"Purgatory" or "The Old Man and the Hat"

Like I mentioned in my previous post, my right ring finger is banged up. In fact I am getting surgery later this afternoon. For the past two weeks I have been waiting to see what is going to happen, weather a splint would reset it, or weather I needed to be operated on. Needles to say I have had quite a bit of time on my "hand", this is what I have been doing with it.

Jake from Let Me Crazy threw a wing ding of a Labor Day party. Complete with a keg, several beer pong tables, and a kitchen full of liquor. Every one's good buddy Mick Cantone served up a bottle of his Grandmothers 44 year old Canadian Club Whiskey. I don't think that stuff really ages in a glass bottle, but it was very delicious anyway. On top of that, it was nice to drink a whiskey from a bottle as old as my car.



Let Me Crazy had just gotten back from a 5 day tour, which went well, so everyone was in good spirits. The Autumn People, Eula, and Jay Tea joined LMC and Playing Dead in Jake's backyard. Good crop of bands. I had not seen Eula yet, but they really stood out to me. They are a female fronted indie band from Connecticut. What really caught my ear was how bass driven their songs were, and through Let Me Crazy's bass rig it really had my attention. I don't tend to follow current three piece indie bands, but with Eula I'll make an exception. Their demo was real good too.





The Autumn People posing with Edna, and Momma Fentres.



Meanwhile back in Sea Cliff some things never change. Human beings between the ages of 12 and 21 years old existing is a hardship that The Village of Sea Cliff has had to endure for 125 years. This photograph captures a 70 year old man disciplining a 15 year old kid for riding his BMX bike down a set of stairs. There is a sign in front of said stairs outlawing biking, skating and rollerblading, but who put Sgt. Bring Down in charge of taking a kid's baseball hat(seen in his 70 year old right hand). That would soon escalate to the kid taking the old man's hat. The old man seemed down right surprised by this action, but as I can recall growing up, if someone snatched your hat, you would go for the hat, it's a pride thing. Wouldn't you know it the kid looked good in the old man's Indiana Jones hat. Now at this point the kid books it around to corner with out his bike, and the old man gimps after him. Just as all looked lost for the old man' hat, a very likely hero in a unlikely situation came to his aid. None other that Teddy Roosevelt himself(a local guy who dresses up like our nations 26th president) came out of the restaurant pictured in the background of the photograph and grabbed the kid by the arm(too bad he wasn't in his Ruff Rider gear) and scolded him. What a lovely Sunday it was on the Village Green.



I have been spending a bit of time with my ol' buddy K as well. Aside from restoring old homes and welding the occasional tall bike, K digs drinking beer on his porch. He took a night off from doing that to go catch diner at Chicken Delight. After wards we went to Savers in Hempstead and got silly in the used toy section. He must have found four toys that looked like, or could act like bongs. Not being the pothead type I found he had a strong skill set for finding bong like toys. Puss I never thought that picture of him eating beans from a PBR can would be beat. I stand corrected.

Special kudos to Jake and the whole Freemont clan for throwing a great party. Also to Alyse from Eula for being sly and snapping a picture of me and the Sub-pars with out me noticing. Two big thumbs down for not having insurance in America. Get covered if you are not, trust me you don't want to go through what I have had to deal with this week, and I'm not talking about seeing Teddy Roosevelt take down a 15 year old.

Garage Sale Day

Sea Cliff's annual Garage Sale Day took place on June 8th. It was the first time in 3 years I was available to participate in this great tradition. For those of you who don't know my favorite Village in the whole world hosts an annual town wide Garage Sale Day the first Saturday in June. Last year I was in New Orleans, the year before that I was in Florence, Italy. GSD is typically good for some killer bargins, not to mention some priceless finds. Some of my personal treasures from GSD's pat include an early pressing of Black Flag's "Damaged", and a Black Sabbath 1983 World Tour shirt. I purchased the Black Sabbath shirt from St. Bonniface's Rectory Sale for 25 cents. Hell, I was baptized at that church, and I gotta a killer Black Sabbath shirt from it as well. The irony is tremendous.

This Garage Sale Day was different from years past. I wasn't going to run(drive) all over Sea Cliff's hilly terrain in order to attain a bargin. I suggest to my dear friend Lauren that we have a sale on her fathers front lawn. She loved the idea, so much that she invited a few other friends to participate as well.

Customers came in waves. Dozens of people picked up this Led Zeppelin mirror, but no one wanted to pull their wallet out of their pocket and pay up. I was asking for $25 in exchange for the privilege of owning this gem. Unlike most people in Sea Cliff who try to sell in bulk, everything for a dollar, I was trying to cater to the higher end shopper.

It got so damn hot that day. Wheelin and dealin with a bunch of bargin hunters made it fell even hotter. I even got a little sun burn. I did manage to sneak off to a few other sales. I got a Beach Boys tape, and some framed pictures of Dwight Gooden and Daryl Strawberry, circa 1986. Speaking of tapes, I had my car stereo(shitty boom box) playing all the hits. The Clash, Devo, David Bowie, all contributed to a real nice vibe.

I even got my Rat Fink Pizza Boxes in on the action. Lots of lookers, but no takers. Oh well there's always Mini Mart.