Daily blog

many interesting things and goings on afoot, the most recent of which was my trip to the Daily Show today. it was a simple enough task to get in: simply call them on Friday between 11 and 11:30, leave a message and expect a call back later on that day. it was a really great time, fun to see how they make that show. the comic who warmed up the audience was funny enough, jon stewart was hilarious (as was the day's material) and the guest was Al Franken. the only con was the studio is way the hell over on 11th avenue in Hell's Kitchen, not a great trek in 40 degree weather. we were explicitly told not to ask for autographs or take pictures, so you'll have to make do with my camera's little snapshot of the set.

i would have rather gone when Kurt Vonnegut was a guest, though i found solace in the fact that i was going to see him last friday during a reading at the Union Square Barnes&Noble...to no avail. he cancelled, though i don't blame him, he is like 83 years old, after all.

the one author i have seen, though, was one whom i admire greatly: Jonathan Safran Foer. heather and i saw him a couple of weeks ago at the Brooklyn Public Library during their "Brooklyn Writers for Brooklyn Readers" series. he was great, he was young, he was my would-be doppleganger, and i have to say i was just a little bit turned on...

there have been parties (kudos to Mark in greenpoint) and comedy clubs (kudos to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and Gotham Comedy) and amateur sketches, dinners, drinks, just a little bit of dancing, and many many hours lounging on the weekends writing letters and reading the paper. heather and i have been growing fonder of each other over the weeks, carefully making our apartment the way we want it. we've got internet in our place finally, cable...we finally got a TV, and so i've started my netflix account again. surprisingly, heather has not seen a huge catalog of movies anyone from our generation would deem necessary and definitive.

heather and i have been crafting our own language, our own culture here in our apartment. this is something couples do, i suppose, and after awhile we may get to a point where we won't understand anyone who isn't us, who doesn't live in (what Kurt Vonnegut would call) our nation of two. but that's ok with me, because i'm willing to be a citizen here. i'm in love.

Framingham, MA

went to a bachelor party for an old high school friend. and from what i remember (and i think it's a lot!) i'm pretty sure i'll never look at bottled water the same way again.

time out of mind

currently, as i am ttyping, drunk in framingham, massachusettes, at a bachelor party. we're drinking beers and of course i'm out of my gourd on onlyl 4 beers.

tap the rockies my ass

the details of My life are quite inconsequential

i know it's been a while since i rapped at ya, but things have been pretty busy in my world. so many things to share, not the least of which was that i made a trip to my old hometown of queesbury for labor day weekend. a lot of my old friends were there, sort of a homecoming for me in the sense that i hadn't been there for like six years. and to tell you the truth i don't think i ever would have returned had it not been for the promise of seeing people with whom i still love to laugh.


in other news, i've taken a part time job at the local barnes and nobles during the down time of my tutoring escapades, but as September is upon us now, i assume that i'll have to quit in order to make even bigger bucks as a tutor.

aside from that, new york is full of charm (if not grace) and the importance, history, emotion and ethos of this town are not lost on me, just, seemingly, on the locals.

She's a MAN, BABY!

INT. OFFICE - DAY
NICK is at a table with three other girls, all of whom are casually checking the Village Voice.

GIRL 1
Man, there are A LOT of ads for porno!

GIRL 2
Tell me about it, the prostitution ads are right next to the horoscopes, so everyday when I check my horoscope it looks like I am looking up call-girls.

NICK
Yeah, I just moved here and I've noticed that New York has an inordinate amount of she-males.

GIRL 3
(SILENCE)

the times, they are...

one of my favorite things to do now is poke myself out my 4th (and top) floor window and take a gander at the neighborhood. up the street there are kids playing baseball amidst regular traffic and ambulences, behind them the high-risen M train pounds the night's shinanigans flat like a penny. down the street many busses flash by, the same bus, tailgating its doppleganger for the sake of making their rounds on time. many puerto rican families just inhabit the sidewalks, showing off their babies and smoking. their music can be heard for blocks, sometimes, and it's all very authentic. the neighborhood is also inhabited by the likes of me and heather, young couples hoping to take the city by storm. our music only fills our apartment, but is authentic all its own.

we've painted one room red, one room green, and the other have been left white. it's not as christmasy as you may guess, and once we're all moved in i trust our authenticity as new yorkers will be as heart felt as the couple in Edward Hopper's "Room in New York," which i've mentioned before.

i'm rambling, but that's how i know i'm home.

Splinter

We're slowly but surely getting things in order: we've recently acquired a bed, painted a room and are in the process of settling some hash down at the NYC Board of Education.

there are so many things to blog about, but all i want to say is this: if someone ever tells you a sewer rat won't bite your pinky finger, they's lyin'.

Ringo No More

i'm not sure if you are aware of this, but we initially flew out here July 18th, on the premise that our apartment would have been ready by then. upon arrival we were assured by our agent that the unit would be ready no later than august 1. that date got pushed back to august 15, which then in turn got pushed back to september 1. at this rate, we would be in our place by september 15, meaning we would have squatted at my cousin's place for 2 months inconveniencing everyone we know in the process.

so last week we walked around Bushwick all day and found another place: a little better, a little cheaper and A LOT newer. so here it is, in all its glory. we move in today, you may ship your well wishes and care packages accordingly.

by edward hopper...

there's a painting, if you can find it, by Edward Hopper. it's called, "Room in New York." it shows a couple: the man reading his newspaper intently, the woman casually tapping keys on her piano. and all i want is to capture this moment (forgoing any insight one might cull from a deep reading of the blocking of the characters, and the way light plays not with them but on them) in my own apartment with my own girlfriend, piano or not.

it's been almost four weeks since we've arrived in new york, and we have not one word on the move-in date of our coveted apartment, except that it theoretically should be happening soon. i'm starting to wonder if we'll ever get in there, as it's the only one we've deemed perfect for our purposes.

minus the apartment thing, everything else in this city is grand.

the Ocean State

we've been in Providence, RI since Saturday visiting my parents and other family. the Atlantic is a wide dream.

one night we went to staten island (the ferry is free and takes us right under the statue of liberty) at sundown, became so disenchanted with this forgotten borough that we ate chinese food and fled soon thereafter. heather does look wonderful with the sea wind blowing in her hair, though. one night we went to chinatown and had, hands down, the best chinese food we've each ever had. after our meal we walked down canal street where an ornery old coot insisted i buy his strange fruit. "i give you two pounds, one dollar!" he said, obviously doing me a favor. but i wasn't in the market for street fruit, let alone fruit i had never seen before. he gave me a sample, and i sucked its juice. it was slightly sweet, mundane if not tart. i didn't like it that much, and the man shook his fists at me as heather and i walked off. we turned north on mulberry street, into little italy. and looked at shoes and the wannabe Sopranos. if the mafia is dead, tourism killed it.

that you do so well...

i've taken on another student. he lives in the bronx, is named dennis, and is terribly bright. i take the 5 train to east 180th street and walk a few blocks to his house. on my way i pass by an old cemetary which a sign says contains the graves of veterans of 4 wars, starting as far back as 1812.

so i stand there and marvel a bit at the green lawn, unkempt and ramshackle mosoleums. as i grip the locked gate, i look down to my feet where a plate of rice and fish sits, uneaten but decaying, like it's been there for weeks. the rice is black, the fish mummified. i wretch a bit and an old man walks next to me and sees how i react to this food that someone seems to have placed there as an offering.

"voo-doo," he whispers and walks on.

the Carni Code

on sunday heather and i ventured into the fabled Coney Island section of brooklyn (which is a bit of a misnomer, as it is not an island, but rather just the the southern most coast of Long Island).

coney island is the home of the famous Cyclone (wooden) roller coaster, Nathan's Famous hotdogs, Shoot the Freak (a game wherein you shoot paintballs at a human target), the Wheel of Wonder (a ferris wheel with unhinged seats) and the most deplorable beaches this side of the N train. i did jump into the Atlantic though, my first time. i also did all of the above except shoot the aforementioned freak, mostly because the human target in question happened to be a black guy, and i have a substantial amount of white guilt for a Latino. heather kicked my ass at both skee ball and that game where you shoot water into the clown's mouth. she won a stuffed bear.

it was the best day in a string of good days for me, mostly because it had been so long since i had been to both a beach and an amusement park. people were fishing for sea bass and crab off the pier, which seemed amazing to me as they would send down whole chicken carcasses, to harvest the smallest crabs ever. i just had to ask, why not eat the chicken?

and now some gems from the wonderful world of East Harlem Sol:

[reading homework aloud]
Sol has $2000 in the bank and Nick has $1000, [interjects] which is 50% WRONG, [continues reading] what is the ratio of Sol's money to Nick's?

[pointing to my elbows, which are notoriously dry and flaking]
You ashy! You need some lotion.

[replying to my suggestion we cut across a courtyard instead of walking around it]
nah, you don't want no drama! this is the PROJECTS, they like to mess with the white people. but you mixed, so who knows.

indeed who knows?

Eating Watermelon in Harlem

today i met with my one and only student (at the moment), Sol. he's a nice kid, bright and eager, but also easily distracted and sometimes lazy. however, as he is my only client at the moment, i'll be sure to put my heart into his education and hopefully see that he does well into 6th grade. he's a little big for his age (11), stout and willing to rap during the moments that, with anyone else, would be uncomfrotable silences. i teach him in Harlem, at 130th street and Park Avenue.

it's hot in nyc, and after we studied math and writing for hours, it was time for recess. so we walked to the park where he played tennis and i wrote up lessons for tomorrow. after an hour we were both so hot and tired that we picked up some cold watermelon and ate it amongst the pigeons and children playing in the fountain.

the kid marveled that my appetite rivaled his. "no one's ever finished eating before me," said sol.

If I Can Make it There...

we've arrived in New York, with a few changes to our play:

the apartment won't be ready August 1st (it was supposed to be ready July 15, then pushed, now it seems pushed again), which is disappointing. however, i have a cousin who lives in yonkers, which is where we are staying now until the place is ready.

i've been hired as a private tutor and start immediately, adding much stress to an already stressful time

we're borrowing a friend's car to get back and forth from the 4 train into Manhattan (the only way to get to work) which is also stressful (NY drivers are frikkin nuts) but very appreciated, because to rent a car would be hundreds of dollars a week

however, upon arrival to yonkers we noted a steak house called, "Boulder Creek," and thought it would be a hoot to try it out. but the hoot, to me, became surreal as the menu items consisted of "flatirons steak salad" and "Denver strip steak" and "rocky mountain" this and "front range" that. what are the odds of two coloradoans trekking thousands of miles to start a new life only to find a Colorado themed restaurant 5 minutes from their home? i found it odd and wondered aloud if New York wasn't trying to tell us to go home. Heather posited that it was just the opposite: Colorado telling us to not forget who we are.

the Blogger of Bushwick

but i haven't told you yet about our trip to new york with two objectives in mind: 1) find heather a job and 2) find a place to live.

so we naturally split duties. she ventured alone to her own job fairs and interviews, held me in tow the following mornings when she had to audition by giving a practice lesson to live classes. i walked around manhattan and brooklyn, looking at overpriced studios and spoken-for single bedrooms and for the first 5 days of our 6 day trip it seemed like neither of us was accomplishing our goals.

then on the last day, literally just hours before our plane back to colorado was to take off from la guardia and completely independent of one another, she found a teaching gig on starr street in brooklyn, and i found a lovely 2 bedroom only two blocks away.

mission accomplished.

it's perfect! rent stabalized 3rd floor walk-up, hardwood floors, two bedrooms, living room, kitchen (with nooks) and full bathroom. natural light, lots of windows, directly across from a park, on the same block as the grocer, two blocks from the subway and a 3 minute walk to heather's new school.

i'm really proud of heather, she scored a great job teaching 6th grade which is an ideal situation for her. i'll be working on various projects, not the least of which will be my primary source of income: starting a tutoring business with my friend, the low.

our move in date is july 15.

right now we are back in colorado, visiting heather's parents. this is the first time i've met them, but already i feel at home. hayden is in the high country, a beautiful universe of the sublime.

anyway, this blog will pick up after we move in and whatnot, complete with pics, until then i'm still on vacation.