Whiney Wishy Washiness.

So I got back from my short trip from Seattle and can deem it a success. It was a fact finding mission to determine if I really want to move back.

I've been whining about going back since the woman I moved back to Jersey for left my sorry ass in the apartment we shared back in 2007. At the time I was in no position to move back. I had no money and was obligated to pay off the rest of the apartment lease by myself. Getting money from the woman who also signed the lease would be getting blood from a turnip.

So I stayed out of desperation and need. I finally was earning money when I got my current job but it wasn't enough, or fast enough for me to be able to move back in 2008. Gas prices were absurdly high and spent a lot of money on my car for repairs. This also prevented me from moving even within the state of New Jersey. So I was trapped for another year.

Meanwhile I was away from Seattle for nearly four years and was thinking that merely moving closer to work would be a better situation. So in the summer of 2009 I moved to Union county, Closer to work, Closer to NYC. Things WERE a little better. Plus I made a trip to the west coast to determine whether or not I wanted to move back. The trip went well, But it was inconclusive in determining whether to move back. A lot of it had to do with the fact I had my most fun in San Francisco.

2010 started, I was starting to develop new friendships in Jersey City and had some routines that make me think that maybe I'll stay. But then summer came, the weather was Jersey lousy, and some things I hoped would happen...didn't. Also one of my best friends moved to Seattle. hmmmmmmmm.

I spent a lot of money once again on my car so I had to delay my planned trip to Seattle two months. That meant November, Which is the start of the gray season in Seattle. And sure enough, The weather came as advertised. That was part of the plan though. I figured if I can feel Seattle's draw at its worst time of year, I should go back. I think the plan worked.

It didn't really start that way. I mean, It was great to have one of my best friends pick me up from the airport and we had some coffee at my favorite coffee place, Cafe Ladro. I was dropped at my hotel and I was wondering what I'd do to fill in my time before I went out that night. I decided to see a movie.

You see, Seattle is one to best places to see a movie. They have a great selection of movie houses which plays all kinds of movies, In particular places that play foreign films, independent films and classic films. The dominant chain in Seattle is the Landmarks/Seven Gables chain. They took over old theaters, Masonite halls, Private clubs, and auto dealerships to form the finest set of theaters in the country. And the popcorn is to die for!

But I digress. I walked from my hotel to the Egyptian to see the movie "Fair Game". A great movie that encapulates the Valerie Plane/Joe Wilson CIA outing by the Bush administration. It puts in a nutshell the events that led to this act of treason. Now I don't need to reason to hate the Bush administration but the movie reaffirms my feelings. The movie won't be a hit, It's not the 70s where we actually went after the those who try to grab too much power.

Anyway, I called my old high school friend Jon K after the movie to see if he was in the city. Left a message, walked to the hotel and bided my time before going to Ozzie's. Walking to Ozzie's through somewhat shady neighborhood didn't inspire me to move back to Seattle.

But when I got to Ozzie's and was hanging out with my friends Paul and Star at one of my favorite places to do one of my favorite activities. All of a sudden I thought, Why not?















The next day I woke up and did some aimless wandering and ended up at the sculpture park that was finished after I moved back to Jersey. The place was pretty good but needs a lot more pieces of work to justify the removal of the trolley barn (And the ending of the excellent Waterfront trolley line).














Then I walked up to Pike Place Market and tried to find the Cafe Ladro my friend Pro told me about on Union St. Couldn't find it but instead I went to the Cafe Ladro I did know on Pine street and 8th avenue. My friend Jon K called to let me know he was coming into town and while I was waiting my other friend Pro called to let me know he was already in the city. I met up with him and was joined by Jon K and we ate at the newly opened Hard Rock Cafe, Located at what once was a strip club.

After that, I met with Jon K's lady and went on my merry way. So it's Friday night and I headed to Ozzie's again. This time I met up with another friend Rahul and that went well until it came time to be kicked out. Time was, I could hang out with Star and take my time saying goodbye, Those times are over. Meanwhile my friend Rahul still has that clout and I lost track of him forgetting that. I hung out a little bit but thought he left me high and dry. I was wrong. He was talking to his old friend paying his bill. So I went to bed, Alone again, naturally.

So I woke up Saturday still not convinced I want to move back to Seattle. The hotel I was staying at was too expensive for the quality of the place. I checked out because my friend offered his place to stay at. Since I'm cheap and I was curious what Pro's life was like in Bellevue. I wandered around the eastern part of Capitol Hill and had coffee at the Cafe Victrola. A great place that lost a little of its luster. Mainly by the massive amount of people taking advantage of Wi-Fi. It was a trend when I left Seattle but now it's at the saturation point. Still the coffee was excellent.

I wandered south to the gay triangle of Seattle, Or should I say "former" because much of what I remembered from the early 2000s is gone. Sure to be replaced by big apartment structures I'll either love or hate.

I met up with Pro yet again and took him to another cool Seattle coffee place, Cafe Bauhaus. This is what I miss about Seattle and really find depressing about Jersey. Granted the diners in Jersey have good coffee but even a Starbucks is hard to come by near where I live. In Seattle if you see a Starbucks, You just need to do a 360 and see a better alternative coffee shop.

So now I become the guide and my friend Pro becomes the tourist when I show him some of my favorite places of the Capitol Hill area. One of the things I pointed out was a hole in the ground where many places I went to used to be. The Jack in the Box, Twice Sold Tales and others are gone and at least Twice Sold Tales moved to a new location. But Seattle has a bad track record of long established places moving and staying long. The construction site had excellent artwork pasted on its wall which again reminds me how depressing towns like Union, NJ can be in regards to construction projects and empty storefronts.














We wandered up to Volunteer Park. Mainly it was to see Bruce Lee's grave and the Conservatory. It can be exhausting dragging a suitcase up that hill but in that overcast, foggy almost rainy afternoon, I had an epiphany. I got to go back. Seattle is beautiful, Has a lot going for it and basically encourages me to move around. The only time I was stagnant in my years in Seattle was when I lived in the suburb of Federal Way with my girlfriend. It wasn't her, It was the town. I wish I was able to convince her to move to the city but I had not leverage in our relationship.














We walked down from Volunteer Park to my favorite McCormick and Schmicks on the west side of Lake Union. It was dark but the view was still amazing. The burger was excellent. We walked back to the bus tunnel to take the bus back to Bellevue. It continued to rain a little but it didn't bother me one bit. Pro's and his wife's place is in the downtown area of Bellevue. It's a spectacular high rise that was built in the years since I left Seattle. The whole downtown has developed greatly since then, Many of the high rises remind me of the intense development that occurred in recent years in Jersey City. The only real difference is you see tall trees rising in the background as apposed to Manhattan. The fog made the view from the 16th floor dramatic. It's the type of place I always dreamed of living in when I was growing up.

We were tired and were unable to establish contact with my friend Jon but still toured a high rise mall where we had some drinks. We stayed up late just goofing around on the internet, Kind of reminding me of the Sloane House nights of laughing our heads off while trying not to wake up our security guard Gabbie.


















On Sunday it was mellow day. A good breakfast in Kirkland started the day. A trip to Seattle, particularly Ballard was in the cards. Pro's wife needed to do some job related shopping leaving me and Pro to wander around Ballard. I showed him the Ballard locks and the Fish Ladder. I showed him some landmarks both personal and public. He showed me a market fair that man, I wish were in greater numbers in Jersey. Then we went back to Bellevue, ordered Thai food and chilled again.
















What We didn't see in the fish ladder....






Pro dropped me off the next day and since I came back to Jersey I haven't found much to change my mind about moving back to Seattle. I thought maybe there were but I dunno.

World Series.

I'm looking forward to watching this years World Series. It features the type of teams I like to see in there besides my favorite teams.

That is, Teams that have had a bit of hard luck in their history both who haven't won any championships in their respective cities.

The Texas Rangers are the decendants of the expansion version of the Washington Senators. As the Senators, They started in 1961 and could not establish a fan base strong enough to prevent a move to the Dallas and become the Texas Rangers in 1972. they struggled for many years and did not make the post season once until 1996. No team since 1960 took longer to get there. Each time they got to the post season, they lost in the first round each time, Always to the Yankees. Always quickly, Until this year that is.

The San Francisco Giants have been around since 1883 when they were in New York. They were an early powerhouse team in major league baseball history. They have won 5 World Series titles, All of it in New York. They moved to San Francisco in 1957 to join the Los Angeles Dodgers as MLBs first west coast teams. Since then, The Giants have appeared in three World Series not including the current one. Each one of the World Series were memorable. The first ended in the seventh game with a great defensive play, The second one had an earthquake, And the third one had the Giants up 3 games to 2 with a five run lead in game 6 with only 8 outs to go when they blew it in the last two innings. So they've had their history of hard luck


So now with the Rangers in the World Series, That leaves only the Mariners and the Nationals as MLB teams that have never made an appearance in a World Series. The Giants are only behind the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians in longest period of time since winning a World Series title. So who's gonna win? Well, The last time the Giants played in a World Series they faced another team (The Angels)who was an expansion team that started in 1961, They also play in the same division as the Rangers. So that bodes well for the Rangers.

Buuuuttttttt, I'm rooting hard for the Giants. Why? Well, It's because of a mixture of politics and geography. On my list of favorite teams, the Giants are No. 5 and the Rangers are No. 26.

The reason? San Francisco is pretty much my favorite city. It pretty much has everything I love about a city. Great weather, Beautiful scenery, Lefty politics, and a counter culture quality that keeps me interested. The Giants also used to play in New York and had the hat logo that my favorite team the Mets use on their cap.

Texas is only a state I know from TV, politics and a an airport visit. Needless to say, It pretty much makes me not to ever live there. The opposite of San Francisco. Hot and Humid, Arrogant, and very Republican.

Texas is Bush country, San Fransisco is Pelosi country so a boogie man there for each side of the political aisle. But there's a bit of irony in how their respective ballparks got built.

When George W. Bush was an owner of the Rangers, They built a new ballpark using lots of tax payers money, Much of it not approved by the voters. Also, Eminent Domain was used to grab land to build it. Hardly the conservative principles I always hear about on right wing TV.

The Giants on the other hand built their new ballpark using only private funds because the citizens of the city voted against using tax funds to build it. Not exactly what one would expect for a "Tax and Spend" liberal city like San Fransisco. Or is it? After all, Liberals aren't exactly fond of subsidizing millionaires and billionaires with tax dollars.

But if you were to take the teams at face value, It's hard to root for one team over another. Neither was expected to make it to the World Series. Actually it was likely that neither team would make the playoffs. No real superstars on either teams. The Giants have great pitching and average hitting and somewhat suspect defensive skills. The Rangers have some great hitting stars and play fundamentally solid baseball that is fun to watch, Especially when they beat the mighty Yankees. Still, The Giants tenacity in beating a very powerful Phillies team makes it hard to figure out who has the advantage in the series.


Oh, well. Go GIANTS.

Happy Anniversary to ..........ME!

Three years ago last week was the anniversary of my first day working at TSA. No big deal except that in my 27 years of my work history, It's the longest I ever held a job. Kinda sad I know, But that's how life is.

So, Why is that? How is a man with a college degree not able to hold on to any job longer than three years?

Several factors are involved.

One the main factors is that although I have a college degree. It's a BFA, an art degree. That gets you only so far, The portfolio takes care of the rest.

Plus, I hate looking for work, It was soul draining hearing why you're not good enough for the job. Too much work would be involved just trying to get a job. It took time from actually doing my art work for my portfolio. I was quick to learn I wasn't gonna be suited for freelancing.

That's another factor. What to put in the portfolio. When there are no assignments, you do what you want to do, Or at least that's what I did. Comic presentations, Timid Caricatures and unfocused water colors. The stuff wasn't bad but it was unfocused. My drive was limited, I had a hard time doing new pieces when I tried to market myself. I was and am lousy at networking. So after having a low paying artist assistant/publishing job I set out to a new frontier, Seattle.



It was 1991, I was 24 years old. I had an idea for a comic strip and I felt I was ready to conquer the west coast. After some false starts looking for art jobs I needed to work somewhere, anywhere. A friend from the east coast was a bartender, so I figured I look in that direction. I fell into a job working as a cook in a pub. It was only part time but it paid enough for me to live on in modest fashion. This allowed me time to my dream.

The dream, a comic strip I created whose name I hoped would be ironic: Pipe Dreams. I worked on it with gusto for the next few years. Sending it to syndicates only to have it rejected, Time and time again. It was good but not good enough and my enthusiasm would wane and wax depending on my mood. Still I worked at it, Improved it but than I met....her.

Her....or She, will remain nameless. Some people know who she is, A good woman for the most part. She supported me, Though I didn't like being helped and was upset that my efforts weren't successful so I sometimes resented her for it.

I met her when I was unemployed. My cook job was okay, But I needed more so I quit that to work at a nightclub. The nightclub was shady, and after a murder outside the club cut business in half and our quota was increased by double, We were laid off en masse.

That started what would be a unfortunate trend in my working life. Periods of unemployment. It took me six months to find another job and what I found was not good, paid little, and ultimately got me fired after a few months. It was a bakery after months and months of futile attempts of landing a bartending gig. I continued to work on my comic strip but was starting to think about getting a regular job doing graphic art of some kind. By this time all my fellow SVA alums were moving along nicely at their art careers in NYC. I had few opportunities but one in particular I was keen on...

By then I moved to the suburbs of Seattle in the town of Federal Way to live at my girlfriends place. I didn't like it there and hoped to move out as soon as I got this job at a place called Humoungous Entertainment. A computer software company that specialized in children's games. My interview went well but I was a little slow with learning to use a Wacom tablet. This being 1994-1995 and I had no computer I felt it was something I can pick up within two weeks. I didn't get the chance to prove that I didn't get the job.


It took about 3 months of unemployment when I took on a job through a temp agency. I also had a temporary gig doing caricatures for Guinness. Despite the low pay of the former gig and the grueling, depressing nature of the job, I was there for a year and a half. I got laid off when they cut their workforce right before Christmas 1995.

This started my longest period of unemployment to date. It lasted from December 1995 until August 1996. I spent the first part of it feverishly working on what I felt was my best set of comic strips I ever did.

Meanwhile I caught the acting bug by signing up for an ad agency. I thought about how ironic it would be if I could make a living as an actor in commercials and movies because I FAILED at regular jobs. Despite some work as an extra, It didn't work out. I was 29 and had gained 35 pounds and I was filled with enough self-doubt that I had to face facts and look for another real job.

The problem was that I wasn't getting anywhere looking at want ads and my piss poor skills at networking. So I went to another temp agency and they found me an even worse job than the warehouse job from a year back. I worked an assembly line in a bicycle factory.

I'm getting no closer to getting a career in anything. I hadn't lucked into anything substantial. Every job I had at this point were ones I wanted to leave the day I started. In both the warehouse and the bike factory, There was pretty much no direct way to move up into what would be a more suitable office job that paid better AND had benefits. But I needed to work regardless. Working a crappy job was better than being unemployed but every job I had was soul draining.

I worked at this bicycle factory for as long as I could and beyond. It was depressing, The only good thing was that I only worked four days a week. But I needed one whole day to recover from the job.

Finally I got a job that made use of my artistic skills, Kinda. We finally got a computer for Christmas 1996. I found a job through the internet at an embroidery factory. My job was to be a digitizer, A skill I had to learn from the ground floor. The complication of the Compucon program and my relative inexperience with computers made sure my job would not last. Plus, We had an embroidery woman who suffered with frequent bouts of "brown bottle flu" and I had to cover her slack without having any previous ability to work the embroidery machine.

So, Most of my time was spent covering for a drunk woman while simultaneously learning how to do my primary task by training myself and doing other tasks without any assistance. So after a mere four months I was let go.

I didn't want to go through an extended period of unemployment again So I grabbed the first job I could find. It was back in restaurant work, As a cook. It paid better than my previous jobs but it was hard work at times and I bitched and moaned like no one's business. I was 30, Fed up and failed out. Thankfully I was in a relationship with an understanding woman who shall still remain nameless. I was at this TGIF-like place for longer than any job ever at that point. Almost 3 years. I might have been there longer if my relationship hadn't fallen apart. My ex broke up our engagement and emotionally I had to leave the town of Federal Way in order to get my head back.

I thought I got lucky when I got a somewhat creative job working with trophies and plaques that paid well. By then I was somewhat good with the computer but the job really wasn't as creative as I hoped. But that wasn't the problem. I worked with three women who were openly hostile towards me. One was a bully, Another was paranoid of what I was thinking because I refused to listen to her spiel about Mormonism, and the third one accused me of sexual advances. Needless to say when I depended myself to that charge and mistakes other people made that I got blamed for, I got fired, On the same day the Supreme Court decide the will of the people didn't count and gave us George W as president AND the day A-Rod officially left the Mariners.

It was before Christmas, I had just moved back to Seattle and had a trip planned to visit my folks for the holidays. It was probably the most despairing time in my working life. Again my move forward was stopped in its tracks. I even had to cash out my old Savings Bond from when I was a kid. Thankfully it was double what the stated currency value. But it didn't take long for me to get another job, But unfortunately it was as a cook again.

I worked at a gay bar as a cook at a place that happened to share the same name as the woman I was engaged to. I was trying to find irony working there. And there was irony. I was still reeling from the breakup and feeling low on my self esteem. The customers at the gay bar were quite kind and flattering to me. Made me feel good about myself. I befriended many of the customers. The year 2001 was enhanced by the Seattle Mariners record setting 116 win season. Too bad 9/11 and the Yankees would put sour note on that fun. However my employment would not last. You see, the ownership was a bit shady and they had a habit of firing cooks after about a year so they don't have to give out benefits. The father of the owner was given the task of firing me basically for having a bad attitude. This same man said I was a very positive presence a mere 3 months before. I hadn't changed much.

It took me less than a week to find another job. It was at a steak house located right across the street form the under construction Seahawk Stadium and Safeco Field. A whole slew of us got hired at once. It was great having that kind of comradery there. The mass hiring was in anticipation of the 2002 Mariners baseball season. I was fortunate to be put in the seafood section of the kitchen. I developed lots of new skills plus I occasionally had the opportunity to serve people too. This was a financial windfall on game days. I made lots of money for three hours of work along with my cook salary. I hung out with my co-workers often on the off days which were slow, TOO slow. So when the Mariners collapsed at the end of the season and failed to get into the playoffs, My days were numbered and I was laid off. Too bad, I liked working there a lot.

It took a few weeks to get a job at Ruth's Chris. It was okay, We were allowed to cook off scraps of prime A fillets (which there was plenty of) to eat, But the management was too corporate and would send us home early at any point it was slow. They'd send the American born workers home first because we were paid quite a bit more than the Mexican immigrants who also worked in the kitchen. So I would be scheduled for 39 hours only to find that I would work as little as 28. So, I had to find a better job.

And I found it. The best job I had at Seattle. It was again at a restaurant. It was called 5-Spot. A local company owned this place a long with others that had its own identities. It was located a mere 5 blocks up Queen Anne Hill from my apartment. I got lucky and was put in the best part of the kitchen. The skill level was slightly above my abilities but I was able to pick it up pretty quickly. The menu would have a changing theme every three months. Part of the theme change involved the opportunity to do some paintings reflecting the theme. the best part, The paintings were for sale and I was fortunate to sell three of them. My co-workers were great, Interesting and artistic. I was scheduled for 4 day work weeks in which we had plenty of overtime opportunities and half hour breaks. These are rare benefits in restaurant work. I was happy there and had no plans of leaving until I started dating a woman who was moving back to Jersey. After a few months I would do the same thing. It was nearly a two year run, but I was foolishly in love with the wrong woman and moved back to Jersey.

Part of the reason I moved back to Jersey was that I thought my failure to sustain a good art related job was due to my lack of connections and opportunities in Seattle. But no, I had to face facts, I fell way behind in my art related skills, Especially involving computer graphics. It was getting to 2006 and the economy was starting to sour. It starts in the creative sector. No boom in that department, So my lack of experience would hamper my abilities to get a good job in the filed. Plue one of my main connections moved away two days after I moved back to Jersey.


I had worked three low level jobs to keep busy. Night stock man at Shop-Rite, Followed by summer work at a fish market/restaurant, and a stint at another bar restaurant when my unreliable unattentive girlfriend announced she was leaving me without giving me a valid reason. I had applied TSA by this point because she gave me crap about my inability to get a better job. Gave me crap about always being on the computer looking for jobs, Working on artwork while she was watching the Bravo channel on TV.

But I got into an argument at the bar where I worked and got fired the next day. I desperately needed to find a good paying job to survive at this point. My money was running out, I was paying off the rest of the lease my ex left me with by myself. I applied for a driver job at UPS because of its great reputation. Didn't get the driver job, Because they don't allow you to do that right away. They needed loaders and made the mistake of accepting. I had to do it because I was collecting unemployment at the time and couldn't refuse a job offer. The job was terrible in so many ways. It was the worst pay rate I had in at least ten years. The work was brutally hard and the hours were very few. So I was able to combine unemployment and my feeble UPS pay to survive while I looked for much better jobs and waited for TSA to come through.

The only good thing about UPS is that my resume looked good in that there was no gap in my employment history. It also vital in getting me a cheaper apartment that was my base while I licked my wounds. I finally got the call to TSA and after working part time for 9 months I finally was able to quit UPS and here I am three years later happy with a secure job that I enjoy. I have no plans of leaving other than to transfer to Seattle when I move next October, Barring any wishy-washiness on my part.

So, what's the lesson here?

I have no idea.

I know I am terrible about selling my skills. I have a hard time dealing with failure and I have never said "no!" to any job offers that came my way. I feel like I'm begging when I inquire about job opportunities at any friend's work place. I give up at the wrong time, I get settled into jobs I don't even like and I fail to apply myself well in getting promotions. But I'm content. I'm at my most financially secure and hope to be more so when I'm back in Seattle.

25 years ago today continues...

So I recently discussed my entering the Sloane House "dorms", The day that my life had changed. But there is more to the story. I had spent 5 and half days of solid partying at Sloane House over the extended Labor Day weekend of 1985. I would meet and greet most of the students who live on the two and one half floors of that YMCA on 34th street and 9th avenue. I had a few outings courtesy of our RAs in exploring Manhattan and experiencing first hand how long the blocks were between the avenues of the borough, Went comic book shopping with gusto in terrific comic stores. I personally experienced several things I had not experienced in my life that weekend. It was terrific, One big party.

But Tuesday September 3rd, 1985 was the day when classes started, Time to get serious, Time to meet my teachers, Time to knuckle down.

Yeah right.

Funny enough, That first day of class was an experience unique from my first days at Sloane House. Now, Our freshman year was our "foundation" year in which all freshmen would take the same curriculum of standard art classes with some mandatory classes in English and Art history thrown in. That Tuesday my curriculum set up had a painting class with Frank Roth at 9am-3pm and Art History later with Ms. Ann Wooster(?) These classes took place in a rented building that also housed a Planned Parenthood.

I was mailed a sheet of paper with the list of art supplies I needed to get for my classes and I still needed to get two more tubes of oil paints for Roth's class. The good news was that there was an art class next to SVA's main building. The bad news was that the tubes of paint cost 7 bucks each which meant I had little money for food for the rest of the week.

At the store I ran into a girl named Katie and a guy named Shaun. Both were in the same class set up as me, Both lived in Sloane House but I had not met over that weekend. I found it funny that none of the freshmen I HAD met at Sloane House had my foundation classes and weirder still was that the people I met in the art store were the only ones in my class that lived in Sloane House. I soon found out the rest of my class of about 18 people had commuted to class.

About a third commuted from either Jersey and Westchester, The rest were from the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn complete with the New Yawk attitude that comes with it.

I must have came across as a very naive fair skinned boy to these classmates. Now at Sloane House I hung out with a bunch of people from Upstate New York, Downstate New Jersey and the rest of the globe reminiscent of the famous Saul Steinberg cover to the New Yorker. I thought I was streetwise in the week I was at Sloane House. I got schooled otherwise pretty quickly.
























For one thing, I was intimidated by many of the women who were in my class, even the ones I had a crush on. they were strong willed, tough, aggressive and loved to fuck with my fragile egg shelled mind. Many of the guys seemed tough to me too, After all a few of them grew up in Brooklyn. Not 21st century boutique Brooklyn but 1980s Brooklyn. I decided to buddy up with two of them. They loved my innocence, My wide eyed eagerness, And the fact I was easily fooled by tall tales.

There was others in the class. A giant woman who reminded me of Big Barda from DC comics, Another one who went by one letter as her name, A Doctor Who fanatic, An effete stuck up snob who constantly had a cigarette in his fingers, The Woman who had a crush on him, A guy who expressed homophobic hatred towards him who would eventually become his boyfriend, A jovial African American guy who marveled at my ignorance of 1980s street lingo, A guy with an impressive zebra like mullet A lovely black woman who I didn't believe was a Led Zeppelin fanatic (That was important to me), Ann Bancroft's niece, Three women I had major crushes on, and Millie (nuff said)

Now, We're gathering around with a circle of easels finding a spot around a platform. Our gruff teacher, Mr. Roth snapped at us that our model was ready and I looked up to a scary sight.

Now, I knew our classes would involve drawing nudes. I wasn't a prude but I was shy. However, I was expecting the model to be more like a struggling young singer from Detroit who didn't shave her arm pits. Skinny, young and hopefully cute. My first model on the other hand involved a middle aged, Overweight, saggy and quite a bit haggy. AND for a loop. And this class was gonna be for SIX hours! That's EIGHT times the length of my art classes back in high school!

oh, my.

I survived that class but came close to not surviving the art history class that followed it. It was a class featuring slide shows of art history taught by a wry but boring woman named Ms. Wooster (?). I had a hard time staying awake in that dark crowded class. Most of the women in our class adored her but I just found her to be too boring to increase my interest in art history.

I was really tired after that first day but of course not too tired to party at Sloane House. That day twenty five years ago I formed a clique that I called my SVA clique which was distinct from my soon to be formed Sloane House clique. I would keep in touch with my Sloane House clique but would lose complete touch with my freshmen SVA clique when the 90s came and would not re-establish touch with almost any of them until facebook came along.

So I ask those who were there, What do you remember from that first day in Frank Roth's class at SVA? And those who weren't what was your day like?

Effin' Metrocard.

I curse the day the day the New York Subway System and the Path train system of New Jersey decided to adopt the Metrocard system.

You see, It was suppose to be a convenient and efficient way to get around the public transportation of NYC. I suppose if you're a daily user and you have established a routine in the card usage, It works out fine. However, For first time users it's a nightmare. Even for those of us who use it occasionally. It is a pain in the ass and hardly "convenient" It's got to be the most inconvenient public transportation payment system on earth. The BART of San Francisco is close but its complication has more to do with how to figure out how much to pay in where you go.

Ahhh, But in the old days, We had a token system in NYC and a cash setup on the PATH line. The token could be purchased at every subway station and used on both buses and trains. You knew exactly how much fare you had merely by taking a quick glance at how many tokens were in your pocket. You knew way before you entered a subway station whether you needed to buy more tokens.

With the Metrocard it's a mystery. You have to get rejected by the turnstiles after swiping five times in order to figure out how much fare you have left on the card. Now, you have to go to a token attendant (if you can find one) to replenish it. You can either put in the exact amount needed to get you through the day but that might involve a little quick math figuring out how much you need to pay into the card minus the amount that is left in the card. Or you can opt to pay a exact dollar amount to move things faster for the attendant because so much of their time is now wasted explaining how the Metrocard system works to neophytes who might not be able to speak clear enough English or Spanish to penetrate the thick walls of the toll booths.

Metrocard's solution to the toll attendants is to set up Metrocard machines in all the stations. Sometimes there is as many as five machines in the station. Most of the time you can't put in the exact amount needed to fill your card. It'll only take money to the nearest dollar. That is, If it'll take a dollar. Some machines only take coins but still will take it to the nearest dollar.

Sometimes you get a machine that takes only one time only round trips. This is okay unless you have only 3 dollars in cash and the fare is $3.50 and you have an old card with 75 cents left in it that the machine won't accept.

Some machines will only take take cash, Some only credit, Whoa behold if you choose the wrong machine.

Now some machines will give you a card to fill in whatever amount you want but WON'T refill the card you already have. So now you're stuck with two cards with some of the fare on it. The turnstiles will NOT let you use two cards each short of fare but combined would get you a train ride.

So, you can conceivably come across 5 machines at a PATH station each with a unique quirk and NOT have a suitable combination to get you a train ride. And yet in your pocket, You have the means to get you that ride.


Yep, I would curse the day that NYC went to the Metrocard system except I don't know what day that was, I was living in Seattle at the time.

I Can't Believe It's Been 25 Years

August 28, 2010 marks the 25th anniversary I walked into the doors of Sloane House to start my new life in Manhattan as a student of the School of Visual Arts. It was the first time I was to live away from home. I had with me only a small suitcase and a gym bag full of my things. After I registered downstairs I got the keys to room 1075 (my bed room) and room 1077 (a shared studio I would barely used). I opened the door to see a tiny room with spartan furniture. A small bed, A yellow distorted trapezoid desk, and a yellow wardrobe with small drawers. I sat down on the bed, Did the best I could in setting up my stuff, Looked out the window to see "the pit" and decided to venture in the hallway and meet some folks.

The first two guys I met were named Brendan and Lennie. They were upper classmen who decided to walk around the tenth floor and allowed me to tag along. It was then I met two women, One whom was really friendly, the other not so much. I was hanging out with one of them and enjoying her company when I met someone reading a comic book I had just read that week. I foolishly brushed off my female companion to talk comics with a guy named Al. My love for comics were at their peak at this point and by the time I left SVA after having dozens of people to talk comics with, My love for them waned substantially.

Anyway, I convinced Al to walk around the SVA part of Sloane House to see if we would meet more people. We were admiring someone's rendition of Bloom County's Bill The Cat when the door burst open and I met Steve P. At the time I didn't realize it but both Steve and Al would become lifelong friends.

The day was exciting, Meeting our RAs, Getting free passes to Yankee Stadium and clubs downtown. I don't remember getting drunk but I know I had a good time partying that Wednesday before Labor Day. My life would change, I would embrace Manhattan for all its worth for the next four years and develop a new persona that was more lively and less naive than the persona of my high school years. I was quite innocent that day but I wouldn't be for long.

More Steinbrenner

Even before George Steinbrenner died I was interested in reading his biography "The Last Lion of Baseball" by sportswriter Bill Madden. Steinbrenner was a fascinating individual and the book was an excellent read. It goes into detail about the early years of his Yankee ownership thanks to detailed notes and recordings by early general manager Gabe Paul. The anecdotes about Steinbrenner are priceless. You see how he treats those who worked for and even to the people who liked him, It's humorously appalling.


I would have loved it more if I had not spotted some factual errors throughout the book. The first one I spotted was when Madden mentioned that Rich "Goose" Gossage signed a contract worth 25 million dollars over 5 years with the San Diego Padres in 1984. I thought that that money was way too high for a post peak closer signing for a medium market baseball team back then. 5 million a year would be more than double the highest paid player of the era. So I checked and sure enough, It turns out he signed a 5 million dollar contract over five years.

The second mistake I spotted is my nitpicking on history. Madden writes that The Yankees had beaten out the California Angels by one game for the Al wild card in 1995. In actual fact it was a one game playoff between the Mariners and the California Angels that knocked the Angels out of the running. Nitpicking to be sure, But I like the idea of giving the Mariners their due.

A third mistake was more problematic. Madden points out that the 2000 New York Mets had "...crept into the postseason as a wild card, had beaten both the NL West champion Arizona Diamondbacks in the Division Series and the NL East champion Atlanta Braves in the NLCS to advantage as the Yankees' opponent in World Series."

Okay, a few things were wrong with that. First of all the Mets played the Diamondbacks and the Braves in the playoffs in 1999, And second of all the Mets LOST to the Braves that year in the playoffs. The teams the Mets beat in the playoffs in 2000 were the Giants and the Cardinals.

The fourth mistake was a typo maybe but I think Madden just had the year wrong. He mentions the gathering of the Yankee executives in what to do with Joe Torre after his last season managing the Yankees. Madden says the contentious meeting which would lead to Joe Torre rejecting the Yankees contract offer as happening on October 17, 2008. That was a year off, At that point both Joe Giaradi and Joe Torre had finished managing their first seasons of the Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers respectively.


There may have been other mistakes I missed and I look forward to the book being published in paperback to see if the mistakes were corrected and a chapter dealing with Steinbrenner's passing.

I recommend this book for both Yankee fans and Yankee haters. It's also a fascinating biography of a volatile but savvy businessmen.