lately i've been

trying to stay on track with the things that come out as important to me, like, you know, aging and stuff like that. I've been doing pretty well. I get up in the morning, and sure enough, i'm older. I look older, i feel older, i act (in some ways) at least a little older. Over the past couple of weeks i have re-immersed myself in the working world, and it's been alright. It turns out folks still drink and smoke and tear it up at their jobs, and that's i think just as important as aging. (it also helps with the process)

So that part has been alright. I've been listening to those two new records that are out. That one by The Raconteurs, and that other one that came out by the Eagles of Death Metal, which i mentioned last time. I'll say the raconteurs site is pretty bear bones. Like, when technology reaches this one point, where you have to start going backwards to be going forwards or something.

Now, last night, i really wanted to get out to the Semi Precious Weapons video release party, but as has happened a couple of times that i set my sights on getting to their dos, i am stricken with something. Yesterday, i think it may have just been The Tiredness, but whatever it was, it also made me feel acutely aged. I mean, it was like a cross between vertigo and exhaustion, that seemed to have no solid roots in my previous days here on the earth. Feeling it would pass, i loaded up the bag with lenses, extra batteries, a flash, some extra cards, you know, all you might want if you're going to go to a glam extravaganza on the west side... but what happened was, i went to a garden party in carroll gardens, and had a couple of beers, and then came back to the hook and burned it down, and had a night cap over at sonny's which happened to be packed to the gills, me and ol' Finn had the last two seats at the bar man. And i didn't recognize a single face in the place. So we got the hell out of there and wrapped it up. The thing that sucks the most for me about missing that event in town, is not so much that i didn't have the guts, it's that i didn't get to see Lacey Langston and i can pretty much guarantee i regret it. I mean, when she goes out on the town, it's like a bonfire walking toward you, really fast.

Good thing too, because this morning i was out there at like 9:30 or something, huffing the laundry to the ghetto-mat, and then off to brunch with the family McKean over to 65 dikeman. We were drinking these faux-mosas with fresh squeezed grapefruit juice, that actually required a fork for service. (and speaking of rabbits) i trashed their corkscrew too. It was one of them fancy schmancy ones that's supposed to do all the work for you, but the thing is, it wasn't doing a god damned thing for me. And you ask, "what the hell was ol' connortown doing using a corkscrew on champagne anyway?!

Yes. I understand. Try being ME. I was the guy. The one WITH the corkscrew, going, "what the hell am i doing?! using a corkscrew for champagne?" But as it turns out, this was one of them fancy champagnes, that comes with like, string on it. So, you know. There's that. That wasn't the hard part though. I'm usually pretty good with things like string. I can tie it, or i can untie it. It doesn't matter. I'm pretty versatile. But what was fucking me up was the "high-end" low profile cork. You couldn't get a hand on it. You couldn't get a screw driver under it, and i tell you what. YOU SURE AS HELL could not get a rabbit mechanical corkscrew in it either. It was ridiculous. In the end, what we ended up doing was just smashing the necks of the bottles on the bow of the Queen Mary 2 (a blatant lie) and just slugging it after a quick filter through some cheese cloth. (what do we care?! we're fucking DIE HARDS)

Aside from aging like i've mentioned before, i had the luxury of hearing a good friend (and founder of ITBK) that i should take better care of myself. (Now, that's when i KNOW this beard has gone too far. I mean, when folks start being polite, and letting you know they worry about you, most likely because you look like hell, it's GOT to be the beard. But you know? i wanted to see. I wanted to see how it really looked.) The thing is, and not a lot of you know this, but those of you that know me know this, i'm puerto rican. So, one of the things with being puerto rican, particularly if you're a man, which i most assuredly am, you grow beards. So in my case, when i grow a beard, every now and again, you get these beard hairs that are about as thick and hard as a god damned rose thorn. Except, rose thorns are you know, bigger than the pores of your face. So it's like a god damned surgical procedure to get 'em out. How you get 'em, (if you're me) is you shave and you use a good blade and some high end shaving cream, and then you don't use a toner afterwards. Without fail in just a few days, there's a chicken bone trying to grow out of your face. Like a god damned chicken rib or something. So, that's what happened to me. I went down to Bal'mo, and i shaved my face. But i didn't have that toner with me, because i'm not really that vein when you get down to it. But then what happened is two days later, a god damned stick tried to grow out of the bottom of my chin. So, you know, i've been trying to let the hair do its own thing. just grow man. Sure, it hurts. imagine i jabbed you in the jaw with a rose thorn. It's like that. So, i've got the tweezers and everything. You know, the good ones, but it don't matter, because that little fucker has to surface or you have to tear in their with knives. Now the catch to tearing into your face with a knife, or trying to tweeze a chicken bone out of your chin, is that it makes some marks on your face, that don't look as hot as say, a gray beard. So, that's kind of where i'm at with it. It's like, i'm not feeling the beard, but you know, it's medical. it's science. it's physics. So, every couple of days, what i do is i try to get in there and give it a good gankin' but it ain't gettin'ganked. So, i might have to beard it for another week or something. Who can really say? not me. that's who.

But seriously, the weather's been nice.
real nice.

and that queen mary, she's a big boat. Seems like about a year ago this time last year, (a year ago, like i said) that she was on her maiden voyage heading up the hudson, and now she comes over here to redhook to park. Pretty impressive.

Imagine though, if the Queen Mary 2 could grow a beard, and then it got one of them wild hairs trying to bust out of her chin... I mean. Really think about it.

i'll be around,
and hey, it's nice to see you again.

oh. and about that devil dog. The thing is, i was thinking that if i put a picture up on the front page that i didn't like very much, (which isn't a whole truth, because actually i like that picture of a devil dog very much) but what i mean is, it's not like a picture you could look at for days and days, so i thought that if i put something like that up, that i'd probably want to change it pretty quick, which would be an inpiration for me to stay on top of the site this week. Sometimes that's all it takes. Put up something you don't stand behind, or rather, you wouldn't choose to stand behind, and you're likely to do something about it.

let's see if i'm right.

xo_ dTown | listening to MudHoney | 56˚ and pretty nice.