Best Apple Pie!

Yum-yum! Last night I ate a slice of the greatest apple pie ever! If you wanna share the experience, go to Peter McManus on 7th and 19th - you won't regret it! Now, I admit, I'm not big into candies and cakes, but I know a good pie when I taste one. The apples were plump and juicy. Slightly spicy and cinnamonny. Oooh, the crust! It was the perfect crust. A slightly cakey layer gilded the pie like a warm blanket. Not overcooked, dry, and brittle, nor doughy and gunky - just right. I wish I captured this splendid treat on film for you all too see. Anyone who was in the restaurant can attest to my love of this pie. I whooped enthusiastically with each scrumptious bite - for I had never, in my entire life, had a pie like this before! You can be assured I will return for another slice of heaven. (A film documentation of my pie consumption shall be made at that time.)

NYPL

Just got my very own New York Public Library card! My first items to check out were:
1. "The Science of Superheroes" by Lois Gresh and Robert Weinberg. Great chapter on water-breathing heroes such as Aquaman and Namor the Sub-Mariner.
2. Vilgot Sjöman's "I Am Curious: Blue" from the Criterion DVD collection
3. Carl Th. Dreyer's "Day of Wrath" also from Criterion
4. Krzysztof Kieslowski's "Red" part of his Three Colors trilogy
5. "That's Entertainment" (parts 1 and 2) a nostalgic look back at MGM's great musicals

Pma, my computer's feeling a little warm...

WANTED: AQUA-SHIRT!

I'm really geeking out over this t-shirt!

I just found it on the web, but it appears to be out of stock!
Where else am I going to find a shirt with Aquaman riding his seahorse Storm with his wife Mera swimming along??? If any of you, ever, despite certain impossibilities, come across this shirt let me know. Part of me feels empty knowing this shirt exists and I'm unable to wear it. Make an Aqua-Fan happy!

Aw heck, who am I kidding? None of you even know who Aquaman is, let alone, that he has a wife---and that she has the ability to control water through her hard-water powers. You're all Non-Aquafans!

Big Apple Con 2005

This last weekend was the Big Apple Con 2005! It's a show featuring comic books, art and toys. Featured to show was Carrie Fisher, aka Princess Leia!!! Missed her though. Got there too late and instead got hounded by:
After Todd got Peter Tork's (of Monkees fame) autograph we were headed down to a few comic book panel discussions downstairs but were stopped by this slightly crazed woman. She had been sitting all alone at a table full of cd's, glossies, and 8 X 10's. She must have got up as we were passing. She got up to ask us if we wanted her autograph! We were trying to fight the crowd to get downstairs so we kept going. But she didn't give up! "You know you'll have to pay for them though!" I think referring to her signatures she wanted us to have. Wow. How sad. I hadn't a clue as to who this woman was, but, the idea of this woman - someone who obviously had nothing to do with comic books - sitting all by herself at a comic book convention just hoping someone would notice her plagued me and my friends thereafter. Later, after attending various comic-book lectures, riding the train back to Brooklyn, and a few episodes of Dr. Who later, we had to know who she was.
I found Karen Lynn Gorney's Story on both the Big Apple Con's website and the IMDB.
She was the brassy woman John Travolta fell in love with in Saturday Night Fever!!! So, again, what was she doing at a comic-book convention? Was she sooo desperate for publicity or cash that she had her agent get her a gig at this comic-book convention? I felt so bad for her. I thought about going back the next day and giving her some flowers or something. Or telling her that she must feel good that Madonna based the concept of her new music video "Hung Up" as an homage to Karen's SNFever work. Or dressing up in all white Tony Manero disco suit and asking her to the Hustle or the Bus Stop. But I didn't. And so the sadness lurks on...

In Memory of Starr

I just heard news tonight that Starr has unexpectedly passed away.
It's weird, I didn't really know him all that well, but I feel like my life has all of a sudden changed. He was a minor character in the scope of my life, but he was a presence with me, nonetheless, for probably over ten years. Starr. What a name, what a guy. He was the door-man at the Shamrock Bar. Shamrock, one of three or four gay bars in Madison was and is next door to the Paradise Lounge, the local haunt for punks and collegiate castoffs. I first started going there with all my friends (from my Museum days--- more about that in later posts) when we wanted a place to talk and the Paradise was toooo loud. Shamrock (Phaze II, in it's earlier days) is kinda a castoff bar itself, but filled more with a sometimes quieter, sometimes older gay crowd. Starr was there every time. I'm not sure what it was about him. Maybe his hand-crafted Dungeons and Dragons rings and jewelry weighing down his hands, his long pony-tailed hair and his out-of-date late 80's styled eyeglasses, or maybe his pants! He REALLY liked to show off his bulging snaking package. His shrunken black-denim jeans always performed their job quite well. His crotch was like a barking dog. Don't mess with Starr! I think some people just thought of him as this kinda creepy weird dude who seemed to get easily upset. I know that's how I first thought of him. I remember the way he'd always non-sensically ask for your i.d. as you'd walk in. Like, what's his problem? Well, he dealt with a lot of drunk nitwits, that's what. I never gave him any guff, though. I saw something in him I think some of the older regulars saw in him, he was a gentle soul who cared about his community. I'd always take the time to ask him how he was doing, to see what was going on with him. He'd tell me about his favorite parts of the latest episode of Star Trek he had just taped and watched. Starr---Star Trek. Get it? He'd always take an hour long break and watch the show in the back-bar area when the show was on while he was working. He even came over once to our apartment (the Museum) and bought my room-mate Carol's Star Trek costume from her. (Actually, I believe she just let him have it because when he tried it on he wasn't wearing any underwear!) Anyway, I saw in him qualities I aspire to. Being true to yourself and doing what you want in defiance of what's "cool" to the "it's happening now" in-crowd. Being a nerd and not caring. I thought that was what was really cool, and that will always stay with me; but now he's gone. So now whenever I go back to Madison, he won't be there. A part of my Madison history is now in a way, actually history.
But, I'll always have this little song in my heart whenever I'll go back or whenever I'll think of Starr--- one that my friends and I drunkingly made up and sang way back when:

(to the tune of Madonna's "Lucky Star")
"Starr might,
Starr might
Be at Phaze II tonight!

Starr might, Starr might..."

I Could Stuff an Elephant or TWO Into My New Place If I Really Wanted To

Yes! I have a plus-sized space to call my home with two new room-mates that I won't ever get a chance to annoy. They're always gone! The best kind I say. I got a great room all to myself on the top floor of an old brownstone here in the beautiful city of Brooklyn. I've got TWO windows (two more than other places I looked at) and TWO closets (also two more than those others)! There is room for me to not only put my feet on the floor, but room enough to run around and shake my groove thang around. There is also an echo (echo, echo, echo...)! So, you out-of-towners, if any of you want to experience this paradise first-hand, come on over for awhile. I got an extra mattress under my bed that I can put in the OTHER SIDE of my room. It is huge! Plus I'm real close to all the subway lines that meet at the Atlantic Center. Only a few stops from Manhattan. If I walk up the hill further into Park Slope I can still hang out with Todd and Brian and watch BBC shows like the new "Dr. Who" or the old "I, Claudius" series. We can also go drinking on the cheap, at O'Connors, conveniently close by on 5th Ave. And afterwards, on the way home, I can always find junk (functional castoffs) on the street to furnish my new place with.

Home Sweet Home!

I've been BUSY, ok?

Sometimes keeping and continuously updating a blog can really get in the way of one's creation of an Omni-Maxi Planetary Vibro-Death Ray. People, I have PRIORITIES!!!

Okay, okay... the death of the earth is rather eminent with Beelzedubbs and his evil Puppet-Master Cheney pulling the strings; so, I guess I can lay off destroying the earth myself. Cheney's drone army of Republicons seems to have things in order as our Earth succumbs to his dastardly plans...hehehehehaaaahahhaaaahahahooooooOOOHHHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAA!

Library Patrons: I'm Sorry!

I don't know why, maybe I've been sitting in the sun too long or I've been working too hard on my blogging, but, I'm sorry----my armpits stink! I took a shower and deodorized this morning just like I do any other day, but, mysteriously I can smell my ripe old self! I'm sending myself home to freshen up!

NYC: What I've Accomplished Thus Far

1. Watched the entire DVD series of FREAKS AND GEEKS.
2. Attended a few UPRIGHT CITIZENS BRIGADE shows in Chelsea.
3. Read my SUPERMAN: IN THE FORTIES trade collection on my subway rides.
4. Got my little blog going.
5. Dressed up for Halloween. I got a $5 costume from the Salvation Army. I looked really cute in my Barbie costume. Yes, Barbie's image and logo were on the front, classic-costume style. Carol, her boyfriend Tony and Brian Koltermann (all costume-less) came along with me to Snookie's on 7th. God, I love that joint! The first time I went there, someone's grandpa passed out on the floor next to our table. According to his grandson who was trying to drag him off the floor, he was on some new medication. I think all Snookie's clients are on new medication.
6. Adopted a new comics shop. Every Wednesday is Comic-Day for me. No matter where I live. BTW, I now go to Midtown Comics on Times Square. Benefits include $20 credit for every 100 you throw down. Plus Phil Jimenez, one of my fave artists signs there on occasion!
7. Accepted the FIREFLY series. Todd loves it. At first I didn't really. Previously, my friend Bambi in Horicon (WI) made me watch it at her house before I moved out here, but, all the characters looked the same to me and she got really pissed off at me for pointing at the screen and asking, "Who's that?" all the time.
8. Downloaded lots of songs off of others' internet connections. Sorry, I'm bad, but now I'm more musically inclined.
9. Hardened my personality to become more NY-like. After all this apartment-hunting it was bound to happen.... JK, I'm the same Jeffrey I've always been!

Argh! Apartment-Hunting!: The Continuing Saga

Another apartment disaster! Ok, first I must give an update. Didn't take the dogwalking chicken slum (for some reason). Also gave up a chance to live in Williamsburg (in Brooklyn off the L-line) when I got an offer from some dude on the Upper Westside, two tiny blocks from Central Park. Great little place for two months, $700 each month: all utilities paid, housekeeping, giant tv, and a whopper of a fish-tank. I had my hopes up, living in Manhattan on the cheap. Well, it was too good to be true. This guy, or dude as he liked to say, turned out to be the King of Flakes. We had agreed, days earlier, that I would move in on Nov. 1. I just had to wait for him to get home from work that day and wait for his phone-call. Which I got (much to my relief). BUT, an hour between him calling me up to tell me that it was absolutely cool to move on in and me getting my belongings together (all two suitcases) he calls again and tells me that he won't be needing a roommate any longer. What????? He explains that he was only renting out because of financial hardship (snort), but now his brother was loaning him a couple thou and he won't be needing a roomie. What a fucking nutjob. He needs to take that couple thou, if it really does exist, and get himself to a shrink---pronto!
Now I'm on the god-damned internet, stalking craigslist once again. Fuckin'- A.