So instead of waiting till next weekend to write about this one, and since I feel like procreating for a bit more before doing some actual work…
Yesterday MK & I went over to Joe‘s for a surprise birthday visit, which was coordinated by June. We all went out for food, and along the way we passed through a huge yard sale that took up all of 26th Street, the block right in front of the UCB theatre. From afar MK spotted a table that had tons of Transformers, and as I looked over, the really surly guy who was manning the table locked eyes with me, like he wanted to rip my head off or something (why? I dunno, but at this point I’m sorta used to people wanting to kick my ass for no good reason), and I knew not to come any closer. Which was a shame since I think I saw a Trypticon (you know, the Deception city that turned into a T-Rex), and I haven’t seen one of those in years. There was this other table that had both a Pee Wee Herman doll and an Ed Grimley one right next to it, which made me say out loud, “Hey look, it’s Pee Wee and Ed Grimley!” and exactly three seconds later, I realized that the dude running it probably hears other jackasses say the same exact shit at least once every minute, so I felt pretty stupid.
We had lunch in Times Square, at some Mexican joint, which was good, but I ordered a mild burrito and got volcano lava instead. Then we went back to Joe’s for both a normal cake and an ice cream one! Then when we found ourselves with not much to do, I decided to bring up Doggie Tales. What’s that? It’s this thing that Troma produced for the family market which features footage of dogs running around in the Central Park dog park and some dog shelter in Brooklyn with voice-overs supplied by folks at Troma (mostly editors I believe). Robin was working there when he got the call from Lloyd Kaufman when he first came up with the idea and noted “This is going to be the thing that saves the company!” Well, it didn’t. It was a colossal bomb, and apparently they didn’t sell ANY copies. Anyway, ever since I learned of Doggie Tale’s existence I became obsessed with checking out the damn thing; it just sounded so spectacularly bad that I figured it could be amazingly good. Well, it wasn’t.
I finally got to watch it last weekend when Robin finally passed along a copy for me (which I had been pestering for him to do for over a year now) and it was bad alright. Actually, its really, really, REALLY shitty, with ZERO redeeming qualities. The whole thing is just a boring as shit, and its even a technical mess; the camera work and editing is piss poor, plus the bouncing dog head for the sing-a-long segments is even either way too fast or too slow for the song! I could barely sit through the thing, and you’re talking to a guy that absolutely loves shitty cinema. So why inflict it on Joe and company? Call it a nod to the days when both him and I, and our friend Jay, were all single dudes and we’d just hang in his apartment on a Friday night, getting drunk and watching Animal Planet (which totally embrasses the guy whenever I mention it… sup Joe). But the thing is, Doggie Tales was such pure shit that at the twenty minute mark, I couldn’t stand it another second of it (the thing’s only thirty minutes), and neither could anyone else, so it got turned off. Then Joe popped in volume 1 of the Fuccons, which is what I got Joe for his birthday (along with Comic Book Holocaust by Johnny Ryan), and thankfully, it went over much better.
Oh, and Joe gave me a present as well, which he picked up when him and June went to Wildwoods, which I was supposed to go to, but couldn’t due to work obligations: a personalized mug! For some guy named Chet.
We hung out for a bit more (Joe played us a few new songs he’s been working on… I’ll spill the details later, when I get the green light from Sweet Rot himself, but let’s just say that Clogged Arteries is coming back, and will be taking Japan by storm) then MK & I went back to Brooklyn. The plan was to drive over the our fave diner for dinner, but I suggested we stop by Rocketship for a bit before, so MK went online to see if it was still opened and came across how they were holding a Scott McCloud book release party. So we went to that, and it was fun. We were only going to be at the store for a few minutes before grabbing food, but we ended up hanging and chatting for a good three hours. Alex was there, of course, serving beer, some new ale that was making its grand debut at the party. I don’t remember the name, but I liked it (it was some local brew). Chatted with Abby, Matt, Rob, and assorted others, plus Liz and Robin of course. Steve was there with his girlfriend, and I ended up offending her out when I brought up tentacle rape during a conversation. Steve also mentioned that he never ended up going to see Tron a few weeks back; he couldn’t convince anybody to go with him… I was the only guy up for it, but I couldn’t go due assorted personal bullshit I had to deal with at the time. Lame. Plus I finally got to catch-up with Dave (last I saw him was when we saw the Strangers With Candy movie a whiles back, and he noted afterwards that its rather lame that everyone’s too busy to really hang out these days), so it was just nice being able to talk with people whom I hadn’t seen in a while. I also got to reminisce how seven years pior to the day, Dave came over my apartment in Jersey City to play my barnd-new, ultra shiny Dreamcast, and how he immediately got his own system the very next morning. Raina was there too, naturally, but she spent much of her time with a pair of little girls and playing Nintendogs with them.
Afterwards MK & I brought Robin, Liz, and Dennis along to the diner where most of us acted all drunk and surly (okay, mostly just me). By the time we had dropped everyone off, the combo of all the beer and the greasy union rings I had wasn’t making me feel so hot, so I went to bed immediately once arriving home, though MK & I did watch some SCTV before going to sleep (yeah, we didn’t even stay up for the classic SNL rerun).
Today we went over to Chinatown to do some shopping. MK had gotten this really nice, and sorta futuristic looking, teapot for Raina’s birthday and she wanted to get one for herself, but they were all out. We also stopped by the samuri store which was having this huge blow out sale since its closing down, and unfortunately they were totally out of the spoon/fork/knife uber-eating utensil which I really wanted ever since MK purchased one for her brother a few years back. Also went to Zakka Corp to check out design books. They had this one (from Japan of course) that covered every single Star Wars toy ever produced, and it had by far the absolute awesomest picture EVER: Kenny Baker, the little man who played R2 D2, taking a break in-between scenes during a day of shooting (for the first Star Wars, a Mos Eisley scene), with R2′s dome top off but still in his costume, and standing next to a power droid (another fave robot of mine from the movie), and eating a hot dog. My mind was blown.
I also ended up getting this shirt…
… it was fairly expensive, given that it’s from Japan, but its so damn cool! Plus, as MK said, I’ve had such a rough past couple of weeks, I deserved to treat myself. And also, I sorta wanted to get something cuz the Japanese guy who runs the place was obviously frustrated; aside from bitching at three dopey art school girls for acting like idiots, you could tell that it was one of those days where everyone was looking around and touching stuff but not buying anything.
Afterwards I walked MK back to the car, which was at a part of Chinatown that neither of us was all that familiar with, and after she set off, I went exploring. I ended up in some mall that was at the base of the Brooklyn Bridge, and as expected, there was a game store. Unfortunately, it was a pretty shitty one, with nothing of interest. Though I did spot a used copy of Bangaioh for the N64 for $65, but I haven’t checked if that’s a good deal or not. I have it for the Dreamcast, but I do recall enjoying it on the N64 quite a bit more. Then I went down to the city hall area to check out if there were any good deals at J&R. It was a bit touch navigating the area since various areas and streets were closed off due to processions and protests and police vehicles. That part of town is always busy, but today it was especially so, which I guess is no surprise since tomorrow is the fifth anniversary of you know what.
And like every New Yorker, I have my own tale from that day, which I believe I’ve already told, so no real sense in repeating myself (but for those who want to read it, I guess check the archives, its got to be there somewhere, or if not, I can pass it along if anyone cares). All I’ll say now is that even five years later, I still can believe what happened actually did, and I still feel just as sad and depressed and angry now as when it all went down. Like many people, my life changed that instant (though not to the degree of many others, thankfully), and that whole day, as well as the following weeks, still feels unreal, yet very much so, and the images and sensations are still quite vivid in my mind, despite the passage of time. Life became harder and more complicated, and everything simply changed.
I guess what I’m trying to say is… I really don’t want to go to work tomorrow. Its going to be a very hard day for New York City. But you know, life goes on.
