Okay so I fell off the health wagon again. I was out under the broiling sun today having a swell time. Soccer fever has swept the city. Although It'll go back to sleep now that the USA is out of the running.
I think Ghana kicked our butts.
Anyhow Puma set up a kiddies soccer cage by the river so I spent the afternoon watching future USA heros going at it,...um they need more workouts. Still it was nice to see the lads having a neat time.
I later wandered over to the seaport Nathans, in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge, and shoved thousands of french fries, and hot dawgz down my gob! Yummie! I probably took five more minutes off my lifespan, but I couldn't help it.
That's how it is. The World has ended. Although It's not as bad as I thought. The tv still works, the subway chugs along, and mail is delivered.
Well okay the sun has turned to blood, the hounds of Hell are devouring people at random, demons are burning all the churches, and the oceans have turned to crude oil.
I was just reading the Texas Republican party platform for 2010. Lets's see,..kick the United Nations off U.S. territory. Well that could be good. The U.N. building could be converted to low, and moderate income housing,..with a swell view!
Oppose One World Currency,..does that actually exist? Anyway real or not Texas don't like it.
They also don't like blowjobs, butt sex, porn, fags, nudists, working Moms, or Queers getting hitched. They'll put any pastor or civil servant that issues marriage papers to Queers into the tank.
In fact they seem dead set on tossing who knows how many more thousands into the already 'MILLIONS' full American gulags.
They wants to abolish the IRS too.
I'm with them on that one. Find someone that don't hate tax collectors.
Okay what else,...umm, the Supreme Court can't go around handing out civil rights to just anybody anymore. So they want to forbid them Court guys from taking cases involving race, gender, sexuality or education.
'But Wait there's More!
(As the 2:00am Weed Wacker commercials always say.)
The Texas GOP wants all them illegals tossed out toot sweet or ‘tout de suite’ for you swell French folks tuning in. They wants them Mexicans out. (..I guess the Swedes can stay.)
As for them Mexicans, whose land it rightfully is, it don't matter if they've been here for decades, and they got great grand kids.
They all go.
The ones born here will have their citizenship revoked. Kind'a like what similar political parties wants to do in Europe. All them Muslims, Africans, and other assorted children of gawd got'a go!
Actually if Texas, and certain European countries 'do' kick ethnically "impure" folks out there may be problems.
For one they'll be losing a noticeable percentage of there national populations. Who the hell will drive the buses or repair the computers.
This will be especially weird if they kick the Mexicans out of the Southwest. Given the real numbers all them states will be left with maybe a few thousand aging, bitter, gringos to run six large States.
The "good" thing in all this Republican Tea Party xenophobia is that it's has pushed the 'real face' of the political right out into the spotlight.
This is who they are.
Like it's said, "...Let All the Poisons That Lurk in the Mud, Hatch Out…"
Anyhow that's America or part of it on this very warm night.
Well we're two months away from the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that got us into our current nightmare. On the up side they're actually working on the towers again. They did a little work some years back then stopped. A little more late last fall then stopped again.
They began once more in spring, and actually have nine or ten stories up on one, and not counting the basement levels three or four stories on another. These are just two of the several replacement buildings at the former World Trade Center site.
At this rate they should all be up in another seven or eight years.
Um, did I mention that the Empire State Building went up in a year. The Pentagon which at the time was the largest building on Earth went up in 18 months? Shanghai doubled in size in the same time it took us to put up those few stories?
This was a Great Nation once. I'm glad I was born in time to see her at her height.
I was happily surprised on this steamy evening to find that the Emerald City was celebrating my Birthday. They got the day wrong, but that's okay it was the thought that counted.
When I come down to sleep death's endless night, The threshold of the unknown dark to cross, What to me then will be the keenest loss, When this bright world blurs on my fading sight? Will it be that no more I shall see the trees Or smell the flowers or hear the singing birds Or watch the flashing streams or patient herds? No, I am sure it will be none of these.
But, ah! Manhattan's sights and sounds, her smells, Her crowds, her throbbing force, the thrill that comes From being of her a part, her subtle spells, Her shining towers, her avenues, her slums-- O God! the stark, unutterable pity, To be dead, and never again behold my city!
James Weldon Johnson
(Thanks Ed for the heads up on this piece by the Harlem Renaissance poet James Weldon Johnson.)
If you click on these snaps I took,..and then click again you'll see gargoyles. There are a number of buildings large'n small around town with this guys perched on them. The above is near Wall Street.
If you enlarge it, and look closely you'll see dragon heads around the roof. These may have been water spouts for rain run off originally. Unfortunately nothing comes out now.
I waited for a good rain storm to get video of the spout goin'n to town gushing rain. No dice. I guess building management thought it might be an insurance nightmare.
Above are snaps from a dark below Zero/0.f Tuesday afternoon. The extremes of weather in the Emerald City are a wonder to experience,...from inside a cozy heated or today air conditioned home.
I think this is why I could never live in Southern California as my brother did. I'd miss the seasons, harsh though they are I loves'em.
It's never too Hot to play with your dolls. Which is exactly what I did today! There was nothing on tv, and the radio just plays the same six songs. So there I was sweating buckets, and playing doll dress up.
Hi gang. Well it was another scorcher today. officially it was 97f, but it was 101f in my house. Except for the bedroom where it was 68f.
The guy who invented air conditioning should get a medal, and all the oral sex he wants for life!
I was out'n about doing my laundry, shopping, and generally living my life in all the heat. This time I took my cute sky blue Chinese parasol with me. See Nurse Pickles I learned my lesson.
At the Mermaid's Parade I got sunstroke by foolishly running around in the Summer Solstice sun. I was down for two daze behind that.
Btw here's Barbie up there in my kitchen checking the thermometer. Yup! It's hot okay! 100f, and going up. This mayhem is supposed to break in a few daze. It's going down to 88f over the weekend.
Whoopie!
Till then drink heavily,...water dammit, and stay out of direct sunlight. Also put ice cubes in your cat or doggie's water bowls. They really like that sort of thing.
Below is a video from the Parade. You can see the "Friends of WBAI banner for a moment. Also Lou Reed, and Laurie Anderson the King, and Queen of this years event are at the end of the video.
The down side they're surrounded by security. This is the first year I've see so many red shirts at the Parade. Good grief! The Mermaid's Parade in the age of Terror.
Will this crap never end?
Anyway here's a few more snaps from the Sydneyland class trip to to the beach.
You know it's summer when it's 82f at two in the morning. Btw it's going to be 95f+ today.
Summers in the Emerald City are merciless. Those in the area remember to look in on your older family, and pals. That, and make sure the kiddies in your life are hydrated.
That is make sure they're dancing semi-naked in front of fire hydrants. I remember doing just that when I was little, and living in Harlem.
Fire hydrant water falls, the shaved ice man, fans made of bright colored card board with bamboo handles. This was how the common prole kids enjoyed summer in New York.
About shaved ice. It seems to have three independent evolutions. Puerto Rican, Southern rural Blacks, and urban Italians. They all came up with a variety of cones based on shaved ice, and fruit flavoring.
The flavors varied according to the ethnic taste, but it was all good.
So I was out there sucking down fruity ice, getting splashed by fresh Adirondack water,..via our block's hydrant. That, and listening to the Brooklyn Dodgers which came out of every window.
Especially after Jackie Robinson signed on with the team.
Also heatwaves only lasted for two or three days tops. As opposed to now during the age of planetary climate change when heatwaves can last weeks. You bet I gots an air conditioner,..two!
I runs'em full blast too!
Bleep conservation it's Hot Dammit!
Stay Tuned.
These are some scenes from 1920's,30's,40's Harlem. Much was still around in the early/mid-1950's when I was a wee lad. I see much here that I remember.
While out at Coney Island I got into a talk with a Christian evangelist. He was holding this big sign saying something about everybody going to Hell. I asked him what I always ask professing Christians.
Why?
Why if your G-d is all merciful does he chuck good people into the Lake of Fire.
Folks that don't happen to buy the born again line are condemned to fry. If they were moral, and kindly all their lives they still get the molten lava enema.
I got the usual answer. "God is Just". So unless you Believe you'n your is toast,...literally.
The Nuns told me the same thing btw,..."Just".
Merciless, but "Just".
Actually he was a nice guy, and was trying to save me from Hell. I wasn't disrespectful of his stuff. In fact we agreed on several points. I kept saying that his gawd was cruel, and he kept to the that "just" thing.
I hope I one day run into him in some Hashish house in Paradise so we can continue our conversation.
Below are visions of the Managements eternal mercy.
Btw, they always blow away New York in these things. Never Moose Jaw or East Saint Louis. Better yet,...Paris!
I always get in trouble when I go after anything French. So for the record I love the French,..especially their boys. I just want to see the aliens or some big bug take out the City of Light for a change, and give us a rest.
Like an airbag in an old Chevy my tummy has re-inflated. Good grief, now I'll never fit down that super narrow submarine hatchway!
Remember all that weight I lost,...well I found it. Aw com'on all I did was have two episodes of falling off the health wagon, and I'm the damned Hindenberg again. I had some KFC on Friday, and some take out curry on Sunday.
Then BLAM!!
My gut is making like blimp city. I'm told it's the sodium, and assorted radioactive debris that they use to cook all that crap up with. If I lay off the grease, and dead animals for a bit I should re-deflate in a week or so.
It was Hot as Hell at the beach, Coney Island, but we had a swell time anyway. Above, and below are a few snaps from the "Sydneyland" class trip to Coney Island on Saturday.
My dear pals Mr., and Mrs. Satan were there as was Nurse Pickles. The sweetheart just insists on keeping me alive,..go figure. Also not seen is our pal Ken a famous comix book artist.
We didn't do any of the rides. There was maybe a million folks running around loose, and most of them were clogging up the exhibits. A 90 minute waiting time for each thrilling ride,...bleep that.
We had a swell time anyway. The only downer is that I over did it, and got sunstroke or something like it. I kept meaning to go further down the Broadwalk, and get a straw hat.
...bit didn't.
So hanging out in direct sunlight while the summer solstice is only hours away was perhaps a tad unwise. Hey, not a problem I said. Wrong. Nurse Pickles insisted I use her parasol, but naw! I was a tuff guy!
I got nicely burnt up.
At about 5:30 I began to zone out, and get cranky like all the little kiddies. You take kids out, and they're fried by four or five, and start wetting them selves, and crying.
I was no different.
So I had to bid my comrades so long, and head home. Wow I fell asleep as soon as I got on the beloved "N" Train. I came too just before Pacific street,..a good thing since that's my stop.
So me, and my pals will do it again on my birthday. This time I'll finally ride the Cyclone, the that demented 100 foot off the ground hanging by a thin wire ride.
I'm told I shouldn't eat till 'after' I come down.
Stay tuned.
Btw, that red electric truck below was the emergency toilet paper van. It got a round of applause when it pulled up! Also there a couple of videos at the bottom of this post. ..sorry no naked people this year.
(Click on all the snaps above'n below for better views.)
