26 Apr 2005
sonic youth/eclipse/crash

Hoboken
sonic youth play maxwell
great to see them in a small club.
maybe
too much scotch in the basement
some
portraits.
just a few minutes -
the fading daylight into shadow and dusk.
---
garment district
bike messenger
one leg left
regular clip pedals.
on his work bike.
I swear there is another messenger in Manhattan that has only one leg.
---
on my block
henry street market
shopping for Colombian bananas and chines low sugar iced green tea.
super cute west coast girl with bike.
she is moving to Portland for the summer. no make up and good shape.
there are not enough girls like this one to cheer the streets of nyc.
---
park avenue and 60 something
doorman is friendly and nice.
he looks a little sweaty in his uniform and hat on a warm day.
some human interaction after all that midtown crap.
he:
"I will never get married. It's not worth it. I am 35. have been married once. never again.
I go to the gym in Astoria. I slept with the girls I know there.
it is not how you look, it is how you carry yourself.
my friend weighs 500 pounds and he sleeps with every girl. it is just about how you carry yourself.".
--
uptown / park avenue
fancy residence building
mailroom in the basement
2 guys from Yugoslavia,
one is Albanian from Montenegro.
he went to a refugee camp in Trieste Italy.
"refugee camp - that was the only way for me to get to America" he says.
the other guy is Serbian.
he gets teased.
he still calls his country Yugoslavia.
Serbians and Albanians in nyc work next to each other.
less than 10 years ago
in the Balkans maybe they would have been shooting at each other.
---
Blue eyed Lebanese guy sells me some good old style deli coffee.
piercing blue eyes.
---
Park avenue and 43 - deli inside fancy office glass building.
I tell the woman I cant believe she sells Ting - the Jamaican grapefruit soda.
she laughs and says "I am from Jamaica! that's why I carry it!"
tangy refreshing and no corn syrup.
--
weird day
a truck filled with dead pigs on Lafayette,
all those dead faces.
I think to all the pork dumplings and pork chops I ate in chinatown.
all these dead pigs with the same dead expression.
I turn the corner, riding on Broome
a cab suddenly coming up from Crosby street hits me -
I had yelled to stop . I could see the driver face face just before he drove into me.
cant believe I dont have a scratch - nothing broken -
but my bike in the middle of the intersection/ the wheels gone.
I kinda ran the red light -
damned allergy pill made me slow.
cop car stops.
woman yells pointing the finger at me
"He ran a red light!!!"
30 bucks from the cab driver.
after all nothing broken - that is what counts.
feel bad for him -
but well he had time to stop.
carry my bike on my shoulder to Bicycle habitat on Lafayette -
the tell me the fork needs to be replaced and wheels - 175 buck.
i knew they were rude and expensive -
well today i know it more,
scam bike shop
I go to Bikes By George - Frank's is closed on Wednesdays.
75 bucks total -
but I can pick my bike only 8 hours later.next day
bruise on hip and knee
and i can see the crossbar 'tattooed" in black and blue on my thigh -
but nothing hurts.
sucks that now i have steel wheels - aluminum were a little out of the budget.
rasta bike messenger has a spare front aluminum wheel that he would sell me for 15 bucks.
--
same day.
I see a woman laying in the street with some blood on her ankle - waiting for a car or an ambulance
one block west
see 2 cops dragging shirtless man
looking fucked up
and with yellow and brown stains on his pants.
the cops seem panting
and they get mad at me cuz i took the picture
as they put the "sick" man down with the face on the ground.
later meet up with tarot reader that wants photos from me
she tells me
Friday there is an eclipse.
bad energy
better stay home and lay low.

---
today i reached 500 miles on my odometer - but it is more than that -
i had a bath with Epsom salt.
my knees feel better.