empanada, turnover!

These days have been good. The weather is starting to oppress me. I need a fan on me at all times. (Can you send some fans up to me?)

Saturday afternoon was everything I wanted it to be. It's nice when things work out that way.

Saturday night found me at the Beer Garden at Bohemian Hall in Astoria to celebrate Jimmy's 24th birthday. It was a collection of his friends that I'd mostly never met, as well as Erin, of course. Try as I might, I drank more than I wanted to....they make it too easy there! Whatever. It was way less drunken than the last time I was there, no one was injured, I crashed on their couch, and all was well. We made a stop at the Neptune Diner on our way back to the apartment-- last time we were at the B.G., we tried to go into the Neptune but they wouldn't let us. Now I know why-- in Erin's words, there's something weirdly wholesome and family-y about it, even at 2:00 am. Our waiter was bizarre and had a talon. He mocked Jimmy's decaf coffee and seated us as far away from civilization as possible. Jimmy ordered the "Neptune Banana Royale" which only now is making me think of "Battle Royale"....and as far as dessert items go, if anything could remind me of Japanese school-child carnage, it MIGHT be that. Anyway, I had a lot of coffee and some pie and Erin and I wound each other up about Twin Peaks and I posed for a million pictures and a million more on the stumble home, where we proudly showcased the fruits of our petty larceny at the Garden. Someone said "Why would you steal those glasses?" and we couldn't really understand the question.

What else have I been doing? Ah. The other night, I met up with Nitzan and Katy in the W.V., we were joined by Craig, and then we went to see Harmony Korine's deranged "Mr. Lonely" at the IFC Center. It was bizarre and over-long, but amusing and engaging for almost the entire thing. Werner Herzog played this insane priest in it and that was really almost worth it by itself. Diego Luna dancing like Wacko Jacko and yelling "YOU CAN LIVE FOREVER!" in the faces of old people was pretty good, too. Then I bought circus peanuts, Craig and I went to a record store where neither of us bought anything. That didn't matter, though, as soon as Craig said "Did you know that there is a really fat cat in this store?" It was super-fat. I petted it. It bit me. Another comrade makes the excellent point-- "Well, how do you think he got so fat?!"

The night before, I took a short walk across McCarren Park to see The All-For-Nots at Matchless. It was my first time in Matchless, and I liked it. Nitz accompanied me, and Craig met us a little later. As neither of them have *really* watched more than two or three episodes of the show, they didn't really know what to expect...but we had a good good time. And they signed the mailing list. :) It was fun to see the AFN in Brooklyn...close to home is nice, of course. And also cool.

The only other thing worth mentioning is that in an effort to expand our crafting empire, Erin and I have branched out into making things from shrink plastic...something that apparently everyone else in the world did as children, but we never got around to doing. Slinky Calhoun will soon be full of the fruits of our labors.

I'm going home this weekend for the Albany Area All-Day Singing. It's supposed to be 90 degrees. I know that I want to be in an old building in Voorheesville in that kind of heat!