Stingy Landlord Feels Pity for Youthlarge and Me?

Our May rent is due tomorrow. We were supposed to get a new lease for this May with a rent increase. Our apartment is rent stabilized which means that the rent can not be raised over a certain percentage. This percentage is decided by some city board (too lazy to research this) each year. It is always a big argument between landlords and the serfs. I think this year our rent is only supposed to go up 3 percent or something like that - maybe even a little less than that.

The last time I saw Stingy Landlord, he mentioned that he would be sending a new lease soon. Never got one. And now our rent check is due - with no mention of a rent increase. Stingy Landlord charges us to the penny. There is no way that he has decided not to raise our rent. My guess is that he has simply overlooked this fact temporarily.

I'll gladly take the discount but I'm wondering if he can charge back rent when he discovers his error. The fear of that, however, will not lead me to let him know about his oversight.

Listmaker Volume II

If you were one of the lucky few who received Listmaker Vol. 2, please fill out this form in the comments section. If you didn't get one, um, maybe I'll get you one if you beg enough.

1. Have you listened to Listmaker 2?
A Yes
B No
C I already lost it.

2. What are some of your favorite songs?

3. What songs do you hate? And please describe your hatred.

4. Who would you like to see on the cover of Listmaker 3?
A Stone Groove
B Chewbacca
C James Madison
D Write in your own suggestion.

5. Predictions on what bands/artists might show up on Listmaker 3?

6. Do you realize how much work Youthlarge does for Listmaker? CDs and in general? (Youthlarge made me include this question.)

7. Any other comments?

The songs in case you have forgotten.

1. Zora Neale Hurston – Crow Dance
2. OOIOO – moss trumpeter
3. Joe Simon – Your Time To Cry
4. Randy Newman – Louisiana
5. Calexico / Iron & Wine – A History of Lovers
6. Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris – We’ll Sweep Out The Ashes In The Morning
7. Elizabeth Cotton – Shake Sugaree
8. Deerhoof – Spirit Ditties of No Tone
9. Young People – The Lord
10. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Is This Love?
11. Belle & Sebastian – White Collar Boy
12. Sparrow – This is How It’s Done
13. Skip Bifferty – Time Track
14. 14 Iced Bears – Balloon Song
15. Maximo Park – Now I’m All Over the Shop
16. Yura Yura Teikoku – Kyuusho
17. Nathaniel Mayer – I Want Love And Affection (Not The House Of Corrections)
18. Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings – Got a Thing On My Mind
19. Waylon Jennings – You Can Have Her
20. Animal Collective – Turn Into Something
21. Amadou & Mariam – Djanfa (La Trahison)
22. Andrew Bird – A Nervous Tic Motion Of The Head To The Left
23. Magnolia Electric Co. – Northstar Blues
24. The Everly Brothers – Less of Me
25. Cat Power – After It All
26. Bobby Bland – I’ll Take Care of You

South Park - What the?

Has anyone else seen last week's episode of South Park? I like offensive stuff as much as the next guy. But at least make it funny. The whole episode revolved around a satire of the James Frey thing. Oprah builds him up, then tears him down. Conspiring against Oprah are two factions - her vagina and her sphincter. Wha? It felt like half the show consisted simply of a closeup of her crotch region with dueling naughty bits plotting the demise of her show (in Scottish male accents) in an attempt to get Oprah to play with them more. Um, okay maybe that is kind of funny in retrospect.

An odd concept, sure. But it could have been really funny. But it felt really lazy and pointless. The regular characters weren't even on the show at all. Coupled with last week's conclusion about how unfunny Family Guy is and how scared our country is (including Comedy Central) from showing cartoon images of Mohammed, things seem off in South Park land. Not that that show was bad, but did it really need two episodes? Plus, I don't really understand the whole Family Guy thing. It seemed very pointed at a target that most people don't really care about.

I didn't start watching this show until a couple of years ago. I've enjoyed the craziness of it but the last few episodes haven't done much for me. Perhaps there is a feud going on between Comedy Central and Stone/Parker and they are deliberately turning in crap as revenge. Regardless, the last few episodes have felt like a strange inside joke more than anything else. Or was this simply a payback to Comedy Central for refusing to let them show Mohammed?

I Need Advice

I've been experimenting with movie clips recently. Apparently, they haven't been playing on anyone's computer except for mine. I just re-uploaded one of the movie clips in the fifth grade rock post. If you are interested, go back to the post from Sunday to see it.

It took me a long time to add it to Youthlarge's server and it is probably taking up tons of space. I might delete it at some point. Does anyone have any recommendations for putting movies on the internet? Yahoo? Google? You Tube? Do they take an inordinate amount of time to upload to those sites?

Road to Somewhere

Over Easter Weekend, Youthlarge and I took a trip South for a family get together in Charlotte, NC. Since flights were so gosh darn expensive, we decided to drive. We took a bus to Silver Spring where we met up with Cousin Leah at my parents' house to begin the long drive.

On the way we stopped in Harrisonburg, VA where I went to college. I drove them around campus, downtown, and a few of the neighborhoods. The campus had some new buildings but the town seemed almost exactly the same. It was nice to see so many of the businesses are still around like Glen's Fair Price. My old house known as the Planetarium looked like it was now a house filled with Phish fans. After a satisfying lunch at Luigi's, it was time for some Kline's.


Thursday evening, we arrived in Charlotte. We spent the rest of the evening and the next day catching up with relatives. On Friday night, we went to go see The Goat. While I like Albee as much as the next guy, the main reason we went to the show was to see my cousin Gerry perform. After the play, Leah played with one of the props - a slaughtered goat.



Not to be outdone, Stone Groove wanted a piece of the action.

Saturday
Amy, Jerry, and Tobi


Amy, Stone Groove, and I may look good but the best part of this picture is the look that the woman behind us is giving to Youthlarge the photographer.

Mike, Amy, Stone Groove, and a Yellow Wall

Uncle Dan isn't sure what to make of his relatives.

I assume this is supposed to be a joke?

Mike helps Mrs. Stone Groove across the street as Stone Groove accuses Mike of making him look bad by stealing his thunder.

We all were heading to the store where Cousin Jessica works. In this photo, Aunt Alice peruses the goods.

Here Comes Trouble

Youthlarge and I left Charlotte around 3 on Saturday. Lo and behold, the Durham Bulls happened to be playing a 5 pm game that evening. Conveniently, Durham was on the way back to Silver Spring!

After the game, I got us kind of lost as we drove around Durham. I wanted to show Youthlarge a little of the town where she had never been and where I had lived for a year ten years ago. Luckily, the town is small enough that it wasn't that hard to eventually find our way.

All in all, it was a lot of fun to see the relatives. Plus, in a span of three days, I was able to be in every place I've ever lived. New York, Silver Spring, Fairfax, Harrisonburg, and Durham.

For more pictures, check my sister's blog.

80's Fad In Flames

Major press coverage! Free pizza! Ramones covers! Care B*ars on F*re!





Best line of the day - "Please don't call us Care B*ars. We are Care B*ars on F*re!"

Watch them peform their one original!

If You Are In Brooklyn This Weekend

And you want to hear some fifth grade rock, come on down.

A New Player Enters the Picture

After picking up the pieces from last week's job interview choke, I feel slightly more relaxed. I've got 2-3 interviews coming up next week. British Head keeps trying to convince me to stay for another year.

Today, a new wrinkle -- Private School Up the Block got my resume from the search firm that I halfheartedly filled out an online application in January with. They really would like to meet with me to try to get me to make the move.

Why make a lateral move? I spoke to their Head today and told her that at this point, I'm either looking at making the move to the public schools or staying where I am. She understood but told me to call them if something changed in the next few weeks. She had already spoken to British Head earlier in the day about me. They know each other because British Head had worked at the Private School Up the Block for many years before coming to my school.

Not that this changes anything too much, but could this be the ticket that gets Red Pants to reconsider and go out of his way to convince me to stay? It is one thing to lose a teacher to the public schools, an entirely different one to lose one to the other neighborhood private school. Oh man, this is too much. Hell, maybe I should go check out the other school. Maybe I'll love it. But I should probably just stick with my original plan and make the move to the public sector. Either way, British Head is having a good time making my decision even harder.

Yet Another New Blog

Since I've decided to update my baseball blog as the season goes, I might as well do the same with movies. I present to you Listmaker At the Movies.

I've been making an effort to curtail my movie intake at the theaters. I've said this before but as of today, I've only seen three 2006 releases. I've also finally decided to ease off my rules of only including movies that I've seen in the theaters on my year end list. Now cable and DVDs are fair game - but films must still be letterboxed. The first three entries on this new blog are the only 2006 releases I've seen thus far but will eventually include films from TV and DVD as well.

Kronos at Carnegie

About a week ago, Youthlarge and I went to go see the Kronos Quartet at Carnegie Hall. I saw them a few summers ago at Central Park and it was a great show. Last week's show was kind of disappointing but it was my first time at Carnegie Hall so it was well worth the ticket price just to see it.

During intermission, I took a bunch of photos of the joint. Nothing out of the ordinary here but I post them nonetheless.

Job Search Over?

Today was my interview at my first choice of employment for next year. And to answer the question of this post's title - no, I don't think the search is over. I don't think I did that well. I don't answer questions all that well at an interview - especially the first of the season. I don't count the one at the charter school because I didn't really want that job.

At the interview, there were five people - the principal and four teachers on the Hiring Committe. I see all those people and I kind of freeze up. I'm sure I did okay but I needed to do better than that. If they just could see me teach or talk to pretty much any administrator I've worked under, any teacher I've worked with, or any parent who has had their kid in my class, I think that they would want to hire me. Instead, they get me not stating things well.

If I get a job at this school, I'd be shocked.

Oh well, not all is lost. I did get a call today to set up an interview at a school in the East Village.

I can't say that I'm in the best mood tonight.

Jews and Crusaders Unite!

I usually don't do these sorts of things. And if I do, I sure as hell don't do it on my blog. But I liked this one that I found on Wisdom Weasel.

The assignment reads "Go to Wikipedia. Type in your birth date (but not year). List three events that happened on your birthday. List two important birthdays and one interesting death."

I cheated and didn't bother with the numbers I was supposed to do but simply put what interested me.

2/23

1455 - Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed from movable type.
How great is that?

1820 - Cato Street Conspiracy: A plot to murder all the British cabinet ministers is exposed.
And we would have succeeded too if it weren't for those meddling kids.

1836 - The Siege of the Alamo begins in San Antonio, Texas.

1903 - Cuba leases Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity".
And luckily the color of my skin makes it that I won't be locked up and sent there "in perpetuity."

1919 - Benito Mussolini forms the Fascist Party in Italy.
Nice! I always knew there was something about fascism that I liked.

1945 - World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines reach the top of Mount Surabachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag. The photo would later win a Pulitzer Prize.
I'm the ultimate patriot!

1954 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Considering that my father's mother died that year at the age of 32 from polio and my father was in a wheelchair the previous year because of the disease, this really resonates with me.

1991 - Gulf War: Ground troops cross the Saudi Arabia border and enter Iraq, thus starting the ground-phase of the war.
What an awesome way to turn 18!

1998 - Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all Jews and Crusaders.
Could my birthday be the best ever or what? I mean as a Jew and a Crusader, I feel honored.

2006 - Initial D Street Stage is released in Japan for the PlayStation Portable console.
Third graders rejoice across the land.

Queens, emperors, mistresses of kings were born on this day. But here are the ones that I was most impressed with.

1868 - W.E.B. DuBois, American civil rights leader

1955 - Howard Jones, British pop singer

1963 - Bobby Bonilla, former baseball player

Deaths
1821 - John Keats, English poet (b. 1795)

1965 - Stan Laurel, American actor and comedian (b. 1890)

And of course, Russia celebrates Day of Motherland's Defender on 2/23.

Baseball Diaries Start Early This Year

This year I'm going to update them during the year.

The first entry is up and running - Opening Day

Unbelievable Third Grade Writing by Girl Named After a Season

THE HEART BREAKING LETTER

It was a dark and stormy night. And my tears ran down my cheeks like the hard rain in the sky. It all started when I was at school. They sent me to the principal’s office. I thought I was in trouble like every other kid would. When I got there, he said, “I am terribly sorry you were drafted to the war this afternoon.” I just stared. Why would they want me? I am an 18 year old boy who never wanted to fight. Why? I love reading and going to skateboard parties, but not to fight. I rushed home when the school bell rang. I tried to hold in my tears until I got home, but they poured out of me. When I was home mom’s eyes were as watery as the ocean and dad’s as the sea. I hugged them both. As I worried that I would not last a second in the training camp because like my uncle says, I am a softy. Mom had a letter in her hand I read it. It said…

Dear Parents and Teen,
Your son was just picked to fight in the war.
Please bring: A water bottle, clothes and three other items you want.
You will be picked up at the air port at: 3:15 am.

Truly yours Leader. Bob,

After a sad meal of pasta, I packed up. And here I am, can’t sleep or talk, I am so sad. In the morning I said goodbye to my friends. “Bye James,” they said. My mom and dad dropped me off and said a long goodbye. I saw leader Bob. “You must be James,” he said. “Yes Bob,” I whispered. “Don’t whisper and call me sir. Do you hear that,” he shouted. “Yes sir,” I said loudly and clearly. Next we were flying. “What is your name?” I asked the person next to me? “May,” she said. “Cool name,” I said. I thought for a while then she whispered, “I am a girl, if you are wondering. My step dad wanted me to fight so he cut off my hair.” “Oh,” I said. Then the plane landed in Oklahoma.

The next thing I know we are doing push ups. The days were dark; the nights were light and nothing was right. That day a 19 year old kid came up to me and said, “I am Rex got a problem with that.” I just shook my head and went to join May in aiming practice. We talked about where we lived and what we missed. That night I looked through the things I brought: A picture of my family, my first stuffed animal and a pillow. The next day they shaved my brown afro. Now they’ve ruined both my life and my hair. What next? That night I over slept two minutes. Leader Bob yelled off his head. “Why oh why did they pick me?” We got big news today. We are going to war tomorrow so we got to sleep the whole day. We got dressed in the army clothes and ate. They filled our water bottles.

Then at two in the morning we jumped off a plane. May and I held hands. When we landed we hid behind a bush. We saw things we never wished to see. So violent and sad. “Hey you,” said a boy. It was Rex. He looked mad and then pointed his gun at me. The next thing I saw was black blur. Soon it was light. “Are you ok?” asked May. I felt pain and then I realized May saved my life. “Thank you,” I said. “I own you one.” She gave me band aids and creams that she had to stop the blood where I was shot. We were in a boat that was for the army. “We are going home,” said May. And I knew we were best friends. May did every thing she could to get me home. We did not have enough food for two. Then all of a sudden our boat caught on fire and soon enough we were under water. May fainted. I grabbed her sleeve and swam. Tired legs helpless arms. But finally we were at an island. I pulled May on and she just started to blink. Then we hugged each other. “What?” I looked around. This was my town. I could see my house. After we got our strength we walked slowly and knocked on the door. My mother and father were having dinner when I said,” mom and dad.” The dropped there forks and knives and we hugged each other. “This is May who saved my life and helped me run away,” I said.

We got a call the other day from the army to say that they could not find me, but we kept our little secret and pretended to be sad. And May lived with me like a sister. And her father did not care. I was the happiest boy in the world.


To be continued…


THE END

The Moment of Truth Has Arrived

In exactly twelve hours, I have to let my school know if I'm coming back or not next year.

With an interview at the P.S. that I really want to work at next year coming up on Tuesday, the only question I have is "Should I keep the beard for the interview or should I shave?"

Three Shows in Three Nights

About a week ago, I saw three shows in three nights - all by amazing performers who all are at LEAST fifteen years past their primes.

On Friday the 24th, Glen, Mondale and I saw Billy Bragg at the Ethical Culture Society. A fun place to see a show. The crowd mostly consisted of thirty and forty something Upper West Siders who used to think they were socialists. Bragg is on tour promoting a box set of his early career so his set was a nice retrospective. I had never seen him before so I had a great time.


Mondale enjoyed it and forgave Bragg for sucking so much the last time he saw him twelve years ago. Bragg was like the grumpy but fun loving uncle who can play the guitar but also tells really bad jokes. I found out the next day that Mooney had sat next to him on the flight to Austin (or was it from Austin?) a few days before and that Bragg talked his ear off. Mondale's dream came true for Mooney.

On Saturday, Dave, Jen, and I saw Bob Newhart perform at Brooklyn College. What a time warp that show was. It felt like it was 1962. His bits were so dated, it was awesome. Polish jokes! Japanese are short and can't see out the cockpit of a plane, Tammy Faye Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, Asians are good at math and eat dogs, women aren't good drivers. The list goes on and on. He did have one timely bit about that pimp song from Hustle and Flow. His timing was exquisite and I got into it even though I was hoping to hear more newer material. Doesn't he get sick of telling the same jokes for forty years?



The crowd - mostly the sixty five and up set. The parking lot scene after the show was very very slooooowww.


Sunday night - Ray Davies
Wow! The man is amazing. Still sounds great. Still looks great. None of this sit down Town Hall bullshit, the man wants a real rock club. Granted, I would have preferred to sit down but I'm much older than Davies is.

His set was heavy on Kinks favorites. Some of his new stuff was okay, some was terrible but it was a small price to pay to get to hear "Sunny Afternoon," "Oklahoma USA," "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?" "Set Me Free," and "Lola" amongst others performed live. My major complaint was that he didn't do "Waterloo Sunset" but I guess with a songbook as amazing as his, not everything was going to be played. The crowd was mostly a mix of 70's East Village types (Handsome Dick Manitoba almost knocked Youthlarge over trying to get in to hear the first song "I'm Not Like Everybody Else", music industry types, and fifty something suburbanites. Oh yeah, Rufus Wainwright was there too but I don't think he stayed for the whole show.

Bob Pollard still has nothing on this guy.




Movie Clip

My Favorite Internet Stuff of the Week

Bobby V. teaches his players the Cha-Cha.

Old Writer Travels to Bolivia to pursue a former student and possibly propose.

A blog from Iraq

Great footage of the 60's band The Monks

Sister Rosetta Thorpe

I Heart NY

Coney Island Booster Dies at 101.

My New Friend

His name is Stubby. He's small and kind of cute. He's quick on his feet. He's always up for a good meal. He's kind of shy but is becoming a lot more bold recently.

Unlike other friends of mine, I really hope I never ever see the fucker again. But I don't think that is a possibility.