Surfboard Wisdom

Fear causes hesitation and hesitation causes your worst fears to come true.

~Patrick Swayze in Point Break
(Clearly not a movie I enjoyed, but I did however like this quote.)

The Institution

These are photos of my friend Joy's pals when she lived in an institution in North Jersey. I'm not sure if Joy took any of them, but the one of Barbara & Ms. Robbins has Joy written all over it. (she was never known for skills as a photographer!) But George is my favourite because I still remember the day when we found all these old photos in her blue toy chest. I held up the picture and asked, "Hey, Joy, who's this guy?" she screamed,  "IT'S GEORGE!" Anyone that made Joy that happy was tops on my list.

(top: Barbara & Ms. Robbins Sept 1992 - middle: Margherite, Melanie, and Sharon Stokes - bottom: a woman who worked at the institution who Joy couldn't remember (shockingly enough) and George!)

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

Re-watching this (I had fist seen it in March of 2010), I realised that this is the film that introduced me to Viktor Frankl. Discovering Frankl's book Man's Search for Meaning truly changed my entire life, as it does with everyone who reads it. Brief Interviews with Hideous Men was wonderful from start to finish. I loved it for its uniqueness and for its fascinating characters. The cast is absolutely stellar with a stand out performance by Dominic Cooper. John Krasinski needs to devote more time to directing because he clearly has enormous talent of which we've only just begun to see.

(photo kidnapped from impawards)

Story Time

When my father was in his late teens he worked delivering coal. It was the end of the 1950s or maybe the early 1960s and he was just a regular kid trying to earn a few bucks to get some hot rod magazines or baseball cards. He told me once of a time that he and his boss, Mr. Burns, went out on a delivery one winter day and came upon a World War I vet, confined to a wheelchair, living in a hovel with his blind wife. They could not afford coal and my father saw the wife peeling the wallpaper to put into the furnace. My father said that Mr. Burns was absolutely appalled and payed for the supply of coal for them. He told the couple that he would continue to bring them coal when he made his delivery to the building. They thanked him profusely and Mr. Burns held up a hand in protest and left with my father immediately. My father said that he believed Mr. Burns felt shame for how a man who once served his country could be found living in such a state. My dad asked if he could pay for the next delivery, but Mr. Burns never answered him. My father never went back on that route with his boss, he was placed with someone else on the crew, but this story stuck with my father over fifty years later and the image of an elderly blind woman peeling wallpaper never left him. The image now resides in me.

Lord Byron Says...

(photo kidnapped from bookishcharm)

Delaware at Dusk

I love my job and I adore the people I work with, but few things feel as good as that long walk across the parking lot to my beloved car. Sitting down and getting ready to head home, I looked to my left and saw the blue sky through the trees and decided to yank my camera out from the bottom of my gigantic Mary Poppins bag and snap this picture. Not too shabby, eh?

Waiting in the Terminal

I am one of those rare individuals that love to pick up and drop off people at the airport. I am told that I am very good at this. I make sure that there is plenty of room for luggage, I carry all the heavy bags, I arrive with a smile regardless of what time of day or night it may be, and I usually have a beverage or treat ready for the weary traveler. It is a part of the job and I take it seriously. Last Tuesday night at about 11:23pm I was waiting in the terminal at the Atlantic City International Airport for Marina. Prior to running over to her, dropping everything I had in my hands and scooping her up in a ten minute embrace, I snapped this picture of a pay phone. Made me a tad nostalgic for days when my parents would hand me a quarter and tell me to call them when I left the mall or movie theatre and needed them to come fetch me. Ah, memories...

Little Z's Fight

After a very long two days that wore all of us to within an inch of our sanity, Little Z, my adorable nephew, crashed his right eye into the corner of a reclined chair - BAM-O! Tears were shed, but then tears turned to joy at the impending black eye that he could show off in school tomorrow. Even battered and torn, he's still the coolest kid in the whole dang universe!

Portrait of Home I

 

Need More Help In The Café Mix

When didn't we need more help in the café? We worked a skeleton crew and sometimes it was so bad that if the one person scheduled to work got sick or died the general manager would put a sign on the counter next to a stale, burnt urn of coffee that read "Sorry. Free coffee." And none of us ever wonder why they went bankrupt.
However, out of our miseries came great music. Here's another fab mix from our Dave Gorgone:

Norah Jones - Ruler of My Heart
Nick Drake - One of These Things First
Staple Singers - I'll Take You There
Modern English - I Melt With You
Paul Oakenfeld - Starry Eyed Surprise
English Beat - Sooner or Later
Aselin Debison - What a Wonderful World
Rosemary Clooney - Mambo Italiano
Ben Harper - Steal My Kisses
Sugarcubes - Regina
The Hooligans - Red Is The Rose
The Shins - Gone for Good
The Thrills - One Horse Town
Grey Eye Glances - Eventide
Grey Eye Glances - Passing of the Evening
Over the Rhine - What I'll Remember Most
Crowded House - Don't Dream It's Over
Taj Mahal - Great Big Boat
Marshall Crenshaw - Mary Anne
Janis Joplin - Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)
Tanya Donelly - Butterfly Thing

Julie P!

This little darlin' is my goddaughter Jules. Aside from myself, she is the only other person who had as much fun testing out my new Photo Booth app on my iPod Touch. Is she not the cutest of the cute?

Philly Skyline

Ardmore Train Station

Daniel Henderson - Sculptura

Mick's Inn

More than half of my relatives have, both past and present, lived within three blocks of Mick's Inn on Belgrade and Clearfield. I doubt any of us have actually seen the inside though, being that a block from Mick's is Tony's Pizza. My family may be Irish, but we eat like Italians.

Mama & Daddy's

This plaque hangs beside my parents' front door and has for God knows how long:

Waiolo Hui'ia Church

Hanalei, Kauai Hawaii

The Height of Cool

In late 1976, the year I was born, Pax went with some friends to CBGB's to see Television. Pax was never a big fan of large social situations, so at one point during the show he decided to duck out to the alley and smoke a joint. Just after flame touched paper, a man came walking toward Pax. "Hey, hey man, can I get some of that, hey man, can I?" Pax was more than happy to share a toke or two with the legendary Iggy Pop. Soon some of Iggy's friends came over and hollered, "Jim, c'mon, Jim, we gotta go." Iggy Pop put his arm around Pax and said, "Hey, man, this here, this here's my new friend, what's your name?" "It's Pax." "cool, cool... Pax, my new friend Pax!"
And so there, in a New York alley way, Pax smoked a joint with the true Godfather of Punk. That, dear reader, is the most bad-ass, crazy rock 'n' roll thing I have ever heard.

Ten Greatest Shows...

...you never saw:

1. The Beatles opening for Little Richard - 1962
2. The Rolling Stones opening for Little Richard - 1963
3. Stax Tour with Booker T. and the MG's, Arthur Conley, Eddie Floyd, and Sam & Dave opening for Otis Redding - 1967
4. Stevie Wonder opening for the Rolling Stones - 1972
5. Kiss opening for Black Sabbath - 1975
6. The Heartbreakers and the Clash opening for the Sex Pistols - 1976
7. The first Fresh Fest Tour with Newcleus, Fat Boys, Whodini, and Kurtis Blow opening for Run-D.M.C. - 1984
8. Minutemen opening for R.E.M. - 1985
9. Guns N' Roses opening for Mötley Crüe - 1988
10. Nirvana opening for Sonic Youth - 1991

(i have no clue from what magazine i tore this from so i can't give the mag the credit it deserves - sorry...)