Make Way For Fucklings... again

Another sign that summer is over is that the students have returned to this college town of college towns. This sad fact was brought glaringly to my attention today when I was making my weekly pilgrimage to Trader Joe's.

The streets are packed with students, their over protective parents and various retailers who have their minions out on the streets shilling everything from bank accounts to deodorant.

I managed to fight my way through the bovine crowds to my destination, did my shopping and got to the cash register only to discover I had left my wallet at home. Trader Joe's is a pretty nice place to shop. The service people are friendly and helpful, unlike Shaw's where they are sullen and incompetent and Whole Foods where they are sullen and incompetent with that delightful soupcon of superiority. Anyhoo, the young lady at the register told me she would ring up my groceries while I ran home and fetched my wallet. I told her I'd be back in about 15 minutes. What was I thinking?

More like 25 minutes later, I was back running my bank card through the machine.

Me: I'm really sorry, I forgot about the students being back and you're not allowed to just kick them out of the way.

Cashier: Who said you can't?

Me: I think it's some sort of city ordinance.

Cashier: Oh, you're allowed to kick them out of the way. Especially if they are Berkelee students blocking the sidewalk with their guitar case. If they are with their parents, you get to kick the whole family. You get extra points. (pause) I get to say this now, because I'm not a student any more.

I love shopping in this store.

Pastoral

For most of us, Labor day weekend signals the end of summer, even though we have about 3 weeks before the actual calendar date. Summer means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Whether they enjoy it, or whether they are just waiting for the heat to end.

In June there is anticipation. Summer is still too lazy to get out of bed and spring often has to fill in a few days still. July and August tend to come roaring out, blasting us with long hot lazy days. Whether I get to indulge or not, I always think of picnics and cold beer and days from my childhood that lasted forever and ended too quickly.

I also have certain songs that say summer too me. Mostly old songs from my misspent youth. Bruce Springsteen's "Thunder Road". Aretha Franklin singing "Freeway of Love", or "Chain of Fools". Pop tunes from Motown and Phil Specter that used to play on the old Emerson in monaural sound in the 60's when I was still a little Ganome. Songs from the 70's when I was first testing out my wings in the wider world. Donna Summers, "Love to Love You" and later "Bad Girls" and "Last Dance". Hot summer nights dancing at the A House in Provincetown, where they would end the night playing Connie Francis, "Where the Boys Are".

One piece of music that just says summer to me is Beethoven's 6th. Small wonder, since it is suppose to describe a summer walk in the country in music.

I did not come to classical music until I was a young adult away from home for the first time, living in the the city which has been my home for 33 years now. I was introduced by the new friends I was making, who taught me I could love Donna Summers and the Tramps and still make room for symphonic music and opera. I am eternally grateful. Many, far too many really, of these friends are no longer here. Casualties of AIDS. If they are now physically absent, they are still with me when certain pieces play. However, the 6th doesn't have any specific personal memory, I don't hear it and think, "Oh, So and so loved this piece!". It just makes me think of the pleasures of summer.

The Niece is full of awesome

I have mentioned on more than one occasion that the Niece is full of awesome. Right now, she is so full of awesome that my head may explode at any minute. She got tickets to see Duffy!

That's right, if anyone in the lower 48 states did not hear the high pitched, adolescent girl scream this morning, I am going to get to go hear Duffy in October, because my awesome niece is even more full of awesome than even I could imagine. And I can imagine a lot of awesome when it comes to the Niece.

In case no one has caught on, I am pretty excited.

This is just wrong...

I was rather horrified to hear that they have made a remake of one of my favorite Hollywood classics, The Women.



I have a hard time believing it will actually be able to stack up in any satisfying way against the original.



So far, about the only thing that has got me excited about the new version is that in the trailer of the new version, they are using this song.



As you all know, I heart Duffy. And it's a great song. And the video that isn't available for embedding, but you can watch on You Tube is terrific. (not the sucky American version) Did I mention I heart Duffy?

Tinkerbell rides again

I just want to thank everyone who applied peer pressure to get our boy RG out of his funk and back to blogging.

I love the child, but honestly he has all the excess energy of a 5 year old on a sugar high. I can not do this on my own people!

I have to admit though. After Willym had threatened to come to Boston to Rome, just to slap some of the fairy dust off RG, I was kind of looking forward to it. Okay, I was going to sell tickets and give Atari the popcorn concession.

But, he's back. Love him, hate him or just occasionally want to give him a thick ear, we wouldn't have it any other way. Welcome back, RG!

Gardening update

I have not been blogging about my summer in the garden.

It sucked.

I neglected my garden for several weeks and am now in the process of clearing out all of the weeds because I was reminded of an important life lesson.

One of the greatest motivating factors in this life to do a job is not because you enjoy it or find it rewarding. It's just to get someone else to shut the fuck up.

If you believe in fairies....

My friend and resident pain in the ass, RG is threatening to stop blogging. Needless to say this is not a happy day for many people. I mean sure, I get to have him drag like a saw across my last gay nerve in person, but I want to spread it around. I'm generous like that. I share. I'm a sharer.

Seriously, I hope RG reconsiders this move. I think that he has plenty to say (whether we want to hear it or not) and it may just be that he is in need of a lie down.

I took his snarkiness out to lunch for his birthday yesterday, and none of you are going to get a chance to hear his take on the cute young waiter who I definitely think was grooving on the birthday boy if our lad follows through on his threat. And the waiter, who we both thought was straight was definitely paying some attention to RG.

So maybe if we all put our hands together and clap, our own little X-rated Tinkerbell will come glittering back to life and entertain us with more of his prurient observations about the world in general and the male population in particular.

* Complain to the management. Send himself an email and tell him to get off his dead ass and start posting again*