Fan’s Complaint

The top photo was taken from the Time Warner Center, where the likes of me cannot afford the food court. The bottom photo was taken on Sunday at the Kissena Velodrome, where, before it was all gussied up, we used to hit rocks with my bat, give fried chicken to coons, and play with firecrackers and related contraband.

***

Tomorrow I go back to work. I cannot believe how much I am already dreading it.

I don’t have a clean pair of work pants. Or a clean work shirt. I don’t really care any more.

After work tomorrow I am going to an NYC Macalester meetup. It’s at a bar that I’ve been to previously–a place for 29 year-olds who want to listen to a DJ spin the obvious choices. I’m looking forward to making a complete ass of myself.

“LOOOOOVVE LOVE WILL TEAR US APAAART AAAGAIN”

***

Today I went to Coney Island for the first time in my life. I was supposed to have gone with the rest of my class in fourth grade, to the Aquarium at Coney Island, but I was sick that day.

I walked on the beach, took some photos, smoked, walked on a pier (no Jennifer Connelly), had a couple of beers, scared away some kids, and just enjoyed the fine weather.

It reminded me of a day I spent in Belgium on a beach somewhere. I viewed the sandcastles/sculptures that were there as a part of some competition, and spent two hours or so drinking and smoking on a boardwalk. Food was served. It involved bananas and was on fire.

Everything is better when you do it outdoors on a beautiful day. Even the foodstuffs of my childhood. I had a Jamaican Patty, which would have been on about the third rung of the ladder of the New York City Public School Lunch Foods–behind Ravioli and the Round Pepperoni Pizza, but ahead of the French Bread Pizza (iron shaped), and the unholy three-headed-beast, the Hamburger/Meatloaf/Salisbury Steak. Today, the Jamaican Patty was not disgusting, even though it dripped yellow grease. The Jamaican Patty I had today could definitely have given the Round Pepperoni Pizza a run for its money.

Smoking and drinking on the boardwalk gave me a feeling of luxurious idleness, like smoking while horizontal or smoking in the bathtub. One day, I would like to install a bathtub in the back of a pickup truck, and smoke and drink in there while the truck is driving down the Pacific Coast. Imagine that–the sun, the surf, the hot bath, the booze… I’d be in heaven.

Genius that I am, I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood at 4am during the blizzard to take pictures. The pictures came out pretty poor, but I was heartened to see that the clerks at the store that we called “the Horny Hindus” when we were kids were hard at work.

Whenever it is I wake up today, I will have to shovel. If there are no more entries after this one, it is because I died of a heart attack. I was pretty out of breath by the time I finally came back inside, even though I walked no more than ten blocks (although I did have a healthy glow about my cheeks when I looked in the mirror).

For a moment, during my walk back, right after I misjudged the solidity of a snowdrift, I was happy about the snow. Maybe it had something to do with reading this article, and the metafilter thread from which it was linked. “Look at me! I’m freezing my ass off in the middle of the night in the middle of a blizzard and I’m having fun! I’m not grown up and I’m proud of it!” And then I started to lose my breath and really needed a cigarette and wished I were indoors enjoying a beer and a nice cream soup.

And here are the damned pictures.

***

I’m rapidly closing in on twenty-four (it’s the new twenty-one, you know). On Friday evening, after I got off work, I very much wanted to go down to the Apple store in Soho to buy myself a Powerbook for my birthday. I had never spent that much money all at once on myself before, and isn’t it about time I did something nice for myself? I deserve a reward for all my hard work and suffering, no?

Fortunately, I was talked out of this by one of my more practical friends. Thank goodness for midwestern practicality. At least until the next time I’m stuck on line behind a Minnesotan at the supermarket paying for a pack of cigarettes with a check.

I’ve decided to take at least one “good” picture every day. That doesn’t mean this will become a photoblog, as I have no talent at photography. Here are the first two that I took on my way home from work.

The Badlands

Devil’s Tower at Sunset