turns them into pretentious bullshit remains to be seen.

One thing I will report is that I finally saw Mulholland Drive. As a long time David Lynch fan, I was encouraged by the legions of critics who praised this film as Lynch's master work, the culmination of his genius, etc. Well, it was pretty good, but I suspect that the (mostly male) critics who are drooling all over this movie are perhaps influenced by the fact that it features cute nekkid chicks gettin' it on. Call me cynical, but I found this paragraph in a viewer's review on the IMDB page for Mulholland Drive:

"The dual roles of the main actress, Naomi Watts, showcase her enormous talent. That is, when I could get my eyes off of her co-star. What an acting pair."

Sounds like her "acting pair" was so distracting he couldn't remember her name...

Now, I don't have anything against cute nekkid chicks gettin' it on, or against guys (or gals) who enjoy movies about it, but as far as that goes you might as well rent Bound, which I found more entertaining. I suppose Mulholland Drive is worth seeing, but I liked Lost Highway better.