So This Is The New Year

Hello Friends,

I’ve been up here in north Jersey enjoying my vacation. Well, except for the fact that my back is killing me so bad right now that I can’t sleep…but that’s not your problem. Last night Ronee and I went to see Evelyn Hope play at Maxwell’s in Hoboken. I’ve never been there. Cool place. It was great to see them and to see them play again. A lot of new songs and they were fantastic. Ronee had never seen them before and was glad to get the chance. The views of NYC from Hoboken are amazing. It made me want to move up here more than ever. I just am in love with New York, or “the city” as everyone here calls it. We’ve mostly been watching movies (Dodgeball, The Terminal, Darkness, Napoleon Dynamite) and doing post-Christmas shopping (Ikea, Apple Store, Old Navy, etc.) Today we’ll venture into NYC for most of the afternoon and make our way to Times Square for the ball drop. Everybody says we’re nuts for going. But we’ve wanted to go every year and everyone talks us out of it. This year we’re going. If it sucks, we’ll leave. But at the very least we won’t say later we never tried. I think it will be cool. I’ve seen it on TV every year of my life practically. So it will likely be surreal to actually be there. Well, I guess that’s about it. I’m sort of in a back pain haze right now. But Happy New Year to each and every one of you. Talk to you soon!

Yours truly,

Bill

P.S. If you feel like posting about your holiday or what you’ve been up to or what great gift you got or what new resolution you have (I’m making this BROAD here people!) then go ahead in the comments to this post! Cheers.

Merry Christmas Eve

SOUNDTRACK

Samiam, Goodness

JESUS IS ALMOST HERE.

Well, not really. He’s here already. But, scholars have no idea when Jesus was born. But it was nice for somebody to pick a date so we have a time reserved to remember his birth into this world. Only one more shift and it’s vacation time. Finally! It will be really nice to get out of town and to visit NYC again. But mostly it will be nice to not have to work. I’m pretty burned out on walking around in the cold. I am slowly getting in shape. But that’s the only real benefit I can think of (aside from it being mostly unstressful) to my work. But I shouldn’t complain. Because sooner than we know our little island will be invaded by the hordes of summer tourist madness. And I definitely prefer the off season to that.

CONGRATULATIONS CAMDEN, NJ!

Camden has been named the nations “most dangerous city” by the Morgan Quitno Corporation, a company that publishes the annual reference book, City Crime Rankings. Detroit, Atlanta, St. Louis and Gary, Indiana rounded out the top 5. Gary, Indiana?

Holiday Eating Tips

1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Christmas spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they’re probably serving lobster tail, caviar, rum balls, etc.

2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. Like fine single-malt scotch, it’s rare. In fact, it’s even rarer than single-malt scotch. You can’t find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It’s not as if you’re going to turn into an eggnog-aholic or something. It’s a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It’s later than you think. Yo … it’s Christmas!

3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That’s the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.

4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they’re made with skim milk or whole milk. If it’s skim, pass. Why bother? It’s like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.

5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people’s food for free. Lots of it. Hello?

6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year’s. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you’ll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.

7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don’t budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They’re like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you’re never going to see them again.

8. Same for pies. Apple. Pumpkin. Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or, if you don’t like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?

9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it’s loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, you should have some standards.

10. One final tip: If you don’t feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, … well, you just haven’t been paying attention.

SOUNDTRACK

The Explosion

HAPPY EVE OF CHRISTMAS EVE

It’s looking like I’m going to have to add The Explosion’s “Black Tape” to an honorary position of #11 on my list of the best of 2004. I’m really digging this CD. Just good straight up punk rock with a rock feel. Good stuff. Ronee and I went up to May’s Landing yesterday. While we waited for the Sears Auto Center to install new BF Goodrich tires on my car we did a little shopping. I got that Atari anthology for Playstation at Target. Only $20! It includes my favorite arcade game ever, Centipede! Also picked up an automated fish feeder for my fishies since we’ll be away for 10 days on vacation. I guess that’s about it. For all our walking around I didn’t send up buying much of anything. Probably just as well since those tires were not cheap. But my old ones were just about to go. They were making a horrible bumping on the highway and getting pretty bald in several spots. It’s driving/handling amazing now. And they came with a swell 70,000 mile warranty. So, it’s worth it in the end. Now we can go on vacation without worrying about a blowout or anything. I have AAA as well. And the nice thing about getting tires from Sears is that you can go to any Sears for tire replacement or warranty work. Yeah, this post is about as interesting as nothing. Sorry. That’s how I spent my day. Came home and it was time to go to work.

You Look So Beautiful Tonight

SOUNDTRACK

Green Day, The Explosion, Interpol

CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY

My awesome girlfriend couldn’t take the pressure any more and let me open some gifts early. One of them was the graphic novel Blankets by Craig Thompson. What a cool book! I have wanted to get it for some time (it came out last year). It’s the mostly true (90% or more according to Craig) story of first love and losing religion (sort of). Anyway, I read it only in a few hours. It’s really great. I enjoyed it very much. I am also enjoying the major label debut of punk band The Explosion. And the best of all is my Jack LaLane Power (named after me, I’m sure!) Juicer! Ha. I’m officially old I guess since I’m excited about getting a juicer for Christmas. But, I don’t care. This thing is bitchen. You can stick a whole small apple in there and it just juices the crap out of it. And man is that stuff good. I made a glass of apple juice from Fuji (my favorite) apples and it was pretty much the best apple juice I have ever had. No joke. Even Ronee could not believe how good it was. Tomorrow I gotta make a trip to the store to pick up some fresh fruit and vegetables. I’ve lost 25 pounds now and I’m hoping to kick things up a notch with some fresh juice. I also got a vintage (well, it’s brand new but cast from a vintage mold) ceramic Christmas Tree with lights on it that I have wanted forever. One of those childhood things I guess. I love Christmas anyway and lights. The one she got me was especially cool. I have a couple more gifts to open but we’re going to wait until Christmas Eve and open the rest.

RACHEL RAY

I was checking out the Spin year end issue. The reader of the month listed as one of her “hates” Rachael Ray from the Food Network. I laughed out loud because I was just telling Ronee the other day how annoying I find her. I’m sure she’s a nice lady. And normally people on the idiot box don’t illicit this violent of a reaction from me. I don’t know what is is exactly. She just BUGS me. I don’t know why I’m sharing this other than the fact that I thought it was kind of funny and random that somebody else would put that as one of their “hates” in a national magazine. Maybe I’m not crazy after all!

BLACK, WHITE & RED ALL OVER

What is it with these graphic designers who are doing CD packages? Don’t they look at what other designers are doing? Maybe they are…a little too much. Last year I bought the latest Cd’s from The Foo Fighters and Queens Of The Stone Age. Yep, black , white and red color scheme on both. And there were others. Green Day, Interpol and Walking Concert CD’s I’ve been currently listening to…same scheme. I know it’s a cool / good color combination but come on…there’s a lot of colors and combinations out there. Let’s try to be a little more creative!

Yikes.

Check out this Special Weather Statement issued for where I live for my days off! I finally get a couple days off and look what happens! Ha. Wind chill values at zero and below. Nutso.

From FatWreck.com

“Our second new band hails from Richmond, Virginia, and they call themselves Jericho RVA. Or at least they used to. Ya see, there was some christian rock band from Australia that broke up in the 70′s called Jericho that was suing our beloved Jericho RVA’s ass off. Just when I was beginning to think rock & roll was about hedonism, along come these bible-thumping lawyers to sue some punk kids half way across the world! Long story short (and before we get sued ourselves), their new name is Smoke or Fire and we hope to have their debut record out in March. They’re working feverishly on a new site, but for now you can check out some songs at their old homepage.”