39 posts from 2006 (page 2)

I realized that I left someone out when I answered those questions. Besides meeting Karolina, Matt Howard turned in to a tremendous friend. Our late-night European techno parking lot dance offs shall never be forgotten. I hope things work out for Racing Kites. I know all off those guys so well and they're immensely talented musicians and songwriters. I'm not just saying that because they're my friends, but because I've seen it. Well one of my best friends plays guitar in that band, his name is Dan. Dan is the best musician I've worked with, be it at a show, in the studio, rehearsing, anything. Dan would talk and think music non-stop. What blew my mind about him at first was that because of our work schedules we used to practice at Jam Room in Howell at all times of the night, sometimes practicing solid from 1 - 3 a.m. or 2 - 4 a.m., all the time. We all had jobs and this was how we fit the band in at the time. We would all be absolutely exhausted after working and then going straight to practice. Well, as I imagine most bands do we would record our full practices on cassette so we can just hear things we didn't hear while playing. Even after working for ten, eleven or twelve hours and then practicing until 3 or 4 in the morning, the first thing Dan would want to do in the car on the way back to his house was break down absolutely every part in every song we'd played that night. It was Dan's dedication and talent that made me, and I'd been committed to playing music my whole life, second guess what I was doing with myself. The reason this is on my mind is because Dan is thinking about parting ways with the band, and I think that it's a big mistake. I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever that he was put on this earth to play music, and between the talent he has along with what I know the Matts, Alex and Rick have they are a 110% complete band. Ofcourse I'm typing this not knowing the full story about what is going on, it's just hard knowing that someone could be making a huge mistake and not having the ammunition to help.

1. What did you do in 2006 that you'd never done before? Bought season tickets to a sports team, legally purchased alcohol, spent a year out of school, fell in love with New York.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn't have any last year but I do this year, they include: Seeing more movies, being 100% committed to school, spending a full year without smoking, spending more time with friends, eat healthier, play more basketball, run more often and read more often. 
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?  No, thank goodness. 
4. Did anyone close to you die? No.
5. What countries did you visit? Stayed in America. 
6. What would you like to have had in 2006 that you lacked in 2005? Money, went back to college and maybe move somewhere else.

7. What date from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? February 18th, I thought it was going to be the first day of the rest of "our" lives, turns out it was for me. 
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?  Strengthening some friendships as well as quitting smoking. 
9. What was your biggest failure? Ashley. 
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  Nothing too crazy thankfully.

11. What were the best things you bought?  My Motorola v3i, I love that phone but not a tenth as much as I love my car. 

12. Where did most of your money go?  My car and coffee.
13. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Ashley, new car, Souls week at the Knitting Factory. 14. Compared to this time last year, are you:
    a. happier or sadder? Same. 
    b. thinner or fatter?  Fatter.
    c. richer or poorer?  Richer. 
15. What do you wish you'd done more of? Playing basketball, hanging out with Nora. 
16. What do you wish you'd done less of?  Being bummed out, it's not my thing. 
17. How will you be spending Christmas? I'm not sure, hopefully with friends.
18. Did you fall in love in 2006?  I did with three different things. 
19. How many one-night stands?  None...lame. 
20. What was your favorite TV program?  Scrubs.
21. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Probably just George W. Bush, there's people I really liked that turned into people I don't care for and vice-versa. 
22. What was the best book you read?  Glory Road by Don Haskins.

23. What did you want and get?  A new car and a new DVD player. 
24. What did you want and not get?  A relationship with the aforementioned, maybe it was for the better.

25. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?  21, went to the Jets-Bills game at the Meadowlands with Sal, Megan and Tim during the day, went to the City with Matt and Spanish Rob at night. It was a blast.
26. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?  Maybe winning the lottery or getting into Berklee. 
27. What kept you sane?  Sal, Nora, Scrubs, my car and New York City. 
28. What political issue stirred you the most? Iraq and Katrina, especially after seeing "When The Levees Broke". 
29. Who did you miss?  Sarah and Ashley. 
30. Who was the best new person you met? Karolina. 
31. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006:  Things don't always work out the way that you want but dwelling on the unfortunate things are only holding you back from living. When things are hard, you hopefully won't be hard pressed to find that person or people that you can turn to under any situation.

Show us something you can't live without.
Submitted by tOiXc_HoNeY.

I cannot live in a world without cheese. I mean unless you're on a diet, who gets a hamburger? A good enchilada is 75% based on the cheese, and my life is 85% based on enchiladas.

Show us your pride and joy.
Submitted by ::c::.

My pride and joy is my '03 Impala. I love my car and it has made my life so much better. That may sound materialistic and shallow but driving might be my favorite thing to do, and if it isn't than it comes in a close second behind driving while blasting music. She is like my best friend in being she never asks questions and she's always there when I just need to get out or clear my mind, or even sleep in the backseat. Since I got her in May we've been to Philly a few times, down the shore about sixty times, in The City often, the Poconos, even Freemansburg, Pennsylvania a few times. To and from D.C. up to Boston and back to Jersey in October. To Delaware, to Baltimore, tons of Nets' games, tons of shows, tons of trips to Dan's and central Jersey. And did I mention we work together..? You may think I'm crazy, I think it's true love...

What's on your holiday wish list?

My mom and stepfather got me Scrubs Seasons 1 and 2 for my birthday so I still need 3 and 4. I'd also like a harmonica because it's something I've never tried to learn before.

"Relationships don't work the way they do on television and in the movies: Will they, won't they, and then they finally do and they're happy forever -- gimme a break. Nine out of ten of them end because they weren't right for each other to begin with, and half the ones that get married get divorced, anyway. And I'm telling you right now, through all this stuff, I have not become a cynic, I haven't. Yes, I do happen to believe that love is mainly about pushing chocolate-covered candies and, you know, in some cultures, a chicken. You can call me a sucker, I don't care, 'cause I do...believe in it. Bottom line...is the couples that are truly right for each other wade through the same crap as everybody else, but the big difference is, they don't let it take 'em down. One of those two people will stand up and fight for that relationship every time, if it's right and they're real lucky, one of them will say something."

What a weird end to the night...it started right before I got out of work. I saw someone I hadn't seen in years, it bought me back. It made me think about how if I had had things the way that I had wanted them at the time, then something might not have ever happened. And yes, this is going to be very, very extracted and unspecific. I'm glad I never had to make that choice. Life is weird and for some reason I feel like such simple things as what happened tonight are signs that I'll come back to in my mind when I reach some sense of clarity, of rest. Am I losing my mind?

A week in review...with a birthday thrown in the middle...

The past seven days and nights have been pretty fun. Most of my friends have been in turmoil stressing over finals and deadlines, and being that I'll be in that same personal academic hell starting again next semester I decided to use this week to it's fullest. December has been beautiful. It's had it's cold streaks and rainy nights but for the most part it's been unseasonably warm and sunny. I'll start this with last Wednesday. My uncle Lawrence and I took a trip over to midtown Manhattan because he wanted to do something for my birthday. We went to see "The Wedding Singer" right off Broadway on 43rd Street. Going to a play/musical was probably the last thing I had envisioned myself doing, just didn't seem like my thing. Well, the play is set in Ridgefield, New Jersey and it actually deviates a lot from the movie, especially in the second act. I really enjoyed it and Stephen Lynch was hilarious as the lead. It was good, one of those things where I was proved wrong. I need to trust people more than I do...

After we left the theater we took a walk over to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and say a quick prayer at Saint Vincent's. I took some pictures...

 

After we left The Rock we walked down Fifth Avenue talking about The City and the history of the General Electric building. If you look at the GE at the top of the building, that's the only time that GE ever used that logo. That script logo that's on all their products now is the only logo that they've ever used. I found that interesting. As we turned down Fourtieth I was telling my uncle about how when I'm in Manhattan I feel more comfortable than I do in Bayonne, or anywhere else around here. A place that finally matches my speed. We checked out the Christmas shops in Bryant Park as well as the ice rink, then we picked up the car. We drove down Seventh Avenue to Houston and decided to grab dinner at Katz's. A chocolate egg cream, steak fries and a pastrami on rye with mustard equals heaven...

We took a lap down to Delancey and back up Ludlow to the car and headed back to Jersey. I wound up staying up at home until around 1 when I passed out after Scrubs. I woke up at 7:45 Thursday morning and went and grabbed breakfast up the block, it was beautiful out...

I did some laundry and straightened up the place a little bit but wound up taking a nap for two hours until 3:30 because I had to go to work. Friday was the same, I straightened up stuff with school and figuring out where I'm going to next semester, it looks like NJCU. The commute to Brooklyn every day would drive me crazy, plus if I had a huge gap in between classes I'd kill myself. So Saturday morning I woke up at 7 to get ready for my placement tests, which made NO sense to me being that I'd already completed more than 15 college credits but whatever. After that I came back to the house before Paula and I headed out to Hoboken. I cut all my hair off and I haven't shaved in two weeks, it's really different. So much so that in these past three days I haven't been id'd for drinking. We ate some McDonald's and came back to Bayonne around 3. I left for the Galaxy in South Plainfield at around 4:30 to see Racing Kites. It was the last night of their tour and I hadn't seen them in almost a month. Every band that played before them was horrible. One was a hardcore band with a guitarist, drummer and two keyboardists. OH MY GOD! It was really bad...

"This is torture, I feel like I'm in 'Saw'". - Dan Boyce

RK played really good, it was actually my first time seeing them play as a band, isn't that some shit...

 

We left the venue around 11 and headed to the Applebee's in Manalapan. We waited for company then got sat. Our boy Gary upon hearing that it was almost my birthday promptly bought Alex, Dan and I shots of Jack, Jim Beam and Johnnie Walker which almost killed us. It was a blast, thanks to everyone that called me after midnight I really appreciated that. We left a little after 1 in the morning and I was exhausted. I wound up grabbing a sleeping bag and a pillow out of the RK tour van and slept in the back seat of my car. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be, my backseat is pretty comfortable. I woke up to the sun coming up at 7:20 Sunday morning before I got gas and headed back up to Bayonne. I got back and laid down for a bit but as soon as I closed my eyes Sal was calling me and I so I got up and got ready for the Jets' game. Megan picked me up and after we packed the car at Sal's we left for Giants' Stadium. We started cooking and drinking at about 10 a.m...

The game was awesome even though the Jets lost. There was a kid who wore a Patriots' hat and sweater and sat down five rows ahead of us, tisk tisk, buddy. After hearing it from the crowd for the first half of the first quarter some kid infront of us got up, walked down the isle and took his Pats hat right off his head and threw it over the mezzanine which drew a loud applause from the section. I hadn't been to an NFL game in probably two years, and Major League Baseball was the only thing I didn't go see live this year. All in all it was fun although they went a little overboard with the fireworks...

 

 

We left the stadium and headed back to the car and fired the grille back up while the parking lot slowly emptied out. That parking lot gets insane! As Sal, Meg and Tim were cleaning up I decided to start a fire...

We left the parking lot around 9 and came back to Bayonne. I stopped at the house to change and my parents gave me their gifts, it was pretty sweet. I got dressed and Matt and I left for the East Village to meet up with Spanish Rob at the Continental.

 

Thank you guys so much for coming out to have a few drinks and some Mexican food. Matt and I made our way down to Iggy's on Ludlow and had a PBR while we played some Bouncing Souls, Dropkick and the Smiths on the jukebox. We called it a night and came back to Bayonne. I finally slept more than five hours into Monday. I woke up and realized it was about sixty degrees outside. My mom and I went to lunch at Jose Tejas down in Woodbridge which was sweet. After we left we took a ride down to Sandy Hook and went for a walk on the beach because...well just look...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These next two are from Mount Mitchell in the Highlands...

 

 

When we got back to the house I made a call and Suzanne from the Nets got me really sweet seats for the game against Memphis that night so I made the drive out to East Rutherford to get my ticket and then to the arena for the game. It was cool, those games are the ultimate relaxation. Yesterday (being Wednesday) I made my spring schedule at NJCU. Every time I'm on that "campus" I can't wait to leave. Is that bad lol? I don't know, like I had wrote before I'm hoping that something more positive than I anticipate will happen. Life is weird. I know I'm also not looking forward to going to work tonight, nor tomorrow night. I'm pretty much really really really sick of working. But yea, whatever. Maybe I'll write again before the end of this week, I still have to send Sarah that package...fuck...

Show us something seasonal.

Mmm...cliches...

...and I slept in my car last night!

Show us pure emotion.
Submitted by Roxy. 

Bouncing Souls - "True Believers", June 5th at the Knitting Factory in Tribeca.