the sticking point

Meme Work

I found this meme on ChicagoMama today. Thought I'd give it a shot, too.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
"I didn't have those gray hairs last week."

2. How much cash do you have on you?
$11.33

3. What's a word that rhymes with “DOOR?”
SPORE. (For some reason, I have had in my head the line from Ghostbusters: "I collect mold, spores, and fungus.")

4. Favorite planet?
This one? (Least favorite: Planet Hollywood.)

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
My wife's older sister's husband.

6. What is your favorite ringtone on your phone?
"Los Angeles," by X

7. What shirt are you wearing?
Navy-check pattern buttondown by J. Crew. It's got persistent sweat stains inside the collar. And I am wearing a Black Flag T underneath.

8. Do you “label” yourself?
Yes. And the label is four feet long.

9. Name the brand of your shoes you're currently wearing.
Biltrite? Or is that just who makes the sole? These are pretty generic black wingtips.

10. Bright or Dark Room?
Dark. Getting darker every second.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
I enjoy her weblog, but don't read it often enough. I think her musical taste reminds me of Brian Last Stop's.

12. What does your watch look like?
It looks like a Swiss Army Watch by Swiss Army.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Whining. And hoping for just 20 consecutive minutes of sleep.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
Why would it be my last?! What do you know that you're not telling me?! (My most recent message read thusly: "Sheff to Tigers.")

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
About 300-400 feet from my building.

16. What's a word that you say a lot?
"Great." Everything I like is "great." Even spectacular things.

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
S.

18. Last furry thing you touched?
That's personal.

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
One. Caffeine. Vitamins and herbal supplements, but no other medications or drugs.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
Zero.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
Four was real good. No school. No work. I was unaware of the world's evils. "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)" by Daddy Dewdrop was on the radio all the time.

22. Your worst enemy?
Attention Deficit Disorder.

23. What is your current desktop picture?
A most amazing photo of my wife and our oldest son. They are lying side by side, she is kissing his head. It's an action shot. It's beautiful and exudes love, like photos John and Yoko used to take of each other.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
"I'll talk to you in a bit."

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
Give me the money. Why fly?

26. Do you like someone?
Are we eleven?

27. The last song you listened to...?
Voodoo Child (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix Experience

28. What time of day were you born?
15:24.

29. What's your favorite number?
18

30. Where did you live in 1987?
Yonkers, N.Y.

31. Are you jealous of anyone?
Yes.

32. Is anyone jealous of you?
I hope so.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
First, in bed in Brooklyn, NY; then sobbing on my rooftop deck.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
Blame myself.

35. Do you consider yourself kind?
Yes.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
My next will be on the in-side of my right lower leg.

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
Korean.

38. Would you move for the person you loved?
From one city or country to another, yes. From the couch to the door to pay the delivery guy, maybe.

39. Are you touchy-feely?
No. But I have a hard time NOT kissing my 2-year old son's head and neck.

40. What's your life motto?
"I Don't Have One." It's a stupid motto, but the woman who begs for quarters on Court Street always understood me.

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times.
Wallet, wedding ring, tattoos.

42. What's your favorite town/city?
So many: London, Seoul, San Gimignano, Philly, Toronto, Providence, Indianapolis, Chicago.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Lunch: turkey burger deluxe (with cheddar), Met-Rx protein drink, slice of marble pound cake.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Around 2002, to my sister-in-law staying in Pennsylvania.

45. Can you change the oil on a car?
No. But I know how to get it changed.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
That she was overweight and living in Florida. I believe the story, however, to be apocryphal.

47. How far back do you know your ancestry?
I know I had great grandparents. (Or: "spectacular" grandparents.)

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
Sorry. As I am not a dandy, I do not dress "fancy."

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
My nerves.

50. Have you been burned by love?
Of course. But getting burned by hate is worse, every time.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: God Only Knows from the album Pet Sounds by Beach Boys, The

The Fall of Manchester

Don't worry, Manchester's fine. But that city's finest export, The Fall, is making its way back to the U.S. for a tour. You can get the dates and links to ticket purchase-points on the (now unofficial) Fall website here.

In New York, they'll play Knitting Factory on June 1 and at Brooklyn's great Southpaw on the following night. The Sticking Point will be there.

The More You Know...

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Clowns from the album Son of Sam I Am by Too Much Joy

Perchance To Meme...

In 2005, I…

Bought a car
Left Brooklyn after 10 years
Got an address in Queens
Got laid off
Celebrated my first-ever Father’s Day
Enjoyed watching my wife feted on her first-ever Mother’s Day
Began to tolerate, almost like, some of the White Stripes’ songs
Saw my son take his first steps
Heard my son say “Daddy” for the first time
Went to the movies just a couple times
Took my son to his first Yankees game
Was “taken” by my wife and son to the Yankees game on Father’s Day
Did not attend a funeral
Went to just one wedding
Tested my leadership and creative capabilities on a work project
Went to the gym 29 times (2004 – 168 times; 2003 – 221 times)
Saw my grandmother moved into a nursing home
Bought tickets for, but never went to, a Washington Nationals home game
Took my son to his first swim lesson
Almost had to get rid of my dog
Wrote for Jon Stewart (for the first time since 1991)
Saw the New York Dolls for the first time
Saw X for the first time
Hit the saturation point in my bitter hatred of George W Bush and his administration
Worried when H’s doctor detected a slight heart murmur (He's OK.)
Saw three great documentaries [ 1 / 2 / 3 ]
Got to work on a project with some of the finest people I know

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[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “Downbound Train” from the album His Best (Vol. 1) by Berry, Chuck

Forest Hillbilly

A quick one. With pictures.

We packed.

We moved out.

(Well, they moved us out.)

We moved in.

It took hours longer and hundreds of dollars more than we thought, but here we are. Forest Hillbillies.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: “Phobias” from the album Rough Trade Shops: Rock and Roll 1 by L.A.L. (Love as Laughter)

Solipsist

I found this questionnaire/template on Incarcerated Uterus. Though things like this are phenomenally narcissistic and scary to me, they're also right in my anal-retentive, OCD wheelhouse, so I'll play.

Warning: the following contains graphic examples of solipsism, unmitigated self-absorption, and unchecked ego. DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU.

Ten Years Ago: I was going back and forth to London, writing promos for western movies* airing on Saudi satellite TV. I was in great leg-shape, racing mountain bikes competitively. (Best finish: 9th at a race called the "Jack Rabbit Run" in Connecticut.) I was a contributing writer for a comedian who had his own weekly live show on cable. I don't remember much about 1995, really, except I wasn't very happy and I began listening to Green Day.

* That's not Westerns, the genre, but western, as in movies made by studios in that hemisphere. Stuff like this.

Five Years Ago: I was a newlywed. My wife and I lived in an enormous apartment in Brooklyn: two floors, one-and-a-half baths, two living rooms, huge master bedroom, office, two wet bars, built-in bookshelves, and a private rooftop deck. Our landlord ran and edited a socialist magazine and (true to his politics) charged us MUCH LESS rent than he could have.

It was from that rooftop deck that I watched the horrifying scene on 9/11. I saw people falling or jumping, watched the facade peel off with a sick sound a split second before the first tower collapsed... and that vantage point still frames my nightmares. For days after, we gathered up victims' personal effects (calendar pages, business cards) that had blown across the East River and onto our deck.

(The socialist landlord came to his capitalist senses in 2002, when his accountant/lawyer told him he was bleeding money and informed him how much he could get for our apartment. When the S.L. proposed an 18% rent hike, Mrs. Sticking Point and I bailed. To Boerum Hell.)

One Year Ago: My wife and I were fresh off the home study portion of the adoption process, and were days away from getting even more fingerprints done for INS. We were working on a project together, and though we watched it get scaled back from a million-dollar-live-from-Vegas-event to a puny ENG clip show, I was having a blast collaborating with her again. I was enjoying the old Pussy Ranch weblog. The Sticking Point itself looked like this.

Yesterday: It was my morning to "sleep in," which means my wife got up with H. I scored an extra 45 minutes before they came in and woke me up. I got to work around my usual time. A pal at the office joked that my hair had "extra body." My man Jake made the awesome recommendation that I put some of the 150-300 less-important CDs in my collection into binders. That way I could regain some much-needed space for the good stuff. As it is right now, our ceiling-to-floor CD shelving system is creeping down our 15-foot hallway and into the bedroom. We had no internet connections when I arrived home; the telephone service tech at Time Warner Cable gave me some bad advice, which I followed, even though I knew it was bad advice. Next, our wireless network was entirely lost. After about a half hour of pissing, moaning, and mild panic as I fiddled with all the settings, it returned. It was one of those freakish computer-related things that sometimes fix themselves. (See also: "TV reception, it fixed itself!")

Today: It was my morning to get up with H. After his bottle, he sat next to me on the couch watching Sesame Street. He sat still for almost eight whole minutes! I loved it when he began laughing at something Ernie was doing; H giggled, then looked up at me, as if to say, "Isn't that funny?" I love when he shares stuff like that with me. I came in to work 20 minutes earlier than usual to find that the celebrity-related project failure I'd been sweating overnight was not as bad as I thought. The star is pissed at his publicist and pissed at his movie studio, but may still consider the project I'm working on. For lunch, I ignored recent blood test results (my "bad" cholesterol is a tad high) and had my usual -- double turkey burger on a kaiser roll -- anyway. Then I found this questionnaire on Incarcerated Uterus.

Five Snacks I Enjoy: Cashews and/or pistachios. Ben & Jerry's Karamel Sutra ice cream (but only because they no longer make Concession Obsession). Tuna on a kaiser with extra mayo (it IS a snack!). Chocolate chip cookies from the cafeteria at work. Pirate's Booty. That was a struggle. I'm really not a "snacker." I've only had two of those items in the past three months.

I Know Most Lyrics By These Five Bands: The Clash, Replacements, Rolling Stones, Rilo Kiley, Luna.

Five Things I Would Do With $1,000,000: Buy a house in Cooperstown, NY. Set up college funds for my son and my nieces and nephew. Open a small music store. Install a batting cage at the house in Cooperstown. Get these. (I never said these were the first five things I'd do.)

Five Locations I Would Run Away To: Biras Creek, Cooperstown, Cape Cod, San Gimignano, Coolangatta.

Five Bad Habits I Have: Just five? Audible gas. Pausing to acknowledge said gas. Short attention span means I often ask, "Wait, could you start over?" Inflexible when it comes to sticking to a plan. Surliness.

Five Things I Really Like Doing: Staying at home. Listening to music. Working out. Reading. Counting things. (Do I sound like a party or what?!)

Five Things I Would Never Wear: denim shorts, any novelty T-shirt, penny loafers, a vest, underwear.

Five TV Shows I Like: The Office (U.S. version), 30 Days, Scrubs, Newsradio, NY1 News All Morning.

Five Movies I Like: Apocalypse Now, Dog Day Afternoon, Yojimbo, Magnolia, The Good Girl.

Five Famous People I Would Like To Meet: (and hopefully, they Google themselves and will make this happen.) Keith Morris, David Cross, Norman Mailer, David Johansen, Chuck D.

Five Biggest (Current) Joys: Waking up with my family, the look on H's face when I enter his nursery in the morning, walking around my amazing neighborhood, H's laugh, playing with H and his new foamy Yankees ball.

Five Favorite Toys: iPod, FutureSonics EM3s, Audacity software, iBook, the foamy Yankees ball I bought H in Cape Cod.

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Listening: "Insight" from Unknown Pleasures, by Joy Division.

Slap Your Mammy Down / Slap Your Pappy Down Again

The Brooklyn Family Sticking Point happened upon a one-block-long "flea market" yesterday. (Here.) That phrase gets quotation marks because all this thing really amounted to was a series of personal stoop sales* strung together in a daisy chain of folding tables stacked with crap.

Alongside the obligatory picture frames, salt shakers, shot glasses, and copies of Life, people in my neighborhood will sell their moldy old shoes (without soles!) for a dollar. They'll sell their old socks ("gently worn!"), three for a dollar. Books with pages dangling out. Single gloves, missing their match. Umbrella handles. Prescription eyeglasses. "Leftover" Flintstones chewable multivitamins. All this junk-drawer detritus is hauled to the curb and tagged at 50 cents, or a buck or two. Because the people in my neighborhood will sit outside their $3 million brownstone homes** on a scalding day in June to make 50 cents from a "Golden Retrievers!" calendar. From 2002.

Mrs. Sticking Point was bored/depressed/freaked out after just 6 minutes, so she and baby H headed off in the direction of the neighborhood toy store. I hung back with the beagle, and looked for the guy on this block who'd be selling records and CDs.

When I approached his table, he told me, "Everything's a quarter now, because it's gettin' fuckin' hot, and I'm tired of standin' out here." He had a lot of cool stuff, and I walked away with a bag full of goodies for less that the cost of a slice and a Coke. The best gets were this Ruts double disc (.50), this 14-year old Ramones trib comp (.25), this Bomp records comp (.25), and this Devo VHS tape. I first saw it on USA's Night Flight program when I was about twelve years old, back in my family's pre-VCR days (when you had to pay attention to what you were watching). The version I got yesterday for a quarter is the 1979, even-longer-out-of-print edition in the enormous black Warner Home Video box. On the Amazon marketplace, it's being sold as a "collectible" for $270. (Or 1,080 times more than I paid.)

The live stuff, and the video clips for "Come Back Jonee" and "Secret Agent Man," are worth every penny.

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Listening: "Something That I Said" from Live and Loud by The Ruts.

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* Called "Garage Sales" in neighborhoods with, uh... garages.

** Please note that I do not own, nor live in, such a home. Wife, child, beagle, and I share a 1000 square-foot rental apartment. (With some mod cons!)

My DJ's got the cuts, and the beats are on

CLICK HERE FOR AN UPDATE!! (1.21.04)

Get a MetroCard, get directions, and get off your ass Saturday night. (I'll get a babysitter.)

Stereo Mike (formerly "The White Genius") is DJing at Water Street Bar. You should come down. It's a great bar, with good food, in an amazing neighborhood.

Mike told me he was planning to go rock/ new wave/ indie. I requested a particular song by Garbage. He said, "You got it."

Saturday Jan22 @ 9pm

Water Street Bar

66 Water Street (between Dock & Main)

Brooklyn

718/625.9352