Tag: Clothes

  • Did You Know…

    I know how to get most stains out of clothes.

    I made this really great Japanese soup for lunch today.

    That Document is my second favorite R.E.M. album.

    That years of doing theatre and puppeteering has messed up both my knees to the point that arthritis is setting in.

    That most of the hair on my head is gray now.

    That I am a cat person, though I do love my dog.

    I have a weakness for chocolate.

    That I left the ice cream on the counter last night, fell asleep on the couch, and it all melted.

    I drink two cups of coffee a day, and sometimes three if I’m working on a project.

    I have no memories of the town I was born in.

    I find long, think ear hair really, really gross.

    That I think the word “grody” should be used more often.

    I no longer think the band 311 sucks.

    I was in a movie, it was terrible, and I will not tell you the title.

    When I was in college, I changed my major seven times.

    If I focus hard, and I can still smell the perfume my first girlfriend used to wear.

    I watched one episode of “Cop Rock” when it was originally on tv.

    The only bones I have broken are my right pinky toe and finger.

    I like riding on the Long Island Rail Road.

  • ODDS and ENDS: Everything is Green, Son of a Clothes Horse, and Sick Kid on the Couch

    ODDS and ENDS: Everything is Green, Son of a Clothes Horse, and Sick Kid on the Couch

    (Who said that!? Not Me!)

    …And I hope you enjoy the weird AI image that was created for this post…

    Came out this morning to do the Alt Side Parking Dance, and discovered that our little car was covered in green. The wife had parked under a tree, and now there is a fuzzy haze of pollen all over the vehicle. Besides the fact that my allergies started weeping in despair as I felt my nose simultaneously running and clogging up, I also wondered how much pollen could this car collect? Could my car have so much pollen on it that if I drove around the City, even out in the country, it would act as a pollinator? I know the bees are dying off, but if push came to shove, couldn’t we just drive are cars around to, in a very basic rockbottom way, pollenate the world? Just an idea, cause there is a crap ton of tree pollen on my car.

    First of all, let me start by saying this very loaded statement; I love my wife very much. And as such, we tease each other often, as is our want. There are many things she makes fun of me over, but one of the most recurrent jokes of her’s is to call me a “clothes horse.” Going on twenty years, she’s called me this. Until I had met my wife, I had never heard this term before. A clothes horse is a folding frame used inside someone’s house to hang laundry on while it dries, or a fashionable person who thinks too much about their clothes. (I bet you can guess which definition my wife uses for me.) Most specifically, she will uses this term towards me on days when I have a sitting around the home outfit, a running errands in the neighborhood outfit, and then a third running around town outfit. Not that I do this all the time, but it does happen; I have been known to wear three different outfits in one day. So, I was home visiting my dad the other week, and I witnessed my father doing the same thing; over the course of the day, he had three different outfits he would put on. I had never noticed that, nor thought about it, as that’s just who my father is. Now, I clearly see the depths of the influence this man has had on my life, for I am the Son of a Clothes Horse.

    The kid was sick the other night. Like very sick, and throwing up. She was weak, and needed to be comforted, which I was more than happy to do. As she gets older, the opportunity for a snuggle starts to decrease, you know. But I noticed something as we were on the couch at 2am, hoping that she would be able to keep crackers down; That when she’s sick and on the couch in the daytime, I watch whatever she wants to watch – But at night, I make the kid watch what I want to watch. Nothing inappropriate, but it’s my choice. So, the other night, at 2am, I made my kid watch the MST3k episode “Cave Dwellers.” It’s one of my favorites, and to be honest, I wasn’t too concerned with what the kid thought, as she was nauseous and going in and out of sleep. The next morning, she was feeling better, still a little under the weather, but better. And to my surprise, she was making Cave Dweller jokes – like, “I fell on my eight sided dice,” “Gotta a Minute!” and “The tapes not queued up!” I couldn’t have be prouder to be her father!

  • ODDS and ENDS: Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, Balloons, and Formal Clothes

    (Help me find the funk…)

    The Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame is bullshit, but it can be fun bullshit. Like last year with Dolly being inducted. She was right, as a county singer and songwriter, she didn’t belong there. But Dolly is such a huge influential talent across all music, everyone wants to claim her as their own. Even when Dolly logically and politely protested the induction, no cared, and in the she agreed to join. See, that was fun bullshit. The fact that Soundgarden still hasn’t been inducted is real bullshit… if the RnRHoF was a real institution that had any bearing on anything. Soundgarden was one of the founding bands of the Seattle sound and grunge music. Shit, if lame ass Jackson Browne is in there, surely there has to be room on the shelf for Soundgarden.

    And China is sending balloons to spy on us, which is a novel approach. No one is surprised that China is spying on us. Everyone spies on everyone. What this reminds are the Fu-Go Balloon Bombs that Japan tried to use against the us in World War II. The purpose was to start large forest fires, but it never really worked as planned, though one bomb killed six people in 1945. (The part of the story that I find the most interesting is that unexploded bombs were found in forests years, and years after the war. There is a good chance that there are still bombs in the woods of the Pacific Northwest.) So, I’m not really surprised that China revamped the idea. At the same time, it also feels like an idea that is doomed to fail. Either it won’t travel where you want it, or it will be discovered.

    Since the Pandemic, I would say that my clothing has been rather casual. Like, casual all the time. I am comfy. I have a huge, blue cardigan sweater on, and it makes me feel like I am being hugged all day. But, I think I want to go back to wearing sports coats and blazers again. Not sure about ties, but I feel I am lacking in a sense of formality, which could be detrimental when I start interviewing for jobs again. All actions in life are a skill, and if you don’t practice those skills, they are doomed to fade away. It might be a sports coat with pajama bottoms, but it is still a sports coat.

  • What’s Left in My Closet

    I used to own a bunch of shirts. Like button down and dress shirts. When I went to an office daily, I liked dressing for work. I had a bunch of khaki pants, and sportscoats. Lots of ties, and shirts; white, blue, gray, navy, and I even had some patterned dress shirts for “casual” days. I liked dressing up for work because it was like I put on a costume, and I could play the “character” of employee. Then, when I would get home, I would change clothes into something casual – jeans and a t-shirt – which allowed me to relax and forget about the day. (Not that I always forgot about the day, but I was making an effort.) This really shouldn’t be surprising as I am a theatre guy, and I still view the world through a theatrical prism.

    Then the pandemic hit, and I stopped working. During one of the especially bad waves, when we were completely stuck inside, the wife and I decided that it was time to clear out and declutter the home. One of the tasks was to clean out the closet of clothes that we didn’t wear or didn’t fit. (I will fully admit that I put on Covid weight, and I am still trying to get it off.) So, on my end of the closet were all these dress shirts that had gathered dust on the shoulders, and didn’t fit. Out they went, and it felt good to get rid of a past life that I wasn’t particularly proud of.

    As time has moved forward, and I am in my new role as stay-at-home-dad/vagabond-rogue, my daily attire is very casual, but I do still enjoy a button down and flannel shirt. Yet, as I looked at my closet this morning, I noticed that I only really wear five shirts. That’s it; five. I just rotate these five, along with two sweatshirts – gray and blue. (I did hold on to all the sportscoats. I just might still become that dad at the playground, sitting on a bench, reading a book, all tweed’d out.) This is my existence, which is not to dissimilar from my attire in college, and that brings me to believe that I want to be comfortable more than anything.

    All my life’s a circle.

    (Can you believe that we are both here at the same time? Ah, the power of words! And if you think like me, then please be kind and give a like, share, or a comment. Even a follow would be the cat’s meow! Every little bit helps.)

  • ODDS and ENDS: I Want to Watch Tottenham Live, Office Drone, and It’s Hot Out

    Tottenham is playing Wolverhampton this Saturday morning. It’s a home match for Spurs, and they should win, but I won’t be able to watch it live, because the match is being shown on USA. See, we cut the cord years ago, and I got Peacock to watch the Premier League, but not every match is shown live, so I have to wait to watch the replay later that night. I have to be very selective when it comes to going on social media Saturday, because I don’t want to accidently see the score. It’s a minor inconvenience, but it still is an inconvenience. I am sure there is a contractual reason for all for, but I still don’t understand why there isn’t one place you can go to watch all the matches live. It’s taken some time, but you can now do that with the NFL. It costs you, but there is a way for an out of market fan to watch their favorite team all season long. I’m a bit surprised that Peacock/NBC Sports hasn’t figured out a way to do this. Currently, if you want to watch your PL team live, then you need to have access to NBC, Peacock, Telemundo, Univeriso, and USA: two are free channels, two are cable channels, and one is streaming. That’s a lot of hoops to jump through, and I don’t know if that is the smartest way to build a brand. What it feels like is that NBC is just replicating their Olympic coverage system, which is terrible and no one likes. Just, come up with a better system guys.

    The wife got me to start watching Severance on Apple TV. I know that I am late to the party, as everyone has already talked about how great the show is, and I don’t disagree with that. (It’s like, if OK Computer were a tv show.) Last night as I was watching the third episode, and a thought went through my head; This show reminds me so much of working in the corporate/business world. And then I thought; I have never worked in the corporate/business world. I have worked for the past 15 years in the arts, about as far as you can get from the corporate world. Yet, this show seems to tap into something within me that makes me think that I have experienced what this show is presenting. I find that deeply fascinating.

    I love my daughter. Let’s just get that out there. I love her, and it’s my job to look after her. Today, it will be close to 90 degrees in NYC, and we have a playdate at the park. I explained to the kid that it will be hot today, and she should dress in shorts or a skirt, and a tee-shirt. Having given her these parameters, I sent her off into her room to pick out clothes, and she comes back in pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Now, my gut reaction is to tell her to go back into her room and change, but there is also part of me that wants to let her go to the park that way. You know, so she can learn to ware temperature appropriate clothing; experience is the best teacher, right? No, I chose the argument and the avoidance of heat stroke.

    (And again – please take a moment to like, share, or comment on this blog. Little kittens are counting on you.)