Nothing Changes on New Year’s Day…
December 30, 2011
Yes, I know.
I said that you should expect a big finish…
Crackers in the hand.
Revolution. Gone.
Big, Big Finish…
Well, guess what? I got nuthin’.
I really thought somethin’ was going to come to me but… nope.
So, I thought about telling you about the other night when I went out for a few beers in Delray Beach, Florida at a great little watering hole called The Ugly Mug…
Where I was introduced to a helluva nice guy. An overly muscular personal trainer, who was wearing one of those gym shirts, just in case you were wondering how he’d gotten that way. This black gentleman was introduced to me as D-Train…
So, I thought of saying, “Hey… I’m from Brooklyn”.
As, I’m pretty sure the D-Train goes through Brooklyn.
But then I thought, “Oh… I bet his name is Dave or Daryl and he’s a TRAINer.” So, instead I said, “D-Train? I hope someday white people can have cool names like that.”
What can I say, I was on a roll. I had just told the joke about the Rabbi and the Catholic Priest. So even if D-Train didn’t throw me into the third rail, I’m probably getting hit by lighting the next time that I get too close to a church or maybe a synagogue, or for that matter, a Cinnabon.
I don’t know why… I just thought they sounded similar. Synagogue, Cinnabon – whatever. I guess I’m not making matters any better. The lightining thing seems inevitable.
Anyway, I got nuthin…
I was going to come up with some sort of a highly inspired blog entry about the end of one year and the begining of the next. Maybe all the great things that we should be looking forward to in 2012. Maybe I was going to talk a little bit about our broken political system, and how tired I am of hearing Democrats bashing the Republicans, and the Republicans bashing the Democrats, when in actuallity – they both need to be bashed.
Maybe I was going to touch upon our country’s pending financial crisis, which I believe is continuing to loom closer and closer every day, as our government continues to spend money that we don’t have.
Example: I love how Obama extended the Bush Tax Cuts. Everyone knows that we can’t afford the Bush Tax Cuts. In fact, the whole Democrat platform is based on the fact that we can’t afford such things. So a Democrat President extends them??? Don’t you hate when people do the popular thing, instead of doing what’s right. It must be an election year. But it’s absolutely exemplary of what’s wrong with our government. It’s always about getting elected or re-elected. It’s NEVER about doing the right thing for everyone.
But I’m not going to talk about that… 🙂
Nope.
At the end of the day, I’m just happy that the holidays are over. Barnsley went back to England to visit his family. And I’m going to spend a few quite days back on the island…
Of course, I’ll probably have to head over to Jost and Occupy Foxy’s on Old Year’s Night…
http://foxysbar.com/old-years-night
Other than that, I’m taking it easy and keeping my comments to myself.
After all – Nothing Changes on New Year’s Day.
Peace
– Arch
Christmas was a long red glare…
December 23, 2011
You know, I’ve really not liked my last several posts. I hate simply writing about things that happened, like I’m a reporter. This happened, then this happened, and then we did this… Blah! Sure, I try to make it more entertaining than that but I really love when I get to think, and then write, by just letting my thoughts go where they may. I’ll try to do better. I’ll try to find a little more mental bandwidth. Nevertheless, I think you get what you pay for. We’ll see what happens…
Well, it’s that time of year. Today is, after all, a big day. It’s December 23rd. Just yesterday it was December 22nd, which happend to be Winter Solstice. Now, all of the sudden, it’s today… Festivus. It’s a day to celebrate the holiday season without participating in its pressures and commercialism. So get out your unadorned aluminum Festivus pole and get ready for the Airing of Grievances. This takes place right after your Festivus dinner and it’s where you get to lash out at others and tell them how they have disappointed over the past year. Who can wait?
Then, of course, comes… Feats of Strength. I love Festivus.
After that it’s all downhill – although, the word “downhill” gets me in the mood for ski season… I’m not sure that I’m ready for Christmas or for the end of 2011. …and I say that while greatly looking forward to 2012. It’s like a train wreck. It’s like a severely overwieght woman in a two-piece bathing suit strolling down Central Park. It’s like Taylor Swift and Tonya Harding being the two finalists in the Crisco Vegetable Oil Wrestling competition. If any of these things were to occur, it would be ugly but you wouldn’t be able to look away.
Of course, you’ll be glad when it’s over.
And maybe that’s where I am with the holidays this year. I was really looking forward to them. But then they got here and, while I am still expecting to enjoy them to the fullest, a part of me can’t wait for it to be January.
I think this started when I was in New York City. You see, I have a new theory about New York City and big cities, in general. I tend to thrive on the energy of the people in big cities. I think there is a collective consciousness that makes everyone there more energetic, almost collectively smarter, deeper.
Don’t get me wrong, I love rural America and I recognize that many great things happen there. Many great inventions have come from rural America, many great atheletes, blah, blah, blah! But you know what I mean… Have you ever stopped and wondered why NYC grew to be what it is today? There are zillions of people there, why would anyone else want to move there? How did it get so crazy to start with?
I believe that a big part of it is that people feed off of this collective consciousness. Great companies want to be near other great companies, because their executives want to be near the other executives. Not just for show or because there might be some clout in being there, but to feed from and contribute to this collective consciousness of energy that exists there. And, I think… That’s a big part of what I love about big cities.
So, again, there I was at the biggest tree lighting event in the country. I was surrounded by locals & tourist, good guys and bad guys, rich folks and poor folks, lovers, sinners, drinkers and jokers and midnight tokers, and not too distantly, I heard a group performing Home for The Holidays.
The collective consciousness of the city then put thoughts into my head of what it means to be “home” for the holidays…
First I thought about the spacemen and time travelers, they belong in another place and time but they are here among us and doing the best they can to cope with the challenges of our time, knowing that they don’t actually belong here and that by virute of their current existense, they could be disrupting the fabric of time.
I remember, in my mind
They say I’m daydreamin’
Is it all that it seems
or am I all the things I’m looking for?
I thought about the many men and women (Americans or otherwise) who have been away from their families for way too long, off fighting in wars or other military actions, that could be equally argued as either very stupid or extremely important, but potentially fatal in either case.
I thought about my friend’s father, who has been missing, in Iran, since March 9th, 2007. I can only imagine the great comfort and glimmers of hope that must have come over the family a few months ago, when they received a Proof of Life video showing Bob Levinson, still alive and reasonably well, after being held captive for over three and a half years. Here’s a VOA news clip on Bob…
If interested, you can also visit the family’s website at…
http://www.helpboblevinson.com/
Naturally, this is a delicate subject and due to its delicate nature, I do not claim to know everything that there is to know about the situation. To the best of my knowledge, however, no one really knows (exactly) who is holding Bob or what (exactly) they would like in exchange for his return. But I do get the overwhelming feeling that the U.S. Goverment has not put its best effort forward in trying to retrieve this U.S. citizen, who gave 30+ years of his life to serving our great country. We need to get Bob Home for the Holidays, sooner – hopefully, as opposed to later.
Finally, I got thinking about everyone else who might be somewhere other than where they are supposed to be for the holidays… Somewhere other than home. Home might seem like a long way away. Maybe it’s a long way away in miles, maybe it’s a long ways away in your heart or perhaps you are mentally distant from home.
The cool thing about home is that you’re always welcome there. Otherwise, it wouldn’t really be home. You never have to move back home…but you should visit every now and then. If you ever miss home, you can bet that home misses you. Conversely, if you don’t miss home… perhaps it wasn’t home at all?
This is diffferent from…
Holmes sells Homes to the Homies.
Trust me. That’s a completely different story.
Nevertheless, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.
And remember…
If you can’t be with the one you love,
love the one you’re with.
I know. Now I’m just grasping for an ending.
I should just sign off.
– Arch
Shine the light for us to follow…
December 16, 2011
An old black wise man, friend of my dad’s, once told me… Guys who are always talking about sex and women are always the ones who aren’t gettin’ any. Hmm… I wonder if that’s true?
OK, so… Not to dwell on my big NYC night out of drinking a few weeks ago but, there I was at the party, overlooking the yet-to-be-lit giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, talking to two hot chicks. I was taking pictures of them with their iGizmo. Then I was taking pictures of them with my iGizmo. Little did they know that I had downloaed the X-ray App, so that I could admire what lovely undergarments they were both wearing…
…when my phone rings. It was Alice. Uh, oh. Alice wouldn’t be calling me during my night of drinking in NYC unless it was an emergency, right? So, I take the call.
Alice proceeds to explain to me that she is at a Publix Supermarket, about to conduct an independent taste test of snack cakes, including Ho Hos, Little Debbie and Yodels (listed here alphabetically). The emergency was that she, and the other “judges”, were unsure how to effectively cleanse the palette in between snack cakes.
I’m pretty sure that my first response, Vodka, was the best answer. However, she then informs me that she and the other judges are studying for some sort of a final exam and believes that drinking any alcoholic beverages would be frowned upon. So, we start discussing the merits of orange juice and how well it goes with chocolate.
By this time, a couple of dudes have started talking to my hot chicks and are claiming the ability to crash Jimmy Kimmel’s party. Next thing you know, they are out of there. I wonder if Tina Fey would have been at Jimmy’s party, she’s on my list, you know.
So, I’m still there going, “no…seriously. Orange Juice goes great with chocolate.” After a brief consultation with a couple of my friends, Alice decides to move forward with the orange juice decision and, I later found out that, Yodels won. 6 out of 6 judges determined that Yodels were “better” than either Ho Hos or Little Debbie snack cakes. Who knew?
My snack cakes got away. Thanks, Alice.
.
So the next day rolls around, and here come The Amigos. For those of you who may just be tuning in to La Vida de Archie, I have these three friends, two males and one female – we’ve been best friends since college and every two years or so, we get together for a weekend (or sometimes a whole week).
We are known as The Four Amigos, although lately only three seem to make it. Now that I’m thinking about it, Greg has only made it 25% of the time. Someone is going to get voted off the island.
Make you plans now HG, in 2013, we’re headed to Napa Valley. If you’re not there, we’re replacing you with a reasonable substitute…
New Greg
This year, The Amigos decided to converge on New York City. We had big plans and, I must say, we got to a lot of what we’d planned to do. Caught a Broadway show, Rock of Ages. That was a hoot. I highly recommend it for anyone who lived through the hair band era. Amigo Mark, who I do not believe to be easily amused said, “I don’t remember the last time that I was that entertained for over two hours.”
We caught a little stand-up comedy, we got some NY Style Pizza at Arturo’s on Houston Street…
Arturo's on Houston Street
Had a little dim sum at Jing Fong in Chinatown…
Jing Fong, Chinatown
And we took a stroll through Little Italy. Ironically, Chinatown didn’t seem that busy but there were about a billion people in Little Italy. 😐
Somehow, we never made it to Central Park. This is strange to me because, hanging out for hours in Central Park, doing absolutely nothing is one of my favorite activities in The City and I’m really good at it. Maybe that’s the problem. We did a lot and never really had time to do nothing.
On our last night there, we went to dinner at the River Cafe in Brooklyn. This place is over-the-top. Yes, this restaurant on a floating barge is tied to the Brooklyn shoreline, almost right under the Brooklyn Bridge, but it has the most awesome night views of Manhattan.
The River Cafe, Brooklyn
I heard that Billy Joel & Christy Brinkley were married here. Haven’t really looked into that one. Talk amongst yourselves…
Amigo Ashley brilliantly discovered the Six Course Chef’s Tasting on the menu and we found out that there was an available wine pairing. Oh, yes… This was brilliant. The food couldn’t have been better and the wait staff couldn’t have been more attentive. I’m going to recommend a night at The River Cafe, even higher than Rock of Ages.
We were at River Cafe for about three hours. I didn’t hear Mark say it exactly in these words but, my guess is that he was entertained for over two hours again. We ate, we drank, what a blast. We had such a blast that we decided not find our way up and walk back across the Brooklyn Bridge because, someone was surely going to end up in the East River. So, I’m not sure how we got back. Particularly since we all had to take out second mortgages in order to pay the restaurant tab…
Again, what a great time… But I can’t give all the credit to the restaurant or the city. The Amigos rock. I’m looking forward to Napa.
.
OK… I’m really a bit stressed. Lots going on. Trying to get some year-end things done and, I’m expecting a BIG 2012. So, I also have a bunch of “gettin’ ready for the new year” things going on. What does all this mean?
It means that, although I have much to discuss, I’m going to have to keep it short today. I’ve got to look after my paying job. So, we’re hopping right over to today’s musical guests.
Actually, while you are watching this, I’m going to go watch the YΔCHT video again, from a few weeks ago. I love that video. But for those of you not addicted to YΔCHT, I have several treats. First, there’s Dylan Elise, Drummer Extraordinaire.
You might want to click on the YouTube link and watch this video directly from YouTube. Those drumsticks move so fast, it’s incredible. I had to watch it several times to make sure it was real. Then, once you are totally amazed, he starts doing tricks and twirling his drumstick, while continuing to play. This guy is amazing and not a bad opening act…
Next, there’s The Big Pink. Let me know what you think, are they also potential time travelers? I have two videos from them. Enjoy…
The Big Pink – Stay Gold
Next, the first time I heard this song, I thought of Jane’s Addiction. I’m not saying they sound exactly like Jane’s Addiction. They’re different but I’ll bet you they listended to a lot of JA. Am I crazy? Enjoy…
The Big Pink – Hit The Ground (Superman)
Alrighty then. It’s almost Christmas. Then it’ll be almost New Year’s. Then I might have to take a break for a while. Maybe go down to Florida for the Winter. I don’t know. We’ll see. Either way, expect a big finish. A great year-end. A happy ending, so to speak.
“Here’s to more bandwidth in 2012.” – AM
Gotta run.
– Arch
Cool like Kurt…
December 2, 2011
OK, before we get started, I need to provide a disclaimer and ask for some medical advice… Not necessarily in that order. But… Is a hangover supposed to last for more than one day? That, by the way, was my medical question. The disclaimer is that, there are likely to be numerous spelling, and/or other typos or errors, in today’s blof post. Management is aware of this potential problem and has chosen to move forward with today’s broadcast anyway. Thank you for your cooperation in not expecting an error free delivery.
Someone the other day was telling me that you can never really “catch up” on sleep. They were saying that if you were to sleep two hours per night, for a few nights, for example, you can’t then sleep for 12 hours to catch up. I think, I disagree. I do that all the time. It’s a formula. It works for me.
Similarly, I wonder if you can catch up on your drinking. I think I’ve mentioned this before but, I talk about drinking a lot more than I actually drink. Why? Because it’s fun. Other than people who actually have a drinking problem, I think everyone would like to drink more. I mean seriously, when you see a party going on, don’t you get that feeling of, oh yeah – that should be me at that party and acting like I’m the Dos Equis guy. I think so. But the big question was, can you catch up on your drinking? I think you can. In fact, after the past few nights, I’m pretty sure I’m caught up.
It’s funny. Years ago, when I actually drank a lot more, I really liked to party it up between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. So much so that, I used to drink no alcoholic beverages the entire month of January, just as a kind of self imposed sobriety check. I feel this is a tradition whose time has returned. Particularly now that the partying starts, one week before Thanksgiving. So, we should probably start there…
The Margarita Ball of the Palm Beaches rocked this year. On it’s new official date, the Friday before Thanksgiving. And I have to say, I believe “the ball” has now become the definitive kickoff party to the holidays.
The concept, which may have originally been borrowed from the Fort Worth Margarita Society, is to throw a big party with food, drinks and music, and ask guests to bring two unwrapped toys as an entry fee. Everyone has a great time for about $20, and they collect several hundred toys for kids, right in their backyard, who might otherwise not receive any gifts during the upcoming holiday season.
In keeping with the four-year tradition of hosting the event at rather eclectic venues, where not everyone has events…
This year’s party was held at a big warehouse, where a guy with (seemingly) lots of money keeps his collection of art (and Aston Martins).
In the front of the warehouse was the art gallery…
The back was a big empty warehouse that was cleverly decorated and “up-lighted” into a party space.
The food was catered by a gourment food truck, who produced some awesomely tasty tacos all night along (including dessert tacos), and the drinks never stopped flowing from the open bar and the event’s signature margarita fountain.
Of course, The Jacket was there…
This year’s music came via South Florida’s own Junior Drinkwater and the Westside Blues Band.
And just in case these guys weren’t awesome enough on their own, which they were – at the end of the night, they were joined by guitarist Joe Tenuto and son, Joey Tenuto.
What a treat!
A local publicist commented, “It’s my job to attend parties and this is one of the best parties I’ve ever been to.” Combine that with the almost 500 toys that were collected and, if I were you – and I’m really glad that I’m not because, I like being me, plus I’m already on the on the invite list… I’d see about getting myself invited to the 2012 Margarita Ball of the Palm Beaches. It’s going to be the 5th one, so I bet they go big.
By the way, a big thanks goes out (again) to Cloud Jacket, Dell, Eaton, HP, and WatchGuard Technologies for sponsoring this year’s event. We love you guys.
Fast Ford-werd to New York City (…again)
Don’t get me wrong. This place is no Tortola but in limited quantities, I never get tired of it of La Manzana Grande. I almost said that in English, which means I would have used the A-word and that would have triggered a huge tangental rant about that company with a similar name and why I’m tired of all the iCrap… but I’m not going there today. Let’s get back to nice, nice things.
So, I’m headed to NYC this week and, as cool as I am, I get invited to a party at NBC for the Christmas tree lighting at Rockefeller Center. Now, the thing to understand about this is that, there isn’t one party going on at the NBC facility, there are multiple parties underway at every individual office (and even every cubicle), on just about every floor. Basically, if your office has or is near a window that faces the Christmas tree, there was a party happening in your space.
Of course, I knew the scenario going into this but, you know how it is. Under certain circumstances, you can’t take any chances, right? So, in preparation for this party, I did what anyone else would have done. I updated my list and laminated it.
As I understand it, everyone one the planet should be carrying with them, at all time, their laminated list. This is a list of 10 or less other earthlings who you would really like to “connect with”. If you know what I mean… And supposedly, if you were to meet one of the people on your list, you can show them your list and say, “Oh, my God… You’re on my list.” And if it’s laminated, well, watch out, ’cause next thing you know, particularly if you’ve been drinking, you and said person may be gettin’ busy.
So, if I was going to be in the NBC building, my list needed “updating”.
It needed Tina Fey…
Just in case you’re wondering who used to be in the #2 spot, it used to say, “Anyone who goes by Jen or Jennifer, just NOT Jenny.” I don’t think the list has to be limited to celebrities, so I thought a generic catch all was a good idea. Maybe that should be “catch many”. Hey… It’s all a numbers game.
Well, anyway, I never ran into Tina. Instead, my friend, Brian, and I were walking through Rockefeller Center, singing Sweet Caroline at the top of our lungs as Niel Diamond came walking by… Awkward. We quickly pretended to be signing Sweet Child of Mine. I don’t think he fell for it.
They are kind of a Big Deal
So… You guys are going to start thinking that I come up with a new favorite band every week and… OK… I can see that. But seriously, this week’s musical guest is definitely, if not now, going to be my new favorite band at some point. Oh, the band’s name is Big Deal.
First of all, I love their sound. Almost every song consists Kacey Underwood’s acoustic guitar over the more rockin’ fuzzed out electric guitar chords of Alice Costelloe and topped by their boy/girl duo vocals in some sort of a British version of American folk music. I love it.
And it doesn’t hurt that Alice is easy on the eyes. Here she is on stage…
Oh, here she is again.
Hopefully on her way to my London flat…
I’m sure Kacey Underwood is also very talented.
But you know how it is around here, being a hot chick goes a long way…
I think we need to hear a few songs from them. I don’t want you to miss anything. Plus, these guys are relatively difficult to find. They are still in relative GoogaBingHoo obscurity.
So, first, here’s the official music video for their yet to be discovered, soon to be hit song Chair…
I love that song. While you’re reading this, I’m probably listening to it again.
You should listen to it again… No. Wait. Here’s different somewhat live video for the same song…
I know. I know. Calm down. I have another song from them. I gotta run afte rthis but, I wanted to leave you with a slightly rough, live recording of the very awesome song, “Cool like Kurt”…
That’s it. I gotta run. And seriously, I’m not checking for spelling or grammar or anything else. I’m still in Manhattan and I’m pretty sure someone out there wants to buy me drinks. See you next week. Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel.
<smootchie bootchies>
– Arch
Archie Kobain 